it really took a while before i can look at photographs from new zealand and marvel that i actually saw that.
Category: new zealand
blogs from new zealand
new zealand index
01 – jan 19: new zealand trip, flight there
02 – jan 20: due north
03 – jan 21: island in the sun
04 – jan 22: everything in this garden is lovely
05 – jan 23: rotorua – the fumes are chocking me
06 – jan 24: rotorua to national park with stop at thermal wonderland
07 – jan 25: whole day at national park
08 – jan 26: national park to wellington
09 – jan 27: trip to the south island
10 – jan 28: kaikoura to geraldine – long drives and changing cars
11 – jan 29: geraldine to twizel, the day hike that killed us
12 – jan 30: sunrise over mountains (twizel to all day bay)
13 – jan 31: all day bay to dunedin, penguinds and internet
14 – feb 1: dunedin to fjordland
15 – feb 2: milford sound sea kayaking
16 – feb 3: full of doubtful sounds
17 – feb 4: fjords to queenstown
18 – feb 5: queenstown to wanaka
19 – feb 6: whole day in wanaka
20 – feb 7: wanaka to haast
21 – feb 8: haast to frans joseph
22 – feb 9: at frans joseph
23 – feb 10: frans joseph to hokitika
24 – feb 11: hokitika to arthur’s pass
25 – feb 12: arthur’s pass to christchurch (day at christchurch)
26 – feb 13: flight back
second last new zealand update batch
i have only 2 days left to write about (and a little – the day of departure where we left at like 5 am), but i decided that i’ll put up the last few days that i’ve already written anyway.
the weekend here went awesomely – i spent another full day at the beach, almost bought a dress, and realized i can now carry 7 kg worth of groceries for about 25 minutes.
enjoy the entries!
- 20 – feb 7: wanaka to haast
- 21 – feb 8: haast to frans joseph
- 22 – feb 9: at frans joseph (fun one)
- 23 – feb 10: frans joseph to hokitika (different fun)
for photographs start here and end when you get bored :)
23 – feb 10: frans joseph to hokitika
the day began with the bad news that my bag still has not arrived. after some phoning the YHA in haast, it turned out that my bag is still in haast as of this morning. wtf mate… it was sitting there for a whole day? argh!!!
anyway, the choices were put as follows:
after some hesitating and deliberating i decided to wait here and try getting it here. if it doesn’t come today then i will leave my chirstchurch address (the hostel), and try to get it delivered there asap. argh. i miss my toothbrush, glasses, shampoo… FLIP FLOPS! dang it.
the nice thing about this town is that its so small, and the gas station attendant is doubling as the post office guy, and the hostel owner actually knows him (in the sense that she said “oh he’s a nice guy, you can talk to him and give him your cell number). after talking to the post office guy, further positive information came along – he said that the package should get here by 1:30pm. so, for now we’re hanging out in the hostel. it is 11:26am – we had breakfast, and at this point anja is reviewing photographs on oleg’s computer, and i decided to blog. i am 8 days behind!
some hours later…
so, upon spending the next 2 and a half hours blogging, at 1:30 (half an hour after the approximate 1pm deadline) i went to the post office/friendly local gas station/mobil. unfortunately, the guy said “another half an hour”, and i demurely went back (having bought an ice cream to celebrate the shiny blue skies and warm weather and to cheer myself up in general) to the hostel.
some minutes later…
20 minutes later a postal truck pulled into the hostel with a MAGICAL SINGLE PACKAGE in his hands! yup! my bag has ACTUALLY FOUND ME. apparently this whole concept of “mailing” “stuff” is not entirely flawed.
in joy and celebration we have jetted out of the hostel on the road to hokitika, which has been described as the jade capital of new zealand (and possibly THE WORLD, although i’m not sure). another waterfall of flyers describing things and places as “the best kept secret in new zealand” has accompanied the visit to this town. remind me to not really trust new zealand with secrets, as they tend to publish them in official visitor guides.
hokitika also greeted us with rain, and thus we have decided to hang out at the very posh, very large, very cool looking hostel, with a very calm and friendly australian sheepdog, sid. (funny that i can remember dogs’ names but not people’s…) here i’ve found a book by grisham, “the broker”, which addicted me right away. around 11:30pm the realization that i just won’t finish it (and i can’t take it cause the hostel libraries work on the principle of take-one-leave-one), so i went to sleep in our 3(people)-for-1(room). anja hasn’t been able to find a place in that hostel, but they very nicely made her a bed on a mattress on the floor, and other than that was a bunk bed, leading to generally cozy accomodations.
22 – feb 9: at frans joseph
our cozy group of three – anja, oleg and myself – have all booked ourselves some day trips for the day at the glacier.
the craziest trip was booked by oleg – ice climbing. this is when climb a chunk of ice using boots with very sharp points, and a pair of axes. the safety is a top rope that’s hooked to you, and a guide belaying you. of course, i think that’s the reasonable part – the part that is very UNreasonable, is the part where they gotta start at 7:45am.
the next craziest trip was booked by anja – a full day (8 hour) walk on the glacier, with 6 hours spent on the ice, and start time at 8:15am. walking on the glacier entails putting on special shoes with spikes in them (“ice talons”), and then following the guide around the glacier using paths that are created especially for you.
and my calm trip was the 3/4 day trip, which is longer than the half-day trip, but not as grueling as the full day trip. to quote from the brochure “with lots of photographic opportunity” – so given how tired and under the weather i’ve been feeling, i decided to take this “opportunity”. the fact that there were two starting times – 7:45 (right…) and 10:30
thus, my morning was fairly calm – given how usually at 10:30 we have to be packed and out for 30 minutes, and the only thing i had to do was dress, eat breakfast, buy a bottle of water and be there.
on that note: dress.
basically, the choice of wear on the glacier is something that dries quickly on the bottom, and 4 warm layers on the top. well, the warm layers part wasn’t tough, because i was pretty prepared on that aspect . but the quick dry pants wer an issue, cause i only had 2 pairs of pants (pyjama, and cotton brown ones). i also had 3/4 length pants, which in hindsight is what i should’ve worn despite them not being quick dry (jeans and cotton), and lastly i also got a pair of shorts. like, summer shorts. which is what i was told to wear on the glacier.
while being slightly sceptical, we do what we gotta do, so in shorts and 3 layers (it was a very sunny warm day) i went off, making it about 3 minutes before our group of 26 people has launched.
after outfitting us into super waterproof jackets and big boots (you don’t wear your own shoes cause you will be outfitted with the afore mentioned ice talons, i.e. a big set of spikes attached to the foot) off we went on a bus ride to the bottom of the glacier. of course the bottom of the glacier is really about an hour’s walk from the parking lot (with ice talons in a bag, and i took my wide angle (attached) and kit lens for the polarizer filter, cause i had no clue how shooting all that bright white snow will work out, and 1.25 liter water bottom). so, that was a nice, brisk start to the day.
at the bottom we’ve split into +adventurous and -adventurous groups, where i went for the slower paced -adventurous. in the end we covered pretty similar terrains, and given all the stuff i was carrying and my generally not-the-best shape, i was pretty happy with my choice.
the hike up the glacier’s face was fast paced and tired us all out quickly. later on, in the evening, oleg remarked that the initial climb was tough for him as well. after that initial push, the adventure began.
the advertising said that we’d feel “refreshingly surprised at the sense of your own achivement”. that was indeed true, as we have spent an insane amount of time climbing into, out of, and going over cracks and crevices in the ice. at one point, the friendly old british man (who, together with his wife, has already been on an iceberg in the canadian rockies), asked me after we went through a particularly long, narrow, twisty, ice passage – “so, are your legs quick-dry?”. apparently they were, as they rarely felt cold, and my biggest concert through the hike was when should i stop and shoot, and when should i hug the camera and squeeze. since everything went well with only positive remarks from the well equipped guide (“how are the papparazi doing back there?” when me, and another british couple, where the guy was also shooting with a DSLR, started lagging a bit behind)
anyway, the evening was spent with some food, some rest, some spa, some beers, and oleg and me aching from the excersize. oleg was totally aching, where as i was totally aching mostly in lower body. anja was totally fine from her experience. :)
i advice looking towards the photographs for the way it looks. but, lessons learned for today:
- glaciers are made out of ice
- ice is cold
- therefore, glaciers are cold (sometimes)
- bringing the thin, light, synthetic pad that my dad gave me made me the only person who sat in warmth ON the iceberg during lunch
- ice melts. making squeezing through crevices possible.
- those spikes on the bottom of our shoes saved us many times today
- climbing through big ice cracks and hiking over big chunks of ice feels like climbing within an icecube, but cooler
- glaciers are made out of big ice cracks and big chunks of ice
- therefore, glaciers are cool (always)
21: feb 8: haast to frans joseph.
upon departing haast, we sleepily stumbled into the car and left towards the next exciting thing – the glaciers. the trip towards the glaciers was punctuated with naps (for me), a few stops at pretty roadside locations (waterfalls and rainforests), and the realization that i forgot a whole bag of stuff in haast about 2 hours into the 4 hour drive. we decided that i’d call them and ask them to send it forward to glaciers with someone else who’s staying there, as haast is mostly and essentially a stopover for people going to the glaciers from wanaka.
the excitement of the day was delivered in a form of a root into which we “crashed” (i.e. a road kinda jammed into). the car was fine, and after a car servicing station deflated the wheel and took out the wood, oleg (the driver) was fine too. :)
the evening was magnificently peaceful, with a lovely sunset over surrounding mountains, and a game of chess. i played some random guy, one out of many chess players who seem to gather there daily. i lost, 1-2 (we played 3 games). in the first game i had a very elegant mate, but in the last one he completely annihilated me.
the next day we all had big adventures awaiting us, so we went to sleep fairly early.
20 – feb 7: wanaka to haast
in the morning of leaving wanaka, we have picked up another travel companion. a german girl of 20 years old, named anja (yes, anja, like the russian name! so cool.) she will travel with us to the glaciers (through haast, where she has found a dorm bed in a nearby hostel). in terms of general travel it makes our car arrangement different – all my bags are in the backseat now (as they are the smallest, who’d thunk that), anja is sitting in the front, and i sit at the back with my laptop. this is perfect because i don’t have to keep up a conversation with anyone :D and i end up falling asleep A LOT. which is great cause i constantly feel like i’m lacking sleep.
so the drive to haast was punctuated with a few stops at pretty places (waterfalls and such), and that’s pretty much it. in haast we picked up food, and since i still felt tired and kinda sick (lightheaded), anja and oleg went to explore the local forests, and i stayed in the huge, open concept 2 floor YHA hostel. which actually SUCKED cause their oven didn’t really work from the first time, and they had a pronounced lack of dishes, in my opinion.
anyway, the day was not very exciting (overcast and grey too), but that’s exactly what i needed. the photographs anja and oleg brought back (they both have drebel 350d, hers is silver) are verrrry pretty, but i felt SO tired that i don’t regret that i stayed in one place, and had a day off.
evening dinner was pasta with ground beef and tomato sauce. the YHA hot plates sucked, and we never did end up eactly figuring out how they work, but everything got somehow cooked, and was made into a pretty tasty dinner.
i blogged some in the evening, and slept painfully with my burns, and very loud rain and wind throughout the entire night.
more updates have came along!
so, i’m in sydney.
before ya’ll go all crazy on me, tim is going to be here in 6 hours, and i’ve just postd 10 new posts!. that still leaves me like 10, if not 12 days behind, but i don’t think i’ll keep up this intense daily bloggin here (unless someone can present me with an argument like “well i actually read all of this”).
anyway. its 12:30am here, and i’m tired, and i’ve formatted 10 entries with photographs! thus, i present the next 10 days after where we left off:
10 – jan 28: kaikoura to geraldine – long drives and changing cars
11 – jan 29: geraldine to twizel, the day hike that killed us
12 – jan 30: sunrise over mountains (twizel to all day bay)
13 – jan 31: all day bay to dunedin, penguinds and internet
14 – feb 1: dunedin to fjordland
15 – feb 2: milford sound sea kayaking
16 – feb 3: full of doubtful sounds
17 – feb 4: fjords to queenstown
18 – feb 5: queenstown to wanaka
19 – feb 6: whole day in wanaka
aand, photographs are here, although not all of them have been blogged yet.
and that’s the map!
what’s coming:
days 20-25 in new zealand
days 01-06 in sydney (that’s today)
more photographs (way more. i’m slow at processing and its already a lot, i think).
leave me commmeeeentttsss nooooobs. otherwise i feel like i’m writing into the V O I D.
yours,
– attention needing child.
19 – feb 6: whole day in wanaka
oleg has made the brave decision of leaving me alone for an entire day, and booked himself a rock climbing trip for this day. this left me in an enviable position of being able to sleep in until after 12 (or whenever i wanted, really) for the first time on this entire “vacation”.
oleg has made the brave decision of leaving me alone for an entire day, and booked himself a rock climbing trip for this day. this left me in an enviable position of being able to sleep in until after 12 (or whenever i wanted, really) for the first time on this entire “vacation”. (i’m not sure who could call such a torture as having to be moved out of any bed you’re at with all your stuff AND having eaten breakfast by 10 am a vacation, but, hey, i’m not the one defining english words here). of course this meant that the bed on which i slept was complete JUNK – sagging mattress that squeaked the entire night each time i dared to move a limb. thus meant that each time i turned i actually fully woke up, and the short bursts of sleep that i did get, were of terrible quality. (for the record i’m pretty sure that i turn about 10 times per night. just counting from amount of waking up that i have done.)
upon waking up for real at 11:15, i decided not to let the terrible bed of deterring me from the goal of sleeping in, and continued the fight for slumber on the luxury (haha, hostel and luxury rarely go together – the exception being the hostel near wellington, the 96% rated one) double spring mattress that oleg slept on. around 12:30 i decided that this counts as having slept in :) and got up for a slow breakfast of reading and cereal.
around 1:30 i decided to go and enjoy the local beach, which was all of 5 minutes walking away. beautiful! while the beach was not pearly white sand, but mere gravel, the blue skies, shining sun, mountains around the lake, and the flurry of extreme sport activity that kept happening around and on it definitely made for an enjoyable ~3-4 hours of laying down and listening to music. and doing nothing else. at all. aaaah!
the extreme sports however made for a pleasurable watching. some kids (probably 20 years old, those youngsters) were hanging out a bit beside me, and brought with them two kayaks (and an adorable beagle puppy). of course after a few beers, a girl and a guy decided to swim out into the lake on a kayak made for 1 (the girl just sat at the back), which ended with a beautiful overturn. one of their friends went to “rescue” them by taking the puppy, and swimming a bit out, and tossing the puppy overboard (it was actually more funny than cruel, although i would not have done that to my dog) – it of course swam (far better than the girl, in my opinion).
anyway, extreme sports (outside of puppy tossing). apparently about 40 meters from where i decided to lay, a paragliding launchpad was located. i’m not sure if its called paragliding, but the premise is as follows – the guide and you sit under this huge chute which is connected by a rope to a boat that speeds away quickly. at some point (which i couldn’t see due to the trees) you take off the land, and start rising into the air as the boat pulls you behind it kite-style. there’s a balance between the pulling and raising as the chute goes *really* high up, and after seperating from the boat (couldn’t see how, too high and far away) floats back to the ground regular parachute style. each time someone would launch it would be preceeded by a loud noise from the boat and a flurry of seagulls flying away from the area, and followed by everyone staring at another lucky soul.
the evening was spent examining my burnt back, legs, and tummy, and whining about a killer headache (until i took 2 advil). to top this off, i tried this terrible sauce on the chicken that i ended up not being able to eat entirely (oleg had no objections to it, and finished his plate), so i wasn’t even rewarded with a pleasant dinner.
thus a day that should have been nicer, ended up being not that awesome after all. however, it was relaxing. and hopefully after this burn goes away i’ll have some tan left over. (yeah i know it won’t happen, just let me dream :) )
18 – feb 5: queenstown to wanaka
basically, in acordance to my “crazy stuff” category and my general craving for all kinds of crazy, i decided to do a kinda bungee jump. instead of a proper one where you get a terrible jerk into your knees, i went for a canyon swing. it is a combination of a bungy jump and a swing, allowing for as much andrenaline, and less stress on the body in terms of physical part. of course its still unnerving as hell :)
for the sheer fact that it is now february 19th, and i still haven’t written about this experience fully, i apologize for any shortcuts in this entry. i think it is impossible for me to write about everything in total depth – and i’m pretty sure you’re overwhelemed at this point anyway. thus, i will probably be brief, despite the awesomeness of what happened today!
basically, in acordance to my “crazy stuff” category and my general craving for all kinds of crazy, i decided to do a kinda bungee jump. instead of a proper one where you get a terrible jerk into your knees, i went for a canyon swing. it is a combination of a bungy jump and a swing, allowing for as much andrenaline, and less stress on the body in terms of physical part. of course its still unnerving as hell :)
let me quote the guide: 60 meters of freefall off a 109 meter high booth, above a canyon, resulting in a 200 meter arc of swing. if you look through their jump styles, i went for (first) a backwards jump – where you softly fall away from the platform and freak out completely not feeling anything for a whole half of your life (anyway that’s how it feels), and secondly for a “gimp boy/girl does hollywood“. i have a video of the 2nd one filmed by another guy there, and i have nice photos i ended up buying of both of them from the actual people, but this was definitely one of the most awesome experiences in new zealand.
the andrenaline rush is particularly high because of the skill of the operators, who know exactly how to build you up so that you end up completly freaking out.
after my craziness, oleg and i went onwards and forwards through the highest paved road in new zealand to wanaka, a town similar to queenstown, only nicer. in the evening, nothing happened, as we basically enjoyed the pleasant atmosphere.