Mitre Peak at sunrise in Milford Sound
Lightplay near Dead Man's Beach on Stewart Island
The lighthouse at Nugget Point just after sunrise.
Moeraki Boulders at low tide.
Lion Rock on the Aramoana Spit BeachTuesday, October 20, 2009
October 6 Tuesday I picked Chris up just after 10 am at his hostel, but I had already had an active morning. I got up early and went to Bob's Cove. There is a short loop trail to a small peninsula with old lime kilns and a hilltop view spot. The clouds and lighting were very nice and I got a number of pictures. We had decided to take a route to Dunedin that followed a converted railway line that is now a mountain bike trail of some 170 kms. They take 3 day tours from the high ground down to the flatland. Actually driving the road criss crosses the old railway numerous times and I think it would be a lovely mountain bike route. There were not a lot of places that we felt we had to stop and take pictures, partly because after spending several days among the very impressive mountains, the nice green rolling hills, just did not seem as picturesque. So we made quite good time and arrived in Dunedin in the early afternoon. I dropped Chris off at his hostel near the city center and after a brief stop of my own at the city center (called the Octagon) to pick of a city map, I went to find something to do. I was looking for Baldwin St, which according to Guiness is the steepest street in the world, having bumped one of San Francisco's steep streets from the top spot. Apparently, five streets in Dunedin are in the top 10 for steepness. But is was just off the map and signs were not very good, so the hill I started driving up was not it, but it had signs indicating Signal Hill Lookout. It was worth the drive to the top. This was indeed a birds eye view of Dunedin and surrounds. I returned down the hill and did find Baldwin St. My Spaceship made it up and back down without much difficulty. I next stopped at the Botanical Gardens to discover that most of the buildings closed at 4 pm. No big deal. I drove down towards the town center again and stopped to take a couple pictures of the train station, which I had been told at the info center was the most photographed building in the city. I also checked the operating hours of the Cadbury factory. They have a tour for $20, but there is also a chocolate shop in the visitor center, so I'll try and stop there tomorrow when they are open. Next I drove out to a neighborhood to the south of town and found my Couchsurfing hosts: Sophia, Miguel, and their gato Guillermo. They got me settled in, let me look through a book of local walking trails, and then we shared a dinner. Their car was being repaired and was ready to be picked up, so I gave them a ride to the mechanics across town. We made a couple stops for other things on the way, but I was happy to do it in exchange for a place to sleep and get a shower. Back at their place I went to bed quite soon afterwards.
October 7 Wednesday I slept in a bit and my hosts were already gone when I got up. I made my own breakfast then headed out to embrace the day. I stopped at the library and was told I could not use the internet there, so I went down the street and paid for a half hour at a cafe. One message was from a person I had contacted in Christchurch, who wanted to travel around the south island for a couple weeks. That was good news to me. I also stopped by the Cadbury plant again, but discovered that even to get into the shop you had to have gone on the tour, so no cheap chocolate for me. Oh well. I hit the road to the northern side of town and headed for the coast through Port Chalmers. There was a nice overlook called Flagstaff Hill, but the rest of the town was extremely sleepy (outside of some dockworkers unloading box cars). I went the rest of the way to the coast to a a split portion of the shore called The Spit on one side and Spit Beach on the other. This is a region where there are sometimes albatross and penguins, but my hosts had told me there was not much chance to see either since the young had just left the nests and most had gone for the season. I certainly did not sea any penguins or albatross, but the beach was very nice and I enjoyed walking them and finding shells. At the far end of Spit Beach, where the penguins sometimes hang out there was a rock formation called Lion Rock. Not sure why, I saw no resemblance with a lion, but it did have a nice hole through it, that could only be seen when you went past it. I'm sure most people have no idea it is there, unless they actually walk to the far end of the beach. I returned to town in the early afternoon and made my way through the Botanical Gardens, which were open this time. Then I sought out two other lookouts in the hills to the west of town, but neither was nearly as impressive as Signal Hill. When I got back to my hosts house, Sophia was just getting ready to leave and invited me to watch her play in a hockey game. She said she had to leave right away to get ready, but that soup and salad were waiting for me in the kitchen. She gave me directions and I said I would come as soon as I ate. It was easy to find the hockey rink and it was a interesting back and forth game, which had a rather exciting ending with a final goal to tie the score coming with 3 seconds left. They then had to do a shoot out and every single player had a shot. At the beginning of going through a second tour one of Sophia's team mates made a shot and when the other team missed their shot, it was over. One note I have to mention. Having stayed in a couple homes now and talking with several other people, almost no homes in New Zealand have any insulation, so they get very cold. It has only been about ten years that insulation has been used, amazingly.
