Just to switch it up from all my recent snowy posts, here’s a photo from a gorgeous summer day last December at Lake Wakatipu, near Queenstown, New Zealand. I snapped this photo along the road on my way to hike up for a sunset vista of Mount Earnslaw, which is the glaciated peak at the upper right here.

Mt. Aspiring in the moonlight, shrouded in clouds, November 2008. Mount Aspiring National Park, New Zealand. More about this particular trip here. It’s hard to believe this was just a year ago… it seems like ages already!

Not only am I drowning in computer work, but I’ve also had a pesky cold this week, so all I can do to post on my blog is to browse my hard drive for old photos, and pretend that I’m out in the mountains again.

This is a photo of Lake Tekapo on the South Island of New Zealand in November last year. I shot this at a quick pitstop during a drive from Arthurs Pass to Wanaka. The wind was howling and of all the shots I took this is the only one where the lupines weren’t completely blurred from being blown around like crazy.

Speaking of lupines, New Zealand must be the lupine capitol of the world! I’ve seen some nice lupines in other places, but in New Zealand I saw entire fields of them. And I mean huge broad fields plump full of them! Pink, purple, yellow… Of course I have no photos to prove it. The best fields I saw were near Te Anau, but unfortunately I was riding a bus at the time and I don’t think the other passengers would have appreciated it if I screamed to stop and wait while I tromped around on some farmer’s land with my camera. Apparently though, lupines aren’t even native to New Zealand, and are considered a pest plant. They sure are beautiful though.

I took this photo of Thunder Creek Falls a year ago during a drive over Haast Pass, going from Wanaka to Fox Glacier, on the South Island of New Zealand. This impressive 28m waterfall is only about a 5 minute walk from the road through the rain forest. You can read some more about this portion of my trip here.

Somehow I’ve managed to sort through over 3200 photos in less than a week since I’ve been back! I’ve posted my favorite photos from my New Zealand trip on my gallery site… check it out!

The first few days back in Colorado I was whupped by the altitude and jetlag, or some nasty combination of the two. I’ve never really felt affected by the altitude before, but this time it nailed me good. Anyhow, during those days I just rested and made some good progress on my photos. Since then I’ve spent some really late nights plowing through them. Funny how it’s nearly impossible to resist this… it’s almost as fun as taking the photos!

Anyhow, enjoy the photos.

Over the last four days I’ve been hiking the Milford Track, perhaps the most famous of New Zealand’s Great Walks. This walk belongs in its own class of Awesome, and all the other “Great Walks” I’ve been on should be renamed merely “Good Walks” in comparison. This is truly a world class hike!

The Milford Track starts from an arm of Lake Te Anau and heads up a long valley into the heart of the Fiordland mountains. The peaks rise up incredibly steeply from the forested valley below, and huge waterfalls pour off from the sheer rocky faces on all sides, one after the other. I’ve never seen so many waterfalls in an alpine setting… it is a true fantasyland.

I was fortunate to head up this valley when it was raining enough to form all these waterfalls, but not so much that it flooded the trail or made things too miserable. No, I was just in awe of these stunning mountains, hardly able to walk as I kept gazing upwards.

Day 2 passed over a very narrow and improbable mountain pass. I left the hut at 4am, with slight hopes of sunrise light up on the pass. That was not to be, but on the way up in the dark, I was forunate to see a kiwi! These flightless birds only come out at night and are very rare to see in the wild. It was a little one, about the size and shape of a cantaloupe, and it had the distintive long beak and a fuzzy coat that looked more like long cat fur than feathers. The kiwi was right on the trail and it scampered away and hid under a fern before I could get my camera out. I wished I could have taken a photo, but I did not want to molest it too much in the process, so I let it be and kept hiking on.

The weather was crap on the pass – wet blowing mist. I waited up there for a long time in the shelter on the pass and the weather just got worse, turning into full on blowing rain. But the forecast called for early rain, easing later, so I figured I’d be patient and wait it out. While I was up there all 40 of my fellow trampers came and went, too impatient to wait for better weather. They all hiked up, over, and down the pass in miserable weather with no views. Shame… Around 4pm the clouds lifted up above the peaks, with the rain only coming in brief waves. After a good round of shooting the jagged peaks in shifting light and mist, I made my way down the pass with some of most incredible views imaginable. Again, just absorbed in total awe of these mystical mountains.

On the way down I did a side trip to Sutherland Falls – the tallest waterfall in New Zealand at about 600 meters (~1800 feet) tall. The picture above is me getting blasted by the wind and mist generated by the force of the water. My camera was soaked by this time, but seems to be taking it like a champ.

