December
26, 7:30 pm - Christchurch, South Island
We
awoke this morning at 6:00 am to catch our flight to Christchurch,
New Zealand. There’s a palpable difference in the pace
of these 2 cities. Christchurch has the feel of a country
village, although it is a holiday (Boxing Day), but Sydney
had the energy of a city, despite it being Christmas Day.
We arrived at the airport to discover that our hostel had
closed up and not let anyone know, but the tourist information
desk helped Marieke book a room at another hostel here in
town – Charlie B’s. We parked our things and walked
into town. The botanical gardens are stunning and here we
are, at a café, typing up this story.
Our plan is to hit an internet café, dinner, maybe
a drink or so and then a good night’s sleep as tomorrow
we’re picking up our motorcycle – another leg
of our adventure.
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December
27, 11:00 pm – Lake Tekapo, South Island
New
Zealand is jaw-droppingly gorgeous. After riding our Honda
750 Shadow through a heavy rainstorm, we were both harboring
concerns that the entire trip would be soggy. However, after
we stopped for some hot chocolate (yes, it’s summer
here) we got back on the road and the clouds had not only
broken, it seemed they’d shattered for beautiful sunlight
poured out everywhere. The vibrant colors stretched out across
huge sweeping vistas of foothills, plains and mountains, stretching
for miles and miles with very little in between, except strikingly
rugged beauty. This place is a photographer’s dream.
Every time we put the camera back into the top box on the
bike, so we can motor on down the highway, we were compelled
to get it out again for another must take photo opportunity
had unfolded. Part of this was also due to the ever-changing
cloud compositions, which sculpted shafts of light and pockets
of shadow across the land. We both were lucky not to have
swallowed any bugs, because our mouths were simply agape.
We
woke up this morning at 8:30, packed up, checked out of Charlie
B’s and went to Stonehurst backpackers around the corner
to book the ferry from Picton (South Island) to Wellington
(North Island) for January 7. After being raped for that (it’s
vacation season here) we took a taxi over to the motorcycle
place, as it had started to rain pretty heavily. On arrival
the guy in charge was busy and introduced us to Rix, a slightly
nervous, but very sweet older Alec Guinness of a man. He laid
out some paper work to fill out and when we asked about the
armored motorcycle jackets & pants he showed us a small
closet with about 4 XXL jackets. Marieke tried one on and
it swallowed her – the shoulder pads hugged her biceps
and the elbow pads landed on her wrists.
Rix
apologetically informed us that that was all they had as an
unexpected tour group had come through and had cleaned out
their stock. Also, some of their gear must have been concentrated
at their location in Auckland, which he informed us happened
from time to time. On being prompted by David that perhaps
there was someone we could talk to, to sort this out, fortified
by Marieke’s resolve that she would not ride without
proper protection, Rix went off to make some calls.
We
ended up with new outfits that we picked up with Rix from
the wholesaler: new jackets & pants, all including amour
and water & wind proof (which later turned out to be handy!!).
So, after packing our clothes into the side cases, we left.
Perhaps, we’d soaked up some of Rix’s nervousness
or perhaps we’ve only been on a bike once since May
(when we got our license), we felt slightly apprehensive about
riding away under the watchful eyes of the rental guys (Rix
and his manager).
After
missing the turn to the “motor way” (what in the
States would be a highway) we finally got on course and 55
miles into our journey we stopped for breakfast. This was
at about 2:00 pm… It turns out the barman at the little
restaurant was an avid biker and gave us some good pointers.
After lunch we picked up some gators for Marieke. With her
knees bent, the pants turned out to be a little short and
any rain / water would easily run down her socks into her
shoes. We also decided to pick up some new gloves, as the
ones provided by the rental company were smelly from previous
use. (ewww!!)
We
got in to our destination Lake Tekapo around 6:00 pm and as
we said before, we were blown away by the beauty of this land.
Our host (Michael) at Tailor Made Backpackers had a down to
earth candor that was at once entertaining and disconcerting.
Following his (hard to understand) advice, we took Godley
Peaks Rd. up to St. John Observatory where there was a café
(unfortunately closed when we arrived), but the view from
the top of this hill and the gorgeous ride out there so made
up for it. There were flowers blooming along the road, horses
grazing against green, green hills, a rainbow in the distance
popping off of the darkness of the threatening clouds, the
sun behind us dappling everything in light and shadow.
From
the observatory everywhere you looked was something biblical.
David was like a kid in a candy shop with his camera. However,
the wind up there was cold and had teeth, but oh, so gorgeous.
Upon
getting back into town, we sat down at Pepe’s for a
carbonara pizza, which was great. And a good thing too, as
it was pretty expensive. It seems like Tekapo is benefiting
from the tourists brought here following the Lord of Rings
experience. We can hardly wait to see what’s in store
for us tomorrow, when we move on to Queenstown.
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December
29, 6:30 pm – Queenstown, South Island
Yesterday,
as we left Lake Tekapo it seemed as an angel was watching
over us. We’d gotten not more than 3 miles out of town,
when David decided he had to take another picture. So we pulled
over to the side of the road, grabbed a snap and discovered
the bike wouldn’t start. Trying to remain calm we checked
and re-checked, but the kill-switch was ‘on’,
the fuel lign switch was ‘on’, until it occurred
to David to open the gas tank, which appeared empty. We really
thought we’d make at least 200 miles on a tank of gas,
our odometer said 165.
