Franz Josef glacier
Friday, January 28, 2011
After much waiting here are some more pics!!!
Saturday, January 22, 2011
I'm more of a hunter gatherer than a navigator
On our way to Queenstown we made a quick stop at Fox Glacier. Riley was a little "glaciered" out...or maybe it was the pouring rain so Lukas and I changed into our swim trunks and rain jackets and decided to sprint to the glacier. We hopped the barriers and only made it 30 feet before we ran into a guide who told us that the trail was closed due to mud/rock slides further up in the valley. Riley was waiting in the van with the video camera to catch our return, soaked to the bone. We changed back into our dry clothes and continued our drive to Queenstown. That night we went out for a delicious sushi dinner and we ate ourselves sick. We walked the town and Riley found a place that had jugs of "Pimms", which is a tasty liquor with soda and fresh fruit. The funny thing is for the last few months Riley has been asking every bar and lounge that we go to if they had pimms. I was starting to think it didn't exist..haha...
The next day was beautiful and we went straight for the patio where we had seen the pimms jugs the night before. After a few beers, nachos and a jug of pimms we hit the town again. Along the wharf of lake wakatipu there was an underwater observatory where you could see diving ducks, gigantic rainbow trout and one of the biggest eels ever seen...now with sharks in the ocean and eels in the freshwater Riley will never set foot in water again.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in a park keeping up our friz skills (including tip drill) so no return tryouts required.
We had our last supper with Lukas, played some crib and hit the town for a few more drinks. We stopped by one pub that had a live band but the highlight of the night was sitting beside a couple that were so drunk and hot and horny for each other that they must have thought they were in the privacy of their own home. Everyone is the pub was watching, laughing and taking pictures.....priceless!
The next morning we drove towards Milford Sound and stopped and camped at a quiet little campground right on the shore of one of NZ's biggest lakes.
The next day we got up early to beat the traffic along the remaining portion of the drive to Milford Sound. The drive the sound is about 110 km from the nearest town but since the terrain is so mountainous it takes around 2.5 hrs to drive. As we entered the mountains the cliffs around us started to get steep. The entire valley had been carved out by a valley glacier and not much erosion has taken place which has resulted in some pretty dramatic landscape. It had rained throughout the past night so there were literally hundreds of tiny waterfalls cascading down the rock faces. Milford Sound gets approximately 7-9 m of rain per year and it hadn't rained there in 6 days....which they called a drought.
As the sound is one of NZ's number one attractions we were a little surprised to see how non-commercialized everything was. I said to rye that i was surprised that no one has built a chateau lake Louise like hotel along the lake edge. There is an older motel and a small cafe. One of the main things to do at the sound is go for a ferry cruise around the fjord and since it was still raining we couldn't decide if it would be worth it. In the end we decided to take the 2 hr cruise which took you along the entire sound and out to the Tasman Sea. It was amazing to see how steep and high the mountains around the fjord actually were once you were
sitting right below them in a boat.
We spent the remainder of the day traveling south along the scenic highway towards the southeast coast to meet up with Riley's relatives. We stopped in a little fishing town called Riverton for the night and found the best little campsite run by an older woman. It seemed as though she had converter an old community hall along with kitchen and bathrooms in to a campground. There was even a log fire place and ping pong table....and a TV! We were making dinner and decided to turn on the tv just as the survivor finale was starting, which was funny because on more than a couple of occasions we had wondered how some of our favorite shows had played out....errr not that we were hooked on surviver or anything (so 1998 we know).
