Well, it's been (over) a month since I last spoke of my adventures to you, the virtual reader, the unknown audience, the faithful enjoyer of my antics around the world. And a lot has happened since then, well, more like a lot has been experienced, not so much 'happened' as it were.
I spent the whole past month on the South island of New Zealand. New Zealand has a rather small population (i.e. less then 5 million) and is known as one of the youngest countries, for it has been rather recently colonized by the Europeans (making it one of the youngest in the world - but has had an indigenous population [the Maori] since about the year 1300). The South Island of New Zealand is known for the mountains (named the Southern Alps), rain forest, dry high mountain farming (of sooo many sheep!), inland glacial lakes, and earthquakes; I knew that I might be in for a rugged adventure.
But alas, after a month on my bicycle in Tassie, I was now in for an adventure that would not include my dear Poppy. Instead of a two wheeled red travel mate, I was instead interested in having a human buddie along, and my cousin and I had organized to meet up in Dunedin on the south eastern coast of the south island. I was excited to have someone to adventure with, but also quite interested to see how Anthony and I would be as travel mates, as I know him well, and there are definitely some differences between the two of us! Good thing we're (sometimes hilariously) open and honest with each other, and I knew we'd have no problem being honest to one another, and having a totally fun time while we were at it. Anthony is a lot like I imagine a brother would be, so I was keen to get going, and get him sleeping in my tent, pooping in an outhouse, hiking up mountains, cooking his own meals, and exploring New Zealand.
On to the juicy details. Dunedin is an interesting and beautiful town, one that is historic (by New Zealand standards, which means it was settled by Europeans in the mid 1800's, but the New Zealand aboriginals, the Maori, were in the area much before that) but also new, clean and tidy, so well thought out, and so near to the ocean, and also the gateway to the wildlife ridden Otago Penninsula - Anthony and I saw here yellow-eyed penguins in their natural habitat, the massive albatross flying high, the native pukeko with it's funny flitting white tail, and heaps of other native New Zealand birds. Next came the quiet area called the Catlins, where we felt we were away from tourists. We saw the nooks and crannies of this stunning coastline, shear cliffs and natural sea stacks. We lunched at a beach with sea lions, and made dinner at a campsite high above a petrified forest (from the Jurassic period!) as we watched yellow-eyed penguins clumsily clamber their way out of the ocean for their evening rest. My morning run at Curio Bay, was seriously improved by a break to watch Hector's dolphins play in the waves super close to shore. I grew to love my quiet mornings, when my trusty travel mate snoozed away for an hour or two longer then me and I patiently ran a trail or a beach where we were staying, and would make and enjoy a long slow breaky. The next part of our trip was seriously dominated by ice. New Zealand is a country that has many amazing earth forces at work, forming stark, dramatic landscapes. On the south island, glaciers have scoured and carved out unique land forms, and are still scouring and carving out land forms as there are over 3000 glaciers in New Zealand. We visited first Manapouri and Te Anu, both on the outskirts of Fiordland National Park, both situated on stunning, clear, freshwater glacial lakes. We drove up through Fiordland on highway 94 - famous for the grassy Eglinton valley, which quickly begins to climb, up to 940m through lush rain forest surrounded by shear cliffs that create stark valleys en route to the famous Milford Sound (incorrectly called a 'sound' - which is a body of water formed by the power of rivers - Milford sound is in fact a fjord, carved out by a glacier). We spent part of a wild rainy day out on a boat in the sound, surrounded by powerful and plentiful waterfalls down the sides of mountains, only to get turned around and sent back into the docking point. We spent another night in Te Anu, and witnessed the total magic of gloworms (larvae of flies that have bioluminescent bums!) and had a fun night dancing to Latin music with the locals.
Onwards towards another glacial lake town, with snow-capped mountains in the background. Stopping a night in the grassy mountain towns of Queenstown and Wanaka, hiking up the Queenstown hill and cycling around the stunning Lake Wanaka and up the turquoise blue Calutha River while Anthony snoozed away the morning in the cozy tent. After revelling in landscapes that were formed by glaciers in the past, we were now heading onwards to experience a still frozen low slung glacier along the west coast. We stayed a few nights in the little (touristy) settlement of Franz Joseph, where we spent one entire day on a guided hike (the only way you can experiences this government protected glacier) clambering with our spiky cramp-ons over the ice. It was amazing to see how much material is moved by a glacier, as we started our walk by walking over the terminal moraine and looking down upon the glacial river, milky with silt. We hiked up and up, over deep crevasses, over flat neve, then through a series of amazing bright blue ice caves that our guide 'stumbled' upon. Quite a spectacular, sunny, crisp, different day of hiking. Next day brought another solo hike - up to Alex's knob - all the way to 1303m! Though the day was sunny, I lunched at the summit totally surrounded by misty clouds in alpine tussocks, trying to keep my fingers warm as the temperature had dropped as I climbed up up up!
