Friday Queenstown off to Milford Sound.. no, Fjord!

Queenstown is a beautiful resort town on a lake with mountains. Its got the classic ski resort look with little creeks but with the lake Wakatipu it is over the top beautiful. A classic.
After talking with two different couples in Paihia, I decide to add Milford sound to my itinerary. Actually a fjord, (made by glaciers) the mtns literally appear to come up from the ocean. Maybe a little like the 3 river gorge is making the Yangtze River appear but with river water.?? I dunno. Haven't seen it face to face.
I arranged this trip the day I arrived in Queenstown withed front desk at the Black Sheep hostel.... I was picked up the next morning Friday at 7:15 AM by Miami and Alex on the BBQ Bus tour. Alex drove and die the interpretative discussion for the next 5 hours to the Sound. Miami did the same tour for the Japanese people on the bus with headsets. I learned a lot from the tour :
the pink triangles on the trees mean there is a stoat (an small pest mammal) trap nearby.
most of the roadkill we see is the nz possum. its not like the uS possum. more on this: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-new-zealand-possum.htm
the Te Anau lake we passed is the largest lake in the south island. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Te_Anau
There are these native trees called Manuka which have a lot of natural antioxidants with used in tea: http://www.teara.govt.nz/1966/M/ManukaTeaTree/ManukaTeaTree/en
They were used to reduce scurvy symptoms by Cook and other explorers.
We drove through the Fjordland National Park. Amazing! There are several treks a person can take here: the Kepler Track , Routeburn Track and Milford Track. You have to book these in advance. I'd like to do one of these next time around.
This tour bus company set up a little bbq lunch for us next to a river.. wE first west for a 30 minute walk down to Lake Gunn, the walk was full of dark green moss and opened up on a pristine clear lake undamaged by humans - perhaps on the other most beautiful natural scenes I've ever seen.



Clear. crystal.



I've thought a lot on this trip on how one could and people do, travel around for a year of continual summer. Why not?
At the Milford Sound, we got on a cruise boat for a 1.5 hour cruise. The immensity of the mtns became apparent when your boat is 4 feet from a sheer rock face - never seen anything like it. We went out the Tasman Sea and a dolphin family followed us back in. There were also seals basking on a rock and a waterfall we practically went right under.






The bus trip back they put on this movie The Worlds Fastest Indian, on my netflix list. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World%27s_Fastest_Indian
Check it out if you get a chance!

Went out dancing that nite at the World Cafe down in the main part of town. Found some liked minded dancers from New York, yay!

Wed Paihia and then Thursday Queenstown and paragliding

Wed day.
Off to the Waitangi house again.
This is where the treaty was signed between Britain and the Maoris so teh British leaders could take more land from the Maoris.



The setting is wonderful and the landscape is so undamaged, its easy to imagine what it looked liked then. There is a museum on site too that has old photos. There is also a cute little cafe which helped me to wake up.
Then back to to the hotel, I headed to the ferry to Russell across the bay and then waited for a half hour for a cheeseburger at this place. Then walked over to a "local" mentioned spot, the beach on the other side. No one told me however I'd have to walk up a mtn first. OK, I exaggerating..... Beautiful waters.


I just relaxed all afternoon, met some nice ladies from Britain. Just enjoyed teh water and then headed back to Paihia and had dinner with some friends at the hostel.

Thursday



6 AM taxi to Kerikeri airport $25 US.
7 am off to Auckland airport and then to Queenstown. The flight to Queenstown was nothing short of spectacular. We flew over these snow runoff lakes high in the mtn. The color of liquid sky. No relation to the film of the same name. Spectacular! And we flew over a ski resort, that later in 2 hours unbeknowst to me, I would be paragliding off of.
Shuttle to the Black Sheep backpackers hostel and then set up the next two days. I decided to do the paragliding since the weather the next two days looked a bit spotty for rain. I got picked up an hour later by Keith and his company and they told me I'd get a video and some photos if I wanted. Cool, pictures of me screaming.
On the mountain, Keith explains to me the process of running off a mountain. I actually will not jump but will just continue running and then the lift of the shoot will pick me up. Sweet. After we get hooked in and we discuss the process, we are ready to go,. He has a camera at the end of a stick and I can bring my camera (of course!). And we're running and soon there is lift off. I'm floating.
Amazing not scary.


