Highway 61 revisited

The trip has taken a turn.

In Queenstown we got some very disapointing news. Fiordland, which is home to three great walks including the famous Milford track was the victim of the weather as well in Southern New Zealand. The roads getting to the tracks were closed and the tracks had severe avalanche warnings placed on them for the entire week, with bridges already removed and advising against traveling. The DOC workers told us another weather front is expected to hit early next week that will once again close the roads and add another week or two to the avalanche warnings. Not wanting to get stuck in an avalanche we decided to avoid heading in on a trek. I was supposed to hear about a job offer at a bar in Queenstown but the manager didn't get back to me in time before Mark was leaving with his car relocation to Christchurch. If I stayed and waited the two weeks I might have made it into the treks but would have to work in a hostel bar for two weeks and then miss out on a lot of other things Mark and I wanted to do before he heads back. So after a second night in Lizzie I decided to give up on Fiordland and head back to Christchurch with Mark.

The plus side in Queenstown was in our wanderings we found an arena where they rented skates and sticks. They let us go out and play hockey for a few hours which put us in a much better mood. There was a family visiting from Australia and the Dad started talking to me about how interested his kid was in playing ice hockey. I found the kid a smaller stick and got him shooting and playing a bit and now have a standing offer of a place to stay in Australia...something to look into I guess.

We left for Christchurch in a huge truck we christened Samantha. She was manual so Mark drove for the majority of the first day, except when he decided I should learn. Trying manual for the first time on the left hand side of the road in a car that takes up a lane and a half was an interesting experience. I didn't stall at all but when we started getting into traffic and round-a-bouts I pulled over and let Mark deal with. One night spent in the truck and we arrived in Christchurch early this morning.

The sun was out for the first time, the temperature got near 20 degrees and we decided to just start walking. We walked about 25km outside Christchurch, including through the towns that got the worst of the earthquake, some of the buildings were condemned and on a slant still. We got tired a little after lunch and decided to try hitching our way further north, hopefully to Kaikoura.

Our first ride was in a Mini Cooper...we laughed when we saw the car about how there was no chance and in it pulled. He got us to the next town, one more ride to the next town and we were waiting with our thumbs out for about half an hour. Then the house pulled up.

Our last ride was not a mobile home, it was an actual house on wheels. It used to be a bus but the outside has been re-done with wood and painted purple, it includes a pointed roof, an attic/loft area over where the driver sits and a back porch. Inside was hardwood floors, wooden cabinets, walls, a desk and a woodburning stove. The guy driving has been in this caravan since 1997 and tours with a group that every weekend for 8 months does a festival/fair where they perform music, plays and other entertainment while selling things they find or make. He was an ultimate hippy. The inside the of the caravan looked like a passengers cabin on a ship from the 1800's but was filled with Bob Dylan album covers and pins, various crystal and bead trinkets, including a massive crystal on a piece of bone dangling various animal teeth. He also had a pitbull named Jego that was very friendly and excited to have passengers for the very long drive to Kaikoura (while extremely slow in terms of car speed, it moved faster then any house I have ever been in).

We arrived in Kaikoura as the sun was setting over the mountains, set up our tents and are planning to hitch up to Picton tomorrow where depending on when we arrive we can hopefully do the Queen Charlotte track before headed back to North Island.