Feb. 16 Routeburn Day 2

Based on the weather forecast, it sounded like it was going to be bad to start off, and then clearing later on, so we slept in until 8:30am, by far our latest morning start. I got up and fixed us a cup of coffee, and talked to the hut warden a little about the weather. It was not as cold as forecast, which was a relief. We decide to leave around 10am so that we will be at the Harris saddle around lunch time.
Today, the trail we are hiking climbs up above tree line, and crosses the high point at harris saddle, where there is a small hut with a bathroom. This is also the place where one can do an optional 1 hour side hike up to the top of conical hill for some great views.

We leave on time and head out under low hanging clouds. As we are passing Routeburn falls, I notice a German man with a tripod that I had talked to the night before trying to get a shot of the falls. I pointed out the trail that I had found and told him to give it a go, but be careful. Katie was afraid that I had just sent the poor guy to his death, but after we topped the falls, we could see that he had safely made it down to the base of the falls.

The trail climbs up to a nice cliff side overlooking Harris Lake which feeds into Routeburn Falls, then up to the saddle and along the Hollyford face.





We are at the saddle at about noon, and eat our lunch on the backside of the hut out of the wind.




It was not as cold as forecast, but it was still probably in the low 40s, and windy. After I fix us a couple of cups of coffee, Katie said I should go up conical hill to take some photos. I leave my pack behind with her, and started running up the trail with only my camera and tripod. Unfortunately when I get to the top of Conical Hill, it is completely socked in with clouds. I meet a guy from Israel who had been waiting up there for 2.5 hours for the clouds to clear. He says that this is supposed to be the best views on the whole track. We talk for a while, and it was clear to me that it wouldn't clear any time soon. So instead of waiting for too long, and having Katie worry about me being gone for too long, I decide to start heading back down the hill so that we could continue the hike. I pass the older Chineese couple with the good food when I get to the lower sections of the hill. They are just heading up to the peak. I get back to the hut, and we continue on towards Mackenzie Hut.

This was going to be the longest day of hiking, and almost all of it above tree line. The Hollyford Valley, which we are hiking along was cut by a glacier during the last ice age. When I say cut, it looks exactly like that in some places. It looks just like someone had taken a knife and chopped down the mountain at a certain point, making a cross section of the peaks and valleys. On the opposite side of the valley from us are big glacier covered peaks and in the valley about 1000m below flows the Hollyford River.

The big peaks are behind us on the opposite side of the valley, so every once and a while we have to look over our right shoulders to catch another peek of them.



Around 3pm, the sky clears up, opening up views all the way down the valley to the tasman sea. If I had been a little while later to Conical hill, I would have been able to see forever. I'll just have to try again next time, I guess. I run out of water, but fill up at one of the waterfalls along the way (the MSR Miox came in handy after all).



Around 5:30pm we come up over a peak and see our hut far down below at the base of a prismatic lake. As we hike down towards it, the trail switchbacks down the south face of the peak and enters another old growth Beech forest covered in the thick lush green moss. It is dark, cool, and damp in the forest, and contrasts sharply with the bright sunny and relatively dry alpine conditions we were in for almost the whole day, up until about 15 minutes ago.







Another thing that makes being in the Southern Hemisphere different is that the South face is the cool, shady side of the mountain, and the north is the sunny, warm side. I know it must sound quite obvious, but since I am so used to it being the other way around, it really messes up my internal compass.

I am taking some photos and hiking with my tripod on my shoulder when I slip on a mossy rock and bust my butt. It happens really fast, but I instinctively protect all of the camera gear and slide down a rock. I look down and found that I have torn the leg of my pants and scratched my leg. The leg was no big deal, but the pants are my favorite pair of convertibles. So, really bummed out, I catch up with Katie and we finish the trail down to Mackenzie Hut. Katie starts moving really fast on this last section of trail because she doesn't want to be caught and passed by the older Chinese couple with all of the good food. She says they are our nemesis, and have a way of just popping up out of the woods with no notice.

