West Coast - Part 1

I'm four days into my final travels around New Zealand and already have loads to tell you about.


After crossing the Cook Straight on Sunday afternoon, I started with a couple of days in the Abel Tasman National Park, which is in Nelson at the top of the South Island. I had organised a trip to spend a day hiking independently, camp out in the park and then do a guided kayak trip back out of the park on the second day.


The most stunning bits of the Park stretch along the coast and you can get a water taxi to drop you off at any bay along the route. I started out at Awaroa, which is quite far North and I was the last person on my boat. The weather was grey and the sea was quite rough so I was glad to be off the boat and on dry land. The hike was along a coastal path and was pretty gentle. I only had about 12km to cover all day, which was good as I'd run the half marathon the day before.

A view along the walk

By about 2:30pm I arrived at my campsite for the night, which was right by a beach called Bark Bay. Luckily the sun chose to come out properly at this point, so I spent a couple of hours on the beach before setting up my tent. I also had plenty of time to take some photos. The campsite had good facilities and the location was stunning, the only problem were some very persistant sandflies that left about a dozen bites on each foot despite my insect repellent.

Bark Bay

The next morning the clouds and rough seas were back. I had met the other two members of the kayaking trip, Andy and Jorien, the day before as we were on the same water taxi and then camped together in the evening. Our guide for the day, Ayesha, arrived with two double kayaks and all the gear we needed. We set off and quickly found ourselves in pretty big waves, in fact the other kayak was often completely hidden by a wave only to bob back into view as the next wave lifted it up. A totally different experience to the lake in Rotorua, it was still a great trip. We skirted the coastline and covered about 17km over the day.

Andy and Jorien (in a calm patch)

Our amazing lunch stop set-up

Split Apple Rock

After a relaxing night in Nelson, I set off for the first long drive of the trip, down to Franz Josef. Covering about 550km took me all day. I passed through the windy Buller Gorge and then emerged on the West Coast. It was fitting that it was raining and windy as the West Coast has a reputation as a wild and untouched part of the country. The coastline is truly impressive and I kept stopping to take photos as well as dropping in to see the Pancake Rocks. I'm running out of time on my internet, so I'll simply post the photos from the drive.

Pancake Rocks

More Pancake Rocks

LaFayundai passed a big milestone on the drive

The next post will cover today's hike on Franz Josef Glacier along with the next part of my trip.

Let the travels begin

Four weeks seems like a good length of time to travel, until you open a New Zealand guidebook. Although I’ve been around most of the North Island and parts of the South Island over the last year, there are still far too many places to try and fit in before I go.

Now that I’ve finished my year of work, I’ve set off on my travels and I’m so excited about everything I’ll get to see.

South Island

I’ve started by taking my car across the Cook Straight to the South Island. 

The ferry crossing was nice and smooth and I had a long chat with a farmer based in Marlborough and her sister about life in New Zealand.

I will spend the first two days hiking and kayaking in the Abel Tasman National Park. Then start driving down the West Coast. Mid-week I’ll be spending the day walking on the Franz Josef Glacier.

Carrying on down the West Coast, I drop into a town called Wanaka for a night before meeting up with my friend Emily in Queenstown. We’re going to head out to Milford Sound and probably fit in some extreme activities, which are a big part of the draw of Queenstown for tourists.

After Em flies back to Wellington, I’ll start heading back North. I hope to fit in a bit of surfing and a night at Hamner Springs before taking the ferry back across to Wellington.

North Island

After a day catching up with people, a group of us are off to Taranaki, which my Mum and I visited while she was out here. We plan to climb to the summit. I’ll then carry on up and spend some time surfing at Raglan and maybe visit Lake Taupo in the centre of the North Island.

Home

Assuming I survive all of that, I fly over to Sydney for a couple of days before finally flying back to England towards the end of March.

If that itinerary hasn’t left you thoroughly sick of hearing about my travels, I’ll try and blog and upload photos regularly so check back here over the next few weeks.

The drive from the ferry up to Motueka this afternoon has already provided the first few photo opportunities.

Tongariro crossing - the write-up

Last week I posted my photos from the Tongariro Crossing. I promised to follow up with some more details about the trip.


We ended up with a group of 8 of us going - only one Kiwi and the rest of us Brits living over here. The Crossing is in the same National Park as Mount Ruapehu, where I went snowboarding a couple of times in the Winter. We decided to stay in Ohakune, the same little ski resort town that is full of holiday places. Out of season it was a lot easier and cheaper to find a place. We ended up with a really nice Bach that was a converted railway building. Plenty of space and nicely furnished.

Our Bach

We travelled up after work on the Friday and arrived pretty early in the evening. As we needed to be up by 5:45 the next morning no one wanted to do much other than get their bags ready for the next day and then head to bed.


It was pretty painful waking up before dawn the next morning. The final preparations were broken up by someone burning toast and smoking the whole place out. We dragged ourselves outside to wait in the chilly dark for the shuttle bus that was taking us to the start of the walk.


