Travel

The following two posts are combined into one because I’m exhausted and running out of internet time.

I sit now in our alternative night stop in lieu of our Christchurch return. It’s a rafting lodge which is probably seeing the most offseason accommodations it ever has. I wish we had time to go rafting but sadly it’s a power-drive back to Wellington tomorrow, then to Auckland the next day. While I sit here I watch the reflection in the window of the doorway as the female half of our German couple checks  for at least the 5^th time if her boyfriend is back in the room yet. The place has one hallway and she would have seen him if he’d come in, but no, there she is again lurking in the doorway.

Today started after a surprisingly sound sleep in our Royal Hotel, in my case I suspect simply because it was a solid pillow for once.  After a quick breakfast we’d boarded Princess and headed down to the Central Otago Rail Trail. Formerly a rail line bringing passengers into the area during the gold rush, the rails have been removed and the resulting well graded right of way turned into a massive mountain bike/horse/hiking trail through some gorgeous scenery. This morning we did a 33ish km chunk of it from near Naseby down to Hyde. We had sections passing livestock, little sheep faces and bored looking cows. (Fun fact: New Zealanders have 10 sheep for every 1 of them.)There are also a ton of deer farms in this area and it’s very odd to see a field full of deer placidly looking at the bus heading by instead of running in fright.

Our section of the trail ended at a really nice little cafe overlooking a vast expanse of rolling hills and farms. I’m quickly becoming repetitive with comparing NZ to Canada, but it’s true New Zealand seems to combine most of Canada’s scenery types into a nice compact package. In any case I was very much reminded of the foothills of the Rockies in places along the trail. It’s very much uniquely New Zealand as well though. Nikki and Naama actually got lost in the beginning as we all took off without realizing their bikes were still being adjusted, so by the time they arrived at Hyde we’d all had time to have a lovely lunch/snack, much better than yesterday’s atrocity.

The rest of the day was getting to the Rangitata Gorge rafting lodge via a few stops. We had a brief stop at a very large open pit gold mine, something most of the Europeans hadn’t seen before. Next we headed down to the Pacific coast and visited the Moeraki Boulders. These boulders are very smooth near spherical bubbles of rock that have fallen out of the muddy coast onto the beach and look as if they’ve washed in from sea. They have strange veins of quartz looking material that makes them look very alien to the landscape. Very neat though, and I couldn’t resist getting a few photos.

Naama Nikki and David enjoying the boulders

The lodge itself is nice enough, though we got here quite late and can’t really enjoy the scenery (especially with a 6:30AM departure on tap for tomorrow) so it will have to go on the list of places to come back to next trip here. Our rooms tonight have 9 beds but we’re sharing just the boys so it’s only 5 of us. This is a particularly good thing given that three of them are third level triple-decker bunks that have got to be close to 10 feet off the ground. This is our last real night on tour as half of us will be getting off at Christchurch (Andrea and Simone left today to go to Dunedin for a bit rather than sit around in CHCH waiting for their flight with little to do.) We’ll be dropping off five more I think and picking up 8 people who will be starting their south island tour, but we’ll only be sharing the bus with them as far as the ferry in Picton. Here’s Lisa again now, walking in as if it’s her room. I know they’re travelling together but go sit in the common areas together (and you know, talk to people) if you wanted to be together constantly you should have sucked it up and paid for a double upgrade. Of course if it was other people we wouldn’t care as much but frustration with them amongst the whole tour group is pretty high.

