TravelStream™ news feed for member wolftrails on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/wolftrails en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 19 Apr 2009 15:02:17 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1239468960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1239468960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1239468960/tpod.html Sun, 19 Apr 2009 15:02:17 -0400 New Zealand - North to south...

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Lake Tekapo, South Island, New Zealand

And here it is... Our last entry from New Zealand... Created and posted after we already arrived home, but that is because our last day in New Zealand was so busy that we just didn't have any time to select the pictures and write a little bit. (Plus the car didn't have an internet connection to upload anything even if we could have made the entry already ;))We arrived at Lake Tekapo on the evening of the 10th of April and had a meal at a little nearby restaurant. While we were walking back to our room for the night we noticed that the lake and the mountains around it were looking very picturesque. The sky was clear and the full moon was lighting everything up and making it look nice and incredibly serene. So of course we quickly went and fetched Martijn's camera and the tripod in order to take advantage of this opportunity :D.The next morning we spent a fair bit of time re-packing most of the bags as once we drove away from Lake Tekapo our next stop would be the Christchurch Airport. There we would be checking them in and we wanted to make sure everything would arrive safely back in Oslo (barring any lost luggage of course ;)).But before we left Lake Tekapo we had a wander around the area again as in daylight it was ALSO very pretty and serene :D.A little bit further along the shore line of the lake there is a small church called The Church Of The Good Shepherd. As it is touted as one of the 'sights' (besides all the pretty nature of course) at Lake Tekapo we figured we'd stop by there on our way out. When we arrived there it was quite nice and calm, but not long after our arrival BUSLOADS of people started showing up.Now taking a nice picture of a little church at a calm lake while there are 40+ people milling around is tricky to say the least, but we think we managed. Just don't expect it to be the way it looks on the postcards or photographs if you ever intend to go there ;).After spending far too much time at this tiny little church we jumped back into the car and drove to Christchurch Airport :PSee you all at home!!! *HUGS*
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1239405660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1239405660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1239405660/tpod.html Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:30:34 -0400 New Zealand - North to south...

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Moeraki Boulders, South Island, New Zealand

After managing to pull ourselves free from Dunedin we drove northwards along the coast. Here we saw a lot more of the (by now almost normal) pretty beaches and greenery. However, when the sun was low on the horizon, we came across a most definitely NOT normal stretch of beach :P.We are not fully sure what the actual beach there is called, but a nearby town is called Moeraki and what makes this beach is so unique are 'The Moeraki Boulders'. Now we didn't really know what to expect here, but since it was on our route we figured we'd stop and have a look anyway :).The reason these boulders are so special is that they are almost perfectly spherical. And as un-interesting as that might sound at first glance, once we saw them we were quite puzzled and impressed by them. Yes, they are just large rocks, but the weirdness of the whole scene... Several large boulders that look like they could have been God's marbles just lying on the beach in the surf... It is definitely not a common sight.We tried to take a few pictures of them to share with you all, but sadly enough the sun was close to setting so the conditions weren't optimal... Plus we had to keep dashing back to the edge as the tide was coming in hard and fast and in BIG waves :D.The beach only had about 30 centimeters of dry sand left where everyone else was huddling whenever a new wave was incoming. So we ended up running back and forth inbetween waves for some pictures and to see these weird boulders up close. We even saw a broken boulder further down the beach that looked like it had exploded sometime in the past. It clearly showed that the centre had been hollow and at some point the pressure inside had been too great and it just blew up there on the beach.Luckily we only had to dodge incoming waves and not flying rocks this time round though :P
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1239381060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1239381060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1239381060/tpod.html Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:46:51 -0400 New Zealand - North to south...

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Dunedin, South Island, New Zealand

