New Zealand | Day 13 | Golden Bay to Wellington | Thursday, Feb. 10th, 2011

Today was a travel day.  We had to be up bright and early to head for Picton to return the rental car and get on the ferry across Cook Strait to Wellington.  We left the beautiful beaches of Pohara behind, drove back over Takaka Hill, and headed northeast towards the port town of Picton.  During the four hour drive we crossed through more gorgeous landscapes, and finished up with the jaw-dropping Queen Charlotte Drive along the Marlborough Sounds.  We arrived in Picton around 12:30, cleaned out the car, and checked our packs into the ferry terminal.  Our ferry left at 2:20, and by 5:30 we were arriving in Wellington.  We had decided to splurge on hotels in the big cities, so we checked into the Copthorne Oriental Bay, which had really nice beds, a huge shower, and great views of the city (and 39 NZD/day internet - ouch!).

We were both quite hungry, and internetless, so we found a place to eat the old-fashioned way - in the guidebook.  Having eaten over 30 meals at that point, we had tried almost every manifestation of traditional Kiwi cuisine, so we continued our search for good pizza at Scopa, which was touted to be the best in Wellington.  We tried the quattro formaggio, and although it was quite small, it was probably the best pizza we'd had so far.  Even after trying the tiramisu, I was still hungry, so we stopped by a middle eastern restaurant and had some kebabs.  Now completely full, we strolled back to the hotel and called it a night.

New Zealand | Day 12 | Golden Bay | Wednesday, Feb. 9th, 2011

We didn't get up quite as bright or early as intended, but hey - we're on vacation!  We got into our swimming suits and had a quick granola bar breakfast before heading to the Wainui Falls trailhead at about 10:30.  It was a gorgeous day with clear skies in every direction - a very welcome sight.  On the way out, we saw the sign for Golden Bay Kayaks, and we were considering it, but also wanted to do a hike on the Abel Tasman.  We shelfed the idea and continued to the carpark.  Our guidebook indicated that it was possible to swim in the pool at the base of the falls, so we cruised up the 30 minute trail, hoping to take a dip.  Along the way, there was a cool swingbridge and at the end we found the falls, with the pool as promised.  We also found that the pool was nearly as cold as Doubtful Sound, but that certainly didn't stop us.  We took turns jumping in and taking footage, and a family that we had passed on the way up came and joined in the fun.  The father and adult son took the plunge briefly, mentioned something about shrinking testicles, and climbed back up to the trail.  The black flies were getting ferocious, so we headed back towards the car.

Wainui Falls

One sweet experience down, two to go.  We kept on driving to the western terminus of the Abel Tasman trail, just a few km down the road.  As we looked at the map and tried to decide on our destination, a European couple walked up and started chatting with us.  Unsolicited, they mentioned that they had gone kayaking the day before and it was totally amazing.  We asked if they had made a reservation - nope, they just walked right up and rented it on the spot.  We looked at each other, got into the car, and drove back towards the kayaking place.  We found the proprietor in the process of renting kayaks to several other people, so it took awhile to actually get in the water, but it was fine because Clark was busy making friends with the locals.

By the time we started, it was about 1:30.  There was a bit of wind, and the water was choppy due to an afternoon sea breeze, but the mesmerizing water color and rock formations more than made up for the extra work.  We skirted along the shoreline, paddling between giant rocks, past a mussel farm, and into a tidal basin that had been empty that morning when we drove to Wainui Falls.  We found a sheltered beach and pulled the kayak on shore.  It was like having our own temporary lagoon.  We splashed around, had a snack, and relaxed on the beach for awhile, and decided we ought to head back.  The waves and wind had calmed somewhat, so our return journey was much smoother, and we got to explore the formations a bit more.