The next morning we hit the road to finish up the last couple hundreds to Kaka Point where we will be spending a couple of days with some of Riley's relatives on her mom's side (Jocelyn and Nelson). On a side note i should mention that Riley is one hell of a city navigator (don't tell her i said that)and on this day i had taken my normal spot behind the wheel and riley had fallen a sleep. Well i got into the city of Invercargill and had to take a sort of bypass to get to the scenic route and before long i was a little lost. Being a man it would seem absurd to stop and ask for directions when i have perfectly good map sitting beside me and a male's natural born navigation skills. Riley woke up checked the map and informed me that we were heading north instead of east....hahaha. She is good at city navigating and i am good at outdoor navigating so we make a good team. On the way we stopped off at the most southern point of the south island for a token tourist photo. We were only 4000 km from south pole!...i know it still seems like a lot but it might be the closest that we ever get to it in our lifetime. The wind really howls when it blows from the Antarctic so we didn't spend too much time posing.
After our last stop we picked up a Mrs. Mac's steak and cheese pie and finished the drive to Kaka Point. We are both really looking forward to relaxing in something other than a communal area of a campground and best of all a comfy bed!
The next day was beautiful and we went straight for the patio where we had seen the pimms jugs the night before. After a few beers, nachos and a jug of pimms we hit the town again. Along the wharf of lake wakatipu there was an underwater observatory where you could see diving ducks, gigantic rainbow trout and one of the biggest eels ever seen...now with sharks in the ocean and eels in the freshwater Riley will never set foot in water again.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in a park keeping up our friz skills (including tip drill) so no return tryouts required.
We had our last supper with Lukas, played some crib and hit the town for a few more drinks. We stopped by one pub that had a live band but the highlight of the night was sitting beside a couple that were so drunk and hot and horny for each other that they must have thought they were in the privacy of their own home. Everyone is the pub was watching, laughing and taking pictures.....priceless!
The next morning we drove towards Milford Sound and stopped and camped at a quiet little campground right on the shore of one of NZ's biggest lakes.
The next day we got up early to beat the traffic along the remaining portion of the drive to Milford Sound. The drive the sound is about 110 km from the nearest town but since the terrain is so mountainous it takes around 2.5 hrs to drive. As we entered the mountains the cliffs around us started to get steep. The entire valley had been carved out by a valley glacier and not much erosion has taken place which has resulted in some pretty dramatic landscape. It had rained throughout the past night so there were literally hundreds of tiny waterfalls cascading down the rock faces. Milford Sound gets approximately 7-9 m of rain per year and it hadn't rained there in 6 days....which they called a drought.
As the sound is one of NZ's number one attractions we were a little surprised to see how non-commercialized everything was. I said to rye that i was surprised that no one has built a chateau lake Louise like hotel along the lake edge. There is an older motel and a small cafe. One of the main things to do at the sound is go for a ferry cruise around the fjord and since it was still raining we couldn't decide if it would be worth it. In the end we decided to take the 2 hr cruise which took you along the entire sound and out to the Tasman Sea. It was amazing to see how steep and high the mountains around the fjord actually were once you were
sitting right below them in a boat.
We spent the remainder of the day traveling south along the scenic highway towards the southeast coast to meet up with Riley's relatives. We stopped in a little fishing town called Riverton for the night and found the best little campsite run by an older woman. It seemed as though she had converter an old community hall along with kitchen and bathrooms in to a campground. There was even a log fire place and ping pong table....and a TV! We were making dinner and decided to turn on the tv just as the survivor finale was starting, which was funny because on more than a couple of occasions we had wondered how some of our favorite shows had played out....errr not that we were hooked on surviver or anything (so 1998 we know).
The next morning we hit the road to finish up the last couple hundreds to Kaka Point where we will be spending a couple of days with some of Riley's relatives on her mom's side (Jocelyn and Nelson). On a side note i should mention that Riley is one hell of a city navigator (don't tell her i said that)and on this day i had taken my normal spot behind the wheel and riley had fallen a sleep. Well i got into the city of Invercargill and had to take a sort of bypass to get to the scenic route and before long i was a little lost. Being a man it would seem absurd to stop and ask for directions when i have perfectly good map sitting beside me and a male's natural born navigation skills. Riley woke up checked the map and informed me that we were heading north instead of east....hahaha. She is good at city navigating and i am good at outdoor navigating so we make a good team. On the way we stopped off at the most southern point of the south island for a token tourist photo. We were only 4000 km from south pole!...i know it still seems like a lot but it might be the closest that we ever get to it in our lifetime. The wind really howls when it blows from the Antarctic so we didn't spend too much time posing.
