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Published: November 5th 2017
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Bye farm life!
The last days at the farm were really cool. I had to feed the calves and they were just so adorable.
And... I started eating meat again... I was vegetarian for 2 years but I couldn't stand cooking meat all the time without eating it. So yep...
It was time to go to Kaikoura! I left 4 days earlier to do some sightseeing on my way to get there.
For the first night I stopped in a free camping near Timaru. It was really creepy. If there would have been no one else, I would have paid to go somewhere else... But luckily there was a really nice couple with their van. The man did carving in stones and wood and the woman (Jo) did necklaces, wristbands and ancklets. They sell their stuff to earn some money.
I spent the whole evening with them and Jo made me an ancklet. We ate together and shared our food. I really enjoyed listening to all their stories about their travels.
The next day I went to the Peel forest and did 2 little hikes. One of them was to see the Emily falls. The track is really nice and
you have to cross a little river a few times. Once I slipped on a stone and just fell into the water... I was happy that no one had seen that. I was really wet, but gladly my bag wasn't.
After the Emily track, I went to Mt. Somers and did the South track. It was a really difficult track with some climbing. But the view was extrordinary.
When I was going down to the car, my ldgs were shaking. They were not used to walk that much in one day.
When I was back at my car I saw that I hadn't closed my water tank properly and that all of the water had flown into my car... It was really bad!!
The campsite where I spent that night was really cool! It was free and still had everything. Water, showers, flushing toilets.
The following day I drove to Banks Peninsula. Such a beautiful place! I did the Akaroa Heritage trail. A 2 hours walk, only uphill. But astonishing views once at the top of the hill. During that hike a saw a Pukeko! It is a really rare bird that was thought extinct until 20 years ago. It
was a mother with 3 little babies. I was so happy that I saw them.
I also haf quite a weird encounter with a magpie. It was sitting in the middle of the way and wasn't scared of people at all.
That night I spent in a paying campground. But it was really worth the 12$. There were 2 kitchens, potable water, hot showers and toilets. It was in a small forest and you could reach the beach withing a 2 minutes walk. There was a sofa on that beach and I just relaxed in there for an hour and then spent the evening with two English guys I met there. I love camping, you meet people all the time.
I left pretty early the next day and drove further north. I stopped for a walk along the cliffs in Manuka bay, then I drove to Kaikoura. The road to get there was still closed because of the earthquake that happened a year ago. So it took me 2 hours more than it should have...
The campsite for that night was really in the middle of nowhere, the only access was by a 10km long gravel road. No service, no
water, only weird smelly toilets...
In the morning I left for the Mt. Fyffe. On the car park I met a guy (David) that had spent the night at the same camping than I had. We decided to walk the track together. Our first goal was to reach the Mt. Fyffe hut. It is at an altitude of 1100m. We did it in 2h30 with a few little breaks. Once there, we met some Aussies that were walking to the summit. David didn't want to continue but I really wanted to make it to the summit. So I followed the Aussies. The track was really hard and my legs were hurting so much. The last kilometer was the hardest. It got really steep and it just seemed that it would never stop. But once at the summit, you had a breath taking view over Kaikoura. 1602m of altitude in only 7.5km. Never going to do it again, or maybe yes... but at least I am prepared for the Milfordtrack now.
After the track I drove to a little cottage where I met Marta, a phd student from the university. I am now spending a week here helping her with her
research about sperm whales. So one week wity a comfortable bed! Wohooo!
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