The Waters of Greenstone

Here's a great video:

The Waters of Greenstone from Nathan Kaso on Vimeo.

Tasmaninan Abel

Bikes & Wines in Marlborough

Biked around Renwick, the epicenter of the wine region in Marlborough. Because of the climate they grow mostly white wines, and predominantly Sauvignon Blanc. There were also lots of rieslings, gewurztraminers and dessert wines at all of the vinyards we stopped at, so I loved it! New Zealand is also known for it's Pinot Noir, but the best of that comes from Central Otago.

Freedom Camping in Kaikoura

The Adventures of Olde Blue Zealand begin

Who knew that all you need in life can be contained in a 150 sq. feet space. Ok, maybe not everything you need in life, but definitely everything you need for a week or two of traveling!

Magical Castles & Churches

I thought today would be a boring driving day, with the main goal to get ourselves from Hokitika on the West Coast to Christchurch on the East. But of course the least planned days lead to the best surprises, and we saw two of the most spectacular places today, Hokitika Gorge and the magical rocks at Castle Hill. That's what makes New Zealand so magical, you can just turn off the road and find the most majestic thing!

What does the Fox 'Glacier' Say?

I guess it takes about a week to reach the 'what day of the week is it again?' phase, and that's fine with me. Looking back, I had no idea it was a Sunday the entire time we were in driving up the West Coast, but then again, not so sure it mattered. No matter the day, there were always tourist things open, always people tramping, towns were always a bit sleepier and quieter than we could have ever imagined. And the drive north to Hokitika was no different.

Our destination was Fox Glacier for a planned hike on the ice. But it rained pretty heavily the entire drive up, so by the time we got to the outfitters we weren't much in the mood to done crampons in the pouring rain. I was slightly concerned about having to shell out a couple of hundred bucks for this hike, but when we got to the office we found out the trip had to be cancelled for safety. At the time I wasn't disappointed because we weren't really feeling up to it anyways. In hindsight it's probably the one thing on the trip I wished we could have done, but you've got to make cuts here and there, we still got to see the glacier anyways! Yay for free trips :)

Since we finished up earlier than expected in Fox Glacier we decided to drive on to Hokitika, the land of the greenstone!

Queens for a day

The fervor we had for photographing the scenery en route to Doubtful Sound yesterday can only be compared with the complete lack of photography today. It's funny how something so unique and resplendent can quickly become rote. Or maybe it was just the fact that we were plum tuckered out, leaving us time to just soak the atmosphere up, and not behind a camera lens.

Doubtful the 13th

After a few days of driving the skinny, twisty roads of NZ, it is nice to sit back, relax, and be chauffeured around a bit. And that was just what we got on our 3 hour journey from Queenstown to Doubtful Sound. Our driver gave a running commentary of the scenery we were passing, starting with the dark,  jagged mountains, The Remarkables, which flank Queenstown southeast. It is a testament to his skill as a tourism operator that he kept us at rapt attention speaking of abandoned towns, NZ's farming history and the difference between baleage, hay, and silo feed! One such abandoned town (or I believe he said it is still a town since it has a population of 5!) still holds some cache as it is the town furthest from the coast in all of New Zealand at a whopping 76 km!!!

I Wanna Wanaka

Waking up in Wanaka was a magical experience. Such a beautiful setting, such a relaxing and lovely morning.

Tobogganing in Summer

The whooshing sound we heard upon waking up Wednesday morning let us know the westerlies our hut mates had said were coming had actually arrived. It seems like every New Zealander has a high understanding of weather patterns, a product of the outdoor education which they all receive in school and a necessity in a country where the weather can change on a dime. I learned this for myself after heading to the bathroom in windy and rainy conditions only to come out to no rain and a rainbow overhead. We decided to seize this respite from the storm and start our descent down, hoping to avoid the worst of the gale force winds and rains (but resigned to the fact that this may be a miserable hike!).  As rach and I scampered carefully over the slippery rocks the 2 Dutch girls caught up and asked if they could tramp thru the snow sections with us. I was a bit surprised that anyone would be afraid of the snow, but I guess if you didn't grow up around it it could be a bit daunting. Either way, that blind fearlessness stoked me on, so when we were faced with the 1st steep section I suggested we toboggan down instead of wasting energy walking. There were already tracks there and that was enough to convince me it would be fine, despite the large rocks at the bottom of the path. It wasn't until I sat down and immediately began zipping down the mt that a smidgen of doubt crept in. But that was quickly pushed aside by the excitement and adrenaline from this extreme sledding. I may not be much of a skier or snowboarder, but I consider myself a pretty hard-core sledder, so this was right up my alley!!

