Wow - has it really been 6 months already??

So here I am, writing a blog that’s FINALLY up to date, for the first time since being in Germany, almost 6 months ago. I left England on September 24th 2010, so yes – it really has been just under 6 months. It’s been an absolutely amazing time, and I can’t even imagine having to leave this wonderful place. Yes, whilst I’m writing this it is raining and dreary outside, but I’m parked up right next to the ocean in my car that I love. Not a care in the world. I stayed here for free last night, listening to the sounds of the ocean. The road next to me is dirt track for 20km in either direction, up windy mountain roads. I’ve only seen one other car pass by here so far today (it’s 11.44am), and I’m content just sat here, listening to the waves and typing on my netbook. I have a power inverter, so if my laptop runs out of battery, I can charge it using the car engine. I have a bed in my car. I have food in my car boot. I have a duvet to keep me warm. I truly have everything that I need right here, and I’m happy. I’ll probably get lonely at some point soon, at which point I’ll catch up with some friends, or make some new ones. This travelling malarkey is wonderful, and I don’t ever want it to end.

The unfortunate fact, however, is that in order to sustain this lifestyle, it’s necessary to work. But that’s more of the beauty of travelling – the jobs you end up doing. Who would have ever thought that I’d become a hostel manager? Thinking about it now, it’s a great job for me and I loved it (most of the time!) – but I’d have never done it back home! And fruit picking – ok, so I’ve only done one day of it so far, but it’s given me a taster, and I now know that I’ll be doing plenty more of it whilst I’m here! I must say, I’m pretty excited to see what other jobs will come my way. I’m planning to travel for month solid now, whilst the temperature is still quite mild, and settle down in a house-share somewhere (possibly Wanaka?) for the winter. Then head over to Christchurch to help out there for a bit. Then (at the moment – you all know how I like to change my plans regularly!) I’m hoping to come over to Europe for a couple of weddings in September, and then do a ‘Europe trip’ with Chris. We can both work throughout the EU, so we should be ok for money, before heading back over to do a year in Australia (or Canada, or both) on Working Holiday Visas.

I know that I’m very fortunate to be able to do these things, and am grateful every day for the luck that I’ve had and the people I’ve met. It’s truly an epic adventure, where I’ve learned things about myself that I didn’t know, picked up new skills and made friends that will stay with me for life. Life here in NZ certainly is, as Kiwis say ‘SWEET AS, BRO’! ;)

Nelson & the Abel Tasman Tramp

We arrived at a fantastic hostel in Nelson, The Bug, which was everything a backpackers should be: clean, comfy wooden bunks (so non-squeaky), large clean bathrooms, free internet, 2 kitchens which were cleaned at different times, hammocks, free parking, lots of plug sockets, cheap dorm prices… all in all, a great find. Nelson is the ‘Sunshine capital’ of New Zealand, meaning that it has the most days of sunshine. And it truly is a wonderful city. I could definitely see myself living here for a bit! We stayed for 2 nights before heading off to a campsite closer to the Abel Tasman National Park.

When we awoke the next day, it was cold, wet and miserable. Did I really want to go on a 3 day tramp in this weather?? And my backpack felt sooo heavy, I really wasn’t too sure whether I had the motivation to do it! But we set off to find a water taxi regardless. We needed to shell out some cash to a water taxi company to take us around the coast to the start of the walk. We got dropped off at the farthest point possible, and walked back, towards Marahau, where our cars were parked. Two friends had gone off earlier, as they were only doing a 1 day hike (no camping), but me and my Canadian friend, Martin, were doing the 3 day tramp. We weighed our bags: Mine was 15.5kg and Martin’s was 22kg. Eeek! And there really wasn’t anything in there that we didn’t need – I’d packed and repacked a couple of times! Ah well… we’d see how we got on.

Mine was 15.5kg - Martin's was 22kg!

So we got in the boat, and an hour and a half later, we were at the start of our tramp, on the beautiful golden sand at Totaranui. We walked along the sand (not that easy a feat when you’ve got a 15kg pack on your back!), and found the track. The views were spectacular. And the smells, sounds and ‘fresh’ feeling in the natural bush were just wonderful. It was one of those times where you really wished that you could bottle up a smell / feeling to enjoy again later. When we had coastal views, the sea was so turquoise and clear, with beautiful white / golden sandy beaches, set right next to the native bush. The walkways were often created so that to your right was a VERY steep (almost cliff-like) mountain coming down towards you, then a flat bit of track (maybe 2 m wide), then a the steep descent continued to your left – you were literally walking on a cliff edge, without really realising it because it had trees on! Very fun – until Martin slipped on the edge (towards the end of the tramp) and almost fell down, that is. God that was scary. Muppet.

On the water taxi

 Two happy trampers

The first day was very easy – we didn’t have blisters, our packs hadn’t yet started rubbing us, and the terrain was pretty easy. We made our first ‘low tide crossing’ over an estuary (it could only be crossed at low tide – what an experience that was!), then our second, and found ourselves at Onetahuti Beach, where our campsite was.
 

Crossing the first estuary at low tide

At the second estuary

Walking along the beach, I found some driftwood which I took as a walking stick. It was a bit big and bulky, but I didn’t care – it looked fab! As I have a penchance for naming inanimate objects, I dubbed him ‘Wilbert’. We set up tent, and went exploring the caves and rocks on the beach. They were very cool! Then we made dinner (kidney bean tortilla wraps), Martin found his own (inferior, in my opinion!) walking stick, and we went to bed, me wrapped up in multiple jumpers.

