New Zealand Book

So it's been a long time since I got back to California. I've basically been sucked back into the working world!! I've also published a book of my photos from this trip. If you're interested in New Zealand please take a look at

http://www.blurb.com/my/book/detail/447657.

I will be donating the proceeds to cancer research as I've just recently lost a really good friend to Lung Cancer.

Back in the SF Bay Area

So I've made it back to the Bay Area and fortunately I'm staying with a good friend, which is helping me adjust to reality. I've sorted out my apartment and now I've managed to get my internet connection I feel more connected to the world!!

Life's been fairly good and I can't wait to get my new place and get on with my normal life (I'm actually yearning to start doing some work - Hmmm, I must be sick!). Overall the experience of traveling has really done me a lot of good. I've met lot's of great people, had some mishaps and have seen a different part of the planet. One conclusion that I always come to after traveling is that people are the same no matter where you go. I guess there's some solace in that! They have the same issues and complaints! It makes me feel a whole lot better since my problems seem minor in comparison to other things going on in the world.

My next plan is to visit friends on the West Coast whilst I try and sort out a job/work.

Auckland - final days

So this is probably the last blog entry for NZ. I've basically been doing the city stuff with some really cool people here at the BK Backpacker. I've been out for a meal with Ben (a Doctor on a placement at Auckland Hospital) and have been out on some major drinking sessions with Aiden (Irish) and the Brazilains! The Brazilian guys and girls are studying English here and we all decided to go out for a lot of beer in Auckland on the water-front. The Brazilan guys were such a laugh (and very drunk!) and really showed up their true flair! A great bunch of people to be sure.

Auckalnd - Sky Tower

Today I decided to go up the Sky Tower, which is the largest structure in the southern hemisphere. I got a ticket to the observation floor and the higher lookout and the view was just amazing. It's actually pretty damn frightening when you look out since you are 220m above the city and you're looking straight down towards the city below.

Sky Tower seen from the Park


View from the Sky Tower



Another view from the Sky Tower

Auckland

Today was spent sorting out my Passport and then just hanging around Auckland. Later on I hooked up with another Car Seller (Christin) and we decided to go to see an iMax 3D movie of U2 in concert in Argentina. Brilliant! I would strongly advise going to see one of these 3D movies. It felt like Bono was right in front of you and you get a really intimate experience of the band. You could actually see Bono's stubble close-up!!

Auckland

So I arrived in Auckland on Monday afternoon (lunch time) and had to navigate my way to the Backpaker Car Market from where I bought my car. I've heard horror stories about people not being able to sell their cars/vans due to the low season demand being terrible for vehicles. Anyway after finding my way around (actually it was surprisingly easy) I took my van into the Backpacker Car Market.

I've been thinking of selling strategies and whether I could donate my car to the Salvation Army if I don't manage to sell or put it on consignment somewhere.

After a few hours we had a couple of people come through and I felt a bit better. No buyers though.

After closing time I found BK Hostel on K Rd. Great place. Good people and clean and cheap. I was recommended this by Steve and Katie (another couple who were selling their van and had just got a buyer!).

The next morning I headed out and made my way to an Internet Cafe and decided to make some flyers and to highlight the selling points of my Van. Later that morning I had a buyer! And in the afternoon I managed to sell and finalize the transaction. A relief!!

Sandspit

I spent the last couple of days near Sandspit which is near Warksworth north of Auckland. The main reason for this is that as I am leaving New Zealand on the 15th May is that I have to sell my car and sort out my US Passport.

As it happens Sandspit beach resort was closed on the Sunday night. Since there was a car park near by I decided to take refuge there for the night. That night there was horrendous rain and I had to wear earplugs since the noise on my Van roof was too much to bear.

Whangerei

I spent a lot of time driving up the Coramandel. Unfortunately the weather wasn't on my side and since the season is low season, there activity centres are now closed. Up here in the summer there would have a lot of things to do and probably the main event would be surfing or sea kayaking. I would have loved to have tried the Kayaking.

Coromandel Coast

I drove up the Coromandel coast today and headed to Hot Spring Beach. This is a place where there are natural hots springs that permeate the sandy beach and get washed into the ocean. If you dig a hole in the sand you will have a hot water pool which you can sit in (or boil in). Apparently you add ocean water into it to cool it down.

Unfortunately due to a storm a couple of years ago the sand had been washed out to sea and as a result the hot water is diluted straight away so there's no way of collecting it in a sand pool as there isn't enough sand left. Shame. I'm sure another storm will put the sand back. The hot water is only accessible during low tide anyway.

On the Friday I met up with a French Couple who've I've met a couple of times at various locations (Monkey Island and on the ferry to Wellington). Anyway we decided to find somewhere to stay like a parking lot etc. Since it was Friday night we decided that staying in Thames wouldn't be a good idea since it would probably be busy with the Friday night crowd. We found a DOC campsite on the map and decided that that would be a lot quieter (OK, it was my call to go there!). The place was 14km outside of Thames and we made our way there. As it turns out, most of the road is a wash-board road and it was awful to drive on at night. We got to the campsite and it was deserted. Pretty scary. We actually pulled in at a trail head and the French couple had decided that we weren't going any further.

We pulled over and parked up. I commented that usually places are literally around the corner when you end up making decisions like this. Anyway I got my flashlight out and took a walk up the road. Low and behold 2 minutes walk away was the entrance to the campsite!! So of course we ended up staying in the campsite.

There were a few cars that sped by (which was weird since we were very remote). I looked at the map and it turns out that the road (even if it's a washboard road) is actually a shortcut across the Coramandel peninsula.

Hicks Bay

Today was a driving day. I headed North up to Hicks Bay. The sea was very rough and the weather was wind and rain. I spent most of the day reading and drinking coffee, watching the ocean.

