Last days in New Zealand

The last few weeks have been a blur of trying to find closure for our New Zealand adventure and prepararing for our next adventure in SE Asia. After three weeks of apple packing we drove down to Christchurch to drop Mike off at the airport; he is currently playing in the Australian National Ultimate Championships in Melbourne, Australia! I leave in two days to join him in the Sydney airport, before promptly heading off to Bangkok, Thailand! There's still so much to do here that we didn't have the time or money for, but that gives us a good excuse to come back some day!



Ashley, Mike, and I on payday!! The New Zealand 100 dollar bill is an especially colorful fusia color...a beautiful contrast to my peach skin if you ask me. We celebrated that night with falafels from our favorite kebab place in Motueka.







Feeling lonely without our constant companion, Ashley and I decided to hit the track one more time before I leave this dear land. We went to Arthur's Pass National Park to hike the Avalanche Peak track, a popular one day tramp up to the ???m Avalanche Peak. We decided to make an adventure out of it however, and extend the trip a bit since we weren't ready to stop hiking. "Experienced" trampers with "orienteering abilities and general badassness" can continue down the backside of the mountain on an unmarked route to a backcountry hut in a remote valley. We figured we were experienced and badass enough...

First we climbed the relentless uphill 3 hour track to the top of Avalanche Peak. At first it was shrouded in clouds and we were afraid we wouldn't be able to continue on down the backside of the peak. Since the trail off the back is unmarked, you need to be able to see landforms for orientation purposes... you'd have to be a crazy person to do it in low visibility.

We waited out the clouds and started on our unmarked adventure. It turns out that in some places, there is a visible trail from the footsteps of previous trampers even though the route isn't marked with arrows or signposts.

The main reason this track is so dangerous is that you have to find the right way down, and there is only one. All the other ways end in sheer cliffs. So we hiked until we found the right pile of scree (pile of rocks on side of a mountain from rockfalls, glaciers, etc.). The only way to get down is to slide/ski down almost a kilometer of rocks. It was insane. Every step you take you cause a mini avalanche in the near vicinity. That's me in the bottom middle...Ashley had to wait to go down so that she didn't cause an avalanche of rocks to fall on me. It was the most ankle breaking and unstable hiking I've ever done. It was only a short hike down a dry riverbed to Crow Hut, our five star resort for the night.

We woke up early to take a side trip to the terminal morraine of Crow Glacier. It's a hanging glacier, so it's way up the mountain, but we didn't want to get too close anyway, so we just hiked to the morraine. That's Crow Glacier in the top right corner.

There was a mini glacier at the bottom of the Crow Glacier...I had to touch it.

We went back to the hut for lunch before heading out through the Whangakiriri Valley and back to a main road to hitch a ride back to the nearest town to our patiently awaiting car, Fanny.

Next we headed towards to Akoroa, a little French settled town on the Banks Penninsula. The backdrop is set admist huge rolling hills dotted with sheep and narrow inlets from the bay. We stayed at a sheep farm/hostel up in the hills...Okuru Farm Hostel...incredible! This was the view from the porch at sunset.

Today, April 25th, is ANZAC Day, a very important holiday in Australia/New Zealand commemorating the Battle of Gillipolie and other ANZ fought battles in the World Wars. To celebrate, we stopped at a Pumpkin Festival in a little town on the way back to Christchurch. I almost entered my butt into the widest pumpkin competition. =)

We spent the afternoon in Christchurch getting things organized and doing some much needed interneting. ChCh is a great city to walk around in, and this is a piece of art hanging in one of the courtyards in the Art Centre.

We're staying with our friend Spencer again so Ashley, Spencer, and I get to spend some QT together before the group breaks up for good and everyone goes their seperate directions. I can't wait to meet up with Mike in Oz to continue our adventures together, and I wish Ashley the best on her future travels in this enchanted land.