This journal entry is an excerpt from my upcoming book about my travels through New Zealand. I spent nearly two months, June 7-July 27 of 2012 traveling through the North and South Islands with my brother. This particular excerpt is from a portion of the time we spent in beautiful Milford Sound.
June 22 - Milford Sound - The Hurricane Cometh!
We woke around 7:15 AM and laid in bed until about 7:40. Last night was the warmest night so far. I remember looking on the thermometer outside the lounge building that it was 13 Celsius, which is in the mid-50s. We went inside and had our breakfast. We ate cereal, a banana, and had hot chocolate.
We were only paying per day at the Milford Sound Lodge because we didn’t know how long we would stay there so before we started the day we paid for another night. We each paid for ourselves since we had each paid once the previous two nights,.
After breakfast we planned to do the Lake Marian Hike. It is down the same gravel road as the Humboldt Falls trail we did the day before, but only 1 kilometer off the main road. The past two days the weather was perfect, but today it was really cloudy and looked like it would rain. It may have been better to do the lake hike the day before when the weather was great because you don’t need such nice weather to see a waterfall and a chasm. In fact, those two things would probably be better after rainfall anyway.
We considered going down to Milford Sound before we planned to head off to the Lake Marian hike, but decided that the weather wasn’t very good and it wouldn’t be worth it. We started our drive around 9:30 AM.
We didn’t stop along the way at all, but I did film out the window occasionally. We made it to the beginning of the trail around 10:15. One other car was parked at the pull off. We think it was a guy we had seen the day before near the bridge we hiked to after the Humboldt Falls Trail.
We packed our bags with a few snacks, I took an apple and a granola bar, and then were ready to begin the hike of the day. The trail starts with a long swinging bridge that crosses the river below. We did a couple of gopro videos from various angles. Just after the bridge the trail leads into a forest with a lot of mossy trees.
The first portion of the trail is marked very well. The day before we had seen a group of workers parked in the car park laying down gravel. They must have been using some on the trail because it looked like fresh gravel had just been put out.
The first part of the hike leads to a series of waterfalls, but we planned to continue on to Lake Marian, which was 1 ½ hours further. We read that the trail was poorly marked the further you went. We were going to see for ourselves what that meant.
It was basically flat for the first 20 minutes of the hike with only slight climbs uphill. Which was nice since it made for easy walking. We filmed a whole lot of shots in this area, probably too many considering how long the overall hike was supposed to be. It was very scenic though. One portion was paved with boardwalks as it curved around a rock wall.
A few minutes past that there is another boardwalk section as you approach the waterfalls. I wouldn’t really describe it as a waterfall, but more of rushing water that dropped off a few feet as it passed through some large boulders. One part was a little bit of a drop off, maybe 4 yards.
As we approached the guy that had been at the parking lot with us was taking pictures. We started before him, but he ended up passing us, and we had caught back up to him. We didn’t see him again until we started the other part of the trail that goes all the way to the lake.
The trail itself was raised up from the water and seemed to be hanging to the rock wall edge to the left of us. It was a pretty cool little trail for this part. We did a whole lot of gopro shots, but most of them were just of myself. Andy was taking forever with pictures of the waterfalls. He was doing long exposure shots to make the water appear blurry.
It started to sprinkle at this point of the trail while I was waiting for him. He caught up to me around the corner on another part of the boardwalk and told me what he had been doing. He showed me his pictures and explained how to do it. He had a tripod that could attach to the railing, but I had to just rest mine on the railing. In order to make the pictures come out correctly you need to use a timer on the camera, otherwise you will shake it slightly and make the picture come out blurry.
We must have spent 40 minutes in this one area alone. The pictures we took came out well, and it was a neat place. At this point we were the only ones in the area. It was raining harder and most people don’t do the longer hikes, especially ones that claim to be poorly marked.
We began the portion of the hike to Lake Marian around 11:45. We managed to make a 20 minute hike last over an hour. We didn’t really have anything else planned for the day so it wasn’t a big deal to go fast or slow. It was also very cloudy and raining off and on so maybe a little later it would be clear at the lake.
The sign post to begin the Lake Marian hike warns that it isn’t marked very well and we had previously read that it can be slippery when wet. The beginning of it is a little bit steep, but covered by lots of trees. If it was raining we couldn’t tell because we never got wet. Most of the trees are covered in bright green moss. It makes for really neat pictures, but we didn’t do a whole lot. Instead we did a ton of gopro videos of the trail.
The trail itself was very rocky. Unlike the first part of the hike these were slightly larger rocks though. Many of them spaced out, but sometimes one after another. Most of the trail included slightly uphill climbs, but due to the fact that it was rarely flat it made it a more difficult hike. It was also very slippery in some parts.
The uphill portions tended to have a lot of rocks you would have to step onto and navigate slower than usual so you didn’t twist your ankle or fall down from stepping on a wobbly rock. We filmed a lot at the beginning, but not so much the further we went. I was pretty tired and starving and just wanted to get to the lake to have my snack and get some pictures. I figured we could do any missed filming opportunities on the way back down.
I try to only film portions of the trail that look cool or the scenery changes to give the general idea of how the hike looks. Due to the fact that the scenery wasn’t changing that much I didn’t feel the need to stop too often, although I did make a few mental notes of places I would like to stop on the way back.
There is one portion that goes out of the forest and into the open. This area is a rock slide zone. Before you go in a sign warns you for the next 200 meters to not stop. It is basically medium and large sized boulders that obviously have fallen down the mountain. Many of these rockslides are intentionally started by dynamite so that any loose rocks don’t fall while hikers are on the trail.
This portion is also where the signs marking the trail become trickier. At first there were a few stakes with orange tops marking the way. After about 80 yards on the rocks we returned to the forest. I was thinking that was a fast 200 meters, and was hoping that was the whole rock slide area because that would mean we were closer to our destination.
To enter back into the forest we had to look around for orange triangles on the trees. It took a minute, but we were able to find it. After a few more minutes we were in the rest of the rock slide zone. In order to get to this portion we had to basically scale the side of a cliff wall. It was only about 15 yards above the rocks below, but in order to get down we had to hang on to exposed tree roots. It was pretty cool, but nothing like what we were about to experience.
The next portion of the trail was across some rocks, and again we had to look for a minute to see where the trail was going. We saw the orange marker and then walked towards it. In front of us was another cliff wall, only steeper and higher than the previous one.
This one was about 30 yards above the rocks. Almost the whole way up we had to grapple onto tree roots for balance and support. At the top there were three trees. The first tree was skinny and on the left. It was basically impossible to pass through it since the other side was too steep and against a hill. The middle two trees had a small gap between them that led to the trail. Basically at this point in order to pass through we were standing on a tree route holding on to the trees we were attempting to squeeze between. One false move and you would fall backwards, 30 yards to the ground below with nothing to cushion your fall.
Andy went through first and I was a few yards behind. I had taken a step incorrectly so my feet got tangled up. I ended up just having to hold both tree trunks with each hand and lift myself up and then step down. We made it through one of the more difficult parts of the hike. Getting down wasn’t going to be fun. Especially if it rained more and became slippery.
We walked for another hour with very little filming stops. The closer we got to the end the more narrow the trail became. It was also becoming steeper, muddier, and rockier. There was one part in particular that was a narrow waterway. It was about a foot wide on either side and about 6 feet tall. We weren’t sure if it was the trail, but we walked down it anyway. Bushes were hanging over on either side so we were getting wet and muddy as we passed through. It was neat, but on the way back in this part we saw that the trail had actually gone a little to our right, on a nice clean path.
There was another section near the end that was similar, but this time the passage way was shorter, but still involved mud and wet plants. It wasn’t that big of a deal though because our pants could protect our legs and they dried fast. Besides, the real wetness hadn’t even begun.
As we went further the trees started to clear and the trail became rocky again. We could see the lake ahead. The last part of the trail was downhill and mostly muddy with a few rocks along the way. When we got to the lake it was very cloudy. We could see mountains around the lake, but only the base of them. Occasionally the clouds with clear up slightly and we could see portions of the tops of some of the mountains.
The lake looked really neat in pictures and similar to mountain lake I had been to in other parts of the world. This one was a darker color though, not the bluish green color you see sometimes. On this day the lake wasn’t very pretty.
Surrounding the lake are a lot of huge boulders thrown around, probably caused by a glacier that used to be in this area during the last ice age. Andy took a picture while I held the umbrella above him for protection. It had started to rain a little bit. We were wondering if it had been raining all day and the trees protected us, or if it just started raining.
I was going to get a picture too, but after 5 minutes of him getting the right shot the clouds have covered the mountains again. I did get some pictures of the lake and rocky area around. At this point I began looking for a place to sit down on the rocks to have my snacks, I was starving and dying of thirst. I didn’t want to stop along the way to eat because there were not places to stop really, and I wanted to just get to where I was going.
As we were looking around it was starting to rain a lot harder. I saw a huge rock that was surrounded by trees about 100 yards away and thought it would be a good place to sit and be covered. Andy was ahead of me a little bit and said the spot was no good. The rock was actually against a hill and we would have to climb on top of the rock just to get into the trees, and then there was nowhere to sit.
We continued to walk around the lake in the same direction, being careful on the rocks. This part of the trail was barely marked by anything more than some grass that had been flattened by either animals or the few people that do the hike. Parts of the trail led straight into the rocks, so we had no choice but to cross them.
We saw a few more large boulders that looked like they could be shelter, but nothing great. One was a really big rock that leaned slightly, but there wasn’t much room for sitting and we would only be protected slightly. A couple of others looked similar.
By now we had walked 300 yards or so looking for a spot to sit. It was raining a lot harder too. Andy had an umbrella, I had nothing. We had passed two different sets of poop. They didn’t look like a dog, a person, or a rabbit, so we didn’t know what they were. I guess it could have been sheep, but it didn’t look right for that either. There is some type of mountain goat thing that lives in New Zealand, but we haven’t seen any.
About 30 yards ahead of us I saw two large rocks resting next to each other, underneath was a space that looked pretty dry. It was only about 3 ½ feet tall, but looked like enough room to sit. As we approached we saw a spot where someone had created a fire. We were thinking it was a caveman and we were in his home.
Andy went in first and just squatted and said it was uncomfortable. He got out and I squatted while leaning forward and said it was perfect. He ended up going behind me and resting his umbrella at the top of the two rocks where it was able to block the rain. He crawled to the point where the rocks met each other and sat on a rock. His spot was pretty well covered. In front of him wasn’t covered before he put his umbrella up so it had gotten wet.
Next to where he was sitting there was a small rock, about 4 inches tall and about a foot long. It was perfect. I had to wiggle the rock around a little bit to get it out of the mud and move to a spot where I could sit on it. It probably weighed about 30 lbs, but leaning over and having just walked with no energy made it tough at first to get. We put our bags under the big rock we had originally tried to squat under. I sat down and had my snack. The first thing I did was drink a little water. I then had a granola bar and my apple. The apple was really good even though I had had it in my bag for the past 4 days. I kept it there as a snack for a hike, but never wanted to eat it. I don’t usually like apples that much. This one was good though because it was juicy and provided me with some water.
We sat there for about 20 minutes waiting for the rain to stop. While we waited I set up my gorpro for a few shots of us eating our snacks. Andy said he thought the umbrella was only covering me and not him at all, but he had a more comfortable seating spot it looked like, but mine was fine too.
We decided we had sat around long enough. I decided I didn’t want to wait for the clouds to clear to get a picture of the lake with the mountains since it was raining harder. We beginning hiking back around 12:47 PM. I was getting soaked as I tried to cross the rock mine back to the trail. I slipped a few times, but nothing major.
We got back to the muddy trail and walked pretty fast to get out of the rain, hoping and thinking that the trees would protect us the way they protected the hobbits in Lord of the Rings. Maybe they would carry us too. My snack was good, but I was still wanting some real food. I also wanted to get out of my wet clothes and warm up. The worst part was my gloves were soaked so it was making my hands cold. My feet were also soaked as well. I was thinking that the one thing you learn from the movie Forrest Gump was to never let your feet get wet in the army. Anytime it rains I think of that if I’m walking around in it at all.
The majority of the trail was uphill on the way, so it would be downhill on the way back. I had thought of a few spots to stop to film so I was looking for those. We tried to do a few different shots then we had before. Since the trail was muddy we put the gopro down next to a puddle so it would show only our feet as we stepped directly into it. We tried that on a footbridge and in a puddle. I didn’t want to do it too often due to the fact that I didn’t want to be getting my feet wet when they didn’t have to be.
We probably stopped about ten times to do videos. All of them should be good, but the best ones were when we climbed up and down the two steep cliffs by holding onto the trees. I didn’t feel like hiking either of those portions again after the first time in fear of falling, but we ended up climbing them both about 4 or 5 times each in order to get various shots. Some of them I filmed Andy going down, some he filmed me going down, and some he wore his gopro going up and down. We also did shots of ourselves going up.
In order to get back faster we ran a few times. It was wet and there were rocks so we didn’t run as often as we normally would. At one point I stepped funny and felt my foot bend inward completely to where I was standing on the outside of my foot. Basically the same thing that happens if you jump and land funny. It stung kind of bad at first, but I just kept running. The cold weather plus the constant moving helped. Within about 2 minutes the pain was gone. It never bothered me again on the trail. I have pretty strong ankles anyway and they don’t get hurt even when I twist it like that. That is probably due to soccer and yoga.
The great thing about uphill hikes is that the way down is much easier. We got back to the car just after 2:30 PM. It was pouring down rain, and for a lot of the hike the trees did protect us, but the rock slide areas were exposed and a few other portions were as well which made us get drenched.
The hike itself was really cool. The lake wasn’t much on this particular day, but I’m sure with nicer weather it would be worth it for sure. We got back to the car and had to take off our jackets in order to get in and not get everything wet. My camera bag stayed dry from my rain cover, but the straps were wet. I quickly opened my door and through my backpack cover on the ground where my feet go in the front seat.
I put my bag on top of it. I took off my jacket and draped it over my seat, with my hood resting on the top. We had some things in the back so we had to move those so they wouldn’t get wet. I wanted to change socks so I grabbed out a different pair and took off the ones I had on. The socks that got wet were my warmest pair, so now I wasn’t going to have those to sleep in until I can wash them in a week or so.
We also wanted to have lunch so we had to get out the things we waned to eat. I made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and we sat in the car and ate a picnic while it poured outside. We had chips and a cookie for dessert. I finished off the rest of my water bottle.
We were ready to get back to the lodge and take showers and warm up. All of my clothes were wet that were exposed - my shoes, hat, gloves, rain jacket, and socks. We got back to the lodge around 4 PM. We couldn’t drive too fast because of the road being so steep and having sharp turns, plus with the low visibility and rain making things slick.
At the lodge we loaded up the things we wanted at went to the showers. It was the first shower I had in 3 days. I wanted to take one the night before or even in the morning, but good thing I didn’t since I just got wet and muddy anyway. My towel doesn’t dry fast enough to allow for two showers in the same day. It would be too cold and wet to bother.
The shower was really big and felt great. It always feels good to be clean and warm after freezing your butt off. After my shower I changed my shoes and put on my toe shoes so my other ones wouldn’t get anymore wet and they could dry out. I had left them on the porch full of newspaper to dry out.
We went back to the lounge and charged our batteries and wrote in our journals. Because of the bad weather there were a lot of people in the lounge. Most of the previous people that were there had left.
There was a lady sewing something by herself. There was also a group of 6 or 7 kids and a lady playing random team building games. I thought they must have been criminals on parole or doing community service of some kind to learn how to behave with other people. It made sense to me. Some of the games seemed ok, but a little corny.
Each kid had to get up and explain their game, sometimes they had a partner, and then the other kids had to do them. Afterwards the person that had chosen the activity had to say what they thought of the way the kids worked together and why they did the game. They all basically said the same thing. Stuff like, “I thought you all worked well together in a difficult situation and you communicated.” It was pretty stupid actually. After like the 8th game I could tell some of them were tired of it. I was tired of listening to it.
Some of the games included holding hands in a circle with them twisted up, then trying to unwind themselves without talking. There were a few games where they had to be blindfolded and then give someone directions on how to get to another part of the room.
The kids were obviously high school, I think one of them said they were a sophomore. Most of them sounded British, but I’m pretty sure one was American. After the games the lady in charge was talking to them about what they were going to be doing the next day.
She picked out two of them and said they would be dropping the anchor or tying and untying something each day, so I assumed she meant the anchor. Based on the things she said I figured out it was another scuba diving class. They must do those a lot at this lodge. They had to be up at 8 AM for the days activities. They also had to make a sack lunch since they would be out there all day on the boat. If they forgot anything they could have asked me, since I was listening. They finished playing their games around 6:45 or so.
During this time the sewing ladies husband had come in. He was talking to one of the workers at the reception desk and asking about weather. They said it was going to be bad weather the next day, and snow as low as 400 meters. Based on the temperatures it didn’t seem likely it would snow. He seemed upset about something as if it was the workers fault the weather was no good. They decided they would leave the next morning before the bad weather came in. There daughter was also staying there and she had come in. She had just been taking a nap.
Based on how she was talking it sounded like she had been traveling around the world and her parents had joined her for part of New Zealand. She had been to Egypt with her friend Heather, who was also in New Zealand. They had a mutual friend that lived somewhere that she was going to spend time with. It sounded like she was going to ditch her parents based on what I picked up. They were also looking at the computer and talking a lot about Lord of the Rings and where things were filmed as if they were going to go try to see them. Nerds.
I was tired of writing in my journals and listening to dumb people so we decided it was time to have dinner. We had eaten our good food, so tonight we were going to be having ramen noodles with a salad. The ramen was chicken noodle flavor. The peas were kind of gross but the rest tasted fine. Dehydrated vegetables aren’t very good. The salad with carrots and cheese on the side was good too. We each had a cookie and some chocolate for dessert.
The nerdy family had spaghetti, and not the cheap kind we keep eating. They had real looking sauce, with huge meatballs. They also had a spinach salad. These other people we keep seeing have better meals than I normally eat and they are on vacation. They must have had enough food for 4 or 5 people easily.
While eat ate our ramen noodles in a cup they had a feast. The night before two French girls had ramen noodles while we ate our tuna and ham sandwiches and I felt like we were eating good. Now I know how the French girls must have felt.
After dinner we went back into the lounge since it was raining outside still. At this point it had been raining from 10 AM until 7:30 PM with no sign of letting up. In fact, it had gotten much worse. The rain was coming down really hard, but even worse was the wind. This was the strongest wind I have ever seen. I would think it was a tornado if I was at home.
It was dark so I wasn’t looking outside very much at it, but we could definitely hear it. Our campsite was covered by trees, so I didn’t think anything of it. That is until about 9 PM when the lady working at reception came over looking for Andy. They knew we were staying in a tent and asked if we had gone out to look at it. I assumed she was going to say it was destroyed, blew away, or was flooded.
She said she didn’t know, but a few workers in the area said the weather was getting bad. Not wanting to go outside I sent Andy to check it out. He ran about 70 yards through the rain and into the trees to see how it looked. A few minutes later he came running back. He said it was really windy, but nothing was wet. That’s all I cared about at that point.
The lady said she was leaving, but would be back at 10 PM to check on us. She said if it was too bad she would check us into a room. If she meant she would give us a room upgrade for free, I would do it. To pay more, I didn’t think so.
We watched and listened to the weather while we continued writing in our journals, charging batteries, and uploading pictures. Andy transferred three of his cards and I transferred a few of mine. We wanted to have them clear for the next day since we were going kayaking.
An hour passed and they lady came back with her boyfriend. He was cleaning off the tables in the lounge and talking to us about the things we had done in Milford Sound and what we planned to do. We told him we planned to go kayaking the next day. He was really excited to hear that. It turned out that he was going to be our guide. His name was Blake. This is when I figured out he was the other ladies boyfriend since he mentioned something about his partner working here.
We talked for about 15 minutes, he told us he didn’t know what the weather would do in the morning, but if it was good we would go. He tried to make it sound like the weather was going to get better and we would have a great trip. He said we needed to pack some snacks or a lunch and he would give us drinks.
Andy checked the tent one more time and it seemed ok. It was extremely windy, but there was still no water getting in. We were slightly raised up on a green mat that marked the site, plus a plastic ground cloth, another ground cloth that came with lot. The campsite was at the base of a hill, so if it rained a lot water could flood the area. They told us that the campsites do flood in heavy rains. At this point it wasn’t the rain so much, but the wind that was an issue.
It must have been 90 MPH wind gusts. Inside the lounge it sounded pretty bad, outside it was ten times worse. The lady told us at 10:30 PM that we could have a key to one of the rooms if we needed to leave the tent in the middle of the night. She said she would only charge us $10 more per person for the upgrade, but we had to promise to tell her if we used the room in order to get the money we owed. We promised, but I was going to do everything I could to not have to pay that extra $10. The tent would have to start floating for me to change my mind. She also said in the morning we could use their dry room in order to dry our tent out.
As Andy finished writing I plugged in my last camera battery to charge for the night. I would get it in the morning. I sat in a pile of bean bag chairs while I waited because the couch was hurting my back. I thought that I should have been using them all along and that I could sleep right there all night.
We stayed inside until 10:55 PM, just before the lounge closed. Although there was nobody there to officially close it. We could have slept on the couch if we wanted to I’m sure. I had to get a few things from the car, which meant running 20 yards through the wind and rain. I needed to get my water bottle, my pillow, and my scarf to stay warm. I grabbed my dry bag as well to put hold my jackets so they didn’t get wet in the night and to have a way to transport my things in the morning if needed. I unzipped the bottom of my pants and separated them from my shorts so they wouldn’t get wet.
I ran as fast as I could to avoid getting too wet. It was ridiculous how windy it was. I got my things and then sprinted back inside. I filled my water bottle with hot water and took off for the tent. It wasn’t very cold, but there were puddles everywhere. I was wearing my head lamp so I could see where I was going. Andy held the umbrella over my head while I opened my side of the tent. I through my things in and jumped in after them.
He acted like he got soaked at that point while I was getting in. My side of the tent doesn’t unzip as easily so it took a minute to figure it out. The tent was perfectly dry on the inside. I was amazed.
I put my hot water bottle inside the bottom of my sleeping bag. I was trying to get situated when I felt something burning my feet. I pulled out of my sleeping bag really fast and there was water at the bottom. My bottle wasn’t closed all the way. I used the bottom of my pants that I had unzipped and my hat to dry it out. I was able to get it fixed.
I could hear the strong wind gusts, it sounded like rushing water. It was just after 11 PM, and I was hoping to make it to 7 AM.
June 23 - Milford Sound/Te Anau
Jun 23, 2012
June 23 - Milford Sound/Te Anau - Gail Forced Winds, Capsized Boats, and Torrential Rain!
Needless to say we barely slept. It took me forever to fall asleep, and even when I did I didn’t stay asleep for very long. The rain was pretty hard, but that was the least of my concern. The wind was terrible all night. It would slightly die down for a few minutes, and then hurricane force winds would blow so hard the tent would fold inward from the top down. It’s normally about 3 ½ feet tall in the middle, but during the strongest winds it was about 2 feet. I kept thinking the tent was going to snap in half.
The tent bending all over the place, the rain smashing against the tent, it was the worst camping night ever. The sound of the wind blowing through the trees sounded like rushing water from a river. I kept thinking that a river of water was going to come down from the mountains around us and wash us away. I was planning my escape route just in case, and was thinking that it would be hard to unzip a tent if we were being covered by water and floating away. It reminded me of people you see trying to drive down a road covered in water and then drowning.
I think I woke up every 20 minutes. At one point there was a loud crash against my side of the tent. I thought I was asleep at the time, but I remember seeing something dark smack against the side. Maybe I could feel it or see it through my closed eyelids. Regardless, I thought that a tree branch had hit the tent or the rain fly had come un-staked. Andy looked out the window and said it was still staked down.
I woke up at 6 AM and it was still very windy. It had been raining from 10 AM the day before straight through until now. I looked at the clock hoping it was later. I told myself I would lay there until 7 AM and then go inside the lounge. I would have made it through the night successfully.
I fell asleep and woke up at 7 AM when the alarm went off. I was able to stay there until 7:30 AM. Longer than I thought possible. We made our escape route. I put in my contacts, rolled up my sleeping mat, packed my sleeping bag, put on my rain jacket and toe shoes, and stuffed my things in my dry bag. We needed to make it about 70 yards or so to the lounge. The first 20 yards was covered by trees, but then it was open with no protection from the wind and rain.
I ran as fast as I could. There were puddles everywhere, but most of them weren’t as big as I was expecting based on the amount of rain that had fallen. Andy was in front of me. He had to unlock the car door so we could throw our things in. He left about 20 seconds before me. I never saw him. I got to his door, opened it, and threw my bag straight across his seat onto the foot part of my seat. I didn’t want my seat getting wet. I shut the door and ran the last portion to safety of the porch.
I got there and stopped. There was still no Andy. I didn’t know where he went. He coming running up a few seconds later. I asked where he went and he said he came to the porch and never saw me so he ran back to the car. He claimed he ran right by me, but I never saw him. He said it was because he was running like a crazy person. I was soaked after just about 10 seconds.
I went inside and stood by the door as I was trying to brush the water off of my jacket, but it wasn’t really helping. I needed a towel. The guy behind the reception counter heard me and through me a towel. I went back on the porch and dried off the front of my jacket and legs. Andy dried the back of my jacket and then dried himself off.
We were somewhat dry. We went to the kitchen and started breakfast. I had cereal and hot tea. It was about 8 AM and nobody else was inside. It was raining really hard, but it was barely hitting the ground because it was so windy. It was basically going sideways. Out the back windows we could see the trees blowing. They were almost bent over horizontally.
