NZ - South Island with Jamie

Getting on the road Jamie and I headed inland towards Lake Tekapo. It was a stunning day and we were able to watch the mountains slowly growing as we made our approach. The lake itself was yet another perfect glacial display, so intense in colour, so inviting against the backdrop of snow topped mountains and in the foreground a collection of pink, purple and yellow lupin flowers, picture perfect! We drove up Mount John nearby to an observatory and cafe, a very windy cafe and enjoyed panoramic views of the valley. Further on we stayed the night at one of Jamie’s favourite old haunts, Buscot Station, a large sheep and cow farm whose owner, Tony, began taking in backpackers after the loss of his wife. Tony is a well travelled man and loves nothing more than to blether away with all his guests and he takes an interest in everybody. This time we were just transiting through as we headed to Queenstown to make our final preparations for walking the Routeburn Track over the weekend.

The Routeburn Track is one of New Zealand’s ‘Great Walks’ and ideally takes 3 fairly leisurely days to cover it’s 32kms. There are campsites and huts to stay at along the way, all run by the Dept of Conservation and the huts provide basic beds and gas cookers, so we must carry our bedding, food, cooking implements and clothing for all weathers. The track is not a loop and therefore transport is needed to complete it, we opted to have our rental car relocated for us so that we could drive to the start of the track and then have the car waiting for us at the other end.  The people who provide this service are clearly very keen on fitness and the outdoors and in order for them to fulfil their duties the couple are often seen running along the rugged mountain track in all weathers, a route they can complete in 3.5-4 hours, making the rest of us feel pretty lazy!

The Routeburn Track

Day 1 - We started the trek from Glenorchy which is beautifully placed near Paradise! Along at the North end of Lake Wakatipu, surrounded by enormous mountains which all had a fresh dusting of snow from the previous days chilly weather, it’s a stunning place to park your car and head off into the relative wilderness, with the assistance of a well laid path and some huts to sleep in along the way, I am using the term wilderness a little loosely! Up into the trees we tramped, crossing rivers and passing small waterfalls, one of the rivers had a group of canyoners wet-suited up and sliding down the rocks of a waterfall. This was an easy climb of around 1500 feet taking less than 4 hours to reach the first hut, the Falls Hut which was our home for the night. Despite being a lovely sunny day we were chilled through while sitting in the hut for a couple of hours so we decided to make the most of the sun and climbed a few hundred feet further to a lookout point above the hut. From here we had a beautiful view of the hanging valley below us and the surrounding mountains towering over us. The weather forecast for the following day indicated a *severe weather warning* for high winds and heavy rain coming in the afternoon so all residents were advised to be up and out early to avoid the worst of the weather.

Day 2 - Jamie and I were a little leisurely; we were nearly the last to leave the hut at around 8am, so far the weather was holding up and while we’d packed carefully for the impending doom of torrential rain and we set off optimistically in our nice weather clothes. Today’s trek was to involve about 2hours of climbing up 600-700ft to get to the saddle of the hill where we enter a new valley and skirt around the steep mountainside above the tree line for about 2-3 hours before dropping down around 750ft through the shelter of the trees to the next hut. This means that the best view is at the saddle as you move from Mount Aspiring National Park in to Fiordland National Park and that the following couple of hours are very exposed, so strong winds would not be enjoyable. I really don’t enjoy walking in waterproof clothes, less so when it’s uphill, so we motored to the top of the hill, overtaking most of the other people on the way and completed that section in an hour without much difficulty. Approaching the Harris saddle we passed the small Harris Lake which is nestled nicely at the top and got a glimpse into the next valley which was slowly filling with low lying clouds. We skirted our way along the mountainside, over rivers and small waterfalls, grateful to have the chilly wind behind us as the people walking towards us passed by with chilly red noses and cheeks. The views were cracking, a great valley, full of trees, glimpses of the river running along the bottom when the clouds occasionally cleared; we seemed to stay just ahead of an incoming mass of mist which was slowly creeping in along the glen. Eventually we reached the top of the valley which is home to Lake Mackenzie and our next hut. We dropped down into the shelter of the trees and as we neared the bottom the rain began to drizzle down, our timing was not far from perfect, although it meant reaching our destination before mid day. We had little to do for the rest of the day but sit indoors watching the lashing rain and feeling sorry for the people who continued to arrive at various points throughout the day, soaked through. This hut was chilly but someone soon got the fire going and with cups of tea and games of cards we happily whiled away the hours.