It has been a long day, we get to Mackenzie Hut at around 7pm. We find two mattresses situated on a platform alongside about 12 others. The remaining bunks in the bunk room are all taken, and are configured like the other hut bays of 4 bunks, 2 sets of 1 below and 1 above. Mackenzie is still a very nice hut, but it is not quite as new as Routeburn Falls, and not quite as posh. I change into another pair of pants, clean out and tape up the cut on my leg, and start preparing our dinner ( Ramen and Lemon Pepper Tuna ). As I am finishing up, I come out to the eating area and discover Katie doing a Betsy Ross on my convertibles, mending them with needle and thread that she had brought along. It's was really awesome to have her fix them, since now I'll have a good story to go along with them.

The hut warden Evan collects everybody into the Kitchen and gives the safety speech of what to do in case of a fire, which he turned into about a 30 min stand up comedy routine. He was quite funny, and sometimes a little awkward, bearing a striking resemblance to a slightly shorter Captain Jean Luc Picard dressed like a boy scout. After the routine he collected the hut tickets, and Kaite and I go outside to Lake Mackenzie, skip a rock across the lake, and take a couple of photos of Emily Peak reflecting in the lake.

Then we go in the bunkhouse and settle in for the night. We are both a little concerned about the hike tomorrow, since we took a lot longer than we expected to today. Plus I have the additional stress of us having to make a bus at 2:15pm to get to Milford Sound for our cruise. We don't have a tent with us, and are counting on making it to the overnight cruise, leaving at 4:30pm in order to have a bed for the night. There's nothing worse than having your bed set sail without you. Based on all of these factors, we decide to hit the trail at 7am, to ensure enough time to do the Key Summit side hike ( 1h additional ) and make it to the bus with enough time so as not to stress.

Since all of my camera gear and stuff is stored underneath the communal bunk platform, I am a little bit on edge about someone taking the equipment. A good number of the people at the hut this evening have been hiking with us since the start, and have seen me taking photos and carrying around the tripod. I know it is probably an irrational fear that someone would take it, since they would have to carry all of the stuff a minimum of 5 hours to get off the trail, and few people are crazy enough to do that... let alone carry all the junk the whole trail.

Nonetheless I have a hard time getting to sleep, and sleep restlessly the entire night, rousing at the noises of people coming and going to the Toilets all night.

Feb 15 Routeburn Track Day 1

Routeburn Track -
The most amazing 3 days in the woods.

We had good luck this morning when we were checking out of our Hotel. They said we could leave our car in their parking lot (or carpark in kiwi) while we were on the Routeburn, and they would also store our luggage for us at no charge. That made lots of things very easy on us, as we only had to get our stuff packed up and take a quick bus trip into Queenstown to get to our bus transporting us to the start of the Routeburn.

It was a little bit rainy, and the forecast called for somewhat unsettled weather over the next couple of days. It didn't really worry me too much, since we were prepared (clothing wise ) for temperatures down to freezing with rain and wind thrown in to the mix. We went into Queenstown a little bit earlier than we needed to, so we could eat a big lunch and ice cream before getting started. Lunch was a Furgburger, which is a legendary Queenstown burger joint that sells all types of burgers made from many different types of tasty animals. We then went to the department of conservation center next door and checked the weather. The forecast was for rain with the snow level at 1300m and 60kph winds at 1400m for tomorrow. That sounded like a pretty tough day, given that we would be hiking around 6 hours that day above tree line, and very exposed to the elements. I was wondering if I really had enough clothes, and figured I had just enough to keep me warm in that kind of weather. Katie and I grabbed an ice cream cone and sat at the Bus pickup.

Organizing a bus transfer for the Routeburn is a necessity, even though the track itself is only about 20 miles (if you do not do the side hikes), driving from one end to the other involves something like 225 miles of driving. The bus ride from Queenstown is about a 1 - 1.5 hour trip along the shores of Lake Wakitipu up through Glenorchy and to the end of the Routeburn road. As we were traveling along the Routeburn road which is gravel, the bus skidded to a stop. Everybody looked up out the front windows and in front of us, covering the entire road from side to side was a huge flock of sheep.



They were being herded down the road by a truck into the next pasture. They all froze in front of the bus and didn't know what to do.



There was a brief standoff until finally one brave sheep made a run for it and shot past to the left side of the bus. And the rest followed in a scared, flowing river of wool.



Everybody on the bus had a good laugh, and we continued on to the start of the track. We reached the start at around 2pm.

