Back and forth

In Wanaka we found Lars again as well as the Israeli-German duo, Uri and Simon. We spent the next couple of days climbing mountains, eating ice cream and relaxing by the beautiful eponymous lake. On the advice of a Colombian runner, we transferred ourselves to the Luggate campsite situated on a cricket pitch with free hot showers!

Roy's Peak; Bannockburn festival; Mt Difficulty winery

 The first ride of the next day was from an Auckland lawyer by the name of Richard. After some lovely conversation and an historic tour of the town of Cromwell, Richard took us wine tasting in the Central Otago. Unable to go to his winery of choice, we ended up at Mt. Difficulty where I experienced the most expensive wine I'd ever tasted. My favourite was the 2013 Sauvignon Blanc. By the afternoon, we made it to Queenstown where we ended up spending $25 each to pitch our tents. Fortunately this gross expenditure was worth it as we met Immy - a welsh girl I'd met in Napier a few months before who invited us to a festival the next day in Bannockburn - back the direction we'd just come from. There were less than 1000 people there the whole day and our party of around ten were the only non kiwis. I stayed there all night and the awesome New Zealand policemen gave me a ride back to the campsite!

That seems like a good stopping point...

Wet wet wet... to Wanaka

The sun came with the morning in Westport and we made our way to the beach before thumbing our way south again. Our destination was Greymouth to get Lars's tent fixed. We hadn't gotten very far at around 7... our second lift did not take us to Greymouth, but instead to her friend's shack close to Fox River where we were to stay the night. My dear readership shall remember that about one month hence I was picked up south of Sydney and taken in by a young lady named Tamika. Who should it be that picked us up and took us in this time, one month later? Another Tamika. Coincidences are awesome. We got to know Ella (the 'owner' of the shack) and her two hitchhiking buddies. During the fire and a party on a private beach, Marion and I decided that Ella should come and flat with us in Auckland (spoiler alert: she's currently stroking a rescued cat in our flat - pretty well moved in) 

Adventures on the west coast

Tamika took us to the pancake rocks where we breakfasted in the morning before getting on course for Greymouth. The man who stopped for us was a pinnacle of kiwi hospitality and trust - he gave us the keys to his car to get ourselves 'settled' while he dashed to the loo. After about an hour of dramatic coastline we arrived in Greymouth, where Lars exchanged his tent and we gained Ricky, making us a quartet for the second time. To the famed glaciers we were destined! Despite my best efforts to keep us in pairs we managed to get a ride for all four of us in a lorry, with the two tag-alongs stowed in the back with the home-brewed detergents. Our campsite at the start of the glaciers greeted us with rain and new friends from Israel, Germany, France and the Netherlands. This region is particularly known for it's rain as we were to discover the following day. We got a glimpse of the smaller Fox Glacier but ran away by the afternoon - not before spotting our first Kea!

Adventures in the glaciers

With Ricky and Lars's departure and the addition of an American named Luke, we were again a trio. After a downpour, we (Marion) somehow managed to convince a Spanish woman by the name of Clara to take us to a campsite at Lake Paringa, where we got a mere glance at the lake before another downpour. The storm cleared by the morning and we drove and drove and drove, stopping in Port Jackson, at various gorgeous waterfalls and and finally, starved in Wanaka at 1630. We stuffed ourselves with (fish and) chips and parted ways. Clara needed to head on to Queenstown and Luke was staying at a friends. Marion and I found a cheap campsite by the river.

Waterfalls, mountains, Clara and Luke