For
whatever reason, the bike did start up again and we got back
into town and the bike finally ran out of gas (for good) coasting
to a stop about 50 yards from the only gas station in Lake
Tekapo. We filled up the tank, not totally sure that that
would solve the issue and after a number of tries she fired
up and we were on our way.
Crossing
through more beautiful scenery we finally arrived in Queenstown
at about 6 pm, checked into our hostel, decided we’d
cook in and went to the supermarket. We met a lady who worked
there who suggested to buy this local blue cheese (which was
really good) and with that came a bottle of local pinot noir
– which we enjoyed to the max back at the hostel. The
homemade pasta was delicious and a welcome change of restaurant
food, that Marieke had gotten tired of.
We
got into the hot tub right before they closed it, sat in there
for 20 minutes, grabbed a quick shower and then to bed.
Today,
we slept in until 9-ish and went for breakfast at Vudu Café,
where Marieke had some really good blueberry & blackberry
pancakes and David had a good Eggs Benedict. At the café
they had free internet where we discovered that Marieke’s
parents had gotten hit while driving in LA and totaled the
Honda. They walked away okay, but the Honda took the hit.
We then did a little work on a photography submission before
we headed out to the Shotover jet boat experience.
The
Shotover jet boat is an aluminum boat with a jet engine that
can skim over water as shallow as 4 inches 80 km/hour and
is famous for its 360 degree turns on the Shotover River here
in Queenstown. It rockets through the steep canyons, constantly
looking like you’re going to hit one of the rocks and/or
the canyon walls. It was raining and at full speed the rain
slapped our faces and was something a little more than brisk.
Unfortunately for Marieke the way back left her a bit nauseous
and she went off to have a Coke trying to feel better, while
David callously went off and took pics of the next boats.
The
experience however, was exhilarating and every time we turned
from one direction to another, almost hit the canyon walls
or did a 360, it was a true adrenal rush. The precision piloting
of the boat was mind-blowing.
When
we got back into town it was raining heavily and we thought
we might duck out of the rain by watching a matinee, but luckily
timing wasn’t good and as Marieke had a little call
to her parents the clouds parted and the sun came through.
It turned into a beautiful afternoon. We found a chocolatier
and bought some amazing chocolate: the lavender chocolate
being the best.
We walked up to the gondola station and went for the ride
up the mountain to have a beautiful vista over the city and
surroundings. After a cold walk around we came back down the
hill and made dinner. We couldn’t find the same cheese,
but found a couple of other local cheeses which are very nice,
however, this time no wine since we’ll be back on the
bike tomorrow morning.
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December
31, 6:30 pm – Milford Sound, South Island
We pulled out of Queenstown at 7:30 to head down to Milford
Sound. We stopped regularly for coffee / tea / soup as we
were riding through a lot of rain and whereas the suits kept
us dry, the summer gloves did live up to their name and weren’t
able to keep the wind from penetrating.
The trip was once again beautiful. 2 times we were stopped
by farmers moving their herd of sheep across the road to another
piece of land with the help of their sheep dogs. Watching
that process was great, but we could not stop thinking of
our Buster & Boomer and how they would help (or hinder)
that process if they had been there with us.
Coming
in to Milford Sound you pass through a long 1-way tunnel (a
little like the drive into Yosemite for those who have done
that), however, this tunnel had very little light so we went
from very bright daylight into almost pitch black. This wouldn’t
have been so bad, save for the massive potholes, which the
water dripping through the ceiling of the tunnel had filled
up. Riding 2-up on a bike with a full load we certainly didn’t
want to hit one of those. Oh, and detail not to be forgotten,
was the grade: very steep downhill. David was impressed with
his riding and we made it through safely.
The weather, which for most of our journey from Queenstown
to Milford Sound was most suited for ducks and fish, gave
way to intense sunshine and the other side of the tunnel found
it very warm.
We
drove to the lodge, checked in (our first night we had to
stay in a dorm room as the doubles had been booked up since
2005 – lucky we were able to get one for the other 2
nights we’re here) and went down to the only pub next
to which is an emergency petrol supply.
We
used half a tank driving here and given the climb up the mountain
passes, we’re worried we might not make it back to Te
Anau (where the first gas station is on our way out of here).
At the emergency petrol supply we discovered that our credit
card wouldn’t work (despite the big visa/MasterCard
logo hanging next to the machine) and apparently only New
Zealand bank cards work here. After the machine informed us
that our credit card was not working, it shut down because
it had run out of paper for printing receipts. There was a
button to phone for help, so we pushed it. A guy somewhere
came on and we informed him that the machine was out of order,
due to a lack of receipt paper and inquired if there was any
way we could purchase gas with our foreign VISA cards. In
what became a laughable conversation this guy who didn’t
give a flip about our concerns, basically told us to “buy
petrol somewhere else in the area” and as we told him
that the nearest petrol station was over 200 km. away, he
did is best to console us, “I don’t know what
you’re gonna do then.” Luckily we found this funny
and pushed the little button to hang up the line. At the bar,
we found out that either the machine will be fixed (which
it looks like it is) or we can buy gas on the other side of
the tunnel, paying cash and going 20 km. out of our way.
We
rode the bike back to the lodge, changed out of the quite
warm riding gear and walked the 1 km. to the pub where we
had pizza and beer (and fun). The staff here is generally
fun people, except the few who take their jobs too seriously.
Prices are steep, but then this is “the end of the road”
and a famous tourist stop to boot.
Today,
we got up after a night of not great sleeping. A woman in
the dorm had turned on both radiators full blast while she
was reading in bed, turning the dorm into sort of a sauna.
The windows didn’t open, so it stayed hot for a long
time. A mosquito stung David on the top of his head and some
guy who had left his little nose strap at home and was snoring
as a result waked Marieke up through the night.
We
had breakfast here; we bought 3 eggs and fried them up in
the kitchen. Then went to catch a cruise on Milford Sound.
It was very pleasant and one got the sense of how big the
Sound is when we saw planes flying in to land dwarfed by the
mountainsides. One of the Falls (Sterling Falls) is 5 times
higher than Niagara and the falls closest to the harbor were
more than 6 stories tall. Now this may not sound terribly
high, until you put that against the rest of the mountain
and each of these falls was only about a quarter of the mountain.
We
went back to the café and had lunch. Then we took a
walk along the water’s edge – David going crazy
with photographing – and wound up walking up to the
little airport, which was surprisingly busy. We had to walk
around the airport and then made our way back to the Lodge
where we moved into a private Double room for the remaining
2 nights.
We’re
about to walk out and join one of the other guests who we
met for some wine and then we’ll wander down to the
pub, probably for pizza as it’s one of the more reasonably
priced items on the menu, followed by some partying as it’s
New Year’s Eve!!!
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January
3, 9:15 pm – Fox Glacier, South Island
True to our prediction, we went to the pub, had pizza, drank
and partied a little bit ringing in ’07 with Ewa and
Karl, a Swedish couple who were very nice. Ewa was one of
those people who, once she started talking, didn’t know
how to stop. She was especially effusive of Sweden’s
contributions to world pop music as the mobile disco dj’s
played away some old 70’s-90’s tunes. Also joining
us was Ray, the guy we met the first night at Milford Sound,
who stayed at our dorm. He’s a native Kiwi, who ended
up inviting us for a traditional Kiwi Lamb Roast at his house,
on our way from Fox Glacier to Hanmer Springs the day after
tomorrow. Ewa & Karl invited us outside to have some champagne
to toast in the New Year as midnight arrived. We walked the
1 km. home to the lodge, past the shimmering waters in the
moonlight of Milford Sound. The silence there in the middle
of the night, after the helicopters and planes stopped operating,
was really special. Along the path back to the lodge, we saw
glowworms tucked away in the rainforest. It was then to bed,
to sleep off the beer.
Morning
came hard and heavy for David, as we had booked a kayaking
tour starting at 8:30 am. The tour was guided by Blake, who
looked as though as he had partied pretty hard the night before,
although he was completely capable as though as this was a
regular occurrence for him which he could take in his stride.
Blake looked like a California blond surfer dude, but had
a wry Kiwi sense of humor. He drove us down to Deep Water
Basin, base camp for the kayaking operation. Their living
quarters were 2 old caravans that had been cut open and joined
together to make 1 longer caravan with a liberal use of plywood
and sheet metal. The resulting structure looked absolutely
white trash, but Blake miraculously passed it off as a cool
place to be.
The
equipment hutch was impressively much more organized and together
and we set off to go kayaking Milford Sound with a hangover
(David that was, Marieke was feeling fine). It’s a great
way to actually see Milford Sound, while getting the blood
moving. We were quite surprised to actually see quite a lot
of wild life: we saw bottleneck dolphins at a distance, a
seal swimming our kayaks and some other seals sunning themselves
on a rock. We got as close as 3 meters (9 ft.) which didn’t
seem to disturb them. We also saw different birds, one of
which had a nest by the waters’ edge we passed at about
4 meters (12 ft.).
A
little past noon, the wind changed direction in the Sound,
causing the water to become quite choppy. We must have peddled
quite some distance out, because it seemed to take forever
to get back. Part of this may have been owing to our not having
eaten enough breakfast, but we both began to feel tired. We
finally made it back, and lunch was even sweeter. We went
to the café, which was packed frustratingly out of
a lot of food. After lunch, we walked the 1 km. back to the
lodge where we had a nap and rested a bit. That night, we
spent our last eve at the pub, with Ash, the bartender who
we’d gotten to know over the past few days.
The
following day (yesterday) we left, after having had breakfast
together with Ray, for Wanaka. The drive would get us back
to Queenstown, past which it was another 41 km. to Wanaka.
The day before our departure, we discovered that the petrol
pump (its payment system) had been fixed and one of the guys
with whom we did the kayaking excursion had offered his bankcard
for the payment. We paid him back in cash and were able to
fill our tank back up, so we would make it back to Te Anau.
The
ride to Wanaka went smoothly. Ray had mentioned that there
was a short cut we could take after Queenstown, to cut through
the mountains, as opposed to going around them to get to Wanaka.
The ‘Crown Ridge’ was supposedly a beautiful drive,
and shorter than going around it. We followed his advice:
obviously a drive for the more experienced motor rider –
a lot of sharp hairpin turns (15 km/hr max. speed), very steep
inclines, but beautiful views – next to dazzling drops
right next to the shoulder of the road.
Wanaka
is the home of a lot of activities. Upon checking in to our
hostel, overlooking the lake, we ventured out to Puzzling
World - a walk through world of different puzzles, holograms
and optical illusions that turned out to be quite fascinating.
To top it off, we took the challenge of the 1.5 km. maze outside
where the objective was to get to all 4 corners and back to
the central garden patio. The recorded times were anywhere
between 30 minutes and an hour and a half. We were proud to
finish it in 45 minutes, although the heat and uncomfortable
clothing (we were wearing our riding gear) almost put a premature
end to the whole game for Marieke. We enjoyed some cheap Indian
food and the sunset over the lake, before walking back to
the lodge.
