Adventure 9: 3, 2, 1, JUMP!

March 19^th-22^nd

The 19^th of March marked the arrival of a much anticipated visitor: my friend Amanda from St. Olaf!  She had decided to come visit me for Olaf’s spring break pretty much on the day that I got my acceptance letter to the program, and now she was finally going to be here!  Conveniently timed, there was a rugby game, the Otago Highlanders vs. the Canterbury Crusaders, that evening starting right after Amanda was scheduled to arrive so we all got tickets and once she got out of her taxi from the airport, with a quick intermission for hugs and exclamations, we shuttled her right off to the game and into Dunedin life!  What better introduction to New Zealand culture than a rugby game, watched from the student section which, not surprisingly, gets quite into the game and, more surprisingly, apparently LOVES to do the wave…over and over and over… It was good that Ash went to the game with us since he actually knew who the players were and could explain the game to Amanda much better than any of the rest of us could.  After the game (Highlanders won, whoo hoo!), we took Amanda out to meet some of our friends and introduce her to the scarfie nightlife but jet lag was starting to catch up to her and we were catching the bus early the next morning so we observed a 9 o’clock bedtime; not quite up to the New Zealander’s stamina for staying out into the wee hours of the morning!

Sunday morning found us at the train station to catch the Atomic Shuttle to Queenstown.  If there were a direct route from Dunedin to Queenstown the trip would probably take about an hour or two.  However, there is no direct route anywhere in New Zealand, so it was about a 4 ½ hour journey including a shuttle transfer and a short lunch stop.  We arrived at “The Station” in Queenstown with about 10 minutes to spare before our bus left to take us to Kawarau Bridge, the world’s original bungy jump!!  It was very nice that the bungy headquarters was also located at The Station; they stored our packs for us, checked us in, and sent us out to the bus that would take us about 20km back out of the city for our jump.  We were both so excited and nervous that we could barely sit still on the bus ride.  On the way, we decided to jump tandem so that we could have moral support the whole way (definitely necessary to jump off a bridge 43 metres over the water) and we would both be in the same video, which Amanda had gotten included in her ticket price.

The Kawarau River is absolutely beautiful, with bright teal water running between the cliffs on either side.  A bonus, it was also used for part of the Lord of the Rings filming and the part that we would be jumping over/into was where Frodo and Sam first set off on their own when they left the rest of the Fellowship!  Both Amanda and I are shameless LOTR fans, so this made our experience all the more epic to follow in the hobbits’ footsteps, in a way J  After being weighed and measured (literally) we were taken out onto the actual bridge with the other people who were crazy enough to jump off with only a bungy cord tied around their ankles, sounds like a good plan, right? Right.  As we waited in line, listening to the hard core rock music which was playing (to cover up people’s screams? Didn’t work…), we watched the people in front of us get tied up, scoot to the edge, and jump off with varying degrees of fear, excitement, and decibel level. 

Finally, we were up next so I crawled down onto the platform to have my ankles wrapped tightly together with a towel-like pad and secured (hopefully) with a contraption of straps and caribbeaners.  Next it was Amanda’s turn and let me tell you, we definitely had the right idea about moral support.  After her ankles had been properly trussed up, our straps were connected and attached to the bungy cord.  We were given the option to be dunked in the water, but weren’t quite outfitted to be soaking wet for the rest of the day so we requested to be able to touch the water, but not be completely submerged.   It was then time to scoot up to the edge of the platform, a feat made rather difficult by the fact that not only were our feet tied together, but we were tied together as well and being asked to do something which seemed frighteningly similar to walking the plank.  I was lucky that I was on the side that I could hold onto the bridge, but Amanda didn’t have this luxury and so needed some friendly urging (aka kicking of her feet by the guide) to get close enough to the edge so that we’d be able to jump.  After instructions to hang onto the other’s waist strap with one arm, extend the other like Superman, and tuck our chins to our chests we were deemed ready to go!  By this point, I had pretty much steeled myself to the realization that I was actually going to jump off this thing and my nerves had transformed into excitement (mostly).  We got a count of 3, 2, 1…and jumped!!  It was the most exhilarating thing to just be falling through the air, even if only for a few seconds, and watching as the water came closer before we sprung back up, caught by the cord.  At one point on our initial descent we got turned around somehow and ended up going down backwards, with our faces to the sky which was rather shocking but after the initial catch we both started laughing because it was so much fun and we were more than just a little loopy from the adrenaline rush.  After bouncing up and down a couple of times, the raft came out into the middle of the river and one of the guys held up a long pole which we were supposed to grab onto to be pulled onto the raft and disconnected from the cord.  The first time we tried to grab for it we were much to high still, “Well, that never happens,” from the guy below…we were pretty sure he was kidding…but the second time we managed to latch on and we lowered rather ungracefully into the bottom of the raft, laying on our backs with our feet up in the air, laughing slightly manically and feeling like bugs when they get stuck upside down, helplessly waving their legs in the air. 

