As a child we holidayed all over England, Wales and a bit in Scotland. I vividly remember protesting and refusing to walk whenever my parents suggested it. It's amazing how life changes and your adult outlook is so different to your child outlook. I suppose not that amazing really, but it does amaze me!!
I now LOVE to walk, trek, hike, tramp, whatever you want to call it, I really enjoy it. There is a real sense of achievement when you have walked a certain number of miles, climbed a mountain or stumbled across something unexpected in a wild and remote place of the world.
Walking in New Zealand is like that. I picked 3 walks that I wanted to do this time and the first was the Tongariro Alpine Crossing on the North Island. It's famous for being the location for a lot of the Lord of the Rings filming and my last attempt to do the track was scuppered by bad weather. This time I was blessed with a gloriously clear day. It's a 19.3km tramp across active volcanic crates. The landscape is rugged, baron and extremely harsh. Although the sky was free of rain clouds, the wind was relentless in it's attack on us as we climbed the side of the volcanoes. At one point my bag nearly took a dive over the edge of the cliff. Don't worry, I wasn't planning on following it! Being the adventurous kind of girl that I am I decided to do an extra 3km return walk to the summit of Mount Tongariro. It was a bit hazardous through snow and remnants of volcanic ash which slipped everytime you took a step but the rewards at the top were worth it. After an initial cloudy summit, the clouds parted and we were treated to unsurpassed views across all the three volcanoes in the park, the blue lake, the emerald pools and down to the plains below - pretty special it has to be said. 10 minutes was all that could be spent at the top without your fingers turning blue. I had 5 layers of clothing on as well as a hat, ear covers and gloves! The wind was worth bearing though and I was elated when we reached the end of the trail 7 hours after we started.
Second on the walking agenda was the Queen Charlotte Track. This is a multi day walk on the north of the South Island in the area known as Marlborough. Again the weather was good to us generally and we only had one afternoon of whipping wind and sideways rain. This was on day 2 when we happened to walk past a part of the track that was a sheer drop off the cliff. Needless to say that we all stayed extremely close to the opposite side of the track at that moment! The walk followed the Queen Charlotte Sound from Ship Cove on the outer sounds to Anakiwa right on the inner sounds. It was a breathtakingly beautiful walk of about 75km with stunning views of sweeping bays with turquoise water lapping the shore. The dappled sunlight peeped through the majestic beech forests and made the rain drops glisten on the end of the leaves. It was light walking through and enchanted forest. I had decided to splash out and do the walk guided and what a good decision that turned out to be!! We stayed in 5 star lodges along the way and dined on fresh seafood, heavenly deserts and really scrummy lunches everyday. It was not a walk to loose weight on!! I was brave enough to take a dip at the end of the second day and I would describe the water as bracingly refreshing! Luckily, a hot tub was waiting for us to jump in and warm up. The whole track proved to be a joy to walk, not too taxing but a bit of up and down to keep the heart going.
The final walk was The Milford Track in Fiordland National Park at the bottom left of the South Island. This is world famous as one of the best multi day walks anywhere in the world so I really felt that it was a must. once again I went for the luxury option of a guided walk and thoroughly enjoyed the pamering! Unlike the Queen Charlotte where the majority of our luggage was transported via water taxi everyday and we only needed to carry our day packs, here we had to carry all of our own stuff for the 5 days. The words 'pack light' had never been more significant! The actual walk is only really 3 days, covering 33.5 miles from Glade Wharf to Sandfly Point. The track meanders through forest, along the Clinton River and through the floor of various valleys shadowed by towering mountains. Once again the lodges were of a good standard and we didn't go hungry! There were 50 people in our group, but it never felt like that and the majority of the time I walked along on my own with only the sound of birds and waterfalls as company. It was a magical experience that I shall treasure and never forget. Day 3 was my favourite day with a decent ascent to the top of McKinnon Pass scattered with wild mountain lilies and then the dramatic waterfalls and moss covered trees of the downward track of the pass. It felt like I had been transported to a place where fairies and red and white dotted toadstools are found. (You are all probably thinking that I am mad, but believe me, this place was something else!).
