New Zealand: the South Island (In Two or Three Parts, Part 1)

Ok. I’m here less than hour in Queenstown, NZ and already I’m in love. With Queenstown. Such a vibe: laid back, earthy, with glitzy houses hanging off the mountainsides that encapsulate the city. Fancy hike, bike, and ski shoppes line the streets with pubs and bakeries in abundance. Young and old fill the streets, shopping North Face, Patagonia, Lululemon. And a lake that provides perspective as it disappears between the mountains. To top it off, there’s some kind of bagpiper/drum competition going on in town. Bagpipers galore, old and young, with variably colored tartan kilts, play and march. I LOVE bagpipes, weird, I know. It was a perfect introduction to NZ’s South Island.

*Several bagpipe/drum companies entertained us on the pier. I’m 100% Polish but bagpipes call to me. Accordions, not so much. Unless it’s a polka.*

Two flights from KeriKeri through Auckland brought us to Queenstown in the southern part of NZ’s South Island. We flew over the green hills of the North Island with farms stretching for miles to the mountains and ridges of the South Island. Outside my window it seemed that the airplane’s wing skimmed the mountainside as we approached Queenstown’s airport. A short cab ride later we were at our hotel, the Sofitel, and headed out to walk the town with everyone else who was visiting. What a lively place! So many eateries, bistros, breweries; a foodie nirvana.

*We rounded the mountain on our approach to Q’town airport. Below, the few farm fields I saw were circular, literally “crop circles”.*

I had fish and chips at Speight’s pub then we strolled through town. Our first full day we decided to hike up to the Gondola Station as a prelude to our next two weeks here. We started right after breakfast on this 4 mi RT, 1435 ft elev, 2.5 h hike. The views of Q’town and Lake Wakatipu surrounded by the Remarkables mountain range were stunning. I was pleased to have made it; I’m not much for elevation anymore, going up or down. And the gondola was there as a backup plan, just in case. We freshened up at the hotel and then strolled through the Q’town Gardens. The views and the trees were stunning. A light beverage at the Bathhouse on the lake, with a Pimm’s and strawberries and cream, completed this British experience. We dined at the Grille that night and enjoyed the music of a pianist street musician nearby.

*View of Coronet Peak* *over Wakatipu Lake.*

*Another Sequoia in the Q’town park. Wellington Sequoia.*

*The Bathhouse. Built for King George’s coronation.*

We signed up for a hiking tour of the South Island months ago when we first decided to head this way. Two weeks of hiking, circling the South Island, hiking and otherwise seeing the fjords, lakes, and mountains with a tour company that will transport us to our hotels, guide the hikes, and feed us. Glam hiking! We finally begin!

We met our guides Ryan and Cameron at the nearby Ramada Inn, trying to figure out why nothing fits in our suitcase anymore after taking out and wearing the hiking boots. I even sent a box of clothes home when we left Hawaii. I spent weeks packing, putting things in and taking some out and still I brought too much. But squeezing 6 weeks of clothes for various locations and events into a medium suitcase and a backpack was challenging. All jammed in, we moved on.

Day 1: Our group of 14 plus 2 guides drove about 2 hours south of Queenstown in our van to Te Anau and the Kepler track in the Southern Alps. Flat grazing fields for sheep, cattle, and red deer stretched for miles. Red deer were brought here for hunting in the 1800s. When they became severely overpopulated due to abundant food and lack of predators in the wild, government subsidized bounties and intensive hunting efforts began. In later years (1960s) hunters would jump from helicopters to wrestle deer to the ground to capture them for farm-raised venison. The better heli pilots had a great business, the lesser ones, well, nobody knows. Back to hiking: we parked the van and hiked on the Kepler track into the hut on Lake Motarau, a 7 mile roundtrip on beautiful trails amongst moss-laden beech trees, Lance wood, and giant ferns. It was a magical scene. Later we dined at the Fiordland theatre restaurant in touristy Te Anau. The Fiordland cinema was built to show the film of helicopter footage shot in the area when no one else would show it. The documentary featured stunning scenes of the fjords and mountains in the area. Dinner was delicious: steak and lamb- I’m in cholesterol heaven! We stayed at Radford’s on the Lake, a new little hotel with efficiencies right on Lake Pukaki.