October 8 Thursday After leaving a note thanking my hosts, I drove back up to Christchurch with a stop at the Moeraki Boulders. They are fascinating. The information I gathered on them said they are created through calcification much like a pearl in an oyster. When they have opened up some of the up to 3 meter boulders they have found turtle skeletons, fish skeletons, and even dinosaur skeletons. They are scattered along a section of the beach and many of them have intriguing patterns on their outer surfaces. The tide was low and I got many pictures. As I got closer to Christchurch the clouds were getting thicker and thicker. I texted Julie to see when it would be good to meet, but did not hear back. I parked in a free parking area and walked down to the library where I could access the internet. I sent Julie a message through Couchsurfing and she texted me almost immediately. The number she had given me was not correct, but we got that straightened out. I drove to where she was staying with couchsurfers on the western side of town since it was raining by then. We walked down to a nearby mall and had some sushi while we talked about our plans. It went well and we agreed to leave the next morning. Back at the place she was staying, I got permission to park the Spaceship off the street and just use their bathroom. That worked just fine.
October 9 Thursday Julie brought her bag out and we rearranged a few things in the car before heading inland on the Inland Scenic Route I had been on not that long ago. This time we went straight to Rakaia Gorge and with only a few other stops at Lake Tekapo (with heavy clouding so the mountains were obscured), we soldiered on to Mt Cook and the White Horse campground. The information center was promising clear weather in the morning, but it was really overcast and began heavily snowing. It was windy and incredibly cold, but we made the best of it. We ran the heater as long as I dared and when I went to reposition the van so we could cook a little more out of the wind the car wouldn't start. So it was longer than I should have dared obviously. There was a couple from Alaska staying at the campground in a Jucy van. I checked with them and they said they would not leave in the morning until we were fixed up. I told them how much we would appreciate that.
October 10 Sabbath As promised the sky was completely clear and it was beautiful. And as promised the couple from Alaska retrieved a battery charger from the visitor center. Between us we got the car jumped and I ran the engine for about 20 minutes so it would not be a recurring problem. They had been doing some mountain climbing until the weather got too bad yesterday and were heading out to meet friends at another mountain further north, so we thanked them and let them go. We walked out on the Hooker Glacier walk as far as they would allow us (the rockfall was still being cleared up), but we could see the glacier by the time we had to stop. Then we went over to the Tasman Glacier and this time in addition to climbing the viewing point we also walked down to the lake shore where we were closer to the icebergs. No one was using the small boats today, but they were actually 12 seaters. When Chris and I had been there before I thought they were just 4 person dinghys, they looked so small along the icebergs. We spent the mid to late afternoon driving. Half of this terrain I had seen before with Chris, but the rest was new as we approched Oamaru, where my friend Jen Ogden lives. She had been camping at Stewart Island for the past week and I was hoping she was back so we could ask about the island and some other things. Julie is a certified teacher in Germany and wanted more info on the process of becoming certified in New Zealand. Jen is a teacher, so that would have been convenient. But it was not meant to be. We arrived and found the SDA church, which was right on the main street through town, but no one was there. The sign out front had a phone number for the pastor and a head elder. The first went to a wrong number and I interrupted someone's dinner and the second number just rang and rang. So no one could let us into the church. We parked behind the building and used a restroom down the street at a gas station and stayed the night. Julie is a rather picky eater in some ways, we stopped in five different restaurants and none was close enough to what she wanted and she absolutely does not cook herself. I made enough pasta for both of us and we ate that.
October 7 Wednesday I slept in a bit and my hosts were already gone when I got up. I made my own breakfast then headed out to embrace the day. I stopped at the library and was told I could not use the internet there, so I went down the street and paid for a half hour at a cafe. One message was from a person I had contacted in Christchurch, who wanted to travel around the south island for a couple weeks. That was good news to me. I also stopped by the Cadbury plant again, but discovered that even to get into the shop you had to have gone on the tour, so no cheap chocolate for me. Oh well. I hit the road to the northern side of town and headed for the coast through Port Chalmers. There was a nice overlook called Flagstaff Hill, but the rest of the town was extremely sleepy (outside of some dockworkers unloading box cars). I went the rest of the way to the coast to a a split portion of the shore called The Spit on one side and Spit Beach on the other. This is a region where there are sometimes albatross and penguins, but my hosts had told me there was not much chance to see either since the young had just left the nests and most had gone for the season. I certainly did not sea any penguins or albatross, but the beach was very nice and I enjoyed walking them and finding shells. At the far end of Spit Beach, where the penguins sometimes hang out there was a rock formation called Lion Rock. Not sure why, I saw no resemblance with a lion, but it did have a nice hole through it, that could only be seen when you went past it. I'm sure most people have no idea it is there, unless they actually walk to the far end of the beach. I returned to town in the early afternoon and made my way through the Botanical Gardens, which were open this time. Then I sought out two other lookouts in the hills to the west of town, but neither was nearly as impressive as Signal Hill. When I got back to my hosts house, Sophia was just getting ready to leave and invited me to watch her play in a hockey game. She said she had to leave right away to get ready, but that soup and salad were waiting for me in the kitchen. She gave me directions and I said I would come as soon as I ate. It was easy to find the hockey rink and it was a interesting back and forth game, which had a rather exciting ending with a final goal to tie the score coming with 3 seconds left. They then had to do a shoot out and every single player had a shot. At the beginning of going through a second tour one of Sophia's team mates made a shot and when the other team missed their shot, it was over. One note I have to mention. Having stayed in a couple homes now and talking with several other people, almost no homes in New Zealand have any insulation, so they get very cold. It has only been about ten years that insulation has been used, amazingly.
