Miranda’s Vlogs!

I don’t know why I didn’t post these sooner! Instead of blogging, Miranda has been video blogging or “vlogging” our trip. They’re awesome, so enjoy!

June Adventures

September Fun

October Travels

Walking the Milford Track

 

Four days of tramping! Hah! I still get a kick out of that (‘tramping’); it sounds so much dirtier then just going hiking. Anyways, the Milford track is NZ’s most famous trail, and has been called the “finest walk in the world.” I would have to agree that it was spectacular. At 33.5 miles (53.5Km) it starts at the end of one of Lake Te Anau’s arms, winds up the Clinton Valley along the river’s edge, steeply climbs the Mackinnon Pass, and descends even steeper into the Aurther Valley, following the river again through the valley to an end in the Milford Sound.  The first day is super easy with a nice boat ride, and then only 5km walk through Beech Forest to the Clinton Hut.

Day 1 – Lake Te Anau to Clinton Hut

Where it all started! A 1.5hr boat ride on Lake Te Anau - a very calming way to start the journey

Clinton Valley from a side trail to a bog

I didn’t take many pictures on the first day because I forgot to charge my camera! WHOOPS! It was like having a film camera for the whole track – flashback!

Day 2 – Clinton Hut to Mintaro Hut

Another fairly easy walk, but quite a bit longer. I woke up early and decided to get a move on because the weather report called for rain. It was a steady and slow climb up a few hundred vertical meters over the 16.5Km. It’s the start of the season, so a lot of the track is still raw from the winter’s avalanches. There were quite a few rock fall areas too. Apparently, the Fiordland area grows vertically the same amount as our fingernails in one year, but due to all the erosion from rockfalls, snow, etc the seismic action doesn’t add any height to the peaks.

I made it to the Mintaro Hut just as it started to pour! Luckily I had managed to get through day 2 and remain mostly dry!

Day 3 – Mintaro Hut to Dumpling Hut via Mackinnon Pass

View upon reaching the Mackinnon Pass

This is the grueling day. Mintaro Hut lies right at the base of the Pass, so it’s a 1.5hr – 2hr hike up 1000m, and then straight back down on the other side. It was a foggy and rainy morning, and as we got higher up the mountain the rain turned to snow.

There were a lot of Keas, a sort of alpine parrot, as we climbed higher. They’re very beautiful with green and red feathers, but they’re also a pain in the but. They’re super smart, and like to play tricks on hikers… I got through the pass unscathed, but one guy lost his camera!

The Pass is where the really beautiful views of the Clinton and Arthur Valleys are from. I was disappointed not to get to see them because of the crappy weather, but then it all changed! It’s so true how weather can turn so quickly when you’re that high in the mountains.

This memorial was built for Quintin Mackinnon who was one of the founders and first guides of the Milford Track... my camera has acted up since it had a bath so sometimes pictures are fuzzy. I like how old school this one looks with the sepia though. Oh - that bird on top of the memorial is a Kea.

Wahoo! Made it to the highest point - fingers crossed the knees hold out for the way down

I didn't have much hope that the fog was going to clear while we were on the pass, but then all of a sudden the sun and blue sky started to appear!

And the fog lifts revealing the stunning Clinton Valley

Ten seconds later this picture was taken - already getting socked in again!

The view from the window in the long drop at the Pass Hut - must be the outhouse with the best view in the world

These lovely little flowers were poking out of the snowy slopes as we descended into the Arthur Valley

Cascading waterfalls along the trail

Sutherland Falls - the highest waterfall in NZ at 580m. You may remember that I claimed this for the Browne Falls in the Doubtful Sound too. It's disputed which is higher because Browne hasn't had it's height officially recorded.

Day 3 – Dumpling Hut to Milford Sound

Last day on the track! A gentle (thank goodness!) descent from Dumpling Hut down the Arther Valley all the way to the river mouth at Milford Sound.

