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New Zealand Journal January 2006
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On January 7th, I flew to Sydney, Australia where I laid over for three hours before flying back to Auckland, New Zealand. The two flights and layover took almost 20 hours and I was exhausted by the time I arrived at 4:00 PM on January 9th. I was rebuked at customs for bringing dirty shoes into the country, but instead of confiscating my shoes, the border agents washed the soles and returned them in clear plastic bags. At the Visitor Information Center I located a room at the Mercure Windsor Hotel in downtown Auckland where I checked in for three nights. The room is large, comfortable and reasonably priced. I immediately went to sleep. Tuesday I ate breakfast and then headed out to explore Auckland. I wanted to take a bus tour of the city, but the tours did not start until 9:00 AM so I had a couple of hours to explore on my own. I walked near the harbor, first to the commercial shipping area and then back over to Viaduct Harbor where there are large pleasure boats. I read that one out of every five people in New Zealand owns a boat and they were all over the place.
I boarded the bus at 9:00
AM for a one hour ride to view some of the more popular landmarks. I exited
the bus at Sky
City, a hotel/retail/casino
complex in the heart of the city which features a 328 meter tower, the
tallest in the southern hemisphere. Aside from a couple of restaurants
and what must be a TV antenna, the sole purpose of this huge concrete needle
seems to be to support the launching platform for the world's longest bungee
jump. For $195 (less a $50 discount if you have a coupon from the
tourist information center) you can ride the elevator to the viewing
platform, walk out a 30 foot gangplank and then drop 800 feet down to a
six-foot bulls eye painted on the sidewalk below. Two guy wires
control your fall so you do not slam into the adjacent office buildings.
I had picked-up a brochure about various walks in Auckland and the most interesting one seemed to be a coast to coast walk from Waitemata Harbor in the north to Manukau Harbor in the south. So Wednesday morning I set out on this 16KM tramp (hiking is referred to as tramping in New Zealand) which would take me through numerous parks, universities, neighborhoods and even two of Auckland's 53 extinct or dormant volcanoes. Immediately I discovered that the route was poorly marked. Within the first hour I had missed a half-dozen turns, adding a couple of kilometers to the route. As I got out of the downtown area, I started passing through all sorts of sporting venues. There were fields for polo, cricket, football, rugby croquette and bowling. I saw scores of groundskeepers, but no one playing on these fields.
I reached the summit of Mt.
Eden, first of the two volcanoes, at 8:30 AM and got a beautiful view of the
downtown area with the Harbor Bridge in the background. Thursday I checked out of the Mecure Hotel and flew an hour south to Christchurch on New Zealand's south island. It was pouring rain when I arrived so I took a taxi to town where I checked into the Hotel off the Square. This is an eclectic member of the Accor Group and has a good location and a fast Internet port. Four members of our group have already checked-in and I met two of them, Peter and Hilary from Bend, Oregon in the afternoon. The city trolley rolls right through the atrium which is attached to the lobby of our hotel and I decided to take a ride around the city. But I quickly discovered that I could walk faster than the trolley so I just followed the tracks and walked the two mile loop. I found some interesting shops on my way back to the hotel and spent a couple of hours browsing and picking up a few last-minute items I thought I may need on our tour. I skipped dinner again tonight. Friday, I was starving and walked out early to have breakfast as our hotel did not seem to offer meals. I ran into Peter on the way back and agreed to meet him and Hilary at a little coffee shop they had discovered down the block. Here I met the second couple on our tour, Dennis & Marty from Ohio. Later in the morning I walked down to the Botanical Gardens which was in full bloom and beautiful. I spent most of the afternoon walking around the town and returned to the hotel before 4:00 PM so I could shower before meeting the rest of our group for dinner. I met Richard, our tour leader, in the lobby at 6:00 PM and he directed me to the bar next door where the other members of our group were meeting for a drink before dinner. The remaining three people in our group are John and Mary from Colorado and Valerie from San Francisco. Richard gave us a synopsis of what we were in store for over the next couple weeks and then we walked to dinner.