Day 3 was pretty much miserable, just hiking out a long valley under total downpour. The track ends at Milford Sound, which of course is absolutely spectacular, with peaks soaring 6,000 feet straight out of the fiord.

So, the Milford Track was a fitting grand finale tramp after almost 7 weeks of tramping in the mountains of the South Island of New Zealand. I would tell anybody that if they only had time to do one thing in New Zealand, do the Milford Track. If you have lots of time, do it twice.

Just got back to Te Anau after 3 days in the high mountains of Fiordland. I climbed up a fairly large peak directly up valley from Milford Sound, and spent over 12 hours up top soaking in the incredible view. I watched the sunset from up there, then because the snow was still wet from the afternoon heat, I was worried about downclimbing the large, steep, and exposed snowfield. So I waited until 1:00am when the snow was more frozen to descend. It was no problem though, because the weather was calm and I had fun taking long exposures of the southern stars and constellations.

On the way down, though, I had troubles keeping to the faint trail with only the light from my headlamp, and it actually took me longer to get back to the hut in the valley than it did to climb up! At one point down in the flat valley I got mixed up and literally hiked in a circle, and started to hike back up the valley! D’oh! After figuring out that mistake (and cursing) I got back on track and was almost to the hut when I stepped in what I thought was an ankle-deep puddle (The water was perfectly clear and invisible in the darkness). Thinking it was a puddle, I jumped forward straight up to my waist into a pond! D’oh! Made it back to the hut at 4am, just in time to go to sleep before the sun rose. Good times.

Tomorrow I’m off again to hike the Milford Track, the most famous of New Zealand’s “Great Walks”. It’s a 3 night, 3 day tramp through two massive Fiordland valleys, over one high pass, ending in Milford Sound.

By the way, these mountains here in Fiordland are amazing and probably my favorite that I’ve seen here in New Zealand. The mountains are impossibly steep, with vast sheer glacially-carved rock cirques. Very unique and majestic.

Two days ago I walked out of Te Anau and hiked a portion of the Kepler Track, up to the Luxmore Hut which sits just above bushline near a high ridgeline 1000 meters above the lake.  The “Luxmore” sounds like a fancy hotel name, and actually this hut is pretty fancy as far as huts go.  It has large windows and porches with views of the Murchinson mountains and Lake Te Anau, and like most of the Great Walks huts, it has stoves and flush toilets – luxury items to be sure.  Anyways, the weather forecast was not promising upon my departure, so my plan was to just hike to the hut, spend a day there dayhiking, then hike back down the third day.

The trail leaves the town of Te Anau, goes around the lake shore and enters a beautiful forest with vast expanses of low ferns. Unlike other rainforests I’ve visited here, in this forest you can see pretty far through the trees, and thus it was much more photogenic I thought. Plus the morning was perfectly calm and overcast, so I couldn’t help but stop every several hundred meters to take another photo.

The Luxmore Hut was almost completely full of people on the first night, and that night in the bunkroom there was such a rhythm of snoring, with such a variety of snorts, rumbles, pops, wheezes, and whistles that it sounded like some kind of strange Monte Python machine made of human tubes.

Anyways, I woke up early, hiked a ways uphill, and caught some great sunrise light with a partial rainbow over the lake and mountains… very cool. After hiking nearby Mt. Luxmore, I went back to the hut and it rained the rest of the day. In the evening the clouds lifted a bit and I got some more shots of the mountains peeking (no pun intended) through the mist.

The next night there was much less people (and no snoring!) but the wind was raging and the whole building was shaking. In the early morning it was still howling and raining, so I figured I’d just stay in bed. BAD DECISION. I happened to wake up a bit later only to see a glowing red hillside of alpenglow, and the hugest brightest rainbow with a backdrop of pink misty mountains. Incredible. I jumped out of bed, threw on some pants, grabbed my camera, and ran down to get some shots. Of course by that time it was all gone. D’oh!

So today I hiked back to town in the pouring rain. Believe it or not, after 5 weeks of tramping in the mountains of New Zealand, this was the first time I’ve had to hike in the rain! There is a good reason why. So far this spring the weather has been in a fairly consistent cycle: about 2-4 days fine weather, followed by 2-4 days rainy weather, over and over. So, by a bit of forecast-watching and planning accordingly, I’ve been able to time all my tramps during the good spells, and travel and relax in the towns during the poor weather.

