[This blog posted out of order because Someone got behind]
12 to 20 January 2011
I am writing this from our dumpy campground kitchen in Wanaka. It’s a luxury problem to be sure, given that we are on holiday, but one that bears mention nonetheless. I guess when you are the only camping game in town, you don’t need to make things nice – people have no other option than to pay to stay.
We’ve been hanging here in Wanaka for the past few days, coming down off our high of trekking the Milford Track and attempting to get our game plan together for the next few weeks. The Milford Track was spectacular, exceeding our expectations despite being the “Bus Tour of Trekking” as we dubbed it the first few days. Having heard how much time would be spent trekking through “the bush” we were pleasantly surprised to find that New Zealand bush – at least on the Milford – is nothing like Australian bush. This bush was beech forest, lighter and much less dense than the bush we’d previously trekked through in Australia’s Royal National Park. And this bush wasn’t full of things that could leap out and kill you. Much better bush.
12 to 16 January
36.5 Miles (by foot) on Milford Trek
The group we hiked with on the Milford was several people larger than that on the Grand Traverse. This group was 37 strong, composed of Team Japan (14), Team Australia (8), Team Kiwi (4), Team USA (4), Team Dubai (4), Team Scotland (1), and Team UK (2) or, as we liked to call them, Team Wheat and Dairy, given their particular and vocal aversions to those foods we consider most worth eating.
Team Japan spoke very little English and, as we all know, we speak zero Japanese, so it goes without saying that we didn’t learn too much about them, beyond the fact that they are (a) hardy and determined hikers, us mostly following in their dust and (b) they like to do their laundry all together, in one large, impenetrable mass. Score one for Team Japan. Team Australia was trekking to (a) escape the flooding and/or children, (b) sample good wine, and/or (c) simply add to their well-traveled resumes. Team Kiwi was here to Represent. (And a fine job of that they did, exemplifying the extroverted friendliness of Kiwis we have now come to expect.) Team Dubai would have won the Amazing Race had that been what we were on and not only would they have won it based on speed but also based on the likability factor – warm, fun, funny, friendly guys. Go Team Dubai and we’ll see you in September. Team Scotland (of One) was a strong contender for first place and perhaps one of the bravest people we have met, based on his videos of bungie-jumping, swinging, zip-lining, and every other adrenaline sport that Queenstown has offer – he’s done them all. Team USA was the joining of Team Seattle and Team Maui, no longer separated by that 5 hour trans-Pacific flight and hopefully reunited somewhere else here in the South Pacific. And Team Wheat and Dairy – all we have to say about them is life is short so please, just go eat a donut and wash it down with a glass of milk. You’ll feel better, we guarantee it.
The story of the Milford goes like this … Days 1 and 5 are primarily “fluff”, according to Gina’s definition of a trekking trip. This means that you are not actually trekking but instead on a bus and a boat (in either order) and, should it be Day 5, a little bit motion-sick to boot after a lovely evening of celebrating the end of one’s trek. The days in-between, i.e., Days 2, 3 and 4, are full of magical forests, crystal blue rivers, sheer rock walls as high as the eye can see and the foot can tramp over (hello, Mackinnon Pass), and palm trees that look nothing like California and everything like Jurassic Park. The Milford is definitely a Great Walk and in our book, one well worth doing, even if our heart of hearts, truth be told, still lie with the Grand Traverse.
17 to 20 January
20 Miles (by bike) in Wanaka
And a few more Miles (by foot) in Wanaka
Wanaka. As previously mentioned, the campground here is dump. No, make that a DUMP. The town setting is lovely – a large lake ringed by mountains and hiking and biking trails. But our accommodation and the weather haven’t been as much to our liking. Since we can’t do a thing about either (well, I suppose we could move our tent but the Top Ten near town is a DUMP too) we are opting to do what we can, which is get out on our bikes and ride the trails around the lake. And these trails? Superb. Great views and easy enough single-track that even I was able to navigate it with only getting off the bike a time a two.
Our other overcast day option? Puzzling World. This is a place we must go for it has an extensive maze that to find our way through. According to the signs, we will walk anywhere between 3 and 5 km while we try to solve the 1.5 km of maze, needing to reach each colored corner (and bonus if you reach them in order). We will also need 30 minutes to an hour to accomplish this task. Thinking this would be a great Roadblock for the Amazing Race, we acted as though we were on one, racing the clock. Sadly, in 20 minutes it was all over, mission accomplished. This left us with the Illusion Rooms to explore, full of 1970’ish holograms and a nausea-inducing Tilted Room. As much as we really wanted to like it, we found the most puzzling thing about Puzzling World to be why we paid $25 to go there.
If this all sounds slightly negative, I guess that’s because in some ways, we didn’t have the best of time that we thought and hoped we would in Wanaka. We really wanted to like the place, and we really did like its setting, but we were also a bit tuckered from our trekking, feeling a bit disconnected from friends and family, and longing for sunnier days, leaving Wanaka a bit of a wash. Time to move on.