Day 19: Abel Tasman Sea Kayaking

Today marked the start of our last adventure in New Zealand.  We were due to arrive in Marahau around 8:30ish to meet our aquataxi for the first part of our journey.  We loaded onto large speed boats being towed by tractors.  It was truly a sight!  I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get a shot of the tractors.  The water levels for the changing of the tides are so significant that these boats can end up so far away from shore that they need the tractors to drive across the sand to retrieve the boats.  It's truly a comical sight.

Once we and our boat made it into the water, we settled in for a 20 minute boat ride along the coastline before being deposited in the Tonga Marine Reserve.  When we arrived on shore, there were a multitude of sea kayaks laid out along the shore line.  We were greeted by ... no one. We wandered around the area for a bit of time, watching as our fellow travelers received instructions for maneuvering their boats.  I just sat there, wondering if we had been forgotten. 

Eventually an exceptionally tall woman arrived, looking a bit disheveled.  This was Emily, our guide.  The whole comical routine continued as Emily got us all outfitted for our sea kayaks.  Emily was a delightful Swede who kept us on our toes the whole day with her dry sense of humor and her love of feeding us information about our surroundings that lacked any bit of truth.  After we took her word for everything thing she told us, she would quickly laugh and then inform us that there was no such thing as a flying penguin.  Oh.

Our first stop was Tonga Island in the middle of the bay.  This cool outcropping was home to many seals and "flying penguins."  The baby seals were by far, the cutest little things in the world.  The first part of our trip was spent learning to maneuver the boat.  Not a big deal for the front person who is simply responsible for propulsion.  However the back person must be a master multi-tasker, both paddling with the arms and steering with the pedals inside the boat!  Dave, luckily was quite talented at getting us where we needed to go.

We hugged the shoreline of the Able Tasman National Forest until lunch time.  We had to wait for enough time to pass so the tide would go out to produce a beach for our group to picnic on.  Once we parked our kayaks on shore, Emily pulled a football out of her boat and tossed it.  My jaw dropped when I saw how far this chick could chuck a ball.  Seriously.  She ended up tossing the ball between the three guys in our group and she could send that ball twice as far as any of our boys.  Amazing.  I'm not kidding.  Emily is he-woman.

After a lazy lunch in the aptly named Mosquito Bay, we spent some time exploring the area by foot.  We were very happy to be dining in Mosquito Bay as opposed to Sandfly Bay, just around the corner.  After my experiences with sandflys, I have come to love and cherish the mosquito.  Those little creatures don't pack nearly the punch as the sandflys.

The cool thing about this area is the way the sea has carved out the shape of the land.  The rock is mostly granite.  The salt in the water makes the granite rust.  And as the rusty rock breaks down, it all settles creating beautiful golden beaches.  At least that's what Emily told us ... and as I've explained earlier, Emily is prone to a little fib here and there at the expense of her naive clients.

The first half of the afternoon we continued our sea kayaking journey to Anchorage Bay.  Dave decided that I needed to have a go at steering the boat.  After a bit of floundering at the expense of my brother-in-law (flipping the rutter out of the water does present a rather difficult steering situation), I soon had the hang of directing the boat.  But Dave did not take to being chauffered very well.  First of all, HE'S the one who decided I was driving.  And then he put a lot of his energy into questioning every turn I made.  I pointed out that he could simply tell me what he DOES want me to do instead of spending so much effort telling me what he DOESN'T want me to do.  Or better yet, just do it himself.  Let's just say that I was ready to get out of the boat when we arrived at Anchorage Bay.

This is where we said good-bye to Emily (if that really was her name ;-).  We spent the rest of the afternoon hiking.  Imagine that ... us ... hiking.  I had done so much hiking by this point that my poor little sandals started falling apart, which was kind of a problem considering we had another 6 mile hike to complete the next day.  Yikes!

Following our hike, we were picked up by a small motor boat to be taken to our accommodations for the evening ... a rather over-sized houseboat.  We had reserved private quarters for our group.  The majority of the folks joining us for the evening were backpackers who were delegated to bunks in the bowels of the boat.  We spent the rest of the late afternoon partaking of the well-stocked bar, jumping off the top of the boat, showering, getting acquainted with our fellow aquapackers and eating an eagerly awaited, delicious dinner.