Te Anau gets about 2m of rain fall a year… Milford Sound gets about 8m. Every day you’re on the Milford Track increases the likelihood that you are going to get very very wet. It was a rainy morning, but actually started to lift mid morning.

It’s a funny thing down here, they tend to call streams ‘trails’ instead. I don’t know about you, but I’d just prefer if they were honest about it – you’re going to walk most of the Milford Track along stream beds. It’s hard to hold a grudge about wet feet when there is so much beauty to look at.

Pop Quiz: Stream or trail??

If you guessed stream for the last one, you're wrong. These are both 'trails'

At this point, why bother putting in that green bridge?

Water falls like this make up for having wet feet

Beautiful Beech forest dripping with moss and lichen - the lower reaches of the Clinton and Arthur Valleys

I made it! It looks like I'm about to pass out....

Cute little boat to pick us up at the end of the track and transport us to Milford Sound "town"

We passed BOWEN FALLS on the way to Milford! It was pumpin'!

Made it to Milford - stunning once again

 

 

Doubtful Sound 2 Day Kayak Adventure

I really wanted to do a kayak trip while in Fiordland, and had a choice between Milford and Doubtful Sounds. Milford Sound is more well known for it’s spectacular beauty and massive size. Doubtful on the other hand is harder to get to, has a lot less traffic, and offers more of a wilderness experience.  I opted for the Doubtful trip! Two days on the water with Fiordland Wilderness Kayak Adventures.

I was a little apprehensive that the weather would suck, and I would end up cold and wet for two days. Lucky again, the first day was a spectacular blue sky with relatively calm winds… good kayaking weather!

At 6:30am I jumped in the guide’s van, and saw Bruce’s sleepy face! Bruce was the guy I had met and hiked with on the Abel Tasman track. Neither of us had any idea the other was doing the trip or even in the area, so it was a pretty random surprise.

The day started early because we had to drive down to Lake Manapouri, then take a boat across the lake, jump in a 4WD and go over the mountain and Wilmot Pass, and down into Deep Cove where we could finally get into a kayak. The remoteness of Doubtful Sound is definitely one of the reasons it is so much quieter then Milford Sound.

Looking down on Doubtful Sound from the Wilmot Pass

Two guides and seven guests getting the boats packed up in Deep Cove

On the water by 10am, we had the whole day to explore the beginning of the main channel of Doubtful Sound and Hall’s Arm.

Doubtful Sound here we come!

Hall's Arm

The mountain sides are so steep that "tree slips" are very common. You can see the various stages of succession here

We spotted an avalanche high on the mountain side. Never thought I would see an avalanche like that! Very cool

The wind conditions in the afternoon were perfect for a little kayailing (aka kayak sailing)! I was so stoked about this because it is something that I have always wanted to try. I don’t have any pictures of it because I was the mast… requires two hands! Essentially we broke into two groups of two double kayaks. The folks in the back seats became masts by tying the top rope of the sail to the end of their paddle, and then propping the paddle up in their lap – lifting the sail high in the air. The folks in the front held onto the bottom rope of the sail, and pulled it in or let it out as needed. The hulls of the two kayaks worked much like a catameran. So much fun!

Camp was about half way down Hall’s Arm, and set up right by the river. They even had a mosquito net room set up to save us from the vicious sand flies. After dark we heard a Kiwi bird singing! They’re very rare, but have been making a come back because the DOC has been setting traps for the stouts (rat like creatures).

Next morning the fog rolled in.

View up Hall's Arm from the campsite's beach

I made Bruce do all the hard work while I had fun taking pictures! ... Just kidding

Snake cloud

The water was like glass, with no wind at all! I’ve never seen water that flat. Just after we all got in our kayaks and pushed off the beach, we heard the sound of dolphins coming up for air. The swam right passed us – it was so majestic. They were a pod of bottle nose dolphins, and one of the southern most pods in the world.

Dolphin cruising past

Kayaking away up the sound

The Navigator was one of four other boats we saw on the whole trip

Time for some kayak-yoga... kayoga?