The first day of the track climbs up through a ancient beech forest. The trees, ground, and pretty much everything that is not moving or being walked on, is covered with a heavy woolly moss. Ferns are the dominant plant in this forest. There are numerous swinging bridges, which are a couple of 2x6's suspended by steel cables spanning the many streams and waterfalls along the track. They bounce and swing when you walk over them, but there are cables to hold on to if you need them. The track is very well maintained and surprisingly easy to walk.




At the first waterfall I stopped to climb down and take photos and noticed an older Chinese couple stopping there too for a quick bite to eat. After 3 hours or so, we came to the Routeburn river valley which was very wide and flat.






This is the site of the first hut on the walk, the Routeburn Flats hut. We were staying at Routeburn Falls hut, which was about 1.5 hours up the trail. The trail climbed continuously through the forest for another hour. The visibility to the other side of the valley is limited by the dense forest, but soon we came to a clearing that was the result of a landslide that occured in 1994. This opened up pretty dramatic views of the valley flats that we had climbed up from about an hour ago.





Shortly after the clearing we come to the hut. Which was amazingly nice. Built with a view of the valley, there were two bunk halls with bays of 4 bunks. The toilet area was separate from the bunk room and had flush toilets and running water. The kitchen area was absolutely huge and had about 30 very nice gas stoves with pots for heating water and sinks. It was like arriving at the Hilton. I started boiling some water and made our ramen noodles and added in the thai chili tuna. It went down fast, and I still felt a little hungry. The Chinese couple we saw earlier sat down next to us and proceeded to lay out a smorgasboard of fruit, sausage and rice that made me a little envious...

After dinner, I went outside to play around taking photos as the sun went down, while Katie relaxed in the Kitchen. I found a little steep path down to the base of Routeburn Falls, which made for some nice pictures.







I then walked up towards Harris Saddle, where we would be going the next day, and took a few photos as the sun was going down. It was really nice being outside, running around during that time of day. I then came back to the hut, and we got ready for bed. Most of the folks were already in bed and asleep by the time we got in there. There was a symphony of snorers tuning up for an all night performance. It was so nice to have a pair of earplugs.

Homeward bound.

We are in Waitomo this morning and heading to Auckland to fly home this afternoon. Lack of connectivity and time have been the major factors as to the lack of updates. Here are the highlights since we left Queenstown on the 18th:

• Drove 7 hours to Christchurch, 2h to Kaikoura, 2h to Picton, 3h ferry, 5h to Tarangi, 2h to Rotorua, 2h to Waitomo (23 hours total...)


• Saw Mt. Cook


• Spent a night in Jail ( not the real kind, more on that later )


• Saw Sperm Whales diving to feed


• Walked around in the middle of a Fur Seal colony


• Almost swam with a bunch of Dusky Dolphins, but saw a pod of 6 Killer Whales very up close instead


• Saw the Sea Lion Nursery


• Alpaca farm!


• Saw a kiwi (the bird, not the fruit) hatchery


• ZORB'ed


• Spent 4 hours climbing and crawling through an amazing cave.

Check back for the photos and details, if you like, as I'll be posting them one by one once I get back home, and get a decent connection (it's taking forever to upload photos). It's been an incredible 3 weeks, and we've packed in all the fun we could. Now it's time to head back home and start planning the next one...

Back in Queenstown...

We finished the Routeburn yesterday, and took an overnight cruise on Milford Sound after the finish. It was an amazing hike. Everthing went really well. We had very clear weather, which made for great views, but mediocre photography. Can't have it all.

I'll post more and some photos when I get more time. We're preparing for and planning the last week of our trip as we head back up north.

Feb 14 - Lord of the Rings Horses.

This morning we woke up to heavy rain falling in Haast. We had tried the night before to dry our soaking wet clothes from hiking in the rain on a glacier in the Hotel's guest laundry, but it didn't do the job. so I set up a clothes line in our room hoping that they would get dry. When we woke up, the clothes were still pretty damp. So we began drying them with the room heater and hair dryer as we got reoriganized and repacked. We had about a 4 hour drive to Queenstown, and another half hour to Glenorchy where I had booked a 2 hour guided horseback ride around the rivers starting at 2:15. We got on the road at about 8:10am, which meant we didnt' have alot of time to spare. Katie's toes had swollen up from the poorly fitting boots and she was having a good bit of pain in her toes. She didn't have blisters, but alot of soreness from the socks rubbing. So she started on Ibuprofen. It was a big concern, since we're staring the Routeburn Track tomorrow.


