Trip summary

Ja, ja, supah!

In a couple of hours (10 to be exact) we head for the airport (we have to leave the hostel at 3 in the morning... yikes...). We leave Christchurch for Sydney, and have 9 hours in Sydney before our flight leaves again. We are planning on checking in only to Sydney, get our luggage, and stay there forever. Nah, actually we just thought we'd grab some lunch, and then head back to the airport. We really dont want to hang around the airport for 9 hours...

But before that, heres the traditional "end of trip" - list.

Biggest surprise:
That Steinlager is a New Zealand - beer. It doesn't really sound New Zealandisch...

Waste of monies:

1. Kiwi birdlife park in Queenstown (175 kr for two birds hidden in the dark)
2. Minus 5 bar in Auckland (and probably everywhere else :) )
3. International Antarctic centre
   

Best signs

• In bars:
  "People becoming intoxicated here will be asked to leave"
  Isn't the point of going to a bar to get intoxicated?
  
• In our water taxi:
  "Always move around the boat slowly"
  What!? I'm never allowed to stop and sit down?
  

Best hostels:
By far all the YHA hostels.

Coolest, meaning "coldest", things:

1. Snowstorm simulation at International Antarctic Centre
2. Minus 5 bar
3. Being lodged between two icewalls on Franz Josef Glacier
4. Swimming with dolphins (so flippin' cold)
5. Last day of the kayak trip through storm and heavy rain on open water
   

Coolest, meaning, uhmm, coolest, things:

1. Paragliding over Queenstown (supah!)
2. Franz Josef Glacier hiking
3. Tongariro Crossing
4. Last day of the kayak trip through storm and heavy rain on open water
   

Must sees (in no order):

• The road between Wanaka and Franz Josef
• Milford Sound
• Queenstown
• Abel tasman national park
• Mt Cook
• Tongariro
  

Nr of whole lambs eaten:
Too many to count really, but considering that there where 90 million lambs (and only 4 million people) when we got here, the lambocide agenda probably had only a miniscule impact. In fact, there are probably more sheep here now than when we arrived. Fail!

G.O.R.P and Bumpers eaten:
Loads and loads... it will be nice to have some real food for a change...

Nationality count:
Not a real count really, but as usual the Germans far outweigh all other nationalities. Don't know why exactly, but it seems to always be the case. Or well, actually, the asians (Asia is a country right?) came pretty close this time, especially the Chinese. Not all the way, but real close. Also, saw no one from Iceland, but some fins, some danes, one norwegian, and lots of Swedes.

Dumbest comment (by an american):
Well, you know, Europe is not even a continent, like North America... its part of the Eurasian continent.

Best Kiwi bands:
The Feelers... and Flight of the Conchords of course (besides all Neil Finn associated bands, and there are quite a lot of them).

Lessons learned:

1. We should've travelled to one of the Cook Islands for a week instead of going to Tasmania. While Tasmania was nice, it was nothing compared to New Zealand, and it would have been nice to visit Rarotonga or Aitutaki for some white beaches and relaxation. Maybe next time...
2. We are definately renting a Wickedcamper - van if we ever go back here
   

Lastly, yes we are looking forward to spending yet another weekend in the air. Hopefully there are some movies worth seeing, and we'll probably be able to sleep away some time.

Arthurs Pass to Christchurch

Checked out early from the hostel at Arthurs Pass to head some 5 kilometers up the road to do the Terminal Basin - hike in the morning. We needed to get the hike done early so that we did not have to hurry back to Christchurch in order to return the car in time.

Some sort of hut

The hike in itself took us high up on a mountain, to a ski resort which is completely deserted in summer, with views of the surrounding mountains. It was the last hike we did this trip.