*With a few red deer venison farms in between.*

*Feeling good at the start of our Kepler Track hike.*

*Giant ferns. The scenery is Jurassic park-like.*

Day 2: Despite a rainy forecast the day turned out beautifully. Morning fog settled on the lakes in the Mystic Mountains as we approached Milford Sound. Scenes from Lord of the Rings were filmed in this area and Isildur was located nearby. We looked for elves and hobbits along the road. The sheer walls of the schist mountains began to enclose the roads as we approached the one-way tunnel. This section of road is avalanche country, the highest maintenance costing road in the country. Exiting the tunnel the valley opened up and we arrived at our destination at the entrance to the famous Milford Sound. First, a hike along the Arthur River in the temperate rainforest. We disembarked our ferry shuttle at Sandflea Harbor, an eponymous name as sandfleas greeted any non-moving human. Also ‘harbor’ is a very generous term; it’s more just a landing spot. The track here was more rocky and possibly ankle busting. I opted to walk partway to Lake Ada and meandered back enjoying the scenery, mossy trees, waterfalls, ferns, and large leafed philodendrons along the way. The guides offered tea and we enjoyed our lunches while the faster, more intrepid hikers made it to the waterfall and back for the full 7 miles (Greg). The entire through-track is 33 miles long but we enjoyed the little bit we saw. By this time our little group was enjoying jokes, stories, and getting to know each other. We then took a tourist cruise of Milford Sound out to the Tasman Sea. Our boat skimmed along the sheer cliffs of schist in and around the fjords with cascading waterfalls all around. The water depth reaches 1000 ft beneath. The Sound was formed by ancient glacial retreat from the Tasman Sea inland. The remaining Harrison’s Cove Glacier is expected to disappear within 25 years. This day remained sunny with clouds and the experience was memorable.

*Scenes along the Arthur River at Milford Sound.*

*The Milford Sound, carved by glaciers with waters exiting to the west into the Tasman Sea.*

*Our captain gave excellent commentary with especially delicious comments when referring to Australians.*

Day 3: We enjoyed a later start this morning since the majority of the day would be spent driving. We departed Te Anou and retraced the drive to Q’town heading further northeast towards Arrowtown. There is a huge conservation effort to rid New Zealand of invasive non-native species, both fauna (stoats, rats, possum, rabbit so, red deer, wallabies) and flora (Douglas fir, sycamore, willow, horse, Scorchbrim). The NZ Trails organization participates in repopulating native species. We spent a wee part of the morning planting a few useful undercover plants then walked into Arrowtown via one of the extensive biking trails. Everyone here is going something active and outdoorsy. Greg and I enjoyed lunch (beer and pizza) before strolling through boutiqey Arrowtown, a former gold mining town. We then continued driving through the now dry, scrub-covered mountains in the Nevis range along the Kuora river (known for class 4-5 rapids) on the way to Cromwell, known for its orchards and wineries, and then to our day’s destination, Mt. Cook. The tallest mountain in NZ, Mt Cook stands at 3720m. The first ascent was made in 1894 and Sir Edmund Hilary trained for Everest here. We dined at our hotel, the Hermitage, with Mt Cook looming over us and the glacier-created valley laid out in front of us. We were lucky to take it in on a cloudless day.

*Our small part in conservation, planting native species.*

*We approach* *Mt Cook, over my right shoulder. Tasman Lake behind* *us.*

*View from our hotel of Mt Cook* *aka Aoraki James Cook, the English adventurer and sailor, is widely remembered here.*

Day 4: We got an early start the next cloudless morning on the Hooker Valley Trail which trailhead started quite near our hotel. This meandering trail took us along the glacially fed river to Hooker Glacier Lake with Mt. Cook just ahead. The sun rose over the mountain ridges and changed the dark blue lake to the cloudy teal of a typical glacial lake. We hiked back for lunch. Afterwards, Greg hiked the Red Tarns trail up the side of a nearby ridge while I hiked the “flatter” Kea Point Trail to a glacier field viewpoint, accompanying new friends Erika and Drew. We listened for cracking and avalanches in the distant blue glacial ice. Our hotel had excellent buffets but also a small museum dedicated to Sir Hillary, a NZ native. We watched an autobiographical movie in the small but nice theater and also a planetarium show after dinner. This area is a UNESCO dark sky location where the Milky Way is quite evident. The planetarium show was ‘moderate’ tech but the narration was informative. Reminder: we really are insignificant in the grand scheme; billions of galaxies! Exhausted after 10 miles of hiking, sleep was quite welcome.

*3 swing bridges and a gravel path along the river.*

*The weather was amazing, although on the cool side* *until the sun warmed up. I bravely (stupidly) wore shorts. Hike on!*

*Hooker Glacier Lake. Mt Cook in the distance.*

*The water’s color changed with direct sun.*

*Day 4 hike 2. I opted to not hike the 1,000 stairs to Red Tarns with Greg but hiked Kea Point instead.*

*Ice fields melting in the distance feed the river we hiked along*. *View from Kea point. A Kea is a native bird.*

Day 5: Lake Tekapo was about an hour drive from our Mt Cook hotel. We stopped and hiked up and around the peak of Mt John to stretch our legs, then continued onto probably my favorite place, the town of GERALDINE!!! Greg and I scurried through this cute retirement village looking for my namesake businesses before lunching at trendy, healthy Barkley’s. I wish we could have more eateries like this back home! We continued on to Christchurch on the East Coast in the Canterbury Plains, now out of the Southern Alps. Sheep and cattle farms and other rural activities lined the back roads into Christchurch. Christchurch itself is a nice little city with lots of shopping and restaurants. There was a lot of new construction, although some was likely reconstruction due to the catastrophic earthquake in 2011. The Anglican cathedral was among the casualties. A very young population was evident as we walked around the city and then dined at the Church, a brewery in a former church. *Edited to add: our van trailer was broken into overnight but luckily it was empty or they didn’t want what was in there. It’s a typical city in the end.