Martijn's Blog

On my way again, my back getting a little better every day. I went to the doctor again in Invercargill and he was quite positive. He recommended not ending my trip yet and wait at least until the end of January to make a decision. He thought my radiation pain might not be caused by a herniated disc because I can sit and bend my back while sitting down. The nerve might be irritated for some other reason.
I will go to Christchurch a few days before I fly to Sydney for some physiotherapy sessions to see if that makes it better.

Ok back to travelling. I left Invercargill and went to Manapouri to go on a boat trip into the Doubtful sound. When I arrived there around noon it was raining quite heavily and the forecast for the day after was even worse. I decided to move on to Queenstown to have a look. I have been told by many other tourists it is a very nice town with a lot of activities to do.


the drive along the Wakatipu lake

The drive to Queenstown is very beautiful and you really feel like you're in the middle earth.

Queenstown itself was overflowing with tourists because of the upcoming New Years eve and it reminded me of some Swiss mountain resorts. Quite posh and full of posers.
Chances of staying overnight there around New Years were slim and I didn't reserve anything ahead of time, so on to Wanaka. Wanaka is also a popular winter and summer resort town located about 100km from Queenstown on lake Wanaka. I didn't know it was -like Queenstown- also a very popular destination for New Years' eve so when I arrived all backpackers, hotels and motels had the "No Vacancy" signs up. I already wanted to drive further but decided to try a few B&B's and after about 6 I found one with a vacancy (lucky lucky).
So I will be spending New Years eve in Wanaka!


Wanaka lake

Mara Winter geboren 20 december 2005, dochter van Erick & Sandra

My site is starting to look like a baby site :-)

Maurits zoon van neef Hans en Meike, geboren 17 december.

I went kayaking with Raewyn on the river in Invercargill. The first bit of excercise in a long time. Because I have no problem sitting down it was good to be doing something again for a change.





Big trees in Queens park, Invercargill



They even have "jochempies" there



and wallabies

On the 29th it was Raewyns birthday:

Thanks so much for the great time in Invercargill!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

I went to see the Milford Sound today. The Milford Sound is a fjord located in the south west of the South Island. It was about a 4 hour drive from Invercargill and I stayed the night in Te Anau, because I had been told that Milford itself is really really small. (and that's true)

So I booked the 12:30 nature cruise on a boat, so I wouldn't have to do any walking. Good thing I didn't go at 10:00 because from Te Anau it's still more than 2 hours drive to Milford.


Just when I thought that this country couldn't be any more beautiful I was proven wrong again. The scenery on the west coast is breathtaking.




It is a shame the pictures never do landscape justice. I just selected 9 pictures from about 50 I took. Even the drive form Te Anau to Milford is already a stunning experience. When I started driving it was dreary weather, something I'd been warned about because it seems to rain quite a bit in Milford. But when I arrived at the harbour it just started to clear up so once again I was lucky with the weather. We could sit outside in the sun on the deck.





yet another waterfall


some sea lions sunning on the rocks




When we almost reached the open sea we saw a whole school of Dusky dolphins and they came around and played in front of the boat. Duskies are known to be very acrobatic and we saw a couple of them jump out of the water. Of course I wasn't quick enough with the camera.

After staying with the Lindsay family for 3 nights and resting from travelling, my back has improved quite well. I still can't walk great disctances but at least I sleep well at night and I can stand up straight again. I'm not out of the woods yet but I hope I'll be able to continue my travels, although in a slightly easier way.


Raewyn, Ben and Harrison my very nice hosts..

My next goal is to see the Milford Sound; a part of New Zealand apparently resembling Norway with it's fjords and gorges.

For the second time in my life -beside my experience in the army in 1994- I am suffering from a herniated disc in my lower back.


Apparently the tissue in the soft middle of the disc (nucleus pulposes) has an inflammatory agent in it which causes the nerves running to the leg to become inpflamed and cause pain in the back itself and several places in the leg.
11 years ago the ruptured disc was on the (Lumber) L4/L5 level on the left side, but it looks like this time it might be the L5/ (sacral)S1 level, basically one vertebra lower, on the right side.

Luckily the majority of disc injuries do not need an operation to heal and I hope that will be the case for me too. It depends on how damaged the disc is and how long and severe the symptoms are.

zooo lief......dochter van Sander & Ilse

The next day I decided to drive to Invercargill. A bit earlier on in the trip I had met this really nice Kiwi girl who lives in Invercargill and she invited me to stay at her place if I would come to her part of the country. I couldn't resist such a nice offer and opportunity to meet another local. While staying in backpackers you generally meet a lot of other travelers but they are often also foreigners. I also like to meet people from the country and find out more about them.