Saturday we met for
breakfast at 7:30 AM and by 8:30 AM we had checked-out and were heading
north, three hours to Kaikoura. We parked the van at the beach on Kaikoura
Peninsula and walked along the rocks where we came across some fur seals. Dinner at The Convent was fantastic. I had rack of lamb which was amongst the best I've ever eaten. I was surprised to discover they did not have mint jelly and decided that mint jelly must be an American taste. Sunday morning we woke up at 5:00 AM and drove to the harbor where Richard had made reservations for us to go swimming in the ocean with Dusky Dolphins. This is an extremely popular attraction in this area as the huge dolphin population seems to reside just offshore - attracted by a mile-deep trench in the ocean which provides limitless food. After selecting wetsuits and watching a 15-minute instructional video, we boarded boats and rode about 45 minutes along the coast line until we spotted the dolphins.
Hundreds of them.
We had about an hour in the water with the dolphins, although I stayed in for only about 20 minutes. The sea was not nearly as choppy as it had been the day before, but I began to feel queasy and was glad to get back on the dock. We returned to The Old Convent by 9:00 AM where we had another great meal and then checked-out to continue our journey. We rode a few hours north along the coast and then stopped at a winery for a picnic lunch. After lunch we boarded another boat and rode 20 minutes out into Marlborough Sound. Here, on a peninsula we checked into Lochmara Lodge, an eco-resort which is only accessible by boat. Although the lodge offered plenty of activities, I elected to take a nap before dinner at 6:30 PM. Monday we ate breakfast at the lodge, and then packed and checked-out. We took the boat 15 minutes to Mistletoe Bay where we started our hike for the day along the Queen Charlotte Track. The Queen Charlotte Track is a popular, well-maintained, 67-kilometer trail that runs from Ship Cove to Anakiwa. Mistletoe Bay is about 4/5ths of the way back to Anakiwa so we would only hike 13 kilometers. At the end of the trail in Anakiwa is the New Zealand Outward Bound School. When
we were all returned, we boarded our van and continued west towards Abel
Tasman National Park. We stopped for an hour to see the picturesque town of
Nelson where we shopped and bought ice cream while Richard fueled
up the van. By 5:00
PM we had reached the beach where the water taxi would take us out to Awaroa
Lodge. The bay in this area is too shallow to provide a harbor for boats so
we loaded all of our gear and climbed onto the boat while it was still on a
trailer and then were towed by a tractor about a mile to the water.
The Awaroa Lodge is a beautiful resort in the National Park. The first thing we noticed as we walked the 300 meters from the beach to the lodge was the roar of cicadas which apparently have just hatched. There must be millions of these insects in the trees. After registering, we had an hour before dinner, during which I explored the lodge and did some laundry. Dinner was fabulous. I had abalone as an appetizer with lamb as my main course.
Tuesday we met for breakfast at 8:00 AM and then started our hike at 9:30
AM. We hiked through the lush tropical forests of Abel Tasman National Park
and along the white sand beaches to
Bark Bay. Here we
enjoyed a picnic lunch before splitting up to return to the lodge. Most
people took the water taxi back, but Peter, Valerie and I, with an hour head
start, decided to hike back and race the boat. With much effort, we covered
the 10 KM in 1 3/4 hours and beat the others back to the lodge. I relaxed
for a few hours in the late afternoon before going to dinner at 7:00 PM.
We checked out of the Awaroa Lodge on Wednesday morning and took the water taxi back to Marahau. It was raining but we were riding with the waves so the ride was not too bad. We got pulled out of the water by the tractor and rode the final mile back to where we had left the van. We drove over to Motuaka where we enjoyed an enormous breakfast. By 10:00 AM we were heading south again towards the West Coast. This is New Zealand's least populated area and receives the wettest weather as it lies between the sea and the Southern Alps, and can only be traversed in a few places. By 2:00 PM we had reached the town of Westport where we stopped for fish & chips at The Bay House. After lunch, we walked in the rain over to see a seal colony and then continued our trip down the coast. We took another short hike on the Truman Track, which runs for about a kilometer from the highway down through the lush rain forest to the Tasman Sea. By 5:00 PM we arrived at our hotel, The Punakaiki Rocks Hotel & Villas where we checked in and I showered before dinner. We ate overlooking the sea and the weather had cleared up before we finished dessert. After
dinner, we took a short ride up to the
Punakaiki Rocks. This is an area of pancake limestone which has been
eroded away by wind and surf to form what appears to be hundreds of layers
of stone,
Thursday we checked-out of the Punakaiki Rocks Hotel, ate breakfast, and then continued south to Greymouth. Richard dropped us off at the Point Elizabeth Walkway and we hiked along the beach for 1 1/2 hours to where he picked us up at the end. We continued on to Hokitkoka, a large town on the coast where we ate lunch and shopped for greenstone, a local variety of jade.
