The Frenchman has landed

Whomever was paying attention to our adventures in New Zealand may be a bit disappointed in the fact that I have not posted anything in about 6 months, and I can only say I am embarrassed. My sincerest apologies. I guess I have been distracted by just about everything, or just completely lazy.

Anyway, I guess I have been taking things for granted over the past few months, not believing that anything could top our year in New Zealand, but as I look at where we are and where we are headed, I am encouraged to realize that we have many more things to see and experience.

So here is kicking off a bit of dust on the blog. Here's the new chapters...perhaps all out of order...

Laurent, our crazy French friend that we met in NZ came to visit us in Richmond Va. We decided to be tourist n our own town, and also find out how much colder the mountains are than in the tidewater area around Richmond in December.

We decided to go for a hike in the Blue Ridge Mountains a short drive from Richmond. Although it was a beautiful sunny day with hardly a cloud in the sky, the temperature topped out at around 37 degrees F in the sun, and much mush colder in the shade and wind. We made a bold move to take a short hike to Turk Gap along the AT.

Despite the frigid temperatures, the hike was great, and gave all of us a hanker'n for more strolls thought the mountains. The summit was breathtaking

Here is a picture of all three of us. It took a bit of magic to secure a place for the camera without it being blown over by the wind. Not the greatest picture, but a great memory...

We sad on the sunny side of the mountain, had some lunch, and stared onto the valley. It was great.

Besides that, we took Laurent to the historic Byrd theater to see the classic organ player rise from beneath the floor, and saw the feature film that followed the concert. "Burn After Reading" happened to be on at the time, and it was hysterical. We also ate some great food at the local Richmond restaurants, and caught up on stories over a few beers. Can't wait to do it again.

Anyway, start looking for new posts again. Who knows what sort of adventure is next....

Moeraki Bolders and Wanaka

Early in the morning, around 10:00AM, we woke up with cricks in our necks scrounging around to find a source of caffeinated beverage. Coffee.....? Caffeine, done! Now on to the Moeraki boulders! The town of Moeraki is famous for these giant granite boulders that are firmly set in a small stretch of sand along the coast line.

These boulders are mammoths, and almost perfectly spherical in shape. I could actually fit inside this one. The interesting phenomenon is that they are only found on a short stretch of the beach, and that over time, the seas have polished them into their current shape. I reckon that the seas must have been a bit angrier several thousands of years ago to move these behemoths.

From Moeraki, we traveled up to Omaru, a historically preserved town with heaps of charm. We stumbled upon a whiskey maker in town and went on a tour through the barrel house. That was sort of the highlight of the visit to Omaru, but there were a lot of antique shops and boutique art galleries to keep us busy for a while.
It was now time to fast track across Central Otago to the west coast of the South Island heading toward the mountains again. We stayed that night in Wanaka, a popular water skiing and snow skiing area just before you enter into glacier land.
The lake and waterfront area were great, and the town was charming. The weather was nice enough that we decided to stay another day and go on a hike up to Roy's peak to get a panoramic view of the Lake Wanaka and mountains that surround it.

Again we woke up early, sometime after 10:00Am, and started our trek. No, that is not the peak that I have so proudly conquered in the picture above......that was just the beginning...

The hike up to Roy's peak was spectacular,.... spectacularly excruciating on the legs. There were no flat portions to this hike, in fact, there were no soft grades to the trail at all, it was flat out hands on knees hiking the whole 2.5 hours to the summit. But you can't beat the views can you?
We packed a lunch that we quickly scarfed down as soon as we arrived at the summit. Denise was getting our bearings and pointing out what everything was around us. That is Wanaka township behind her.
Directly opposite of Wanaka on the other side of Roy's peak was the great beyond, snow capped mountains and blue sky.What's that saying, 'with great effort comes great reward?' This hike tested out that theory, and proved that our struggle to get to the top of the mountain was well worth the spectacular views. The trip down however seemed to be just as hard on the legs, and the only reward at the bottom of the mountain was to climb into our stinky camper van...........

Catlands and Dunedin

The Catlands is a natural reserve in the South Island along the southern coast. The reserve is littered with beautiful waterfalls and natural streams. Mclean Falls below was one of the larger falls nestled deep in the forest. We took a short 30 minute hike to visit this one.
Denise and I spent some time here, exploring a bit and hiking around the falls.
It was a fairly rugged area as you can see. Denise was brave to be standing at the edge!
The next set of falls we visited was one of the most photographed in New Zealand, Purakaunui Falls. We have seen it in a bunch of photo books about New Zealand and we were happy to get our own original Purakaunui Falls picture.

By the time we arrived at Purakaunui Falls dusk was setting in, so we decided to find a place to camp for the night. Up to this point, the campsites we chose were absolutely fantastic, unique ,and picturesque. This evening was no exception. New Zealand does not disappoint in the category of beautiful and picturesque, and our campsite that night was one of my favorites. We drove our little camper van up the hill to the area overlooking the beach. I suppose getting up the hill was an adventure on its own. By the time Denise could get out the words "do you think we can make it up the hill", I was full throttle, white knuckled, and hoping like hell the van would not get stuck in the mud. PS, don't tell the camper van rental company, it might void our rental agreement.......

Anyway, the gamble to brave the muddy road up the hill payed off in full! We watched the Moon rise over the limestone cliffs that night. It was awesome!

The next morning was equally spectacular with the sun cresting over the horizon. That morning we headed up the east coast to Nugget Point. Nugget Point is home to a light house and a series of enormous boulders bulging out of the ocean. The boulders provide a comfortable home for heaps of seals as well.

Onward we went up the coast to Dunedin, a good sized city originally settled by Scottish settlers.
We walked around town for the day, popping in and out of coffee shops and cafes.

Dunedin, as I said before, was founded by Scotsmen. Early on in the cities development, the planners decided to emulate the Scottish city of Edinburgh, right down to the layout of roads and the names that were given to those roads. As a result of grafting Edinburgh's road map onto the rugged landscape of the South Island of New Zealand, Dunedin is home to the steepest road in the world.

Trust me, it was steep..!

Dunedin is also home to the Speights brewery, who's motto is "Pride of the South." We stopped by the brewery to take a tour, and were amused by the signage....
The tour was really good. The picture below is of the original brewery equiptment with the copper kettles and mash tuns used back in the day. Speights still uses the original equipment to make special batches of beer every now and again.

We had another day of beautiful weather, and we decided to head out to the peninsular just outside the Dunedin city limits. We stopped at Larnoch Castle, the only castle in New Zealand, paying way too much money for the tour of the castle interior. But we were allowed to climb up to the castle tower and snap a few photos. The view was breathtaking.
I think at that point we had exhausted all we wanted to do and see in Dunedin, and started to head out of the city, further up the east coast. By the time the sun started to set, we were getting a bit nervous about a place to settle for the night. Luckily in New Zealand, they have what is called 'freedom camping', in which you can pick a spot along side the road and stay for the night without charge or harrassment. Our freedom camp was right on the beach..... Below is a picture of the moon popping over the horizon. I love this place......!

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.