Levin & Ngu Manu Bird Sanctuary
Rolls and I made an obligatory stop for this fantastic photo-op at the town of Levin. Apparently the Kiwis heard I was visiting so they named a town after me.
Rolanda's obsession with birds has been a recurring theme during our travels, and I have to admit I'm starting to like them too. The Ngu Manu bird sanctuary was an opportunity for us to finally see real live kiwis up close, watch ducks pooping underwater, and have my hair groomed by an enormous parrot-thing.
Martinborough wine & Cape Palliser lighthouse seal colony
We continued our wine tasting tour of New Zealand in Martinborough, famous for their Pinot Noirs and with a variety of delicious Pinot Gris/Grigio as well. At the behest of one friendly sommelier we drove down to Cape Palliser to ninja camp for the night. It was a stunning coastal drive with a stately lighthouse at the end of the road, reached by just 249 steps, from which the south island can be seen on a clear day. Rolanda and I took in the sunset and set up camp (accidentally) at a fur seal rookery. After a blustery evening in the car, we went for a wander down at the shore and saw about a dozen fur seals, with a half dozen sheep mulling about amongst them. It was very New Zealand-y.
Wellington and the Interislander Ferry
The plan had been to take the cable car up the hill behind Wellington, and then take a leisurely stroll back downtown via the botanic gardens, but we hit a minor snag in that the cable car was closed for repairs as of the day before our arrival. Bummer, but we made do by wandering around and drinking coffee in the rain. With a ferry to catch the following morning, we drove across the bay looking for a ninjacamp spot, but the prevailing sketchiness of the area led us to bite the bullet and pay for a campsite. There are a chain of at least 25 campsites in New Zealand called “Top 10 Holiday Parks”, which actually refers to their prices, and not necessarily their facilities (although they are usually of a reasonable standard). Relieved of $46 for the privilege of sleeping for 8 hours on an unpowered campsite, we vowed revenge on Top 10 Holiday Parks. More on this later.
The ferry from Wellington to Picton takes about 5 enjoyable hours of meandering amongst lush green islands and is very much reminiscent of the boat to Vancouver Island. We had great sunny weather for the whole trip, except for the torrential rains that greeted us as we landed on the south island.
Marlborough wine
We skedaddled southward along the official Kiwi wine trail highway, intent on continuing our wine consumption by bicycle, but were derailed by the price of bicycle hires ($50/person/day!?). Even so we managed a dozen wineries over several days.
Takaka and Payne Ford, Cathedral rock
Having heard about the legendary climbing at Paynes Ford we headed for Takaka and the Hangdog Campground, only to find that it had been shut down for health code violations of some sort. We met some dirty climbers at Paynes Ford who had been illegally camping in the carpark and had already been hassled by the Department Of Conservation ranger but assured us it would be fine to camp there with them. Others told stories of a riverside pullout down the road that was fine to camp at, but to be on the lookout for locals who had threatened to set dogs on the campers if they caught them there again; they too planned to camp there anyway. It is people like these who have largely ruined ninjacamping for the rest of us.
Later in the day we met a Canadian named Mark who was doing his PhD in winemaking at Lincoln University and was on a sport climbing trip with the Lincoln Alpine Club. They were staying at the local Top 10 Holiday Park and had already paid for several campsites. We complained about our experience with Top 10 in Wellington and they invited us to sneak in and stay for free under the pretence of being part of their club. For the next two days we ninjacamped in one of the nicest campgrounds in New Zealand. Take that Top 10 Holiday Parks.
Paynes Ford was good climbing on limestone slopers and carved runnels. Bolts were well-placed and the grades fair. There was lots of people there, however, so we drove just past the holiday park to Cathedral Rock where we had been told there were tall, steep and exposed lines on beautiful rock next to the sea. What we found instead was an uncharted chosspile, filled with loose and crumbling stone, dirty lines, and poorly placed bolts with spinning hangers. Still, it was good fun and neither of us died.
Abel Tasman Paddling trip
Then we went to the Abel Tasman and went paddling. It was awesome. See Rolanda’s post for details.
Franz Josef and Fox glacier
Rolanda and I went to see the glaciers on the west coast. They are notable for being the closest to sealevel of any glaciers in the world. You can’t actually walk on the glaciers by yourself without a guide so we opted for a 5 hour hike to a lookout above the terminal face of the Franz Josef. It rained on and off and the lookout wasn’t exactly the view we had hoped for, but it was a fun day anyhow, with several cable bridges over large gulleys and a failed attempt at crossing the glacial river that resulted in an uphill scramble through the forest to regain the trail.
Another 25km down the road was the Fox glacier and, although it was pouring rain with zero visibility through the fog, we braved the elements and walked to the terminal face, where the weather cleared momentarily to allow us a self portrait and a couple photos of the warning signs documenting the various ways one might meet an untimely end if one were so cavalier as to venture into the glacier without a guide. (It’s worth noting that on the way back to the car we passed two climbers heading toward Fox with ice tools and crampons slung over their shoulders)
Wanaka climbing at Hospital Flat
Queenstown is famous in New Zealand as a hotspot for “extreme” sports and adventure tourism. It reminded me of Banff as we drove through it on the way to Wanaka, home of Hospital Flat crag and one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. We stayed at an empty holiday park on a pristine mountain lake that had all the scenery of Queenstown but none of the clueless tourists and tour busses.
