The Energizer Bunnies

Ever feel like you just keep going and going? Well, since hitting New Zealand, with only 7 weeks to see the entire country, Mike and I have had a very tight schedule (as Mike may have eluded to in the previous update). With all of the sight seeing, adventure seeking, driving on winding roads that take you twice as long as you expected, sheep gazing and rain drizzling almost every day, we’re pooped!

Let’s just say, by the time we reached Queenstown and were able to stay with Mike’s old rugby coach Daggy and his family, we were ready to have some R&R. But first, on with the show!

The south island is geographically quite different from the north, most noticeably the huge range of mountains to the west. And with any decent mountain range, you get… glaciers! After countless rainy days, the forecast was suddenly showing a window of sun so we booked our full day hike on Fox Glacier – apparently everyone had the same idea for we got the last 2 spots for the day. Before donning our hiking boots and crampons however, we woke up extra early in the morning to complete a 6km walk to capture the quintessential NZ picture: the reflection of Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman into the calm waters of Lake Matheson. This extra little morning activity may have been my undoing.


I think the word you're looking for is "wow". The picture was worth the early am wake up call.

We arrived at the tour guide’s office and were promptly fitted with hiking boots, well maybe fitted isn’t the best word as my right foot was swimming in my boot. Then we boarded the ancient, signature, maroon and black guide buses and quickly arrived at the glacier’s terminal. Our guide, Troy, was full of interesting tidbits about Fox Glacier. For example, all glaciers actually only advance, however sometimes the ice melts faster than the ice moves forward, creating an illusion of retreating. In the Fox’s case, the glacier is advancing 1 meter per day and melting 60-70 cm. Because of the movement of the glacier, we were not able to walk along side it. Instead we had to climb through forested hills with streams and precarious steep cliffs before putting on our crampons and touching the void. All the while, the glacier was speaking to us as it creaked, moaned and sometimes created a thunderous boom.

As the sun shone upon us, standing on 200m of ice was a very surreal experience. With deep crevasses to our right, seracs to our left, we made certain to follow exactly in our guides footsteps. As we hiked 7km up the glacier, the ice changed to a beautiful deep blue colour. The glacier got even more precarious and at times we would be rooted to our spot for minutes on end as Troy determined the safest route and make steps into the glacier for us. We got to climb a few short vertical walls and then – my favourite part – we were able to descend into an ice hole that had a slippery, narrow tunnel that we could navigate through. Definitely not for the claustrophobic! Finally after 5 hours of ice time, we removed our crampons and stepped off the glacier. What an amazing day, but the hike wasn’t over yet as we still had to make our way back to the end of the glacier. Not use to wearing heavy boots to hike in, plus already walking a good distance, coupled with the morning gaunt; my feet felt like lead and I could barely drag them, let alone maneuver them safely on slippery rocks and terrain. I really felt like my lower limbs were not even attached to my body and it took every ounce of energy to concentrate on my footing. Finally, after what seemed like hours, we arrived back at the bus which was a sight for sore eyes!


Descending into the ice tunnel. So cool!


One of the Moulin's we were able to explore in. Amazing colour!


The roof of the Moulin above.

We continued our journey through the Haast Region, which consists of scenic rainforest and wetland and saw many waterfalls. A quick stop in a small town called Wanaka, introduced us to the most succulent, scrumptious, luxury burgers that I have ever had the pleasure of touching to my mouth. Blue cheese with big grilled mushrooms, ohhh my mouth waters just thinking about them. Mike was so impressed that he actually “borrowed” the menu for future barbies at home!

Finally we arrived at Queenstown, the centre for activities, adventures and thrill seeking. Mike’s favourite place in NZ – home of the first AJ Hackett bungy jump, nestled in a valley surrounded by a mountain range called The Remarkables and situated on Lake Wakatipu. We spent the afternoon wondering around the tourist filled town and found ourselves climbing what we thought would be a quick hill to reach a summit overlooking the town and turned into an aggressive hour hike… in flip flops. Don’t worry, we took the gondola down!

Brian and Dale Daggs live just north of the city near Coronet Peak. Mike and I had been looking forward to visiting Daggy for months and couldn’t wait to see their dream home that Daggy had once outlined to Mike on a cocktail napkin. Their house is gorgeous! Made of wood and stone, the house overlooks the valley leading into QT. With the guest wing to ourselves and the warm hospitality of Dale and Daggy, Mike and I settled in for some much needed R&R.


The Dagg's home - don't worry we've stolen the floor plan for our own dream home.

However, this wasn’t in the immediate game plan. Let’s just say we had a really fun evening of reminiscing that turned into a not so fun 3 am excursion to the bathroom, for someone, who proceeded to “give back” a bottle of bourbon… everywhere. At 7 am I was cleaning up a mess, plus charging batteries for our camera, as through a very foggy head, I remembered Daggy booking Mike and I on a scenic flight from QT to Milford Sound for the morning.



