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A Nice "Track" |
In New Zealand they speak English, but you
have to be careful, because it is not always the “English” that you are used
to. I think that once they got so far away from the home of “English” they
decided to tweak the language to their tastes.
There are many examples of words that have
taken on slightly different meanings down under. The one that I noticed was the
word “track”. Down here it means trail, as in hiking or walking trail. Regis
and I have been making good use of the New Zealand tracks during our
explorations.
We have always enjoyed walking and hiking,
and when on the cruise ships, I have often looked out from the ship and seeing
a high point on the land, think, “That would be a good spot to get some
pictures.” As a result, we often find ourselves searching out trails leading up
to these high points of land. Here in New Zealand these trails are often called
“tracks”. We have found a few of them.
Instead of purchasing the high priced Ship
Approved Excursions, we often just walk off and explore on our own, and often
on these self-guided tours we find these New Zealand “tracks” calling for our
attention. They have proven to be very worthwhile side trips.
Our first “track” was in Hawaii, where we
hiked up to the top of Diamond Head, but I already
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A Great View! |
told you about that, and on
Hilo, (Still Hawaii) we hiked to the Akaka Falls. On Pago Pago we tried to find
the trail to a National Park, but never found it. On Dravuni Island in Fiji, we
hiked to the highest point on the mountain for terrific views over the whole
island. In Easo Lifou, New Caledonia we found a track up to a lovely little
church on a cliff overlooking the island. In Noumea, New Caledonia, while
walking around the town I discovered stairs leading to a track again up to a
high point giving another excellent view of the town.
Once we reached New Zealand we discovered
that what we were doing was following
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Climbing in "Stile" |
“Tracks”, and I already told you about
the great tracking we did in Port Chalmers, where we found two tracks that kept
us from visiting Dunedin. Then in Akoroa after a morning exploring the town we
found a track leading up a hillside occupied by “Haggis on the hoof” where we
found another Noordam couple enjoying the beautiful view over the town’s
harbour.
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Switchback to get to the top |
By this time we were really getting into
this “tracking” around, and in Picton, New Zealand we headed directly to a
marked track that led up a mountain to look-offs and down to Bob’s Bay, named
after a man who created this track by hand many years ago. This was probably
the longest track we took and led to fantastic views out over the area. Wellington
had wonderful views but we took a tour and the bus took us up the ‘Tracks”, and
although we had a track all mapped out in Napier, we ended up in Jail (Just a
tour; don’t fret!).
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It was worth the climb |
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By the time we reached Auckland, we were
ready for some easier tracking and I was only too happy to allow my cousin and
her husband to drive us up the tracks to get the views over Auckland.
However, after all our tracking over the
South Pacific Islands, I think we managed to counteract the wonderful meals on
the cruise ship . . . . our clothes still fit.