That night the resident ranger gave us a talk about various aspects of his job, a legend in this area, Clive has been working this part for around 26 years and returns every summer to take up his post. He entertained us no end, a very funny man he told many stories and had the whole hut (capacity of 50 people) in hysterics. He also added pieces of natural interest, for example, the only flowers growing up that high are white, something that I had noted along the walk. The reason for this is apparently that not butterflies or bees live up there only moths and they pollinate white flowers!

Day 3 - After a short lie-in we got moving and headed out of the Routeburn Track. The day started with a short uphill out of the lake area and then skirted along the mountainside for a couple of hours. The weather was calm and nice so it was an easy trek, the biggest excitement coming in the form of the Earlman waterfall, the biggest waterfall on the track which can be rather large if there has been any rain, in which case there is an alternative route to avoid walking through the downpour of the falls. Having carried our wet-weather gear with us for all this time, Jamie and I decided maybe it was time to use it, so we opted to continue the trek via the waterfall. It was a proper soaking!! We got wet to the skin in seconds, but it was a thrill at the same time, it seems to be perfectly fine to get sodden wet if you choose to do so. We still had plenty walking time to dry off, during which time we were romanced by some Kia’s that were swooping around us and playing in the trees. Towards the end we could hear the sounds of the nearby road with traffic flow and soon enough we popped out of the forest and in to the car park where our car was waiting for us. We’ve reached the end of a fantastic 3-day adventure, what a wonderful walk through some incredible scenery in an amazing country!

We were so close to Milford Sound it seemed silly not to take the drive out there, experience that fantastic drive once more. At the end of it Jamie took a cruise around the sound while I relaxed my feet and read some more of my book. We drove back through the valley and the Homer Tunnel and stayed the night in Te Anau. Jamie got a fishing licence and I chilled out for the next day and we ended up staying there a second night too.

After Te Anau we headed back inland to Mount Cook Village, 55km from the highway this place is tucked away nicely in the mountains. From our accommodation we had stunning mountains views which included the Huddleton Glacier clinging to the side of a steep mountain. We walked up fairly close to the glacier and watched it for a while. Being accompanied by my science boffin brother we had to watch it quite a lot but it paid off as we got to see some activity in the form of either icefall or avalanche, it’s hard to tell which from afar.

We took a walk up the valley towards Mount Cook or Aoraki as it’s known in Maori, there’s a lovely valley walk which takes us past the glaciers and over some suspension bridges and pops out at the end of the Hooker glacier. From here we have a great view of Mt Cook’s lower peak which towers high above all the other mountains and is completely white on top. It looks as though there are several overhanging sections of snow high up on the mountain which would look incredible falling down at some point. At the bottom of the glacier is a small lake with some icebergs floating around, there is a lot of glacial moraine and some of it stacks high in the form of gravel/rock hills and cliffs which is quite dangerous as rock falls may occur at any point. Despite the signs warning of this one tourist thought it a good idea to climb the rock hill, sending pebbles hurtling down over the path that people were taking at their own peril. Not content with just climbing the rock hill he then thought it was a great idea to pick up a large rock and send it over the side, bouncing down the hill, loosening other rocks to follow and creating a new rockfall which then had to cross the path that people were walking along below, no need to point out the stupidity of some people on this planet!

Our next walk took us to the glacial lake at the end of the Tasman glacier, here there are boat tours available to visit the icebergs floating around and get to the edge of the glacier. We sat at the viewing point for well over an hour taking in the sights and enjoying the serenity of the place, the mountains we are surrounded by encapsulate your mind and draw you in to another place where your imagination can take liberties. We left Aoraki Village in order for Jamie to take in some more fishing, during which time we stayed with a familiar face at Buscot Station. Once the fishing was completed we headed back up the road to the East Coast. It was sad to say goodbye to the mountains of the West side but I am sure that the East coast has new adventures in store.

Having driven past Christchurch we wound our way up through the hills to reach the peninsula beyond the city and spend a couple of nights in the small French village of Akaroa. A cute wee seaside town Akaroa has a very calm atmosphere, it’s very pleasant to stroll around the colonial buildings and the aurrounding scenery involves water and hills, two of my favourites! Here we celebrated my 34^th birthday with a couple of beers and a few games of cards; don’t even try to tell me that age is boring me! But Akaroa was the end of the line for our adventures together, Jamie dropped me in Christchurch for a bus while he headed out to the airport, and once again I find a farewell bringing me closer still to the end of my journey... I can hold off the home-coming for a further 12 days yet though!

