Whales and Swimming with Dolphins!

3/26/18

We drove to the beach in Kaikoura and had breakfast while watching the sun rise from the beach. After we had checked in on booking dolphin and whale tours, we drove a bit South of Kaikoura to check out the new coastal road. The road had been completely destroyed in the major earthquakes that occurred in Christchurch. As we drove, we saw some big pods of dolphins and lots of seals. We had lunch out on the peninsula, which offers nice mountain views in the distance and seal watching up close. We took a little hike on the peninsula and saw lots and lots of seals, including seal pups. 2 pups swam right up to us and were so cute and playful. They were very curious of us and wanted to sniff our hands, and probably play. When I put my hand out, they rubbed right up against it. We wished we could have stayed longer, but we had to hustle back to Kaikoura for a watch.

Back in Kaikoura, we took a short bus ride to the harbor and boarded a mid-sized catamaran. We sped out to the deep ocean and after 45 or so minutes, we stopped and listened for sperm whales. Based on what they were hearing and knowing the last dive of the whale and how long they stay down (about 45-60 minutes), we sat and waited in a certain spot. After about 10ish minutes of waiting, a sperm whale was seen in the near distance, and we sped out towards it. We sat for quite a while watching it breathe. We were pretty close to it. Eventually it dove, and we saw it raise its tail fluke. The guides told us the name was Tutu, and it was one of the resident males in the area.

As we were turning to go home, the guides were keeping their eyes open for other spouts as a blue whale had recently been seen in the area. Not too long into the ride back, there was a very excited shout from the guide, and we could see high plumes of spout in the distance. We rushed to it, and were super lucky to see a blue whale (the world's largest animal). We got to see it take a few breaths, in which its spout went super high, and then saw it do a tail fluke dive. So in a short period we had seen the largest toothed animal in the world (sperm whale) and the largest animal in the world (blue whale)

On the way home dusky dolphins dove and flipped and followed us for a while. They're so playful and such big jumpers. We also some albatross on the trip. Super awesome trip!

We had dinner by the beach as the sun set, and then camped on the beach

3/27/18

Woke up to sunrise on the beach. We spent the morning in the library doing some work that needed to be done, then we went on a dolphin swim tour. We donned full wetsuits, and we swam 5 times for an extended period with them! So Amazing! It was mostly dusky dolphins, but also some common dolphins. They are so playful and curious. They like to make eye contact with you, and you can spin around in the water maintaining eye contact as they swim around you. Also, if you make noise or sing or something like that, they like to come check you out. I couldn't believe how many of them there were and how curious and playful they were.

After swimming, we tootled around watching the dolphins from above. The dusky dolphins did crazy spins and flips and the common dolphins did huge jumps and moved so fast. There were literally hundreds. It felt like the wildebeest/zebra herds in Africa during the great migration. The dolphins loved to follow the boat and swim right under the bow.

We had fish and chips for late afternoon snack, and then drove to Blenheim where we had an ice cream cone and then on to St. Arnaud where we camped

West Coast and Glaciers

3/24/18

Stopped at a nice beach cliff overlook and opened all of Bongo's doors wide to get rid of the mosquitos. We then drove to Fox Glacier. The main viewpoint and road were closed due to flooding. But we went to a distant viewpoint to check out the glacier. We then drove to Franz Joseph Glacier. Those 2 glaciers are unique and interesting b/c they are in a temperate region and almost reach the sea. At Franz Joseph, we hiked up to a viewpoint called Robert's Viewpoint. It put us up above the foot and rather close to the glacier, which was really cool. It was a really amazing view of the glacier. Almost the entire hike was in the rain, but it was a cool hike. Quite varied and often walking up little streams and also often on rocks. There were lots of really cool suspension bridges: some really high and some super long. And then some cool cliffside built-in steps. Along the way we saw a cute little chamoix (wild goat thing from the european alps).

In the evening, we drove to Hokitika and went through a crazy, crazy heavy rain and lightning. A rainstorm on par with some of the craziest I had been in while living in Florida. We had delicious fish n chips at Hokitika and then camped near Hokitika gorge.

3/25/18

Visited Hokitika Gorge. It's supposed to be a surreal color of turquoise water, but today it was grey from all the rain. Back in Hokitika town, we walked along the Hokitika driftwood beach. Hokitika is a cool old town with mining history. Would love to come back in better weather someday. We drove to Greymouth. It's a cool little city on the ocean and a river. It has mining history as well. We drove out to breaker point where we were super lucky and saw 2 of the rare an endangered Hectors dolphins.

