Queenstown and beyoooond

Day 31 (23-3-2008) - Sunday
Pretty much spent a Sunday as you should spent a Sunday, by doing nothing. We deserved a bit of rest and besides, it was Easter. We went to the town center and walked around a bit, doing some sight seeing there.

In the evening we met an angry Canadian guy in our room(he wasn't really angry, he just seemed like that all of the time - and quite frustrated at life as well). We figured we'd get a drink in town, buuuuuuut, pubs weren't allowed to serve any drinks till twelve. We amused ourselves with a few games of checkers while Joe, the Italian Aussie, joined the group.

At around 12 we left the hostel and out we went! Nothing much to tell, other than that I had fun and we drank our booze from teapots. They mix red bull, vodka, tequila and other random stuff together, put it in a teapot and call it a cocktail. The pots were half price that night, so we were happy (and they did actually taste pretty good as well).

Day 32 (24-3-2008) - Monday
As I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of adrenaline filled activities to do here in Queenstown. One of those, the Canyon Swing, which I booked for this day at 2pm. The Canyon Swing is a gigantic swing at 109m high, where they strap you in a harness and throw you off the cliff. Can't remember the exact numbers, but you fall down for quite a bit and then go swoooooooosh, like any decent swing is supposed to sound like. After going a bit back and forth and have come to a stand still, they pull you back up and that's all there is to it.

I was kinda nervous that morning, but actually less scared when I actually stepped on to the edge. The guys running place like bullshitting around, by giving you little nudges when you're on the edge and looking down. They also like to point out how unsafe th-e ropes are, as they use duct tape (or 'safety' tape as they call it) all over the place. I wasn't that anxious on the edge, but falling down from that point is a whole other story. The swing itself is over so fast, but the first few seconds of falling down is definitely worth it. Anyhow, they let you choose how you actually jump off, have a look at the movie to see how my jumps went (did 2 different jumps).


Jump 1


Jump 2

Back at the hostel we met up with Joe again and 2 other girls. Played a card game, called Shithead till 12pm and decided to hit the bars afterwards. On the pic, there's Joe in the back, Sima in the middle and Rachel on the side.

Day 33 (25-3-2008) - Tuesday

Due to some regional banking holiday everything was still closed, meaning we couldn't get the car fixed. No biggie, it's not a punishment spending another day in Queenstown. It has been a while since we did our last hike, the weather was great so we figured to hike up the Ben Lomont mountain, a mountain overlooking Queenstown. Normally, the ascending parts are followed by level or descending sections after a about 1 hour of climbing. Ben Lomont however, didn't fit the pattern. From beginning to the top it was just one big climb (about 3 hours), with the last 1 hour being the steepest climb we ever had.

To make it more fun we started at 1:30 pm to have the sun high in the sky. I was sweating so much, sweat was dripping in my eyes. The salt stung, which made me cry as well. Not a pretty sight. I found that taking of my glasses worked for the whole crying problem, but wasn't the ideal situation either. And it was a shame of the view, so I cried my way to the top.

Anyway, the last part was the roughest, but I was thinking of what Daft Punk were singing in their song, which is oh-so-true:

"That which doesn't kill me, can only make me stronger"
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...
Of course, I'm kidding. It's a bit misquoted and it wasn't Daft Punk who said that.
...
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It was Kanye West,
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...
obviously
....
Anyhow, after a lot of huffing and puffing we made it to the top, where we were rewarded with a spectacular panorama view. The way down, as always, is a lot easier (yay for gravity) and we got back to the hostel just in time for diner. We were quite exhausted from the walk and going out the previous nights, so did some chilling and went to bed at a decent time.

Day 34 - 36 (26-3-2008 till 28-3-2008)
We got the car fixed in the morning. The garage guy was even nice enough to put on the tire for free. From Queenstown we drove west to Milford Sound, famous for the fjords. We thought of doing some more hiking in the area, but the weather forecasts predicted rain and lots of it. So we just drove to Milford Sound, stayed one night and headed back east again. No hiking, but the scenery was well worth the drive.

From Milford we drove along the south coast to the east. During the drive we stopped at some remote limestone cave. We crawled and climbed for a good hour inside the cave, before we decided to call it quits. It was pretty cool to do, as it was totally pitch dark and we had to navigate our way through rocks, big puddles and glowworms.

After our cavern adventure we continued to drive and stopped in Invercargill for the night. The city itself is pretty boring and we didn't do much than eat and socialized a bit with the other hostel visitors. The next morning we had an uneventful drive along the coast to Dunedin, where we arrived in the afternoon. Went for a drink and some dancing in one of the pubs/clubs here with 3 kiwis we met in the hostel. Fun times, but enough writing for now. Today we're just relaxing a bit and plan to go out with the people we met last night.

