Advertisement
Published: August 6th 2007
tramp·ing-noun
"hiking, esp. on trails having huts at regular intervals for hikers to use overnight."
Here in New Zealand there is no such thing as hiking...there's only 'tramping', and it has been my primary activity since arriving here on the 15th. Sorry, but there will be no tales in this entry of lost luggage, drinking of muddy water, or dancing on the beach while wearing a dress. As stated in the last entry, the rest of the trip has a tough act to follow. So far the NZ experience has been great, but certainly a different flavor than Fiji. More emphasis on scenery, constant movement from place to place, and walking...lots and lots of walking.
I flew into Christchurch on the South Island in the middle of the night and spent the next 2 days in Chc catching up on sleep and relaxing a bit before heading off for the next adventure. I did manage to do my first 1/2-day tramp just outside of town before leaving though. The sister (Talei) of a girl (Sara-Joy) I met on my LA-Fiji flight was nice enough to spend the day showing me around a bit and we headed to the coast
to see what we could see. Was a fun little tramp, but nothing all that remarkable (at least when compared to the tramps to come).
Next stop was Queenstown. This is the self proclaimed "Adrenaline Capital of the World." One can bungy, skydive, river raft, hike, mountain bike, jet boat, etc to your heart's content...or until you're out of cash. (Note: City names in NZ are either British or Maori - the native culture. 'Queenstown' is Maori for "give us all your money, sucker"). One can spend $600NZ (approx $450US) on a skydive, video, and photos...yikes. So what cool QT activity did I choose first? Leaving.
First activity was the Routeburn Track. The NZ Dept of Conservation has designated several of their tramps as "Great Walks" which are very well maintained and have well serviced huts for sleeping, cooking, etc along the way. The Routeburn is one of the Great Walks and was to be my first multi-day (3) hiking experience that covers 32km and has a vertical gain of approx 1000m. I really had no idea what food to pack, so I loaded up on some freeze dried backpacker meals (mexican chicken & honey soy chicken...I recommend
Lake Wakatipu
On the way to the Routeburn trailheadthe first one), granola bars, cereal bars, chocolate, and some trail mix. (Amazingly it ended up being the perfect amount). I met a cool British couple (James and Natalie) on the way to the trail head and we ended up hiking together for the entire track.
The track began with a few hours of a seemingly magical environment that was somewhat like a rain forest. Everything was covered in a variety of types of mosses or fern-ish plants. I'm not much of a botanist...so that's the best I can do. After ascending for a while we came to a rock slide area that had blown away all the trees & revealed what we'd been walking next to the entire time...amazing views of mountains. Some covered in greenery, some exposed rock, and some with snow-capped tops. It was one of those moments where I was walking along talking to James about something and as soon as I turned and looked I let out an involuntary "Wow!" because the view was so striking. I ended up having a lot of those moments over the next several days. Further ascent brought us to our hut for the night (Routeburn Falls Hut).
When I first signed up for the track, I was a little put off by the $40/night charge for the huts, but I soon learned that it was well worth it. Beds, wood burning stove, kitchen w/ gas cookers, running water, sinks, toilets, etc...not exactly material for MTV Cribs, but the huts are well worth the $$ for a novice hiker like me.
Day 2 brought us above the bush line and we had amazing views all day long of mountains, lakes, valleys, waterfalls, etc...just more of the ho-hum stuff that makes up this amazing country. The last hour of the second day was a descent back below the bush line and down to the next hut. It's crazy that above the bush line the vegetation basically consists of a long brownish grass (think of some of the scenes from The Two Towers from Lord of the Rings...or I suppose you could just look at the pictures on this blog) but as soon as you hit the bush line you're instantly back into the rain forest where everything is green and mossy.
Day 3 - More beautiful rain forest and waterfall scenery. We reached the end of the
track by 1pm or so and caught our shuttle to Te Anau for a shower, some laundry and a few well deserved (in our opinion) beers. We were fortunate to have had perfect weather all three days so that we had great views and didn't have to deal with being cold and wet. Quite nice.
My day in Te Anau consisted of recovering by watching movies at the hostel and buying food for the next tramp which I planned for the next 3 days.
