Back to the ‘real’ world

I returned to Christchurch via the nice town Dunedin where I spend a day going to an interesting museum and a beautiful art gallery. Back in Christchurch I’m using Patrick’s welcomeness (yes, that’s a new word) again and I’ll stay with him until I find a job. Most of you will find the next thing strange, but little workaholic and career woman as I am, after 5 months of travelling I still don’t feel like working. Yes, get back on your chairs again: I do not feel like working! I am completely cured and it’s great!!
However, there are loads of jobs here though, but all for 3 months or more and I am only here for 2 months. And since I do not really have to earn money (lucky me!), just not spending any money in the next few weeks, I found a really nice job in the North of the South Island. As of the end of this week I will be working in a hostel, just doing general work for 3-4 hours a day and then I have the rest of the day off to do the things you do in the middle of nowhere in a beautiful place like Marlborough: hiking, swimming, reading, meeting people and hopefully some exciting activities (check their website if you are not jealous of me yet… www.hopewell.co.nz)


But of course before work comes pleasure and Patrick wanted to go on a ‘proper’ hike with me, so he took me to his best hike in New Zealand…And I have to admit: it’s a winner. On Friday we took off to Kaikoura to start the hike to Mount Fyffe the next day. Bloody hell, the first 4 hours were absolutely terror: going straight up the mountain till 1602 meters. That was Patrick’s trick to let me know I was not as fit as I thought as was. I needed to take more breaks than I expected (I was very annoyed about that to be honest), but the views were excellent. Well, I shocked Patrick when I told him that the highest ‘mountain’ in the Netherlands is 322 meters, so he was quiet after that…We continued along a scary edge (mum: you would have died instantly…Femke too for that matter) and we were literally sliding down rocky landslides. I loved it, especially with the views of the snowy mountains. Coming down till the Kowhai Saddle, after that we had to hop up and down along the river: really looking for a path at some times.


After 8,5 hours walk we got to the hut where the cold creek was awaiting us for a cold dip. Mind you, Patrick chickened out, so it was just me being fresh afterwards. Patrick crashed at that point (so who is the fit one now, hey?!), so I was enjoying myself getting the firewood and making dinner. No, to be honest, the sun got to Patrick’s fair Irish skin and he looked like a nicely cooked shrimp so he was out for the day.
The next day was like ‘whipped cream on an ice cream’: we had several river crossings to do which I had done before with Eefje, but not as many and ‘wild’ ones as these. It was great fun, I really enjoyed it. The gorges were beautiful, the track was hardly visible at times, the weather was excellent (too bad I do not have a picture of Patrick being completely covered up with gloves and my towel to keep the sun of him…), the variety of the scenery; it all made the track the best hike so far in New Zealand (sorry Eefje, Mark and Ellie…). So Patrick’s hike is a winner!


After returning to Kaikoura, having an ice cream and a coffee, I did another two hour walk along the peninsula enjoying the seals, the weather and the scenery. Patrick stayed in the Van, keeping out of the sun, because he still looked pretty cooked to me and he preferred to be cooked instead of getting roasted as well. Fair enough I reckon!

So, how about this for a proper update! I hope you enjoyed the stories, I surely did in real time. I will, with a bit of luck, update regularly in Marlborough, perhaps with even better episodes (as if that’s possible…)