travel – Page 2 – Globitrotter

Napier – Art Deco

Because the weather was bad in the mountains we decided to spend a few days in Napier and surroundings. We wanted to visit this area anyway and this is were the sun was this week.

Most of Napier was destroyed in 1931 in an earthquake. In spite of the big depression the city was more or less rebuilt in 2 years. The result was a city centre with almost all buildings in Art Deco style which was popular at the time. A few buildings that were built just a few years before the earthquake survived otherwise everything had to be rebuilt. The first house that was built was already designed and planned before the natural disaster and as they were working they made as much noise as possible to give the city some hope of the future.

The city is obviously very proud of its history and everyone is participating in conserving the architecture which is like a huge outdoor museum. It is important for the businesses that renovates old buildings to keep the old style and original details are restored. I am personally very fond of the Art Deco architecture and enjoyed every moment in this town.

The area around Hawkes Bay is famous for its wine and we took the opportunity to bike around the vineyards and did some wine tasting. Napier also has a small aquarium which is well worth a visit. This is were we saw our first kiwi.

Napier – wine tasting and Art Deco

The greatest Great Walks (Milford, Routeburn and Kepler)

In the Fiordland area in the southern part of the South Island you can find the three most popular hikes in New Zealand. The Milford Track being the most popular closely followed by the Routeburn. The Kepler was created not too long ago to let some pressure off especially the Milford. I am not sure how well this worked considering you still have to book the Milford Track half a year in advance to be sure to get a spot. The Kepler is normally the track people end up doing if they have not booked in advance.

MacKinnon Pass on the Milford Track

Being a keen hiker and researcher I of course booked the Milford already in July last year so our spot was safe. There are usually cancellations so if you have not booked you can still get lucky but would require checking the booking site everyday which is not what I fancy on a holiday. At the time of booking I did not realize we would do as many hike as we have. Now we have done 8 multiday hikes and a few day hikes including all of the three above.

The hikes mentioned above are also the most expensive ones costing 54 NZ dollars per person per night. This is the same price as a standard motel room but here you have to share more or less dirty kitchens, toilets and sleeping quarters with snorers and people with no respect of others. I understand that they do charge this much considering how hard it is to maintain tracks and huts in this environment. But being on holiday and wanting to do a lot of hiking it unfortunately quickly becomes very expensive.

One of the many waterfalls on the Milford Track.

Partly because of the price but even more because the recommended times on the Great Walks was becoming too easy and tedious for us (spending too much time in huts is simply not comfortable or fun enough in the long run) we ended up doing these three tracks in different ways. In the Milford case we didn’t really have a choice, you had to spend one night in each hut. They let 40 people start the track every day (on top of that there is the guided walk) and you are only allowed to go in one direction in high season. So the Milford was an easy hike, 3 nights and not very strenuous. We had lots of time on the track which in our case was perfect because Andy had some problems with his knee and by the end of the track he was basically fine again. This track requires ferry transport at each end and bus to take you back to square one which also makes it the most expensive one.

Part of the ridge on Kepler.

Andy’s knee problems originated on the Kepler Track which we did faster than recommended spending only one night on the track instead of two or three. This meant two longer hiking days, 30 km each. Due to Andy’s knee, which started to give him trouble on the second day, we cut that day short at 20 km and caught the bus the remaining 10 km. I had thought this hike would be very strenuous with two long days including about 1700 m total elevation but it turned out not to be so bad. Maybe we are getting more fit after all. 🙂

On top of Conical Hill on the Routeburn Track

The Routeburn Track which was the last of our hikes we decided to do as a day hike, or at least two thirds of the track. The complete Routeburn in one day would have been easy being only 32 km. But the problem is that it is a one way trail and you have to get transport from the finish back to the start which is a 4-5 hours drive. So we decided to hike the most interesting part over the Harris Saddle, down to Lake Mackenzie and then back again. Meaning we managed to make a 32 km hike into a 42.5 km one because we wanted to get back to the point we started. This was a bit more strenuous than anything else and our bodies needed a day or so to recover.

As for the tracks it is hard to say which one is more beautiful because they are a all a bit different. The Milford has the most variety with its streams, waterfalls, steep valley sides, the mountain pass with good views, forest and boat rides. It is known at “the greatest walk in the world” for a reason, it is really nice. However if what you are after is a more alpine experience the Routeburn with better views (especially if you climb the Conical Hill), alpine lakes, nice forest and streams might be to prefer. The Routeburn still has a lot of variety and more time above the tree line with good views. The Kepler, which is a bit of a favorite for us, has the best views and a trail along a long ridge (I love ridges). However the forest is not as nice and it misses the streams and waterfalls. But that ridge is worth it! Actually I would recommend hiking the ridge over to the hut on the other side and then going the same way back the next day instead of doing the complete loop. That way you have a better change of getting good weather on the ridge.

You can decide for yourself which is your favorite by looking at the images below:

Milford Track

Routeburn Track

Kepler Track

What we do when not hiking

Reading this blog you might get the impression that the only thing we do is hike. That is not entirely true. It is though usually what I feel is worth writing about but of course we don’t spend every day and hour in our hiking boots. New Zealand though is a lot about the outdoors and therefore we have concentrated on that during our stay here. We have done some “normal” sightseeing as well as some posts have shown and you will probably read more about that eventually.

