Planes, Trains, Automobiles and Ferrys

Finally back from vacation. It's good to be home. The vacation certainly tested my patience more than a few times. Luckily I reacted like a true New Zealander, calm and with grace. This is a lot easier to do when you are not in any rush.

In addition to submitting to the busing option from Hokitika to Christchurch, I was forced to ride in a stifling hot train from Auckland to National Park. Did I mention that the outside heat forced the train to go at half speed and we arrived at National Park two hours late? A conductor came by to break the news and I don't think anyone batted an eye. Oh two hours late, ok.

The next train ride was to Wellington and since day trains were still running late, my night train was also late. The advisory recording said that it had left Auckland two hours 30 minutes late but was expected to pick up time. Uh, if that isn't vague I don't know what is. So I went out to the train station at the wee hour of 3:00 am (orignal pick up of 2:00) and the train arrived exactly 2:30 hours late.

My ferry from Wellington to Picton would not be any different. As I walked up to the building to check in for the fast ferry I noticed there weren't any cars waiting to pile on. Hmmm. When I went to check in my luggage the guy said "oh your ferry has been cancelled. The sea is too rough, but we'll bus you to the other terminal and you can take the slow ferry." I'll spare you the details but we'll say the ride wasn't pleasant - I didn't have any motion sickness pills. (The newpaper reported - swells up to 3 meters, winds from 35 to 45 knots, a sea that was high abating to very rough - and as I watched the mamouth ferry crash into the sea I thought "why me?").

Near the end of the day yesterday I arrived about three hours from Franz Josef and I was ready to lay in my own bed. With public transport not available I decided to (mom stop reading) hitch my way home. This is what the tired and desperate traveler must do. It was the first time I ever stuck my thumb out but it was surprisingly easy to get a ride. The tough part was geting a ride of significant distance. People were usually just going to the next town. Five rides later I landed in Franz and I couldn't have been happier.

Home sweet home!

Tongariro Crossing

This is the view looking back at the red crater of Mt. Tongariro, Mt. Ngauruhoe and Mt. Ruapehu in the distance. You can almost make out the people walking on the track, like marching ants we crossed.

One more pic is on the photo site. All taken with the new, fantastic, Cannon S50! Yeah!

A Sunday Stroll

I stayed in National Park last night (creative name for a town, I know). The town is situated on the edge of the Tongariro National Park. Kev and I were here when we climbed to the Crater Lake of Ruapehu. This time I was here to do the Tongariro Crossing, famed as the best one day hike in New Zealand. It did not let me down.

Kevin and Vicki weren't able to join me but I decided to do the venture anyway, mostly in fear that if I didn't do it now, when would I? Turns out there were plenty of people to stroll along with and I spent most of the time with a German girl I met at the youth hostel.

There were tons of people doing the crossing. Maybe it was because it is a Sunday. Maybe it was because school still isn't back in session. Maybe it was because the weather prediction was looking good. Whatever the reason it was not going to be a day filled with quiet reflection.

The scenery was phenomenal. Where else can you see emerald lakes, several craters (of multiple volcanoes) and hot pools all in a single day. The first ascent was horrible and I thought I was going to loose my lunch (breakfast, actually). But after we reached the South Crater it was smooth sailing. The trek is like 75% in the open sun and although it was somewhat cloudy, the sun did a great job of getting the back of my neck (the only place I missed). It looked like it would be a bit rainy, but luckily that held out and the weather was brilliant.

Planes and Plans

Isn’t it funny how you can have a solid plan and it all just gets turned upsidedown? With a week of vacation to head up to Auckland, see some friends and then hike the Tongariro Crossing, I was ready for whatever. I had originally planned to drive to Christchurch and fly from there but when the good old car decided she wasn’t going to start I rearranged the flight from the nearby Hokitika (an upgrade that wasn’t exactly cheap given my last minute change).

Hokitika is a one room airport and when I got there in the morning there was a airplane waiting for me and a sign that said “engineering fault”. There would be no flight, but they were willing to bus me. Ahhh, isn’t that sweet? So I jumped on the bus with all the other passengers (all eight of us) and we trekked cross country on a mini-bus. It was a beautiful day and Arthur’s Pass is lovely to look at, it could have been worse.

We got to Christchurch (connecting flight) with 15 minutes to spare. I, of course, thought this was an emergency of catastrophic proportions. “Get out of my way, I’ve got a plane to catch!” Ok, the fact that I had to go to the bathroom something wicked was really more important at the time, but I was worried about missing the flight. After finding a bathroom that didn’t have a line I ran to enter the departing gate. Mind you I now had less then ten minutes before take off and I keep hearing “so and so flight is now departed”.

I got to the Passengers Only cue and was dumbstruck. The line was crazy long. “I have a plane to catch!” I scooted to the side to try to get preferential treatment, visions of me running to the plane just as they close the tunnel gates. They opened up another line and I raced through and ran to the gate only to see everyone hanging out. Less than five minutes to take off and this flight (supposedly on-time) hadn’t even begun boarding! Talk about anti-climactic.

But now I’m ready to settle down for some fun on the North Island.

Laugh in Danger

Today we finished work an hour early, due to the speed and acuracy of our housekeeping staff. A few of the girls and I decided to go for a run. Let me tell you I am not a runner, but we went down one of the amazing paths around here. It's one that I have been meaning to do, but haven't had the chance yet (lazy, I know).

There was an AMAZING amount of rain in this area over the past couple of days so actually the trail was closed (even some major roads were closed). We decided to just see how far we could get and it turned out the river had gone down enough that we could do the whole thing. That was a nice surprise because I hate backtracking.

I have definately found a new love... trail running. It is wonderful to have all the scenery to look at as well as the slow and stops to contrast full out running. Even just trying to look for footing made the journey more interesting and less like work. I'll leave the road running for cars.

Franz Josef

A perfectly timed shot of the little village I call home. We get amazing views pretty often but more frequently the clouds cover the mountains and tourists say "Where is the glacier?". By the way, the glacier isn't in the photo, but you can see pretty much the whole town.

On another note, I bought myself a digital camera for christmas. It'll be coming here on a slow boat from the US, though, but I can't wait to throw photos up on the site all the time. I will have to switch modes from stingy with the shutter button to a crazy photo taker. Hmmm, I don't think I'll have a problem with that!

Check out the photo in Arthur's Pass from a few weeks ago.