Heaps of Hikes

Turns out that the frequency of my blog updates is fairly proportional to the amount of rain New Zealand is getting. Hence why I haven't posted in almost a month! Antoine and I have been galavanting all around part of the South Island hiking and exploring for the last few weeks, soaking up the summer sunshine. Aside from one hike, we've had perfect days for all of our adventures, so a big thank you to the weather gods for that. Anyways, on to pictures.

I left off somewhere southwest of Christchurch at a lovely cheap campsite on the cliff bank of the Rakaia Gorge, which looks magnificent even on a drizzly wet day. 

Rakaia River

Luckily, the next day was the end of a string of bad weather, and from there I went on to Lake Tekapo and hiked Mount John, hardly a mountain but still offering a lovely viewpoint over the lake and the surrounding mountains. The lake is glacier fed and filled with glacial flour (super fine rock particles), which lends it a brilliant blue colour on sunny days as the sun rays reflect off the suspended particles. 

Lovely Lake Tekapo from Mount John

This is taken from my campsite near Lake Tekapo on another littler lake

Then onwards to Mount Cook! I picked up a Tasmanian hitchhiker around my age and ended up spending the day checking out a few short hikes with him. He had a connection in the area who is a tour boat skipper on Tasman Lake, and he had a day off so took us to the lake to check out some icebergs that had calved off the glacier in the last few days. 

The little yellow dot in the bottom right corner is a 15-seater tour boat... Shows you just how big these 'bergs are!

Mount Cook from my campsite, before the clouds roll in and hide the lofty peak.

I had time to sneak in a peak the next morning before heading to Alexandra to where Antoine was finishing up picking cherries. Some fellow trampers at the summit of Avalanche Peak in Arthur's Pass had recommended 1468m Mt Sebastopol as a hidden gem of a hike, so I opted to check it out and was amply rewarded with stunning views of Mount Cook, Lake Pukaki, and peaks in all directions, as well as some (introduced) wildlife (either a chamois or a tahr, it was too far away to tell), a couple keas, and only a handful of other trampers. In this park of mainly 2-3000+ meter peaks, it was cool to be able to bag a peak in a morning without climbing gear and with such superb views.  

Looking south towards the stunningly blue Lake Pukaki

Mount Cook and the Main Divide of the Southern Alps, and the village way down in the valley. There's better pictures of the mountains coming up, I just had to throw a selfie in here.

Had to stop on the drive out of the park to snap a pic of this surreal lake

Sunset at the orchard where Antoine worked in Alexandra. I crashed the end-of-cherry-picking parties (yeah, it was a two-night event...) and met a bunch of the cool people from all over the world that he worked with. 'Twas a fun weekend!

Next destination: Fiordland! I'd been itching to get here ever since setting foot in NZ and since hearing my parents rave about it from their trip to this country 30 years ago. We had a few days of rain for our first hike, but that's nothing new in this area of the country, which gets up to 8 METERS of rain every year. 

Another recommended overnight hike took us to the middle of nowhere  south of Te Anau on a gravel road for an hour to a cloud-covered saddle. We had to change the overnight hike to a long day hike due to the inclement weather, and while it wasn't technically raining on us for the hike, half the track went through a tussock field, aka a swamp, and we got thoroughly soaked. Not much of a view from the hut on Green Lake, but we played a couple games of speed and drank some tea and made the best of it. 

The view along the lake... Google tells me there's normally some lofty peaks at the end of the lake but sadly we weren't granted a view of them.

Peek-a-boo in the chest-high tussock grass

The end of February saw a very-welcome change in the weather and we were lucky to have three sunny days in Milford Sound. This is an amazing corner of the world!!! I won't blab on about it, the pictures speak for themselves. 

Our first hike: Key Summit, which follows one end of the Routeburn Track. Unreal views at the top!

The Greenstone Valley on one side...

...and the Eglinton Valley on the other!

:)

Lola almost broke down on us again for the four days we were out of cell reception between Te Anau and Milford Sound, but we made it out in one piece thankfully and she started working again just fine as we were leaving... I don't think I'll ever understand cars! The 120 km drive there was breathtaking. It doesn't seem like a place that should have a highway passing through it. Sheer-sided mountains on all sides, more waterfalls than the eye can keep track of, and snowy peaks towering overhead. Unreal!

Bowen Falls, in Milford Sound.

Majestic, famous Mitre Peak on the left of Milford Sound

Gertrude Saddle, with a view west towards Milford Sound. It was a steep trek up there but majorly worth it!

We spent a few hours in Queenstown enjoying Fergburgers, then headed out Lake Wakatipu to Glenorchy. This is yet another stunning drive!

View from our campsite at the north end of the lake.

Having checked out one end of the Routeburn, we opted for a day walk at the other end to the Routeburn Falls Hut, a 2-hour hike each way. A lovely outing with more great views!

Wanaka has been our home base on a few occasions now. There's a Frolf (frisbee golf) course here that we've perused twice already. It's quite fun and a nice way to kill a few hours on a lazy break-from-hiking day.

The Matukituki River in Mt. Aspiring National Park, with a glacier or two in the background.

Rob Roy Glacier! What a treat for the eyes. A 1000ft-high waterfall shooting out of a ledge in the cliff and glaciers and waterfalls filling the amphitheater on all sides. Just stunning!

I just really like jump shots...

The famous Lone Tree of Wanaka

Roy's Peak, a gruelling, shade-less, 2-hour slog 1250m up a mountain. Tough, but amazing views of the southern alps including 3000m Mt. Aspiring, and the whole Wanaka area.

We've spent the last week in Mount Cook (or Aoraki, the Maori name), as I really enjoyed the area so didn't mind going back with Antoine, who hadn't seen it yet. By some miracle, there were two cancellations for Tuesday night up at the Mueller Hut, so we snagged the beds at this popular hut which I'd been recommended to check out by many people. The weather has been stunning for the last week and continued to be so while we were there, allowing us amazing views of Mount Cook and the multitudes of other peaks surrounding this area. The hut is at 1800m (for perspective, the village is at 750m and Mount Cook's summit is way up at 3700m). The hike was tough, mainly stairs straight up the mountain and gaining 1100m over 3.5 hours. But the views at the top helped all the pain go away, and we enjoyed the afternoon and evening admiring the giant peak, throwing snowballs, watching glaciers shed huge chunks of snow down cliffs, and chatting with some of the 26 other hut occupants and the two lovely American volunteer hut wardens. 

What a spot for a hut! This is the 5th version of this hut since it was first built in 1914. This one was opened in 2003 by Sir Edmund Hillary, right below Mount Ollivier - the first mountain Hillary climbed. 

Mount Cook yet again, with the Hooker glacier and lake below. And Antoine.

Mount Sefton (3157m) towering above the hut. The glacier just below the peak was releasing massive chunks of snow while we were there; it sounded like an avalanche across the valley!

The last jump shot picture (for this blog post), I promise.

Smiles up in the mountains :)

Soooo the truth comes out, this is the main reason I love New Zealand. Wanaka makes amazing pies!

Phew, lots of pictures. Hope everyone enjoyed that one, because I've definitely enjoyed the last few weeks! We're heading to Mt. Aspiring National Park tonight to start a 4-day tramp tomorrow, so hoping the nice weather continues.

Only 3 more weeks in this beautiful country, then we're Bali bound! Excited for something new!

Cheers,

Sonja