Hollyford Track

After a doubtful start and a long wait, we finally hit our first hike. The trek is one of a few in the south island that's open year round. Unfortunately it doesn't follow a loop, so we opted to camp half way, and do only part of the second half as a day hike (I later pulled out of this day hike as well, which as Mark will tell you turned out to be a good move).

The lady at the tour office told us the best thing about the hike was the forest. We weren't too excited by this idea, both being more interested in views of the mountains, but had heard good things, and had limited options. As it turns out, the forest was actually amazing. On account of their meters of rainfall a year, this was the most lush forest I've ever seen. Moss and ferns everywhere.


And nice waterfalls...

And enough breaks in the trees to satisfy out craving from views of the mountains...

After about 6 hours of hiking, we finally arrived at Lake Alabastar. Lakes, mountain views, say no more.


The Department of Conservation (DOC) in New Zealand has an amazing network of huts on all the hikes throughout the country. And while this can take away from the camping experience if you're really looking to be one with nature, it's fucking sweet when it's the winter. This was one of the newer huts, and was really nice. We were joined by a couple kiwi's spending a week hunting deer in the area as well (deer were introduced in the 1900's and with no natural predators became a huge problem. A hunter's paradise).

I will also take this chance to tell you about Mark's new hobby (T you're going to love this). It's been a while since Mark's thyroid condition has entered the scene, but after feeling a little bit low for a while, M decided to try out another recommendation of the Thyroid Solution...thai chi. While in Auckland, Mark snuck off early one morning to a class. And what better place to put it to the test than in the mountains. Being the good friend that I am, when he told me he was going for a walk, I followed him knowing full well he was going to practice some thai chi, and just had to get a picture of it. He thought he could hide behind a bush, but I found him...

The next morning we awoke to fog over the lake. Luckily for us, being winter, and in the mountains, the sun doesn't actually rise until about 9:00, so we were able for once be awake for the sunrise. Now I can't say I've actually made it up in time for many sunrises, but this was definitely the nicest sunrise I've ever seen.

Sunrises...excellent chi...





That day the plan was to do a day hike to the next lake. With sore knees, and a lazy demeanor, I decided to pass on the day hike which promised to be strenuous, and opted to go for a walk around the lake, possibly find a nice spot to set up the hammock and read a little, and enjoy the surroundings. It was nice.

Mark on the other hand, a man who doesn't enjoy sitting around, and who enjoys a good physical challenge, opted for the day hike. Highlights included falling into a river while trying to cross it (seen below), a lake that was average to good, and a 3 hours hike/half run to make it back in time before sunset.

That evening we found out that the kiwis also knew how to play euker, so we had some entertainment (the sun goes down around 6:00..and after that, not a whole lot to do by candle light). The next morning we were greeted by yet another amazing sunrise, and were on our way back out.

Not without a quick stop to climb a mossy tree.

mountains, valleys and sheep

This posting should be after the hollyford. Please direct your attention there first otherwise you might get a very skewed idea of the relative location of the hollyford track and copland valley, and that we can't have.

After the hollyford we drove back up past queenstown and crossed the mountain range which tracks the west coast to head to copland valley. This journey took us through valley, mountains and lakes, sometimes all 3 together - amazing. Good day, good scenes, good drive. I believe I've enjoyed a good drive a few too many times for my age. Come this christmas, all are invited to join me cruising the streets admiring christmas lights.

New Zealand's sheep population outnumbers its citizens 10 to 1. Here's some of them.
More farming with mountain views. And still these farmers dream of seas of wheat as far as the eye can see.
lake + mountains, we like this combo.
Sometimes the sheep hearding trail overlaps with the main highways.
Queenstown from afar.
valley + mountains + paul, another favorite.
you know.
cows, living the good life.

Milford Sound

like Paul said, standards change. so when we found out there was less than a certainty of rain, we hoofed it up to milford sound for the infamous cruise. I mean you've probly never heard of it, but it's infamous here. This is the iconic picture,
That was off the net. our weather provided a slightly different backdrop, but it was still cool to be cruising between the massive peaks.

There were some dolphins near the mouth who apparently like to hitch a ride on the push-wave at the front of the boat. also, I made up 'push-wave', I don't know what it's called.

back up the sound and a little more wildlife.

We also saw an extremely rare penguin but he was too far away to capture on film. I know, I'd be jealous if I were you too.

