Aloha!
Today's update comes to you from the tropical Pacific island of Oahu, which is significant for a number of reasons:
1) We are back in the Northern Hemisphere,
2) We have finally crossed over the International Date Line,
3) The cars are driving on the right hand side of the road, and
4) Our credit card doesn't charge us enormous fees for each use.
All this adds up to the fact that we are indeed back in the US of A, and to be quite honest it is joy to know we are on the homeward trail even after exploring so many amazing places on this crazy planet of ours.
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| Basil Plant, Steph, Sean, Carol and Joe in Glenorchy |
Our arrival in Hawaii was preceded by three terrific weeks of gallivanting around New Zealand with Sean, Steph, a basil plant, and an imaginary penguin which I will describe shortly (I will describe the three weeks, not the penguin), but I would first like to point out that our arrival in Hawaii has historical significance since the legendary
Captain Cook also found his way to the Hawaiian Islands in 1778 after exploring New Zealand. We'll end the clever historical significance stuff now however, since Cook was also killed in Hawaii by the locals after a slight break-down in communication. Nevertheless, here we are after a simple 27 hours of travel from Auckland to Brisbane to Cairns to Guam to Honolulu, having left Auckland on the afternoon of the 26th, Guam on the morning of the 27th, and subsequently arriving in Honolulu on the evening of the 26th. Great stuff, and neither Carol or I needed to cry during the entire ordeal.
Anyway, the real purpose of this entry is to catch you up on the balance of our time in New Zealand, so let's begin:
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| Camping out in Glenorchy |
Against all odds, the rain that had finally caught up with us in Queenstown (we had experienced uncannily good weather since we arrived in NZ) actually stopped the next day, and after loading up the car with groceries from the local supermarket and meat pies from the local petrol station, we hit the main road that runs along the massive length of
Lake Wakatipu (the longest lake in NZ) towards
Glenorchy, a town with a name which auto-spellcheck wants to change to "selenography" which is a word that I didn't know existed until today
(Selenography is the study of the surface and physical features of the Moon). Before entering Glenorchy, we passed a road-sign declaring impressively that Glenorchy was "The Gateway to Paradise". It certainly was a beautiful place, but we all agreed that it was rather un-kiwi-like to be so unabashedly prideful about one's town until we realized that Paradise was the next town on the road and the only way to get there was to go through Glenorchy.
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| At the summit of Mt. Alfred with Lake Wakatipu in the background |
Not certain what to do in Glenorchy, but knowing that all four of us were all itching to climb up into the stunning mountain ranges that surrounded us on three sides, we asked a local shop owner who mentioned an unmarked trail-head, something about needing 8 hours, and then pointed to a picture of a small conical peak between the bigger ranges called
Mt. Alfred. Since we still had a good chunk of day left, we decided to go for it, so we filled our water bottles from the Rees River (milky blue/white color from the
glacial flour), found a small gravel car park off the main road which we deemed most likely to be the trail-head, and launched ourselves into the forested roots of Mt. Alfred.
It was not your average day-hike, but turned out to one of the most rewarding views we have seen in the past nine months. After pushing up some pretty steep trail through the densely wooded hillside we suddenly broke through the treeline and found ourselves in a field of alpine grass that raced steeply uphill to meet somewhat rocky cliff faces which were a little tricky to navigate but eventually brought us up to a ridge where we felt like we were on top of the world! An entire 360 degree view of the valley from Lake Wakatipu to the glaciers of Mt. Earnslaw was visible that day, and under the influence of the breathtaking scenery of golden grasses rippling in the wind and snow caped peaks it wouldn't have been at all surprising to see riders of Rohan appear on the horizon (yes, I am still a geek).
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| Joe atop Mt. Alfred |
After an amazing lunch of cup-o-soup, baked beans, tuna, and more oddly assorted foods on top of the peak we picked our way back down to the minivan and headed back to Glenorchy for a celebratory meal of
real food. At least, that was the plan. We ended up eating an assortment of fried bar snacks in Glenorchy at a pub which was the only place still serving food by the time we actually arrived in town. We would have pulled up a tad earlier if it hadn't been for the fact that we left Mt. Alfred with our trusty basil plant still sitting on the roof of the minivan, and had to backtrack a few miles in order to find him again. We felt a little like bad parents having treated our plant with such carelessness, but at least we didn't do the same thing to the imaginary penguin. The pub dinner was just perfect though, and
hit the spot as good as anything before we climbed into our tents and fell asleep wondering whether breakfast for the fifty second grade kids on field trip that were camped out just yards away from our tents would be quite as chaotic and loud as their dinner the night before.
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| Moments before embarking on our Great Walk |
Oatmeal with just a hint of soap detectable by
sensitive palates was what powered us up the next morning, and we were in especially high spirits since we were now all wearing ridiculous animal hats which Carol and I had purchased in Pokhara, Nepal for this occasion. Don't ask us why, it just seemed like the right thing to do. So, with a song in our hearts and our underwear hanging up to dry throughout the entire car we headed off to
Fiordland (New Zealand for Fjordland) and Te Anau where our Milford Track Great Walk adventure would begin.
