14 February 2006: South Island New Zealand

Dolphin-swimming, Sky-diving, Ice-climbing, Bouldering, Scrambling, Tramping, Kayaking, Hitch-hiking, fun!
New Photo Gallery: http://www.whereismark.fotopic.net/c825544.html (Weeks 47-52)

Hello, and farewell, as this will be last travel blog for a while. Sorry for this being a little late, but it’s taken me a while to adjust back to this hemisphere. But I'm now back in the sunny UK, and happily able to catch up with you all very soon (or sooner).

It's been a crazy time on New Zealand’s South Island, and I've ended up hitch-hiking the whole time in order to save money. The lifts have generally been amazingly good, and it's been a great way to meet travellers & locals, and be spontaneous. Arriving on the ferry from Wellington, you see the beautifully convoluted coastline that's home to the Queen Charlotte Track. On arrival I found that the one train had gone, & the buses were full to Kaikoura, so Martin & I had to try out luck with the thumb straight away. And were picked up by a single female in a sporty red car - so the stereotypes are wrong!

Kaikoura is very pretty, jutting out from the mountain range & being a home to seals & dusky dolphins – although it was a bit full of tourists & reminiscent of a small British seaside resort (without the kiss-me-quick hats)! But it was great to meet Jerry & Helen there, and get a real bed again after spending most of 3½ months in a tent. Strange to have New Year there, but it was really great to see friends after so long on the road. We arrived in Christchurch & saw the Anglicised city, Jerry's pretty house, and then Southward to the French town of Akaroa on the Banks Peninsular (which Slartibartfast would have been proud to design). Really worth a visit, and I was lucky enough to get to swim with Hector's dolphins - the world's smallest & cutest. So agile, they play with you to see how fast you can swim, and test how entertaining you are. But I was glad not to see any Great White sharks that day. Since they’re on the endangered list, I wonder why they still play with us after all we've done?

Afterwards, Jerry was going sampling near Arthur's Pass so we hitched with him & arrived at one of the best places in the world to go bouldering, Castle Hill. It's the area they filmed the stone table scene for the Narnia film, and the limestone had been sculpted into arches, caves, mushrooms & submarines. And so I was glad I'd carried my rock-shoes this far. At night, we'd chat with the campers & climbers at the local campsite, play with giant mountain parrots (Kea) & blow up gas canisters. This place is famed for it's freak microclimate that meant when everywhere else had rain, Castle Hill usually still has sunshine. John & Viv from Sheffield joined us & we took them caving at Cave Stream, then we scrambled across the snow fields & peaks to Avalanche Peak via a staircase of roots called the Coral Track. I had a superb time in this part of Southern Alps, until the Keas decided to attack; trying to eat a book on Global Warming, along with my cheese & crackers! They're so agile & curious that they're more like monkeys. But by the time I left the tent had two new Kea-shaped doors.

Bad weather forced us to recover at Monteith's Brewery in Greymouth (try the Radler!), & I left Martin & the tent behind in order to start "tramping" (like hiking in the UK, but with sunshine) on the 83km Heaphy track. A fantastic Kiwi insisted on taking me on a tour of the coastline, the pancake rocks & her hometown as I hitched there, and she couldn't have been nicer. But finally out in the wilderness, I had blazing weather for walk though the beach palm trees, swimming in the Heaphy River and watched the sunset over the sea to the North, East & West from Mount Perry. To relax afterwards I stayed at Shambala in Golden Bay for a few days, an eco-lodge overlooking Farewell Spit with its own meditation/yoga hall & glow-worm walk to the pub. Nice.

But I was still keen to see the mountains and glaciers, so managed to hitch 9hours (including a picnic) Southward with a wonderful German couple down the road to the Franz Joseph Glacier. The weather was fantastic, so I took my chance for a sky-dive over the glaciers - a chance that the weather gods hadn’t given me in Taupo. It was dreamlike, surrending to gravity without fear. Watching the mists disappear from over the Tasman Sea, the glaciers winding down to the plains, & Mounts Tasman & Cook rising out of their vast reservoirs of snow. So much better than bungy-jumping!?! Afterwards, I relaxed by walking to the terminal face of the Franz-Joseph glacier & watched Volkswagen-sized pieces of ice bounce their way downstream before heading to the Fox glacier.

