west coast with company

i left Queenstown on sunday and headed north up the west coast of the south island with a little over three weeks to go and found some friends along the way. next stop was Franz Josef and the huge glacier there.

about an hour outside Queenstown i picked up two hitch hikers looking for a ride to the same place i was headed.

meet Lotta (left) and Vera (right) from Sweden. they're step sisters traveling NZ together at the age of 22. both have done a ton of traveling in their lives and are headed for university when they get back home, Vera for engineering and Lotta for architecture.

the swedes ended up being perfect travel buddies for the last couple days of the trip. we ended up hanging out in Franz Josef together and then 3 more nights as we made our way up the coast. they've got about 3 weeks left in NZ with an itinerary that crosses over with a couple spots i have on my list so hopefully i catch them again. they sent me on my way with an iTrip for my iPod that they had gotten from some guys while in South America, now i have to find somebody to pass it on to when i'm done with my trip.

Franz Josef
small climbing town with a huge glacier that just about runs into the ocean. within 300ft of sea-level you're on the glacier pretty much. i took a guided tour of the glacier. they gave us all the gear for the day and the guides even cut in steps pretty much the entire route.

guides cutting in steps with these pitch-axe looking things that were invented in early 1900's and haven't changed since.

Punakaiki and Pancake Rocks
after 36 hours and two days in Franz Josef i headed to Punakaiki and the Pancake Rocks up the west coast with the Swedes. it was a long, winding, beautiful drive. we ended up at a small hostel on the beach that felt like you were in somebody's home.

pancake rocks

grass in NZ is actually jelly beans. it's their second largest export.

cheers

hostel and weird handjestures

view

the Swedes really enjoyed college stories from the U.S. i made sure to tell the ones that were as close to how it represented in the movies as possible.

Takaka and Golden Bay
another long day of driving got us to Takaka and Golden Bay in the NW corner of the south island. along the way we took a quick detour to Westport to check out a sea lion colony and stumbled across a quiet little surf spot. i took a 90 session with the locals while the Swedes went for a run and studied. my surfing skills have definitely progressed with longer rides and i can easily turn and trim on a wave now and i'm hoping that only gets better with more time spent in the water on the north island.

anyway, the drive to Takaka from Westport takes you up through 2 mountain passes, the second of which drops you down into the Takaka valley on a road with 23 hairpin turns (fun in a car, not fun in a camper van).

the next day we headed out for Farewell Spit and Golden Bay. I have had a lot of people tell me its the most amazing place they've seen in NZ so far so the expectations were high and they were met. the beach was really isolated with huge rocky cliffs, monoliths and sea lion colony that we were able to get really close to. the majority of the pictures are courtesy of the Swedes because my camera battery died when we got out to the beach.

think of the greenest pasture/grass you can imagine and you'll be 1/2 way to how green these were. it was amazing.

we were a little surprised that the fence wasn't attached to the ground, just wires and posts.

the sea lion colony was the highlight, with the tide out, we found a little swimming whole for a mom and her five pups. sitting quietly and patiently rewarded us with some really curious pups that got close enough i easily could have touched them.

curious pups

you can barely see the sea lion in the background but that's the mom coming to check in on the kids. the Swedes were on the other side of the tide pool and thought it was a great opportunity for a picture without telling me she was back there. they eventually told me and mom didn't mind me much.

yoga with sea lions

mom and the pups off to get back in the ocean.

i got back to the north island yesterday night. the three week to-do list includes raglan for a couple days, mt. taranaki, bay of islands and north of there, the coromandel peninsula and napier/gisborne. i doubt i'll have enough time to see it all but it's worth a shot.

my volunteer assignment for Nepal was finalized this week. i'll be working in Panauti in the Kavre region of Nepal, a semi-rural town 35 km east of Kathmandu (the capital city) teaching English to children under the age of 10. the whole idea of visiting Nepal and working there just became very real to me and very overwhelming to think about.

i bought my plane ticket to nepal today too. i leave NZ on June 3 and arrive in Nepal on June 6. I'll have a 2.5 day layover in Singapore on the way. Singapore is supposed to be a really easy and amazing place to visit.

i looked into booking my ticket to Kenya from Nepal but the only options were with layovers in Dubai, Bahrain and Bangkok. considering Bahrain and Dubai were listed under travel alerts by the U.S. State Department recently, i'm going to pass on those. i didn't buy that ticket yet but i will have to show proof that i'm leaving Kenya before i fly in.

NZ Takeaway Championship
i've found point of interest to keep me occupied over my last couple weeks in NZ. it's a little daunting and sickening but i'll have a post specific for it in the next couple days.