We are flying out in a few hours. Very sad to be leaving New Zealand. Its been an incredible trip. I’m ready to get back to normal life though, and try to get into med school. Current problem, we don’t have a place to live. Should probably get to work on that. I will update about the last few days here in a couple of days.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
9 Days Left
Only 9 days left of our trip. We are currently in the college town of Dunedin, driving up to Christchurch soon. Seeing penguins and other such things on the way, selling the car in Christchurch, flying to Auckland, renting a car in Auckland and driving to hot water beach, revisiting the Auckland fish market, and flying home. It will be busy.
Arthurs Pass, Fiordland and More
Sorry its been so long. Internet is expensive and slow, and we are very busy.
We relaxed at the hot spring pools all the next morning. The resort was pretty quiet in the morning, getting busier in the afternoon. There are 9 outdoor pools, varying in temperature from 29C to 41C (quite hot). The warmer pools (40 and 41) were unfiltered, the water was very mineral heavy (and smelt strongly of sulfur) which gave it a oily texture (which I liked). The other pools were filtered and the sulfur and minerals were much less noticeable. A long morning of relaxing was nice for both of us, as the trip has been very busy so far.
We left the springs and headed for Christchurch around 2pm. We did not intend on doing much in Christchurch, we will be back here in a few weeks. Instead, we were posting flyers at all the local hostels for our car, which we will sell once we get back there (and fly to Auckland). Christchurch has a lot more English influence than the rest of New Zealand’s cities, reminds me of London. Huge cathedrals, cobblestone streets, etc. There are a lot of hostels in Christchurch, we spent several hours putting out flyers. As soon as we finished we left on the drive for Arthur’s Pass, where we would enter the Southern Alps and head for the west coast.
The drive into the Southern Alps with the setting sun was beautiful. We camped at a backcountry site a little off of the highway. I had planned to climb Avalanche Peak the next morning, so I got camp set up and we got to bed early. The next morning I woke up at 4:30 to start the climb, I stopped by the visitors center on the way out to check the weather board. I was disappointed to find some late season snow fall had raised avalanche danger to “HIGH” and very heavy (heavy was highlighted) rain was forecasted for the day. It had already begun to rain lightly, and I decided it was best to not continue, as even if I summited, I would have an awful view. I went back to camp, and slept until Amber woke up. We packed up camp, and stopped by the visitors center again (it was now open). I chatted with the man at the front about back up hiking plans. He suggested climbing Mount Bealey, it was not to long of a climb and far east on the range, in the rain shadow of most of the Southern Alps. It was less likely to rain there, and devoid of snow. The panoramic shot of the Southern Alps was taken from the summit, so I decided it would be worth a try. Amber and I headed straight there, Amber was going to stop at the Bealey hut, a bit below tree line. The hike was not terribly hard, summited in around 3 hours. I love the alpine forests of New Zealand, a lush green full of Southern Beech trees, a variety of mosses and lots of old man’s beard. Its quite a bit different from the alpine forests of Colorado that I am used to. The views at the summit were awful, clouds had already began pouring in, and I descended quickly, hoping to avoid getting poured on. I stopped at the hut to pick up Amber and eat a quick lunch. We got down the mountain with only a slight rain.
After the climb we went back to the visitors center to see the Kea mountain parrot population that frequented the area. I had ask the ranger at the center about them earlier, I was quite excited to see one. He said, “wait about an hour and they’ll be out, they are not an early morning bird, they spend all night destroying things and are quite tired.” Keas are known for being very curious, smart, loud, and destructive. They especially have a penchant for chewing the rubber off of car window shield seals, door seals, antennas, etc. I went across the street and found probably 8 keas hanging out near a public bathroom. They make a very loud racket. The birds are pretty large, with a dark green outer feathers, with bright green chests. Their underwings are bright red and orange, but unfortunately, I could not get a picture of one flying.
We headed out to drive the rest of the way to the west coast, toward Franz Josef and Fox glaciers. We arrived at the town of Franz Josef fairly late, got a room at a local hostel, cooked dinner, played some cards and went to bed. The next morning we went to see Franz Josef glacier. I had planned on doing a longer, more difficult hike to the top of the valley wall at Franz, but unfortunately the weather was still not cooperating. Thick clouds made a climb pointless. Instead Amber and I did two smaller hikes to see the glacier. The second hike we hiked all the way to the tongue of the glacier. The glacier is 8 miles long, joining with several other glaciers near the summit of Mount Cook. This is my first bonifide glacier experience, I have been on a very small one in Rocky Mountain National Park (Andrews Glacier). The glacier is in a temperate climate, and therefore moves very quickly (for a glacier), as much as 5 meters a day. The entire southern portion of the west coast receives a very heavy amount of rainfall each year (around 5 meters). The large mountain ranges a few kilometers from the coast force moist air from the ocean up, creating a dense wet rainforest on the west coast. The forest is packed with tree ferns, mosses, ground ferns, vines, etc. After leaving the forest the trail follows the glacier carved valley, lined with rocks that it has ripped out of the mountain over many years. The glacier valley walls are quite steep, combined with the heavy rainfall, snow melt and glacier melt makes the perfect conditions for waterfalls. I estimated that there were around 50-60 waterfalls on the hike from the car park to the glacier. Everywhere you looked there was water pouring down the walls, eventually meeting with the river coming from the glacier. In the thick jungle and numerous waterfalls a huge vein of ice seems out of place. The jagged Southern Alps stayed obscured by clouds most of the time we were there, which unfortunately is quite common. The weather the next day was supposed to be better, I planned a longer hike to the top of Mount Fox, near Fox Glacier, hoping for better views.
After the hike we went to the Franz Josef visitors centre and learned about some old gold mining tunnels near by that you could hike through and see glowworms. We had planned to go to some glowworm caves in the north island, but ran out of time to make it there. Glowworms are relatives of lightning bugs (watch Planet Earth). They create long mucous like strands (maybe ten per worm) that hang down from the worm. The very tip of the worm glows blue, this attracts insect to the worm, which get tangle in the strands. The worm reels in the strands like a fishing line, and eats the insect. Glowworms are somewhat common in New Zealand, but not much like it in the US, all though I have heard there is something like it in a few caves in New Mexico. The hike takes about one hour to the tunnel, and there is a stream running through the tunnels that can be as much as a foot deep. We trudged through the water in the tunnel for nearly 30 minutes, trying to get deep enough into the tunnel for outside light to not penetrate the darkness, so it would be easy to see the worms. Finally, Amber spotted a couple, We continued to find them in the tunnel, finding as many as 40 in one spot. All the glowing lights looked like tiny stars on the ceiling of the tunnel. The worms are very small and brown, they could be seen moving back and forth on their lines. We stayed entertained looking at worms for half an hour, before trudging out of the cave and back to town. We headed out to Gillepsie Beach near Fox glacier to camp for the night. The campsite was just off the beach, weather was perfect. Sheep freely roamed the area, making driving difficult, as the were often blocking the road. I planned on getting up very early to start the climb to the top of Mount Fox.