We drove down the Haast Pass in very heavy rain, which was feeding some raging rivers and waterfalls all along the road which followed the Haast River. I was beginning to doubt my sanity for booking the horseback riding trip, looking around at the driving rain, and thinking about what I should wear that I didn't need on the Routeburn. There were some pretty sights along this road, but we didn't stop, because we needed to run some errands in Queenstown before we went riding. Everything closes at 6pm, and we needed to pick up our Routeburn hut tickets, a quick dry shirt for Kaite (she left hers at the Abel Tasman sea kayaking center), eat lunch, and get some medicine for her feet.
After an hour or so, the rain stopped and began to clear up, someone was smiling on us. At least we wouldn't be riding horses in the rain.


We got to Queenstown, and ran all of the afforementioned errands, and even had time to eat a cone of ice cream. We made it to Glenorchy with 5 minutes to spare... Piece of cake.



The Dart stables in Glenorchy advertised several rides, one being for riders of all abilities. I chose them because they looked like they would let Katie have some fun and let the horse run. They drove a group of about 12 to the horse paddock where they asked our experience level. I have ridden a Mule in Bryce Canyon, and a swayback mare in Tsali, but I told them I would try just about anything. They sized us all up and picked out horses for us based on all of those factors. I wound up with Jackie.






He was very disobedient in the paddock after I got on him, he wouldn't obey any commands and was walking around nipping other horses. A little Japaneese girl wound up behind him, and he kicked at her, missing her head by about 8 inches. I knew right then I was in for an interesting day. The stirrups felt a little too long, but I didn't realize how short they were, nor the problems that would cause later.
Katie and I were put in a group with 3 other riders and the guide. With two of them having worked on a cattle farm, and the other guy having done some riding, and Katie with all of her experience on a horse, I was by far the big rookie.



We walked down the fence line and Jacky began to behave better, and listen to me. Then the guide said, "Want to try to trot ?" She told me to grab the front of the saddle and a handful of mane and grip with my legs. I did and the whole group sped up. The too-long stirrups meant that I couldn't isolate myself from the bouncing of the horse and pretty soon I was getting jackhammered up and down over and trying to stay on got pretty sketchy, but I stayed on the beast. Pretty soon the group stopped, and Katie yelled up to the guide that my stirrups were too long. The guide came back and shortened the stirrups by 2 notches, and asked if I wanted to give it another go. I said sure. She sent the rest of the group up ahead and stayed in front of my horse, leading him into a trot. This time it was much better. We slowed down to a walk, and she asked if I wanted to try to canter. I said sure, and this time we went into at trot, and then took off absolutely flying down this riverbank. It was much smoother than the trot, and immensely faster. It was very cool. Katie was so excited that I had gotten up to a canter.




We did a couple of river crossings in some pretty deep water, then we did a nice long canter on the way back.


We finished up the ride, and drove back to Queenstown, and checked into our hotel. We organized all of our gear for the hike starting the next day, which took a couple of hours. Then drove back into Queenstown for a late dinner at Fishbone, where I finally got to have a big bowl of green shell mussels. very tasty and worth the wait.

We start the Routeburn tomorrow, so it will be a while with no electricity. We'll be back in Queenstown on the night of the 18th. I'll check in when we get out of the woods...

Feb 13 - Ice Ice baby

Today was the day for Franz Joseph Glacier. We booked a full day guided tour with Franz Joseph guides, which would be about 6 hours of hiking on the glacier. We ate breakfast at the cafe next to the guides and bought a sandwich to take for lunch.




It was really tricky to figure out clothing for the day, since it was warm in the valley, and it was hard to tell what it would be like on the glacier. The guys at the guide shop were dressed in short sleeve shirts and shorts, so I figured I'd go with that, and bring along a fleece vest and a hat just in case it got really chilly. It was forecast to start raining later in the afternoon too, so that made things tough.

They provided a gore-tex jacket as a rain jacket, which I decided to use, to save my ran shell from any wear from rubbing against the ice. They also provided Grivel crampons that strapped onto my boots. I decided to use my boots instead of the ones they offered. Katie was going to use her boots too, but they said her boots didn't go high enough on her ankle for support, so she had to use their boots. The problem with that is that Katie's feet are really narrow, and the chances of her finding a boot that fit her were slim to none. She tried on several pairs, and worked her way down to the smallest size they offered, and they were still too big. Even with two pairs of thick socks on, she could still slide the laced and tied boot off of her foot without untieing the laces. She went with 3 pairs of socks, and it was still too big. The main concern was that she would mess up her feet, and be in poor shape for our 3 day hike of the Routeburn Track coming up in 2 days.

