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.