Saturday, December 08, 2007

Tramping New Zealand

No, I was not whoring my way around New Zealand. "Tramping" is the Kiwi word for hiking or trekking. I recently traveled around the south island of New Zealand, hiking in many of the National Parks.

Total trip duration: 2.5 weeks
Total miles traveled: ~3,000

Here are some highlights....

Stunning scenery and close encounters with seals (a little too close, in fact) in Kaikoura.



Remote waterfront relaxation in the Marlborough Sounds, pulling fresh oysters and mussels right out of the water and frying them up for dinner.




Beachside backpacking (and even some barefoot backpacking through rivers!) in the Abel Tasman National Park. Here's my solo photo attempt:


Also some awesome dolphin viewing during my boat trip to the trailhead at Abel Tasman:


The amazing southern Alps around Queenstown and Wanaka. Unfortunately I didn't get to do much hiking here because it rained non-stop, and I had a cold. But I took some nice pics in the brief moments of no rain. If the scenery looks familiar, it's because a lot of the Lord of the Rings movie footage was filmed in this area.





Milford Sound. Part of a huge area called Fjordland which was carved out by glaciers long ago. This area rivals (beats?) Yosemite in terms of awesome granite monoliths. You get a sense of the size in this picture with the car.


More of the valley heading towards Milford Sound:



I took an overnight cruise on Milford Sound, which was also really beautiful. I saw Dusky dolphins and Fjordland Crested penguins, and got sprayed when the captain sailed the boat right under some enormous waterfalls.



I drove to the coast to see penguins hanging out by the beach.




I stayed on a sheep farm and got to herd sheep with the farmer in his pickup truck. Turns out that sheep are actually pretty nasty up close. And dumb. But don't they look cute from afar?



Hiked to a glacier in Mt. Cook National Park. Saw bits of glacier crumble down the mountain. Also the lakes in this region are a bright blue color because of the sediment that flows into them from the glacial melt.

Mount Cook:


Lake Tekapo with Alps in the background:



I also stayed on a horse ranch and got riding lessons, but I was too busy holding onto the horse for dear life to take any pictures, so you'll just have to use your imagination.