ADVENTURES IN KIWILAND

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I gotta say, six weeks of vacation is quite a treat. After a really rough (stressful, tiring, shitty) stretch of work over the last few months, as soon as Thanksgiving arrived, I was done for the year at the office. How sweet.

My Prep Week

• Vacation Day 1 - Thanksgiving
• Hiking with Mom in the sopping rain
• Laying around and watching football with Mommy
• Watching Coco! Great movie!!!

• Vacation Day 2
• MTB with Andy and John
• Tacos. Suuuuuuch good tacos
• Planning for the trip

• Vacation Day 3
• Going on a run
• Running a few errands and getting a bunch of cool stuff
• Sam, Morgan, Drew, and McKenna over for dessert, dinner, dessert, and some board games. Such a great crew!

• Vacation Day 4
• Slowish morning, made a decent breakfast
• More MTBing! This time solo. Almost cleared a gap that I focused on on SG1
• Again. Suuuuuuuuch good tacos

• Vacation Day 5
• Some more planning for the trip
• Had KC over for a bottle of wine. Always good to catch up and have such a real conversation with him

• Vacation Day 6
• Operation PJ Day complete!
• Good things for the trip coming together

And I'm off...

Before I get ahead of myself, for those that want the sparknotes version of the trip, here you go. I started using an app called Polarsteps that tracks a journey in progress, and you can add little snippets and pictures along the way. So for those of you that don't have a week to read whatever I type next, feel free to follow along here:

Polar Steps - Adventures in Kiwiland

So begins another adventure. Having six days to lounge around, go play on my bike, and hang out with friends prior to this trip has really put me in not just a relaxed state of mind, but also a heightened level of excitement! Not that I wouldn't have been pumped for this trip, but sitting around at home during the day and planning this one out really got me itching to get in the flying tube and head down to the other side of the world!!!

Sitting there in the lovely PDX airport, I was really looking forward to an amazing three weeks of sightseeing, adventuring, backpacking, mountain biking, picture taking, scenery gazing, people meeting, and a whole bunch of other stuff ahead of me. Weirdly enough, I had a large amount of the trip planned out ahead of time. How is that weird, you ask? Well, the last few trips I've been on have all pretty much been shot from the hip, which worked out extremely well. But to save on some dough and to make sure that I was able to do some of the things I wanted to for a helluva trip, I had to book a few things in advance. And thought this was gonna work out juuuuuuust fine.

Eventually things got underway. Then, as soon as I sat down in the plane I got tired. Not long thereafter I found out I'd have the whole row to myself - nap time ho!!! I wasn't out like a rock, but I woke up right as we were getting into SF, with the Golden Gate Bridge right under me. Hot damn.

Once I got off the plane I started walking. I had 5 hours to kill, and unfortunately my partner in crime Zack had jury duty, so he wasn't able to come up and keep me occupied for that layover. But, what better way to kill it than to get the blood flowing a little bit? Walking, reading, a burrito, and some more walking. Slowly but surely, the clock was getting chipped away.

Fun Fact - Did you know that 90% of the Earth's population lives in the Northern Hemisphere? I found this out as I was sitting around in the airport. Kinda crazy!

Walking up to the gate, ready to board, somehow I developed a bloody nose. I was naturally a little weirded out, so I went to the bathroom to take care of it. Ended up being a good thing though, because I had to walk past a sushi restaurant on the way back to the gate and I ended up snagging myself some edamame for the flight. SCORE!!!

For a 13 hour flight, it actually went by pretty quickly. I watched a couple movies, slept for about 5 hours, watched another movie, and as soon as that was over New Zealand shores showed up out the window!

Quick Thought - For some reason, so far, this whole trip has felt very out of body. Yes, I'm physically sitting in a seat flying across the world. But for some reason, it doesn't really feel like it, or the reality still hasn't set in. I'm not sure if it's because I forgot what its like to travel and explore, but I feel like it's because I've been so excited for so long to make this trip happen (it's on my 3-year goal list, so pretty high on my priorities). But the stokage is super high. And I can't wait to get started!!!

As per usual - entering a foreign country you've gotta go through customs. I didn't think it was going to be too bad, and it seemed like it was ok for most, but because of the outdoor gear in my possession, it was a bit of a pain.

I got off the plane and started heading to customs. Before too long I passed through a duty free spot and picked up a travel SIM card. Not a bad deal. From there headed to the passport control, and their automatic machines weren't doing so hot with mine, so I had to wait in the line to get through, no sweat.

From there it was to baggage claim, but I stopped off and snagged some cash on the way, and lo and behold my bag made it! Then the waiting began. Waiting in line to verify my arrival card, then they asked me the questions of what I put on my card. I guess hiking shoes and a camp shovel are enough to flag me down, so I got shuffled over to line 1, the lucky recipients of a personalized baggage search! Ugh. It was a standing room, as the line took a good 30 minutes with only a couple people ahead of me. In their defense though, once I was up, it took no more than two minutes for the guy to clear me, then one more X-ray, then I'm off!!!

Quick Thought - Weirdly enough, that was the first time I'd been in a country where they drive on the left... I thought it'd definitely take some getting used to! And then not 5 minutes after thinking that I remembered that Japan drives on the left. Yep, I've got a great memory over here.....

Thankfully there was an easy bus straight to downtown, so I jumped on that and took in my first sights of lovely New Zealand.

Auckland

I got to downtown, and there was no crazy realization that I was in a foreign country. Obviously there were some small differences, like the cars driving on the other side of the road, that one was pretty clear. But for the most part, things didn't come across as being so foreign.

Rather than pay or wait for a bus or something, I walked from the bus stop to my hostel, about 40min. It was a nice little intro to the city and the central business district and one of the closer suburbs. Lots of shops, restaurants, including a chain called Burger Wisconsin, and nothing out of the ordinary.

At the hostel, I dropped my stuff, and got reorganized to go walking around. Packed my day pack, got my camera and stuff ready, and the wandering begins!

I didn't really have too much of a plan for Auckland. A few things that I for sure wanted to do, but no rhyme or reason as to how I was going to do them. What does that mean? I did a lot of walking around, most of it pretty aimlessly. I went through a couple nice parks in the middle of the city, then got to a third park and read for a bit before taking a nap.

From there I went to the Sky Tower! Awesomely enough, it's not only the tallest building in New Zealand, but it's also the tallest free-standing structure in the whole Southern Hemisphere!!! Crazy!

They had a bunch of touristy, gimmicky type stuff, some cooler than others. But I just took the vanilla option, an elevator ride up to the top. Once there, I got some pretty amazing views of Auckland. Thankfully, it was a pretty gorgeous day to look out on the city too.

