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| Tasman Sea |
Day 9 (Franz Josef-->Murchison-->Totaranui):
Our glacier hike was scheduled for 8:45, so I woke up at 6:45. I walked out to the shore of the TASMAN SEA and just stood in awe. The TASMAN SEA. Ask me a year ago if I thought I would ever get to see the Tasman Sea in my lifetime and I would’ve told you no. So cool! After I ate breakfast on a picnic table watching the sun rise over the ocean, we headed back into FJ for the glacier hike. We signed in and went through the maze around the building to get our gear for the day. First stop was the boots. Cue freak out. Their directions: tell us your country and your size, grab some of our wooly socks, take your socks off, put on the wooly socks, and put the boots on. What I did: told them USA, size 7.5, picked up the wooly socks successfully touching as little of them as I had to, kept my own socks on (duh!), put the used wooly socks on over mine, put the chunky boots on. No way was I about to take my own socks off and wear those gross germy wooly socks against my bare feet! This probably explains why I had two blisters by the end of the day, but I’d much rather have blisters than germs—anything for peace of mind. The boots they gave us were so hardcore… you know the old neighbor guy in Home Alone who shovels snow and sits with Kevin in the church? Remember hit huge boots? That’s who I felt like. They must’ve weighed 10 lbs each. Ok enough about the boots… rain pants, jackets, fanny pack, and we’re off!
The glacier hike was one of most incredible things I’ve ever done! We bussed out to the national park area, walked on the rocky terrain for about 45 mins, and then started hiking up the rocky/gravel-y hills. We stopped to put our crampons on, which are spikey things that attach to the bottom of the boots to help you walk on the ice. They divided us into groups and we headed out onto the actual glacier! We followed a path that the guides have to carve out with pick axes every single morning. We made our way through crevices and up and down carved-out stairs, ate lunch on the glacier, drank glacier water from a glacier waterfall, and loved every last second of it! I wish I could put into words how awesome this hike was, but I just can’t!
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| drinking glacier water from a glacier waterfall! |
Then the loooong night began, and it wasn’t even night yet. Our plan was to get halfway up to Abel Tasman, spending the night in Murchison (about 4 hours away), but after a stop at the pancake rocks (so cool!) in Punakaiki, I suggested that we just drive all the way tonight… why not, right?! ROADTRIP! Well, we got to Abel Tasman around 9, but we needed to get to the DOC site, which was we thought was about 2 more hours. After we got to where we thought was about halfway there, we stopped at the i-site, which was obviously closed because everything in this country closes at like 3pm, and luckily there were maps outside the door with phone numbers and everything! We got scared that we would get out to the middle of no where and no be able to find the DOC site (sidenote: the fine for free-camping in NZ is $2,600). By this time, it was 11:30pm, so we called one of the holiday parks. I seemed to always be the one nominated to talk to people, so made the call. Unfortunately, this guy was the very first mean person I exchanged words with in NZ. His greeting was, “Do you even know what time it is?!” Eventually he told us to park in the back. I made the mistake of asking him how much it was per person and he replied with, “Oh if you’re calling at this hour to discuss prices, don’t even bother coming. You disgust me!” I hung up. Sheesh! Long story longer, Kelsey was a persistent driver and we ended up reaching the DOC site in Totaranui, via super winding roads, around 1:00am. Phew!
Day 10 (Totaranui):
We slid the van door open and immediately heard the sound of the ocean! The bright side to reaching campsites in the dark is that the morning is such an awesome surprise! I jumped out of the van, followed the noise of the crashing waves, and walked on the golden sand of the beach for about an hour (in my pajamas). Could life get any better?! I topped the morning off by eating granola and yogurt while reading some psalms at a picnic table overlooking the sea.
We headed out for a 4 hour return hike to Mutten Cove through bush and jungle-type terrain, along the perimeter of the ocean. We could see the ocean through the trees and the track even came out onto 2 shorelines on the way. We explored some at these shores, finding seals and even 2 PENGUINS!! I climbed up on a huge boulder that the waves were crashing against and ate lunch. Yesterday lunch on a glacier, today on a beach!
I ended the day sitting on a log on the shore at the campsite reading, journaling, and drinking some tea (thanks Milford Sound cruise!). It started to rain, so we all piled back into the van, stuffed our stuff in, and just hung out. We got to talking about home and Christmas and our families (cue tears). We played some Christmas music and thought about how close Christmas seems, I guess since it’s not long at all after I get home from NZ! I ate some chicken soup, which was the first meat I’d had in 10 days, and then headed off to bed!
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| penguins! |
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| me and a bird on the beach |
Day 11 (Totaranui-->Nelson):
After walking on the beach a bit in the morning, we left for Nelson around 9am. We had planned to stop and do some hikes in Abel Tasman on our way out, so we stopped at Lookout Summit, which was a 1 hour return. This track was SUPER STEEP. We realized that we had been going at a pretty strong pace for about 35 minutes, so we should have probably reached the summit at least 5 minutes ago. After another 5 minutes and still searching for the turn around point, we decided to head back. After we got down and back to the van, we realized that the Lookout Summit track actually started on the other side of the road and we had been going on the 5 hr return. Great job team! We laughed it off and kept chuggin’ along in good ol’ Jezze.
After passing 2 hitchhikers on our way out of Totarauni, Kelsey and I demanded that Nate turn the van around so we could give them a ride! Who am I over here, seriously?! Picking up hitchhikers?! Anyways, they were backpacking and just on their way to another city up the coast. They were from Germany and their names were Lydia and I actually have NO earthly idea what the guy said his name was but I just nodded my head and said ok when he said it. They smelled pretty bad, but it was too hilarious to even matter. After I asked them a billion questions, we dropped them off and made our way to Nelson! Oh wait, after we waited about 2 minutes down the road for cows to be herded across the street. So cool!
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| me and the hitchhikers! |
We arrived in Nelson, which I’d have to say was my favorite city, not place in general, but city. We spent all afternoon exploring the city and found some cute little bead/jewelry shops. Then it happened. We found the most exciting/best campsite yet! Matai Valley Motor Camp. It was only $6 per person (!) and had showers, laundry, a kitchen, AND A TRAMPOLINE!!!!! Any doubts that the first thing we did was jump on the trampoline? Yep, we did. The showers cost $2 for 8 minutes. I timed it perfectly and savored every single second of the 480 that it gave me :)
That night I ate chicken and vegetable soup along with literally half a loaf of bread, just straight bread. Obviously the bakery bread here is delicious. Delicious enough to eat half a loaf in one night? Yes.
More to come!
PS: The Rugby World Cup, which is being hosted by New Zealand kicks off tomorrow!!!!!
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