April 11, 2025 • 34 mins
Adam's New Zealand adventure continues with stories from the South Island. Whilst cruising around Milford Sound, Fiordland National Park, Adam's boat is chased by a wild dolphin having the time of its life!
Adam also hikes through Abel Tasman National Park, where he's forced to speed-run 25kms of beautiful coastline or risk being stranded in the dark.
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The 11 Great Walks of New Zealand: Lake Waikaremoana, Tongariro Northern Circuit, Whanganui Journey, Abel Tasman Coast Track, Heaphy Track, Paparoa Track, Routeburn Track, Kepler Track, Milford Track, Hump Ridge Track, Rakiura Track
Abel Tasman National Park: https://www.abeltasman.com/abel-tasman-national-park/
Cleopatra's Pool, Abel Tasman National Park: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/new-zealand/nelson-tasman/cleopatra-s-pool-from-anchorage
Mitre Peak Cruises: https://www.mitrepeak.com/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
After nowhere near enough research.
Play the theme music. Hello and welcome to this
episode of Tripology. I'm Alan and I'm here with the
(00:24):
ever underprepared. Yes, Adam.
Mate, I've done no preparation. What's going on?
Well, that's unlike you. I think of the two of us, you
usually are the more prepared guy.
Yeah, you would have thought so,mate.
I've been, I've been in New Zealand now for about 6 weeks
and I've been very, very fortunate to have experienced
many things over the last six weeks.
(00:45):
But very unlike me, I've done absolutely no research going
into these expeditions or, you know, these tourist attractions,
these national parks that we're going to talk about today.
And hopefully this episode couldbe somewhat informative so that
people listening to it when theycome to New Zealand, they have a
little bit more information thanI did.
Yeah. OK, cool.
(01:06):
Excited to hear about it. Normally I consider you almost
erring on that ever so tricky corner of being over prepared.
Often times you'll come at me with a plan where you're like,
right today I want to eat this plate, they want to go here, I
want to see that thing and I've just got I get taken up in the
swell of the current of your preparation.
(01:28):
I just think, well, I'll just dothat then, because that sounds
like a very holistic plan. So it's interesting that as soon
as we've parted ways, we've leftour company.
Now all that preparation, the Whirlpool of your planning, has
gone out the window. But.
Do you think that you're more like a go with the flow kind of
guy out of the two of us? You are, I suppose.
And maybe now that you're not here, I'm trying to sort of
(01:49):
channel my Allen energy. Well, I'm sort of a parasitic
young traveller. I sort of find a group that has
a plan and like a dirty little Leech, find myself on the
underside of their shoe, suckingout the energy from what they
want to do. I pride myself on being able to
sit at a hostel breakfast table over here, a plan being made,
and then I sort of saunter over.I put my chest down for a
(02:12):
moment. I go sort her over and go, oh,
hello, I can't help but over here that you're going on a
hike. Perhaps you might need me to
come along? Yeah, I suppose you're right,
man. I mean, I I should take a leaf
out of your book. And this is something I didn't
know whether I was going to admit live on air, but I
probably should because I do seethis as me talking to my best
(02:32):
mate about some travel woes. Now, I would go as far to say
that saying goodbye to people ona regular basis is our bread and
butter. Is that not fair?
I butter my bread with it daily.Yes, goodbye.
I'll see you never again. And I like to think that I take
that sort of stuff in my stride.You know, travel communities are
(02:54):
fairly transient. People come and go and you're in
different places all the time, sometimes for different lengths
of time, rather frustratingly, because you bond with people in,
you know, sometimes just a few hours and then the next day
you're waving them goodbye. And I feel like I'm quite
resilient to that sort of stuff because of the experience and
the length of time that we've been travelling.
However, over the last couple ofweeks I've met some exceptional
(03:18):
people and I've found it incredibly difficult to say
goodbye to them. OK, Yeah.
Do you think that your resilience to saying goodbye has
been built up over time, hardened by a life on the road?
Or do you think there's a naturally sociopathic
equivalency in your brain that allows you to easily be like
goodbye and then be detached, and that's sort of being broken
(03:38):
now? Yeah, I don't know what it is,
mate. I mean, you don't, you don't
necessarily have the skill set going into travelling or
backpacking for a long time and it's maybe something you develop
over time. I I think of myself as maybe a
Mountain Lion, quite solitary and I'm able to do a lot of
things independently and I like spending a lot of time on my
own. Mountain lions, of course, also
(04:00):
known by the name Cougar. Yeah, I mean, maybe I'm slightly
more sociable than a Mountain Lion because you, you rarely
ever see them mixing and mingling, do you?
But I've just been, I've just been hit quite hard.
And maybe it's maybe to drill down into the situation a little
bit further and give you some context.
I've stayed stationary in Auckland, whereas people are are
(04:22):
moving through Auckland, so maybe that's the difference is
that I'm waving goodbye to people who are going on to do
different things and I'm the onewho's staying put.
Yeah, there's two sides of a travel coin, isn't there, 'cause
people often messages and they're like, oh, I'm a really
sociable, attachment style person.
I'm worried about my friends back home, I'm worried about
drifting relationships, that sort of thing.
(04:43):
Both are true though, right? It's like you can form really
strong attachments really quickly whilst traveling, and
often you also have to be prepared that those attachments
are fleeting and momentary and do like fade into obscurity as
people move around the country that you're in.
But it is possible to maintain those relationships long term.
All of my best friends are people that I've met traveling,
(05:05):
so different thing, isn't it? Yeah, no, it is a different
thing. And I think noticing that I've
been hit much harder than usual is, yeah, something I've been
thinking about over the last fewweeks, because when, when the
person leaves, and I mean, I've even helped some of them go to
the airport. So it's, it's really quite a a
(05:25):
strange thing. I mean, they're definitely going
and I've been the person at the very last moment that they're
going to be in this country, right.
So when I get home on my own, I sort of feel all sad and glum
and think to myself, it's actually really shit that
they've left now. And maybe because the highs are
so high, the lows are much lower.
(05:46):
But. Well, it's partly because you're
staying put in New Zealand, so you're sort of slowly moving
into your Kiwi life and you're going through what a lot of the
people in our lives usually go through when we meander off to
our next occasion. You've kind of done a role
switch, haven't you? Yeah, yeah, I suppose you could
say that. You could say that.
And these fleeting moments, I, if you only ever have positive
(06:09):
interactions with people, then Iguess your lasting memory is, is
always going to be positive. And it's easy to sit there and
think, God, if there was just one more week or if there was
one more month, or if that person who came into my life was
living here as well, I'm sure that an amazing relationship or
bond could form. So maybe, maybe in some scenario
short and sweet is. Better, Definitely.
Yeah. I would love the audience who
(06:30):
was listening to this show rightnow to give us a message,
because I think it's one of the common backpacker laments, this
sort of feeling of, oh God, I love that person so deeply, so
quickly, and now they're gone. I'd love to hear the stories
about that. If people can go to
tripologypodcast.com, there's a form on there where you can just
write. Tell us about your sort of
relationship woes, both platonicand romantic.
(06:54):
Yeah, I think that's going to bereally good because as you've
heard me pour my heart out there, 10 years on 10, this will
be the 11th year travelling the world and living abroad.
And you know, I'm still not immune to it.
I just do still suffer from thissort of stuff.
So yeah, get those. Get those messages in.
Yeah, totally love to hear from you.
We'll read them out on the show.Adam.
How is everything else, mate? You say you're staying put in
(07:15):
Auckland. Are you enjoying New Zealand?
Have you seen a Kiwi bird yet? Have you eaten a Kiwi fruit yet?
Have you gone and done any hackers or anything like that?
What have you been up to? I've been up to loads mate, I've
been up to loads. I am staying put in Auckland for
a little while, just laying low,seeing what the options are like
and seeing where I want to base myself.
