Kahurangi National Park Off Route Tramp

Kahurangi tramp

Got a little beta before the trip, but I wasn't able to get that much information from the DOC office in Takaka. I spoke to one DOC lady who had gone to Mt. Olympus the weekend before, but I didn't have a map and she hadn't gone the same track we were planning. So it was sort of useful, but I was just glad to hear that I probably wouldn't die out there.

2 packs

Just enough food for 5 days and 4 nights though we were hoping to do it in 4 days and 3 nights

1 map

1 compass

1 GPS unit

2 intrepid travelers

We got a late start and drove from Takaka to the start of the Boulder Lake Track. We started walking around 12 on a walk that was supposed to take 7-8 hrs. A lot of the walk was uphill. I prefer sprinting downhill to walking uphill. Gordon was out of my sight for a lot of the walk and I scrambled along after him. We stopped for a bit of lunch and a few water breaks. The walk was through jungle, a saddle, a really exposed rocky area and a ridiculous downhill to the lake. When we got to the hut there was already a pair of trampers there. We rested and had a

nice dinner from a bag.

The next day we got an early start at about 7:30 and walked off through a marshy saddle. It was a relief to get through the marsh which was full of poke your eye out grasses, huge holes and spongy wetlands. Walking through the marsh made me want to give up. I kept falling into hidden holes, stepping in puddles which soaked my shoes and socks and running my eyes into grass. Finally we made it out of the marsh, back onto the track and up out of the saddle to the top of the ridge connected with Clark peak. This is the moment when we left the track. It was pretty windy, cloudy and almost rainy up on top of the ridge which felt ominous before Gordon and I descended the hill into the trees. We found the creek at the bottom of the ravine and it was really dense walk hopping. We had to leap from rock to rock while dipping and diving underneath boughs and trying not to fall into the creek. It was really difficult because the forest was really dense on both sides of the river, but it was also hard to move through the river while remaining dry. We had only walked for about 45 minutes and then we reached a 20 meter waterfall. So Gordon and I had to climb down with rocks, trees and bushes. It was slightly terrifying because we didn't have anyway to safety up with and we were already off balance with our packs. After we scrambled down the cliff, my first concern was how we were going to get back up on the way home and then I decided that it was best to not consider it.

We struggled down the creek until it finally met up with the Clark river. Then the rocks got huge and the gaps widened so we had to jump. We leapt, crawled and staggered from rock to rock until we hit passed a couple of creeks and were able to identify the area where we wanted to ascend Mt. Olympus. We had trouble finding the area because our GPS coordinates didn't match up with the map and the landmarks. So we ended up rock hopping an extra half km to one km before we realized our mistake had to turn around. We made it to the second creek off of the Clark river and decided to camp near there because it was almost dark. Gordon tried to set up the tent in a really small area above the river's edge in the forest. I cooked dinner while he was setting up the tent. I mean I was trying to cook dinner. I boiled the water and then when I was pouring the water into the bag of dehydrated food, it fell over and half the food fell out. I swe

pt most of it back in the bag along with a little grit and a couple rocks. I got the grit and Gordon got the rocks. Later Gordon asked if I can go get the tent because was moving a tree stump out of the way so we could set up the tent. So I went back to his rucksack to find the tent. After digging in his stuff I looked around and realized that he'd set up the tent and left it on top of a mini cliff. So I had to climb up, traverse over the rocks, get to the tent, break it down in near darkness and then climb back down. So I grumpily broke down the tent in near darkness without my head lamp, hopped over the rocks to the new site and helped set up the tent. So we went to bed around 9:30 after walking and rock hopping most of the day. That night I actually understood the expression "too tired to sleep," it was weird because my whole body was tired, but my mind was just running around wildly.

