Well I almost did it again folks! I almost hurt myself quite badly in an isolated place due to over ambition leading to stupidity! But instead of being on a lone stretch of beach of North Shore Oahu I was in a sheep paddock on the Otago Peninsula.
Let me start from the beginning... I woke up before 8 to go to the Otago Peninsula for a little tramping. Kate was feeling sick and decided not to come, probably a good thing, she would’ve hated it. I had checked on the internet briefly and spoken to Chelsie about where to go, so I rough idea of my route. I took the city bus out Portobello Road to the harbor side or low road on the peninsula. I told the bus driver where I wanted to go, which was Camp Road Track, he asked if I was going to the Castle- Lanarch Castle- I wasn’t but knew I would walk by it so said yes anyways. He looked at me like I was crazy and told me to be careful because it would be slippery. Very slippery. Did I mention it was another miserable day in Dunedin? Cold and rainy and YUCK. I could’ve hibernated in the house again all day but figured I might never come back to see the Otago Peninsula again since the weather seemed to be so shitty, so it may be my only chance!
When I got off the bus the driver told me to be careful and that it would slippery for the 6th time and I thanked him. I found the sign for the track and set down or in this case up the track. It was pretty much straight up on, at first, a hard-packed clay road, and then a slippery as shit mud track once I went through the first paddock gate. The nearly vertical angle and mud combined for me loosing my footing and almost taking a mud bath and quickly decided that wet feet and lower legs would beat being covered in mud, so I moved into the tall grass between the road and the fence. Here going was easier and I proceeded to climb, climb, climb. My whole way up that side of the hill and the only other living beings I saw were two horses, one miniature and one regular size; I was a little worried that I was out in weather that even the sheep stayed indoors from. I passed another gate and was back on hard-packed road and passed by a few private homes, and finally saw my first sheep. I also finally turned around at this point to see not only how far I’d come but that the view was quite spectacular despite the fog and overcast skies. I could only imagine how gorgeous it must be on a sunny day. The terrain began to change a bit now too, instead of paddock it was wooded and mossy. I passed a sheep on one side who was startled by my presence (sheep truly are sheepish, haha) and as he ran away from the fence I saw that he was caught in barbed wire from the fence! He managed to free himself though, and the wire only appeared to be wrapped up in his fur/hair/wool? The scene as I approached was almost like the sheep with the wire was trying to peer pressure his fellow sheep into joining him, “All the cool sheep are doing it. Just rub up against the wire a little bit. It feels soooo good.” Soon I came to a fork in the road, one way looked less traveled and led through a gate and into a paddock. The other way was paved proper. I took the proper road and around the bend came to a big chain link fence on one side, and then around the next bend I came to the gates to Lanarch Castle. I wasn’t lost after all it seemed. I took a picture of the gates because I sure wasn’t going in ($10 to see the gardens, $25 to get in the castle). I noticed a sign by the Castle gates that said Camp Road on it, but it pointed in the direction I had just come. I thought that that fork I’d recently passed must be a continuation of Camp Road. So I turned around and went back to the fork, and of course I didn’t bother to check the map I’d been carrying and not looking at, haha… probably should have.
In the paddock there wasn’t a clear path but there were posts with yellow tips, so I followed those. The sheep were in full force now, as were their droppings. The went up and down hilly terrain and as I was concentrating mostly on not stepping in poop, I slipped in the wet grass and fell in sheep shit!! Luckily it only got on my bottom, but shiiiiiit, I slipped in sheep shit! My first thoughts, before the shit ones, were actually: “My bad ankle!” I was really scared that I’d messed it up again as my left leg (bad side) went under me and to the side, while my right went straight out. It was fine though, crisis averted. I continued my tramp and had a new mantra: “Everyone loves some sheep shit. Everyone loves sheep shit.” To the tune of what I think is a Pink song? So I tramped on down and came to two gates. I couldn’t tell which side I should go on because I couldn’t see where the yellow posts went. I ended up picking the wrong side and figured I would just hop the fence at some point, when it looked feasible and easiest, but then I came to a little stream. And by little I mean to wide to jump, haha. I walked to the edge of this stream to assess the situation and then slipped again! This time falling on my back, getting poop on my backpack and mud all over my watch’s leather band. I washed the watch off with stream water as best I could (I could see sheep dung in the stream) and then shimmied along the fence that crossed the stream that was right next to me to the other side. Then I trudged up the hill, repeating my mantra and I think I hopped the fence or went through another gate, I can’t even remember now.
