I had a few choices of what to do yesterday in Franz Josef, but they slowly got narrowed to one by quite a few different circumstances. I thought kayaking on nearby Lake Mapourika might be cool, since it’s supposed to have awesome reflections of the mountains (although it’s probably best I didn’t go, since it wouldn’t have beaten kayaking on Doubtful), but the tour for last night was full. There’s also an 8-hour walk that starts near the parking lot for the glacier, but I didn’t want to do that since my ankle’s been rather funny from the ice climbing (read: it’s got a bit of bruise tinge to it and there’s a large lump right above the ankle bone). So, I ended up quad biking, which was really quite fun and again, something different (although I’ve at least been on a quad bike before). The tour was two hours long and involved bombing around in the Waiho riverbed, across grasslands, through rainforest, and through quite a bit of dust and a little bit of mud. I thoroughly enjoyed going 20km/h through puddles and covering myself in mud, even though the only picture the guide got was a pretty lousy splash (but I didn’t buy the pictures–which cost $20–anyway). It was quite different to the last time I was on a bike, which was essentially only on one terrain–Moreton Island sand. This was definitely bumpier but had a lot more challenges, like crossing rivers and then having to fly up the opposite bank with enough speed that you don’t get stuck. Plus, we got good views of the mountains & the upper section of Franz Josef while we were at it. All in all, a good tour that wasn’t too exhausting, like so many of the things I’ve done here seem to be.

I didn’t do a whole lot else in Franz yesterday besides eating free Chateau Franz soup and taking a long dip in the free spa. Today hasn’t been too exciting a day either, since I spent the vast majority of it on a bus and the rest of it wandering around Christchurch, enjoying the good weather I didn’t have the last time I was here. I’m glad I didn’t try to change my buses/accommodation to leave Franz a day earlier and stay in Arthur’s Pass last night, since it was raining with very low clouds when we arrived this afternoon. Arthur’s Pass is essentially just a small village with lots of tramping tracks around it–many of which are dangerous in wet weather, including Avalanche Peak, which is the one I wanted to climb. It’s probably best I didn’t anyway, with my iffy ankle and the stories I’ve heard about people having to crawl to the top while cheeky keas peck at their packs.

Well, that’s all I have to say for now. Also, I’ve uploaded more shots from my helicopter ride in my Franz Josef album, even more pictures in my Milford Track album, and the first few shots I took of Milford Sound. Enjoy!

 Yesterday, I figured I might as well continue with the string of firsts that I’ve done on this trip–first overnight hike, first cruise, first helicopter ride, and now…first ice climbing. I went on Franz Josef Glacier with the Franz Guides company rather than trying it out on the fake indoor ice wall they have here–why do that when you can climb the real thing? Plus, it meant that I could go on both Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers during this trip and compare the two, since they are said to have very different landscapes.

The day started very early at 7.45am, since they like getting the climbers geared up and onto the glacier before the hoardes of day walkers appear. We were introduced to our three guides for the day and given most of the appropriate gear: backpacks, harnesses, hard shell boots, woolen socks, and raincoats. Once we traversed the 4km access road to the glacier, the guides gave us the rest of the necessary kit, namely helmets, ice axes, and crampons. The crampons were definitely real ones, as opposed to the gimpy ones provided at Fox that only have a couple spikes in the arch of your foot. These had 11 spikes, 4 of which stick out of the front which we used in our ice climbing.

 The walk to Franz Josef is probably only half the length of the walk to Fox because of the completely different directions of attack that the two guiding companies have. To get onto Fox, you have to take a path through the rainforest and up 600 steps before arriving at the side of the glacier, which you hop onto without too much trouble. On Franz, you walk up the river valley for about half an hour until you reach the terminal face, which has stairs cut into it that everyone has to climb up after strapping on their crampons. This makes it quite a lot more taxing than Fox Glacier, which is definitely the flatter of the two. I agree with Astrid (one of the guides) who said that Franz has the much more dynamic landscape; she also noted that Franz is the steepest guided glacier in the world. Pretty cool!

It didn’t take us all that long on the ice to find our first ice wall. This was the “learner wall,” but it was a lot taller than I thought it would be! While Neville and Lee set up the ropes for the three climbs up various sections of the wall, Astrid took us to “ice climbing school.” This was essentially a very quick instructional on how to position yourself on the ice, how to dig your crampons into the ice the right way, and how to balance yourself (not by holding on to your axes, but rather, distributing your weight so you are leaning into the wall and putting all of your weight onto your feet). I was still struggling with trusting my crampons on solid ground, so I was a bit worried about trying the ice climb even after I managed to do a bit of a mini-climb on a smaller wall nearby.