The next morning we woke up at 6:30 am, broke down camp and stowed our packs under some rocks next to the river. We started from the Clark river and worked our way up a creek that came down one of Mt. Olympus' ridges. We climbed up from the river at an altitude of 738m to over 1200m in a distance of about 1km so the ascent was fairly strenuous and steep. Most of the time we were following the river and swinging from tree to tree to keep upright. At some points we were literally climbing up on rocks and pulling moves that would have felt better if I had been tied to a rope. I just kept on going and following the sound of Gordon's forest movements. Eventually we ascended to the top and had a breather. We were a little too relieved when we got to the top and it had only taken us about two and a half hours. Using the GPS we thought that we were really close to the LOTR site and so we drank a ton of our water and ate all of our scroggin (trail mix).

After that break we continued along the top of the peak and then we descended downwards into the void. We descended through clouds and fog for an elevation drop of about about 200m before it became completely fog covered and we couldn't see more than 20 m away. We realized that we weren't getting closer to the site fast enough and it was almost 2 pm. So we had decided to turn back because we were running out of the time we had alloted ourselves. So we ascended back to the top and realized that we'd gotten really turned around. I also realized via my GPS that we had moved even closer to the LOTR site than when we were descending on the other side of the mountain. So I yelled the Gordon "Oy, can I go check out this peak?" After he assented I rocked over and realized that I was getting there a lot quicker than before. So I called Gordon over and we were on our way once again. We found the rocks where the Fellowship hid from the crebain, Saruman's black crows. It was an awesome time. I sat where Gandalf was sitting on the long rock and stood in the place of each of the Fellowship. We had spent longer than expected on Mt. Olympus and we tried to hurry back down to Clark river.

After leaving the site we debated a bit on whether the GPS was correct and where we were because we both thought we were in different places on the map. Eventually we came to a consensus and walked along a ridge and found another creek and started to climb down it. It was incredibly steep and we had to rock climb down some of the really difficult bits. I had to literally shimmy down a tree at one point because there was a 4m flat rock with no holds. We flew down the creek in record time and were ravenous by the time we reached our bags. I also fell down a few feet onto a stick and got a huge bruise on the back of my leg. Then we ate some chow and headed back towards the Boulder Lake Hut.

We rocked hopped (which actually gets pretty tiresome after an hour) until we met up with the little creek again and then Gordon started walking up a rockslide. So we took his shortcut and spent about an hour scrambling up the loose rocks and dodging certain death. After getting to the top of the ridge we realized that we were on the wrong side of Clark Peak and would either have to go back down the rockslide, jump back up the creek, climb the cliff of doom and then walk back up the hill to the top of the saddle or we would have to traverse the scary rocky side of Clark peak. Unfortunately by that time it had grown dark while we ascended to the top of the ridge so we decided that it wouldn't be safe to go either route that evening. So we had to sleep on the ridge.

Gordon was worried about hypothermia and exposure. Since we were on a cliff we slept on the side that was protected from most of the wind, but we weren't able to sleep in the tent because if wind picked up on our side it might blow us off the mountain. So we put on all of our clothes and got in our sleeping bags. Sleeping on the side of a ridge, on rocks and dirt was one of my most uncomfortable sleeps. Every now and then I'd wake up and wonder if I was too cold, if I was going to fall off the cliff or just die. We both survived the night and then we did some recon of the Clark peak side traverse. It looked scary the night before and in the daylight it still looked a bit daunting, but by then it looked passable. So we both climbed at different heights and traversed the rocky crossing. I ended up near the top and had to climb down, but we both made it relatively safely. Then we walked over some hills to avoid the marsh and got back to the Boulder Lake hut in time for lunch. We had a leisurely meal and relaxed for about 45 minutes. Since the Boulder lake track was mostly downhill I did a bunch of short sprints and had to leave Gordon behind. He walks much better and quicker uphill and I am more designed for downhills. So at the beginning of the trip he was leading and by the end of the trip I was leading. It was a tourtous journey back because we walked longer and faster than any of the other days and we had all the wear and tear on our bodies from the previous 3 days. Instead of the trip from the hut to the car taking 7-8 hours, it took us 5 hours and 35 mins.