I finally got to Highcliff Road and had to hop and gate there (it was locked with a chain, a sure sign I was not in the right place) and then hopped another gate to keep following the yellow posts. I tramped uphill for a little ways and stopped at the summit. The rain was still falling but the fog had cleared a little and I could see the paddocks on one side and ocean on the other. The ocean looked far away still though, farther than what I thought it should be. I took out the map and realized I was way off course. Shit. I decided to go back to Highcliff Road and try to find the track down to the ocean that I had originally been hoping to take. I found the track signs after about 20-30mins walking along the road. The sand dunes at the bottom looked inviting but not for soaking wet and sheep shit encrusted clothing. By then it was almost noon and I was starting to feel a little hungry and a little cold so decided I should get back to Portobello Road and the bus stop. The easiest way to get there would be to go back to the castle? No- Green Acres Track. But first I had to find it. And find it I did, it was actually well and correctly marked. Again it was slippery so I kind of straddled the path as it went down the hill. This track wasn’t through paddocks but woods with pine trees, a nice change of scenery and no poop to fall in. When I reached the paved road- Green Acres Road- I was excited and since I could see how far down the hill I still had to go to get to Portobello Road I decided to run down the hill! Weeeee it was fun and all the sheep stared at me as I ran by! It didn’t take long to get to the bottom of the hill and what turned out to be the village of MacAndrew Bay. I had plenty of time to eat lunch and find the bus stop. Twas certainly a crazy adventure, all before 1pm!
By the time I got back to Chelsie’s I was cold and just wanted something warm to drink and to curl up under a blanket. So I did just that as Kate napped. When she woke up we went out to find Speight’s Brewery to take the tour. But we took a wrong turn and ended up at the wrong end of the street and missed the last tour of the day. We checked out Cadburyland and didn’t buy anything, and then went to the real Speight’s anyway. Upon arrival we discovered that we could get a tasting tray of 6 brews and ordered those immediately, as that was the only part of the tour we were actually wanting to do! Chelsie later joined up there for dinner and we had a lovely time.
The next morning we got back on another bus and said goodbye to Chelsie. We had the worst bus driver in all of New Zealand. He didn’t commentate and didn’t even tell us where or why we were stopping- was it a break? Or were we picking up or dropping off? By 2pm we were back in ChCh (Christchurch) and back in jail. We walked in to town and wandered around for a bit, well a few hours. Kate’s friend Alice was staying at our hostel so they hung out as I checked email and got ready for the next day. Another early one.
In the middle of the night Kate’s phone decided it was finally going to update itself to the right time, so at 3am here alarm went off. Kate woke me up telling me it was 10 after 6. I was baffled that my alarm hadn’t gone off. I checked my phone and it said 3:10am. What? We checked another clock and figured out what had happened and went back to sleep. Three hours later we were up again and off to the train station. The free shuttle was a little late and I was about to freak out when it finally showed. We got on the train after a little baggage mishap and enjoyed the 5 hour journey on the TranzCoastal route up the east coast of the South Island. After disembarking from the train we walked a couple hundred meters to the ferry terminal and checked in and then found some seats.
The ferry ride was uneventful, but it got quite rough when we hit the Cook Straight and Kate felt a little green.
When we arrived on the North Island we waited for a shuttle to the rail station and then took a bus into the city, found our hostel, checked in, met our Irish roomies (they're everywhere, and it was so cold and rainy here earlier in the week you could have told me I was in Ireland and I would've believed you), and then wandered around for a little bit. Then we had free dinner at the adjoining restuarant/bar to the hostel, it was half-decent.
I went for a wander a bit later and then we used our 2-4-1 drink tickets at the bar. It was still pretty early and the 18year olds were out and we tired to find a cool bar but every place was either a club full of children or empty. We went back to the hostel and ran into one of our roomies, Richard, he was appalled we weren't going out, gave us 2 more 2-4-1 tickets and told us to meet him and the gang out in the courtyard (he'd been staying here in the hostel for like 5 weeks or something like that?!). So we went back to the bar for round 3 and 4, and watched the Con-tiki tour children dance on the bar and make a conga line, and then went to the courtyard. People were just hanging around and at midnight we were in want of more drink so got directions to where this bar we were all headed was and went ahead.
Even in the line up we knew we would not last. It's orientation week across the country for Uni is back in session, and shit, this bar was full of 18year old first years looking to get wasted and then make out with a stranger. We left after 5 minutes.
In the night I was woken by this young Briton in our room who snored like he had something shoved down his throat. Jesus. I wanted to throw shoes at his head, but the bunks are so high at this place that I didn't want to climb down.
ANyways, today we slept in and then had an okay $5 breakfast and then hit the Te Papa musuem for a few hours. It was pretty cool and if I hadn't wanted a coffee more than oxygen I would've spent many more hours there. Once my caffine fix was satisfied by a visit to the Goblin Cafe, I wandered a bit, got groceries, and then went for a run along the waterfront. I should have done so yesterday because it is the best part of the city, and now I sort of feel like I missed out a little. But we have time tomorrow (bus to Rotorua isn't until noon) so I might go dip my feet into the ocean at one of the beaches!
Sorry, no picks just yet from the last few days, but the Queenstown and earlier ones are up on the side!
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