So a couple more days (and believe it or not a FIFTH driver) from now I’ll be heading out from New Zealand. I have to say that as great as this trip has been it’s done nothing more than whet my appetite for another visit. I think coming here with someone and sharing a camper van or something and hitting some of the spots I would have liked to have spent more time in would be great. Things like: More time in and around Auckland. Explore some of the rest of North Island, go back and do the Sea Kayak to Cathedral Cove when there isn’t a Tsunami warning. Do some diving once I’m certified and go snorkelling with the dolphins again (I could honestly do that every day.) It’s a beautiful incredibly welcoming country that has set a pretty high bar for Australia to match the rest of my trip. If I could suggest one thing to anyone coming here, don’t look at NZ all tiny next to Australia and think it deserves a 10^th of the time. Everyone I’ve met has agreed that they’d wished they’d spent more time in New Zealand rather than just tagging it on at some tiny portion of a bigger trip. While I’m glad the tour is over (we’re all a little burnt out and need some downtime) I could easily spend more time here.

That said, I loved about 95% of this tour and most of what I didn’t was a result of the driver confusion caused by disorganization at head office about how many drivers were leaving since we’re sort of on the cusp of the end of the season. Our current guy is doing his best, but it’s his first time on Adventure Tours and they’ve given him pretty much zero help. Overall they’re great though, an older more mature crowd that likes to have a good time but isn’t up to 5am every night like Contiki. The groups are smaller. The real drivers are super knowledgeable(and Digger will get there soon if they keep him on here), point you in all the right directions and take you to spots you’d never find on your own or with one of the big buses. It has been a great overview of both islands on this one, but I’d recommend them even if you only have time for one island.

 The next day:

Sad day today as we sped from Rangitata to Picton. Along the way we made a couple stops in Christchurch dropping off roughly half of our remaining number. As I write this we’re sitting on the Picton to Wellington ferry which will arrive in the capital at around 9:30pm, making our time since leaving this morning roughly 15 hours… ouch. To make things worse, departure time tomorrow morning is 6:45am. Despite the length of the day we saw some nice sights and managed to persevere.

I felt bad as we all got up this morning for the 6:30AM departure. There were several other people staying in the lodge, but with the creaky old floors and 13 of us moving about grabbing showers and loading bags there was no way to stay quiet. I’m sure they’re bitching about the annoying tour group ruining their stay but we did the best we could. Low hanging fog over the narrow access road made the drive out a bit of an adventure as well as we ran across a fair amount of wildlife including a doe who was probably a farm escapee.

This time through Christchurch we got a much better view of some of the damage and would apparently have been within sight of the toppled cathedral tower in the city center. It reminded me a lot of photos from New Orleans. Obviously the scale of the damage is nowhere near as bad, but there is that same view of buildings with spraypaint codes denoting type of damage or just a simple NOGO. Old stone buildings were the hardest hit we saw (for the obvious reason) including a number of churches. One of them was obviously a beautiful old chapel in red brick, but most of the buttresses had given way and all the formerly stained glass arches were ragged holes. Many Victorian homes had obviously taken a long of damage as well. Some were missing walls, some had seen a collapsing porch draw off the entire front of the building. The nature of the earthquake means that damage in some areas appears kind of random, with newer buildings being condemned, but older places that look as if they’d fall down at the drop of a hat are open for business. There’s a definite hush about the city. The population has been diving since the quake and it shows. We passed a number of completely abandoned apartment and condo blocks, “For Sale” or “Not Reopening” signs were in many business windows and the traffic was nonexistent during rush hour. We passed the hospital visible in so many of the news stories and the number of cars parked everywhere nearby just sunk your heart. Temporary parking had clearly been set up in nearby areas and all of it was packed. At the same time, not far from the stricken city center there were people walking dogs and playing golf in the park, waving to passersby.

Leaving Christchurch we retraced the road we’d taken south from Kaikoura two weeks back. We didn’t see any dolphins from the road (our guide told us he’d seen orcas on one trip) but we did visit a colony of very cute seals. Even better, not far up the road there was a short walking path along a stream that the seal pups play in heading up to a waterfall. We were a bit disappointed to not find any seals in the pool, but on the way back down some happy barking alerted us to four juveniles playfighting in the stream. They’d found a small pool and were bouncing around in it. I really hope my video of it turns out well.

