The long awaited kayak trip.

Bridget:

I have been begging Craig to go kayaking for the past couple years.  No, no, it’s not that he didn’t want to go.  It’s just that the timing never really worked out.  We always ran out of time, or we didn’t plan enough in advance, etc.  I’ve never been, but he’s done it a few times.  I’m not really sure what the appeal has been for me…maybe just being out on the open water and in charge of your own pace…who knows?  Well, ever since we started planning the trip to NZ, Craig has promised that we would go kayaking in Abel Tasman National Park, accessible only by watercraft.  The travel guide company Lonely Planet apparently rated kayaking in Abel Tasman as the #1 thing to do in NZ.  Well, we finally did our homework and booked a guided day trip several weeks in advance.  We were finally going!

Part of the excitement of travel is the planning phase, so the fact that we had this trip booked for so long meant we got to be excited for a long time leading up to the day.  The bad part about booking outdoor trips in advance is that you never know what the weather is supposed to be like.  Well, we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best.  I would say we got something in between fantastic and crummy.  While it was overcast most of the day and didn’t provide the best scenery, it was cool, breezy, and the sun wasn’t beating down on us the whole day, which was nice. 

We started out at 8:00 am. with our guide Hamish (pronounced Hay-mish) and two other girls from Switzerland.  After a briefing on safety and equipment, we finally headed out into the Tasman Bay. 

Most of the morning we followed the coast line of Abel Tasman park where we were able to see and learn about different species of birds.  Hamish also told the story of how New Zealand was discovered in the 1600s by the Dutch explorer, Abel Tasman, and his skirmish with the Maori people of that time.  The first really cool thing we saw was a little sea cave we were able to paddle right up into:

We paddled for about 2 ½ hours and then stopped for a nice long lunch on one of the beaches with many other kayakers.  After lunch we took a short hike up the mountain for a good view of Anchorage Bay before heading back out.

A few more people joined us the return trip, including two young German guys and two ladies, one Kiwi and one Russian.  Quite the mix of nationalities!  Here is Team America keeping it real:

We moseyed on over to Adele Island and then Fisherman’s Island where we saw the seals and more birds…lots of them.  Here are a few pics from that side of the trip:

About 1-2 miles from shore, our guide helped us rig up a sail so we could all give our arms a break and “kayak-sail” back to shore.  Check this out:

Another great day, indeed.  The amazing thing was that my arms weren’t even as sore as I expected them to be.  Kayaking is really not that strenuous, especially when you have a nice strong man sitting behind you to help move things along, ha ha.  Overall, I would say the trip was “sweet as, mate.”

Next Stop:  Nelson

A Sad Day

Craig:

My Chacos broke…

I really don’t know what to do.  Anyone who has ever known me or seen me has undoubtedly seen with me with sandals on.  I have been wearing sandals ever since I can remember.  Even when there was a foot of snow on the ground back in Nebraska, I was wearing sandals.  I remember one instance where my friends and I got stuck in a snow drift in my truck while trying to drive out to a friend’s house in the country.  It was minus 10 degrees out and school was cancelled so Jason, Anthony, and I drove out to Greg Schardt’s house to get him and bring him into town.  We buried my little Ford Ranger in a snow drift right in front of his house.  One might think that I would have been smart enough to wear snow boots on a trip out into the country in a blizzard.  Not me… I wore my Tevas.  My dad eventually got us out of the snow and was none too happy.  I think he was most upset at the fact that I was wearing sandals. 

Anyway, I bought my navy blue Chacos way back in 2003.  I bought them from the Moose’s Tooth outdoor store in Lincoln, NE.  Since then, they have been all over the place.  They have been whitewater rafting in Tennessee, rock climbing in Oregon, hiking in Costa Rica, beachcombing in Jamaica, backpacking in Colorado, Angel’s Landing in Zion, kayaking in New Zealand, and countless other places.  