Sorting out camera gear was another fun one. The tripod came along for the entire hike, and my typical mode of hiking with it is to leave the camera attached to the tripod, and have it balanced on my shoulder. This meant I would have one free hand. I asked some of the guides if it was ever technical, and they said it wasn't very technical, so I felt OK.

We piled into the big red bus at 10pm that took a big group up to the parking lot near the foot of the glacier. There were 55 people on the trip today. We went through the rainforest, up and down a couple of ladders, and down to the terminal face of the glacier. The group then split into 5 smaller groups. The guides lead the group through the glacier, carrying a huge old fashioned ice pick and cutting steps in the ice where they need to.







They also clean up anything that may cause a hazard for the group behind. They also set ice screws as anchors with a piece of 8mm cord to use as helpers for some of the really steep steps, or if there is a crevasse close to the bottom of the descents. They really make it easy to get around on the glacier.







After we stopped for lunch, we found a couple tight tunnels in the ice, which were extremely blue and clean ice, everybody in the group shimmied through the tunnel.




A little while later, it started to drizzle, and then to rain pretty hard. We were at our highest point on the glacier when it really started coming down. A Helicopter flew in to rescue somebody from another group, and take them down to the valley. I found out later that it was someone who was having an asthma attack, and just couldn't get it under control. There are helicopters flying around the glacier during the day, and the heli-hike was one of the options, but we both decided to stick with the full day trip. Our guide, Johnathon, said we made a good choice, since the heli hikes don't really get to see that much more ice, and it's over $100 more per person.





I got to try the little raincoat I got for my camera, which seemed to work pretty well. after a while, visibility was so poor, and it was raining so hard, I just decided to put everything in the drybag, and call it a day for photos...

It was an excellent day, I was a little worried about Katie's feet getting messed up the whole time, but near the end, when I asked her how she was doing, she was just grinning from ear to ear. Everything worked out just fine.




We went back down the glacier, got off the ice at around 4:30pm and back through the rain forest to the bus, where all 55 folks piled in like drowned rats. I was very glad it was only a 10 min. ride back to the village, it was pretty steamy and stinky on that bus.

We returned all of the gear to the guide shop, changed into some dry clothes, and ate next door at the cafe. I called ahead to our next night's stay at Haast, to let them know we'd be there around 8:30pm, since almost every little hotel and hostel closes the front desk at 8pm. This can be a big pain for trying to cover a lot of ground, because if you don't get to your room in time, or make other arrangements, you are out of luck. Well, the place I called didn't have any record of our reservation. In a little panic, I went through the old emails from places, and finally discovered the correct place. They said we would be in room 1 and they would leave the door unlocked and the key on the bed. After a 2 hour uneventful drive, we made it to Heritage Park Lodge in Haast, and found the room just as described.

Feb 12 - Truman and Pancake Rocks

Today we started out on the Truman Track, which was a little 10 minute walk that left from our Hostel in Punakaiki. It went through a very lush rainforest, wound down through some native grasses and finished up on a beach with a rocky shoreline and deeply in-cut coves. The tide was low but was coming in, so the waves were really pounding the rocks. The beach itself was composed of tiny polished rocks which were really tough on the feet. There was a small waterfall at the back end of the beach dropping down the cliff and forming a little fresh water stream that trickled down to the shoreline.









We checked out of the Te Nikau retreat, which was the hostel we stayed at overnight. I asked the lady at the front desk about hiking up the Fox River, and she said that it would be pretty dangerous to do so, since they had just had some significant rain. That will have to wait until next time.




After we got back to the car, we drove for around 10 minutes south to the Pancake rocks in Punakaiki. A short path leads down to a rocky shore, and opens up in several places to views of these unique rock formations. The cliffs are structured in very regular and well defined layers of rocks. Deep ridges separarate the layers. The cliffs are on the shore, and when the tide is coming in, it makes for some very dramatic scenerey. The cliffs form narrow coves which amplify the rising water brought in by a wave such that one wave can cause a very quick rise in the water levels in these coves of 30-40 feet or more.







