Friday 16th January
We packed our tent together and was hoping to
find a hostel bed for the following few days, as the weather forecast predicted
a good amount of rain. Surprisingly the rain hadn’t arrived yet, all though it
could come quickly with that strong wind speed at the beginning of the day.
Our
plans about a night in a hostel got ruined as they were all fully booked, it
was impossible to get a room for the night. Year around the town is busy, so we
had no luck in finding a room with such short notice, or at least not for our
budget. We hoped for the best as we planned to take another night in our tent.
Queenstown is the adventure capital of the world and the country biggest
tourist draw. It’s considered one of the top scenic adventure venues in the world.
It simply (almost) have everything to offer, there’s over 150 activities to do.
Everything from a calm steamboat cruise, kayaking and golfing to the
heart-stopping bungy jumps, skydiving, river rafting, the worlds highest canyon
swing, bodyboard river rafting, mountain biking (in summer), snowboarding (in
winter), you name it, they have it. It’s just a matter of money and how much
your wallet will co-operate. With all these crazy activities there is some kind
of magic attached to the town - that’s what we thought anyway.
First things
first, we wanted to see the town and book our bungy jump for the next day,
maybe do a walk or two in the area to get some nice views over the scenic
landscape. We visited the Bungy Shop, and after watching a few videos from all
the different jumps and swings, I thought to myself that it was gonna be easy
and it was nothing compared to jumping out of a plane in 4,5km altitude. The
bungy is NZ’s highest drop and the 8,5 seconds free fall apparently gives you a
ground rush like no other (up to 150 km/h).
Before we got to NZ we didn’t plan
to do a bungy jump, as we’re both terrified of heights, and it’s never been on
our bucket list... Until about 2 weeks ago, when we spend time with Lisa, Sam
and all their friends. Then I realized that we had to do it, you just can’t
visit NZ or Queenstown in particular, and not do a bungy jump. If we didn’t do
it in Queenstown, it would be like going to Paris and not see the Eiffel Tower,
or visit Egypt and not see the pyramids or going out in Hamburg and not
experience Reeperbahn. It’s just something that you have to do.
As much as I
thought I had prepared myself, it still came as a shock to me, when Erik said
that we should do it straight away and just get it over with. I knew what he
was on about, cause the weather was clear, and if we were unlucky again we
could be forced to wait for the weather to clear up, again. So Erik made the
right decision with booking it straight away.
The trip to the canyon took about
40 min., those minutes went by to fast. When we arrived at the shop we were
provided with harnesses and off we went in a breath-taking cable car to the
small platform,/house permanently hanging in steel wires above Nevis canyon. I
started to get really nervous and I couldn’t help it, but I was feeling awful.
There was only three of us so it all went really quickly, Erik was nervous as
well, but after his skydive he was much more confident than he thought he would
be, and he was really nervous back in Cairns when we watched people jump from
40 m. He was afraid now, but did it anyway. After jumping he came back with the
biggest smile on his face, and told me how fun it was. It made me less nervous,
but I was still shitting myself of nervousness. I have never been so nervous in
my entire life, and yet I have never pushed my own limits this much before. The
scary part is that you take the jump by yourselves, there’s no one there to
take the step for you, and seeing the ground underneath you makes it so
challenging to lean over the edge. I faced my biggest fear of all and convinced
myself to do it, only to be able to say I DID IT. It was mind-blowing and
scary. We had 8,5 seconds free fall and a serious ground rush.
We both pushed
our boundaries to a hole new leve this dayl, a level that I thought was impossible, but Hey life begins at the end of your comfort zone right..;) For the record it's a
thousand times more terrifying than skydiving. We were deadly proud of
ourselves afterwards, and we would love to face our fear like that again.
Back
in the shop in town we had to buy a shirt from the company to tell the world
that we did it. It was awesome. We have to admit that we are slowly getting rid
of our fear of heights, it’s still there though, but we know how to deal with
it and face it now. We feel addicted to the adrenalin, and nothing beat the
feeling of that pumping around our veins. That’s just fantastic!
We spend the
rest of the day in town, hanging out and looking for ponchos. We found one of
the few hostels we hadn’t asked for availability and we were lucky to get two
dorm beds there for the next day. Late at night we drove back to the Twelve
Mile Delta Camp, located by the lake in unique surroundings, and after
consuming half a chicken each we went to bed.
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| It's amazing how much stuff you can put into a single trunk. It's a mixture of a wardrope, laundry room and a kitchen. |
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| One of the nice views in the city |
The Bungy Jump's
Saturday 17th January
In the little township called Arrowtown, often
overshadowed by bustling Queenstown, I found the exact right poncho that I was
looking for. To my luck this shop, was the cheapest we had visited so far. I
got it for $153 (703kr), and saved over $40 (184kr), compared to the prices in
the other shops. I send it home straight away, as I’m not interested in
carrying it around, especially not in Asia, where I would have absolutely no
need to use it anyway.
In Arrowtown it’s possible to hire equipment for gold
panning in the river, and you only pay for the hire, the gold is free if you’re
lucky to find some. We watched a lesson about how to do it right, and
