Day 206-9

Drove through Invercargill, a Southland town near Bluff. A farm city, I should say, compared to size of neighboring towns. Ended up visiting Curio Bay. It was raining, but occasionally there would be a break in the clouds in the distance and a rainbow would appear. Penguins and seals are supposed to live here, but with the influx of tourists, they’ve become less and less common in this area.

Afterwards, we visited Niagara Falls….haha, a cute joke. If you’re in the area, it’s worth a visit. I won’t ruin the fun. Further down, we arrived at Surat Bay in New Haven. Here we stayed for a few days and found it really relaxing. Slow moving, not much going on, but there was something about it that I would go back for. Don’t know what it is, the nature, the quiet, the clams or sea lions. I don’t know. I found my first clams here, little necks. My travel partner and I had asked around and I went to work. It was a sad first hour, I found jack**%$. Then by some clue, I found a nest of clam shells and started digging in the soft, damp sand. Surely, there had to be something among the dead remnants. Yup! I found heaps and had a delicious steamed clam dinner. So sweet and tasty!

Day 205

The pictures above are from when my travel partner and I left Te Anau. We Drove down to Riverton, down South, and along the way, stopped by several places.

First there was Clifden Bridge:

Then there was Cozy Nook:

Thirdly, we stopped at Monkey Island and Colac Bay. Pictures below are of Colac Bay, a small seaside town:

Day 201-2

By Day 201, we were at Gunn’s Camp, an isolated and old fashioned camp near Milford Sound. Cute and quaint with little hut buildings, odd decorations, and a mining museum that depicts its history and the construction of the Homer Tunnel. This is a curious camp that I recommend. There is no electricity until after 7pm when the generators are on and no phone signal. Showers are wood burning and the best time to go is in the morning, early before everyone wakes up. Its a good place to meet people as phones are useless. Remember the time before phones when people used to talk to each other?! Crazy. In addition, this camp’s isolation is cool for several other reasons. The stars. The glowworms just a minutes walk away. The river the runs adjacent (bring mossie spray, fucking terrible). Cool little paths like the Hell’s Bells trail that swallows you into the damp forest, you’d feel lost if it wasn’t for the trail.

Day 202: At Milford Sound, had booked a cheap boat ride at 8:30am (prices differ on time of day, so if you’re on a tight budget…). Milford sound is usually raining and foggy, but I was lucky that day. The sun was out and there was only a faint line of clouds, it was nice to see the peaks of the mountains and not worry about damaging my camera. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of this time…damn, technology.

Day 200

Day 200: Enjoyed a few hour hike by myself to Brod Bay and ended the night celebrating the 200th day with a bottom shelf bottle of Sauv. A very satisfying day.

Day 199

It’s been a while since I’ve updated my blog. Got caught up living, I suppose. It’s a good excuse. However, I recently and tragically lost my photos on a faulty external hard drive. I don’t know if I can recover all my stuff, luckily I had some folders saved in different places, but a lot of unsorted photos were lost. Ugh, technology.

Anyway….

Day 199: Had met up with a new travelling partner by this time and we had set off towards Te Anau. On the way we stopped at the bungy jump place outside of Queenstown. You could not pay me enough… On our way to Te Anau, we stopped by a bird sanctuary, not a whole lot, but still worth the free and short walk around.

Day 198

Above is the best of the hike around Lake Wakatipo next to Queenstown. Went up to Glenorchy and back. The water is an incredible color around this area, from Lake Tekapo to Lake Wakatipo.

Day 196

Took the Intercity bus in Christchurch to Queenstown at 8:30am, a $59NZD ticket. It is a 6hr bus ride give or take depending on traffic and stops. The bus takes a 30min lunch break at Lake Tekapo (pictures above).

Day 195

Day 3 my traveling friend and I went to Lewis Pass and did a 4hr hike. It was raining, but under the trees it was quite nice. I was so tired at the end!

Day 4 We had camped on the side of the road in Hamner Springs and woke up early to go to the springs. The pools open at 10am and it’s $25NZD/ person. Worth it! You can spend the whole day there, bring your own lunch, sit on the grass. They have different pools with different temperatures and minerals like sulfur and potassium.

At the end of the day we were back in Christchurch, well near by. We camped in Lyttleton and caught the perfect sunset.

Day 192

Above: These are the best pictures from that day. Below: Here are the rest, which I love as well too.

Day 2 of the road trip. Leaving Lake Pearson for the Waimakariri River. The river is one of the major three that drains the southern alps.

Day 191

Set off with a fellow backpacker through Arthur’s Pass and camped at Lake Pearson. The rocks were amazing, HUGE!! It was a steep climb to the top, you don’t have to do this, but you can (safely) walk on the rocks and climb.

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