Woke up feeling glad that we'd not gone sea kayaking! Then groaned a bit, rolled over and went back to sleep. Had an extra long lie-in before attempting a bit of breakfast. We've decided to head further north to 'the end of the road' and a climbing area called Paynes Ford, then maybe go for the sea kayak on the way back.
The road was super windy and very steep. Wendy (The van) took it in her stride, but we were kind enough to give her a short rest when we stopped to walk out to a view point near the summit.
On arrival at Paynes Ford, the climbers campsite was a pretty full. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise though as we are currently parked up by a quiet little river spot which is much more our style.
I wasn't really feeling up to dragging myself up some steep limestone (I must be ill!), so we left the climbing kit in the van and took a walk along the base of the crag instead to see what was there.
Once again, our climbing guidebook got us to another splendid place. We noticed that on the sketch map of the cliffs, there was a little arrow pointing to the river with the words 'Top swimming hole' scribbled on it. Intrigued, we set out to see what we could find. Unlikely as it was (most of the main river was virtually bone dry), we soon came across the swimming holes! The first was in a deep mini gorge, where there was a small track leading to a good looking 'jump in' launch site. It looked a bit energetic for my current condition, so we carried on through the meadow a little further to the second one which was on a sharp bend in the river; the erosion of which had created a very deep and sheltered pool.
This one seemed much more inviting, and relatively warm (compared to recent dips in the sea). It felt like a much needed tonic.
Here at camp (further down the same 'Takaka River), we've had a chilled evening spending a bit of time skipping stones as the sun went down.
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