New Zealand Adventures

The downside is there is no snow for snowboarding. The upside is that global warming makes for good winter weather in NZ!

While back home spring is almost giving way to summer, here in Wanaka autumn is easing into winter as May rolls on. The falling leaves have turned the mountain landscape on the south island into a colorful wonderland. The nights are cold, but the days are mild still. The mountaintops are becoming more and more snow-capped as the days progress. Were excited to be back in the mountains and gearing up for the snowboard season in Queenstown.

Our six weeks spent at Arden Street Bed and Breakfast, working for room and board flew by. For the first time since we left home we had a set routine, involving a community of students who boarded at the guest house, guests, and a German couple who worked alongside of us. Our days were spent scrubbing toilets and showers (i never knew how much humans shed), changing and making beds, washing sheets and hanging them to dry (a tough task when it rains for days on end and there are no dryers), and preparing dinners for up to fifteen people. The work was easy enough, especially when the owner was out of town for a week pursuing her boyfriend (who did not know he was her boyfriend). At times it was frustrating because she did not seem to appreciate the help, even though we had a long stay it always seemed as if we were very replaceable.

We were very fortunate to be working alongside the German couple, Michael and Annetta, who were traveling with their 2 year old son, Moritz. These guys had been Wwoofing for over 5 months in New Zealand, traveling by bus, with a kid. Landis and I shared our van with them so they could explore the peninsula and see the penguin and seal colonies. They would bring us back bottles of wine and jars of homemade honey with huge smiles each time we lent them the van. They made the time alone we take for granted seem very valuable, like having time to read, or surf, or just sit down without a toddler drooling on your knee and throwing marbles at your head. Towards the end of the stay they announced that Annetta was pregnant again, and they were heading back to Germany in a few weeks where she is going to start her PHD in Biology.

One of the aspects of Arden House that we came to appreciate the most was the cultural variety. Dinners were always lively, filled with miscommunications due to language barriers. While many of the students and guests came from Europe or Australia, places of cultural similarities, there were two Saudi Arabian guys, Muhammad and Moyad, who came from a background drastically different from anything we had ever experienced. They were both happy to explain Arabic customs, Islam, and their country to any inquiring ears. Once, I walked in as Moyad was explaining to Annetta the Muslim views on women. Oblivious to her furious expression, he patiently explained that "women were like goats, they needed to be taken care of..." I suggested that perhaps if he worked on his analogy, his argument would be better received. He also methodically laid out the reasoning behind multiple wives, but emphasized this was only a fair option if you were able to financially support each of them equally. I suppose women are more expensive than goats...

Our plans to stay in Dunedin quickly came to an end when our next Wwoofing host canceled on us. So we were back to square one again, living out of the van and no plans in sight. After contacting every wwoof host in Dunedin and not getting a thumbs up, we decided we had to switch gears. Even though it was over 400 km from Dunedin, we decided to make the trip to Fiordland National Park and Milford Sound. The drive down the Milford Highway made the trip more than worth it, not to mention the spectacular day hikes! Our first day hike was more of an hour and a half scramble up wet rocks than a pleasant walk, it was forgotten as soon as we reached the Lake Marion. Despite Fiordland's notoriously rainy weather, we had the most beautiful week since the north island! We did another hike along part of the Kepler Track (another Great Walk), which made both of us want to complete the whole track in the spring. We made the drive along the Milford Sound Highway into a slow, sightseeing adventure camping at Department of Conservation campsites along the way. The only hindrance were the hoards of angry sandflies who only stopped feasting on our flesh when the sun went down (and unfortunately thats the time of day the mosquitoes awoke and fed!). It would be impossible to write about Fiordland without mentioning Milford Sound. We drove to the sound at sunset, which ended up being the ideal time to experience the beauty and silence without the interruption of tour buses and other visitors. It was amazing standing on the edge of the sound and having the view all to ourselves! Our last (but certainly not least) adventure in Fiordland was skydiving. We had to take turns going up in the little plane as there was only one instructor to three people skydiving. Landis bravely went first. The plane took about ten minutes to fly to 10,000 ft and during that time there was a spectacular view all around. From the air we saw Stewart Island and the ocean to the south, the vast wilderness and rugged mountain spines of Fiordland where no road ventures to the west, and Te Anau to the east. Once the altitude reached 10,000 ft, we jumped out to about thirty seconds of free fall before the parachute was pulled by the instructor. What words can describe skydiving? (Susan.... Landis wants you to know that she is considering a career in the skydiving industry.)

