We managed to arrange a ride-share with a bloke from Holly's for the journey from Wanaka to Queenstown, the adventure sports capital of New Zealand and perhaps the world. The ride-share allowed us an opportunity to see the popular and scenic Cardrona Valley while avoiding an unnecessarily long and indirect bus ride. Darren, our ride-share driver, one of those people who like to punish their bodies by competing in adventure sports races-you know those crazy 3-4 day, no sleep, long distance swim, bike, run, raft, climb, mountaineer until you drop type races-was happy to split petrol co$ts in exchange for the lift. The road from Wanaka to Arrowtown and Queenstown beyond winds through the aforementioned Cardrona Valley...
past the Cardrona Ski-fields, the Cardrona 4-wheel drive adventure activities center with its infamous "fence of bras", and the remote Cardrona Hotel recognized as the best place to savor a crisp clean refreshing pint of Speight's*. After these sights the road climbs up over a pass with commanding views of the surrounding mountains and valleys before dropping down to Arrowtown. From there it is a hop, skip, and jump to the alpine village of Queenstown. Situated on the shores of the clear dark blue waters of Lake Wakatipu, nestled between the craggy Remarkables Mountain Range and the Southern Alps, Queenstown might have the most naturally beautiful geographic location of any city on earth. Too bad the city city planners had to spoil all the natural beauty with such an ugly, over-developed, commercial town that is sprawling up the slopes of the mountains and spiralling out along the shores of the lake.
Despite all of this, Queenstown remains the number one destination for tourists in New Zealand. This is the place adreneline junkies come to get a fix. If you have the cash, you can do it all in Q-town: skydive, jetboat, whitewater rafting, paragliding, canyoning, street luge, tramping, climbing, and of course, bungy jumping. Queenstown is the home of commercial bungy jumping. You can still do the 43 M jump from the Kawarau Suspension Bridge-the first of its kind in the world-or you can go for the whopping 134 M jump from the Nevis Highwire or the 102 M "Pipeline" bungy. However it is not all adventure sports in Queenstown, there is a huge commercial area for shopping till you drop (everything is WAY over-priced). Finally, there is the bar scene. It is possible to imbibe happy hour priced beverages all night long if you are willing to hop, walk, or crawl from bar to bar. Queenstown is where you will find the world famous Ice Bar. Everything in the bar is made of ice-the bar itself, the chairs, the glasses you drink from-essentially it is a giant freezer (they do provide a jacket and you can only stay for half an hour). Needless to say, Queenstown is a unique city. I was able to utilize my free jetboat prize and I have to admit, jetboating is quite a thrill. We did go out for a night but it was just a bunch of pissed 20 year old English wankers drinking until they dropped. We did not manage to make it up the gondola to enjoy some of the legendary views of the Alps or do any of the local day tramps due to the poor weather conditions that persisted during our visit. While we did enjoy the big Q, we were happy to leave after just a few nights.
We arranged another ride-share this time to get us all the way to Te Anau, gateway to the Fiordlands and Milford Sound. We teamed up with a young German pianist named Dirk whom we befriended at our Backpackers in Queenstown. Dirk was traveling with a young lady from Isreal named Gilli. They were an odd pair each driving their own car! Amy and I hopped in with Dirk while another German lad Daniel rode with Gilli. We all went to Te Anau 'together'. The first part of the drive is pretty damn spectacular as the road winds along the lake at the base of the Remarkables. Then you cut across the farms of the Southland heading West towards Te Anau and the promised land. Dirk dropped us off at the Lake Te Anau Backpackers where we had made reservations (and Amy had shipped her sleeping bag) before he went off to Te Anau Downs to stay with a mate of his from Germany. Gilli and Dan promptly took rooms at the backpackers. As the name suggests Lake Te Anau Backpackers is located on Lake Te Anau about a 5 minute walk from the city center. Our dorm room came with an attached bathroom and kitchen and despite the overwhelming size of the place it did have a good atmosphere. There were always people coming back from one of the local Great Walks** talking about their tramping experiences. Amy met a Canadien couple who just completed the Kepler Tramp-the Great Walk we were planning to tackle in a few days-and they told a horrific story of misery. The Kepler Track crosses an exposed ridge line for about 5 miles and this unfortunate couple had walked the ridge in rain and winds up to 120 K/h. YIKES!