Several months ago, when we were still in the process of planning our New Zealand trip, we of course realised that we would not be able to see everything the country has to offer. The very last thing that ended up being cut from our intinerary was Dunedin. So when the bad weather at Milford Sound left us with one day spare, there was little doubt about what to do with the extra day.However, since stopping there had not been part of the grand plan, the only things we knew about the city was that it has an old train station, and that it (according to Billy Connolly) always rains in Dunedin...And wouldn't you believe it, when we arrived in Dunedin it was...... RAINING!!!So we opted for browsing a few shops in the centre (a good way to stay dry :D) and calling it an early night. On our previous shopping extravaganzas we mostly bought summer clothes as the weather (and the region) at that point was just too hot for anything other than shorts and t-shirts. In Dunedin however we very quickly found out that we needed more autumn or even winter clothes, what with the wind and rain and even very briefly some HAIL coming down. Luckily Dunedin has plenty of such garments available... We wonder why ;)The next morning the weather didn't look much more promising, but we were 'forced' to head out anyway as we had booked a tour that would take us out to the Otago Peninsula to see the local wildlife there. We were going to be picked up in a small town called Portobello not far outside Dunedin. The drive there was quite enjoyable offering up many pretty vistas of Dunedin and its bay as well as the peninsula itself.The weather made it all look a bit drab and depressing, but we could clearly see the beauty hidden in it despite all the rain. We both agreed that, with better weather, we could spend many hours taking pictures and just plain enjoying the scenery of the peninsula. However, we had an appointment to keep (The wildlife tour, remember? ;)) so we couldn't hang around to see if the weather would improve.In Portobello we were picked up by the tour and taken to the very tip of the peninsula where there is a royal albatross breeding colony. The tour guide informed us that if we were lucky we would be able to see the young birds that reside there practice their flying skills, but that, due to their size, these birds only fly in strong winds. And as it happened we were indeed lucky... When we got out of the mini-bus the wind almost made all of US fly and we could see three young albatrosses showing off.30 minutes later we hopped back onto the mini-bus and were driven to a private conservation area on a remote farm. From there we had a small trek down a hillside (fairly steep, but no mountaineering gear needed luckily ;)) to a stretch of beach that is home to a small penguin colony. Here we were shepherded into an observation hut so as not to disturb or scare the penguins. By now it was nearing sunset, which  meant the penguins were all coming back to the beach from their day fishing in the nearby waters. (Penguin Curfew!!! :P)Now the 'Penguin Curfew' remark there might seem a bit amusing and all, but it is actually the truth. See, the penguins there share the water with some sea lions and THEY go out hunting when the sun sets. So the yummy little penguins have to be back ashore before the big bad sea lions start roaming the waters :P.After our time in the observation hut we had to work our way back UP the hill (suddenly it DID seem very steep and longer than on our way down!) only to find out we were then going DOWN the same hill on the other side. The trail there leads down to a viewing platform looking down on a fur seal colony. While there were maybe a maximum of 10 penguins, the fur seal colony was absolutely teeming with *drum roll* FUR SEALS! :)Most of the fur seals that we could see there were pups that were too young and small to go out hunting with the adults. They were sitting around on the cliffs waiting for their mothers to return and feed them. Using the time to be quite interested in the weird humans looking down from above as it turned out.After yet ANOTHER climb up the same hill (heart-attack anyone? :D) we returned to Dunedin and... did NOT crash into bed exhausted.You might have expected that we, as the couch potatoes that we are, would have been close to death after climbing that hill (TWICE!). However we surprised even ourselves by feeling still reasonably energetic by the time we were back in Dunedin. The fact that it was a nice clear (and DRY) night gave us extra energy and we decided to head out to check out the scottish-inspired buildings that Dunedin is famous for.Luckily many of the picturesque buildings in Dunedin have nice lighting at night specifically for people like us (or rather Martijn mostly :P). And so we ended up spending a lot of time on the field in front of The First Church Of Otago. (And being very pleased with the results!) The Dunedin train station we also found to be a very pretty building, but we discovered that in order to get it on a picture properly we needed the wide-angle lens that was in our hotel room. By now we were getting rather cold and sleepy and we didn't want to go back to get the lens and take 1 or 2 pictures, so instead we went back to our room and crawled into a nice warm bed.The following morning luck was truly on our side as it was a gorgeous clear sky with a nice temperature and no sign of impending rain. So after we packed our bags back into the car we took a little walk back into the centre of the city (and brought the wide-angle lens this time ;)). Here we found that the Dunedin train station is just as gorgeous by day as it was by night. Of course we also went by the other buildings that we saw the night before and AGAIN Martijn spent far too long taking pictures of The First Church Of Otago :P. He's not even that religious...Now that the weather was on our side (on the last day we had in Dunedin of all things!) we decided to go back to the Otago Peninsula before we continued our journey. We only had to drive a few hours that day, so we felt we could spend the morning re-visiting the peninsula now that the sun was making everything look so much nicer.Driving the same road as we did the day before, we got to fully enjoy the surroundings again and this time we could even stop here and there for some pictures and to wave at a nearby sheep ;).After our little detour via the peninsula (we actually needed to go in the complete opposite direction :P) we drove back into Dunedin and after a very brief stop at the steepest street in the WORLD (Baldwin Street) we continued our journey northwards. By now we expected that we had seen Dunedin and its surroundings as thoroughly as the time allowed us to. But on our way out of the city we got such a wicked view of (you guessed it!) the Otago Peninsula (from across the bay) that we had to stop and take several more pictures.After this un-scheduled stop we drove onwards and managed to get out of reach of Dunedin's pull (FINALLY!)... Definitely a region to re-visit if we ever get the chance...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1239158100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1239158100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1239158100/tpod.html Wed, 15 Apr 2009 11:48:09 -0400 New Zealand - North to south...