At the top

Right now we are back in Christchurch and have this afternoon, and the whole day tomorrow, to do absolutely nothing but hang around in cafes and look at shops and just generally not do anything. On our way back from Arthurs Pass, before we returned the car, we did a detour to the International Antarctic Centre to check it out. 50 dollar per person (roughly 250 kr, even more expensive than watching the kiwi birds in Queenstown), and all you got were like 5 rooms with plastic dolls in big warm jackets, plus a wind chill room where you could feel the amazingly cold wind chill temperature of -18 degrees celsius! Not very chocking for us (or well, Sophie had shorts so she left early).

They also had some rescued blue penguins on display. They are the worlds smallest penguins, and we've seen them in the wild on this trip, but it adds nicely to the list, which now includes also the worlds smallest dolphin. We might have to add the worlds smallest mountain, waterfall, glacier and river before the list is complete. If anyone has any ideas on where to find these things, please let us know.

The Hagglund vehicle in front of the centre

The one thing they did have, which was a lot of fun even though it sounds really lame, was a ride on an obstacle course inside a Hagglund antarctic exploration vehicle. It basically just drove around up and down on big hills, over crevasses, and through water, but it was fun.

Now it's off to eat at a BYO(bring your own... booze, that is) place, where we can indulge in our wine bottle.

Franz Josef to Arthurs Pass

Left Franz Josef early in the morning and headed up SH6 all the way to Punukaiki to see the 'Pancake Rocks' (and have some pancakes for lunch), and some other nearby attractions such as a short stroll down to the beach (Truman track) and some cave exploring (which for Sophie brought back memories of The Descent).

Pancakes at Pancake Rock

Got to Punukaiki about 2 hours before high tide (when the Pancake Rocks were supposed to be at its most impressive), and therefore had some time to kill before heading there. First we headed to the Truman Track, where you walk for a short time through some rainforest, down to the beach, with views that reminded us of the trip along the Great Ocean Road in Australia. Once down by the beach there were supposed to be a waterfall, but due to it not raining anything for the last 3-4 days, the waterfall was very unimpressive. Still a nice little 5-10 minute walk.

After that we headed to some nearby caves and did some exploring. Good thing we brought a torch. There was, however, not that much to see in the actual cave, except some carvings made by previous tourists there. But it was still pretty cool to walk in what was supposedly a 130 meter deep cave.

Cave exploring

Once out of the cave, it was time to head back to the Pancake Rocks to see the high tide, and while it was cool (again) to have seen these formations, we could not quite figure out why it was so impressive at high tide. We stayed around for some time to watch the tide go out, and could not really see any difference. There was supposed to be water flowing through the cracks and all, but well, nothing really happened. Perhaps because it has not been raining, and because it wasnt raining when we were there, it looked different from the photos we've seen. We dont really know. However, the good weather we have had is preferable either way. We did, however, see a giant hole in the cliffs, that went all the way down the the ocean... and yes, it was whatever we wanted it to be :p

Pancake Rocks

After having "done" Punukaiki we got back in the car and drove back some 50 kilometers where we had come from, and headed inland on SH73 towards Arthurs Pass, which is New Zealands highest town (934 meters) and a small, small town of only 40 inhabitants (and 3 kea birds). The drive there was a nice scenic drive with some spectacular views. The town itself is beautifully lodged between dozens of mountains, and a nearby 150 meter waterfall, which we hiked to after we had arrived.

Waterfall near Arthurs Pass

Once again we are staying at a YHA, and once again it's spotless. Sophie is a bit scared because she has seen the first spider during this trip, but she'll be alright :) Ended the day with some delicious hostel - made lamb in red curry.

Tomorrow we might do one more hike, before heading back to Christchurch, which will be our last stop before heading home.

Wickedcamper - van pic of the day: "I'm surrounded by assholes"... hmm... sounds so familiar... Wait a minute! I know who must be driving this van... but wtf is he doing in New Zealand?

Franz Josef glacier

Just got back from a full day guided tour of the Franz Josef glacier. Thank god the full day tour wasn't full. We got roughly 6 hours on the ice, whereas a half day excursion would have 1.5 - 2 hours on the ice, which is not nearly enough time. And the weather was perfect once again. The glacier area and the Franz Josef township gets 270 days of rain every year, and today and the day before yesterday were two of the only 90 days of non-rain they get... and not only wasn't it raining, it was sunny and warm. There is something special about being in a temperate rainforest, doing a glacier climb, wearing shorts.

Climbing up a steep wall of ice

Travelled by bus 10 minutes to the car park and then walked the 40 minutes to the terminal face of the glacier, put on our crampons, and got going up the ice. This glacier was a lot different than the one we walked on in Alaska (Exit glacier), in that this one needed more up and down navigating through the ice falls and the crevasses.

In front of the glacier heading back to the carpark

What was especially cool about this hike was that you could actually walk inside some of the crevassses. It was really tight, and really cool walking inbetween two massive walls of blue ice.

Inside a crevasse

Another thing that the guides found for us on the way down was what is called a Moulin, which is a sort of ice tunnel. On our way down we got to literally crawl our way through two of these tunnels, among some ice cold streams of glacier water, before coming out he other side. Loads of fun.. gnarly even :)

One of the holes we crawled through. The other one was just after this one

Tomorrow we have quite a trip ahead of us. First we will head up the coast to Pukaki to watch the Pancake Rocks, and some other attractions in the area, before heading back down the coast again, and entering the highway for our last stop before Christchurch and the trip home; Arthurs Pass.

PS: We are sure that those reading this blog appreciate that this post was a bit shorter than the rest ;)

We never posted a pic from the paraglide, so here it is. Supah!

PSS: For some reason, all trips have a song that is played everywhere. The trip to Australia, for instance, had "Love Generation"... a horrible song. This trip, however, we always seem to hear that awful, awful Kid Rock rip off - version of Sweet Home Alabama. It is just so bad, and it does not get any better with more listens...

Milford sound, Queenstown and drive to Franz Josef

Finally, the weather gods smiled on us. After having had two days of bad weather (wind and rain), which made it impossible to do any of our activities in Queenstown, we woke up the day before yesterday morning to clear skies, and perfect weather. We boarded a bus which took us all the way to Milford Sound, which is in Fiordland National Park, for a 2.5 hour cruise.

On the road to Milford Sound

Mitre Peak in Milford Sound

On the bus was a huge group of swedish senior citizens from, we guess, Skåne somewhere. The couple sitting behind us talked in this slow grinding, neverending, sort of way, which actually made us real sleepy, so we slept most of the way. But, in between sleep, we heard the following discussion, regarding our driver, who was a woman:

The man: Oh boy, she sure drives like a real man!
The woman: Sure thing, and its good that she is a woman, so we don't have to worry about having an accident.

Uhmmm.... what the flip? :)

At the inlett of Milford Sound

Anyway, Milford Sound is, despite its name, not a sound but a virtually untouched fiord. You travel by boat, in the fiord, not far from the Tasman Sea. Directly from the water in the fiord springs these sheer vertical cliff walls, belonging to 2000+ meter mountains. And the weirdest thing is not that you are in a boat, looking up at a vertical wall of a 2000 meter high mountain... its that these vertical walls are actually covered with trees... its just hard to explain... it was beautiful.

Milford Sound

What also was great was the fact that we had sunshine while in Milford Sound. It's apparently a rare thing. The day before yesterday was the first day of the year when it was not raining. For the first 10 days of 2009, it had apparently rained non stop, with almost 1 meter of rain, and in a year, the average rainfall measures up to almost 10 meters of rain! So we were in luck. Wohoo!

Just for perspective... that waterfall is 150 meters high

At the base of the 150 meter waterfall... wtf is that guy in the yellow jacket

Yesterday, we once again woke up to almost perfect weather and to the good news that our paraflight and paraglide was going to happen. So, we started the morning off by heading down to the main pier in Queenstown to go paraflying. You basically hook yourself to a parachute, and let a boat send you up and drive you around Lake Wakatapu. It was fun, and a good introduction to what we would be doing later; paragliding.

