NZ Hike Day 3: Watch out Frodo!

Leaving Nadia and Sonia's cottage was not easy but the beauty of any longer hike is in the unknown. What would we experience today? The entire day and a vast portion of the trip lay before us.

We stopped briefly at the aptly named Cape Foulwind to watch some New Zealand fur seals, which were hunted to near extinction. I had my fill of seal smell during the South African trip (How do the sharks gulp these guys down? They stink!).


I watched the seals from afar which allowed me to see my first Weka. And let me say what a cheeky bugger he was. Apparently there are 4 subspecies of Weka and the South Island Weka are the Monthy Python to the North Island's BBC World News Report. And this one definitely seemed aware of the difference, diligently and closely scouting the area around our van before figuring out that we did not come bearing food. Weka are becoming an endangered species - so a note to my redneck friends - hunt the possum and deer and leave the very chicken-looking but not chicken-acting Weka alone.

We drove on from Cape Foulwind, after everyone came back holding their noses, to Paparoa National Park (I can spell the names but for the life of me cannot pronounce most of the Maori names for the national parks - and I'm bilingual damn it!).

I did not know at this point that the best portion of the trip was just about to begin....

An idoit moment...

I made a fool of myself this morning, feeding the newspaper machine, what I thought was $1.50. And I was, well kinda. Apparently Australian money is not accepted here in the US. This would have probably not been too bad if I had not continued to make the machine accept the money, kicking and tilting it multiple times under the bewildered gaze of Austin Java Noodles' patrons until I figured it out...Has this ever happened to you?

NZ Hike Day 2: Beard Status

Last Shave: 2 days ago.
Overall: Hmmm...OK...Just like work on Fridays...Not too bad. No itching yet.

p.s. decided to cut down the image size a little bit on my beard status posts - I'm sure many of you are thankful for that.

NZ Hike Day 2: Nadia and Sonia's Secret Stash...

Happy Dry People (sung to the melody B-52s' Happy, Shiny People)

Our original plan today had been to head up to Gordon's Pyramid and on to Mount Arthur(roughly an 1,800m summit) but the misty and foggy weather meant a rainy 4 hour hike back instead. The more than moist trot back to the van drilled water and cold deep into our bones (well, those of us dumb enough not to have brought rainproof pants anyway). Thankfully the evening was to provide a bounty of riches to counteract the solemn weather.

We arrived at Nadia and Sonia's farm around 5:30pm. We were going to be overnighting in a small cottage overlooking Buller Gorge and we were getting dinner cooked for us! I was quite happy with this arrangement as I was on the schedule to cook dinner tonight! Through similar circumstances, I would only end up cooking one night (the last one), earning both the ire and respect of my fellow trampers.

Heaven in the middle of nowhere...

The cottage was a really cool little place and included an outside shower painted in a combination of cheery orange and blue colors. The water was heated by a choice of gas, a wood burning over inside or solar. Talk about eco-friendly choice my friends! My last shower had been 3 days ago so I was eager at this point to enjoy the scenery under a hot shower, as wet as it was. There's something remarkable about showering with hot water outside. You feel like you're pulling one over on Mother Nature and getting away with something because you should not be able to enjoy a destressing, cleansing, hot shower in the midst of the wilderness. In short, it was a heavenly feeling.

And the cottage had more surprises to offer. It was surrounded by various fruit trees: apples, pears, kiwi, plums and more. We indulged ourselves to sampling some of the fruit - it was a little like having a grocery store in your backyard.

I cooked it myself. Honest!

And finally, to top all of this off - you can see "my" meal above. We were served a veritable feast of food grown organically on the farm. It was a vegetarian affair with fresh home baked bread. I think I ate half a loaf of the bread and had seconds on most everything. What is it about really fresh veggies?

Incoherent ramblings about travel...

you're so smart!

Whenever you board a plane from one location and land in another you're a different person. You're not trying to escape who you are (or maybe you are) but a fundamental has changed: your environment. Each destination is a beginning and an end. Each destination means new relationships, friends, and who knows - new enemies?

One of the great losses to globalization (and believe me, I don't want to hoist the flag of radicalism one way or another here - I sincerely do believe global trade does more good than harm) is the sameness of culture. Gone are the days where you could be delightedly bewildered at local customs and unavailable local goods. I used to think Smarties were the coolest thing I would ever see when I was 7 (like the Scottish Wiki?). Nowadays, it seems pretty much everything is available everywhere and our shared consumer culture renders us strangely impotent - why travel if you're going to experience the very same things you experience close to where you define as home?

