Last Day On the South Island: Arthur's Pass, Christchurch again and back to the city

Lake Pearson near Flock Hill Lodge

Arthur's Pass

Flock Hill Lodge

April 18th-19th

When Leslie's friends picked us up, they proposed the idea of a laid-back day in the mountains west of Christchurch. So we booked a cabin at this place called the Flock Hill Lodge and they did some marathon night-driving to the place. It was probably the best place I'd stayed on the whole trip, and it was still only 45NZD for the night. It was basically a 7-8 person cabin, so we each had our own room and I stole the room with the double-bed straight away...best night of sleep in literally weeks. Woke up to one of her friend's cooking potatoes in the kitchen and guests doing some sort of sheep-shearing demonstration around the corner. The place in the daylight was adorable, with sheep, a pony and a pig. The leaves on the property were falling and the mountains were of course really pretty and stark. We dropped the boys off to rock-climb (their idea of a laid back day I guess) and we drove into Arthur's pass, where I discovered potato top pies...its mostly mashed potatoes mmmm. Drove back and stopped along the valley for pictures and to take in the scenery. Picked up the boys and headed towards Christchurch, stopping at a vineyard along the way.

Met up with my friends at the hostel and had a pretty uneventful night because we had to be out of there at 5am to catch out 7am flight. This was handsdown the WORST night of sleep of the trip. I spent 25NZD to sleep on the floor, because the guy above me on the already shoddy bunkbed was rather large and playing on his laptop and therefore unable to stay still which rocked the whole bed apparatus, which eventually made gave me legit motionsickness (I know, not on any of the boats but yes, in this shitty bunkbed). I finally gave up on him ever stopping motion long enough for me to not be sikc anymore, so I rolled onto the floor, through which I could hear our bed creaking. Barely slept, but made the flight and surprisingly all my classes later that day. Just kills me, because my friends who camped out for free at the airport slept better than me!

Wooo.

I congratulate you if you actually read that play-by-play. As I said it was written for me to remember it as well as for you guys to know what I've been doing down here. (the trip recap starts a few entries back...)

Next time I will 1) not delete all my photos at the tail end of the trip and 2)try and keep a legit travel diary in  case I do!

Hope all is well and you're all enjoying the warmth of spring as much as I am enjoying the crispness of autumn :-)

~Ashley

Stewart Island

April 16th-18th Stewart Island

(Pics are on facebook and shutterfly)

Off the very bottom of the South Island is New Zealand's "third island", Stewart Island. I really wanted to go there for two reasons: I wanted to get as far south as I could just because I could and to birdwatch, hopefully to see a kiwi.

Well, I failed to see a kiwi due to problems with booking the boat over there and this is also where my picture-deletion incident occurred...and both occurred in the same hour essentially. Despite these disappointments these were some of the best days of the trip, kinda laidback little coastal dayhikes and fishing with my "cousin", Leslie.

I made the 3-bus-transfers trip down to the ferry with this old Canadian couple I had seen on the Kepler trek the days before...they were heading down to the Island to do their 8th great walk in 8 weeks...I know, beasts! Met Leslie at the final bus to the ferry and made the rough ride across the Foveauz strait with her and the Canadians. We got there on a day with rain and 120km gusts. When we went to the information center about fishing/birdwatching boats, we were told everything was cancelled that night and probably the next day; we bought a bottle of wine for the night and drank it with pasta and chatted and did crosswords for the evening. We had booked the cod-fishing boat despite the pessimism at the i-site and luckily the next day it was perfectly calm and sunny. On the boat it was me, Leslie and 5 older couple from the South Island. Leslie caught the first fish, and in fact, we dominated the day's catch. It was handline fishing, so it was fairly easy and very productive indeed. Most fish, and our target species, were blue cod. Other catches included trumpeters, wrasses and a giant octopus! The guy just grabbed it off the other guy's line and threw it in the deck, picked it pack up and severed the tentacles from the head. The tentacles and subsequently chopped up pieces for bait continued to more for 20 minutes after the guy killed it...soooooo cool. The only annoyance was the mollymawks (read: small albatrosses), which would try to grab the fish as you pulled them off...the fisherman's solution: grab one by the wing and throw it back out...kept 'em away for a bit at least. The fish were all filleted on board, and we were fed first some raw fish marinated in lemonjuice and seawater (tasted nothing like fish...wonderful!) and then a pile of poached fish with bread and butter....deeeelicious, there's certainly a reason why cod are devastatingly overfished haha. We were also all given a portion of the catch; technically it should've been 6 fillets per person, but Leslie and I did not have the appetite or knowledge to cook a dozen fish, so we took one bag which was more than enough. We got back and did a nice little coastal hike, the end of which was where my camera disaster occurred, got back to find out that we had not made the list for our last chance at seeing a kiwi...lame. Got more wine and began our mostly successful fish-cooking experiments: pan-frying and baking...I prefer the former, less fishy tasting. I ended up in some intense conversations with our Australian teacher roomie for the night about the education systems in the US, Australia and NZ.

