Invercargill, the Jewel of New Zealand

Cookie eating Walkers Crisps in Invercargill

NickyYou know, if there’s anything we’ve been missing more than a proper English boozer, it’s some of those uniquely British food products! For me it’s Marmite. ( Food of the gods ), but for Cookie it’s Walkers crisps he’s been pinning for. I can live with the Bluebird wrinkle cut as a replacement, but from Cookie’s perspective this has always been Salt & Vinegar sacrilege. Never get between a British man and his crisps, as the famous saying goes. Needless to say, his eyes lit up when we spotted these in the ‘speciality’ food section.
CookieWe got here pretty quick from Queenstown? Yeah I know, we caught the bus! We just didn’t have the time left to get here on foot and just couldn’t leave New Zealand without paying homage to this shiny yellow signpost we’ve been walking towards for the past six months!

People we’ve met warned us ‘to not get our hopes up’ about Invercargill. Why the hell not? This place sells Walkers Crisps! Albeit at a massively inflated price, but when your tongue has gone six months without the sharp acidic tang of a slowly melting ‘proper’ Salt & Vinegar crisp, there no price too high ;)

Mon 11th Apr
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Bluff / The Motopohue

Bluff / The Motopohue

NickyWe’re at Bluff! The mythical, legendary place we’ve been trekking towards all these long sweaty, blister-inducing months. Woo! It’s an odd looking circular island-like nub at the very very bottom of the South Island. Like a droplet of left over land trying to escape :) We’re doing a quick circuit to check it out, and this slab of rock is at the very top of the hill in the centre. It’s not quite the end point, but close! Although it won’t really mean much to any ‘normal’ person, seeing that little five letter word carved into stone finally, well, it almost brings a little tear to my eye that does! :D

CookieWe got into Bluff last night, decided climb ‘The Bluff’ this morning, then head down to coastal path and around to the main event -Stirling Point this afternoon.

Apparently Bluff is made up of a big volcanic bubble of this black granite stuff opposite.

Bluff Black Granite:

Bluff / The Motopohue

Tue 12th Apr
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Almost there, we’re right of the South Coast!

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NickyThe sea!! We must be getting close now to the finishing line. Feels like we’re right at the end of the universe here. We decided to chill out for a bit and take in the moment… Have a rum and lime, and some fresh bread and butter for lunch. What could be better eh?

The thing I love about this spot is that it reminds me so much of Cornwall! The Lizard, the very tip of the UK, where I grew up. Crashing waves, green cliffs, the granite rocks beneath. Beautiful! We sat for a fair while here. I felt that, although we were about to reach our triumphant finale point, at the same time, I wanted to make it last as long as physically possible. Keep our Te Araroa alive as long as we could. This has been ‘life’ for us for so long - our nomadic existence. I suddenly didn’t want it to end. I felt a strange sadness I’d not expected to feel. Living in nature, carrying our wares on our back like giant multi-coloured snails, soon to be a memory - Our epic adventure was nearly done :’(

My god. Someone might actually make us take a shower too. Eeek! Frightening thought.

Tue 12th Apr
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Walking Around the Coastal Path

Walking Around the Coastal Path

NickyWow! Soooooo close now! I feel a bit nervous! Haha. This is IT. What we’ve been waiting for, imagining, for half a year… Will there be fireworks? Dancing girls? Glitter falling from the skies? Maybe a flock of parrots, that’d be cool … We’re packing bubbly just in case there’d been a mixup, and the rhino motorbike-formation-riders were held up in traffic. You never know. These things happen.
CookieI find the whereabouts of the ‘bottom of New Zealand’ slightly confusing? On my maps it looks like roughly round here is the most southerly, but the official finishing post is just around the corner at Stirling Point. But we’re told ‘the actual’ most southerly point is Sloping Point, but that’s bloody miles away, and it has a really rubbish sign ;) Either way, with the sea breeze in our hair and view out over to Stuart Island, this really does feel like the ‘bottom of New Zealand’ to us.
Tue 12th Apr
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Stirling Point in Sight

Stirling Point in Sight

NickyThat’s Land’s End right there!! I can see the sign! A tiny spec of yellow. WooHooo! Oh My God! We’ve nearly made it!! :D

( I hope the champers is alright in the rucksack. Hopefully I’ve not shaken it up too much, or there’ll be a ‘horrible accident’ when we come to open it … ;) )

CookieIt’s a weird feeling when you see something you’ve been working towards for so long. Part of you wants to run over to it, part of you wants to take you’re time and savour the moment. In the end we savoured the moment while waiting for various cars to park and un-park themselves so we had a clear shot of our approach for the video. It’s a bit of a shame the signpost is right by a busy carpark!
Tue 12th Apr
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Whoop Whoop! We Dun It!!

Nicky & Cookie Jumping For Joy at Bluff Signpost, The End of New Zealand

NickyWooooHoooo! We made it, finally, all the way to Bluff! The most southerly point in New Zealand. 3000 kilometres stomped, scrambled, plodded, tiptoed, scampered, leapt, crawled, skipped, climbed and walked on foot ( pretty much ;) ) across an entire country. Crazy! Looney, some might say. But what an amazing journey. I can’t quite believe we’re here. That we made it, that I made it. Woh. Seems impossible! And yet here we are :D

So chuffed to be finished! But also a tiny bit sad it’s over… “Shall we walk back Cookie?”. Good luck to the Tasty Trekkers who’ll be finishing soon too! You guys rock :D

Loads more to update you with over the last two sections, so much has happened - ‘coming soon’ on the blog. Better get writing!

