4.29.2011

change of plans

The last time I posted, I was going to go the Golden Bay, on the NW tip of the South Island. Then it started pouring and it was going to do that on the west coast for three days. So I made a run for the east coast. As soon as I got through the mountain range, blue skies. The mountains in the South Island holds off storms rolling in off the Tasman Sea really well, most of the time.

Kaikoura
A small beach town with what was supposed to be NZ's longest right hand break. It's also famous for the sea life because it goes from 8,000ft+ mountains to ocean in less than 15 miles and once it hits the water, after a couple hundred yards off shore, it drops off hundreds of feet really fast. Combine that with this being the place where the cold water of the south to meet the hot water of the north and you have what they call a large "feeding zone" which means whales, sea lions, tons of fish and sharks. I only saw sea lions though.

And picture time...
mangamanu beach - that's the big right handed break that never showed up
sunrise over somebody's house i parked in front of to sleep for the night
sunrise in town at a cafe on the beach
sea lion. fur sea lion to be exact. they just laid there all day. the only time i saw one move was when i was walking on the beach and didn't see one sleeping until i was 3 ft away and it barked and snapped at me. fun times.
suntanning
no surf and tons of sun. i went for a walk around the pennisula on the south side of town. it was amazing.



sunset at the beach freedom camping with the Marcus and Brita (see notes below).
1 UP
Mt Fyffe hike
the best of the view
Here are the stories from Kaikoura:
  1. The first night in town, a Friday, I went to bar to watch some rugby and meet some folks. I ended up talking with a German couple for 3-4 hours. The highlight of our conversation was them asking me why the best U.S. basketball players don't play in the World Championships and instead we send college kids over. I tried to give the polite answer of, World Champships for basketball isn't a big deal to us because all the best players play in the NBA. They were severely disappointed with this and didn't understand. Fun times.
  2. The second night in Kaikoura, i stayed at a beach north of town that had a bunch of people camping out there and it was completely free. It was an awesome location. I ended up parking next to Marcus and Brita. Marcus is from Colorado. Brita is from the Czech Republic. Marcus graduated from college, did some odd jobs for 2+ yrs and 6 months ago, him and 4 buddies decided to come visit NZ. They bought a van. I said a, that was singular and the van is smaller than mine. That's 5 guys total in one van plus climbing gear (ropes, crampons, ice axes, harnesses, etc) and surf gear (boards and wetsuits). 3 slept on the bed and 2 slept under. Since then, all the other guys left for jobs back home and Marcus has kept going and picked up a friend. Brita's not much of story, she quit her job as a buyer for an apparel company because they wouldn't let her take a year off to travel. Back to Marcus...
    1. He prefers to climb/hike either naked or in just his underwear because he generates so much heat when he climbs.
    2. He picks grass off the beach to make a salad every night.
    3. A local told him about Hua (or Moa or something) which is a shellfish found off the cliffs in Kaikoura. They're big suckers - the shell is much bigger than a softball. Apparently, these things go for $150-$200 in Japan. Anyway, he puts on a snorkel, jumps in the water, swims around in this area where waves are breaking on these cliffs, dives down 20 feet or so through seaweed beds and pry's them off the rocks with his Crocodile Dundee knife. Then he pan fries them to go with his beach salad.
    4. Marcus is teaching Brita that she doesn't need to shower that often.
    5. Marcus was the best conversation I'd had my entire time in NZ.
  3. Just about every town in NZ has a visitor center with staff and they have all kinds of info on stuff to do in the area. Typically the staff are older woman. Either these woman are extremely fit or they all have fish stories about the local hikes because what they said they did in an hour, took me an hour and I was spent to get there in that amount of time. I think it's fish stories because I'm American and they're trying to get even.
  4. I hike Fyffe Mountain, accidentally. I was only going to go to a hut about half way up but ended up not seeing it and not realizing it until I was 2/3 the way up. The entire hike was in a cloud, raining/misting. At one point, i could feel water running down my leg, into my sock and in my shoe and I didn't think I'd pissed myself. I was that soaking wet. Anyway, the top ended up being just over 4.5 miles, one way, and 5,300 ft. Brutal.
Christchurch
I wasn't sure what to expect given the massive earthquake that hit in February. It was insane to see the devastation that's still around. The entire downtown core, probably a 2 mile radius, is still fenced off with access points managed by the military. You would see whole churches and buildings completely leveled. Brick buildings were the worst, there were stretches of city blocks where everything was fine but you'd come across the one brick building in the whole area and it was rubble. Sorry, no pictures.

