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New Zealand 2019

February - March 2019
To celebrate Diane's retirement from the Lab, we are taking a 5-week trip to New Zealand. We'll bike, hike and kayak via tours and on our own through two World Heritage sites, several national parks and Hobbit-land. Hope you enjoy sharing our trip! Read more
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  • New Zealand 2019
    Day 20

    Kayak Lake Wanaka; Mt. Cook is Where?

    February 21, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌧 54 °F

    We opted to paddle kayaks in Lake Wanaka for an hour this morning. The weather was a bit threatening, but we wanted to work on our paddle skills before we do the Marlborough Sound sea kayaking later in the trip. After lunch by the lake, we began the 3+-hour drive to Mount Cook (Aoraki) National Park.

    On the way, we stopped at Lake Pukaki, a lake fed by the braided Tasman River, which has its source in the Tasman and Hooker Glaciers, close to Aoraki/Mount Cook.

    We arrived at our lodgings in Mount Cook Village, a sweet chalet with a view of Mt. Cook, if you knew where to look. It was very windy and overcast, and overnight there was a dramatic thunder and lightning storm as well!    Read more

  • New Zealand 2019
    Day 21

    Grounded from Heli-hike

    February 22, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 55 °F

    Because of high winds at Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park, we were not able to take the helicopter flight to Tasman Glacier for a hike with an experienced mountaineer and exploration of some ice caves. This was something we were really looking forward to, but weather is so unpredictable in the mountains, you just have to roll with the changes.

    Instead, we spent some time touring the Edmund Hillary Center museum. Hillary was born in Auckland, and made his successful ascent of Everest as one of two Kiwis on the British expedition of 1953. He had climbed Mt. Cook and most of the New Zealand peaks before being invited to join the British expedition.

    We were still able to view the Tasman Glacier by hiking up the moraine to an overlook of Lake Tasman, formed from the glacial melt. Just two weeks ago, a massive and historic calving event resulted in warehouse-sized icebergs clogging an area at least 1 square mile in area. From our high vantage point, it was hard to distinguish relative size, so we have included a photo from a news article.

    While up there, Courtney related rather matter-of-factly that she and 3 others are the only ones to have kayaked down the Murchison river, and no one has done it since.

    The afternoon blue skies afforded beautiful views of Mt. Cook and the surrounding mountains with their own glaciers.    Read more

  • New Zealand 2019
    Day 22

    Mt. Cook Morning; Biking Lake Pukaki

    February 23, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 54 °F

    Clearing skies overnight gave us some glimpses of the starry southern sky before bed. This is a designated Dark Sky area. Temperatures in the high 30s F kept us from staying out too long. By morning, we got some nice first-light views of Mt. Cook.

    Then it was on down the mountain by van to turquoise-blue Lake Pukaki. We weren’t finished with Mt. Cook yet, though—the lakeside views were amazing!

    We met Jude, owner of “The Jollie Biker,” and were shuttled to the start of our ride on the Alps-to-Ocean (A2O) trail. The A2O is a multi-day ride from Mt. Cook out to Oamaru on the east coast—Pacific Ocean. In fact, to really start at the beginning, you need to go by helicopter. We had a short, but sweet, 8-mile ride on the gravel path, which follows the lake edge. Plenty of photo ops.

    At the end of our ride, we set off on a long (~5-hour) drive to the town of Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula, not far from Christchurch. The peninsula is a volcanic outcropping that appeared to be a separate island to Captain Cook when he was originally mapping New Zealand, so he never stopped there.

    The Banks Peninsula was an important region to the Maori, for its abundance of foods of the forests, sea, rivers and skies. Part of the Maori name for the Peninsula translates to “The Storehouse.”

    Once in Akaroa, we had a delicious final dinner as a group, enjoying local fish and lamb. Our two other tour members, Darcie and her mom, Leigh, have been great traveling companions.    Read more

  • New Zealand 2019
    Day 23

    Still Windy—More Plan Changes

    February 24, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌧 55 °F

    In Akaroa for our last day with NZ Trails, we were going to swim with Hector dolphins, said to be the world's smallest and rarest dolphin. However, once again, the weather was not on our side! A strong ‘southerly’ from Antarctica brought high winds and swells in the harbor, and no boats went out today.

