Navit & Izick Traveling Around The World

יום שני, ינואר 15, 2007

Gillespie pass Track - 4 in one

As you already knows from the last post, we went on another track - The Gillespie pass Track.
I know that it seems that we are always doing tracks, but there is not much to do here except for tracks and there is a lot.
Being in the nature is the main activity for the kiwi person.
It also happened that the last month we have been in an area that most of the good tracks are located in. And for those of you who knows Izick, if someone tells him that this is the BEST track, he must do it. Even though those 4 track we have been were THE BEST track.
So, Roie, we are not in "TERONOT", but it definitely feels like it.

So, last week on Saturday we arrived to Makaroa. I can't really say it counts for a town, since the total population in this area is 40 people. There isn't much over there, except for the motel / motor park we stayed in, and all the information about the activities in this place (which are mostly different kind of walks) are centralized in this place.
So, before even getting our room key, Izick went right a head and asked about the track. We tried to reach the DOC, which is the high authority for all the tracks in New Zealand, but we were told they don't work on the weekends. Typically to the Kiwi's we thought, they don't have any business sense, closing the office for the weekend when all the tourists and the locals travels.

Quickly enough, Izick found someone else to ask about the track. According to that person we had to cross some rivers in order to do this track. He asked Izick if he had any experience in crossing rivers. Izick, just jump and said "yes". I, on the other hand, told him that crossing the "BANIAS" doesn't count for experience in crossing rivers, and I'm not about to do it.
The rivers in New Zealand look very calm, but they have very strong currents and people drown in them. (Just like they say in "ABA GANOV" movie about the "KINERATE").

Well, you already knows that we did the track, so you probably think how we overcome those obstacles. So, remember I told you there are 40 people in this town, and they all need to make a living. So, at the start of the track, we had a jet boat that took us to the start of the track.
The ride was quite fun and we really liked it. The end of the track is a completely different story and you will have to continue reading before you will know the end.

The first day of the track, was just like all the tracks we have done so far. we walked mostly in the bush, but this time we walked next to the river so the views were quite amazing. A little bit like Santa croz, for those of you who have been in Peru.

From Gillspie Pass...

There was one part of the track that I just freeze and from that point on just saying that I really don't understand why I'm still doing those tracks.
There was a track damage, which force us to lean on a cliff and passing it with no signed route and the only thing I saw was the river underneath and just frightehen that it will be all over. Believe me, it's not something you want to do, and unfortunately I had to go thought something much horrible and terrifying at the next day of the track.

From Gillspie Pass...

The next day was the hardest day of the track. We climbed to the pass which was about 1000 meter climb. The only way I can think of describing how the climb was is, if someone had hold a camera from way above the sky and filming me and Izick, he would probably thought he was filming the next movie of spiderman. The climb was so steep and weather was terrible and on top of the rain that we already got used to, there were some strong wind, and believe me, it didn't help us to get to the top any faster.

From Gillspie Pass...

After 4 hours walk we reached to the top and just when I thought it was over,the snow has arrived. The mountain was covered with lots of snow, about 1-2 meter height. At the Beginning me and Izick tried to walk on it, but when we first fall, we realized that the best way will be to just slide it on our asses, and we did it all the way down. It was fun at the beginning, but it was also very dangerous, since there was so many rocks and our asses didn't exactly point us to the right way.

From Gillspie Pass...

After passing this part I thought to myself, hey, I can see the river down the hill. I'm probably very close, but it's never like it, the way down was long and hard for me, since my knees are permanently hurts.
finally after 12 hours walk we reached the river flat, and from there we had an easy walk to the next hut. I must admit that the way was easy, but not when you are walking 12 hours and your knees hearts. Izick was truly a gentleman all the way. He stayed with me all the way down, even though he could do it in half the time, always helping me at those big rocks and roots we had to pass on our way down.

From Gillspie Pass...

The next day was just like a dream. Izick went with 2 other Israeli's to a day walk and I stayed at the hut to rest. It was unbelievable feeling to be so relax at the morning at the hut. Not waking up so early and knowing that there is no walk for the day.
Only the picture can tell, where izick went. However, it seems that he really enjoyed it especially because this time no one slowed him down.

From Gillspie Pass...

