Anne Harai Photography & Travels: New Zealand

I once saw an article on a trail called the Routeburn Track in a travel magazine. It was a 4-5 day long trek across the southern alps of New Zealand and seemingly one of those “once in a lifetime” deals that, according to the author, left you wanting to come back again and again and do all the other tracks and stay in all the amazing huts along the way. Now that I’ve done it I can only agree. The moment I left New Zealand, I couldn’t wait to get back. I’ve become a hut-bagger.

We left in February 2016, so early fall Downunder, and started with a few days acclimatizing to Kiwi culture in Christchurch. Not that long before, the city had been hit by a severe earthquake that had devastated many of the older buildings and, since many of the developers were still fighting with their insurance companies, a sense of quiet resignation still presided over what must have been a busy place before. Ever the innovative Kiwis, however, some of the restaurants that had been damaged in the quake had reopened but were now housed in remodeled and very quake-proof shipping containers. We visited the beautiful and extensive botanical garden, took the Christchurch Gondola to the top of Port Hill, and stayed in a nice little hostel near the city center.

View from gondola near Christchurch

Lunch at Travis Wetland

If the budget allows, I recommend getting a car in New Zealand. Towns on the south island can be few and far between but, more importantly, you will want to stop every 10 miles to take pictures! New Zealand is as varied and exciting as it is beautiful. The people are kind and welcoming and the driving is easy, once you get used to doing it on the left side.

Traffic jam - Kiwi style

From Christchurch we started inland towards Arthur’s Pass with the goal of eventually landing on the west coast. The drive meandered over rolling hills and farmlands, and fortunately passed by many small coffee houses selling some truly exquisite meat pies. After stocking up on road trip food at Sheffield Pie Shop's heavenly lamb pies and seeing the giant pink donut that had been erected for a Simpson’s event, we stopped at Castle Hill and had a nice hike to the odd rock formations.

The drive across Artur’s Pass landed us on the West Coast at Kumara Junction from where we headed south and made a stop for lunch on the beach in Hokitika, a funky little seaside town that hosts a driftwood sculpture festival every January and still had a number of leftover pieces on the sand.

We continued along the coast, passing marshes and wetlands and very few other cars, and ended at the small town of Franz Josef. The town is aptly named for the nearby 7.5 mile long Franz Josef Glacier (Māori name is Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere), located in the Westland Tai Poutini National Park, which descends from the Southern Alps to less than 980 feet above sea level. Quite an unusual sight to see a glacier from a temperate rain forest.

We checked into Sir Cedric’s Chateau, a nice little backpacker hostel in the center of town. The hostel has good connections with several tour companies that run walking and helicopter trips to the glacier. Since it was my birthday the following day, we decided to splurge on a helicopter and glacier walk trip with Franz Josef Glacier Guides – after all, how often do you get to spend your birthday on a glacier in New Zealand? Once in a lifetime experience - check! We opted for the tour that let you spend the longest time on the ice as well, oddly not the most expensive one. Since we had the afternoon free, we went on a short hike across the river that forms the outlet of the glacier with view of the ice in the distance and there were also a couple of nice forest walks in that area. The main street is pleasant, has a number of small tourist shops and some good restaurants.

The tour was amazing. I’ve never flown in a helicopter before and, since I was the smallest passenger, I got to sit next to the pilot. Awesome! He flew the length of the glacier, bottom to top, and landed up about ¾ of the way up in the middle of the ice on a small section just big enough for a single helicopter. Our guide explained about the dangers and precautions to take on the ice. We were outfitted with jackets and pants that made us easily recognizable to the guides, and emergency kits and poles. The ice of a glacier shifts all the time and at times the guide had to dig in new steps since the previous day’s steps were already unusable. We spent a good two hours on the ice and saw the occasional piece break off with a resounding crash, and it still felt like it was over too soon. What an amazing experience.

The last day in Franz Josef we rented a kayak from Okarito Nature Tours and spent half the day paddling around Okarito lagoon. It was beautiful and frequented by an abundance of wading and marshland birds. I’d highly recommend this trip for anyone who likes kayaking and/or birds. They rent for half and full day at a very reasonable price.

It was time to continue on the southbound journey. We passed Fox Glacier a bit outside Franz Josef and were able to take a few pictures from afar, made a brief stop for a short hike in Haast to the blue pools but the trail had been washed out and closed. We did, however, stop outside of Haast for a taste of the famous whitebait-on-toast...

