New Zealand February 13 - February 24

After the criuse on the sound, we headed to Queenstown, the sporting and activity center of New Zealand. Every conceivable thrill activity you can think of is available for a price; hang gliding, bungy jumping, paragliding, canyon jet boating, river boogie boarding, sky diving. You name it, they got it and they do it from every conceivable place. When we got here, a cold front came in so we walked the town in the early part of the day and then went Canyon jet boating on the Shotover River. It was cool. You drive in these jet boats that come within an inch of the canyon walls, twisting, turning and doing 360 degree turns. It was a blast.




The next day we left for Wanaka but on the way stopped and watched the bungy jumping from theKawarau bridge. There are three of them in Queenstown but this is the original. It is unbeleivable that people do this. We got very close to doing a tandem jump but decided we would rather try hang gliding, maybe in Wanaka because the skies were not clear in Queenstown.
Wanaka is a smaller, quieter version of Queenstown on the Wanaka lake with the backdrop of Mt. Aspiring National Park, the third highest in New Zealand. Checked out the town (took about 5 minutes), relaxed and decided to do an overnight hike the next day and camp in the national park.

Picked out the hike and started to provision up, which took forever, you know, us shopping....... and headed off to the Glacier Burn trail. We figured out for just an overnight, we could suck it up and carry a bottle of wine with us! This was the strangest hike. We had to ford a river and two streams and even though it was in a National Park, you walked for about an hour across cow fields, with the cows right next to you. We kept thinking we must be in the wrong place. We pitched the tent next to the river Kitchener and made a very nice dinner. That's when the man with the rifle showed up. Very wierd standing in a national park talking to a man with a rifle with absolutely no one else in site. We were glad when he walked off. Also, New Zealand has this dark secret called sandflies, these little buggers bite the crap out of you. They make mosquitoes, with West Nile seem tame so we had to wear these cute little mosquito hats and eat dinner in the tent. That night the stars were unbelievable. We've never seen a sky like that ever before.



The next day, we hiked out and went and hung out on the beach in Wanaka and just relaxed to get ready for the next day. We had decided to go back to Queenstown to do a tandem hang glide because the views from the hilltop there looked more spectacluar than in Wanaka. So in the morning we called and made an appointment for that afternoon and drove back. We got there a little early so we grabbed lunch and went to the beach while we waited. A few hours later, off the mountain we jumped.










Pat went first. Was it because Tom wanted to take pictures or because he wanted make sure it was safe?????? The jump was unbelievable. You take three steps to get in sync and then you run as fast as you can for as long as you can until your feet leave the ground. Quite a rush, you truly feel like you are flying over the valley. Right before you land, the guy starts doing dives and 360's and it's like being on a roller coaster. When you land, you come in skimming about 6 inches off the ground and then he just sets down on your belly. It really was great.

We had dinner in Queenstown and then drove back to Wanaka for the night. In the morning we drove to Fox Glacier over the Haast Pass. It was a long drive but with some great scenery. We got to Fox in the late afternoon and decided to do the walk to the Glacier face. I know it's bad, but we just don't get the attraction. People do helicopter trips, all day hiking on the ice trips, etc.

We just left the next morning and drove to Lake Matheson where on a clear day you are supposed to be able to see and photograph the reflection of Mt. Cook in the water supposedly, the most photographed lake in New Zealand. We took our pictures, caught some of the reflection, did a walk around the lake and headed off for a long drive up the West Coast. What was amazing about that drive is the constant change of scenery. You go from glacial snow capped mountains to rain forrests to tropical beach all within a few hours. The parts where you are driving along the coastline are spectacular also. We realized about 4 hours out of Fox that in our rush to leave early in the morning, we left our Camelback water systems for hiking in the refrigerator back at the lodge. The challenge now is to try and figure out how to get them to us before our next hike, The Abel Tasman, in a few days. It's all good!

We arrived in Westport late and started looking for a room. This town has seen better days in the fifties. We couldn't even find a place that looked good for dinner but it was late and we didn't want to drive any further. So we went to the supermarket and bought some things and a bottle of wine and went down to a beach on the Tasman Sea and hung out for a sunset. It was a nice two hours of down time. The beach was a long stretch with dark sand with hardly anyone on it except some horseback riders. The sunset was OK but the moon rising in the east was spectacluar, a bright orange full moon! The unique thing is that the moon is rising right after the sun sets all at about 9:00 at night. Further south, the sun didn't set until about 9:30. So we definately made the best of a "Stephen King" town.

Milford Track slide show

New Zealand Milford - February 10th to 13th

OK, it's the morning of the tramp and we are both a little apprehensive. We had breakfast and put all of our luggage in storage and headed out for Te Anau Downs the jump off point for the Milford Track. We figured we would have lunch there (our last real meal for four days) only to find out that it's actually a dock, not a town!











A boat takes you across the sound and drops you off at the beginning of the tramp. The first day was relatively easy as it was a short hike, only 3.5 miles to the first hut, Clinton Hut.


