New Zealand: South Island ~2640 km 2010/10/26

My flight and getting through the customs were with no problem this time. In Christchurch I’ve spent a few days and just did some walking around the city center, getting some supplies like gas canister and food, some bit of juggling on the streets or just being on the wireless internet in library. There quite a few signs of the earthquake, which shook this city a couple of weeks ago – some roads fenced of as not safe, some buildings missing walls or this one church without the top, which was removed and placed on the ground beside it. Every building had these green documents taped to the doors verifying their relative safety condition. Other than that it was stil a lively place, lots of tourists or people from some asian countries, especially Korea, who came here to study. There were many people doing some running and cycling in the city or it’s parks. For nights I would be going to the hills south of the city center, the only publicly inaccessible place, where camping would be possible. Had to do some climbing each time though 😀 Busking as I discovered wasn’t going as smooth and rewarding as I would’ve wanted. Only once during Sunday did I get good amount. People here are really used to that. Christchurch even has some anual busking events.

From Christchurch I moved to the north on my way circling the south island of New Zealand. My first destination was Kaikoura peninsula – a place with fantastic ocean views on one side and quite close mountain range on the other. Enjoyed tramping, as they call hiking here, around peninsula. Next place I got a lift was Blenheim – just another of the towns, nothing special as I saw it, but since it had a close place to camp not far from the town center, I stayed there for quite a bit. I do have enough time going around in New Zealand anyway, so I’ll be taking it easy now. From there I went to Nelson, where I spent almost a week. There were some really nice hills just beside town center with an awesome view. In the first place I only climbed one of them to see the Centre of New Zealand monument at the top. And since I liked the place I decided to stay for a longer time. Ended up being there for quite a long time :] Each evening or morning it was some hiking in the hills to and from the places I would stay for the night. During the day I once juggled in the town, but since it wasn’t really going well I was stuck in the library as usual lately.

Leaving Nelson I walked across Stoke and Richmond towns. In the later one I did some successful busking. My first ride in a while was just a little further to a free camping ground near Wakefield town. From there I hitchhiked to Greymouth, stopping by in Murchison, Westport and Punakaiki to see their famous Pancake Rocks and Blowholes. I spent two days in Greymouth and got a lift from there to Hokitika with a couple of Maori guys. They invited me to their place and I camped in their backyard. Got to use a shower as well. As a present one of them made me a necklace with a jade stone. Hokitika is quite famouse for it’s jade works and those two Maori guys were doing some jade carvings there. After spending the next day in Hokitika I hitchhiked to Franz Josef and next morning hiked to it’s glacier in the mountains. After this leg excercise I got to Wanaka with several rides. Last one was in a post van, so it took a bit longer than it would have otherwise. Had to stop by in some towns to deliver the mail :] Landscape around Wanaka was fantastic. Town is situated just near the lake with some snowy mountains on the background. In the evening I took a hike onto Mt.Iron and spent the night there. Next day I went to Cromwell just 50 km away. Didn’t do much there, just spent some time in the library and later hitched a ride to Frankton, where I camped in the hills again. Queenstown was about 7 km distance from Frankton and surrounded by beautiful snowy mountains. I had some little stroll around the town and juggled a bit on the Mall street.

From Queenstown I intended to get to Milford Sound to see a fiord. Although I would have to do a huge hook to get there. The day when I went off was awful weather-wise, so I had to skip on that. Fiordland here’s quite famous for it’s rainy weather, having around 8 meters anual rainfall. So I decided to skip on making that hook and headed to Invercargill. Didn’t escape that unstable weather though. Was lucky enough not to get rained at least when I was hitchhiking – managed to get rides just before it would pour down really heavily. In Invercargill though I had a taste of some rains and hailstorms. Not too warm there too – just 6 degrees at the time. From there to Balclutha I chose to take a scenic coastal route through Catlins Forest Park. Road had too little traffic though, so it took some time to get there. On the way I was invited for a second time in New Zealand to spend a night at a driver’s place – Catlins Farmstay. That was really helpful, since weather that night was especially nasty. After Balclutha I went to Dunedin, where I spent a few days just visiting library and one for some busking. Next destination was Oamaru, which surprised me a bit with all the Steampunk sculptures in and outside the town. Well, it is supposedly a steampunk capital of New Zealand :] There was a penguin colony in Oamaru, but it wasn’t a proper time of the day when I went to visit it, so I didn’t have the chance to see them A couple of days in Timaru and another in Ashburton. Just moving a bit by bit to the North. Landscape on the East Coast is quite different from the West one. It’s flat with heaps of dairy farms along the road. While on the West it was more ruged and thousands of sheep on the hills 🙂 Well, New Zealand is one of the leading countries for it’s cattle and dairy products… Spent another 2 days in Christchurch and went to Picton. The day when I got there was a public holiday, so with nothing better to do I did 5 hours of juggling on the main street. Got quite a good income from that and even ‘leveled up’ in juggling. I mean literally. Suddenly just attempted another 2 juggling styles with 3 balls, 1 with 4 and improved another one with 3. All this without ever practicing them before, just saw some of them being performed by other jugglers I met during my travel. Interesting thing is that it felt like I knew them before, so there was very little need in polishing those styles :]

Summarising my travel and living experience in South Island, it was rather relaxed and hardly as full of sightseeing as it could be in a duration of a month and a half. I spent more time doing whatever I felt like. Probably getting a bit bored of just traveling. Not like there aren’t places and things to be visited and seen in New Zealand. I still cleared most of the major stuff there is and the landscape is just ideal for hiking, there are heaps of tramping trails in the hills around most of the towns. There was also this big influence of having a laptop and there being free wireless available in most of the libraries. Actually I am getting tired of it too lately and it’s a good thing. Got reminded all over again of what I was bored about to the bones while at home – even if I missed that after several months of travel. My usual day here would be a hike from some hills or wherever I would have my tent set up, stroll around the town early in the mornings, a day spent on a wireless in the library while downloading stuff and reading japanese mangas, an evening hike back to the hills or hitchhike to some other township, camping just outside of it by the road, enjoying some cooked meal and watching animes in a tent. Quite an ideal way of life in my eyes right now, combining both of my interests for hiking/camping in the nature and indulging myself with reading and watching japanese stuff. Anyway, now I am sort of recharged to continue with actual travel thing. I still miss my friends a lot back at home, but that’s it. Well, there is beer and pub stuff in our old town of Vilnius too, but that comes in a package with friends thing ;]

Photo: click