Blood, Sweat and Tears...

We've had quite an adventurous past two weeks while making our way from Dunedin to Arrowtown. It all started with a quick drive to The Catlins...

The Catlins

The Catlins is a sparsely populated area on the south coast that is known for it's spectacularly beautiful scenery. It encompasses an area of temperate rainforest, providing a refuge for some of New Zealands rare birds. We only spent one night in this area, and we camped on beautiful Purakaunui Beach.

The view from our campsite

Upon waking, we had big plans to see Cathedral Caves, a network of large caves accessible at low tide. Unfortunately, we slept in too late to make low tide and the caves were closed... Oh well, no big loss. So, we made our way on the road toward Invercargill. On the way, we decided to check out New Zealand's Niagara Falls. A surveyor with a sense of humour named them, and you can see why...

Niagara Falls of New Zealand

We also went on a short walk to Slope Point, the most southerly point on the south island. It was a nice, half hour jaunt  through a farmer's field with lots of sheep.

Slope point

Due to time constraints we decided not to go to Stewart Island now, but perhaps we will make it down there for a later date. There isn't much down there other than hiking trails and a small town. After consulting The Lonely Planet guide and driving around Invercargill, we decided to keep heading on our way toward Te Anau, with a one night stop at the Monowai Campsite along the way.

Lake Monowai

Scenery on the way to Te Anau

Te Anau

Upon arriving in Te Anau, we booked ourselves into Rosie's Homestay Hostel, which was really nice. Rosie and Alistair have converted the bottom half of their large home into a hostel and live amongst the guests, creating the most welcoming and homey hostel I've seen. We went to the Department of Conservation office and booked ourselves onto the Kepler Track, and due to the campsites and hut availability, we had to begin the hike the following afternoon. In the meantime, we went on a glow worm tour! So, that evening we boarded a ferry for a scenic boat ride over to the glow worm caves. Te Anau, as we were told, translates roughly to "Cave of Swirling Water". Once inside the cave for our guided tour, we saw the underground river creating waterfalls and swirling whirlpools. Then the cool part of the tour came. We climbed into a boat and went further into the darkness of the caves, and there on the ceiling, like a full starlit night, were the glow worms! Unfortunately, no pictures or videos are allowed in the caves, due to the worms' sensitive nature... very shy apparently... as any light that may have been given off by stray flashes would startle the worms, which would cause them to turn off. A little bit about the worms. The worms aren't actually worms, but the larvae of a species of Fungus Gnat. The larvae stage is the only stage in the life cycle that feeds, and they do this by hanging strings of line from the ceilings of caves, or trees or under rocks. They fish with these lines, using their glowing bodies as the lure. As other insects fly into the fishing lines, the glow worms reel them in and eat their prey. Once they are well fed, their light dims, so that they don't attract too many insect and cause their lines to break. After the tour, we went back to the hostel and went to bed.

Faye "Taming the Trout" - Not a euphemism

On ferry to Glow worm caves

Lake Te Anau

The Kepler Track

The day after the glow worms, we woke up and got ready to hike the Kepler track. Were we in for a shock... We knew what we were getting into, but the weather was less than cooperative. The Kepler Track is one of the Great Walks of New Zealand. It's a 63 km hiking track taking you along Lake Te Anau, over Mount Luxmore to Lake Manapouri, and back to Te Anau. Since it is in Fiordland National Park, you are required to book into either one of the Department of Conservation (DOC) huts, or one of their campsites. Due to the fragile ecosystem above the tree line, two of the three campsites are a 10.5 hour hike apart. The huts were evenly spaced about 6 hours apart, but unfortunately, they were booked solid for the next two weeks. So, back to the hike. The first day was great weather. We set off on a light two hour warm up hike to Brod Bay Campsite with the sun shining and set up camp for the night.

The first part of the track

An optimistic beginning...

Around 10 pm that night the rain started... I was optimistic it would clear by morning. Morning came, and it was raining even harder... Since we were booked into the next campsite, we had to pack up in the rain, get on the move early and brace ourselves for walking in the rain. I was still optimistic that it would let up by lunch time. Unfortunately, lunchtime came as we ascended above the treeline to Luxmore Hut on Mount Luxmore and it was still raining. We stopped, 4 hours into our day, for a quick lunch and warm up at the glorious hut, wondering how we could talk our way into staying the night. Since we were wet already and it was only 6 hours to the next campsite, we decided to push on. We walked in the rain and clouds and biting wind for the next 5 hours, with no end in sight. Really, nothing was in sight. All of the spectacular views were drowned out by the rain, and unfortunately we had to use our imaginations to fill in what we couldn't see.

Faye keeping well hydrated...

Our best view from the top of Mount Luxmore

What we could have seen... had the weather been cooperative.

Then we started descending, back into the protection of the trees. At least it was sheltered from the wind... but it was still raining. By this time, we were barely plodding along with our packs, some of us fighting tears and losing, and both of us dead tired. An hour and a half later, we finally made it to the campsite, shed our packs and set up camp in the rain. Supper was the best 3 ingredient spaghetti that I had ever eaten... We crashed in the tent after hanging everything in the shelter and went to bed. After sleeping 10 hours or so, we woke up and fortunately the rain had stopped and the sun was shining...

