Wednesday, January 18
Video Outtakes
A video Katie put together of various outtakes from filming on our trip.
This video does not work in Firefox so open this page in another web browser (like Safari or Chrome).
Saturday, January 14
Tuesday, December 6
A little video from the first half...
Above is the large version of the video. If you're really ambitious you can check out the original 720p version. This video does not work in Firefox so open this page in another web browser (like Safari or Chrome).
Wednesday, November 23
Animal Foto-dump!
I though about having animals from the whole second half, but we saw most of the animals in New Zealand. So here are the animals we saw in New Zealand:
New Zealand fur seal
Kea, the world's only alpine parrot
Fiordland crested penguin
Weka! These guys are cute and frequently seen on the south island (at least by us).
Horses.
Not pictured are the gazillion sheep and cows, several deer farms, and just a few alpacas.
Monday, November 21
Last two days of our trip
On our last hiking day on the Milford Track, we had a 5-6 hour hike. Everyone had to make it to the end by 2:00 PM to catch the ferry to the bus back to Te Anau. The hike was nice and mostly flat with some mildly interesting places to stop along the way. Everyone stopped at the same place for lunch but there were a lot of sandflies so no one lingered long. At the final hut everyone waited for the ferry together and there was a collective feeling of accomplishment and relief.
Once we arrived in Te Anau, we dropped off our rental gear and headed straight for Queenstown for some amazing burgers at Fergburger. Seriously, if you are ever in Queenstown, have a burger at Fergburger, you will not regret it. We stopped at a pub on the water to have a couple beers and listen to some live music.
For our last day in New Zealand we had a several hour drive ahead of us to Christchurch where we caught our planes in the morning. We stopped at Lake Tekapo to get lunch and have an hour long soak in the hot pools to relax our muscles.
In Christchurch we ate at the same Indian restaurant we did when we first arrived in Christchurch two weeks earlier. Since we didn't see Christchurch last time, we headed downtown to walk around and check out the earthquake damage. There are still large parts of downtown that are not open to cars or pedestrians but there is also a lot of construction going on to get parts of it back up and running. It was crazy. Then we went home to bed.
In the morning we left for 30 hours of flights back to Boston to end our seven month trip around the world. Check back later this week for some trip end fotodumps!
Monday, November 14
Helicopter ride
The third day of the Milford track is the big uphill and downhill day. It's the day that everyone hikes for two hours up to the Mackinnon pass then another five hours to Dumpling Hut. For our group, all that uphill would take 30 seconds. Due to the warm rain in the area, the avalanche risk was too high to allow us to hike up the trail and instead, we got a sweet helicopter ride.
The helicopter ride didn't take place until 11:30 in the morning and everyone was up on the high part of the pass by noon (there were 26 of us and one six seat helicopter). There is no helicopter landing pad on the pass, so the pilot dropped us off on a grassy knoll. All of our hiking packs came last held in a net hanging from the helicopter.
On the pass is Mackinnon shelter, a lunch shelter for the hikers, and our refuge from the high winds and rain on the pass.
On the other side of the pass is five long hours of continual downhill. Due to the high avalanche risk, we had to take the emergency path which doesn't cross over any avalanche paths but heads down the mountain at a steeper grade. It was a slow grueling day. At several parts we walked down a small waterfall or through streams that crossed through the path.
Around 4 pm we reached a day hut to put down our packs and to hike a side path to Sutherland falls, the highest waterfall in New Zealand. This path led to the bottom of the waterfall where we could and did stand underneath the roaring falls. It was incredible.
Back to the hut and another hour along the path, we reached the final hut. After changing out of our wet clothes, we made dinner, listened to the ranger give his hut talk, and hung out around the wood stove with some of the Aussies and Kiwis before heading to bed.
The helicopter ride didn't take place until 11:30 in the morning and everyone was up on the high part of the pass by noon (there were 26 of us and one six seat helicopter). There is no helicopter landing pad on the pass, so the pilot dropped us off on a grassy knoll. All of our hiking packs came last held in a net hanging from the helicopter.
