Friday 4/11/03 - Cape Foulwind, Punakaiki, Limestone Cave Tour

We woke up at 6 and ate a quick breakfast of banana chocolate chip muffins and orange juice in the van. We left Old MacDonald's, and on our way out we caught a spectacular sunrise over the beach. We headed out via the Motueka Valley Highway south to Rt. 6. The "highway" was a very scenic road, and there were lots of areas where the road was cut into from rock overhangs. Virtually every bridge was a one-lane bridge, with a sign indicating which direction has the right of way. We continued south and stopped at the Hope Saddle Observation area to check out some great vistas.

We continued south, stopping for gas and a newspaper. At around 12:30 we arrived at Cape Foulwind. We tramped on the Cape Foulwind walkway (the cape is so named because Captain Cook thought that the wind was unfavorable there and that he would not be able to exit once he entered) up to the lookout point for the seal colony. It is seal pup season, and we saw a bunch of NZ fur seals and their pups basking on rocks. Adults swam in the ocean while pups seemed to enjoy playing in little whirlpools created by the surf hitting their rock. Eventually we saw some of the pups enter the ocean as well. The tramp here was very pretty, and was surrounded by flax plants. There was one of those signposts with mileage to various cities in the world. New York was 12749 km away, and Moscow was 14223. The weather was gorgeous, sunny and warm. We tramped back to the van and then hit the road again. We stopped at a small gallery and admired the Maori necklaces made of carved bone and greenstone, as well as beautiful wooden bowls and chests of small drawers. We talked to the shopkeeper about the 1970's Elton John that she was playing, which was rather a nice respite from the 80's pop which seems so ubiquitous in New Zealand.

We got back on the road and set off to find a place to eat lunch. At 1:30 we ran across a restaurant in Charleston. It was called the Cave Rock Cafe, and we realized that we had inadvertently stumbled upon a place we had seen on the internet which offers "blackwater" tubing through limestone caves. Reservations are needed about a day ahead for that trip, since they book the guides on an as-needed basis. We were told that we could come back tomorrow, or we could do the nighttime glowworm tour at 8 p.m. that same night. We opted for the glowworm tour of the Metro Cave. We were slightly disappointed that we wouldn’t be doing the tubing, but it just didn't really fit our schedule. We hoped that the walking cave tour and train ride through the rainforest wasn't really touristy and commercialized. We ate lunch at the Cave Rock Cafe. I had a Hawaiian burger (which contained no burger, it was a slice of ham, a slice of pineapple, a slice of cheese, and a slice of beet). I ate it, sans beet. Craig got a whitebait sammy (sandwich). Whitebait are little teeny fish all mashed together into a patty, and they were served on the NZ equivalent of Wonder bread. Not the best meal we'd ever had, but we had been hearing about whitebait and were very curious. It kind of just tasted like a generic fish sandwich on Wonder bread. Craig had a Miner's Dark beer and I had apple/orange juice.

After lunch we drove 45 minutes to Punakaiki (the "Pancake Rocks") which are natural limestone structures at the shore that look like stacks of pancakes. We checked in the camper van at the Punakaiki Beach Camp and then headed off to Dolomite Point (the best viewing area). We walked the flax-perimetered path, admiring the striated limestone rocks and the various blowholes. We knew that the best times to view were at sunset (for the rocks) and high tide (for the blow holes). It turned out that both would occur simultaneously tonight around 6 p.m. We went into the Visitor's Centre and the shops. It immediately seemed too commercial to me. Bone carvings by the same artist we had seen in the gallery earlier today were easily twice the price. It just seemed like a rip-off in all ways, so we didn't buy anything. We did go into an internet cafe, though, where we inserted some coins and got a certain amount of online time. We checked our mail and sent out a little update to our folks. It was now just about time for sunset and high tide, so we crossed the street and wandered along the path at the rocks again. You could hear and feel the ocean thundering beneath you as you stood on the rock ledges and bridges. The blowholes were very active, but most of our attempts to catch them on film were unsuccessful. We had a great view of sunset, as well as the almost-full moon that was already up.