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Kaka Point, South Island, New Zealand

After a REALLY good and proper sleep we drove out of Invercargill shortly after 10 in the morning *mutters about check-out times ONCE more ;)*. Just outside of Invercargill there is an area called the Catlins that stretches almost all the way to Dunedin. Our first destination was the southern most tip of the country, called Slope Point.There's not really all that much to it, other than being able to claim you were at the south most point of New Zealand. Which we did :D And so this spot is now the south most point either of us has ever been on the entire planet... Until we take a trip to Antarctica of course ;)Oh, and as you might guess: IT IS WINDY HEEEERREEEEEEE :PSo much so in fact that all the trees around us had simply GROWN in the direction of the wind. Even when it is not windy it still looks windy because of all the trees being that windswept.Since we had skipped breakfast, as it would have required us to get up even earlier, we stopped at a highly recommended little restaurant along our route. it is called The Whistling Frog and they truly took that frog-theme all the way :P Our favourite part was simply the sign outside of the place that said: 'Frog Parking Only. All Others Will Be Toad' :D. Cheesy, but still great :P.The main reason we went there of course was the food and luckily that was really good. Possibly the best garlic bread we've had in New Zealand and the eggs benedict that we both ordered was VERY filling and JUST right.After our lunch we did consider going to the 'nearby' waterfalls, but we were too full for the 20 minute walk it would have taken us to get to them. So we drove on and once our lunch had digested a bit more we stopped at the Parakaunui Falls.Now, remember how we were wondering whether waterfalls had become mundane and almost boring to us? Well, these waterfalls here made us change our mind in a BIG way. Martijn especially didn't want to leave them and he alone ended up taking 60 pictures of them in the end. During all of this other tourists came and went and we just hung around enjoying them and being mesmerised by the gorgeousness of it all.Luckily we brought the tripod with us so that we could take many pictures with the 'soft water' effect and it also allowed Martijn to get a bit more adventurous by climbing down from the viewing platform for a new and different (and more impressive in our opinion) angle on the whole scene. It wasn't much effort, but it does prove that you should always look around a bit and not let yourself be confined to the pre-made viewing platforms if you can. (While it's safe to do so of course ;))Near our end-point for the day was a little spot called Nugget Point, which is known for its lighthouse.The main attraction there is really the scenery with the lighthouse placed precariously at the furthest (and highest) point of a ridge. The trail across the ridge there is shielded on both sides by a little fence as either side would allow you to drop down to the water FAR below (with a couple of bounces on the jagged edges probably).The reason this is called Nugget Point are the 'little' rocks in the water in front of the lighthouse, The Nuggets. These nuggets can be best seen from the viewing platforms at the lighthouse (under construction/upgrading when we got there) and if you are lucky you can also see various seals playing around at the edges of the surf.From the lighthouse you can see the nearest village called Kaka Point, where we would be staying the night. The place itself is quite nice and from our room we could even see the lighthouse in the distance... It even works at night!!! It's not just there for show! It functions! :D
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1239052440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1239052440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1239052440/tpod.html Tue, 14 Apr 2009 12:16:21 -0400 New Zealand - North to south...

