Goodbye South Island!

Now that I have gotten the social issues blog out of the way, I really want to tell you guys about our final adventures on the south island. There have been lots of activity and not a lot of downtime, so I will get started immediately. I apologize for the length in advance :)

MTB

Mike has been wanting to go mountain biking for a while now, and Queenstown just happens to have a course with a gondola that takes you up to the top so that you only have to worry about going down. MTB has never really appealed to me because I think the pain that every fall would be very very painful, and for me the end doesn't justify the means, but Mike wanted to go, and he promised me that we would just do the easy track, and we would only go as fast as I was comfortable with.

I should have listened to the guy that we were renting our gear from. He asked if I had ever mountain biked, and I said no. At that point he seemed concerned, but I basically told him that I would be OK. We got all of our gear and rode the gondola up. I think that they need a bunny trail. Once I saw what the easy trail looked like I became nervous. It wasn't the end of the world, because at the worst case I could just walk the bike down the hill, but I knew that I was not going to be enjoying the day. We stopped about 50 feet from the very top, mainly for me to get my bearings, and when I tried getting on the bike (privately renamed "the undertaker" by yours truly) my shorts got caught on the seat and I fell twisting my ankle in the process.

I was very upset because this injury occurred in the very beginning, and I knew how much Mike was looking forward to the day. I was also upset because I wanted to still be able to hike another of the "Great Walks", but I would be lying if I didn't admit that a part of me was relieved that I would not be spending the day trying to conquer my fear. It took us a while to get down, and I actually convinced Mike to continue riding while I sat in a park by the bike rental and Skype'd with my friends. This was my Valentine's day to plan for Mike, and at that point I considered it a fail, but I think it was rescued by a nice dinner, on top of which Mike did enjoy his MTB experience, so we will round that up to success.

The first successful bike ride and hike prep

After staying off my ankle for 48 hours, we decided to do a bike riding test. Riding a bike is the perfect activity since you are not putting on as much pressure on it, and I needed to get back on the horse anyway. (well this was more like the pony version). Mike and I rented some bikes and ended up going for an off-road bike ride. I think more than anything this ride proved to him how unprepared I must have been for MTB. Even on the easy track that we chose, I found some parts to be challenging. We ended up riding 15 miles, with frequent stops to allow mike to pick wild plums, blackberries, apples, etc from the trees and bushes lining the path. He was in heaven! Overall, I think the day was very enjoyable and I felt that I was ready to proceed to walking. My favorite part of the whole thing was my cute basket :)

The next day we moved on to walking long distances. We went down the same track for the same 15 miles and timed ourselves. Our walk took 4.5 hours and would have been more of a success if I didn't wear my running shoes instead of my hiking shoes. My running shoes have open screens in the sole (for breathability) which let dust in when you are walking on an unpaved path. I ended up blistering my feet in a pretty severe way, but we decided that I was ready for our Routeburn multi-day hike and booked it. 

Due to the fact that transportation from the end of the track to the beginning is very very expensive, and only one of the two campsites that we needed was available, our plan for Routeburn was as follows:

day 1 - 15 mile round trip day hike from The Divide to Lake McKenzie Hut and back. Drive to Milford.

day 2 - kayak trip around Milford and potentially walk around

day 3 - 5 mile one way hike from Routeburn Shelter to Routeburn Flats campsite

day 4 - 15 mile round trip hike to Lake McKenzie Hut (from the other side)

day 5 - 5 mile one way hike back from the campsite to the shelter

It sounds intense, but we have been kicking ass and taking names, so that's what we decided to do. We left Queenstown the next day after doing some very laid back paddle-boarding. We have gotten significantly better at it and this time no one fell. 

The Routeburn day hike

I taped up and stabilized my feet and we started on the hike. I think the rain started falling as soon as we got onto the track, but we were in good spirits, and how long can a rain really fall? I was a little worried about the fact that we only started at non, but armed with the fact that we can walk the distance in 4.5 hours I thought that we would be safe..... dum dum dum

The trail took us through the most mossy forest I have ever been to. It looked like everything was covered in a saggy green carpet! There was round moss, and tree moss, moss on rocks, green moss, white moss, and even red moss (feel free to make the Forrest Gump shrimp parallel here). The rain made everything in the forest look extra bright and the fog lent it an alien planet quality. It was really pretty, but I wished that if wasn't so foggy because I knew that we were missing epic mountain views. There was a summit possibility as a side trip option pretty close to the beginning of the hike, but I nixed it due to the rain, wind, fog, and most importantly - because I wasn't completely sure that I could hike with the ankle and monster blisters for even the 15 miles, not to mention and additional side trip. The two highlights of the hike for me were:

- The insane waterfall we walked by (174 meters tall) - it sprayed mist all over us, but it didn't really matter at that point because we were soaked through our shoes and rain jackets anyway.

- a portion of the trail called "The Orchard" where gnarled trees covered by hanging moss stood in the fog. There was a very calm and surreal quality about the whole place. 