Since there were 11 of us and only three guides/ropes, we had a fair amount of waiting time between climbs. After waiting for a few people to go, I finally got myself psyched up and got onto Astrid’s section of the wall. Now I’m an awkward enough person as it is, but apparently me attempting to ice climb magnifies this by about 100x. I couldn’t get my weight distributed correctly and ended up hanging off of the ice axes because I didn’t trust the spikes on my feet to hold my entire weight. Because of this, I ended up too far away from the ice with my butt sticking out. I’m sure it was thoroughly amusing for everyone on the ground, and Astrid certainly got a voice workout yelling at me telling me to get my butt in. Somehow I managed to get to the top of the wall (even though I accidentally smacked the rope with the ice axe–not a good idea, since the rope is essentially your lifeline and ice axes are very sharp) and then abseiled back to the bottom…and it only took me probably double the time that most everyone else took. Luckily, my climbing technique really improved over the next two climbs through lots of coaching from the other two guides, and I made it to the top of those walls without too many dramas, albeit a bit slowly (although as Neville said, “It’s not a race!”).

A totally random thing happened between my second and third climbs. As I was waiting for someone to finish his climb, some of the halfday walks came through, and I looked up and recognized one of the guys on the climb. This isn’t too odd, since that’s happened to me since about the second week of my trip, as evidenced with (British) James that I ran into at least 6 or 7 times in the span of the same number of weeks. However, once I realized where I knew him from, it was a bit strange…since he’s a couple years below me at Rice! To top it off, he was studying in London for the semester but over in NZ to visit his girlfriend. Talk about a small world.

We were all a bit on the freezing side by the time all the climbs were finished, since the wind had whipped up to a reasonable speed and we were in a pretty exposed spot of the glacier. So, instead of eating lunch there, we moved to our second spot of the day with more difficult climbing walls. The walk to these walls was downhill with some pretty steep stairs cut into the ice, and I got yelled at because I misunderstood the instructions and held onto the handrope with my hand in the wrong direction. I was a bit frustrated with this, since I got comments lobbed at me like “you don’t have to follow my instructions if you don’t want to, but it is for your own safety” before I was moved to the front of the group, just behind the guide (Lee) who I guess wanted to keep a closer eye on me. I know I wasn’t the quickest person on crampons there, but I didn’t feel that I needed to be watched like a 5-year-old. That was the only time that I was unhappy for the whole day, despite not being particularly good at ice climbing.

After lunch, we got to have a crack at the more difficult walls. While the walls couldn’t get much steeper than the previous ones, they did have more varied terrain–lots of biggish holes and overhangs–and some of the ice was much harder, as evidenced by its much more blue color. I tried Astrid’s wall first and managed to get about halfway up before I realized my boot was way too loose. Whenever I tried to put my weight down on my left foot, I could feel the boot slipping further than I wanted it to go, which made me much more unstable than I would have liked. So, Astrid lowered me down and let me fix my shoes before I had a second go. This time I made it pretty far up the wall before I got in a position where my feet weren’t quite the anchor I’d hoped for, and one boot, then another slipped out from under me. I wasn’t scared because Astrid was anchoring the rope and I knew I couldn’t drop more than a foot or so; I was more worried that I’d lose my grip on the axes and not be able to get back up to them. I did hold on, and after a bit of swearing managed to get myself back on the wall again, but I came down pretty quickly after that. I made the little indentation in the wall before the very top but not quite the top, but I was still happy with the climb, especially after Astrid told me that it was a much, much better climb than the first one I’d done with her.

My next climb was with Lee, who I don’t think had any confidence in me at all because he told me I could go as far as I liked and just yell when I wanted to come down. Hopefully he was surprised when I actually managed to follow his instructions this time around and got within “3 steps of the top.” The ice on this wall was much harder than on the others and it gave my ankle a bit of mischief when I tried to kick the ice and dig in my spikes, so I decided I needed to come down once I realized that my ankle might not hold me for a few more steps. It’s probably good that I did because when I took my boot off, the skin around my ankle was discolored and there’s a strange lump right above it…

My climb with Neville went about the same. I didn’t quite make the overhang on top, but I still made it a fair distance up the wall, which I was pretty pleased with given the fact that, after seeing Astrid demonstrate at the beginning of the day, I wasn’t sure if I’d make it up any of the walls at all. I really had a lot of fun and it was something completely different that I’d never tried before (and possibly won’t get to again, given the lack of glaciers in Australia in general). Plus, it’s good to push yourself and try to do things you didn’t think possible–although I feel like I’ve done plenty of that on this trip already!

It seems like every time I write in this blog lately, I’ve gotten further and further behind and have loads to update everyone about. I’ve managed to write the beginning of an entry about the Milford Track but haven’t gotten much further than that since I’ve been keeping myself quite busy over the last few days (probably because I have less than a week left in New Zealand and I’m trying to fit in as much as possible on my way out). I promise I’ll describe it eventually as it was too amazing an experience to just leave out of my blog, but in the meantime, I’ll just have to direct you to my massive Milford track gallery (which is currently missing all of my shots from the top of Mackinnon Pass and all of day 4).

So, what have I been keeping myself busy with? Well, on Friday I headed back to Queenstown from Te Anau at the refreshing time of 7.30am. I did get to see a great sunrise over the hills around Te Anau, which slightly made up for having to walk to the bus stop in the dark. I didn’t do a whole lot in Queenstown besides eat another Fergburger (the Southern Swine–massive burger with bacon and avocado on top. Yummm…) and sort out the rest of my itinerary. Things didn’t quite go according to plan due to hostels being completely booked up, so I’m currently on Plan B, which has worked out just fine!

