Traveller's notes on Kiwiland

After spending 11 days in this beautiful country I feel entitled to write something about it. Someone might argue that I wrote more during my China trip because there was more to say but believe me it is not true - I still have to stop my head from spinning around from what I have seen so far and find my jaw which dropped somewhere around Auckland. Furthermore, today I had finished 'hiking' part of my trip and in front of me is the 'driving stage'. During this part I will drive northwards along east coast of both islands stopping to make pictures of landscape, penguins and to clean front of my car from the dead kiwis :) (no worries I had not hit any of these nocturnal birds although I have seen fair share of them killed on roads). Hereafter I offer you some sketches of my experience with hiking in New Zealand's National Parks.

As already mentioned previously nature in New Zealand is unrivaled anywhere in the world. After intensive thinking process I come up with the best metaphor or comparison; 'Walking around New Zealand is like watching All-stars game of nature'. Literally you can find here everything. From crystal clear sandy beaches of tropic jungle (e.g. Abel Tasman) to high mountains and glaciers of monumental mountains (Southern Alps and glaciers there) to fjords carved into the land (Fjordland) to bare volcanic country (Tongariro). And I do not even bother you with description of vineyards, valleys looking like cut from American West and coastal areas of Southern Africa or Mediterranean (eventually I bothered you but who cares :) ).

Even more awesome is the fact that New Zealanders value this beauty and try to preserve it - sometimes I have a feeling that they go overboard with 'Go green!' attitude but it might be only my Chinese re-education program speaking :) Grandgrandfathers of today's citizens installed the system of National Parks which are visited by throngs of tourists and are the best place to enjoy yourself (of course as a objective observer I have to add that their grandgrandgrandfathers plundered the country to the extent of exterminating 80 per cent of it's original forest cover - only after that their turned the switch to 'Go green!'). National Parks and scenic areas and reserves are maintained by Department of Conservation which is basically Big Brother for tourists in New Zealand (in a good way) and Ministry of Tourism, Agriculture, National Park overseeing body and whatever issue concerning nature combined. In these National Parks (NPs) you can visit so called Great Walks which encompass the most beautiful and unique parts of nature available in this country. There are totally nine of these walks and I visited three which are described below.

Tongariro (Northern Circuit)
The oldest NP in New Zealand located in central North Island includes two loop tracks (Northern circuit and Round the mountain track - as you can see kiwis do not bother with inventing ear-pleasing names). Northern circuit is included among Great walks and it is the one I walked. Only on this track I have learned that something like Great walks actually exists :) Track circles around volcano - Mt. Ngauruhoe (better known as Mt. Doom from the Lord of the rings trilogy) with possible side track up the mountain. Rest assured I took the side track and hesitated about throwing in my ring but luckily there was no Glum to bite my finger of and I still have 'One Ring to Rule Them All. One Ring to Find Them. One Ring to Bring Them All and In The Darkness Bind Them.' on my middle finger :) This volcano is pretty active one with latest eruption in 1975. On top there are still rocks hot enough to make a good stake or scrambled eggs and from the cracks you can see gases and steam getting out. Southern loop is around the mountain and is twice as long as above mentioned therefore I did not take it (it goes around another interesting snow peaked mountain/volcano which can be eventually climbed).

Abel Tasman (Coastal Track)
Abel Tasman is NP on the northernmost part of Southern island and includes incredible sceneries of sandy beaches and clear blue sea. On your way you can dip in whenever you feel hot or tired and camp on beach overnight. Track leads through rainforest or whatever you call incredibly green forest with fern leaves bigger than adult person and actually five meters high fern trees - absolutely awesome and something I have never seen before :) I was literally catching my dropping jaw all day long. On your way you cross three estuaries (two have high tide optional route and one ca n be crossed only during low tide) thus you should plan your journey according to low and high tide (I did not and ended up waiting / trying-to-find-my-way-across-the-bush for four hours).

Fjordland (Kepler Track)
My last Great walk was down in the deep south in country of fjords. Fjordland NP is the biggest NP of New Zealand and actually includes two Great Walks (also Milford Track). I took Kepler as it leads through higher alpine country and it is loop. Two thirds of the track are in forested area and remaining 20km are along ridge (including ascent and descent) of mountain range. The best time and views are available during sunny days therefore advisable is to plan your stay in the area for couple of days so you can wait out rainstorms (which are plenty as fjordland has 200 days of rain during year).

My experience suggest that all of the Great Walks are doable in one day (it took me two for Kepler and Northern circuit - mainly due to my inexperience with these tracks as I expected something harder and prebooked my accommodation) and are fairly easy walks. Tracks are very well maintained by park rangers and walked by huge numbers of tourists during the day. Therefore most advisable strategy is to get up as early as you can and be the first on the track - amazing experience believe me :)

Also I took half day glacier tour on Fox glacier (Franz Joseph is more popular and more famous but flat and thus more boring compared to Fox) while passing by Southern Alps on the west coast of Southern Island.

This is all about my hiking - further notes will follow in couple of days. I have to share with you one more thing - only mistake / fault I discovered about New Zealand so far. Winemakers here do not put corks in the bottles - all bottles have screws - so uncultural! :) Enjoy because I really do!!! :)