New Zealand Part III: Milford Sound and the Routeburn Track

Next on my agenda was an overnight cruise through the famous Milford Sound. First though, I had to pick up my tickets for the next hike I was going to do. While I was in the Department of Conservation Office, I casually asked about the weather. The lady said there was already snow (!!!!), and recommended I bring lots of hot chocolate and chocolate bars. She didn’t need to tell me twice! I raced across the street to the grocery store and bought at least two pounds worth of chocolate products before catching the bus to the sound.
As the bus barreled towards the sound, the temperature began to drop. Then, right as it started hailing, the bus driver pointed to a group of mountains with dark swirling clouds surrounding it and announced that that was the location of the Routeburn track (the one I was doing the next day). The word that came to mind was a stronger version of “crap.”
Miraculously, by the time we got to the sound the weather had cleared and it was a gorgeous afternoon. The sound was amazing. Actually for those of you who care (AL), Milford Sound is actually a fiord, which is a sea flooded valley formed by glaciers. The English who colonized the area had never encountered a fiord before, so all of the fiords on the coast are called sounds. I was very excited because I got to see all sorts of glacial features like striations and hanging valleys. Also, within the first ten minutes of the ride we saw and entire pod of bottlenose dolphins. The boat took us around for a bit, then anchored in a cove, where we got to get off the boat and go kayaking as the sun set. It was so peaceful and soooo cold. Then, they fed us dinner and I got to fall asleep to the rocking of the boat. The next morning we saw more (!) dolphins, then puttered around for a while looking at waterfalls. Then, we docked and I was off to catch the bus to the start of the Routeburn!


Hollyford camp- a random tourist trap stop on the way to Milford Sound.



My vessel, the Milford Wanderer.



The sound/fiord.



Hanging valley anyone?







My sleeping quarters- all to myself!



Milford Sound in the morning





After all of my worrying, the weather on the Routeburn was PERFECT. Within the first 10 minutes of hiking I met another two Israelis who I hung out with for the rest of the hike. One of them had worked for a URJ camp in California last summer! Also, I met a reform Jewish woman from Melbourne who was really sweet who had also been a Jewish camp counselor in Australia. Basically, the Jews took over the Routeburn for two days. The scenery was some of the best I have ever seen. I ended up taking side trips to summit two peaks and it was completely worth it. Because I had to hike out early on the last day to catch a bus, I had signed up to stay at a smaller, less popular hut closer to the end of the hike. When I showed up that night, it was completely empty! Then, the park ranger, a guy in his 30s, showed up and asked me if I was the one person registered to camp there that night. So, it was just me and the park ranger. We had a really good night talking about the environment, and I got to share all my extra chocolate I had been lugging around. It was a great ending to a great trip!


At Key Summit.



Earland Falls.



Great view of the Hollyford Valley.



On Lake MacKenzie, where I spent my first night.





At the summit of Conical Hill.



View from the summit. You can almost make out Milford Sound!



I harrassed someone hiking the opposite way over the saddle to take my picture.



View from the saddle.









View of the Routeburn Valley where I spent the night.



I was so busy taking pictures of the valley that suddenly I found myself off the trail and practically on the roof of one of the huts (not the one I stayed at). It was quite a scramble.


Taking over my own personal hut.



Sunrise over Routeburn Flats


Afterwards, I caught the bus back to Queenstown, and it was a two-day traveling adventure to leave New Zealand and make it straight to my field trip on the Great Barrier Reef. Tough life, huh?

New Zealand Part II: Queenstown, the Kepler Track, and Te Anau

After Christchurch, I took a flight to Queenstown to begin the more outdoorsy part of my trip. Queenstown reminded me of a summertime Breckenridge with much cooler accents and many more signs encouraging you to jump off or out of things. Since paying money to be scared shitless is not exactly my thing, I decided to forgo the bungee jumping and skydiving (don’t worry mom) and focused on getting ready for my 4 day backpacking trip I was leaving on the next morning. When I got back to the hostel with all of my groceries, I met a very nice Aussie woman who had been in Queenstown for a while. I told her I only had one night in the city and my goal was to eat all of the best things possible, so she took me to The Fergburger, where I had an excellent original Fergberger and fries with garlic mayonnaise, which was (strangely) AMAZING. The woman was very interesting- she basically had been traveling on and off for about 10 years and had lots of funny stories about traveling around the US. After The Fergburger, we went to a café on the wharf that boasted to have the “Best Hot Chocolate in New Zealand,” and boy, they might have a point. Flavors included ginger, chili, and lilac, but I decided to stick to dark chocolate. Yum. We returned to the hostel, happily stuffed, where we joined with another group of girls to override the boys and watch Legally Blonde. It was a great last night in civilization.


