More Great Walking

Basically, my mid-semester break was more or less structured around one simple idea: Great Walking. More specifically, doing Routeburn Track and Abel Tasman Track. So pretty much this past week has been all roadtripping, hiking, camping, mountains, and beaches... and it went like this:

Friday was Pretty Easy:

We (Alan, Gray, Mitch, Luke, and me) left Dunedin, drove west toward Fiordland National Park and Mount Aspiring National Park, stopped in Queenstown to book our bus tickets and our hostel (for Monday when we finished Routeburn), and found a campsite by Lake Te Anau... so yeah, that was all good stuff. Next day/Saturday was when things got a little more complicated... probably because when we woke up it had started to rain...

Routeburn Track was The Great Walk of Water:

Day 1 - Okay, so.... on our first day of tramping, it was definitely raining - Like A Whole Lot. Because of all the rain, our tents, sleeping bags, and clothes got pretty wet so that was unfortunate. It honestly wasn't that bad while we were hiking and all. The worse part was when we were setting up our tents because the rain got pretty heavy and crazy. Anyway, the highlights of that day included our encounter with Earland Falls... the biggest and wettest waterfall ever... as we were walking up to it, it was like we had our own personal super stormy raincloud. Basically, this waterfall was epic. I mean, seriously, the track had its own "flood detour" route (which we took because at that point we were still hopeful that our gear wasn't too ridiculously wet). Highlight #2 was when Mitch and I ran back to the hut (to get our backpacks and to try to dry up) after setting up the tents at the Mackenzie campsite. Basically, we just running along this trail in the rain without our packs (so we were feeling SUPER FAST) and just leaping and flying over huge puddles of water/mud. The rest of the night was dedicated to hanging out in the little shelter by the campsite where we hung up our clothes to dry, made some dinner, and taught Mitch how to play Hearts.

Day 2 - As Alan cleverly pointed out, there's no way that God would let it rain on Easter. And lo and behold, there was definitely some sun shining on our Easter Sunday. Day 2 was great - we hiked up above the tree line, crossed big and little waterfalls legitimately every five minutes, found a HUGE lake on top of the mountain (it was beautiful and all sparkly like the ocean), descended back into the trees, and set up camp at Routeburn Flats right next to the river in the middle of the mountains. We laid out all our clothes and sleeping bags to dry some more and then we made some dinner and played some cards before bedtime.

Day 3 - Monday was sunny again YAY... super easy hike, crossed a lot of bridges with waterfalls, took a break by the river and had a rock skipping contest with Mitch and Luke, and then successfully finished up our Great Walking for the day. After Great Walking, we took the bus back to Queenstown, met up with Gray (Gray was pretty sick the very first day so he decided to just chill and hang out in Queenstown and Dunedin for the rest of break), took showers, GOT THE MOST DELICIOUS BURGERS EVER!!!!!! and then we just hung out and found Tim, Paul, Mackenzie, Liz, Jenny, and company because they were in Queenstown for a couple days too... seeing everyone slash just being back in civilization was quite awesome =]

Highway 6 to Abel Tasman National Park:

So Tuesday and Wednesday involved some serious car time....

- Tuesday, we left Queenstown and drove for about 7 or 8 hours... we stopped by Fox Glacier, but it honestly wasn't that exciting so we continued on until we reached the town of Greymouth and all the wonderful things it had to offer (a New World grocery store, Domino's Pizza, and a motel with a shower and beds).

- Wednesday was nice (and with only a total of four hours in the car = very nice)... we continued driving up Highway 6 which was AWESOME because I LOVE THE OCEAN (technically the Tasman Sea but I mean huge body of salt water + waves = ocean... at least to me) and Even Though I ABSOLUTELY LoveLoveLove PCH and It Will Forever Be My Favorite... New Zealand's Highway 6 was indeed VERY Beautiful.... Ocean + Me = Total Happiness.

Sidenote: The owner of our Greymouth motel told us that the Highway 6 is one of the Top 10 coastal drives in the world; however, I couldn't really find anything online to back this up... all I found out was that Highway 6 is the longest single highway in New Zealand and even though Highway 1 is technically longer, it doesn't count because it combines the Highway 1 in the North Island with the Highway 2 in the South Island so whatevers... moving on....

