• The Kepler Track

    08Dec
    Categories: Around The World, New Zealand Comments: 2

    We didn’t realize it at the time, but later learned that Saturday was the best day of the season, so far, on the Kepler Track. The Kepler is one of three Great Walks in the Fiordlands and considered by some to be the best, although the Milford Track (refer to previous post about it’s popularity) has the official title as the greatest tramp in the world (we aren’t sure who is evaluating these hikes–probably someone from NZ =)). We were so excited for the good weather and had been waiting for weeks for a clearing in the Fiordlands. It was worth the wait. We traveled by water taxi to cut out the first 6 km of flat land because we wanted to make sure we could make the 20 km alpine ridge crossing on the best day possible.

    The first hour of the hike felt similar to our Clif bar days with nearly 100 trail runners passing us as we hiked up the mountain and they ran down it–only we didn’t have Clif Shot to hand out so we just cheered them on instead. This annual race brings crazy people from all over the world to run either the 60 km (about 37 miles, going up a mile vertically) Kepler loop or the 27 km (about 17 miles) half Kepler. We were slowed down a bit in our ascent, but it was fun to see the action. After we were clear of the crowds and the treeline, we began to see why this hike ranks among the best.

    Our first stop along the journey to our campsite for the night was the Luxmore Hut which has a view of the Lake Te Anau and the beginning of the Kepler mountain range. It was a good place to stop for lunch. We met a couple from Texas and talked oil/gas (his line of business) over our food. We also found the Spanish body double for Michael and Brian Greller (you have to morph the two of them to make this work). This stop wasn’t long as we could tell the views were only going to get better. And boy were we right! We have been struggling to find new descriptive words to explain the incredible beauty of New Zealand, but we keep coming back to the same ones: amazing, brilliant, awesome, flippin’ sweet (oh, that one’s new), and on occassion, boss (which we are trying to get going in NZ, it’s not catching on so well).

    Leaving the Luxmore Hut we had a big ascent ahead of us up to the top of Mt. Luxmore which is just over 5200 feet. The work of climbing felt easy with the views we were given the entire way. We made it to the top and spent almost an hour soaking in the sun and 360 degrees of mountains. This hike was our slowest to date. We ran into a hiker who encouraged us to take our time as the five hours of ridge line views were worth staying around for. We took this advice to heart and turned on a tortoise pace, getting the most out of the scenery. When we made it to the last spot with really great views we even considered eating dinner there, but realized we were both out of water and still had two hours of hiking remaining. As we were sitting quietly and just about ready to leave we both heard this whirring sound that was getting louder and louder. We looked up and saw a glider plane no more than 150 meters overhead soaring by gracefully. It was such a nice change from the buzzing of the helicopter tours that had been flying on occasion. It made four more passes before flying away. So, after an hour of snacking, taking photos until our fingers were raw, and being entertained by a glider plane, we made the steep descent to our campground, concluding nine hours on the trail. Unfortunately, John had to put in another 2 miles as he realized he dropped the lens hood to our camera on the trail and he decided to go back to look for it… found it!

    The sky was clear that night, giving the opportunity for another night sky photograph. This is one is our favorite so far and took 18 minutes to capture the photo.

    Day two was a much easier day. No real climbing, just a casual 12 mile stroll to our exit. The highlight of the day was watching and photographing the fantail birds that fly so lightly, just like butterflies. It almost seemed like they would land on you as they flew right up to your face and then floated away. They appeared curious about us and stayed around for quite awhile. We made it to the exit in time to catch our ride back to the carpark and we were on our way, leaving Te Anau and moving on to Queenstown where we have a day of rest before we hop on the Routeburn Track, another of the Fiordland Great Walks.

    For more pictures check Flickr

  • Cruising the Milford

    08Dec
    Categories: Around The World, New Zealand Comments: 1

    Over 500,000 visitors come to the Milford Sound each year. Our original intent was to avoid the crowds and do the 4 day Milford tramp, but it is fully booked until March so we decided to rest our feet and go with Option B, a Milford Sound cruise. We found ourselves overwhelmed with all of the cruising options–overnight, nature cruise, two hour, four hour, luxury cruise, and the list went on. So what did we choose? The smallest and cheapest and also the best, as far as we know!

