New Zealand

I landed in Auckland and wandered around the airport for a while until I left for my flight down to Christchurch. In Christchurch I sayed downtown in Base Backpackers. The next morning I took a bus up to Aurthers Pass and Hiked for two days Climbing Aicken Mountain and Avalanche Peak. From there I moved on up to Murchison via Graymouth.


In Murchison I worked construction on a bed and breakfast trading time for kayak gear and a place to say. I stayed in an old shed with a someone who was working as a "boat slave" for the same kayak school. Murchison has 4 rivers flowing into it and for the next week I paddled every day. We never had to drive more than 20 minutes to get to any put in. Paddled some Class II to class III+ sections. Unbeliavble beautiful area and rivers. It was hard to leave such a perfect situation, but I had more of NZ to see.


HEAPHY TRACK-----

I took a bus up to Nelson spent the night and then headed out to do the Heaphy track an 82km (50 mile) hike across the northern part of the South Island. The first day the bus dropped me off a the first of 3 fords because he could make it accross. The first ford had a food bridge across it and as a walked toward the second ford it continued to rain hard probably about 25 ml an hour. The second crossing was faily intense and caused me to slip and nealy take a swim. Gave me a little scare and so as it contiued to rain and the rivers contiued to rise I came across the third and final ford. There wasn't a chance I was going to try it. Right below the road where I had to cross was easily a class V rapid that would have killed me it I would have fallen. So I kept myself busy as it rained, hard, by building a shelter from ferns. After about 3 hours the rain slowed and stopped for about 40 minutes and I waited as the river went down. I went down to the point where I thought I could cross it and then it started raining again, so I decided go across and not get stuck between two rivers for the night. I made it across and to the hut that was no more than five minutes away and spent the night. It rained contiuously all night. In the morning it was still raining when I started my days hike. Up about 700m to the next hut. The walk was more like swimming than anything else. The worm hut 5 hours later was a welcoming sight, when I saw it from abouta km away I did and acutual jump of joy a little yelp of excitement.That night it hailed, rained, and blew. In the morning it was hard to get motivated to to leave, but when there was a moments break in the rain I went for it and got luckey most of the day. 27km and from the hut that night you could see the beach. The James Mackay hut was the fullest of all the ones I stayed in and had about 13 people in it. I could imagine it the 28 people the hut can apparently hold were all there. It would have been mayhem. The next day, waking up to snow, was 20 some km down hill to the beach. The Heaphy hut was amazing. It was about 200 m away from the ocean at the mouth of the Heaphy river. The final day was 17 km walk along the beach, beautiful beaches and impressive waves. I met an older couple in the Heaphy hut who offered me a ride out. I walked with John and Stephenie to the end of the track and they gave me a ride into Karamea and we stayed in the same hostle Rongo Backpackers a fun hippy place where everything, but the beds were paid for by donations. The next day they were headed in the same diretion as me and offered to take me down to Graymouth.





West Coast-------

From there John, Stephenie and I took a bus down to the Frans Joseph Glacier. The next day I did and amazing hike, Alex Knob track, up the side of a mountain opposite the glacier that had spectacular views. I then hitch-hiked up to the glacier and walked to the base of it. That night at 2 AM I woke up and watched the Rugby world cup. England v. Australia. Did the same in the morning and watched the All Blacks, NZ, loose to the French.




Wanaka and Queenstown--------

I hitch-hiked from Frans Joseph down to Wanaka. I left about the same time as John and Stephenie, who took a buss and we arived in Wanaka 6 hours later at almost exactly the same time. I saw them at the bus stop and went to check in a hostel and randomly they checked into the same one. They were a really nice couple and basically took me in as a son. They took me out to dinner and I ate with them or had wine with them almost evey day since we met in the Heaphy Hut. In Wanaka I played a little soccer and went SKYDIVING. Incredible experience that left me with a natural high for the rest of the day. I left Wanaka and went down to Queenstown where I relaxed and went out to bars for a couple of days. I hitch-hiked back up to Wanaka and then took a bus to Christchurch. I was a day early and didn't expect to have that day in Christchurch. I walked around and went to the Art Center Where I got and idea for a busness next summer. Then I bought a guitar. I read and played the guitar for the rest of the day. The next morning I flew to Auckland where I stayed for the night, and then on to Melboune Australia the next morning.


NZ-------------------

New Zealand was an amazing place with friendly people and animals. There are no animals that can kill you in NZ no bears, mountain lions, snakes, spiders, nothing. A magical place where when your on the beach you can see snow covered mountains and then clime them in the same day. I has amazing trails that are very well maintained and fun to walk on. It has great places that it has preserved very well via parks and reserves. It is a place I would recommeInd to anyone who loves the outdoors. One month was a fun time to spend here, but no where neer enough time to enjoy even half of the places it offers. I would recommend spending two to three month on the South sland if you are planning to come.... make it worh while extended stay.


Cheers.
Wyatt

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