Let’s do the TIME WALK again

We booked the longest amount of time in Queenstown (three nights = two full days and an afternoon) and as we had a tour of Milford Sound on the 19^th January, that left us with today (the 18^th) free. We had looked what to do in Queenstown (on a budget) and were even targeted by a posh preppy British salesman in a travel agent offering us “deals” (“I know you’re on a budget and Nicola doesn’t like flying in small aircraft but how about a $299 per person flight on to a glacier?” – “travel is about conquering your fear – here, take a look at some pictures of me having fun whilst I admire my reflection and ignore your comments” – “You can’t come to Queenstown and NOT do the luge – it’s just like Mario Kart”; he was a vain, arrogant and slimy cretin).

We settled on doing the “Time Walk”, which was a walk up Queenstown Hill that would give us a fantastic view of the Queenstown panorama; even though the German lady in the tourist information site (every other person in NZ seems to be German) didn’t know anything about it or anything about the geography of Queenstown for that matter (she told us the Gondola Hill – obvious by the massive gondola lift – was Bob’s Hill despite having several maps in front of her and calling Queenstown Hill, Tiki Hill).

It’s called the Time Walk because as you walk along the path you come across several information signs outlining the development of Queenstown. For your information, settled in 1861 as pastoral land by William Rees (a statue is dedicated to him in town centre) and in 1862 gold was discovered so Mr Rees sold his land for £10,000 (a lot back in those days) and moved elsewhere. Talk about jammy!

As we made our way along the path I discovered the perfect walking stick/staff that made me feel like a wizard (it looked like Gandalf’s staff from LotR – I know, ANOTHER Lord of the Rings reference) and which amused me to no end as we walked up the hill; swinging it round hitting flowers, leaning on, pretending it was a weapon, offering it as a sacrifice to the bowls of dreams etc. etc.

The views of the walk were fantastic, we were stopping almost every few steps to look back and admire the view and take pictures. As you’ll agree from the pictures, the sights were incredible.

We came to a wooded section that was cooler than out in the sun, which suited us (I burned AGAIN, my face is forever pink arghhhh!), and we had our lunch at a viewpoint over looking Queenstown airport and another view of the mountains that we couldn’t see from our hostel or lower down in the town.

After perhaps an hour and a half/two hours, we reached the top where we saw an art installation (Bowl of Dreams) which was situated at an impressive lookout on a ridge of the hill. We took some panorama shots, finished our lunch (the first lunch was more like a bag of crisps each) and spent some time chatting, relaxing and enjoying the sights before we headed back down where I very reluctantly had to part ways with my staff… 

 

 

Joel causing mischief with his staff...

Queenstown

We woke nice and early in Christchurch and were lucky enough to be offered a lift to where our bus was picking us up by Graham, the owner of Tranquil Lodge (our hostel), which saved us a walk in the rain. We were not especially looking forward to the journey as it was estimated to take us seven hours to get to Queenstown. We left at 07:30 and arrived in Queenstown around 15:30, if I remember correctly. The drive was better than we thought and the scenery was really beautiful so we had plenty to look at.

Queenstown sits beside a crystal clear, blue lake beneath a range of towering mountains that encircle the town; never could a more spectacular location for a town be imagined. The entire Queenstown vista was amazing, we didn’t know which was more impressive – the lake or the mountains. Queenstown has been dubbed “The Adventure Capital of the World” and it’s easy to see why. A range of adrenaline fuelled activities are available, from a mountain top luge (like a toboggan), to bungee jumping, to sky diving to mountain swings; Queenstown has a lot to offer. Unfortunately, most of that comes at a price and a steep one at that. The town itself though is pretty, a lot of cafes, bars and shops to keep you occupied and there is a lovely town garden that sits on a small peninsular jutting out into the lake (Nicola was splashed by a wave on the lake as she sat beside it in the gardens – icy cold water). The air seemed crisper here than elsewhere, maybe it was having travelled further south, or being nestled within the mountains but it was nice. Although we imagined that winter could get pretty cold.

 

Re:START Christchurch

After a few days chilling out in Kaikoura we were due to continue heading south and on to Christchurch, a two hour bus ride away. As you all remember, in 2011 Christchurch suffered a series of severe earthquakes that caused endless damage to the city. Just prior to the 2011 Rugby World Cup, it meant that all the Christchurch matches were relocated to the North island meaning the south missed out on a lot of rugby, and therefore tourists, to the city which couldn’t have helped the rebuilding finances. The city is still on the mend, we wanted to visit the Re:START Christchurch area where a number of businesses have started up (or restarted as you will) after the quake but instead of being based in buildings, they are based in converted shipping containers. Sadly, due to the effects of the quake, a lot of the city centre is actually cordoned off as a “red zone” where demolition and construction is on-going. Many houses and buildings we passed are due to be torn down due to the structural instability from the quake and the hostel we stayed in had visible cracks along the walls – a poignant reminder of the quake, if one was needed.

