Milford Track: Day 2

This day was gorgeous! We awoke to clouds, but they burned off early. We started walking through Mackinnon Pass, working our way toward the summit. The day was looooooong. We hiked 10miles. It took us about 7 hours. We proceeded at a medium pace and took heaps of photos. It was magical fairy land. The rain the day before had swollen all the mosses. Everything was green and lush.

Soft and fluffy moss.

Seriously.
Water so clear and trout so big.

More of the pass
Waterfalls abound; they were everywhere. When you couldn't hear the creek, you would hear the birds, when there were no birds, you could hear a waterfall.

Success!
A great day, but we were a bit out of practice and we couldn't wait to get our boots off.

Milford Track, Day 1

The seed of an idea for hiking Milford Track, on the south island of New Zealand, was planted with a pretty picture and brief trail description that Jim read in Backpacker Magazine. The article consisted of the top 10 "classic" hikes in the world, which included Milford. After we learned we would be moving to Australia, he went back and clipped cut out the small blurp about the vague wheres, whens and hows. See the lure here.
The Logistics:
Milford Track consists of a 33.5 mile hike spread out over 4 days and 3 nights. As one of the best hikes in the world, it is very popular. About 14,000 people complete the track every year. To accommodate that many folks, it has to be regulated and organized.
For summer season, (Nov-April) you must register for your space. Only 40-44 trampers (the NZ term for hiker, bushwalker etc.) start off every day. You take a boat from Te Anau Downs to Glad Warf, the start of the track. You tramp a specified amount of miles every day to to a Hut Camp. You stay at 3 different huts, costing a total of $135 per person. The Track is one-way, so at the end you are picked up by boat at Sandfly Point, you cross Milford Sound to Milford and hop on a bus back to where you came from. Thanks for visiting, come again.
At the end of the day, having a flushing toilet is awesome:
Now this might sound a little cushy, but this hut thing is a fabulous idea. 14,000 people would have quite an impact on the pristine environment. By supplying the trampers with a place to sleep, a place to cook, and a place to do their business, the Department of Conservation is helping to do just that; conserve. And making some good money. Your other option is a guided tour. This tour costs WAY more. Guests stay in better lodging, do not have to carry food, and have their meals prepared for them. That's cushy.

We took a 2hr bus ride from Queenstown to Te Anau Downs. Then a 1 hr boat ride to the start of the Track.

Even though we picked the month with the least days of rain, typically only 12, it rained 2 of our 4 days of hiking. Day 1 no biggie, only 2hrs of walking.

First glimpse of the Clinton River.The soggy trampers arrive at the first hut, Clinton Hut.
It's just like summer camp, only unisex.

The rain stopped, yeah! This is the beautiful view of the valley from the helicopter pad.
Hut entertainment: Warden Ross leads us on a nature walk. His bird call skills were impressive.
The sun on the river.

New Zealand, Arrival

We just had the pleasure of spending 6 days on the south island of New Zealand. 2 days were travel days and 4 days were hiking the Milford Track. This year has definitely been an experience and I am thankful for every minute of it.

New Zealand, south island, from the air. For real, this body of water (I think Lake Waitaki) and several surrounding it are turquoise.

We arrived Queenstown, NZ at 3pm on Monday. Surprisingly, it looks like Colorado. I love mountains!
Our hotel is on Marine Parade in Queenstown. The end of the street runs into this:
Mountains AND water...it really doesn't get any better.

Queenstown is small. Tiny even. The town isn't even a grid, as the there are only 2 main streets with 4 or so perpendicular streets between. These streets house the restaurants, shops and adventure tours. They are only one block long. It felt like Beaver Creek, CO or some similar small and upscale ski town.