After we’d been all unhooked we climbed onto the shore and made our way up the steps to the shop to watch our video and see the pictures.  On the video we could see how we’d gotten turned around and watch ourselves flop into the raft, getting a good laugh out of the whole thing and so happy that it would soon be ours.  We had time to go back up to the bridge to take some victory photos before the bus came back and we returned to Queenstown to retrieve our packs and find our hostel.  The place I’d booked was right on the lakefront and one of the newer hostels so it was pretty nice and a very convenient location to walk to our dinner at the legendary Fergburger!  This burger joint is known throughout New Zealand to have the best (and the biggest) burgers and has been said to be a Queenstown rite of passage, so of course we had to try it out after conquering Queenstown’s other claim to fame.  There was a huge crowd waiting when we arrived, so we figured it must be good.  I ordered the original Fergburger and Amanda tried the burger with cheese and asked for barbeque sauce, clearly labeling her as an American to the workers behind the counter.  Approximately 15 minutes later, we had decided to get an order of chips (fries) as well since we were getting so hungry as we waited (probably their master plan).  The ketchup substitute they use here (tomato sauce, as they call it) is less than desirable so we chose sweet chili as our sauce, which is much more popular here for good reason.  Everything ended up coming out at the same time so we sat down in the window to our feast.  Not long after we had started in I looked up to see none other than my flatmate, Amanda, along with her dad and sister waving at me from outside the restaurant!  They had just gotten back from Milford Sound and were staying in the same hostel as us for the night, what a small world! 

The burgers were delicious, as promised, and extremely filling, also as promised.  When we had finished our meal, we headed back to the hostel to settle in a bit since all we’d done was drop our bags before heading to Fergburger.  There we ran into Amanda and her family again and headed to the “Pub on the Wharf” about a block from our hostel to relax by the lake for a little bit.  Relaxing was rather chillier than expected, however, so Amanda and I headed back to the hostel for warmer recommendations from the staff and were sent in the direction of $3 glasses of wine by a fireplace…sounded good to us!  Not surprisingly, we were rather tired from our big day so we called it an early night again and returned to enjoy a good night’s sleep in a bed to prepare for the next day’s hiking and camping adventures!

We woke early (6:20am…yuck) to catch our bus down to Te Anau, the walking capital of New Zealand.  It’s aptly named, as it provides access to at least 3 major tracks and many smaller hikes, all of varying degrees of difficulty and length.  Amanda and I planned to do part of the Kepler Track, which is a 60km Great Walk, but easily divided into shorter day walks by taking a water taxi across lake Te Anau and then hiking back around the lake for about 3 hours, instead of taking 4 days to do the whole thing.  On our way across the lake, the driver recommended that we add a little to our hike by going about 2 ½ hours up Mt. Luxmore until we reached the bushline, by which point he promised that the clouds would clear and we would have amazing views of the surrounding country and lake.  Since we didn’t have any other plans for the afternoon, we figured we might as well add a little to our tramp and took his advice in leaving our packs at the bottom, making sandwiches (more PB&J, of course!) and taking a few snacks in our pockets for lunch once we reached the top. 