On the next day I stayed in the Waihi beach resort. Waihi is a small little town with a massive open cast mine at the top of the hill. I didn't manage to go down the mine as the weather was the worst I've ever seen. Literally it felt like buckets of water were being poured on you! Apparently the locals were pretty shocked by the weather as well and haven't seen anything like it! It cleared up in about 20 minutes!! Amazing. The beach resort was pretty good and would have been packed in the summer months. A pool for the kids and great beaches. I wish the weather was better!

Mahia Peninsula

I made my way to Mahia and along the Mahia Peninsula today. The place had golden beaches and was a small sand spit which had a beautiful ocean view. There wasn't much to do and it looked like the place had closed down for the season. Lots of kids playing on the beach and a few fishermen bringing in their boat, but other than that there wasn't a lot to do. I took a trip to the northern side of the spit and it was pretty damn windy! It's amazing the difference one gets between the sheltered (leeward) side of the island and the windward side!

Later on I made my way quite far north on Hwy 35 and ended up in Tolaga Bay at a campsite. Tolaga Bay is where Captain Cook Landed on 23rd Oct 1769. The bay is incredibly beautiful and its pretty obvious why Captain Cook chose this as an anchorage. the beaches are gradual and there is shelter on both sides by high cliffs. during the night the stars were very visible and it made me wonder what Captain Cook and his astro-navigators would have seen. Maybe very similar constellations.

Lake Tutaria

On the Sunday I made my way across to Napier and stayed by Lake Tutaria. Nothing really much happened but the views were really spectacular.

Lake Tutaria

Tongariro

On Saturday I made my way up to Tongariro. This is where a lot of filming of Lord Of The Rings was done. Unfortunately, a few days ago there was a flash-flood and it took the lives of a Teacher (a young Lady) and 6 high school children (16 and 17 yo I believe). What a terrible thing to happen.

I made my way up to the base and was told about the weather conditions so I decided that after what had just happened I'm not going to take my chances with nature. It was raining and starting to get windy (which is when Flash-floods and avalanches happen).

Wellington

I spent a couple of days in Wellington. Wellington has to be my favourite city in NZ. It's cosmopolitan and has a character which is unique. It's a small town city! It has a very welcoming feel but also has a city feel. If I were to live somewhere here in NZ this would be my first choice. However the city seems to mainly host goverment jobs and thats not surprising since that's where the Houses of Paliament are.

Wellington from the harbour


The Houses Of Parliament

Boat to Wellington

I caught the ferry back to the North Island and met up with an Australian couple who I met earlier in my journey on the South Island. Rob and his Wife (sorry I can't recall your name) were really good companions and I would love to visit them in Perth, Australia as they have extended me an invitation. As it happens we met in Picton just before the ferry journey and ended up having a coffee together whilst waiting.

Leaving Picton into the Cook Straight


The Boat I traveled on

Picton

On the following morning, I went to Picton. This was my exit from the South island. I decided to make my way to the North Island as I'm pretty much done with seeing the sights.

I hooked up with another English guy (Justin) and we went out for dinner and a couple of beers.

Kaikoura

Kaikoura was a bit of a waste of time for me. I stayed u[p in the mountains on the entry to Kaikoura and it was just amazing. Unfiortunately the winds picked up so I made a decision to not be blown off the cliff face and make my way down to the coast!

When I got down to the coast, I found that the weather was better. Only that it got worse about a couple of hours later. There was a line-squall coming in from the ocean and it got amazingly windy and rainy. I put in my earplugs and hunkered down for the night. At least I'd be blown in-land and not off a cliff!

So now dolphins, penguin or whale watching for me. Shame really as everyone has commented on how amazing Kaikoura is. You can't always get what you want ...

Lake Bruener & Lewis Pass

For the last couple of nights I've been traveling to the east coast again. Arthur's pass took me onto the west coast and then I came back over Lewis pass after staying by lake Bruener. Lewis pass brings me further north onto the east coast.

On my way I stopped a night at Hanmer Springs which is a small town based on the natural hot springs. They are set up as a few (8?) Pools so that you can bathe in different temperatures. I must admit the hot pools were very welcome as my muscles were still very sore after the Mueller Hut trail!

After Hanmer I made my way to Kaikoura. I decided to stop in the mountains for the night but at around 11:00pm the winds really picked up and since I was looking over a ravine I didn't feel too comfortable staying there. The van was rocking from the strong winds coming up from the valley. Anyway I decided to make my way towards the coast and ended up staying on Kaikoura's south beach. There were a load of other camper vans there so I felt that the spot was good. Little beknownst to me that there was a line squall brewing out at sea and it was heading landwards! The storm came in about 1:00am and made a heck of a racket. I decided to put in the earplugs and ignore it (since I wouldn't be blown off a cliff, being near the coast line).
Yesterday I left Kaikoura as the weather was so bad that I was unable to do any whale watching. A real shame as Kaikoura is famous for these thing. Anyway I'm pretty much done with touring the south island as the weather is getting progressively worse as winter rolls on.

Today I'm in Picton and have a ferry booked for Wellington at mid-day. So later today I'll be on the North Island and hopefully the weather will be a bit warmer as I travel north!

Arthur's Pass

I took a detour today as I was going to head in to Christchurch. As it happened it had been snowing last night and I decided to head into the mountains. I was blessed with some amazing views whilst starting out on the East side.

The Snow capped mountains of the east side






Lake at top of Arthur's Pass


As I worked my way over there were some pretty hard roads to climb. There is one part of the pass where they have put a rock-slide bridge in place so that an avalanches don't hit the road and just fall down into the valley below

Mueller Hut

This has to be the highlight of my holiday so far. Emma, Steve and myself were discussing going to the Mueller hut on top of the mountain (Herbert?) Last night and decided that if the weather was good that we would go for a 1 day hike. The trail is a 3.5 hour trail but most people stay the night at the hut and then come down the next day. We decided to do the whole thing in a day!