This was one of the reasons I wanted to hike. Mother Nature is notoriously hard to copy and distribute.

NZ Hike Day 2: The We(s)t Coast

One of the inhabitants which had something in common with porridge...

OK - so now I understand why the West Coast is called the Wet Coast. Day 2 was in a word: wet. Rain started steadily falling in the evening encompassing the area around our shelter, which was a sub-tropical green with primordial seeming beech trees growing out of rock. The ground was covered in moss softer than any carpet I've walked on. The overhang we were sleeping under was on the way to getting damp when we woke up at 6 in the morning, signaling the type of day we were going to experience.

We had a tasty meal of hot porridge in the morning, which was to become, for some in our group, an unwanted fixture of our morning routine when we were camping. I think the key to enjoying porridge is to dump as much brown sugar as you can before you go into diabetic shock and try not to think what the slimy texture of the porridge corresponds to in other foods or other items. In short - quite easy to do when you've just woken up and best consumed without too much thought. I will say it gives one a lot of energy which is sorely needed if you are going to be walking for 4-8 hours.

Our hike back to the van was a wet 4 hour affair, which had me cursing myself (this happened quite often) for not bringing water proof pants and also serenely happy that I had procured a rain coat on the 1st day of the trip. In an odd way I really enjoyed the wet weather since we get so little of it in Austin. I was quickly berated my my tramp mates for such blasphemous thoughts and I was to find out soon that they were right: constant wetness and tramping gets old quick.

Now - on to Sonia and Nadia's Hippie Hollow. ...

News Flash!

I'm lazy...And I did a lot during the past two weeks. Writing it up with the attention it deserves is going to take some time....so I decided put together a quick movie for my hiking buddies instead... More writeup coming soon (probably for my own benefit more than anybody else's) and you can watch the video below - be sure to hit the big triangle to play and have your sound up :-).

The WT.

NZ Hike Day 1: 4 Hour Hike from Flora Saddle …..

On tap for our first day was hiking from Flora Saddle in Kahurangi National Park, by the Flora Stream. We were going to be camping under a natural rock formation. We enjoyed a quick lunch on Frisbees (I will never throw away another Frisbee again – have some respect for Frisbees people – they are very versatile).

We packed everything and experienced a short and somewhat bumpy drive to Flora Saddle to start after which the first day’s hike officially got under way. It was a near perfect day as we trudged up a gentle incline, stopping every hour and a half for snacks (I don’t think I’ve eaten this many cookies in this short a time period).

Stop – important nugget of wisdom coming from me of all people. Read this carefully: if you are planning to hike, do not under any circumstance buy a hybrid travel pack. Sure it sounds good but like a hybrid bike, it is neither a great travel pack, nor is it a great backpack. So you have this Franksteinish concoction hanging off your back, which does an OK job, until you decide to put on somebody else’s backpack on, at which point you shake your fist upward and shout “D’oh!”.

NZ Hike Day 1: Hike Prep…..

Above: Praying to the Dinner Gods.....

If real estate is about location, location, location then a lengthy hike is about planning, planning and more planning. Pack weight, especially on longer hikes, has a huge impact on energy levels and what you did or did not pack can have a real impact on your experience on the hike. Say you forget the toilet paper – well that’s not good, but at the same time you don’t want to take the Walmart/Tesco/Fresh Size pack of 36 with you on the trip, if you know what I mean (most women reading this are either lost or disgusted or both at this point)…

One of the most important things during any longer hike or tramp (I wonder if I should use this word given that most of my audience is in the US and will make cheap jokes at my expense at any given chance), is to keep your energy levels up. Our plan (like how I’m co-opting everything as if it were my idea?) was to eat a healthy, stick-to-your-ribs breakfast like oozing, hot, slimy porridge (probably at least 2 people have thrown up now) featuring raisins (or “nuggets of gold” as they were fondly referred to). Lunches were to be sandwich affairs with fresh veggies, hummus to die for and other regular sandwich goodies. Dinners were preplanned healthy sit-down events which required plenty of prep, like cutting veggies, prepping meat etc. prior to setting off on a given track.

