All of the walks we had embarked upon up to this point have been well signposted, very easy to follow and almost impossible to get lost on. we were complacent and our downfall was soon to come...

The first day on the farm (see WWOOF!) Lindsay drove us to the lookout point which was the beginning of the coastal walk. We set off on the path at about 3:00, steadily heading downwards towards the beach. It was a nice afternoon and both Jon and I, being keen beachcombers, meandered along the coast at a slow pace picking up beautiful Paua shells and marvelling at the preternatural kelp which littered the sand. We followed the coast until the beach disappeared and forced us up onto the cliff to follow the path there. After about an hour and a half, we began to think that we should be making more progress along the 2 hour route, but the sheep path we were on showed no signs of leading us back to town. In fact, the path had got smaller, the ground had got muddier, the sky had got darker, and we were now having to tiptoe our way through herds of timid sheep. We had no water and we had run out of Pez so we quickened our pace and stopped being concerned about the amount of mud we were covered in, feeling only concerned that we would; 1. have to spend the night in a cold field surrounded by sheep, or 2. have to be rescued by helicopter on our very first day as WOOFERs. Either way it was not looking good.

After a while, a beach came into sight and we saw that there was a sign planted in it. Hoping it would be a useful sign, maybe with a map, we jumped over the barbed wire and expectantly walked towards it. It looked more and more like a map the closer we got, but when we could actually read it we were sorely disappointed to discover that it was simply a map showing us that the area we were skirting was a treatment area full of poison. Great. All was not lost though since we spotted one set of footprints which led off in a direction we assumed to be correct. We followed them with hope in our hearts and panic in our souls until we emerged at a car park where we breathed out for the first time in hours.

We ended up only being about an hour late for dinner and thankfully our hosts had not called the police. We have learned our lesson and will follow those little orange arrows they hide in trees and bushes far more closely in the future. I also think that I may have been left with with a small phobia of fields of sheep.