October 8 Thursday After leaving a note thanking my hosts, I drove back up to Christchurch with a stop at the Moeraki Boulders. They are fascinating. The information I gathered on them said they are created through calcification much like a pearl in an oyster. When they have opened up some of the up to 3 meter boulders they have found turtle skeletons, fish skeletons, and even dinosaur skeletons. They are scattered along a section of the beach and many of them have intriguing patterns on their outer surfaces. The tide was low and I got many pictures. As I got closer to Christchurch the clouds were getting thicker and thicker. I texted Julie to see when it would be good to meet, but did not hear back. I parked in a free parking area and walked down to the library where I could access the internet. I sent Julie a message through Couchsurfing and she texted me almost immediately. The number she had given me was not correct, but we got that straightened out. I drove to where she was staying with couchsurfers on the western side of town since it was raining by then. We walked down to a nearby mall and had some sushi while we talked about our plans. It went well and we agreed to leave the next morning. Back at the place she was staying, I got permission to park the Spaceship off the street and just use their bathroom. That worked just fine.
October 9 Thursday Julie brought her bag out and we rearranged a few things in the car before heading inland on the Inland Scenic Route I had been on not that long ago. This time we went straight to Rakaia Gorge and with only a few other stops at Lake Tekapo (with heavy clouding so the mountains were obscured), we soldiered on to Mt Cook and the White Horse campground. The information center was promising clear weather in the morning, but it was really overcast and began heavily snowing. It was windy and incredibly cold, but we made the best of it. We ran the heater as long as I dared and when I went to reposition the van so we could cook a little more out of the wind the car wouldn't start. So it was longer than I should have dared obviously. There was a couple from Alaska staying at the campground in a Jucy van. I checked with them and they said they would not leave in the morning until we were fixed up. I told them how much we would appreciate that.
October 10 Sabbath As promised the sky was completely clear and it was beautiful. And as promised the couple from Alaska retrieved a battery charger from the visitor center. Between us we got the car jumped and I ran the engine for about 20 minutes so it would not be a recurring problem. They had been doing some mountain climbing until the weather got too bad yesterday and were heading out to meet friends at another mountain further north, so we thanked them and let them go. We walked out on the Hooker Glacier walk as far as they would allow us (the rockfall was still being cleared up), but we could see the glacier by the time we had to stop. Then we went over to the Tasman Glacier and this time in addition to climbing the viewing point we also walked down to the lake shore where we were closer to the icebergs. No one was using the small boats today, but they were actually 12 seaters. When Chris and I had been there before I thought they were just 4 person dinghys, they looked so small along the icebergs. We spent the mid to late afternoon driving. Half of this terrain I had seen before with Chris, but the rest was new as we approched Oamaru, where my friend Jen Ogden lives. She had been camping at Stewart Island for the past week and I was hoping she was back so we could ask about the island and some other things. Julie is a certified teacher in Germany and wanted more info on the process of becoming certified in New Zealand. Jen is a teacher, so that would have been convenient. But it was not meant to be. We arrived and found the SDA church, which was right on the main street through town, but no one was there. The sign out front had a phone number for the pastor and a head elder. The first went to a wrong number and I interrupted someone's dinner and the second number just rang and rang. So no one could let us into the church. We parked behind the building and used a restroom down the street at a gas station and stayed the night. Julie is a rather picky eater in some ways, we stopped in five different restaurants and none was close enough to what she wanted and she absolutely does not cook herself. I made enough pasta for both of us and we ate that.
Monday, October 19, 2009
October 1 Thursday We got up, broke camp and drove back by Twizel and up to Mt Cook/Aoraki, The sky was partially cloudy, but there were blue skies enough of the time for us to be hopeful. At the visitor center we checked out the available walks and were told we could go up the trail to the Mueller Hut until we hit the snow and then we would need to turn back. Only those with the correct snow equipment were allowed to continue. Correct equipment including axes, crampons, rope, etc. We did the Kea Point walk, which terminates with views of the Mueller glacier and the lake at its feet. This is not a particularly pretty glacier as it is mostlly a dirty gray from accumulated bits of rock and dust, but it is the first glacier we have come to so it is impressive none the less. We retraced our path until we could begin ascending the Mueller's Hut walk and went as high as we could. Once we hit the snow we had our lunch looking down over the valley. After climbing back down to the valley floor we drove about 14 kms to a side valley to see the Tasman Sea/Glacier and Blue Lakes. This entailed a short walk to a hilltop where we could see the three Blue Lakes, which are actually a deep green color, and the Tasman glacier terminal end and lake. The lake is spotted with icebergs and the glacier itself is much cleaner than Mueller's. There is a further trail down to the lake and we could see a couple small water craft venturing out to the icebergs. There is also a 8 km hike which would put you right at the glacier terminal end, but we chose not to do that. One other walk in the area is the walk to Hooker's Glacier. This one crosses two cable bridges before getting to the glacier itself, but due to a “rockfall” (landslide) that trail is closed.
