After 18 fun filled days breezing through New Zealand's extremely stunning South Island, today is the day we catch the ferry from the tip of the West Coast. A place called Picton. Departing at 7 o'clock this evening the boat will be docking at Wellington, after a 3 1/2 hour journey on the sea vessel to then which the next chapter will commence...
But for now I would like to reflect back to the passage of time when we departed from Kaikoura up until this exact moment.
A solid, hefty 8hrs from Kaikoura to the adrenalin capital "Queenstown" It was strenuous but completely worth it when introduced to our first impressions of the quaint little ski resort city. Although we didn't participate in anything to stimulate our adrenaline whilst we were there, there must have been that kind of essence in the air as we did take the plunge and booked 16,500ft sky dive for when we made it up to Able Tasman. Able Tasman is the very north part of the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. We spent a total of two nights in Queenstown, the second being at "Twelve Mile Delta" The cool catch to this campsite was that a part of the legendary "Lord of the rings" was filmed here and its world famous director "Peter Jackson" owns a house just up the road... So to capture a glimmer of the scene we took a brave dive into the ice cold lake, which I must add was translucent (Hand on heart, I have never had my body parts in clearer fresh water) and then slowly doing the doggy paddle whilst rotating round in a 360 degree circle we gawped at the beauty around us. I discovered a hidden talent for stone skimming and we dined on the trunk of a tree that overlooked the luscious lake. All in all, we had a bobby dazzler of a time.
On route to our next destination we were stopped in our tracks. Forced to hit the breaks and come to a holt by a static line of vehicles, both of us completely puzzled by what was going on? Rhys leaped out of Naboo to suss out what all the commotion was about... He returned with information that took me by surprise and with that brought me to the scene of crime. A Tyrannosaurus rex sized tree had been ripped right from its roots and collapse horizontally blocking the whole entire road. The lumberjack's had already arrived to dismantle this beast by the time went to get a look in. After about an hour and a hell of a lot of industrial noise and heavy duty machinery the tree was severed into slices and removed from harms way and we were free to continue with our route. A little more interesting and out of the ordinary.
Cascade Creek campsite is where we ended up next. Rhys and I took gratification out of creeping through what felt like an enchanted forest that had developed at the creek. We decided to go and take a stroll that just left us on edge. In the depth of the wildernesses our imaginations started running wild, delving into the mystical idea of the trees coming to life...
Our next destination after Cascade creek was to go an endure the jaw dropping fords at Milford Sound. A boat cruise through the gateway of the fords was a must as this really is the best way to get up close and feel ant sized in comparison to the towering natural sky scrapers. Do you remember the scene from the first Lord of the Rings? The great river scene when the fellowship have not long left Rivendell and they are sailing through the ginormous stone former Kings or Gondor statues? This exact iconic scene was filmed right where we were at Milford Sound, so it's rather cool for us to be able to say we have been there.
We made a stop off at the Wonderful Wanaka after being at Milford all morning for a night at a campsite called Boundary Creek. What a complete treasure that was!! I really did feel like we struck gold with this place and for reasons I shall go onto elaborate... First of all yet again the water at the creek is a very fierce Aqua colour which is hard to distinguish once you start wading out into the crisp cold lake. This is because the H2O then becomes crystal clear. It's breathtaking in more ways that one. Away from the water and onto the pebble lavished shore, we spent much of our time soaking up the creeks architecture. Man sized Teepee's sculpted by sturdy wooden logs and sticks, we found these rather entertaining and spent the entire morning fooling around. It's a shame the momentum of our travels meant we had to move on way sooner than preferred.
Our good deed for the day was reaching out and giving a fellow nomad a helping hand. Bas from the Netherlands is hitch hiking his way around New Zealand. We were traveling to the Franz Joseph Glacier that day when we saw him on the side of the road just moments before flipping up his destination sign. We pulled over anyhow to see if we could be a benefit to him. Brilliant!! Bas was after a ride to the town just before Franz Joseph. We was passing through Fox Glacier anyway so it worked out perfectly. He was an interesting lad, with great crack and lots of stories to share. We thoroughly enjoyed he's company and it felt good to know we got him to where he wanted to be safely.
Soon after we pulled up to Chateau Franz Motel in the heart of Franz Joseph's little set up and decided this is where we'll stay the night. We came to a mutual decision to hike a round trip of 6hrs. What for? To reward ourselves with the best possible view (without spending an extortionate amount on a helicopter ride) of the Glacier. We felt head strong, we were going to conquer this mission! Feeling pumped and raring to go the next morning an obstacle was thrown our way... The mystery of Orla's "missing" trainers as Rhys would pronounce it. He honestly believes to this very day i stashed them away out of sight so that going on the 6hr trek was made impossible. Haha!! This was a drama as the only other footwear I own is a pair of havaianas and a pair of dainty sandals and the best shoe Franz Joseph had to offer we're a pair of crummy crocs and they are not my style, I wouldn't even be found dead in them so we had to go and have re-think about our day's activity.