I spent the weekend in Wanaka and met up with James, the British guy that I seem to have run into in every city in New Zealand. He had backtracked to do a big canyoning trip for his birthday while I had gone back there for the Warbirds over Wanaka airshow. Saturday was pretty lazy, consisting mostly of us eating lots of food and wandering around the general Wanaka area. On Sunday we both went to the airshow, which I thought was quite good. There were planes in the air all day with no breaks in between, so we got to watch one trick after another until our eyes started blurring from staring into the sun too much. They even raced a Formula 3000 car against an aerobatic plane–the plane won the first time but the car got a better start the second time and won by a landslide. I felt like I was watching an episode of Top Gear! The Australians sent over some of their planes as well, one of which was the most impressive of the airshow–the F111 jet from Amberley in Brisbane. The commentators were pretty funny for the whole show, but I loved what they had to say about the Australian cargo jet–”This is used for delivering troops, munitions, and cans of XXXX worldwide.” The show ended with a great display of old warbirds doing a pretend dogfight to defend the airfield. Lots of low flyovers and lots of pyrotechnics, so I was happy. I’ve got some pictures of that, but haven’t had the time to resize them yet for uploading.

Totally random event that happened: James and I walked to the end of the field and then stood in the crowd watching some of the acrobatics when the person in front of me turned around and said, “Kristin?” It turned out that Tash and Luke–two of the people I met on the Copland Track–were standing right in front of us! It was pretty crazy considering there were probably 30,000 people at the airshow and we happened to walk up right behind them. It turns out they broke down on the way home from the Copland Track, which further adds to the hilarity/drama of the entire weekend (which you can read about in an earlier entry from the end of Feb). It was really good to see them though.

After the airshow, James and I went out to Treble Cone, the local ski area, to try to get some good views, but unfortunately it was closed for the weekend. We ended up driving the whole 50kms down the Matukituki valley–where Johanna and I went the last time I was in Wanaka–to see if we could get some good views of Mt. Aspiring and the park around it. We didn’t really, but it was still a great day and an enjoyable drive. Plus, we were treated to the vision of an older man standing naked in the river bathing himself. That was pleasant.

Today I took the long trip back up the West Coast, since Mt. Cook and its surrounds were completely booked up for the week. I’m in Franz Josef, which is where the photos in this entry are from (and by the way, I’ve managed to fix the annoying quirk that pushed all my pictures to the righthand side, so hopefully it looks slightly better formatted now). When I arrived in town around 4, there were still clouds pretty low over the glacier and mountain areas. However, after I watched the film “Flowing West,” which is a movie with helicopter footage of the west coast and the Southern Alps shown on an IMAX-style screen, I came out and there were only a few scattered clouds hanging onto the mountains; otherwise, it had completely cleared.

It was a beautiful day rarely seen on the West Coast, where it rains over 200 days a year, so I decided to make the most of it. Since I’m leaving New Zealand earlier than I expected, I had previously made the decision that I could splurge on one big activity that I wouldn’t have otherwise done…so I went on a 40 minute helicopter ride around Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers and Mount Cook/Aoraki, the tallest mountain in New Zealand. Even though it was the quickest I’ve spent a lot of money since I’ve been here, it was completely worth it. I don’t think you can get a better day for a helicopter flight–there were a few clouds around for effect, but otherwise it was all mountains, glaciers, and snow. We zoomed low over both glaciers and got incredibly close to the mountains–closer than I’ll ever be again to Mt. Cook, I’m sure, since I’m certainly not planning to climb it! Once we flew around Franz, Mt. Cook, and Mt. Tasman, we landed on Fox Glacier’s neve. I wasn’t completely prepared for the trip, since I booked it 5 minutes before the helicopter took off, so my toes got a bit cold in my flipflops when I stepped out onto the snow! I didn’t mind the cold, since we were only on the glacier for a bit less than 10 minutes, since I got to stand in a completely different part of the glacier than I did on my full day hike on Fox back in February. It was snowy with little ripples here and there and a couple large-ish looking crevasses, rather than large ice walls. It was white instead of the glacier’s characteristic blue color, since the ice was so buried, and it was easy to walk around without crampons on. The views were just amazing, especially since the sun was getting closer to the Tasman Sea so it was reflecting and generally just creating some cool lighting. Snow stretched as far as the eye could see, only broken by the chocolate brown mountains containing the glacier. I’ve again run out of adjectives to describe just how amazing the experience was; I think Eileen, a British lady on my flight, described it best when she said, “I’ll be dreaming about that wondering if I really did do it!” After we took off from Fox, we flew low and fast over the neve and then dipped down between the mountains and flew directly past the terminal face and river and then over the township of Fox and the mountains separating Fox & Franz before finally landing back at the helipad. If it wasn’t so expensive, I would have stayed on the copter and asked for another go-around!

It’s time for me to cook dinner and get ready for another early start in the morning, so enjoy the pictures and I’ll try to update again soon!

