Please pardon the delay on this- actually, the writing isn't what took me so long: the pictures are. The loading has been super annoying. Enjoy, won't you?
Also, about the map. Every light red section is the travel for the day; the maroon is the travel so far on the trip. Light red circles are where we stopped for the night.
The past 2 weeks have been one of indescribable surprise and adventure. This promises to be a ridiculously long post, so grab a pot of coffee, put on your comfy slippers, and settle in- it’s going to be a long winter’s tale.
This was Day 1 of our actual journey around South island. We had flown into Christchurch the day before, as was detailed in my last post. After waking up and leaving what we began to affectionately call ‘home base’, we fueled up on petrol and hit the road. As we were about to leave the city (of 360,000, the largest population center on the entire island), we came to a thought. We wanted to hike glaciers more than anything, but they were last on our list. Chances were that if we hit any delays we would end up without enough time to hit the glaciers; so, on the verge of leaving town, we made a simple plan amendment- we turned left instead of right. By making this choice, we now switched our entire route for the first week on its head- our first stop was now our last, and vice versa. What did this mean for us? It meant we were to drive through the heart of the mountains, straight through the South Island.
And what a drive it was. Imagine driving on a straight road, with plains on either side of you. Everything is flat, except for the massive byproducts of geological uplift in front of you. You are staring at the Southern Alps, a formidable mountain range that spans most of the South island. Those that live near the Rockies would look upon these peaks and barely gaze- they are not as large as that good ol’ mountain range back home- however, they are much larger than the Appalachians, and desolate. These mountains have almost no growth on them. The reason for this is something that is known as the ‘rain shadow effect’.
The rain shadow effect is a weather phenomenon that actually is very simple. As moisture comes in from the sea (or anywhere) and meets a mountain, it does one thing: rise. As the moist air rises, it cools (higher heights = cooler air, of course). Cooler air holds less moisture than warmer air, so it begins to condense and form clouds. The scientific term for this (if anyone cares) is adiabatic cooling. If the mountains aren’t very high, these clouds will condense but can get over the peaks. If the mountains are high enough, however, the clouds will continue to rise to try and get over the peak, until the air can no longer hold the moisture, and it precipitates. The Southern Alps are in this second category- the result is immense amounts of rain on one side, and perpetual dryness on the other. We were just entering in on the dry side of the range.
We began our journey through the mountains, and immediately were hit by a few things:
1. They were empty. There were no houses, no hotels, McDonalds, bathrooms, or stores. We would have to drive through the entire mountain range before we even hit a gas station.
2. Technology stopped. Cell phone, radio, all reception stopped. In North Carolina at least, most mountains have radio towers to transmit cell, TV and radio signals to mountain towns. This is not the case in New Zealand. I would find as the week went on that cell service would be a luxury.
3. Everything was smaller here. The highway we were driving on was a main road, but it was only one lane either way. This was a shock, even though I had been in New Zealand over 6 weeks. This main highway was literally as wide as my neighborhood street back home! As we passed through the mountains we would later find that most bridges were only one lane- one side had to yield to the other. Occasionally, these one lane bridges not only accommodated 2 opposing lanes of traffic, but also the trains- it is the first time that I can remember driving on train tracks, thinking ‘oh God, oh God, please don’t let there be a freighter on the other end of this bridge’.
After a few minutes of driving, the car had become quiet. The wisecracks and small talk that had possessed us as we were heading to the hills had ceased to exist. The only word uttered out of our mouths for about 3 hours was simply ‘wow’. I will not attempt to convey here the beauty that beheld us- nothing can. Pictures fall short- video is insufficient. Words are pitifully weak in this field as well. All I can say is, well, wow. I was naïve on that first day- I thought that this would be the most beautiful part of the trip.
A few hour into the mountain pass (known as Arthur’s pass, though I don’t know why they even bothered to name it, as it is basically the only pass through the Southern Alps), we got sick of not stopping to catch fantastic views of mineral lakes so blue they looked fake- we decided to take a small pit stop and catch some sights. We were making good time, after all, and hey, that is what we were here for in the first place. We pulled off at the last moment into a place called castle hill. Boy, did we choose well.
Castle hill, or castle rocks (depending on what map you use) is a limestone outcrop in the middle of a mass of mountain peaks. This picture is but a small representation of everything there- the place was wonderful- I wish we could have stayed for an entire day. The area is a series of large limestone formations, some of which are the size of boulders, some of which are much larger. Inside many of these (or in between the) rocks are tunnels that run between them, allowing easy access through seemingly impassible areas.
The closest thing I can relate this place to is Rohan from Lord of the Rings. I know I have said it before, but I will once again defend my claim that these movies are some of the best ways to get to know the geology of New Zealand. The most accurate representation is in movie 2 where Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli are chasing after the orcs carrying the hobbits. As much as it makes me cringe to make these comparisons (believe it or not, I did NOT come here to see where the films were shot), they are precise and do give the reader a good idea of what these areas look like.
On these rocks we met a pair of Germans and a few Americans- the Americans were heading the same place we were- Franz Joseph Glacier. We exchanged pleasantries and went on our way.
After another few hours, we noticed more vegetation on the hills and countryside- the area must get more rain. We saw a gradual, and then a very sudden change into a very wet environment. As we rounded a mountain, we essentially had our entire panoramic view changed in an instant. The mountains went from dry and desolate to alive and very, very wet. Waterfalls began to appear- and as we drove into the western side of the mountains, we began to hit clouds. The skies quickly turned from bright blue to overcast. The scene had changed totally- we had gone from scrub mountain range to rain forest in minutes.
When we arrived in Franz Joseph in the late afternoon, we had a look around town before arriving at our backpacker’s lodge. What we encountered was a town of about 300 people. It was really more of a village than a town- there was one gas station and half of a supermarket- there wasn’t a police station, fire house, library, courthouse, or anything else that one might think important in a town of any respectable size. The person who made and delivered pizza in town also was in charge of the Internet café and the town’s laundry services. All in all, the town was charming. It was also situated in the middle of the rainforest.
New Zealand has rain forests, but they are not what most people think. These are temperate rain forests- they aren’t tropical, but boast a wide variety of flora and fauna. Rain is a certainty, as you can imagine. It rained every moment we were there, but it was still beautiful. The mountains were continuously capped in clouds, so their true height could never be determined. They were majestic and mysterious- in a word, captivating.
As soon as we got out of the car, I heard the most beautiful bird call in my life. I would hear it quite often whenever we went into the bush in the next week. We got our accommodation, and went into our room. As we got there, we realized something strange- above our room was the sign ‘fire exit’. Peculiar, I thought. Turns out that our room WAS a fire exit- the sign in the room labeled the main exit out the front door. The secondary exit? The window. We were on the second floor.
ah! everything sounds amazing! your trip had an excellent start!
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