This part involved a lot of walking. We got picked up in the morning
and driven out via the Rees-Dart Valley and past Paradise to the start
of the Routeburn. The valley round here is very pretty. If I come back
and have time I would like to hike over the cascade saddle walk as it
looks spectacular. The weather was looking decidedly dicey and this was
to be the first and only bad day of weather on a day we needed good
weather while we were in New Zealand. The walk started with more keas
in the car park. They love car parks. We walked onto the walk and
crisscrossed over bridges over a very beautiful river. See through
turquoise like in Slovenia. This continues until you break into a
yellow field that is the Routeburn valley. This leads to the first hut
and from here you ascend to the waterfalls that give the second hut
their name. A beautiful walk. From there you enter another valley
similar to Ha Giang in Vietnam. From there you climb up to a lovely
alpine lake at the saddle. From here we had shitty mist and couldn't
see into the Hollyford valley. After a while the mist cleared and we
were treated to the stunning view of Lake McKenzie from above. Even on a
day when we had crap weather and rain we could still get lucky that it
cleared for that view. You then descend down to the hut through some of
the most beautiful moss filled forest I have seen. Wow what a first
day. This walk is truly world class. Its one of the best walks I have
ever done and ranks right up there. I would be surprised if its not the
best of the great walks. Truly spectacular. Even the rock colours
blurred between orange and a sort of jade like green. Its hard to
describe. Just walk it. We pitched our tent just before the rain
thundered down and didn't leave the tent except to poke out a hand to
give the ranger our tickets.
In the morning we were up and off again. The second day was less
spectacular than the first but was still a pretty walk. The waterfall
is really nice as is Lake Howden and the sidetrack up to Key Summit is
very beautiful. You can see down multiple valleys and the range of
colours is immense. Some clouds blocked the money shot at the top, but
this is a walk to savour, even if we were devoured by sandflies at the
divide while we waited for the bus. The bus driver of tracknet told us
how he was impressed that we travel so light like Kiwis when a lot of
foreigners take too much stuff onto the trails. Our original driver had
even said that some people had come for the alpine walk in sandals or
pulling guchi cases. Weird. We got chatting with an American and his
Aussie girlfriend who had got pissy when we passed them on the track.
We rarely carry more than 4-6kg on the hike including sleeping bag as we
eat cold food, but this time I had had to carry the tent as well. We
got our first ride down the Milford Sound road that we would come back
along the following day. Looked very nice. Back in Te Anau we
confirmed our pick up for the following day and chilled out.
The next morning we were picked up by the bus for Milford Sound. I hate
tours but this one was half price as it would enable us to get back to
Queenstown afterwards and pick up our luggage. The bus driver was
annoyingly rude in not letting us board and we had to wait for ages to
get on. I was fuming at first but after it was fine as his commentary
was really informative as we travelled down the road. We had a few
stops for photos, including most memorably at the mirror lakes (that
really do reflect the mountains) and the chasm (which is a nice short
walk to a mini gorge). We eventually passed through the tunnel and
descended down to Milford Sound where we would board our boat. Its a
pretty place but I was not blown away by it. We took our two hour
cruise and in my opinion its a little repetitive scenery wise and lacks
the variety of colour that I like in landscapes. Maybe in the winter
with some snow caps it would be more impressive. Cannelle thought it
was really beautiful but not a highlight. I think it was a nice boat
trip but nothing special. Most people seem to say this is their
highlight of New Zealand. If that is the case then I don't think they
could have seen much of New Zealand. A lot of people had told us that
without a car you can't see all the beautiful places in New Zealand.
That's not true. With the exception of Mt Cook we have been able to get
everywhere we wanted to with no problems. I would counter that if you
don't get out there and do some serious hiking then you can't see the
real New Zealand as all of our major highlights in this country have
come from hikes. Maybe it was because we had done the Routeburn just
the day before, but in my opinion it is far more impressive than Milford
Sound. I would say its worth doing for sure, but you need to get out
and hike to appreciate this country. We got back to Queenstown that
evening and met an American guy named Joe who would join us in Wanaka
for the Rob Roy Glacier. We just chilled in the evening.
