nigeyboygoeswalkabout

Hi folks. Well I'm now down in Invercargill waiting to go to Stewart Island to do the 10-12day North West Circuit, which is a fairly isolated wilderness hike. I had quite a nice drive down thru the Catlins via the Clutha river. The Scenery here , like the weather is truly bizarre, and you can go form a landscape akin to that which you might find in Lanzarote to one of lush green rolling hills with in the space of 50km. The Catlins have a really soft beauty which was quite rerfreshing and welcoming after all of the spectacular Mountainscapes.



There are also some lovely beaches here and I camped at Curio bay where the dolphins are supposed to enjoy surfing the breaks although they didn't come out to play while I was there.
The photo on the left is of a bay I can't pronounce as the weather broke before I got any good shots of where I stayed.








Now then, I wouldn't say the Catlins are quiet, but here's a shot of one of the local highlights........and rather bizarely this trail ended on the opposite side of the road, about ten feet away ......and here's the photo to prove it!












Five minutes later I passed a track called Deadhorse road............Ihave to tell you I was pretty tempted to drive down it just to see......


I'm currently holed up in an absolutley amazing hostel in Invercargill. The place is nicer than a lot of peoples homes...all for 8quid a night, not bad eh? I'll be out of contact for the next 10 days or so, but in the meantime if any of you would like to e-mail me it would be great to hear from you. So long for now,

Nigeyboy

Following our surprise meeting at Mt Cook, Amanda, Maggie and I decided to do a little road trip down to Queenstown where we spent a couple of days before I headed off towards Stewart Island. The drive was great and the car did its stuff up and down the hills with its full load, no problems. The girls said that it should really have a name and with a little inspiration from their positive attitudes during a hike in some bad weather at Mt Cook, the car was duly named the "Optimistic Lady". Perhaps I've made a mistake with my sums but her fuel consumption seems to have improved since she was named so I'm not gonna knock it, ;-).



Queenstown was much nicer than I remembered, although it was really busy. Our second night there saw us head out for pizza (first meal out since I arrived) and quite a lot of beer. We then went on to a couple of bars where the girls were inundated with free shots from the local guys. I wouldn't say they attracted a lot of attention but it would have been easier to fly a plane thru flak on a bombing run, than to walk thru a bar with these two girls. However the local guys have even less finesse than me so they had no chance, ;-).

After finally getting the SD cards for the camera I headed down to Lake Tekapo ( photo on left) and then on to Mount Cook. Tekapo was very nice but the guests staying at the hostel were the most antisocial I've encontered so far. They virtually all had their heads stuck in their books and talking seemed like an effort to them, so I went and did some training near the lake. When I returned I met a really nice Belgian couple who gave me some good travel tips so the day ended on a good note. Next morning saw me drive over to mount cook.


Lake Tekapo


The terrain on the way was quite unusual with perfectly flat plains and mountains that jutt straight out of them. The YHA at Mt Cook is set in a stunning location and was jumping with people so it wasn't long before I met Sarah, a really nice English girl, whom I later went walking with. In the evening I met Daniel an absolutley hilarious Dutch guy who had done just about every extreme activity in NZ and seemed to thrive off being scared to death.



Approaching Mt Cook


Two days after I arrived there was a wee surprise when I walked into the kitchen to see Amanda (the wwoofer from Onuku). Amanda had just arrived from Tekapo with Maggie, a German girl and we all decided to do a little roadtrip down to Queenstown together after doing a couple more walks at Mt Cook. As by now I was camping further up the valley I agreed to meet them the following day to do Mt Olivier. The weather was pretty impressive that night with rain, hail, sudden gusts of wind off the mountains and surreal periods of dead calm, but the next morning I awoke to the view you see below.
The view from the YHA at Mt Cook


So with the weather looking good we made an early star and headed up Mt Olivier to do the Muller hut trail. The views into the adjacent glacial valleys were spectacular and we saw several avalanches from the hanging glaciers into the valleys below. I left the girls to take photos at the lower ridge just before the Muller hut and then continued on to the summit which made for a good scramble as there is no track beyond the hut.



The view from my tent!




A shot of the tail end of an avalanche and a self portrait from the summit of Mt Olivier with the main divide of the Southern Alps in the background






To end, here's a shot Mt Cook taken from lower down ...... do you see anything?...........yes Innes, I used the same technique as on the Buchaille Etive Beg ;-)

The first adventure in the new car was a 5 day trip to Arthurs pass, which lies more or less in the middle of the South Island. After pitching the tent the weather looked like it was closing in so a short walk was on the cards just to make sure I managed to do at least one thing while I was there. The guide book said that rough creek was a grade 2 (fairly easy) and should take about an hour each way. Well grade 2 turned out to be a full on scramble up an active river bed with not even a hint of a track in site. The waterfall at the end was well worth it tho. Got back just in time for the heavens to open and then I was pretty much tent bound for the next 36hours. However during the early hours the Keas (an indigenous parott) put in an early morning raid on my tent. The little buggers stole all of my freshly laundered clothes out of the vestibule then spread them as far and wide as possible.