One our arrival at the end of the track at Sandfly Point (a very appropriate name due to the amount of horrible sandflies waiting to bite you) our wonderful guides had a hot drink and biscuit ready to celebrate out achievement. We then took a ferry to Milford and stayed at Mitre Peak Lodge, looking out to spectacular views of Mitre Peak and the end of Milford Sound. The rain really came thundering down once we had got to the lodge and water cascaded down the sides of the mountains highlighting fiordland in all it's glory. Luckily for us, we woke up to clear skies for the boat ride the next day and luck must have been thrown our way as we saw fur seals, fiordland crested penguins and bottle nosed dolphins. The playful dolphins decided that frolicking in the waves off the bow of the boat was great fun and treated us to a thrilling show.
Having now done three of the main walks in New Zealand, I have the next two that I want to do lined up already and am just planning ahead (I may well be imagining a chuckle from some people, yes I'm as organised as ever!) as to when I can come back and do them.
I've just returned today from an overnight boat cruise to Doubtful Sound and actually still have this feeling that I am out at sea. I keep swaying, well, I think I'm swaying anyway!! The trip was brilliant though and well worth the trauma of staying on a boat overnight. Actually, I'm exagerating, the only trauma was when the skipper decided to head out into the Tasman Sea (not my favourite place as you will recall from my escapades in Tasmania) and I once again found myself horizontal, admiring the lovely white clouds floating in the clear blue sky! Doubtful Sound is much larger than Milford, but they have equal beauty. We had the chance to kayak and swim so I did both. I was thrilled to spot some more crested penguins which are now my favourite type of penguin as they have the coolest eyebrows! Gently sailing along the fiord, with mighty grantie cliffs and mountains all around, listening to the bird song and flowing water was another experience that will be stored in my memory of travels forever. It was nothing less than exceptional.
I'm off tomorrow to begin a job looking after one little 11 month old girl for 12 weeks. It will be a bit of pocket money for the last part of this amazing adventure that I'm having. However, this means no more posts for a little while as I'll be stationary and will have nothing exciting to write about!
I now LOVE to walk, trek, hike, tramp, whatever you want to call it, I really enjoy it. There is a real sense of achievement when you have walked a certain number of miles, climbed a mountain or stumbled across something unexpected in a wild and remote place of the world.
Walking in New Zealand is like that. I picked 3 walks that I wanted to do this time and the first was the Tongariro Alpine Crossing on the North Island. It's famous for being the location for a lot of the Lord of the Rings filming and my last attempt to do the track was scuppered by bad weather. This time I was blessed with a gloriously clear day. It's a 19.3km tramp across active volcanic crates. The landscape is rugged, baron and extremely harsh. Although the sky was free of rain clouds, the wind was relentless in it's attack on us as we climbed the side of the volcanoes. At one point my bag nearly took a dive over the edge of the cliff. Don't worry, I wasn't planning on following it! Being the adventurous kind of girl that I am I decided to do an extra 3km return walk to the summit of Mount Tongariro. It was a bit hazardous through snow and remnants of volcanic ash which slipped everytime you took a step but the rewards at the top were worth it. After an initial cloudy summit, the clouds parted and we were treated to unsurpassed views across all the three volcanoes in the park, the blue lake, the emerald pools and down to the plains below - pretty special it has to be said. 10 minutes was all that could be spent at the top without your fingers turning blue. I had 5 layers of clothing on as well as a hat, ear covers and gloves! The wind was worth bearing though and I was elated when we reached the end of the trail 7 hours after we started.
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| At the start of the walk. |
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| Views from the summit of Mount Tongariro. |
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| The emerald pools - Tongariro Crossing |
Second on the walking agenda was the Queen Charlotte Track. This is a multi day walk on the north of the South Island in the area known as Marlborough. Again the weather was good to us generally and we only had one afternoon of whipping wind and sideways rain. This was on day 2 when we happened to walk past a part of the track that was a sheer drop off the cliff. Needless to say that we all stayed extremely close to the opposite side of the track at that moment! The walk followed the Queen Charlotte Sound from Ship Cove on the outer sounds to Anakiwa right on the inner sounds. It was a breathtakingly beautiful walk of about 75km with stunning views of sweeping bays with turquoise water lapping the shore. The dappled sunlight peeped through the majestic beech forests and made the rain drops glisten on the end of the leaves. It was light walking through and enchanted forest. I had decided to splash out and do the walk guided and what a good decision that turned out to be!! We stayed in 5 star lodges along the way and dined on fresh seafood, heavenly deserts and really scrummy lunches everyday. It was not a walk to loose weight on!! I was brave enough to take a dip at the end of the second day and I would describe the water as bracingly refreshing! Luckily, a hot tub was waiting for us to jump in and warm up. The whole track proved to be a joy to walk, not too taxing but a bit of up and down to keep the heart going.
