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South Island April 2011 – Day 13 – More Pictures

Jun 282011

In the other post about my second day road tripping I have been complaining about a strange loss of pictures of that particular day. Well, this was all bollocks, as I figured out a couple of days later. There weren’t really lost, but rather “lost” on my USB stick, where I found them accidentally.

Guess, that best idea what to do with them is to share them with you: A few more impressions of day 13.

Sing to the Ocean: At Monkey Island I have seen this pirate sitting on a rock, playing his melody to the vast ocean

South Island April 2011 – Day 13 – Roadtrip Pt.2

Jun 222011

Golden morning hours in Milford Sound

No matter how beautiful Milford Sound is during the day, it is horribly chilly in the early morning hours after a starry, cloudless night in autumn. In fact it must have been very close to zero degrees Celsius, which I concluded from the frost that was all over my car on the out and inside and the sudden cold rush that crawled up my body as soon as I got out of my cozy sleeping bag. Time to get a warm shower and team. It must have been 6.30 when I got up trying to catch the golden morning to take some nice pictures.

And boy, I was lucky that day to have surely perfect conditions. The sky was cloudless and perfectly blue while a thick cushion of mist hovered above the fields and the lakes, that you encounter, when you drive along the Milford Valley.

Smoke on the Water: The whole lake seemed to be ethereal ... or burning...

South Island April 2011 – Day 12 – Roadtrip Pt.1

Jun 182011

Despite a fairly decent hangover, I forced myself out of the bed at 7am. The next two days are gonna be great, as I will have a wonderful road trip with great weather and even better things to see. Therefore I didn’t want to waste any second in bed. It was time to hit the road. Destination: Unknown.

Phil from Phil’s Car Rental is a really nice guy and he got me a wonderful old 330.000km Toyota with that self-painted military green coat, that you simply cannot resist. In my opinion the absolute right car for such a trip.

Pimp my ride: 330.000km, manual steering wheel based transmission but still going. Slow, old rusty... and in front of you. This car was the best ever. Seriously.

From Queenstown to Kingston

I had a rough idea, to make Te Anau my first waypoint. I guess the reason is because it is a quite well known place, lies at a supposedly wonderful lake and is the gate into my beloved Fiordland, the most magical place in New Zealand. Time to get back where I spent a whole month when I was still aboard the Rose Maree.
To get there you have to make your way over some very lonesome roads, which is more than OK, since I found two very mighty escorts in the car: Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, who were pumping the shit out of that vans Mono-Surround Sound System. Time to rock the road.

The road to adventure: This is what the South Island looks like. Forsaken roads stretching to the horizon and beyond. The are asking for being traveled.

South Island April 2011 – Day 11 – Back to Queenstown

Jun 152011

So there I was. Aware that this holiday won’t yield any more hiking for me, I sat in the living room of Hollys Backpacker in Wanaka and was trying to figure out how to cope with this unexpected twist in vacation planning.
What can I do in this situation? I have 4 days to go, till I go back to Auckland and into the real life. I am certainly not wasting a single minute!
Fortunately there is a certain protection in my head, that gives me always the only right answer there is, when you are clueless with plenty of time and possibilities at hand: ROADTRIP!!!

The decision to flee came sudden. Without much thinking I realized that I had to get out of Wanaka and into a more busy place like Queenstown, because I have to hire a car from somewhere and Wanaka didn’t really offer anything interesting. The plan was easy: Go to Queenstown, grab a car and start driving. Where to? The road will tell!

The hardest bit really was to get out of Wanaka. It was already 11am when I got a my pack ready and able to check out. The changes that someone is picking up a hitchhiker at that time are quite minute to be frank. So after one hour of failing to get a ride (the whole South Island trip was not the best when it came to hitchhiking, now that I think about it), I decided to stop trying and buying a bus ticket instead. The price was reasonable and it doesn’t take too long anyway.
Besides, I won two hours of time that I used to enjoy a last sip of the really good Wanaka Beerworks brew, that is served in some places around the town. So, while I was waiting for the bus to arrive, I enjoyed the warm autumn sun and fooling around with my camera and this odd dog, that came along, who had to face my wide angle lens.

I guess this is the real purpose for wide angle lenses: To make funny pictures of animals. I feel a little bit bad letting that poor dog look so stupid.

When the bus arrived, I remembered that another guy from the hostel, Matthias was taking that bus back to Queenstown as well. Which was good, cause it made the ride much more enjoyable, as he was a quite funny guy.

