Again it’s already a week ago since my last post. Time seems to go pretty fast here. Already one month here, still one to go. From Greymouth I left the west Coast for a day to check out the famous Castle Hill boulder area. To do this you first have to tackle the Arthur’s pass. Only at 750m altitude, it was already quite a challenge in some spots, but once over the pass it was easy downhill and flat driving for the next 50km. I’m really lucky here with the roads. It’s not like in France or Austria, where you have small and winding roads going high into the mountains. Here you stay at the valley floors and drive for 50, 100, 150 or 200km to the next major town or city. Little romantic villages in the mountains are inexistent here, so are the roads leading there. The area and mountains almost felt like a desert. It is all super dry and there’s virtually no vegetation growing on these arid rocky mountains, except for some grass and small bushes. Castle Hill is not the only spot in the area. In the distance you see some other hilltops with hundreds of boulders. How they came there on the top is still a mystery to me. Maybe a glacier dropped them of there, and a little bit further again a bunch of boulders. As the parking lot was quite full, I at least expected to meet some climbers. But no, just people who visited this ancient Maori meeting place. Adjacent to Castle Hill there where even some sacred protected rocks where you couldn’t climb on. When walking between these (sometimes gigantic) boulders, I saw one guy busy in a boulder. I had my shoes and chalkbag with me, and he had two chrashpads, so I hooked up with him. It soon turned out he was only climbing for a year or so, so he was really impressed when I did a 6b boulder. He was also Japanese, so imagine “you’re professional” and the obligatory picture together. I soon discovered why there was nobody climbing here. It was like 30 degrees, almost no shade, heaps of big shit flies, and only convex slopers and mantle moves, which Castle Hill is famous for, and no friction. It’s like Fontainebleau but worse. Grades are pretty stiff to. It’s a very specific style and you would need a couple of days to get used to it. This would be a really good winter destination I think. We climbed a couple of easy boulders, and on the last one that day, Yoshi almost shitted his pants on a 3m high 5+ boulder. Quite funny actually, but he did it in the end and was so excited about it. That was all because of me off course. He couldn’t do it the day before, but now a climbing God had magically descended from heaven to spot him in this particular boulder, he felt so strong he couldn’t doing anything else but top out.
On the way back to the coast, it came close to an empty fuel tank. In Arthur’s Village, it was too expensive, and as I like to gamble a bit every now and then. It’s all about mathematics. 86km to the coast, fuel for maybe 60-70km. Ok, let’s go! Almost at the end, I got quite nervous. There is nothing on the way. But in a small village, a super small fuel station saved me. Victory.
Next destination: the Franz Joseph and Fox Glaciers. Now this is a big tourist attraction. These two glaciers are supposed to be the only ones in the world coming closest to sea level. And they pretty much do. What most tourists do, is walking for an hour over the moraine to the glacier on flip flops or gala ball shoes, pushing serious people like me a way too big camera in the hands and asking to take a picture of their stupid make up face. I wanted to put the glacier in the background but couldn’t find the zoom. “Just take the picture”. “Yeah ok, but I can’t find the zoom”. “Take it!” Jaja, kalm eh bitch. The next thing they do is taking a helicopter for a super adventurous glacier walk, then go back and eat a hamburger. My plan was to go up on the right side of the valley to a lookout point. So you start walking through a jungle, and then you come to a grassy top. I never saw this strange combination before: sea in the distance (only 20km), jungle, and next to it a glacier with big mountains and snow. The only annoyance were the stupid helicopters who lifted of every 10 minutes. What a noise and then talking about how they want to protect their environment. In my opinion, you first have to suffer a little bit, and then you get this really nice reward at the top. The view was really amazing, and you can never enjoy it in the same way when you just take a flight there and walk around a bit. It was here, at the Alex Knobb Lookout at 1303m, that two Jesuses met. All of a sudden there comes a big guy with long curly hair and a gigantic beard and moustache running up the hill in his Bermuda short. The first association I made was, shit this is the real one, this the real fucking Jesus. I’m just a poser, a wannabe, an imposter, like the false Sinterklaas. The cool thing was he was