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Published: January 5th 2006
Marahau
High Tide
Abel Tasman National ParkBeing that this will be my last post from New Zealand I will dispense random thoughts regarding our latest journey into the Abel Tasman National park as well as the Kiwi culture with primary focus on the south island.
To begin, I was extremely disappointed with myself and my inability to write about any intriguing observations I noticed in Queenstown. The reason for this is that I really hadn't let it all sink in at the point when I posted the last blog. In fact I hadn't even left Queenstown before I was trying to sum it all up. My apologies for that, but after 2 day long bus rides and 1 flight to the North Island, I've had some time to think about this Country and everything I think encapsulates it.
The pictures that are in the forefront of this blog are from the Abel Tasman National Park. As the clouds can tell you, the weather in New Zealand is EXTREMELY unpredictable. I woke up at 7 the morning of the 4th with the expectations of catching an 8am bus north to the Park. Unfortunately, from my spot in the top bunk of what can only be called a
Tinline Bay
Abel Tasman National Park shed of a dorm room, I could hear the rain practically pierce my skull. Having conferred with Royal with nothing more than hand gestures, we decided that the 8am bus ride was to be skipped because neither of us intended on a rainy day hike. After rising an hour later, there was not even a sign that it had been raining for the past few hours. The sun had already soaked up and ground water and our hostel was bumping with swimmers, a volleyball game and plenty of sun bathers reading their road novels. Knowing that Penn State was playing in the Orange Bowl later in the day I pounced on the opportunity to catch up on a week's worth of laundry then run to a bar to soo the Nittany Lions stomp the school I transfered from, the lowly Florida State Seminoles. By the time the wash cycle was completed, it began to pour again and we couldn't hang our clothes to dry. After 2 spin cycles, (hostel dryers are crap) we worked our way into town.
We intended to grab some lunch and decided at the spur of the moment to take the bus ride up to
Tinline Bay 2
Abel Tasman National Park Abel Tasman National Park and tough out the finicky weather, after all, we always could just wait out the rain. To my college friends, this comment isn't meant to be heresy, but I completely forgot about the Orange Bowl before I jumped on the bus and didn't think about it until our return 6 hours later. (When traveling, home is just another place that travelers rarely think about let alone speak of.) So aside from a partly cloudy afternoon, we lucked out with the absence of rain for the entire "tramp" (kiwi for hiking) through the park.
The Abel Tasman National Park (henceforth noted as AT) is located across the Tasman Sea from Nelson, where we stayed. The Tasman Sea is a body of water that is substantially affected by the changing of 3 meter tides. Across the coast, the landscape changes from gorgeous to fugly every six hours. When we arrived at AT, the tide was high but ebbing. Most of the pictures you see are from the beginning of a trek that takes most campers 5 days to complete. We had 5 hours, and judging by the pictures, we didn't get very far but out to Coquille
Tramping Path
Abel Tasman National Park Bay and back. The beautiful part of our 5 hour tramp was that we got to move along the trail hugging the coast going north but when we returned back south, the tide had rolled out so far that we were able to walk across the bay. It is a plain shame that we didn't get a full day if not multiple days in this park as it combines trails like those along the Appalachian Trail with views of Mountains like those in the Rockies, part Rainforest like I've never seen and waters that make you feel like you should hear steel drums somewhere in the background.
Though AT is amazing in its own right, it is very much the epitome of what you might expect from the South Island. There is a little bit of everything. We basically drew the mirror image of a 6 in our travels throughout the South Island. From Christchurch by train west to Greymouth across an expansive Mountain Range. From Greymouth by car south along the coast to Franz Josef the home of the Glaciers. From Franz Josef by car further south then back east across the Southern Alps to Queenstown. From Queenstown
Random Cave
Abel Tasman National Park by bus northeast across the eastern plains to Christchurch. Below are 3 pictures I took of Lake Tekapu, where we stopped for lunch. I ran down to take pictures of the Lake and the color of the water, which was absoultley beautiful! From Christchurch by bus further north and then west into the fjords and Marlborough sounds where Nelson lies.