Since we had no way of making the 2PM ferry but the 6PM ferry didn’t require any kind of a rush we made a few stops like that, rounding up with another winery visit. This one was a much tastier one and even had a canuck behind the counter offering the tasting. They’re a fairly new winery and are striving to be zero carbon emission and the smallest ecological footprint possible. They’re also the largest single block vineyard in the southern hemisphere. I picked up a bottle that I’ll try to finish before Australia, otherwise it’ll be sealed up and I’ll hope for the best with it in my backpack.

In any case, it’s time to brave the on board food selection since we’ll be arriving too late for much to be open but it was too early to eat at the last food stop before the boat. Edit: food surprisingly ok, checked into hostel at 9:30PM sharp…

And thus ends the March portion of the travel blog, check my facebook page for some photo dumps  (I’m starting to get caught up) or check back here once I have cheap internet and I’ll post some once I’ve really tweaked them. Sydney beckons, then on up the gold coast. Only real firm thing on the agenda is visiting David from this tour in Brisbane and getting my PADI certification at some point.

Cheers for all the notes and things, I miss everyone.

The rest of our time in Queenstown passed in somewhat of a blur, we were trying to recharge our batteries a bit for the last run of the tour. The next stop was something I was most looking forward to, a cruise on the Doubtful Sound (really a Fjord) an absolutely remote natural wilderness. The tannin’s make a top layer of fresh water that filters light and keeps the salt water underneath extra dark. This lets a variety of deeper ocean species live on the fjord walls a few meters down.

Once we’d cruised off in the bus we eventually arrived at Lake Manapourri. Once on the lake you take a quick launch over into the western arm to a completely isolated road built for the construction of a hydro dam. This takes you across Wilmot Pass and down into the Fjordland national park. Doubtful Sound is the second biggest of the Fjords and can actually contain bigger species such as a resident pod of Bottlenose and the occasional whale of various species. (which we didn’t see) Lots of seals (which you’ll see in the pics) and some amazing scenery. There’s a ton of rain there annually so we lucked out in only having a few small patches of wetness.

We actually got to stay on the Fiordland Navigator on the sound overnight, down in steerage class basically. Unfortunately Niall wouldn’t increase our Titanic experience by leading any irish dancing. After getting all set up in our bunks we sailed down towards the Tasman Sea. The boat has its own Nature Guide narrating the trip and pointing out the various things we can see. Once we were down at a reasonably sheltered arm of the sound they broke out the small launches and sent off some parties then let the rest of us hop in the sea kayaks and have a paddle.

The Kayak trip was right up there with the one earlier in the trip for the amazing experiences of the trip. Towering cliffs covered with greenery with wisps of cloud running down the mountain, the only human sounds you heard once the big boat had stopped its engines was the splashing of paddles in the water. We could heard all sorts of bird calls ringing out through the rainforest over the backdrop of the waterfalls carrying away all the rain. Most of these waterfalls apparently stop within hours of the rain ending because there is very little soil for the water to filter through, it just slides off through the root farms and down the rock.

Once we were back on board the Navigator they served us a nice hot soup and set sail for the mouth of the Fjord and the seal colony on some of the barrier islands. Like most seals these ladies laze around all day before going out to hunt at night. There were a fair number of pups in amongst the moms but it was hard to see them given the rocking sea conditions. How far they go out really depends on sea conditions as this is a pretty wild sea coast. Our photographer is back with us as I write this and he says they made it five miles out earlier in the week and even the crew were bouncing around taking photos since that’s so rare. For us it was wild enough that they didn’t take us much farther as the sea sick types were starting to turn green.

Once we were back into calmer water they served a delicious dinner, total smorg (salmon, lamb, beef, chicken etc) that had everyone stuffed (even before desert.) There was a short nature lecture after dinner then some general lazyness until bedtime. We were anchored in a very sheltered cove for the night so there wasn’t much roll but surprisingly I still heard a couple people comment on movement in the morning.

