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Published: February 28th 2008
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Hi!
So me and Miles worked one week in the dangerous kitchen, my hands were soaking and I had enough of the
strange life-style of our host. We had to go and pee in the garden to safe water and more odd stuff like that...
Miles wanted to stay four days longer than me, while I would do a 3 day trek with Steve (uk) in the abel tasman
National park. But the same day I left, Alex (our host=50 year old hippie woman) threw him out because he had done
his laundry without asking (but she was never at home). Anyway, I was glad we could leave with all three of us to Abel Tasman.
First we stayed one night sleeping on a free campsite next to a river, with all the leftover people we still knew from festivals.
The next day, we bought all kinds of hiking food: peanuts, raisin, pasta in a bag, muesli bars,... and of we went!
Great weather and beautiful deserted beaches, made our day perfect! We did the most northern part of the trek, so the most isolated one. We stayed on a anapai beach and were the only tent there. After hiking
one day, even pastamix of 1 dollar tastes like a king's meal! We ended the day by playing cards on the beach under the moonlight and the perfect sound of wave strolling gently on the beach.
The second day we hiked another part on the coast and then went into the inland track. We didn't know where to sleep yet, but
Steve knew there was one house somewhere on the boarder of the park he had seen before. He remembered there was a sign with six names: Crian, Dianne, Venus, Dove, Tarn, Lily. Obviously, we all thought it was one big house owned by six hippies, and it shouldn't be any problem staying there.... So after one day of hiking, we arrived at the sign and made our way up to the nirvana place. When we arrived, a young woman with child on the arm opened the door and was very surprised to see us. (of course: they live in the middle of nowhere!!). The hippie-walhalla turned out to be a family house with four childeren. Anyway, we could sleep in their garden with view on the the whole National park. You won't believe me, but it was perfect again.
Next day, they invited us for breakfast and after that we headed back on the track through the rain. We decided to do the long way home, over gibbs hill and were more or less dead when we arrived at the car. We had to hurry to the city because we got attacked by a huge bunch of hungry sandflies. The same night we said goodbye to Steve, goodbye to Golden bay, where we've ended up staying three weeks and hitched back over the hills to Motueka.
From there we took a bus to Punakaiki on the west coast. Known for its 'Pancake rocks and blowholes'. It had been a long travel,
so we were there at night, did a good beachwalk, and went to bed. The next day, we explored some caves, did the walk through the rock formations, and did an adventourous bush walk. We weren't supposed to do any inland treks because they all involve rivercrossings... But we didn't want to do nothing all day, so we decided to do one track with only one river crossing. After three hours of walking, we arrived at the river, wich was flooded more then it should...After hesitating and trying
not to be stung by sandflies Miles took the first step and crossed the river in his underpants. When I saw he survived, I did the same and crossed...
but the sandflies had the same idea (AAAAAAAAAAAA). At night we saw the German couple who lived the tent next to us and they told us they were doing a bushtrack but when they came at the river, it was IMPOSSIBLE to cross, so the walked all the way back. We smiled, said we'd crossed, and felt like winners! yes! Hehe, to decrease their pain, we told them that the track after the river was not really worth it, and that we got attacked by sandflies. But still, it felt good 😉
From Punakaiki we hitched to Greymouth in a huge campervan, with Heather and John. A sixty year old couple from the North Island. Great people! They parked along the road, took the time to make coffee and tea, and we chatted about life. We left them with a full stomach and a big smile on our faces. In Greymouth we had booked the Tranzalpine train to Christchurch, estimated one of the best trainrides in the world. It was
good, but it doesn't need any words, see pictures!
In Christchurch we met up we Anna and Marian (the 2 girls that I 'd travelled with, my first three weeks). It was nice to see them again, and we bouth had loads of stories to tell each other. I'll meet anna again withing three weeks, to travel to Tonga together! From Christchurch we made our way down to Dunedin because we had an appointment with the french girls here today. I'll meet them in about one hour, and then we mak our way down to the catlins, fiordland, milford sound. There are a lot of scenic routs and free campsites along the planned route, and they have a car... so, let's see what happens next.
Hasta la vista.
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femhem
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zucht..... 't ziet er weer adembenemend mooi uit daar. sprakeloos. enjoy the time of your life there