Because we started in the afternoon, by the time we got to the hut, we made dinner and went to sleep. Next day we hiked to Minatro hut which was a total of 10 miles, which was relatively hard but the worst part was the last hour which was all uphill with a large elevation gain. We hung in there and were acutally not the last ones in but I think that it because a lot of the young guys slept late!

Day three was the most difficult. It was only 8.5 miles but it was 600m of elevation up the mountain, over McKinnon pass (at apx. 4000')and then down 1000m of elevation, this was all carrying about 33 pounds each in our backpacks. When we got to the top of McKinnon Pass, it was totally socked in with weather. We were able to see patches of blue come and go, so we decided to wait and see if it would clear. After about one hour at the summit (very cold and windy) we had blue skys and phenomenal views! The hike down was the killer part but there were unbelievable streams, waterfalls and non stop views to keep you going.












We got to Dumpling hut exhausted.

The huts were all basic shared bunk accommodations and shared kitchen facilities where you cooked your own meals. Each group hiking was limited to 40 people so you got to spend time getting to know many people from many different countries. There was an older couple from Germany that had us in awe. They were acutally six months into a one year round the world trip and they were enjoying every moment. The two of them have been traveling with one backpack each, amazing when you see what Tom and I have, and we thought we were light.

The last day hike, even though it was flat, was 11.5 miles back to the lake to meet a boat at a specific time for our departure. So you really had to hoof it, but we made it with at least 5 minutes to spare and received congratulations from all the people who kept saying to us "You're from New York? Where did you train?????" Tom kept telling them the local pub.......


Anyway, it was onto the boat to Milford Sound where we were spending the night. The next day we did a boat cruise of the entire Sound and the fiord (what the Milford actually is) and it was quite breathtaking. It was supposed to be raining so we debated not going, but we went anyway. Right before we left, the blue skies opened and the pictures just can't do this place justice.

New Zealand South Island - Feb. 5th - Feb 14th

After we got back from the hike, we broke camp and left the Aoraki/Mt. Cook area and drove back to the east coast to a town called Oamaru. Their claim to fame is both yellow and blue penguin colonies. It was a sixties kind of town and their old harbor area was constructed of buildings made of "Whitestone"......First we went down to the wharf to see the yellow ones because they come up on shore earlier then the blue ones and we got to see a couple of the penguins come up on the beach.
FIND THE PENGUIN IN THE PHOTO
But by the time we got there somehow others had already climbed up the dunes to feed the chicks, sometimes as much as 50 or 100 feet up. You just can't figure out how they do it. We were supposed to go back to see the blue penguins at 9:15 (they come up after dark) but dinner ran over, the wine was good, and we blew off the blue penguins. That night we stayed at a B&B, owned by a very strange guy called Ronald. The place was great and very cute with views out to the ocean, but Ronald was definitely quite scary.
In the morning we left and drove South to Dunedin and the Otago Penninsula. The drive around the penninsula was very nice and we stopped and did a boat trip to see the coastline and the Royal Albatrosses, fur seals and dolphins. We just don't get the attraction with the birds....Tom did turn a very nice shade of green on this trip, you would think one of these days we would remember his sea bands! We did see plenty of dolphins and seals and it was a nice little trip on a beautiful day.









Afterwards, we went to Dunedin and walked around the city. It was Waitangi Day, which is a national holiday. This is the day that the Maori signed a treaty with the Europeans. It seems like the Maori got screwed just like the American Indians..There was a street fair going on and music in the main octogon.

Next stop the Caitlins, which is the southern coast of the south island. This is a rustic coast, with major wildlife and nature preserves.



We stopped first at a place called Kaka Point which, at the time we thought had a nice beach and then drove to Nugget Bay. At Nugget Bay, you walked out to the lighthouse and had a clear view of the fur seals resting and playing below. The view was terrific with the waves breaking on the rocks. We continued along the coast and stopped at Purakaunui falls, which weren't all that great because there had been no rain (lucky us) and we thought we were on our way to Invercargill for the night. Until we found Porpoise Bay. This place was great!

We pulled in to check it out and take a few pictures, found they had trailer and tent sites and found out we could camp on the dunes right above the beach. So, we decided to spend the night. What a good choice. This place not only had a great beach, they had yellow penguins, blue penguins and in the morning the dolphins
came to play in the bay.









We had a beautiful sunset and got up in the morning for an amazing sunrise. It's all good!




When we arrived in Invercargill the next day, we were very happy we spent the night before at Porpoise Bay. We posted a blog and got out of dodge as quick as we could and made our way to Te Anau, our jump off place for tramping the Milford Track. We got there with a day to spare so we could get everything ready for the tramp....(Joe S. this means a hike); shopping and packing. Te Anau is a cross between a vacation spot and a backpackers haven. You had "bus people" mixed in with backpackers so it was really a blend of people. Cute town, but definately a tourist destination.
The Milford Track is one of New Zealand's Great Walks and is a 33.5 mile tramp thru some of New Zealand's most beautiful unspoiled country. We just had to decide the night before if we should back out!