As we walked back to the van it started to rain. We had no idea if our train ride/cave tour would operate in the dark, so we drove back to Charleston in the pouring rain with our fingers crossed. We entered the restaurant/bar and asked the bartender if the tour was going. He had no idea. We didn't see a group or a guide, and it was just before 8. We didn't really know what to do, so we each got a drink (Craig had a Miner's Gold and I had a Peach Archers). At exactly 8:00, a man approached us and introduced himself as Geoff, our guide. He said that we were the only ones on tonight's tour, and he was quite excited to be taking us out. He appeared to be one of the founders of the company. Craig and I finished our drinks (probably wouldn't have had them if we had realized that we did indeed have a hike ahead of us), and Geoff gave us our gear. He himself had a carbide headlamp. I had a normal flashlight on my headlamp, and Craig had a headlamp with an external 10-lb battery. We hopped into Geoff's van. We drove through a sheep pasture and to the start of the rainforest. We got out of the van and Geoff introduced us to Cecil, a small train with a petrol engine and two wee open-air passenger cars (each one might hold 6 people). It had a roof, so the waning rain didn't really get us. They had just constructed the narrow gauge railroad a few months ago. There was a little station house and everything. As we chugged through the rain forest with Geoff at the controls, we were only able to see glimpses of the lush vegetation as lit by the two lights on the front of the train and our own headlamps. We arrived at the terminal train station and hiked through the rain forest on a nice path which culminated in a set of stairs.

After climbing the stairs we reached the mouth of the cave. We saw a few cave wetas and a large spider as we entered the cave. We were delighted to find that the cave was not commercialized at all. The only light was from our own headlamps. There were no constructed walkways, merely pieces of string indicating the direction in which to walk. The cave was active, i.e. you could see many stalactites and stalagmites in progress, with luminescent water droplets on their tips. Older inactive formations had turned more crystalline and dry. There were some wet spots on the ground, and we needed to duck down in certain stretches where the ceiling was really low. Some of the stalactites that we saw were so thin and delicate that they looked like long thin icicles. It seemed a physical impossibility that they could remain hanging. Geoff was a great guide. He was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic. It seemed as if there was no way he'd rather spend his Friday night than guiding people through the cave that he knows so well. We climbed over a rock fall. We saw some incredible formations. At places the ceiling of the cave was black with white veins. We descended to the second level. (The cave rafting trip goes to the third level, where the blackwater tubing takes place). The cave floods about once every two weeks, and we came upon a small lake. There was a trout in the lake. Geoff had thought they had lost him in the last flood. It was creepy to think of it existing in total darkness. The limestone cave and the find pond reminded us of Gollum's lair in Lord of the Rings. Craig's headlamp was so strong that it began burning his forehead. He only wore it when he needed head protection, as a blister was starting to form. Craig was thinking about Rick Wakeman's "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" album. It was like another world.

Saturday 4/12/03 - Quad Bikes, Hokitika, Franz Josef Glacier

We woke up at 7 and pretty much hit the road immediately. It was another gorgeous sunny day. We pulled over and parked the van and walked down to a small beach covered in rocks and driftwood on the Tasman Sea. We sat on a piece of driftwood and ate the last banana chocolate chip muffins until the sand flies started getting the better of us. We determined that we wanted to get a proper breakfast, and maybe then take a quad bike ride in Greymouth.

