The South Island portion of our trip started at about 3 AM one night as we decided to take the overnight ferry from Wellington to the South Island. This time slot was a little bit less expensive, plus we caught a couple of Z's on the ferry and didnt have to pay for accomadation that night. Before departing from Welly though we saw the sights and toured the Capital building as Wellington is New Zealand's capitol. It was interesting to see how another nations goverment works, even in the brief hour long tour that we had. Upon arriving on the South Island we immediately began the long drive down the Western side of the island to the Franz Josef Glacier. It was raining the entire day which wasn't a terrible thing since we were in the car for about 7 hours to get there. We did stop off at a few sights along the way but it was tough to really see anything because of the rain and clouds everywhere. The highway did run right along the coast for a good portion of the trek and you could see the rugged coastline although not very clear due to the rain.
When we tried to book our hike of the glacier for the next day they were arleady all booked up (which was actually a blessing) because it was a grey rainy day that day as well, so we settled for the following day. It was a blue sky, sunny day, probably 70 degrees even on the glacier when we ended up hiking it, so everything really worked out well. We arrived at the tour guide's shop to get all our gear before going to the glacier. This consisted of wool socks, hiking boots, crampons, a rain jacket, and a nice little fanny pack to put the crampons in when they weren't on our feet. After leaving there at about 10:00 AM we had a ful 6-7 hours on the glacier. There were probably 50 people or so in our group so we split up between 5 different guides and could choose how extreme we wanted the hike to be, 1-5, from 1 moving the fastest, and using fewer ropes, steps, safety precausions, etc. to 5 being more about the scenery then climbing the glacier...naturally we chose group number 1. The only problem with this was our guide was currently training (and conveniently didn't tell us until the day was over) so it seemed like we weren't moving as fast as we could have. This is because most of the time he was in the front with a pick ax and would stop to make some sort of trail and steps for us so the group wasn't completley stranded on a shear ice cliff. After he asked all our names and where we were from he insisted on calling me Brad Pitt the rest of the day. Now the way I look at it this was for one of two reasons. Either that helped him remember my name because we are both named Brad, and Brad Pitt is American, or he kept calling me that because of my rugged good looks...I think its safe to say its because of the latter.
As I said, the weather was just about perfect to hike a glacier that day, and with the sunlight beaming down, you could really see the bright blue aqua colored ice that makes up the insides of the glacier. How could I see the inside of the glacier when we were hiking on top of it you ask? We maneuvered through extremely tight crevases and cracks in the glacier that it really gave you an appreciation for the size and beauty of it. There were also pools of melted ice that form the bright blue pools of water that look fake they are so clear and blue. It was really an awesome experience to be on top of a glacier like we were.
As I said, the weather was just about perfect to hike a glacier that day, and with the sunlight beaming down, you could really see the bright blue aqua colored ice that makes up the insides of the glacier. How could I see the inside of the glacier when we were hiking on top of it you ask? We maneuvered through extremely tight crevases and cracks in the glacier that it really gave you an appreciation for the size and beauty of it. There were also pools of melted ice that form the bright blue pools of water that look fake they are so clear and blue. It was really an awesome experience to be on top of a glacier like we were.
The plan after the day hike was to begin the drive down to Milford Sound and get as far as we could before taking a cruise on the Sound the following day. Then we ran into the wonderful fact that New Zealand is not a heavily populated country when the only gas station within 100 kms was closed and we had 1/8 of a tank left. Needless to say we decided to crash in that town (out of necessity, not an option) until the station opened the next morning before continuing the drive...luckily there was a Pub in town. This was actually another blessing in disguise because the drive from the glacier down towards Queenstown is considered one of the most beautiful drives, and it didn't dissapoint us. We stayed that next night in Te Anau which is the last town before the highway up to Milford Sound. Not suprisingly the drive from Te Anau to Milford Sound is also well known for the scenery. Milford Sound itself is something that pictures don't do justice of the magnitude and beauty of it. It consists of limestone cliffs and mountains cutting straight down into jade green waters that again are remarkably clear. The boat ride took us around the Sound and stopped under waterfalls, pointed out wildlife, and allowed us countless different views of the beauty of Milford Sound.
