Kahurangi & Abel Tasman National Parks

Our next stop was Greymouth. We stayed at a backpackers owned by an Israeli couple - The Duke. This place has a bar on it's 1st floor. On the night we stayed there 4 local 40 years old ladies were celebrating a birthday of one of them by drinking, drinking heavily. They drunk so much they couldn't sit straight on their chairs. We can't imagine seeing this sight in Israel...
From Greymouth our plan was to go to Nelson lakes national park. On the way there we stopped in a town called Murchison to ask about the weather and we found out one of the huts on the trek was closed. The lady at the I-Site (New Zealand's tourist information network) recommended us about another trek on other national park nearby - Mt Arthur and Gordons Pyramids.
We spent the night at one of Murchison's holiday parks, and the next morning started the trek. It was the last day of 2009, we carried with us wine and cake in order to celebrate new year's eve at the first hut. This trek is probably not popular among foreign tourists, the only people we met in the huts were Kiwis (locals). We had quite nice weather on the second day, except few winds from time to time. From the minute we left the hut the track was exposed all the way and we enjoyed walking on a beautiful ridges, having nice views of the mountains and the sea. Pleasant way to start a new year.




























Here is 0.5% of Sarit, the rest is covered because of the wind.




















































































The view from the 2nd hut:














We shared the 2nd hut with 3 local families, you can imagine the noise we had at night with all the screaming children.
We woke up the 3rd day and saw heavy rain. We waited few hours in the hut for the rain to stop. The rain finally stopped around the afternoon and we started the walk back to the car park.

We drove to Motueka, spent the night there and continued the next morning to Tekaka.
From there we went to a day trip in Abel Tasman national park. We couldn't get hut tickets, or even campsite tickets to the trek because it was over booked. That left us only with day trips. We chose to walk the northern part of the track because it's less crowded. The beaches were nice but the water was too cold to swim.







































































After Abel Tasman we explored some more places on the area called "Golden Bay". We went to Wharariki beach. It was so windy we couldn't open our eyes there.
We continued to the clear water of Pupu Springs.














On our way to Nelson (the city, not the park) we stopped to buy a famous local salami. It sold via automatic machines, just like Coca Cola or snacks. The salami was tasty but the real experience was to buy it using the machine.

Arthur's Pass

Few minutes after we left Wanaka it started to rain. The rain became heavier and heavier so we decided to stop in Franz Josef town for the night (the original plan was driving all the way to Hokitika...). On that ride we noticed the car's battery and light sights were on. Since the car seemed to be alright, and we had no problem starting it, we ignored it and said that we will take the car to a mechanic on first chance. The next day we drove to Hokitika, no garage was open since it was Sunday and Christmas holiday, so we kept going all the way to Arthur's Pass.

We spent the night in the village's campsite and went to the Avalanche Peak track the day after. This track is definitely not easy. It includes Steep uphills and rocky section in which you need to climb from one rock to another with your hands. But once you reach the top, all hard climbing is forgotten and all you can think about is the views that surrounds you. We had lovely weather, and lovely weather leads to lovely pictures, see for yourself:







































































Again, our dear Kea friend (There were many of them on the top, trying to steal travelers food)



















Here is the village from above, looks like a Lego...















We arrived back to the village on the afternoon and kept drive towards Christchurch. We stop to rest on the shores of one of the lakes on the way. When we wanted to keep going, the car didn't start. Luckily one of the locals had jumper cables and with them we started the car. We said to ourselves that we will drive straight to the car mechanic without stops. About 70km from Christchurch the car just stopped. It didn't want to go a centimeter more. We had to call to a road service to bring a tow truck, and drive us to Christchurch. The car mechanic told us the alternator needs to be replaced. 500$ later we were back in the car driving to the nearest holiday park, crying about the money lost...

Wanaka

After the Kepler trek and one night in Te Anau, we woke up in the morning, said goodbye to the south of NZ and drove all the way north to Wanaka, another "must see" town.
We spent the next few days with Anna and Shmaya (since they had few days to spare until their Mildford trek).
Our Wanaka experience included only day walks and city attractions. No treks this time.
The first evening we went to the famous "Cinema Paradiso". The cinema is famous for it's cars and couches instead of the regular cinema seats.