I got up at 4:30, made some breakfast, woke Amber up and broke camp. I was very excited because the rising sun was barely illuminating Mount Cook and the other tall peaks of the Southern Alps, which are normally obscured by clouds. Amber was going to drop me off, and pick me up later that day. She planned on reading at a local café for the morning. The hike was supposed to take 8 hours, I started late, finding the trailhead was quite difficult, it was not marked well. The trail was a very steep climb through thick jungle for the first 2 hours. Moving was quite slow. Imagine the steepest staircase possible, except the stairs are off camber, wet, moss covered tree roots. Vines covered the ground and tripped you up every step of the way. Many areas so steep I literally climbed ladders of tree roots. It had been raining for three days, but weather was quite nice for my hike. The large amount of rainfall made many parts very swampy, ankle deep mud adding to my difficulties. After finally breaking tree line I could see that clouds were quickly forming over Mount Cook and the other tall peaks, I took what pictures I could, but by the time I summited most the peaks were hidden. I was disappointed, but I still got a few decent views. The route was just as difficult back down, as the steep and slick terrain caused me to fall frequently. The route was difficult, but much shorter than the estimated time predicted. I got down in 4 hours (DOC estimates 8 hours), I had no way of getting ahold of Amber, so I walked 5 kilometers back to town and looked for her.
I eventually found her, we did a short walk at the Fox Glacier park, so she could also see the glacier, ate at a neat café called Café Neve, found out that I have an interview with CU med school (!!!), and got out of town. We headed south, to camp near a town called Wanaka. We stopped at a visitor centre in the town of Haast, to stretch legs and use the bathroom. I noticed on the map that there was an area nearby called Mussell Point. The lady at the centre said it was a great place to get mussels if it was low tide. She checked the tide schedule, low tide was in 40 minutes. We quickly bought things to cook mussels and drove 15 minutes to the area. A large rocky section was right of the sandy beach. We waded out to it and found thousands of mussels, cockles, starfish, sea anemones, and other sea creatures. It reminded me a lot of tide pools in Oregon. We collected as many mussels as we thought we could eat and got back on the road. The mussels here were the famous green-lipped mussels that are supposed to be meatier than the first we collected. We decided to not camp and instead stay at the hostel in Wanaka. This would make it easier to cook the mussels. The drive passed two large inland lakes Harwea and Wanaka. These lakes were very pretty at sunset, surrounded by the mountains of Mount Aspiring National Park. We arrived late it took a very long time to clean and cook the large amount of mussels we collected, didn’t end up eating until nearly midnight. The mussels were good, but I had not considered the fact that the first mussels we collected were from a rocky bay, these from a sandy beach. Mussels are filter feeders, and the beach mussels digestive tract was filled with a lot of sand. The green-lipped mussels were definitely meatier, but the sand was a turn off. Definitely enjoyed the first mussels more. We also had our first sandfly experience while collecting mussels. Sandflies are about the size of gnats, but much more annoying. The females feed on blood, just like mosquitos, however sandflies are present in huge swarms. There were not many here, we had to swat at 20 or so that followed us into the car. The bite is much more painful than a mosquito and they itch as much or more.
The next morning I went for a incredible run around Lake Wanaka. Lake Wanaka is set right on the edge of Mount Aspiring National Park, so there is a beautiful mountain back drop to the lake. Amber walked across from our hostel to the large park across the way. There was a local craft show set up, and I joined her after my run. We perused the show for awhile and ended up buying a photograph of Milford Sound from a local artist and a clock from another. I had planned on doing the Rob Roy Track (hike in Mount Aspiring National Park) before we had decided to stay in the hostel. We had since scratched it off the list, Amber was not feeling good and we had a 4 day backpacking trip coming up. A Norwegian girl had done the hike the day before, and I overheard her telling another guy in the hostel about how amazing it was and to definitely not miss it. I changed my mind about the hike, and we decided we would drive to the trailhead after lunch. I recognized the guy she was talking to from other hostels we had stayed at. We often run into the same people every few days. Since we stay at YHA hostels (we camp about every other day, hostel every other day) we are YHA members, and so are most other tenants. Most people are heading in the same direction through the country, and since we all stay at YHA hostels, we see the same people on a very regular basis. It is interesting hearing what they did differently than us, path they took, what they saw, etc. I knew that they guy the Norwegian girl was talking to was hitchhiking around the country (quite common), and I offered him a ride to the trailhead. His name was Duncan, turns out he is from Oregon. We hit it off pretty well, and had nice drive to the trailhead, until we got a flat tire. It was a rough gravel road, I guess some gravel cut the tire. We had been hasty to get out of Auckland, and bought a car quickly. I had checked the tires, and the spare tire, made sure there was a jack and wheel brace. Unfortunately, the owner of the car was to get the spare tire changed before we bought it, I did not check for these things after he brought it back. They were non-existent, probably someone took them out when getting the spare out, and forgot to put them back in. Luckly, Kiwis are quite friendly, soon 3 cars had stopped to help, we quickly got the spare on and back on the road. The drive was incredible. The mountains of Mount Aspiring National Park are not super tall, but very rugged, with jagged ridges. The heavy rainfall all along the west coast makes waterfalls a very common sight. The trail starts through an idyllic sheep pasture, we walked among 2-3 hundred sheep and 30-40 cows for the first hour of the hike. Sheep are vary wary of humans in general, these were much less so, probably because of the regular foot traffic through their field. They would certainly not let you get close, but did not run at the sight of you, as most of the sheep do. The were many baby lambs frolicking about, very funny to watch. After crossing a long swing bridge the trail climbed steadily through the jungle to a look out over Rob Roy peak and glacier. There were many keas at the top, waiting for humans to come through. Keas can be quite a pest, as many tourists feed them, the begin to beg just like a dog. Amber and I ate a quick snack at the top, and had to shoo the parrots off several times to keep them from trying to steal a bite. We met Duncan back at the trailhead, dropped him off at the hostel, ate a quick dinner and drove towards Queenstown. We got into to town very late, and drove to a campsite on a lake on the outskirts of town to camp.
Queenstown has a very “Boulder” feel to it, a large outdoor mall shopping area dominates downtown. It is known for “adrenaline sports” such as skydiving , bungy jumping, jet boating, etc. We steered clear of these as they are incredibly over priced and touristy. Instead we spent the morning exploring the town and looking for a place for me to get my hair cut. Amber had met a guy at the restaurant that she works at the frequents New Zealand. He told us to try Winnies Pizza in Queenstown, he knew the owner, he said if we mentioned his name we would get free food. We had forgotten what town he said it was in, but we stumbled upon it in Queenstown. Unfortunately, it has changed ownership. The food looked incredibly good, we decided to eat there. We split a Moroccan lamb pizza and a sweet chili thai pizza that was topped in pistachio cream. Both pizzas were absolutely incredible, we were happy we tried it. We also found a sweets shop called Patagonia Chocolates, we actually went twice in the same day. Once for a hazelnut brownie (incredible), once for gelato (also incredible). We finally found a place for me to get my haircut. The lady was very chatting, but nice. She raved about a place called Fergburger (she even had a menu with her), that was world famous for the best burgers. We did not really consider going (although a love a good hamburger). We decided to get a hostel in Queenstown for the night, and enjoy the famous nightlife of Queenstown. Duncan ended up being at the same hostel that we were. He had met some climbers from the area, and might go bouldering the next day. He also said he ate at Fergburger, and it was the best experience of his life.
The next morning Amber and I took the flat tire in to get it fixed, and went to a local bead shop for Amber to peruse jewelery. The shell of the Paua is very common in jewelry around New Zealand, and she bought some Paua pieces to use in her jewelery. Queenstown is set on a huge lake (Lake Esplanade) with the rugged Remarkables mountain range in the background. We had planned on going to Fergburger for lunch, and then relaxing on the beach for the afternoon. I ran into Duncan again, he was going found some climbers with gear, and was heading out to climb at 1pm that afternoon. We postponed Fergburger until dinner, ate a quick lunch, and I headed out with Duncan to go climb. We met at a girl named Gerusa’s house, were we waited for the other climbers to be ready. Gerusa is Brazilian and a true dirt bag climber. The other climbers was Argentinean, European, and a few Kiwis. We headed out to the rock face, which was about a 20 minute drive and 20 minute hike away. The view over the lake and the mountains from te rock was incredible. Kiwis are very friendly people, and rock climbers are usually also. We were able to all share gear (I only had my shoes and chalk) and have a great afternoon of climbing. The rock was very different from what I’m used to, and kiwis rate climbs differently than us Americans. We climbed mostly 17’s though 19’s, which are supposed to be around a 5.10-5.10c climbs, but I found them much easier (probably 5.8-5.9’s). The climbing was not too difficult, but very fun and a beautiful view. Amber stayed back in town, and went to the beach to enjoy sometime in the sun and reading at a café.
