David, being the beautiful man that he is, decided that he'd drive me to Queenstown where I was to meet my next host. I spent about a month and a half with David and Kimmer, it was certainly a life changing experience, and it was a difficult journey to begin knowing that at some point we would have to part ways.
Here we are making our way, there was quite a bit of space between Naseby and Queenstown, but we crossed it with grace. We took a wonderful pitstop in Wanaka, a city by the lake that resembles Queenstown 30 years ago. There I met many wonderful people, and we spent a couple of hours grape-picking at possibly the most beautiful vineyard in the world.
This is the Lake Wanaka Rippon Vineyard, famous for its breathtaking views, and most importantly its organic / biodynamic wines! Oh yes.
These two lovely ladies are Amy and Shannon, who taught me a thing or two about grape picking. Amy (in front) ended up giving us a place to stay for a couple of nights, and was a generous host.
After our stay in Wanaka, we finally mad our way to Queenstown. When we arrived, I found myself in a very commercial tourist city, full of foriegners itching to spend their money on extreme activities. I told David I couldn't handle the city, and luckily he knew a great place to camp out about 30 minutes out of town, right on the shore of Lake Wakatipu.
We woke up early in the morning and drove up the road a bit from where we were camping to get this shot. We were hoping for the water to be still so we could se a mirror image of the landscape reflected in the water, but no luck.
The morning of the day I was due at my next host, we decided to go for a scenic day-hike in Glenorchy, which was another 30 mintues from our campsite. When we arrived, I found myself in an Elven paradise.
The track was unbelievable, the sense of magic in this place was saturating.
Please take note of David's incredible Zebra sweatshirt, complete with Zebra neck scruffy attatched.
Yes, I did drink this water.
So upon leaving Glenorchy, heading towards my host in Queenstown, David proposed that I skip my next host, and that we continue our little "ticky-tour" on towards a famous set of hot springs further up the West Coast. Considering how unimpressed I was with Queenstown, the decision was not difficult.
Into the Wild.
This was the beginning of lots of beautiful coastline, and also the beginning of my loving relationship with the many Sandflies I met there. Tiny little buggers that bite.
Near the entrance to the hike up to the hot springs, we found this view of the backside of Mt. Cook which I photographed earlier some weeks ago.
And so we began a six hour hike up to the mystical "Welcome Flat" hot springs. It was not raining during our ascent, which made river and stream crossings a breeze.
This was the beginning of the most amazing scenery I've come across thus far in New Zealand. I felt like I walked right into Pandora (Avatar).
Nature did a wonderful job of leading the way for us. Here are some wonderful root-steps, which I suppose the fairies put there for us.
Yes we went into that!
New Zealand tax dollars at work. Please note that while American's tax dollars build bombs, Kiwi tax dollars build bridges and hiking huts.
This was the hut at Welcome Flat, it had a 30 person capacity but there were only 11 other people there! It turned out that we were very lucky to be there with so few people. Most of the time we were in one of the three hot springs completely alone.
The feeling of stepping into that water after a six hour hike is a description best left for a poet.
Here there is a little bit of a gap in my photographic record. We decided to stay for another day at the hot springs, and when we decided to leave it started to POUR RAIN. I really got to understand why they call it a rainforest, because the once quaint little forest came alive! Most of the track itself turned into a stream, and most of the streams turned into rivers, and the rivers became almost impassable.
I gave up on being dry right away, everything on me was going to get wet. Luckily I had a couple of plastic bags to wrap my camera gear with, so for the most part I wasn't too concerned about my equipment.
Upon finally returning to the car, we were completely soaked. David, needing to be back home soon, drove me with haste all the way to Hokitika where I had planned my next host. It was there that David and I reluctantly parted ways. He was a new found brother to me, and I can't wait for our next encounter.
Upon arriving with my new hosts, I found that the plastic bag that was suppossed to be keeping my camera dry had a big ole' hole in it! Needless to say, I was a bit concerned when the LCD screen on the back of the camera wasn't working. With little hope, I pulled all the components out of the camera body and left it wide open for a couple of days. When I finally got the courage to pick up my camera to see if it was working, I found that it was OK!
Unfortunately I found myself hyper-aware of camera safety, and regrettfully I didn't take very many pictures in Hokitika. The shot below is the of the beach there.
Hokitika is famous for it's Jade carvers, and I happened to be staying with one. I stayed with a beautiful family, Veronika and Greg and their 20 month old Tim. Tim was adorable, and his parents are both artists. I have high hopes for them all. It was only a short stay of a few days, but they were a very inspiring couple living a very inspiring lifestyle. They lived mostly off of what they grew in their own garden, which was very refreshing to say the least!
I'm writing this entry from Takaka, a relaxed little place on the northern tip of the southern island, a place I've been aiming to get to for a while. I had a wild ride getting up here, but I'll leave that for another day.