Obviously I was excited in the morning. I was up at 6:30 am!! Unheard of until now! We took off at around 8:30am and took our time. Me being the less fit one was really setting the pace. Steve hung around with me and Emma blazed ahead like an experienced mountain goat! I must admit I was envious that she could go so quickly.

The trail started out fairly shallow and I thought that was going to be the kind of trail all the way. Bzzz!! Wrong!! It turned into a fairly steep climb (by steep I mean 60 degrees incline!). We were traversing up the steps and over rock faces. To be honest I couldn't believe I was doing this but Steve encouraged me and I felt quite comfortable.

One of my thoughts whilst doing this was a recollection of the lord of the rings. During 'The Two Towers' I believe, there was a scene where Gollum is leading Frodo and Sam up the Misty Mountain (on the steps). I basically felt that I was retracing their footsteps. Bloody steep and along way to fall!!

Above Clouds on the Mueller climb


Anyway after stopping at various points to take photos it was amazing. Everything below looked like toys (even my van!!). Actually the hotel below in the distance looked like a piece of Lego. At this point we were probably only 1/3 of the way up! We were still below the cloud line!!

A bit more climbing and we ascended into the clouds. Talk about a nice cooling! It was just what I needed as I had obviously sweated it out at the lower elevation. The view was sporadic as the clouds came and went. I recall seeing the mountains besides us and we were at the same altitude as their peaks!! Yep I was up there with the Gods!



After more climbing up things got a bit steeper and knarly. We ended up bouldering and then the final push was up a scree slope. Not the most encouraging of sights. Its also marked as an avalanche warning area!! Since the conditions were dry and we were in good form we pressed on to the summit. Obviously traversing the scree opposed to just going up the fall-line.

After making it to the top I shook Steve's hand and gave him some of my chocolate (he'd been good enough to share his raisins with me on the way up). We took a load of photos of various Glaciers and managed to get a good look at Mt Cook. Talk about a high mountain!! We were also blessed with conditions that allowed us to see all the glaciers on the back of the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers.

Looking out over the back side of Fox/Frans Josef Glacier


After the views we made our way to the Hut where there was a supply of fresh water and somewhere to rest. That was another trek! It took another 20 minutes and it was over a load of large boulders!! We got there and were rewarded with amazing views. We could see the Mueller glacier along with lots of waterfalls. The most amazing thing that mesmerized me and Steve was that there were snow avalanches happening almost every 30 mins or so. You'd here the avalanche and then try to work out where it was. We caught some pretty cool ones and a few that looked like waterfalls.

It's pretty hard to tell the scale of things at altitude and there's a phenomenon called 'dwarfism'. Basically anything you look at you make it smaller in your mind than it actually is. It's a perspective thing and your mind just can't cope with the scale of things. It actually looked like one of the glaciers was almost a step away whereas in reality it was probably over a kilometre away!

Looking over the Valley from the summit of the Mueller Climb (1850m)


Looking over the Valley from the summit of the Mueller Climb (1850m)- Yes they are cars on the valley floor!!

On the way down I started to feel the burn in my legs! Its actually tougher going down than up and my quads really took a beating along with my toes (time for some new boots - no expense spared!). Suffice to say I made it down safely (with a load of moans and groans). Steve was kind enough to lend me one of his walking poles when we started and it was a god send on the way down. Another lesson learned - get some walking poles!

View of Mount Cook from the Mueller Hut


I'm congratulating myself for managing to do a 1000 metre ascent (3300ft) and a 1000 metre descent in 10 hours. The summit was 1850m and the base was 800m. Something to be proud of!

View of Mount Cook on the Way down


We did the customary Milo drinks after a tepid shower in the village! After a few days without a shower anything was a good thing.

Of course we had a really windy night and I didn't sleep too well due to my van being jostled around!!

Tasman Glacier & Mt Cook

Mount Herbert (from Hooker Valley - Mt Cook base)


Today the weather was drizzly (or at least it was in the morning) so I just hung around and got talking to some people. I ended up meeting a great English couple (Emma & Steve) who had been traveling for about 5 months (IIRC). Anyway we were talking about what we could do and apparently the weather for the afternoon was going to ease up. We decided to take a walk to the Tasman Glacier which was about a 4 hour round-trip.

After taking a fairly leisurely walk we got to the top where we saw the glacier in all its splendour. The glacier was covered in gravel (moraine?) but we could see the face where ice chunks had fallen off. The lake into which the glacier was thawing had mini icebergs floating in it. Really neat to see first hand. Of course Steve and I had to play skimming with pebbles. It gave us something to do to warm ourselves up!!

Tasman Glacier


Later in the evening the clouds had lifted and Steve & Emma introduced me to Milo (a horlicks / chocolate drink which is very popular in NZ & Australia). It was very welcome after a walk and a cooling evening. We also got lucky and managed to see Mt Herbert since the clouds had lifted. It was a bit spooky because you could read a book by the moonlight. I guess that's due to all the snow and mountains reflecting the moonlight.

Twizel & beyond

Today I made my way inland to a place called Twizel (pronounced twyzel). This is a small town at the fork of a junction that either takes you to Christchurch or Mt Cook. I opted for Mount Cook! Once on the road, I made my way along lake Pukaki. I have to admit I was absolutely stunned by the colour of the lake. It's a deep turquoise which really shows when the sun is behind the clouds! Apparently there's a suspension in the water that makes it that colour and its due to the run-off from the Glaciers. After stopping to take some photos a familiar bus turned in to the same parking lot as me. It was a couple I met at monkey island a week or so ago and they recognised my car (how could you miss it!). They gave me some advice on where to camp and I took them up on it.