Continuing south, we made two more stops where we took short walks. The
first at Okarito Trig where we hiked up to the top and got a view of the
coastline.
On
January 20th, we ate breakfast, and then boarded a bus for the ride out to
Fox Glacier. The Fox Glacier is the largest of New Zealand's 3,000
glaciers, extending 7 KM from Mt. Tasman. Although smaller now than in the
past, the glacier has begun growing again in recent years.
After our walk, we had a great breakfast at The Matheson Café. We checked out of the West Haven Motel and continued our trip south. After an hour we took a break at a salmon farm, where Richard purchased some sandwiches for lunch. Another hour of driving got us to Monro Beach where we walked out to see the nesting area of the Fiordland Crested Penguins. The penguins were nowhere to be found so we headed back to the van. We drove on another 15 minutes before stopping for a picnic lunch at Ship Creek. There were a few dolphins playing offshore, but the huge number of sand flies shortened our stay. We left the west coast and cut east up the Haast Valley and over the Southern Alps. Richard dropped us off at the top of Haast Pass and we walked 4 KM down the Davis Flat Bridal Track. After the one-hour hike, we continued driving to Wanake where we checked into the Wanake Lodge. The lodge is a small B&B with comfortable rooms, a hot tub and a friendly owner. Tonight we had a free night so I walked over to town and ate in a local restaurant. Sunday morning we ate breakfast at Wanake Lodge, checked-out and drove 20 minutes to Diamond Lake Conservation Area. We hiked up to the top of Rocky Mountain where we had great views of Lake Wanaka and the peaks of the Southern Alps. This was our best hike so far and took about three hours. On the way back to Wanaka, we stopped at Rippon Winery and enjoyed a picnic lunch and wine tasting. We also learned of a New Zealand game called golfcross which is gaining in popularity that uses an oval shaped golf ball. After lunch we drove an hour to Queenstown. Just outside town, we stopped at the Kawarau Bridge, which is where the sport of bungee jumping was developed in 1988. After watching several people dive off the 43-meter bridge, Dennis Kelly announced that he was going to jump himself. It was much more interesting to watch someone you know jump. After about 10 minutes of preparations, during which he later confessed that he was shaking like a leaf, Dennis appeared at the platform and dove out and down to the river below. He bobbed up and down for a minute and then was reeled into the rubber boat and untied. He had a great jump and got a DVD of it for his bravery. Richard gave us a tour of Queenstown and then we had a 30-minute orientation at the office of Ultimate Hikes, the local contractor who will take us on our 3-day hike on the Routeburn Track. Our hotel in Queenstown is the St. Moritz with large rooms and great views of the lake. We ate dinner on our own tonight and I used the opportunity to get some pictures developed and organize my gear for the next few days. Monday I ate breakfast and checked out of the hotel. We headed out at 9:00 AM and drove past The Remarkables, a mountain range just outside Queenstown which formed the backdrop of several ‘Lord of the Rings’ shots when it was made here a few years ago. We stopped several times for short hikes on our way to Milford Sound. One stop was in Kingston where we arrived just in time to see The Kingston Flyer, an old steam locomotive being turned around by hand on a turnstile before coupling up with three passenger cars and steaming south. Richard also lives in Kingston and he took us by his 1863 lakefront home.
We passed
through the
Homer Tunnel,
a 1200-meter automobile tunnel cut at a 10% grade which leads down to a 22
KM chasm and Milford Sound. There were several Keas in the area.
The Kea is the only high altitude parrot in the world and is very friendly.
