Travel Advice – Page 6 – Kiwi VI, 2017

9. Freshwater – Oban

Sunday, February 19: Sunny & very warm, with a couple of clouds at different levels

Bunkers

I was up on time & Frank slept in a little – he had next to nothing to pack, so that would be no problem. I finished off the muesli bars, egg, coffee and started packing up what was left. Spot tracker was activated, and I could see that the American couple had arrived just after 8:00 which they told me required leaving @ 4:00 & very slow progress throughout in the darkness. I had just gotten all of my stuff together and was about to start the GPS when I heard the boat arrive. Sent Frank over first and was on the boat with the uninitialised GPS a couple of minutes later, and paid my fare. Two Doc rangers were already on board and we only were waiting for a third to turn up from Mason Bay, which he soon did and off & away we were. It was a very early start (8:45) because the high tide was going to be very low. Got out the camera for some shots from the river & the inlet. Quite spectacular with very bright & contrastive colours. Read more…

8. Mason Bay – Freshwater

Saturday, February 18: Sunny & hot

Tramping: 14.0 km

Freshwater Hut (Doc)

Managed to sleep in until about 9:00 (the others only had to get up to catch their flight back), so the morning was rather relaxed packing. I was ready to go soon after 10:00 and planned on making a number of hydration breaks along the way.

Stopped first of all at the homestead for a sip, then charged along the somewhat muddy section, which, however, was rapidly drying out, so that most of the mud required no major detours or planning. Ran into a German, Frank, who was doing Freshwater-Mason Bay and back again in a day, followed by an American couple who were staying at Mason Bay tonight and wanting to be back tomorrow morning for the water taxi at 9:00. Finally, a Dutch woman who was doing a more leisurely pace but had everything with her including a bed roll. After that just empty track. Read more…

6. Day Off @ Freshwater

Thursday, February 16: A little overcast to begin with, becoming sunnier with some clouds still about but mainly dry

Freshwater Hut

Had managed about six hours’ sleep at one go – no snorers made a big difference. We were all up by 7:00. I had my breakfast (coffee not yet working well), sent off a spot OK, then set about washing the stuff from yesterday. First the boots were thoroughly watered and then drained, then the hiking trousers and sox were washed. Set the boots up to drain in the sun & the soles were quickly dry, then set up a clothes line to dry everything else. As of writing (2:00) the trouser bottoms were done, shirt, sox, trouser tops and raincoat are all on the washing line under the bridgehead and the boots are on top of the woodshed drying in both the sun and the wind. No more water collecting in the boots, so let’s see how well we can dry them.

Helen & Moira are leaving this evening with the water taxi @ 6:00, so that gives me a chance to order one for Sunday & take up my room in Bunkers later that day, get a shower & perhaps even wash my stuff properly. Søren has asked me to order the water taxi for him as well, but of course two days after I leave. Then he was gone in his mostly still wet stuff. Read more…

4. Invercargill – Oban

Tuesday, February 14: Heavy rain overnight, heavy showers, lightning on Stewart Island

Walking: 3.2 km

Bunkers Backpackers, 13 Argyle St., Halfmoon Bay, double room upstairs, all amenities downstairs ($74)

Sleep was still fairly fragmented but I let everyone else get up and underway before I went down at 8:15. All were almost ready to go when I started on breakfast. Pretty soon the house was quiet. Had a quick look on the internet, could see that the rain was going to clear over the next couple of days.

Had my remaining two peaches & started to organise the stuff for today. Found five eggs that could be boiled, although they were very different sizes. Tried to avoid eggs that were already cracked, brought some water to boil and plonked them in, waited 30 seconds after the water had returned to boil, threw about half of the ice cubes in and took the heat off for the remaining 10 minutes as the water appeared to be at the right temperature. One of the larger eggs had lost a bit of white (but not too much), removed the water, added the remaining ice cubes to cool the eggs, and when the ice had melted I dried the eggs and packed them away in a plastic container (no egg cartons to be found). Read more…

3. Invercargill – Final Preparations

Monday, February 13: Heavy rain overnight, clearing by morning, with rain again in the afternoon

Walking: 6.0 km

Randa’s

Sleep resembled the real McCoy more closely last night, including a dream or two, and by the time I was up (8:30) nearly everyone else was ready to go. The breakfast toast was improved on no end by the vegemite. I emptied the dishwasher before settling down to work: There was an expression of interest from Bunkers Backpackers about more detail for the kayak trip and an email from JR Duty Free about the missing Bundy. I eventually abandoned the enterprise of getting my duty free delivered as there was no promise of anything arriving anywhere, and even their refunds policy seemed a little iffy. Either I sent the credit card details by unsecured email; or I called them with them, which I decided to do in the course of the afternoon. Read more…

2. Invercargill

Sunday, February 12: Some rain in the early morning, windy & overcast

Swimming: 1600 m
Walking: 13.8 km

Randa’s

Sleep was more like napping for two hours a go, until about 5:00 when the mode changed to dozing. In any case I was up just after 7:00 when Randa & Gonsalo were finishing breakfast. I was introduced to the kitchen and got hold of some cornflakes, coffee & toast. Gonsalo was on his way to Queenstown for a couple of days and left soon after. Randa started on her story – at least in the brief version – and I was able to start walking on the way to the swimming pool for what I hoped was pool practice with the local kayak club. Was greeted every now & then by joggers, and just before reaching the pool asked a passerby where exactly it was, and was directed to it, not far away, but not where I thought it was. Paid about $4.5 (which would have been for a senior!), went into the building, waited around for the kayak people to turn up, asked around every once in a while, admired the boats, went back to the reception & asked to call them to see what they were up to as it was passed the time they had told me they were starting at. The session had been cancelled, pity they hadn’t told me anything about it. Read more…

1. Auckland – Christchurch – Invercargill

Saturday, February 11: Sunny in Auckland & Christchurch, variable cloud around and fairly warm, high clouds in Invercargill

Randa’s ($50, airbnb)

For the final couple of hours I managed three episodes of Attenborough’s Planet Earth II. Nice pictures, but apart from the repetitious text to the point of being cliched, there was something worrying about Attenborough’s treatment of competition, which didn’t appear to be conceptually uniform. Nor was his use of contact clauses, by the way, with one or two being quite pithy and the remainder fell into the category of up with which I will not put.

Only really missed out on Mars, but not sure whether that would have been missing out on much. But it did occur to me that the Gemini story had led indirectly to massive improvements in civil aviation, if not civilian space travel or even space tourism. Read more…

0. Hannover – Frankfurt – Doha

Thursday, February 9: Hannover – cold & cloudy
Frankfurt – a bit sunnier

I was up at 7:00 just before the alarm & had everything that was left in the fridge. The vegemite seemed to have lasted the whole distance and there was a bit of orange juice & milk to be finished off. Washed the dishes and eventually dried them, but first the final list had to be worked through.

Managed to get one or two more items into the case, although closing it was becoming more & more difficult. The backpack will weigh almost exactly 7.0 kg if I hide the camera & hard disk in my jacket pockets. Checked the net briefly and confirmed that I had not been dreaming about an email from Claudia last night. In the end I had forgotten the plastic bags, but that is no great loss.

Had scratched my right ring finger & decided it needed a band aid; and they were in demand later at the airport when the bleeding started again. Read more…

I’m flying – well, sort of

Starting at... Original flight price, Bravofly, November 13, 2016 — Fig. 1. Starting at… Original flight price, Bravofly, November 13, 2016

I think I’ll start with the good news. There’s so little of it. After decades of neglect Deutsche Bahn has moved Hannover main station to within 2:30 hours of Frankfurt airport. With a little advanced booking of several train tickets, this can be achieved rather cost effectively. That cuts out the need to consider flying from the nearest airport. And meanwhile in Berlin the automatic doors at the new airport won’t open or shut, so the grand opening has been postponed yet again to next year. Sigh.

I had started by looking at prices from Hannover just to see if price and duration could be kept in a meaningful relationship. Flight times of 33 hours there and 29 return were really not too bad, and the price appeared reasonable at Bravofly (€1,272, Fig. 1), that then became €1,304 if you wanted to pay by bank transfer, or €1,282 if you wanted to pay with an actually existing credit card. Including a discount of €21, which makes no sense at all (Fig. 2). Sorry, no time for such games. Read more…

Camp Kitchen

Part of studying biochemistry in Oxford was the arcane sounding lecture series, “Enzyme Kinetics” by Raymond Dwek, who claimed that his name was an acronym for “Down With Enzyme Kinetics”. In biology enzymes accelerate chemical reactions in a way that is dependent on temperature: The higher the temperature the faster the reaction goes, until the enzyme itself starts falling apart from the heat. At which point the whole exercise turned into a discussion of cooking. Previous years had had the pleasure of the company of the chef from the restaurant Elizabeth, a pleasure which we had to forgo due to Thatcherite austerity. So while we learned that the yolk of an egg (but not the white) would cook at 70°C, we never saw it in action. And, of course, this was in the days before the discovery of extremophiles, organisms that survive and thrive in environments previously thought to be so extreme as to be devoid of life. Of all these, my favourite is a prawn that can withstand 120°C at high pressures. If caught it could never be cooked, except, perhaps, with a blowtorch. So, don’t come the raw prawn with me. Read more…