also a climber. So we had a lot to talk about, even if he wasn’t that strong. It turned out that this guy, Andy from Bologna btw, is travelling around for already 2 years now. That’s maybe how he got his gigantic beard. He was also in Squamish, just when me and Tim left two years ago, and lived there 3 months practically for free. Just having breakfast, lunch, dinner, showers, washing machines at the shelter for homeless people. Not really homeless according to him. Just a bunch of lazy bastards who don’t want to work. The food they serve are leftovers from supermarkets, so it’s the same as container diving. And he also knew about the full moon Hindu free all-you-can-eat gathering every month and eating chocolates from the bulk foods while shopping in the supermarket. I also learned the Italian government is a joke, Berlusconi is 80 and not 60 like I was thinking, but he still gets bunga bunga with the girls, and that he was working at a stupid office all day behind a desk, which caused his hair to fall out from stress, and he got more or less the same problems like me when it comes to milk products shit. On this trip I met a lot of people with the same visions about our modern day society. It’s good to know not everybody is a braindead chain tv-watcher, but maybe that’s only because I always meet the same type of people. It’s not very likely you’ll see fatties and barbies in the backcountry or on the top of a mountain.
The Fox glacier is more or less the same, only the town is bit smaller, but here you can see Mount Tasman and Mount Cook/Aoraki, the two highest mountains in New Zealand. There was also a hike to a lookout point here, but next day it was bad weather and the mountains were covered in clouds. I’m going to Mount Cook Village later on, so I’ll still see them in close-up, but from the other side then. It was actually raining for the first time in weeks, so the only option was to drive, further down to Wanaka and the Mount Aspiring national park. Only a few centimeters on the map, but almost 300km in reality. But that doesn’t matter, all drives I’ve done so far are really scenic and on the way there’s always something to visit or see, like waterfalls or pools, and there is no traffic at all. And all of a sudden the jungle stops and you arrive at a 45km long lake, surrounded by what I call the 3th type of mountains. No jungle or desert here, but more the European style, with pinetrees. Wanaka is at the bottom of this lake, but to get there you drive between some mountains to the other 30km long Hawea lake. It has more the looks of a sea, rather than a lake. They say Wanaka is like a little Queenstown, which is supposed to be the outdoor capital of the world. I just wanted to visit the Mt. Aspiring park, because it’s the only thing to do for free. And with all that walking in rotten shoes you get blisters on blisters on blisters, and now there’s a little blister hill on my foot, for FREE!!. The only way leading to the park is a 30km gravel road through leased land used by cow and sheep farmers. So every now and then there are some cows and sheep walking on the road. They always say new Zealand is THE sheep country in the world, but in fact they have far more cows here, because China wants stupid milk and eat more meat I guess. The road was so bumpy it felt like being locked up in a sambaball, and you had to cross a number of fords to. First I went to see the Rob Roy glacier, and this is very impressive. You have a 130m waterfall and next to it a gigantic mountain which is so close it looks like it would just swallow you like that. And on the end of the trail, I nice Israelian guy was having some tea and promptly offered me a cup to. It’s all included in the price. We hiked back down and went to the next hut. The trail was pretty boring, following a 4WD track for the cattle through the valley all the time, but once around the corner it was picture time. Mountains here and mountains there, and cows who are sunbathing on the river beaches. The only thing missing were the cowbells, but yeah they don’t really have alms here like in our Alps. Back I stayed on my camping spot just next to a little climbing area, far enough from Wanaka. You don’t have to try anything here nor in Queenstown. 200dollars instant fine if they catch you wildcamping. And then it was time for something else. A place full of illusions and mindtwisting headaches: it’s Puzzling World. First you could go in the maze, and the challenge is to go to the four corner towers and then back out. There is like 1km of mazes, but you walk like 5km to find your way out. So basically everybody runs around for an hour, totally confused by all the dead ends, and the ooh-no-I’ve-been-here-before feeling of being lost. The museum housed all the illusions and you could play with some mastermind puzzles afterwards. Mens sana in corpore sano!