Up close and personal with one of Doubtful Sound's many waterfalls

Brown Falls - NZ's largest waterfall at 880m

We saw another two pods of dolphins that morning! One pod was very curios, and came right up to the boats. The water is so clear that we could easily see them swimming under and around the boats – amazing! Bruce caught them on film:

We also saw the Fiordland Crested Penguin. We saw a few couples fishing, so it was hard to see them in detail, but looking them up later of google revelaed that they’re pretty darn cool! Only found in Fiordland and occaionally the Antarctic, and there are only 1500 breeding pairs left.

Fiordland National Park

Taking up a whopping 5% of New Zealand’s land mass, Fiordland National Park is spectacular. More hiking and camping for us- yay!

Fiordland is aptly named – the steep glacial carved mountains drop into deep green seas. With nearly 8m of rain a year, we have been SO lucky to have a handful of blue skies down here. Other then make tourists soggy, all that rain has also created a really cool phenomena. About 2m of fresh water sits on top of the salt water in the fiords – so there aren’t any barnacles or mussels clinging to the intertidal zone. Not only that, the fresh water has traveled down the mountain sides and become concentrated with tannins, which tints the water with a rusty brown colour. This has impacted the amount of light that reaches below the 2m of fresh water so much that the sea creatures living at just 4m below sea level are usually found below 20m!

Key Summit

Above water there is lots to look at too. To see the tops of the mountains you have to crane your head back all the way! On our first sunny day we hiked up the Key Summit, which we were told was the best hike to do if you only have a few days in the area.

That is the Hollyford Valley behind me

Reaching the summit of the Key Summit on the Milford Road

The Department of Conservation created a self guided nature walk brochure for the alpine area at the Key Summit. Miranda and I are putting together a little video footage to share with you… but you’ll have to be patient and wait for that. Looking around at the top it was really cool to see the hanging valley that Lake Marian sits in.

1 <3 alpine

Lake Marian sitting in a hanging valley

I thought this little patch of moss was very sweet.

Lake Marian

Since we could see Lake Marian from the Key Summit we decided that it would be cool to hike up there as well to get a different perspective. It was a bit of a rougher track, but the turquoise/emerald lake was well worth it. We couldn’t stay at the top for very long because we were afraid the swarms of loonie sized mosquitoes were going to carry us off!

You can see the trail marker, but can you see the trail?

Me looking composed shortly before an epic battle against the mossies

Road Trip Requirement

As with any road trip, you can expect at least one minor mishap. We got a flat tire. Not to worry – the friendly people of Te Anau were there for the rescue!

Our car all jacked up

Our friendly neighbourhood mechanic got us fixed up

The culprit

The culprit was a rouge screw! We’ve kept it as a memento. The tire was patched and we were out of there in about half an hour. It was actually really cool to watch the tire being patched – I’d never seen it done before.

Mirror Lake

We caught Mirror Lake on a breezy day, so the sign was a little hard to read.

A reflective sign - smart thinkin'

Great views of the mountains from Mirror Lake

A Couple of Our Favourite Camps

 

The Eglinton Valley was pretty, but cold and windy at night. Even had some snow!

Henry Creek Camp - close to Te Anau and a little warmer then the mountain camp sites

Rainbow Reach to Shallow Bay

A much gentler hike, this one followed the river into Lake Manapouri.

Lots of suspension bridges along this hike from Rainbow Reach to Shallow Bay

Trout fishing is popular along the river... we really wished we had a rod too!

The Catlins – New Zealand’s Forgotten Coast

Nugget Point

The coastal drive along the south-east corner of New Zealand is often overlooked by travelers, but we found it spectacular for day hikes and camping. I think having a car is essential though because the big bus companies don’t go this route.

Typical view along the Southern Scenic Route

Driving south from Dunedin, Nugget Point was our first stop. Home of New Zealand’s oldest light house (built in 1869), Nugget Point’s turquoise water was beautiful. I think I remeber reading somewhere that Nugget Point was named “Nugget” because the rocks along the point look like big nuggets of gold in the right sun light.