Queenstown and the bay opens up below me. After about 4 minutes, Keith asked if I want to go a spiral. Of course I say yes and then he asked me to hold the camera. GForce begins and I'm moving aournd in a circle screaming thinking my face is going to slide off, but in a good way. I have video taped this whole thing. It seemed like forever, but actually was onlyl about 15 seconds.
We land and I'm ready to go again!

Sunday- Tuesday 2/24/2009 Paihia and Hairangi Harbour

Monday
I awoke at 5 AM, drat jet lag. Got up around 6:30 and strolled along the beach towards the main part of Paihia. You can walk up the hill on the road or walk around the hill on teh beach, where the tide pools are.. calm and relaxing...I am ready for a day on teh bay, I say! Catamaran boat tour with a bar and bbq and kayaks and snorkeling, yay! But first, find me some breakfast and I'm not in hurry since I'm 2 hours early for my boat disembarkment. I find a place on the main bus terminal that is open and has a basic breakfast for US $4. including bottomless coffee! The egg arrives half cooked, as Shannon had mentioned, so I sheepishly asked thme to cook it more. The bacon looked like it was cut right off the pig that morning.
When we finally took off on the catamaran, we were 20 or so people with a crew of 3. The sail and mast were the tallest of any ship or sailboat I'd ever been on. We gently coasted out tothe middle part of the bay, watching fish schools jump before us, other sailboats, and an old Schooner type book drift by and then the speed boat Mack ATtack on its way to the far out hole in the rock.
I had several conversations with a Tasy couple about TAsmania and their trip to Los Angeles. Also met Pia, from Vancouver who was living in NZ on work visa for a year. Note to self.
Around noon, we coasted into another bay among the Bay of Islands islands and sat the boat down for some lunch and water fun. I quickly scarfed some food and didnt take the customary 30 minute break, gathered my stuff and some snorkeling gear and jumped on the first dinghy trip to the beach. The snorkeling wasn't super great but I'm not an expert. I sat on teh beach for the next 30 mintues and chatted with a girl from Ireland here with Contiki tours, basically a roving bunch of partying 20 somethings across countries in a bus.. We headed out around 2 pm then out tothe ocean more waves and then back to teh Paihia . Pic and I grabbed a beer and some chicken/avocado sandwich and then sat on teh beach. There's a lot of beach sitting going on this day after I arrive. Its good.

Tuesday
Today I'm heading to the west side of the North island. To the Hairangi Harbour. There's a tour that picks me up at 7:40 am and we are off. There's a lot to see on the way, and I'm just amazed at the greeness and the diveristy of plants. There's many of the types I've seen in Costa Rica and then tons of Flax plants which look very similair to thait plant in my backyard.. There;s tons of cows and I dont hesitate to say they look happier than California cows. Bovines!! Our driver gives us some instruction in how to speak Maouri. Its a bit involved (he really talked a lot) but basically, speak each vowel and each vowel always sounds the same.

We first see teh Harbour in a downpour and a double rainbow hitting the water. Cool.

Then we pick up Bill, a Maouri tour guide who is going to talk to us about the forest. We drive up through past the Harbour and stop at the top to take some pics. Amazing view.
Then: we head to the Waipoua Forest to see: Tāne Mahuta is a giant kauri tree (Agathis australis) in the Waipoua Forest of Northland Region, New Zealand. Its age is unknown but is estimated to be between 1250 and 2500 years old. Its Māori name means "Lord of the Forest" (see Tāne), from the name of a god in the Māori pantheon.
Heading back north, we head to Rowena, a small town on the harbour and have lunch. I also order a Paua fritter (abalone). Turns out I'm not a huge fan. We take a car ferry over to Kohukohu. Cute town. Then we are off again through more beautiful country. Back in Paihia, we see the Haruru falls. I have to figure out my logistics to get to the kerikeri airport so I do that and the I get picked up to head to a Cultural Show (yes, they actually called it that). Its about the history Of New Zealand and how the British and Maouri leaders had an agreement at the Waitangi Treaty house. Its really good, and very honest in its opinion on how the Maouris were treated unfairly. And perhaps this is why there are only elderly white people in the audidence and two young white couples and me. Back at the hostel I drink some wine with Les and Robin from Australia and turn in the for the nite. Hopefully over my jet lag. :)