The intercity bus routes have the habit of stopping now and then for a little break. Usually they do so somewhere in the middle of nowhere, where nothing exists, apart from a small shop where you can buy all sorts of things and in this case lot’s of fresh vegetables and fruits. It was also an orchard. I took that opportunity to get some shots from the scenery, which seemed so golden under that late afternoon sun.

We mad a little break at this apple orchard. The harvesting season was already over. Thos trees won't bear any fruits anymore till next year.

Instead they will show us the perishability of life in the fairest colors

The South Island has a really big range of strange trees. They seem so fragile with their odd arrangement of leaves and branches. And yet, they withstand the sometime harsh weather down here better than anything else.

We arrived in Queenstown shortly before darkness, but I had three crucial things to do tonight: Find a car, find a place to sleep and get that amazing Steak + Beer offer at the local brewpub for 18 Dollars. Finding a rental car at 4.45pm is probably one of the hardest things to do, as your biggest enemy is not the totally ridiculous overpricing of rental cars but the time before closing. I have to find a car tonight, because I didn’t want to waste any second on the next day seeking for one. So I rushed into a few places , just to realize that no one had a proper camper van to offer, for reasonable pricing of course.

A vast variety of fruits was offered at that place where we had our break. I should have gotten some for my upcoming roadtrip, but I was already sick of carrying those stupid fruits around with me, just by looking at them.

So, I stopped searching and went for a hostel hunt instead. My first destination was the “Last Resort” of course, but I totally forgot about their two nights minimum rule, so I got rejected. Instead I went for a place called Deco Backpackers, which was really just around the corner and besides, I didn’t care too much as it was just for one night. The place seemed quite alright and I might go there again if nothing else were available, but the owner seemed somehow unfriendly, there you go. At least, Internet was for free.

Man, I need a freaking car, what shall I do?! So I started to consult the Internet where I found a really interesting web page called “Phil’s car rental” with rather interesting offers. The prices were the lowest I’ve ever seen for car hiring and the conditions more than fair. Besides, his preferred “office times” were from 5pm to 9pm. That was exactly what I was looking for. Perfect. From there on things went smooth again. I gave him a call and he was more than happy to give me a camper van for two days. Unlimited kilometers, 40 Dollars a day, bring it back with fuel in it, no other strings attached. Phil, you made my day! Tomorrow morning 8am I’ll pick it up.

Relieved by the fact, that I finally hat a little bit of luck, I went for the Steak and Beer offer at the “Monteiths” Brew Pub in Queenstown.
It was really a decent piece of meat and together with a good drop of Monteiths Black, a quite tasty experience. But I had no intentions to stay here forever. Mathias and I said that we might meet at the “Dux de Lux” Brewery Pub for a couple of sips tonight, which was luckily enough next to the Monteiths pub.

He was already awaiting me and quite happy that I finally showed up. Well, what shall I say, this was going to be a loooong night. A good one indeed. Let’s hope I won’t oversleep tomorrow morning. Cheers!

South Island April 2011 – Day 10 – Showdown in Young Valley Pt.2

Jun 132011

The morning after

There is a certain feeling towards rainy nights. While quiet nights are usually supposed to be peaceful and somewhat filled with a chilly beauty, rainy ones become gloomy and impenetrable. Yet, they confront you with the power of nature full on. No mercy for anyone who seeks a challenge with the gods of the weather, but that’s OK. That is why people go out there. Because if you can withstand those unfavorable conditions, find a shelter and some sleep eventually you might get rewarded for your endurance on the next morning, when the rain is slowly stopping in those special hours before sun rise. It is then, when one gets the impression that an soon-to-die night turns into an old man, who realizes that he spent all his life in rage and haste and what for? That is the moment when you can hear a certain silence the resonates in all the life out there, being finally relieved by the arrival of that long awaited turn.
You dare to take a short glimpse out of your wet prison, that protected you from worse just to check if the world is doing fine.
That is when you can see fine mist crawling up a lonely valley, while the now nearly cloudless sky is turning his color into some fine shade of purple in pleasant anticipation of the now rising sun, that will start very quickly to illuminate that place, you once called hostile, and turn it into something very beautiful.
Time to get up and ready for the next day.

The head of Young Valley. One should wake up in such conditions everyday.