As we continued up the west coast, I continued to find magical trails to run on in the morning (my favourite probably being Pororari river - limestone cliffs, deep potholes, and a beautiful sunrise...) and we found fun little towns to stop in during the day, scenic lookouts, and small beaches to walk along. As we headed away from the coast we followed an absolutely stunning river valley, dotted with little picnic areas that you could never stay at for too long because of the sandflys attacking every inch of exposed skin! We arrived in a couple days atAbel Tasman National Park, and with some very brief convincing of my not-so-expeienced-at-camping travel mate Anthony, we embarked on an overnight hike. Arriving via water Taxi at Onetahuti beach felt tropical - the beach white with sand, spotted with only a few souls. The weather was so beautiful, the coastline absolutely brilliant, and the water blue and green - I was so excited to be away from roads, away from motorhomes and caravans, to cook over the campstove, and walk along the well regarded coastal track. After Anthony sufficiently felt like he was inside the Indiana Jones movies he so adores (picture low tide crossings at high tide (!) swing bridges, cliff walking) we made it to our camp spot at Te Pukatea Bay, which we were sharing with just 6 others. The moon was bright, and walking along the beach after the sun faded was a brilliant food for my soul.
The next morning, arising as the light was just starting to creep into the day in my tent beside this beautiful bay, was just such an amazing morning. I hiked up to the Pitt Head bluff, which I learned the night before from new Kiwi friends was an ancient Pa, a fortified hillfort, set up by Maori tribes to be on guard, and protect their lands, homes and villages. I saw the sky light up orange and red, did some sun salutations while literally saying hello to the burning ball of fire that kept me warm and toasty as I next cooked breakfast on the beach and went for a crisp swim in the bay where we were camped. We had a cruisey day hiking out of the park, every person inquiring why I was carrying the large pack and Anthony carried just his pillow an sleeping bag (ha!) and wishing us a good walk, and good health - "Kia Ora" in Maori. We headed towards the artsy town of Nelson where I was sad to be in a hostel for a night and away from the tent and the magic that I felt in Abel Tasman. But, there was an amazing vegetarian restaurant right in the hostel where I had some delich GF vegetarian quesadillas!
Through the rich agricultural and grape growing area around Nelson and Marlbourough we went, back towards the east coast of the south island, to Kaikoura, a sleepy little coastal town known for whales, dolphins and wild weather. Though we walked the coastal trail along a high bluff and did not see any whales, cows were a plenty, and I observed an absolutely mesmerized Anthony stare at cows in a pasture. I made us a scrumptious dinner at the hostel, Anthony, as usual, being a hilarious sous chef, and I woke early the next day for another amazing trail run in another amazing location.
Lake Tekapo, another glacial lake in the middle of the south island was our next destination via the cute foodie town of Geraldine (Barkers jams and preserves, specialty cheese shops, ice cream shops, cafes). We camped at the nearly free campsite just outside of Lake Tekapo and as I sat on the ground cooking my dinner over the campstove and giggling, Anthony stood upon a found cement block, sending out alarm, astonishment and fear every time he saw our resident mouse friend scurry by on the grass! The moon was full that night, and we were in, yet another, beautiful spot.
Mount Cook was where we spent Easter. Known to Maori as Aoraki (translating to cloud piercer) it is the highest peak in New Zealand, reaching 3754 metres. We arrived to the National Park village in late afternoon, and I quickly dumped my things and headed out for a walk, wanting to get closer and closer to this epic mountain, this special sight that made me feel so finite, made me think of the powers that are present within our universe, made me think of how infinitely powerful mother earth is, how the rich spirit of this mountainous park was wiggling it's way into me. As I hopelessly felt indescribable tears coming to my eyes, I found a flat rock to sit on, watched the peak of Aoraki light up with pink hues as the sun set, and I wrote words in my journal to try to describe what I was feeling at that moment...
