Travelog

Eduard and I left the hostel at about 9am and headed half an hour north along the coast to the Pancake Rocks in Panakakai. The restaurant across the street was serving pancakes, which I thought was pretty clever. Spent about half an hour there, then back south through Greymouth, and east towards Arthur’s Pass.

The drive was spectacular, as all drives in New Zealand tend to be. We stopped for photos a few times, then both checked into our hostel. It’s a quiet mountain village, with a few trails in the area. I asked at the local information office to determine the best trail for people with limited times, and we were off to the Chasm and Bealey River .

The hike was supposed to be 4 hours return, but we managed it in under 2. It ran along a river to an area where you could do some rock hopping and reach a smaller glacier and ice cave. Also a nice waterfall in the area.

We drove back to the hostel, and spotted another trail that looked like it was worth taking, but walkable from the hostel. Stopped in the hostel for a few minutes and met yet another Canadian, Marley from Nelson, B.C – who was doing a cycling tour of the island. She said she was interested in doing the same hike herself so, with that, the three of us were off.

This hike took us to an even bigger waterfall, Bridal Veil falls (I believe). We finished it quickly enough that we took another hike which was also quite scenic, but not as rugged as the first hike we’d done, or with the reward of a waterfall at the end.

On the way back to the hostel we stopped and chatted with a man who was driving his 1909 Renault car across the country with his dog. Apparently New Zealand caters well to vintage car owners – which would explain the multitude of Bentley’s I’ve seen on the road of late. He was the third generation to own the car in his family and felt confident that the car would be going for another 200 years or more.

Got back to the hostel and had some food. Showed Marley Lorne’s cross-Canada route on LorneTracker. She was quite impressed – but is still more inclined to cycle South America next. Eduard doesn’t think South America’s (or Brazil’s at least) roads are very suitable to a cycling tour, however, but I’m sure she’ll do some research.

Chatted throughout the evening, then headed to bed as we were all pretty tired. Eduard and I are up early in the morning to drop the car off in Christchurch and head to the airport.

Work up early, checked my email – and tried to arrange some things with my aunt and uncle with regards to China. Found out everyone was at my grandmother’s, so I figured I’d use the phone card a Swiss woman had given me in Christchurch and give them a call. Only 5 minutes left on the phonecard, and 4 people to talk to, but it was nice to hear some familiar Canadian voices.

Headed to the Franz Josef Glacier Guides building, and got suited up for a walk on the glacier – socks, boots, gloves, toque, raincoat, waterproof pants. It was pouring rain, which didn’t bode well for a day I’d be spending out in the open. As we hopped on the bus to head to the glacier, the weather cleared up a little, and we were able to stow away our raincoats.

The glacier is huge, and moves very fast (at about a metre per day). I’d be interested in coming back in a twenty years and seeing it then. Met some more Canadians, Amanda and Britney; an older American, Ted; and a few others. Our guide, A.J was from New Zealand, and did a good job of guiding us, but didn’t really shower us with information on the glacier itself.

Hiked up onto the glacier, and around it – took lots of pictures, and got very wet – as the rain revisted us several times through the day. Thankfully the provided gear was of a good quality. It was a little cool, which should help prepare me for Beijing next week.

Got back to the hostel at 4pm, and headed over to see Sebastian and Marion – but they were’t around. Grabbed my bags from the hostel and headed to Greymouth, further up the west coast.

Just outside of Franz Josef I picked up Eduard, a Brazilian. He’d been waiting in the rain for 4 hours, which is fairly unheard of as far as I can tell. He was just in search of a bed, so he was keen to go anywhere that might have one – so I offered to take him to Greymouth with me. Along the way I regaled him with my Portuguese speaking knowledge – but one can only say “It’s cold outside” so often before it starts to get repetitive. Even if it is true.

We looked for a few hostels in Greymouth for Eduard, but in the end he ended up staying at the same one I was at. Nice hostel, which may or may not have been an old church. One of the dorm rooms was a chapel.

Eduard is flying out of Christchurch on the same day as me, so he may head with me to Arthur’s Pass in the morning.

