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).