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Published: April 25th 2007
Chesnuts
Fallen Chesnuts off a nearby tree.Abel Tasman, Looking for Greenstone, and a Big Ice Cube.
Ferry from Wellington to Picton The ferry was much bigger then I expected with hundreds of people standing in line when we arrived. I had heard that on one of the decks, they had recliner chairs, which was the place to be if you were planning on sleeping for the 3 hour ride. Lucy, Gardenia, Anthony and I hurried on board to find a nice empty area and stretched out. As Gardenia and I discussed how big the ship was and how cool it was, Lucy yawned and made a few comments about how easily amused we Americans are. Lucy, being from the "small island" of England, had been on many ferries of this size, either to France, Denmark or Ireland, where some of her relatives lived. Although we agreed we were a little overexcited for something like this, we didn't care, and ran off to explore the ship. We found it had plenty of seats, 2 restaurants, some hanging plasma TV's near a bar, even a downstairs movie theater which would be playing a film later for 10 dollars. Gardenia decided this was for her, and paid
Ferry Across
From the North island to the South Island. this ferry was so big, they even had movies. the 10 bucks to watch the movie
300, which I was surprised to see on the boat so early after it's American release. I wonder if it was a bootleg.
After an amazing scenic boat ride, we finally arrived in Picton. We jumped off, gathered our bags, and waited at the bus stop for our new transportation. Golem was waiting for us, as he had flown over from Wellington to save time. Shortly our big, orange bus arrived with travelers heading north to Wellington and we quickly changed places, drivers, and bags. On our way towards Abel Tasman, we met a few new Stray travelers and even had time for a stop at a small vineyard in the Marlborough Wine Region for an afternoon refresher. Although next time I go, I'd like to do a little more exploring of the Marlborough region, as I hear they have some amazing wines.
Abel Tasman
Abel Tasman National Park was named after
Abel Tasman, surprise, surprise. As New Zealand's smallest national park, Abel Tasman is located on the North West End of the South Island with around 225 square kilometers of space. One of the parks most famous hikes, is a 32 mile coastal
Old McDonalds Farm
With a Cluck Cluck there, and a Moo Moo there, Here a LLama, there a pig, everywhere a oink oink. It was definitely filled with some animals. hike that can take 3-5 days to complete. Abel Tasman's coastline also has one of New Zealand's largest tidal ranges sometimes spanning as much as 18 feet between low and high tides.
We drove up to the small town of Marahau, where the Abel Tasman National Park starts, and were greeted by the owner of the catamaran company. Unfortunately, the weather was looking cloudy and nasty, and tomorrow's sailing might have to be canceled. At low tide, we noticed the entire bay was looking a little dry, except in a few puddles surrounded by
cockles and seaweed. Golem pointed out a small area of sand 100 feet off the shore. At high tide, he says it turns into a small floating sand island where you can camp out with chairs, an umbrella, and a cooler of beer. As much as I wanted to play stranded on an island with nothing but a coconut and beer, I decided I could find better things to do in Abel Tasman.
Our accommodation for the next 2 nights was at Old McDonald's Farm. Yes you heard me, Old McDonald's Farm, with a llama llama there, and a moo moo there... Our cabins
Abel Tasman Park
The clouds just hovered in the hills, not moving. It was very silent and creepy being there alone, although it made for great photos. were small with only 4 beds and a short walking distance to the toilets and showers. A common area had some padded benches, BBQ, 2 refrigerators, and a small kitchen. Golem had told us that these facilities were the least liked out of all the stops on the Stray tour, but the scenery and visual feel of the area was the best. I would have agreed, if it weren't for the clouds, rain, and cold. As we met the other Stray bus tour that had already been there from the night before, we were informed that there would most likely be rain tomorrow and that the sailing had a 99% chance of being canceled. So a small group decision was made to jump on the bus leaving in the morning and take off from Abel Tasman 1 day early. However, I had laundry to do and wasn't really in a hurry to leave, hoping that maybe a short window of clear skies would arise allowing some coastal walking and scenic national park photos. So the next morning, all 11 that had come with me, jumped on the new bus and headed towards Barrytown, leaving me alone with Anthony and Golem.
Ferry sights
Very nice sights on both sides of the boat. As I slowly rolled out of my freezing bed, I noticed how nice and quiet things were. I gathered some washing powder, took in the scenic mountain view, and had breakfast. As it had rained fairly hard that morning, it was slowly clearing up towards lunch time. The clouds hung in the mountains in small patches adding contrast from gray to green. The newly fallen rain, added droplets of water on fallen chestnuts and autumn colored trees. I finished up my laundry and then asked if Anthony wanted to take a walk down towards town. As we passed the llamas, peacocks, pigs, dogs, and other farm animals in the area, we came upon a wood carving business on the corner. They had some amazingly large pieces, made out of tree stumps. Finally at the Tasman Bay, we walked out onto the sand during it's apparent low tide. The cockles on the ground made a crunching noise with each step. A few shags were flying around, looking for fresh food, while bubbles came up from underground signifying locations of burrowing crabs. After finding out there was no way to take a water taxi to
Split Apple Rock, I jumped on the internet
Weird berries on tree
I think Anthony called these Tree Strawberries. for a bit and went back to take photos around the farm. Later that night, the next Stray bus arrived and I was again meeting new people. With the current rain situation still not getting better, 7 of the new arrivals decided to copy my previous bus and leave with me a day early.