My body was incredibly tired and my feet were really messed up. I took off my boots and I had 3 giant blisters on each foot. Then we drove away back to civilization. That night I woke up and my feet and legs were swollen and I couldn't go to sleep because of the pain. I lanced all my blisters in the hope that it wo

uld help alleviate the pain. This was a dumb idea as they just oozed all over my sandals the following day. The next two days were full of limping and waddling around because our bodies were complaining and sore. After two days we both felt better and the swelling in our feet went down. We were too sore to do the Abel Tasman so we put it off indefinitely and went back to Christchurch. I know I whinged a lot in this entry about pain and getting lost, but it was actually a great time and at some points I felt like Lewis or Clark or both. Also whenever I got hurt or hit a rock, I'd issue an expletive like "Julie Andrews!" That might have been my first and last off route tramp. I do feel more confident in my GPS and map location abilities now and we found the lord of the rings site! At one point I couldn't think of anything else, but the Cadet Kirk line from the new Star Trek movie saying "I will not allow us to go backwards." I felt like that a lot of the trip because we were constantly turning around after going too far in one direction. It was an intense time because we spent 4 days walking an average of 10 or more hours on rough bushwhacky terrain.

Off route tramps = full of excitement, scariness, adventure and a bit of pain, but definitely worth it.

Stewart Island and the Central Otago Rail Trail

Just a note: Every now and then I make a new facebook album labeled NZ #. Right now I've made 4. So if you want to see a sampling of most of my NZed adventures, just pop on there and take a gander.

Note #2: In NZ they farm deer like cattle or sheep. It is sad because Bambi is the next red meat.

Stewart Island

We arrived at Stewart Island by way of ferry and we left our car at the hostel at Bluff. The ride over was a little bumpy. Every time the we hit a wave I flew a little bit out of my seat. It was a similar experience to my boat to Waya, Fiji. On the way over I puttered in an out of feeling sick and feeling excited going over such fun waves. When we got there it was slightly dreary and we headed off to the DOC office in the tiny town of Oban. We signed our letters of intention which are a safety precaution. They said how long we would be gone for and where we are going. If you don't come back, eventually someone will know to come looking for you. I wandered off to look around the DOC office and when I got back Gordon had struck up a conversation with a nice fellow named Tom. Tom is from the UK and we all ended up walking to the first hut together. It's kind of difficult to describe a walk/hike/tramp unless you're Bill Bryson. At some points we were in forest areas with huge ferns and green trees, it was a cross between a prehistoric forest and jungle. Since we started walking during low tide we were able to take the beach route instead of the forest route in two parts of the walk. It was a nice change and shortened the distance a bit. We got there fairly early in the afternoon and found that we had nothing to do. Gordon and I set up the tent and we both took naps. Tom was staying in the huts and came to visit a bit after dinner. We all went back to the hut to play some cards. Then we met a German named Claudia while we were playing cards. It was nice to be out of the wilderness and inside a hut because it kept the sand flies at bay. We had a nice evening playing cards and all agreed to meet up to walk the second day of the trail together.

The next day we were up around 8 am and met up with Claudia and Tom. Then we set off on our second day of walking. Gordon walks really quickly and had soon hiked out of sight. I kept a good pace with Claudia and Tom. We had some interesting chats while walking and eventually met up with Gordon while he was resting and fixing his lunch. We arrived at the hut and Gordon had already kicked back and started to relax. As Gordon and I were camping and not staying at the hut we found that we had to walk a further hour and a half. So we rested and played some cards with Tom, Claudia, Adrian and Elisa. Basically this was a long beautiful tramp with fun people and a bit of cards.

Then Gordon and I walked to the campsite and both kept an eye out for Kiwis (the birds not the fruit).

During the middle of the night we thought we heard something and got up. Turns out it was an angry hissing possum and not the elusive Kiwi.

