-some tramper’s entry in the ‘main activity’ section of the bungaree hut log book.
this video can pretty much sum up where i have been for the last 2 weeks. just press the ‘play’ button…
day 4: anna tells us that the reason you shit yourself when being chased by a tiger is to lighten the load and throw them off your scent
in case you didn’t notice, i haven’t typed any words for a while. i was just having a swell time in auckland, but after being back in that soul-sucking city for a couple more days i had to get out. so i booked a flight to invercargill and then hopped on a ferry for stewart island.
as with all australia/new zealand flights, the pilots seem to be a bit off. the weather was foggy on our approach and we were entertained with a few memorable announcements. the 2 that stuck out for me were, “if you are connecting with another flight in christchurch, travel will be at your own risk”; and, “going to be rough on the way in folks, there is a strong crosswind which will force us to land on one wheel, nothing to be alarmed about.” the entertainment on these flights is worth the price of admission by itself. luckily for me, the connecting flight was cancelled and they put me up in a fancy hotel with complementary dinner and awesome breakfast, complete with eggs benedict and like a million different other things. i met another delayed traveller while dining and she said, “are you from california? i can tell by the way you say niiicceee.” ahah, so awesome.
i finally caught my flight and made it to invercargill where i took a 1 hour ferry across foveaux straight to the only city on stewart island, oban, population ~400. oh yeah, you could tell. most of the town was still closed for the winter and the few people walking around in the freezing ass rain were apparently taking part in the yearly ‘who can wear the least amount of clothing in the sleet’ competition. crazy. so i stayed the night at a very small place called ‘the view’, as it’s name might suggest it had a very nice viewof the bay. the owner was a bit eccentric(no showers after dark, only snacks in the kitchen, no sheets, yada yada) and i was happy to get all of my stuff together and hit the trail bright and early the next morning.
day 5: we decided it was no longer a challenge to remember each other’s names, renamed ourselves… nico is now loretta, i am rad, cal is luigi, anna is daisy, and caroline is mavis
so i decided that my first real trek in new zealand would be the northwest circuit, a 10 day, 125km mud slopping tramp around the northern half of the island. as you can probably tell from the previous picture, 10 days worth of stuff is a lot to carry. my pack was bursting at the seams, and after letting the local doc office know what day they should start the search and rescue operation, i was off.
there isn’t much to say about the scenery on this trip, other than the fact that it is harsh, beautiful, and varied. there was a plaque at the start which read, “…it is an ancient place of the primeval world.” that pretty much sums it up, every condition you can think of, from mud and sand dunes, to snow, rain, sleet, and hail. i was half expecting to turn a corner and see the gates to jurrassic park opening up, even though i knew i was more likely to be assaulted by some killer penguin.
day 6: we are now in BFE. lonely planet tells us, ‘here you will encounter mud the likes you have never seen.” even cal agrees the lonely planet was correct, for once.
so i guess i should mention how you tramp without a tent. well, new zealand is awesome because a ton of their trails have huts, basically cabins with bunk beds that are spread out about a day apart from each other along the length of a trail. so you don’t need to carry a tent, there is usually heating in the form of a stove, toilets, and some even have gas cookers. anyways, the first day went really well, mainly because i met people, meaning i wouldn’t be walking for 10 days alone. there was nico, another solo guy who is a nurse up on the north island, originally from germany. cal, a semi-retired mountain guide/ski patrol who taught me what FIGJAMmeant. caroline, cal’s girlfriend; and anna, their friend. everyone kinda looked at each other weird for a bit, i guess sizing the others up, realizing we would basically be roommates for the next 10 days.
day 7: limping on both legs, should have brought heavier boots
everything worked out really well though and by the end of the trip we were crying to each other about mud and sharing prized milk powder and oreos. in between we saw a couple kiwis; the rarest penguin in the world, the yellow-eyed; a poster with 2 old people kissing proclaiming www.oldpeopledoittoo.org; caught fish; collected and ate oysters; and learned a lot about the importance of cookies and chocolate while tramping. most importantly i met some really cool people who taught me that even while tramping, you still need afternoon tea.
day 9: delerious, saying things i don’t say to my best friends, worried the penguins might attack tonight. we decided that our new names wouldn’t cut it when we reached our last hut and the fair weather trampers in jeans. loretta is now $50, i am now mud blaster 5000, luigi is the undulator(after all of the undulating terrain ‘features’ we encountered), mavis is now mud skipper, and daisy is the supreme oompla of the earthworms.
we eventually made it back to civilization, beer, and a ton of fried food. after some stories and not a few beers we said our goodbyes, i loaded up on dramamine(thanks caroline) and booked a ferry back to the mainland. now i am hanging out in a hostel in invercargill checking out my next destination. nico just walked up to me and said hello, that is a pleasant surprise, time for more beer and maybe a movie. if the west coast isn’t covered in snow still i should be writing from te anau next.
day 10: my 3 pairs of different colored socks… are all the same color now.
of course i didn’t spend $25 on a boat ride to look at a dumb city from a distance, i wanted to put a tent up and do what i do. oh man, stupid tents. i have only used this tent once in the past, in the relatively dry and comfortable california sierras. well, it started raining at about midnight, no big deal, my tent can handle it. of course my little 1 pound tent was supposed to have it’s seams sealed and apparently the nylon stretches when it gets wet and i am supposed to tighten it up… in the rain? whatever. so for about 6 hours, there was a fine mist coming through the needle holes of my tent, not the end of the world, but i didn’t get much sleep that night. of course when i woke up it was still raining, and i had to put my now wet sleeping bag and tent away to grow who knows what inside my backpack. yay!
well i finally made it, and it is cold. not only that, but seeing as how this is an english speaking country, i didn’t do much in the way of researching what i would do when i got here. so yeah, i sat around the airport for about an hour to figure out how to get from the airport to a place to stay, which was about 25km away. it all worked out and i have been hanging out at the auckland central backpackers hostel the last 3 nights. not a bad deal, they have an attached bar and there was free beer the first night, and free pizza last night, but i am done with it all. it is just another big city with nothing to do but spend money and everything is super expensive compared to korea.
so tomorrow i am checking out and heading to mount rangito to make sure all of my stuff works on an overnighter, then i hop on a bus to get this all going. i was supposed to leave today but my south african roommate brian and i met up for pizza where we met two scottish guys, both named scott… … … haha yeah, tracy, the first american i have met, and a german fellow named daniel. oh yeah the night before i was rooming with two girls, i have no idea what their names are or where they are from because i said ‘hi’ to both of them twice and they just smiled and buried their faces in their laptops, i guess their new zealand experience wasn’t going so well! back to the pizza! so we ended up staying at the bar until 4am when i realized i should get to bed if i was going to make the 9:15am ferry, well, that and the fact that i couldn’t understand a damn word any of them were saying half of the time. haha, fat chance, i woke up at 11am and decided to stay another night, narrowly avoiding a late check-out fee by extending my stay!
i talked to hank a bit this afternoon, he is an alladin soundtrack loving guitar minstrel staying in NZ to learn engrish. imagine someone who just learned engrish, and just learned to play the guitar performing the song from alladin, “i can show you the wor(l)d.” admittedly he is doing pretty well, and i like to use my 5 or 6 korean words that i know with him. 