After returning to the hostel Amber and I headed to the infamous Fergburger to put their burgers to the test. Amber got the Bombay Chicken, I got the Big Al. Burger reminded me of So Long Saloon’s burgers, served with eggs on it. The burger was huge, and quite good, but not quite world famous. Ketchup is not as common in New Zealand, you have to pay for it by very small containers. Instead they often serve fries with thai sweet chili sauce and sour cream, our onion rings were served with aioli. As an good American, I love ketchup, but the sweet thai chili sauce and sour cream was also quite good. We indulged in Patagonia’s gelato one more time (marscapone cheese and fruits of the forest is incredible), and drove out of town to a campsite on the edge of Lake Esplanade. The next morning we ate a quick breakfast on the lake, walked through the Queenstown Gardens for a few minutes, and drove to Te Anau. Queenstown is very close to Milford Sound, however, there is no road that goes through to Fiordland. Instead you must drive several hours south through Te Anau and then back north to the sounds. We are leaving our car in a small township outside of Te Anau while we do the Milford track.
Milford Track
We drove into Te Anau and stopped at the Department of Conservation’s visitors centre to pick up our Milford Track tickets. The weather did not look great for our walk, rain was forecasted several days, but this is to be expected as it rains over 200 days a year here. The track is touted as the “greatest walk in the world,” so I had high expectations. We camped in a small campsite called Henry’s Fork on lake Te Anau the night before we left for the hike. The next morning, we packed up, cooked breakfast and headed down to the boat dock to catch our boat for the track. The wharf was very small, only 2 boats could moor there, we boarded our small boat, along with 20 other people and headed off to the start of the track. The boat ride goes across the large lake, an hours journey.
All of Fiordland is known for its horrible population of sandflies, which happily greeted us upon landing. They do not bother you while you are walking, so hiking is no problem, but stopping more than 5 seconds is not recommended. The warden at our hut the first night told us the Maori legend behind sandflies. They believe the goddess of darkness brought them to earth to keep humans from ever relaxing, and to constantly be moving. Not sure that is exactly where they came from, but it can’t be far off. Every hut we stayed in had massive populations waiting for you to arrive. Putting on boots outside was nearly impossible, literally 200 of these small flies greedily swam about you. They land and bite quite quickly, no matter how many you kill there are thousands more to take its place. Every window had fine mesh to keep them out of living areas, these were for the most part effective, but some always manage to slip in but inside is much safer. Sandflies are not bothered by insect repellent. The horrible creatures come out of no where while you are hiking and want to stop for water, I try to stop and take pictures and instantly a swarm attacks, each photgraph probably costs you a milliliter of blood. Some area were not as bad, and the hike was incredibly beautiful, making up for the sandfly problem. Sandflies were the butt of every joke and complaint by wardens and hikers alike, but a great time was had by all regardless.
The first days hike was very short, an hour and a half walk through lush jungle. There was another boat arriving later in the afternoon with the rest of the hikers for the track. The DOC limit’s the number of people that can be doing the track to 40. The popularity of the Milford Track means that it is virtually always full, I booked the hike 3 months ago, and there were only 3 days left open for the entire 6 weeks we’re here, and only 11 spots available those days. The track follows the Clinton river up the glacier carved valley, climbs over Mackinnon’s Pass and down to Milford Sound covering 33.5 miles total, and climbing to about 1200 meters at the top of the pass. The warden at the first hut was very talkative and friendly. Most hikers were done by 5, when he led a short but informative walk telling about native plants and the history of the area. He also told us average rainfalls of the area, the hut we were staying in that night receives between 5-7 meters of rain per year, the second hut further up the track gets up to 9 meters of rain a year (in 1997 it received 9.3 meters of rain!). The walls of the Clinton Valley are incredibly steep, nearly straight up. The heavy rains have washed most of the soil off of these mountains, leaving very little topsoil. The beech tree that grow here have very shallow root systems. Particularly intense rain can cause tree avalanches, rain erodes enough dirt from one trees root system that it falls over, knocking over the next poorly rooted tree, creating a huge tree-valanche clearing a path down the mountain. Another consequence of lack of soil is the vast majority of rain runs off the mountains very quickly, combined with the very steep walls, waterfalls are everywhere. After a day of raining it is easy to spot 25-30 waterfalls in one view of a mountain, and not small 2 foot water falls, impressive 300+ foot falls cover the mountains. At the beginning of the hike these were very exciting, but you see so many waterfalls that they soon become routine. We were trying to estimate how many falls we saw in the 4 day hike, had to be over 200.
The second day of hiking was not difficult. The hike took 6 hours, and we left fairly early. The first day we escaped rain until we were done hiking. The second we did not. It rained all day long, moderately heavy at times, but never torrential downpours. The huge rainfall of the area means every square inch of every tree and patch of soil is covered in mosses, lichens, ferns, algaes, etc. Tree ferns and various types of beech treesd dominate the forest, but other strange looking plants also grow. Several of these have strange life cycles, the plant color and leaf shape change dramatically from young to adolescent to adult. Early botanist classified them as different plants, until they realized that they were all one plant at a different life stage. The forests are filled with birds, flightless birds are common in New Zealand, all though many are extinct or on the verge of extinction. One called the Wheka is not, we saw this bird quite often, poking around the forest or near the huts, it was not very shy. The all day rain caused many of the waterfalls to grow in size, and many more to form. It was hard not to stop every 5 minutes to photograph another waterfall. By the end of the 6 hour hike, however, everyone was tired if the rain. Gore-tex had kept most of me bone dry, but I did not have rain pants on. Ambers Columbia Titanium supposed waterproof shell turned out not to be very waterproof, the majority of the other hikers were not quite as well equipped as we were, and were drenched through and through. We started a fire in the wood stove in the second hut, which was quickly surrounded by improvised clotheslines hanging wet clothes. Amber and I made friends with a couple from Australia who had both just graduated from medical school. We chatted about the similarities and differences between becoming a doctor in Australia and the US (it is quite similar these days). I tried to get to beds very early, as I had planned on starting early the next day and trying to summit the nearby Mount Hart once I got to the top of Mikinnon’s Pass.
