Mid-Semester

So this is what I decided to do for my mid-semester break.... I flew down to Queenstown, hitchhiked for the first time through a couple of towns to the Raspberry Flat trailhead near Wanaka, and went on a six day tramp in Aspiring National Park. I hiked up the West Matukituki Valley on Saturday afternoon, and the next day I climbed up to French Ridge, where there were incredible views of the valley and close ups of huge glaciers and peaks. The next day I attempted the most difficult part of the tramp, a 1335 meter climb up the side of a mountain to a pylon, then from there to the Cascade Saddle, which boasts a thousand meter drop on one side and the beginning of the Dart Canyon on the other. I spent the next couple of nights at the Dart Hut campsite, walking around and mainly recovering from the previous couple of days. From there it was two more days of hiking until the trail head near Glenorchy.

View from the Pylon - Cascade Saddle in bottom right,
Dart Glacier in center, and Mt. Edward in upper left

After a little changing of plans, I made my way to Queenstown that night and celebrated my 21st with some guys I met on the trail. Not a bad place to celebrate it to say the least. I rode with those same guys to Te Anau first thing the next morning, where they dropped me off and I started the Kepler Track. The weather was poor, but it made for some amazing tramping through fresh snow, along mountain tops and ridges the entire second day of the tramp. The third day I hiked out to a carpark along the trail and was fortunate enough to hitch back to Queenstown that night.

Myself in the snow, with Spire Peak off in the distance

So that left me with one day to spend in Queenstown before flying back to Auckland on Monday. I decided to do the Nevis Bungy Jump, a 134 meter jump over a river near town. I'll let the video say the rest....

Afterward, I walked through the Queenstown Gardens for a little while before my flight and enjoyed the effects of Autumn. All and all, it was a great nine days on the trail, and a pretty descent finale at the end of it all.

Northland! ...etc

Hello! It was a couple of weeks ago that I was fortunate to have a five day weekend for Easter, so a group of us traveled around the oh so appropriately named Northland, which pretty much consists of all the land North of Auckland. We drove up the east coast and stayed at an area called Bay of Islands for the first couple nights in the town of Pahia. We took a sailing trip around the bay which allowed us to hike around an island, snorkel, and kayak a little. Easter morning we walked through the dark to see the sunrise from a lookout point above the bay, 'twas well worth it.

Pahia, Bay of Islands

After we got tired of Pahia, we drove up the east coast a little more, cut across towards the middle just a little, and began the drive up the sliver of land leading to Cape Reinga. Cape Reinga is not technically the northernmost point of New Zealand, but it might as well be. We went up there for sunset and the drive alone was worth it, but the views from the point with the clouds and the sun and the lighthouse were pretty spectacular as well.

Cape Reinga

The next day we went Sand Surfing! We rented some less than stellar body boards from a gas station and drove to a place called Te Paki Reserve, where the sign read 'Giant Sand Dunes'! It was tiring and scary because the dunes really were giant, so it took a lot of effort to get up them and a tiny bit of time to get down them. Next we spent some time relaxing at Ninety Mile Beach (which just so happens to be sixty miles long), and although we weren't really allowed to, we drove our rental along the beach for 20km or so. Driving 100 km/h on the sand offered a surprisingly comparable adrenaline rush to that of the sand dunes!

Ninety Mile Beach

Last but certainly not least, can you make your mustache stand straight up? Well I can, and I think that means it's time for a little trim, yes, a trim.