The next day we went to Ulva Island,  bird sanctuary off Stewart Island, where we  could see lots of the native bird species without invasive predators or fear of humans. Sightings included tui, kaka, kereru, and the best, the weka. The weka is a flightless rail; rails are a very, very furtive group of marshbirds. On Stewart Island, they come right up to you, literally. One followed us around a beach and even brought out their little fledgling to see us too...soo cool!

Had my last taste of blue cod (I ate it a total of 4 meals mmmm) and caught the 3:30 ferry off the island to meet Leslie's friends for the drive to Christchurch (or so we thought)...

The Kepler Track, or, my first backpacking/tramping experience!

Bonfire on Lake Manapouri-Day 3

(photo credits for all: zoe)

Some of the girls on Day 3

Luxmore Hut, my favorite hut-Day 1

Day 2, when the rain had stopped enough for me to take my hood down

From Luxmore Hut-Day 1

April 12th-15th: The Kepler Track

In New Zealand, there is a set of 10 hikes called the Great Walks, which are usually around 3-4 days and have well-maintained huts along the path. The best of these was supposed to be the Milford Track, but there is a limited number of spots and we booked too late, so we went for what some guy in Devonport told me was the next best thing: The Kepler Track. Its also in Fiordland National Park and makes a neat little loop which begins and ends near Te Anau.

I had of course been stressing about this hike for weeks, both before and after I was knocked off my feet entirely by strep throat the weeks before break. I've never been the most athletically inclined and have certainly never climbed anything with 30ish lbs on my back.

Well, I woke up sort of sick on the morning of, probably from nervousness and the crazy travel schedule the days before. For the first 2 hours-ish I was fine, although apparently I looked like death. Once we began the climb in earnest, I got so out of breath I started hyperventilating and crying b/c this was exactly what I was afraid of and didn't want to hold my friends back so I was ready to turn around. My friend Paul, ever the gracious British gentleman, took my pack from me at that point and carried it along with his up the 2500ftish climb at my snails pace. I was of course extremely grateful but I HATE being that girl who needs help from her guy friends on the trail, ya know?  Anyways, made it up above the treeline and to the Luxmore hut on the ridge. Again, words fail me at describing the views from up there that day. Once up there we dumped out packs and wandered into the caves near the summit; I'm not a big fan of unguided caving or small, tight, dark spaces in general, so I just took a peek, but others were fullout spelunkers down there.

Had our first deeelicious meal of pasta and lentils and played cards the rest of the night...and slept, hardcore.

