Talkingthailand

I left Queenstown and travelled over to the East coast to the second largest city in the South Island- Dunedin. There is a lot of Scottish history here- the Lay Association of the Free Church of Scotland founded Dunedin at Otago Harbour in 1848 as the main town of its Scottish settlement. The name Dunedin is the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh (Dun Eideann) and as such some of the street names, like Princes Street, and buildings are the same or similar to the ones in Edinburgh.

I was spending the next few days on my own which I didn’t mind so much as I had spent the previous two weeks with people-sometimes it’s nice to have alone time. I decided I was going to hire a car and do a little road trip of my own down to Invercargill and the Catlins coast.

But before I went on my road trip I went on a wildlife tour with Elms Wildlife Tours. Throughout the day we visited the beautiful Otago Peninsula including Taiaroa Head where we could watch Royal Albatross flying to and from the ocean- Royal Albatross are huge birds and their massiveness cannot really be appreciated when you see them in the air. We also got the opportunity to see Hookers Sea Lions, Yellow-Eyed Penguins and a New Zealand Fur Seal colony. These animals were located a short walk away over hilly farm land and sandy beaches but it is worth the effort because you get up close and personal to the New Zealand fur seals. We were literally about 10 metres away from them and you get to see just how big they are. Our guide told us that they don’t bother about humans unless you get too close or in between them and the sea (because that is their escape route). We also saw the Yellow-Eyed Penguins coming in to nest for the night which was amusing because one would arrive onto the beach and then realise that its mates were not there, so abruptly turned back into the water. This went on for a while until a few of them arrived at the same time and then they knew it was safe to continue up the beach to their nests.

For my road trip I had acquired a passenger called Jasper, who I had met in Nelson. He wanted to go to Invercargill and after telling him I wasn’t going straight there, I was going to stop and see different places, I reluctantly agreed that he could come. In the end we had a great time together. Leaving Dunedin we travelled down to Invercargill, stopping off on the way at various places to walk and to take photographs. We stayed in Invercargill for one night and then, in the morning, we said our goodbyes and I carried onward to Bluff.

I parked the car at the top of Bluff Hill and following the Millennium track, I made my way along the Foveaux walkway to Stirling Point- the pathways are well maintained and you get brilliant views of Stewart Island and the Foveaux strait. After being treated to a couple of seals playing in the surf I headed inland and upward towards the summit of Bluff Hill. The tracks are quite steep but the scenery is wonderful as you make your way through the wind worn forest. The Glory Track has steps lined with gravel in the steeper parts and this track ends at the gun pits which are what remains of the WWII coastal defence system.

After leaving Bluff I spent a very cold night in a little cottage in a small farming village called Owaka- it was so small that when I went to the pub to get dinner the whole place stopped what they were doing and looked up to watch me take my seat and order a beer! (Tumbleweed moment!).  When I got back to my cottage it was so cold I had to dress in trousers, t-shirt, hoody, AND fleece, furry boots, and hat all under a blanket- I had to warm myself up with a bottle of wine!

It’s so nice to take yourself off for a few days and get off the beaten track and away from the crowds and I think it was in New Zealand that I acquired a love of walking and seeing stuff.

Crossing the Cook Strait on a ferry I left the North Island to continue my journey around South Island, New Zealand.

Myself and another woman, Annette, decided that we wanted to go to Abel Tasman National Park so we stopped at Nelson for one night. Nelson is named after Admiral Horatio Nelson who defeated the French and Spanish in 1805 and is located on the eastern shores of Tasman Bay. As we there to visit the National Park we made Nelson our base so we didn’t do much else there.

Abel Tasman National Park is located at the north end of the South Island and is named after Abel Tasman who was the first European explorer to sight New Zealand in 1642. Annette and I planned to go for a hike to do some exploring so we went to Kaiteriteri, which is the gateway to the national park, and about one hour from Nelson. We met the guy who was going to take us on a water taxi to drop us off so we could walk back to the starting point, where he would pick us up again at the end of the trail.

