Newborn

Monday January 21st - Thursday January 31st


It's a bumper edition of the blog this week but only in terms of days covered rather than content. It's been a strange ten days or so with a lot of time spent driving around without actually achieving much. We've changed that in the last couple of days but I'll keep you hanging on for now!

We just want to pass on congratulations again to Rachel's brother Jonathan who has just become a dad for the first time with his partner Thais giving birth to a little baby boy in Rio de Janeiro. We may have to wait a little while to see them but all the best from the new auntie and uncle!

So, exactly how have we spent our time this week? The main aim of our time in Wellington was to arrange our Russian and Mongolian visas for the final leg of our journey. Getting the Russian visa would be our main issue we thought and as we arrived at the embassy with its steel gates and a security guard talking to you in Russian through the intercom we didn't have any reason to suspect otherwise. Entering the embassy we were in a pretty soulless space with a humourless lady looking after us. Still she was happy anough to take our cash and told us to return on Monday. We duly did this, saying please and thank you in as polite a British accent as we could muster, we'd even dressed smartly, and there waiting for us were our passports with visas inside, hurrah! The Mongolian ones in contrast were a piece of cake. We arrived at the consular general's house, let ourselves in the front gate and met him in his lounge. After a brief chat and a check of our application forms he called in his wife, who had to interrupt her cleaning schedule and between them they said they could do the visas in an hour, the cleaning could wait. Sure enough after we'd pottered off for a spot of lunch we returned to find the visas all done. We've now got all 3 visas and some tickets waiting for us in an office in Beijing so we will be on the Trans-Mongolian train in 4 weeks time.

In between the bureaucratic work of the week we headed up the east coast of the North Island and took in Napier, site of a huge earthquake in the 1930s and as a result has some fantastic art deco buildings. We also stopped at Gisborne, site of an earthquake measuring 6.6 about 6 weeks ago that we'd felt more than 300 miles away in Picton on the South Island. Following the success of our stay in the jailhouse in Christchurch we tried it again in Napier in a much more rustic jail. Not used since the early 90s and previously home to not only criminals but the criminally insane. Some of the cells are rumoured to be haunted but the only sounds at night we heard were 'crazy' German backpackers.

We did manage to do some walking as well in the largets National Park on the North Island, although we did have the unusual sensation of walking in the rain, it had to happen some time. This was a walk from Lake Waikaremoana to Lake Waikereiti, a 20km hike through dense forest. It was good to stretch the legs after a few days in Wellington.

Yesterday however we stretched our legs and all manner of other things besides when we did the Tongariro Crossing. This walk is regarded as the best one-day walk in New Zealand and for good reason. We started it bright and breezy at 7.30 with around 20km ahead of us and a climb of around 750m. To make the walk more interesting we were also going to go for the ascent of Mount Ngauruhoe, another 650m up in a distance of 1000m. Yep it would be steep. To add to the challenge it all had to be done in 8 hours to ensure there was a seat on a bus to take you back to the hostel. By 9.00 we'd already yomped along at a good pace and with the sun rising but hidden behind said mountain had made good progress. This left us in a buouyant mood as we tackled Ngauruhoe. The guide times for this part of the climb are 90 minutes up and 30 minutes down. On the way up you are literally scrambling your way up on rocks, scree and anything else you can get your hands on. It's a very difficult climb but once at the top the views are fantastic and you can see for tens of miles. We'd been blessed with another good day so took our time to appreciate the views. Downhill is a completely different affair as you do a kind of downhill scree slide/bump/fall/ungainly descent (in my case!). It's great fun and takes away the memory of the climb nicely, although the bruises and cuts I sustained may take a little longer to go. Strangely Rach was much more controlled and made it down in one piece.

The remainder of the crossing had to be taken at something of a pace as we'd taken 2.5 hours to do the Ngauruhoe climb but we still had time to appreciate the scenery we were passing. The views of Red Crater, Emerald Lakes and Blue Lake are fantastic and you have to remind yourself that you're walking across volcanoes. In the case of Tongariro it's not had any activity for 2000 years, but in Ngauruhoe's case it's around 30. You see plenty of steaming vents and smell the sulphur. It's a fantastic walk and even the huge numbers of people you have to navigate through don't deter too much from it.

Following on from that high Rach decided to take things even higher today when she took it upon herself to jump out of an aeroplane at 12,000 feet. Sadly I couldn't join her as they have strict weight guidelines and I was 5kg too heavy (and a big girl's blouse but the weight rule sounds better!). A few delays in the take-off times kept her nerves jangling nicely but when her time came she got into her fetching jumpsuit (apparently a fragrant smell of sweaty man) and boarded what can only be described as a packed aircraft. 15 minutes later she was jumping headfirst towards Lake Taupo strapped to a chap called Mikey and 45 seconds later she had a parachute above her head. I was watching from below and it looked good from where I was standing (on terra firma) and when she made a perfect landing she was full of smiles and still wobbly legs. Nice one Mrs Cawte!

