We did the drive up to Tongariro National Park in two days, since we left Welly only in late afternoon. The easiest stop would've been Palmerston North, but we thought that Wanganui had a nicer sound to it so headed that way. Quite a detour, but on a road trip you just go where you want to go, right?
Glad to have chosen Wanganui. The city had a pretty nice atmosphere to it and the backpacker where we stayed (Tamara Lodge) was simply perfect, a grand Victorian house with large rooms, a cosy kitchen, friendly staff and a cute back garden. Shame we couldn't stay any longer!
After Alex' morning run and my sleep-in, we hit the road again for Turangi, where we wanted to prepare everything for the Tongariro Northern Circuit (a three-day-track which would pas around two active volcanoes) - only to hear that the weather would be terrible and we were not at all advised to go there. Yours truly got really disappointed but had to settle for the one-day Alpine Crossing, which is only a part of the Circuit. Unfortunately, even for this trip the weather was too bad and we had to cut it short when we were about halfway - too much wind, snow and fog which tampered with visibility (I almost lead the two of us in a ditch after about five minutes...)
So, Tongariro wasn't a big fan of ours so we headed off again. The backpacker owner in Turangi gave us a little tip to go to Gisborne through the Whirinaki Forest Park and do a few walks there. Of course we did that. The Forest Park turned out to be a very remote, quiet place, with only a few (predominantly Maori) settlements. The walk was nice, but not really breathtaking. What wàs though, was the trip continuing out of the park, which lead us into Te Urewera National Park. Had we known this before, we wouldn't have bothered with the Forest Park and we would've done some walking around here. A very beautiful place ...
After this came the city of Gisborne. Because we didn't do the Northern Circuit, we got here a bit early for our meeting with Penny, an Australian girl. We wanted to meet her on the Gisborne Food and Wine Festival, but this appeared to be sold out - which, according to Alex, was a real shame since 'the line up was so awesome dude, New Zealand's best bands in one day!'. So we hung around here for a few days - the city has a nice vibe - but apart from a beach and the odd walk here and there, there wasn't much to do for us, so we didn't wait for Penny and headed off to Rotorua.
What they say in the guidebook - that you can smell Rotorua before you see it - is really true. The whiff of rotten eggs is a nice hello from the city. We wanted to stay here for the night in order to see some boiling mud pools the day after, but hey, what do you know! There were about three activities going on in the weekend, so the city was literally fully booked. We tried about fifty places and everywhere we got the same answer - 'Sorry, we're tjokkers for the weekend.' (nono, literally). So we had no choice but to leave the stinky mud pools behind, unseen, and continue to Tauranga, an hour north in the Bay of Plenty, where we were booked in a perfectly decadent hotel called Sebel Trinity Wharf (down with Novotel, long live Sebel!).
Due to another unlucky shot we had a bit of a car crash in Tauranga on the way to Mount Maunganui, so we're stuck here for at least a few days. Luckily, Tauranga is another city with a lovely vibe so there are worse places to get stuck. But still. Ii
Depending on how fast the great white truck gets fixed, I may or may not extend my stay here. It may come as no surprise that time has flown here and that, although I am really looking forward to Australia, I don't have the feeling that I'm done here yet. So hold on to some wood, get those fingers crossed and hope with me that the damage to the truck isn't so substantial that there's no choice for me but to leave.
All car crashes aside, Tauranga is a nice place and the weather has finally turned gentle on us: perfect blue skies, bright sun and perfect 22 degrees. Let the sunshine in!
PS: photos of the north island can be found in a new album on Facebook.
27 - 10 - 10
Just a small note to this entry: as it turned out, the truck was too heavily damaged and our plan to keep on going north and after that back to the South Island to Arthur's Pass couldn't go on. This means that yours truly had to take the Intercity Bus today from Tauranga to Auckland in order to catch the plane tomorrow to Sydney. A very abrupt end to another perfect two weeks here in New Zealand ... But I'm sure that Australia will treat me well.
So here we go once again, saying goodbyes, parting ways ... Thanks Alex for the perfect two weeks and catch you later dude. Chea ;-).