The climbing at Hospital Flat was top-notch on well-bolted schist and Rolanda and I were reminded of home immediately by the familiar rails and crimpy holds. It was completely different from the featured limestone we had grown accustomed to in the rest of New Zealand. We managed to get in about seven climbs before the weather turned sour and it began to rain – not a bad day at all.
The West Coast, Fiordland and Milford Sound
Fiordland in the southwest corner of the south island was one of the most spectacular places I have ever been to and was certainly a place I had been looking forward to since the conception of our trip. The drive was long and rainy with lots of fog that would occasionally break to hint and the grandeur that surrounded us on both sides of the highway. Enormous waterfalls cascaded hundreds of meters down mountainsides all around us on the way to Milford Sound, fed by hidden alpine lakes and ancient snowmelts. Rolls and I took a two hour cruise through the Sound itself; a narrow fjord carved by glaciers with spectacular views at every turn.
Naturally, it was pouring rain, but we came prepared in our foul weather gear and I spent most of the trip out on the bow of the ship getting soaked, coming back in the cabin now and then to warm up with a cup of coffee. The endless waterfalls continued, getting higher and more plentiful as we headed to the mouth of the Sound as we passed penguins and fur seals. On the way back, we were joined by a pod of maybe twenty huge dolphins who swam alongside the boat and leaped into the air, much to the delight of the throngs of Asian tourists snapping away with their expensive cameras. For once, I couldn’t blame them for taking hundreds of photos, although no picture can capture the feeling of being in Milford Sound.
Dunedin, long beach caves in the rain and Penguins
After Fiordland we drove straight across the south island to Dunedin, an interesting university town that reminded me a bit of Halifax. The real draw for us was twofold; Rolls wanted to see the Blue Penguin colony just out of town, while I was excited to visit Long Beach, allegedly the best trad climbing area in New Zealand. That evening as we waited for the penguins to return to their boroughs we checked out a seaside gull colony and saw at least two albatross, the bird with the largest wingspan in the world. Rolanda was very pleased indeed and made a sour face when I said the albatross “looked like big seagulls”.
The penguins appeared on the Otago peninsula after dark and came ashore in packs, waddling their way up the beach and seemingly not very concerned with the twenty or so humans who were waiting to gawk at them. At 20cm tall and about 400 grams they were pretty cute.
Afterwards we had a harrowing drive through pea-soup fog to Long Beach and slept soundly in Hillary for the night. In the morning it was pouring rain, but we went to check out the climbing anyhow. There were certainly some promising lines up the beachside cliffs, but it was far too wet and we didn’t have any trad gear anyway. Rolanda and I did explore some of the caves in the area that probably went pretty far back into the hillside, but called it quits when we would have had to wriggle through the next dark passageway on our bellies with only my keychain flashlight to show the way.
Christchurch and ghetto campground
The next day we rolled into Christchurch and poked around for information on the sportclimbing at Port Hills, just outside of town. According to the locals, we shouldn’t expect anything spectacular, and some even went so far as to say the Port Hills would be disappointing after they heard where we had already been climbing. Britten crag and Cattlestop sounded interesting, but it was raining pretty hard so we decided to head inland toward Arthur’s Pass to the world renowned Castle Hill.
Castle hill in the rain and then bugs and Andrews Shelter
As you might have guessed, the rain followed us inland. It was almost heartbreaking to round the bend to Castle Hill and see all the boulders poised on the hillside like giant marbles, with dramatic pockets and scoops dotting all of them, but soaking wet and completely unclimbable. Rolanda and I walked around to scope things out. There were so many amazing climbs everywhere that we had no idea where to start. The rain wouldn’t let up that day, so we drove to Andrew’s Shelter, a free Department of Conservation campsite that looked promising from the pamphlet we had. It was a wise choice indeed, since the blackflies were horrendous as soon as the weather cleared. Andrew’s Shelter turned out to actually be a large hut, empty inside except for benches intended as a refuge for hikers finishing the nearby Binser trail. It made an excellent cooking shelter and saved us from hundreds of bugbites.
Castle hill climbing
The following morning, despite doom and gloom forecasts, we awoke to perfect sunny weather with a few clouds and headed back to Castle Hill for some bouldering. Without a proper boulder pad, we managed by folding our mattresses within the tent/awning that came with Hillary and tying it all together like a giant Christmas present with our cordalette.
Rolanda and I were shocked at how polished many of the limestone holds were. Some of the classic problems in the guidebook must have seen thousands of ascents (a far cry from even the most popular 3-star lines back home) and were slick as glass. We confined our efforts to easier grades but still found some fun challenges climbing lots of boulders that may or may not have made it into the abbreviated guidebook. The plan had been to hit Flock Hill, just 10 minutes away from Castle Hill and a hotspot of sport climbing, but Flock was closed for lambing season when we arrived, so we spent another day on our projects at Castle Hill.
