Day 15 – Seals, Pancakes & Greymouth – We awoke in Abel Tasman national park to a sky that was still gray, but luckily enough the rain let up a bit when we had to load the bags onto the bus. We pulled away without me having seen any of Abel Tasman national park. Sad, but you can’t expect everything to always work out on a trip this long. Sometimes things will go awry. I’m sure it’s a beautiful place though!
So we commenced the long drive to Greymouth, which is the biggest “city” on the west coast of the south island. I started to do some reading up on Greymouth in my guidebook on the bus, and it turns out that there is absolutely nothing to see or do in Greymouth. It’s a sad, depressing little town that just happens to be a perfect stopover point between the heavily touristed Abel Tasman national park and the heavily touristed Franz Josef glacier. Basically Greymouth is somewhere to sleep. We did make a couple of interesting stops along the way though. That’s what nice about Stray, is that even when we need to cover long distances, we make tons of stops for food/bathroom/interesting stuff to see along the way. Our first stop was at a fur seal colony. The scenery was pretty cool, and it was neat to see them just chillin out in the wild! The second stop was at what are called the Pancake Rocks, which are all these weird rock formations along the coastline. Very very pretty, and because the rocks are all crazy shaped the sea does some interesting things. There’s one spot called the teapot where the sea spray shoots up through the rock like 90 feet into the air and up the spout at the top.
Greymouth, which is a town that sits on the mouth of the Grey river –very creative naming – was a sad, sad, little place. By far the most depressing, unattractive place I’ve seen in New Zealand. It is definitely aptly named though, it had a grey, hopeless quality to it.
It reminded me of some of the sad little towns I’ve passed through in upstate New York. Our driver, Whales, had warned us ahead of time that the hostel in Greymouth was not one of Stray’s nicer accommodations. I didn’t think it was too bad, it was clean, just really quirky. The floor with all the rooms on it had a funhouse feel to it, where you could just wander aimlessly in circles and never find your way out. The bar was quite the local scene though (although I did not partake and went to sleep instead), with the creepy locals joining in on the hostel revelry to gawk at all of the young backpacker girls. Good stuff.
Day 16 – Greymouth to Franz Josef – Lucky for us our Greymouth departure wasn’t until 1 pm, so we had the morning to soak up more of the local flavor. I took advantage and slept in until the last minute, sneaking into McDonalds for my sausage egg & cheese biscuit about 45 seconds before they stopped serving breakfast. I used the morning to set my plan of attack for our upcoming stint in Queenstown. At 1:00 we left Greymouth behind, and started our journey towards the township of Franz Josef, home of the Franz Josef glacier. We stopped in a nice little town along the way, famous for it’s jade and milkshakes. I didn’t get any jade, but I did get myself a milkshake, which was much more in my price range. We got to Franz Josef around 5 or 6. It had been basically 2 days of driving, but the great thing about New Zealand is that the stuff out the window is all so amazingly beautiful (even in the rain) that driving around in itself is kind of entertaining.
The accommodation at Franz Josef was MUCH nicer. It was a hostel called the Rainforest Retreat, because it basically is set in the rainforest. Four of us decided to go for a slightly swankier dorm room at the place, and for an extra $2 a night we got our own private cabin for the 4 of us overlooking the hot tub, with it’s own bathroom, shower & mini-fridge, so I had easy access to the giant bottle of coke I had bought the day before. It was pretty amazing. Here’s our little cabin if you look closely:
I went a little gourmet for dinner as well, and instead of instant noodles I “made” ravioli from a can. And guess what the Rainforest Retreat has? A CAT. A friendly one. My friend Suzy, an awesome English girl who joined the bus at the start of the south island tour, named him Muffin. Muffin is orange, and was very sweet. I wanted to steal him for snuggling, but I left him where he was after petting him, parked on the couch watching some TV. After enjoying the hot tub for a bit, something that I believe in the English language we generally refer to as the “sun” started to finally creep on through. You could even see the mountains with the snowy caps, and with the lingering light fog it was quite pretty. The view had a Dante’s Peak vibe to it. Suzy said she felt like she was standing in the middle of an American disaster movie, where a picturesque little town is about to get pummeled. It was quite an accurate description though, the whole atmosphere of the town and the scenery in the background was gorgeous:
I went to sleep at a decent hour only to be woken up by the pitter patter of little feet crawling up the duvet. I am 99% certain there was a mouse on me. I jumped out of bed and flicked on the light. I did not see him, but there was no mistaking the pitter patter of small rodent feet.