Woke up, and the weather was pretty decent, so I figured I’d do a small hike. Didn’t want to do anything too long, as I had a fairly long (close to 5 hours) drive ahead of me. The girl from Holland had vanished (no easy task since she was easily 6’3″), so I figured I’d just do a drive through the nearby Mt. Aspiring National Park. Had a quick drive through, but didn’t see any trails short enough to take. Headed back to Wanaka and made my way through the city towards the west coast of New Zealand. As I did, the weather started to take a turn for the worse, so hiking would probably have been a messy experience.

The drive was fairly uneventful, but once I hit the other side of Lake Wanaka, and that section of Mount Aspiring National Park, the views were outstanding. Unfortunately, it was fairly difficult to stop and take pictures on the narrow roads, and those places where you could stop were clogged with cars, so it wasn’t worth the hassle. Just imagine tree covered mountains with small waterfalls plunging down them, and strong rivers running through the park.

An hour or so into the park, I passed one of New Zealand’s many single lane bridges (each side takes turns crossing), and picked up Sebastian and Marion from France on the other side. They had been hiking for three days and were anxious to clean their clothes and have a warm shower. They wanted to be dropped off in Haast, which was on the way, but after driving through Haast, they decided they’d rather carry on to Franz Josef with me.

Spotted the Tasman sea for the first time (from the New Zealand side, at least), and the French boys asked me if I’d like to have some lunch at a salmon farm on the way to Franz Josef. We stopped at the farm, but the prices were outrageous, so we continued on to Franz.

In Franz I checked in, while the french boys set their tent up in the backyard of a hostel nearby. We went looking for lunch, but again ran into pricing dilemmas everywhere. Very expensive food in New Zealand, and Franz Josef was exceptional. We decided on the grocery store – I grabbed some canned salmon and pasta, and made a meal back at the hostel.

Later I was heading into the city to take some pictures of the cloud covered mountains, when Marion and Sebastian called me over from a local pub. It was happy hour, and they insisted on buying me a beer. I thanked them, but ordered one on my own instead. $4 for a pint, which seems pretty reasonable. They bought me two more, and I figured I’d better stop before I was really done for. I headed back to the hostel, and read a bit, but the beer was making me sleepy. Went to bed after a spell, hoping to be well rested for my glacier climb in the morning.

Had a fairly decent sleep, but not as great as I might have hoped, considering I had my own room. Got up early to investigate my credit card issues while things were still open in Canada. After convincing the reception girl to let me use the phone (it wouldn’t let me call the mastercard number with a pay phone), I called and found out that it had been a glitch with their system. Good to know.

Had breakfast, pawned the rest of my milk on a British girl who was staying a few days longer, then got on the road to Wanaka. Just outside of Te Anua, I picked up two American hitchhikers. Tim, from Iowa, and Nicole from Alaska. They were marine researchers, who met while working at a research colony in Antarctica. Sounds like quite an interesting lifestyle – stuck with the same 40 people (ranging from cooks to plumbers to scientists and electricians) for 6 months. Tim had lived in New Zealand before, and they were spending a couple more months travelling, and hoping to eventually do a bit of a cycling tour of the country (which seems like the thing to do – I’ve seen quite a few cyclists touring about).

Tim and Nicole were heading to Queenstown, and offered to buy me a Fergburger in Queenstown if I wanted to join them for lunch. Fergburger is apparently famous, but I hadnt heard of it until I reached Lake Tekapo. I had lunch with them, then headed to Wanaka.

Tim showed me an alternate route to Wanaka, which I figured I’d take, since I’d seen the other route when I originally headed to Queenstown. Whenever an area is called a “pass” you’re bound for some windy roads, and this was no exception. Some nice views, and not so bad after the first ten harrowing minutes up the narrow steep roads. I can’t imagine trying to drive here if you weren’t 100% comfortable with driving standard.
In Wanaka I was too early to check in, so I headed to the town and walked around. Checked my email and uploaded some photos, then headed back to the hostel and checked in. Walked down to the lake and wandered around, but the day was waning. Ella had described the lake in Wanaka as so clear – like a lake you can drink”, but on this day it was cloudy and windy, so the lake didn’t look any more drinkable than the others I’d seen. One of the things to do in Wanaka is go to the Paradiso cinema, where you can watch a movie in a mini car, or on a bed, or couches. I was tempted, but wasn’t too interested in the movie playing, so I stayed in the hostel and read. I read ten books in Australia (and the flight over), but I’ve only read one in New Zealand. The challenge of relying on yourself for transportation, I suppose.