Lake Pukaki


I found Hooker Valley DOC campsite (Department Of Conservation) and parked up. I have to admit this is the best DOC campsite I've come across. It had a cooking area in a hut with running water and sinks. It also had flushing toilets and sinks in the restrooms. Luxury by comparison to some if the others I've seen!!

Dunedin & Aramoana

Today I spent the day driving up the Aromoana peninsula after driving through Dunedin. I mistakenly took a road as a scenic drive (the 86) and ended up driving along the coast. Actually it was quite scary as the road is about 2ft higher than the water line and the whole area seems to be a shipping area with a dredged channel. What's really scary is that you can see all the channel markers as you drive and in my case I could see a large Chinese container ship in the channels dwarfing me on the road.

After my accidental detour I went back through Dunedin. I must admit after being in the country so much I didn't much care for a large, old industrial city and made my way through it as fast as possible.

I made my way up the coast and stopped at shag point. I managed to se some seals but as far as the penguins were concerned there was shag all!!

Summer Hill & Cannibal Bay

Today I carried on north up the east coast. I stopped at a point called Summer Hill. What an amazing view. The beaches are golden the rolling hills a vibrant green and the sky a perfect blue! I got talking to a couple who were riding a Harley Road King (2 up). They were local folk from Invercargil and the friendliest people you could meet. Anyway after talking to Tony & Gladys they mentioned that they were having lunch at a good restaurant in Wangaloa and invited me to join them. I got there a bit after them (since they had a faster vehicle!) and ended up having lunch and a beer with them. As it happens the place was busy and they were under-staffed so Tony & Gladys were still waiting to be served when I arrived. Eventually I got my blue cod & chips! Wonderful, especially with a beer!!

Driving North Through the Catlins


After lunch I carried on and ended up at Cannibal Bay which is a remote beach. I drove about 8kms on a gravel road (I was feeling adventurous after my big lunch) and was rewarded by seeing a sea-lion coming out of the sea!! It looked like a young one and wasn't phased at all by me or the couple of kids playing near by. Actually it let us get quite close to it before getting defensive (when one of the kids hit a ball with their cricket bat!!).

Cannibal Beach - a Sea Lion


Later that night I looked for somewhere to stay and ended up staying in a Wetlands park. Needless to say I ended up in the middle of nowhere with only one other van. It was pretty scary to be honest. That night I got a taste of freezing conditions as a freezing fog had descended on the place. Not particularly pleasant but I managed to weather it out in my sub-zero sleeping bag!

Curio Bay & Slope Point

Sat 14-apr:

Today was spent driving to Slope Point which is the southern most point in the Southern Island of NZ. It's a pretty tough drive! I also ended up helping a German couple push their van back on to the gravel road. Apparently a bus had sped past and forced them off the road into a ditch. They were unable to get traction due to the verge being grassy and slippery. Anyway we managed to rock the car free!

After being at the most southern point I made my way north (duh!!). I ended up in Curio Bay which is a neat little peninsula. The campsite is like a corn maze with little alcoves for camper vans. It make it feel a bit more cozy and private. It also works as a great wind block. I'd advise anyone in this part of the country to stay here for those reasons.

Most Southern Point of the South Island


In Curio I managed to spot a yellow eyed penguin. They live in the bushes which are a good 25 metres away from the ocean. What's really cool is that I managed to see them at dusk (which is when you're most likely to see them). They're pretty hard to see since they blend into the rocks really well. Since I was at a long distance (they're protected) I couldn't get a good photo unfortunately.

Also I managed to spot a load of dolphins the following morning. They were swimming on the other side of the Peninsula. There must have been at least 20 of them and you just get a glimpse of their fins initially. I got my binoculars out and you can see them breaking through the water. Really cool to see them in the wild.

Later on I went down to the beach to see the petrified forest. You get to see wood preserved in rock including the wood grain and sometimes the stump of a tree. It must have been a really fast fossilization to keep them that well preserved. Maybe a volcanic eruption with a fast pyroclastic flow instantly turning the trees to charcoal? Any geologists out there care to answer this question?

Invercargil

I went to Invercargil where I managed to find a scrap yard. The owner (Bernie) was great and managed to help me with fixing my locks and door handle. He actually managed to fully fix one of my locks on the van whilst I worked on the door handle! I managed to fix the other locks myself. Needless to say this wasted the best part of the day. After getting things sorted out I then went to the local hardware store (E Hayes & Sons) to see the original (#35) Indian Motorcycle that still holds the land speed 1000cc motorcycle record. It was the bike that Burt Munroe achieved the record on. I'll post some photos soon, promise.

Later that night I checked into a caravan park so that I could clean up and kick back. I met some Australians who were a great laugh and we sank a couple of beers as the temperature dropped!! They told me that I have to watch the comedy "Kenny" so I guess that's on my list for when I get back!

Monkey island & Milford Sound

Over the last week I've done quite a bit of traveling. I went down from Te Anau to Milford and took my time touring. I have to admit this part of the world is just stunning (I'll upload piccies when I get to an internet cafe - I'm using my phone again!).

On the way down to Milford I stopped at The Divide. This is where the Route Burn trail starts. I decided to take a 3 hour tramp up to Key Summit. The hike up hill was tough but after about 1hr15 I made it the summit (I packed really light). The views were absolutely stunning. Basically there's a glacier and a valley below as well as there being an alpine pond at the summit! Really spectacular views from 950 metres(ish). I'll try and get some photos up as soon as I can!!

I went to Milford and took a boat trip out on the sound. Again the views were really spectacular (this 'is' the NZ I wanted to see). The boat took us out to the Tasman Sea and under some waterfalls (literally!). Again the weather was perfect and the views breathtaking! Actually it's just too much to take in as the scale of the fiords is too great to capture in one visit! Hmmm, maybe I'll have to return!! :-)

Yesterday I left Te Anau (I went back there after Milford) and made my way south. I'm now by Monkey Island which is not too far from Invercargill. I've spent a whole day here today since I'm sick of driving. Actually I was also feeling run down yesterday so I thought I should have some R&R from my R&R!!

Monkey Island


Monkey Island Beach


Monkey Island at Night



Tomorrow hopefully I'll get to Invercargill and see where Burt Munroe lived (the world's fastest Indian Motorcycle). I doubt there will be much there but since I'm here I might as well go.

Te Anau

To answer some of the questions I've had: Yes the holes in the rocks in Cape Farewell do look very similar to Arches National Park in Utah. The expanse of Cape Farewell is not as large though and the rocks are constantly being eroded by the sea so I'm sure it looks different from year to year.

I've made my way from Queenstown southwards. I left Queenstown yesterday after being there for a day. I stayed in a campsite and I honestly felt like it was a 'pack-them and rack-them' deal. Literally there was 2 feet between each camper van. Queenstown is basically the epi-centre of activities in the south. It's surrounded by Bungee jumps, paragliding, skydiving, luges (which I want to go on if the weather is good) and any other adrenaline type of activity you want. They also have coach tours to the Southlands such as Milford Sound and the Fiordlands. Since I'm driving there's no point in me using those trips!

After leaving Queenstown I was really surprised. I left on the SR-6 road and the scenery changed very dramatically. Queenstown is set up in a valley and it has very sharp peaked mountains surrounding it. A very beautiful location and it's obvious why it's popular with tourists. Anyway, as you start heading south you follow the lake out. On the outskirts there's a lot of volcanic outcrops/mountains - I don't know what the proper geological name is. Anyway they are very shear and have ridges down them. Similar to California but more pronounced. They merge onto the lakes and have trees growing in the ridges. I know Mum would love these views! Hopefully the pictures will do more justice than my description.

Today I'm in Te Anau which is the start of the Fiordlands. It's Sunday and I'm hanging out waiting for a trip to one of the Glow Worm caves. I've got a fair amount of time to kill so I'm going to read my book after finishing this blog entry and photo editing session. I plan on doing a Kayaking adventure on Tuesday Morning in the Milford Sound. Hopefully I'll be able to also do a boat trip into the sound itself (I'm not sure if the Kayaking goes the same route so I'll find out tomorrow or the next day.

I have to admit after leaving Queenstown, I now feel like this is the New Zealand that I wanted to see and expected to see. It's just very stunning scenery and it's really hard to describe and I'm sure my photos will not do justice. Hopefully when I get better access to the internet I'll be able to upload some of my videos.

I'm also trying to adjust to the Time here since we've just flicked over to Winter Savings Time (it's all topsy turvey down here!). I think the difference to the UK is now +11 hours. I don't know when Summer Time begins in the UK so that may confuse me as well!

Franz Josef Glacier


Me at Frans Josef Glacier


Fox Glacier


Looking back at Queenstown


A Fiord just South of Queenstown


Lake Te Anau with Te Anua on the peninsula


Looking over the lakes south of Queenstown


BTW all of these photos are available on my Flickr site with higher resolution sizes availble. Please obey the Creative-commons licensing by giving me credit for them.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16453589@N02/

Queenstown

So I've just arrived in Queenstown today. To be honest I'm a bit confused on what day of the week it is since I've been doing so much driving and stopping in random places!! I left Nelson and Motueka on Monday and then headed down to Westport. I stopped just outside at a DOC campsite which was an old railway siding. It was an old village that basically disappeared into obscurity and is now just an old railway bridge without the town. Apparently the railway failed to make it and the whole thing was shut down in 1950 something. Oh yeah, the sand flies are brutal!!

From Westport I went down through Greymouth and was going to stop there the night. When I got there I decided against it. Not the most pleasant of places. Not bad, just lacking character and charm. A bit of a null entity!! I'm glad I carried on since I found a great DOC campsite just outside Ross. The campsite was by a lake with a nice secluded grass area. As it happens there were about 5 camper vans on the whole site which was really nice. I got talking to the others and there were an Australian couple who were touring for 2 weeks and the other couple were Kiwi's who were sightseeing their own country! Good on them.

The following day I went and saw the Glaciers. Franz Josef first and then the Fox glacier. I'll try and get some photos up here at some point (I'm using my phone to upload and type at the mo' - this is the first time I've had cell coverage for a week!!).

The next day I went over the Haast pass which is very beautiful. Parts of it reminded me of the high desert in California with the yellow bracken that you can see in Scotland. The weather was definitely bleakly Scottish! Very beautiful though.

Last night I stayed in Wanaka. That's the home to Mt Aspiring NP. I passed lake Wanaka and lake Hawea. Both lakes are huge. Very humbling.

Today it was raining in Queenstown! I gave a backpacker a lift from Wanaka to here and at the start he broke the handle off my sliding door!! Damn! ...My mobile home is a wreck!! I'm going to have to take a day out soon to try and go to the scrap yard to get some replacement parts!! All good fun!

Takaka

This weekend has been a bit of exploring around Motueka area. I went from Motueka into the mountains to a little place called Takaka. I mean little. The high street is part of the Route 60 road. Anyway it was nice to stop somewhere. I ended up there on Saturday and of course there was an amazing rainstorm passing through. Let it be said that I got very wet!! I ended up talking to a British Guy (Ed) who had been traveling for the last 11 months and was on his last leg before returning home. We found solace in a Cafe drinking coffee in the warm. - Until 4:00pm when everything decided to shut because the weather was so bad! After that I drove out of town and found a lay-by to park up for the night. I ended up meeting another couple who I'd met earlier in the day and we got talking. She had been traveling for 6 years and he had been traveling for 2 years. Italian and Israeli. Interestingly enough she has been through the 'Passport being stolen' deal, which made me feel a bit better.

I set up a tarp. from my Van to the Trees so that they could do some cooking and have a little bit of shelter to do it in. We were wading in mud pools though. Anyway since they had a car they really appreciated it. We decided to pool food and make a feast for everyone. We had leek pasta (my addition), peas and onions, and a boiled Egg each (their addition) and then sat inside my van where it was dry. The tarp kept collecting water and it was a case of pushing the water off the tarp. so that it didn't collapse! All good fun.

On Sunday (yesterday) I went to The Farewell Spit and Cape Farewell. A Very pretty area. At least it had stopped raining and the visibility was more than a foot!

Last night I stayed outside PuPu springs which is the largest natural Spring in the Southern Hemisphere. Apparently it has the purest water in the world seconded by Antartica. Pretty cool! I met a Dutch Couple and we ended up talking until the late hours (10:00pm!). It's a hard life!! ;-)

Today I've been to the post office in Motueka and I've received my Passport replacement! Yipee!! What a relief.

By the ocean (near Totaranui) with a $million view by day!


Here's the view of Tortaranui on a windy day


Cape Farewell


PuPu Spring

Abel Tasman National Park

So after all the Disaster stuff I decided to continue on my way. I'm not going to let a minor hiccup get me down! I had booked a 3 day trip (Tramping/Hiking/Treking) into the Abel Tasman National Park and really wanted to do it, so I did! I started out at the base area (sorry I'm really crap at remembering Maui names) and made my way to the first hut in Anchorage Bay. It was a pretty hard hike and took me about 4 hours (with 50lbs/25kg of backpack). I took a heavy pack since I didn't want to loose any more stuff! Anyway after about 3 hours I made it and got in before night fall. The Huts are really basic but a lot better than a tent!

The huts are basically a dorm with a massive bunk bed. The bunk has 5 mattresses side by side on each level and then you bagsy the one you want. I got a corner one on the top bunk which was fine. I then went to the beach and went for a swim in the ocean. Pretty cold but refreshing after a sweaty day of tramping!

On my second day I tramped up to Awarai (sp?) and it was a really tough hike. I crossed the bay at low tide (20 minutes of walking in mud and cockle shells). That was pretty frightening because if the tide starts coming in you can get trapped. I got up early so that I could make it before the tide started flooding back in. Of course I went to the wrong marker initially (the high tide marker) and had to back-track to the low-tide marker. I wish I had my GPS!!! The hike from then on got really grueling as there was a rapid ascent to 600ft. I was told this was a flat coastal track too! Not so! Pretty tough but I managed to persevere in true outward bound style!! The views were really worth it though since there were beautiful beaches and rock formations to be seen from the trail. What you don't get told is that you will be walking on those beaches and that means you have to tramp down onto the beaches and then back up onto the trail again. Quite often you use the beach as a connection to the next part of the trail. Well worth it though.

Later in the second day I had to wait for the low-tide crossing at 17:00. Since I got to the beach before the crossing at about 12:00 I decided to take some well earned R&R. I did the obligatory sunbathing and swimming!! Really nice weather as well. Talking about miscellaneous stuff, did I mention the sand-flies ? Hmmm. Persistent biting small little bastards is the best way of describing them. Actually it's funny. If you hang around people who speak English, all you hear is "Little Bastard, SLAP!". You end up squashing them and have some of your blood squashed over you legs. And boy do they itch like crazy. I'm actually trying some oral tablets with antihistamine in today since the creams don't seem to be very effective. We'll see. Maybe paradise comes at a cost!!

Other news: So I've had an email from someone that they've found my small backpack. Hopefully the thieves threw a load of stuff in there or got spooked and ditched it. Anyway I'm waiting for an email back so that I can arrange a pick-up or meeting with the finder. Fortunately I left some business cards in there so obviously the finder emailed the email address on the cards.

Today has been a bit rainy so I decided to get my chores done. Laundry was really needed! I also had a shower at the local Cinema in Motueka!! OK so I was given a tip by some fellow backpackers that the local cinema is also a sports hall and they allow you to have a shower for $2. After 3 days on the trails I really did appreciate a bit of civilization. Now I don't smell so much!

Tonight I plan to go to Takaka which is about an hour North of Motueka. It's a small town in the mountains and apparently quite a fun little place. Should be a laugh to have a couple of beers and to just hang out.


Abel Tasman Trail:





Me:


Motueka (tide swimming pool- on the beach - the tide comes in and fills the pool with water and little fishies!)

Day after disaster..

So I had a really good night's kip last night in my Scooby Doo Van! I parked by the ocean in a really quiet spot and the moon was rising over the sounds. Really amazing. I sat there for about half an hour after finishing my home cooked pasta dinner and just watched the stars. Seeing the Southern Cross is pretty cool. Also hearing the waves in the distance without any man made sounds is really fun. It's so tranquil.

After talking to another British couple who were staying in their van too, I felt a lot better about my situation. They told me about all the other crap that they've heard about from others and the same thing has happened to quite a few people apparently. And guess what, in the exact place where I was. I wish they had a sign there!!

Anyway I've decided to continue on. I also called the British Embassy earlier and they were really great. Basically I can get a new passport sorted out and that'll allow me to continue on my travels. The US passport is a little trickier but hopefully that shouldn't be too much of a problem. I will be calling them tomorrow since it's a public holiday (Easter Monday) here in NZ so I can't really do anything at the moment.