After breakfast we went and sat in the lounge. We needed to get our tent and start the drying process in the dry room, which we didn’t know where that was. At this time the sewing lady from the night before came inside to find out about the weather conditions. Her family was wanting to get out of town as fast as possible. I think she said they were planning to leave at 9 AM. She told me that the snow was coming around 4 PM, so if we were gone by 1 PM we would be fine.
We told her we had been sleeping in a tent and she was amazed. She said she could hear the rain all night in her room and thought it was pretty bad outside. We told her it was. They were planning on going to Queenstown and then up the west coast, similar to our route.
It was about 8:45 AM. More people had made it into the lounge. We went back out to the porch to watch the weather. We were hoping the rain would die down, or at least the wind, but that didn’t seem to be happening. I was ready to make a run for it. We planned our route first.
Andy was going to take out the stakes while I grabbed the liner inside. We were going to take off the roof, lay down the poles flat, then fold everything in the tent, including the two outside mats. We thought about carrying the tent together, but worried the wind may catch it and rip it out of our hands.
My boots were wet, Andy’s boots were wet. My toe shoes were wet, and his tennis shoes had gotten wet. We decided we would run barefoot. It didn’t sound that bad at the time. I thought the rain would make the ground soft. There were a few problems with this theory. Number one, the road we had to run down was gravel. Two, the tent site was mostly dirt, but the wind had blown down twigs and branches. Third, my shoes are toe shoes specifically designed for wet conditions. Why in the world didn’t I just wear them? I didn’t even think of it until later when Andy asked why I didn’t. My thinking at the time was that I didn’t want them to get more wet. What an idiot! This was the ideal time to be wearing them. Oh well.
We watched the wind for about 3 minutes from the porch, waiting for a lull. It was probably gusting about 75 mph at least, probably harder. The wind died down to about 20 mph. We made a mad dash. I went first. I unzipped my door and started rolling up the interior mat. Andy pulled out the stakes.
In order to keep the roof from blowing away he kept a few stakes in. We unclipped the sides of the roof, took out the poles completely and folded them up while we stood on the tent to keep it from blowing away. It wasn’t too windy since our tent was surrounded by trees, but the tent is obviously light enough that it would become a kite with no string in the wind.
We quickly pulled out the last two stakes, folded the tent in half and I grabbed it up and folded it against my chest. I started running as fast as I could for the building. Andy had the stakes and poles. As I emerged from the trees the wind hit me with a force like a ton of bricks. I could literally barely move.
The wind had caught part of the tent and was trying to rip it from my grasp. I held on tight and kept trying to move forward. Rather than run to the porch we decided to go to the side of the lounge and to the back down an outdoor walkway where the dry room was located.
At first I turned that direction because I saw grass. My feet were hurting very bad, and I just wanted to get off the rocks and onto soft ground. The building shielded us for a second from the wind and rain while I recovered in the wet grass.
Andy was right behind me so I continued on into the hallway. The hallway was covered on one side, the building on the other, and a roof. The ground in this section was paved, in rocks. It wasn’t as bad as the gravel road, but it was still hurting my already throbbing feet. It felt like someone stabbing my feet with knives.
We made a few turns and found the dry room. It was right next to the laundry room. When we opened the door warm air came out. It felt great, considering I was freezing cold and in pain. Inside there were a few wet suits hanging and other random things. It must have been the dive school people’s things.
I through the tent and all the other bits and pieces on the ground. We brought in a ton of water and dirt so it was pretty messy. In the middle of the room there was two clothes lines. We hung up the tent, the blue mat, and the roof. We put my green mat on the ground along with the outside gray mat.
We went and got our pairs of shoes to put in the room as well. I was thinking I should have done this sooner. My shoes would have had a longer time to dry out, and they would have dried much faster than sitting on the porch all night stuffed with newspaper.
I wanted to dry some of my other things too that I had thrown in the car. My sleeping mat bag had gotten wet in the night, and after I put my pat inside it got wet also. My sleeping bag case was wet too, which made my sleeping bag slightly wet. Of course my jacket was soaked, and the bottom of my pants and hat had been wet from the night before when I had to dry up the spilt water in my sleeping bag.
I hung all of those things up to dry, including my hat and gloves. Andy hung up a lot of things too. We went back to the lounge to wait. We were supposed to go kayaking at 9:45 AM around the Milford Sound. It didn’t seem like that was going to be happening. Around 9:30 AM it seemed like the rain was finally stopping, but it was still very windy.
Around 9:45 the kayak guide, Blake, showed up. He told us that of course the kayaking was canceled. He recommended that we try to do a boat cruise instead. He said that the best time to see the Sound is after a big rain storm. There would literally be thousands of waterfalls coming off the cliffs. We had seen some really big ones just off the mountains in front of and behind the lodge. There were no waterfalls the night before. I don’t know how that water never made it down to our campsite.
Blake went to find out if there were any boat cruises going today and what time. He came back and said the first one would be at 12:20 PM and last about 2 hours. The one he recommended was $80 NZD per person and was the best one to do according to him. We thought about it and decided it sounded like a good idea. We were going to be reimbursed the money we paid for the kayaking, and that could go towards the boat cruise. The kayaking was $130 NZD and was supposed to last until 3 PM, so we were going to finish around the same time and save money. I had pre-booked the trip a few weeks before we left, so I paid with my credit card. That money would be put back in to my account as soon as possible.
Andy ended up paying for the boat cruise. I had originally considered doing a boat cruise in addition to the kayaking, but decided they would probably be pretty similar in terms of the views. Looking back I guess we should have tried to reschedule to the days before because the weather was perfect.
We went to the dry room around 10:30 to check on our things. The blue mat and roof were dry. Our shoes were getting better, and my other things were still pretty wet. We folded up a few things and moved some other things to help them dry faster.
We went back to the lounge and sat around writing in our journals until about 11:20. We got up and went to the dry room to check on our things again. Most everything was dry, or very close to being dry. We folded up the tent and gathered the rest of our things. We wanted to leave for the boat dock around 11:50. It was only about 5 minutes away, but we wanted to be a little early to see the waterfalls by the water. Blake had said there were some big ones down there.
We left right on time. We had to park about 500 yards from the boat dock building, which was the visitor center we had gone to a few days earlier. That was the closing parking for private cars. The few parking spots up close were only for buses.
The hike over was the Lakeshore Trail which Andy wanted to do anyway. It took about 10 minutes. There were a few signs with information to read along the way, but we passed them up. Andy said he would check them out after the cruise.
We got to the dock around 12:10 and checked in. We were the first people there. I was hoping we would be the only ones on the boat. We were doing the Mitre Peak Cruise. There were about five other companies in the building offering cruises, each selling candy. One I saw had two snickers bars for $3 NZD. They looked big and I was tempted to get them. I didn’t though. Too much money.
We were told we should come back in ten minutes and someone from the boat would take us to where we needed to go. We went outside to look at a few waterfalls, we didn’t take pictures but we did do videos with our gopros. We didn’t want to get our cameras went since it was still raining lightly.
We went back inside and waited. As we walked in a bus had pulled up and people were getting off with blue tickets. We had green tickets so I was hoping that they weren’t on our boat. We all sat in the same section to wait though. After a few minutes a guy showed up and said if we had a green or blue ticket to follow him. We had green tickets.
We walked outside where the boats were docked. I didn’t see one that said Mitre Peak Cruises. I thought at first we were going to be using a boat with another company. We walked all the way to the end and the smallest boat out there was ours. We were told that because it is smaller it can go where other boats can’t. We handed our tickets to a girl as we boarded the ship.
There were probably about 40 people total on board. I was surprised that people were willing to come down from Te Anau or Queenstown on a bus for a few hours in this kind of weather. That drive must have been an adventure.
We went to the front of the boat. The downstairs is mostly inside, with a few spots outside on the deck. There was also a staircase to a second floor which was mostly outside with one covered part, but it had no wall to cover the back. It would be a good place to sit in nice weather, but with this weather you were just as likely to get wet as if you were just on the deck.
We saw a few people go outside in the front so we followed. We took a few pictures and decided that the top would be better. We would be able to see both sides, the front only gave you views from the small part we were on since there was no way to walk across the front to the other side.
We stopped to take a few pictures from the back. I talked to the girl that had taken our tickets for a little bit. We she was from Christchurch and had been working for Mitre Peak for five months. She mostly worked in the office, but the past two months she was getting to work on the boat. She had to go do things and then went to the top. The views from above were really good.
The boat was going pretty fast and with the wind it was causing some huge waves. A few times it seemed like the boat was going to flip over. One side of the boat would go up, and the other side would drop down and looked like it would take in water. I don’t know how it never did. I was sure it was going to sink. The guy driving seemed crazy.
From the top it was even crazier. We had to hold on to the rails otherwise we would literally fall down. It was also extremely windy. So if the rocking boat didn’t knock us over the edge, the wind would. It was very insane. The wind in the morning carrying the tent was tough to withstand, but the wind on the boat was too much. It was like a rollercoaster, but I didn’t know if I would survive. I was sure I was, but there was a small amount of doubt.
At the top was me, Andy, two Chinese guys, and a guy in a green jacket that looked German and some other guy. We were all laughing hysterically, holding on for our lives. We did a lot of videos and photos. The best part of the cruise was the waves and wind. It was probably even more of an adventure than just paddling around in a kayak. Who wants to paddle a little boat anyway?
I don’t know how nobody ever got seasick. I never have that problem, but if I did this would definitely be the boat to cause it. It was raining off and on throughout the journey. There were a lot of waterfalls coming down all around us off the cliffs. A few of them we got extremely close and stopped next to them for people to take pictures. One in particular stop it seemed like everyone came on the roof to get pictures.
We went all the way out into the open ocean. It is known as the Tasman Sea. It took a little more than an hour. There were a few bumpy portions, but the further out we went into the sound and closer to the sea the calmer it became. It also became more clear. People came to the top randomly and went back down.
We made it to the farthest point and then turned back. The ride back was much faster, I guess because the current pushes towards the shore. We had gone out on one coastline, and headed back on the opposite. It was a huge circle. We only stopped a few times. We stopped to see seals on the rocks, but we could only see one and it was trying to hide. We also stopped under a waterfall.
By under, I meant the boat seemed to go directly underneath it. Everyone from the top had gone back inside except for me and Andy and one really tall guy. We stood outside the protection of the small covering on the roof. I stayed slightly under it, but my shoes and leg got soaked. Andy was more in the open and got drenched. The tall guy just stayed inside and watched.
After that we decided it was time to go back inside. We were freezing cold and wet. All the other people looked nice and comfortable, but most of them missed all the fun. We paid too much to just sit and watch from inside the whole time.
There was free tea and coffee on board, so when we got inside we had some coffee. It wasn’t great, but it’s coffee so it never is. It warmed me up a little though. We stood near the back of the boat for the rest of the ride. At one point Andy went to the front to get some videos and pictures, I tried to go up there too, but couldn’t figure out the door. I think I pulled when I should have pushed. I ended up going out the back door. It was cold so I went back inside.
The boat pulled into the dock and the 2-hour wild ride was over. We walked back to the car and Andy read the signs along the way. We sat in the car in the parking lot and had a quick lunch. We had sandwiches, chips, and a gross cookie.
On the boat the captain and the girl working on board said that the Chasm Trail is best after huge rainstorms. We weren’t in a hurry really so we thought we would stop there and do the hike. Before the trail took about an hour and a half to complete, but since we were cold and it was raining we wanted to finish fast. The trail was about ¾ of a mile in length at most.
We wanted to get it over with as fast as we could, but still see the rushing water. Nobody else was at the hike, but there was a campervan parked in the parking lot. They must have just been sleeping in the car or something.
We put on our gopros on our headstraps. We ran the entire trail to make it seem more interesting. We made it to the end relatively fast, but the way there is mostly a slight uphill. It is boardwalks a lot of the way, but it was still a tough run. My throat was hurting and a few times I wanted to stop and rest.
We didn’t take our cameras at all, just the gopros. We got to the end, filmed a little bit of the chasm and each other, and then started the run back. The way there I led the way, but on the way back Andy led the way. That way we would each be in the shots. The run down was much easier and faster.
We got back to the car in less than 15 minutes from the time we left until the time we got back. We planned to drive straight through to Te Anau and camp in the same Top 10 Holiday Park we had stayed at before. We didn’t stop at all on the way back up the road except for once to take pictures over the lake with the mountains. We had stopped in this spot before, but now the skies were a little clearer.
We made it to Te Anau around 5 PM. We didn’t want to sleep in the rain again and it seemed like it might rain. We asked how much the cabins were to stay in. It was more of a one bedroom with two beds. I said if they were too much we would just camp in the tent. They were $66 NZD. I didn’t want to pay that much.
She asked how much we had paid to camp. We had paid $40 NZD. She said she would spilt the difference. I didn’t know what that meant. She got out a calculator and said it would be $53 NZD for the night. It was only slightly more for a real bed, not having to put up a tent, and we wouldn’t get wet. It sounded good to us.
The room included a small fridge, a toaster, and a hot water boiler. It also had a heater and a queen sized bed and a twin bed. I took the queen sized bed. The floor seemed really wet for some reason and the heater didn’t go above 18 Celsius even though I set it to 25.
We got out all of our things from the car and reorganized the food and our bags. Everything had been scattered randomly for weeks and I kept saying I was going to fix it, but never got around to it. It was either too cold, too dark, we were too busy, or I just didn’t feel like doing it. It took about 15 minutes for me to do everything. Andy took much longer.
Afterwards we went and took hot showers. It felt great. We wanted to have the can of beans and meatballs that we had found at Mt. Cook. We also had a salad, a small piece of bread, and a cookie. I ate some chocolate since I was behind on my servings. The meatballs and beans was kind of good, but too expensive. We’ve seen it at the grocery store and for such a small amount of food it’s a rip off.
After dinner we went to the TV lounge and watched TV. I had bought internet for $5 for 250 MB so I played on the internet for about 4 hours. I was able to check emails, play on face book, and sell some VISA stock in order to keep funding my trip. Andy wrote in his journals, but I never did. I got behind a little more, but I will be able to catch up eventually. I also transferred a few memory cards and charged my computer battery.
There were only a few channels and the only thing worth watching was Wipe Out and Rugby. Wipe Out was a little different than normal and I didn’t feel like watching it. I turned on Rugby instead. New Zealand was playing Ireland and won 63-0. It was a blowout, the worst ever defeat for Ireland against New Zealand. We couldn’t figure out the rules. We weren’t watching it that closely, but it seemed like they just made up the rules as they went along. Afterwards Wales was playing Australia. We didn’t really watch that one too closely either.
We stayed there until 11 PM. I was ready to go to bed, it had been a long and very eventful day. In the room I let Andy play on the internet to do anything he wanted.
June 24 - Manapouri/Queenstown
Jun 24, 2012
June 24 - Manapouri/Queenstown
I had a really nice night of sleep. The bed was comfortable and warm. It was good to be out of the elements again. I keep thinking I don’t know how Native Americans could survive in teepees their whole lives. Constantly packing up and moving, sleeping on the ground. It’s a hassle, especially if it’s cold or rainy at all.
We woke up around 7:45. It was Sunday so we wanted to go to church. We had looked on the map the day before and seen that there was a Catholic Church about ½ a mile down the street. We had to pack up all of our things into the car and eat a quick breakfast before we could check out.
I had all of my things nicely stacked so it was really easy. Andy had his things thrown out everywhere to dry so it took him a lot longer. I assumed church would be at 9 AM so I told him he needed to hurry and pack if he wanted to eat breakfast, otherwise he’d have to eat after.
We got our things packed neatly and dropped off the key at the reception desk. We were out the door by 8:50. The church was tiny and just on the side of the road. There was nowhere to park really because a truck with a boat had parked sideways and took up about 8 spots. We had to drive down about 60 yards in front of a little coffee shop and parked there.
We got to the church a few minutes before it started. When we walked in all I saw was old people. There was about 8 people already there and they were all sitting in the back. The building was maybe 100 feet by 50 feet. There were 10 pews on each side with one aisle down the middle.
We sat in the third row on the left. I don’t like sitting in the back. Eventually 40 people showed up. One of the families wasn’t old people. Te Anau must be a retirement community or something. The priest was probably in his mid to late 40s.
They didn’t have any instruments that I could see so the priest just said what the processional song would be and started singing. He was pretty good. The congregation was much better than the last church we went to. At the previous church they didn’t even seem to know the song the priest was having us sing.
At this church they were still learning the new parts to the mass. They knew all of them except the songs during the breaking of the bread. During those songs an organ was playing one time, so I thought maybe there was one somewhere in the back or upstairs that I couldn’t see. The next song though was obviously a tape recording with instruments and singing. So I’m not sure if the previous song was recorded also or not.
The service was basically identical to what we were used to except the end. For the final prayer the priest just stayed in his chair to say it. It was a very informal service. He made statements during his homily about something and asked a question and some of the people responded. I guess in a tiny town where everyone knows everybody that would be common.
The service lasted about 55 minutes. Afterwards the priest asked if we were in town for some fishing thing. I guess there is a tournament of some kind going on or there is good fishing in the area. We told him we were there for hiking. He thought it was a little cold for that.
We walked back to the car and got our cameras and took pictures of the church. It was set in front of mountains and the sun was shining really well on it. We ate our breakfast at the car. We had our last bananas and yogart.
A lot of the mountains we were unable to see on our previous stop through Te Anau were now visible. We planned to head south about 20 kilometers to do part of the Kepler Track. The Kepler Track is a 3 to 4 day hike that involves staying in huts. We didn’t have time to do the whole thing, but we wanted to do a section from Rainbow Reach to the first hut going the opposite way that most people go.
We wanted to see this section because part of Lord of the Rings was filmed here. The lady from the Te Anau visitor center had told us this the first time we stopped in Te Anau so we figured we would try to do it if we had time. Since we didn’t do the Milford Track and took out a few locations later on we were going to have time.
The hike is supposed to last about 3 hours. Before we could get started we needed to get gas. My credit card is maxed out until I pay it off so Andy had to buy gas. The benefit to getting gas on a credit card is the free miles you get. I should have my card paid off on July 2. Last night on the internet I set it to withdraw at that point.
We started driving south around 10:30 AM. We found the turn off which led us down a gravel road for a few kilometers. It was more bumpy than some of the other gravel roads we had driven on in New Zealand, but it was still not that bad.
We got to the start of the trail at 11 AM. There was a sign that said to lock up valuables because thieves come through the area. Ordinarily people park there cars there for days, and it’s in the middle of nowhere, so their belongings are easily taken I guess.
I was thinking that someone was going to steal our things. As I was packing my snacks in my bag another car drove up. It was a truck with a guy and a little boy, maybe 10 years old. They drove past, turned around, and then parked a few spots down from us. There were 3 or 4 other cars already there from people doing the hike.
Andy was packing his things as well and finishing his breakfast. He still had some limbus bread left so he ate the last of that. I was looking up towards the trail and noticed that the guy and the boy were starting the trail. It wasn’t a big deal except for the fact that he had a rifle strapped to his back. We were in a national park so I was assuming hunting was illegal. I was thinking he was going to teach his son how to hunt, or he was going to rob people. Most likely us.
I was now a little hesitant to do the hike. Not because I actually thought I would be robbed, but because he may see us from a distance and mistake us for an animal and shoot at us. Especially since there are literally no animals bigger than a rabbit in this country. If they are, they are cows, horses, sheep, or fenced in deer. It would be a great place to have wild animals, but they don’t seem to exist.
Maybe he was going to hunt birds or something. I never found out, but I was tempted to ask him what he planned to shoot since there were no animals worth killing. At the trailhead there was a small shelter with information about the hike. One of the things I read mentioned a warning to hunters that park rangers rode bikes through the park at dusk and dawn. I thought it was going to say they would be looking for illegally hunting, but all it said was to be aware of this. Maybe so they wouldn’t be mistaken for an animal.
There were signs that mentioned hunting was illegally in the park. Maybe they didn’t go on the trail and turned off before it started.
Andy was taking forever to get ready. I was already apprehensive about the murderer and his boy on the trail, so I was ready to get started. I remember thinking that if they did go on the trail that they were going the other way than us. I guess I don’t really like seeing guns since I’ve never really been around them. Who wants to hunt for food when you can just go to the grocery store? I would rather just take pictures of animals.
The trail begins with a long swing bridge. That seems to be a common thing in New Zealand. We did some filming and got some pictures. Andy was taking a long time to do this and I couldn’t figure out why. We had seen bridges like this a lot already. About 15 yards onto the bridge there was a spider web from a cable to the wood siding. It looked really cool because there was water droplets on it. It looked like silk. There was no spider though. We got pictures of it and then continued on.
The hike is pretty wooded at first, but different than what we had experienced. It wasn’t really a mossy forest like the others. The trail was very open. It was like going for a stroll in the woods because it was very flat and very easy.
We stopped along the way and did some videos and took some pictures. A few people with backpacks passed us. There was one old guy that was alone, then about 10 minutes later two ladies passed us, and then not far behind them were three ladies. We passed four more old people later. They were all heading out as they had completed the track.
If old people can do the hike, than you know it’s easy. It’s one of the more popular treks, and it’s accessibility is probably one of the reasons. The first part follows the river from about 25 yards above. Most of it is about 30 yards inland from the edge of the cliff, but occasionally it led to the side for views of mountains in the distance along with the river below.
The trail stayed flat for 99% of the time. There were a few downhill and uphill portions, but they were very minor climbs and descents. As we went further into the forest the scenery became more of what we were used to. The trees, rocks, and sides of the trail were mossy.
Along the way there were four little sign posts. They were just numbered either 1, 2, 3, or 4. We didn’t know what they meant, but assumed that because Lord of the Rings was filmed in this area that they were something to do with that. One was next to a bridge, and another led down to the water’s edge. From what we had heard and read it seemed like this was the area where the elf girl ran with Frodo through the winds to safety.
We passed a lot of small wooden traps. I was thinking maybe the hunter had set them and went to check on them. Then I was thinking that the park rangers were trapping animals to study the population or to get rid of something that wasn’t native.
At one point me and Andy got separated. He was taking pictures and I was ready to continue on. I had walked ahead and out of the woods the hunter and his son appeared. As they saw me the guy started walking towards me, but his son sat down on the side of the trail. The guy turned around and told him to get up. They walked right on by. Andy was somewhere behind me, I couldn’t see him because the trail curved. I walked off as fast as I could.
There were two boggy areas on the trail. The first we came to was a lookout of a small lake. The trail leading up to it branched off the main track and was a boardwalk. It looked like the place where Frodo may have fallen into the water. There were a few parts that looked just like it. I got there about 10 minutes before Andy did, so I just took some pictures and filmed myself. When he showed up we did some more pictures and filming.
The other bog part was a boardwalk as well, but was just part of the normal trail. About half way across the boardwalk was a sign that explained the importance of the bogs. 90% of the natural bogs in New Zealand have been drained for farmland, which is the case in most countries. In the past people didn’t realize their necessity in times of heavy rains or drought.
The bogs can trap lots of water so if there is lots of rain than they can keep it stored up and therefore there isn’t as much flooding. In heavy droughts that stored up water can be used. I learned that from reading the sign post.
These two areas would be perfect for moose. I really wish they would have more animals in New Zealand. That is my only complaint so far, other than the fact that everything is way over priced.
We made it to a fork in the road that pointed to two different huts. One was a 20 minute walk, and the other a 15 minute walk. We wanted to go to the closer one. It led down to a rocky beach surrounded by mountains on three sides. Most of the mountains were in the distance, but some were right across the lake.
The lake was Lake Manapouri, which is the only access point to Doubtful Sound. We had wanted to go there, but during the winter there aren’t as many activities. In the warmer months there are kayaking trips. In order to get there now the only option is a cruise which costs over $250 NZD. We didn’t want to pay that much.
At the lake we took a lot of pictures. I did a few self portraits. Andy wanted to do some jumping pictures so he set up his timer and did a few. I thought it looked fun so I had him take some of me. They turned out really well. We also did a video jumping shot with Andy’s camera. It turned out kind of stupid, but it will be something to work on in other locations.
We spent about 20 minutes in this area. We weren’t to the hut yet so we had to walk along the beach for a few hundred yards than back into the forest. Off in the distance we had seen a small motor boat, so we assumed that’s where the hut was.
We walked for another 20 minutes after a few stops for photos and then walked out of the forest back onto the beach. The motor boat was gone, but the hut was just ahead. It was tiny. It only held six people and was just a one room building. Outside there was a fire pit. In order to stay in the huts people must pre-book.
Across the lake I could see the motor boat. I guess it was a ranger and figured nobody was signed up to stay there for the night so he went over to the other one. We walked a little further past the hut along the beach to a peninsula. I was hoping it would give views around the corner and we’d see more mountains. We didn’t see that many, but it was worth the walk.
The tide was going out so we could walk out a little further. There were some large footprints of some kind of animal that led down to the water and disappeared. They reappeared again further down on the beach. Next to them was a trail of human footprints. Honestly the footprints looked like an elk, but I haven’t seen any except those that are in fences.
Maybe this one broke free. I was thinking that the human footprints were from someone tracking it and then killed it. Maybe the hunter guy had walked that far.
It was around 2:30 PM at this point and we were ready to get back since we wanted to get to Queenstown for the night, if not farther. Queenstown was about 2 ½ hours away, and we didn’t want to drive on the roads in the dark for too long since they could be icy and the roads twist and turn a lot on sharp curves.
We began our trek back through the woods, across the beach, and back into the woods. We only stopped a few times to do some video shots and take pictures. We passed the bogs, and in a few places Andy stopped to take pictures of mushrooms growing on logs and trees. I took pictures of the mushrooms on the log, but I was just trying to walk fast. We even ran on a few parts to get back faster.