So we left the Aoraki valley and began our drive towards Queenstown. We found a secluded little bend off the road along the Kawarau River gorge to camp in for the night about 40 kms outside of Queenstown. After dinner we watched “Lackawanna Blues” and went to bed.
October 2 Friday We woke up to a mostly clear sky with the sun shining. I got somewhat washed up in the frigid water of the Kawarau River and then Chris and I had breakfast. Our little campsite was excellent and it did not take long to break camp and be on our way the last little bit to Queenstown. The town is actually spread out over a long stretch of the Lake Wanatipu shore so the impression is of a much larger town than the 13,000 that actually live here. It is a hub for all kinds of extreme sports and outdoors activity in general. You can do jet boating, whitewater rafting, skydiving, bungy jumping (the first bungy jumps in th world happened just outside town on the Kawarau River), paragliding, mountain biking, hiking, etc. Chris is a member of BBH, a hostel collective similar to YHA (where I am a member) and so we went to a backpackers listed in his booklet. I got the discount as well for traveling with Chris. The first thing we both did was get showers. Then we walked down to the town center and I exchanged the dvd we had watched and Chris started getting info on whitewater rafting. I left him to climb Queenstown Hill and get an overview of the area. It was a nice walk, with a few sprinkles on the way up, but it was clear once I got to the summit. There was a lot of wind, but I had enough layers to be warm. When I returned to the hostel, Chris told me that they had already booked out the rafting trips for Saturday, so he booked for Sunday afternoon. The weather was supposed to be much better on Sunday anyway. That was fine with me. The hostel has free internet access so I tracked down the local SDA church. That involved calling a number because they do not have a permanent location and move from week to week. I read a book for a while before going to bed.
October 3 Sabbath Woke up to a dusting of snow as predicted and more wet clumpy snow falling. I got up and after breakfast of bread with nutella and banana, some yoghurt, and a nectarine, started walking to Frankton 6kms away. I chose not to drive, because it looked so nice with the snow. It was lovely walking along the lakeside with snow gently falling. The temp was 34 degrees so most of it was not really sticking to the ground, instead it was making slush and my shoes got wet quite quickly, which I had not really planned for. Cold wet socks are not the best for walking in. But it was a beautiful, quiet morning and I made it to the designated location, just after the 10:30am starting time I had been told. They were actually still having a morning tea and so I had a few cookies and a nice hot cup of ginger tea. There were 17 people in attendance for this week with the Queenstown SDA company. Pastor Soon Yeung said that in the three years he has been the pastor, his wife has each week declared that maybe this week she will be singing for him and he will be preaching to her (they are the only members of the company), but it has never happened once. People always show up. There was a youth group visiting from Invercargill, further south that made up the bulk of the group, but there were also three traveling Australians and myself. Seven different nationalities were also represented. We did not study the lesson, but instead had a discussion about broaching the subject of why bad things happen to good people with non Christians. One of the youth group members had the sermon about how we need to ask God specifically for help and truly believe He will answer. English is not the young man's mother tongue, but he did a good job anyway. Then we had a small potluch with just the right amount of food and eventually about 3 pm we split up and I headed back the way I came. The snow was nearly all melted, the sun was out, and while it had been very sleepy on my walk in the morning, people were out everywhere now. It was also still very cold. Instead of heading directly back to the hostel, I went through the Botanical Gardens and ran into Christopher about half way through. I continued back to the hostel and he stayed at the gardens a while longer. After a brief rest, I decided there was still enough time for another walk and so I headed towards the suburb of Fernhill on the west side of Queenstown. This leads to several multihour 'tramps', but I gave myself an hour up so I would not get back when it was too dark. I got a lot farther than I thought I would. The One Mile track follows an old water pipeline from a defunct gold mining operation up a canyon to a place called Midway Meadow. From here the Fernhill Loop goes an additional 2 hours, or the Ben Lomond Track goes to the top of the peak for which it is named in 5 hours, or you can walk to the top of the gondola. I decided to follow the Fernhill Loop for the time I had alloted myself. It worked out quite well, because when I had to turn around I had reached a creek crossing that was swollen with snow runoff. While I could see a way across it was probably safer that I did not try. I had a great time marching through the snow that was still heavy on the ground for the last half hour of my walk up. When I made my way back down to the trail head, I discovered that I had nearly done half of the Fernhill Loop and it had not taken nearly as long as they described. I also logged my 6000th picture of the trip, which seems like an awful lot, but I know I could have taken many many more.
In the evening Christopher ran into a English girl he knew from Australia and they went off together. I walked through the town center again and picked up some groceries I needed, then read some more and worked on my trip notes before going to bed.