On the final day of hiking Gordon was taking a bit of time to eat his breakfast so he suggested I walk on ahead. As he is such a quick walker, I agreed and just assumed he'd catch up. I enjoyed my solo walk. It was calm and peaceful even when I saw a tiny feral cat running around the forest. Again I was hoping for a Kiwi. Stewart Island is one of the few places left where you can see a wild Kiwi. I reached the DOC office in Oban after the 32 km tramp and sat down to wait for Gordon. Eventually he walked up and we set off to order some food from the infamous Kai Kart. I had been looking forward to eating there since we had started to plan the South Island trip. The seafood was delicious. We ate there for lunch and dinner. I had crab, cod, mussels, chips and other goodies. In the end I ate way too much food, but it was totally worth it. On the ferry back to the mainland Gordon and I met some Canadians, Alex and Tim. They were also doing the working and traveling thing. I really like meeting new people especially ones who have done a lot of traveling and have a lot of really fun stories.

Once back in Bluff, NZ we picked up our car and drove back towards Invercargill. We had to crash in the car as we couldn't find a good place the camp between Bluff and Invercargill. The next day we ran into Claudia and Tom in Invercargill. Then Gordon and I finally got showers which we really needed after our three day tramp in Stewart Island.

Then we headed up to Central Otago so we could start the Otago Central Rail Trail which is on the historic Otago Central Railway line. It runs from Clyde to Middlemarch. We started in Clyde and rode to Middlemarch. We had been planning to ride it in five days, but the bike rental people said that we'd get bored if we did it in five days. They were definitely right because we both got a little bored doing it in three days. We stayed in nice little farms and inns along the way. It was pretty easy riding and we ended up riding about 160 km total. I wouldn't want to do it again, but it was nice to get that experience. We had beautiful and clear weather during the whole trip, but it got pretty hot when the sun was high and we had to slather on the sunscreen.

Then we went to Dunedin to check out the Blue penguins. We waited at the Peninsula until sunset and then a few groups of little blue penguins swam up to the shore and started the dry off on the sun warmed rocks. Then they ambled up the hill to their DOC manmade huts in the hill.

We returned to Christchurch to rest a bit after our intense hiking and biking. Gordon went climbing with John and I had a movie marathon with Briony. We watched all three X-Men movies and Wolverine. I love Hugh Jackman.

Then Gordon and I drove up to Nelson and then Takaka to finally go kayak the Abel Tasman. We changed our mind because we wanted to go back to Takaka and put it off yet again. Once back in Takaka we did a bit of climbing and then I found an off track route that I wanted to tramp so we put off the Abel Tasman and decided to kayak it after the tramp.

Also I thought I had a parasite that I must have picked up in the Takaka river when we spent those 2 weeks climbing in Paynes Ford. I finally went to the doctor and had to get labs done. The common parasite tests came back negative so we were back to square one. I'm really glad that I got health insurance before I left because the money is really starting to add up. I told Jon that I thought I had gotten a parasite and he said that out of all of his friends he wasn't surprised that I might be the first to get one. Though we've determined it's not bacterial because the doctor made me take a weeks worth of antibiotics and it's not the common parasites.

Skippers Canyon, Milford Sound and Castledowns

12/2/2010
The next morning we left the DOC site and tried to leave the Canyon. On the way up I began to compile a list of treacherous traps that we had to circumvent or just triumph over. There was sandy pits which consisted of huge sand traps that would spin out our tires if we didn't skirt along the edges and over the rocks. We met triple bumps which was an area with three huge bumps with three deep gaps in between. Our timing wasn't right the whole time and the undercarriage might have been a bit scarred by the second 2 bumps. We were basically on a 1 lane road the whole time so meeting other cars was terrifying. There was one horrible car that went zooming by with no regard to our safety. We were a bit pissed off after that encounter. Since Gordon drove down the Canyon, I drove up it. There was a huge hump and there were more, but I can't recall them at the moment. 7-8 tour vans passed us near the top and that wasn't fun, but after the third one we managed to find a safe place to pull off. Then we went climbing. It was a ridiculous half hike half climb to get to the climb area. Gord freaked me out by trying to climb a ridiculous grade 20. He fell so many times that I started hoping that he would give up and come down. I told him that I wasn't going to belay him anymore on climbs that are too far out of his range. I even used the nylon webbing, but it was still ridiculously scary. He thought it might have been a grade 23 which would have explained a lot. Later that day we spent a solid two hours trying to find a LOTR site called Dee Park Heights. It has about 5 places that were used in the film. We couldn't find it and ended up asking about it the next day only to find that it was closed down and people couldn't visit it anymore. Talk about frustrating. That evening we ended up driving to the Remarkables Ski Field to find the LOTR site, Dimrill Dale. There's a picture in my book where Aragorn is walking through pools and rocks. I walked through the same pool. We got a nearly identical picture next to Lake ?. That night we slept at 12 Mile Delta in our car because we didn't feel like setting up the tent. This is maybe the third or fourth time we've slept in the car. It's just so convenient and while it's a little uncomfortable, we don't have to set up a tent and can literally sleep on the side of the road. Though we always try to park so we can't been seen from the road.

13/2/2010
12 Mile Delta was actually the LOTR site where Sam, Frodo and Smegol had the cooking with coneys scene. We headed back to Queenstown for another sneaky shower. We walked into X-Base (a backpackers) and both headed for the showers. It was a bit easier than sneaking into the Holiday Park. Then we had more Ferg Burgers while we did our laundry. I had a cockadoodle oink burger. It was DELICIOUS. I'm writing this blog right now while in Alexandra and we're pretty close to Queenstown. I'd almost head back right now for another one of those bad boys. After spending several days in and out of Queenstown we decided that it was time to head out to Milford Sound. Originally we had been keen to tramp the Milford Track, but apparently you have to book the huts half a year in advance. Milford is such a popular track that the DOC only lets a few people a day leave for the tramp. I hit a bird on the way to Milford. Gooey bird brain and innards hit the windshield, it was very unpleasant. We got to the Milford area in the evening so we camped at one of the sevenish sites on the road to Milford. We pitched the tent under a tree.

14/2/2010

When we woke up, it had rained so we left up the tent in case we ended up spending the following night at Milford. We got to Milford and found out that the ferry to the Underwater Conservatory had been discontinued so we ponied up and paid for a Milford cruise tour and extra for the Underwater Conservatory. I ended up being rather disappointed with the Underwater conservatory stop and was glad that I took a Milford cruise. My camera died after the first 20 minutes on the cruise. So I missed out on taking a bunch of great pictures of the Sound and the sea life. There were seals and one of the crew even pointed out a baby seal. I might have seen two penguins while we were on the boat, but they were already in the water in front of the boat and once they saw the boat they dove and I lost sight of them. Milford Sound was beautiful. Now I know what all the fuss is about. I was standing alone at the front of the boat and a huge wave hit me with spray. Gordon was standing a few meters back in the boat and watched the whole thing. He thought it was hilarious. I was relieved that I was wearing quick dry pants and my rain coat. We spent about 2 hours on the cruise boat and about an hour at the conservatory. Some people see dolphins and sharks in the underwater conservatory, but we only saw fish and a few things of coral. You walk down stairs and get to be 10 meters under the surface surrounded by windows of incredibly thick glass. The conditions outside the window are special because they mimic waters that are normally about 100 meters below the surface. We saw black coral and red coral which are extremely rare and slow growing corals. There's an enormous fine if you're caught in possession of these corals. Black coral is only black after it dies. On the whole we were both disappointed with the sea life that we saw in the conservatory. The Milford Sound cruise was beautiful and serene. If you go to the South Island, you can't miss this place, it's beautiful to the tenth power. I would recommend kayaking it even though I wasn't able to. I think the experience would be even better. Then we left Milford and headed to the Mavora Lakes with a stop at the LOTR site Fangorn forest. This is a forest that Aragorn went running through. Needless to say, I too went running through the forest. Then we set up camp near the South Mavora Lake. We met Ranger Ruth and paid for our first DOC site, but only because she was such a nice lady.

