Nov 2007

Having booked to walk the Milford Track at the beggining of July in St. Petersburg when I had just started travelling, it has been something I had been looking forward to for a while, and it certainly lived up to my expectations. The track is one of New Zealands great walks, a group of about 10 multi-day walks across the country and is supposed to be one of the best walks in the world. It is so popular that access has been restricted to 40 people a day and it gets booked up as soon as the bookings open on 1st July.

After a night in Te Anau I had to go on another short bus journey and then get a boat accross the lake to the start of the track, as there is no where to access it by road. The first day of the walk is just a short walk through the forest to the 1st hut so you arrive early afternoon. You have to stay in the designated huts, but they were all very nice and meant that there was a bit less to carry as mattresses and gas stoves were provided. Spent the evening getting to know the other people on the walk, a strange mix of people from all over the world although the majority were from Oz and NZ.

The second day of the walk was a very nice walk along the Clinton Valley. A steep sided valley surronded by snow-capped mountains with impressive waterfalls of melted snow running down into the valley. The area is famous for the amount of rain it gets, it rains about 300 days a year and often gets more rain in a day than most places in NZ get in a year. But it looked as though I was going to be lucky as it was an amazing sunny day which was perfect for the walk. Arrived at the second hut quite early in the afternoon, so to take advantage of the great weather I left my bag and continued up the track to do the 1st part of the next days walk. This was a steep climb up to the Mackinnon pass, the highest point of the walk. From the top there were spectacular views of the surrounding peaks and down into the Arthur Valley where the walk continued. To make the most of the good weather I sat at the top for a while watching avalanches on the surrounding hills as the hot weather was causing a lot of the snow to melt.

When I started walking on the 3rd day the cloud was low in the valley, so the walk up the pass was all in the clouds and could see very little from the top, so the extra walk on the day before had prooved to be worthwhile. Although, at times the clouds cleared so we above them and this gave us spectacular glimpses of the surrounding peaks. The walk down into the next valley was quite steep as the main track was closed due to the avalanche risk. But as we descended the clouds lifted and it became another very sunny day. Before reaching the next hut, we went on a short side trip to the Sutherland falls, the 5th tallest waterfall in the world. Because of all the snow melt the strength of the water was incredible and made a very dramatic scene. Even at quite a distance from it, the spray of the water provided a very refreshing shower. From there it was another couple of hours walk to the last hut. After arriving here, I did try to go for a swim in the river, but to say the least it was a bit cold so quickly gave up on that idea after my feet rapidly went numb.

The last day of the walk was along the valley through the forest. Again this was very nice and even saw a kiwi, which is quite rare as they are suppossed to be nocturnal. As we got to Milford Sound the weather was starting to change as the cloud came down but we were very lucky and managed to complete the walk without any rain. From the end of the walk it was a short boat trip across the fiord to the village of Milford Sound. Its only a small place, but had a nice hostel and a pub which provided a nice dinner and a few pints,which was a welcome change from dehydrated camping food.

Arrived in Christchurch at about 1am on Thursday morning, so have already been here nearly a week. The flight was fine again and I was pleased that customs again decided to stop me and cleaned my boots and tent. Spent Thursady looking around the city. I came here about 6 years ago, and it hasn't changed much from what I remember. In the afternoon I decided to experiance some real NZ culture- sheep. I went to a big agriculture show just outside the city. Its a big thing here and everyone gets a day off work to go to it. As you would expect in a country with 10 times as many sheep as people, there was a huge display of sheep and I saw the highly prized best sheep of the show, it was closer to the size of a cow than a normal sheep.

The next few days were mainly taken up with bus journeys to get to the start of the Milford track. The bus across to Queenstown, was a nice drive with good views over to Mount Cook and the Southern Alps. Just stayed here a night on my way further South to Te Anau. THis is just a small village by the side of a huge lake, so again this was just an overnight stop and a chance to get organised for the next few days.

Spent my first day in Sydney having a very cultured day, visiting museums, art galleries and the opera house. Went to the maratime museum to see an exhibition about the ice man. I had originally tried to go to the museum when I was in the Dolomites a few years ago but it was closed the day I went, so was good to finally get to see it, although it was a bit of a strange location for it. I was puruaded to go on a guided tour of the rest of the museum and had a look round a replica model of Cooks Endeavour. Its a suprisingly small boat considering the number of people that lived on it for years. In the afternoon I went to an art gallery in the Botanic Gardens and saw a lot of Australian art. Then in the evening I went to see the Sydney Symphony Orchestra playing at the Opera House. Never been to a proper concert like that before, but it was actually really good and only a few dollers more expensive than just doing an hour tour of the building. I did feel a bit out of place though as the average age of the people there must have been over 50 and everyone else was very dressed up, whereas my very limited selection of clothes wasn't ideal.

