Coming soon…

I am back home and am currently filling the blog’s queue.. yes I got extremely lazy.. but expect new stuff in the coming days! Malaysia, Taiwan, and Indonesia.

Tramping in NZ

What the world calls trekking, the Kiwis call tramping. It’s about going on- or off-track into the wild, and with thousands of marked and well mapped, well maintained tracks, the South Island is quite literally the tramper’s paradise.

Having only a short time I only went from Te Anau up to the Luxmoore hut and cave, and then back. Roundtrip time: eight to ten hours, when you’re young and fit. This signal was spotted a couple of times along the path:

This is what my lunch looked like, when I reached the hut:

Five minutes away from the hut, there’s a cave. It’s pretty deep, compared to the caves I had been into so far. At some point it was so narrow I had to abandon the backpack somewhere in the dark and go ahead only with my body. When I took a picture of the floor, I finally realized why I was feeling kind of wet:

When you are inside a cave, you can see literally nothing. Pitch black. So bring at least one strong source of light. The Android flashlight application did a brilliant job there with the phone’s flash.

Glow worms

After the walk I went on a guided tour of the glow worm caves. Pics not allowed there, so I’ll use something found on the interwebs:

While the worms themselves are really quite interesting organisms, I had the feeling that the trip inside the worm caves is something perfect to do for couples, rather than for lone adventuremen.

Milford Sound

Milford is not really a sound, it’s actually a fjord. But it was named like that and names tend to be quite sticky things. The tour included bus from Te Anau and boat from Milford Sound to the point where the fjord and the sea meet. It was pretty easy to tell at which point the river water meets the salty water, by the sudden change in color. The fjord’s natural beauty is beyond my descriptive skills, so I’ll leave it to the pictures:

TIL

• When going tramping, make sure to use copious amounts of some kind of insect repellent. Take a look at what was floating over my head at any given time:

  

  One hundred points to whoever can guess how many mosquito bites I had on my legs when I returned. Two hundred points to whoever can guess how many insects ended up in my eyes/nose/mouth during that day

• Some worms glow in order to catch their prey. These beasts make for a quite interesting read: Wikipedia entry on Glowworms.

• New Zealand is way too vast to only spend a handful of days. Next time I’ll be back with at least a couple months of time available.

How to eat in New Zealand

This is a brief culinary guide to NZ from a guy who spent too little time there.

Pies

I discovered these true wonders of cuisine in NZ. I honestly didn’t expect to be impressed by any type of Commonwealth food. I was wrong!

Pies are made of pastry and usually contain minced meat (they are also called mince pies). Here’s a step by step visual guide to eating one:

Step 1: Approach the pie with casual attitude, lest you betray your intention of eating her, causing her to flee.

Step 2: Get acquainted and closer, avoid sudden movements which would scare the pie. Engage in casual conversation in order to put her at ease.

Step 3: Attack the pie on a side, while she’s not looking in your direction. She will start bleeding and you will start feeling the taste of victory.

Step 4: Keep biting without letting go of the pie. Show no mercy. Take no prisoners.

Step 5: At this point it should be clear to the pie that she is going to lose, and she should stop resisting. You are a few bites away from glory.

Step 6: You are done! This is what the battlefield should look like. Notice the lack of survivors. Enjoy the feeling of fullfillment and remember to honor the memory of the pie.

I believe the locals usually put some kind of sauce (think ketchup) on them, but I generally dislike ketchup so I just eat them naked. A couple Kiwis found it amusing, but whatever.. I love New Zealand’s pies, and my default breakfast routine in the morning became “go to a pie shop and get myself stuffed” :)

Pie tips

There are specialized pie shops which basically only do pies. These are the best places to buy one. While you can also find what is marketed as “pies” in supermarkets, don’t even think about it. Go to the specialists and for around five NZD you get one of:

• Steak and pepper
• Potatoes and bacon

… and try whatever else is there, I have not been disappointed. More info available on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_and_New_Zealand_meat_pie

So Queenstown for me was just a way out of Christchurch and a place in the general west direction. I wanted to see the national parks! I enjoyed the bus trip as much as I had enjoyed the scenic trains. Same recommendations apply.

Arrived in Queenstown I got a bus ticket to Te Anau. More epic scenery was seen. Te Anau is a town on a lake where I was told I could hike some paths and see some cool nature. Big disappointment for only having three days in Te Anau in the end. Had I not lost ferry, train, etc. I would have had a couple days more.

Assorted Lone Traveller Protips

Travelling alone has many advantages, many drawbacks, and some catches. This is an unordered list of things I might or might not have known when I left for my first long-term lone trip.

