Day 0 - Queenstown
Tahuna Pod was our first hostel experience ever. NZ stays are in general very expensive. So it has to be hostel. Tahuna was a delightful stay - very clean, cozy and ample showers. We did some little shopping at the market. I purchased an expensive trekking pole, rented a sleeping bag and some other stuff. We had dinner at Fergburger - a place which had 5K+ rating of 5 star. It was good. We also did some walking around the Wakatipu lake but it was getting cold.
Day 1 -
We started our day early. We had a Milford cruise reservation at 3 pm and awesome things to cover on our way. Drive to Milford was indeed very beautiful. On our way, we had our breakfast at Te Anau after picking my hut passes. We had breakfast at Sandfly cafe where we discovered few New Zealand quirks -
1. Their Americano is extremely hot because they make Long Black (Two shots of expresso) and add insanely hot water to it.
2. Their native vegetation is Kumara (Sweet Potato) and Pumpkin. All veggie options will have one of the two by default.
3. Their diners do not have an option for Omlette in most of the places. They can make it scrambled, poached, fried etc but not an omlette.
At Te Anau, we were even stopped by a traffic police who had received a complaint against me. I denied it and later on (after 7 days), we got an email from him that his investigation has not led anywhere.
The drive was very beautiful. It gets even better post Te Anau. We stopped at Eglington Valley, Chasm, Mirror lakes on our way to the Milford cruise. The cruise was decent. Eglington valley and Chasm were very good.
On the way back, we did the Lake Gunn Nature walk which was blissful. The trail is in between these amazing trees and it was all quiet as there was no one else. Our night stay was at Fiordland lodge. Fortunately for us, there was no one else at the lodge and we had the lodge and the entire kitchen for ourselves. We made the ready to eat rice + dal tadka + spinach soup and called it a night.
Day 2 -
After dropping Kanishka at Te Anau, I went to Divide shelter to start my trek. We packed Subway for both our lunch and dinner. Kanishka decided to do the Kepler day trek which passed via Dock bay and another one - it was relatively flat but scenic. I will describe Routeburn in detail here -
Routeburn track started with an slight aggresive climb. My first point of interest was Summit hill and it was worth to climb up there. While Routeburn definitely had great views, the trail itself was very varied and interesting. Sumit hill gave awesome views of the entire valley.
From Summit hill, I started my descent and reached Howden hut and had my first subway there. Howden hut was on a lakeside and it was very peaceful there. From Howden, I started my 3 hr trek to Mackenzie Hut which was my destination. I will admit that I was pretty tired 40 mins before reaching the Mackenzie hut. The trail was tiring. But along the way, I crossed this amazing waterfall - Earland Falls. It was just majestic to look at it. It was falling from 174 metre above. While it was very beautiful, it was very cold and standing next to the waterfall, it made it very chilly. So, I tried to capture quickly with my eyes and camera and decided to move on.
Mackenzie hut was also next to a lake but it was too cold and I was too tired to walk anymore. I cooked dinner and went to sleep.
Day 3 -
The next morning, we woke up with slight rain which quickly converted to a snow fall. My hopes for helicopter ride was damped but the hut ranger told that the helicopter will indeed fly today as there is good visibility today. But we have only 4 hrs to make it to the top (Harris Saddle). The way up was very beautiful but because of snowfall and freezing conditions and a deadline, I had to rush. But the climb was very beautiful. We could see our hut becoming a smaller as we climbed the hill in front of it. We even saw a rainbow
At Harris Saddle, we were treated with hot water from the rich shelter organized by a private company. After the heli ride down, it was all downhill and I was at Routburn falls hut by 2:30 pm. I tried to find a ranger to check if I can go to the next hut but could not find him. I slept for couple of hrs and then made a dinner of Indian cooking. It was nice and warm.
Day 4 -
I woke up early and left the hut by 6 am all packed to end the hike. It took me 4 hrs to get down. I was really tired by the end of it. Day 3 hike had great views and a nice green-bluish stream flowing next to the trail. Early morning views were amazing. That moment when the first rays of Sun hit the snow covered mountains and the mountain just shines - it is a wow moment. The camera pics below can not come close to capture it.
Upon reaching Glenorchy, I met Kanishka who was staying at this Kinloch lodge and it was very beautiful. This part of Glenorchy-Kinloch was the most beautiful visual scenery of our trip. It was surreal. New zealand has this green carpet covered mountains with sheep on them. Here there were snow peaks in the background, green-ish blue water and no humanity in sight. It was very pretty.
