Christmas & the Heaphy Track

I know it’s been quite a while, but it has been a non-stop adventure ever since we’ve left our house in Nelson.  This may end up being a 3 part blog entry because there’s a lot to tell, and I want to start from where I left off last time.  So where did I leave off last time?  Jeff finished up at the orchard, and I worked 2 shifts at the council.  I brought my lunch friends Tim Tams so they could try the Tim Tam slam, but they all insisted I do it for them.  I tried to be as eloquent as possible while shoving a melting cookie into my mouth, and I’m pretty sure they were delighted.  This time working at the café I worked with James (the manager/chef) rather than Lorraine (who left early for Christmas), and he was really fun to work with and even taught me how to make coffee!  It was an invaluable experience because it looks really good on my CV (resume).  Speaking of resume, I was reading a weekly bulletin put online that lists Queenstown jobs and apartments while we were still in Nelson to get an idea of how difficult it could be to obtain employment and housing once we get there.  It was clear we would have no trouble finding a place to live, and I saw an ad for waitstaff at the Hilton in QT, so I applied, and within a day the manager had called me for a phone interview and asked me to come in to meet her as soon as I got to QT!!  More on this later.

So Thursday night I took Jeff to basketball because I needed to go to the grocery store out that way anyway, and I came and watched the end of his games, and he was playing with a Giants player!  The Giants are equivalent to the Sixers in that they are the big team for that city in the country, but unlike the Sixers, they are not super rich and famous, but apparently he was a pretty decent player, and super tall.

Friday, Jeff finished up at noon, and I at 2, and we went to Coverstaff to say our goodbyes and collect our holiday pay.  Then we went on a mission to find a speaker that could play music while we were on the Heaphy track.  We came across this awesome speaker called the “Bassburger” (seen below), which has a rechargeable battery that charges by USB and lasts for 8 hours on a 3 hour charge.  The sound is terrific, and it is way too loud if you turn the ipod up all the way.  It was perfect for the hike, and a really great reflection of what modern technology can accomplish in a combination of size and quality. 

That night we went out to the Nelson Hotel, which is a bar we found that had $3 Tui, Heineken, and Speight’s bottles (which is really cheap by NZ standards) and an amazing Ginger Lime cider that I am in love with.  We met up with Jeff’s basketball buddy Jake who is from Germany (the same town as Dirk Nowitzki, which is kind sweet).  We spent a few hours talking to Jake about Germany and basketball and life, and we hope to meet up with him when he comes to visit Queenstown soon.

Saturday was Christmas Eve and we headed to Golden Bay to find a backpackers to spend a warm night in before our big hike.  The Shambhala backpackers and yoga retreat was recommended to us by James at the council.  It looked and sounded beautiful on the website, and the price was right so we headed there, and it was beautiful in real life but we were disappointed that they didn’t have internet because we wanted to skype with family before Christmas.  Needless to say we had a free yoga session and a wonderful Christmas eve dinner because everyone there that night made a dish and we all shared.  Jeff and I made a vegetable scampi of sorts.  We got a really good sleep in and were off to the Heaphy track on Christmas morning. 

 

We picked up Petia, who was hitchhiking to the track and walked with her for the first couple hours of the track.  She was a nice 46 year old forest ranger turned music teacher who was very eccentric and fun to talk to, and loved to take pictures.  Our first day was about 24 km (& 7 hours) to Gouland Downs Hut, and once we arrived there we were hungry and I was beyond exhausted.  We made some dinner and put some decorations on a tree to get in the Christmas spirit.  We were the only ones there from 7-9pm then a young group of trampers showed up (from France, Switzerland, Germany, and Mexico).  Jeff and I attempted to go look for kiwis as the sun went down, but the sandflies were really bad so we went to bed. 

Side note:  Because the track is 49 miles (76 km) long we didn’t really expect to meet too many people on the track, but we didn’t realize that we would get to the huts and the break shelters and there would be about 20 others who had booked hut beds or camp sites.  It ended up that we would see the same people every morning and night for 4 days, and we made a lot of friends who appear very often later in our adventures.  It was actually really great to be able to hike alone during the day, but share your experiences on the track with the others at the end of the day. 