Attached to the side of the cliffs, right at waterline are a type of seaweed, which are some of the toughest plants I've ever seen. These things took like big bunches of black organic garden hose hanging from the cliff. when the waves rise and fall the seaweed is violently thrashed and swirled around the rocks. It's amazing the stuff is not pulverized. We saw some on the Truman track that had been pulled off of the rocks, and it is incredibly tough, I couldn't tear it by pulling it, almost like it was made of rubber.




Then we drove south through Greymouth, where we stopped for a quick lunch and grocery shopping, and continued on towards Franz Joseph. When we got to our Hostel at around 5:30 and parked the car, I noticed an older couple sitting behind their car in lawn charis having a gin and tonic at a little table they had set up. As we were walking to the car to go check out the glacier, I said to the old man "Looks like you guys have this thing figured out!" He got up and started talking with us. He had been a pilot in the New Zealand Navy and trained in the US during World War II. He trained in New York and Corpus Cristi (sp) Texas, and he said he loved it. After we talked for a little while, Katie and I took off to check out the glacier and returned a little later to get some dinner.

As we were about to leave our room, the old guy came up and invited us to have a drink with him and his friend. He said he was shown such hospitality in the US and never had the opportunity to return it, so he figured he'd take this chance to return the favor. We accepted and had a little bit of the Gin and Whiskey that he had distilled himself. I was a little leary, but since they had been drinking it themselves, I figured it was pretty safe, and it was surprisingly good. We talked for a good long while. He was from the North Island, and was going around to see all of the parts of New Zealand that he hadn't seen yet.

Katie and I then left for dinner, which was pretty good, it was a little pricey and the service was very slow. The villiage here at the base of the glacier is a hotspot for tourists, and I guess the dinner place is a side effect of that. The best meals we've gotten so far have come from the most unexpected places: mostly little unsuspecting neigborhood pubs which serve the most amazing food (the best rack of lamb I've ever had was at Eivan's in National Park, NZ ).

Anyhow, tomorrow we climb the glacier. It looks to be fun.

Feb 11 - Abel Tasman Sea Kayak

Last night we stayed up kind of late talking with a lady named Susan from Scotland who is travelling all over the world. She used to be a bond trader, but took off starting this past May and just started travelling around. Coincidentally, she has a friend who just moved to Raleigh that we're going to be in touch with when we get back.

Today we got up and drove out of nelson to go Sea Kayaking at Abel Tasman National Park. We left the Green Monkey at 7am, for the 1.5 hour drive to the park entrance. We were in kind of a rush this morning, and I didn't do a good job of checking the GPS waypoint, which was a bit off. That caused a little panic as we were getting close and were almost late... We made it there in plenty of time. We met our guide, Dazza, yes, that's his name. He was a prototypical Kiwi Kayaker with long sunbleached blonde hair and super-tanned complexion. Also along for our trip was a guy, Oshiro, from Japan, who spoke very little english, and a couple from Holland.



After a quick briefing, at the kayak center which was around a small shed, we got onto the water taxi that would take us to the start of the paddling. The water taxi was on a boat trailer attached to a big farm tractor. The farm tractor pulled the boat with our group and one other down the little road and out to the mud flat. It was low tide at the time, so the tractor motored on out over the mud flat and then backed us into the water and sent us off.





The boat ride to the start was very choppy, and took a little over 30 minutes to get to the start. We prepared the boats and then paddled out to an active fur seal colony called Tonga Island.






The island was surrounded by large rocks, and the surf was pounding the rocks pretty heavilly. We stayed as close to the coast as we dared, in order to get a good look at the sea lions. There were only a very few, moslty females and a few pups, because the males had all left for the summer.

We then paddled back to the shoreline against fairly strong winds and surf. It seemed like about 20 minutes of continuous hard paddling to fight the conditions. Then, once we had the wind at our backs, Dazza pulled out a square sail. The 3 kayaks rafted up and the two folks sitting in front on either side (Katie and the girl from Holland) held onto a strap connected a corner of the sail. The two on the outsides in the rear of the kayaks (Me and the guy from Holland) attached the other two corners of the sail to the ends of their paddles with a velcro strap. Then we lifted our paddles vertically into the air, forming a huge square sail. We had to brace the paddle against the front of our seat to provide some leverage against the force of the sail. Pretty soon we were just flying along the water being pulled and bounced along at around 5-6 knots.