While up there, a lady thought I was BASE jumping off the place because of my backpack. I guess I look cooler than I really am... but we chatted it up for a bit, and Liz was from Tauranga. She was in town for the weekend with her family, as her daughter had always wanted to go up the SkyTower, then the next day they were going to a theme park. Lovely lady to chat with! And she suggested both the base jumping and white water rafting in Queenstown.

From SkyTower I continued my saunter on down to the harbor. As soon as I got there, I was hit with the feeling that I was back in Vancouver, BC. The waterfront area in Auckland has an extremely similar atmosphere in terms of walkways, buildings, and general vibe. The biggest difference being that there are just fewer mountains in the background down there. But while I was there, I booked my ferry ride for the morning, and kept on walking around.

More walking around the harbor ensued. Fuck there are some nice boats there. Just insane. It definitely makes sense why it's called the City of Sails.

Walked down to a really swanky jetty, then tracked back a bit along the harbor to go swing by another part of the waterfront enroute towards a big park. To my lucky surprise, once I got there, there was a cricket match going on! Three actually. Hot damn!!!

I watched a good bit of it, but eventually the match came to an end. Luckily enough, another one was still going on. Hot damn. I'm not sure why, how, or when, but cricket really fascinates me. A helluva lot more than baseball. It's definitely a cool sport to watch, and would be perfect for a day-long picnic!

Awesomely enough, there was some Asian noodle fest going on right next to the park. So I went and checked that out, and after deciding against the uber popular skewers, went for a delicious wrap/roll thing. Scrumptious. Sat around and watched some of the music and performances around there, then went grocery shopping for some hiking food.

Mission accomplished, then wanted to head to a brewery not far away to wind down and rest my feet. Damn thing was closed for a private event. There was another close by, but it was super loud and I wasn't in the mood for that. So I resigned to heading back to the hostel. Cool enough though, there was essentially a Christmas lights open house along the road back. A bunch of families with their kids going to the various light displays. I found my favorite though...

New Zealand Stuff - Obviously being down there during Christmas time, there were signs of Christmas pretty prevalent all throughout the place. Growing up in the Northern Hemisphere, and luckily in an area/country where snow is pretty prevalent, Christmas is the snowy season, thoughts of log cabins, and cold weather, and sitting by a fire, with a big ole christmas tree, yadda yadda yadda. But, New Zealand being in the Southern Hemisphere, the question crossed my mind as to how is Christmas represented down here when it's in the middle of the summer?

Well, thanks to a few people, I found out. Short and sweet - Beaches and Barbecue. Since there's no snow, gotta make do however you can. So they do, but with seafood instead of turkey. Definitely a notable difference from what I know as Christmas...

I got back to the hostel and chilled out for a bit. I wandered over to the common area and ended up meeting a few people! We chatted for a bit, then eventually we headed out for a night of drinking. Me and three girls headed out, and then the other folks met up with us later.

• Lesson 1 - Beer in New Zealand is damn expensive.
• Lesson 2 - Despite being on vacation, bars don't appreciate chacos and shorts as dress attire.
• Lesson 3 - I am way too timid when it comes to women.

All in all a great night! Got to try some local brews, all of which were pretty good, or at least on par with what I could find at home. Ended up dancing for a good part of the night, and damn, chacos do pretty well on the dance floor. Eventually headed back and got some not so great sleep, as I had to get up fairly early to get ready for a ferry.

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Gah, shitty sleeping sucks. But I got up early out of bed a while before my alarm and went and got ready. No sweat, I've done that before. From there I bussed downtown to the ferry terminal and snagged some coffee shop breakfast before the ferry out to Rangitoto Island.

The day was perfect, and the ride out there was gorgeous! There's a reason they call Auckland the City of Sails; it definitely lives up to its name! Got to the island and held off on hiking for a bit to let the main rush of the crowd go out and do it's thing so I could do mine.

Just off of the pier I walked over to a short trail along the water. Along this trail there were a bunch of little houses/cabins called Bachs (batch, batches). Most of them had some historical plaque with a little bit of its history. Being a little inquisitive, I ended up walking up to one, and little did I know, there were people in it! I thought it was empty. But the couple inside were friendly as can be, so we chatted for a bit about traveling, they told me about the history of a Bach and how to pronounce it (started off being a bachelor retreat, hence Bach). Super friendly couple.

After bidding adieu, I continued my journey and doubled back to the main trail. Once there, I headed to the top of the island. The island is the youngest volcano near Auckland, and provides a magnificent view into the central Auckland area from the harbor. After a brief stop at the lava caves and a quick lunch, I got to the top with some gorgeous views of the city and the surrounding sound outside. Just gorgeous. And the blue sunny sky and extremely blue water just made it that much more vivid and beautiful!

From the peak, I decided to hike to the other side of the island along a very boring road. It took a while, but the road took me to a beautiful bay with tons of boats sitting around. Just gorgeous.

From there I headed back to the jetty, and picked a pretty rough trail. Oh well, I just powered through it and got back to the jetty. I ate some food, read for a bit, then washed off my feet. That felt pretty damn good.

The boat came and picked everyone up. I sat on top and talked to a girl from Germany for part of it. She's going from one year-long working holiday (aka vacation) in New Zealand to one in Australia. What an opportunity! America does so much stuff wrong...

Once I had some earth back under me I headed back to Victoria park to try and catch some more cricket. As luck would have it, I got there right at the start of one! I'm not sure why cricket is so intriguing to me, but it is! Eventually though, my sleep debt caught up to me, so I knocked out for a nap.

After that, I decided to head back to the first brewery I tried to visit the night before. Luckily enough, it was open! Brothers Beer has an absolutely killer taproom. It's a very open space, tables on the outside, wall of local brewery offerings on the other, and couches and lounge chairs filling the middle. Slow alternative rock and relaxing music playing in the background with a few hushed conversations being carried on on and off throughout the room. The glass doors only make the place feel even more open, and overall an incredibly relaxing place to have a beer.

I got the help from the bartender and sampled a couple different brews, both of which were delicious. I whipped out my kindle and got some reading in, and had an overall fantastically relaxing time there.

Quick Thought - apparently there's a rental site for boats. TransferCar is a thing in New Zealand, and upon talking about this, a Belgian lady told me about Le Boat, which is pretty much the same thing. What!!?!? Gonna have to do this.

New Zealand Stuff - when I was checking out of the hostel and getting my key deposit back, as my momma raised me right, I told the lady "Thank You". But what I got back threw me off. In an extremely bubbly, positive, and upbeat voice, the lady said "That's Ok." Those words with that tone did not compute, and I was pretty thrown off by it. I later found out that "That's Ok" is equivalent to "No Problem", but it didn't and still doesn't make sense to me; it seems too different.

Delicious beer found, bought, drank, and enjoyed, another day was in the books. I headed back to the hostel, hung out for a bit, but called it a somewhat early night.

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Fuck that was an early morning. A 7:30 flight meant a long bus to the airport beforehand and a long walk to the bus. Set my alarm and woke up, only to unknowingly fall back asleep and only by chance wake up on my own in a complete shock. Holy crap that gave me a start. Luckily enough I still had time to get ready and go. I just had to uber to the bus (thank you globalization), but made it to the airport with no issues.

At the airport, super seamless getting to the gate, (SERIOUSLY WHY CAN"T AMERICA GET THAT SHIT RIGHT) and I ended up reading while we waited. Once in the plane I slept the whole way.

Wellington

I woke up with pretty good timing, as it was a really pretty entrance into Wellington. As Lord of the Rings is obviously a big deal, and most people think of LOTR when they think of New Zealand, "Middle of Middle Earth" was plastered onto the terminal. You know, being the country's capitol is ok, but being the epicenter for all things LOTR is a total-game changer.

Great news. On a 45 minute direct flight, a shitty airline lost my bag... got to be kidding me. Rather than sitting around hoping they would figure something out, I decided to head to town and do some walking around before they got their shit together.

On the bus I went. Right as I got to my stop, guess what I got? A call from Jetstar saying my bag was at the airport the whole time. They just decided to put it on the wrong baggage belt. Gotta be kidding me... incompetency is still clearly a global thing unfortunately.

But rather than letting that get to me, I decided to get checked in and acquainted at the hostel before walking around town for a bit. First stop was the Beehive, aka their federal/parliamentary building. I wanted to take a tour, but it was full at that moment, so I earmarked it for later.

Wellington's downtown is no huge area, which is nice. Taking advantage of that, I meandered down the waterfront and enjoyed some of the nice sights.

Right down on the waterfront is New Zealand's National Museum, Te Papa. I had it on my list of things to do in town, but I was not expecting it to be such a cool museum! The first thing I checked out was an exhibit on the battle of Gibraltar. I didn't know much of the background going into it, but was pretty floored at NZ's involvement and how much of a role it played in the country's history. That and the wax figures like the ones below were huge, extremely lifelike, and super impressively done.

One exhibit touched on all of the various flora and fauna of New Zealand (including the largest giant squid specimen in the world), another one covered earthquakes and volcanoes and the earths geology with a focus on how New Zealand came to be, and there were a couple extensive exhibits on Maori history and culture. A ton of really interesting stuff! I'm not a huge museum guy, but I spent as much time there as I could focus on and really enjoyed it.

From there, I was just a stones throw away from one of the beer bars I researched. Not to let my mouth go dry, I headed to Hashigo Zake and had a delicious black IPA. Talked to the bartenders there and talked a little bit about the local scene. I determined that saying I'm from Portland is probably a very snobby thing to say, as I felt the dude was a little annoyed after that. But I got some good recommendations of other places to head for more delicious goodness!

At some point I had to head back to the airport to get my bag, so in a good mood I did just that. A bus stop close by, I posted up until the Chariot arrived.

Full evidence of the generosity of locals. I asked the bus driver how soon he'd be taking off when we got back to the airport. Said he should have already been underway, but said he would've waited for me if that wasn't the case. Well, I busted my butt to get my bag, and luckily enough I didn't have to wait in line. Just as I came out the door I saw the bus coming down the line. The guy was nice enough to stop on the road and let me in without having to pay the fare again. Hot damn. What a gentleman!!!

I dropped my bag off at the hostel and then made my way back to the Beehive to make it into a parliamentary tour. I'm really glad I did! No pictures were allowed, but here's some stuff I learned about New Zealand's government, history, and some other stuff:

• Alcohol has always been a problem. Prohibition only succeeded for three weeks, until the soldiers from WWI came home and sent in their ballots to change it back in 1919
• There's a beautiful emphasis on Maori culture in the building, shown in the woodwork in the committee room. One half was traditional Maori carvings, woodwork and carvings from all of the various tribes. The other half was from the contemporary Maori culture, showing the current divide in the culture
• There was a Maori culture shift in the 50s. A large majority moved to cities, and from there were either no longer able to or no longer wanted to trace lineage (had to recount lineage to remain a part of the tribe, or Iwi). Because of this, it's still a cause of concern regarding allocation/connection to a tribe
• The tour guide lady was constantly cracking jokes about New Zealand. I like the persistent ability to be humble but still make fun of yourself, such would unfortunately never work in the US. We're too big and too arrogant of a shithole country to realize it's just a joke.
• The tour guide lady told us about the Parliamentary chamber and the Questioning Session. It's a time where the opposition wants to embarrass the government as much as possible through interrogative and intense questioning. On the flip side, the Government wants to sugar coat their stance to make them look good. IMO this is way better, no pussy footing around the issues; if you're in charge you better know your substance and be able to stand for your cause/position.

That was a really cool tour experience! Cherry on top, the tour guide lady told us about a questioning session taking place the following day, so of course I put that on my itinerary! After leaving the Beehive though, I walked up the hill just behind the main part of the town.

I made my way up through a botanical garden, with a number of pretty lookouts onto the city and the expansive bay below, and got to the top of the cable car, which provided another great view of town and the harbor. I luckily had a gorgeous day to enjoy too.

I piddled around up top for a bit. Looking to get back to town and get some grub, I took the cable car down, thought about what else I wanted to do the next day, then headed to the first place the guy from Hashigo Zake suggested. Fork and Brewer, another immediate classic for brew bars. I got a delicious XPA and watched the tail end of a rugby match. Then a brown ale / IPA cross with cricket highlights and a bowl of chowder. I could definitely see myself in this town.

From Fork and Brewer, I just slowly meandered back along the harbor walkway back to the hostel. It was a beautiful night for it too, and the moonrise was gorgeous. Apparently it was a super moon. After another long day of walking though, I was stoked for bed.

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My wake up was nice and relaxed. I got ready and had a general gameplan of what I wanted to get into. Once I got some breakfast and snacks for the day, I walked back along the waterfront to the other side of the bay. I had a beautiful sunny day on my hands, with a light covering of grey fog all the way around the other side of the bay.

Once on the other side of the waterfront area, I turned uphill to the Mt. Victoria overlook. It was a steep walk, but once at the top it was a beautiful view of the whole bay. Wellington is definitely in a cool area.

At the top there was a memorial at the top for Byrd, an arctic explorer (see picture above). The memorial points straight south to Antarctica, which is kinda cool to think that it's not that far away from there! A couple other interesting tidbits at the top, Wellington is the windiest city in the Southern Hemisphere (source: plaque) and the world (source: random tour guide). They also had some information showing the transformation of the city, it was crazy to see how much land was filled in and how much of what is now City used to be harbor.

From there, there were a couple things I wanted to do before heading back to the parliament building for the question session. But because of the mildly later start and the long duration of bus transportation, I didn't think I would make it. So instead I hiked back down, but found a nice grassy knoll to nap on the way down.

