Haast: Search for the lost handbag

Driftwood on the beach. It was full of it. Tons of big pieces to play on.
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Haast was sort of a brief pit stop after the Franz Josef Glacier and on our way to Queenstown. A way to break up a long drive if you will. When we arrived we decided that instead of fighting the crowds to make our supper in a tight kitchen we would venture down to the beach and take some pictures. It was to be the last night that the "original 5" as we called ourselves would be together. We were all hungry so we resolved to make it aquick trip to the beach. Well,manyhours later we returned.

The "Original 5" for one last group photo before our "break up" the next day. How sad...
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The beach had sort of an obscure way of getting to it. We had to walk through pastures and swamp to get there. Once there however, we discovered that it was well worth the walk. It was sunset, so we got to watch the sun go down over the ocean and the beach was really very beautiful and once again, we had it all to ourselves. With such a beautiful background the photo session began with ferocaity. Between the 5 of us it seems like we took a hundred pictures!

We were starving and hungry but mostly we were relieved.

Michael and I cozying up on the beach.
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Once we had declared the photo session a "wrap" we decided that we would try a different route home. The bus driver had told us that we could go two ways to the beach. One way was the way we came and another way was by walking down to a bridge that would cross a river and eventually bring us back to the same road. So, we decided, instead of going back the way we came we would take the other way. So on we went walking, and walking, and walking.... We eventually came to a point where we all just stopped and stared at one another. There was little being said at this point as we were all extremely tired and hungry. We quickly debated whether or not we should continue walking or turn around and go back the way we came. It wasn't an easy decision, as we had invested a lot of time already inour current route,but we decided to turn around and go back the way we came.

Emma and Will our UK buds on the beach with us at Haast.
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Well we had just turned around when Emma declared that she had lost her handbag. It had everything in it. Her passport, wallet, Ipod,planetickets - EVERYTHING. So, we started running. It was starting to get dark and the tide was coming in so time was of the essence! We had no idea where it would be, but it seemedmost likely that she would have put it down while we were takingpictures. Someone had the idea to check our cameras to see if we could identify when she last had it and sure enough it was evident in our pictures! So, we quickly ran back to the site and searched high and low for it. After much looking and impending darknesswe finally had to give up. We agreed that we would form a search party in the early morning and come back to look for it.

Sun set on Haast Beach
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On ourreturn to the hostel we discovered that Suzanne, a girl on our bus,had the handbag. She had gone for a walk on the beach by herself that night and found the purse lying on the beach. She discovered it was Emma's and took it back with her to safety. What a relief!

So, five hours later, ataround 11:00 pm that night, we finally sat down to dinner! We were starving and hungry but mostly we were relieved. What an adventure - we will never forget.

Heather and Michael