Day 8: (October 6)
We woke
up early with plans to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing – a 19km hike through
rugged alpine and sub-alpine territory that has been called the best 1 day hike
in New Zealand, and perhaps the world.
While the DOC (Department of Conservation) folks at the trail
information desk weren’t thrilled at our plan to take two young children on the
crossing – we knew we were prepared from a gear perspective and prepared to
turn around if the going got tough. We
don’t have all this gear for nothing…
Spoiler
alert – it got tough.
We
drove to the trailhead in the fog and light drizzle. We geared up everyone in multiple layers and
rain jackets, all except for Mac – who only brought shorts, much to Crystal’s
chagrin. The hike up was actually quite
nice, rolling sub-alpine landscape changing to alpine land scape, along a
mountain stream and weaving in and out what was clearly dramatic volcanic scenery. The visibility was, however, about 100 yards
– so it was hard to see much of this. Still
– the weather was ok for a while, warm but foggy. As we made our way up to Soda Springs,
however, it took a turn for the worse.
Light rain turning to driving rain and an increasingly bighting wind. We also ran into an increasingly larger
number of people returning from higher up the trail reporting really
unmanageable conditions. Coupled with a
weather forcast that predicted gale force winds by night and -3C wind chill at
Red Crater (the high point of the hike) – we decided that this was the turn-around
point. We powered back to the car and
arrived cold, tired and wet (Mac and Crystal) – dry, warm and asleep (Elliot) –
and happy as a little clam, wondering what all the fuss was about (Wes). This
clearly is an outstanding day hike and one that, in good weather, would be
easily in reach. It sucks to get rained
off the mountain – but given how cold we were when we got back to the car, it
was 100% the right decision to turn around.
We
quickly changed to dry clothes, turned the camper’s heat way up, snuggled into
bed and enjoyed a lunch of hot chocolate, warm soup and grilled cheese. Since the next few days were going to be
similar weather, we decided that the Tongariro crossing was going to have to go
on the list for the return trip to NZ.
We next
took advantage of some sleepy kids to power through the 3-4 hour drive down to
the Wellington area, arriving at dusk to a small vineyard outside of the town
of Masterson. While Crystal cooked
spaghetti – Mac, Elliot and Wes chased sheep through the vineyards (“Hey
Sheeps….Hey Sheeps). The sheep, not
surprisingly, ran away. After a nice
conversation with the hosting couple and a great full moon rise – we got
everyone to bed (after ice cream).
Day 9: (October 7)
We
awoke, thankfully, to dry skies. As the
eggs and bacon cooked, we laid some things out to dry. We then headed over to Christine and Vaughn’s
house, the hosting couple from OK2Stay.
They were a late 60s couple who had bought a small vineyard and produced
a boutique label of their own wine – about 1500 cases a year. As we sat on the back porch of the ranch
style house, their little dog ran around in the yard and Elliot played with the
toys that they had in their house for their grand children. We finished the first tasting of the day by
10:30am, the wine was delicious and we bought2 bottled from them (a pinot noir
and a rose).
Next we
packed up the kids for a trip to Queen Elizabeth II park in the center of
Masterton, which had an impressive play structure for Elliot. Despite the drizzle, she loved running around
in the playground – sadly the miniature train was not running due to the
rain. After a quick stop at a café for
muffins and coffee, we were off to Martinsborough for more wine tasting.
We
stopped in Martinsborough and grabbed lunch at a small café in town and then
headed to two wineries. The second,
Luna, was far superior – both because the wines were better (we bought some
Pinot Gris) and because they had a toy box for kids. The only low light was Elliot dropping /
throwing her ball into the cow pen, and realizing that Dad was serious when he
said he wouldn’t be able to get it back out again. We the powered through to a Top 10 Holiday
park in Petone, right outside of Wellington.
We got our laundry done and (mostly) dried, cooked up some steaks and
went to bed.