On our way to the top


That's the top

Pretty clouds hanging around me, while I'm peeing on the Mt Ben Lomont



360 degrees view from the top of Mt Ben Lomont


I'm the king of the woooooorlddd!



View during our drive to Milford Sound


Erwin looking over Milford Sound




The cave entrance seen from the inside

Crawling through caves, Smeagol style

Another cave movie


Pwetty rainbow on our way to Invercargill

Erwin's gay, obviously (you'll have to listen carefully, or you'll miss it)

Crash 'n Burn

Day 30 (22-3-2008) Saturday - continued
After wrapping things up at the internet cafe, we dove in the car and started about a 5 hour drive to Queenstown. At Wanaka, which is about an hour away from Queenstown we got trapped in a traffic jam. Normally one of the most boring cities, Wanaka was host of an air show and apparently it draws about 90.000 visitors. So we had to take a detour around the city, we drive up a narrow bridge, just wide enough for one car. We had the blue-arrowy sign, meaning the other side should give way. A big mean camper van ignores the sign and drives on the bridge as well. Erwin's thinking: "Mmm, this doesn't fit" - and backs up the car to give the camper van some space.

The idea of backing up in itself is quite simple in theory. In practice it went something more like *KGGGGGRRIEEEEEEEEEEH!!!!!!*
...
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Erwin: oh fuck
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Me: what just happened?
...
Well let me tell you what just happened.....

For some weird reason, they put a rail alongside the road and for an even stranger reason the rail decided to bump into the side of the car. As a result, we have an itsy bitsy dent in the door and the tire (including the rim) was totally to shreds.

Erwin put on the spare tire, which was only a space saver tire, so that would only take us to Queenstown.

To make things more interesting, we found out the spare tire was flat too. After some calling around, we were lucky enough (since it's easter weekend) to find someone who towed our car to the garage. He didn't have a new tire we could use, but did manage to fix our spare tire. We still have to get the tire fixed, but at least we were on our way again.

Luckily we took the insurance, which meant we don't have to pay for the damages. After a quick pit stop at the garage we were back on our way to Queenstown. The last part of the drive was all smooth and the view was amazing.

We arrived at our hostel at around 8pm. We did our groceries, had a quick diner and went to the town center for some beers. They take easter seriously in New Zealand, all the pubs closed at 12pm and wouldn't serve alcohol for the next 24 hours. We were pretty tired anyway, so it wasn't too bad. All things considered we still had a fun day, no worries :)

Not too much time today, so will post more about Queenstown later. In short, it's great here. Lively nightlife, lotsa adrenaline stuff to do (bungee, river rafting, jetboats and stuff) and beautiful nature surrounding the city. Anyway, look at the vid at the bottom, which shows the view from our hostel.

Our car being towed


View during our drive to Queenstown

Writing and reading at Queenstown

More hiking and happy Easter weekend!

Day 25 (17-3-2008) Monday
A couple we met at Abel Tasman, advised us to go to the Nelson Lakes and do a hike there. Since it was on our route, had nothing better to do and were in the walking mood we decided to go there and have a look around.

The first pic shows Mt. Robert, where we climbed to the top. From the top, there's a great view on the lakes surrounding the mountains. There are some vids in the last post from that hike. (Heard the quality from the vids was pretty crappy though)

After our 5 hour hike, we drove to the westcoast and stopped at a little town called, Greymouth. Arriving in Greymouth, we parked the car near the sea and watched the waves and sunset. Ahhhh, so pwetty. We found a nice cosy hostel nearby and decided to spend the night there.

Day 26 (18-3-2008) Tuesday
During the day we went to the town centre to have a look around and get some stuff we needed (I lost one of my batteries for my camera and needed a new book to read). After that we headed back to the sea, where we watched the sunset the previous day. We chilled there for a while, looking at surfers and dolphins actually swimming along side the surfers. The dolphins didn't do any flipper-acrobatic-kinda-moves, but actually seeing dolphins there was pretty neat already.

There's this brewery in Greymouth, making the famous Montheith's beer. That evening we just had to try it out. Apparently, there's only one pub still open and serving Montheith's in Greymouth (gives you an idea on how lively the city was). So we walked over and had a few beers there before going back to the hostel. We watched Borat, i liiiiiike, before going to bed.

Day 27 till 29 (19-3-2008 till 21-3-2008)
We said our goodbyes to Greymouth and headed south along the west coast. We stopped in a little town near the Fox Glacier.