We got to the point where I had seen the hunter come out of the woods. This was an area where there was a small stream that Andy wanted to take long exposure pictures of. We went a little bit off the trail and jumped across the stream. We sat up our cameras and did some pictures. The entire area is very mossy and looks like somewhere hobbits would live.
We spent about 30 minutes in this spot. My pictures looked really good. Afterwards we started running a little bit more to get back faster. It was after 3:30 PM by now. We wanted to be done around 4 PM if possible. We stopped a couple more times to take pictures.
We passed a big tree with an opening in the trunk at the bottom. Definitely a house where hobbits live so we took pictures. We only stopped one or two more times to take pictures of the mountains along the river. The lighting was different and some of the mountains were more visible than they had been earlier in the day. .
We got back to the car around 4:15 PM. We had driven south to Manapouri, so we had to back track through Te Anau on our way to Queenstown. There were only two towns between Te Anau and Queenstown on the map. Neither were big towns and not ideal stopping points.
We ended up driving all the way to Queenstown with the hopes of staying in a cheap Holiday Park, or settling on the Twelve Mile Delta Campground we had stayed in before. We hadn’t had lunch all day so we were starving. We were craving Fergburgers.
Andy wanted to Big Al, which had two patties, bacon, two fried eggs, beets, and then all the normal things. I just wanted the same basic hamburger I had before. The sauce and buns are really good. We figured it would be enough food to fill us up.
The drive back wasn’t too bad. It was mostly flat and straight, but the last 50 kilometers or so follows a lake and the roads constantly turn. A lot of cars were on the road for a Sunday night, at least a lot compared to what we expected. It was very few, maybe a few hundred for the whole drive, but it felt like a lot. It gets dark at 5:30 PM, so at 6:30 PM we thought it was late.
We got to Queenstown around 7 PM. There was a winter wonderland festival going on. At least that’s what we called it. There was an outdoor ice skating rink lit up with people skating. There was a Samsung tent lit up. Tree trunks were wrapped in Christmas lights. There were lots of people out walking around as well even though it was freezing. For a small town of only 11,000 they seemed to all be out that night. Of course it is a tourist trap, so lots of those people were probably foreigners.
We parked next to the little church we had before where the crazy guy kept backing into the car. We parked in front of it though this time. Being a Sunday night and after 6 PM it was free. We walked about 7 minutes through the cold to Fergburger. It was packed!
There must have been 30 people crammed in this little building plus people sitting outside eating and waiting for their order to be called. We walked inside and got behind people that looked like they were in line. We only had to wait a few people to put in our order.
We went to wait outside, but I was cold. I wanted to go inside. I pushed my way through the crowd and stood on the far side of the restaurant. Andy came in next to me. We had to take our bags off because it was so crammed.
A lady and her daughter were sitting in bar stools in front of us. The lady threw away an entire thing of fries. They were $4.50 NZD. She then threw away her daughters. I was shocked. She should have asked if anyone wanted them first. I would have taken them. Her daughter than threw away half her sandwich. She was probably 8, to think she could eat that whole thing was nuts.
I asked if they were done with the stools and the lady said yes and that they were leaving. She said it in a way like she was mad. I thought maybe she didn’t like the food since they threw it away and were leaving the way they were.
We sat down in the seats and waited for our food. On a TV in the front was a blooper show of people doing skiing. They were crashing all over the place. It was pretty funny. We also leaned over and watched the guys make the hamburgers. They were caking them in sauce and other sides.
Behind them was the grill and we watched the hamburgers cook. There were some with cheese, some with eggs, some with pineapple. They were huge. For some reason in New Zealand they like putting pineapple on hamburgers and chicken.
Our number was finally called after about 20 minutes. Our burgers looked really good. Before we ate Andy got pictures of the burgers. We ate the smaller one first. We meant to ask them to cut them in half so we could share, but forgot. Andy had his pocket knife so he cut them in half. The first burger was easy because it wasn’t so huge.
The Big Al was much harder to cut. Everything was falling out. The hardest part was cutting through the thick bun. Both of the burgers tasted good, but I preferred the normal hamburger. The bacon was good on the Big Al, but fried egg just seems weird to me. It’s not the right kind of flavor to mix with the other ingredients. There were also beets, which tasted fine, but it’s not a normal ingredient for anything.
Both hamburgers were very messy. I kept spilling things everywhere and sauce was dripping out all over my hands. These things need to come with a plate, a fork, and a knife. We finished eating and cleaning up and started the walk back to the car.
We wanted to see if the Holiday Park Campground near the Skyline Gondola was cheap since it was close and would have a kitchen where we could fill our water bottles to keep us warm. We really considered just going to the kitchen and getting hot water and then leaving to the cheap place.
When we got to the Holiday Park it looked more like it was just a motel, but in the back we could see campers and a kitchen facility. The entrance to that section was blocked with a swinging gate. We could park and run over there, but we thought there may be cameras watching us.
We decided to go inside and just ask about the price. I went in while Andy waited in the car. The lady was helping other people and took forever. After about 5 minutes I asked the price. It was $22 NZD per person. I didn’t want to pay that much so I told her I would go see if we wanted to stay here. We didn’t. We drove off never to be seen again.
We just settled for the farther, junkier campground. The price was right. We considered going further down the road to Glenorchy in the morning so it would be best to be in that area anyway. In Glen Orchy a few scenes from Lord of the Rings were filmed there. At the Twelve Mile Delta campground the scenes where Frodo and Sam watch the elephants and riders fight against Gondor soldiers.
We got to the campground just before 8:30 PM. A sign says to pay before 8:30 PM, otherwise to pay in the morning. We drove straight on through without stopping. We went back to the spot we camped before next to the bathroom. There were a few campervans in the area. It seems like they all park in the same vicinity even though it’s a big campground. It’s also the only campground we have stayed at where there aren’t trailers parked as if people are living there year round. This seems to be more for people just looking for a cheap place to stay for the night.
I wanted to do a time lapse of us setting up the tent so we got our head lamps and left the car lights on so we could see and the camera could take pictures. Hopefully it turns out ok. It was cold, but not freezing like it had been before. It took about 20 minutes to get everything set up, including the inside mats and sleeping bags.
I was trying to blow up my mat and noticed that a piece of the air bag was missing. It was the nozzle that goes from the bag to the mat. I had to just blow it up with my mouth. It was fine though because the bag isn’t very efficient anyway. I thought maybe I dropped it or it fell off in the hurricane. It also could be in my dry bag or somewhere in the car. I didn’t feel like digging around for it.
We got back in the car and wrote in our journals for the next hour and a half. It was after 10:30 PM and I was tired. We went into the tent to go to bed.
June 25 - Wanaka
Jun 25, 2012
June 25 - Wanaka
We woke up around 7:15 AM. The night wasn’t as cold as I was thinking it would be. I was pretty comfortable all night. We took down the tent and had a banana for breakfast. It was about 8 AM when we finally left the campground. We had gotten in late the night before so we hadn’t paid.
As we drove out of the campground we stopped at the gate where the owner of the park was staying in his trailer. I walked up to the door and his dog was inside barking. A few minutes later Joe, the owner, came outside. I told him we needed to pay for the night. He remembered us since we had already stayed in his campground on our previous trip through Queenstown.
He was grateful that we had stopped. I don’t think he realized we were even camping there. He only made us pay $7 NZD for the night, the price of one person to camp there. He also asked where we were headed and I told him Wanaka. He knew of a place to camp there and suggested we mention his name and they would give a 15% discount.
We left and began our two hour drive north. We wanted to stop at a few places along the way first. Our first stop was the Shotover Canyon. When we did our jetboat ride we didn’t have a chance to get photos of the canyon since we had to hurry to the paragliding afterwards.
We first stopped on the side of the road over looking Lake Wakatipu not far from our campground. The sky was clear and the mountains were a pinkish color from the sunrise. We took a few pictures and continued on. We made another stop near Lake Wakatipu as we entered Queenstown. We walked a few hundred yards to the shore and took some pictures. We got back in the car and drove to the Shotover Canyon.
The route was pretty icy the further we got from town. The drive was only about 10 minutes outside of town, but there were a few spots where we passed cars covered in snow and saw slippery parts on the road. We didn’t have a problem, but a few other cars were pulling over or skidding slightly.
We parked in the Shotover car park and walked to a bridge overlooking the canyon. We took some pictures, but didn’t cross it. It is a one lane bridge and with the roads being icy we didn’t want to risk a car sliding into us. That would ruin our trip. The spot we were at was good for pictures anyway.
I was ahead of Andy so rather than wait I walked down a short path that led to the shores of the river. The path was really icy and covered in snow. I stopped along the way and took some pictures and videos. I was at a good angle to get some videos of a jetboat tour that was just starting. It sped off in the same direction we had. A few minutes later it came raising back and passed below me and through the canyon.
Andy had come down to meet me and we walked a little further to the snowy rocks below. We waited for a few minutes as another tour was getting ready to begin. We took some videos of the boat from a different angle as it flew by.
We walked back to the car and drove to our next stop, the Catholic Church we had gone to for mass. We hadn’t taken pictures and it was basically on our route out of town so we made a quick stop. The church was small, but a little bigger than the last one. It was in front of mountains and made for a good photo.
As we were driving to our next destination we stopped at another unplanned detour. There was a historic bridge and Andy wanted to look at it. He said the first time we drove by a week or so earlier it was too bright to see it, or something like that. We drove a few kilometers down the road and saw the parking lot to see it. It was pretty plain, but we took pictures anyway. The best part was that the parking lot was icy so I could skate across it partially.
After the 15 minute detour we were ready for our next stop, AJ Hackett Bungy Jumping. It is the sight of the first bungy jumping location in the world. We weren’t planning to do bungy jumping, it was way too expensive. Andy wanted to stop here because a scene from Lord of the Rings was filmed here. Something about two statues on a bridge. The bridge was used for the shot.
We spent about 40 minutes at the bungy bridge. Even though it was expensive, $175 NZD per jump, it was popular. A lot of people had stopped to do it. We watched 4 or 5 people jump off. None of them seemed scared about it. Most just dove off head first as if they were diving in a pool. One girl just jumped straight off with her feet first. I didn’t watch after that, but I imagine that way is much more painful as it would jerk you down.
A bus had stopped with mostly Indian people, and they were the ones doing most of the jumping. We had seen a short trail as we were walking back to our car and walked down it a little ways hoping to get a different view of the bridge and the canyon. It wasn’t much better so we walked back to the car and continued the drive to Wanaka.
We made two more stops before Wanaka, both were in Cromwell, a small town we had passed through before on our way to Queenstown the first time. Cromwell is a small town, that Gollum, the Spanish guy we met in Mt. Cook, told us sold dried fruits. He had shared some of his dried mango with us so Andy wanted to get some of his own. He has been wanting to buy local foods for a long time.
I didn’t care if we stopped, but we saw a small stand on the side of the road so we went for a look inside. We looked for a few minutes at dried fruit, chocolate, jelly’s, and vegetables. I wanted some of the chocolate, but couldn’t decide which kind. It was all way over priced for the amount in each package. We asked what one of the cheaper one’s was. It was chocolate, but we didn’t know what was in it. She said it was a hokey pokey flavor. Great description lady. She said foreigners wouldn’t know what that meant, which we didn’t. She said we could try some. She opened a package and gave us a piece each, she ate some too.
It was a honey comb type flavor inside. It was pretty good. We decided we would get it. She also said we could try some jelly’s since we were looking at them a little. They were ok, but too expensive for what we wanted to pay for such a small amount. I also wanted eggs, but again too much.
Andy ended up buying some dried fruit pack. We also bought 4 apples, they were reasonably priced. In total it cost $9.70 NZD. We drove another few miles down the road and had to stop again. On the way through Cromwell the first time we passed some large fruit statues. Andy wanted to get pictures of it.
It was basically a monument of four fruits with the name of the town under them. I’m guessing Cromwell is known for its fresh fruit based on the monument and fruit stands along the roadside. We each got our picture taken in front of the place.
It seemed like we had made all of the necessary and unnecessary stops for the day. We could finally drive to Wanaka. Wanaka is like Queenstown, only smaller and much more expensive. Our plan was to stay for one day, but maybe two. I wanted to do the Diamond Lake Hike and maybe another if we had time.
Wanaka is on the shores of Lake Wanaka. The name is pronounced like Hanukah, but with a W. I kept seeing Adam Sandler’s Hanukah song while we were there, but making my own verse that included celebrating Hanukah in Wanaka. The town is a ski resort and it being winter time and there having just been big snow storms pass through the area we were prepared for bad weather and icy roads. All day the weather had been nice, hopefully it would continue when we got to Wanaka.
We were looking for the campground as we drove into town, but ended up taking a wrong turn. We ended up on the opposite side of the lake from where we wanted to be, but didn’t realize that at first. We stopped at a picnic site and took pictures of the lake with the mountains behind. We climbed up onto a large rock to get pictures, and then walked down to the shoreline to get more. I got a few really good self portraits here.
We continued down the road passing different campgrounds and motels, but never saw the one we were looking for. We saw a campground in the distance and hoped it was the one we wanted, it wasn’t. We drove another 20 minutes and found nothing.
We ended up finding out that the road we were on wasn’t the one we wanted. We stopped on the side of the road to take some pictures of Mt. Aspiring, since we were near the Mt. Aspiring National Park. As we were about to turn around and go back to town we saw a sign that said lead Diamond Lake Hike. It was just down the road. It was still early, around 1 PM, and the weather was good. Rather than waste time driving across town to look for the campground we just continued on the road for a few more kilometers.
We hadn’t had lunch and we were starving. Our little breakfast wasn’t enough to hold us over all day. We made ham sandwiches and ate chips and a cookie. The hike was supposed to take 40 minutes one way. It included a 10 minute hike to Diamond Lake, and then 30 more minutes to an overlook of Lake Wanaka and the town.
The trail starts out very steep, but than levels out for the next few minutes and leads to the lake. The area around the lake was icy, and parts of the lake were frozen. There is a circuit trail around the lake, but we wanted to get to the top.
Most of the trail climbs from here. The first part is a steady uphill climb that leads to stairs. The trail then flattens out and goes to an overlook of Diamond Lake. From there the trail climbs a little more to the final overlook. I remember thinking it was only a few hundred yards away, but the way from that point took about 15 minutes. Judging distances has been a problem the last few hikes. Maybe the lack of food is messing with my mind, or the hills are deceiving since the trails wind around differently than I’d expect.
We got to the top and the weather was perfect. There were very few clouds in the sky. We were the only ones at the top so we took our time. There had been two girls start the trail right before us, but they had already gone up and headed down. A guy passed us running down the trail at one point, and a girl soon followed. There were also a group of 5 girls that started right after us, but they stopped at the lake. I could see them from the lookout. They were just sitting on the ground talking loudly. I could hear them from the cliff above.
We did some 360 shots. I took one with my bag on the bench from the top.; Since there were mountains all around it looked really cool. I also took one of Andy standing on the bench with his arms in his pockets. Both turned out great. We spent 30 minutes or so at the top. It was becoming dusk so we headed down.
There was a branch off the trail to a higher point, but since it was 4 PM we decided we didn’t have time to do it. We got down to the bottom around 5 PM. Now that we read the map correctly we were ready to find the campground. We should have gone down the left side of the lake before, but went right. I kept wondering why the lake was on our right before since the map said it should be on the left.
We took a wrong turn along the way and got stuck behind a huge truck carrying a tractor. It was trying to back into a small drive way in a residential neighborhood. It took about 10 minutes for it to properly line itself up. I don’t know how it got down the narrow driveway, but he did. Good driving.
We eventually found the correct road we were looking for and drove about 7 minutes outside of town down a gravel road to the campground. It was $15 NZD a night per person, but with the discount it was only $11.90 NZD. The campground was pretty big. It had 140 tent sites, but of course nobody was using them. There were a few campervans there, which looked like people that lived there. One had a circus tent connected to the side of their camper, at least that’s what it looked like.
The lady working at the campground said it may snow that night and to choose a spot under the trees if we wanted more protection. We picked a spot close to the kitchen that was mostly covered by trees. It seemed like a good spot, but we had to lay slightly downhill.
We set up our tent quickly and then went to the kitchen to have dinner. We had ramen noodles again. We had bought some really cheap brand called budget, it was $0.65 NZD. The flavor was oriental, but there was nothing oriental about the flavor. It was just noodles with corn and peas and carrots. It didn’t taste like chicken noodle soup, but that’s pretty much what it was. I won’t be getting that kind again. We also had a salad as usual with carrot sticks and a cookie.
We spent the next two hours or so writing in our journals. We didn’t take showers because it cost $1 NZD for a 7 minute shower. That’s about $0.70, not worth it. We only took showers when it was free. It had been raining off and on the whole time we were in the kitchen area and didn’t realize it. I went to the tent before Andy. I was tired and done writing for the night. It was around 9:30 PM. I had a long day and wanted to go to bed.
June 26 - Wanaka
Jun 26, 2012
June 26 - Wanaka
We woke up this morning to cloudy weather around 8:00 AM. It had rained a little during the night. I slept pretty comfortably as it wasn’t too cold, even though we were warned it may snow during the night. If it snowed, it didn’t snow at our campsite at all.
We had peanut butter and jelly toast for breakfast with milk. We were running low on groceries and needed to get more soon. We didn’t know if we wanted to stay an extra day originally so we only paid for one night. As we were leaving the campsite we had to stop and pay again. Andy went inside and paid. The lady asked what we planned to do today and he said the Rob Roy Hike near Mt. Aspiring. She said it may not be possible to get there and if so we would definitely need snow chains since part of the road is unpaved and at a higher elevation.
We had snow chains, but I didn’t really want to deal with them. Apparently at higher elevations last night it snowed a lot. As we were driving back to town it was frosty everywhere and the mountains definitely had more snow than before. It was really cloudy and looked like it could rain. It was also pretty cold outside.
It was around 9 AM and we didn’t know what we wanted to do for the day due to the news about the road conditions. We went to the visitor center in town for information on hikes in the area and weather conditions.
We went inside and saw a wall of brochures. We looked at those a little bit and picked a few out for future locations we would be visiting. We went upstairs and found a few brochures about hiking in the Mt. Aspiring and Wanaka regions. A guy working behind the counter asked if we needed help with anything.
We talked to him for about 20 minutes about the weather and possible things to do. He said the road to the Rob Roy Hike was most likely impassible. He suggested doing the Diamond Lake hike and a few pull offs on the side of the road. We had already done those the previous day.
He then suggested we drive a little outside of town and do a hike called Sandy Point. The trail was about 2-3 hours one way. For us that meant 5 hours. He thought the weather would be clearer away from town and to the south. It was about 20 kilometers away, back in the direction of Queenstown near Luggate. We also asked him about hikes near the town of Wanaka and a little further up near our next stop, Haast. He knew a little bit, but was more knowledgeable about the Wanaka and Mt. Aspiring regions.
We decided we would go with the Sandy Point hike and walk as far as we wanted depending on the weather and views. We purchased a few of the walking trails maps for Wanaka, Haast, and the Fox Glacier and Franz Josef areas. Usually these brochures would be free, but in New Zealand everything costs money.
We needed groceries and the guy at the visitor center said there was a New World down the street. He gave us directions so we could find it. As we left the visitor center it was still really cold and drizzling rain. We decided rather than try to hike in that weather we would go stock up on the things we needed to eat.
We spent about an hour in the grocery store finding the things we wanted. We bought more things than we had at any other stop. We bought enough meals to cover dinner for the next week and a half, plus a lot of breakfast foods and lunch meals. We bought a few ramen noodles. I had been wanting Chow Mein again.
We got eggs so we could boil some for hikes and eat some for breakfast. We got more meat for sandwiches. Before we got a good deal on ham, but this time it wasn’t offered. We bought pastrami instead. It was more expensive, but was still the best deal. We also got more chips, lettuce, cucumber, carrots, and cheese. We have been eating a lot of salads. We also got fresh spinach since it was cheap. We can eat it plain, on salads, or sandwiches.
We bought bread, milk, butter, and the good chocolate chip cookies we got the first time. We also bought a jumbo size chocolate bar. We got bananas and fiber one bars for breakfast. We also got spaghetti sauce since we still had noodles left from before. We spent a little more than $80 NZD for everything.
We left the grocery store and started driving to the Sandy Beach Hike. It was out in the middle of nowhere on a back road with nothing but sheep herds and mountains. It took about 30 minutes to get there. We drove right by it the first time, but I thought I had seen a sign marking the trail head so we turned around a mile down the road and came back. The car park was a little fenced in area next to a farm.
We packed a light snack, an apple and granola bar for a stopping point at the end of the trail. We started hiking around 11 AM. I just wanted to walk until about 1 PM. It was cold and I didn’t want to be outside for too long. The trail actually started about 200 meters down the road at a stile. Which is a step ladder that leads over the fence that keeps the sheep in the field. We then had to walk a few hundred more meters across the field to another stile.
From there the trail follows the fence line for the next half mile. The trail was very flat and easy, but it was rarely traveled. Most of the trail was overgrown with bushes and grass. We weren’t sure we were even on the trail at one point, but I saw the orange stake ahead so we just walked towards that. Along the way we passed sheep bones and a skull a few different times. My feet were getting wet from the grass and rains that had been in the area. It was really only my left foot, but I was cold.
Eventually the trail turned right into a valley. At this point it started to climb a little more, but it also became more clearly marked. It turned from grassy areas to gravel. The trail continued with a gradual climb for the rest of the time that we walked. The scenery was very short bushes and grass, no real trees. There were also a few mountains off in the distance in all directions. There were a few smaller mountains next to the trail as well.
As we walked we took a lot of pictures. Although it had been rainy and cold in Wanaka it was becoming much warmer the more we walked. My foot was still wet, but it wasn’t bothering me anymore. The clouds were also starting to lift. We were able to get really good views of the valley below the higher we went. We could also see mountains past Wanaka in the north and Queenstown in the South.
The trail was icy and snowy the higher we went. Some parts were completely covered in snow. It was around 1 PM and I was getting ready to go back. Andy wanted to keep going. I didn’t think we would see views any better than the ones we had. Also we wanted to do a few hikes back in town so I didn’t want to be out for too long. I knew if we did the whole hike it would take until 5 PM that we finished and got back to town. By then it would be too dark to do anything else.
We kept going further and further. Again, the trail was becoming covered in snow. It was too the point that everything we could see from this point was snow covered. The bushes, the plants, the grass, the rocks. The trail turned from gravel back to grass. We couldn’t see the grass, but we could feel it under our feet. It was deep grass as well.
We could see a lot of rabbit tracks in the snow. It was really cool to see how far it was jumping and where it went. There were also tracks of other animals. One of them had claws I could see. I assume it was trying to catch the rabbit since it was following the same trail.
We stopped one time to take pictures and it began to get a little windier. I said it was snowing, but wasn’t sure if it was actually snow or just the wind blowing snow off the mountainside. As we walked up the mountain a little way further it began to snow a little more, and now it was no doubt snowing. We passed through a gate that had to be opened and closed to get through and keep the sheep in their pen.
We only walked a little further from here. Maybe 15 minutes. It was snowing really hard now with big flakes. I didn’t really want to get caught in a blizzard, and that’s exactly what was happening. We could see fine, but I knew the views any higher wouldn’t be worth the effort to get to. It was getting cold, I was getting wet, and there was no point in going on. We decided we would go back. It was about 1:30 PM.
During this hike we came up with a new video technique. I strapped my gopro to my backpack so it could film Andy as he walked up behind me. He did the same on his bag when I walked behind him. Once we decided to turn around it was snowing harder than it had before. We ran down the mountain.
We put a camera on one person’s back, then the other. While that was happening the other person wore their gopro on their head strap. Andy ran down first and I followed him. When it was my turn to run first I ran as fast as I could. It was really steep and slippery. A few places I almost slipped and fell, but because my feet kept moving I was able to keep my balance. It was almost impossible to stop. With the sharp turns on the trail I thought I would run right off the edge. It wasn’t a straight drop off, but parts were pretty steep.
The lower we got the less it was snowing. It appeared that it hadn’t even snowed near the bottom of the mountain we were hiking on. It wasn’t raining either. Just a few hundred meters higher was a blizzard, and down here it was fine. We stopped running when the trail flattened out. It’s not as fun to run on a flat trail, you have to actually work. We walked the last part along the fence line and my foot got wet again. They were already wet from the snow, but that was different. Actually stepping in puddles was much worse.
We made it back to the car around 2:30 PM. We didn’t have our snack, so we were hungry. We sat in the car and made lunch. We had ham sandwiches with chips and a cookie, the good kind. We drove back to Wanaka. It wasn’t snowing at all on the way back, but it was cloudy still.
We planned to do a few hikes along the shore of Lake Wanaka, but the road followed right along the path. There was no point to walk in the cold when we could just drive and stop where we wanted. This area of Wanaka has really big and nice homes. I filmed a lot out the window.
We only stopped a few times. We already got pictures of the mountains the day before when it was clear, and most of them were covered by the clouds so there was no reason to stop too many times. I took my shoes off and wore my toe shoes. It wasn’t that bad, but it was cold. It was better than wearing wet shoes though.
We walked a few hundred meters from a parking area to the lake shore trail, which was about 20 yards from the shoreline. There were a lot of people walking around with dogs in the town, and on this trail. To our right it looked much clearer in the skies. There were two mountains that the sunlight was shining on. We got back in the car and drove in their direction.