We spent our three days in Te Anau preparing for our tramp, exploring the Fiordland Region, and praying for good weather. One day we drove out to Milford Sound with Dirk an American girl and a French dude in two cars. We stopped off along the way to take in the amazing scenery. My favorite stop was just before the Homer Tunnel where we were greeted with huge wind swept granite faced mountains capped with glaciers that fed icey water falls. Combined with the unstable weather-sunlight bent by clouds and rain-it made for a magical place to linger. After the tunnel is the chasm and then Milford Sound at the end of the line. Awesome. What else can I say? Look at the pictures that do not do the sights justice. The Saturday before we were scheduled to start our tramp we decided to go out on the town for Guy Fawkes Day (05Nov). Amy and I wondered around Te Anau past several pubs that were not to our liking before we stumbled across the Redcliff Cafe on a tip from a local. The cafe come bar was a tiny (400 square feet, maybe) room with a live band crammed into the far corner. The band^ was playing surf influenced jams that warmed the soul and made you want to dance-or maybe that was just the beer? The music was good and the beer was cold. Then it came time for the pyrotechnics display in honor of Mr. Fawkes' failed attempt to blow up Parliement. I took the opportunity to talk to the band frontman and quickly made friends with the expatriot originally from SF, Cali. Good stuff. I was having a great time mixing with the strictly local crowd and even managed to find some blokes to watch the All Blacks v. Wales rugby test match live at 0400. Of course the drinks caught up to me before kickoff and I stumbled back to our dorm room before kickoff. I had an over-hang the next morning and missed the replay of the match at 0915. It was not until the 1530 replay that I saw the ABs dismantle an overmatched Welsh 15 that recently won the Six-Nations Rugby championship. There was no time to celebrate as we needed to make final prepartions for our tramp the next day. Again, I will not bore you with all the sorted details of our Kepler Tramp^* experience other than to say we had a marvelous tramp with picture perfect weather (see photo gallery). Truely EZ Magik! We completed the tramp over 4 days (most people do it in 3) and found our way back to the Backpackers to spend the night and collect our gear we left in storage. While we were there we were able to arrange yet another ride-share for the next day this time to Dunedin back on the East Coast. Sweet as. Alls well that ends well so that is where I will leave this blog. Happy Thanksgiving to my USA readers.
NOTES:
* Lord of the Rings fans may recognize the interior of the Cardrona Hotel and Pub as the "Prancing Pony" where Froto and his campanions were supposed to meet Gandolf the Grey in The Fellowship of the Ring.
** New Zealand recognizes 9 tramps as Great Walks. They are some of the finest treking trails in the world. Three of these trails start or end near Te Anau: The Kepler Track, The Milford Sound Track, and The Routeburn Track
^ The band we saw that night is called The JuJu Crew and you can check them out online at http://www.jujucrew.co.nz If you live in California you can check them out live in March when they do an impromtu tour of California. They only have dates for San Diego and if you can help them with gigs in other California cities I am sure they would be happy to hear from you. I have already turned them on to a few friends in smelLA. Enjoy!
^* The five mile walk along the ridge of the Kepler Track provides some of the most amazing views (weather permitting of course) of the Fiordlands National Park accessible on foot. The 360 view from atop Mt. Luxmore is fantasmic-orgastic.
As a way to save money we purchased a bus pass with Intercity to get us from Nelson to Queenstown via the West Coast.* The bus from Nelson down the coast departs daily promptly at 0715. AM. In the morning. Ugh! So we found ourselves dragging our bags 1 K from the Shortbread Cottege to the Intercity Bus station at 0645. Only once we got on the bus, did we discover that we could have been picked up at our hostel. D'oh! Not an auspicious beggining to the day. By about 0745 the bus had completed the rounds of Nelson picking up other passengers and we headed down the center of the Island and then towards the West Coast via the Buller River Valley.
The drive is rather enjoyable as we passed through or near Nelason Lakes and Kahurangai National Parks on our way to the township of Murchison where we stopped for a tea and wee break. From there we made our way to the coast following the Buller River. Once on the coast we went North to the city of Westport before backtracking South towards Greymouth. On the North West coast the road hugs the Tasman Sea as it winds and cuts its way through rain forest. Just before Greymouth we hopped off the bus in the village of Punakaiki where we intended to spend a few days exploring the Paparoa National Park. There is not much to Punakaiki, just a cafe, a pub and a few houses strung along the coast. The raison d'etre for Punakaiki is the famous rock formations generically called the 'Pancake Rocks' and 'Blowhole'. The bus dropped us off at the cafe and NP visitor center which was of course 1 K from our 'beachfront' hostel. We collected our baggage-5 bags between the two of us includes everything but the kitchen sink-and trudged our arses 1 K back the direction from whence we had just come. We checked into an empty dorm room and after we had settled in we made our way to the visitor center and the Pancake Rocks/Blowhole walking track. The rock formations are right along the road and it only takes about 10 minutes walking through native bush to get out to the viewpoints. The rocks truely are fascinating formations and we spent a good 45 minutes exploring the well designed, informative paths and viewing platforms (see photo gallery). We inquired at the visitor center about other tracks in the area and as it turns out there were several trails that started near our lodgings and so we planned to tackle one the next day.
We woke up early and found the sun shining bright and warm so we packed our lunch and made our way to the start of the track walking a dirt road up the Bullock Creek River valley for 6 K. We came to an open farm valley where we hooked up with the Inland Track and headed South. The track passes through a karst (limestone) valley with dense sub-tropical rain forest and dangerous sink holes up to 40 M deep. Needless to say, you stick to the often muddy track as if you were walking a trail in Cambodia^. Some where in this dense forest I found the most fantastic natural seat I have ever had the pleasure of discovering while tramping. It consisted of an old tree that had succumbed to the loose soil of the rain forest and fallen over. Somehow or another the log had been wedged between other trees and rocks in a manner that allowed one end of it to be suspended in the air. The stump had then been carpeted with a soft moss and the result was a sort of levitating couch (see photo gallery). I couldn't resist and quickly took a break laying down on this awesome and comfortable forest bed. It was magical. The rest of the hike took us through more of the same kind of forest until we came to the Porai River valley where we followed a track through the river gorge and back to Punakaiki. Amy claims it to have been one of her favorite tramps in New Zealand and I would have to agree. Of course it did not hurt to have an uncharactoristically beautiful West Coast day to hike the track. That night the weather changed the clouds rolled in and it rained to beat hell all night long. It was still raining the next day as we made our way back to the bus stop carrying all 5 bags.
We got to the bus stop (really just the visitor center and a cafe) about an hour before our scheduled departure so we quickly grabbed a table out of the rain and started to read to pass the time. After about 15 minutes Amy looked up to see Simon and Louise-the couple from England and Scotland (respectfully) that we had befriended and spent a week with back in Thailand at Coral Bay on Koh Phan Ngan. It was good to see them again and we caught up very quickly on all their quirky adventures in travel and of course told them of a few of our experiences. Unfortunately they were headed in the opposite direction-and in a hurry-or we would have been able to travel with them in their rented camper van. Our bus came and sadly we said farewell to Simon and Louise again wishing them all the best. When I found my seat on the bus I could not help but think about all the wonderful people whom we have met along the road. Spent a week or two with them before going our separate ways only to meet up again down the road and enjoy a good laugh and exchange stories.** Anyway, from Punakaiki we went South along the coast through Greymouth and on to a place called Hokitika. The village of Hokitika is nothing special but the region itself is famous for Pounamu or greenstone (jade) and there is no limit to the carved stone you can buy here. We were not really interested in making any greenstone purchases-our main reason for stopping was to stock up on supplies for a 3-night stint in Fox Glacier Village-but that said we did have reservations to stay at a hostel called the Jade Experience.
The Jade Experience is a cozy hostel with one dorm room and two doubles connected to the owners private lodgings. The owner Gordon Wells is a greenstone carver and he offers his guests the 'jade experience' or opportunity to carve their very own jade stone. Generally simple traditional Maori designs are incorporated and it makes a pretty special little souvenir. As we were only in town for the night we opted not to take Gordon up on the jade experience but we were whitness to a few happy customers-even after they spent 4-5 hours polishing their prized carvings. It did not take long for me to discover why Gordon is known as the Mad Kiwi. After making a little small talk he started in on me with his "we are not alone" talk. Now, I am not completely unfamiliar with this line of madness but I made the mistake of humouring Gordon and found myself trapped in a very one-sided conversation (lecture!?) about aliens and god-two of my least favorite topics for discussion (not that there was any chance of proper discussion. Which only makes it worse, methinks). Not that I do not believe in either, on the contrary I am quite confident in the exhistence of both. I just don't like to talk about them with people who have crazy theories and ideas linking the two. Ouch! Amy, who had slipped away to cook dinner during 'the talk' finally saved me when she asked me to come and help her with the food preparation. When I thanked her later she had no clue as to why; she had not been listening. Gordon is a good guy and harmless enough and that night he let us have one of the double rooms at the price of a dorm bed. Sweet as. We promptly wasted the evening getting wasted with an Indian couple from Canada, a Scottish girl, a dude from Montana, two Japanese girls and Gordon. That sounds like the start of a joke but there is no punch line just a good lively entertaining night of drinking.
