Traveling the world

diciembre 2019 - abril 2020
Una aventura de 139 días de Christina Leer más
  • 247huellas
  • 4países
  • 139días
  • 1,3kfotos
  • 15videos
  • 54,0kkilómetros
  • 15,5kkilómetros
  • Día 34

    Hooker Valley Track I

    3 de enero de 2020, Nueva Zelanda ⋅ ☀️ 7 °C

    I woke up very early this morning, at 5.25 am.
    I don’t know why, but I lifted the curtains and looked out and a saw not even one cloud and no smoke and I had a clear view to Mount Cook 🤩

    I got up, suddenly very awake and energetic, got dressed and went for a fast breakfast while I was watching the sun rising, ok I stopped eating a few times to take a picture 🙈😂
    But the view was so awesome, so much better than the sunset yesterday.
    I wasn’t expecting this, because the weather forecast was showing a cloudy but dry day.
    So I got so much more!!

    I got ready pretty fast and was leaving the campground at 6.30 am to drive to the Hooker Valley Track Carpark!
    I am early today but I saw cars leaving the campground already at 5.30 am, so I am not the only crazy one here today. 😉😂
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  • Día 34

    Hooker Valley Track II

    3 de enero de 2020, Nueva Zelanda ⋅ ☀️ 6 °C

    It takes only 20 minutes from the Glentanner Campground to the Hooker Valley Track carpark.

    When I came there it was still a lot of places left, but I was surprised, how many cars were already there. I started to walk shortly before 7 am and I can say I was surprised how easy this walk was. The track is really good and perfect for all kinds of people to walk.
    It's only a few steps here and there and really nothing to be worried about or to even get really warm 😉
    That was, in fact, a little bit bad, as it was really cold there and I was so glad, that I took with my jacket form the car!
    The wind is really, really cold. It's just a little bit windy, not bad at all but I was happy about my jacket!
    The view is amazing! And in the first part of the track, you can't see Mount Cook, but when you come around a turn, you can finally see him!
    The first Lake I passed was Mueller Lake. I was expecting the same ice blue color like Lake Pukaki and Lake Tekapo and was surprised to see, that the water is more grey/brown.

    It’s so nice to be here so early, there are only a few people here now and you can really nice avoid them to get a really good picture!
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  • Día 34

    Hooker Valley Track III

    3 de enero de 2020, Nueva Zelanda ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C

    The longer you walk the closer you come to Mount Cook and it such a nice view all over the track! Where ever you look, you find something beautiful and I could have to keep on walking for hours like this.

    It took me a little bit more than 1 hour to reach the Hooker Lake.
    I was there almost alone, which was really nice!
    Shortly after me came to women from Christchurch and we started talking and in the end, we were walking all the way back together. I git some nice tips for good walks I should do, most of them multiple days walks.
    On the way back I noticed that the number of people was increasing really fast!

    I am so lucky I didn’t it so early with just a few people walking around with me.
    I was back in my car shortly past 9 am and more than ready for the next walk. As long as the weather is so good, I will keep on walking and enjoy every single minute of it!
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  • Día 34

    Tasman Lake and Blue Pools

    3 de enero de 2020, Nueva Zelanda ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    The next stop for today is the Tasman Lake and New Zealand's biggest glacier, the Tasman Glacier and the so-called Blue Pools.

    The track is just a short drive away from the Hooker Valley Track. And also here I arrived before the crowds were showing up!

    First I went all the stairs up to the Lake Tasman Lookout.
    Awesome view and you can really see the glacier and even some ice on the lake!
    I met a group of young people and a girl asked me straight away if I would like to have a picture of myself in front of the scenery. That was so nice of her! Never happened to me before. I usually ask someone to take a picture for me.

    After that I went down to walk to the Blue Pools, they are called Blue Pools, but they are actually green 🤔

    Good that there was an information board that was explaining, why they are green now.