South Island April 2011 – Day 9 – Showdown in Young Valley Pt.1

Jun 112011

On this trip to the South Island, nothing seemed more appealing to me than a solitary trip into the back country. All the way out there – all alone – into the wild. To me such a trip feels like a last resort for modern men. Don’t you sometimes feel that urge to escape this complex, hypocritical world to choose a rather basic alternative of life in form of nature. To exchange a hectic business world, social pressure and bad television program with wonderful wide landscapes ,an overwhelming amount of time to think and most importantly this certain peaceful silence of a mountain top that will can give you such a deep feeling of satisfaction as barely anything else.

So it’s not really surprising that my most wanted thing to do on this trip was to make a multi day hike all by myself. And since I spent the Mt. Aspiring trip with the wonderful Lara, the “Young Valley / Wilkins Valley Traverse” should it have been. From the beginning on, this hike was my personal highlight anyway and always planned as a biggie.

The Young Valley / Wilkins Valley Traverse – An overview

The Young Valley / Wilkins Valley Traverse is a quite interesting trail, since it offers some variations, different landscapes and obstacles.

The Young Valley / Wilkins Valley Traverse Map. That'll keep you busy for 3 to 4 days and offer some great sidetracks. Click the chart to see a bigger version.

South Island April 2011 – Day 8 – Relaxing and preparing for Young Valley

Jun 092011

Sometimes you should have a break and deal with less tiring things than hiking.
In fact, I was expecting a fairly boring day. Lara was meant to leave Wanaka today and I wanted to plunge through the pictures that I have taken throughout the last couple of days.
Oh and later on I should get some stuff for my hike into young valley.

So I started the day with sleeping in and slowing getting up and running with editing some pictures, while hanging out at the hostel.

Btw, I was staying at “Holly’s backpackers” in Wanaka. A small and very relaxed hostel with a really nice living room and nice bedrooms. With 26 NZD/Night also quite affordable in case you own a BBH card.

Because the afternoon provided some great weather I decided, to leave the hostel continuing my work at a random café and browse the Internet a little bit. It was good to catch a little bit of that traveling and backpacking feeling that comes with living in hostels.
I realized how much i missed being out there in the wild. The only purpose of working in Auckland is to get up and running again. To be able to travel again. I am sure this will be the right thing to do.

Later on I started to get prepared for young valley. Reading charts and a book about the trails in that area to help me getting around, was one thing. But I was still missing one crucial piece of gear to go out there on a multi day hike: A tent, or at least something similar to that.

For a couple of months I got more and more fascinated by the idea of light weight tramping, carrying as less as possible, so it was just a logical conclusion to me to play that field a little bit to get some experience around it.
So I decided to head into a local outdoor store to get a bivouac bag, instead of a tent, an option that has some special attraction, as it is sleeping at its lowest level. Besides, it is much cheaper than a tent and incredibly light.
I opted for a Salewa PTX Bivi Bag that only weighs around 500g.

The Salewa PTX Bivi bag: Yo dawg, we heard you like sleeping bags. So we but a sleeping bag into a waterproof sleeping bag, so you can sleep while you sleep.

Oh yeah, I am all excited to get out there and check out who that thing is working for me.
While messing around at the outdoor store, I was staring out of the window for a little moment. And lo and behold, who crossed my path again? Lara! Why the hell is she still in Wanaka?
So I waved and knocked against the window to get her attention. Wanaka is simply too small to get around unnoticed.

I can’t completely recall why she was still around, but I think it had something to do with catching a certain bus, that she didn’t manage to do. So she’ll try again tomorrow.

Since we couldn’t hit a pub yesterday, we went for that option today.
Later on went to my hostel to have dinner where we met Maria from Regensburg. We had a nice chat and fortunately she was heading up to Haast Pass tomorrow, which means she has to go through Makarora, that is where my journey into Young Valley will begin. Awesome, all the necessary planning for my hike is done. I’ve got something to sleep, enough to eat for 4 days and a ride to Makarora.
So, it was time to finally waive good bye to Lara and hit the sack. Tomorrow I have to rise early and get prepared for my final hike.

Preparation for 4 days in the backcountry

Survival package: No matter what you do, but with the right chart and enough food, you should be able to survive at ease. I opted for a quite balanced diet based on energy bars and fruits and nuts to provide enough energy throughout the day, while having a proper 2000kj meal at night plus pudding. I choose OSM Bars as energy bars, as they offer a wide range of minerals and vitamins plus a fair balance between fats, protein and carbohydrates which is really ideal for a hike. Besides they simply taste great. I think that I had a really good KJ/grams ratio. I expected the upcoming trip to be as long as three days. So I've got a backup meal in case something goes awry.

