Hello !I'm writing to you from a cafe in Franz Joseph. It's been a mix of weather. We've had sun, fog, rain, both hot and cold. Right after the last email on Wednesday, I hopped in a van with a welsh girl I met on a Facebook group for backpackers called Bethan. We were embarking on a 4 week road trip round New Zealand. We also had Bri, Erin & Ilona joining for the first week. On the first day we drove over to Greymouth via Arthurs Pass. We got in a tad late and set up camp in the garden of a hostel.  A viewpoint near Arthurs Pass   This is a Kea. They're quite ingenious, known to eat parts of cars & tents to get to the food inside. This one seems to have taken an interest in either my camera or me.   On Thursday we drove north to Able Tasman National Park. We passed very close to the Mangles Valley (early subscribers may remember the Mangles Bay in Perth. This valley gets its name from the same family & their horrible dealings in the 19th century). We didnt have time to visit so I couldnt get a piccie with this piece of Mangles history. (For the Mangles unaware, a friend of mine is a Mangles)  This is part of the pancake rocks. Formed by alternating types of stuff being dropped by the ocean & then compressing into layers  A blowhole! (I don't know who trapped a whale inside the rocks here, seems quite mean)   Part of a little river walk after the pancake rocks Friday was a busy day. We hiked into the Able Tasaman national park from our hostel, caught the water taxi back, then headed to a bush doof (kinda illegal forest rave) to get fully immersed in Aus/Kiwi degenerate culture.    The main view on our hike after mostly walking through hilly forest tracks on the coast. The girls weren't a fan of most of the walk, but I quite liked it  A quick stopover on the way to the doof  Descending into the valley was pretty special. Game: Spot me  Quite the setup for a bunch of hippies in a field! I was rather hungover on Saturday, where the main goal was to simply make it to the campsite in Nelson.  Nelson was quite quiet, but pretty! Especially as the trees start to turn golden as we head into Autumn.  I wish we had solar superloos in the UK  For my ex-colleagues: My first encounter with SBS :o (For the non-engineites, SBS is a client of my old company, much like AMP from my earlier mails in Sydney)  The sunset view from the "Middle of New Zealand" (For the pedants amongst my subscribers, according to the signs at the viewpoint, this is the middle specifically for cartographers, as measurements in NZ are relative to this point)  Me at the middle. It would sure hurt if that big pin fell loose On Sunday we made the drive to foggy KaikÅura for two nights of camping. For Monday I skipped the whale watching tour the others were doing (which was a good call cause I got a lie in and they didn't see whales) and had a lazy day of recovery instead. I was in nelson that we lost Ilona & Erin to two handsome German blokes headed north.  Bethan felt at home knowing there were fellow Welsh sheep shaggers in the vicinity of this pub  Some seals doing whatever deals do (Judging by the smell, they were all using the toilet)  The view over part of the seal colony. This rocky bit of land is only 1000 or so years old. Which brings us to Tuesday, when we packed up camp and headed back to Christchurch.   A panorama taken on the prime meridian in Greenwich in what must've been the early 90s based on what can be seen of Canary Wharf in the far right. Its amazing how much the skyline of London has grown since this piccie. (If that's good or bad is open to discussion)   My second encounter with SBS! I was very excited. And that brings us to Wednesday where I'm a bit hungover. We're gonna collect a new member of the gang, Achilles, a French-Canadian guy. We've also lost Bri, she's staying here to meet up with her parents when they land. We're gonna drive back over Arthurs Pass to Hokitika today.  Part of the rainy & foggy hike to see the Devils Punchbowl waterfall. The weather made for an amazing atmosphere as we hiked through the mossy forest tracks.  A steamboat at our campsite from the goldrush era in the nearby Hokitika. Bye for now! P.S. P.P.S |
