Milford Sound

What a treat! Not only do you get to spend 3 days hiking into some of the most amazing areas in the world, you get to end it with a boat ride on the Milford Sound! Some incredible views of rock jutting out of the water. I get it! I know why they call this the Fjordland National Park! The Maori legend has it that the demigod who carved the shape of the South Island finally perfected his skill by the time he got to Fjordland.

Milford Track, Day 4

11 1/2 miles to go and 7 hours to do it! And we better hurry because there's a boat to catch at the end of it, and we can't be late! (We were not going to hike back to the cabin that night if we missed it). Not so much time for pictures, but the weather was great and the trail was easy, so even though it was tough, we still made it.

I love the little "hobbit holes" that you find in all of the trees here.

















And here we did appreciate the McLeigh Falls on the way out. The story was that McLeigh and Sutherland flipped a coin to see who would get to name the falls. Sutherland lost and had to settle for naming the next waterfall the two of them found (which happened to be the 580 m waterfall we saw the day before).












Beautiful red beech trees along the way. Mom's become a wood "connoisseur" these days, so she always takes time to admire the wood that we pass.

















Here's an interesting graffiti that we saw on the way too. Apparently, a prison work group dug out the rock from the trail, and some of them marked it. Well, graffiti is always cool when it's more than century old.









And here are at the end! We made it! We made it! It was really tough to walk down stairs the next few days, but we made it!

Milford Track, Day 3

This was the day of VISTAS. We made it to the top of the McKinnon Pass after a lot of steep climbing. We really lucked out with the weather. It was cold, with snow on the ferns and wild flowers, but no rain or snow for us that day. Good thing! Because it was really tough getting down from the top of McKinnon Pass, where we were actually hiking down a few water falls at times. Very steep, where you had to sit on your butt in many places to get down to the next step.















Incredible views too! Near the top of McKinnon Pass, his friends built him a memorial. What a cairn!

















The third day also included some beautiful waterfalls on the trip down and a side trip to Sutherland Falls, the tallest water fall in NZ, and the fourth tallest in the world, at 580 m.

Milford Track, Day 2

The second day was also awesome, and a lot more challenging. We were there on the very first day the track was opened for the year. Very exciting, but not all of the bridges were in place. See, it was too dangerous for the DOC to install the bridges. And it would have been too dangerous for us to go over that bit of track the day before. But they deemed it would be all right as long as we didn't dawdle! Right! No dawdling in the avalanche area. Except! We had to dawdle! There were no bridges, for crying out loud! You can't cross a river with no bridges without dawdling! Still we did our best.

It was also a very rainy day. We were soaked through and very glad that we had all those dry and warm clothes in our packs. It was impressive to show up at the cabin and see all of those ponchos hanging out on the porch.

You know, we worked so hard to keep our socks dry. On the second to last crossing, though, I jumped to a rock that rolled, and fell into the river. Once my socks were finally wet, I realized hey, that's not so bad after all! I should have got them wet early on, then those river crossings would have gone a lot faster!

Oh yes, and there were some incredible waterfalls along the way too. I couldn't get over how green everything was. We had it all. Views of rocks, waterfalls, and plant life.

Milford Trail, Day 1

The first day was light and easy and wonderful. It was 5 km of easy hiking, where the trails were wide enough to walk side by side in most places. Incredibly green and verdant. Swinging bridges, moss on everything, and great trees.

South Island Trip

Last month my mom came to visit, and the two of us took a trip to the South Island together. Most of the time we were hiking the Milford Trail together, but we did manage a few other things too in the mean time.

I loved these statues outside of the Queenstown Airport.


















When we first arrived in the South Island, it was cold and rainy, and (I have to admit it) we were a little daunted by the idea of actually going out for 4 days of hiking in it. It was tempting to hang out and maybe do other, non-outdoorsy things... like maybe hang out at cafes like this one and enjoy the art on the walls, the fire in the really cool fireplace and sip on chai lattes. This was was especially nice.











Well, we were talked into going by a really nice lady at the Fjordland Visitor Center, but we spent the day shopping for even more warm clothes. We kept yo-yo-ing. When it was rainy we thought ("Oh no! We are going to freeze! Let's throw in the extra sweater!") And when the sun came out? ("Oh no! Our packs are too heavy! We have to take some of these extra clothes out!") So back and forth, back and forth. So here Mom is, dressed in long underwear, midweight sweater, a coat, a down vest, and an raincoat. This must have been one of the rainy moments of the day.









Well, here are! The start of the Milford Trail! We caught a bus from here, the Fjordland National Park Visitor Centre.














The boat ride over was great! This really was the point of no return. No more anxiety of whether we packed the right stuff, knowing that if we don't have it now, we won't have it, and everything that we have now we are going to carry. Now's the time to enjoy the ride. Spectacular scenery! Sunny weather and amazing rocks, just jutting out of the water.

Waiheke vs. Logan UT

So AARP voted Logan, UT one of the top 5 places in the U.S. to live.







http://www.aarpmagazine.org/lifestyle/the_simple_life.html


Frommers voted Waiheke Island 2nd place for 2009 destinations.







http://www.newzealand.com/travel/media/press-releases/2009/1/tourismnews_waihekeforfrommers2009topdestination_pressrelease.cfm

I'm so torn! So I'm supposed to retire in Logan but should be living in Waiheke until then? What does this all mean??

I need to head out on the water to clear my head--Westerlies predicted for Friday.

Milford Track!

My mom and I just finished the Milford Track! What a fabulous time!
Stunning views and challenging hikes. I took a ton of pictures, and I'll post more of them soon.
In the meantime, here are some before and after pictures.


On the boat ride over to the the trail head in Te Anau Downs.

On the boat ride at the end of the track, on the Milford Sound.

After 3 nights, 3 1/2 days of backpacking, we are still smiling!