The next morning, we woke in time for sunrise… but there were a few too many clouds to be able to see it properly. It was still nice, none-the-less. We ate breakfast and set off walking again. This time our feet were sore and the packs were rubbing on our hips / armpits. But it we soon didn’t even notice as it was so beautiful. It took a while to get used to walking with Wilbert (my walking stick), but I ended up loving it! Yes it was bulky, but it did actually help take some of the weight off my feet, help me going uphill, and help to steady myself when going downhill. And it was a cool bit of wood too.

Sunrise

NONE SHALL PASS!!

 

We had hoped to go to Cleopatra’s Pools – some natural pools with a natural waterslide in. We thought that our capsite was quite close to it, so figured we’d drop our packs off at the campsite and walk back there. But by the time we got to our campsite, we calculated that we were 1 ½ hours away from the pools, so with a 3 hr return journey and time to actually mess around in the pools, there was no way we’d be back in time for nightfall. So, having made an almighty descent to our campsite, ‘Watering Cove’, we decided to stay at our idyllic paradise. We (along with one other French guy) had our own beach, and were camping in the woods next to it. We went for a swim in the cold ocean, but found that there were SO MANY starfish in the shallow depths of the sea that it was very difficult to walk out into the sea, as we obviously didn’t want to tread on them! It was too cold to stay in for long anyway, so we dried off and just lay around. Neither of us had taken a book - this would have been a great time to read!! It was such a beautiful place. I washed my clothes in the fresh river nearby, and I realised how nice it would be to actually live a simple life like this one.

Watering Cove Campsite

 

We woke up for sunrise again the next day, but alas, there were still clouds in the way. When we got going, the steep descent that we’d had coming down to camp had to be climbed… ouch! Not the nicest way to start the day! But after that, nothing seemed difficult all day, and we did our 4 hour hike back to Marahau in about 3 hours.

My pack still weighed 14kg at the end...

It was such a shame to be back. It had been a wonderful 3 days, and I hadn’t really wanted it to end. I think it’s safe to say that I love tramping, and now I can’t wait for the Milford Sounds tramp! I’d never really realised that I was such an ‘outdoorsy’ person – but I guess I am! J Walking along the flat road back to the car, however, seemed to take an eternity. Where was the beautiful natural bush, the dirt tracks, the bird song, the sounds of water and the beautiful coastal views?? I guess I only really like walking when I’m truly in the presence of nature. And that’s what New Zealand has an abundance of – lucky me!!

The Blonde Ambition

Whilst I was in Raglan, my (rather straight-laced) friend came back to the hostel one day sporting a mohawk. This started my mind on a thought process: Why had he got this mohawk? Because he was travelling and it didn’t matter what he looked like. So why am I still sporting the same hair colour that I’ve had all my life? I’ve always thought about going blonde, but never had the balls to actually do it, as I was a professional back in England, and (more or less) cared about the way I looked. But now I was travelling, sometimes having to go days without a shower - so vanity obviously wasn’t a problem anymore. I didn’t have any meetings or presentations or anything else that I had to look smart for. So I thought… why not?! This journey is all about having ‘no regrets’, after all! I’d often thought that if I got to 50 and had never gone blonde that I’d regret it, so what was stopping me now?? Nothing.

So I booked into a salon in Nelson, and opted for a ‘whole head foil’, which, as you can see from the pic below, literally means that they bleach individual parts of your hair and then wrap it in foil for 40 minutes for the bleach to lighten your hair. My hairdresser, Louise, had chosen the colours for me that she thought would be best. ‘She’s the hairdresser and knows best!’, I thought.

Whilst I was sat in the salon, I’d realised that it wasn’t as blonde as I’d wanted, and It didn’t really look all that good. Ah cr*p. So 2 ½ hours after I’d entered, I left the salon. My friends were waiting outside, and as I’d imagined, the reaction wasn’t particularly enthralling. Ah well – at least I’d done it and knew what I’d look like as a blonde – even if it wasn’t what I’d hoped. So the next day I went on the Abel Tasman tramp (see next blog post). Having not looked in the mirror for 3 days, when I came back I was shocked to actually look at the state of my hair. Although I’d only had it done 4 days previously, some of the roots looked as though there was about 3 weeks’ worth of re-growth. The colour was really stripy, with significant contrasts between the blonde and my natural hair colour (which she’d left in). I wasn’t happy. Coupled with my dark eyebrows, I honestly felt like a bit of a tramp, and was embarrassed by the state of it. I’d done a 3 day tramp, looking like a tramp. The pic below doesn't particularly show the colour, but you can see the huge dark patch of roots at the front... 

So I went back to the salon the next day and complained. They took one look at it, agreed that it wasn’t a very good job and agreed to do it again for me for free. Thank god!! I also enquired about dying my eyebrows lighter, and was told that lightening eyebrows often turns them orange. OK! I’m fine with dark eyebrows then!! So I went through another 2 hour process, this time with Paula, an Irish girl on a working holiday visa herself. She was really nice, and really took the time to ask what my expectations were, and what I didn’t like about my hair at the moment. She full-head foiled my hair again, this time adding more blonde, and it turned out much better! It wasn’t a brassy look – just a natural looking blonde. Perfect. I was really happy, and although you could still see some of the bad roots from the previous job (she’d left some of the old hair colouring in – like the pervious foiling), it wasn’t bad. I walked out of there feeling pretty good - I’ve now been a ‘proper’ blonde for 3 days, and I love it! J