The next morning we woke to the sounds of the engines starting at 6:30 and dragged ourselves out of our less than spacious bunks and up for the first (provided) hot breakfast of the trip.  We took another side trip into one of the arms on the way back up to the wharf. This was probably my favourite place of the whole fjord trip. They shut off the engines and let us drift at the end of the long narrow channel. Morning mists and clouds drifted around the tallest of the peaks and slowly crept down the cliffs towards the water. The entire scene was eerily beautiful and will no doubt linger with me the rest of my life.

The rest of the day was kind of a blur of travel as we travelled across the middle of the southern tip of the island and made a couple short stops in some tiny towns. We travelled briefly between the towns of Gore and Clinton on what has been dubbed the “presidential highway” then on to the town of Naseby. The entire drive was a study in how quickly the geography of New Zealand can change because in five hours we progressed from the fjordland inlets, across the lake, fields of rolling green farmland and orchards, up into more arid pastureland and then finally into our current formerly gold mining area with a few sheep farms. We also snagged a truly abysmal lunch that’s probably still sitting in my stomach radiating evil. Imagine a really shady Korean convenience store from downtown in a big city, then plop it down in the middle of nowhere and have that be your only source for a lunch stop. My choice was a pork sandwich that was beyond questionable, poor Niall ordered a chicken Panini then watched as they stuck it in the microwave instead of actually cooking it. Ungrilled Panini is far from pleasant, especially when it’s soggy from the Micro. They had a full kitchen as well since they offered burgers, but given how revolting the burgers looked for those who ordered them perhaps we should be happy.

Once in Naseby we checked in at the Royal Motel (not as advertised :p ) and went to the local curling rink which has somehow become a tourist attraction as we piled off the bus. I guess it helps them keep the place running as it has year round ice and that must get expensive at times in the summer here. I showed most of my bus mates how to do things and even had a strategy discussion later over dinner. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and it’s kind of fun to say I’ve curled in New Zealand. There isn’t much else here in Naseby so we settled down for a dinner and then a few beers, enjoying the massive rarity of free wifi until the owner turned it off, probably fed up that we weren’t going to bed. Unfortunately while I uploaded a bunch of older photos, I didn’t get this blog post up before it went down.

Our trip to Queenstown was gorgeous yesterday morning. Because we’re a smaller bus we’re able to do some of the mountain passes that the big motorcoaches can’t. As a result we came down from the very top of the mountains down into the Gibson valley with a fantastic panorama laid out below us. We made a stop-off at the original home of the Bungy Jump and watched a few people take the jumps. Marco booked a big jump on the Nevis that he went and did later that afternoon. Andrea, Niall, Debbie and David all booked a fly cruise fly to the beautiful Milford sound area. I was incredibly tempted as the weather was beautiful, but it cost around $400 and that’s a good portion of a round trip to Fiji or Thailand if I want to do that later. They said it was gorgeous. I’ve heard the Doubtful Sound trip is as good though and that’s part of our tour (though we drive there) so I won’t be too regretful.

Once we got into Queenstown we settled into our quite nice accommodation then went to explore the town. It’s a very touristy little place, tons of people of every nationality. David pointed out that he wasn’t sure if he’d been served by a native Kiwi yet when we walked about this afternoon, I think he was right until we hit the supermarket.  We had a pretty questionable $3 bbq at a bar before moving to a different bar to close out the night. As part of the night’s activities there was a “horizontal bungy” where teams of two had to get drinks and chug them… bizarre. Overall the place reminds me a bit of Whistler or the Okanagan.

This morning we headed up the gondola and did 5 runs on the “luge” go-carty tracks. Very similar to the few that are out in the rockies if you’ve ever done one. Hilarious photo to come tomorrow. Great views of Queenstown and the lake from above. So far this afternoon we’ve headed over into the botanical gardens and seen their Frisbee golf course (sadly the rental place seemed to be closed) and checked out Fergburger, considered by some to be the burger in the world. I have to say it was pretty good, and any place I can get brie on my burger is pretty choice.

