After spending a month in the wonderful Raglan volunteering with the Karioi project, swimming, hiking, and eating way too much sourdough bread from the local bakery, we packed up our car and hit the road. Our first stop: The Tongariro crossing, one of New Zealand's selected “Great Walks” .
We had three days of perfect weather backpacking, passing through three active volcanoes, the most famous being Mt Ngauruhoe (Better known as Mt. Doom from the filming of the Lord of the Rings).
Next we headed to New Plymouth, home of the fourth volcano Mt Taranaki. We camped in a Holiday park for about a week and spent our time exploring the area and volunteering with a Department of Conservation ranger learning about the new technology being brought in to help make trapping more efficient.
We just so happened to be in New Plymouth at the same time a Festival of lights was happening!
Our next stop was Wellington, New Zealand’s capital city. Tucked within the busy streets and suburban development lies a beautiful place called Zealandia, a completely fenced off eco-sanctuary where many of New Zealand's endangered birds have found refuge and are thriving. Starting the day after Christmas, Elijah and I had the opportunity to volunteer as biosecurity guards at Zealandia. Multiple cruise ships were arriving in Wellington over the next week and the sanctuary had a non-stop flow of visitors and tour groups!
Our job as biosecurity guards (trust me its a lot less fancy than it sounds) was to stop each and every visitor and ask them to check their bags for any seeds, bugs, and most importantly any furry critters. Most Kiwis are quite familiar with this process, however many tourists were very confused and often stated “But I don't have a rat in my bag!” to which I would calmly reply that it wasn't anything personal but an important protocol as Zealandia spent a lot of money, time, and energy to create the predator free sanctuary. Then most (aside the occasional very angry annoyed person) of the tourists would nod their head and check their bags and then head through the double door gate (another important precaution against predators) and gasp “Just like jurassic park!”.
Except its not--Zelandia is keeping the predators out and Jurassic park was keeping them in, and Zealandia is definitely doing a better job if I do say so myself.
Wrapping up our time in Wellington early January, we caught the ferry over to the South Island. Our first stop there was to meet up with our friend Clay in Kaikoura- a coastal town known for its diverse and plentiful marine life. Unfortunately, Elijah got very sick shortly after we arrived and his recovery was prolonged by the fact that he really couldn't get much rest in the crowded holiday park we were camping in. There was no shade during the day and the sun was so intense there was no way for him to rest in the tent. We would head to the library during the day to get out of the sun and he would try to rest there. Despite Elijah’s infirmity we managed to make the most of our time in Kiakoura. We went whale watching, star gazing, little blue penguin spotting, hiked up mount Fife to watch the sunrise, and I dramatically fell into the ocean because I turned my back to it one time (much to elijah’s joy, he arrived just in time for the show)
With Elijah feeling better we headed off to a permaculture farm for some hands-on learning about NZ style food forest. Clay was with us too and we had a great time eating plums, making jam, and celebrating Elijahs birthday.
Leaving the permaculture farm, our South Island road trip officially began. First stop was Hokitika, where we got to see glow worms and the glowing Hokitika gorge.
Then we headed to Franz Josef to see the glacier and hike. We had a beautiful campsite and an up close Kea encounter which led to the car keys being lost. Thankfully it was not taken by the curious Keas, it was left in the grass in the middle of the campground by yours truly who got so distracted taking this lovely picture that she left them in such a place that it took 3 hours of panic, unpacking and repacking the car, and running around the campsite to find them.
We did a couple cool hikes around the Franz Josef area, but the Alex knob view point was incredible:
Then we set off for another backpacking adventure up to Welcome flats hut. It was a difficult 10 mile hike that we over confidently started at 2:00 p.m. assuming the seven hour estimation was for slow pokes.
It was not.
We made it to the campsite just before dark but not before the dreaded sandflies went to bed…ouch.
The next day was spent working up courage to jump in the cold river and then running to sit in the very hot geothermal spring. It was great fun much worth the long hike and sandflies.
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