Hello once again. To say that the blog has been inactive is a bit of an understatement. The last update was at the end of January. The truth is that I haven’t been in the mood for longer format writing, it’s time consuming stuff. I feel like each day there is so much life to be lived, so much to experience, so much to observe. To sit down at a computer and write about history really isn’t a priority for me while the present is so interesting!
Maybe on my return to Britain, as my pace drops a few gears, and a little stability returns, I will once again find a comfortable chair and a pot of tea and the river of words may flow with greater consistency, until then though, It’s going to look more like the occasional desert rainstorm.
Since my last update a lot has happened. I’ve made new friends, worked a job, gone on long and short road trips and camped underneath Mt Cook. I don’t have the time or energy to give the deserving detail to the last 5ish months worth of life so I’m not going to try. Instead I’ll give a broad brush stroke overview and if you want to hear more then I’ll see you at the pub.
So buckle up for a hearty meal that you might want to digest in two sittings. To where I left off all those months ago.
Date: Mid December
Leaving Kaikōura I decided that I’d split the drive up and so found a camping ground in the Greta Valley. It was raining when I arrived and no one was about, I gave the owner of the place a call and in relaxed Kiwi fashion they told me to just pick a spot and that they’d be around later. Noticing that there was a pub next door it seemed like a better option then just sitting in the van so I ambled over. The place felt more pub like then most of the places I’ve been to and I ordered a bottle; the lady behind the bar decided that I looked under 18 and I presented some ID for the first time in a long time, not knowing whether to be flattered or not. I took a seat and began to read Moby Dick. There was a rugby league game being played on a large TV mounted to the wall and between pages I glanced up trying to appear interested; I’ve never been much of a fan of rugby league, the play doesn’t seem to be particularly dynamic nor have much flow to it and when people get tackled they seem to flail around on the floor like a fish out of water. Union is by no means without its flaws but I’d take it any day over league.
There were a group of four playing pool on the table opposite me; taking pity on the guy reading a book in a pub, one of them came over to introduce himself. On hearing my accent he was surprised, apparently he took me for a Kiwi with my Crocs, shorts and woolly jumper. His name was also Jack and happened to be a fellow Englishmen; he told me that he’d come over to New Zealand a couple years ago because we was at a bit of a dead end in the UK and that he’d now got a Kiwi girlfriend and didn’t see himself leaving. His seems to be a familiar story.
They invited me to join them and while playing a round of pool we had a good yarn. They decided to call it an evening, I exchanged numbers with the Brit, he said to give him a bell if I wanted to get a coffee sometime (haven’t yet taken him up on the offer) and I wander in the rain back to the van.
The next morning I left for the area of Christchurch. Before bunking at my now mates house I spent a few nights at a freedom campsite in Cust. My early days in the Christchurch area were used up exploring the city and the local surf breaks. Despite the earthquakes that destroyed many of the older building in the city, Christchurch continues to hold its self well. The architecture is nothing special (I’m spoilt by Europe) but that’s to be expected with a relatively young city. It is however clean and did appear to have a bit of a buzz around the CBD. Its probably my favourite New Zealand city. My host, Seb, was kind enough to get me an invite around to his girlfriends (now fiancé) family house for Christmas day. This was a blessing as I was expecting to be alone. Christmas and New Years passed and I slowly got introduced to the local community and got involved in a church.
After spending a good while alone and on the move I was keen to put down a few roots. Seb opened his house to me (and still continues to) so I decided to call North Canterbury my home for a while. I slept in my van in the yard and lived in the house, it was luxury. Seb wears a number of different hats, one of which is the running of Soul Edge Nomad, a 5 week intensive Christian adventure leadership course that takes place around January/February time here in NZ. Having done a Soul Edge course myself 4 years earlier in Scotland I knew a bit about what went into it and so was able to lend a hand here and there, it was good fun.
