Great Ocean Road 12/26/16

So today started a little different than I had planned.  Was supposed to get up at like 6 to catch a train in Melbourne to catch my bus down the Great Ocean Road.  Turns out that didn't happen.  After a desperate call to the tour company they put me on the later sunset version of said tour.  While it didn't end up including meals like the original one I didn't blow my uncle's Christmas present by just not waking up.  In the end it actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Our tour guide was an awesome guy named Phil.  Before the end of the day I had learned that he was an outdoor education teacher in a previous life, had done a yearlong bike trip around Europe, and has the same back injury I do (herniated disc L4-L5).  I learned a lot from him but it started with the knowledge that his company sent 5 buses on the early trip and is only one of 3 companies with roughly equal market share.  He said that was about 500 people trying to blitz through the same 1 lane.  Meanwhile we were one of maybe 2 tours total which led to cool things like this:

Candid parrot shots

This is the closest anyone might ever get to a koala in the wild

There were parrots of many kinds all over the place and the beaches on the drive down were unbelievably beautiful even if I was cooped up in the bus for far far too long.  As we made our way into the 12 apostles region we started to do longer walks that were largely self directed (being that I was younger and quicker than the vast majority of the tour bus crew I got to do a lot more running around than most and even had time to help Phil pick up some trash at some of these sights.  The pictures from here are really cool.  

I think this was called Shipwreck bay

I may have jumped a less than safe fence to take this epic sphere

From Shipwreck Bay we headed to the 12 Apostles proper to watch the sunset.  This was something else entirely.  The sunset was spectacular despite the sky being largely covered by a wall of clouds.  I wrote this snippet on my phone while staring out at the sunset,

The colors are befuddling.  The gray greens and blues of the ocean raging around the muted sandstone cliffs under the flat gray clouds lie in stark contrast to the band of searingly hot metal, just pulled from the furnace to separate the sky from the sea. For four brilliant minutes it is like god fucked with the saturation scale of the world.  Everything is gray save for this one chunk of slowly fading pink sky.  As the last bright speck fades below the horizon I find myself forced to turn back towards the bus.

The cool thing about having made friends with Phil was that he gave me some leeway.  The next stop was a beach under a spot called the Gibson Steps.  It was only about a mile or 2 away and I was getting frustrated from being cooped up in the bus all day.  Since I could move so much faster than the rest of the group he let me just take the trail there and meet up with the group when they filtered back onto the bus and moseyed on down the road.

These pictures are cool but since I can never get a picture of the sunset to do real life justice I'm leaving my failed attempts out.  

The 12 Apostles

From the bottom of the Gibson Steps

We eventually headed back to Melbourne after all traces of the sun had disappeared.  We finally made it to around Melbourne and I crashed at a hostel because the trains don't run at 1 in the morning.

A truly epic day.

Slow days in Melbourne 12/22/16-12/25/16

After the last few weeks I'm relatively exhausted so I did very little but write and hang out with my uncle and his family.  It has been a bit too long since I had really good home cooked Indian food.  They really spoiled me with tons of fruit and piles of coconuts too.  My uncle did insist that I go see a little of what Victoria has to offer for a few days so my next few posts will be about those adventures.

This is what I have looked like for the last couple days.

FYI: My numbered day posts are getting a little more confusing to post so I'm going to switch to dates 

Day 22

Not as exciting a day as some of my others because it was a lot of travel time.  The Stray bus got me to Christchurch with a couple of stops to take some pictures.  This is one of my favorites as we were leaving Mt Cook.

Mt Cook sitting precariously on top of a road

More fields of those cool flowers

When we made it to Christchurch, I hopped a bus to the airport and got a little bit more writing done.  The cool bit was that after I checked in I got to go an awesome Priority Pass lounge (courtesy of my Citi Prestige card).  Free food and drink plus a helping of good wifi (still a surprise in New Zealand).

Yay free stuff

After a moderately long flight to Melbourne (4ish hours, 240NZD, Qantas economy) I found my way to my uncles house in the suburbs.  The one problem is that none of the unattended systems, like the train ticket machines, took an American credit card (no chip and pin, maybe I need a Barclay Arrival card).  Now for a few days of sitting on my butt and hanging out with family.

Day 21

Today was a pretty epic day even if it did involve a little too much driving.  The Stray bus went from Queenstown to Mt Cook today and the cool thing was the number of places we could stop and hike today.  This first sphere isn't of a real hike but it was a beautifully blue glacially fed reservoir.  The one shame is that the picture doesn't do the actual color any justice.  Like a sunset the saturation in real life appears to be more aggressive than in the picture.

Yes I did wade out to a rock in the lake

Yes I did fall in on my way off said rock and yes my gear is awesomely quick drying (PS that is Mt Cook in the background)

Since the sun was out in such force our bus driver added another short hike to the plan, we hiked to the lake underneath the Tasman glacier.  If you can see what looks like a dirt valley that ends in the lake you might be surprised to learn that that is the glacier, just completely covered in rock torn from the sides of the surrounding mountains.