Returning Hillary, CHCH airport overnight, flight to Melbs
On this high note, our time in New Zealand had come to an end. Returning to Christchurch one last time, we dropped off Hillary, our trusted vehicle, sleeping quarters, and traveling companion, at the rental depot without any fanfare at all. The staff didn’t even look her over to see how well we’d taken care of her (except for the dozens of dead mosquitos and blackflies squished against the ceiling inside).
Our flight to Sydney was at 5am, so we took the 8pm bus to the airport and hung out there for the evening. Shortly after finding a comfortable spot to lay down, we were promptly kicked out of international departures and herded to domestic arrivals where we were lucky to get any sleep at all with a loud television blaring a horseracing channel until 3am when we were allowed to check in, after being forced to buy Australian entry visas at the airport. Apparently Canadians need visas afterall – who knew?
Tired sunny day in Melbs on the beach
I’d always liked Melbourne and was glad to be back and have the weather on our side. Rolanda and I went straight to St Kilda and hung out on the beach all day before meeting up with Philipp, our German Couchsurfing host. For those who don’t know, Couchsurfing is when you crash on a stranger’s couch and, in turn, offer your home as a place for travelers to say while they are passing through. Philipp lived close to St. Kilda and had offered us a place to stay a month earlier when I contacted him. A fantastic host, he invited us out to dinner with some of his work colleagues the first night and gave us a key to his beautiful apartment the next two days when we went to work. We chatted over beers in the evening and he gave us some info on Indonesia, a place he was fond of and had traveled to before. No one else was forthcoming with a couch to surf on afterward, so we went to stay at the Melbourne Metro YHA.
Grampians trip to Halls Gap and climbing at Fortress Wall and the Wall of China
From there we arranged to visit the Grampians National Park, a four hour drive outside of Melbourne. Our tourbus driver was nice enough, but we sensed something was amiss when he drove past us as we walked out the front door of the hostel to board the bus and we had to phone him to come back for us. At length we made it to the Grampians and enjoyed foggy and rainy views from various lookouts and survived the driver crashing the bus backwards into an embankment before we were dropped off at the Grampians YHA in Halls Gap. It was a nice hostel; recently built and very eco-conscious with solar hot water, recycling, compost and insulation (rare things in Australia), and hens that laid eggs for us every morning. The Grampians are an international climbing destination but it’s a place where one would do well to have a car with them if they plan on getting any real climbing done. As it was, two days was all we had and the first day was raining so image how pleased we were to meet up with David and Dani; a couple of climbers who had been living at the hostel for 6 months and eager to show us around in their van. With only a half day of decent weather, Dave took us to the Watchtower and the Wall of China and generously let me use his trad gear to lead a couple lines, and also played ropegun by putting up a toprope for us on some spicier lines. Apparently, we ought to have gone to the Arapiles range, where there are far more lines on that bright orange sandstone Australia is famous for, but you need a car to go there. Next time we’ll know.
Camper relocation to Sydney
Back in Melbourne we picked up out $5/day camper van and proceeded to relocate it to Sydney over the next couple days. We even got a few tanks of free gas. Ended up ninjacamping in a rainforest and getting a half dozen leeches on me the next morning, before driving to Paul and Gemma’s place and meeting their newborn, Ollie.
It was great to see them and I felt pretty old when we realized it had been almost 8 years since we last met. Yikes. We were sad to not be able to spend more than an evening with them, but the terms of our relocation contract were pretty explicit; it would cost us $1000 to be more than a couple hours late for our dropoff. Needless to say, we arrived a bit early to be certain.
Rain in Sydney – Home backpackers and Chinatown
We rolled into Sydney proper by subway and checked into the only downtown hostel with vacancies, a dive called Home. It was horrendously filthy and filled with a bunch of dirtbag alcoholic long-term tenants. We had to pay for two nights upfront so we made the most of it by checking out a few markets and Chinatown, as well as making reservations at the YHA Harbourside for Sunday night so we wouldn’t have to go far after taking in Gotan Project on their world tour at the Sydney Opera House.
On Sunday we took the ferry to Manly Beach across the harbour and worked on our sunburns and played in the surf. It was a nice relaxing day with great weather. Later on Gotan put on a great show, but I’ll admit I didn’t know many of the tracks they played, having only really listened to one of their albums, and with no songs in English. Nonetheless it was a great experience and even our “nosebleed” seats were acoustically sound and actually not that far from the stage.
Bondi beach
Next up was a return to my old stomping grounds of Bondi Beach, a suburb of Sydney that locals love to hate for it’s popularity with tourists. Any way you slice it, however, Bondi is a beautiful spot. I was glad to be able to visit again, and even more pleased that the weather stayed very Australian – hot and sunny. Rolanda and I walked along the shore down to Bronte Beach as well, savoring a chance to get away from the crowds for a while. Our hostel was close to Tamarama beach so we had a great view of the surf conditions and surfers over there from the rooftop patio which was a great place to relax.
Today we head to the Blue Mountains for a couple days of hiking and climbing, then it's off to Bali on Sunday for Xmas and New Years!
mick
