A Taste of the High Life

After a night spent in a place that surely must be one of the lower rungs of Dante's 9 circles of hell we sped off to Arthur's Pass National Park only a few kilometers down the road.  The weather was grey, but we set off anyway to enjoy a few wonderful waterfalls.  The first was  the "must-see" Devil's Punchbowl (fits conveniently well with my narrative doesn't it?).  Taking a sheer 131 meter plunge from the mountains they were impressive no doubt, but the best fall in the valley in this humble author's opinion was Halpin's Falls.  As far as the DOC is concerned, Halpin's Falls doesn't exist! Nowhere in the tourist literature can you find any mention of this fall to rival Devil's Punchbowl.  Due to an outstanding guidebook, we were amongst the lucky ones who knew of its existence and undertook the intense hike/boulder hop/rock climb to see the falls.  The going was tough and there were points along this non-trail that I really wondered if it would be worth it.  Surprise (or maybe not)! New Zealand delivers yet again!

Devil's Punchbowl

Halpin's Falls

Halpin's Falls

An Unwanted Run-in with Wildlife

From Christchurch we took a nice, long scenic drive over the Port Hills and then to the Banks Peninsula where Kayleigh and I celebrated an early Valentine's Day by eating dinner in the quaint little French colonial town of Akaroa.  The following day we booked it outta there and headed for the mountains to get our first glimpse of the famed NZ alpine environment! As we made our way across the Canterbury Plains the temperature rose and rose, so that by the time we were entering the scorched brown foothills of the Southern Alps we'd almost wished we'd stayed in Akaroa one more day for access to the glorious blue water.  We made a scenic pit stop at Castle Hill, which looks like a landscape straight out of Lord of the Rings, but apparently is instead from The Chronicle of Narnia films.  A bit of climbing and scrambling over the rocks and hills in the hot sun and we were knackered enough to move on.

Akaroa

Castle Hill

The most awesome part of our drive to Arthur's Pass National Park however, was the stop at Cave Stream.  Besides completely satisfying our desire to escape the hot sun, it proved to be quite an exhilarating, if not a little freaky.  We began at the downstream mouth of the cave and waded into the waist deep water.  The white limestone walls of the cave were carved and smooth from the stream which was nice since we constantly had our hands on them to balance as we sloshed over the underwater rocks.  With only our flashlights as our guides we pushed forward laughing and buzzing from the excitement.  Everything was going sweet as until I heard Kayleigh let out a terrified shout - she had accidentally stumbled upon a small pool full of wriggling baby eels! I consoled her and swore up and down that I didn't know that there were eels - true by the way - but I think passed that point it spoiled her fun.  Unbeknownst to her, I actually did see the mama (papa?) eel in a deep pool on a wide corner, but I quickly moved her along before she noticed so as to avoid a full blown panic and potential breakdown in the middle of a pitch black cave.  We moved a bit more quickly and carefully passed that point before reaching a small waterfall that we had to scale.  Beyond that a few minutes and the light of the far end of the cave streamed into view.  Much relieved Kayleigh livened up again and we climbed the steel runged ladder to the top of the fall before having to crawl on our hands and knees along a narrow lip on the side of the falls to finally get out of the cave.

The beginning of the hike

Inside the belly of the beast

A bad omen

Dangerous? A little.  Scary? A little.  Worth it? Hell yes! 

We made camp for the night a few kilometers outside the national park and had our first experience with the infamous sand fly plague that scours pockets of the NZ high country.  I swear to you all it was like a biblical plague! Hundreds and hundreds of the gnat sized nuisances descended upon us to feast.  Any part of your body left exposed was toast (or maybe filet mignon to their little eyes).  Once you'd covered yourself they would just harass you by swarming your face.  It was one of those moments when you appreciate what modernity has brought to the world and deplore the fact that you're stuck outside with a gas burner in the middle of the woods.  We made dinner as quickly as we could before retreating to the car to eat.  As we ate we watched as our windows were covered with the pests as if they knew we had to go back outside, just waiting and watching and drooling over their coming dinner.  Not all wildlife experiences are filled with smiles and photo-ops.