Chatted with a girl from Holland about possibly hitting a trail in the morning, depending on the weather.

The Canadians were heading to Queenstown, so I offered to drop them off at the bus stop, and save them a 20+ minute walk with their backpacks. From there I headed towards Milford Sound, where I had a boat cruise at 10:30am.

Milford Sound is only 119kms away from Te Anua, but the drive takes from 2 to 2.5 hours. Thankfully it’s a very scenic drive. There were plenty of places to stop along the way, but I wanted to make sure I was at the dock in time, so I headed straight there. Had a short wait at Homer Tunnel, which is a tunnel cut through the mountain,that descends over 1200 feet. It’s also only one way, so the lights at either end change only ever 15 minutes. The roads were pretty clear, since most of the buses don’t get into Milford Sound until noon or so.

Checked in at the boat terminal, and waited for my bus. I bought some two-in-one bug repellent and sunscreen and applied that – mostly for the bugs. New Zealand’s dirty little secret is the sandfly, a persistent tiny fly that also bites and leaves a mark, much like a mosquito. The repellent was keeping them at bay, but others weren’t so lucky.

Milford Sound gets about 6 metres of rainfall per year. They’d been going through a bit of a drought of late, with no rain for five days. The skies were cloudy, but thankfully there was no rain. Hoped to see an abundance of wildlife, but other than some seals and birds, it was pretty tame. You can see dolphins if you’re lucky, and occasionally whales and penguins if you’re in the right season.

Milford Sound, which is actually a fjord, was really quite nice to see. The tour itself was good, although about half an hour shorter than the time allotted in the brochure. I still think we managed to see everything, anyhow.

After the cruise I headed back along Milford Sound road, stopping at a few lookouts along the way. At one lookout, I came across a kea, a large and very social parrot. They’re very curious, and have a love of plastic and rubber, and tend to pick at people’s shoes, but this one wasn’t overly lively. It tried jumping into the camper van of an older German couple, and scared the small boy of a Swiss couple who were actually driving a camper called the Kea.

I stopped at the Chasm next, which was pretty unique looking. Next on the stop was the Mirror Lakes, which were more like ponds then links. On a calm day their reflective powers are a little more powerful, but otherwise it wasn’t a bad place to stop.

Headed back to the hostel and relaxed and read. Had to switch rooms, so I checked into my new room (a single – which was a nice luxury), then cooked some dinner. It was raining, so I joined a few people watching The Ring in the tv lounge. Watched some American Idol after that, followed by House of Wax – which no one managed to see the end of. I was hoping to at least see Paris die, but couldn’t hold out long enough for that.

Tried to book a room in Franz Josef, but my credit card was declined. Confused, I tried to book my flight to the north island, but that too was declined. I tried getting in touch with Mastercard but had no luck – probably because things were closed in Canada. I checked online and everything seemed okay, so I’ll try calling them in the morning.

Checked out of the hostel and headed down the road to where the climb for the Ben Lomond trail began. There’s a full day version of the hike that takes you to the very top, but I was only keen on going as far as the top of the skyline gondola.

The trail started off well signed, and it was easy enough to get underway, but eventually I reached a point with a dead end. There was an orange arrow, usually an indicator of which way to go, but it was pointing directly at a small waterfall. I turned around and headed down another trail before reaching a point I’d already been. Decided to head back and got to the waterfall again. Two other hikers were there as well now, and both as lost as I once was. I joined forces with an Austrian who was doing the full climb, and was well equipped with hiking poles/sticks and hiking boots. We headed in yet a different direction, and found another path, this one looking a little more promising. Eventually we were underway.

The rest of the trail went smoothly, until we reached one point where a sign said “No Hikers, Only Mountain Bikes”. I checked the map I’d taken a photo of beforehand, and decided we could reach our respective destinations by breaking the rules and using the bike trail. The Austrian had been travelling around New Zealand for two months and doing plenty of hiking along the way. Once again I managed to keep up, despite my obvious lack of hiking poles.