Franz Joseph's attraction is its glazier, it's what lures the tourists in and this is what we came here to witness. So the 6hr walk simmered down to 1hr, my flip flops tacked onto my feet and then off we went... Flip flop. Flip flop. Incredible view point once we got ourselves there. We sat on the rock mound so tall we were eye level with the glazier! Resting my eyelids for a moment, so they fell shut over my eyes I let my ears engulf the sounds around me. I could hear the winds whispers softly whistling and the crashing waves of water droplets slapping the bed of rocks from way beneath them as they fell from a great hight. This collaboration of harmonious sounds sent me into peaceful trance.
Gradually climbing higher and higher making our way to the north of the South Island, Nelson was our next stop off. Nelson allegedly is known for being the most liveable city in New Zealand. We didn't get up to anything outrageous whilst we were there as I become rapidly very sick from some untreated water I must of engulfed. An extreme amount of appreciation and credit goes out to Rhys for being so patient, kind and caring. He did a excellent job helping to nurture me back to health.
I know my parents will be relived when they read this but we had to cancel on our sky dive as I couldn't possibly throw myself out of a plane in the state I was in. So instead we took it easy and soaked up our surroundings.
Hoping from camping ground to camping ground I wasn't going to let the illness hold us back from progressing with relation to moving continuously further North.
Anon to Kina recreation reserve. This spectacular camping ground was the ideal atmosphere to relax and rest up. We even had the luxury of soaking our bones in a bathtub on the beach. It wasn't as easy as popping in the plug and twizling on the hot tap though. Cavemen style, you had to find the right materials and own the right knowledge to be able to create a blazing fire underneath the tin belly of the bath. Rhys transformed into a Boy Scout skilfully foraging for the perfect length, width and dryness when it came to the different types of sticks for each stage to building up the fire. He did a cracking job and soon enough we had a raging inferno that had the power behind the flames to heat up the whole tub of water. Lying there, the hot temperature soothing our muscles was simply the most divine way to start the day! The day continued in such manner... We took a little excursion down to the beach of Kaiteriteri where I kid you not, the sand look as if it were formed from 28 carrot gold flecks. Once again divine!
From there we clambered to the pinnacle of Able Tasman National park. It was a tedious process. Once parked, hand break on, ignition switched off, knowing we were sitting on the mountain tops. That right there was an insane feeling. 1 night was spent at the acres upon acres of park. The skeleton of a hippy/folk festival remains there and we were literally the only two souls stopping over that night so you can imagine the massive amount of vast area we had to play in. We had heaps of fun!
As mentioned previously Picton is the port that would be our entrance to the north Island and this was our very final taste of down under. It was a gruesome day, the clouds all glum and gloomy and the rain was just constant but that did not stop us from making a memorable day of it. Picton is a sweet little town with only two rows of shops and a really impressive harbour. Whilst taking a gander down one the two sides, Rhys's attention was captured by the window display of "The Paper Rain project" and veered me into the building instantly. We were warmly welcomed by a lovely young lady. Inside I felt as if I were at the merchandise section of an Art Exhibition, the interior walls plastered in mainly recycled wine-barrel long boards with exceptional works of art decorated on them. For a very long time my companion and I idolised. Moving on from the long boards and the other wall displays we found ourself rail rummaging at all the different organic/fair trade t-shirts. Each T-Shirt created in India in the heart of the Red Light District, their doors left wide open to the prostitutes to enable the opportunity of gaining a skill and re-building themselves a better life. I admire this massively alongside the prints. The prints interestingly also withhold a story, the artist behind each of the designs had been hand picked from a competition held every year with the prize being an exclusive publication of their phenomenal talent. A limited amount of just 500 tee's from each of the winner's would be manufactured and sold so to have ownership over one would be pretty unique. Many incentives to purchase... So that is exactly what we did. We are over the moon with our new garments and support entirely every thing the "Paper Rain Project" stands for!
We instantly felt so wow'd and inspired being and absorbing all of the awesomeness around us. We felt welcomed and warm, at home to be precise and so when the offer of having the chance of hiding away from the rain and chilling on the quirky sofa sitting by the door of the shop. We jumped at it!
Asking for a better ending to our time in the South Island is just completely out of the equation.
I hope this has been another enjoyable read for you all. Do more of what makes you happy my friends!!
Channelling my love to you all.
xxx