Travel log of Eli and Anna Bendersky

Hi all,

We had great two weeks in which we explored the south island, and did a lot of tramping (the Kiwi (New Zealand-ish) term for trekking, bushwalking, hiking, etc.).

On January 16th we left Christchurch to Arthur’s Pass national park.

The “Southern Alps” area has only one road to pass between the eastern and the western coasts of the south island. This is the road we drove, and in its middle there is the Arthur’s pass village.

We stayed at the “Mountain House” lodge, which was very nice. It is a small house containing a kitchen, a lounge (with a fireplace!), two bathrooms and toilets, and four rooms. The high quality of the accomodation just surprises us each time anew.
We find the places to stay here using a free BBH booklet - it contains a list of all of the hostels that belong to the BBH organization, and each place has a “BBP” rating. So far we stayed at places with rating over 79, and all were really good (the Mountain House had rating of 85…).

In the Arthur’s pass area there are many treks to choose from. On the first day in the area we did several short walks, and on the second day we did the famous “Avalanche Peak” walk which is considered as the most spectacular day-walk in the south island.
The walk was basically 3 hours climbing up the mountain (from 700 to 1800 meters) - watching the views from the peak - and 3 hours climbing down the mountain. The day we walked was cloudy in the morning, so on our way up we did not have much view, and when we got to the top, we had to wait for an hour for the clouds to dissolve. It was really cold at the top, and we wore many layers of clothes (and it was still cold!). But the views were surely worth it:

There was one bad thing about this trek, though. Anna forgot to put sunscreen on her ears (it was cold! and windy! and cloudy!), and they got burnt pretty badly. But they’re OK now, don’t worry

New Zealand has unique wildlife. One of the native birds is the Kea - a big, green and red parrot that lives in the mountains and is very inquisivite - keas usually aren’t afraid of humans and will even steal food from backpacks and tear down the rubber around car windows as a “game” (they’re quite big and have a strong beak and claws). Signs everywhere say not to feed them, because this makes them dependent on humans (and hyper-active).

After Arthur’s pass we drove to Lake Tekapo, and from there we visited Mount Cook (the highest mountain in New Zealand - about 3800 m). Unfortunately the weather was pretty bad that day so we didn’t get to see much. We did a short 2 hour walk under the rain and saw a couple of glaciers, however. When we came back to Lake Tekapo the sun was shining again - the weather here is very unpredictable and changes quickly.

On the 21st we arrived to Queenstown - a small town with a very developed tourism industry - right in the center of some of New Zealand’s best trekking areas (in summer) and ski slopes (in winter). We spent a couple of days there walking around - and did a day walk that climbed onto one of the hills behind the town.

On the 24th we began the 3-day Routeburn Track - one of the “great walks” of New Zealand, stretching over 35 kilometres in Mt Aspiring and Fiordland national parks. The track began with a hour long ride from Queenstown (where we left our car), and from there we plunged into the bush with the backpacks on us (including dishes and food for 3 days).

The first day of the Routeburn is the easiest and we reached the first hut shortly after 1 PM. As the weather forecast for the next day wasn’t too favorable, we were adviced to climb uphill to the Harris Saddle, which is actually part of the second day, to enjoy the view before the rain comes.

We did the climb (leaving our backpacks in the hut, so it was easier), and added another side walk (a steep climb to Conical Hill), but it was cloudy so we didn’t get to see much and came back down. Instead of an easy 3.5 hour day we got a 7.5 hour one, but still it wasn’t very hard. The huts on the track are quite nice - the kitchens have gas stoves and running water (very cold !). There are about 25 people sleeping in the same (large) room in 2-level bunks, but when you’re tired after a day of walking it’s still easy to fall asleep

On the second day the weather was indeed far from optimal - it was very cloudy and drizzling most of the way. We reached the second hut - at lake McKenzie at 1 PM and had the rest of the day to relax. Luckily, the skies cleared and we could catch some nice views of the lake and the surrounding mountains.

The 3rd (and last) day was also quite easy. The weather was excellent so we climbed the Key Summit for a few panoramic views. There was also a very beautiful (almost 100 m high) waterfall along the way.

We reached the end of the trek (The Divide shelter) at 2 PM and our ride back to Queenstown came at 4:30. All in all we found Routeburn quite easy, and we surely could have done it in 2 days without overstretching ourselves too much. It was nice to take it easy though, and just enjoy the quiet nature - an almost complete retreat from civilization.

We spent the night at Queenstown and in the morning packed the car and headed east - to the Otago Peninsula. We have a lodge booked here for 3 nights (a very small hostel on a sheep farm, with a wonderful view of the bay and the ocean).

Here’s our route so far:

That’s it for now. There are more photos at the photo album.

Hugs,
Anna & Eli

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