NEW ZEALAND PART 1: THE WEST COAST AND FIORDLAND
- renataondok
- Nov 19, 2017
- 15 min read
Ever since watching the Lord of the Rings 15 years ago (!) New Zealand was a magical country in our mind where we were dreaming about getting to one day. Its distance from anywhere else apart from Australia, however, deserves it the name of 'the end of the world', where you pretty much reached the furthest possible point from Europe. Living in Australia, only 3 hours flight away, allowed us to make this dream a reality and see the indescribable beauty of this country, that we had never thought could realistically happen!
The pristine water of Lake Wakatipu
As with always ever since we started working again, our big question was the available time. New Zealand is a quite large country even if it looks relatively small next to Australia, so trying to see everything and crossing it along its north axis through over ~1,600 kilometres wasn't the right way for us for a holiday. We preferred spending less time driving and more time outdoors, so we limited our trip to only the Southern part of the South Island and kept the rest of the gem to be discovered at another visit. This region is the cherry on the top in New Zealand according to many, and there's so much to see that we didn't even finish in 2 weeks!
At the advice of the guidebook, we booked our trip for November, by which point it is nearly summer but without the crowds and surcharge of the summer holidays. We became slightly apprehensive when, a week before leaving, the weather forecast said it was below freezing overnight (what kind of summer is that?) so we packed all our warm clothes, even if we did look ridiculous in our ski jackets at the Sydney airport! We realised that while it looks like New Zealand is right next to Australia, it is actually a lot further South: Sydney is at the same latitude as Auckland, the Northernmost tip, and Christchurch is at a similar level to Tasmania - which is notoriously chilly by Australian standards, and we were going even quite a bit further South than Christchurch!
Crossing turquoise-coloured creeks is part of your daily drive on the South Island
The other thing travellers warn you about is that New Zealand is amazing, but that it never looks quite as pretty as the pictures, since it is always cloudy and raining. With our expectations suitably managed, we can happily report that we were pleasantly surprised - Mother Nature put on her best show, and we were treated to a record-breaking 2-week heatwave (occasionally reaching 27 degrees - which is very rare, since even the summer is usually around 18 degrees) and only 1 afternoon of drizzles the whole time! A plus side of being so far South was that the days were incredibly long, we quickly realised that we didn't have to worry about not getting to our destination for the night in time, as it would still be light until 9:30-10pm. With the combination of long days and fantastic weather we could make the most out of the days!
Campervanning - Introducing Neo
Arriving in Christchurch, we picked up our holiday 'home', Neo. He is a trusty Toyota Estima campervan, who has been to a fair number of places (as evidenced by his spedometer displaying 560,000km). Despite his few shortcomings (big appetite, slow acceleration and braking, very little space) we grew attached to him by the end of our trip, and were grateful that we didn't have any incident on the way!
Campervans are "the way" to see New Zealand, since they give you the flexibility to stop at the prettiest spots to picnic and for the night. This is particularly handy, since the country is so sparsely populated that there is very little accommodation outside of the cities, while there're plenty of basic campsites and more equipped holiday parks all around. The South Island sees a bare 1 million people living in an area 1.5 times the size of Hungary (from the also tiny total inhabitants of 4.7 millions in the whole country) therefore it feels that every 2nd car is a camperan and not a local car on the roads. Some rental companies decorate their vehicules with unique hippy patterns, so we could notice that we kept seeing the same cars over and over again on our way around the island!
While we had never lived in a campervan before, just gave it a go, and fell in love with the lifestyle by the end! Neo being a 'basic' campervan, we could only stop at designated campsites, but fancier self-contained cars (that carry their own toilet) have a lot more flexibility and can stop almost anywhere in the wild. We didn't mind as we preferred staying in campsites with hot showers anyways! Being a converted station wagon, Neo had a driver cabin upfront, a drawer for our belongings in the middle, and a 'kitchen' in the back. The 'bed' was on top of the middle and back spaces, so bad luck if you needed something once you had made the bed (which inevitably kept happening every night). It also meant we had to crawl into bed, since there wasn't enough room to sit up. Luckily it wasn't too chilly overnight, and we had amazing views of the stars above our heads through the rooftop window every night! Our kitchen also included foldable picnic chairs, a table and 2 gas burners which gave us the flexibility to stop to cook our dinner at whichever scenic vista we fancied.
Lunch by Lake Hawea and along the Milford Road
Lake Mapourika and Glacier Country
Our first day involved quite a lot of driving in order to get to the West Coast of the island from Christchurch. Not long after departure we were greeted by beautiful valleys and fast-flowing rocky rivers and the incredible vistas of Arthur's Pass.
