Tuesday 5th March 2013, 6.20 pm (day 558)
Did I mention that I rather like the wildlife in Australia? Well, apart from the creepy-crawly sort, I guess.
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Research awayday, Charles Sturt University
Monday 4th March 2013, 2.00pm (day 557)
Just to confirm that I am still getting on with the occasional day’s work while on this trip. In Manchester we are lucky if we can get a sight of the smelly and overtrafficked Oxford Road from one of our office windows, here at CSU in Wagga we have a view of miles of uninterrupted hills, scrub and vineyards.
Also a happy birthday to Joe today – 10 years old, born 04/03/03 (and yes, we have all sometimes regretted that he arrived 14.6 hours too late to have a really numerically cool birth date). Sorry I couldn’t be there, my son.
Near Wagga Wagga, sunset
Sunday 3rd March 2013, 7.35pm (day 556)
Left New Zealand today and was mildly grumpy about it. Wanted more time in that beautiful country, where the climate is more agreeable and the beer better than in Australia (well, it is). Wasn’t particularly motivated about going back there to go to work tomorrow morning, wasn’t bothered about spending yet another few hours in a plane and then coming out into some little town stuck out in corn-chewing country.
And then as we flew in – bloody hell. What a glorious evening. What a brilliant view. Happy to be back.
Dallas, my personal pilot
Saturday 2nd March 2013, 3.55pm (day 555)
Karamea is not an easy place to reach and as I have to be back in Australia by Monday morning I shelled out a few hundred NZ dollars for a flight out, with Golden Bay Air. This turned out to involve not just one, but two chances to have my own personal pilot, as both legs (Karamea – Takaka, then Takaka – Wellington) involved me being the only passenger on a tiny little Cessna. On the first plane I rather meekly sat in the back but here I am on the second flight, sitting up front next to Dallas the pilot as she flies us both over the islands of the Marlborough Sound. It was really cool to be able to talk to her during the flight and hear her conversations with air traffic controllers. I could become quite a convert to this light plane flying actually. Thoroughly worth the money, a really excellent experience.
107.5 FM Radio Karamea
Friday 1st March 2013, 2.20pm (day 554)
After my exertions on the Heaphy Track, spent the day chilling out and doing a bit of work at Rongo Backpackers in Karamea, another great hostel in another New Zealand town that feels like it’s halfway to the end of the world. This one was a little community operation, including a radio station broadcasting on 107.5 FM to the local area. “Want to play some of your tunes on the radio?” was asked. Sure, says I. That’s my iPod there, giving it out to the world. Well, to Karamea, anyway.
DOC worker near Twin Beach, Heaphy Coast
Thursday 28th February 2013, 1.40pm (day 553)
DOC is the Department of Conservation, the body who look after New Zealand’s wonderful environment, and are trying to continue to do so in the face of the same old funding pressures foisted on us by the moronocracy. Be nice to these people, who are basically trying to help the world. Mind you, they do get to work in some pretty attractive locations.
Last day walking the Heaphy Track – usually people take five days, I did it in three, including a 37km (23 mile) last day. My feet hurt. But I’m happy to have done it, and now I’ve caught up with this blog: however, more photos from the walk, and details on the experience, are shortly going up on my walking blog.
The James Mackay hut
Wednesday 27th February 2013, 4.25pm (day 552)
Seven of these huts are spaced along the Heaphy Track, providing shelter, gas for cooking, and companionship – at least, if you don’t mind being woken at 6.30am by a large group of middle-aged hearty types making tea and strapping on their hiking boots. Oh, hang on – that’s me, these days. Still, not a bad view is it?
Georg and the weka
Tuesday 26th February 2013, 6.35pm (day 551)
First day on the Heaphy Track. To save all three of them being just landscapes here is some human – and animal – interest. The bird is a weka, a flightless relative of the kiwi, unique to New Zealand and – this particular one anyway – seemingly well practiced in the art of thievery. This was taken at the shelter/campsite of Gouland Downs, a very atmospheric spot; comedy value was high as Georg, camping out, kept having the weka sneak up behind him, only to scurry away as he turned around. Here the nemeses come face to face with each other.
Historic cemetery, Collingwood
Monday 25th February 2013, 1.55pm (day 550)
A day killing time in Collingwood before heading down to the start of the Heaphy Track. This graveyard sits on a hill above the town, and most of the graves date from the 19th century. The engravings etched onto the headstones are often a story in themselves, highlighting the harsher nature of life in the past: the graves of three teenagers, one who drowned trying to cross the nearby Aorere River, and two brothers who died within three days of each other (presumably of the same infectious disease), were the most touching.
As we are at another 50-day milestone – day 550 – I have added some photos to the ‘Best of the Rest’ page. I also note that today marks the end of 18 months of doing this blog since I started on 26/8/11.
Evening scene, Collingwood
Sunday 24th February, 7.25pm (day 549)
I’ve not posted for a few days due to being on a long walk, the Heaphy Track – which you will hear about presently. This seems a long time ago, therefore. This scene is in Collingwood, a small town in the extreme top-left corner of North Island. I had another nice shot of a sunset, but that seemed rather cliched the more I looked at it, and I like the composition of this one.