The "track" up rough creek


You could probably compare a Kea raid to a Commanche war party in noise and behaviour except the Commanches probably do less damage. Actually I got off pretty lightly as Keas will easily rip the ariel and rubber seals off your car and peck holes right thru your tent.

All of the rain did however have its benefits as a lot of time hanging around the DOC shelter meant I met up with Dave and Carol, a couple from Glasgow, who it turned out had been living about 50m around the corner from me on North Woodside . The following day the weather was superb and me , Carol, Dave and a few others scaled avalanche peak to get suberb views of Mt Rolleston (Pictures still to post). After, we also met Tine, a Danish girl and with a couple of others we headed down to the Waimakiriri valley to camp.




A cheeky little Kea


I spent a couple of days exploring the valley then headed back toward Christchurch to finally collect the SD cards for the camera. On the way back I headed back via the Craigieburn cave which is an amazing 370m long cave which you can go thru on your own by wading upstream thru waist deep water.







The Waimakiriri Valley


Arthurs pass also taught me that the old folks are right, when they say live for today cos death might just be round the corner, well its true ......cos now I've been there and it really is just around the corner ;-)


All the best,
Nig

A flying visit back to Christchurch resulted in me buying this very tidy Toyota Corona ............previous owners include one lady for 20years and one 82 year old gentlemen. The old guy that sold it to me (Maurice) took me for a 100Km test drive (imagine doing that in the UK!!! ) and even said I could try it out for the weekend. Then he called me a couple of days later to ask me how I was getting on.
So now its down to the local Pak'nSave to load it up with all the crap that I couldn't possibly have got in a backpack and will probably never actually use ;-). Then its up to Arthur's pass, which is a national park in the centre of the South Island
All the best,
Nig

Just back from the Banks Peninsula where I stayed at a pretty amazing place called the Onuku farm hostel. The place is a 1000acre sheepfarm near Akaroa with its own hiking tracks and nature reserve. The camp site is built into the hilllside and each tent gets its own little terrace amongst the trees.








The shower at Onuku
At the bottom is an open air communal kitchen and a tin hut shower which is probably the best shower I've ever used.......as long as you don't mind sharing it with the Cicadas, Hedgehogs and Possums! I've been Kayaking with the rare Hectors dolphins and even managed to catch a fish (rock perch) down at the fishing beach which was pretty good eating actually. Every night we played volleyball and there's a really good group of people there. A lot of these guys were WWOOF'ers (willing workers on organic farms............... not roofers with speach impediments,as I first thought) which means they do a couple hours a day in exchange for their board.



Amanda....wwoofers are definately cuter than roofers!!!!!















Met two really cool Dutch guys ; Raymon and Jeroune who were just about to leave for Australia. They were really layed back and were a real font of knowledge so I got some excellent info on places to go.
The weather has been a mixed bag and we had one day and night of torrential rain which flooded out a lot of the tents but mine has held firm so far :-). There was also and indoor kitchen with a wood burning stove so we hung out there when the weather was bad and I played chess with a swiss girl called Olivia who was a proffesional musician.........Yep she beat me every time.






Jeroune, Raymon and Olivia in the kitchen


Hope your all well,
Nig



P.s. Can any of you figure out what the implement in this photo is for?

Hi folks,
I've arrived in Christchurch and have already got accomodation and a mobile phone set up. The journey wasn't half as bad as I expected although all my flights were delayed. To kill the time I did a little training session just outside of Narita airport. I had also packed some bannana sandwhiches as I heard Japan was very expensive. Well the sandwhiches didn't quite make it in one piece and McDonalds there was half the price of UK, ;-).





I'm thinking of heading out to the Banks peninsula tomorrow for a few days then back to Christchurch where I may buy a car.....actually already taken one for a test drive! Spent the morning chatting with Marika (pretty hot dutch girl) and Anita (American girl who is travelling round every country in the world..... Dawn...........I think she may be your long lost sister .........She tried to buy some candles in a shop and totally pissed off the salewomanl.......... so I had to go in and buy them for her, ha ha). It's amazing how fast you get to meet people and just how much information you can pick up in no time at all. So far its been brilliant. Sorry, limited photos at the moment as my SD cards are trying to catch me up in the post.
Nig