Nugget Point - lots of ships wrecked here in the mid-1800's

Nugget Point light house - the oldest in New Zealand

Another windy day - I won "Best Hair" this time!

Purakaunui Bay

We camped at Purakaunui Beach the first night. It was the labour day long weekend and a great surf break, so there were a lot of people out there. A couple of families came in old school converted buses; one even had an old hand powered dryer attached to the grill.

Evening reflections on Purakaunui Beach

I'm an official entrant on Master Chef - Car Camping Edition

There was a woman fishing for Whitebait at the river mouth (aka ‘Whitebaiting’). She had caught a few, and was excited to enjoy the delicacy for dinner. Ali had told us that most people just eat Whitebait whole, and that it is an aquired taste.

“The New Zealand whitebait is small, sweet and tender with a delicate taste that is easily over-powered if mixed with stronger ingredients when cooked. The most popular way of cooking whitebait in New Zealand is the whitebait fritter, which is essentially an omelette containing whitebait. Purists use only the egg white in order to minimize interfering with the taste of the bait. Foreigners frequently react with revulsion when shown uncooked whitebait, which resembles slimy, translucent worms… read more“

Bucket of Whitebait... they look like worms to me too

On the way back to the highway the next morning we stopped in at the Purakaunui Falls.

Purakaunui Falls

Cathedral Caves

After a few more small walks to waterfalls we stopped at Cathedral Caves. Accessible only at low tide, these caves were amazing. We only explored the first one. We had to crawl across the slimy narrow rock edge to avoid a hip deep tide pool, and then jump in when it was ‘only’ knee deep freezing (just been circling the Antarctic) water. As the tall ceiling came down to normal room height and took a sharp corner, we were submersed in darkness for a few moments. Then the light from the other end infiltrated the tunnel and the ceiling began to rise up to astounding heights again.

Miranda near the entrance to the Cathedral Cave

Me prancing into the light at the end of the tunnel

The view from the far side of the cave

The hot sand on our near frozen feet felt fantastic

Jack’s Blowhole

Next stop – Jack’s Blow Hole. Our timing was a bit off because we had to hit the Cathedral Caves at low tide, and Jack’s Hole is best at high tide. Another track on private land, we were lucky this one was open even though the lambs were out.

Path through pasture and bush to Jack's Blowhole

As we were walking along the path to the blowhole we came across a little lamb trapped on the wrong side of the fence. I find it alarming because the little guys are always so stressed out and just keep running at the wire fences in the hopes that they’ll magically find themselves on the right side. They’re also scared of humans so it’s hard to help them get back. Miranda and I have developed expert lamb wrangling skills, so it only took us 5 or 10 minutes to get the lamb pushed back through the wire fence.

The actual blowhole is pretty cool because it’s not right on the coast line where you normally see blowholes. It is situated about 200m inland. At 55m deep, 145m long, and 68m wide, it is quite a sight.

Water would be rushing in and out of Jack's blowhole... but we took this photo at low-ish tide

Curio Bay

POP QUIZ: Is this wood or rock?

I think Curio Bay must have been my favourite stop in the Catlins. When I heard “petrified forest’ I thought, “cool,  we’ll probably see a few obscure fossils and a lot of interpretive signs.” I don’t think I could have been more wrong! One of my life goals is to find my very own fossil, but just seeing this petrified forest comes dangerously close to fulfilling that goal.

180 million years ago (MYA) this part of New Zealand was part of the super continent Gondwana. In the middle Jurassic period, about 170 MYA, volcanic eruptions and heavy rains resulted in severe flooding on hundreds of square kilometers. The exciting part was that the water was full of ash. The flood killed the forest and downed the trees, and silification occurred very quickly – essentially, all that ash got embedded into the sodden wood before the wood had time to decay.

