"…NZ is one of the most scenic and profoundly beautiful places anyone could hope to explore, It also offer a thrilling abundance of outdoor activities, from white-water rafting down stony-bottomed rivers and bungee jumping into yawing gorges to kayaking on undisturbed waterways and tubing through wild caves. To top it all off, the kiwis are famously engaging hosts who are rarely short of advice, friendliness and an irrepressible desire to show off their country." (Lonely planet, Australia & New Zealand on a shoestring)
Well, as the book says New Zealand is quit amazing place, but, still there is quite few annoying things I found in this "amazing" place, but, don't you worry, first I'm going to tell you all about our adventure in the south island and maybe in the end I will tell you all my thought about travelling in this country (or island, to be more accurate).
It all started in the biggest city in the south island, Christchurch.
We arrived to there after 7 days in Hong Kong straight to Jonney and Ronit's place.
Jonney & Ronit are 2 Israelis who decided to come and live in New Zealand after a good experience Jonney had on his trip when he was younger. Not long after working as a computer engineer, he decided that kiwis nature is not for him and decided to stay at home, take care of their new born child, and, in order to still feel Israeli, they opened a "home stay" for travels, mostly Israeli travellers and students.
They run a lovely home, worm and friendly and they offer lots of their time to all the travellers that come by and share all there knowledge with them.
We stayed in there house for a week, mostly because we didn't had any transportation and in the first few days we weren't sure if we are going to rent a car or buy one. As you already read in the last post, we bought a "new" Honda ascot and up until now it's worth the money we paid for it (lets hope we make it till the end).
The moment we paid for the car, we spend some more money, to buy food, tent and all kind of equipment for our 2 month stay in New Zealand. This is the advantage and also disadvantage in having a car on your trip, we keep on adding unnecessary equipment, that you can live without it (like in south America, where you have to carry everything you buy…).
Our first stop, and Izick first drive on the "wrong" side of the road, was to Akaroa. A beautiful French city.
On the way there we saw some beautiful views, green hills covered with lots of sheep and cows.
Now, I can tell you that this kind of views is not so unique and you see it everywhere you look here, and at some point it become predictable and also boring. It's kind of sad because you stop being impressed by beautiful nature, when in different situation you will be astound by it.
In Akaroa we stayed in a beautiful old house near the lake. Our Israeli friends, Gilad and Denis, invited us to that house after they arrived there the day before. The house was our own, without any other guest. As usual, we had a great dinner, which is one of our main attractions here in New Zealand, along with visiting the supermarket.
From there, we had a long drive (about 500 kilometres) to Mount Cook. On this day we were very fortunate, since the weather was amazing, like a normal summer day should be.
This is not something on the ordinary here is New Zealand, even though it's summer here. In New Zealand you need to be prepared to have 4 seasons in one day and even in one hour. Believe me, it's not easy and at some point we learned that rain, strong wind or snow can not stop our travelling.
We arrived at Mount Cook at about 17:00 straight to dinner (like I told you before).
We didn't do much, since we saved our energy to the next day.
On the next day, we were all prepared to do some real trekking like we planned all along, but the weather wasn't on our side. So we decided to do something short and we went to the "Sealy Tarns" (small part of the Muller Hut Route).
It started all nice and pretty, but shortly after 1 hour walk in normal weather it became raining and on top of it, as we climb higher the wind became stronger. At some point I thought that I'll be thrown down the mountain. So, since we a new to New Zealand we decide to go down and go back to the Backpacker's house. I said "new", because not long after we got down, we saw people starting this route on this weather, so, we realized that the next time, weather like this (which is not unusual and can start at any moment, even if the day started as a sunny warm day) can't stop our travelling if we want to do some trekking here.
I forgot to tell you all about our Backpacker's house in Mount Cook. Well, this YHA is not an ordinary YHA. The place look like an alpine hut, just like you see on the movies when people go to Switzerland to a sky resort. Pretty amazing and it ONLY cost 72$(220 NIS) (a lot of money, we still trying to get used to the high prices in New Zealand).
On our last day in Mount Cook, we went on another day walk, the Hoker track.