The next day we woke to completely cloudy skies, with the forecast of a rather rainy and windy day, which was kinda lame b/c the second day was the ridge walk. It was brutal, being completely exposed up there to the elements, but thats really what made that day my favorite, even though it ended with my ankle being in major pain from a defect in one of my boots that had finally worn through on the descent off the ridge. My friend Zoe was really my rock that day, as she kept feeding me encouragement, even singing "You'll never walk alone" over the wind and rain on the ridge haha. I forgot how much I love alpine environments, with the hardy plant life and lichens and exposed bedrock :-) The hut we stayed in that night was where we were supposed to here the kiwis, but they didn't vocalize that night for whatever reason. Again, slept like a rock. Also, with the exception of literally the last 15 minutes, I carried my own pack all day and from every day afterwards, so my morale was very much improved.

The third day was definitely the easiest. At this point, I felt rather lied to about it being all downhill from the first day, but it finally came to be true. Didn't mean that that that last hour so didn't make me wanna cry and throw my boots off every five minutes or so. The forest we walked through was soooo cool though, it was a temperate rainforest, with thick moss and bright purple, yellow, orange and red mushrooms, fun little birds who followed us on the trail to eat the bugs we kicked up. We were in the land of the sandfly now, though, so stops were often a short battle of sorts. I liked the actual walking this day the best, probably because it was just us girls, so I felt less pressured to go fast and didn't have their "bant" going on and on and on. Made it to the last hut in time to have a little bonfire on the shore of Lake Manapouri, where a little boy befriended us and gave us all his marshmallows; his dad also joined us and told us about the run they have on the track...the record for the run is 6 hours...6 HOURS, for a trail I barely made in 4 days...ugh.

The only scary animal threat was presented at this hut: we were told to shut the toilet (yes flush toilets with tampon disposal...pretty posh for hiking, right?) doors b/c apparently possums love the hang out in the toilets (it had happened to one woman before)...seriously my worst nightmare, as I used to be terrified of outdoor toilets b/c I was convinced raccoons lived in them and would bite my butt.

The night passed w/o any possum encounters though, luckily.

The last day there were two options presented as to how to end the hike: exit in 1.5 hours at Rainbow Bridge or go the full 5 hours and end exactly where we started. My friend Elyse and I opted for the first b/c of her bad knee and my utter exhaustion/boot-failure, and because we could definitely catch a shuttle there to the hostel. After seeing others' pics of the part we missed, it was definitely the right decision, it was just more forest. Got back to the hostel and had hours and hours to kill before the boys would be back to drive with us into town. Nothing too interesting, except maybe the amount  and quality of food I consumed:

3 bowls of porridge

A 500g block of tasty cheese I had forgotten to pack for the trek

3 brunch bars

A wonderfully tender and tasty filet of beef, with topped with bacon (NZ bacon is more like ham) served with mushroom gravy over a heap of mashed potatoes

A slice of chocolate mudcake

...On the trail all we had was apples, granola bars of all types, pasta or rice with lentils/barley, and other little snacks...I NEEDED SOME MEAT DAMNIT and I got some and it was glorious.

That night, we girls bought some bottles of rose and mudmasks to celebrate our return to showerdom. This was also glorious.

Passed out at a record-late bedtime of 12:30am, and I got up and caught a bus at 7:15 am to the ferry for Stewart Island...

Milford Sound

What our hostel looked out over in Te Anau...now imagine the deer sounds... 

(photo credit: phil)

Some of the gang on day 2 of the cruise...yeah this is what Fiordland weather usually is...

(photo credit: zoe)

Mirror Lakes, along the Road

(photo credit: phil)

Right before the Homer Tunnel

(photo credit: zoe)

Along the Rd...I think this was called Eglinton Valley?

(photo credit: zoe)

Along the rd

(photo credit: phil)

Milford Sound entrance

(photo credit:phil)

A little note: I know these are long, I don't expect anyone to want to read this much detail about my trip. I didn't keep a journal for myself while down there, and don't have the usual breadcrumb-trail of pictures to reconstruct my trip, so this is as much for myself as for you guys

April 10th-11th: Milford Sound

On  the morning of the 10th, I met up with the big group (12 people!) of my friends in Te Anau and we promptly headed down the Milford Rd to Milford Sound, where we were to catch our overnight cruise at 4:30pm. 

