I was up early because my time zones were all screwed up. Also, as they enter the winter, the days are shorter and it gets dark around 6:30pm. Since I was living out of van in the woods that meant I was also shutting down around 6:30pm each night, thereby making my wakeup time around 4am.
I was staying at a Holiday Park last night so there was a community shower and kitchen included in the price. I should mention here that a lot of Americans, Europeans and Austrailians visit NZ on holiday (Vacation). The standard practice is to rent a campervan (with or without self contained bathroom) and tour the country. The places where you park these vans or motorhomes (based on your budget) are not like American campgrounds. They are more like parking lots where people just park and cook and live out of mobile home. In the past people would just park these vans wherever they pleased. This was called "Freedom camping", but the locals got tired of this and the fact that people without bathrooms used the side of the road as a toilet. Nowadays you can either camp in bare parking lots if you have a toilet or you can park in rustic campsites ($6) with toilet, or Holiday Park ($18) where showers and laundry are also included. I would normally opt for "rustic campsites" but sometimes there were not any were I was, and needed to upgrade.
I procured some NZ coins and used the shower, also saving my fuel, used their stove to heat up some oatmeal. After disassembling my bed and sorting out a laundry system, snack and hiking bag, I was off back to the mainland (I was on a peninsula)
On the way out I stopped in seatown of Akaroa for a fresh tank of gas and a bag of ice.
Stopping for gas and ice was a daily routine. I usually spent about $80 (NZ and US dollar are basically equivalent) on gas (much more expensive than in the US) and I needed a bag of ice to keep beer and meats cooled in my standard picnic cooler.
I started looking the car over to make sure it would not fall apart. I checked the fluids and the engine looked serviceable, but was unable to check the oil. I looked all over, not wanting to ask and look like a foreigner, but I eventually gave up and asked the attendant. He looked around and could not find it and determined that you had to get under the car to check it. I made a judgment call that we would just assume it was topped off. Why is the oil dipstick under the car?
It was a Sunday morning and the guy at the pump next to me was leaning out the passenger door puking all over the ground. At least they know how to have fun here.
On the way out of town I saw this cool hotel where the rooms were fashioned out of grain silos.
My plan today was to head towards Mt Cook in the middle of the country. Mount Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand (12,218 ft). It lies in the Southern Alps, the mountain range which runs the length of the South Island. There I would hike some glaciers and maybe kayak.
Leading up to the park is one of the many lakes that was carved as the glacier receded and filled by glacial melt. The rich blue color is due to leaching of minerals from the glaciers.
Below is a good image of the park to reference as I talk about my activities.
Here are a couple shots of Mt Cook as I came towards the park
Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to climb Mt Everest is from NZ and he cut his teeth on this mountain before heading to Asia. Below are shots of the much fancier accommodations available to the discerning tourist
I rolled in late afternoon and not too much time for hiking. I was hoping to hike up to Mueller Hut to spend the night, but the wind was too strong and I was ill prepared for the cold without a sleeping bag. I found a spot under the shadow of one of the smaller mountains and set off to check out the Tasman Lake and the Glacier by the same name. It was about a 10 minute drive to the trailhead and another 10 minutes to a viewing platform and that is about all I had time for. One could kayak or take a guided boat trip onto the lake for a closer look at the glacier, but as you can see below I was not missing too much in the way of icebergs and such.
Getting back to camp, I washed my clothes at a well pump and hung them on the car to dry. This sometimes work but when you start drying late in the day it rarely ends well in the morning.
I got some sausages cooking and had a beer marveling at the choice spot I spent the night. The stove was funny. It had 2 settings: Off and Bonfire. I dealt with the Bonfire setting but it meant my gas went quick and all the pans and pots were covered in a nice char layer.
Until Tomorrow
Darren
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