A sampling of Golden Bay shoreline

 

Clark reprising her paddle guitar role

We got back to Tata Beach around 4pm, ready to start our last adventure of the day: Wharariki Beach (pronounced far-a-ricky).We drove about an hour west, out to the farthest reaches of the South Island.  There is sort of a 3-in-1 attraction there: Farewell Spit, an arm of land that stretches out into the sea and is home to tons of bird species (cool, but not really our thing), Cape Farewell, which is a gorgeous bluff region between Farewell Spit and our primary goal, Whaririki Beach.  All of these are located within about 5 miles of each other, so we popped into the visitor center, took a look at the map, and drove down to the Pillar Point lighthouse track, making a 30 minute climb for some panoramic views of the area.  It was already almost 6, so we headed over to the Whaririki carpark and started the 20 minute hike to the beach.  You wouldn't believe there was even a beach out there judging by the large sheep station we crossed through to get there.  Instead of relying on visitors to open and close gates (I wouldn't trust tourists either!) they constructed stairs to walk over the fences between paddocks.  Soon enough we could see the farmland turning into sand dunes, and we came over one last dune to see the ocean.  Jaw dropping, gorgeous, stop dead in your tracks scenery.  This wasn't just any beach.  We pretend-slalomed down the sand dune and walked toward the water.  I don't think it would have been nearly as impressive during high tide, but since it was near low tide, the beach was exposed for a few hundred meters.  We walked down towards the water to explore a cavern, and as the waves were crashing against the massive rock formations, we noticed that the sand was quite wet.

Farewell Spit as seen from Pillar Point

Cape Farewell

The trail to Wharariki Beach

We were about to find out why - the beach is so flat, that when waves build up and come on shore it comes in thin sheets that cascade on top of each other.  I've never seen anything like it (recurring theme?) and remained captivated for several minutes.  The water actually came over 100m on the beach but was only 1-2 inches deep...remarkable.  So we splashed around, and walked probably a mile down the beach to explore another rock formation.  There is a picture of it in every single guidebook, and I can't believe that they don't say more about the place.  I guess people consider it an 'off the beaten path' kind of thing, and we were definitely the only people out there for at least half an hour, but it is unbelievably beautiful.   Both of us agreed after the fact that it was our favorite place thus far. 

Unbelievably awesome rock formation at Wharariki Beach

I've used a professional photo editor (windows paint) to indicate the scale of the rock formation.

Olsen, very crispy after an entire day in the sun

Clark, a more photogenic beach explorer

Even though we loved hanging out in that super awesome amazingness, it was almost sunset, and we were starving.  We made it back to the car, and headed back towards Pohara.  We saw a sign pointing to the Mussel Inn on the road, and I had recalled reading about it, so we made a U-turn and decided to check it out.  It was as if the universe had conspired to give us a perfect day.  The Mussel Inn turned out to be a cozy restaurant with a fire ring outside and just a few great menu choices.  I had the steak with mushroom sauce, Clark had the scallops.  Simply amazing.  We drove back to Sans Souci, got into our PJs and drifted into blissful sleep after a fantastic day.

New Zealand | Day 11 | Hokitika to Golden Bay | Tuesday, Feb. 8th, 2011

We got up around 9, refreshed and ready to continue our road trip up the west coast.  Our first stop was at Punakaiki, to check out the 'pancake rocks' and blowholes.  Every single guidebook lists it as a top attraction, and as a result, there were quite a few tourists there.  We had a quick brunch and set out to see what the hype was about.  The formations were cool, but it wasn't going to be high tide for a couple of hours, and that's when the 'action' would start, with water surging through the rocks and out of the blowholes.  As we were making our way to a large viewing area, we spotted the Coloradans we met on the Kepler Track coming towards us.  We exchanged pleasantries and talked about the bad weather over the last couple of days and found out that they had also had a trip cancelled.  They were also heading north, and rolled out right after our conversation.  We decided to wait another hour and see if things got more exciting.

Olsen in a pancake rock chair



Assorted pancake rock formations





Clark: cave explorer



To pass the time, we hiked down the road with our headlamps to explore a cavern listed in the DOC brochure.  It was a short adventure, but we reached the back of the cavern and found a neat waterfall while also managing to get covered in yellow residue from the rocks.  By the time we made our way back to the pancake rocks, the tide had definitely risen, but no action yet.  We waited a half hour, and I saw one sweet surge in one of the formations, but not much else.   We decided to press on and chalked it up to the swells not coming from the right direction, and besides, we still had a 4 hour drive ahead of us.