This
morning we got a late start as we slightly overslept. We had
breakfast in Wanaka and booked our Fox Glacier hike for tomorrow
before we left. The 250 km. ride to Fox Glacier was another
beautiful ride along lakes, passing snow capped mountains,
going through dust storms and riding over roads with the ocean
on our left and tropical rainforest on our right.
Around
our 90 km. we missed the gas station, as we were mostly pre-occupied
with getting Marieke some anti-allergy medication for her
eyes. When we realized this, we decided to continue on to
the next village, which would put us on 140 km, well within
our limit. Turns out that the village in question consisted
of 5 houses. Nothing more, no gas station, nothing. Without
exchanging any words, while passing through the town we both
picked up on each other increased level of tension. Neither
one of us was sure we’d make it to Fox Glacier. Long
story short: we hit the BP gas station in Fox Glacier at 155
miles, a close call, but we made it. We didn’t want
to find ourselves in the same situation as the first day –
without gas. Where back then, we just had enough to get back
into town, today, that would have been bad, in the middle
of nowhere.
Tomorrow
we’re doing a full day hike on Fox Glacier – 6
hours. We’re supposed to bring our own water and lunch,
so we went to the local general store in town and came to
find out that bread in town was sold out until about lunch
hour tomorrow…. Not a loaf of bread to be found here,
in the entire town, among all the 20- houses!!! After dinner,
we were able to score 6 slices of bread from the restaurant
that we dined at… Sandwiches for the Beelers on the
Glacier tomorrow!! It’s 10:00; we’re off to sleep.
Cool, but expected to be heavy day tomorrow.
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January
4 – Fox Glacier Hike
Although
one gets used to the white of the snow topped mountains capping
the many mountains around New Zealand, it is an odd thing
to come up in a bus and see reaching down into the rainforest
from the snowy heights, this giant river of churning ice.
Along the 2 km road leading from the highway to the glacier,
it was amazing to see the signposts of how far the glacier
had advanced only 250 years ago. Where we parked our bus would
have been under 60 meters of ice in 1830.
The
hike started with a “warm up” hiking up the side
of the canyon to the glacier’s side. The face of the
glacier is too unstable to breach as witnessed by a chunk
of ice the size of our bus that fell on our way down. We were
very far from it when it happened, but it sounded like cannon
going off. By the time we got to the ice, we were quite winded,
as it was a pretty strenuous hike to get there. We picked
up alpine poles and “clamp-ons”, steel spikes
that strapped to the middle of our hiking boots.
The
glacier is relentlessly jagged. The upper part of the glacier
moves faster than the lower part, causing the surface to crack
into various crevices, peaks, changing daily. The glacier
is currently advancing 20 cm. a day and consequently is continuously
morphing. We didn’t notice those changes in the few
hours that we were there, but our guide said that in a week
or two, huge crevices will close and new ones will open. As
we mounted the ice the ice cutters (young guys with picks)
were busy carving out the steps / paths for the expeditions
for the following days. The beginning of our journey followed
the same path as the half-day hikers, so the steps were quite
well cut and obvious. The topography however, so undulated
that with all the steps it reminded David of an Escher drawing.
When
you think of ice, you think of it being clear or slightly
cloudy. So it was sort of surprising to see exactly how dirty
the glacier is. But it’s not just dirt on the ice; it
is striations of dirt and ice mixed together. There are areas
of white and areas of blue, ranging from a faint powder blue
to a beautiful cobalt blue. These are peppered or outlined
with dark brown sediment from the Valley. Also mixed in, were
areas that had a reddish hue: this was dirt which had been
blown over from Australia and had been deposited as snowfall,
the glacier’s inception.
Right
before lunch we left the half-day hike and began the glacial
equivalent of “bush whacking”. This was, our guide
told us, the cool part of our journey and he was right, because
it had started to rain and the warmth we were to discover
from the hike, didn’t find us on the ice, but the wet
did. Still, our guide Tom, a very enthusiastic student in
zoology at the University of Dunedin, only wore a T-shirt
for the entire trek. Sometimes the path our guide chose led
to nowhere and we had to return into the direction from which
we came and other times it led us to interesting crevices
or up on to ridges where you could see for great distances.
The
highlight was going through an ice-cave-crevices, which had
openings above us and the most beautifully backlit powder
blue variations. Our pants got a little wet squeezing through
the narrow crevice but it was well worth it. Tom and one of
the other guides that we came across worked quite hard to
make the crevice safe for us to pass through. It seemed that
among the guides there was a certain competitive spark going
on to do novel or interesting things that the others have
not done / discovered yet and the ice cave qualified big time.
Despite
it being very physically active (do that a few times a day
and you’ll never need a Stairmaster) we held up very
well and it proved to be one of the highlights of our trip.
In a word it was “cool”. We returned to the “township”
around 6:00 pm and then tried to find a place to eat in a
town with 4 restaurants and way too many tourists. We ended
up putting our name down at the same restaurant as the previous
day and spent the waiting time enjoying the sauna at the hostel
and taking a shower. When we finally sat down for dinner we
enjoyed every single bit of it, as we needed to make up for
all the calories burned that day.
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January
5 – Hanmer Springs, South Island
We woke early knowing that this day held for us the longest
ride of our trip. So, we decided to put some distance behind
us before stopping for breakfast. Our plan was to scoot up
to Greymouth as we could where we would join Ray (who we met
in Milford Sound) for a homemade roast lamb lunch. We pulled
off the road in some small village to have breakfast. Marieke
asked for a sweater from one of the side cases. The box that
contained Marieke’s stuff had a lock which was hard
to open, so David put the key in, but it wouldn’t turn
(as usual), so he gave it some elbow grease…the key
responded by promptly breaking in two pieces, leaving the
tip of the key stuck in the lock. The key that had broken
was for the top box and looked almost identical to the key
for the side cases. Now we had a new challenge on our hands.
We couldn’t access the top box, or Marieke’s box.
David borrowed some needle nose pliers and managed to extract
the tip of the key. There was no locksmith in the village;
the closest one was several towns “up the road”.
Luckily we were headed that way. After a hardy English breakfast
and an attitude of bored beyond indifference from the local
lady serving up the brekkie David called Ray to let him know
we were on our way, however Ray didn’t have voicemail
on his cell and the girl who answered at his home# said she
would tell Ray when she saw him.
We
pulled into Hokitika, another dot on the map, which we were
told had a locksmith. So, much to our surprise it turned out
to be a substantial small town. We found the local hardware
store, which cut keys, but unfortunately the guy was out of
the plug (blank key) that we needed. He went into excruciating
detail as to where we might find a locksmith in Greymouth.
It was like asking a Welshman for directions – he spent
as much time telling us where we didn’t want to go as
where we did. We cut each other looks as he rambled on, Marieke
trying desperately not to laugh out loud. He did think we
might try the local Mitre10 shop (New Zealand’s version
of Osh). Continuing Hokitika’s ability to surprise,
we found that they not only cut keys but had the plug that
we needed. Because it was a broken key, this required backup
– we got the clerk and the manager on the case. Here’s
where we saw some of the farm-bred resourcefulness that Bill
(the Canadian guy from Milford Sound) had told us about. They
locked the broken tip and the rest of the original key in
the clamp and were able to make an identical copy. We went
out to the bike and…BINGO, it fit!
Relieved,
on to Greymouth we went. We found the Mobil Station that Ray
had given us as a landmark, gassed up and went off to find
his house. However, it didn’t seem to exist: we went
up and down Marsden Ave. not able to find Marsden Park –
the address that he had given us. We found a local man and
asked directions. He didn’t know where it was either,
but offered us to go around the corner to his house and use
his phone. David succeeded getting Ray on his cell who then
told him that he’d been called into work, but that he
would meet us in 5 minutes at the Mobil station. We thanked
the guy and his wife and rode back to the Mobil station. 40
minutes and 6 attempts to reach Ray’s cell phone later
we decided to hit the road and move on to make up some time.
David left a message with the girl at Ray’s “home#”
who said she would give it to him when she saw him, but she
didn’t know when that would be. Puzzled and slightly
disappointed both for the lost lunch and the lost time, we
grabbed a KFC sandwich before we hit the road.
We
stopped in Reefton at about 3:00 pm to stretch our legs and
get some caffeine. It was a 1-street kind of town, and found
that all of the cafes were closed. Just as we were about to
roll our eyes David asked one of the café owners where
we might just get a cup of coffee. Provided we weren’t
having food, she opened her doors and let us in. As we sat
petting the café cat, we got to talking with Susan
(the owner) who upon finding out that we were going to Hanmer
Springs suggested to stop at Maruia, a smaller, less crowded
hot springs resort 45 minutes before Hanmer.
As
we were passing through beautiful woods with small fluttering
down like confetti onto the road we came upon Maruia Hot Springs.
We pulled off the road to check it out. It looked like a small
hotel and we inquired about their rates. It was $15 per person
to sit in the rock pool outside, which also allowed access
to the Japanese style bathhouses. The receptionist did a great
upsale for their private bathhouse with hot spring pool. We
were quite intrigued, but didn’t want to spend the extra
money, so we went for the cheaper option. When we asked to
rent some towels as we told the guy we were traveling by bike
and didn’t have room for them, he decided to through
those in and wave the $2 rental fee. David said “Thanks
so much, that’s really nice as it’s our Honeymoon”.
The guy got really excited and said, “Oh, in that case,
we’ve got to do something special.” He consulted
his book and decided to also comp us the use of the private
bathhouse until closing, which was about 2 hours. We thanked
him profusely and went out to get our swimsuits and decided
to share with him the pastries we had bought as a thank you
to Ray (which were heating up in the top box).
The
generosity of this guy already made us feel like we were getting
something extra special. The bathhouse had a Japanese flavor
in its design and had a hot tub with the hot water constantly
streaming in to it from the hot spring. Small flex of algae
floated in the water and the tub looked out over a grassy
meadow to the rolling foothill beyond through a wall of windows.
Jade colored marble tile covered the floor and shower area
and the rest of the building was wood. The tub freely overflowed
onto the marble floor, heating it comfortably. The water was
hot to the point that you really needed to ease into it, but
once you did…ahhh…
The
tension dissolved in the heat and flowed with the water over
the tiles and away. We both gave each other massages and thoroughly
enjoyed the privacy and time together. After a while we decided
to try the rock pool. Being tender footed and having to make
our way over a gravel path we ooh-ed and aww-ed our way to
the rock pool. Several people occupied the various pools and
we slipped into one. The mosquito overpopulation found that
the healing waters also offered a good meal. We found the
distraction of smacking mossies to be less than relaxing,
so we quickly exited the rock pools and headed back to our
private oasis.