    Since the glacier is getting smaller and smaller the Blue Pools, a few hundred years ago in the same ice-blue color as the big lakes around, are no longer connected with the glacier lakes and are now mostly filled up with rainwater and so changed their color.

    Here I also learned, why the glacier lakes are so grey/brown in color and not so beautiful as Lake Pukaki and Tekapo.

    „Grey or brown water is glacial meltwater with large amounts of glacial flour (ground-up Rock) in it. The water is found close to the glacier.

    Turquoise blue water is glacial meltwater in which much of the glacial flour has settled. The fine particles of rock still suspended give the water it’s particular turquoise blue color.“
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  • Día 34

    Tasman River

    3 de enero de 2020, Nueva Zelanda ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    The last track here was the track to the Tasman River.
    It’s the longest one but also the easiest one as it is mostly flat.
    I can out to the end of the Tasman Lake where the water is with a lot of power loathing into the river.
    And I was also really close to the big piece of ice!
    That was really nice and interesting to see.
    After that, I went back to the Hooker Valley Track starting point and tried to find an empty space one the DOC Campground there.
    I decided to first find a place to stay overnight and then walk back and pay for it because it’s a self-registration here and if I pay but don’t find a place to park the car I can’t get my money back and that I don’t like.
    Luckily I found a place at the end of the campground. 😊
    It’s really crazy how full it is here, it was just 11.20 am at that point!! 😳
    Good, I was up so early today.
    I took a small break but felt too energetic to just sit around the rest of the day and the weather was still so good, so I decided to do one more walk! 💪🏼
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  • Día 34

    Sealy Tarns Viewpoint

    3 de enero de 2020, Nueva Zelanda ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    This was for sure the craziest decision today. 🙈😂

    I can say, after this one I had no energy left anymore😅😂

    The start was nice and easy over a nice track than I had to turn left and the track started to slowly go up the hill. At that point, I still didn’t realize which „hill“ I was supposed to walk up 🙈
    I met a German couple and they said: Have fun and good luck! And I was asking then it is going to really tough to walk the track. And the woman just said: No not at all, it’s only 600m high different and a little bit over 2000 steps!! So don’t worry, it’s going easy, or not 😂😂

    Ups, that’s gonna be interesting 🙈
    Well as I was on my way already I said, I give it a try, I can always turn around. But to be honest, I still didn’t really realize, what I was going to do.

    I noticed it shortly after when the steps started. From now on, it was like this all the way up to the lookout of Sealy Tarn! 😳

    I can’t describe how it was, small steps, big steps, steep ones, really steep once. After a while I hated steps... And the longer it took me the worst it got.
    I don’t know how many times I had to Stopp, it was many, many times. Many people were passing me, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to do it, no matter how long it’s going to take.
    The higher up I got the view over the area was getting better and better. It keeps you going, for a while.
    After over 1 hour I got to so exhausted that I was really thinking that I can’t make it and wanted to give up. But the people that came down and passed me at that point were pushing and motivating me to keep on going and told me, that it’s not so far anymore and that I can do it!
    I was too exhausted to thank them for that, I really needed that to get me up to the lookout! And, as always, it was so worth it to go all the way up!
    Still perfect weather and an incredible view!
    Well, the wind was really cold, not surprising as I was quite closed no to the glaciers and up on 1250m!

    I stayed only 10 min up there to relax and eat something.
    I could keep on going for another 400m up to the Mueller Hut but I was too tired for that and I also saw, that the clouds were starting to really push over the mountains and I didn’t want to get stuck somewhere up here in bad weather.
    So I started to walk down. Also not so easy and a really tough job for the legs.
    I was back in my car after 2 hours and 40 minutes. I couldn’t believe it. It took me 1 hour and 35 min to walk up! It felt like 5 hours 🙈😂

    My legs were shaking when I stopped beside my car and I was so tired, that I didn’t want to move anymore at all.
    Not even one hour after I came back to my car, the wind was freshening up and it got really, really nasty outside. It got really cold and the clouds were getting more and more and darker.
    So my decision to go back to the car was definitely the right one!

