South Island!

As you've probably noticed through lack of updates, travelling around the south island has been keeping me pretty busy the last few weeks!

So far, I've been to:

- Picton (03:00 crossing, nice sunrise of the Queen Charlotte Sound)
- The Queen Charlotte drive
- Duncan bay
- Penzance bay
- Havlock
- Pelorous
- Nelson
- Hawkes hole (the largest cave in the southern hemisphere - I have a video of it as well)
- Golden bay
- Collingwood
- Farewell point (northmost point on the south island)
- Back to Nelson, then Murchison
- Six mile hydro station (have a nice panorama of the top for you Magnus. ;)
- Victoria forest park,
- Maruia falls (created by a shift in the tectonic plates due to an earquake)
- Lyell (an old gold mining town)
- Westport
- Granity
- Stockton (found an old coal mine shaft)
- Karamea, Oparara basin (amazing caves, arches, cave spiders and glowworms)
- Hector (stayed at an hostel called 'The Old Slaughterhouse' - it was about 50m up a steep hill, only accessable by foot)
- back down to Westport and Cape foulwind (with a seal colony)
- Mitchellstown (old gold mine - thanks for the tip Rob!)
- Various stops along the SH6 west coast road to take photos
- Truman Track
- Pancake Rocks + blowholes (amazing to see - it was pretty stormy when I was there as well)
- Coal creek falls
- Taylorville
- Blackball (with the infamous Hilton Hotel)
- Lake Brunner + drive (my Ixus 70 died here :( )
- Greymouth (with a sunset and moonset only a few hours apart!)
- Lake Kaniere
- Doroth Falls
- Okarito beach (view of the southern alps, sunset and sunrise)
- Franz Josef glacier (plus a view from high up, after a 2:45h walk up the side of a mountain!)
- Fox glacier
- Jacobs river,
- Bruce bay (with rock stacks along the length of the bay drive!)
- Knight's point
- Haast pass (Roaring billy falls, Pleasant flat, Thunder creek falls, Fantail falls, Blue pools, Makaroa valley, Nottingly river valley)
- Lake Wanaka
- Lake Hawea
- Wanaka (including Puzzle World - brilliant!)
- Dunedin

Then onto the Southern scenic drive:
- Ocean view
- Brighton
- Taieri mouth and beach (not an actual beach though - it was inland..?!)
- Milton church
- Scenery near port Molyneux
- Wilsher bay
- Nugget point lighthouse
- Cannibal bay
- Tunnel hill (an old rail tunnel - 246 meters dug by hand, taking 2 years!)
- Pounawea (with an old dolphin - the wooden kind)
- Jack's blowhole (200 meters inland)
- Purakanui falls (which I fell into, haha... luckily my camera didn't accompany me. oopsie!)
- Mc Lennan river at dawn
- a grey Papatowai dawn
- Matai falls
- Horseshoe falls
- Isa's cave (Rere Kohu)
- McLean falls (very impressive)
- Niagara falls (really! It was only about 1 meter tall, haha...)
- George Aitken walk in Waikawa (I kid you not Dad!)
- Porpoise bay (didn't see any Hector dolphins though)
- Blue cod bay
- Curio bay (with and old petrified forrest)
- Slope point (southernmost point of the south island)
- and finally Waipapa (with a lighthouse and a family of one of the world's rarest sea lions (the New Zealand sea lion). I also twisted my ankle here. :( ). )

Then on to Invercargill (mullet town!), and the south-western scenic drive:
- Riverton
- Colac bay
- Windswept trees near Pahia
- Monkey Island (Yes, Monkey island isn't just a video game)
- Lake Monowai at dawn
- Mt. Titiroa
- Maroroa river
- Waiau river hydro station
- Lake Manapouri

Then on to Fiordland National park, which was breathtaking (with mischievous Keas)!
- Walter creek
- Knob flat
- Cascading creek
- Falls creek
- Monkey creek
- Milford sound estuary (I didn't do the tour - I'll be back for that though.)
- Tuitoko, Donne, and Gulliver rivers
- Mirror lake

Then on the way to Queenstown, I passed the Eyre mountains, Kingstown (with an old train station), the Devil's staircase, Halfway bay (on the other side of lake Wakaitipu), the Remarkables, Waikatipu outlet historic bridge, and finally Kelvin Heights.

I'll be leaving Queenstown today, heading north along lake Wakatipu to Glenorchy. Then back down to Wanaka and Alexandra in the next few days.

Caleb (the van, named after the son of the man who sold it to me in Masterton - he was very fond of it and sad to see it go...) is doing well. It's great having the freedom to go wherever, whenever and for however long you want (within reason of course!).

I'll get the photos of all of the above places uploaded at some stage - you still have to pay by the MB in most places here in NZ, so I'll be a bit more selective with what I upload I think. I'll also split up the stories behind them up into more managable sized posts.