Here we planned to hike along the Copland track. The hike starts out, by leading through rainforest (at least it looked like rainforest) and after which you walk through a valley with mountains all around you. After the valley, you walk along the river going up farther up the mountain (see pic on the right). The climb wasn't that steep, but was tricky because of all the slippery and wobbly rocks along the track.

After a 6 hour hike, we arrived at the hut, where awaits the rewarding part. Thermal hot sprinngssss! A minute from our hut, 3 thermal pools were waiting for us. The temperature of the pools was between 40-60 degrees Celcius and were surrounded by mountains.

We met up with two Czech guys, who were in New Zealand on a detox holiday. They were telling us they smoke weed multiple times each day and it affected their memory. So this trip was to clean up and get their brains functioning again. So, don't do drugs!

Anyway, we brought a bottle of red wine and in the evening we took another dip in the hot springs to relax our strained muscles. One of the Czech guys joined us, but didn't bring any spares clothes so went in naked. Never had a naked guy take my picture before, but this trip is all about new experiences.
After staying at the huts for one night, we hiked back the same way as we got here. We kinda forgot about easter and stuff, so we had difficulty finding a place to sleep back at Fox Glacier. We're prolly going to have a hard time finding a place to sleep for the next couple of days as well, yay for planning.

Day 30 (22-3-2008) Saturday
:( I booked a helicopter flight to the top of the glacier, after which you hike for a few hours, but due to bad weather they had to cancel it. Bit bummed about it, but instead I can spend my time in this lovely internet cafe, which is the second best thing I could be doing right now. Going to see if we can arrange a hostel for the night in Queenstown, which is our next stop.

Erwin hiking up Mt. Robert


Waldo enjoying the view on top of Mt. Robert


Walking through the valley, it was still clouded at that time

Inside the hut at the end of the Copland track. It wasn't crowded at all and I can use the extra space.


Erwin enjoying the pool

Possum


View from the hot water pool

Some random stuff

Put up some links (on the right) to other pictures. Erwin has a picasa-thingie where he puts most of the pictures. Some vids we made, will try to do this more often if the internet is not too crappy.

Our trip on the water taxi back.


360 degree view at Awaroa hut.


Clouds over the top at mt Robbert


Safety first @ mount Robbert


Little chinese rabbits @ mt Robbert

Driving through NZ and playing around with the cam. Found some nifty fastforward/record function on it.

Running through the forest, like Colin McRae ..., but on feet and less legendary (had to be in time to make it to the restaurant)

Some views from Mt. Robert, haven't mentioned that in the blog yet. Will post more about it later

Who needs electricitity ...

... when you can go hiking!

Day 21 (13-3-2008) Thursday
Abel Tasman here we come. The hike we planned would be for 4 days and we would walk 52 km. We did the latest preparations for our trip. Erwin got a new backpack, we bought instant noodle food and we both got ourselves a hydration bladder (which is nothing more than a plastic bag with a big straw for easy drinking).

We stayed at a hostel near the beginning of the track. The hostel was run by a big ass mean Maori woman. If you can't imagine how a Maori person looks like, think Pocahontas (but huge and ugly). We cooked an excessive amount of pasta that night, which we had for diner, breakfast the next morning and filled a 1kg bucket (formerly containing yoghurt), to bring with us on the hike. With our backpacks filled, we were ready to go.

The track started pretty boring, with the scenery being a bit grey and muddy. That quickly changed as we entered the woods and from that point it was an easy walk to our first stop, where we would spent night (with stops and playing around, took us about 4 hours). The track runs mainly along side the coast, where you walk through the forest and from time to time end up at a sexy bay. Golden colored sands, crystal blue water, surrounded by trees and mountains. The picture on the left is during one of our small breaks on the beach.

At Anchorage (which is how the bay is called where we stayed overnight) we reserved 2 sleeping places at the huts. The huts were decorated the spartan way: 12 bunkbeds cramped into a little room and matrasses so soft you wonder why you even use them. The huts had no electricity and no shower. Other luxuries did include a flushing toilet (including toilet paper) and a door which could be closed. Oh well, beats sleeping outside.

Having no electricity is pretty new for me. After dinner when the sun has gone, there's not much left to do without light. Soooooo, you just got to bed at 9 pm as everybody else does.

Day 22 (14-3-2008) Friday
Everybody's up early, since everyone goes to bed early and you're cramped up in a small room with 12 people. Only takes one person who snores (e.g. me) to deliver everybody a crappy night's sleep.

