Harwoods Hole Track and Light Nelson

2016-07-10
It's Sunday again, but it's my last Sunday here in Motueka. Next Sunday I will depart from here for my round island road-trip. Probably for a month until my flight back to Auckland from Christchurch, before going back to Malaysia.

Today we went to Harwoods Hole Track. I had been wanting to go for a visit since last month. Originally I planned to go for a 8 hour track in Nelson Lakes National Park but I did not rest for a long time, waking up in the early morning for physical job whole day, for 6 days a week. So I decided to go for a short track in somewhere nearby.

This hole is said to be the deepest vertical shaft in New Zealand. But we did not go near enough to look down the hole, it's kind of dangerous. We also passed by two frozen lakes on the way back to the carpark. One of them is so frozen that it won't even crack when I threw a big stone with all my strength on the lake.

It's just a short track but we ended up taking 4 hours instead of 90 minutes, because we stopped a lot for photographs and slacking around haha.

Frozen lake.

2016-07-11
We went to Light Nelson today. We went to meet our friends but they already slept as they had to wake up early for their work the next day. It was so cold, around 2 degree Celsius. I took some photos but it's dark so not much of them are nice enough to be presented.

Solo Hike to Mt Arthur

Finally a Sunday with sunny weather. That means it's finally a chance to hike Mt Arthur! I've been wanting to hike since few weeks ago but it was always raining on Sunday for the past few weeks. I couldn't find any companions to go with me so I decided to go alone. Actually I do prefer hiking alone, you can stop any time you want to take some photos, decide your own pace, and do things on your own way. But the disadvantage is that you have to pay for the petrol by yourself. Lol.

So I woke up at 6.30am and arrived at Flora Car Park at 8.30am to start my hike. It was windy like the first time I went there but it wasn't raining. There was no problem at all from the car park to the Mt Arthur Hut, there shouldn't be any, that was a pretty easy track to be honest. We stopped at the hut when we first went up months ago because of the rain. But I proceeded anyway with this big wind, it was as big as the last time we went but I'm not gonna go back haha.

The track from the hut to the summit was in good condition even though there were few ice pieces on the track that caused me slipped for a few times when I paid too much attention on the scenery. And the wind was very very strong too. But the track was really interesting because you can see more frozen grass the further you walk, the ice on the grass near the summit was so thick it was few times thicker than the grass. I was really happy when I saw the big block of ice haha, it's my first time seeing that.

I had a lunch less than 100m from the summit, enjoying the ice rocks and ground and everything around me haha. In less than 50m before the summit, there is a huge block of ice so I had to do ice climbing to hike up there toward the summit. With no hiking poles, I used my mini tripod to hike up there, it's not that hard after all.

When I reached the summit, there were mist everywhere, and the wind up there was so strong it can actually move me if I didn't stand still. I dared not to go to the edge of the summit as I'm afraid the wind will push me down haha. It's one of the best experience I've ever had, everything I did that day is something I had never tried before, everything's for me, but I really love doing it haha.

I took a long time to walk back to the hut and the car park because I stopped a lot as the mist were gone on my way back. The scenery from the track was so good I couldn't stop myself.

By the time I went back to my car I realised I did something stupid. I didn't shut my car headlights off and the battery was dead. Luckily it was 3pm that time and there were still many cars in the car park. I found two helpful women to help me jump start the car but I still couldn't jump start my car. It was still a failure attempt when we asked another car for help. But as usual, I'm a lucky person. The two women, Rose and Rebecca drove me back to Motueka even though they wanted to head back to Nelson. People here are god damn nice.

Today my housemate, KK drove me back to the car park to jump start my car again. This time we allowed the battery to charge for longer time before I tried to start it up. Success. Thanks Google. My car must be feeling lonely there yesterday night argh.

First time stepping on a pile of snow.

Ice Saber.

All of the previous photos are taken on the way to the summit from the hut.

Chillin' at the summit.

Photos on the way down to the hut.

This weka bird keep annoying me for food, it found my sandwich on the table but luckily it wasn't fast enough to snatch it from me. Like monkeys.

The entrance from the carpark, taken when I came down from the summit.

Moving Home

Hadn't update my blog for a very long time. Didn't have any interesting things past few weeks so I'm too lazy to write. Anyway, this is the last day I'm living in my current house. Been living here for more than two months but the landlady is going to close down this house so we had no choice. Four of us are moving to another house owned by the same landlady.

I've started my pruning job last Wednesday, it's really a tough job even though time flies when you are pruning. It's tougher when the weather is cold, and the arms are aching like hell when you goes fast. But I'm just working for 2 to 3 weeks so I'll just hang on, not gonna look for another job for the moment. The weather is real bad these few days, raining almost everyday so my working hours are so less I don't even know how much I can make per week, probably just half of the money I made when I worked in the packhouse. But as I said, whatever.

We went to Marahau to try a burger at The Fat Tui but unfortunately the store is closed at winter and only reopen at September. No luck. We turned back to Kaiteriteri and tried Gone Burger, love it, price is cheap but burgers are great, big and delicious. But we went home after that, it's been raining whole day and we had something to pack in order to move to the other house. For 3 continuous Sundays it had been raining so we couldn't go hiking at all. I wonder when I can actually hike up Mt. Arthur.

Part Ways

12-06-2016
First long road trip with my car to Nelson city. I had been to this city around three months ago but I never actually went around the city because I arrived at night at departed from Nelson to Motueka at 7.30am that time. But I never went back to the church where I spent the night sleeping in the tent with my French friend, that's probably one of my two regrets, the another one is that I never went to the Centre of New Zealand in Nelson. I guess I'll find a day and go back there for these locations. I really want to see the church so much, I mean under the daylight haha.

The main reason we came to Nelson was to have a lunch with two of our friends from China, who are now working in the Sealord factory. They were a dear friends to me, we knew each other in Timaru when we were picking apples. We never talked much until we moved into the same house here in Motueka. We became very close friends then. They left this packhouse earlier as they had to go to Nelson for the Sealord job. We never really had a proper farewell meal. That's why we were there, for the farewell lunch.

One thing that I never got used to is parting ways with close friends. And I think I will never do. I guess I will only learn how to accept it, and move on. The only thing is the time taken to move on. Just like when I graduated from high school and Pre-U, I took quite some time. I guess this is my personality, that's why I think I should not try to change it, for me, it's not a bad thing after all. Parting ways with close friends sucks, but it's part of our life. And it definitely takes a lot of time learning to accept that. I'm still learning. But still, I believe there are eternal friendship.

After the job ends, I will have to part way with more people. My housemates, my colleagues. This is the reality I couldn't change. But only with that I will get to meet new people and make new friends. I believe there are still more to come. I'm looking forward to it. Who will I meet and what will I do when I go on the round-island road trip in July?

Me, Siew Yee, Aaron, MayMay, Zeno and Ray. (left to right)

Road-Trip With My Own Car

Finally I got myself a car after more than 3 months. It's a Honda Accord station wagon, bought it for $900 from my friend as she is leaving the country. Everything about this car is ok except the extremely high mileage. Still, I think it's worth a buy.

We didn't go far today. Went to see the sunrise in Port Motueka at 7am, took a couple of photos before heading home for breakfast. We went to the Kaiteriteri Beach and Little Kaiteriteri in the afternoon. That's all for today, at least we didn't stayed at home haha.