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.