American wandering New Zealand

**the vet** · 15th February 2009, 18:12

love this photo....looking down from the road at the site of the last photo. Easy to miss from the road because really no place to stop, and the density of the canopy from the trees makes the height you are actually at seem a lot less.

**the vet** · 15th February 2009, 18:29

Again, I was put off by the tourism and the "too cool for school" attitudes in Wanaka and Queenstown. I stayed at a campsite outside of Wanaka for one night. I asked for some local fishing hints from the shop in town and got completely shut down...the guy in the shop would give me NO information..."I guide, so Im not going to tell everyone where to fish, they'll all be on my spots the next time I'm out" While I can understand this logic, it still pisses me off. I've never been in a fly shop in the States where they refuse to offer some local knowledge....more often than not they have the local spots listed on a board with river conditions and current hatches......as in Wanaka, the same happened to me in Queenstown. At the very least, I'll never buy anything from either shop in the future. All t hat said, both locations are beautiful, so I can understand why they are desirable locations to live and visit, but after the West coast, too much tourism and commercialism for me. I drove up to Glenorchy and explored the Rees valley and did some fishing up there; stayed the night there after giving some young french tramper a ride back to town as he was limping pretty badly and just looked totally exhausted and underprepared. He must of just come off of one of the tracks coming down into the Rees valley.

**the vet** · 15th February 2009, 18:37

The highlight of my visit to Wanaka/Queenstown was a day of guided off road riding. Touristy, a bit. Costly, yes......but I needed that fix, and have to say it was worth it. One guide, me and a 24 yr kid from Canada, DRZ 400s, 72 miles....a great day. The Canadian spoke pretty highly of himself as a rider, but admitted he hadn't been riding in a year. Suffice to say that 72 miles, river crossings, steep ups and downs, rocky terrain, sweet single track, and leaving the trail entirely on 2 different occasions, he was totally spent. At nearly twice his age, I was all grins....freakin awesome day. Give him credit though, he was in over his head and he did stick it out making the best of it.

**the vet** · 15th February 2009, 18:51

Thanks to the NZ motorcycle atlas, I left Queenstown by the road less travelled. I put the wee strom on the 1912 steamer TSS Earnslow in Queenstown and got off at Walter Peak on the other side of the lake. I took the gravel Mavora Lakes rd through some beauty country with nearly no one else on the road. Parts of the road were recently graded and there was areas of deep gravel which were a bit of a bitch, but the ride was great. I didn't have much food with me but figured I could get some fish while camping and fishing at Mavora Lakes. The first night camped at Mavora Lakes, while making a peanut butter sandwich for dinner, a pickup of 4 Kiwis from Invercargill came rolling up. They had some beers in them and were having a great time, just cruising the campground talking to folks. They invited me back to their camp for beers and Paua dinner! here i was without much else than peanut butter and a can or sardines, and suddenly I'm in good company drinking beers and eating a seafood delicacy. Paua is abalone for you readers back home. SWEET! I spent a total of 4 nights there, 2 in the campground and 2 up in a hut after taking the bike 12 km down a 4WD ride, then hiked the remaining 5-6 Km into the hut where i spent a day and a half fishing the upper Mararoa river. I took a ride to Te Anau for supplies about halfway through my days there.

**the vet** · 15th February 2009, 18:54

Was drinking the water from the river cause didn't have anything to boil in....probably picked up some Giardia..good thing I'm a vet, will just prescribe myself something. unlabeled pic is the TSS Earnslow as it is pulling away from Walter Peak

**the vet** · 15th February 2009, 19:30

When I went into Te Anau for supplies while at Mavora Lakes, I signed on for a 5 day kayak trip into Doubtful sound, but had some time to kill prior to that. So I made my way over to Dundedin where I spent 2 nights and then took the Southern Scenic route over to Invercargill, then back up to Te Anau. I stopped at Nugget point to see the 'nuggets' and the lighthouse. I spent the night at Curio Bay to view Hector Dolphins, yellow eyed penguins and the petrified trees on the shore. From Dunedin I also spent a day out on the Otago peninsula and checked out the Albatross reserve.

**the vet** · 15th February 2009, 19:36

As I passed through Riverton, people were stopped on the bridge, so I stopped. A pod of bottlenose dolphins were inland and heading back out to sea. Awesome to watch them so close.