Queenstown.



They weren't kidding.


The next morning, I woke up earlier than I want to talk about to catch a bus to the Kepler Track, where I was doing my first hike. The first day started with an hour stroll by a lake to trick you into thinking things were going to be easy before it turned into a relentless four-hour uphill climb. Within the first twenty minutes I met two girls (Canadian and Finnish) who were studying in New Zealand. We kept passing each other all day and exchanging words of encouragement/ looks of agony. The day was gorgeous and when I got to the top I had some great views. During all of my hiking in New Zealand, I stayed in “huts” that the conservation department had set up. Really, they were more like huge cabins with bunk beds, mattresses, running water and gas stoves. It was great! I didn’t have to carry a tent or a stove. Also, I met a lot of people since every night the same group of people would stay at the same hut together. I met some Israelis (the first of many!), along with a lot of “Kiwi” families on Easter break.
The second day of the hike was insane. As in, I was insane to do it. The hike was along the saddle of these huge mountains, which in theory was supposed to supply some great views. In reality, it was super foggy and so windy that I almost got blown off the mountain! It was probably for the best that I couldn’t see how high up I was. I ended up hiking with a German couple, since I wanted to make sure someone was there to witness me blowing off the side so they could point the search and rescue squad in my general direction. The plus side to the miserable weather was that we were rewarded at the end of the day by the brightest rainbow I had ever seen before we descended into the valley. We all oo-ed and ahh-ed for a couple of minutes, then zipped off to the shelter of the trees before another huge gust of wind came. I’m happy to report that I made it to the next hut, along with everyone else that had set out that morning. It was quite an adventure and bonding experience.
The rest of the hike was through the valley. It was mostly rainy, but turned pleasant by the end. I spent the last night in a hut overlooking a very pretty lake before I hiked out with a Kiwi family the next morning.


Brod Bay on Lake Te Anau. The last chance to relax before all of the up.



Luxmore Hut. More like Luxmore Two-story-luxury-cabin.



The saddle in the crazy wind, rain, and fog. That little dot is a person.



Still smiling!



Rainbow!



Walking through a valley cleared by a "slip" caused by heavy rains in the 1980s. On the left you can see one of the many waterfalls that were pouring out of the mountains due to... the heavy rains of the previous night. Uh oh.



Lake Manapouri where I spent my last night. It's finally sunny!



Mist coming off a lake/marsh in the morning.



The Waiau River. For those of you who are interested (Zach), the Waiau River played the River Anduin in the first Lord of the Rings movie when the uruk-hai chase the fellowship down the riverbank.



I'm smiling because once I cross Rainbow Reach Bridge I'm done!


I spent the day in a little town near the Kepler where I showered and got ready for my next hike. The big plan of the day was to see the famous glow worm caves, which had been recommended to me by several Aussies and randomly happened to be near the town I was in. So basically, I had no choice but to go. On my way back from the grocery store, who should I see but 4 guys from Wash U! They were in town to see, you guessed it, the glowworms. I was very happy to have some glowworm viewing partners. The glowworms were at the end of a very cool, very wet cave. They took us in a boat in the pitch black, and it looked like someone had thrown a net of Christmas lights over the ceiling. Actually, it could have been a net of lights and I wouldn’t have really known the difference. The worms glow to attract insects to it that get caught in sticky mucous nets that dangle from their bodies. Eww/cool. Afterwards, I had dinner with the boys, and then met one of the Israelis I had befriended on my hike at the only bar in town where I thoroughly embarrassed myself at pool.



Dinner with the Wash U boys.

New Zealand Part I: Christchurch

G’day everyone!

I just got back from over 2 weeks worth of adventure both in New Zealand, and on a field trip to Lady Elliot Island, which is part of the Great Barrier Reef. I’m pretty exhausted, but I couldn’t be happier!

