NZ/AUS EPIC HOLIDAY - Days 39-44

Otago and Southland

Day 39 - 8th March - Wanaka

Now it was time to explore Lake Wanaka properly. I rented a bike in the morning and spent the whole day venturing around the numerous cycle paths that were spread around the area. I covered plenty of ground and managed to get some good photos but other than that it doesn't really make the most interesting story.

Still, I'll always love cycling, it's always satisfying to cover so much ground with relatively little effort. Not only that but you could hardly hope for better scenery.

lake Wanaka

Day 40 - 9th March - Wanaka

Apparently the most scenic hike in the area is the one up to Roy's Peak. According to local guidebooks it is said to provide some of the best views of Lake Wanaka and the surrounding mountains for miles around. So I arose early to allow time to make it up there.

First I had to get to the trail head which meant walking along the road out of town for about 7km. I had walked about half of the distance when a local gentleman pulled up and offered to drive me to the track. I wasn't actually hitchhiking you understand, the driver actually volunteered to give me a ride. I told you they were friendly in this country. And why wouldn't they be it's got everything, varied scenery and weather, adventure sports, hiking, utterly unique wildlife and vegetation, have I mentioned I wanted to live here?

Anyway, to get back to the subject at hand, I thanked my friendly driver and began the ascent up the mountain. This track was quite different from the ones I had climbed during my time in Arthur's Pass. This one did not go straight up the mountain in a straight, but incredibly steep line. Instead it meandered back and forth endlessly up the side in a very gradual climb. This made it less punishing a climb but it effectively made the walk seem to go on forever.

What was also different here was that there was no bush-line. In all of the previous hikes the first half of the trail was obscured by thick vegetation and when you emerged above it all you were rewarding by amazing views, and normally a pleasant surprise after realising how much height you've gained. This time however, the peak was visible right from the very beginning and the bloody thing never seemed to get any closer.

Eventually I reached the summit and was rewarded with a truly stunning 360 degree view of the land. There was just enough cloud in the area to make the scenery look much more dramatic, yet not enough to obscure anything. Perfect! I took countless photos, far too many to display here.

By an extraordinary coincidence I ran into Steve, the gentleman I had encountered at the hut in Arthur's Pass more than a week ago, on the mountain peak.

We descended the mountain and Steve, along with another friend, hitched back to town while I decided to return via the lakeside track. It was a beautiful walk back to town with great views of the lake all the way. By the time I returned I was utterly exhausted, I had walked about 22 kilometres, not bad for one day!


Day 41 - 10th March - Wanaka

It was a blustery day with rain showers coming and going throughout so I opted for a short walk up a hill overlooking the town. Hardly the most epic journey but there you go.

just a short hike today

Day 42 - 11th March - Wanaka to Queenstown

Today I was destined to return to the place where my wallet took the biggest kicking of all time. This place was Queenstown, where I took my short adventure holiday after leaving the Sun Princess. Last time I was in that most wonderful town I managed to embark on just about every gravity defying, fate tempting dice with death that money could buy. Skydiving, hang gliding, whitewater rafting, jet-boat rides, chopper flights, bungy jumps, luge rides, canyon swings, christ it's a wonder I have enough money to live off!

This time however, I'm hanging on to my money and restricting myself to hiking. I'm spending one night in Queenstown before heading off down further south but I'm coming back later on in the month.

Before we departed Wanaka though, the bus stopped at the quite wonderful Puzzling World. This was a place that was dedicated to obfuscating and dizzying optical illusions and, not surprisingly, puzzles. There were several illusion rooms and exhibits but I think my favourite two rooms were as follows.

Firstly there was a room that was built at an angle. When a person walks into this sloped room their brain, along with all sense of balance and coordination waves a white flag and dies. Even though the room wasn't moving it felt like it was being shaken around like a boat in bad weather. A couple of entertaining illusions were a pool table where the balls rolled uphill and a trolley that rolled upstairs when you sat on it. Very clever!

The other room I loved was the one that recreated an illusion used in the filming of the Lord of the Rings. The room was designed using a deliberately skewed sense of perspective and uneven lines and surfaces so that when two people stood at the far corners the room looked normal and yet the size difference between the two people was huge. One looked like a giant, the other one like a, well...like a hobbit!

