Jet Lag

"Chris Gilbert" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

...not yet cut in, so I'm still awake for now.

Evening all. Back in 2 degree UK 24 hours after leaving 29 degree
NZ. A bit of a shock to the system.

Absolutely fab time. Great place. Some myths but lots of other
unadvertised stuff. Loads of pics but will try and put together a
few faves. No real walking to report as we were doing something
of a grand tour. Nice to be home.

Hi Chris.

I'll look forward to seeing anything you put on. I'm planning a trip for
this time next year.

I'll bet your system's shocked. I'm just thawing out from walking by the
Clyde, and it wasn't nearly as warm as 2 degrees....

--
Duncan Gray

The Mountaineering Council of Scotland
www.mountaineering-scotland.org.uk

Quoted message said:

Evening all. Back in 2 degree UK 24 hours after leaving 29 degree
NZ. A bit of a shock to the system.

I did it the other way around - went out there last July, in the height of
our heatwave, returning 3 weeks later, so I saw 3 weeks of their winter. The
Kiwi's kept telling me they were having a mild winter. I didnt find it
excessively cold, though when we went down South to Dunedin and Alexandra it
was a bit nippy, to say the least!

Like you, I did not manage any real walking - we toured Auckland (yuck),
Rotorua (superb), Wellington (great), Nelson/Greymouth, Alpine Express to
Christchurch (out of this World!), Dunedin (not impressed), Alexandra (my
kind of place - I could retire there!), Christchurch, Auckland.

Will be interested in seeing any pics you have taken of these places.

Paul

"Chris Gilbert" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

...not yet cut in, so I'm still awake for now.

Evening all. Back in 2 degree UK 24 hours after leaving 29 degree
NZ. A bit of a shock to the system.

Absolutely fab time. Great place. Some myths but lots of other
unadvertised stuff. Loads of pics but will try and put together a
few faves. No real walking to report as we were doing something
of a grand tour. Nice to be home.

Look forward to seeing your pics. Wonderful place. We did Nelson Lakes then
tour down West Coast. Some pics at
http://graham4228.fotopic.net/c497752.html

Graham

Duncan Gray wrote

Quoted message said:

I'll bet your system's shocked. I'm just thawing out from walking by the
Clyde, and it wasn't nearly as warm as 2 degrees....

Even though we left the heating on low while we were away and has
been on constant since we got back at 1am this morning it seems to be
taking a long for the house to warm through. I'm normally in T shirts
and shorts all year 'round but I've been wearing my Paramos all day
today. Even in the house :-) so, yes, I think I'm a bit out of kilter at the
moment

Chris

Paul Upham wrote

Quoted message said:

Like you, I did not manage any real walking - we toured Auckland (yuck),
Rotorua (superb), Wellington (great), Nelson/Greymouth, Alpine Express to
Christchurch (out of this World!), Dunedin (not impressed), Alexandra (my
kind of place - I could retire there!), Christchurch, Auckland.

Will be interested in seeing any pics you have taken of these places.

Quite different I think.

Christchurch -> Kaikoura -> Hamner Springs -> Lewis Pass ->
Buller Gorge -> West Coast -> Franz Josef -> Fox -> Haast Pass
-> Wanaka -> Mount Aspiring -> Milford -> Catlins -> Otago
-> Oamaru -> Christchurch -> Aukland -> Cape Reigna ->
90 Mile Beach -> Whangarai -> Auckland

Like I said, a bit of a grand tour.

Chris

Chris Gilbert said:

...not yet cut in, so I'm still awake for now.

Evening all. Back in 2 degree UK 24 hours after leaving 29 degree
NZ. A bit of a shock to the system.

Absolutely fab time. Great place. Some myths but lots of other
unadvertised stuff. Loads of pics but will try and put together a
few faves. No real walking to report as we were doing something
of a grand tour. Nice to be home.

Chris

Isn't Trevor Dennis in NZ?

Katherine

"Chris Gilbert" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Paul Upham wrote

Quoted message said:

Like you, I did not manage any real walking - we toured Auckland (yuck),
Rotorua (superb), Wellington (great), Nelson/Greymouth, Alpine Express

to

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Christchurch (out of this World!), Dunedin (not impressed), Alexandra

(my

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

kind of place - I could retire there!), Christchurch, Auckland.

Will be interested in seeing any pics you have taken of these places.

Quite different I think.

Christchurch -> Kaikoura -> Hamner Springs -> Lewis Pass ->
Buller Gorge -> West Coast -> Franz Josef -> Fox -> Haast Pass
-> Wanaka -> Mount Aspiring -> Milford -> Catlins -> Otago
-> Oamaru -> Christchurch -> Aukland -> Cape Reigna ->
90 Mile Beach -> Whangarai -> Auckland

Like I said, a bit of a grand tour.

How long did you have to cover that Chris? I'm hoping to cover much the same
(plus Hawke Bay and Rotorua) and be able to spend 6 weeks on it.

To be able to afford the 6 weeks, I'm also looking to hire a tent etc. I've
found Green Coast in Auckland. Don't suppose you came across any other
hirers.