It’s a shame because Christchurch seemed like such a pretty town, resembling a middle-England town (there is even punting on the river Avon that runs through the city) and a number of grand Victorian buildings serve as a reminder of its colonial past. We walked past the Botanical Gardens, Canterbury Museum, Canterbury University and an open area where the world Busking festival was due to take place the following day. It was a pleasant walk, but upon arriving in the city centre the scale of the rebuilding operation was apparent. Cranes, bulldozers and men in high-vis were everywhere, and the man who ran our hostel (Tranquil Lodge) reckons there will be construction work here rebuilding for the next twenty years at least!

We came upon the Re:START Christchurch area and thought it was really cool, a modern and unique feel to the place. The shipping containers were converted nicely, and they were painted a myriad of colours so it was all visually very impressive. I imagine that if they keep the containers they’ll become an icon of the city in the future; we were well impressed with it all.

We only had the one night in Christchurch, and we were off in the morning for our next destination Queenstown, but we did enjoy Christchurch and we’d like to come back in the future and see how the rebuilding has come along – it really is a beautiful little city.

Kaikoura

After waking up in Wellington nice and early for the ferry, we were saddened to see that the weather outside was very Welsh – torrential rain. We jumped in a taxi with a Canadian (who claimed to have spent the last two years training tigers in Thailand and then another six months in New Zealand) and his Asian girlfriend to save us all walking to the ferry terminal. We got to the ferry terminal and checked in and waited to board, it felt a bit like waiting to cross from Dover to Calais as the ferries are a similar size and the crossing a similar length in time.

The ferry journey from Wellington to Picton was comfortable enough, it took around three hours and we spent time our relaxing reading newspapers and our kindles in the reclining chair lounge. We had a short stop off in Picton whilst we waited for the bus to take us to Kaikoura and whilst we were browsing in the gift shop I got talking to the lady who worked there – she said New Zealanders felt the Welsh were “done” by Alain Rolland in the RWC Semi Final against France i.e. Sam Warburton’s red card and New Zealanders wanted the final to be Wales vs. New Zealand. In my head I was saying “YES – it’s not just me (and Wales) who thought we were done”. I’m not bitter or anything, honest, I just feel that Alain Rolland made the worst call of the Word Cup, ruined the semi-final and allowed the lesser team to qualify – the lesser team which he has a parent descended from…he’s impartial obviously. Apparently Kiwis think he is biased in favour of South Africa whenever New Zealand play the Springboks and he officiates so they think just as little of him (as a referee I should add, I’m sure he’s a decent enough bloke) as I do.

When we finally got on our bus journey to Kaikoura, which only took two hours, we hopped off the coach and walked through the pleasant little town that is reminiscent of a Welsh sea side town (lots of cafes, souvenir shops and fish and chips) until we got to our hostel (Dusky Lodge, named after the Dusky Dolphins found off the coast). The hostel was lovely, it had two pools, a sauna, a few living rooms that were a generous size, two kitchens and a couple of wood burning heaters that Nicola and I spent an evening reading in front of – bliss. The first evening we went to the local fish and chip shop for dinner, where we had a lasagne topper (a bread crumbed portion of lasagne deep fried – the Scottish would LOVE it!) which, despite being an unorthodox take on lasagne, was delicious.

We planned to go whale watching the next day but we found the trips to be expensive and besides, when we woke up the weather was blowing a storm; gale force winds, torrential rain and a cold crispness in the air. Neither Nicola nor I fancied spending three hours on a boat in those conditions, that’s even if the boats would have gone off as we were told the trips depended on the weather. As our trip was rained off we spent our day relaxing, resting our sore feet from all our walking and doing tasks we had previously been too busy to complete i.e. washing (our clothes not us, our personal hygiene has been tip-top…mostly).

 

On our final morning in Kaikoura the weather was clear and sunny (typical) and for the first time since we arrived we could see the impressive Kaikoura mountain range that lay beyond the town; the previous bad weather had obscured the mountains beneath a thick layer of mist. We had our third portion of chips in three days whilst waiting for our bus to Christchurch and whilst I was in the chippie I spotted a map of South Wales that people had added their names to their respective towns. Naturally I got a pen and added our names and circled Killay (it was that much to scale), so if you are ever in Cooper’s Catch in Kaikoura take a look on the map of South Wales on the right hand wall and see if you can spot our names (in red ink Joel & Nic 2013). 