DISASTER!

So this isn't a good day for me. Last night I got back to my car after a beer to find that it had been ransacked! My passports and gadgets have been stolen. Gadgets are replaceable but the passport is a bigger issue. I've contacted the UK embassy but I can't get hold of the US embassy until Tuesday due to it being Easter holiday on Monday.

Anyway, I'm taking stock of things. Have cancelled all credit cards and my cell phone. What a pain in the arse! Livid doesn't describe how I feel. I'm currently thinking of cancelling this trip and buying a ticket back to the states once my passport has been re-issued. Now it's time for paperwork.

What's annoying is that I've planned the next few days to do a hike of Abel Tassman NP. Fortunately I still have my backpack and a lot of my hiking gear.

... Will update later ...

Nelson - South Island

So I'm just finding my way around at the mo'. I'm in a place called Nelson and it's good Friday (so everything's shut!). I made a b-line down to the south island and it's been quite hard work. Basically I've been driving for a long time with the occasional stops. The scenery is spectacular! I arrived in Picton yesterday after catching the ferry from Wellington. We came into the Marlborough sound which is amazing. I can't find words to describe it but it's basically a lot of green hills with lots of waterways (similar to Norway from what I've heard). Basically the land is like a load of branches from the mainland and you can find yourself in nooks and crannies all to yourself. I've only driven over the sounds at the moment since I wanted to get to Able Tassman NP to chill out and plan my next few days.

Time seems to be going really quickly. I can't believe I've been here a week already and I haven't even done anything yet!!

I've met up with quite a few people but being transitory means that you don't make friends for long. A bit of a bummer since I'd like to hang out with someone and do some sight seeing. The place seems to cater for couples or traveling companions more than it does for single people. Hopefully I'll hook up with some people when I do some of the activities.

So how do I describe this place ? Firstly it's bloody expensive. $40US for a T-Shirt. Jeans are $55 US for a no name brand of crappy Chinese made jeans (which is what I'm wearing). The flares are a bit long so I'm ankle dragging them!! What a bozo! :-) The place also seems to be set up for tourism mainly. Everything is a tourist attraction!! Maybe so but I'm going to have to pick an choose since they all cost! Typically $100NZ for most activities. What I've got on my mind at the moment is to do some Kayaking and tramping in Abel Tassman NP for the next week. I'm guessing Nelson is going to be my base for a time (it's the nearest town). I also need to get a tent since I didn't bring mine. Big mistake. Tents are really expensive - My buddy told me they were cheap. Hmmm. Anyway since it's low season I'm going to try and get a second hand one and do the repairs if it needs it (I have my tent repair stuff with me so I might get a good deal).

The route I've taken so far is from Roturua down to the outskirts of Wellington (3/19/08). I stayed in a trailer/camping park - really it was a trailer park but they had a space for 1or maybe 2 tents (so I parked there). I met up with a few of the locals and they offered me a beer! I must admit the Kiwis are the most friendly people I've met. They all like to have a joke and not take things too seriously. Very refreshing. It's a cultural thing as well. I went into a dive shop outside Rototua to fill up my LPG gas cylinder for the gas stove and I asked the guy if he could fill it up. He said, "what with, we can put water, or anything you like in it!". Anyway, I had a few jokes back so we all had a good laugh. I commented about the petrol stations not wanting to fill up this small bottle and he said that they just can't be arsed to fit the correct adapters!

After Roturua I went on an little scenic tour down to see some bubbling pits and geysers. It was a fairly long walk down hill where the bus brings you back up. It was hotter than hell walking down as well. The trail wound around the hot pools and bubbling springs. It was pretty spectacular. I put my hand in the water (or finger) and it was too hot to keep in there. It must have been about 40C. The smell was incredible as well. I'm guessing I was inhaling sulphuric acid steam. Great. I could definitely feel it on my chest! When I first arrived I knew there was high sulphur content as I was starting to wheeze!

From the springs I went exploring to find somewhere quiet. I actually stayed by a small lake in a park where there was a fishing competition going on. I assumed that they were all staying but at around 7:00pm they all packed up and left. There were 3 of us left and it was really quiet. One of the guys was a relief teacher and he stays in his RV the night before he has to go to teach the next day. He claims all the expenses back! Smart man! The other guys were retired and were there just to hang out with the other fishermen. Really peaceful place. I've been sleeping very well. It's a bit weird since I sleep form about 9:30pm to 7:00am the next day. Must be the driving and the adjustment of lifestyle!

Last night (3/20/08) I stayed in a small town in a campsite and met up with a Dutch couple who are at the end of their holidays. We went out to dinner and tried the green lipped muscles which are cultivated in the bay. We were all uncertain if we would like them so instead of all of us taking a risk we decided to get the sampler plate between us. Good idea! They were OK but not something I would like to eat very often. "Fishy & chewy" is the best description! We all had about 4 each and that was enough. Anyway as compensation we all decided on the Chocolate Mud Pie for desert. Now that was worth it! :-)

Going to roam around later. Might even come back to this internet cafe and upload a few photos.

OK so I'm back. Wow is it painful to upload photos and blog them. Anyway here you go..

The Hippie van!! Hey that's my home man! Don't criticize it!




Entering the Marlborough Sounds and heading into Picton (after a 3 hour crossing on the ferry)

New Zealand - day 3

Such a lot has happened since I arrived. I've basically met a load of people (some real weirdos!) and other guys who are just traveling or bumming around. Definitely a myriad of people from all walks of life.

I've bought a car/camper van which is an old hippie charabanc! It's got yellow flowers on the side and a Kiwi bird! Quite strange indeed. I slept in it for the first time last night and it was really comfortable. I parked by the lake last night in a regular parking spot (=$0 parking and nightly fees). Got talking to a load of other guys.