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Milford Sound, South Island, New Zealand

To get from Queenstown to Milford Sound might LOOK easy on a map as Milford Sound is only a short distance to the northwest of Queenstown... However there are a FEW mountains inbetween there and that meant that we had to drive in a BIG "U"-shape to get there. 100 km south, followed by 60 km westwards and then finally 120 km north again parallel to the first 100 km that we drove.The route itself is quite picturesque and the roads are amazingly empty as only tourists drive in this area it seems, which allowed us to enjoy the journey and have a few stops along the way. These were mostly on the last 120 km of the drive as we were in the Fiordland National Park by then (something Milford Sound is a part of).One of the first stops we made was at the Eglinton Flats where you can see mountains all around. We had a brief stop there to 'look around' ;) The reason we did this, and why this is worth doing, is that the Eglinton Flats is a huge flat (DUH!) area covered in grass that gives an impressive full 360 degree vista of the mountains on all sides.Shortly after the Eglinton Flats we came to the Mirror Lakes, one of the most recommended stops along the road from Queenstown to Milford Sound. We found them a tad disappointing as they are more ponds than what we would call lakes. They DO reflect really well, but with all the fish and ducks in the "lakes" the water was not calm enough for us to get the amazing sight there that postcards and travel-guides advertise. Also, eventhough it is called Mirror Lakes, it seems like there is really only ONE pond there... Which we found a tad misleading...The fact that this is directly next to the road means that it is still a nice spot to stop and have a gander. It would just have been nice if it had matched our expectations a bit more. (Which is not ITS fault, but more likely the fault of the marketing and PR in the region ;))Homer Tunnel (No relation to Homer Simpson we think!) is a tunnel that we were warned about up front as people claimed it was a particularly SCARY tunnel. When we got the tunnel we noticed many people parked next to it and taking pictures of the tunnel OPENING (EH?). At this point it is worth mentioning that during the day (with all the tour-busses that traverse this stretch) the tunnel alternates between the two directions of traffic. Since we didn't find the tunnel really worth a picture (sorry ;)) we just queued up to pass through the tunnel. The flow of traffic in the tunnel is regulated by traffic lights that are on a 15 minute (!) cycle. Which, to clarify, means that when we queued up to go through the tunnel (it was a red light when we arrived), we ended up having to wait almost 15 minutes before we could drive through it!Now, if the tunnel was rather long, and it would take traffic aprox. 10 minutes to pass through, then this might have made sense... But this tunnel is only 1270 meters long!!! This stretch we drove in 2 minutes or so, during which we kept wondering why THIS was supposed to be so scary.Comfortably driving onwards now that we had faced and tackled the dreaded Homer Tunnel (!), we made one more stop along this stretch of highway. This was at The Chasm, where a large waterfall plummets into a narrow chasm (DUH!). It is an impressive natural phenomenon that we would have loved to share with you all, but taking pictures of this is really rather pointless as all we really saw was a big black hole that water plummeted into. The roar of the waterfall could definitely be heard for hundreds of meters, so we ASSUME that it is a very deep chasm... But that is just a guess really ;)Instead, we opted for taking a few pictures of the stream before it went over the edge. The river here had a small side-arm that we both thought was rather picturesque with its mossy stones and miniature waterfalls.At the end of the day we arrived at Milford Sound and decided to have a quick look at the actual fjord, although it was already getting quite dark. Little did we know that this was going to be our nicest view of the waterfront. We had booked to go kayaking on the Milford Sound fjord the next day early in the morning... But... Can you guess?Indeed... At 4 in the morning we were woken by the weather... Now let us briefly say how EXTREME this is as we both usually sleep through anything. Alarm clocks, vacuum cleaners and even an earthquake in the case of Martijn (small one, but still... it counts...). What woke us was the HOWLING of the wind and the rain hitting the roof. We looked out the window and saw that half the parking lot was now a mud-puddle and that the rain was actually traveling more horizontal than vertical. By this time we were already suspecting that the kayaking was going to be canceled on us as there seemed little point in going out onto the water in the rain and heavy winds.In the morning we made a quick drive to the waterfront to survey the conditions and we simply concluded that if it was not canceled that we were not doing it anyway as neither of us has ever kayaked before. Plus we were there to see the surroundings and enjoy the experience... Not to be blown out to sea and end up in Australia!When the 'guides' arrived they did indeed say it was canceled for the day because of the weather. Amusingly enough they only mentioned that the wind was why it was canceled, not the rain. Leading us to believe that they would have headed out in the rain if only it was less windy... *shudder*We had booked for the next night in Milford Sound under the assumption that we would be exhausted from our kayaking experience. As this was now no longer going to be the case, and because there is really NOTHING to do in Milford Sound when it rains, we decided to make a few phone-calls and see if we could re-book and shift some bookings around for the next few days.Luckily everyone was extremely helpful and there were no problems with moving our reservations up one day (and in the case of one hotel even adding an extra day of course). After this all we quickly packed up and tried to get everyting into the car in record time (to avoid flooding of the trunk/boot) and left Milford Sound.On our way out we were greeted by hundreds (or maybe even thousands) of waterfalls coming down the mountain sides due to the immense amounts of rain that had fallen. This was an amazingly pretty sight, but, since it was STILL coming down by the bucket load, we didn't want to soak our cameras in order to get a few pictures. (We prefer not taking pictures through car windows (especially our dirty ones), sorry :P)As the rain didn't let up at all during the day we just drove straight to Invercargill and got a nice early night on a really good bed :D.Some day we WILL find out what kayaking is like... We hope... :P
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1238893980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1238893980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1238893980/tpod.html Wed, 08 Apr 2009 06:32:19 -0400 New Zealand - North to south...

