Well today we leave for OZ, we've both really enjoyed our stay in New Zealand, its just a magical place. The last few days have been fun, we left for Oamaru and suddenly found ourselves in a Victoria festival complete with a Queen, bagpipes, Morris Dancers and a traction engine from Leeds. We watched a Victorian rules rugby match, drank beers and listened to music.
We then dragged ourselves away to head to Dunedin to enjoy a couple of coastal walks and watch the sea lions on the beach. Then we headed north to Christchurch for more beer and to say farewell to Lunar the camper van. She did well and we will miss her.
Well Mount Cook is a beautiful region, but it can be an unpleasant place. We had a walk up the hooker valley today to see a glacier and then on the way back we stopped by the alpine memorial. A very moving experience, so many young men and women who have lost their lives in the pursuit of their dreams. One tragedy occurred when 4 mountaineers were sheltering in a mountain hut (like a tin shed) from 125km winds. The wind was so strong it lifted the hut and sent it plunging down the valley along with the occupants. There was a plaque for most of the victims of the mountains, one which I won't insult by trying to remember made my eyes water and brought a lump in my throat. Others simply said 'Died when the abseil anchor failed'.
After that we went back to the van to cheer ourselves up by eating a fresh honey roast ham and drinking wine which we purchased on our vineyard trip a week or so ago. Weathers turning nasty for a few days so we're going to head to the coast, we think...
...today we got back from a two day walk up part of the Routeburn track - one of the 5 'Great Walks' in New Zealand. We only had time to do part of it and avalanche risks meant that we couldn't have walked the middle section anyway (but you could take a 30 second helicopter ride over for just $55!), but it was a fantastic couple of days, maybe the best yet?
The walk started in mossy beach forests and climbed steadily rising to a large, flat valley surrounded by mountains with a river winding its way through. After that the track became steeper, climbing up and out through the trees to Routeburn Falls hut, where we would be spending the night. We dropped off some of our gear and carried on as high as we could go to the summit at Harris Saddle. Sadly, we couldn't get to the top, but it was this part of the walk that was absolutely stunning - a wide bowl shaped valley, ringed by snow covered mountains, with a lake and waterfalls (middle and bottom pics). I've never seen anything like it.
Last night we slept at 1000m at Routeburn Falls, and I have to say it was nicer than many of the hostels we've stayed in. It has a verandah facing out over the valley and mountains, so cool! Today we walked the same route out and now we're in Queenstown for the night, getting a few jobs done before driving towards Mount Cook tomorrow. What are my chance of persuading Tim not to climb to the top of it?
From Franz Joseph we carried on south to Queenstown (which numpty Kate keeps calling Queensland by mistake) where we spent the night before heading to Manapouri in the Fiordland area for our Doubtful Sound cruise. We were thinking of driving another 2 hours to Milford Sound, which you can access by road and so save money, but it's apparently a lot busier than Doubtful and much smaller, so we decided to put experience before pennies...doubt that will every happen again while Tim's around :)
To get there we had to take a 1 hour boat journey across lake Manapouri, then a bus ride over Wilmot Pass. Then we had 3 hours cruising the Sounds before heading back. There were a few bonuses thrown in; a rather odd trip to an underground power station; complimentary tea and coffee; and unseasonal snow fall overnight and during the day that left the mountain tops covered - gorgeous. It meant we were a bit delayed because the driver had to put on snow chains going over the pass, and it was really rather chilly on the water (hence the sinister photo of me - yes, it's me, not Tim - completely covered), but it made all the difference to the trip.
Right then, it's been a fairly action packed few days, so we'll be doing a few updates to bring you all up to speed...
...after successfully completing our sea kayaking mission we drove south to Franz Joseph for a wee spot of glacier walking. It was good fun, fairly tame (no crevasse rescue or need for Saint Bernards), but there are worse ways of spending a day and the glacier was beautiful. We had most of the kit we needed, but I was talked into borrowing a coat in case mine wasn't up to the infamous New Zealand weather. As it turned out the most we got was five minutes of drizzle and I was left plodding about in a coat far to big for me that made me look less like a female Edmund Hillary, and more like a caretaker (of indeterminate sex). See top pic - that's me at the back with the orange pack on and the huge turn ups in the sleeves!
Hello from the Southern Alps! Yesterday we drove from Greymouth on the west coast to Franz Joseph, home of one of the two big glaciers in these parts (the other one being Fox glacier, which is what Fox's glacier mints were named after...maybe). We drove through some beautiful mountain scenery and the sun even came out just in time to take this picture of a bright blue glacial river (bottom pic). Today we visited the foot of both glaciers on walking trails and very impressive they were too. Tomorrow (Friday) we're booked on to a full day guided glacier walk on Franz Joseph (or Franz Ferdinand as Tim has taken to calling it), which we're excited about, although it's all a bit tame for Tim Mears. On a sad note, our camera died today. We think it died of natural causes since neither one of us dropped it / threw it at a passing possum, but it means that pictures might be a bit less frequent until we source another. I'll leave it up to you to decide if that's a bad thing...
After soaking up the wine country following our crossing from Wellington (Thank you to Geraldine and Ben for looking after us) we decided to stretch our sea legs with a 2 day solo kayaking trip. Instruction was from a nice young man who showed us how to pump water out and fire flares, not a good sign then it was a 1hour fast sea taxi to the other end of the coastal trail and then we were let loose, on our own in a sea kayak. Wearing the trousers in the relationship I had to navigate and steer whilst kate told me which way to go and looked pretty.
As you will see we visited some amazing bays, encountered seals and lots of ocean. The sea turned quiet rough towards the end which meant we kissed the beach on our arrival but it was well worth it. I think we wil probably hang up our paddles for a bit, mainly until I can go out longer than 1hour without my legs going completely numb. A bit of an issue if your feet control the rudder!
We're now north of Greymouth, all's well!
Love Tim and Kate
Wednesday 4 November 2009
So, the first part of our update on events of the last couple of weeks...
Our campervan odessy began with the drive from Auckland to the Coromandel peninsula, where we spent serveral days hopping from gorgeous beach to gorgeous beach, Cathedral Cove, Hotwater Beach and Waihi amoung them. Tough life.
From there we drove down to Rotorua, the thermal playground of New Zealand. We saw the best boiling mud pool ever - it's amazing how much fun two supposedly grown up adults can have giggling at mud making farty noises and spurting out 'hot plops'! - we went round Waiotaupu thermal park, full of brightly coloured mineral pools and sulphur smells, and spent the night at Waikie Valley thermal baths; $16 gets you camping for the night and free access to all the pools - we poached ourselves silly.
New Zealnd is amazing, we had no idea that the North Island would be so varied, one minute it looks likethe Yorkshire Dales, the next you're on a blacksand beach watching the sun set over a snow-capped Mt. Taranaki, and then you're walking along a lush jungle track with starnge birdcalls all around you. Incredible.
We haven't seen much in the way of wildlife yet though...well, apart from the roadkill, most of which was possum. In fact, it's only in the last few days that we've discovered what possum really look like (their innards are usually on the inside surprisingly enough).
Stay tunned for the next edition of Kate and Tim's blog update