14/2/2010
Woke up to a brisk morning next to Mavora Lake. Then we drove to the North Mavora Lake. We found the area in the woods where Merry and Pippin were hiding from the orcs behind a tree stump. I know I'm a geek, but these places are beautiful and totally worth it regardless of their LOTR connections. The North Mavora lake was also the filming location for the final scene in the first movie. It's the scene where Frodo tries to boat off alone and Sam comes swimming and half drowning after him. After a bit of car trouble, we were able to recreate that scene with me as Sam and Gordon saying Frodo's lines. Gordon locked the keys in the car and then ripped off a piece of metal in the trunk keyhole. He walked off to get some tools from the adventure scouts who were kayaking in a nearby section of the lake. While he was gone I pulled a MacGyver and opened the car with my GPS unit. Yes, that's right. I can fashion a phone out of gum, a shoelace and a tire. Once we were in the car we got the filming equipment and reenacted LOTR. Then we headed off to Castledowns. This is an awesome climbing area on a really nice farmer's land. He doesn't mind if people climb and there's a paddock to park your car. When walking to the climbing areas you have to walk around cow pies and cross a stream is definitely full of farm run off. Once you've crossed this hurdle you reach some really fun climbs. I led a grade 15 with 3 stars called the Castledown Classic. I had trouble with an overhang and was able to circumvent it by traversing around it. Then I went on to fall into a patch of stinging nettle, my first experience with the stuff and hopefully my last! Then I slipped on a slippery rock and cut open the middle of my foot. By the time I was belaying Gord on his more difficult climbs, I was grumpy and angry, but I pulled through eventually. Gord told me to put water on my nettle stings which helped for a sec, but then the pain returned. Later it was constant pins and needles in my leg and hand. That night we slept in the car for lack of a better place to stay. Castledowns is in the middle of nowhere and most of the roads are gravel. Even though the farmer lets you climb there, he doesn't like people staying there over night. So we drove to Mossburn and pulled off into an alcove of gravel and were asleep by 7 pm.

15/2/2010
We spent the next morning at Castledowns. I got to climb something called Womb with a View. I had to climb it simply because of the name. I also made it up a ridiculously slopey/slabby climb called Never Say Nevis Again. I ended up pumping my forearms out on a climb called Hauler. The beginning was the crux and just dominated me. Then we drove to Invercargill and stocked up for the Stewart Island tramp. We stayed in a backpacker hotel at Bluff and left our car there for safe keeping. While driving around Bluff we say a strange lady at Sterling Point and she was wearing jeans and a jacket with silvery patterns on it. She had Kayne West glasses, silver teeth and cool hair. She was also speaking next to one of those signs that tells you where you are in relation to places that are far away, like other countries. She also had a tricked out silver and black scooter/wheelchair. Somebody was filming her rap (we couldn't hear what she was saying) with a professional tv camera.

16/2/2010
We toted our back packs to the Stewart Island Ferry and were on our way.

LOTR and bathrooms with locks that work

9/2/2010

Camping at Lake Paringa. 1) My bathroom stall didn't lock and I was walked in on by some random dude, but oddly enough I wasn't mortified. Don't get me wrong, I was embarrassed, but not as much as I would have been a few years ago. I must be growing up or something. The black flies at were horrific and cooking dinner was nearly impossible. I fled to the car before it was finished. We had teriyaki veggies with rice. It was delicious and we ate it in the car.