Monday 25 October 2010
Monday 18 October 2010
The Abel Tasman National Park, crossing over to the other side and the parting of the ways
In the north of the south island, there was one thing that we couldn't pass without visiting, which was - of course, duhuh - the Abel Tasman National Park. This park consists of tons of beautiful white-sanded beaches, lush foresty walks and comfortable DOC huts.
There are a few ways to get by in the park. You could walk, take a water taxi, go seakayaking,
or combine some of the methods. What a great adventure! Inge and me chose to do only a 2-day trip here, seeing as we would get a bit in trouble time wise to get to Picton (in order to catch the ferry to Wellington). First day we'd go sea-kayaking to Anchorage - unguided of course, adventurers that we are :-). Next day we'd do a one day hike to Onetahuti, where we'd be picked up by the water taxi to bring us back to the starting point.
So first day, there we are, getting the safety briefing and learning that we're the only ones heading out for a trip through the 'mad mile'. But ok, we're Belgians, we can handle it, we've been rafting for heaven's sake. We start the trip, fully confident, and notice immediately when stepping into the water that it's swarming with jellyfish. 'Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, they sting', Joel (the kayak instructor) said. 'Have a good trip!' We swallow
deeply and get in the boat. It's ok, we can still handle it ... Just keep your hands out of the water. While you paddle. No biggy.
'There won't be so much wind today, don't worry', Joel said as well. But when we're about 20 metres offshore, the winds starts blowing. The boat starts rocking. Waves go higher. Jellyfish wobble by. Hmmm. Getting some doubts now. But, if in doubt, 'paddle harder', Joel said, 'and don't worry, your sprayskirt will keep you dry!' Ha-ha-ha, I say to that. About 15 minutes after take-off, we were both soaked, freezing (because of the wind) and trying not to topple over. So when we got to Watering Cove (one of the amazing small, gold beaches), we pulled the kayak ashore and decided after 5 minutes and a talk with another kayak instructor, not to enter the mad mile anymore. Which appeared to be a good decision because instead of calming down, the wind grew stronger in the afternoon.
So we continued to walk to Anchorage and after half an hour we got there. The beach is so sheltered that there was hardly any wind, and the sun was really burning, so we had our first real 'holiday-do-nothing' experience, yay! The next day, we continued the walk to Onetahuti, for which we had to get up early enough to catch the low tide (isn't it cool to do walks in which you have to account things like low tides and stuff? :-)) and which was beautiful. Another extremely sunny day, even a small tan on the legs - because yes, finally time to get the shorts out! After the walk we just had to wait at Onetahuti beach for the water taxi to pick us up. Easy peasy, trip was over we had survived our first overnight experience into the wild - and we liked it!
The next days we only had to drive (with a few stops in between of course) to get to Picton, where we booked the ferry to Wellington for Thursday. Although we didn't see any dolphins from the observation deck - the weather had once again turned crap and it wasn't nice out - we did have cows on board... In a cattle truck of course.
In Wellington (Welly, for the friends) we got greeted by heavy rain showers and dark clouds, olé. So we booked our last camping and stayed inside all night, reading and packing our bags.
On Friday we had to say goodbye to Tony ... Which was a pretty sad business since we had driven him around over 4693 km, oh yeah. That kind of counts for friendship, I think!
The next days we explored the city a little bit. It's quite a nice city, i can imagine, when the sun would be out. But the sun wasn't out and there was only wind and often rain. So we tried to keep indoors every once and a while, like when visiting Te Papa, New Zealand's impressive national museum (we saw the only colossal squid on display in the world here, and trust me, it's colossal!) On Saturday night we were joined by Alex, the before mentioned travel partner for the North Island, who took us to some nice cocktail place, called Motel.
Sunday was another parting day ... Inge stayed in Welly in search of a job, whereas Alex and me would head off to Taupo for the Tongariro National Park. Another sad business, other ways parting ... But we both took a good big swallow and each headed our own way.
I'm sure Inge will do fine in her job hunt and on her further trip and hey, we still meet again in the land of Oz! Here's to Inge and a magnificent, wonderful five weeks together. Cheers!