Akaroa
Its like a fancier version of the San Juan Islands, with better cafes/bars, right on the water and with warmer weather. It'd be an awesome place to hangout for a long, relaxing weekend in warm weather. I haven't been to Europe yet, but it's what I'd imagine of a little town on the coast in Italy, France or Spain.

Akaroa is the only place in the world you can consistently find the smallest ocean-bound dolphin in the wild, Hector's Dolphin. They're only about 2-3 yds long and are an endangered species, just as rare as the Giant Panda Bear. So, what do I do when I find out about this? I sign up to swim with them. The water temp was just over 50 degree F, as was the air temp. Some big swell had hit that day too so when we got out, there were times when you were at the bottom of the trough on a swell and the wave was a solid 15ft high, well over the height of the boat. We struck out with the dolphins though and never even got in the water. The company I went with doesn't bait the dolphins or anything, instead they look for a "positive response" meaning the dolphins are curious and playful. We saw two different pods but both groups didn't hang around for very long. It was still a pretty cool experience minus being in a wetsuit for 2.5hrs.

Akaroa is right on an inlet, you can see it below at the base of the hill
other side of the hill, the Pacific Ocean
we did a little off roading to get up here
Middle of nowhere
I decided to head to Arthur's Pass but ended up staying overnight just outside Sheffield at a campsite with nobody there. I have to admit, I freaked out a bit after I paid to stay because the place was a little spooky and I felt insanely lonely out there. The camp was maintained by a really nice old guy, he's an amputee on crutches and lives on the grounds in a trailer. He lost his leg to cancer 11 years ago and he's lived 10 years longer than he was supposed to. He distills his own spirits, he offered me a bottle of whiskey but I passed. I ended up getting to know him pretty well though the next morning because I locked my keys in my car. He let me borrow a knife to try to pop open a window, which broke the knife and then he called the local garage for me and they came out and opened up the car for me, free of charge. Did I say he was nice?

Arhur's Pass
It's a the main thoroughfare for folks going East-West from the middle of the South Island and it's a gorgeous place. It was a completely blue-sky day and I was lucky enough to get a hike in at the top of the pass. Avalanche Peak, 3600ft climb with 360 degree views.



1/4 way up Avalanche Peak

glacier in the distance
view from the top
more from the top
top looking back down the route
and more from the top
i know what you're thinking and no, i don't think that beard and hair could get much better
on the way back down - Devil's Punchbowl
lake on the drive back
gorge outside Methven
river through the gorge outside Methven at sunset
The van's got problems - there's a second battery that supports all the camper stuff (lights, fridge, water pump, etc) and it's dead. i'm meeting the guy tomorrow to get a replacement.

It's getting really cold at the bottom of the South Island. Today was really sunny and the temp peaked at about 65, the last couple nights it's been below 30. With that, as beautiful as the south is here, I think i'm going to pick up the pace and to get heading north as soon as possible.

That's all for now.

Whoever you are that reads this, I hope this finds you in good spirits and shoot me an email if you feel like it because it'd be good to hear from you, whoever you are.

4.22.2011

the dirty south

Not really. The South Island has been pretty awesome minus one thing - sand flies. They're like mosquitoes but faster, they do more damage and they always get you at the beach when you're enjoying the sun and getting lost in how awesome everything looks and then before you know it, whammy - ten bites that itch like mad for a over a week.

Here's what has happened over the last couple days...

