Month: April 2008

Our time on the South Island has come to an end, and so we boarded the less-than-glamourous ferry (the two trucks full of sheep and associated smell did not help), and were soon weaving our way through the Marlbourgh Sounds and out into the open seas. As the ferry left the Tory Channel and we waved goodbye to our home for the past few weeks, there were clear skies to the south and omnious grey clouds to the north, hopefully not an omen of things to come! Wellington greeted us (well me, Caroline was inside hiding from the sheep smell) with low flying clouds zooming overhead and a matching wind. The ferry dropped us off in the middle of the city, and there was the unusual sensation of other cars on the road, something not experienced on the South Island back roads! We also found that camping doesn’t suit city visits, with our campsite being more like an overpriced carpark with showers, still it does have the advantage of having a bar onsite!

Waking up to a wet morning in New Zealand should not really be a surprise, but we’ve managed to avoid pretty much any rain until this point. Worse thing is that we have to walk the 5 or so hours back to the vans. Wasting no time in getting going, and hoping that the new shoes really are waterproof, we start back up the track. Not really stopping at all, just plodding on we get to the saddle, by which point I’m in shorts and t-shirt, figuring that the waterproof jacket is not really going to stop all the rain, so I might as well get as few clothes wet as possible. At least my feet are still dry! All downhill from that point, but it was still a mighty trek, especially when you run out of brunch bars!
The viewpoints over the Marlborough Sounds, when not completely covered in cloud show thin whisps of rain cloud floating over – even when the heavens open, this country still has a charm to it!
Campsite for the night was Smiths Farm, a favourite from the last time we were in Picton, even though they still gave us the fresh banana muffins. With the rain not showing any sign of stopping we got the log fire going and planted ourselves in front of that for the night. At least we’ve got our tramping done!

One of the must-dos for New Zealand is to do a tramp (i.e. hike) across their fine land. As they tend to take more than a day, we opted for the Nydia Track with a convenient hostel halfway along, saving us from staying at the DoC hut (think four walls and a bench to sleep on).
With a fried breakfast in our bellies we set off with a spring in our step, rounded the headland and started the climb up to the saddle between the mountains. The climb continued up and up, and our blood sugar and resolve started to drop, not forgetting we were getting to the lowest point between the mountains. But we made it, and as you can see had some difficulty getting somewhere to rest the camera for a group photo.
The rest of the walk was downhill, and as our tired little legs rounded the final corner we were greeted by the ramshackle sign of our “eco lodge”. Expecting the worst, our hippy host showed us to our little wooden cabins that were actually new and as nice as can be. Home brewed lager and freshly caught green lipped mussels and flounders followed for dinner, all cooked on an open fire barbeque. I guess tramping has it’s upsides.

We’d seen the lively Dusky Dolphins from the shore, the seal swim and also from the whale watch boat. At any given opportunity they are jumping, back flipping, tail slapping and generally having fun. So now it was time for us to slip into the neoprene one more time and get up close to them. The boat dropped us into the icy water ahead of the dolphins, and we were told to entertain them in anyway possible so that they would stay and take a look at you. So as the 400 odd dolphins swam past (wasn’t too sure whether to be amazed or slightly concerned by the numbers), we all squeaked through our snorkels and swam in circles playing a mini game of chase. At one point I had three or four dolphins swimming around, until I got dizzy and had to concede the game. There were also a couple of yellow-striped dolphins (ok, technically called common dolphins, but my name is better) swimming with the duskies, and Caroline also saw a seal in there too.
After four or five drops into the water, it was time to head back to shore, our thirst for swimming with marine life, cold water and wet suits well and truly quenched!

We’ve hiked on them, caught a helicopter halfway up them, drank them, climbed through them, photographed them (copiously), slept next to them, counted them, and watched bits of them float in a lake, so is there anything else you can do with glaciers? Yes there is. Turns out you haven’t seen the best of a glacier until you see it from the air. So that’s what we did today.
Taking to the air with me in the copilots seat, (and quietly trying to remember how that flight simulator game worked, just in case) we took to the air, flying up the glacier from yesterday and over the névé (the snow “lake” that the glacier flows from). The snow was pristine, untouched and ripe to jump into. Although it looked close, it was probably a long way down as the névé tend to be a few kilometres across, and those little cracks were probably a few hundred metres deep. New Zealand is meant to have about 3,000 glaciers, and up there it’s a lot easier to believe it as the mountain ranges stretch off to the horizon with peaks as far as the eye can see. The plane flew over the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers, around a few peaks and then headed back. We also got some pretty awesome and up close views of Mount Cook, which left us feeling even more impressed with anyone who has ever climbed it.
I think it’s now safe to say that we’ve done glaciers, and they are surely the best thing to come out of getting water cold!

I’m never too wide awake and with it when emerging from the campervan in the morning, but the winter wonderland that greeted my eyes this morning was quite a surprise. When I say winter wonderland, it had hailed and snowed lightly in the night so it was like icing sugar everywhere. But seeing as we missed out on a winter (no sympathy required…), I feel the need to wax lyrical. With 6 layers of clothes on and a couple of cups of coffee, I was ready for the day ahead.
The valley glaciers around Mount Cook are unusual as they have huge lakes at the bottom, and as we’ve already walked on glaciers, we took to the water. Coming over the terminal moraine rocks, the huge murky grey lake spread out in front, and was dotted with icebergs huge and small that have broken off the front of the glacier, about 2kms further up the lake. The lifejacket made the layer total 7, and me look like the michelin man. Our little boat poked up to the icebergs, that look like ice islands, and to think that 90% of the iceberg is submerged! The ice itself is a strange patchwork of building blocks as it originates in the glacier where the ice cubes tumble over each other on the way down. Each iceberg is slowly dissolving, tipping up and occasionally turning over, although fortunately the one we had a little walk on stayed very still!
That evening, after a walk up to another iceberg lake at the foot of Mount Cook with views of at least 17 glaciers, we retreated to the Old Mountaineers Cafe and planted ourselves in front of the roaring log fire. Seriously contemplating a warm room in a lodge somewhere, we dragged ourselves back to the chilly campsite with it’s crystal clear night sky and moonlit glaciers. I think it’ll be another cold one tonight.