NZ3

About 5 am I woke up and heard keas outside. They're big green alpine parrots that we'd heard a lot about. They're big, green, aggressive, and smart. So kind of like a regular parrot/camp robber/raven mix. The one I saw that morning was sitting right on the rail of the deck waiting for people to get going with their hiking gear and either get fed or steal things from them. He just looked at me when I walked by at about a foot away. They allegedly will unzip packs and steal food or shiny things like keys. I didn't have my camera then, but here's some more info.

The third day starts with the climb to McKinnon Pass. From the brochures and all the talk about this climb, you'd think this was going to be the final push up Everest. Maybe it was because I was prepared for a brutal climb, but it wasn't bad at all really. The weather was supposed to start out bad and then clear up later on in the day, so we started around 1015 and were second to last to leave the hut. We were kind of taking our time walking up so it would hopefully not be socked in at the pass.

The first little bit was like hiking through the Shire.

Then we started up the serious hill. Still not bad; nothing close to the ascents on the Tongariro.

At the top there's a monument to Clinton McKinnon. He used to guide people through the Milford Track back in the day. He also was the first whitey to find the route through to the Milford Sound. On top of the monument was a kea.


It had somewhat cleared up by the time we got to the top:


It was really cold up there though. We were at the top of a mountain pass, but that mountain pass was only about 3000 feet high, the latitude was 45 degrees (45 degrees north is hundreds of miles closer to the equator than Seattle) and it was the middle of summer. New Zealand is not a warm place. Luckily there was a warming hut up there where we thawed out and had lunch.


The way down was not too hard of a hike either and had more nice scenery:

more waterfalls:

it really was a beautiful hike

Drunk Eeyore even felt ok to come out. He had been pretty terrified of keas.


after we got back down below timberline, we were back in the shire:

This one waterfall went on right along the side of the trail for about a half mile. It was incredibly nice there, kind of like it was fake:





When we made it down to the bottom of the pass, we were at the last hut for the guided hikers. They spared some expense there to hook up the independent hikers with some hot water and instant coffee mix and tea.


It was warm again there; could have used that at the top.
From there a side trail to Southerlin Falls starts. According to New Zealand, this is the 5th highest falls in the world. I think they are adding up all 3 falls' elevation as one, regardless it is really high.



You can walk around the back of the falls and get behind it. This was highly recommended, so we hiked behind and checked it out. There's so much water gushing down on you and getting blown around that you can't really see through the falls. It is cool though. But, don't do it barefoot. Another guy hiking with us (Ottowa John) broke his foot slipping off rocks trying to get back there.
You definitely get soaking wet:



Once back to the main trail, it was about an hour to the last hut.




This is what the sleeping rooms of the huts look like:

The last day was 16 km of mostly flat hiking.

Even though it was easy hiking, my feet were pretty tired by this point and especially with having the pass day over, the day kind of dragged on. 16k is a long way to get through fast. Still, no shortage of nice views.


From another swingbridge:

The water was extremely clear in the rivers in this area:

Finally we made it near the end of the hike. One last look up the track:

Then around the corner you get your first glimpse of Milford Sound:

And we made it:

None of this hike is especially difficult in itself, but just the sheer length makes it feel like a big accomplishment when you're done. Then you catch a boat to take you back to the small village at Milford Sound.


There's another huge waterfall in the distance that falls right into Milford Sound:

and another one that you take the boat right by:

Milford Sound is pretty spectacular.

After a couple hour bus ride and a couple hour drive, it was back to Queenstown for a few days:


the view from our room:

There's a gondola in town that takes you up this mountain. At the top there's bungy jumping, paragliding, and alpine sliding. Here's Naomi flying down the track:

and the ride up the slide's chairlift:




Queenstown was the first place that we stayed for a few days. It'd be a great place to go for a long weekend to ski during the NZ winter from Samoa. The town's pretty compact, tons of restaurants and bars, and the ski areas are right there. In the summer if there is any sort of extreme sport that exists, you can probably do it there. Plus, there are two casinos. Naomi took them down both nights we were there.