As you know, I did have the lovely Lulu, the car that I was
(07:37):
driving around and I was, I was able to get to the, you know,
far away places that not many people are able to get to unless
they do have a hire vehicle because the infrastructure here
is not great. If you're going to be getting
buses and stuff, you're going toget stuck I think.
So my advice would be hire a caror team up with someone, get a
(07:58):
camper van or hitchhike. Hitchhike, of course, a little
nod to our previous show there. But what I want to talk to you
about today, mate, is 2 fantastic things that I've done
over the last few weeks. Now one of them is a great walk
New Zealand, very famous for itsgreat walks.
I don't know if you're aware of them, but a lot of people come
(08:19):
to New Zealand specifically to do them.
Yeah, I know there's some socialmedia influences right now.
Walking from the Shire, the set of Hobbiton to Mount Doom, the
place that stood in for Mount Doom in of course you know, one
of the best film trilogies of all time.
Oh, really? OK, that's cool.
Yeah, I, I unfortunately haven'tdone any of the Great Walks in
(08:40):
their entirety. However, I have walked 25
kilometres of one of them. OK, And how was that for you?
Of course. You're a very good Walker.
I've watched you walk for many, many hours.
How'd it go? It was great, but I mean, it
didn't come without his challenges.
So I'll just quickly set the scene for you.
The Abel Tasman National Park, which is in the top, very top
(09:01):
corner at the tip of the South Island, just around the corner
from Nelson. Wonderful, wonderful National
Park. It's stunning coastlines, dense
forest, beautiful sandy beaches and to, to quote the Abel Tasman
National Park website, some lushnative Bush.
Oh yeah, Bush native Bush and Abel Tasman.
(09:26):
But yeah, mate, there are 11 great Walks, Check them out on
the Internet, maybe I'll list them in the description, give
you a little link there to go and look at and love that.
But the Abel Tasman National Park, the, the walk itself is
about 60 KS in One Direction. It goes through a number of bays
and as I said, it is a coastline.
So it's really, really cool. There's two places, one's called
(09:47):
Kai Territory and one's called Marahow.
Now there are ferry taxi services from those locations
that will basically take you up the coastline to different
points and, and inlets and bays drop you off and then you can
walk back or catch another boat back.
That's pretty cool, isn't it? Really cool.
Yeah, man. So I would highly recommend
(10:10):
doing that. I'm telling you this, and I
didn't know any of this until I turned up at Marra House.
You could just imagine me walking into the, the reception
of this very taxi business and saying, oh, what, what what goes
on here? Like how, how do we do the walk?
And they said, oh, you've got toget on a boat.
We can book it all for you. And I was looking up and down
the coastline at the different bays that I wanted to get to,
(10:31):
and one of them is called Bark Bay.
I sort of said what's what's themost beautiful?
You know, what do most people do?
How much time have we got? Oh, it's got to be Bark Bay,
mate. It's absolutely flapping
stunning. Well, I didn't get there until
about midday, which is late apparently, and I said OK, well
that's fine, I'd like to go to Bark Bay and maybe I'll just
walk all the way back. And the lady at reception said
(10:54):
walk all the way back. From Bark Bay.
You won't. You won't get there until 1:00
PM because the ferry taxi will take an hour and then it's 25
kilometres. So I think you'll find you'll be
walking back in the dark. Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow, you
idiot. How's it 25 kilometres?
She said. No, trust me, it takes 8 hours.
(11:16):
Definitely don't do it. I was like, it takes someone
with a little bit more experience than you. 8 hours so
I hope you've not got work in the morning because he he won't
do that. But I fancy a challenge.
You know me, mate. 25 KS. I mean, that's you can do that
in an afternoon, can't you? 25 KS.
I could do it if I was on a one of those Lime electric scooters.
(11:39):
Yeah, mate, I've seen so many ofthose around Auckland.
I know these scooter things. Do you know?
I've thought to myself, I know this is a massive tangent, but
it's quite funny. There are a few people I've seen
knocking around nowadays and they are riding one of those.
It's just one wheel with some like a platform.
Have you seen that? It's quite futuristic.
Yeah, they're called hoverboards, yeah.
Right. And then, and then guys wearing
(12:00):
helmets and elbow pads and knee pads and the guy went past me
the other day dressed like that or something out of RoboCop or
something. And and I remember thinking to
myself, I am so far from being that guy.
Yeah, RoboCop, of course, a man who was in a severely
disfiguring incident that led the police force to
(12:21):
cybernetically enhance him in order to help fight crime.
I think you are quite dissimilar.
But anyway, some people are justinterested in some things that
some people aren't, and I don't know what would have to happen
in my life to make me think thatI want to ride one of those
dressed like that. I mean, it's been a difficult
journey for me just to get you interested enough in technology
(12:44):
to do kind of basic things on the podcast, like film yourself
and record your voice. So yeah, I don't.
I can't see a world in which youturn up to the show on a
hoverboard. Well, maybe, maybe I would have
needed a hoverboard to do this 25K.
So I'll talk to you a little bitabout the experience.
Got on the boat, no problem at all.
(13:05):
We even nipped out to a little island and saw some seals, so
some wildlife in that region. Wow.
And then we scooted them, scooted down the coastline.
I was dropped off in Bark Bay. I did speak to the driver of the
boat and he said I think you'll be all right, mate.
But it was that kind of, you know, he was, he was an older
guy. He's probably in his 60s or 70s.
He's been around the block and he he was too blase.
(13:27):
I thought, oh fuck it, now I'm going to be yeah.
He said yeah, you'll be fine, mate.
And then he turned around and you heard him under his breath.
Go, that pommy's fat. He started playing.
Another one bites the dust on the boat speaker system.
He shouted off the boat. I hope you've got your
headlight, you prick. So anyway, God, it's on.
I can't get across to you mate, how stunning this place is.
(13:49):
It's absolutely breathtaking. You've got these coves and bays,
white sandy beaches, beautiful crystal Clearwater and then
lovely. It's it's like rainforest,
almost lovely as waterfalls in there, Little Rock pools,
Cleopatra's pool, Mark that one down.
I'll put that in the descriptionas well.
But I, I absolutely booked it because I was so worried that I
(14:09):
was going to be walking in the dark.
I motored on really, really quickly.
My cousin, who you remember I was with, she was dropped off as
well and she chose to just enjoythe afternoon at the beach like
like a normal person. So there, there we were, we
separated, she was on the beach,she was sunbathing, swimming,
doing all that sort of stuff. She got picked up by a ferry
(14:30):
taxi on the way back. And then I was left to my own
devices and essentially speed running this track.
Now I would argue that you should probably take a little
bit more time than I did becauseto do to do like 40% of the
track in one afternoon is maybe not appreciating it in the way
it deserves to be appreciated because there are campsites and
(14:50):
huts that you can stay at. Sure, you can have a BBQ, sure
you can enjoy the beach, and youshould probably explore the
little offshoots and tangents and things like that, but I
didn't have that much time, Allen.
You didn't need it to be breathtaking at all, did you?
Because your oxygen was being depleted at the speed with which
you were running. Yeah, exactly.
Right. So I was moving much quicker
than most people. I was overtaking a hell of a lot
(15:12):
of people on the track. The track, by the way, is
absolutely Immaculate. So the guy said to me on the
boat, the driver, he said, oh, even if you can't see that,
well, the track's pretty obvious.
And I was like, that's isn't that an oxymoron?
That sounds quite paradoxical, but I ended up catching these
two, these two French girls and we we did the last five KS all
(15:32):
together. You ended up catching them?
Yeah. I told you not to do that, Adam.
Like like a Pokémon. Like, yeah, you on your walk in
Abel Tasman with a butterfly net.
I ended up catching these two French girls and now my Pokedex
is full to the brim. With the with the famous
(15:56):
Tripology tab. Like, are you a hitchhiker?
No, no, we're walking. I caught up with them and they
would do. They were doing the same thing
as me actually. They had not realized how long
the walk was going to be and they were a little bit concerned
about getting back with some light.
So we were a good team. They did tell me towards the end
actually, that we were we were walking much faster than they
(16:16):
felt comfortable. You were running on all fours
behind them like a werewolf. But we, we had such an amazing
chat. They're really, really inspiring
people. They were, you know, a lot
younger than our, they're 2021 years old.
They've come on a working holiday visa and that kind of
stuff's just music to our ears, isn't it, mate?
Because to, to meet people that have not only, I guess found out
(16:37):
about working holiday visas, butalso taken the plunge.
And you know, they've done theirfair share of shit jobs, whether
it's fruit picking or they're trying to make ends meet to pay
for their vehicle and all this sort of thing.
So I always find little interactions like that.
It's so inspiring. Yeah, it's inspiring, it's
beautiful, and it's the second story of yours in a row on the
podcast that's ended with a female French person, so that's
(16:58):
nice as well. Good stuff, man.
I don't know about you, but I desperately, desperately need
after that to go on a brief meditation break.
I hate arriving at an airport and needing to prove I have an
onward ticket before boarding the plane.
It's the worst. I don't know when I'm going to
leave the country. OK, I'm the traveller.
(17:18):
That's why instead of buying a flight, we use a flight rental
service. Yeah, it's so convenient.
You just find a flight, rent it for 48 hours.
So it's the assistant, they let you on the.
Planeonwardticket.com They're a great company.
Click the link in the description.
Support for the podcast. Like a European ensconced within
a butterfly net, allow your conscious mind to return into
(17:39):
your brain as we embark on the second-half of Adam's New
Zealand adventures. There I was mate, I was.
I just finished the walk and by the way, by the way, I did it
with a couple of hours to spare.I even saw the sunset, so if
yeah, I can see the look on yourface, you're surprised.
Did you have the ultimate satisfaction of approaching the
(18:00):
woman that had given you the advice not to do it and say back
sooner than you think? Answer.
No, no, no, she had already finished work.
Unfortunately I was back after office hours, but I was still
back an hour and a half earlier than she said I would be.
So that was it. But wave the French girls
goodbye. Not before they hurt my
feelings, though inadvertently it was.
You know, we talk often on the podcast about whether we feel
(18:22):
old now as the elder statesman of travel, being in hostels with
people who are half our age and all that sort of stuff.
Well, yeah, half, half my age. I mean, you should really
shouldn't be out here. But this is, this is actually
the first time when I've picked up on something that has made
me, made me think, oh, shit, I'mno longer as young as I thought
I was. We were sort of saying goodbye
(18:44):
and this sort of stuff just as they were telling me a story
about someone they had met. And following on from the story,
I sort of said, oh, yeah, how they were telling me about a
guy. And I said, how old was he?
And they said he was about your age.
I was like, I was like, oh. Out well, but was the story
about the guy that he was sort of like aged or?
I don't know. No, it's just about the fact
(19:05):
that there was, I mean, that's how they they, it was distinct,
right? The difference like I'm not from
their generation and and they know that and now I know that is
it because we're backpacking andstuff and we always sort of
claim that backpacking has no age and that we're it's all
about being like minded and sharing similar interests and
this kind of stuff. When someone sort of reminds you
no no, we're from different generations mate.
(19:26):
Put the put the butterfly net away.
Yeah, well, you're not used to that sort of thing.
You're not used to that sort of thing because people often think
you're really young. I mean, I get such varying
accounts of my age. Sometimes people think I'm the
age I am. One girl guessed that I was
almost eight years older than I am.
I nearly threw out of a boss. It was terrible.
(19:47):
I had to just turn around and not speak to her anymore.
I was disgusted. Eight years.
Yeah, I've. Woken up a bit late and I was a
bit puffy and kind of, you know,feeling a little bit down in the
dumps. I've been surfing.
I'd been in the sun. She went, well, I think you're
probably 38. I was like, get away from me.
That's really harsh. Have you thought about shaving
(20:07):
your beard? Yes, just to try and look
marginally younger. Bit much from her, I didn't
didn't like her very much anyway.
No, no, no mate, moving swiftly on man.
We have got one of the best things you can do in New Zealand
to talk about. Now, I'm not going to make you
guess what it is because I'm notquite sure you've actually done
(20:28):
it and I don't want to make you jealous, but I might be about
to. Have you heard of Milford Sound?
Yes, I have heard of Milford Sound and no, I've not done it.
So there's two main sounds in inNew Zealand.
One of them is the sound of my voice, one of them is doubtful
sound, and the other one, the more famous one, is of course
(20:49):
called Milford Sound. And what is a sound?
It's a great question. It's a great question.
But I feel like places that are named Sound, are they always
fjordlands or are they sort of inlets and groups of islands?
Or I really don't know the answer to that question.
That's very honest of you, but they are places in New Zealand.
They are, yeah. They're both places and to my
knowledge, Doubtful Sound and and Milford Sound are both on
(21:13):
the coast. Milford Sound, amazing, amazing
area honestly. I mean, it is almost sort of
Jurassic. You can imagine pterodactyls
flying around and you know, other than it really does look
like that. And the Fiordland National Park,
which is down in the the sort ofsouthwest of the South Island is
super green. It rains quite often.
(21:36):
And this is, again, me being sort of underprepared.
I didn't really know going into Milford Sound what it was or
what there was to do there. But I didn't know that I wanted
to go. And I knew that it was somewhere
that was very popular. We were told, you know,
countless times you got to go toMilford Sound, you should really
do it. So for anyone who doesn't know
what there is to do in Milford Sound, it's an area where the
vast majority of people will go to this.
(21:58):
I mean, it's, it's not even really a village.
And then get on a cruise on, on a boat organised sort of boat
trip with 10s of other tourists.And then for two hours you
cruise around through the Fiordland National Park going up
to, you know, various waterfallsand other, other things to see.
There's a few animals and stuff knocking around.
(22:19):
And then we actually paid, we paid $155.
Mitre Peak was the name of the cruise company.
We're not getting paid, but I think you should definitely use
them because they were fantastic.
And we went all the way out pastthe mouth of the inlet and then
into the ocean. And that is apparently the
furthest that any of the boats offering the tours go.
(22:40):
And then we turned around and wecame back down and we went, you
know, along the coast and saw some other bits and bobs.
So All in all mate, it was absolutely fantastic.
But something happened on that boat that took my breath away.
OK, you've spent a lot of this episode with no breath, I've
noticed. I'm interested in hearing what
it was. I'll tell, I'll tell you there's
(23:00):
something happened. Actually mate, I'll just run
through the details. Right.
Milford Sound takes about four hours to get there from
Queenstown. There's another town that's
quite close by called TNL. There's a few great walks you
can do around there. I'll put those in the
description as well, but this show is not about those.
You can book all your tickets online.
It's pretty straightforward to do.
I was doing it like frantically the night before and it was
(23:23):
quite an interesting journey to get there.
Actually. We ended up sleeping in the car
just down a side Rd. me and my cousin.
And and then we, we booked, we booked the earliest ferry, which
was I think 850 from memory in the morning.
But in order to, in order to drive all the way there, we had
to get up at some ridiculous time like 5:30 AM and then just
jumped, you know, straight into the driver's seat and get all
(23:46):
the way there. So it's pretty fun.
We were obviously very tired anda little surprised.
This is thing that took my breath away #1 I was very, very
glad to know that with my Topek they they offer free coffee and
tea, which is a very nice service, isn't it?
Not only is it one of the cheapest tickets, they also
(24:06):
offer free coffee and tea. So you know how much coffee I
drink in a day. I mean, they're losing money.
I'm on my third cup already thismorning.
My goodness, you can tell by theway you're shaking.
No. So my cousin, my cousin, bless
her, so funny. I said we were there on the
boat. We were with all the other
people. We were looking at the
incredible surroundings otherworldly, honestly.
(24:28):
And I said, I said, Dan, I'm going to go and grab a coffee,
Do you want one? And she said, yeah, yeah, yeah.
She knows I take mine black. I said, how do you want yours
again? She said, oh, can you can you
just do me kind of a Milky coffee with oat milk.
And I went with oat milk use. Pterodactyl milk from one of
those over there. I said with oat milk, they're
(24:49):
not going to have oat milk. It's a free service.
And she was like, all right, that's fair enough, but just in
case there is oat milk, I'll have oat milk.
If there's not, I'll just have normal milk.
I walked in, I saw the array of things on the table.
You've got your coffee and sachets.
You've got tea bags and sachets.You've got sugar in sachets.
You've got those tiny little wooden stirrers.
And then guess what was next to it at the end of the table?
(25:12):
An oat in a harness being milkedby three Kiwi men.
It was, it was a jug with the words on it.
Oat milk. I was like, this is this is
unbelievable. We live in a different time,
Alan. Yeah, I mean, we're in the
future, aren't we? We've got AI, we've got oat
milk. It was normal milk as well, but
(25:34):
I couldn't believe it. So there I came back, you know,
a tail between my legs. There's your oat milk.
It's. A very 19th century attitude
from you describing cow's milk as normal milk.
What's abnormal about oat milk, Adam?
Well, how much calcium is there in oat?
Milk too much for you, that's why you.
Go for normal milk. Yeah, I don't know what the
(25:57):
definition of milk is anymore. But anyway, let me set the
scene. We're herring along in this boat
again. Stunning surroundings.
It is like we are in the middle of of Jurassic Park film set or
something. It starts to rain and, and it's
getting heavy as well. It's, it's getting to the stage
where it's actually uncomfortable.
(26:17):
Now half of the people on the boat are inside, they're taking
cover. The other half of the people are
split between the very back of the boat taking videos as you
would as a tourist. And then there's about eight of
us that have braved it at the front.
Now we're, we're being weatheredas we speak, right?
I mean, the, the rain's coming in at a sort of a 45° angle.
(26:38):
It's it's getting difficult to open your eyes so.
Is that an allergic reaction to the open?
I can't open my eyes. You know, I may be, I may be a
couple of seconds away from, from going back inside because
it's almost unbearable. And then all of a sudden I hear
this gasp from the very front ofthe boat.
(27:01):
I run over, stick my head over the side and 1 dolphin is up and
down chase it. I can see the look on your eyes
mate. It was absolutely magical.
There was a dolphin that was going so fast, swimming so fast
right next to the boat. I can't even get across to you
how close it was. It was ridiculous.
It was so I feel like it was dangerous for the dolphin to be
that close, but it was almost like it was, it was, it was
(27:23):
having fun with it. So it would go quite deep and
then we'd think, oh, we can't see it anymore.
And then all of a sudden we'd just see, you know, it's body
come closer to the surface, surface revealing itself.
And it was, it was rapid. I don't think I've ever seen
anything swim so fast because the, the boat was going at a
rate of knots. And then I got my camera out,
started filming it. You know, I wasn't just, you
(27:44):
know, I was actually crying at this point.
I was so moved. And, and then it did one
almighty jump and then back in and it was, it was there at the
front of the boat for about 10 minutes.
It was so, so magical. And it was amazing that only
eight of us got to see it. I mean, sometimes I don't really
want that to add to the oar and the wonder, but the fact that
(28:04):
about 90% of the people on the boat missed it, yeah, made it a
bit more special. I can see how that would be the
case, yeah. Is that your first wild dolphin
you've ever seen? No, no, no.
I've seen quite a few wild dolphins.
But it was the best one you've ever seen.
I think that that is probably the first time when I've
experienced so close. And I mean the dolphin really
was about as close as I am to this wall and we're talking
(28:28):
about a few metres away. It really was just over the edge
of the boat. Adam there, by the way, pointed
to a wall that's off camera thatno one, including me could see.
So thanks. It was about as close as you are
to the wall. So that was.
Only a few metres, right? Yeah, the the wall is a few
metres away and I've just so wrapped up in in this dolphin
(28:51):
story, honestly made reliving it, it it makes me emotional
because it is probably the firsttime I've seen so much
personality in in a dolphin. It was it was incredible.
It was just having fun with it. It was it was loving the
attention it was showing off. You know, it was going down for
as long as us to make us think that it wasn't going to come
(29:12):
back up. And then it would come up and do
a huge jump, like fully out of the water, its entire body, and
then back do. You think it was deliberately
toying with you, teasing you? 100 percent, 100%, yeah, yeah,
nice. Yeah, a little look at the.
I've got a video to prove it. I mean, I'm just going on the
Instagram. You can bet your bottom dollar
you. Had a look at the camera.
Well, I. Mean you make your own minds up.
You have to go to the gram over the next few days and I'll pop
(29:33):
it on there that. Cheeky little bottlenosed flirt.
It really was magical, mate. It really was.
And then when, when, you know, after 10 minutes or something, I
mean, it got so long. I thought, all right, yeah,
you've done your bit. You can.
The dolphin got long. No, no, no.
Like an extendable dolphin. It went on for so long and and
then of course it went off and did its own thing.
(29:55):
I don't really know what dolphins do when they're not on
camera. They.
Go short again. But then, then the lady who was
running the boat, she came over to us and said, you know, that
you really are very lucky that doesn't happen even every week.
So the fact that you've seen thedolphin like that right at the
front of the boat and for that long that that long of a
dolphin, I mean you don't see those very often.
(30:17):
I love that for you mate. Has it in given you like an
interest in aquatic creatures ofthe mammalian and fish variety?
Because I know New Zealand's a place where you can also see
great white sharks. Oh, really?
Great white sharks. I think so.
I think I have heard that they do great white sharks tours, but
they're not allowed to use churnto attract the shark, so they
(30:37):
use heavy metal music instead because the vibrations get the
sharks all riled up. Yeah.
I mean, I'll be honest, I was going to take up surfing, but
now that you've said that, I probably won't.
You could combine those two hobbies, great white spotting
and surfing. Surfing, Yeah, no, I seeing an
animal up close like that. And you know, we've spoken on
(30:59):
previous episodes about when I was in Borneo and I, you know,
watched that orangutan devour all those figs on the fig tree.
It's it, it feels, it feels sortof so, so intimate.
And very rarely the, I think most people when they come into
contact with animals, I know you're very different because
you used to live in the Amazon, but and you know, we're talking
like cats and dogs really, aren't we?
(31:20):
And maybe the odd rabbit and a Guinea pig.
Yeah. I mean, if you're working in a
research laboratory, yeah. But you know, the vast majority
of people, the average Joe or orJoe's will will just end up with
with sort of a domesticated animal.
But when when you see an animalspersonality shine so brightly.
Yeah, yeah, you have a very visceral reaction.
(31:41):
Cried at a clouded leopard, was sick at an orangutan, and now
you've got emotional again at a dolphin.
So I. Was I wasn't sick at the
orangutan. That's what you told me.
You said it nearly made you throw up.
No, no it did. I didn't want to sigat it.
Right. I thought you were doing it like
an attack. No, No.
To defend yourself. I.
Went I crept behind a tree, crept behind a tree, you know,
(32:04):
far away from where the orangutan was and you know, did
it discreetly. Destroying its habitat with your
acidic. Story consents.
Cop for this. I was apologising to all the Nat
Geo videographers. Sorry guys.
Good Lord, Adam, yeah. There you have it mate.
You know, I I know much more nowabout the Able Tasman track and
(32:26):
the National Park and that wholesort of coastline and I know
much more about Milford Sound and what there is to do there.
So if you are interested then head to our website to
apologypodcast.com, jump on the old contact form section and
send us an e-mail. I'll tell you everything I know.
Totally. We love to hear from you guys,
so definitely do that. We'll talk to you, we'll get
back to you, we'll reply, we'll read stuff out on the podcast.
(32:48):
Instagram, We've got instagram.com/tripology podcast
at Tripology Podcast. My goodness, it's ever such a
nice account. We post highlights from the
show. Sometimes there's a little bonus
thing. You can see me bouncing up and
down in a seat in a bus in Brazil.
That might be nice if you're into that sort of thing.
And right now, Adam, what are wegoing?
To do, we're going to go off to the Lost and Found section,
patreon.com/apology podcast, where I'm going to tell Alan
(33:10):
about a curveball that I was served up very recently.
I can't wait to hear the curveball with my ears as we go
to the lost and found section right now, but we'll see you
guys next week. See you there.
Bye. Bye.
(33:55):
None.
After nowhere near enough research.
Play the theme music. Hello and welcome to this
episode of Tripology. I'm Alan and I'm here with the
(00:24):
ever underprepared. Yes, Adam.
Mate, I've done no preparation. What's going on?
Well, that's unlike you. I think of the two of us, you
usually are the more prepared guy.
Yeah, you would have thought so,mate.
I've been, I've been in New Zealand now for about 6 weeks
and I've been very, very fortunate to have experienced
many things over the last six weeks.
(00:45):
But very unlike me, I've done absolutely no research going
into these expeditions or, you know, these tourist attractions,
these national parks that we're going to talk about today.
And hopefully this episode couldbe somewhat informative so that
people listening to it when theycome to New Zealand, they have a
little bit more information thanI did.
Yeah. OK, cool.
(01:06):
Excited to hear about it. Normally I consider you almost
erring on that ever so tricky corner of being over prepared.
Often times you'll come at me with a plan where you're like,
right today I want to eat this plate, they want to go here, I
want to see that thing and I've just got I get taken up in the
swell of the current of your preparation.
(01:28):
I just think, well, I'll just dothat then, because that sounds
like a very holistic plan. So it's interesting that as soon
as we've parted ways, we've leftour company.
Now all that preparation, the Whirlpool of your planning, has
gone out the window. But.
Do you think that you're more like a go with the flow kind of
guy out of the two of us? You are, I suppose.
And maybe now that you're not here, I'm trying to sort of
(01:49):
channel my Allen energy. Well, I'm sort of a parasitic
young traveller. I sort of find a group that has
a plan and like a dirty little Leech, find myself on the
underside of their shoe, suckingout the energy from what they
want to do. I pride myself on being able to
sit at a hostel breakfast table over here, a plan being made,
and then I sort of saunter over.I put my chest down for a
(02:12):
moment. I go sort her over and go, oh,
hello, I can't help but over here that you're going on a
hike. Perhaps you might need me to
come along? Yeah, I suppose you're right,
man. I mean, I I should take a leaf
out of your book. And this is something I didn't
know whether I was going to admit live on air, but I
probably should because I do seethis as me talking to my best
(02:32):
mate about some travel woes. Now, I would go as far to say
that saying goodbye to people ona regular basis is our bread and
butter. Is that not fair?
I butter my bread with it daily.Yes, goodbye.
I'll see you never again. And I like to think that I take
that sort of stuff in my stride.You know, travel communities are
(02:54):
fairly transient. People come and go and you're in
different places all the time, sometimes for different lengths
of time, rather frustratingly, because you bond with people in,
you know, sometimes just a few hours and then the next day
you're waving them goodbye. And I feel like I'm quite
resilient to that sort of stuff because of the experience and
the length of time that we've been travelling.
However, over the last couple ofweeks I've met some exceptional
(03:18):
people and I've found it incredibly difficult to say
goodbye to them. OK, Yeah.
Do you think that your resilience to saying goodbye has
been built up over time, hardened by a life on the road?
Or do you think there's a naturally sociopathic
equivalency in your brain that allows you to easily be like
goodbye and then be detached, and that's sort of being broken
(03:38):
now? Yeah, I don't know what it is,
mate. I mean, you don't, you don't
necessarily have the skill set going into travelling or
backpacking for a long time and it's maybe something you develop
over time. I I think of myself as maybe a
Mountain Lion, quite solitary and I'm able to do a lot of
things independently and I like spending a lot of time on my
own. Mountain lions, of course, also
(04:00):
known by the name Cougar. Yeah, I mean, maybe I'm slightly
more sociable than a Mountain Lion because you, you rarely
ever see them mixing and mingling, do you?
But I've just been, I've just been hit quite hard.
And maybe it's maybe to drill down into the situation a little
bit further and give you some context.
I've stayed stationary in Auckland, whereas people are are
(04:22):
moving through Auckland, so maybe that's the difference is
that I'm waving goodbye to people who are going on to do
different things and I'm the onewho's staying put.
Yeah, there's two sides of a travel coin, isn't there, 'cause
people often messages and they're like, oh, I'm a really
sociable, attachment style person.
I'm worried about my friends back home, I'm worried about
drifting relationships, that sort of thing.
(04:43):
Both are true though, right? It's like you can form really
strong attachments really quickly whilst traveling, and
often you also have to be prepared that those attachments
are fleeting and momentary and do like fade into obscurity as
people move around the country that you're in.
But it is possible to maintain those relationships long term.
All of my best friends are people that I've met traveling,
(05:05):
so different thing, isn't it? Yeah, no, it is a different
thing. And I think noticing that I've
been hit much harder than usual is, yeah, something I've been
thinking about over the last fewweeks, because when, when the
person leaves, and I mean, I've even helped some of them go to
the airport. So it's, it's really quite a a
(05:25):
strange thing. I mean, they're definitely going
and I've been the person at the very last moment that they're
going to be in this country, right.
So when I get home on my own, I sort of feel all sad and glum
and think to myself, it's actually really shit that
they've left now. And maybe because the highs are
so high, the lows are much lower.
(05:46):
But. Well, it's partly because you're
staying put in New Zealand, so you're sort of slowly moving
into your Kiwi life and you're going through what a lot of the
people in our lives usually go through when we meander off to
our next occasion. You've kind of done a role
switch, haven't you? Yeah, yeah, I suppose you could
say that. You could say that.
And these fleeting moments, I, if you only ever have positive
(06:09):
interactions with people, then Iguess your lasting memory is, is
always going to be positive. And it's easy to sit there and
think, God, if there was just one more week or if there was
one more month, or if that person who came into my life was
living here as well, I'm sure that an amazing relationship or
bond could form. So maybe, maybe in some scenario
short and sweet is. Better, Definitely.
Yeah. I would love the audience who
(06:30):
was listening to this show rightnow to give us a message,
because I think it's one of the common backpacker laments, this
sort of feeling of, oh God, I love that person so deeply, so
quickly, and now they're gone. I'd love to hear the stories
about that. If people can go to
tripologypodcast.com, there's a form on there where you can just
write. Tell us about your sort of
relationship woes, both platonicand romantic.
(06:54):
Yeah, I think that's going to bereally good because as you've
heard me pour my heart out there, 10 years on 10, this will
be the 11th year travelling the world and living abroad.
And you know, I'm still not immune to it.
I just do still suffer from thissort of stuff.
So yeah, get those. Get those messages in.
Yeah, totally love to hear from you.
We'll read them out on the show.Adam.
How is everything else, mate? You say you're staying put in
(07:15):
Auckland. Are you enjoying New Zealand?
Have you seen a Kiwi bird yet? Have you eaten a Kiwi fruit yet?
Have you gone and done any hackers or anything like that?
What have you been up to? I've been up to loads mate, I've
been up to loads. I am staying put in Auckland for
a little while, just laying low,seeing what the options are like
and seeing where I want to base myself.
As you know, I did have the lovely Lulu, the car that I was
(07:37):
driving around and I was, I was able to get to the, you know,
far away places that not many people are able to get to unless
they do have a hire vehicle because the infrastructure here
is not great. If you're going to be getting
buses and stuff, you're going toget stuck I think.
So my advice would be hire a caror team up with someone, get a
(07:58):
camper van or hitchhike. Hitchhike, of course, a little
nod to our previous show there. But what I want to talk to you
about today, mate, is 2 fantastic things that I've done
over the last few weeks. Now one of them is a great walk
New Zealand, very famous for itsgreat walks.
