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Published: December 7th 2005
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Hooker Valley
The Hooker valley, with the Hooker Hut. Here we are again, in an internet cafe in Christchurch. We leave tomorrow for Thailand at 3:00pm from Auckland and arrive in Bangkok, Thailand at 10:00pm, after a 12 hour flight. Somewhere in there we travel back in time five hours. After our arrival, we have to navigate our way through a huge city with no order in the way its streets and street numbers are assigned and find some road named Khao San to find a place to sleep. The adventure continues...In Thailand by the time this happens it may not be much later than midnight, pretty late, however being accustomed to New Zealand time, this is sometime aroung 5:00am. But I guess we're still young and since our fly by the seat of our pants attitude has led us this far, why not see how much farther it can get us, eh?
As for the last 12 days here we go...
Joel and Blythe and I rented a car here in Christchurch and were planning on just driving to Queenstown and taking buses from there. However with some simple math comparing prices and a little sales talk from the rental car woman, we decided to extend our
Team Zissou
Team Zissou with Mt. Septon in the background. rental to 11 days instead of 3. In the long run this saved us about 400 dollars. Let this be a lesson, in NZ busses are expensive and cars are cheap, as long as you rent in groups.
The first day driving on the left side of the road went suprisingly well. Joel took the wheel out of the city, and besides a few gray hairs, we eventually made it out of town. We headed to Mt. Cook NP, about 4 hours away. This is a spectacular park with cascading glaciers off of Mt. Sephton and Mt. Cook aka the Cloud Piercer (as the Maori call it). We took a small hike to Kea Point to gawk at the receding Mt. Sephton glacier and try to view Mt. Cook. While on the hike we ran into Mark and Megan, who had arrived at the park a day earlier. Since it was Thanksgiving we decided to gorge ourselves with some alfredo pasta in a package and broccoli. YUM... Then for dessert we headed up to the mountaineers cafe and indulged in some chocolate cake and icecream. The next morning we called family to wish them a happy thanksgiving, and while
Mt. Cook
Joel, Blythe and Keif atop the Seley Tarns outlook with Mt. Cook behind us. we were freezing cold and on the phone, we were listening to others on the other end stuffing themselves with freshly cooked turkey, potatoes, gravy and pie. This was our 5 minutes of jeolousy (with a tich of homesickness) on our trip...It quickly passed when we were like "wait a minute, we're in NZ!" Later in the day we went for a hike up Hooker canyon and enjoyed a beautiful clearing day with the sun peaking through the clouds and the magnificant peaks all around.
By the next morning all the clouds had cleared and Mt. Cook was in full view. We hiked up to Sealy Tarns, a view point above the valley, and enjoyed lunch and the full beauty of Mt. Cook. It's pretty spectacular to see these mountains rise out of a 3,000 foot valley up to 12,000 feet, all with huge cascading glaciers and icefalls.
Enough of Mt. Cook. We had limited time with our car so later that afternoon we drove on toward Queenstown. We spent the next morning walking the streets while huge signs boasting skydiving, bungi jumping, paragliding, jet boating, whitewater sledging, rafting, mountain biking and just about every other extreme sport you can
Mt. Cook and Mt. Septon Moraine
Mt. Cook, looking up the Hooker Valley, with the Mt. Septon Glacial Moraine in the forground. think of was advertized from about every store front. Skipping out on all of these activities we found a little pita shop and enjoyed lunch while everyone else in town blew their savings on 'extreme sports.' Well I guess Joel blew part of his savings when he bought a sweet New Zealand jacket (which we found out later was made for a girl). (Don't tell him I told you!)
We spent the rest of the day driving to the Milford sound area (actually they're fjords carved by glaciers, sounds are carved out by rivers). We almost had some free camping, but a ranger came and collected our fees...cheeky ranger. But camped along a beautiful river with lupin everywhere, and when the sun hit it the entire field lit up. WOW! On to Milford the next morning, our breaks started smoking while driving down the hill, so we stopped and did a small walk to the chasms (where the river drops into the abyss). In Milford, planning on doing some treks in the area, we soon found out that it is run by boat agencies and there are no treks. So we succomed to the tourist urge to spend money and
Camp site near Milford
Where we camped before we reached the Milford area. booked ourselves a ride on a boat through the fjord. This was totally worth it, the rock walls rise up thousands of feet out of the ocean and there are waterfalls everywhere and huge snow capped peaks in the background.
The next morning we hiked to Key summit, a small summit with spectacular views of the southern alps in all directions. Then headed back toward Queenstown and on to Wanaka and Mount Aspiring NP. We didn't expect to do it all in a day but managed and ended up sleeping in a sheep pasture. SMELLY and annoying to say the least. The hike the next day made up for it when we had wonderful views of Mount Aspiring, and at lunch in the Mount Aspiring Hut, near the base of Mt. Barf. Again a night in a sheep field, and once again made up for it with a hike to the Rob Roy glacier. After experiencing a few ice falls and a begging Kea we decided that you can only stand so many beautiful waterfalls and glaciers and spectacular mountains, so we headed into Wanaka.
In Wanaka we spent a couple of days bouldering just outside of town and enjoying
Milford boat ride
All abord, as we enter the Tazman Sea, the Milford Fjord behind us. fish and chips, and pot pies on the shore of the lake. We once again ran into Mark and Megan and bid them a final fare well. With only two days left on our car rental, we headed toward Christchurch, arriving late at night, with nowhere to camp, and trying to save money we spent a horrible night in our tiny rental car. However this provided us with an early start the next day, and we headed to Akoroa just outside of Christchurch on the Coromandel Peninsula. This is a great little french settlement with lots of cafes and shops and a tons of sailboats. We tried to reach the oceanic nature reseve but once again our breaks overheated so we decided to head for a small campground just outside of Akoroa.
The next morning we headed back to Christchurch and dropped off the car. Since then Blythe and I have been arranging our backpacks, and brushing up on what little Thai we don't know. So we leave tomorrow for Thailand. Wish us luck...
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non-member comment
WOW!
Man, you guys are really rockin' over there! Full race, eh? (A little Canadian fo' dat ass). I like the new haircut Keifer, did you burn the dreads in some sort of ceremony? HA! Well, find out all the cool places and we'll go there with you in a couple of years! Have fun in Thailand (tie-land?) later.