I woke up at 3:45 the next morning, quickly at and got my gear together and got on the trail. It was supposed to take 2 hours to get to the top of the pass, there is a hut up at the top where you can cook, rest, and I would leave my pack to go climb Mounta Hart. It was supposed to be raining most of the day again, but it had not started yet. It was obviously quite dark when I left, and I discovered that the track was lined with colonies of glowworms. Their tiny pinpoint lights provided no help seeing the trail, but when I turned off my headlamp, it was quite a sight to see hundreds of tiny lights leading up the trail. I broke out of tree line rather quickly, above tree line there is large amounts of snow grass and mountain butter cup flowers, along with other small shrubs. I got to the top of the pass very quickly, a little under an hour, the estimate was quite far off. Clouds were beginning to build on the other side of the pass, but had not yet begun pouring over to the Clinton Valley. I spent a bit of time in the hut at the top, photographing the sunrise over the valley. The view reminded me of the view down Zion Canyon from Angel’s Landing (except that it’s a desert and this is a rainforest). I dumped my pack in the hut, and headed west toward the summit of Mount Hart. There was an upper layer of clouds obscuring probably the upper third of the mountain, and clouds were just beginning to pour over the pass. There is no marked route to the summit, I considered that it would be a bad idea to go, since visibility would be low, and I could easily lose my way back. I decided to give it a go anyway. All the mountains in this area are incredibly steep, I spent much of my time climbing on hands and knees up steep slopes of soaking wet grasses and shrubs. Many areas I was nearly rock climbing up steep slopes and through little crevices. The climb was more difficult than I had imagined, I was quite wet from spending a lot of time on my hands and knees in wet grasses. Visibility was terrible, clouds made it impossible to see more than 20 feet forward or back. I continued climbing until all I could see was a very steep snow field and a few rock cliffs, at no point could I see the summit or enough topography to tell where I was on a map. The steep snowfields had melted and refroze enough to make them very slick, and steep drop offs were everywhere. I couldn’t see enough to know if there were cliffs surrounding the field or not, so I decided it best to turn back. Unfortunately clouds cleared a bit later in the day, I was able to see where I stopped from the other side of the pass, I think I was within 800 meters of summiting, but its hard to tell from that distance. I also saw several keas up near the top of my climb, it is still foreign to me to see a barren alpine landscape and parrots. I did end up getting a bit lost climbing back. This was quite dangerous, as low visibility meant I had to climb down very steep slopes, not being able to see what was very far down. I cursed myself for my stupidity, eventually getting myself in a situation where I could n9ot climb up or down. The steep overhanging slope I came down was too wet to climb up, there was about a 100 foot drop to the saddle that I would hike back to the hut. I eventually had to use very small hand holds and foot holds and climb as far down as I could on the rock face. I found a slightly shallower section of rock, and had to slide a few feet down to the next hold many times until I got down. Note to self- be a little smarter next time. I had shredded my gloves sliding down the rock, my pants and socks were soaked, but I made it back to the hut safely. I met Amber there, had a hot cup of tea, and continued down the far side of the pass. We followed a different river down the mountain, passing picturesque waterfall after waterfall.
We stopped for lunch at a day shelter that has a path leading to Sutherland Falls. We left our packs and headed to the falls (only an hour hike round trip). Sutherland Falls drops a whopping 580 meters, making it the 5th largest waterfall in the world. The height of the falls and the thick jungle made it hard to get a good photo up the whole fall, I could not back up enough to get a good shot. I did however, think I could get a good shot further down the river, where I decided I could wade across to a small island and take a photo. I ended up in hip deep very strong current, nearly freezing to death, and turning around. My boots stayed wet the rest of the trip (another bad decision). We could not stay near the base of the falls for very long, the incredible pounding of water cause so much spray we quickly became soaked. The massive volume of water dropping also seemed to create a bit of a wind current making it difficult to walk towards the falls once the bush cleared out. The wind also made our wet clothes very cold, so we didn’t stay long. The falls were incredible though, split into 3 separate waterfalls, falling from the pass from which we had just come (I could hear the fall while I was climbing). After returning to the hut to grab our packs (and doing battle with just under a million ferocious sandflies) we headed back down the track to get to the hut for the night. We noticed a sign saying “Swimming Hole” a few hundred meters from our hut. After dropping our packs we decided to go for a quick dip, as we were quite disgusting after 3 days of hiking. The hole is fed by glacial and snow melt water, it was VERY cold. I walked in hip deep, I took a lot of convincing to make myself go under and quickly scrub up. I got out very quickly, it was a very “exhilarating” experience. Several other people were also rinsing off, and a good time was had by all. It felt nice to rinse after several days of smelling awful.
There was one more day of hiking, 11.5 miles down to Sandfly Point (oh great) where a boat would pick us up and take us across Milford Sound (described by Rudyard Kipling as the 8th wonder of the world). There was a boat leaving at 2, 3:15, and 4. Amber and I decided we wanted to make the 2 o’clock boat, and have more time to spend in Milford Sound. We took our time in the morning, leaving second to last of any group. We needed to make up time if we were going to make the boat leaving at 2. Amber set a very fast pace, and we ended up passing every other single person, even those who started an hour ahead of us (Amber wanted to make sure I mentioned this).
We took shelter from the sandflies in the hut by the boat wharf at Sandfly Point, ate lunch, and waited for the boat to arrive. We were both quite tired after several days of hiking, and I desperately wanted to get my wet smelly boots off. The boat ride was only 15 minutes to the cruise boat terminal at Milford Sound. We got a very brief very out into the sound during this ride, but we had planned on sea kayaking the sound the next day. We decided this was a bad idea, since we would have to stay in a hostel, we had no clean clothes (only very disgusting ones that had been wet for 4 days), and the sound was quite choppy, windy and cold. We were both tired from hiking and decided a short cruise would be a better way to see the sounds. I still wanted to kayak, but after seeing the prices ($130 dollars a person in a tandem kayak!), the weather, and the fact that we could both take a relaxing cruise for 120 total, I decided it was not worth it. I did see one group out kayaking, they looked miserable, I think I would be difficult to enjoy the scenery from there. It was funny standing in the cruise terminal (not very big) and looking at the 2 main types of people, tourists who drove here, dressed up for a cruise, looking clean and proper. In contrast the 60-70 hikers who had finished hiking in the last few days, wearing dirty smelly clothes and carrying backpacks, I wasn’t even wearing shoes (they were disgusting). Regardless, the cruise was amazing. The mountains of the sound rise very steeply out of the water to very tall summits. Mitre Peak, one of the tallest on the sound rises over a mile directly out of the water. Waterfalls pour down the mountains in to the sound below. It truly is a beautiful and incredible place.
We had planned on hitchhiking back to our car in Te Anau Downs (about 100 km down the road). There is only 1 road leaving Milford and it goes within 20 feet of where we were parked, so we did not think it would be difficult (hitchhiking is very common here). As we were leaving the cruise to walk down to the road, an older couple who we were chatting with on the cruise stopped us and asked us if we wanted a ride. It was pretty sweet. Sally and Russ are from Australia, Russ is a pharmacists, and they have 10 grandchildren. We had a good chat with them on the way back to the Downs and we enjoyed the beautiful scenery of Fiordland. I felt bad getting our wretchedly filthy bodies in their clean rental car, but they insisted. They dropped us off at our car, and we headed to Te Anau for the night. We got a hostel, cooked some (not freeze dried) dinner, cleaned our filthy bodies and got
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| Coast on the way to Kaikoura |
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| Fur seals near Kaikoura |
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| The town of Kaikoura and the Inland Kaikoura Range |
We relaxed at the hot spring pools all the next morning. The resort was pretty quiet in the morning, getting busier in the afternoon. There are 9 outdoor pools, varying in temperature from 29C to 41C (quite hot). The warmer pools (40 and 41) were unfiltered, the water was very mineral heavy (and smelt strongly of sulfur) which gave it a oily texture (which I liked). The other pools were filtered and the sulfur and minerals were much less noticeable. A long morning of relaxing was nice for both of us, as the trip has been very busy so far.
We left the springs and headed for Christchurch around 2pm. We did not intend on doing much in Christchurch, we will be back here in a few weeks. Instead, we were posting flyers at all the local hostels for our car, which we will sell once we get back there (and fly to Auckland). Christchurch has a lot more English influence than the rest of New Zealand’s cities, reminds me of London. Huge cathedrals, cobblestone streets, etc. There are a lot of hostels in Christchurch, we spent several hours putting out flyers. As soon as we finished we left on the drive for Arthur’s Pass, where we would enter the Southern Alps and head for the west coast.
