big road trip: week four

A month ago, I packed up my life in Dunedin and headed out on one last big road trip across New Zealand. Here is week three!

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dates of travel: 29 Nov – 3 Dec

Back in Queenstown, I set about getting ready to get back on the road. This involved laundry, some last-minute wifi work, and grocery shopping. I also took my car in for service and spent time with the dog, knowing it would likely be the last time I saw him. 🙁

The day I left, Tom and I went for a long walk up Queenstown Hill – something I’ve never done before in all the times of being in town. It was good to be outside again, albeit with a really ugly knee brace on, and to see the view from the top. It was also the first of many walks I would tackle that week. We had a long chat as well; I don’t talk about it much but I have been struggling with a lot over the last few months, mostly in the “what am I doing?” realm. Tom was there once too (haven’t we all been there?) and was able to give me some really good advice. I told him I would likely need a reminder, and he responded with “who doesn’t?”

So, finally on the road again. I went as far as Wanaka, unable to go too far for fear of wanting to go back. I had a campsite in mind but before driving out there, I hiked up Mount Iron just for the heck of it. In the morning, I got coffee and did some work before heading into Mount Aspiring National Park – all the way into the park, to the end of the road, to the Rob Roy Glacier hike. It’s an easy walk, mostly uphill to the viewing points where you get panoramic views of the hanging glacier as it sits on the ledge of the mountain. I was awed by this hike – and so happy that I hadn’t let my knee slow me down at all. The following day, I planned on working all day: I was on deadline for three articles and had some blog things to catch up on, not to mention the Go Fund Me page. However, the weather was too good to ignore and I literally threw my computer into my bag with frustration. I went to Roy’s Peak, a track I had only managed half of the last time due to nasty weather and had driven straight past yesterday on the grounds that it was way too crowded. Parking was difficult – seriously, this track is WAY too crowded – but I finally found a spot and made lunch before lacing up my shoes and throwing two bottles of water in my pack with an apple and my camera. I struggled a bit with my knee brace but I knew I wouldn’t make it without it.

When I started walking, there were two people ahead of me, and I managed to quickly catch up to them. We were all huffing and puffing only about a half a kilometre into the walk, but when I caught up to the old guy with hiking poles, and then passed a guy who was checking his email on his iPad while his computer sat at his feet, I figured, I can do this. I’d also been watching this woman in orange as she powered straight up the hill, up the false tracks made by people like her, not along the zig-zagging back and forth track that was gently sloping and grass-covered. No, this woman was power walking dead uphill. When she passed me at a solid run, I almost gave up. I turned back and saw the two people I’d passed earlier and we all laughed and shrugged, then kept going. Within ten minutes, we had teamed up and were talking as if we’d known each other for years. Cat and Greg are two friends from Bristol who now live in Queenstown. Thanks to our chatter, we made it to the first viewing point and then again on to the summit. For awhile, I wasn’t sure if I could make it, but I am so utterly grateful for the two of them and their encouragement. The views. Oh. I don’t think I can put into words how stunning this vista is, so I’ll let these photos do the talking.

The walk down was brutal; it was three hours up and about two and a half down, so two and a half hours of my knee in a constant state of shock on the hard ground. But, I will say that by the time we made it to the car park, my knee wasn’t too bad, so I don’t think it was a painful hurt, it was hurting because it was in the right place and its not used to that. If that makes sense?

Cat had run into a coworker at the top, and we waited for them to meet us at the bottom before deciding to go get a drink in town to celebrate. We also picked up a random French guy who was new to both Wanaka and New Zealand and had done the walk on his day off. The six of straggled into a lakeside bar and devoured ciders and carb-licous food before peeling off and heading to bed. Cat, Greg, and I went back to my camping ground where they set a tent up instead of driving back to Queenstown; we didn’t get very far with the conversation before we all were yawning and proclaiming that it was bedtime.

The following day – Saturday – I caught up on work in the morning and then wavered a bit when deciding what to do. I’d been offered a place in QT by both Cat and a friend from Wellington who was in town with his brother, but I also was keen to get a move on up to the West Coast. After a bit of waffling, and a text message exchange with both Kaya and Tom, I had made my mind up – it was time to move on.

I know I don’t have to explain myself to anyone – the perks of solo travel! – but … it was actually very hard to go the other direction. I have no ties to Wanaka, or to QT, but I think a part of me knows that this might be the last time I see either place. And there was a lot I didn’t do in Wanaka. I always go and see the tree; I’ve seen it in every season except autumn. And I never did made it to Cinema Paradiso, despite Helen’s recommendation. But I was itching to go and I knew that the longer I stayed, the harder it would be to leave.

As I write this, Saturday night, I’m camped at a roadside spot just outside of the Haast Pass at Pleasant Flats. Its not all that pleasant right now, being heavily misty, rainy, and very sandfly-ish, but it’s a cheap place to camp and my car-bed is quite cosy. I will likely go back into the pass in the morning – if the weather is nice – so that I can actually see the mountains, but if the weather is still shit then I will continue on my way to Franz Josef.

next… the West Coast of new Zealand