Day 10: (October 8)
Up
early, quick breakfast and a 20 minute drive into Wellington. We first hit up the farmer’s market next to
the Te Papa museum, right on the esplanade of Wellington. Breakfast sandwiches, coffee and smoothies
hit the spot and thought Elliot’s apple turned out to have a rotten core – she
was still happy. Sadly, while Elliot was trying to hand Crystal and Mac our
smoothie, it spilled. We have never seen her more sincerely disappointed in
something – less so about the smoothie spilling (she still had a full cup) but
because she couldn’t help out mom and dad.
It was actually very touching.
We then
spent a few hours out of the rain exploring the Te Papa museum – the national
museum of New Zealand. They had all
kinds of nature exhibits (including a colossal squid in formalin – the only one
in the world) and an earthquake house where Elliot and Crystal got shaken
around. It was quite a cool place, with tons to do for kids and a fair amount
of interesting stuff for adults as well. The Maori colonization of New Zealand
was recent enough (13th/14th century) that the tribes
identify with specific voyaging canoes and know not only which canoe (by name!)
their tribe came over on, but where it landed on the islands. Wes slept nearly the entire time and woke up
only as we were just getting ready to leave the museum.
As
Elliot napped in the carrier, we stopped in MacPac (the NZ REI) for some wool
socks, and then headed to the Wellington cable car. A 100 year old funicular railroad up to a
residential district and botanical gardens – it was a huge hit with Elliot, who
was still kind of bummed from missing the train the day before. While our trip to the botanical gardens was
cut short by rain, again, it didn’t seem to dampen Elliot’s spirit. We noticed, as she ran around, that her pants
were too loose in the seat and too short, where just a month ago they had been
too tight in the seat and thighs and too long for her legs. We think that she must be hitting a bit of a
growth spurt.
We
moved the car to the overnight lot (even close to the ocean and right next to
the Te Papa museum) and very close to the Interislander ferry for tomorrow and
struck out for dinner. A Lonely Planet
recommended fish and chips place (Mt. Vic Chippery), didn’t disappoint – they
had 5 different types of fries! This was topped off with a trip to a playground
and swings for everyone and then ice cream sitting alongside the bay in
Wellington, watching the sailboats come in and out. A great city day!
Wes
continues to be a trooper – although he generally doesn’t know what is going on
at any given instant. He is more stable
in the front facing carrier and enjoys watching the world go by. He has periods where he really seems to enjoy
playing – and actually has a tickly belly.
He absolutely loves it when he and Elliot get to lie next to each other
and get alternating tickles – although sometimes he gets a little scared by
intensity of the Elliot tickles. He is
growing into a baby and not just a newborn!
Day 11 (October 9)
Crossing
day! After Mac woke up early to feed the parking meter and to facetime with our
new nephew / cousin Ben Whitt, we roused the family, ate a quick breakfast and
headed over the Interislander ferry. To
call this ship a ferry is a bit of a misnomer – our ship was nearly 600 fee
long, could hold 600 vehicles and 1600 passengers. It was part of the longest running ferry
service between the islands – they run service from Wellington harbor, across
Cook straight, into Picton on the South island. The ship loaded cars and trucks
through and open bow and once we were on – there were five decks to
explore. This included an outside
observation deck, at least 3 restaurants / coffee shops, 2 movie theaters and a
kids play area. Washington state ferries
(while awesome and we love them) had nothing on this ship. After crossing ~80km of open ocean between
the islands in a bit over 3 hours – we entered the waters of Marlborough sound,
a tangled web of islands, peninsulas, estuaries and fjords with 5m tidal
variation. It is quite a site to see a huge ship passing through a waterway perhaps
only twice as big as the ship itself, trimmed on both sides by mountains. The trip was capped off by seeing dolphins
play in the wake of ship and being amaze as they actually BACKED the ferry into
the dock at Picton. Someone is quite an
impressive boat driver.