considered doing it. But then Erik came to the conclusion that my patience
isn’t built for that kind of activities.
On our way back to Queenstown we
deviated from the highway and ascended up the mountain to Coronet Peak, the ski
area closest to Queenstown. We were rewarded with spectacular views and a
scenic drive. We checked in at X-Base hostel, in the centre of the town and
went for a challenging run on the steep hills. To me Queenstown is magic for
several reasons, one of them is, that wherever you go there’s always a world
class view to get lost in and astonished by. We were lucky to avoid the rain
while running, as it poured down the rest of the day.
We were meant to do quite
a lot of our blog, but then we started chatting with our room mates, and we
didn’t get as productive as we had hoped to. No worries though, instead we
shared stories and experienced with our fellow travellers. That’s more fun than
blogging anyway.
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| Charming Arrowtown |
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| View from Coronet Peak |
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More of Queenstown Some people are making some money around here
Sunday 18th January
It was sad to leave Queenstown, it’s
undoubtedly our favorite place in NZ so far, and it’s understandable why its
such a big tourist destination. In Te Anau 180 km. further south and west we
had booked a hostel for the following two days, as the weather didn’t allow us
to sleep in our one layer tent.
We stopped at the town’s I-site, to figure out
the best way to see Milford Sound. After having a look on the prices and seeing
pictures from the Sounds, we agreed that it wasn’t worth a day cruise for us.
Instead we planned to do some tramping, where one of the longer tramping tours
would reward us with stunning views over the Sounds, for free!
When we went
back to the car, Erik realized that he had forgotten to switch the lights off,
so there was no power on the car. The hostel was only a short walk from the
I-site, so we asked for help there. The lady in the reception was the most
unhelpful person we have ever met, so we ventured back to the car, of cause the
heaviest rain was pouring down at this time. Erik borrowed a set of jump
starter cables at a petrol station, and I eventually managed to stop a car and
get a guy to help us. Unfortunately the cables didn’t work properly, so the
generous Scottish tourist offered to drive us to the other petrol stations to
borrow cables - but sadly they didn’t have any.
The sun had worked its way
through the thick layer of clouds, so we thanked the Scottish gentleman for his
time, and walked back to the first petrol station. Erik knew they had a jump
starter battery, but the weren’t allowed to lend it out, when the mechanic was
off. We were almost down on our knees begging for help, when the lady
surrendered and let us borrow the starter battery. Most of the afternoon had passed
by, but luckily we didn’t have any plans, so I didn’t really matter that much.
We got a luxury dormitory with bathroom, which we shared with two chatty
American girls. The beds were the most comfortable we have tried in a very,
very, very long time. At dinner time we chatted with an Austrian guy (Michael),
who aimed to walk the Kepler Track (62km and usually done in 3-4 days). But the
crazy Austrian hoped to do it in one day. We told him we would wait for him to
come back, and if he didn’t return the next day, we would start looking for
him. Erik arranged to pick him up at a carpark outside of town, if he was too
tired to walk the last 9km, also importent to say, the next day was predicted
to be nothing but heavy rain...
Monday 19th January
Cloudy, windy and rainy weather welcomed us to
a new day in the south. If it hadn’t been for the lake and mountain views, we
would have thought we were home again.
Our American roomies (Maggie &
Megan) and their friend (Rob) felt restless, so they planned to go for a run,
just to get some fresh air. When the sun came through the clouds we decided to
join them for a community run along the lake. It turned out really successful
for all of us and we were filled with energy afterwards. At night we made
lasagne together, or actually I was the only one cooking, the rest cleaned up
after me. Just as I prefer it!
We were pleased to see Michael arriving alive
and sound around 8 pm. It had been a tough day for him in both heavy rain and 3
hours of snow on top of the mountain. We actually planned to do some blog most
of this day, but we barely got anything done, it annoyed us a little to be
behind again, but on the other hand we met some really cool people that made a
grey and sad day, memorable for us. Erik went for a small walk with Michael in
the evening, they really got along well.
Rob, Megan, Maggie and Erik
Tuesday 20th January
Around noon we went for a journey into the
heart of Fiordland National Park, a journey that ends in the world famous fiord
of Milford Sound. There was a few interesting things to see, as for example
some “mirror” lakes, a place called The Chasm; which gave us dramatic views
over powerful waterfalls, a beautiful walk called the Key Summit that rewarded
us with spectacular views over the National Park and of cause Milford Sound. We
visited a few less interesting places as well.
The thing about having a car and
getting around so easy, is that you feel guilty if you don’t see it all, but
really it’s not all the sights that are worth seeing. The road to Milford sound
is long, steep and winding, and if you’re not going on a boat tour, you don’t
really see much of it anyway. We had decided to skip the boat tour and save the
money, for other activities, also the Austrian guy Michael told us that the
fiords in Norway is, if not as, then more beautiful than these.
In the afternoon we drove
to Gunns Camp, which is located in the park and the closest camp ground to the
next day’s adventure, the multi award winning tramp, called Gertrude Saddle.
  
Mirror lakes
  
View at the Key Summit
I had pulled on my very fashionable out-fit for the special walk
 
Milford Sounds and a very little fascinated Mrs. Kraft
Native kea bird
The Chasm
 
Lake Gunn
Wednesday 21st January
It had been a long and cold night by Lake
Gunn, so we were happy to get up and get out of there.
Gertrude Saddle is the
toughest one day tramp in the area, and requires high-level tramping skills,
head for heights (must say that we have that now) and good navigation skills. I
showed my bad navigation skills already from the starting point where we
climbed around on big rocks, before realizing that I had started at the wrong
point, so after this Erik took the lead. We followed orange signs (not always
easy to see), and rock towers that other people had built to help us navigate.
After almost two hours of climbing up steep hills and waterfalls, we reached a
beautiful “black” lake - we enjoyed our wraps there before venturing further up
to Gertrude Saddle. Our effort was rewarded with breath-taking views through
the Milford Sound.
We met three germans on the top and chatted with them for
over an hour, before we all walked down together. Here our navigation skills
was put on a test again, and a few times we had to do some challenging and
dangerous steps to be able to continue, but we made it back safe and sound.
Most of the day had passed by at this time, and we decided to drive back south
to Te Anau and stay for a night there in a hostel. Erik was the brilliant chef
for the night and made karbonader, with potatoes, pickles and gravy - not the
worst food after a long day of tramping in the sun.
Almost got wet here
  
The sounds
 
Exploring The Milford Sound Region
Thursday 22nd January
After borrowing plums for an unlimited time
from the holiday parks tree, we started our journey to the southern scenic
route and to the southernmost city, Invercargill. In the city we visited the
I-site, and they helped us book a hostel (Tuatapere backpackers) for the night.
We had a stroll around the inner city and spend some time looking for new
jogging clothes for Erik. Actually we didn’t have any plans except blogging and
getting a proper wifi connection, so we could upload our blog.
Free plums
Us? No we are not curious, we are just looking and wondering how you can walk on only two legs..
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Fantastic Nature!
