Here's an ironic little fact that I just realized: I don't think that I have a single photo of Golden Bay, out of the 100+ pictures I took over the 3 nights we spend in the area. How does that happen?
So we stayed at a pretty nice
Backpackers called
Annie's Nirvana in a little town called Takaka
(after weeks of pronouncing it ta-KA-ka, we learned from Simon that we were butchering it, and it's actually TA-ka-ka). The town and Golden Bay in general were pretty full of hippies and their culture, almost reminding me of home - if home also included sheep, rolling grassy hills and snow-capped mountains. Wait.
Taking full advantage of having a sort of base camp for three whole days, we got to make a lot of trips all around the area. Our first one brought us north of Takaka for an hour round trip hike to the beach - we'd heard that this was prime season to see seals (and baby ones too), but we didn't have any idea how lucky we'd be. First we saw about half a dozen young seals playing in a freshwater stream, probably a couple hundred yards from the beach.
It was pretty strange seeing seals outside of the ocean, but apparently it happens.
The beach there was really cool, with a bunch of variously-sized dunes there for the climbing (and
jumping). Out by the water, we ran into even
more seals, this time frolicking in good ol' salt water.
I've never taken more pictures of wildlife, but I think it was worth it; these seals were literally 10 feet away, seemingly oblivious to the 5 or so people just standing watching them - I couldn't believe that we could just walk right up to a beach with a bunch of seals (including pups) and not have anyone there to regulate how many people go to that beach, or how close they get to the seals. For the record, I love this. More later. And check out the adorable, makes-you-want-to-puke Kodak moment below for the seal pup.
We did a little shell-collecting too, and found some really cool little spirally white ones that looked like
this. At first glance, with their chambered shells, they look like they could be
nautiluses, but a little Google sleuthing led me to
Spirula spirula, a sort of squid thing.
Annnyway, the rest of the day we spend taking other little hikes near Cape Farewell, the northernmost point on the South Island. To get to the actual point, we basically just parked our van at the end of a little dirt road, and walked over a few hills full of sheep - clearly this is a famous spot. My sarcasm shouldn't degrade the place's beauty, though. Farewell Arch was really cool; besides being generally awesome-looking, the cross-section of the hillside revealed some sweet geology.
Looking at the picture, you can see layers of sedimentary rock sloping toward the bottom right, with alternating layers of conglomerate (darker) and sandstone (smooth and light). If you ask me, this represents a depositional environment with changing sea levels, from lower (conglomerate deposited by rivers) to higher (sandstone from the beach/intertidal zone).
The next day we spend exploring another area near Golden Bay, this time going for a hike through the sub-tropical forests along a stream. The trailhead was on the edge of the forest and farms, specifically next to a little snack bar/shop called 'The Naked Possum.'
What a quirky place: the outdoors cafe was furnished with a fireplace and large pieces of nice wooden furniture, while just across the driveway was their shop dedicated to selling all things made of possum fur. Also of note, the best meat pie I've ever had: homemade wild venison and wild mushroom, with a plum sauce on the side. Heavenly.
The last couple things we saw were just incredible. On our last day in the Golden Bay area, we first headed to
Rawhiti Cave (pronounced Rafiti). All we knew before going was that it's the largest cave opening in the Southern Hemisphere, but to get there, once again, we were driving through farmland, following little signs, which made you wonder...
how big could this really be if we have to drive down these little roads just to get there? Well let me tell you, it was HUGE. After a grueling hike up the side of this hill (which we didn't expect) we were blown away at this thing. It was probably 40-50 yards across, and 40-50 feet tall, at the entrance. From there, the cave slopes down steeply into the hillside, but doesn't go very far. We climbed down a little ways, and you can see from the picture how many stalactites ('tight to the ceiling') and stalagmites ('they might reach the top someday'). And of course, this cave is actively forming, as you can see from the steam and water splashes in the picture. Awesome.
After the cave, you'd think it couldn't get much better, but it certainly did. We made a nice little drive along the bay to Wainui Bay, a smaller bay within Golden Bay. Holy crap, just look at the pictures to see how beautiful it was there. Not only was the water super blue, and the sky clear and sunny, but the tide was low enough so we could go out on the rocks on the beach and just enjoy the view. To the right is Whariwharangi Bay, at the start of the
Abel Tasman Coast Track, one of New Zealand's
Great Walks. Also of interest here was that the rocks changed...to those who care, before in Golden Bay we'd already seen sedimentary rocks (pictured at Farewell Arch) and metamorphic rocks (which we saw near the Naked Possum), but here was a huge granite--that would be igneous--outcrop!
Crazy stuff.
For fear of being way too long-winded, I want to quickly follow up on something I said before, about regulation. From this trip, particularly our stops by the seals and Rawhiti Cave, if I've learned one thing, it's that New Zealand does not regulate what people can and cannot do in nature. That's not to say littering is legal--far from it--but rather that in situations where people are confronting unique flora and fauna, like the seals, or adventurous activities, like going in the Rawhiti or Dragons Caves, the onus is on you, the observer or tramper, to make the judgment that you think is correct. Your safety, and nature's, is in your hands to do with it as you wish. And people here take this seriously; New Zealand has an adventurous, outdoorsy society, but not a litigious one, for which I'm very thankful. That's all.
[Note: This is part 1 of 2. Just trying to keep it readable. Find part 2 here.]
Anyway, the road trip I took was, without a doubt, one of the most incredible things I did in my time here, and certainly ranks near the top of my list of favorite experiences ever (right up there with - among other things - getting on TV at a Red Sox game, speaking at my middle school graduation, Thanksgivings at Zin's, and spring break '07 at Lake Tahoe).
We started early on Friday morning, and with a healthy breakfast of a mince pie and V, we were off. Our first real stop was on the Clinton-Gore Presidential Highway - no joke. The sign is located, not surprisingly, on the road between the small towns of Clinton and Gore. No, NZ doesn't have presidents, and yes, these town have been around for a long time. Surprisingly, there's not much information online about this, but one plausible explanation says that it was named this in 1999 in when Clinton came to NZ for a meeting, and that a replica lives in the presidential library in Little Rock. Who knows?
We started the Kepler track in the early afternoon, and took down the first section (14 km, ~9 mi) in four hours, which is pretty good considering the 3,200 ft vertical on that part of the trail. Like I mentioned before, the extreme alpine conditions beyond Luxmore wouldn't let us go on, but it was still spectacular. Luxmore Hut was really nice, particularly the mattresses in the bunks, and even better, the sweet cave and views 10 minutes from the hut. Good times.
The next day, we hiked back out (after probably sleeping later than anyone ever has at that hut) and let me tell you, there is not great feeling than taking your boots off after a solid hike. From there, we drove a solid 513 km, which is only 320 miles, but on country roads that are often windy, it can take some time. It was a great drive (I got to get behind the wheel - see me in the zone above) and driving along Lake Wakatipu and then the Crown Range to Wanaka was something I won't soon forget.
We got to Franz Josef that night, and pretty much immediately crashed (having survived the trip on potato salad, cheesy poofs and potato chips). The next day, Sunday, I woke up a while before everyone else, so while I was entertaining myself on the hostel's porch swing, all of a sudden Nick, a student from Bowdoin in my geology class, walks outside! Turns out he was traveling around alone, so after my genius idea of making eggs and bacon (Kiwis eat all kinds of weird bacon, so for future reference, look for 'streaky' bacon in Commonwealth countries), we all drove out to Franz Josef glacier.
