Report from 10 April to 25 April 2024
From: New Zealand
Bad weather
Brewster hat
Back to the stars
National court
-Lake Tekapo / Lake Pukaki bad weather
I want to take stars, photographs and videos. As the population density of some regions in New Zealand is so low, there is little disturbance here. Lake Tekapo is well known among tourists because it turns completely turquoise in summer. Here, on a hill, there is an observatory with several different telescopes. I saw this as a good sign that you can see the evening sky well here. and maybe I'll also get to capture the New Zealand Alps and Mount Cook with the stars. During the day you can also have a coffee at the observatory. The plan is to leave the van in the car park of the coffee shop and enjoy the scenery and take pictures at night. While we sip our coffee and eat a chocolate brownie, this plan fails. In the evening, all vehicles have to leave the site, which is privately owned, so as not to prevent the observatory from working. So we make a plan of how and where we want to spend the next few days. The main goal for the next few days is to find a quiet, dark place where I can take pictures at night. Before we leave the observatory hill and continue our journey, I want to take a few more pictures of the mountain landscape. As I do so, I notice a cloud formation on the mountain range that is moving further and further in our direction...
As the wind from this direction gets stronger and stronger and brings the first drops, I start to play the weather services...
Everyone agrees that the region will be permanently under cloud cover for the next few days, bringing lots of rain.
This cancelled out the plans we had just made, we couldn't take any pictures with the clouds. It would also be pretty unpleasant with the wet and windy weather.
We drive a little further and set up camp for the night at Lake Pukaki. There are small paths and pitches right by the lake.
We decided that we would come here when the weather was better. Even if we're not on the hill then, it's a good place to take pictures.
So on we go, unfortunately we forgot Janine's flip flops here when we set off.
-Brewster Hut Glacier
Our next destination was back to Queenstown, where I wanted to finish off another ice cream sundae. and Finn had recommended that we make a detour to Brewster Hut on the way there. This mountain hut is located on Mount Brewster, near the Brewster Glacier. Of course, we didn't want to miss out on this. The "Hut" is a mountain hut with a dormitory where you can "spread out" with a sleeping bag and sleeping mat (on the 50cm or so that you book). These huts are usually well looked after in New Zealand and come in different designs. Among other things, this one has a kitchen in which, as far as we have seen, there is even gas and a cooker. The toilets are outside, and this one in particular is considered the most beautiful toilet in New Zealand... well, I think the view behind it was meant. The toilet itself was probably the worst I've seen in the whole country.
We have heard that the path is not always easy to recognise, so we decided to hire some extra security. For just under €6 per day, we got a PLB, a personal locator beacon. The device is hardly bigger than a Walki Talki and looks very similar in design. Packed in two cases, you can wear it on your belt and if you need help, all you have to do is unroll the long antenna, which is wrapped around the entire device. This reveals a large button. If you press it, you can't talk to someone like you can with a walkie-talkie, but the device starts to establish a connection via satellites and inform the emergency services of your current location. This sends an emergency signal, which ensures that a rescue team sets off as quickly as possible to help you in any situation.
Now we just have to pack rucksacks with food to drink and, of course, as we are in New Zealand, we also have to equip ourselves with spare clothes for all weather conditions. It's always amazing how quickly and severely the weather can change here.
Enough about the equipment, on with the hike:
In the morning, we first had to cross a cold river, which our trousers survived almost dry. Then we headed up the mountain. A small path, slippery and muddy, and in places more climbing than walking through the dense forest. As time went on, the path became easier. Shortly before 12 we reached the local tree line.
I think we arrive at the hut at 12:30. Originally we wanted to spend the night here, but the hut was fully booked. So we set off without sleeping bags and whatever else we would have needed for the night. Lighter luggage, after all. As we wanted to be well prepared, we already had enough luggage with us.
We then left a rucksack at the hut and only took the essentials with us. Behind the hut, there were a few tracks leading up a mountain;
There were a few stones piled up on the slope from time to time; these were the markings we followed from here on.
Again and again it was just scree that we climbed over and a path was often not really recognisable. We simply tried to walk in the direction of the next pile of stones.
Luckily there were a few others on the way with us, but we lost them after a while due to the clouds.
We then met a few of them again at the "viewpoint".
Here it went downhill again and if there were no clouds, you could see the glacier we wanted to get to from here.
From here on there was even less distance, but the rocks were easy to walk/climb.
At that point, we already realised that the way down would be difficult because we wouldn't make it to the car before sunset.
But we didn't want to turn round so close to our destination;
On the way to the glacier valley we also left the second rucksack behind, by now we had put on almost all our clothes and decided that we would be faster and more mobile.
Eventually the air cleared as we found our way up to the ice. We were standing right on the edge of the glacier.
And not on a viewing platform, but directly in front of it. We could touch it and climb on it.
A melting lake formed under the glacier, and above it a cave in the ice. You could even walk into it and marvel at the different shades of blue that emerged when the light fell through the ice;
On the way back, we now had to find the rucksack again, but fortunately that worked out well. The climb up the mountain was now very strenuous. After all, we had already been hiking for 7 hours, steeply uphill.
On the narrow paths we walked here, the visibility was also slowly improving, although this sometimes changed very quickly.
