On Sunday 25th Nov we got the ferry from Wellington to the South Island of New Zealand. The crossing is renowned for being rough so I purposefully skipped breakfast - thank goodness it was a blissfully calm day. It takes 3 hours to cross the straight and you actually travel east/west rather than north/south. The last 30minutes sees the ferry travel through Marlborough Sound. I'm not sure what exactly a 'Sound' is or how that is different to a fjord but I can tell you that Marlborough Sounds is very pleasing on the eye. The waters are blue; endless bays and coves. We liked it so much we scraped the plan of doing the Nydia walking track and decided to do some of the Queen Charlotte track instead!!
Wine Tasting in Renwick, Nelson Region, South Island
Nearby is the main Sauvignon Blanc growing region in New Zealand. Wine tasting seemed like the perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon. It was a glorious day; blistering hot complained the locals; whereas I thought it was pleasantly warm! We camped in the grounds of a hostel in Renwick where we made the most of the hammock. We bought a bottle of wine from the first winery we sampled which seemed a little naive...luckily the following wines we had were actually worse. We'd been wine tasting near Sydney. This experience re-inforced our notion that the wine growing in Sydney is just for tourists. The Nelson region was just vineyard after vineyard after vineyard; rows and rows and rows of vines. This was definitely a major wine growing region.
Queen Charlotte Track
The Queen Charlotte Track runs the length of Marlborough Sounds and its possible to get water taxis to most of the coves along the walk. We decided we'd do the afternoon of day 1; day 2 and day 3 of the full 5 day walk. A total of 45km over 2 days. Each day was about 22km. The water taxis also can do a luggage shuttle service - instead of asking how much I simply said 'no'. As we were about to board the taxi we found ou the luggage shuttle service was FREE! Yipee - we were able to get the tent shuttled saving 3kg from our packs. By the time the water taxi dropped us off on the first day it was midday. Luckily its light till 9pm here but it was still a long afternooon - we finised walking about 6pm. It was a glorious walk with green lush bush; never wandering too far from the shore and glorious glimpses of scenic water vistas all the way along. The nights campsite only had spaces for 10 tents according to the leaflet. There was a school group of about 20; about 20 army people swagging it and then a few walkers. It was adjacent to one of the many lodges on the walk and we made good use of the pleasantly situated cafe/bar on the jetty. Finishing the day with a beer was very civilised!
Day 2 was another 23km but this time it was up and over the ridges. We really didn't appreciate how much up and over and down there was!! The ferry was booked for 4pm. At 9am we were back on the track and we passed the DOC sign that said that our Water taxi stop was 9hours away. We only had 7 hours to make it! Uh oh! The days walking gave fantastic views across Marlborough Sounds and Pelorous Sounds on the other side of the ridge. Luckily there was light cloud otherwise we would have got so burnt. Everybody else on the track was very impressed we were carrying full packs - we didn't have the heart to admit it was because we hadn't got the right information in the first place! I'd like to say thank goodness for fruit pastilles - sugar, colours, additives, e numbers - just what you need. I don't think either of us could have walked much further that day. Good couple of days.
Abel Tasman National Park
On the north west coast of the South Island is Abel Tasman National Park. This contains a 5day Coastal 'Great Walk'. This is one of the most accessible and popular great walks due to its easy access; relative flatness and much better climate (much more sun; much less rain than most of the South Island). As we didn't have time to do the full 5 day walk we decided the best way to take in this National Park was a day kayaking and a day walk.
We camped in a tiny village that had a campsite with 400 pitches. It must be a very popular place in the summer holidays. Saw a very bizarre rock formation called Split Apple Rock - it was a big circular boulder, perfectly split in half.
We did a full day kayak from Bark Bay to Marahau via a seal colony. The number of seals was disappointing but they did come right up close and have a look at the boats. The best bit of the day was exploring the coves along Adele island. It was a sign of how calm it was the bush came right down to the high tide line. I don't know where they pull up the kayaks for lunch at high tide. Phil really enjoyed the carrot cake - so much so he had 4 pieces! It was just picturesque cove after picturesque cove. I think we may run out of superlatives to do the scenery justice very soon.
The day walk was suggested by a very helpful man in Conservation office. It turned day 5 of the Abel Tasman into a circular day walk. We aren't quite sure how many kilometres it was but we started at 8:30 and didn't finish till 4pm. It was a great walk with a mix of various terrains and it was generally a good path (old bridleway?) all the way round. Clearly it still went up and down continully and the only flat bits were along the beach but I've come to expect this of NZ walks. We started up traversing a ridge; climbing the highest point around (passing a stoat/possum trap every 30m); descending to lush tropical forest; beaches; then more open forest on the side of the work most exposed to the ocean. We did do a 2 hour side trip to a seal colony. The seals were oblivious to our precense so we should have some very good photos. It was only afterwards that we read you weren't supposed to go within 20m of them on land - oops.
Arthurs Pass National Park
Arthurs Pass National Park apparently contains the best day walk in NZ This had been said about the Tongariro crossing too. We thought we'd better compare and contrast. This walk starts at Arthurs Pass Village (700) and ascends Avalanch Peak (1800) - 1100m up then 1100 down again. Its not really a walk - more a poled/marked route - its not exactly a maintained graded path just a scramble in the same direction as the previous person. As soon as we started on the track it was just up; up; up. After 1.5 hours of walking we broke the tree line and in some ways that was worse because we could see just how much up there was still to go! The views from this peak were pretty special. The track slowly narrowed out onto a ridge, with scree either side. Crossing the ridge wasn't too bad until Phil sent a small stone down the side and it kept going and going and going!
The views from the top were breathtaking. 360degree snow topped mountain vistas. Across the valley was Crows glacier. At the top was a Spanish walker who'd come up the peak a different crazy way and some Kea (cheeky Alpine parrot). The parrots had already made off with the other guys apple while he was taking photos. We walked down a different track which involved crossing snow. At the end of the 3 hours down my legs were wibbly. I can't tell you if there were good views while we walking up or while we were walking down I spent too much time watching were I put my feet. Lots of people here use walking polls - with the state of NZ tracks they are a necessity.
Conculsion:Tongariro is a better walk. Avalanche Peak gives better views if you're lucky enough to get a fine day.
We're in Franz Josef tonight and are booked onto a full day glacier adventure tomorrow. We're then heading in land to Queenstown and the Routeburn Track.