After that, it was lunch time. I had another taproom in mind, and it was only a twenty minute walk from my nap. Boom boom boom. A delicious nitro porter to go with a Reuben. Delish. And it was right behind a chocolate store that was exuding some amazing smells! I stopped there for samples after I was done. Yummmmmm

As you know, naps are amazing, so after the good food, I took a little break at a park, then headed back to parliament.

I made it back to the Beehive for the Question Session, and it definitely fit the description. Questions were delivered alternating from Government (leading/majority party) to Opposition (minority party). Lots of random shouts from Opposition during the answers for their questions. The Speaker was pretty rigid and maintained order. Seemed a lot like an orderly fight between middle school kids. Really interesting. I really wish our government was more brutally honest and open like that. Oh, and I got to see Jacinda Ardern in there, she was about 20 feet away. She definitely gives off quite a bulldog persona.

Really cool experience. It's refreshing to see good politics in action. Yes, it's not perfect. Nothing and no government is. But from my impression of the US and what I saw there, I felt like I saw openness and honesty actually addressing issues rather than jumping behind a curtain of money to not talk about what's going on. Good on New Zealand.

I wasn't too sure how to spend the rest of the day. But long story short, I got some food, and bought a train ticket and took a ride up the coast. Crazy, Wellington's metro train station is pretty expansive. A quick 45-minute ride took me to a town of about 200 with a giant local park right on the beach.

I got out and walked around a bit, through the park and along the beach and through another park, before settling on a bench right on the water. While hanging around Paekakariki (the name of the town), I had lots of time for reading, getting sunburnt, watching a surf rescue school train, and a gorgeous sunset.

What a beautiful area. Something cool about that sunset was the silhouette of the South Island being showcased by the setting sun. Definitely an awesome way to wrap up the day. From there, it was back to the hostel for some sleep.

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I was unfortunately up early again to get back to the airport for the next leg of the trip. The good café near the hostel was closed, so I just headed to the bus stop and got a quick breakfast nearby, then went and waited at the bus stop. There was only myself and another lady standing there, and after a while she commented on my flag patches, which turned into a nice conversation. Philippe is an interior designer for an architecture company, and we exchanged business cards after I said I planned on moving down at some point. How cool! Also recommended the Coromandel next time I'm in the country. Definitely on my to-do list for next time!

During our conversation, we talked about the stance of native peoples in the States (Native Americans) and New Zealand (Maori). Said she was disappointed to see how little recognition and participation Native Americans get in US politics and continued on to say that in comparison Maoris are treated quite fairly. Definitely not what it should be, but far and away better than how it is for Native Americans and Aboriginees as well.

New Zealand Stuff - funnily enough, "Fine" seems to be used as a legitimate weather term. Here are a few examples taken from the bus weather forecast:

• Cloudy at first then fine spells, southerlies
• Mainly fine northerlies picking up
• Fine light winds and sea breezes

New Zealand Stuff - Not sure where I heard this, but apparently Wellington has the most coffee shops and cafés per capita in the world? I'm skeptical

I got to the airport no sweat, and was soon enough in another tube flying through the air on my way to...

Christchurch

I got into town and surprisingly enough had no problems with baggage. From the airport, I jumped on a super convenient bus that took me straight to town. Once at the bus interchange I decided to walk to the hostel from there. First things I noticed: tons of construction around the CBD (Central Business District) and a surprisingly high amount of murals on building facades (which were all really cool). The walk wasn't too bad, but got kinda checked in and prepped for what I might do that day.

As I was leaving, a bus was on its way downtown. Perfect, save a little bit of walking stamina. I was planning on going to the Christchurch Adventure Park for some mountain biking, but after calling and hearing that only a few of their trails were open (why, I learned later on, only made sense), I wasn't convinced it'd be worth it to go do. So because of that I resigned myself to walking around town and probably taking a nap in a park.

I wasn't totally into what I was doing, and it was pretty clear. At some point though, I walked past a Department of Conservation (fuck yeah that they have a Department of Conservation) info center, and walked in and an extremely helpful gentleman raved about the adventure park. Him and a helpful lady gave me some more info about the placeс, and although I said I was convinced it'd be worth it, I really still wasn't. It took me another half hour of walking around to a) convince myself it was worth it, b) chastise myself for thinking it wasn't in the first place, and c) get really pissed at myself for wasting over an hour making up my mind and delaying the inevitable. From there it was just a mad dash to get out there.

I'm stoked I ended up heading to the Christchurch Adventure Park, because it was awesome! The reason only a few trails were open was because they suffered through a huge forest fire last year. They were still rebuilding the place, and the day I was there was only the second day after reopening from the fire.

But besides not having the trails fully ready to go, it was pretty dope. The first trail was super dusty,, but was pretty exposed and had some pretty good views of the area. The second trail I rode twice and it was great! Not too many jumps, just a ton of Bermy switchbacks. I really need to work on my cornering. Sheesh... FUCKING awesome ride though. Happy to be a patron of an awesome facility!

Sadly enough, I only got the three-lift pass, as I needed to get back to town. There wasn't a bus or anything close by, so I just had to start walking and hope something would come up. Lo and behold, one thumb worked! Graham, an awesome mountain biker compatriot, ended up giving me a ride right to town. What great luck!!! He ended up being a really friendly guy too, a city planner from the south part of the island. We talked a bit about the kind of planning that's been going on since the earthquake from 2011, among other things.

Graham dropped me off close to town, and I started walking to the bar Richard and I were to meet at. Backing up real quick, my buddy Fabi from Germany put me in contact with one of his buddies in Christchurch, so me and Richard decided on grabbing a beer together!

Once I got dropped off though, I quickly realized I wasn't going to be at the bar in time. I checked my bus options, and those weren't great either. Uber it was. But damn, consistent with the other couple of times I'd uber'd so far, the driver was all kinds of willy nilly on getting to me, from a 4 min arrival time to 7, and that never went down. I canceled it hoping to find someone who'd actually come get me, and that pursuit only went ok. (I'm extremely impatient, especially when I've got a goal in mind).

She was a pretty passive driver, and that kinda pissed me off, but because I was late already, that didn't help. Eventually got to the bar, and snagged a drink with Richard. Quite a nice dude! And apparently a damn good frisbee player, and mover and shaker for the sport in NZ. Awesome. Chatted about work, outdoors, frisbee, and some other stuff. Not long after, he had to dip, and I was off to something else. What that was, I had to decide. But through his awesome info, I was slated to see him again that weekend up in Nelson for a hat tournament. Hot damn!!!

I needed food, and was down for a beer, so naturally I was in search for a good ole brewpub. Weirdly enough, most of the ones near town were closed. Google maps was fruitless, but thanks to a little google search, I found one on a review page that wasn't too far away. Dux Central it is.