A little later we stopped on a beach for lunch. Dazza cooked up some steak pitas in a big frying pan, and grilled the bread in it. We had sides of salad and potatoes. After lunch we made some coffee in a French press pot. It was a big meal,far more fancy than I expected. During lunch I asked Dazza about his big Kayaking trips. He has kayaked the Cook Strait from Wellington to Picton solo. He also told me about a 1 month solo trip he had taken around the southern regions of the south island. Pretty cool stuff.

We spent the rest of the day exploring around the lagoons and little inlets. Dazza was very knowledgable and pointed out all of the wildlife we saw along the way, and told us about the history of the Park. We saw a stingray just before the start, several gannets, and this relative of the penguin that is the only bird with webbed feet that nests in trees.





When we got to the pickup point, we saw a capsized kayak, which apparently belongd to two girls who got too close to some of the rocks. They were standing on the beach with bloodied legs and shoulders from being bounced up against the rocks. It looked like just really bad abrasions, and that they would be ok.

We took the water taxi back to the dock (only a 5-10 minute ride this time) and finished up at the kayak center where we got a hot shower, and loaded up and headed for Punakaiki. We took a route reccommended by the owner of th Green Monkey, which turned out to be very scenic along the Motueka River Valley, and the Lower Buller Valley. The drive took about 3.5 hours.

We checked into the Te Niku Lodge and called it a night...

P.S. Happy Birthday Caitlin!

Feb 10 Wellington to Nelson

We woke up early this morning, checked out of the Halswell and drove to the ferry to cross over to the South Island. We checked in at 7:25am, and drove our car on the ferry for a 3 hour ride to Picton. It started raining on the way there. We talked with a guy who drove a milk truck and was also a motorcycle mechanic. He was going to ride his motorcycle around the South Island for 10 days. He gave us some very good advice on what we should do when we finish up the south island after our Routeburn track hike.




Going into Picton, the geography is like a mountain range sunken into the sea, because that is exactly how it
was formed. There were low hanging clouds and fog, it was really pretty on the ferry through that region.




Katie and I went to the Picton I-Site (tourist info) and we changed our accomodations for the night after the Routeburn track. We decided to go for an overnight cruise on the sound instead of staying at the Milford lodge. It won't be a gigantic ship, and we will be sharing bunks with 2 other people (it's 4 to a room), but the advantages are that we get dinner, breakfast, and we get to stay on the sound after all the other cruise ships have left for the day.

We then drove towards Nelson where we were at a youth hostle for the evening. The drive we took is called the Queen Charlotte Drive, which follows the coastline and dips in and out of the many sounds along the coast. We stopped for a short hike down to a little beach.





Then we continued to Havelock a little coastal town that is billed as the Green Shell Mussel capitol of the world. So naturally, I wanted to stop and eat some green shell mussels, unfortunately it was 3:00pm and the "Mussel Pot" was closed until 4pm, and we had to get a move on. So we grabbed a quick bite at a cafe and rolled on to Nelson.




Our plans were foiled again this evening. After checking in to the Green Monkey, we wanted to go into town and eat Ice Cream at a place called Penguino in Nelson. We walked downtown and found that it, along with almost everything else in Nelson had closed at 4:30pm. Katie had picked this place out long ago, and was despondant that they were not open. We are leaving Nelson tomorrow at 7am to go for a full day Sea Kayaking, so there's no chance for Penguino Ice Cream in Nelson on this trip. Maybe we can find one somewhere else.

We checked into The Green Monkey youth hostel, which is extremely nice. We have a large bedroom, and free internet, a very nice kitchen, and a nice little black cat that is sleeping on our bed right now, which is making Katie feel a little better about missing Penguino's this evening.



Tomorrow will be a long day, and probably an internet blackout for the next couple of days, so sit tight, I'll catch up when I get re-connected.

Feb 9th - Tongariro to Wellington.

Today we woke up early, packed up our stuff and loaded up the rental car, a Nissan Wingroad, which we have called everything from the Rim runner to bowl streaker. We headed down to Wellington. It was billed as a 4 hour drive, and turns out the GPS was dead on target this time. We call it Judith because that's what one of Katie's friends calls her GPS, as it speaks in a female voice with a Brittish accent. That's not to say we trusted Judith completely, we did check the entire route she recommended before heading out.