Our trip to Fiordland ended when we got a positive response from a Bed and Breakfast that we could work for room and board in Dunedin. So we have been working five hours a day at Arden St. B&B and then spending the rest of the day surfing (although the water temp. is starting to drop to 55 degrees already). The dinners here have been the highlight so far, with a table full of 12 to 16 people from all over the world (Saudi Arabia, India, Germany, Japan, France, and Australia). There are a bunch of students rooming here that go to the university and also guests at the B&B. It is nice to have a place to stay for the time being.

Wow what a few days we have had in the Catlins We decided to drive there from Queenstown to stay for a few days before heading to Dunedin to begin our next Wwoofing stay with Bunny. The Catlins were amazing. Very wild area- weather beaten houses with dramatic cliffs dropping off into the ocean. The first day we walked to Nugget Point lighthouse and saw fur seal and sea lion colonies, and 2 yellow eyed penguins! The next morning we woke up to sunshine, and decided to drive in search of a place to surf. We found a spot with clean waves at a beach called Porpoise Bay, so, we suited up and paddled out into the beautiful ocean. We had heard it was an area where the hector dolphins often go to rear their young. Hector dolphins are some of the rarest in the world-there are only about 3000 left and are endemic to NZ (they are smaller than our North Carolina dolphins). We were hopeful that perhaps we would see some from a distance while surfing. We had been in the water for about 30 minutes when all of the sudden something nudged my foot-I looked down and the first thing I saw was a gray fin. My first thought was SHARK! It then swam up to the surface and I saw it was a curious hector dolphin calf. It darted to Tay and Iyelled to him to look to his left as it flew right next to him-he thought shark too and let out a very manly yell (not a squeal as I originally described it before I was quickly corrected)-it was hilarious. Apparently the dolphins are very curious and friendly, and if you let them (and are lucky in your timing) they will sometimes come check out what you're doing. After the first one who nudged me, many more started coming to explore these 2 humans. They were playfully flipping on their backs within inches of our boards, sticking their heads out of the water to look at our faces) and to surf with us!!! They truly are the original surfers. It was incredible, they would swim beside us as we paddled into waves, then catch the wave with us. When it broke they would jump over the white water, or flip over it. For about an hour on any wave either of us took off on, there was a little dolphin just inches from us, taking the ride too. It was as if they enjoyed the company in the waves...quite an incredible experience!

After the Catlins we made our way north to Dunedin, the second biggest city on the south isle (thats not saying too much... about 100. 000 people). We had lined up a WWOOFing stay about a month back with an 'active widow' in Dunedin, named Bunny. After our first experience in Gisborne with a work stay we decided to air on the safe side and only book a week with Bunny and one more week with another couple on the Otago Peninsula. We regretted that move though! At the end of our 9 days staying with Bunny we wished we would have booked a month or even more. Who could argue with 4 hours of labor a day in trade for 3 home cooked meals with dessert, morning tea, and free accommodation in a loft above the barn?? (I, Tay, made sure to eat our fair share of food to make our stay worthwhile). Bunny was in her late 70's and still manned her 13 inch chainsaw in the forest section of her property to cut wood for the wood stove which heats the house. She managed all three of her remarkable gardens (herb, flower, and vegetable) and really put sustainable living into practice. We tried to find regular trash cans and they didn't seem to exist beyond the compost and recycling. The days flew by... work in the morning, lunch at 1, and then we would drive the 7km to St. Clair Beach where we surfed consistently fun waves, even if the water was a bit chilly at 58 degrees! So we reluctantly left after 9 days of easy living and hopped right back into van life. Unfortunately the couple who our next stay was with had to cancel at the last minute, so we are left with no plan once more. That sounds about normal. Well, weve sent out a bunch more messages to hosts about WWOOFing and in the mean time are going to make use of the beautiful fall weather to go visit Fiordland National park!