Long story short, it was a fantastic dinner, where I started off with the nitro stout paired with a BBQ seafood pizza (deeeeelicious), and then ended with the strong pale ale to go with some calamari. All throughout I finished up my latest Murakami novel (Wind-Up Bird Chronicles)

Quick Thought - regardless of how many times I am confronted with this and realize this lesson, impatience never pays off. I am as impatient as they come, and I cannot seem to learn that it is not beneficial. The thing with the uber drivers. It was nothing but unneeded stress and frustration, and serves no long term benefit.

Quick Thought - I need to work on just enjoying the moment. When I was sitting enjoying my dinner and reading at Dux, I was working on typing a few things up. I saw my phone was dying, so I was being as efficient as I could, but eventually it died. I was pretty ok with that, but as soon as it did, there were a few things I wanted to get done. The most poignant of which was a song that was playing. It was a super chilly and groovy tune. Normally I would Shazam that shit and have it for playback later on. Well, without a phone, that's kinda hard to do. Rather than brooding over that, I decided to just enjoy that moment with that song, really listen to it and enjoy that particular moment in time, knowing I wouldn't be hearing it again any time soon. Living in the moment.

Pleased with my evening and the delicious vittles I indulged in, I decided to call it a somewhat early night...

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The next day started off pretty lazy. I got up, piddled around to kill time, then took my bag over to the other hostel (don't ask me) before wandering around town. I got a good breakfast recommendation from hostel #2, and headed over there for some absolutely delicious salmon eggs benedict and some reading. Noms.

Quick Thought - Anytime I'm around a ton of people and am on my own, I get pretty self conscious about being alone, and that usually transforms to being self conscious about being single. It's extremely frustrating how much that thought eats up so much of my brain time. Frustrating. And the shitty part is, I never talk about it, because it feels like everyone I know is in a relationship, and that talking about it will make me seem like a whiny bitch. I'd hope that's not the case, but I still feel nervous about talking about it. Honestly, I could write a whole post about this.....

From that delicious breakfast, I walked into town and perused some shops, just kinda killing time before meeting up with John and Patty! By some awesome happenstance, our great family friends were also in New Zealand while I was down there. So of course we had to cross paths!!!

What did we do? Of course, we went and grabbed a beer! I met up with them where they ended up parking, and we walked over to a brewery that I'd found on the Googlez. Great sitting down with them and chatting about their travels, my travels, what's been going on with them, and with my family, and everything else under the sun. They're such a hoot!!! And this picture sums them up quite well I must say.

After a couple delicious beers and a kinda shitty burrito that was ~90% corn, we put our walking shoes on and did a little cruising around town. Walked past a beautiful memorial to those that lost their lives in the 2011 Earthquake, strolled along the river for a bit, did some shopping in the Shipping Container mall downtown, and then stopped off for another beer in the really cool speakeasy type place with all of their beers on cask. Cool spot.

As always, it was a pleasure seeing and catching up with John and Patty! But, our time was cut a bit short because I was invited to a Kiwi Barbecue! I bid them safe travels, and met up with Luke and Jelly, friends through Zack, and we were off to one of their friend's houses!

Not gonna lie, I was super excited! Zack put me in contact with Luke, who were friends through their cult called The Lair. Luke and I got in contact, and he invited me out to a little celebration that one of his friends was having. Such a fun time!

They came and picked me up, and we headed out to their friend Jono's place outside of town. On the way I did a lot of learning about some stuff. For one, I learned that we went through the longest tunnel in NZ on the way there, and that I'd gone on the longest ski lift the day before, a few things about word differences I'll cover later on, a badass camping app that has a ton of resources for camping in NZ, and of course some great suggestions on where to go next!

New Zealand Stuff - Where we headed wasn't just any barbecue though. A tradition in New Zealand is for young people to go on an "Overseas Experience". Essentially, as Jelly (aka Danielle I learned...) told me, since New Zealand is so small and far away from anything, the mindset is that NZers can't expect the world to go to them, so they go to the world!

The Overseas Experience (OE) is a time for NZers to go explore the world. Usually a year or so long, it's a time for traveling and getting acquainted with the large world out there, and as I learned, it's culturally frowned upon and disadvantageous to not go on your OE. It's a sign of strength, growth, development to go on your OE.

I gotta say it, fuck yeah. The fact that this is an engrained and prominent part of society and a person's development is amazing. I wish the US had such a mentality. Because regardless of who you are, you always have something to learn, not just about the world, but about yourself. Good on you New Zealand!!!

Once we got out of the tunnel on the way, it was like a whole new environment! The tunnel leads from Christchurch out to the edge of the Akaroa Peninsula. And damn, it is gorgeous!!! Jono's family has a house out near Littleton, so we headed there to hang out. One helluva place to hang out and live if this is the view from your balcony...

It was an excellently delicious and low key evening. Besides myself, Luke, Jelly, and Jono, another couple came over (I forgot their names :-/ ) and we did some awesome grilling on the patio and had a nice little feast, and then chatted the night away while playing with Jono's little puppy. It was a fantastic evening! Really cool to get a quick glimpse into their lives and reaffirm just how similar people, regardless of where they come from, are! We're all one world.

From the barbecue and after enjoying a B-E-A-Utiful sunset, we said adios and headed back to town. HUGE thanks and shoutout to Jono for hosting, and to Luke and Jelly for welcoming me into their circle for the evening!!!

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Road Trip Pt. 1 - Christchurch -> Nelson -> Queenstown

Then next day I woke up to another early but sunny and beautiful morning! I made my way to the bus station, got a panini, and was helped by yet another friendly bus driver who gave me a free transfer up to Woodend! How awesome!!! What's Woodend, you ask? Well, that's where I was meeting up with a guy to pick up my free camper-van rental!

Once I got there I gave Seymon a call, assuming he got my text saying I was on my way. He picked up and definitely wasn't ready, but came down to get me. On the way back to the shop, we stopped and had some pies (meat pies kinda thing) and a flatwhite (it's a coffee thing, it definitely wasn't as good as advertised), and then headed back to their place.

Well, let's just say the next few hours did not transpire as I had imagined they would. Their 'place' ended up being this dude's garage out in the boonies, and it was kind of a dump. In essence, it looked like the shop for all of their broken rigs.

Well, I assumed I was ready to go, get the keys, get the rundown, and then hit the road. But there was still a bunch of stuff that needed to be done on the rig. All kinda minor, but Seymon didn't remember the next thing until I was ready to go each time. In between that though, and this part's on me, I forgot to tell them that I was going up north then back down south, where the original plan was to go straight south. Well, that caused a bit of a ruckus, and it was totally on me. But we got it sorted out, but even after that, we still had to take the van to their DMV and get the tags renewed and whatnot. Kinda ridiculous, knowing I was getting the vehicle that day. Definitely a shady operation in my eyes.

