11-Day Hike

This picture is of Mt. Cook, which is the largest peak in NZ at 3,754 m. (it's Maori name is Aoraki and literally means "Cloud Piercer") I think it is a fitting way of starting this post that describes the 11-day hike I just finished yesterday as I think it was one of the more memorable pictures in my mind from the trip. In total, I hiked 81 km, cycled 47 km, and kayaked 14 km. Sorry that this is in metric, but over here they won't even listen to you if you try asking for things in miles, feet, etc. The group was 10 people including myself and a Kiwi guide. The others were from Sweden, Finland, France, the UK, and I was representing the ol' Red, White, and Blue. I'll try and summarize everything I saw, experienced, hiked, etc. and give more pictures as it's probably a better way of showing you all the incredible landscapes I was surrounded by each day. The first day of the trip we all met in the center of Queenstown, did some introductions and quickly did our first grocery stop and some other administrative items, including job designation. I was given the easy job of telling people what meal/clean-up duty they were on each day and simply carried around a sheet of paper with the whole grid, which people dreaded each time I took out because they may be the next name to be called to clean up dirty dishes in frigid water in the dark while camping...


Our first hike (6 km) was to the Key Summit on the renowned Routeburn Track in the Fiordland National Park. This park, as well as 3 others all connected in the South Island, are World Heritage Sites, and make up around 20% of the land mass of all of NZ; which means that much of the country is protected for the world under this label, which is pretty crazy to think. We had great views of the Darran Mountains, which you can see in the picture, and saw clouds actually being formed in front of us, rare alpine flowers, and some hanging valleys like the one shown here. These valleys were formed when two glaciers were connected, one carved out the valley and went through, and the other on top melted, leaving a valley "hanging" between the mountain with a glacial lake in it. We stayed at a cool little place called Gunn's Camp and had really basic accommodations in old miner shacks, but the novelty of it was an experience for me and our group started bonding that night over corny, yet effective, ice-breaker activities. The second day we woke up early and most of us went to the kayaking shed next to Milford Sound, got on a bunch of thermals and jackets on (as cold temperatures and rain was an inevitability) while avoiding the onslaught by local sand flies - basically vicious little buggers that bite the crap out of you - and then got into our 2-person kayaks. The total for the day was about 14 km kayaking, and was pretty challenging at first for me as I have only kayaked once or twice, and never with rain pouring down, decent waves and wakes from boats, and high wind. But the views were some of the best I've seen in the country as there are massive land masses jutting out of the sea and clouds hovering all over at low altitudes, with skyscraper-tall waterfalls cascading off these mountainous bodies, and also fur seals swimming all around (saw one that was apparently digesting his food by swimming back and forth along the rocky shore) The day was long and tiring, but well worth it, and we slept at a nice, local campsite. The views here for the sunset were spectacular as some of the ash from the deadly fires in Victoria, Australia were mixing with the air all the way over in NZ and made the sky look like it was on fire (see adjacent picture). The next day we packed for our first overnight hike and I finally experienced what true hiking/tramping was, as I now had a 15 kilo bag on my back instead of the light day bag. But my body and feet soon got used to the extra weight. We made our way up to the Borland Saddle (1000 m) and had some amazing views of the landscape, but very different again from the previous day. It was a lot of tussocky terrain with small ponds here and there, great views of the Fiordland National Park in the distance, and the ever-present, low-lying clouds moving quickly over the ranges and making superb photo opportunities.

Eventually we made our way to the hut we were staying at (the Department of Conservation, similar to our Forestry Service, but massive in size and well-known/respected by the whole country, maintains huts along a lot of their popular paths for trampers (hikers) to use to sleep in) along the Green Lake and made a good pasta with bacon dinner on the burners we carried with us in our bags. It was a great first experience and toe in the water to test out my foray into hiking, camping, basic cooking, close quarters. And that night we did another group game called "Can you do this?" where each person thought of a challenge for the whole group to try and pull off. Mine was a one-arm push-up (which, yes, I did successfully), but the best was Roger's (older guy from the UK) challenge of trying to make it around the whole hut without having your feet hit the ground (see picture of this 6-foot guy attempting the fete).

