Leaving Hang Dog

After climbing on 6/2/2010 = Feb 6th, we went to the site where the Hobbits and Aragorn were filmed fleeing from Bree. This scene was filmed on Takaka Hill, LOTR location: Chetwood Forest. We found the spot using my GPS unit: S40 degrees 57.707' - E172 degrees 53.062'. It was a lot of fun and then Alice found me a stick so I could pretend to be Gandalf. We ignored the fact that he wasn't in the scene. It was as LOTR as we could be, given the surroundings. The next day we left Hang Dog.

7/2/2010 = Feb 7th was our last day at Hang Dog camp. There was a cool sign at the front that said "No Chewee You stay here Good Girl." Chewee is the dog owned by the proprietors of Hang Dog. We were planning on going directly into our kayaking trip at the Abel Tasman, but circumstances did not allow this. 1) Gord climbed to hard the day before and his arms were sore. 2) A south easterly was blowing in. (bad weather). Since we didn't want to hang around and wait, we decided to just come back on the tail end of our trip. We also wanted to get singles, but I hadn't eskimo rolled in awhile and Gord had never. So we're going to try it later and get some experience back in Christchurch. It's hard to say what the weather will do and know that it can seriously change our plans. So we're trying to roll with the punches, but it's still a little disappointing. Though, it will all be worth it when we get to kayak in the sun instead of the rain. 

We bailed and headed down to Hokitika. We spent the better part of the day driving and stopped off at Pancake Rocks. They are a unique formation of rocks off the Western Coast of the South Island. Everyone was staring at the rocks in quiet and contemplative manners. It was an interesting stop, but later, you didn't find yourself wishing that you could have spent more time there. We drove through a mining town called Ross. Are mining towns always so depressing? I might have been biased because the weather was cloudy, but it seemed like the life had been sucked out of the town along with whatever was mined. As the day came to an end, we spent about 40 km looking for a Hokitika campground that Gord had stayed at while working with the grad student. We couldn't find it so we drove back to town and paid $12.50 a person to camp at a Holiday Park. There was a kitchen and we made noodles, beans and tomato sauce for dinner. It was a hearty and warm meal that we practically inhaled. When setting up the tent, Gord hadn't been sure if we should lay down the tarp and I hadn't been sure if we needed to put up the rain fly. We ended up setting up both and it's a good thing because it ended up raining and the grass became super dewy by morning. That night we went to the Glow Worm Den. It was magnificent. Those little critters are really bright and there were hundreds of them enclosed in an area no bigger than 30x 30 ft. I took a picture, but it didn't come close to doing them justice. I think part of it is the novelty. We have lightning bugs back at home, but we don't have glow worms, at least not where we live. To be honest it makes me think of the glow worm from James and the Giant Peach. Gordon thought that he saw a really bright patch of glow worms and got really excited, but it turned out to be a house in the forest. It was raining that morning which surprised me because I had gotten up in the middle of the night and seen a mostly a starry sky with only a few clouds. We had a brief respite from the rain which we judiciously used to break down and pack away the tent. Since everything was wet, we threw it all into a trash bag. We're actually quite quick at breaking down the tent. Gord is a bit slow when it comes to putting away his sleeping pad and sleeping bag. I'm glad that I'm faster at packing up because it means I can sleep longer while he's up and putting his stuff away. The following morning we were up at 6 am and on the road towards Okarito by 7 am. When we turned on the radio, it was classical music and reminded me of home. It's almost the only music that my mom listens to in the car and there's always a classical station playing somewhere in our house. On a sad note, the reason we listen to the radio is because our tape deck is busted. We have been using an Ipod and cassette adapter to listen to music in the car, but then it just stopped working one day. It works fine for 3 seconds and then it plays at 80% less volume for 3 seconds and then the cycle repeats. It's extra annoying. Everyday I try it anyway, hoping that if my heart is pure and I want something badly enough that it will happen. 

We drove from Hokitika to Okarito on 8/2 = Feb 8th. I slept almost the entire way to Okarito and woke up as we pulled up to the Okarito Lagoon Kayak Company. Once at the Kayaking Co, we rented a double and then got a quick run down on the route to take while kayaking in the lagoon. Gordon walked away to look at the bird pictures on the wall while the fellow was giving us the talk and had to be called back. He's such a silly guy. We spent 4 hours paddling about the lagoon and at one point we were almost stuck backwards down a little stream path that zigzagged through the marsh. Paddling was fun, but we had trouble getting into a steady rhythm. Gord likes to sprint paddles in short bursts while I prefer to keep a slightly more moderate pace for long periods of time. I like getting into a steady rhythm and just keep paddling. There were tons of birds and beautiful plant life along the lagoon. It was mostly cloudy and the sun popped out from behind the clouds just as we were heading back. My spray skirt was super loose around my middle so I was sitting in a bit of water the whole trip. It was a little uncomfortable, but I was wearing my quick dry pants so it wasn't terrible. If you like kayaking, I would definitely recommend the lagoon especially if you're keen on birds. We saw tons of oystercatchers, a Royal Spoonbill, a Heron and many other birds. After getting back, we both changed and  they served us complimentary tea and I ate wheat bix instead of cookies. The people that ran the kayaking company were really nice. While helping the lady clear away our dishes, she called me a legend. Maybe it's a kiwi thing, but I still found it strange, nice, but strange.

Following the kayaking we decided to go on some walks to the Franz Josef Glacier and afterwards, the Fox Glacier. They were really epic and the glacial melt was freezing (duh). The melt ended up creating a river with insanely fast and rough rapids. Both glaciers were in valleys with huge mountains, rocky walks and long waterfalls. Franz Josef is where they filmed the lighting of the beacons in LOTR when Gondor called for aid from Rohan. Originally they were going to film it in the Mountains near Queenstown, but it turns out there was a fire ban because it had been so dry that summer in the Central Otago region. The walks to the glaciers were easy and just looking at the glaciers was fun, but it made me wish I could book a glacier ice climb. We don't have the time or the money and they are expensive-as. At Franz Josef there was the coolest bathroom ever. On the outside there are two doors and a few buttons in between the doors. They blink green next to the adjacent door if it's vacant and blink red if it's occupied. Then you press a button to open the door and another to close and lock it. It would be a little scary if you were claustrophobic. The bathroom talks to you and explains how the buttons work and if you don't press the unlock and open the door button after 10 minutes it will automatically open. There was a button for toilet paper, a button to flush the toilet and the soap, water and hand dryer were all operated on a motion sensor. Then you pushed the door button and walked out. I may have broken the door because after I left it appeared to get caught open and shake as it tried to close itself. It also made a really loud grinding noise as I walked quickly away. 

Other note: they use a term fossick which means rummage or search. Like we had to fossick for wood in the forest to build a fire.

After Franz Josef, I decided I wanted to get a look at Mt. Cook because it's close as the crow flies, but there isn't a road that directly connects it to the Franz Josef area. You have to go hundreds of km out of your way if you're driving from Franz Josef. This turned out to be a bad idea as I ended up driving us 12 km down a windy and rough, gravel road to Gillespie Beach when I was trying to find the Mt. Cook viewing area. You live and make errors, especially when traveling. It was really annoying because I had to drive really slowly so I didn't jostle the car to pieces. The beach turned out to be a black sand beach chock full of stones. At the edge it looked like the beach just stopped and fell into the water, but on closer inspection you find that it's a steep slope of rocks. The water was chilly to the touch, but not too cold considering it's the South Island.

Then we drove towards Wanaka and ended up camping at Lake Paringa. Fun sand fly stories in my upcoming blog. Not many photos yet because the internet connection is wicked slow right now.