    Plan B was to spend a little time exploring the town, then go to a wildlife park. The French were the first Europeans to settle in Akaroa, in 1840, for the purpose of developing a whaling port, and farming the rich soil. The town still carries evidence of its French origins in the street names and flags flown.

    Later, Courtney drove us to the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve, just outside of Christchurch. We got to see kiwi birds again, as well as wallabies and many other native birds. Before long it was time to really say goodbye to Courtney, Darcy and Leigh.

    The strong winds didn’t delay our flight to Marlborough Sounds as we feared. But we did have to cross the blustery Cook Strait twice—once from Christchurch to Wellington, then back south to the small town of Blenheim at the top of the South Island. A friendly shuttle driver took us on the half-hour trip to the town where we leave for our next adventure. Dave partly lives off the land, raising a few sheep and cattle, fishing and hunting deer—such a pest to the native plants that locals are encouraged to help reduce their numbers. As we drove past industrial-scale plots of grapevines, he said we were looking at about 650,000 grape plants, and a vineyard owner could get a $28,000 return per hectare.    Read more

  • New Zealand 2019
    Day 24

    Hiking the Queen Charlotte Track

    February 25, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌬 55 °F

    Today was the first day of our 3-day trip in the far north of the South Island, with the Marlborough Sounds Adventure Company (MSAC). This is more like an organized adventure than a tour. In the morning at the MSAC office, we were given a packed lunch for the day and instructions for the next three days. Then we were pointed to the water taxi for the 1-hour cruise to the start of another of New Zealand’s great walks, the Queen Charlotte track.

    Our tour groups are getting even smaller —Backroads, 20 others; NZ Trails, 2 others; today, 1 other). Our fellow traveler, Matt, is from Auckland. Many others got off the boat to walk the trail too, so we all dispersed and went at our own pace.

    The trail starts with a steep, rocky slope in the dense rainforest, with occasional views out over the Queen Charlotte Sound and its islands. From time-to-time we passed waterfalls and through sections with a lot of birdsong (listen on our video). Other times all we could hear was the howling wind. At least there was no rain, and we were fairly protected from the wind while in the trees. Our section for today was about 9 or 10 miles, and after the steep 1+ mile ascent, the trail became more rolling and better maintained.

    We arrived at the water taxi pickup spot where we were taken around more of the Sound and dropped 2 km short of our lodging for the night. Luckily our luggage had gone on ahead to the Portage Hotel, named for the land crossing the Maori used to portage their wooden canoes to the Kenepuru Sound. We thought that last hill was hard enough carrying just our daypacks.

    We enjoyed a nice dinner and bottle of local Pinot Noir, shared with our fellow traveler, Matt.    Read more

  • New Zealand 2019
    Day 25

    Blue Sky Kayaking in Kenepuru Sound

    February 26, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 64 °F

    We woke to a beautiful morning with great views from our room and no wind or waves on the water. Perfect for the kayak portion of our 3-day adventure in Marlborough Sounds.

    After breakfast we met George, our kayak guide for the day. We were set up with spray skirts and flotation jackets and set off to paddle around the part of the sound. We stopped at a green-lipped mussel farm, where they grow on short, thick ropes dangling down from horizontal ropes stretched between floating canisters. Darryl and George harvested some mature mussels for part of our lunch later.

    After a couple of hours of paddling, we stopped at Weka Point, named for a native flightless bird that’s about chicken-sized. Like the kea, you need to watch your belongings around them—they’ll steal sunglasses, sandwiches, anything really.

    We kept our sandwiches and paddling gloves close and didn’t have any trouble. A fantail bird was flitting around us inquisitively for awhile. George made tea, then boiled the mussels. The air temperature was perfect, and Matt decided to take a dip. We didn’t think it was that warm.

    After the lunch stop, the wind came up and the next couple of hours of paddling were not as placid as before. We bounced around on 1-foot swells, but the skirts kept our boats from getting filled with water. By the time we reached shore we felt like we’d had a good workout—something to compensate for all the legwork yesterday.

