Well, this was, I think, the highlight for me. We were blessed with 2 days of good weather.

The Abel Tasman walkway is a great walk.. and thus usually quite crowded. However, we elected to do the Northern Part (from Wainui down to Bark Bay). Red line is where we walked – blue line is the water taxi back.

It’s a stunning part of the coast. For the first day we hardly saw another person and had the beaches entirely to ourselves. Perfect.

The only problem on the Abel Tasman is timing your walk to the tides. There are two tidal crossings.. this next picture is entirely under water for half the day.

Opting not to carry two nights food (just for the second night) we ate out at the Awaroa lodge for dinner. It was expensive – but quite delicious. After all.. we were on holidays. The walk back through the cold water at night was… invigorating (ok, cold)… beautiful starry night though – there aint no light pollution up there.

So yes.. all in all it was a simply brilliant hike.. well worth getting North of Totaranui if you get the chance.. it’s more hassle to get there – but less people and beautiful beaches.

Oh – I must tell you! we had dinner in The Riverside Cafe before leaving for the Abel Tasman… it’s the best place EVER! Well, one of them anyway. I forget who reccommended it to me – but damn the food was so so SO good – and cheap. We went back for lunch after the walk – and I will make every effort I can to always go there when I am in the area. Really – it’s just the best place.

I had a hike up above Franz Josef (8 hour walk in 5… I’m loosing my touch)… Pretty useless views – but good to stretch the legs.

While I did that – Nati and Laura did a sky dive at Fox Glacier. I have heard it is the best place in NZ to do it – and they certainly loved it.

Then today we hiked in to the Welcome Flats hot pools. DOC said it was a 7 hour walk – so was expecting to do it in 5 – maybe 6… but it took the full 7. I was… shocked (still am to be honest)

It was hilarious – the first river (about 20m after starting the trip) Laura and Nati took about 20 mins to cross – desperately trying to keep their shoes dry. Once they got wet and resigned themselves to squelching for the next 6 hours things progressed much more smoothly :)

I was completely knackered when I got to the hut. I think it was the 1/2 pumpkin, 3? kumara, bottle of red and a few other things I’d insisted on carrying.. so much for chivalry – never again!

Mind you, the hot pools were worth it. We went in at 10pm after dinner – everyone else had gone to sleep so had the place to ourselves. It’s the best time to go in as the sandflies have gone to sleep (thank God). Below you can see a picture of the hot pools by day.

Finally… an example of kiwi sense of humour. I tried to call.. but there was no dial tone.

Next day – 5 hours out (far lighter) and drove up to Motueka – for our Abel Tasman adventure.

Laura and Nati headed off biking – and I took the opportunity to hike up Roys Peak. A hill overlooking lake Wanaka. I will definitely be doing this one again on a nice day.. from the top, had it not been cloudy, you could see Mt. Aspiring.

Then unfortunately it was time to press on – travelling northwards to the glaciers. The West Coast is a rugged beautiful place. Human population ~ 50,000 , Sandfly population ~ 20Billion.

After leaving Gunns camp Laura and I did the first couple of hours work of the Routeburn. It is one of the great walks – but we were up early enough and so didn’t see anyone else (until we started down again). Snow down to 600m (and this is summer!)

We picked up Nati – Laura’s travelling friend (another German) – in Queenstown..

…and headed on to Wanaka. There we went to Cinema Paradiso (lease runs out in a year :( ) and saw Tara Road. A Maeve Binchy film. The last time I was there with John Loane and Maeve we saw intermission. Two visits.. two Irish films. Odd to say the least.

Mind you, I had to laugh when they drove effortlessly through the city centre of Dublin at about 3pm.. that’s certainly not how I remember it… and I quote from today’s Irish Times..

The National Roads Authority (NRA) has acknowledged that a section of the M50 ring road in Dublin will have to close completely for about four nights, most likely before Christmas, as work begins on upgrading overhead bridges into “free-flow” interchanges.

The work at the N4 junction will close the motorway beneath the junction’s twin bridges.

It is a move that is likely to cause frustration for late evening commuters and late-night shoppers.

and a letter….

Madam, – Hard to believe that the toll on the M50 is to increase yet again. It occurred to me that it is time for hard-pressed motorists to protest. One suggestion of a suitable method would be for motorists to converge on the M50 in their thousands and block it for hours. But then I realised that this already happens every day. Any more bright ideas? – Yours etc, –

—-

A friend back in my Openet days in Dublin – Peter – had a great suggestion for a toll protest. Everyone arrive to the toll with 100Euro notes. And demand to pay in cash… they’d soon run out of change and have to open the barriers. Seems like a damn good idea to me.

Today Milford received over 12cm of rain in 8 hours. There are far worse places to be in the world when it is raining that hard. Y’see… Milfords valleys have been carved out of the hard granite by glaciers.

The rock that is left is well ‘ard. And not a lot grows in it or on it. So when it rains there’s not very much to actually soak the rain up – with the result that pretty much every surface turns into a waterfall. It was simply amazing. I’ve been to Milford twice – and it was far more spectacular in the downpour. Mind you, heading out in the boat in Force 10 winds was, perhaps, a little more excitement than I was reckoning on.

Stayed that night in a place called Gunns Camp which is midway between Te Anau and Milford. I’d definitely recommend it as a place to stay. The camp was created back when they were creating the Homer Tunnel. It has no electricity after 10pm, and none in the huts you stay in..

.. what it does have – is a fire to heat the hot water for the showers.. and each hut has it’s own stove for central heating. The whole place has been gifted to a charitable trust – to be kept running for as long as it can. So much of NZ has been packaged up and sold off to richer foreigners – and it’s a real shame.

It also has a really great museum with all sorts of local clippings from old newspapers. And a lamb castrating device – just in case anyone wants to see what it looks like.