This finished off Tuesday, our third day hiking, and adding another 10 km to the mental odometer. The following morning we packed up our bags and headed out to hike another 13.5 km through some beech forest and more tussocky basins. I was very tired after these two days as you never really get good sleep while in the huts or camping in tents, as I quickly discovered on this trip. I basically woke up a couple times each night, whether it was due to being too cold, too hot, not being able to move my legs in the mummy-designed sleeping bag, or others snoring. I didn't mind though as I expected it and knew the next day I would be hiking through amazing scenery and this was a small price to pay. We wrapped up the hike, put our bags in the trailer and drove down to the Caitlans Coast, which is renowned for its hector dolphins, yellow-eyed penguins (3rd largest in the world and endangered), massive sea lions, and seals. This area of the country was some of my favorite as there were massive sheep stations mixed in with rolling countryside and beautiful coastal views; knowing that 5,000 miles away on the other side of the water was Antarctica was a cool thought as well. We went through Invercargill and stayed at a cosy crib (NZ summerhouse where a lot of surfers stayed) right on Curio Bay. The next day we did about 5 different shorter walks that totaled 6 km, but was a great rest on our feet and we were able to see the dolphins in Curio Bay, a fossilized forest from 180 million years ago, Surat and Cannibal Bays with the great, beastly-looking male sea lions (bulls), and several yellow-eyed penguins later that night. The penguins were in a cove located on a private farm we were able to go on through the hiking company's contacts and it was awesome to see them swim up from the waves, waddle on to the land, and slowly traverse the grassy hills to go feed their newborn young. And we actually got to see a penguin and it's gray baby coming down the hill at one point. After this we came back to where we were camping and finished making our "hangi" dinner, which is a Maori was of cooking meat and vegetables where you basically dig up a large ditch, get a tepee of fire going, then get the fire to start heating a certain type of stone, put the meat/vegetables in a cage covered with a special cloth, bury this cage on top of the burning hot stones, and then dig up the dirt 2 hours later and you will have great, smokey-tasting food, somehow cooked to perfection without any temperature regulator or timer. We had lamb, chicken, kumara (sweet potato), pumpkin, corn, potatoes, and carrots and they all tasted absolutely delicious.

Friday, Day 6 was our "rest day", but a group of 5 of us decided to do the 47 km section Otago Central Rail Trail. This trail is over 100 km in total and used to be an old railway line that was built in the early 1900's to connect Dunedin (the main city/town in the area) with the other small towns westward to ship livestock and also for people hopping around looking for gold after the first discovery of the rock a bit earlier. The cycling was a lot of fun and we rode through some amazing landscapes once again, changing from tunnels, viaducts, canyon-walled tracks, vast sheep and deer paddocks, and rolling and moundy hills in the distance. The cycling became pretty challenging after we stopped after 30 km and had our break of pints of Speights ("The Pride of the South"). Let's just say that the last 17 km was pretty tough on the legs and I was glad when we could put our bikes away and have our first meal at a restaurant in the bustling metropolis of Alexandra (population: 2400).