Tramp #2 was to be the Kepler track - another of the Great Walks, but covered approx 60km and a similar vertical gain. I won't go into the details of this track as much b/c it followed the same pattern...lush greenery...a brutal ascent to the bush line...amazing views...a knee-pounding descent back to the valley and more greenery. The difference was that day 2 consisted of a lot of walking along a ridgeline where it dropped off on both sides...and the weather wasn't quite as agreeable and I was lucky enough to experience 50-60kph winds along these ridge lines. This is the part where I like having the appropriate equipment to deal with the elements...there's
something enjoyable to being able to adapt to whatever the environment throws at me and still feel comfortable...not that it's all that extreme or my stuff is all that great, but I still like being able to take what nature throws my way. Also, there was a side trip to some caves which weren't spectacular, but were a fun diversion. I skipped the 3rd hut and continued on to the 4th section of the track so I could finish a day early but then bailed on the track 9km before the end at one of the early exit points b/c I was wiped out and the rest was similar terrain to the previous 6 hrs of hiking that day.
Back to Te Anau to get the rest of my stuff and to head back to Queenstown the next day...which is where I am now and will be for the next week or so. I've been in 12 different beds in the last 13 nights and am ready for a bit of staying in the same place.
Well...as stated above...I don't have any tales of a collision of cultures this time around. Though I'm almost to the point where
View from the Routeburn Slip
This was the first "Wow!" view that we got. I know which way to look before crossing the street. One would think that it's easy to just look the opposite of what is natural for me...but somehow it ends up being confusing. (yeah...21 years of schooling to my name but I can't figure out traffic on the wrong side of the street).
Some other thoughts at this point:
-I'm quite certain that if I lived here, I'd be dumb enough to train to do some of these tracks in a single day effort. They have races here and I'm floored at the records for finishing the tracks. I think the record for the Routeburn is under 3hrs and is around 6hrs for the Kepler. I can't imagine how many times I'd sprain my ankle trying to race over that terrain.
- In addition to completing my first multi-day tramps, I've also successfully had my first hitch hiking experience. I think to most American minds (certainly mine at first), this sounds like a bad idea...but in NZ it's the predominant mode of transportation for many backpackers. My trip from Te Anau to Queenstown consisted of 3 different rides...I waited 2 mins for the first (45 min ride)...20
mins for the second (hour or so ride)...and 2 mins for the 3rd (10 min ride). It's incredibly easy and safe here & certainly adds to the fun of the unknown and meeting new people (a 20-something New Zealand girl training to be a helicopter pilot, a 50-something floridian who has been traveling for 4 years, and a 30-something local who works at the supermarket).
- An interesting traveler moment last night...I was in the kitchen of my hostel making some dinner and amused by the moment. The radio was playing "We're not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister, there were people all around me from different cultures cooking around one another and speaking multiple languages, and all kinds of meals (some that looked quite strange) were being made. I know that's not particularly profound sounding...but it was a fun little snapshot of the semi-chaotic community living (set to 80s metal rock) and the nomad life that we've all chosen for one reason or another.
- I had been thinking that every single time I've made an effort to meet someone it's worked out well in one way or another. Some have resulted simply in interesting conversation, some
in temporary travel partners, and some in beneficial connections (like Sara-Joy and Talei...or Greg the South African who I met in Chc and now again in QT and he's letting me use his computer all day...nice). Sadly my perfect image of traveler interactions was ruined when one of my roommates last week (oddly enough was a Mark from Chicago) ended up being the annoying type who subtly tells you that he's smarter than you and knows better than you what is best for your trip. No damage done...but I was hoping that my relational utopia would continue. Well...as my Queenstown friend Babs says, "you can't get on with everyone".
Oh...almost forgot my obligatory NZ stat. There are 40 million sheep here...10x the human population. Baaa...
Time to see who wins the battle in Queenstown...the adventure folks who are trying to convince me that I need to do all the crazy things...or my travel budget which is somewhat (but not completely) more restrictive.
- Marc
Apologies for speaking in metric...it's how they work here & I'm getting used to it.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.066s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 11; qc: 20; dbt: 0.0402s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Heather
non-member comment
Hey cuz
Yeah, I'm also living vicariously through you - thanks for the updates! I'll be sure to think of you when I go back to work on Monday.... Glad your journey is starting out so well (after the airline business of course). Irene loves looking at your pictures, too!