It’s getting late and I’m getting hungry, but I will blog about the rest of the Heaphy track and our adventure to Queenstown tomorrow.  Hope everyone had a happy and safe Christmas and New Years and I want to hear about everyone’s Christmas so please skype/e-mail!

Cheers!!

Ps. I have uploaded all of our most recent pictures to our Flickr/Photo page!

Chapter 2!

So we have decided to go our separate ways, Jeff and I, and Beth, Adam, and Nick.  We moved out of our house on Atawhai Crescent this morning, and it was sad to leave a warm bed, and hot shower behind, but this is chapter 2 of our trip, and it was off to a great start with a Pizza Hut pizza and Jeff's and my first viewing of "Ghost".  Super cheesy, but hard not to love.

Jeff and I both had work today,  he in the orchards from 7-5, and I at the airport from 7-2.  I don't like working at the airport during the day, with all of the very bossy bosses, but I reckon it was my last shift there.    I was called to work 2 more days at the Nelson City Council Cafe! I am so excited!  Ironically enough though I was asked to Christmas lunch at 623 with my lunch buddies from the Council on Thursday, but cannot make it because I will be working at their cafe!  Most of them will be there Friday to have lunch with me before we head south, but I think Lorraine (my former boss) and Jillian (her super sweet sister) will both be absent.  I am just so happy to have been asked to work.  It's an extra $150 before we leave Nelson, and it gives me something to do while Jeff is in the orchards, because the alternative is quite boring. (Side note:  All people working in New Zealand receive holiday pay either annually or at the end of any contract.  Holiday pay is 8% of your earnings in that position, so I will receive another almost $200 from that!  Yahoo!)  Because we are out of the house as of today, Jeff and I opted to camp at a nearby site for the next 4 nights while we finish up work here.  That means tomorrow, Wednesday, will be spent puttering around town until Jeff is done work.  I might go to yoga or for a nice long hike, but we are not sure what the shower situation is at the camp site, and working out 3 days before you'll see your next shower is never wise.  Needless to say the library offers free wireless, so I will use the extra time to send out some e-mails before the holidays, blog before our Christmas hike, and skype with the family.

So we finally have our itinerary for the next few weeks (this is mostly for my parents who can refer back to this if they begin to wonder why they cannot get a hold of me for a few days at at time! Love you!)

• Wednesday - Friday of this week:  we are finishing up work in Nelson and camping by the Maitai river.  
• Saturday the 24th:  We will drive up to Golden Bay that evening and stay in a hostel Christmas Eve so we can finally shower and cook up a nice, big meal before our 4 day hike!
• Sunday 25th - Wednesday 28th:  Hiking the Heaphy track.  It is 4 days and 3 nights camping in the forest so I will not have any form of contact with the United States these 4 days, but the night of the 28th we should be staying in a hostel, so I should have internet then.
• Thursday 29th - Friday 30th:  We are hitchhiking (don't worry is is super safe here, and a lot of backpackers see the entire 2 islands by hitchhiking) back up to Golden Bay, so this may take up to 2 days, hopefully not.  Jeff's motorcycle may be in Nelson so we may drive back there to pick it up.
• Friday 30th - Sunday 1st:  Headed to Greymouth to meet up with our friend Markus and celebrate New Years at his hostel, and do some exploring of the area, and for Jeff's sake hope we come across some giant waves for him to jump in.
• Monday 2nd - roughly Thursday 5th:  Heading down the West Coast for some beach camping and frolicking and other tourist stops along the way.  We hope to also stop to see the Fox Glaciers (I believe there are other glaciers on the coast as well), and maybe so some sort of hike around them.  They are supposed to be amazing, but very touristy as well.  We plan to be in Queenstown by the 5th, and settle into a place (and find an awesome job) by the end of the week! :)

I am so looking forward to a new adventure despite the fact that the sunshine has returned to Nelson.  Knowing that we can come back to Nelson is a great feeling.  Telling the temp agency I was leaving made us both very sad, but it is time to move forward, and we can always holiday in Nelson just like the real Kiwis.

