over the last few weeks we've spent almost half our time on trail, which is a pretty glorious way to spend your time in new zealand. here's the first of them: the raikura track on stewart island, the 3rd island of new zealand.
View Larger Mapafter wwoofing and the rail trail, we traveled down the coast from dunedin and through the caitlins to get to invercargill and bluff, the ferry point to stewart island. there was some beautiful country on the ride.
lkm cold and looking pissed about it.
a penguin that seemed to be lost in a cove we hiked to... he was stone cold like a statue and didn't budge when we got close.
we took a tumultuous high-speed ferry ride over (with everyone one good jolt away from barfing) and met up with ksenya (who visited us in thailand in khao sok natn'l park), quinn, and max, a very industrious frenchman who we had been crossing paths with often.
the hike was wet... constant precipitation of some sort, be it mist, light showers or heavy downpours. besides occasional coastal sections, we were under a thick green canopy of ferns... nature's umbrella. here we are all decked out in rain gear like a bunch of dorks.
the trail was pretty fun and slippery at some points.
found a random phone on the road/trail. there was talk of ordering pizza delivery but found the phone stripped of its guts.
there were tons of water crossings. new zealand's got some great trail bridges... some all wood, some all steel, all very shakey, and most feel sketchy.
one of the huts we stayed at was near the water and had a great (and safe) dock.
this little kid caught more fish in 10 minutes than we did while fishing in two continents. he's gonna be a badass.
yus front-flipped into the frigid waters... the southern most point he's ever swam. we all felt content enough to just watch.
beautiful sign on the road... unfortunately i didn't capture the bottom line of it (did i mention my camera screen stopped working?). it read: survivors will be shot again.
we ended the hike with a feast of fish and chips. i'm back on that wagon again.
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