A Halfway Update

So it's September 8th right now and I'm about one day away from being halfway through my New Zealand adventures. It's truly crazy how fast time flies when you are having too much fun.

The past week was my mid-semester break so three friends and I rented what's called a Wicked Van, and drove it around the south island seeing sights and experiencing the true beauty of New Zealand.

First, here is the van, a three person camper equipped with a bed that transforms into a table, a pump sink, shelves for food and storage units for our bags. We traveled with four people so one person would sleep in the driver/passenger seat. Obviously Chuck (on the right) is super excited for his night in the front seat.

We started out our trip heading south into the Catlins and towards the furthest southern point in New Zealand. Along the way we stopped wherever the wind took us, leading to some incredible waterfalls and jurassic feeling forests.

These are most definitely the largest ferns I have ever laid my eyes upon. I felt like any second a T-rex or a pack of Velociraptors were going to storm out and demolish us. Most of the places we visited were national land and therefore much of it was well preserved and untouched. The beauty of the forests is only the beginning of it too.

Another sweet waterfall:

After making it to Slope Point (the furthest southern point of NZ) we slept in the farthest southern settlement, a town named Bluff. It was the first night we were sleeping in the camper so we were nervous about finding a nice spot to sleep, hopefully in a place where we wouldn't be woken up by anyone and especially by a police officer. After driving around a bit we parked on a road leading up to a lookout point that overlooked Bluff.

The next morning my friend Clark, who kindly offered to take the uncomfortable front seat, woke up right before sunrise and drove us up to the look out point. The sun was just on the verge of hitting the horizon when we got to the parking lot, with the town of Bluff set below us to the the left it was a breathtaking sunrise to say the least. Waking up to this beautiful sight only meant good omens for the rest of our trip.

After waking up to an ocean sunrise we pursued up the southern coast towards the Fiordlands and stopped only for great photo opportunities. Which in New Zealand terms, means every thirty minutes.

First view of the Fiordlands:

My rock stacking at it's finest:

Jump to the next day and we're on our way to Millford Sound. To reach Millford Sound you have to drive two hours down a road snaking it's way between massive mountains that shoot out of the ground. The drive alone was incredible because we went from climbing up into a snowy valley to a tunnel that went through the base of a mountain at an incredibly steep slope and then exited into a rainforest of vegetation.

Tommy and the boot of our car:

Although it was a partially cloudy day (pretty much every day in NZ) the cruise we took around Millford Sound was absolutely breathtaking. We were lucky enough to be traveling in off season so there was no need for planning ahead, we practically had the boat to ourselves.

Yes, these mountains are going straight into the ocean and the trees that grow on the side creates a literal blanket for other vegetation to prosper. There is so much rainfall here that the top two or three meters of water in the sound is actually freshwater and you can drink it!

Dolphins are some of the most incredible animals on this planet. Everything them about them is amazing. There was a pack of five or six dolphins that were swimming in front of the cruise boats using the wave off the bow of the boat to surf. The way the played with each other and interacted seemed as if they were all connected mentally and could read each others thoughts. Seeing these dolphins play together made me appreciate every single aspect of my life that has allowed me to end up in such an amazingly incredible land.

This one's for you mojo:

Sweet as ('sweet as' is a NZ term for cool, or sick, or just sweet) long exposure of Clark inside the van twiddling an incense stick:

After the sound cruise we found a 3 hour return hike to do, in the clouds.

Here's a macro shot at the top of the misty mountain. It was so socked in that the plants and vegetation were more interesting to shoot than the views.

From Millford Sound we drove to Wanaka where a couple friends were staying. Although I didn't bust my camera out for the two days we were there, we did see some incredible sights. First day in Wanaka we hiked up to the Rob Roy glacier. The path led along the side of a raging river before crossing over on a hanging bridge. We climbed steadily through thick vegetation before eventually meeting up with another river. The river water came directly from the glaciers so it was crystal blue, with an almost electric feel to it. After hiking up the valley we reached an opening surrounded by massive snow covered peaks and in front of us was the Rob Roy glacier, hanging over the valley like the snow that builds up on rooftops. Clouds slowly rolled off the top of the mountains causing the glacier to disappear and reappear at times. The trail ended but we continued along the river until we reached an impassable point, where waterfalls came tumbling through giant cracks in the side of the mountain. The hike was simply jaw-dropping.

Next day we got up early to pick my skis up from getting mounted and headed to Cardrona, one of the closer ski resorts. Although it was super cloudy and visibility was close to nil, we still had a ton of fun riding with good friends. Later that afternoon we decided to head out towards the west coast to get a better head start.

After pulling up to an offset lake late at night we got going early the next morning so that we could get in everything we wanted to do along the west coast. The next handful of pictures are all from our big day on the west coast. I'll let the photos speak for themselves:

A collection of rocks and sticks where individuals and groups leave their mark for other travelers to see.

Our rock placed in a nest like tree stump:

View of Mount Cook (highest peak in NZ) from a reflective lake in the town of Fox Glacier.

Tippity top with my 2x zoom:

Beautiful fern growth:

Fox Glacier, this was as close as we could get without being part of a tour group. Unfortunately we had to make choices on what we spent our money on and glacier tours didn't quite fit into anyone's budget.

Franz Joseph:

Clark and Tommy hopped the fence to get a closer look:

And some more waterfalls, just stunning:

We finished off the day with a beautiful west coast sunset, just barely catching the tail end of it but still getting the colors.

Towards the middle of the trip we tried to extend the date for which we had the van but unfortunately we couldn't return it Sunday so we chose to return it Saturday rather than Monday (money reasons again). But it was all good because we still managed to get jade carving in. I had never really done rock carving before, so getting to spend five hours on a piece was an extremely fun experience. My friends and I arrived at Bonz n Stonz at 9 am in the town of Hokitika and worked until 2, doing pretty much all of the carving besides the original cut of our stones. First we started by looking at previous designs and learning about each different kind of carving we could do. Each symbol had it's own meaning and powers, and surprisingly each of us ended up creating a unique piece. Then we drew the design and picked out the jade that we wanted to use. From that point there is a series of carving, sanding, and polishing of the piece with the final product looking something like this:

This is Charles (aka Chuck) and his necklace, although you are not meant to wear your own piece the wife of our instructor suggested we wear the items until giving them to their intended receiver as to let our souls and energy soak into the rock.

And here is our incredibly awesome van that we drove around for a week and a half. We definitely got some laughs out of people in town. My friends are sweet as.

These are the Pancake Rocks, an awesome rock formation along the west coast of the South Island. There are so many amazing sights in New Zealand that even if I was here for an entire year I would not be able to see everything.

After driving almost all the way up the west coast we turned around due to a heavy downpour and started to head back towards Dunedin. Our plan was to camp over night before Arthur's pass and then ski at a club field the next day. Again nature was not so compliant and it rained all night where we camped and did not relinquish the entire day. So instead we drove though Arthur's pass and began our journey back to Dunedin.

Of course a sheep shot is required, seeing as we probably saw over 10,000 sheep on our week long journey. This is after Arthur's pass heading towards the east coast and back to Dunedin.

Rather than driving straight down the coast we decided to take the scenic route and visit a couple breathtaking views. This is Lake Tekapo, only a few hours north of Dunedin, and an incredibly tranquil space.

And here's a panorama I threw together quickly of Lake Pukaki, the sister lake to Tekapo and just as magnificent.

Hope you all enjoyed the post, it took two days to complete.

Cheers