Saturday, February 7, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Roadside plants in New Zealand
Here are a couple of images of the beautiful plants growing on the side of the road in New Zealand.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Milford Track
The Milford Track has been named the "Greatest Walk in the World". Obviously the person who gave it this title was there during beautiful weather! Don't get me wrong, it is a beautiful hike, but man-oh-man are you at the mercy of the weather.
The track is 4 days long. The first day is an easy 2-hour hike. The second day is another relatively easy day of 6-hours, the last two hours being a pretty good climb. The third day consists of crossing over the McKinnon (altitude around 1045 meters), and then decending 870 meters in less than 7 kilometers! The fourth day is another 6 hour hike, mostly down-hill, to sea level.
The day my dad and I started the track, it was raining cats and dogs. The boat to the start of the track was delayed because the Department of Conservation was considering closing the track. Our 2-hour walk to the hut, was soggy, and involved many puddles, but we were able to walk around most of them. Had we started one day earlier (been on Day 2 of the track), we would have had to walk through meter deep water. Had we started two days earlier (been on Day 3 of the track), we would have experienced 100 kilometer/hr winds at the pass, and had to stay in a very small shelter with 90 other people for 3 hours!
We were VERY fortunate to have only one really bad day of weather--it did rain every day on the trail (they get upwards of 7 meters of rain a year there).
The scale of mountains was so mind blowing. Many times a picture wouldn't do the scene justice, so I just had to take a mental photograph. However, there were many opportunities to photograph the beautiful surroundings. Sometimes finding beautiful scenes were just a matter of stopping to look around. Below are some photos I took. I hope you enjoy them.
A new fern tree growth, called a koru
I (heart) New Zealand
Is that blue sky?
Soggy boots after Day 2
New Zealand's tallest waterfall -- Sutherland Falls (the right falls)
The track is 4 days long. The first day is an easy 2-hour hike. The second day is another relatively easy day of 6-hours, the last two hours being a pretty good climb. The third day consists of crossing over the McKinnon (altitude around 1045 meters), and then decending 870 meters in less than 7 kilometers! The fourth day is another 6 hour hike, mostly down-hill, to sea level.
The day my dad and I started the track, it was raining cats and dogs. The boat to the start of the track was delayed because the Department of Conservation was considering closing the track. Our 2-hour walk to the hut, was soggy, and involved many puddles, but we were able to walk around most of them. Had we started one day earlier (been on Day 2 of the track), we would have had to walk through meter deep water. Had we started two days earlier (been on Day 3 of the track), we would have experienced 100 kilometer/hr winds at the pass, and had to stay in a very small shelter with 90 other people for 3 hours!
We were VERY fortunate to have only one really bad day of weather--it did rain every day on the trail (they get upwards of 7 meters of rain a year there).
The scale of mountains was so mind blowing. Many times a picture wouldn't do the scene justice, so I just had to take a mental photograph. However, there were many opportunities to photograph the beautiful surroundings. Sometimes finding beautiful scenes were just a matter of stopping to look around. Below are some photos I took. I hope you enjoy them.
A new fern tree growth, called a koru
I (heart) New Zealand
Is that blue sky?
Soggy boots after Day 2
New Zealand's tallest waterfall -- Sutherland Falls (the right falls)
Thursday, January 1, 2009
At Last, Mount Cook!
When I was in New Zealand in 2004, I drove within view of Mt. Cook -- the highest peak in New Zealand, and the peak that Sir Edmund Hilary trained on for his Mt. Everest summit -- 3 times. Well, fourth time is the charm! At first, my dad and I were afraid that the cloud cover over the Southern Alps was going to obstruct our view again, but the cloud-gods pulled through for us. No joke, the lake water is the color you see (online it seems to be duller than my computer monitor) -- I remember someone saying there is something in the glacier run-off that causes it to be turquoise in color, probably sediment of some sort. We will be starting the Milford Track tomorrow (2 January here, 1 January for all you Americans), so I will not be posting for 4 days. It looks as though (knock on wood) tomorrow is going to be the worst weather-wise. Happy New Year!
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