Nelson Lakes National Park - Day 1

23 Jan 2016

It took me more than a year and half to pack my sack for an multi-day hike in New Zealand. The Christmas holiday to Nelson dint come along, so, when I came across the meetup for a 3 day hike in Nelson, I decided to join. I quickly got the ferry tickets and hut tickets sorted. The long weekend for Wellington Anniversary, gave enough time for a short break.

A cruise ship at wellington harbour

It was a longtime wish to travel by Inter-islander Cook Strait ferry between Wellington and Picton. Fortunately, it was a good day with lot of sunshine and some clear sky. Of the ten, eight of us, from the meetup group, checked in at the Wellington ferry station and boarded the ferry at 930. Due to some technical issues, the ferry started late but the views from the top deck kept us busy.

Picture of the Wellington to Picton journey

Shortly, the ferry siren signaled and we set off towards South Island. In between the two islands is Cook Strait, which is narrow and within a short while, South Island comes into view. Though the wobbling hardly reached the top deck, it made me slightly drowsy. I found myself a comfy place on one of the lower decks and took a quick nap.

Crossing another Inter-islander ferry

After a while, the thoughts of view outside, woke me up and I peeked out of the windows to see the ferry cutting through the islets. The tory channel is covered with great views of Islets on both the sides. I found myself back on the top deck, clicking pictures. The wind was so strong at few stretches that, I could not stand even for few seconds.

View of the surrounding islets from the ferry

It was noon by the time we reached Picton. We stopped by a bakery to enjoy a lunch before heading into mountains. The drive from Picton to Nelson (Mt Robert carpark) was about 90 mins. The views after leaving the city was mostly open grasslands and mountains, sheep and cattle grazing on them.

We unloaded from the car, packed shared food items into left over space in our backpacks and started the day’s walk. It was 430 pm already and with the luxury of having long daylights, we had ample time to take it easy for the day. The climb was only 5 km long, sort of steepish and with the load on your back and sun glazing brightly in the sky, I struggled.

View of St Arnaud town and Lake Rotoiti

In the very first few minutes of walking, I realized it was a bad bad idea to do this walk without being fit enough. I cursed, but without having choice, kept moving. It seemed like a long long walk for the day. Finally, we arrived at the hut around 620pm. As always, the best sight after a long walk is that of your destination, I made it for the day.

Bushline Hut

Hoping for a better tomorrow, I just threw my backpack and settled for some light stretches. The group, without wasting much time, started preparing the dinner. The meat with beans and tomatoes looked yum while I settled for my vegetarian meal. A cup of hot soup, followed by couscous for night’s dinner gave some energy. We enjoyed sharing stories sitting around for dinner. It was a very diverse group, from NZ, Srilanka, US, Lebanon, Ireland, China and India. It’s always great to hear stories from fellow travelers. A German kid, Christian, travelling in NZ for 6 months joined us for dinner, sharing his experiences with us.

View on Tory Channel from the ferry

With the full moon the next day, the sky was lit brightly along with clouds moving around. The view of the lake looked fabulous. I and Christian, sat watching the sky while the rest of the group enjoyed playing Dumb Charades. We enjoyed a good laugh when one of them had to enact the word “Condom”. Well, it was dirty but funny.

View on Tory Channel from the ferry

Cheers for the day 1, we got into our sleeping bags. I chose to sleep on the table to avoid snoring effect on the bunk beds. Also, to catch a good glimpse of sunrise next morning. But the clouds suggested not to expect a great view of the sun rising but I was still hopeful and slept peacefully for the night.

Happy Me...

Polhill reserve

5th Sep 2015

The beauty of Wellington is, the city is so close to nature. The city is built on the mountains and still retains its natural beauty. There are plenty of bush walks, city walks, bay walks close to city and easily accessible by walk or public transport.

In the first few weeks, I made an attempt to walk with meetup groups which are more active than in Auckland. However, on this walk to Polhill reserve, I happened to go by myself on a Saturday morning. The start of the trail was just about 850 mts from where I live.

It was about 1030 when I started walking. The initial stretch was inside a bush. There were more bikers than hikers. After reaching the top of Polhill, I took a detour to visit Brooklyn war memorial. The view of the city from here was beautiful.

From here, I followed the signs towards Wind turbine. The climb to the wind turbine was quite steep. A lookout point, on the way, facing the ocean was an open ground with few old gun emplacement blocks filled with graffiti. I spent some time sitting there before heading to wind turbines. The wind was quite strong but the view made me stay little longer battling the wind.