Lake Wakatapu

The chute from the paraflight

The highest up we got

Over lake wakatapu

After the paraflight, we warmed ourselves with some coffee at Starbucks (which always is a nice place to go, outside of USA), and got ready. Took the gondola up to the top, checked in at the G-force office, picked up some gear, and headed further up the mountain. A lot of people gathered to watch and film the take off... and after taking out all the gear and hooking ourselves to it, we first walked, and then ran off the cliff into the air. Pretty cool feeling when you feel the surge of air lift you up and over the edge. Joakim was first off the mountain, so Sopie got to see the take off, and Joakim got to see Sophies landing.

Joakim paragliding over Queenstown (obviously not by himself :) )

After spending some time close to the mountain, trying to catch hot winds to lift us higher up, we drifted off the mountain side and over Queenstown. We thought we had been high up on the paraflight, but from where we were now we could look down on the paraflight going on in the lake, and it was just ridiculously small. Don't really know how high up we were, but it was high.

After we both had landed we had heard that there was a national rugby tournament (the sevens) going on, so we bought some sushi and headed down to the rugby field. While we didn't really understand all that happened, it was still fun to watch. After all, it's hardly cricket... rugby has action, you understand who scores and when, has rules you can understand, and games that actually end.

On the way to Glenorchy

After lunch, we had yet another activity planned, to go horseback riding in Glenorchy. So, for the third time, we travelled there. This time, the weather was even better than the first time. The ride in itself was a semi paced ride in the valley that acted as back drop for Isengard. We crossed some pretty deep rivers, and trotted along in a gentle pace. Nothing relly exhilirating, but a good closure to a very good day.

Glenorchy

Ended the day with a free beer in town, and watching the movie Hitman, or Agent 47, (whatever it's called) on TV at the hotel. It was, strangely enough, entertaining.

Today, we headed to Franz Josef, for two nights and a full day of walking on the Franz Josef Glaicer tomorrow. Even though their website said the full day glacier hike (with 6 hours on the actual glacier) was fully booked, when we showed up at their office to do some last minute pleading and weeping, it turns out they had already booked us on the full day hike. Great news :) So we are looking forward to that tomorrow, and hopefully an evening at the Franz Josef Hot Pools to get warm after the glacier hike.

The road from Queenstown, to Cromwell, then Wanaka, and then on through mountains and valleys to the west coast via Haast, was an amazing drive. The nature was undeveloped, and it looked almost prehistoric at times. It was literally one jaw dropping turn after the other until we reached the small town of Haast where we had lunch.

From there on, since we drove along the coast, the road flattened and the mountains got covered in clouds, until we reached the township of Fox Glacier where we did a detour to see the Fox Glacier. Some days ago, 2 people died here while igonoring safety signs and getting way too close to the face of the ice as 100 tonnes of ice fell of the face and landed on top of them. The site of the accident was still clearly marked with huge piles of ice lying close to the terminal face.

The Fox glacier from a distance

The hostel we are staying at is once again a YHA hostel. They have been consistently great throughout our stay here. Clean, well organized, and always with wireless Internet easily available. As this is being written, we are sitting outside in the garden, looking at the mountains covered with glaciers (we are fairly sure one of these mountains is the one which the Franz Josef glacier is on), and having a beer. The weather is great, the view is fantastic, the beer is good... so yeah... could be a lot worse :)

Part of Wicked Campers, renter vans that are covered in grafiti. This one was by far the best one we've seen yet.

Queenstown

Rolled into Queenstown on the evening of the 7th, after a failed detour to Wanaka, to the tones of Kiwi rock band The Feelers "As good as it gets". The drive into Queenstown was beautiful, and the placement of the town almost is as good as it gets. It is located at the shore of a huge, clear blue lake, surrounded by towering, beautiful, mountains.