As we drove north, the weather graciously stayed clear and beautiful.   We drove along the coast until Westport, then began driving inland toward Buller Gorge.  Once again we were amazed by the non-stop scenery, we transitioned from beautiful beaches to forested river valleys and increasingly tall mountains.  At the top of the gorge, we made a pitstop in the town of Murchison, about halfway to our destination.   The scenery shifted again to evergreens and steep slopes, and we remained in awe.  We haven't driven down a single road that isn't gorgeous on the entire South Island.  Sure, you get some farmland here and there, but the colors and the landscape are completely captivating, no matter where you are.  Unbelievable.

Anyway, we finally made our way into the Golden Bay region by driving up (and down) Takaka Hill (which is really more of a small mountain) with ridiculous hairpin turns and a maximum speed of about 40 mph.  It's no wonder most tourists don't make it out that far into Abel Tasman National Park, but that was exactly what we wanted - a nice relaxing day or two on the beach without hoardes of tourists.  We pulled into Pohara at about 7:30, and used the GPS to find our way to our motel, Sans Souci, which is French for 'without worries'.  I had chosen it for its reasonable price compared to other places in the area, and it seemed like it would be a unique place to stay.  It is also an eco-friendly resort, with a centralized bathroom/shower facility that has composting potties, where you scoop sawdust in instead of flushing.  Unique indeed ;) All kidding aside, the grounds were beautiful and the beds had memory foam mattresses, it is a great little place.

We had a pizza at the corner pub, then strolled down the road to get the lay of the land.  Pohara has a vast beach right in town, and the water is quite shallow, so at low tide, the beach extends a couple hundred meters out.  We found some shells and assorted sea creatures, including a huge manta ray that didn't make it out with tide.  It was almost dark, so we headed back to the motel and attempted to make plans for the next day.  We didn't know exactly what we were going to do, but we knew it would be awesome.

New Zealand | Day 10 | Fox Glacier to Hokitika | Monday, Feb. 7th, 2011

We woke in the morning to pouring rain, and I trudged down to the Fox Glacier Guides shop to see if we could reschedule for the afternoon.  They said the last trip of the day was at 2 and we'd have to go on the waitlist.  Undeterred, I went back to the room, found Franz Josef Guides (the next town over, it has another glacier) and booked us the last two open seats on the 2:15 flight.  We had to be out of the hostel by 10, so we headed over to Matheson Cafe, which was just outside of town.  We passed a couple of hours by having breakfast, several cups of tea, and checking out the giftshop, and by 12:30, the skies were blue over the Cafe.  We changed into hiking gear, and with crossed fingers, drove up towards Franz Josef.  It was still cloudy over the mountains as we pulled into town, but the sun was shining at the Glacier Guides office.  We reported to the desk, and the attendant told us she was about to call down to the flight line.  There were about a dozen of us waiting on bated breath, all hoping desperately to get on the glacier and see the famed blue ice.  She got off the phone and told us it would be another 10 minutes.  The suspense was killing us.  Finally, she came back and informed us that there was just too much cloud cover over the glacier, and we wouldn't be able to fly.  It was the first huge disappointment of our journey.  I'm not going to lie, the heli-hiking was probably the thing that both of us were looking forward to the most, so it hit us pretty hard.  We considered staying the night and trying the next day, but the forecast was actually worse for the following day.

As much as it pained us, we took our refund, got back in the car and headed down the road.  Thankfully, it at least stayed sunny along the coast, and we enjoyed the scenery on the 1 1/2 hour drive to Hokitika, where we were staying for the night.  When we got to the resort, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the 'beachfront chalet' we had reserved was even nicer than expected.  It was already 5pm, but in order to prevent the day from being a complete waste, we did our laundry and ventured out into town to find some dinner.  We managed to salvage the evening with some awesome stargazing and a trip to the 'glow worm dell' conveniently located across the street. It was our first intro to the phosphorescent larvae that can be found in caves all over NZ under the right conditions; we actually have a pretty sweet tour of glow worm caves coming up when we visit the north island.  Definitely not our best day, but we were ready to move on to our next location: Golden Bay.

