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!!