“In the millions of years, since the sediments were buried deeply and impregnated over time with silica minerals, eventually turning the wood to rock. In some places fern fronds and leaves have been preserved as fossils within the mudstone rocks… read more.“

Petrified wood is very rare because usually decay occurs before this process can take place. Here in Curio Bay, whole logs and stumps are still visible amongst tidal pools. Over the last 10,000 years coastal erosion has exposed these fossils from the limestone and sediment. Fossils are also visible in the cliff faces along the beach line, which indicates that this phenomena happened many times and created many layers of petrified forest and fossils.

SO COOL!!

A few fossilized trees

A larger tree stump - up close you can count the growth rings

The bigger picture - all those lumps are tree stumps

Balancing on a 170 million year old tree... sweet as!

Another stump... this one was a small one (7-10cm diameter)

How Far South Can You Go?

Slope Point is the most southern point of the South Island. Somewhere on Stewart Island claims the most southern part of the country, but we couldn’t make it down there, so this is as close as we’ll get to Antarctica this trip!

Slope Point - next stop South Pole

 

Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula

The Otago Peninsula - just outside of Dunedin

All these lambs may be cute, but they’re starting to cramp our style! We had plans for a couple of really cool hikes in Dunedin, but when we got there we found out that the tracks had been closed for lambing season because they were on private land. Bummer.

Instead, we spent an afternoon touring about the Otago Peninsula. I feel a bit like a broken record, but I have to say it… it was gorgeous (just like all of New Zealand). Dunedin is a big university town, but the hills and cliffs of the Otago Peninsula makes the exam special happy hours seem a million miles away.

 

The view of Dunedin from the Otago Peninsula

 

I was super excited about our trip out to the peninsula because of the Albatross colony at Taiaroa Head. Albatross are the giant (wingspan 3m) white birds that spend most of their lives at sea; this particular colony is the only mainland colony in the southern hemisphere, and is now a protected nature reserve. It’s Spring down here, so it is also nesting time. Since 19 of the 21 species of Albatross are threatened by extinction, nesting time is treated very carefully at the colony, and visits are not allowed. Although I was a little disapointed not to see them, I can appreciate and respect that it is better to close the reserve and give them so peace and quiet!

Albatross in flight. Photo credit: Royal Albatross Colony & Centre

The roads were very narrow and windy, but luckily there was very little traffic!

Beautiful pasture and hills

 

The girl we were couch surfing with told us that we had to check out Sandfly Bay and the sea lion colony. On the eastern side of the peninsula the coast at Sandfly Bay was very exposed and it was a really windy day. We could barely stand straight at the view point, so we decided not to go down onto the sand dunes… personally, I’m not a big fan of being turned into a piece of human sand paper.

A bit windy and wavy at Sandfly Bay

Fits of giggles as we were almost blown away!

Miranda won the contest for "Best Hair" today!

Back in Dunedin, I watched a ‘classic’ New Zealand flick called Black Sheep. I usually don’t watch horror films, but I was assured that it wasn’t actually scary. It wasn’t, but it was hilarious. I would consider it an essential component of any trip to New Zealand.

"An experiment in genetic engineering turns harmless sheep into blood-thirsty killers that terrorize a sprawling New Zealand farm" - IMDb

 

I will never look at sheep the same way again.

Road Trip: Christchurch to Dunedin

The penny farthing was a popular mode of transport in Oamaru way back when...

First stop in our new wheels was Oamaru and the penguin colonies. Oamaru’s claim to fame is New Zealand’s only Victorian town. In it’s prime, Oamaru was a bustling port and because the area didn’t have large forests, limestone was mined for building materials. The result is a beautiful sea side town with grand Victorian style stone buildings lining the old main street.

Oamaru's old main street

Bushy Beach Penguins

The folks at the information site (i-site) in Oamaru were super helpful. They directed us to the local cheese factory where we got to view the cheese making process through little windows into the factory… for free (always a bonus)! They also gave us directions to Bushy Beach’s Yellow Eyed Penguin colony. Yellow Eyed Penguins are the rarest penguin in the world, but lucky for us we got to see some. Unlike the Little Blue Penguins, the Yellow Eyes come into the beach during evening day light hours, so they are easier to spot then the Blues who come in after dark.

