Entries about boats

Another early rise and shine in sunny Sydney awaited us and today was a day I was really looking forward to coz we were going to the zoo. Not that I love zoo’s in particular, I prefer to see an animal in it’s natural habitat, but if there isn’t any other option, a zoo will have to do. Throughout the many places I have travelled, I saw a few zoological gardens and many of them aren’t that well maintained. I am afraid to say that even in my home country we could sometimes do better, but I know that this one is one of the „better” zoo’s or so they say. I will have to find that out for myself of course!

The walk to the circular quay isn’t that far, only about 10 minutes and I am amazed to notice how well located our hotel is. We don’t even have to use the train, everything is within walking distance and that is just the way we like it.

Upon our arrival, we just walked to the ferry boats and booked a ticket through Captain Cook cruises, since they do a deal with a crossing, the cable car and the entrance for the zoo and before we even realize it, we are on the boat and on our way to spot some Australian natives.

The crossing didn’t take that long and when we arrived at the other side about 15 minutes later, we even had to wait because the cable car was still closed. Normally it should have been open but although they didn’t mention of any problems, I guess someone must have overslept. Something like this can happen of course and by the time we took a few scenery pictures we could go up the mountain and had a beautiful view overlooking the zoo from above.

Although it was a hot morning, there were already lots of people up and about, it looked like we weren’t going to be alone and when we went through the gate and saw the map of the zoo, we immediately noticed that we have to hurry if we wanted to see everything.

Since we were mainly interested in the native animals, that was going to be our main objective of the day and about 3 minutes walking into the park the most cute animal of them all awaited us, the koala. It was still early in the morning and they were sleeping, but still, looking at that cute little fury animal, it made my day!

The funny thing about it is, that although very crowded there was one dad saying to his 3 year old child : „look honey, that’s a koala, the same like the one we have in our back yard!”. It was just so crazy hearing these words, it was like they were talking about a cat or a dog, but I guess when you live here in such a big country where those animals or so common, it feels like a cat or dog to Australians.

After waving goodbye to his cutie, we visited the night life creatures and next on were the African ones, but since there were some road works, we had to go back almost to the beginning and from there we tried the Orang Utang forest walk, which to our surprise, only houses plants. There wasn’t an animal to be seen. This was quite a pity since this is my favorite animal of the whole wide world, but hey, hopefully in a few years time I will be able to see them in their natural habitat and that would be more than amazing as well.

Leaving the jungle, it was already time to have some lunch and than we went on our way to see the rest of the Australians, but like most of the animals they were either not to be seen or sleeping (probably because of the extremely hot weather).

We tried to spot a wombat and searched for it, for almost half an hour, but he was no were to be found. Last time when we were in Australia we only saw a sleeping wombat, but now he was just totally gone, he knows how to hide himself, that’s for sure. On the other hand, we saw lots and lots of Echidna’s and they are so funny to watch, they really look like oversized drunken hedgehogs. I just love the way they move!

Time is flying when you are trying to find all the natives and like most animals they also love to sleep or hide in the shade, I guess that a warm day isn’t exactly the right moment to visit a zoo, but we had a bit of a time issue, so there wasn’t any way around it.

At 2 PM we were near the seals and watched a show, which was quite entertaining and informative at the same time. I must say that they really know how to handle there native talks and shows coz an hour later we also went for the bird show and this one in particularly is very interesting. There are just so many birds and to be honest, so many different species I wasn’t really aware of and it made me look at birds in a totally different way.

Sadly enough we had to go after the show was over coz we needed to get the 3.45 PM hop on hop off ferry back to the city centre coz this evening we had a dinner date with Ewa, a girl who we met a few years back on our trip through Oz and kept in touch with ever since.

By the time that we arrived back at the hotel, got a quick shower and another change of clothes, she was already awaiting us in the lobby waiting to get a few friendly hugs from 2 crazy Belgians.

It was so nice seeing her again and it felt like it was only yesterday that we were on the same trip together. I guess when you have that feeling, it means that they are true friends coz it doesn’t happen that very often. I myself, only have this feeling with a handful of people and I guess that they know who they are when they should happen to read this blog.

