Our Milford Moment

February 26, 2014

We have reached the halfway point for our Kiwi Adventure.  We have only 35 days left to tour the Western half of the South Island and the Eastern Half and Northern Tip of the North Island.

We have been slumming it a little during our last marathon run of hiking and kayaking.  Our total hiking time over the past seven days has been a meager 8 hours including a hike up to Marian Lake – an alpine lake “situated in a hanging valley”; a hike along the Kepler Track called Rainbow Reach where it is said some of the scenes in the Lord of the Rings movies were filmed; and a couple of insignificant but lovely forest walks. 

Hiking up to Lake Marian - one of the moments when the sun was shining.

The breakfast room - still wearing my "pyjamas"
of hat and mitts - but I added another sweater.

The weather has turned a bit cold in the Fjordlands area with nighttime temperatures dropping down to around 3 degrees Celsius bringing a fresh sprinkling of snow on the mountaintops.  After a night of sleeping with full-length fleece and thermal underwear, and with me wearing my wool hat and mitts; we woke up, looked at each other and said “hotel time!”  What a good decision as the next night ended up being just as cold. 

A beautiful view point on the road to Milford Sound

Our real treat this past week has been an overnight cruise on the Milford Mariner.  The cruise ship took us out onto world famous and not to be missed Milford Sound where there are spectacular views of the surrounding mountains and fjords; and seals and dolphins to entertain you.  The boat makes a quick slip into the Tasman Sea to give everyone a taste of the ocean and to show how Captain Cook managed to miss the fjord charting it as a bay instead.  The clouds and rain that had all but ruined our alpine view when we climbed up to Marian Lake the previous day had disappeared and we enjoyed a fantastic evening and morning on the Sound.   It was a wonderful experience from start to finish.

Mirror Lake

We have also been to the very touristy town of Queenstown, the old gold mining Western-style, gold rush town of Arrowtown, and the towns of Glen Orchy and Wanaka.  Now its time to head North to the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers and maybe do a little more tramping.  

The Milford Mariner

One of the many waterfalls in the Milford Sound.

Milford in the early morning.

A look out to the Tasman Sea

Returning into the Sound from the Sea.

Fur seals basking in the sun.  We also saw dolphins, but I'm just not fast enough to catch a good photo of them.

And the clouds start to come in.

This waterfall is famous because apparently Hugh Jackman jumped in to the sound from the top during the shooting of a movie.  And we were told he was only wearing his birthday suit!

A typical Milford Moment

More beauty shots.

And a last shot from the car park.  I guess we didn't need to go out in the boat after all.

A forest carpeted with moss.  So tranquil.

And the mossy stuff grows everywhere!

The wetlands on the Rainbow Reach track.

Jens up at Marian Lake - we were a little fogged in ... actually Jens looks a little foggy himself.

 

And now for some serious tramping!

February 19, 2014

If four days and roughly 74 kilometers count as serious tramping, then we have done it!!!  Woohoo!  I believe we can now call ourselves true Kiwi Trampers. 

We booked a three-day tramp on the Humpridge Track in Tuatapere but decided we couldn’t wait for the following day to start tramping so we headed straight out to a tramp at Lake Huaroko, the deepest lake in New Zealand.  It was a four-hour hike to a look out.  Now, pay close attention to the word “look out” because you know what that means.  It means you must go up to look out.  And up we went.  Five hundred and sixty six meters up.  And what did we see when we got there?  Absolutely nothing.  That’s right.  Nothing.  Not surprising as it was a rather rainy day and at that height we were well into the mist and clouds.  Despite the lack of scenery it was a good hike and we figured a good warm up for the days to come. 

At the Look Out on the Lake Huaroko track.

Made it to the top!  

So feeling like expert trampers already, we set off on day one of the Humpridge Track knowing we had 21 kilometers of forest and hills ahead of us.  The map of the track indicated the first day would be the toughest, climbing up to the lodge, which sits at 800 meters.  It took us 8 hours to reach Okaka Lodge and we were feeling a wee bit exhausted but quite thrilled that the weather was clear giving us a most amazing 360-degree view of the beaches we left behind, Stewart Island off to the South East and Fjordland to the West and North.

Beautiful beaches on the South Coast.

Getting fresh water from the mountain stream.

The view of Okaka Lodge and the beaches we passed on the way.

 

We climbed a little higher than the lodge for some great views.

A look to the North at Fjordland.  

Our first night at a lodge - great to have a shower and a comfy bed.

Day 2 started well with a gorgeous sunrise.  Unfortunately, it was quickly followed by a misty rain that persisted all day.  It was a damp day to say the least and even though it was mostly a downhill track (we were told there are 3,500 steps on the part of the track where they have built a boardwalk!) there were some tricky spots and it got extremely muddy walking along the old rail bed.   We arrived at Craig Hut rather weary and muddy and ready for a nice glass of red.

