Just before getting to Thunder Creek Falls (pic from previous post), we crossed this bridge that was named the "Gates of Haast." We passed many cool bridges on our trip but this probably is the most picturesque of them all.
Speaking of Thunder Creek Falls, here I am posing in front of the loud waterfall.
After emerging from the inland portion of our drive, we hit the West Coast of New Zealand. This pic comes from a lookout (the name escapes me right now) that we stopped by on the way. Essentially, the drive up the West Coast was this beautiful the whole way up. Not too many towns or people on the drive up at all. Just plain lovely.
After a full day of driving (and with the gas light flashing it's warning message), we stopped off at the Fox Glacier to have a look. The trail to the glacier warned that you shouldn't stop for the next 200m. Since we're really good at following instructions, we stopped to take this picture. Ryan looks in horror as boulders come crashing down the mountainside...
This is what we walked all the way to see: the Fox Glacier in all its twilight majesty. Not the best of pictures, but this is as close as we got. We decided it was plenty close since we were tired, hungry and darn ready to find our accomodations for the night.
We were intending on setting up camp near the town of Fox Glacier but we basically drove through it before we knew what was going on. We continued on to the Franz Josef Glacier town (luckily there was a petrol station there) and that, sadly, wasn't much bigger. We had hoped to have a nice sit down dinner but the only thing that was open at 7pm on a Sunday was the local supermarket (which was gonna close in a 1/2 hr). We bought our measly dinner from the grocery store and headed out to find a camp site to plant down for. It was pitch black and we luckily found the Department of Conservation camp that was just off the side of the road. We downed dinner in record time after promptly setting up the tents in anticipation of an early night.
We spent about a half hour trying to make a fire but we couldn't get it to stay lit for very long since we couldn't find really good, large, dry wood pieces. This is as successful as we could get it. After warming up a bit and letting dinner digest, we tucked away for the night in anticipation of a long journey in the daylight.
Unbeknownst to us (since it was pitch black at night and we could only see as far as our little flashlights), our camp site was right next to a gorgeous lake.
This is what we were sleeping next to all night long. BEAUTIFUL! Hands down one of the most memorable images of the trip so far. Still, pristine lake complete with fog and reflections of snow capped mountains. How did we miss this?!?!
Here we are pausing for the group picture, complete with morning hair. Ryan, Me, Ben, Stuart & Jon. We skipped rocks on the lake, broke down the tents and then were off on our way.
We passed many bridges on our travels including "Doughboy Creek" and other funnily named crossings. All I have to say about this pic is that Ryan is in the process of acquiring a little souvenir. For fear of legal repercussions, that's all I'll say.
More scenic driving was to be done in the morning as we continued our journey up the West Coast. Here I am above the fierce ocean at the Strongman Lookout. Such an awesome sight...
Next stop along the way was the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks. It's hard to see the layering of the rock formations (sorry for the tiny picture size) but that's why the rocks got their pancake name.
It's maybe a little easier to see the layering in this picture, particularly on the left hand side. Here's another view at one of the many lookouts.
We lunched at another supermarket in the town of Westport before we finally had to bid farewell to the West Coast. After lunch, we journeyed inland through more foresty, rocky and hilly regions on our way towards the Abel Tasman region. We reached Motueka, the town most close to the Abel Tasman trail head, a couple hours before sundown. Unfortunately, that meant that we were also too late to get our campsite permits from the Department of Conservation. We had to camp out once more and delay our start of the trail one more day. Motueka was much larger than Franz Josef (thankfully!) and there were actually several choices of accomodation and dinner. We tried being smart by getting a campsite for only 3 people since everywhere we went charged far more than we were willing to pay for. Unfortunately, the owner saw us all despite our best stealthy efforts. We setup camp for 3 of us and Stuart & I decided we'd sleep in our cars in the DoC parking lot. After the lodging fiasco, we went out for dinner at an Indian restaurant called Maharaja. The food was delicious but, as many of you have probably experienced, the spicy food played havoc with our digestive tract. We all took full advantage of the restaurant's restroom facilities before buying our food stocks for the hike. We then played a bit of pool in a sports bar before getting kicked out of there just before 11 pm. It was then bedtime for us all before our long day of hiking.
After a good night's rest, we stopped by the DoC to get our permits and then headed to the trail head. We were finally ready to begin the Abel Tasman Track!
Here's a view back towards the start of the trail after we had been on it for a while. If you look at that sandy bit, we hiked across most of that and up the foresty hill to the point at which I took this picture.
Another one of the lookouts we encountered was Stu's Lookout. Sorry Stuart, but I think this was definitely one of the weaker views that we saw all day...
Here's one of the many bays typical of the Abel Tasman Track. Lush forest, beautiful sand and gentle ocean. Mother Nature impresses yet again!
After the initial sandy bit and the hill climb, the trail weaved from overlooking these beautiful bays inland towards these peaceful streams. This particular stream had a lovely waterfall nestled within plenty of greenery.