The trip turned on me a little when we were about 45 minutes from McKenzie Hut. The rain was getting heavier and my feet were getting really wet. I was fantasizing about getting to the hut, warming up, having some lunch and a little rest out of the rain before having to turn around. That did not happen for several reasons. First of all campers and day hikers are not allowed to use the hut facilities at all. The best that Mike and I got was to sit on a bench by the hut so that we would be covered from the rain while we ate. Not only was there not a dry stitch of clothing on us, but our day backpack was completely soaked as well, so we had no dry clothes to change into. The other problem was that the 8 mile one way trip took us 4 hours! We simply did  not have time to rest and enjoy our lunch. I started going back before Mike was even done eating since I was getting cold standing still.

On our way back to the Divide, we were beyond soaked. I would make fists every ten minutes or so to wring water out of my gloves. Every step I took produced a squish sound in my shoes, and I was getting tired, but we still had adventures ahead. On our way in we crossed several small streams carefully stepping on rocks. On our way back the water level and current had increased significantly so that a lot f the rocks we had used before were now submerged. Several times Mike had to find some big rocks on the trail and throw them into streams as stepping stones. 

We made it back to the parking lot cod and wet, but in good spirits and before dark!!! The 16 miles took us 8 hours. There was a changing room at the shelter so I got to put on dry clothes!!! I had to change everything including my underwear - there was not a dry stitch on me. As it was still raining Mike opted to stay wet because he would have to set up the tent in the rain :( His sacrifice turned out to be for nothing because the rain only got harder and we opted to actually get a cabin for the night. I would have normally enjoyed it, but I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow. It was a tough, good day.

Kayaking at Milford

We could not believe that our tour did not get cancelled because though the rain had stopped by morning, it was cold, windy and foggy, but the show must go on I guess. Our guide waited to get a final all clear on the kayaking and then we all drove over to the dock. We were given all of the gear which included thermals, wetsuit vests, fleeces, windbreakers and spray skirts, we we were no longer worried about being too cold. The wind had also died down by then so we were excited to get started. Once we had all of our gear on we went outside for a quick safety briefing and finally got into the kayaks and away from the evil sand flies that were feasting on us.

We found out some interesting things on the tour. The town of Milford has no cell service, which I guess is not that strange, but they also don't have electricity run to them. They use one of the waterfalls to power the entire town. We also saw a baby seal playing by the shore. Our guide said that the reason the seal was alone is that some male seals get kicked out of the colony when they are young. They stay in Milford Sound eating and getting stronger until they turn 3, at which point they try to fight their way back in. Apparently there are too many male seals, and this is how the colony handles this problem. I guess it's good to be a female seal :)

We were also told that Milford is actually a fjord, not a sound. A fjord is a valley carved by a glacier and hen flooded by the sea or the ocean, a sound is a valley carved by a river and then flooded by the sea or ocean. When Cook saw Milford he named it a sound because there are no fjords in England and he didn't know the difference. Rather than renaming all of the "sounds" in the area the kiwis just left the names as is and named the whole region FIORDLAND. (No I didn't spell that incorrectly, they did)

We had another treat on our tour, because the wind and waves had picked up we rafted the kayaks together and sailed back to shore. When I say sailed what it means is that everyone holds on to everyone else's kayak and the kayak passengers on the sides either hold a rope attached to a sail (if they are in the front position) or tie the rope to their oar and hold the oar up (if they are in the back position). The sailing was a lot of fun, but I got stuck holding the rope and at one point my kayak got separated from the on next to me, I let go of the sail, our kayak went perpendicular to the wave and we turned over. 

Thankfully, Mike and I had kayaked in lake Superior before and their safety briefing wasn't a 5 minute speech on what to do. In the good old U.S. of A they actually made us turn over into the freezing water and practice getting the spray skirt off the kayak and getting to the surface from under the boat. I will always be grateful to them for that safety demonstration because when you  hit frozen water your mind just goes into shock along with your body, but both Mike and I did exactly what we had to do and we were calm about it. Our guide helped us flip the kayak over and we both managed to get in again. The problem was that our boat was still perpendicular to the waves and water would roll into the kayak faster than we could pump out with the little hand pump that we had. 

I guide from a different tour company saw that we were in trouble and also came to help. With his  assistance we got parallel with the waves, and closer to the shore so there was less wind. I pumped until muscle failure in both arms, and then the tour guides also took turns pumping water out of my section of the kayak. I think Mike pumped past muscle failure by pumping with his whole entire body, but finally we could float reasonably well and were able to catch up to the rest of our group. 

This was going to be the time we would beach at an island and have lunch and hot drinks, and let me tell you, those hot drinks were very welcome. The tour was basically over at this point and all we had to do was just cross the sound again and get back to the dock. Once we did both Mike and I ripped off all of the wet clothes and changed into some wonderful warm and dry clothing. Final pronouncement - kayak trip with a side of adventure = great success. Our guide was more shaken up by our capsize than we were because we were his first sea kayak rescue. Hopefully his next ones will be better :) We were both dead tired so we just headed back to Queenstown for the night.