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| Drive towards Arthurs Pass |
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| Heading into the Southern Alps |
The drive into the Southern Alps with the setting sun was beautiful. We camped at a backcountry site a little off of the highway. I had planned to climb Avalanche Peak the next morning, so I got camp set up and we got to bed early. The next morning I woke up at 4:30 to start the climb, I stopped by the visitors center on the way out to check the weather board. I was disappointed to find some late season snow fall had raised avalanche danger to “HIGH” and very heavy (heavy was highlighted) rain was forecasted for the day. It had already begun to rain lightly, and I decided it was best to not continue, as even if I summited, I would have an awful view. I went back to camp, and slept until Amber woke up. We packed up camp, and stopped by the visitors center again (it was now open). I chatted with the man at the front about back up hiking plans. He suggested climbing Mount Bealey, it was not to long of a climb and far east on the range, in the rain shadow of most of the Southern Alps. It was less likely to rain there, and devoid of snow. The panoramic shot of the Southern Alps was taken from the summit, so I decided it would be worth a try. Amber and I headed straight there, Amber was going to stop at the Bealey hut, a bit below tree line. The hike was not terribly hard, summited in around 3 hours. I love the alpine forests of New Zealand, a lush green full of Southern Beech trees, a variety of mosses and lots of old man’s beard. Its quite a bit different from the alpine forests of Colorado that I am used to. The views at the summit were awful, clouds had already began pouring in, and I descended quickly, hoping to avoid getting poured on. I stopped at the hut to pick up Amber and eat a quick lunch. We got down the mountain with only a slight rain.
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| Alpine Beech Forest |
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| On the ridge |
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| Summit |
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| Unfortunate view |
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| This was the view i was supposed to have |
After the climb we went back to the visitors center to see the Kea mountain parrot population that frequented the area. I had ask the ranger at the center about them earlier, I was quite excited to see one. He said, “wait about an hour and they’ll be out, they are not an early morning bird, they spend all night destroying things and are quite tired.” Keas are known for being very curious, smart, loud, and destructive. They especially have a penchant for chewing the rubber off of car window shield seals, door seals, antennas, etc. I went across the street and found probably 8 keas hanging out near a public bathroom. They make a very loud racket. The birds are pretty large, with a dark green outer feathers, with bright green chests. Their underwings are bright red and orange, but unfortunately, I could not get a picture of one flying.
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| The playful and destructive Kea. This one has a penchant for rubberized antenna. The worlds only alpine parrot. |
We headed out to drive the rest of the way to the west coast, toward Franz Josef and Fox glaciers. We arrived at the town of Franz Josef fairly late, got a room at a local hostel, cooked dinner, played some cards and went to bed. The next morning we went to see Franz Josef glacier. I had planned on doing a longer, more difficult hike to the top of the valley wall at Franz, but unfortunately the weather was still not cooperating. Thick clouds made a climb pointless. Instead Amber and I did two smaller hikes to see the glacier. The second hike we hiked all the way to the tongue of the glacier. The glacier is 8 miles long, joining with several other glaciers near the summit of Mount Cook. This is my first bonifide glacier experience, I have been on a very small one in Rocky Mountain National Park (Andrews Glacier). The glacier is in a temperate climate, and therefore moves very quickly (for a glacier), as much as 5 meters a day. The entire southern portion of the west coast receives a very heavy amount of rainfall each year (around 5 meters). The large mountain ranges a few kilometers from the coast force moist air from the ocean up, creating a dense wet rainforest on the west coast. The forest is packed with tree ferns, mosses, ground ferns, vines, etc. After leaving the forest the trail follows the glacier carved valley, lined with rocks that it has ripped out of the mountain over many years. The glacier valley walls are quite steep, combined with the heavy rainfall, snow melt and glacier melt makes the perfect conditions for waterfalls. I estimated that there were around 50-60 waterfalls on the hike from the car park to the glacier. Everywhere you looked there was water pouring down the walls, eventually meeting with the river coming from the glacier. In the thick jungle and numerous waterfalls a huge vein of ice seems out of place. The jagged Southern Alps stayed obscured by clouds most of the time we were there, which unfortunately is quite common. The weather the next day was supposed to be better, I planned a longer hike to the top of Mount Fox, near Fox Glacier, hoping for better views.
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| The 8 mile long Franz Josef Glacier |
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| One of many beautiful waterfalls |
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| hiking towards the tongue of the glacier. Notice the waterfall on the right falling on the moraine |
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| Kiwi warning signs crack me up |
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| The guy on the top is screwed. Being attacked by a monstrous surge wave and crushed by ice fall. |
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| From whence the glacier melted. Down the glacier carved valley |
After the hike we went to the Franz Josef visitors centre and learned about some old gold mining tunnels near by that you could hike through and see glowworms. We had planned to go to some glowworm caves in the north island, but ran out of time to make it there. Glowworms are relatives of lightning bugs (watch Planet Earth). They create long mucous like strands (maybe ten per worm) that hang down from the worm. The very tip of the worm glows blue, this attracts insect to the worm, which get tangle in the strands. The worm reels in the strands like a fishing line, and eats the insect. Glowworms are somewhat common in New Zealand, but not much like it in the US, all though I have heard there is something like it in a few caves in New Mexico. The hike takes about one hour to the tunnel, and there is a stream running through the tunnels that can be as much as a foot deep. We trudged through the water in the tunnel for nearly 30 minutes, trying to get deep enough into the tunnel for outside light to not penetrate the darkness, so it would be easy to see the worms. Finally, Amber spotted a couple, We continued to find them in the tunnel, finding as many as 40 in one spot. All the glowing lights looked like tiny stars on the ceiling of the tunnel. The worms are very small and brown, they could be seen moving back and forth on their lines. We stayed entertained looking at worms for half an hour, before trudging out of the cave and back to town. We headed out to Gillepsie Beach near Fox glacier to camp for the night. The campsite was just off the beach, weather was perfect. Sheep freely roamed the area, making driving difficult, as the were often blocking the road. I planned on getting up very early to start the climb to the top of Mount Fox.
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| Entrance to tunnel |
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| Gloworm |
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| Worm is in the center, mucous strands surround it |
I got up at 4:30, made some breakfast, woke Amber up and broke camp. I was very excited because the rising sun was barely illuminating Mount Cook and the other tall peaks of the Southern Alps, which are normally obscured by clouds. Amber was going to drop me off, and pick me up later that day. She planned on reading at a local café for the morning. The hike was supposed to take 8 hours, I started late, finding the trailhead was quite difficult, it was not marked well. The trail was a very steep climb through thick jungle for the first 2 hours. Moving was quite slow. Imagine the steepest staircase possible, except the stairs are off camber, wet, moss covered tree roots. Vines covered the ground and tripped you up every step of the way. Many areas so steep I literally climbed ladders of tree roots. It had been raining for three days, but weather was quite nice for my hike. The large amount of rainfall made many parts very swampy, ankle deep mud adding to my difficulties. After finally breaking tree line I could see that clouds were quickly forming over Mount Cook and the other tall peaks, I took what pictures I could, but by the time I summited most the peaks were hidden. I was disappointed, but I still got a few decent views. The route was just as difficult back down, as the steep and slick terrain caused me to fall frequently. The route was difficult, but much shorter than the estimated time predicted. I got down in 4 hours (DOC estimates 8 hours), I had no way of getting ahold of Amber, so I walked 5 kilometers back to town and looked for her.