CookieWe’re a bit behind on the bloggin’, it’s going to take us a few days to catch up and fill in the gaps.. But just wanted to let you know we made it to Bluff and finished our walk across New Zealand!!!

Our hair is still sticky with champagne spray, our socks are as crispy as battered Stuart Island Blue Cod and our boots are hung up for good. We’ll fill you in on the final details as soon as we can, there’s soooo much to get through.. We have to be out of New Zealand by the 17th of April before our 6 months visas run out, so we’re currently heading back up to Auckland to prepare to for the next leg of our holiday.

That’s right, after 6 months on holiday we’re going on holiday! The next leg is going to be quite a contrast, but fortunately Island No. 3 should only take us a few minutes to walk across!

Tue 12th Apr
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Victory Dance!

Nicky & Cookie Celebrating

NickyYep! I knew it! Even though I’d carefully been shaking up my bubbly all the way here, Cookie still managed to get the wrapper off lightening fast and blast me full force in the eyeballs with New Zealand’s finest $10 sparkling wine, before you could scream “Oh my god I’m blinded!”. Not to worry though, I nearly got him point-blank with my cork ;)

This F1-podium-style celebration wasn’t that casual, and drew a little attention from the various families visiting the signpost with their kids. Two smelly English hikers screaming and pouring fake champagne over their heads, probably wasn’t the peaceful afternoon by the seaside they’d had planned ;) But most seemed happy to be the unwitting audience for the show - asking about what we’d done, and shaking our hands. Several even asked if they could have their pictures taken with us, haha! Brilliant :) You often get a variety of responses from people when you tell them about ‘the walk’. From blank confusion, to quiet suspicion and disbelief, to huge smiles and hugs. Overwhelmingly the Kiwi’s we’ve met seem super chuffed that we’d take so much time adventuring through their country, taking in the details, and venturing to the less visited places. We’ve been cheered on all the way by the lovely people we’ve met in huts, in campsites, up mountains, in pubs, and even by the side of the road. What an awesome bunch the Kiwis are, and what an amazing country. Can’t imagine a more interesting country to walk across!

CookieNot quite spontaneous occasion I was hoping for, it was a slightly bizarre stop/start affair, trying to fit in stupid victory dances for camera in-between other people taking pictures and waiting for the sun to come out in order to spray champagne in each others face. Ha ha, we got it all done in the end, but we were at that signpost for hours!

Mixed emotions this afternoon, I’ve been feeling a bit melancholy for a while now, but even more so today. Excited to finish, but not wanting it to end, getting to the end, but then wondering ‘did we really earn it?’ Of course we have, I know that, we’ve tramped through all kinds of terrain and overcome all sorts of difficulties, not least of which getting Nicky fit ;) But in the end it’s bugged the shit out of me not sticking more closely to the official route, we arrived in Bluff by bus for christ’s sake! In retrospect I think we’ve maybe strayed a bit too far a bit too often, even though many of my highlights have been on our detours, they have definitely stollen a bit of thunder from the triumphant finish, like I felt on the CDT. That self-satisfying feeling that you’ve walked across an entire country every step of the way. I wasn’t even keen on the idea of coming down to Bluff at all once we realised there wasn’t time to walk here, I was trying to persuade Nicky to spend our remaining days hiking south of Queenstown then looping back via the Routeburn. But Nicky wanted to see the signpost, so down we came. I’m glad we did now, all that’s forgotten when you have a face full of champagne while spinning around a pole :)

Tue 12th Apr
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One Foot Island Video

CookieHighlights of our 3 week stay on One Foot Island..
Songs used in this section:

Captain Pugwash by Johnny Pearson, Wipe Out by The Surfaris, Party Started by The Cat Empire, Coconut by Harry Nilsson, Soul Limbo by Booker T and the MGs, and Crucify Your Mind by Rodriguez

Fri 15th Apr
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Life’s a Beach

NickyWoh, how awesome is that! And this isn’t even the real holiday :P We woke up to find a long stretch of golden sand, palm trees and bright blue water. The cat we’d found the night before had adopted us already. Snoozing on the deck he was. Clearly waiting for us to stick our heads out and offer him some breakfast. Cheeky ol’ Terry Tibs.

Charlie the owner brought us some Paw Paw and Lime for breakfast. It was amazing. Never eaten one except as tiny chunks in an M&S fruit salad. A fresh ripe one drizzled in lime is something else. Sooo good.

CookieIf you want to go for a little stroll, there’s really only two choices - clockwise or anticlockwise. Rarotonga is a big round circle with beach on the outside (protected by a ring of coral) and big pointy mountains in the middle. We decided to stick to the beach and stay clear of the mountains for a change ;)

We ventured out in both directions during our stay and as far as we could tell there’s endless beach and lagoon in both directions. And yes, it all looks this good.

Sun 17th Apr
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Tiana’s Beach Bungalows

NickyChillin’ and looking out over the Muri Beach. Supposed to be pretty good snorkeling around here. There’s a few crazy looking fish out there. But we weren’t too energetic. The aim of the game here is sitting down doing absolutely nuffin’ and sipping cold beers. Phew, it’s a hard life eh. Awesome ;)
CookieWe stayed at the southern end of Rarotonga near a small township called Muri Beach. It looked on the map to be an interesting bit of coast as the lagoon here is quite wide and there’s three small islands (motu) in the middle of it. The bungalow was amazing, literally a few steps from the door and you were on the beach!
Sun 17th Apr
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