Between our outdoor adventures and sightseeing though there is a lot of washing clothes, writing emails, checking weather, news and what is going on “in the real world”, grocery shopping, driving, cooking, research, planning, going to information centers, chatting to people, drinking coffee and tea, going to the movies and just hanging out (except we don’t have a sofa to throw ourselves in). Basically a lot of what you need to do at home as well. The one thing we do not have to do is clean the house, which I am extremely happy about because it is not my favorite thing.

We do spend a lot of time and money on “fika” (Swedish for having coffee/tea and usually something sweet)

Yes, the occasional beer or wine in the sun. We have to enjoy that we managed to escape a second winter in Europe.

Andy is learning new programming stuff and me organizing photos, writing blog posts and researching the area.

Alternative doughnut in Napier

As we were walking around admiring the Art Deco buildings in Napier we eventually had to take a break and get some coffee/tea and cakes. We strolled into this newly opened café/restaurant, Mister D, in a refurnished Art Deco building on Tennyson Street in the center of town.

It turned out their specialty is doughnut that you infuse yourself with apple-raspberry jelly, chocolate or vanilla custard. Obviously we had to try that and this is how it looked:

Very good! Make sure not to miss this café when in Napier.

Testimony after (more than) 200 days

Suddenly I realized we have already been way more than 200 days on the road. It is weird how time seems to pass by quickly (it is already February!) but still we have had lots of time on our hands and have experienced so much. We have met many people during this trip and every time I hear that someone is about to go home and have to go back to work I feel so grateful we were able and did take the chance to do this.

After this long time it is sometimes difficult though to take in new things. We more often skip sights and overlooks over yet another waterfall or beach just because we have seen so many and feel like it is hard to appreciate everything. Instead we try to create some sort of normality with movies, cooking, going to cafés and similar things. Basically things we used to do at home just to try to get comfortable no matter where we are. You do need to do something familiar ones in a while and not only see new things. Having a van where we can keep our stuff really helps. It is our little home.

So the feelings of constantly being on the move are mixed. A long holiday is extremely nice and I really have difficulties to remember how the stress felt that I know work could cause. I see this as a luxury and am enjoying it fully. We are however longing for a home as well and not having to cook outside or share a kitchen and bathrooms with strangers. At one of the campgrounds an older man had a t-shirt saying ‘The more people I meet the more I like my pigs’. We understand completely!

We have by now had about 20 plans of what to do when we get back this summer. We do believe we have a master plan but there are still almost 6 months to go so that might change. 🙂

Our four months in New Zealand are quickly coming to and end and we feel that it was the right amount of time to spend here. Considering the number of hikes we have done less time would have been too little but now we feel that it will be nice to move on. We don’t feel like spending more nights in huts this time around. This country is an amazing place and there are more things to see of course but it would require a different kind of traveling.

Soon we go to Australia and there we’ll have another continent to discover for three months before we slowly make our way home.

The image shows one of the most famous places in New Zealand, Mackinnon Pass on the Milford Track.

The challenge – North West Circuit on Stewart Island

After hiking a number of Great Walks we started to feel we needed a challenge. The North West Circuit on Stewart Island would definitely be the longest and hardest trail we have ever done and most probably ever will do. The fact that this is the place where you have the best chance of spotting kiwis was another reason for going. The route we chose was in total 132 km and almost 5000 m elevation including the highest peak on the island, Mt Anglem. The trail is not maintained like the Great Walks and features lots of roots, steep slopes and mud. We had read a lot about knee deep mud all along the trail and were prepared for the worst.

Sunset at Big Hellfire Hut.

It had been dry weather for two whole weeks when we arrived at Stewart Island and only a few showers were predicted in the next couple of days. The hike would take 9 days so we knew that we could get any kind of weather before we were due back. A few days of heavy rain and the track would be very wet, muddy and slippery. We believe we were very lucky and had only light showers a couple of days.

Mud, mud, mud.

Doing the Circuit clockwise is not the usual way to do it and not a lot of people go in this direction. Reason being that the first few days will then be the longest and hardest when you still have a very heavy backpack. But we did want a challenge so off we went. It was hard the first few days but I thought it continued that way the whole time. Of course that was partly our own fault. First of all it was hard just because it was long, many consecutive days on a difficult trail. Second we decided to add a side trip on day 6. The side trip was climbing Mt Anglem which is the highest peak on the island with its 980 meters. It may not sound very impressive but the trail was even steeper, more washed out and muddier than the rest. This day we hiked in total for 9 hours and were completely exhausted in the evening. Our bodies did not seem to really recover after this and even if the remaining days were easier we felt more tired.

View from the top of Mt Anglem. We were extremely lucky with the weather, the only day with a clear blue sky. That made it worth the 3 hour climb to the peak.

Before we started I was mostly worried about the mud and the length of the track. What I ended up thinking was the worst was all the ups and downs, high steps and roots to climb over. It was basically very exhausting all the time. It was mentally hard to be out for so many days and after a few days we dreamed of fresh fruit and beer instead of freeze dried food and oatmeal.

East Ruggedy Beach.

What you see along this trail is a large variety of scenery including beaches, forest, bush, and sand dunes. We did meet a few people along the way but most of the time we were alone in this wild country which was absolutely amazing. And we did see 4 kiwis! Apart from the kiwis there are lots of cool birds on this island like red crowned parakeet, robins, wood pigeons and fan tails. Although it was hard work it was worth it and very rewarding in the end.

Sunrise at Bungaree Hut.

First thing I did when we came back to Oban was to order a big salad for lunch. Wonderful with fresh food! In the evening after a long hot shower we went for hamburgers and beer. 🙂

More photos:

Stewart Island – North West Circuit

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