After our quick visit (and grocery shopping) in Greymouth, we drove to Punakaiki. It was a scenic coastal drive. Punakaiki is famous for its pancake rocks, which were pretty cool! It's this section of coast where it looks like rocks are stacked upon each other like pancakes. While there, we also explored a cave.

We drove back to Greymouth, then up and over Lewis Pass in the mist and rain. Then drove the really crazy (winding and bad surface) road to Kaikoura, arriving at midnight and camping hidden down by a river.

Freedom Camping in New Zealand

So a few days into our NZ trip, we were in for a bit of a shock. Unlike how we had remembered pulling over on the side of the road and camping wherever we wanted when we had been there several years before, there was now very strict rules in place about where you could camp, even with a campervan. This is largely in part due to the explosion of tourists NZ has had (since perhaps the Lord of the Rings) and to tourists not respecting rules and nature (eg. pooping wherever, leaving toilet paper and other trash all over, and bathing in pristine rivers and lakes).

The term used for camping, without cost, anywhere (setting up your tent anywhere or just pulling over in your van and sleeping) is termed Freedom Camping. Many of the popular tourist areas and towns now ban freedom camping within town limits and in certain sensitive areas, which I totally understand. What we didn't know going into our trip was that in order to Freedom Camp in the allowed areas, you had to have a certified Freedom Camping vehicle. What this means is that you have a campervan that is self-contained. What a self-contained camper van means in most counties is one that can store rubbish for 3 days, can store human waste for 3 days, can store grey water for 3 days, and can sleep the people inside the van

more precisely:

WHAT IS A SELF-CONTAINED CAMPERVAN?

First things first, let’s get the definition out of the way. Self containment NZS 5465:2001 is the certification used to show that a campervan can contain water waste for up to 3 days. This includes water in the form of water supply, grey water (sink and shower water), and septic waste. In detail, these are the features a campervan must meet to be self-contained.

• Fresh water tanks – 12L per person for three days
• A sink via a smell trap/water trap connected to a water tight sealed waste water tank
• Grey/black waste water tank – 12L per person for three days, vented and monitored if capacity is less than the fresh water tank
• Evacuation hose – (3m for fitted tanks) or long enough to connect to a sealed portable tank
• A rubbish bin with a lid
• Toilet (portable or fixed) – Needs to have a minimum of 3L per person for three days and be able to be used inside the campervan with the bed made up (for all vehicles certified/renewed after 31 May 2017).
  

Note: “per person” is measured on the amount of people a campervan can sleep, for instance, a 3-berth campervan needs will need to meet the minimum tank storage requirements for three people.

Even if a campervan has all these features, it is not classed as “certified self-contained” until it has received a warrant under the NZ Standard for Self Containment of Motor Caravans and Caravans, NZS 5465:2001.

When we rented our campervan, we had no idea such a rule existed. We wrongly assumed that any campervan rented in NZ would be able to camp anywhere. Bongo of course was not self-contained. The rental car company, Rental Car Village, that we rented from, did not provide any of that info or give us any sorts of heads up on their website, via email, or when we picked up the van. Thus, we actually didn't learn about the freedom camping rules in their entirety until a couple weeks into our trip. If you have a non self-contained vehicle, you must stay in DOC campsites or town and other private campsites or RV parks. We got a great deal with Bongo b/c we were renting long term, it was old, small, and not fancy, so we were paying about $50 kiwi dollars per day, which was about $37 USD per day. For us that was great, but the campsites in NZ aren't cheap and charge per person, not per vehicle. So if we were to follow the law and park are non self-contained camper in established campsites, it was going to get expensive. The cheapest DOC campsites were $8/person, but most were $13-15 per person. The RV parks were $20-40/person. So you can imagine adding, say, on average,  $30-40 per day for the two of us for our 2 month long trip was going to be quite the financial hit! The expensive RV parks were nice (we stayed at 1 on our trip) but the DOC campsites were pretty poor facility-wise for how much they were. Most didn't have potable water and had 1 or 2 over-used outhouses and were packed (some parked like a grocery store parking lot). A similar price for a campground in a U.S. NP would get you potable water and probably a hot shower to go with bathroom facilities with sinks. Fire bins and space from your neighbor. 