Day 17 – Franz Josef Glacier – I got to the Glacier hike office at about 8 am for my full-day hike. I was a bit nervous, as the brochure said that you needed to have an “excellent” fitness level in order to partake, and I learned the hard way at Tongarira that I am not in “excellent” fitness or anything remotely close. I even bought my very first Powerade in an attempt to give myself an energy boost. I borrowed a waterproof jacket, hat & gloves from the office, in addition to the crampons which attach to your boots so that you can walk on the ice. It was a 10-minute bus ride to the start of the hike, 15 minutes walk through a forest, and then 45 minutes through the valley to get to the face of the glacier. My very first glacier! Damn, was that a lot of ice. There are several glaciers in this part of New Zealand, but the Franz Josef one is the most heavily touristed because it’s the most accessible. I chose to go with the last group, for the people with the lowest fitness level, and also because hordes of other people go first, the ice is a bit easier to walk on. Here’s me posing in front of the glacier before we started to climb up:
The hike turned out to be really good, and I didn’t huff and puff the way I worried I would. There were 11 of us and the guide, and because he stops fairly frequently to chop through the ice, there was plenty of time to relax in between schlepping up the glacier. We did hike up quite high, but the slow pace made it much more manageable.
The crampon things are fun, you can run on the ice downhill and don’t fall flat on your face! Being surrounded by ice is pretty amazing though. It wasn’t really that cold either, except for when we took breaks at the higher altitudes. But it’s quite stunning walking through this world completely made of ice. We even found a little cave at one point, which was pretty cool.
I got to drink some fresh glacier water, which was super yummy. There are tons of waterways running through the thing. It sort of reminded me of Blizzard Beach waterpark in Florida, only instead of fake Disney waterslides, these were actually real. I did have to pee on the glacier in the middle of the day though. Surprisingly, there are no bathrooms on glaciers. Who knew? I wasn’t the only one who peed though. One other woman asked, so after she was done I sort of moseyed on over to the same spot. We got back to the bus at 5, after a long day of schlepping all over the ice. I was tired, but not exhausted or sore. I was very happy about that. Here some more pics of me on the ice, starting with me pretending to ice climb:
Here’s our guide chopping out stairs in the ice:
And me posing with the ice pick. I did accidentally stab myself with it at one point, which took about 10 days to heal, but I didn’t tear my leggings, which is all that counts, right?
Our hike came with free entry to the glacier hot pools down the road, so a bunch of us went and sat in those for an hour or so after we got back from the hike. They were nice and relaxing, although the bugs ate me alive on the way to and from the pools. The New Zealand bugs really like me. I had dinner at the bar, they had a meal deal for people from the Stray bus. The bar was nice, fun music and they gave out really good prizes for their competitions. Two boys who were willing to take everything off (even the boxers…) got free jet boat rides in Queenstown. Those boat rides are like a hundred bucks, so that’s a pretty good reward for standing in your birthday suit at the bar.
Day 18 – Headed to Queenstown – Today was a long travel day, although we made several stops along the way to break up the driving legs. We stopped at a lake to take some scenic photos, and then at a waterfall a bit later on. Here’s a group shot in front of a lake:
About a half hour outside of Queenstown we stopped at the A.J. Hackett Bungy center, so that anyone wanting to sign up for those kinds of activities could do so. While I am up for almost anything, bungy jumping is not on my list of things to tackle, so the information video and watching a view people leap into the canyon off the bridge was sufficient bungy experience for me. Here’s a picture of some random dude taking the plunge though!
Once in Queenstown I headed up to my hostel, which was only a 5 minute walk from the city center, but it was up a steep hill, so that 5 minute walk took me a very sweaty half hour. But the hostel, which was a recommendation from the girl I had met in the Bay of Islands, was very sweet and home-y feeling. It’s called the Hippo Lodge, and the view from my window was stunning. It looked out over the lake and mountains.
Queenstown is kind of Disney-esque in that it’s a happy tourist wonderland, but it’s also probably the prettiest town I’ve seen thus far in New Zealand. Just gorgeous.