We next
got everyone fed, changed and situated in the car and took off on the on ~2
hour drive along the Queen Charlotte highway to Nelson. It was another amazing drive – essentially
the land version of the sea journey we just made. Twisty and windy roads, perched hundreds of
feed up above the sound.
Nelson
was a bit of a disappointment (way bigger than we thought), but we pushed on
through to a little winery that advertised a kids playground next to their
tasting room. We showed up with an
excited Elliot and….the playground was closed.
Not only that, but the wine tasting lady was extraordinarily unwilling
to even open the gate so Elliot could get in and rather judgmental about
traveling with two young kids. Luckily
Wes had a huge poop, because Mac was starting to lose his temper. Their wine was good, however, so we bought a
bottle.
Next we
headed to a little town called Mapua. Just a speck on a map, we found there a
great playground and a gastro-pub. The
fries, beer tasting, burgers, pizza and swings were exactly what we needed. We freedom camped at a DOC campground along
Nelson bay which was amazing. We had an
isolated spot right above the high tide line, looking back across the bay at
the city of Nelson. Other than Crystal
waking up in the night afraid the camper would get washed away in the ocean, it
was a great place to stay!
Day 12 (October 10)
We were
up early and cooked some eggs fast because we needed to be in Kaiteriteri by
9am to meet our water taxi. We were
going to hike the Abel Tasman Coast track!! The day dawned bright, warm and dry
for the first time in a week. We parked,
checked in and caught our boat (which Elliot declared to be a “medium sized”
boat after dad told her we were getting on a “small boat”). This was a 40-50 person powered catamaran
that pulled right up to the beach and extended a metal walkway for you to hop
on. They motored us about 90 minutes up
the coast and dropped us off at Medlands beach, a secluded little beach
surrounded by mountains and trees. The
entire Abel Tasman walk is one of the 9 New Zealand “great walks” and takes 4-5
days to do the whole thing. We were just
hiking the equivalent of a 1 day section – a bit over 11 km. The trial was AMAZING. We were up and down through rolling hills
estuaries and ridges – all while looking out on the blue Tasman sea. The rain stayed away and we actually had to
take layers off of the kids (a first for this vacation). Highlights of the hike include an long
suspension bridge (“bouncy bridge” according to Elliot), the little vacation
home town of Torrent bay where we had lunch (no road access) and running into a
nice German physician couple (neurologist and sociologist) who had vacationed
in NZ so many times, they just up and moved here. The hike was longer than we anticipated (the
route through Torrent bay at low tide cuts across the estuary but at high tide,
you have to tack on an extra 1 hour to walk the entire coastline). We barely
made it to anchorage bay to catch out boat back.
After
unloading from the boat in Kaiteriteri, we grabbed a ginger beer and some
chips, set Elliot loose in the playground and started to plan out the rest of
the vacation. It became pretty clear
that neither of us had a long drive in us and so we decided to spend the night
in the Motueka Top 1 Holiday park. Just
a 10-15 minute drive away, we pulled in, cooked a dinner of chicken vegetables
and rice, let Elliot play a bit more and then got everyone to bed. After the kids were sleeping, Crystal and Mac
mapped out the rest of our time in NZ, trying to hit the highlights of the
south island without an undue amount of driving. Then we drank some of the wine we had from
the Martinsborough region and hit the hay.
Day 13 (October 11)
We woke
up after a night of rain at the Motueka holiday park. We got Elliot and Wes showered and bathed and
then bounced around on the bouncy pillow for a while. A bouncy pillow seems to
be rather ubiquitous in NZ playgrounds – its about a 40x10 inflatable rubber
cylinder that is partially buried in the ground. You bounce around on it – it is great
fun! We then packed up for the first
part of a long drive to the West coast of the South island. We had about 4-5 hours of driving between us
and our next major objective the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers on the west
coast. We were prepared for some rough
driving, but amazingly, both kids slept.