Routeburn multi-day hiking

DAY 1:Our first day of Routeburn was a cakewalk. Even with backpacks on we can walk the 5 miles in our sleep. It was finally a beautiful day and we took our time looking and the turquoise river rapids and walking  over swing bridges. It was a nice easy day and we were happy and relaxed by the time we made it to camp. 

The temperature at night dropped to about 5C and it was probably the coldest I have ever been n my life. This is what I wore to bed: t-shirt, ski thermal, fleece, jacket, 2 pairs of thermal tights, sweatpants, 2 pairs of socks, a hat, and some gloves. Just so you don't think it was just me, Mike wore: 2 thermal long sleaves, 2 sweatshirts, windbreaker, thermal tights, sweatpants, 2 pairs of socks, a hat and gloves. Until he went to bed, I thought that I was going to go insane from the cold. We both also covered ourselves completely with the sleeping bag. What made matters worse was that we both had to run to pee several times a night. It as so annoying that I even looked up why we pee more when we are cold. 

Apparently the capillaries in our skin constrict from the cold. This makes our blood pressure go up. Our body's way of lowering this heightened blood pressure is to get rid of the excess water through urination. Now you know :)

DAY 2: The day of our big hike was miserable. It was cold, and rainy and there was basically complete cloud coverage. We started hiking, but I was limping pretty badly and only hiked about a half mile before realizing that it was pointless. My blisters were hurting too much and there was no point suffering through such pain. I came back to camp, and told Mike that he could go without me - which he did. The bad ass hiked a hard 19 miles in 8 hours!!!! I was so proud of him. Unfortunately, the weather didn't let up the whole time he was hiking and he came back just as wet as he was on our day hike a couple of days before. I was really mad that my feet and the weather were not cooperating, but what could I do? I decided that I will just play it by ear the next morning (my feet were much better by the time mike came back). Our night was a little warmer this time around, so I felt downright rejuvenated when I woke up to a cloudless day and a much better feeling foot.

DAY 3: I think the weather of the day was every hiker's wild dream. It was a high in the lower 60s, a cloudless sky,and plenty of sunshine. Mike and I decided that we would climb up to Harris Saddle (the highest point of the whole track and then see how I feel. We could go around the side and look down on Lake McKenzie or do a more technical climb to Conical Hill which opens up amazing views of the area.

Mike warned me that the hike would be "interesting". I realize now, that what he means when he says "interesting" is very steep grade, and a path where you climb rocks, sometimes very steep ones. The hike up to the saddle was HARD. I'm glad that we saved this hike for last, because by the time all was said and done I was really tired. I can't believe that the climb up to the saddle was only 2.5 hours because it sure felt like 4. Thankfully, due to the weather we had some great views, especially in places where hiking was the toughest. At a point a vista of a deep blue lake surrounded by mountains opens up to the side of you. Just picture cloudless skies, sunshine, a very very deep, blue mountain lake, and mountains all around. 

We took a break at the saddle and had a quick snack to get more strength for the climb up to Conical Hill. It's a good thing that we ate, because that climb couldn't be very far, but took us an hour. The grade was very steep and I honestly could not imagine a view that would make it worth while. I am very  glad to report that I was very very wrong. As you finally make it up to the top a view that is nothing short of miraculous opens up to you. I saw snow covered peaks standing against a clear blue sky, valleys   flooded by the deep blue waters o mountain lakes, and off in the distance so far that you almost cant see it, a faint line of the ocean. We sat in silence at the highest point looking out at the view and just taking in that calm, peaceful beauty...

...Until a couple of Israeli guys came along, let out a victory battle cry and turned on music.... But we still had our moment :)

I think the climb down must have taken us about as long as the climb up, because it was relatively technical. Mike was trying to teach me where to place my feet so that I wouldn't slide down or fall, and he said I picked it up pretty quickly. We made it back to camp at around 7, but we still had to pack up and get out of there, so we got to work immediately. 

Before we left we spoke to the hut warden, who was the coolest warden we have met in all of the parks yet. He told us of a place we could camp on the way back (technically illegal) and wished us all the best. We had chatted with him in the past and he told Mike a bunch of interesting things. Apparently there is a place on the south island called gemstone beach where lots of gold, jade, and gemstones wash up. There are farmers in the area who go digging there to supplement their income in the winter by 20-30 grand. I wish we had time to visit it (although I doubt we would find anything more than a trinket, if that)

Our final descent to the car park was pretty quick, but it bordered on"death march" for me. Even tough Mike took almost everything out of my pack, I was tired and toward the end there, in the dusk, with the pebble road was close to hallucinating. We must have been back to the car a little after 9 with a total of 15 miles hiked that day in roughly 9 hours (if you take an hour out for all breaks). I was happy that we had some easy days ahead of us. We celebrated our hike completion with burgers and beers, and passed out.

Christchurch

It must have been a very beautiful city before the earthquake of 2011. We got in to town pretty late so we didn't get to explore until the following day, but even Mike thinks that one day was enough. Nothing has been rebuilt, but everything is fenced and structurally supported so it has become a city of scaffolding in my mind. I did not see a single historic building that was whole. There are whole city blocks where the buildings are ruined and abandoned. 

