Wandering Scotsman

Again I decided to clock up the miles (or kilometres as it is here) and having left at 8am, I drove up to Nelson to have a glimpse at the Saturday morning artists market.  As I had already bought a load of stuff I resisted the unusual pottery and crafts, and headed up to Farewell Spit, a 25km sandbank at the tip of the North Island formed by the west coast’s river outflows.

Within 6 days I had went from the most Southerly point in the South Island to the most Northerly and was definitely starting to feel like a ‘ticking it off’ tourist merely stopping briefly and clocking up the kilometres.  I was keen to get to the North Island though as I have to sell my car at some point and catch up with my mate in Wellington.

(Picture : Pupu springs – crystal clear with the spring on the left)  On the way to Farewell Spit I stopped off at the Te Waikoropupu Springs which is the largest natural springs in NZ, pumping out around 14000 litres of water every minute (or was that hour?).  Unfortunately you cannot swim in these as they are culturally significant to the Maoris and are sadly one of the many victims of the imported waterborn Dydimo pest that is infecting New Zealand at the moment.  The water is apparently the clearest water in the world, except from underneath the Ross Ice Shelf.

(Pictures : Farewell Spit and coastal scenery) I only took a brief walk around the Farewell Spit area up to the lighthouse.  I was still undecided whether to do a days walking on the Abel Tasman followed by a day’s kayaking, or just kayak, or  do none of them.  A quick call at 5pm booked me on a ‘Royale With Cheese’ one day trip with Kaiteriteri Kayak. It’s the longest day trip offered in the Abel Tasman area with around 18km covered in the day.

Once again I scooted along the coast until darkness fell, and with the distraction of picking up a couple of German hitchikers to take them a few km’s along the road, I even forgot to look in past the classic Payne’s Ford climbing area on the way.  I would have loved to stop for a couple of day’s climbing there but needs must.

(Picture : Kayaks and water taxi at Bark Bay)  After a night’s stop in Marahau I had an early morning start to arrive in time for the kayaking.  Despite the distance it was a pretty easy going day with a small group of folk.  It would have been great to spend a few more days chilling out around here although my decision not to walk was vindicated by a British guy on the trip saying a lot of the walk he did was through the trees with minimal views until you walked across the fantastic beaches they have in the area.  I was glad I saw this area slightly off season though as it would have been mobbed with people and boats otherwise.

The day took us and the kayaks from Kaiteriteri beach by water taxi to Bark Bay, then we kayaked down the southern half of the Abel Tasman park.  The seals weren’t as playful as they sometimes are so only had a short swim around us, but didn’t climb up on the kayaks as has been seen in the past.  We then rafted together and hoisted a makeshift sail to catch the wind across the ‘mad mile’ on the way home.  There are so many options to kayak and camp here it would be amazing to spend a few days just chilling out with a few bottles of wines or beer, a tent and some food just popping on past the beaches and swimming in the sea (when the sea temperature was a bit warmer!)

After a last minute ferry booking for the following day I headed to Nelson to spend the night.

(Picture : Franz Josef glacier and surrounding bush)  In the morning I went for a stroll up to the Sentinal Rock lookout for Franz Josef glacier.  I never did any of the glacier walks as Tom and I had already invested a lot of hard graft to walk 25km to get to the Mount Aspiring Glaciers, and although the heli flights would have been great, they’d have been no different to the heli snowboarding trips I’ve done in Europe (lucky barsteward that I am ;-> ).

I didn’t break the week’s ‘sit in the car while the sun shines’ theme today either. I stormed in the miles up the west coast again today.

My aim was…….well like usual I never had an aim for the day.  Maybe stop in Hokitika, Greymouth or shoot right up to the North if time allowed.

I stopped off in Hokitika for a quick peek round a few Jade shops, lunch on the beach, some supplies incase I stopped in a basic camping place again, and left to head up to the Pancake Rocks.

(Picture : Pancake Rocks) As usual with my tide timing, it was out, as was the tide, so no impressive upwards blasts of the sea to witness for me.  The rocks here all have visible layers and they’re not 100% sure of why they have been formed like this.

I still had a couple of hours before darkness to bombed up towards Westport to put in even more bloody petrol, and drove until I got bored in the dark and reached a suitable DOC campsite.  I managed to push on all the way to the Nelson Lakes National Park, and stopped off at the head of Lake Rotoroa.  By the time I arrived it was dark, so for the first time I decided I couldn’t be arsed pitching the tent, and pulled the duvet over the passenger seat and snoozed off.  I had purchased a rather handy ‘no cooking required’ bacon and egg pastie so scoffed this with a few beers while lounged out in the passenger seat reading a book.  It’s a bit bizarre eating and drinking in your car, but the sleep was pretty good after I got over the weird and wonderful nighttime sounds from the surrounding forest – at least thats what I thought I was surrounded by as I couldn’t see a bloody thing.

Being that it was so cold I awoke early at 0715, helped by the hiking group getting organised.  There was ice on the windscreen, and a magic dawn fog carpeting the valley which made a pretty atmospheric drive over to Haast on the coast.

(Picture : Bruce Bay beach) I pushed on stopping at a Bruce Bay beach for a few pics, then popped up to Fox Glacier via a few sidetrips.  I scooted down to Gillespies Beach for a peek which gave superb views from the beach to the mountains of Mount Tasman and Mount Cook (shown in the picture).  I then went for a brief walk  around Lake Matheson (although by now the clouds had started to ruin the typical NZ sunny day I’ve been treated with, spoiling the picture postcard mountain reflection views you usually get from here), then headed up to Fox Glacier. I was going to stay the night here but took a short walk to the glacier’s face rather than the longer  cloud covered Chalet Lookout walk I intended to do.

(Pictures: Fox Glacier)

Doing this made my mind up to hot foot it up to Franz Josef Glacier for the night (oh the joys of having your own transport!!).

(Picture : Indoor ice climbing wall at Franz Josef)  I managed to get a dorm space, opting for a comfortable warm night, although my Rab sleeping bag has not been failing me!  I opted for the Rainforest Retreat, as recommended by a mate.  I had a quick look into the indoor ice wall in Franz Josef and it made me wonder why Glencoe’s Ice Factor back home couldn’t manage to keep their wall in such amazing condition with loads of features to play with. A few beers were had in the local, then I popped up to another bar to watch a live singer for a bit of culture.  Back to the local for a couple of beers, then back for a bit of a read.

Then my quiet night was ruined…..  my mum reads this so I won’t go into the details, but the beds in the room were rocking (not mine!!), I only got a short kip, then the bloody fire alarm went off minutes before the frickin’ Contiki bus left at 0600.  Bloody tour buses!!!!!!!

At least it got me up early I guess……

I had my last night in Dunedin with Claudia, T and James (the latter two being the guys I met on the boat in Whitsundays).  ‘Dunny’ was now a tad better as they managed to take us to a lovely little bar tucked round the back of a car park, with one of the best barman I’ve ever had serve me – very knowledgable about all the booze served, a toasty warm fire, and what could get better?  Well James, a recently quit student bought a $130 bottle of Champers to sup.  Yes, even better. 

The next day I undertook the ‘you could easily do that in a day’ drive from Dunedin to Fox Glacier.  But I didn’t leave until 11am.  I’ve found that any Kiwi’s driving time estimates have to have a third to half added on when travelling in tourist mode.  Anyhoo, the drive through Central Otago was cracking – wall to wall, or farm to farm fruit farms and fantastic rocky scenery when you got around Cromwell.  I bombed through though.  Heading over to Wanaka was a superb little stint, and when I arrived there I felt like I just got back home again.  I was so tempted to hang around a couple more days there.  The fantastic Earth From Above exhibition was still on along the lakeside (I saw this a good few years ago in Krakow, Poland – google it, it’s amazing).

Reluctantly I pushed on, and never looked through any more estate agent windows.  I did however stupidly glance in a clothing shop window and bought a lovely ‘Pure Local’ NZ Hoody.  One of the classier tourist tops you can buy!  So my quick stop proved to be expensive.

(Picture : Lake Hawea)  The drive from Wanaka over the Haast Pass was again super scenic – actually seeing the rest of Lake Wanaka was impressive, and Lake Hawea next to that was one of the nicest I’ve seen in NZ.

As per the usual driving estimates I had considered staying in Wanaka to avoid driving in the dark, but pushed on.  I ended up crashing on the western edge of the Haast Pass at a nice quiet basic Pleasant Flat DOC campsite as darkness loomed.  I was quickly joined by a Hiking New Zealand minibus.  Unlike meeting a Kiwi Experience or Magic Bus, the chat was good – diving, outdoors work, international folk and they invited me to join them around their open fire under the natural disco lights (stars) – the clearest view I’ve seen yet.

(Pictures : My car and the Hiking New Zealand van and tents, and the crystal clear river next to the campsite)

In Franz Josef….after a mega drive (in distance and scenery) yesterday from Dunedin over Haast Pass. Camped at a DOC site just to have a Hiking New Zealand minibus pull up next to me, but all good as they shared their fire.
Heading further up west coast tomorrow… more soon.

So, it’s a long shot, but I have as much in the heading as I can in the hope that someone will stumble on this blog entry.

I met a girl from Chicago in Hamner Springs, South Island, New Zealand.  Her dad was planning a round the world sailing trip starting in September 2007.  Stupidly I never got her email address but gave her mine.  She was travelling with an English girl.  I’m curious about the trip….so someone who knows her (from Chicago, dad works in real estate, she’s been travelling for over two years) or about the trip, drop me an email……you never know.

I’ve updated a few blog entries as I’ve been on the move quite a lot over the last few days.  It may be the same over the next few as I drive over to the west coast.

I’m quite keen to start heading towards the North Island again so I can spend some time with Jono in Wellington before I explore further north.  Tomorrow (Wednesday?) I’ll head west via Wanaka towards Fox and Frans Joseph Glaciers.

I may end up hooking up with a local I met in Malaysia for a couple of days on Abel Tasman and around, but due to my lack of planning it’s a bit unlikely.

Unfortunately I pretty much decided a week or two wouldn’t really do justice to Vanuatu without doing relatively expensive internal flights so have all but binned the idea of making a last minute escape there before heading to Japan.  Boo hoo hoo.  I’ll be missing some excellent volcano trekking, diving, and witnessing the home of ‘bungy’ where traditionally men leap off tall platforms connected to vines or similar.  Gutted. 

Heed to road signs!  The other day I saw a tiny handmade sign saying :

‘Stock’

Yeh sure I thought. 

I turned the corner and had a cow running towards me, and me driving towards it at 70km/h.

I turned the next corner, albeit far slower and had the herding dog runnning around.