**the vet** · 15th February 2009, 20:17

Maybe the highlight of this trip was 5 days kayaking and camping in Doubtful sound. Unfortunately there is no way for someone like me (perhaps anyone) to do this trip without a tour guide; thus my second big expense during my tour of the S. Island....but again, worth it. I went back to Te Anau and took a half day to drive up to Milford sound. Beautiful, but a gray and drizzly day, so the views somewhat obscured. The road and immediate scenery are awesome though. I stayed in Te Anau at a campground, and then a night at a backpackers called Bob and Maxines. I recommend it. Nice accommodation, plenty of space, clean. Bob has an R1150R in immaculate shape with some nice extras. He and his partner both super nice people. He let me store my bike out of the weather at his place while I was out on my trip.

The kayak trip was not luxurious in the least. Brought and cooked my own food. A lot of hauling, loading and unloading the kayaks, setting up camps in wilderness campsites, and lots of paddling each day. That said, its the kind of trip I like to take, physically spent at the end of the day. Doubtful sound is amazing. They get an average 7 meters of rainfall per year, which lends to its beauty by creating numerous amazing waterfalls, but we had only one night of a slight drizzel, one and a half days of partial clouds and moderate winds and the rest of the time it was sun and glass seas which was awesome. My paddling mate was a very enthusiastic Dutch guy who had been traveling alone for almost 3 months. Really nice guy, lots of energy. This enabled us twice to paddle fast enough to get up close to pods of dolphin and whales----none of the others in the group could get there fast enough, or didn't have the interest, so I lucked out with Ron from the Netherlands! We got some awesome video of these amazing animals.

**the vet** · 15th February 2009, 20:20

Have to share more photos from the sound. We had such beautiful weather. I think I have one of Ron the 'dutch boy' digging in with the paddle.

**the vet** · 15th February 2009, 20:24

...oops, and another shot of the 'gravel lanes' on the Mavora Lakes Rd.

**the vet** · 15th February 2009, 20:38

Spent one night after kayaking at Bob and Maxine's again in Te Anau, and then went straight to Twizel to catch the Area 9 music festival: http://www.nzlive.com/nzlivecom/area-9

The festival was a blast although I think I may have been the oldest one there

, but I did burn 2.5 days and I was running out of time. So I feel like I did not spend adequate time in Otago or the Mackenzie country which I really loved. Next time.

By this point I was needing to be in Wellington for work in just a matter of days, and I'm sure I missed out on some Otago sights, off road riding and fishing. I met up with Ron the Dutchman and we went to Mt Cook where we did a small day hike up to Hooker Lake to view Mt. Cook. The wind was blowing unbelievably hard, but the views were amazing. It was about as close as I came the entire trip to losing control of the bike on the stretch south from Mt. Cook. A gust was so strong and sudden, it nearly blew me off the road. After Mt. Cook, it was on to Lake Tekapo, then a dash back to Wellington (with one night in Blenheim and some time for wine tasting) on roads mostly already traveled.

**the vet** · 15th February 2009, 20:44

I really like the Collie monument at Lake Tekapo....reminded me of my dog...who I miss quite a bit.

Well, over 9000km and two months later, those are the highlights of my trip. Some of the details in between I'll eventually fill in in the blog, but for now, back to the real world....I have to be at work 7:30 tomorrow morning

Oh yeah, bee stings.....2 in the face riding with open shield and one that went right down my shirt and stung me on the belly when I was standing on the bike to stretch my legs while on the Rainbow Rd.....I can live with that....its this Wellington traffic which will be the end of me.

**longwayfromhome** · 16th February 2009, 08:32

Well, no one can accuse you of not giving it a go Pete.....I think you clapped on to the best summer in many a long year...more self-manufactured "luck" for you.

Save those pennies for the North Island, maybe we'll all see you for a couple of minutes along the way.

**Hinny** · 16th February 2009, 08:50

Originally Posted by longwayfromhome

..more self-manufactured "luck" for you.

He's a jammy bastard isn't he.

I'm very envious.

**SDU** · 16th February 2009, 10:02

Awesome pics & great story of your trip.
Pity we missed you while you were down this way.
We avoid those highly tourist areas, but that is bad service not to at least give a little advice on where you can go, most places have information centres that will give you free advice and talking to some locals will help.
We rode down south through the inland route to Alexander for a bike rally on the same weekend off Area9. Pity we didn't bump into you at tekapo. Hope you found a better place than us for food & coffee in tekapo than us, we even warned off a tourist biker off from where we were eating, the service was bad & the food average at best.
You must get back down through there to do that ride it is beautiful down there.
Hope Animates keeps you busy