I’m very sorry about the sheer lack of updates recently. I’ve been running around doing everything I can possibly do in Fiordland before I leave tomorrow, and it seems like the only spare minutes I’ve had I’ve been so exhausted that I didn’t feel like writing anything. Unfortunately I don’t have time to write at the moment (for reasons explained below), but I’ll give a quick recap that I’ll hopefully come back later and elaborate on, since the last week and a half has been by far the most amazing and jam-packed of my trip. I have done:

• The Milford Track: as I’ve mentioned before, awe-inspiring and just amazing, even if it was very tiring. 33.5 miles of walking along the first track ever found into Milford Sound.
• Overnight cruise in Milford Sound: What an experience. Milford Sound is the most spectacular of the 14 fiords in Fiordland, and I was lucky enough to spend an afternoon, night, and morning on a small cruiser out in the midst of it all. We went all the way through the fiord, past the mighty Mitre Peak, to the Tasman Sea and then got to kayak in a bay near the mouth before being fed amazing food and watching the sunset. Watched the sunrise the next morning too. Stunning.
• The Kepler Track: After the ride home from Milford, which is an experience in itself as you go through the various valleys and still more beautiful scenery, I sorted my backpack and went directly onto the Kepler Track, a loop track in the Kepler Mountains outside Te Anau. I feel like I’m a broken record, but once again, I’ll talk about scenery. once I left the treeline, it was amazing. Panoramic views full of lakes, valleys, mountains, and alpine tussock. We went caving at the Luxmore Caves next to the hut that night and then I climbed Mt. Luxmore the next morning before returning the way I came (didn’t have time for the whole track).
• Kayaking on Doubtful Sound: Today, I went for a kayak on the only other (relatively) accessible fiord, Doubtful Sound. To get there, we had to go in a bus to the wharf, on a 45 minute boat ride across Lake Manapouri, and on a 45 minute bus ride across Wilmot Pass–so it’s quite a commitment! Well worth it though–the sound was so much more isolated and quiet than Milford, which is apparently visited by 3000-6000 people per day. We could put down our paddles and literally just listen to the complete silence, broken only by the calls of birds. Even though the fiord doesn’t have massive mountains rising out of the sea like Milford, it’s still quite a sight to see. The walls of the fiord don’t look too high until you see a tiny boat anchored at their base! Just like everything else I’ve done in Fiordland in the last few weeks, I left feeling wowed. I loved it.

I wish I could write more, but I have to make some phone calls and take care of some other business, since my Australian visa has been approved. It was actually approved while I was on the Milford Track, but the first email from my company didn’t go through and I’ve just now gotten in touch with them. This explains the title of the entry; the end of my trip in New Zealand is looming because I have to go back to work and real life. Sad, but I’ve had such a fantastic time in New Zealand that I really can’t complain. All told, once I depart the country, I will have been here nearly 10 weeks and will have done as much as I humanly could in that time. Plus, this means that I can see James again on my way across Australia! Can’t complain about that one bit

Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to post this entry in the right place before I headed out onto the Milford Track, so I’m posting it in the right place now and will update you on how fantastic the Milford was in a little while. Just pretend this was posted on the 12th like I meant it to be!

I’ve been staying in Te Anau taking a bit of a rest after doing the Routeburn Track, and I’ve run into a lot of people I’ve met in previous places–Johanna that I traveled with in Wanaka and Queenstown, Nick that I did the glacier walk with in Fox, and James that I seem to run into everywhere–plus I’ve met a few more cool people as well.

My first day in Te Anau really didn’t consist of much except spending excessive amounts of money–namely on my new camera as well as a silk liner for my sleeping bag since it’s nowhere near warm enough at night (see my second Routeburn entry for a description of that). Nick, Rachel, and I all cooked dinner together at the hostel which was great since I’m very sick of cooking for myself every night! We managed to turn a bunch of interesting ingredients into a very gourmet dinner, complete with New Zealand red wine.

Yesterday I met up with Johanna and we went to the cinema in an attempt to avoid the deluge of rain outside. This cinema is a special one because it mostly shows one film, called “Shadowlands.” This is a breathtaking 30-minute film of helicopter shots over Fiordland, which is by far the most spectacular part of New Zealand. The guy that filmed all of the footage then decided to build the Fiordland Cinema since he had nowhere to show it. For $10, it was much cheaper than getting in a helicopter (which can cost up to $900)! By the time we left the theatre, it had completely quit raining and the sun had come out, so we went to the Te Anau Wildlife Centre on the lakefront. There is supposedly a large range of native birdlife in this park, although we were a bit disappointed when we could only see about 6 birds total in the many different enclosures–and most of those were sleeping! We did see one old takahe, a funny-looking bird with a massive red beak that was thought to be extinct until the 1940s when a small population was found in the mountains across the lake from Te Anau.

