roads that lead away from this, i'm following myself just this once

the tuesday brad left, i dragged myself to a meeting with the tramping club about the upcoming fiordland excursion. a bunch of people had organised trips to fiordland: piling onto buses march 17 to be dropped off on the side of the road somewhere - each group going somewhere else - scattering around fiordland and then being picked up sometime sunday afternoon and driving back to dunedin.

i got there early, because i had missed the compulsory river crossing training, so i wanted to talk to a few trip leaders about it. i know i'm an experienced hiker, in good physical condition, excited about trying new things, not really afraid of anything. so i started talking to this guy rich about his trip, and he said i'd be fine - rated a moderate plus, but no biggie.

the plan:
saturday would be all off-track. we would go up cascade creek to its head, go through a saddle in the mountains, and then go down duck creek into greenstone valley where we would find a track leading us to the mckellar hut. spend the night there. and then follow the routeburn track the next day up to key summit for some views and then down into the divide where the bus would pick us up.

doesn't sound too bad, eh?

i don't have a real backpacking pack. instead i have a daypack which i can fit a ton of stuff into, so, i decided to take my risks with that. if all else fails, i can just wear everything i brought, i figured.

so, friday night at 6. i arrive at clubs & socs and get handed a bag of group food - no problem, i shove it into my pack which is so stuffed it looks like it will break - there's a picture coming up to show you the ridiculousness.

i sit next to alexis (the only other alexis i know who is in two of my classes and going on the same trip i am, go figure). as soon as we hit fiordland, we can hear the rain (remember, the whole 9 m a year bit?). our group is dropped off somewhere at 1 am, in the pouring rain, and we set out to find somewhere to set up our fly.



[the fly the next morning]


the next morning, we made breakfast, packed up, and headed off. it was raining, and continued to do so for the rest of the day. not pouring, but at least a steady drizzle. first thing, rich warns us not to even try to keep our feet wet and we practice river crossing.





it really wasn't so bad. my boots are mostly waterproof, but it doesn't make any difference when you're knee deep in water, so i just got used to walking in my drenched boots.

the first three hours were fine - climbing over boudlers, walking up and through rivers, following a loosely marked "route" which included using ropes for support while walking along muddy drop offs, grabbing onto whatever foliage is around to help you up, help you control your fall, keep you from falling down, all sorts of things.

no one took many pictures at this point, but here's a few to give you an idea:



[cascade creek]


[rich helping the other alexis. thats me crawling over something above his pack]


[when the brush is too think, it's "easier" to go straight up the creek]


when we got above the alpine line, we were walking along this very cushiony ground which sucked all your energy and momentum up. it really hurt my knees for some reason. it was so so soft (largely due to the rain) and made walking up really difficult. it was also quite rainy and windy - we were walking through a cloud, i think, making visibility a bit rough as well. which meant after all the struggle up, there were no views.

the going down was the worst though. as soon as we got over the saddle, we were on the side of the mountain which has being hammered by wind - almost no foliage. it nearly knocked me over and i looked down, practically straight down a very rocky mountain side and thought, "there is no way in hell i'm going to survive this". but it became more like skiing down the hill than anything - leaning forward or back to control how fast you slid down the mountain. so, so crazy. when we got back to the alpine line, however, the creek was too dangerous to walk down directly and this is where the brush was so thick you couldn't see a thing - in front, under, behind, et cetera et cetera.

crazy. absolutely ridiculous.

and, at that point, really no fun at all.

when we'd finally reached some sort of point that was managable, the six of us in the group were going pretty slow, and next thing we knew, rich was gone. we'd gone over proper safety measures if you get lost: sit tight and wait for someone to come find you. but, this was different. rich was the leader, which meant he knew where we were going. he had the map. he had the compass. but he was alone. and the six of us were together. who, technically, is lost in that situation? we discussed it for a long time. yelled our heads off trying to get rich to hear us over the roar of the creek. after 15 minutes, we decided to go ahead and try and find him, and then, lo and behold, he was there.

we practically ran to the hut. which was absolutely full so most of us opted for the floor. we made a fabulous meal - pasta with a tomato sauce complete with tuna, capers, and broccoli. and cheesecake for desert.



[result of a packed hut when its been raining - the attempts to dry clothing]


in the end, the day took us ten hours.

sunday was gorgeous. clear, bright, sunny, warm. all completely on track and easy. we went up key summit for some fabulous views:









[there was even a guided nature walk! somehow, i ended up reading, which i don't mind and always end up doing for my family anyways]


[our group minus thomas and paula]


in the end, it feels so good to have survived. because, really. it was amazing. and thats what being in this country is all about - trying new things and pushing your limits.

i'm just so proud to be alive

colour the coast with your smile

[i first wrote this entry about a week ago, and right as i was preparing to post it, safari quit on me. i've been too angry too try again, but here goes]

brad was here a week ago for ten days.

it was simultaneously hard and wonderful to have him here. hard in that our lives are so distant right now, but wonderful because i always feel better, and more complete, when he is around. i am so happy his visit was at the beginning of my life here (i've been in new zealand for over a month – how crazy) ... mostly because it is nice that when i talk about a place or person he knows what i'm talking about. quite comforting.

anyways, ramblings that probably no one wants to read.

while he was here we did a good combination of touristy and "us" things: tour of cadbury, going to te anau, hikes, visiting pubs, but also cooking together, listening to music, visiting cafes, wandering around the city.