Responsibilities for meals were divvied up before we got there and were available on a half page sheet of yellow paper which detailed who was partnered with whom, on what day for what meals and washup. Alan was given the mighty responsibility of keeping this uberimportant document safe for future generations. The most asked question on the tramp was likely: “Hey Alan, who’s responsible for meals and cleanup on X day”. After the 278th time the question was asked, Alan gained a slight twitch in his left eye. After the 483rd time the question was repeated Alan’s mouth would form an S as the left side of his face tried to smile and the right side of his face broke into a well deserved frown. By the 707th time, I observed small amounts of foam dripping from Alan’s mouth. Alan also started reading up on tattooing at the last township we visited, I imagine, to tattoo the schedule on everybody’s forehead so that we could bloody stop asking who was going to be on dinner. Well - the last 6 sentences were a wee bit of a stretch but this question was asked a lot (along with with the battle cry: “DEATH TO ALL SANDFLIES!”). Alan did handle his schedule informing duties with his usual cheery aplomb.

There were other responsibilities like control of the kitty (I’m heavily suppressing the urge to make a comment here) which our Swiss banker took care of. There was also the all important role of bag lady (i.e. rubbish collection), beautifully performed by Jan. I was the Water Boy (“you can do it!”), filling up water on the van as necessary. No one died of dehydration so I take that to be a job well done.

NZ Hike Day 1: Beard Status

Last Shave: 1 day ago.
Overall: Hey - it's just a bit of stubble. Looking good.....I can do this! I will get stopped on the way back to the US! (why is this a good idea again?)

NZ Hike Day 1: The Crew…..

The Leader:

Need a dear leader who actually shuns kidnapping other nations’ citizens (though he well could since said citizens usually did not have a clue where they were?) Then Andre is your man.

The Technician:

Want a knife? He has that in his pant pockets. Want a chainsaw? He has that in his pant pockets. Whether those are good things to have in your pockets close to the family jewels – well that’s another matter. Somewhere Inspector Gadget is getting killed because Bruno has all his gear. Bruno was also the banker as we were trying to stereotype as much as possible and what other role could we assign a Swiss person?

The Controller:

When you guide 400 ton metal flying birds for a living, a 10 day hike is nothin’! Steffi having a brief moment of respite above.

The Weary World Hiker (aka The Bait for sandflies)

Mountains Khanh has seen a plenty from Nepal to Mont Blanc – but how will she fare against the nefarious legions of sandflies?

The Wise (and athletic) Counsel:

Jan and Alan - unflappable, unstoppable and unwavering. I hope I have half the energy and twice the wealth when I get to their age. Or is it the other way around?

NZ Hike Day 1: The Adventure Begins…..

I arrived in Nelson, which is at the Northern tip of the South Island (with a claim to fame of having the most sun-days in New Zealand and very close proximity to Abel Tasman National Park) late at night and had a room booked at the local YHA to start the last portion of my 6 week journey.



The hike plan, seen below, is a 10 day guided hike through the West Coast of the South Island. In case you don’t know, New Zealand is composed primarily of 2 large islands - the northern one is more populous and has bigger cities such as Auckland and Wellington, the capital) while the southern one features a more uninhabited and wild environment with many breathtaking walks and trails (both islands have a very large number of available nature activities).

Lost luggage....

I'm fuming right now - the airline either has lost my luggage or someone took it willfully or by mistake from the LA conveyor belt. Anyhow - that bag had all my hike pics and movies among other relatively high value items. Most importantly it had the length of my beard recorded on a daily basis as well pictures of all the beers I drank!

Anyhow, I will be wordsmithing my posts about the hike in the background but it's not as much fun without the pics - so hopefully the bag shows up...Here's a picture from my last day in Queenstown (this one I have since it was taken by someone else and burned on a CD)....

Drinking NZ Spring Water.,..

Waiting in Dallas. Why the frak do I choose to fly back on the one of 2 days where there's freezing rain in Texas? God I miss the Southern Hemisphere....

Mmmm....

Mmmm....

Hiking NZ now...

Hiking NZ now...That's a panoramic shot of the Pancake Rocks...Hungry now.

100% Pure Adrenaline!

Australian cop: We'll get him when he comes back in!
Johnny Utah: He's not coming back.

OK - enough bad Point Break references (which begs the question if there can really be any good Point Break references). I went surfing today at Piha beach today. Piha beach lies around 30 minutes to the west of Auckland as you can see to the left. It is a beautiful beach separated by a huge rock formation in the middle(see below for a photo). Again and again I am amazed that one can travel under an hour and arrive in a mesmerizingly captivating location.

