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Published: March 31st 2006
Blue Waters
All the water in New Zealand is this sort of turquoise blue color - like nothing else I've ever seen.Hello! If you are a friend who clicked on the face book link, "what up". If you are a friend from Middlebury, you should be working right now, slacker.
Name is Ed. Since this is my first entry I thought I'd lay out a quick intro. Again, I am an undergrad student at Middlebury College (VT) with aspirations of one day becoming a medical student with aspirations of one day becoming a doctor. At the moment, I am studying for my second semester in Perth, Australia. It's a good time.
This will be my first travel blog (hell, my first blog) ever, so you'll have to bear with me. The reason for my doing this blog is mainly because I feel it is a good means of transcribing my travels for later. I've travelled around Australia a lot already, hitting up the good bits of West Australia, and much of the South, Southeast part of Australia (Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and everything important in between). I thought my pictures would be enough to remember these trips by but, in hindsight, pictures can only tell so much of the story. A narrative to go along with
them would make so much more. So not only does this blog allow me to provide a narrative for myself for future reference, but now I can share it with friends and family. It's pretty much a win-win situation.
I took this trip to NZ about 5 weeks ago, but whatever, the experience is still somewhat fresh in my mind. A few of the names of places and people are blurry, but I'll do my best. So, enough of the introductions, on to New Zealand.
A Kiwi Experience Before this semester started, I went to New Zealand for a 2 1/2 week trip. I arrived in Perth February 1st, which just so happened to be my birthday. Most normal kids in America that turn 21 go out and get trashed, but I got the next best thing: jet lag - all the disorientation and fatigue of binge drinking without the trivial nasty bits (like fun). After I dropped off 80%!o(MISSING)f my luggage, not more than 14 hours after I landed, I flew out of Perth to New Zealand.
I arrived (quite exhausted) to Christchurch, the largest city on the South Island. After hibernating
The Kiwi Countryside
Blue skies, green mountains, yellow plains, and sheep. If this ain't New Zealand, I don't know what is. for 13 hours, I awoke. Lonely Planet book in hand, I set out to explore the city. It only took a couple hours to see the interesting parts in the area surrounding Cathedral Square, the centerpoint of the city. I have an unhealthy obsession where I absolutely have to check out the botanical gardens of every city I visit (something I picked up traveling throuh Adelaide-Melbourne-Sydney). I scoped out some of the indoor exhibits of the Christchurch Botanical Gardens and walked around the Christchurch aquarium and the Canterbury Museum. The aquarium was only mediocre, but it did have some crazy big eels. The museum was huge, and seemingly had an exhibit for just about every facet of NZ life from every point in history, from Maori culture to Antarctic expeditions to dinosours. The next day I woke up early to catch the shuttle for my first day on the KiwiExperience tour, the company I would run with for the duration of my stay in NZ.
KiwiExperience is the biggest of the three main backpacker tourist companies in New Zealand. It is one of the more expensive ones, but I reckon the extra money is for the lengthy experience the
The Pancakes
In Australia, I feel I've spent an inordinate amount of time staring at rocks (hell, and I haven't even been to Ayers). These are the only rocks of interest in NZ company has had (they attract the most backpackers and get the best local tourist deals), which makes it worth it. They essentially have tour buses running the same circuit around both islands every single day, and you can hop on and off as you please. I took similar bus tours traveling West Australia and Southeast Australia. True, this option is more expensive than just traveling around alone, but I rationalize the extra money going towards the "social cost": tour companies provide a quick, easy way to meet many many young, like-minded backpackers, and it's always preferable to travel with company (plus you always have a large group to go out and party with during the nights). Anyways, day 2 in NZ, I leave Christchurch for Westport, where the shuttle meets up with the main bus (a 40 person coach).