 

The day started with a gorgeous sunrise.

Frog Rock!

Watch your step Jens ... the next one will be a big one!

Crossing one of the viaducts - by this point we were a little wet.

This viaduct was deemed unsafe, so we had to go down and around.

The really pleasant parts of the Humpridge Track are the lodges.  You can either rough it; sleeping in a dorm room in a bunk in your sleeping bag, or you can pay for an upgrade and get a proper private room with double bed and towels provided.  I’ll let you guess what we did!  They also offer hot showers, a fully equipped kitchen so all you have to bring is your own food; and a lounge.  They even have a canteen selling snacks, wine, beer and if you forgot to bring you own food, freeze dried meals.  The other multi-day tramps in New Zealand don’t offer such accommodations but rather have very basic huts for overnight stays; therefore you must pack in your own stove, food, sleeping bags, etc.

Day 3 was to be the shortest of the days, only 20 kilometers and most of it following the coast.  We made it out in 5 ½ hours for a total tramping time of 20.5 hours over the three days.  Not too bad I must say even if the old knees were knocking and the dogs were barking.

Back to Lucky and North to Lake Manapouri because eager beavers that we are, we had booked a kayaking trip starting early the next morning.  The kayaking turned out to be a good break for the legs and the weather was just super.  It was a leisurely kayak of about 13 kilometers in Doubtful Sound whose beauty is mind-boggling.  To get to Doubtful Sound you must first cross Lake Manipouri by motorboat, drive 40-minutes by bus up and over the pass, then down to the Sound (which isn’t really a Sound but is actually a Fjord) where we were given a quick lesson on kayaking and off we went.  It was worth the trip and a great first time kayaking experience for us. 

 

Our guide Cloudi giving us some kayaking lessons.

Beautiful views and nice calm waters. 

And here we are, relaxing in our kayak.

So what next?  Jens is just now busy looking at the Lonely Planet Guide and brochures searching for our next tramp. 

An Assortment of Adventures

February 15, 2014

An Assortment of Adventures

Jens playing with the skeletal sheep riding a motorcycle.

And here's a whale made of corrugated metal - turn the dial and he "swims".

We have had to don our rainy ponchos the past few days because the rain has arrived again in New Zealand.  But that hasn’t stopped us from getting out and about to see the sights.  Some a little odd, some quite magnificent; and some just a bit of silly fun. 

The first odd sight was what is called “The Lost Gypsy Gallery”.  The caravan and gallery of sorts houses the most bizarre collection of gizmos, art and oddities you could ever find.  A lot of it is very entertaining with moving parts, lights and sounds.  We had a lot of fun at the piano that was rigged up to play sounds, bang drums, and play songs with every touch of the keyboard.  Quite amusing!

After that bit of fun it was off into the woods to find yet another waterfall.  This one, Purakaunui Falls was said to be the most photographed in all of New Zealand.  Well, she is a beauty even on a rainy day with its three tiers causing the water to fall gracefully over the stones. 

Me in my Elven Cloak at the falls.

Jens in his Elven Cloak.

Purakaunui Falls

McLean Falls

And not quite as beautiful, but still worth the 20-minute walk, was McLean Falls.  The woodlands here are very thick and our rainy ponchos became Elven Cloaks protecting us from orcas and other beasts that may have been hiding in amongst the rocks and trees.  All kidding aside, the area we are in is known as the Catlins and has some of the oldest, untouched forests in all of New Zealand.  Remember, the Europeans who settled here were big into sheep farming and to create grazing land burnt acres and acres of forest to the ground.   

Then it was off to see a petrified forest that was, in all places, at the seaside and can only be seen at low tide.  All the stumps you see in the picture used to be trees and the other photo is of a fallen tree, petrified into stone.  Very cool and very interesting to read how this all happened 170 million years ago when heavy rains caused the silica rich ash from a nearby volcano to flood the forest, turning the trees into stone. 

The Petrified Forest at the Sea

The brown lumps are the stumps of the trees.

This is a good example of a fallen log - petrified. 

Now for the silly fun.  We saw on the map that we would be going right by “Niagara Falls”.  So, of course, we had to stop by and see what that was all about.  It seems a surveyor with a sense of humor named these “falls” after the great Niagara Falls.  I have to say, it was with a great imagination that he did so because all we saw was a muddy, fast flowing river.

Niagara Falls???

And, a bit more silly fun to end our day.  We came upon “Gemstone Beach” where it is said you can find various gemstones such as sapphires and garnets.  So off we went fossicking hoping to find a treasure but I think all we came back with were a bunch of pretty rocks.  Which is completely fine with me.  I am a rock collector from way back and just can’t resist bringing home a pretty rock or two.  This time it was more difficult because the rocks are really, very nice here.  Oh but for the baggage allowances on the flight home I’d have a duffel bag full of rocks. 

The rocks or gemstones we could have found.

The Rocks we came back with...