After the visit to the sleeping birds, Johanna offered to drive me to Lake Manapouri, 20kms away where she was staying. I jumped at the chance since I had wanted to go there anyway, even though I wasn’t sure what was there besides boats that go to Doubtful Sound (the second largest fiord in Fiordland and so named because Captain Cook knew his boats could get in to the harbour but he didn’t think there was enough wind to get them out). We ended up running into James, a guy that I’ve run into in seemingly every town in New Zealand, and going for a walk to Fraser’s Beach and along the lake to Pearl Harbour (yes, fun name, I know). James and I had fun taking just about a million pictures of the mountains and the lake while Johanna just watched us, probably stunned that we could take that many pictures of the same thing!

Johanna stayed in Manapouri while I went back to Te Anau to get ready for the Milford Track and to visit the Te Anau Glowworm Caves. The two hour long trip started with a cruise across Lake Te Anau on another startlingly gorgeous day in Fiordland. We all stood on the top deck admiring the various “fiords” on the lake (really just arms of the lake surrounded in more huge mountains). The tour through the caves was probably about 30 minutes in length. We spent part of the time walking through the caves (which are carved out of limestone and sandstone by water from the Orbell Valley above) and part of the time in a boat in the complete darkness, floating on one of the calmer stretches of the river as glowworms lit the walls and roof of the cave up with their green glow. Even though I’ve seen glowworms a number of times, they still seem magical (at least, until you think about the fact that they are actually burning their poo to attract insects to eat for dinner). It wasn’t quite the same experience as blackwater rafting through the caves as I did in Waitomo three years ago, but I was definitely a lot warmer this time around. Afterwards, we got to watch infrared video of a glowworm at work catching its prey, which was pretty cool and something I’d never seen before. Overall, for a very tightly controlled tourist attraction that sees nearly thousands of visitors each day, it was still pretty cool.

The next day, it was off to the world-famous Milford Track, which runs from the top end of Lake Te Anau into Milford Sound, one of the most spectacular fiords in Fiordland. I have to go because I’ve only got 2 mins left of internet, but I will write about it soon. It’ll probably have to be a 2-parter again because of everything that happened (all good–no body/camera breaking this time!).

 I left you guys after describing my slightly fruitless climb up Conical Hill. The rest of the day wasn’t hugely interesting actually, due to the wall of cloud pushing up against the saddle and completely obliterating the view. It took about three hours to get from the saddle to Lake Mackenzie Hut, although it only took about 2 to get to the point where we could see the valley, Lake Mackenzie, and the hut (which is kind of depressing after a day of walking…you just want to be there but you still have to climb over rocks and tree roots for an hour before you’re there!). We were lucky that it never tipped it down while we were walking; we only got sprinkles here and there that were enough to make us put on our raincoats (but not like it is right now–people are walking into the hostel completely drenched just from getting out of their cars).

 Since it was only about 4 o’clock when I arrived, I had plenty of time to kill at the hut, although I didn’t do what a couple did, which was go to sleep at 5, not eat dinner, and then wake up at 6.30 in the morning. After dinner the hut warden gave us a talk, which all hut wardens do on the Great Walks. Clive was absolutely hilarious, and I swear he wanted to be a standup comedian before he became a warden on the Routeburn 15 years ago. He started out with the weather forecast for the next day, which was “wet rain in the morning, followed by dry rain in the afternoon, with a few snow showers and some sleet.” It’s fortunate that one didn’t come true! He then regaled us with the history of the Routeburn Track followed by a few stories that I guess were supposed to teach us fire safety. The first involved a woman who decided to dry her trainers by putting them on the fire itself, which ended in them bubbling, Clive throwing them outside before they caught on fire, and her having to finish the track in a pair of his gumboots that she later had to return to the Dept of Conservation. The second truly intelligent woman to come to Lake Mackenzie Hut decided to hang her wet underwear on the grill next to the stovepipe. They managed to fall into the grill and began smoking. Everyone in the hut tried to get them out, but since the grill wouldn’t come off, it was a bit difficult. Clive concluded the story by saying “So I’ll never forget the night of the burning knickers!” Needless to say, all of us were in tears by the end of the thirty minutes and probably burned as many calories laughing as we did walking during the day.

I wasn’t nearly as cold that night as I was on the first, which I guess can be attributed to the fact that Lake Mackenzie Hut was lower in altitude and in a valley. At the Falls Hut, I slept in a Tshirt, 2 thermal shirts, 2 pairs of longjohns, a pair of pants, socks, gloves, and a beanie. I didn’t have to wear the gloves and a beanie at the Mackenzie Hut, which is better. I’ve still decided to buy a silk sleeping bag liner to warm it up a bit for my next few walks!

I left Mackenzie Hut much later than all but three other walkers, since my bus out of the Divide at the end of the track wasn’t until 5.45pm. This also had the added advantage of giving the clouds time to clear before I got to the bushline, which was about 30-40 minutes away. When I got to the point where the trees cleared, the clouds were just hanging over the tops of the Darran Mountains across the valley from me, and the effect was just astounding. They hung over the peaks, giving them much more atmosphere than they would have on a completely clear day. Every few feet I had to stop to take yet another picture of the rocky peaks and the valley seemingly miles below them. These were definitely the best views of the entire walk to that point.