It's quit easy walk, passing 2 swing bridges on the way to see some glaciers on a lake.
From Mount Cook we continued to Oamaru. There is not much to do there except seeing some penguins (yellow eyed penguin).
We really got to see some, but not a lot of people are as fortunate as we were. There is a lot of Penguin colony in south island, but as the New Zealand's says they are too "shay", so you probably won't see them. And if you have some spare money you can pay to see them, but still it doesn't insure you will see them, as they say, "They are too shay" (This is the New Zealand's explanation for every animal you will try to see, but fails).
On Oamaru we slept in a HIT. It's an organization an Israeli person established. He gathered Christian New Zealand's people that like Jewish people and want to invite them to their house (for free or for a symbolic charge). Usually it includes long conversation about Jews and Jewish people.
We had great luck (which didn't last long), and met a great family, very worm hearted. We stayed at their house for 2 nights and then continued along the shore to Dunedin. On the way we stopped at Moraki boulders to see some perfect round rock that were created in the nature from underneath the sea, and you can see them at low tide.
As usually, in order to see this you need to pay, but as good Israeli people, we found the way to get to the beach and see them without paying anything, but it involved walking 1.7 kilometres to get there.
On the beach we meet our good old friend from Akaroa, Gilad and Denies.
From here we decided to continue together.
After hiring our good experience in the HIT, they wanted to try it also. So I stared looking the HIT book for places in Dunedin or near the area that will accept us all. It's not an easy task, but I did it and found a place 56 Kilometres from Dunedin, Milton.
This was a place I think none of us are going to forget. It all started when we meet the man of the house, David, he came to pick us up from the main road.
At first I thought he was a farmer, since he was covered with grass and his cloth were very "unique".
When we got to the house it all came together, but it was too overwhelming for us.
I don't know how to describe this palace and the people, but there were a combination of the Amish people with the Hilly Billes people from the south (in America).
The only thing I cloud think of when we get there was how I'm getting out of there. Everyone (Izick, Gilad and Denies) try to tell me that it's not a nice thing to do after they invited us to their home. So we stayed there for the night.
On the Next day we were on our way to the big city, Dunedin.
In Dunedin we went to Cadbury chocolate Factory on a tour. It was quite disappointing, and all we saw was lots of machines and we didn't see or taste real chocolate.
From Dunedin we started the "Southern Scenic Route". It's a special route that follows the coast and has some great views and things to see on the way.
Our first stop on this way was Owaka (Sorry about the names, it's hard for us also, it's Maori). We slept in a place that reminds us all a military camp. After we settled down, we went to see some sea lions, after walking for about 2 hours in the strong winds along the beach, without seeing even one sea lion thinking they are "shay", we figured that this place should be called sea lion's cemetery, since all we saw was some dead ones that laid on the beach.
The next day we continued our drive. On the way we stopped to see some water falls, and we tried to see a cave, but after waiting 1 hour for the place to be opened (since it depends on the low tide in the sea) we were told that today the low wasn't enough and maybe we should come back tomorrow.
Our next stop was Invercargill. We slept in an amazing place called Living Space. It's a Hotel and extended stay apartment. It was all renovated in a 70's look. We had our own 2 bedroom apartment (for us and for Gilad and Denies). We had a movie theatre room, just for us and all kind of other gizmos; it wasn't the ordinary place you will usually find on a trip. Since the place was so cosy we stayed there for 2 nights.
From there we got to Te Anau, The last stop on the "Southern Scenic Route".
From here you can go to all the great walks. When we got here we asked in the information about the "Milford track", one of the most popular tracks in New Zealand. We were told that there is no place (In Israel people told us to book this track 6 month in advance) and the nearest available time is March.
Disappointed, we left the place, planning to do the Kepler Track instead. The Next day (Saturday) we went to book the kepler track, and like a Christmas present there was a cancellation for the Milford Track, so Izick just jump on this opportunity and book the track for Sunday (ONLY 500NZ$ For 4 nights!!! For a couple).
So our next adventure is the Milford track, 55 Kilometres in 4 days, keeps your fingers crossed for us.