The next day was the main activity I’d come here for, an 8am start to learn ice-climbing on the glacier. With a Kiwi guide, a Bristol girl & two strong Malaysians we started on harder & harder 10-15m walls, climbing as much as we wanted under the blue skies until I finished on a final overhang. This has probably spoilt me for the reality of winter-climbing in Scotland! Of course, getting out of Fox was harder than getting there & I was stranded in the middle of nowhere till a KiwiExperience driver took pity on me, and I was ‘adopted’ by the lovely group of tourists onboard & whisked off. Several photo-stops & stories later, I arrived in the lakeside town of Kanaka (Mt Aspiring & The Misty Mountains) to swim & sail. This place knocks the British Lake District into a cocked hat. I had to move on to start tramping the Routeburn Track which bridges between Mt Aspiring & Fiordland National Parks, so I quickly passed through Queenstown & The Remarkables.

It was at this point that I really noticed the landscape was all going a bit Tolkien, especially when I had to pass through Lothlorien & Isengard to get there! The alpine passes with views to the sea, and forests so deep you knew that if the Orcs didn’t get you then the Ewoks would! Fortunately, walking with Ori & Joel kept me safe, except from having to do freezing dives into the breathtaking Lake MacKenzie to impress the girls. I’d really recommend this walk to anyone.

At the end of the trial, I caught a lift with Oleg & Olya & managed to join them on their kayaking trip with ‘Tex’ – being dropped at Stirling Falls and catching the wind & tide back. This placed can only be understood from the water, as the scale is truly epic. Mile-high cliffs descending into the dark waters, seals & penguins following our silent kayaks. But do stay overnight to avoid the day-trippers & see bonfires on the beach with the locals, and I can recommend short walks to Bowden Falls and Gertrude’s Saddle. The natural way to get back to Queenstown was to hike the Caples, and the huts, scenery, swimming, wardens & people were so outstanding that I stayed a while.

Back in the bright lights of Queenstown, Roman (killyourtv) and Michelle (stargazer) helped me beat the casino at blackjack, visit some very posh vineyards for wine-tasting & then look for gold at Arrowtown (The Ford of Bruinen) – but still the hills called one last time & I soon hitched to Twizel (The Plennor Fields) & then Mount Cook Village. Unfortunately the weather went a bit Scottish for a few days, but eventually the sun broke through & I could get to the Mueller Hut which overlooks Mt Cook’s South face & the avalanche swept slopes of Mt Sefton. This was important to me, not just because of the views but also because I could follow in Ed Hillary’s footsteps by scrambling onto the ‘Weetbix’ rocks of Mt Ollivier & Mt Kitchener – the first mountaineering route he ever did.

Two & a half months had flown by in New Zealand, and I spent the last days with Jerry & Helen again – before the inevitable return to the homeland. Finally, just before boarding the flight it was cancelled – which meant that rather than return via Dubai I had to circumnavigate the globe business class via Hollywood and their super-sized American airport guards. Which was nice was to end it.

Am I different? Have I discovered anything new? Only you can tell me that. Happy 2006 to everyone! I hope that you're all well where ever you may be. My old mobile number is active again, so get in contact if you get the chance.

Mark-in-Sheffield

“There's a voice that keeps on calling me
Down the road is where I'll always be
Every stop I make, I'll make a new friend
Can't stay for long, just turn around and I'm gone again.

Maybe tomorrow, I'll want settle down,
Until tomorrow, I'll just keep moving on.”
- The Littlest Hobo


Previous Photo Galleries:
Week1 (1st Week in India),
Weeks2-4 (Kerala & Karnataka),
Weeks5-8 (Karnatarka, Goa & Rajasthan),
Weeks9-15 (Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh & Nepal),
Weeks16-20 (Nepal & Tibet),
Weeks21-23 (Tibet & Shangri La),
Weeks24-28 (Kathmandu, Delhi & NW India),
Weeks29-33 (Jammu&Kashmir, Ladakh, Punjab & Delhi),
Weeks34-37 (Taj Mahal & Australia's Queensland),
Weeks38-41 (Australia's Queensland),
Weeks42-46 (North Island New Zealand).