You need less than you think. Much less.

This seems to be the complete amount of everything I need in order to live a happy nomadic life:

It is around 13Kg in total (including laptop and winter jacket), and still includes plenty of stuff which I haven’t used even once. I had much more (same luggage, more weight) when I started and I sent home about half of it when I was in Japan, after realizing that I was carrying a ridiculously high amount of junk. Remember kids: Light travel is best travel.

Make buddies by making wise accomodation choices

With anyone. It’s easy to stay in the comfort zone, but you need to go out and talk to random people. In traveller/backpacker hostels I have met many good people, and made some friends which I’m sure I’ll see again once in Europe.

I learnt that I have to choose backpacker hostels with a good common area. A good common area makes it very easy to meet new people, just by walking up to them and going more or less like this: “yo guys/chicks, may I join you”. It’s that easy.

A hostel without a common area is just a dormitory, and you should spend as little time as possible in the room. You didn’t travel all this way just to be in a sleeping room, now did you?

Another thing which works well is to be cooking in the kitchen (hostels have kitchens) and teach the world how to cook. A sad fact I learnt, is that most of these youngster travellers have likely never seen a real meal in their short lives. Especially people from Anglo-Saxon countries, and most Europeans, rarely have any idea how to make food edible. Here’s a brief list of common problems I have been witnessing:

I have been enlightening a few, and I hope I’m making a few lives healthier this way. Show them food the way God meant it to be.

Don’t even think about “a single room in a hotel”. That’s pretty much one of the saddest things I can think of. If I were to stay in hotel single rooms I would have shot myself after two or three nights.

Walk in a random direction

I like to do this in cities. Guides will keep you on the beaten path. Everyone has seen that. Get off it and just see where time, and your feet, will take you. If you follow this advice, the list of things which could happen to you includes but is not limited to:

• Finding epic hidden/secret viewpoints: you can put pics on your blag, and later brag with friends that you were in places which are so underground, they aren’t even in the lonely planet guide.
• Seeing residential areas: this will give you an idea of how real people live in the place you are visiting. Relatively few people live in any given city centre, go out and be the only visitor to see the suburbs.
• Seeing industrial areas: OK, this one is often just boring. At least you walked some, and actually some industrial areas are a marvellous display of street art, if you are into that. The best gems lay hidden.
• Ending up in a bar where criminals routinely hang out: great life lesson opportunities and fun for all the family! (I did this in Wellington, stole one dollar, learnt a new pooltable game and made friends with some kickass locals).
• Getting lost: annoying, but you’ll find your way back eventually. It was “fun” trying to decipher Korean place names in an area so outside of Seoul that the signals were only written in Hangul.
• Going back to where you left from: this is convenient especially if you are tired after all the walk and now just want to have a rest.

Don’t plan too much

Don’t be afraid of not having everything lined up. I started with only the first ticket, and figured out subsequent destinations while on the way. It is certainly not the cheapest way (and I have already thrown away some airline ticket money by buying nonrefundable tickets and then changing my mind) but don’t let any plan get into the way. If you feel you want to change, just change.

Accommodation wide, this translates into sometimes not having a place booked at your destination. This is of course not advisable during special high season dates (e.g. I would not be unbooked for new years eve, anywhere), but if I have plenty of time during your arrival day in a place, I sometimes just walk around the centre trying to spot backpacker places, and ask locals if I see I’m not getting any.

Related hostel tip: don’t book too much time at the same hostel. Often what you see online isn’t accurate, is outdated, reviews are biased, pics are shopped, etc. I normally book only the first two nights in a place. If I like it I can extend my stay. If I don’t like it or if I want to stay in another part of the city, I get another hostel for the next two nights, and so on. I don’t want to pay for two/three weeks only to find out that after few days I want to change city area or to move away completely.

More in a following post if more come to mind

I really hope to be making someone’s travels easier and more interesting with some of these tips. Happy tripping!

The Fellowship of the Ring

Arrived at Christchurch station, I had organized literally nothing and I also had no idea about how to reach the city or how long I wanted to remain. The city shuttle outside the station was fully booked, so I teamed up with a couple of fellow Dutch backpackers, and together off we went, walking in the city centre general direction. They had booked one night somewhere so I thought I would ask at the reception if they could spare a bed. Good plan eh?

Ground zero

Walking around the Christchurch streets felt quite unreal, with almost no people around, and the only cars in sight were security guards, patrolling the city to prevent/spot looters. Together with the collapsed or heavily ruined buildings, I’m pretty sure this is the closest I’ve seen to a war zone so far.

Hope is not lost!