After our last stop we picked up a Mrs. Mac's steak and cheese pie and finished the drive to Kaka Point. We are both really looking forward to relaxing in something other than a communal area of a campground and best of all a comfy bed!
Saturday, January 15, 2011
South Island: Metallica is rockin' stronger than ever!
We are officially a "bit" behind on the blog so this may be a bit of a longer post....and we will try and get some more pictures posted soon.
We were able to complete the Tongariro Crossing hike the day after we had that rain day. The hike went pretty decent and the scenery was like nothing that either of us had ever seen before. It started at Mt Ngauruhoe Aka "Mt Doom", continued on to Red Crater which had dark red rock and steaming vents and then through some small turquoise lakes.
We stopped at Red Crater for a bite to eat when some Japanese tourists came along and one lady had her hat blow off and down it went over the crater edge. They had said there goodbyes to the hat when Q decided to fetch it for her. As he descended over the edge and on to the scree slopes the tourists were yelling "no, don't do it!". He retrieved it and they all started to applaud. It was hilarious. ("Clint Eastwood! Very Tall!")
The tail end of the hike, the last 8km, was all down hill and while that may sound easy, it was killer on the knees and toes. The other only down side of the hike was that because the spectacular views it is a very popular hike. So popular that about 300 people start the hike between the hours of 7-9am. It was almost as busy as a marathon start.
From there we made our way to Wellington over a period of a couple days. Driving here isn't like at home where covering a distance of 400 km isn't a big deal. The roads here are windy and poor Q has a weak stomach when it comes to motion sickness. It's a trade off... You either take gravol and risk falling asleep at the wheel or just embrace feeling nauseous for most of the drive. So far we've been doing the latter.
Wellington seemed full of art and culture. With more restaurants per capita than any other city in the world, as well as theaters and museums, it made it a fun city to hang around for a couple of days. It was here that we met up with the 3rd member of our "Metallica Crew", Mr. Lucas Aasen! He's been with us for a few days now and his humor, not to mention his devastating good looks, have been a welcomed addition to our journey.
We travelled to the south island on Tuesday on a luxurious ferry, complete with a theatre and live band and we even saw some dolphins.
Our first stop in the south was Abel Tasman National Park where we managed to find some affordable camping. It was $20 as opposed to $40 which is the price of most campsites in the north. We hiked part of the Abel Tasman Coast Track, also known as the Abel Tasman Death March, by taking a water taxi to a midway point and walking back. It passes through native bush overlapping golden beaches and as described in the guide book, the numerous bays are like a travel brochure come to life. It was about 22 km and we refer to it as the "March of Death" because I (riley) developed a couple of blisters which caused me to hike the last 7km without a left shoe on. We will try and post some photo evidence later.
At the end of the hike a car passed us with a flat tire. I only tell this story bc it was a hilarious scene. The boys decided to help the clueless ladies out and they had barely gotten out of their rental car and Lukas and Q had swooped in, had the spare tire out of the trunk and the car up on the jack when the ladies said in shock "you're here to change the tire?". It was a young woman and her mom, both from Germany and all the mother kept saying was "not in Germany". She tried to pay the boys, but they insisted no. We left feeling pretty good, having added to Canada's reputation and hopefully getting some good karma.
Thursday we checked out Punakaiki, a place known for "the pancake rocks". It's cliff edges have been eroded by the ocean in such a way that it's layered like pancakes. We were hoping to camp there, but everything was full so we continued to the next town and ended up camping in the driveway of Lukas' hostel.