October 4 Sunday We checked out of the hostel just before 10, but I hung around a while longer using the internet. While Christopher was out for the day whitewater rafting, I drove 10 kms west of Queenstown and walked the Mt Crichton/Sam Somers track. This was easily my favorite walk in the Queenstown area. It was a loop track and the way I went had me following a creek through a nice forest, eventually reaching Sam Somers cabin. The cabin has a couple rudimentary beds and all the cooking utensils you could need, although the whole trail is not really long enough to warrant camping overnight. There was also a somewhat sleepy red possum in the rafters. He woke up sufficiently to get hidden in a wall before I could get the camera out and attempt a picture, but I was glad to have seen one alive since I see so many along the roadsides dead. The trail continues and breaks out of the forest to snowy mountain peaks and there was a brief side jaunt through a narrow gap between two large sheets of stone to some old mine openings. At the peak of the trail there was a great view of the mountains and a few minutes later was another viewpoint overlooking Lake Dispute and Lake Wanatipu. While driving back to town I stopped at a turnout to read the Dept of Conservation marker. A lady parked there said she would let me know her favorite trails in the area. Top of the list: Mt Crichton/Sam Somers track. I told her I just came from there and it was my favorite as well. She recommended one branch of the Bob's Cove trail and a few places up near Glenorchy, where we are heading this evening.
I met Christopher at the appointed time and he said he was slightly disappointed with the whitewater rafting. It had been mostly in Class 3 rapids (we do a couple of those on inner tubes, when we pirate raft the Cache Creek), but too much of the time had been spent just floating lazily between the rapids. At least for the amount of money he spent. We drove up the valley to Glenorchy and made it to the campground at the foot of the Routeburn Track before dark. There was another German couple already there cooking over a small fire. We collected as much wood as we could, made our own dinner with our stove and then joined them to talk over the combined fire. It was bitterly cold and the fire only kept one side slightly warmer, so after talking for about an hour most of our wood was gone and we all headed for bed. They were both from Berlin and had been working picking fruit for almost four months. They were taking a break from that to see some of the island and then look for different jobs. They were going to try and go to the first hut on the Routeburn Track and stay one night. The same issue is in play here: there is snow all over the higher elevations and without the proper gear, you can only go so far. We will probably do another hike instead.
October 5 Monday We got up and decided to take the Rockburn trail past Lake Sylvan and see what we would do from there. The trail was quite muddy, but the forest is not very thick and with so much moss, it often felt like we were walking on a spongecake. Lake Sylvan was beautiful and we found a nice little hut at the end of the Rockburn trail. There was also a short diversion trail to a gorge and what a gorge it was. When we got on the small bridge we were probably looking straight down a narrow crevice churning with water 150 ft below us. Pictures can't even begin to show what it really looked like and we both thought it was the highlight of the walk to that point. Looking at our maps we thought we probably could walk along the river and make it back just as fast as going back on the trail, so we took that route. We wanted adventure, we got adventure. Very soon we had to cross the snow melt river and so we took off our shoes and socks and waded across. Very cold, but invigorating at the same time. Well, after doing this 6, 7, 8 times and the water getting deeper each time, we both began wondering about the wisdom of our decision. I was not worried about my feet, we had enough time between crossings for them to warm back up, but I was becoming concerned that we might get to a point where a crossing would be waist deep or more and with the swiftness of the water, that could lead to many other more serious risks. At one point before we got too concerned a group of canoeists went by. Later we watched a couple jet boats plow through the shallow water we had earlier crossed. Eventually we got to the side of the river we needed to be on and stayed there, but it was still almost an hour of walking through forest and field (with thousands of rabbits criss crossing it in a panic as we came) before we made it back to the car and campground. It was worth it, but tiring and we headed back to Queenstown without stopping at two other short walks that had been recommended to us. Since Chris had met his English friend he wanted to spend some more time with her, so I dropped him off in town at the hostel she was staying at and I went back outside town to a campground for the night.
So we left the Aoraki valley and began our drive towards Queenstown. We found a secluded little bend off the road along the Kawarau River gorge to camp in for the night about 40 kms outside of Queenstown. After dinner we watched “Lackawanna Blues” and went to bed.
October 2 Friday We woke up to a mostly clear sky with the sun shining. I got somewhat washed up in the frigid water of the Kawarau River and then Chris and I had breakfast. Our little campsite was excellent and it did not take long to break camp and be on our way the last little bit to Queenstown. The town is actually spread out over a long stretch of the Lake Wanatipu shore so the impression is of a much larger town than the 13,000 that actually live here. It is a hub for all kinds of extreme sports and outdoors activity in general. You can do jet boating, whitewater rafting, skydiving, bungy jumping (the first bungy jumps in th world happened just outside town on the Kawarau River), paragliding, mountain biking, hiking, etc. Chris is a member of BBH, a hostel collective similar to YHA (where I am a member) and so we went to a backpackers listed in his booklet. I got the discount as well for traveling with Chris. The first thing we both did was get showers. Then we walked down to the town center and I exchanged the dvd we had watched and Chris started getting info on whitewater rafting. I left him to climb Queenstown Hill and get an overview of the area. It was a nice walk, with a few sprinkles on the way up, but it was clear once I got to the summit. There was a lot of wind, but I had enough layers to be warm. When I returned to the hostel, Chris told me that they had already booked out the rafting trips for Saturday, so he booked for Sunday afternoon. The weather was supposed to be much better on Sunday anyway. That was fine with me. The hostel has free internet access so I tracked down the local SDA church. That involved calling a number because they do not have a permanent location and move from week to week. I read a book for a while before going to bed.