It looks like someone opened a cinema in his living room. We watched the movie, and waited patiently to the intermission, where we had to run to the counter to buy the famous hot cookies & ice cream (the cookies are important part of the cinema experience). They only make 1 cookie per 2 persons. We had to use our Israeli abilities to negotiate the long queue. Few minutes later the 4 of us were holding the famous and expensive cookies. (Roi : "Sarit makes better cookies than those").
The next day we climbed to Roy's Peak, a 1578m high mountain near the town. The way to the peak is very steep and full of sheep pooh, but when we reached the top it was worth it - we saw a fantastic view of Wanaka lake and the Matukituki valley. We learned that in NZ, best views involves sweat and effort. :)










































That evening we decided to celebrate Christmas eve with our own meal - a picnic on the shore of Wanaka lake.
The next day we drove to Matukituki valley. We already saw parts of this valley from the Cascade Saddle (Rees Dart trek). We walked to Rob Roy valley to see the glacier (again, the south American glaciers are much more impressive).















It was Christmas day, many people came to sit in the lookout point and had champagne and wine. We ate the regular snacks and continued to the next destination - Aspiring hut. We walked through the green Matukituki valley,





























had lunch in the hut and walked back to the car park.
The next day we went to the famous Puzzling world museum. It was great! we enjoyed all the illusions and the human maze (Orel, you would have liked it).














Later we said goodbye to Anna and Shmaya, and the amazing Fiordland & Mt. Aspiring national parks. We spent a month in that area and only scratched the surface.

The Kepler Trek

On our way to the hostel, still soaked wet, after the Milford trek, we stopped by the DOC office to see the weather forecast for the next days. The forecast was fine weather (finally), 5 minutes later we booked the Kepler trek, and we were lucky, only 5 free places left.
We had 1 day to rest and dry our shoes.
We did the usual arrangement - left the car at the end point of the trek, hitchhiked to Te Anau (the beginning of the trek) and started walking. After 15 minutes we looked back and suddenly saw Anna and Shmaya, 2 Israelis we met at the 3rd day of the Rees Dart trek. We were happy to meet them again and from that point on we walked together the entire trek.
We completed the climbing part of the first day quite fast (maybe because we were so busy talking, or maybe because we got used to uphills from all the other treks we did...). The climb wasn't as hard as people talk us.
From the moment we climb above the bush line we started to like this trek. On the way we met Keith, a 60+ Australian we met the first time on the Milford Trek. All the way to the hut was open with nice views of Te Anau lake, the town, and the surrounding mountains.














By the time we arrived to the hut we already had good feeling about this trek. The hut is located in a beautiful spot with amazing views - the best hut location we saw.














It was quite nice watching the sunset from the hut, therefore, Shmaya came with the idea to wake up early and see the sunrise, and so it was. The next morning all 4 of us were standing on one of the hills near the hut, at 6am, waiting and waiting to see the beautiful sunrise, but a stubborn cloud refused to move from where the sun was rising. Just minute before we almost gave up the sun rose above that cloud, coloring the sky with red-orange colours.














An hour later we were eating breakfast, looking at the clear sky and praying no clouds, rain or wind will show up today.














We started the walk, and noticed all the plants around us were frozen (apparently it was quite cold that night), and many icicles were hanging on them.














They looked good enough to eat and imagine they were Popsicles...
We kept walking enjoying the perfect weather, and falling in love with this amazing landscape. Except for the last hour, we walked all day on exposed mountains ridges, everywhere we looked we saw beautiful mountains and lakes... perfect day.
We were definitely lucky with the weather, the same track on bad weather can be a disaster.
Let the pictures speak for themselves:




















































































We stopped on almost every possible spot, just to enjoy the sun and the views.
Here is one coffee break:














And one uninvited friend:














That Kea circled round us until it noticed some guys left their backpacks on the track and climbed towards one of the viewpoints. 10 seconds later the Kea was standing on one of the backpacks, opened the zipper with it's beak, stole a pack of candies, opened it with it's beak and started eating the candies. By the time these poor guys arrived back to their packs there were only few candies left.
After the exposed section of the track came an hour of bushy descend to the second hut.
The 3rd day was mostly flat boring walk to the car park. we had lunch stop at the 3rd hut, located on the shore of Manapouri lake.














