BootsnAll Travel Network



I Would Walk Five Hundred Miles

I arrived in Wellington late Friday night and it seems to be a great city. As the capital of New Zealand, it’s a bustling city with lots to see and do. I spent most of the day Saturday sightseeing. My backpackers was located right on the waterfront, conveniently located across from the bus station and the ferry terminal. It was an easy walk down to the city square where the city gallery was located. The city gallery had some very unusual and interesting art on exhibit and I spent about an hour there browsing the exhibits. From there it was down the street to Te Papa, New Zealand’s national museum. There were a lot of great exhibits there also, ranging from the traditional Maori exhibit and a Lord of the Rings exhibit, to a geological exhibit on the earth’s tectonic plates and an earthquake simulator. It was a nice museum, but there were no exhibits that really stood out. So after leaving Te Papa, I walked to the other side of downtown and went to the Moko Museum, or tattoo museum. (Te Moko is the Maori term for their traditional tattoos.) The Maori Te Moko are unique to the individual, and each design is a representation of that individual’s geneaolgy, heritage and life story. The museum also had tattoos from all over the world, and talked about the traditional methods of applying tattoos before the existence of needles and tattoo guns. Picture being tattooed with a hammer and chisel and you get the idea. Ouch. I actually met a guy in Mt. Manganui who had a large and elaborate tattoo done in Thailand. It was applied using an instrument made of bamboo and took three days to do.

After the Moko Museum, I headed down Cuba Street, a funky street with lots of shops, cafes, and bars. I walked into a little souvenir shop where a little chinese woman asked me if I was there for a massage. Since prostitution is legal in New Zealand, I had to look around to make sure I hadn’t actually walked into a “massage” parlor by mistake. After walking around a while longer and grabbing a bite to eat, I decided to walk down to Oriental Bay which is a popular and trendy beach in Wellington. On the way, I stumbled across a large outdoor photograhy exhibit in the park. The exhibit was called Earth from Above, and was made up of a hundred or so aerial photos of points all over the globe. The artist was Yann Arthus Bertrand, and this traveling exhibit was being used to help promote conservation and sustainability of our earth’s resources. I spent a good hour walking around and looking at all the photographs, and it was a stunning exhibit. I eventually made my way down to Oriental Bay and spent the rest of the afternoon walking among all the joggers, rollerbladers, and sightseers. By the end of the afternoon I was pretty wiped out so I stopped at the grocery store for a six-pack and spent the rest of the evening relaxing in the backpackers. That evening there was a big rainstorm which continued into Sunday morning, so I didn’t do much on Sunday except walk around some of the shops near the backpackers. I caught my ferry to the South Island around noon, and spent the remainder of Sunday getting to Nelson.

On Monday morning I got back on the bus for a day trip up into Abel Tasman National Park. When I booked the trip through Magic, it was billed as a Coach/Cruise/Walk, and I assumed it would be like the other trips I’d taken where the bus would stop for an hour and let you walk around. Then you’d get back on the bus and go to the next stop. This trip turned out to be nothing like that. What actually happened was that the bus drove us from Nelson to Kerteriteri, which was about an hour north. Then we got off the bus and onto a boat which took us up the beach about 7 or 8 miles and dropped us off at a place called Torrent Bay. Torrent Bay was a small beach, with no public facilities except a couple of camp sites and toilets. The rest of the beach and surrounding land was all privately owned homes. No stores, no cafes, nothing. The boat dropped us off at Torrent Bay, and we had to walk back to another town called Marahau. The walking track from Torrent Bay to Marahau was about 14.5 kilometers, or about 9 miles. After spending almost two whole days walking around Wanganui and Wellington, I wasn’t sure I was up for a 4 hour tramp. Thank goodness I had worn my hiking boots. Unfortunately, I had not packed any food or water, so by the time I got to Marahau I was starving. I knew there was a little cafe at the end of the track in Marahau, so I immediately found it and and had one of the best meals I’ve had so far in NZ. The cafe had really great food, and I ordered a pasta dish of penne pasta, ham, tomatoes, and roasted vegis. It was really good, and I washed it all down with a cold beer. The walk took just over four hours, and after the late lunch I got back on the bus in Marahau and arrived back in Nelson about 6 PM.

Tuesday morning I boarded the Magic Bus to start my trip down the west coast of the South Island. There was about 15 of us on the bus, and we had a fun trip down to Greymouth, stopping along the way at several places to see the sights. The landscape on the South Island is vastly different from the North Island, and the coast is lined with rainforests, beaches, and of course the Southern Alps. We stopped at one place called Truman Track which led us on about a 20 minute walk out to the beach, and it was an amazing walk. The rainforests were very lush, and after about 5 minutes of walking through the thich trees and bush the rainforest ended in a field of flax. The flax fields looked a lot like corn fields, and the flax leaves are used for weaving bags, clothing, etc. It was almost surreal, going from the rainforest into what looked like cornfields, and finally ending up on the beach. It was probably the highlight of the day. We also stopped in the tiny town of Punakaikai to see the Pancake Rocks, which are uniquely formed rocks that look like a stack of pancakes.

We arrived in Greymouth about 5:00, and the highlight of the evening was the tour of the Montieths Brewery. Monteiths is one of the more popular micro-breweries in New Zealand. For $20 NZ we got a tour of the brewery, complete with tastings and a pint of our favorite beer. From there we were taken to an all-you-can-eat bbq and given another monster pint of beer. Quite a good deal if you ask me, although I did have a bit of a headache this morning as a result. We left Greymouth at about 8:00 this morning for Franz Josef, and the further south we got, the more amazing the scenery became. We are heading across the Southern Alps now, and the town of Franz Josef is located right at the base of the Franz Josef glacier. On the way down we stopped at Ross, a historical gold mining town. The town just happens to be sitting on about $700 million worth of gold, which the government apparently wants to mine. But in order to do that, they would have to level the town so obviously the residents are against it. After a few minutes in Ross to look around we continued on to Franz Josef and arrived here about noon. I have the afternoon here to relax before heading to Queenstown tomorrow. I’ll probably hike up the hill a way to get a better view of the glacier and then come back to the backpackers and hit the spa. Rough life, eh? I’ve got a busy weekend planned in Queenstown, and because it is a holiday weekend (Good Friday and Easter Sunday) the town is full of people on holiday and I was actually quite lucky to get accomodations. On Friday I’m going to take a cruise out into Doubtful Sound in the Fiordlands. Saturday I plan to do more bungy jumping, hitting the Nevis Bungy, which at 450 feet is the highest bungy in New Zealand. Yee-haa!

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Wellington: Frank Kitts Lagoon, Wellington Harbor, and Oriental Bay

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Abel Tasman: Kaiteriteri Beach, Split Rock, Adele Island, Kayaks, Torrent Bay

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Shots from along the track to Marahau

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Bullers Gorge and Cape Foulwind (on the way to Greymouth from Nelson)

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Truman Track

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Pancake Rocks

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5 Responses to “I Would Walk Five Hundred Miles”

  1. Laura Says:

    you gonna hike the Franz Josef glacier?

    Funny thing about your picture of the split apple rock at Abel Tasman.. we took one just like it from the water taxi on the way to Torrent Bay, so I recognized it right away :^)

    Looks like your hike was on a much nicer day than ours was.. much sunnier

    I hope you are having a blast! keep blogging!

  2. Posted from United States United States
  3. Drew Says:

    Deep within the depths of my soul, I still hate you.

  4. Posted from United States United States
  5. Liz Greenbank Says:

    Hi Tim
    Have been keeping an eye on you through your journal. Used to live in Greymouth so pleased you made it. glaciers are great eh! Hope you are well recovered from your NP experience. Thanks for the pics of Maggie – still had a bit of a giggle at the one of her heaving herself up onto the concrete. Take care yankee boy
    Liz

  6. Posted from New Zealand New Zealand
  7. Nigel Says:

    Hi Tim,

    Sounds like you are having a great time out there. Good work on the blog, have a great Easter and enjoy that time off 🙂

    Cheers,
    Nigel

  8. Posted from United States United States
  9. MAtt Says:

    Tim!

    Your leaving on stone unturned there in New Zealand. The pictures look great. Did you dip your hair on that bungee jump?

    Keep up the great work on the blog. I feel like I’m traveling as I read it.

    Cheers!

  10. Posted from United States United States