A night spent 15 m from high tide, the sound, well, more vigorous than lapping but not quite crashing.

My new tent, christened with an early morning shower, last night was the first time I’d unfurled it, and whacked it up, eventually, although I had had a brief, mostly unremembered, instruction about its erection in the shop back in Wellington.

I’ve spent the goodly time in recent times, cycletrailsaustralia.com, bicycle touring across Australia, popping up my tent on a nightly basis with a finely tuned operation of minimal action, helped that my previous version of accommodation was self-supporting, ie, no need of tent pegs and just as well, most sites on the dry continent had zilch possibility of driving pegs into the concrete-like clay or just rocks.

First time round with my newer, more coffin-like, habitation, a single pole, the full eight pegs useful, six essential, whipping out the instructions was necessary but once you’ve worked it out the speed will quicken soon enough. The surprise is to find exactly how economical with space this Macpac Microlight is, a single person tent suited in weight to lugging on your back and probably 1/20th of the volume internally then my old, less than completely waterproof, two-person tent—two person, hunh, once the optimist, guess I’ve now become more reconciled to my current single status.

As for sleeping, after hauling the pack yesterday it was lights out early, a total conk out.

Today the sunrise, only one other tent with two inhabitants at this 14 site campsite, breakfast on the beach, two mugs of coffee and a day wandering this short beach until it disappeared, then, still in my hut booties, over to Pitt Head through a magnificent cythea forest, to the big views up the coast to Separation Point.

Plenty of buzz on the water but I was more attracted to viewing a cormorant nest just below on the cliff, two chicks stretching their wings and making a racket when mum arrived back with morning tea.

And up with that big Pitt Head view, a couple of gannets cruise past, gee, they are rather big and with great colours, almost close enough to touch, I almost thought I could make out the smile on the trailing bird.

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