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Published: February 20th 2006
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Taxi...
Waiting on the beach for our ride back to civilization. Nice beach huh??? Sitting here on a rocky stretch of beach, enjoying a happy hour New Zealand Lager can. Listening to the waves break and feeling the warm sun on the back of my neck, I got inspired to write a blog. Life on the road has presented me with lots of great moments and this one falls right up there. Yesterday was filled with bad luck, and overall one of the most stressful days we've had on the road so far. Let me break it down for you.
It all started around 10 in the morning, we gave our supposed employer a call, just to let him know we were coming by to pitch our tents at the orchard. Only to find out he had given our jobs away...NO GOOD!!! We spent a few hours checking out other leads, not really finding anything that promising. Mind you the day was supposed to consist of heading to Nelson so Bryan could return his sneakers and I could check out the flea market. After killing most of the early afternoon looking for work, we headed to Nelson. Now they don't call Moskowitz the "King Goon" for nothing. On the way to Nelson we had
Day one on the track
The first day was a bit rainy, but I never let the weather get me down...just no point. an accident solely involving us and the curb. Completely destroying the left front tire on the Goonobago. Time to change the tire...well the jack was acting a bit difficult, Bryan and I fought the good fight, got the car off the ground and threw the spare on...while Moskowitz walked to the gas station and got us some cokes (who was driving again when the tire got destroyed???).
We finally made it to Nelson, and of course, the sneaker store was closed. None of the phone calls we made looking for work panned out. We couldn't even find a backpackers with beds available. So since we hadn't eaten all day...$5 Thai food by the Paradiso, a hostel we had stayed in before. By this point our day had been quite frustrating, and we didn't even have a place to stay. So why not start drinking, ended up hanging out with all these people we'd met during our stay there before. We find out no one will bother us if we just pitch our tents in the public park across the street. So free camping it was. Hanging out at Paradiso was great and we ended the day on an up
At the begining
Looking nice and clean, dry and ready to go. note pitching our tents in the dark for free. Life is pretty good over here, I think most people would beg for our problems over theirs.
Let me fill you in on what we've been up to since my last blog. We've been in the Nelson/Motueka area since coming over from the north island. We had sent our passports to Christchurch and they returned with a big "Temporary Work Permit" stuck in them, quite cool I must say. Most of our time has been spent looking for jobs, setting up bank accounts and registering for and IRD#. After visiting a few orchards and being offered three different jobs, we settled on one (wrong choice in retrospect) and figured we should head out of town to enjoy our last week before picking starts. Time for another one of the great walks...
Brian and I decided to walk most of the Abel Tasman coastal track. Normally a 5 day hike, but because of our time limitations we could only walk two thirds the track. Bryan on the other hand wanted mountain views, so he headed to a different national park and hiked up a mountain.
The scenery on the
I really like this pic...
On the beach at Anchorage Bay. This driftwood and grass made for a nice shot. coastal walk was spectacular. It was a 32km hike, most segments walking through rain forest/jungle type scenery. The track would then veer towards the coast, treating us to vast views of tropical blue waters and white sand beaches nestled up against the mountains. We stopped at one cove for lunch the first day, I counted 6 people on the beach when we arrived. Spent the first night at Anchorage Bay, a rather large campsite, but what a beautiful beach. Some of the softest sand I've ever walked on. It was pouring rain the first evening so we spent the night under the kitchen shelter chatting with two Dutch girls, two Finnish girls, an American couple from Nebraska, and a bunch of other people from around the world...overall a great evening.
Now because this is a coastal track, tidal crossings are necessary so we needed to cross a tidal estuary either 3 hours before or after low tide. Low tide being at 6 AM or 6 PM that day our decision was easy, hang around all day and hit the afternoon low tide. You would think that most people would do the same, but we woke to find most people
Anchorage Bay
no need for words with this one. set off at the crack, apparently a bunch of lunatics. Our Finnish friends were on the same wavelength as us and slept in. We all spent the day sitting around chatting, enjoying the bright sunshine and left to hike around 3:30. Walking across a tidal estuary is very funny, there are boats sitting on the sand, crabs running around and it's very different terrain from the rest of the hike. Take a look at the pics and you'll understand.
We arrived at Bark Bay, to find another spectacular beach and a perfect campsite, spread out in the trees 10 feet from the beach. The sound of waves breaking never gets old to me, it is one of my favorite past times to just sit on the beach and listen to the waves break. Our neighbors for the evening where a Dutch couple on an 8 month trek who both happened to be pshyco-therapists who worked with criminals back in the Netherlands. Real nice people, we all traded travel stories and enjoyed pasta for dinner. Sometime during dinner Moskowitz and I realized that to catch our 1:30 water taxi at Awaroa the next day we had to leave by 6:30
Tidal estuary
So this is what a bay looks like when all the water drains out...really weird. Plus the mud made a great squishing sound whenm you walked. in the morning or we'd miss the tidal crossing window north of us...not good, I have really gotten accustomed to sleeping in. Luckily, to our surprise the water taxi was going to pick us up by a lodge (hotel) so breakfast and ice cold beers awaited us at the finish line.
So we wake up at the crack, the sun hasn't risen yet, and we start breaking down camp in the pitch black, got a nice shot of the sky lighting up before sunrise though. It was a nice walk, the crossing we left early for involved crossing about 10 feet of 6 inch deep water. We arrived at the lodge to find a 5 star resort in the middle of a national park. So french toast with bacon and bananas it was, not sure anything ever tasted that good. Followed a few hours later by two ice cold beers while we killed the three hours waiting for our water taxi.
Now I started writing this blog last night sitting on a beach and I'm finishing it sitting here at the new job we just found about an hour ago. Funny how quickly things change on the road,
But I wanted to take the boat out tonight...
It's pretty weird when you walk by a bunch of boats beached because the water all disapeared. from good to bad to great all in a few days.
Stay tuned...next blog entry "Picking Apples in New Zealand".
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Rich Mosk
non-member comment
hey now
dave rolling down the mtn is great. so is apple picking. cheers.