13.South south
Down the Caitlins which wasn't so exciting ..maybe it was the difficult hitch-hiking in the rain.
Walked in some forests got
chased by a sealion, met a guy who had planted 1 million non-native ecosystem destroying pine trees (for export to Japan)
At Invercargill It was too late in the year to go to Stewart Island so I headed up the west coast to Lake District
3 of us hitch hiked together and always got someone who'd take all of us 5 lifts for the 150Km. To Manapouri Spent a day walking around the forest there and then onto Te Anau where I spent a day on The Routeburn Track (I daren't risk doing the whole 4 days and getting stuck in bad weather so I walked for a day and actually got half way.. nice views but it's not the Andes)
| imagine :View from the Routeburn track mountains and Fjords |
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Through Alexandra and Cromwell. (Fruit growing towns absolutely desperate for workers; hardly surprising given the low wages) upto Queenstown A bit of tourist trap , but smaller and less tacky than I expected (I would have Bungee jumped , but it's a bit of a tourist rip-off.)
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