From Milford Sound we made the drive to Queenstown, which looks really close on the map, is actually a long drive because the highways don't go in the most direct route. Upon arriving back in Queenstown the first thing we did was make our reservations to go Bungy Jumping. The site which we did our jump is the famous Kawarau Bridge and is the first commercial bungy location in the world. From the edge of the bridge you are 43 meters above the Shotover River. The waters here again are an amazing color of blue (sense a pattern?) Depending on how you jump...from falling straight off the platform like a rock, to leaping outwards dictates if you will get dunked in the river of not. The more straight down you go the more wet you'll get, probably from your head down to your waist. I wanted to get a good jump and show good form so I didn't fall straight down, but I also wanted to get at least a little wet, so I was slightly dissapointed when I came up completel dry. The guys in the raft below who picked me up said that I came within inches of the water though. The free fall was only a few seconds before the slack in the rope caught, and then you bounch around like a dummy a few times before geing brought into the raft. Even though the experience itself isn't long, it was definitely worth it.
From Milford Sound we made the drive to Queenstown, which looks really close on the map, is actually a long drive because the highways don't go in the most direct route. Upon arriving back in Queenstown the first thing we did was make our reservations to go Bungy Jumping. The site which we did our jump is the famous Kawarau Bridge and is the first commercial bungy location in the world. From the edge of the bridge you are 43 meters above the Shotover River. The waters here again are an amazing color of blue (sense a pattern?) Depending on how you jump...from falling straight off the platform like a rock, to leaping outwards dictates if you will get dunked in the river of not. The more straight down you go the more wet you'll get, probably from your head down to your waist. I wanted to get a good jump and show good form so I didn't fall straight down, but I also wanted to get at least a little wet, so I was slightly dissapointed when I came up completel dry. The guys in the raft below who picked me up said that I came within inches of the water though. The free fall was only a few seconds before the slack in the rope caught, and then you bounch around like a dummy a few times before geing brought into the raft. Even though the experience itself isn't long, it was definitely worth it.
Queenstown itself was such a cool town. It sits right on the banks of Lake Wakatipu and has huge snow capped mountains backing it on the other side. The city blocks were clean, new and the whole place had a lively outdoor feel that was impossible not to embrace and want to stay longer. Unfortunately there was still more to see and time was starting to run low, so we only had about a day and a half to spend there. One thing we did was take the Gondola to the top of the mountain which provided spectacular views of the city/lake/mountains. Now, due to our budget attitude when we saw the free trail to walk to the top we immediatly opted for that instead of buying the ticket for the ride. It was not an easy hike, and I happened to be wearing flip flops thinking I would be enjoying a nice leisurely ride. The picture below is from the top of the Gondola.
After Queenstown we headed towards Christchurch where Mark would be flying out of to head back to the states. If you didn't catch it before, he is one of Jonathon's friends who joined us for 2 weeks of the trip just in New Zealand. This drive probably took the cake as the most scenic which may be hard to believe after everything that I've mentioned before. It provided specatular views of Mt. Cook, Mt. Tasman, and the other Southern Alps for a good portion of it. My favorite part was the view of these mountains across the impossibly blue water of Lake Tekapo (see picture below). After dropping him off at the airport we didn't really spend any additional time in Christchurch and started heading back up to the Norther part of the South Island to spend some more time beofre going back to the North Island. There is a great set of hiking trails in Abel Tasman National Park on the Northern part of the South Island which we spent all day hiking.
Once we were back on the North Island we began heading up towards Auckland while stopping in Tongariro National Park to once again do some hiking. This National park has one of the most perfect cone shaped volcanoes which we hiked around and is famous for appearing in the movie Lord of the Rings as Mt. Doom. After 2 days of hiking for the majority of the day in a row we were pretty spent, but kept driving as we had to return the rental car in only 2 days and still had more to see. We continued North of Auckland and went to Cape Reinga which is the Northernmost point of New Zealand and is where the Tasman sea collides witht he Pacific Ocean. This was a really cool area and had some enormous sand dunes just to the south along Ninety Mile Beach which we climbed. We're back in Auckland now before catching our flight early tomorrow morning for Melbourne. There isn't going to be much time to relax as we're hitting the ground running in Australia with Jonathon's mom, dad, aunt, and uncle picking us up from the airport before driving the Great Ocean Road. After doing that for a couple of days we're returning to Melbourne for his sisters wedding on the 18th and I'll be sticking around through Christmas.
Once again, awesome post and great photos. I'm too old to do all that hiking, but now you, Brett and Carl can compare bungy jumping stories. Yours of course was in a much more scenic area than Padre Island! My bosses son also bungy jumped from that same place when he was in New Zealand.
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