We're heading off on a 3-day canoeing trip tomorrow before heading on north. Just 14 more days in New Zealand left now so making the most of that.

The 24/7s:

Monday 21st: Overcast conditions but still possible to burn

Tuesday: Enter! You want Russian visa? Many dollars

Wednesday: Despite peak season always room for tents

Thursday: Maybe Marmite does stop sandflies biting you

Friday: New Zealand lamb? Rude not to really.

Saturday: Goodbye flip-flops, you served me well

Sunday: Will Russians let two honest Brits in?

Monday 28th: We shall travel on the Trans-Mongolian

Tuesday: It's now Auntie Rachel and Uncle Jon

Wednesday: The Tongariro Crossing with added volcanicity...done!

Thursday: Did she fall or was she pushed?

No Rain

Monday January 14th - Sunday January 20th

If we'd been told before we arrived in New Zealand that in the five weeks we'd spend on the South Island there would be maybe 3 or 4 days where it rained we'd have laughed. Our two previous trips had taught us that it always rains here and in the south-west it's guaranteed. As it is we still can't believe how lucky we've been with the weather.

This last week has been a prime example. The majority of it has been spent walking the Abel Tasman Coast Track. It was due to rain on the first day and it did...for about 10 minutes while we were on the bus to the start. On the last night a weather front came over and threatened a huge storm...which didn't arrive and the next day was glorious sunshine again. We know this luck can't hold and even if the remainder of our time in New Zealand is wet we really can't complain.

So, the nitty gritty of the week then. We started it where we finished the last one, in Nelson at The Bug backpackers. If ever you're in Nelson stay at this place as it's really well run, has great facilities and is exactly what a backpackers should be. On Tuesday we started the Coast Track in Abel Tasman National Park, another of New Zealand's Great Walks. This one is a relatively easy walk at 51km in length and we intended to spend 4 days ambling it and relaxing on beaches, etc. Although it is a coastal walk it does cut inland at various points and there are a few short uphill sections to negotiate through manuka tree forests. There are also a couple of estuaries to cross that require some thought so as to get to them at low tide otherwise you have to wait for hours for the water to drop. Given our previous jobs it would have been a tad embarrassing to get tide times wrong and we successfully crossed both, although at the larger of the two at Awaroa we managed to find the deepest point to cross rather than the nice shallow part. Common sense still not a strong point for some!

The relative easiness of the walk lulled us into a false sense of security and we decided to carry some more interesting food with us so that we could have better meals in the evenings. So we took with us fresh fruit and veg and pasta sauces rather than relying on the rehydrated meals of recent walks. When we slung our rucksacks onto our backs at the start of the walk in Marahau we were seriously questioning this idea. We reckon the packs were each weighing in at roughly 20kg and nice though the food was each night I think Rach is not keen on doing it again and is probably about 3 inches shorter than when she started the walk.

All 3 of the campsites we stayed on were at the back of beaches so we could have a refreshing dip at the end of the day and then get a sunrise view first thing in the morning. We also had prime spots for sandfly invasions and both came away looking like pin cushions despite coating ourselves in DEET each night. I think the New Zealand sandflies have a thirst for the stuff myself as they seemed to thrive on it.

The Park is very popular for kayakers, sometimes groups of 10 would descend on a nice quiet beach, and we were insanely jealous of them as they bowled into the campsites each night bringing with them all manner of food and drink that they didn't need to carry on their backs. At one site though we were in the right place at the right time to receive some cheesecake from a group that couldn't finish all their food. Always said how great kayakers are!

We certainly enjoyed the walk and it was different again from the other three we've done on the South Island although it was by far the busiest one too with daytrippers galore. We've made the most of the good weather we've had and have walked over 240km in our five weeks and hopefully we can add to that on the North Island, which is where we are now. We're going to be here in Wellington for a couple of days as we try and persuade the Russian authorities that we're not going to be any trouble for them and see if they give us a visa. A few smiles and some cold, hard cash will probably do the trick!

The week's 24/7s

Monday: Rucksacks get heavier each walk we do

Tuesday: Surely our rucksacks shouldn't be this heavy

Wednesday: Fall asleep to sound of breaking waves

Thursday: After two good meals it's rehydrated again

Friday: More than fifty sandfly bites between us

Saturday: Five great weeks down south, heading north

Sunday: Lazy start, even lazier day, it's Sunday

White Wedding

Tuesday January 8th - Sunday January 13th

A pretty relaxing week for us for a change. A chance to just do some touristy type things and also attend a wedding. By the end of it we're both feeling a lot better after recovering from our walks and colds. Rach did get my man flu, she preferred to think of it as lady's ailment, but it left her feeling a bit worse for wear for most of the week.