New Zealand | Day 9 | Manapouri to Fox Glacier | Sunday, Feb. 6th, 2011

As the engines roared to life at 6:15 on the dot, we made the painful transition from sound sleep to consciousness.  Our journey that morning would take us back up the main body of the sound and down the length of Hall Arm, the most picturesque of the sound's arms.  There was quite a breakfast spread in the dining room, so we helped ourselves and looked out at the rainy landscape.  The water flow had increased substantially overnight, and falls we had seen the previous day were now raging at 3 to 4 times their normal volume.  Cascades, 300m vertical falls, even curtains of water flowed in torrents, surrounding the ship.  At one point, the captain pulled the bow right underneath one of the 'small' falls (over 50m tall) and one of the crew filled up a pitcher of 100% pure NZ water so we could all have a drink.  We drove all the way to the end of the arm, and looking into the neighboring valley, there were no less than 8 huge waterfalls rushing towards the sound.  By that time, I think we were both suffering from complete waterfall overload. 

Waterfalltastic

Swollen river on the way out from Doubtful Sound

As we pulled into Deep Cove, we concurred that while it was sad that the trip was over, we had certainly gotten our money's worth, and didn't need to see any more waterfalls for quite some time.  Of course 'quite some time' turned out to be about 5 minutes, as the shuttle bus took us back over the pass and we saw the results of the massive rainfall.  As the ferry arrived back in Manapouri, the rain had slowed a bit, and it looked like things might be dry to the north.  We had about a 6 hour drive ahead of us to reach our destination for the night: Fox Glacier.   By the time we fueled up and got on the road, it was about 12:30.  We headed back through Queenstown, where it was sunny and at least 85 degrees, stopped and had lunch at a BBQ place in Wanaka, and kept on pushing north.  The sheer length of the glacial lakes are unbelieveable; we passed through Wanaka, came around the side of a small mountain, drove along another massive lake (Hawea) for 10-15 minutes, and came back around to find we were less than halfway along Lake Wanaka.  The gorgeous blue-green colors were unlike anything either of us had seen in the U.S. or elsewhere, and it was a challenge to keep my eyes on the road and off of the views.



Looking out across Lake Hawea

The fun was soon over as we saw storm clouds gathering over the Haast Pass, our next obstacle in reaching the west coast.  The rain started as sprinkles, but as we pushed west, it turned into a full-on downpour.  It was the middle of the afternoon, but the sky turned quite dark as we hurtled down the other side of the pass.  The waterfalls (of course!) were literally spilling onto the roadway at times, and the swollen Haast River looked to be at capacity.  After 2 hours of white-knuckle driving, we arrived on the west coast, and the Tasman Sea was looking quite dismal.  After another 90 minutes, we had arrived in Fox Glacier and checked into our accomodation.  I immediately got online and checked the weather for the following day - we had a lot riding on it.  The forecast was for showers in the morning, with the weather clearing in the afternoon.  Our heli-hiking trip was scheduled for the next morning, but I knew there would be more trips in the afternoon, so we just hoped for the best.  It was already getting late, so we headed down the street for dinner.  We made it back to the hostel by 10, flipped through our two channels, and called it a night.

New Zealand | Day 8 | Kepler Track to Doubtful Sound | Saturday, Feb. 5th, 2011

We were up bright and early on the last day of our hike, as we wanted to make sure we caught our 10am shuttle back to town. We said goodbye to the Aussie couple and the Coloradans, and took off down the trail.  It was a nice short hike through flat marshland and up to the southern shore of the Waiau River, which we followed until the Rainbow Reach swingbridge which was pretty much the off ramp for the trek.  You could continue along the Waiau another two hours all the way back to the Control Gates to complete the loop, but we had a boat to catch.  We triumphantly crossed the bridge shortly after 9, and took a post-tramp photo next to the Kepler Track sign.  Our shuttle showed up promptly at 10, and returned us to the Silver Bullet back at the Visitor Center carpark.  After changing into flip-flops (kiwi translation: jandals) we shuffled over to the DOC shop to pick up some Kepler Track t-shirts in celebration of our completion of the hike.

