Circle Pacific 1998/99 - Day 65 - New Zealand

• Got ride into town to refill camper's gas bottle + back again
• Back to town for ferry from Tairua to Pauanui across the channel
• Pauanui has great trees - tall evergreens that smell great! - some great houses - imaginative designs + lots of windows
• All streets made of crushed red rock
• Missed ferry back to Tairua - not another for 2 hours - Shan angry - was sure ferry driver had seen us running for it
• Shan wanted to swim across the channel to Paku Mtn where trailer is - low tide, but rip current possible - warned about this earlier by ride into town - Dave very hesitant - had a bad feeling about it - Shan not listening - plunged in - Dave promised to watch her across
• Current immediately started carrying Shan out channel - crawl-stroked, sidestroked - stopped to check progress - decided not to waste any more time checking progress - super-light backpacking clothes still dragging, boots heavy + ineffective - rolled over onto back to calm down for a few seconds - lungs could feel pressure of surrounding water - sidestroked furiously - suddenly out of worst current - couldn't quite touch bottom - still being carried out - just a little further - finally able to stand on rock - signaled to Dave to not attempt crossing, to instead meet at the ferry wharf
• Dave thought Shan was waiting, so walked back up Pauanui Bay beach to cross channel to low tide sand flat, then final shallow channel to Paku shore - tide between ebb + flow now - very calm current - walked to trailer to find Shan, changed clothes, walked back toward town - met Shan near ferry wharf - much hugging + apologizing on Shan's part - fervent promises to never go against Dave's better judgment