    Our two and a quarter hour cruise took us from one end of the sound to the other and back. The Milford Sound is full of sheer rock faces, waterfalls, grand views, and quickly changing weather. We were fortunate to have nice enough weather to stand on the viewing deck the entire cruise, only getting wet due to the boat going into a waterfall (and we were well warned about that). Another highlight of the cruise was seeing the yellow crested penguins (think “Surf’s Up!” movie). The seven birds we saw were incredibly entertaining. It looked like brothers hanging out. We watched them yell at each other, swim together, and just generally stumble around.

    We were told the drive to Milford Sound was just as good as the cruise and I don’t know if we’d agree, but it was really nice. Our favorite part was a field covered in lupine with a back drop of the snow peaked mountains. There were spectacular mountain views all along the way too. This is truly a must-do for anyone traveling to NZ (and really a steal at about $65 USD for us both).

    For more pictures check Flickr

  • The World’s Fastest Indian

    08Dec
    Categories: Around The World, New Zealand Comments: 1

    Doug McIntyre reminded us that we must go to Invercargill if for nothing else to see the original Indian motorcyle ridden by Burt Munro who holds the under-1000cc world record at 183.586 mph . If you haven’t seen “The World’s Fastest Indian” it’s a great flick and will make you want to come to Invercargill (which he only spells with one “l” to save on ink–gives you an idea of what kind of character this guy was). We started off the day in Invercargill at the local museum watching a short documentary about Mr. Munro (it’s in the special features of the DVD if you rent it) and looking at photos and replicas of his bikes. But we wanted more so we sought out the original motorcycle housed at a local hardware store. It was bit weird walking into a hardware store to look at a display of old motorcycles, but it was a regular occurence in this town. We spent about 45 minutes admiring the collection of bikes. The owner of the hardware store, Norman Hayes, had supported Burt’s efforts and when Burt became ill and could no longer ride, he sold them to the owner knowing the bike would remain in the Southland where he wanted it. Norman Hayes was also a tinkerer and motorcycle enthusiast which was apparent from the size of his collection on display. There was even a one of a kind engine he created out of hardware and household parts.

    We have a complete gallery of photos from the day on Flickr if you want the whole show.

  • The Scenic Route

    08Dec
    Categories: Around The World, New Zealand Comments: 0

    Heading south from Dunedin is an area less traveled. Many people choose to skip over this part of New Zealand as it is not the most direct route to the Fiordlands where more of the tourists flock. We prefer to get a little bit off the main loop so we were excited to see this area. And it meant the possibility of seeing more penguins. A day and a half was devoted to this drive which took us past:

    • Of course, more waterfalls–we stopped at every one

     

     

    •  The southern most point of the South Island. This was especially important since we had been to the northernmost point of the N. Island and the dead centre of NZ.

    • The Lost Gypsy Gallery. This one of a kind camperbus (no longer moving)/shop was recommended by Wij and Clair and Lonely Planet. This was John’s kind of shop–almost everything was hands on. The artist whose work is on display dropped out of architecture school at 19 and has spent the last 10+ years dedicated to creating automata. Automata is basically art in motion. You’ll have to watch the video to get the full idea. John’s already thinking of how he can give this a try himself (probably not a career move though).

    • Hector’s dolphins at Porpoise Bay. We only saw these endangered dolphins swimming about for a few minutes while we ate dinner.
    • Yellow-eyed penguins at Curio Bay. We upped our penguin count to 7 with the 6 we saw coming in a dusk. Unfortunately, the unsenstive school group who rushed the beach didn’t help more penguins coming in out of the water since they are very shy animals.

    • Another great look at the southern night sky. Just can’t get enough of the 2am wake up alarm to see the southern cross and for John to capture the stars in motion.

    For more pictures check Flickr

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