We stopped again and got out of the car after driving down a gravel road closer to the lake. Again lots of people were walking their dogs. This is where the really big homes were with great views of the lake. I still had on my toe shoes when I ran across the rocky beach. It was sandy rocky, with some large rocks and moss covering them because the tide was out.
We stayed in this area for about 30 minutes. I was freezing cold, but wanted to take pictures. As we stayed there the lighting was getting better so we had to stay longer. We ran along the beach to an area that had a lot of big rocks on the beach and exposed in the water. As we ran we were galloping like deer as we hopped over puddles and rocks. We probably looked like idiots, but it was keeping me warm.
We finally ran back to the car and decided that it was time to go back to the campsite. I wanted to go drive around in the nice neighborhoods and look at the homes, but the streets said private property and to not go down there. I guess they didn’t want tourists bothering them.
I just filmed them out the window of the car instead. Along the way we saw a mountain in the distance we wanted pictures of. We drove passed the turn off for our campground and down to the next town, Albertown. It was much smaller and the houses weren’t as nice as Wanaka, but some were ok.
As we got closer to the town the views of the mountains weren’t as good as we hoped. The town was down in a valley and the mountains were obscured by trees, homes, and hills. There was a river that had a trail that led back to our campground from Albertown, but we never took it. We basically saw the end point though. The cliffs around the river were about 100 meters high and straight down. It looked like a place were landslides could easily happen.
After driving for about 15 minutes we decided to turn back. We were low on gas and it was getting darker. We got back to the campsite around 5:30 PM. I went to the kitchen area where it was a little warmer to dry out my shoes and write in my journal. I put my hiking shoes and toe shoes by the heater, that barely seemed to work, to dry out. I just wore some new socks and filled my water bottle with hot water and stood on that. It wasn’t great, but it helped a little. We had a big lunch so it was too early for dinner. We saw that there was a TV above the refrigerator so we turned that on.
Everybody Loves Raymond was on. As we were in the kitchen writing in our journals some guy came in and was cooking food. We watched that, then the news came on. They showed sports and one of the games was bucket ball, or something really retarded like that. It was basketball for girls, but there were short baskets with no backboard and it was a no contact sport. Sounds like something a girl would make up. One of the highlights was a girl catching the ball about 2 feet from the 8 foot basket, and the opposing player just stood there and watched her shoot it. She made no attempt to stop her from scoring. I was like what is this stupid thing. And the guy in the room said he didn’t understand it either but apparently kiwi’s are good at it. Kiwi is what New Zealanders call themselves.
Then some show about consumer reports. They were doing undercover stories about car repair companies missing things. They set up problems with the car to see if they would catch them. Some of them got a few, but none of them caught all the repairs needed. It seemed like a show where they do these consumer reports on different companies each week.
We decided around 6:45 PM to start cooking. We had spaghetti, a salad, and cooked spinach. We also ate a cookie and some of our new chocolate bar. It was a big and good meal. I had three full meals today, which is rare for this trip so far.
As we were eating two other guys came into the kitchen and joined the first guy. They were talking about going fishing in the morning. They were being loud so I was going to go back to the car to finish typing. As I packed up my things they left so I decided to stay.
I finished typing around 9:30 PM. The chair was horribly uncomfortable and was hurting my back so I was ready to leave. It was really dark and I didn’t have my head lamp so I couldn’t see well to get back to the tent. Andy was behind me with his headlamp, but the light wasn’t shining bright enough for me to use it effectively. It was pretty cold outside so I was hoping I wouldn’t get too cold during the night.
June 27 - Haast
Jun 27, 2012
June 27 - Haast
We woke up this morning around 7:30 AM to decent weather. It was cold outside, but warmer than it had been in other places. I had a pretty good night of sleep. Our goal for the day was to head for Fox Glacier, or as far as we could get. The road was supposed to be scenic, icy, steep, and we had a few planned stops along the way. If they took longer than expected we may have to stop early in Haast, a small town near the coast.
We took the tent down and went to the kitchen to make breakfast. We made three scrambled eggs with cheese on top and split them up. We also had a piece of toast with butter and jelly on it and a cup of milk and hot chocolate. The eggs were different than I was used to. They were brown and seemed smaller and the yoke was more orange than yellow. They were really good though.
We left the campground around 8:45 AM. The weather was pretty clear so as we drove out of town we took the same road we had taken last night by the big houses and to the view of the mountains by the shore of Lake Wanaka. We only stopped for a minute to get a few pictures.
We stopped at the BP gas station in town. We had a 4 cent discount for spending more than $40 NZD on groceries at New World. This is the second time we have gotten a coupon like that on our grocery receipt. The drive from Wanaka to Fox Glacier was supposed to be kilometers and take about two hours.
We wanted to stop at three waterfalls between Wanaka and Haast, all of them very short hikes from 10 minutes to 30 minutes in length. We also wanted to stop at a few look outs. The first part of the drive followed Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawewea.
The route took us through Albertown and down along the edge of Lake Hawewea for about 30 minutes. We stopped a couple of times along the way. The road signs said icy roads and chains may be required. Our first destination was the side of the road looking at the mountains on the eastern side of the lake. The sun was still rising so the mountains were slightly hazy. We continued on until we got a little closer to the end of the lake. We found a good spot and pulled over. The views were from the northwest corner of the lake looking back across to the mountains on the other side. The sun was a little higher now so the light was hitting the mountains pretty well. We stayed here for at least 30 minutes. Andy did a time lapse video and I spent a while taking pictures of myself from various spots.
We wanted a spot looking straight back. We found a road that led down to the end of the shores of the end of the lake. We pulled off onto a gravel road that led down to the lake shore. The area was covered in large boulders and a muddy coast. A small stream ran from the mountain down to the lake and we had to jump across rocks to keep from getting wet. In the mud there were large tracks, they looked like they could be from a moose, but there are no moose in New Zealand. I don’t know what it could have been. They have a mountain goat known as a chamois, so maybe it could have been from that.
The views from this point were really good. I took a view more pictures of myself, but it was kind of tough. I left my bag in the car about 200 yards away, which is usually what I use to hold my camera level and still. I had to just rest it on the rocks, which were slippery and wet. They were also slanted. I had to use the strap on my camera to make it even. I ended up getting it to work though. Andy went back to the car before I was done. I had gone a little further than him, but didn’t want to walk back through the water and mud so I walked a little further to stay on the rocks. I still ended up having to walk across the water slightly.
We drove back up the gravel road and onto the main road again. As we turned the corner through a gap in the mountain road more mountains appeared across Lake Wanaka. The chain of mountains went on for as far as we could see. They lined the opposite coast of the lake. Most of them were mountains we had already seen from the Diamond Lake hike, but the views from this side of the mountains was spectacular.
We must have stopped at least 4 times on the side of the road. It was almost the same view each time, but Andy kept wanting to get pictures. I took a lot as well. Most of the cars just drove by and didn’t stop. That seems to be how most of the people are. I guess they think stopping one time or just looking at them through the windows is enough.
We hadn’t even gone 30 miles and it was already nearly 11 AM. We were nowhere near on schedule. We stopped one last time for pictures of Lake Wanaka. This time it was the last marked pull off, but it included a campground and picnic area. This angle was on the northeast side and was shooting back, rather than across the lake. We had to walk a short distance through the woods to the rocky beach to see the lake. The beach was mostly smaller rocks, but there were some larger ones as well plus some logs. We did a little gopro videos here since it looked cool.
There was a random tree on the edge of the water line that was growing sideways about half way up. It looked similar to a tree I had seen in Yosemite about 10 years ago. As we were leaving we both did a 360 degree photo sequence. We took pictures every few feet as we walked around it. I did mine with my camera and Andy used his gopro. Mine looked really good. You just scroll through the images really fast on the camera and it makes it look like the image is spinning in a circle.
We left around noon and we were finally done with the lakes. The road had been in the mountains, but now we were in a valley for of farms and sheep. We stopped a couple more times. These weren’t real stops, but just pulling off on the side of the road, usually on little gravel patches that led to people’s homes. Usually the farm homes have a fence a few yards passed the gravel turn off blocking the road up to their house.
The first stop was on the side of the road where we saw a farm house with mountains in the back. We wanted to get closer, but no roads seemed to lead in that direction. We stayed here for about 20 minutes taking pictures and videos. Down the road a few miles we pulled off again when we saw more mountains. Every mountain we had been seeing Andy kept calling it Mt. Aspiring. The tallest mountain in the area is Mt. Aspiring and we didn‘t know which one it was.
At this particular stop we ate one of the boiled eggs we each had a boiled egg we made. It was really good. I also ate a granola bar since we never had a real lunch. An Australian couple stopped at this picnic spot for pictures as well. We talked to them a little bit about where they were going and where they came from. They said the roads ahead were fine, just a little snowy, but chains weren’t required.
They had rented a campervan and said it was $50 NZD a day and to stay in campsites was usually around $25 NZD. I had been interested in the campers, but that was way more expensive than what we were paying. Although they did have a warm place to sleep every night. After about 10 minutes of talking we continued on our way.
We had to cross the Haast Pass and I wanted to get there before dark and the roads froze again from all the slush on the road. It was now around 2 PM and we hadn’t even gone 100 kilometers all day. The pass was only about 520 meters above sea level, not very high like you would see in Colorado or Montana, but because it gets lots of snowfall and is shaded by the trees it can be icy. It was a relatively flat and easy drive, but the area was very snowy.
I was imagining it being much different than it was. I wasn’t even sure we were at the pass itself. It just seemed like any other road we had been on. A few miles down the road we came to the first waterfall we wanted to see, Fantail Falls. The parking area for this falls was on the side of the road and covered in snow.
The trail was supposed to take 10 minutes roundtrip. It began by walking down a snowy path into the trees and across a small footbridge. The trail turns right and goes straight on a flat gravel trail for about 250 yards or so. The trail was clear mostly, but the trees and ground were snow covered. The trail seemingly ended at a bench looking out to the falls from a few hundred yards away.
There were steps leading down from here, but there was no real trail visible. It was just a snow covered rocky area. Somewhere under that mess was the trail I suppose. We didn’t want to go out there at first because our feet would get cold, but we put down my gopro and Andy put his on his head and we ran for it. As long as we avoided the rocks that were showing it was ok. If we stepped on one we could slip or trip.
I had to run back and get my gopro so it wouldn’t just keep filming. I went back out to the edge of the river where Andy was looking at the waterfall across the way. It wasn’t very big, but it looked neat, especially surrounded by the snow. We got some pictures and then ran back to the trail. The way back the rocks were more visible. Only one side of them had snow on them, and that was the side that we had come on originally. I stepped on a few and it was much harder to run. As we got to the trail I slipped running up the steps. Luckily I was able to put my hand down really quick so I didn’t bang my shin. That would have hurt. I jumped up and started running again. We ran a good portion of the trail back to the car.
As we were getting back in the car some people asked if the falls were neat. I said it was and they should go check it out since it was only a few minutes to walk to. Another car had stopped, but they didn’t go on the trail. They just drove off. Being snowy come people probably didn’t want to get wet or fall down.
We drove about 10 minutes down the road towards the next stop, Thundering Falls. Before we got there we crossed an old bridge overlooking a canyon below. The area was foggy and looked really cool. We pulled over on the side of the road and climbed down a little path to a trail below. There were huge boulders on the trail and in the water, which created a series of small waterfalls. We climbed around on the rocks a little bit and took pictures of the water and the bridge as everyone else just drove by again. Andy didn’t lock the car so we didn’t stay too long.
We ran back to the car and continued driving a few hundred yards to the waterfall. Thundering Falls wa the tallest and most popular of the three we came to see. The parking area was larger and there was no snow at all on the trail except maybe a few patches in the trees. The hike was about 10 minutes round trip, just like the last one. It was very flat and went through the forest. Just before the end there is a platform looking out to the falls, which then leads to a series of wooden stairs down to the river.
We got pictures and videos from the river. We also took pictures of each other. I did a few of myself too. It’s just more fun that way. It takes more shots to get it right, but when Andy is taking forever it gives me something to do. A lot of people were on this hike. Not a lot, but about 20 people caught up to us and passed us as we took pictures at the falls.
We hiked back to the car and decided to walk back up the road a little bit. When we pulled up a group of Japanese women were taking pictures looking back the other way and we wanted to know what they saw. We didn’t see anything worth getting a picture of there, so we just hiked down to the river to get a different view of the waterfall.
It wasn’t a real trail, it was just a bunch of large boulders that we had to walk across and around to get to where we wanted. This was obviously a rock slide area. Rock scrambling is fun, so we tend to do it whenever we see an opportunity. Some of the rocks were slippery, but we didn’t have any problems. We got some pictures and then went back to the car.
The next stop was Roaring Billy Falls. It was now about 4 PM and getting darker because the sun was going down behind the mountains. We were surrounded on all sides, plus the trees made it shady on the road too. The drive to the last falls took about 30 minutes.
The parking area was covered in snow. This was the longest trail, and it wasn’t very long either at just 30 minutes round trip. The start of the trail was covered in snow, but it quickly disappeared. We walked pretty quickly and ran for the end portion of the trail. It was getting dark so we wanted to hurry.
The falls themselves weren’t that impressive for something named Billy. They were a little higher up in the mountains, but looked similar to the Fantail Falls, even the trail was similar in terms of the type of trees and layout of the trail. It was mostly flat and was an easy hike.
Only one other group of people were on the trail. It was a guy and a girl. They got to the falls just as we were leaving. We spent about 15 minutes taking pictures and then ran back to the car. We did stop to take a picture of a tree with a hole at the bottom of it. Another hobbit house probably.
We got back to the parking lot and were ready to get to Haast. We drove for about 30 minutes and watched the sun go down over the sea in the distance. The mountains behind us were turning pink at the top so we stopped for a picture. The road was really windy and followed the river most of the way on the mountains edge. It was a neat drive even though it was getting pretty dark.
We got to the tiny town of Haast, 300 people, around 5:45 or a little before. We drove through the town in about 30 seconds looking for a campground. We read about a Wilderness Accommodation in the Lonely Planet Guidebook we had and it said it had nice rooms and a friendly staff. The rooms sounded good and the price was cheap. We had been sleeping in a tent for about 10 days since our last hostel so we decided we earned a good night’s sleep in a warm bed.
We went inside and had to wonder through some halls passed the computer kiosk and rooms to find the reception in the kitchen and dining area. We rang the bell and on old man came out. We asked for the cheapest room, it was $28 NZD per person. More than we had thought it would be. There wasn’t much else in town that seemed available or open, most the stores were closed or closing soon.
We went ahead and took the dorm room, which included two bunk beds. We were the only ones staying in the room. As the guy was checking us in and I asked questions he kept just saying “No Worries” over and over. It was funny. I hadn’t taken a shower in 4 days and I needed to shave. I got my things together in my dry bag to take to the bathroom. Andy stayed in the room to transfer some memory cards.
I went to the closest bathroom down the hall. It had a door, and then inside a sink, then two small rooms inside. One was a toilet and one was a shower. I closed the main door because I wasn’t sure how it worked. Apparently I didn’t need to do that so other people could go to the bathroom while I was in the shower.
The shower felt really good. I must have stayed in there for 30 minutes. The only reason I think that’s how long it was is because the light in the shower was on a timer. It had to be pushed every few minutes or it would go off and leave you in the dark. I found this out first hand. I didn’t know the lights were on a timer like that at first until it went pitch black in the shower. I thought someone had switched the light switch in the main bathroom and it turned mine off. I got of the shower and was able to feel the wall until I turned the lights back on.
I got all of my things soaked that were on the ground. My shoes, toiletries, and dirty clothes. The things I needed were hanging up. I had to push the light switch at least 6 times. It was getting old. That was my one complaint about the hostel.
After my shower I went back to the room. Andy was sitting on his bed reading and still transferring cards. His last card was almost finished. I noticed a bag on the top bunk that wasn’t ours. He told me we had company. Two guys had come in and would be staying in our room. I didn’t mind, but it meant I would have to be quiet in the morning when I left. We planned to leave really early so we would have time to do everything we wanted in Fox Glacier. We also thought the drive would take awhile.
Andy went to the shower next and I typed things in my journal and fixed my bed. I was thinking about paying for the internet in order to transfer some money into my account to pay off my credit card bill. I never did get online though, it was too expensive.
Andy took a quick shower. We went and put our things back in the car. I only kept out the things I would need so I wouldn’t have lots of things to pack in the morning in the dark. We got the things we wanted to have for dinner and went to the kitchen.
We made spaghetti, cooked spinach, a salad, cookies, and chocolate. As we were making the food there were a few New Zealanders talking to the old man that worked or owned the hostel. They were discussing the economy of New Zealand and how expensive everything was and how it was hard for them to even survive. They were also talking about how foreigners come to their country and act entitled. Apparently if you get hurt then the government provides free health care for visitors. The people didn’t seem to like that.
They discussed how China was propping up the rest of the world because the economies in the western countries were falling apart. They said that New Zealand would be broke in 10 years and China would rule the world by 2025. It seemed about right to me. They definitely weren’t very happy with the way things were going in New Zealand.
They eventually left and our food finished cooking. The meal was pretty filling and good. The TV was on while we ate, but I didn’t really pay attention to it. The guys staying in our room sat at the table across from ours and talked really loudly in a foreign language, probably an Eastern European language.
A Chinese couple came in and stood at the reception desk. They didn’t seem to have a clue. There was a sign that said ring the bell for help. We had to get their attention and tell them what to do. Maybe they won’t be taking over the world after all.
The Eastern European guys went outside to smoke and I was thinking they were going to smell up the room when they came in. We cleaned up our dishes and went back to the room. I continued typing in my journal. I also needed to get caught up on expenses. I hadn’t written anything down since the first week. Andy was keeping track so he told me everything and I typed it in. I stopped typing around 11 PM. I was tired so I was ready for bed. The guys came in the room pretty late. I heard them open the door and saw them come in, but I immediately fell back asleep.
June 28 - Fox Glacier
Jun 28, 2012
June 28 - Fox Glacier
I had a good night of sleep. There was only a sheet and a comforter, but it was really warm. We got up this morning at 7 AM. It was still dark outside. I only had to pack up a few things and then we went to have breakfast. We were in a hurry, but decided to have eggs with cheese on the top. They had a cheese grater so we used that. We each had a piece of butter and jelly toast and a cup of hot chocolate.
We returned our key through a little slot at the reception window. We left at 8 AM, a little after when we had wanted to go. The drive to Fox Glacier was supposed to take about two hours. We had read about a little town called Jackson Bay, about 30 minutes south of Haast on the coast. It was the last town on the road.
Since the weather was clear we thought it would be a good place to go. There was supposed to be unforgettable views of the Southern Alps and the possibility of seeing a special kind of penguin that is only found in this part of New Zealand, the Fjordland Crested Penguins. They have weird feathers on their head.
We got stuck behind a slow truck for a little while, but were eventually able to speed past them. We got to Jackson Bay around 8:45 AM. The roads were a little icy in parts and the road turned a lot at the end which made us go slower. I wanted to be back in Haast by 10 AM, so that meant we needed to leave around 9:30 AM at the latest.
The town itself wasn’t much. There were only a few buildings near the harbor. There were about 10 boats on the water, but it looked like people were only on a couple of them. We took a few pictures and then walked down to the beach. There were a few hikes in the area, but we didn’t want to do them because of time. We basically just wanted to look for penguins and see the views of the Alps.
The beach was very rocky and the tide was out so we walked out a little ways onto the rocks. I wanted to walk along the beach around the corner of the cliff to see if it would give a different view of the ocean and the sun rising. It was much farther than it looked because I never made it to the end.
For some reason the sun was rising over the water, which made no sense to me. I thought it would be rising in the mountains since that’s where I thought the northeast was. I looked on a map later and realized that New Zealand is actually in a diagonal position almost horizontal, not vertical like I always thought. Therefore, the sun rising over the water made sense after all.
We wondered around on the rocks for about an hour taking pictures. The Southern Alps did provide great views like we had read. With the boats in the foreground it was even better. A few of the boats were moving around as guys were doing some kind of work. Other than that nothing was going on in the area. We were the only ones out walking around.
The longer we were out there the more the tide started coming in. I was in the process of trying to take pictures of myself and jumping from rock to rock when I noticed that the rocks I was jumping across were no longer visible. The water came rushing over them. I could tell that if I didn’t start moving quick I would have no escape route.
I moved back a little bit closer to the shore and within seconds all the rocks I had been jumping on were under water. It was neat to see how fast the tide was able to rise. We started heading back to the car. We had previously crossed a small stream of water that was running from the forest to the sea. I didn’t know if that same stream of water would still be as small as it was or if we’d need to find another way.
The stream of water had grown, but it was still only a few inches deep and enough rocks were sticking up to cross. We got back to the car and took a few more pictures of the harbor and then headed back towards Haast, hoping to see some penguins.
We pulled off on a side road that was called Neil’s Beach Rd. We thought that may lead to the beach so we turned. After about half a mile the road turned to gravel. A sign warned that the road was unpaved and to travel at your own risk. Just a few hundred meters further and there was a huge puddle of water covering the road. The road was sandy and there was no way through. We turned down a side road and thought maybe we’d get down to the water that way. It didn’t happen. The road was a dead end to an old factory building of some kind that didn’t seem to be used anymore.
We had to turn back and just continue down the road. We didn’t stop anymore and saw no penguins. We tried to see them from the car to the shores below, but we had no luck. We got back to Haast around 10:30 AM, a little behind schedule again.
I wanted to get to Fox Glacier around 12:30 PM since we had a few hikes we wanted to do. It was only 120 kilometers so I figured at 100 kilometers an hour driving we could make it. Along the way we stopped at a few pull offs to take pictures. It was just views off a cliff of the sea below called Peter’s Point. It only took a few minutes and then we started driving again.
There were a lot of palm trees on the drive since we were near the coast. I thought the road would be flat, but just half a mile inland there were a lot of hills and mountains. There was even snow on the ground. Parts of the road went down into valleys, but than others climbed into the mountains. It was a very scenic drive.
We made it to Fox Glacier just before 12:30 PM. We ended up being on schedule for once. We wanted to do the Glacier Valley Walk which was a 1 ½ hour round trip hike. We figured that would take us a few hours to do. When we approached the town we stopped one more time to take pictures of a one lane suspension bridge just before we crossed it.
We turned down a gravel road towards what we thought would be the start of the Glacier Valley Walk. It was very narrow so it looked like it was one way. We stopped at a viewpoint along the way. It was lunch time and we were starving so before the hike we made sandwiches. We had bought pastrami so we made that for lunch with spinach on top. We also ate some chips and a cookie.
We were ready to start hiking. Nobody else was around at the time. We went to look at the trail sign and the names were different. We weren’t in the right spot. We looked on the map and we had turned down the wrong road. The road we wanted was just down the main road a few hundred meters.
Rather than drive back we decided to do a short walk through the forest that provided views of the glacier. It was called the River Walk. It was only a 15 minute hike so we thought it would be worth checking out. There were other hikes that started at this point, but they were much longer. One went to a historic bridge and the other to a mountain chalet.
The hike was pretty short and easy. It was well marked through the forest along a river. The trail had a few downhill parts just before the end, but other than that it was flat. We stopped a few times to take pictures along the trail and stayed at the lookout for about 15 minutes. A few other people passed through and took a picture or two and left.
There was a little path that led down to the river next to the trail that I walked down. It didn’t go all the way to the river’s edge, but it was cool. There were little waterfalls coming down off the rocks and five feet beneath mossy log that acted like a bridge connecting both sides of the river. I wanted to try to walk across it, but Andy said it was too dangerous.
We got back on the trail and back to the car. It was about 2 PM and we were ready to drive to the Glacier Valley Walk. We could see cars driving down near the glacier from the lookout on the trail, and I thought that might be where we would be driving to next.
The drive was really short. It took about 15 minutes to get to the trailhead. There weren’t a lot of cars there, but there were more than most trails we had gone on. I think there were three cars. There were a lot more people though because of tours that were taking place. The people came on buses and were dropped off. The tours go onto the glacier itself. We would be doing one of these all day tomorrow.
Across from the parking lot was a river flowing from the glacier. On one side of the river was the parking lot and trail, and on the other was a huge cliff hundreds of meters high. There were trees and mossy plants growing out of it’s side.
The start of the trail crosses a short footbridge over a tiny pond of water. The water provided a pretty good reflection of the mountains behind the glacier. The rest of the trail was covered in gravel. It was basically a straight line and flat for most of the walk. There were a few moderate switchbacks near the middle of the trail. After the short climb the trail flattens out again, but it became more sandy and less rocky.
There are a few small streams that must be crossed by stepping on a few rocks, but nothing too difficult. On the hills to the left there were a few waterfalls pouring down. One of them was a little bigger than the others. The best one was very rocky and was a serious of very small falls. This is also the spot where we had to step across a few rocks to pass.
We walked pretty quickly down the trail. A tour group had just started after we began walking. They stopped a few times to talk, and they were able to slowly catch up and pass us. They branched off onto a different trail that could only be used with a guide as we walked towards the base of the glacier.
We were able to get about 200 meters from the front. The distance is always changing based on the weather conditions and other factors. We stayed at the lookout for about 45 minutes to an hour taking pictures. While we were there a Chinese guy came running up to where we were. He was looking up at the tour group waving to them. The guide and all the group had stopped and was pointing for him to go back to go up the trail.
He had no clue what they were saying since they were about 100 meters above us. We had to tell him where to go to get up to where they were. A few minutes later we saw him running up the steep trail to join them. He then ran back down the trail. The group was still waiting.
A few minutes later he appeared again with three other Chinese people, an old guy and old lady. The group began to walk ahead as the Chinese people were struggling to get up the hill. It was pretty funny to watch. I’m not sure why they were behind, but my guess is they were supposed to be on the tour and arrived late and needed to catch up.