Considering the city’s bad situation I was quite happy to see a fridge stuffed with books, I think it’s a symptom of someone working in the right direction.

I consider this quite positive. High five to whoever had the idea. Keep it up.

Long way to go

We walked.. and walked.. and noticed that a big part of the centre was closed due to dangerously damaged buildings. Many had collapsed walls and/or roofs, most had broken windows.. pretty sad! I later learnt that the people living there were basically evicted from their own houses, which were deemed unfit for residence. Who doesn’t have the money to repair the house, and get it certified safe, is now homeless. I feel that this Christchurch stencil makes it pretty clear what the situation is (notice the abandoned/fenced buildings on the left):

Every hostel was full (many full of homeless) and finding a roof under which to sleep was an actual challenge. Breaking into an abandoned house was briefly considered, and quickly discarded, on the grounds that if we were not going to get in trouble with the patrolling guards, some of the desperate homeless would have been likely to join us for the night.

When we finally found one, I decided that I would not spend another day in Christchurch, and that I would catch the first thing going out of the city. I went to a McDonald’s (eh, free wifi) and booked a bus to Queenstown for the morning.

You can check how bad the seismic situation is, in real time, on this site:

http://www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz/

Picton

What Picton looks like

There is a harbour. That’s pretty much it. It looks nice but after a few minutes of staring at it you’ll regret having missed the ferry. Now I’ll get to spend one of the very few nights I have, in this town which solely exists as a connection between the ferry and the train.

On the positive side the hostel was very cool. Whatever!

Coastal Pacific

Departs Picton at 13:00, arrives in Christchurch at 18:21. Just over five hours but it’s even more scenic than the Overlander (from the north island). I fully recommend also this one.. but make sure you have booked well in advance some kind of accommodation in Christchurch, as the city has been recently (in 2011) struck by repeated quite strong earthquakes, more about this in the next episode..

North Island

Auckland

Nice view from the harbour, where there were also quite a few race sailboats. Italians, do you recognize this? It used to be a big deal a few years ago..

Also I got to walk a bit and this is what is observable in front of a Vietnamese restaurant (True Story):

I had little time to go around trying to spot street art, but I did get to find this one:

It’s a pretty small city but I only had two nights there to look around for stuff :(

The Overlander

Departing Auckland 07:25am, arriving in Wellington 19:25pm. That’s twelve hours. It’s totally worth the time if you want to see some of the landscapes. The train has panoramic wide windows and an outside observation platform. I recommend it fully if you, like me, enjoy spending twelve hours gazing at the horizon and thinking about the meaning of life, the universe, and everything.

Wellington

Here I only had one night, as I was going to catch the ferry to the south island the following day. I did not take my phone with me when going out in exploration so I don’t have pictures :( This is very sad because I really loved some of the works I saw on the walls there. For this unforgivable sin I’ll instead give you some URLs to go and see what other people found in Wellington.

• http://wgtnwallstreet.blogspot.com/
• http://wgtnstreetart.blogspot.com/
• http://streetarse.co.nz/category/street-art-from-around-wellington/

So I just followed some dark alleys and after a bit I found a treasure! A bar which I later learnt is normally populated by criminals. Great atmosphere! Pool tables and all. I made buddies with two guys who were going around town looking for a dude who stole them a jacket, a wallet, and an iPod. The town is pretty small so they were going around “criminal places” looking to see if they could find him. Joining them in their pursuit sounded like an exceptionally good idea! I am not sure what would have happened in case we found the guy since I had (still have) a bad knee from an “experience” in Sydney. Anyway we went to another couple bars but the most wanted guy was nowhere to be seen.

Following day, I naturally oversleep and ran to catch the 08:25 ferry, pretty fucking far away from the centre, and while some guy had told me it only would take half an hour, it took me more like 50 minutes which combined with the oversleeping meant I was destined to miss it. And so notwithstanding my heroic running (and sweating due to being carrying all luggage) effort I did miss it. That meant I was going to get on the 10:25 ferry, which in turn meant I would lose my train on the other side of the strait, and I had to wait for the next one… which was going to be on the next day.

While I was busy drying the sweat, 10:25 eventually arrived and before I knew it I was on this huge ferry boat, taming the Cook strait. Taming is the most appropriate word, as this was the moment in my life where I have experienced the strongest wind so far. With that kind of wind my massive 65kg body was literally going to take off and I had to hold on firmly and often close eyes.

Of this I have no pictures because the wind would have taken the phone away from my hands. True story.

And so I arrived in Picton alive and well but that belongs to the south island so I’ll cover it in the next post.

View high resolution

I luv street art

View high resolution

I luv street art