Leaving our packs was definitely a good idea.  The distance to the hut at the top was not marked anywhere, which was probably a good thing, because I’m not sure we would have been quite so ambitious had we realized that it would be between 7 and 8km up the mountain before we reached the bushline, where the trees abruptly stopped and we finally came out into the sunlight again.  Once we reached the top, however, we both agreed that the exertion had been well rewarded.  We had made it all the way up above the clouds and looking around us it appeared that the tops of the surrounding mountains were just floating on the clouds and we were literally on an island in a sea of fluffy white mist.  So incredible.  Now that we’d gotten out of the trees we were in a field of yellow grass with big grey boulders strewn about, looking incredibly Lord of the Rings-esque.  One of these rocks served us quite well as a picnic bench/table and we enjoyed our sandwiches in the sun, looking out over the floating mountains as we swatted off the occasional fly who had realized that we might be a tasty treat.

Eventually, we figured that we should start making our way back down, since we still had about a 3 hour hike back around the lake to the start of the trail, and then another hour back to Te Anau.  Going down the mountain was much easier (and faster!) than the way up and was a good opportunity to look at the surrounding forest again, much of which we had missed on the way up as we were trying to maintain our footing and our motivation.  Back at the bottom of the mountain, it was time to don the packs and start our trek back to Te Anau.  We attempted to take a short rest on the beach at Brod’s Bay before setting off, but the sandflies came out in force once we stopped moving, so our short break ended up being about as long as it took for us to sit down, swat flies, stand up, put our packs back on, and high-tail it on out of there.  The walk around the lake was very nice and relatively easy.  It followed the shoreline so we had great views of the lake for most of it and could occasionally enjoy the sunshine when there were breaks in the trees.  We were hoping to find a shuttle or some form of transport other than our feet once we reached the control gates, at the official start of the track, but had no such luck.  By this point, however, we’d already come so far, what was another hour of great scenery?  It was really cool to stop at one point when, looking back across the lake, we could pick out the peak that we had been on only hours before!

Back in Te Anau, we were definitely ready to part with our packs and relax for a bit but still had the task of finding a (preferably cheap) campsite for the night and booking a tour of the glow worms caves after which Te Anau is named.  This entailed a bit more walking than desired, but, fortunately, Te Anau is a rather small town and it was only about a 15 minute walk from the holiday park which we ended up staying at to the booking agency for the tour.  After pitching our little tent and changing into warmer clothes we set off back into the town center for our trip back across the lake to the caves!  It was beautiful crossing the lake as the sun was setting.  We were lucky that the water was almost perfectly calm, so you could see the reflection of all of the mountains and colors of the sky on the surface of the lake when the boat slowed to a stop in the middle to let us take pictures and appreciate the beauty surrounding us.

Never having seen glow worms before, neither of us had any idea what to expect.  The caves are actually a huge network, but the public is only allowed about 200m in before serious spelunking gear is necessary.  Our guide took us first through a short tunnel and then walked us across the top of a tremendous (and tremendously loud) waterfall that had been carving its way through the rocks for the past centuries.  Then we all climbed into a little boat that was riding a bit too close to the water for my comfort and set off into complete darkness, our boat pulled by the guide using a rope which was strung overhead.  It was eerie to be in complete darkness and know that another boat was passing us, probably less than two feet away, but not be able to see anything and only hearing the slightest ripple of the water as they passed in the opposite direction.  After only a few seconds though, the ceiling of the caves and walls surrounding us were covered in what looked like tiny blue stars.  You could almost imagine that they were the constellations in the sky, except for the obvious lack of the Big Dipper and the fact that it looked as if they were close enough to touch, which at some points they definitely were.  It’s hard to say how long we were in the boats, but it was hard to get tired of looking at the little lights and trying to imagine that they were actually tiny creatures trying to seduce their prey (sandflies, yes!) with their glowing tails.  However, by the time we glided back to the little dock and made our way back out of the caves our long day of hiking was seriously catching up to us and the couches in the TV lounge at the campsite and our last Caramel Tim Tams were calling to Amanda and I.  We had to catch another early bus back to Dunedin the next morning, so after relaxing for a bit we crawled into our sleeping bags out in the tent and, thankful that the night wasn’t too cold, drifted off after a long, but very successful, adventure J

Adventure 8: Cartwheels in the Catlins: Is this real life?