At the lookout where we were standing another Asian guy with a guide showed up. There were also two other guys, one that sat down to smoke, and another one just standing around. I’m not sure if they were all together or not, but none of them seemed to be taking pictures of the glacier or going anywhere. The guide that came with them climbed under the ropes and ran off up the side of the hill where the other group tour had been standing waiting on the Chinese family.
The Asian guy was on some kind of tour, I think he may have been trying to catch up with the other group and the guide went to go see if he still could. He was kind of fat so I don’t think he was going to be running after them very quickly. We had been there for about an hour so we were ready to head back down. We never saw what happened with the Asian guy waiting around.
As we walked back we had a few places picked out that we wanted to stop. The stream crossing was the main point of interest. Before when we crossed a tour group was passing by and we didn’t want to go off the trail or do gopro videos with them nearby. We didn’t want to look too stupid.
The stream crossing was pretty cool. Andy tried to do a new trick. I walked across the rocks one way, and then back the other. He took pictures really quickly one after another. Scrolled quickly it looked like I was just walking normally. I did the same thing for Andy when he crossed. There were a number of small waterfalls a few inches tall rushing over the rocks in the stream as it came down the mountain.
I picked out a good waterfall and set up my camera. My plan was to do a long exposure picture. It would blur the water, but everything would be clear and in focus. Andy did the same, but lower down. He ended up seeing the waterfall I had chosen and then joined me.
The pictures I took turned out really well. Since Andy had a tripod he was able to get a few different angles. I have to just rest my camera on my bag so I was limited on where I could stand. While he was continuing to get pictures I walked back to the other side of the stream and up a little path. There weren’t good long exposure pictures to get, but I was able to get a few good pictures of more of the stream.
We didn’t film anything else on the way back from this point. It was around 4:15 and we still had one more hike planned to do. We wanted to drive to Lake Matheson and do a short hike before sunset. The hike provides a reflection of the mountains where Fox Glacier is located.
The drive over was back down to the main road, and then through town, and another 10 minutes down a back road. We got there a little after 4:30 PM. There was a café there, but it had just closed. There were a few cars in the parking lot when we arrived, but a few of the people were just leaving.
The trail starts behind the café. The lake isn’t very big and it’s located in a big field. Not really what I was expecting. I thought it would be at the base of some mountains. There are two ways to go since the trail is a loop. To get to the start we had to walk next to a pasture for a few hundred yards that provided views of the mountains to our right. As we walked into the forest we passed a few groups that were finishing the hike.
We chose to go left at the fork since there were more lookouts on that side. We were just looking for the best view before sunset. The trail starts out really flat and then slowly starts to climb in a few spots. Andy wanted to run so we could get further faster. The whole trail was supposed to take about an hour to complete and we didn’t have that much time. We had about 30 minutes at most.
We got to the first lookout after about 10 minutes. It was just a bench looking out to the water. They were good views though. We came to the next one, the Jetty Lookout, after about 5 minutes of running. This one had a wooden platform with stairs that led down to it. The views from here were pretty good as well and the light was still good.
We got a few pictures and took off for the next point. The trail was still mostly flat, but included a few wooden boardwalks. One was next to the rocky wall to our right, and the other crossed the end of the lake. It wasn’t really crossing the lake, but more of a bog area that was covered with very shallow water and plants. This particular portion was icy.
As I was walking across I could hear people behind me. It was a guy and a girl and they were running. I think they were trying to get to the views quickly too. The next stop just past the boardwalk was another lookout. This one was up a flight of wooden stairs mixed with rock stairs. We ran up it and it was pretty tough after all the other running we had done.
This particular point was called the “View of Views.” Real original. Sounds like something I would make up. I figured it would be really good, and it was, but not great. It was a higher viewpoint and the reflection wasn’t as good. It did allow the opportunity to see Lake Matheson with the mountains in the back, but we were now looking for a spot to do a time lapse with the mountains and their reflection on the lake.
We took a few pictures and the other couple showed up. They got their pictures and took off back down the trail. We soon followed. At the bottom of the stairs was a sign that listed the walking times based on where you could go for a few of the stops. The route we took said it was 40 minutes from where we were standing. We made it in 20 minutes with lots of picture stops. It was about 5:05 PM as we began to run to our next lookout, Reflection Island.
The sign said it would take 5 minutes, running we figured we would get there in less than 2 minutes. The mountains were turning pink at the top from the sunset, so we needed to hurry. I was thinking there would be an island, but there wasn’t. The island must have been the point we were standing on.
The trail was a boardwalk again that led to a flight of stairs that went down to the water. It was basically a dock. The Jetty Point didn’t even have a spot for a boat, whereas Reflection Island did. I think they got the names mixed up on their signs. The other pair was their as we arrived. The girl was taking pictures of the guy in front of the lake.
We walked down the stairs and began setting up our cameras for the time lapse. I put down my gopro almost immediately, it was about 5:08 PM when I started it. I had to get my controller out to start my time lapse and fix the batteries. The thing doesn’t have an on/off switch so to keep from running down the batteries I have to put one in backwards. I had to flip that around and choose the proper settings. By the time I did that it was 5:12 PM.
Andy had to do the same, but also change a battery and memory card. He finally got his going at 5:17 PM. He had missed most of the clouds moving and the colors changing. Mine started out really well, but I probably started the settings too dark. I had it taking pictures every 8 seconds, the gopro was taking them every 5 seconds.
As we were sitting there letting the pictures run we could hear loud gun shots and see and hear birds flying through the air. I was surprised that there was hunting going on so close to a National Park and tourist destination.
I watched my time lapse from my good camera after I stopped it at 5:30. It was a little dark by the end, but it was still pretty good. The clouds and water moved really well. I haven’t seen the gopro version yet, but the others I had seen that it did looked good so I’ll assume this one will be too.
Andy started his late, but he had the proper settings. His was pretty good too from what I could see. I was up the stairs on the platform watching from above as he scrolled through so I couldn’t see it really well.
It was now getting pretty dark and we still had half the trail to walk. The sign said it would be about 30 minutes from this point back to the start. I walked fast hoping to be back in 20 minutes. It was getting dark and colder.
We had to get our headlamps out for the whole way back. Mine worked well, but Andy’s batteries were dying. His was pretty useless. It was hard to tell if his was even on. Eventually he just turned it off completely. It wasn’t totally dark for the first 5 minutes, so I kept telling him that’s probably why he couldn’t see if his was working or not.
As we went deeper into the forest and the sun went down behind the mountains it was much darker. We had to rely mostly on my light to navigate. This side of the trail was flatter than the other, but it included a lot more wooden planks and footbridges to cross. It was maybe more scenic in the forest, but there were very limited views of the lake.
We made it back to the fork in the trail around 6:00 PM. It was completely dark by now. We could still hear gunshots. I was wondering what they were shooting and how they could see it in the dark. After a few more minutes of hiking I saw something about 20 yards ahead. I shined my light on it and it was two orange eyes staring at me from the side of the trail.
It wasn’t a cat or a dog, their eyes don’t look like that. I couldn’t really see what it was since it was against a tree. I was trying to tell Andy to look at it, but he couldn’t see it at first. After about a minute he finally saw what I was looking at. He thought it was a possum.
The animal just kept staring at us. I figured it would run away. We barked at it a little and made noises, but it didn’t go anywhere. It just walked back and forth on the trail looking for something, and looking at us. I thought we were going to have to throw things at it or go a different way to get back.
It walked off the trail for a second and I thought we could make a break for it, but it quickly came back. I think we sat there for more than 10 minutes waiting for it to leave. Finally it walked off the trail and we walked really quickly to get by. I never looked back. I was thinking it was a wombat, it seemed too bushy to be a possum.
Maybe their possums are different than what I’m used to seeing. Possum fur is very expensive and popular in New Zealand, so maybe they are more bushy. It’s funny that an animal that is abundant and dead all over the roads could be worth so much. In the U.S. I don’t know of anyone wanting to wear a possum as a garment.
We got back to the car around 6:30 PM and still had no place to stay for the night. We had passed a few places and had seen a place in the Lonely Planet that sounded good. We chose to go to the Ivory Towers, a hostel that had camping back in town.
On the way we drove passed a Holiday Park Campground and had it as our back up plan just in case. We found the hostel pretty easily. A large bus had just showed up before us and dropped off a couple of people. We parked on the side of the road and I ran up some stairs to the reception building. The place seemed pretty popular since there were lots of people inside the kitchen area and the reception.
When I got inside there was a guy and two girls in front of me. The guy was getting an in depth description of everything to do in Fox Glacier. He didn’t know anything about the area it seemed based on the questions he asked and the things the lady suggested to him. It took at least 10 minutes. I just wanted to know how much camping or a room was for the night. He needed to hurry up.
Finally he got all the information he wanted and left. One of the girls had gone to sit down in a chair outside and the other one stepped up to ask about using the facilities without having a room. The lady said that wasn’t an option. I don’t know why they would just want bathrooms or a kitchen, but not a place to stay. I don’t know where they intended to go.
The girl also asked about a room. The price was $25 a person for the night. She didn’t seem to want to pay that. She asked if there was camping, but she said that she couldn’t offer camping officially since the place next door was a campground. I don’t know what that meant, but she did say camping was $18 a person.
The girl went outside to talk with her friend about it. I asked about the camping and she said that they don’t do camping at this time of year. I asked if the place next door she mentioned did and she said no. She said it would be too cold to camp at this time of year so she just doesn’t offer it. I told her my sleeping bag would be warm enough, but she didn’t seem to care. She was kind of rude. I said I’d ask my brother if $25 for a room was ok.
I ran back down to the car and told him the story. We drove off. We headed for the Holiday Park. The Holiday Park was $19. We would save a little bit of money by staying there. It had the kitchen we needed for dinner and hot water for our bottles. It was pretty cold outside, but we thought we could manage it. The lady at the counter said we could set our tent up anywhere we wanted.
We chose a spot near the kitchen which was actually a powered site, but we didn’t think anyone would be coming plus there were plenty of empty spots still.
We were pretty hungry and wanted to have dinner. We set up the tent really fast and went to the kitchen. We wanted to have spaghetti, with a piece of butter bread, a salad, and spinach and our normal cookie and chocolate for dessert. We had a glass of milk as well with some hot chocolate.
Once again a Chinese group of young people were in the kitchen making a huge feast. I don’t know what they had, but there were 5 of them. It was three girls and two guys that were staying in a cabin I believe. The Holiday Parks often include tent camping, campervan spots, and cabins or rooms of some kind. The cabin was basically a room with beds, but separate from each other. Nothing fancy.
Whatever they were eating it included scrambled eggs, French fries, some kind of chopped up meat, and a ton of vegetables. I don’t know if it was all mixed together or not, but it smelled really good and looked like a ton of food. Our food was good too, but there’s looked better.
We cleaned everything up and then went next door to the TV/Computer room. I needed to check to make sure my money was being transferred so I got on the internet. I bought an hour worth of time for $5. It was way too expensive, but I figured if I was going to get on the internet I may as well get enough time to do what I needed and see what else was going on in the world since I have been clueless for the most part without a TV or internet.
The order I put in for my Visa stock to sell didn’t go through. I had to redo it, but this time as a market order, which meant it would sell at whatever the going rate was. Before I tried to set a price limit and the limit wasn’t hit so the order was cancelled.
This meant I was going to need to get on the internet again to transfer the money to my bank account was the money was made. I was done with everything in 20 minutes, but still had 40 to waste. I got on Facebook, read some emails, and then read about the upcoming Healthcare Law decision by the Supreme Court. The decision is supposed to be made tomorrow. I guess I will read about it tomorrow since I will have to get on the internet again to transfer some money.
As I was playing on the internet the Cleveland Show was on followed by Good Burger. The Good Burger show is hilarious. I was listening to it and couldn’t stop laughing. My time ran out on the internet just as it ended.
I needed to write in my journal so I went and set in a chair near Andy. There were 4 rows of chairs lined up, each with about 10 chairs in them in front of the TV, the computers were in the back of the room. We watched South Park while we wrote. One of the Chinese guys came in the room and sat down in the front row of chairs a few down from me and watched South Park.
After the show ended Cops came on. I don’t ever watch it and didn’t pay that close attention as I was typing. The Chinese guy got up and left a little bit after it started. We stayed in the room until about 11 PM. We got our water bottles filled with hot water in the kitchen. A girl was in there washing dishes and I talked to her for a minute. She was staying in a campervan.
We went to the tent and saw frost on it. The tent had gotten wet in Wanaka from the rain and never fully dried out. We hoped it would dry out since we didn’t use it in Haast, but I guess it didn’t work so well. When I opened the door a little of the frost fell off onto my sleeping bag. I laid down to go to bed around 11:30 PM.
June 29 - Fox Glacier/Franz Josef
Jun 29, 2012
June 29 - Fox Glacier/Franz Josef
I woke up this morning around 7:15 AM. It was by far the coldest night and morning of our trip. My back was freezing a lot of the night. Andy had gotten up before me to check the battery I was charging and to go to the bathroom. He also went to put his gopro battery on the charger.
He was outside taking pictures of the campsite and the stars. I was wondering why he was doing that because it was ridiculously cold outside. I was shivering inside the tent. My sleeping bag felt wet near my head all night because I was leaning against the side of the tent and didn’t realize it until the morning when I got out of bed. I took a few pictures of the campsite as well, but could barely stay outside for 30 seconds before I was frozen.
We had pre-booked a glacier hike for the day. We had to be at the check-in at 9:10 AM. We took down the tent and had breakfast. We ate the last of our cereal, a banana, and hot chocolate. We needed to pack a lunch too since the hike wouldn’t be over until after 4 PM.
For lunch we made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The peanut butter was frozen so when I tried to spread it the bread just got ripped apart. It was the worst sandwich ever. I also had an apple, a boiled egg, and a nature valley granola bar. It was about 8:55 when we finished doing everything we needed to.
We drove down the street to the Fox Glacier Guiding building. When we pulled up it looked like lots of people were already there. Some were going on half day trips, but most that were left inside were going on the full day hike with us. We needed to check in so we went inside and found a counter. I recognized the check-in spot from the promotional video I had seen on their website.
A guy in front of us in line was checking in also. It only took a minute and they gave us a ticket indicating we were part of the tour. They said it would be about a 10 minute wait until we were ready to get our gear and go. We could wait until then.
We sat down in the café area where everyone else was waiting. The guy in front of us in line was from California. He had done skydiving the day before. I heard him talking about it while we were waiting with some other people. He acted like it was the coolest thing ever.
After about 5 minutes of waiting a guy came in and said that if we were on the tour to follow him to the next room. I was changing my gopro card so I had to hurry and then go find them. He was already talking about the trip and explaining the things we needed when I walked in.
We had to get boots, crampons, and socks out of a box. We had to grab a pair of thick socks and then take our shoes off and give them to the guys at the counter and they grabbed us some boots that looked the right size. I was the last one in line.
I got my boots and than put them on along with my socks. I just put the socks on over my other two ankle pairs of socks I was wearing. I figured it would keep me warmer and I didn’t want dirty socks on my feet. The boots seemed slightly big, but they would do.
Next we were issued crampons. They briefly told us how to put them on. I was trying to put mine on backwards at first. The guy showed me how to do it correctly and adjust the size to fit my feet. They worked so he wrapped them together and gave them back to me. I stuffed them in the top of my bag and put my lunch in the bottom of my bag where my cameras get stored.
We were told about what we would be doing on the hike. We would be hiking the Glacier Valley Trail we had done the day before, but then branch off on an alternate route and then hike on the glacier for about five hours. We would walk up one side, and down the other. Then back to the Glacier Valley Trail and back to the parking lot.
Before we could go we needed a few more pieces of equipment. There were bags, jackets, gloves, and hats available. We had everything we needed, but I wanted some warmer gloves just in case. They were big wool mittens, but they were really good.
We had all of our things and everyone boarded the bus. The drive took about 15 minutes. When we parked we were told to divide ourselves into two groups. There were three guides total. Two would go with one group and one with the other.
We were some of the first to get off and the guides weren’t really off yet, so we didn’t know where to line up. He said go on the other side of the large rocks, but nobody followed at first. I wanted to be in the group with the two guides since they seemed cooler, but a lot of other people went over near them when they got off.
We turned and went to the group with the one guide. His name was Dan and he was from Scotland. Our group was mostly girls except for me and Andy and a Chinese guy. It was also mostly Asians. There were a Philippine girl, a Malaysians, a Taiwanese girl, and three Germans. We were in the group of duds.
The other group seemed to be the more athletic group. It ended up being better this way in the end. We had one girl in the group named Iris. She was Malaysian and had no business being on this hike. The first part of the trail was flat and easy, but we quickly branched off into a trail in the woods. I thought we would go as far as the tour groups had done the day before, but we were in a completely separate area altogether.
This hike was much better than the rocky path we had to walk on yesterday. It was steeper, icy, and in the trees. It wasn’t a hard hike though. Me and Andy stayed near the back of the group so we could do filming and not slow the group down. We stopped a few times when our guide gave information about the area and the way the glacier had formed the landscape. The other group didn’t seem to stop nearly as much as we did.
For the first part of the hike our group was in front, but with all the stops we were passed. On one section I got stuck behind Iris. This girl was a complete moron. I couldn’t have walked any slower if I was going backwards with my eyes closed up the trail. At first I thought she was sick, but I don’t know what her problem was.
Our guide kept looking back and seeing how she was slowing everyone down. We stopped at a small waterfall that was dripping off of a mossy rock into a little pool below. Dan said it was fresh water and said we could drink it. Nobody did at first. He went over after a few minutes and drank some. Then one of the Asian girls filled up her water bottle.
Iris was sitting down and looked sick. Dan was talking to her and it turned out she was just scared. He asked if she wanted to continue on and she said she did. I was hoping she would leave. She had no business being out there if she was scared of heights and the slippery trail. She wasn’t even dressed properly. She had no gloves at all or a hat.
We stopped a lot to allow this girl to catch up. Eventually Dan made her walk up front with him to make sure she wasn’t scared and would keep up. It really slowed us down to have to go at her snails pace. We stopped for a little while to get some instructions about an upcoming stretch of trail. We were warned that it was a very steep drop off with no railing. We had to put our cameras up. There was a chain link rope that we had to hang onto for support. He said everyone must do it, not in case we fall, but in case someone behind us falls and knocks us down. He made it sound like it was going to be some tough stretch of hike.
This part of the trail was nothing. It was a drop off, but the trail was plenty wide. You would have to be an idiot to fall off. It was also only 120 feet to the bottom and it was more of a sloped area below. The chain was near the ground and I felt like reaching down for it was more of a hassle than just walking. The trail was a slight climb for this part as well.
As we made it to the top the trail turned a corner and then led to a down hill portion on steps. I could see the other group ahead. They didn’t look that far, but they were in the area just before the glacier putting on their crampons.
We hiked down, but it didn’t seem like we were getting any closer. The trail was pretty steep and down hill through a rocky area. Iris was taking her sweet little time and had to have her little hand held most of the way. This girl was at least late 20s, but acted like a 6 year old and as the day continued it just got worse.
As we got to the edge of the glacier we stopped. There was a rack of walking poles if we wanted them. I think most of the girls took one, but I didn’t see any of the guys grab them. There were already a lot of people walking around on the glacier. There was a group doing the ice climbing tour and a few half day tours, plus the other group in our tour. We knew how to put on the crampons, but not tie them. We sat down to get instructions.
I used the gopro to film myself as I put mine on. It was pretty easy to get them tightened. Walking in them was awkward though at first. Once everyone had their walking shoes on we were ready to hit the ice. The first thing we saw was a small ice cave. There was an entrance and it went back about five yards and was about nine feet tall. I assume it wasn’t man made.
We all got pictures of ourselves inside it and then were ready to go. To get onto the glacier there were steps carved out of the ice. It was really cool. The crampons were making it easy to walk on the ice as well, otherwise our feet would have been cold and we would have been slipping all over the steps.
As we got up the first set of steps we stopped for a little while to watch the ice climbers. I asked how many walls they would climb on that hike since we had considered doing it. Dan said between 6-7 if we were good, and only 1 or 2 if we weren’t. It sounds cool, but it was really expensive.
The Asian lady we were watching trying to climb this 25 foot wall was struggling pretty badly. It took her about three minutes just to get two feet off the ground. One of the Asian girls was standing by me and we were laughing about it. I said she wasted her money and that she would maybe do half a wall and be done for the day.
We watched for at least 15 minutes and she finally made it to the top. She would probably be good friends with Iris. Luckily there was only 2 or 3 people on that hike. If I was doing that adventure and someone was that bad and that slow I’d hope they’d just leave them behind.
We left the ice climbing area and continued down the ice trail. We had to climb a few more steps and pass through a narrow passage along the way. At the top it opened up to a huge ice cliff. We walked by that and up a few more stairs.
We were walking in a zigzag path across the ice to keep from creating sliding areas. The guide said by doing that if we were to fall we wouldn’t slide too far. The other group that was with us went a different way. I think they went to the left while we walked up the middle of the glacier.
It was about 11:30 AM at this point. We were going to stay on the ice for about 5 hours according to the itinerary. Our group was extremely slow. Iris was up front with the guide to set the pace. She had a walking pole and I think it slowed her down even more. She didn’t even use it properly. She just carried it. There were times when I didn’t think she even knew how to walk properly. There would be a patch of snow, ice, a rock, or a step and she would just stop and look at it. Scared or too stupid to continue.
The guide would have to turn around and grab her hand. It got to the point where his helping just made it worse. Anytime we were going to go to a part that he felt could be slick or steep he would say not to be scared to the whole group, but look directly at Iris. And then make a comment about how she shouldn’t be too scared and to have confidence. By doing those things he was just making it worse for her.
As we walked on the ice me and Andy stayed in the back. There was a Malaysian girl in front of us and a German girl hung around the back too. We seemed to be the only ones stopping to take pictures. The group would get 30-50 meters in front of us, but because they were going so slow we could easily catch up to them in a matter of seconds.
At first it was frustrating to be in the slow group, but I realized after I saw how fast the other tour was going that we couldn’t have stayed up with them. We stopped and did videos and pictures of the glacier and mountains around us and could still get back to the group very quickly. The other group would have left us behind and because of the nature of walking on the glacier we had to follow the unmarked trail or we could fall in a crevasse.
In the end it was a good thing to be in that group. The guide stopped a few times to explain things about the glacier, the history of the area, Maori traditions, and how to walk on the ice properly in crampons. This allowed us to take more pictures.
The Fox Glacier is actually receding while advancing. All glaciers are moving forward due to gravity and the sheer weight of the compact ice. It can take a few years of snow fall to accumulate to start creating a glacier, but in some recent years it hasn’t snowed as much at Fox Glacier as it did in the past. In addition, the front of the glacier is melting faster than snow is being added at the top. As a result, the glacier appears to be going backwards because it is melting while it moves forward.
The Maori people have lots of traditional stories about how New Zealand was created by their Gods. One of the stories talks about a man that loved a girl so much he would walk through the valley of Fox Glacier to see her as often as he could. One day he fell and died. The girl was so sad that she cried and cried. Her tears flowed down the mountain and froze. One formed Fox Glacier, and the other formed Franz Josef Glacier. I guess it makes sense since they are on opposite sides of the mountain and shaped like a tear drop.
To walk uphill with crampons we were told to stamp our feet into the group to make sure they enter the snow. On top of the snow the crampons are useless and don’t get the effect they are supposed to have. To walk down we were told to walk like a duck, not sideways the way you might if you were on a steep trail in normal shoes. At one point Iris just stopped and looked around like she was lost. The guide had to literally tell her to just put one foot in front of the other. I don’t think this girl even knows how her legs work.
There were a few times when walking that the spikes on my crampons got stuck in the lace of the other crampon. It made me slip and I almost fell down a few times. A few times other people did fall, but I’m not sure if they stepped wrong or if their shoes got tangled.
There were mountains surrounding the glacier. We could see a large bulge near the middle of the glacier, that is where we were headed. This part looked like it would have lots of crevasses and narrow passages to walk through. Before we got there we stopped for lunch near a rocky area on the glacier around 12:30 PM. We stayed there for about 20 minutes. It wasn’t very well protected from the wind so it was kind of cold. The Chinese guy was smoking and I asked him to go stand down wind from us, but all he did was go behind a rock, so the wind was still blowing it towards all of us.
I didn’t bring water on the trail and I wasn’t even hungry or thirsty since I had been chewing gum all day. I wasn’t going to eat my boiled egg at first because I didn’t want to peel it, but I decided I would since the trail is the reason I wanted to boil eggs anyway. It peeled really easy anyway.
As we finished eating we packed up our things and started walking again. We put our gopro’s on our head to get more videos and make it easier. We walked up to the most fun part of the hike, the bulging portion of the glacier. It didn’t seem like we were going that slow since I kept stopping to take pictures and when I would walk I had to walk fast to catch up. I don’t even know if I followed the same trail that everyone else had taken. I just tried to follow the spike marks in the snow and ice.
The other group caught up to us as we approached the crevasses and narrow passages. I was in the back of the pack still. I could see them gaining on us very quickly. In order to go further at one point we had to climb a set of steep steps through a narrow passage. There was a red rope to hang onto for support so I grabbed it and pulled myself up with both hands. I think I was pulling too hard because the girl in front of me was only holding on with one hand and started falling over. I let go of the rope at that point. I didn’t need it anyway.
From here there was a serious of passages like a maze. We wondered around in them for about an hour or more, stopping to take pictures. The ice was in all kinds of weird formations. There was one portion that was a tunnel with two openings. It was about 18 inches across and about 20 meters high at the first part. I had to walk sideways to get through, and leave my bag behind. Everyone was stopping to get their picture taken one at a time. We were some of the last to go through.
