So I’m in Christchurch tonight, thankfully, and I’m meeting up with the folks tomorrow for the start of the Parental Visit. I had a great time unwinding and resting up at Puponga for 5 days, with perfect weather, good people, and nice walks every day. Doesn’t get much better. Finally left and headed down to Nelson Lakes National Park for one last tramp on my own in New Zealand and I could not have had more perfect weather. But first I had some adventures on the way. I hooked up with an American guy to hitch down together and we had a very interesting day of hitches to get to St. Arnaud, the last one being withh a guy named Jimbo who works for DOC as a hunter and he invited us to stay with hime at his place for the night. We got there in the late afternoon and started drinking beer and getting ready for his mates to arrive for the rugby game. What a fun night hanging out with the locals. So many laughs…
Next day Jimbo dropped me off at the trailhead and I made my way up to Angeles Hut via the Robertson Ridge. Amazing scenery. Views all day from the ridge. Such a good decision to go there. Decided to stay at the hut and not carry the tent in for just one night. Following morning I was up and hiking at sunrise to hike down and around the lake back to St. Arnaud. Another perfect day of hiking.
Back in Arnaud at 2:30pm and had to start hitching right away to get to Christchurch to meet my parents. I was eating an ice cream outside the store (the only store in town) and the mailman asked me if I need a ride to the main road. Cool! So I did 24 km of the mail route with him along the way. Good fun. 2 other rides and then I was stuck, waiting over an hour with no luck. It was after 5pm and I was still hours from Christchurch. Then, my luck changed and a guy pulled over and said he was going all the way to Christchurch! I was SO happy! Even better, he invited me to stay the night with him and his family which saved me having to stay in another 38-person dorm! Thanks so much for that!! So tomorrow I am meeting up with my parents and our friends Paul and Nacy to do a whirlwind tour of the South Island…
Nelson Lakes National Park
Sunset from Angeles Hut
Don’t get too many sunsets like this
March 10th, 2003
Finally I am on my retreat from tramping. I escaped the world of ascents, descents, rain, and tourists, and am at a place called the World’s End all the way on the northwest point of the South Island of New Zealand. I WAS going to go to Nelson Lakes today, but after the CRAZY storm that came through last night, I knew I needed a break. All was fine in the campground in Marahau until about 2am when it started to rain very, very, very hard. Torrential west-coast style storm. I recently re-sealed the inside seam of my tent, and I was very happy with the results – as hard as it was raining there was no water coming in. It was raining SO hard though that I couldn’t sleep. 3 hours later and it was STILL POURING. Then, all of a sudden, the ground just couldn’t take any more water and the campground turned into an absolute river in minutes. I went to turn over in my tent and it felt like I was on a water bed!
I opened the door of the tent and saw there was over 4 inches of water on the ground outside! I was IN the river. I knew I had to get out or I was going to sink! So I quickly got my things together and RAN across the lawn/river to the porch of the backpacker’s. I went back to rescue my backpack which was ENTIRELY under water. I HATE this NZ weather!!! I was soaked just from running back and forth. Another guy tenting also abandoned his tent and the 2 of us slept on the porch from about 5am on, but I had trouble getting back to sleep after all the drama and worrying about all my stuff. My trekking poles nearly floated away! What a night.
Luckily though the rain stopped and the sun came out this morning and I was able to do a 3-hour drying out session. Finally by noon I was feeling somewhat human, although still tired from lack of sleep, and I left Marahau for Motueka to resupply my food.
As I said I was planning to do more tramping in Nelson Lakes, but when I got to Motueka I saw the weather called for rain for the next 3 days and I said NO WAY. So I decided to escape from everything and take the one-way road to the end of the world, literally.
It’s amazing that I got one ride from Motuela to here, a distance of over 100 km, with a German guy who went 50 km out of his way to take me right to the door! It started to rain really hard on the way here and I was even more lucky because it would have been impossible to get another ride in that weather.
There are only 10 people in this backpacker’s, but 8 of them are German-speaking, and no one has been really friendly to me so it’s a bit of a bummer. 6 of the 8 are leaving tomorrow and I’ll be happier when they’re gone. It’s a nice place though, in a beautiful setting, with beach and hills just minutes away, and I know I will enjoy a few days of rest here.
Walking around Cape Farewell
Just me and the beach and the sunset
Sunset in the sand
March 3rd, 2003