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So I 'did' the West Coast in four days, which felt about enough (it's beautiful in places, but there's very little there). I headed straight down from Golden Bay to Punakaiki, where after a rather wonderful drive involving the lush forests of the Buller Gorge and wild coastlines (and stopping just long enough in Greymouth to establish I probably wasn't missing anything) I had time to visit the famous Pancake Rocks and go for a walk along the south end of the Inland Pack Track. The next morning I went for a walk along the top of the same track track, to Fox River Caves, which was one of my favourite walks so far with a river crossing leading to a rock-covered path through the forest leading to said cave that felt like wandering through a fairy-tale. Or the Lord of the Rings, but that seems too obvious.
I then headed down to Franz Josef glacier, stopping in Hokitika to buy fudge and check out the sock knitting machine museum, and spent the next day walking on the glacier through the rain, which was as other-worldly as I was led to believe. A few hours walking around Fox glacier the next morning then all the way to Queenstown, a day earlier than planned because I missed my intended campsite and so just kept going. The traffic-free drive over Crown Ridge from Wanaka was particularly fun, made all the more exciting by the added pressure of hoping to get through there before sunset. Although that was not as worrying as almost running out of petrol by failing to account for the emptiness of the West Coast. I then spent the weekend planning and organising my 5-day trek along the famous Routeburn Great Walk and then back through the Caples track (although only 32km, it's a 5 hour drive back to the start of the Routeburn as there are no direct roads), whilst hanging out at my cousin's place. And going horse-riding in her backyard, as you do.
In the end I did the walk over 4 days and came back along the Greenstone track, which is longer but flatter than the Caples. On the first day I parked my car in Kinloch and hitched the 18km to the start of the Routeburn track (I figured karma was on my side, having picked up a few hitchhikers myself). I then walked for a few hours through the forest to reach my first hut. The second day involved some breathtaking views of snow covered mountains as I walked through alpine territory and crossed from Mount Aspiring National Park to Fiordlands. The third day was the most tiring, walking about 34km over 9 hours, this time with a sign telling me when I was back into Mount Aspiring. I walked the final 12km on the last day with a couple of germans who then gave me a lift back to my car, where I found that a mouse had set itself up in my boot, eating my rice and oats.
That evening, a good friend of my cousin's boyfriend was in town for the night, and so I joined them for 'a drink' out in Queenstown. A few days (and almost a hundred pounds) later, after recovering from my first real (two-day) hangover since I left the UK, I headed back to Fiordland, but this time by car, along another bit of wonderful NZ road, the Milford road. I am booked in for a two hours cruise around Milford Sound in the morning, and then I have no idea what I'm doing next, except that I need to re-schedule my ferry crossing because I'm not getting back up there by the first of April.
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Mark Freeston sock knitting machine museum? I would love to see that... it's up there with the bobbin making mill (i've been twice...)... the pencil museum (haven't been there... yet...) Sounds like a great adventure... and then there was the walk too
Sue Harrison Enjoying the story so far.. Looking forward to the next installment with news of whatever is your birthday adventure... Hope you have (or have had) a good day X