Venturing to the Northern Tip of New Zealand

Rainbow Falls

Now fed up of Auckland's appalling weather I took 'The Naked Bus' (yes, you heard) up the coast to Kerikeri, the most northern biggish town. On arriving despite the weather being pretty rubbish I hiked to tracks around the town inluding the walking track to Rainbow Falls via the Fairy Pools. I wasn't expecting the falls to be as spectacular as they were, having seen what qualified as a 'big waterfall' in other areas of NZ I was suprised to find that after just an hours walk on the track you make it to a very gratifying, impressive sight!

Kemp House

Other sites I visited around the area included the two oldest buildings in the country, The Stone House and Kemp House, the latter built in 1820. So that's as far as NZ's history exhibits go, not even 200 years!! I stayed at Hone Heke Lodge, a very homely place where seasonal workers head out to pick Avocado's, Kiwi Fruit, oranges and other such delights.

90 Mile Beach

On my third day I took a tour up to the northern tip of New Zealand known as Cape Reinga. I have to say the tour was fantastic, costing around $135 you were taken right up the 90 mile beach, did some dune boarding (fantastic fun, if you don't mind getting soaked!) then up to the northern point where you got to witness the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meeting. Seeing two seas crashing against eachother is magnificant to say the least! The Maori say it represents sex. They're just being dirty minded if you ask me. But that's not the only Maori belief I learnt on the trip, they also believe that when people die their spirits walk up the middle of New Zealand to this point and descend down the roots of a pohutukawa tree into the sea to journey back to the mythical homeland where the Maori originally moved from. Frankly I'd like to ask the question what happens if someone cuts down the tree? Are their souls forever screwed? I'm not gonna do it... just saying though.. bit silly to put all your hopes on one tree which might die or something..

The Meeting of Two Seas

Couch costing $55,000

Kauri Staircase

On the return from the tip we stopped off at a gum-digging site where people used to dig down to the buried Kauri forests and take the gum-sap type thingy to be used as varnish. It has been compared to a 'gold-rush' and is very valuable, for instance Ancient Kauri wood is one of the most expensive timbers in existence due to it being thousands of years old. The picture to the right shows the most expensive carving in Kauri World show rooms, to give you some idea! It was a fantastic trip, concluded with fish and chips in Magonui in a building that extends into the harbour on stilts. Brilliant, I had a great time and thoroughly reccommend others to go up and visit!!

Mangonui Fish Shop

City Life- A Week in Auckland

Arriving in Auckland to horrible rainy weather (very much typical of my experience in the North Island unfortunately) but a very bright and chirpy Maia, as always! The weather for the next four days was horrific, I spent more or less the entire time indoors catching up on missed games console time and movie watching. Fantastic. I did do some productive things, like booking a trip up north and sorting out my accomodation in Hong Kong in a months time! Woop!

Auckland City

I spent some time getting hopelessly lost in central Auckland, the bus system is an absolute maze. Long story short I ended up somewhere a long way from where I intended to be. Not fun. The vast majority of the time was spent finding the things I wanted to check out rather than ACTUALLY seeing them. Auckland can be a beautiful city though, especially at night from Auckland bridge I found, unfortunately I didn't have my camera but it really is a magical sight to behold!

On a few of the days in the brief periods of sunshine between manic showers I did make it down to the beach in Mellons Bay, which was beautiful, a breath of fresh air and just a tad lonely. Nothing's as fun when you're not sharing it with any mates, so I resorted to hunting crabs in rock pools. And failed.

Sunrise in Auckland

However, I did have good fun in the evenings with Maia, sitting around eating chocolate and drinking wine infront of the tele. One night I cooked risotto for her and Rodney which was good fun, it'd been a while since I had last cooked a decent meal!

Mr Nom Nom- just look at the eyes!!

An Emotional Farewell to Southland

Hitch-Hiking Desperation..

Successfully escaping from Christchurch alive (by leaving at 5am... meh) we returned to Omarama for Monique to start work at 10am. I on the other hand went straight back to bed (mwahaha) only emerging sleepily at 3pm. Win. Since arriving in New Zealand Monique has become one of my absolute best friends of all time and with my flight to the North Island rapidly approaching we made the most of our remaining time together and I have to say it was magical! On Wednesday evening finally after about 4 months of persuasion Monique played and sang a song she had written on guitar. Unbelievable. Before long we were manically song writing away till her fingers hurt from being forced to repeat it. Early next morning I was called from the warmth of my bed to come and witness a solar eclipse hanging low over the hills in the early morning. I'm not really a believer in 'fate', but bloody hell, an eclipse a few hours before I say goodbye. Magic. We arrived at her work early to jam out her song with me on the piano and, quite frankly, we're awesome. And modest too. It was an emotional farewell causing me to begin hitch hiking looking like some kinda sleep starved vagrant. People always give lifts to sleep starved vagrants. NOT. In the end I did make it to Queenstown and now the patient wait to hear if my flight will brave the mighty ash cloud (or as I refer to it, a little bit of dust) begins. Wish me luck!