Friday we headed further down the west coast to Franz Joseph Glacier. It was a gorgeous day so Lukas wanted to go for a swim. After much pressure I was convinced to jump in too. Of course I had some stipulations...no splashing, no pushing me in, no dunking etc. The water was quite nice until we got out and a tour guide said "did you see any eels down there?". I responded with "are you serious?". Apparently they bite, but they'll only take a "small" chunk out...super.
Yesterday we did a short hike to the glacier and today it is pouring rain so we are making the 6 hour drive to Queenstown.
P.s. Happy 50th birthday mom!!!
We were able to complete the Tongariro Crossing hike the day after we had that rain day. The hike went pretty decent and the scenery was like nothing that either of us had ever seen before. It started at Mt Ngauruhoe Aka "Mt Doom", continued on to Red Crater which had dark red rock and steaming vents and then through some small turquoise lakes.
We stopped at Red Crater for a bite to eat when some Japanese tourists came along and one lady had her hat blow off and down it went over the crater edge. They had said there goodbyes to the hat when Q decided to fetch it for her. As he descended over the edge and on to the scree slopes the tourists were yelling "no, don't do it!". He retrieved it and they all started to applaud. It was hilarious. ("Clint Eastwood! Very Tall!")
The tail end of the hike, the last 8km, was all down hill and while that may sound easy, it was killer on the knees and toes. The other only down side of the hike was that because the spectacular views it is a very popular hike. So popular that about 300 people start the hike between the hours of 7-9am. It was almost as busy as a marathon start.
From there we made our way to Wellington over a period of a couple days. Driving here isn't like at home where covering a distance of 400 km isn't a big deal. The roads here are windy and poor Q has a weak stomach when it comes to motion sickness. It's a trade off... You either take gravol and risk falling asleep at the wheel or just embrace feeling nauseous for most of the drive. So far we've been doing the latter.
Wellington seemed full of art and culture. With more restaurants per capita than any other city in the world, as well as theaters and museums, it made it a fun city to hang around for a couple of days. It was here that we met up with the 3rd member of our "Metallica Crew", Mr. Lucas Aasen! He's been with us for a few days now and his humor, not to mention his devastating good looks, have been a welcomed addition to our journey.
We travelled to the south island on Tuesday on a luxurious ferry, complete with a theatre and live band and we even saw some dolphins.
Our first stop in the south was Abel Tasman National Park where we managed to find some affordable camping. It was $20 as opposed to $40 which is the price of most campsites in the north. We hiked part of the Abel Tasman Coast Track, also known as the Abel Tasman Death March, by taking a water taxi to a midway point and walking back. It passes through native bush overlapping golden beaches and as described in the guide book, the numerous bays are like a travel brochure come to life. It was about 22 km and we refer to it as the "March of Death" because I (riley) developed a couple of blisters which caused me to hike the last 7km without a left shoe on. We will try and post some photo evidence later.
At the end of the hike a car passed us with a flat tire. I only tell this story bc it was a hilarious scene. The boys decided to help the clueless ladies out and they had barely gotten out of their rental car and Lukas and Q had swooped in, had the spare tire out of the trunk and the car up on the jack when the ladies said in shock "you're here to change the tire?". It was a young woman and her mom, both from Germany and all the mother kept saying was "not in Germany". She tried to pay the boys, but they insisted no. We left feeling pretty good, having added to Canada's reputation and hopefully getting some good karma.
Thursday we checked out Punakaiki, a place known for "the pancake rocks". It's cliff edges have been eroded by the ocean in such a way that it's layered like pancakes. We were hoping to camp there, but everything was full so we continued to the next town and ended up camping in the driveway of Lukas' hostel.
Friday we headed further down the west coast to Franz Joseph Glacier. It was a gorgeous day so Lukas wanted to go for a swim. After much pressure I was convinced to jump in too. Of course I had some stipulations...no splashing, no pushing me in, no dunking etc. The water was quite nice until we got out and a tour guide said "did you see any eels down there?". I responded with "are you serious?". Apparently they bite, but they'll only take a "small" chunk out...super.