October 3 Sabbath Woke up to a dusting of snow as predicted and more wet clumpy snow falling. I got up and after breakfast of bread with nutella and banana, some yoghurt, and a nectarine, started walking to Frankton 6kms away. I chose not to drive, because it looked so nice with the snow. It was lovely walking along the lakeside with snow gently falling. The temp was 34 degrees so most of it was not really sticking to the ground, instead it was making slush and my shoes got wet quite quickly, which I had not really planned for. Cold wet socks are not the best for walking in. But it was a beautiful, quiet morning and I made it to the designated location, just after the 10:30am starting time I had been told. They were actually still having a morning tea and so I had a few cookies and a nice hot cup of ginger tea. There were 17 people in attendance for this week with the Queenstown SDA company. Pastor Soon Yeung said that in the three years he has been the pastor, his wife has each week declared that maybe this week she will be singing for him and he will be preaching to her (they are the only members of the company), but it has never happened once. People always show up. There was a youth group visiting from Invercargill, further south that made up the bulk of the group, but there were also three traveling Australians and myself. Seven different nationalities were also represented. We did not study the lesson, but instead had a discussion about broaching the subject of why bad things happen to good people with non Christians. One of the youth group members had the sermon about how we need to ask God specifically for help and truly believe He will answer. English is not the young man's mother tongue, but he did a good job anyway. Then we had a small potluch with just the right amount of food and eventually about 3 pm we split up and I headed back the way I came. The snow was nearly all melted, the sun was out, and while it had been very sleepy on my walk in the morning, people were out everywhere now. It was also still very cold. Instead of heading directly back to the hostel, I went through the Botanical Gardens and ran into Christopher about half way through. I continued back to the hostel and he stayed at the gardens a while longer. After a brief rest, I decided there was still enough time for another walk and so I headed towards the suburb of Fernhill on the west side of Queenstown. This leads to several multihour 'tramps', but I gave myself an hour up so I would not get back when it was too dark. I got a lot farther than I thought I would. The One Mile track follows an old water pipeline from a defunct gold mining operation up a canyon to a place called Midway Meadow. From here the Fernhill Loop goes an additional 2 hours, or the Ben Lomond Track goes to the top of the peak for which it is named in 5 hours, or you can walk to the top of the gondola. I decided to follow the Fernhill Loop for the time I had alloted myself. It worked out quite well, because when I had to turn around I had reached a creek crossing that was swollen with snow runoff. While I could see a way across it was probably safer that I did not try. I had a great time marching through the snow that was still heavy on the ground for the last half hour of my walk up. When I made my way back down to the trail head, I discovered that I had nearly done half of the Fernhill Loop and it had not taken nearly as long as they described. I also logged my 6000th picture of the trip, which seems like an awful lot, but I know I could have taken many many more.
In the evening Christopher ran into a English girl he knew from Australia and they went off together. I walked through the town center again and picked up some groceries I needed, then read some more and worked on my trip notes before going to bed.
October 4 Sunday We checked out of the hostel just before 10, but I hung around a while longer using the internet. While Christopher was out for the day whitewater rafting, I drove 10 kms west of Queenstown and walked the Mt Crichton/Sam Somers track. This was easily my favorite walk in the Queenstown area. It was a loop track and the way I went had me following a creek through a nice forest, eventually reaching Sam Somers cabin. The cabin has a couple rudimentary beds and all the cooking utensils you could need, although the whole trail is not really long enough to warrant camping overnight. There was also a somewhat sleepy red possum in the rafters. He woke up sufficiently to get hidden in a wall before I could get the camera out and attempt a picture, but I was glad to have seen one alive since I see so many along the roadsides dead. The trail continues and breaks out of the forest to snowy mountain peaks and there was a brief side jaunt through a narrow gap between two large sheets of stone to some old mine openings. At the peak of the trail there was a great view of the mountains and a few minutes later was another viewpoint overlooking Lake Dispute and Lake Wanatipu. While driving back to town I stopped at a turnout to read the Dept of Conservation marker. A lady parked there said she would let me know her favorite trails in the area. Top of the list: Mt Crichton/Sam Somers track. I told her I just came from there and it was my favorite as well. She recommended one branch of the Bob's Cove trail and a few places up near Glenorchy, where we are heading this evening.