So this is my official farewell to everyone I met on the South Island, whereever you are, I love you, you have all played a massive part in my New Zealand experience and my life in general. I will never forget any one of you and I thoroughly look forward to seeing you all at random places round the planet! I will visit the South Island many times in my future I know, because I have yet to find a place in the world more friendly, magical and simply epic. If I ever find something better I'll let you know, but I'll be damned if I do, it'd have to be heaven.

Returning to Rocking Chair City (Christchurch)

Tekapo Hot Pools

With an aim to try and meet up with Laura before I leave the South Island Monique and I set off for Christchurch stopping off at Lake Tekapo for a night along the way. Lake Tekapo was beautiful as always (I drove the entire way there woop!) and once accomodation was sorted we went ice skating down by the lake and were fortunate enough to be the only ones there! And how better to warm up from ice skating than spending some time in the hot pools?! The hot pools in Tekapo were very different to the ones in Omarama, not as cosy and a LOT less private (Guard tower standing over... kinda creepy) but you can swim around a fair amount so it was lovely!

Well duuuuh!

Sunrise at Lake Tekapo

After a spot of tennis in the morning we finally headed towards Christchurch and arrived 45 minutes after a Level 6 earthquake (one that big is powerful enough to do some real damage) If we hadn't been driving, the ground would have been veeeeery interesting to walk on. Lucky we played tennis really! We met up with Laura and her friends before going for a drive around the city to check out the damage, the roads were pretty packed with the sheer number of people leaving the city, which let me tell you when you're heading in the opposite direction TOWARDS trouble, is quite freaky. All the supermarkets were closed to deal with damaged products etc making tracking down food.... interesting. But we managed! The novelty of not being able to trust the ground beneath your feet quickly wears off and becomes damned annoying and slightly scary. The sheer lack of control over our environment really hits home!! Oh and the giant ash cloud could cause problems with my flights outa Queenstown. Isn't life just great!!

Earthquake Damage

Earthquake Damage

Closed Supermarkets, Spilt Wine, People Get Desperate...

Hot Tubs, Scams and Wrinkly Rams!

Leaving Omarama

I hope you appreciate the heading of this post, it's VERY relevant. After staying in Gore I made my way up to Omarama once again (dead end junction town) where Monique is now working at a cafe called "The Wrinkly Ram" stayed up there a few days in which time I slobbed about reading and began preparations to possibly making my first ever civil courts claim.

You may remember the Triumph 2000 car we were travelling in breaking down and us leaving it to be crushed in Omarama at a place called B.G. Auto's around 2 months ago. Upon coming through Omarama I discovered the car was STILL there. Upon speaking to the mechanic I discovered that instead of crushing it as he  had said, DESPITE assuring us there was no hope of selling it, he had found a buyer and was selling it himself. He does not own the vehicle, so after trying to reason with him myself I contacted the police who told me because we had left it with him to be "disposed of" it was a civil matter not a police matter. Depending on what the scrap yard says about the value of the car we may well be sueing the fella. Fun times.

Omarama Hot Tubs!

It wasn't all legal battles though, I got more or less anything I wanted from the cafe for free because I went in there and played piano, much to the delight of the owner it seemed! On top of that we went to some local hot pools at night which were amaaaaazing! Given the lack of artificial light the stars are incredible and you never catch cold because the water is so damn warm! Heated by a fire burning under the tub! Well it wasn't cold until our game of dares had us jumping into the freezing lake next to our tub... stupid double dares.

Hot Tubs in Omarama!

Andrew's Farming Again!

Shawn Sheep!

Hitch-hiking to Gore was one of the more stressful experiences of my life. I was waiting for a lift from Te Anau for literally 5 and a half hours before some farmers eventually took pity on me, apparently I looked desperate. I was. If I'm honest I was begging every passing car, I know it's low, but I was cold and I didn't really care. Fortunately I did make it to Gore by about 5:30pm in the end, staring at 10am thats a long time for a 2 hour journey!! Anyway, enough of my whining. I spent the next few days living on James and Gill Watt's farm again, helping out with moving flocks of sheep and moving the electric fences to allow the cows at their next row of feed. I also was lucky enough to see the shearing contractors in action, each one of them could shear 300 sheep in an 8 hour day (That is insanely good, seriously). They make a LOT of money doing that.

Sheep Shearing

In the afternoon on one day I went into Gore to Resthaven old peoples home to go and visit Ina Clark, the lady my dad stayed with when he came out here and worked on a farm for a year. (Yep a whole year, at least I'm only stay 8 months guys!!) That was lovely as I got to see all the photos, it was a good day for her so she could remember who I was etc. And eventually on asking me whether I was musical like my father got pressganged by old people into playing piano. Every time I stopped I was met with "Is that it!?"... I ended up staying a lot longer than I intended! I then met up with Ellyas who I met in Roxburgh and got my arse kicked at some pool (he just a week before won two B Grade tournaments in snooker... he's pretty damn good!). Overall, a very good few days!!

