Holy moly, this trip is moving fast now. Well, by that I guess I mean I'm moving quite fast, but it sometimes feels like the trip itself is doing the driving. Hope you guys are ready for a very long post.
Post-Milford Track went exactly as I would have predicted, with me being a waste of space for approximately 48 hours. I guess it's not very healthy to stress your body for a few days and follow that up by binging on meat pies. The third day, my last day in Te Anau, I decided to push my luck and go for another hike.
Post-Milford Track went exactly as I would have predicted, with me being a waste of space for approximately 48 hours. I guess it's not very healthy to stress your body for a few days and follow that up by binging on meat pies. The third day, my last day in Te Anau, I decided to push my luck and go for another hike.
Ho-hum, just Te Anau being scenic
The Kepler track, another Great Walk, was under avalanche warning just like the Milford track, so rather than foot the bill for another helicopter ride, I decided to do most of the walk in 1 day with a minimal pack. From what I had heard, the track offered an entirely different terrain, as well as some absolutely unbeatable alpine views. I caught a shuttle to the edge of town, and set off to the start of the track. For about 5 km the track is flat through a forested area, before boom, mountain. Straight uphill for another 8 km, which is damn exhausting. I was very happy to be doing the walk with only a daypack, as the folks I passed carrying giant backpacks looked tired. I speed hiked my way up the hill, and broke through the tree-line into a view out of the movies.
Just unbelievable 360* mountain views, for a couple more km before I reached the next hut for a sheltered lunch of probably the worst snack bars I've ever had the misfortune of purchasing. After a quick lunch, it was time to head back down. Turns out walking down a mountain is pretty tricky as well, and I managed to twist my left knee a wee bit on one of the steep bits, which wasn't too comfortable for the rest of the way. Anyhow, I made it back to civilization, and congratulated myself for 28km/6 hours walk with another pie. Honestly, I would stop doing that to myself if I could. So, so good.
Next on the plan was the Rakiura track, on Stewart Island, the southernmost bit of NZ. However, that bit about the busted knee got me worried, so I decided not to push my luck and I took a break from hiking. Unfortunately, I had already purchased my bus ticket to Invercargill, NZ's southernmost city, so I figured I might as well show up and check it out. There's got to be something fun to do, right? Had anyone warned me about that town and I would have gladly eaten the cost of the bus ticket.
So, Invercargill. I've been blessed to travel in an amazing country, where I could honestly say that I've enjoyed every town, city, and wilderness I'd visited. Not so much, Invercargill. For an introduction, take a look at Tripadvisor. The #2 activity in town is scenic flights to Stewart Island, a way out of town. The #4 activity is visiting the information center. The #6 is the historic water tower. Not inspiring, but altogether there wasn't anything un-wholesome about the town itself so I really can't knock it for that.
No, what really made the experience was my hostel. I would have been almost disappointed if I'd gone the entire trip without a creepy hostel experience. Problem solved! The tiny backpackers hostel I stayed at was owned and operated by a guy named Sparky. His house, which had been converted into the hostel, was on the outskirts of town, about 20 minutes walk. The doorway is covered in notices informing guests what can and cannot be worn or brought inside the premises, and informing the police that they are unwelcome to search the premises. The interior decorative theme could best be described as accumulated clutter, with nearly every surface and wall covered in, well, stuff. Several of the walls were adorned with pictures. Oh that's nice, you say, what were the pictures of? Sparky. All the pictures were of him.
My room was an 8 bed, and there was at least one other person's belongings in there, which gave me a little hope that I wouldn't have to spend the night alone sitting in the corner with a flashlight on the door. Oh, also, I almost forgot the doors. All of the doors had locks, and of course we had keys to our rooms. However, every door had a working skeleton keyhole, which could lock or unlock any room from either side of the door. So that's fun.
Lastly, there were the rules. The TV/DVD player had a sign on it saying that only hostel staff were to operate it. As did the phone. "Hostel staff" was just Sparky, as far as I saw. Also, I was informed of the no knuckle cracking policy by Sparky when I checked in. He caught me starting to crack my knuckles subconsciously and pointed it out to me. Yikes.
So, all that added up to my decision to only spend one night in Invercargill. I caught a morning bus to my next stop, Dunedin. Now, pronunciation of Dunedin is how you can tell how long someone's been in New Zealand. You're probably thinking it's pronounced doon-din. Maybe even dunadin, or something like that. Nope, it's da-NEE-din. OK then, moving on. That town is actually awesome. It's a college town, and I was there smack in the middle of exam season. The city had a really awesome vibe, as well as a Cadbury's chocolate factory and the Speights Brewery.