About halfway between Mackenzie Hut and Howden Hut are the Earland Falls, which plummet 174m off of a cliff into a small pool below. The track passes nearly underneath via a bridge and some climbing on rocks. This was by far the coolest waterfall I’ve ever seen, and I was so close to it that my raincoat had little rivulets of spray running down it. Had I packed a lunch, I easily would have stopped here to eat it, even though the falls were so loud that it would probably give me permanent hearing damage.

Another 1.5 hours and a lot of slogging through mud later, I got to Lake Howden Hut, which was beautifully set on the shores of–you guessed it–Lake Howden. Unfortunately, it was also swarming with sandflies, so I ended up eating my lunch inside. Then I did possibly the most intelligent thing so far on this trip; as I walked down to the shores of Lake Howden with my backpack on, I tried to take my camera out of my raincoat’s pocket and dropped it about a meter onto the rocks below. When I picked it up it looked undamaged (and there was much rejoicing) but then I turned it on. The screen was as pictured to the left: essentially, some sort of abstract painting full of black & pink blobs. My poor little Canon Powershot that served me so well for two years was completely destroyed, since there’s no way I can control any settings or look at any of the pictures I’ve taken. Sure, it still takes pictures, but since I had it on some manual settings changing the exposure and stuff, I can only take pictures in certain lights and hope they still come out. Needless to say, I was really quite upset and my wallet was even moreso the next day when I went out and bought a new one, since I can’t tramp/kayak/do a lot of other things with my big Panasonic. This one is a shock/waterproof Olympus camera (although not the newest model–too expensive and not stocked in Te Anau) that is hopefully Kristin-proofed as well (thank you James and my mother) and will make it through the rest of the trip. At least now I don’t have to worry about putting my camera in a waterproof housing…

I walked the rest of the track with Lowell and Karen and really enjoyed having company after walking the first part of the day alone. We climbed the Key Summit, which is important because it has rivers that flow to three different coasts: the east, west, and south. The views at the top were the best of the day: 360 degrees of mountain ranges and superb valleys in between them. The top of the summit was actually quite a bog with lots of boardwalks across them, and there is a very well-placed tarn right in front of all of the mountains, which made for some good pictures on my very carefully handled Panasonic. We could have stayed up there much longer than we did (about 15 mins or so) because we still made it to the car park less than an hour later and over 1 3/4 hours before our bus was to arrive. This gave us plenty of time to wash our boots and wave our hands as the sandflies came in for the kill.

The drive back from the Divide was a scenic wonderland in itself. The Divide is about 35kms from Milford Sound–the most famous fiord in Fiordland–and about 85 from Te Anau, which is the closest decent-sized town. I stared out the window in amazement at the Eglinton Valley and many other amazing glacier-created geological formations until I made myself feel quite carsick (the road is also very windy), after which I stared out of the front very intently.

So, overall, the track was an amazing experience that I would definitely repeat if I had the time/money (the huts are more expensive than most others due to the popularity of the walk)/energy. The scenery was second to nothing I have seen in New Zealand thus far (although I really feel like I say that about everything I see), as you might be able to tell from the ~130 pictures I posted in my Routeburn album. And who thought that I would be saying something like “hey, I only had to walk 33kms in 3 days” this time last year as I labored in front of the computer trying to make my operating systems project work? Certainly not me!

 Over the weekend, I did the 33km Routeburn Track, which goes from Mt. Aspiring National Park at the head of Lake Wakatipu across to Fiordland, the largest national park in New Zealand. The Routeburn is renowned as being one of the two best walks in New Zealand (the other is the Milford), and now I understand why. I feel like my friend Nick from Fox Glacier when I say that I’ve completely run out of superlatives to describe New Zealand. I could say the walk was stunning, spectacular, magnificent, wondrous, dramatic, or breathtaking, but it really wouldn’t do it justice. Plus, since it was less than half of the distance of some of the walks I’ve done (the Queen Charlotte, for instance), it wasn’t exceptionally tiring, although I always find it difficult to sleep in a room with 24 other people moving around. Curse being a light sleeper!

I did the first day of the walk with a really great couple–Sue and Trevor–that I met in the hostel the night before starting. They’re from Perth and were really helpful; they answered lots of questions about the town and now I actually know a few people that live there! We started the track together at about 9.30am. The beginning wasn’t very difficult–a bit of climbing but nothing major–and soon we were at the Routeburn Flats Hut. We ate an early lunch there while it spat with rain before continuing the climb. I was really happy that Sue and Trevor kept going, since they had planned to turn around at the Flats, because this was definitely the best part of the day’s walk. Even though it was misty, we got great views all down the Routeburn Valley, with the yellow Routeburn Flats at the base and massive green-clad mountains all around them.

Unfortunately Sue and Trevor had to turn around at Routeburn Falls Hut, since they were only doing a day walk, although this meant that they were lucky enough to only be carrying day packs. They looked a little funny walking with me and my huge pack (once again weighing in at around 40lbs because I couldn’t leave anything behind since I won’t be returning to Queenstown for a while). We started telling people I was their sherpa that they paid to carry all of their gear!