Photo credits: Google Images

The wind turbine wasn’t too far from here. There were hardly anyone when I reached the top. This wind turbine was established in 1990s as a research project. It is a landmark today and visited by several hundreds every day.

I stopped for lunch before heading back. There are many other tracks which goes further towards bay. I walked back to the lookout point. The Wellington airport was at a visible distance from here, with flights landing and taking off every 10 minutes. I sat there following the cruises sailing towards the Wellington harbor from South Island. I can’t wait to make a trip on this cruise to the South Island. Though the wind started gusting by now, I dint want to move from there. The view was worth all the cold breeze on your skin.

I headed back into the Mitchell town on my way back, to once again see those beautiful houses facing the view. The houses adds an aesthetic value to this town. The houses are so easily accessible and yet so secluded. A dream place for loners. It’s surprising to see such wonderful town so close to city. And that is why I say, Wellington is such an amazing place and is so different from Auckland.

I took an alternate route inside the bush which was for pro bikers. The path was extremely steep. I wonder how bikers manage to ride through while I struggled even to walk at few sections.

I was back home by noon. My first walk in Welly was so satisfying!

Bus journey from Auckland to Wellington

31 Jul 2015

This was the first time, I was traveling outside Auckland. I was relocating to Wellington, one of most beautiful capital cities in the world. Things fell in place so quickly.

I had just about 3 weeks to plan my relocation. After spending some time calculating the most economical way to move all my stuff to the new city, it turned out that the bus journey was the cheapest.

Mode	Luggage	Cost	Duration
Bus	40kg + $10 for extra baggage	$34 + $10 (extra baggage, paid to driver)	11 hr
Train	All my luggage	$220	11.5 hr
Flight	25kg	$150	1 hr

For some reasons, it so happened that I decided to do a day journey. It was certainly not planned. Above that, I had a crazy last week in Auckland with catching up with friends, packing my luggage and graduating just a day before the day of journey. I was terribly sleep deprived and needed to catch up some real good sleep.

After pulling in myself into the bus, I did not miss to occupy the front seat like always. All I did the first 2 hours was to force myself to keep my eyes open. I could not succeed beyond 5 seconds.

Things changed when we reached Taupo. The scenery outside was so enchanting that I hardly blinked my eyes. That’s when I realized, why it had to be a day journey. The snow mountains in Tongariro and the Taupo lake were breath taking. The huge windows of the bus made it easy to enjoy the views around.

The bus services are excellent. The driver briefs you about the journey in the beginning. The bus stops at 2 places for an hour each, for lunch and snacks. In between these stops, there are toilet breaks every hour. There are several other bus services like Naked Bus and Mana Bus plying between major cities among which Intercity is certainly the best. 

Let me take a while to mention here about the train journey. NZ is famous for its scenic train journeys connecting all the major cities in both the Islands. The journey from AKL to WEL is called the Northern Explorer  which is worth an experience. 

The days are shorter in July and it was a full moon day. The moon was shining bright against the deep blue sky. It was perfect setup to meditate. The seat belt allowed me to sit safe and upright.  

I reached Wellington around 820PM at the central railway station. The wind reinforced what everyone mentioned, as the first thing about this city. Just then I received a text from friend, saying, Welcome to Windy Wellington. 

P.S: The driver was kind enough to take my extra baggage without the extra $10. 

Motutapu Island

22 Nov 2014

Summer was in full swing and so was our spirit. I joined Mamtha and group on their monthly walk. The plan was to do a walk in Motutapu Island which is 30 minute ferry ride from the downtown. It was a perfect sunny day with clear blue sky. 

Motutapu Island is an old landmass dating back to the Jurassic age. While contrastingly, the adjacent island Rangitoto is the most recently formed island and just about 700 years old. Because of its strategic position in the Pacific Ocean, Motutapu had military settlements. Gun emplacements and Gun pit remains are a proof for early settlers on this Island.

We reached quite leisurely and walked further north east towards Billy Goat point. Enroute we visited Station Bay and Waikalabubu Bay. We stopped for lunch after reaching the Billy Goat point. The view of Sandy Bay followed by Administration Bay while returning to Home Bay was breathtaking.

Typical of a summer day is the perfect sky. The cloud formations in the sky was a treat to watch. The boats rocking with the water moments close to the Bay makes you dream of one such holiday.