Since we were only staying for one day, Mike and I picked a river walk that started at the Botanic Gardens were e actually made me stop and smell the roses (in the rose garden). The rose garden was surrounded by dahlias which I also found very beautiful, although not particularly beautiful smelling. Outside of the Garden, my favorite part of the walk was Cathedral Square where there were pant and flower sculptures of different animals. 

The other part of the walk that was really cool was re:START. Basically since a lot f businesses lost their permanent locations in the earthquake, there was a project where shipping containers were brought in and modified with glass outer panels and painted in bright colors to serve as the new boutique locations. This spans a city block and looks very cool.

I was walking by a lingerie store and saw one of the mannequins in a sexy bra supposedly breastfeeding. Apparently there is a line of underwear that looks very sexy that makes maternity and nursing lingerie.  I was even more surprised that the website is a .com not a .co.nz but there are only 2 locations in the US here the product is sold outside of amazon... The company is called Hotmilk, and I have a question to all of my friend who are moms, is it a problem finding cute stuff when you are nursing? Why are there physical stores in Canada, NZ, Australia, and the UK, but not really the US?

I will leave you guys to ponder this. We have now made it back to the north island and are in Wellington. The plan is to stay a couple of days and then to start making our way up north to Auckland. Goodbye south island!

Social Issues in NZ

Note: I started this blog on the 17th, so I'm backdating it. I will have another one out shortly on our adventures since then, and there have been lots :)

We have been in Queenstown this week, partially due to me not feeling well so our adventures were pretty minimal, however I wanted to take this opportunity to discuss NZ social aspects including racism, drugs and alcohol, and health care.

Racism
I am going to start with the racism which has a completely different flavor here than it does in the states. I feel that in the states, racism is more hidden now. People are not as free with racial slurs and overall try to hide their personal views from the rest of society. I don't think it works that way here. The racism is directed at Maori, Pacific Islanders, and other Asian people. I first noticed it by the way that people are talking about the Maori.

It is very common to refer to laziness, obesity, and alcoholism of the Maori. There are also some bad feelings about the whole land lease thing that I discussed in one of the earlier blogs, and sometimes even outrage at the fact that Maori will charge a fee for the use of their land. I was wondering how true the stereotypes are so I looked it up:

It looks like NZ has the second highest obesity rate in the Anglo sphere (US leads the pack) but obesity is a lot more prevalent with the Maori population. I have a theory that this is directly related to how expensive the food is here. Fruit and vegetables are waaaaay more expensive here, while junk food is almost the same price as it is in the US. Basically, what that means is if you are poor here, your chances of being obese skyrocket. I compared minority stats between US and NZ blows them out of the water, it's just that white kiwis have such a low rate of obesity that US overall has a higher percentage. I found an article that stated "In a 2010 study, almost half of low-income households regularly ran out of food through lack of money."

In terms of alcoholism, I looked through several articles and found that Maori and non-Maori  average daily alcohol consumption was equal, however Maori showed a different pattern, more Maori do not drink, and the ones that do drink, don't drink as often as non-Maori kiwis, but when they drink, they binge drink more often. I found that Europeans introduced the Maori to alcohol, and at that time the tribes petitioned the Europeans to not sell alcohol to the Maori people. the government complied, and up until the mid 20th century sanctions were in place to prevent the sale of alcohol to the Maori people. After WWII the bans were lifted and Maori drinking came to be more accepted.

In terms of "lazy", the racism here is so high that not everyone employs Maori. I stumbled on the following survey online. Look at the choices presented to the people to vote on. Are you kidding me???? Look at the racist comments below the survey. I can't believe that people here are so ridiculous. The more I looked into this the angrier I got. It's just so overt here. Maybe, just maybe more Maori are unemployed because people wont hire them... because they are racists.

Drugs and Alcohol:
It looks like NZ is fighting alcoholism. There is a new law that came into effect since we have been here that

basically states that you can't buy alcohol here after 11pm unless you are at a bar. In the bar, they will not serve you if you look intoxicated. All bars have to provide free water, and sell non alcoholic drinks and food. They also have to provide information on safe transport home. The reason for this, is that 10% of Kiwis are qualified as alcoholics. I have also seen signs in bars stating that they will not sell patrons more than 2 drinks and signs in public places banning the consumption of alcohol.

Compare that to the fact that synthetic marijuana is legal here. After doing a little research, (with a nudge in the right direction by friends) I found that synthetic marijuana, unlike the real kind, has been reported to be highly addictive, and causing psychosis. I don't understand why alcohol is so highly monitored, marijuana is illegal, but a drug that can give you seizures, cause permanent psychosis, and is highly addictive is perfectly OK.