    Another great dinner with Matt at the hotel restaurant, sampling some of the local Sauvignon Blanc. A warm sunset over the sound completed the evening.    Read more

  • New Zealand 2019
    Day 26

    Mountain Biking Queen Charlotte Track

    February 27, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 66 °F

    The last day of our Marlborough Sounds adventure was to mountain bike the last 12 miles of the 40-mile Queen Charlotte Track. Everyone told us that the first hour we would be pushing the bikes up the 10-25% grade trail for about 2-1/2 miles. There was an easier option, which was to go along the road, but we wanted to see the views, and our fellow traveler, Matt, was up for the bike-hike.

    So off we went, up the rocky steep trail -- difficult to walk, even without a bike. But since we were somewhat fresh (though still a little tired from the hike two days before), and we could stop and see the views from time-to-time, we all felt it was well worth it.

    After the big climb, we could get on the bikes and ride through the forest, with occasional lookouts over two of the sounds. It was really cool to see how the Kenepuru was turquoise, and the Queen Charlotte Sound was deep blue, because of the difference in their salinity.

    The trail was still root- and rock-filled, and sometimes we had to walk on the down-slopes, but overall it was manageable and enjoyable for us. We had a 4pm deadline to meet the water taxi, and so after 5-1/2 hours of riding, with short stops for rest, views, and lunch, we got in at 3:58 p.m., whew!    Read more

  • New Zealand 2019
    Day 27

    First day in North Island!

    February 28, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 70 °F

    Today was a packed day. We started with a 6am flight from Blenheim (Marlborough Sounds) to Auckland. We picked up a rental car and drove (on the left) for a couple hours to a hike to see one of the largest Kauri trees in the region -- estimated to be over 1,000 years old. Kauri were once plentiful in the northern parts of New Zealand, and the Maori used the timber for boat building, carving and building houses. But once European settlers arrived, most of the Kauri trees were logged, and now there are few trees left.

    Next, we drove to the Waitomo Glow Worm Caves. We weren't able to take photos, so we include one here from their website to give you an idea of the sights we saw while in the cave. The caves are operated by the Maori descendants of the original owner and discoverer of the cave and land. A really nice carving commemorates the centennial of the discovery of the cave in 1887.

    At the end of the day, we arrived at "National Park," which is the name of the Tongariro National Park village. This is the site of Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings. A fine sunset sky completed our eventful day.    Read more

  • New Zealand 2019
    Day 28

    Tongariro Alpine Crossing

    March 1, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 52 °F

    This is a hike we'd hoped to do from the earliest stages of planning this trip. Weather can be very changeable in the mountains, as we've discovered, but thankfully Mother Nature was on our side this time. The Crossing is usually done as a one-way, 12-mile hike, using a shuttle bus to get back at the end.

    We caught the first shuttle of the day, and got on the trail at sunrise, with views of Mt Ngauruhoe (Mt Doom). There is a climb of 2,700 feet over the first 5 miles, followed by a descent of 3,500 feet. Because of the wind and cold, we wore multiple jackets, gloves, thermals, and knit caps for most of time we were hiking -- even uphill!

    There are literally thousands of people doing the hike on any given (good-weather) day. It was strange at first, hiking with the hordes, but the scenery was so dramatic that the crowds didn't detract from it. It was kind of like a shared adventure, and the enthusiasm was catching. The trail traverses Mt. Ruapehu, over lava flows as recent as 2007, and steam vents were still visible. Once arriving at the peak, we got a stunning view of the blue-green crater lakes and the other nearby volcanoes, including "Mt. Doom."

    We were glad we took the first shuttle, since it would have been stressful to worry about making the last return shuttle of the day. As it was, we had time to take in the views, take breather stops, and enjoy breakfast by a spring-fed waterfall, and lunch near the summit. A tiring, but rewarding day!    Read more

  • New Zealand 2019
    Day 29

    Hike to Taranaki Falls

    March 2, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 57 °F

    After the big hike yesterday, we stretched our legs on an easy 3.5 mile hike to Taranaki Falls. Along the way, we could see views of the volcanoes we hiked around yesterday on the Tongariro Crossing. Heather and other wildflowers were in abundance!Read more

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