back in munich

Today I arrived in Munich. I will stay here at least 2 weeks, so no updates in this time. Sometimes you have to change your plans and everything becomes so unimportant.....

queen charlotte track

I did the 4-day Queen Charlotte track which started at Picton and is about 80km long. I got transported by boat to Shipcove. This is the place, where Capitan Cook landed. They have a monument there for him:




I had to pass these Maori sculptures which stand guard for the track.




There was a viewing point, which is often used for a short picnic. This bird here knows that and came to look, if I have something for it. It even wanted to pick my plastic bag with the food, which I did not allow. The bird, i suppose it was a kiwi, was not shy at all:



I stayed for the night at a lovely lonesome cabin.



The view form the cabin was even better and the silence at night was just incredible. Only the waves some birds and the wind....



On the next day I went to the next bay. I had to pass a funny shaky swing bridge which could carry only one person at once.



It was getting warm, but with my new clothes I was perfectly equipped to undress:



I even tried to catch a fish for dinner, unfortunately none came, only some sand flies. These insects are really a pain, they bite and it itches for days.



The second night I stayed at "Noelines homestay". It was a widowed granny, which used her home as a stay for walkers. She wants to have some company and loves to talk. Her little dog is blind but nevertheless very active.



I walked to the pier, where I found another dog, which was funny. It was swimming for over half an hour in the 18degree water and was looking for some fish. The owner told me, it even will dive to the ground when it sees some crab. The crab will then be eaten with full pleasure at the shore.



On my walk I passed many beautiful bays:



or this one:



It got sometimes very noisy, these zirkades made a lot of noise. The slap with their wings, this makes a really loud klick-sound.



I shortened the 4th day and was lucky to get an earlier boat lift back to Picton. I got some very sad news from home and had to find flights, which bring me back home fast.

On my way back to Christchurch I stopped at a nice cafe with beautiful stairs.



and passed a seals colony, in the warm water swimming pools there were some young seals playing.

bad news

the queen charlotte track was very nice, I nearly finished it.
yesterday got some very sad news from home, i will interrupt my journey and fly back home.

picton

Yesterday I arrived in Picton. This is the city with the ferry connection between the northern- and the southern island. Here you can see a ferry leaving Picton:




On my way I stopped for a picnic:


With a beautiful view over the Queen Charlotte Sound:


From tomorrow on I will do the 4 day Queen Charlotte track, which is 71km long. Here you can see the area from the other side:



I will get a boat transfer to the upper right tip and walk all the way back to Picton. The accomendations I booked at the information center, which was much cheaper than the packages from the shops here.

I also wanted to go diving and went into a shop here. The owner told me, that they dont go out because of the bad weather and the bad visibility. This is a very good sign, they only go with good conditions. Probably i will go with them after my track, here lies a big wreck, a russian cruise ship, which sank in 1986.

I wanted to do a kajak tour today, but unfortunately it was canceled because of the bad weather. Today it is quite cold and windy here, so i drove around and tested the allroad capabilities of my mini-van and bought more camping stuff for the next trips.

update soon

On february 27th i stopped atSt. Arnaud, which is a very small village in the Nelson Lakes National park. They have a beautiful camping ground directly at the Rotoiti Lake, where I stayed 3 nights.
I arrived late, just in time to see the sunset. Short after the sunset I took this wonderful picture of the jetty. This place has some kind of magic, the outlook is sooooo beautiful. I spent much timet here just sitting and enjoying.....




On the next day I couldn´t resist to jump into the water. It was a little cold but with sun no problem.




In the afternoon I did some walk around the shore. The water was really nice and clear. There are some resident eels living here which could be seen from the jetty. Funny, these fish are looking at you...




It was so nice here that i decided to stay another night. On Friday I did a nice 6h hike to the St. Arnaud mountain. The tops have no crosses like in the alps, only stones. When you arrive there you put another stone onto it.




At 1600m you have a nice view over the Lake Rotoiti. The camping ground is located directly at the lower right tongue. To bad that I could not see the whole lake, because some clouds came up just minutes before I reached the top.



At the top I saw a small spider which looks like it had wool, on the computer I saw that this spider is carrying its babys with her.



And even in a cold stone desert at the top of the mountain there is some life.



On the way back down I noticed the strange looking forest, which they have here. At night it must be really mystical. Perhaps some Orks and Gremlins are wandering around.




On saturday I drove to Nelson, there is a market which I wanted to visit. There is also a Mitsubishi dealer where i had to go. I had problems with the lock of my back door. The lock was blocked and this urgently need to be fixed. I could not leave the car open, especially when I go for the long walks.

I went to the market and got some german bread and wheat beer!! There are not many things which i miss from germany but bread and a good wheat beer...

Because it was raining very much the whole day i decided to stay this night in a cabin, after on 10 days sleeping in the car i am looking forward for a wonderfull and dry night.


Now I am nearly 3 months away from home, I am still not homesick and many adventures are still ahead ;-)