We
left the hot springs at closing time around 8:30 and were
on our way to finish the last track of our ride that day to
Hanmer Springs. Riding through some of the valleys there were
strong winds. David was so relaxed that his head bobbed from
side to side as the wind buffeted his helmet. As it began
to get dark our riding got a little more careful as we were
aware of the chance of wildlife getting out and crossing the
road. We arrived in Hanmer Springs around 9:00 pm at which
time it turned out to be quite difficult to still find a place
open to have some dinner. The “Saints Bar” turned
out to be the only place still serving dinner, where we enjoyed
a delicious pizza: half with Indian lamb and the other half
with smoked salmon. Yummy. We finally got a taste of New Zealand
lamb…
Around 11-ish we arrived at the Hostel, ready for a good (and
relaxed) night sleep.
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January
6 – Kaikoura, South Island
As we were both running out of clean underwear, it was time
to do some laundry. The washer at the hostel wasn’t
available until the people in the room next to it woke up
(as the sound may wake them), so that was of no use. The laundry
place across the street had their hands full with a load of
sheets they were folding, although the Chinese man who told
Marieke that they were too busy sounded more like he just
didn’t want their business. We decided do laundry in
Kaikoura.
Before
heading out of Hanmer Springs, we had breakfast at the Saints
bar and checked out the famous hot springs… That was
the moment when the Maruia experience became even more significant
and valuable: the hot springs in Hamner Springs were Disney
like in their design to appeal to the masses of tourists.
All of the pools were lined with concrete like swimming pools.
Water slides fed into some of them and children were everywhere.
But even more pervasive than the people was the smell of chlorine,
a smell not really matching the concept of “natural”
hot springs.
We
turned, looked at each other and said “NO”. We
got on the bike and rode on to Kaikoura. Marieke took a big
portion of the ride until we got to the curvy hills and 35km/hr
hairpin turns where she asked David to take over.
Kaikoura
is a small port town and our hostel, the Adelphi Lodge, had
at one time been a tavern, connected to the pub, the Adelphi.
Consequently it had a 19th century feel and an older world
charm. However, the most charming thing about it was the greeting
that we got from Barbra, the cleaning lady, running the reception
when we arrived. She and Andy (the manager) were the only
people in one of the hostels who made any mention, much less
a fuss about it being our honeymoon.
We
checked in and grabbed lunch at the Potbelly bakery, which
we enjoyed on our balcony, overlooking Kaikoura’s main
street. It turned out that we shared the balcony with a few
other rooms. We had a glass door that opened to the balcony.
We relaxed for a little and then to counter balance that relaxation
we went to try and find Internet access to send off some emails,
but especially the Veer submission.
Having
successfully been wound up by our efforts to do that with
no success, we gave up on emailing anything and decided to
try again in Wellington. You’d think an Internet café
would have someone who knew what an SMTP address was (the
“phone number” or “Line out” for email).
Back
at the hostel we sought advice on where to have dinner. We
were about to heed the advice of Andrew, the manager, when
Marieke found a menu that caught not only her eye, but her
fancy as well. So we went for what turned out to be a short
stroll to find the Olive Branch.
Wow,
what an excellent dinner @ the Olive Branch. Marieke had their
special of the day, sun dried tomato ravioli & David had
the steak with a red wine reduction. The dessert a white chocolate
parfait was too cold inside (still frozen) and consequently
wasn’t as good as the mains.
We
ended dinner just in time to catch the sunset and returned
to the hotel in order to watch a movie in the room. As usual,
David saw the end, while Marieke didn’t get any further
than 20 minutes into it before falling asleep. The movie (The
Castle) was Australian and delightfully quirky.
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January
7 – Wellington, North Island
A wet and rainy morning greeted us as we packed and loaded
our gear onto the bike. The plan was to leave Kaikoura immediately
after our dolphin encounter around noon. We borrowed 2 towels
from the hostel and decided to leave our bags there as collateral
for the towels. We rode over to Dolphin Encounter, checked
in and were led into a room where we were given wetsuits and
fins (as we brought our own mask & snorkel, we were fully
equipped).
We
watched an orientation movie about what to expect and were
loaded onto a bus and were driven down to the local harbor
where we boarded the boat. Marieke’s patch didn’t
live up to its promise this time, but laying down she survived
the 45+ minutes it took us to find a pod of dolphins. Suddenly
there were about 30 of them around the boat and a frenzy of
activity the swimmers gathered their masks, snorkels &
fins, while the observers crowded to the boat’s rails.
The water was shockingly cold. Without boots any exposed skin
like the ankles and face quickly went numb. The only thing
that distracted one from the cold was the pure excitement
of being in the water with these sleek, dusky dolphins, about
1.5 meter long, whizzing past you.
David
did his “dolphin call” and within a few beats
several dolphins would swim around him. The visibility was
poor, about 6 feet (1:80 m) so the dolphins suddenly appeared
and disappeared out of nowhere. David was able to try his
dolphin call under water by removing his snorkel and later
he realized that diving down 10-15 feet really attracted the
playful dolphins that would circle him as the buoyant wetsuit
popped him to the surface again. Meanwhile, within Marieke,
misery and euphoria were battling: misery at being so cold
(and hyperventilating as a result) and euphoria at the excitement
of swimming with the dolphins within arm’s reach. The
half hour that we swam with the dolphins seemed more like
5-10 minutes. When the dolphins would swim around you, you
really got the feeling that they were willing you to keep
up and play with them as if to say “Come On!!”
