It Gets Better from Here, Right?

We had one Hell of a day. I have been having trouble getting into the swing of things anyway and today has either ruined me or shaken me loose. I haven't decided which.

Rather than take a "guided trip" into the Abel Tasman National Park, we decided to get the lay of the land on our own. After some false starts, we found an I-Station -- wonderful places for tourist information. We were recommended to go to a certain reserve for tramping. It was represented to be high in difficult and somewhat trecherous. So Mindy was in. When we were readying in the parking lot my backpack broke (I have only used this damn thing like 5 times). We should have left then.

We hiked down what looked like a road. This was confirmed when we were passed by a truck, which was going about its ranching duties. We noticed very faint numbered trails off of this road, but ignored them until the raod turned into a field with no way out. We backtracked to a numbered trail. It was pretty bushy and straight up hill. The trail ended at a sheer rock face. Come to find out, the park is a rock climbing area. High degree of difficulty? Yeah, straight up! Unlike others, we were not equiped so we headed back down on a trail which I can only imagine is used by birds and insects only. After slipping down the steep mud face (I fell twice in the same exact place and almost rolled down the hill), we had to hack through 20 feet of brambles to get back to the "road" trail.

I had noticed that I had parked on a slight down grade on grass and was concerned I would have difficulty backing on the slick grass. When we tried to leave, the back tires spun out. I was not too concerned because I figured I could get out by rocking back and forth like I have before. But a local in the parking lot was concerned -- I think it was the American-accented cussing and obvious rental vehicle. He offered to "help." He tied on for what I thought would be a slight tug to get me on solid ground. Per our agreement, I was in neutral (this becomes important in a second). He gasses it and pulls us way out of harms way and into a parked BMW. My foot was through the floor braking, but he was damned determined to keep towing. The smash was pretty good. He embarressedly got of his truck, explaining that he was watching the other side. Well, duh!

He was pretty skittish and wanted to do a runner. Mindy and I wanted to do the right thing, so we left our contact details and a short explaination like this -- "Sorry we were towed into your car by a good Samaritan who was helping us get unstuck." If any lawyer friends are reading this, is this a law school exam question or what.

We are out of time. More later.