Final, random note:  New Zealand has something called Ginger Beer.  It is my new obsession.  It is sort of like ginger ale, but way better.  It is more opaque, but still has carbonation, and has a really strong ginger taste.  It is amazing and addictive.  It is unique in that it is the only non-alcoholic beverage here that is brewed by many beer companies, but the best of them isn't from a beer company, it is called Bundaberg Ginger Beer.  I am not sure if you could get anything comparable in the states, but I may have to bring some home.  Please tell me if you've seen anything like this at home!!!... (update: after looking online it looks like you might be able to find ginger beer in places like Trader Joe's or Whole Foods!)

Cheers!

Looking Ahead

So it has been an entire week since my last blog post, probably the longest interval since our arrival in Nelson.  I have no excuse really except working and reading quite a bit, as well as (as the title indicates) planning for the near future.  I will start with a few things I have observed in New Zealand that I had previously forgotten to include.
 
   1.  Squirrels - I may be one of the few humans on earth who has a profound love for watching squirrels, and who finds them super cute, but New Zealanders are never even given the opportunity to form any opinion on this little rodent.  There are no squirrels here!  It is something I noticed initially, but didn't recognize again until very recently.  There are plenty of friendly birds to watch while you're sitting outside though.

    2. Coffee - Something we noticed from the get-go, but didn't come to understand until, well we may not even fully understand it yet, is that coffee is horse of a different color here.  Apparently "New Zealanders take their coffee VERY seriously" (ref. Landlord).  It would be rare to see a typical American coffee maker in the house of a kiwi.  Your options are instant coffee or espresso (which they call coffee).  The typical kiwi coffee order is a flat white, mochaccino, latte, cappuccino, long black, or short black.  They are all made with what Americans call espresso.  The flat white, latte, and cappuccino are espresso and milk (and even after watching "coffee" being made and serving it for months now, I still don't know the difference).  The mocha is the same as home, and the long black and short black are 2 shots of espresso, except the long black has a bit of hot water as well.  There is no grinding of the coffee beans and filtering coffee here! You either go big or go home, and sometimes you'll see a kiwi have multiple long blacks in a single sitting... whew!  Coffee drinking is definitely not a cheap habit here either.  If you thought Starbucks was expensive at home, try paying $3.80 for a long black, and that is the cheapest, with a flat white at $4.50 and up.  I am fortunate enough to get free "coffees" at work, but I definitely am not paying money for them.

    3. Pretzels - So oftentimes people will go to the grocery store and find themselves in front of a wall of bins filled with nuts and candy, so they can mix and match, and they are generally charged a bit more than if they were to buy a sealed bag.  This is about the only way to purchase pretzels in New Zealand.  They don't sell them in sealed bags, and they don't sell them as a cheap snack.  You'll see a bin of almonds for $1.99/100g and a bin of pretzels next to it for $1.89/100g.  It is just abnormal for a person who goes to pretzels as a moderately healthy, cheap snack.  I hypothesize their rarity is due to the lack of flat fields for growing wheat and grains here.

Okay, so in the past week I completed my temporary position at the Nelson City Council cafe, which was sad because I really enjoyed the relaxed environment, and the super friendly and informative people.  Friday night a friend, from Finland, of ours we met through ultimate frisbee, Markus, came to stay the night because he had a flight out of Nelson Saturday morning, but was currently living south in Greymouth.  It was nice to catch up with him and see how he was fairing farther south.  We dropped him off at the airport Saturday morning and headed again to Golden Bay, this time to check out the rock climbing.  Before getting to the rocks we stopped at the highly recommended Pupu Springs.  They are these beautiful pools of crystal clear spring water with amazing flora around them.