NZ2

Wellington is a pretty nice little city. It's sort of like Bellingham, but 4 or so times as big. Apparently it is almost always windy and cold, but when we were there the weather was great. For the first time in over a year I got to go to an Indian restaurant. It was really nice to have that option. I don't think it was as good as Saddam's place on Roosevelt though. There's a nice pedestrian only street there with a bunch of little restaurants and bars that is well set up. It was so weird to be out in sort of a real city with people walking around at night.




We flew from Wellington to Christchurch next. Apparently, in NZ, the baggage weight limit for domestic flights is half the usual US amount so we got to pay an extra $100 to get our stuff to the South Island. But, whatever... we got there and picked up our car. We tried to get out of Christchurch as soon as possible to make it to a campground around Wanaka. The grocery store we hit before heading out was enormous and we just couldn't get out of there in less than an hour and a half. It is hard to make decisions when you have so many choices. Which kinds of the 50 different kinds of fruit and vegetables you want is much more complicated than deciding if any of the fruit and vegetables are not rotten.

We drove for many, many hours but it was starting to get dark around Twizel. There is a pretty crappy holiday park (like awful, depressing KOAs) in town and no government campgrounds. That's kind of crazy because Twizel is sort of a crappy little place about 5 km from this huge and beautiful lake, Lake Pikaki. At the end of the lake is the tallest mountain in NZ, Mt. Cook. We decided to steal camping if possible but Pixi (the rental car) couldn't make it up the first gravel road we tried. This turned out to be lucky. The next gravel road we tried was right on the lake and even had picnic tables (somewhat rare at campsites in NZ). It ended up being one of the best places we camped the whole time. We were all set to make dinner though when we realized that we didn't have any propane, and of course fires were banned. I'd left the last canister in Wellington because you can't take it on the plane and just forgot to get another one once on the South Island. So we had salami sandwiches and Greek salad; still great.




The next day we drove to Queenstown where it was just pouring down rain. We had lunch, picked up some propane, and headed to Te Anau. It was cold and most of the drive there was through a downpour. After getting our Milford Track passes and leaving Pixi's lights on, we tried to find some accommodations. The holiday parks were just too crappy and depressing, so we decided to drive up to a govt. campground. So after borrowing showers from a hostel in town, we headed to the campsite and this time we actually could cook.

The next day we took the boat down Lake Te Anau

to the start of the Milford Track at Glade House:

The first day of hiking is pretty short and really easy. It is just a 5km walk from the lake up the Clinton River valley:

to the Clinton Hut:

The trail is about 33 miles long over 3 nights. Each night is spent in a hut, so you don't have to pack a tent; that's not even an option and you're required to use the huts so that the number of hikers are limited. 40 people a day are allowed to start the hike unguided and 40 on guided tours. The guided tours come with food and their huts have showers, but it is also about $1500.


The next day you keep heading up the Clinton River valley towards McKinnon Pass, but you don't actually get to the base of the pass climb until the end of the day, so it is a long but pretty easy day.



You gradually climb up the deep glacial valley. There's a short side trip to a waterfall that flows into a lake:

It is a nice walk because all day you are walking by waterfall after waterfall:






Just when it starts to climb a little more, you're to the second hut:

This hut was great. It was cold up there and inside was a small coal stove. We got the fire going and sat around it most of the night and hanging out with other hikers. The next day was supposed to be really hard because with a steep climb to the pass and then a steeper decent.


