Back from the tramping trail

We have been backpacking (known as tramping here in New Zealand) for the last 5 days/4 nights. We have showered, eaten a hare leg from the grocery store washed down with some free soup from our hostel and are now out at a big internet cafe uploading pictures and updating the blog....

Saturday, Feb 16: We signed up for a full day hike on the Frans Josef glacier, which is one of two very large, but very accesable glaciers on the west coast. They are only 30+ miles from the beach! This region has very tall mountains very close to the shore where there is a near constant wet wind blowing inland. They coast gets meters of rain a year and the mountains get tens of meters of snow a year! This snow then oozes down in glacier form. From balmy downtown Frans Josef it was a 10 minute bus ride and a 40 minute hike to the face of the glacier. We strapped on crampons and started up ice steps cut into the ice by the guides with their ice axes. It was an amazing 5 or 6 hours on the ice. Our group of 11 hike up maybe a mile of the glacier. We went through ice caves and climbed some rather step crevasses. It is hard to describe life in the glacier. To get an idea see the picture we just uploaded in the 2nd and 3rd weeks in New Zealand folder.

Sunday, Feb 19: Today we did our first overnight hike in NZ. We hiked to the Welcome Flats hut on the Copland Track. The track continued on, but quickly headed up into a snowfield requiring ice axes and crampons which we did not have, but our hike was realatively flat and warm. It was a 10.5 mile wet and rocky walk and then we were rewarded with nice mattresses and a natural hot springs, which were nice, but could not hold a candle to the 'hot cold rivers' hot springs from last week. To our surprise there was a german trio hiking with a 9 month old baby. The baby got to ride on her dad's back the entire time. Kristin only got a backy ride over a few streams. I ended up wearing my crocs the entire hike so that we could cross these streams quickly, which meant carrying Kristin to keep her running shoes dry.

Monday, Feb 18th: Back out again from the Welcome Flats hut. We were a little quicker on the way out. Again I hiked in Crocs and helped Kristin over the creeks. Once back at the car, we sped away from the swarming sandflies and drove 5 hours to Wanaka for a two night stay at a very nice holiday park there.


Tuesday, Feb 19th: We had a very enjoyable day celebrating the eve of Kristin's Birthday. We visited the Wanaka Brewery for the daily tour of the tiny brewery on the outskirts of town. It shares its building with a much larger toy and transport mueseum. One of the two employees gave us our tour and our samples. One of the people on our tour was a man that lived nearby that was thinking of purchasing the brewery. It was for sale by a type of silent auction that ended in a couple of days. The only other employee was the owner/brewmaster/delivery man. A very quant and fun little place that had won many top awards for their beer. Also in celebration of Kristin's birthday eve was our visit to the famous and popular couch movie theatre. Also a small owner owned business, which had only old couches as seats and had an intermission so you can buy homemade ice cream and cookies.



Wednesday, Feb 20th: Kristin's birthday! The day started with pancakes and mimosas and ended with a few candles in a little stawberry marshmellow bunny. In between we preped for our big upcoming hike, walked up to the top of the tall ridge overlooking the town, enjoyed a "5 O'Clock Thing" of cheese and red wine over looking the town. Happy Birthday Kristin.


Thursday, Feb 21: We started out today picking up a rental MacPac backpack and catching up on internet errands. Then we drove to a newarby tiny town to pickup the shuttle. We did our last packing at breakneck speed in order to catch the bus. By early afternoon we had started the Routeburn Tramp, one of NZ "Great Walks". We only had two and a half hours walk to the our hut for the first night. Kristin had to hike in flip flops due to the lack of skin on the back of her heels from the Frans Joesef rental boots. There were amazing views from the hut and we sat our at a picnic table for dinner and the sunset, where we met at Swiss traveler and shared a game of Farkle (a dice game we like and carry), known as "10,000" to him.


Friday-Monday, Feb 25th: For the next four days we hiked and then relaxed at our hut for the afternoon/evening. Our light packs and young legs left us with lots of hut time int he afternoons. The weather was perfect and we had jaw droping views of the mountains surrounding us. It is too hard to explain the views, it get an idea see our posted pictures. By Saturday the rain hit and we hiked for a few hours in some serious rain, but we were in good spirits and had packed a liter of hot tea that we made that morning. Technically around the middle of the day we completed the Routeburn trek and started on the Greenstone trek. The trail was the same, but the huts were smaller and much less expensive. We got the hut before 2pm and had an afternoon of drying clothes by the coal stove, talking to other travelers, working on riddles, and playing farkle. Sunday was predicted to have more rain, but it didn't start until about an hour after we reached the hut. The trail that day was through a long mostly flat valley and included many grazing cattle, so of which we had to walk around. Monday we completed the Routeburn and Greenstone trek before noon and the shuttle was right on time at 2. Back in Queenstown we stayed in a great hostel with a hot tub and free veggie soup. For dinner we had the soup and a big wild hare leg (bought in the supermarket) that we grilled on on the BBQ.

Onto Franz Josef!