Right or wrong, we decided we were going to mostly just freedom camp anyways and try to get away with it. During our time we mostly freedom camped. We spent 10 nights in huts, paid for camping 6 times, and stayed in one air bnb. We did try to avoid illegally freedom camping as much as we could. Elisha had an app on her phone (campermate, I believe) that would sometime list where you could camp for free even with a non self-contained vehicle, so we tried to do that as much as we could. After we got our freedom camping violation in Wanaka, we were more careful about where we camped in the heavy touristy areas. The rest of our time in Wanaka, we camped at a kiwi's house that we had met at a hut. Despite the risk of the $200 fine for freedom camping, we decided it was financially smarter to freedom camp. In the end, $200 only got us 8-10 nights at a campground, and it seemed the rate of being caught was low. 

As I said, we did try to use campermate to camp in places we were allowed to camp without a self-contained vehicle. On top of that, we followed the leave no trace mantra that had been ingrained in us as outdoors people in the west. When possible we tried to camp near to a toilet (interestingly, when we got our fine in Wanaka, we were within 100yds of a toilet, which we tried to explain in our letter to get the fine reduced, but they did not accept it). But whether we were near a toilet or not, we always drove to a visitor center, mcdonalds or what not to do our #2 business. Had we had an emergency we would have dug a poo hole, like you do in the woods of America. One of the problems in NZ is people are just pooing all over and not burying it and just throwing toilet paper around. Part of why we felt okay with this is that the people in self-contained vehicles were not really using them as self-contained. People in vehicles the same size as us and many, many minivan style campers were certified self-contained. But in our opinion, the only truly self-contained were the larger motorhomes. The reason we believe this is that most in those self-contained vehicles still cooked and did dishes outside, and we saw many bathing (with shampoos) in the beautiful lakes. But the funniest was of course the toilet. The little vans just had this little toilet you could pull out, like maybe what you'd take on a river trip. Of course no one was using these! Of course you're not going to poop and pee in your tiny van, and pretty unlikely you're going to pull it out to sit on in a crowded campsite. Not to mention the campervan companies gave refunds if you didn't use it. So almost all self-contained vans were doing their business in the same way a non self-contained van would, and for most that meant pooing without digging and throwing their toilet paper to the wind. The other thing with the rule that we got a kick out of was that you could have your non self-contained van in any of those areas all day. So you could be cooking, cleaning, peeing, pooping there from 5am til midnight, but it was during that night time when you couldn't be there. For us, it is the night time where we had the smallest impact. Because of the way we travelled, we almost always cooked our meals, even dinner, at a place different from where we slept, bc we'd kind of drive or do activities until dark, then find a place, pull over, and just sleep.

Anyways, we did break the rules, but we felt we were responsible with our camping (probably more so than most self-contained campers), and we felt we couldn't really financially afford the additional cost we would have had to do in order to pay for camping every night. Now we know how things work, so we'd either pay more form the start and rent a self-contained van or probably better yet, get a super cheap (and economic to drive) car. Carry a tent with you for when you're in a pinch, but use air bnbs and the RV parks (that had cheap little cabins for rent) instead.

I was pretty fired up about the whole thing after we got the tickets. We had found out that freedom camping was very "topical' as the kiwis call it. I wanted to write a very detailed letter to a few of the papers in the big tourists areas (eg. wanaka and queenstown) with complaints, but also with solutions. B/c I do see that there is a major problem with all the campers and most of the campers not following the leave no trace idea. I had thought up some ideas like you have to watch a short video on leave no trace on the airplane in (or at your rental car place) and then pass a test. Or some other ideas b/c I think the main problem is people from other cultures not understanding how camping in the woods works, or apathetic people. But alas, by the time I got home, I had run out of some steam, had forgotten many of my ideas, and have just felt too busy to do it

Here is the letter we got back when we tried to plead our case to get our fine reduced. We wrote a hand-written letter, which I don't have, just the reply. But we had argued, that we arrived really late at night, so didn't hardly utilize the place, had purposely picked a place near an outhouse (which we did b/c our guidebook, The Lonely Planet, had said freedom camping was only illegal if you were away from a toilet, so that is how we had been viewing freedom camping), and a few other things, but to no avail.

Ash Sridharan <Aishwarya.Sridharan@qldc.govt.nz>	Apr 10
to me

Good Afternoon Travis Guy,

Thank you for your request regarding waiver infringement.

It is your responsibility to ensure you are aware of any rules and regulations that will affect you whilst travelling. This information is available via our websitewww.qldc.govt.nz along with various camper apps and at the I site information offices. There is signage on all roads entering and leaving both Queenstown and Wanaka to advise you are entering a No Freedom Camping Zone, were you are not allowed to camp. Freedom Camping is prohibited for any vehicles that are not certified self-contained, and even vehicles with the correct certificate these type of vehicles are only permitted to park in certain specific areas only. We have significant issue with freedom camping in this district and receive several complaints in a daily basis.

Therefore on this basis we are not prepared to waive this infringement.

Kind Regards,

Ash

Ash Sridharan  |  Regulatory Support | Regulatory + Finance Queenstown Lakes District Council DD: +64 3 441 1793  |  P: +64 3 441 0499 E: aishwarya.sridharan@qldc.govt.nz

Mount Aspiring National Park and Matukituki valley treks (and night of the mosquitos)

3/13/18

Took a little stroll in the morning along the lake to a point where I could see glaciated Mt. Aspiring (2nd tallest peak in NZ). In the morning drove to Makarora with beautiful lake views of Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea, which shimmered many shades of blue and turquoise. Glaciated mountains stood watch in the distance. At Makarora we started the Wilkin-Young Gillepsie Pass circuit. It started out with fording the Makarora river, a pretty wide, but not too deep river. It transitioned into valley walking, then the last several miles were steep and rough ups along a beautiful blue river (Young river) to the Young hut. We arrived at dusk to a warm hut with a few local kiwis.  2733 ft of elevation gain

3/14/18

Straight, steep up to the top of Gillepsie pass. There were good views, but most of the mountains were obscured by fog/rain. The big mountain that went up from the top of the pass was Mt. Misery. There was a sensational rainbow that lasted forever while we were up there. We cooked some soup on top in the drizzle. Very steep downhill, until we eventually reached reached the Siberia River valley. Super beautiful with mountains rising straight up (tops covered in rain and cloud though). Arrived to Siberia Hut, which sat next to a waterfall and had great views up and down valley. The hut looked up the valley at Mt. Awful.  3537 ft of elevation gain.

3/15/18

Hiked from the Siberia river valley down to the Wilkin river valley where we eventually caught a jet boat for the last ~15km. It was a really fun way to finish the trek. We did the jet boat option b/c big rain was coming and the river crossing might be tough, plus it would be fun. We walked the last 3km to the car from the jet boat in the rain. 974 ft. of elevation gain. Back in Wanaka, we took a shower, did some grocery shopping, and laundry. We spent the night by the lake, but were given a $200 fine for freedom camping. More on this later in another blog.

3/16/18

In the morning we drove into the Matukituki valley. We forded 9 creeks with Bongo to get there, which the visitor center said could be tough, but Bongo did it like a champ. We hiked into the Matukituki Valley to Aspiring Hut. The hike in was in a beautiful green river valley with amazing views of tall, glaciated peaks. The stuff postcards are made of. From the hut you could see great views of NZ's second highest peak, Mt. Aspiring. We dropped most of our stuff of at the hut, and then did a very steep climb to the top of a ridge call the Pylon. AMAZING mountain views from the top!! Some of the best we've seen. Impressive mountains with big glaciers. We also saw a large flock flying kea from there. From the pylon, we descended a bit, forded a river, and arrived at Cascade Saddle with nice views of the huge dart glacier and take your breath away straight drop down to the valley. We saw a nice sunset on our hike down and hiked the last 30 minutes or so in the dark with our flashlights. One thing we had found out is that when you aren't on a great walk, most trails that climb passes or mountains do so by going straight up! No switchbacks like back home. You're often using roots and rocks to climb up. And b/c of the lack of switchbacks and trail control, there can be a lot of erosion, so that you can be hiking in deep, slippery ravines. You definitely can climb to elevation quickly, but it can also be hard work.
7165 ft of elevation gain

3/17/18

Foggy in the morning, but we continued up the Matukituki valley along the pretty blue river. Then we had another steep rooty/rocky climb, along waterfalls to Liverpool Hut up in the alpine. Eventually the fog burned off, and we had stunning glacial views across the valley, including Mt. Aspiring and Bonar Glacier. Behind the hut was Mt. Barff and Barff Glacier. We hung out in the sun on the hut's decks for a bit, and then I did a touch rock climb/scramble around for views. I went back down to the hut, and Elisha and I followed a climber's trail up to the glacier and a cool cliff drop view. Really amazing views! It was a nice small hut with good company (3 americans, 2 kiwis, and an asian). We witnessed a really nice sunset and great stars.
5400 ft of elevation gain

3/18/18

We descended the steep trail back down. We hiked back down the Matukiuki valley until the Rob Roy Glacier turnoff. We hiked up to the glacier, which was a sweet hanging glacier with a myriad of waterfalls falling off it.  2411 ft. elevation gain.
We had a pretty sunset drive back to Wanaka. We treated ourselves to some dinner at food carts: Indian and dumplings. Camped at the vacation house of one of the kiwis we had met at the hut.

3/19/18
Day at the library working on my thesis. Camped at the same kiwi's house

3/20/18
Day at the library working on my thesis. Camped at the same kiwi's house

3/21/18

Walked along the lake shore of Wanaka and saw the famous #wanakatree that sits in the lake. We had lunch at the lake and then afternoon in the library working on my thesis. Ate fish and chips and then camped along Lake Hawea in the rain.

3/22/18

Drove up over Haast Past. Stopped at the Blue Pools, which are some pretty glacial blue pools in the Haast? river. We then began our hike up to Brewster Hut. It started right away with a chilly river ford. Then a straight up hike in the fog and light drizzle (at times). The hut was completely fogged in. Hard to see it from more than 100 feet away. Also very cold. A bit of snow from the storm the night before and icicles on the roof. There weren't many people in the hut, so it didn't warm up as much as we'd like: 1 American high schooler and 3 glaciologists.

3/23/18

Woke up to a dense freezing foggy soup. The plants were all frosted. We hung out in the hut for awhile, and then decided to climb Mt. Armstrong, despite the fog. It paid off! We quickly hiked above the clouds! The last part of the hike was in a decent amount of snow, which made it fun and interesting. Unreal views from the top of Mt. Armstrong! 360 degree views including Brewster glacier. We could see all the way out to Mt. Aspiring, Mt Awful, Mt. Dreadful, etc. Quite a bit of snow on the top of Mt. Armstrong and all around. So many glaciers! Before we'd had enough of the view, we decided we better head down. Grabbed our stuff at the hut, and then continued down. We continued driving to Haast, but stopped on the way to check out Fantail Falls and Thunder falls.

We drove past Haast and camped in rainforest near the ocean. It was the night of the mosquitos! When we went to bed, there was probably 100 mosquitos in the van. We went to work killing them all. We slept for a little bit, but were awakened by more buzzing. Another 100 or so mosquitos. We figured they must have been hiding in the car. So we killed them. Another 10-20 minutes of rest. More buzzing. Turned on the lights. Another 100 mosquitos! Killed them all, but more kept appearing. We eventually figured, somehow we were parked in a mosquito breeding area and there must have been some hole in the van that they were coming up through. At this point the ceiling and walls of Bongo were covered with mosquito carcasses. There was nothing we could do. I tried to wrap myself in blankets, leaving just my nose out. But the buzzing was incessant. In the end I think we both slept less than an hour that night!

Queenstown and Jet Boating

3/11/18

Drove to Queenstown. Walked around the touristy town and had some fish and chips by the lake beach. After lunch we hiked up the Tiki Trail which takes you to the top of the mountain that the gondola also goes to. From the top, there were fantastic views of the blue lake, Queenstown, and the Remarkables (the jagged mountain range outside of town).

We had signed up for a jet boat tour, one of those cool high adrenaline activities popular in Q-town. So after the hike we quickly made it over to the tour company where we boarded a mini bus. We were going to be jet boating on the Shotover River, but first we had a really cool drive on a super narrow dirt road with steep drop offs (rental cars prohibited) to get to Skipper Canyon. We began the road by going over a pass, and the dropped steeply into the canyon. Our driver was funny and tried to scare us while on the road. This area that were were driving in was used a lot for the Lord of the Rings filming. Once down into skipper canyon and the shotover river, we boarded the jet boat. It's a super fun ride that is also scary. They drive really fast through the narrow canyon, going over impossibly shallow areas, through rapids, and purposely driving right at cliffs and other obstacles before turning sharply at the last minute. And then there's always the fun 360s too. We camped outside of Queenstown that night

3/12/18

In the morning we drove up over Cadrona Pass (highest paved road in NZ) to Cadrona and then to Wanaka. After arriving in Wanaka, we visited the NP visitor center and then hiked to the top of Rocky Mount, which had nice views of the large lake near Wanaka. We had lunch at the lake, and then did some library time to work on my paper. Camped along the shore of the lake overnight