-Lake Pukaki so blueeeeeeee

-napping!

-Arrowtown

-Cinema Paradiso

-Eating at Kaiwanakai

Climbing Mueller Hut

We awoke early, to a misty morning in Mt. Cook Village, eager to reserve our space in the Mueller Hut by checking in at the iSite. We beat the rush and were first in line, along with a friendly girl from Ireland and soon our two little beads were moved on the abacus ensuring our bunks for the night. This would be the first of many occasions where a supposedly busy and/or crowded place in NZ standards turned out to be downright sleepy by American standards! Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park is of course dominated by the impressive Mt. Cook, New Zealand's tallest peak at 3,754 m (12,316 ft). But just as gorgeous is the braided river flowing down from the many waterfalls and glacial runnoff that cuts through the U shaped valley. The park actually reminded me a lot of Zion National Park, but I surmise that is because that is the only other major glacial valley I have hiked through.

The hike to Mueller Hut takes about 3.5 hours and ascends over 2000 m.  We started strolling through the river valley, quickly stripping off our layers as realized how warm a day it was. The main route is broken up into two distinct parts, from the village to Sealy Tarns and then from Sealy Tarns to the ridge where the Hut sits. The first part is nearly all stairs (we passed a number of folks actually counting steps) heading steeply up through the jungle landscape. We we're left huffing and puffing as we claimed nearly vertically up, but there were more than enough vistas to warrant stops, and take our breath away figuratively too! It was nice knowing that we had ample time to get up to the hut, our only worry was making sure we rationed our water properly. 

At the top of Sealy Tarns the vegetation stopped and we had a gorgeous view of Mt. Cook to the NE, Tasman Lake, Mueller Lake, and the Tasman River flowing south out the valley to Lake Pukaki. The second phase of the hike was more of a rock scramble, with the route demarcated by orange topped metal stakes driven in between the rocks. With about 300m left to go we encountered our first snow field. Since Rachel only had her sneakers on I lead the way, walking throug the deep snow in others footsteps as fast as possible. That was a tiring 100 feet or so uphill, but also invigorating to be hiking through snow in sunny 60 weather. As we rounded the top of the ridge we were faced with the most dramatic bowl and 2 glaciers in all their glory. There were small avalanches falling where the melt was strong, and many waterfalls too. 

After one more quick scramble the hut came into view, we only had another big field of snow to cross. The higher we got the quicker the weather began to change. While it was still sunny out the wind was whipping up quite a bit, so any part of you that got wet was going to stay wet. The Westerlt clouds were constantly falling over the ridge so we were quite happy to seek shelter when we arrived a Mueller Hut. We most have been more tired than we realized because we both quickly fell asleep after laying out our sleeping bags on our bunk. When we awoke our Irish friend Adrienne had just returned from the summit of Mt. Olliver, 30 minutes further up the ridge. I was curious to check the bare ridge out, so scrambled up there to check out the view and take some photos while Rachel thawed out her feet. The group in the hut that night was a very friendly crew and we enjoyed great conversation with Adrienne as well as a couple of mates from Melbourne, Daniel and Ben. It's funny how you can share a bunk with 20 strangers you just met but everyone is friendly and helpful. Definitely restores your faith in humanity. 

After a yummy dinner of hot dogs, baguette and cheese (and a great bottle of Shiraz) we were off to bed. I set my alarm for 3 am to check for stars per Jen & Adrienne's suggestion, but unfortunately it was a cloudy sky. I was more than happy to snuggle back up in my sleeping bag and drift back to sleep. 

The Lupin has Landed

After many hours in transit we finally make it to New Zealand. Auckland airport is our first taste of the country as we wait for our connecting flight down to Christchurch. Most things are fairly country ambiguous, save for perhaps the rugby ball vending machine! For our first meal we enjoyed two tasty noodle soups, a preview of what was to come as we soon learned that Asian cuisine is very common in New Zealand (as are Asian tourists!). We found a lovely patio next to the food court and basked in the noon-day sun, not a bad temperature for December 9th! My first case of culture shock came when going through security in the domestic terminal, they don't make you take off your shoes and hardly bother with coats or hats too! How trusting these Kiwis are!