I don't know if you're aware of them, but a lot of people come
(08:19):
to New Zealand specifically to do them.
Yeah, I know there's some socialmedia influences right now.
Walking from the Shire, the set of Hobbiton to Mount Doom, the
place that stood in for Mount Doom in of course you know, one
of the best film trilogies of all time.
Oh, really? OK, that's cool.
Yeah, I, I unfortunately haven'tdone any of the Great Walks in
(08:40):
their entirety. However, I have walked 25
kilometres of one of them. OK, And how was that for you?
Of course. You're a very good Walker.
I've watched you walk for many, many hours.
How'd it go? It was great, but I mean, it
didn't come without his challenges.
So I'll just quickly set the scene for you.
The Abel Tasman National Park, which is in the top, very top
(09:01):
corner at the tip of the South Island, just around the corner
from Nelson. Wonderful, wonderful National
Park. It's stunning coastlines, dense
forest, beautiful sandy beaches and to, to quote the Abel Tasman
National Park website, some lushnative Bush.
Oh yeah, Bush native Bush and Abel Tasman.
(09:26):
But yeah, mate, there are 11 great Walks, Check them out on
the Internet, maybe I'll list them in the description, give
you a little link there to go and look at and love that.
But the Abel Tasman National Park, the, the walk itself is
about 60 KS in One Direction. It goes through a number of bays
and as I said, it is a coastline.
So it's really, really cool. There's two places, one's called
(09:47):
Kai Territory and one's called Marahow.
Now there are ferry taxi services from those locations
that will basically take you up the coastline to different
points and, and inlets and bays drop you off and then you can
walk back or catch another boat back.
That's pretty cool, isn't it? Really cool.
Yeah, man. So I would highly recommend
(10:10):
doing that. I'm telling you this, and I
didn't know any of this until I turned up at Marra House.
You could just imagine me walking into the, the reception
of this very taxi business and saying, oh, what, what what goes
on here? Like how, how do we do the walk?
And they said, oh, you've got toget on a boat.
We can book it all for you. And I was looking up and down
the coastline at the different bays that I wanted to get to,
(10:31):
and one of them is called Bark Bay.
I sort of said what's what's themost beautiful?
You know, what do most people do?
How much time have we got? Oh, it's got to be Bark Bay,
mate. It's absolutely flapping
stunning. Well, I didn't get there until
about midday, which is late apparently, and I said OK, well
that's fine, I'd like to go to Bark Bay and maybe I'll just
walk all the way back. And the lady at reception said
(10:54):
walk all the way back. From Bark Bay.
You won't. You won't get there until 1:00
PM because the ferry taxi will take an hour and then it's 25
kilometres. So I think you'll find you'll be
walking back in the dark. Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow, you
idiot. How's it 25 kilometres?
She said. No, trust me, it takes 8 hours.
(11:16):
Definitely don't do it. I was like, it takes someone
with a little bit more experience than you. 8 hours so
I hope you've not got work in the morning because he he won't
do that. But I fancy a challenge.
You know me, mate. 25 KS. I mean, that's you can do that
in an afternoon, can't you? 25 KS.
I could do it if I was on a one of those Lime electric scooters.
(11:39):
Yeah, mate, I've seen so many ofthose around Auckland.
I know these scooter things. Do you know?
I've thought to myself, I know this is a massive tangent, but
it's quite funny. There are a few people I've seen
knocking around nowadays and they are riding one of those.
It's just one wheel with some like a platform.
Have you seen that? It's quite futuristic.
Yeah, they're called hoverboards, yeah.
Right. And then, and then guys wearing
(12:00):
helmets and elbow pads and knee pads and the guy went past me
the other day dressed like that or something out of RoboCop or
something. And and I remember thinking to
myself, I am so far from being that guy.
Yeah, RoboCop, of course, a man who was in a severely
disfiguring incident that led the police force to
(12:21):
cybernetically enhance him in order to help fight crime.
I think you are quite dissimilar.
But anyway, some people are justinterested in some things that
some people aren't, and I don't know what would have to happen
in my life to make me think thatI want to ride one of those
dressed like that. I mean, it's been a difficult
journey for me just to get you interested enough in technology
(12:44):
to do kind of basic things on the podcast, like film yourself
and record your voice. So yeah, I don't.
I can't see a world in which youturn up to the show on a
hoverboard. Well, maybe, maybe I would have
needed a hoverboard to do this 25K.
So I'll talk to you a little bitabout the experience.
Got on the boat, no problem at all.
(13:05):
We even nipped out to a little island and saw some seals, so
some wildlife in that region. Wow.
And then we scooted them, scooted down the coastline.
I was dropped off in Bark Bay. I did speak to the driver of the
boat and he said I think you'll be all right, mate.
But it was that kind of, you know, he was, he was an older
guy. He's probably in his 60s or 70s.
He's been around the block and he he was too blase.
(13:27):
I thought, oh fuck it, now I'm going to be yeah.
He said yeah, you'll be fine, mate.
And then he turned around and you heard him under his breath.
Go, that pommy's fat. He started playing.
Another one bites the dust on the boat speaker system.
He shouted off the boat. I hope you've got your
headlight, you prick. So anyway, God, it's on.
I can't get across to you mate, how stunning this place is.
(13:49):
It's absolutely breathtaking. You've got these coves and bays,
white sandy beaches, beautiful crystal Clearwater and then
lovely. It's it's like rainforest,
almost lovely as waterfalls in there, Little Rock pools,
Cleopatra's pool, Mark that one down.
I'll put that in the descriptionas well.
But I, I absolutely booked it because I was so worried that I
(14:09):
was going to be walking in the dark.
I motored on really, really quickly.
My cousin, who you remember I was with, she was dropped off as
well and she chose to just enjoythe afternoon at the beach like
like a normal person. So there, there we were, we
separated, she was on the beach,she was sunbathing, swimming,
doing all that sort of stuff. She got picked up by a ferry
(14:30):
taxi on the way back. And then I was left to my own
devices and essentially speed running this track.
Now I would argue that you should probably take a little
bit more time than I did becauseto do to do like 40% of the
track in one afternoon is maybe not appreciating it in the way
it deserves to be appreciated because there are campsites and
(14:50):
huts that you can stay at. Sure, you can have a BBQ, sure
you can enjoy the beach, and youshould probably explore the
little offshoots and tangents and things like that, but I
didn't have that much time, Allen.
You didn't need it to be breathtaking at all, did you?
Because your oxygen was being depleted at the speed with which
you were running. Yeah, exactly.
Right. So I was moving much quicker
than most people. I was overtaking a hell of a lot
(15:12):
of people on the track. The track, by the way, is
absolutely Immaculate. So the guy said to me on the
boat, the driver, he said, oh, even if you can't see that,
well, the track's pretty obvious.
And I was like, that's isn't that an oxymoron?
That sounds quite paradoxical, but I ended up catching these
two, these two French girls and we we did the last five KS all
(15:32):
together. You ended up catching them?
Yeah. I told you not to do that, Adam.
Like like a Pokémon. Like, yeah, you on your walk in
Abel Tasman with a butterfly net.
I ended up catching these two French girls and now my Pokedex
is full to the brim. With the with the famous
(15:56):
Tripology tab. Like, are you a hitchhiker?
No, no, we're walking. I caught up with them and they
would do. They were doing the same thing
as me actually. They had not realized how long
the walk was going to be and they were a little bit concerned
about getting back with some light.
So we were a good team. They did tell me towards the end
actually, that we were we were walking much faster than they
(16:16):
felt comfortable. You were running on all fours
behind them like a werewolf. But we, we had such an amazing
chat. They're really, really inspiring
people. They were, you know, a lot
younger than our, they're 2021 years old.
They've come on a working holiday visa and that kind of
stuff's just music to our ears, isn't it, mate?
Because to, to meet people that have not only, I guess found out
(16:37):
about working holiday visas, butalso taken the plunge.
And you know, they've done theirfair share of shit jobs, whether
it's fruit picking or they're trying to make ends meet to pay
for their vehicle and all this sort of thing.
So I always find little interactions like that.
It's so inspiring. Yeah, it's inspiring, it's
beautiful, and it's the second story of yours in a row on the
podcast that's ended with a female French person, so that's
(16:58):
nice as well. Good stuff, man.
I don't know about you, but I desperately, desperately need
after that to go on a brief meditation break.
I hate arriving at an airport and needing to prove I have an
onward ticket before boarding the plane.
It's the worst. I don't know when I'm going to
leave the country. OK, I'm the traveller.
(17:18):
That's why instead of buying a flight, we use a flight rental
service. Yeah, it's so convenient.
You just find a flight, rent it for 48 hours.
So it's the assistant, they let you on the.
Planeonwardticket.com They're a great company.
Click the link in the description.
Support for the podcast. Like a European ensconced within
a butterfly net, allow your conscious mind to return into
(17:39):
your brain as we embark on the second-half of Adam's New
Zealand adventures. There I was mate, I was.
I just finished the walk and by the way, by the way, I did it
with a couple of hours to spare.I even saw the sunset, so if
yeah, I can see the look on yourface, you're surprised.
Did you have the ultimate satisfaction of approaching the
(18:00):
woman that had given you the advice not to do it and say back
sooner than you think? Answer.
No, no, no, she had already finished work.
Unfortunately I was back after office hours, but I was still
back an hour and a half earlier than she said I would be.
So that was it. But wave the French girls
goodbye. Not before they hurt my
feelings, though inadvertently it was.
You know, we talk often on the podcast about whether we feel
(18:22):
old now as the elder statesman of travel, being in hostels with
people who are half our age and all that sort of stuff.
Well, yeah, half, half my age. I mean, you should really
shouldn't be out here. But this is, this is actually
the first time when I've picked up on something that has made
me, made me think, oh, shit, I'mno longer as young as I thought
I was. We were sort of saying goodbye
(18:44):
and this sort of stuff just as they were telling me a story
about someone they had met. And following on from the story,
I sort of said, oh, yeah, how they were telling me about a
guy. And I said, how old was he?
And they said he was about your age.
I was like, I was like, oh. Out well, but was the story
about the guy that he was sort of like aged or?
I don't know. No, it's just about the fact
(19:05):
that there was, I mean, that's how they they, it was distinct,
right? The difference like I'm not from
their generation and and they know that and now I know that is
it because we're backpacking andstuff and we always sort of
claim that backpacking has no age and that we're it's all
about being like minded and sharing similar interests and
this kind of stuff. When someone sort of reminds you
no no, we're from different generations mate.
(19:26):
Put the put the butterfly net away.
Yeah, well, you're not used to that sort of thing.
You're not used to that sort of thing because people often think
you're really young. I mean, I get such varying
accounts of my age. Sometimes people think I'm the
age I am. One girl guessed that I was
almost eight years older than I am.
I nearly threw out of a boss. It was terrible.
(19:47):
I had to just turn around and not speak to her anymore.
I was disgusted. Eight years.
Yeah, I've. Woken up a bit late and I was a
bit puffy and kind of, you know,feeling a little bit down in the
dumps. I've been surfing.
I'd been in the sun. She went, well, I think you're
probably 38. I was like, get away from me.
That's really harsh. Have you thought about shaving
(20:07):
your beard? Yes, just to try and look
marginally younger. Bit much from her, I didn't
didn't like her very much anyway.
No, no, no mate, moving swiftly on man.
We have got one of the best things you can do in New Zealand
to talk about. Now, I'm not going to make you
guess what it is because I'm notquite sure you've actually done
(20:28):
it and I don't want to make you jealous, but I might be about
to. Have you heard of Milford Sound?
Yes, I have heard of Milford Sound and no, I've not done it.
So there's two main sounds in inNew Zealand.
One of them is the sound of my voice, one of them is doubtful
sound, and the other one, the more famous one, is of course
(20:49):
called Milford Sound. And what is a sound?
It's a great question. It's a great question.
But I feel like places that are named Sound, are they always
fjordlands or are they sort of inlets and groups of islands?
Or I really don't know the answer to that question.
That's very honest of you, but they are places in New Zealand.
They are, yeah. They're both places and to my
knowledge, Doubtful Sound and and Milford Sound are both on
(21:13):
the coast. Milford Sound, amazing, amazing
area honestly. I mean, it is almost sort of
Jurassic. You can imagine pterodactyls
flying around and you know, other than it really does look
like that. And the Fiordland National Park,
which is down in the the sort ofsouthwest of the South Island is
super green. It rains quite often.
(21:36):
And this is, again, me being sort of underprepared.
I didn't really know going into Milford Sound what it was or
what there was to do there. But I didn't know that I wanted
to go. And I knew that it was somewhere
that was very popular. We were told, you know,
countless times you got to go toMilford Sound, you should really
do it. So for anyone who doesn't know
what there is to do in Milford Sound, it's an area where the
vast majority of people will go to this.
(21:58):
I mean, it's, it's not even really a village.
And then get on a cruise on, on a boat organised sort of boat
trip with 10s of other tourists.And then for two hours you
cruise around through the Fiordland National Park going up
to, you know, various waterfallsand other, other things to see.
There's a few animals and stuff knocking around.
(22:19):
And then we actually paid, we paid $155.
Mitre Peak was the name of the cruise company.
We're not getting paid, but I think you should definitely use
them because they were fantastic.
And we went all the way out pastthe mouth of the inlet and then
into the ocean. And that is apparently the
furthest that any of the boats offering the tours go.
(22:40):
And then we turned around and wecame back down and we went, you
know, along the coast and saw some other bits and bobs.
So All in all mate, it was absolutely fantastic.
But something happened on that boat that took my breath away.
OK, you've spent a lot of this episode with no breath, I've
noticed. I'm interested in hearing what
it was. I'll tell, I'll tell you there's
(23:00):
something happened. Actually mate, I'll just run
through the details. Right.
Milford Sound takes about four hours to get there from
Queenstown. There's another town that's
quite close by called TNL. There's a few great walks you
can do around there. I'll put those in the
description as well, but this show is not about those.
You can book all your tickets online.
It's pretty straightforward to do.
I was doing it like frantically the night before and it was
(23:23):
quite an interesting journey to get there.
Actually. We ended up sleeping in the car
just down a side Rd. me and my cousin.
And and then we, we booked, we booked the earliest ferry, which
was I think 850 from memory in the morning.
But in order to, in order to drive all the way there, we had
to get up at some ridiculous time like 5:30 AM and then just
jumped, you know, straight into the driver's seat and get all
(23:46):
the way there. So it's pretty fun.
We were obviously very tired anda little surprised.
This is thing that took my breath away #1 I was very, very
glad to know that with my Topek they they offer free coffee and
tea, which is a very nice service, isn't it?
Not only is it one of the cheapest tickets, they also
(24:06):
offer free coffee and tea. So you know how much coffee I
drink in a day. I mean, they're losing money.
I'm on my third cup already thismorning.
My goodness, you can tell by theway you're shaking.
No. So my cousin, my cousin, bless
her, so funny. I said we were there on the
boat. We were with all the other
people. We were looking at the
incredible surroundings otherworldly, honestly.
(24:28):
And I said, I said, Dan, I'm going to go and grab a coffee,
Do you want one? And she said, yeah, yeah, yeah.
She knows I take mine black. I said, how do you want yours
again? She said, oh, can you can you
just do me kind of a Milky coffee with oat milk.
And I went with oat milk use. Pterodactyl milk from one of
those over there. I said with oat milk, they're
(24:49):
not going to have oat milk. It's a free service.
And she was like, all right, that's fair enough, but just in
case there is oat milk, I'll have oat milk.
If there's not, I'll just have normal milk.
I walked in, I saw the array of things on the table.
You've got your coffee and sachets.
You've got tea bags and sachets.You've got sugar in sachets.
You've got those tiny little wooden stirrers.
And then guess what was next to it at the end of the table?
(25:12):
An oat in a harness being milkedby three Kiwi men.
It was, it was a jug with the words on it.
Oat milk. I was like, this is this is
unbelievable. We live in a different time,
Alan. Yeah, I mean, we're in the
future, aren't we? We've got AI, we've got oat
milk. It was normal milk as well, but
(25:34):
I couldn't believe it. So there I came back, you know,
a tail between my legs. There's your oat milk.
It's. A very 19th century attitude
from you describing cow's milk as normal milk.
What's abnormal about oat milk, Adam?
Well, how much calcium is there in oat?
Milk too much for you, that's why you.
Go for normal milk. Yeah, I don't know what the
(25:57):
definition of milk is anymore. But anyway, let me set the
scene. We're herring along in this boat
again. Stunning surroundings.
It is like we are in the middle of of Jurassic Park film set or
something. It starts to rain and, and it's
getting heavy as well. It's, it's getting to the stage
where it's actually uncomfortable.
(26:17):
Now half of the people on the boat are inside, they're taking
cover. The other half of the people are
split between the very back of the boat taking videos as you
would as a tourist. And then there's about eight of
us that have braved it at the front.
Now we're, we're being weatheredas we speak, right?
I mean, the, the rain's coming in at a sort of a 45° angle.
(26:38):
It's it's getting difficult to open your eyes so.
Is that an allergic reaction to the open?
I can't open my eyes. You know, I may be, I may be a
couple of seconds away from, from going back inside because
it's almost unbearable. And then all of a sudden I hear
this gasp from the very front ofthe boat.
(27:01):
I run over, stick my head over the side and 1 dolphin is up and
down chase it. I can see the look on your eyes
mate. It was absolutely magical.
There was a dolphin that was going so fast, swimming so fast
right next to the boat. I can't even get across to you
how close it was. It was ridiculous.
It was so I feel like it was dangerous for the dolphin to be
that close, but it was almost like it was, it was, it was
(27:23):
having fun with it. So it would go quite deep and
then we'd think, oh, we can't see it anymore.
And then all of a sudden we'd just see, you know, it's body
come closer to the surface, surface revealing itself.
And it was, it was rapid. I don't think I've ever seen
anything swim so fast because the, the boat was going at a
rate of knots. And then I got my camera out,
started filming it. You know, I wasn't just, you
(27:44):
know, I was actually crying at this point.
I was so moved. And, and then it did one
almighty jump and then back in and it was, it was there at the
front of the boat for about 10 minutes.
It was so, so magical. And it was amazing that only
eight of us got to see it. I mean, sometimes I don't really
want that to add to the oar and the wonder, but the fact that
(28:04):
about 90% of the people on the boat missed it, yeah, made it a
bit more special. I can see how that would be the
case, yeah. Is that your first wild dolphin
you've ever seen? No, no, no.
I've seen quite a few wild dolphins.
But it was the best one you've ever seen.
I think that that is probably the first time when I've
experienced so close. And I mean the dolphin really
was about as close as I am to this wall and we're talking
(28:28):
about a few metres away. It really was just over the edge
of the boat. Adam there, by the way, pointed
to a wall that's off camera thatno one, including me could see.
So thanks. It was about as close as you are
to the wall. So that was.
Only a few metres, right? Yeah, the the wall is a few
metres away and I've just so wrapped up in in this dolphin
(28:51):
story, honestly made reliving it, it it makes me emotional
because it is probably the firsttime I've seen so much
personality in in a dolphin. It was it was incredible.
It was just having fun with it. It was it was loving the
attention it was showing off. You know, it was going down for
as long as us to make us think that it wasn't going to come
(29:12):
back up. And then it would come up and do
a huge jump, like fully out of the water, its entire body, and
then back do. You think it was deliberately
toying with you, teasing you? 100 percent, 100%, yeah, yeah,
nice. Yeah, a little look at the.
I've got a video to prove it. I mean, I'm just going on the
Instagram. You can bet your bottom dollar
you. Had a look at the camera.
Well, I. Mean you make your own minds up.
You have to go to the gram over the next few days and I'll pop
(29:33):
it on there that. Cheeky little bottlenosed flirt.
It really was magical, mate. It really was.
And then when, when, you know, after 10 minutes or something, I
mean, it got so long. I thought, all right, yeah,
you've done your bit. You can.
The dolphin got long. No, no, no.
Like an extendable dolphin. It went on for so long and and
then of course it went off and did its own thing.
(29:55):
I don't really know what dolphins do when they're not on
camera. They.
Go short again. But then, then the lady who was
running the boat, she came over to us and said, you know, that
you really are very lucky that doesn't happen even every week.
So the fact that you've seen thedolphin like that right at the
front of the boat and for that long that that long of a
dolphin, I mean you don't see those very often.
(30:17):
I love that for you mate. Has it in given you like an
interest in aquatic creatures ofthe mammalian and fish variety?
Because I know New Zealand's a place where you can also see
great white sharks. Oh, really?
Great white sharks. I think so.
I think I have heard that they do great white sharks tours, but
they're not allowed to use churnto attract the shark, so they
(30:37):
use heavy metal music instead because the vibrations get the
sharks all riled up. Yeah.
I mean, I'll be honest, I was going to take up surfing, but
now that you've said that, I probably won't.
You could combine those two hobbies, great white spotting
and surfing. Surfing, Yeah, no, I seeing an
animal up close like that. And you know, we've spoken on
(30:59):
previous episodes about when I was in Borneo and I, you know,
watched that orangutan devour all those figs on the fig tree.
It's it, it feels, it feels sortof so, so intimate.
And very rarely the, I think most people when they come into
contact with animals, I know you're very different because
you used to live in the Amazon, but and you know, we're talking
like cats and dogs really, aren't we?
(31:20):
And maybe the odd rabbit and a Guinea pig.
Yeah. I mean, if you're working in a
research laboratory, yeah. But you know, the vast majority
of people, the average Joe or orJoe's will will just end up with
with sort of a domesticated animal.
But when when you see an animalspersonality shine so brightly.
Yeah, yeah, you have a very visceral reaction.
(31:41):
Cried at a clouded leopard, was sick at an orangutan, and now
you've got emotional again at a dolphin.
So I. Was I wasn't sick at the
orangutan. That's what you told me.
You said it nearly made you throw up.
No, no it did. I didn't want to sigat it.
Right. I thought you were doing it like
an attack. No, No.
To defend yourself. I.
Went I crept behind a tree, crept behind a tree, you know,
(32:04):
far away from where the orangutan was and you know, did
it discreetly. Destroying its habitat with your
acidic. Story consents.
Cop for this. I was apologising to all the Nat
Geo videographers. Sorry guys.
Good Lord, Adam, yeah. There you have it mate.
You know, I I know much more nowabout the Able Tasman track and
(32:26):
the National Park and that wholesort of coastline and I know
much more about Milford Sound and what there is to do there.
So if you are interested then head to our website to
apologypodcast.com, jump on the old contact form section and
send us an e-mail. I'll tell you everything I know.
Totally. We love to hear from you guys,
so definitely do that. We'll talk to you, we'll get
back to you, we'll reply, we'll read stuff out on the podcast.
(32:48):
Instagram, We've got instagram.com/tripology podcast
at Tripology Podcast. My goodness, it's ever such a
nice account. We post highlights from the
show. Sometimes there's a little bonus
thing. You can see me bouncing up and
down in a seat in a bus in Brazil.
That might be nice if you're into that sort of thing.
And right now, Adam, what are wegoing?
To do, we're going to go off to the Lost and Found section,
patreon.com/apology podcast, where I'm going to tell Alan
(33:10):
about a curveball that I was served up very recently.
I can't wait to hear the curveball with my ears as we go
to the lost and found section right now, but we'll see you
guys next week. See you there.
Bye. Bye.
(33:55):
None.
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