The scenery was mostly the same during the second day of walking: forest going uphill, forest going downhill and then a golden bay, with a clear but icecold sea. Although, really nice to see, it gets boring after a while. Also during the walks, we realized (especially Erwin did), that we didn't bring enough food with us. Erwin was already getting grumpy and hungry, but we still made it fairly easy to our next hut, at Bark's Bay. We got there fairly early and spent the day chilling at the beach. Said our goodbyes to two Dutchies, Kim & Linda, we kept bumping into during those days. There are so many people doing the same hike it's hard not to meet up with anyone and soon we met up with a German couple, both of them being psychiatrists. They had strange discussions all of the time, which went something like:

Him: Let's go swimming.
Her: I think you're urge to go swimming stems from a desire to be free and unbound. You wanted to go swimming the last 5 times we passed a beach too, This is becoming a pattern in your behavior,. Do you want to break up with me?
Him: I disagree, you misinterpret my wish for swimming for your own insecurities.
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(silence)
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Her: Wanna go swim?
Him: Yay, I like swimming

Okay, they weren't actually like that. They were actually quite laid back and normal for psychiatrists. We did have some interesting discussions on the revival of Sigmund Freud's theories and other psycho babble.

Day 23 (15-3-2008) Saturday

This was the best day of hiking. For some reason the trees were a bit brighter, the sea was just a tad clearer and the clouds were just a little happier than normal. The surroundings were just prettier this part of the track and after a decent hike (again about 4 hours) we arrived at our last hut, Awaora. The difference with the other stops is that they had a nice restaurant at this place. So after we had a quick lunch and a cold beer at that place we also decided to have diner there. The problem however which we found out after we made a reservation, is that it's a 30 minute walk from our hut to the restaurant, when it's low tide. In other cases, you can't walk along the coast and have to go inland for detour of about 1 hour. Of course during dinner time, it's high tide and we had to run through the forest to get at the restaurant in time (which we didn't make in time).

After dinner we had a relaxing and romantic stroll along the beach back to the hut. By the time we came back all the other people were already fast a sleep, which is not strange, considering it was almost 10 pm.

Day 24 (16-3-2008) Sunday

The last day we only had a short walk (2 hours) to the next bay, where we were picked up by a watertaxi. Initially, we planned on walking further and returning to that bay later that day, but when we arrived, we've had enough of walking and decided to take an early boat ride out of Abel Tasman. So after 4 days of walking, we took the watertaxi back to the starting point, which took us 1 hour by water taxi :) After having no decent shower (Erwin believes that swimming in the sea equals a shower, but I disagree) for 4 days, we secretly sneaked into the last hostel we stayed at (with the mean Maori woman) and took a well deserved shower there.

I think my time's almost up, so will continue later on. I'll upload some more pictures tonight, promise.

edit: Meh, hate internet in NZ, computers are so ancient and internet in general just slow ass. Really need to think of something to spend less time writing these blog-things.

edit2: Whaha, this computer seriously annoys me. Gonna stop internetting now, prolly won't upload any pictures tonight :)

Jessica Simpson doesn't have a clue .....

(edit: Meh, think the pictures turned out to be all low-res. Can't be bothered to change, you can see the originals when we get back)

I don't think Jessica Simpson knew what she was talking about, when singing her hiking song. I mean, she might know a lot about shoes, but she forgot one important thing: FEET! My boots might be made for walking, my feet sure as hell aint. The picture was made after we finished the Tongariro's crossing. They were all sore, swollen and flat (which what they always are). Was it worth it? Ohhhh hell yeah, and besides, my feet are back to their normal flat self, so no worries.

Day 17 - Saturday (8-3-2008)
Anyway, let's start at the begin of that day. We woke up early in the morning and took a bus ride to the start of the mountain. The first few minutes were an easy walk, but quite quickly the track became rougher and a lot steeper. After 1-2 hours of climbing (1st ascend) I saw Erwin running in front of me like a mountain goat on crack, whereas my feet hurt like hell and I was breathing my lungs out.

After another hour of climbing (2nd ascend) my feet just hurt like hell, my back is aching from carrying my backpack and my hands are freezing due to the harsh winds. Luckily, I'm still having fun :) I still see Erwin hopping around, going about, like the kid with ADHD in kindergarten, so I guess he was enjoying himself too.

The video was taken halfway the track after all the hard climbing was done and such give an impression of the wind speed. From that point there's quite a steep part down, which is a bit tricky, but a lot less exhausting than going uphill. After the steep part it's mostly a smooth descend to the end. All in all the whole hike took us 6 hours, including resting and the occasional pee-break for Erwin. Here are some of the pictures we took along the crossing:

Starting the Tongariro's Crossing at sunrise


Start of the first climb (enlarge the picture to see all dots going up).