March 12th

After spending a weekend in Dunedin, we decided it was time to continue our adventures in the rest of the country.  We wanted to try renting a car to see how driving on the left side of the road would be so we chose the Catlins as our destination, only a couple hours away and a good wee day trip.  After much investigating of various car rental companies (the most intriguing being “Rent-a-Dent”), I found a company that would give us a medium-sized car for one day for only $75! 

On Saturday morning, Amanda, Leslie, Sarah and I started out early to make our way down to the market before picking up the car.  We figured we might as well get fresh fruit and veges (vegetables) at cheaper prices since the market was kind of on the way to where we needed to pick up the car.  Emily was supposed to come along with us, but unfortunately she woke up with the stomach flu and, not surprisingly, wasn’t really feeling up to a full day of traveling and exploring.  Luckily for us, one of our other friends, Alyssa, had asked to come along at the last minute so we were able to let her know that we had an opening and fill up the car. 

It was a bit nerve-wracking renting the car and signing the papers, but very exciting to get the keys to a very nice Toyota, ours until Sunday morning!  I was the first to drive and remembered to get in on the right side of the car, instead of the left; good first step.  Fortunately, the gas and brake pedals were the same, but a difference was that the windshield wipers and turn signal were on opposite sides.  Oddly enough, people don’t seem to realize you’re turning if you wipe your windshield at them…drat.  The rental company was on a one-way street, so pulling out into traffic for the first time didn’t seem too different, except that I was on the opposite side of the car than normal.  My first test was getting onto the main motorway out of town before coming to the relative calm of Highway 1, which would take us south to the Catlins.  I was pleased to discover that driving on the left side wasn’t too different from driving on the right, especially once I clued in to the fact that the right lane was now the passing lane and I needed to be aware of how close the left side of the car was to the shoulder, instead of the right.

The great thing about traveling in New Zealand is that it’s not only your destination that is scenic, but everywhere along the way, as well.  Our drive took us through rolling hills, pasture upon pasture of sheep, cattle, and the occasional deer farm.  Yes, they actually farm red deer here, brought over more than a century ago from Scotland.  Coming from the Midwest, where it sometimes seems that the deer are actually preparing to take over, this seems very strange to me.  However, this variety does not appear to have realized that they could easily jump the little wire fences enclosing them and escape so for now they are just farmed for venison and are amusing to watch as they scatter every time a car drives past. 

After a couple of hours, we reached our first stop: Nugget Point.  The guidebooks promised us a lighthouse, seals, and interesting rock formations from the point, plus we were about ready to get out and stretch our legs.  It was a short walk from the car park down to the point and, as promised, we were able to see a whole colony of seals playing in a pool on the rocks below us!  Upon reaching the lighthouse, we found that it was rather small and surrounded by a huge fence, which detracted from the beauty a bit, but there was a great view of the ocean.  There were huge rocks sitting in the water off the point that looked almost like (very hard and rocky) bread that had been sliced by a giant knife.  Alyssa is a geology major, so she was able to explain to us that the “slices” were actually the different layers of the rock (what they were specifically I can’t remember…) and that they had fallen off the cliffs and bigger rocks sideways into the sea, enabling us to see all of the layers going vertically, instead of horizontally. 

Our next destination was the Cathedral Caves, which can only be reached 2 hours before and after low tide, so we decided to continue on our way down the road.  Leslie decided to take a turn at driving, which she regretted a little when she had to start off on the winding gravel roads that led back to the highway from the point.  She came through with flying colors, though, and got us to the Caves, about 45 minutes farther south only a wee bit after low tide, plenty of time to explore!  After about a 10 minute walk through the woods, we arrived on a huge expanse of beach, from which we could see the enormous caves in the cliffs at the opposite end.  We were lucky that it was a beautiful day, with only a few clouds in the sky, perfect for our outdoor adventures!  Not really knowing what to expect, except what I’d seen in pictures, I was not prepared for the looming mouth of the cave soaring overhead and then disappearing into semi-darkness near the back before it curved around and came out on the opposite side of the cliff.  Fully embracing our tourist sides, we took an excessive amount of pictures doing various poses (jumping, cartwheels, the Ole Lion mascot pose) in the mouths of the caves so that you could only see our outlines in front of the picture perfect ocean before heading back into the twilight underneath the cliffs.  It was really cool to be able to walk back into the cliff as it narrowed slightly and then made a U-turn back towards the sunlight outside, with a huge cavern at the back.  We could definitely tell why they didn’t allow people down too close to high tide, though.  You would not want to be stuck in the back of the cave if a huge (or even a small) wave came in!

