Lucky You

Monday December 24th 2007 - Monday January 7th 2008

Around the festive period all credible publications put out double editions so as to give their staff some time off. Not wishing to miss out on this the blog has gone down this route so here is your bumper festive edition of Jon and Rach's Big Trip.

Christmas itself was spent at Straw Lodge in the wineries region, the place we'd stayed on honeymoon 2 years ago. Once again it was fantastic and we ate and drank very well indeed. Christmas away from home is strange but it's such a lovely place that you can't help but enjoy yourself.

Sadly we had to move on from the luxury of Straw Lodge and Boxing Day saw us spend a night in the cells. Not due to a heavy right foot on New Zealand roads (wouldn't be the first time of course!) but a hostel in Christchurch that occupies what was a bona fide prison until just 8 years ago. Really interesting place and the quietest hostel rooms you'll ever find!

Over the next couple of days we stayed at Lake Tekapo and Lake Wanaka. En route from Tekapo we got great views of Mount Cook (see photo below). As the weather was pretty good we took the opportunity to do a couple of warm-up walks ahead of starting the Milford Track and climbed Mounts John and Iron. Actually only I climbed Mount Iron as Rach was busy throwing herself down a river in the name of whitewater sledging.

And so we came to the day before New Year's Eve and the start of the Milford Track that we'd booked 5 months ago. In the Fiordland area of New Zealand they don't measure rainfall in millimetres or centimetres but in metres. As a result we were prepared to get wet, very wet. As we got the boat to our start point of the walk it didn't look like we'd be disappointed either as it was bucketing it down and thunder was rumbling around. The first day's walk though is only an hour long so a wet slosh to our first hut seemed OK. For the next 3 days however we had fantastic weather and had to be more careful of sunburn than flooding rivers. We were amazingly lucky.

Day 2 of the walk takes you through forest to the base of a climb to Mackinnon's Pass at roughly 1100m. As the weather can change in an instant here if it's good when you reach your hut for the night they recommend climbing up to the pass for the views in case you can't see anything when you do it for real the next day. With a couple of hours to kill up we went and as promised the views were spectacular. You get a real sense of the scale of the area and the huge, sheer mountains that you're walking below. We also spotted a pretty unstable looking glacier high up on a ridge. More on that in a minute. It was one of the most sober New Year's Eves we'll have, and earliest, as we were tucked up in bed by 930.

Day 3 of the walk takes you up and over the pass and the weather was still grand. The views from the top are still great and from the toilet are pretty good too (see Rach's effort in the first of the photos below!). As we were coming down the other side the glacier we'd seen the day before let a piece go and we had a great view of the resulting landslide/avalanche. Those on the track ahead of us may have had other thoughts. The other highlight of the day was a walk from the track to Sutherland Falls. At 580m these are the highest falls in New Zealand and are an awesome sight and sound. The water falling onto the rocks below sounds like a fighter jet screaming above you and you feel the spray before you really see the falls. We'd been told we could walk behind the falls so we put on a waterproof jacket and headed in. Within 5 seconds we were drenched and being battered by the spray. It was cold and pretty painful, but fantastic nonetheless. A squelchy walk to our final hut ended the first day of 2008.

The final day of the walk takes you along rivers and lakes to the boat pickup point from where you get a 20-minute mini-cruise in Milford Sound as you head back to port. As we got into bed that night the heavens opened and it rained continually through the night. Someone somewhere was looking out for us.

Even the huge downpour was a good thing as we were headed out on a more organised cruise the next day and this meant that there were hundreds of temporary waterfalls pouring down and out of the mountains in Milford Sound. It was an awesome sight and in some cases there were water risers as the wind was blowing the water back up the hillside. As has been our luck so far by the time we got our bus back to Te Anau the sun was out and we had great views not only of Milford Sound but also of the 2-hour journey up and over the mountains. The journey is pretty tough going on the coaches going back and forth and a couple of hours after we'd gone through a Kiwi Experience bus burst into flames. No casualties but just makes you think.

After doing a good 4-day walk the best thing to do is to get yourself on another one. We gave ourselves a couple of night's rest before setting out on the 3-day Hump Ridge Track. This is described as a challenging walk and for good reason. You start the first day walking along the beach and when you arrive at your first hut for the night you're at 900m+. The majority of this climb is done in the final 5km too, which with full rucksacks is a killer. I don't think either of us have done such a climb and the air was bristling with various expletives as we scrambled our way up. On the plus side the weather again was excellent so when you pop out of the forest at the top of the ridge the views of Fiordland to the north and the ocean to the south are incredible. On the down side I'd been struck down with a serious bout of man flu so naturally was at death's door. I soldiered bravely on though.

The second day takes you from 900m+ back down to the beach. Normal, sane people would just ask why? After yesterday's efforts today just kills the knees and even the final 8km walk along an old, flat sawmill tramway is hard work. The sawmill was set up at Port Craig, where we stayed in a hut overnight, in the 1920s. In an inspired move they set it up here in one of the more remote areas of a pretty remote country and within 6 years it had closed: due to a lack of timber. Genius! The weather is still cracking and so a dip in the sea is the reward for the day's efforts at a beautiful sandy beach.


Our final day sees the end of our luck with the weather. It's chucking it down as we set out on the final 17km of the walk and although it stops and turns to brief showers the paths are muddy and flooded. It's turned a tad colder too so we make as good a pace as our bodies will let us to get us back to the car. By the time we finish we are both physically shattered and in need of some TLC, or at least a couple of days off from walking. Neither of the two previous walks have been this tough but it's been a good walk all the same.

We're now relaxing in a small town called Tuatapere before heading on around the coast tomorrow and headed for Christchurch again at the weekend for a wedding before once again going into the wilds on the Abel Tasman Coastal Track next week.

Happy New Year everyone, we hope that 2008 is a good one for you. Jon and RachXX

The festive 24/7s:

Christmas Eve: Making the most of some home comforts
Christmas Day: Good weather and great food. Happy Christmas!
Boxing Day: The safest night's sleep we'll ever have
Thursday 27th: Picked a good night for camping out
Friday 28th: Will this weather hold for Milford Sound?
Saturday 29th: Weather's still holding...until tomorrow that is
Sunday 30th: So the weather didn't hold. Got wet!
New Year's Eve: The knees aren't looking forward to descending
New Year's Day: Sutherland Falls. Best power shower you'll have
January 2nd: One hour of rain, unheard of luck
January 3rd: Hmm, where do we go from here?
January 4th: Are we fit enough for another big tramp?
January 5th: Not with bad bout of man flu
January 6th: Bodies are physically shattered. Good walk though
January 7th: Burn baby burn, legs are on fire!