South Island April 2011 – Day 7 – Return to Wanaka

Jun 072011

Every good trip should end with a rainy day. If the last day of any trip is crap, it is more likely for you to leave that place at any ease. Still, it is unfortunate if you have to hike back while it is raining.
When we got up this morning, we have already known what will expect us, since the forecast was quite clear about the upcoming rain.
No wonder we were a little bit reluctant to get up and into our wet gear, but it was no help, we had to.

Our three hours trip back to the car park was nothing I’d call a big bucket of joy, but we got there eventually. The hike itself was unspectacular, we knew the route and we hiked quite quickly to reach the car park as soon as possible as we have to face a much bigger problem once we have gotten there. How, for god’s sake are we getting away from that place? If we are really unlucky we had to wait till the evening when the day hikers return from their trips.

But after one hour or so, a car appeared dropping off an older guy and a his young fella on their way to French ridge. His wife was returning to Dunedin and was quite merry to give us a lift into Wanaka as she could tell us many many stories of her Husband who seemed to have hiked all the mountains of New Zealand, including Mount Cook, the highest available. No question, I was quite impressed.

Back in Wanaka, I had a strange experience. When you are out in the back country, you might loose a little bit track of time, as it is becoming quite unimportant. But a lost feeling for time might turn a little bit awkward once you collide with a holiday like good Friday.
I went to the Supermarket to get some groceries without much thinking and the clear belief that today must be Thursday. But then I’ve realized all the closed pubs and the closed alcohol section of the Supermarket as there is no alcohol sales on a public holiday in NZ, which got me confused all over.
Is it really Friday, already? I had to get some certainty and so I asked a girl at the checkout what day it was. She looked at me with her pitiful eyes, telling me that we are celebrating good Friday today. I felt quite awkward about asking such a question. However, I felt relieved afterwards, yet a little bit stupid.

Anyway, being good Friday also means for me that lent is finally over, and that I can finally have all the pleasures of life again. How ironic, that Lent ends on a day where alcohol is not allowed nationwide.
So instead of hanging out at a bar, Lara and I watched a movie at her hostel. To make things worse it was a totally girly one and I have already forgotten the name which is not really a pity I guess.

Well, that was it for today. Nothing else exciting happened.
And yes, I haven’t taken any pictures today.

South Island April 2011 – Day 6 – French Ridge Hut

Jun 052011

Some people are very well prepared, when they go trips into the back country. Some others are not and Lara and I just can’t be bothered to get up early despite our ambitious plans to conquer that valley in a flick. So yeah, let’s face it, we got up way too late and left the hut around 10am when everybody was already on his way to new frontiers. But hey who cares. We got plenty of time and can travel light, since we can leave our heavy gear at the hut. Something we will appreciate very much later on this day.

When you follow Mount Aspiring Valley further down you come to a point where you have to decide which side of the valley you want to ascent. You can take the left path up to Liverpool Hut, which is a fairly steep climb but not a too long one, or you go up on the eastern side to reach for French Ridge hut, that lies a substantial bit higher than Liverpool Hut and the climb is a really steep one. No question, what two fearless explorers would change, especially when they are running late. So French Ridge hut, prepare for us.

Getting ready to conquer the valley.

South Island April 2011 – Day 5 – Road to Mt. Aspiring National Park

Jun 032011

Finally, it is time to get your hands dirty. Time to leave civilization behind and to follow the call of raw nature. Mount Aspiring National Park is just 50km away of Wanaka, and possibly one of the greatest places around.
The National park is mainly a long vast valley that ends on the foot of some of the highest mountains of the southern alps, including Mt. Aspiring with 3.033m above sea level. From the head of the valley, several ascents to different summits and plateaus are available. Certainly a paradise, for everyone who loves the back country.

At the beginning I was planning to explore all those trails by myself, but Lara wanted to join me spontaneously. An offer I could hardly decline.

Lara and I getting prepared for Mt. Aspiring National Park

Ready to rock! Lara and I early in the morning in Wanaka shortly before our first attempts to get a lift. Did you notice those Bananas hanging at the backpack?

The plan seemed quite simple. Get a lift into the National Park and then start walking. Simple as. What could possibly go wrong? The weather was nice, we were well prepared and the moral of those two hikers could not have been any higher.
Well, sometimes the problem starts directly on the road. No one wanted to pick us up. Why? Well because no one went into the National Park. Great.
So we decided to start walking, not because we were expecting to get there by foot, but it keeps you busy at least. Unfortunately the road was long and empty. Continue reading »

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South Island April 2011 – Day 13 – More Pictures