At the moment us boys are back in our room unwinding a bit before dinner. David and Niall are doing a canyon jet boating excursion tomorrow while I’m trying to decide between a few options. Unfortunately it may rain which will limit things.

After another terrible sleep at the Rainforest Retreat ended with a 5:30 AM crash from upstairs, I couldn’t help but hope that one of our noisy neighbours had met an untimely end. Sadly it was the other tour types getting up and ready to go. This was extra annoying this morning because we didn’t really have to be up until 8. Eventually we dragged ourselves out of bed, through a zero pressure shower and into another breakfast done in a half assed manner. Unimpressed.

Today was a bit of a stop and go travel day. We travelled barely half an hour before hit Fox Glacier and turned off to visit Matheson Lake. Matheson is known as a reflecting lake because the tree tannins in the water create and excellent reflecting effect. This one in particular is much loved because of the line of view that allows it to reflect Mts. Cook and Tasman, the highest mountains in NZ. We all took some beautiful pictures along the hike then hopped back on the bus.

Back to whining: For some ridiculous reason our current guide took us to the “shop” in Fox instead of telling us to go back to the Franz supermarket. While the Franz one wasn’t huge (think along the lines of the grocery store at one of the Whiteshell lakes), the Fox one was more along the lines of the food selection you’d see at a dingy gas station. David describes it as the selection of food you’d raid to donate to a food bank. I cannot disagree. We were a little annoyed, most people would have been happy with a sandwich but had to do more expensive options.

Our next (lunch) stop was at Knight’s point down on the coast, a beautiful overlook of what is apparently an oddly glassy Tasman Sea. Sandflies everywhere of course, but a great view for a lunch. Not long after we got back on the bus we stopped at Ship Creek, a small creek running into the ocean where a schooner once wrecked. Our driver stopped us here because he thought we’d be able to see dolphins, and sure enough skimming along remarkably close to the beach we’d occasionally see a family playing. Our last mini-stop of the day was at the Blue Pools, a 30 min hike down to a gorgeous river.

Tonight’s accommodation is far more pleasant. We’re in a tiny town called Makarora but we’re put up in nice little A-Frame Chalets. Things are starting to get a little chillier as we climb into the New Zealand southern Alps again. It was Karaoke night in the cafe here and the tour bus from Adventure Tours’ sister company is here too. They entertained themselves by picking songs for members of their group and “entertained” the whole bar. At least the beer was cheap…

Tomorrow it’s Queenstown and time to decide how I should get my adrenaline going.

Fantastic day today, made up for the shit time we had trying to sleep with our Contiki friends. They rolled off early this morning and in prepping woke us all up around 6. After a rather dismal provided breakfast overall enthusiasm for the day was low. This was not helped with the less than speedy service and continued grumpiness from the Franz Josef glacier staff at their starting area. Debbie is of the opinion (reinforced by later conversations) that it`s the end of the year and everyone is a bit punchy. Lord knows there`s not much else to do in this town as it`s quite tiny. Basically a few hotels and hostels, some cafes, one tiny grocery store and atm and that`s about it.

Thankfully our guide for our group was fantastic. Her name was Jess and once she found out we`d all done the Tongariro and were comfortable on the ice she took us through a few places that were fairly intense. Just getting to the bottom of the glacier is a couple kilometre hike and overall not taking into account the vertical it`s about 8km. The glacier itself is very pretty, quite different from my memories of Columbia Icefields. Once we reached the ice surface we strapped on our crampons and began to head up the ice surface, Jess leading the way. There is a ton of running water and a fair bit of surface melt so she was having to rechop footholds a good portion of the time. The guides had chosen today to break an entirely  new trail, which in some ways was amazing, but made for some doubling back. I also somehow ended up leading our group through a really narrow crevasse that had water running down the whole length. It was narrow to the point of needing to take off my backpack and lift myself through the tight parts and I was absolutely drenched by the end.