Pancake Rocks and Barrytown As I met the new travelers, I again was reminded how I liked the Irish accent and had totally forgotten about the Australia or New Zealand one. It's weird that after 3 months of traveling, these differences now have started to feel like the norm. We drove down from Abel Tasman, west towards the coast as the rain started to thin out. During this time, I got to meet Sharon, Nick, Mike, Amy, Fiona, Jenny, and Kiera. As we got to the coast, I was amazed at the beauty of the scenery. The road was high above the sea, looking down on the shore and large rock pillars sticking out of the water. Green hills to the left, the sea to the right. Further down the road, we were greated by a broken down Magic Bus, and took on the
Low Tide
During Low Tide, you could walk out to a sand island, and then at high tide, it would get surrounded by water and be your own little stranded island oasis. new passengers for the next 10 miles to Pancake Rocks and Punakaiki. Hmmm, glad I picked Stray.
Pancake Rocks, so conveniently named, looks like a bunch of rock pancakes pilled on top of each other and eroded by the sea. These limestone formations cover the area around well maintained walkways, giving wonderful views of the sea. During high tide, a blowhole of water displayed short bursts of sea water up into the air. A quick latte at the shop across the street and we were off towards Barrytown, where shenanigans and chaos would surely ensue.
Barrytown, or Baz Vegas, is a very small town just north of Greymouth. With no more then 200 residents, we stopped at the Barrytown hostel which seemed more like a biker bar at first. We were shown to our rooms, and surprised to see they were normal sized with a great ocean view. We quickly threw our stuff down and headed for a walk to the beach to watch the sunset. At the beach, we scanned around the sand and waters for
greenstone , or New Zealand jade. I found a few nice looking stones, threw them in my pocket, and continued to take
The Bay
Low tide means Cockles for Shags. They would dig in the sand and get at the Cockles. The ground cracked in shells while we were walking around on it. photos of the wonderful beach and sunset. A fallen tree had most likely washed up on shore, making for convenient photos. Truly an amazing sunset, little did I know what lay in store back at the hostel. Apparently the rest of the previous Stray bus had decided to all leave Abel Tasman a day early and were settling into the hostel. Tonights 7 person event had just turned into a 15 person event.
That night, happy hour lasted for 2 hours between 8-10, but would be extended by the bar if everyone "dressed up." Now the rules of the dress up were a little cloudy, as Golem said it had to be cross dressing, while others said it was just wearing something out of the 5 large bins of old clothes that they brought out. Now I have to say, no collection of old clothes has ever smelled so bad, so I wore as little as possible. A huge pair of silk boxers, on top of my own boxers, and a small red top. Some of the others went all out, wearing full dresses and other crazy outfits. By the end of the night, we were all laughing, having
Ground in Bay
Sand, Seaweed, and Cockles. a good time. Anthony even got his new nickname that night, after inhaling a large pitcher of drinks through a snorkel. "Sponge" was born.
In the morning, I got up early to take a few more photos. I headed back up to the hostel just in time to join the group walking across the street to do some bone carving. This odd activity wasn't something I expected to like, but had seen many necklaces around New Zealand, all carved from bone. Back in the early days when the Maori were doing it, whale bone was used. Today, beef bones are used for obvious reasons. As we got to the little workshop hut behind their house, we were told to pick out our designs or create our own. I felt creative and decided to design my own, how about something poker related. I took a piece of paper and slowly created a spade design. We all picked our bones, drew in our design, and had the instructor cut out the delicate parts. Then we were sent off, with not much training mind you, to sand with these large grinding machines. We grinded, used dremels, and even hand sanded for hours.
LLAMA
The fields were filled with llamas. If only my friend Frevert could have been there. Finally, it was buffing time, and our creations were complete. I thought mine turned out pretty good, as well as liking some of the others designs too. My hands were tired, but it was well worth it.
We were done with all the Barrytown excitement and headed off on our next adventure, the Franz Joseph Glacier. As we continued driving down the amazing costal views, Golem spotted 2 more
Spaceships, lucky for us, he didn't find the third. (Spaceships are orange mini caravans owned by Stray, that if the driver spots 3 before you spot 1, you have to buy him a drink. But if you yell out Spaceship first, he has to buy you a drink)
Franz Joseph Glacier
Who is Franz Joseph you may ask, well I don't know. So I've added a link. All I know, is that there is this huge glacier of ice sitting in between two mountains, and tomorrow, I'm climbing it. We arrived in Franz Joseph, with the backdrop of this amazing mountain scene off in the distance. We checked into our hostel, a very nice place with 4 beds and an ensuite bathroom. The sliding glass doors and curtains made it feel more like a living room, but at least there was a small refrigerator. Lucy, Gardenia, and Clint were also there to greet us, tired and exhausted since they had done the steep climb that afternoon. We all met up at the bar for happy hour drinks and fish & chips. A nice roaring
Pancake Rocks
Pancake Rocks. An area on the West Coast that was somewhat anticlimactic, but still had some cool rock formations. fire sat at the end of a room lined with Jägermeister bottles and animal heads.