On the way to Invercargill I took a hitchhiker along with me. He was a friendly Frenchman, who'd been 'woofing' (working on organic farms) in Clifton for a while and now needed to go a sheep farm in Gore only about 40 km away from Clifton.

When we arrived in Gore he didn't know where the farm was exactly and after asking we found out it was actually about 20 km north of Gore. I offered to drive him since I wasn't in a hurry anyhow.

When we arrived on the farm and the farmer, Frank, heard I was from Holland he insisted on showing me around the farm, because he'd had a dutch girlfriend before and he'd had many dutch people coming to work on the farm. Frank's got 2000 sheep, some cows which he calls a hobby and he's got bee's too.

great location with all kind of different trees too



the bee hives


some Scottish meat too :-)


he showed us how the dogs drive the sheep from one meadow to the next


his farm is on a little hill so he's got a great view all around the area

Frank inveited me to stay a few days to see how thing work on the farm but I don't want to do that unless I am able to help out around the place. Anyway I already agreed to go to Invercargill and meet up with Raewyn.

After 4 night in Christchurch hardly leaving my motel room and just ditting most of the time and taking painkillers to be able to lie down and fall asleep at night I got really sick of it. I was close to going to the ticket office and changing my tickets to fly home.
The muscle relaxants seemed to be doing there job though. I became i little more flexible, I could walk up a little straighter and the pain seemed to get less and less every day too. The progress was very slow but I decided to give it another go.

I definitely wanted to see the Milfor sound and because driving and sitting on a boat don't bother my back I was hoping I could at least go there.

When I got out of the car after the 3 hour drive from Christchurch to Dunedin I felt so good I could actually stand up completely straight and walk around for a while. I didn't do much sightseeing in Dunedin unfortunately but it's a pretty city.

Well after leaving Picton my back started to hurt more and more every day. I decided to take a break from traveling and stay put in Kaikoura. The resting didn't really help a lot and after I started walking bent over like an old man it was time to see a doctor.
I went to the (little) hospital in Kaikoura and the doctor told me it looked like I have another herniated disc. This time most likely on the L4 level and not L5 like 10 years ago. He prescribed some medicine but it was helping me move more easily.

Since my mobility was still deteriorating I drove to Christchurch to visit a Chiropractor. The Chiropractor however said she couldn't help me until the muscles around my back were more relaxed. Basically they were gripping the lower part of the spine and forcing it in an unnatural position. This again caused me to walk and move in the wrong posture which brought about even more muscle cramps.
Back at a GP's office I asked for some muscle relaxants which seem to alleviate the pain and posture problem somewhat now.

I'm still taking it easy and hoping the problems will be subside enough for me to at least continue my trip. If not I might be back in Europe for Christmas.


small selection of drugs I'm taking :)

In Picton -where the ferry arrives on the South Island- I stayed in a really nicer backpackers hostel. The lady there explained me all the activities in the area. Most of them were walking tours but because my back was plying up a little I decided to take it easy. Instead I went to the local marina and found out there was going to be a regatta of the local yacht club.

Walking around there a guy called Brian asked me whether I wanted to help out on his boat. Well that was of course really cool so I agreed. The boat still had to be put into the water from the trailer but then we were set to go.



The wind was good but not quite strong enough for the type of boat so we didn't quite win but it was a lot of fun anyway.

From Napier it was a 300km drive to Wellington. Not the most spectacular of roads but luckily I met some people in Napier who also wanted to go to Wellington so it was not boring.


the "bee hive": parliament building in Wellington

In Wellington I went to the Te Papa museum -a very diverse museum with some history, geology, genome and art expositions. It was very windy which was a bit of a worry because I had booked the ferry crossing (3 hours) for the evening.


the motorcycle from "the world's fastest Indian" was displayed in the Te Papa

From Whakapapa (where the Tongariro crossing is located) I drove back to Taupo and then further on to Napier. Napier is a beautiful little town at the coast. The town centre was almost completely destroyed by an earthquake in 1931. The buildings were rebuilt in Art Deco style which reminded me a bit of South Beach in Miami.

The other thing Napier is famous for is Hawkes Bay wines. I took a (private) tour on which we visited 7 wineries and I think I tasted about 45 wines in total. Great ! I must say I still think that doing it that way the best wine is always the last one :-)

Today I hiked the Tongariro crossing. It's one of the most famous hikes in New Zealand and it was definitely worth it. It was said to take about 8 hours but if you're an experienced hiker you can do it in about 5 1/2.


South crater


Mt. Ngauruhoe


Blue lake


Emerald lakes


Red crater


Emerald lakes


Thanks for the tip again Gerard!