The next day Anthony and I walked up the Hooker Valley to the terminus of the Hooker glacier where we saw ice floating and glacial carried material a plenty. We crossed two neato suspension bridges, and I met someone who made me smile real big... I wasn't yet tired when we arrived back after our four hour walk, so I hiked up all 1223 steps on the red tarns track (tarns being a mountain pool, formed in a cirque that has been carved out by a glacier) where I was left alone, again in the fading sun, to do some yoga with Aoraki dominating the landscape. Our Easter Sunday was finished off with a hot sweat in the sauna, Anthony struggling to do 20 push-ups, a yummy meal with New Zealand apples turned into yummy apple crisp, and a cheers to the nearing end of a wonderful adventure one that I was happy to have done with a great travel mate, who was so open and flexible to doing what I wanted to do! Another bluebird morning saw me walking through a magical Podocarp forest before joining Anthony for a walk up to a lookout over the Tasman Glacier. Central Otago region saw us trapse through high country sheep farms, brown grassed rolling mountain ranges, historical farming towns, and inland lakes formed by humans and dams. We arrived back in Dunedin, back to the place where we embarked on our road trip to return the petrol consuming vehicle that we so depended on for the past 3 weeks of our adventures. I still can't believe I rented a car. Never have I done that in the past. And there were heaps of bicycle tourists on the roads, each time I would hoot, holler and cheer them on, and consistently remind Anthony, if he was driving, to give them soooo much space, as I so clearly know what it's like to share the road with cars, to place so much trust in drivers. Things certainly do go by fast when you are in a car. There were so many neat spots that we likely missed because we were travelling in a petrol fueled vehicle, but we also saw so much in so little time because we were able to drive. Oh, and we could buy more then one apple at a time, because we didn't have to carry it on our bicycles!
And after a bus journey we returned to the still earthquake shocked (no pun intended) city of Christchurch. When I arrived in Christchurch 4 weeks before this time, I made good friends with an older gentleman, Trevor, when I was staring somewhat blankly through the tall fences that surrounded the red zone of downtown Christchurch. I had stumbled upon the rare opportunity to actually go beyond the red zone fencing, and walk through the eerie streets, abandoned buildings, and view the crumbling cathedral,that has for so long been central to people's community space in the city. Many of these buildings that are in the Central Business District of the city are slated to be torn down, as the structural integrity of them was compromised by the earthquake in February of 2011, and the many aftershocks that followed. My new friend, Trevor, introduced me to his family, and pointed out the buildings to be torn down, including the one that he worked in for some 20 years, as we wondered on the streets where more then a year before 185 souls went somewhere else. Trevor was lucky, he was outside his office building when the earthquake happened, and metres away from rubbish crashing down off the side of a building. He walked out of the CBD that day, happy he still could. Trevor offered to take me on a drive out to the eastern suburbs, where the earth beneath umpteen houses had turned to silt in the earthquake; meaning that cliff faces slipped away and underground utilities had ruptured. We saw streets of huge houses completely abandoned, streets of houses with port-a-potties lining the boulevard, as utilities had still not been restored to houses. This natural disaster that happened more then a year ago is still very much in the front of every citizens mind in this city. It does create an interesting vibe.
Trevor, Marg and their daughter Imogen were wonderfully nice to me, showing me around and offerring me to come and stay with them at the tail end of my New Zealand adventures. So, I did! Anthony and I finished off our journey with some really amazing Kiwi hospitality, the Thorton family welcomed us into their house for two nights, and their fun spirited son and daughter Ben and Alex were so warm and generous...
It was great to have done this portion of my travels with a friend that I've known for so long, that I feel comfortable around, and who was seriously up for just about anything. Anthony was a fun travel mate to have, and my trip would have been entirely different had it been done alone. It definitely woulda been without Muppet sing along's and without Testo dance parties in parks...
And why New Zealand in a peanut shell you ask? Well, though we didn't eat entirely similar foods, one thing Anthony and I definitely agreed upon was our love and enjoyment and consumption of copious amounts of peanut butter - a must on a bicycle or road trip of any kind...yum yum (Pics was our favourite). So as the Maori people would say, Kia Ora my dear friends, family and readers from near and far. Know that you likely come into my heart often while I'm over yonder, and even if I haven't necessarily been the best at keeping in touch with you, you're in my soul...
Sea Lions for lunch in the Catlins
Nugget Point
Anthony and I rocking the cramp-ons
Abel Tasman National Park - this is the bay we camped on for the night
Lake Tekapo
Hooker Valley
Aoraki/Mount Cook at sunset