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.
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 .
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.
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
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
No comments:
Post a Comment