New Zealand trip

October 21st - 24th

The trip to Abel Tasman National Park from Wellington involves a 3 hour ferry ride from Wellington on the North Island, to Picton on the South Island. As you can see from the map above, Picton is in a bay protected by mountainous islands on either side. This means the ride can be absolutely stunning, first with views of the Wellington skyline and as you move away, the mountains rising dramatically from the ocean. The entire trip the water is blue and since you’re on the ocean, the air is crisp. On this particular trip the other elements included the strong winds and abundant waves which kicked pretty high. The boat is huge – there’s a bay that trains can fit into, then above that a couple levels for tractor trailers and cars. Above those levels are 3 levels for passengers with restaurants, bars and sections filled with seats similar to airplane seats.

As big as the boat is, on this day it wasn’t big enough to tame the rough seas. Attendants stayed busy restocking the barf bags and as I stumbled through the boat I observed many who had simply curled up in balls on the floor. Personally I didn’t get sick so I enjoyed it for what it was. Especially fun was trying to pee straight while bracing myself on the wall. If you miss, who can really blame you?

Once we got to more protected seas and the rocking calmed down, the sun deck on the 10th floor was opened. The sun deck was more of a wind deck, but if you could brace yourself against the wind, the views were worth it.

Picton is a small two taxi town, that I would assume owes most of its existence to the ferry. Once there we piled 5 into our Nissan Sunny rental and began a journey to Marahau the closest town to the park. We would be staying at Old MacDonalds Farm, a hostel, surprisingly, on a farm. For dinner that night we sat outside eating burgers while Jack Johnson quietly played in the background. The next day was kayaking so the night ended pretty early.

Kayaking was grand. The landscape is filled with rocky shores next to deserted sandy beaches with clear caribeanesque water. In the distance we could see snow capped mountains. Our guide stopped us for morning tea (of course) on one of the beaches and we got to relax after our easy morning of rowing. After tea the winds picked up a bit making the trip a bit more athletic and lunch was a welcome break on another beach where we could enjoy views of the cliffs, distant mountains and watch the tide come in.

As a side note for all those planning kayaking trips in New Zealand, if we could do it again all of us agreed we didn't need the guide and it would have been cheaper to just rent the Kayaks.

The next day, after being woken up by an overzealous rooster that stared at us through the window between cockadoodle doos, we went on a hike covering a lot of the same territory we'd covered on our kayak trip and seeing many of the same beaches from the higher vantage point of the trails. Very cool park and i hope to be back.

This week I'm back at work finishing up another temp job with plans to do a quick tour of the North Island starting the 4th of November. I need to figure out where I want to live next. Spring is here, summer is coming and I need to find a small touristy town where I can easily get a job.

Died on: October 7th 2005
Where: Lambton Quay, Wellington, New Zealand
While: Walking home from work
While playing: Black Keys - Rubber Factory

Two posts in two days! I'm a blog posting addict now!

My current job is in downtown Wellington in one of the many tall buildings that have great views of other tall buildings. I file for half of my day and organize for the other half - but it only goes through tomorrow and it's for the HR dept so I get to see how much people make, which makes it a little more interesting. Also, everyone literally breaks for tea time every morning around 10:30, which is great. I won't drink coffee, but i'll drink tea if I get to take a paid break. Today for lunch I decided since I was so close I would go check out the American Embassy to see what it looked like and maybe chat up a friendly embassy policeman on the picturesque manicured lawn. Once I arrived I quickly realized that wouldn't be happening. The embassy is more of a compound with a big steel fence and huge cement barricades all around it. Compared to the friendly looking buildings around it, and compared to the rest of the New Zealand government buildings it looks pretty funny. I decided to take a picture of it and maybe throw it up on here with a picture of another more friendly looking embassy beside it. Unfortunately, as you will notice there is no picture (it was a pretty drab building anyway, no real loss). That's because about a minute after I'd snapped my picture I was approached by two guards - one continuously snapping my mug with his camera while he walked towards me and the other demanding to see my camera. Turns out the US is completely paranoid and I had to delete my picture and prove that it was in fact deleted. They got to keep their pictures of me though... which probably rest on some random database out there in Quantico. The funny thing is there are any number of tall buildings around the embassy. Anyone who lives or works in them has plenty of opportunity to snap away all day - with a better viewpoint than I had. I'm sure this could lead to a discussion about some of the pointless measures to feign security our government has taken since 9-11, but I'd rather post Devo Adam.

The theme of this past weekend was water. A trip was planned about a month ago to what is described as New Zealand's best one day walk, the Tongariro Crossing. It's an 8 hour hike through mountains and you're walking by Mount Doom for any Lord of the Rings fans. It was a loose plan, basically we just got together, rented a van and talked about what a cool weekend it would be. Unfortunately, as the walk goes through some pretty rough territory it doesn't happen in bad weather. We knew our plans would have to be flexible.

A five hour drive north took us to our hostel. As it's in the middle of nowhere they added a climbing wall so there would be other stuff to do in case the weather didn't co-operate with guest's plans in the national park nearby. They actually offered us cheaper rates if we stayed on the floor of their climbing wall gym, refugee style. How often will I get to sleep in a gym refugee style? This was the obvious choice for the night's lodging. After arriving at 1am and sleeping 5 hours, I woke up and ran outside to see that the weather had not cooperated with our trip. It was pouring rain and the mountains in the distance weren't even visible through the fog... Unfortunately it looked like our day long walk would be cancelled. As we'd already spent the night in the climbing wall gym, that wasn't very appealing either.

The backup plan was blackwater rafting, which ended up being pretty fantastic. After a quick stop at Marakopa falls (right), we completed the 3 hour drive to Waitomo.

To go into the caves you need a thick wet suit, white rubber boots and a fun red helmet with a light. Basically you look like you're in a Devo video. The rafting itself was pretty quiet - not the underground rapids I imagined, but the caves were still a blast. It was a lot of stuff you'd expect when caving with a wet suit on - swimming in freezing water, squeezing through tight passageways and ending with a relaxing ride on a tube through an underground river - think the lazy river at Water Country, but cleaner, quieter, colder and pitch black (everyone turns off their lights and glow worms hanging from the ceiling are the only light - it's pretty sweet).

After the caves and a quick stop for dinner, the night ended with Karaokee in New Plymouth, a three hour drive from the caves (over 1200k's were driven during the weekend). The three yanks, as we were introduced, sang "Barbie Girl", chosen by Stuart, our Irish friend. Barbie Girl may have been an embarrassing choice, but he knew every single word to "Mr Vain" without looking at the screen.

After sleeping in real beds at the Sunflower Lodge we woke up to find it still raining. The planned beach day would be slightly wetter than desired. Instead we decided to do a coastal drive and, since we hadn't had enough water yet, visit another waterfall.

Despite the weather, the weekend was a great time. There were little hikes to waterfalls, small cafes in small towns, tons of top five lists while we drove, great tour guides through the caves and great a great group of friends in the van. A road trip, even when everything doesn't go to plan, is always a good idea.

Since I had to return the van the next day I took over driving duties from Adam, the lone driver thus far. The van was manual (there's a reason I drive automatic). Luckily Hiba (Dutch jowler) was an excellent driving instructor and after a crash course in shifting and ride around the block I was declared good enough. So began the ride back to Wellington in the rain on the wrong side of the road with manual car with the stick on the wrong side and 8 people in the back to give me pointers.