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| View from the ridge over ocean and the beach we camped on |
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| Fox Glacier and the Southern Alps, Mt Cook is shrouded in clouds, just off to the right |
I eventually found her, we did a short walk at the Fox Glacier park, so she could also see the glacier, ate at a neat café called Café Neve, found out that I have an interview with CU med school (!!!), and got out of town. We headed south, to camp near a town called Wanaka. We stopped at a visitor centre in the town of Haast, to stretch legs and use the bathroom. I noticed on the map that there was an area nearby called Mussell Point. The lady at the centre said it was a great place to get mussels if it was low tide. She checked the tide schedule, low tide was in 40 minutes. We quickly bought things to cook mussels and drove 15 minutes to the area. A large rocky section was right of the sandy beach. We waded out to it and found thousands of mussels, cockles, starfish, sea anemones, and other sea creatures. It reminded me a lot of tide pools in Oregon. We collected as many mussels as we thought we could eat and got back on the road. The mussels here were the famous green-lipped mussels that are supposed to be meatier than the first we collected. We decided to not camp and instead stay at the hostel in Wanaka. This would make it easier to cook the mussels. The drive passed two large inland lakes Harwea and Wanaka. These lakes were very pretty at sunset, surrounded by the mountains of Mount Aspiring National Park. We arrived late it took a very long time to clean and cook the large amount of mussels we collected, didn’t end up eating until nearly midnight. The mussels were good, but I had not considered the fact that the first mussels we collected were from a rocky bay, these from a sandy beach. Mussels are filter feeders, and the beach mussels digestive tract was filled with a lot of sand. The green-lipped mussels were definitely meatier, but the sand was a turn off. Definitely enjoyed the first mussels more. We also had our first sandfly experience while collecting mussels. Sandflies are about the size of gnats, but much more annoying. The females feed on blood, just like mosquitos, however sandflies are present in huge swarms. There were not many here, we had to swat at 20 or so that followed us into the car. The bite is much more painful than a mosquito and they itch as much or more.
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| Mussel Point |
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| Drive past section of Lake Harwea at Sunset |
The next morning I went for a incredible run around Lake Wanaka. Lake Wanaka is set right on the edge of Mount Aspiring National Park, so there is a beautiful mountain back drop to the lake. Amber walked across from our hostel to the large park across the way. There was a local craft show set up, and I joined her after my run. We perused the show for awhile and ended up buying a photograph of Milford Sound from a local artist and a clock from another. I had planned on doing the Rob Roy Track (hike in Mount Aspiring National Park) before we had decided to stay in the hostel. We had since scratched it off the list, Amber was not feeling good and we had a 4 day backpacking trip coming up. A Norwegian girl had done the hike the day before, and I overheard her telling another guy in the hostel about how amazing it was and to definitely not miss it. I changed my mind about the hike, and we decided we would drive to the trailhead after lunch. I recognized the guy she was talking to from other hostels we had stayed at. We often run into the same people every few days. Since we stay at YHA hostels (we camp about every other day, hostel every other day) we are YHA members, and so are most other tenants. Most people are heading in the same direction through the country, and since we all stay at YHA hostels, we see the same people on a very regular basis. It is interesting hearing what they did differently than us, path they took, what they saw, etc. I knew that they guy the Norwegian girl was talking to was hitchhiking around the country (quite common), and I offered him a ride to the trailhead. His name was Duncan, turns out he is from Oregon. We hit it off pretty well, and had nice drive to the trailhead, until we got a flat tire. It was a rough gravel road, I guess some gravel cut the tire. We had been hasty to get out of Auckland, and bought a car quickly. I had checked the tires, and the spare tire, made sure there was a jack and wheel brace. Unfortunately, the owner of the car was to get the spare tire changed before we bought it, I did not check for these things after he brought it back. They were non-existent, probably someone took them out when getting the spare out, and forgot to put them back in. Luckly, Kiwis are quite friendly, soon 3 cars had stopped to help, we quickly got the spare on and back on the road. The drive was incredible. The mountains of Mount Aspiring National Park are not super tall, but very rugged, with jagged ridges. The heavy rainfall all along the west coast makes waterfalls a very common sight. The trail starts through an idyllic sheep pasture, we walked among 2-3 hundred sheep and 30-40 cows for the first hour of the hike. Sheep are vary wary of humans in general, these were much less so, probably because of the regular foot traffic through their field. They would certainly not let you get close, but did not run at the sight of you, as most of the sheep do. The were many baby lambs frolicking about, very funny to watch. After crossing a long swing bridge the trail climbed steadily through the jungle to a look out over Rob Roy peak and glacier. There were many keas at the top, waiting for humans to come through. Keas can be quite a pest, as many tourists feed them, the begin to beg just like a dog. Amber and I ate a quick snack at the top, and had to shoo the parrots off several times to keep them from trying to steal a bite. We met Duncan back at the trailhead, dropped him off at the hostel, ate a quick dinner and drove towards Queenstown. We got into to town very late, and drove to a campsite on a lake on the outskirts of town to camp.
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| Driving into Mount Aspiring Nat'l Park |
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| Beginning of the Rob Roy Track |
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| Bitte NICHT die kea furttern!!!! |
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| Rob Roy Glacier, Waterfalls pouring off with melt water |
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| Keas lying in wait for hikers |
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| Lambs frolicking |
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| Mum stepped in to calm things down |
Queenstown has a very “Boulder” feel to it, a large outdoor mall shopping area dominates downtown. It is known for “adrenaline sports” such as skydiving , bungy jumping, jet boating, etc. We steered clear of these as they are incredibly over priced and touristy. Instead we spent the morning exploring the town and looking for a place for me to get my hair cut. Amber had met a guy at the restaurant that she works at the frequents New Zealand. He told us to try Winnies Pizza in Queenstown, he knew the owner, he said if we mentioned his name we would get free food. We had forgotten what town he said it was in, but we stumbled upon it in Queenstown. Unfortunately, it has changed ownership. The food looked incredibly good, we decided to eat there. We split a Moroccan lamb pizza and a sweet chili thai pizza that was topped in pistachio cream. Both pizzas were absolutely incredible, we were happy we tried it. We also found a sweets shop called Patagonia Chocolates, we actually went twice in the same day. Once for a hazelnut brownie (incredible), once for gelato (also incredible). We finally found a place for me to get my haircut. The lady was very chatting, but nice. She raved about a place called Fergburger (she even had a menu with her), that was world famous for the best burgers. We did not really consider going (although a love a good hamburger). We decided to get a hostel in Queenstown for the night, and enjoy the famous nightlife of Queenstown. Duncan ended up being at the same hostel that we were. He had met some climbers from the area, and might go bouldering the next day. He also said he ate at Fergburger, and it was the best experience of his life.
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| Queenstown |
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| Lake Esplanade, Queenstown |
The next morning Amber and I took the flat tire in to get it fixed, and went to a local bead shop for Amber to peruse jewelery. The shell of the Paua is very common in jewelry around New Zealand, and she bought some Paua pieces to use in her jewelery. Queenstown is set on a huge lake (Lake Esplanade) with the rugged Remarkables mountain range in the background. We had planned on going to Fergburger for lunch, and then relaxing on the beach for the afternoon. I ran into Duncan again, he was going found some climbers with gear, and was heading out to climb at 1pm that afternoon. We postponed Fergburger until dinner, ate a quick lunch, and I headed out with Duncan to go climb. We met at a girl named Gerusa’s house, were we waited for the other climbers to be ready. Gerusa is Brazilian and a true dirt bag climber. The other climbers was Argentinean, European, and a few Kiwis. We headed out to the rock face, which was about a 20 minute drive and 20 minute hike away. The view over the lake and the mountains from te rock was incredible. Kiwis are very friendly people, and rock climbers are usually also. We were able to all share gear (I only had my shoes and chalk) and have a great afternoon of climbing. The rock was very different from what I’m used to, and kiwis rate climbs differently than us Americans. We climbed mostly 17’s though 19’s, which are supposed to be around a 5.10-5.10c climbs, but I found them much easier (probably 5.8-5.9’s). The climbing was not too difficult, but very fun and a beautiful view. Amber stayed back in town, and went to the beach to enjoy sometime in the sun and reading at a café.
