Fiordland to the West

After our jaunt down the East Coast, and some RnR in Dunedin, we got into the mountains. Our schedule was somewhat flexible, so we waited out the bad weather on the East Coast, then shot to the mountains to get some hiking done.

First stop: Milford Sound. The whole Southwest of the country is a big NP, with a couple large Fiords. Milford is the more accessible of the two, so we headed there on our first day. Unfortunately, it was still spitting a little rain in the afternoon, so we decided to camp in the valley next door and hope for better weather in the morning. Gunn's Camp, as this neighboring valley is called, was the site of a Depression era labor camp which was going to build a road to the West Coast. War came first, and the road was never completed all the way, but the setting is gorgeous. There are funky old miner's cabins to stay in, and we did a nice afternoon hike to a waterfall.

The next day was perhaps the most action packed of our stay. We woke up early and headed for Milford Sound. We lingered and shot photos for an hour or two, then drove back to a hike called Miriam lake, which is a hanging lake about 3 hours round trip from the road. We capped the afternoon off with a hike up to a lookout called Key Summit, which sits at the confluence of the coastal mountains and the Southern Alps. My cursed photo file snafu means that all photos from Milford Sound, Miriam Lake, and Key Summit were lost. My electronic gremlin was very choosy and took the most dramatic photos from me, but Rebecca got a lot of the same ones and I'll put a link up once she processes them.

In the meantime...

Some dude in front of Miriam Lake

The 'blue pool' river on the way to the West Coast.

More of the blue pool, notice Rebecca on the bridge.

Fox glacier terminus with ranger cutout.

 Mirror lake viewpoint near fox glacier. Unfortunately, only the bottom half of the photo came out :(

 Further up the coast, and automatic gold panning raft - just hook up the hose and away it goes! (Rebecca didn't think it was so cool, she stayed in the car).

 Icy Beale Valley hike near Arthur's Pass - I had this to myself ;)

NZ take 3

The next portion of our travels took us down the East coast of the south Island. Given that it was late fall, it was (i) unsettled weather, and (ii) not very crowded. The beaches, in particular, were pretty much entirely abandoned. We were free to explore and wander and check out anything that looked interesting. 

Fortunately, there happens to be a lot of interesting things on the beach, including rocks and shells of every shape and size. In short, it's a beachcomber's delight. We took a day to travel down the coast to Dunedin, where we stayed for 2 nights. Dunedin is a decently-sized town, and, as host to a big University, features a lot of restaurants and night spots, and a good music scene. We had a really fun time walking around and exploring museums (there is also a Cadbury factory right downtown!) before heading West towards a town called Invercargill, which wasn't so interesting.

Nevertheless, the South was very windy and wild, and the coast especially was dramatic. 

Rebecca picking the perfect skipping rock.

 Descending the staircase at Moeraki boulders, a touristic beach site. (Notice the yellow flowering in the background: it's gorse, long ago introduced by the English and having now pretty much taken over New Zealand. It's really nasty stuff, but you pretty much see it everywhere)

 Here is Rebecca perched on top of some of the Moeraki boulders. Apparently, they encapsulate some type of fossils, and are uncovered from the cliffsides by ocean erosion.

 More, similar boulders at another spot down the coast.

 One of New Zealand's countless waterfalls. This one on the way to Invercargill in a NP called Catlins.

NZ take 2

We started out in Christchurch. What with the regular aftershocks they're getting, the city center is still pretty devastated. (2 days was 1 too many to spend there.) Fortunately, Mt. Cook was about 4 hours drive away. Mt Cook sits pretty squarely in the middle of the South Island, is the tallest mountain, crowning the 'southern alps' and separating the wet Westlands from the dry eastern plains.

We made the afternoon drive from Christchurch to Lake Tekapo, which has very striking blue water due to the glacial silt. It also has a very nice campground at its southern end, where we stayed the night. Due to the exceeding dryness of the surrounding area, there is an observatory on the hill just overlooking the lake, where you have a commanding vista of the Southern Alps and surroundings. Happily, there is a cafe at the top of the hill where one can have tea and yummy desserts. We took full advantage, of course.

Lake Tekapo was our first experience with the 'holiday parks' that are so prevalent in NZ. I'll take a minute to describe them here for future reference. In any town over 100 residents in NZ, you are guaranteed to get at least 1 holiday park. This is analogous to a KOA in America, but run somewhat differently. Like KOA, holiday parks are a private substitute to state/government run campgrounds. Down there, the gov. campsites are called run by the dept. of conservation "DOC", and are generally very clean and maintained, but no frills. The DOC sites also tend to be more remote, located in or near national parks as opposed to near the cities. In contrast, holiday parks are usually walking distance from the city center. While this makes getting around convenient, it also means you are smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood, with perhaps a wall or shrub separating you from somebody's backyard, some train tracks, or an arterial road.

And this gets to the heart of the matter: kiwis camp differently than 'mericans. 'What is the point of paying money to camp between a road and some train tracks?' you might wonder. Well, you might think that if you REALLY want to camp, or maybe you REALLY want to save money on lodging (which, by the way, tends to be expensive), you would be up for something like this. There are amenities: a communal kitchen/hangout area, sometimes with a TV, usually with a pile of free books and maybe puzzles or board games, hot showers and laundry, and, of course, an instant hot water dispenser for making a nice cup of tea.

