The Pinnacles

I woke around 4.30am and peeked out of the curtains.  Yay!  Clear skies, sun coming up, looking like a great new day.  Too early to get up though so I rolled over and took another few hours sleep.

My mantra for this holiday is 'linger longer'.  I have a tendency to rush from place to place and am aiming to take my time more and really enjoy whatever it is I'm doing or wherever it is that I am.  This morning was a great example.  Not a handful of kms down the road a spied a few seals playing in the sea.  I pulled over and very happily watched them from the roadside (just metres from the sea) for a full 30 or more minutes......totally absorbing, utterly peaceful and incredibly meditative.  

Drove on to 'The Pinnacles' where I readied myself for a '90-minute easy walk'.  Now I've always thought that the times that DoC suggest a walk will take were the times for less fit and less mobile people.  If this is the case then I now have to concede that I am one of those less fit, less mobile people :(  (Though in my defence, I did do the uphill part to the lookout first before descending to the valley floor and it was stinking hot and I did stop to take a few pictures.......!)  My final return time was 1 hour 50 mins and I was well and truly stuffed!

A leisurely drive back inland before my next coastal foray a bit further north tomorrow.  I desperately needed a shower and freshen-up and the van's water supply was beginning to gurgle - a sign I'm running low.  So tonight I find myself here in Masterton.  Not exaclty a go-to place on a camping holiday but the campground had a great review for its showers and the reviewer certainly wasn't wrong.  

I think I'll sleep extra-well tonight!