From Tuatapere in the south-west we decided to drive all the way around the coast back to Christchurch as we'd not seen any of this part of New Zealand on our previous trips. The weather has been spectacularly good all week. We understand that it's a little wet and cold back home so won't overdo the descriptions of blue skies, warm sun, blue seas, golden sand beaches etc.

There are a lot of interesting sights around the south coast. You can walk to the southerly most point of the South Island, Slope Point. A wind-battered, god-forsaken bit of coastline where the trees all grow at 45°. From there you can go to somewhere where the trees are horizontal. The petrified forest, not a really frightened patch of trees, but a prehistoric forest that has now become rock and is visible in the shoreline. Very strange looking at trees but touching them and feeling rock.

We passed through a lot of one-horse towns as there aren't many people living in this neck of the woods. The only major towns are Invercargill and Dunedin and with the latter being Student Central it was pretty quiet too at this time of year. It's meant finding places to stay has been pretty easy as well despite the summer holiday season. We'll find it busier in the North Island in a week or so I'm sure.

We've seen some interesting wildlife this week as well seeing yellow-eyed penguins and also Royal Albatrosses. The albatrosses are huge birds with a 3m wingspan and seeing them flying around the headland where we were was an impressive sight. They were also in the process of nesting as well which was interesting to learn about.

Rounding off our drive up the coast we had a look at the Moeraki Boulders, the near-spherical lumps of rock that have been eroded from the cliffs at the back of the beach where they lie. Inside they have a kind of honeycomb structure which can be seen where some appear to have hatched open.

And so, after a 4-week tour of the South Island, we ended up back in Christchurch for the last time on this trip. Will it be the last time ever or could we back before too long? Our reason for being back this time was to attend the wedding of our friends Dave and Tara. I went to university with Dave and it was great to be able to be here for their big day. And it was another lovely day too, with the venue just outside the city and the ceremony taking place under a huge willow tree, offering grateful shade from the 30°+ heat outside. The rest of the day took place in a Mediterranean style setting with a large courtyard and then big open room. The bride and groom looked fantastic, the bride more so obviously, and the day was a great occasion. It was also a final chance to dress up smartly on this trip. Back to the shorts and t-shirts for us now.

We're now in Nelson getting ourselves ready for another walk. This time it's the Abel Tasman Coast Track which we're going to do over 4 days this week and should be a lot easier than our last one and have plenty of opportunities for relaxing on the beach, so long as there's not too many sandflies to eat us.

The week's 24/7s:

Tuesday: As man flu goes, lady's ailment begins

Wednesday: Atishoo, atishoo we've all got colds now

Thursday: Police cars everywhere, kept well below speedlimit

Friday: A mistimed sneeze and it's downhill driving

Saturday: A nice day for a white wedding

Sunday: Hot and stuffy but bus is cheap

Lucky You

Monday December 24th 2007 - Monday January 7th 2008

Around the festive period all credible publications put out double editions so as to give their staff some time off. Not wishing to miss out on this the blog has gone down this route so here is your bumper festive edition of Jon and Rach's Big Trip.

Christmas itself was spent at Straw Lodge in the wineries region, the place we'd stayed on honeymoon 2 years ago. Once again it was fantastic and we ate and drank very well indeed. Christmas away from home is strange but it's such a lovely place that you can't help but enjoy yourself.

Sadly we had to move on from the luxury of Straw Lodge and Boxing Day saw us spend a night in the cells. Not due to a heavy right foot on New Zealand roads (wouldn't be the first time of course!) but a hostel in Christchurch that occupies what was a bona fide prison until just 8 years ago. Really interesting place and the quietest hostel rooms you'll ever find!

Over the next couple of days we stayed at Lake Tekapo and Lake Wanaka. En route from Tekapo we got great views of Mount Cook (see photo below). As the weather was pretty good we took the opportunity to do a couple of warm-up walks ahead of starting the Milford Track and climbed Mounts John and Iron. Actually only I climbed Mount Iron as Rach was busy throwing herself down a river in the name of whitewater sledging.

And so we came to the day before New Year's Eve and the start of the Milford Track that we'd booked 5 months ago. In the Fiordland area of New Zealand they don't measure rainfall in millimetres or centimetres but in metres. As a result we were prepared to get wet, very wet. As we got the boat to our start point of the walk it didn't look like we'd be disappointed either as it was bucketing it down and thunder was rumbling around. The first day's walk though is only an hour long so a wet slosh to our first hut seemed OK. For the next 3 days however we had fantastic weather and had to be more careful of sunburn than flooding rivers. We were amazingly lucky.

