kiwission

cobwebs on the bicycle were the best sign i should leave fiordland at last. so i packed my stuff, said my goodbyes to the hosts at barnyard backpackers and hit the road again, hoping for some adventure doing mountain biking around doubtful sound. a long steep gravel road and a final climb to the saddle carrying the bike sounded more than exciting, so when the sun started to mellow, i turned off the road towards borland...the odds were against me though. next morning an army of heavy grey clouds was hardly holding on to the sky and the frost covered window panes. so instead of a mountain challenge i made it a record breaking day getting all the way to invercargill (150km! yey!), a gloomy industrial square-hearted city.
and then, i got KIWISSION - an obsessive thought of spotting a kiwi - a kiwi mission - there's no better a place to do it than stewart island. so not thinking much i jumped on a plane, then a water taxi took me across the inlet on a wild ride against giant swells, and there i was, all ready to experience my very own wild kiwi...24 hours later, after a night spent listening to their screeching calls and walking around in total darkness, i gave up on my hope to see one. and just when i least expected it...there it was! my very first genuine real live KIWI ! hurray! with my mission completed, i went back to invercargill just to make other kiwissioners green with envy :-)
one mission followed another - soon after i was cycling down the catlins, a fierce tail wind pushing me forward to see the abundance of sea life. the weather put me on hold for a day though, with snow and hail regularly banging on the roof. so when the sky opened one eye, i jumped on my karakoram and soon after...got more of that frosty welcome cycling all day with hail chasing me. but it was worth it. next morning i completed another mission - spotting a SEAL fooling around on the beach, showing off and posing like a pro.
as days get shorter and colder though, i'm already chilling out in my mind on a beach somewhere in australia...

milford wonders

picture this: i'm standing by the road to milford, all sweaty and still somewhat mesmerised by what i'd just seen up the saddle, diving in my backpack hoping to catch a ride back to te anau. it's getting late and there's more wildlife around than cars. after a ten minute complete road silence, there they are - two cars! but my hands are busy digging out a fleece, so i let them go. but they stop anyway, making me think how nice of them and so on. but apparently, instead of offering me a ride they jump out of their cars and start a discussion in...POLISH!!! at first i wasn't at all sure what language i was listening to, but suddenly it dawned on me - after five months in here with hardly any signs of any Poles...i got six of them at a time! in the middle of nowhere, not even hunting ones! i started laughing histerically and when they started to give me anxious looks, i finally spoke : ALE JAJA! that was one of the most amazing days...one that came without any warning. they just happen. and i thought i'd had all of its volume when i scrambled up the rocks to Gertrude Saddle and got this amazing view of MILFORD SOUND that left me literally sink in it. i stood there for nearly thirty minutes, all that miracle to myself, and thought how lucky i am to be there.
and then, just when i was stumbling on my polish chatting by the road, a couple of friends from the hostel came up...and gave me ride straight back to my room. perfect.
and that wasn't all. the pancakes last night were better than usual. and I had company in bed...a cuddly hostel kitten purred me into sleep. what else do i need to feel on top of the world...?

kepler challenge

my feet are sore. i mean, REALLY sore. after all, the weather got crap, so without any view of admiring the scenery, i still wanted to get out as much as i could out hose hills on kepler track, so ... even though i would still get disqualified from KEPLER CHALLENGE (it took me a bit over 12h), you have to start with something, right? so i caught the sunrise with KEAS frolicking around and set off hoping to get at least a glimpse from the ridge...well, that day i had to use my IMAGINATION rather than my eyes, but with every nanosecond that the cloud lifted it felt as if a piece of a secret had just been given away...
and then, even though i ran for the last hour i still managed to miss the last bus. but again, my ambition to be really TOUGH won over sore limbs - i did not hitchike :-)
if it comes to views,however, last weeks' rees-dart track was a completely different story... it all started in glenorchy, in a dodgy campsite kitchen, where i met two israeli guys. i know that life is a vicious circle and some even say that if you hadn't learnt your lesson, you'll have to go over it again and again. well, the moment i accepted their offer to give me a lift to the track, i sort of felt another chain of silly adventures coming...(for those who haven't heard my story from last year's australian adventure accompanied by an israeli tandem, it was a chain of everyday 'somethig-went-wrongs' :-))))...and we got lost on the way! huhuh! and even though AFIK and NOAM were trying hard, they still proved my theory about middle eastern 'everything is a process' right :-). anyway, we had a great four day tramp with an awesome cascade saddle views of mt aspiring (again!), playful keas teasing us as we were walking up the valley, and evenings filled with heated discussions.
and now, spoling myself with a piece of deliciously sickly chocolate melting on my tongue, i'm giving my feet a bit of a rest near te anau, at barnyard backpackers, a peaceful deer farm with awesome views over the fiords. i've been missing cycling and so i'm going east soon. my days in new zealand, though extended, are coming slowly but surely to an end...as the fall makes it all rusty and wet, i'm already starting to get ready for the heat of oz...

aspiring for more

again, just when i'm about to leave a place with a sigh of relief, it starts to rain.
my somewhat flying visit to aspiring national park left me with a strong resolution to do more in terms of mountaineering. for hiking on a well-beaten path is what i'd call doing 'window shopping', looking but not touching, being on a real experience diet. i feel it's not enough anymore. my heart nearly sank as i was climbing up the french ridge and suddenly, out of nowhere, there was this huuuuge glacier coming out of the cloud...and i knew that just behind the corner there's even more... mt aspiring. the feeling of envy that overwhelmed me as i was sitting in the hut that night in the company of mighty mountaineers who'd just been up there... aah.
i challenged myself again somewhat making up for the mountain hunger - i climbed the highest highway saddle in new zealand - almost 800m up...and then down. yet it might be my legs getting really strong or my head craving more - it turned out to be much easier than i'd expected it...bugger! :-)))
and now, i'm trying to leave queenstown and get into the mountains again...
and all sorts of plans are now littering my messy mind...but shhhhh.