I rushed back down to town for the group pizza dinner, and after 5 slices and some sort of fruity pink cocktail that came in a teapot, we finally commenced the Whales Queenstown Pub Crawl. Whales said that Queenstown had 128 bars, and he planned to take us to at least 126 of them. We started the evening at Altitude which is the party bar at the Base hostel, and that’s where we stayed for the rest of the night. So much for a pub crawl! But everyone has a good time anyway. I stayed out pretty late, and one of the English guys walked me back to my hostel to be gentlemanly. Chivalry is not entirely dead ladies!
Day 19 – Hang Gliding – I woke up the next morning, booked my activities for Day 20, and then met the van at noon to go hang gliding. My mother actually gave me the idea. She mentioned a while back that it was something she’d always wanted to try, and it seemed like a good idea to me as well. We drove for about 20 minutes up to the top of Coronet Peak, which had amazing views of Queenstown.
We went in two rounds, and I was in round 2, which was fine by me so that I could enjoy the views more from up top. Once the van arrived back at the top of the peak, us remaining flyers got suited up. After a quick lesson as to what to do, before I knew it I was running along full speed ahead towards the edge of a cliff, holding on to a guy I’d met 5 minutes prior, attached to nothing but a pair of wings and some poles. It’s pretty cool!
I very much enjoyed the first few minutes up there. Like skydiving, it is a bit nippy up that high, but the views are beautiful, and you’re so high up that even the tall trees look teeny tiny.
But a few minutes in to the flight he started to circle to try and catch an updraft to lift us up higher, and it was all downhill from there for me. I didn’t puke, but I was definitely getting actual motion sickness up there. I started getting really hot, and my body started losing tension so that I was no longer able to properly hold myself up. I spent the second half of the flight with my eyes closed, half passed out on the guy’s shoulder. I sort of looked like a flying ragdoll. Once he asked if I was ready to go down, I did start to feel better. Partially I assume because I was excited to get back to earth, and partially because the descent is actually kind of cool. He pushes the bar in, and then it’s just full speed ahead, zooming towards the ground. We got back to earth fairly quickly. I sort of laid there for a minute before I found the energy to stand up again.
That afternoon consisted of me taking a nap, after which I did feel better. I met Suzy around 8:30, and we decided to check out one of Queenstown’s more classier establishments, after the previous night’s debauchery at the Base bar. We found a nice little place with a roaring fire and no one in it called Bardeaux, so we hung out there for a bit and made friends with the bartender who gave us a free drink. We wandered back over to the Base bar afterwards, and hung out with the bus group for a bit. Nice, calm night out.
Day 20 – Canyoning and River Surfing – I booked a full day of activities for myself for my second day in the adventure capital of the world. In the morning I did a canyoning trip. I figured I liked dry caving and wet caving, so perhaps I’d like the same sort of activities, only not in a cave? It really was a lot of fun! We drove to a canyon about 15 minutes outside of Queenstown before putting on some pretty hardcore wetsuits. Overalls and a jacket, plus wetsuit socks and wetsuit boots, a helmet, and a life jacket. There was an Israeli family of four, a British couple, and myself, plus the two tour guides and the photographer. We started of by doing some zip lines across the canyon. They were really good ones, much faster and simpler in their structure than any zip line I’d been on previously. So that made them more exhilarating.
We had to abseil down into the canyon, before really getting into the hardcore water activities.
The water was quite nippy. It was told it was 6 degrees Celsius, which is 42 Farenheit. Yeah. That’s pretty chilly. We did a variety of jumps, slides, and swimming. The jumps and slides we had to do in different positions, depending on the rock formations. One waterfall we had to go down backwards, while another jump we were told to basically bellyflop into. There were 2 big jumps. The first one was about 7 meters, or 21 feet, off the side of a cliff into a waterfall. The Brtitish guy and I were the only ones who went. Everyone else did it the lame way and had themselves lowered by rope into the canyon. The next jump I was the only one who attempted. Everyone did a half zip line out so that you dangle out above the middle of the canyon, and then you release the rope to lower yourself into the water below. Once back in the water, there’s an optional rock climb to a cliff face about 8 meters up (24 feet), where you can jump off. Here’s me doing the climb, which wasn’t easy since my hands were super numb, and although I did balk like 5 times before I went, I did eventually make the leap and popped back out of the water to applause.
