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We left Sydney on xmas eve and arrived into Auckland just before midnight. We woke up on christmas morning to a warm and pretty sunny summer day. We had christmas breakfast at one of the few cafes that was open on Auckland's harbour (which is a nice harbour, but I don't think its really any match against Sydney's). After walking around the city for a bit, it was time to get out into the country (we didn't come to NZ to visit the cities). We didn't have very set plans so we drove east of the city out on the coromandel peninsula along the coast, stopping for little walks and at viewpoints. We ended up making it a pretty long day of driving and ended up in Waitomo at a little place that is a hobbit hole. It has the round doors and windows and is kind of buried in the ground. It was a really cute place and felt right to be staying in a hobbit hole in NZ. The next morning we went blackwater rafting in these gloworm caves…it consisted of abseiling way down into this cave where there are hundreds of gloworms which in the otherwise pitch blackness look like little lights all over the ceiling of the caves (glow worms are larvae of insects who glow because of some chemical reaction or something). We then did a zipline in the pretty much pitch blackness and then jumped into this river that flows through the caves and tubed through these caves. Eventually we climbed out by climbing up these waterfalls back to the outside world. It was quite a unique experience. That afternoon we drove down to Tongariro national park which is an alpine setting that has three major volcanoes: Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe, and Tongariro (good luck pronouncing any of them).
The next day we set out on an extremely long and exhausting one day hike that crosses between and around and up some of these peaks. The hike is 18.5km but we (and by we I mean I) decided to add a sidetrip up to the top of mt. ngauruhoe which was mt. doom in lord of the rings. The sidetrip up the volcano was incredibly steep up scree which meant for each step you took, you slid 80% of the way back down which made it incredibly exhausting. Michelle was not happy about the sidetrip which she continues to point out to me now…I was somewhat enjoying the irony of taking this incredibly difficult and somewhat painful scramble up this volcano since it was mt. doom…mt. doom is supposed to be painful! This irony was not in the least bit enjoyed by Michelle, however. The total distance we hiked was probably about 25km which is around 15 miles and the change in elevation from low point to high point on the hike was over 5000 feet. What really killed us though was that we had to jog/run the last 4 or 5kms in order to catch our shuttle bus that was leaving at a certain time (in the end we just barely did make the bus). I've never been as sore from a hike as I was from this…walking, especially walking downhill, for the next 3 or 4 days was quite painful. Even with the clouds at the top of mt. ngauruhoe the views were great and the scenery along the whole trek was geologically fascinating.
The next day we set out on an extremely long and exhausting one day hike that crosses between and around and up some of these peaks. The hike is 18.5km but we (and by we I mean I) decided to add a sidetrip up to the top of mt. ngauruhoe which was mt. doom in lord of the rings. The sidetrip up the volcano was incredibly steep up scree which meant for each step you took, you slid 80% of the way back down which made it incredibly exhausting. Michelle was not happy about the sidetrip which she continues to point out to me now…I was somewhat enjoying the irony of taking this incredibly difficult and somewhat painful scramble up this volcano since it was mt. doom…mt. doom is supposed to be painful! This irony was not in the least bit enjoyed by Michelle, however. The total distance we hiked was probably about 25km which is around 15 miles and the change in elevation from low point to high point on the hike was over 5000 feet. What really killed us though was that we had to jog/run the last 4 or 5kms in order to catch our shuttle bus that was leaving at a certain time (in the end we just barely did make the bus). I've never been as sore from a hike as I was from this…walking, especially walking downhill, for the next 3 or 4 days was quite painful. Even with the clouds at the top of mt. ngauruhoe the views were great and the scenery along the whole trek was geologically fascinating.
The next day we drove down to Wellington, the capital of NZ where we were catching the ferry down to the south island. We had a few hours to explore Wellington and in that short time I had a very positive impression of the city…it’s a good size, right on the water with good views and seems like its got a good selection of restaurants/bars etc. The ferry ride takes about 3 hours…the first hour is getting out of the port of Wellington, the middle hour in the open sea and the last hour is coming through the Queen Charlotte Sound into Picton on the south island. Quite a pretty boat ride.
Next day was a lot of driving…started the morning driving through wine country, to Nelson Lakes National Park and then out to the coast (the west coast which is along the Tasman Sea) and down along the coast and up into the mountains to the Franz Josef Glacier. When we arrived in the evening the few clouds that had been lingering during the day cleared out and we were left with a perfect evening (and daylight in NZ this time of the year lasts until past 10pm). We ended up taking a 40 minute helicopter ride up over the Franz Josef Glacier, along the mountains of the southern alps as they are called (Mt. Cook is the highest peak in Australasia at about 12,300 feet) and over the Fox Glacier and back into town. We landed high up on the Fox Glacier and got out and walked around a bit. It was a stunning flight with perhaps the best views I've ever had.
The following day we did some hikes around the glaciers before driving over the Haast Pass and stayed right near Mt. Aspiring National Park (I can only say the scenery was gorgeous so many times so I'm going to stop).