I met Christopher at the appointed time and he said he was slightly disappointed with the whitewater rafting. It had been mostly in Class 3 rapids (we do a couple of those on inner tubes, when we pirate raft the Cache Creek), but too much of the time had been spent just floating lazily between the rapids. At least for the amount of money he spent. We drove up the valley to Glenorchy and made it to the campground at the foot of the Routeburn Track before dark. There was another German couple already there cooking over a small fire. We collected as much wood as we could, made our own dinner with our stove and then joined them to talk over the combined fire. It was bitterly cold and the fire only kept one side slightly warmer, so after talking for about an hour most of our wood was gone and we all headed for bed. They were both from Berlin and had been working picking fruit for almost four months. They were taking a break from that to see some of the island and then look for different jobs. They were going to try and go to the first hut on the Routeburn Track and stay one night. The same issue is in play here: there is snow all over the higher elevations and without the proper gear, you can only go so far. We will probably do another hike instead.
October 5 Monday We got up and decided to take the Rockburn trail past Lake Sylvan and see what we would do from there. The trail was quite muddy, but the forest is not very thick and with so much moss, it often felt like we were walking on a spongecake. Lake Sylvan was beautiful and we found a nice little hut at the end of the Rockburn trail. There was also a short diversion trail to a gorge and what a gorge it was. When we got on the small bridge we were probably looking straight down a narrow crevice churning with water 150 ft below us. Pictures can't even begin to show what it really looked like and we both thought it was the highlight of the walk to that point. Looking at our maps we thought we probably could walk along the river and make it back just as fast as going back on the trail, so we took that route. We wanted adventure, we got adventure. Very soon we had to cross the snow melt river and so we took off our shoes and socks and waded across. Very cold, but invigorating at the same time. Well, after doing this 6, 7, 8 times and the water getting deeper each time, we both began wondering about the wisdom of our decision. I was not worried about my feet, we had enough time between crossings for them to warm back up, but I was becoming concerned that we might get to a point where a crossing would be waist deep or more and with the swiftness of the water, that could lead to many other more serious risks. At one point before we got too concerned a group of canoeists went by. Later we watched a couple jet boats plow through the shallow water we had earlier crossed. Eventually we got to the side of the river we needed to be on and stayed there, but it was still almost an hour of walking through forest and field (with thousands of rabbits criss crossing it in a panic as we came) before we made it back to the car and campground. It was worth it, but tiring and we headed back to Queenstown without stopping at two other short walks that had been recommended to us. Since Chris had met his English friend he wanted to spend some more time with her, so I dropped him off in town at the hostel she was staying at and I went back outside town to a campground for the night.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
September 26 Sabbath I showered, ate two bananas, a bagel, and some apricot yoghurt for breakfast, and headed out for church. The first option was the building I had checked out before (with no signage). Well it was a good thing I left early enough, because the building was still locked and no one was around at 9:20, so I abandoned that option and headed for a church on the north side of town. It was closer to where I was (I had a third address but it was further still). This morning the sun was out and there were some clouds but not many, so it was nice to be outside and it made the walk much more endurable. I hurried and made it while they were still in a song service for sabbath school. The St. Albans SDA Church is a small building with a small flock. (later someone said that was the smallest church in the area) There were about 15 people when I arrived and it maybe doubled when the last person came. The congregation is older, but they were very friendly and welcoming and the sermon by one of the members was spot on. Their main pastor has three churches, so they only get him once or twice a month. After church I was invited to the home of Jan Odonnell for lunch. She and her friend Olive are both widows whose husbands died about a year ago a week apart (about the time my dad died actually). We had a nice lunch of vegetable soup and home made bread (and some cookies for desert). Later they dropped me off a short distance from my hostel on their way to another friends birthday party. The weather was still very nice so the walk back was lovely. There are only two of us in the room now so we have lots of space to ourselves. I read for a while in the evening
September 27 Sunday Another day in CHCH. My notes are bad for this day and I did not go anywhere, so I'll leave it at that.
September 28 Monday By chance I found a notice from a German guy looking for a travel mate and we met and decided to give it a go. We will leave tomorrow after I pick up my campervan. I picked up some groceries and did a load of laundry. I also finished two books and picked up a new one. The ones I finished were called In The Woods and The Anatomist, a detective story and a historical expansion of the Italian who “discovered” much of what was known about the circulatory system and the clitoris in the 1600's. The one I picked up I am excited about: Born on a Blue Day. It is the autobiography of a highly functioning autistic savant with Aspergers and synesthesia.