Good Morning, New Zealand No one really goes to NZ to see the cities, the appeal for most lay in the countryside; quite frankly, New Zealand is a beautiful country. The trees appear greener, the air appears fresher and the water appears bluer (actually, the water really is more blue than normal water because of the melting
Busin'
A quick pic of the behemouth of a bus that dragged me around NZ. They had many, many of these buses running in different parts of NZ at any given time, and often they were quite full. glaciers). After a morning/afternoon driving from the East Coast to the West, we finally arrived in Westport, where we met the rest of the bus. Much to my surprise, one of the other bus riders was a girl who I had met 5 months prior traveling in West Australia. Back then, we had a conversation for only about 20 minutes in Tom Price, WA and four months later we were riding the same bus again in Westport. To this day I can't believe her remarkable memory. Many of the backpackers in the Australasia area run the same circuit of destinations: Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji. Thus, considering the extremely high frequency of meeting people and moving on, it is completely plausable to see some of the same faces again from one country to the next.
The third day of the tour started with a drive down the west coast of NZ, from Westport to Lake Mahinapua. Along the way, we stopped to explore the strange rock formations of Punakaiki, including the aptly-named "Pancake" rocks. That night we arrived at the Lake Mahinapua Hotel (also aptly-named the "poo pub"), for a rousing theme party. The theme of the
Signs
This is just a random sign I got a kick out of. Find any? party was the letter "P", where you had to dress up as anything beginning with the letter P using only the clothes you had on you. Not surprisingly, most of the travellers on the bus (guys and girls alike) took the opportunity to dress as a prostitute. My days of cross-dressing are long behind me, but most of the European guys had no problem squeezing into one of the female rider's dresses (Europeans...certainly a different breed). I was a professional basketball player. Oddly enough, it all made me think of Sesame Street, I could hear the credits now: " This alcohol-induced-cross-dressing-debauchery was brought to you by: the letter P". But children's television programs aside, I had a great time. To show how long the KiwiExperience company has been doing this (they hold a party here for every bus that comes through, which again is every day), the propietor of the poo pub takes a photo of the bus group of the day and sticks it on the wall. The pub was a sizeable area, and the walls were literally lined corner to corner, floor to ceiling, with photos of the countless buses and countless parties that have come through. There
Franz Josef Glacier
No, this is not a scene from the popular film, "Vertical Limit". This is Franz Josef, baby. must have been thousands of them. There were so many it took me 15 minutes to find an open spot on the wall where our picture could fit in. Anyways, the next morning everyone awoke bright and early at 8:00, all in different stages of hangovers. We departed the Lake Mahinapua to Franz Josef, home of one of NZ's two famous glaciers.
The forth day was a free day to stick around Franz Josef. Almost everyone on the bus does the glacier climb, supposedly one of the highest rated activities by KiwiExperience backpackers. Like most others on my bus, I chose the full day tour, 8 hours of ice hiking sweetness. You meet with the tour guides early in the morning, they outfit you with what seems to be everything but the kitchen sink: boots, waterproof pants & jacket, gloves, a hat, a set of cramp-ons and even a little ice pick (pick optional - but makes for a bad-ass picture). Then, up you climb. They divide you up based on aggressiveness. Those that want to be the fastest go first, but eventually everyone stops at the same destination. Naturally, in all my confidence, I opt for the fastest
You Lookin' At Me?
A completely pre-meditated but nevertheless bad-ass pose. group, thinking we would see the most. Wrong. We saw just as much as the group behind us. With all the downtime from the guide having to cut out steps, we didn't seem to move that fast at all. Basically, the tour is the guide eye-balling the glacier and picking a random route upwards - it makes the experience more exciting because your particular run up the glacier is unique from every other day, but it also means more downtime because the guide must constantly re-assess the situation as you move farther up the glacier. What made the trip great were all the huge cracks and crevasses we had to jump over or shuffle along. There were numerous points where it occurs to you that even the slightest slip could send you 30 feet into a hole where you could very well break some serious limbs, which I found exciting. I am honestly surprised more people don't get hurt climbing the glacier. From the point I left the hostel to the point I returned, the entire expedition had taken 12 hours. I slept like a baby that night.