Overall it was a great climb-trek but my boots were absolutely soaked. Since they`re the only real pair of shoes I have here this may be a problem, but we have a long-ish bus trip to start the day tomorrow so hopefully they`ll dry. All us boys decided to spring for the hot pools add on and spent a lovely hour and a half soaking in the various giant hot tubs across the street. Much more laid back and relaxing than the theme park atmosphere in Hanmer Springs. We just got back from a nice cafe here in town, much better than last night and we`re basically mostly ready for bed already.

Sadly this morning was time to say goodbye to the comfy beds and actually pack my big bag again as we departed. Annoyingly some time between arriving back at my hut after brushing but before I took out my big bag my key disappeared and I was eventually forced to give up looking for it and pay them $10. Of course I found it later this afternoon, but may or may not be able to get my cash back as it likely depends on E.T.

Our morning routine was interrupted by the young german couple declaring that they’d forgotten something and forcing the bus to turn around 15 mins into our drive. Most of us scampered out to just wait on the side of the road and toss a rugby ball around, but it turned out we’d stopped in the middle of a half-marathon on a very nasty hilly course. After tossing the ball around a bit we stopped in our tracks as we heard the unmistakable drone of a bagpipe. Sure enough there was a piper playing everytime a runner came into view at the summit of this massive hill: Kiateriteri. Niall is of the opinion that it was to speed them on running away, but the pipes would certainly lift my spirits.

Once E.T. and Princess (the new bus) arrived we were on our way, picking up Marco, Evy and some lunch then on to another national park for a lunch stop. This was Nelson Lakes N.P. a beautiful spot that reminded me of Waterton or Lake Louise in many ways. As we sat on the shoreline eating our sandwich we were all accosted by a bunch of ducks and one large black swan that were so obviously tame that they’d practically climb on your shoes if they saw you eating. As if this wasn’t enough for yours truly, New Zealand honeybees apparently have a thing for Teal and blue and they would not leave me alone as I sat around in my Fish Tank shirt. One of the girls on the tour named Lisa was wearing a hoodie in a similar color and spent most of lunch running around flapping her arms. I finally escaped them by heading out onto the dock and watching the massive freshwater eels swimming around. They figure many of these things are absolutely ancient and blind and a large number of them live underneath the dock and boat ramp. At one point we counted around 30 at various areas around the dock.

The scenery this entire day was absolutely breathtaking. Strings of mountains lay on either side of the narrow roads, bubbling rivers and gaping canyons. One thing about New Zealand that can still give me heart attacks is the vast number of one-lane bridges, even on otherwise fairly normal seeming roads. Many of these are even hidden around blind corners so you really have to watch for the warning messages. I suppose our drivers know this route down pat but on occasion they can be really scary and I have to wonder what some of these supposedly mega-popular spots for locals are like in summer with the roads busier.

We stopped a bit later in the middle of Lewis pass as we approached Hanmer Springs and took a few shots. I should mention that we’re now travelling with a professional photographer who’s taking shots for both Lonely Planet and next year’s Adventure Tours brochure. Never know, there’s a small chance you may see me in the brochure next year. At this stop he got us to take a few action shots again tossing the Rugby Ball around in front of the bus.

Hanmer Springs itself is a very touristy town with a few streets of hotels, hostels and chic resorts interspersed with cafes and souvenir shops of various quality levels. It reminds me very much of Banff or West Yellowstone and apparently in the past was well known as a rehab clinic area. It’s now popular as a ski destination in winter, and in summer for various adventure sports (though if there’s a region in NZ that doesn’t have some form of daredevil pastime I haven’t seen it yet.) The main attraction for many is the eponymous springs which take the form of a fully developed hot pool park (as well as several waterslides.) Again think a much more built up Banff Hot Springs, or more accurately imagine if they expanded Radium. A few of us did the hot water slides, the best of which was a tube ride with the sort of toilet bowl approach swirling around and around and around. Quite fun and all the better for being warm. Mostly I just rested the old ankle though.