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| on the way to the climb |
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| View over Lake Esplanade from the rock |
After returning to the hostel Amber and I headed to the infamous Fergburger to put their burgers to the test. Amber got the Bombay Chicken, I got the Big Al. Burger reminded me of So Long Saloon’s burgers, served with eggs on it. The burger was huge, and quite good, but not quite world famous. Ketchup is not as common in New Zealand, you have to pay for it by very small containers. Instead they often serve fries with thai sweet chili sauce and sour cream, our onion rings were served with aioli. As an good American, I love ketchup, but the sweet thai chili sauce and sour cream was also quite good. We indulged in Patagonia’s gelato one more time (marscapone cheese and fruits of the forest is incredible), and drove out of town to a campsite on the edge of Lake Esplanade. The next morning we ate a quick breakfast on the lake, walked through the Queenstown Gardens for a few minutes, and drove to Te Anau. Queenstown is very close to Milford Sound, however, there is no road that goes through to Fiordland. Instead you must drive several hours south through Te Anau and then back north to the sounds. We are leaving our car in a small township outside of Te Anau while we do the Milford track.
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| Sunset at our campsite on Lake Esplanade |
Milford Track
We drove into Te Anau and stopped at the Department of Conservation’s visitors centre to pick up our Milford Track tickets. The weather did not look great for our walk, rain was forecasted several days, but this is to be expected as it rains over 200 days a year here. The track is touted as the “greatest walk in the world,” so I had high expectations. We camped in a small campsite called Henry’s Fork on lake Te Anau the night before we left for the hike. The next morning, we packed up, cooked breakfast and headed down to the boat dock to catch our boat for the track. The wharf was very small, only 2 boats could moor there, we boarded our small boat, along with 20 other people and headed off to the start of the track. The boat ride goes across the large lake, an hours journey.
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| campsite on lake Te Anau |
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| On boat to start of Milford Track |
All of Fiordland is known for its horrible population of sandflies, which happily greeted us upon landing. They do not bother you while you are walking, so hiking is no problem, but stopping more than 5 seconds is not recommended. The warden at our hut the first night told us the Maori legend behind sandflies. They believe the goddess of darkness brought them to earth to keep humans from ever relaxing, and to constantly be moving. Not sure that is exactly where they came from, but it can’t be far off. Every hut we stayed in had massive populations waiting for you to arrive. Putting on boots outside was nearly impossible, literally 200 of these small flies greedily swam about you. They land and bite quite quickly, no matter how many you kill there are thousands more to take its place. Every window had fine mesh to keep them out of living areas, these were for the most part effective, but some always manage to slip in but inside is much safer. Sandflies are not bothered by insect repellent. The horrible creatures come out of no where while you are hiking and want to stop for water, I try to stop and take pictures and instantly a swarm attacks, each photgraph probably costs you a milliliter of blood. Some area were not as bad, and the hike was incredibly beautiful, making up for the sandfly problem. Sandflies were the butt of every joke and complaint by wardens and hikers alike, but a great time was had by all regardless.
The first days hike was very short, an hour and a half walk through lush jungle. There was another boat arriving later in the afternoon with the rest of the hikers for the track. The DOC limit’s the number of people that can be doing the track to 40. The popularity of the Milford Track means that it is virtually always full, I booked the hike 3 months ago, and there were only 3 days left open for the entire 6 weeks we’re here, and only 11 spots available those days. The track follows the Clinton river up the glacier carved valley, climbs over Mackinnon’s Pass and down to Milford Sound covering 33.5 miles total, and climbing to about 1200 meters at the top of the pass. The warden at the first hut was very talkative and friendly. Most hikers were done by 5, when he led a short but informative walk telling about native plants and the history of the area. He also told us average rainfalls of the area, the hut we were staying in that night receives between 5-7 meters of rain per year, the second hut further up the track gets up to 9 meters of rain a year (in 1997 it received 9.3 meters of rain!). The walls of the Clinton Valley are incredibly steep, nearly straight up. The heavy rains have washed most of the soil off of these mountains, leaving very little topsoil. The beech tree that grow here have very shallow root systems. Particularly intense rain can cause tree avalanches, rain erodes enough dirt from one trees root system that it falls over, knocking over the next poorly rooted tree, creating a huge tree-valanche clearing a path down the mountain. Another consequence of lack of soil is the vast majority of rain runs off the mountains very quickly, combined with the very steep walls, waterfalls are everywhere. After a day of raining it is easy to spot 25-30 waterfalls in one view of a mountain, and not small 2 foot water falls, impressive 300+ foot falls cover the mountains. At the beginning of the hike these were very exciting, but you see so many waterfalls that they soon become routine. We were trying to estimate how many falls we saw in the 4 day hike, had to be over 200.
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| Just off the boat, starting the track |
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| Boardwalk through the wetlands |
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| First hut |
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| Lush green forests |
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| Lots of waterfalls |
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| Lots and Lots of waterfalls |
The second day of hiking was not difficult. The hike took 6 hours, and we left fairly early. The first day we escaped rain until we were done hiking. The second we did not. It rained all day long, moderately heavy at times, but never torrential downpours. The huge rainfall of the area means every square inch of every tree and patch of soil is covered in mosses, lichens, ferns, algaes, etc. Tree ferns and various types of beech treesd dominate the forest, but other strange looking plants also grow. Several of these have strange life cycles, the plant color and leaf shape change dramatically from young to adolescent to adult. Early botanist classified them as different plants, until they realized that they were all one plant at a different life stage. The forests are filled with birds, flightless birds are common in New Zealand, all though many are extinct or on the verge of extinction. One called the Wheka is not, we saw this bird quite often, poking around the forest or near the huts, it was not very shy. The all day rain caused many of the waterfalls to grow in size, and many more to form. It was hard not to stop every 5 minutes to photograph another waterfall. By the end of the 6 hour hike, however, everyone was tired if the rain. Gore-tex had kept most of me bone dry, but I did not have rain pants on. Ambers Columbia Titanium supposed waterproof shell turned out not to be very waterproof, the majority of the other hikers were not quite as well equipped as we were, and were drenched through and through. We started a fire in the wood stove in the second hut, which was quickly surrounded by improvised clotheslines hanging wet clothes. Amber and I made friends with a couple from Australia who had both just graduated from medical school. We chatted about the similarities and differences between becoming a doctor in Australia and the US (it is quite similar these days). I tried to get to beds very early, as I had planned on starting early the next day and trying to summit the nearby Mount Hart once I got to the top of Mikinnon’s Pass.