Our campsite at Iris Burn - the Kepler Track

The view from our campsite upon waking.

Once we finished breakfast, it started to rain again. We managed to out-walk the rain however, and most of our day was quite enjoyable. Until the fatigue and pain from yesterday hit again about 3 hours in, or halfway. After a few more hours, we made it to the Shallow Bay campsite, which was on a beautiful beach on Lake Manapouri.

Faye looking for her sanity on the edge of Lake Manapouri...

At the Shallow Bay Campsite - The right hand edge of the lake is where the Kepler track is, descending from the mountains and down the valley at the top right corner of the lake...

After some discussion, we decided that once we reached Rainbow Reach (1.5 hours away and the nearest road accessible spot on the hike) I would leave my pack with Faye and hike the remaining 4 hours to get the car, then go pick Faye up. We got a solid sleep that night listening to the waves lapping the shores of Lake Manapouri, and awoke to a beautiful day with not a cloud in sight. Our fourth day and last hour and a half of the hike was great, hiking through old beech forests with moss covered trees. We made it to Rainbow Reach and saw a sign up for a shuttle that arrived in an hour and a half. After calling and booking us on the shuttle, which was fairly cheap, we sat and relaxed for the hour and a half, knowing there would be no more walking for that day... or for a while for that matter. We went back to Te Anau and checked back into Rosie's for the night, then went out for a delicious supper. Overall, I enjoyed the Track and would definitely do it again, although with a bit more planning and watching the weather beforehand.

Rainbow Reach Swinging Bridge

No Falcons spotted... I'm sure it was to catch tourists looking like fools holding things above their heads... I didn't fall for it.

The following day, before going on our way, we went out for ice cream, then set out on the Milford Highway.


Milford Sound

Milford Sound is one of the Fiords in Fiordland National Park, and as far as a town goes, there isn't one. It's just a dock for scenic tours and a lodge at the end of the Milford Highway. The Highway is a beautiful drive, with a 1200m unlined tunnel.

The entrance to the tunnel! 1200m long, the lights have a 15 minute delay.

Mirror Lakes, on the Milford Highway. When they're calmer, they reflect the mountains in the background better.

We got a campsite at the lodge for the night, and went to bed early to get a good night sleep in preparation for an exciting day starting early in the morning. We awoke at 4:30am after a restless night, and had breakfast and prepared for our 6 am start. At 6, Luke, our guide, came to pick us up and took us to the docks for a day of kayaking! We kayaked for at least 18 km, the entire length of the fiord, over 5 or so hours, out to the Tasman Sea. The Tasman was so calm that we went out and around the point and explored a bit further. The tour operator's boat came and picked us and the kayaks up, taking us back to the docks after a beautiful day on the water.

A rare Fiordland Crested Penguin, chilling out and people watching in Milford Sound

Milford Sound from the kayak

Stirling Falls, which we could kayak directly underneath... We chickened out, the 35 knot winds at the base of the falls were a bit much...

One of the scenic tour ferries that we had to dodge.

Our guide, Luke, as we watched the seals play at seal rock.

Reaching the Tasman Sea - we got a perfect day, so calm!

Loading up for the boat ride back down the sound.

That afternoon we had a quick picnic lunch and went on our way. Back in Te Anau, we watched the movie "Fiordland on Film" which is a scenic movie filmed mostly from helicopters in Fiordland National Park. There's a theater in Te Anau built specifically to play this film, which was beautiful and we both enjoyed it immensely. After that, we hit the road again.


Skippers

The next day, we got up and explored Queenstown. The food we were planning on having for breakfast went mysteriously missing overnight, so we ended up going out for a nice breakfast. After wandering around the town, we once again jumped into the car and decided to go to the old mining town of Skippers. Skippers is a ghost town north of Queenstown, the result of a gold rush in the mid 1800s. All that is left is a school that has been restored and a few other buildings. The road out there was enough to instigate a panic attack in my mother, and was the only road I've driven with white knuckles at 10 km/h. The road was a single lane and gravel in most places and seemed to defy the laws of physics as it clung to the side of a canyon with near vertical drop offs to the river hundreds of feet below, mere inches from the side of the road in places and with no guard rails. The road was carved out of the canyon by hand back in the mid 1800s. The hour and a half drive was worth it, and we only met 2 other vehicles (thankfully at slightly wider points in the road). We stayed the night at the camp site at the historical village, and awoke early to get through the road before anyone else came the other way.

Skippers Canyon and the  Shotover River

From our campsite at the historic village of Skippers

Me striking a pose on a terrace close to Skippers.

And that brings us to Arrowtown.

A couple of days ago, we arrived in Arrowtown. We are working two hours per day cleaning for our stay at a hostel here, called poplar lodge, and since it's a mere 20 minutes from Queenstown we can easily do activities there in our afternoons. Arrowtown is a quiet little old gold town that survives mainly on tourism now. The downtown area is set up like an old gold town and has many historic sites in the area. We are quite excited to explore the area.