One of the leaders on the course, a British lad called Dom, arrived a couple weeks early before the start of the course to help prep. We got on well and an opportunity came up to do an overnight camp trip with him and a few others. The plan was to head down to Aoraki and do some filming for Alpha. It was an awesome trip with cracking weather. It was a bit of a reminder to me to just say yes when opportunities present themselves.
Since my arrival in North Canterbury I’d been looking for temporary work as funds were getting low. After a couple months of searching still nothing had paned out. After the Soul Edge course finished the idea of another short trip emerged. A new friend and leader on the course, Mikayla, needed to find a way of getting to Dunedin to visit a friend and I wanted to get to Queenstown area for an International mountain bike event. The dates overlapped and so unable to find any work I agreed to make a road trip out of it. Molly, a student on the course also wanted to visit Queenstown so the three of use set off. Dom, who I mentioned earlier was also keen to come along for the trip, however, having only three seats in the van we had a bit of an problem. The problem was solved when it was realised that all Dom had to do was to get to Queenstown; After dropping Mikayla off we’d have a spare seat so we could drive Dom back to Christchurch. He ended up hitch hiking 6hrs from Christchurch to Queenstown and had his own little adventure.
For anyone who knows the geography of New Zealand they will know that Dunedin isn’t exactly “on the way” to Queenstown, so after a long drive to Dunedin we spent the night with Mikayla’s friends family. We enjoyed a lovely meal and went down to Sandfly Bay to see the sea lions. I backed myself to out pace a sealion, the others didn’t agree, thoughts?
The next morning I had an online interview with a recruitment agency for a job at a sawmill in Christchurch, it went well and eventually led to me finally finding some work. Molly and I bid farewell and ventured off to look for some Albatross. We went to the Royal Albatross Centre thinking that would be the spot however we weren’t anticipating having to pay to see them. I get that it takes money to protect these birds but it felt a bit off having to pay to see a free bird. I wonder if the birds realise they are being monetised? We decided not to pay and went to get a coffee while watching the surfers at St Clair’s beach. A decent drive ahead we didn’t hang about too long and pointed the van North West towards Queenstown. We arrived early evening and caught up with a weary looking Dom, had a swim in the refreshing lake and headed into to town for some grub. The famous Fergburger was the obvious choice. The burger was of good size but the quality was lacking, pretty dry. After watching the sun go down on the lake shore we drove 15ish minutes up the road to our campsite for the night. Queenstown is an odd town, unlike anywhere I have been before. It’s a place where a dirtbags finds themselves on the Milan catwalk, a place where mullet meets Moncler and vagabond rubs shoulders with Louis Vuitton. It’s good fun.
The campsite was a beautiful spot right on the clear blue lake, wonderful to swim in and a place we would return to. The next day we decided to go to Paradise, no, the disappointment of the Fergburger didn’t push me over the edge, Paradise is the name of the place where the road ends North of Glenorchy. We couldn’t have asked for a better day. A true blue bird day, we pulled over multiple times to take in the scenery. Paradise requires a bit of mild off-roading to get to and we had to cross a few low rivers, Captain Tom (the name the van ended up with) took it in his stride and it was a joyous adventure. When you arrive in Paradise you are greeted by a tall rocky cliff face with lush vegetation on top, it reminded us of the place from Disney’s film Up.
The next couple days consisted of more swimming, eating in Queenstown and the mountain bike event. I won’t bore you with the nerdy details of the event, the laymen’s overview goes as follows; The inaugural event was called Proving Grounds and was aiming to push the progression of freeride mountain bike competitions. In the scorching heat we trekked up a mountain for about 30 minutes, dust was everywhere. A dirt mountain bike track with jumps and berms was carved into the mountain side, multiple different routes diverged off the main track all providing options for the cyclist to take down the hill. Both men and women competed and they were judged on their speed, style, tricks etc as they made their way down the trail.
We took the scenic route back to Christchurch going via Arrowtown and Wanaka, exploring a awesome gorge a little outside Wanaka on the way. It was a long drive back and we arrived back late. We’d packed a lot into the last four days and we felt accomplished.