By the time we landed and gathered up our bags it was close to 4pm, a four4 hour difference from when we had intended to land. We got a lovely ride to the rental agency from abcDee, who also gave us a lovely summary of Christmas in the warmer Southern Hemisphere and how they are slowly creating their own carols etc. to reflect the warmer climate. A few minutes later we were given the keys to a late model Nissan Sunny. We quickly dubbed him Uncle Sunny and I took the first stab at driving on the left hand side of the road. 

Despite the overcast skies it was easy to be awed by the raw, natural beauty which quickly took over our view after leaving Christchurch. I was filled with joy when I started seeing one of my favorite flowers, lupines, growing in huge swaths by the roadside. We would later learn that these are actually deemed invasive, at least in certain parts of the country, but they sure do look nice from your car window! The drive to Mt. Cook Village passes by two beautiful glacial lakes, Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki. Unfortunately due to our later start I was afraid we would miss seeing them both (despite the fact that it stays light in the summer till at least 9pm). Thankfully we rolled into Lake Tekapo just at dusk and were able to marvel at the turquoise blue water with more gorgeous lupines growing along the coast. The blue color comes from the very fine glacial flour which is suspended in the water.

The rest of our drive to the village was uneventful, minus the many rabbits who kept trying to play frogger with our car! Nothing gets you acclimated to a new driving technique like having to break and swerve as rabbits dodge in between your wheels! We pulled into a pitch-dark village and hit the hay, excited for the adventure awaiting us during our first full day on holiday!

La La Land

Neither Rachel or I had ever been to Los Angeles before, so what better way to spend an 8 hour layover than getting out to explore the city? We decided to avoid the horrid LA traffic and kept our exploring to the coast. Our first stop was at the famous Kogi food truck, the Korean barbecue truck which is credited with starting the whole food truck craze in LA, and has now spread through the U.S. We started driving towards Venice Beach, but thanks to a tip from Alanna we went to check out the canals that give the city it's name. I had no idea that there was such an intricate canal system and that Venice California resembled Venice Italy in anything more than name! But wow, what a neat neighborhood. We had such a great time strolling along the canals and peaking into all the cool homes. We even stopped by an open house that was going on in a really cool modern house on a corner lot, with a cool $4 million it could be ours!

 Next we headed to Santa Monica Pier, first stopping by the workout equipment on the beach and trying our hand at the ring swing. We strolled through the amusement rides on the pier and saw the western end of Route 66. We ended the night by checking out the shops over Santa Monica Boulevard with our buddy Sheryl Crow!


 

Map Test

New Zealand Retelling

So one month ago today, Rachel and I set out on our amazing adventure in the land of the Kiwis, New Zealand. We've been back for over a week now and have shared a few of our stories with you, but I personally have been finding it hard to sum-up in words all of the fantastic things we did over that time. It feels like we were there for a lifetime and visited 20 different countries, not just one! I came across an article last week by recent Man-Booker prize winner (and New Zealander) Eleanor Catton that finally explains this struggle I have had:

"To experience sublime natural beauty is to confront the total inadequacy of language to describe what you see. Words cannot convey the scale of a view that is so stunning it is felt. In such moments natural beauty becomes a kind of devastation – it is pure encounter, too compressed in time and space to be properly contained."

In the spirit of the New Year and the vow to do creative, self-improvement projects that inevitably follows, I have decided to tackle one myself. In the following month I will be re-telling our trip one day at a time. I wanted a medium to highlight not just the big-wow moments, but the small unique times too, not to mention I want to re-read those daily journal entries and relive it all with you!

So on the corresponding date in January I will send out a blog post recounting our matching day in New Zealand. I don't intend for these to be long novels and hopefully this will be good practice for me in succinctly editing and summarizing our memories. I hope it will be a fun journey for you too, arm-chair traveling as we say at NGS.

Here's that entire article I quoted earlier by Eleanor Catton, The Land of the Long White Cloud, I highly recommend you give it a read as a primer for the blogs to come (although sadly, my writing will not live up to her standard in any way, shape, or form!) Tomorrow, the 8th, is the day we lost in transit, so expect your first e-mail on the 9th. 

Kia Ora,

Rosie