Today didn’t go as planned. I woke up with terrible back pain. It started a couple of nights ago, and it was even worse today.  Mike had to help me put my socks on. We spent the morning at Aussie bay, lazing around then walked 1km to a pier to watch jenny and robyn fish. No luck.

My plan was to spend time looking around the sounds. I’d seen a nice campground at Kenepuru heads that sounded nice. But when we drove that way, there were big signs saying, dangerous road, slips, we don’t want you here, etc. Jenny and Barry decided to head to Havelock, but we wanted to see if we could get through. The road wasn’t bad, but we eventually came to a road closure. We could wait an hour and they would let us through, but we decided we couldn’t be bothered. So we turned back too and met Jenny and Barry in Havelock. We restocked there, and filled up with water.

Tonight we are staying in a POP (Park Over Property.) It’s free, and it’s at the back of an old gold mining pub and surrounded by hills and it’s really picturesque. We’ve got chickens behind us to make us feel at home.

For dinner we made zuchinni soup to share (I knew my blender would come in handy), homemade garlic bread, followed by smoked salmon and coleslaw.