    I spent the rest of the evening with a girl from Germany talking about our experiences here in New Zealand.
    There was no way to cook something outside on the gas cooker, so dinner was a cucumber salad, a cooked egg I still had and some pieces of bread.
    I went to bed around 10 pm, much later then expected but we talked so long and much. She wants to get up at 2.30 in the night to watch the stars, so I said, I will try as well to get up and watch them with her, as they are supposed to be so beautiful out here. Good that the weather got better again after 9 pm and the clouds were starting to disappear again.

    To make it short, I was not standing up, it got so cold overnight here, freezing cold and I could not find enough motivation to get out of my bed 🙈
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  • Día 35

    Lake Pukaki with Mount Cook View

    4 de enero de 2020, Nueva Zelanda ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    After an ice-cold night, I woke up around 8.30.
    I was awake already a few times before but managed to fall asleep again!
    I got up and had a quick breakfast in the sun, the weather is beautiful again but it was still pretty cold.

    As I noticed that there are no clouds over Lake Pukaki and Mount Cook I just wanted to get going to try to get my perfect picture.
    So I got changed and packed up and left the Campground shortly before 10.

    I stopped at the Glentanner and took with a German girl, that was looking for a ride and she was very pleased about my plan to drive to the end of Lake Pukaki before we go to Omarama.
    The view was perfect!! 😍🥰
    I am soooo glad that I got to see this and I know, that many people never get to see Mount Cook like this. And for me it’s the second day in a row!
    We stopped also at the lookout halfway down the Lake Pukaki!
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  • Día 35

    Pelennor Battle Fields

    4 de enero de 2020, Nueva Zelanda ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    We then decided to drive a little bit longer way around Twizel to the Pelennor Battle Fields from The Lord of the Rings.

    This time the view was really nice, but it’s hard to say, where exactly they were filming here. But it was anyway worth the trip.Leer más

  • Día 35

    Clay Cliffs

    4 de enero de 2020, Nueva Zelanda ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    I saw a sign on the road for a turn off to the Clay Cliffs. I asked her if it was ok for her if we drive there as well and she got really happy about it! She said it’s so nice, that I am doing all the extra trips so she gets to see so much more than expected!

    We didn’t really know, what to expect and got really surprised by what we got to see!
    It was so worth it the extra drive over a really bad gravel road 😬 All my tires survived it!!!


    After that, we went to Omarama where I dropped her off and I just went fast into the supermarket there as well before I continued to drive toward the East coast.
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  • Día 35

    Road to Danseys Pass

    4 de enero de 2020, Nueva Zelanda ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    I then took a lunch break at Lake Benmore, I didn’t feel for doing one of the walks, still to much pain in the legs from yesterday and no motivation.

    I also stopped at a place with Maori drawings, but unfortunately, most of them were removed to a museum or destroyed by some idiots. So there was not so much left to see.

    Next Stopp on my list was the Elephant Rocks. Why they are called Elephant Rocks I couldn’t figure out but it’s a nice place for a stop and I anyway planned to spend the night in this area.

    The last stop for today was at the Anatini Fossil Side.
    Also here I could see some nice rocks and smaller caves but the special thing here is, that they found some bones from an ancient whale here!
    So that was really nice to see and the information on the sign was really helpful as well!

    After that, I went to the Campground in the Danseys Pass. Really nice place, in a valley. I got a side directly beside the river. So beautiful and in a way peaceful, but there are a lot of families here and in front of my campsite is the river swing, the big favorite of all children so they are around me all the time 🙈
    But I must say, they are behaving all really good and it’s not as annoying as I was expecting it to be!
    I will try to go to sleep early today, I am really tired. Hopefully, this night is not getting as freezing as last night, my hope is not too high as I was watching everyone fixing hot-water bottles 😬
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