The 4th day of the track was the last day of the track. As you remember from the beginning of the post I promised to tell you how we crossed the second river. Well, this time we had a new adventure. From the hut we could choose one of 3 ways to finish the track: first, the old fashion way, just walking till the end and crossing that last river. Second, walk for about 3 hours and than catch a ride on the jet boat for about half an hour. Third, catching a plane from the hut, and after 10 minutes to finish the track.
Of course you probably already guess, what was our choice. Yes, we choose the plane.But, it wasn't that easy, the plane only arrives in good weather condition and only if people from Makaroa took a scenic flight from town. The thing is that the reason we had this choice is only because the plane brings people to this point to do what it called "The Siberian experience" and then returns empty, so he is willing to give people on there last day of the track a lift back to town (40$ each).
The night before we crossed our fingers that everything will go fine and a plain will arrive.
I woke up very early in the morning, checking the weather, it doesn't seem very promising. Still I didn't gave up and went to wake up izick and those 2 Israelis, making sure all of us will be ready when the plane will arrive. At 9:00 the ranger came and told us there will be 2 planes coming today, one at 10:30 and the second one at 12:00, we all were very happy. You just can understand the joy a person can have when he is told that a plane can come and pick him up in the middle of the track, saving him 26 kilometers from the track.

At 10:15 we went to the landing area to waited for the plane. We still had to cross a river. We send Izick to be the first one, and to check if we all can enter the plain (Cecna plane has 3-4 seats).

From Gillspie Pass...

10:30 already passed and were sure no one will come for us. And than, just at the last moment when I almost gave up, I heard an airplane in the sky. I'll make the story short, the plane has arrived, we all cross a river and we all (4 people) went on the plane and after 10 minutes we were back at the start of the track.

From Gillspie Pass...

Happy that everything was behind us (especially me) we continue with our journey, and still on our way to the next city Izick make sure we had some more walks, so we climbed on another mountain - Hassat Pass. From this point we where on our way to Fox Glacier.

יום שישי, ינואר 05, 2007

Pictures

Remark - each picture bellow is a link to more picture. So click on them...

QueensTown -

On our way up in the Gondola. In the top we did something that called lugue. It's a really fast ride in a very small car. (press on the link bellow to open the albume)

Queanstown

Wanaka City - Puzzling world
This place is full with all kind of allusion...

Wanaka - Puzzling world

Mount Asparine national park - Rob Roy track

Rob Roy - Day trip

Wanaka - Day trip

Diamond lake

From Wanka - Day T...

Mount Iron

From Wanka - Day T...

shiny hot New Zealand

An amazing event has just accrued in New Zealand. The sun has come out, and not just for 2 or 3 hours, for 5 hole days.
You can't believe what it doe's to the local kiwi person.
We are now in QueensTown, one of the ski resort in New Zealand, but it seems that when the sun comes out it's like Eilat combine with "Lel Ahava" in "Zemach" (Tebaria).

All the local people from all around New Zealand come here and to Omarue (The previous town we have been) to do camping!!! not to go to an hotel or something more suitable for a vacation and just laying on the lake's beach and trying to fry themselves.

I'm not sure if you all aware to the fact that New Zealand has a very dangerous sun, due to the big hole in the ozone they have in this area. Now, the really funny thing is that the big hole they have here is because of all the sheep they have here (and they have a lot!!!). If you now try to figure out what to sheeps and the hole in the ozone layer, then I'll tell you - They fart a lot... Yes, I must tell this is the truly honest truth.

Ok, now back to my story.
So They are doing camping, catch some sun and doing lot of water activities. And all the activities is with stuff they brought from home. Like Jet sky, Jet Boat, Kayaks and so on.
They are truly spacial species that we the Israeli can't understand.
Every day that goes by here we are amazed by their behavior and their mentality.

At first, I thought that it's my mouracin genes that make me so annoyed with everything they are telling us or they do, but even Izick started to say they are getting on his nerves.
The funny thing, is that in general they are very nice people and they are very polite and everything, but they are the total opposite of the typical Israeli person. And even thought we say that the typical Israeli person is not a nice role model, still I hope that some of our nature will rube on them.
Ok, enough talking about the local people.

You probably think how it is that we have a lot of time to write in our blog? well, the thing is that I'm all a lone now after Izick left me and went to do some rafting.
If you ask why I'm not with him? well, I'm not crazy and I'm not about to kill myself for 4 hours rush in the New Zealand's water.
On the other hand Izick really wanted to do it, so I'm not about to stop him. Although I must say I really worry for him right now.

