Day 10. Hobbled

So today has simply been the day of the swollen ankle. Luckily I had nothing major booked or planned, but even so, spending the day sat down with my leg propped up, unable to walk was a pain.

Getting to the shower was a marathon and don’t even mention the stairs down to the kitchen! My Kindle has been a life safer today, as I’ve mainly just sat around and read, trying to not feel sorry for myself, since I’ve also picked up a cold!

Also, just met a guy from Preston in the hostel! 

Day 9 Cathedral Cove

I cannot catch a break with the weather. Today was meant to be the nicest day of the week so I reserved it for Cathedral Cove, while yesterday was meant to be cloudy and rainy but was instead beautiful..

Anyhow, I caught the bus to Hahei (it was 3hrs to walk on the side of the road, so I thought it prudent to catch the bus) and from there took the track across Hahei beach up to Cathedral Cove Car Park.

I should have known what it was going to be like just from that 30min stretch. It was muddy. Really, really, muddy. It obviously rained pretty hard last night as huge stretches of the path were simply slippery mud, with muddy grass leading to a steep drop on either side…

 (this was one of the better sections of path!

I made it though, and I did it in less time than predicted so I was pretty happy.

After enjoying the views from the carpark look out I decided to head down the main trail. Only this section was so, so much worse.

It’s a steep decline and it was all mud, the really bad sections I have no photos of as I was simply too busy trying not to slip.

(it was windy and muddy so excuse the weird face I'm pulling!)

Worryingly several locals simply turned back saying it wasn’t worth it, but we a few other people lingered (because it was so muddy there was really only a 1 way track so if people were coming up you had to try and scoot out there way) and despite some people saying the trail was bad for a good 20 minutes, others promised it improved after not long.

Needless to say I pressed on – I hadn’t paid for a bus out here for nothing!

Sure enough the  path did clear up pretty quickly and most of the walk was really very easy, there were no serious climbs or ascensions. The only problems came from the rain as everything was much more treacherous because of it.

I was just checking my watch (I’d done the walk in a lot less time than suggested despite the mud) when the guy in front of me went down. He lost his footing and full on slipped, grabbing a tree to try and slow his fall (it could have been a really nasty drop). But the tree wasn’t overly fond of being almost yanked out the ground so, long story short, I got hit, my ankle decided to do a jelly dance and now I have one seriously sprained ankle. Lucky me.

I carried on down to Cathedral Cove as I could see it, it was maybe 10m away, and as soon as I got onto the sand my ankle basically gave way. I did manage to hobble to some driftwood and I attempted to rest my ankle.

The problem then was I had no idea how long it was going to take me get back up the trail. I dreaded to think how I was going to handle the metres of muddy path with an ankle I couldn’t put wait on.

I didn’t stay as long as I wanted at Cathedral Cove, as although it was, obviously, beautiful and impressive, I definitely feel it’s just become too touristy.

I’ve never been on any path that was so busy – and it’s winter! I dread to think what it must be like in summer, it’ll just be a thoroughfare. 

 (this was one of the benches I mournfully walked past)

Anyway, to summarise, the walk back to the carpark was long, slow and painful. There were two benches along the path but I knew once I sat down to rest my ankle would just swell up and it’s hurt even more to carry on.

Obviously I got back to the hostel (as you’re reading this) and the fact I had up the 300m steep, muddy and treacherous ascension is enough of a miracle for me to proclaim God intervened. Even more of a miracle I made it back to the bus stop with some time to spare!

 (this is a grimace of pain, not a smile)

Although I couldn’t help but compare myself to those women on ‘one born every minute’ on my way back to Hahei (it’s all downhill and going down hurts a lot more than going up on a sprained ankle). I started out being optimistic and saying it’d be fine, 20 minutes in I was begging for drugs, paracetemol, ibuprofen, you name it I was debating buying some!

I’m glad I did it, and although I didn’t get to see gemstone bay (I wasn’t about to do a detour with my ankle) that just gives me another excuse to come back! Most travellers I’ve met, the ones who seriously travel don’t just got for 3 weeks on a gap year, all kinda have this motto – you can’t possibly do everything, so if you miss out you’ll just have to come back. And I really like that idea, now I’m leaving NZ my list of things I want to see and do here keeps growing, so I’ll undoubtedly have to pop back at some point!

(can you tell which one is sprained?!)

Also, 4 new people have moved into my sixe bed dorm room. Not overly happy about having to share a room again! I’ve gotten used to having the room to myself! Tonight is being spent going through photos and pottering with my ankle elevated – fingers crossed it’ll magically heal over night?

Gisborne

So after a lovely Friday evening I decided to join a trip some of my friends were taking to Gisborne! We hired an 8seater minivan so we could drive and set off Saturday morning. It was a really fun, relaxed drive down since we stopped off 4 or 5 times along the way since it's a 6 hour drive and there were lots of beautiful spots along the way!