NZ - South Island taster

To get to South Island I sailed the Cook Strait, across the small channel and through the Marlborough Sounds, a maze of inlets and headlands. I spent a couple of days in Picton, where the boat lands. It’s a great wee town with some lovely local walks around the nearby peninsula and longer walks for anyone with more time. I was coming to the end of my time alone and decided to tackle something which always seems taboo for women, going to the pub alone! So I took myself and my book off to the local Irish bar and sat with a drink, something I’ve never had ‘the bottle’ to do before. By the end of a great night there was a table of 6 of us, who were all alone but sitting together. I realise people do this all the time, but I never had and it was liberating to be able to go out and have such a great night without my friends around me.

Getting the bus to Christchurch I had excitement in my belly knowing that when I reach my destination I will be greeted by friends from home, a far off place I haven’t seen for so many months. After a fun evening catching up we collected out camper van and got on the road for new adventures. We had a stunning introduction to the South Island driving through Arthurs Pass, one of the pathways through the massive mountains surrounding us. We spent our first night camping near a town called Hari Hari on the banks of a beautiful lake with plenty of greenery surrounding us. Our first big day out took us to the two main glaciers of New Zealand tourism, the Fox and the Franz Josef which are situated along the west coast. Taking in the stunning scenery on our walk up to the glaciers, the rivers are fresh and inviting with pristine waters of opal green, the mountains and cliffs around us are home to a wonderful collection of waterfalls, trees and birds and the walking trails are beautiful. While we didn’t take the time or effort to go on to the glaciers, partly due to the dodgy weather in the area, we thoroughly enjoyed walking the routes provided to take in the local scenery. En route to Queenstown we stopped in to view the blue pools which are just slow parts of the river where the crystal clear water collects and create stunning little pools tinted by the glacial colours. It’s tempting to jump right into them, and one of the visitors did that very thing, jumped off the bridge into the water! With a rather cool Antarctic breeze blowing through, a brief dip in a glacial pool is probably a pretty fresh way to start the day!

Queenstown is a lively hub of activity where all manner of extreme sports are available to try out, it is the gateway to Fiordland, the base for ski slopes, the home of bungee jumping and the destination of travellers of all ages with all sorts of different agendas. Our first activity was jet boating, we spent an hour blasting our way up the river behind the Remarkable Mountains, mixing natural beauty and serenity with occasional 360 degree spins! It was both interesting and fun, travelling around 80kmph in a little boat. Afterwards we took the gondola up the hill behind Queenstown, this is the steepest gondola ascent I have experienced and in no time at all we were perched in a clearing on the shelf of a mountain. The views of the surrounding area are breath taking, Queenstown is nestled nicely in this wonderful setting, on the shore of a deep blue lake, surrounded be enormous mountains capped with snow, you can easily see why people flock to this place. From here some people return to the bottom by parasending, we opted for a short blast on their luge and then back into the gondola. The luge is a purpose built track with little buggies you can ride down for a few hundred metres, they can really flee along if you let them, round tight corners and through a wee tunnel, brilliant fun!

Our next day involved a tour out to Milford Sound. It’s a long road and so we decided to let someone else do the driving while we sat back and enjoyed the scenery, driving through deep valleys with steep slopes on either side of us, patches of snow, many waterfalls, rockfalls and the Homer Tunnel before coming out at the end of the sound where we are greeted by the familiar sight of mitre rock and the water stretching out through the sound. We took a cruise around and it was a highlight of the New Zealand trip. Fortunate with the weather we had a calm cruise with plenty time to gape at the cliffs and majestic mountains towering over us. The many waterfalls vary in strength, some thunder over the rocks while others gentle trickle over the edge of a cliff and the wind carries them away in a cloud of mist and rainbows. We were lucky with the wildlife and not only saw lots of furry seals lazing on the rocks but also spotted 6 little crested penguins. These tiny little guys don’t look like they are very much bigger than a bowling pin, they clumsily waddle around the rocks falling over and disappearing for a while before picking themselves back up and coming back into view. They have yellow stripes down the side of their head which is their crest, it’s long haired and makes them look like they have really bushy eyebrows. Such a fantastic sight, I was delighted to have seen them in the wild, they are only spotted when they are between their onshore home, up in the bushes, and the sea as they take some time out on the rocks.