Anyway, it's time to head on and continue my travels now. Untill next time!

Gisborne to Meremere.

[Click here for a link to the photo gallery, and on the photos below for larger versions]

I've spent two nights in the van so far - it's quite cozy! The first night was at Nuhaka (B on the map), and the second was at the Mahuia rapids in the Tongariro national park (E on the map).


View Larger Map

Turangi was also on the way (D) - apparently it's the world's best trout fishing spot!



Mahuia rapids:


Mt. Tongariro:

Road Trip!

The van is finally finished (see the photos here)! I'm heading down to the south island until the middle of October - I want to be back for the food and wine festival here in Gisborne on the 24th of October.

Sheep!

I'm looking after the cats, chooks and sheep while Kitty and Mark are in Europe for a while:

Dutch treats.

Well, it looks like they have a bit of home away from home here! :)

Van!

I purchased a 1989 Toyota Liteace van (diesel, 450 km on a full tank for about €20) yesterday. I spent most of today fixing bits and pieces in/on it, with the help of my cousin Robert here in Pahiatua. I have it insured, and now all it needs is a new warrent of fitness (APK for you Dutch folks, NCT for the Paddies, MOT in the UK), which I should be able to get without too much difficulty, hopefully!

I'm currently down in the Wairarapa region, visiting some relatives. I was recently with my Aunt Clara and Uncle Piet in Greytown, and also met a few of my cousins, nephews and nieces (I'm making a family tree of my relatives here in NZ...) in the last few days. It's good to see that we're not the only ones that mix Dutch and English when conversing at home!

I'll be heading back up to Gisborne at the end of the week to do some housesitting (and surfing!) for a few weeks.

Surfing!

I'm going surfing in about 15 mins. I'll try and take some shots as well. ;)

Tolaga bay.

I decided to head up the east coast to Tolaga Bay (which has the longest wharf in the southern hemisphere, at 660m) the other week.

Along the way, I stopped off at Wainui beach to check out the surf, and take a few pictures:



I met another photographer, Rogan Houghton, at the beach there. We got chatting, and he's been taking surf photos for about 15 years, having been published in various magezines, newspapers and calendars.

I eventually got to Tolaga bay in the mid afternoon. The warf is located at the southern end of the bay, beside a (sandstone?) cliff. I was amazed to see a herd of goats jumping along the rock face at the top, leaping from overhang to overhang, probably over 100m up! See if you can spot one or two of them in the photo (click on it for a larger view) :



The pier itself was worn down and in desperate need of repair:




I got to the end of the pier, and got chatting to a gentleman that was fishing there:



His name is Matt (the dog is Josie), and is currently on a 3 month winter-season ski holiday with his wife in the North Island. It turns out that he owns the Te Anua Lodge B&B on the south island, near Milford Sound. He suggested I give him a call when I head down that part of the country - and I'll definately be doing that!

New photos.

I think I am finally over the jetlag - I woke up at 04:45 this morning instead of 02:00 and 0:300. I also went for a run today, which will help. I can't remember the last time I went running - but it felt good to be doing it again.

I managed to take some photos the last few days - check them out by following the photo below:




We might go duck hunting tomorrow, weather permitting (it's meant to rain pretty much all weekend here - it'll probably still be warmer than Amsterdam though!).

Gisborne, jetlag.

I went to the beach here in Gisborne yesterday, and had a look at the surf. The breaks are nice and clean - I must try and get myself a wetsuit and board ASAP! :) I'll try and get some photos up of it aswell (pun intended).

The weather has been very wet here the last couple of days, which reminds me a lot of Irish winters. Although it has been pretty warm - it's warmer than some parts of europe at the moment (looking at you Stockholm!), and they are meant to be having a summer!

I'm still suffering a bit from jetlag, as I keep waking up at about 03:00 am (16:00 GMT). I'm being good though, and only sleeping in the evening to try and force myself to get into the 'proper' sleeping rhythum. Hopefully it'll sort itself out in the next few days. And on that note, I'm going to get a warm drink and try and get back to sleep.

Day one.

A forgotten passport, 42 hours of travel, a US immigration official that processed my visa waiver while speaking only Dutch, a few hours of sleep, sharing an aeroplane with a young lady who never had an 18th birthday because she was born on the 6th of June and we were travelling West over the IDL, a midnight catnap in the winter sunshine in Cambridge (NZ, not ENG), and a very scenic drive from Cambridge to Gisborne later, I can finally have a hot shower and a long night of sleep. :)

Sweden!

Well, I haven't been keeping my blog as up-to-date as I would have liked. I still have to post about my Sweden trip this May - hopefully I'll get some time in the plane on the way to NZ tomorrow.

In the meantime, here are some photos of the trip:




And me swimming in the great lake!

Last day at Accepte.

Today is my last day at work for Accepte. I've really enjoyed my time there, and will surely miss it!