I was quite pleased with myself! I really loved the canyoning trip, that stuff is just oodles of fun for me.
Had about an hour and a half break in between the canyoning and river surfing, which I spent at Subway having lunch. Then I piled into the next van, and it was off to river surfing! My body was starting to feel really tired though, and it also occurred to me that I might not LIKE river surfing. Waves freak me out, which is why I was such a crap surfer. And rapids are essentially fresh water waves, only a bit meaner. Uh oh!
So we got suited up and got into our wetsuits, learned the basics, and then it was back into the water.
The scariest/most technique required part was at the start, so it was good to get it out of the way. The ride down to the end took about 30 minutes, and absolutely scared the crap out of me, as predicted. I only swallowed water once though, and at least it’s not salt water, so that was a bit better? But every time I approached the rapids I was terrified, they really do knock you about mercilessly. I know that’s supposed to be the fun part, but I was happiest when we got to parts of the river that were just fast, with no white water. Plus the whole thing is actually very physically demanding. You have to kick for your life sometimes so that you don’t crash into rocks, and climbing back on to that boogie board in rapids is pretty friggin tough. And the rapids spin you around without your control, so sometimes you go into rapids backwards and have NO idea when they are coming. My arms ached from grasping onto the board for dear life. I was a very happy girl when we got out of the water at the other end.
Round 2 was optional, and I really didn’t want to go. I was tired and emotionally exhausted from being petrified for nearly 30 minutes. But I wanted to get my money’s worth/not feel like a failure, so I went for round 2. The first set of rapids, the toughest one, ate me alive this time though. I get knocked off the board and sucked under, and couldn’t get out. I was breathing in water, and simply could not find the surface. I don’t know if I was just disoriented or the rapids were keeping me pushed down, but breathing in water when you can’t find your way back out is incredibly scary. I popped up and coughed and wheezed for like 2 solid minutes. I have no idea how long I was under for, it was probably less than I thought it was, but I took in quite a bit of water, and emerged quite shaken. One of the guys was kind enough to make sure I was ok and called out for one of the guides to keep an eye on me, but once I got my breath back I was ok. I decided that for the rest of the journey down the rapids, to hell with technique or riding the waves or staying on the board. When we got to a rapid I let go of the damn board and held my nose for dear life. The only thing I cared about was keeping water OUT of my lungs, I could give a crap if I fell off the board a dozen times. And I did ok for the rest of the ride, even managed to enjoy the calmer bits. But will I ever river surf again? No. Do I regret attempting a scary activity or forcing myself to go for round 2, even though I nearly drowned? No. Hell no actually, it’s Queenstown! The adventure capital of the world! If you don’t nearly drown or plunge to your death or give yourself a heart attack, then you might as well freakin go home.
Needless to say I treated myself to dinner. I bought Pad Thai and a coke and went down to the lake beach to meet up with Suzy and the other Stray bus that had gotten into Queenstown a couple of days after us. Had a nice time down there, and then we went for a nice glass of wine before calling it a night. Very. Long. Day.
Day 21 – Shotover Jet & Fergburger – The last day in Queenstown was a bit less dramatic. Suzy and I went on the Shotover jet boat ride, which is a fast speed boat ride through narrow canyons. The boat can ride at top speeds on only 10 centimeters of water, and does 360 spins. Suzy and I are in the front row:
It was really a lot of fun, but it was safe fun, which after running off a cliff with wings, jumping into a canyon and boogie boarding down white water rapids, was much appreciated. We had Queenstown’s famous Fergburger for lunch, which lived up to the hype. The meat was good, but it was the sauce and the freshly baked bun that made it amazing.
Spent the rest of the afternoon showing Suzy my adventure pictures from the past few days, and then I treated myself to a spa appointment followed by some shopping. Very nice last day in Queenstown.
