Queenstown, Glenorchy, Wanaka, Franz Joseph

Sorry for not updating the past days. I've just been too busy!
I left Te Anau on a Jucy bus that had taken tourists to Millford sound. They were on the way back to Queenstown and had spare seats so I got a free ride through a beautiful scenery. They showed "Hunt for the Wilderpeople" on the bus. It's a really sweet and funny movie, but I'd seen it three times before.

We arrived just before sunset. Queenstown was a bit overwhelming. Full of nightclubs, cafés, shops and hotels. After Fiordland and Stewart's Island it just felt strange to me. I went for a walk in the park that is beautifully situated by the lake shore. Then I went straight to bed.

The next morning I hitchhiked to Glenorchy at the other end of the lake. I convinced a nice israelian couple to take me with them. In busy places like Queenstown hitchhiking is more difficult. I wanted to go up mount Albert, the hill in the middle of the photo above. The farmers who owns the land had gotten tired of people getting lost and injured so the access had been closed. So after another walk along the lake shore I went up mount Judah instead and got a nice view :-) 

The next day I hitchhiked to Wanaka via Arrowtown. I wanted to go up Roy's peak outside Wanaka. But also there the farmer had closed the access because of lambing. If I even come back to Wanaka another time of the year I'll try it then!

From Wanaka I hitchhiked with a 90 year old man who was going from Alexandra to Hokitika to visit his stepdaughter. We stopped at a view point where I took the photo above. But most of the time it rained. It rains a lot on the West Coast :-S 

He dropped me in Franz Joseph. I walked through the increasing rain to the end of the glacier. 

I slept really well at Montrose backpackers. It's great! Free Wifi, free soup in the evening, free breakfast in the morning and cosy and clean rooms :-D 

Aden motel & Red Tussock motel

In Te Anau I've been wwoofing with Irene and Dave who runs two motels. Cleaning rooms is not as fun as gardening and taking care of animals. The most interesting thing here is that they clean totally without chemicals. But Irene and Dave are very nice and I've done several nice walks in the area. The motels are very nice, so if you need somewhere to stay in Te Anau I can really recommend them!

the Hollyford track

Trips & Tramps took me to the end of the road for $55. They I walked.

 I was out for an entire week. It was lovely! The first four days the weather was sunny almost all the time (which is extraordinary in this part of New Zealand). I had great views of the surrounding mountains but easy walking in a flat valley.

 I met a bushman, three youngsters rafting down the rivers, a hunter and a couple of fishermen looking for whitebait and eight other trampers.

 I crossed Jerusalem Creek and arrived at Martin's Bay in the middle of the fourth day. It was amazing! I saw lots of seals and two yellow crested Fiordland penguins (sorry I didn't get a photo of the penguins they were shy).

Then it took me three days to walk the same way back. I got moisture in the camera lens in my phone, so I didn't take any more photos. But by now it has evaporated, so all good! I got a ride back to Te Anau with four trampers from Timaru who had flown in to Martin's Bay and walked out alongside me. A nice week! 

Waiting for the water to settle

At midday today the sun came out after a heavy rain and I went for another walk along the lake shore. At eglinton river I turned away from the lake and back towards town. The river was swift and brown after all the rain we've received the last few days. Not a good sign for me. I'm thinking about walking the Hollyford track. It's a reasonably easy walk. But at the start of the track a river was washed away in a flood. So I have to get a couple of dry days before I can get across the river. Wish me sunshine!

From lake to lake

I'm now wwoofing at Aden and Red Tussock motels in Te Anau. I help clean the rooms in the morning and the afternoons I've got free to go for walks if it's not rainy. Yesterday I walked along Lake Te Anau.

Today I walked from Rainbow reach to Moturau hut by Lake Manapouri, it's part of the kepler track.

feeding calves outside Manapouri

The past ten days I've spent with Lynn Wicks and Hans Kraak and their daughter Hermana outside Manapouri. And all their animals of course. There's four horses, two dogs, two cats, a pig and lots of cows. They buy male calves from dairy farms. Many calves are sent straight to slaughter from the dairy farms. But here they get a chance to grow up. Eventually they'll become meat anyway, but first they get a year or two to run around in the grass, play with each other and just enjoy life. We feed them milk from their 13 cows that are milked each afternoon.

When I got here the weather was clear and we were constantly spoiled by the amazing views. West of us is Fiordland national park, east Takatimu mountains and to the north the Remarkables. In the beginning the tops only had spots and splashes of snow.  After a couple of sunny days it started to rain. And it kept raining. Lynn told me that more than three days without rain is considered a drought in Fiordland. But the rain we got was a little more than normal. We had to put covers in the weakest calves and bottle feed some of them. But eventually the clouds cleared and the mountain tops reappeared covered in snow. 

Fiordland

Finally I've made it to Fiordland! I sort of regret leaving this wonderful part of this wonderful country to the end of my time here. I'm starting to feel stressed about leaving New Zealand. There's so much I still want to see and do. A lot of the multi day walks around here are restricted due to winter conditions. I hope I'll come back one day and do more, see more, experience more.