The
ride back was very difficult for Marieke. David talked to
Sue, one of the guides, about the dolphins. When we got back
to the mainland, Marieke took a hot shower while David returned
to the hostel to pick up the bags. We had some hot soup and
toasted sandwiches at the Encounter before leaving for Picton
and our ferry ride to the North Island.
When
we arrived in Picton, the next motorcycle challenge was first
to get onto the boat, followed by anchoring the bike down
to keep it from falling over during the ferry ride. We met
Andrew, a motorcycle lover (Ducati) as we were waiting in
line to board the boat. He explained the drill on the boat
in exchange for some knot-tying help from David.
The
ferry ride was relaxing: we started out with a light dinner.
Marieke moved on to a comfortable chair and spent the rest
of the ride sleeping, while David explored the ferry and let
the camera go crazy until he ran into Andrew and they spent
the rest of the time chatting. When we arrived in Wellington
Andrew was kind enough to guide us through the city to the
hostel that we had booked. We agreed to meet up half an hour
later, around 10:30 to go for a drink and snack.
When
we arrived in the lobby to meet Andrew at 10:30 it turned
out that he’d been waiting for about 20 minutes…Marieke’s
watch was slow and in reality it was actually 10:50…oops.
We ended up going to a bar that had a cool contemporary Asian
interior. Without a local to point it out, we would have walked
by it, not even noticing that there was a bar located on the
2nd floor behind the dimly lit door opening that opened up
to a staircase. We had some snacks and drinks and spent a
nice evening talking and exchanging experiences.
When
the bar keepers were ready to close the establishment we said
our goodbyes and returned to the hostel where we inquired
about the location of a Global Gossip – the Internet
Café for which we had bought a prepaid card in Christchurch.
The guy at the front desk found himself caught in a combination
of panic and an attempt to remain calm as he (obviously) had
no idea about how to find that online. Marieke suggested he
search under “Global Gossip” and click on the
link “Locations”. After about 5 minutes frantically
“searching” the internet the poor fellow gave
up and told us the bad news: there was no such Internet Café
in Wellington.
Annoyed
and amazed about the general “Internet Incompetence”
of the average Marieke decided to give it a try on the computers
available for guests. She paid the $3 to get online and within
a minute the address was jotted down on a piece of paper.
Hopeful of what tomorrow will bring, we’re going to
sleep. Finally, a place where we will be able to send our
emails.
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January
8 – Taupo, North Island
Before hitting the road to Taupo we went off to the first
Global Gossip location in Wellington, located at I-site (their
version of the tourist information). Easier said than done
(again…). It is frustrating to conclude that most Internet
cafés (or at least the once that we visited) are run
by people who don't have the slightest knowledge of this modern
technology called “Internet & email”. At I-site
nobody seemed to care and to the question if we could access
the Internet with our laptop the answer was a brief and uncaring
“no”. No way we could plug it in, the only way
to access the World Wide Web was via their own computer.
The
2nd Global Gossip place – another hostel – actually
had wireless access, but…nobody had ever heard of the
magical “SMTP-server” - the server information
we would need to be able to send email from our own email
program when we logged on to their network. Oh, and detail,
no tech support wasn’t available; they’re in Sydney
and were still asleep at that time of day…
After
having lost about 2 hours we decided to press on to Taupo.
The drive was pretty uneventful, even a slight bit boring.
We checked in to the Rainbow Lodge and got on the phone to
book our Glowworm Expedition for the next day in Waitomo.
When
all that was done, out we went … we continued our quest
for an Internet café. It wasn’t so much for just
checking email, as it was to send off a photo submission for
a stock company that we were referred to a few days before
our departure from LA. Finally, it seemed like luck was on
our site when we found THE Hotspot in Taupo.
The
relief was short-lived when it turned out that the owners
of the place had the slightest idea of what the difference
was between the concept of “Internet” and “Email”.
As the submission had been put off at this point for a couple
of weeks we decided to push through and Marieke copied and
pasted each of the 212 photos into our online webmail program
so that they could be sent.
Meanwhile
David ran outside to “catch the light” and take
some shots of the sunset. Our duty finally done and our blood
sugar dropping we went off in search of food. We ended up
at a café, which we had passed by earlier and spied
someone having a beautiful steak and that seemed just the
ticket.
When
we sat down we explained that we needed food ASAP (Marieke’s
blood sugar had really dropped at this point). They rushed
garlic bread out to us and our steaks came later. We then
walked back to our hostel where we enjoyed a wonderful night’s
sleep, as we were exhausted.
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January 9 – Waitomo, North Island
We left Taupo in the rain. Overcast, grey clouds hung so low
we expected a max headroom sign. We’d heard from various
people that the South Island was so much more beautiful than
the North and whereas there are many, many, many startling
vistas on the South Island, we found the drive this morning
to be on par with a lot of scenery that we saw down South.
The roads in New Zealand on the whole are fantastic. This
morning in the rain we were riding on a “shiny”
surface instead of the typical coarse stoned asphalt on most
of the roads here. We were taking a curve at a speed when
dry would have been fine, but on the slick road the front
tire hydroplaned and slipped to one side. David was driving
and righted the bike quickly. Marieke was very proud. But
both of us took a few minutes to get our stomachs out of our
throats and back down to their normal resting places.