On the way to Queenstown something scary happened with the car. You drive up NZ’s highest pass, something more than 1050m, wow! Nothing new or exciting, just slowly going up. At the top there was a parking for the lookout over the valley, and I wanted to stop to let the car cool down. But upon entering the parking, the car suddenly started to drive really fast without me giving extra gas, and with an automatic it always drives a bit when you don’t give gas, but this was like the car was going crazy, a kind of overdrive, and the brakes were not really strong enough to stop it. So I threw the steering wheel to the left, avoiding to go over the edge and smash into other cars, and with an unhealthy noise turned off the motor. Maybe something got stuck or I pushed the car to hard, but if this had happened on the way down. Crazy stuff.
On the way I halted in Arrowtown, known for the Chinese settlement built there during the gold rush age. You still can fossick for gold in the river, like a guy was doing with his shovel and gold pan, digging holes and holes, because there could maybe be a nanogram of undiscovered gold left.
And now I arrived in Queenstown, a kind of mundane Chamonix but without the nice square and restaurants, preparing for some multiday fatburning tramps: The Rees-Dart, the Routeburn and the Caples, while a fucking bird just shitted all under my nice laptop.
Next destination: the Franz Joseph and Fox Glaciers. Now this is a big tourist attraction. These two glaciers are supposed to be the only ones in the world coming closest to sea level. And they pretty much do. What most tourists do, is walking for an hour over the moraine to the glacier on flip flops or gala ball shoes, pushing serious people like me a way too big camera in the hands and asking to take a picture of their stupid make up face. I wanted to put the glacier in the background but couldn’t find the zoom. “Just take the picture”. “Yeah ok, but I can’t find the zoom”. “Take it!” Jaja, kalm eh bitch. The next thing they do is taking a helicopter for a super adventurous glacier walk, then go back and eat a hamburger. My plan was to go up on the right side of the valley to a lookout point. So you start walking through a jungle, and then you come to a grassy top. I never saw this strange combination before: sea in the distance (only 20km), jungle, and next to it a glacier with big mountains and snow. The only annoyance were the stupid helicopters who lifted of every 10 minutes. What a noise and then talking about how they want to protect their environment. In my opinion, you first have to suffer a little bit, and then you get this really nice reward at the top. The view was really amazing, and you can never enjoy it in the same way when you just take a flight there and walk around a bit. It was here, at the Alex Knobb Lookout at 1303m, that two Jesuses met. All of a sudden there comes a big guy with long curly hair and a gigantic beard and moustache running up the hill in his Bermuda short. The first association I made was, shit this is the real one, this the real fucking Jesus. I’m just a poser, a wannabe, an imposter, like the false Sinterklaas. The cool thing was he was also a climber. So we had a lot to talk about, even if he wasn’t that strong. It turned out that this guy, Andy from Bologna btw, is travelling around for already 2 years now. That’s maybe how he got his gigantic beard. He was also in Squamish, just when me and Tim left two years ago, and lived there 3 months practically for free. Just having breakfast, lunch, dinner, showers, washing machines at the shelter for homeless people. Not really homeless according to him. Just a bunch of lazy bastards who don’t want to work. The food they serve are leftovers from supermarkets, so it’s the same as container diving. And he also knew about the full moon Hindu free all-you-can-eat gathering every month and eating chocolates from the bulk foods while shopping in the supermarket. I also learned the Italian government is a joke, Berlusconi is 80 and not 60 like I was thinking, but he still gets bunga bunga with the girls, and that he was working at a stupid office all day behind a desk, which caused his hair to fall out from stress, and he got more or less the same problems like me when it comes to milk products shit. On this trip I met a lot of people with the same visions about our modern day society. It’s good to know not everybody is a braindead chain tv-watcher, but maybe that’s only because I always meet the same type of people. It’s not very likely you’ll see fatties and barbies in the backcountry or on the top of a mountain.