Milford Sound is a deep 22km fiord, with rugged mountains rising from the ocean, 1700 m into the air. It is the most coveted tourist location in all of NZ. The 45 min scenic flight, in our 7-seater air craft had us flying over lakes and mountain tops before reaching the ocean and Milford Sound. With 6m of rain per annum in this region, we were fortunate to have a clear, sunny day. Our pilot had mentioned that in the past month they had only been able to fly out to the Sound 3 times. Mike and I were giddy as the plane landed and we boarded our cruise boat. For the next 2 hours we cruised around the fiord and took in the splendor of snow peaked mountains, cascading waterfalls, the stunning view of Mitre Peak, and observing fur seals basking in the sun. Back in the plane, we perused by more mountain sides and with a bit more turbulence, out of the corner of my eye I saw Mike reach frantically for the infamous paper white bag and go very pale (apparently the 3 am excursion wasn’t enough fun for him). Luckily, he was able to control himself – can you imagine what smell that would have created in the small plane? The trip was amazing and we couldn’t thank Daggy enough.


Aerial view of Mitre Peak; just in the distance is the ocean.


As we flew over a mountain top, this pool of glacier water was waitng to surprise us.


View from our Milford Sound cruise boat

That wasn’t the end of Daggy and Dale’s generosity. The next day, they booked us on a white-water rafting trip. Still feeling slightly queasy, we made our way to The Shotover River, where we got equipped with wet suit, wet suit jacket, rain jacket, life jacket (how many jackets is that!?!) and boarded a bus, where we promptly took off all the jackets as it was friggin’ hot! Our bus, towing rafts behind it, maneuvered its away along a road called Skipper’s Pass, a 120 year old road built by miners to access the river of gold after the civil engineers took one look at the hills, claimed it was impossible and bolted. I guess I’m desensitized to precarious cliff roads after Tibet and Asia, as most people on our bus were squirming with unease, I was pointing out things to Mike at the ravine’s deep bottom. I realized then that I’ve come a long way!

The white-water rafting was so much fun! We learned the basic paddling calls “paddle forward, back, hard, hold on, and duck!” and proceeded down the first 8 km of river with a few easy rapids to practice our techniques. Then our guide paused to ensure that our life jackets where cutting off our air supply… I mean securely fastened and then we entered the +V grade rapids. With names like “Threading the Needle” and “Flushing the Toilet”, I knew we were in for a kick ass ride. As water sprayed us, our raft bent nearly in half, a foot of water landed in the boat, we were out of the rushing, spinning, white water, back on our seats and waiting for the next set. The final test is passing though the Oxford Tunnel and the lead person, Mike in our case, sits on the front of the raft paddling while the rest of us duck in the bottom of the boat. At the end of the dark tunnel is the final rapid which drenched us, but everyone managed to stay in. Can’t say the same for the group of big German men behind us who flipped their raft!

NZ has quite a few “great walks” consisting of multi-day hikes through very gorgeous landscape. Although we weren’t equipped for overnight camping, we did do a day hike on the Routeburn Track and Kepler Track. Excellent 13 km hikes each. I’ve promised Mike that the next time we come to NZ, we will do the complete route on one of these great walks.


Mike and I hiking the first phase of the Kepler Track. Lake Manapouri is in the background.


One of the splendors of the first 6km of the Routebourn Track. We had to cross 2 swing bringes and walked along the Routebourn gorge for a portion of the route before entering a woodland area and valley to the first hut.

After a couple more days of vegging, Mike and I knew we had to get on the road again to see the rest of the southern island. We were so comfy and at home with the Daggs, we didn’t want to leave. Finally, we sighed, repacked the van and were off to drive the Scenic South Route, which includes the Catlins. A highlight was seeing the Southern most point of the South Island called Slope Point, where I proceeded to step in some very smelly sheep shit.




View of the southern most point of the south island. If your wondering what's south of the south island, it's Stewart Island - still a part of NZ.

We arrived in Dunedin, which has a very Victorian colonial feel to it, and spent a few days immersing ourselves in culture by visiting their museums and art galleries. We also immersed ourselves in some Speight’s beer as we did their brewery tour. Speight’s is one of the oldest brewing companies in NZ and it was great to bear witness to the history, challenges and success’s of the company, plus who’s kidding who, taste their product.


Bottom's up!

Just around the corner from Dunedin is Otago peninsula, which houses some unique marine life including the world’s only mainland albatross colony. In the evening, we saw many albatross’s (the largest flight bird in the world), floating in the sky. We also attempted to see yellow-eyed penguins, the rarest of the species, but by the time we walked down the sand dune and across the long beach to the viewing hide out, we found out that we were there at the wrong time of day, so instead we watched a group of sea lions playing. On the highest point of the peninsula is NZ’s only castle. Having never been to Europe, I was pumped to see my first castle. It was funded by William Larnach in 1871 to impress his noble French wife to the tune of 125,000 pounds (equal to $25 million today). The grounds are landscaped impeccably and the current owners of the estate have restored the once abandoned castle to its full glory. With period pieced furniture, each room was a delight to enter. Definitely a highlight for me! Now I want to get married in a castle – anyone know of any in Alberta?


Larnach's Castle


One of the friendly critter's on the peninsula. Don't worry, I didn't get to close, this is digitally zoomed.

Still going and going! From Dunedin, we made our way back to Queenstown, where we plan to spend another week with Dale and Daggy before making our way to Christchurch to leave NZ on Dec 27. What’s after NZ? Well you’ll just have to wait and see!

Happy holidays everyone. We wish you love and peace at this merry time.
Kendra & Mike (Hand)