One thing I've noticed is that NZ is very expensive. I wanted to get a tent but they cost in the region of $900NZ compared to the US $180. So I'm staying clear of them for now. Shame really as I want to go up into the mountains. Hopefully I'll find something cheaper in Christ Church. I really don't want to blow my budget too quickly and having a Van to sleep in will help on that.

I'm in Rotorua today which is a highly volcanic area. I've had to fix a few electrical things on the car and now I'm ready to get going! I'm going to head out to some hot springs and hopefully see some geysers. The smell is incredible!! I then plan to head out to the coast for a couple of days. Going to look for a good book to read!.

Rotorua is a very touristy town and it's set up like a typical tourist trap. Still it is very unique.

Scenery is amazing. It's like California, Wales and Hawaii all rolled into one! There's very stark changes and you turn the corner and it's like being in a different world.

I plan on going to the East coast today after the thermal springs and then I have the ferry crossing on Thursday to the South Island. My first point of interest is Able Tasman NP. I've heard so many things about it that I really want to go there.


The hot springs near Rotorua (Damn I haven't got my Lonely Planet guide to remind me of the place)!!



The view of the lake at Rotorua (near the parking lot I slept in):

Landed!

So I've just landed and thought I'd make a quick entry from the internet terminal at Auckland Airport.I'm going to get a coffee with another backpacker and then work my way to the Backpacker/Hostel. Since I've got to wait until 10:00am (it's now 5:45am) I've got a bit of time to kill and hopefully the jet-lag won't affect me too much. I'm hoping to catch up on some of my reading!!

Auckland - the Harbour:

Cell phone test - blogging from my Blackberry

This is a test to see if I can enter a blog from my Blackberry 8830 cell phone. Albeit fairly hard work on this little keypad it seems to work!! I'm using OPERA as the mobile web browser in the 'compact view mode'.

Got to admit, I'm pretty impressed that the technology works this well. It looks like this full browser allows me to continue with my text blogging at least. I don't think I'll be doing photo uploads though!

Street View - Google's Orwellian Society

I was looking at Street View after seeing an online advert the other day and thought about the issues this is going to cause. There have been many complaints in the UK about privacy due to all the Street Cameras watching people. Now it looks like this is happening in California and the USA.

Apparently in California it is illegal to publicly record someone and broadcast it without their consent (I would like reference to this). I know it is illegal to record someone's voice over the telephone without their permission.

Anyway Big Brother Google is watching....

Map editing

Man oh Man, today has been spent setting up the little Google map thingy. Pretty painful and has taken me most of the day. I'm using a Java Script which was obtained from http://n01se.net/gmapez/. Unfortunately it doesn't work very well with the Blogosphere since it expects all the keys to be passed down as parameters. As a result I've had to edit the Java Script and save it with a specific key for this site.

Since I've got it working though it's a really nice tool. I just update a list of GPS co-ordinates in my blog and you'll be able to see where I am (or was!).

Anyway thanks to the guy who wrote this script in the first place. Please visit him here. I'll make my stuff available to him so that everyone else can use his great mapping tool. Also thanks to Google for having such an awesome map tool. Really Cool.

1 week Prior to my flight

Holy crap my day has been busy. This is the first time I’ve looked at the computer since this morning! ..And I was up at 5:30am emptying cupboards of food and the like. I then wrote a few reviews online whilst I sipped my coffee – hey!, I played with a couple of gadgets the last few days so I had to write it all down so that someone else gets the benefit of my wasted time!! I then went down the post office to see why my mail service is all f^&*ked up. Basically I have done my forwarding but no mail arrived at my home address or my new mailbox! Anyway apparently they’ve only just put it in the system which is odd since I mailed off the forms about 3 weeks ago to make sure they had adequate time to sort this shit out! Oh well. A personal visit and it’s all done! Got my camera lens hood thingy which I had expedited and had never arrived, so I’m happy. I then took stuff back to Comcast, went down to my storage place and got rid of some more stuff. I then had to meet a friend who was tapping me for info. It was mutual so that’s cool. After that I went down to my storage unit and dumped some more stuff off. Oh yeah, I also cleaned my Sofa somewhere in between all this (so that it looks reasonable for it’s new owner!). I went back to REI and took some shoes/sandals back and exchanged them for some other cool things (which isn’t what I wanted to do but there you go!). Anyway, I don’t have to deal with an extra pair of sandals now! I have just managed to sort out everything in my backpack and I’m surprised!! .. I managed to remove a few items that I thought I could do with out and then by being very methodical and putting like things together in stuff sacks I managed to get the volume right down The weight seems a bit lighter too so I’m chuffed about that! I’ve been very disciplined with everything that I’m taking, down to the toothbrush and toothpaste. It’s all about weight and volume! So I’m now absolutely knackered, to coin an English phrase. Can you say plagiarism ?

It's been a bit overwhelming now that the realization has set in that everything's becoming final. I'm sure I 'll be relieved once my travels are under way. I have also sorted out my first 3 days in NZ so I'll have some peace and quiet to organize the rest of my trip. I still haven't got around to working out my route and the places I want to see. Hopefully when I talk to Danny on Friday we can sit down and work out a few things. I intend spending tomorrow going through the book looking at the map and seeing what's around. I want to get to the south island as soon as possible since the weather will be closing in soon as we are entering the fall in NZ. Also the south Island is nearer the south pole so it will be colder as it has a higher latitude (Southern). I really want to get up to some of the trails and fiords. There's also a few hidden beaches that I want to see. I guess I'll have to sort out a tent before hand also since there is nothing else to sleep in (maybe some of the trails will have cabins).