Not long after returning I started my new job at a sawmill in Christchurch. It wasn’t quite what I had been expecting but it helped me out financially and kept me fit. In short the work consisted of taking a pack of green (not yet dried) boards ranging from around 4/6m and of a variety of thicknesses and restacking them in a new pack with fillets between each layer so that when the wood went into the kiln there would be air flow. It was pretty hard, mind numbing work but I knew it was temporary, sometimes I’d get stuck on different stations which helped break up the monotony. In the end I was there around 8 weeks.
During this time I lived a pretty ordinary existence, going out, developing friendships, getting in free to a music festival and surfing here and there; nothing to complain about. Throughout this time Seb continued to be a gracious host allowing me to bunk at his. After I left the job I decided I wanted to do one last trip around the South Island before I wound down and got my affairs in order to leave. I didn’t know how long I’d be, 3/4 weeks I thought. I left with barely a plan, deciding where I’d sleep on the day most of the time.
The trip consisted of so many micro adventures I forget most of them until my memory is jogged. I’ll give a rough outline of the trip and list a few highlights.
From Christchurch I ventured across Arthurs pass, a spectacular drive that morphs from dry tussocks of shades of yellow to lush green rainforests in the west. Along the pass I did a little hiking and wandered through an epic cave system of around 600m that had a river running through it.
Once I popped out the other side of the pass I headed north, driving until the road quite literally ended. The North of the West coast is wild. Outside of some of Scotland we have lost most of the wilderness in the UK, mans heavy boot can be seen almost everywhere, the wild lives in submission to man. New Zealand is different. The land of New Zealand, particularly the South Island, holds onto its raw beauty; man lives more in harmony with the natural world.
After reaching the end of the road I turned around and followed the road to Central Otago. On the way I stopped at all the classics, Hokitika Gorge, Franz Josef glacier etc and tried to go for a hike most days.
I lived a simple life. I would wake up between 7/8am and begin with breakfast and a cup of tea while I read my Bible and a Christian devotional book. I’d then pack up the van and begin the days drive, most days driving an average of 2hrs over the day. I’d pick where I was going to sleep that night and slowly work my way there stopping at anything that peaked my interest; I had no where to be and nothing I had to do. I’d hike, surf and wonder around towns. I’d arrive at where I was going to sleep around 4pm and explore, reading, writing or playing guitar for a little while. I’d make dinner around 5/5:30pm and then hunker down in my van as light began to fade and temperature drop around 6:30pm. I’d read for a couple hours then around 9pm it was lights out. Over my trip (that turned out to be around 3 weeks) this was pretty much my daily routine. It was enjoyable for three weeks but by the end I was growing a little weary of it and was seeking more human interaction.
I arrived in Central Otago around the halfway point of my trip. A couple of days earlier to this I’d bumped into a Kiwi lad called Ben a little north of Haast; he was a bee keeper and had taken a break from work over the winter (a down time for bee keeping) to solo travel around in a van. We got on well and decided to travel together until our paths took us different ways. He tried to fish and I surf, both unsuccessfully and then after a couple of days of adventure we parted ways near Cromwell. He stuck around there with a few of his mates and I continued on South, destination Milford Sound.
I’d wondered if all of the hype around Milford Sound was just that, hype, but I decided to give it a shot as I thought I’d regret it if I didn’t. The drive there alone was worth the trip. Fiordland national park is spectacular! The road weaves its way through deep glacial valleys full of old temperate rainforests and vast open plains. Quite unexpectantly the road arrived at a mountain face, the black hole of a tunnel cut into it. The tunnel just went straight down. The tunnel is 1.27km long and drops 129 meters, a gradient of 10%, as you begin the decent to sea level. Emerging from the other side of the tunnel I felt like I was in a fantasy movie. Cascading waterfalls glided down glistening cliffs that rose to the sky either side of me; the road dropping you deeper into the land that time forgot. The boat ride through the fiord (yes it is actually a fiord not a sound) was epic; It had been raining but as we set off it stopped and rainbows began to pop out. Enormous cliffs rise straight out of the water and tower high above you and waters falls and cascades scar the rock walls; it is better after heavy rainfall as the waterfalls are in greater flow.
