Mt. Doom

On March 28th we said "arrivederci" to Didier, Annie and the South Island and took the ferry across the Cook straight to Wellington on the North Island.

Wellington is the capital of New Zealand and we spent a day exploring the city. One of the things we did was visit the Te Papa National museum where we learned a lot about volcanos and earthquakes; it even had a little house inside that you stand in while it simulates an earthquake! We also took the quintessential ride up the famous cable car.

Now on to the Volcanos! We went to Tongariro National Park which is in the central plateau of the island which contains several volcanos, including the famous Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings (actual name is Mt. Ngauruhoe).

Our first day in the park, we went up to the summit of Mt. Ruapehu; the highest volcano in the park at 2797m and is still active.

The latest eruptions were in 1996 and 2006! What we found funny was that to get to the summit we had to hike through a ski field first. A ski field located right at the base of a volcano that erupts so regularly that they actually have sirens installed on the lift poles, have emergency procedures posted around the resort and have these posters up in the washrooms:

It was pretty exciting when we reached the rim of the crater. We stood there looking down into this massive plateau that is the crater floor.

The colours were so vibrant and impressive

The next day we did the famous Tongariro Alpine Crossing. This is an alpine crossing with about 1000m of elevation gain and runs 20kms through a plateau of volcanos including some active ones (not to mention steam vents everywhere). The crossing only takes a day but can actually be done as part of the four day Northern Circuit Track (an NZ "great walk"). We were incredibly lucky with the weather; it was a clear blue sky!

Once we reached the base of Mt. Ngauruhoe (a.k.a. Mt Doom) there was no question in our minds of not summiting the 600m to take a look down into its crater (after all, Frodo had to do it). The climb itself was pretty tough and turned out to be quite dangerous (more from other people than the volcano itself). The slopes of a volcano from afar look like sand to me. Turns out it's made up of ash, volcanic dust, very small volcanic rocks with a few large volcanic rocks partially burried (i.e. loose). So it was basically like walking up a large sand dune with the ocassional boulder going barreling by as someone accidentally kicks it off... (FYI if you are ever in this situation for the benefit of all other human beings on the mountain with you yell "rock" as loud as you can and as many times as you can). We made it safely to the top (and back down again) and walked the rim of the crater for a good view inside.

The views from the top were amazing

The rest of the hike through the park was incredible!

The next point of interest were the Emerald Lakes which are basically pools of acid water of some type. They are beautiful though

Since we went through some active areas

We did spot a few active steam vents

On the way back down, we had to travel through another active volcano zone from Te Maari. This volcano erupted in 2012. This guy is still very much steaming away

The Tongariro Alpine Crossing was incredible and definitely worth doing! It's a completely different world up there.

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Rakiura Track: An NZ Great Walk

There are nine Great Walk's in New Zealand and are all run and operated by the Department of Conservation (DOC). They tend to be more expensive but the trails are very well maintained, the huts are exeptional and the number of hikers are limited. We decided to do the Rakiura Track because of its location. This track is on Stewart Island which is a one hour ferry ride south from the NZ south island (to NZ's "third" island). It sees less traffic which is what attracted us and there is a higher chance of seeing Kiwi birds in the wild (the sub-species here are active during the day and night here whereas on the north and south islands they are only active at night).

The track starts 5 km north of the town of Oban and takes three days/two nights for a total of 32 km. The route runs along some beaches (at low tide).

and through the Podocarp forest (what is a Podocarp forest? click here).

We did not see any Kiwi's but I did hear their calls our first night which sounds like "Kee-wee". We did see a lot of other birds though: Bellbirds, Tuis (I think their calls sound like R2-D2 from Starwars - click here for a video), Fantails, Kaka (parrot), Seagulls and Wood pigeons. We did see a few Albatross hanging out at the ferry terminal too. They are the worlds biggest sea birds with a wingspan up to 3.3m long!

Kaka

Albatross

The night sky from here is also very impressive. The stars are so bright and we heard that on a clear night you can see the aurora australis (the southern lights). I waited until about 10:30pm with no luck but Tom went out at 11pm and thinks he saw it; They're pretty faint... We did see phosphorescents in the ocean though, which is always fun to throw pebbles in and watch the green glow of the ripples.