First stop in Te Anau was the Department of Conservation where we picked up the transportation and track hut tickets that we had booked back in October, a decision of Carol's which was brilliant since the DOC limits the number of walkers to about 7,000 each year and the limited spots fill up months ahead of time. The rest of our day was spent organizing food for the track, watching
Ata Whenua (a pretty neat film presentation of the Fiordland scenery), and thinking about how soaked we would be getting on our hike since it was once more starting to rain.
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| Just starting out on the Milford Track |
Handing the keyboard over to Carol:
The Milford Track covers 53.5k in four days and travels from Glade Wharf on Lake Te Anau to Sandfly Point on the Milford Sound and was famously quoted as being "the finest walk in the world" by poet Blanche Baughan in 1908. Milford Sound is a popular New Zealand tourist destination and known for being very wet with an average rainfall of up to eight meters per year! (which incidentally is seven times the
average rainfall in Olympia, Washington). So much water can make hiking challenging but also quite spectacular with waterfalls being charged up and rivers full. With this much average rainfall, we were geared up and ready for a very wet four days but as it turned out, we ended up having four days of perfect sunshine! We loved the warm sun and being able to enjoy all the views throughout the track that are often covered in cloud and fog.
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| Enjoying the powerfully green lichen on the trail |
This backpacking trip was quite unique for various reasons. For one, it is such a popular destination that the whole track is extremely well organized with well kept trails, three "huts" to stay in along the way with gas stoves and bunk beds (tent camping is not allowed), hut wardens to look after the hikers, can only be walked in one direction, and is shared with 36 other hikers who also pre-booked months in advance. Joe and I were not used to such organization in the wilderness, but appreciated how easy it made the trip and gave us new friends to chat with in the huts over shared freeze dried backpacking meals for dinner.
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| The Herd atop MacKinnon |
From the dock, the Milford Track meanders up the Clinton River for the first couple days to its source and then shoots up to 1154m at
MacKinnon Pass which gives some spectacular mountain and glacier views before dropping down past several more rivers and waterfalls, including the impressive 298m tall
Sutherland Falls (tallest in NZ) which we bravely ventured into. The fierce torrents of water and mist directed sideways at us from the base of the falls, and crushing water coming down on us directly below and behind the falls made for a very fun, cold and wet experience!). We also crossed numerous swing bridges over the clearest waters I've ever seen (and that you can safely drink from).
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| Crossing over MacKinnon Pass on our way to Milford Sound |
Most of the track is surrounded by bright green mosses, ferns and lichens as well as Beech and Rimu trees. Along the way are creatures like the rare Blue Duck, Weka birds (flightless birds that look a bit like less cute Kiwi Birds), friendly entertaining birds like the Fantail and up at the higher altitudes, the endangered
Kea mountain parrots that will try to steal and eat all your possessions if you're not careful. Joe actually thought a Kea had made off with his clothes one morning only to discover another tramper had kindly placed them inside to dry. The rivers are also full of life including rainbow trout and freshwater eel, and because the waters are so clear you can sit on the banks and watch every detail of their colorful bodies as they swim around. We attempted to go for a dip in the river after our first day of hiking. It was a very chilly and refreshing experience (we spent about 10 seconds in the water total) with the biggest challenge actually being avoiding the tiny, pesky, biting sand flies which left us with lots of itchy bites.
Clinton Hut sported some massive
hula hoops made from PVC pipe which kept us entertained while we waited for the sun to go down after a pretty leisurely 1.5 hour walk the first day, and to build up a bit more appetite Sean and Joe dusted off their running shoes to scout out a bit of the next day's trail.
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| Hula Hoops at Clinton Hut |
Hut wardens also kept us smiling along the way with their mandatory but comical talks each night, and a bit of camaraderie formed within our group as we learned more about who we were traveling alongside. We four quickly became the 'people with the animal hats', there was 'the guy who eats tons of meat', 'Connor the fisherman', 'the man with the bad ankle', the 'nice family from Washington', and of course 'the Australians', 'the Germans', and 'the token Kiwis'. Jen, our warden at
Mintaro Hut informed us that the largest number of hikers each year come from the US, followed closely by those from Colorado in the US. The hike was wonderful from start to finish and when we reached Sandfly Point, we boarded a small boat which took us a short distance to the town of Milford Sound.