Leaving Queenstown we had to pop in at the AJ Hackett bungee bridge to watch some people taking the plunge. Like a conveyor belt they went, strapped in, pushed off and rescued by the raft on the river below. While it’s not something I would like to experience I found it interesting watching the mini movie about AJ Hackett and his friends, who apparently pioneered the sport, originally by jumping feet first they developed it through the ‘80s including some international jumps and an arrest after jumping from the Eifel Tower.

Driving to Dunedin started out along a fairly slow gorge road alongside another stunning glacial river, no matter how often you see the water here a second glance is always needed as you can never quite believe how fresh and alluring the water looks. Those colours just invite you to jump right in! If it wasn’t so cold I don’t imagine we’d get anywhere, we’d be pulling in every 10 minutes to go for a swim! It is cold though so instead we thoroughly enjoy our drives, 3 Highland girls trooping through New Zealand with Scottish folk music playing on the stereo, fantastic!

Dunedin is home to New Zealand’s Cadbury factory, and while I know we have them at home we had to take the tour, it was short but sweet! Our campsite was at the beach in St Kilda, a nice rugged beach with a healthy breeze blowing to remind us of home. We went for a night out in the local bars and had a fun night, meeting all sorts of characters. The bar we went to was clearly a very local place with lots of very drunk people having a brilliant time, is it wrong to add that it was just like home? No pretences, just people letting go for a Saturday night. Afterwards we went to another bar and the people there were absolutely horrified at where we’d just come from, I don’t suppose anyone wants tourists to see the true parts of their home but to appreciate a place you have to see it’s good and it’s bad points.

Dunedin has a strong Scottish connection, apart from named after our capital city (Dunedin is an anglicised version of the Gaelic for Edinburgh) they also happen to have a Scottish festival every November, good timing on our part I’d say! We missed most of the events but were in time for the local Highland Games and got to watch their Highland dancing competition, their races, their caber tossing, stone running and most unusual for us was the competition between young ladies, they had a name for it but I’m afraid all any of us could think about was a certain episode of Father Ted when their local fete had a ‘Lovely Girls’ competition! I’m so pleased we never had competitions like this at our games day at home, it was cringe-worthy! We did enter one event, the welly throwing, or ‘gum-boot’ throwing. Mairi came third and won a prize, my welly nearly took out an old man standing nearby, Shona’s however actually hit the judge!! We definitely left our mark in Dunedin!

The next stop on this part of our tour was the east coast village of Moeraki to admire the spherical boulders that live on the beach. Created by a combination of erosion and subterranean pressure these huge marbles sit grouped together on the beach creating a big playground for people to climb on and even in, as some have broken up. Nearby is the Moeraki lighthouse, situated out on a small peninsula near the village the lighthouse looks over cliffs and beaches and also has a small track down to a penguin hide where we could quietly sit and watch the local residents. The penguins we saw here were Little Blue’s and are bigger than the previous ones rising up to what looked to be around 70-80cms. We saw two standing on the beach chatting to each other (that’s really what it looked like) and another one was standing close to our hut under a small shelter looking over its fuzzy grey baby which was sprawled out on the ground before it. It’s very special to have this opportunity, I feel really lucky again, for the umpteenth time on this trip.

We were soon back on the road and after a last wilderness camp outside Herbert we headed back to Christchurch were I’m joined by Jamie (my brother) and I say goodbye to Mairi and Shona and our campervan. Together we all took a drive out to Sumner a village on the peninsula outside Christchurch, this is my first introduction to destruction caused by 2 earthquakes in the area in 2011. The road is extremely bumpy with barriers and road works and temporary detours dotted around. Cliff edges are lined with ‘maersk’ shipping containers to stop rocks falling on to the road. Other cliffs are completely cordoned off as houses stand perilously close to the edge at the top while others are crushed in the rubble below, these houses have been condemned and the owners forbidden from returning to them. It’s a sad sight for a place you can imagine was terribly beautiful before, I can’t imagine it’s nice to have your lovely home town ripped to pieces around you and replaced with rocks and huge rusting containers. It’s an incentive to come back and help if I can, there’s so much work to be done and I haven’t even seen the city yet!

Saying these farewells is the start of the end I feel, but for now it’s the opening of a new chapter.

NZ - North Island continues...