Before our Wednesday journey took us further inland, we stopped by the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks and Blowholes which were Really Pretty and Super Rad. Basically these rocks are columns of limestone that look like stacks of pancakes, and then during high tide and heavy swells, seawater is forced upward through the blowholes. Pretty neat stuff :) After that, we eventually made it to the town/city of Motueka where we found a backpackers lodge for sleeping and a New World for our Abel Tasman/Great Walking supplies. Pretty chill night, just made some spaghetti for dinner, played some card games, almost walked into the Motueka Police Station by accident OOPS, and found some yummy ice cream. Another sidenote: I learned how to play Spades (kinda like Hearts, but with teams) and Egyptian Rat Screw (kinda intense like Spit but really fun once you get the hang out it)... Anyways...

The Abel Tasman Coastal Track:

Overall, tramping in Abel Tasman was pretty relaxed... we basically just wandered through some coastal forests, made a few tidal crossings, found some cool seashells, played little frisbee, Great Walked across some swing bridges, went swimming in the Tasman Sea, camped by the beach, listened to the waves as we fell asleep... not too shabby, not too shabby at all :)

Day 1 - Drove up to the town of Marahau, ditched our car, and started Great Walk #3 at around 11am YESSSS. (By The Way, the Abel Tasman Track just might be one of the best ideas ever... backpacking + coastline + little islands + beaches + warm weather...)We did our first tidal crossing at Torrent Bay, set up camp for the night, made dinner (Alan and Luke caught some crabs... and we found out later that catching, cooking, and eating crabs from a marine reserve was not really allowed, Oops), and played a little frisbee and cards before bedtime.

Day 2 - Woke up and went swimming in the ocean = life is SO GOOD. We eventually got our lives together and hiked through some coastal forests for a few hours, played some frisbee and went swimming in Bark Bay, and ended up at Tonga Quarry campsite.... And that was the night we learned that Mitch was afraid of small animals... Basically, we were just hanging out/playing some card games and Mitch WOULD NOT STOP TRIPPING OUT because of the killer possums wandering around our campsite... SO FUNNY/You Had To Be There because this was definitely one of the Top 3 Best Parts of Break.

Day 3 - #1 of the Top 3 Best Parts of Break was Saturday morning - Waking up to the sound of waves and going swimming and tossing the frisbee around with Alan (I don't think Mitch and Luke were really feeling the early morning swim). After that, we Great Walked through more forests and beaches, made a couple more tidal crossings, and eventually made it to Totaranui Beach where we played frisbee until our water taxi picked us up. Basically, a water taxi is a small motor boat that picks up and drops off backpackers and dayhikers all along Abel Tasman's coastal track. So we took that back to Marahau where we had left our car. (On the boat ride back to Marahau, we randomly saw a penguin swimming in the ocean - Super Neat.)

Abel Tasman to Dunedin:

- Picked up our car from Marahau, drove back to Motueka, got some dinner and bought/stole some snacks at New World (I was in the self-checkout line and I guess I was really out of it because I definitely just scanned my snacks, put them in a bag, and left the store without paying for them... Oops, my bad). Leaving Motueka at 5pm, the four of us journeyed through the night until we made it back to Dunedin. Got back to Dunedin around 2:30ish Sunday morning, so yeah... my Sunday was just sleeping, etc = real nice and super low key :)

Overall, Great Walking has been Really Great and my mid-semester break was some serious good times with good people... Plus mountains and waterfalls and ocean and beaches... and many many amazing starry nights (the Milky Way was looking WAY COOL during Routeburn and Abel Tasman). So although I have decided that sleeping in my own bed is quite wonderful, exploring New Zealand/the South Island has been BEYOND AWESOME. (Dear Parents, thanks for sending me abroad!! Also, just in case you need more reassurance that Yes, I Have Been Feeding Myself, I'm a pretty sure that I mentioned that I ate dinner like a zillion times YAY so you can stop worrying =] 'Kay Cool, Loooove You!!)

Ps. I know this covered a whole week but still... Apologies for the Longest Blog Ever :)