- My first flight leaves Detroit Monday at 4pm and arrives in San Fran 5 hours later (6:15pm local time)
- An hour and a half later I fly to Auckland, which is a 14 hour long flight. The plane lands Wednesday at 6am.
- Six hours later I fly to Queenstown (in the southern part of the country). I arrive at 2:30pm.
- I have 2 nights booked at the Kingsgate Terraces Hotel, a 10 minute walk from downtown Queenstown - the adventure capital of the world. I am going to use this time to rest, buy food for my hikes, and take care of a couple loose ends. (I still need to figure out transportation to and from the Routeburn Track). I also might go up the gondola, which seems to be something you just HAVE to do when you're in Queenstown.
- On Friday morning at 6am Naked Bus takes me on a 200km long journey to Te Anau, the gateway to Fiordland National Park. I spend a night there, and the next day a bus takes me to the reason why I'm in New Zealand in the first place.. THE MILFORD TRACK (Actually, the bus takes me to a boat, which is what takes me to the start of the track (kiwi for trail), but writing it like that makes it sound less dramatic)
The Milford Track is a 55km 4 day long hike, one of New Zealand's 9 Great Walks, sometimes dubbed "The finest walk in the world". It starts near Te Anau, and ends at Milford Sound, the 8th wonder of the world.. or so the Kiwis claim, anyway! The background image I'm using for this blog is of Milford Sound
Here's a map of the region so that you can follow along. Blue is bus, yellow is boat, and black is hike
The yellow part of route is the boat ride that takes me to the start of the track, which is coloured in black. The green huts you see on the track is where I'm going to be sleeping in dorm-style huts, with 39 or so other travellers... We're all walking the track in the same direction and on the same schedule (traffic on the track is very tightly controlled), so I should be able to make some friends in the 4 days that it takes to get to Milford Sound.
Beautiful Milford Sound.. where I will be spending 2 nights, mostly resting from the long walk.. taking in the scenery.. and taking a scenic cruise of the area. After that? A bus ride through the Homer Tunnel (the only way via car to Milford Sound) to what's known as 'The Divide'. From there I am going to be walking the 32km 3-day Routeburn Track, another Great Walk! and if all goes well, I will eventually end up back in Queenstown, on Saturday, the 4th of December ;)
And after that? I have a route planned, but I'm not sure how much time I'm going to need to recover from all the walking (with a giant backpack on my back). Basically I am going to be making my way north back to Auckland, which is on the northern part of the North Island, and where I'm flying back home from on December 22nd.
Here's a map of the plan.. which could change.
The blue lines are bus, red is rail, and yellow is boat/ferry. Like I said, some of this could change, but I am definitely going to be stopping by one or both of the glaciers (Fox & Franz Josef), taking the scenic train from Greymouth to Christchurch (the first red line), and hopefully stopping in Kaikoura for some Whale watching. On the north island my first definite stop is another great walk - the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. It's a day hike, about 18km in length, takes about 8 hours, and passes right by Mount Doom (from Lord of the Rings). It's supposed to be an incredible experience, so I don't want to miss it.
After that it's off the train and back onto buses - through Taupo and Rotorua, on my way back to Auckland. I really have no idea how much time I'm going to have, but I would like to stop in at least Rotorua if I can - to check out some geysers and other thermal thingies.
As you can see my plan is action packed, so.. expect it to change.
That's it from me for now.. I'm not sure when you'll hear from me next. zzzz
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