New Zealand Index

Auckland
Northland
Heading South
Wellington
Traveling again
West Coast
Picking Apples
Road to Qtown
Kinloch
Southland
Queenstown
Heading North
Queen Charlette Wilderness Park
to Taranaki
Central Plateau
The End

    I left Wellington on March 2, and took the ferry to the south island. My plan at the time was to come over, take a few days to wonder and then make my way to Motueka, and pick apples for a while. But I had read an add on a backpacker message board, and was rethinks my plans, maybe heading over to the west coast for a little while and work at a backpackers. Well, anyway I arrived in Picton, the gateway to the south islands, and found my self a hostel. It was nice had a great courtyard, and a spa pool. I just kind of relaxed and read then went to bead early. The next day, I still wasn’t sure where I wanted to go. I headed to nelson, the biggest town in the north of the south island. I made a couple of stops to do some short hikes, and when I arrived in nelson, I didn’t take the turn off for the city center, and instead headed for Motueka. I figured that if I wasn’t sure if I was going to stay there, then I would at least look at the town. I arrived and found a nice little place to stay and wondered the town. It was nice, somewhat small, and they needed apple pickers. There was a shortage of pickers this year, so work would be extremely easy to come by. That’s when I decided that I would not stay there at that time, but would come back in a couple of weeks and work. The next day I decided to go to able Tasman national park, and do a couple of hours hike. This place was amazing, and I will be going back for more. I just made it in a little ways, about a hour and a half, but the bush was incredible, and the beaches were beautiful. I relaxed on the beach for a couple of hours, and then tracked back to the start. At this point I was not sure of where I wanted to go. I was in the sunniest place in New Zealand, and I could go somewhere and just lay on the beach, but I wanted something a little more adventurous. I decided to head for Murchison, a town at he beginning of the Buller gorge, and the kayak capital of New Zealand. The town was pop 700, and had two streets. I stayed at the only backpackers, and it was nice, a converted house, so it really had that homey feel. The guy who ran it was kind of crazy, and was into crazy project all over the place. Never dull. The next morning I booked a river trip for that afternoon. We were to go down to Buller, and I got a inflatable kayak, like I was using last summer. The trip was nice, but it could have been a little bigger, but that what you get going near the end of the season. It was nice just to get back in the water. I ended up going in a two person with a welsh girl who was also staying in the backpackers. That evening with a guy who had been staying there for a week, and another random, who just showed up, we were going to go to Buller-fest, which was going on. But once we reached the event we found out that there was a $10 cover, and then we had to buy drinks, and we decided to just go back and drink at the hostel. Still a fun night. The next day was the day I was supposed to arrive at the backpackers I was going to work at, so I was off. After going to able Tazman, the kayak trip, and going out and drinking the night before, I felt like I was actually traveling, so I felt good about going to my new “job” and settling down for a couple of weeks.