Up early and ready for the climb, we were a little tired from the false fire alarm going off at 4AM in the morning, a few too many times. Apparently the showers steam up so thick that if your bathroom door is left open, it triggers the alarm. At the climbing company, we were fitted with boots,
crampons, coats, and pants, and were off on our full day hike up the ice. Walking through the trails, we eventually got to a clearing and saw the glacier off in the distance. The valley was enormous, lined with tall peaks on both sides, waterfalls, tons of rocks and boulders, and a small rushing creek of melted glacier water. At the point we exited the forest trail, our guide told us that the glacier was a little over a mile away, but by the optical illusion of the mountain walls, it appeared to be only 500 feet away. We walked for 15 minutes, before we crossed some amusing and yet scary warning signs. At the base of the glacier, we put on our crampons, split up into
Abel Tasman Wood carvings
A shop at the entrance to the park has some very extraordinary carvings in stumps, trees, and stand alone pieces. groups, and started the hike up this giant ice cube.
The first thing I noticed was the guide slowly making his way up the ice making custom stairs for us to climb. Apparently, the ice melts so fast that the stairs that are made on the way up, are quickly frozen over with melted ice and need to be re-cut again. The guide was furiously cutting holes and clearing away pieces of ice in the gutter next to the stairs, making sure the running water didn't spill over his newly cut stairs or even us onto below. The ice was really densely packed and we had to firmly stomp our feet each time we walked to make sure we got good spike traction. The ice was dirtier then I expected, with rocks, mud, and no color at all.
For the first 40 minutes of the climb, it was fairly simple hiking. Some 20 or more tours were going on at the same time, all with guides communicating with each other on walkie talkie's, giving the previous guides advice on places to advance. Each time a tour guide goes up the glacier, he takes a different route, as the
Barrytown's Sunset with tree
Gotta love the West Coast, gotta love a great sunset. ice moves, melts, and refreezes every night. One amazing fact, is that the Franz Joseph Glacier is retreating 10 times faster then most glaciers at a rate of 70 cm a day. This makes the ice very unpredictable and the melting creates new tunnels, valleys, crevasses, and paths.
Finally getting away form some of the dirty ice, I noticed the ice getting bluer. The colors were definitely more spectacular the higher we climbed. We jumped a few 20 foot deep crevasses, slide down some stairs, and stopped for lunch at a valley next to some holes. The stairs led up to a ice tunnel, which our guide had informed us wasn't there 5 days before. The melting water, funnels through a hole, making it bigger and bigger, until it makes a winding tunnel for us lucky tourists to walk through. So after lunch, we climbed up and started moving through the tunnel one by one. It was cold, wet, and dripping water, but even underground, was a brilliant blue color. I expressed my amazement out loud as my voice echoed through this tight ice tube. 15 feet up the slight incline and we were out of the tunnel. This
Stray Bus
Our home for 21 days. It leaked, it reaked, and it creaked, but we had fun on it. was easily the best part of the climb.
We continued on up the glacier, wondering how much further we could get before we had to turn around and climb back down. We climbed up 30 foot steps, jumped over small crevasses, and walked between large boulders of ice. Some of the people on the tour guide were in fact a little too scared to climb certain areas of our trek, having to stop and take 5 minutes to jump from one ledge to the other, while holding a secured rope. At the time, I thought this was ruining my climb, but I now think back to how dangerous this climb really was. We were on a huge block of slippery ice with deep crevasses and all we had was a guide with a walkie talkie and a pick ax. At times, we were actually jumping over 2 foot crevasses, 20 feet deep, with nothing more then a rope to hold on to and our guides hand. If anyone had fallen, a rescue helicopter would have to be called in, as there is no other way to remove someone from a 20 foot deep, narrowing crevasse.
Unfortunately we didn't
Barrytown and our drivers
Our drivers, DC and Golum, having fun with their costumes. make it to the top, but our guide said we had definitely gotten farther then most groups. We were going to have to turn around and start making our way down now. As we descended slowly, we noticed we ran into other groups going down as well, which caused some slow down and unnecessary waiting. We noticed the hold up was all the people waiting to cross the crevasses one at a time. In the end, it seemed like it took longer to get down then to get up. But we finally made it, getting to the forest trail right as it began to lightly rain.
That night we had a celebratory hot tub swim, I say swim cause this was a hot tub that could have fit 20 people. We ate our dinners by the fire in the bar again and enjoyed some pool and beer. Tomorrow we were heading out to Wannaka, Makarura, and Queenstown. Down to 1 week left in New Zealand and I was already missing it.
Next up: Wannaka's Puzzle World, Makarura's Musical Chairs of Death, and Queenstown's magnificent views
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the ningster
non-member comment
The ferry
is where I saw Starsky and Hutch. And yes, I agree, you were over-excited. Great glacier shots!