Milford Rd had got to me one of THE most gorgeous (there's that word again...) strips of road in the world. It basically traverses an old glacial valley, which was really, really cool from a North American geologist's perspective b/c it was like how places like the Adirondacks must've looked before they were eroded to what they are today. We had really nice weather for this day too. It was also an amazing piece of construction towards the end, as they cut a tunnel through a mountain (it was scary, it went at about a 30 degree angle down!) and then there were tons of switchbacks as we approached the sound.

As my friend Phil captioned one of his photos, words really cannot describe this place. Thats his photos and my friend Zoe's photos at the beginning of the post...didn't know how to move them around within the body of the blog haha.

We got on the boat, which had about a dozen 4-bed bunks and a nice big kitchen/sitting area...if I could estimate size I'd give you a length. The boat basically went halfway seaward and then moored for the night's activities, which ranged from kayaking and swimming (for crazies I travel with, who wanted to freeze themselves to death :-P) or a little naturalist tour on a tendercraft (the sane/warm option), followed by a delicious pork roast and potatoes and apple crumbcake. I spent the rest of the evening just hanging out outside on the boat, watching the fish jump and the bioluminescent arthropods (I think, they were too big/mobile to be algae...) and constantly being shocked by the utter silence of the place.

The next day we all woke up for dawn, but instead it was just really rainy, which sounds lame, but considering the amount if rainfall they get on the west coast of the South Island, this was more typical. It also brought out the other character of Milford Sound, foggy with tons of waterfalls coming into it seemingly out of nowhere. We reached the Tasman Sea and then headed back, seeing some seals along the way. I took the side-trip to the underwater observatory, the deepest in the world and the best non-diving way to see the unique underwater habitat in Fiordland: basically the sheer amount of rainfall/meltwater churns up alot of sediment, which creates this opaque freshwater lenses at the top of the water column there, which blocks sunlight and therefore fools deeper-sea animals (like black coral) to live closer to the surface than normal. Here's the thing though: because I don't really know Pacific fishes, it didn't immediately come off as that spectacular; also, black coral isn't really black, its white. In other words, cool to think about seeing things from 100m deep,but not all that cool to actually see.

Went back to Te Anau, where we stayed in an adorable little hostel on a deer farm that overlooked the Kepler mountains. Red deer make really funny noises btw...think Wookie-like. In fact, I think that is what prompted me to have a scary, scary dream about a race of halfman-halfbear people escaping from the Bronx Zoo and terrorizing the entire tri-state area! 

We basically spent the whole day/night preparing and shopping for the 4-day Great Walk, the Kepler track, that we were to start the next day....

Mid-semester break Recap 1: Fisheries field trip and hours of scenic bus travel

April 6th-7th: Fisheries class field trip to Leigh Marine Laboratory

On Monday, I got up for a 6am bus to the university of Auckland's marine lab which is about 2 hours north of the city on the east coast, near a town called Leigh, but more importantly, near Goat Island Marine Reserve. 

Basically the plan was to do a long-lining gear fishing survey and some fish scale aging-analysis. We did the aging with the fish scales (you count growth rings on them like tree rings..pretty cool), and had a gorgeous weather day for fishing, but out of 200 lines, we only caught 7 fish total, with only 4 of them being the target species, NZ snapper. Yeah, epic data fail. So we were given previous years' data for your writeups. It wasn't all bad though; for me, any day spent on a boat is a good one...yep, definitely the best major ever, I know. 

On the day we did the fish scales, we had alot of extra time, so I had a chance to explore the area around the lab. Didn't get to snorkel around Goat Island, as the waves were just a bit too much for me to trust myself snorkelling alone out there. The beach was really nice, with a shag/cormorant colony and cool rock outcroppings in the intertidal zone. The coastline in that area in general was really nice, kinda rocky with big cliffs and very remote.

