After a great few days in the Mount Cook National Park I left Tuesday morning. One of my friends who has been talking about coming to visit for months also told me he's arriving on Sunday last week which effectively gave me 5 days to play before heading back to Christchurch to meet up. I therefore decided I would do the Twizel and Omarama area and I found this remotely located place on a farm between Twizel and Omarama which seemed like a good base. En route I stopped in Twizel for lunch and to grab a few food supplies for my stay on the Buscot Station, arriving here early afternoon.
The Buscot Station is a pretty sizable dairy and merino sheep farm, previously owned by this retired guy who now solely runs a backpackers accomodation from his home in the farm. His son now runs the farm. About 1.5km off the main road down a dirt track and a further 9km from the nearest town of Omarama it was pretty remote. After checking in I was planning on just relaxing but part of the extensive land was this 1250m peak which he said I could climb. As it was such a nice day I thought why not and headed up through the gully before following the fence line to the snowcapped peak. Being on private land meant I had it all to myself. The views up top were great with Lake Pukaki and the Mackenzie Basin visible one way, and Lake Benmore and the Southern Alps visible as you looked round.
On Wednesday my plan was to visit the Omarama Clay Cliffs which are some fascinating rock pinnacles made out of clay. A combination of the very active fault line they lie on and erosion have shaped these pinnacles. The other person staying at the backpackers gave me lift down there as he wanted to go too. I was able to walk around the cliffs and climb up a few sections although all the recent rainfall and snow made the area very muddy. After visiting the cliffs I headed into Omarama itself and had lunch at the cafe and got some wifi as the Buscot Station didn't have any, before having a little wander around the small town. The owner then picked me up as he insisted I ring him when I needed coming back.
Thursday was a more relaxing day as the weather wasn't as nice. Overnight the hills got a fair bit of snow and the Burkes Pass was closed which is the most direct route to Christchurch from Omarama which wasn't great if that was still the case the following day. The owner did take me off in his car and drove me around the farm which was massive. It was nice to do something despite the weather, and it was very interesting hearing about New Zealand farming from his perspective. The afternoon was basically spent just spent watching trash tv!
Come Friday I left to head back to Christchurch, although in terms of hitchhiking it was pretty ambitious and I wasn't sure how long it would take to get there if at all. After it took me two rides just to get to Twizel I thought it would be a long day although from Twizel some guy took me straight to Christchurch and even dropped me off at the front door of my hostel! It was amazing going through Tekapo and over the Burkes Pass again as there was a lot more snow, although the road was a little icy. After checking into the hostel I just chilled out, with a free day the following day where I just popped over to Riccarton for lunch before watching a couple of rugby games down Hagley Park in the afternoon.
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