Tuesday the 12th: Kristin and I drove the remaining 5 hours to Wellington, where we would get our Indian visas and catch the ferry to the South Island. Our only major stop was to do part of 'the best day hike in NZ/world'. We only had time for about 30 minutes in and another 30 minutes back out, which was enough time to get us to a backcountry hut. This was our first look at one of the many backcountry huts and we were very impressed. It is not like the shelter on the Appalacian Trail, this is like a hostel in the woods. It had a nice kitchen with sink and gas cookers and bunks for sleeping. There was a beautiful view of a volcano which was several hours hike away.
We did not arrive to Gareth and Anna's until about 10:30pm. We had a setback because I forgot to write down Gareth's phone number from my email earlier and then we could not find anywhere to get online. It took looking in 3 different towns and then driving about 30 mintues out of our way to a larger town that had an internet cafe. Then we had the challenge of finding somewhere to buy a phone card so that we could make a call at the payphones (very few of them will take coins, they only take prepaid cards). We had a great time with Gareth and Anna and got some good guidance for our time in the south island.

Wednesday the 13th: We got up and went to get our Indian visas, well at least turn in our applications, and had plenty of time to get to the ferry by noon. The three and a half hour ride was rockier than we expected for such a big ship on a very clear day, but we went inside and watched a movie and did some south island planning. And lo' and behold, Kristin did not get the least bit seasick. We checked into a hostel on the edge of the town where we were dropped off(Picton). It was bright and cheery. At dinner we met a great couple from Wales celebrating 40 years of marriage with a 2 month trip.

Thursday the 14th: Valentine's Day! We started the day with a couple of hours of kayaking in the bay by the hostel with their old sea kayaks. The wind and water got a bit rough on us, but neither of us flipped and the scenery was great. I loved looking at all the small sailboats anchored in the bay. We biked down to a local spot in hopes of picking some mussells for dinner, but we hit the tide was too high. So instead, we had a great dinner of steak and potatoes, along with some New Zealand red wine, while taking in the beautiful bay view from the hostel.

Today we are headin to Franz Joseph, where we have a glacier hiking tour set up for tomorrow.

World's Best Hot Spring

-picture on camera to come soon-

Last night we stayed at a neat hostel in an active geothermal area. The owner gave us directions to what may have been the perfect hot springs. It was a hot water creek mixing with a cooler stream (about twice the size of the hot water one) and there was a long jut of rock near where the cool one came in that only let a little bit of the cool water into the big pool where they mixed. If you got too hot or cool you just moved over a few feet to a different temperature. It was just off the side of the road and there were 6 to 15 people there (some came and went in the nearly 2 hours we were there). There were other backpacking couples and some locals, including some fun children and an older lady sent there by her doctor. We did not take our camera yesterday, but drove by it on the way out of town today and took a picture. There was just one guy there this morning.

This afternoon we plan to do all or some of what some claim to be the "best day hike in the world" It is about 30-60 minutes from here and it is sprinkling here now. Then we have 3 to 4 hours to drive to get to Wellington where we are planning to stay with the twin bother (and his wife) of my New Zealand friend from ultimate (Robbie Minshall).

Hot Water Beach a dissapointment

Here is Tommy digging along side dozens of other excited tourists at the renowned Hot Water Beach at low tide. Unfortunately "the swell was too high" today and even at dead low tide the water did not go out far enough to allow anyone to get a personal hand dug spa. We did find one spot that you could feel was warmer than the ocean water, but a wave washed into it about 15 seconds later.

We came along the shovel for $2 at a yard sale the day before and felt very happy we had not wasted $5 on renting a shovel from the little store by the parking lot.

Heading south in our new wheels!

Tommy and I got up Tuesday and headed over to the backpacker car market about a 15 minute walk from our hostel. After looking around at our options, we stumbled upon a $(NZ) 600 car. A 1990 2 door white Honda Civic. We had it checked out legally and mechanically and all looked good, so we bought it! We picked it up from the shop yesterday afternoon. After Tommy practiced driving left-handed stick and driving on the left side, we headed out to a couple stores for supplies. We decided to stay in Auckland one more night to catch up on sleep (which didn't happen at the noisy hostel we stayed at) and to get a visit a few thrift stores that were not open yesterday. Now we have sleeping gear, a tent, cooking items, and a car!! Tommy and I plan to head out of town soon and head to Hot Springs Beach, where we plan to dig a couple holes and enjoy our manmade natural spas! We'll post pictures of our new sporty car soon. As long as the doors haven't fallen off yet. As our blog skills increase, we plan to post pics along with our written updates. That will be soon to come!

We made it to Tomorrow

We crossed the international dateline this morning and immediatley made it to tomorrow. After many hours on 4 seperate flights we made it from Quito to Auckland. We spent about 24 hours on the island of Tahiti, which was beautiful, but very expensive and seemingly half desereted. Perhaps it was because it was Saturday but few stores and few restaurants were open. We had dinner at McDonalds because it was literally the only place we could find to buy food before it got dark except for a $12 tuna salad that neither of our stomachs trusted. The flight into and out of the island was especially beautiful. I would love to go back to these French Polynesian islands and travel island to island on a sailboat some day.

We are now in Auckland and are trying to work out the best way to get around here for the next 5 weeks. Used cars being sold by other backpakers look like the most tempting option, but are scary after all of our car trouble out west this fall. Most are selling for $1500 to $3000 New Zealand dollars ($1 US = $1.30 NZ). Our other options are several different bus companies or renting a car. Wish us luck.

going away frog dance at Camp Home