NO DIRECTION HOME: June 2014

Crossing over to the South Island

From Wellington, a three-hour ferry ride gets you to Picton, a wee little town at the north-east tip of the South Island. Finally the South Island - and boy, what an introduction!

Leaving behind a very windy, wet and grey Wellington, I dozed off on the ferry, only to wake up to the most glorious sunshine.

And this view unfolding around us. For miles and miles. Deeper and deeper into the Malborough Sounds. Turquoise water and golden green hills creating the most beautifully irregular and unexpected coastline. As intricate, delicate and beautiful as lace.

The air so pure, the colours so vivid, everything so perfectly untouched.

Simply breathtaking*.

The weather is typically extremely temperamental in New Zealand, and during the quick drive from Picton to Nelson, clouds rolled in and all of a sudden it was pissing down with rain. So I took another nap and woke up in a rather overcast Nelson, headed to my hostel and started planing how to tackle Abel Tasman.

*I apologise in advance for the outrageous number of times I will use that word from now onwards. Sometimes there's just no other way to put it.

Just a thought

I was quite nervous before leaving for NZ. I'd been in Perth for about 2 weeks and was finding it quite hard to digest. So far. So isolated.

So, obviously, I decided to go a bit further.

This will sound very stupid, but during those few days, I kept finding myself thinking that I would have to be careful not to trip over, once I got there, as I'd fall off the planet.

It took me a while to shake that thought out of my little head.

Windy Welly

Wellington. Bottom tip of the North Island.

After two weeks of uninterrupted nature, I was more than ready for a little city life and was quite looking forward to spending a few days in Wellington.

Wellington's not the most beautiful of cities - far from it. It's quite quirky, original and arty farty. Not tons to see (two days would be enough, I think), but the Te Papa museum is definitely worth a visit.

Most of the time was spent cafe hopping, bar hopping, enjoying good food and too much wine. I even attempted a little bit of shopping (old habits die hard) but failed miserably. This side of the world ain't famous for its fashion sense.

I ended up having to stay a few days longer than what I would have liked, as I stupidly (and typically) didn't plan ahead and booked my ferry ticket at the last minute. Shame, I could have done with a couple more days in the South Island.

Oh, and the weather was crap. Don't let the pictures fool you. Rain and wind. That bloody wind.

Tongariro Alpine Crossing - Part 3

When you reach the top, you realise you're not even half way through. You think, easy, it's all downhill from here.

You spend the next 10 odd kilometres zig-zagging your way down. It goes on and on and on.

The last 3 kilometres are through fairly dense vegetation. At this point your feet are sore and you're dreaming of a shower, even if it has to be in the hostel's communal bathroom. Even that top bunk bed in your 8 person mixed dorm (never again!) sounds rather inviting. In this semi-delirious state (was it just me?), you recall uncomfortable memories of stick insects from your last venture into the lush wilderness in Paihia.

So you just keep calm and carry on. You're almost there.

Then you're there. 7 and a half hours, I believe. Big deal for this lazy cow.

Most people fell asleep during the bus journey back to Turangi.