Before we left the car to clean up our dishes and put away our stuff we had the luck of spotting a Kea.  The Kea is the world's only alpine parrot and is endemic to the Southern Alps of New Zealand.  It's supposed to be one of the world's most intelligent birds with the smarts to rival some of the more sophisticated monkeys.  We'd heard it singing high up in the tops of the forest before spotting it.  It had apparently also spotted us, since it swopped down to the ground and was eyeing what we'd left outside on the table.  It made a quick but amusing dash towards the table, as it sort of skips and hops in a laughable way.  We had a chuckle before we realized it would make a big mess of things and shooed it away.  Shame, as it's the coolest bird in all of NZ as far as I'm concerned.

Witness Destruction

Christchurch is the most interesting city in New Zealand.  The havoc wreaked by the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes is still plainly visible today, especially in the CBD.  Cars park in dirt lots where buildings once stood. Skyscrapers eerily stand abandoned and thrashed, while others were reduced to nothing more than a hole in the earth now filled with a mess of rebar and rainwater.  The famous gothic revival cathedral once towering over the city square now belongs to the birds who nest in it's gaping innards.  Over a third of all the buildings downtown were destroyed in the quakes, and a full recovery is a long ways off.  

A statue base with no statue

The Christchurch Cathedral - you HAVE TO google what it looked like before :o

Wreckage

Even still, Christchurch seems to have retained a certain character and vitality despite this tremendous hardship.  There are some creative building techniques being used to inject some life back into the empty city center.  An outdoor restaurant/venue made from wood pallets is a surprisingly lively and hip respite from the wreckage lying just beyond the walls.  Or how about a bright and colorful shopping center made entirely of recycled shipping containers set amidst the now ruined shopping district of the city (not to mention the amazing food carts)?  The optimism and resilience of the locals is inspiring.

The future holds a tremendous potential for the quickly changing city, as it boasts some of the sunniest and warmest weather in all of New Zealand and is located within close proximity to some of the countries famous mountain destinations.  The charm and elegance that exudes from some of the buildings and neighborhoods still intact is intoxicating.  It seamlessly blends the lifestyle amenities of Auckland with the artsy and alternative angst of Wellington.  In the coming decade I'm sure it will give both cities a run for their money.

The city from Summit Road

Seals Galore!

A four hour drive east returned us to the Marlborough region where we spent a day wine tasting in NZ's most prestigious and acclaimed wine country.  The area is renowned for its Sauvignon Blanc and exports about 60% of all the countries wine.  We rented some bikes and had a merry ol' day visiting some 6 or 7 wineries.  It felt nice to splurge a little and eat out for a change.

Don't ever let her tell you I don't treat her right!

After our day of decadence we made our down the East coast bound for Kaikoura.  On the way we made a stop at an obscure beach right off the highway for a walk along the coast.  The walking was hard and long - about 1.5 hours each way along soft pebble beach, but we were greatly rewarded at the end.  The headlands of the beach were bleach white spires of rock reaching into the sky.  If the landscape alone wasn't enough to turn heads, then the colony of some hundred or so seals lying amongst the rocks surely was.  These seals weren't accustomed to people, when they saw us dozens of heads rose from their slumber to stare and talk amongst themselves.  As we explored the spires we stumbled upon a few lazing on the shady side only ten feet or so away!  We had them all to ourselves.  Cool as!

 

A lonely walk along the beach

Seal spotting! 

Raise the alarm!

After the grey and wet weather prevented us from exploring NZ's best slot canyon :( :( :( we continued down the highway until it ran up against the rocky coastline around Kaikoura.  A well marked and crowded tourist stop for the Ohau Point Seal colony prompted a quick look.  Whoa! So many baby seals! Even more than at Cape Palliser! Hundreds of pups splashed and wrestled amongst the rocks!  Apparently this site is the breeding ground for this group of seals rather than just a hauling out point, so it was a festival of activity.  A informative plaque nearby helped me learn a thing or two about the animals we've had so many encounters with.  There were no bulls about the colony as we may have missed the breeding season by a few weeks, but it never got old watching the pups explore and tussle and swim and the mums trying to control the rambunctious little ones.  

