Royal National park (south of Sydney)
Blue Mountains (west of Sydney)
Royal National park (south of Sydney) |
Blue Mountains (west of Sydney) |
RNP: first glance at the unfamiliar vegetation of Australia. Saw a wallaby on the trail from some distance! And the trail along the coast is very beautiful.
Blue Mountains: first impression – it's indeed all upside down on this side of the globe! The railroad and the town are on the plateau above the deep canyons with lush vegetation and scarce trails..
A trail in the "Grand Canyon" (Creaves creek) is absolutely spectacular, it feels that sometimes one can touch the opposite side of the canyon by hand, yet its bottom is tens of metres below!
On the opposite side of Katoomba town, the trail descends down from the top station of the cable car (there is also a funicular railway going down into the valley). Below the cliffs, there are remnants of the old mining town, with a lovely planked path zigzagging through the forest.
A night near the top of Mount Solitary was amazing, beautiful views into the valley and on the sky (but no Magellanic Clouds! – didn't manage to see them during a whole month in the southern hemisphere!..)
After dipping into Kedumba river and having my lunch on its bank, I saw a metre-long lizard-y creature on the other side, which was slowly crawling along the river. Still don't know if it was deadly dangerous, as everything else on this continent!
 Fiordland / Mount Aspiring national park (South Island, near Queenstown) |
 Tongariro (North Island) |
No transport here, but hitchhiking (kinda) works, although seems to be quite rare in NZ
First part – a four-day trek in Southern Alps, near the popular Routeburn trail, but only touching a small part of it at the very end (boring!..)
Instead, the first day's route going up Beans burn was quite a challenge in trail-finding! I mean, the trail is there, although quite sketchy, and oftentimes lost in the dense undergrowth – then the only chance to continue is to look for coloured marks on trees, which are visible from afar. Otherwise bushwhacking is really tedious!
As the trail exited the forest and neared the ascent to Fohn saddle, I had the most unlikely chance encounter in my trips! A guy descending down this creek, on his 4th or so day of solitary walking, turned out to be a climate science professor who worked for many years at the University of Cambridge, same as myself!
Second night in the shrubs between Fohn and Fiery passes, windy & rainy, but a huge boulder sheltered the tent from being blown away.
Have to admit, the weather was sub-optimal for the rest of this hike, so had to abandon bigger plans of traversing Humboldt mountains (which were enshrouded in clouds) and simply descend down Rock burn.
By contrast, the weather was better on the Northern island, where I did the classic 1-day Tongariro crossing. Although on the day of arrival, the highest volcano (Ruapehu) was again in a rainy cloud and out of question, the next day was fine.
This trail wiggles across lava fields between Ngauruhoe and Tongariro volcanoes, the former playing the role of Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings movie.
Quite a lot of people walking this trail (even with kids!), but doesn't feel too crowded.
The highest point around "Red Crater" is also one of the most spectacular, with the white lava tube propping out of the red and black crater wall, and emerald-coloured lakes with some fumes beneath the summit.
After finishing this trail, another day walk along Waikato river and Huka falls. Just above the falls, the river goes into a narrow and straight fast-flowing section squeezed between rocky walls of a canyon, and the wild oscillating waves in the flow are even more spectacular than the falls themselves.
And then the town of Rotorua and the traditional Maori village Whakarewarewa built literally on top of a geothermal field, with hot or even boiling lakes, a giant cauldron on the main street, where the residents cook their potatoes in the hot spring, and an occasionally erupting Keruru geyser at the edge of the village. And also a nice mountain biking park nearby.
