After a lovely breakfast at the B&B, I headed off for my morning hike. I started at the upper end of the Freycinet peninsula and hiked over the Hazards and down to Wineglass Bay, a half moon shaped beach with white sand and crystal clear water. (All of the water here is amazingly clear. One of the reasons is that there is very little agricultural runoff.) Often when I’m on a hike I get a little too task focused, and feel compelled to keep moving. I don’t know whether I’m relaxing a bit or whether Wineglass Bay is that special, but I ended up sitting on the rocks for an hour and just taking it in.
Next the trail crossed back to the other side of the peninsula and came out to another beautiful beach, then climbed up and came back along the cliffs above the water. Periodically you could hear the waves pounding below. The day had started out cloudy and turned sunny and hot, and it was a delightful hike.
Lunch was a cheese and spinach pie. Both here and in New Zealand, meat and vegetable pies are quite popular. Another big item is a “slice”, which we would probably call a kind of bar. Two layers of a biscuit-y cake, caramel or jam or something sweet in between, and frosting on top. Quite decadent. I’ve been able to exert some restraint when I’ve been on my own, but when they were packed in our lunches on the New Zealand trip, I felt obligated to find a home for them. And I have a recipe for one that one of the New Zealand guides emailed to me, so we may have to try one when I get home.
After a short break back at the B&B it was time for the twilight kayaking trip. There were only 3 of us, so I ended up paddling with one of the guides (always a good deal; they’re the best paddlers and you get lots of extra information.) We got soaked heading out through the waves, but as long as we were moving it was reasonably warm. We paddled in and out of several bays (including Honeymoon Bay, where we saw a wedding party doing their wedding pictures) and spent a lot of time looking for stingrays and skates and squid in the clear water. We stopped for hot drinks and a muffin at another bay. Getting out of the kayaks in our wet clothes was a little cold, and we tried sitting on the granite rocks that were still warm from the sun, but the bit of sun warmth was more illusory than real. When we paddled back to our starting point and finished, I was glad to put on a warm fleece and turn the heater up full blast as I drove back to the B&B.
Tomorrow I head to the Tasman Peninsula, another peninsula off the southeast corner of the island.
Today's pictures are here.
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