Week 31- part 1 Israelis and the West Coast

I woke on Monday the 12th mostly refreshed (my lift from the night before had managed to turn their hazard lights on at 05:30). I briefly spoke to a Belgian girl and heard a Scottish girl say ‘What’s the point if you don’t have a picture to show you jumped out of a f***ing plane!’ when talking about skydiving. I hitched into town with two locals who were just escaping for the night. I got a new book, supplies, booked a campsite for the following night and began my journey to Wanaka. My first lift was with a paragliding instructor who lived out of his van (he thought I was American). From the edge of town, a man who does free diving brought me to the turn off to Wanaka (he thought I was American) and then a woman with eight children brought me the rest of the way (she thought I was American) and with eight children there was no shortage of conversation. In Wanaka I spoke to Ulysse and Marlene on the phone to hear they thought they had a place for us to live.

At this stage it was around 12:30 and I decided to climb Roy’s Peak. I hitched with a local down the road (at last, I’m Irish!) and began the 8km treck with 1200m gain in elevation. The track was was nothing but switch backs and after about 30min I dumped my pack in a hedge as I couldn’t keep going with it. It was a hot day and hard work. A short while later I caught up with two Americans, Scott and Amy, and bonded over the use of a good stick. I walked the whole way up and down with them (Irish again) and learnt that Scott was a Georgia Tech professor and Amy worked with Special Olympics. It took about two hours to reach the summit and an hour and a half to come down. It may have been a challenging climb, but it was worth it for the 360° views from the top. Once down, Scott and Amy dropped me just outside Wanaka. From there I hitched with a chain smoking local to Hawea and then 30min later I picked up by Lesley. I had wanted to go about 40min up the road to a campsite but Lesley was going right past my trail head so we stuck together. She was quite the woman, from Santa Cruz, had won gold medals at the Vaulting World Cup, set up a $40 million investment fund, travels the world, climbed Kilimanjaro and generally just a bit mad. We hit it off straight away. She even fed me Nutella! We stopped to eat in Haast and then kept driving for probably 2.5 hours. We talked non-stop, listened to some Portuguese music and enjoyed the occasion. I was a little concerned by her cat burial, taking pictures while driving and her obsession that I was also Aquarius. As it happened, she had also snuck in to see Federer play in Rod Laver Arena. Eventually we parted ways and I walked into the bush to camp for the night.

I was beginning the Copland track in the morning. Once packed up I crossed a river and was underway. The clouds were overhead all day and with the humidity it felt just like a rainforest. After about 30min I bumped into an Israeli family, Yuval, Gideon and Nadav and walked the rest of the treck with them. They have all done compulsory service in the army, Giddy is about 65, Yuval speaks German, French, English and Hebrew and is an Engineer and Nadav has been travelling India and Australia for the past year. I greatly enjoyed discussing the cultural differences. The track was reasonably flat but uneven for three hours till the first hut where we stopped for lunch then we climbed for two hours to the hut. There were many beautiful creeks, dodgy bridges and some rain! Once at the hut we ditched our packs and walked 30sec up the hill to the natural hot pools. Parts were far too hot and it was quite muddy but absolutely fantastic. After a good soak we had some tea and I cooked food. I sat with a large group of Israelis, learning about their culture and I also planned to travel with the family after this track.

There was quite a lot of condensation in the morning and it rained too so I woke feeling wet. I packed up my things and cooked breakfast. We then all went up for another soak in the hotpools. After a relaxing morning we set off, with the sun overhead. After about an hour disaster struck. Giddy slipped and sprained his ankle. We waited for an hour while Yuval got tape, meanwhile his ankle got bigger and bigger. He decided to go back to the hut with his sons so we sadly parted ways. I have since learned that he was heli-lifted out two days later to Christchurch for a small operation but is feeling much better. I walked briskly out with another Israeli, stopping briefly to throw the frisbee. The river was incredible. Once out my Israeli friend brought me to the township of Fox Glacier and then, unbelievably, a minivan with nine Chinese people in it picked me up and drove me to Franz Joseph Glacier. I slept at a campsite.

First thing in the morning I walked out of the town and across the bridge to the road up to the glacier. From there a swiss couple and their 2.5-year-old child brought me to the trail head. I briefly spoke with some old Americans before continuing up the track. It wound along the glaciated valley till you were standing about 750m from the glacier, sadly, where the glacier used to be 10 years ago. On my way out, I spoke to an Aussie Family. The father was a sheep farmer and this was his first holiday. They ended up giving me a lift back to town (I think because I spoke with them). From there a local sky diving instructor from Switzerland took me just out of the town and then Nico and his wife, from Germany, picked me up and we drove for some 2.5/3hours till the turn off for Arthurs Pass as I wanted to continue north. He was also an engineer, working on solar inverters in Sydney. We spoke about the usual (university etc) and then about meat eating, ethics and aid. There was a small café at the junction and an elderly couple took me from here, past their home and to the far side of Greymouth.

There was definitely more traffic going South but a short while later I was picked up by two German guys who had been doing the Te Araroa but decided to hire a car for the South Island. One of them works in adventure sports all year round. We pulled in on 9 Mile Bluff for burgers and chips and ate them on the beach. The west coast is incredible. From here we continued to Punakaiki to see the pancake rocks. Unfortunately, it was low tide so the blow hole wasn’t active. They left back south and I got talking to Marcia, a retired Agronomist from California. She said she was just going to follow the road as long as she could see the sea and I said great! We stopped a few times for photos and then got talking about her work in the University of California, solving plant issues, how she was invited to help in NZ and about the work of God. Suddenly, we had driven all 56km and we were in Westport which was my destination. I said goodbye and decided to check into a backpackers. Having meat for the first time in over two weeks was a great luxery and also a shower and a bed. I spoke briefly with a Canadian woman and a German girl who were travelling with a pre-booked group. It didn’t sound like much fun.

You can see all the photos from the West Coast here.