New Zealand
We spent our last morning in Melbourne at the aquarium which was quite interesting and entertaining. The best thing was watching divers feeding the sharks and rays. Our flight to Christchurch was OK except that there was no food provided. On a previous flight which was not supposed to have food we had a very nice meal and free wine but we had to buy a rather miserable sandwich on this one. We arrived in Christchurch at about 11pm and had to unpack all our stuff again to have our boots and tent checked (biosecurity). So it was very late when we finally arrived at our hostel. There is not a huge amount to do in Christchurch really. Once you have had a look at the cathedral and been to the museum that is about it. But in the afternoon we went to the Royal New Zealand Agricultural Show which was good fun. It was huge and you could have spent the whole day there. We watched some sheep dog trials and looked at all the livestock. The merino rams were enormous – more like bears. And there were loads of tractors of all vintages – (Charlie eat your heart out!). There was a huge parade of all the animals that had won prizes and they paraded around to a pipe band – home from home.
The next day we caught the bus for Queenstown. It was a very scenic run which took about 6 hours and we saw Mt Cook in the distance. We had a hostel right on the lake with excellent views. This was to be our jumping off point for the Milford Track. We had a walk up Queenstown Hill which gave great views over the mountains including Ben Lomond which we determined to climb on our return to Queenstown. Then we started our long-awaited trip to the Milford Track- we had booked our places on 1st July on a computer in St Petersburg! We caught another bus to Te Anau where we spent the night at the YHA before catching yet another bus to Te Anau Downs where the boat leaves for the start of the Track. The boat trip takes just over an hour and then we were on the track. We got off the boat just after 3pm and it was only a short walk to the first hut -about 4km. The track goes through beechwoods for a lot of the time. The trees are covered in moss and lichens and the undergrowth is more dense than in the Chilterns beechwoods. It was very green: they get up to 7 metres of rain a year here. But we were on the trail for 4 days and had no rain at all. We were so lucky because sometimes you have to wade down the track or it becomes impassable altogether. We arrived at the hut at about 5pm. There were two big dorms and a well equipped kitchen. Gas rings are provided but you have to take your own pans etc. There is cold water only but the huts are very comfy. We were getting to know our fellow walkers when it became apparent that a lot of people had left the dining room. They had all gone to bed and it was only about 8.30pm! Anyone who has been away to a hostel or bunkhouse with me will know that I generally turn into a pumpkin well before everyone else so I was staggered. But a few of us stayed up until it got dark and went out for a short walk to see some glow worms which were really pretty – just like little fairy lights. On our return to the dorm everyone was asleep so I couldn’t find my ear plugs in the dark and the guy next to us snored all night long. So we got very little sleep, especially as people started to get up well before six. The days walk was only going to take about 6 hours at the very most so this struck us as quite unnecessary. But we got up – well you might as well after the door has been slammed a few times and people have been rustling plastic bags for ages. The walk to the next hut was mainly flat on a well-made path and stayed close to the river most of the way. Again we were mainly in the woods but there were occasional clearing where you could see the surrounding mountains still with snow on the tops. There were several areas where we weren’t allowed to stop because of the danger of avalanches. Although we had left well after most people we arrived quite early at the next hut and grabbed a couple of bunks in the corner to try to avoid a recurrence of the previous night. The day had been hot and sunny and as we arrived there was an avalanche on the mountain opposite the hut. We were recommended to walk up to the top of MacKinnon Pass that afternoon in case it was cloudy in the morning. So we tackled the zig zag path up to just over 1000m and were rewarded with spectacular views of snow-capped mountains and lush green valleys far below. And lots more avalanches – crack! whoosh! One of our fellow trampers was a guy called Neil who had bleached blonde hair arranged in a sort of a cap of 2″ spikes all over his head. Appearances can be very deceptive as he turned out to be very nice and good fun. The next day we did manage to stay in bed until about 7.30am and were one of the last to set off. It was cloudy so we were glad we had gone up the pass the previous day. We arrived at the top to find everyone trying to take photos in a cloud. The cloud did clear though later and it was another sunny hot day. There is a hut on the pass where you can make hot drinks but we didn’t bother. The path down was quite rough and we had to take a detour to avoid the risk of avalanches. One feature of the pass was mountain lilies which are in fact the world’s largest buttercups. Once we reached the valley floor we were back in the woods again, this time beside the Arthur River. There were lots of rapids and waterfalls on the way down to a day shelter where we had lunch. After that we had a bit of a detour to the Sutherland Falls, the highest waterfall in NZ and the 5th highest in the world (I think). It was very dramatic, roaring down and bouncing off rocks at the bottom. I had a refreshing cold shower in the spray. We then carried on to the last hut where there was a very naughty kea ( a big parrot) that took peoples boots if they didn’t put them out of reach. He strutted about looking for trouble all evening and the following morning. We decided to have a dip in the river but it was freezing. I stayed in for about 20 seconds – Katie got in as far as her knees, the wimp! Again people went to bed at 8pm! We had to be at Sandfly Point to catch the boat across Milford Sound by 2pm but it was only about 5-6 hours walk again so why they all had to get up before 6am again I really don’t know. You don’t want to get there too early and end up waiting for the boat for ages as it is called Sandfly Point for a reason. They are tiny black flies that give you an irritating bite if you are not careful. The walk on the last day was again mainly through woods. It was a lovely walk but if I have one criticism it would be the fact that most of the time you are in woods with very few open views.By the time we caught the boat the weather had deteriorated somewhat and it was all grey and cloudy. But by this time it didn’t really matter. We stayed the night in Milford Sound Lodge and came back to Queenstown this morning. We had dinner at the pub (The Blue Duck) in Milford. It took an hour to get our food (Gordon Ramsay would have delivered a few expletives I’m sure!) but it was nice to have something meaty that we had to chew as a change from porridge and noodles. And the beer wasn’t bad either for the Antipodes.
Tomorrow we intend to climb Ben Lomond and then on Saturday we will be off to Wanaka and will be climbing Mt. Aspiring next week (with any luck!)
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