We reached Home Bay quite early and it was coffee time. Some of us enjoyed a siesta while few others climbed up the tree and took a monkey nap. The beach was so close to your sight and difficult to resist. I enjoyed a walk in the beach bare foot giving a natural pampering to the feet after a good walk.

We took the last ferry back to the downtown.

Walking the Duder

It was such a relief to get over the assignments by the end of spring. Summer looked quite promising with the increasing temperature and the fluttering leaves on trees. The place which looked so pale so far started to show its true colors, in its literal sense. I was badly looking forward for the summer, so that I could pack my bags and explore this place which still seems so new to me. But now, it’s different, I am liking it so much more than before. Ah yea!! It’s the weather which is making the difference and my mindset too. I have finally got my mind convinced that, this is where I am now and I got to be here completely.

Well, now that the mind game was won over and the weather being in favor too, I received an invitation from my lovely host to go to Duder Regional Park in the south of Auckland. It is about 45 kms from the city and suggested to take a personal transport than taking multiple public transport and taxis to reach here. It is one among the 25 beautiful regional parks in Auckland. Ah!! You got to be guessing by now, Yes, I will make sure to visit all of them during my stay here.

It was a short and a beautiful drive towards Whitford village. The horse grazing in the fields adjacent to the roads reminded of a scene in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. It was indeed a beautiful sight to see a herd of sheep grazing on the fields far on the hills. We soon reached the east coast. My first experience of seeing a beach in New Zealand. It is a perfect place to spend a lazy day on the beach reading a book. We dint stop at the beach though, Duder was further ahead. We parked our car outside the park. Make sure to take a map of the park from the notice board right there. The maps comes handy when you are there for the first time and in general very informative.

It must have been around 9 am and the walk was pretty short. It won’t take too long to walk around in this park, but bet you, the sight is so beautiful at the Whakakaiwhara point that you wouldn’t mind spending a whole day there. We decided to do the Farm Loop which is 4.3 kms and walk up to Whakakaiwhara point which is an additional 2.4 kms. There is a deviation to Coastal walk which is additional 2 kms if you have time. I’m sure every bit of land here is worth visiting. So indeed an ideal walk for beginners too. Sheep are in heaps grazing on these hills, we are intruders and so they make sure to stay in their safe zone. We quickly reached the tip of the park and sat for a while watching the boats sail, few gliders fly above us and the sea changing its color.  I thoroughly enjoyed the quiet time I got here. We listened to some beautiful music on our phones and headed back.

It was an uneventful journey except for an encounter of an angry bird.  A Magpie, an Australian origin bird, seemed quite offended by our intrusion and attacked us. Might sound quite funny though. Yea, the birds mostly attack if their nests are around and if they have li’l ones or eggs. It made weird noises as it flew above us, indicating an attack. We pretty much dint know how to handle the situation. All we knew was that it had strong beaks are definitely not a bad idea getting pecked. All we could do was to try and shoo it away with our hats. Hmmm, fortunately the bird spared us for once but kept flying up there above us. After a distance, it looked bad, it was targeting us for the second time. And we did the same thing again. We managed to run from that place as far as possible and probably must have managed to leave the danger zone soon. It spared us. From here it was a nice jog down the hill to reach the car park. It wasn’t even lunch time. We leisurely drove back home and then headed out to have a yummy and filling pancakes at a strawberry farm.

Climbing the Volcanic Cones around the city

It’s been more than 2 months for me now in this city and it still seems new. The Indian inside me still refuses to develop even the slightest belongingness to this place. That sounds strange to me too. I blame it on the cold weather. With the spring setting in, I am getting my wings ready to set off and explore this Island. The easiest and the cheapest way to see the place is by walk and there are innumerable bush walks, day walks right inside the city. My list is ready and will try to ignore any curses from my bank account for having cultivated an expensive hobby like travelling.

Auckland War Memorial, Photo taken by Lisa

Though a small country, there are endless beautiful places to visit, no dearth for adventure and wonderful people. History of this city is fascinating and anyone who reaches here will invariably be interested in exploring more and more about this wonderful place. The numerous museums and parks everywhere you go reminds how close to nature you are. A 15 minute walk from a house in suburb will take you to a bush which is no less than a thick forest and every corner of the park speaks loud of the attention it receives. This country is also famous for several volcanic cones and craters some of which are still active and makes news by erupting now and then. It would not be natural to write anything more about this country yet. I hope to write a dedicated post on this when the time is right.