It seems that there is a lack of breakfast restaurants in NZ. Maybe it's just because we were off-season. Anyway, next thing we knew, we were in Greymouth and we ran into On Yer Bike quad bike trails, and their Gumboot Cafe. This was perfect; we'd eat a nice breakfast and then go on the quad bikes. We talked to Blair and scheduled a ride with him. He rang a bell to "get the breakfast lady." Like a lot of NZ small businesses, this was run by a family. So a few minutes later, a woman with wet hair appeared and happily offered us breakfast. We ordered the breakfast panini (containing a fried egg, hash brown, bacon, and marmalade). Craig got coffee and I got a hot chocolate with two fruity marshmallows the size of a quarter. After we finished breakfast, they began suiting us up for our ride. We were given heavy-duty rain pants and a rain jacket. We also got gumboots and helmets. While we were suiting up, another couple arrived. They were newlyweds from England named Matt and Sarah. They suited up as well, and Blair got us settled on our Suzuki Ozark quad bikes. He gave us instructions and then set us loose on the practice course, which included some hills, corners, and puddles. Craig used to drive a dirt bike and a motorcycle, but I had never driven anything like that. At first I was rather tentative but I soon got the hang of it.

We drove through the center of Greymouth and continued on to Hokitika. What a great town it was! There were a lot of shops, bakeries, etc. We parked the van and wandered into a store which sold wooden souvenirs. It was a wonderful shop. Wonderful workmanship, and reasonable prices. It was called the House of Wood. One entire wall was made out of flat river stones hot-glued on top of one another, forming cubbies and shelves to showcase items. Looks like something they could do to make a nature-lover's room on "Trading Spaces". We bought some Maori woodcarvings, a jadestone tiki necklace, and a bunch of presents for our families. I was quite pleased that we managed to find so many nice things in one place. It was yet another beautiful sunny day, and we wandered around town.

We stopped at a camera shop to see if they had an extra proprietary battery for our digital camera (it was supposed to be released sometime in April). So far, with the camper van and powered camping sites, we had been able to use our adapter to recharge the battery every couple days. But who knew what lay ahead, and the digital camera seemed to be working out very well. The woman in the camera store said that they didn't have the battery, and suggested that we try across the street. That place could order one, but we'd be leaving town tonight. Craig was just kind of thinking out loud and said, "Well, maybe I'll call a place in Queenstown and see if maybe they can order one..." The clerk was super helpful and took this idea and ran with it. She called a (non-affiliated) camera store in Queenstown and asked the woman there if they could special order a battery and have it by Tuesday, when we reached Queenstown. They said no problem. Craig and I were just blown away at how helpful and polite everyone was. We stopped at a bakery and brought muffins and a loaf of banana bread. We toyed with the idea of eating supper in town, but we were there at the awkward time after lunch and before dinner, and noone was really serving. So we decided to press on to Franz Josef Glacier.

Along the way we stopped at Lake Ianthe, a placid scenic lake which had restrooms, a dock, and a couple small campsites. It looked beautiful, and we were tempted to stay. But we continued on to Franz Josef. We checked into a motor camp and then drove 4 km so that we would be able to at least view this glacier from a distance while it was still light. We stopped in the parking lot and viewed it from afar. We ate dinner at a restaurant in the center of town called The Landing. Craig had a Speight's Old dark and I had vodka and orange juice. We were given a huge loaf of bread with garlic butter as a starter. I got kumara and mushroom curry, and Craig had a beef fillet with peppercorn gravy, potatoes, and salad. For dessert I had a pavlova and hard cider, and Craig got a Steinlager.

After dinner, we returned to the motor park, showered, and headed over to the onsite Baa Bar. It was happening! I wrote in the journal and Craig filled out postcards while we watched the scene. I drank a Raspberry Kristov Vodka Cruiser and Craig had a Monteith's Black. The jukebox blared a surreal collection of tunes: Violent Femmes' "Blister in the Sun", Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler", and everything in between. A bloke from Bristol, UK, noticed our postcards and struck up a conversation. We had a nice chat with him and some of his friends. We were about to leave when Sandy, an Indian girl from the UK, came over and sat with us. We had a very interesting conversation with her about the world political situation, and how we believe (as she does) that there would be a lot fewer problems in the world if more people traveled to other cultures and really made the effort to understand one another. I think it was 1:30 when we finally headed back to the camper van.