All in all, it took 2 hours to get the car ready. Pretty annoying and I was getting really antsy there at the end. But I finally got on the road. Damn, driving on the left is kinda weird.....

Kind of in a daze for part of the way. Still ruminating over regret on some of my trip choices, in absolute awe of the variation of landscape underway, regretting how much I'll have to drive from Nelson to Queenstown the day after next, adjusting to driving on the left, and really just in my own mental world (which is pretty much NEVER a good thing).

New Zealand Stuff - Fun fact, deer are one of the top three kinds of livestock in New Zealand. I stopped a couple of times, and the first time it was unknowingly next to a field full of them. I took some pictures looking around, and then I turned around and there was a huge group of them just staring at me. It was a little shocking, but then pretty interesting to see an animal that I almost exclusively equate to wild being raised in the same vein as cows and stuff.

I took a number of stops along the way, and it is really impressive how beautiful this country is. I stopped for lunch in Murchison, then decided on a side route and kept driving towards Lake Rotoroa. Stopped there and jumped in and oh boy did that feel refreshing!!! Unfortunately, the sand flies were out in full force, and a big group of kids came and interrupted things. Because of that, I cut my time there short and continued on.

Not too far down the road and only a little bit out of the way on my route to Nelson was Lake Rotoiti. Holy SHIT what a difference. So peaceful, gorgeous, relaxing, beautiful. I parked and took a few pictures, but decided to walk around for a bit. Eventually I tried to take a nap (for some reason my success was absent), and then decided to stroll around a little more and listen to the beautiful bird sounds. Honestly, the bird sounds in NZ are so unique and melodious!

I made my way back to the van and grabbed some food. I brought it out and sat in front of the car to have some delicious crackers, sausage, and avocado with an unbeatable view. I definitely had wished I had more time to spend there, and it's on my shortlist of places to go back to. And weirdly enough, the entire time I was at Lake Rotoiti, I had Old Pine by Ben Harper stuck in my head.

While I was sitting there enjoying my delicious and simple vittles, I was surprised by a small little paddling of ducks! They walked right under the van and ended up coming right along side me, even the little ducklings! What a treat to go along with a beautiful place to sit and enjoy the world.

From Lake Rotoiti, I made my way north to Nelson. It was a gorgeous drive, and the entire way felt like I was back in Washington driving through the Yakima Valley. It was weirdly the same as my home region of the Pacific Northwest. And the more I drove, the more it showed me just how similar these two geographically separate areas are just like the other!!!

After such a gorgeous drive, I eventually made it to Nelson for a Spark-Notes experience of a frisbee tournament. How the hell'd I get there? A frisbee tournament in a foreign country on vacation? HUGE shout out to Richard for telling me about it! When I was setting up a time to meet him and grab a beer in Christchurch, he told me about the hat tournament going down in Nelson that weekend, so OF COURSE I had to go. Luckily enough it worked out!!!

I got into town and found a place to camp. Kinda cool, as there was a holiday park (really cool concept, had campsites, RV sites, and a ton of motel rooms too, all in the middle of town) right nearby, and I saved $20NZD a night by camping in my tent vs. sleeping in the camper van. Frugality at its finest.

Camp all setup, I headed up to Sprig & Fern for the pre-tournament party. This place was awesome, as they had a TON of really good craft beers on tap and brewed nearby. My favorite? Probably the Kiwi Pale Ale. A fruity slice of heaven. Outside of the beer though, I stepped out of my introverted bounds and ended up meeting a ton of great fellow frisbee players and had a great time chatting! Eventually though, my tired bones headed back to the tent and hit the hay, but grabbed some snacks with a few new friends for the next day on the way.

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The next morning - Frisbee!!!!!! I was pretty excited to finally get a disc back in my hands, and to do it with a bunch of new people in a new country just added to that!

I got to the beach a little early, but eventually met up with my team and started playing. As luck would have it, I got matched up with a really fun team. We gelled pretty quickly despite losing our first game, but ended up being pretty good on the field too! The games were fun, despite the grey skies, and I had a ton of fun talking to a bunch of friendly frisbee kiwis throughout the day!

That jokester there is Tony, and during the day I had a great chance to talk with him. He's from Hamilton and is a farmer. We talked about a bunch of stuff and I learned a ton from him. The coolest fact he shared: New Zealand accounts for 1/3 of the world's exports in the dairy industry. That's crazy!!! He also shared the fun fact about there being 28 million sheep and 8 million cattle in the country. Quite the numbers for a small island nation!

Sidenote: total sidenote, but I found a cheap knock-off to Sun Chips. Sorry to disappoint, but they're nowhere near as good.

Once games were done, I jumped in a car with a few people and headed downtown to try and find costume stuff for the party. I didn't get anything, but that was a good little laugh doing some thrift store perusing with a few Kiwis and an American expat.

I eventually got back to my tent and after an extremely delightful nap and shower, I went and chatted with Tony and a whole bunch of very cool kiwis. There were a number of chats about language (Kiwis had a similar gripe as me about not learning enough languages), learning, the dairy industry, tons of other stuff. I don't remember most of the names, but those folks made up a really cool group of people!!!!!

And I don't remember this dude's name, but I busted a gut laughing at all the shenanigans he did. Awesome dude.

At some point we wrapped up the pre-gaming and headed over to dinner/the party. Dinner was pretty good, but the party was pretty damn fun. I did some hanging around and talking, and was kinda ok when I was just on my own. The night ended, as usual, with a good bit of dancing, then wishing everyone the best before heading to bed.

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This is probably the biggest regret of the trip for me. Due to my free rental camper van agreement, I had to be down in Queenstown at the end of the next day. That means I had to skip out on Day 2 of the tournament to drive along the west coast and drop the van off. This was quite sub-optimal on multiple fronts. One, I had to skip day two of the tournament as my team continued playing. Two, I had a constrained amount of time to drive down one of the more scenic routes in New Zealand. HUGE bummer, but I can't regret my life away. Still was a bummer.

I got a kinda early start, waking up to rain on the tent. I was a bit daunted by the long drive ahead, and the lack of time to really enjoy it, but I eventually got underway. Thanks to a recommendation by a dude on my team, I went to stop by the Stoke Bakery for what Lucky said we're the best pies in NZ, but it was closed. To still get something to eat, I stopped by the grocery store instead for a surprisingly delicious chicken, Brie, and cranberry quiche. Nomnomnom

Time to hit the road. I just started chugging through the roadway, as I understood I had to be in Queenstown early that next morning. I had a long drive ahead of me. Eventually I had to put on a podcast because the radio was essentially inoperable. I kept driving and driving, with a couple quick stops for pictures. It's crazy the amount of variation in landscape over a four hour drive!!!

