"Bring me home or leave me be
My love in the dark heart of the night
I have lost the path before me
The one behind will lead me"
From here on trip literally changes into return trip. Slowly but surely I have to start retracing my steps towards Australia, Perth and then home. But still many many days till that.
First little time warp back to Fiordland with some pictures(which really aren't that great). First we have world famous Milford Sound
...then Doubtful Sound.
...and finally 2 pics of spectacular sunrise I witnessed on last day in Te Anau while waiting for my shuttle bus to Stewart Island ferry at 6am in morning.
Last 4 days went by slowly in Stewart Island, New Zealands southernmost point. Geologically talking, if someone would drill hole from Stewart Island they would end up somewhere in northern France so island is not that close to antarctic circle but because New Zealand lacks Gulf Stream, place was nothing like northern France in summer. Out of 3 full days I spent there, only one day was sunny and mostly without rain. Thats when I managed to grab picture of the place I stayed, South Sea hotel
...and of the Halfmoon Bay, center "hub" of Stewart Island :)
That was also the day I decided to head out to walks and to see bird sanctuary in Ulva Island.
Bird Sanctuary = Free open pvp zone for birds. I'll never set foot on these so called bird sanctuaries and neither will I ever become "lintubongari". Birds on Stewart Island were so dumb and insane. Let me try to make a comparison to put this into perspective:
Man and his wife are living on a house by a road with 2 small children. All the sudden Hell's Angels motorcycle gang drives slowly by armed to the teeth. Now, this dumbass man sees these passing motorists a threat to his offspring so he grabs a stick and runs to road and starts beating passing motorists with it causing no damage but definetly draws party's attention to himself, in worst case even angers them enough so he might get his brains blown off. Nice, so kids can grow without their father.
This is pretty much how birds acted on this "sanctuary". Because they are protected no one dares to harm them so they become stupid morons who attack anything on their sight. This happened to me several times. I was walking calmly and never even saw bird's nests much less baby birds but still from out of nowhere came berserking bird at me. Worst out of all were these Oystercatchers
...then there were also these duck-like birds which just came to scene while I was having lunch and started rummaging my bag for any goodies.
Overall nice place to chill, read and unwind but I think 4 nights was 2 nights too much :) I got my batteries charged again and was off to Invercargil for 1 night on 10th.
Invercargill...Oh my! Lonely Planet said that the place is "rough around the edges", but more accurate description would have been "shithole". Then again, its always an experience to spend a night in places like that. I arrived there quite late, around 17:00 and headed out to check town and buy some groceries from supermarket nearby. I haven't felt so unsecure in any place so far during this trip. Town was empty apart from gangs consisting of teens aged 12-20 riding around in their pimped 80's cars making as much noise as possible. After I got my shopping done I decided to walk into a pub 10m from hostel to grab beer and have a look at the atmosphere. Well, I opened pub door and all the sudden everyone in pub stopped what they were doing, all conversationes ceased and everyone started to stare me...feeling was more than uncomfortable so I just closed door and ran back into hostel and didn't go out anymore. Phew!
Next day I quickly walked to Infocenter and got into Catlins Coaster bus and away from Invercargil.
So right now I'm in Catlins countryside and in small village called Owaka southeast corner of South Island. Very charming place with great countrypub. Hostel I am staying at is also amazing! Place is basically huge abandoned countryside hospital which someone has turned into hostel. Halls are huge and very eerie since there is maybe 2-3 other people staying here and thats it. I so get Shining-vibes from this place atm hehe
Ok, but more about Catlins and Shining-hostel in next entry. Tomorrow I'm hopefully off to Dunedin which is more civilised locations and I would finally have some time to write proper entry instead of just quick rundown of last few days.
Ei kommentteja:
Lähetä kommentti