Windy Wellington

The bus from Taupo to Wellington took us a little longer than expected – seven and a half hours instead of six and a half owing to traffic jams; people heading back to Wellington from Taupo after spending the weekend there. After stepping off the bus we were buffeted by the wind – gale force winds they felt like. We took shelter in McDonalds where we searched the internet (free Wifi in Maccers) for our hostel; we had a map of Wellington with us but it didn’t show our hostel. We soon found it and made our way through the city centre, along with Wellington Phoenix football fans as there was a game on that evening. We thought Wellington was nice, full of character and little boutique shops and cafes – an improvement on Auckland.

We found our hostel and checked in, we were only in Wellington for one night as we hadn’t heard much about it before we flew over and decided to use it as a necessary stop off before making an early start to the Southern Island the following day. After arriving, we wished we had stayed another night or two so we could have explored Wellington. It seemed like a cool place and there looked like a lot of things to do there. Same story as with everywhere else though, just not enough time in each place to do everything. We know we have not got enough time in New Zealand and we have already agreed that we need to come back and see more…just need to save up more cash!

Tongariro Crossing and Mt Doom

One of the trips we had most looked forward to was the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. It has been named New Zealand’s best one day walk and for good reason. The Tongariro trek takes you past Mt. Ngaraghoe (say Nah-rah-hoe-ee) a.k.a. Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Mines of Moria part) and is distanced at 18km, so not just a casual stroll in the park. We are honestly not on a LotR tour of New Zealand but the last few days makes it feel like it a bit. To be honest, travelling across NZ is a bit like stepping into Middle Earth as the scenery is so dramatic and other-worldy.

Back to the story, we selected the “late” pick up for the walk which was at 06:30, the early pick up was 05:30, and we made our way across early morning Taupo and towards Tongariro National Park; the drive took around an hour and a half and was pretty spectacular (running out of adjectives to describe NZ). We did have one brief picture stop on the way.

Mt Ruahepu

We started our walk by crossing the flat plain towards Soda Springs – a small waterfall – which took around one hour or so. The terrain was pretty flat as I said but the ground was still rocky and gave fantastic views of the three mountains (Mt Tongariro, Mt Ngaraghoe and Mt Ruapehu). Even without being snow covered, Mt. Doom (that’s what we called it all day and that’s what I’ll always call it) looked ominous. Whereas as the other two mountains either had some green colour to them or snow-capped peaks, Mt. Doom was the classic conical shaped volcano and had black sides and seemed to rise menacingly from the earth – it looked like a place where goblins and trolls would live if I’m being honest.

 

Soda Springs

After our walk along the flat plain we reached the Devil’s Staircase, a series of stairs built into the track that led you to the higher ground on the ridge of the penultimate crater. The walk was pretty hard going; it was long, the stairs numerous and the weather difficult (quite hot but with strong winds) and it took us another hour to traverse. 

Once we reached the top of the Devil’s Staircase we found ourselves in the South Crater, a barren expanse of welcome flat land that must have been a kilometre round. It gave us our first view of the walk ahead of us to the summit of the red crater…which looked very far away. At this point people could break off and walk to the summit of Mt Doom, although it was not an option for us for four main reasons: One, timescale – the walk would take three hours and we would not be able to do the walk up Mt Doom and the rest of the walk due to the last bus time; two, fitness, neither Nicola nor I were in particularly good shape and the walk was graded as “dangerous” and the walk uphill looked almost vertical and the ground beneath your feet was not a track but loose sand/volcanic rock like walking up a sand dune; three, safety, it didn’t look particularly safe especially considering how out of shape the two of us were; and four, we didn’t pack our swords and war axes in case of goblin attacks but nevertheless, we were able to go around the mountain and didn’t need to go through the mountain so we cut our chance of goblin attacks to a minimum.

 

After we walked across the South Crater we began our ascent of the Red Crater, which was harder than the Devil’s Staircase mainly because there were no stairs and the ground under foot was loose rock/shingle or “scree” as our driver had called it, and two, it was a LOT windier and colder since we had walked on to higher ground and we were no longer shielded by the mountain wall above us. It was a tough walk to the top and it took us another hour or so and by the time we reached the top we were getting pretty tired. The views were amazing though, we got to see the Emerald Lakes which are three lakes formed like those in Rotorua i.e. geothermal pools, which were pretty nice.

 

This was as far as we were allowed to walk due to a volcanic eruption that happened in August 2012. The volcano erupted (you can see the smoke/“fizz” that is still coming from the peak in the photos of the Emerald Lakes) for the first time in decades which means the complete Alpine Crossing is blocked half way along. Although, instead of descending down to the far end as previously, you turn around and descend the way you came which still clocks in at 18km.

And so began our long trudge back to the bus. We slowly made it back to the bus (spotting what we are convinced is The Lonely Mountain from the closing scene of The Hobbit) after stopping frequently to catch our breath and take more pictures and eventually got back by around 15:00, some six hours after we started. Yet despite now possessing incredibly sore feet and wind chilled bodies we loved every minute of the trek and it was definitely a highlight of our travels so far.