After the day of culture, I spent Sunday having a lazy day. Brought a ferry ticket for unlimited use of boats on the harbour and just went to random places. First I went to Manly, just north of Sydney, where there was a nice beach. It had been taken over for the day by a surf life club saving competition, so enjoyed watching that. Was the most stereotypical Australian event, a lot of swimming, surfing, running on the beach and BBQS. Later I went on the boat to the Olympic Park, did't bother looking round it though, just went for the boat trip down the harbour.

Then on Monday I thought I should complete my experiance of Australian beaches by going to Bondi. So spent most of the day there watching people surfing. It was quite busy as there were loads of school trips at the beach, because there was a display of sculptures along that part of the coast. But a school trip to Bondi beach, how good would that have been.

I got the overnight bus back to Melbourne last night. So just here for my last day in Australia before flying to New Zealand tomorrow.

After months of enjoying nice weather, my luck has run out. Arrived in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains and it was in thick fog. must have driven past the campsite a couple of times before I actually found it as the fog was so thick you couldn't actually see the sign by the road.

Apparently there has been a drought in this part of Australia for about 10 years, speak to anyone who lives here and the conversation soon ends up being about the lack of rain in the area. So when it started to rain that evening I thought it was a good thing but a few hours later when it was still raining very hard, with thunder and lightening I was starting to change my mind. When i went back to my tent and found 2 ducks enjoying themselves by it things were not looking good. Although everything in the tent was still actually dry, it was like lying on a waterbed as the ground was so wet so I decided to sleep in the car instead. Probably a good decision as it carried on raining hard most of the night, turns out it was actually the wettest day in Sydney and Melbourne for over 2 years. But by morning it had stopped and the fog had cleared so I could actually see where I was. The campsite was actually just across the road from one of the main bushwalking parts of this area, so I had a very nice days walking around there, with some great views over the valley.

But unfortunately the dry weather didn't lastand the next few days the weather was very Scottish, heavy showers, low cloud and its got really cold compared to what I've been used to. I've got used to temperatures in the 30s so seeing a maximum temperature of 8 degrees being forecast has been a bit of a shock. I still went out doing some nice walks though, although the weather is like being at home, bushwalking is very different. Some good forest walks and all the rain has made the waterfalls very impressive. To escape from the rain for a day I've also been on a trip down the Jenolan Caves, a big group of limestone caves in the mountains. THe different rock formations and crystals were very impressive as the variety in them was amazing.

As the rain continued and having seen forecasts showing that I was in the coldest, wettest place in Australia I decided to leave a day early and went to Botany Bay. Was quite suprised how most of the area is now very heavily industralised with only a small section of the coast kept as a national park. Was nice to be back at the coast again, and it was nice and sunny so I was finally able to dry out my soaked tent and gear. As there were still some heavy showers I decided to stay in a motel for a night so that I could pack up all my stuff before having to take the car back.

Drove in to Sydney the next day, stopping off at a wildlife park on the way. I've managed to see a lot of Australian wildlife in the wild, but haven't seen any koalas, so I decided some captive ones would have to do. Spending the weekend in Sydney before heading back to Melbourne for my flight to New Zealand

Arrived in Melbourne on Friday night and it was a bit of a shock to be in a big city again and to be staying in a hostel. Hostels in Australia seem to be different from everywhere else as most of the people using them are staying there for a few months and working so they have a different kind of atmosphere which reminded me too much of being in halls of residence in the 1st year of university. Spent the weekend in Melbourne, looking around the city on Saturday and then on Sunday I went to a new climbing wall that has just opened there. Haven't been climbing for months, so that was good fun.

Have hired a car for a couple of weeks to drive up to Sydney along the Great Dividing range for the chance to do a bit of walking. So left Melbourne on Monday and drove North to a place called Seymour to stay with my mum's friends for a couple of days. They have a small cattle farm in the hills just outside the town. I had a very nice couple of days there as after 4 months traveling it was just nice to be in a normal house again and have some very good home cooked food. Spent most of my time there being taken for walks by their dog, which had far to much energy as it was just a few months old.

From there I carried on North to Mount Buffalo national park where I started camping again. Had a nice couple of days there doing a bit of walking. Enjoyed being out in the hills again as I haven't really done any proper walking since getting to Australia.

Next I went to Mount Kosciuzko national park in the Snowy Mountains, where I was surprised to find there was actually still some patches of snow on the tops. I had planned to stay there to do a bit of walking but the next day it was raining and the cloud was very low so I decided just to carry on heading north to the Blue Mountains.