Day five we said goodbye to the West Coast after making
Atop The Ben Lomond
The peak of my 8hr hike. I was lucky enough to have perfect weather. Not as lucky with the timer on the camera, however. a quick stop at Ship Cove and headed to Lake Wanaka. The accomodation here was probably the best of my entire trip, the place felt just like a real hotel (perhaps because it was one). Other than that, there really wasn't much else going on in Wanaka. I took a walk with a couple of girls down the lake, and spotted this tree completely surrounded by lake water. At the time, it struck me as profound: it was life, reality, humanity, existence, religion all encapsulated in one - it was love and hate, happiness and sadness - it was me. Upon further reflection, my moment of artistic and metaphysical clarity had subsided. In the end, it was just a damned good picture.
The one and only highlight of the 6th day was Puzzle World, a "magical" place where you pay eight bucks to be baffled by simple mind tricks and optical illusions and then baffled again by a frustrating maze that surrounds the building. Slightly too much bafflement at once. Though the place was interesting, it wasn't something I felt was a "must-do" in New Zealand. If I ever really wanted to mess with my mind I would settle
A Kodak Moment
A Japanese couple that had gotten to the Ben Lomond summit way before me. to pay 5 bucks for a used "Magic Eye" book.
Queenstown: Where All Good Backpackers Go When They Die The real bread and butter of the NZ experience is Queenstown, the central hub for all things extreme, outdoorsy, or both. With its plethora of daytime activities and rambunctious nightlife, one could easily get sucked into Queenstown for a long, long time. I stayed for 5 nights, longer than any one destination on my trip. So from the 7th through 10th days I did activities in the Queenstown area, highlights being:
1. A trip to Arrowtown, a neighboring municipality that had an old restored Chinese miner settlement - thought I would get in touch with the roots a little. This is one of the few "cultural" activities I did in NZ.
2. Bungee jumping off the Nevis, which, at 134 meters, is the highest bunjee jump in New Zealand (supposedly 4th in the world). It was great but the girl I had asked to tape me doing it with my camera somehow - and this still boggles my mind (more than Puzzle World) -
somehow managed to film everything
but my actually
Waterfalls
The cruise went directly under one of the waterfalls off the Milfred Sound. My camera got really wet from this shot. jumping off and falling, leaving me footage of only them initially strapping and later unstrapping my feet from the cord. Luckily, she had the foresight to ask another girl to take a shot from a different angle with her own camera, so at least I got
something.
3. A day trip to the Milfred Sound, NZ's much-acclaimed uber-fjord. The tour was a five hour drive for a two hour boat cruise - a long way to go for a brief peek at the Sound, but it was nevertheless spectacular.
4. A 8 hour hike up the local peak, the Ben Lomond trail. This was perhaps my favorite highlight of the trip. Not only did I experience jaw-dropping views on a perfectly clear day sitting atop the highest point for miles, but I did the whole thing, all 8 hours, alone - it was a personally rewarding experience. The first leg had the option of paying for a gondola ride to take me up the initial 400m, but of course, being the hard-core (and dirt-cheap) hiker I am, I opted to climb that bit by myself. The result was my becoming very lost and wasting a considerable amount of time. When
A Seal
He's waving! Look! Ah, damn, I think he was just turning. Yea, he went back to sleep. I finally reached the top of the gondola, I stopped at the restaurant to eat a sandwhich I had packed (yes, there was a restaurant up there among a number of other touristy venues catering to the hundreds of people that take the gondola up). I still remember gnawing away at my ham and cheese sandwhich alone, dripping with sweat, surrounded by elderly and Japanese tourists sipping their cafe lattes while at the same staring at me like I had a second head. Pansies.