This little guy made his way up the beach, and then the cliff side to find his nest hidden somewhere in the grass

Moeraki Boulders

We were also told that the Moeraki Boulders were a “must see” if we took the coastal drive down to Dunedin. We didn’t ask many questions, but figured the rocks would be a quick pit stop and a nice view. Little did we know that we’d be walking among GIANT DINOSAUR EGGS!!! …. Well, not quite, but pretty darn close!

Moeraki Boulders lined up along the beach... 1-3 meter diameter each

I was channeling a newly hatched "long neck" dinosaur

Miranda went for the triceratop look....although she claims this is a bunny impersonation

Don't we look well behaved here!

I couldn't help but linger at the one with a tide pool inside.

My trusty friend Wikipedia explains the Maori legend for the boulders…

“Local Māori legends explained the boulders as the remains of eel baskets, calabashes, and kumara washed ashore from the wreck of an Arai-te-uru, a large sailing canoe. This legend tells of the rocky shoals that extend seaward from Shag Point as being the petrified hull of this wreck and a nearby rocky promontory as being the body of the canoe’s captain… read more.“

Kaitiki Point

Next stop Kaitiki Point with hopes to see more penguins

We were told that the light house at Kaitiki Point also had a seal colony and a penguin observation deck. The light house was a beautiful old wooden one, and the setting amongst pasture fields and steep cliffs was gorgeous. In hopes of spotting a few more penguins, we wandered down the path to the penguin observation hut. The hut was built so the penguins would have a harder time noticing humans spying on them – creating a less stressful environment for the penguins and more sightings for us!

Binoculars provided in the hut! Brillant!

Unfortunately we picked the wrong time of day, so the penguins were not very active and we didn’t see any. However, there is also a seal colony in the area and we saw lots of males lazing about on the rocks. For a couple weeks each year the females get a break and head out into the open ocean to fatten up; they’ve just finished rearing last year’s pups, and they won’t be back to shore for mating for a few more weeks.

I doubt this young male will get any action this year - the other males on the rocks were three times his size! He's still cute though...

Just as we were getting back to the car park, I thought I spotted a red-bellied penguin! I blinked, and realized that it was just Miranda doing a very impressive penguin impression.

Think she makes a good penguin, eh?

On the drive back out to the main road we saw lots and lots of lambs! Adorable! I guess they don’t spend much time around humans because they’re very scared of us. It’s either that or they just don’t like our accent.

This mama decided to take her kids away when we showed up

 

 

Couchsurfing in Christchurch

I managed to hobble through Christchurch at a snails pace while recovering from Abel Tasman blisters. Although Christchurch is one of New Zealand’s larger cities, the pace suited the city and we managed to find lots of things to do within a few blocks radius from where we were staying.

Speaking of where we were staying, urged by many of our Couch Surfing friends in Vancouver, Miranda and I decided to give it a shot. What is couch surfing? I think Wikipedia describes it well:

“The CouchSurfing Project is the largest hospitality exchange network, with approximately 1.4 million members in 231 countries and territories…read more.”

The stove wasn't working so we resorted to using the camp cooker and opening all the kitchen windows

We connected with Dada, currently studying circus and performing arts, on Couchsurfing and had a great time. Luckily he had a whole bedroom available to share, so we didn’t even need to stay on a couch! He and his school mates rent two next door houses, and people seem to flow freely between them. Everyone was very friendly and interested to hear about where we were from and where we are going. Couchsurfing is huge in Europe and getting very popular in North America, but Australia and New Zealand are a little slower on the uptake, so we were happy to find such an awesome host.

Close to downtown, we were able to walk everywhere we wanted to go – the park, farmers’ markets, museums, and Cathedral Square. The river that flows through town is really beautiful, so we couldn’t help but stop to go punting.

