Friday, January 22, 2010
Bungy Jump off Kawarau Bridge...DONE!
For a year I have been talking about and mentally preparing myself for bungy jumping in Queenstown. Queenstown is the adventure capital of the world and home of bungy jumping. Parker has jumped before so he passed. Yesterday, I got in line to book my jump and chickened out. I am not ashamed to admit it, the thought of jumping frightens me. I would rather skydive again, a hundred times, before I bungy. I have never walked away from anything because it scared me, so in the end I had no choice. Besides, there is nowhere else I would consider jumping, so it was now or never. Today, I jumped off Kawarau Bridge, the world's first bungy site. It was scary but Freakin' Awesome!!! Bungy in Queenstown - done and done!!!
We have been in Queenstown for four days. This little town is on steroids. It is on beautiful Lake Wakatipu. The town is buzzing with tourists, and on the water you will find jet boats, sailboats and kayakers. When you look up you will see para-gliders and people jumping off the ledge on top of the mountain. We have gotten our fill of fish and chips. Parker finally found some real beer and amazing pizza at Dux De Lux. And we discovered Fergburger's, the best burgers in Queenstown and the best we've ever had. Somehow we are leaving town still on budget! It has been a little shocking walking into such a bustling town after being in the quite mountains but we have definately enjoyed this adrenaline haven.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Te Anau to Queenstown
Some of our favorite pics from the last two weeks. Will post week one pics soon! Enjoy!
Stunning New Zealand
The first week of our hike was a painful blur. We are heading north from Bluff and the southern part of the trail is pretty non-existant. Not to mention that Southland NZ is having a very wet summer (even the locals have had enough). The first week was a lot of road walking, 40mph wind, rain and hail. We tried reminding ourselves to suck it up and that we are in New Zealand but wet is wet! It was also tough because there simply isn't a lot of information out there about what we are trying to do.
After days and days on the road, Parker and I finally decide that road walking was not the way we wanted to see NZ. As much as we wanted to connect every footstep, it was not fun and sometimes dangerous. I was starting to wonder what we were doing out here. Finally we got a ride to the town where the trails started and finally got into the mountains!
New Zealand has an amazing system of trails. The D.O.C. (Dept. of Conservation) owns so much land and it is all available to the public for walking, hiking, biking, hunting and fishing. So much room and beautiful land to play on! NZ also has a great Hut system. The huts range from 2 bunks to 40 bunks. They can be as simple as hunter's shelter with a pot belly stove to a beautigul lodge on the side of a mountain. We have also been able to make it to a hut for the night but of course we always opt to tent if the view is too good to pass up.
New Zealand has an amazing system of trails. People from all over the world come here to hike.
This is how the trails are rated.
- The Great Walks: 20 loops or stretches of 1-4 days, on both islands. Very well maintained and wide trails. Huts are more expensive and these are often crowded.
- Tracks: these are what we would call trails in the States and are well marked.
- Tramps: marked with poles just within site (could be on the next mountain) but no trail.
- Routes: no markers or poles, for experienced hikers only, must have navigation skills.
Our hike consist of all of these combined. There are tracks all over NZ. We find that if a hut is track is a half days walk then it is usually full or poplular. But we usually get the whole trail to our selves on the second and third day. That's when we run into the routes and have to bush-bash, hop around the bogs and our record river crossings in one day is 20xs. Sometimes we just have a whole day of beautiful valley and ridge walking all day. Routes have been interesting since we only have a start point and an end point with only our topo maps. It can be tricky when the top of the mountains are socked in and our point of reference is hidden. But we are starting to get confortable with NZ hiking and now we know why it's called tramping. You just head out and go!
The past two weeks we have been blessed with great weather. Finally some sunshine. We have hiked through the rugged and beautiful Takitimu Mountains. I took tons of pictures around Lake Mavora and the valley on the Mavora Walkway. Found out later that it was a site for the Lord of the Rings. We had mentioned earlier that day that it looked like a part of LOTR. We had days to of this stretch to ourselves. And when we finally had our first view of Lake Wakatipu, Parker and I were absolutely stunned. It had been been such an amazing week and then to run it to the lake, we were blown away. We were not quite ready to go into buzzing Queenstown yet so we stayed a day at Glenorchy to let it all sink in.
After days and days on the road, Parker and I finally decide that road walking was not the way we wanted to see NZ. As much as we wanted to connect every footstep, it was not fun and sometimes dangerous. I was starting to wonder what we were doing out here. Finally we got a ride to the town where the trails started and finally got into the mountains!
New Zealand has an amazing system of trails. The D.O.C. (Dept. of Conservation) owns so much land and it is all available to the public for walking, hiking, biking, hunting and fishing. So much room and beautiful land to play on! NZ also has a great Hut system. The huts range from 2 bunks to 40 bunks. They can be as simple as hunter's shelter with a pot belly stove to a beautigul lodge on the side of a mountain. We have also been able to make it to a hut for the night but of course we always opt to tent if the view is too good to pass up.
New Zealand has an amazing system of trails. People from all over the world come here to hike.
This is how the trails are rated.
- The Great Walks: 20 loops or stretches of 1-4 days, on both islands. Very well maintained and wide trails. Huts are more expensive and these are often crowded.
- Tracks: these are what we would call trails in the States and are well marked.
- Tramps: marked with poles just within site (could be on the next mountain) but no trail.
- Routes: no markers or poles, for experienced hikers only, must have navigation skills.
Our hike consist of all of these combined. There are tracks all over NZ. We find that if a hut is track is a half days walk then it is usually full or poplular. But we usually get the whole trail to our selves on the second and third day. That's when we run into the routes and have to bush-bash, hop around the bogs and our record river crossings in one day is 20xs. Sometimes we just have a whole day of beautiful valley and ridge walking all day. Routes have been interesting since we only have a start point and an end point with only our topo maps. It can be tricky when the top of the mountains are socked in and our point of reference is hidden. But we are starting to get confortable with NZ hiking and now we know why it's called tramping. You just head out and go!
The past two weeks we have been blessed with great weather. Finally some sunshine. We have hiked through the rugged and beautiful Takitimu Mountains. I took tons of pictures around Lake Mavora and the valley on the Mavora Walkway. Found out later that it was a site for the Lord of the Rings. We had mentioned earlier that day that it looked like a part of LOTR. We had days to of this stretch to ourselves. And when we finally had our first view of Lake Wakatipu, Parker and I were absolutely stunned. It had been been such an amazing week and then to run it to the lake, we were blown away. We were not quite ready to go into buzzing Queenstown yet so we stayed a day at Glenorchy to let it all sink in.
In Memory of Imogene Wilson
We are sad to share that Parker's Grandmother, Imogene Wilson, passed on the 14th of January. She was one of the sweetest and caring women we have ever known. She will always be with us and we will honor her memory by celebrating her beautiful life.
All of our love, Parker and Celeste
All of our love, Parker and Celeste
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Tramping in New Zealand
What are we going to do in New Zealand for 5 months? Well, Tramping of course! Hiking is tramping in New Zealand. We have been hoping for another long hike and we couldn't have picked a more beautiful country. This is how we want to see and experience New Zealand.
We are here to meet and experience local life. The cities are a great place to see the diverse cultures and we will have our fair share of all the tourist usuals. But from our experience, we also know that hiking and climbing across country is a great way to meet the local people.
The Te Araroa is a trail across both islands that is not yet complete. The Appalachian Trail is the world's longest continuous marked footpath. It has guide books, resupply establishments, accomodations along the way and thousands of people have completed the hike. The Te Araroa is far from that and most people even locals have have not heard of it. Only a few people have attempted the hike. This is a huge reason we want to do it now before it gets too popular. Parker has been working on mapping our route for about six months. We are making our way north using 95 custom maps for our hike.
The Te Araroa Trust (people working on the trail) have been very helpful in our planning and we have been in contact with them for months. They are trying to connect trails that already exist but there are some issues with land owners. In a few places we have to call and ask permission to cross their property. Some of the sections are difficult to navigate because trails have not been formed involving days of bushwacking. We have to gather as much information as we can through locals about trail conditions, water supply, river conditions, etc. We have definately been brushing up on our navigation skills. Our goal is to to hike as much of the completed trail as possible as long as it is safe. We have done our research and are equipepted with a gps, a tracker/beacon, and we leave our "intentions" with the DOC (Dept. of Conservation) and will update them as we hike north. Everyone, especially the locals have been very helpful and supportive of our desire to see their country this way.
P.S. We have added a few pics to the gallery. More to come when we have time!
Friday, January 1, 2010
First Lesson Learned in the New Year
Our first lesson in the New Year is a life lesson we keep having to relearn.
The Journey is the Destination.
We have been so focused on the planning and prepping that we are having a hard time slowing down. We have been on auto pilot the past year, especially the last two months. Our mission was to get this trip started and arrive at our first destination at all cost.But you have no choice but to slow down in NZ because they take their holidays very seriously. The whole town shuts down.
After an awesome New Year's, I woke up at 5am and walked around Cathedral Square while Parker slept in. I finally woke him up an hour later and we walked around Christchurch as the city slowly woke up. We were making our checklist for the day, ready to get going to our next destination, Bluff, to get our hike started. We quickly found out that nothing was open.
As we were running around, the jet lag finally hit us. We were in and out of it all day. It was hard to make decisions, we were woozy , I was tripping all over the place and writing our first post was painful.
Since there was not a whole lot we could do during the holiday our new friends Kerri and Shane picked us up and drove us around the city. They drove us to the beach and on the scenic route around the town. We have been in the city and we were finally getting our first glimpse of New Zealand. We got to the top of the mountain that overlooks the city.
Then it finally hit us. What we are doing and where we are in the world. It is time to slow down and smell the roses. Infront of us was the dramatic coastline of New Zealand and the endless Pacific Ocean.
The Journey is the Destination.
We have been so focused on the planning and prepping that we are having a hard time slowing down. We have been on auto pilot the past year, especially the last two months. Our mission was to get this trip started and arrive at our first destination at all cost.But you have no choice but to slow down in NZ because they take their holidays very seriously. The whole town shuts down.
After an awesome New Year's, I woke up at 5am and walked around Cathedral Square while Parker slept in. I finally woke him up an hour later and we walked around Christchurch as the city slowly woke up. We were making our checklist for the day, ready to get going to our next destination, Bluff, to get our hike started. We quickly found out that nothing was open.
As we were running around, the jet lag finally hit us. We were in and out of it all day. It was hard to make decisions, we were woozy , I was tripping all over the place and writing our first post was painful.
Since there was not a whole lot we could do during the holiday our new friends Kerri and Shane picked us up and drove us around the city. They drove us to the beach and on the scenic route around the town. We have been in the city and we were finally getting our first glimpse of New Zealand. We got to the top of the mountain that overlooks the city.
Then it finally hit us. What we are doing and where we are in the world. It is time to slow down and smell the roses. Infront of us was the dramatic coastline of New Zealand and the endless Pacific Ocean.
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