It is these last 2 bus rides that I MUST comment on. While the views outside these bus rides were spectacular, I definitely felt like a sardine packed into a tiny little can. The intercity bus line is nothing but a glorified school bus. Sure they give you seats instead of benches but take away any type of leg room you may have had in a school bus and the seats don't recline. There is no such thing as an interstate in New Zealand, and by this, I mean 6-8 land highways like you find all over the states. For that matter, I'm not sure the Kiwis have ever seen a straight road. So on these 2 lane twisty "highways" moving up and down mountains and over rivers, the drivers cruise at 100+ kph, I have no idea how
Random Cave
Abel Tasman National Park many mph that is, you do the math. Now the really interesting part is that they drive on the other side of the road, so sitting on the left side of the bus is rather scary if you look out the window and down and see nothing but straight cliffside, (no guard rails!) It is equally scary to sit on the right of the bus and see opposing traffic coming at you from that direction! The driving on the wrong side of the road thing isn't the hardest thing to get used to, but I really do think that the bus companies should institute a training process by which they teach their drivers how to drive. On our drive from Christchurch to Nelson, I thought I might die. Its all mountains, it was raining, our driver couldn't get the manual transition from first to second gear. She would routinely stop in the middle of these 2 lane highways, either because she completely stalled out or because she had stalled out so many times that traffic behind her was flaming mad, honking at her and flashing their lights. She was having so much trouble with the transmission that she wasn't paying
Inside the Random Cave
Abel Tasman National Park enough attention to the wheel! Every 5 seconds or so she'd jerk the bus straight back onto the road from whatever direction she was veering off to. If the stalling and jerking wasn't enough to prevent someone from taking a nap, the Milli Vanilli CD she played on repeat AT FULL VOLUME surely kept everyone awake. The only thing I could do to pass the time was curse under my breath, crank up my ipod and find god very quickly in case this was the end.
But all joking aside, I am safe and sound in a hostel in Auckland, the Capital of New Zealand on the North Island. If you talk to anyone who has been to NZ, they will tell you that the North Island is nothing special. I can't speak for the rest of the island, but I devised a t-shirt design that would read "Auckland - Ain't Much Happening Here!" Below are the 3 pictures I took from Auckland. The weird Santa on top of the book store, Auckland Sky Tower & the Auckland Bridge beyond Auckland Harbour. After weighing cost of travel and time spent at destinations in the North Island, it was
Sea Kayakers
Abel Tasman National Park decided to skip it all together and head for the East Coast of Australia. But before embarking on a new country, it’s important to recall the important aspects of NZ.
The traveler/hostel culture that I've encountered here is unlike anything I've ever seen. My prior experience with hostels is limited to a one night stay in Amsterdam. The hostels here are littered with Germans, English, Israelis, Dutch, and surprisingly a good number of Kiwis. I've never seen anywhere that caters to backpackers as much as NZ. Its understandably because such a large part of their economy is tourism, but there is a hostel or a backpacker motel on just about every corner in most towns. I have two theories about the abundance of hostels; first, this is a very easy country to backpack around. I met a kid from Oklahoma that has been hitch-hiking for a few months all around the south island. There are many people that buy cars or vans for a few weeks or a few months and give rides to fellow travelers in exchange for cash for petrol. It’s small enough that you can cover a lot of ground in a small time and if
Sea Kayakers 2
Abel Tasman National Park you are not in a car, there are tours (be it busses, boats or planes) everywhere! Secondly, there is enough natural beauty in such a small space that you can see more here in two weeks than if you drove all over the US. These two reasons combined with the fact that this is an English speaking country that isn't Australia or the US go a long way.
I suppose I had my first real "Oh Shit" Moment during the bus ride from Christchurch to Nelson. Royal and I sat in different rows of the bus and as I was staring out the window at some part of a rainforest, I had the epiphany that I have absolutely no idea where I am in a country I've only dreamed about going to for the past 24 years of my life. I was starting to feel the effects of having traveled so far by public transportation in such a short time and quickly realized what an enormous undertaking we have embarked upon. Even travelers who have left home for a year or more generally don't move at the rate that we are moving, nor to as many destinations as
Coquille Bay
Took a quick minute to write down some thoughts in my journal on top of one of these rocks... we are attempting to visit. The common reaction from other travelers when hearing of the journey is "Oh Shit!" Well I had my first Oh Shit moment and after that, its been quite liberating. Until then I had still been thinking of things back home that I can't do a thing about while on the road. Its a simple life on the road. Should I wear my one of my two pairs of shorts or one of my two pairs of pants? Which of my 3 tee shirts do I want to wear? Is it cold? Simple, I'll just throw on my only jacket that is also my rain coat. Is my iPod charged? (That's a big one!) Should I go for a walk or a run? Basically, for all those of you who grimace at the thought of living out of a bag and moving from one bed to another, I am enjoying it and more than anything enjoying the simplicity of this lifestyle. Its funny how when traveling, what was a priority back home isn't even on the radar screen when abroad. Whereas priorities at home include a lunch break, your favorite tv show, going to the gym,
Journal Time
Abel Tasman National Park on the road, none of this matters. Exercise comes from teh daily activities of simply walking, passive entertainment such as TV or movies, while they are available at most hostels are a cheap way to pass the time when you can talk with a fellow traveler over a beer or glass of wine about each other's journey's through the world.
Final Note: To anyone who noticed that my Eurotrash Mullett and pathetic attempt at a Beard have attributed to a combined appearance of nothing more than a poorly cast survivor contestant, they will be left behind in New Zealand, or as soon as I can find a decent barber......
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