After the majority of the people on board had tucked themselves in for the evening, I found myself in the middle of a conversation with a German student (Max) and one of the girls (Becky) working on the boat.  I quickly surmised that Max had his eye on Becky.  I hadn't intended to insert myself in this potential soiree, however I just couldn't find a good place in the conversation to dismiss myself.  And then Becky, asked me about my experience with child birth and the ensuing effects it leaves on one's body.  Okay ... Becky's not interested in Max, at all, 'cause there's no better way of turning a guy off than pointing out all the dire ramifications of unprotected sex.  Okay ... so I laid it all out on the table for her.  Max brushed his teeth and went to bed.  Opps.

I did eventually manage to get to bed an hour later.

Day 18: Hamner Springs to Nelson

Today was another one of those "car" days.  At this point, I'm so used to driving on the left side of the road, that my stomach doesn't turn every time we make a left hand turn! 

We decided to start our morning with an early hike up the hill that over looks Hamner Springs.  You would all be so proud of me for getting up before the sun had even risen to get this in (as we had a long drive ahead of us).  Our hiking path looked like it might have been an old logging road at some point because it was so wide.  Our footsteps were padded with a very thick layer of pine straw and our path lined with ginormous trees.  They had a nice lookout point at the top of the climb that gave us fantastic pictures of the town and surrounding hillside as the sun peeked over the hills.

Our route for the day took us to the east coast, where we then headed north up the coastline.  The east coast of the South Island is very rocky and cliffy.  As we drove along, we could see dolphins jumping out of the water just off shore.  We, of course, had to pull over to gawk.  As we looked out over the rocks, we were greeted by a group of seals.  Apparently, the cute, little animals call the rocky sea line home and you can just drive by to check them out any time you want.  That is so cool!

We passed through the quaint town of Kaikoura, famous for whale-watching.  We didn't want to watch whales, so we moved on to something we did want to do.  Eat.  We drove just outside of Kaikoura to Nim's Bin.  Nim's Bin came highly recommended by the locals and it was even marked on our atlas.  So you would expect something rather swanky to accompany such a stellar reputation.  But no ... Nim's Bin is a caravan, on the side of the road.  They only sell what was caught that morning. 

We talked the whole morning about how they were famous for the crawfish that they catch.  Now, I like crawfish and was rather looking forward to a crawfish lunch.  So we walk in to see what was available, mentioning that we wanted crawfish.  This is the point that I realize that crawfish are not crawfish.  They are carYfish.  A completely different species from craWfish.  These were essential rock lobsters.  Now, you will probably need to sit down before I tell you this.  I don't like lobster or their cousins.  I don't know why.  I love shrimp, crab, mussels and a whole smorgasbord of shellfish, but lobster just doesn't do it for me.  Luckily they had mussels at Nim's Bin, which I gorged myself on while my posse dined on crayfish.  Everything was de-li-cious!

After lunch, we continued following the coast line to Picton.  Picton is the town where you can take the ferry to Wellington (on the North Island).  It also the start of Queen Charlotte's drive, a winding road that hugs the shoreline of Queen Charlotte's Sound. 

Picton

The views overlooking the sound were beautiful and we got our first glimpse of the HUGE shift in water levels this area experiences when the tide goes in and out.  The day was a bit gloomy so we didn't get the full effect as we stopped at the various "scenic overlooks."  It was just a preview of what was waiting for us the next day ... Abel Tasman National Forest!

We arrived in Nelson in the late afternoon.  Nelson is one of the bigger and more commercial towns I've seen in New Zealand ... several fast food places, more than one grocery store, shopping core that was bigger than one block, etc ...  We were staying at the Wheel House in the Crow's Nest for the night.  Nelson is built into the hillside surrounding the bay.  The Crow's Nest is located about 3/4 of the way up the main hillside.  Our views were magnificent and we made to most of our accommodations by grilling our dinner and spending the evening, relaxing on the deck overlooking the town. 

Day 17: Wine Tasting and Hamner Springs

Today was a late start for our group.  I woke up around 10 am ish to find our entire group dressed, packed and ready to go.  Opps.  Guess if everyone was in a huge hurry, someone would have woken me up.  Instead, I got to sleep in for the first time in two weeks! Thank you to everyone in our group as I believe they decided to let me have a late morning. 

