As on the days before the kayak tour, the weather was again less beautiful. Nevertheless, we started westward in the direction of Westport. After the first pass, we unfortunately could not find the DOC campsite planned according to the guidebook. Therefore we continued over the next pass (from 200m to 640m). Since we didn't really like the first DOC campground after the pass (on the main road), we drove on to the actual destination of the next day, Owens River. There we arrived relatively exhausted after 95km with two passes. On the campground we were expected by thousands of friends, sand flies! Fortunately we have an effective remedy against these flies. We were also lucky with the z'Nacht, we were invited by two New Zealand couples for z'Nacht in Owens River Tavern. Merci! The restaurant in the middle of nowhere is run by a Hong Kong family who emigrated directly from Hong Kong to Owens River. The Chinese food there was wonderful (not only because of hunger!).
Since our flying darlings were still at the campground in the morning, we postponed our z'morning to a following rest area. Also on this day we were partly accompanied by rain, so that we put on and took off the rain jacket several times. Since we were still full of energy after 45km in the early afternoon, we decided to continue towards Westport, where we expected the next campground. Due to the rain, we were able to enjoy very intense scents on the route through the forests, just like the day before. Partly it smelled like tea (but we could not agree on the variety).
After 85km we reached surprisingly (not on our map) a cafe with backpacker's and campground in Berlins. Since we did not want to drive another 40 after the exhausting previous day and the hilly current 85km this campground just came in handy. Here we had again many friends, which made themselves comfortable with us between inside and outside tent (see photo). In Berlins we enjoyed a huge "all-day-breakfast" before we left.
The following day we reached Westport after an easy 45km in the early afternoon.
Thanks to the very good weather here, we were able to properly dry and clean our tent again.