Welcome to Wanaka

Posted on by

One of the great things with New Zealand is, you are never far from somewhere new and different. And just as importantly, if the weather isn’t pleasant where you are, drive for an hour and you might find something completely different in the skies above.

And that was exactly what I found in Wanaka. After staying in depressed little Cromwell for 2 nights, under continuously dark, drab and soggy clouds, I scrapped my plans for a bike ride (possibly to try again at the end of March) and made my way to Wanaka. Wanaka was a place I had heard lots about, but had yet to visit. Purportedly a wonderful little town with similar scenery and charms to Queenstown…but with a tiny fraction of the insane number of tourists. Sounded like my kind of place.

On your way into town you have the option of hiking a nearby hill, called Mt. Iron. Having sat around far too much in the past couple weeks, I opted for the stroll to the top. The weather had cleared on the drive, and I was keen to take advantage.

Continue reading →

And back to solo again

Posted on by

After 17 days of travel with Sabrina, Marc and Alexandra, we said our goodbyes at the Queenstown airport on March 3rd (yes, I know, quite a while ago!), and I went back to doing my own little thing. It was a fun, exhausting 17 days together. The weather didn’t help a lot, but it often was tolerable. The Routeburn was great, I was very happy to get out on the Tasman Glacier Lake and see some glacial icebergs, and climbing Fox Glacier is one of my highlights here in New Zealand. Marc and Alexandra got to experience skydiving in Kaikoura, Sabrina found some great wines in the Waipara and the 4 of us survived a stay in jail. I would have liked to go Paragliding in Queenstown with Alexandra (something she is still trying to get a refund for), and having better weather in a lot of places would have been enjoyable, but we made the most of it.

Originally, I had planned for March to kick off for me with a mountain bike ride across central Otago. The weather had other things in mind however, so after a few days of relaxing and listening to the rain pound down on my tent, I found myself wandering into a town called Wanaka.

Climbing Fox Glacier

Posted on by

After staying in Christchurch, we hit up Kaikoura next, with some success. The first day was fantastic – the other 3 got out onto a Whale Watching tour, saw 3 whales, some albatrosses and several dolphins. Marc and Alexandra then went skydiving, something that was high on their list of things to do in New Zealand, but hadn’t had the weather for so far. And we had a very tasty dinner. All in all, a very good day!

The next day the weather wasn’t cooperating, so the three unfortunately had their dolphin swim cancelled (one of my favourite memories here in New Zealand). That was very disappointing, but we still enjoyed the Kaikoura Peninsula walk before heading through the scenic Lindis Pass over to Greymouth, to spend the night there.

The next morning we drove up to Pancake Rocks, took in the sights, and then headed to a very soggy walk of Franz Josef glacier. The forecast for the next day was finally calling for some decent weather though…just in time.

We were headed to Fox Glacier to do some ice climbing! (note: A few pictures are courtesy of Alexandra and Sabrina)

Continue reading →

Tastes like wine!

Posted on by

One of the activities here in New Zealand that Sabrina was really keen on was wine tasting. New Zealand loves their wines, and they can grow a pretty decent variety. There are a few major wine growing regions, including Hawkes Bay, Wairarapa (near Wellington), Nelson/Marlborough, Central Otago (near Queenstown), and the Waipara, near Christchurch.

I’d never been wine tasting before, so I was curious to see how this day would play out. My extent of wine knowledge is being able to identify whether it is a white or red wine…and no further. Yes, I’m slovenly and uncouth.

Continue reading →

The Return to Edoras…and a couple nights in Jail

Posted on by

After the fun on Tasman Lake at Mt. Cook, we didn’t have much time to spare – we still had a full day of travel ahead of us, going from Mt. Cook to Christchurch. Not to mention, we were taking a detour along the way. But first was a quick stop at lovely Tekapo.

From there, we drove for several hours until arriving out our detour destination. Mt. Sunday, or Edoras from the Lord of the Rings films. Alex and Marc were keen to see the area.

Continue reading →

Tastes like freezing

Posted on by

After the Routeburn and Milford Sound, the trio and I stayed in Te Anau for the night. After that the other 3 went on a glow worm tour before we returned to Queenstown for another stop, once again midst pouring rain. We left Queenstown the next morning, still under the cover of rain and headed to Twizel, where Marc and Lexie enjoyed a Lord of the Rings Tour, while Sabrina and I wandered through the Clay Cliffs I had explored a while back (detailed here). Then, it was time to head to Mount Cook.

While Twizel had pretty good weather, Mt. Cook saw us return to rain and cold. Which was unfortunate, since the next morning we were going kayaking. And not just kayaking on any lake, but Tasman Lake, a lake that has the Tasman Glacier face at the far end of it – and numerous ice bergs floating in the lake. Kayaking amongst dozens of huge pieces of glacial ice? Sounds pretty cool.

Continue reading →

Months in the Making

Posted on by

While the posts will continue over the next few days (yay for post-scheduling abilities!), I’m actually going to be hiking on the world-renowned Milford Track, starting….well now. It’s a 4 day, 3 night, 54km trek that starts at one end of Lake Te Anau, and ends up dropping you into the Milford Sound. I made my booking over 4 months ago, and so I’m very excited to get out there. The track has a lot to live up to – a hike doesn’t get labelled ‘The Finest Walk in the World’ for no reason. Do I think it can actually live up to it’s storied reputation? No (I have my doubts that it will surpass the Tongariro in my books). But I would love to be wrong.