The 48 of us staying at Routeburn Falls Hut spent the rest of the night hanging out, cooking dehydrated food, watching it rain, talking, and listening to the hut warden. John was a very organized warden who had methods to describe for everything–cleaning in the morning, where to look for all of your stuff so you don’t forget it, etc. He described what keas–mountain parrots that are said to be the smartest birds in the world–can do when he told us that someone had left their raincoat outside and the next morning all that was left were five small strips of red cloth. All of us put our gear inside after that! John also set out a challenge to all of us. He had a poster on which he had collected the phrase “Welcome to Routeburn Falls. Merry Christmas.” in over 30 different languages. If any group could identify 25 of them correctly, they would win a large bar of chocolate. All of our eyes lit up when he said that, and we formed groups and got to work. My group had Lowell and Karen, a nice American couple, in it, as while as quite a few other collaborators. We managed to get 23 of the languages correct, but the hut warden still wouldn’t give us the chocolate, even after all that hard work identifying Maori, Welsh, Basque, Catalan, and other more obscure languages. Fortunately I had my own chocolate to make up for it!

I’m very fortunate to have picked the bunkroom that I did, because the other bunkroom had a man that snored so loudly we could hear him through the walls!

The next morning we woke up to a bit more sun. It was still sprinkling rain and everything was soaking wet, but it was a start! I got fantastic views of the Routeburn Valley as I worked my way up to Harris Saddle–there was even some blue sky! After working uphill for about an hour and 45 minutes (which included copious photo stops so I could get every angle of the valley and the river flowing through it), I made it to the Harris Saddle Shelter, which is pretty much a little building where trampers can hide from the weather and have a bit of a snack. Just above the saddle is Conical Hill, which stands at over 1500m tall and supposedly offers great views of multiple valleys from the top. Even though all we could see was a wall of cloud rising from the Lake Mackenzie side of the saddle, quite a few of us decided to give the climb a try. Fortunately, we could leave our packs in the shelter so it was a chance to give our shoulders and hips a rest!

The view from the top–which four of us reached after 30-35 minutes of climbing up steep rocky slopes–was as expected…that is, cloudy. Every once in a while, they would clear and we would get a glimpse of a waterfall or a lake. Everyone rushed for their cameras, but as soon as one was out, the clouds closed back in. About halfway down the mountain the clouds were clear enough that we got to see Harris Saddle and the area that we had just walked from, so it wasn’t all for nothing!

Anyway, I only have 3 minutes left on the internet, so I’ll have to continue my Routeburn story in part 2, which will probably be written tomorrow when it starts raining heavily again!

Only a quick update, since my laundry is sitting in the dryer waiting to be packed neatly into my backpack so I can leave bright and early in the morning. So what have I done since my last entry? Well, the last evening that I spent in Arrowtown was a good one because I went on a special offroad tour only offered at my hostel (the very nice Poplar Lodge). We went driving down the Arrow River (and I mean straight down the middle of the river), gold panning (Arrowtown was founded on the gold in the Arrow River, but unfortunately it all seems to have gone because I only found a little speck), and driving up Tobin’s Track to get a great view over the Wakatipu Basin at dusk. I really enjoyed the tour and learned lots of little factoids about the area from our local guide in the process; I also learned where the various Lord of the Rings sets in Arrowtown were and what it was like to be there during filming.

Today I went horse riding with Dart Stables in Glenorchy, which is at the very north end of Lake Wakatipu, the lake that Queenstown sits on. This area, which sits just south of Paradise, is really one of the most spectacular in New Zealand, and that’s saying quite a lot. The Dart and the Rees rivers run into the azure Lake Wakatipu and are surrounded by imposing and still slightly snowcapped mountains, one range of which was used as the Misty Mountains in LOTR. We were in the saddle for two hours, and I got a big Clydesdale named Drum(my). He was a great horse that really loved to go fast and pass other horses, but he was also rather itchy today. This meant that he rubbed up against every tree around, which were all unfortunately the bendy types, so he ended up running my right leg straight through quite a few tree trunks. There was no leg damage, which I was worried about for a time when the trees started getting bigger, but fortunately the guide decided to lead us along the river bank instead because of Drummy’s behavior!  Overall, I truly enjoyed the trip and had to spend a lot of time picking my jaw up off the floor from the spectacular scenery surrounding me!

 The weather finally cleared up yesterday. When we woke up, there wasn’t a cloud in sight, and the Remarkables were again visible on the other side of Lake Wakatipu. These mountains are indeed remarkable, and absolutely beautiful when not covered in cloud, although they are actually called “The Remarkables” because they are one of two mountain ranges in the world that runs truly north-south (the other is the Rockies).

Something interesting I’ve never mentioned: New Zealand uses WWII air raid sirens when there are accidents/fires so the fire department can spring into action. One is going off right now. I’ve gotten used to the sound now, but it was definitely disconcerting when I arrived; in one hostel I stayed in, the siren went off in the middle of the night and a girl dived under the bed yelling “they’re bombing us!” Who’s bombing? Not quite sure.