At the end of the tunnel there was a covering over top of our heads and it made a small little igloo type space. In order to get out we had to step up a few feet and crouch down to crawl through a little window. It was pretty neat. We had spent enough time in there and it was time to start heading down.
The German girl noticed we were taking a lot of pictures and videos and asked why we were dong that. I told her just because we wanted to and that we were kind of filming a documentary of our travels through New Zealand. I think she thought we must have been doing it for something important since she commented on the fact that we had such nice cameras and lots of equipment. I told her we would put the videos on you tube, but probably not anything else. I should have told her we worked for National Geographic or something.
The hike down was pretty quick, except for Iris. I got way behind at this point. I turned around to look where we had just come from. Coming up over the mountains was the moon. A few people stopped to look and everyone started taking pictures. I put on my zoom lens to get better pictures.
Along the way down our group stopped to get our picture taken. Everyone that had a camera gave it to the guide, I didn’t give him mine since Andy used his. He had too many cameras, so he passed them off to members and guides of the other group. Our guide jumped in the picture as well.
Three different people were taking our pictures. One of the guides had Andy’s camera and took our picture. He was excited to have a better camera and started turning vertically and horizontally and took three or four pictures.
After picture taking was over we began walking down again, the same route we had taken on the way up. Again I was way behind. The other group had passed us by and was moving fast. Luckily Iris was still being her normal self, slow as possible. We eventually made it back to the area just off the glacier where we put our crampons on.
We all stopped to take them off and pack them up. I had mine in my hand since I couldn’t get them to fit in my bag, but Dan said I had to pack them in case I fell. I told him I was tough, but he insisted. I stopped and put them in the top after some shoving.
I was hoping we wouldn’t go back the way we had came. I couldn’t imagine how long that would take and I had to go to the bathroom. I had needed to go since lunch, but there weren’t many options in the middle of the ice. The German girl had said she needed to go earlier, but said she could wait.
We went back down the trail the way the group the day before had gone. It didn’t look that far from the steep trail we were on, but it felt like as we walked down that we weren’t getting any closer. Eventually a few other guides caught up to our group and started talking to Dan.
A few were just guides that hang out on the ice in case there is a problem, but two of them were a guy and girl that had been skiing at the top of the mountain and stayed over night. They had a helicopter bring their things down, but there was no room for them so they hiked down a trail called “Suicide Alley.” It was given that name due to the amount of loose rocks and slides that occur in this area. At one point Dan told us to look for them coming down the mountain to see them pass this treacherous area if we could. I
I was able to catch up to the front of the group since I wasn’t taking anymore pictures. Dan slowed down a lot, and realized that he needed to go back to help Iris since there was a water crossing coming up.
At this point I just walked as quick as I could. I caught up and passed all the people in the other group ahead of us. Andy had made it up to me as well since he needed to go to the bathroom worse than I did. He was to the point of almost jogging back. I didn’t take any pictures or videos from the time we got off the ice until we got back to the parking lot. I immediately went to the bathroom. They were really nice and clean. All the bathrooms I have used in New Zealand have been great actually, even the pit toilets.
We got back and had to wait for the bus for about 3 minutes. When the bus pulled up we all got on. Andy was still in the bathroom when they started counting heads. There were supposed to be 18 of us on the bus, and there were only 16. A guy came walking up and Andy was right behind him.
We got back to the Fox Glacier Guiding building and returned our boots, crampons, and mittens. I was the first one to turn my things in. Andy was talking forever to get his stuff off. If this was a challenge in Amazing Race we just lost.
One of the guides told us on the bus drive back that we got certificates for completing the trek. We were waiting around, but I didn’t know where these certificates they were talking about were. We went outside to look, then to the front desk, no certificate. We went outside and Andy took pictures of the bus since Andy said it was a historic bus.
We went back inside, but I didn’t see anything still. We walked around the gift shop for a little bit, but I didn’t see any shot glasses and the other things were way too expensive. I went back outside to get a picture of the bus and Andy went the other way.
When I came back in he was standing in line to get his certificate. Our guide was signing small little papers and dating them. I got in line behind him and we got our certificates. We got back in the car and headed for Franz Josef Glacier, about 30 minutes down the road. It was about 4:35 PM at this point.
We drove down the curvy road pretty quickly. As we approached the town we saw a sign that pointed towards the Franz Josef Glacier. The weather was good so we thought we would try to see it before it got too dark.
There were four hikes at the parking lot. One was the Franz Josef Glacier hike, an hour and a half return. A forest hike, which led into the Franz Josef Glacier hike, which was 30 minutes. We planned to do those two in the morning. There was also the Sentinel Rock Hike, which was only 900 meters, and provided views of the glacier. There was also another longer hike, but we didn’t intend to do that since it was 7 hours.
I ate a granola bar for energy. We put on our bags and started running down the trail. We wanted to beat the sunset. The trail was really icy and slippery. We passed a few groups coming down and they probably thought we were nuts for running. We had to cross a bridge covered in snow so we just walked across that to keep from falling.
We ran for about 5 minutes and then came to a fork in the road. It was technically the start of the trails. To the right was the glacier walks, up and to the right was Sentinel Rock. We stopped just for a second and then continued running.
The trail wasn’t as icy, but it was very steep. I ran about 750 meters of the trail and then had to stop. My throat was hurting from the freezing cold. Andy was a little bit ahead of me. I yelled up to him if it was the end of the trail and he said no. It was a few more switchbacks and then I saw him stop.
There was an opening in the forest that led to a platform. We had made it just in time. We were at least a mile and a half from the glacier, but the views were good. The mountains were turning pink as the sun was going down. We stayed there for about 10 minutes taking pictures and reading the signs.
I was really tired and felt like throwing up. I couldn’t stop coughing. I didn’t have any water, but I did have an apple with me. I ate that. It gave me just the energy I needed to get down and was wet enough to act as water.
We headed back down at about 5:30. We did a 45 minute hike in about 20 minutes. To get down we just walked quickly for most the way, but we did run a little bit. Back at the fork in the road we went slowly since it was icy. We had to cross the bridge again. I slipped a few times, but never fell.
We got down at about 5:45, just as it was about to get dark. It was the only hike we have done this whole trip that we didn’t film any gopro videos. We needed a place to stay for the night. We had a few places picked out, but didn’t know which would be best. We drove back to the main road and turned towards the town.
We passed a few places, but most were hotels and hostels. We saw one called Rainforest Lodge. It looked pretty nice and was in our guide book. It had a spa, kitchen, and camping areas mixed in with cabins and a lodge.
I went inside to ask about camping. The girl at the counter thought I was nuts when I said we had a tent. She asked where I was from like they do at all the places we stay for their records. She thought I was from Ireland. I told her I had been in the country for 3 ½ weeks so my accent was a mix of American and New Zealand so I sounded Irish. I have been using a fake New Zealand accent a lot, but never near other people except Andy.
She said that the tent camping area was very small, but next to the playground. It was really dark as we drove around looking for the area. All we could see were campervan sites and cabins. It looked like we needed to go down a road that was blocked by a huge tour bus. We passed the kitchen area and playground and assumed that was the tent camping area.
There was one picnic table and three parking spots. It was about 30 yards by 30 yards. We found a flat spot and threw up the tent. It was pretty cold outside, but was only supposed to get down to about the mid-20s for the night.
I didn’t wear my gloves to put up the tent so they wouldn’t get wet and they felt like I dipped them in a bucket of ice water after 10 seconds. They were hurting pretty badly and I eventually had to put them on. I was trying to keep them from getting wet since our tent was still a little wet from before since it had frost on it, and it would just melt during the day and refreeze at night.
We wanted to have dinner so we went into the kitchen. I went in to see the facilities and there was a TV area with a small kitchen. Four girls were on the couches watching a movie. It was really warm in there since they had a portable plug-in heater.
There were two Spanish speaking guys eating something that looked like rice in sauce and then there was a guy and a girl cooking a huge feast. We planned to have a salad, spinach, and fettuccini alfredo with a piece of bread followed with cookies and chocolate. We also drank hot chocolate.
Our meal finished cooking pretty quickly. As we were eating the guy and girl were still cooking their food. On the TV was “Courage Under Fire.” The girl was watching that while the guy cooked. Their feast finally finished. They had a huge plate of rice with vegetables, and beef stew. It took at least 45 minutes to make their meal.
We finished eating and then went to the reception area to find out about internet. I needed to transfer my money to my bank account by Monday. It was Friday so it wouldn’t be there until Monday. I only paid for 15 minutes of internet. I was able to get my things done really quickly. I read about how the Healthcare Law was upheld by the Supreme Court and how each political side tried to spin the decision to fit their agenda.
It was about 8:10 PM when we went back to the kitchen area. We wanted to write in our journals in a warm place. The guy and girl were still there watching “Courage Under Fire.” Afterwards a movie with Russell Crowe came on. I hadn’t seen it before. He was a businessman from England that inherited a vineyard and home in France so he went there to sell it and make some money. While he was there he fell in love with a girl he had known when visiting the region as a child. They ended up together. It was pretty predictable and a repetitive movie.
We finished writing around 10:45 PM and went to the tent. The tent was covered in frost since it was so cold and it had been wet. Luckily my sleeping bag is really warm and with the hot water bottle at my feet I was hoping it would work great.
June 30 - Franz Josef/Hokitika
Jun 30, 2012
June 30 - Franz Josef/Hokitika
We woke up really early this morning hoping to watch the sunrise at Franz Josef Glacier. I think it was about 6:45 AM. It was another freezing night. I slept alright though, but outside it was extremely cold. We didn’t want to spend a lot of time making food so we ate a banana and we each had a piece of peanut butter toast with hot chocolate. We then quickly took down the tent. Andy didn’t wear his gloves so they wouldn’t get wet and I warned him his hands would freeze since that’s what happened to mine before when I tried that.
His hands were of course very cold. I had to fold the rain fly on the tent since his hands were too cold after rolling up the tent. We wanted to take showers since it had been a few days and I needed to shave. I got my things and went to the bathroom. I took the first stall, but realized there was water all over the ground so I moved a few of my things to the second stall. I had to use the bathroom so I did that real fast. I heard someone come in and thought it was Andy.
I walked out and it was some old guy. He wanted to use a shower so I told him I needed to move my things. Andy would have to wait to get his shower now. I was freezing cold so I wanted to take a shower and not have to wait around. I took a nice long shower and it felt really good.
Andy only had to wait a few minutes to get in because the old guy was fast. Andy was already done by the time I got out. We left the campground before 7:30 AM to do a few hikes in the same place we were at the day before in the Franz Josef Glacier parking lot.
It was only a short 10 minute drive or so through town and to the trail head. Andy had read about a hike called Peter’s Pool that had reflections of the mountain that the Franz Josef Glacier was on. It was actually part of another longer trail, but to get to the pool it was only a 20 minute round trip hike and was really easy. Afterwards we wanted to do the Franz Josef Glacier Valley Walk which was in the same location and if we had time we would redo the Sentinel Hike since we didn’t get any video of the trail itself.
When we pulled into the parking lot there was another car already there. Two guys were getting dressed in warmer gear and another guy came walking up to them, I think he was in the bathroom. We packed a few light snacks for the hike since our breakfast was small. I just had a granola bar.
We left on our hike before the other guys. The Peter’s Pool hiuke was very short and very easy. We got a few videos along the way and it still only took 10 minutes to get there. It had a few moderate climbs, but nothing too difficult. The trail was very icy and covered in snow in a number of spots though which made it slick at times.
The pool itself was frozen, which meant not very good for reflecting. It would havae been perfect though since the skies were blue with few clouds and the sun was shinning brightly on the mountain. We stayed at the pool taking pictures for about 15 minutes. The sun was just rising and it caused the mountains to be a little pinkish at the top. We saw what we came to see and then walked back down to the parking lot.
When we got back a few more cars had arrived. It was about 8:30 AM at this point. We walked over to the start of the Glacier Valley Walk and proceeded down the trail. The beginning was the same path we took the night before on the Sentinel Rock lookout up to the part where there was a fork in the road.
The trail was still very icy and even more slick than the night before. We were slipping and sliding all over the place. Although it was really cold outside the sun was shining on us through the trees so it felt kind of warm. The first part of the trail after the fork was part of a forest walk so naturally it was in the trees. There wasn’t really much to see in this part.
The trail was supposed to be wheel chair accessible. When I hear or see that I assume it will be paved or have a boardwalk, or something to make the wheel chair have access to the hike. This trail was not wheel chair accessible at all, unless the person in the wheel chair wanted the ride of their life. It was snowy, icy, rocky, and steep on parts. Whoever had to push that thing wouldn’t have enjoyed pushing a wheel chair up the semi-steep path and the person riding in the wheel chair would have had a bumpy ride.
After about 15-20 minutes of walking the trail leaves the forest and opens up to a river that was flowing from under the glacier and through a rocky area that had been carved out by the glacier over thousands of years. This area was under the glacier as recently at the 1970s, but due to changes in the environment it had melted quite significantly. It is projected at this pace to be completely gone by 2050.
The trail itself that leads up to Franz Josef Glacier is somewhat similar to Fox Glacier. The difference is that at Fox Glacier the trail is a little more scenic and turns a little more. The hike up to Franz Josef is pretty straight and flat and just passes near the river and through an area of huge boulders. Many of them were placed there by the glacier, but many more have fallen off the sides of the surrounding mountains from rock slides.
At this point in the trail we seemed to be two of five people walking. The three guys we had seen earlier in the morning were ahead of us by a few hundred yards. I assume it was them, but I’m not sure because I figured they would be further along than they were. They may have stopped, not left as early as I thought, or went somewhere else first.
The trail was marked with stakes that were about 3 ½ feet high that were spaced out about 40-50 yards between each one. My goal was to film myself walking towards the glacier by putting the gopro on top of every 4th or 5th stake. I wanted it to be from behind so it would make it look like I was jumping ahead really fast as I pieced it altogether.
The first thing we did when leaving the forest was cross a small footbridge. I got some good pictures at this particular spot. We walked a little further and I put my filming plan into action. We did this for about 3 or 4 times until we came to a second footbridge. There were two footbridges separated by an embankment of rocks that looked like they had been placed there.
They were mostly medium sized rocks that separated a small streambed and another small dried up stream bed. The first bridge had water going underneath it, created by a series of waterfalls coming off the mountain. The second streambed was dried up. .
At first I only saw the one, but as I walked further around the corner a few more appeared. The trail continues on straight and around, but we climbed onto tje embankment and took pictures of the waterfalls. We were passed by two younger Asian looking people probably in their early 20s. At this point Andy took about 10 minutes to get pictures. I had seen the falls and was ready to continue on. I left him behind and kept walking.
I continued to do my plan, but no longer was I placing the camera at every 4th stake. Instead I started putting it at every 3rd. I continued to do this all the way until the end of the trail. . I looked back a few times and saw that Andy was finally coming behind me. Another couple was coming as well. The boy went running towards one of the waterfalls. I don’t know if he went under it or just up to it, he was too far to see that closely.
On the right there was a neat looking mountain with trees and mosses growing out of it. It looked jagged in portions as if large junks of it had eroded away or fallen off from rock slides. I took pictures of this point.
As I got to the end of the trail I saw two of the three guys that I had seen earlier. They were sitting next to the trail with a telescope pointed towards the mountain to our right. They both had rifles on their backs. Again hunters in a National Park with lots of tourists around. That seems kind of dangerous to me. I was thinking maybe they were park rangers trying to shoot animals that were introduced to New Zealand that they didn’t want.
Our guide at Fox Glacier said there are mountain goats, called Chamois, in the area. Hunters often shoot these and barbecue them and the government wants to control the populations so they allow hunting. Off the trail and to the right there was a huge mound of rocks in the shape of a pyramid. I assume it was a rock slide area. It was fenced off, but the third guy I had seen earlier was coming down a trail at the top of the mound.
The Asian couple I had seen had walked up to the trail area, and climbed under the ropes that blocked this section. The hunter didn’t say anything as he passed them, so I guessed he wasn’t a ranger after all. I never saw the Asian people again so they didn’t go up the steep trail. They may have just turned back and left.
At the end of the trail there are a lot of huge boulders all around. I stayed in this area for at least 10 minutes waiting for Andy to catch up. There were more people getting to the end of the trail so I had to stop my gopro shooting aat this point. Andy finally arrived.
Everyone was gone so we did our last gopro shots. Andy had been doing something similar to what I had done with the gopros on the post as we walked towards the glacier, but I think he did a few other shots as well. I remember thinking that the people behind me on the trail must have thought I was strange since I would walk forward 20 yards or so and then turn and walk back.
I was in the process of setting down my gopro for a neat shot, but Andy had his gopro on his headstrap and was walking to the end of the trail where the barrier was so I had to wait. There was a cut out sign of a guy with his hand out stretched that said “Stop” and he walked up and gave it a high five. I was just about to do that same thing. After he finished I did it anyway.
I was basically done getting videos with my gopro and taking pictures of the glacier so I spent the next 15 minutes just taking pictures of myself. Andy went back up the trail about 20 yards and started taking pictures with his telephoto lens.
He finally finished taking pictures and saw what I was doing and asked me to take a picture of him. He doesn’t like doing self portraits as much as me even though he does do it every once in a while. I don’t know what he started doing, but I was done looking at the glacier so I started walking back.
There was a barrier that went from the river all the way to the mountain to keep people from getting too close to the glacier without an experienced guide. There wasn’t a trail that went up to the mountain, but I had nothing else to do really so I just walked up the rocks along the yellow rope fence until I had a higher view of the glacier. I probably walked about 150 yards or so.
I looked at the glacier for awhile and got a couple of pictures. I went back down to the bottom where Andy was after 10 minutes and asked if he was ready yet. He said he almost was. I told him I had gone up a little further and he asked if it was any good up there. I told him it was, but he shouldn’t go up there. I knew he would want to take lots more pictures since it was a better spot. He said he didn’t even realize there was a trail there and I told him there wasn’t, but I had seen other people go up that way earlier so I wanted to check it out.
He went up to the point where I had been and I started walking back to the start of the trail. I wanted to get down to the river and needed to find a good spot. I also had to go to the bathroom and since it was later in the day a lot more people were on the trail. I had to find a good hiding spot behind the biggest rocks and they were down near the river.
As I was walking I found a little pathway down to the river’s edge. There were some big boulders so I went in between them. There was a large one to my right with another big one on my left that was leaning against the other rock which blocked the view from the trail mostly. Then there was a smaller rock in front of me so together they formed a triangle shape.
I’m pretty sure I was well covered, but just as I thought I had found a good spot I looked up and about 50 yards away was a lady playing around near the water. I don’t think she could see me, but I had to wait. There might have been a few other people about 500 yards away that could have seen me if they looked in my direction.
I decided my hiding spot was no good so I just kept walking along the water. It seemed like there was nobody around so I hid behind some large rocks and just peed. Andy was still taking pictures so I did some rock scrambling and took some pictures and did some gopro videos of myself. I must have spent about 20 minutes down there waiting.
I looked back to where he was and I could see that he was finally packing up his things and moving towards the trail. I saw a big waterfall coming off the mountains that we had passed earlier on the hike so I figured I would go walk towards it. It didn’t look that far and I thought by the time I got to the falls he would be getting back to the general area that I was in.
I started walking and passed by two other people that had gone off the main trail to walk around in the rocks. I thought the falls was about 400 yards away, but as I walked towards it I didn’t think I was getting any closer. Andy was about 20 yards to my left, but couldn’t see me since I was behind some rocks. I was going to try to go around behind him. I climbed up on top of them and he looked over and saw me.
I joined him on the main trail and we started walking back. We had spent about 2 hours on the trail by now. The whole thing was supposed to take an hour and a half round trip. Andy wanted to get a few pictures and videos on the way back by the waterfalls that we had passed. I thought we had enough pictures and videos of that area, but he wanted some of us walking the other direction.
We stopped a few times to get some pictures and do some videos before we got to the waterfalls. We also did a few shots of ourselves walking through a snowy area with the glacier behind us. At the waterfall Andy wanted to get a few more pictures so I did too.
We walked a little further past the waterfall and made it back into the forest area. The walk back was a lot more icy then I remembered in the morning. It was also steeper than I remembered. There were a few places that we almost fell down. We made it back to the car around 12:30 PM and were ready for lunch.
Andy wanted to do a hike that was an hour and a half long called Canavan’s Knob. I didn’t really want to do it, but we drove a few miles down the road to the trail parking lot. We decided we would eat lunch and then determine if we wanted to go on the hike.
We made ham sandwiches and ate chips and a cookie. During lunch I said I didn’t care to do the hike. We had planned to drive about 30 minutes down the road to a town called Okarito on the coast and do two hikes there. They were an hour and a half and a 30 minute hike. We then had to drive another two hours to Hokitika, the place we wanted to camp for the night.
I knew that if we did the Canavan’s hike that it would probably take two hours and we wouldn’t have enough daylight to do the other hikes. I also didn’t feel like driving late at night. The roads are in perfect condition, but they often times go through the mountains and people in New Zealand drive way too fast around sharp curves. The roads are similar to what we have experienced in Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Peru in terms of how much they turn, how steep they are, and how they are always in the mountains.
They seem to intentionally avoid the valleys and easy routes possible when building roads. I felt like they put lots of turns in them just to keep people from driving too fast. Maybe it was to make them look like cooler drives.
I felt that the Canavan’s trail wouldn’t give us that great of views. There were two big hills in front of the glacier and mountains from where we were in the parking lot and there weren’t any high areas around us so it didn’t seem to me that the hike would be worth the trouble or time.
Instead of doing Canavan’s Knob trail we just walked around in the parking lot since there were lots of randomly placed boulders next to it. There was a six foot wall of little rocks that we had to get over first. We walked down about 30 yards to a place that looked a little more stable and not so steep. We hopped around on the rocks for about 20 minutes taking random pictures and videos of ourselves.
There was one part where the rocks were about 3 feet apart and I had to jump across it to get to the other side. I had to jump up slightly because of where the rocks were placed and I couldn’t get a running start. It was pretty scary, but I had to do it. Not really, I could have walked about 2 feet over and just gone an easier way, but that’s not as fun. There was one rock that stuck up above the rest. I called it “Pinnacle Rock.” It was slanted a little bit, and flat on the surface so it made it a little tougher to get up without slipping off. We each climbed to the top of it.
After our little made up hike we got back in the car and drove down the street. We stopped after about 30 seconds next to a light pole to get a few more pictures of the mountains. We had to get gas before we left Franz Josef because we weren’t sure where the next gas station would be and we had less than ¼ a tank. The gas was about $0.30 more per litre than we were paying in other areas so we just got half a tank.
On our way out of town we stopped on the side of the road one more time for pictures. We didn’t stop again until we got to Okarito. The town is very small, maybe 100 people at most. I doubt even that many. We went there because the hikes were supposed to give great views of the mountains we were leaving, as well as many others. It also had good views of the wetlands area and the Tasman Sea.
Once we got to Okarito it was easy to find the trail. There was only one road in the town and it was right off of it on the left. We were the only ones parked in the parking lot as usual. We loaded up our things and set out on the Trig Walk. The first part of the trail is part of a longer multi-day hike that follows the coast, but then branches off to a lookout point, which is what we wanted to see.
The trail starts out flat and crosses a wetland area on a boardwalk that is about 60 yards long. It winds around like a snake for no apparent reason. We then entered into the forest and the trail continued to be flat for about 50 yards. After this it seemed like a steady climb for the next 45 minutes. There were portions where it was flat, but they didn’t seem to last very long.
The trail was well shaded in the trees, but it was warm and we were working hard enough that we were sweating. There were a couple of lookouts along the way of the wetlands we crossed and the ocean. We stopped one time and a guy and a girl passed us on the trail.
We made it to the fork in the road and turned left to complete the Trig Trail. A sign said it was 40 minutes to the top from here. We had already been walking for about 30 minutes, but that included a lot of stops. All of the times for trails are based on walking only, and not any extra time for taking pictures or resting. It’s strange because in the U.S. the times are based on how long it might take to do everything.
The middle of the trail was the longest stretch of flat ground, but just before the end the trail becomes pretty steep again to get to the lookout. At the top there is a wooden platform that gives 180 degree views which included the coast on the left with wetlands along the shore, and a continuous chain of mountains that stretched to the other coast to our right.
As we arrived at the top the guy and girl that passed us before were just leaving. We climbed up on the railing, which was only about 2 feet tall to get better views over the trees in front of us. Although most of the trees weren’t actually blocking our views. There was also a square shaped block in the middle that we could stand on for slightly higher views as well. From here we did a lot of panorama shots.
Andy wanted me to do a time lapse with my gopro since his battery was low since it could do a wide angle shot and the mountains were so long. I tried to climb in a tree to connect it, but it wasn’t working very well. He ended up putting it in another tree and we let it run for about 15 minutes. The clouds weren’t doing much and the lighting stayed mostly the same, but it may have turned out ok. I haven’t watched it yet to know.
As I climbed into the tree to get it out an old man and younger looking lady showed up. I had just finished peeing next to the trail so it was a good thing they weren’t a few minutes earlier. I was climbing in the tree trying to get my gopro down and almost dropped the camera when I unclipped it. It wouldn’t have fallen that far anyway.
We decided we were ready to head down since we had another hike we wanted to do. We stayed at the top for at least 35 minutes, but probably longer. We ran down the first half of the way back since it was pretty steep and running down is easy. Once we got to the flat middle section we started walking. It felt like the flat section on the way back was longer than it was on the way there, but it may have been because we did the running portion so quickly.
