You have to do some tramping in New Zealand, and being a bit of a tramp myself it felt really good to leave the bus behind and get back to nature. I was a bit worried about Elaine, but it turned out she was a tramp too. We spent four days walking the Abel Tasman Coastal Track and met some nice people on the way, including a Spanish guy who used to come over as a Spanish student to Ballybrack back in the day. The world is too small!

I found a great walking stick (which I called Whizzbat, Elaine called hers Slim) and it really helped going up over the ridges and headlands. Unfortunately it made me look like Moses, but it came in handy for parting the seas…

There were some great moments– sleeping in the giant hut bunks with 7 other people (keys in the bowl folks) and barely making a tidal crossing on the Awaroa Estuary and getting soaked.

Oh and Elaine fell off a cliff. She's ok though, Sylvester Stallone wants her for Cliffhanger II.

Photos on Flickr