Reached the gondola and parted ways with the Austrian. Had a look around the area near the top of the gondola – not too much going on. There was a small luge track, but it didn’t look like you got much speed – and an unused bungy jump platform. It was $10.00 to take the gondola down, but no one was taking tickets so I hopped on and headed back into Queenstown.

Stopped at the internet shop and finished burning some cds for the road. Headed back to the hostel and had a quick shower, then jumped in the car to Te Anua, to the south.

The drive was beautiful, but not too eventful. There was a hitchhiker just outside of town, but I didn’t see him until I had passed him. No other hitchhikers on the road, so I trekked on solo, happy to have some music to listen to.

In Te Anua, I went in search of a decent web connection, to upload some pictures, but the situation was even more dire than Queenstown. I grabbed some groceries for lunch the next day, and dinner for the next two nights, and headed back to the hostel.

Read for a bit, and met a couple of girls in my room from Canada, Katie and Jen. Like most of the Canadians I’ve met thus far, they were from B.C. Vancouver, this time. Went to cook dinner, but the kitchen was too busy, so I headed back to the room and played some cards with the Canadians. They were off to happy hour at a local bar, so I told them I’d join them later, and prepared my dinner. Dinner was lamb, and potatoes. Not much I could do to add some flavour to the potatoes, since the spice rack at the hostel was dry, but the lamb was good. I’ve seen a huge number of sheep here in New Zealand (they outnumber humans by a longshot), so I figured it’d be a shame leaving without trying some.

Joined the girls for a drink, then headed back to the hostel and eventually went to bed.

Note: I was delaying publishing these last two entries because I wanted to post pictures as well, but I’m having a devil of a time finding a decent connection – and that’ll most likely be the case for the next little while, so here you go, sans pictures. Pictures Added.

Mair was heading to Mt. Cook, so I offered to drive him part of the way. We stopped at Lake Pukaki where there was a pretty nice view of Mt. Cook. I dropped him off after less than an hour, then headed on towards Queenstown. Saw someone hitchiking about half an hour down the road and a few thoughts popped into my head. “Do I want to be someone who picks up hitchhikers.”, “Will this be a good substitute for a lack of a radio station?”, “How will they eventually identify my body?” Mair had said he had a lot of success hitchhiking (although mostly from locals), so I figured it probably couldn’t hurt.

I signaled and pulled over a little further down the road. The hitchee (not sure on the terminology yet), was Oaru (again, no clue on the spelling). He said he’d been waiting for half an hour or so. Older, 50ish or so, and a widow from Tokyo, who was hitching across the country. He’d hitched across Canada 20 years or so ago, he said. Lead to some good conversation, and an invitation to one of his two Greek restaurants in Tokyo, should I ever come to visit. Greek food in Tokyo? It’ll be hard to resist that invitation. Only had him in the car for 45 minutes or so, as he was headed to Oamaru, on the East coast, so once again I was on my own.

Passed lots of beautiful scenery on the way, stopping a few times to take some pictures and stretch my legs. In Cromwell, about 50kms outside of Queenstown, I picked up another hitchhiker, Alison, from Hong Kong. She was travelling very light, so I figured she must live in the area, and she told me she lived and worked right where I’d picked her up. She’d had only had her thumb out for a minute before I picked her up. She was heading to Queenstown to check her email and visit some friends. She’s working in New Zealand for a bit before travelling the country and heading to Australia. She offered me a place to stay if I’m ever in Hong Kong, but she won’t be back there until August. She also told me that hitchhiking leads to lots of murders, but assured me it’s only the hitchees that get killed, not the drivers, and even then they’re mostly girls.

I dropped her off downtown, then headed a little further along to the esplanade, and parked the car at the hostel. Again, too early to check in, so I wandered around town. Beautiful town, but very busy. It’s the adventure capital of New Zealand, and therefore probably the world. Beautiful lake in town, and a couple of nice beaches.

Managed to get a couple of cds burned downtown, although the computer is giving me some hassles. I’ll try again in the morning to get the rest. Even the ones that are apparently failed to burn seem to be working in the car, which is all that matters.

Wandered around, then headed back to the hostel. Met an American girl named Kari, who was also driving around. She’s heading north along the coast, whereas I’m heading south. She was off to buy a camera, as she had her bag stolen in Wellington. Tragic. She was more distraught over the loss of her photos, then the equipment, as I would be.