10/2/2010

I woke up around 8ish. Gord had thought the sand flies wouldn't be so bad if we slept in and waited til late morning. I thought it was raining when I woke up and started whinging in my head about having to break down the tent in the rain again. Then I opened my eyes and realized there were about 30 sand flies flying between our rain fly and the tent. I took a deep breath, packed my taun taun, rolled up my sleeping pad and made a mad sprint to the car. Then we drove to Wanaka. Gord went to find nylon webbing so I could anchor myself to trees and rocks when belaying him. If I anchor myself to other things when I belay him, I won't go flying 10 feet in the air when he falls. We ended up going to the same place for nylon webbing at different times and both talking to the same guy working at the outdoor store. Turns out Gord asked the wrong questions or something because the guy told him that they didn't carry what he was looking for. I'm not really sure what happened, but when I walked in, I saw the webbing next to the climbing ropes and bought 4 meters and walked out. There was a LOTR (Lord of the Rings) spot in Wanaka. It's a backdrop used when Gandalf is riding around on his horse. Then we went to look at Mt. Aspiring on a scary bumpy gravel road and Gord hit a bird (more about birds later because it turns out that NZ birds are STUPID). We didn't spend that much time in Wanaka, but there was another LOTR spot where the fellowship was South of Rohan and were passing by some ruins on a high set of hills. I spent a really long time taking pictures and trying to figure out which was the correct hill. When you watch the scene in the movie, it's clearly shot from a helicopter so it's a bit difficult to pick out the location from a road that is lower than the top of the hills. The ruins were CGI, but the location is clearly set in those hills. Since there wasn't much to do in Wanaka we left and drove to Arrowtown which is extremely close to Queenstown. We arrived in Arrowtown 5 minutes after the Holiday park had closed it's reception desk. It was 9:05 pm and we were ready for showers and sleep. So we did what any travelling youth would do, we parked outside the holiday park and snuck in. We decided to take illegal showers in their facilities, but it turned out we needed $1 coins to operate the showers and neither of us had them. We both ended up walking in and out of the bathrooms looking for the other and just missed each other several times. I didn't want to risk walking to the car to try and find a $1 coin and then have to walk nonchalantly back into the park so I just tried turning on the shower as a last ditch effort. Turns out you pay $1 for a hot shower. So I took a fireman's shower and jumped under the icy stream of water, jumped out, soaped up and then tried to rinse off as a quickly as possible. Not really sure why I called it a fireman's shower. In the end I was clean and eventually warm. It took Gordon a bit longer to figure out the shower because I was already back at the car when he came walking up to do something. He mentioned that he just figured out that the showers work without coins and was about to go back to take one. After our super sneaky showers we drove away from the Arrowtown Holiday Park and parked next to a helipad off of a gravel drive by the main road.

11/2/2010

The next morning I went to Kawarau Bridge and bungy jumped. Please see the previous entry about the Bungy. I was so excited after the Bungy that I had to blog about it, even though it was out of chronological order. After my bungy we drove to Arrowtown to LOTR it up a bit. Half of the Ford of Bruinen was filmed in Arrowntown. The Ford of Bruinen is the scene when Liv Tyler and Frodo are being chased by the black riders. The scene by the river when Liv Tyler uses the power of the elves to make the river rise was actually filmed in two places. The side where the black riders waited while Liv Tyler called the river up was in Arrowtown, but Liv Tyler's side was filmed in Skippers Canyon. This is a picture of me pretending to be a black rider (one of the 9 Kings who fell victims to the rings). We also took a picture in Gladden Fields which is a rather unexciting LOTR spot. Arrowtown was a cute little town that apparently is a good spot for tour buses to stop for a little walk around break. It reminds me of Souther Seasons when the old people buses drop them off. Then we sped off to Queenstown for a lovely visit to the adventure capital of NZ. We found the chocolate shop with free wireless. Free wireless might be common in the USA, but it's nigh unheard of in NZ. We heard about Patagonia from a girl we met in Takaka and low and behold it was true, free wireless. Though every time we used it, I bought something because I felt it was only right. Also their ice cream, drinks and food were delicious so it wasn't difficult to patronize the shop. We also went to the famous Ferg Burger. If you ever go to Queenstown, you have to get a Ferg Burger. They are a true famous institution here. Burgers start off at about $10, but are huge and can be two meals. We went there for two different lunches and I ate half my burger for the following dinner both times. The first time we went I got a normal Ferg Burger and Gordon got something huge and monstrous. They were amazing.