Ewa took the both of us to Darling Harbour to have dinner at the waterfront and she choose a very nice place where we had some yummy kangaroo steak with kumara mash and some greens. All in all a good choice and afterwards, we even closed the perfect dinner with a vanilla crème brûlée. Even late at night it was still nice and warm for a nice walk back to the hotel and although it was short, I enjoyed every minute of it and I sincerely hope to see my dear friend again within the next couple of years, as long as there is hope, there is life … isn’t it!?

When we arrived back in our room again about 10 PM the dreadful task awaited us of repacking all of our stuff. We had been neglecting it over the past couple of days, but since we are leaving this beautiful country early in the afternoon, there just isn’t escaping it anymore, so before I closed my eyes I made sure that everything was packed and I didn’t forget nothing.

Unlike a few days before, today we had yet again an early start and this meant that with sleepy eyes I got dressed and had breakfast just like the rest of our group so that we could leave for Milford Sound at about 7 AM. I was really looking forward to this day coz I read so much about it, the trouble however is that someone told me that it rains about 300 days at this particular place, so it was unlikely that with our luck we were going to see it with a bright blue sky.

The trip towards Milford Sound was going to take a few hours and as soon as we were gone, Helen told us that it wasn’t likely that we were going to see it without rain. I knew it, it was just our luck again, but hopefully it wouldn’t be that bad?

I still had a little bit of hope left, because after all, what else is there? Helen assured us however that not only the Sound, but also the road towards it was well worth, so at least we had something to look forward to.

About one hour into the trip, we suddenly stopped at a very big open field with mountains in the distance and suddenly it hit me why our driver Craig was playing the theme song of the musical „Sound of Music”. When "Maria" started to sing, Craig and Helen jumped out of the bus and started frolicking around. I have to admit it is kind of a weird experience but on the other hand, with the snowy mountains in the near distance, it sounded about right. The temperature on the other hand could be better, but hey, the music and sceneries made the stop well worth and as soon as we found our responsible „leaders” again, it was time to go back on the road again where we stopped about half an hour later.

This time we had a quick stop at the Mirror Lakes, which are well-known for their reflection onto the water and although we had yet again a cloudy day, I was amazed to see that you still could see it. The water is truly crystal clear and I was wondering if I could drink from it and I am sure we could.

Fortunately we couldn’t gaze at the mountains too much coz other tour groups were following us as well and the sad story is that this was going to be for the remainder of the day, definitely not a fun day if you have to run through everything just in order to see something, but that sometimes happens when you are on a tour trip I suppose.

From the lakes we drove further on and had a quick toilet stop in Knobs Flat, where you had just a few toilets and I think I even saw a caravan park, but that’s about it. A very sad place indeed, so that is probably the reason we just went there to have a 5 minute break.

Once back on the bus, it was yet again a fairly long drive, but Craig made it up with a few photo stops along the way and I do agree with Helen on this one, the drive towards the Sound is amazingly beautiful, especially when you have some customized music playing through the boxes. It was like driving through a magical place and the waterfalls we drove by from time to time were nice to look at as well. To be honest, I was waiting for the moment some fairies were going to come out and play. But that's just me of course!

As we arrived at the Homer tunnel, which was cut out through the entire mountain, we had to wait a few minutes before we could go trough, but once we got the green light, we've got an amazing experience of driving through it on the theme song of Mission Impossible with a laser show and everything. That is something I really like about Topdeck, even at dull moments, they always try to lift up the spirit and it really works. I really love that!

Passing the Homer tunnel, it amazed me, that after driving about half an hour we arrived in some kind of forest that could easily be the shooting location for the movie Jurassic Park. It is strange, but being here in New Zealand wants me to compare everything with movies, I guess the recent relaeses of the Hobbit movies as well as the Lord of the Rings movies don’t help this of course. But I have to admit, this country is made for making some of the world’s greatest movies and who knows how many will follow coz when we were in Wellington almost a week ago, they were telling us something of a sequel for the Avatar movie. Not my favorite one, but now seeing all this, I can imagine why they wanna film it here. When the sun is coming out, it must be mind-blowing, because it is beautiful with dark clouds as well.

Dark clouds usually meant trouble and this time it was no different, coz as soon as we drove a few minutes through a forest, it started to rain, but it in way that's not the right word, it were more downpours. It literally came falling out of the sky with buckets. Unbelievable!