Chacos on top of Pike's Peak, Colorado

 (pictured bottom-right with their handler, Craig Olson)

They have been my go-to footwear for over six years.  I paid $90 for the pair and they were worth every cent.  Now the search is on for a new pair of sandals.  It will more than likely be another pair of Chacos, but who knows…maybe I will give another sandal a chance to do me proud like my Chacos did.  Anyone who is in the market for a new pair of sandals, give a pair of Chacos a chance.  I promise you will not be disappointed. 

As for my feet, they will mourn the loss of such a great pair of friends but they will move on.  There are more mountains to climb, rivers to raft, and beaches to explore.  My feet will go on. 

Whale Watching in Kaikoura

Bridget:

We have been looking forward to this place for a long time now. If you can remember, Kaikoura was one of the stops we made by train on the way down to Christchurch. It was the picture of the little beach town with snow-capped mountains looming in the distance. After settling in Christchurch, we heard from several people that Kaikoura was a must. Not only did it have excellent views of the ocean and mountains in one town, but it is the best place on the South Island to do a little whale watching. Apparently the Continental Shelf drops off very close to shore which creates a mixing spot between the cold currents from the South and the warm currents from the North. This “mixing spot” is called the Kaikoura Trench which is like a huge underwater canyon where all kinds of marine life thrive. You know what they say…where there are little fish, there are big fish. Really big fish. Whales have been hanging around the waters of Kaikoura for years, specifically a pod of sperm whales. Neither of us had ever really laid our eyes on a whale in the wild, so we were pretty excited to add this experience to the list. There is only one whale watching tour company in the area, and their excursions are pretty pricey, but they come highly recommended and even offer an 80% refund in there are no whale sightings.

When we arrived in Kaikoura, we set up camp (which was surprisingly close to the town center) and headed into town to check things out. Kaikoura is definitely a beach town complete with surf shops, water sports, and plenty of fish and chips shops. Craig and I found a place called “Cooper’s Catch” whose fish and chips were mouthwateringly delicious yet still affordable. We loved it so much we back for seconds the next day.

The day of the tour, we had some time to kill, so we drove out the peninsula for some great views of the ocean, city, and mountains. There was also another seal colony close by, so we were able to get some close-up views of a few of them lounging on the rocks.

Since our tour was booked for 4:00 p.m., our anticipation had been building up all day long. We were sadly disappointed when we arrived at the whale watching center and found out that our trip was cancelled due to strong winds and rough seas. The receptionist offered to rebook us on the morning trip, so we said yes. Oh well, I guess we’d just have to spend one more night in beautiful Kaikoura and eat some more delicious “fush ‘n chups,” as it’s pronounced by the locals.

The next morning our patience paid off and we finally got out on the ocean to see some wildlife. Within 10 minutes of being out over the Continental Shelf drop-off, we had a whale sighting! As I mentioned before, most of the whales in this area are sperm whales. They spend about 5-20 minutes on the surface getting air and expelling waste before “diving” back down to the depths of the ocean. This makes it kind of tricky when trying to get the boat up close enough to get a good look before they dive. After diving, the whale stays submerged for an average time of 45 minutes. Sperm whales can get up to about 19 meters long (about 57 feet and the same length of the boat we were on), but usually you can only see the top one-half of them. The way they are sighted is by spotting the water spraying from their blowhole:

Then it’s only a matter of minutes before they get ready to dive. Here is a pic of the whale’s tail as it dives below, as they love to show it off before disappearing:

We saw a total of three whales that day! Here is a very short video clip of what it looks like when the whale dives:

After the whale sightings, the captain took the boat over closer to shore where a huge pod of about 500 Dusky dolphins were hanging out:

Dusky dolphins are a small variety of dolphin that are known for their playfulness and acrobatics (and frequent mating habits). They will often jump out of the water at incredible heights, do flips, and even 360 degree spins in mid-air. Here is a short video clip of these playful creatures:

We ended the day on such a great note and were so glad we stayed another day to give the tour another chance. Luckily for us, it paid off!

