I left my copy of The Lord of the Rings in Wellington =/

Well folks, it's been quite a while. And let's be honest, if you're on facebook, you see my photos earlier, because uploading to facebook is easy and doesn't involve time and formatting. But here goes. I'm not certain when I'll have internet access again, so hopefully I can finish writing this post, and post it before the end of my session. I'm definitely going to post it before I finish my South Island travels so that those can be dedicated to a separate post. I don't think I want my last everything in New Zealand to be combined in one post! Here we go with a photo!!

A few days ago I hiked the Abel Tasman. It's one of New Zealand's nine or eleven "Great Walks." I believe Great Walks are so titled because they depict New Zealand before human interaction (sort of), they meander through various environments, and they are multiple day hikes. At least I think that's why they are considered great walks. I think it's because it has beautiful water. Look how clear it is!

Of all of them, Abel Tasman is one of the most popular, because there are huts and lodges along the way. It's 54.4 kilometers, and while it's one of the shorter ones, I am convinced that it is not the easiest.

The one we wanted to hike was the Heaphy. While it's more than 80 km, what would have been nice about it is that the first day is rough: you climb up. But after you cross that initial hurdle, it's all downhill from there. Abel Tasman, though shorter, is a constant switch between climbing and descending.

And really—begin random tangent—it's an easy hike. Easily the most popular of the great walks, with many accessible points via bus or boat. While it switches between ups and downs often, the actual incline is never significant. So if you ask anyone, they'll say it's easy. Me? I'll say if you hike it the way everyone hikes it, staying in the huts and using their cooking facilities, it's easy as pie.

For us, it wasn't so simple. We were camping. So much more hardcore. We had to carry our tent and a stove along with all of our other gear. On top of all of that, my laptop weighs around four pounds, and I needed to do homework in Christchurch.

It was a rough walk. We switched bags, so thank goodness that I didn't have to carry everything heavy the whole time. Anyways: conclusion? Yes. It's easy. Add a 50 pound bag onto your back? It's a pretty tough hike. Yes. I'm telling you this so that you know just how bad@$$ I am. (Sorry to all of you people with delicate ears!)

We walked through so many different environments though. Every time the track reached sea level, it followed the beach for a few minutes. Walking on the sand was really irritating, and really slowed me down. Plus, the shoes I wore, while fully functional, let sand in, so every time we came off the beach I emptied my shoes out. That was the first, and most prominent, and of course my favorite area the track followed.

When we walked more inland, it felt as though we were in the tropics. It was cooler, moist, green, and there were small trickles of water everywhere. There was moss everywhere, and the DOC (Department of Conservation, the people who we had to book our tent sites with, and the people who maintain the trail) had little gutters for the water to follow so it could cross the path. That was the second most common area we walked through.

There were also areas where we walked up a channel where the water rose into at high tide, and it met up with a river. If you walked up the river, it met up with another river. What was really interesting was that not only were the rivers freshwater, but they flowed in different directions. When one river joined up, it flowed away from the sea. But if you walked up it a few paces, it flowed towards the sea. Mystifying, yes? We dropped our packs (Really any excuse to drop my pack was welcome) and hiked for about ten minutes up the river to a place called Cleopatra's pool. It was really just a bit of white water with some large rocks and a serene pool among the rapids and small waterfalls.

At the top of the hills, it felt desert-y, with dry sand or soil, nice views of the ocean, and dry plants and logs and trees. Strange how different the whole terrain was within only twenty minutes of each other.

We also had to cross an estuary. There were two areas we had to cross around low tide, with a two hour window on either side. We left slightly later than planned, but still made it to the estuary just after the recommended crossing time.

We crossed anyways. Got to get there somehow, right?

It was a pain. Completely covered in shells and growing oysters or conchs or snails, every step is agonizing. I amused myself with a slew of swear words every step. The water, at the deepest point, made it just past my shorts, so most of the way up my thighs—much deeper than we were comfortable with. I went really slow, and at the other end I promptly went to sleep. When I awoke, the water was nearly to my toes, and there was a boat in the estuary. It's scary how much water changes location.

The other really cool thing about the hike was that I got to see seals! When I awoke on the last day, they were playing in the surf, so close to the beach, and where I was standing! It was adorable. I was so happy.

And finally, at Separation Point, we soothed ourselves with reminders that we were almost to the end. We sat at the lighthouse (possibly the first square lighthouse I've seen) to escape the malicious wind, ate an entire bag of pretzels, and then continued to the end. The last hour was all in the sun, and all down a hill. It felt like so much longer than an hour, but at the end I was so happy with myself.

And now, as per usual, I'll spam you with pictures from the last few weeks. I'll tell you where they're from, but they'll start on the ferry, continue to Abel Tasman, and then they'll be mostly Christchurch and its surrounding areas and Arthur's Pass—the highway that goes from Christchurch to the West Coast.



Just some pretty, clear water. Quite abundant here in New Zealand apparently.

This was what the final hour looked like. We watched people kite surfing while we were in agony. Even though it was downhill... it felt as though it would never end!

New Zealand is speckled with Danger signs, warning signs, track closed signs, and be careful signs. If you'd care to see the complete album of all of the danger signs and track closed signs, please contact me when I return home. It is a quite extensive collection of photos.

Completely random house that had an awesome dragon on it. Just off the end of Abel Tasman, while waiting for a ride.

Spring in New Zealand, and flowers in front of Sumner Beach. Gorgeous day spent hiking, lying on the beach eating biscuits, and working around the schedule of the Christchurch bus system.

View of Taylor's Mistake beach, near Sumner. I really wanted to make up a story about what Taylor's Mistake was, but it didn't happen. There's lots of illegal housing there, but apparently Christchurch doesn't really care because they are all surfers and aren't really harming anything. I guess that's nice?

While hiking around Taylor's Mistake, finally had to leave to catch the bus, and turned around to catch this beautiful moon. The track was intense.

Castle Hill. Some of Narnia: Prince Caspian was filmed here. We just played on boulders all day long. Would have been an epic place to play hide and seek, but when we were finally ready to go, it took us ages to find each other, and we were only a party of three.

My feet, and pretty snowy mountains at Castle Hill. In fact, driving there, we went up a hill, and it was actually snowing. It felt so strange... and familiar, since it's November at home and there could be snow and cold weather there.

I think I thought this photo was heaps cooler than it actually is. Giggle.

Are you tired of photos of boulders yet?

Are you tired of them now? I thought this was so cool. Looked like the boulder had roots and was growing out of the ground.

This is a kea. We found it on Arthur's Pass. They're cheeky little birds that are known to steal pretty, shiny little objects... such as keys, cell phones, ipods, and cameras. They don't fear people (not much anyways) and their underarms are probably the most attractive of any creature's underarms... 

West Coast! This is just near Hokitika. Actually it's a bit less gray when the weather is slightly more decent. But all of the driftwood was cool. 

Cool half bridge and one diverting water over the road. New Zealand truly is unruly and unsettled, literally. There are landslides everywhere and rock falls, and damaged roads and bridges... it's somewhat unnerving.

One of my favorites from Arthur's Pass. It was raining so most of my shots have water droplets on the lens. Cool? Annoying? I don't know.