Health Care:
Finally I'm going to say some good things :). A couple of days ago I tried mountain biking and ended up twisting my ankle. As I plan to be pretty active for the next year, I thought I would have it checked out by a doctor. The good news: in NZ all accidents are covered by ACC - Accident Compensation Corporation. It doesn't matter if you are a citizen, a resident, or a visitor; if you have been in an accident, you are covered. Armed with only this knowledge we went to the Queenstown Medial Centre and were told that a doctor visit would cost $168 dollars because they are a private and it's the weekend. On a weekday it would have cost us $118 to be seen. I asked about the free accident coverage and was told that I should go to the hospital for the free care. Done!

Twenty minutes later we walked into the hospital. There we found out that if we were citizens, we would pay only 20 dollars for the visit at the private clinic, but since we are not, they wanted to charge us more. We spoke to the receptionist a little bit. Officially the hospital can't turn us away, but since my issue was not an

emergency, I would always be prioritized last so I should be ready to wait. If I was a local, I would probably go ahead and pay the 20 dollars to be seen ASAP, but since I'm a tourist I decided to wait. One of the weird things I saw hanging in the waiting room was a poster advertising that the hospital uses the "Toyota Way". I am including an image that I saw on the poster. Mike also noticed that the poster bragged that the hospital is six sigma certified!

We thought that the wait would be long, so Mike went for a jog while I got comfortable and started reading my book. They did see two people ahead of me, a guy with potentially broken ribs and a girl with a gash on her head that was bleeding all over the room, but I didn't mind. I was still seen by a nurse, got an x-ray of my foot, spoke to a doctor, and was was walking out when Mike came back from his jog. No one asked for my height, no one weighed me, no one took my temperature or blood pressure. They talked to me, asked me questions and believed me. When I went for an x-ray, they asked if I was pregnant and I said no. They did not feel the need to also give me a pregnancy test. There was no bureaucracy, there was just a conversation between adults where the medical professional believes they patient and is not afraid that the patient will sue them. The reason for this, is once you use ACC you revoke your right to sue. That includes accidents that are the cause of malpractice. People are left just doing their job. I was not asked for any payment information, I wasn't even asked for an ID to prove that I was who I said I was. I filled out a form that would allow me to get more care for the same issue at a later date if that was needed. My discharge instructions did not have all of the information about me that I already know, like my name, address, weight, etc. It was just all very simple. As a patient, who was scared of what the sprained ankle would mean to me, I was made to feel at ease and I think that's really my favorite part. If other people don't seem up an arms, prodding and poking me, then I too will be more relaxed.

Fun part of the form: ethnicity! Here were my choices:

• NZ European
• Maori
• Samoan
• Cook Island Maori
• Tongan
• Niuean
• Chinese
• Indian
• non-NZ European
• Other

I was going to put "other" because I'm American, not European, but the receptionist said that I was non-NZ European. I will guess that European means caucasian here. Notice any differences between this and the ethnicity forms that we fill out in the states? Notice anyone missing? Talk among yourselves :)

When I got back to camp, I of course did more research and the ACC system is pretty interesting. This is how it's funded:

Account	Covers	Income sources
Work	Work-related injuries	Levies collected from employers. The amount payable as of April 2012 is on average 1.15% of the business's total payroll, but the exact percentage varies between 0.11% and 6.46% depending on the risks associated with each business's industry.
Earners	Non-work injuries by income earners	Levies collected in conjunction with tax deductions on income. Paid via the Inland Revenue Department. As of April 2012, the earners levy is 1.70% of non-exempt taxable income up to $113,768 per annum.
Non-earners	Non-work injuries by non-income earners (e.g. children, elderly, unemployed, visitors)	Government contribution from the general taxation pool.
Motor Vehicle	Injuries relating to motor vehicles on public roads	Levies included in the price of petrol (not diesel or LPG), and through motor vehicle license fees. Levies average $334.52 per year as of April 2012, with motorcycles and heavy vehicles paying more than average due to the increased likelihood of injury associated with these modes of transport.
Treatment Injury	Injuries as a result of medical treatment	Funded from the Earners and Non-Earners accounts, depending on the claimants' employment statuses.

Also there were some funding issues around 2008 and 2009, but the system was modified and is no longer showing a loss. Basically, people were taking advantage of the free PT to get massages :) What a novel idea: taking the pulse of something often, and correcting while the problem is still small!. Wikipedia, where I got a lot of this info along with the official ACC page has a lot more info, but I didn't want to bore you guys unnecessarily. Basically, I like it!

Help! I've got a cramp...on!!

Well hello again my friends, it's been an exciting week and I can't wait to tell you all about it. There was Ice, there were sculptures, there was water, and most importantly there were knives. I have had quite a week, so I'm even skipping the kiwi vocab this time (and also because I don't have any new words for you)

Monday - This was mostly a drive day for us. We made a lot of stops due to the fact that the scenery here is absolutely amazing. We ended up driving down the west coast and watching the waves hit the jagged rocks on the shore. There is just one problem - sand flies. These little bastards are vicious and bloodthirsty. They suck your blood for 2 minutes and they attack immediately. We have been covered in DEET this whole week and we are still covered in bites. We got out of the car at one point because we found a secluded beach with the aforementioned jagged rocks, and got destroyed immediately. Basically if you stand still and you are not fully covered, you are dead. Our only scheduled stop of the day was Punikaike which  has a trail to pancake rocks and blowholes. Even a crappy cell phone photographer such as myself could capture the amazing nature here.