Next Stop: Abel Tasman National Forest

Hanmer Springs: Alpine Retreat or Water Park?

Craig:

"Nestled in the magnificent South Island high country, the Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools and Spa have, since

1879, attracted visitors seeking the benefits of its natural mineral waters and clean, clear, alpine air.”  -the opening line from the Hanmer Springs brochure.

Well, the springs managed to attract two more visitors once again. 

Bridget and I figured it was time for some feet soaking and relaxation so we stopped in at Hanmer Springs (how could you not with their alluring literature).  The brochure makes it sound incredible.  They claim that the thermal waters do the following things: help your body repair and rejuvenate, increases the flow of oxygen-rich blood throughout the body, nourishing vital organs and tissues, help kill harmful germs and viruses while stimulating the immune system, and help promote wonderful feelings of physical well being.  We soaked in the pools for the better part of two hours and agreed that it was not the experience the brochure had touted it to be.  Any place where you enter into a series of metal railings positioned as crowd control is probably going to be more like a trip to your local water park rather than a peaceful, serene, alpine getaway.  The water slides, coin operated lockers, wrist bands, and hyper little children all confirmed our thoughts of the place.  On the up side, we did get our first noseful of sulfur smell for the new year.  I am hoping that a trip to Japan will be able to generate a better mineral pools experience.

I can only describe this last photo as maybe one that you would see at the end of “Outside” magazine as the “Parting Shot.”  So here is your “parting shot” taken at our Hanmer Springs campsite as the clouds cleared that night. 

Next Stop: Kaikoura

Pancake Rocks, Caves, & Seals… Oh My!

Bridget:

After seeing the glaciers, we headed north to a little town called Punakaiki.  So far, all the bridges we have crossed have been one-way, with one side’s cars having to “give way” to the other side’s cars.  Then we happened to come across this little bridge whose designers decided to incorporate another mode of transportation into the one-way bridge crossing:  a train.

Yes, this is known as the “Road & Rail Bridge” in which both cars and train must give way to one another in order to avoid a head-on collision.  Fun, fun, fun.

Onward north.  Punakaiki is famous for a landform called the “Pancake Rocks,” which other than seeing it on a couple postcards, I didn’t know much about.  Turns out it is a bunch of flat layers of limestone rock formed under the sea several thousand years ago.    Now they are exposed on the beach for all to see, and several blowholes have also been formed among them.  Something else amazing about them is that it is still a mystery to scientists how these rocks got their unique shape. 

When we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that we had arrived at the best time to see them:  high tide.  The rising tide creates an abundance of water flow under the caves and out the blowholes.  It made for some pretty impressive shots:

We have seen so many variations in landforms and scenery on this trip, but this place made it to my “Top 3 Things to See on the South Island” list very quickly.  The other thing about this area that I found to be so stunning was the gorgeous, lush mountainsides with palm trees scattered about.  It really reminded me of the setting for LOST, which was filmed in Hawaii.

On the way to the night’s camping spot, we passed a sign that read “Punakaiki Caverns.”  Since we missed out on the Cathedral Caves on the east coast due to hide tide, we had to check this one out.  We worked our way through the trees dripping with residual rainfall and into the caves, and started to head back.  We abruptly came to a stop, however, when the cave ceilings dropped about three feet and the ground became extremely slick and muddy.  We decided not to venture any further but did get a couple good snapshots:

The next day we were able to drive out to see a Seal Colony (one of the many around the South Island).  We saw several seals and even some baby ones playing on the rocks and basking in the sun.  They are so well camouflaged against the rocks, and much easier to see moving around with your own eyes, but Craig and I were able to pick out at least 24 seals in this next picture.  Can you find them?