White Bait - Queen of Tiny Delicious Fishes

The road headed inland then and into the Southern Alps where sheep dotted the hillsides and were eventually replaced with mountain lakes and steep slopes. Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea are the largest and we made a quick stop in Wanaka for meat pie lunch. A second stop at Queenstown Hill had great views of the mountains and our first peak of the town itself far below.

We arrived in Queenstown, adventure capital of the South Island, and checked into Sir Cedric’s Bungi Backpackers. Good place with very nice people in a quiet neighborhood about 10-15 min walk from the pier, where most of the restaurants and tourist shops are located. Our primary goal for Queenstown was that it is the hub for starting the Routeburn Track. Since I had already made reservations for the four huts along the route, all we had to do was pick up the permit at the Department of Conservation office in town. The DOC might well be the most well organized government office in the world – they are in charge of creating and maintaining the majority of New Zealand’s trails and wilderness huts and are doing an absolutely stellar job, in addition to being the primary authority on eradication of non-native species vermin, i.e. the scores of stoats and rats that continue to decimate the country’s native birds. I cannot say enough good things about this organization. The fee for staying in the huts goes to the conservation program, trail maintenance and hut upkeep – all good things.

Queenstown is a busy tourist and backpacker hub for all things adventure. Leaving the bungy jumping to the younger crowd, we instead took the gondola to the Skyline complex overlooking Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkables range and did the Lower Ridge Hike. The views were spectacular and the restaurant that’s part of the Skyline outfit is pretty good.

The Routeburn Track starts at Routeburn Shelter. We had made arrangements with Easy Hike Car Relocation to relocate our car so it would be waiting for us on the other side of the mountains. It was not cheap, about $260 NZ, but actually came out to about the same if we took the shuttle service and also did not waste a whole day of back-tracking so it was totally worth it. The track itself was spectacular. It passes through several climate and vegetation zones so there was always something new to discover. Some sections were easier than others and the weather turned a bit at Harris Saddle one evening, aka torrents of rain that created new waterfalls down the mountainsides (it was fantastic to watch from the shelter of the MacKenzie Falls hut), but the following morning the sun was out again. All the huts were outfitted with bunk beds and mattresses and the kitchen had gas stoves so we just had to bring sleeping bags and cooking gear (and matches - they are not self-lighting). No food was available en route or at the huts but that was easy enough to carry, and there was a ranger at each hut to answer any questions and check us in. They also gave some very informative lectures on the conservation program. We made several good friends and met the most amazing people, including a 75 year old Kiwi lady, who had done the track five times!

Enough words about how amazing this trek was – the pictures say it all :)

While we were still clean...

Picnic shelter at Harris Saddle

Having crossed the saddle

It was a bit of an eye opener to encounter the native Kea, a chicken sized mountain parrot that will molest anything not tied down, and some that is. I had read about them but seeing them in action was sheer delight. On the first night they were trying to unwind the weather stripping on the hut’s skylight and when that didn’t work, they went for the hiking poles and boots left outside. After that first day, nothing was left to chance…

Lake MacKenzie hut

Five days later, and in need of a good scrubbing, we came out on the other side where our car was waiting. Then it was on to see Milford Sound and lunch at the little cafe.

Sunset at Howden Hut

Milford Sound on a rather cloudy day

I had booked a hostel in Te Anau, which came with a shower and a cat we named Fluffy. It's a quite little town and the jumping off point to a glow worm cave. We did a boat tour the next day to the cave, where you are obviously not allowed to take pictures but it was very neat to see the threads of glow worm slime draped across the cave ceiling like Christmas garlands. Te Anau also has a bird sanctuary sporting the rare flightless takahē, also prominently features as the town mascot...

The real bird

The fake bird

We did a section of the Kepler Track, because we just hadn't done enough hiking lately, before heading south to sleepy Tuatapere. Even smaller than Te Anau, Tuatapere's claim to fame is being the Sausage Capital of the South Island and I'd have to agree. The restaurant at the Last Light Lodge where we also stayed in motel-like accommodations had the best venison sausage I've ever had, putting a whole new spin on bangers n' mash.

Chilling at Last Light Lodge where all the food was superb

Hiking in Bluff

On our last day in Tuatapere we drove south and hiked a section of the Hump Ridge Track that runs along the ocean, then continued the journey to Bluff. We overnighted at the Bluff Lodge, a quirky old place, and took the ferry to Stewart Island the following morning. Fortunately the ocean was completely calm and the crossing was lovely - rumors have it it's a brutal trip if it's windy!

Bluff wall art

Stewart Island is a pretty amazing place. The main town is Oban, which has a handful of good restaurants - one being Kai Kart where the fried blue cod sandwiches are to die for.