This is the waterfall seen from a distance in photo number trois. nothing insane but we had to have a waterfall pic, we've got quotas too you know.
The clouds began to part as the cruise was wrapping up so we took some pics just to prove it can be sunny in new zealand.
on the road back.
The hollyford track, hike the first, started near milford sound so we set up camp at a look out point. That's also the valley we hiked down to start the hollyford.
That night a flightless parrot took an interest in my towel drying on side of the van. Being an endangered species and thus protected they've gained quite the balls around us humans. unfortunately my sleepbag and the EPA were restricting my retrieval of the towel.
The next morning brought a glorious sunrise to sound off the start of the trek. The only thing missing was accompanying orchestra music.

New Zealand - in the beginning

In the beginning there was rain, then fog, then more rain, then some snow, then some rain, then there was sunlight, then more rain.

After a quick stop in Sydney and another night at Scotty's place, we arrived in New Zealand. Although we were expecting some slightly cooler weather, 5 months of t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops had really softened us up. Our first 3 days in Auckland were rainy and cold. Luckily we had no intention of doing any site seeing, mostly just trip planning (which we had yet to start for NZ).
Our original plan was to rent a car/camper and drive down to Christchurch in the south island, and fly back up. However one of the companies had too many vans in the south island, and if you were willing to drive them back up gave you a really good deal. $19 a day, a third of what we paid in Oz. Not bad for transportation, kitchen and a bed. And although we didn't know it when we booked it, it also had built in DVD player. Sooo clutch. These are actually minivans converted into campers. A little tight, but it did the job, and was way better on gas than the hog we hired in Perth. We flew to Christchurch the next day.
While renting it, we asked a few important questions since there was a chance we'd encounter some snow along the way.
"Does the car have all season tires?" - yes
"Is the car front wheel drive?" - yes
Splendid, we're on our way.


As we were quickly finding out, this was not the best time of year to come to hike (ya, I know, winter, obviously not). However before we left, most people had told us the south island, where most of the hiking is, is still good year round. It might be cold, but how bad could it be?

oh, i see...pretty bad. After about an hour getting ourselves out of the parking lot, we soon discovered that the supposed "all season" tires which all spaceship rental vans are apparently equipped with, aren't quite the same as all season tires back home. In fact they bear a striking resemblance to our summer tires. ie, they SUCK in snow. Hunh, that's funny, the rear tires also seem to be the ones spinning. Oh wait, that because this isn't front wheel drive!


Well that's okay, everyone else with rentals seems to have chains, bit of a pain, but should be fine (note, chains are not included in spaceship rental)
Okay, well we can see if we can buy some, apparently you should be able to pick them up for around $60, they'll probably come it handy again ($180, actually)
Alright, well lets see how long this is going to last (road we're currently parked next to is closed, it's supposed to snow for 2 more days).
Bollocks!!!
Well this is just swell. Luckily we bumped into a couple English guys who'd stopped at the gas station we were at to put on chains (included with rental, of course). They'd just come down the road we needed to drive, and said it actually wasn't too bad. And their tires were as bald as ours. And from my experience in England, where any snow shuts the cities down, if English guys say it's okay, it's okay. Sure enough, the hardest part of the drive was making out of the parking lot. The snow stopped about 20 minutes up the road. To Mt. Cook we go!!

(Mt. cook is currently in thick fog, no point) To Queenstown we go!
Luckily we finally encountered some decent weather. Our standards had adjusted quite quickly...by decent, I mean overcast with mean looking clouds...but no rain/snow.

Time for the age old Cole thanksgiving tradition of hitting rock with a bat made out of a tree. Never gets old. Apparently my baseball swing bares a striking resemblance to my golf swing. Golf swing or not, the rock's goin yard town.

That night, we hopped on to an organized pub crawl. Jager bombs anyone?

We'd been told that in NZ you could park a campervan basically anywhere (unlike most countries were it's illegal to camp unless is a campground). However we were awoken at 7:30 the next morning to a knock on the window.. "Hi, my name's Dave from the Queenstown parking authority, you can't camp here, and if you do it again I'll give you a $400 ticket. You've got 5 mintues to leave". I love how friendly people are here, even when this guy's being a hardass he still introduces himself first. All jokes aside, NZ has probably been the friendliest place we've been (Brazil gives it a run though). This early morning wakeup was one major drawback of freedom camping I suppose, and it onyl happened once. The other drawback is lack of showers, however we found ways around that. The big hostels are quite easy to just walk into and usually have shared showers in the hallways, so we made due (not without getting shut down a few times along the way).

After Queenstown, we were back on the road on our way to Milford Sound.