Scientists are not exactly sure why the pancake rocks form which makes visiting the site even cooler. Also imagine the waves hitting the blowholes (like the top picture on the left hand side) with a loud bang and seeing the water surge in through all of the nooks and crannies. It was pretty damn incredible. The one thing that spoils this particular attraction for me was the insane amount of tourists here. The loop around is very accessible, and the walk is short, so everyone is basically on top of each other at all the lookout points. I might be spoiled by now, but I really prefer my sites to be secluded :)

Tuesday - we got to make knives!!! This was a recommendation from the Canadian couple that we met while hiking in Abel Tasman and boy oh boy was it cool. You start with a piece of steel that you heat and hammer out, cool, sand, and make the handle for. I got to be all sorts of handyman with power tools. It's a departure from what I am normally like, but this is a year of exploration and I will go with it. I will be totally honest here, and say that we had a lot of help from the man leading this class, and that we probably did more harm than good, and he just fixed our mistakes and did it the correct way. The coolest part for me, was that you could design your own knife, and so our knives looked completely different. Mike went for the utilitarian kitchen knife, mine is supposed to have the sharpest edge (and it looks like I'm about to rob you and take your horse and buggy) and Olichka's looks the coolest (it has a middle eastern bandit feel to it). The knives are not stainless steel, so there is a lot of care involved, but I still want to use mine when I get back! As a bonus the couple teaching the class had ninja stars and axes that you could throw, the tallest swing I have ever seen, and ponies! I know that ponies are usually assholes, but these were pretty cool and let us pet them without biting us, which I can't say for the parrot that was also on the premises. I know I'm no longer 12, but I really really want to own a pony now!

Wednesday - We had a very chill day in the little town of Hokitika. It's a really cute place which has a lot of jade shops where you can see people carving necklaces and such, and it still has some gold mines so there are some jewelry stores that make for good window shopping. I saw a cool cafe on my morning run which was a combo of the following things:

• jade gallery/store
• second hand clothing store
• coffee shop

It had a really sweet back courtyard area and Olichka and I sat and relaxed there for a while after a hard day of window shopping. While we were there one of the owners told us that the Hokitika Driftwood and Sand festival had completed a week or so ago, so we should still be able to see some of the art on the beach (things that have not been destroyed by the weather yet) and it was pretty damn cool. My favorites are a sculpture of a woman playing the harp (made out of driftwood, with a found flip flop on one foot, and a kite string for the harp strings) and a sculpture of a motorcycle made entirely of driftwood with the "Gnarly Davidson" logo. I'm just sad that we missed the sand sculptures, they were washed away by the time that we got to Hokitika. The festival had such a burning man feel to it, especially because in front of the entrance to the beach there stood several chalkboard signs with the works "Before I die I want to:..." and some chalk for people to write in. This kind of stuff kinda melts my usually cynical heart. I also really like the funny responses, so I do get some of my jaded cool back :)

Thursday - There are two glacier walks to choose from in this part of the country: Franz Joseph and Fox, even though the name had nothing to do with our final decision, it seems a little poetic that we climbed Fox Glacier - The BM parallels continue! We booked a full day tour, and were really happy that we did. The glacier was incredible! I have always wanted to be cool enough to need crampons for my walks and now I have finally made it! We got to explore deep crevasses and look into moulins! Crevasses are large fissures in the ice due to different speed at which surface ice moves as opposed to the ice on the inside. You can straddle a crevasse and look down 30-40 meters and see the beautiful deep blue of the harder more compacted ice below the surface. In case you are wondering about the spelling here, crevice and crevasse are two different words. The word crevice refers to small cracks not large fissures, and yes I did look that up after the tour.A moulin is a hole made in the ice by the melting water on the surface, they can also be really deep and also have that amazing turquoise color. I actually almost fell into a big moulin as I was trying to see deeper in and gave Mike a small heart attack, but I managed to regain my balance and remain upright. My favorite part came at the very end of our tour when we got to walk through an ice tunnel. I took a really cool picture of Mike from the inside, but all of you dirty people just commented that it looks like a vagina, and maybe it does, but it's the most beautiful blue vagina that I have ever seen! As we were almost off the ice, we saw a giant boulder roll off the mountain and fall onto the glacier leaving a cloud of dust behind. This happens as the rocks are left by the receding glacier and the elements eventually erode the ground around the boulders. We were really lucky to see it in action!Our original plan was to drive to Wanaka after we came back from the glacier tour, but the only road that goes there closes between 6pm and 7am so we got stuck in the village of Haast for the night, had a couple of beers, and called it a night. 