Note: We try to sleep in DOC (Department of Conservation) camp sites because they are cheap/free, it's an honesty system. Gordon found one on Skippers Road and it was the closest one to Queenstown. Note 2: I really wanted to go to the LOTR scene where Arwen (Liv Tyler) has Frodo on the horse and is riding away from the black riders and has the confrontation by the river. I really wanted to see where it was filmed, it's called the Ford of Bruinen. The side of the river that Liv Tyler is on was filmed in the Canyon. Unfortunately, we had talked about it and already decided that it wasn't feasible given our car being a tiny Mazda 323 GLX Hatchback. The scene is located down a place called Skippers Canyon and it's 14 - 26 km of torturous driving. Skippers Canyon has a sign that says you need 4 wheel drive and it needs to be your car i.e. no rental cars down the canyon. So after all the warnings Gord had put his foot down because it's a road that sounds like it would completely dominate our little Mr. Collins. Back to the story though, we started down Skippers road and the road became more and more steep and the conditions worsened. There were huge patches of thick sand and lots of large bumps and dips which made our car pop up and crash the underbelly on large rocks. Gordon ignored the warning signs at the beginning of the road because he was determined to get to the DOC site. After a few kilometers we realized that Skippers Road was Skippers Canyon. I was secretly delighted because this meant I would get to find the Ford of Bruinen, but I was little apprehensive because I wasn't sure Mr. Collins would be able to get out of the Canyon. We barely made it down to the DOC site. It was slightly surreal because the DOC site was right next to a historic miners town that had two buildings and was clearly being restored. Also the bathrooms at the DOC site had water! This is highly unusual because most DOC sites have bathrooms, but the toilets are just holes in the ground. So to find bathrooms where the toilets flush was surprising especially after a ridiculous drive into a Canyon that not many people drive down. There are $200 tours that people take to get into the Canyon to visit the LOTR site, there is rafting in the Canyon river and there is a bungy jump there. So people do drive down there, but normally only on tours. If you can't tell, I was very excited about the bathroom. It was a little creepy because we were all alone deep in Skippers Canyon, but then we went on a mini walk away from the historic town and our DOC campsite and we saw a Ranger truck and tent.

More anecdotes from Fiji

I forgot to add some stuff in my Fiji blog. While in Fiji I had my first massage. It was a lomi lomi massage. They used oils, you listened to music or the sound of the ocean and you get massaged while in the nude. No underwear, nada. They said you could leave on your underwear if you'd wanted to, but the massage technique uses the weight of your body or something like that. So I went the full monty. I figured since I'm getting a massage in Fiji, I might as well get it the way it was meant to be had. I did get a towel to cover the nether region and one to cover the upper region. I started it on my stomach, face down on the table with my face in a hole in the table. There was a bowl full of water and flowers beneath my face. I guess this is supposed to be a  soothing visual. She put on calming music, but then the cd began to skip and she just turned it off. I nodded off a few times while listening to the sounds of the sea. It was a interesting technique, a lot of a rolling pin motion with her forearms. It was a little strong and I guess it might have been closer to a deep tissue massage. I felt really strange getting covered in oil. I also was always on the verge of laughing. I'm a bit ticklish and I couldn't stop thinking about the Friends episode with the nontraditional massage. I kept imagining my massage lady using a rolling pin, Tonka trucks and wooden spoons, but I bit my lip and didn't laugh. By the end of the massage I was extremely proud of my reserve and ability to keep from laughing. My mom also got a massage one room over. I can't say that I'm a fan of massages, but I'm a fan of experiences, so I'm glad I got to try it.

Also the perfect shell that the chief gave me was not so perfect. It turns out there was a creature still alive in it and it ended up dying inside the shell. So the Bure smelled like death for awhile and mom eventually cleaned out the shell so it would stop scaring the lady who tidied up our Bure everyday.