There were two time options for the shuttle and we had chosen the earlier one. The Crossing can get pretty packed on a clear day and so the aim of the early bus was to beat most of the crowds. A second advantage was it gave us the option of adding in some extra bits to the route and still having time to make it to the shuttle back.


The first hour of the walk was flat as we approached the first mountain. Just as the sun rose above the ridge line we hit the 'devil's staircase'. A tough 200 metre climb up wood stairs. At the top of this we reached the side track to Mount Ngauruhoe. This was the first add on section and Jonathan and I had decided we were going to climb it.


Mount Ngauruhoe starts to look pretty daunting as you get closer. It might be familiar to some people as (heavily CGI'd) it featured in the Lord of the Rings movies as Mount Doom. We couldn't pass up the chance to say we'd conquered Mount Doom!

Mount Ngauruhoe

The ascent was pretty tiring, a mix of loose scree and sharp rocks and pretty steep. When we eventually made it to the summit we were pretty relieved although we then had to battle with the wind that kept threatening to blow us into the crater at the top. Luckily the views proved worth the effort. The day had kept clear and we had a panoramic views over the National Park and surrounding mountains. We also got to enjoy the hot geyser steaming away at the top. The journey back down was completely different to the slog up. After initially slipping and falling we mastered the 'space walking' technique of bouncing and almost running through the scree. Having taken over 90 minutes to climb up, we found ourselves back at the base in around 20 minutes.


Back on the main track we found it busier than first thing in the morning, but not too crowded. We walked across the expansive flat Southern Crater and then had a short climb up a ridge line. There was a bit of cloud building up behind us but it never caught up with us as we walked on to the next section of the Crossing.

View back across the Southern Crater from the ridge line

At this point the Emerald Lakes came into view. These three lakes are probably the most recognisable feature of the walk. Build ups of minerals in the water have given the three lakes a striking colour. 

One of the Emerald Lakes

A short walk on from these three lakes brought us to the larger blue lake. Skirting round this we left behind the volcanic scenery and entered into alpine surroundings for the next stage of the walk. Having started in tundra and with a forest section still ahead of us, it felt a little like four different zones in an alternative crystal maze (showing my age a bit there).


We were now firmly on the descent towards the end of the walk, although there was a short up still to come with some stairs as we skirted in and out of a gully. Although we had beautiful views out across lakes to the north of the park, including the giant Lake Taupo, we all agreed afterwards that we'd seen so much spectacular scenery by this point that we felt a little underwhelmed.


The last hour and a half was a straightforward walk along the path, eventually reaching the forest line. As we started to skirt alongside a stream Jonathan, who had walked the Crossing before, announced we were close to the car park and the end of the route. We had thought we might catch up with the others, who hadn't climbed Ngauruhoe, but by the time we arrived at the end they had been waiting for quite a while for the first shuttle bus home to turn up.


The main track was 19.4 km and once we'd added in the ascent of Mt Ngauruhoe/Doom it was a pretty good workout. I can't rate the walk highly enough and if you ever have the opportunity to get out here then make sure you include this in your itinerary. This website is a good source of information about the Crossing.


We got back to our Bach about 4:30. Once we'd all showered and changed we realised we didn't feel too tired and were starving. We headed to a restaurant and had a tasty meal before heading back to the Bach for a few drinks and a surprisingly late evening. The next day a hearty cooked breakfast was followed by convoying back to Wellington. I even felt good enough to go for a quick jog in the evening after we got back.

Tongariro Crossing - photos

From the first time I opened my NZ guidebook, walking the Tongariro Crossing was on my 'must do' list. It's rated as one of the top 10 one day hikes in the World. The weather was ideal on Saturday when I walked the Crossing and the scenery is absolutely spectacular. 


I'm just uploading my photos from the walk tonight. I'll try and write a full post about the trip in the next week or so.

The sun rising behind the mountain

Mount Ruapehu

Our group at the start of the hike

Rock formation

Steam vent on Mount Nauruhoe

The final part of the climb to the Nauruhoe Crater

Jeroen, Jonathan and me at the top of Nauruhoe

Battling the wind  at the summit

Scree-sliding descent

The southern crater

The emerald lakes

The blue lake

Kiwi Christmas and New Year

I had a pretty packed couple of weeks over the Christmas and New Year holidays.


My friend Tyra came out to visit again. Her birthday is on the 24th of December and she'd always wanted to celebrate somewhere warm. In the weeks running up to her visit I was getting worried as the weather was pretty mixed. Luckily, New Zealand put on the sunshine and heat for her trip. We spent her birthday driving all along the coastline around Wellington, starting with Oriental Bay, which starts in the heart of the city.

Wellington from Oriental Bay

We stopped off at a couple of the bays to enjoy the sun, including Lyall Bay. We had lunch at the Chocolate Fish Cafe, which is famous for being a hangout for the Lord of the Rings cast and crew.


We then came back to the flat for a birthday cake. New World, a local supermarket chain with a very Orwellian name, supplied an amazingly tasty chocolate cake that got the thumbs up all round.