Friday - This was our last full day with Olichka, and we spent it in a pretty relaxing fashion. We wanted to spend the night in Queenstown, so that we don't have to hurry to the airport on Saturday, and we were going to stop by Wanaka on the way. Wanaka was another tourist recommendation from the Canadian couple - there is a beautiful lake there and a movie theater with big comfy couches that has an intermission and has fresh backed cookies, and a cafe to dine in. Kind of like some of the fancier movie theaters that started popping up around Chicago in recent times, but the laid back Kiwi version. In the morning we stopped on the road to check out the "Blue Pools". As the water from the glacier melts and flows down, most of the rock dust settles on the bottom, but some minerals, that are blue in color stay in the water, giving it the same deep turquoise color as the deep ice of the glacier (but for a completely different reason). We only spent about 40 minutes at the pools, since we didn't have time for a full on hike and then went back to the car. The weird thing about the pools was that leading up to them was a bridge with a max capacity of 10 people, but there were easily 20 on the bridge when we got to it. Since we do not take unnecessary risks, we let the crowd pass before proceeding to the bridge which shook with every step that we took, not for the faint of heart. It turned out that no good movies were playing in Wanaka, so we ate lunch by the lake and then paddle-boarded for a little while. I must have looked a little tense on my board because Olichka decided to help me correct my stance. "Imagine, that you are a man with the biggest penis in the world, and you want to show it off!", she advised me. I moved my hips forward and immediately fell in the water to the great enjoyment of both Mike and Olichka. Both of them also fell at some point, so I didn't feel too badly, on top of which, once I had already fallen off once, I relaxed and got a lot better, so I guess the advise was sound after all. As we left town we got to go through some portion of the Southern Alps and caught an amazing sunset which added the perfect ending to our day. 

Today has been a utilitarian day. We took Olichka to the airport, caught up with parents and grandparents, did laundry and shopping and just caught up with our individual selves. We are planning to be in NZ for a couple more weeks, doing at least one more multi-day hike (maybe 2) and then we will go off to the land of OZ. I will write again when I have more adventures to tell about.

He was an Abel Tasman, strong and stout

Hi everyone,

It's been a little while, but I finally have all of the necessary things to write another blog entry: time, Internet, and story. We will of course start off with another kiwi vocab lesson:

• Sultana - raisin (I looked this up n Wikipedia, and it's actually a specific strain of grapes, but here people call all raisins 'sultana'. 
• Mozzies - mosquitoes. 

We spent a pretty chill week in Auckland where we came to cheer Steve on for his Half Iron Man, which he finished with a PB time (that's personal best, not peanut butter everyone). We also had some car trouble which kept us in town an extra couple of days, but finally we left for the south island. My favorite part of our ride down was Wellington. There is just something nice about that city, it has a very cool vibe and Mike and I will both be spending a little more time there on our way back up north. 

On the road we started discussing the things that we love/hate/didn't expect from our trip so far and this is the list for me:

• I miss order - most of the days we get up, eat and trow all of our possessions into the car. We try organizing, but don't succeed very well. We are always rushed to leave, because check-out is always at 10. I can never find what I need right away. I miss knowing where things are.
• In a way, there is less personal freedom and personal space - We are always together. We drive together, sleep together, do everything together. I don't have the luxury or just deciding to go to the bathroom and not having to notify Mike about it. We suspected that this would happen, so we mitigate it by having separate days when we get to a town and can split up, but it's not the same. We don't have our own space to crawl into and be alone. It's tough, but I also think it's good for us to discuss and keep working on
• I love being outdoors all the time. Mike doesn't think that this is true, because I also go into the tent as soon as it's ready, but usually it's not set up until at least 7pm and it's getting cold, and the mozzies and sand flies are feasting on me.
• My body feels better than it has in a while. I can feel getting stronger. Every week I can do more things. I have muscle pain, but not the chronic hip/back pain that I have a lot in the US. I think this is due to the fact that I am not slouching at a desk for at least 8 hours a day, I'm not wearing heels, and I'm making my back muscles stronger by hiking up and down hills with a full backpack.

We did our second Great Walk this past week. It was the Abel Tasman Track, known for it's beautiful beaches and clear blue water. Olichka and Steve came to join us for this, and it was Steve's first backpacking trip - which he ended up liking a lot (unless he is a fantastic liar)

We rented a tandem kayak for the first three days and the original idea was to switch off during lunch, but it didn't quite work out that way. As usual Mike and I were late checking out of our campsite so we didn't get started on our walk until about 1 pm. Once we did get started, we couldn't really enjoy anything because we were in such a hurry to reach our meet-up with Steve and Olichka. I was feeling a little out of it and actually couldn't wait for a break. We finally passed the last point prior to our destination and I told myself that maybe in another 10-15 minutes I will finally be able to put the back-pack down, but we just kept walking. I thought that maybe, since I'm tired time is just moving very very slowly for me, but pretty soon both Mike and I started talking about the fact that our turn-off should already be there. We even stopped along the way so that Mike could explore an unmarked path, but it didn't really lead anywhere productive. Finally, we saw a sign that the place that WE WERE GOING TO CAMP AT THAT NIGHT was only 35 minutes away. We rushed there and wolfed down a quick lunch after which Mike went to try to find Steve and Olichka.