Our bus to Fox did not leave Hokitika until 1500 the next day so we had plenty of time to shop and take in a little of the city before we hopped on and cruised down the rugged West Coast through old gold mining towns and eventually the village of Franz Joseph Glacier just before arriving in Fox Glacier at half past 5. Our room at the Ivory Towers Hostel was much to our liking and we quickly made reservations for a day hike on the glacier for the next morning. We had spectacular weather for our hike on the icefall and it was absolutely awesome hiking on the glacier. We made our way through crevasses and ice tunnels, around seracs hiking on the glacier for a good 3 hours taking in the spectacular scenery. There are not many places on earth where a river of ice meets the rain forest but Franz Joseph and Fox are two of them. Best damn $90 I have spent in New Zealand. The next morning we woke early for the obligatory trip*^ out to Lake Matheson famous for its perfect reflections of the Southern Alps particularly Mt. Tasman and Mt. Cook. Again we were blessed with perfect weather and we were treated to a very special view of the alps (see photo gallery; or, if you are lucky you will receive a postcard picture of Lake Matheson). The rest of the day we just sat back and relaxed enjoying the unseasonably fantastic weather and of course made our way to the pub for happy hour $2.50 pints of Speights.
The 4 hour (5 on a bus) ride from Fox Glacier to Wanaka is perhaps one of the most spectacular drives in all of New Zealand, particularly if you do it on a clear day. The drive begins by passing through the Gold Country and pasturelands of the South West Coast. Ocean vistas are complimented by the contrasting and formidioble Southern Alps rising up to the East. Eventually you reach the township of Haast and make your way up the Haast River Valley over the lowest mountain pass in the Southern Alps at 563 M. The dimunative height of the pass makes it no less impressive and soon you drop down into the Makarora Valley with its green paddocks and fantastic views of Mount Aspiring as you approach the North end of Lake Wanaka. Before you get to the town of Wanaka the road diverts East and skirts the picturesque Lake Hawea before crossing the Clutha River and bringing you back to Lake Wanaka. We made it to Wanaka at just after 2pm and quickly found ourselves at home in Holly's Backpackers, a cozy family run hostel that provided the perfect atmosphere and base for exploring the Wanaka region. We quickly befriended the resident Scotsman Andy who was in town studying to become a helicopter pilot and a nice Welsh lad named Rhys (Jones, of course!) who was finding himself on a working holiday after finishing University. They were able to provide us with the lowdown on activities, nightlife, and tramping in the area. A wealth of knowledge.
The next day we spent some time in the morning trying to work a cheap car rental deal with no success. The idea was to rent a car to explore the little villages of the region that were just a little further afield. Eventually we made our way towards the Wanaka Beer Works for the 12pm tour. The brewery is located about 10 K out of Wanaka and after we visited the local fabric shop looking for Halloween costume material we managed to hitch a ride to the front door. The Wanaka Beerworks is literally a one man show. The owner is brewmaster, tour guide, and bartender. He also happens to be Californian and he treated us quite well. For a small scale operation he produces some decent brews with some rather antique equipment and it was jolly good fun being there. We got a ride back to town and wallowed about until 4pm when we returned to the fabric shop and I was rewarded with a freebie of material for my costume. I splurged and bought a new spool of thread for $4 and my costume began to take shape that night. After another unsuccessful morning of car rental hunting and costume preparation we decided to tackle one of the lakeside walks for the afternoon. It was a sun-drenched walk out to Rippon Vineyards where we stopped in for a taste before continueing on out to Waterfall Creek. It was an uneventful day and that night I continued working on my costume. The weather was not so swell the next day and so we kicked about around home and I was able to finish my costume-all hand sewn-in time for the 'party' that evening.