  Once we actually arrived in Golden Bay, we were exhausted and realized that the rock climbing site we chose to visit was a little bit above our skill level, so we headed to the beach, hoping Sunday would offer more motivation.  Pohara beach was beautiful, and the tide was ideal for some wading.  As we came back to shore there was a man standing at our towels.  He basically said "hey is that your Volvo in the lot across the street?" and we confirmed and he proceeded to tell us we needed to move it because it was a piece of crap. After a quick moment of confusion between Jeff and I he tells us that that is the car he has given his son-in-law Stu to sell for him in Nelson!  2 hours away and in the middle of nowhere (to be fair, New Zealand itself is in the middle of nowhere) the former owners spotted their old car.  They said they had it for 17 years, but we were told they upgraded because the wife had her hip replaced and needed something a big higher off the ground.  They praised the car, and said how much they missed it, and said its made many trips down south and that it should treat us well.  It was so nice to hear that, and confirm all of the things that Stu told us were indeed true, Blueberry had been owned for many years by people who took good care of her.  The sun started to set, which meant it was time for... ice cream.  Actually, anytime is a great time for ice cream in New Zealand because it is just sooooo good.  Then we headed to a campsite recommended by our Landlord as a cheap, neat site.  It was a rock climbers site (they don't ask if you actually climb) and it was only $10/night, which is about $3/night less than most in the area.  Rain struck as we finished up eating our dinner, and didn't stop for the next 2 days basically.  Needless to say, we woke up to pouring rain, folded the tent up in a downpour, and drove home early Sunday morning for a relaxing, dry day home.

Monday was my first weekday off in a while, but Jeff was back at the orchards. I cleaned up what I had been putting off the past 2 busy weeks, and then was finally home on a weekday so I could skype with a college friend, Conor, for a bit.  Usually when I get home from work, it's bedtime in the States.  Monday I got a call from Coverstaff asking me to work at the airport cafe 7am-2pm Tues, Wed, and Thurs, and of course I said yes, but man 7 am is quite early, despite the fact that I am the last person to leave the house in the morning.  It began raining hard Tuesday and I was worried about Jeff and the motorcycle in the rain.  Not so surprisingly when I got home, Jeff was already home with a bunch of wet gear.  It was nice to have the rainy afternoon to spend together and he agreed to go to his first yoga class ever with me!  It was super fun, and there was only one other person at the class which I think made Jeff more comfortable.  He has done p90x yoga, and that's pretty legit, so it wasn't anything too abstract for him.  (Laura you'd be so proud)  I really enjoyed having him there.  Wed and Thurs were a lot of work, a lot of reading, and a bit of fatigue.  I'm sure I mentioned our library membership, but I must repeat how much I love having it, and I've read about 3 books in the last week. They have a great nutrition and brain/psych section, so I have plenty of reading to do.  I will miss it so much when we leave Nelson.

Speaking of leaving Nelson... Jeff and I have made the executive decision to leave Nelson once he is finished in the orchard, so December 24th.  We have booked a series of campsites on the Heaphy Track in Kahurangi National Park.  It is a track that begins in Golden Bay and goes through the national park to the west coast.  It is approximately 80km (50 mi) long, and will take us 4 days and 3 nights.  Its uphill at first and then mostly downhill, and the last 25km is mostly flat and beaches.  Here is a link to the track profile: Heaphy Track.  We will spend Christmas on the track, so I hope to wish everyone a happy holiday before we depart.  Until then I will be working for dollars and working for fitness... This is definitely more than I bargained for, but it should be a somewhat fun challenge, at least maybe in retrospect.  I know I sound mildly pessimistic, but really I am excited, and the site notes some awesome things to look out for on the trail.  (note: showers and bathrooms don't appear too frequently).  More on this adventure soon.

Will post more about some interesting literature I have stumbled upon (or has been recommended to me) in the very near future, but for now I must get some sleep.

Hope everyone is keeping warm at home.  Sunset was a 9pm today and the high was 68, SOOO if anyone is sick of the winter weather already, please come visit!  This is only the beginning of Summer!

Cheers!