After Milford Sound I cut down to Bluff taking a less travelled path via the southern scenic route. I didn’t explore Invercargill or much of Bluff as I didn’t really know what to do and fancied staying out of town. I went down to Sterling Point, took a photo of a sign, tried to ponder a very mediocre view and drove on into the Catlins. Wanting to visit the southern most point of NZ South Island I ventured to Slope Point; what is it about humans that makes us want to explore an islands furthest points? Again there wasn’t much there but I got a photo with another sign and briefly contemplated the reality that there was no significant land mass between me and the south pole, another thought of very little worth 🙂
I spent a couple days in the Catlins, checking out waterfalls, going on walks and trying to surf at PK Bay. It has some pretty raw, wild corners that anyone with an inching to just get away from the hustle and bustle will appreciate. If you fancy a good days walk that crosses suspension bridges and takes you through some beautiful untouched forests I’d recommend the Catlins River-Wisp Track.
I now began my journey north up the east coast. My first proper stop was Dunedin, a place I had momentarily cast my eye over on my last trip but somewhere I wanted to wander around a bit more thoroughly. A decent swell coincided with my arrival so twice I went surfing and twice it didn’t really work out how I was hoping, such is surfing. I strolled around the town with not much of an agender noticing that the city felt like the most English place I’d been to, in part due to the Victorian architecture and in part due to a grey grotty feel of areas that remined me of home. On my travels of NZ I’ve got into the habit of looking for independent books shops when I arrived in a new town or city (some of you are thinking that is the dullest thing you’ve ever heard), Dunedin had a great one, shout out to ‘Hard To Find Secondhand Bookshop’. I spent the night at a campsite in Portobello out on the peninsula and in the morning after a surf I went to walk up Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world, why you would live on it I don’t know. I drove on to Orokonui Ecosanctuary to see New Zealands tallest tree, however due to it being ANZAC Day it was shut. My day now having more time in then expected I drove a couple hours north to Oamaru. Oamaru is known for its steampunk and desirable white stone; a good number of the buildings there are made from it in a victorian style, they are quite beaufiful. Again I came across another quaint bookshop (yawn) where I picked up a copy of Dostoevskys Poor Folk and The Gambler and the shop teller wrapped it for me. It made me think of how books used to be held higher and have greater value, to buy a book or give a book was special.
I left Oamaru and drove to St Andrews where I stayed at a campsite.The following day I continued north to Banks Peninsula where I wiggled my way up steep swtich backs and down tight gravel tracks to get to Magnet Bay. Known for its surf on the right day I tried to catch some waves, it wasn’t the right day; doesn’t sound like my surfing has been particulary successful does it. I ventured deeper into the peninsula to where the main road ended, Akaroa; a relaxing place to be as the sun began to go down and I had a short wander around. Realising that I could make it back to the place I was staying that evening I retraced my steps out of the peninsula and headed home.
I’ve now been back in the North Canterbury area for about 2 & half weeks and have been getting my life together preparing to leave this land. Guitar and van have now been sold and I’m sure the surfboard will go soon. All flights are booked and and travel plans made. On the 25th May I’ll be heading off to the US for a little under a month; I’m heading to a mates wedding in Texas, visiting my Uncle in Alaska and seeing a friend in New York city, a lot of flights are ahead. At the time of finishing this piece I’ve a bit over a week left and days are dropping fast. At some point I’ll write a little summary of my time in New Zealand, an update of what’s ahead for me and a little piece on my time in the States; don’t spend too much time staring at the sky though as desert rainstorms are rare.
Enjoyed the desert rainstorm!