The next day was New Years Eve and we got on the road for Queenstown, which is the undisputed adrenaline capital of New Zealand and quite possibly the world. After poking around town a bit we drove out to the Kawarau Gorge which is the site of the world's first commerical bungy jump operation. We were both nervous about it, but knew it had to be done. The nerves from when they were attaching the cords to our feet to when we jumped were pretty severe. We jumped in tandem which in some ways made it easier, because when the guy counted down from 5 we knew we had to jump (if one person jumped and the other didn't, it would make for an awkward plunge). So we jumped and I just remember thinking how fast we were heading down and then the next thing I remember was bouncing back up and I was soaking wet above the waist. I don't remember being in the water but they dipped us. It was quite a thrilling jump actually but we were both excited to have it done so we could focus on enjoying new years eve! We were pretty low key and ended up watching the fireworks over the lake at midnight (amidst an incredibly rowdy bunch of drunkards!).
New years day we got up and went jet boating at the shotover canyon just outside of Queenstown. Jet boating, in this context, means riding in an extremely expensive speed boat that is designed to run in extremely shallow depths and can turn on a dime. This allows them to run these boats in tiny little narrow canyons where they drive right for the canyon wall and then turn out of the way at the last minute and also allows them to do 360 spins. It was actually pretty fun, we both had a good ride.
After jet-boating we drove south towards the Milford Sound. The last part of the drive, from Te Anu to Milford Sound had spectacular scenery (the drive is part of a world heritage area). To get to Milford Sound you pass through this extremely steep narrow tunnel that goes downhill through mountain rock for over a kilometer…when you emerge on the other side you're surrounded by huge rock walls with waterfalls cascading down all over the place. The next day we were supposed to go kayaking in the sound but the weather didn't cooperate. It was pounding down rain, windy and quite cold. It rains almost every day in Milford sound but they cancelled the trip because the wind and temperature they said would have made it extremely difficult to stay warm out on the water. And I believed that…we went out on a boat cruise through the sound instead and the wind was quite impressive. Scenery was fantastic though, boating through high fjords with literally thousands of waterfalls coming down all over the place. It was a pretty unique setting.
New years day we got up and went jet boating at the shotover canyon just outside of Queenstown. Jet boating, in this context, means riding in an extremely expensive speed boat that is designed to run in extremely shallow depths and can turn on a dime. This allows them to run these boats in tiny little narrow canyons where they drive right for the canyon wall and then turn out of the way at the last minute and also allows them to do 360 spins. It was actually pretty fun, we both had a good ride.
After jet-boating we drove south towards the Milford Sound. The last part of the drive, from Te Anu to Milford Sound had spectacular scenery (the drive is part of a world heritage area). To get to Milford Sound you pass through this extremely steep narrow tunnel that goes downhill through mountain rock for over a kilometer…when you emerge on the other side you're surrounded by huge rock walls with waterfalls cascading down all over the place. The next day we were supposed to go kayaking in the sound but the weather didn't cooperate. It was pounding down rain, windy and quite cold. It rains almost every day in Milford sound but they cancelled the trip because the wind and temperature they said would have made it extremely difficult to stay warm out on the water. And I believed that…we went out on a boat cruise through the sound instead and the wind was quite impressive. Scenery was fantastic though, boating through high fjords with literally thousands of waterfalls coming down all over the place. It was a pretty unique setting.
From Milford Sound we drove back towards Queenstown and then up the east side of the "southern alps" to a sheep farm where we stayed near Mt. Cook. The following day we headed into Mt. Cook National Park to do some hiking and exploring. We went on a boat trip on the terminal lake of the Tasman glacier (it’s a glacial lake where chunks of the glacier break off and form icebergs in the lake). We puttered around up to a bunch of the icebergs and were right on the other side of one when a big piece crashed down into the water (we couldn't see it, but you couldn't certainly hear it!).
After the boating we did a few little hikes around, but the weather was off and on rainy and the low clouds were limiting the views so we weren't feeling overly motivated. Also, during one of the hikes the sole of one of my hiking boots peeled off which rendered my boots essentially useless (I left them behind in NZ which was quite emotional for me). After dinner, the sky started clearing until nearly all of the clouds had cleared off and we were left with perfect views of Mt. Cook which held out during the entire sunset. It was quite a sight.
The next day we drove from Mt. Cook to Dunedin (the 4th largest city in NZ where we were to fly out of) taking the scenic way. In the evening we went out on the Otago peninsula which besides being quite scenic has a bunch of wildlife including yellow eyed penguins (a very rare type of penguin), albatross, sea lions, seals, etc. We went to this beach where you're most likely to see the penguins, but had no luck. It was still a nice place to be at dusk.
The following day was supposed to be our last in NZ…after seeing a bit of Dunedin we went back out to the peninsula and did a couple little hikes along the coast. We drove to the airport and while waiting at the gate for our flight found it was cancelled. Dunedin is not a big airport and there aren't many flights per day so we were able to get re-routed through Christchurch and would get back to Sydney the following evening (I wasn't too broken up about having the vacation extended by a day). Christchurch ended up being a really nice little city. We walked around a bunch the following morning, through the gardens and their central square. Getting back to Sydney it was hot and somewhat crowded, its always tough getting back from vacation. But flying into sydney was a much better feeling than it always was flying back into newark after vacation…the colors are just a little brighter in sydney or something. Going to work was quite painful for the rest of the week, but thankfully it was only 3 days so I survived!
A link to more photos from the trip:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=bqmhkbd.7hs3lq21&x=0&y=-99lubi&localeid=en_US
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=bqmhkbd.7hs3lq21&x=0&y=-99lubi&localeid=en_US