Days 7 and 8 were our second overnight hike (24 km total) and were around the Ohau Range and near some spectacular scenery with Lake Ohau in the foreground and some of Mt. Cook National Park and it's snow-capped peaks all the way in the background. These two days were also challenging hiking as there were a lot of steep inclines, especially up through the rocky bowls near the top of the Ohau Range (1915 m). It was a lot of fun though setting up our tents right along the Freehold Creek and being able to doze off to the sound of the water rushing along the rocks and then wake up in the freezing cold, hurrying to put some clothes back on. And it really was unique to live my days at the mercy of the sun and try and cram everything in (cooking, writing, setting up the fire, etc.) before darkness came. We also encountered some wild horses along the way, which made for some great photos with Mt. Cook and other mountains the background (again, very Lord of the Rings as many places and scenery seemed like). On Day 9 (Monday) we drove over to Mt. Cook National Park and did an 8 km day hike to get views of this monstrous mountain that many Kiwis and foreigners have perished trying to climb. Our guide, Kaz, commented in a very serious way that, "You don't conquer the mountain, it simply lets you climb it." Telling us this next to the Alpine Memorial, which had memorials up for many climbers who lost their lives climbing the nearby peaks, was a bit morose, but pretty appropriate. As you can see from the first picture of the post and the one below of Mt. Sefton (3100 m), this park had some amazing scenery and actually was home to 19 of the 27 peaks in NZ that were over 3,000 meters.

We camped by the shores of Lake Pukaki and I was in charge, with Alice's help, to make a chicken satay with vegetables and rice, which was pretty challenging given the equipment (lack thereof) to make the meal, a setting sun, and a wind blowing fiercely into the trailer, blowing out the gas every 5 minutes. At one point, the chicken was still raw, the satay looked like a liquidy dog food, and Alice had severed her finger while cutting carrots as Anders distracted her, probably humorously asking her something about France after asking me about the different football teams what were being referenced in his copy of The World According to Garp. Needless to say, Viki was able to save the day using her innate cooking skills, and the meal come out really well and eaten just before sunset as I set up the ipod speakers to play some tunes (Radiohead and then Miles Davis, bit of a weird mix, but it worked). The final two days went by pretty quickly as we hiked 7 km around the Mackenzie Basin and Mt. Somers on Day 10 and stayed at a very nice hut that Kaz's father-in-law actually helped build as part of the DOC (it seems that a lot of Kiwis have had a hand in helping build or preserve their land). Some people went swimming in the brutally-cold waterfall, while I simply did an ad-hoc "shower" in the creek right outside the entrance to the hut. The next morning we started our last day of hiking checking our the water caves, which were giant boulders that had fallen on each other over streams, forming small caves that you could walk through (Carefully) and also swim if it was a nice day. It was pretty cloudy and misty so our group just walked around and took some photos. We came back to the hut to grab our bags and then set off for the 6 km hike back to the van to end the trip. It ended up being a bit longer than that as we got lost along the way. We had to detour from the parts of bush as there was a certain tree that wasps swarmed to and Anders was allergic to bees. This detour brought us to many places surrounded by Scottish gorse, which was introduced by them when they came over to NZ as good hedging plants, but grew completely out of control and were like little daggers into your skin as you brushed past them (See the up-close shot I took of them after these little bastards tore up my legs). We eventually made our way back thanks to Roger's GPS device and exasperated, flung our bags to the ground and tried to rest, but were immediately met by some wasps and hoards of sand flies and had to pack up quickly and move elsewhere to pack up our gear to end the trip. We drove back, most of the group sleeping, and came into Christchurch to drop everybody off at their respective hostels. I'm staying at the Jailhouse Accommodations right now, which was actually a Dept. of Corrections prison built in the 1880's and recently turned into a brand new hostel. It's really clean, pretty unique, and has a massive amount of DVDs, of which I used this morning to revive myself with The Dude's help. All of us (except for Roger & Anne, who made their way to Hanmer Springs to go to a spa for a couple days) met out at a real good British place for dinner and I had a delicious Murphy's Steak & Stout pie, which really hit the spot.

Overall the trip could not have been more of a success. I met some amazing people (of which I hope to connect with again on a future Europe adventure), saw great scenery and wildlife, became decently skilled at living in the outdoors with basic tools for cooking and sleeping, and did some major exercise in the span of only 11-days. I will now be in Christchurch until Monday morning, when I fly over to Melbourne and start my adventures in Oz, which I'm very excited about as well. I hope all of you are well and I shall be connecting with you soon from Australia.