Although Andy, Rhys, and Amy did not have costumes they agreed to join me in making the rounds at the local pubs that evening for the Halloween celebrations (it was the Saturday before Halloween). After a few beers lakeside we made our way to a cafe bar called Red Rock where they were having a scarry costume contest with prizes. Kiwis celebrate Halloween a little different than what I am used to. First of all it is mainly for the kids so the adults don't take the costume parties seriously (at least not in Wanaka). Second of all, people really think you need to dress up as something scarry-you know a ghost or mummy or whatever-it is not common to dress as say a super hero like Captain Chaos from the excellent CannonBall Run movies. Anyway, for my costume I chose to be Jesus Christ. It was an easy costume to make on the road, I just needed to come up with a robe and I had the beard and long hair already. Now, some people-even in the USA-might consider this to be a sacrilegeous costume but I disagree. I think one of the the cool things about Halloween is that you get the opportunity to dress up as someone or something you admire and respect. Jesus Christ happens to be a historical figure whom I have the uptmost respect and admiration for so why not be Christ? Besides it is a pretty scarry costume when you think about it. I mean, how would you react if you were at your local pub and Jesus Christ walked in? Damn straight! Well I made this argument at the bar and was awarded top prize: a free jet boat ride in Queenstown (about $85 value). Of course, I was about the only one in costume except for bar staff and some wankers from England and I made a good show of it. People would look at me and say "Jesus Christ!" and then want to take a picture or confess their sins. It is amazing what people will tell you. One guy started by telling me how he stole his neighbors pie when he was a kid and went on from there. Yikes! I tried to explain that I was dressed as the son of god and not a priest and that I could not absolve sins but to no avail. Later I was walking with Rhys through the bar when a sweet girl dropped to her hands and knees and started goveling at my feet. No shit! If you have ever seen my feet you know how disgusting that must have been. All in all it was a good time and a good night.
A little bit slowed by the consumption of alcohol from the previous night we made our way out to the Diamond Lakes track before noon the next day. It was a great hike up to the top of Rocky Hill with fantastic views of Lake Wanaka and Mt. Aspiring through the clouds. After we completed the circuit we were lucky enough to catch a ride back to town with an East German couple who spoke very limited English. The next day was Halloween proper and we decided to have a slow day especially since the weather was not great. That night instead of trick-or-treating we watched the Matrix again and I was reminded of how good that movie is and how crappy the sequels really are. I would rather watch the first one a hundred times than watch part two or three once. Our last full day in Wanaka we were determined to do the 16 K Beacon Point-Clutha Outlet circuit with a stop at Stuart Lansborough's Puzzling World. The walk on the lake and Clutha River was excellent if a bit long and we found a great place along the river to eat are lunch and have a power nap before continuing on towards Puzzling World. The circuit includes 6 K of walking along a busy highway but we were lucky enough to catch a lift for this section and be dropped off directly in front of Puzzling World a sort of game oriented theme park designed by Stuart Lansborough. The highlight of the place is the "Great Maze" that we quickly tackled. Half an hour later I emerged while Amy forged on trying to find her way for a full hour. After completing the maze we entered into the "Hologram Hall" the "Tilted House" (a wonky room that made me ill) and the "Hall of Following Faces". We were able to burn a few hours there and it was not a bad way to spend $10. We made it back to Wanaka in time for the running of the Melbourne Cup, the Southern hemispheres biggest horse race. Rhys and Andy joined us at the pub for happy hour with ponies and we cheered the horses as they ran before we retired to playing pool. What a great last day in Wanaka. We arranged a ride to Queenstown for the next day but you will have to read about that in my next blog. Peace Out!
NOTES:
* That was before we discovered the wonders of hitch hiking in New Zealand. Hitching NZ is easy, we have not had to wait more than 15 minutes to catch a ride and it is relatively safe, we have never had any problems. Most of all though hitching is cheap-it doesn't get any cheaper than free-and it is a great way to meet interesting peeps, both local Kiwis and fellow travelers.
^ Cambodia is notorious for its unmarked mine fields. Just another fantastic result of Uncle Sam's war machine.
** Besides Simon and Louise there has been Gabe and family from Oregon who we met in Laos and ran into again on Koh Phan Ngan. King George from Italy (the 73 year old) who we continually bumped into traveling in Vietnam. Stephano who practically lived at Suk 11, I think he was there 5 out of the 7 times we stayed there! Mark and Jen the couple from Quebec who started the Annapurna Circuit with us but finished before us only to meet us in Pokara and then again in Kathmandu and Bangkok! The Turkish-English couple Gox and Sam we met in KL, traveled with to Taman Nagara and met again and Steve Erwin's zoo in Australia. The Frenchman Julien in Malaysia. It seems I can't go anywhere in SEAsia/Australia without bumping into someone I know. My world gets smaller and smaller every day.
*^ Rumor has it, you can not leave New Zealand if you can not prove that you have been to either Lake Matheson or Milford Sound. Immigration penalizes you and forces you to go there before you can board your flight, ship, or whatever.