Disclaimer: this blog post is about a week out of date due in part to NZ's limited internet and because we just wrapped up the 4-day Milford Track. But more about all that later on...
We had six days before picking up our camper van, so we spent a few days in Christchurch. It's a cool little city, but was demolished in 2010 and 2011 by two severe earthquakes. There's rubble and construction everywhere, and the locals have turned tragedy into opportunity by repurposing empty lots into public spaces, pop-up art installations, temporary eateries and bars (see photo below of one of these "gap fillers") and an outdoor mall made of shipping containers. It was inspiring to see the urban renewal. Here are a few pics from our wandering:
Next we headed to Akaroa for two nights, which is a small port town originally settled by the French and still retaining some of that vibe. We stayed in a true backpackers hostel for the first time in a while, and in a dorm at that (breaking several of our travel rules), but the place was friendly and had the best wi-fi we've found in NZ, where the internet is notoriously slow and doled out in 100mb increments (usually $2/10 minutes or $5 for 100 mb, which equates to about 20 photos at full resolution, so appreciate these galleries, people!). We rented kayaks and spent 8 hours paddling in search of dolphins (no luck), hiked 800m (2,500 ft) straight up the local mountain, ate some great French-style cheeses and charcuterie, and generally enjoyed ourselves. Here's a link to the photos:
After Akaroa we had one more night in Christchurch, by which point Brook was nursing a pretty decent cold. Undeterred, we grabbed falafel, lamb burgers and a few local beers before picking up our camper van the next morning (on April 1).
We headed over to Mt. Cook, and lucked out with two bluebird days. It's a stunning mountain (New Zealand's highest), and is surrounded by many other stunning peaks, glaciers, lakes, and alpine scenery. We got in 3 day hikes over 2 days, camping at the foot of a glacier that we could hear groaning and cracking at night under brilliantly clear skies. With the Milky Way stretching out to infinity above and the mountains looming below, it was an inspiring place. Here's a link to the photos:
So that was our first week or so in NZ, more or less, and it was awesome.
We headed down to Wanaka next, where we stopped in at a DOC office (that's Department of Conservation; not to be confused with the Dartmouth Outing Club, but close) where we snagged a last-minute opening on the Milford Track (in Fijordland, southern NZ), which is billed as "the world's finest walk." Because you stay in space-limited huts, most people book that hike 6-12 months out, so we felt pretty fortunate. We cancelled our booking for the Kepler track (which is also very cool) and did the 4-day Milford instead. We finished a day ago, and loved it so much we re-booked the Kepler track hike to begin on Sunday. More on those hikes later. In the meantime, we're grabbing a couple of days of downtime in Te Anau to do mundane things like laundry and blogging...
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