Although the last installment of our travels was sent just yesterday, it was written a week ago. Seems like e-mail abroad is not as easy as we thought. So I'm sending out this installment to finish up the New Zealand portion of the trip and you will hear from us next (hopefully) from Sydney, Australia. Thanks to all the notes you are sending us with news from home...it's good to hear from you.
Up early and on the ferry for three hours across the Cook Strait from Wellington, North Island NZ to Picton, South Island NZ. Then on the Coastal Pacific train for seven hours along the Ocean to Christchurch. Travel here is so easy. Free bus from hostel to ferry with bags checked through to Christchurch. Free shuttle from ferry to train station. Short wait for train. Cheap door-to-door shuttle to the next hostel. It seems that in places where many people don't own cars, the bus/train/ferry schedules are coordinated. It also means we minimize the time we have to carry our overloaded packs.
Arrived in Christchurch in the early evening. This is the city of gardens and also considered the "most English city outside of England". The hostel is an old house located across from the Art Center, Botanical Gardens, and Canterbury Museum. The Art Center is a grouping of restaurants, shops, craftworkshops, and theatres housed in an old university -- looks like Oxford University -- or U of M Law Quad. This evening was a Buskers' Competition which is like an outdoor comedy club with audience participation. The humor is more ribald than ours, not obscene but more slapstick. Lots more to see here but we're off early in the rental car on our South Island Tour. (Yes, Avis did rent Tim a car again!).
Across Arthur's Pass to the West Coast. Already we have a taste of the extreme diverseness of South Island environs. Took a break by tramping (NZ for hiking) a trail to Devil's Punchbowl under the Bridal Veil waterfall. I (Di) have backpacked the Canadian Rockies and Tim has hiked a lot, too, but this was the most difficult trail either of us has done. Very rocky, high steps cut into the mountain, narrow trails, but a great waterfall. We took it slowly since Di is still nursing her knee and Tim thought sandals would be sufficient footwear. Boots from now on! Saw our first snow-covered mountains. (Yeah, I know you guys from Michigan are not interested in hearing about snow). From sea to shining sea in a few hours. Ended the day's journey at Hokitika on the Tasman Sea with a visit to the local glowworm dell, well-hidden on the grounds of an abandoned mental hospital.
We stayed last night at the Hokitika Holiday Park (reminds us of the movie "Tommy") which has primitive campsites, motel rooms, rooms with bath but no kitchen, rooms with bath and kitchen, rooms with communal bath, and a trampoline. We stayed in a tourist flat (bath and kitchen) with color telly (tv -- all 3 channels). Clean but not fancy. Spent the morning buying too many souvenirs of locally carved wood, blown glass, and carved jade (greenstone), then off to the glaciers.
Further south along the Tasman Sea coast are Franz Josef and Fox glaciers, the only glaciers in the world that terminate in a subtropical rain forest. So on our tramps here we felt the cold wind and saw the bare rock/ pale blue runoff from the beautiful glacier (you could walk very close to it) and the sweltering heat and dense tree fern and jungle-like vegetation of the rain forest. Incredible photo opportunities, no wonder we are running out of film already! NZ is really geared for hiking with well-marked trails that include great scenery, some neat natural feature like a waterfall or glacier, and (one of our personal favorites) an occasional swinging bridge (those narrow walking bridges that move when you walk - limited to one person at a time). NZ park service rates trails as walking track (made for shoes and any person), tramping track (made for boots and reasonably fit people), or route (made for experienced mountaineers and not for us).
Today we went from glaciers to the home of bungy jumping, Queenstown. On the way we stopped at a great tourist trap, Puzzling Place. It is like Mystery Hill in Irish Hills Michigan. A building tilted 15 degrees to make everything seem to work against gravity and a huge outdoor maze where you try to find your way out....cool.
Special dinner in Queenstown was at the top of Bob's Peak overlooking the city. You take a gondola ride up/down. The meal is a buffet of NZ specialties like roast lamb and veal, green mussels, salmon, local cheeses, and really strange desserts. A NZ specialty is the pavlova (named after the ballerina) which is a layer of soft meringue topped with real whipped cream topped with fresh fruit. There was also a cup made of chocolate (with a chocolate handle) filled with chocolate mousse and whipped cream. NZ is known for its dairy products and the yogurt/cream/ice cream/cheeses are wonderful (no coolwhip here). Hmm, after all those calories, we'd better get back to hostel meals and more tramping.
In Queenstown, our original plans for a plane ride to Milford Sound on the 27th and rafting on the 28th are reversed. The plane ride was postponed due to bad flying weather over the mountains and the rafting switched from the renowned Shotover River (low water levels) to the more sedate (in parts) Kawarau River. Rafting was in a rubber raft holding 6 of us and a guide. Three major rapids (two at Class 3 and one at Class 4 difficulty levels)..no one fell out of the raft but we did jump in the river and float alone on purpose for a while. We rafted under the original bungy jumping bridge and were able to talk to one of the jumpers as he hung upside down over our raft (not really our kind of fun...we're not chicken, just cautious).Through steep canyon walls....scenic but I think the rafting in Pennsylvania was more exciting.
Our plane trip the next day was first class. Instead of driving over three hours one way to see Milford Sound (really a fjord), we were picked up in a taxi, taken to the airport and flown in a six-seater Cessna 209 over inaccessible mountains to the waiting cruise ship. After a cruise of the sound and a visit to an underwater observatory, we flew back a different route and taxied home. Out at nine, home by three. This was a real splurge, but it must be how the jet-setters live every day. We flew over the river we rafted as well as the road we would have had to drive to Milford. Thank goodness we flew, the road was long, winding, and a surefire Dramamine special.
Left Queenstown for Mount Cook, a remote area surrounded by mountains and glaciers. From our hostel bedroom window we could see the mountains. Took a couple of trails, one with two swinging bridges and a pretty treacherous path between them. It is so dry here at present that laundry dries on the line very quickly and hiking is thirsty work. Mt. Cook is a small village run by the park service (like Yellowstone). Besides our hostel and a few motels, the Hermitage (at $250+ a night) are the only accommodations. Food is very expensive too so we brought our own. I bought the Mt. Cook Book (local cookbook) instead so I can reproduce those mouthwatering medallions of antelope, roasted quail, high country hare ragout recipes at home. So you are all invited for dinner (not at the same time). You bring the antelope and I'll cook it.
Back full circle to Christchurch before flying to Sydney on the first. A walk through extensive city botanical gardens in full summer bloom, with special displays of blooming heather and water gardens. Sunday was gray and rainy but the area badly needed it. We walked around the art center and town, had our last taste of NZ ice cream and packed for the plane trip. Hmmm, this city is far more civilized than I thought...I saw a U of M Wolverines t-shirt for sale!
New Zealand is definitely a place we will revisit. Two weeks was not enough to see all the geological as well as historical places of interest. From penguins to parrots, glaciers to rain forest, mountains to oceans, this country has a little bit of everything (except desert). Friendly people speaking English, great exchange rate, wonderful food, no tipping. Certainly a well-kept travel secret.
Off to Oz (Australia) tomorrow. Talk to you next time from Sidney. Keep in touch.
Di and Tim
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