If Sheep Ruled the World.....

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.....New Zealand would be their capital.

My original plan when I started out in April was to spend four to six weeks in New Zealand. Due to the lure of other places, this got whittled down two weeks. I didn't want to do some sort of death march, so there was no way I was going to see both island. I figured two weeks on the south island was a good chunk of time. Of course it wasn't even close to enough time and I explored maybe half of what I wanted to on the south island. So here is the first of several entries on my very brief time in New Zeland.

I spend the first day in Christ Church. Yawn. It's nice and all but I am glad that of the two rainy days I had in New Zealand, one of them was in Christ Church instead of somewhere beautiful.

I rented, excuse me, hired a car for the two weeks and drove down to Mt Cook in the middle of the South Island. The drive was gorgeous. I quickly learned that there was a pretty view around virtually every corner of the South Island. I tried to get what I saw in my camera but it never really works. The other thing you see around every corner is sheep, which outnumber people 10 to 1.

I arrived in Mt Cook and registered at the youth hostel. The price I paid for the dorm bed was the usual but the view (the whole mountain range) and the free sauna were quite unusal. It had snowed the day before I arrived and although it was pretty to look at, I was worried I wouldn't be abled to do any hiking. Apparently, hikers in New Zealand are very dedicated and I was told several of the trails had already had been tramped down. I squeezed in a short hike before the sun went down and planned a long one for the next day.

The next day was beautiful and not too cold. I didn't even need to wear the hat and gloves I brought along. The trail was tramped down, including a swing bridge, but I couldn't stray off the path because I only had sneakers. All during the hike, I reveled in the fact that I walking in the snow in July! For me, that's like a dream come true. I occasionally saw animal tracks (of what, I didn't know), but didn't see any animals. A couple of times I had to pass theough arches made of snow covered branches. I ran out of water at one point but had no problem using the snow for a drink. In what was going to be the repeating theme of this trip, I wished I could stay at least another day but I had to drive on.

By early evening, I finally made it to Otago peninsula on the southeast part of the island. I could've made better time if I hadn't kept stopping to take pictures or just stare at the landscape. I had a rough time finding a place to stay as the first two places I went to were closed for the season. I finally ended up at a caravan park in a room "that had its own heater." Except that the heater turned off on its own about every 20 minutes. I guess it is to save energy but it is a really dumb idea. I would sleep for about half an hour before I would wake up freezing and turn the heater back on.

Despite the lack of sleep, I still had a good day on the peninsula with plenty of beautiful views and of course more sheep. I saw albatross and yellow eye penguins. This time I was able to take pictures of the penguins as the rookery was a series of covered trenches with viewing platforms that allowed you to watch the penguins come out of the water and walk over the beach to thier nests. I also saw a lovely mixed environment that had fur seals, penguins, and sheep all living in the same area. Of course I wanted another day on the peninsula but I wanted to get as far as I could to Milford Sound on the west side of the island that night.

I made it as far as town called Gore. I stayed in another caravan park except this time I was in a tiny trailer. I must admit, it was my first experience living in a trailer and it turned out well. There was heat on the entire night so it was definetly better than the previous night. In the morning, I continued driving toward Milford Sound. After a couple of hours of driving and before the turn off to Milford Sound, I realized that I bit off too much to do for the South Island and I was spending (and would continue to spend) half my time driving. So even though Milford Sound is supposed to be a must see in New Zealand, I decided to skip it and head to Queenstown. I did, however, promise myself to return to New Zealand and hike in Milford Sound someday. Maybe during my next year off.

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