Had the remains of yesterdays dinner in the evening, then did a bit of reading, before getting some sleep. I’ll probably spend a couple of hours in the city tomorrow before venturing further south to Te Anau.

Note: I was delaying publishing these last two entries because I wanted to post pictures as well, but I’m having a devil of a time finding a decent connection – and that’ll most likely be the case for the next little while, so here you go, sans pictures. Pictures added.

Lousy sleep. Had a 9am pickup to get my car near the airport. The car is a Sirion Daihatsu and, unlike my cars in Australia, a manual. A little different driving with the stick on the left, but I’ve managed okay. All the gears are in the same position, thankfully. I have a rough idea of where I’d like to go (always book ahead), and Lake Tekapo is the first on my list, so I headed towards there. Lots of beautiful scenery on the 3+ hour drive. Lake Tekapo itself is really nice, much bluer than my camera gives it credit for. I had a couple of hours before check in, so I took the car up to the Mount John Observatory. Nice 360 degree views from up there. The drive up was on a narrow road, but thankfully there was no one descending.

Not so lucky on the drive down, but managed to squeeze by a couple of the cars making the climb. Headed back to the hostel, parked the car, and walked to get some lunch and check out the Church of the Good Shepherd. Not much else to do in Lake Tekapo, so I checked in, took a bit of a nap, and had a shower. Grabbed some groceries for dinner after the shower, and picked up some blank cds – the radio station signal is horrible in New Zealand (too many mountains I guess), and I’m getting tired of hearing myself sing. Just kidding, I could never get tired of that – but a little accompaniment never hurt.

Was about to have dinner, but stopped in the room for a moment, and Mair (spelling?! Sounded like Mayer), an Israeli guy who had checked in that morning as well, asked if I wanted to hike up Mount John with him. Having not eaten, it probably wasn’t wise of me to agree, but agree I did. I threw some muesli in a bag, grabbed some water, put on my shoes, and joined him. We walked along the main road before deciding we were way off. Headed back towards the hostel, grabbed the car and drove to the parking lot near where we were pretty sure the actual entrance was. Mair was ex-Israeli army, and had been hitching across New Zealand for the past month. He’d also been doing a bunch of hiking in New Zealand, so I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to keep up, but I managed just fine. Spent some time at the top – much more rewarding after walking up, as opposed to the drive earlier.

Headed back to the hostel and cooked dinner while two Brazilian girls played table tennis. The hostel was mostly filled with Asians, who looked on their playing with what I am sure was more than a small measure of disdain at their lack of skill. Tried to burn some music cds, but the hostel computers aren’t rigged for it. Chatted for a bit then hit the sack.

I had hoped to get a rental car out of Christchurch, but everyone in town was fully booked. Seems like New Zealand will require pre-booking for everything. I booked a car for tomorrow morning, and then tried to add another night at my hostel, and found that it too was booked. I called a nearby hostel and managed to get in there, so all was not lost. I headed over there and dumped my bag, then hit the town.

With another full day in Christchurch I figured I’d do a bit of wandering, so I headed off towards a nice rooftop I’d seen beforehand. Ended up at Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, after cutting through what appeared to be a University of some sort.

From there I ventured towards the hills I’d seen on my way to the grocery store. Got close enough to decide that I didn’t really need to climb them. The sky was grey, anyhow, so visibility wouldn’t be outstanding.

Ventured to the art gallery, and had a walk through there. Some nice stuff, but nothing to really wow me. Some of the more modern stuff was pretty nice, and they had one room where you could wear red tinted glasses (like 3d glasses, I suppose).

I’d tried to see the inside of the Christ Church Cathedral a couple of times before, and not had luck, but managed to catch them at a time when there was no show going on, which was pretty handy . Headed in there, and had a peek – then checked out the Church Gift Shop (which church is complete without one, really).

Spent the rest of the day wandering, and occasionally reading. There was a New Zealand guidebook in the hostel book exchange, so I was keen to finish my book so I could make the swap.

Back at the hostel, I swapped my book, and watched what I thought would be about the last 5 minutes of Titanic (the boat had just gone into the water – sorry if I’ve ruined it for anyone), but there ended up being a good half an hour left.