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Sunday 4/13/03 - Fox Glacier

We woke up at 7 a.m. and headed straight out. I ate a carrot cake muffin and Craig had a blueberry one while we were on the road. We arrived in the town of Fox Glacier at around 8:30. We checked in for our tour at Alpine Guides and then bought a few items in the shop. We were told that we needed to provide our own lunch, so we bought sandwiches at their Hobnail Cafe. Craig got a chicken and salad sandwich, and I got chicken, brie, and cranberry sauce on a croissant. We headed off to the boot room to get our gear. It seemed risky to wear their standard issue boots on a long day hike - what if they didn't fit right? But it turned out that our personal hiking boots would sustain their crampons, so we were able to use them. Our guide Cornelia lined up the crampons against the instep of our boots, and told us they were fine. But the setup was really good, and they had boots, mittens, hats, wool socks, backpacks, etc that people could borrow if they didn't have their own. There were a total of 12 people in the group.

In some areas, the glacier water was limpid blue. In others it was marbled back and white. Soon the sunny blue sky gave way to clouds and it got a wee bit colder. The sensation of hiking on the glacier ranged from walking on a Slush Puppie to slogging through an ice machine. Cornelia cut steps as she went and we snaked along behind her. We slithered through some crevasses together. After a while my legs started to get tired. Marching along the ice and stamping my crampons down started to tire my knees, and my arches didn't feel terrific with a big metal plate being driven into them. I was starting to slow down and I was starting to lose my concentration, and I lost my footing a couple of times. We found a rocky spot in which to eat our lunches. The sandwiches were superb! This was just the rest I needed, and after lunch I was back to being a happy camper. Then Cornelia led us ever further, to the lower ice falls. Men with ice axes were maintaining the trail, and it was scary to see how they clung to the ice walls as if it was nothing. Craig moved aside some fallen ice and found one of those little plastic T's that affix price labels to clothing. They follow us! Every time I throw them away at home, they somehow find their ways out of the wastebasket and wind up on the floor. Now here one was attracted to Craig on the other side of the world. Weird! Past the lower ice falls it was very difficult going, and only technical climbers can really do it. Plus we were running low on time. We hiked back to the edge of the glacier and met up with a well-kept DOC track which got us back to the parking lot. As we deposited our wooden hiking poles into the barrel, a group of half-day hikers were just getting their crampons on. They would only get an hour on the ice, and they would only hit the more crowded areas (no lower ice falls). We were glad that we had chosen the all-day option.

Monday 4/14/03 - Lake Matheson, Arrowtown, Queenstown

We woke up at 6:45. When we had gone to bed, there had been a couple other camper vans and a couple cars. Now the lot was almost full of people hoping to catch sunrise over Lake Matheson. By 7:05 we were out of the camper, looking at views of Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman. We retraced our steps from last night. There were a bunch of people standing at our vantage point from last night, so we moved on. We continued around the lake and stopped just prior to Reflection Island. We could see the peaks of Mt Cook and Mt Tasman peeking through the clouds. Ducks were swimming and diving, and cattle were mooing up a storm in the distance. We stood in that spot for at least half an hour admiring the view and watching the clouds burn off. We spoke to a Kiwi originally from France who was leading a group of French tourists. After a while we decided to continue the loop track rather than doubling back the way we had come. We made a brief stop at Reflection Island (where some people had congregated) and then continued on.