We set off on the boat and on the way we passed a seal colony at Tonga Island and a bunch of sea-birds hanging out on “split apple” rock- so named because it looks like two halves of an apple have been split clean down the middle (Maori legend has it that it was the result of a fight between two brothers).

It was raining that day and the sea was really choppy so when we got dropped off I was promptly sick and didn’t feel so good. But the walk made me feel better. The walk started on a deserted beach where we picked up the coastal trail at the far end, and then made our way through the forest. During that season (July) there was nobody else about, so we had the place all to ourselves, which is kind of special. The trail climbs around headlands and lush forest with so many different species of trees, which are beautiful. It opens onto several gorgeous beaches and estuaries which show the diversity of the place and there are a few waterfalls on the way as well- being the winter season there was a lot of rainfall. It was a splendid way to pass a few hours.

Having only been in New Zealand for two weeks by this point I felt like I had seen and done loads and it wasn’t about to stop and the beauty of the magic bus is that you really can go where you want and see what you want to see.

So after leaving Nelson I arrived in Greymouth for a night but there was not much going on (it was just a pit stop really) so we went on a tour of Monteiths Brewery where we got to taste seven beers and then pour a pint of our favourite one.

We then arrived in Franz Josef where the coolest thing to do is to hike the Franz Josef Glacier. The glacier is 12 km long and located in Westland Tai Poutini National Park. We were supposed to be doing the glacier hike the day after we arrived but when we got up it was raining so hard that we decided to put it off for another day on the off chance that it would be a nice day. And we were glad we did because the following day was perfect for hiking- it was amazing- very cold but it was worth it, the views were stunning. We had to wear crampons on our boots as walking in normal boots just would not have worked. We were on the ice for a good 6-7 hours and it was tough going in places- squeezing

through tight ice passages and using our ice picks to haul ourselves a bit further up the glacier but completely worth the effort- in places the brilliant blue colours of the ice were incredible.

Next stop-Queenstown- the party place of the South Island. Don’t get me wrong you can party anywhere you want but Queenstown is renowned for being the liveliest place and the skiing is good in that area, so I was told. It was raining again but that didn’t dampen our spirits when, on the way, we were treated to more seal colonies and pancake rocks where we got off the bus to have a look. Pancake Rocks are located at Dolomite Point, near Punakaiki on the western coast of the South Island. In this area as well the sea explodes out of vertical blowholes at high tide and there is a walk-way where you can see the rocks up close-the rocks are limestone rocks created by pressure on hard and soft layers of marine creatures and plant sediment.

There is so much stuff to do in Queenstown so one of the days I was there I did a day trip to Milford Sound- it was absolutely stunning. It is a fjord in the south west of the South Island and has been judged as the world’s top travel destinations (2008 Travellers Choice Destinations Awards by Trip Advisor) and hailed to be New Zealand’s most famous tourist stop. We had a perfect day- still very cold but the sun was shining although it was very windy on the boat and I nearly got knocked off my feet. The boat leaves the port and makes it’s way through the fjord to the Tasman Sea and back again- it is surrounded by sheer rock faces rising to 1200 metres on both sides. We saw dolphins and seals and there are two permanent waterfalls- Lady Bowen Falls and Stirling Falls.

The last thing I did when I was in Queenstown was to go horse riding in Glenorchy, which is about 45 kilometres away. I love horse riding so when I found out that there were stables nearby I jumped at the chance. We rode out through the Rees Valley amidst a landscape of rocks and glacial fed rivers with beautiful mountains all around. The scenery is just incredible. In fact the mountains were the“misty mountains” from Lord of The Rings and the guide showed us where they had filmed the Isengard scenes. I rode for three hours in the morning, on a horse called Cecil, who was very well behaved. They dropped me off for lunch at the local cafe, and picked me up later to go for another two hour ride. Cecil was a bit friskier in the afternoon and kept bucking his hind legs, which took me completely by surprise and as such nearly had me off a couple of times but I managed to stay in the saddle. Afterwards I did wonder how come I could spend the day walking over a volcano and up a glacier and not ache in the slightest but five hours on a horse and it was a very different story. Nevertheless, it was a beautiful way to spend the day- just you, your horse and nature all around you.