After a long hibernation, I was craving to pack my bag and that’s when I joined Auckland hiking group. There was no effort to decide on which group to join as all of them are genuine and I just found one close to my place. And ever since I was here I wanted to climb the Volcano Mountains, just then there was a meetup to climb 8 volcanic cones around the city. 25 km was an ambitious one as I was walking for so long after like almost 6 months or more now. But I dint want to miss this opportunity and decide to climb at least 5 of the 8 mountains.

So all set on a bright sunny day, there were many others like me assembled in front of the Auckland war memorial. Just to make sure I keep up with the pace with group I intentionally dint carry the camera and wanted to just walk and clicked very few on my phone. The place we assembled itself was on a mountain. From here we started our walk and visited the winter garden which is right adjacent to the museum.

Winter garden, Photo taken by Stephen

On top of Mt Eden

After the garden, we walked towards Mt Eden. Suburbs around these mountains are named after these mountains itself. Mt Eden is one among the very affluent suburbs close to the city and flaunts old and large houses with wide roads lined with huge trees all along.

Reading the history of each of these mountains relates to the volcanic cones being used a fortification by Maori later as quarry and pasture lands and then to reserve water to be supplied for surrounding houses. Today most of these are protected as pasture lands and parks for visitors.

At Mt St John Photo taken by Stephen

We walked to Mt Hobson from here and on reaching every summit, Stephen, the meetup organizer would take a group picture before we head to the next mountain. I was blown away by this interesting fellow. During the introduction session we stood in a circle to say Hi to all with our names and the countries we come from. This fellow repeated all the 60 odd names without many mistakes and he continues to remember almost all his team members. This seems extraordinary for me as I am really bad at remembering names.

Photo taken by Ross

Throughout the walk there were so many people you would say hello to and share a small talk. As this was a big group and I don’t really like the big numbers I still managed to find some quiet time for myself and enjoyed the walk.

Photo taken by Stephen

Watching the cattle graze has been one of my favorite scenes ever since a kid. It is such a common sight here that I feel I am so close to my dream or rather I am living my dreams. A close look on a far away mountain, you will notice a herd of sheep and cattle grazing. Its such a beautiful sight.

From Mt Hobson, we headed to Mt John. Another beautiful scoria cone with a large crater. All these mountains have a Maori name like this one is Te Kopuke or Tikikopuke, but are seldom used. I assume this could be because of the difficulty in spelling them. But even now many places in New Zealand still have Maori names like Rangitoto, Takanini, Manukau. I initially found them to be funny and never could recall the names, later as I search for their meanings I realize how wonderfully they are named. I someday wish to learn Maori and for now I can only say “Kia ora” which means “Hi” or greetings.

  

                                                                                                                                                Photo taken by Lisa

Our next stop was at One Tree Hill passing through a beautiful Cornwall Park. This place is crowded with families spending some quality with their little ones. These li’l ones could be kids or dogs. Dogs’ looks more like dolls with all the grooming and care they receive.

Photo taken by Jane

On the volcanic peak of One Tree Hill is an obelisk on the grave of an English man and a bronze statue of a Maori warrior. The story of the treaty between English and Maori called Treaty of Waitangi, is an interesting history one should know about while in New Zealand.

On top of One Tree Hill

Our next climb was to Big King, which according to me was a difficult one. Three kings is a volcanic cone which has three peaks and one of them being Big King. The other two are mostly quarried and no more prominent. The peak is a vertical climb for almost 133 meters with a prominent water tower at the peak. We stopped here for a group pic and soon started walking to our next peak which was Mt Roskill.  

Photo taken by Stephen

Another beautiful volcanic peak with two craters. Most of these volcano peaks are identified to be more than 28,000 year old. When we reached here, the sky was decorated with dragon sized colorful kites. It seems to be a regular hobby for people flying kites there. I could sit there for long watching the kites sway, as the body craved for some rest relaxing on the large lump of green grass as natural cushion.

The last cone Mt Albert seemed close but was almost 50 minute walk from here. None of us wanted to stop and just pushed ourselves towards the last mountain. The walk through the city crossing bridges and water canals was a treat to watch. The sun was almost to set on the west spreading the golden light on the early blossoms of spring flowers. It was magical on the peak and we had covered the walk ahead of estimated time by few minutes.

After the last group picture and refilling the body with some water we started climbing down the hill. The body craved for some rest and we reached the nearest bus station to catch bus to reach the city.