It was raining pretty hard today, so I decided to skip the camping and find dry accommodation. I am writing this to you from a yurt, or a canvas tee-pee of sorts set up in the garden of a backpacker’s lodge. Always wanted to stay in one of these things. Kinda fun! Tomorrow, I plan to start a multi-day hike through Abel Tasman National Park in the NW corner of the South Island. I need to get the permits and my hut reservations sorted out tomorrow morning but it is supposed to be a classic NZ “tramp” – a boat ride to the trailhead and then a 4-day hike along the coast back to the car! If I can get the hike done quickly enough, I might catch a swell on the West Coast by Sunday or Monday.
Also, my dad booked his flights for January, so Mt. Cook is now an inevitability. He’s due into Christchurch right after Christmas where I’ll pick him up after a three-week tour of the South Island. At that point, my remaining time in New Zealand will be dedicated to climbing Mt. Cook, getting rid of the car, and then figuring out how and where to go next (still haven’t made up my mind, although I know I won’t stay here to work: lots of boring visa details behind that, but I’ll either travel more (maybe Asia?) or come home for a while). Initially, I had been thinking about looking for a construction job in Christchurch, but from what I hear they are turning people away because the ground is still shaking and they still haven’t figured out who is going to pay for all the repairs (insurance, government, etc.). So, the major reconstruction efforts haven’t actually commenced yet.
In any case, my last week on the North Island was definitely a memorable one. The highlights were that I caught a huge trout on Lake Taupo (which is a beautiful place, definitely my favorite so far), I hiked a ten-mile mountain pass between two volcanoes (in the rain), and hung out in the capital, Wellington, for a couple days, which is maybe like the San Francisco of New Zealand.
(Mac's bar in Wellington):
Thinking back on my initial hopes for the trip, I remember just wanting to be in shorts and sandals everyday (my favorite attire), not unlike the times I’ve been to Hawaii or Costa Rica. I’m not sure where I got this idea. It’s just a persistent, irrational hope of mine that comes with thoughts of travel. That hope was quickly burst and the necessary wardrobe has not been too unlike California: shorts and sandals in the middle of warm days, but mostly jeans and T-shirts, and a sweater in the evenings, plus a good rain jacket, kept handy for sudden cloud bursts. So far, the weather has come in spurts, 3 or 4 days of sun followed by 3 or 4 days of rain.
My time on Lake Taupo saw a bit of both. The first few days were clear enough to see across the lake to the snowy volcanic peaks beyond the opposite shore. I spent one of those days cleaning up and restocking supplies, another fishing the tributary rivers, and the third on Lake Taupo itself, with a guide, which is how I caught this:
Biggest trout I ever caught, but it was barely big enough to legally keep. The fishing here is world-class. The trout get monstrous. Most of the surrounding shops and restaurants have stuffed trophies on the walls: 20 lb beasts that are barely recognizable as trout anymore. When they get that big, they look more like Salmon with long, hooked lower jaws that protrude like beaks with teeth.
The next day I did the mountain crossing, and wasn’t so lucky with the weather. It was supposed to be clear with “occasional showers”. The first ten minutes were like that. The rest of the day was just “wet”. I actually lost a pair of jeans to this hike. They were getting old and ready to go anyway, but they got soaked through, and I as I tugged them up towards the end of the hike, they ripped across the thigh. Funny enough, a handful of Kiwis had warned me about hiking in jeans and tennis shoes, which is what I always do at home, and that always works out fine. People kept telling me I should have hiking pants and sturdy boots. I was starting to say that if one more person told me that I was going to do it barefoot in my underwear just to prove them wrong. Well, I lost my jeans and bought some lightweight, quick-drying pants. So far, my shoes are fine, and I’m going to keep hiking in those.
In any case, given the miserable weather conditions, there wasn’t a whole lot to see or pleasant places to stop, so I just put my head down and kept walking. I ended up doing this hike in 4.5 hours. The expected time is 6.5 – 7 hours. My pictures don’t quite hold up to the advertised tourist photos. The hike starts around 3300’ elevation and abruptly climbs to a 9000’ pass between two active, snow-covered volcanoes. Then it follows a knife-blade ridge past a red crater and couple of crystal blue and green thermal lakes to a long, gradual descent over alpine scrub and through a lush rainforest back to a dirt lot where you might have left your car or have a bus waiting to pick you up. I hitched out.
The approach (my ascent into the clouds):
The fabled "Emerald" lakes near the summit:
Too cloudy for good pictures. I did, however, get this shot from the road the day before:
Wellington was a pleasant city, like San Francisco, as I said: a compact metropolis with modern structures and old Victorians rolling over hills to the ocean and bays. Much nicer than Auckland, but still not for me. I actually found free camping along the waterfront in what appeared to be a fairly upscale neighborhood, and it was very popular with other vans like Betsy:
Actually saw Orcas swimming through here the second day, which was pretty cool, and I caught a fish right in front of the van, on the first cast, which made me a somewhat of a small celebrity in the camp.
It’s light from 5:30a to 8:30p, which means you can get a lot done in a day. And away from the cities and backpacker’s, it’s quiet enough to listen to my iPod without speakers while I make dinner. I wish I could put up these posts more often, but I’m not at a computer every day and wi-fi out here is sparse and expensive. Besides, I need to be out doing stuff so I have something to write about.
On that note, until next time…
On that note, until next time…
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