Once we got on the road, we headed to a small Christchurch park to take a look around.  We were hoping to at least get a little bit of an idea of what a spectacular Christchurch garden would look like.  The park was very green, crawling with children, had a pond with people sailing miniature sail boats and nice walking paths.  We came across a swing bridge that we believe was closed due to damage from the September 4th, 2010 earthquake.  The park was covered with weeping willows and an abundance of floating wildlife (aka ducks).

We didn't spend more than an hour at the park as we were all quite anxious to start our wine tasting.  Wine tasting is a rather precarious activity for me.  First of all, I'm a ridiculous light-weight.  Doesn't take much to get me to my happy place and we had several places on our to-do list.  Our first stop was Pegasus Bay.  We were told about our various choices that would best suit our tastes in wine.  Everyone in our group prefers red wine.  I, on the other hand, can not drink reds as they tend to give me migraine headaches and to be quite honest with you, I'm just not that sophisticated either.  I have a sweet tooth and only a white wine really does it for me.  So, as we went through the wines, our little group would offer me the white wines in their selections that they were tasting.  I had arrived at my happy place at our first vineyard. Scary.

We were at the Mud House around lunch time and after perusing their menu, decided we needed to throw something in our stomachs to absorb some of the alcohol.  We sat down to dine on a picturesque outdoor patio looking out to the vineyards.  One of the locals had his helicopter parked next to the patio where we were seated. (Wow.) 

Our waiter stopped by our table to present the lunch specials and offered us a "porn salad."  I suppressed a giggle, looked at Angela and then asked our waiter to please explain exactly what a "pron" is and was it something he thought I might enjoy!  It didn't take more than a moment to realize that a "porn" is a "prawn."  I was almost disappointed and decided to move on to another very interesting dish.  I ordered this delicious, yet rather strange culinary delight.  Basically, they took hash browns covered with a tomato relish, then piled on rocket (kind of like arugula), smoked salmon, capers, avocado and lightly drizzled the whole thing in aoili.  I'm just surprised that they didn't have "streaky bacon" on there too.  These people seem to put "streaky bacon" on many of their menu offerings.  Interesting. Very interesting.

Overlooking Hamner Springs

Following lunch and a couple of other vineyard stops, we headed inland a bit to make our way toward Hamner Springs.  Hamner Springs is a quaint, vacation spot that attracts tourists mainly for it's thermal springs.  As soon as we were checked in to our motel, we put on swimsuits and headed out to the thermal springs.  The springs offered several different soaking pools.  Our favorite was a "message" pool with jets located in all the right places.  We had seen a variety of different people hanging on to the railing in that pool facing the wall as opposed to having their backs to the wall.  Once we got in, we understood the reason for the "turn around." 

The really cool feature at the thermal springs was the toilet bowl.  Yep ... these guys had a huge water slide that spit you through a "toilet bowl" and then out towards the bottom.   Fun, fun, fun.  After a few flushes for each of us, we took turns racing down the other two waters slides that were offered.  It didn't take more than one go to figure out which one was the fastest and therefore, most entertaining.

Following the thermal springs, we headed out for a late dinner and then off to rest for our adventures to come. 

I would like to take a moment to point out that I didn't describe a hike for today.  We actually took the day off, believe it or not!  Today was all about rest and relaxation.  I would say it might have even resembled a traditional "vacation" day!

One other thing to point out ... the accents on the South Island are pretty severe.  Our waiter at lunch was not the first time we stared at a Kiwi and wondered if he/she was actually speaking English or how to handle the awkward stare that accompanies that moment of incomprehension! 

When we were in Christchurch, Rae, our host told us to just leave the key in the "litter box" when we left.  The "litter box?"  Really!?!  Gross.  She had to explain that it was the box that you put you litters in ... you know, your MAIL!!!  Oh lord!  They pronounce their "e"s as "i"s ... so a peg is a pig.  My mother-in-law isn't Peggy ... she's Piggy.  Oh, that just sent us in gales of laughter.  And she smiled (maybe) when I told her how to say her name in NZ!

Day 16: Travel from Fox Glacier to Christchurch

Our 16th day in New Zealand started with bright sunshine and the promise of a gorgeous day.  Of course, this meant that my camera happy compadres had to make one last attempt to get the perfect postcard image at Lake Matheson.  So, for the THIRD time in the previous 24 hours, we headed back in that direction.  Take a look at the picture and tell me if it was worth wasting another precious New Zealand hour to capture.  (I was more than happy with just buying the post card!!)

