A side step with Mother Nature (MN) was most certainly needed. This direct head on battle I was loosing and I decided last night there were way more things I could be doing and make MN think she was winning this battle, so MN I actually now do not care and have taken a stand down from this battle. I will re-group and really, what you are going to throw at me over the next couple of days I do not care about. I am off the water to enjoy myself. The weather apps I have studied for to many days, the water, the wind and the swells. I will quietly regroup and breathe and when you are not looking, I will be out on the water.

I do know that I need to pick my battles wisely and I am going to do that so my days on the water are fun. If I have learnt one skill on this trip so far: be clever, be safe and be wiser every day. Wisdom I am using on this section of the coastline. For the paddlers out there who have asked me what are you going to do when you can not paddle, well here I go. When my mind is racing and I can not fathom the forecasts or make them change I sit down and make a list of stuff I have wanted to do, apart from knit a scarf to prove to the team I can, I have taken a quick side step and a new look at the next few days. I have a new thought pattern and it is stuff I have been wanting to do. So thanks MN, I now have time to get to have a quirky afternoon with a quirky massage therapist, ride horses with Tricia and go canyoning and abseiling with Nat on her return. YIPPEE! My next few days are planned.

There has been time to use all of my donated products from L'Oreal and bring back the girl in me. Red finger nails, red toenails and red hair. It makes me laugh sitting in Cuzzie with the lid off the Pink crate, delving into the products we had been given to once in a while get out on the wet and yuk days to stave off cabin fever. Thanks Tanya, Gary and the L'Oreal team, Monday so far has been fun care of your generous team! if I could have painted Cuzzie's wing nuts on her wheels red I would have! If she had hair it would be flaming red too.

Cuzzie is leading the girls and we are on a small detour and it is time for the team to all smile and enjoy. We are off, I am flying again, my personal sails of my kite have refilled with fresh air, so out of the valley we race.

Trish only has another day with me and then is returning to her other summer job at Citta design in Grey Lynn before Uni starts again. She will be missed. We are spending time together, we have survived the Blenhaim to Te Oka section of this journey and after 20+ years of friendship we are still mates! Now that's special. Nat returns tomorrow arvo and we are grabbing her from a bus station as I dared to think I would be in Dunedin by now and no way am I even close! My crazy, fun-loving support person and young mate returning after four weeks away, look out you and I are going to try and go Canyoning and Abseiling.

Trish and I have spent a great afternoon together, sauna, massages and chatting to an amazing lady, Paru Clarke. www.journeyessence.com It was meant to be as she is also talking at a seminar on depression this weekend, as I say things always happen for a reason. We talked and talked, it was enlightening and the haze and bad weather outside did not matter anymore. There are other reasons, as you all know, for my paddling journey and today was about spreading the word for MHFNZ and the carers of depressed and the reasons so many suffer, some feeding their depression with drugs and alcohol and some just with their surroundings and life. Our afternoon was a valuable time and we connected with a new friend and it will be a lifelong friendship. I take my heart out to this lovely lady, she is funny, brilliant and has lived an amazing enormously exciting life, we chatted about living in camper vans for the rest of our lives, and still living a fab life.

I stumbled upon one of the coolest toilet seats I have seen since my Waiheke hippy days, blue resin with shells, way to pretty for a toilet seat! We have been rating campsites, so now I am rating toilets! See what happens when I am removed from the water?

We are now tucked up in a cute little campsite, one of only four camper vans for the night. There are creeks, ducks and native bush. It is raining, it is misty and we are eating antipasto platters of all the food we love with a massive bowl of popcorn to snack on. Not bad a bad day, totally not a bad life, and no torment today.

I have many smiles today:
Side stepping Mother Nature and saying I do not care and I will win soon in the tortoise and the hare scenario.
Feeling the excited about today, and finding a new zig for my day even with no sunshine in sight.
Ducks at the back step of Cuzzie, quaking and settling down for the night!
To a new adventurer I have been talking to via our website, inspiration from other corners of the world, now that is way cool.
Mark Thompson for commenting on every blog I have written on this journey, thanks Mark!
For kindred spirits who believe in my dream and my reasons, from far away in your corner of the world.
And for a support team that some days, are driven to pull their hair out. I can not for the life of me understand their patience but from the bottom of my crazy heart, I say thank you to them, as the tough off the water days are when I seem to torment them the most!
For the cool cool support from total strangers on my Facebook page, my Instagram links and for the positive feedback and go girl comments, I owe you.

My thoughts today:
When the heck is summer truly coming to my part of the world! Till it arrives, XL black leggings are my life saving clothing item, surely one day soon they will be too warm.

Good night from the Red team.

PS: Chatting with Marcus Lush on ZB radio after 8.30pm tonight, this will be fun. (interview starts at 9.15 listen here)

'Girly' Pink Crate and important supplies