I had never surfed before so I booked a single day tour with a surfing school and the day was a blast to say the least. We made it out there our midday, donned our wetsuits on and dragged our boards on shore. After a brief safety training (glad this did not last too long - it sounded like one can really get hurt out there and apparently surfing deaths are somewhat common lately), we rushed out there like madmen, trying to catch some waves.

The thing that surprised me most about surfing was how easy it was to catch waves. They came in foamy sets of five to eight waves. Heightwise they were 2-4 footers - they packed a real punch too - the power of water is truly something to behold especially when you get thrown about (including your board) and cover up your head as you watch from underwater, the silhoutte of the board 4-5 feet above the water and pray it doesn't hit your head. Thankfully this did not happen.



Anyway, I tore up my knees fairly well trying to stand up on the board once I caught a wave. I can claim semi-success twice on the standing up thing. Based on my ability (or lack thereof) I'm pretty sure I suck at surfing but man is it fun. I highly recommend it if you get a chance. I am bummed I only got to do it one day - they were fully booked for the day prior.

I wearily got home around 7pm - I am sure to sleep well tonight.

Hey There Flipper!

A tiny bit of history...
I took a tour to the Bay of Islands today to swim with dolphins. The Bay of Islands lies in Northland, around 3 hours north of Auckland past Whangarei. Besides the abundant natural beauty in and around this area, it is also of significant historical importance. The Waitangi Treaty was signed here between the native Maori, the original inhabitants of the island and the British Empire. The treaty has been controversial because the translation from English to Maori was incomplete or incorrect depending on your point of view. For the British the treaty was a way of establishing New Zealand as a British Colony. The Maori saw the treaty differently, due to the either botched translation or the fact that they did not view sovereignty and chieftanship in quite the same way as the British. BTW, the treaty was signed on February 6th - the day I leave Auckland - and is a public holiday.

Kauri - The Tree of New Zealand


My day started at 6am with the bus departing at 7am with a roughly three and a half hour drive. On the way up we stopped at at a Kauri Museum to take a look at one of these magnificent trees, which are the quasi national tree of New Zealand and supply beautiful and very high quality lumber. The tree trunks feel as solid as concrete on these trees - amazing. Unfortunately Kauri trees were plentiful just a hundred years ago but were logged or cleared to near extinction in that time span. There has been a lot of replanting of the trees but the bummer is that they take around 800 years to grow to their full height. It is illegal to cut down Kauri trees so the only source of wood from these trees is either recycled from boats or houses being torn down, or from trees which fell in swamps and were well preserved (due primarily to a lack of oxygen).

On to the Dolphins!


We had done cage diving with sharks in South Africa so I thought I needed to get into the water with a far less deadly (but wild) predator. That meant taking a boat out to the Bay of Islands and scouring the many bays until we ran into some dolphins.

Now, as with sharks, the tour operators do not guarantee that one will see dolphins. And even if you do, you may not swim with them if there are younger dolphins in there. Well - we were really lucky. Not only did we find some dolphins, we were able to swim with them.

A couple of things surprised me about dolphins. One was size. They were huge - I think 6 out of the 7 we saw were larger than the great white sharks we observed in South Africa. Secondly, was speed. It was very hard to try to catch up or keep up with them. You had to keep the buggers amused though otherwise they get bored and move on (and on another note, per the tour guide, they spend 60% of their time copulating - not bad I say!). The coolest part was hearing they whistling style talking noises underwater. Simply wonderful animals.

Also - note to Britton - dude the water temperature is awesome here. I could've spent the entire afternoon in there - far better than the hypothermia inducing Atlantic. Here's a little movie of the dolphins - you can see how close they got to the boat on a regular basis.



I got back in Auckland 16 hours after my day started the same day. It was a long but very worthwhile day.

Waiheke Island

Waiheke Island is part of the Hauraki Islands and just a 35 minute ferry ride away from Auckland. I spent my first day trekking this island for around 5 hours. Exquisite beaches and lookout points...OK - I'll post some photos now.


Next to Matiatia Bay...


One of the many tramping routes on the island....


On Oneroa Beach....

Wow...

Wow...

Snakes on a plane....

This is going to rock...

"That better be one charmin' motherfuckin' snake. Like way more charming than that snake from Anaconda"*


*thank you Hornfans' zosostein

Weirdish Images #1.....