--
Duncan Gray

The Mountaineering Council of Scotland
www.mountaineering-scotland.org.uk

Duncan Gray said:

How long did you have to cover that Chris? I'm hoping to cover much the same
(plus Hawke Bay and Rotorua) and be able to spend 6 weeks on it.

3 weeks. 6 weeks will bag you a flying visit to all of the places that
we
didn't get to. In retrospect we wish we'd done Able Tasman and
Charlotte
on South Island and then got into some of the more remote parts of
North
Island. Rotorua is the obvious one but if there's one thing that we did
learn
while we were then its the fact that there is ten times more things in
NZ
that *don't* get advertised than there are that do.

Quoted message said:

I'm also looking to hire a tent etc.

You'd be better with a campervan. 'They' don't encourage camping away
from camp sites and if you have to be on a camp site then you might as
well give yourself a bit of luxury. Even on the Trails your obliged to
stay
in huts so a tent is unecessary hardship.

Access to the countryside in NZ is very very different to the UK. You
*can* engage with some of it in the same way but 'they' prefer that you
don't.

'Ezy', 'Wicked' and 'Spaceships' do smaller vans while Britz/Maui and
Pacific Horizon do the larger ones. It may sound like a cop-out but the
place is geared up to it. Touring NZ is an absolute piece-of-[censored] but
doing
it by tent is probably the hardest way, ironically :-)

Chris

"Chris Gilbert" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

You'd be better with a campervan. 'They' don't encourage camping away
from camp sites and if you have to be on a camp site then you might as
well give yourself a bit of luxury. Even on the Trails your obliged to
stay in huts so a tent is unecessary hardship.

The country does appear to be geared up for campervans but I don't think
camping is quite so hard as my first impressions were a while ago from
further reading. The Lonely Planet "Tramping in NZ" book for example says
"you can camp anywhere as long as you are 500m from the trail" in most
places apart from the 8 or so routes designated as "Great Walks" where you
can only camp at specific sites. I'm certainly hoping to do that for some
of the time I'm there. It's only the Milford Track where you have to stay
in huts as far as I can tell. The DOC have cheap campsites with basic
facilities and also free "informal" sites with just a tap in out of the way
places that you can't drive to I believe. I think there was a map of where
they all are on their website which I plan to study before I go.

Quoted message said:

Access to the countryside in NZ is very very different to the UK. You
*can* engage with some of it in the same way but 'they' prefer that you
don't.

Who's "they"? DOC park wardens or society in general? How are you
discouraged from access?

AndyP said:

"you can camp anywhere as long as you are 500m from the trail"

In Fjordland, 500m from the trail puts you in the middle of the bush.
Take a machete :-)

Quoted message said:

It's only the Milford Track where you have to stay
in huts as far as I can tell.

Kepler, Heaphy etc all have huts. I agree, in principle you can camp
but its not quite that simple. I'd really like to hear from someone who
camps regularly over there. While I am sure it is possible I also have
no doubt that it is discouraged.

Quoted message said:

The DOC have cheap campsites

Yes. We used the one at Cameron Flat in Haast Pass. Fine. Good
facilities, well looked after. Defintely useful if you're camping.

Quoted message said:

Who's "they"? DOC park wardens or society in general? How are you
discouraged from access?

DOC, yes. Perhaps 'not encouraged' would be better. It's all geared
up for campsites. This is of course in contrast to the UK, where I am
completely comfortable with wildcamping and the impressions I have
brought back with me from NZ don't come with the years of UK land
access that I have in my head. I was told explicitly on more than one
occaision while I was over there that DOC prefer to keep people to
campsites and huts. Perhaps Googling for an NZ-based Tramping
club would be a good way of getting to the heart of the matter.

Please don't let what I say in any way discourage you. I am sure it
simply requires research that I have not yet done.

Chris

Chris Gilbert said:

AndyP wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Who's "they"? DOC park wardens or society in general? How are you
discouraged from access?

DOC, yes. Perhaps 'not encouraged' would be better. It's all geared
up for campsites. This is of course in contrast to the UK, where I am
completely comfortable with wildcamping and the impressions I have
brought back with me from NZ don't come with the years of UK land
access that I have in my head. I was told explicitly on more than one
occaision while I was over there that DOC prefer to keep people to
campsites and huts. Perhaps Googling for an NZ-based Tramping
club would be a good way of getting to the heart of the matter.

There is an Oz and NZ travel newsgroup and a walking onefor Oz but I'm
sure that I've seen questions about NZ in there.

