New Zealand is not real (cont.)
The ferry from Wellington to Picton was by far, the nicest ferry I have ever been on- live music, microbrew (obsessed), nice food, crazy views from multiple rooms. The scenery was also spectacular traveling through the various sounds and cliffs. After changing to a bus, we ended up Nelson mid-day and checked into, what was later decided, our favorite guesthouse on the trip, Tramper’s rest.
New Zealand is not Real!
Well, physically it exists, but at times it takes a bit of convincing to believe that what you are looking at is indeed a tangible place. Since all things Peter Jackson and LOTR, a lot of attention has been played to this formally little visited island nation 2000 kms east of Australia; and the tourists have indeed come.
Returning to south west Europe for us is never hard. Not sure if it is the richness of the food, the onslaught of the ridiculously cheap wine, the beautiful landscapes or the ancientness of it’s villages, but it’s fast becoming a tradition of ours to spend our June walking a portion of the Camino de Santiago in this corner of the world. This June was no different as we set out on the Camino Portuguese to both spread the good word of Ohenro and to get a little bit of pilgrimage in us ourselves. 360km, 12 full days of walking, whiningwineing to the western most tip of continental Europe, Finisterre.
(cont.)
Later that morning (after a much appreciated breakfast), we headed back to Hatton to board a train to Kandy, also an amazing ride. Kandy is the old capital, the cultural centre of Sri Lanka and has the country’s most important temple, the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. There is also a nice central quarter that has a lake that is nice for strolling. Unfortunately, there is just too much noise, pollution and bus traffic to truly enjoy the city. The 1 stand-out thing that we did do there, was a trip to the wonderful Peradeniya Botanic Gardens, located about 10 mins away by bus.
(cont.)
After the rain forest, we decided to head for the very temperate hill-country; famous for it’s mountain gaps, tea plantains and amazing train routes. The bus to get to Hatputale was a grueling 7 hours, probably only traveling 100 km, but just beautiful-hair pin turn, after dizzying hair pin turn. Haputale is perched on the top of a ridge, with perfect views of the surrounding country side, we used it as a base to visit Horton’s plain and World’s end. We also took a pretty amazing hike around the tea plantations, scaring kids and visiting a very well placed Dutch church.
Japanese beer, probably being one of the most underrated of the world’s brews, is highly varied and is of very high quality. Unfortunately when people (not too familiar with Japan) think of Japanese beer, they think of Asahi super dry. Not that I have anything against Asahi, it’s just where Japanese beer begins, not where it ends.