There was also a maze which I admit confused the living hell out of me. I might have completed it but I ran out of time and had to return to the bus, using the emergency cheat exit (hey I was in a hurry!).

Before arriving in Queenstown we stopped at the Kawarau bridge bungy jump. This time, for the sake of my bank balance, I had to resist.

Besides, I'd done it before anyway.

already did it!

Day 43 - 12th March - Queenstown to Dunedin

I bade farewell to Queenstown, knowing I would return soon, and was on my way to Dunedin. Dunedin is actually Gaelic for Edinburgh and I was told that it is apparently very Scottish in style and culture. I'm forced to admit that I didn't find the place very Scottish at all or even a bit like Edinburgh, the town of my upbringing. At no point did anyone call me an 'English cunt', nor did I witness any violent bar room brawls or fighting in the street and, astonishingly enough, everyone seemed happy, friendly and content with life. There weren't even any drunken football fans vomiting all over the pavement outside the local bars.

Still it was a very charming city, despite dismal weather. I always like towns that are built around hilly terrain, it always makes for more interesting views. In fact Dunedin is home to Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world. We stopped next to it for a few minutes and walked to the top. It really was freakishly steep and you certainly would want to have faith in your brakes before tackling it in your car.

Since the weather made it an indoor day I had a look round the Cadburys chocolate factory. It was an entertaining tour and the smell was so wonderful I wanted to move into an apartment just across the road from it. Although they didn't have any Oompa Loompas, edible trees or swimming pools full of melted chocolate it was still interesting to learn about the mixing and refining process and to watch the machines churn out endless rows of chocolate bars. They also had a chocolate waterfall which I thought was just bloody marvellous.

The prices of in the factory shop were so absurdly low that I would have bought a years supply of chocolate if I could fit it into my luggage. Alas there wasn't much room but I still left with plenty. I'll have to make sure that I pace myself if they're going to last the rest of my time here.

Dunedin train station

Day 44 - 13th March - Dunedin to Invercargill

I would have gladly stayed for a few more days in Dunedin, especially seeing as how great the weather was when I awoke. However if I stayed in every single place I liked in New Zealand I would be here all year so once again I jumped on the bus and was off.

Today we were off to Invercargill, the southernmost city in New Zealand. However we were taking the scenic route today through the Catlins, an area of ridges, headlands and beaches that covers a large area of the south coast of the country. We started with a drive along the beach, keeping an eye out for sea lions along the shore. We spotted one but it wouldn't be the only one we saw today. Later on we reached Nugget Point, a scenic viewpoint that was on the south coast of the south island. It was a very spectacular view although much more rugged and dramatic than the north cape.

Afterwards we went for a walk along a beach looking for more sea lions. At first it seemed that there were not but then on the way back we got charged my a monstrously large male the size of a bear that seemed to come out of nowhere. We also got some great snapshots of some other, less aggressive specimens. I should point out that sea lions are not quite as lovely as they might seem from a distance. They're rather irritable and it doesn't take much to set them off. The largest males can weigh up to half a metric ton and they can move surprisingly fast in short bursts across land when they want to.

The highlight of my day had to be a trip to a place called the 'Lost Gypsy Gallery', a place where the owners of the establishment made all sorts of strange devices and interactive works of art out of random pieces of junk. It's hard to describe the kind of things found inside this wondrous place but most of the devices involved turning a crank or flipping a switch in order to make something random happen, such as causing a sheep skeleton to ride a bike (seriously) or making a pair of robotic hands clap.

My favourite invention by far had to be the electric keyboard where each key would cause a different device to emit some noise. Each key might trigger a drum (made from a petrol can) or an old telephone, a doorbell, an electric razor of hairdryer, an old TV or even a platform with a disembodied head on it that vibrated and caused the bells woven into it's dreadlocks to ring. Yes you read that last bit correctly. Sheer genius!

We then stopped off at a small snack shack next to the beach where everyone was attacked by a very cranky female sea lion. Eventually we arrived in Invercargill after a long day and settled into our hostel.

Tomorrow I'm leaving the south island to greet Stuart Island, the small and mostly uninhabited island just off the south of the mainland.

they look cute but they're not!

best musical instrument ever!

??!?!!?