Exiting the Kepler Track at the Rainbow Reach swingbridge



We had some errands to run before we headed down to Manapouri for the cruise, so it was off to the pharmacy to buy more ibuprofen, motion sickness pills, and anti-itch creme for the sandfly/blackfly bites.  Then we cruised over to the supermarket for some bread, cheese, and salami for a picnic on the way out to the sound.  Lastly, it was time to eat.  For the first time in days, I became full as I annihilated a footlong chicken breast sandwich at Subway (truth be told, I was hungry again by the time we got on the boat).  Clark had a 6" chicken, lime and coriander taste sensation (for a limited time only) and we hopped in the car for the 20 minute drive down to Manapouri.  We checked in, quickly reconfigured our luggage so we had clean clothes, swimsuits and all the electronics, and it was time to board the ferry across Lake Manapouri.  It had been sunny that morning, but the forecast called for rain by the afternoon.  By 12:30, it was raining, and continued to do so for the next 24 hours in various degrees of severity.  It didn't matter though, because we were safe and dry in the boat.  After crossing the lake (it is massive, and also the 2^nd deepest in NZ) we disembarked and got on the 1/2 hour bus shuttle across the Wilmot Pass to get down to the pier where our ship, the Fiordland Navigator, awaited. 

Although it was somewhat frustrating that we couldn't see much of the mountain scenery, we had just spent 3 days experiencing it, so it wasn't too heartbreaking.  We knew that rainfall = waterfalls, and that was the highlight of any Sound cruise.  As we boarded the ship with the 68 other passengers, it was clear that we were going to be experiencing a much higher standard of living than we had the past few days.  Our room was actually quite spacious for being on a boat, and the beds were comfy, and we had a shower right in the room.  We went back up on the main deck and hung out in the observation lounge, sipping tea and enjoying the scenery.  The waterfalls weren't quite in full flow yet, but we could tell it was going to get pretty spectacular.  The plan was that we would cruise out to the very end of Doubtful Sound, where it meets the Tasman Sea, check out the seal colony and come back into one of the more sheltered arms for the night.  As we approached the open ocean, we were definitely feeling the swells and the wind, but I mean, we had to go outside and take pictures of the seals...there were even cute little baby seals.

After returning to the comfort of the sound we decided to have our cheese-fest and enjoyed all four varieties we had purchased, along with some chutney and italian salami.  Just as we were breaking into the brie, the boat slowed down and an announcement was made that kayakers should report to the rear of the ship to get a kayak.  We didn't have to be asked twice.  After changing into our swimsuits, we collected our lifejackets and paddles and hopped into ocean kayaks to cruise around the cove we were anchored in.  It was still raining, but that proved to be a great help in convincing us to jump into the Sound since we were already soaking wet.  The water was reportedly 11 degrees celsius, which is about 52 degrees fahrenheit.   When everybody had returned their kayaks they set up a stepladder and told us to go for it and jump off the back of the boat.  Before I could even turn on the camera, Clark was climbing up the ladder.  I managed to get footage of her jumping off, and then I just took it in with me.  The water was...frigid.  After getting my wits about me, I swam right back to the ship and wrapped myself in one of the towels the crew had waiting for us.  We showered up and put on some clean clothes, and it was time for dinner.

One of the unintended side effects of jumping into the Sound was becoming somewhat of a rockstar.  Only half a dozen of us had taken the leap, and crew and passengers alike were awed by our daring feat.  Neither of us thought it was that big of a deal, but everyone else kept coming up and congratulating us.  Who knew? We randomly found ourselves seated next to an American couple that had lived in L.A. for 4 years, quit their jobs, sold their home, and taken off on an adventure to Australia and New Zealand.  He was from Boston, she was from Chicago, so we had plenty of things to talk about since we had both been to those cities.   We had a huge buffet dinner with traditional Kiwi food - sweet potatoes, roasted lamb with mint jelly, and some other excellent dishes, followed by 4 delicious desserts (I tried all of them). The next thing we knew, it was 10pm, and the hostess announced that the engines would be starting up at 6:15 the next morning...yikes.  We took that as our cue to head to bed.

No worries, we are alive and well

Sorry for the lack of posts folks, I know we're about 10 days behind, but good internet has been hard to come by.  We are rolling into Auckland tomorrow, so hopefully we can get a fast connection and start uploading more photos and videos.  Rest assured, we are doing well and having an amazing time.