Boo hoo :( Return to Auckland

I'm on the intercity bus now going to Auckland where I fly home on Friday the 13th (spooky eh?). I have just left a great bunch of people. This is the bane of travelling; making new friendships only for them to mutate into an email correspondence that lasts for 2 or 3 messages. I left another bunch of bus pals in Christchurch when I flew north to Auckland. I may meet up with mad-as-a-hatter french canadian guy when he gets to London in September and an english girl at the V festival who, like me, is returning to uni to do a masters. Hopefully I'll see some of those I've met during my travels again though quite a few live in other countries, good excuse to go eh? Sorry, lately I've been appending 'eh' to the end of lots of spoken sentences, it's a kiwi thing, just like saying 'sweet as' to everything.

I haven't updated this blog much in the past two weeks because I've always been doing something plus I was usually in da coontry lad. So I'm gonna try to write as much as what I remember. There were certain highlights that I will never forget such as going to Uncle Boy's house in Maketu, there were so many beautiful maori folk and I mean this to describe their inner as well as outer self.

Maori Story of Creation

For the past week and a half I have travelled the north island on the stray bus. On Wednesday morning I jumped on Auto's bus and discovered that I already knew two swedish girls from the stray bus on the south island. On our way northwards to the Bay of Islands we stopped off at places of interest along the way. The first stop of our stops was to see two giant Kauri trees and Auto told us the Maori story of creation similar to what follows.

In the beginning there was no sky, no sea, no earth and no Gods. There was only darkness, only Te Kore, the Nothingness. The very beginning was made from nothing. From this nothingness, the primal parents of the Māori came, Papatuanuku, the Earth mother, and Ranginui, the Sky father.

Papatuanuku and Ranginui came together, embracing in the darkness, and had 70 male children. These offspring became the gods of the Māori. However, the children of Papatuanuku and Ranginui were locked in their parents embrace, in eternal darkness, and yearned to see some light. They eventually decided that their parents should be separated, and had a meeting to decide what should be done.

They considered for a long time - should Rangi and Papa be killed? Or shall they be forced to separate?

Finally, Tumatauenga, the god of War, said "Let us kill our parents". However, Tane-Mahuta, the god of man and forests, and all which inhabits the forests, thought that Rangi and Papa should be separated. He thought that Ranginui should go up above, to the sky, and that Papatuanuku should should go below, to dwell on earth. All the children, including Tu, the God of War, agreed with Tane.

Tawhiri Matea, the god of winds and storms was the only child who did not wish for his parents to be separated. He feared that his kingdom would be overthrown. One by one the children tried to separate their parents. Rongomatane, the god and father of cultivated foods, tried without success. Haumia Tiketike, god of uncultivated food also tried.

Then it was the turn of Tangaroa, the god of the sea, and Tumatauenga, the god of war, but neither Tangaroa nor Tumatauenga could separate their parents.

Lastly Tane-Mahuta rose. Strong as the kauri tree, he placed his shoulders against his mother Ranginui and his feet against his father Papatuanuku, and he pushed hard, for a very long time, straining and heaving all the while. Rangi and Papa cried in pain, asking their sons" why do you wish to destroy our love?"

After a long time Tane finally managed to separate Rangi and Papa, and for the first time the children saw the light of day (ao Marama) come streaming in. Once this happened, Tawhiri Matea, the god of winds and storms, and who had been against the separation of his parents, left for the sky to join his father.

The turbulent winds and storms on earth are caused by Tawhiri Matea, in revenge for this brother's acts.

Now that the separation of Papatuanuku and Ranginui was complete, and there was a sky and an earth. However, there was just one missing element, and Tane decided to create a female. From an area named Kura-waka Tane took some clay, and modelled it into a woman. He then breathed life into it, and created Hine-ahu-one - the earth formed maiden.

Tane and Hine had a beautiful daughter called Hinetitama. When Hinetitama grew, she had daughters to Tane. One day Hinetitama asked Tane who her father was, and on discovering that Tane was the father of her children, she fled with shame into the night, to a place called Rarohenga, the underworld. From then on she became known as Hine-nui-te-po, the goddess of the night.

I nicked this from here.

Kauri trees are breathtaking. On our trip back to Auckland we stopped off at a place that mines and makes sculptures from ancient Kauri trees that have been mysteriously buried under peat swamps for the past 50,000 years. Have a look at the Ancient Kauri Kingdom site for some cool pics.

