New Zealand

Part IV: Ending on a high note

By Very Long Weekend

March 2^nd, 2017

Dunedin, the city of the south

After Queenstown, it was time for our last segment of the trip. We were heading for Dunedin, more as a pit-stop on our way to Tekapo than anything else, though we had heard good things about the city itself.

We got an AirBnB on Baldwin Street which happens to be the steepest street in the world. 35% grade to be exact. A bit of context for our San Francisco friends: Conzelman Road road on the backside of Hawk Hill is an 18% grade, so just double it and you get Baldwin Street. San Francisco, eat your heart out.

Fortunately we were on the lower part of the road, where the slope doesn't kick up quite as much.

Dunedin is named after Edinburgh, and actually feels very similar in most aspects (except perhaps weather). It's a big university town, with beautiful old architecture including the train station pictured below - allegedly the most photographed building in New Zealand.

Dunedin train station, the most photographed building in NZ

QUESTIONABLE PLACE NAMES

After 2 nights in Dunedin (where we basically gorged ourselves on Asian food and did laundry), we hit the road toward Tekapo.

Below is Shag Point (🤔), on our drive from Dunedin to Tekapo, via Oamaru. This reminded us of the types of houses you see around Stinson Beach along the 1 back in California. I got the drone out for some filming but a persistent haze (early morning flight) meant the video was meh, so here are some stills instead!

We made a quick stop in Oamaru to see a Blue Penguin colony just hanging out on an old boat jetty.

Lake Tekapo

We spent a few days in Lake Tekapo and were lucky to get some stunning weather. I'd been to Tekapo before and remember being struck by the beautiful blue hue of the lake - it turned out even better than I remembered.

This part of New Zealand was classified in 2012 as one of only four International Dark Sky reserves in the world, thanks to its extremely low light and air pollution levels (making it more conducive to astronomical research). We would be stargazing from Mount Cook in a few days time, so we decided to go to Mount John during the day to catch the views of the lake from above, and enjoy some delicious coffee at the little cafe perched on top of the mountain (check out that latte art #spacenerd).

In Tekapo I also got a chance to ride my bike a bit more. Rather than risk death by riding on the highways in and out of Tekapo (there is an astounding number of awful driving tourists here), I stuck to the gravel roads that surround Lake Tekapo. Skinny road tires on golf ball sized rocks made for some sketchy moments, but this was one of my all time favorite rides: I was completely alone, riding on terrain that looked like Mars.

Between Lake Tekapo and Mount Cook (our next destination) lies Lake Pukaki, yet another awe-inspiring glacial lake. From the South side you can look straight up to Mount Cook on the opposite end of the lake. Check out both lakes in the drone video below.

MounT COOK

Our last stop on our journey through the South Island was Mount Cook. And what a way to finish the trip…this place reminded me of Switzerland, but in an even more untouched and remote way. No matter where we looked, enormous jagged peaks rose out of the floodplains as far as the eye could see. We were in true ‘Lord of the Rings’ territory.

We stayed in a cool A-frame chalet in Mount Cook, but spent most of our time out on the hiking trails. Our first hike was an easy one to Terminal Lake, a glacial lake formed by the Tasman Glacier.

Surrounding the jagged peaks, we saw tarns filled with green rainwater and the dramatic contrast between them and the gray water of the glacier itself. And yes, the bits you see floating in the glacial lake are icebergs, large blocks of ice that have been torn off the glacier and floated to the end of the lake, pushed along by the down-slope winds.

lOOKING UP AT THE NIGHT SKY

That night we went stargazing. Or at least, we tried (twice)…Unfortunately the cloud cover was pretty bad and constantly shifting so it was very difficult for our astronomer guides to fix the telescopes on a given point. When it was clear, the sheer number of stars we could see compared to what might be ‘normal’ in other parts of the world was unbelievable.

Through a stroke of dumb luck Julie and I happened to be looking through one of the telescopes - aimed low in the sky above the ridge line - when the clouds cleared for a brief moment and we got to see Jupiter and its moons. Cool (#spacenerd).

Mt Cook - Hooker glacier

The next day we had another hike planned. This time it was a five hour out and back hike to get us closer to Mount Cook and its Hooker Glacier.

We meandered through the valley, constantly stopping to take more photos of the awesome views. Eventually, you turn a corner around one of the ridges and see Mount Cook directly in front of you. Seeing it this close was awe-inspiring. As New Zealand’s highest peak, Mount Cook is a monster of a mountain at 12,218 ft (3,724 m).

Men and women started summit attempts on this mountain in the late 19th century (no small feat considering the technicality of the climb and the lack of equipment at the time). A memorial to the many who died attempting the summit lies at the top of a small off-shoot trail on the way to Mount Cook, surrounded by beautiful views. Freda du Faur, the first woman to successfully summit Mount Cook in 1910 has her own memorial on a different part of the trail (#likeaboss).

Undoubtedly the most famous person to have summited Mount Cook is Sir Edmund Hillary, who reached the top via a first ascent of the South Ridge in 1948. Five years later, he and his Nepalese sherpa Tenzing Norgay would initiate a world first: reaching the summit of Mount Everest.

This place is steeped in mountaineering history, so we spent some time at the top of the trail on Hooker Lake (2,600 ft / 800 m) to soak it all in. We also managed to find a secluded spot on the far side of the lake to fly the drone around the lake, around some of the icebergs and further up the glacier.

After a few more photos, it was time to head back down the same way. The following day we’d be saying goodbye to Mount Cook, and goodbye to New Zealand shortly after that.

In just over a month we covered huge ground and got to see one of the most unique, untouched and least exploited parts of this crowded world we live in. This is a trip Julie and I will never forget.