Day 2 of the walk takes you through forest to the base of a climb to Mackinnon's Pass at roughly 1100m. As the weather can change in an instant here if it's good when you reach your hut for the night they recommend climbing up to the pass for the views in case you can't see anything when you do it for real the next day. With a couple of hours to kill up we went and as promised the views were spectacular. You get a real sense of the scale of the area and the huge, sheer mountains that you're walking below. We also spotted a pretty unstable looking glacier high up on a ridge. More on that in a minute. It was one of the most sober New Year's Eves we'll have, and earliest, as we were tucked up in bed by 930.

Day 3 of the walk takes you up and over the pass and the weather was still grand. The views from the top are still great and from the toilet are pretty good too (see Rach's effort in the first of the photos below!). As we were coming down the other side the glacier we'd seen the day before let a piece go and we had a great view of the resulting landslide/avalanche. Those on the track ahead of us may have had other thoughts. The other highlight of the day was a walk from the track to Sutherland Falls. At 580m these are the highest falls in New Zealand and are an awesome sight and sound. The water falling onto the rocks below sounds like a fighter jet screaming above you and you feel the spray before you really see the falls. We'd been told we could walk behind the falls so we put on a waterproof jacket and headed in. Within 5 seconds we were drenched and being battered by the spray. It was cold and pretty painful, but fantastic nonetheless. A squelchy walk to our final hut ended the first day of 2008.

The final day of the walk takes you along rivers and lakes to the boat pickup point from where you get a 20-minute mini-cruise in Milford Sound as you head back to port. As we got into bed that night the heavens opened and it rained continually through the night. Someone somewhere was looking out for us.

Even the huge downpour was a good thing as we were headed out on a more organised cruise the next day and this meant that there were hundreds of temporary waterfalls pouring down and out of the mountains in Milford Sound. It was an awesome sight and in some cases there were water risers as the wind was blowing the water back up the hillside. As has been our luck so far by the time we got our bus back to Te Anau the sun was out and we had great views not only of Milford Sound but also of the 2-hour journey up and over the mountains. The journey is pretty tough going on the coaches going back and forth and a couple of hours after we'd gone through a Kiwi Experience bus burst into flames. No casualties but just makes you think.

After doing a good 4-day walk the best thing to do is to get yourself on another one. We gave ourselves a couple of night's rest before setting out on the 3-day Hump Ridge Track. This is described as a challenging walk and for good reason. You start the first day walking along the beach and when you arrive at your first hut for the night you're at 900m+. The majority of this climb is done in the final 5km too, which with full rucksacks is a killer. I don't think either of us have done such a climb and the air was bristling with various expletives as we scrambled our way up. On the plus side the weather again was excellent so when you pop out of the forest at the top of the ridge the views of Fiordland to the north and the ocean to the south are incredible. On the down side I'd been struck down with a serious bout of man flu so naturally was at death's door. I soldiered bravely on though.

The second day takes you from 900m+ back down to the beach. Normal, sane people would just ask why? After yesterday's efforts today just kills the knees and even the final 8km walk along an old, flat sawmill tramway is hard work. The sawmill was set up at Port Craig, where we stayed in a hut overnight, in the 1920s. In an inspired move they set it up here in one of the more remote areas of a pretty remote country and within 6 years it had closed: due to a lack of timber. Genius! The weather is still cracking and so a dip in the sea is the reward for the day's efforts at a beautiful sandy beach.


Our final day sees the end of our luck with the weather. It's chucking it down as we set out on the final 17km of the walk and although it stops and turns to brief showers the paths are muddy and flooded. It's turned a tad colder too so we make as good a pace as our bodies will let us to get us back to the car. By the time we finish we are both physically shattered and in need of some TLC, or at least a couple of days off from walking. Neither of the two previous walks have been this tough but it's been a good walk all the same.

We're now relaxing in a small town called Tuatapere before heading on around the coast tomorrow and headed for Christchurch again at the weekend for a wedding before once again going into the wilds on the Abel Tasman Coastal Track next week.

Happy New Year everyone, we hope that 2008 is a good one for you. Jon and RachXX

The festive 24/7s:

Christmas Eve: Making the most of some home comforts
Christmas Day: Good weather and great food. Happy Christmas!
Boxing Day: The safest night's sleep we'll ever have
Thursday 27th: Picked a good night for camping out
Friday 28th: Will this weather hold for Milford Sound?
Saturday 29th: Weather's still holding...until tomorrow that is
Sunday 30th: So the weather didn't hold. Got wet!
New Year's Eve: The knees aren't looking forward to descending
New Year's Day: Sutherland Falls. Best power shower you'll have
January 2nd: One hour of rain, unheard of luck
January 3rd: Hmm, where do we go from here?
January 4th: Are we fit enough for another big tramp?
January 5th: Not with bad bout of man flu
January 6th: Bodies are physically shattered. Good walk though
January 7th: Burn baby burn, legs are on fire!