Paradise...

Wow - another fantastic month has flown by. As soon as Kate left, Michael arrived in New Zealand to travel with me for a month. We spent our four weeks together traveling from South to North, doing lots and lots of hiking and spending some quality time sitting on beaches and reading! It was completely spectacular, as these photos hopefully will show!

When Michael arrived, we immediately drove to Mt. Aspiring National Park in the far south of the South Island. Of course, we got some lovely photos along the way!

Our first major destination was the Routeburn Trek, and 3-day hike between Mt. Aspiring and Fiordland National Parks. It was a spectacular hike, the first day climbing through beech forest, the second day traversing alpine peaks, and the third day dropping into a lovely rainforest.

(Queenstown-Glenorchy Road, just before start of Routeburn Trek)

(Hiking up the Routeburn)

(High Alpine Lakes, Routeburn Trek)

(Entering the Rainforest, Routeburn Trek)

We got off the Routeburn on Christmas Eve, and the next night, for Christmas, we joined an overnight cruise on the famous Milford Sound. It was our big splurge for the trip... and Michael got a 24-hour stomach bug! It was such unfortunate timing, though the cruise was still amazing and Michael was able to stay above deck for parts of it. Milford Sound is actually a fiord (carved by glaciers) and, thanks to the obscene amount of rainfall it receives each year and its cliff-like sides, it creates thousands of waterfalls, tumbling and streaming down all around. It was difficult to capture it in a photograph - the vastness and uniqueness of the experience was the most exciting and stunning part - but these should give some idea.

(Cruising the Milford Sound on Christmas)

(Our boat chilling in the shadows of the Fiord walls)

From Milford, we drove up the west coast of the South Island and began the 5 day Abel Tasman trek. I’d loved this hike when Kate and I did it in November, and was not disappointed the second time around! We hiked through lush forests from bay to bay, camping at splendid beaches every night.

(Moonrise)

Next, we crossed over to the North Island, and did the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. It’s billed as the best day hike in New Zealand, and I couldn’t agree more. It was a thrilling, awe-inspiring, completely other-worldly experience. We hiked among active volcanoes, steam vents, crater lakes, hot sulphuric pools. We also decided to do a side trip to climb Mount Ngauruhoe, made famous as Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings. It was SO amazing! It was a very challenging climb, pulling ourselves up by our hands and slipping on the steep, slopes of ash and volcanic rock. I must say, I’m much less impressed with the acting in Lord of the Rings as they struggle desperately up the slopes of the volcano - I felt in much the same position!

As we ascended the volcano, we began to climb above the clouds and see across to other peaks, lakes, and distant blankets of cloud. It was magical. When we finally reached the top, we explored around the rim of the crater, but couldn’t go into it because it’s an active volcano and emitting poisonous gas inside.

We had a quick lunch looking out across the vast landscape, and then began to descend. This was probably even trickier than the ascent, and was more a matter of controlled slipping and falling than hiking. Occasionally, one of us would slip into a rock and dislodge it, sending it hurtling and literally bouncing down the mountainside. We were *very* careful to watch and yell out to anyone below; someone above us was not so considerate and Michael almost got taken out by a huge rock flying straight toward his head on one of its bounces - luckily I heard the noise above and yelled at him just in time for him to duck. Yikes...

As incredible as it was, after the rock incident we were relieved to finally be off the volcano. Similarly awesome, but much safer, adventures soon awaited. Here are the views from further on down the trail:

(Mount Ngauruhoe, after climbing it)

(Three Volcanoes)

After our exhausting day on the volcano, we were ready for some luxury... or at least budget luxury. Luckily, I remembered the friendly skipper of the yacht Barbary that Kate and I had sailed on Lake Taupo when we first got to New Zealand. I sent him a text message, and we were soon given the keys (figuratively) to the yacht that once belonged to Errol Flynn. It actually wasn’t the best night’s sleep, but it sure was fun! The next morning, we off for a sail with David (the skipper) and some other friendly vacationers.

We then headed north, stopping for a quick tour of the Waitomo Caves. The end of the tour involved a silent and magical float along the underground river, with only the pale green constallations of millions of glowworms overhead.

We spent a very short night in Auckland before heading to the docks to catch the ferry to Great Barrier Island, which lies between the Auckland Bay and the Pacific. We spent almost a week camping out, hiking around, and mostly just sitting around on the beaches and swimming! It was a relaxing choice after three busy weeks of hiking and sightseeing. Here are some photos of our week in this lovely, rugged place:

(Best star picture EVER taken from a personal SLR)

(Camping under the stars)

We returned to Auckland with one day to spare before Michael’s flight, and couldn’t resist a short trip out to Rangitoto Island, a volcanic island that erupted from the harbor only 600 years ago! We spent our last evening at a lovely little Italian cafe/restaurant, sitting at an outdoor table in a cozy pedestrian alley in Auckland.

Two more WWOOFs!

(written Dec. 18 - 2 more posts coming super soon!)

Phase I of my time in New Zealand feels officially over. Kate, my super travel companion for the last 10 weeks, left for home this morning and, within 18 hours, Michael will arrive to travel with me until mid-January. Here’s a quick update and some photos about the last two weeks.

After driving north to Christchurch, Kate and I began wwoofing with a couple named Margaret and David. They recently moved from England to New Zealand and bought a house with a few acres of olives. They have aspirations to grow the olives organically and start a small farm with a few livestock, but they both work full time in Christchurch so they’re still in the dreaming/planning phase. Work at their property was not particularly inspiring, as it consisted entirely of weeding and didn’t have much opportunity for learning about organics. But I downloaded a few more audio courses from iTunes U, and in five days of weeding listened to an entire course called “Ben Franklin and the Age of the Enlightenment,” and started an intro geography course and one on early European history.

(with David and Margaret outside their home)

It was rainy for most of our time with David and Margaret, but our time there ended up being a welcome break from the full schedule of work, hiking and touring we’d been keeping up. They provided the most luxurious accommodation we’ve had so far, so we spent many afternoons hanging out in our cottage reading, watching movies, skyping family and boyfriends (as in, one each!), and getting caught up on sleep. We did take one day to drive to Arthur’s Pass National Park and do some hiking. After all that sitting around it felt good to move again!

(Arthur's Pass National Park)

(Castle Rocks, near Arthur's Pass)

(Castle Rocks, near Arthur's Pass. Lonely Planet said parts of LOTR was filmed here - and I think this is the exact location where Gimli rolls down the hill and says dwarfs are natural sprinters, at the beginning of the Two Towers... Think I'm a geek? Maybe I just have great photographic memory! What do you think? Someone with the films should check it out and tell me!)

Our last night with Margaret and David was a Friday, and they were both ready to unwind from the work week. We spent the evening playing Rock Band with them, which was slightly overwhelming for me given that the last video game I can recall playing is Super Mario at my friend Robin’s house in elementary school. (Does Rock Band even count as a video game?) I found the drums and guitar kind of challenging, but am proud to report that I scored nearly 100% on the “expert” level for singing Beatles songs! It didn’t go nearly as well when we switched bands, so I take that score as an indication of the degree of obsession I had for a number of years over the the Beatles! Glad to know it’s coming in handy...

After Margaret and David’s, we headed out to the Banks Peninsula, a long-extinct volcanic island that over time has connected to the mainland. We spent our last five days wwoofing at a spectacular farm called Kotare Vale with an English man named Martin. Our whole experience there was fantastic - so much so that I’m already planning to go back for a few weeks in May!

(Banks Peninsula)

(Banks Peninsula)

Kotare Vale is a farm in the Puha Valley of the Banks Peninsula. Martin primarily grows hazelnut trees, but also raspberries, mushrooms and a lot of vegetables. Kotare Vale has two lovely streams running through it, some gorgeous, peaceful forest, and some higher elevation paddocks that the neighbors’ sheep graze. Part of the farm is fenced off as an eco-sanctuary, and contains the only native rimu tree on the Peninsula! Martin’s love of the land, and of native plants, birds and eel, was evident in everything we saw, helped with, and talked about on the property.

(Martin in the high paddocks of Kotare Vale)

We initially helped with a few odd jobs, like putting in stakes and rope for the raspberries to climb on, and sewing up and securing netting to keep the birds from eating all the ripe raspberries. Most of our time was spent on a portion of a hillside that Martin wanted to convert into vegetable beds. It was so fun, and so satisfying! In three days, we built a bed and a nice pathway into the side of the hill, and designed and constructed an archway with trellises for beans. All of the materials for the beds came from an old sheep-shearing barn that was falling apart. We took apart the timber for the bed’s walls, and shoveled years worth of accumulated sheep poo from under the floor boards as a lovely starting soil for the beds! For the archway, we cut down kanuka trees that were encroaching on the chestnuts, and cut out sections of the willows that were encroaching on the path. It was awesome!

(Our terraced garden, path and trellise!)

When we weren’t working, time flew by as well! Martin knows so much about the natural world and had so many interesting things to share with us. He shared our sense of humor and our taste in food, and we spent every evening laughing over incredible vegetarian meals. We fed the native eels and made constant jokes about them eating us, we went on a hike around the whole farm, and we enjoyed many, many tea breaks. Perhaps the most exciting was our last day: We drove to a spit of land surrounded by water (it was once the caldera of the volcano), hiked out to a rocky area, and harvested sea weeds and mussels! Martin showed us the different varieties and how to choose them, and that night we had a spectacular feast!

(Harvesting seaweed!)

(Stuff we harvested: Bull kelp, another kind of seaweed I don't remember, NZ ice plant, Blue-lipped Mussels, Green Mussels, Clam accidentally harvested because it was sticking the the mussel!)

(Martin, and food!)

The last two wwoof stays provided a simple but interesting comparison in what parts of life really bring me joy. We were very well provided for at David and Margaret’s, with a private cottage, wireless internet, and full access to their DVD collection! But the work didn’t really have any heart, and we only conversed with David and Margaret over dinner when they were tired from work. Amenities at Kotare Vale, by contrast, were simple to primitive: outdoor composting toilet enclosed by a tarp for privacy, showers that were black bags that we laid out to heat in the sun before hanging on a hook in the forest. But the beauty of the farm, the appreciation of the native life around it, the devotion to great food, and the wonderful times shared talking and laughing - those are what made my experience there stick out as perhaps the best five days I’ve had in New Zealand.