nz vs ds 2011: North West South Island

Hello again,

well Neil and me headed swiftly up the west coast (dropping in at Franz Joseph overnight, where we went to say hi to the glacier briefly and dropped in for 30 mins at Punakaiki to pay our respects to the pancake rocks and the beautiful karst scenery) to Nelson...sun and heat the whole time!

In Nelson we relaxed and made plans for our Abel Tasman mission. This involved bussing up to Takaka, where we stayed at a rather chilled hostel (in a rather chilled town) and went to Pupu springs and just relaxed in the hostel talking with the various guests...all good fun. The next day we bussed to the northern end of the Abel Tasman Coast Track (Wainui Bay) and started our tramp. It was grey and had been raining and windy the previous night, but pretty soon the sun was blazing again! We pitched our tents the first night at Anapai Bay, where we had the beach pretty much for ourselves...one other fella we didn't really see and an inquistive weka. Beautiful sandy beaches all through the park were sampled frequently and seeing as I was walking in my swim shorts and sandles, any beach I came to had me in it within about 10 seconds!

Second evening was spent at Onetahuti Bay, where there were about 5 other tents. We helped some folk with their crossword and relaxed (what else is there to do!) before heading south the next day towards Te Pukatea Bay, where we spent two days. This walk was a right mission and the sea was so needed when we eventually stumbled into Anchorage. Needless to say (or maybe not), I jumped straight into the sea. Best Swim Ever!!

We then had a day to kill in the Te Pukatea and what better way to spend it by walking 12.5km to Cleopatra's Pools. I goofed about on the rocks for a bit, then we headed home to Te Pukatea to chat to a cool Dutch couple from Tilburg who were surprised I'd been to there town (and even more surprised at my tale of my mission there!). Next morning we were up early to finish the walk and arrived at Marahau and our home for the next night (Old McDonald's Farm). This was an awesome big farm which had Llamas amoungst your normal farm animals...chickens and ducks (well one) walking about and we were kindly woken up at 6 or summat by the cockerel! I also got up in the middle of the night for a bit of star gazing...not as impressive as down in Fiordland, but still milky way-tastic.

We had a slow start in the morning and wandered/wondered around Marahau before getting our bus back to Nelson. There we had a relax and chatted with some german fella before Neil's mate Frog tipped up and took us to some of Nelsons salubrious and not-so-salubrious establishments. Enough said about that.

Next day we headed to Christchurch where we are now. Neil heads home tomorrow and I'll hang out here for a couple of days before heading to Dunedin for a bit (to see Melvins/High On Fire..might of mentioned that before...). Should be fun and you'll all no doubt hear about it!.

Anyway, time for a small ad break before entrancing you all with a few more photos (mainly taken by Neil as my camera was sacrificed to the gods of Fiordland on the dusky...well, it got very wet and now works no more. arse. did I mention it already? oh well. I should get another in the coming days, so fear not, there should be photos to accompany my irritating drivel!)

Also, check out the following link for interest and especially if you are near London...

http://www.richardsides.com/who_is_the_master.html

I've not investigated it myself, but have it on good authority that you can see some films from a good buddy of mine from Sheffield....cheers! (and having just looked at the link....some readings from another good buddy. wish I was there!)