Movie review:

Darjeeling Limited
Weird, but pretty entertaining. 6.7

New Zealand recap part 1

We had to make it over to Apia in Western Samoa after work in order to make our 10pm flight to Auckland. Of course when we got to the airport at about 430, no flights to Apia had made it out all day. They were all canceled due to bad weather. So with 4 or 5 canceled flights, you'd think we'd be screwed, but most of the people on those flights apparently just decided, 'oh well, guess we aren't going, let's go get some Vailima'. So we made it on the second flight over there. I was extremely relieved. I thought for sure we'd not make it over in time for the flight. In a real place, if we missed that flight, well we'd just get the next one. This is Samoa, the next flight to Auckland was about 4 days later. I still can't believe we made it.

So we got into Auckland airport in the middle of the night. They threatened to not let me into New Zealand because my passport is so thrashed (it has been in the ocean, been in my pocket during summer in Europe for probably 12 weeks and has had a few unfortunate washing machine experiences. After examining it, I think they figured that if anyone was going to make a fake passport, they probably wouldn't use a picture of themselves with really bad bleached hair, so I was allowed to pass. Also, I'd signed my signature page with a blue marker.

After getting some sleep, we headed to a grocery store! It was awesome!!!!!! They had fruit that didn't smell or look rotten and none of it had decomposed into liquid while still on the shelves. It didn't taste rotten either. I'd almost forgotten what tomatoes are supposed to taste like. I guess tomatoes come in varieties other than the mildew/dirty garage flavored ones that are so popular in American Samoa. They also have more than 5 kinds of skunked beer in New Zealand. Crazy, I know.

After a couple grocery stores, we headed for Waitomo to go on a cave rafting trip. That was cool. You float through a cave on an innertube with stops for some crawling through tight spaces and to get drenched by underground waterfalls. You also get to jump off of a couple other underground waterfalls. Maybe the coolest part is the glowworms. They have these glow in the dark worm things that look like LCD lights everywhere on the ceilings. The trip was about 3 hours long and was really fun for the whole thing.

Then, after almost running out of gas,

we headed to our campground for the evening in Tongariro National Park. It was cold at night. It was a nice and novel feeling to feel a little cold; and I hadn't been real camping in over a year. (fales are almost like camping though--- hell, my house has no walls, so it is sort of like camping I guess). We had some delicious non-rotten food and steak and good beer. Wonderful.

The next day we hiked the Tongariro Crossing. It was probably the coolest hike we did the whole trip. It is about 17 km long. That's pretty long but they have it set up so busses take you to the trailhead and then pick you up on the other side so you don't have to come back the way you came.


A couple parts were really fricking steep. Steeper than Mt. Ellinor:


The hike is through an active volcanic area. There are a few main volcanoes and there are steam vents and hot springs all over. One of the main mountains is Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings:



Here's Naomi giving her best Gollum acting job:



After a really steep section, you get up to a fairly high elevation on top of a ridge. (6000 feet is pretty high for New Zealand) It was pretty windy and really cold up there. Once you start coming down there is steam coming out of the ground all over. It is conveniently located there to warm you up:



There are all kinds of weird formations there and steam coming out of everywhere.



Also there are these alien planet looking little blue green lakes:



On the way down the other side you can see a big lake at the bottom of the mountains that is probably bigger than Tutuila. Behind it, where it looks like sky is another huge lake, way bigger than Tutuila: Lake Taupo:


We camped by a gorge with a cool, and kind of scary, foot swingbridge (suspension bridge for real English speakers).


We also had our only campfire of the trip because they were banned everywhere else.

They were banned at this place too, but we didn't figure that out until later.


Our next stop was Wellington. But on the way we stopped in Martinborough for some wine tasting. Their wines are not bad. They're certainly way overpriced, but so is everything in New Zealand. I had to drive so I had to only visit a few wineries, but still "needed something to eat!" before going on.


We had to go straight to the library in Wellington because Naomi missed work so much.


I have to go have dinner, so I'll get back to this in another installment.

I was wrong about the Super Bowl I guess. That's pretty shocking considering my string of picks this year.

Back in the AS

I'm back from New Zealand. It was pretty great: I'll post a bunch of pictures and give some descriptions soon.
How's it going?