Kaikoura itself wasn't really noteworthy.  The tourist town is known for its marine life much like Monterey in CA. There is a deep underwater trench just offshore that wells up nutrients to the shallows creating an abundance of life.  The weather once again spoiled the experience, as the usual jagged dagger of snow-capped mountains jutting into the sea to the north was covered in a mist of grey.  We had some good BBQ'd seafood from a trailer near the peninsula and walked around the shoreside walkway a bit, but nothing really grabbed me.  Unless you're willing to spend the exorbitant $150pp or so to get out on the water on a whale watching tour there isn't a lot going on here.  Move along folks, nothing to see here.

Golden Bay

Abandoning the sounds we headed east through Nelson and over the Takaka Hill (really a mountain) to Golden Bay.  When compared with Marlborough's refined and sedate sophistication, Golden Bay felt more like a fossilized remnant of the 60's.  Dreadlocks and alternative lifestyles abound, selling organic produce, homemade crafts and practicing holistic and natural medicines.  After enduring a full day and night of torrential downpour the sun emerged again, allowing us to get back to the regularly scheduled programming.  The first stop in the new region was Rawhiti Cave, which was a deceptively mellow hike until about halfway when it shot uphill along a muddy slippery root covered mess of a trail.  It was all worth it in the end though, as the mouth of this "cave" was decorated with some fantastical and menacing looking stalactites .  I say "cave because really it's more like a large pit with an overhang, you could descend a boardwalk into the pit's lower viewing platform for a closer but less interesting look at the stalactites.  Besides being less interesting, it was also unnerving to be standing underneath the heavy and sharp stones waiting to impale you at a moment's notice.  But hey, sometime's that's the fun in NZ! 

At the mouth of Rawhiti Cave

From inside

Mossy stalactites looking more like a hanging mushroom garden!

In a rare moment when all the day's activities are within fifteen minutes drive of each other we were at next spot in no time flat.  The Grove, as it is called, is a unique short walk along some very exotic looking forest overgrown with thick vines that cling and climb to trees and massive limestone boulders that litter the karst landscape around Takaka.  Looking more like Thailand than New Zealand, it was a great change up from the typical NZ lowland forest.  Many of the water carved limestone rocks had peculiar shapes and I for one, saw many faces poking out of the rocks.  Just beyond The Grove lie the northern end of the Abel Tasman coast, which we will be walking in its entirety come April.  For now though, a short walk to the region's only waterfall, Wainui Falls was in order.  The most interesting things about this fall was tea-colored tannin stained waters and the bridge we had to cross to get there.  We had been on innumerable swing bridges around NZ, but this one was the first to have a maximum load of 1 person.  The bridge itself was just composed mostly of wire mesh and it was delightfully (or frighteningly depending on your perspective) swingy.  Between The Grove and the walk to Wainui Falls, I was feeling like Indiana Jones and Kayleigh Laura Croft of Tomb Raider.  

You see the face? 

Awesome swing bridge 

Wainui Falls

At the northern most tip of the South Island lies a stretch of coast unlike most of which lines the rest of the island.  Most notable for it's arches and high winds, Wharariki may just be the only beach on the west coast that isn't plagued with sandflies.  Kayleigh and I strolled along the long beach, exploring the many cool rock formations, caves, tide pools and arches along the way and despite a few mishaps with local wildlife (mugging cows, giant grasshoppers and spiders nests), Kayleigh still holds this portion of the day in high regard.  After the beach I spent some hours climbing to various lookout points along the headlands east of the beach in the hot midday sun while Kayleigh found reprieve in the car.