We repeatedly explained to the oncoming hikers how far it was. We also kept asking them whether they had a place in the hut or not and gave them an estimate of whether they would still make it back. After a while, we advised everyone to turn round. Because the path from the glacier back to the hut would have been too dangerous in the dark. Even with good visibility, we kept losing our way and had to walk back a bit.
A German joined us here, he also had no room in the hut and had to go back down to his car.
We had thought about spending the night in the hut anyway. We didn't have any sleeping gear, but we had enough equipment and could cope in the hut if necessary, as it was better equipped than we thought.
But since we had the better equipment, we didn't want to let the guy stumble through the forest on his own. He didn't even have a torch...
On the way down, we were joined by a couple of French and Spanish cyclists who also didn't have enough light. We were travelling much faster than expected, but still not fast enough. At some point, you couldn't see much without a light. And even with one, we kept missing the markings and losing our way.
At some point, however, we had to take a break, but as it was already pitch dark, it didn't make any difference. The French and Spanish continued here.
We could hear them making their way for a long time.
After what felt like an eternity (19:30), we arrived at the river.
Shoes off and trousers up... We'd hit a deeper spot than in the morning and hadn't rolled up our trousers far enough, but that didn't bother us any more. Just across the river. And on the other side, our bed and prepared food were waiting, just needing to be warmed up.
In hindsight, we should have just left our shoes on and walked straight through the river. The shoes are completely wet and muddy. At least then they would have been clean.
It was simply amazing to see the glacier and it makes me wistful to think that I will probably never be able to see it again. We met a Dutch woman at the glacier who told us that she had been here a month earlier. And even in that one month, she could see that the glacier had become smaller.
-Dunedin Steepest road in the world
To escape the bad weather, we travelled further south via Queenstown. One of the towns here is Dunedin. There is a Victorian railway station here, and some parts of the town are also historic Victorian buildings. There is also the steepest road in the world. All in all, not much happened here that is worth telling about, but I will include pictures in the photo album at the end of this post.
- Back to the stars
We are back at Lake Pukaki and the first thing Janine does when we arrive is look for her flip-flops. To our surprise, they are still exactly where we left them.
The pitch here is very idyllic. A mirror-smooth view in front of us, behind the backdrop of the Alps. There is no paved road within a radius of 2 kilometres. There is only one road, and it is a dead end. Sometimes you see another camper somewhere. As we're here because I want to photograph the stars, we don't have much to do during the day. Well, there's nothing here either... Not even a toilet. We are completely isolated. But we mix ourselves some delicious cocktails;
~# Cocktail recipes, with Nini #~
Vodka with lime juice (from the bottle for simplicity's sake) plus Sprite. It's tried and tested and delicious. In Asia we've made this time and time again. Excellent! We even usually had ice cubes in it. That's difficult here in New Zealand, they're only available in large bags and are more expensive, but you can do without them;
Just new from the inventor of: Vaileys (the Baileys in the Van Edition)! You need instant coffee, vodka, cream and sugar. The instant coffee is dissolved in the vodka by stirring, a sip of cream and some sugar are added - that's it!
One evening we are visited by a hedgehog.
Unfortunately, the moon cycles are not good for taking pictures right now. Out there, it makes a huge difference whether there is moonlight or not, so much so that the rising and setting times are each extended by at least half an hour, if not more. So I get up at 5am to get the GoPro and my mobile phone in position so that I can take pictures as soon as the moon has left. Then I have a sweet spot of about 30 minutes to take pictures and videos before the sun comes out so far that it gets too bright.
And then I waited for the sun to come out again to warm me up. After all, it's autumn in the southern hemisphere and we're close to the Alps. I didn't want to chase Janine out of bed when I was a lump of ice under the duvet.
They were lovely days. No luxury, no appointments, no tasks. We went for walks. We saw sunrises and sunsets, laughed a lot, talked and simply lived in the moment. We watched the lake as it changed again and again. One day it was clear as a mirror and the Alps were reflected in it, the other day we had high waves.
- You're not allowed to camp here... But stay one more night...
On the second day, a car rolls up in the morning and stops next to us. A man knocks on our car. He is from the council. The regulations have been changed for this area - freedom camping, as we are doing, is no longer permitted. But this shows, once again, that Kiwis have a different mentality. The man asks us how we are, where we are from and at the end of the conversation he says that as long as we don't make a fire, we can stay here for another night.
We are very, very sad when we have to leave this wonderful place the next day.
-National court
In the last post, we already mentioned the national dishes. Whilst travelling, we asked people from different countries what they thought. The most common answers were probably things like: Knuckle of pork, bratwurst, Frankfurter sausages, schnitzel, spaetzle. It is striking that almost everything contains meat. Usually a regional speciality is mentioned. But we come to a different conclusion. If you ask Germans abroad what they miss, one thing is almost always mentioned.
Bread.
(Our number two is potatoes)
On our trip, we hardly found a bakery that bakes bread comparable to German bread.
German restaurants are also hard to find abroad. In comparison, you can find Thai, Italian, Chinese and Indian everywhere. You could count kebab stands as German restaurants, but I don't really want to get into that discussion.
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