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Published: October 15th 2007
Mirror Pools
On the way to Milford Sound we came across these amazingly reflective pools!After a long break from travel following my year in Europe I once again managed to escape (only for a month), and decided to explore a bit closer to home. Initially the trip to NZ was going to be relatively small with Justin and me meeting Dan in Auckland and travelling around together but when the rest of our friends heard about it they decided to join too! So it went from 3 to 10 and ended up being one of the best holidays I've been on, but now I'm getting ahead of myself...
Jumse, Deadman, Katrin and I arrived in Auckland to be greeted at the airport by Dan and Morgan, both of whom I hadn't seen in ages! Dan had been on exchange in Canada for a year and I hadn't seen Morgan since leaving Vienna 6 months before. We headed into Auckland straight away and luckily got both of our vans organised just before the office shut. We hired the vans from Escape Rentals (www.escaperentals.co.nz) and they were great the whole trip! They came self-sufficient with pots, pans, cutlery, plates, gas cookers and a washing basin. The backs of the vans, which usually had a table in
On top of The Remarkables
Justin, Dan and I spent a good half hour up here looking down on Queenstown. Shortly afterwards Dan and I both destroyed our boards going down a rocky area... the middle, were easily converted into a relatively comfortable sleeping area, provided you didn't park on any sort of incline :P That first night we hung out for a few hours in Auckland, mainly around the hostel where Morgan had been staying, but it soon became obvious that when travelling in vans, inner city living is quite difficult. After almost having our vans towed and spending ages driving up and down streets looking for parking we decided to head for the open road! We drove north for about an hour or so before we found a nice little town to stop in. That was actually one of the coldest nights on the trip so we all piled into one van and had a few celebratory beers together, before going to sleep.
The next month continued in quite a similar fashion to that first day. We would wake up around 7 or 8, have a quick bite to eat and then hit the road consulting our Lonely Planet guide as we drove. We planned the trip as we went, never planning more than a few days in advance. This allowed us to be really flexible and in the end I
Refreshing Swim
Half way along our hike we all decided to go for a swim in the ocean! It was only about 10 degrees so very refreshing! think that we saw more this way than if we had made a definite plan. The only time we stayed more than one night in one place was when we were snowboarding in Queestown. It was quite a rushed trip but that made it more exciting and we managed to pack in heaps. Sometimes we would stay in a caravan park and have powered sites to charge our camera batteries and so on but most of the time we just pulled off the road and found a quiet spot.
The month was split into about 1 week in the North Island, and 3 weeks in the South Island which included a week of snowboarding in Queenstown. We visited most of the major cities in NZ but ended up spending most of our time out in the country, taking advantage of the fact that we had vans. We did quite a few hikes including parts of the Heaphy and Routeburn Tracks and were actually very lucky with the weather both times. We also managed to fit in a few more adventurous activities like luging, zorbing (rolling down a hill in a big plastic ball!), jet boating, caving and of course
Tits!
One of our vans which was affectionately named "Tits" snowboarding. We snowboarded on The Remarkables and Coronet Peak for a week and everyone had a great time! Every day we would drive up whichever mountain had the better conditions, fitting our snow chains as we neared the top. On the first day we discovered that the snow chains we had been given for one of the vans didn't fit so we all piled into one van along with our 10 snowboards and drove along the narrow icy road to the skilifts. Needless to say we were all very happy to reach the top! We were staying in a nice hotel in Queenstown so our evenings were also quite busy with predrinking in the 8 person spar and pubs and nightclubs just up the road. The week in Queenstown was also a nice break from the open road and sleeping in the vans so when our skilift passes expired we were all quite reticent to get back into the vans, and ended up spending another 2 nights in Queenstown, just chilling out.
On one of those free days I decided to go for a hike by myself in the forests around Queenstown. I got my ipod out, put on
Windy ferry crossing!
We took our vans across the strait from Wellington to Picton. (Photo thanks to Dan) my favourite liveset and headed out into the woods. I had been walking for about 2 hours along the track when I decided to go off the trail and climb a small rocky hill to get a better view of the valley. About half way up the hill I heard a loud squealing noise coming from further up the slope. I looked up and saw a large bird flapping its wings wildly in a bush. I assumed that it was stuck so quickly climbed up to free it. However just as I reached the bush, the large bird of prey flew out right past my head. The noise continued though, and as I looked further into the bush I discovered a small baby goat staring back at me with blood trickling from its nose and ear. At this point I had a lot of thoughts running through my head. Goats are introduced pests... I'm interferring with natures way... I should just leave it for the eagle... I know it sounds soppy but in the end I looked down into its little brown eyes and knew that I had to try and help it. So I picked it up in one
NZ Fern
One of the symbols of NZ. hand and used my other hand to continue climbing up the rocky hill. About 10 minutes later I spotted the herd grazing on a patch of grass a bit further up. I left the kid close to the herd and climbed back down the hill content that I had done all I could. After travelling with a group of 10 people for a few weeks this was a really nice individual experience and I felt re-energised when I returned to Queenstown a few hours later.
Although the snowboarding was awesome the major highlight for myself was when we visited Cameron, my roommate from Vienna. We only stayed at his place one night but it was great to catch up with him and have a look around his parents' farm. We went for a tour of the farm in the morning helping him feed the deer and cattle with massive hay bales. I wish we could have stayed longer but we had to get to Queenstown that day to sign into our hotel so after lunch we headed off.
All in all it was one of the best trips I have ever been on and that was mainly due
Zorbing!
This was heaps of fun! 3 of us piled into each Zorb and it was then rolled down a hill, with all of us sliding around inside it! to the people! So thank you Dan, Morgan, Katrin, James, Deadman, Madan, Elena, Ziggy and Justin!!!
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A true Goat Joel, a true Goat.
I see you included my favourite NZ photo! I rated it 5 :) Its a shame you didnt mention my mad snowboarding skillz though. The world will be better off if they see that video! It brings laughter, and laughter brings love (how do i come up with stuff like that...)