Sausage, baked bean, and olive night

It was Sausage, baked bean, and olive night... who's hungry? We traveled all day down through Motutapu and through Invercargill for a relatively uneventful journey. We stopped in Invercargill for lunch, but decided there wasn't too much to do in town, and made tracks further east along the southern most coast of New Zealand. We finally stopped to camp at Monkey Island, a free camp site right on the beach.


Did I also mention it was Gin night as well. Mmmmm.....Gin.... The beach was calm, and the weather on the way was wicked. It was a perfect setting for getting goofy on Gin.
A front was moving in on us, ominous clouds formed just off the coast, moving in with the same frequency of the waves crashing on the beach. It looked like we were in for a long night of storms.
Yet, even though we could see the rain off in the distance, we never got wet. As the head of the front passed the beach, the wind gusted, blew over our chairs, and rearranged our dinner setup.

And just as quickly as it started, the front had past, we were no worse off that before, and the sun set on the remaining clouds behind the front causing them to glow orange and peach in front of a blue sky canvas. The sky in New Zealand was enormous that night. I know that sounds ridiculous, but the layers of cloud, some being so low that you think you can touch it, and some being so high that they seem like that are in space, create the illusion of endless depth and grander.
Anyway, the next day we were to head into the region known as the Katlands. Our first encounter in the area was at a light house on the coast.
At the time we arrived at the scene, this huge seal was chasing a group of British tourist up the hill from the beach. They were quite afraid. I kept my distance and was as polite as I could be.....It was a bit scary, knowing that as we explored the area for a bit, there was an angry seal hiding somewhere in the bushes looking to attack an unfortunate tourist. He could have hid withing the shelter of these wind shaped trees for all we knew. These deformed trees were quite common along the coast.
By this time of the trip, our pictures were getting more and more goofy....

Key Summit heading out of Fiordland

The night after our Milford Sound boat ride was spent by Lake Gun, a small lake beside the road leading out of Fiordland. We thought about taking a swim and bathing in the crystal clear lake, but the frigid water would not have suited us, and we decided that a warm blanket would be much better. Man it got cold during the night....

The following day we took our time exiting out of Fiordland, visiting a few little stops along the way out. Mirror Lake was one of those stops. The small lakes on a still day provide a perfect reflection of the mountains in the backdrop. We had a bit of a breeze, so the mirror was a bit tainted, but still awesome.
They cleaver buggers that discovered the natural feature decided to have some fun with the mirror image that the pool makes, check out the small sign just above the water...

We also stopped off for a short 3 hour round trip track that lead to the Key Summit. The track itself is part of the famous Routeburn track that starts near Queenstown and crossed the mountain range to Milford Sound. It is the only strait line path to Milford. There has yet to be a road built that crosses this mountain range. I think it takes 3 days or more to do the full Routeburn track on foot, and the portion we walked on was more than a little bit difficult, so we were happy to keep it to a 3 hour journey.

Key Summit was a surprise to us. We knew nothing about the peak, other than it was supposed to provide beautiful views of the surrounding Fiordland landscape. What surprised us was that the entire top of the mountain was covered in a spongy moss.

It was like a swamp on top of the mountain with small pools of water, and mossy patches all around. The DOC provided nice boardwalks over the marsh so that we would not disturb the fragile ecosystem

As we finished our exploration of one of my favorite places in New Zealand, we snapped one last picture of the grassy valley that leads into the mountains. It was a spectacular view.

Milford Sound

I haven't been everywhere in the world, not yet anyway, but I am confident that New Zealand has some of the most beautiful landscapes and natural features the world has to offer. We confirmed this fact as we drove out of the Queenstown area bound for the Fiordland National Reserve and Milford Sound.

This is me wearing my Virginia Tech shirt for what seemed like the 50th time of the trip, although we had only been on our travels for three days. The lake beside me was part of the extended arm of lake Wakatipu leading toward Te Anau.
Te Anau is the last bit of civilization before you head into Fiordland. Te Anau is also home to my new friend, the Giant Pukeko bird.
It did not take long before Denise and I concluded that Fiordland National Reserve was named appropriately. The road leading to Milford Sound was delicately wound through the valleys created by a series of ancient glaciers. To each side of the road, the mountains protruded higher than any sky scraper created by man.

A couple hours and a few doses of Dramamine later, we made it to Milford Sound, a small settlement that is home to Mitre Peak and the Milford Sound. Mitre peak is the tallest of the mountains in the area.

This stop on our trip was truly amazing. The weather at the time was perfect considering it rains 330 days out of the year here. There wasn't a cloud in the sky this day my freinds.

There is a fleet of cruise ships that are based in the township of Milford Sound, and they do tours of the sound daily. We jumped on this massive ship and took a 3 hour cruise out the ocean and back.

The sound itself is the deepest sound out of the 13 that cut through the south west coast of the South Island. You can only reach two of the sounds by car, Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound. The other 11 you have to reach via water craft entering each one from the ocean. This bloke below decided to visit all of them paddling his kayak.

It is difficult to get a sense of scale when you are out on the sound. To either side are shear cliffs which seem pretty high, but then the tour guide gives you some facts about the actual high stating that they are "twice as tall as the Empire State building". It is hard to believe, but true!

It seems impossible to relate, so I snapped this picture above of a boat right up close to on of the cliffs.... The boat is the tiny speck at the base of the mountain. Crazy eh?

Like I said, we had an absolutely beautiful day for the cruise, and the sound was calm and still.

The waterfalls were especially wonderful. They three times the height of Niagara Falls, and drop strait into the sound. Ordinarily, there would be literally hundreds of small waterfalls cascading from the mountain peaks due to rainfalls in the area, however, there had not been a good rainfall the days prior to our arrival.

The cruise was spectacular! It will be one of the most memorable parts of our stay in New Zealand.

The South Island, First Stop Queesnstown, Home of The Bungy.......

High expectations are hard to fulfill, and even harder to surpass, yet Denise and I started our South Island trip with the highest expectations, hoping to have good weather, good experiences, and a lot of fun. Every Kiwi we talked to told us that the South Island was the 'real' New Zealand, but we had to see for ourselves.

As it turned out, the South Island of New Zealand not only surpassed our expectations, it bestowed upon us a new perspective of natural beauty and a thirst for adventure. This part of the world is sincerely amazing!

We started our trip in Queenstown, a touristy town in the far south of the South Island. Queenstown resides on the shores of Lake Wakatipu, a thin but deep lake carved out by glaciers thousands of years ago. The view below is of Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu from atop a near by peak. We took a gondola ride to get up to the peak.

That day we spend in downtown Queenstown, popping in and out of the boutique shops and touristy places. And yes, we had a few brews at the local brewpub. At the end of the day, we set up camp with our sweet ass camper van a few minutes north of Queenstown.

The next day was an eventful one. We came into Queenstown knowing that it was home of the first bungy jump ever, and also home to the highest bungy jump in the world. I suppose the old saying 'when in Rome' came to mind when we considered putting our trust in rubber bands. But, we don't like to do things half way, so it was time to see if we had the stones to take the plunge. It seemed pretty simple..... just jump right?

It became a bit more complicated once the butterflies took effect. I chose the Nevis Bungi jump, the highest in the world at 440 feet. Now in order to get this high up, the AJ Hackett Bungy Company decided to suspend this little aluminum pod thingy between two mountains over a river to jump out of. Check it out to the right of me.

Both Denise and I went out to the little platform via a little gondola, but it would only be me who was to jump. Once in the little jump pod, there was no turning back. I guess I have to jump......

"3".......don't look down....."2"......don't forget to breath......."1".......oh shit......."BUNGY".......scream like a little girl....... Down I went 440 feat with about 6 seconds of free fall. Awesome.....!
That was one of the coolest things I have ever done. I didn't think I was an adrenalin junky, but that was something I would definitely do again.

Now it was Denise's turn. She decided to go for the classic jump off the Kawarau Bridge, the site of the first ever bungy jump. Don't let the picture fool you, Denise was eager to get close to the edge.........hmmmm......well, maybe she needed a little help to the edge.

Yet fear would not get the best of Denise today my friends, and she took the plunge 134 feet to the river below.
Two bounces later, we were able to declare ourselves fearless bungy jumpers. All in a days work I say, lets celebrate with a beer! Mind you, that was only the second day of our trip.......

The Pinnacles

Some friends of ours invited Denise and I to do an overnight hiking journey to the pinnacles in the Coromandel Peninsula, about 2 hours east of Auckland.

Thom and Lorain, at the top of the stairs convinced us to go on the hike, but the sell was not a particularly hard one. All four read about the amazing trail, and of us were eager to get started on the trip. The hike to the summit was a full days hike, about 5 hours in all. This particular area of the Coromandel was home to a thick forest of Kauri trees. After a extensive logging campaign in the early 19th century, the Kauri are now hard to find, and remains of the logging business remains in the form of dead Kauri stumps and abandoned logs.

The trail itself was the original mule trail used by the loggers to bring supplies in and out of the forest. The trail was well groomed and in most places rock was laid down to create a steady surface to tramp upon.

Above is the view of the summit from beneath.

The New Zealand Department of Conservation has a knack for making you comfortable out in the wilderness. The trail to the summit was made relatively easy with steps constructed for a sure footing.

Closer to the summit, the trial became more difficult, but was made easy with a series of bars and ladders scale.

The views from the top were awesome.

We had a 360 view over the Coromandel Peninsula, and the weather was absolutely perfect.

Denise and I both stood at the peak and safely clung to the edge of the Pinnacle.

The next morning, i decided to wake up early, and climb up to the summit and observe the sunrise from the higher vantage point. Although it was a bit cold, the view was spectacular.

The sun was fiery that morning my friends

This hike was one of my favorites here in New Zealand, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. It took some effort to hike out of the wilderness, but at least it was down hill this time. I snapped this photo of on the way out.

Cool eh?