Backpacking Reports Archive

The day started out slow as I hiked up the mountain that I conquered with the skyline gondola the day before.  On top of the mountain I met some fellow backpackers again who where doing “the luge”, a 800 meter downhill concrete track. Unfortunately it is possible to “race” down the luge. Boys tend to be competitive, as everyone knows and one of the girls that joined the race was injured and had to stay in Queenstown for a about two weeks with a broken ankle. So if you do the luge, consider not doing a race with competitive boys!

After the hike I spent some time at a fea market in the center of Queenstown. Surprisingly, even there they accept credit cards! I also decided to attend a palm reader to get some information’s regarding my future, which was fun and interesting. Fortunately he told me that I was going to reach a high age at good health, which meant I would survive the Canyon Swing that was going to happen that very same day.

After the flea market I met up with Laura, a Danish girl and and a guy from Stockholm – somehow I always only remember girls names that I travel with – to do the Canyon swing. We were take to the Shotover canyon by bus and given the equipment and instructions to survive the 60 meter freefall.

I was placed into a full body harness and then attached onto a twin rope swinging system. I started with jumping backwards in the unknown. I had my camera attached to my hand so when I would jump it would film the whole scene. I wonder if my insurance company would have covered the loss in case it would have fallen of my hand…. But luckily it went right and I got a great sequence of my screaming and making funny faces. My second jump was called  ‘Gimp Boy Goes To Hollywood’, where I was put face first looking into the abyss . It was really fantastic to experience the  60 meter freefall and the 200 meter arc.

The feeling afterwards is unbelievable, its like flying and one hell of an adrenalin rush.

The road between Haast and Queenstown was one of my favorite parts of New Zealand. The beautiful Hawea lakes with crystal clear water and high mountains right next to it created a real Middle Earth feeling.  Our lunch break took place in Wanaka and I was almost tempted to stay there for a while. No wonder Shania Twain bought some property down here.

Kiwis (not the birds – the people) – tend to do crazy things like stopping at a random place, removing your bra and leaving it behind on a fence. And once a Kiwi (again – not the birds!!) – has a crazy idea there sure are some who will follow. So just a couple of miles away from Queenstown a fence can be found with hundreds and hundreds of bras – just like that. No deeper sense or anything. And thats all that I can say about “Bra Valley”!

Before we finally arrived in Queenstown we stopped at the Kawarau gorge, where some of the group started their “Thrilogy-Adventure with a bungee jump from the infamous Kawarau Bridge, where the commercial Bungee was born in 1988. I stayed right in the center of the city at a place called Discovery Loge.

My personal recommendation for hungry people that arrive in Queenstown: The Fergburger, a fast-food restaurant that serves burgers as big as – well, can’t think of anything that big! – No kidding!

Back in the old days, Marketing campaigns and TV-commercials where not invented and people where seeking alternative ways to advertise themselves and be remembered. The Austrian emperor “Franz Josef” like other royals in Europe at that time, had a very interesting way on making sure that his name made it into history books. He funded a guy named Julius von Haast to explore New Zealand, and when Mr. Haast found a glacier that reminded him of the beard of his King, he just named it after him.

But beside that funny story  about how the glacier got its name it is one of the most remarkable sights New Zealand has to offer. I did a ¾ day hike around the Franz Josef glacier, with sometimes scary views into dangerous crevasses. The tour was very well organized and all the equipment was provided. Me – always trying to have it “may way” hiked up the glacier wearing a yellow jacket resulting in sticking out on every image that was taken with the whole group.

After the hike we drove all the way to Haast, where I had a lovely evening by the bonfire at the beach with 80 % pure Austrian Rum (and a German girl).

New Zealand is a dream-come-true for male backpackers, actually about 70 %  of backpackers are female, somewhere between 20 and 30 – and most of them are single. I want to point a few ladies, Laura, Stefanie, Carlo, Emma and Jana, whom I spend some great days with in New Zealand and if one of you ever stumble upon those lines – thank you for a great time! As for the trip from Barrytown to Franz Josef – we stopped at a abonded gold-digger town, where I and some others discovered the area while others “enjoyed” shooting each other in a paintball-area or searched for gold in the river – probably to afford more Adrenalin thrills.

I’d say sailing around a wonderful bay is hard to describe with words, so I recommend you just take a look at the pictures. We spent about half of the day on the boat, exploring a little bite of the Tasman BAy, visiting the Split Apple Rock and going for a walk through the national park before we drove all the way to Berrytown, with a short stop at the infamous Pancake rocks.

At night we meet up with Kerry, our former Bus driver in the All Nations Hostel and most of my group decided to skip the free day in Barrytown and continue the tour with Kerry.

After almost two weeks exploring the North Island it was time to set sails (or get on a huge ferry) and conquer the South Island. This time with a new driver, nicknamed “Taxi” who we met in Picton, the port for ferries from Wellington. One of my fellow female backpackers  was so mad at him for making out with another girl, she constantly complained about him and just had to get down and dirty with  him to punish him – or something like that I guess… Poor guy! Rumor has it that he slept with half of the bus while on tour, but that might be and overestimation!

New Zealand might be famous for its Kiwis, but sure they have some excellent wine too. Shortly after we arrived on the South Island we had the opportunity fro a wine tasting at one of the famous Marlborough wine making area’s vineyards.  A few sips later we made our way to the Able Tasman National Park, named after a dutch explorer where we stayed for the night at a campground.