Tomorrow we continue with our driving to Makaroa. From there we are about to go on the Galespy pass track. It spouse to be 3 night track.
I hope that this track will be better then the last one (remember Izick post?).

יום חמישי, ינואר 04, 2007

One Track Too Much - The Routeburn track

Notice: this post was written by izick and therefore reflects his ideas and thoughts. Navit may held a very different opinion about this track.

Well, after doing 2 tracks in te anu, we decide to leave the nice township and move to our next destiny - Queenstown.
The road from queenstown was very beautiful and peace, as all the roads in new Zealand. After a short 2 hours drive we reached our destination. As always, the first thing we did is to get into the information site and ask if there is a good place to sleep in Town for our price range. Well, they told us that as far as they know there is now budget accommodation in town for the next few days because of the new years eve. Appertanley, Queenstown is a very popular destination for new year's celebration and therefore the city is full with vacationers from all over New Zealand, as well as heaps of tourists. Think of Eliat in Peasch or Sochot and you will get the picture.
Nevertheless, we still didn't lose our hopes and tried driving around Town in search for some kind of place that will let us put our head down in this busy time.
Well, we found it. Not far from the town center we found the aspen Lodge, it even had a double room for us (not dormitory!).
It was a very nice place and we were very happy to find it. After we settled down, we went to find out when can we book the routeburn track.
The plan was to make the routeburn track with connection with the greenstone track in order to get back to glenorchy - the starting point of the routeburn track. The other option was to walk the routeburn only, which means that we have the take a very expensive bus from the divide (the end point of the track) - near milford sound back to queenstown, which means paying 67 NZD per person!
At first our mind was set on staring the track on Saturday, but the only place they had left is for Friday, so we booked it. We also bought tickets to the green stone huts, which didn't require any booking. We were very happy to hear that we got a spot and we started to plan what we will eat and even made some shopping in order to get ready to the track. We still had one more day to kill before the track so we decided to go to Air New Zealand office in town and try to postpone our flight.
Our original flight out of New Zealand was on the 20th of January, which meant that if we don't postpone it, we will have only 3 weeks left for our trip and we are still only about half way through the south island, not to mention the north island and selling our car. In short, we are very short in time! Any how, we went to their office and asked if they have any place at the 20th of February, which will probably will be enough for us in order to cover all the things we want to do in New Zealand. To our very deep disappointment the Clark at the office said that they don't have any seat left until April. Which means that we very short in time! OK not to panic. Navit had an idea. We will go and try to plan our time very well in order to get the most of our time in New Zealand.
We made a calender describing what we are gonna do for every day till the end of our trip. As anyone who knows me can tell, i hate planning ahead and to be pressured with time. It not my kind of trip. One of the purposes of taking this trip around the world is to relax and take the time and not to run from place to place in order to catch as much as we can.
Anyhow, this was our destiny and we have to deal with it. This also meant immediate consequences. We decide to skip the greenstone track and make the routeburn only in two days.
Since the routeburn is suppose to be a 3 days track, we walk to the 2nd hut in one day (2 days in 1 day - around 10 hours walk) and in the last day we will walk to the end of the track and take the expensive bus back. It sounded reasonable in theory, but in practice it was very hard.
First of all, we had to book all the transport, which is a bus from Queenstown to the start of the Routeburn and then a bus back from the divide to Queenstown.
However, puting our plans aside, the buses was fully booked! The only choice we had was to drive mid way to Glenorchy, leave the car there and then catch the bus to the start of the track. This means that we have to catch a bus from Queenstown to Glenorchy after the track in order to fetch our car back. In order to do so in one day and not have to wait another day we had to catch the 10:15 bus from the divide to Queenstown and then catch the 3:30 bus to Glenorchy and get our car back at the end of the track. The only problem was that since the last day of the Routeburn is about 4 hours walk from the hut, it means that we have to get up at around 5 am and catch the bus. On top of that , the guy at the bus company told us the the bus at 3:30 might be cancelled but we should check again at the next day.
If you got lost in the details I can sum it for you in one sentence : we had 24 hours to finish the 33 kilometer track. And even if we do it that way, it still doesn't guaranty us that we will get our car back the same day we finish the track. As you might think, we were very disappointed and even depressed and we though of cancel the whole thing and forget about the Routeburn. Anyhow this was one of the black days of our trip!