Punting on the river in Christchurch

While we were punting we learnt that the reason there are no building higher then 12 stories because of the high water table caused by the river that runs through town. So Christchurch will always have a quaint old town feel leaving the sky scrapers for Wellington and Auckland.

While in Nelson, Miranda did some research on renting a car and found an AWESOME deal with Quality Car Rental – $20/day for a station wagon! Now we’re cruising the South Island in style for one month. We’re headed down the east coast from Christchurch to Invercargill at the southern tip, then we’ll dip into Fiordland and Milford Sound, stop in Queenstown before heading back up the west coast, and across Aurthur’s Pass back into Christchurch. Looking forward to it!

Cute ducks on the river

A Jumble of Pictures

Okay, so I don’t have time to wright anything right now, so I’m leaving it up to you to decipher what the heck is going on here. I’ll update this post with details in a few days – until then use your imagination! If you want to share the crazy adventures you come up with, please send them to me! ! Enjoy the randomness!

Moeraki Boulders lined up along the beach… 1-3 meter diameter each

Don’t we look well behaved here!

I was chanelling a newly hatched “long neck” dinosaur

This little guy made his way up the beach, and then the cliff side to find his nest hidden somewhere in the grass

I couldn’t help but linger at the one with a tide pool inside.

Miranda went for the triceratop look….although she claims this is a bunny impersonation

Nelson and Beyond!

Sheep (very plentiful on the South Isl) and Nelson in the background

I’ve been offline for a few weeks because I was off galavanting in the bushier areas of northern South Island. We spent a few days hanging out in Nelson, which is a very cool little city.

Nelson gets brownie points for it's cool recycling bins!

Nelson also claims the “Centre of New Zealand”, which is a small plaque on top of a big hill that marks the exact middle of the country.

centre pics

Ba-ha-ha-ha

After a few days in Nelson, I headed north-west-ish to the ity bity town of Tasman. Situated right on the estuary of Tasman Bay, the town boasts a corner store, and one gas pump. I think it is or used to be where the apple packaging facility was for the surrounding orchards. They also host a Kiwi Bird the size of a Grizzlar. Don’t worry, he’s not some mutant form of the reclusive bird, but a wooden sculpture. It seems that every small town in New Zealand has a claim to fame. Manaia is the “Bread Capitol of New Zealand” – home of the largest bakery in the country. All the bread went to Subway so you couldn’t buy a ‘tourist’ loaf, but to make up for it there is always the photo op under the massive loaf of bread that welcomes you to town. I believe this Kiwi bird serves a similar purpose, but the bus driver wouldn’t stop for us.

Manaia's Bread Loaf, photocredit: TreMichLan on Flickr

This poor girl was being eaten by the crazy large kiwi, photocredit: melissa on picasa

What would take me to Tasman Home of the Biggest Kiwi Bird? WWOOFing. I spent a week wwoofing on a property just above the estuary, and perched on a cliff overlooking Tasman Bay. The woman who owned the property bought it 25 years ago, and has been slowly building it up and growing an organic orchard and veggie patches. The property was gorgeous, and we were lucky enough to have fantastic weather. There were two other wwoofers staying there as well – and English bloke and and Aussie girl – very nice folk! It was a lot more fun weeding with friends around.

View of Tasman Bay from the strawberry patch

Wind and solar power took a big chunk out of the home electricity bills!

I couldn't help but spend some quality time with the chickens

Baby goats are the cutest creatures ever!!

Conquering the Abel Tasman

After WWOOFing, I headed out for the Abel Tasman Great Walk. The Department of Conservation (DOC) has created eight or nine Great Walks across the country that are easy to access, and well maintained in an effort to make the ‘wilderness’ more accessible. All the great walks have hut accommodation available, so you don’t hav to camp. This was great for me because I wasn’t particularly interested in buying a tent or carrying it for five days.

Map of the Abel Tasman walk

From end to end the track is about 55Km, but I think I ended up doing closer to 70Km because we took a few side trails and looped back in the end to catch a water taxi.

