My world walk blog new Zealand 3

Date: 16 Dec 2017 22:00

Friday 37 kms I arrived in Maheno, on New Zealand's picturesque south island. 

Thanks to my kind hosts Neil and Sandy for a lovely time  

I stopped to ask permission  to camp on a patch of grass beside their house. Neil response was: "You can if you prefer that to a bed inside with a shower, a feed and someone to do your laundry!" 

Neil went out to the garden to pick some fresh lettuce for my dinner. Today, Saturday Neil has offered to take my pack 16 kms ahead to Oamaru! 

While chilling out I was so impressed by their local radio station called Brian Fm that I downloaded the app. Its constant classic rock with almost no talk for 24 hours. Check it out, it's great

I expect to spend Christmas in Christchurch.

During these last few days I have passed by many world war one memorials. Its always especially so sad when I come to a village and see one where two brothers lives were taken in the war. 

Thanks also to the many kind people who stopped on the road to check on me

A short day today as I mentioned in my last post that Neil, the man I stayed with the previous night delivered my backpack to his brother Jeff in Oamaru  for me to pick up.  

It was a pleasant stroll with the temperature hovering around 23C, it sure doesn't feel like Christmas. An odd feeling looking at frosty decorative shops and houses with the sun beaming down on me as I walked along route 1.

  After walking New Zealand I will be returning to my route in Australia to walk to Darwin. For New Zealand I decided to walk it with a backpack as there are so many one way bridges roads which are tighter than in Australia and with narrower hard shoulders. So far I think that I made a pretty conservative decision and I could have managed pushing Karma, my trusty cart. However, I am having a bit of a break from pushing her. It certainly makes camping much easier and I can jump over a fence as I did a couple of nights ago and camp in a forest. It does make the country a bit more expensive than it would have been with Karma as I am not carrying any cooking gear. My pack weighs about five kilos and includes my new light-weight  tent which weighs only 1.3 kgs and a summer sleeping bag. Lately, I have started to slip the yellow rain cover over my pack as it gives me higher viability, and besides there are a lot of short showers. I stock up on snacks of mostly dried fruit and peanuts in supermarkets. I also carry a few packets of noodles and any chance I get to get boiling water I lash a packet into my thermos mug. Sometimes I consume that along with a tin of sardines on the road. Instant oatmeal is another handy snack when I can get hot water. On the odd occasion that I do stop in a restaurant I never buy tea or coffee as it's about five dollars a cup. I usually just ask the friendly staff for boiling water and make my own!

 Fortunately, here in Kiwiland towns and villages are pretty close and I have fish 'n' chips at least once a day. I try to go to a regular chip shop as it costs only the equivalent of a few Euro.

One such place was in the picturesque Victorian town of Oamaru. The gentile  Chinese owner told me that he has been living here for eighteen years and knows New Zealand better than China. I couldn't help wondering if I know more of the land of the dragon than most Chinese do.  

I walked a couple of kilometres beyond the town as far as the racecourse.  As  arranged I phoned Jeff who came out of a nearby house with my pack. He mentioned that there was a chance of a rain storm and as he was watching darts on television it seemed like a sensible option to take him up on his invitation to stay the night in his home. 

Then we watched snooker and the Ashes cricket. So, it was a lazy 18 kilometre day but still nice to chill out watching sports which I haven't watched in many years.