Trip story

Hi bro !

I’ll start a short diary of my trip !

Monday

I had an interview in the morning, and I got a internship at Unitec, from March to August! I’ll be back to France right after.

I took the plane in the evening, and I arrived in Wellington around 7pm. I found a bus, and I dropped off somewhere downtown, so as to find a backpacker’s. I hardly had time to get my plan that a man came to help me. As fast as I said ‘hi’, he showed me four backpackers. As fast as I said ‘Thank you’, another guy asked me if I needed help. I explained that the previous man told me where to go, so he insisted to come with me to show me the way. I arrived in a bad looking hotel, as it was inside. In my room were a group of German people who were leaving during the night. Clearly, they had no intention to sleep before leaving. I could get some sleep anyway, after they left at 1am.

Tuesday

In the morning, I went to the ambassy, to register for the election of 2012. Unfortunetely, the woman told me that I needed a home to vote, and that to make a proxy, I needed to register on Limoges’ lists and then, come back to Wellington (no proxy by mail !). I finally gave up, considering I can’t come back to Wellington before the 31th of December. Drat ! I hope my fellow French will vote right.

In the afternoon, I went to the national museum, but I didn’t really enjoy, depressed as I was by both the bad news and the weather.

Wednesday

I slept better, being alone in my dorm this night. I was in a better shape to go visiting the Wellington’s botanic gardens. You can go there by cable car, but I choose the economical solution, and went on foot. It was so close that I concluded the cable car was nothing but another tourist-trap. I say it again: there are many great things to do here, often free, but i-sites will always try to make you pay a lot of useless stuffs.

Having finished the visit early, I walked back to the museum in the afternoon. In a better mood, I found much more interest. Still, I must say that the history of New Zealand and Maoris tribes turned out to interest me less than stuffed animals, paintings, or even the modern art collection. (I generally don’t like abstract art, nor modern art, but the Maori influence in it has a good effect. Well, I don’t have pictures, I’ll try to find online. An artistic article soon ? Everything is possible.)

Thursday

Despite all my research, I couldn’t find a bus to take me to the ferry terminal. The Interislander website warmly recommends taking a taxi. So, I decided not to take care of this, and to try on foot. I woke up early, put my 30kg backpack on my back, and hit the road. That was not easy, since the road isn’t really for pedestrians, and was across a gloomy industrial area. I finally found my way, and I arrived in time for the check-in.

The trip was much more enthusiastic: with a beautiful blue sky, and a shiny sun, I could enjoy the journey and run from bridge to bridge to take pictures of everything. The trip is 3 hours long, along the South coast of Wellington, then turn to the South and goes to Picton by travelling between island and small mountains. Really lovely scenery!

I arrived to Picton, and dropped my stuff in a backpacker’s much more welcoming this time. Picton is a really small city, between sea and mountains, with a very relax atmosphere. I wish I could have stayed there longer. But I had only one a short time there, so I quickly started to look for a walk track. I found a hour and a half one, in the forest, and quite vertical. A good warming up for the legs. After that, I spent some time in the backpacker’s, prepared a snack, and walked another track to Bob’s Bay. It was a 30min walk in the wood, which arrived on a very isolated beach, where I was completely alone. However I didn’t jump in the water, naked as a hippie, because it was a bit cool. I just ate my diner while looking at the boats passing by.

Friday

I started my day with another walk in the morning, still under the Picton’s sun. I came back to take my bus at 2pm, and arrived in Nelson after two hours of a lovely road in the mountain, or along the Marlborough’s vineyards. I walked around in the city centre before finding my backpacker’s, the ‘Palace’. It’s lovely, the building is quite old, and very well decorated, with a lot of posters, paintings, etc. And with a Christmas tree! Not much more to tell for the moment!

Saturday, 24^th of December

Because I didn’t want to wander during hours before starting my hike of the day, I decided to go to the i-site. Although the city is surrounded by mountains, there are no more than 4 walk tracks, two of which are in the city. So prepared my lunch, and I left early, the start of the closer path being one hour walk from my backpacker’s. Once there, after a boring walk through the city, I discovered that the track was closed… Quite upset to be wasting my time, and thinking that people of the i-site should have known, and should have told me, I walked to the other walk track. It was closed as well. No explanation, just a sign ‘please keep out’. I understood after a while that this was due to the recent storm in Nelson. Anyway, I went back to my backpacker’s, having done nothing interesting.

I’ll sum up fast the non-events of the next days. I ate alone my smoked salmon for Christmas, but the day after has been more enthusiastic, with the Christmas meal organised by the backpacker’s. Only problem, the lunch which I was waiting for impatiently, was ready at… 7.30pm… So I did nothing of my day but waiting. At least I had time to make some nice phone call! The day after, I took the bus to Motueka. The city has really no interest, bus there is a lovely walk along the waterfront. There I met Céline on Tuesday afternoon, and I’ll now start the second part of my trip, with a car, which considerably increase the number of things I can do. We are tonight in Marahau, at the entrance of the Abel Tasman National Park.