Here's me sitting on a small slice of ancient Kauri:



and hugging a living one:

Te Anau to Invercargill

Te Anau was our base to Milford Sound, just a bed for the night. It was the only hostel that I've been in that has single rooms as standard meaning not putting up with anyone else's snoring and being able to fart freely and as loud as you want without thinking.

The route leaves the mountainous region of the Southern Alps and slowly changes into grazing hills of sheep, cattle and deer. We stopped off in Colac Bay for a fish & chips lunch then drove to McCrackalls point for a last sighting of the alps stretching north from the southern ocean. The drive to Invercargill (described by Mick Jagger as the arsehole of the world) took a further 30 minutes.

Tomorrow we're gonna go to the southern most point of NZ, watch the penguins come to shore around tea time then head to Dunedin.

Milford Sound

Kerry has been to Milford Sound 31 times as a bus driver and only twice before has he experienced a similar perfect day. It rains two out of every three days so we were lucky. To visit after heavy rains is a totally different experience; waterfalls suddenly form from high up in the mountains and drop tremendous heights to the sound. The captain of Milford Sovereign pointed out the error in the naming of Milford Sound. A sound, in geological terms, is a river formed valley whereas Milford was formed by glacial movement which is known as a fjord. Click here for a better explaination.

Anyway, Milford Sound in the winter sun was startling. We had a rare sighting of bottlenose dolphins as we started our cruise. The sheer cliffs that rise vertically from depths of 700 metres below the sea could make for some of NZ's tallest mountains if height was measured from the seabed.

Early start

I'm off to Milford Sound this morning. It is meant to be absolutely amazing on a clear day and totally pointless on a cloudy day. Lets pray for the former. The drive there is meant to be stunning too but somehow I think I will miss that as farewell drinks last night went on until 2am and my bus picks me up in about 10 mins at 7am.

Just arrived in Wanaka

The bus dropped me off in Wanaka today. It continues on to Queenstown so I'll be catching the next stray bus on Monday. Hopefully they'll be people on that bus who I got to know but got off at various points along the way. The bus stopped off at Puzzling World just before Wanaka. It's quite a cool place where there's lots of optical illusions and mindbending puzzles to puzzle over.

The three of us who were dropped off in Wanaka walked back in the afternoon to complete the maze. You have to find the four towers in each corner then get to the exit. We made a bit of a game of it, Kathy won even though I cheated at one point.

Brendan and I were going to watch the rugby, springboks vs All Blacks but I've been uploading photos for the last 2 hours instead. It's nearly done so gonna go get fish and chips for dinner.

Skydiving

Yeap, I've finally jumped from a plane. There was only me in on my flight which took us on an amazing ascent to 12,000 feet over the mountains and fox glacier. I could see out over the ocean and for miles around in every direction. The weather could not have been more perfect. A near cloudless day. I had my thermals on so I felt just right ;) I could see Lake Matheson below:



We were at the same altitude of the peak of Mount Cook and head out over the plains to the south.



Surprisingly I wasn't shitting myself about jumping. We got to our jump height and to the right spot and the door to my immediate right was opened. The instructor put his leg out first, I was attached to his front. I dangled from him outta the plane, smiled at the camera on the wing tip and then crossed my arms over my chest and put my head back. We fell and rolled twice before levelling out and free falling for what seemed like only 10 seconds but was actually 45 seconds. Most people have sensory overload where the brain can't cope with all this new stuff happening, wind flying in your face, spinning around, adjusting your breathing, total new perspective of the world and the adrenalin pumping! Before I knew it the parachute was released, a sharp jerk and we were floating down to earth. It was quiet enough to be able to speak. I took my camera out and took a photo of my feet:



And my face flapping in the wind with the parachute above:



Here is the booking office from the ground just 'cos: it looks pretty.



If I had the chance and the money, I would definitely jump again. I don't think I could have jumped in a more beautiful part of the country. Definitely spoilt. I wanted to get right back up there!