I met up with an English guy, Bruce, for the hike. The first day of the track followed the coastline closely and dipped down on to beautiful golden sand beaches. The coastline is all granite rock, and iron oxide (rust) tints the beaches golden. The water ranged from an incredible turquoise blue to deep green.

The walk started on a boardwalk through the Marahau estuary

One of many gorgeous beaches along the walk

Adele Island

The first night we stayed at the Anchorage Hut. I guess I’ve been away from Canada too long because when I saw the crystal clear and turquoise water in Anchorage Bay, I didn’t think, “pretty, but glacier cold.” I thought, “a refreshing dip in the ocean would be so nice after a long day of hiking.”  SOOO cold!! Take your breath away cold!! It was definitely invigorating, and luckily the sun was out to warm  me up when I got out of the water.

Care for a dip?! Brrrrr!

Sunset at Anchorage Bay

Ahhh... warm sun!

The next morning we had a tidal crossing first thing. We had hoped we wouldn’t have to get our feet wet, but in the end the boots had to come off. From there we hiked up to some pretty water falls, and even got to cross a suspension bridge over Falls River.

Tidal crossing at Anchorage Bay

I wanted to go for a boat ride, but figured my pack would sink the boat

The water in Falls River was crystal clear

Me on the suspention bridge

Bark Bay was the destination that evening. More beautiful beaches and turquoise water!

There is a penguin hide out near here

The next morning it had already started to drizzle as we left the hut, but we hoped that it would hold out for a few hours.

Along the Bark Bay estuary... a litte cloudier today

It didn’t. By the time we got to Onetahuti Bay it was pouring. We braved a big jump to get across the tidal crossing at this beach. At this point my feet were already wet so it didn’t really matter that they got a little soggier when I missed the bank. Ooops!

By the time we reached the Awaroa Hut we were both soaked to the bone. I had my camera wrapped up in a plastic bag in my jacket pocket, but either the bag or my jacket leaked because the camera ended up having a bath. Luckily I’ve dried it out now, and it works most of the time!

When we got into the Awaroa Hut there were a couple of guys standing in their boxers by the fireplace trying to dry off and warm up. After a while they started to put all the gear back on, and said they were headed to Anchorage Bay… over 20Km and two tidal crossings away. I have no idea what time they ended up getting to Anchorage, but I know they made it because I saw them walking around Christchurch yesterday. The funniest part was that they had all their gear and jackets back on when we realized they still weren’t wearing any pants. When we jokingly told them not to forget about that vital piece of clothing, they shrugged and said there was no point in wearing pants because they would just get wet. Yes, they had extra dry clothes to change into, so they didn’t have to worry if one pair got wet. I suppose they just wanted to be able to say they walked the Abel Tasman in two day without pants on.

The next morning, the sun broke through again! I turned my camera on and blindly took a picture – at that point the screen wasn’t working and I wasn’t sure if it would ever work again. I got a good shot of the estuary though!

Awora crossing at high tide. You can just make out the orange marker on the other side

Low tide wasn’t until 1:30pm, so I had to wait until 12:30pm to set off across the inlet. Despite it being in the ’safe zone’ to cross, the water in some of the channels still came up to mid-thigh.

Hiking through Anapai Bay and Mutton Cove was beautiful, but walking on the beach is also very tiring. The seal colony at Separation Point wasn’t very populated, and they didn’t care much for my attempts at seal barking. I suppose I’ve got the wrong accent down here.

The next day back tracked 7.5Km to Totaranui, where I caught a water taxi back to Marahau. The water taxi ride was lots of fun, and the driver was an excellent tour guide. I was the only one on the boat all the way to Anchoarge Bay, so he took me over to the Tonga Island seal colony, showed me where the Blue Penguins come ashore at night, and shared a few Maori legends of the area. I even spotted two penguins swimming!!

The water taxi got pulled out of the water by tractor once we got to Marahau, and then you ride in the boat all the way back to the main road. photocredit: Abel Tasman Centre

That night I made it back to Nelson, Miranda and I left for Christchurch the next morning.