Milford Sound- The Definition of "Epic"

I took my turn to sail into the sunrise off Stewart Island and in a spur of the moment decision chose to hitch-hike to Milford Sound to do a cruise. Everyone had told me it was a must-see before you leave New Zealand, and I'm SO glad I took their word for it. Mixed success in the hitching, as the picture demonstrates, but I made it to Te Anau and spent the night in a lovely cosy hostel by a fire. Next morning I hitched to Milford Sound which was still another 2 hours away as it turns out! But it's well worth the journey!

The harsh reality of hitch-hiking strikes...

Very quickly I need to explain something random, you'll understand in a second I promise. For a while now thanks to Jessika I have been following a youtuber called Bribry who is doing "100 things to do before you die" in memory of his friend who passed away. (I'll post a link at the bottom, check it out!) He's been doing really cool stuff and all the money he makes off it goes to charity, very admirable. Anyway, on my birthday Jess linked me his most recent video number 56 on the list- world travel. He was on his way to Australia and then New Zealand, (see where this is going yet?) I had intended to try and meet up with him in Queenstown at some point but realised I was no where near there, tough luck.

Anyway, I walked into the cruises terminal and who should walk in behind me but Bribry with his friend and fellow youtuber Anna. (I'll post the link to her page at the bottom too) More through sheer suprise than anything I came out with "You're that guy from youtube!" (Such smooth and refined conversation starters just come to me, it's a rare talent..) Long story short the three of us all went on the same cruise which was great because it meant I had people to share my childish wonderment of the scenery with (share or force upon... fine line..) and boy oh boy was the scenery incredible. I am sooooo glad I made it there, the pictures can't really capture the overpowering immense nature of the sheer cliffs and many waterfalls, but it's the best I can do! I'd definitely reccommend visiting it to anyone and everyone!

Me and Bribry

Fortunately for me I was able to get a lift from Anna and Bribry back to Te Anau and I should be starring in Anna's NZ video as a psychopathic hitch-hiker... result.If you want to check THAT out, here's the link!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQuceA1Wq6k&feature=feedu

http://www.youtube.com/bribryontour
http://www.youtube.com/karmagirl74

 

Adventures on Stewart Island

Stewart Island

Next on the travel list was Stewart Island (Also known as Rakiura or "Land of the blushing skies" thanks to it's incredible sunrise/sets!). Having met up with Monique in Dunedin we drove through the Catlins to Invercargil. I should mention, cos I'm proud of it, I have been sharing some of the driving responsibility as we have travelled around and my driving experience is slowly racking up! On attempting to go and buy a bottle of wine we discovered that a) NONE of the supermarkets stock alcohol (VERY unusual in NZ) and b) All the liqour stores shut at 7pm. What. The. Hell. Still, at least Burger King was open.

Eventually we made it to The Bluff and took the ferry across to Stewart Island. It was an... interesting journey. At first Monique and I were right up the front trying to get as thrown around as possible (it was quite a rough sea) however, soon Monique's recently consumed Jimmy's pie revisited us, much to her dismay. Fun times. (You may kill me for this Monique but it had to be mentioned!)

On our first full day on the island we hiked around the Southern end of the bay the one and only village (Oban) is situated in. As we walked past one of the further out houses outside there was a giant skull. Through sheer curiosity the temptation was too much to knock on the door and find out what the hell it was. Turns out it was a whale bone! Bloody impressive thing that! As it happened the owner of the house is a German called Malter who is in the sausage business. Typical. He also dabbles in steel and water taxi's but I find the sausage making funniest.. as he's German and all.. Our brief visit lead to us being invited to his later that evening and again the next day! He's pretty damn rich so we were treated to his best champagne and 4 bottles of wine. We all got relatively drunk... and I may or may not have fallen off the sea wall into a bunch of beach huts on the way to the hostel... fortunately I was unharmed, mostly.

Sunrise on Stewart Island

When Monique left to go to her new job in Omarama (after failing to leave twice, once for laziness and the second for missing the ferry) and sailed off into the sunrise which was very magical (sunrise is at 8am) I decided to get out and explore some more of the island, see what these long legs of mine can do! Turns out they can do 25km in 6 hours quite easily. So I got to see lots of the Northern end of the island and suddenly realised I'd be able to do a lap of the island hiking to all the huts along the footpaths...if I had 10 days to spare. Man I wish I did! Made a name for myself now down the one pub on the island for playing piano and being good at pool, (the latter being a VERY recent development) life is good!! Over the next couple of days I relaxed, hiked to various points of interest and met new people in the hostel playing card games and drinking late into the night. On the final night I was convinced to impart my knowledge on Apple Crumble making by Elena from Switzerland who having tried it at one hostel, was actually addicted.