We got back to the first overlook portion and we stopped. We had a view of the boardwalk and Andy thought it would be a cool video of me walking across from a really high angle. He could zoom in enough with his camera to make it look cool. I ran ahead for the last few hundred yards to get down there.
As I came out of the forest I was waving my hands in the area like a crazy person that just got chosen to be on the Price Is Right. I don’t know if he was filming at that point or not, but I did it long enough that he could have easily pressed record if he wanted to.
I stopped acting like an idiot and began walking across like a normal person. I then stopped and jumped to do a heel click. I did a couple of those while walking and then he yelled for me to walk back the other way. He was probably 400 yards away on the side of the hill, but because I was in a valley surrounded by trees and cliffs there was a loud echo. It was kind of cool.
We got the shots we wanted and Andy came down to join me on the boardwalk. This area is supposed to have a special kind of Kiwi bird that is endangered, but we didn’t see any. We got to the car and saw there was a campsite across the street. We decided to go look at it to see if it was somewhere we wanted to stay for the night. It was a self registration campsite and was pretty cheap at only $10 per person a night.
We drove in and there was one campervan with a guy starting a fire. All the campsites we had been to had banned fires, but I guess this one didn’t. We drove to the end of the road, which was about 150 yards, and saw the kitchen area. We went inside and there wasn’t much there. No way to cook food other than a boiling water dispenser. We wanted some real food so we decided this wasn’t going to cut it for the night.
We drove on and went to the next hike on our list. Along the way we saw a body of water that looked like a lake, but it may have been part of the ocean, I’m not sure. There was an old dock building and a reflection of the mountains in the water so we stopped for some pictures. There were some wooden posts sticking out of the water so I got some pictures of those as well as the reflecting mountains.
We then walked to the side of the building and took pictures of it with the water in the background. We kept walking to get another angle, but it seemed like we were walking in an area usually covered by water since it became muddy. A campervan pulled up and a lady jumped out and took some pictures and then they drove off. We got the pictures we wanted and then went back to the car.
It was about 4:45 PM at this time and it was starting to get dark. We didn’t know where the trail was exactly, but Andy thought it was close by. Looking at the map I thought it was at least 10 minutes down the road. We drove until we found it. Of course nobody else was doing the trail. The whole area of Okarito seemed pretty deserted.
We got out of the car and went to the trail. We stopped at the beginning because we could see the mountains in the distance and thought it looked neat. The first part of the trail had a little snow on it, but after a small section it was clear. We were in a hurry so we ran up the trail. It was pretty steep, but it was a short trail. It was less than half a mile one way probably.
I didn’t run the whole way, I was too tired. At the top there was a platform with railings that were about 3 ½ feet tall. The views from the area were of the mountains on one side and the ocean to the other. The views weren’t really that great. The trees surrounding the platform pretty much blocked the mountains. In order to see better we had to climb up on the wooden railings. It was not very safe at all.
Andy climbed up first and got lots of pictures. I tried to climb up, but the railing was wobbling too much. It was about a 10 foot drop off from the railing to the ground. I got up for about 2 seconds and decided that wasn’t a good idea and jumped down. There was a wooden box type thing in the middle of the platform similar to the one at the previous hike so I stood on it. It wasn’t very high, but it was better than nothing.
Andy decided to get down so I climbed up to where he was. I was shaking a lot and didn’t feel comfortable so I got back down after a few pictures. The sun was going down so the mountains were turning colors so Andy wanted more pictures. He put on his telephoto lens to get some. He climbed back up on the railing. I just took pictures from where I was with my zoom lens.
I did some gopro videos of Andy standing on the ledge, and then I climbed up on the railing in the back. It was even more wobbly so I jumped back down from that. I was done seeing the mountains so I started taking pictures of the sunset over the ocean. The clouds looked really neat. Andy started doing the same. We had seen enough after about 25 minutes and went back down. By the time we got to the car it was starting to get dark. He stopped one more time to get pictures at the first place we stopped and I went back to wait at the car. I heard something rustling around in the bushes and got scared.
There are no predators in New Zealand though, so I thought it was just a bird of some kind. Andy got back to the car a few seconds later and I told him there was a bear in the woods nearby. Every time we get separated and he catches up I tell him there is a bear and to not go any further.
The drive to Hokitika was our final journey for the night. There were no cars going north on the road. Every car we passed was going south. We went through a few small towns along the way, but most of the towns only had a few hundred people. One town in particular, I don’t know the name, seemed like everyone was at the local bar. There were a lot of cars in the parking lot.
I always think people are out late since it gets dark so early, but really it’s like 7 PM. The road to Hokitika is supposed to be a scenic drive, but because it was dark we couldn’t see much except the other cars passing by. The road is mostly through the mountains and winds all over the place even though there was clearly a valley that the road could have easily been built through.
The worst thing about driving at night besides the roads is that a lot of the people drive with their bright lights on and don’t switch them off. That is the most annoying thing ever, especially when driving on roads that curve around every 50 yards.
We got to Hokitika around 7:30 PM or a little after. We wanted to stay at a campground for the night so we found the Holiday Park. It wasn’t as nice as some of the others, but it was fine. It was right next to a huge milk factory. Hokitika is the largest town we have seen for awhile, it has about 7,000 people and is on the west coast. Most of the other towns we had been staying at recently only had a few hundred people.
Hokitika is known for it’s Jade and glasswork factories as well as a gorge just outside of the town. We planned to check out the gorge and Jade factories tomorrow and maybe buy something if it’s not too expensive.
At the Holiday Park I told the lady we wanted to camp in a tent. She seemed to think we were crazy, but said we could camp in the grassy area, but to not park in the grass because the car may sink. I guess it had been raining recently. It was only $15 a person to camp there. I paid the money and she said “Good as Gold.” Best saying ever. I will start using it more often.
We found the area she was talking about and decided to put our tent in the road since the grass was soaking wet. It wasn’t as cold as it had been in other places, but it was still a little chilly. We put our tent up right in front of the car so that if someone else were to come by they couldn’t run us over in the night.
We went to the kitchen area to make dinner after we were done with our tent. We had Chow Mein Ramen Noodles and a salad. It’s the easiest meal to make and it tastes pretty good. It’s not very filling though. For dessert we had cookies and chocolate. We had the last of our hot chocolate as well.
We watched Spiderman 3 while making dinner, eating, and writing in my journal. Probably one of the dumbest movies I have ever seen. Around 9 PM a guy opened the door to the kitchen and asked if we had the heater on. I said we did and he said “good one.” I thought he was going to say we shouldn’t turn it on or something. The people in New Zealand have funny sayings that make no sense. It’s like they have these corny sayings, but to them they are real things to say.
The stupid heater didn’t even seem to work. I was pretty freezing in the room. At one point it started blowing out cold air. I finished writing for the night because I was too cold and couldn’t remember some of the things we had done. We went back to the tent around midnight. Our tent was covered in frost. I had my warm water bottle so I was hoping to stay somewhat warm for the night.
July 1 - Hokitika
Jul 01, 2012
July 1 - Hokitika
We woke up this morning pretty early knowing it was Sunday and we wanted to go to mass. We weren’t sure where the church was, but we assumed if there was one the service would be at 9 AM like it was everywhere else.
We got up around 8:00 AM. We planned to stay the night again so we didn’t pack up our tent. It was freezing cold outside, but there were three little kids, 2 boys and a girl, playing on the playground next to our campsite. They obviously lived in the campground area. Just like people do in the U.S., they do in New Zealand as well. I think they were staying in cabin type buildings though. Probably kids of the milk factory workers.
It must have been 28 degrees or colder and they were not wearing gloves and acting like it was a warm summer day. They were jumping on this piece of junk trampoline that was about 4 feet wide and about 2 feet off the ground. I saw them as I ran to go to the bathroom. I saw them again as we were driving away, but this time they were playing on a swing. It looked like the girl was inside a sideways trash can connected to wooden frame being held up by two chains and the boys were standing on each side pushing her. It was hilarious.
When we drove by I said I think that girl is in a trash can. They were laughing like crazy as if it was fun. What kind of kids are up on a Sunday morning at 8:30 AM playing in trash cans? We looked on a town map in our guide book and saw there was a school in town called St. Mary’s or something like that and thought it could be a Catholic school, which meant there was probably a Catholic Church nearby.
We drove down the main road through town and passed a few small churches, and up in the distance was a large domed building with a cross on top. We thought that could be the Catholic Church based on the map we had. We drove over to it and saw that it had a fence with yellow caution tape around it. I was thinking maybe it had been damaged in an earthquake.
There was a sign out front saying mass was at 9:00 AM though. We saw an old lady walking down the street and I figured she was going to church. I didn’t think an old lady would be walking around in the cold for no reason. We pulled over to ask her about mass, but before I could ask she said are you looking for the church? I said we were and she said it was being held in the auditorium of the school next door. She told us where to park so we drove down the street.
I wasn’t sure where to go exactly, but other people were just getting there and walking through a fence towards the school grounds. I just followed them. The old lady had caught up and was with another old lady. Andy was way behind for some reason, but I was cold so I went ahead on inside. The auditorium was pretty tiny.
There was about 10 or 12 rows of chairs with an isle down the middle. Each row had may 15 chairs. For such a huge church next door the auditorium wasn’t going to hold many people. I sat on the left side in the 3rd or 4th row, most of the other people were sitting near the back. It was mostly older people in church, but there was a few families with younger kids probably between 4 and 12.
Andy found me and sat down by me. A little old lady came walking over behind us with a piece of paper and asked if we had gotten one. I said no and she handed it to Andy. It was their bulletin with lots of announcements and things on it. I don’t know why we needed that.
There was a projector set up with a laptop that they were gong to be using for the service since they had no missiles. It is strange to me that the smallest and seemingly poorest churches we go to around the world have a projection screen. Usually they have just been used to post the pages for readings and songs, but in New Zealand they have used them throughout the service for the readings and the song lyrics. The building had two small heaters on the ceilings. It was pretty cold inside to me.
The priest was Indian. They didn’t have a very good sound system and he had to hold the mircophone when talking. Although there were only about 70 people there and we could hear him fine. Maybe the older people couldn’t, I don’t know. The microphone kept going in and out when he talked in it so it wasn’t very helpful.
Right before the service started the lady that was working the computer was freaking out. There was a weird jingle happening and she didn’t know where the sound was coming from. She thought it was the computer, but couldn’t figure out how to turn it off.
As the jingle was playing the mass was starting. She turned the slide to show the song lyrics, but the jingle was still going. I don’t remember the song, but I do remember that there was no instruments being played. I also remember that the majority of the songs they sang were ones I had heard before except the tunes they sang the songs too were completely different.
Usually when a group of people sing, either with or without instruments, the songs still sound pretty good. That is completely untrue in New Zealand. The people are the most tone deaf I have ever heard in my life. I don’t even think most of them knew the songs, and those that did butchered them. The tune they were singing didn’t even flow with the songs at all.
During the first reading the jingle sound started going off again and the lady still didn’t know what it was. She was looking all around to see what it could be. Finally during the priests sermon she reached into her pocket, it was her phone! She didn’t even know her own ring tone. She went to the back and turned it off.
The service lasted about an hour. At the end the priest invited everyone to stay for tea. I told Andy that we should stay for tea and donuts. I didn’t think there were any donuts, but it was wishful thinking. As we went to the back I saw a table full of food. We passed by some people and they said to have some tea and snacks.
I had been wanting free food, and today was my lucky day. I also had been wanting to go to a bakery, but now I didn’t have to. We stood in line for a few minutes and got some tea with milk and sugar. It tasted pretty good and it wasn’t scolding hot.
We also ate a lot of the food. I think we tried almost everything. We didn’t want to look like pigs taking all the food so we would only take one thing at a time then walk away and eat it. When no one was looking we walked over and took more. Most of the people still there weren’t eating anything and a lot of the people had left. The little kids seemed to be eating the most, and us.
We had two pieces of banana bread, which was really good. It tasted homemade and had butter on it. We had a small muffin roll that had cheese and green onion on it. We ate a fold over piece of white bread that had cheese melted in it with a little bit of onion and tuna. There was also a breaded sausage thing that tasted strange, but it was good.
We wanted to eat more, but felt like we had enough. While we were eating people were wanting to talk to us and they were all friendly. We talked to the priet a little bit about our travels, but he had to go do another service in another town. He said the real church wasn’t damaged at all, but because of the earthquake in Christchurch a year ago the government made them close the building as a precaution until it was looked over. They still hadn’t heard whether they could go back to the church yet and didn’t know when they could.
Church ended at 10:00 AM and after breakfast it was about 10:15 AM. Our plan for the day was to go to the Hokitika Gorge, do laundry, and have an easy relaxing day for the first time in 3 ½ weeks of traveling nonstop.
The Hokitika Gorge was actually about 20 kilometers outside of Hokitika in the middle of nowhere. The drive there was nice and well marked. The roads were flat, but curvy and we passed through a few small towns and by some farms. There were mountains to the east and south of us. Due to the roads it took about 30 minutes.
We got to the gorge around 11 AM. The hike itself was 5 minutes to the first overlook, 10 minutes to a bridge that crosses the gorge, and 15 minutes to the waters edge after a little bit of rock scrambling. The weather was just about perfect. There were very few clouds in the sky and the temperature was surprisingly warm. It was about 55 degrees maybe. It doesn’t sound warm, but compared to the 20s and 30s we had been experiencing recently it felt great.
The trail is very flat and goes through a forest. On the right side is the river and we were about 50 meters above the water at this point. There were very few steep parts along the trail so it was basically a nice stroll through the woods. There were a few boardwalks and wooden bridges to cross as well. We did a lot of gopro videos of this like usual. We intend to create videos of each hike we do with videos and pictures of ourselves walking and what we see along the way, which is why we have been filming so much.
After about 2 minutes of walking we came to the overlook. Below we could see the river and a bridge which crossed the river. I was looking for a gorge, but it wasn’t really what I was expecting to see. I was imaging a gorge that was really deep, rapids, waterfalls, or something like that. It basically looked like a very calm river with a cliff on one side that was about 20 meters high, and a cliff on the other side that was about 50 meters high, probably not even that much. For most parts it was maybe 20 meters as well.
We walked down to the bridge, which took another couple of minutes. The views from here were pretty good, but the lighting was making it hard to get pictures since the water was so dark and the sky was so bright. The water had a bit of a green tint to it in some parts.
We continued on the rock scramble area. The first part is really just a short walk to the cliff edge looking back at the bridge to our left and the river below. The rocks here were slippery and still had ice on them in some parts. I had to be careful where I stepped and to not get too close to the side. It was a straight drop off. It seemed like the type of place people would go in the summer to jump off and swim in the river.
To our right there were a few more large boulders, but down below there were smaller rocks which led to the water’s edge. Before going down I wanted to get a different view of the gorge. I climbed down a little bit, and then back up to the higher rocks. There were a couple of larger rocks in this area that I climbed on. Andy came over and joined me. We filmed each other and ourselves climbing around. There was one rock sticking up above the others so I called it “Pinnacle Rock” just like the last one we had seen at Franz Josef. I climbed up to the top of it and Andy did too.
After about 10 minutes of taking pictures and walking around I decided I wanted to go down further. The way down was a little icy and the rocks at the bottom were covered in moss. The view we had was mostly down the river in the opposite direction of the bridge, but it still looked cool. I mainly just wanted to film myself walking on the rocks.
Andy got done taking pictures at the top and he came down to where I was. We did a few gopro videos of each other coming down. Eventually he went a little further beyond the point that I did because I was busy taking pictures of myself.
I found a pretty good spot to rest the camera, but didn’t really plan where I was going to stand. I saw some rocks out in front of me and felt like they would be fine. I had just walked through this path a minute before so I thought I could get there fast enough.
I stepped down with my left foot onto a small rock, and then my right foot into the mud. My entire right food sank like I had just stepped in quicksand. I quickly pulled my foot out and yelled. The spot I stepped didn’t even leave a foot print. It just closed right back up. It was part of the shore and out of the corner of my eye I thought it was just a muddy patch of ground.
Andy said he had done the same thing earlier in a different spot, but he didn’t step so deep. I didn’t want to do that again so I walked to another part. The mud actually came right off after a few minutes and didn’t stick at all. That was the main thing I was worried about, having a dirty shoe.
I tried to do another self portrait in a better location. The first couple of times I wasn’t fast enough to get over to the spot I wanted to stand because it was farther than I thought and there was no way to get there without going through the water.
The next time the rocks were wet so I couldn’t go fast. In the process some kid walked up, but he didn’t stay very long. He was the only person we had seen on the trail that even bothered to come over to this area even though it was the best part of the trail.
We spent at least 45 minutes playing on the rocks before we left. We passed a couple of people on the way back and saw a few on the trail, but there couldn’t have more than a dozen people the whole time we were there. It was a nice area, but a little out of the way for most people. In the summer it’s probably pretty popular though since it’s such a short hike.
Instead of driving straight back to Hokitika after we were done we decided to take a detour. I was looking at the map and saw that there was a lake and a few waterfalls nearby. I was hoping that at the right angle we would be able to see the mountains reflecting in the lake especially since it was such a clear day.
We weren’t exactly sure how to get to the lake since the map didn’t show road names for the smaller streets, but I had a general idea of the direction to go. We were really low on gas so we were hoping it wouldn’t be too far. The map made it look like it was about 20 kilometers to the lake, and another 20 kilometers back to Hokitka, which was basically the same as if we drove straight back from the gorge.
The lake we were trying to get to was called Lake Kaniere. The drive was similar to the one we took to the gorge. We had to back track a little using the previous roads, but then turn off in the other direction of Hokitka. The road was very well maintained like all the rest we had been driving on, but after about 20 minutes the road turned to gravel. It wasn’t terrible, but it was the worst road we had been on so far.
It was really narrow in most parts and seemed like it was a one way road and that nobody ever used it except the local farmers. We pulled over at one point along the lake to take pictures. It was an ok spot, but not great. We wanted to get further around the lake, but before we could do that we wanted to do a short hike to Dorothy Falls.
The hike itself was only 2 minutes, it was actually closer to 30 seconds. It was about 75 yards from the parking area to the falls. We were the only ones there when we arrived, but there was another car parked near us. There was a 5 minute trail along a creek on the other side of the road. We didn’t do that one since we thought it just led to the lake.
The waterfall was pretty cool. It was only about 25 meters high, but was the best one in the Hokitika area. It spilled over into a pool below which then led into a creek. There were a lot of rocks to climb around on here. I was busy taking pictures of myself while Andy was taking pictures of the waterfall from the middle of the stream. As I was taking pictures two ladies walked up, so I got out of the way so they could take pictures. They were gone in less than 2 minutes.
I saw a perfect spot to get my picture in front of the waterfall. It meant walking across a few rocks in the river, over a small log, and onto the rock I wanted to be on. It wasn’t too bad at first, but the log was really slippery. I almost fell, but was able to keep my balance. Andy wanted the same picture so he went after I was done.
We then thought it would be neat to do some gopro action shots. We sat down one of the gopros along the shore and just walked around. We walked on the left shore as far as we could, then hopped around on a few rocks. There was one that was about 2 feet away, but the closest one to the falls. I wanted to get to it, but Andy said it was too far. I stepped back a little and jumped. I made it! That was the easy part, getting back was much tougher.
The rock I had to jump back to was smaller and much slipperier. Andy was standing on it so he had to step back. I had jumped up slightly before because the rock was larger, and now I had to jump down. I jumped and landed on the rock, but started to slip. Andy was able to grab me just enough to keep me from falling in.
Now it was his turn to try. He also was able to make it across. He made it back fine too. We walked back down a slightly different direction than we had come up. We crossed near the point where we had our picture taken before near the slippery log. It was a tougher route, but it was more fun that way.
We took a few more pictures and then left the falls. We stopped a few more times along the lake to get pictures. The first spot was good, but we still wanted to see a better reflection of the mountains. A little further down was a much better location. This spot actually looked like a pull off.
There was a huge pile or rocks in a pyramid shape in the middle of the road. We didn’t drive around it, but instead just parked in front of it. On the other side was another car, and an old lady sitting in a chair painting. She was painting the scenery. I could see it well enough to know that it was pretty good. I was tempted to ask her how much she wanted for it.
To avoid blocking her view we crossed a small rocky valley that looked like it was built for drainage purposes to a shore a little further down. The water was really calm and we could see all the mountains in the distance, and there was a good reflection. We spent about 20 minutes taking pictures. I even was able to do some of myself. Andy took a few of himself also.
It was about 2:30 PM and we still wanted to do a few things in town. We drove down the road to the end of the lake for one more stop. This was probably the best spot for pictures. There was a random bench overlooking a small cliff with the lake below and mountains in the distance. We got a few pictures by the bench, and then walked down to the river.
I took a few more pictures and then was done. Andy wanted to skip some rocks. He turned on his gopro to film himself throwing rocks at the water. The first couple he did just hit the water and sank. I told him to let me try and to show him how to do it. I picked up a pretty good looking rock and it just hit the water and sank. I decided I didn’t want to skip anymore rocks so I walked back up to the car. About 5 minutes later Andy showed up and said his next few rocks he threw were really good.
We drove back to Hokitika and arrived around 3:00 PM. We still had a little bit of gas so we decided to drive to the town center and take pictures of a clock tower and look for souvenirs. We were hoping to find something made of Jade or a glass blown sculpture. We had seen glass things from other places that were made in Hokitika and the area is known for Jade.
The town center looked deserted. It was a Sunday so the majority of the stores were closed. There were a couple of Jade stores open and a glass place. We went into a Jade store that only sold New Zealand Jade, some of the places sell Jade from other areas. The place looked really nice. All the jade was in glass cases on display. It looked more like a museum and everything was way over priced.
Most of the jewelry was over $300 NZD and the smaller carvings were $500 NZD. I don’t know how it could be worth that much. I don’t think Jade is that uncommon of a mineral. I think the designs cut into the Jade are the reason it’s so much. It was cool, but not in my price range. I was thinking $25 for some Jade. I only paid $50 for Jade in China and it was much bigger.
We decided we would try another store. The Jade Factory was right across the street and was recommended in Lonely Planet. They have areas were you can watch the people carving in action. This place was even more expensive. Pretty much all of their stuff was in glass cases too.
Some of the things were much bigger though. They had a lot of Jade carved figurines, masks, and Maori tools. The things were really neat, but again way over priced. We looked around for awhile, but couldn’t afford anything.
In the back of the building there was a small display area that told the history of Jade in New Zealand by the Maori people and had some displays. There were also Maori stories about how Jade was developed. The story basically said that some guy liked some girl and stole her away from someone else. They ran for safety until they couldn’t run anymore. The guy that took her killed her and her body turned to Jade in the river since she was so beautiful. He figured if he couldn’t have her than no one could. Something to that effect.
Some of the displays were of Maori weapons. One was a club that looked like a small paddle that could be used as a cutting blade and another was a carved wooden stick with a piece of jade attached to the end. This particular thing wasn’t a weapon, but something that was passed down in the family. The carving changed based on who owned the item, but the jade was always the same.
We spent long enough in the Jade areas and thought we should check out some glass. The glass store was also way too expensive. The artwork is neat, but not for the prices they were asking. Some of the things I felt were reasonably included a set of 3, which made them even more expensive. If I could have just bought one for 1/3 of the price than I thought it may be worth it. In the end we didn’t buy anything.
We had read that there is jade at the beach and that we could just get our own. For such an abundant and easy to find mineral it seemed ridiculous to me that it would be worth so much. We decided we would walk down to the beach, but before then we needed some lunch. It was about 4:30 PM and we were hungry.
There was a popular pizza place in town and we had been wanting some pizza anyway. I just wanted normal pizza, but Andy wanted something called Whitebait Fish. The guy said to another couple ordering if they couldn’t decide they could get half and half. We tried that, but with the Whitebait Fish they only make one size, medium and it can’t be split in half.
I decided since it was a local fish and worth a lot of money that we could try it. It was $26 NZD for a medium pizza, pretty expensive. The pizza had egg on it and fish. The crust was similar to the dough you would get on a Schlotzky’s sandwich. It was actually really good. It was 4 slices for each of us, and they weren’t very big, but it was still really filling.
After our lunch we walked down the street to the beach to look for some jade. There were two girls on the beach that were either picking up their own jade or collecting shells. I’m not sure. Every rock we saw that was green we thought was jade. I picked up a few shiny pieces and put them in my pocket. Andy did the same. As I looked at them a few minutes later after they had dried out they just looked like gray or black rocks. I don’t know how to tell if something is jade or not.
We were hoping to do a portion of the beach trail and then go over to the wharf before it got dark. We had about an hour to accomplish this, but we were going kind of slowly along the beach. I was taking pictures of the sunset and Andy was picking up useless rocks and taking pictures too. I felt like it would be easier to walk on the dirt trail rather than the sand so we walked to a point where we could climb up the grassy embankment onto the trail off of the beach.
There were lots of people out walking with their dogs. We walked down the trail a little ways watching the sun go down over the sea. There was a big rock that I decided would be good for taking a picture on. I was doing jumping poses while Andy took my picture. Some of them he didn’t get perfectly so it looked like I was doing a karate kick. I took pictures of Andy jumping too.
By the time we finished the sun had just about gone down. We walked a little further down the trail to a large cement boat with an anchor that was a monument of some kind. We took some pictures, but it was kind of dark. We started walking back to the car around 6 PM. We needed to get groceries and the New World closed at 7 PM.
We had seen a postcard with a picture of the clock tower at night so we stopped and got a few pictures of it. A lot of cars were driving through the town center, which was weird since everything was closed except a few restaurants. I don’t know where these people were going.