(there are actually pictures on my shutterfly/facebook from this trip...different memory card)

I also really enjoyed that marine sciences seems to attract the same sort of people and faculty everywhere, generally laid back nerds like myself who like to be outside, etc. And marine lab campuses tend to have the same vibe everywhere as well, with good food and schedules planned around the weather and such.

April 8th-10th: South Island trip begins!

(Note: this is where I lack pictures entirely b/c I was by myself...lame)

I got home from fisheries late at night and tossed everything in my new backpack and got up the next morning at 6am for my flight to Christchurch, the biggest city on the South Island of New Zealand. On the flight down, I was entertained by the old guy sitting next to me, who I thought was creepy at first but just really wanted to talk about everything and anything (kinda like my dad); we talked American and Kiwi politics, his trip to Bangladesh, university systems, etc..definitely kept me awake so that I could get my breakfast. Thats right, on an hour and 20o minutes flight, I got a breakfast quiche and coffee...you don't get that too much in the states now, huh?

Got to Christchurch downtown and dropped my stuff at my hostel, which was a bit off the beaten path. I had planned to go to the International Antarctic Center, but after seeing the Southern Alps poking through the clouds on the plane ride, I instead decided that I couldn't wait for scenery and took a bus down to the gondola just outside of town. 

It went up a little mountain that overlooked the Banks Peninsula on one side and out over Christchurch and the Canterbury plains over to the Southern Alps. It was intermittently raining/snowing, so I didn't want to do thee little ridge hike up there, but I did get to watch the sheets of rain and patches of sun travel over this incredible landscape, all while sipping on a cup of peppermint tea...it was very nice indeed. Little did I know that I was watching the first snows of the year (which usually occur in June actually) falling on the Alps.

I spent the rest of the afternoon perusing the easter sales at Christchurch's outdoors stores (I realized I needed some more layers for an upcoming trek), shopping for a book, and exploring the famous Cathedral Square area of Christchurch. I also treated myself to a nice proscuitto/roast peach salad at this too-hip-for-its-own-good pizzeria and bar; snooty people, but good food and prices.

Back at the hostel, I ended up talking to a swedish girl (who sounded irish b/c she lived there for a year) who was spending 2 months in New Zealand, was up to week 3 and, because she had completed the South Island, didn't know where to go next. I wish I had the problem of too much time here, but I am a student after all...

Passed out at 9pm, because thats how I roll after getting up absurdly early 3 days in a row.

Caught my 8:30am bus to Queenstown the next day. It was abosolutely gorgeous, travelling through the Southern Alps on a clear day after the first snows. The bus drivers seemed as surprised about the snow as myself. It was an 8hr trip, but we stopped every 2 hours or so, including a lunch stop at Lake Tekapo, where I had basically a grilled ham and cheese sandwich while I looked out over towards Mt Cook, NZ's highest peak. I wish I had pictures from this day spent in transit, because words cannot describe the sets of landscapes I saw on this stretch of roads.

Got to Queenstown kinda late-ish (4:30ish), but I decided that I needed to take in some scenery again and took the gondola up a mountain called, no joke, Bob's Peak. The Southern Alps are filled with such names, my favorites being Mt Cheeseman, Mt Og (and its sister peak, Mt Magog) and Nervous Knob. Basically watched sunset on the peaks around Queenstown and the lake there. Again, words cannot describe...wish I had not deleted the pictures off my camera!! Google image Queenstown gondola and Lake Tekapo for a rough idea of what I was dealing with here :-)

Spent the rest of the night exploring the resort town of Queenstown. Everyone told me its so trashy/commercialized...maybe by NZ standards, but it was more like a really nice Lake George village to me. Got a kebab and then walked down by the lake. I have to say, I realized why my friend Duffer had planned to have his 21st bday there; lots of nice bars all over the place, butI left the group for Stewart Island before they got there later in the trip. The best thing about Queenstown (although I skipped the famous Fergburger b/c I was too hungry impatient) was the 7$ ice cream cone I got at the chocolatier called Patagonia. Imagine 2 tennis ball-sized scoops (one dark chocolate gelato, one fresh raspberry sorbet) on a chocolate wafer cone. It didn't matter that I was wearing  a layer of long undies and gloves while I consumed this and watched a groups of bagpipers by the lakeside, it was the best ice cream experience of my life...and thats saying alot from me!