My first big stop was in Hokitika for some walking around. It was a quaint little beach town that definitely deserved much more than the short time I gave it. I checked out a few shops, walked over to the beach, and enjoyed the quiet atmosphere.

To coordinate the van drop-off and make sure everything was still hunky-dory, I called the drop-off guy and got hit with some great news. No longer was the meeting time at 11am, but 5:30pm instead! No need to rush the car down there, which is dope!!! That gave me a whole lease on my drive down there. It was a bummer I didn't know that sooner so I could finish the tourney, but I told myself I've gotta look forward and not focus on what could have been, but rather what is. Cool beans too, because that meant more time for stops and exploring on the way down!!! Hot damn!!!!!

I started back on the road, continuing my journey southward, but my eyes were pulled to a tunnel on the left side of the road. It wasn't an actual tunnel, but rather a tunnel of trees. I pulled off and went down it and it ended up leading to a lake. I was stoked I hit that up, as it turned into a lovely view and a lovely place for a nap and restarting with a new laid-back lease on the next coupla days. Yeah!!!!!

Just like the Pacific Northwest, the variation in weather was pretty prevalent. I went from this kinda sunny bit to some pretty grey, cloudy, and rainy stretches on my way south. It was very pretty, and it definitely gave me the feeling of being back home.

My next stop was Fox Glacier. I filled up on gas real quick and had a nice little chat with the gas station lady, then headed over to the glacier trailhead. Because of time and wanting to get to Franz Josef Glacier that day too, I decided on the quick lookout hike vs. the longer hike to the foot of the glacier. It was brisk out, still a bit drizzly and cloudy, but I was ready to stretch my legs for a bit.

A quick walk and a short climb got me to the top of a little hill looking up towards the valley. It was clear enough, but as shown in the placard below, the glacier's been rapidly retreating behind the bend, and wasn't visible from that spot. Bummer. Damn global warming.

From there, it was just a quick drive on down to Franz Josef. Due to daylight, I decided not to head right to the glacier, but decided to go stroll around Lake Matheson (aka Mirror Lake) with the retreating sunlight. Luckily enough it was still grey and cloudy in the mountains, but still turned out to be a relaxing and beautiful walk.

With the night time hitting, I headed to town to try and find some place to grab some food. It took a couple of tries, but I finally found some place with an open kitchen, so I grabbed something to eat and a glass of wine to end a good day of driving and wandering. All I did after that was drive a ways out of town, unfold the bed in the camper, and call it a night.

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When I woke up, I was greeted with a beautiful clear and sunny day. Oh boy was I excited. Luckily enough, I wasn't too far away from Lake Matheson, so I headed straight back there to hopefully get a glimpse of the mountains!

Once I got to the lot and started walking, I was really immersed in the mountains and the beauty all around me. As I was walking to the pond, I took probably the best picture out of the whole trip.

I kept on walking around the lake and eventually got to one of the viewing points. Absolute beauty. In comparison to the day before, it is (obviously) so much better when the clouds are gone!

Of course my camera died while I was there, but that was ok. I needed to just take this in and enjoy it. There was a period of time where there was perfect stillness on the water. It sounds stupid, but I really couldn't tell which was which between the reflection and reality. It was quite breathtaking.

The walk back to the car was beautiful as well, which just kept adding to a wonderful start to the day! Next stop was Fox Glacier for some hiking. I swung by a store and picked up some pies and headed to the trail head.

The drive into the valley was gorgeous. Once you leave the shore/plains area, the fingers of the valley shoot right up as you're driving further in. Once I got to the parking lot I pulled out my pies and ate in awe of where I was at, just gazing at the giant mountains around me.

Satiated, I got underway and headed up to the glacier viewpoint. The whole way I was pretty astounded at the crazy noise level from the mass of rushing water coming from the glacier and the number of helicopters ferrying people up to the top of the glacier. Another thing was the water was super grey due to the rock dust, which tweaked the color palette in a really neat way. Overall, the approach was pretty epic, with sunlight shining right down on the trail leading up the mountain and multiple waterfalls along the valley walls and gorgeous views all the way up.

The trail led straight up to a lookout right in front of the glacier. Damn that giant mass of compressed snow was really impressive. I spent a good amount of time just taking it all in. The giant crags spanning across the valley, realizing the 10s-100s of meters the glacier's retreated just in the last few years, how small the hikers on top of the glacier were, the huge glacier in the foreground with a massive mountain right behind it, walls of rock on all sides, and waterfalls stemming from a hole in the glacier all the way down the valley, all of it was really impressive to take in. But it was sad to see that the glacier would likely be gone soon. :-(

A lovely way to start the day with a little bit of the power of nature and its beauty. At some point though, I got up and headed back to the car, ready to start the second half of the drive to Queenstown. Although it was a beautiful morning, the weather changed to grey and cloudy to just plain rainy as I kept going down the coast. Really reminded me of the coast on the Olympic Peninsula. I took a couple of stops, and soon enough I was at Haast as the road veered to the left towards Queenstown.

Once the road headed away from the coast, the mountainous rainforest really took the front seat. The trees really took over the landscape as the road wound its way through. The rain persisted, although light, and the journey remained gorgeous. At some point, I pulled off for a quick nap and was really enjoying the sound of the rain hitting the car as I slept.

Par for the course in New Zealand, but the rapid change in landscape from Haast to Lake Hawea was so quick I didn't realize what hit me until too late. The rainforest turned into mountainy rainforest, which morphed to mountain valley, to mountain lake. No joke, that road from Haast to Lake Hawea, only about 80 miles, is probably the most beautiful stretch of roadway I've ever traveled.

Once the pass flattened out, we popped out onto this gorgeous mountain valley with lush grasslands filling the middle and high mountains flowing on down both sides. I was astounded at the bright green fields with little dots of sheep scattered throughout. I stopped a number of times trying to take it all in.

But then all of a sudden a giant lake took the place of the fields of grass. The blue. The water was so blue.

The road veered away from Lake Wanaka and over a mountain pass, only to drop us right on the other side next to another beautiful mountain lake. Whut. I was pretty floored at this entire stretch.

Throughout that stretch, I stopped a number of times. Unfortunately I was in a time crunch, but there's no way I could drive through such a beautiful stretch of roadway and not try and take it in. It's impossible to drive and really take in the scenery. And due to the time I had to drop off the car, I definitely didn't haven enough time to fully take it in. The times I did stop though, holy shit, what a gloriously beautiful place. Easily the most beautiful drive I've ever been on.

From the town of Lake Hawea, I was on a mission to get my car dropped off in time. Unfortunately, that drive was gorgeous too, so it was annoying to have to rush through such beautiful scenery! I got into Queenstown and hit a good bit of traffic, but got the car to the meeting spot in time and dropped it off with the guy. No sweat.