We got back to the car and drove about half a mile to the store. It was pretty busy. We loaded up on food since we were getting low on breakfast and lunch items. We bought more salad items, chips, milk, hot chocolate, oreo cookies, lamb stew, a bag of potatoes, banana bread, and a frozen pizza since it was really cheap.
We left the store right before 7 PM and went back to the Holiday Park we stayed at the night before. We left our tent up, but hadn’t paid for the night. We stopped at the reception and I ran in and paid for a second night.
We went back to the tent to check on it and then went to the laundry building. I got out all of my clothes that needed to be washed. I had two small packets of detergent and Andy had one large one. We looked at mine and discovered they were only for sink washing. It was useless. Had I known I would have bought some at the store.
Andy gave me a small portion of his in addition to the tiny amount I already had. The laundry was $3 to was one load and $2 to dry for an hour. It wasn’t too expensive for the amount I needed to wash. We each did our own load since the machines weren’t very big.
While our laundry was going we went back to the kitchen to make dinner. We wanted to have the frozen pizza with a fried potato. The pizza finished cooking just as the laundry was done washing. I stayed in the kitchen with all of our things while Andy went to move the laundry to the drier. He came back and we ate the pizza.
It wasn’t the best pizza, but it wasn’t the worst either. It was fine for the price. It was only $5.99. We wanted to try it since we had access to an oven and we didn’t know if we would in the future. It had ham slices, onion, and some other things that had no real flavor. It was a supreme pizza.
After dinner we decided to go to the TV room across the street. It had a better heater it seemed and a better TV. The TV we watched the night before in the kitchen had 4 channels, and 3 of them were the same thing. The heater barely worked and I was cold most of the time unless I stood right under it. The chairs weren’t great either.
In the TV room there was a couch, a flat screen TV, and a portable heater right by my feet. The couch was much better than the chair, but the heater didn’t really work that well. I had it about a foot from me, and I could barely feel anything. The TV had a few more channels, but not much. We watched some show called “The League.”
Entertainment Tonight came on afterwards and they spent an hour and 20 minutes talking about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ divorce. It was a little ridiculous to talk about something so pointless for so long. Obviously she wanted a divorce because she was tired of the Scientology stuff, but they never mentioned that at all as a reason. Morons.
I typed in my journal until about midnight. It was the latest I had stayed up all trip. Due to my sleeping schedule at home I was thinking I would be staying up late lots of nights, but since it gets dark around 5:30 PM and there is really nothing to do after dark I haven’t had much reason to be up past 9 PM on most nights unless I’m typing.
I left my camera battery in the room to charge over night. We went back to the kitchen area and filled our water bottles and then drove about 100 yards back to the tent. It was pretty cold out, but no worse than what we had been experiencing.
July 2 - Punakaiki Rocks/Nelson Lakes
Jul 02, 2012
July 2 - Punakaiki Rocks/Nelson Lakes
We woke up pretty early this morning. It was around 6:45 AM. We had a long drive and had lots of things to see and do. Sleeping last night was ok. I got pretty cold a few times and had to end up covering my head with my jacket on the inside of my sleeping bag. It felt like it had gotten wet a little. It was probably from opening the tent and frost falling on it and in it. My jacket helped a lot though and after I did that it was fine.
We took down the tent even though it was covered in frost and shoved it in the car. On the drive out of the park we stopped in the TV lounge area to get my battery. I walked in the room and three boys, probably 11 or 12 years old, were standing by the door. I assume they were waiting for a bus to school. I looked across the room where my battery was supposed to be and it wasn’t there. I walked closer and I saw it on the ground. It had fallen down in the middle of the night. I was hoping it had at least charged all the way before that. I thought it might fall because the outlet was about 5 feet off the ground and I had to rest the cord on the top of the couch.
We wanted to get up early to see the sunrise over the ocean. The sun doesn’t come up until about 7:30 AM in this area of New Zealand. We drove over to the parking lot we were near last night with the boat. A few other cars were driving in that direction too. It was weird because they just made a circle in the parking lot and then left. It didn’t even look like tourists either. Both cars were just one guy. It made no sense for why they would do that.
We parked the car and got out to have a look. It was freezing cold and kind of windy. I was immediately ready to get back in the car. Andy wanted to take some pictures so we walked over to a tall wooden staircase that had a lookout platform at the top. I ran up to as fast as I could and took a few pictures and ran back down to the car.
The sunrise wasn’t as good as we were hoping. The skies were a little cloudy, but it was clear enough to see. The problem was that the sun was on the opposite end of the beach from where we were parked so we didn’t have much of a view.
Somehow Andy stayed out there for about 5 minutes more than I did. The cold weather must not bother him as much as it does me. He eventually came back to the car and we ate some breakfast in the parking lot. We had some of our banana bread and a banana. The banana bread wasn’t as good as the kind we had at the church breakfast. There’s must have been homemade because the store one tasted dried out. It was kind of expensive and not that great really.
While we were eating we thought about driving to the other end to see the sun come up. By the time we were done eating we figured it wasn’t worth it since the sun was up too high and we had other things to see and do.
Our goal for the day was to see Pancake Rocks, do a scenic drive, and end up in Nelson Lakes National Park. It didn’t sound like much, but due to the distances it kind of was. The Pancake Rocks were something we had both read about and other people recommended to go see. It was slightly out of the way of the original plan, but it worked out fine. The scenic drive was on our new route to Nelson Lakes so it wasn’t a problem. At Nelson Lakes there are two lakes, Rotoiti and Rotorua, that we wanted to see.
We left Hokitika heading north around 8 AM. We had about an hour and a half drive until we got to Punakaiki or Pancake Rocks. When we arrived around 9:30 AM the parking lot looked just about empty. The stop was just randomly on the side of the road. There was a visitor center, a café, and a souvenir shop that sold ice cream on one side of the street, and the entrance to the hike was on the other side.
The Punakaiki Rocks are rocks that have eroded from wind and water to the point that they look like pancakes stacked on top of one another. There is also a section where the water enters into caverns that creates a blowhole as the water surges. Water shoots out like steam. It was an important stopping point for Maori that were traveling the coast trading jade and other items in the past. Today it is a tourist trap.
We began hiking shortly after 9:40 AM. The trail is a loop and is supposed to take 15 minutes to do. I was thinking this was going to be a quick stop and then we would move on. The trail is paved the entire way, and the majority with boardwalks or pavement. It is very flat and really easy. It is wheel chair accessible except for a few parts.
As we started the trail goes through a small forest and then opens up with ocean down to our left and plants and grasses to our right. We saw lots of palm trees along the trail. We stopped to take pictures of them from time to time. I noticed a strange bird with no wings ahead and told Andy it was a Kiwi. It looked similar to one, but it had a much shorter beak.
We decided it wasn’t a Kiwi, but we still took lots of pictures of it. It didn’t seem that scared of us and wanted to remain on or near the trail. Nobody else was on the trail at this point so it was fine to spend some time looking at it.
We eventually scared it off and continued on. There were a few lookouts over the water along the way. We stopped at all of them and took pictures even though it was just the ocean and not the main attraction. A group of Chinese tourists showed up. I think it was just a family and not a tour bus like usual. They were stopping a lot to take pictures too.
I got tired of waiting for Andy after awhile and just went ahead by myself. I filmed myself walking by just putting my camera down in random spots along the trail. By the time we made it to the Pancake Rock area a lot more people were on the trail, maybe 25-30 or so. A few were lined up along the fence on a bridge. I took a few pictures of the water below, but continued on.
A few minutes later the waves were crashing and steam started blowing up. Everyone on the trail in that vicinity went running over. The entire bridge was lined with people watching to see if it would happen again. The steam continued coming out off and on for the next few minutes. When it seemed like it was done the people dispersed. The best time to go is during high tide since the water can actually come into this area. We weren’t sure when high tide was, but it must have been around the time we were there. I was expecting it to look more like something you would see on a Survivor promo or intro, but it wasn’t like that at all.
I walked along the boardwalk and took pictures of the Pancake shaped rocks. They looked like rocks I had seen in other parts of the world. I think either in Utah or Arizona. They were neat, but the lighting wasn’t that good on most of them at this time of day. I kept going and saw a colony of birds on some rocks. There was supposed to be a rare sea bird that lived in this area, so it may have been those, but I’m not really sure.
I was way ahead of Andy and just kept walking. I don’t even know what he was doing at this time. I made it to what was basically the end of the trail before it started going back into the forest to the start. Rather than go on I just went back and took more pictures of the area, including the ocean below and the rocks. It seemed like most of the people were gone by this point. They spent their 20 minutes and were ready to go. We were getting close to 2 hours.
The best part of the trail to me was a narrow staircase that seemed like it was cut out of the rock. I was waiting a lot for Andy so I just set my camera down and tried to take pictures of myself on the staircase. People kept coming down as it was getting a lot more crowded so I had to wait at times. Andy saw what I was doing and wanted a picture too. I just took his for him, but when he was done I went back to trying to get my own picture. I kept a few, but in the end I just had him take my picture also.
We went ahead a little further and I climbed up onto the railing that over looked a cavern below. I took a few pictures and then jumped down. Up a little ways on the trail was an overlook of the ocean. There was a large rock in the water that stood out because there was a sign that showed a drawing that suggested there were creatures and human features in it. I could maybe see a face on one part, but the rest just looked made up completely. I got some pictures and went on.
Andy thought we should walk back the way we came rather than take the loop since there was more to see on the other side than there was on the end of the trail. I agreed and we headed back. I wanted him to do a video of me crossing a bridge from a distance so I went ahead while he stayed behind.
After completing that task I went back to the first section of the Pancake Rocks. The lighting was much better so I got a few more pictures. Andy was making his way towards me while I started going back in the direction we had just come from. Since I had to walk ahead quickly I wasn’t able to get pictures with the new lighting.
For all the people that came early and left quickly they missed the changes that were taking place. We were able to see more than they were I thought. I think I walked up and down that trail at least 4 times, so I saw a lot more. On my final pass I used my zoom lens to try and get better pictures. Andy was still taking a long time so I walked on without him.
The trail came to a fork in the road. I could go left or right. To the right was the way we came in, and to the left was the quicker way out. I chose to go left. I didn’t feel it was necessary to go to the right again since it was just overlooking the ocean.
When I went to the left I saw a different part of the trail I hadn’t seen before. It led back to the ocean views. Andy saw me and came over. We both climbed up on the railing and took pictures. It seemed a little unsafe since it was close to the edge and skinny. I got down after a few minutes.
We hiked back up the trail. I don’t know what Andy was doing, but he got left way behind. He must have seen something he wanted to take 200 pictures of. I went into the visitor center and looked around for a few minutes and then went back outside and waited. I didn’t see him coming so I walked over to the souvenir shop next door. Everything was way over priced like always so I went back outside.
Andy finally came walking up. He went inside the souvenir shop with me and we saw that they had ice cream. We read that ice cream was a popular thing to get after the trail and I had been wanting some for awhile. There were a lot of different flavors to choose from, and prices were based on the amount and the flavor. The cheap kind was $3 for one scoop on a cone. Rip off. The next was $5 and then up to $7 or something. Rip off also.
The lady working there saw us looking at them and asked if we wanted to try a few flavors. Of course if it was free I wanted to test a few. For the midrange priced one she suggested a magenta colored flavor and butternut ginger. She said those were the two most popular. I tried the magenta one and Andy had the other. I don’t remember the name, but it tasted like sherbert. Andy said his did too, but a little tangier.
She said we could try another flavor too since I said those were too much. She suggested chocobanana from the cheap section. It tasted just like chocolate with banana mixed in. They were good and tempting to buy, but we didn’t know. She said we could think about it and if we decided to let her know. She walked off to another part of the store so we made a run for it. We got our free samples and didn’t feel the need to spend that much on ice cream. I could get a carton for $3.99 at New World so why would I want to pay $3 for one scoop?
We were hungry though so back at the car we had lunch. It was around 11:45 AM, but because we had an early breakfast we were pretty hungry. Andy had to go pee so he went in the woods since nobody was around. I just made my sandwich. We had ham sandwiches with chips and finished off the chocolate chip cookies. During lunch the crazy Kiwi looking birds were surrounding our car looking for food. There were three of them and I had to kick rocks at them to scare them off. They were dumb and didn’t get the message and kept coming back.
After lunch I had to go pee, but the parking lot was full of construction workers. They were dumping gravel from a large truck in the area Andy had gone to the bathroom just a little while before. I walked down to the visitor center about 100 yards away and a sign said it was closed. There were temporary ones down the street another 50 yards, but I didn’t want to walk that far. I went back to the car and just ended up going in the trees.
The next thing we wanted to do was drive north towards Westport and then turn east towards Nelson Lakes. From Westport to Murchison was considered one of the most scenic drives in New Zealand and included the most photographed road in the country, which was a part of road that was under an overhang carved out of the rock with the Buller River below. The majority of the road follows the Buller River from the ocean to it’s origins.
Along the way there are a few points of interest which include a small town that was completely destroyed by an earthquake in the early 1970s, an old bridge, the road under the overhang, the Buller River, and the longest swing bridge in New Zealand.
As we drove we stopped to take pictures of the river a few different times. The river seemed perfect to take a canoe or raft down. It was pretty wide in most parts and very calm. There weren’t any rapids that I remembered seeing and it was really scenic. We also stopped at the portion of road cut through the rock. It was cool, but not that great. We saw a few cars pass under it, but it was no more spectacular than anything else I had seen in New Zealand. They seem to like making roads with the most impossible and improbable routes they can, so this fits with that I guess.
From a distance it was hard to see anything neat about it, but looking at it straight on we could see the road, a railing on one side, and the rock hanging over from above. It was one lane of course so if there was traffic cars would need to stop and wait. It was also in a portion of road that would make it difficult to know if another car was coming until turning right in line with oncoming traffic it seemed.
The drive was through valleys and hills the entire way. As we got near Murchison the road went higher into mountainous areas. Many of them still had snow on them. The swing bridge was near the end of the more scenic part of road. We parked to check it out, but realized what was happening. It was a tourist trap. There was a zoo of some kind, a trail, and the bridge. I think there was other stuff too, maybe gold panning or something.
The swing bridge didn’t look that much longer than others we had seen and it was on a trail to nowhere. It was obviously not worth the time or money. We drove back about half a mile to a part of the road that had a pull off and just took pictures from a distance. We had to hike a little bit along the side of the road on a narrow piece of land with a steep drop off to our side. We were able to make it though.
We got back in the car and continued driving to Nelson Lakes. I had wanted to see one lake tonight, and the other the next day. I actually had two days planned for Nelson Lakes, but we decided it may not be necessary depending on the hikes we wanted to do and the weather.
The first lake we came to was Lake Rotorua. It is the larger of the two and less visited. The road to the lake was gravel, but it wasn’t that bad. It was about 11 kilometers off the main road. According to the itinerary we were supposed to camp at this lake. It was really cheap, which meant there would be no facilities. It also meant no hot water to put in our sleeping bags to keep us warm.
The drive to the lake was easy enough. When we got there we saw a sign that mentioned camping area so we followed the road. It looked like we were just driving past small houses and couldn’t tell which was the reception building. We also saw a sign that said 4-wheel drive vehicles only. We decided at that point we should turn around and go back closer to the lake.
At the lake there was a van parked with 3 or 4 people having a picnic lunch. It was about 3:30 PM, so I don’t know what they would call it. It smelled like they were grilling hot dogs though. We parked by the lake and walked out onto the dock. There was a family of swans swimming by. There was a large black swan with 4 or 5 baby swans. They were diving down eating something. It was funny to watch. They would stick the top half of their body under water with their buts sticking straight up.
The dock and shoreline were icy with a little snow on the shore in parts. We were able to get some good pictures of the lake with the snow covered mountains in the back. We stayed there for about 20 minutes. As we were going back to the car two other people pulled up. It was a Chinese lady and some white guy. They walked out to the dock and took a few pictures.
I found a good angle for a picture, but they were in the way. I wanted a shot of me on the dock, and Andy standing on the shoreline. The picture would be of me, the lake, the dock, and the mountains behind. The girl went running back to their car so I figured she was cold and they were leaving soon. Instead she came running back with her camera.
They took pictures of each other while we waited in the car. They finished, and then walked up to the edge of the dock and sat down. It was maybe 35 degrees. It was too cold to sit on the edge of a dock. They needed to go home. We waited a few minutes and decided we didn’t have time for this. I had already gotten pictures of myself on the dock so I didn’t need another one that badly.
We drove down the gravel road back to the main highway. The next lake, Lake Rotoiti, was just a few more kilometers down the road. It was now close to 4:30 so we needed to hurry before it got too dark. We didn’t really know where we were going to stay for the night.
The drive was fine, but there was snow everywhere. As we pulled off on the side road to Lake Rotoiti to the campground area called West Bay everything was covered in snow and ice, including the road. We started to skid a few times. We pulled up to the lake parking lot and got out. Nobody else was around. They were probably smart enough to not drive down that road in those conditions.
The lake looked really nice with the mountains in the back, similar to the other lake, but these mountains were closer and bigger. I got a few pictures and then spent the next 20 minutes trying to take pictures of myself in various spots along the water’s edge and on the dock. A few times I had to run across rocks to get in place and didn’t make it in time. Either the rocks were too far that I wanted to get to, were out in the water, or I just didn’t have the right pose. It took a few chances, but I finally made it work.
Andy did the same. He put his camera down on a sign for support and the picture looked good so I tried the same. It worked fine. We spent about 25 minutes in the cold snowy area and thought we should go look for the campground or somewhere to stay. We had planned to maybe stay in the campground there, but there were no facilities to cook and it was freezing and snowy on the ground.
We drove back to the main road pretty slowly as we continued to slide around. The main highway was fine, but we still drove a little slower than the speed limit. A truck was following us and wanted to go faster. We were looking for another entrance to the lake called Kerr Bay. There was camping there with facilities so we thought it might work.
We missed the turn and had to drive about two miles past the town before we found a turn off. We turned around and drove back towards the town and found the right turn. The road to this campground wasn’t snowy at all. It must be more heavily traveled. It was getting dark so we didn’t look at the lake from this point. We just drove to see the camping area. There was a kitchen facility right when we drove in so I jumped out of the car to check it out.
As we pulled up some Asians also parked. They were about to have dinner. Whatever they were eating it involved drinks from McDonald’s or somewhere. I walked inside and there was only three walls. The stoves required matches, and there wasn’t much lighting if any at all. I told Andy, but we went ahead and drove around the campground to look at the sites.
The ground was covered in snow all over the place. The only campsite that was covered by trees and somewhat clear was taken by a camper. The only reason we knew was because there was a red bucket laying on the ground. We were told earlier on the trip that this meant a camper was staying in the site.
We didn’t think this was going to work. If we could have had hot water to heat our bottles than maybe, but without that it would be way too cold to even think of sleeping there. We had passed a few places to stay in town so we thought we would see how much those cost.
The most ideal place was Travers-Sabine Lodge. It was a hostel I had read about in Lonely Planet. The prices were reasonable and it was open. A few of the other lodges were closed. We stopped and I went to the reception desk. Nobody was there. It said if nobody was there to push the intercom button and wait for a response. If nobody answered that to call some number.
I pushed the button and nobody answered. I pushed it again, but still no response. I kept pushing it and saying hello, but still no one. I waited for about 10 minutes. I went back to the car and told Andy the deal. We decided to drive down to the gas station and ask if they knew of anywhere to stay in town. It was about 5:50 PM at this time and pretty dark. There were no towns for miles so if we couldn’t find something at a good price we would be freezing our butts off in the tent or sleeping in the car or paying a lot more than we wanted to for a bed.
I went inside to ask if there was anywhere in town they could recommend. There was a man and a woman working there. The lady was cleaning a coffee maker and the guy was sweeping in the back. When I walked in the lady looked startled. I asked what she could recommend and her first response was the Travers-Sabine Lodge. I told her that nobody was there and asked if she could call them for me.
It was a small town and she knew the number off the top of her head. She must know the people that own it. She called over and asked if they had space and how much it was. It was $26 a person for the night. That sounded reasonable to me. I told them that we had wanted to camp, but that the campground didn’t look very comfortable. The guy told me it was going to get down to -6 Celsius tonight. My sleeping bag goes down to -9 Celsius so technically I would be fine, but it would be cutting it close.
The lady said that the people would be there when we went over. It was just down the street so it shouldn’t take a minute for us to get there. I noticed as I left the gas station that it closed at 5:30 PM, which is probably why the lady was surprised to see me come in.
We got back to the hostel and still nobody was there. I rang the intercom again, but no answer. I went back to the car and told Andy. He came over and tried it too, but nothing. He took off his glove and pushed the button. It rang. We had been wearing our gloves before so it couldn’t feel the touch I guess. Piece of junk! All that trouble for nothing.
A girl answered and I asked about a room. She came over from a house next door immediately. She asked if we wanted a dorm or private room. The price was only a few dollars difference, but I was fine with a dorm. I asked if there was anyone already staying in the dorm and she said no. So technically we were going to have a private room that was bigger for less money than the private room. So it worked out.
She said someone could come and the room wouldn’t be private anymore, but in the middle of nowhere at this time of night it didn’t seem likely. We got the key and brought our things in. The place was pretty nice. There was a TV room and two bedrooms on the bottom floor with a kitchen and dining area. There was another floor with a small lounge area and dining room plus bathrooms and more rooms. I think there might have been a third floor as well.
We were ready to eat so we started making dinner. We had bought lamb stew the night before and decided to cook that. We also made some mashed potatoes and salad. There was an albino looking guy there that came in and out of the kitchen, but seemed to spend his time in the TV room. There were two Chinese people as well. They had a huge pot of ramen noodles mixed with fresh vegetables. It looked like enough food to feed 4 or 5 people.
We ate our dinner and it was really good. The mashed potatoes had too much milk, but after stirring them around they turned out fine. We had bought a new brand of hot chocolate as well so we tried that. It required heating milk and since we had a microwave and access to real cups we decided to try it. It was really good. We plan to buy some more and bring it home as a souvenir.
After dinner we went to the TV lounge to type in our journals and watch TV. There was a fireplace in there so it was pretty warm. The weird albino kid was in there watching some Australian version of Cops. There were three stories they were following. One was of a guy that was in the ocean on a small boat that refused to come ashore. He was intoxicated so the coast guard had to go get him. They brought him ashore and he was trying to fight with the police.
The only reason I remembered this particular story was because the cops got tired of him so they brought in a medical team and they all held him down and gave him a shot to sedate him. I thought it was strange that they would do that. They acted like it was a common thing to do to unruly people. I could just imagine people in the U.S. going nuts about that kind of treatment.
After that show ended another Australian show came on. This time it was about immigration. There were a few stories they followed about people trying to come into Australia with illegal goods or work illegally. One of the stories was about a Chinese girl trying to bring an entire suitcase full of fresh meat for her family. In Australia they are really picky about what you bring in and beef is a definite no. They were going to fine her thousands of dollars, but the immigration worker decided on just a small fine. It reminded me of the time we went to Chile with a few oranges. The immigration people went nuts and wanted to fine us $10,000 at first, but let us off in the end.
One of the other stories was about a Japanese tattoo artist that claimed he needed a working visa. That is a pretty common thing for foreigners to do in Australia and they normally openly accept people. It turned out the Japanese guy had been working for 2 years in Australia previously as a tattoo artist and was doing so illegally. He claimed he was just an apprentice, but when they called his former boss he told them he was one of the best in Australia and could make up to $1,000 a day. Pretty good money. They denied his visa and sent him back.
That show ended and the other kid went to his room. His room was connected to the TV lounge. He seemed to be alone. After that dumb show ended I turned on Transformers. I think it’s a pretty good movie. At about 9 PM a huge group of teenage guys came in from outside and went upstairs. I don’t know where they were that late at night in the cold. I also don’t know why they were staying there.
We went back to our room around 10:30 PM. I was tired and ready to go to bed. The room had two bunk beds and another single bed in front of those. There was a TV in the room also on a cart, but it needed to be rolled around and plugged in. We never bothered to do that. I fell asleep pretty quick after laying down.
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Mark Esposito
2 weeks ago
Creating a checklist was very beneficial and meeting objectives on certain dates helped as well (to keep my trip organized). The Adventure Travel personnel helped keep me on track which is why my trip was so successful. Communication from both travel agencies (AT/MT) was vital.
Iziah Carthens
5 months ago
Professional and courteous
Iziah Carthens
6 months ago
We received an immediate response from Kassandra who reserved our cruise as soon as she got a confirmation from us. Maria and Jess also were in touch right away.
Lynda Wallach
10 months ago
The travel specialists we've worked with for 2 vacations have made the trip planning process easy! They ask good questions to ensure they understand our goals and likes and have done an excellent job matching adventures with our preferences - even suggesting things we would not have thought about on our own!
Amy
10 months ago
Attention to details. Flexible and always responsive. Great relationships and local partners.
Mark Esposito
2 weeks ago
Creating a checklist was very beneficial and meeting objectives on certain dates helped as well (to keep my trip organized). The Adventure Travel personnel helped keep me on track which is why my trip was so successful. Communication from both travel agencies (AT/MT) was vital.
Iziah Carthens
5 months ago
Professional and courteous
Iziah Carthens
6 months ago
We received an immediate response from Kassandra who reserved our cruise as soon as she got a confirmation from us. Maria and Jess also were in touch right away.
Lynda Wallach
10 months ago
The travel specialists we've worked with for 2 vacations have made the trip planning process easy! They ask good questions to ensure they understand our goals and likes and have done an excellent job matching adventures with our preferences - even suggesting things we would not have thought about on our own!
Amy
10 months ago
Attention to details. Flexible and always responsive. Great relationships and local partners.
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