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Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand

We took the Crown Range Road from Wanaka to Queenstown and stopped at a lookout point along the road, which gave us a majestic view of the valley below. The road itself is said to be really bendy and difficult to drive, but we found it quite normal and timid except for the last section going downhill. Our experiences in Norway (Trollstigen specifically) might have numbed us a bit to claims of 'bendy' and 'steep' :P.New Zealand might not have much history yet (being such a young country), but one of the more historical events in its recent past was the 'invention' of Bungy Jumping. This happened not far from Queenstown, so we figured we'd brush up a bit on our cultural history of the country and swung by there.We went to Kawarau Bridge where AJ Hackett (the 'father of Bungy Jumping') set up his business back in 1988. You can (if you dare) still bungy jump there to this day, but we opted to WATCH a guy jump off the bridge rather than doing it ourselves ;).Upon arriving in Queenstown itself we made a bee-line to the gondolas. This one was significantly steeper and went higher than the one in Rotorua, but gave just as an impressive view of the surroundings. Proving that it is not size that matters (when it comes to gondolas) ;). New Zealanders don't want to miss any opportunity to engage in some extreme sport it seems (as we once again noticed here). At the top of the gondola ride we had the option of bungy jumping, a luge ride, paragliding down the hill-side or a sky swing (look up what that is at your own peril ;)). Why can't they just enjoy the gorgeous view(s) like the rest of us sane people! :PMost of our time in Queenstown was spent shopping. From souvenirs, to clothing, to candy (FUDGE!!!), to stuffed animals (say hello to Quinn ;)), to window shopping...During all of this we have found that clothing store clerks here are so helpful that it is scary...One in particular was perhaps bordering on the insane. Not only did she insist on calling ahead to stores along the rest of our travel route, she even offered to have her mother drive down (330 km) with the items we were looking for. But we couldn't take her up on that offer as her mother wouldn't be there before we'd have moved on...We DID take a small break from shopping in order to drive up the nearby hillside where there is a deer farm that allows visitors to get up close and personal with some of the animals. The entry fee is minor and then you get to drive around a working deer farm, which in addition to deer also has animals like goats, donkeys, llamas and alpacas.All of these animals roam freely around (some seperated from each other by a fence to prevent fighting) and graze the hillsides. Going to this area is at your own risk as a sign at the entrance told us, which sounded a bit strange with these timid herbivores.However, as we found out, the danger really surfaces when you use one of the feeding stations to get some food to feed them with. The goats particularly are VERY keen for this food and will bump each other out of the way. And if you hold the tin with the dry food too low they will rear onto their hind legs and try to climb into the tin ;). The llamas and alpacas are much gentler and rather neat to get so close to in person.We ended up spending quite some time there as we really enjoyed our chance to take close-up pictures of animals that we would normally not see outside a zoo enclosure. In addition to the animals, the view of Queenstown and the lake it is situated at was equally impressive, leaving us with a ton of pictures to go through afterwards :).On the last day we took a small boat cruise on the lake with the TSS Earnslaw, which took us across the lake and back. The boat docked on the opposite side of the lake at a farm where they were starting up the barbeque, but because the weather had taken a turn for the worse, we decided not to get off the boat at all. We didn't feel like BBQing in the rain ;). Instead we went right back to the centre of Queenstown and shopped some more ;).End result: Queenstown was the most relaxing AND most expensive part of the holiday so far ;)And we thoroughly enjoyed it all :D
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1238554560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1238554560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1238554560/tpod.html Wed, 08 Apr 2009 01:59:17 -0400 New Zealand - North to south...