Punakaiki

This is the location of the famous Pancake Rocks. The BBC filmed a bit of Walking with Dinosaurs here. There are awesome blowholes around here so Kathy, Brendan and I paid a visit at high tide which was just after midday. There was an almost prehistoric feel to the place, especially at one of the blowholes which was set quite a way back from the ocean so you could hear the whispers of crashing waves in the distant and then occassionly there would be a massive boom as the water echoed in what must have been a large cavenous space just below. The rocks still remain a mystery to scientists, they cannot explain how they formed this unique layering effect.

The night before we had a couple of beers in the local pub, we were the only customers then bought a take out and headed back to probably the best hostel I've stayed in so far. We all jumped in the outside hot spa and looked up to the clear winter night sky. Just beautiful especially with a couple of stubbies!

stop off

Umm, don't know what town I'm in but the bus has just stopped off for us to get some grub at the supermarket. I've just had a brill few days in Abel Tasman Nation Park. I plan to write longer when I get the chance but today stuck on a bus to Punakaiki where the Pancake Rocks are located. Better go now before the bus goes with out me. I'm gonna be staying at http://www.punakaikibeachhostel.co.nz/ tonight.

Apple Tree Bay II

This place was breathtaking. I stripped from 4 layers down to just my t-shirt and read my book for 20 minutes. Then a bloke with a chainsaw turned up and informed me he was going to cut down some branches from a tree I was sitting under. Before I knew it I was mucking in, passing the saw up, tying rope around the branches to pull them into a safe position as they fell. It was good fun, something totally unexpected. The tree surgeon lived just around the corner in a hidden bay. He said that in summer the beach would have been teeming with people and there would be about 300 kayaks darting around the sea.

I made my way down the bay to find one of the steep paths that led up to the main track. I had to take my shoes and socks off at one point to get through a creek than flowed from the mountain into the sea. It was a bit nippy. I found the path and was aided up to the top by pulling on bits of hose pipe tied to tree trunks. When I got to the grass clearing again I sat and read for a bit and was joined by Kathy who had taken a boat early in the morning to much further down the track. She had been walking for the past 5 hours except for a stop for lunch in her own deserted bay.



I got back to Marahau with just enough light to take some pics of the animals on old McDonalds farm. Hens, ducks, pheasants and native birds were waddling along.



There was a field of llamas and our bus driver, James, delighted in telling us that llamas will poo in only one part of a field unlike sheep who do it wherever.

Apple Tree Bay I

I stayed at Old McDonald's Farm just on the southern border of the Abel Tasman National Park. I woke up this morning to watch five escapee piglets trotting past the cabin kitchen window. Ten minutes later they ran past in the opposite direction being chased back to their sty by Old McDonald.

I was planning to go Kayaking, a fellow from the Stray Bus, but it wasn't running because they hadn't enough bookings. Instead, I went for a walk along the Abel Tasman track, apparently the most popular track in NZ because it's a fairly easy route. First, I stopped at the hippy wood carving workshop and marvelled at the sculptures springing to life from numerous tree trunks. There wasn't an ounce of tack around, every sculpture, large and small, was first class. I nearly bought a hand-made ocarina, a small round peruvian wind instrument made from clay with 6 holes in the top and 2 in the bottom. When blown it emits a soft tone much like the bass notes from a flute but with a much richer sound.

It was 11am by the time I started out on the track which meant I had about 6 hours until sundown. The first part of the walk took me by boardwalk over wetlands to the first deserted bay.



From then on much of the track was a corridor of trees and metre high mud banks with the sound of the tide lapping at the hidden shoreline below. Occassionly a break in the bush would perfectly frame the view of isles, ocean and distant mountains. After an hour I entered a grass clearing made purposefully for camping. Suddenly I became aware of something fluttering behind from left to right and turned to see the tiny fantail bird gulping down the invisible insects I disturbed from passing leaves and branches. I stopped and the bird sat on the grass beside the path, posed for a photo patiently waiting and understanding that a further feeding frenzy was to come as soon as I coninued onwards.



After another hour of following the coastal path, winding slowly up, increasing the fall through the undergrowth to the passing ocean, my destination came into view. There were several steep, rarely used side tracks down to the secluded bay but I carried on the main track for a further thirty minutes, over a fast flowing creek and slowly descended to the north entrance of the bay. As I made it on to the bay, the sun recolouring the frosty white sand to its startling gold appearance, two distinct sets of footprints told me that I was the third person that day day to witness the splendour of Apple Tree Bay. I wished for a set of footprints next to mine, and I know the style and size of boot.