Sadly enough we had to go and see the Chasm, which is sort of a water fall, but with the heavy rainfall, no one is really enthusiastic and nor am I, but I am here and I don’t think I am coming back soon, so as soon as I put on my rain jacket I walk into the rainforest (hence why we have it of course) and I loved it. The spooky looking trees were amazing, the many ferns looked the same, I could wonder of here if it wasn’t for the rain of course and secondly of all, the hundreds of asian people walking besides me with their umbrellas trying to do their best to poke my eyes out … jeezzz, that is not what I particularly call magical. Now I know why it is only us humans out here!

Needless to say, we walked through the forest if our ass was on fire and as soon as we were on the road again, it was only an one hour drive towards the Milford Sound, which we reached … in the rain!

I have to admit, I was a bit disappointment when we arrived and as soon as we were on the boat, it started to rain even harder. I have to admit that a depression was starting to kick in and besides a few waterfalls and lots of fog, there was nothing else to see here at the sound. It didn’t help when the crew of the boat told us how beautiful it was here at the Sound because at that moment we couldn’t see much. Needless to say, the mood was gone to almost freezing temperatures for some of us, including yours truly. Although I have to admit that there were still some people on board who saw the fun in it coz they were even crazy enough to go and stand under a freezing cold waterfall. I on the other hand can verify how pure the water was by drinking it, that is how far my sense of adventure goes when I am on depression mode!

During our 3 hour cruise, we tried to spot a few penguins, but in the end we never saw one single one. I have my hopes up at meeting a few in Torango Zoo but we will see when we get there, for now it was just one lonely seal and that is about everything you can see here when we are talking about wildlife. When I come to think about it, it is a bit disappointing as well coz since my last trip to Australia, I saw so much wildlife that for some crazy reason, I expected the same here in New Zealand. Not a jumping kangaroo or even a cute koala, but somehow I expected to see lots of birds, but the only one showing up was a Kea at the parking lot of the waterfall we visited earlier. Maybe we have chosen the wrong season???

Nothing to do about that of course, but I was so glad to be of the boat again because not only didn't I see something worthwhile, I also began to get a bit seasick, so during the ride back to Te Anau where we were going to spend the night, I did nothing else but sleep in the bus. It seemed I was really exhausted.

Upon our arrival at the hotel, we quickly dropped of our luggage and went for a run. After a whole day of riding and sleeping in a bus it was time for a bit of action and a half an hour run around the lake was just the perfect medicine. It made me feel all energized again.

It was already fairly late when we had dinner, so needless to say, by the time that I packed my stuff and got organized it was already time to close my eyes and dream about an other day on the road.

Like most of the days, sleeping in was out of the question, so today we started just like all the other days with an early rise and shine and after a quick breakfast we were on our way again. Today we yet again had a whole day of bus sitting in front of us, but luckily we could do some activities as well coz we weren’t that far away from Kaikoura and this little fishermen’s town is known for everything that involves water and the sea life that lives in it.

We must have been driving for a little more than 2 hours when we had our first break to stretch our legs, go to the toilet or for the ones who needed it, a caffeine shot and than it was back on the bus again in the direction of Kaikoura.

Before we entered the town, we first had a quick glance on a small colony of New Zealand fur seals who were settled here. According to our guide Helen, most of them were still youngsters and although we stayed but a few minutes, it was fun watching them.

To be honest, they were just so cute and the little ones, OMG, I could just go over there and hug them to death, but I guess that wouldn’t be a good thing would it!?

As we arrived into town, we had an hour of free time to do some souvenir shopping or have lunch coz this afternoon, me and Tania were going on a boat to do some whale watching. I always wanted to do that and apparently Kaikoura is the best place to spot the infamous sperm whale, talking about an ideal situation!

We first wandered a bit through town and than we ate some fish and chips, after all, we wanted to stay into the fish theme now that we were here. The place where we had lunch was proclaimed to have the best fish and chips on the South Island and the second best of the whole of NZ, so I don’t think that we made such a bad choice and after finishing it, I must say that it was more than yummy.

Time is really flying and an hour goes by so very fast, but that doesn’t necessarily means that it is a bad thing. I was so prepared to see a whale that I just couldn’t wait and as soon as we paid for our ticket, we only had to wait for about 15 minutes. At 12.45 PM we got some safety briefing and suddenly the woman tells us that there might be a change that we can’t see a whale because of the bad weather conditions.