After another mini photo-shoot and climbing up some of the rocks outside the caves, it was time to head out so that we would have time to make it to Porpoise Bay, our destination furthest south and the home of the world’s smallest dolphins!  Next to the car park above the Bay was a small shop advertising ice cream and since we’d had a rather meager lunch of PB&J we decided to treat ourselves before walking down to the beach.  Right as we got down to the water and were about to stick our feet in, Sarah and I simultaneously let out rather high-pitched, undignified squeals and pointed to the same spot in the waves right next to the rocks at one end of the beach.  We’d seen what looked remarkably like a very small dolphin jumping towards us out of the waves!! Ahhh!  The others were doubtful of our reported sighting, but soon enough Leslie saw another jump in the distance!  There turned out to be quite a few playing farther out by the rocks at the end of the beach, it was so incredible!  Watching the world’s smallest dolphins playing right off shore, standing on a beach in New Zealand on a beautiful day, and eating Hokey Pokey ice cream…”Is this real life??” I asked Amanda, only partially joking.  We both agreed that it would be hard to find much better J

Sarah and I were both anxious to see the dolphins a bit closer and hopefully get some good photos so we decided to do a little adventuring over the rocks to get farther out into the bay where the dolphins were swimming.  Unfortunately, by the time we made it out to place we had seen them they were nowhere to be found.  However, we discovered some an amazing place to sit and watch as waves crashed against the rocks, creating huge sprays and subsequent miniature waterfalls running down over the rocks and into tide pools.  As usual, on the coast, the rocks were covered in tiny mussels which we had to avoid sitting on and the water below was filled with seaweed longer than we were, looking from above like great, black hair swirling in the waves.  Although it looked interesting, it certainly had a distinctive odor, shall we say.  When we had given up on spotting the elusive dolphins again we climbed our way back to the beach and were rewarded with the sight of a sea lion making its way up from the water!  After having read the sign that they can move up to 20 km/hr on land, we were hesitant to get too close, but we snuck up on it as close as we dared (not very) and watched while it flippered up to the grassy knoll above the beach before laying down to rest after all of its exertion.

A couple at the DOC had told us at one of our stops that our best chance of seeing penguins would be at either Curio Bay (still farther south) or back at Nugget Point around dusk, at which time the penguins begin making their exit from the sea to nest on land for the night.  Since we still had a couple hours drive back to Dunedin, we decided to drive back up to Nugget Point since it would be on our way back and so would involve less driving in the dark.  You aren’t allowed to go down onto the beach after 3pm for the safety of the penguins, but there was a little observation hut from which we could see the whole beach about 200m below and, lo and behold, a yellow-eyed penguin was already sitting on the shore! He must have been waiting for us, considerate little guy J  After only a few more minutes of watching, we spotted a little dot surfing in towards the shore and soon we got to watch the whole process as the little penguin fought against the waves and slid up onto the beach before standing up and beginning his waddle out of the tide.  It was so funny to watch him waddle a little ways, stop and stand with his wings out like he was trying to either take off or look much larger and impressive than he actually was, preen a bit, and then continue on his way, repeating the process about every 10 feet.  By the time we had seen 3 other penguins surf ashore, it was starting to get a bit darker and we were starting to get colder so we decided to call an end to a very successful day of exploring natural wonders, spying on wildlife, and being our own tour guides down the coast.  We made it safely back to Dunedin around 9 that night, after managing to dodge some rather trickily placed (and occasionally overturned) construction cones and maneuvering the one-way street system again once we got back into town.  All in all, another great day of adventure in a country which continues to amaze me at every turn J