We had to turn back from the hike into Mt Aspiring National Park... didn't want to end up like this cow

Regarding the failed detour to Wanaka, we had originally planned on going hiking in a remote region of Mt Aspiring National Park, but after driving on a gravel road for more than an hour, we came across what used to be a small creek, which was now a not so small creek, that we simply could not cross in our car. So, all that way for nothing. However, it was still beautiful where we had to stop, although we would have liked to see more.

Minutes before paraflight being cancelled.... does the weather look calm? Yeah, we thought so too

Back to Queenstown; yesterday we had a paraflight scheduled. However, the wind was apparently too strong to let us do it, so it was cancelled and rescheduled for today. Instead of doing the paraflight, we took the car to the small town of Arrowtown for lunch. Not much to see there, but the ice cream we had was nice. After lunch we travelled to another little town called Glenorchy, where we were going to go horse back riding the next day. Even though it was blowing, the weather was great, and it was absolutely beautiful there. A lot of the scenes from the Lord of the Rings movies where shot in these surroundings, and it was truly beautiful.

On the way to Glenorchy, "the gateway to Paradise" (Yes, Paradise is a town...)

Later in the evening we were on our way to the Skyline Gondola where we were going to have dinner. Its a restaurant located high up on one of the mountains surrounding Queenstown, with some spectacular views. However, before we went up we decided to go to a birdlife park to see some Kiwi-birds. Well, it cost us 350 kronor, to see two Kiwis, in a pitch black room, eating worms. Perhaps not really worth the entrance fee, but at least we got to see some Kiwi-birds :)

A not entirely live sighting of a not entirely live Kiwi bird

Kiwis are apparently nocturnal, and the chance of spotting them in the wild is infinitesmal. And they are endangered too... or well, there are 70 000 of them, which the guide said sounded like a lot but that a 1000 years ago there were 12 million kiwi-birds on New Zealand. But how can they possible be sure that there were so many, a thousand years ago?

View from the Skyline Gondola

Dinner at the Skyline Gondola was nice. We got a table right next to a window, and the food was great. We also fit in a couple of rides on the Luge while up there, which is a downhill race course, and loads of fun.

View from the bar

Sunset over Lake... uhmmm... over The Lake

Today, besides the rescheduled paraflight, we were going to go horseback riding in Glenorchy. But once again, this activity was cancelled due to heavy rain. And, of course, the paraflight was cancelled too because of rain and wind. So, today was spent waiting, and having everything being cancelled on us. Sophie got a necklace cheap, and yeah, thats the most eventful thing of the day.

The Gondola

Tomorrow we were originally scheduled to be on a small boat cruise in Milford Sound, but we just got a call that we can not be on that cruise because that too has been cancelled. Instead we've been moved to another bigger boat, which kind of sucks, but what can you do. And while we've rescheduled the paraflight, and horseback riding, for the 11th, besides booking a paragliding trip, right now it feels that with our luck here all of that will be cancelled as well.

View over Queenstown

So we are a bit bummed out at the moment. As beautiful as Queenstown is, there's really not that much to do in this city if you are not off doing some sort of activity. Only 13 000 people live here, and well, whats that, twice the size of Boden? You do the math... :)

Guess its good that they don't do the trips if it is potentially dangerous. Erik and Annica got into problem on their rafting trip here, because of heavy rainfall and elevated levels of water, and two days ago two people died while being where they were not supposed to be on a glacier. But still... bums you out a bit.

But, if all else goes to hell, and all activities are cancelled on the 11th, Joakim has pledged that he will do a bungy jump, just to have done something here. Sophie wont jump, but will watch and do the screaming.

PS:
Patrik mentioned something about intrigues and stuff, and specificially what hobbits where sleeping together... isn't it obvious that Sam and Frodo must've been doing it? As to what role Gollum played in their hobbit/goblin "menage a trois" is really best left alone.

