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Ok, so it has taken a while for this one to materialise too. That went fast!
I remained in Christchurch for 10 days in total! No idea how. Combination of laziness and getting comfortable in the place was to blame I think. While I still had the car, I first went for a drive to a place called Arthur's Pass. It was more about the drive than anything, which was as fantastic as ever. Arthur's Pass itself is a small town but there's a few hikes in the area. I did a relatively short one due to time constraints and laziness. It led up to a waterfall, which turned out to be a little better than expected! Well worth it in the end. Also, on the way to Arthur's Pass, I stopped at a place called Castle Hill, which contains many a limestone rock. It was full of other visitors but the rock formations were brilliant, as was the scenery (who would have thought that!).
I drove a little past Arthur's Pass as there was still time spare before it started to get too late. Not far up the road, I encountered a moron in a rental car. He appeared to be from China. Anyway, he decided to turn his car around in the middle of the road, just before a blind bend. At least part of me hoped a truck would be coming in the other direction in that particular moment. But nay, he drove off, no doubt to go and be a moron elsewhere. With some irony, there was a perfect place to turn around literally straight after the blind bend. I carried on for another while and got to a viaduct, which was really quite something. It was also a very popular viewing spot for passing travellers, quite a few of whom were in campervans. That led to more idiocy and lack of spatial awareness behind the wheel.
On another day, I drove up the coast to a place called Kaikoura, which is well known for whale watching and swimming with dolphins. The drive up the coast was ok, but nothing in comparison to the scenic, inland drives! The friend I was with pointed out a big group of dolphins in the sea. Unfortunately I couldn't see them properly because I was focused on the road. Kaikoura is a nice little town, although it was quite badly damaged by an earthquake a year or two ago. I had no intention of paying the price to watch whales or dolphins, so we went for a bit of a trek instead, along a coastal track. It was nice! The weather was less than perfect but it cleared up eventually and turned into a nice afternoon.
I believe that was around day 5 or 6 in Christchurch and I can't remember much about what I did after that. I know one day, I went to the cinema to see Avengers Endgame. Brilliant film! I also know that I spent a lot of time at Hagley Park during the days, just chilling and listening to music. I also know that I got drunk more than once.
On one of those occasions, me and a lad from NZ went to a bar which also contains many pool tables. I'd already beaten him multiple times at the hostel over a couple of nights, but he kept trying! He did beat me once but the aggregate score was about 10-1 probably. He/we then got challenged by a guy for money. I was the nominated participant and gladly accepted the challenge! I was probably a bit too drunk to be in the sweet spot and victory was there for the guy, but he showed some ill advised complacency and I swooped in to pot the final few balls for victory! I was naturally chuffed. Later on the same night, I was politely removed from a bar by a bouncer, for jumping too much to a band playing rock music. Apparently I got too close to other humans beings for the bouncer's liking. I was aghast but naturally accepted his questionable decision with a handshake and smile rather than a middle finger. I then proceeded to spend my money at a rival bar. At the end of the night, I enjoyed a very fun late night and still semi drunken, deep chat with a fellow traveller at the hostel.
Didn't do much the following day but went out again at night because I believe it was Saturday. Ended up at an open air venue where the DJ (whoever it was) was playing bangers! That was fun. Then went back to the scene of the accident from the previous night, where a heavier rock band was playing and people were jumping around way more than I did previously. I raised an eyebrow before proceeding to join in.
I left Christchurch a couple of days later to go to New Zealand's version of Nelson. Very pretty! I arrived there quite late because it was a long bus by New Zealand standards. Although nothing compared to Asia! There was still some daylight left so I had a quick explore. I went to a place which is labelled as the geographical centre of New Zealand. It's very conveniently located on the top of the hill with views of the surrounding area, rather than in the middle of a drug den.
The next day was the main reason why I went to this part of New Zealand - Abel Tasman. It's a National Park on the north coast of the south island. I got a shuttle bus to the start of the coastal track. The track is easy because it's almost all relatively flat, but it was about 16 miles of walking in total. The views offered of the coastline were majestic as were some of the beaches! I went down to a couple of them and stopped for a while longer for lunch at another. Perfect sand and perfect water! I carried on to the target point of Anchorage, which was another beach / bay and contained more perfect sand and water. I also got there way ahead of time so I had a leisurely stroll back to the start of the track for the shuttle back to Nelson.
The next day was pretty much a travelling day. I was going from Nelson to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. Wellington is on the north island, so it required a bus to a town called Picton and then a ferry across the Cook Strait. The ferry took almost four hours and I would imagine it to be one of the most scenic ferry rides out there. But I ended up just catching up with Netflix instead! I arrived in Wellington late afternoon. Didn't do much that night because I wanted an early night ahead of a full day of tourism.
