Walking madness!

So I did plan to do a lot of walking in South Island and my ankle (thank god) did not interfere with any of my plans. After completing the Heaphy Track I set off down the West and windy coast of the South Island. My first stop was at Punakaiki - which is a really small little place and you can see the 'pancake rocks' there.

And I also did this really nice walk - a gentle 5 hrs around the surrounding area which wasn't meant to be that long but kinda ended up being that long and by that time I was exhausted so hitched a ride back to my hostel! very lazy but very necessary.

After that I got back onto the bus and stopped briefly in a small place called Hokitka which wasn't very interesting before making my way down to Fox Glacier which was actually super cool. I had a really good day and I hiked up to see the glacier which wasn't as impressive as the Puerto Moreno glacier but still good to go and see. The Fox glacier had this lovely grain through the ice which is all the mud and rock it has picked up and because it hasn't rained in a while and I thought that made it look even better.

Glacier formed a bit part of the landscape in NZ was it was great to see one along the way of my travels. This is the less busy  and less touristy glacier and you can even do a skydive over it which I thought would be really amazing but wanted to save my money for other activities.

Fox glacier

The walk to Fox glacier

So back again on the Intercity bus and off down to Wanaka which is a small town on the edge of a massive lake and really pretty. But I was only staying one night so I didn't do much around the area but just met up with some other travellers I had met before and we all cooked dinner together and had a few beers by the lake which apparently is 'the thing' to do!

Back on the bus down to Queenstown now which is the busiest place I have been and probably the most touristy but at the same time I was loving all of that. Most of the places on the West Coast are pretty small and quiet so it was nice to have a bit of a buzz around the place. I settled in and sorted out my track stuff. Decided to do the Ben Lomond which is a good 5/6 hr hike UP a MASSIVE hill! Why I decided to do this before my 3 day Kepler track I will never know! But the hike was totally worth it and simply outstanding views.

part of queenstown

at the top!

Add caption

gorgeous vista

Straight after walking up the Ben Lomond mountain! I headed off to Te Anau to walk the Kepler track with is one of the Great Walks of NZ. Its a 3 day 2 night walk with the most AMAZING walk on the 2nd day. It surpassed all the other walks I have done so far and took the biscuit! The top alpine walking I have done and my eyes could not believe what they were seeing but also my camera is probably woefully inadequate to show the full incredibleness of the scenery because it was out of this world.

Kepler track pics

1st night hut

highest point jump - in my new very pink waterproof

wiggly path

kinda massive mountains for company!

almost the end of day 2

beautiful wetland

So as you can see its a pretty diverse walk over the 3 days. I enjoyed all of it- of course! And met some really great people along the way as usual. I think my favourite people are the walking people I meet on hikes because they are the most like minded people and always slightly crazy so I fit right in!

So Kepler completed and only the Routeburn and Mueller hut to go now on my list of walks to do.  The Routeburn is only 2 days and Mueller hut is a day walk but I think I might actually be walked out by the end of the trip!

Anyway enjoy all the pics and my silly writings.

All for now

Jess xxx

Start of the South Island adventures

So its been a while since i have done a big update on the old blog so I thought seeing i am in this little town I would get my stuff in order and write up the latest news.

So where to start. I had a brief visit to Wellington staying with some distant relatives who very kindly put me up and took me around Wellington and took me out for dinner etc. And John grew up in Portscatho so that really interesting and we had loads in common with the beaches etc and catching up with family news etc.

John and Meg Loar

Here we are at on a glorious sunny day in Wellington up at the viewpoint. I didn't really get much of a chance to see much of the city and all the hostels were fully booked due to the rugby 7s being on but it is a really small cute city with loads going on from what I saw of it. Then once I had collected my new card (the last one got frauded in the states) I was on my way on the ferry to the South Island. John and Meg assured me that the ferry ride was boring but I had a great time cheering on England in the rugby and watching all the 7s matchs so much so that i almost missed the beautiful part of the trip which is the ride through the Marlborough Sounds. So I took a few pics and headed back inside to watch more rugby!



And so I arrived in the very small Picton and organised to do the Queen Charlotte track which I thought would be a gentle walk! No no no! It was really up and down and the 1st day was super hot and I almost expired due to over heating! The second day it rained - and i didn't bring a raincoat...forgetting the Paul Over classic 'be Prepared!' Then on day 3 I thought I would be super late for my ferry back so got up really early but then ended up being super early. Well all lessons well learnt and it all helped for my second walk and 1st great walk in the Abel tasmen national park.

Queen Charlotte pics







Abel tasmen was also surprising hard walk. 4 days 3 nights and I was carrying my rented tent, all my food and cooking gear. I invested in a cooker so I feel like a proper camper now! But this is a gorgeous great walk because if you get hot you can just jump into the sea which is amazing! I met this really funny german male nurse and we totally bonded and walked together on the 2nd day and he walked really fast and kept pushing me up all the horrible steep hills but we walked too fast so we had to wait 2 hrs for the tide to go out so that we could do the tidal crossing! silly german! But we did stop for the most delicious carrot cake along the way so i forgave him for making me walk fast because otherwise I would have missed the yummy cake. I think I am becoming slightly obsessed with carrot cake!

Here are some pics from the walk .

me with my super heavy pack - at least 16kg!

beautiful beaches all to myself!

waiting for the tide

more waiting!

And finally we could cross

my tent right by the beach

So that was my first great walk done and dusted! But of course as a keen walker i wanted more! So I signed myself up for the Heaphy track which is one of the longest tracks at 78.2km. And for this walk I had a friend! A german girl called Noreen joined me but she had never done any sort of serious walking and had bought new trainers 2 days before and did a smaller day walk the day before we left and had the biggest blisters EVER! also one of them had popped so it was just raw skin and i didn't know this until the start of the 2nd day walk of 4 days 3 nights. I saw the blister and was so shocked...she didn't even have a proper covering for it and was wearing cotton socks and trainer! Anyhoo! fixed that all that and we were on our way! Met some of the loveliest people on this track and a lot of young people so that was fun in the evenings playing cards etc and the star gazing was amazing! But disaster struck for me on the morning on the 3rd day when i badly sprained my ankle.



Bit of an epic fail with the whole ankle thing but after a lot of dunking it in cold water and icing it after the end of the track it seems fine now but will need more looking after I think!

But anyhoo! This was such a diverse walk. We started out on the east coast side and ended up on the west wild coastline and had some really incredible scenery. And it was an easy walk compared to the other ones I have done so I was practically jogging around - with poor Nooreen and her blisters.

woops!

So that is the start of my South Island adventures and you can kinda get the picture that I will be doing a lot of hiking. In fact I wrote a list of things that I wanted to do before I left and they all involved walking! So this ankle better behave itself!

Off now down the West coast of a few days - going to see the Pancake rocks, glacier and then Wanaka before hitting Queenstown to do the last 2 of the  Great Walks I have planned - the 3 day Kepler and 2 day Routeburn. But time feels like it is running out despite having quite a lot of time but the walks need to be booked because it is peak walking season so I am having to be quite organised when normally I would just see where things take me.

Ok hope you all enjoyed this last blog.

all for now

J xxx