Campervanning around New Zealand with Aunt Karen and the Ice Children

2/18
5 of us (4 shuttlers and a cargo), known as Aunt Karen and the Ice Children rented a campervan to do a week long roadtrip through new zealand. We were a an eclectic and eccentric group feature Aunt Karen (shuttle Shafer, 65 year old from Manhattan with a farm in cooperstown), Monicargo (cargo Monica, 40 something from Minnesota), Shuttle Jerod, Shuttle Elisha, and myself. We first hung out a bit in christchurch saying goodbye to people and enjoying the flowers and nice weather. We then picked up our 6 person campervan (which we called Connie Cup--Connie is a woman that shafer respected in her younger years and the license plate was Cup 269. After picking Connie up, we stopped at a store (what are those fruit and vegetable things) and then headed towards Arthur's pass national park. We made some stops along the way for nice views. The best stop was something called the stream cave where we walked down to a cave and then walked for an hour or so through a cave, upstream in the water, where we had to often wade up to our belly buttons in water. From there, we moved onto Arthur's pass where we witnessed a gorgeous sunset over the high snowcapped mountains. We met up with shuttle nate and his girlfriend and camped out in the woods somewhere.

2/19 We (Elisha, Monica, Jerod, and myself) hiked up a Avalanche peak (about 1800m). It was a little bit socked in, but we still got some very, very nice views. At the very top it was completely fogged in, but it made the views more spectacular as we headed down. We some some Keas (mountain parrots) up at the top. The beginning of the hike was through a cloud forest type ecosystem with lots of waterfalls, and the 2nd half was through the alpine with some nice blooming alpine flowers. The trail was incredibly steep and when we got down, Monica and Jerod were tired, but Elisha and I took Shafer on a bit of a hike to see the very impressive devils' punchbowl falls, which we had seen the whole time across the canyon while climbing up Avalanche peak. We camped the night in Arthur's pass national park

2/20
We drove to the west coast to Franz f and Fox Glacier through a bit of rain. We drove along the coast a bit and then stopped for fish and chips. I had been in NZ way too long to not have had fish and chips yet! When we got to Franz Josef, the rain gave way and we hiked up to the foot of the glacier. On the way back we played around the waterfalls and on the cool rocks that the glacier carved out. Monica is a geologist, so she could tell us all about the rocks. We then drove on to fox glacier (which I somewhat remembered from when I was there when I was six) and again the rain finished right as we got there (and started right as we got back to the campervan). We again hiked up to the foot of the glacier. In my opinion, this was a cooler glacier. In absolutely pouring rain, we drove to the coast and camped by the beach. It poured all night and we all agreed, this is why one rents a campervan in New Zealand!

2/21 It rained a lot of the day as we drove through Mt. Aspiring National Park. We drove through a really cool, narrow gorge with a glacial river running through it and waterfalls dropping everywhere right near the road. We stopped to check out a few waterfalls along the way and Elisha and I did a crazy bushwhack through the super wet, wet rainforest (with cool deep and soft moss carpets) to find another waterfall. We stopped for fish and chips (shafer's treat) and icecream (monica's) at Wanaka. On the way to Mt. Cook National Park, we drove by a gorgeous, gorgeous glacial blue lake complete with a rainbow over it. Normally you can see Mt. Cook (New Zealand's tallest peak) from here, but clouds obscured the view. When we got to Mt. Cook NP, it was raining pretty good, so we went into a fancy lodge with a fire and the rest of them did some internetting while I just relaxed. From our camp site we could see the bottom of some of the peaks with glaciers peaking through the fog.

2-22
Woke up to clear skies and saw the gorgeous pink glow on the glaciated mountains as the sun rose. I think I surprised everyone b/c I got moving fast, got everything cleaned up in the camper and drove to the trailhead. I've been around enough mountains, especially in super moist areas to know that when you get clear skies and good weather, you don't waste time. Elisha and I did another bushwhack to climb a hill to get a superb view of Mt. Cook and a glacial lake while the rest of the crew woke up, had breakfast, and had their coffee. When we got back we all set off toward hooker valley. Along the way we had nice views of the big mountains and rivers and flowers and crossed two cool suspension bridges. We also heard several and saw a few avalanches (something else I distinctly remember from coming here when I was 6). We arrived at our destination of hooker lake (?) right as mount cook was starting to disappear behind clouds. The lake was a glacial lake with a glacier coming right down to it. The lake was full of icebergs, which of course temped Jerod and I to go for a swim. Cold and refreshing! We also had quite a lot of fun skipping rocks. We walked the last mile back to the camper in a light drizzle and then the big rain came right as we got to the camper. We all decided to splurge for 2 dollar (5 minute) hot showers. We then continued on and stopped at a little town for fish and chips. And this was the best one of the trip, the real deal fish and chips. So tasty! We then drove some more towards Christchurch before camping somewhere along the side of the road

2/23
Drove to Christchurch. Sad, sad, sad, sad goodbyes to Aunt Karen and the ice children. Shafer was going to be going on to Australia, Elisha another week in NZ before going to Australia, Jerod another week in NZ before going to LA and then home and monica was going to be spending quite a lot more time in NZ.
Got on the plane to Auckland and then on to LA and then onto Denver. Denver was having nasty weather, so there was a delay. Got picked up by the Estes Park shuttle. Same guy that had taken me down to the airport when leaving for Antarctica. It was really snowy when he took me and really snowy picking me up.