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.travel.australia+nz?lnk=srg&hl=en
http://groups.google.com/group/aus.bushwalking?lnk=sg&hl=en

--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"

On 11 Jan 2006 00:19:49 -0800, "Chris Gilbert"
<[email hidden]> wrote:

... >
... >Duncan Gray wrote:
... >
... >> How long did you have to cover that Chris? I'm hoping to cover much the same
... >> (plus Hawke Bay and Rotorua) and be able to spend 6 weeks on it.
... >
... >3 weeks. 6 weeks will bag you a flying visit to all of the places that
... >we
... >didn't get to. In retrospect we wish we'd done Able Tasman and
... >Charlotte
... >on South Island and then got into some of the more remote parts of
... >North
... >Island. Rotorua is the obvious one but if there's one thing that we did
... >learn
... >while we were then its the fact that there is ten times more things in
... >NZ
... >that *don't* get advertised than there are that do.
... >
... >> I'm also looking to hire a tent etc.
... >
... >You'd be better with a campervan. 'They' don't encourage camping away
... >from camp sites and if you have to be on a camp site then you might as
... >well give yourself a bit of luxury. Even on the Trails your obliged to
... >stay
... >in huts so a tent is unecessary hardship.
... >
... >Access to the countryside in NZ is very very different to the UK. You
... >*can* engage with some of it in the same way but 'they' prefer that you
... >don't.
... >
... >'Ezy', 'Wicked' and 'Spaceships' do smaller vans while Britz/Maui and
... >Pacific Horizon do the larger ones. It may sound like a cop-out but the
... >place is geared up to it. Touring NZ is an absolute piece-of-[censored] but
... >doing
... >it by tent is probably the hardest way, ironically :-)
... >
... >Chris
For the young at heart ....
We used the back packer hostels which are miles above youth hostels
.... a tent was used up at Arthurs Pass (S Island) where we did a walk
in to a hut/bothy in the hills ... all equipped with radios to check
for weather reports/emergencies etc to talk to the Dept of
Environment or something (I forget) back at the pass. Things like that
would not last 5 minutes over here.
Kaikora ... 6am christmas morning ... whizzed out in a jet boat to
swim with the dolphins, and back to shore for Chrissy cake and mulled
wine .... best Christmas ever!
Used buses to get about ... met more people that way and returned up
the west coast on the West Coast Express ... a hippy type bus stopping
each day to see or do something exciting ... brilliant.

Mike P

"Chris Gilbert" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Duncan Gray said:

How long did you have to cover that Chris? I'm hoping to cover much the

same

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

(plus Hawke Bay and Rotorua) and be able to spend 6 weeks on it.

3 weeks. 6 weeks will bag you a flying visit to all of the places that
we
didn't get to. In retrospect we wish we'd done Able Tasman and
Charlotte
on South Island and then got into some of the more remote parts of
North
Island. Rotorua is the obvious one but if there's one thing that we did
learn
while we were then its the fact that there is ten times more things in
NZ
that *don't* get advertised than there are that do.

Quoted message said:

I'm also looking to hire a tent etc.

You'd be better with a campervan. 'They' don't encourage camping away
from camp sites and if you have to be on a camp site then you might as
well give yourself a bit of luxury. Even on the Trails your obliged to
stay in huts so a tent is unecessary hardship.

Problem is that the difference between hiring a moderately sized car and a
campervan is something like $100 per day. Over 6 weeks, that's going to come
out to a big lump of our budget. Hiring or even buying camping gear
and taking the odd night in a motel or homestay would be a big saving.

Having said that, I hadn't seen the 'Spaceship' option before. It looks
quite economic and wouldn't be much more cramped than a tent.

Anyway, thanks for the advice Chris. I've still plenty time to research and
plan.
--
Duncan Gray

The Mountaineering Council of Scotland
www.mountaineering-scotland.org.uk

"Chris Gilbert" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

You'd be better with a campervan. 'They' don't encourage camping away
from camp sites and if you have to be on a camp site then you might as
well give yourself a bit of luxury. Even on the Trails your obliged to
stay
in huts so a tent is unecessary hardship.

It's true to say that different countries spawn different attitudes to
wilderness. In NZ the wilderness is often so wild that the trails are the
only way to go, as you have made a reference to. In Nelson Lakes, the only
practical walking was to be done on the Trails as the bush was impenetrable.
The youngsters who went with us had been trained to camp, so that's what
they did, but the huts didn't have wonderful camping areas and you just
camped where you could. The sand flies bit those who hadn't taken vitamin B
pills to death, and the Keas ripped tents apart to get at food! (so be
warned Duncan!)

When we went to Mount Cook we walked along the Tasman Glacier in the hope of
climbing a ridge and get a good Photo of the mountain, but the path
disapeared in a Landslide and we couldn't make the ridge as the scrub was
too dense to get through off track, so we turned back.

Don't be put off by all this though as tramping is a fantastic way to see
the country. Go on some of the lesser trails and you will probably have the
huts to yourself. There are hundreds of them, so it's not hard to plan easy
days out, but check with DOC for timescales and viability.

The hostels were fairly cheap - most things were, by a ratio of about 1:3
compared with UK. I gather that gap has closed a bit now?

Graham

Graham Seed said:

The sand flies bit those who hadn't taken vitamin B pills to death

They're buggers, aren't they. Nasty things. We heard a Maori proverb
that god created sandflies because he thought the country was too
perfect :-)

Quoted message said:

The hostels were fairly cheap - most things were, by a ratio of about 1:3
compared with UK. I gather that gap has closed a bit now?

NZ$ 2.3 to Sterling. Yes, very advantageous.

Chris