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I was 'free' from camp, and back at my couch surfer, Dave's home. After working for 14 days solidly, the afternoon we got back from tidying camp we went straight back out and took a bike (and Dave took roller blades) for a ride along the viaduct into Auckland central and lapped up the sun for a while on the beach until late in the evening. I also put my legs in the sea, to be bitten to bits by sea lice - not nice. That evening we then left the sun for a meal sat outside and drove to a viewing point which looked across the whole of Auckland as the sun went down. I thought to myself I could get used to this lifestyle and weather!
The following day I spent the day in Auckland city in order to sort transport for the coming months and to explore the city. I've never been overly fussed with the architectural aspects of buildings, however I enjoyed seeing the Auckland sky tower. Most of all I enjoyed seeing a car (a real one) in the middle of the skyscraper with a painted Christmas tree on top. I then went to try to walk to the Auckland bridge but in the end, due to it being so, so, so hot I turned back not far from it.
That evening was spent in the local climbing gym with Dave and a few of the senior children that I had met on camp. It was great getting back to the climbing (it had been two weeks), even if it was on an indoor wall. Although I had been asked a while back to go to the South Island for a school climbing trip I had declined, keen to proceed with my travels. However, the climbing trip won in the end and before I knew it (the night before in fact the trip) I was booking a one way ticket to the South Island.
The flight from Auckland to Nelson was very scenic from the very small plane, with views over looking Mt Egmount, the snow capped volcanic peak, I was so inspired that I'm going back to climb it in a few months time for sure. On arriving at the bunkhouse, we just dumped our bags before turning tail and heading for a swim at one of the most beautiful swimming holes. In the evening we enjoyed our first meal cooking home-made pizza in a clay over by the bonfire. For the next week I used the bikes provided by Hangdog climbing camp-site. You may see from the photos that the quality of bikes I'm used to riding has gone way down hill (like lots of other things when you travel).
It was the first day on this trip that I met another couch surfer, Kirstin, who had previously stayed with Dave and worked on another of his school trips. For the next 10 days we were inseparable, cooking, trekking, slack-lining, climbing, swimming, hitch hiking together (not sure if I should have mentioned that last one, sorry mum). I was amazed how much our friendship grow in just over a week!
The climbing over the next few days was good but the rock took a bit of getting used to after having been spoiled with the rock in Africa. After we had climbed for a few days, Kirstin and I attempted the Abel Tasman walk, one of New Zealand's 'Great Walks'. We had great fun, made perfect by the weather and the fact that a three to four day walk took us a mere 25 hours (which may have had something to do with forgetting which camp-site we had booked). This gave us a day and a half to soak up the sunshine and to explore the beaches and take lots of photographs. The most memorable being when we were having a picnic dinner on the beach while a killer whale went by. Then a few hours later watching the amazing sun set.
I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to try out caving and for the week prior to this I couldn't think about much else. This was also reflected in my sleep on several occasions the most frightening for me was when I wake up while trying to climb out the window above my bed! Having never been in a cave and having a dislike for having my head underwater and for small spaces (or so I thought) I was anxious to say the least. To add to this, the cave we were doing was no ordinary cave, it had a 200 meter abseil down (on a single rope), three hours to go through the cave and a further three hours to go up hill to return to the start. The abseil into the cave was an epic trip in itself and should anything go wrong it would have been very dangerous, requiring around 50 people to get you out (that's if you came out alive). This cave, so I was told, was one that most cave's can only dream of undertaking because of the specialised equipment required so all in all, terrified was maybe another way of putting how I left about taking on Harwoods hole on Takaka Hill (Neslon, South Island).
Awaking at 5am, it was a beautiful morning. After a brisk 45 minute walk to the mouth of the cave I was third up to abseil down the 200 meter rope. I was lucky this way, as the longer I was in the cave the colder I was to have become. The abseil in itself was an amazing one, it took me five minutes to ab down, however most took between 10 and 12 minutes (I wanted to get down quickly as possible). The hole was really incredible and it felt amazing just dangling into thin air with the massive drop below me, into a dark, dark hole unsure of what to expect. Once all of the team were down, we all worked well to tunnel through the cave as quickly and as efficiently as possible to ensure that we never got too cold. The water through the cave was something I may never see again, the water was so blue, the rock formations were amazing and the sparkle from the rock was spectacular. It was fun abseiling down waterfalls, bouldering across drops, squeezing through tiny tiny holes and stretching across to the other side of the cave all with ten meters of freezing cold water below, working as a team to ensure that no-one fell in, and sliding fast down waterfalls. One of the first things we saw however in the cave, was a shrine for a chap that had died their whilst surveying the cave.
An amazing experience which I was sure could not have been beaten again for some time. Best of all was that there was no time to get scared or freak out because in the end the whole team would have had to slow down which could in the end be fatal.
Throughout the day I got some amazing photos but unfortunately I didn't take as much as I would have liked as my camera battery was dying and it was very wet in the cave. Again with so many of the trips, the photos fail to capture the immense size and beauty of the real thing.
The exit of the cave that day was to reveal heavy rain, unlike the beautiful morning light that we had left behind that day.
A few days following this, as Kirstin and I had both been keen to try hitch hiking we decided to try to get a ride from Takaka to Nelson. As you can see from the photos, we made two signs once saying 'Nelson' and the other reading 'please' and moved out on to the main road. Within 20minutes or so we were on one of two rides on our way to Nelson. It turns out that the second of the two pick-ups we had had went to the same school as Kirstin in the states.
After receiving door service to our nice hostel, we jumped on some bikes and headed to the nice wee Nelson Saturday market, followed after by a swim in the river and later to listening to a band in the gardens.
So all and all it had been a great few weeks, one with lots of new experiences and a chance to meet some lovely new people. I remember a friend once saying to me when I was worrying about leaving my great life in Edinburgh for the unknown - 'those who take the highest risks get the highest rewards' and this is certainly true. In the last two months alone I have seen and experienced so much already (and I have another 10 months to go).
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