When we reached Milford Sound, we boarded the Milford Mariner,
The ship sailed at 4:45 PM. We cruised out the sound surrounded by 3-4,000 foot cliffs with spectacular waterfalls cascading down the sides. After a couple hours, we anchored and were offered the opportunity to use the kayaks or smaller watercraft. Dinner was a buffet served at 7:00 PM. The next day I got up early, packed and went to breakfast at 7:00 AM. The ship started cruising during breakfast and headed out into the Tasman Sea before turning around and sailing the full length of Milford Sound to dock again at 9:30 AM. We drove back up the chasm, through the tunnel again and to a place named ‘The Divide’. This would be the continental divide if New Zealand was a continent. Here we met eleven other hikers and three guides who will accompany us on our 3-day, 25-mile hike on the Routeburn Track. The Routeburn is similar to the Milford Track, but is at a higher altitude and is one day shorter. It runs from the Hollyford Valley to the Dart Valley and can be very wet. We started hiking at 11:00 AM. The trail climbed slowly for 1 ½ hours where we had an opportunity to hike up to Key Summit. We stopped for lunch the Lake Howden, and then continued on to Lake MacKenzie Hut where I arrived just before 4:00 PM. This hut is the only man-made structure we have seen since leaving The Divide. Although we can see hundreds of square miles at a time, it is all wilderness. The hut has hot showers, bunk rooms for 4 persons, and a full kitchen where dinner and breakfast will be prepared and served to us. There is also a clothes washing facility. Today we hiked 11 ½ miles. Wednesday I got up early and boiled water for coffee as no one else was awake. Breakfast was served at 8:30 AM and we started hiking an hour later. We spent the first 1 ½ hours hiking up to Ocean Peek Corner where we had great views of the Hollyford Valley all the way out to the Tasman Sea. For the next 1 ½ hours we hiked along the Hollyford Face and then stopped for lunch at Harris Saddle. The weather continues to be spectacular so we hiked up to the 1515-meter summit of Conical Hill. At 2:30 PM we left the saddle for the final 1 ½ hour push down to Routeburn Falls Lodge. The lodges for the ‘guided hikers’ in Fiordland National Park are quite comfortable, but very expensive. Our 2-night, 3-day guided hike is costing about $1,300 per person, including all meals. If you were to hike the same trail yourself, you could stay in bunkhouses for about $40 per night and you would need to supply your own food. Today we hiked 12 ½ miles.
Thursday we
ate breakfast and left the lodge again at 9:30 AM. This final day’s hike is
mostly downhill and we stopped several times in order to stretch it out to a
full day. One of the most interesting things I saw today was a group of
people with wet-suits canyoneering,
Back in Queenstown, we checked back into the Mercure St. Moritz and then had a farewell dinner with the large group at the Novotel in town. The Ultimate Hikes guides distributed certificates of achievement to all 19 of us as well as a group photo which was taken earlier in the day. Friday was to be a free day so John and I decided to hike up Mt. Ben Lomond, a 1700-meter peak with a trailhead just a few blocks from our hotel. We started at 6:30 AM and slowly tramped our way to the top in three hours. John pointed out that this was our highest climb of the whole trip. We enjoyed the spectacular weather at the summit for half an hour before heading down. We had not seen a soul on the way up, but met many climbers on the way down. John wanted to explore another hill so we split-up and I headed over to the Skyline Restaurant where I ate lunch and then took the gondola back to town. Queenstown reminds me of Chamonix with its festive atmosphere, gondolas, parasails and international tourists. Friday night is our farewell dinner which we will have at the hotel. Tomorrow Richard will take us to the Queenstown airport to catch flights to wherever we are headed. I have a flight to Sydney, but will continue on to Brisbane where I will start a 2-week loop of northwest Australia before heading to Tasmania. New Zealand, and Firodland in particular has been a wonderful experience and I will have to get back here again soon. |
I got lost again on
the way to One Tree Hill, the second volcano which used to have one tree,
but now has none, and got a view of 
Then we
went to the Franz Josef Glacier, named by an Austrian explorer, and got a
view of its face from a high point in the valley below. The glacier
descends to an altitude of only 600 feet above sea level, with temperate
forests all around it. By 6:00 PM we had reached the town of Fox Glacier
where we checked into the West Haven Motel for two nights. Tonight we had
dinner at the Cook Saddle Cafe.
We walked on the glacier for about an hour and ate lunch
there before heading back down. We had several hours free in the afternoon
before meeting for dinner at 6:00 PM. This night we ate at the Neve Cafe
where I had a wonderful rack of lamb.
Saturday morning we rode out to Lake Matheson which is 6 KM from town, and
walked around the lake. From the far side of the lake there is a
magnificent view of Mt. Tasman and Mt. Cook (New Zealand's highest mountain
at just under 13,000 feet) framed by the Fox Valley. 