Yesterday we did a short hike to the glacier and today it is pouring rain so we are making the 6 hour drive to Queenstown.
P.s. Happy 50th birthday mom!!!
Thursday, January 6, 2011
They're not glow worms they're maggots with glowing shit!
Our first week in New Zealand has flown by. With only a small delay on day one, when the engine on our plane wouldn't start (yikes), the rest of the week has been smooth sailing.
After picking up our Metallica van (as seen in the picture below) we headed north, stopping at Goat Island Marine Reserve (north of auckland) for some snorkeling that didn't happen because the water was murky from rain, then to the city of Whangarei for New Years Eve. I'm embarrassed to report that our new years eve was uneventful, but guilt free. I mean that in the sense that there is always so much hype and pressure surrounding that night and then plans fizzle and you end up feeling guilty for not celebrating with a bang. Anyways, I digress. We went to a pub and partied with the most abstract crowd ever, ranging from surfers to 60 year old hippies with no teeth and thick mullets.
New years day, however, might be one of the best on record. With no hangovers, we dipped into the pocket book and took an all day cruise to the Poor Knights Islands. They are a protected marine reserve rated as one of the worlds top 10 diving sites. We started out with some snorkeling but the water was FREEZING even for us Canadians. It was hard to catch your breath. Q was able to tolerate the waters for longer than I was, so after my joints started feeling arthritic I jumped out, had a hot cup of tea and basked in the sun while I waited for my hardcore husband to finish exploring archways and caves. Once he was finished it was on to more adventure ... Learning how to paddle board (standing on a surf board and paddling). I wasn't going to try it since I had already warmed up and dried off, but after Q attempted it, flailing like a baby fawn, I thought I would give it a go and show him how it was done :) Turns out I'm a natural, I stayed dry the whole time. After the activities, the boat toured us around the islands, into the largest sea cave in the world and through some massive sea arches.
After the Poor Knights we travelled north to the Bay of Islands. We found a campsite along the ocean and decided to have a little nap....we woke up at 11:30 and called it a night. I guess the full day of activities caught up to us. The next morning we spent the day hanging out in the town of Russell, basically an ocean version of Sylvan Lake. It was a pretty lazy day as I (Q) wasn't feeling so great.
A couple of nights here and there and we made it to the Waitomo Caves. There is a enormous caves system here that runs 800m below the surface. The caves are famous for it's glow worms, which cling to the cave roofs and illuminate like stars. We learned that the "glow worms" are actually fly larvae, aka maggots, that have phosphorecent feces. We booked ourselves in with a rafting (inner tube, no raft) company that takes you floating along on an undeground river, through some of the glow worms caves. We were 65m underground for an hour floating and spelunking along one of the main rivers. At one point we were jumping backwards off waterfalls and another time we were told to shut off our headlamps as we went floating underneath thousands of glow worms! It honestly looked a lot like the prairies on a very clear night.
Wednesday we drove to the city of Rotorua. It's known for it's geothermal activity and Maori history. Here there is still a village of about 75 Maori people that live among the thermal pools using them to cook (some pools are 100 degrees celsius) and bathe. The ground is hot to touch and in some areas is literally steaming. In those areas of the village they have built wooden boxes over top to cook food similar to an oven. It's a really unique area with mud pools and geysers, but the entire city stinks of sulphur.
Yesterday we made our way to Taupo and then on to Tongariro National Park. We debated bungee jumping in Taupo but decided if we were going to do it we would wait until Queenstown. It will cost about $360 and we aren't sure if it's worth it. Any advice??? In Tongarino we planned on doing a 20 km hike rated one of the best in the world. It's actually the same mountain they used to film Mordor in Lord of the Rings. Unfortunately it's been raining so the conditions aren't condusive to hiking. We will wait until tomorrow (Saturday), and then head to Wellington to catch the ferry Tuesday morning. One perk of the cold rainy day is in order to warm up we had our first taste of meat pie which NZ is famous for. It's delicious! Some people in my family are familiar with grandmas stew meat? Well it's basically that stuffed in a crispy pastry. Yumm-O!