Tasman Glacier

After that we checked in and got to go on another hike and this one was finally one of some actual distance.  We hiked up Hooker Valley and to the Hooker Glacier Terminal Lake.  The wind was abrasive and the sun beat down but it couldn't take away from this spectacular hike.

Looking up the valley just a mile or two in

Making it to the lake, yes those are icebergs

I love this spot

Found some floating ice near the edge of the lake and yes I did taste some (it tasted a little like rocks)

I found another rock in the middle of another lake to take another sphere from (this time I didn't fall in)

I did try and make it onto one of the icebergs but that water was to gray to see into so it was really tough to get my feet in the right places and before I had made it 2 steps my feet felt like they were going to fall off.  We actually had to walk all the way back to the hostel because our driver dropped us off at the start of the hike but it didn't make sense to wait when the hostel was only another mile away.  Instead of following the trail along the road though two of us decided to just cut cross country through the grass and were met with some stunning views and found fields of these really cool flowers

Said views

Said flowers

Day 20

Today was supposed to start by rafting some class 5 rapids in the morning and then bungee jump off the top of the biggest jump in this section of the world (143 meters) .  The morning went off without a hitch.  Rafting is a pretty spectacular way to wake up in the morning and while this didn't involve any spectacular bus sized waterfalls it was a pretty exciting river even if our guide was really conservative.  The last bit involved me leaning out of the front of the boat in a giant black tunnel to help steer before we end up coming down this beautiful rapid called Cascade.  While I don't have my own photo  I did find one on the internet.  Yes the cart thing is actually there, leftover from a local gold rush.

Cascade rapid (you can see the tunnel right above it)

The rest of the day did not go as planned.  When I went to check in for the bungee they told me that the wind had kicked up and it was unlikely that I'd actually get to go.  So I had to find something better to do with my afternoon than sit around and do nothing.  Turns out it actually worked out for the best because my afternoon turned out awesome.  I took a gondola ride up the side of a hill next to town and did a few laps on the luge (not actual luge, really cool cart things).  Really wish I could effectively post video right now but since that is a lost cause some pictures will have to do.  All I can say is that the view is spectacular, the luge is hilariously entertaining, and the weather was perfect.

The beautiful view

Some friends of mine from Malaysia that are on the Stray bus with me

 Me looking ridiculous with my Gopro riding the luge

These shouldn't be a surprise at this point :P

Day 19

Today involved waking up way too early but it was for a good cause.  I want canyoneering (but in New Zealand they call it canyoning).  It started with a water taxi to a nondescript hill covered in sheep and sheep droppings.  Then a horrendous hike straight up the side of said hill while carrying all the gear from wetsuits to harnesses while getting absolutely swallowed alive by sand flys.  We met a guy at the top who took the short way up (helicopter ride to the top) who made the rest of us rather angry.  Eventually after a fairly long break we dropped into this epic canyon as water just cascaded onto us.  We dropped down some rappels pulled ourselves along some handlines and even jumped off a 30 foot cliff.  All of which happened in freezing cold melt water.  It was a great but thoroughly exhausting day.  Unfortunately I have few pictures from inside because like everywhere else they want to charge for them and that just doesn't make sense to me.  So here is a sphere from outside on the nondescript hill that you wouldn't believe hid a canyon.

Day 18

TODAY WAS ROUGH, at first.  I woke up and packed up to get on the Stray bus.  Most of you who know me know that I've been late for a few things every once in a while.  By the time I got to the bus (5 minutes late) my seat had been given away to someone on the wait list.  My timeline being what it is I couldn't actually afford to stay in Wanaka another day.  So I had to book another bus to get to Queenstown today.  That was an unfortunate waste of 35 dollars, but I suppose it could be worse.  I did sit frustrated with myself for most of the rest of the day but I did make it to Queenstown.  Grabbed a phenomenal sandwich for lunch then spent the afternoon booking some adventures for the rest of my time in Queenstown and then wandered around town exploring.  Got a haircut and walked through Queenstown Park.  If Wanaka was the picture of how beautiful nature can be Queenstown was the picture of how beautiful man working with nature can be.  From the rose gardens to the trees from all over the world to lake that surrounds the park it is a very impressively well taken care of park.  The really impressive thing was that walking through that park melted my frustrations from the morning away.

 Mmmhmhmm steak sandwich with grilled onions and beautiful tomatoes

 From the edge of the park

A cool fallen tree next to a rope swing at the edge of the park.