There are a few ways to get by in the park. You could walk, take a water taxi, go seakayaking,
or combine some of the methods. What a great adventure! Inge and me chose to do only a 2-day trip here, seeing as we would get a bit in trouble time wise to get to Picton (in order to catch the ferry to Wellington). First day we'd go sea-kayaking to Anchorage - unguided of course, adventurers that we are :-). Next day we'd do a one day hike to Onetahuti, where we'd be picked up by the water taxi to bring us back to the starting point.
So first day, there we are, getting the safety briefing and learning that we're the only ones heading out for a trip through the 'mad mile'. But ok, we're Belgians, we can handle it, we've been rafting for heaven's sake. We start the trip, fully confident, and notice immediately when stepping into the water that it's swarming with jellyfish. 'Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, they sting', Joel (the kayak instructor) said. 'Have a good trip!' We swallow
deeply and get in the boat. It's ok, we can still handle it ... Just keep your hands out of the water. While you paddle. No biggy.
'There won't be so much wind today, don't worry', Joel said as well. But when we're about 20 metres offshore, the winds starts blowing. The boat starts rocking. Waves go higher. Jellyfish wobble by. Hmmm. Getting some doubts now. But, if in doubt, 'paddle harder', Joel said, 'and don't worry, your sprayskirt will keep you dry!' Ha-ha-ha, I say to that. About 15 minutes after take-off, we were both soaked, freezing (because of the wind) and trying not to topple over. So when we got to Watering Cove (one of the amazing small, gold beaches), we pulled the kayak ashore and decided after 5 minutes and a talk with another kayak instructor, not to enter the mad mile anymore. Which appeared to be a good decision because instead of calming down, the wind grew stronger in the afternoon.
So we continued to walk to Anchorage and after half an hour we got there. The beach is so sheltered that there was hardly any wind, and the sun was really burning, so we had our first real 'holiday-do-nothing' experience, yay! The next day, we continued the walk to Onetahuti, for which we had to get up early enough to catch the low tide (isn't it cool to do walks in which you have to account things like low tides and stuff? :-)) and which was beautiful. Another extremely sunny day, even a small tan on the legs - because yes, finally time to get the shorts out! After the walk we just had to wait at Onetahuti beach for the water taxi to pick us up. Easy peasy, trip was over we had survived our first overnight experience into the wild - and we liked it!
The next days we only had to drive (with a few stops in between of course) to get to Picton, where we booked the ferry to Wellington for Thursday. Although we didn't see any dolphins from the observation deck - the weather had once again turned crap and it wasn't nice out - we did have cows on board... In a cattle truck of course.
In Wellington (Welly, for the friends) we got greeted by heavy rain showers and dark clouds, olé. So we booked our last camping and stayed inside all night, reading and packing our bags.
On Friday we had to say goodbye to Tony ... Which was a pretty sad business since we had driven him around over 4693 km, oh yeah. That kind of counts for friendship, I think!
The next days we explored the city a little bit. It's quite a nice city, i can imagine, when the sun would be out. But the sun wasn't out and there was only wind and often rain. So we tried to keep indoors every once and a while, like when visiting Te Papa, New Zealand's impressive national museum (we saw the only colossal squid on display in the world here, and trust me, it's colossal!) On Saturday night we were joined by Alex, the before mentioned travel partner for the North Island, who took us to some nice cocktail place, called Motel.
Sunday was another parting day ... Inge stayed in Welly in search of a job, whereas Alex and me would head off to Taupo for the Tongariro National Park. Another sad business, other ways parting ... But we both took a good big swallow and each headed our own way.
I'm sure Inge will do fine in her job hunt and on her further trip and hey, we still meet again in the land of Oz! Here's to Inge and a magnificent, wonderful five weeks together. Cheers!
Saturday 9 October 2010
Ice castles, pancake rocks and big, ugly whales
So, the West Coast. Although we mostly drove along it, there's no going around its beauty.
For starters, the weather here was ten times netter than we'd seen before. It was even possible to walk around without a jacket :-).