Like someone I already know

Have you ever have this feeling...the one where you see someone and they remind you of someone else; someone who is already in your life?
It's so strange when this happens. Sometimes it's good. You meet the person and they have similar traits to another one of your friends. This happened when I arrived in AU. My new friend Melissa says some things quite similar to my friend Rosemary. They remind me of each other. Maybe that helped Melissa and I become friends faster, as if we already had something in common. Or my mind might have just likened it that way.
When Nan and I went on our wine tour, there was a gentleman in his mid to late 50's, (I was going to say "older" gentleman, but 50 hardly seems older now. Older is 70.) who joined our group a little late. He had taken a hot air balloon ride early in the morning and met up with our group at our first vineyard site. At first he totally creeped me out. Everyone in the group was a couple and he was the only solo person. He kept trying to talk to me but he had a "stare-y" type demeanor. Like when someone looks you in the eyes TOO much while standing way TOO close to you; a total space invader. Of course he sat next to me at lunch.
It would have been harder to avoid him, and I hate being an intentional bitch, so I sucked it up and started a conversation with him. Elgin is from Vancouver. He is here setting his daughter up for a semester abroad in Adelaide. He is traveling all over AU for 3-4 weeks. He goes on wine tours in every city he visits.
Once Elgin got some attention, he became less creepy. He started being amazingly sarcastic and making, sometimes inappropriately forthright, interjections in people's conversations. (It takes one to know one, right?) He totally called out the tiny Indian woman who had only had one glass of wine at the 2 vineyards we had been to. I thought she was a lightweight, as she was half my size. But she confessed to this complete stranger that she was instead, pregnant. He started to amuse me.
Beyond all this, when I first saw him, he looked like someone to me. Some one familiar...who? I might have thought this all along, but it wasn't until he said "Holy Mackerel!" that I could see him as a slightly younger version of my Uncle Charlie. Now, my Uncle DOESN'T in any way creep me out. He is a very kind and polite man. And not irritating in the slightest. But the similarities in there speech patterns and facial resemblance was uncanny. See...

Elgin from Vancouver vs. Uncle Charlie from Michigan

Back to our regularly scheduled programming...for now

Well, hello! I disappeared again. During my blogging absence, I had a lovely visit with my friend, Nan, who came all the way from CO to visit. She was here for 10 wonderful days.
At first, I was uncertain of 10 days with someone, but we ended up have heaps of fun. She was the perfect couch surfing companion.
Nan saw lots of the city and did a bunch of shopping. During the week, we attended a Jane's Addiction show and she went to yoga and the beach. Over the weekend she was here, all three of us hired a car and went to Wilsons Promontory National Park, about 3 hrs from Melbourne. We stayed at in a nice-but-low budget cabin (Promhills Cabins, click here for my review) The owners had alpacas on the property. They were pretty cute.
It has turned out to be great to rent a cabin or a "self contained" unit. They typically come with a kitchenette. In the beyond dinky town of Yanakie, just outside the park, having our own kitchen was mandatory. There wasn't a restaurant in site. We picked up groceries in a larger town along the way and cooked all our meals at our cabin.
At the park, we viewed some great beaches. Squeaky Beach, named so because the uniformity of the sand grains causes them to squeak underfoot as you walk. Whisky Beach was simply gorgeous. I think a crate of whiskey washed up on shore a long time ago, hence that name.
After about 3hrs of hiking, we got to see the beach at Sealers Cove. This hike wasn't terribly difficult, but we nearly killed Nan with a 6hr hike on her recently healed sprained ankle. Sorry, hun! See more Wilsons Prom pics at Jim's blog
On our way back to Melbourne, we stopped at a petting zoo of sorts so Nan could see some Aussie wildlife. We got to see roos (even an "albeeno" one), wallabies, koalas and more. Because of the conditions, it was a little sad.

As the dynamic diva duo, we went on a wine tour of the Yarra Valley. It was a day trip. We paid $98/person. Simon, our guide, picked up in the city center and drove us around to 4 wineries with about 16 other people. We were even provided with a gourmet lunch at one of the vineyards. From the selection of 4 lunch items, Nan and I both chose the lamb. It was divine! We could have paid about $50 more to go on our own private tour, but we ended up have a great time socializing with the other international passengers.
Wine day was followed by surf day, in the "Surf City" of Torquay (pronounced Tor-key). Apparently this is where Quicksilver and Rip Curl, popular names in surfing, got their start. For this day trip, we were also picked up in the city. Our group was small, only 7 of us in total. For this day, we paid $148 for the 1.25 hr drive to Torquay, wetsuits, board, and lunch (a 6" sub from subway, juice box and cookie). It turned out to be a great day for surfing. We practiced our moves in the sand before going out into the waves. Alistair, was our instructor. He also owns Great Ocean Road Surf Tours. All in all, it was a good day. Having never surfed before, I thought I got a good idea of how it's done. I was able to stand up a few times. My form definitely needs some improvement, but I would do it again. Nan accurately compared getting beat up in the waves to "being in a washing machine." We were exhausted at the end of the day.
The last day :( Nan was here, we did a speed tour of the city and she was able to get rid of the remainder of her Aussie cash. We went to the famous Degraves Laneway, where saw the last seconds of a gypsy band playing. Then we had a quick tour of the free part of the Ian Potter art museum. Whew.