Dolphins and Glowworms and Orcs, oh my!

Whew! My parents just left this weekend after a nearly month-long whirlwind tour of NZ. I was able to fit in some long weekends with them, and I’m exhausted by the amount of ground we covered on both islands. I can’t imagine how they must feel. My sister was also able to make it for two weeks in early March, making this the first Ringold-family traveling we’ve done in years.

There were many highlights. We started up north on the North Island with a drive from Auckland to the Bay of Islands along the west coast which took us through native forests of kauri (very, very tall) trees, and tree ferns that were something out of Jurassic Park. No pterodactyls, but we did see our first of many sheep as we emerged from the forests into farmland and amazing coastal views. The main event of our visit to the Bay of Islands was a boat trip among the islands. We ran across an incredibly social pod of dolphins who put on an impressive show of tandem jumping and flips, much better than Marine World.


The "Hole in the Rock" in the Bay of Islands. The boat in front of the hole did not make it through, but ours did!

After spending a few days in Wellington we headed down to the South Island. Our first stop was Queenstown, “adventure capital of the world,” home of the bungy jump among other forms of “thrill therapy.” It is also Lord of the Rings country, and I saw more than one barefoot cape-wearing Tolkein fan in search of Orcs. There are many tour companies willing to oblige.

Queenstown sits along Lake Wakatipu at the base of the Remarkables mountains– which basically sums it up. The scenery is amazing. We used Queenstown as our base to get out to Fiordland national park, where we spent an overnight on a boat – the Navigator – on Doubtful Sound. We had misty, moody weather on the sound and most of my pictures look like they were taken in black and white. But the bonus of the rain was many waterfalls and dramatic cloudy scenery. At the end of our trip the captain shut down the engines of the Navigator to let us experience the silence of the Sound. As we were soaking it all in a pod of dolphins showed up and jumped along the boat as we started moving again.

Other adventures around Queenstown included a boat trip through limestone caves with glowworms twinkling down at us, and a guided nature walk along the Routeburn Track, one of NZ’s great walks. We were told that someone ran the trail in just under 3 hours, but it takes most people 3-4 days to hike it. On our last day Sarah and I got into the spirit of Queenstown with a jetboat ride on the Shotover River which took us careening through narrow rock canyons at break-neck speed and 360 degree turns.

Sarah also inspired me to try paragliding – something I never imagined I would ever do! But the conditions were too perfect to pass up – clear skies, light wind, amazing views of the mountains and lake. I figured if I was ever going to do it, this was the day. So I found myself jumping off a mountain attached to a friendly guide named Roscoe and a large parasail. Roscoe caught a thermal (fancy term for warm rising wind) that took us way up above our launching point. From there we floated over the city for a while, did some twists and turns (no flips!), and landed smoothly on a school field. And now I have these cool pictures!

That’s all for now, I’ll have to post more photos and travel tips later.