Come on, it seemed that everything we wanted to do and see got cancelled, this is just not happening!?

Not that I am really into it, but I quickly said a Hail Mary and hoped that the weather would change for the better so that we could sail out and see some whales.

It was already a good sign that they came and picked us up, it was even a better sign that we could get into the boat and that it actually left the harbor. Yes baby, we were on our way to see some whales!!!!

Our catamaran was very fast and after sailing for about 15 minutes, we had a first stop to see if anyone on board could spot a whale, but after floating about a few minutes, not one person saw one, so we went on and luckily they could track the mammals because on our second stop we were in luck.

There he or she was. I have to admit, it seemed to be a youngster and not all that big (compared to a grown up that is), but it was really amazing seeing it swim like that. After a few minutes of following it, it suddenly went down again and it is funny to see the tail and than nothing. A gigantic mammal is underneath us at that moment. Since a whale can go under water for about 40 to 60 minutes, we just went to another place to spot another whale, but instead of seeing whales, we came across some Dusky Dolphins. Cheeky little things coz they always followed the boat and although it was just too difficult to get a picture of them, we just had fun trying to take them.

After about 40 minutes into the boat trip they tried to track the whale again and we hoped to see it coming out of the water again, but sadly enough it was time to go back ashore as well, so instead of seeing 2 whales, we had to satisfy with one youngster of a whale. Oh well, I was just glad that it went through and that we actually saw one even if it wasn’t a big one.

Back ashore again, we met up with the rest of the group coz some of us also went swimming with the Dusky Dolphins, others went swimming with fur seals and there were even a few who just went on a hike in the neighborhood of Kaikoura. Now that we were one big group again, it was time for us to say goodbye to sea life and for the remainder of the bus trip we were going to drive all the way to Christchurch where we arrived a little before 7 PM.

Not very hungry yet, me and Tania decided to do some more „start to run” and although we weren’t really based in the centre of the city, more or less in the suburbs, it was difficult to choose a real direction, so we just went from one block to another and more than half an our later we were back at our hotel again. A nice hot shower and a bit of a snack later and we were totally knackered. I updated a bit of my blog but by the time it was 11 PM, I could’n even open my eyes anymore so I just called it a day.

When we woke up early this morning and I noticed the beautiful blue sky, I was the happiest person on the world. It seemed that good luck was finally on our side and as soon as we had breakfast, we were picked up by some kind of a school bus to bring us to the Abel Tasman NP. The drive in itself was about an hour and we were not only Topdeckers, we picked up other people from their hotels as well.

During our ride, the weather changed however and dark clouds were hovering above us, I guess we were all thinking the same thing, please let today be at least a good day!!!

As we arrived at Abel Tasman, the weather changed for the better again and I could jump for joy, but not after saying a quick goodbye to the rest of our group first. They were going to do a kayak trip and afterwards they even had a short walk, so this meant that me and Tania were on our own today for a leisurely half day of hiking. Bring it on I would say!

Our water taxi was going to drop us of at Medlands bay, but before we reached this place almost an hour later, we first had a look at the split rock and some fur seals, who were enjoying their sunbath. 

The walk from Medlands Bay towards Anchorage was about 11.5 kilometers, accordingly to the locals a fairly easy walk, so as soon as we got dropped of and Tania changed into some more "summery" clothes, we were on our way. The hike trough the forest was a bit steep and tiring, but as soon as we saw our first bay, this was all forgotten. There was even a lookout point, less than 1 km into the hike and by the time we got there I was out of breath not only because of the steepness of the hill but also of the beauty that surrounded us.

We quickly ate some power food, in this case a banana, and then we were on our way again. The walk back to the main coastal track was a bit cursed, for me that is. Just as I wanted to tell Tania to have a look at her right to see the beautiful colors of the water, which were greenish by the way, I tripped over some kind of small tree root and I fell smack on my face. If I have to be honest, it was not immediately right on my face because my right hand and left knee broke the fall, but however you put it, it wasn’t pleasant. I scraped my knee and hand and I seriously hurt my right elbow, but after recovering for about a minute or two, everything was fine again. Even my camera survived, it seems that Sony is a good brand and shockproof as well.

I know I am a clumsy person, but this is just downright stupid! On the other hand, I learned a valuable lesson today, no matter how beautiful the scenery is, look down as you are walking!!!!

Back on the main track, we walked for another few kilometers (we think anyway coz there were no signs to be found) in the sunshine when we suddenly saw another bay, called Sandfly Bay and since we still had enough time before we had to catch our water taxi back, we went for it and had a look at this bay as well. This time I remembered my lesson and walked very carefully, but by the time we arrived at the bay, the weather changed again on us and it started to rain. Bummer!

The beach itself looked nice and it had its own small creek, so instead of walking through the rain, we decided to wait it all out and about a few minutes later it finally cleared up again and for the better as well coz the sun kept on shining. Following the coastal track all the way towards Anchorage, we came across a few bridges, but the neatest of them all was the suspension bridge crossing Falls River.

Only 5 people could get on there at each time, so it needs no explanation that even when hiking, you could end up in some kind of „traffic jam”. But as soon as we crossed over, a real challenge began as we had to climb several meters uphill. As the minutes passed and we were still climbing, I thought that it was never going to end. This was really a steep hill and for some odd reason lots of people were passing us. I know I am a slow climber, but that slow???

Even when we finally came at a beautiful lookout point and the track was going downhill again, people were constantly passing us and at a given moment we were even scared that we missed out on something. What the heck was going on here???

We knew that we had to be in Torrent Bay before 2 PM because of the crossing and the low tide. If we weren’t on time, we had to take the long way up to Anchorage and there might be a chance that we were going to miss out on our water taxi, but now that everyone was passing us, we thought we had to move on as well coz maybe the walk was longer than we thought. We were utterly clueless when it came to the length of our hike. Where the heck were all the signs ??? Where we going in the right direction ??? One thinks of many things when you are all on your own in a NP, that’s for sure !!!

I don't know what was going on, but one thing I do know, we arrived at Torrent Bay way in time! It wasn't even 2 PM yet and with still a little time to spare before the high tide was coming, we decided to have lunch together with some cheeky seagulls at a more than beautiful beach. This truly is the life sometimes.

The crossing towards the low tide was only a few 100 meters away and while crossing it, we also needed to jump over a few creeks. Sadly enough they were a bit deeper than I thought and soon enough my walking shoes were a tiny bit wet. Maybe I should have followed Tania’s idea and brought a few sandals along, but hey, that was a bit too late now. The walk itself wasn’t that long and as we almost reached the forest again we had to cross an ever bigger stream so, time to walk barefooted. The water was surprisingly enough quite warm, but the ground was all squeezy, so I was glad that after walking a few meters, I could put on my shoes again and as soon as we walked up the stairs into the forest, we arrived at Anchorage Bay … surprise!!!

I still don’t know why people were rushing the whole time because even the two of us arrived an hour before our pick up time. Not that this was too bad of course, we walked a little further down the beach and as soon as we found a good enough spot to put our bags, we enjoyed the sun for a while. It truly was an amazing day.

By the time we were going to be picked up, we met up again with our fellow group members and while listening to their stories, I was more than glad that we didn’t went kayaking coz they had to stop because of too bad weather conditions and in the end they were stuck for a while on some kind of island where a water taxi had to pick them up and while stranded in the rain, they couldn’t do anything, I am glad we had such a nice walk, except for my little accident in the beginning of the hike that is.

Exactly at 3.45 PM, our taxi is there to bring us back to the beginning of the NP and by the time we got back, Tania received the bad news that she could’ t go skydiving because of the bad weather conditions, what the heck, the weather is just fine now!!! Go figure???

Once back in Nelson, there wasn’t much to do than finding something to eat and we tried a local Italian place, but our pasta was just so tiny that we had to go to the golden arches for a second course, we were really hungry and tired as well coz by the time we got showered and packed all of our stuff again it was time to close our eyes. Time really flies when you are in NZ.

Today we had an early start, but not before we had breakfast of course and I was happy to see that there was a bit of everything to go around and unlike dinner yesterday, this brekkie was more than okay.

As soon as all of our bags were packed, we were more than eager to leave the Bay of islands behind us and see a little bit more of the North Island, something you can't do without a whole lot of driving … or in other words, Craig our bus driver was going to do a lot of work today. We only had to enjoy the more than beautiful sceneries.

Me and Tania had the best seats of the day coz we were in front and this meant that we could make some great pictures from time to time. At least that was my intention coz I guess I slept more than that I was awake, but not that it bothered me much, this way the time went by very fast.

At about 12 AM we arrived back in the city of sails a.k.a. Auckland, where we said goodbye to half of our group. Their tour came to an end and another 15 people were going to join us here. Sounds a little bit exciting not!?

There was still a bit of time for us to go and grab some lunch and about an hour later we were back on the bus and met up with our new group members. By the time that we left the city, we all got to introduce ourselves and tell something funny as well. This kind of bonding game really worked and in no-time people were chatting through the bus and for some odd reason it felt like we knew each other for quite a while now although it only has been less than a few hours for a few of us.

While we introduced ourselves, I noticed that the majority of our group lived in Australia. Not that big of a surprise really since it isn’t that far away, but somehow I was surprised to hear how little Europeans there were in our group. I thought we could have done better.

As we go further down the highway, Helen, our guide, gives us more information about our special overnight this evening.

Tonight we are going to stay with a Maori family who have their own Marae and in order to learn a bit more about their habits and cultures, we need to learn a particular song. Me and singing ??? Is there alcohol involved ???

It seems that we can't get out of it. If we want to stay at their home, we've got to sing! Luckily we are with about 33 people so, nobody is going to hear my squeaky voice coz I am going into silent mode!

Our song is going to be the following : Oma rapeti, oma rapeti, oma oma oma (twice), pako pako pako, miss!, went the farmer’s gun. I know this sounds so strange but it has something to do with shooting a bunny and we missed it and it lives on, looking at it from the bright side of life, at least we know Maori language, how cool is that!

But still, we are a few hours away from arriving at the scene and during that time, Craig and Helen are really making sure we know our song from the heart. 

When we enter the town of Matamata, we know that we aren’t far away from our arrival, but before we say "hi" to our Moari family, we first make a short stop in this little sleepy town which became famous overnight because of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies.

There is not all that much to see in this very small town except for the tourist information centre and the welcome sign of the town itself. They are really beautiful and just looking at it, makes me feel like I am in Hobbiton, but still, those hobbits were nowhere to be found. It seemed they all fled out of the country!!!???

Half an hour later, we are on the move again and all anxiously looking forward to meeting the Moari family.

As we arrive on the scene so to speak, we first have to do a little ceremony, which Craig explained to us earlier during the day. The Maori people value their heritage and also their culture, so who are we to disagree. This is their culture and we have to respect it.

Us girls form one big group and the 2 guys and Craig stand behind us. They are supposed to protect us and I am just so glad this ceremony is symbolic coz if these 3 actually had to protect us for real, we were as good as dead. Okay, think positive Ils!

When we are all ready for the ceremony, a woman comes out of the Marae and starts chanting words. While this is going on, we slowly walk forwards till we reach the building and since it isn't allowed to walk inside with shoes, we left them outside at the entrance of the door.

Once we are welcomed inside, we take place on the seats and listen to the head of the family saying some words in Maori to protect us and then it is time for us all to perform.

Now that we are here in the building, it sounds even beter than during our rehearsal on the bus, it's really mind boggling. It even gives me goosebumps and I am sure higher spirits are present here at this moment, but that's just me!

When we finally say „Hi” in Maori with shaking hands and in the meantime pressing our noses and foreheads together, we can all relax and enjoy our stay here on the Marae. It seems we are now welcomed into the family and what better way to celebrate this than with some snacks and tea. An hour later, we even enjoy an abundant dinner with the rest of the family.

As soon as dinner is over and the dishes done, there is also some time for life entertainment. The family had prepared a few songs for us and while the men performed their famous „haka”, the woman did the same with the „poi”. 

The coolest part comes about a few minutes later when we are going to perform our own poi and the men in our group our going to show us their haka. I have to admit that the poi was funny and the Maori songs are really beautiful, but our 2 men really sucked at their haka, they clearly need to practise more when it concerns the "scary look" part.

All in all we had a great evening and as soon as we all got prepared for going to bed, it looked a bit like camping out. All 33 of us staying in the marae is just so funny, but at the same time an unique experience.

While a few of us were already sound asleep, the Maori woman (of which I sadly enough forgot the name) and wife of the leader of the family, came along and did some storytelling. It was a great way to learn a bit more of the culture and traditions, but at one given point I was really tired myself and I just crawled a little bit deeper into my sleeping bag and closed my eyes.