Our accommodations here are quite extraordinary, essentially ski chalets with a living area, several bedrooms and a tiny kitchen. Our guide even frankly admits that they make everywhere else we stay kind of look like crap. We’re actually up on the hill here and even without sitting out on the now chilly balcony I can look out across the lights of the valley scattered below. It’s very pretty and entirely relaxing.

As I write this it’s about 10:30pm local time and I’m not entirely sure when I’ll be posting this, probably tomorrow night. We’ve all come back from the pools and we’re kind of wiped, I’m not really sure how much later we’ll be up or for that matter which of the internet signals belongs to our accommodations here. I’d rather not be giving my credit card number to someone random though so this may wait for tomorrow. Apparently the “moon man” has predicted an earthquake for New Zealand tomorrow so hopefully it’s not near us if so.

Reasonably bright and early today, though nothing like yesterday’s ungodly hour. For the first time since joining the tour I wasn’t repacking my bag to get it on the bus come morning. Instead we all had a quick breakfast, packed our day packs and headed off for the Abel Tasman water taxi. As part of our tour we were given a one way trip by boat to a spot one bay into the park. On the way we went for a spin past a lonely rock called split apple rock, saw our first penguin (sadly I missed the picture chance) then tooled off down the coast past two offshore islands that are used as bird sanctuaries since the various invasive species don’t have access. On the shores of these islands were some very cute seals, though if you head farther down the coast there is apparently a full colony of them that one can swim with. It’s hard to describe the beauty, my camera doesn’t really do it justice in this light. I’m hoping David’s pictures will solve that problem once the trip is over and we all exchange things, but just imagine all the blues and greens up a few notches.

My abused feet were not happy with me as I began the initial climb, but once we’d reached the top the track was in fact quite level most of the way back, taking a gentle slope down to a beach at one point, but nothing that set off any cramps again. At one point we spent a few hours on a beach in Stillwell Cove and most of us even had a short nap laying in the hot sand. Can’t think of many better ways to spend a Friday afternoon than that.

Every few minutes along the entire path the trees would part and give us an amazing view of ocean, islands and mountains in the distance behind. When we weren’t distracted by the view we were being serenaded by unfamiliar birdcalls or the gurgle of small waterfalls and streams being fed by the previous day’s rain. Conveniently enough the path ended right next to the cafe from the night before and a few of us indulged in a pick me up, I snagged a berry smoothie that was marvellously rejuvenating. Unfortunately on returning to camp and taking my boot off my ankle absolutely seized up as I tried to walk to the shower in flip flops. I don’t think it was this hike that really did it, I think it was an injury from the volcano trek that I’d simply been walking through and today’s walk set it off for good. I’ll be resting it as much as possible the next few days to hopefully keep my options fully open for the big glacier next week. Still, it made the rest of the night really unpleasant walking wise.

Dinner was down at a local burger stand that E.T. insisted was the best he’d ever had. By the time we got there it was 7:30ish, and there were only a few picnic tables outside so seating was a challenge. Adding to the fun the crew decided to serve most but not all of our burgers at once so it took the better part of an hour and fifteen to get our food after most of us hadn’t eaten since 8km’s and 8 odd hours earlier. When they did arrive, the burgers were somewhat monumental. Most of us ordered one called the Hau which was a big patty and essentially an entire garden on top. I don’t understand the love for beets on beef down here, but I gave the pineapple and fried egg a try and it was quite good. Of course by now it was pitch black but for a few meagre candles so who knows what else was in there. Sad to say that after a walk back and a quick beer by the fire it was lights out.