What a night!
It was extremely cold without the use of a sleeping bag, so I now know that those will be used extensively for the rest of this trip. I slept pretty well despite being freezing, so it looks like the makeshift home is quickly gaining gold stars. I was expecting that the van would be a lot smaller than what it actually is. The back is huge – the bed is about the same as a Queen sized mattress, and there is a shelving unit with a sink at the back which is absolutely perfect for storage. Our clothes, backpacks, food and cooking equipment is stored under the bed – which can be turned into a table during the day. It’s perfect, and I’m super excited to be living in this for the next little bit.
We woke up a little late this morning due to a lack of an alarm clock and grabbed a quick breakfast (granola bars) and headed for a 2.5 hour walk through the Aoraki National Park on Hooker Valley Trail.
The trail itself was an extremely easy walk, including a few slightly intimidating suspension/swinging bridges,
but the view around this trail was beautiful. It looked like everything was glistening from all the fresh snow that had fallen recently. The mountains were a pristine white, and upon gazing at them, Brandon and I heard/saw an avalanche – definitely a first for me! We didn’t go the full length of the trail, but made it up into the Hooker Glacier Valley which was absolutely stunning.
Before pulling out of our camping site, we made a quick lunch of chicken noodle soup and managed to leave our water bottles behind in the little kitchen-like facility – oops. I decided that I was going to experience driving on the wrong side of the road in the wrong side of the car… and what an experience that was. Let’s just say, I’m much better suited for driving in North America. I liked hugging the shoulder (a lot, counting by the amount of times I heard Brandon say “You’re too far left, Kat” in the span of time that I was driving.) and didn’t like the feeling of oncoming traffic. It felt weird, but eventually I (semi) got the hang of it.
Making our way to Dunedin was fun. We pulled over at a few places and took some amazing pictures. Our first stopped
was this small lake (one of the Waitaki Lakes – just before Otematata) that was surrounded by trees flourished with autumn colors, it was beautiful. Someone had also installed a tire swing that flew out over the lake, so Brandon and I took turns taking rides on that. I felt like a kid again. It was one of those moments where I felt so free, yet also so afraid of slipping and falling into what would have been a very cold lake.
We then stopped at the Benmore Dam in Otematata, where I encountered sheep up close for the first time in New Zealand, despite passing hundreds already. I’ve noticed that they are extremely untamed, and would run whenever I would get within good picture taking range. I still saw sheep up close for the first time, which was extremely awesome. I’m sure any local who heard me say that would think I am crazy. I also like the possums here, which are regarded as pests. I think they are rather cute, personally.
Our next stop was a quick stop at the Takiroa Maori Rock Art, just before Duntroon. Basically, it was huge limestone cliff face with carvings done hundreds of years ago – that for some reason have not been completely eroded away. It was actually super fascinating, even despite the fact that a large part of the site was closed due to falling rock debris. I was tempted to hop the temporary fence, but the view even from the car park was brilliant.
After I drove for a few more hours, we pulled into a grocery store somewhere along the way to Dunedin, and Brandon resumed driving for the rest of the day. We pulled over for dinner around 8pm at Boulder Beach -taking a quick walk down to the beach itself before making dinner, and we ended up being semi unimpressed. The boulders were small, and despite it being dark, there was a crowd of tourists pretty much blocking the entrance onto the beach itself. However, the location was desolate, and once again the stars were INCREDIBLE. I had said that I had never seen stars so bright on the way to Mt. Cook the night before, but this was 10 times as amazing. Brandon ended up taking a few long exposures with his tripod, and in one of the shots you could actually see how far they had moved – pretty much the coolest picture that I have ever seen.
After dinner we packed up and ended up stopping in Wairunga, one of the suburbs of Dunedin. We drove around aimlessly for a bit, before finding a grassy area right beside what looks like a stunning beach. It once again is completely dark and I have no idea what exactly the area looks like around us, but you can hear the sound of the waves crashing up on shore only a few meters from the van. It’s incredibly soothing. On another plus side, we do not have to pay for camping tonight, even though the Dept. of Conservation doc sites are incredibly cheap to stay at – on average $5/night per person.
I was expecting it to feel a lot colder as we moved more towards the deep south of the island, but it is almost pleasantly warm outside – or maybe it’s just the fact that the incredibly fluffy sleeping bag is all rolled out and ready to be crawled into.
Once again, New Zealand continues to amaze me. We drove through a few Lord of the Rings locations today (according to my awesome location guidebook that Brandon bought me for my birthday) and the nerdy side of me is just reveling in the fact. I can honestly say I have never been anywhere so beautiful and majestic in all my life.
New Zealand 2010 
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