I started off my trip to New Zealand by flying into Christchurch, which is the biggest city on the south island. I got in late because my flight was delayed, but the next morning I was ready to go and explore the city. The day began with my first bagel since arriving in the southern pacific. It only rated a “fair” on the international bagel ranking system, but because of the scarcity of bagels on this side of the world, its rating was inflated to a “very good.” After eating my bagel in what the guidebook called the “bustling” Cathedral Square, but I would describe more as “deserted,” I realized with a sinking feeling that I was in a city called Chirstchurch on Good Friday. I started to walk around the city, but pretty much everything was closed. I ended up talking to a very nice guy at one of the few open coffee shops who pointed out that the very touristy things were probably still open. As luck would have it, I was a tourist, so he told me to take a bus out to a gondola that would take me up to a mountain from which I could view the city. An hour later, I found myself at the top of a mountain looking at Christchurch. The views were very nice, and it was harder to tell everything was closed. After hiking around for a while, I ended up talking to the gondola guy, who recommended a boat tour in the neighboring town of Lyttleton where I could see the endangered Hector dolphins. I was a little skeptical, since I could see Lyttleton from the top of the mountain and it looked like a busy industrial port, but since there wasn’t much else to do, I hopped on another bus to Lyttleton in search of the elusive Hector dolphins. I saw so many dolphins it was RIDICULOUS! They came right up to the boat and were jumping around and everything. Even I, the worst picture taker in the world, got a semi-good picture of one. I don’t thing I have ever been more happy/seasick. On the boat, I ended up making some friends with two guys from Ireland. We had a good time together even though I couldn’t really understand their accents. The rest of the day I spent at the huge botanical gardens back in Christchurch. Christchurch is considered the most “English” of all the cities in New Zealand, and is also known as the “garden city,” so needless to say, the gardens were fantastic.



The Cathedral of Cathedral Square. Alternate caption: The Church of Christchurch.



A "punt" on the Avon River.



They had a tram that went around the city, which made everything seem even more old fashioned.



View of Lyttelton from the top of the Gondola. Christchurch was on the other side, but it wasn't as pretty from afar.



I can't believed I hiked for an hour just to see this stupid women's memorial. All the sign says is "They Passed This Way."



Lyttleton from the dolphin boat. Back in the day, a ball would drop down the pole on top of the castle-like building everyday at a certain time to help sailors set their clocks.



View of the harbor from out at sea.



Hector dolphins! I'm very proud of this photo. I think I have a future working for the National Geographic photography department.



My Irish friends who weren't too excited about being in a picture.



Fountain at the Botanic Gardens.



More punting.



Why is there a UFO in the middle of the gardens??????


The next day I had plans with two girls (American and Scottish) I had met at the hostel the night before. Because it was raining, we decided to go the Canterbury Museum, a natural history museum, which was very nice. Afterwards, we decided to warm ourselves up with coffee from a famous coffee shop creatively called “The Coffee House.” My cappuccino was very pretty, but more importantly it was very yummy. After saying goodbye to them, I went off on a search for Rutherford’s den. For those of you who aren’t aware, Rutherford was the scientist that discovered that the atom had a small, dense, positively charged nucleus. When I read a two-sentence blurb about his den being located in Christchurch, I knew that my afternoon’s mission was to find it. His den (and lecture theatre!) was located in the old University of Canterbury, which has now been turned into the city’s Art Centre. There was a great crafts fair out in front, and all of the different buildings had been turned into artists’ workshops that you could go and observe. After spending some time poking around the center, I finally found the entrance to the little wing of the center dedicated to Rutherford, where I spent a happy hour reading the displays and playing with the self-timer on my camera in order to get a shot of me in the lecture theatre, since (obviously) no one else was there. Cathy, I think Frye would be proud. It was a climatic ending to a great two days in Christchurch.


The Canterbury Museum.



The coffees were so pretty it was kind of sad to drink them. Not too sad though- yum!



My two friends Katherine and Claire outside The Coffee House.



The Art Centre/ Old University of Cantebury.



They jazzed things up a bit.



In Rutherford's lecture hall. (One out of 8 self timer attempts)



When I walked back through Cathedral Square, a huge chess set had appeared.

I have so much to write, the trip is going to have to be written about in sections. More later!