Fresh off our tour in Australia, we landed in Christchurch missing one thing: a plan. We’ve been pretty good at booking ahead of our trips to any place, but we had failed to give ourselves the gift of working on New Zealand before we got here. So, in a hustle during our last few days in Australia, we made a reservation for an overnight in Christchurch (where our flight from Australia was landing) and some lists of quick hits based on recommendations and Atlas Obscura.
Christchurch
We hadn’t heard good things about Christchurch, but maybe we didn’t fully believe what we had heard. However, our sentiment as we drove away can best be expressed by our joy in leaving. It was eerie, had sort of a dead, bored-with life energy. My friend Brandon may have summarized it best by saying, “Christchurch. Oddest city I’ve been to. It is like one big suburb to nothing.”
So… our first day in New Zealand was spent like Grandpa Joe and Grandma Josephine—in bed. We laid in for hours catching up on what we had avoided the month prior: I worked on our blog and pictures and Heather focused on the NZ plan. It took every bit of our time in Christchurch, which frankly, was too much time. But we got through what we needed, and with a blog post under our belt and a plan for the South Island drive sketched out, we hit some shops for supplies and got the f out of there.
Lake Tekapo
As you could understand, our excitement for being in NZ was a bit tempered by our first day. So, on the drive towards Lake Tekapo, we were a bit skeptical that NZ would be more beautiful than some of the places in the U.S. we had seen. The beginning of the drive was reminiscent of Iowa – flat farmland for miles. But as it progressed, things improved. We saw South Dakota in the dramatic sandy-colored hills, and upon arrival to Lake Tekapo, it was pure New Zealand. A lake whose color can best be described by the Gatorade flavor 'Glacier Freeze' (which makes me nostalgic for high school sports when my mom would spring for all the Gatorades) leaves you breathless. Pictures sort of capture it, but it would probably be more effective if you literally imagined that Gatorade being poured into the water’s basin.
27 Hours, 13 miles, and 3000 feet
In case you don’t know us, we like being active and being outdoors. So, Heather planned three run/hikes for our time in the LT.
Hike 1: Hooker Valley Track
We arrived at this trail just before 9 AM, which is recommended because after 9, tourists descend and the parking lot fills. We decided to run this relatively flat 6.5-mile track and it took us over three suspension bridges, across rushing water, through beautiful scenery, and onto one off-the-path bouldering opportunity. Neither of us has kept up much with our distance running (really just doing between 3-4 miles a couple of times a week), but somehow, the scenery buoyed our strength and we finished the run with energy to spare. There were some rolling hills but nothing compared to what we were about to experience.
[Total self-indulgent aside: At the turnaround point of the run/hike, we were rewarded with glacial views. I don't know if you know how important glaciers are for me, but I'm going to tell you. In fourth grade, we were studying the history of Wisconsin (the most important subject you can study in fourth grade) and did a unit on the terrain. Now Wisconsin is full of remnants from the glaciers - rolling hills, kettle moraines, and most of the lakes (including Lake Michigan). For this unit, we got to pick one project in any medium to share glaciers with the rest of the class. I walked after school to a travel agency, and my 9-year-old self entered sola feeling grown-up as heck and asked the welcoming woman for anything she had on glaciers. She gave me brochures and magazines--mainly of Alaska, but from other parts of the world, too--from which I cut and then used rubber cement to paste onto a blue poster board. It's probably still in my mom's basement somewhere.
So, imagining larger than life ice chunks floating in the water, or carving paths in mountains was the stuff of dreams for me. And, low and behold, at the end of this run, there were the large blue glacier break-offs floating in the water, and to the right, a glacier carving its own dirty path through the forced valley of the mountains.]
Hike 2: Sealy Tarns Track
After our run, we returned to the car and discovered something concerning: we had packed a hearty brunch of boiled eggs and nut butter and banana sandwiches to fit in the middle of our strenuous morning… and we each thought the other had put it in the car.
Disappointment and stress set in as we thought about completing the next hike with little nourishment. But because we had grabbed the wrong bag, we did have some seaweed, vegetable chips, and bars, so we snacked on that and shrugged our shoulders. After 20 minutes, it was time to get moving again.
Despite being 3 miles shorter, the Sealy Tarns was harder by far. Almost a straight ascent, climbing 1800 feet in 1.75 miles, we felt the energy suck of the first run as we tried to place one foot after another (after another after another after another...). The mountains urged us forth, promising more rewarding views with each step. It was a test of mental as much as physical endurance. The steps sometimes were so far apart that my short and tired legs had to strain to make the advance. Passing and then getting passed by the same group on and off took its mental toll. The hot sun that we had wished for early in our shaded chilly run now overheated us.
But we stuck together, chanting encouragement at ourselves and each other as we made our way up.
And we made it. The top was stunningly beautiful: jagged snow-covered mountain peaks, deep valleys, reflective water, and speedo-clad Europeans taking a “paddle” in the summit’s pool.
And… then we had to hike down the same way we came up. Any time we stopped to let ascenders pass, our legs shook uncontrollably over the 2000 (literally, we counted) steps. But we made it down and we had finished our 10 miles in day one.