Views in Arthur's Pass National Park
While we stopped for a few short walks and pictures, we pressed on, as we knew we had to make it to Lake Mapourika for the night. We arrived just in time to see the sun set over the lake with snow-covered mountains in the background, a magical view to start the trip!
We kicked off the day with a kayaking eco-tour on the picturesque Lake Mapourika a few minutes' drive from the Franz Josef glacier village. It was a great morning activity with beautiful views on the glacier. Part of the lake has recently been designated to a wildlife reserve following the discovery of a 5th species of kiwi bird in 2003 which nests exclusively in the area, with only 400 surviving. Kiwi are flightless birds the size of a chicken and can live up to 100 years, they are named for the sound of their call ("KEE-wee"). They have huge eggs for the size of their body, and the newly hatched chicks are self-sufficient after 3-5 days. However, due to introduced predators, less than 5% of them would survive to 3 years of age, at which point they can fend for themselves, so the Department of Conservation introduced a program to steal kiwi eggs from the nests, incubate and hatch them, then take them to an island free of predators until they are 3 years old and then return them to their original habitat. This improves their odds of surviving to 65%. Even so, kiwi and other bird numbers are in serious danger, of which we learned more about later in our trip.
The 5 types of kiwi birds
After seeing their original living space on kayak, we had to make a stop in the village at the kiwi sanctuary to see the okarito kiwi bird, As kiwis are nocturnal, it can be hard to see them in the wild, so we didn't want to miss the chance to see the national bird of Kiwi Land! The sanctuary has a few living birds as well as a hatching center, but for us overall it was a little underwhelming experience for the price, as only 2 kiwis were running around in the dark (of which we weren't allowed to take pictures either) and otherwise it had stuffed animals on display.
The Kiwi - Origins of a Name
The Kiwi bird was held in high regard by the Maori (Polynesian settlers who colonised the islands of New Zealand 700 years ago, before which they were uninhabited), and its unusual nature led it to become one of the symbols of the country following European colonisation. Calling the local people 'kiwis' as it is today, however, didn't catch on for a long time ("En-Zedders", "Maorilanders", "Pig Islanders" and "Diggers" were common names). The breakthrough came around 1917, when an Australian company won a procurement contract to supply boot polish to UK soldiers in World War I. They named the brand Kiwi in honour of the owner's wife who was from New Zealand, and the name quickly caught on to refer to first the NZ soldiers, and then any inhabitant of the country. Funnily enough the kiwi fruit isn't native to New Zealand, it was originally called the Chinese Gooseberry, until some farmers in New Zealand decided calling it a kiwi fruit would be a much catchier name, and because it kind of looked like the bird.
Within a short drive from the lake is the Franz Josef glacier, which is a river of compressed snow and ice slowly flowing down a mountain. Visitors can get to its base with a couple of hour's return walk and see the glacier from a little distance. Today it's not possible to see it from as close as in the past, since it has retreated (melted) 820m in the last 5 years alone due to global warming (!) and it has also become dangerous to get any closer. The walk itself to the glacier is taking you through a beautiful valley with waterfalls like veils running from the cliffs all around you.
The 'Glacier Walk' and the view of the glacier itself
In the tiny village of Franz Josef a few restaurants and attractions keep visitors entertained. One of them is the popular open-air Glacier Hot Pools which is a great place to relax sore muscles after an active day. As we learnt just after our visit, on the popular bookme app of discounted offers (which we used later on the trip), entry tickets are available at the fraction of the price!
Not far from Franz Josef glacier is Fox Glacier with a similar track to the foot of the ice and a nice surrounding. A great visit from here within a few minutes' drive is Lake Matheson, a popular place outside of town due to its famous mirror reflection of the snow-capped mountains in the lake. A trail takes you around the lake in a couple of hours with great views over the surrounding mountains and the lake itself. The mirror effect only works in perfect windless conditions which we, sadly, didn't have too much luck with, but the lake was beautiful even without a fine reflection.
Fox Glacier and Lake Matheson
Routeburn Track - Crossing the Southern Alps on Foot
The next adventure on our list was one of the Great Walks of New Zealand, the Routeburn Track. New Zealand has great infrastructure for hiking, with hundreds of shelters and campsites maintained by the Department of Conservation (DoC), which are available to use at bargain prices. Of particular note are the 9 Great Walks, which are 3-6 day hikes through some of the prettiest parts of the country on well-maintained paths. These tend to get booked out quickly, so we planned our entire trip around the two days they had availability when we booked it - 3 months in advance!
The 32km Routeburn track leads you from Glenorchy (near Queenstown) across the Southern Alps to the Divide (a short hop from the Milford Sound), which can be completed in a comfortable pace in 3 days. Going by road would actually be a 300km drive, so we hired a company (Trackhopper) that specialises in driving peoples' cars to the other side of the track while they are hiking. The Kiwi-Japanese couple running the company told us how much they love their job, because when there is only a one-way car, they run home on the 32km trail instead (in one day!) - a very tough proposition even when the sun in shining, and decidedly unpleasant in pouring rain which is not rare!
View from Routeburn Flats Hut
A final surprise waiting for us was the news on the day of our departure that a 700m section at the highest point of the track was closed due to avalanche risk - it had snowed heavily the previous week and the snow above the pass was melting too quickly, making it unsafe. Luckily the DoC arranged a helicopter ride over the off-limits section, so that hikers didn't have to turn back after completing half of the track. We thought this was quite exciting! What a perfect way to try out flying on a helicopter in probably one of the most beautiful surroundings possible in the heart of the snowy Alps! The 77-second ride averaged $1/second, most likely one of the most expensive methods of transportation we had ever taken, but still cheap compared to the helicopter and scenic flight options all around New Zealand! :P
Views on Day2: Routeburn Falls Hut; Harris Saddle and Harris Lake with our helicopter ride
The shelters (where you sleep) on track are situated in stunning locations with untouched natural beauty, Don't expect 5-star accommodation in the middle of the mountains though! We slept in a room with 24 bunk-beds, a toilet (but no shower), a kitchen with gas to cook (actually a huge plus, since you would otherwise have to carry your own) and icy cold running water, a friendly ranger to talk to (which was also on the list of shelter features). All this is provided in the summer only, as in the winter you use pit latrines instead of toilets, you melt snow for water, carry your own gas and there is no ranger to keep you company. The biggest surprise for us was that we didn't need to carry water with us, all the water in the streams was drinkable without any treatment! This was a whole different end of the spectrum from our travels of "not even tap water is drinkable" in most developing countries, through "tap water is drinkable" in most developed countries to "even stream water is drinkable" in New Zealand, and it still felt weird after 3 days! However, our packs were heavy enough as they were without water too, with tinned food for 3 days and the decidedly non-light-weight pan and plates provided with our campervan which we had to carry as there were no kitchenware provided in the huts. From watching our more experienced co-hikers, we picked up a few gear tips for the future, e.g. carrying dehydrated meals weighing 200g instead of 2 cans weighing 1kg for each meal... Some of the hard-core people we met were chain-hiking 3-4 Great Walks that certainly required a large degree of dedication! We were treated with fantastic weather all the way which made the hike even more unforgettable even with painful knees and sore muscles. Although one might argue that trekking in the rain would have also been quite unforgettable for different reasons, especially as we realised already on the slopes that apart from windproof jackets we had no rainproof clothing, so we were very lucky to get away with being so newby and unprepared!
Views on Day2: On the way to Lake Mckenzie and Mckenzie Hut
Fascinating views at Lake Mckenzie
Summit Point view, at the end of the track
We learned quite a bit about the ecology of New Zealand from the rangers' speeches in the evenings. Since New Zealand separated from the other continents so long ago, it originally didn't have any mammals with the exception of two species of bats (not even marsupials) and no snakes at all. Birds filled all the evolutionary niches, from the moa (a 3.6m tall, 280kg ostrich) to the haast eagle (the largest species of eagle known to exist), the kiwi and numerous other species, most of which are now under threat for introduced species.
Following initial human contact, the maori hunted the moa to extinction, which were followed by the haast eagles that relied on the moa for food. But the most damage was done following European settlement. Lots of animals were introduced for hunting including rabbits, deer and possums. Without any natural predators and plenty of space they multiplied fast and started overgrazing the land, out-competing the native birds and destroying the forests. To solve this problem caused by the introduction of one alien species (rabbits), the colonists then decided to introduce another alien specie, the stoat (similar to a weasel), which promptly made matters much worse. Stoats quickly realised that running after rabbits was too much work, and preferred eating birds instead, many of which were genetically flightless. These birds had evolved a defense mechanism to remain motionless when in danger, so they would blend in the shrubs when eagles, their only natural predators, were looking for them. Being such good predators and able to have up to 13 offspring every year, stoats are currently the biggest threat to all native birds in New Zealand, and entire regions of the country became depopulated with native birds as a consequence. One of the rangers told us how he had started putting up traps 10 years ago along the track for stouts, and found sponsors over the years to extend them across the whole valley, which has resulted in a gradual recovery of bird numbers. Extending such a manual program over the area of the whole country would be far too expensive though, so the government has taken to dropping "1080" pellets over 440,000 hectares each year. This is a poison that is only dangerous to mammals when they eat it (so anything that dies is beneficial for the ecosystem), and can kill 98% of possums and 90% of rats, providing a brief window for the native birds to raise their chicks. Currently it is the only thing keeping invasive wildlife numbers in check, but there's a side-effect of pets eating and dying from it.
Giant moa; Kea the smart mountain parrot; Stout
It is estimated that there are 70 million possums and an uncounted number of rabbits in the country. When driving, there were areas where we saw roadkill rabbits and possums every 50m by the road. We heard from farmers that they are obliged to prove they have effective pest control measures to avoid government fines (similar to what we have for ragweed or parlagfű in Hungary). The owner of the stables we talked to said she has to go hunting every fortnight to control the numbers - the previous night she had shot 106 rabbits with 109 bullets - impressive marksmanship! While understanding the damage the rabbits were doing, we still struggled to not see them as cute fluffy bunnies but as dangerous pests...
Reflections of Fjords
Another of the famous sights of New Zealand are the fjords, particularly Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound. We went for a cruise on the first one, and kayaking on the much less accessible second. These are not actually sounds, but fjords, the key difference being that the former is created by a river, while the latter by a glacier.
Waterfalls on the way to Milford Sound
Milford Sound was the last fjord to be discovered, as its entry is not so obvious from the seaside. Actually, Captain Cook had sailed right by it a couple of times and never tried sailing in the fjord, as it didn't look like there was an inlet at all! It was discovered by accident in stormy weather when another captain tried saving his crew and got closer to the rocks.
Milford Sound in low tide and from a cruise
In Milford Sound we experienced the one (minor) downside of the amazing weather that it usually rains 8 meters annually (vs. <1m in Budapest), and since it hadn't rained for 9 days, it was officially considered a drought, which also meant we saw fewer waterfalls. We did see amazing reflections and clear skies as well as the couple of permanent waterfalls, so we didn't mind too much. The schools of dolphins, seals and penguins swimming along our boat compensated us suitably and we felt like in Paradise.
Wildlife in Milford Sound - Dolphins, Fur Seals and Fiordland Crested Penguin s
The following day we had an entirely different excursion a bit further down the coast. Doubtful Sound is much less accessible - we had to take a bus, then a 1.5-hour boat over Lake Manapouri and finally another bus for 50 mins to get there, However, we had heard it was even more majestic and less crowded than Milford Sound. Actually, we didn't find Milford overcrowded either - although we went on an early (9am) cruise and on a smaller ship with no crowd -,and we felt we saw more wildlife on a cruise vs. on a kayak as you cover more distance. However, kayaking, of course, was a completely different experience being so much closer to the water, and we were literally the only people on the entire lake! Doubtful is a greener fjord with lush forest around, while in Milford you're surrounded by cliffs, so it's a hard comparison and you're better of checking out both!
Just as a warning, while there are no or relatively few mosquitos in New Zealand, these are more than compensated by the sand flies - annoying little creatures that are active during the day and make your life a misery for anyone with exposed skin - so loose-fitting long-sleeve clothes are recommended. The maori had a legend saying that the gods created the sandfly when they realised they had created a scenery so beautiful that people would forget their own mortality - which the little bites would remind them of. They definitely did remind us all the time, which resulted in bits all over us by the end of our trip.
Te Anau - Trekking Hub
Our final stop on the West Coast was Te Anau. We were looking forward to getting there, as by this point we had been without all kinds of luxuries for over a week, such as petrol, food, groceries, cell phone reception and internet. Te Anau also happens to be the centre of a number of other hiking trails, such as the Milford Track and the Kepler Track, so a lot of people take 1-2 days to recuperate here between treks. We didn't have time to linger too long or do another trek - nor we felt like by that point -, but we loved the little town. It even had a cinema, showing non-stop screenings of the famous (or so we heard) movie Shadowlands, with 30 minutes of helicopter footage of various scenes shot in Doubtful Sound. It was very pretty, but we realised that non-stop nature footage without any plot is a bit too long for us, so the relaxing music made us sleep like babies by the end - which was also nice!
The other attraction in Te Anau is the wildlife centre, housing 4 takahé birds and some other indigenous birds. Takahés look like large turkeys, but were hunted to extinction in 1898 before 400 more specimens were discovered in a remote part of the Island. This had reduced to 118 by 1982 due to competition with deer for food, but has now recovered to 306 by 2006 due to extensive conservation - 4 of which are housed in an open-air area on the outskirts of town. It felt special seeing these specimens who are, sadly, clinging on to the survival of their species.
The takahé and Lake Mapourika
After this action-packed first half of our trip (driven by availability on the Routeburn track), we were looking forward to a more flexible and relaxing itinerary in the second part of our trip, looking at the Otago region around scenic Queenstown.
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