On the second night (at North Arm hut) while on an evening expedition to try to find Kiwi, we bumped into a Possum on the track! Because we had our headlamps turned off, I guess he didn't realize what we were so he actually started walking towards us! Even when we turned our lamps on he didn't really hesitate. It was only when we took a firm step forward did he run into the woods. Tom went out later that night on his own for a bit more kiwi exploring and again found about six other possums! No wonder DOC have traps everywhere; they are serious pests.

When we got back we had some great fish (blue cod & elephant fish) and chips.

Overall the trip to Stewart Island was worth it. It has a very different feel and a lot less tourists. The track was well maintained and not more than 150m of elevation gain at a time. Since they were easy hiking days we ended up at the huts in time for lunch and spent the rest of the days reading, exploring and relaxing.

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Milford Sound

From Wanaka we next drove to Queenstown - the supposed adventure capital of New Zealand. The place was where bungy jumping was invented, but has since then expanded into every type of crazy activity you can imagine. Jet boats? Check. Giant swing with 100m freefall? Check. Zorbing? Check. Unfortunately, we had a terrible first night there at the Lakeside Hostel (do NOT ever stay there) and then a good second night at the Aspen Lodge Backpackers. Not really willing to shell out $200+ to get our adrenaline fix, we decided to instead opt for the free option and hiked up Ben Lomond Pk. which is right outside of town. It was a bit like the Grouse Grind in Vancouver at first with a 1400m climb from our hostel in town and then along a ridge with nice views of Mount Aspiring Park.

Other than that, this town is worth skipping unless you want to relive the early years of living in a University dorm room. Needless to say, we were pretty happy to be on our way.

We debated quite a bit whether or not to go visit Milford Sound next since we heard that the crowds were pretty terrible and the place has an endless stream of tour buses passing through during the day; however, we still really wanted to see the Darren mountain range in Fiordland next to Milford which we heard was pretty spectacular. As a compromise, we decided to brave the crowds and do the touristy boat cruise through the sound the first day, and then stay a bit off the tourist path in the Darrens for the night at the New Zealand Alpine Club's Homer Hut which is a hub for climbing in the area. The next day we would try and scramble up the Barrier Knob summit.

We opted for the last cruise of the day, and surprisingly Milford was relatively quiet with the cruise not even half full!

Just as we were getting on our boat, the majority of people were hopping back onto tour buses for their return journey home leaving the place really quiet (there isn't many places to stay IN Milford sound, with the closest town with accommodations more than 100km away).

The fiord is amazing with it's dramatic mountain relief and high waterfalls falling from the glaciers above straight down into the ocean. Fine - it was REALLY impressive. A bit touristy, but if you can see past all the iPad laden tourists snapping photos for their Facebook profile, there is something really special here.

To get into and out of Milford Sound, you have to drive through this impressive 1 km long one lane tunnel bored through solid granite that connects two steep glacier carved valleys (providing the only road access to Milford). Homer Tunnel has traffic lights on either side to control the flow of traffic as only one direction can fit at a time. The construction started in the 1930's as a make work project during the Depression and was completed in the early 50's. Funny thing is that the traffic lights only work until 8pm.... not sure what happens then. Must be pretty exciting.

The next day after sleeping at the NZAC's Homer Hut we hiked up to Gertrude Saddle. The hike is a steep climb up from the valley to the saddle and was well worth it. I was blown away by the sheer granite faces surrounding us on all sides.

Once we got to the top of the saddle, we got a taste for the famous Fiordland weather. Within the span of 10 minutes the weather changed from sunny skies to strong wind and snow! We decided to wait things out and see what would happen.

The views of Milford Sound were amazing from the saddle (at least what we could see before it started snowing)!

Once the snow stopped and the wind died down, we continued up the ridge to the top of Barrier Knob. The last bit of the climb was definitely a scramble with some exposed sections since we had to take a roundabout route to avoid the small pocket glacier near the summit.

The view from the the top was amazing!

The Darrens are beautifully dramatic and definitely worth the trip! I can't believe we considered skipping it.

Lessons learned: Skip Queenstown. Head over to Milford Sound, skip the cruise and hike up to the Gertrude Saddle and Barrier Knob (only if you're comfortable on loose crappy, crumbly rock)

After being in the mountains for a while, having an oven was pretty exciting. We earned some freshly baked scones and cinnamon buns!

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