Kepler Track, Milford Sound.

Hello. So, let's see where I left off. I had set up my tent at the free campsite in Clifden, near this old suspension bridge. A couple of other cars pulled up, and I went fishing in the Waiau River. No luck, so I went back up to the campsite to cook my sausages. there were 4 Israelis sleeping in a tent which was maybe 2.5 times bigger than mine, and then there were two from Holland who had a mansion of a tent, which easily could've fit my tent in their porch. That's right, their tent had a porch.
There was a fire-pit and eventually we collectively got the fire going--except for the 2 Germans who showed up and decided to be anti-social. It was a nice fire, and it was interesting to talk to everyone there, some of whom had just come off the Milford Track, New Zealand's most famous (and wettest) hiking track.
Next morning, I packed up just in time to partner up with two other cyclists to do (peaceful) battle with the vicious headwind. We slowly crawled forwards, probably averaging around 10 kph (walking pace). I'm not going to go into great detail over those 8 hours of suffering, but by the end of the day (80 km away, in Manapouri) I was tired enough to split a motel room with one of the guys, coming to $40 each. I also had an expensive meal at the pub, to complete my night of luxury.
I lazily went along to Te Anau the next day, simply 20km away, stopping to go fishing in the Waiau River again, this time in the section that was used for part of the Anduin River in The Lord Of The Rings. Again, no luck. Rolled into Te Anau with another cycle-tourist, Bob from Canada. I went around town with him, and then he took a ferry to look at the Glow-worm caves here.
The next day, I messed around town, and found out about doing the Kepler Track, another of NZ's "Great Walks". Bought food, packed my bag and set off the next day @ 7:30am. I decided that due to the awkward spread of campsites along the trail (and the cost of huts being $40), I would do it in two days, and camp. As the total track length is 70km, this led to two fairly long days. However, it was absolutely amazing!



That night, it rained a lot. I woke up, and it kept raining until 12:30pm. Two bridges had been washed away, so we had to wait until the creeks weren't in flood. So, I got off to a much later start than preferred the second day, finishing the track in the evening.
I spent a couple of days just wandering around Te Anau after that. Yesterday was eating breakfast in Hostel when I met someone with an extra seat who was going up to Milford Sound that day. So, half an hour later, I was packed and piled into Jana ("Yana", from Germany)'s car. Got up there (150kms), and walked around. Stayed in a campsite, and that night fought off a gargantuan possum who wanted my bread I had foolishly left outside my tent. I heard something snuffling around at about 1AM, and opened the door-flap to find a big ugly possum there. I hit him with my shoe, and he sort of shuffled off, only to return about a minute later. We repeated this about 5 times, until he finally got the message.
Thew next morning, I decided to go on a cruise out on the sound, all the way to the Tasman Sea. That was really amazing. I saw seals, and, on the way back, a pod of Dolphins who swam next to the boat and surfed on the Bow waves.
Okay, I have to stop now. Heading to Queenstown next.
-Ben

Rakiura Track and the Sausage Capital of New Zealand

I decided that I would indeed do the Rakiura Track, one of New Zealand's so-called "Great Walks". The ferry over to the island cost $110 total, so I was determined to get my moneys-worth out of the island. The night before my ferry left I stayed in a Backpacker hostel in Bluff, the southern-most town on the south island. I met a nice Swiss guy there, and got everything packed into my tramping (hiking) pack for the next couple of days. Headed over Foveaux Straight and arrived at Stewart Island.
I went to the Department of Conservation office to fill out a trip intentions form, and to buy hut and camping tickets. I started off, and made it to the beginning of the track by about 12:30pm. Time for lunch and I haven't even gotten started. I headed along the track, and made my way to Kaipipi Bay (I think that was the name). It was nice, and I decided to try my luck with my collapsible spin-fishing rod. I caught a little fish after about 20 minutes, but it was only about as long as my hand, so I let it go. That was to be the only successful fishing of my island stay, but at least now I felt justified with bringing it along.
I got to North Arm hut at about 5pm, just before the rain started. I set up my sleeping bag, and met two women from the US, who had just graduated from Oberlin and were in NZ doing more or less what I'm doing, except more hiking and no biking. I cooked my dinner, which actually consisted of fresh potatoes, peas, carrot and tomato, which I had been too reluctant to toss in the rubbish. And then I added some couscous and salami to thicken it up and add flavour, respectfully.
We (me and the two from the U.S.) went on a kiwi-hunt at night-time, but to no avail. At one point something fell from a tree, and of course the first thing any of us thought at any sound was: "is that a kiwi". So, I just started laughing far too loudly for kiwi-stalking, because I got this mental image of a kiwi that had somehow made it up a tree, and who had then fallen and tried to flap his wings, only to remember that he was, indeed, a flightless bird. So we didn't have too good a chance of seeing kiwi after that. Besides, I just can't imagine a kiwi casually strolling down the middle of the walking track in the middle of the night, so I don't know what the odds were anyways.
The next day I left fairly late, and had a big climb ahead of me. By now I had realized that I was doing the hike in the opposite direction to everyone else. After lots of fairly un-eventful hiking through bush, I made it to my next destination, Port William campsite. All the while getting rained on. I set my tent up, and promptly fell asleep without any dinner. I woke up at about 10pm and made some instant mashed potatoes, and then fell asleep again.
In the morning, I awoke (probably the wrong word, since to awaken one must be asleep in the first place) to find that over the night my tent had filled with about 3 inches of water. I packed everything up (still raining outside), and tried to wring out my absolutely sodden sleeping bag. My pack weighed a lot more from all of the water, but it was the last leg of my trip so I didn't mind as much.
I made it into Oban, the town on the island, and found a backpackers to stay at for the night. In the morning, some inquisitive Kaka (big NZ parrot) flew around the porch, probably in search of food. I got some cool close-up pictures of them, which was pretty neat.


I messed around in the town for that day, running into some people I had met going the opposite way along the track, and we went to the pub (my feeble excuse being that it was raining at the time).
Later, at around 6pm, I jumped on the ferry back to Bluff. Very different. More like a roller coaster than a boat, it was quite fun, but a little sickening after a while. A bag of Jelly Beans in my tummy didn't help things along, either.
In Bluff, I went back to the same backpackers, and offered them 5 hours of work from me in exchange for 2 nights accommodation, which they accepted. I dried my stuff out, and did the work (paint-stripping and loading things up into a trailer). Left and went through Invercargill, to Riverton, arriving at about 9pm. Set up my tent in some sheltered field and cooked a "stir-fry" just to try something new. Didn't really work because my pot's too small, but it was alright. Also, no good seasonings.
Next day went to Monkey Island, a place just off the road where you can camp for free. There, I ran into this couple who I had also run into in Fortrose, and Brighton, about a week or two earlier. They offered me dinner which I gratefully accepted, and afterwards I went for a bit of a walk.




I found this really cool cave/tunnel up a small cliff, and went up and poked my head inside. It was obviously carved out by humans, but it was fun.



Now I'm running out of time. Really quickly. Next, went through Tuatapere, "NZ's Sausage Capital". I bought some sausages, and went further on until Clifden, where there's a cool bridge.I'll finish this later.