Justin

134 m

As a couple of you know already from the leak from the presses, I threw myself off of a suspended pod 134 meters (440 feet) down to the Nevis River and was thrust back by the help of a bungy cord. I woke up yesterday and went with two friends to do the Nevis Highwire Bungy at 8:30 am. It is advertised as the 2nd highest in the world behind the Blukrans Bridge in South Africa at 216 m (but I think there actually are two others that are bigger as well per Wikipedia - The Macau Tower at 233 m and the Verzasca Dam in Switzerland at 220 m). Either way, it was maybe one of the best experiences of my life and by far the most intense 9 seconds of adrenaline. We (myself, Alex, and Jay, who goes to Michigan State...) were picked up by a shuttle and were very amped up and respectively listening to our pump-up music on the 45 minute, 4WD trip to the canyon that the Nevis River runs through - I was listening to Zeppelin mostly, but kicked it up to some rap right as our van pulled into the prep. center. We were quickly checked in, harnessed up, and away we went to a metal cage that slowly traverses the wires across the ravine and docks into the jumping pod. I was surprisingly calm the whole time, which was similar to my skydiving experience, and watched as several others went before me as it went from heaviest to lightest. I made sure not to look down, but was entertained by the shrieks and screams from the jumpers before me. Finally it was my turn and I was put into a chair with my back facing the ledge, hooked on to the elastic rubber band that would ultimately preserve my existence, smiled for the camera, and then taken to walk the plank. I scooted along with my legs together like a prisoner with the shackles, and this was the moment that my brain began to process what I was about to do and I became filled with a rush of excitement and nervousness. "3-1-2, go!" And off I went, perfect swan dive into the air and began my free fall. For the first second of the jump your brain does not really know what to do or how to process every sensation that you are feeling - the weightlessness, the air rushing past you, the vision of the ground far below you, and the understanding that you are falling hundreds of feet with just the security of a cord to whip you back before you meet the earth. After the initial second, it is a surreal experience that seems somewhat out-of-body as you continue to fall for the next 7 seconds at speeds of about 128 km/h (80 mph). Finally you feel the tension of the rope pulling you back and you are gently yanked back from your fall and tossed like a rag doll back up to the sky. I was actually laughing towards the end of the fall and when the cord engaged as I couldn't believe the rush I was experiencing. The cord bounced once more and I pulled the strap on my left leg and was rappelled into a vertical position and was wheeled back in by the pulley on the jump pod. When I got into the pod I was met by my two friends as well as other jumpers and people waiting and I just had a massive grin on my face and continued to laugh. It was quite the experience and one that I will never forget (Mom, I was obviously only going to tell you now what I was up to in Queenstown...). I also was able to upload the video of my jump on youtube for your viewing pleasure - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp1CzuGdC20


Although tough to follow an act like bungy jumping, I also made my way down to the Franz Joseph glacier before I arrived in Queenstown. I signed up for the full-day hike, which takes you close to the top of the glacier and you are walking along the ice for about 3 hours. The views of the glacier and the surrounding canyon walls, covered with rich forests and low-lying clouds, were pretty remarkable. The hike itself was a bit slow going as the guide continuously was picking his ax at the ground to make it have better traction for our crampons (sharp clamping gear hooked on to boots). But it was a really unique experience and cool to see the bright blue walls of the glacier as you hiked up and the freezing cold water rushing below some of the crevasses that were formed over thousands of years.




We continued on our drive on the west coast of the south island, which really is beautiful and has sweeping landscapes that change around each bend. Noteworthy stops were along the Haast Pass, which cuts through the Southern Alps and gives spectacular views of Mt. Cook (tallest in NZ at 12,000 feet), Mount Aspiring National Park, and several noteworthy rivers like the Haast and the Makarora). I mean, with this picture here, the photographer should just give up his day job and become a professional postcard creator or the views really are stunning enough that anyone can capture this landscape in its entirety. During these couple days of driving on our way down to Wanaka and Queenstown, there really were so many amazing sites to stop and take pictures. I hope you enjoy the few that I have posted here, but would obviously love to show you the others that I have taken that truly demonstrate how diverse the landscape is in this region. The other picture here is when we stopped at the Blue Pools, which is glacier water flowing through a river with the mountains in the background. We also stopped at an amazing fruit stand on the way in to Wanaka that had many varieties of plums, apples, peaches, nectarines, cherries, kiwi fruit, dried fruit, and maybe the best ice cream I've ever had. They put a bunch of fresh cookies and cream ice cream into a blender with recently picked mixed berries, blend it together, and give you this delicious treat in a cup or cone.





