In New Zealand - the tour

NEW PICTURES NOW UP!!!


We are in Wanaka just getting ready to go and drive up the west coast to the glaciers etc. thought we had better update our blog we've been doing so much I had to start from today and work back! Been trying to cut down on our expenses after spending hideous amounts at the great barrier reef. Remember a dollar saved is a dollar earned!

Wanaka We saved $2.80 by eating half a cookie that was left in the Wanaka Paradiso cinema cafe. they are quite famous for their cookies apparently also for having a open top Morris Minor in which you can watch movies as well as a random selection of sofas and aircraft seats.

Bought a tent for $38 at the Warehouse "Where everyone gets a bargain",(or "where everything's cracked and broken") thus saving us about $20 each for every night that we stay in it rather than at a backpackers. Well we have stayed in it for a night, it was so windy that none of us got any sleep. In Queenstown, we saved $19 each by walking up to the top of the gondola instead of the cable car. There are great views from the top and also the best value adventure sport in Queenstown, not the bunji jumping or the paragliding, but the luge where you can race little carts down the mountain just powered by gravity all for just $7 bargain!

Also in Queenstown, Yael went for a skydive the airport was at Glenorchy and we went along for the ride and to take photos for her. The mini bus driver made the winding, cliff edge, narrow road, quite exciting enough, making the thought of skydiving quite tame in comparison, so saving us $220 kind of!

Hiking is a great way to save money there's nothing to spend your money on at the top of the mountains! If it's a famous trek like the Milford track you have to book months in advance and you pay $40 a night to stay in their huts, not compulsory you could camp in some places but having a place with a gas stove and a log fire and beds can be very nice in a high alpine pass. We did a loop of two tracks. The Greenstone and the Routeburn. The first day was a walk up the Greenstone valley. Tamar was looking for some green stone all day but only found purple stone. We walked though grazing sheep in the valley bottoms, and Southern Beech woodlands on the steep sides there was a very definite tree line at about 900m and above that, the alpine tufts of grasses and alpine daisies and hebes. As this was not a "great walk" the huts didn't have cooking gas and were smaller but were new and clean and only $10 a night -- Fantastic value!

The other hikers were very friendly most of them were traveling the hike in the other direction. When we told them of our plan to miss out staying in the last hut and do it all in one really long day to save $40 (I don't remember being consulted on this) they gave each other knowing looks, made tutting noise, other general looks of disbelief, and wished us "good luck!"

The day before our epic hike we came up to the very top of the tree line, past an amazing waterfall and up to the McKenzie hut. on the edge of a mountain lake caused by a glacier pushing massive boulders to form a natural dam now filled by melting snow. this gets to a barmy 9 degrees C in the summer so we had a quick bracing swim and wash (none of the huts have showers or any hot water) We made an almost stealthy exit at 5.30am the next morning, Yael clomping down the stairs from the dorm in her boots, I'm sure endeared us to the other hikers! We used head torches when we first left the hut climbing up the steep path out of the woods and into the alpine landscape. The sun was just by then lighting the snow-capped peaks of the mountains. and we congratulated ourselves for being so clever to have made such an early start. The trip over the mountains was all the nicer because we had it all to ourselves. Coming down again we smiled at all the sweating huffing people coming up. It was hard on the toes though, REMEMBER always buy walking boots wearing proper hiking socks and in the afternoon, for example after hiking 20km over a mountain.
Well that was a total of 130km that we hiked over 8 days (with two days off in the middle) we are now off to do the Copeland, and Able Tasman tracks, and maybe another that goes halfway up Mt Cook. Cool.
Word for the week that I learned from all the Israel Hikers, Zoola (say Zoo-La) Ani B'Zoola, Say this when relaxing after having a big meal, after a long shower, after a 4 day hike!

To save time, Tamar started writing her entry from the other end of the month and is going forwards, to meet somewhere in the middle with me going backwards its just like watching the movie Momento, makes the blog a bit funky, bit cutting edge! Woooo!

Spent New Years eve at a beach party near Wellington, playing volleyball, shooting clay pigeons, watching the beautiful sunset, (actually the location where Peter Jackson shot both sunsets in King Kong, one on the boat, and the other behind the empire state building, cool movie huh!?) and eating lots.

After going back to the south island we visited Alan and Olive, Piers' aunt and uncle, where I had the distinct privelege of driving the lawn mower in reverse into the rear end of Alan's car. I hope he wasn't saying he didn't mind just to be nice.

In Christchurch, Piers' lovely cousin Bruce lent us a car to drive around NZ with. We picked up two other backpackers, Yael (Israeli) and Anders (Swedish) to tour with us. We headed altogether down to Dunedin where Piers lived for a year in 2001. We went to his old church, visited some old friends and stalked the wildlife (albatross, penguins, seals and sea lions).

After a quick visit to Ruth in Inveracrgill, we started out on our first trek. The "Kepler" took us 3 harrowing days to finish. I sweat and panted as Piers pushed me up the hill the first day. It improved as I got my legs work the next day, and the views were breath-taking. We had a good laugh with a bunch of Israelis on the way, working out the Kiwi psyche and sharing army anecdotes. On the last day I kept having visions of parking lots as we were walking. By the time we got to the hostel, I couldn't get down steps or stand or sit very well. As a bonus for completing the 60km walk we and all our new Israeli friends threw ourselves a party with home-made pitas, hummus, schnitzels, fries with soofganiot (Chanukah donuts) for dessert.

Now, I seem to be gaining weight here but they're telling me that's good because muscle is heavy.

Love to you all!
Tamar and Piers