We drove back to Queenstown and did some more shopping. We stayed at Melbourne lodge for the night. It was ok but completely full. At night, we drove to the Onsen pool to relax our bones and muscles. Onsen pools also have a good option for stargazing but as luck would have it, it was raining there and totally cloudy to have any view at all. But the hot pool was definitely very relaxing.
Day 5 -
We decided to not explore anything in Queenstown but to drive to Mt. Cook Village and explore Wanaka on the way. At Wanaka, we had this amazing lunch of a Burrito from this Mexican truck - it was inexpensive and probably the best meal of the trip. At Wanaka, we went into the typical touristy mode and clicked pics at the #WanakaTree and also visited the Puzzling world for some interesting 3d puzzles. We also stopped at the Bra rope where many women had hung their bra in support of breast cancer research.
While leaving Wanaka, we say signs of Lavender farm and decided to check it out. Farms were not completely blooming but it was not all brown either. We clicked some snaps and did some Lavender shopping before checking out.
The last 1 hr of drive to reach Mt cook village was the most amazing drive that I did in the entire NZ. It was a never ending road, next to a lake and as you go inside, the views of mountains just keep on getting better. By
The day was from over yet. We had a nice big pizza for dinner. Post that, we had booked the stargazing tour. Our lucky streak continued and we got a full clear sky that night. The sky tour was one of the top 3 highlights for both Kanishka and me. That there are so many stars, all visible from naked eye was amazing. With telescopes, we saw the Saturn ring, moon and a big star gas. It was very cold, very dark but an amazing experience. Our tour guides also shared a lot of knowledge and local Maori anecdotes. Sadly there are no pics but somethings are better like this.
Day 6 -
The day started with the beautiful Hooker Valley trek. At the end of the trek, we are standing next to a melting glacier which was probably formed when the last ice age came and we could see and hold floating ice masses on this lake. It was a surreal experience.
After the trek, we started our drive to Christchurch. We were so full with the scenery of Mt. Cook that we totally bypassed Taupo and went straight to Christchurch. Our stay was booked at this Jailhouse hostel which used to be an actual jailhouse. We had a nice Arabic dinner and slept early to catch up on the lost sleep for yesterday.
Day 7 -
At Christchurch, after having a delicious breakfast at Addington Coffee Co-op, we went to the Botanical gardens and spent an hr or so walking the gardens and watching the peacock fountain. The botanical gardens were indeed very green and serene. We could have sat there forever but we had to move to the next important thing - the local farmers market of Christchurch. Farmers market - as they all are, very lively and lovely. We had a gala time tasting cheese melts, drinking coffee, local cookies and some other dishes. We had packed our dinner too, we were swamped with food. Yes, ofcourse there was music. I remembered my Mountain View days. We spent good 2 hrs there before hitting the road to Picton.
We crossed Kaikoura where we had some plan for dolphin watching but the tour operator himself said that there are no dolphins visible this time around. So, we ditched it and went strait to Picton. Near Picton, we did a short 45 min walk that took us to an amazing view point for Perillous Sounds. The short walk was very beautiful, very high ROI in terms of scenery and shortly we finished, it started to rain.
Our stay at Picton was at Anakiwa lodge which again was mostly empty and we had the full kitchen to ourselves. We heated all of our Farmers' market food and had a very amazing dinner.
Day 8
Next morning, we checked out at 8 am and then did a 2 hr hike before boarding the Picton ferry. We also had to return our rental car and pick up a new one at Wellington. The hike was decent. We couldnt get to view point as we were worried that we could get late. The ferry was nice and huge. I slept as I was really tired with lots of driving. It was also quiet cold outside.
The ferry ride was the end of our South island trip. It was indeed better of the two islands. I would recommend that everyone should first do South and then visit North. There are less people here and people too are more friendly. In the Routeburn track, I met a New Zealand couple who lived in Auckland and were doing their first great walk. They also concurred that south was better than north. They also mentioned that they hardly knew any local NZ who has been to Hobbiton.
There are many spots where LOTR was shot but looking at the local scenery, I realized that they might as well have shot anywhere in New Zealand. It is beautiful everywhere around.
1 comment:
Thanks for penning it down Arvind!
Post a Comment