Hikes around soggy Te Anau

We've now booked our Milford Sound campsite (http://www.milfordlodge.com/) and a cruise (http://www.milfordlodge.com) but have had to spend another day here in Te Anau, which is fine as it's a nice place, if bloomin' wet.

So today, feeling that we need to start getting abit more adventurous we went for another hike along the Kelper track. The rain held off until we arrived back to the start some five hours later. We are exhausted. Most of it was uphill! It wasn't the most exciting walk either as it was in fairly dense rainforest, ie. few views out across the lake. Lots of interesting ferns and mosses though.

We spent the first hour of the walk thrashing out ideas for my novel but had to stop talking when we started sweating and became too breathless! I'm thinking about the Modernists again and wondering how I could do something in their vein, especially Virginia Woolf, Proust and Joyce.

Now we're back in the van with our feet up, the fan heater whacked up to the max and our damp towels and muddy clothes in the wash. Ric has decided that doing this trip 'old people style' is fine by him after all - in other words, he wont be doing any three/four day hikes this time round. Still haven't seen any Kiwi birds...or hobbits for that matter.

I'm trying to not think about what's going to happen when I get back to London.