19. March 2009

Time to continue. Tho I’m not in much of a better condition than before, but I’ll try to finish it today. I just finished one book that I have been reading now for quite a while and been really enjoying it, have learned quite a lot from it. I totally recommend it to everyone. Name of the book is “The Art of Happiness – A Handbook for Living” and has a nice picture of Dalai Lama on it :P. But I’m not gonna talk about the book here, maybe some other time, because it is probably something that creates different feelings in different people. But I will write here something from Dalai Lamas daily spiritual practices, which should help approaching problems rationally and learning to view our troubles or our enemies from alternative perspective.

“ Whenever I associate with someone, may I think myself the lowest among all and hold the other supreme in the depth of my heart!...
When I see beings of wicked nature, pressed by violent sin and affliction, may I hold these rare ones dear as if I had found a precious treasure!...
When others, out of envy treat me bad with abuse, slander and the like, may I suffer the defeat and offer the victory to others!...
When the one, whom I have benefited with great hope, hurts me very badly, may I behold him as my supreme Guru!
In short may I, directly and indirectly, offer benefit and happiness to all beings, may I secretly take upon myself the harm and suffering of all beings!...”

It’s not something that could be always used in today’s world, but in general I think that is something that will benefit all mankind.

Anyways last time I left off when we decided to do the Kepler track. We booked camping grounds for the track, which was weird, because we were only going to camp there. Camping cost 15 dollars and staying in a hut cost 45, which was stupid, but about that later on. Before leaving to the track we left a note on the notice board, that we are looking for someone for Dusky track and repacked our stuff so we could leave stuff that we didn’t need on the track to the backpackers storage. That night we were sharing a room with two Israeli girls and one guy from Netherlands. Just wanted to mention that, because in the evening we had all room full of Israelis and we had seen so far only 1 guy from there.

Next morning we left backpackers quite late, because our first camping site was quite close, so we had time to get some breakfast from town and get our things together. First day was actually quite boring, just walking in the forest, which reminded more European forests than Australian. But for me it still left kind of amazing feeling, it felt kind of ancient, like it would be the place where dinosaurs used to live. There was at one point, when we were just chilling near the Control Gates, which was a dam in the beginning of the Kepler track, where I felt kind of like home. Not because it looked like home, but because it felt like it, it felt like spring in Estonia, even though it is basically autumn here.

We were camping near the Te Anau lake, which wasn’t nothing special, just toilets and few tables. That is for what we paid 15 bucks and nobody actually checked if we had paid for it. Night was quite cold as I had suspected, but I had prepared quite well enough for it.

Next morning wasn’t really good for me, didn’t have the right energy, so getting up the mountain took quite some time. But as I got over the forest line I felt much better and the view was just amazing, something that is indescribable, something that you need to experience yourself. Soon I reached to the first hut on the track, there I had my lunch and spent some time. There was a cave near by and I decided to go discover that. Left my bag in the hut and took my flashlights with me, because it was told, though I thought at that moment that it was going to be boring. But I was wrong; I actually got one of the best experiences in New Zealand so far. I spent around 1,5 to 2 hours just exploring the cave, squeezing through small tunnels, making my way down the small river in the cave. It got quite scary sometimes, because I was alone there and I was afraid of damaging the caves too. I had a chance to try something we were told in Jenolan, that if you turn out the lights you start hallucinating, in there it didn’t work, probably because feeling secure, but in there I actually did that, even after only 5 minutes in dark. I started seeing that from the way I came, comes the light and I can see the cave walls, but it was actually all my imagination. After long period of time I would really imagine going crazy, which has actually happened to some people. When the cave became too muddy and tight I turned back, but on my way back I managed to get a bit lost, but luckily I realized it soon enough. Amazing!

After returning from the cave I soon started moving again and I was still going up. I passed the Mount Luxmore summit, which I actually visited too, it should be around 1500 m high, great view. I kept moving on, the track kept going on the top of the mountain, so you had to watch your step too. Most of the day I spent high in the mountains, I think that was the time I realized that I’m in love with mountains and that was the time I knew the answer to Martins question.

I arrived to the campsite in the evening and Kaupo was already waiting there. That was the first and the last time when someone asked us a booking. And that only because there was a hut next to the camping site, but still we weren’t allowed to use huts kitchen, toilets or anything.

Next day was easy walk, but just took quite some time. We were following the river, so that gave some quite interesting views at times. And it was quite interesting eating lunch sitting on a rock in the middle of the wild river under nice sunshine. Next place to spend a night was also next to one lake, Lake Manapouri, which is the second deepest lake in New Zealand, with a highest dept of around 447 meters and 37 islands if I remember right. It is also home for the New Zealand’s second biggest power station, hydroelectric one. This takes me to the point that I should mention that I like what I learn by doing all this travelling. But as I have been moving around already for half a year, it is becoming quite boring I a way.

Next day was the last day on the track and day when we arrived back to Te Anau. It wasn’t nothing special; I just kept going to get a warm shower, nice big lunch and cold beer in the evening.

Spent a night in the same backpackers, first we had, then nice big lunch, got food for dinner and beers for evening. Later we used internet, which I hadn’t used for ages and started making dinner. I think I haven’t eaten so much for, I don’t even know since when, but it was good. We also found out that the price for the plane to Dusky track was per person, so we thought that maybe its not so good idea, because I am running quite low on money now too. Gotta get back to Australia and do some work again.

Next day I couldn’t find anything that I would like to do anymore, just nothing. We just packed our stuff and checked out. And then we started thinking what to do. We went to the information centre and told them that we wanted to go somewhere, but don’t know where. After small discussion we decided to go more north, to see the glaciers and then later go on the north island. Because there wasn’t a bus going straight to Franz Joseph, we had to come to Queenstown again and spend one night here. And now when we are last day in Queenstown we found this cheap and nice place to stay, weird. But anyways to anyone coming here, stay at Thomas’s Hotel.

So tomorrow we are getting on a bus at 8 am and head north, maybe it will be little warmer there too :P.
So long…