Wharariki Archway 

Cape Farewell headlands - the northernmost point in the South Island

The last bit of our time in Golden Bay was spent at the Farewell Spit, which is a huge sand bar stretching northeast from the mountains of the West coast.  It's known as the beak of the Kiwi and if you look at a map of the region you'll know why.  Amazingly, it was formed by millions of years of high winds blowing sand up the West coast beaches and slowly building a mountain under the sea.  It millennia long passed, it even connected the South and North Isles! Now for the not so amazing part - the public isn't allowed on most of the spit. Unless you pay for an eco-tour you're only chance to see the spit is confined to only a small area near the it's base.  We tried to do this loop, but it was poorly marked and honestly just boring.  We walked for about an hour and a half along mud flats with the only morbidly curious sight being a small washed up dead whale that was well into the stages of decomposition.  The walk got a little better when we decided to cross the white sand dunes to the northern side of the spit, but it wasn't enough to justify the length of the walk.  A rare disappointment in a country with so much commanding beauty.

Smelly as!

The Marlborough Sounds - Introduction to the South Island

After a rough night's sleep on the 2:30am ferry over from Wellington were delivered exhausted and bleary eyed into the port of Picton at around 6:30am.  The buzz of newness revitalized me long enough to make the short drive to our campsite where we were to rest and recoup from the long and mostly sleepless night.  Awaking bright eyed and bushy tailed the next morning we kicked it into gear for the first real day on the island.  We took the leisurely drive along Port Underwood road on the far eastern end of the sounds, winding and twisting and climbing and falling on what we were to find out was a typical sounds road.  Along the way we passed many coves and wonderful viewpoints, but many of the beaches had no public access and the weather wasn't exactly on our side, leaving us with sense of something to be desired.   It wasn't until we hit White's Bay that the day really got good.  

Fresh off the ferry

White's Bay is a small crescent shaped bay sporting a becoming deep emerald hue.  Aside from the raw beauty of the bay it's also framed by some interesting rocky headlands, and it was these headlands where I got my first taste of the wild and rugged beauty of the South Isle's coast.  I walked onto the craggy rocks just as a man donning a snorkel mask and wetsuit was readying a bucket and preparing to wade into the water.  Having previously heard of the abundant shellfish and crustaceans in these waters, I inquired as to what he was shopping for.  As we were talking, another man and his son came onto the rocks and I ended up chatting with them for some time.  His son was eagerly wading into the waters and browsing through the crevices in the tide pools pulling out massive ten and twelve legged starfish.  He was on the hunt for Paua (aka abalone), but ended up walking away with only about ten massive green tipped mussels.  My curiosity was piqued - that you could just walk up and grab what would cost dozens of dollars in a supermarket to go home and cook fresh that night was enticing, especially to a super budget conscious backpacking schmuck like myself.  Nature provides.

White's Bay

The hole in the rocky headlands of White's Bay

The tide pools

As it turns out it wasn't so easy for said inexperienced schmuck to find anything big enough to take.  I spent several hours walking along the rocks and staring into each tide pool, watching the waves move in and out hoping to spot anything worth going in for.  As I moved further and further from where the people were, I did start to see some unique things: pink underwater flowers bobbing to and fro with the tides, and a few kelp plants peculiarly perched outside the water.  I found plenty of baby mussels clinging to virtually every surface, but to my novice eyes it looked as though the grounds had been picked clean.  After a while I'd just given up on spotting mussels and resigned myself to just exploring the coast and doing some light rock climbing.  I'll tell you though, I've never been more enamored with the ocean, or the thought of taking up fishing.

Underwater flowers?

Baby green tipped mussels

Over the course of the next few days we explored a few of the twisty and remote roads leading deep into the sounds.  A few huff and puff hikes rewarded us with sweeping 360 degree panoramas of impossibly beautiful coastline and some of the purest blue ocean waters I've ever seen.  The weather was a crap shoot, but the wind died down and it began to clear up towards the last day or two on the sounds.  If we had been on a different sort of trip we would have definitely gotten out onto the water to explore the sounds via boat, but alas, this time it just wasn't in the budget.  Sigh, what a life…:p

A loooong way from home

These are just three of the photos from various lookouts.  There are far too many to worthy photos to post here for your viewing pleasure, so be sure to check out our facebook.com/escapefromthebay to see more.

