New Zealand, a remote island nation situated more than 1,000 km southeast of Australia, has a land mass the size of UK and a total population of 4.5 million people (less than 1/10 of UK's population). Besides people, it is also home to ~6.2 million cattle and ~30 million sheep - making it the highest sheep-to-person ratio country in the world. Given it's remote location, New Zealand is one of the last lands to be settled by humans. In it's years of sanctuary undisturbed by human inhabitants, it developed a distinctive biodiversity of dramatic mountain range, crystal fiords, mystical glacier lakes, multicolored fungal life, and ancient trees soared into the sky. The best way to describe New Zealand is to imagine middle earth. Indeed, most of the filming of The Lord of the Ring and The Hobbit series were done in New Zealand. Given I only budgeted 7 days for my New Zealand trip (far from sufficient), I decided to spend all my days in the South Island (or Te Waipounamu in Maori). South Island is most famous for the Southern Alps, which divided the South Island along its length. Situated on the boundaries of two tectonic plates, the Southern Alps was formed in the last 45 million years due to the constant collision of the Pacific Plate and Indo-Australian Plate, which pushed up 20km of granite from the Pacific Plate to form sharp mountain peaks. They are the fastest growing mountains in the world and would have been the tallest if it wasn't for the simultaneous erosion and rock slides accompanied by the plate collisions. During the last ice age, the entire Southern Alps was covered in snow and then froze into glaciers. Since then, snow caps has been slowly melting away into a group of majestic fiords, lakes and waterfalls. The most intriguing thing about the Southern Alps would be the tree avalanches. As the Alps are made of tough granite from deep within the Pacific Plate, there are no soil or dirt on the mountains for trees to dig their root in. To survive, trees on the alps interlinked roots to anchor themselves and to absorb water and nutrient together. Without soil to drain the excess water, one can witness abundant temporary waterfalls, which lasts only a few hours after heavy rainfall and occasionally those waterfalls would wash away a whole patch of trees from the mountainside resulting in tree avalanches. My seven days of perfectly mapped itinerary started in Christchurch on April 22nd (Tuesday). I spent the night in the quiet little town then boarded the scenic train, Tranzalpine, on the morning of the 23rd (Wednesday) to Greymouth. From there, the plan was to take the Kiwi Experience bus (a tour bus) down to Queenstown with a pitstop in Franz Joseph to see the glacier. The distance between Greymouth and Queenstown was 7 hours by car. I budgeted for a half day tour in Franz Joseph and expected to arrive in Queenstown the evening of the 24th (Thursday) to meet with a friend / ex-colleague of mine from Australia. It was a long weekend in Aus and New Zealand and we planned to hike one of the seven great walks of New Zealand, the 32k Routeburn Trek, together. After the hike, I would rejoin Kiwi Experience until my flight out of New Zealand. The perfectly planned itinerary felt apart the moment I got off the train in Greymouth. The Kiwi Experience bus broke down in Greymouth before I even stepped in it. After 3 hours of unsuccessful attempt to fix it, our bus driver load us up on an 1986 vintage bus that won't go faster than 60km a hour. Then a series of itinerary crashing disasters and frustrations followed with the Kiwi Experience bus. Long story short, I had find my own way down to Queenstown which I finally did on the night of the 25th (Friday), a day late and little time to purchase / rent gear for the hike on the following morning. To my relieve, everything felt into place when I found my friend. We were extremely efficient - purchased warm layers, rented trekking shoes and sleeping bags, and bought grocery in less than 2 hours. The rest of the night before our big hike was spent on a massive meal and fun stories. The trek was tough and the night in the woods was extremely cold, but we had an amazing time. It felt so good to be in good company that it made me realize I actually prefer to be alone than in bad company. When my friend flew back to Aus after the hike, I wrote off the entire Kiwi Experience ticket of NZ$490 and rented a car to explore the rest of South Island on my own. Finally, I was able to enjoy New Zealand at my own pace without the imposed schedule of a tour company and completely undisturbed by a bus load of teenagers. The key reason for joining the very expensive Kiwi Experience tour (NZ$490 for 7 days vs NZ$45 car rental per day) was so that I won't have to be alone. When loneliness finally came after I ditched the tour, it was serene and liberating. I don't know how I lived for 26 years without a meal alone. Now, I treasure those meals, in my own thoughts, at my leisure, without the need to keep a conversation going.