Just some images which struck me as weird/interesting/funny during the trip so far...



Glad they put the minutes on there....



Blue camels are the rage everywhere in Dubai...


Monkey - that was our room at the Blue Gum lodge...Interesting after the baboon incident - really felt they were out to get me....



Given my thoughts on Sydney earlier, I thought this welcoming of a violent act against grass at the Royal Botanic Gardens went quite against the generally overwhelming law and order signage.


The highlighting of which urinal is for boys at the Sydney airport....Good to know.



Cool water conservation idea - a half versus full flush. I would not drink the water after a half flush (well - I guess I would not drink it after a full flush either), but it looks pretty clean...Waito - I am an American. Conservation bad! Consumption good!


I was suddenly worried for anyone with a baby...



Quickly! Someone call Burger King for trademark infringement...Waittaminnit. That IS BK in Australia (curiously, not in New Zealand).


Keep left. Look right. Keep left. Look right. I think I've told myself that around 281 times so far.

Sydney Fair Dinkum Parting Thoughts....

Before the experience is driven too far from my mind, here are some observations I made whilst travelling in Sydney.

Fast Food Culture



I don't think I've seen fast food restaurants as full as this anywhere I've been. Maybe I need to get out more but McDonald's was packed and, like Starbuck's in the States, it seemed like there was one every 20 feet. Same thing with Burger King. Aussies like their fast food particularly on the American side it seems. I will say each of the restaurants looking in from the outside seemed very well kept - no ghetto Jack-in-the-Cracks here, thank you very much. I actually tried to remember the last time I went to McDonald's and could not.

The Law and Order Society



It's surprising how different our cultures are, even when we share the same language. In public places, there were so many surveillance cameras up and signage against any and all different types of behavior in Sydney - I am sure some in the US would label it bordering on fascism (note I said some). Anyway, interesting stuff that the photos above give an idea of.


"No worries!" and vacation time
I am finding that familiar and comforting phrase hear in New Zealand as well - and it really works. "It's all good" is a good state of mind to be in. Also, jealousy sets in sometimes when I talk to locals and we discuss vacation. I had the same thing happen in South Africa, Dubai, Sydney and Auckland - everyone in the world seems to get 4+ weeks vacation (3 out of the 4 places had 6 weeks vacation). OK - so we make somewhat more by working our asses off. Per unit of time worked, we are not as productive as the Europeans. And as much as I like what I do - I would not say no to another 3-4 weeks of vacation.

The loss of my Sombrero!


A brief moment of silence.........My faithful companion, the OR Seattle Sombrero, able to withstand both rain and sun has been lost to the reviled Bahrain airport. I did not mention this earlier because I was grieving - this has got to be the most expensive hat I have ever bought and it was worth every penny. Nevertheless, I think I may need to extend my "sunglass purchase policy" to hats and caps. Nothing over $10. Protect someone else's head well my friend.....

Never going to a zoo again....



I don't know what I was thinking. Maybe I thought the zoo off one of the most beautiful harbors in the world would be different. It's not. After seeing some of these animals in the wild, I can't fathom going to another zoo. One becomes so much more aware of the animals' captive state. Well - unless there were a baboons only zoo.

Walking on the left or right?



So far, all the countries I have been to, save Dubai, were former British colonies. As far as driving is concerned that means that cars drive on the left. What about people though? It's been a mixed experience. South Africa seemed to be a mishmash with people walking everywhere. I thought that blended really well with culturally diverse South Africa. Sydney had, at times, strict enforcement of the "walk on the left rule". Heck - they even had dividers on a couple of the beaches I walked on. Now - that's obsessive and most people walked on the left. New Zealand on the other hand seems thus far to be a walk on the right kind of place. Really looking forward to muddled, confusing times on my return as I trip myself up and bump into a lot of people (well - ladies preferred)...

Hold on...

Been a busy day and a half. May be going surfing tomorrow if the stars are aligned right...Don't know when I will post - likely tomorrow evening if I am not too tired. New Zealand's great so far - you think that somehow what you've hyped up in your head can't be true, can't meet expectations and then it beats'em. Kinda like the Rose Bowl featuring the 2005 National College Football Champions, the Texas Longhorns....

Photos, parting thoughts on Sydney and moving allegory coming soon for the 1.75 people reading...

What the hell....Hook'em.