An hour after the lunch stop we arrived to the car (it was still there, thank god), this time, dry and happy :)

The Kepler trek was one of the best treks we had in NZ (but Sarit still thinks the Rees Dart trek is No. 1 in NZ).

The Milford Trek

Between the Routeburn and the Milford treks we had two days to spare. We spent the time exploring the Milford road. Through this ride we learned we don't really like "drive-stop-look-drive again" kind of traveling.
The worst part was the mirror lake - Its carpark was full of cars, caravans, motorbikes, bicycles and guided tourists buses. We started walking and after 3 seconds Sarit stopped and started taking photos.
Roi: "Why did you stop? It's further down the track."
Sarit: " No, this is it."
Roi looked over the parapet and saw a silly little puddle... After seeing so many beautiful lakes and rivers on the treks, these road attractions in New Zealand are so disappointing.
With this bitter feeling we started the Milford trek.

It all began with a one hour boat cruise to the start of the track. Half of the boat was full of Japanese tourists with small backpacks who booked themselves the guided version of the Milford trek, which probably costs few thousands. These tourists spent every minutes of the cruise taking photos of every tree or rock that could be seen from the boat in every possible angle. We kept looking at each other wondering what these people see that we don't???
All along the cruise the captain of the boat spoke to the microphone explaining the history of the mountains surrounded us, but with the poor quality of the speakers all we could hear was annoying buzz that accompanied us the entire cruise. At least the coffee was free...
Finally we arrived to the start of the track and started to walk.














One hour later we were already unpacking our sleeping bags in the hut. Just one nice river along the way and a spacial vegetation area...




























We were still optimistic about the views on the next days.
Few nice things on the first day were the two short guided walks that the hut warden gave, and a pack of cards Dror (Israeli) brought with him.
The second day was mainly bush walking (boring, boring, boring). We noticed that even if we were the last to leave the hut we were the first ones to arrive the next hut. Most of the walkers were not people you usually meet on treks. Some of them were families with children, others were elderly and generally speaking most of the walkers were not in shape.
After about 5 hours of bush we arrived to the second hut. Dror pulled out his cards and that was how we spent the rest of the day.
The 3rd day was supposed to be the highlight of the trek, which you walk up to the Mackinnon saddle and see the surrounding valleys and mountains. On the weather we had that day all we could see was the clouds that surrounded us.














From time to time the clouds gave us small window that we could see a piece of the view through it.










































After a short break on the shelter and a few keas (mountain parrot) photos,














we started going down -again, bush... One side trip on the way leads to the 5Th highest waterfall in the world. We arrived to the hut just to find out it's going to be heavy rain the next day.
The 4Th day was mainly bush, with a few beautiful waterfalls, but since it was raining we didn't take any photos... On the last hour of our walk the rain became one of the heaviest we had. By the time we arrived to the end point we were soaked wet.
From the end point we had another short cruise but this time instead of cruise ship a small boat arrived. All the 40 people stuffed in and the sail began. It was very rainy and windy and the sea was rough, we felt like in a movie were the small boat sails up and down along the big waves.
20 minutes after we were at the Milford town's carpark, looking for a ride back to our car (again, why to pay when you can get a free ride?). Both of us were completely wet and depressed and we couldn't find someone to take us. Just when things were starting to look really bad a couple from Singapore showed up and saved us. They agreed to let us in their car even though we were dripping and 5 minutes later we found ourselves talking with them about weddings (they just got married, as well), food and few other things.
The views along the way were amazing. All the huge mountains from both sides of the road were covered with waterfalls because of the heavy rain. We think that we had better views on the road than we had in the Milford track...
Well, if you didn't understand it by now - Milford track is a disappointment :(
But at least we have an invitation to visit in Singapore...