Hope everyone is well. Keep the updates coming. We love news from home :)
After picking up our Metallica van (as seen in the picture below) we headed north, stopping at Goat Island Marine Reserve (north of auckland) for some snorkeling that didn't happen because the water was murky from rain, then to the city of Whangarei for New Years Eve. I'm embarrassed to report that our new years eve was uneventful, but guilt free. I mean that in the sense that there is always so much hype and pressure surrounding that night and then plans fizzle and you end up feeling guilty for not celebrating with a bang. Anyways, I digress. We went to a pub and partied with the most abstract crowd ever, ranging from surfers to 60 year old hippies with no teeth and thick mullets.
New years day, however, might be one of the best on record. With no hangovers, we dipped into the pocket book and took an all day cruise to the Poor Knights Islands. They are a protected marine reserve rated as one of the worlds top 10 diving sites. We started out with some snorkeling but the water was FREEZING even for us Canadians. It was hard to catch your breath. Q was able to tolerate the waters for longer than I was, so after my joints started feeling arthritic I jumped out, had a hot cup of tea and basked in the sun while I waited for my hardcore husband to finish exploring archways and caves. Once he was finished it was on to more adventure ... Learning how to paddle board (standing on a surf board and paddling). I wasn't going to try it since I had already warmed up and dried off, but after Q attempted it, flailing like a baby fawn, I thought I would give it a go and show him how it was done :) Turns out I'm a natural, I stayed dry the whole time. After the activities, the boat toured us around the islands, into the largest sea cave in the world and through some massive sea arches.
After the Poor Knights we travelled north to the Bay of Islands. We found a campsite along the ocean and decided to have a little nap....we woke up at 11:30 and called it a night. I guess the full day of activities caught up to us. The next morning we spent the day hanging out in the town of Russell, basically an ocean version of Sylvan Lake. It was a pretty lazy day as I (Q) wasn't feeling so great.
A couple of nights here and there and we made it to the Waitomo Caves. There is a enormous caves system here that runs 800m below the surface. The caves are famous for it's glow worms, which cling to the cave roofs and illuminate like stars. We learned that the "glow worms" are actually fly larvae, aka maggots, that have phosphorecent feces. We booked ourselves in with a rafting (inner tube, no raft) company that takes you floating along on an undeground river, through some of the glow worms caves. We were 65m underground for an hour floating and spelunking along one of the main rivers. At one point we were jumping backwards off waterfalls and another time we were told to shut off our headlamps as we went floating underneath thousands of glow worms! It honestly looked a lot like the prairies on a very clear night.
Wednesday we drove to the city of Rotorua. It's known for it's geothermal activity and Maori history. Here there is still a village of about 75 Maori people that live among the thermal pools using them to cook (some pools are 100 degrees celsius) and bathe. The ground is hot to touch and in some areas is literally steaming. In those areas of the village they have built wooden boxes over top to cook food similar to an oven. It's a really unique area with mud pools and geysers, but the entire city stinks of sulphur.
Yesterday we made our way to Taupo and then on to Tongariro National Park. We debated bungee jumping in Taupo but decided if we were going to do it we would wait until Queenstown. It will cost about $360 and we aren't sure if it's worth it. Any advice??? In Tongarino we planned on doing a 20 km hike rated one of the best in the world. It's actually the same mountain they used to film Mordor in Lord of the Rings. Unfortunately it's been raining so the conditions aren't condusive to hiking. We will wait until tomorrow (Saturday), and then head to Wellington to catch the ferry Tuesday morning. One perk of the cold rainy day is in order to warm up we had our first taste of meat pie which NZ is famous for. It's delicious! Some people in my family are familiar with grandmas stew meat? Well it's basically that stuffed in a crispy pastry. Yumm-O!
Hope everyone is well. Keep the updates coming. We love news from home :)
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