At this point, I'm rather bored and ready to get on with the trip.  I spent my time speed-walking the trail to get a little pent up energy out since I had a solid 6 hours in the car ahead of me.

Once we were FINALLY leaving the Lake Matheson/Fox Glacier area, we headed north up the western coast line of the south island (Everyone follow all those directions?).  We stopped in a little town called Hokitika for lunch and shopping.  Hokitika is know for its vast sources of jade.  If you want something made from jade, this is the place to find it.  We picked up a few souvenirs for friends and family and then took a short stroll out to the beach.  So this is the first time since I had set foot in New Zealand that I was not impressed.  This beach was very pebbly, gray and the ocean water was gray and muddy.  I was curious if that is what the water always looked like in that area, as I had become quite accustomed to nothing less than magnificent everywhere that I traveled in this little island country.  Nevertheless, we did find some really cool, super flat rocks to bring home to the kids.

After Hokitika, we headed east towards Christchurch.  Late in the afternoon we crossed Arthur's Pass, the highest pass over the Southern Alps in New Zealand.  This area looks much like Switzerland with all the jagged peaks.   We stopped at several of the scenic overlooks to see what we could see.  At our first stop, the main attraction was a little visitor in the parking lot.  We finally saw our first Kea!  We've heard so much about these little creatures and warned to keep our boots hung up, etc ... but we had yet to actually lay eyes on this mischievous animal.  We followed the little guy around the parking lot with our cameras, taking picture after picture, hardly taking notice of the magnificent views.

After leaving the parking lot, we crossed the Otira Viaduct.  I wasn't exactly sure what a "viaduct" was.  Sounds like some kind of rain drainage system, but apparently it's the super cool, long bridge that we crossed over.  This particular area is prone to avalanches, rock slides and massive pour-offs during torrential rain.  We were rather amused by the creative ways that the Kiwi's managed to overcome these obstacles when building their roads.

It was getting late in the day and we thought Arthur's Pass would be a great place to take our daily hike.  One of the things I love about New Zealand is that no matter where you are, you can find a beautiful trail to take a hike on.  We stumbled upon Devil's Punchbowl Waterfall for today's adventure.  It was straight up for a beautiful view.   As we all know, what goes up, must come down.  By this point, I've had plenty of downhill practice and made it down this mountain in record speed ... for me that is. Everyone was still waiting for me at the bottom!

Following our hike, we continued towards Christchurch.  The terrain took on a more bumpy shape as opposed to just plain mountainous.  We also started seeing quite a few rock outcroppings scattered around the "lamb"scape (That's not a spelling error.  Every square inch of NZ is covered with sheep.). 

In New Zealand, they don't have expressways except in the largest of cities (think Auckland and Christchurch).  Their main thoroughfares are twisty-turvy, two-lane roads.  There are no billboards, strip malls, subdivisions, etc ...  What does line the roads are these miniature billboards with safe-driving messages ... "Feeling tired?  Take a power nap!"  The funniest one that we saw was heading to Christchurch.  It had a picture of the road with the dividing line down the middle.  On the left had side it said "live."  On the right hand side it said "die."  Apparently these poor folks have quite a problem with the foreigners driving on the wrong side of the road!  We all sat there silently in the car when we first saw the sign, no one commenting at all. About 15 seconds later, we all burst out laughing when we finally got the gist of the message.  It was too funny!

We arrived in Christchurch around 7pm.  Considering they had a major earthquake two weeks prior, we were expecting to encounter "something."  What that "something" was, we didn't know.  But the streets were fine.  We didn't see any damaged houses.  The place where we stayed had water and power.  We didn't witness anything that would indicated something tragic had befallen the city recently.  We did talk to the proprietor of our home-stay and she told us the worst of the damage was southeast of where we were staying, in the central part of the city.  That area was closed off and there wasn't any part of Christchurch that we open for touring.

After a good dinner, several rounds of pool and too many beers, we all laid our heads down to rest, looking forward to the next day ... a wine tour of the area!

Day 15: Fox Glacier Tour

Our day started off with a tour of the local glacier (pronounced glay-cee-ur, in New Zealand speak).  We were fitted with crampons (my first time!), given rain gear (of course, it's supposed to rain), and sent up the trail to the glacier. 