On the other side of the pass is five long hours of continual downhill. Due to the high avalanche risk, we had to take the emergency path which doesn't cross over any avalanche paths but heads down the mountain at a steeper grade. It was a slow grueling day. At several parts we walked down a small waterfall or through streams that crossed through the path.
Around 4 pm we reached a day hut to put down our packs and to hike a side path to Sutherland falls, the highest waterfall in New Zealand. This path led to the bottom of the waterfall where we could and did stand underneath the roaring falls. It was incredible.
The waterfall is 580 meters high
Back to the hut and another hour along the path, we reached the final hut. After changing out of our wet clothes, we made dinner, listened to the ranger give his hut talk, and hung out around the wood stove with some of the Aussies and Kiwis before heading to bed.
Friday, November 11
Milford Track!!!
The Milford Track, the most popular hike in New Zealand. To start the track we had to take a boat across Lake Te Anau, and to get to the boat we took a bus from Te Anau. The bus didn't leave until 1 pm, so we spent the morning preparing, buying last minute things, watching the film Shadowland at Fiordland Cinema, eating amazing pies for lunch from Miles Better Pies, a must have if you are ever in the area. Andy had creamy chicken and I had vegetable and they were excellent. We also split an apple pie for dessert.
The bus and the boat took about an hour and a half and by 2:30 we were on the trail. The first day the hike is only an hour and a half (depending on how many picture breaks you take) and was a pleasant flat walk through the woods.
The warden of the first hut was Ross, a 6 foot 7 inch giant from Central Otago. Dinner was a freeze dried backpackers meal and then off to bed.
In the morning we were warned not to leave until Ross gave us the okay. It had rained a lot in the night and there was some chance of rivers flooding and avalanche. At 9, Ross lead us down the trail for a couple hours while he waited to hear back from the avalanche engineers in the helicopter surveying the avalanche risk. At noon, Ross gave us the okay to continue on to the next hut without him.
Catie, the warden at the next hut met everyone along the trail to make sure we were all getting on okay. The trail was considerably more wet and there were at least two occasions where we had to walk through streams, soaking our shoes. The last hour of the trail finally started heading up the mountain we were going to have to climb over the next day. We arrived at the hut just in time for the rain to really open up and start pouring. There were 25 people staying in the hut the second night and we spent most of the night getting to know half of them.
One of the Aussies told his story about sky diving naked and one of the Kiwis told his story of buggy jumping naked. Catie, the warden, was energetic and really funny. She imitated the sound of a female kiwi, which was hilarious (click here to hear what a female kiwi sounds like, then imagine a full grown woman making this noise). It was a great group of people to be around.
We were warned that we will probably have to be helicoptered up to the top of the pass due to avalanche risk in the morning, but we would get the details in the morning.
The bus and the boat took about an hour and a half and by 2:30 we were on the trail. The first day the hike is only an hour and a half (depending on how many picture breaks you take) and was a pleasant flat walk through the woods.
The warden of the first hut was Ross, a 6 foot 7 inch giant from Central Otago. Dinner was a freeze dried backpackers meal and then off to bed.
In the morning we were warned not to leave until Ross gave us the okay. It had rained a lot in the night and there was some chance of rivers flooding and avalanche. At 9, Ross lead us down the trail for a couple hours while he waited to hear back from the avalanche engineers in the helicopter surveying the avalanche risk. At noon, Ross gave us the okay to continue on to the next hut without him.
Catie, the warden at the next hut met everyone along the trail to make sure we were all getting on okay. The trail was considerably more wet and there were at least two occasions where we had to walk through streams, soaking our shoes. The last hour of the trail finally started heading up the mountain we were going to have to climb over the next day. We arrived at the hut just in time for the rain to really open up and start pouring. There were 25 people staying in the hut the second night and we spent most of the night getting to know half of them.
One of the Aussies told his story about sky diving naked and one of the Kiwis told his story of buggy jumping naked. Catie, the warden, was energetic and really funny. She imitated the sound of a female kiwi, which was hilarious (click here to hear what a female kiwi sounds like, then imagine a full grown woman making this noise). It was a great group of people to be around.
We were warned that we will probably have to be helicoptered up to the top of the pass due to avalanche risk in the morning, but we would get the details in the morning.
Looking for kiwi on the second night (sadly, we found none)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)