Handing the keyboard to Joe:
That night we feasted at the best and only restaurant in Milford Sound, got dominated by Sean and Steph in
foosball, and made it back to the tents (which we were excited to be using for the first time after carrying them for the entire hike) in time for the first rain drops that we had seen since we had started our hike. Since the Milford Track doesn't actually give walkers any views of Milford Sound (weird), we thought it would be appropriate to hop on one of the many boats that push people around the waters of the Sound itself. However, it must be admitted that the exact level of appropriateness that we set for this excursion was somewhat in error due to the fact that we had completely lucked out with regards to the weather for the past four days. If we had already experienced even a few hours of the average precipitation for Fiordland, we might have thanked our lucky stars, called it good, and hit the road. We human beings hardly ever know what is truly good for ourselves; the rain that did soak us to the bone on our boat and hid the mountains also did a wondrous thing that we hadn't anticipated; it charged up all the waterfalls that had been reduced to trickles over the past week of low rainfall. We got to see Milford Sound in all its glory that day, with waterfalls and rivers cascading down every mountainside like bolts of lightening. Individual falls were difficult to identify there were so many, and all standing out against vertical black walls of rock whose tops were obscured by the clouds. A
yellow crested penguin sighting, hauling in the crayfish (huge lobster-like creatures) catch, eating our complimentary BLT sandwiches, and pulling right up to the base of Stirling Falls were also highlights of the cruise. We loved it, and with the aid of the strongly aromatic but affective "drying room" back at Milford Lodge, we were able to the better part of our clothes, packs, shoes, socks, etc. dry before catching the bus back to Te Anau that afternoon. On the way, our crew was unexpectedly joined by a
wayward hippopotamus who is still looking for its original owner. Dinner was a progressive affair that night consisting of a round of meat pies (venison, steak + mushroom + bacon, lamb and mint sauce!) at
Miles Better Pies followed by mounds of spaghetti, garlic bread, and butternut squash that we cooked up in the holiday park kitchen. It was glorious.
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| One of many amazing NZ birds we saw and heard |
Even while on vacation admin is occasionally required, and we used some time the next morning at the local library to take care of a few minor logistical details like: where we were going to drive that day. Being instantly recognizable because we were wearing an elephant, yak, lion, and owl on our heads, we were stopped in town by a few other people we had met earlier on the track, and even our bus driver from the day before as we were leaving the library. Good times.
From Te Anau our trip was a whirlwind of hopping in and out of the van and eating
ANZAC biscuits and more meat pies as we cruised to Slope Point, the very southernmost point of the island, discovered the Curio Bay petrified forest, Cathedral Caves (where we avoided getting stuck inside the caves by the incoming tide by at least five minutes), Steampunked HQ, Teapotland, more than a few sheep farms, and an unexpectedly muddy road shoulder that would have brought our trip to a messy end if Sean hadn't hopped out and pushed us to freedom.
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| Meat pies hit the spot in Te Anau |
Later, in Dunedin we explored the Otago Peninsula where we ended up spending a few hours building sandcastles, cartwheeling, long jumping, and generally messing about on a deserted beach before finding the world's steepest street after getting lost on what could possibly have been the world's second and third most steepest streets in Dunedin. A classic Kiwi breakfast at the
Penguin Cafe also gave us time to organize one final hurrah before we would have to part ways with Sean and Steph...
Whitewater Rafting!
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| Joe and Sean get drenched in the front row! |
Based on an unscientific survey of tourism leaflets from the twenty-two countries visited on this trip, the five Most Awesome Activities of the modern globetrotter would have to be Bungee Jumping, Zip Line Tours, Sky Diving, Parasailing, and Whitewater Rafting (it appears that
Zorbing and
Fly Boarding are both making attempts to infiltrate this select list, but only time will tell). Anyway, the point is that with Sean and Steph we were able to finally take on at least one of these activities before heading home. Our rafting was on the
Rangitata River which flows through land used in the filming of LOTR, and contains a couple of grade five rapids which we were pretty excited about. The entire day out was a blast, and started out with us sunning ourselves on the porch of the rafting lodge looking out on gorgeous countryside while sipping on coffee and tea. The rafting itself was excellent, made all the more fun by our guide Maddy who informed us that she had inadvertently flipped more rafts that season than any other guide, and a couple of tense moments during which we narrowly avoided adding to her grand total.
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| We're not sure what this was all about, but it seemed cool |
We finished off our time with Sean and Steph in Christchurch which is still recovering from the 6.3 magnitude earthquake that struck in 2011. Downtown is pretty quiet with loads of empty storefronts and damaged buildings, but does have the iconic "
re:start" retail and business area; a few streets with trendy shops creatively designed solely out of shipping containers. For our last night with Sean and Steph we upgraded ourselves from tents and holiday parks to the lovely No. 10 Bed and Breakfast (Sean's first night in a B&B ever), ate snacks and desserts at the lovely
Dux Dine pub and then said farewell to our dear friends (thanks again for the parting gift of
L&P Sour!). We so enjoyed their company, energy, flexibility, creativity, and of course being able to share many South Island New Zealand adventures with them in our goofy animal hats!
Given the length of this update we will draw our NZ time to a close in yet another installment. Thanks once again for catching up with us!!!
- Joe & Carol