This is one huge advantage of travelling in New Zealand during the shoulder season when there’s not so many tourists that everything needs to be planned ahead with reservations. In fact, now that December is near, I have certainly noticed a huge increase in tourists, and I’m having to book reservations for hostels, shuttles, etc etc. Some activities are fully booked! (I wanted to do a multi-day kayak trip in Doubtful Sound – no go). I’m not a big fan of traveling on an itinerary, so I think I’d be frustrated if I came here in the middle of the summer.

Anyways, tomorrow I’m going to spend three nights in an obscure valley in the Fiordland (Gertrude Valley). There is a hut there within a short distance from the road, so I’m loading my pack up with lots of food, a new book and even wine! My goal is to get up on Gertrude Pass, where there are great views of Milford Sound and the steep mountains of the fiords. There’s also a good weather forecast, so it should be fun.

Speaking of books (and since I’m already rambling in this post), I’ve read two great books recently that I picked up in the hostels. Two classics to be sure: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, and Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe. Great stuff, and perfect for my current mindset, as I’m off on my own little adventures here in New Zealand.

I’m safe in Te Anau right now after just getting back from four days on the Routeburn Track.  The Routeburn is one of New Zealand’s renowned “Great Walks”, and as such it has wide trails, huge huts, lots of people, and lots of signs telling the people where to go.

Since it is a one way hike with vast distances between the start and end points, I turned in my rental car, shipped one bag to Te Anau from Queenstown, and got a shuttle to the start. The trail itself is certainly spectacular, but it wasn’t necessarily THAT much better than all the other hikes I’ve been doing here. In fact some of my previous hikes were perhaps more amazing to me. Regardless, it was indeed a great walk, and I scored great weather yet again. I purposely booked two nights at the first hut (Routeburn Falls Hut), with the intent of doing some dayhiking exploring the second day, and that turned out to be a big advantage since the second day was pouring rain for the first half of the day. Worked out perfectly.

Harris Saddle, the highpoint of the walk, is definitely the highlight of the track, with big views of the rugged Darran Mountains to the west. I hiked up there for sunset and also for sunrise the following morning. With that lack of sleep, the Lake Mackenzie Hut was a perfect resting place for the third day. The hut is situated next to a beautiful green lake with pointy peaks behind, and I could have fun photographing nearby without having to venture too far. I slept like a log that night – even sleeping through all the snoring in the hut.

Now I’m in Te Anau, a small town on the shores of a large lake on the east side of the mountains. If Wanaka is the place to escape the bustle of Queenstown, then Te Anau would be the place to escape the bustle of Wanaka, if that makes any sense. As usual, I have no plans for the next few days… I’ll have to check the weather and figure something out.

By the way, do you like all my cheesy self-portraits I’ve been posting? Yeah, I know it’s dorky, but I’ve been having fun with the timer on my camera, and maybe someday when I’m an old geezer I’ll appreciate it.

Over the last four days I’ve been tramping in Mt. Aspiring National Park near Wanaka.  I started in the Matukituki River valley, an idyllic mountain valley with green grass, turquoise river, soaring glacier-clad mountains, and waterfalls pouring down from the sides.  The bottom of the valley is used for sheep grazing, and while I normally am not too fond of these helpless little creatures, they sure do a good job of mowing the lawn, so to speak, resulting in beautiful grassy meadows.

Anyways, I ended up hiking about 4,000 feet up out of the valley and camping in my tent up on Cascade Saddle, with huge views of Mt. Aspiring and the Southern Alps.  The area around Cascade Saddle is a landscape photographer’s playground, with a multitude of views, including glaciers, peaks, cliffs, streams, waterfalls, and all kinds of natural curves and lines.  It would be especially nice in the summertime; however, while I was there there was still a lot of snow everywhere.  Normally that’s not an issue, but this time the snow was not freezing at night, leaving a mushy mess and a struggle to venture around from my tussock island in the snow.  The rotten snow also prevented me from doing some adventurous crampon-&-ice-axe hikes up some further ridges.  Twice I turned back from further climbs as I was dissuaded by rotten snow on exposed snowfields.

The weather was also fairly crappy - windy, with pesky clouds covering the peaks.  Add to that the keas (alpine parrots) that kept me up at night trying to steal my stuff and cut my tent cords.  So, I was fairly frustrated after all that, and after one night I left to hike back down.  A short ways down off the saddle, I stumbled upon a nice flat spot on the steep descent, and decided to pitch the tent again for another night up high.  This ended up being a wonderful spot and evening, with no wind and a stunning view of Mt. Aspiring and the Matukituki Valley down below. So, while the first night left me disappointed, the second more than made up for it.

Now I’m back in Queenstown. Wow, what a difference two weeks can make! It’s hot, the city is slammed, there’s no parking, people everywhere. Summer has begun.