At one point we reached a glen that was full of small trees. Each had many small, intricate spider webs that were glistening with dew in the morning sun. I have never seen anything like it. It was like we were in another world. When we got back to the van we ate some banana bread from Hokitika and hit the road. We reached Wanaka at around 1:30. In this part of the country the autumn foliage was very pronounced. Lots of yellows, and some oranges and reds. Lake Wanaka was a gorgeous blue in the sunlight, and there were many families relaxing on its shores. It was a quaint town and we wandered around. We got all the digital photos that we had taken so far downloaded onto CD in 20 minutes. While waiting, we ate "large" pizzas (Hawaiian and Meat Lovers, that would be considered small or medium-sized at home) on the sidewalk at daVinci's. Then we went to collect our photos. They let us check each and every photo on their computer to verify that they were all there before we erased our memory card. We headed back to the van and stopped in the visitors' center. We were looking at brochures and Craig asked if I wanted to try bungy jumping. I had been toying with the idea ever since we decided to go to New Zealand. The brochure was for A.J. Hackett Bungy in Queenstown. We had seen their bungy company on television, and knew that they established the world's first commercial bungy site. We decided that we would just book a reservation, and then we would be locked in, no turning back. I called and we made a reservation for a jump at the Kawarau Bridge, the original bungy bridge and home of bungy since 1988. It was a 43-meter drop with splashdown option in the river. To celebrate our bravery in booking it we got ice cream in waffle cones. I had orange chocolate chip and Craig had creamy cookie. Then we hit the road again.

We passed the bungy bridge and continued on to Arrowtown. It was a very small, quaint, picturesque. We parked near the town common and wandered down the little road of shops and restaurants. We had read in our Lord of the Rings location guidebook that Arrowtown had been used as a location for the Ford of Bruinen in The Fellowship of the Ring, so we decided to take a little walk and try to find the spot. We passed a nice skate park teeming with kids and continued to the river. We walked about 200 m upstream (as directed by the book) and saw the spot where Arwen and Frodo stood against the Black Riders. The site isn't really far from the road at all, but it looks incredibly remote in the movie. In our geeky way, we took a bunch of pictures and were very excited by the find. The foliage was beautiful, very yellow.

Tuesday 4/15/03 - Bungy Jumping in Queenstown

We woke up at 7 and quickly got ready, dumped the van's waste tank, and headed out of the camper park to the bungy bridge. When we got there we saw the bridge and immediately recognized it from TV and film. There was construction going on as they are in the process of building a new headquarters. We were there early (8:30) and the employees were arriving. We sat in the car for a while staring at the bungy brochure, and after a while we went into the building. We ditched everything that was not going to be on our bodies when we jumped, and then they weighed us. They wrote our weights in red marker on our hands. There wasn't a whole lot of paperwork to fill out (unlike if you tried a stunt like this in the States) but we did have to fill out a small slip of paper they called a "toe tag". Gulp. All the employees were very friendly and encouraging. I wanted to go first, because I thought that if I watched others I might lose my nerve. (Although they won't sell Kawarau shirts to those who don't jump, they will sell "bungy chicken" T- shirts which have a picture of a chicken with all its lily-liver, yellow belly, lack of spine, etc all labeled. )Luckily there weren't very many onlookers this early in the morning either. There were a few Asian tourists on the observation deck. So it was that I was jump #1 at Kawarau Bridge that day. We walked out onto the bridge and paced around in the cool air as the employees readied the equipment. The sun hadn't yet reached the bridge. Would we do a splashdown in this cold air? Sure, why not. You only live once. They had me step into a harness and then sat me down on the platform. They wrapped a towel firmly around my ankles. They then attached the carabiners and helped me to stand up. With my legs effectively shackled, I waddled out to the edge of the platform and looked down. Wow, it was a long way. They had me wave to the camera, and explained what I needed to do. I thought back to a guy we had talked to in Abel Tasman who had done the bungy at Kawarau. He said they count backwards from 5 to 1, and then you jump. He told us about a woman who needed about 6 countdowns before she finally went. I became determined that that wouldn't be me, and that I was going to just do it. I looked down, thought this was crazy, and when he got to "1" I just did a swan dive off the platform. My first and only real thought during the jump was "wow, this is what freefalling feels like". It was a total rush. Very intense. I could see the water hurtling towards me, but I realized that I was slowing down and the bungy was starting to get some tension. I wouldn't make the splashdown. That's alright, at this moment I realized that I had survived! I bounced a few times and was utterly ecstatic. The recovery team was nearby in a raft, and they paddled beneath me. They held up a stick. I grabbed on and they pulled me down to the boat while the guy up on the bridge gave me some slack on the harness. It was amazing. They made me lie on my back while they removed my harness and ankle towel. What a rush. I still couldn't believe it. I had expected it to maybe hurt or be a bit jarring when you first bounce back up, but in reality it was totally comfortable. There was no discomfort at all. I looked up at the bridge and saw that Craig was about ready to go. I didn't have time to climb all the stairs back to the bridge, so I just went up the first few flights and stood on an observation deck. Apparently they had told him that it was a good thing he sent his wife first, so that he couldn't chicken out. He did a graceful swan dive right on "1" and he actually did splash down in the water! Very gently, just up to his elbows. He didn't make a sound as he fell (and neither had I). Apparently that is unusual, but we just didn't even think to scream. the most I did was gasp. Craig bounced so high he nearly reached the level of the bridge again. It was amazing. The adrenaline/endorphin rush that followed was something I'd never experienced before. We couldn't wipe the smiles off of our faces.

