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Nelson Lakes National Park is yet another fabulous New Zealand location. My plan was to check out both lakes so I started with Lake Rotoiti near St. Arnaud. There are numerous walks ranging from half an hour to whole days to be had in the area. Now I do like a good walk but my sense of direction leaves a lot to be desired. This is right proper hill country, potentially easy to get lost and get into serious trouble if the weather turns suddenly (which it is liable to do). So I decided to be sensible and get some info from the visitors centre before I set off for my chosen walk up Black Hill. The helpful staff at the visitor's centre gave me a really easy to follow map and absolutely idiot - proof instructions for finding the walk after I told them about my hopeless sense of direction, and off I went. I dutifully followed the map and the signs and then thought "na this is too easy I can't be doing it right". This fuckwit girl (that'll be me I'm referring to) found myself incapable of following said very simple instructions! So I retraced my steps and went off on my own path and within 5 minutes of leaving the car park I found my self thigh deep in bog! I eventually managed to extricate myself but was now soaked with a planned few hours walking still ahead of me. After wringing out my socks by the side of the road I was meant to be on (and very glad to have remembered the advice of an old footie mate never to go hill walking in jeans) I was back on track for the beautiful walk up the forest-covered Black Hill. The walk took round about and hour and by the time I'd completed it I'd worked up a bit of an appetite for lunch. I returned to the car only to find that I'd left my carefully prepared packed lunch back at the YHA ... Undeterred I set off for Lake Rotoroa and hoped I'd find a lunch stop on the way.
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