Speights is essentially a little less crafty than Sam Adams and a little less watery than Budweiser. It's a fine middle ground. Still, delicious, and easily my favorite mass-produced and widely-accessible beer in this county. So having no friends in the city, I did the only thing I could: brewery tour. The tour was an hour explanation of the history of beer, and how beer is made, not exactly groundbreaking stuff. But at the end, the holy grail: 30 minutes alone in a room with 6 taps of different Speights varietals, with encouragement to try everything and pour as much as you please. The tour was only $22 (thanks for the discount, USC Student ID!) and I'd like to think the brewery lost a fair bit of money on me. In the tasting room I met four traveling Germans, and they invited me along to go watch some live music in a bar nearby. That was great, and the Germans were nice, but the more they had to drink the more they started speaking only in German. Once I couldn't follow much of the conversation, I excused myself, went back to the hostel, and booked myself onward to Christchurch the next day.
Christchurch is a tough story. As you may know, the city was hit hard by massive earthquakes in 2010 and 2011, and the recovery is still very much ongoing. Christchurch was the second most populous city in NZ at the time of the earthquakes, but it has slipped into 3rd as the aftermath of the quakes has driven away many residents and hampered tourism. The city originally had a charming English vibe, from what I've heard, but all that has changed with the quakes. The bell tower of the cathedral at the city center used to be the top attraction, as it would afford travelers scenic views of the city in all directions. Now, the bell tower fell into rubble and he cathedral itself is shuttered and fenced off.
Christchurch in a picture: Earthquake-shattered beauty, with a side of ubiquitous shipping containers and colorful local artwork.
The rebuilding efforts are making definite progress. ReStart, the new city center, is a collection of shops made out of repurposed shipping containers, and it's really quoted cool. There are clothing stores, book stores, food shops, banks, and souvenir shops all in brightly painted metal boxes. But outside the CBD, where the focus has been, progress is still slow. Entire office buildings are fenced off and the windows are dark and empty. City blocks of open gravel, where buildings either fell or were torn down and cleared away. On the walk to my hostel is a broken hotel where a banner celebrating a New Zealand Tourism Distinction Award still flies outside. It was rough to be there, because you can feel the city wanting to thrive, wanting to be recovered from the quakes and go about a normal summer. But it's not there yet, and there's a long way left to go.
The next morning I caught a bus to Nelson. Yep, my first return visit to a town! With my birthday coming up, I wanted to be somewhere I knew it would be sunny, and somewhere I knew people. My friend Julie had settled in Nelson for a bit, so after I spent a day laying in the sun we made plans to gather a crew and go wine tasting on my birthday.
We caught a ride to Blenheim, about 2 hours from Nelson, and the heart of Marlborough, New Zealand's wine country. The five of us rented bikes, and rode around to different local wineries. I've never been much of a fan of white wine, but damn is it good here. After a very boozy afternoon, we returned the bikes and parted ways with 2 of our group who were continuing further south. Oh, also they were the ones with the car. Which meant it was time for another episode of your favorite new show: Hitchhiking with Jared!
Turns out it's a lot easier to catch a ride with 2 girls than as a group of 3 guys. Who'd have thunk.
I made a critical planning error on the trip, and failed to bring any sort of jacket. It was about 6:30pm by the time we started trying to hitch a ride, and windy. I'm not a smart man when it comes to weather preparedness, apparently. But then we got picked up by a dude named Nigel, who took us 40 minutes out of his way, all the way back to our hostel. Hitchhiking success!
Back at the hostel, my friend Heather made me an awesome birthday card and bought me candles, while Julie bought me a chocolate cake. They lit the candles in the hostel kitchen, and the entire hostel sang to me. I didn't expect much from a birthday on the road in a foreign country, but I was completely blown away by all this. People are the best.
I spent another day in Nelson after my birthday, then caught the ferry to Wellington. This ends my time on the South Island, at least for this trip. On the trip back to Wellington I sat and played cards with an awesome family from Hawaii, who basically adopted me for the ferry ride. It was really nice to get out of a hostel dynamic for a change and back to family style living, at least for a few hours.
I think I'll say that so far, Wellington has been my favorite of NZ's cities, though I'm holding out hope for my return trip through Auckland. I love any city with more than one used bookstore on a single block. I spent another day reading in the same cafe as last time, drinking unhealthy amounts of tea and altogether having an amazing time.
Which brings me to today. I've left Wellington again, northward bound on an Intercity bus. Taihape, or Tai-happening, as it's affectionately called by the locals, is my next stop. I'm spending the weekend at River Valley, and I'm totally stoked to see the old crew again.
That's all for this time folks, but if past experience is any indicator, it's going to be an eventful weekend.
Cheers,
Jared
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