The full day of tourism started with the national museum - it is considered the best museum in New Zealand and I can see why because it was pretty great. It was very informative in more than one aspect of New Zealand. There was a really decent little room outside of the main building, which was about earthquakes and a technique invented by a New Zealander to strengthen buildings! There was also a good section on the origins of people in New Zealand - the maori people migrated from South Pacific islands and were the first humans to settle. That was naturally followed by European colonists. There's trees everywhere in New Zealand but an interesting fact is that pre colonisation, the land was about 80% forest. That is now down to 25% because the colonists wanted to create land for agriculture! After that, I went to the art gallery. I can't remember much about it but it seemed pretty good at the time! Although smaller than what I expected from memory.
That night I met a new drinking buddy and it ended up becoming the start of what was effectively a 3 day bender in the capital of New Zealand! After the first night, I had to extend my stay. I was told that I needed to switch rooms, despite moving to the same sized dorms. I didn't think to argue at the time and ended up crashing in the TV lounge for a while. A long while.
I didn't see much else by daytime in Wellington (although I did manage to get plenty of fresh air), but I can say that the nightlife was a good step up from the rest of New Zealand! One bar in particular became the adopted local. It was comfortably the best - it had the best doorman and best music by far. Rock and classic rock all the way. Also, going to the same bar more than once, you tend to meet other return customers. So over the few nights we met some pretty cool travellers and locals alike!
The final day in Wellington was pretty chilled. I woke up surprisingly fresh so spent a good couple of hours outside because it was a super nice day. I bumped into my drinking buddy so we went for a curry together and then just ended up watching some TV.
The next day was another travelling day up to Taupo, which formed the base for the Tongariro Alpine Crossing trek. I had a very chilled evening in preparation for the trek. I got an early night but it wasn't the best sleep. There was also a monumental idiot in my dorm, who was also doing the trek. He had to be awake a little earlier than me (I had to be up at 05:30) but I could hear him ****ing around with his oversized suitcase for a good 30 minutes, from around 04:30. I almost said something but in the end it just started to amuse me. There was some justice at the end of the day though because he didn't pack any socks(!), nor did he take any water on the trek! I'm still scratching my head. He also didn't clean his feet after the trek.
The trek itself is labelled as difficult. Since trekking Mount Kinabalu in Borneo, I've become unfit. But despite that, I found the trek super easy. The uphill sections were short and not as steep as the profiles of the trek suggested. For those reading at home, it was effectively like climbing the steps of Pendle Hill twice, with a flat section in between. Easy. Some of the views however, were breathtaking, and despite it being where Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings is located, it's easy to see why it's amongst the most popular day hikes in the world. Luckily for me, I had the nous and freewill to go off track and get views from different angles. One of those resulted in a spectacular view, which is the photo uploaded to this blog. The photo does not do it justice. Since I was also in isolation in that moment, I took a longer break to enjoy the peace and beauty of my surroundings. And to chuckle at all the people who were just walking past on the track. The rest of the trek was almost all downhill and the final 90 minutes or so was very boring. But that was irrelevant given the views earlier on. The weather was also perfect, which isn't frequently the case. That was lucky and made for possibly the most enjoyable day in New Zealand.
This now brings us on to today! I got a short bus up to Rotorua. My first thought about the place is that it ****ing stinks because of geothermal vents in the area. Sulphur in other words. It's really quite disgusting.
But the purpose of coming here was to take a tour to the Hobbiton movie set! Any fans of Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit would love it. And since I'm a fan, I loved it! It's quite touristy and I couldn't imagine doing it in the summer when it's way busier, but it was really great fun to walk around Hobbiton, to see Bag End and to grab a beer at the Green Dragon Inn! Something staggering though is that 40% of people who visit have neither seen the movies or read the books. My first thought was "Chinese". At the end, the guide effectively confirmed to me in private that my first though was accurate.
And here I am writing this. It should be said that I'm only writing this now because I didn't take my passport to the pub. I took it as a compliment given my age, but I wasn't so amused at the time!
Tomorrow is Auckland, where nothing is planned because I'm just passing through. The day after that I will be flying to Fiji! There for a week before South America. Looking forward to that one.
For now though, there is unfinished business in New Zealand because I've seen about 10% of the things worth seeing in this country. I will be back. It's pretty fantastic and can see why people want to escape real life to live here for a while, or to just create a new real life here.
Farewell.
- comments
Nicola Great blog the pictures of Mount Doom and Bag End are Brill. Thanks for sharing love mum x