What happened was that our lunch destination was one of 2 campsites that were only accessible by kayak!! Thankfully Steve and Olichka decided to leave us a message in the sand and proceed to the campground as well. At the end of the day we were all together, and all very tired. The sea was very choppy that day, so Steve and Olichka were also looking forward to a break and to giving us the kayak for the remainder of the day. Dinner was eaten very heartily that  night :). It was a rough start, but we decided to be smarter on the next day and not bother meeting for lunch. Mike and I would take the kayak and we would meet up at Bark Bay at night, so that we could ferry over to the Mosquito Bay campground (also available by kayak only).

The next day I woke up to hear a Russian couple arguing next to our tent. Winning phrase came from a woman who said that her shoulders hurt from kayaking "kak tupym serpom po yaitsem" (roughly translated as "like cutting balls off with a rusty sickle". Russians FTW!!!! After a wake-up like that I was ready to go so we all started on our journeys at the same time (Olichka and Steve on foot, and Mike and I on kayak). Mike wanted to make a little detour so we doubled back to a bay he visited the night before on his search for our friends and took pictures of a rock that looked like a kiwi with it's beak in the ground. Once the pictures were taken we went to the true destination of the kayak trip, Pinnacle Island, known for it's seals. It felt to me like it took us forever to get to the island, but I instantly got all of my strength back once I saw the first seal! He was swimming about 20 feet from us and then swam up to a second seal at which point they started frolicking in the water and flapping their fins at us as if they were waving. It was really amazing! They looked so happy and didn't mind our presence at all. I loved their cute whiskery faces!!! I felt pretty beat, so we headed out a little and decided to break on a small beach. Once we got out of the boat Mike started throwing clothing on me right away because my lips and toenails were blue from the cold! It turned out that once again, we missed lunch, and ended up basically at Mosquito Bay (our campsite for the night). Apparently we had been kayaking for 6 hours!!!!

Mike left me to set up the tent and brought the kayak to Steve and Olichka who had by that point given up on us and set up at Bark Bay. They packed back up, and took the kayak while Mike managed to find a ground route back to our campground. Olichka and Steve also saw a mom and baby whale on their 15 minute ride up to shore and then we both caught sight of a stingray swimming close to shore. No day is without adventure at Abel Tasman!!! 

The next day was the last day for the kayak. Olichka and Steve took it early in the morning and saw seals and some penguins while they were out. In the meantime Mike and I got t leisurely eat breakfast and enjoy the morning. Once they were back we transported all of our stuff to Bark Bay, and then Mike and I set off on the kayak again, while our friends hiked. this time around we did not get to see much, but it was really good exercise and we managed to get to the kayak pickup point on time and without any issues. We were all at the campsite early and had a pretty relaxing afternoon. We were half way through our trip at that point and it was nice to relax a little bit. 

The next day was a pretty great day in my opinion. It took us about 1 hour to Arawora Lodge where we found a bar and had ciders (I know, backpacking has been glamped up). This was our only link to real food and alcohol on this trip so we really really enjoyed it!! We had to time this just right because the portion of track after Arawora is only safe to do in low tide when the water recedes enough. Mike decided to be a gentleman and carry me across the streams we were crossing. After a particularly long one, I made him stop and just took my own shoes off and waded through like everybody else, but I was really touched. Olichka might even have some pics of this that she will no doubt post shortly. the rest of our journey was pretty easy through the shady bush. At the camp ground we made friends with a Canadian couple who gave us some pointers on what to do on the south island, and life was good. 

We were last to leave the campsite (as usual) and started on what I think of as our hardest day of hiking. We hiked for 4 hours and our hike was up and down rolling hills at pretty steep grades. This was the day that I came the closest to loosing enjoyment due to fatigue. Especially after we refilled water and I had 2 extra liters to carry in my pack. The day was hard, but we were all in good spirits when we stopped for our last night in Abel Tasman. Mike supplemented our dinner with fresh mussels that he pulled off the rocks and then we boiled and pan fried with salt and garam masala in some sardine oil. We backpack in style! We met one of the campers from the previous night at this camp and he joined us for mussels and some after dinner conversation. I was both sad and a little glad that our hike would be over the next day, because I was pretty beat!

We all rose before sunrise and rushed to "separation point" (the boarder to two seas) where the shore jutted out and the sun was rising over the water. There was a mother and baby seal sunning themselves in the morning sun as we sad and reflected on our trip and watched the sun's progress. It was an epic last morning in the park. To end the trip we had to double back to the last pickup point, so the journey had no surprises until we got into the water taxi. We had another seal siting, as well as some cool jellyfish and even a dolphin on our way back, and Mike got soaked buy the cold cold water several times based on where he was sitting. The sounds he ended up making entertained the rest of the passengers until we could finally disembark. 

Once on land and in civilization we got burgers and ciders and even splurged on a cabin with a bed for the night. Our trip was a success. I still think that the Great Walk in Tongariro was better, but only because I prefer mountains to beaches. Steve flew out last night and we are now getting ready to head South and do some glacier walking, hiking, and maybe even knife making (recommendation from the Canadians). I miss everyone and try to keep in touch the best that I can. Love you all!