Also I climbed a tree:

Day 17

The sun came out in force today so I decided to go for a hike.  The hike I really wanted to do was the Rob Roy Glacier hike but unfortunately it was an hour away by car and I didn't have a good method of transportation.  I did find a jetboat company that took you out into a neighboring glacial valley for a short hike so I ended up doing that.  Turned out to be an awesome choice because we had a couple of great drivers and we actually jetboated up some actual whitewater, legitimately impressive captaining.  The hike ended up being a super short walk because the rest of the passengers were a family from Singapore that couldn't walk 5 feet without stopping for a 10 minute photo session.  While frustrating I was in a spectacular place so it wasn't the end of the world.

For those curious these pictures were taken in the valley below Avalanche Glacier.

Small picture of the horse we road in on (tucked into the bottom left there)

Was a good but easy day mostly because it was gorgeous out and I met some interesting people.  Our captain was this very entertaining Maori guy who grew up on the North Island and in his spare time caught and relocated birds to nature preserves.  Our other driver was just on his second day and in his past life was a sheep farmer who produced merino for SmartWool.  

Day 16

Weather is a bit too unpredictable to do any of the long hikes that I wanted to do today and I'm still a little tired so today is just a wander around town and rest day (aka hide from the rain because it is scary).  It did also give me the time to work on my website and fix some issues with the blog.

Day 15

So one of the cool things about the Stray bus is that you are supposed to hop off when you want to spend a few more days anywhere.  I decided Wanaka was a good place for that so I'm actually staying here for a few more days.  I did decide to join the group before they left to a place called Puzzle World.  There are a ton of physical illusions and a giant maze.  Most of my pictures won't do this justice so here is their website: http://www.puzzlingworld.co.nz/.  I did walk my way through this epic maze that took a solid 45 minutes of running and walking.

 Obviously I chose the hard route and walked about 2-3 miles

After that I had to walk back to town because the bus was headed farther out of town.  Between the walking, the last several days of back to back adventure and last nights mountain biking my legs are officially Jello.  So I took it easy.  I sat by the water for a while then went to the hostel and watched a couple movies

Yes this is only a partial sphere (there was a tree behind me)

Day 14

Today was a long day.  We left Franz Josef relatively early and headed to Wanaka with a long stop in Lake Matheson.

Feels like something is missing

From on the water, still something missing

The lake supposedly has some of the most spectacularly views in the world.  When the lake is still and the clouds are somewhere else you are supposed to be able to see Mt Cook reflected in the lake.  Too bad today was cloudy and windy.  Still a beautiful place and a decent hike though.

This was a great picture though: Fox glacier from the side of the road on the way to the lake

We stopped for a moment here and there and took some cool pictures:

 Obligatory photo sphere of a waterfall

Pretending I own said waterfall

We did finally make it to Wanaka and I decided to take advantage of what little daylight we had left by going mountain biking.  Holy hell was that awesome.  I learned a few things: one, I'm not in good biking shape; two, I'm not as much of a daredevil as I used to be; three, I need to spend more time mountain biking.  Until I figure out how to effectively post video this still is going to have to do.

Day 13

Today was awesome, it started with a helicopter flight onto the Franz Josef glacier and by started with I mean started with because that was at 8 in the morning which is far far too early.  The upside was that I was on the first helicopter of the day which meant we mostly had the glacier to ourselves.

Because crawling under a bridge of ice is totally safe

One of my the best spheres I've taken

And one more because I really like taking these

It may have obliterated my budget but I loved every minute.

In the afternoon I decided to save some money and chose to go on a short hike that led down to a glacial gorge.

Said glacial gorge

Found this really cool red moss stuff

The evening included a gigantic beach party (sans beach) but I was just too tired for that and maybe a little homesick... So movie time. After it got dark I went on a short hike searching for some glowworms I heard about.  I found them ... all 4 of them.  That was cool...

Day 12

Today has been another incredibly long road day.  First from Christchurch to Greymouth then from Greymouth to Franz Joseph.  Aka on a bus basically from 8:30 in the morning to 5:30 in the evening... Life is rough.  On the other hand, tomorrow I get to hike around on a glacier.  It may blow like 4 days of budget but I'll have to find somewhere else to make it up.

Just one photo of what the drive was like

Day 11

I used the hostel to help me book an awesome jetboat trip last night.  We went to a place called The Squeeze, I think the pictures tell most of the story but my hiking friend, Nick, and I had a blast.

 The Squeeze

The waterfall at the end of the squeeze (that water is like a hot tub)

And the jetboat we rode in on.

I basically had to go straight to the airport from there which is where this is getting written from.  This is a one gate airport with actually no security of any kind.  I got here an hour and a half early... which turns out to be an hour and a half earlier than necessary.  Kinda stupid but very entertaining and free wifi, finally got to have google push my photos up.  Tonight I head to Christchurch before I head on my Stray trip tomorrow.  (Stray is a hop on hop off tourist bus company in New Zealand)

Added later: Turns out Christchurch is an awesome town.  They have the most epic playground ever.  I'm super jealous...

 Yup that is a hundred foot zipline

So jealous.  Three story slide, rock wall, and a giant suspended net just to name a few.