Eastern Southern Alps, New Zealand South Island – May 3rd – 9th, 2017

After a long day of driving (through, you guessed it… stunning beautiful landscape) and a very very cold night (with ice on the inside of the windows in the morning), we made it to Tasman Valley. Here, we hiked the Tasman Lake Moraine Ridge where we glimpsed the distant Tasman glacier, which had mostly receded thanks to mother nature’s arch nemesis, global warming (aka humans). After checking out the glacier (and a few hilarious Asian tourist poses), we went off trail along the ridge and back to the van along a different track. Next, we made our way to White Horse Campground where we made camp in a stellar spot before hiking through Hooker Valley to the most incredible view of Mt. Cook! The entire hike was absurdly scenic (see photos for undeniable proof)!

Stunning beautiful landscape en route to Tasman valley.

Tasman Lake and White Horse Campground (bottom). 

Hooker Valley Track to Mt. Cook WOW!

Although our hiking legs already felt like jello, we pushed through and ascended to Sealy Tarns first thing in the morning. The 1800 feet of elevation gain between Freddy and Sealy Tarns, which by the way, is a few specs of water on the mountain side, is entirely climbed through, I don’t know… a billion stairs. Why did we climb a billion(ish) stairs to a few specs of water? The views! Holy crap, the views! To quote Scott, “the track up to the Sealy Tarns, oh-my-god, is a non-stop unfoldment of ever-improving moraine-breaching icefall-rumbling visual delight.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.  

Sealy Tarns and Andy's sweaty back. 

Legs now screaming, we were back on the road heading back towards Tekapo. We stopped along the way for a short walk along Lake Pukaki where we enjoyed skipping some rocks (utilizing perhaps the only part of our muscular structure that wasn’t cursing us). The water was crystal clear and glassy smooth, perfect for disrupting with rocks! After making our way around the lake, we ventured out on a 4WD dirt road to a perfect spot to camp along the lake. Without a soul in sight and a stunning sunset over the lake, we were in Kiwi heaven.   

Lake Pukaki and quite possibly our favorite campsite in NZ (it's stiff competition though). 

We took it easy the next morning (there is a first time for everything), and set out the camp chairs in the sun to read and relax. After an hour of that, we were bored, and decided to get going and go for another hike. Before heading out, we reluctantly tore apart Freddy to organize our stuff for our imminent departure from New Zealand (booooo!). The scenery along the short hike along Richmond trail was dry and mountainous which reminded us of Colorado (love). Back on the road, we stopped for a picnic lunch along the lake before driving about 3 hours to Lake Camp where we found a nice secluded spot to camp.

Richmond track, Lake Tekapo (with a statue in honor of the invaluable sheep dog), and Lake Camp (ironically, also where we camped). 

First thing in the morning, we drove to Mt. Sunday, more popularly known as Edoras, where Rohan was filmed in the Lord of the Rings movies. When we arrived, the valley was blanketed by a thick layer of clouds. Bummed, since the view is supposed to be spectacular, we started the hike anyway hoping that the clouds would clear. As luck would have it, when we reached the top, the clouds started to thin and eventually disappeared entirely, leaving us with a 360 degree view of the surrounding valley and distant mountains. Next, we ventured to out to the end of the road where we had a picnic near a Clydesdale horse farm. We mostly drove the afternoon away, eventually stopping to walk for an hour along Rakaia Gorge where a bright blue river meandered through a beautiful gorge. The lighting wasn’t great for photos, but our eyeballs enjoyed the eye candy regardless. Now dusk, we make our way to Lake Coleridge, where you apparently cannot camp (thanks a lot incorrect app). Now completely dark, we settled on camping near a different, smaller lake nearby, which didn’t have a toilet, but was quiet and completely uninhibited apart from us. But wait! Could that ancient sheet metal shack be a pit toilet ready to collect Andy’s morning deposit? YES! Lake Georgina turned out to be a perfect spot after all!

Mt. Sunday.

Rakaia Gorge and van laundry at Lake Georgina.

Next up on what turned out to be a week long hiking marathon, was Peak Hill Track, a steep, sweaty climb up to yet another stupendous view. Not gonna lie, the route was tough and the wind was howling towards the top, but the views made it well worth the effort. From the top, we were able to watch the farmers and their dogs herd thousands of sheep from the pastures below. Back at the van a few hours later one of my more embarrassing life incidents occurred. After months of training, I was putting my outdoor pee skills to good use, when a farmer drove by. In hindsight I should have just kept peeing and suffered mild embarrassment, but no, instead I attempted to break stream and pull my pants back up. Unfortunately, I really had to go, and cutting the stream did not happen. So, instead, I peed all over myself giving the farmer quite a show as I tripped over myself while peeing on my half pulled up pants. Let’s not discuss it further… I’m still mortified.  

Peak Hill Track. The white dots in the upper-right hand photo are sheep! 

Our last naturesque stop in New Zealand was Arthur’s Pass. We stopped briefly at Castle Hill along the way where part of the Chronicles of Narnia was filmed. The rounded rocks jutting out of the surrounding pastures made for a unique, yet very popular, landscape. Rather than fight the hordes of tourists snapping endless photos, we took a few photos from the road and continued up the pass. The drive was beautiful – the fact that we could still be impressed with the scenery after 6-weeks of jaw dropping beauty, means it was pretty great. We attempted to hike up to Devil’s Punchbowl falls, but the viewing platform was closed leaving us with only a marginal view from a distance. Our campsite was also less than ideal since we couldn’t leave the van without a full-on sand fly attack and signage warned of impending mouse invasion. Pest armies, what are you going to do? Although we were quarantined to the van, we made good use of our Chopped TV show experience, and cooked up a strange, but edible meal with all of our remaining food.

On our last day with Freddy (tear), we hiked the Bealey Spur track, which was correspondingly our last hike in New Zealand (sobbing). The 2.5-hour trek was nice, but clouds obstructed our view and we were anxious to get down to Christchurch to return Freddy to his birth family. Like good law-abiding citizens, we filled up the water tank, did the dishes, got Freddy juice, and dumped the grey-water before saying goodbye to the closest thing to a home we have had for almost 9 months (wailing).  

Arthur's Pass and Bealey Spur track.