So, four days, five nights, and several hundred dollars later, I grudgingly left Queenstown to continue my journey. By now, many of the people I had traveled with down the West Coast had split off to other buses. The 11th day was a long drive back up to Christchurch, where I stayed one night (in the same hostel), and left again in the morning for Kaikoura. Kaikoura is renowned nation-wide as the best place to view marine wildlife. Having spent a mint in Queenstown only a few days prior, I opted not to participate in the many (expensive) sealife excursions available. I did, however, walk to the local seal colony to check out some seals.
Te Papa
The entrance to the Te Papa Museum in Wellington had a huge marble ball suspended in a water fountain. Shortly after taking this photo, I realized they were handing out free drinks. They really live great lives. At low tide, when everyone goes down to see them, they are all sleeping. It's almost comical how all the tourists (myself included) crowd around the seals as they sleep, hoping they wake up and do something interesting. We would sit there and wait, with an almost obsessive patience, for a scratch, a roll, a yawn,
anything that would show a sign of life - in hopes of catching a glimpse (and perhaps a good photo) of a real, living, moving seal - the "real seal", if you will (I couldn't resist).
Welcome To The North Island, Be Sure To Drink In Our Museums Day 13 we rode from Kaikura to Picton, where we hopped on a ferry and bid the South Island farewell. The ferry landed in Wellington, the capital of NZ. I walked around for a little bit with my Brazilian friend, and we gave a quick run through the much-vaunted Te Papa museum, the cultural pride of Wellington. The museum was huge, not nearly large enough to cover in the one hour we had left allocated to sight-seeing, but we tried anyway. By chance, there was
Walking On the Clouds
The top of the infamous Mt. Doom. I don't know how the hell Frodo did this, especially with bare feet. a celebration in the gift shop for the opening of a new exhibit, and they just happened to be handing out free wine to honor the occasion. Naturally, my Brazillian homeboy and I had to partake in a few glasses, enough so when we later met up with some other girls from the bus, we were in fantastic spirits. The Kiwi's really know how to make learning fun.
The next day (14) we arrived at Lake Taupo, the largest lake in NZ. One of the highlights here was cheap skydiving (which is practically an oxymoron, its like saying a "cheap diamond" or a "cheap faberge egg"). I was going to take a pass on it, but I figured, "Will I ever again get the chance to skydive so cheaply?" so in the end I jumped for the opportunity (get it? ah, nevermind).
I stuck around in Taupo for an extra night to do the Tongariro Crossing, supposedly the "best day-walk" in all of NZ. The walk extends over a couple of big crators and the entire area is spotted with volcanic activity. Not too shabby. As an added bonus, you have the option (if you are fit enough)
Walking Through The Fields
The last leg of the Tongariro Crossing consisted of going back an forth on this zig-zag path down a hill. Kind of anticlimactic considering an hour before we were on an active volcano. to climb Mt. Ngauruhoe, or as it is more popularly known: Mt. Doom from the Lord Of The Rings movie. As you can guess, me and my Sweedish friend, Henry, opted to climb Mt. Ngauruhoe, 1.) because it's an active volcano, which is sweet, and 2.) because it's friggin' Mt. Doom. The entire crossing was amazing. Spectacular views in every direction, from every point. The highlight was descending from Mt. Doom, which consists of sliding down on your feet through the tiny pebbles that cover the volcano.
Finally, on the 16th and last day of my trip, I arrived in Auckland, the biggest city in NZ. New Zealand a population of about 4 million people, and a third of them live here. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to properly explore the city, as 1.) I had spent too much time everywhere else, thus had only one night to see the whole city, and 2.) had realized, on the day before my departing flight, that I had lost my camera, thus spent much of the night frantically looking for it. I was pretty upset with having lost my camera, not because of the camera itself, but because of the photos in
Rivers Run Wild
I mean, christ, even the moss is friggin' beautiful. it, that were of immeasurably more value to me. Luckily, after some persistent calling to KiwiExperience, the camera was found on the bus and I arranged for a shipping company to pick it up and send it to me in Perth. The staff at KiwiExperience were of great help, and their part in resolving an otherwise crushing predicament restored my faith in humanity (or at least in Kiwis).
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