I caught the ferry to the South Island (Wellington to Picton).

north island in the proverbial review mirror
south island
south island
I noticed this guy on the top deck of the Ferry with me and had to grab a picture of him. He was sporting a NZ military jacket, I'm guessing it was issued to him back in the day. You can't see the front of the hat he's wearing but it had a giant USSR symbol on it. Did you know that NZ was once under Soviet rule? It wasn't? Weird. Anyway, the next best part is the cigarette, a nice addition to the ensemble. And finally, the binoculars. If I had to guess, those were issued by the Soviets and he was once NZ's finest submarine spotter. That's the story I made up and I'm sticking to it.
typical cliche ferry picture
A special note about the NZ Ferry. I had heard other travelers (mainly whiny Europeans) talk about how sea sick they got on it. I brushed it off because I'd been on ferries in Washington many times and figured Europeans hadn't been on very many boats. Turns out, Cooks Straight gets a little bumpier than the Puget Sound. I still didn't get sick, but the boat was pitching in the open sea enough to make me question if I was going to be able to hold it down. Touche, Europeans.

After I got into Picton, I headed West. I'd heard amazing things about the Golden Bay. I got half way out there before deciding to camp for the night in Nelson. I stopped in a visitor center is Nelson and saw amazing pictures of this place called Abel Tasman National Park. Turns out, its a great place to kayak and hike. You see a ton of wildlife and it's really amazing. I set up a water taxi to pick me up in  two days and it was going to drop me 30 km (~18 miles) up the coast in the park and I'd walk back in two days or so.

The day before Abel Tasman, I decided to go check out Nelson Lakes National Park.

it was more amazing than I was expecting


i hiked about 1/3 up the east side of the lake, 3 miles or so.
looking across to the west side of the lake. apparently you can climb that. if i get a chance to come back through, i'll give it go.
Chaz, a friend that I used to buy produce from at Frank's in Pike's Place Market everyday before work used to give me a hard time about "man-eating eels that they just found in water falls in NZ". Well, I found these hanging out under the dock in the lake and they were big enough to freak me out (see the duck in the upper left for proportion - i'm guessing they were about at least four feet long, some pushing six). A couple I was talking too that had done some scuba diving here said they've seen these guys tail scuba divers and nibble on the edge of fins or toes.
"sometimes, the eels eat the ducks."
had to stop for the view on the drive back



After a day at Nelson Lakes and packing for Abel Tasman, I stayed the night in Kaiteriteri. I had no idea it was going to be this gorgeous. I've only ever seen pictures of tropical beaches, never actually been to one. This was amazing.


i don't think birch trees exist in true tropical beach areas though.

Next up, Abel Tasman...
drop off point was Arawoa - there was nobody around and it was a pretty surreal feeling.



i missed the low tide crossing window so I had to forde the river but didn't loose any Oxen (Oregon Trail video game joke). the water was maybe 4ft high. i could have waited for low tide but didn't feel like it. i had to do the same think two more times before the end of the trip - bad timing or poor planning?

camp for the night - bark bay
i packed in some beverages - Tui is a locally brewed beer


10 sec timer and I got lucky.
the "cook set" i rented. the red bottle is filled with "ethanol spirits". you're supposed to pore a little in this cup and the fumes, or spirits I guess they should be called, are supposed to light for the fire. the quotes below are direct from the guy at the gear hire station with the water taxi company i registered with.
1. "Oh geez, I only rent that out about once a year."
2. "It works I swear, this is what they used to use up in the Himalayas."
3. "When you come back, ask about the deal we've got going on eyebrows."
that's the cooker, all set up and ready to go based on the 5 min tutorial i got before i left. i pored the ethanol spirits in that little cup in the middle. it never worked.
sunrise at bark bay. i only got this because bark bay was maybe the worst night of sleep i've ever gotten.
suspension bridge crossing - maybe 50 yards



view on the hike back. it was about 7 miles on day one and 12 miles on day two.
When I come back to vacation in NZ again some day, this will be on the list to do again. On the boat ride out they took us to seal colony where little seal pups swam right up to the boat. I'd probably kayak a stretch of the coastline too. There's also Arawoa Lodge, located deep in the National Park, you can hire a water taxi to run you out there and pick you up. From walking around the edge of the lodge, it looked very legitimate and really cool.

Next stop, Golden Bay