Rapturous!

One of the many valleys in the Southern Alps

It was 10:00pm on Saturday night, the 27th of February, when we were startled awake by our phones alerting us to another lockdown in Auckland, this time for 7 days! A 21 year old boy with symptoms had taken himself in to be tested and then had gone to the gym, the supermarket and a fast food joint while he waited for the results. He tested positive. Taking no chances, the lockdown was declared after most people had retired for the night, set to begin at 6:00am the next morning. We had a flight the next day from Auckland to Wellington which would probably be canceled. Greg looked at me blearily and said, "We've got to go now or we wont be able to get around Auckland!" We were already all packed with our luggage in the car. We just needed to pack toiletries and lock up the boat. By 10:30 we were on the road.

Of course, it was raining and it seemed as if everyone in Auckland was fleeing North before the lockdown deadline while we were trying to get South of the city. We faced a long drive on wet, narrow roads with headlights blinding us expecting every moment to encounter a roadblock preventing us from transiting. If we got stopped we wouldn't make the reservation to hike the Milford Track. This track has been on our bucket list for over 20 years. We had to cancel once already last year when we realized in French Polynesia that we would not get to New Zealand in time. Once again, like we did in Chile getting back to the boat just in time and in Tahiti when we fled to Fiji without knowing whether New Zealand would let us in, COVID required us to make an instant decision based on incomplete information. We were determined to achieve this goal at all costs. And it ended up costing us a lot!

We arrived in Hamilton, comfortably south of Auckland at 3:30am, still in the rain. Since we hadn't stopped at all in the COVID positive region we felt safe. We pulled into a truck stop for two hours of sleep in the front seat of the car under the glaring lights of the gas station. Greg couldn't sleep. He was finding out if we could get a refund on our plane ticket and investigating what the penalty would be for not dropping off our rental car. Air New Zealand was wonderful. They gave us a credit for the full amount of the plane ticket to be used any time in the next year. The rental company was just the opposite. We were supposed to drop it off at the airport but then we would have been trapped in the city and would have had to stay there for at least 7 days. No! Our only recourse was to drive the rental car to Wellington, 325 miles so we could catch the ferry to the South Island the next day. The penalty was almost 3 times as much as the cost of the original 4 day rental contract. To add injury to insult Greg got a speeding ticket on the empty highway over the volcanic plateau. We arrived in Wellington in the mid afternoon and gratefully checked into the Travelodge for a well deserved nap.

We picked up our campervan in Picton as scheduled. It's about half the size of the boat and drives like a bus. While it has everything we need to be self-contained for several days, the systems are not as sophisticated and it is not as comfortable. However, it works. We took 3 days to get to Queenstown stopping in at Christchurch to see Peter and Banu on their boat Denise II on the way. Too rushed, but we had a schedule to keep and we will explore more after the hikes.

The Milford Track lived up to its reputation especially when it's done as a guided walk staying in the lodges at night and having someone else cook plentiful meals with wine or a beer at the end of the day. We were very lucky with the weather, experiencing the McKinnon Pass in clear, but cold, weather. It is 33.5 miles for 5 days but the main hiking is only three days. You walk into the U-shaped valley through old growth forests and wetlands. Then you climb 17 switchbacks up over the pass, and then knee-achingly down into the Milford Sound valley. Finally, you walk down the glacial valley again through forest and past hanging waterfalls to the sea. What struck me most is how empty the country is. There are no native mammals so no wildlife. No chipmunks or squirrels. It's eerie, like being in a ruined abbey. The introduced species are nocturnal so we never saw them except an occasional rabbit. This is a country of birds but they have been decimated by the invasive species. Even the Kea, the mountain parrots, are scarce. Check out the photos, below.

















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In my opinion, not shared by many, the Grand Traverse Routeburn Track was more interesting. Again we took the guided option with a smaller group and again, we had exceptional weather. Perhaps this was why I preferred the track. In bad weather all you see is cloud. Very seldom do you get to take pictures like this. Here a a short video clip at Harris saddle on the Routeburn courtesy of Martin Bird, one of our hiking companions on the trek:



Here are also some photo highlights of the trek:





















Along every track in New Zealand there are rectangular box traps to catch stoats or possums. Only occasionally have I seen or smelled a dead animal. Far more are killed on the roads. In the early morning, great Australasian Harrier Hawks come to grab the carcases often becoming road kill themselves.

We went to the Mt. Cook area recovering from the above mentioned treks. Instead of walking we took a helicopter flight to see the glaciers. Here is Mt. Cook in all her glory.























We will continue exploring the South Island until April 7 when we will return to the boat. The cabin sole should be finished and Rapture will be livable again looking beautiful with her new floor and new upholstery. There are still a few projects to complete but we should be able to do a little sailing before the winter rains begin.

We did one last note worthy hike in Wanaka. The trek up to Roy's peak; a 4200 feet vertical climb, but the views were amazing.









Check out more photos on this post in the gallery from our excursion of the South Island.