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Published: January 16th 2017
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Days 80 to 91 of 165
As shown at the end of the last blog the flights to Wellington went without a hitch. A decided advantage of travelling with carry on luggage only - and under 7kg each to do that - is that luggage can't get lost in transit.
The NZ leg of our trip is to run different from Oz in that we are hiring a car and staying in backpackers lodges and cabins. Our first was a big art deco building near the Wellington waterfront. A great setting, lovely views but WiFi that would shame a third world country.
We settled down, slept......and sometime after midnight the earth moved! The bed swayed, things rattled on the chest of drawers. We are not sure either of us were aware of just what was happening at the time, and both dozily went back to sleep. It wasn't until we were talking about it the following morning, and Paul checked the Internet for news, that we found that there had been a 5.3 earthquake off the coast of South Island, and that was what we had felt. Blimey, welcome to New Zealand!
!
Wellington has been officially declared as 'the coolest little capital in the world' and it is pretty cute. We felt it had a Scandinavian / Icelandic feel about it. The coastal setting is quite stunning.
We pretty much spent the first day in New Zealand's principal museum Te Papa. Within a higgledy-piggledy mix of slabs and buildings is a great museum trying to break through. There are some great exhibits, but ohhh the layout, both on and when trying to move between floors. You need a logistics degree to find your way around.
The place is saved though by a stunning exhibition, Gallipoli. Designed in conjunction with Sir Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings etc) and the WETA special effects studio, this tells the story of NZ Anzacs at Gallipoli by focusing on the detailed stories of 8 who fought there. The detail is astounding, but WETA have upped the drama by building figures 2.5 times lifesize to illustrate each story.
Next day we had a conducted walking tour of the city. These are usually a good way to find out more detail about a place, and
this tour didn't disappoint. We even learnt that within one of the buildings being demolished after last November's earthquake, a car park, there were 4 BMWs which couldn't be recovered. Nor could the owners get insurance paid until the building is pulled down around them and the cars destroyed.
Adverts on the tele that evening on what to do in the event of a an earthquake or tsunami. Brings it home to you.
Sunday found us engrossed within yet another Anzac / Gallipoli exhibition. Again with Sir Peter's help - some of the exhibits were owned by him - the outstanding feature of this The Great War exhibition were the numerous 'colourised' photos from the Gallipoli battlefield. Fascinating, and deserved to be much busier.
Caught Star Wars : Rogue One in the afternoon. Strange to see digitised images of Peter Cushing and a young Carrie Fisher. And so many 'stolen' scenes from the original.
The ferry over between North and South Island is supposed to be one of the best, and the Marlborough Sound part is certainly that. Failed to spot any marine life though . Car picked
up at the ferry terminal we made our way towards the Abel Tasman National Park, ready for our Great Walk in a couple of days time.
The next day, having got the lie of the land, and final supplies for the walk, we had a good meal, including local Green Lipped mussels for Paul, before the 5 days of hiking rations.
New Zealand is regarded as a walkers' / hikers' paradise. Vast areas of land are National Park and within those are miles of official walking tracks. In particular there are 9 'Great Walks', multi day hikes of 50 to 80 kms, with bunk bed huts and campsites along the way. We are doing 2 and a bit of these whilst here. The Abel Tasman Coast Track, the Milford Track in 2 weeks time, and the Tongarairo Alpine Crossing in North Island.
For a 'coast' walk there was a lot of non sea level and inland walking. But the landscape was at times stunning. The huts were.....an experience, especially day 2 when we were amongst the last to arrive and hence had the pick of the poorest, up top mattresses! We
learnt our lesson and made sure we had an early start on the next two mornings. But our light kit for carrying was easier on the back and legs, and the duck down sleeping bags with silk liners made for comfortable and cosy sleeping for weary bodies and muscles.
The weather was kind to us . Only day 2 had rain whilst we were walking, and then only for about half that day's kms. The add-boiling-water meals we had bought were mostly quite tasty - the Thai chicken curry had us both quaffing copious amounts of water. The 'fruit trifle' would have been better described as 'fruit sponge with custard' but the 'yoghurt with museli' made with cold water as a breakfast was particularly disgusting. We will stick with the porridge for the other walks.
By the time we had finished we had done, including side tracks and evening 'strolls', about 67km in the 5 days. We felt the pizza, beer/ cider and pavlova we had for dinner the evening we got back was well earned.
Today we drove the 450km to Kaikoura, a town on the upper East coast famed,
originally, for its sealife eg dolphins, whales etc. However since we booked its new fame is being the epicentre for a 7.8 earthquake last November.
This has somewhat devastated the town's main industry, tourism, because access is now limited, and will still be impossible from the usual northern entry for the rest of this year. But, the inland route, and the coastal connection to Christchurch are now both open, though as we found out today the road condition has taken a hell of a battering. Even tomorrow, when we travel to Christchurch, the coast road is reclosed for 2 days as they sluice away fresh landslides/loose earth above the road.
Having got here and looked around this afternoon we have witnessed first hand some of the effects. Many buildings are shored up and have 'do not enter' notices pinned to them, whilst all others have 'OK to use' signs. But the shoreline effects are amazing. Vast areas of seabed now above water. The coast for many metres out to sea rose around 2 metres for 100 miles along the coast. The stench amongst the rotting seaweed and stagnant water is really bad, practically sulphurous.
But a 'bonus' is that you can, if careful over the jagged rocks, walk out to what would have been sea-surrounded rocks that are a fur seal nursery, full of pups that can't be many days old.
We were determined though to still come and do another trip 'highlight'.
Tomorrow morning we go swimming with dolphins!!
Written, in a comfy settee in the lounge of a delightful backpackers' hostel in excited anticipation of tomorrow's encounter.
Observations
Loving the NZ pronunciation of e's
Deadliest - becomes diddly-est
Twenty - twinty
Yes - yis
Weather - wither
........
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