From Routeburn Track

The next day we get up very Early to catch the 9:00 bus from Glenorchy to the start of the Routeburn. Just as we left Queenstown it started raining havely and we were even more bummed. We really didn't wanted to walk this hard first day in the rain and get very wet.
In addition to this, when we got off the bus, the driver told us that it's suppose to rain all day and that it's gone snow tonight. He also added that we shouldn't worry about that since the first day is only 3 hours walk and the next day, it's suppose to be nice. This meant more bad news for us since we planned to squeeze the first 2 days into 1 day. This also meant that we will get very wet and there is a strong possibility that at the pass (the highest point of the track), we will have to walk through snow.
With all this factors, we started walking bummed to death. Of course we got really wet really soon and in our mind we thought about the 10 hours walk ahead of us, We almost wanted to cry. We walked really fast because we wanted to have a boost to the more challenging parts of the track. All this time it was raining like crazy. At that time we just felt like turning back and forgot the whole track and just have a nice hot shower and relax. Nevertheless, we didn't quit and after about 2 hours walk in the rain, it stopped. We were cheered, but still there was a long way ahead of us.
We haven't stopped walking until we reached the Routeburn falls hut, 3 hours from the start.

From Routeburn Track

We changed out socks (which were soaking wet) and just as we were headed up to pass, we came across 3 Australian boys that just came down from the pass, which told us that there's a blizzard at the pass, and it all covered with snow. You can only imagine what we thought at that moment. We just wanted to jump from the falls and forget all about trekking.

Well we didn't. We just continued walking the hard way up. The sun just came out to say hello and the route became narrower and rockier. At the half way up, the ranger from the last hut catch with us and we talked with about the condition at the pass. He really cheered us up by telling us some stories about Israeli creek which was named after 2 Israelis that got lost in the Routeburn 10 years ago. He also told us that the pass is not very far and that all of the snow has melted. This with connection with the approved weather really cheered us up.
As we got to the pass, the weather got gray again and we really couldn't enjoy the view, which was suppose to be magnificent. Again, another disappointed. It was already 4:00 in the afternoon when we started the decent from the pass to the desired hut.

From Routeburn Track

Even though that the days are very long in new Zealand and there is light until 22:00 we were still a little bit worried. We had approximately 4 hours walking ahead. We walked on the cliff for about 3 hours seeing nothing but clouds. This 3 hours was suppose to be the nicest ever with magnificent views of the valleys and mountains, but all we could see is clouds. Just as we stared the decent in the steep zig zag down to the hut, we took a look at it from far far above. We understood that there still considerable amount of walking ahead.

From Routeburn Track

At this point it also stared to snow and the wind started blowing like crazy. We just wanted to get to the hut, put on some warm closes and forget we have to get Early the next day.

From Routeburn Track

However, the Routeburn still didn't give us a break. The ways down was horrible with huge rocks and Boulders and very steep cliffs. After another 2 hours walking, just when we wanted to give up, we reached the hut. It was 21:00 already and many of the other people went to sleep. On top of that we still had to cook our food.
The ranger at the hut was a little worried about us since we had such late arrival and he was very happy so see us finally. He just took our ticket and went to sleep, happy that he doesn't have to start another search for missing Israelis at the Routeburn.

From Routeburn Track

Anyhow, we changed , had a quick spaghetti and went to bed very quickly. At about 22:00 we were already a sleep.
The next day we got up at 4:45, when it was still dark. We packed our bags, had a quick morning tea and started walking at around 5:45. We had 4 hours walk and 4:30 hours to get to the bus. Looks reasonable.

From Routeburn Track

After about 3 hours of non stopping walking, we still haven't got the last hut which was suppose to be 3 hours from the previous hut, we understood that we are gonna be late. We made it to the hut after 3:20 hours and after a short climb we understood that in order to make it to the bus we need to walk really fast and even run. Well, we actually started running and got to the bus 10 minutes before it got there. We made it! we were very happy to get this thing over with and finally sit in the warm bus and sleep the 4 hours drive back to Queenstown.
As the title says : it was just one track too much...

From Routeburn Track