Next Stop:  Hanmer Springs’ Hot Pools

West Coast & Glaciers

Craig:

The west coast of New Zealand is very different from the east coast.  The east coast has plains and rolling hills filled with sheep and dairy cattle whereas the west has lush, green, forested mountains with dramatic views of the Southern Alps.  We, however, did not get to see the dramatic views of the Southern Alps due to a nice three day long “Southwester” that strolled through New Zealand.  It was rainy and cloudy for much our west coast time but we still managed to see some cool stuff.  One thing that a few clouds in the sky does promote is cool sunsets.  We managed to be stuck in a town called Haast (the road north was closed due to flooding) and ventured out to the beach around sunset.  These pictures were the result of our beach time. 

After a good night sleep in an unplanned holiday park, we headed north in hopes that the road would be open and it was.  The Southern Alps are filled with glaciers.  We saw of few of them while we were in Mt. Cook National Park and now we were going to see the ones that lay on the other side of the mountain.  Our first stop was Fox Glacier.  We could not hike all the way up to the base of the glacier because all the rain had washed out the track so we had to settle for a cloudy, distant view. 

The next glacier north is Franz Joseph Glacier which was much more accessible.  A few stream crossings, a couple waterfalls, and 45 minutes will get you right up to the base of the glacier.  There were still some low hanging clouds in the valley so we could only probably see half of the entire glacier but it was massive.  Here are some pictures of the hike up to it and the glacier itself.

We continued to head north and camped that night in hopes that it would clear in the morning.  There was a lake close by that if clear and calm, had excellent reflections of Mt. Cook in it but we once again awoke to clouds and rain so we got back on the road.  We did come across this interesting sight. 

These cairns were lined up down the beach for about an entire mile.  There were hundreds of them. Very cool for someone who like cairns as much as I do.

Next stop: Pancake Rocks

Mt. Cook National Park

Craig:

I can pretty much trace my desire to come to New Zealand back to one National Geographic article I saw many, many years ago.  The article highlighted the many different types of landscapes that New Zealand has to offer.  I remember two specific pictures: one picture of some penguins hanging out on some very rugged coastline at the Catlin Coast and one other picture of Mt. Cook.  The picture of Mt. Cook was during the winter with a storm rolling in so you could see snow blowing off the summit into a very funky design.  Both pictures stuck in my mind and I finally got to see both of them. 

Mt. Cook lies within Mt. Cook National Park in Central New Zealand.  It is the tallest peak in New Zealand by far, towering over the rest of the Southern Alps at 3754 meters (around 12,000 feet).  The mountain lies in a very isolated area so there is only one way in and one way out.  We got an early start and drove to the mountain despite weather reports of clouds and rain (and snow in some spots).  There is a small village at the base of the mountain with a hotel, café, guide services, and the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Center, which details the history of mountaineering the area.  The area is a hot camping spot so Bridget and I set up our tent early in the day and then set off on the hike to the base of the mountain.  The info on the hike claims that it is a nice walk which should take about two hours.  That nice walk ended up to have stream crossings, incredibly rocky terrain, swing bridges, and took about four hours.  Despite all the obstacles, we made it up to the mountain in good time and could not have had better weather.  The summit was totally uncovered by clouds and there was no fog in the valley to obscure the view of Hooker Glacier, which lies in the valley just below the summit.  Here are some pictures from the hike:

Mt. Cook with Hooker Glacier at top of lake

Upon return, we rested for a little bit and then headed over to the Tasman Glacier.  It lies just a valley away on the opposite side of Mt. Cook.  The Tasman Glacier is the longest glacier in New Zealand.  It was a short hike up to a point where we could get a good view of it.  It was covered with rock and gravel so it was not as pretty as the other glaciers in the area but well worth the short hike just to see how large it is (and the “icebergs” in the terminal lake). 