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Wanaka, South Island, New Zealand

We took our time driving from Fox Glacier to Wanaka (our next destination). It could be done in about 3 hours, but then we would have missed out on some gorgeous nature and scenery. So take our advice and if you ever find yourself on that stretch of road then give yourself closer to 5 hours to cross the distance.Our first stop was at a spot called Knight's Point. It is just off the side of the road, but well worth the few minutes to gaze out over the huge bay with waves crashing onto the narrow beaches. The eroded rocks in the surf and the beaches themselves look pristine and untouched by humans, which is of course why we were drawn to it in the first place.Not far from Knight's Point is a waterfall called Thunder Creek Falls that we also wanted to check out. Amusingly, when we discussed it afterwards in the car, was that we both agreed that the creek at the bottom of the falls was much nicer to see and play around with for pictures :P.This was because the waterfall was fairly generic and had just a little bit of water streaming down the cliff, while the small creek had a gorgeous blue colour and many big boulders in it. The creek, with its fast flowing water and clarity, just instantly struck our fancy when we approached it.We had a similar experience at yet another waterfall that we stopped by (Does this mean waterfalls impress us less thesedays? ;)). This was at the Fantail Falls, and eventhough the waterfall is very nice and quite impressive, it was the riverbank in front of it that caught our attention. That was because it was filled with numerous stacks of rocks that various visitors left behind over the months and maybe even years.We have encountered this phenomenon before (in Norway specifically) and we still wonder about the purpose and origin of this practice. We both seem to recall having heard or read something about (vague isn't it? :P) it that claimed this was done by hikers before they crossed more treacherous terrain.So if anyone knows or has theories, please let us know in the comments or otherwise. PLEASE! It's keeping us up at night!!! ;)Not everything that we intended to stop at along the route was a success in one way or another. The Blue Pools Walk that we were passing was sadly enough closed because of repairs being done on a bridge. We wanted to do this little walk to see the Blue Pools that are rumoured to be SO amazingly blue and clear. We guess this will remain a mystery to us and on our to-do list for a future visit to the region.We weren't TOO sad as this also meant we could stay in the comfort of the car (aching feet, sandflies, dodgy swingbridges, you get the idea :P).The last stretch of the drive took us past Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea, the latter of which we managed to get some really nice views and pictures of. And eventually we ended up at our destination: the relaxed little village of Wanaka. Here we spent 2 days just relaxing and enjoying the gorgeous surroundings. Oh, and catching up on some laundry, more about that later ;).We tried a few suggested scenic drives. One was a short but pleasant trip down Outlet Road to a fairly deserted stretch of riverbank connected to Lake Wanaka. Here we wandered around soaking in the sun and enjoying the beginning autumn colours that this region is known for.The other suggested drive we had to abandon, because the road was just TOO gravely and we would have had to do the 30 kilometers (one way!) at 15-20 km/h or else the car might have fallen apart on us! There were some quite nice hillsides all around us, but not nice enough to press onwards on this venture... There's just a limit to how comfortable you can be when the car you are in rattles louder than a dryer full of gravel.Which leads us neatly onto our laundry experience :PBy now we had a fair bit of laundry to catch up on (3 bags worth in fact!) and we figured using the laundry facilities at our hostel was a good way to go. Little did we know that doing the laundry would be as predictable (and safe) as playing (russian) roulette.We will take you through it step-by-step just so you can envision it properly :P (and share our misery ;))1: There were 3 washing machines and 3 dryers. All of these locked the user out of any settings and only ran on 1 fixed program(me).2: 1 washing machine was 'Hot wash only'... With NO indication HOW hot this would be. Just that it would be HOT. (The guy manning the reception also had no clue as to the temperature.)3: The other 2 washing machines were 'Cold wash only'. Which we first assumed meant that the 'hot wash' was 60 degrees and the 'cold wash' 30 or 40 degrees... Then we found out that 'cold wash' meant using plain COLD tap water. With no heating applied whatsoever! (So probably 5 to 10 degrees celcius!)4: One of the two cold wash machines would only drain the water afterwards if it felt like it (guess what we encountered when we went to move the washing to the dryers! ;)) That's right, a machine full of freezing cold water with our clothes floating in it.5: All 3 dryers seemed to lack any moisture sensors as they would run for a fixed amount time and then stop regardless if the clothing was dry or not.6: Loads of more than 2 items would always require at least 2 cycles to get anywhere NEAR dry.7: We would have been easier and cheaper off handwashing everything in the shower with us and hanging it outside over the lawnchairs to dry! (The lawnchair method of drying we had to do anyway as the dryers only managed to make money evaporate and not moisture :P)(As a side note: Washing machines that we have encountered elsewhere in New Zealand do not have any temperature indications on its settings. You only get to select whether it is 'Whites' or 'Colours' or 'Bright Colours' or 'Delicates' etc. However the washing instructions in clothing are the same as we are used to from back home (Europe) and state temperatures like 40 degrees.)All in all our time in Wanaka was very pleasant and sandfly free. It truly is a gorgeous region and we would gladly have spent longer there if we had had the time. There are still many walks and sights around and near Wanaka that we haven't experienced but would have loved to.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1238375280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1238375280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1238375280/tpod.html Thu, 02 Apr 2009 05:26:51 -0400 New Zealand - North to south...

