You know you’re alone when

I ventured up to the Coromandel peninsular which is on the east of the north of the north island of NZ – if that makes sense. The main reason that I went up was to visit the hot water beach there. There’s a hot water spring under the beach and you can dig a very short way down at low tide and have a steaming hot soak. I arrived at high tide.
Fortunately I’d stopped off in a town called Tairua and the guy in the tourist information place had been most helpful. He’d told me a few extra places that I could go which were picturesque and given me a few walks that I could try. The places were pretty cool and I took some good pictures there. I also went on one of the walks he recommended. I’d have never found out about it without going to the information place – the road to get there was another gravel track and when I got to the car park I was greeted by a sign that only served to increase the feeling of isolation:

This was my first experience of New Zealand tramping tracks. They are a lot more challenging than walks generally are in the UK! It was a lot steeper and more treacherous than I’m used to. The track was marked by luminous orange triangle nailed into trees all along, directing you to the path. Without them there was an occasional possibility of loosing the path in the forest all together. It really made me feel like I was in the wilderness. It was a bit scary on occasion – no mobile signal, difficult path, miles from anywhere. I certainly had the thought that if anything happened to me I’d have to deal with it myself.
That was until I received a text, the mobile coverage was better than I thought. But for a moment there I was totally alone.