A
comment on New Zealand drivers: there are really two types
of drivers here. The ones that will move over to the side
and let you pass when they realize you’re faster than
they are. And then…then there are the ones who speed
up as you try to pass them. This morning on a small 2-lane
highway David was attempting to pass a truck, going down a
hill, but as David got to the side of him the truck driver
kept speeding up and speeding up. David had it full throttle
trying to get passed the guy in the rain thinking “what
the $#%^ are you doing?” We did get around him and kept
the throttle on to put distance between us, but it wasn’t
the first time that we noticed this.
After
an interesting breakfast stop at a roadside supermarket /
café / post office / candy store (we think it was the
only shop in town) we arrived in Waitomo and made our way
to the hostel. The name “Waitomo” comes from Wai,
meaning “water” and Tomo, meaning “hole
/ shaft”. Apparently, the Maori’s knew this land’s
secret for in this area there are apparently some 300 underground
caves and underground rivers. After checking in and leaving
our stuff behind, we got back on the bike, rode down the road
to the office of our Glowworm excursion: “Rap, Raft
‘n’ Rock” (Rappelling, Rafting & Rock
Climbing – http://www.caveraft.com).
To
get to the caves we had to rappel down a 27-meter chasm in
the earth. Marieke of course is possessed with a slight fear
of heights and found the prospect of this as a means to confront
some of her fears and give Mike Neill another story to reference
for his next book. A small wooden platform jutted out over
the chasm like a divers’ platform. Suspended above that
via heavy-duty cables were the abseiling mechanisms. Taking
that first step off of the platform so that you’re just
dangling in your harness is both the most difficult and exhilarating.
David went down first and found it easy-going and thought
that the guide kept the safety line too tight, as he would
have liked to cruise down a little faster. Marieke felt the
same way, but loved the experience nevertheless. For her,
this was the highlight of the day.
From
the bottom of the chasm, you looked up into the mist of the
light rain as the light found its way down into the hole bouncing
off of brilliantly green trees ferns, and mosses. The mosses
stretched the farthest down into the mouth of the chasm giving
way to chocolate-brown colored rock. Crystal clear water ran
through the bottom of the cave continuing to cut deep into
the earth. It was so clear that David didn’t even notice
it until he heard the splash and felt the water seeping into
his gumboot. The gumboots were equipped with a handy drainage
hole in the middle of the arch.
Unfortunately
the hole worked both ways and cold water came in as easily
as it flowed out.
After everyone had abseiled into the chasm, we shed our harnesses,
picked up some inner tubes and headed upstream into the dark.
The caves are formed from water picking up minerals and a
slightly acidic quality from the soil and then over time that
light acid eats into the rock, which over long periods of
time have formed these caves. There were also stalagmites
and other formations caused by mineral deposits from seeping
water. We went as far upstream as we could go until we literally
came to the end of the cave at which point the river disappeared
under the rocks. On a gravel bank of the stream we put our
inner tubes down, sat in them and turned off our headlamps.
The
glowworms produce a soft greenish light that is a designed
to attract insects into their sticky threads that hang down
below them. The glowworm caves were stunningly beautiful.
As you turn your headlamps off and your eyes adjust to the
darkness, you really think that you’re out under a Texas
starry night looking up at the Heavens. Then we stood up,
formed a chain and our guide led us through the caves in the
dark. After time you began to actually be able to see the
forms of the other people as well as rocks, lit purely by
the glowworms. The largest chamber was called The Cathedral
and it was really stunning. We then sat in our inner tubes
and floated down under the starlight of the glowworms. After
a spell, our guide had us put our feet under each other’s
armpits and thereby forming a chain of inner tubes, while
he pulled us through a section of the cave. We eventually
came back to the chasm that we abseiled down and continued
heading down stream. Here, we watched more glowworms, inner-tubed
more and climbed through some interesting holes that had been
cut in the limestone by the water.
When
we got back to the chasm, which we’d descended into,
we re-donned our harnesses and ascended a 20-meter rock climb
back to the outside world. (The harness was attached to a
safety-line should anyone slip.)
Whereas
the caves and the experience were great, the operations and
logistics of the company left one feeling that it was a bit
of an amateuristic outfit. We rode in a van out to a little
two-room house that had a freight container attached to it
with the gear (harnesses, wet suits, helmets, etc.). It just
looked a little thrown together and slap-dash. It reminded
David of the Kayaking in Milford Sound, only our guide, Tim,
had none of the charisma that Blake had to make the shantytown
aspect seem like charm rather than a two-bit operation. Tim,
it seemed, had been having a bad day when we got back to the
van and it would not start. On the way back, he drove the
little roads like a bat out of hell, which would have been
fine except having 7 people in the van on a rainy day, the
windows quickly began to fog up – including the windshield!
You could feel the tension building in the van as Tim banged
on the dash. David put his rock-climbing helmet back on, saying
to Marieke, “I don’t know, we’re not out
of this yet….” Finally, the French guy in the
front suggested he switch the vent to defrost. It cleared
up almost immediately, leaving us to furrow our brows about
poor Tim.
Still, it was very cool and although Tim seemed to just be
going through the paces, we did feel that care was given for
our safety in abseiling and the rock climbing.
We
went for food – pizza. It was that or pub food. We ordered
a large when a medium would have been fine and so were left
with a lot of pizza. We asked a take-way box and were shocked
to have to pay a dollar for a car-board pizza box. We ain’t
in Kansas anymore…
Showers,
laundry and now, sleep…. Perchance to dream….
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