Continuing our journey through the southern alps we put Mt. Cook in the rearview mirror and drove south to Wanaka. The weather took a turn for the worse (as it tends to do quite often here in New Zealand) and we spent a few rainy days enjoying Wanaka. The highlight was a boutique cinema that doubled as a cafe, had sofas and a vw bug instead of chairs, and served meals at the intermission of the film. We saw The Fighter with Christian Bale and loved the experience. A mocha latte, a pint of beer, or a glass of pinot noir to accompany the movie? Tough decision! We found a sweet little campground next to the river where we swam and bathed for the first time in a while (colddd water... but not quite as cold as the water we would swim in the next week). In the end it was tough to leave Wanaka with its amazing lake views and outdoorsy vibe. But we managed to get two slots to do the Routeburn Track, which books up really fast, so we packed up and headed to Queenstown.

After close to a week of cloudy, rainy weather we were ready to get out of the van. Our couple of days in Queenstown went by quickly and we went on to Glenorchy, which would be the base for our trek. A quick note about the sandfly, Landis' best friend. They are a little smaller than mosquitoes, but larger than the gnats back in Masonboro and they love human flesh. Especially Landis' flesh (well who could blame the little guys for that?). The sandflies on the south island were bearable until we got to Glenorchy and then they came out in swarms. When they bite, the bite will last up to a week and itch like crazy. Fun! After we had several massacres in the van before bedtime we caved and bought the only repellant that works, 40% DEET.

The night before our hike, which would have been the 23rd of Jan., we met a Canadian couple where we were camping who asked us if we'd heard about the earthquake in Christchurch that happened the day before. What?! So thats how slowly news travels in the mountains. The girl said she was in Queenstown and the ground trembled at the cafe she was in. We were on the road when it happened and had no idea there was what could possibly turn out to be the worst natural disaster in NZ history. We were in Christchurch 10 days before the quake...very sad and scary to see the images of the city.

On a lighter note- the Routeburne and Greenstone treks were amazing. During the first 3 days on the Routeburne trek we were constantly stopping in awe to look at the dramatic scenery. Words, and even images, do not do the beautiful trek justice. We were walking through terrain that changed from arrid plains with mountains growing out of them, to lush moss forests decorated with waterfalls everywhere we looked. On our second night on the trek we camped near a glacial lake, which was crystal clear and a vivid green hue. We decided it would feel nice to take a quick dip, but neither of us were prepared for exactly how cold it was going to be. It not only took your breath away but also caused a squealing reaction I didn't know my vocal chords were capable of creating. When we looked above the water, we could see the water draining from the massive glacier into the lake...I suppose that would explain the temperature! Neither of us had ever experienced water that cold before. After finishing our 3 days on the Routeburne we picked up the Greenstone trek. It was very different from the Routeburne, but beautiful in its own right. We felt very removed from the rest of the world while on the Greenstone as we only saw a handful of other hikers during the whole trek.

Due to bad weather predictions, we decided to hike a very full day in order to have access to a shelter if heavy rains started. We ended up hiking out yesterday, even though we did not have a ride from the trail until this afternoon. Our plan was to just pitch a tent in the parking lot area and wait for the ride we booked. As luck had it, a really nice man named Maurice had given a few guys a ride to the trail head, and was dropping them off just as we came off the trail. He immediately offered us a ride back to town, saving us from spending the night in the carpark. On the way back to town we talked about the hike and joked about what things we missed the most while in the backcountry (for Tay it was beer, for me it was apples and cheese). He insisted in taking us for a beer to celebrate our completion of the hike, and while we sat at the lodge drinking our beer he even managed to get me an apple! After finishing a beer and continuing on the road to town, he offered to have us back to his home in Glenorchy for a shower and meal. We (weakly) protested, but in truth the offer was far to tempting to politely decline! Both of us were completely taken aback by the kindness of this man, he let us shower, wash our hiking clothes, and fixed us a wonderful dinner. It turned out that Maurice and I shared a love of Bob Dylan and John Prine, and he was thrilled to show us his music collection, including most every Dylan and Prine albums. We spent the rest of the evening listening to music, trying different wines from the Central Otago region (while he prodded Tay to introduce Central Otago Pinot Noir's into the North Carolina wine market), and sharing a delicious meal. We stayed the night at his house and were not able to leave this morning without eating the breakfast he fixed of country ham (for Tay) toast, grilled tomatoes, eggs (fixed on his barbeque-very interesting), and espresso coffee (none of that "thin American diner coffee" as he called it). The night we expected to spend camped in parking lot turned into an unexpected adventure with one of the most generous strangers I have ever met!