Mt Cook

This means something... (Mt Cook, or Aroaki in maori)... btw, if you look at the clouds above Mt Cook. Dont know how well it shows in the pic, but up close they look like spaceships, and this, we've learned, means there will be a storm coming soon

Seems like all of the journeys we've made has had something to do with a big mountain (or at least a big chunk of rock). In Australia it was Ayers Rock, in China/Tibet it was Mt Everest, and in Alaska it was Mt McKinley. This time around, its the highest peak of the Austral-asia, Mt Cook (3755 meters). Perhaps next time its Denmark and Himmelsbjerget.

Located in a valley, not far from the base of the mountain is Mt Cook Village, where we are staying. The feel of our hostel is like that of an alp hut, and it fits perfectly with the scenery that surrounds it.

Mt Cook from Visitor Centre

View of the ice falls from our bedroom, YHA Mt Cook

Left Christchurch early on the 5th of January in our rental car (a golden Nissan Bluebird), and drove Highway 1 until we reached the turn off for the scenic Highway 79 which would take us through Geraldine and Farlie, towards the turquiose lakes of Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki, before finally reaching Mt Cook Village.

Lake Tekapo

Lake Tekapo

Lake Pukaki and Mt Cook

Throwing macka at Lake Tekapo

We had planned to be out of Christchurch early, so we'd get to Mt Cook early afternoon, but as it turned out, we got a flat tire (actually, it was the thing where you pump in air that leaked, and we believe it was broken when we got the car) between Geraldine and Fairlie, and had to find a garage that could fix it for us. It actually wasn't a problem at all. Cost us only 30 Nzd, and we got help from a red headed, two meter giant, with a cigarette casually hanging from his lips, who looked exactly like Josh Homme from Queens of the stoneage. So, could've been worse.

Got to the village not too late, checked out the Hermitage Hotel, the visitor centre with an exhibition about various climbers, and a centre in honour of the Kiwi mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary, who was the first man to ever climb Mt Everest. We did not have any food with us, and there's really no food to be bought here, so instead of once again pigging out on cans of Big Eat Spaghetti Bolognese, we went to a restaurant with views of Mt Cook, and had a Burger, on a bagel... a bit odd, but tasty, and at lest there was no beetroot (rödbeta) on it... they seem to love that here just as much as the Aussies.

The storm is coming

On day two, today, in Mt Cook Village we woke up to the sound of a raging storm. Even though the wind was strong, the weather early in the morning was not that bad, and you could get a semi clear view of the summit, so we decided to head out on the 3 hour Hooker Valley hike. However, the weather got progressively worse during the hike.

Shelter, halfway on the hike

Bridge over troubled water

At the end of the hike... theres a glacier in the background, and there is a mountain there somewhere.

The wind was so strong at times that we almost were blown off the path on several occassions. Once we reached the end of the hike, the mountain was beginning to fade from view due to low clouds and rainfall, and when we headed back, the mountain completely dissapeared from view. When we got back to the village, we could not even see the ice falls that we could see from our bedroom window earlier that morning.

Hooker River

We had originally planned on doing another, shorter, hike today, but since the weather is as bad as it is, we've decided against it and will instead spend the afternoon relaxing at the hostel, watching a movie or whatever there is to do to pass time. If the weather tomorrow morning is good, we'll do the hike then instead, and if not, we might drive to Wanaka and check out the Rob Roy glacier before heading to Queenstown.

PS: We need to apologize for our crude remarks about Gothenburg and Malmoe being suburbs to Stokholm. Seems like these comments got the "hate mail machine" going, and we sure did recieve lots of them. Oddly enough, half of the hate mails were from people named Glenn... what are the chances of that?

So, no, Gothenburg and Malmoe are not suburbs to Stockholm at all. Gothenburg is a city all on its own, located at the backside of Sweden, and Malmoe does not even belong to Sweden, but instead belongs to Denmark... just needed to settle that once and for all.