Left off at arriving in the evening in Kaikoura, right? Well, once I walked onto the beach at Kaikoura, I loved that town. The beach itself was a gravel beach, which we studied in my coastal geography coast. Go, go geo-nerd geekout: whats really cool about these beaches is the way they dissipate incredible, incredible amounts of energy. The steepness of the beach makes the waves unable to break but instead they surge onto the beach face, and this ridiculous amount of force is absorbed by the gravel of the beach face. On the coast south of Kaikoura, 90% of sediment is lost through abrasion…abrasion, like ground up to nothing…90%! The water from the wave itself is also absorbed through the porous nature of a gravel matrix, so the upward sweep is much stronger than the backward sweep. It was incredible to just hear the waves hitting through the gravel all the way in my hostel back behind the train tracks. The geomorphology of the area also includes shore platforms, which, like gravel beaches, basically no one understands entirely b/c they’re in such high-energy environments that its impossible to do so without physical risk to people and the equipment used in coastal studies. However, the Kaikoura peninsula is one of the few places that has been studied, so I read the papers at night. On the last day, the waves I watched coming into the beach were probably the closest things I will ever see to tsunamis, just a massive wall of water like 20ft tall…incredible.
Not only was there something for the marine geologist, but most people go there for the marine biology. There’s a huge trench like 1km offshore, so the continental shelf drops off to 1000m in a veryvery short horizontal distance. This trench creates upwelling, which is basically a whole bunch of nutrients from the deep sea coming to the surface. I did get to go whalewatching (in 2m swells, but with only 2 vomitting incidents…), where we basically went over the trench to watch the whales come up for air after diving after things like giant squid in the trench. Came back and watched an incredible sunset on the mountains and adjacent sea. That landscape combination is the best, mountains and sea.
The next day I took the long drizzly coastal walk to the resident fur seal (read: sea lion) colony. All the mountains were hiding again, and the rocky coast of the peninsula reminded me of Rhode Island (with much bigger waves though). The seals were just hanging out on the beach and in the car park, sleeping and stretching. They showed absolutely no fear and I almost ended up stepping on a few of these sleepy creatures! On the way back, I stopped at the super-cheap seafood bbq stand, and got a very, very tasty paua (abalone) fritter. Seriously delicious, minus eating it in a persistent drizzle. Caught the train to Christchurch and basically just ate and slept at my favorite hostel there, Vagabond backpackers. Went to sleep optimistic about the weather and road reports for my bus trip over the Southern Alps to Queenstown.
Well, although there was no snow forecasted for the next 3 days, at the halfway point of the trip, Lake Tekapo, where I had hoped to relive my previous stop there with spectacular views across the lake of Mt. Cook, we hit pouring down snow. The bus driver was convinced it would stop once we came down from the lake, but nope, it persisted and in fact got worse as we approached the highest road in NZ, the Lindis Pass. We optimistically stopped and outfitted the bus with chains, but we drove right up to the gates that were shut, meaning the road was closed. The new plan was to backtrack to the coast and then head back inland to avoid the pass but the other road there was closed for the first time in years. So, we ended up going all the way down to Dunedin, back inland and then back north to Queenstown along the shores of Lake Wakatipu (see a map of NZ for how ridiculous this was). We left Christchurch at 8:30 am, and finally arrived in Qtown at 1am. Very much an adventure, and I honestly did not mind once I knew where I was sleeping, but I did nearly miss saying goodbye to one of my friends who had spent a few days in Queenstown.
I spent the next five days in Queenstown basically keeping myself busy during the day while my friends and their friends from Ireland snowboarded. I had planned on taking a lesson or 2, but boring person that I am I honestly knew I would enjoy peaceful walks around town and a 3.5 hour cruise across to a high country sheep station. Yes, I finally got to touch a real sheep…actually to hold a lamb to be exact! Didn’t hold it for long or pet too many more sheep because the farmer mentioned that they often have fleas…been there done that thankyouverymuch. The changing light on the mountains around the lake was endlesslyamazing, and my friend’s friend was renting a room in a house with an absolutely incredible view. Finally had a fergburger, which everyone says is the best burger place ever…pretty good, although my favorite aspect of the place was that they didn’t look at me like a crazy person when I asked for no salad on my burger, as most kiwis do. Its also basically the only place open after a night out, so I experienced that aspect of fergburger as well (too big of a burger for post-drinks for me!). Spent the fourth of July getting my favorite ice cream ever in the biggest cone ever (Patagonia dark chocolate and raspberry sorbet..mmm) and walking along the lake. I guess just seeing the mountains at Queenstown everyday was enough for me considering until I came to that town the first time, I’d never seen mountains like these before; I mean, I’ve never been to the Rockies or the real Alps, so the Southern Alps are really unreal to me.
Anyways, said my last round of goodbyes and headed off on a bus to Wanaka.
My first day at Wanaka was pretty blah. Its on a lake of the same name that borders Mt. Aspiring National Park; Mt. Aspiring is the second highest mountain in NZ after Mt. Cook . All the mountains were hiding yesterday in the clouds, so although the walk along the lake was nice it wasn’t exactly breathtaking. But today…wow. The mountains were out in full force, first under overcast skies and then in the sun, finally. My connection’s too slow right now to upload photos, but I guarantee there will be at least 10 photos from my hike around the lake shore today on facebook and shutterfly as soon as I get back. It had to be hands-down the most scenic walk I have ever taken in my life, and enjoyable because it was a very relaxed walk on a combo of beach and flat terrain trails. I’m honestly quite sad to be leaving here, as the people in the hostel are also very friendly (many are here for the entire ski season, and have good taste in the music they play at night, although they could learn to respect one’s wish to sleep past 9am sometimes), the town is just lively enough (not quite as crazy/touristy as Queenstown) and I could take that walk everyday and not get tired of it (although if I had a car I’d love to actually explore inside the park’s boundaries).
Anyways, tomorrow I leave Wanaka for Franz Josef, where I will *fingers crossed for no rain* do a full day hike on a glacier. I am ridiculously excited for this, as I’ve lived on a glacial garbage dump and terminal moraine my whole life.
This trip to the South Island has been the perfect thing for preparing me for coming home. Travelling by myself has allowed me the freedom to see and do what I want, so I enjoy the beautiful scenery however I wish to do so, but its also transitioning me from my friends here to the relationships I have back home. During the day I think “OMG this place is gorgeous I never want to leave” and at night, after meeting new people again and again, or hanging out by myself, I think “I’m so ready to come home to my friends and family again”.
Exactly one week from now I will be enroute to Auckland International, ready to fly out of NZ after 5 months over here…ahhhhhhh!
