Episode #16: New Zealand The Original Land of Enchantment

 After the awesome adventure trip up Mt. Whitney, Carol asked me what I was going to do next, I hadn't even thought about what may be next. I think on it for a few weeks and decide the only thing that could top that trip would be to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro Africa. After all it is 5000' higher in altitude, I already have a lot of the gear I would need and seems to be the logical next choice. I begin to research and tell her what I am thinking. Her only response was "I want to do whatever you want, but feel really uneasy about you being in that part of the world due to the civil unrest there right now". I wanted to honor her feelings about this and told her she was right. My thinking was too narrow, I was considering only mountain hiking adventures.

A few months later Jacob says "Dad let's go see The Lord of the Rings last movie The Return of the King". The theatre was packed and I said that we should let the crowd get out, so we sat and listen to the sound track play and watched the credits roll. I figured the scenery was all computer generated as it was beautiful and added so much to the movie and when I saw that it was filmed on location in New Zealand it hit me, that would be my next adventure.

A quick internet search and I find a tour group called Active New Zealand has several trip options and I chose an 8 day adventure trip, the shortest one offered for their south island excursion and this where I wanted to be. The trip was packed with activities and included hiking the Routeburn Track, Mount Aspiring National Park and the Fanz Josef Glacier, 40 mile cycling trip in Eglinton Valley through Haast Pass, a long day hike through a mountain forest with a scenic mountain flight to Siberia Hut in a remote outback location and jet boat ride back out, finishing up with kayaking in Milford Sound (pictured below).  

Carol drops me off at DFW airport Thanksgiving morning around 10am for a 1pm flight that takes me to Los Angeles, to Auckland then on to Christchurch on the south island. I am this early because international flights required check in at least two hours ahead of departure. I had never traveled on Thanksgiving so I did not know how crowded it would be that morning and surprisingly it took a long time to get through security. I get my bags checked (and told they will follow me all the way through) and get to my gate. 

We land about 2:30pm local time Los Angeles and and the flight was packed full. I make my way to the international terminal and sit and read again about my upcoming adventure. The 8 hour lay over goes pretty quickly with the excitement of the trip finally here. At 10pm, I realize I hadn't eaten anything in about 12 hours. Just before boarding I grab a deli sandwich and get back to the gate. Suddenly I am not feeling well and feel faint and very disoriented.  I make it to my seat which is in the last row against the bulk head and does not recline. The plane is completely full for this 12 hour non-stop flight to Auckland. This same fainting feeling as happened a couple of times in the past few months and after I get back I go to a Dr and am diagnosed as being hypoglycemic which results in this type of symptom.

I fall asleep (or pass out) for the duration of the entire flight, waking only about 45 minutes before we land. It is now mid day Saturday since the flight crosses the international date line, I lose the entire day of Friday. When we land I am experiencing a very foggy hangover feeling with a massive headache resulting from this low blood sugar event but I finally navigate through customs. I make my way out of the international terminal to the domestic terminal. I am in no hurry as I have a couple of hours before my flight leaves for Christchurch on the south island. 

As I walk along, I see a big green Nike bag with wheels on the otherwise empty luggage carousel and I think to myself, that looks just like my bag, but was told my bag would follow me all the way. I walk on down the long walk way and decide it is just too coincidental that another bag exactly like mine would be on the same flight, so I turn around to check the tag. It was my bag, with everything I own for the trip except for a few things in my backpack! So when they say it follows me all the way, that means to the port of call which is Auckland for this flight.

I scheduled an extra day before the adventure and two days after to take in the sites of the area and wish I had booked twice as many, it was just that awesome. I catch a cab to the hotel I booked for my first night here which was a nice, clean and well maintained hotel in the middle of this town of about 350,00 people and is the largest city on the south island. I get checked in and walk around town until after dark. I am amazed how clean everything is, all of the shops, all of the public grounds and all of the streets were immaculate. The people there were just as friendly as the city was clean. It is November 26 when I arrive and they are just now coming out of winter and heading into spring. With the beautifully warm weather it seemed a bit out of place to see all of the Christmas decorations but after all we are less than a month from Christmas day. The architecture of the old buildings are fashioned after that of 19th century Great Britain and is very cool. I can't help myself and have to sneak a peak inside a couple of the churches there in the downtown area and they are as beautiful on the inside as they are on the outside. 

As I walk around the downtown part of the area I am amazed to find such a carnival atmosphere all around town. There was a chess game going on in one area using chess people that ranged from 2' tall for the Pawns to about 3' tall for the Kings. Those players would walk out on the huge chess board to pick up their chess piece to make their next move. It was a very interesting spin and perspective on the game. There were bleachers where spectators watched the game. 

There was a guy dressed and made up to be a statue in one of the many small park areas that are sprinkled around down town. He would stand perfectly still until he would move and extend his arm to shake hands with one of the passersby. Some would jump as they were startled and some would simply laugh and shake his hand. It was a lot of fun to watch people and I spent way too much time watching this interaction. There were jugglers on unicycles and clowns around the entire area. I even saw a guy sitting in front of a park monument playing a didgeridoo. While I had seen this before, it was in the movie Crocodile Dundee many years earlier, it really fit the occasion today. There is so much to see that I am out until late in the evening and decide to call it a day and go back to the hotel to get ready for the next adventure that starts tomorrow.

I am in the hotel lobby early the next morning to meet the bus and the folks I will spend the next week with on the tour. We leave the hotel about 9am that morning. Our tour bus takes us northwest of Christchurch and our first stop is about 3 hours later for a picnic lunch near the continental divide. 

We finish the day on the west coast of the island where we spend our first night. Early the next morning before we leave this picturesque woodland forest that leads to this beach of a small lagoon I am standing at for this picture memory. It is unbelievably beautiful here. Australia's east coast is a 3 hour plane ride behind me, but we are about to head south along the coast. The adventure has begun in earnest!

 

The first night with the group we are outside well after sunset enjoying the near perfect weather and I look up and see the group of stars of the constellation Crux that make up the Southern Cross and it is an awesome site. I would not be able to see this from where I live yet it is plainly visible from this location in the southern hemisphere. It is so dark without any city lights for over 100 miles you can even see satellites orbiting without the use of a telescope or binoculars. I find out that there are no natural predators here of any kind, no snakes, bears, coyotes, etc. so many nights some of us would be hiking the area until well after dark. I did discover in pretty short order there is an abundance of pests known as sand flies, and they bite leaving an itch that is much worse than that of a mosquito. There is a mountain range that runs the length of the entire island called the Southern Alps and they offer many breath taking views.

After my trip to Mt. Whitney and the concerns that surrounded the need to filter drinking water along the trails, I had the same concerns here during our first extended hike as there was no place to refill our water bottles. As I was getting low on water I asked one of the two tour guides (Elysia who was born on the north island and Kyle who was a descendant of the Maori tribe) if we had any drinking water on the bus and he said no. I asked him where will we get water. Unbelievably he said that we drink straight from the river. I said you are kidding me, right? He said the water is glacial runoff and the purest and cleanest water on earth. Who am I to question, so I dip the bottle in the clear cool running water and it is good.

 

The extended hikes we took almost daily allowed us to see the raw beauty of this land of mountainous glaciers, beautiful water falls everywhere we looked and ferns that grew in excess of 6' high and so thick you could not easily walk through them. 

I knew from the correspondence I had received from Active New Zealand that there was a bike ride planned for one day. This was not just a ride in the park, it was a 40 mile ride and I was concerned about it so I started riding a bike a few months before the adventure to prepare. I had forgotten how much I really liked riding a bike as a kid. This day ends up being one of my favorites in a week long of favorites. As it turns out we had all day to get this done and if we did not want to complete it there was a support vehicle to pick us up. It was a fairly flat and smooth ride and I accomplished it with no problem. I think one or two chose not to finish after lunch which was the halfway point. As I remember about 30 miles into the ride there was a small hill to climb with a long gradual descent. As I top that particular hill suddenly the air was very floral and sweet. I could see across this valley and it was a huge field that covered many 100s of acres full of a stalky dark blue colored flower that smelled much like lilac but these were called lupines. It was a very pretty site and a very fragrant surprise to come across. 

I finished ahead of the group and enjoyed the scenery of the area as the other riders made it to the finish.

This island nation was full of so many surprises. One day while on a hike we came across this small pool of water. The moss growing in the bottom would glow a magnificent iridescent color at night time.

The next day as we drove to our next destination we come across somewhat of a local novelty that apparently is quite a popular attraction. It is commonly known as the Bra Fence. The story is women would stop and remove their bra and hang it on this section of fence along the roadside. These kiwi folk have some funny ideas. None of the ladies in our group had an interest in adding to the collection so we just took a picture as we drive by.

On this day we actually experienced a traffic jam of sorts along the road. You just can't get away from them and I have been in more than I can count, but this one was definitely one like I had never seen before, though it did not make the evening news.

The next couple of days are busy with a combination of activities that include a hike, a bush plane ride, camping in a primitive outback location, another lengthy hike and a ride in a jet boat. The first hike takes us well into a water fall laden forest while following a wide fast flowing river deep into a very remote area. After a few hours we come upon a very wide open meadow to find a small single prop bush plane. This plane will take 5 of us at a time for an awesome mountainous flight much deeper into the outback of this huge area made up of rainforest and a glacial mountains a that truly looks like a scene from one of the Lord of the Rings movies. The pilot of this plane looks way too young to be flying passengers anywhere, much less in this mountainous area that is gorgeous beyond believe On top of that, he is flying barefoot😵. He takes off in a meadow and lands about 25 minutes later in another meadow several miles away.

That evening we had the option of sleeping in a well built but very primitive cabin with no electricity or running water, other than a cistern that catches rain water, or we could tent camp outside. The cabin had bunk beds that line two walls in this single room cabin. Given this opportunity there is no way I am not sleeping in a tent under the stars. I bought a one man tent from REI just for this one occasion. The picture below is my view out the tent door.

The next morning after breakfast we begin our hike out to a wide but very, very shallow river that is mainly a dry river bed. This is where we come across our jet boats. Obviously, the guys driving these boats know this river like the back of their hand, even where there is water in the river it is shallow. It is a very fast and herky jerky ride out, but yet another awesome memory in a series of awesome memories.

After we complete this part of the adventure we are heading to Milford Sound for the part of the journey I am really excited about which was the half day of kayaking which is something I have never done. During the trip to the sound we stop in a small town that has its own local claim to fame. What we find out is the water in the lake in the middle of this coastal town is 55' deep. Within itself this is no big deal   really, until we find out that the elevation of the city is only 50' above sea level so the bottom of this lake is below sea level. As we come into Milford Sound, it is gorgeous. 

The next morning we meet at the shore of the sound and find that we are going to be in two seat kayaks. We have 17 in our group, and 14 of us are there with someone, so somebody is going to end up as the odd man out. Jim, Helga and I are here alone and without a partner. We had all become friends over the past week and did not want Helga to be with a stranger, so I suggested that she and Jim go together and I would be that odd man out and wait for the next party with the same scenario. The next group arrives in about 10 minutes and I find I will be matched up with a lady named Lanka who was from New York City. As we get our kayaking gear issued and get to the remaining kayak and paddle out into the sound about 200' to get a set of instructions from the leader. I find out, the person in the back seat actually steers so the most experienced should be there. I tell Lanka I have never kayaked before and asked her if she had any experience with a kayak, she says yes, but says I will do fine. It is rather cool and damp this morning but I am ready to go and I hop in back, I have been looking forward to this for a long time. 

After paddling for some time I am wondering what Lanka is doing up in the front seat, but what she is not doing is paddling. There is a pretty stout wind we are heading into which is making it even more difficult. My group is getting further and further away and we are trying to catch up. They stop for several minutes to chat and visit as a group about the area we are in and this gives me an opportunity to catch up. They take off again and I quickly get behind again, and Lanka is just sitting there holding her paddle. The leader of the kayak group comes back and asks if we need some help, I said I think that is very obvious. He hooks a small steel cable from his kayak to ours as seen in the photo below and we catch up quickly. This has been going on for a couple of hours by now and I am about exhausted. This ends up being an absolute bust for me. We finally finish up and I am glad of it and hope I never see Lanka again!

This activity lasts for 4 hours and we finish up and I get back with my group. We have a nice meal and head to Queenstown which is about 180 miles away for the conclusion of our trip together. We have a bit of a free day there in Queenstown with lots of activity opportunities there and I chose a helicopter ride to the top of the most southern mountain top range called The Remarkables. A lady we came across that morning at breakfast had won the tickets on a local radio station and was not going to be able to make it so she was giving them away. This was a great excursion with beautiful views of the city and surrounding areas from the rocky mountain top. When it was time to leave and head back to the airport,  the pilot lifts off and we move forward to the edge of the mountain and we descend what feels like straight down! Man what a rush!

 We get back to town and finish the day with our new friends and recapping our adventures of the past 8 days with our last meal together and say our good byes. It was absolutely everything I had hoped it would be and so very happy I took this trip and will always remember it.

Our adventure trip guides

The extension I planned continues for the next couple of days after the tour ends and I have an unexpected good bye from an unlikely person as I prepare to leave Queenstown

It has been such a great adventure and it was sad to say good bye to so many new friends but I wake up the next morning and I am still here in this near fairy tale beautiful place and have planned a couple more activities. There were three of us that stayed on for a few days. Jim who lived in Minnesota and I don't blame him for wanting to stay in this tropical paradise a few more days before heading back to the deep freeze of a December Minnesota winter.  Valerie who was finishing up at Adelaide University in Australia who was here with her dad from New Mexico. 

The first thing we do after grabbing breakfast was to head to a horse back trail ride that begins in a location out of town about 30 minutes by car. We chose this outfitter because he advertises that he has several horses in his stable that were used in the LOTR movie saga and the ride takes us to some of the locations that were used for filming. It turns out I am riding one of those horses. I do not know why I didn't take more pictures, I guess I was just too caught up in the moment as there were many locations identified and it was just so very pretty throughout the entire ride. The picture below was the location where the towers were in the second movie titled The Two Towers. Obviously the towers themselves were computer generated and not actually built here, but it was exactly as I remember in the movie.

The only other picture I have of this ride was taken by Valerie. She brought along two jackets and was dressed for the much cooler day than I was and I borrowed one of her jackets for the ride. It was surprisingly cool that morning and I am wearing short this day. What am I thinking?

The last activity was as much educational as it was entertaining, which was called An Evening with the Maori. We learn of their history and their culture, complete with a meal and interaction with the cast and staff. It was a great way to end this magnificent adventure trip.

The evening concludes and I get back to the hotel and repack everything for the return trip home. Sad to be leaving such an incredible place but ready to see Carol and the boys. The next morning I make my way to the Queenstown airport that includes a short flight back to Christchurch, connecting flight to Auckland, on to Los Angeles then to Dallas and the hour and a half drive home. I leave Queenstown that morning and I am home before dark that same day. Amazing what happens when you cross that international date line.

Epilog-

While waiting to board the small plane in Queenstown there are two flight options back to Christchurch one with Air New Zealand and the other with Quantas. Both planes board from a stairway on the tarmac. The lines are both moving slowly side by side and I am lost in my thoughts and memories of such an awesome adventure, when I hear a female voice from the other line next to me say "hi Tony, it is good to see you again, have a good trip". I look over at this young woman and think who is this person? She was not in our tour group and I have absolutely no idea who she is or how she knows my name. I kindly reply and extend her the same wishes. 

 A couple of minutes later and I am still dumbfounded and her line moves ahead a little faster now and suddenly I recognize her by the back of her head. It is Lanka from the kayak! Good grief!!

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