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| Views across Kenepuru Sound - Queen Charlotte Track |
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| Queen Charlotte Sound |
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| Views out to one of the bays. |
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| Ready to take a dip in the chilly water. |
The final walk was The Milford Track in Fiordland National Park at the bottom left of the South Island. This is world famous as one of the best multi day walks anywhere in the world so I really felt that it was a must. once again I went for the luxury option of a guided walk and thoroughly enjoyed the pamering! Unlike the Queen Charlotte where the majority of our luggage was transported via water taxi everyday and we only needed to carry our day packs, here we had to carry all of our own stuff for the 5 days. The words 'pack light' had never been more significant! The actual walk is only really 3 days, covering 33.5 miles from Glade Wharf to Sandfly Point. The track meanders through forest, along the Clinton River and through the floor of various valleys shadowed by towering mountains. Once again the lodges were of a good standard and we didn't go hungry! There were 50 people in our group, but it never felt like that and the majority of the time I walked along on my own with only the sound of birds and waterfalls as company. It was a magical experience that I shall treasure and never forget. Day 3 was my favourite day with a decent ascent to the top of McKinnon Pass scattered with wild mountain lilies and then the dramatic waterfalls and moss covered trees of the downward track of the pass. It felt like I had been transported to a place where fairies and red and white dotted toadstools are found. (You are all probably thinking that I am mad, but believe me, this place was something else!).
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| The extremely foggy McKinnon pass. |
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| Strolling along the trail. |
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| The magical fairy forest! - The Milford Track |
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| Sutherland Falls |
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| At Sandfly Point - 33.5 miles completed! |
One our arrival at the end of the track at Sandfly Point (a very appropriate name due to the amount of horrible sandflies waiting to bite you) our wonderful guides had a hot drink and biscuit ready to celebrate out achievement. We then took a ferry to Milford and stayed at Mitre Peak Lodge, looking out to spectacular views of Mitre Peak and the end of Milford Sound. The rain really came thundering down once we had got to the lodge and water cascaded down the sides of the mountains highlighting fiordland in all it's glory. Luckily for us, we woke up to clear skies for the boat ride the next day and luck must have been thrown our way as we saw fur seals, fiordland crested penguins and bottle nosed dolphins. The playful dolphins decided that frolicking in the waves off the bow of the boat was great fun and treated us to a thrilling show.
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| Mitre Peak - Milford Sound |
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| Taking in the views from the boat. |
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| Dolphins following the bow waves. |
Having now done three of the main walks in New Zealand, I have the next two that I want to do lined up already and am just planning ahead (I may well be imagining a chuckle from some people, yes I'm as organised as ever!) as to when I can come back and do them.
I've just returned today from an overnight boat cruise to Doubtful Sound and actually still have this feeling that I am out at sea. I keep swaying, well, I think I'm swaying anyway!! The trip was brilliant though and well worth the trauma of staying on a boat overnight. Actually, I'm exagerating, the only trauma was when the skipper decided to head out into the Tasman Sea (not my favourite place as you will recall from my escapades in Tasmania) and I once again found myself horizontal, admiring the lovely white clouds floating in the clear blue sky! Doubtful Sound is much larger than Milford, but they have equal beauty. We had the chance to kayak and swim so I did both. I was thrilled to spot some more crested penguins which are now my favourite type of penguin as they have the coolest eyebrows! Gently sailing along the fiord, with mighty grantie cliffs and mountains all around, listening to the bird song and flowing water was another experience that will be stored in my memory of travels forever. It was nothing less than exceptional.
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| Kayaking on Doubtful Sound |
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| Sunset over Doubtful Sound |
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| Fjordland Crested Penguins |
I'm off tomorrow to begin a job looking after one little 11 month old girl for 12 weeks. It will be a bit of pocket money for the last part of this amazing adventure that I'm having. However, this means no more posts for a little while as I'll be stationary and will have nothing exciting to write about!