Tyra's cake

Christmas day itself started with pancakes and bubbles (the Kiwi name of champagne and sparkling wine). While my Mum was over to visit, she had put together a stocking and left it with my flatmate. This was a total, and lovely, surprise. I spoke to my Mum on skype, before she headed off for her Samaritans night shift.


We then headed over to my flatmate Gabby's family home for a Christmas meal. Again, the weather was scorching so we spent the afternoon in the shade in the garden chatting and enjoying a few drinks while the meal was cooking. The meal itself was fantastic, with roast turkey and roast ham, lots of traditional trimmings and some lighter summery additions like artichoke hearts and asparagus.It was so nice to spend my Kiwi Christmas amongst such a welcoming family.

Carving the ham

Yum!!

Lighting the Christmas pudding

Boxing day was a relaxed affair. In the afternoon we went to the cinema to see The Iron Lady. I enjoyed the film a lot, even if it skimmed over much of the politics. As all the reviews have been saying, Meryl Streep gives a fantastic performance.


The 27th was time to say goodbye to Tyra, who flew down to Christchurch before heading home. In the afternoon I then went to a Twenty20 match at the Basin Reserve. My last visit had been to see the Christchurch fundraising match in March. The Wellington Firebirds were playing the Central Stags. Unfortunately the Firebirds kept up the traditional of the Wellington Hurricanes (rugby) and Phoenix (football) and got soundly beaten, by 29 runs. Fortunately, it was still a good afternoon sitting on the grass in the sun and enjoying a few beers.

The next day (28 December) called for a hike to work off a few of the Christmas dinner calories. My friend Carina and I had decided to do a day-long walk in the Belmont National Park. This is a great area that is incredibly close to Wellington, one minute you are driving through suburban housing and then a minute later you're at the start of a forest track where you won't pass another walker. The day was cooler and cloudier than the week had been before, which was actually refreshing and made the walking a lot easier. We didn't manage to follow the exact route we intended. We still managed to take in all the sights we'd planned, including the scattering of old WW2 ammunition stores, the hilltop Trig and the views over the coastline in most directions.

The ammunition stores...and some cows

Made it to the Trig

Luckily when I woke up the next morning my legs weren't sore from the hike, as I had a long drive ahead of me. I was heading all the way up to Gisborne on the east coast to meet up with a group of friends and go to the Rhythm and Vines music festival. I set off pretty early and a mere 540 kilometres later arrived in one piece.

Having travelled across half the North Island, I was ready for a beer, but the first task was to set up my tent. Although the festival has big campsites, we'd scored a much better arrangement as a friend's family has a house just outside Gisborne. So although we were camping in their garden, we had access to bathrooms, a kitchen and a deck. Meaning instead of a diet of mars bars and pot noodles, we were having oven cooked pizza and daily BBQs, including freshly caught fish.

In the garden

I arrived a day after most of my friends, who already had their tents set up. When I started unpacking mine, which I borrowed from a colleague, it quickly became clear that what they'd described as a 'two...or maybe three person' tent was, compared to what my friends had, palatial. I couldn't quite stand up inside!

Mine's on the right

The festival started that night, so after a couple of drinks and BBQ it was time to head in. Buses ran from right outside where we were staying to the festival site. The music kicked off late in the day and with most people drinking before they went, it was always an entertaining ride out to the festival and even more amusing on the ride back.


The site was a local vineyard and was suprisingly hilly, with different stages and bars scattered around and lots of different routes between them. Rhythm and Vines isn't as big as the major UK festivals, but it has about 25-30,000 people attend, which gives it a great atmosphere.

The line-up across the three days was pretty good. There were a bunch of local artists and then the headline acts for the three nights were Pendulum, Calvin Harris and Example ('changed the way you kissed me') on NYE. Without a doubt, my favourite was Pendulum on the first night. As well as being one of my favourite acts, they had an incredible visual show for their set. The entire stage was made up of screens and set over several different levels, so they could move around the graphics.

Pendulum visuals

The weather across New Zealand was pretty atrocious in the few days up to New Year, with storms and flooding in several places. Gisborne was among the least affected, but on New Year's Eve the heavens did open up. That did make it feel completely like a UK festival in one important way...mud! I slipped over a couple of times and it looked like the majority of people did the same. By the end of the night, some people were simply diving into the mud and sliding around.


With the combination of mud and a bit too much to drink, New Year's Day had the potential to start pretty badly. Fortunately, we were staying a few minutes walk from the beach. A dip in the pacific was a fantastic way to start the first morning of the New Year.


We left Gisborne and road-tripped back as far as Napier, which I visited back in March. I stayed the night there to break up the drive (I was not going to try and attempt the same epic distance in one go after three nights of festival mayhem). I met up with Helen and Harry, who were also stopping off for the night there. The next day saw some mini-golf and pottering around the Hawkes Bay before driving back to Wellington.


A lie-in followed by cleaning a tent, a lot of washing and a surf on the 2nd and I was all ready to head back into work on 3 January. Luckily things were pretty quiet at work for the first few days.