We are off! Our last week in New Zealand was one for the record books—two idyllic days of 15 knot winds behind us sailing up the coast, finishing boat projects in Shire-like anchorages, end of season cruising parties, riding in the dinghy at night with a phosphorescent green wake, seeking alpha centauri in the southern night ski.
Read MoreI've been feeling very nostalgic about leaving New Zealand. We've been here for five months total, from November to May with a four week hiatus. We've traveled twice from Whangarei, once to the US, once to the South Island, and returned feeling like we were coming home. We have a favorite bakery, frequented the good chocolate shop, and everyone in the chandlery knows our name.
Read MoreMeet the weka, the friendliest bird of the Milford Sound. There was a family of five nesting in the grasses alongside the picnic area on the shore.
Read MoreMy dad is back! Two days after we got Helios back in the water, my dad flew in from San Francisco; he is going to be crewing with us as we sail north from New Zealand to Fiji. He's been with us for a week and made himself popular onboard by taking over cooking responsibilities, lugging provisions, cleaning the stove, combating mold, and refurbishing a fair amount of teak on his own.
Read MoreIt's tempting to let the blog skip straight from our New Zealand camping trip to our sail up the coast from Whangarei to the Bay of Islands (which, in real time, is where we are). But this would skip over a truth of cruising: the huge amount of time and effort spent working to keep the vessel shipshape.
Read MoreAfter leaving Mt. Cook, we booked it north back to Whangarei. It was hard: there is so much to see in New Zealand and heartbreaking to have to pass a lot of it by. But then again, after four weeks on the road, we were feeling a little bit of camping fatigue, and we missed Helios, so to Whangarei we went.
Read MoreAt the southern tip of the South Island, the sounds offer a huge number of natural attractions. One of our favorites was The Chasm, a waterfall that was a narrow chute with smooth saucers ground into the stone by pebbles that had been caught in fringing whirlpools.
Read MoreAnd it was in Milford that we made our first attempt at an in-air, jumping photo! I can't think of anywhere more stunning to practice our aerial selfie timing—we had a bluebird day, comfortably cool temperatures, and more cliffs, snow caps, and waterfalls than we had time to enjoy.
Read MoreQueenstown was an adventure: from the hairpin turns descending into the valley, to the Remarkable Mountains lining Lake Wakatipu, to our lessons on paragliding, thrills were at every turn.
Read MoreWe spent three glorious nights in Wanaka, a village just north of Queenstown. The weather was clear, and we pitched our tent next to a miraculously bug-free river lined with towering trees and surrounded by mountains. Our favorite activity was hiking the Roys Peak Track. The track was only eight kilometers, but those kilometers were entirely vertical as we ascended 1,578 meters—our quads were burning!
Read MoreWe spent three glorious nights in Wanaka, a village just north of Queenstown. The weather was clear, and we pitched our tent next to a miraculously bug-free river lined with towering trees and surrounded by mountains. Our favorite activity was hiking the Roys Peak Track. The track was only eight kilometers, but those kilometers were entirely vertical as we ascended 1,578 meters—our quads were burning!
Read MoreMore from glacier country! South of Franz Josef is the Fox Glacier, equally beautiful and slightly less visited. We hiked up in the clouds and jogged out in the midst of a deluge, but were able to appreciate the landscape that changed shape before our eyes.
Read MoreTraveling through the South Island resembled cruising in one powerful way—we were entirely at the mercy of the weather gods, especially as we cruised down the west coast. We checked the weather compulsively (Weather Underground being an eerily accurate source that could predict exactly when the rain would fall) and routed ourselves accordingly.
Read MoreWe planned to leave Franz Josef after our initial hike, but as we were driving out of town the following day, the clouds lifted. We figured it was a sign to stop and give Franz Josef another go. I'm so glad we did! With less rain, the hyrdotechnics were more muted, but getting to see more of the glacier itself made exploring the area a second time well worth it.
Read MoreFrom Hokitika, we continued making our way southward down the western coast of the South Island. Before long, we reached glacier country and the rainiest parts of the island. Small towns boast their rainfall—nine meters per year, 11 meters per year, 14 meters per year. Its the heavy rainfall, cold temperatures, and proximity to the ocean that allow the glaciers to expand and contract faster than most.
Read MoreDominic and I spent a fair amount of time trying to name the blue of the water in the Hokitika Gorge: cornflower? powder blue? cyan or cerulean? It was a tough call. The water was milky enough to be reflective, even on the cloud covered day that we visited the gorge. Hokitika is on the west coast of the South Island; in a flight from the sand flies, we had left Lake Daniell and hooked a sharp right toward the shore. We found excellent accommodation outside of Hokitika, a boutique hotel and restaurant that let us pitch our tent out back and pay for delicious eggs benedict and (heavenly) hot showers.
Read MoreAt Lake Daniell, Dominic scouted a wooded clearing with a number of inviting tree stumps to serve as our kitchen and dining room. He set out to prepare dinner, boiling water for freeze dried backpacking pasta pouches, when I heard him start to coo.
Read MoreWe headed due south after leaving the Golden Coast; our destination was Lake Daniell and it was to be our first backpacking, or tramping as they call it here, excursion of our trip. We spent a night camping at the base of the mountain in a valley filled with golden grasses and surrounded by plunging mountain silhouettes
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