Tag Archives: Oban

17. North-West Circuit 10

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North Arm – Oban (12.2 km) – Invercargill, Tina & Tony’s
Tuesday, February 19: Overcast, with some sun appearing in the afternoon
GPS Tour
Oban panorama from the pier

Oban panorama from the pier

Up fairly early in an attempt to make it onto an earlier flight. The last of the breakfast stuff was soon eaten and again there was enough coffee for two cups, though the sugar seems to have run out. A bag of salt was used to season the egg, and everything was packed up and ready to go by 9:00.

Lucas had already left a couple of minutes prior to me; then I was off on the very well graded and gravelled Rakiura Track. Not much mud here! A couple of stops for photos – mainly snapshots – some of which would be copies of the 2009 series. On the one long wooden bridge, the compass slipped out of its holding and bounced along the bridge. My heart nearly stopped beating. But in the end the device was safe. Continue reading →

8. North-West Circuit 1

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Oban – Port William, 12.6 km
Sunday, February 10: Cloudy, somewhat variable, still dry
GPS Tour
Suspension Bridge at Maori Beach

Suspension Bridge at Maori Beach

Was up at 8:00 and had the full cooked breakfast, which made up for the lost breakfast at Matt’s from yesterday. Then there was work to be done in transcribing the diaries and scheduling the blog. That took up pretty much two hours and in the meantime I sent a regular OK message on the Spot Tracker, which showed up as such on the internet site. Sent the address around to a couple of friends (still wondering whether it would have been a good idea to send it to all the FB friends), had a cuppa with Tina and then did the rest of the packing. With the billy and the gas can on the outside of the pack (together with the raincoat and the dry change of clothes in a plastic bag) all the food fits on the middle level of the pack (i.e the bottom of the top section) with the vanity bag and the batteries on the top. The pack barely closes, but there you go. Continue reading →

Ticketing 2

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Hen’s teeth. Screenshot from Jan 17, showing three (!) free places on the Milford. Ready, set, go!

Hen’s teeth. Screenshot from Jan 17, showing three (!) free places on the Milford. Ready, set, go!

Well, it turned out opodo had its disadvantages after all. As I suspected, there was no Rail&Fly for the return leg; half an hour of telephone queue was necessary to order one, with a special “late fee” added. All in all, R&F might have advantages for the traveller and the environment, but in practice it sucks massively, and a discounted train ticket for the journey to Frankfurt and an ordinary ticket for the return are not much more expensive. As some research on opodo’s booking system shows, R&F can be automatically booked for a “simple” return flight, but as soon as there is a leg outside Germany (as in a Y-flight), R&F is no longer available for subsequent legs, even if they do end here. Hey, no worries, the internet was only invented yesterday, right? Continue reading →

Kiwi II, 2009

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Weka dietary education: Milford Track

The second journey in the late summer of 2009 started with my arrival in Auckland on Sunday, February 1. After picking up a small camper, a Toyota Lucinda, which was named “Juicy Lucy”, I visited my school friend Tom and his family, then it was by way of Kawhia to New Plymouth where I made my first attempt at climbing Egmont. A couple of nights at the old motorcamp in Stratford to discover the Forgotten World and make a second – still unsuccessful – attempt at Egmont from the south and then on to Wanganui and Waikanae to visit Don and Sally Matheson who were giving me their holiday house for a couple of days in March. Continue reading →

Green Light

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Fern

Koru – the fern leaf spiral

The go-ahead for the new adventure came late last week, after a couple of weeks of prelegal danse macabre. Anyhow, it’s there now, and the final preparations can begin in earnest.

For begun they have well before this time last year, when I was originally planning this trip. There have been plans and preparations, and prices to compare and check again. One of the most comprehensive questions covered was that of photography, although that was no longer a question of what camera to take, but rather how to deal with all of the eventualities that hacking the current set of three cameras has brought with it. Continue reading →