well I made it to New Zealand, after another night in another airport, i love thermarests.
i made it to Christchurch late evening on the 22nd, where i spent two nights and a rainy day wandering around before i got a cheap rental van, $5 per day plus $15 booking fee and spent two days traveling south, i was fortunate enough to meet a Korean lad who was happy to share the fuel bill ($130) and we set off to Queenstown via some stunning scenery which had us stopping frequently to take photos, (will upload when i find a machine which recognizes my hdd),
This appears as the home of extreme sports, although they are fairly extreme on the pocket as well. A 45m bungee jump costs about $160, that's probably over $50 per second, a bit too much for my wallet although i may be persuaded to go skiing if i can find any reasonable prices. I'm not holding my breath.
Well Wanaka was on the way so we headed past there for a few more vistas of snowy peaks and rolling hills and lakes. Its all starting to remind me of a cross between the lakes Scotland and Norway, shame that the prices are no better. however in land of over 40 million sheep and just 4 million people I cant complain too much, the vistas are great the towns are not that intrusive and I have found proper beer, but can't afford to drink it.
Hobgoblin and Black sheep are $8 a bottle. ouch. and other beer is about $6 a pint.
I spent today, my forth day in New Zealand, wandering up a Via Ferrata that leads to the top of queens town hill, it took just over 1hr and I recall seeing a sign that said something about private land and that i wasn't aloud beyond a certain point to access the Via Ferrata.
They obviously didn't realise that an 8ft high fence and a bit of barbed wire wasn't going to stop most folks and as this was 15 minutes up the path so i wasn't prepared to head back down. besides i figured if anyone asked i would pretend i was German and didn't speak english.
Well no one asked and I enjoy a fine view from the 900m summit, across the town below and the lake beyond to a horizon on snowy peaks.
A pleasant stroll led back down to town through the Douglas fir, the familiar smell of pine and resin reminded me of adventures past, the alps, dolomite's, Scotland, Norway, and in many ways this land seems so similar, i would like to just set off into those hills and keep walking, climbing and absorbing the wonders of the hills once again.
Tomorrow i plan to head up the Ben Lomond track, although some of it is supposed to be closed and from my view early today i could see plenty of snow above 1000m so i probably won't take the summit track as i unfortunately i have no winter gear and I'm not about to start spending money for it here.
Will upload the photos later and with luck will get a few good shots tomorrow.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Still down under
well its been a while so this is what iv been up to.
After four nights in Sydney and wandering around some of the beaches and a day at the climbing wall i jumped on a bus and headed north in search of Dan and Jo.
Last message i had from them is that they were up at surfers paradise so i thought this would be a good place to start. I was wrong, they weren't their and despite a very nice beach and what i assumed were good surf conditions the place didn't have anything really worth seeing and seemed a bit like a cross between a tacky 18-30's holiday location and somewhere which long ago lost its beauty to make way for the exploiting capitalism and souvenir's shops. I decided to head on to Brisbane and check out the city.
It was a good choice but still no Dan or Jo. However i did spend a couple of relaxing days in the city, walking around the green areas and even doing some climbing at Kangaroo point, which is a hidden little gem as far as inner city climbing goes but not a patch on the grit or sandstone of back home and fairly tame. I wasn't discouraged and spent several hrs soloing around on the rock and traversing almost its full length.
But as always city life is expensive and this was more than enough excuse i needed to return to the road, I had also received news that Dan and Jo were up in Childers looking for work so that determined my next stop and a day on the bus followed. After a couple of days we meet up and drank a few beers whilst running through the highpoint of our travels thus far. for Dan and Jo that didn't include waiting around in this poky little town waiting to pick mandarins but after a week of fishing and a day spent climbing on some lose lucking and friable sandstone in which dan seemed to have some strange that it would deify all odds and stay where it was, which to my non to reassured surprise it did. Wow.
After a bit of a drive we ended up at Harvey bay, the stop off point for Frasier Island and we got wonderful weather and had two great days driving a Toyota Hi-Lux around the sandy tracks and beaches. ate BBQ stake and enjoyed some wonderful scenery.
It was then time to turn north, my fellow travelers had plans to go sailing in the Whitsundays and for me a flight to Melbourne and then onto New Zealand awaits, So after a few days traveling some uneventful fishing and great sightseeing we parted ways a little wiser a littel older and somwhat more hungover than planned. All in all a successful month.
See my flikcr site for many more photos.
After four nights in Sydney and wandering around some of the beaches and a day at the climbing wall i jumped on a bus and headed north in search of Dan and Jo.
Last message i had from them is that they were up at surfers paradise so i thought this would be a good place to start. I was wrong, they weren't their and despite a very nice beach and what i assumed were good surf conditions the place didn't have anything really worth seeing and seemed a bit like a cross between a tacky 18-30's holiday location and somewhere which long ago lost its beauty to make way for the exploiting capitalism and souvenir's shops. I decided to head on to Brisbane and check out the city.
It was a good choice but still no Dan or Jo. However i did spend a couple of relaxing days in the city, walking around the green areas and even doing some climbing at Kangaroo point, which is a hidden little gem as far as inner city climbing goes but not a patch on the grit or sandstone of back home and fairly tame. I wasn't discouraged and spent several hrs soloing around on the rock and traversing almost its full length.
But as always city life is expensive and this was more than enough excuse i needed to return to the road, I had also received news that Dan and Jo were up in Childers looking for work so that determined my next stop and a day on the bus followed. After a couple of days we meet up and drank a few beers whilst running through the highpoint of our travels thus far. for Dan and Jo that didn't include waiting around in this poky little town waiting to pick mandarins but after a week of fishing and a day spent climbing on some lose lucking and friable sandstone in which dan seemed to have some strange that it would deify all odds and stay where it was, which to my non to reassured surprise it did. Wow.
After a bit of a drive we ended up at Harvey bay, the stop off point for Frasier Island and we got wonderful weather and had two great days driving a Toyota Hi-Lux around the sandy tracks and beaches. ate BBQ stake and enjoyed some wonderful scenery.
It was then time to turn north, my fellow travelers had plans to go sailing in the Whitsundays and for me a flight to Melbourne and then onto New Zealand awaits, So after a few days traveling some uneventful fishing and great sightseeing we parted ways a little wiser a littel older and somwhat more hungover than planned. All in all a successful month.
See my flikcr site for many more photos.
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