The Long Road Back to Wellington

Over the course of the next few days we were to drive over 300km back to Wellington to catch our ferry to the South Island.  So we got on the road early that morning and slowly progressed along the winding road for three and a half hours towards our next camp near Dargaville.  We'd made a lengthy detour to Waihi Falls just before reaching the city where we were rewarded with a gorgeous wide fall, however our enjoyment of the falls was marred by the gusting winds tormenting the region.  It was far too cold to take the dip we had originally planned on.  Instead, we went back to the library in Dargaville to reconnect with the world via wonderful wifi.  The whole building was shaking and whistling with every gale, it was sort of creepy.  We stayed until closing hoping the wind would let up, but it wasn't in the cards.  We retired to our camp and battened the hatches until morning. 

The next day saw another three and a half hours drive to just north of the southern most point of the North Island.  The wind had stopped and the day was opening up into beautiful sunshine when we had arrived.  We checked out the campgrounds and decided to take advantage of the sun and go for a drive along the coastline to Cape Palliser (No, I guess we hadn't already had enough driving, hah.)  The drive is known to be one of the four best coastal roads on the North Isle, and I'm glad we decided to make time for it as the views were really stunning and very unique given how much of New Zealand we'd already seen.  Rugged craggy mountains rising steeply over the tumultuous sky blue sea and black sand beaches, permeated by rocky headlands and watched over by a picturesque lighthouse.  The lighthouse was the end of the road, and the southern most point of the island.  250 steps led to the foot of the lighthouse, and Kayleigh just shook her head as I paraded up the stairs, hungry for what was most certainly a beautiful view.  You tell me if you think it was worth it…

Can you spot Velma way down there?

Epic view

One the way back to the campground I pulled off onto a short side road leading out to a craggy headland playground jutting into the sea.  Again, Kayleigh stayed and shook her head as I ran and climbed to the top of the rocks like a 5 year old at jungle gym.  Once up there, Kayleigh got out of the car to take some photos and I heard some animal noises coming from behind the rocks on the far side of a gap across from me.  I had heard that seals often frequented the area along the coast, so I started scanning the rocks hoping to discern the form of a seal amongst the dark lava rocks.  I happened to look down the side of the rock I was sitting on and viola! 3 or 4 seals were sitting out on the rocks sunning themselves.  I called to Kayleigh and she was up the rock in no time staring down at them.  As we looked, we made out more and more of them - loads more than we had originally seen! The coolest thing of all was that most of them were seal pups!  By the end we had estimated there were roughly 50 seals amongst the rocks, with the majority of them being pups.  We watched and listened as they shimmied along the rocks and called out and the adults collected and herded them.  Amazing and adorable!

How many can you spot in this photo?

Hello there! 

Super close!

The last activity on the list for the North Island was the Putangirua Pinnacles.  The hike to the pinnacles actually started just beyond our campsite, and the pinnacles were used as a filming location for the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King where Eragorn (forgive any misspellings!) sought out and bargained with the ghost army.  There are two forks to the hike, one leading to a viewpoint looking down onto the pinnacles and another through the valley walking amongst them.  I was pretty stoked to see them, but the I went to the high viewpoint first and wasn't impressed - certainly not worth the huff and puff climb.  So I descended back down to the valley and pushed on.  When I reached the beginning of the pinnacles I still wasn't feeling it, but as I walked deeper into the valley the formations became taller and more impressive.  It was an eerie place.  Like a stone forest.  I wandered up between some of the pinnacles poking around and taking photos, half expecting an ambush around every corner - the badlands of New Zealand.  It was a great way to end the first half of our travels around New Zealand.  Onward to the South Island!

From the viewpoint lookout

Dwarfed 

Looking back down the valley from the top