Itinerary: Wednesday, 12/12: 8pm SFO 9pm LAX; 10pm LAX 8am AUK (Friday) Friday, 12/14: 10am AUK 12pm Queenstown ; Drove Queentown Twizel (~300 km) Stayed in Mountain Chalets; Dinner in town Saturday, 12/15: Breakfast in town (Cade s 1 st laugh); Drove Twizel Mt Cook (~60 km) Hiked to Sealy Tarns in light drizzle (2.5 hrs) Drove Mt Cook Wanaka (~210 km); Stayed at YHA; Dinner in town Sunday, 12/16: Breakfast in town; Hiked Diamond Lakes loop (3 hrs) Stayed at YHA; Dinner at YHA Monday, 12/17: Breakfast at YHA; Drove Wanaka Franz Josef (~300 km) lots of short walks Lunch at Haast; Hiked to Wombat Lake on slimly trail (2 hrs) Stayed at YHA; Dinner at YHA Tuesday, 12/18: Breakfast at YHA; Hiked to Roberts Point (slimy trail) but turned back early (2 hrs) Drove Franz Josef Arthur s Pass (~240 km); Stayed at YHA; Dinner YHA Wednesday, 12/19: Breakfast YHA; Hiked Temple Basin (3.5 hrs) Drove Arthur s Pass Punakaili (Pancake Rocks) Stayed at a motel; Dinner in town Thursday, 12/20: Breakfast at the motel; Hiked into Fox Caves (2 hrs) Drove Punakaili Motueka; Stayed YHA; Dinner YHA Friday, 12/21: Breakfast at YHA; Drove to Marahau Took boat out to Anchorage Bay; Hiked from Anchorage to Marahau (3.5 hrs) Drove Motueka Picton; Stayed YHA; Dinner YHA Saturday, 12/22: Breakfast at YHA; Hiked along Queen Charlotte (2 hrs) Dinner in town; Took 7pm ferry to Wellington; Stayed Downtown Wellington Backpackers Sunday, 12/23: Breakfast at hostel; Took train to Aukland; Stayed YHA Monday, 12/24: Breakfast in town; Wandered about Aukland; Xmas dinner in YHA Tuesday, 12/25: Breakfast at YHA; Took ferry to Devonport; AUK LAX LAX SFO; Took limo to PA! 1
Wednesday, 12/12 Susan and Cade picked Tor up at SLAC at about 5:40pm and then drove to the airport parking lot. Somehow we had 4 large duffle bags, two small packs, and Cade! However, we got to United with lots of time and flew to LAX Cade s first flight! LAX was very busy but we just had to go six gates down. The flight to NZ was on a 747 which left at 10pm. The stewardess found an enclosed bassinet for Cade and the flight was roughly 12 hrs but uneventful Cade slept the whole trip and Susan and Tor also got a good sleep. Friday, 12/14 We arrived at the Aukland airport at 8am. Cleared customs and re-checked our bags to Queenstown and then went looking for out TravelPass documentation which was supposed to be at the information center. They had not heard of it. Called the YHA reservation center it was supposed to arrive by courier at 9am. Good, a chance for Susan to eat again. Waited till 9:30 and then started walking towards the domestic terminal (1km away). The flight to Queenstown was packed and we were in steerage but the views were great! The Queenstown airport was small and relaxed. Called for the car but it was not going to be ready for another 40 minutes this gave Susan another chance to eat! The car was packed fortunately the rental car guy took off with the keys and this gave us another 30 minutes to repack before he returned and we headed off to the town of Twizel (pop. 1100). 2
The drive was about 3 hrs we all got pretty sleepy in the warm afternoon sun but the roads were pretty empty and we adjusted to driving on the wrong side of the road successfully! Cade also adjusted to the car seat without problem and slept most of the way. We stopped just before town to feed her so that she did not explode upon arrival! Twizel was nice we stayed in a A-frame chalet, did laundry, and ate in town. At the chalet, we met an older British couple who were traveling through NZ for 6 weeks. They suggested a scenic detour and thus after dinner we drove out a dirt road and got our only (partial) view of Mt. Cook. The next morning, Tor took Cade on an exploration of town while Susan slept in lazy bum. Later, we went to breakfast and the waitress insisted on stealing Cade while we ate. She ran off to the kitchen and shouted look what I ve got we couldn t hear whether her husband laughed or cursed! After returning, Cade made her first laugh that was pretty cool. Saturday, 12/15 We headed up to the town of Mt. Cook. The peak was completely cloud covered and it was drizzling in the valley. We stopped by the DOC visitors office to ask about the Muller Hut (we had planned to spend the night up there but they strongly recommended against). Instead we hiked up to Sealy Tarns this was a steep 1500 climb up the hillside. The people at the visitors center warned us against the walk, saying that the trail was steep and rocky they were right but it seemed to go pretty well anyway. Susan carried the pack with extra clothes and food while 3
Tor carried Cade in the front-pack under his jacket she seemed to stay mostly dry and slept most of the way up and down. It took us about 1.5~2 hours to get up to the tarns. After getting back down, we ate lunch in an open shelter and then headed towards Wanaka, a 3+ hour drive. At Wanaka, Andrew checked us into the YHA the TravelPass had not yet arrived but rather than charging us, he suggested waiting. We then went back into town and found a place to eat. After ordering, Cade decided to explode. Kaboom. Nothing would calm her but in the process we met a British couple with 3 children, one of which was only 6 months old. They had been living in Singapore?? and were traveling for a month before heading back to England. Wow three kids! The woman did say that it was a bit more difficult now that she no longer had 5 or 6 sevants to take care of the house and kids! Sunday, 12/16 We had breakfast in town next to one of the few Xmas decorations we saw. Tor had toast and a latte while Susan had pancakes AND two eggs scrambled. Afterwards she went and got a muffin for the hike. Wow! The view across the lake to Mt. Aspiring was beautiful although there was quite a cold breeze coming off the lake. We walked up to the DOC office and decided to hike the Diamond Lakes loop one of the few loop trails that we could find. The drive to the traihead was out this gravel road past all of the climbing areas oh well, no gear! The Diamond Lakes trail was great. It started in really lush section heading up ladders and stairs and then broke out into these high meadows. We climbed about 2000 to the top of Rocky Mountain great views of Mt. Aspiring and Lake Wanaka. After returning to the car around 3pm, we headed back to the hostel and took a nap with Cade on the grass 4
in the back lawn. Later we walked to the grocery store to get dinner food. Met a Korean girl on the way who was also staying in the hostel. She was in New Zealand for a year or so to study English. She had been a civil servant but left just before the collapse and now was not so sure how to get a job back in Korea. Shopping was successful and we grilled some steaks for dinner. Later the Korean girl gave us some CokeCola Chicken this was chicken boiled in Coke with a little soy sauce. Tor was very worried but it actually tasted pretty good. Monday, 12/17 After of breakfast of 6 scrambled eggs and toast (guess who ate most of the eggs), we packed up and headed out. Our TravelPass still had not arrived but Andrew said he would remove a few vouchers, four for himself and two which he would send to Franz Josef, and then send the package on to Arthur s Pass where we would be in two nights. We trip to the west coast was great. We stopped and did short hikes at the Blue Pools, a couple of water falls, Cameron Creek, and the Roaring Billy. Hiking with Cade is a kick sometimes she slept but other times she looked around, waved her arms, and said eeeehh! We arrived in Haast around 2pm and stopped for lunch at a tavern. Afterwards, we headed north, sometimes along the Tasman Sea and sometimes inland. The road crossed many wide glacial streams on one lane bridges sometimes the bridges were long enough that they pullouts midway. We finally got to Franz Josef around 5pm, signed into the hostel, did some shopping for dinner and then headed off for a short hike. We started by walking to a glacier overlook the glacier was impressive but 5
frustrating because we had no plans to do anything real on the ice, i.e. climb. Instead, we walked up to Wombat Lake. This was total hell as can be seen from Tor s expression! The trail was slimy and wet and was like a talus field covered with moss and mud. Susan finally had to take over and carry Cade safely back to the car! After we got back to the hostel, Tor cooked pork chops with mushrooms, onions, and broccoli. One problem we were discovering about the hostel kitchens if they had salt, they did not have pepper and vise versa. Oh well! The common room at Franz Josef was really nice and we read to 10pm while Cade attracted a series of admirers. There were the two girls from England who were returning from 11 months travel, there was the German girl who was just starting out, etc. Tor started making plans to travel with Cade without Susan! Tuesday, 12/18 After returning to the car, we set off for Arthur s Pass. This involved driving along the coast for roughly 2 hours and then heading inland. We stopped for a break, i.e. Susan s 3 rd lunch of the day, at Hokitika, an old gold mining town. Gold was a huge part of the development of the west coast. We went through a little museum and into a jade factory where they had pictures of mining for jade. This evidently meant finding boulders, the right sort of boulders, and then hauling them back into town. Sounds easy except all the boulders After the standard breakfast of 6 eggs, toast, and instant coffee (or water in Susan s case), we headed out to hike to Robert s Point. This was a 5 hour hike that was supposed to have great views but was warned to be slippery. Ha! Slippery was an understatement. We walked for about an hour and a half and then turned around. One advantage of hiking with Cade is that the milk truck always came with us this made Cade quite happy! 6
looked to same to us. We also learned what all the machinery was doing out in the washes of the glacial rivers they were digging for gold (we had thought they were doing some sort of mis-guided road repair). The road to Arthur s Pass was dramatic it climbed up through a narrow valley up to the pass. At the top, it passed the Temple Basin ski area a bit confusing since the parking lot could only hold 10 cars and we could not see a lift anywhere. From the top of the pass, the road dropped steeply to the town of Arthur s Pass. We checked into the YHA with Rudi who was taciturn to say the least fortunately, our TravelPass had arrived. We then went shopping for dinner. Turns out the town of Arthur s Pass only has 50 people and the store was limited to canned stews, soups and spaghetti, pasta, onions, and, if you asked at the counter, eggs. We made a delicious dinner of canned beef stew, with an added fried onion, over spinach pasta actually, it was not as bad as expected. An Israeli girl kept offering to hold Cade while we cooked, ate, etc., but Cade did not seem to appreciate this Oh well! Wednesday, 12/19 Cooked the usual breakfast and then headed up the pass to Temple Basin. We found the ski area after a 40 minute hike up the slope there was a DOC hut where we could get out of the wind and Susan took the opportunity to feed Cade. The ski basin had a few lifts but it was not clear how one got to the base a long walk from the car. We continued up towards Temple Col. There was a steep section of scree followed a narrow transverse into the next bowl. Centered in the next bowl was another hut and then the final scree slope up to the notch. We decided to turn around at that point because it was difficult carrying Cade. On the 7
Next, we headed back out to the coast on the way we picked up two Israeli women who had just finished their military service. It seemed difficult to hitch in New Zealand and they accepted a ride, crammed in the back with Cade and lots of luggage. One of them was an MP equivalent and the other drove tanks pretty wild! descent we stopped in the lower hut to feed Cade once again. On these walks, she either spent her time sleeping soundly or wideeyed and waving her arms there seemed to be nothing between! After returning to the car, we went to the DOC office to find out what the ski area was evidently, it was a club area where members of the club could walk up, start the lifts and ski sounds pretty nice! We dropped our riders off in Greymouth and then headed up to Punakaiki. Got a real room in a motel with a kitchenette. The local store was locking up early that evening (a few hours before they were scheduled to but ) but they opened up to sell us bread, butter and eggs really nice of them. Then we went out to dinner at the local Tavern. Disaster the place was great but our order got lost and Cade had a meltdown. One person had to walk with Cade outside while the other ate and vise versa. The owners were really nice and tried to relieve us by taking Cade but it didn t work - oh well! Thursday, 12/20 The next day we had the usual breakfast scrambled eggs and toast by Tor and Cade and then headed to the Pancake Rocks. The shoreline was pretty cool as shorelines go but still just a shoreline. Instead of hiking there, we headed north and hiked along the Fox river to the caves. The river flowed through a relatively narrow limestone gorge and was really pretty. The cave was also pretty neat but stupidly we had only brought one headlamp and so we only went about 100 feet or so into it. Tor had the usual problem on the approach in that he could not walk well on the slippery rocks and so Susan carried Cade Tor did not like admitting this but the thought of slipping and crashing to the ground with Cade managed to overcome even his pigheadedness. 8
After returning to the car we headed up to Motueka, close to the Able Tasman park. Stayed in another really nice youth hostel and tried to grill some chicken for dinner. Unfortunately, the gas grill didn t work too well so we resorted to the ubiquitous crutch for poor cooks, i.e. the microwave. Friday, 12/21 Got up to an overcast day. After breakfast, we headed out to the end of the Able Tasman Park which was about 30 minutes away to catch a ferry part way into the park. They loaded us, along with 12 other people, onto a speedboat boat on a trailer. Then a tractor pulled us up the road a ways and out onto the beach. Evidently, the tides are 3 to 5 meters around here and thus there are no normal docking facilities instead the tractor simply pulled us along the beach until there was sufficient water. After a bouncy and wet trip for about an hour, we got close to the beach from which we were planning to walk back (about 12 miles or so). All out we jumped overboard into 2 feet of water and waded up to the beach Cade didn t seem so thrilled about that one. Also it was drizzling which did not seem to thrill here too much either actually maybe both of those were just our projections. After drying our feet, we headed for the Able Tasman track one of the famous walking routes in NZ. It was a nice trail much better maintained and much wider than most of the others that we had been on. The trail stayed up on the bluffs well above the beaches but there were trails down and the beaches were beautiful. The sun played hide and seek but it was quite warm and the bugs, which we had been repeatedly warned against, preferred to stay out of our way. By the end of the walk, we were pretty beat it had been many days of these mid-length trips and Tor s ankles were getting unhappy with him. After getting back to the car, we stopped in the boat tour office and found our only souvenir of the trip a really pretty ceramic bowl. We then headed back to Motuka where Susan insisted on food. In particular, she wanted fish and chips ugh! We stopped in a little place that looked like a dive and got two huge chucks of deep fried fish wrapped in paper. Rather than eating in the parking lot as Susan wanted, we headed off towards Picton, looking for a park. We found one after Nelson and stopped to eat. 9
Turns out that this must have been the local high school hangout and kids came through smoking dope or drinking beer. After this, we headed up to Picton another two hours or so. Picton is a small town nestled in at the end of a narrow bay. Really picturesque! Fafter driving through town a few times, we found the hostel where they gave us a small apartment that was separate from the main building I think they were in fear of a Cade meltdown but it was unfounded. Cade was on her best behavior and had become totally attached to her pink teddy bear Pinksa who was named after Bamse. Saturday, 12/22 Another grey day but we were not in a rush. We were scheduled on the 7pm ferry to Wellington and didn t have much in the way of real plans. After a slow breakfast, we did a few loads of wash and then packed up to get out around 11am. We headed back towards Nelson to where the road intersected the Queen Charlotte track. This skirted the edge of a bay and, save for the vegetation, felt like we were hiking someplace in Maine. The track was well used but there were few people about. We headed out about 4 miles to??. There was a shelter in a meadow back from the bay that was quite nice. After the walk, we headed back to Picton to drop off the car and check in our 5000 pounds of luggage. Actually, it was probably closer to 200 rather than 5000 pounds but still seemed like way too much! Somehow we had taken four large duffel bags full of stuff for a two week holiday! Had a quick dinner in Picton and then headed for the ferry. The ferry was like a wide airline with multiple bars. It had narrow fixed seats with fold-down tables. We got seats towards the front so that we would get a view. The ride started off great slowly cruising through narrow bays with steep sides (some people call them fords). Unfortunately, then we got out into the strait and the ride got a bit more exciting! Susan got sick! Oops! I don t think she appreciated my asking her to grab me a beer on the way back from the bathroom (I didn t really)! When we got to the ferry terminal, we found out that we had no idea as to where we were! It was a different terminal from what I had thought. After 30 minutes of trying to figure it out, we realized that we were one block from the train station and two blocks from the place we were planning to stay: the Wellington Backpackers Hotel. Wow, what a dump! This was the first place that felt dirty looks a lot better in the photos than my memory! There was a cranking bar downstairs but Susan was not interested oh to be 20 again, or maybe not! 10
Sunday, 12/23 In the morning we cooked the usual breakfast in the kitchen had to move carefully not to wake the couples passed out from the night before! Moved our stuff across to the train station and got ready for a long ride. Unfortunately, the trip was much less interesting than hoped. The countryside was nice but rather similar for 8 hours. Enough is enough! After getting into Auckland, we got a cab to the hostel. Unpacked and then headed out to look for dinner. The hostel was close to the main street and there was tons of ethnic food about. We stopped in a Korean restaurant where hot meant inedible and mild required extensive beer to wash down. Can t really say that the food was good I don t think I ever tasted it! Monday, 12/24 Christmas eve day. We got going late. Headed out to get food for Christmas dinner got chicken, asparagus, green beans, salad, and a bottle of Hunter s Chardonnay. Good deal after dropping the food off, we decided to do the tourist trip. Went to an aquarium and then wandered through a park and then ended up on the waterfront. All nice but not terribly eventful we were pretty tired and could not really think of anything that we wanted to do. Tried to find out what ferries would be running tomorrow on Christmas Day unfortunately not many. Started walking back to the hostel but got side tracked to a Belgian bar to drink beer we used to buy in Geneva and eating cake the beer was much cheaper in Geneva! Cooked dinner which was great Merry Christmas and good night. Tuesday, 12/25 In the morning, we packed up, put our luggage in the luggage room and headed to the waterfront. Took a ferry across to Davenport. Every shop was closed up as if there was a major holiday or something. We headed up to the top of a small hill/volcano. Pretty town and great views. Headed back to Aukland. Walked back to the hostel and then met a shuttle van to the airport. Up up and away, we headed for home and our second Christmas morning. Great trip! 11