The Fox glacier is more or less the same, only the town is bit smaller, but here you can see Mount Tasman and Mount Cook/Aoraki, the two highest mountains in New Zealand. There was also a hike to a lookout point here, but next day it was bad weather and the mountains were covered in clouds. I’m going to Mount Cook Village later on, so I’ll still see them in close-up, but from the other side then. It was actually raining for the first time in weeks, so the only option was to drive, further down to Wanaka and the Mount Aspiring national park. Only a few centimeters on the map, but almost 300km in reality. But that doesn’t matter, all drives I’ve done so far are really scenic and on the way there’s always something to visit or see, like waterfalls or pools, and there is no traffic at all. And all of a sudden the jungle stops and you arrive at a 45km long lake, surrounded by what I call the 3th type of mountains. No jungle or desert here, but more the European style, with pinetrees. Wanaka is at the bottom of this lake, but to get there you drive between some mountains to the other 30km long Hawea lake. It has more the looks of a sea, rather than a lake. They say Wanaka is like a little Queenstown, which is supposed to be the outdoor capital of the world. I just wanted to visit the Mt. Aspiring park, because it’s the only thing to do for free. And with all that walking in rotten shoes you get blisters on blisters on blisters, and now there’s a little blister hill on my foot, for FREE!!. The only way leading to the park is a 30km gravel road through leased land used by cow and sheep farmers. So every now and then there are some cows and sheep walking on the road. They always say new Zealand is THE sheep country in the world, but in fact they have far more cows here, because China wants stupid milk and eat more meat I guess. The road was so bumpy it felt like being locked up in a sambaball, and you had to cross a number of fords to. First I went to see the Rob Roy glacier, and this is very impressive. You have a 130m waterfall and next to it a gigantic mountain which is so close it looks like it would just swallow you like that. And on the end of the trail, I nice Israelian guy was having some tea and promptly offered me a cup to. It’s all included in the price. We hiked back down and went to the next hut. The trail was pretty boring, following a 4WD track for the cattle through the valley all the time, but once around the corner it was picture time. Mountains here and mountains there, and cows who are sunbathing on the river beaches. The only thing missing were the cowbells, but yeah they don’t really have alms here like in our Alps. Back I stayed on my camping spot just next to a little climbing area, far enough from Wanaka. You don’t have to try anything here nor in Queenstown. 200dollars instant fine if they catch you wildcamping. And then it was time for something else. A place full of illusions and mindtwisting headaches: it’s Puzzling World. First you could go in the maze, and the challenge is to go to the four corner towers and then back out. There is like 1km of mazes, but you walk like 5km to find your way out. So basically everybody runs around for an hour, totally confused by all the dead ends, and the ooh-no-I’ve-been-here-before feeling of being lost. The museum housed all the illusions and you could play with some mastermind puzzles afterwards. Mens sana in corpore sano!
On the way to Queenstown something scary happened with the car. You drive up NZ’s highest pass, something more than 1050m, wow! Nothing new or exciting, just slowly going up. At the top there was a parking for the lookout over the valley, and I wanted to stop to let the car cool down. But upon entering the parking, the car suddenly started to drive really fast without me giving extra gas, and with an automatic it always drives a bit when you don’t give gas, but this was like the car was going crazy, a kind of overdrive, and the brakes were not really strong enough to stop it. So I threw the steering wheel to the left, avoiding to go over the edge and smash into other cars, and with an unhealthy noise turned off the motor. Maybe something got stuck or I pushed the car to hard, but if this had happened on the way down. Crazy stuff.
On the way I halted in Arrowtown, known for the Chinese settlement built there during the gold rush age. You still can fossick for gold in the river, like a guy was doing with his shovel and gold pan, digging holes and holes, because there could maybe be a nanogram of undiscovered gold left.
And now I arrived in Queenstown, a kind of mundane Chamonix but without the nice square and restaurants, preparing for some multiday fatburning tramps: The Rees-Dart, the Routeburn and the Caples, while a fucking bird just shitted all under my nice laptop.
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten