What is Deb up to?

Well, new year’s eve was interesting. In the morning I woke early and was too excited to go back to sleep. I like the early mornings here (when I see them) the sunlight makes the lake glittery.

I once read a Maori poem which translates something like:

The sun has risen
The day has begun
I am alive!

I wandered into town and watched people setting up the stages for the evening’s music. There was a small market-type thing with jewellery and lots of bowls (mum, you would have loved it!).

The evening was good but I didn’t manage to meet up with everyone due to the fact that mobile phones seem to remove people’s ability to arrange a time or a place to actually meet and the networks were busy almost constantly. In between swapping sim cards and shouting down telephones I did manage to have a good time. This is me with my bungy-friends Ali and Paul.

On new year’s day I was woken by someone brandishing a bottle of vodka and asking me if i’d like to play a drinking game. I was surprisingly un-hungover so I managed a small sip of vodka then we headed into town to start the year as we meant to go on – with the largest beer I could find. (Note I am ashamedly wearing the same t-shirt as the night before!)

Having been congratulated on not losing either of my sim cards OR my phone, approximately an hour after said congratulation, I DID lose a sim card. But it was found by a caring soul named Derek who managed to get in touch with me. He’d lost his wallet on christmas day and had it returned so he reckoned this was ‘good karma’ to return my sim card. So what if his wallet had not been returned…. would he have destroyed my card whilst cackling inhumanely?
The rest of the day was spent eating chocopies, drinking tui and trying to learn card tricks.

02/01/05 I was offered a lift to Fox Glacier by a Swedish girl, Karin. I didn’t have accomodation but we knew some people who were staying at a motel there so I hoped to stay with them… a combination of foolish optimism and bad timing meant this didn’t happen and I was forced to sleep in Karin’s car. Whilst cold and uncomfortable, it could have been worse. Whilst watching the ‘fortunate’ return to the comfort and warmth of their motel, I discovered a new gratitude for such simple things as being able to lie flat and legally use a toilet. Perhaps part of the key to not taking things for granted would be to sleep in one’s car once a month…

That night I dreamt of a killer whale trapped in a small pool in a shopping centre and used as a tourist attraction to make money. I set up a petition to free the whale but was told that it enjoyed the small pool and the shopping centre and to send it back to the ocean would be cruel.

The next day Karin and I walked up to the glacier. It was pretty impressive. Odd to see a huge frozen river heading down a valley…
We also saw ‘pancake rocks’, blowholes and an isolated beach with driftwood all over it

The rain forest here on the west coast is ancient and stunningly beautiful. There are hundreds of different ferns and lots of waterfalls. It feels so prehistoric, I half expect a dinosaur to be around the next corner. There wasn’t. The next night we stayed at a place in Hokitika which was fairly isolated and with no keys or door locks. How unusual. Right outside the hostel was a bushwalk which lead to a deserted goldmine. Neither of us were brave enough to enter.

Then we headed up to Greymouth and stayed in another really pretty hostel and went on a brewery tour which culminated in free beer at a (very) local pub. There were giants and dwarves and norwegians with italian accents and germans with glaswegian accents. I did some silly dancing with Karin.
The next day it was time to go our separate ways and I headed up to Nelson.
The hostel here was very different from the small and quiet one’s I have got used to. There was a pool, sauna, spa and hammocks from which I was forced to watch scandinavian guys playing volley-ball…it was a terrible place as I’m sure you can imagine.

Next I went to Motueka and spent the following day walking through 13km of the Abel Tasman national park. It was beautiful. Apparently it was busy for that time of year but there were plenty of empty little beaches.

Then I went to Golden Bay, a tiny town called Takaka. I discovered there how to have the perfect day:
Think to yourself before arriving: ‘I only have 24 hours here and no car but I’d love to see Pupu Springs, the beach and to go to Mussel Inn. Maybe if I’m lucky I’ll be able to get a bus at least to see the springs’.
Arrive at hostel
Have breakfast outside in the sun on a swing-chair
Sit, look at the mountains and wait

Within half an hour I was offered a lift to the springs, the beach and then invited out for the evening; ‘We’re going to Mussel Inn if you’d like to join us?’ Throw in an unexpected trip to glow worm caves after the pub and you have a perfect day.

I decided after Takaka that is was time to see the north island. More about that when it’s happened.

Tags: Travel

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