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Published: July 29th 2009
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I have been having an absolutely amazing time down here in New Zealand! I know I said I wasn't that into snowboarding down due to the price but I managed to find cheap gear and grab a day pass. It is funny how fast things change when you stay with friends in a hostel. The snow boarding was aawesome because you could trace the snowline on the adjacent mountains and see a valley green and without a snowflake in sight. It made for an interesting landscape and gave me the impression that I was on top of the world.
The helicopter flight was amazing too. It was my first time in a heli and take off was nothing like I had expected. We just rose into the air and were off. They took us over Queenstown, set us down for 10-15min on top of a mountain and returned us home. Simple as that. I noticed a few sites from the Lord Of The Rings with my keen and nerdy eye so I do not have to do the tours to appreciate the sights and scenes from that movie.
I did have some problems with Slug on the way down.
It just seemed like he wasn't getting much in the way of power when starting up and struggling a bit to get the engine going. All is well now though. I had a mechanic replace the spark plugs which were rusty and old and about ahalf the size they should be because they were well used. I had further car trouble about a week later when My car battery died. A nice mechanic lent me a battery and some cables which I carried several blocks, the battery is heavier than you would expect, and boosted my car. I figure out that problem aon my own as well. Before I'd bought the car someone had tried to break in and had busted the lock on the drivers side of the door. The key hole has a light behind it which I had to tear the door panel off of and unhook the wires to the door. It all worked out just fine and Slug has never been happier or more reliable.
I spent the next few nights with my friend Annicka in Te Anau, driving part way up the MIlford sound track and then going on an all day Doubtful
Sound Cruise. The cruise was spectacular. They picked us up in the morning, took us for an hour long boat ride through mountains called sounds which are formed by streams and rivers, and through the fjordlands which are glacially formed, all shrouded in cloud. The Sounds generally get about 260-280 days of rain every year so we just happened to be there on the rainy one=). It was freezing cold with blasts of water from the boat and random heavy rainy patches throughout the day but I couldn't bear to be inside. It was too magnificent to be stuckinside the cruise ship without a 360ยบ view. Since it was raining there were hundreds of waterfalls on the cliff faces, the existing waterfalls swelling in size, and the rain clouds hiding half of the mountain making it appear magical and mysterious. This was all on the way for the cruise. They dropped us off at an island where we took a bus on a tour of a hydro power station some 400m below the surface, then through a pass to the other side of the sound. We hopped on a bigger cruise boat here and ventured further into the sound.
It may not seem that different from the start to the finish when I can manage to get some pics uploaded but the mountains just rose out of no-where, some forming huge islands that just looked like part of the mountain chain it was so vast in size. We rode for aover two hours before getting to the Tasmn Sea. Here we saw a massive avalance form the 2002 earthquake. We lost a boat engine here and our captain freaked out a little, people pannicked, and I just smiled. I got to enjoy the sights and sounds of the area for a little while longer. About twenty minutes just sitting there broken with our captain radioing for help. He went outside and stuck a broom stick down and hit the engine a few times then it started to work again! We zipped back home, took the bus and then the boat again back home and witnessed an amazing sunset over the mountains. The rain was still in the sound but on our ride back we had a cloud break and the sunset over the stormy, snowy mountains was quite peaceful.
Annicka soon left me and I made good friend
with a Danish fellow named Mikkel who is an aspiring photographer and agreed to come on a hike with me. We decided not to do the Milford track because we'd heard stories of treatchurous river crossings because of the rain and cold nights in the huts. We opted for the easier Keplar trail where we could travel further but our plans fell through. We met another fellow in the hostel who was stuck trying to get to work up in Milford Sound but couldn't find a ride or a bus up there. We took him up and it turned out he was a chef on a cruise ship and he made us a great dinner, gave us a place to sleep, and got us a cruise for free the next day.
The cruise was just as spectacular yet completely different. The waterfalls were bigger, the mountains more sheer and bloody cold despite being a completely clear day. The famous mountain Miter Peak is slightly amusing in the Maoiri language. It basically translates to 'erect man,' so you can imagine this mountain just stretched high into the sky. This cruise lasted only an hour and a half but our boat
captain made it worth it. He drove just meters from the cliffs in a huge 300 person boat, drove us basically into the base of a waterfall and out to sea again. Luckily no breakdown. We were dropped off at an underwater observatory where we were able to spy on the marine life. I saw plenty of black coral, heaps of fish, a sea cucumber, a black snake starfish, and plenty of other sea plants. No squid, sharks or dolphins though which sometimes find their way by there. We hopped on the boat and went home for the night. We did get offered jobs by the people at the company but I turned them down because I wanted to travel more. Mikkel on the other hand decided to aply for the job and I have yet to hear from him as to whether he got it or not.
We drove back to Te Anau, came back the following day, picked up some hitch hikers and spent the night at the Milford hostel. I came back to basically just help Mikkel get his CV up to standards and edit his english. I hitch hiked back and waspicked up after about
1.5 hrs by a bunch of British 19 year olds traveling before university for the summer. They dropped me off in Te Anau and then I left for the Catlins that day.
All in all this part of the country reminds me of home so I have been thinking of you all a fair bit lately! I can't seem to upload photos here soI will have to try another time.
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