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Fox Glacier, South Island, New Zealand

Upon arriving in Fox Glacier we were greeted by low hanging black clouds... Which was not a good sign as the purpose of our visit here was to do something called a 'heli-hike'...A heli-hike is, as the name might give away, a combination of a helicopter flight and a hike. In our case the helicopter bit was to get onto the glacier at Fox Glacier (boy what an original name for a town, isn't it? ;)). And after that the hike-bit is wandering around on top of the glacier to just experience what it is like and see all the cool features. Oh, and the guides of course give a bit of information and history as well.So anyway, because of the helicopter part of it all, these tours are highly weather dependent and the conditions at our arrival did not bode well for this. Luckily the weather follows a rather predictable pattern in Fox Glacier most of the time. Bright clear skies in the morning and shortly after noon it starts clouding over and remains that way for the rest of the day.Having found this information out at the heli-hike offices, we relaxed and went out for dinner. The dinner itself wasn't particularly exciting, but we want to mention it because of what happened afterwards. We finished our meal and as we were paying the waitresses were curious where we were from and suddenly asked if we were going to watch the sheep-shearing competition in the pub across the street.This confused and startled us a bit, but as we found out later (when yet MORE people asked us the same) this is a major entertainment feature in Fox Glacier. The fact that the next day people asked us if we SAW the sheep-shearing competition indicated that the entire village must have come out for this event of epic proportions! And NO! We didn't go :PThe heli-hike the next morning was quite the experience as neither of us had ever been in a helicopter before. Even Martijn enjoyed it tremendously and both of us wished the helicopter bit would have lasted longer. It also allowed for several misconceptions about helicopters to be dispelled as the take-off and landing were so smooth that we barely realised that it had happened. What IS true is that it is very windy outside the helicopter when they take off. That means when you're on a glacier next to a helicopter that is taking off, you should shield yourself from the small ice-bits that will come flying towards you! DUCK!The hiking on the glacier was simplified a little bit for us by giving us proper boots and spikes to tie under the boots. This allowed for far better grip on the ice than our sneakers would ever have given! But Martijn was still so unstable on his feet that he spent most of the time looking down and walking with fairly wobbly legs. Trude was a lot more at ease here of course, probably because of having lived in northern Norway for a few years.Because of this Martijn feels that Trude hugely outshines him in the pictures she managed to take as she actually COULD spend more time looking around :P (Trude disagrees of course ;))The fact that we were on the glacier late in the season meant that much of the ice had started compacting and the larger caverns in the ice were either gone or inaccessable.Also black bits were showing up more on the ice, which we were told was NOT pollution, but the little rocks and pebbles and dust that the glacier was dragging along with it.Despite these two facts we still saw lots of very cool (heheheh) features and AMAZINGLY blue ice everywhere.After our two-and-a-half hour walk on the glacier we were both quite warm, not just from the effort involved, but also because the sun had been shining quite fiercely onto the glacier and the ice nicely reflects that.Martijn boarded the helicopter back in his t-shirt and Trude gladly removed one of her sweaters. (Leaving her with just 1 sweater :P)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1240935960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1240935960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1240935960/tpod.html Wed, 01 Apr 2009 06:09:17 -0400 New Zealand - North to south...