Ash, Gurline, Me, Me'la, Alyssa, Yuka, Ariel and Winkay

We also decided we were hungry so stopped to have lunch at a Thai restaurant we drove past that looked good!

Just look at the size of our minivan compared to the cliff! You can also see some cows perched rather precariously on the very top of the cliff - we all had images of a cow landing on the car...

The triangular shaped island you cans see in the distance where the sun is setting in New Zealand's most active volcano! 

We couldn't resist wading into the sea, as despite it coming into winter here this last weekend has been lovely and warm and the cold water felt amazing after being crammed into a car for hours

Ash and Ariel 'may' have brought along some alcohol too!

North Eastern Waikato always reminds me the most of england, aside from Southern Otago in the South Island, as it's one of the very few places which is even slightly flat and as such has even more agricultural farming than the rest of New Zealand

The trees were the most beautiful colour - there's huge diversity in evergreens and coniferous trees so there were so many different hues as we drove - that's Ariel modelling a particularly pretty leaf!

So anyway we got to the hostel in the evening and we got the attic room all to ourselves, and it really was very cute, Alyssa got a double bed and we all got to sleep on normal, single beds apart from Gurline who slept on a top bunk (she liked sleeping on top bunks so it was all good)

We woke up bright and early to watch the SunRise. As Gisborne is the first place where you can see the sunrise so it was pretty special!

It was freezing and drizzling slightly but we hung in there and we were rewarding with a very pretty sunrise!

After checking out the hostel we walked up the Captain Cook Memorial to get some views out over poverty bay. There was also a tree planted by princess Diana that Ariel and Alyssa got pretty excited over!

Looking out over the bay with some mountains in the backdrop

And looking from the other side of the hill you got to see Grisborne city sprawled out

We definitely tried to make the most of the self timer on my camera to get some group shots!

From here the weather really picked up and we got some gorgeous sunshine!

We set out looking for Rere waterfall, taking the scenic road was much slower going since it was all unsealed and gravel but the views were so worth it!

At Rere waterfall - it was massive!

You can just see Mel'la and some picnic benches to the right of the waterfall for some idea of scale

After taking a few photos we dipped our toes into the icy crystal water before grabbing lunch

Possibly the best backdrop to lunch

From here we set off again for Rere Rock Slide and got some equally amazing views

This cutie was at the rock slide - he was so friendly!

None of us really knew what a rock slide was but it's basically a natural water slide! In summer lots of locals grab a raft or just something to sit on and slide down it! We weren't brave, or stupid, enough to do that, particularly since the water was freezing but nevertheless it was very cool!

We couldn't help ourselves and walked down the very steep slow, only two people slipped and we managed to catch them before the slipped all the way down!

we were all trying to get a good angle to take a photo to show the rock slide - Alyssa laid down to try and get a good one!

After dawdling longer than planned at the rock slide we finally headed back to Hamilton

The landscape was stunning.

This is definitely one of my favourite pictures as it really shows New Zealand!
We also couldn't resist a few brief stops on the way back including one at a little coffee/homemade cakes and local honey stall a woman had set up.

 We discovered a little walkway down to a riverbed half an hour down the road from the little coffee shop too which was really beautiful! You can see the tree right at the top had it's roots exposed we we didn't linger too long as it definitely looked precariously perched!

It was such a good weekend, and although it was a whirlwind visit to Gisborne I'm so glad I managed to go, as I'm starting to realise I actually don't have much time left here! In fact it's only 66 days until I fly and leave New Zealand for good. And 40 of those are while I'm at university! Time is going so quickly!!

Thought I'd leave you with this beautiful sunset

Day 44 Dog’s Stream

Today was another lovely relaxing day, despite the fact I got no sleep thanks to snoring, as the weather was absolutely gorgeous! I am worried how I’m going to survive when I get back to England for Christmas though, yesterday was what I considered a cooler day meaning I had tights and a cardigan on, yet the average temperature was 25degrees... while today was lovely at 30degrees.. I think I’m going to freeze!

It's hard to take a photo that shows how clear the water is, as the cleaner the water the shallower everything seems to look! It was past my knees though

If your wondering why it looks like this photo was taken from the middle of the stream that'd because that's where I stood (the path randomly cut across the stream!

Taking advantage of the weather I headed over to the other side of town to the pine forests and explored the lovely little stream than runs along side the town. It was so peaceful and beautiful I ended up wondering aimlessly through the forest for hours! I’m not entirely sure why it’s called Dog’s stream as it doesn’t sound particularly nice... anyway I stumbled upon a surprising little park in the middle of the forest, and with no one else around I lay down and just enjoyed the complete peace and quite until it was time to head back!

The momma bird who's obviously sat on some eggs at the moment 

Today is my last day in Hanmer and it’s gone by way too fast! It was great to just relax and do very little for a few days as I think travelling everyday is catching up to me a little bit! I finished off the day sipping a drink and reading by book on the table outside while the sun set and the little bird who’s made a nest in the hostel twittered away!