Johanna really wanted to go on the luge, which is an 800-meter track that you zoom down on a little sled-like contraption that I went on the last time I was in Queenstown. It was a lot of fun–plus it has fantastic views, being at the top of the hill behind Queenstown in the “Skyline” complex–and I thought it would be even more fun if I went with someone I could race against. We bought a 5-ride ticket and went on the scenic track (required for your first run) and then on the advanced track for the next 4 rides. It was really a lot of fun, even if I left Johanna behind most of the time as I squealed around corners and over small hills. What a rush–but one you can control, unlike most of the other adrenalin activities you can do in Queenstown.

After that, we went into town and had Fergburgers. Apparently not having a Fergburger in Queenstown is like “going to Egypt and not visiting the pyramids.” I couldn’t argue with that logic really; plus, I was very hungry. I’ll agree with everyone else in Queenstown and say that it was a great meal.

Since Johanna has a car, we were free to drive around Queenstown and see much more than can be seen on foot. We first went to Deer Park Heights, which I visited three years ago on an organized tour. This trip was much better because we could take time to look at the amazing views/laugh at the hilarious wildlife. Some might recognize the picture further up in this post; it’s one of my favorite pictures that I’ve ever taken because it’s just so hilarious. Well, the donkeys were at it again; the six in the feeding pen were willing to let their lips just flap in the breeze in hope that they could strain far enough and eat anything we were holding onto. On the way down, a herd of about nine donkeys surrounded our car and refused to move, and we ended up with no less than 4 donkey noses sniffing around the inside of the car before we could get our windows up! There were plenty of other animals there as well–deer, goats, llamas–but the donkeys definitely took the cake.

Even though it was getting late-ish in the day, we drove up to the Remarkables ski area since the entrance was not all that far from Deer Park. It was a 13.5km drive up gravel roads with some very steep drops just to the left of the road, but we made it. It was very desolate at the top. All of the chairs were piled at the bottom of their respective lifts. The ski lodge was open, but only for visitors to use the bathrooms. The lights weren’t even on, so we had to sneak into the darkness until the bathroom lights detected us and flickered on. Only one toilet stall had toilet paper.

 Despite the utter loneliness, the drive was completely worth it, if only for the amazing view from the top. We could see over the hills around Queenstown to the snow-capped peaks in Mount Aspiring National Park beyond. The view only got better as we ascended on the track to Lake Alta, which was supposedly 1.5 hours return. We didn’t get very far though, since it was already 6.45pm and finishing the track would mean that we’d have to drive down in the dark–not an idea we really savoured.

Johanna dropped me off in Arrowtown and then headed back to Queenstown, since she started the Routeburn track today. I’ve spent the day wandering through the historic town, which has over 60 restored buildings from the gold rush in the mid-1800s, and I really enjoyed the 2 hour Sawpit Gully track, which followed the Arrow River and then looped around “German Hill” before the valley opened to a spectacular view of the Remarkables and Lake Hayes.

Even though Arrowtown is a relatively small place, one of my favorite things about it is the huge selection of food on offer. When Johanna and I visited a couple days ago, we had some fantastic crepes at the Bonjour Café before I picked up some of the best fudge I’ve ever eaten at the Remarkables Sweet Shop. I’ve restrained myself and haven’t eaten the entire blocks of creme brulee and apple pie (which actually tastes like a slice of applie pie!) that I got there.

Well, it’s raining for the third day in a row in Queenstown, so I’m going to bore you all with my backlog of photos that I’ve been uploading in an effort to get caught up. Also, internet is probably the cheapest way of spending time in Queenstown, even if it isn’t particularly exciting. The few days of relaxation have been good for me though, and I might even go out and do something interesting before the day is through, since the rain finally seems to be letting up (although the thick clouds are still here).

While on my caffeine high from the caramel macchiato I drank this morning (yes, that’s the ultimate sign of Queenstown’s huge tourist status–having a Starbucks) I’ve updated my:

• Kaikoura album with shots from the Kaikoura peninsula walk, as well as a couple more of the dolphins
• Akaroa album with pictures from my bike ride to Onuku and my sailing trip on the Fox II where we saw the world’s rarest dolphin (Hector’s dolphin)
• Picton album with pictures from the waterfront and the Bob’s Bay track
• Queen Charlotte Track album with another 80 or so pictures of sounds and bays
• Hopewell album with pictures from around the hostel and Kenepuru Sound.
• Nelson album with a few shots from the city centre
• Swimming with Seals album with more seals & views of Abel Tasman National Park
• Hokitika album with a couple pictures from town and the beach

With all of those updates, I’ve finally caught up, with the exception of Queenstown, where I am right now. This is a good thing, because it means that I can delete them off my memory cards and take a lot more (they’re also backed up on DVD).

This video is from the World Buskers Festival in Christchurch. The guy is called “The Piano Juggler”–you’ll see why! Sorry it’s sideways.

This video is from sailing on the Fox II in Akaroa. Hector’s dolphins are swimming beside the boat.

This one is from Kaikoura–I just thought it was amusing. It’s titled “To Fly or Not to Fly.”