Wanaka is on...Lake Wanaka, and is about an hour or so from Queenstown. It is a really nice, relaxed version of Queenstown, and still has the great views of the mountains and lots of great restaurants, cafes, lakefront paths for tramping, etc. We finally pulled in to Queenstown two days ago in the late afternoon and went straight to the lake to cool ourselves down after the long trip on the A/C-deprived bus. The views in Queenstown are some of the best I've ever seen for a town. The Remarkable Mountains are the backdrop to Lake Wakatipu with forests all around and people doing all sorts of crazy adventure activities (bungy jumping, skydiving, jet boating, canyoning, parasailing, hangliding, etc.). This mountain range is also the only other true north-to-south range in the whole world other than the Smokey Mountains (always helps to pay attention to the driver here and there because sometimes he actually said something important). After bungy jumping, most of us spent the other time relaxing, doing some easy walking trails around the town, chilling by the lake, and getting ready for the next legs of our respective journeys.


I leave tomorrow morning for a 10-day hike that takes me around the bottom southwest corner of the south island, through the Fiordland National Park, the Caitlins, some amazing alpine tracks, the furthest south town of Invercargill and back around to Christchurch. Here is the summary of it for those of you that are curious: http://www.hikingnewzealand.com/hiking-tours-in-new-zealand.htm. So yeah, that's the scoop for now. I won't be able to really update at all until I get back, but until then I hope you are all well and I will talk to you all soon.





Justin

Tramping

So for those of you who don't know, Kiwis use the word tramping to describe hiking, long walks, etc. I titled this post tramping because over the past 4 or so days I have been doing a lot of it through some great national parks here. After Tongariro National Park, our bus headed down to Wellington, the capital, which has a whopping 380,000 people, making it the third largest city in all of New Zealand behind Auckland and Christchurch. We only stopped over for one day here, but I was able to visit the famous Te Pappa museum (lots of interactive exhibits regarding Maori culture, the country's crazy weather, the history of European settlements, etc.) and climb up Mt. Victoria (where the picture of the CBD and harbour is from) where I found the Lord of The Rings scene filmed there. For those of you interested, it was in the first film when Frodo & Sam quickly get off the trail as the rider from Morador passes them on his horse - they hide under the big tree root that I am posing under in the picture. After a quick stint in Wellington, we caught the 8 am ferry through Cook Straight (separates the north and south islands) over to the port town of Picton where most arrivals into the south island come into. There are some great hikes around Picton (including the Queen Charlotte track), but we did not have time to hang around and were picked up and taken through the Marlborough wine region on the way to our final destination, Abel Tasman National Park. The several hour drive was very beautiful and we were all amazed at our first views of the south island. There were miles of large hills covered in vividly green trees, wide plots of farming (including hops, which was really cool to see given my obsession with hoppy brews), tons of vineyards, and, of course, thousands upon thousands of sheep and cows. On our way to the national park, we stopped in Nelson just to pick some more people up. The town is pretty small, but is known for its hippy feel, big art scene, great cafes and restaurants, and a great spot that backpackers use before they hit the national park close by.