By now people were arriving by the busload. Some were jumping, and others were just watching and cheering. We spoke to a young Asian woman who was torn as to whether she should do it or not. Her friends would watch; she was the only one who wanted to jump. We told her about our experience and eventually convinced her to sign up. By that point there was an hour wait if you hadn't booked ahead. We ran into a couple who had jumped the Nevis (143 meter drop and you freefall for 8 seconds) the day before, who were about to do a tandem jump off the Kawarau. They asked if we'd take photos for them, so we did. I used their camera, and Craig used ours and managed to get some amazing photos. The tandem jump was interesting to watch; we had expected them to sort of bang against one another, but much like our experience, it seemed quite gentle. When they arrived at the viewing platform they said that although Nevis was higher, they though Kawarau was more of a rush. We were bouncing off the walls, and hopped in the van and drove up a small dirt road which led to a vineyard. We had a great view of the bridge in the morning light and watched some people jump while talking to a family about our jump. We then went back to the bridge, watched a couple more jumps from the bridge itself, and admired the view. The view off the other side of the bridge was what was used for the Anduin River scene with the Argonath Statues in The Fellowship of the Ring. We then went into the shop. We weren't planning on buying our videotape, but once they showed it to us, how could we say no? They gave us free T-shirts and coupons to pick up our photos when we returned to the A.J. Hackett office in Queenstown later in the day. In the meanwhile, our Asian friend had jumped, and while we were in the shop we saw her video. She did great! She was so proud, and we congratulated her. She joked about buying her friend a bungy chicken shirt. We bought some hot chocolate and then hit the road.

We wandered down to the waterfront and checked out some of the shops. We decided to eat dinner at the Beefeater Steak House. They had a salad bar which contained couscous, pasta, etc. I didn't find the actual lettuce, but Craig did. I had a steak with pepper sauce. Craig had a rump roast with mushrooms. We had pavlova and hot chocolate for dessert. Then we walked back to the Pinewood Lodge. It was chilly, and I was regretting not bringing a jacket on our trip to town. Craig very kindly lent me his, and we made a mental note that I should try to buy a fleece somewhere. I hadn't brought one from home, as the ones I have don't pack very small, and I had thought that my wool sweater and light jacket would be enough. Stan had left us a note on the bulletin board, so we headed over to his room to say hi. We invited him over to our common room for a beer and a chat. We started to get to know one another and we made sure all the last minute details for the Secret South hiking (tramping, in Kiwi-speak) trip were in order. At 9:30, Stan went back to his room; we reorganized our stuff, showered, and went to bed.

 See more pictures from 4/15/03

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