03/15/2010, Bluff, New Zealand
Akkk, the idylic summer weather we were having has started to turn
toward autumn and we are facing the end of our camping.
We looked at the weather forecast and hustled to squeeze in a stunning
boat tour on Milford sound as a crisp 25 knot South Westerly started
blowing across the Tasman Sea. The Milford Sound is surrounded by
majestic peaks and carved by glaciers leaving shear mountain sides
with majestic waterfalls tumbling unchecked thousands of feet and
blowing in snowy white plumes far overhead. Having taken the last
boat of the day, we opted to set up camp high in mountains of
Fjordland National Park. Evening temperatures plunged into the low
40's leaving us shivering together in our flimsy tent and heading for
lower ground. The respite from the cold was short lilved as we
ventured down to the seaside town of Bluff at the very tip of the S.
Island only to find a "fresh" local day complete with torrential rains
and howling winds.
Today we are huddling in cafes and planning on heading back North for
hopefully warmer climes.
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Comments [1]
03/15/2010, South Island
Moving on to traffic conditions around the Southland... There are
more sheep than people by something like 10 to 1 in New Zealand.
Driving to the start of the recent tramp we found ourselves stuck in, you guessed it, a traffic jam of sheep. A flock of over 1000 sheep was being moved by a couple
of local women and a handful of sheep dogs to a new pasture and the
pile up filled the local one lane road. We watched and chatted with
the shepherdesses until the flock spilled into their new home and all
the stragglers had been rounded up and chased through the gate.
Several days later we encountered more unique traffic conditions on
the country road heading south; antique tractors. Farmers and
tractor aficionados were raising money for children's cancer by
driving a parade of old tractors from Picton at the north end of the
island to Bluff at the South, at their top speed of 20 km per hour.
Imagine passing all 50 tractors on a twisty windy two lane road. Poor
Mary alternated between denting the dash with her fingernails and just
shutting her eyes and breathing deeply. I must confess that It felt
sinfully good to drive fast on the right side of the road for a while.
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03/15/2010, South Island
I feel like we were somehow transported into the post card display at
the visitors center. Everywhere we turn there are jaw dropping sights
and we can only sit and stare; every roads winds between ranges of
ragged towering mountains, every campsite reflects along deep blue
lakes, each hike progresses from unspoiled pastoral valley floors to
glacier topped passes. It is an amazing section of the country.
We spent a wonderful 4 days on the Caples and Greenstone tracks which
included one of our more challenging days, ending with a slippery root
strewn scramble down a moutain side a bit steeper than ideal for
little legs.
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03/07/2010, Wanaka
We have found the perfect place. Wanaka, New Zealand - Bug free and stunningly beautiful!
The plans to hike on the Heaphy track was dramtically aborted after our first camping attempt. Everyone had warned us (and continues to) that the bugs are bad on the West Coast, but we naively thought "there have been bugs on all these tramps, how bad can it really be?" We pitched tents at a spectacular beach under wind swept pines in front of the crashing surf and had just started thinking about lunch when the sand flies first arrived. They sent out scouts that were immediately followed by waves of insects that looked like blowing fog as they swept up the beach at us. We were wearing long pants and jackets but they still swarmed up pant legs and settled all over any exposed skin on the face, neck and hands. It was almost funny to see us speed walking around waving our arms frantically followed by a dark cloud like a bad cartoon, until you looked closely and saw that there were dozens of insects covering every square inch of clothing. We retreated to the car, snatched the tents and have camped away from the beach since then. We did brave the bugs and managed one lovely day walk along the first leg of the Heaphy trail and it was spectacular country with the waves rolling off the Tasman sea and crashing onto the coast.
Since then we have been wandering down the W. Coast, visited a couple of glaciers, stood on vistas looking out at Antarctica, and are now hiking on mountains in the center of the S. Island. The west coast gets an unbelievable volume of rain but the rain is exhausted crossing the mountain ranges and in the center of the island there is an area that gets 2000 hours of sunshine year and only 20 inches of rain. We are hiking from mountain lakes up spectacular glacier topped mountain ranges in every direction and it is blissfully bug free.
Next is a multi-day trek in the mountains and then on to Milford Sound.
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02/22/2010, South Island, New Zealand
Wow, New Zealand's most popular trek for good reason!
5 days of coastal walking along miles of golden sand beaches,
spectacular coastlines, swimming in crystal clear water with blue
penguins, seals and seal pups, sunshine and more sunshine. We even
managed to find ourselves all alone in out of the way camp sites right
on the beach.
It is now time to recuperate for a couple of days. We feasted on
piles of crusty meat pies for lunch and will be hitting the aquatic
center to rinse the kids this afternoon.
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02/22/2010, South Island
Day thirty: Have covered over 100 miles on foot and plan progressing.
Crew is openly bemoaning fate and yearning for comforts aboard the
boat. Hearing increasing hints that if back afloat they
would never complain at all. Documenting for use in future,
if necessary.
Must go, they are looking at me again!
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