It's a pretty walkable island. Since it was still early in the day, we walked to Golden Bay and took the tiny ferry to Ulva Island for a 3 hour guided birding tour. Ulva is tiny but is unique in that it has an abundance of birds on account of it being rid of stoats and rats. There were birds everywhere, though some were hard to see, but the guide was quick to find and name them.

NZ Parakeet

Bit of a sleeping morepork owl

Oban has a little grocery store, where you can get the essentials - nice to be in hostels with kitchens. We ended up having dinner and some pints at the South Sea Hotel, fanciest place in town and full of locals eager to chat. The food was really good,too. We could have gone back to the hostel then, but I had heard a rumor that little blue penguins, or fairy penguins, occasionally come up to the shore near the harbor as the sun sets... so camera & tripod in hand we settled down to wait. Dusk came - and the rumors were true!

The next day we did a nice hike along the water that ended up at Horseshoe Bay. The water was so blue it felt like a tropical island despite it's very southern location (about 2500 km from Antarctica). We stopped at Moturau Garden on the way back, which has a nice collection of native trees and plants but based on British garden design.

Stewart Island sunset

The following day we left the island, after having seen the penguin the night before again, and picked up the car in Bluff. Next stop was Waipapa Lighthouse. It was very pretty but the best part was the undoubtedly the fur seals. Bit of a fight between a young and an old male over a female (naturally). It was quite a thing to see.

While things were still dignified...

And then the other male arrived

The old one won in the end and we moved on, leaving the couple in peace. Next stop along the south coast was Curio Beach and then Porpoise Beach to see the petrified logs that reach far into the ocean and have lunch.

Overnighting at Tautuku Forest Cabin in the Catlins.

The following day we headed for Dunedin but made a long stop to hike to Nugget Point lighthouse. It actually felt a bit like being back in Ireland, rugged cliffs and all. It's a nice little hike to the lighthouse with stunning views of the ocean and fur seal far below sleeping on the cliff terraces.

The aptly named Nuggets

The ever-present and usually sleeping fur seals

Dunedin is a lovely town originally settled by Scots, quite evident in the architecture. We visited long lost relatives on my husband's side of the family, who took us around town to see, among other things, the local stadium and Speights for lunch. Speights is the local claim-to-fame beer and is very good. We had already booked accommodations at Penguin Place on the end of the Otago Peninsula, which is a penguin conservation center for the yellow-eyed penguin - and a photographer's paradise.

Dunedin train station

Also on the Otago Peninsula is the Albatross Center but unfortunately it was too foggy to see the birds. Instead we took a dusk tour from the Center to see the little blue or fairy penguins (eudyptula minor) and were not disappointed as they came hopping out of the ocean with nightfall.

The following day we did an early morning tour from Penguin Place of the yellow-eyed penguins (megadyptes antipodes) or hoiho in Maori, walking through bunkers to hide our size (when they can only see half your face, they are not scared since they think you're really small). It was thrilling to see them close up and, unlike the fairy penguins, they prefer daylight. The afternoon was spent wandering the beautiful English gardens around Larnach Castle.


Young female yellow-eyed penguin

Fjordland penguin at Penguin Place

Dunedin is full of art and very fond of penguins.

On the last day on the peninsula, we took the Taieri Gorge Rail Tour to Pukerangi aboard a beautiful old train. The trip meanders along on rickety rails with great views of the gorge and Taieri River far below.

From Dunedin we drove north to see the Moeraki Boulders. Maori legends say the boulders are the remains of eel baskets that were washed ashore from the wreck of a large sailing canoe; geologists say they are septarian concretions exhumed from the mudstone enclosing them and concentrated on the beach by coastal erosion. Whichever you chose to believe, they are a sight to see.

Our last stop was Mt. Cook. The drive alone was worth it but even better was our hike up to Mueller Hut. The town is sort of an adventure village set in Aoraki Mount Cook National Park and houses a large hostel and a number of chalets. Mt. Cook is the highest peak in New Zealand and where Sir Edmund Hillary trained for his climbing of Everest. It's a beautiful setting in any event with lots of trails and, most importantly, a chance to bag Mueller Hut.

For the bargain price of about $30 NZ, you get to scale the Sealy Range and overnight at the 36 bunk bed hut, elevation 1800 meters, and enjoy views of ice cliffs, glaciers and the spectacular rock that is Mt. Cook. Fabulous, had to do this. I had made reservations as space is limited, and after having spent the afternoon and evening checking out the area, picking up our permit from the DOC office, and cooking lamb in the communal kitchen of the hostel, we awoke to clear skies. In other words, a perfect day to scale a mountain!