Karen and Tom Wanderings

As inspiring and awesome as Aoraki / Mount Cook was, we had ground to cover.  So with a combination of reluctance and anticipation, we continued on our long march north.  Our next major destination was Punakaiki (aka Pancake Rocks), with some possible intermediate activities in the Aurthur's Pass area.   Our path took us to the town of Lake Tekapo, which was fine enough, but not much of a destination.  One of it's key attractions is the University of Canterbury Mount John Observatory, which is the country's main research observatory.  It sits atop a big hill and suffers from almost no light pollution.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to check out the star gazing, but did go up the narrow, steep, windy road to take in the fabulous daytime views of the area.  Lake Pukaki Lake Alexandrina from Mt John Observatory Evening Light at Lake Tekapo All of our beta indicated that you needed to be at Pancake Rocks at high tide, or don't bother...

After completion of our Doubtful Sound cruise, we had about a week to be on the north end of the island, some 1200 km (700 mi) away.  So we had some serious ground to cover, and a too-big list of ideas collected both from our own research and from excited fellow travelers.  But with one eye on the weather and a tentative plan, we headed north from Te Anau. Our first objective was Aoraki / Mt. Cook.  But to get there, we had to first drive back to essentially Queenstown, and up and over the Crown Range to Wanaka.  The drive was a delight.  Windy roads, nearly endless pastured hillsides dotted with sheep, lakes, mountains ... and nice weather!  Wanaka itself is pretty laid-back town on a big lake surrounded by mountains.  And no obvious signs of the high-octane adventures that abound in Queenstown.  Nice little restaurants and bakeries.  There's reported to be some good tramping around that we initially planned to try out, but we gave in to t...

After a good night's rest at Kinloch Lodge, we hopped in our car and retraced out route back to Queenstown, and continued on to another outdoor hub - Te Anau.  The fairly lengthy drive was nothing spectacular, but a good opportunity to solidify Tom's Kiwi driving skills.  Once in Te Anau, we contemplated tackling the round trip to Milford Sound, since the weather was good, and expected to be worse the next day.  Ultimately, we decided it was too much driving for one day, and instead opted for a short tramp along the Keplar Track (another of the Great Tracks).  Again, nothing super spectacular, but the fern-filled forests and the beach views across Lake Manapouri were nice. Fern-floored forest Lake Manapouri from Shallow Bay We awoke the following day to not-so-great weather, but proceeded with our planned day-trip to Milford Sound, along the west coast of the island.  The weather didn't improve, but instead deteriorated to steady rain that varied ...

Finally, after a hearty (and somewhat leisurely) breakfast and a 20 minute van ride, we hoisted our packs and departed the Routeburn Shelter for our 5-day tramp of the Routeburn and Caples tracks. And we held out hope that the cloudy weather wouldn't turn to rain.

Being rested, relaxed, and provisioned after a few days in Queenstown, we headed up to Kinloch on the north end of Lake Wakatipu, as a staging point for our 5-day tramp on the Routeburn and Caples Tracks.

One of the first challenges many people encounter in NZ is driving on the "wrong" (left) side of the road.  The driver sits on the wrong (right) side of the car, but the steering wheel is still right in front of you, and the pedals are like normal (gas on the right).  And you may have a big arrow sitting on top of your speedometer reminding you to "Keep Left".  So basic travel down a road really isn't too bad ... but you can't really relax or you'll drift left in your lane and have the passenger off the edge of the road!

We spent a few days in Queenstown to recover from our long flights, get ready for our upcoming 5-day tramp (Kiwi-speak for hike), and explore the town and surrounding area.

Just in time, it seemed, we launched on our journey to New Zealand!!  It was a very rainy winter in Seattle, and a 4-week escape to a sunnier and warmer setting was just what the doctor ordered!