Dec 29 - End of Routeburn, Quad Biking

Dec 29, 2011

We "slept in" til about 8, took 2 gorgeous photos of Lake Howden and were on our way.

Lake Howden, just before bed yesterday:Lake Howden, first thing in the morning:

I'll wake up to the site of Lake Howden any day.

We decided against the nearby 'up and back' hike, as we were exhausted from the previous day.

A steep trail to start the morning for 15 minutes and a gradual descending trail for the next 45 minutes and we reached The Divide. We had completed the world famous Routeburn Track!!

We embarked on a 1.5 hour bus/van ride towards Te Anau. We were going the opposite direction of all of the other traffic, as the road behind us headed directly to Milford Sound, the most famous fjord in Fiorland, however Tim and I ultimately decided to go to the more remote / adventurous of the two famed Sounds, Doubtful Sound. Ironically, these are both misnamed, and should be called fjords, but the settlers misnamed them...and the names stuck.

When we arrived in Te Anau (pronounced like Keanu Reeves) and we were going to have to walk another mile to our accommodation (1 mile seems like nothing after doing 14 yesterday), but our friendly Kiwi bus driver dropped us off at YHA Te Anau.

We wandered the town, got lunch, checked in for our kayaking to take place tomorrow, picked up food for the next 2 days and awaited being picked up for our quad biking adventure (ATVing) which we booked just days before we left the States.

We made friends with our fellow quad biker companions, and one of the girls had just finished the trans-siberian railroad, 5 days on a train across Russia with her Mom, toured Mongolia, and absolutely fell in love with Nepal. She would be returning to Asia, simply to go back to Nepal. I have heard many good things about Nepal and it is no doubt, due to these fellow travelers and their common interest to mine, on my list of places to go to in the near future! We arrived at a dusty open field with miles and miles of barren land, filled with low lying bushes, and jumped onto our ATVs. After a brief 'how to', adorning our goggles, and helment we were off on the trail.

Unfortunately due to lack of rain, all of the mud pits had dried up, so we were in for a very dusty ride. We had a guide at the front and back of our group, and Tim and I tagged onto the back with the younger, more adventurous guide. We'd let the group get far ahead of us, and then gun it through the trail for more of a rush. Soon enough the guide had faith in us, and he took us off the trail, we were plowing over bushes that were as wide as the ATV, and 6' tall.

Countless shrubbery after shrubbery we ran over, and we were truly off roading. We even got stuck in a bog or two and were spinning mud off our tires before returning to the trail. At the top of the trail ~8 mile trail, we stopped for some incredible views of Lake Te Anau and the stunning mountains in the background.

Various Lord of the Rings scenes were filmed here. After a few coffees, and the guide giving me grief about being the wild adventurous one (this very quickly became the theme of every guided adventure activity we did) we were on our way back down.

Tim and I were treated to some more off roading on the way back down and took various videos of us going through the trail. I even snapped a video where I held my camera near the front left tire and continued to ride along the bushes. This video turned out very interesting as the video brings you on a wild run, running into various bushes, branches, and its as if you're on the ride with me, bumping up and down with each stone / pit I pass over.

A little more ATVing off the beaten path, and we were back in the van for 20 minutes on our way to Te Anau.

This evening Tim and I grabbed dinner at a local bar with a live band and we walked into the band playing Sublime - Santeria, and we knew that this was going to be a good time. The lamb was incredible, the local brews were good, and the music fantastic. Back to the hostel for some quick internet time, and to bed we go, awaking by 5 to make our connection to go Kayaking for the next 2 days!