Chilling on the California Coast
Perhaps you’ve heard of the Wānaka tree. Framed by New Zealand’s snow-capped Southern Alps, the sparse yet expressive willow bows to one side in the frigid shallows of Lake Wānaka. Modest tourist interest ticked higher in 2014 thanks to an award-winning photograph of the tree swaddled in winter fog. Today, you can review the tree’s many moods on Instagram and other social media. Search for #thatwanakatree.
Burt Munro set a world speed record of 184 mph in August 1967 aboard a 47-year-old modified Indian Scout. The record for under 1,000 cc motorcycles, set during Speed Week at Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats, still stands. We stopped by Invercargill’s E Hayes & Sons hardware store on our way to Stewart Island to pay our respects to the hometown hero and check out his legendary Munro Special.
Continue reading “Invercargill Hardware Store Cradles ‘Speed Week’ Record-holder”
Multiple brochures and blogs – even our tour company – describes the hike up New Zealand’s Rocky Mountain at Diamond Lake as moderate. Some sturdy AllTrails contributors dismiss the 4.4-mile loop as easy. Don’t believe them. The trail is deceptively difficult.
Diamond Lake and Rocky Mountain Track, 4.4 miles, 1,591 feet (March 5, 2024)
Continue reading “An Unexpected Glute-stretcher at New Zealand’s Rocky Mountain”
Most days, a peek inside prospector Sam Summer’s stone hut might be the highlight of the Mount Crichton Loop. Or the view of New Zealand’s Lake Wakatipu from an outcropping not far from the trail’s apex. Instead, a night of rain drowned the stepping stones across 12-Mile Creek, And so a tricky swift-water crossing became our most memorable trail moment.
Mount Crichton Loop 4.8 miles, 1040 feet of elevation gain (March 4, 2024)
Continue reading “A Creek Quandary at New Zealand’s Mt. Crichton – Boots or Barefoot?”
The Routeburn Track in New Zealand’s Southern Alps winds among chiseled peaks that served as a backdrop for Isengard in the “Lord of the Rings” film trilogy. Our day hike on a magnificent sliver of that track was our introduction to the nation’s Great Walks.