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Hokitika, South Island, New Zealand

Hokitika is known for two things, greenstone (jade) and the Hokitika gorge. Wanting to check out both of these, we started our day with a drive to the gorge.We opted for the scenic route around a local lake, which turned out to be a gravel road (only wide enough for one car) that went through a forest too thick for us too see much of the lake. Trude did enjoy the driving though, and even Martijn did not seem to mind it too much (probably because Trude drives much slower than Chrissy would on roads like these ;-)).We did pass a nice waterfall, the Dorothy Falls, somewhere along the way.Upon arriving at the Hokitika gorge we managed to walk all the way from the parking lot down to the gorge (across the swingbridge and all) before we discovered that we had forgotten to bring the sandfly repellent. Sandflies, being rather slow, can not keep up with you while you are walking, but they will land on you as soon as you stop. Martijn opted for standing still, and just swatting any sandfly that landed on him (he probably killed at least 20 of them in the 5 minutes we were there and looked like he was doing a Scottish folk dance ;)), while Trude kept walking back and forth to keep them away from her (looking like a woman in need of some valium ;)).Even if taking pictures while either swatting sandflies or while walking is rather tricky, we did manage to take a few before we fled back to the safety of the car...We then returned to town to have a look in the greenstone shops and managed to find a nice greenstone pendant for Martijn. Look for it in future pictures (although it might be inside his t-shirt :P).We also found a small shop selling stones with little kiwi silhouettes painted on them, and we ended up buying one to take home (finally, a souvenir that is for US and isn't soft and fluffy :D).
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1238207760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1238207760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wolftrails/2/1238207760/tpod.html Wed, 01 Apr 2009 02:37:43 -0400 New Zealand - North to south...

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Hokitika, South Island, New Zealand

After our exhausting time in Marahau, a village consisting of about two camp grounds, one restaurant and seven water taxi companies, we were ready to hit the road again. Hokitika, the next place we wanted to visit, was over 5 hours away by car. Not willing to spend the entire day in the car and unable to see our surroundings, we deciced to split that drive up over two days.The first day of driving took us from Marahau to Westport, a drive that was pretty enough, but rather uninteresting. We expected the Buller Gorge swingbridge (the longest swingbridge in New Zealand) to be of interest to us, but it turned out to be a disappointment. The bridge is on private land and the owners charge a fee to cross the bridge, which is all good and fine... What we however DID find annoying was the fact that you have to go through their ticket office (and thus pay) in order to see the bridge at all. Being the chickens that we are (Martijn isn't the only one that dislikes bridges that sway when you walk across them), we wanted to first SEE the bridge and THEN determine whether we were going to cross it.So we gave this a total miss and drove onwards. Oh, and the fact that the place was filled with sandflies didn't help either... We were having a relaxing day, but those little pests made us RUN for the car ;)The reason we decided to make Westport the stop point is because the stretch between Marahau and Hokitika is rather empty when it comes to towns and places to stay. Thankfully Westport is situated about 3 hours from Marahau and 2 hours from Hokitika AND has vital things like a gas station, food store and a motel :P. Judging by the amount of motels in the town however, all of the 6000 inhabitants must work in the tourist-industry in some manner. Which is impressive considering there isn't really anything THERE for tourists to see or do. So we gladly took the opportunity to recover further and work on our travelblog (Is everyone enjoying it still? :P).Just like in every other place we have stayed at so far, in Westport we also had to check out before 10am. WHY this is the case everywhere, we don't know. We are used to check-out times of 11am or even noon, both of which are quite nice and comfortable for a tourist that enjoys seeing the sights and crashing into bed exhausted most evenings. But here it is 10am, meaning we have to get up at 8.30 in order to have enough time to re-pack and be half presentable before we head out.Thus we were on the road leaving Westport rather early.Following the coast-line towards Hokitika, we stopped in Punakaiki, known for its Pancake Rocks. They are layered rocks that look like stacks of pancakes (Bet you never would have guessed THAT from the name, eh ;)). The reason for the rather unique looking rock formations is that the limestone there consists of alternating hard and soft layers which erode at different speeds, thus creating the pancake-stack look.As we both are quite fond of pretty and weird nature, we ended up spending a lot of time here taking many pictures of every weird and pretty little formation that we could spot. The walk that takes 20 minutes and goes past all the features therefor took over half an hour for us. And we EVEN did it a second time to enjoy the improved light conditions when the sun came out.A little later we arrived at Hokitika and we were intending to go for a walk on the beach or even visit the glow-worms across the street, but the weather interfered. Within minutes of us arriving at the camp grounds that we were staying at it started to rain heavily (and sideways as well due to the high winds). So our evening was reduced to a trip to the food store and then dinner in our cabin... Giving us yet AGAIN time to catch up on our travelblog and postcard-writing...This might have been our first time since arriving in New Zealand that we have had proper bad weather, and it really makes sleeping so much better :D(The rain we had in Wellington was a light drizzle in comparison... :P)
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