But the real reason that holiday parks are set up like this seems to be because Kiwis are communal campers: they don't camp to escape, they camp to be social. The tent sites at all of these holiday parks are always densely laid out: much as white stripes on asphalt separate one parking spot from another without leaving much space for vehicle egress, so tent spots at holiday parks in New Zealand are well within snoring/softly talking ear shot of other tent sites.

Incidentally, the area just east of Mt. Cook is where they filmed the 'Rohan' scenes in LOTR. Very dramatic scenery.

Lake Tekapo, first night's campground

 View from the 'hooker valley track' near mt. cook

One of many suspension bridges encountered in our travels

 Storm clouds rolling over the southern alps; rebecca in the foreground

 Looking uplake at calving glacier and Mt. Cook!

NZ, take 1

It's been a saga trying to get around to covering our 3-week second honeymoon trip to New Zealand. The facts are these: Rebecca was working in Thailand from late April until May 10th, whereupon we were to meet in Christchurch and spend the next 3 weeks exploring, whereupon we would depart from Auckland on May the 31st (see map below with our route in yellow). Will wisely finished his PhD early so he could depart to California for a week, spend QT with friends and family (see previous post), and meet Rebecca in NZ at the appointed time. Will foolishly added 24 hrs to the appointed time in his head, missed his flight, and had to pay a hefty change fee to fly down from LA to Christchurch the next day.

Rebecca, in her boundless patience, met him at Christchurch and a wonderful trip ensued (more on that later). Upon landing at Washington Dulles airport after the 26hr return flights, at 2am, Rebecca received a work email informing her that she should come straight back to Vietnam from New Zealand, rather than fly back to DC. Whoops. She promptly went home, spent Friday-Sunday figuring out what to do, then flew back to Vietnam on Monday.

While Rebecca was in the air returning to Asia, Will was starting a new job. Somewhere in this shuffle, a hefty portion of Will's NZ trip photos were corrupted and seemingly lost for good. Rebecca has now, as I am writing, just returned from her 2-week work trip and is out of commission sleeping.

Lessons learned:
-Back, back, backup your photos
-Check work email BEFORE coming back to work (if you happen to work in Asia and fly there frequently)
-Read your stinking flight itinerary! Especially the part with the date and time.

But all is not loss. As Gandalf might say, 'missed flights and photos are not the end, they are just another path.' In case you're wondering, no, we didn't see Gandalf in New Zealand (Of course not, he took the boat with Frodo and Bilbo to the undying lands. Duh.)

Our approximate itinerary was:

• weeks 1-2 (South Island circumnavigation). Christchurch --> Mt. Cook -->Southeast Coast --> Dunedin --> Caitlins/Invercargill --> Fiordland / Te Anau / Milford Sound --> Glaciers / West Coast --> Arthur's Pass --> Northwest Coast --> Nelson --> Northeast Coast --> Kaikoura --> depart South Island
• week 3 (North Island jaunt). Wellington --> Lake Taupo / Tongariro --> hot water beach --> Auckland.

Most of our adventuring and exploring happened on the South Island, so that's what is the most interesting to hear about (I think). Stay tuned...

Backpacking with the boys

After filing my dissertation and tying up a few things, I embarked on a month-long holiday extravaganza before starting the new job. I had a little over a week in California, then I was to head to New Zealand. I was able to spend a solid week in Santa Barbara with mom, Grandma, Eric and Kristin. The highlight was a 'birthday' bbq, which was actually a few days after our birthday, but nevertheless allowed Eric and I to celebrate our birthday together for the first time in many years. Yeay twin brothers! We had a few folks from Eric's office and some of his college friends. My side of the aisle was, understandable, not as well attended, but I enjoyed seeing the friends and neighbors.

Next up, my friend Jeff picked me up and and we headed north to Henry W. Coe state park, the second largest state park in CA (although one that few people visit), for a long backpacking weekend. Henry Coe was pieced together from several large cattle ranches, and now straddles nearly the entire coastal range between San Jose and the Central Valley - 89,000 acres!! It is really beautiful country, ranging from coastal-ish grasses and oaks to dry desert scrub as you approach the valley.

We (Jeff and I met friends Alex and Dave at the park entrance) started out on Saturday morning, camped Saturday and Sunday nights, and returned on Monday. It was a great excuse to connect with old friends and see some new sights. Featuring prominently amongst the wildlife were red-winged blackbirds, wild turkeys, gopher and rattlesnakes, horny toads, frogs, ticks, and (of course) poison oak. Fortunately, nobody 'caught' any of the poison oak - probably too early in the season. We did have a running tick competition though - I think I had pulled 7 ticks off of me by the end of the weekend! Beautiful scenery though, I can't wait for next year.

The troops just before starting out (L-R: Alex, Jeff, Derek, Dave and I). Alex brought some champagne to celebrate my finishing grad school, which we promptly drank. In retrospect, not the smartest way to start a long, hot hike. Derek saw us off, but had some family stuff and had to scrub it at the last minute: A 2 hour drive to say hello/goodbye - that's friendship!

 As I mentioned, it got hot. Jeff, Dave and Alex crest a hill on the first afternoon.

Dave leading the charge up the hill.

 Alex going for a dip in 'mississippi lake', day 2. We had the whole place to ourselves, except for the copious dragonflies and some honeybees.

 A wild turkey in full display mode. This guy visited our campsite on the second night.

Jeff giving the thumbs up after Sunday morning breakfast.