Kayaking Abel Tasman National Park

One of the "must do's" in New Zealand is to kayak the coast in Abel Tasman National Park. The park is located along the north-west tip of the south island and the kayak routes run along the coast line. It is known for it's golden sandy beaches and dramatic rock outcrops.

Annie, Didier's better half, joined us for this 3 day/2 night trip!

We started in Marahau where we packed up our kayaks and set off. The first day we kayaked up to Anchorage Bay along the coast exploring the many little bays, nooks and crannys in the coastline rocks.

The next day we kayaked up to Tonga Quarry, which is a small campground where we managed to get a primo camp spot right on the beach!

This was a site of an old granite quarry (hence the name). One of its notable supplies was for the steps to the Nelson Cathedral. From this site we toured along the coast up to Barks Bay, which was stunning! It was a good sized inlet that gave us the impression of being in a secret lagoon.

On our way back we circumnavigated Tonga Island where a local seal colony calls home.

We also saw several ocean birds: Spotted Shags, Oystercatcher, Red Billed Gull, Southern black-backed Gull.

With the golden sandy beaches and crystal clear water, we felt like we were in a tropical paradise! Here are some great underwater shots of Didier and Tom as they try to capture the clarity of the water.

Click here for more photos!

 

Mt. Owen and the Gates of Moria

Our first overnight backpacking trip into the New Zealand countryside was to the Mt. Owen massif - this impressive area of limestone carved cliffs and large alpine bowls was used as the filming location for the Gates of Moria in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.

The amazing part of this climb was that it allowed us to see so many different types of forest. Starting in the lowlands we were in a tropical and lush river valley, interspersed with cattle and alpaca farms. After climbing for a few hundred meters we quickly left the grasslands of the farming paddocks behind and entered into old growth beech forest. Covered in black moss, these beech trees provided an ample supply of sweet honey dew to feed the raging wasp population.

There were such a large number of wasps in the forest that there was a constant buzz in the background - luckily, for the most part, the wasps did not bother us and minded their own business (until I had a run in with a particularly surly wasp who decided that my shin was in its way).

One of the most amazing parts of this forest was the number of songbirds - we were continually surrounded by fantails, and bell birds singing as we climbed. It's hard to describe what they sounded like, but the best analogy I could come up with was the "pew pew" of a sci-fi laser beam...

After about 1000m vertical of climbing we reached the valley containing the Granby hut. This backcountry hut was absolutely amazing by Canadian standards. Being in such a remote location I was expecting a tin can with a bunk or two, but instead we arrive at a backcountry palace. Building this hut must have been a serious undertaking - completely insulated with indoor and outdoor stainless steel cooking areas, a large covered patio, rainwater harvesting system with 4000L of storage capacity, and all double glazed windows. Wow. This hut had some serious thought and engineering put into it with all supplies flown in by helicoptor. The most amazing thing about this hut is that is it only one of over 900 managed by the New Zealand department of conservation (DOC)! Pretty much every tramp (=hike in New Zealander) here has some sort of hut for shelter - glad I didn't bring a tent! Being a weekday we even had the whole place to ourselves.

The next day we woke to a beautiful New Zealand bluebird stunner and set out for the summit of Mt. Owen. Climbing an old glacial morain quickly brought us out of the scrub of the valley and into broad alpine grassland speckled by limestone and marble boulders.

Hiking up to the summit of Mt. Owen we had to pass through a maze of water carved limestone and marble that formed the most impressive structures. The best description we could come up with was that it looked like a tumbling glacier ice-fall, but made of rock - smooth surface from glacial erosion but containing large jagged rock crevasses. It definitely made for some exciting tramping!

To reach the final summit we had to battle with Smaug, the dragon of Mt. Owen - luckily, Marie's super powers prevailed and we were able to enjoy a great view of all the surrounding mountains and city of Nelson in the far distance.

I can definately understand why the LOTR movies chose this area for filming - absolutely stunning. We will definitely have to tick off a few more of these filming locations before we leave NZ

Click here for more photos!

 

Go West

Our first adventures in New Zealand took us from Christchurch across the country over to the west coast via the Southern Alps and the Haast pass.

We started out with a couple of days in Christchurch where we explored some outdoor gear stores (we are now Kathmandu members!), the Re:Start mall (a temporary mall made up of shipping containers; the previous mall was destroyed in the 2011 earthquake)

and the hiking in the Port Hills with the sheep!

So much more to see and do so we'll be back!

Our drive out to the west coast took us through some beautiful country.

Click here for more photos of Christchurch and Canterbury Province.

We stopped at the Franz Josef glacier for a walk up to its toe.

Unfortunately the glacier has noticeably receded; Didier was last here about 20 years ago and he was shocked to see the difference.

Click here for more photos of the glacier.

En route to Charleston we stopped for a few hours of fly fishing at the Ahaura River. Unfortunately it was an unsuccessful trip but it was a beautiful spot!

Click here for more photos of the river.

Then on to Charleston via the coast road where we were awarded with some amazing ocean views

and incredible rock formations. The forests on this side of the mountains are semi-tropical rainforests (similar to BC but with palm trees!).

We spent two nights at Mike & Phyllis' "Bach"(New Zealand term for a cottage) near Charleston. We have heard many stories from Didier of these famous friends and this spectacular area; it was surreal to actually have finally visited!

During our time here we visited Punakaiki Rocks

went on a tramp (New Zealand term for a hike) through the jungle

and went tubing on the Nile River as it feeds into the ocean.

Oh and on our last night here Didier & Tom went out to harvest some muscles for dinner!

Click here for more photos of the Westcoast

 

 

Getting to Christchurch New Zealand

After 5 flights and 55 hours in transit (24 hours of flight time) - we made it to Christchurch! Actually, more impressively, our bags made it!

 

 

We had a long layover in L.A., where we took a bus to Marina del Rey and had Chipotle for dinner, and another in Sydney Australia. In Sydney we took a train right downtown to Circular Quay where we walked around for about four hours. It was 27C and sunny unfortunately we were wearing jeans and heavy hiking boots and were so hot! Sydney reminded us of Vancouver:

• Vancouver Convention Center vs. Sydney Oprah House = Both iconic buildings built on the ocean.
• Stanley Park vs. Royal Botanic Gardens = Both large park areas in the city and by the ocean.
• Stanley Park Seawall vs. Sydney Seawall = Both seawalls on the ocean going around the large park area.
• Gastown vs. The Rocks = Both old stone/brick buildings from the turn of the century where trendy stores, restaurants and coffee shops now reside.

Click here for more photos!

We are now relaxing at our amazing friend Didier's house in Christchurch enjoying an espresso.

Dust on Crust

Our final stop on our ski tour was in Nelson BC (pop. 10 230) at an elevation of 535m and located in the Selkirk Mountains on the edge of Kootenay Lake. This town was incorporated in 1897 and has extensive and scandaleous history surrounding mining.

 

 

We came here in search of the famous "cold smoke" (light, dry snow. Also known as "champagne powder" or just plain "pow") and we found it...only there was about 10cm on top of a hard icy layer; known as "dust on crust". It was definitely tough travelling.

Too icy = boot packing

Too icy = ski crampons!

Too much alder

 

It was still fun skiing and, as ex-Ontario skiers, we could handle that hard crust :)

 

Tom

Click here for more photos!