Hike 3: White Bluffs of Tekapo
The next morning (Monday), we finished our trifecta with a final 5k run through the alpine prairie surrounding Lake Tekapo. Totally sacked from our previous strenuous day, we set a goal to just keep ourselves moving.
Different still from our first two hikes, we covered undulating hills through at times bristly vegetation and at times no vegetation at all. We maneuvered around thousands of rabbit holes and fox dens and stared in wonder at the most rabbit scat we have ever seen in our lives scattered (get it?) all over the trail.
Lake Tekapo from this angle again did not disappoint. Lucky with the weather for the last two days, the blue skies reflected into the water, once again bringing Gatorade to mind. And in turn, the waters reflected the mountains back to us almost as clear as the mountains themselves.
It’s No Onsen
On Sunday night, after our first couple of hikes, we decided to take a soak in the hot springs of the area. It was relaxing with beautiful views (I’ll probably say beautiful views a thousand times in NZ), and great for the muscles. Overall, though, it was little more than a glorified public pool with warmer temperatures (read: no magic or sanctity of the Japanese onsens). We spent about an hour and a half here before moving on.
Stargazing
Did you know that Lake Tekapo enjoys the darkest skies of the Southern Hemisphere? It seems like a once in a lifetime opportunity to be in a place like this, and so we took advantage of the darkness and booked a tour with the Dark Sky Project.
Our tour began at 10:15 PM (late, but time is an illusion for us anymore anyway) when we boarded a bus to the summit of Mount John where there are observatories, telescopes, and 0.0 light pollution. Atop the mountain, we cricked our necks and gazed at the most stars we have seen in our lives. Via telescopes, we witnessed baby stars in Orion’s Belt and adolescent stars of the Jewel Box Cluster. And we got to see a ghost star, which is believed to actually no longer be in existence but the event of its supernova has yet to reach our eyes because of the many light-years of distance between us.
And with our naked eyes, we saw much more. Sporadic shooting stars passed throughout the night. A blazing red shooting star (if you don't know, all shooting stars are meteors) crossed our vision, the brightest and most interesting we have seen. We saw the international space station move across a tiny section of the sky before disappearing into the Earth’s shadow. Satellites slowly moved between the two nebulae that block out part of Milky Way due to their denseness. We saw two galaxies considered satellite galaxies of the Milky Way – the Large and Small Clouds of Magellan, 160,000 and 210,000 light-years away respectively. We viewed the Southern Cross, a constellation that can assist with navigation much like the North Star and can be found on the flags of New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, and Brazil (though NZ only believes there are four stars in the constellation, the other nations pop the mini-fifth on their flag). Alpha and Beta Centauri were easily shining nearby. And, what could have been the view of an alien’s abduction--what looked like a series of vertical stars emanating from earth deep into the sky--turned out to be Elon Musk's controversial high-speed internet-for-the-world-dream Starlink.
It was absolutely special, breathtaking, magical. Of course, to keep the integrity of the darkness, no white light is allowed and so we have no pictures to share with you.
They did take a group shot of us at the except against the star-studded sky, but haven't yet posted it so if they do, I'll drop it down in here.
Moving On
And after our first few days in NZ under our belt, we made a final stop to view the photogenic Church of the Good Shepard in Lake Tekapo and moved southeast toward our next overnight stay. On the way, we made stops in Oamaru and Hampden.
Oamaru
After a two-hour scenic drive where we stopped frequently for photos, we landed in the quaint seaside Victorian town of Oamaru.
Upon our arrival, we were giddy to hit one of the Atlas Obscura recommendations: the Steampunk HQ. It did not disappoint.
Full of gadgets and whizbangs and creative contraptions meant to reflect a sci-fi future built upon steam-powered technology from the 1800s, the museum is hands-on and every bit as weird as we hoped it would be. We turned cranks, played organs, did a mini-maze, entered other worlds, and rode stationary trains and giant choppers.
When we left the museum, we wanted to explore Oamaru a bit more. We tried for some coffee, but oddly most coffee places and bakeries close by 4 PM, so we toured without the caffeine. True to its Victorian roots across the town, we also found remnants of a steampunk vibe in random places like a cute street and a public park. We also sauntered to the beach to see what we thought were animals dipping in and out of the water and were actually giant balls of seaweed.
Moeraki Boulders
South of Oamaru near Hampden lies a beach with bizarre resident rocks. We have seen some cool rocks on beaches -- rugged cliffs, black lava formations, cone-shaped pinnacles -- but nothing prepared us for the shape of these rocks. They are (nearly) perfectly spherical.
The indigenous Maori believe these spheres come from petrified remnants of the canoe wreck of Arai-te-uru. A German woman who was so taken by our cuddling on the rock that she asked to take our photo (her work above) shared her beliefs: that there must be a circular sort of energy here that causes this as she saw some mud wash up as well that was a near-perfect sphere. If you check in with the experts, however, scientists believe these rocks weighing multiple tons are calcite concentrations from 65 million years ago. One of these stories is the least interesting, but none takes away from how remarkable these give-new-definition-to-beach-ball formations are.
Next Stop...
コメント