Where's Waldo? (find the sheep)


The drive was pretty easy, by NZ standards. None of the driving is ever as easy as driving on interstates in the US, since all of the major roads anywhere outside a handful of major cities are two lanes at best. NZ is very fond of one lane bridges, where one direction has to yield to the other direction before they cross. There is a sign indicating whether or not you have the right of way a little bit before each bridge. It keeps you on your toes. Every once and a while, there is a passing lane, but the general rule is two lanes. This makes the driving demand alot more attention, and as such is much more stressful than cruising along an interstate for hours at a time.

We stopped for brunch at Wanganui, a small town that sits just inland where the Whanganui river flows into the Tasman Sea. They had a very nice main street and we sat outside at a little bistro and had an incredible meal. We then continued on to Wellington, which was about 2 hours from there. It took us a while to figure out where our hotel was as Judith was a little bit off on her location of it, and it was on a one way street. This made for many, many U-Turns in pretty heavy weekend traffic on tight city streets. We finally found the hotel and the "carpark" (Kiwi for parking lot). Getting to the carpark required driving up a very narrow 150 foot long alley inclined about 30 degrees (about the same pitch as a normal roof), and with only about 6-8 inches on either side. The carpark only had 1 space available, and we took it. Needless to say, we were very content to leave the car where we parked it for the evening.




After checking in we walked around the city, we ate fish and chips at a brewery by the harbor, and played around on a playground by the waterfront. Then we got some more groceries, ate gellato (raspberry/chocolate, and Chocolate Hazlenut for Katie), and went back to the hotel.

February 8,2008

Tongariro Crossing -
Today was the day for the tongariro crossing, a 10 + mile hike with a couple thousand feet of elevation gain that goes between Ngaurahoe and Tongariro. Almost all of the hiking is above tree line (which is only about 3000 ft. here in NZ, so no altitude problems) Ngauruhoe is a classic cinder cone volcano, and was used as Mt. Doom in Lord of the Rings. This is the most popular day hike in New Zealand, they estimate that around 100,000 people per year do it. On good weather days, the trail can look like an ant trail with all of the people clogging it up.

The place we stayed at, The Discovery Lodge, runs a shuttle from the lodge to the start, and they pick you back up at the finish and bring you home. The really nice thing about this particular shuttle is that it leaves the lodge at 5:30am and gets to the start of the track at around 5:45am, which is the earliest drop off by about 45 min. This gets you well ahead of the madding crowd and you do the first climbs before the sun gets over the ridge.

So this meant a pretty early start for us.

There were about 30 people on the shuttle from our hotel, and we got to the start, and had a quick run-down of where we needed to be by what time to make the return pickup at 2pm, and we were off.




The group spread out pretty well, and we walked as the sun slowly rose. The we started the first climb, at the top of which we had some great views of Ngaurahoe.



Then it leveled off for a little bit, and then climbed again, and continued up to Red Crater, the highest point of the hike.



There we had views of the Emerald lakes which we were walking towards, and Red Crater, and Ngaurahoe. You could see all of the previous lava flows that had gone down the mountain in the past. It was very obvious that this was still a live volcano, because at the top there were active steam vents venting sulfurous steam along the path we were on.




Coming down from Red Crater was a pretty steep scree slope ( really loose small rocks ) which, if you don't know how to scree run, is very had to get down. But scree running is really fun, it was so deep in places that it felt almost like skiing in calf deep powder. It's kind of a controlled slide as you run. You can really move down the hill well doing this, and it really saves your knees.





The bad part about the way the hike is set up is that the entire 2nd half of it is all down hill, almost continuously so.



This is really tough on the knees. About one hour from the finish the trail goes into a native forest, which feels like a rain forest after being above tree line for 7 hours. It was so nice to get into the cool shade after being exposed to the elements for so long. For the last 30 minutes or so of the hike, it follows a very swiftly running stream,which is unsafe to drink from because it flows out of the volcanic fumeroles picking up nasty chemicals along the way.

We made it to the the finish, with about 20 minutes to spare before our shuttle arrived and brought us back to the lodge. We cleaned up and took a nap...

Tomorrow we travel to Wellington, to get ready for the trip over to the south island the following day.