Again, had a ridiculously early night (one of the disadvantages of travelling alone in "big cities":  I don't have the personality to just hit the bars by myself...). 

Caught my 6:55am bus to Te Anau where I would meet up with my friends and head down for our overnight cruise on Milford Sound. This bus ride, although much shorter, was another gorgeous trip. Dawn over Queenstown and along the lake where we drove=...I don't even know, I keep saying gorgeous, but there's really no words to describe it. Imagine a rosy dawn, with the moon still up over the lake, with snow-topped peaks...GAH! I WANT MY PICS BACK

And then met my friends in Te Anau to go to Milford...but I gotta run to a lecture!

Ok, will continue tomorrow/later tonight maybe.

My adventures on the South Island and beyond!

So I'm going to try and write at least something about my "spring" break travels before I get too consumed with work/lazy to not do so. Wish I had the space to just bring my laptop and write myelf a little jounral entry each night (hostel internet is expensive) but oh well, wouldn't have wanted to risk travelling with it or having to lug it around everyday.

Ok so some general thoughts:
1. Although some people say the South Island is more scenic, I think its jsut a different kind of scenic...more mountainous and remote coasts. More immediately stunning, if you will. Definitely really, really, really gorgeous, like unbelievably so. Wish I had pics to show you all BUT...

2. While trying to change the megapixel size of my pictures 2 days before the end of the trip, I ended up instead reformatting the memory card and deleting all my pictures. I am in the process of stealing pictures from my friends and other people I met along the way, but the days where I was by myself (ie: crossing the southern alps after the first snows GAH) are pretty much lost. LAME.

3. My favorite days were the days I was by myself. I love my friends, but there is always going to be drama and tension when you are always with the same dozen people everyday, and everyone has their own ideas about travel plans. And travelling with my "cousin" was really good, but I guess I felt responsible for some of the problems we encountered on Stewart Island; completely in my head but thats just how I am. I did really enjoy hanging out with the "cousin" btw, good bonding times with fake family...never had a friend/cousin who was also a geology person.

4. I've said it before, but NZ is just the best place for nature-nerds/natural scientists like myself. Hands-down. I loved being in the glacial valley/fjord around Milford Sound b/c it was geologically younger than glacial features in NY, etc; everywhere else there were caves and glaciers and other cool geological features. Penguins would just show up around boats, albatrosses followed our fishing boat, the flora and fauna of the temperate rainforest in Fordland was incredible, seals were just chilling on rocks waiting for their mommies to come back from sea...it got ridiculous how these things were just commonplace down there.

5. Although I doubt I could afford these travels with my parents, there are easy ways to travel cheaply down here. My roundtrip plane tickets were 140NZD, buses were usually only around 40NZD, there were hostels everywhere. It only gets expensive when you go for the adventure activities or other touristy things (like bungy jumping, kiwi tours, etc). I am not a huge fan of spending 300NZD on a 4 second free fall (although I would like to skydive, its cheaper here than back home, for sure) so I avoided most of these things.

6. The one downside of hostel/bus travel: it can be horribly taxing on a forgetful person like myself. When you're sleeping somewhere new everynight and packing up in the dark to catch a bus before dawn, you tend to forget at least one item. I lost two adapters (although the second one was after I lent it to someone...), a piece from my ipod charger, my umbrella, my 2$ water bottle and a bottle of conditioner along the way...and I thought I had left my camera at the alpine hut on the Kepler track, only to discover I had for some odd reason shoved it in the pocket of my pack where the rain covering lives. Yeah, when I return to that mode of travel, I intend on taaaaking my time as much as possible then to avoid these problems.


Anyways, I'm going to try and write a bit about my trip each day. 

Starting tomorrow at some point (oh procrastination).