I definitely got my daily steps in--and more!
With the forecast saying we should be free of rain most of the day, I decided to take advantage of our first dry day. I went running to the New Plymouth port and back, probably about 5.5k. I then wandered all around town, checking out four "op shops" (thrift stores) and buying a shipping envelope at the post office.
I found some fun treasures for my family and enjoyed being outside without getting inundated. We did have one brief downpour that appeared out of nowhere and lasted about 10 minutes. Fortunately, I was in a shop when it started.
After lunch, David and I decided to go explore Lucy's Gully, which someone described to us as "a lovely easy stroll through a redwood grove." It was lovely and the redwoods were impressive, but it was defintiely not an easy stroll! It was an intense, steep hike that was made more difficult by all of the recent rain. We were practically climbing up much of the time, grasping onto trees and branches for stability.
We thought we'd just got up for a little bit, but we were enjoying ourselves so much that we kept going. We took the Waimoku Track up and the Sefton Track back down. We didn't go all the way to the summit (Patuha Trig) because we had to get back for a dinner invitation.
Unfortunately, as we were just 15 minutes into our descent, David took a tumble when he grabbed onto what he thought was a large, sturdy vine that turned out to be a large, rotten vine. He sprained his ankle and had to painfully hobble down the rest of the mountain.
The video shows the view from about 2/3 of the way up our hike, and the summit was still quite a bit higher.
David found some oyster mushrooms on his way down. They got a little smooshed as he was carrying them and trying to hobble down on a sprained ankle.
I still have never seen "the mountain." We saw the foothills on the way to Lucy's Gully, but the slopes and peak were entirely hidden by a cluster of clouds.
We had a lovely dinner with a midwife who trained with us yesterday and her husband. They were celebrating their 33rd wedding anniversary and invited us along. She's American but has been working here for 20 years. Both the food and the conversation were lovely.
Tomorrow is a travel day to Palmerston North.
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