By Monday the farm was an absolute mud bath and the rain persisted to the point where we had to stop working by lunchtime because it was just silly. We did however still have to feed the animals at 3.15. Due to the adverse weather, Mt Fyffe which I climbed a few days previously had gone from having a few patches of snow on to being absolutely caked in the stuff which became visible on Tuesday when the sun finally came out. With Tuesday being an afternoon off I was considering doing a walk into the Kowhai Valley which runs behind Mt Fyffe between that mountain and the much higher mountains behind. I instead decided to have a relaxing day however taking advantage of the nice weather to relax down the beach, as well as playing mini golf on the free course in town.
Wednesday was another sunny day and it was unbelievable how quickly the farm dried out, all be it there was still a fair bit of mud. The afternoon was spent cleaning out the rabbits and guinea pigs which involved driving to the local woodwork place to steal some wood shavings for their bedding. Come Thursday it was the two Czech people's last day, as well as the other woofer leaving the next morning. After doing my morning duties I headed down to the caves where they supposedly did tours, although it was closed. I did sit in the cafe there for a bit though before heading back to the farm. In the evening to say goodbye we had a beer tasting evening seeing as Czech Republic is the birthplace of beer. We also tasted their homemade drink Slivovitz which was interesting and it was a really nice way to say goodbye.
By Friday we were down to just 2 of us and after the morning it was down to just me. A new person did arrive in the afternoon however who was British which was nice. On Saturday it was another intense morning with just 2 people doing the morning duties when it's normally done with 4 people. I did have the afternoon off however although the weather was a big grotty so I just cycled into town and looked round some of the shops and sat in one of the cafes just to get out. I also went and visited the seal colonies again as it's always nice watching the seals. By afternoon another 2 woofers arrived who were also British and from the south coast which makes a whole farm of southerners now including the owners.
On Sunday I had another afternoon off and with it finally being a nice day I decided to do a walk into the Kowhai Valley. There is officially a 2-3 day hike which goes through the Kowhai Valley, over the saddle, then through the Hapuku Valley, and I was just doing a small section from the Kowhai end. The path essentially followed the river which meant I wore wellington boots, although when arriving at the start it said the path was closed due to earthquake damage. I decided to just go for it however and to be fair there was a fair bit of earthquake damage. The terrain was extremely challenging with the fallen trees and unstable rocks from landslides but the main issue was the river level which was probably higher than usual due to the rain.
The path initially followed the cliff face which looked precariously unstable with a large amount of sediment ready to fall so I got past that quickly in case of a landslide. It then followed the river initially on a 4wd drive track before it completely disappeared and I just had to follow the river. I was glad I chose to wear wellington boots. Before long the valley became more like a canyon and I had a few complex rock formations to climb over which were pretty slippery but I managed it. The river got more like rapids further up but I managed to climb up this cliff face and avoid them to get further up stream before it got a bit too challenging to continue. I had lunch here before turning heading back the same way to the start. All in all it was a nice walk but I probably shouldn't have been in there.
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