 Tasman Glacier with terminal lake

After a great day of hiking, we turned in early at our prime campsite to sleep the night away in hopes of doing another hike in the morning.  That was not to be.  The “Night” offered rain showers and I awoke to a puddle of water under the tent and pouring rain outside.  Anyone who has camped before knows how miserable it is to camp when you are wet.  We were lucky that our air mattresses provided enough coverage so our sleeping bags did not get wet but the tent was soaked.  We packed up all of our sopping wet gear and headed for the West Coast where we thought things might be better but that was not to be either.  It rained and rained all day and the drive to the West Coast was filled with foggy, rainy views of mountainsides instead of the fantastic peaks above.  The one good thing was that when it rains in New Zealand, a hundred new waterfalls come out of nowhere and we saw most of those on the drive.  The all-day rains had put all the rivers and streams at their brinks.  I like to say they were “full swull.”  We finally made it to a small west coast town named Haast where we will start our west coast leg of the trip.  We dried out the tent, made some good food, had a beer & chips, and got ready for the next couple of days.

Next stop:  West Coast Glaciers and beaches

Queenstown

Bridget:

If you’ve ever read or watched a travel program about New Zealand, chances are, you’ve heard of Queenstown.  Dubbed the adventure capitol of the world, Queenstown is a huge tourist attraction with several adventure sports to take advantage of:  skiing, jet boating, sailing, mountain biking, heli-anything, river boarding, sky diving, and bungy jumping (this is where it was invented).  That combined with all the shopping and restaurants, and you’ve got yourself quite the holiday.  Craig and I didn’t want to put too much of a hole in our pockets with the rest of the South Island to see, but we did live vicariously through others for a few minutes at the Kawarau Bridge Bungy (the most famous location):

Before coming to New Zealand, a friend of a friend of mine from FSU got in touch with me to let me know he had also made the move to New Zealand and had already been living and working in Queenstown for a few months.  Alex and his wife Jillian were kind enough to invite us to come stay with them, and it just so happened that Craig and I arrive in Queenstown around New Year’s Eve.  Perfect! 

Upon arriving into the city, we took a drive through the city and knew right away we were in for a good time.  People crowded the streets popping from shop to shop, traffic was tight, and we even got caught up in a drunk driving check point at 11:00 a.m.  Yes, you read that right….Craig (who was driving) was breathalyzed at 11:00 in the morning.  We later found out from Alex & Jillian that this is a regular occurrence.   Don’t worry…he passed. J

The Steamer Wharf

NZL14 - the boat that won NZ the America's Cup in 1995 - now sails in the lake by Queenstown.

That day we spent time strolling in and out of all the hip stores, eating long-craved-for pizza, and taking a Gondola ride up the mountain for excellent views of the city and the mountains in the background, called “The Remarkables.” Here are some of the better pics from the top:

                                                                                                                     

The rest of the afternoon we drove up to a small town called Glenorchy.  While it wasn’t much to see, the views on the way sure were.  Here is a pic from one of the road pull-offs after the clouds were clearing a bit:

That evening we met up with Alex and Jillian who showed us a fantastic time and night out on the town.  Their friends Pete, Shannon, and Nic completed the “crew” to help ring in the new year (and decade).  The city had set up a huge outdoor concert down by the “Wharf” and created quite the party scene with all the adjacent bars and restaurants.  We couldn’t hear the countdown (third year in a row for me) but had no trouble realizing it was midnight when the fireworks show began.  Happy New Year!  So fun!

Bridget, Jillian, & Nic celebrating New Year's Eve.

The next day before we headed out of town, we just had to see what all the fuss was about at a local burger joint called “Fergburger.”  Every time we walked or drove by, there was always a line out the door.  Well, we gave it a whirl and were in heaven.  The burgers might be the namesake, but we thought the fries and garlic aioli really hit the spot.   Yum. 

We can’t thank Alex & Jillian enough for opening up their home to us and showing us such a good time.  We couldn’t think of a better way to ring in the new year!

Next Stop:  Mt. Cook