The next morning we went to get our bus to Wanaka and were waiting with 5
other people. And waiting. And waiting. We contacted naked bus to
see where the damn bus was, only to be informed that we had gone to the
wrong bus stop and had missed the bus. Fuck. We had been booking
everything in advance in New Zealand and this was going to cause us some
problems. I argued with them that their website had the wrong
location, while they argued that we hadn't read our confirmation
e-mail. Shit. Who reads them anyway. Bugger. Oh well. Hitchhiking
is apparently easy in this country. We were about to put it to the
test. Actually two women just got stabbed and ended up with broken
bones hitchhiking here so maybe its not so safe. We took a bus out to
Frankton and tried our luck. Both of us were very uncomfortable with
trying it, because although we'd got offered rides all over the world we
had never actively looked for a ride. We sheepishly tried for about
half an hour before we got a lift from a builder. He took us on the
scenic route to Wanaka through the mountains and told us a lot about the
area and how 14 year old Kiwis are taken into the wilderness at 14 and
have to survive for 3 weeks. Cool. No wonder they are a tough bunch
who know how to take care of themselves. It was a really nice ride and
we chatted the whole way. He recommended a cafe to us in Wanaka and so
we got an English breakfast there and just chilled out at the lake. The
woman in the DOC office was super cool and even recommended hitching to
Rob Roy Glacier the following day. So much better than the I-Site
people.
In the morning we decided to try our hand at hitching but we figured we
had set off too late and gave up after about 10 minutes or so. There
was another couple trying and we saw them at the glacier so I guess we
could have made it. We went to Joe's hostel and decided to take a taxi
there together. It was $70 each for the return journey. That's our
daily budget and I wasn't sure it was going to be worth it. We went
back and forth for ages before we finally decided just to do it anyway.
It was really cool. The drive there is impressive and the 5km hike up
to the glacier is considered to be the best short walk in New Zealand.
The glacier itself was picture perfect. A truly great place. We were
now concerned that the other glaciers wouldn't stack up to it. We were
right to be concerned. I would thoroughly recommend this day trip out
of Wanaka, especially if you have a car.
The next day we took the bus to Fox Glacier. They stopped just after
the Haast Pass for an unimpressive waterfall and a downright ugly black
sand beach. The west coast is nice but underwhelming. At fox glacier
we decided against doing an ice hike as I would like to do it when I go
back to Perito Moreno Glacier (I regret not doing it there and it pisses
all over other glaciers I have seen so far). We walked the 6km to the
glacier. Some people had been killed there and you aren't supposed to
cross the barriers. Cannelle wondered who would be stupid enough to
disobey the rules, when right in front of us 4 people chose to cross the
barriers. Oh well I guess if they get crushed by some falling ice its
their bad decision making. The glacier itself is so so. Its nice to be
able to get above it for a view down, but the skree alongside it is a
little ugly. The parts further up look more beautiful, but you can't
see them from the viewpoint. It was a little underwhelming,
particularly I imagine if you have glaciers in your own country. On the
plus side we did get a lift back from the bus driver of the ice hiking
company and the little lake to the left of the glacier on the way is
stunning with its illuminous green algae.
From here we went to Franz Josef Glacier and were staying in the Love
Shack, which is nowhere near as cool as it sounds. The hostel did offer
free soup, though it seemed to be more hot water than anything else.
Still it was free. We walked the 4km to the glacier and the weather was
crappy. After the long walk we could barely see the top of the
glacier. Eventually it cleared enough to see the top of the glacier and
its very beautiful. Its almost as beautiful as Rob Roy but the
surrounding area is not as nice. We were glaciered out by this point as
we had been to three in three days. I would say Rob Roy is the best of
all of them and the East side of Mt Cook is better than the West. In
fact I would recommend skipping the west coast of new zealand if you
have to choose from Wanaka. Lake Tekapo and Mt Cook are far better than
the west coast glaciers.
The next day we chose to bum around and do nothing. I got some of the
writing for this blog done and we went to the hot pools in Franz Josef.
We got there early and had the place to ourselves at the beginning.
Nice place to spend a few hours and kick back.
The next day we had a long bus ride up to Nelson to see my friend Tom. I
include it in this list to complete a couple of things regarding the
west coast. Everyone says its amazing and we opted not to stay anywhere
between Franz Josef and Nelson as we were running out of time before he
left. I am now very happy that we didn't stop anywhere as what we got
with the bus was sufficient. We stopped in the cute town of Hokitika
for lunch and got some fish and chips. It was enough to look around.
Greymouth and Westport look crappy so happy we didn't stop. The
Punakaiki rocks are very famous and well worth a visit. We had 20
minutes there. You probably need an hour but stopping there the night
would have been unnecessary, though its still probably the best place to
break heading north. The stretch of coast between Greymouth and
Westport is also quite scenic but similar to the East Coast of Australia
without the beaches. The Punakaiki rocks are cool and seeing the waves
carve shapes into these layered rocks is nice. Next came the Buller
Gorge which I would argue is more of a valley than a gorge. Its
picturesque but nothing earth shattering. All in all its a nice ride
but a ride is all it is. No need to stop at all. If you are taking
Naked bus then I would say the ticket from Franz Josef to Nelson is
enough as you will see everything you will want to see with the stops
where you would want them. So we were off to Nelson and to catch up
with Tom, who I hadn't seen since we were breaking into castles in
Cartagena.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment