A few days at the beach...Abel Tasman NP

Abel Tasman National Park is situated on the northern coastline of the southern island. I had a few free days and needed a vacation from serious tramping, so I hitched a ride (5 rides, actually) up to the beach. Abel Tasman Coastal Track, which closely follows the rugged coast for about 4 days worth of walking, is one of NZ's "Great Walks," meaning you have to make reservations months ahead of time to stay in the huts along the way. Fortunately for me, there were plenty of campgrounds right on the beach!


The ocean all along Able Tasman is so incredibly shallow that during low tide a tractor pulls the trailered water taxi out to sea. We drove at least 1/4 mile before we hit water! At high tide you just use the boat ramp as usual.

There are lots of tractors.

The water taxi dropped me off at this gorgeous beach. Roll up your pants for the departure.

Low tide means golden sands.

The trail is a mix of winding up and down lush NZ forests and trekking across golden beaches.


Beach with shells instead of sand....


A close-up.

Backpacking on the beach!


View from the track as it meanders through the bush.


Very tropical.


That spit has about a dozen homes that are part of the park's private inholding. How sweet is that!?

Nelson Lakes National Park

Amy's solo adventures continue...
A quick bus ride and now I'm on my way to Nelson Lakes National Park. It's a bit further north, so lots of sunny weather and no more snow-capped mountains. I did a 6-day tramp here, with two nights staying in huts above the bushline.

Most of the track was in the trees.

In the trees in NZ means in the mud. Lots of mud.


What wasn't in the trees was rising quickly out of the trees.


Very quickly!


This is typical of the huts. Bunk beds, some tables, and a kitchen prep area. Very quaint.


Some picturesque scenery.


If the water wasn't glacial melt, I would have gone for a swim here.


I did a bit of river scouting for Richard. Toooo rocky here!


Mt. Angelus and the Angelus Lake Hut are the highlights of this trip. There are three or four different valleys or ridges that lead to the spot. I went via Mt. Cedric, a very exposed ridgeline. At the very center of this image you can see a tiny hiker moving his way up the ridge.


Lake Angelus, around 6000' elevation. You can just make out the hut on the far side of the lake.


Wake up to no visibility. Baaaad idea to descend the ridge with this weather. So all of the trampers and I decided to take a lay-over day here. aka long nap!


A beautiful sunset at Lake Angelus Hut.


Hiking buddy Peter testing out the winds. Strong, but not as bad as the previous day!

Robert Ridge, the descent back to town. Well worth the wait for good sunny weather.

Amy's adventure on the Rees-Dart track

Amy here to share some photos during my adventures after Richard ditched me on the side of the road in Queenstown to go to university. I have lots of favorite spots so far. The Rees-Dart Circuit, a little north of Queenstown in the Southern Alps, is definitely in the top three. The woman I got a ride from pointed out at least a dozen Lord of the Rings set locations on the way.

As with most NZ valleys, the trail starts along a meandering river before it tightens up.

Walking up the grassy flats of the Dart River Valley.

Lots of cold mountain drinking water along the way.

The swingbridge (max. load 1 person) right below the Dart Hut. I stayed two nights here so I could do some day hiking to the glaciers and a mountain pass...

...like this one. A picture-worthy cairn on the way to Dart Glacier.


Stunning. I got so lucky with the weather. I practically ran along the trail as the clouds were coming in quick.


There's Dart Glacier in the background. This day hike had the most spectacular scenery and is a huge draw from trampers coming from all sides of the mountain range. The Rees-Dart track is the easiest access to this viewpoint.


The view from Cascade Saddle looking down into the opposing Matukituki Valley. There is a whole network of tracks down there, but it's steeeeeep coming up to Cascade Saddle from the other side.

Little water holes everywhere.


With my polarized sunglasses, this is how the world looks. Vivid.


The moderate saddle connecting the Rees and Dart valleys.


Down into the Rees Valley.


The hut I had planned to stay at, but decided against when I realized it wasn't up to my standards. It was on the map, but not a DOC-sponsored (like the Forest Service) hut. Turned out to be more of an old historic cabin complete with antique relics, broken windows, old soggy mattress and sand flies. No thanks! I guess it's onward.


Me around 8:30pm, after passing up the shack-hut-thing, now having trekked for the past 10 hours, 3 of which were on 4WD road after I got to the trailhead and found no cars to get a ride, in old tennis shoes, really hoping I won't have to camp in the field as I didn't bring a tent or pad. At 9pm I got lucky and some wonderful ladies brought me back into town.


The Rees-Dart was amazing. Breathtaking scenery, comfortable accomodations (the DOC ones!), well-maintained trail, and options for more challenging side hikes. If someone could only do one hike in NZ, I would recommend this one. I would definitely do it again, coming from the Matukituki Valley, making for a very solid adventure.

Milford Sound Extravaganza

From Queentown Amy and I headed to Milford Sound. Boating, beauty, and boat-loads of tourists is what we had in mind for our time at Milford. We spent two nights and three days in the area, enjoy!

The Holloyford River is talked up in the guide book as being wicked sweet and a highlight of boaters paddling trip to NZ. As with most sweet runs in NZ the Holloyford is at the high side of grade IV boating so we were really looking for some folks to join us on the river.

The Holloyford

We drove over the river and saw that it was at a sweet looking level so continued to drive towards Milford in hopes of finding some boaters! After gawking at the beauty that is Milford Sound for a bit we headed to the sea kayaking outfitters. We totally scored! Jimmy, a resident sea kayak guide, WW boater, and awesome guy had the day off and really wanted to go boating! So we loaded up the car and off we went!

Jimmy and Amy ready for some fun

Sweet waterfall on the way to the put-in

Amy and Jimmy taking a look at a nice drop

The first run was so much fun we had to do it again! At the take out the second time Jimmy asked me if we had plans for the night, I said no and he proceeded to tell me that the only bar in Milford Sound was having its annual "Lady of the Sound" drag show tonight and we were all invited.

You see, Milford Sound sees about 3000 people a day in the summer but they only stay for the day. The "town" of Milford Sound has around 300 people that are all connected to the tourism industry some how. So every evening the population goes from 3000 back to around 300. The local bar puts on a lot of fun activities, like the drag show, to keep the staff from going crazy.

As you can see about 75% of the town was there


If you came in drag and entered the show you got free beer! so all the contestants were on their A game...


Good times

The Winner!

At the bar you could buy a "tower." It holds a lot of beer and costs a fair bit but looks really cool!

The next morning the clouds were no more and we were treated to our first real view of the sound. We made breakfast on a very well placed picnic table.

Table with a view please


Yummy


Pretty

The night before at the drag show we bought the sea kayak guides a round of beer as payment for the use of a sea kayak the next day. We totally scored because they don't rent their stuff out to people, you have to pay the big bucks for a guided trip; but being boaters and buying them beer won them over and off we went on a fun fillled day.

Let the adventure begin. Our goal was to paddle to the end of the sound, a 15km paddle each way


The dynamic duo


Amy!


Big boat, bigger wall


Richard!

After 5 some hours of paddling we made it to the outlet of the sound! and to our luck a sweet tail wind kicked in and helped us make it back before dark. It was an amazing experience and a very long day.

Amy and I camped in a nice field for the two nights. The sea kayak guides have a very unique housing system...

The "Paddle on Inn." Amy thought it was foul, disgusting, repulsive... I thought is was beautiful.


The Sea Kayak guides sponsor a nude run every year. It seemed like something they would do.

The next day Amy and I went on a hike up to the top of one of the main waterfalls into the sound.

The hike was fun but the view from the top was better


Richard doing some pointless scouting


Big waterfall


Bigger waterfall


Kinda looked like California whitewater


We took a more exciting route on the way down

All in all it was an amazing few days. We said goodbye to our sea kayak friends and were on our way.