After being dropped of by Kerry and saying good bye to his crew I started to explore Wellington (Te Whanganui-a-Tara or Poneke as the Mauri call ) the capital of New Zealand. The city ranks as one of my favorite city now, it truly got soul and a unique “feel” with some very interesting sights. While I had to deal with snow just the day before, upon my arrival in Wellington the sky cleared up and I was able to walk around in T-shirt and explore the magnificent Botanical Gardens. I also walked all the way from the parliament to the Embassy Theater, where the world premiere of Lord of the Rings was held. At night I attended a CD-launch party of a  band called Odessa with fellow backpackers.

9th of October: Te-Papa museum Wellington

With another full day to explore Wellington and not having to rush down to the South Island, I choose to visit the Te-Papa museum (translates to “Our Place), the national museum of New Zealand. It has a wide collection of the history of Maori and white settlers. Debby Rothenberg, one of my fellow travel-companions is a stand up comedian and gave us an insight of her experience while traveling around the Northern Island. Having “a session” with someone dose not necessarily mean to end up in Bed in New Zealand, but if you ever meet Debby herself, just ask her and she will explain it to you!

6th of October, Rotorua
Rotorua, or “Rotten Egg city” is famous for Whakarewarewa , a little village build right in the middle of erupting geysers, hot thermal springs and bubbling mud pools. It’s a place where Maoris lived for many years and now offer an insight on their culture and lifestyle. Very convenient to have a pool of hot boiling water right in front of your house where you can cook your meals and wash your cloths.

After we left Whakarewarewa we headed south via some more amazing mud pools and the Huka Falls towards Taupo and it’s great lake (the world’s largest crater lake). Kerry, out beloved bus driver was a real story teller and every morning he would play the song “Me and my monkey” by Robbie Williams.

The reason he did so was to “honor” group he traveled with before us. The group consisted of about a dozen girls and one guy. The hostel in Taupo offers a room for 14 people so that entire stray group including the guy spent the night in one room. After a pub crawl and of course way to much alcohol the guy must have forgotten that he was in a room full of girls and in the morning started to “please” himself, which is also know as “spanking the monkey” Unfortunately the girls took notice of that and told Kerry about the incident it in the morning when they got back on the bus… After we where told the story, the hold bus started to crack up and we demanded the song every morning, and if someone joined the group forced Kerry to retell it, adding bits and pieced every now and then to the already raunchy story.

7th of Ocotber, Taupo to Whakapapa
Taupo is the capital of skydiving in New Zealand, unfortunately not on the 7th of October, as snow and strong winds kept planes grounded. At least for us, some early birds eventually got to jump out of the plane in the very morning while the rest of the group was still sleeping.

The plan was to do the Tongorrio Crossing on that day too, but as snow already canceled my plans to jump out of a plane, it also prevented me from doing one of the most amazing walks on this planet. What a shame!

While snow could keep me from climbing “Mount Doom”, it did not prevent crazy AJ and some other backpackers from doing a little walk around the national park once we arrived at the “Scotel”, a skiing resort that also offers accommodation for backpackers during the low season. Despite strong winds and sleet  we did a 2,5 hour walk. Unfortunately my jeans where frozen after that walk and my legs went numb. But its amazing what a whirlpool with six female travelers in it can do to your blood temperature in a very short time! At night two wonderful ladies prepared Chili con Carne for the entire group and we had a fun evening at the hotel bar.

One thing you should get used to when traveling on a time schedule is that staying in bed till noon is just not possible… We left Raglan at 8am and headed south to the town of Waitomo, famous for it’s caves and glow worms. We did a walk at the Ruakuri Reserve while the others went Black water rafting.  Waitomo would be a excellent place to spend some money for abseiling into the Lost Cave for about 200 bucks and other adventurous stuff, but New Zealand is full of crazy activities…

We then headed across to Rotorua for its geothermal areas, smell and ‘Slim’s Cultural Place’.  The cultural show was a real blast. First we had a hangi, a traditional Mauri feast, after that the guys learned how to dance the Haka, a warrior dance (I hope that video-footage of me never shows up online!) before we watched a play by a local Maori theater troupe.

The play was about a Maori leader married to two woman. Yet he was not satisfied and wanted to add another squaw. The real fun part was that, while one woman was played by a member of the acting group, two woman where chosen out of the audience. Unbeknown to the actors, one of the girls was an actor herself and was in her role within the minute. The other girl wasn’t one of the shy kind either and the chief found himself in the unusual position of three independent woman fighting for him. It was hilarious to watch! After the show me and my fellow stray mates attended a Karaoke contest next to the hostel and some backpackers even showed of their singing abilities – of course with the help of some booze.

3rd of October, Cormandel Peninsula

The day started with Kerry (or Possum, as he was called him during our trip) and his two trainees. After a short picture-stop at Mount Eden in Auckland we headed south towards the Coromandel Peninsula.

Another highlight for the day was a Stop at Hot Water Beach where everyone could grab a shovel and dig a hole in the sand to soak in the hot geothermal water. Once a quiet and secret spot for locals to hang out it has unfortunately (but understandable) become a very crowed place for tourists. I almost burned my feet there! Kerry recommended, that if we ever come back to New Zealand to go to the Hot water beach at night during full moon as there are no people there and its an excellent experience.

The evening was crowned with another encounter with the infamous “Kiwi BBQ”. Luckily this time there was enough booze at hand to forget about what I was actually eating.

October 4, 2005,  Hahei to Raglan
We started the day with a three hour walk around Cathedral Cove (the Maori name is Te Whanganui-A-Hei) and and a short visit of the beautifull Bridal Veil Falls. We then carried on to Raglan to stay at the Rainforest Retreat. The Hostel was really nice and layed back, no doors where locked and they had a lot of activities, like the flying fox (you have to experience it by yourself at night). In Raglan most of the group went surfing and ultimately decided to stay at that nice little paradise a couple of extra days with just a few of the group carrying on – including me.