We finally got to our accommodation in Marahau, which is the closest town right to the entrance of the 50km+ Abel Tasman coastal trail. The "hostel" was actual a farm, aptly named Old Macdonald's Farm, and was a really interesting little spot with llamas, alpacas, sheep, horses, etc. and pretty basic accommodations; this actually added to the experience as most of us were very tired each day after tramping around that it was nice to kick back, chill, have some drinks around a fire, BBQ, etc. Abel Tasman National Park is named after the Dutch explorer who sailed around Australia in the mid 17th century before he hit New Zealand and has this park, the Tasman Sea, and Tasmania named after him. On the first full day a group of us did the half-day hike, half-day sail option, which worked out very well. We did an 11km segment from the start to the Anchorage beach, where we were met by a catamaran that picked us up. The rest of the day was spent relaxing on the boat, sailing, swimming, and spotting seals (and saw a young "pup" with its mother). The pictures of this national park really do not do it justice as it is absolutely magnificent. The Department of Conversation (DOC) in New Zealand manages to keep all of their national parks in impressively great shape and they actually care for close to 20% of the country's land. Abel Tasman is one of most popular national parks and I could easily see why from the minute I stepped on to the trail. The trail did not change as drastically as Tongariro did, but there were subtle differences that were revealed frequently as I walked through. At first you would be on a hot sandy beach with really fine sand and crystal clear, emerald water, and then straight in to the heart of a dark jungle with lots of Jurassic looking trees, roots all through the trail, and very moist air that acted a much-needed air conditioning. Around the next bend there were rivers with massive boulders (one spot called Cleopatra's pool that you can actually slide down natural slides formed between the rocks), and other variations of trees that all had different feels as I walked through. That first night we went to the Park Cafe (the only bar around) and conveniently a really good reggae band was playing and everyone was dancing and having a good time - the natural surroundings also included locals that had a "deodorant optional" philosophy, which obviously enhanced their fragrance during their frantic dancing & grooving. Another highlight in the town was a great burger joint called The Fat Tui. I had the "Hau burger," which included the following ingredients: beef patty, thick slab of bacon (Peter Luger style), grilled pineapple, beets (yes, beets!), bulgar wheat, tomato, and a great mustard sauce, all topped off with a fried egg. It was truly an amazing burger and was well deserved after the long day of hiking. The second day I actually took the "aqua taxi", which is a speed boat that you can take to different points along the trail. I took it up to the Tonga Marine Reserve spot and hiked the 17km south and met up with the Anchorage spot that I hiked north to on the first day. Overall the coastal track was a great experience and the small-town, rural feel of Marahau and Old Macdonald's Farm made for a solid 3 days. And another amazing sight was the fact that not only does this area get the most sunny days of anywhere in the country, but the low and high tides are the most extreme and make for some awesome photo opportunities as you can see below. The aqua taxi boats actually had to be towed by tractors into the water when it was low tide.

After tramping in Abel Tasman, we got on the bus and headed to the west coast of the south island, which is renowned for its amazing coastal views and also the pesky sand flies, which covertly surround you wherever you are in this region and bite the hell out of you, leaving very itchy bumps (I currently have about 10 on my feet thanks to these little buggers). We stopped at the "pancake rocks" on the way down the coast, which were very large rocks along the beach that look like layers of pancakes after thousands of years of the sea crashing down and altering the landscape. The coastal views were stunning around every bend in the road and reminded me a lot of the backdrop to Peter Jackson's King Kong (I was told he filmed somewhere in the south island, but not sure where) - tall, rolling mountains covered with trees and low-hanging fog that covered the tops gave a very unique and jungle feel. We spent the night in Barrytown, which has the nickname "Barry no-town" and mockingly "Baz-Vegas," as there really is nothing to do there, but was a convenient stop-over point on the way down to the Franz Joseph glacier. I am currently in the town right outside of the glaciers and signed up to do a 6-hour hike tomorrow that will take me all over the icy mammoth - it is 12km long and is one of the fastest moving glaciers in the world. It is also a World Heritage site.

Tune in to the next post as I'm sure I will have sweet as pictures of climbing the ice, scaling down steep and narrow crevasses with icy rivers running underneath - all with pick ax in hand and the sharp, ice-gripping boots.