View after the first ascend


After the first ascend, you walk through a crater


After the second ascend you get to the 'Emerald Lakes'


Another picture of the Emerald lake

Waldo resting at the Emerald Lakes


Looking back at Mt. Doom and after the descend from the Emerald Lakes


And we're walking.....


Chiling after the hard work is done (about 2/3 through the track)


The last part of the track. Easy peasy.

Day 18 till 20 (9-3-2008 till 12-3-2008)
After a good night's sleep, we packed our bags and got on our way to Wellington. In Wellington we needed to make some preparations for our 4-day hike in the Abel Tasman national park, which we are planning for 13th of March. Also we still had some problems with our Visa which we needed to take care of in Wellington before we would get into trouble. Luckily that worked out fine and everything is sorted out. Wellington itself is pretty much dull and boring, although we didn't really try to do anything spectacular.

From Wellington, we took the ferry to Picton, the southern island. We were traveling during the evening, so there wasn't much to see, unfortunately. We did get to see the sunset, which Erwin had to enjoy from inside the boat as he forgot to bring a warmer set of clothes.

We arrived in Picton at night and went straight to the hostel. We were quite hungry and had a nutritious and delicious microwave meal. Yummy! Okay, the food was quite disgusting to be honest, but what can you expect :) Erwin even graded his Beef Curry a solid 7 (considering the price we paid and the effort it took to cook it).

The next day in Picton we walked around a bit and decided to go to Disney World, Picton since the admission was free anyway. After a quick visit to Micky Mouse (see picture on the left) we had a short hike in the neighbourhood, which took us about 90 minutes.

Heading towards Abel Tasman National Park, which is north of Picton we made one stop in a town called Nelson. We checked into a hostel, called the Green Monkey. Nothing to special, but clean, quite small and very homely. We took the double bedroom instead of the usual dorm, since those were fully booked. A bit more expensive, but a good oppertunity to wash our clothes and dry them in our room.

In Nelson we made our last preparations for our Abel Tasman hike. Tonight we'll be spending the night near the start of the track. I'm looking forward to the hike and hopefully we'll have good weather.



Some random pictures made in Wellington to end this:

Erwin's opinion on the view of Wellington


My thoughts on the view of Wellington


Sunset during our ferry trip from Wellington to Picton

Steamy days

Day 14 - Wednesday (5-3-2008)
As we found out from other travellers later on, the Coromandel Region apparently is very beautiful. Unfortunately, we only had rain the whole time we were there so had to skip on all the hikes and things we wanted to see. Anyway, in Rotorua we went on some hiking the next day. We went to the Blue Lake for a short hike, which was quite nice, but not that spectaculair.

In the evening we met with this new guy, Waldo. We don't really know where he's from, he's quite small and seems like the silent type. He looks a bit lonely, so we decided to let him join us on our travels.

Day 15 - Thursday (6-3-2008)

We continued our travel down south and stopped at Waiotapu, which is a park with volcanic and other termal stuff. At 10:15am, they put some soap in a geyser and then it starts doing it's thing. Spewing water in the air and looking all geysery-like. Frankly, the whole thing really looked kinda sad and fake. One of the most pathetic excuses for a touristic attraction we've seen so far.

The rest of the park was pretty cool though. On the left you see a picture of Waldo at the Champagne Pool, a thermal lake (the red stuff is some mineral of some sort). The park was filled with colory-steamy springs, rotten-egg-smelling rock formations and boiling mudpools.

After Waitotapu we continued south, heading towards Taupo. We accidently came across a thermal hotspring and decided to relax a bit and have a dip in the hotsprings.

In Taupo we checked into a simple hostel and pizza for diner (and a orange to keep up with the vitamins).

Day 16 - Friday (7-3-2008) That's today! This morning we checked out the hostel and went to the tourism center to prepare for our next hike. We will be doing the Tongariro Crossing, which is a 6-8 hour hike through mountains, craters and vulcanos. (For the geeks, it's Mount Dooooooooooom). This will be our first long hike and a good training for us. We plan on doing a longer hike of 4 days on the southern island, so this will be a good test whether we're ready for it. Lotsa pictures this time, enjoy

My first photographed sunset. Not too interesting location, this was made at the supermarket's car lot.

Onions make me emotional


We found this spot beside the road, giving us a nice few of the lake and a vulcano in the background

The 'amaaaazing' geyser before erupting

Another weird looking pool at Waiotapu

Another shot of the Champagne Pool

Boiling mudpools

Sleeping possum just beside the road


Random picture during one of our drives. I just love the New Zealand skies and cuddly clouds

Erwin and me enjoying the view over Lake Taupo