This means we drove and didn’t stop for ANYTHING!! The drive was beautiful – winding in and out
of the north end of the Southern Alps, we dogged logging trucks, wayward
campers and overhanging rocks while enjoying a few moments together.
Just as
we were pulling into Westport, the kids woke up. This worked out fairly well, as there was a
delicious little French restaurant for us to eat in. The food was rich and filling and we actually
ran into a tour group of elderly French folks who were on our Able Tasman boat
the day before. While we couldn’t say
much to them, they all clearly loved Elliot and Wes. We were acutely aware of our American
personal space bubbles because they were violated repeatedly by well meaning,
but fairly handsy, French septugenarians. We love folks who love our kids, but
when you turn around and a stranger is touching your toddler without asking you
first – it’s a but disconcerting.
We
visited the Westport i-site (tourist information stand), which was
outstanding. Not only did they have maps
and brochures covering the next week of our drive – but they let us know that
Cape Foulwind was only a 10-15 minute drive (we thought it was 45-60 minutes).
This made a huge difference because a breeding colony of NZ fur seals was
easily visible from a ½ km seaside cliff walk.
While we looked out at the tumultuous Tasman sea (tumultuous doesn’t do
it justice, it was DRAMATIC – crashing grey waves, breaking white caps, setting
sun streaming through the clouds), Elliot couldn’t get enough of the seals
shuffling around on the rocks below. It
was the beginning of mating season and so there were several small territorial
disputes that were noisy and gave us something fun to watch. Just as the rain started, we tucked everyone
back into the car for a 45 minute drive to a marine sanctuary free camping spot
a few minutes south of Punakaiki (pancake rocks). We were able to pull right
out onto the sand of the beach overlooking the slate grey waves and spraying
water of the Tasman Sea. We had dinner
to the crash of the waves and moved the care incrementally several times to
appease our desire to optimize the view of the ocean without getting ourselves
stuck in the sand.
Morning at holiday park. Drive while asleep. Seal colony,
lighthouse at cape fouldwind, great I site, Lunch in Westport. Sleep at the
marine reserve past pancake rocks.
Day 14 (October 12)
We
started off the day with breakfast at our free camping site. The camper was CAKED with salt from the spray
overnight. We rounded up the family and
headed to Pukaiki (pancake rocks) in Paparoa National Park. An ancient rock formation with layered
limestone and mudstone that has been eroded to form a series of arches and
blowholes. It was a fun 45 minute walk
around them, although the blowholes weren’t really shooting water as
advertised. The waves, however, were
something to see as they flooded in and out of sea caves, inlets and land
bridges. There was a little café serving
coffee and pancakes by the parking lot for the rocks and we shared a coffee (a
trim flay white in kiwi coffee terms) and some pancakes with berries and
cream. It was then off to Fraz Josef
glacier.
A 4km
long glacier that rumbles down from the western slopes of Mt. Tasman and Mt.
Cook, Franz Josef glacier is famous as it is the global climate change photos
that you always see of a retreating glacier (ie the glacier looked like this in
1990 and now it looks like this). After
everyone woke up and had lunch, we packed up for a 2km hike to the end of the
glacier. Interestingly, the parking lot
was about at the point where the glacier was when first photographed ~150 year
ago. We started the walk through a
mature forest and slowly tracked our way up hill through more and more recently
melted out areas. We passed through
mature forest, young forest, shrub-land, mosses and finally raw rock and sand
moraines. It was amazing to see how much
the glacier has melted in the past 150 years and how deep the ice was. You could gage this by the presence of really
old / really big trees on the valley wall that were always above the level of
the glacier. It was actually pretty
impressive from the bottom – an ice fall several hundred feet thick – but low
hanging clouds and light rain kept us from seeing any higher.
We
packed up and headed to the next glacier town south, Fox Glacier, to stay at a
holiday park, eat grilled sausages and get everyone to bed.
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