Athena and Cheryl Visit- aka: My Best Two Weeks in NZ (so far)-Part I

Today's blog is dedicated to Arthur Rock- San Francisco Venture Capitalist Extraordinaire- minority owner of the WORLD CHAMPION SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS and holder and gracious benefactor of the greatest seats at Giants' games. He interested Athena in hiking the Milford Track over one year ago which got the ball rolling for this trip. It was dubbed "the finest walk in the world" by poet Blanche Baughan in 1908, an irresistible if unprovable public-relations slogan. So in January of this year, after Athena coaxed Cheryl to come "shotgun", we reserved spots on a guided tramp through Fiordland.
Athena and Cheryl arrived in Auckland late October, and worked their way down the North Island to Wellington, where Fayne and I went up to meet them on Halloween (some festivities, but not a huge deal here-much less candy).

Oct 31 in Wellington

Wellington is always worth a visit, especially Te Papa, the National Museum. They had a great exhibit of famed NZ photographer Brian Brake.

The ferry across the Cook Straight between the North and South Islands runs between Wellington and Picton,a charming port town,

Picton Harbor

 and runs through the narrow and picturesque Charlotte Sound.It was a wee bit chilly, but fun. Then we headed south again though Kaikoura en route to Christchurch. On our way north, Fayne and I took a cruise to see the famous Kaikoura adolescent male sperm whales. Sorry, this was the best I could capture on camera (not

much by Mendo standards).We had a better view of the fur seals.We stopped both coming and going at the roadside BBQ for fresh seafood, including the mandatory crayfish, or spiny lobster. (YUM!!)
Then it was off to Christchurch for a night- time for a Thai dinner with Michelle Dhanak and her family(see prior Christchurch blog entries). In the morning we visited the Canterbury Museum, where one of the highlights is The Paua House, a tribute to "Kiwiana" originally from a house in Bluff in farthest south NZ. It is chock-full of paua (abalone) shells, jandals, Buzzy Bees, tikis, and all things New Zealand.

On to Timaru for a look at our current "home town" for a night. No time to linger, Wednesday we went off south, first to Aoraki/Mount Cook for a hike up a roaring glacial river, across swing bridges, by lakes, to the foot of this magnificent peak. Wow. Truly one of my favorite places here.

Days are getting longer, so we still had time to get to Wanaka for the night. Wanaka is a lot like Queenstown, but less busy, also on the edge of a pristine alpine lake. Thursday morning we continued our crash training for the Big Walk, so we climbed to the top of Iron Mountain with its lovely views.

We needed to get down to Queenstown late in the afternoon for our orientation for the trek, but had time for a luxurious lunch at an area winery. The big adventure started Friday morning as we made our way to the buses that would take us to Te Anau, then a boat across the lake to the trail head.

In the beginning...

DAY 1: Bus to boat to trail to lodge. Easy day, nice nature walk, lovely Glade House Lodge and dinner. The party was bigger than I expected, with about 40 people, 20 Japanese and 20 mixed group of Aussie, Yanks, Brits, with four Kiwi guides. Things are more socially interactive than I expected, but the group was quite agreeable and entertaining, not a lemon in the group.

DAY 2: Things are picking up, a 10-mile gently uphill walk to the Pompolona Lodge through beech forests, some pygmy forest, flowers,

Mount Cook lilies

The Weka

birds, glaciers, waterfalls. I promised my mother that I would keep my sisters safe from harm, but danger was all around.
The weather was sunny the whole trip, very unusual we discovered (maybe one out of 20 trips). Sometimes the rain is so intense that everyone is soaked, carrying packs over heads, never drying out for the five days. We would not have liked that.

DAY 3: This was the BIG ONE, by far the hardest time on the trip, up and down over the 1,069m/3,507 ft Mackinnon Pass, 9 miles. It was a very beautiful day, but by the end we all shared a pride of accomplishment (and fatigued and jostled bodies).

It was a great day, and reminded us of our trip down the Colorado River 10 years back. It was a treat to see the mischievous highly-intelligent mountain parrot, the kea.
The last downhill mile was particularly looong, but after a brief rest, we took a 1.5 hr side trip to Sutherland Falls, the world's fifth or ninth or something in the world at 580m/1904 ft.
We all needed a good rest at the very comfortable Quintin Lodge.

DAY 4: This was the final day of hiking, longest distance at 13.5 miles, but generally down-sloping along rivers, lakes, and lots of waterfalls.

Mackay Falls

Fantail

I got close to several small birds

A rifleman, perhaps?

and ferns.
The highlight of the day was Cheryl's dip in the chilly pool at the base of Giant's Gate Falls.

The low-light of the day was the ubiquitous presence of the sand fly. The ravenous females of the species loved to bite and feed off my arms and legs causing itchy mementos of my trip which lasted a week. It was all worth it when we arrived in Milford after a short ride across the sound from Sandfly Point (I guess that should have been a clue!). We were rewarded with a magical view of New Zealand icon Mitre Peak from the window of my room.
That night it was time for a salmon and lamb dinner with our guides and one last night of socializing with this convivial group after a prolonged ceremony at which each of us received a Certificate of Achievement  and a chance to say a few words (or in the case of the Japanese, share a song and/or dance).


DAY 5: Our final day on the trek featured a cruise on Milford Sound, with an look at fur seals, bottlenose dolphins, and the most rare Fiordland crested penguin. This is the best photo I got of the endangered bird.
Later I got this closer photo of an ex-penguin at the Southland Museum in Invercargill.

The trip through the sound (fiord, technically: something about a sea-filled river valley vs. glacial valley) was as advertised, but with tens instead of hundreds of waterfalls due to the five-day "drought". My next post about Doubtful Sound will reflect a wetter Fiordland experience.
After the cruise, it was back via bus on the spectacular Milford Highway through Homer Tunnel, 1219 m through solid granite, on to Queenstown, then a 3 hour drive to Dunedin. We met up with Fayne there, who had stayed behind in Timaru during the trek. After dropping Athena and Cheryl off at the airport on Wednesday, Nov 10, we continued on down to see the rest of the Southland. (To be continued.)