The second good point here were the glaciers. Now this is something different as to what you can see in, say, Switzerland. The Fox and Franz Josef glaciers exist of huge rocks of deep blue ice, sitting together wave after wave, retreating and advancing over many years. Because of several natural phenomena, the whole glacier exists of caves, tunnels and crevasses. This is what we came to explore.
We took a guided tour with Franz Josef Glacier Guides, where our guide Matt taught us some little tips and tricks so as to not stumble over our feet every five minutes. The trip took us over a large plain of glacier rockfall to the iceline, where we had to put on our crampons; a strangely different way of walking. After that the road was carved almost where we stood; every time when there would be trouble to walk, Matt started to carve steps and tracks into the ice. We went through a few of these tunnels and such, which was amazing!
The whole beautiful, impressive trip took us about 6 to 7 hours, and afterwards we were overwhelmed with a severe tiredness. Most of it went away after a good meal and a long session in our (free) camping hot pool though :-).
After the Franz Josef glacier, the road continued winding along the beautiful West Coast until we arrived at the Pancake Rocks in Punakaiki; strange limestone formations, quite worth the trip up there.
On we went towards the hot springs, which could be found more inland. Instead of going to the popular Hanmer Springs, we made a stop in the quieter, smaller Maruia Springs. Glad to have done this: there were only a few other people so we had the stinking, sulphurous baths almost to ourselves (they may stink but apparently they're good for you) as well as the traditional Japanese bath house. Yay for that! We even spared time (and money) for a personal body massage; gone were all the stress signs which we had attracted since the glacier walk :-).
The Maruia Springs were followed by a stop in Kaikoura; yes, for the attentive ones amongst you, back on the East Coast, where the scenery resembled that of the beginning of our trip a lot. Kaikoura is famous for it's whale watching tours; after all our marine wildlife excursions, we couldn't of course not do this one. The trip was quite a lot of money, but at least we got to see a big, black, ugly Great Sperm Whale - wahooo! Check for the whale.
From Kaikoura we went into Blenheim (nothing special, as most cities in NZ) where we stocked up and afterwards we went to the whine region, where we tasted a few and ventured to buy a bottle. This was after a hectic morning on the doc camping: us with our silly monads went camping in an extremely remote doc camping in the middle of the pouring rain ... And of course, the day after we got stuck in the mud and had to start looking for someone (in the wilderness) to pull us out, hehehehe *blush blush*. So we'd quite deserved that wine, thanks Sue and Jim for helping us! (we went to the winery where Sue had worked before).
Now we have arrived in Nelson, which brings me to the last part of my travels with Inge: after doing the Abel Tasman Coastal Track for 2 days, we need to bring Tony to Wellington where we split up. An era ending, another begins ...
For those of you who haven't seen them yet: new photos can be found on Facebook.
For starters, the weather here was ten times netter than we'd seen before. It was even possible to walk around without a jacket :-).
The second good point here were the glaciers. Now this is something different as to what you can see in, say, Switzerland. The Fox and Franz Josef glaciers exist of huge rocks of deep blue ice, sitting together wave after wave, retreating and advancing over many years. Because of several natural phenomena, the whole glacier exists of caves, tunnels and crevasses. This is what we came to explore.
We took a guided tour with Franz Josef Glacier Guides, where our guide Matt taught us some little tips and tricks so as to not stumble over our feet every five minutes. The trip took us over a large plain of glacier rockfall to the iceline, where we had to put on our crampons; a strangely different way of walking. After that the road was carved almost where we stood; every time when there would be trouble to walk, Matt started to carve steps and tracks into the ice. We went through a few of these tunnels and such, which was amazing!
The whole beautiful, impressive trip took us about 6 to 7 hours, and afterwards we were overwhelmed with a severe tiredness. Most of it went away after a good meal and a long session in our (free) camping hot pool though :-).
After the Franz Josef glacier, the road continued winding along the beautiful West Coast until we arrived at the Pancake Rocks in Punakaiki; strange limestone formations, quite worth the trip up there.