I woke up at 3:45 the next morning, quickly at and got my gear together and got on the trail. It was supposed to take 2 hours to get to the top of the pass, there is a hut up at the top where you can cook, rest, and I would leave my pack to go climb Mounta Hart. It was supposed to be raining most of the day again, but it had not started yet. It was obviously quite dark when I left, and I discovered that the track was lined with colonies of glowworms. Their tiny pinpoint lights provided no help seeing the trail, but when I turned off my headlamp, it was quite a sight to see hundreds of tiny lights leading up the trail. I broke out of tree line rather quickly, above tree line there is large amounts of snow grass and mountain butter cup flowers, along with other small shrubs. I got to the top of the pass very quickly, a little under an hour, the estimate was quite far off. Clouds were beginning to build on the other side of the pass, but had not yet begun pouring over to the Clinton Valley. I spent a bit of time in the hut at the top, photographing the sunrise over the valley. The view reminded me of the view down Zion Canyon from Angel’s Landing (except that it’s a desert and this is a rainforest). I dumped my pack in the hut, and headed west toward the summit of Mount Hart. There was an upper layer of clouds obscuring probably the upper third of the mountain, and clouds were just beginning to pour over the pass. There is no marked route to the summit, I considered that it would be a bad idea to go, since visibility would be low, and I could easily lose my way back. I decided to give it a go anyway. All the mountains in this area are incredibly steep, I spent much of my time climbing on hands and knees up steep slopes of soaking wet grasses and shrubs. Many areas I was nearly rock climbing up steep slopes and through little crevices. The climb was more difficult than I had imagined, I was quite wet from spending a lot of time on my hands and knees in wet grasses. Visibility was terrible, clouds made it impossible to see more than 20 feet forward or back. I continued climbing until all I could see was a very steep snow field and a few rock cliffs, at no point could I see the summit or enough topography to tell where I was on a map. The steep snowfields had melted and refroze enough to make them very slick, and steep drop offs were everywhere. I couldn’t see enough to know if there were cliffs surrounding the field or not, so I decided it best to turn back. Unfortunately clouds cleared a bit later in the day, I was able to see where I stopped from the other side of the pass, I think I was within 800 meters of summiting, but its hard to tell from that distance. I also saw several keas up near the top of my climb, it is still foreign to me to see a barren alpine landscape and parrots. I did end up getting a bit lost climbing back. This was quite dangerous, as low visibility meant I had to climb down very steep slopes, not being able to see what was very far down. I cursed myself for my stupidity, eventually getting myself in a situation where I could n9ot climb up or down. The steep overhanging slope I came down was too wet to climb up, there was about a 100 foot drop to the saddle that I would hike back to the hut. I eventually had to use very small hand holds and foot holds and climb as far down as I could on the rock face. I found a slightly shallower section of rock, and had to slide a few feet down to the next hold many times until I got down. Note to self- be a little smarter next time. I had shredded my gloves sliding down the rock, my pants and socks were soaked, but I made it back to the hut safely. I met Amber there, had a hot cup of tea, and continued down the far side of the pass. We followed a different river down the mountain, passing picturesque waterfall after waterfall.
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| Memorial at top of pass |
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| Sunrise over Clinton Valley |
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| Hut at top of pass |
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| Mountain Buttercup |
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| Far side of the pass |
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| Where i turned around |
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| Lots of swing bridges |
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| View back up to Mackinnon's Pass later in the afternoon |
We stopped for lunch at a day shelter that has a path leading to Sutherland Falls. We left our packs and headed to the falls (only an hour hike round trip). Sutherland Falls drops a whopping 580 meters, making it the 5th largest waterfall in the world. The height of the falls and the thick jungle made it hard to get a good photo up the whole fall, I could not back up enough to get a good shot. I did however, think I could get a good shot further down the river, where I decided I could wade across to a small island and take a photo. I ended up in hip deep very strong current, nearly freezing to death, and turning around. My boots stayed wet the rest of the trip (another bad decision). We could not stay near the base of the falls for very long, the incredible pounding of water cause so much spray we quickly became soaked. The massive volume of water dropping also seemed to create a bit of a wind current making it difficult to walk towards the falls once the bush cleared out. The wind also made our wet clothes very cold, so we didn’t stay long. The falls were incredible though, split into 3 separate waterfalls, falling from the pass from which we had just come (I could hear the fall while I was climbing). After returning to the hut to grab our packs (and doing battle with just under a million ferocious sandflies) we headed back down the track to get to the hut for the night. We noticed a sign saying “Swimming Hole” a few hundred meters from our hut. After dropping our packs we decided to go for a quick dip, as we were quite disgusting after 3 days of hiking. The hole is fed by glacial and snow melt water, it was VERY cold. I walked in hip deep, I took a lot of convincing to make myself go under and quickly scrub up. I got out very quickly, it was a very “exhilarating” experience. Several other people were also rinsing off, and a good time was had by all. It felt nice to rinse after several days of smelling awful.
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| Sutherland Falls |
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| The flightless Weka |
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| A far distance from Sutherland Falls (in background) |
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| More waterfalls!?!? |
There was one more day of hiking, 11.5 miles down to Sandfly Point (oh great) where a boat would pick us up and take us across Milford Sound (described by Rudyard Kipling as the 8th wonder of the world). There was a boat leaving at 2, 3:15, and 4. Amber and I decided we wanted to make the 2 o’clock boat, and have more time to spend in Milford Sound. We took our time in the morning, leaving second to last of any group. We needed to make up time if we were going to make the boat leaving at 2. Amber set a very fast pace, and we ended up passing every other single person, even those who started an hour ahead of us (Amber wanted to make sure I mentioned this).
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| Finished |
We took shelter from the sandflies in the hut by the boat wharf at Sandfly Point, ate lunch, and waited for the boat to arrive. We were both quite tired after several days of hiking, and I desperately wanted to get my wet smelly boots off. The boat ride was only 15 minutes to the cruise boat terminal at Milford Sound. We got a very brief very out into the sound during this ride, but we had planned on sea kayaking the sound the next day. We decided this was a bad idea, since we would have to stay in a hostel, we had no clean clothes (only very disgusting ones that had been wet for 4 days), and the sound was quite choppy, windy and cold. We were both tired from hiking and decided a short cruise would be a better way to see the sounds. I still wanted to kayak, but after seeing the prices ($130 dollars a person in a tandem kayak!), the weather, and the fact that we could both take a relaxing cruise for 120 total, I decided it was not worth it. I did see one group out kayaking, they looked miserable, I think I would be difficult to enjoy the scenery from there. It was funny standing in the cruise terminal (not very big) and looking at the 2 main types of people, tourists who drove here, dressed up for a cruise, looking clean and proper. In contrast the 60-70 hikers who had finished hiking in the last few days, wearing dirty smelly clothes and carrying backpacks, I wasn’t even wearing shoes (they were disgusting). Regardless, the cruise was amazing. The mountains of the sound rise very steeply out of the water to very tall summits. Mitre Peak, one of the tallest on the sound rises over a mile directly out of the water. Waterfalls pour down the mountains in to the sound below. It truly is a beautiful and incredible place.
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| Beautiful Milford Sound, Mitre peak is poking over the mountain in the foreground on the left |
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| Forgot the name of that waterfall |
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| Seals getting some sun in the sound |
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| tallest mountain visible from the sounds |
We had planned on hitchhiking back to our car in Te Anau Downs (about 100 km down the road). There is only 1 road leaving Milford and it goes within 20 feet of where we were parked, so we did not think it would be difficult (hitchhiking is very common here). As we were leaving the cruise to walk down to the road, an older couple who we were chatting with on the cruise stopped us and asked us if we wanted a ride. It was pretty sweet. Sally and Russ are from Australia, Russ is a pharmacists, and they have 10 grandchildren. We had a good chat with them on the way back to the Downs and we enjoyed the beautiful scenery of Fiordland. I felt bad getting our wretchedly filthy bodies in their clean rental car, but they insisted. They dropped us off at our car, and we headed to Te Anau for the night. We got a hostel, cooked some (not freeze dried) dinner, cleaned our filthy bodies and got
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