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Published: December 1st 2006
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Atop Mt Luxmore
5000 Feet above ground....I know I look fat okay. sorry...I lied..no update that day.....my apologies.
After the Routeburn track my achilles was aching quite a bit...(like, I couldnt walk to the bathroom type of aching). So I was stuck in a little town of 4500 people that was like a mix b/w Niagara on the Lake and Banff...pretty sweet...but a few too many lovebirds. I went to a bar the first night just to play some pool and ended up meeting a few actual Sheep farmers...probably the funniest guys that I have ever met...they also made many references to the sheep stereotypes on their own.....after they had about 20 drinks and I had one...it was tough to carry on a conversation with them, let alone a pool game, so I shut her down for the night. (p.s- they have some CRAZY pool rules here. A number of times I thought that my teamate and I had won the game, only to see the losing team high fiving one another and laughing at me (once again, not with me).
After that, I had some quality down time and my first of the trip. Its pretty sweet when your whole day consists of just waking up, making some breakfast, and
making it into town (which is a 10 minute walk along a lake with beautiful snow covered mountains in the background) for a cup of coffee. I say coffee, but everything here is actually from an Espresso machine and its pretty tough to find a regular coffee...not to mention they're all $4. What I would do for a Tim Hortons right now!
The next track and mountain to topple was the Kepler track. Also one of Nz's 7 great walks, I decided I would plan this one out a bit better. I found that it is actually higher than the Routeburn and decided to "hire" out some gear (hire=rent in NZ). Got some thermals, gloves, tuque, boots and even a walking pole....felt like a bit of a baby getting the pole, but I talked her down to $5 from $10, which justified it for me...not to mention that I really didn't have a choice with my achilles bothering me so much.
On a side note: Before I left on my trip to NZ and the rest of the world I watched a special on Team Canada's Olympic hockey team from 2002 and how the "ice guy" from Edmonton put
a Canadian dime and a Canadian loonie at centre ice in the Salt lake Arena and was the difference in Canada winning both the mens and womens gold medals. While I was already well aware of this Canadian story, I was inspired and at this moment I decided that I too would bring a Canadian Loonie and a dime with me on my travels across the world. I have kept them in my wallet and decided I'd give them a quick good luck rub before I ventured off on the Kepler track. The rub was for good weather and more importantly good health as I was going solo and nobody knew where I was.
So, I took off on the track all by my lonesome. On my ascent towards the first nights cabin there was this incredible place where I laid down in some feskew and took in the view which sprawled for miles and miles, for over an hour. I will spare everyone my poetic descriptions of the view and sense of calmness that overcame me (I put that crap in my journal), but it was spectacular.
This moment of tranquility was ruined by a couple of loud
asian guys walking by me, laughing really loud and making lots of noise. A little annoyed at the moment, little did I know how much time I would end up spending with them and enjoying their company. Their names were (and still are) Henry & Gabriel and they're both young doctors from Melbourne. They were hilarious to me, not because they are Asian Australians, but because they make fun of Asian tourists more than anyone I've ever met. We continued on the next day together and the weather was absolutely perfect (cold, but no rain), I would assume because of the power of the Canadian Loonie and Dime that were rubbed.
I finished the track in 3 days, while Henry & Gabriel stayed another night and finished the track in 4, but we had arranged to meet up back in Te Anau. They had told me they were going on an overnight cruise to Milford Sound, so I decided to join them as they had a car and I could sell back my bus ticket anyways. There is a great book that I have read parts of called "1000 places to see before you die". I vowed to see as
many of these places on this side of the world in this trip that I could. Milford Sound is one of these places, and is described by Rudyard Kipling as "the 8th wonder of the world". Mr Kipling was bang on, as this is undoubtedly the most beautiful place that I have ever visited....I'm still amazed that places like this exist on Earth. The cruise itself was quite fun, we got to do some kayaking and I had a little penguin that swam right under my kayak, which was the first time I had ever seen a penguin outside of a zoo. We also got to see seals...been there, done that.
The most fun part of the cruise was jumping off our lovely vessel called "the Wanderer"....we were the only ones on the cruise to do so...and rightfully so, as the water temp was 10 degrees celcius. I spent alot of the cruise drinking the free coffee that was offered as it was the most similar coffee that I had found all trip to that in North America...cleverly enough, they call these types of coffees "Americanas" over here. I definetly recommend that people reading this do a quick Yahoo search
Here birdie
This is the way I usually get females to talk to me. of "Milford sound" to check out some pics. The next day we went to Queenstown where we hit up a bar that was called Minus 5...as that was the temperature inside it and everything was made of solid Ice, even the glasses....it was really cooool!! (oh god, I realize how corny that joke was....I'm becoming my old man, yikes). Henry and Gabriel both left the next day to Melbourne and I will miss chilling with them and playing intense games of Scrabble and Connect Four as we spent a couple nights doing.....(travelling isnt as glamorous as one thinks). They are great guys and left me lots of their leftover oatmeal and powdered milk (which I have yet to try) and I will definetly be visiting them when I go to Oz and maybe even catch the Australian Open in Melbourne.
Fast Facts:
-The one pic of Milford Sound is the most photographed place in NZ.
-those birds in my pic are called "Kea" birds and have the intelligence of a 4 year old human...quite smart. They often harass people and open up their zippered bags and take stuff out of them. They also like to steal peoples hats off
Milfourd Sound
This is where the Lost World was filmed....the 3 day walk around here is called "The greatest walk on Earth" their heads.
-I never found a Kiwi here in NZ....but here's a couple facts: The kiwi is Nz's oldest bird. It evolved 30 million yrs ago. It also is the only bird with a set of highly developed nostrils above its bill.
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Henry
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Nice Entry
My first mention on the internet... wow! I really don't like how Asian tourists take forever in airport customs, they really need translated entry and departure cards...