Day 22 – Stewart Island – Got back on the Stray bus with a non-Whales driver, which was sad. This driver’s name was Digger. He was nice enough though. We basically drove down to the bottom of the country, and then took a ferry over to Stewart Island, which is the 3rd smaller island of New Zealand underneath the south island. It’s pretty remote, no mobile reception, and they only get supplies delivered in 3 times a week. It’s 85% national parkland. It was only $5 more each to get a double instead of staying in a dorm, so Suzy and I got our own room. After a delicious lunch of instant noodles, we went on a hike for about 2 and a half hours. We covered only a teeny tiny portion of Stewart Island, but we did at least get a little feel for it. It’s big and remote, so you really do need to go on like a week long camping/hiking trek through the middle of it in order to get a proper feel. We bought dinner from a cart since we didn’t want to cook, found a dead bird outside which we named Theodore and then laid to rest, and most importantly Suzy helped me reach the revelation that I do indeed need a backpack. I need to be a backpacker. Here I am trying Suzy’s:
The duffel bag from Jillaroo & Surf Camp didn’t work out. The suitcase is getting beat up and is too big and too heavy and everyone mocks me for it. When I backpack Australia, yes, I will do it with a backpack. Which means I have to buy one before then. But what an exciting revelation!
We hung out in the room at night, enjoying a cider and chatting. Here’s me outside our room:
Not that interesting, but please note that this photo was taken about 10:10 at night, and it was STILL light outside. You definitely can’t go to bed early in this part of the world, the sun is still out!
Day 23 – Milford Sound – We took the ferry back to the south island from Stewart island, and then started the long drive to the Milford sound. Milford is the second rainiest place on earth, but we ironically had perfect weather! The drive up there is beautiful, but I missed most of it on the way there because I had to pee and was sleepy, so I had my eyes shut, trying to concentrate all my efforts on not having an accident on the bus. The cruise through the sound took about an hour and a half, and it really is stunning.
It’s super isolated from pretty much everything else, but it’s worth the drive. Had a brief chat with an elderly couple from New Jersey on the boat, who spotted my Met hat in the distance. The little old lady was really quite gutted about Jose Reyes going to the Marlins.
The drive back out of Milford was much better for me, since I had an empty bladder. It’s so beautiful! One day, when I’m back in New Zealand, I’d like to do the hikes in that area. It’s pretty amazing stuff, I’m glad I got to at least spend a bit of time there. Our accommodation for the night was at a place called Gunn’s Camp, which was maybe a bit over an hour away from Milford Sound. The place was quite rustic. There was electricity and all that, but no proper refrigerator. The fridge was a metal box thrown into the river. Nice! Basically had dinner and then went to bed. I wanted to spend as little time as possible outside. The place was crawling with sand flies. Ever gotten bit up my sand flies? Not. Cool. They bite you, it hurts a bit, you bleed, and then it gets slowly worse for like 2 days before it reaches it’s high point, and then the swelling slowly goes down. At least with mosquitoes the worst is right off the bat and then it gets better. The place was crawling with them. Awful awful awful!
Day 24 – Gunn’s to Queenstown to Auckland to Northland – As you can tell by that sentence, this was a travel day. I’m finishing this entry up at the airport in Queenstown, but I imagine it won’t be posted until I have some spare time/solid internet access to tweak it and get it up. But basically, we drove in from Gun’s Camp and stopped in a town called Te Anau for lunch, which is where we got mobile phone reception back for the first time in almost 24 hours. I had tons of texts and missed calls which was really exciting! Apparently Christchurch had been hit with a ton of earthquakes again and people wanted to make sure I wasn’t dead, which was very nice of everyone. I was on the same island as Christchurch, but we were a good 400 miles away, didn’t feel a thing. From Te Anau we headed in to Queenstown, where we were scheduled to get in at 3:30. I was to spend Christmas/New Year’s up in the north part of the country with a friend I met back in Australia, so I needed us to get back to town promptly since the flight to Auckland was at 5:10, which would be followed by a 2 hour drive even further up north. Nothing like cutting it close…. But the driver was nice enough to just drop me at the airport, and this time my luggage was WITHIN the 23 kg rule (I’ve developed very good packing skills), so I waltzed on through and got to the gate with plenty of time. Woo Hoo! And it was an air New Zealand flight, which made me super happy. I was disappointed that I had to fly Qantas over here, so I was pretty pumped about getting on the New Zealand national airline this time.
So now I’ll have a week of NOT being a backpacker. Perhaps I’ll even eat something other than instant noodles? Who knows!
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to everyone!!!!
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