he arrived saturday (4 march) and on sunday, got to go with me for a field trip to collect cockles for my marine ecology class. we went out to aramoana at low tide:





beforehand, my professor had explained that aramoana has a huge cockle population (sorry, cockles are clams), but it's not used for commerical purposes, so we were free to collect some for ourselves to have for dinner. "i, myself, prefer them on sandwiches"

so brad and i got a few for us to make for dinner: in pasta with a white wine sauce. it was really yummy (and so random).

we also ventured up signal hill, a lookout point near my flat, to get some views of the city:





while i was in class on wednesday, brad went to go pick up our rental car. a cute little toyota starlet (an automatic – thank god, for both our sakes) that got great petrol kilometerage (how do you say gas mileage in kiwi???). we left straight-away for central otago with the goal of touring and tasting some of the southernmost vineyards in the world.

central otago is about 200 km away, the speed limit is 100 km/hr – so we figured it would take two hours, right?

wrong.

it rained, the roads were windy, nothing was clearly marked so instead we were on a wild goose chase. by the time we figured anything out, most of the vineyards were closed, so we made it to one.

at least they had good wine.

and central otago really is beautiful:







we went to re:fuel wednesday night, the pub on campus to see an 8-piece jazz band: the retrograde funk machine. they were a cross between jazz, dub, and funk music. really really fun and pretty decent too. i think that's what i like most about being old enough to drink: you can go to pubs and see some great local music.

thursday evening, we made a picnic dinner and drove out to sandfly bay on the peninsula to see the yellow-eyed penguins come in from fishing all day. they have a blind there that the public can hide in to view the penguins without disturbing them.



[sheep at sandfly bay]


[view over the bay]




[view through the blind]


[new zealand fur seals which are actually sea lions, but who's keeping track]


[me, with new binoculars, a birthday present :D]


[penguin! thats him standing above the white spot above the white part of the rock coming out of the side of the hill]


just as we were leaving, another penguin came out of the water and was waddling and strutting around the beach. it is so, so cool to have penguins around. especially the world's rarest penguin! the south hemisphere really isn't too bad.

anyways, it was well worth it to see the four penguins we did, plus new zealand fur seals, and a gorgeous sunset over the beach.

we went to robbie burns (i.e. the jazz pub) after the penguins. i really do love that place. we met karen and a collection of butler kids, internationals, et cetera there as well. live jazz every thursday is a great tradition.

we drove out to fiordland right after my class on friday where we had made reservations at a b&b for the weekend, in addition to dive reservations to dive milford sound.

milford sound is one of the most unique places to dive in the world. because of all the rain (9 m a year. in one day in fiordland it will rain more than it will rain for an entire year in london), there is a layer of freshwater a few metres deep which acts as a filter to the sunlight. the fiords are also incredibly sheltered from any wave action, so the result is deep water conditions in relatively shallow water. thus, you get all sorts of deep sea organisms living in shallow water.

air temperature – 12 C. surface and freshwater temperature – 10 C. seawater temperature – 14 C.

sadly, brad's camera was being weird and so i don't have any pictures of underwater. but we saw forests of black coral (actually white) including the largest piece our guide knew of (a few metres tall), lots of deep water anemones, sponges, and fish. a few dog sharks.

it rained the whole time, which thankfully doesn't really matter when you're diving.

but, gosh, milford sound is gorgeous:





[so, so many waterfalls]


[misty mountains]


[more new zealand fur seals, except this picture isn't zoomed in at all]




it was ... incredible. not only was the diving amazing, it was also my first dive with brad, first of many many more, i hope.

on the way home, they stopped at a lot of different places to reduce our risk of decompression sickness (long explanation that will bore you, so just take my word for it), including this quite impressive waterfall cut into the rock. sadly, it was so raining and spraying water all over the place that my pictures didn't turn out very well. but you get the idea:



[this picture was taken looking straight down]


the next day, brad and i did the first day of the kepler track, one of the great walks. the track follows lake te anau for a bit before climbing upwards to the luxmore hut, at the base of mt. luxmore.





[limestone cliffs]


[right above the alpine line]








in the end, the whole tramp took us seven hours. an 800 m vertical and 28 km total. (we were proud of ourselves)

monday, we did the otago museum and toured the cadbury factory which smelled delicious and had a lot of free samples, but was quite touristy.

we had a great time while he was here.

it feels so good to live like you dream you will.

clothes drying weather

when i am at bc, i do laundry as little as possible - sometimes making it to just under three weeks until i open up my underwear drawer one morning and discover that, yes, unfortunately, i am completely out of clean underwear.

in order to save electricity here in dunedin, i've decided to not use the dryer at all - not even for the ten minutes my own family uses it and which i, rather reluctantly, have given up at bc since paying $1.50 for ten minutes just doesn't seem worth it. we have a clothesline in the backyard here, so it is really easy to dry clothes.

except for the rain.

and the fact that when i wake up in the morning, my bedspread often feels slightly damp and it's often colder inside than outside, so there's really no where to put clothes where they'll actually dry. believe me, last time i did laundry it took three days for my jeans to dry - and even then only when i actually wore them damp out of protest.

so instead, i've opted to do laundry when the weather is good - regardless of how long it's been or how much i need to do.

the forecast yesterday was 25 degrees and sunny - perfect clothes drying weather. and it was - all morning. and then when brad left and i began to hang my clothes, it started to rain.

fitting, considering the circumstances (i.e. brad having just left and leaving me a mess)

so today, it is colder out - about 16, but bright and sunny - so i'm trying again. mostly because in my wreck-of-a-state yesterday i forgot to add laundry detergent to the washing machine so my clothes came out soaking wet, and still dirty.


[pictures from mine and brad's adventures of the past week coming soon]