On we went towards the hot springs, which could be found more inland. Instead of going to the popular Hanmer Springs, we made a stop in the quieter, smaller Maruia Springs. Glad to have done this: there were only a few other people so we had the stinking, sulphurous baths almost to ourselves (they may stink but apparently they're good for you) as well as the traditional Japanese bath house. Yay for that! We even spared time (and money) for a personal body massage; gone were all the stress signs which we had attracted since the glacier walk :-).
The Maruia Springs were followed by a stop in Kaikoura; yes, for the attentive ones amongst you, back on the East Coast, where the scenery resembled that of the beginning of our trip a lot. Kaikoura is famous for it's whale watching tours; after all our marine wildlife excursions, we couldn't of course not do this one. The trip was quite a lot of money, but at least we got to see a big, black, ugly Great Sperm Whale - wahooo! Check for the whale.
From Kaikoura we went into Blenheim (nothing special, as most cities in NZ) where we stocked up and afterwards we went to the whine region, where we tasted a few and ventured to buy a bottle. This was after a hectic morning on the doc camping: us with our silly monads went camping in an extremely remote doc camping in the middle of the pouring rain ... And of course, the day after we got stuck in the mud and had to start looking for someone (in the wilderness) to pull us out, hehehehe *blush blush*. So we'd quite deserved that wine, thanks Sue and Jim for helping us! (we went to the winery where Sue had worked before).
Now we have arrived in Nelson, which brings me to the last part of my travels with Inge: after doing the Abel Tasman Coastal Track for 2 days, we need to bring Tony to Wellington where we split up. An era ending, another begins ...
For those of you who haven't seen them yet: new photos can be found on Facebook.
Sunday 3 October 2010
Mystic beauty in the fiordlands and adrenaline kicks in Queenstown
Back in Invercargill,, we ventured back on the Southern Scenic route to enter the Fiordlands. Our aim was to go to the Milford Sound from Te Anau. The following days the weather stayed terrible. Winds, rains and sometimes hail showers kept torturing the place, in this amount that even in the information centre of Te Anau, the lovely woman suggested we take a book and look for a cosy cafe and 'sit next to the fireplace'. Hmmm, NOT why we came to New Zealand, but what are you going to do when all the roads and tracks are closed, and no cruise or flight or anything is going?
Luckily the next day, though the weather wasn't all that better, we got news that one cruise would go to the Milford Sound. Well, if we couldn't do the track, we might as well do the cruise, right. Anything to get into the Sounds.
This cruise appeared to be actually a nice day out, even with the bad weather. The Milford Sound is a very serene place and the rain and mist kind of added to that atmosphere. Due to the bad weather, there were almost no other boats going out which only added to this mysterious place. And again, we got to see some fur seals ... This time younger males. Check!
When we got back in town, we decided we hadn't had enough yet and might as well book another tour, to the glowworm caves on Lake Te Anau ('Te Ana-au' actually means 'cave with a current of swirling water' in Maori). This was a nice and quiet smaall tour which led us into an underwater cave, pitch black, full of little glowing lights. Cute!
After that, it was time to pack up Tony and head for better weather in Queenstown. This appeared to be a lucky shot because when we arrived, the sun was out and the city was kind of warm. Hallelujah!
Now, Queenstown seems to be the Walhalla for adrenaline rushes. Of course we had to participate in this economy. The second day we went to book a trip to go rafting. Now, the whole point of the thing is: in Summertime, a bus would drive you to the starting point of the rafting. But this isn't summertime and the road was closed. So, what does one have to do to sustain ones economy? ... Bring your customers over in a helicopter, of course! :-)
Needless to say, yours truly stood jumping about this fact.
The bus ride to the place where we changed into wet suits in itself was fun: we started talking with a few guys and immediately it became clear that we would form a perfect heli-raft team. Then, the heli landed and not only me, but about everybody started bouncing around the place. Yaaaay, I got to be in front! The ride was short, but amazing. OUr dear pilot made a game out of it to give us a little tour and made us enjoy the ride thoroughly. I konw what my next job is: obtain a heli-pilot license and do this every day :-). For the rafting itself, we appeared to be a very good team indeed, only Inge and Matt fell out of the boat. So no harm done, haha!
After the rafting we went for a well-deserved drink in World Bar, where we were joined by a few other people, amongst whom was Alex who we'd met the day before.
On our last full day in Queenstown, Inge and Alex convinced me to go snowboarding after all, in the Remarkables, since this was quite the area, the snow was good and the sun would be out. Although convinced I'd break a bone or 2 (or 6), I agreed and am very happy to have done so; the boarding went -quasi- excellent, the sun was perfect and the day was very well spent.
Goodbye with Alex wouldn't be for too long since I seem to have found my travel partner for the north Island, which is in about 2 weeks. So Inge and me packed up Tony, said goodbye to lovely Queenstown and arrived in Wanaka, where we did an impressive walk - the Rob Roy Valley Track, and where we had an afternoon of fun in the Puzzling World: strange sensations in the illusions room, running around in the great maze.
Time to move on; West Coast, here we come!
Photos are to be found on this link (for those of you who hadn't seen them yet):
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1228897007#!/album.php?aid=2098693&id=1228897007
Luckily the next day, though the weather wasn't all that better, we got news that one cruise would go to the Milford Sound. Well, if we couldn't do the track, we might as well do the cruise, right. Anything to get into the Sounds.
This cruise appeared to be actually a nice day out, even with the bad weather. The Milford Sound is a very serene place and the rain and mist kind of added to that atmosphere. Due to the bad weather, there were almost no other boats going out which only added to this mysterious place. And again, we got to see some fur seals ... This time younger males. Check!
When we got back in town, we decided we hadn't had enough yet and might as well book another tour, to the glowworm caves on Lake Te Anau ('Te Ana-au' actually means 'cave with a current of swirling water' in Maori). This was a nice and quiet smaall tour which led us into an underwater cave, pitch black, full of little glowing lights. Cute!
After that, it was time to pack up Tony and head for better weather in Queenstown. This appeared to be a lucky shot because when we arrived, the sun was out and the city was kind of warm. Hallelujah!
Now, Queenstown seems to be the Walhalla for adrenaline rushes. Of course we had to participate in this economy. The second day we went to book a trip to go rafting. Now, the whole point of the thing is: in Summertime, a bus would drive you to the starting point of the rafting. But this isn't summertime and the road was closed. So, what does one have to do to sustain ones economy? ... Bring your customers over in a helicopter, of course! :-)
Needless to say, yours truly stood jumping about this fact.
The bus ride to the place where we changed into wet suits in itself was fun: we started talking with a few guys and immediately it became clear that we would form a perfect heli-raft team. Then, the heli landed and not only me, but about everybody started bouncing around the place. Yaaaay, I got to be in front! The ride was short, but amazing. OUr dear pilot made a game out of it to give us a little tour and made us enjoy the ride thoroughly. I konw what my next job is: obtain a heli-pilot license and do this every day :-). For the rafting itself, we appeared to be a very good team indeed, only Inge and Matt fell out of the boat. So no harm done, haha!
After the rafting we went for a well-deserved drink in World Bar, where we were joined by a few other people, amongst whom was Alex who we'd met the day before.
On our last full day in Queenstown, Inge and Alex convinced me to go snowboarding after all, in the Remarkables, since this was quite the area, the snow was good and the sun would be out. Although convinced I'd break a bone or 2 (or 6), I agreed and am very happy to have done so; the boarding went -quasi- excellent, the sun was perfect and the day was very well spent.
Goodbye with Alex wouldn't be for too long since I seem to have found my travel partner for the north Island, which is in about 2 weeks. So Inge and me packed up Tony, said goodbye to lovely Queenstown and arrived in Wanaka, where we did an impressive walk - the Rob Roy Valley Track, and where we had an afternoon of fun in the Puzzling World: strange sensations in the illusions room, running around in the great maze.
Time to move on; West Coast, here we come!
Photos are to be found on this link (for those of you who hadn't seen them yet):
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1228897007#!/album.php?aid=2098693&id=1228897007
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