I don't know quite how to describe this experience, but I will try.  The guide company had steps carved into the side of the glacier to provide us access to the top.  This was a very slushy climb to get started with.  Also, it was my first time ever wearing crampons and to be honest with you, it takes a bit of getting used to.  To walk in these things and get a good grip of the ice requires that you stomp your feet into the ice.  So, basically I spent my day stomping around on the ice!!!

Also, there was a lot of up and down in the little adventure.  Now, I will remind everyone of my amazing confidence I had going over the pass on the Milford Track.  I really expected to be rather ungraceful in my new icy environment.  But not so!  It's amazing how well one can move with  pair of crampons over an icy surface.  I just loved it!

Our guide was a Canadian girl named Avalon just out of high school.  She assured us that she was well trained and that she would be able to pull us out of any crevasses should one of us decide to fall into one.  She did advise that we not fall into a crevasse that we couldn't see the bottom of since that would be a rather long drop and we're not quite sure her rope would be long enough! Yikes!

We got to explore ices caves and check out an ice arch.  It was such great fun scampering all over this magnificent work of nature. 

The glacier tour was over around 3 pm, so we had time to jump over the Franz Joseph glacier, a mere 20 minute drive away.  We did the walk to the glacier terminus in the late afternoon and then headed back to Fox for a relaxing evening.

Tomorrow, we head off over Arther's Pass to the Christchurch area.  It will be interesting to see how things are coming along on that part of the island.

Day 14: Queenstown to Fox Glacier

Today was a travel/rest day.  We had a lazy morning, breakfast in a local bakery and then off to the grocery store to pick up supplies.  You would think that being on vacation, that the last thing we would want to do is cook for ourselves, however the food here is so expensive.  A sandwich can cost up near $17!  Shocking!

We took our time driving to Fox Glacier.  The drive took us north from Queenstown, through Mt. Aspiring National Park, where we stopped for lunch and ate our picnic in a near by river bed (too cool)! 

We then wound our way up the west coast for a while, hoping to stick our feet in the Tasman Sea.  But every time we left the car, we were attacked by ... you guessed it, the dreaded sand fly.

We finally made it to the Fox Glacier area in the late afternoon.  After check in to our hotel, we drove south to Matheson Lake for a short walk (1 hour) and dinner. 

Matheson Lake is well know for the reflection one can see of the mountains and glaciers on a sunny day.  We all spent a great deal of time trying to capture the perfect image before the sun started to sink below the clouds. 

Everyone in our group decided that a trip back the next morning at dawn was called for.  As for me, the only thing calling my name at sunrise was my pillow!

Day 13: Dumpling Hut to Sandfly Point

Day four was our last day on the track.  We lucked out once again ... NO RAIN!  Wow!  Don't know what to think about that, but I felt like we might have needed to by a lottery ticket with that kind of luck.  The good news about day four is that it was mostly flat.  The bad news was that we had 11 more miles to hike.  These people really don't believe in short days.  And the other bad news, the sand-fly population had increased dramatically overnight and these little beasts were out for blood, literally.

So today was a big picture fest for me.  Had to do everything I could to somehow capture the majesty of everything around me ... the camera is just not good enough, but I tried anyway.

One of the important things about day four is to time your hike properly.  You don't want to get to Sandfly Point too early and have to hang out with the flying fleas until the ferry arrives to take you across the sound.  We did our first three miles in just around an hour.  That's pretty fast for us.  After I had felt that I had my cardio for the day, I decided to slow my pace.  Surly didn't want to arrive at Sandfly Point too soon. 

Much of our tramp on day four took us through soggy, swampy type land.  We also saw our first "brown" body of water that wasn't pristine and perfectly clear.  Today also brought us over a myriad of swing bridges (fun, fun, fun) and to my favorite waterfall. 

We also jumped under bell rock (very cool, as we could climb inside).  Our last stop was an aptly named Sandfly Point where we took the ferry across Milford Sound. 

Once again, everything was spectacular and amazing.  I've never been anywhere as beautiful as this.  The Milford Track definitely deserves it's reputation as the world's greatest walk.

Following our ferry ride, we took the bus back to Te Anau Downs to retrieve our car and then on to Bev's to return our hiking gear.  Lastly, we made a much deserved trip to the local market to stock up on beer before we headed back to Queenstown for our last night there.

Upon arrival in Queenstown, we all took much needed showers (you can imagine the BO after 4 days unbathed!) and had these HUGE burgers for dinner from a place called Ferg Burger.  Way too much food, but yummy, especially coming away from four days in the woods!