September 29 Tuesday Vacated Around The World and walked with all my stuff to the Spaceship office. I got there at about 8:45 and the sign said Back at 9:15, so I waited. But I got to thinking and when no one arrived by 9:25, I concluded that maybe I needed to be at the other location in town, the actual Spaceship depot to pick up my vehicle. So I made the walk over to the second address and sure enough I had a vehicle waiting. They showed me what came with the van and how things worked with it and by 10 am I was over at Foley Towers to pick up Christopher. We basically just threw our bags in the back and planned to organize everything better when we stopped for the night. So leaving CHCH we headed for the Banks Peninsula and the town of Akaroa. Almost as soon as we got outside of town the weather cleared up and we had sunshine. We both thought that Christchurch had been pulling the wool over our eyes and it was probably the only cloudy/rainy place in all of New Zealand. We were partially right. The Banks Peninsula has several scenic drives through it and we took a different route back than the one we drove out on. The town at the end of the pen, Akaroa was incredibly small and is mainly a starting point for bay cruises (where small dolphins are frequently seen). There are many places to take walks in the hills (except that Sept and Oct are lambing season and about 90% of the walks were closed due to this. We did take a nice walk to the top of the ridge where we could see bays on both sides of the peninsula and some expansive views. I guess nice is how I would describe it in hindsight because the views more than made up for the almost nonexistent trail we followed up a stream bed to get to the top. After leaving Banks Peninsula we got on the Inland Scenic Route, which was indeed scenic. The landscape is lush green, with sheep nearly everywhere. As we got a little further inland we could see the snow capped peaks rising in the near distance. Our first real stop was at Rakaia Gorge, where the color of the water fascinated us. We knew of a place to camp, but diverted to the town of Methven to get a few groceries and see if anything was happening. The town was essentially dead, but we got a local map with some trails marked on it and headed for our campground near a place called Taylor's Stream. We watched “Supersize Me” after eating and then went to bed.
September 30 Wednesday After getting up, having breakfast, and breaking our camp at Taylor's Stream, we backtracked to the Gorge and did the Gorge Walk. It took us a couple hours, but was well worth it. The water has such an amazing color from the snow melt and the rock dust in it. We continued up to Lake Tekapo, with stops at the Church of the Good Shepard on the shore and a nice walk up to Mt John's Observatory for great views back to the town and all around. Then we continued past Twizel, with a stop to exchange dvd's at the Helicopter Line, to a campground near another river. I'll have to look the name up on a map. There was a German couple already there and we talked for a while before having dinner, watching a movie and going to bed.
September 27 Sunday Another day in CHCH. My notes are bad for this day and I did not go anywhere, so I'll leave it at that.
September 28 Monday By chance I found a notice from a German guy looking for a travel mate and we met and decided to give it a go. We will leave tomorrow after I pick up my campervan. I picked up some groceries and did a load of laundry. I also finished two books and picked up a new one. The ones I finished were called In The Woods and The Anatomist, a detective story and a historical expansion of the Italian who “discovered” much of what was known about the circulatory system and the clitoris in the 1600's. The one I picked up I am excited about: Born on a Blue Day. It is the autobiography of a highly functioning autistic savant with Aspergers and synesthesia.
September 29 Tuesday Vacated Around The World and walked with all my stuff to the Spaceship office. I got there at about 8:45 and the sign said Back at 9:15, so I waited. But I got to thinking and when no one arrived by 9:25, I concluded that maybe I needed to be at the other location in town, the actual Spaceship depot to pick up my vehicle. So I made the walk over to the second address and sure enough I had a vehicle waiting. They showed me what came with the van and how things worked with it and by 10 am I was over at Foley Towers to pick up Christopher. We basically just threw our bags in the back and planned to organize everything better when we stopped for the night. So leaving CHCH we headed for the Banks Peninsula and the town of Akaroa. Almost as soon as we got outside of town the weather cleared up and we had sunshine. We both thought that Christchurch had been pulling the wool over our eyes and it was probably the only cloudy/rainy place in all of New Zealand. We were partially right. The Banks Peninsula has several scenic drives through it and we took a different route back than the one we drove out on. The town at the end of the pen, Akaroa was incredibly small and is mainly a starting point for bay cruises (where small dolphins are frequently seen). There are many places to take walks in the hills (except that Sept and Oct are lambing season and about 90% of the walks were closed due to this. We did take a nice walk to the top of the ridge where we could see bays on both sides of the peninsula and some expansive views. I guess nice is how I would describe it in hindsight because the views more than made up for the almost nonexistent trail we followed up a stream bed to get to the top. After leaving Banks Peninsula we got on the Inland Scenic Route, which was indeed scenic. The landscape is lush green, with sheep nearly everywhere. As we got a little further inland we could see the snow capped peaks rising in the near distance. Our first real stop was at Rakaia Gorge, where the color of the water fascinated us. We knew of a place to camp, but diverted to the town of Methven to get a few groceries and see if anything was happening. The town was essentially dead, but we got a local map with some trails marked on it and headed for our campground near a place called Taylor's Stream. We watched “Supersize Me” after eating and then went to bed.
September 30 Wednesday After getting up, having breakfast, and breaking our camp at Taylor's Stream, we backtracked to the Gorge and did the Gorge Walk. It took us a couple hours, but was well worth it. The water has such an amazing color from the snow melt and the rock dust in it. We continued up to Lake Tekapo, with stops at the Church of the Good Shepard on the shore and a nice walk up to Mt John's Observatory for great views back to the town and all around. Then we continued past Twizel, with a stop to exchange dvd's at the Helicopter Line, to a campground near another river. I'll have to look the name up on a map. There was a German couple already there and we talked for a while before having dinner, watching a movie and going to bed.
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