We gave ourselves no time to mourn the trail and, only a day after the big finish, boarded the bus to the east coast city of Dunedin. We had booked ourselves into the backpacker hostel “Hogwartz” there for five days. Our plan: do NOTHING.
Before we could get started on doing nothing, though, it first meant giving Jan a complete overhaul (new shirt, new haircut (the beard stays!) and yet another new pair of shoes (no. 6!)) and doing a big food shop at the supermarket.
Our highlight - for which we interrupted the doing of nothing for a moment - was a trip to the albatross, seal, sea lion and PENGUIN colony on the Otago Peninsula. The sea lions were genuinely monstrous and the penguins hugely cute.
The big question during our stay in Dunedin, though, was: where do we go next?
All sorts of ideas were buzzing round our heads. On the one hand there was a great deal of New Zealand we had not seen. Strictly speaking the classic tourist magnets: Abel Tasman National Park, the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers, Milford Sound… On the other hand the South Pacific islands were high on the list. But it is rainy season there right now…
Without any drawn-out decision-making, without a list of pros and cons, our choice then fell entirely from the gut on something completely different: Mexico!
The rough idea is to travel from Mexico via Guatemala, Belize and so on, further and further towards South America - ideally without getting on a plane in between.
Chilling on the beach, exploring Maya ruins, rainforest tours, watching volcanic eruptions, taking surfing lessons, WWOOFing and brushing up our Spanish (Jasmin) or learning it (Jan). That is roughly what we have in mind. And certainly a walk or two as well, once Jan’s feet are pain-free again. And all of it in pure sunshine, please, to get rid of our unlovely hiker tan.
We got a foretaste of Mexico at Dunedin’s surf beach St. Clair.
After five days in Dunedin we slowly began to feel our way 300 km north towards Christchurch, from where our flight leaves via Sydney and L.A. to Cancún. Since we were in no hurry, we wanted to try our luck hitchhiking one last time.
As chance would have it, we were picked up by Dean, who lives in Peel Forest, where we hitched around the Rangitata River three weeks ago. He was surprised that we knew the place, and of course he sees TA walkers trying their luck at hitchhiking every day. So we had plenty to talk about and the 60 km to Moeraki flew by.
On the beach at Moeraki lie the Moeraki Boulders, a collection of large spherical rocks. Admittedly, photographed from the right angle they do look more impressive than in reality. Reason enough for us to stay the night all the same and use our tent once more, before it probably stops being our home so often in South America.
The next morning we were back at the roadside with our “North” sign. Next destination: Oamaru - steampunk stronghold and home to a yellow-eyed and a little penguin colony.
Since Jan’s feet are still not rested enough for shorter walks, I set off exploring Oamaru alone.
The yellow-eyed penguins are supposed to be visible on a beach slightly out of town between 6 and 7 in the evening. The little penguins at dusk from 8 at the harbour. Perfect for experiencing both in one evening.
Sadly only a few seals showed themselves at Bushy Beach; of penguins there was no trace far and wide. But since we had seen a whole horde on the peninsula outside Dunedin, I was not inconsolable.
Back at the harbour there is the option of watching the little penguin colony from a grandstand for 40 NZ dollars - or, for free, hoping from a little further away that a few penguins lose their way as they come ashore. Option 2 for me!
And sure enough, even before dusk fell a penguin had strayed onto the jetty from which I was watching the spectacle. If that was not a good omen!
The actual attraction, where a flock of penguins swims ashore and climbs up the coast, was of course far easier to see from the grandstand seats, but the real fun is spotting and watching the little pengis yourself. And that is exactly what I did. Successfully, but sadly without presentable evidence (phone camera…).
Before we hitched on towards Christchurch the next day, I also had a look at the Steampunk Museum, which is definitely worth a visit! In case anybody is ever in the area…
We had no real destination we wanted to reach that day. There are over 200 km between Oamaru and Christchurch, but nothing really worth seeing. We simply wanted to see how far we would get hitchhiking. After only a few minutes a Chinese couple picked us up (I had forgotten the Chinese names before I had even understood them), who were driving all the way to Christchurch. Right, then let us not push our luck any further and spend the last two nights there!