A detour off the main trail led us to the Yellow Point lookout. Here, you could see the ocean spread out in front of you (from behind some trees that is). Off to one side, there was an outstretched rock that offered a view of some fiesty birds. Looks like there was quite a bit of competition for the coveted branch!
We hit a peak along our inland trek where we were afforded this beautiful view of the ground we'd have to cover in the near future. From this point, we hiked downhill to reach Anchorage beach on the right. After a little photo session and beach frolic, the trail continued through the forest before reaching the Torrent Bay Tidal crossing just visible on the left hand side.
The tidal crossing was our last main challenge before finally reaching our campsite for the night. A mixture of sand, mud and freezing cold water made for a rather painful barefoot walk which covered probably near 800m. Those little dots on the left center are Ben, Jon and Stuart.
We reached the Torrent Bay Campsite where we setup shop for the night. Since we arrived early (around 2 pm), we had a lot of time to kill. We had knocked off a good 11+ km in just over 3 hrs of hiking and lunch never tasted so good. My illness was really kicking in by now so I opted for an afternoon nap while the other guys went off to explore the Torrent Bay Township (really just a collection of about 4-5 little houses). They returned from their uninteresting exploration and split up for more afternoon fun. Stuart & Ryan went for an afternoon run while Ben & Jon hiked up to Cleopatra's Pool. I stayed put at camp and napped to my heart's content.
After Stuart & Ryan came back from their run, I felt well enough to have a little dip in the ocean. Here we are just before hopping into the freezing cold sea. This was, as it turns out, Stuart's first time in the ocean and one of those cool "guy bonding experiences." None of us spent too much time in the cold water but it was great and refreshing...in that shocking, bone-chilling cold sort of way.
The next day, I unfortunately had to say goodbye to these guys who I had spent the last several days with. As much fun as the Abel Tasman had been, I definitely was not well enough to keep going for the rest of the way (they were on the trail for 2 more days). I also had to zip back to Dunedin in order to make it back for my flight up to Auckland! I waited 3 hours on the beach for the Aqua Taxi to swing by and give me a lift back to the town where I had left my car before starting my arduous drive back to D-town. This time, I got to enjoy the wonderful views of the East Coast. After making it into Nelson just after midday, I took a break for lunch at McDonalds. Wondrous...well, it was food and I was hungry and in a hurry. From Nelson, I drove non-stop to Christchurch where I arrived just before 7 pm. There was lots of great coastal and hilly, inland scenery along the way but I was too sick and too motivated to keep driving to lose any time to photo taking. Sorry guys... Chch was a welcome break from hours of driving and I stopped for dinner (went back to Dux de Lux for salad & pumpkin soup), a well deserved nap, more petrol (managed to fill up my tank with $1.47 per Liter gas even though the attendent was in the middle of changing the price to $1.51) and a V (energy drink...I wouldn't have made it back alive without it). At 1 am, after having to drive slowly the whole way down because of THICK fog, I made it back to Dunedin. After a long, hot shower and an hour of packing, it was bedtime before the flight home. Just for the record, that was almost 13 hours on the road between Marahau (where I had my car parked) and Dunedin (with a handful of pitstops along the way). What a looooong day!
Thanks a bunch to Cat & Adriel for the ride to the airport! When I got there, I learned that all domestic flights had been delayed because of the HEAVY fog that blanketed all the major airports. That gave me time to read through most of a rugby magazine and a car magazine before boarding my flight. To continue my tradition of taking pictures on flights, I present you with the above. It took me a little less than an hour in the plane to cover what took me 13 hrs in the car yesterday. It's a bit hard to see but the view above is of Abel Tasman National Park. You can see the sandy bit near the middle is where Marahau and the trail head are. Upon closer observation, you can see the islands that were seen a few pics above! I can't believe those guys got amazing weather after I leave! Oh well, it was beautiful either way and I'm glad I went.
Auckland was incredibly interesting considering the fever didn't go away until I went to see the doctor for some penicillin. I did manage to spend some quality time with the family and I did make it to my cousin Nat's birthday party. Thanks a bunch to my family whose loving care and generous helpings of food probably played a huge part in my recovery. I love you all!
And there you have it folks! My break in a (rather large) nutshell. Sorry I don't have more pics but I'll try to steal a few more from Stuart and Ryan. All in all, a great time and I only wish I could've been at two places at once: Abel Tasman with the fellas & Auckland with the family. Anyhow, I have a couple more pics from the past week but those will come in a future update that will cover both this week and last week. Stuart bought a (American) football so look out for pics of us trying to control our College Football withdrawals. We'll also be barbequing this weekend so hopefully that'll be good times all around (weather permitting). This Saturday is also Election Day! Yay! I'll try to document that as well as I cast my first ever vote in a New Zealand election. Excitement!!! On that note, peace be with all of you and I shall catch you guys later. Take care and stay healthy!!!
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1 comment:
time for a hair cut adrian ;)
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