I started my day out in Rotorua with a crater walk around the Waimangu Valley. A supposedly 2-hour walk through the past, down by a crater lake which is alive with steam blowing over the surface, bubbling around the edges, and small streams coming off it all bubbling away. The volcano was last active around 1907 and was a popular attraction then as people gathered to view and enormous geyser erupting regularly from one of the craters. The walk then took me up over the side of another crater with cracking views of the rest of the area all the way down to the lake, with patches of steam puffing out from various parts of the landscape and steep slopes drawing the eye down into the depths of the craters. At the end of the walk the small pool at the base was alive with frogs calling and birds feeding from the many fresh mosses and lichens that grow in this geothermal wonderlands. The walk took me half the time as was advertised so I walked back up to the top again and got to enjoy all the wonderful scenes all over again. I then headed to a 3D maze which I had promised to visit, an amazing creation of wooden fences containing around 1.7km of walking to get through the instructions, you must visit each corner of the maze and then do it all in reverse in order to get back out again. What a fun hour, at least it was great fun at first though it wasn’t long before I was cursing every single time I met a dead end, convinced I might actually have to shoot red stars from my wand in order for Dumbledore to rescue me! I was so impressed with the creation, this man had built this by himself and it would be amazing fun for a group of people to entertain themselves. On my way out of Rotorua I went to see a lovely bubbling mud pool, a small lake of hot mud! It was great, the noises, the unexpected explosions every few minutes – fantastic spectator sport!!

I headed on down to Lake Taupo next and spent a couple of nights there. Another crater walk was on the cards and this was quite different but still really interesting and enjoyable but 1/6^th of the price! I really like hanging out here and I began to unwind a little and relax around the lake and rivers in the area, although the exception to this would be my visit to Huka Falls which is an exceptional amount of water rushing furiously down a very small channel! It’s one of the more memorable of the waterfalls I have visited in New Zealand so far, though not for beauty, it’s memorable due to its ferocity.

From here I drove on to the Taranaki region which is centred around the 6000ft volcano, Mount Taranaki. Other than this one mountain the landscape is pretty flat stretching out to the coast. There are loads of really good walking treks here and I took the chance to cover a few miles on the mountain, in among lots of trees and ferns I had ample opportunity to let my imagination get a little carried away. One of the villages here is a funny little place, called Stratford, where all the streets are named after Shakespeare and his works. There’s Broadway, Lear St, Juliet St, Miranda, Sylvia and a whole lot more, a very strange little place. Though it is also home to one of the coolest activities I have ever seen as you can go touring the train tracks on your own while driving your own little converted golf buggy which has been made rail-friendly and there are different routes you can do out on the tracks, I thought it was a great idea!

From here I was heading north, back towards Auckland but via the lovely little surfing town of Raglan. There’s a lot happening in this little corner, a really nice place to just enjoy. There’s also a tiny little airport/ field in the area which seemed to be hosting some form of light aircraft event as there were around 60 small planes lined up along the edge of the field, as well as 4 gyrocopters which were open topped and looked a little like a motorbike come helicopter! Interesting! These planes spent all afternoon going for little spins and I was hooked watching them. The following morning one of the tiny little ones took it upon himself to go up and entertain me with lots of tricks and it was fascinating watching this little toy plane looping de loop, plunging into death spirals and twirling around, I imagine whoever was in there has a fairly sturdy stomach!

Around the Taranaki area I stayed in one of my favourite campsites so far, it was situated 14kms into the forest; it was free and was just a big clearing in the woods with perfect night time sky viewing. I was late getting in so my car bonnet was still pretty warm after darkness fell and I spent a good couple of hours lying on the bonnet, leaning against the windscreen watching the stars, it’s so magical and mesmerising. I definitely spotted the Southern Cross here while gazing aimlessly, lazily watching shooting stars and dreaming about life’s beauty. Once it was too cold to stay out I peeled myself away and tucked myself up in my sleeping bag.

Back in Auckland I was incredibly lucky to stay with family friends who looked after me really well, despite being home to a lovely little 4 month old, Joe. Together we visited the local beauty spots of Peha beach and the surrounding area, it’s such a wonderful place to have on the edge of a city I can see why people are happy to move to Auckland, it’s a lovely mixture of being in the middle of nowhere (in that NZ is a million miles from everywhere) and also in the centre of something very much alive. I then spent a couple of nights in Wellington, another gorgeous wee city, wee being the operative word! It’s hard to believe this little place is the capital city, a great wee place to soak up some culture, visit the national museum, wonder the harbour, and venture up small hills to take in nice views. I like Wellington, it’s yet another reminder of Canada whose capital city of Ottawa is so small in context with the country and the other cities it competes with. This is where my North Island adventure ends; next stop is the South Island and meeting up with people from home for new adventures in the final part of this trip.