After that I got checked into the hostel and learned its definitely a party hostel. I went up and rearranged my stuff, then met an Aussie dude in the room. Chatted with him for a bit, got some clerical stuff done, then gathered with Matt the Aussie dude and a few other folks to head to the hostel's free dinner. It ended up being a ridiculous line and probably not worth it, so we wandered around a bit til we found a bar with $5 pizzas. Boom, got some beers and waited til the deal started. Ended up hanging there the whole night. Matt, Frank the Aussie-Philippino dude with family all over, Hugo the Brit, and another Brit along with two danish chicks. Lots of good conversation with everyone. Fun to cool down from a pressured drive day (pressured because I didn't have enough time to really enjoy the beautiful drive :-( which was sad). I dipped out at some point in prep for an early morning and a start to the adventure portion of the trip.

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Outdoor Adventureness - Fjordland

I got up and got my stuff ready, and then headed down to get a taxi to the bus for the Doubtful Sound cruise I'd booked (and was super stoked for!). In the cab I met a nice couple from Austin, TX and chatted with them as we waited for the bus.

The eclectic bus driver soon enough pulled up and Craig, our funny bus driver dude, got everybody in and ready for the 3 hour drive to Fjordland. Similar to an airplane, he gave us a safety speech and joked about potential accidents and bus crashes and stuff the whole time. With that done, we were on our way.

It was pretty impressive, as this dude was an energizer bunny. I found out later that that must be a job requirement for bus drivers, but Craig talked the entire way there. It was really impressive, and he was pretty funny throughout too. Here's a few things he shared:

• A quick history of Queenstown. It was settled by a Welsh dude for sheep farming. But a few years afterwards the goldrush hit and the government bought most of his property from him
• On the way we crossed an old bridge, with a new bridge being built right next to it. He essentially made the same joke as Flight of the Conchords on that
• He confirmed that NZ accounts for about 40% of the world's dairy exports, while making only about 3% of the world's dairy products
• Bulldogging - where a dude gets dropped out of a helicopter to wrangle deer in order to capture them for farming, taking them out of the wilderness. This was an effort in conservation of natural areas
• There's an annual rainfall of about 7m per year in the sounds. Dayum. The country averages 1-2m. Specific to Doubtful Sound, 3-5m at West Arm, 7-9m at Deep Cove, and upwards of 11m avg at the weather station at First Arm, with a record of 15m of rain recorded in a single year
• Wilmot pass, the road leading from the lake to Doubtful Sound, and the only public road in the NZ road network not connected to all other public roads, was built to help construct the Manapouri power station. It cost $2NZD/cm of roadway for 22km and is the 2nd steepest road in NZ
• At some point he talked about killing possums, and built up the story until it came to a "Premium Painless Petrol Powered Possum Plucker"

Craig dropped some of us in Manapouri, and took the rest of the crew up to their Milford Sound tour. I hopped out, got my tickets and boxed lunch (good on past me for getting the deluxe) and waited for our first boat.

Our shuttle boat came in and loaded the whole gang up. This overnight cruise had about a 70 person capacity, so we all jumped on for a quick trip across the lake.

The shuttle across the lake was gorgeous. I got a bit of a glimpse of the mountains I'd be climbing around in a few days, and spent the whole ride on the top of the boat enjoying the mountains all around.

The boat ride took us to a visitors center on the other side of the lake, right next to the Manapouri Power Station. The station wasn't active, as it was undergoing some major renovations, but it's quite the behemoth. Inside the visitors center, they had a bunch of info on that, the conservation efforts in the region, the region as a whole, and a bunch of other cool tidbits.

To continue the journey though, we had to get from that visitors center on Lake Manapouri over Wilmot Pass to Doubtful Sound. That roadway I talked about earlier was our method of doing so. Our bus driver was super friendly and talked the whole way, but shared some pretty cool info along the way.

At the top of the pass, the bus pulled into a lookout to give us all our first view of the sound. Wow.

It was a windy road down from there, but we made it to the harbor and got loaded up into our giant boat for the day on the water. I was really pumped to take all of this in!

We were blessed with an unbelievably gorgeous day on Doubtful Sound. True to the warnings coming into it, we experienced a little bit of everything, from cloudy to sunny to light rain, but it was absolutely awesome throughout!

From the harbor, we just started cruising out to the end of the sound. It's one of the longer ones in the park, at 41km from opening to end, so we had a lot to explore. And holy cow was it impressive. I spent pretty much the whole day on the top deck with my eyes peeled to the mountains around me.

At some point I ended up chatting with the friendly captain for a bit, and framed the fjord region as Powerful. That's the perfect way to describe it. Just so much beauty all around you. It's a little daunting, but absolutely powerful. Just unreal.

We bobbed along, checking out some waterfalls, the nature guy on the boat (Nick), shared info on the natural world around us and on the conservation efforts of New Zealand along the whole way. The Department of Conservation in NZ is putting forth a HUGE effort for preservation and restoration of natural habitats, and working hard towards the extinction of the many pests really stupidly introduced to the habitat (possums, stoats, and rats are the big three).

The boat kept wandering towards the opening of the sound, and eventually we were sailing on the Tasman Sea for a bit. The water got pretty rough, but kinda cool to be on the edge of the island staring straight off into the wild blue yonder.

From the brink of the sea, we turned back and had a good bit of sunshine to grace our day. That and we were able to get a good dose of wildlife action. One of the big rocks at the opening of the sound was the home for a big group of seals. They were fairly inactive on the whole, but a couple of bulls started fighting, and a few of them were coming and going from the island with the waves. Pretty cool to watch them be.

While we were watching the giant seals waddling and lounging around, an albatross started circling the boat and decided plop down and say hi!

From the mouth of the sound, our ship turned back in and we headed to a spot to do some fun on the water. There were a couple of boats strapped to the back of the boat, and there were a bunch of kayaks on board. Rather than the boat, I opted for the kayak, as we did a meager little loop around a small area and a fishing way station. It was pretty tranquil and serene out on the water. I'd love to go back and do a longer kayaking loop, really get immersed in the entirety of the sound.

Also, here's a selfie for you Mommy. :-)

After the little kayak trip was done, the captain threw out the offer to jump in and swim around in the water. I hemmed and hawed for a bit, but ended up getting in line with a few others to get cold. Needless to say, as soon as I dove in and hit the water, my body became ice. It was freezing! After about a minute of wading around though, I started to get numb, which kinda helped. I didn't stay in too long, but despite the cold, it was refreshing as hell!

Once I got dried off and cleaned up, I went back out on top deck and enjoyed watching the grey clouds and rain roll in over the top of the fjord. There weren't many/any people out with me, so it was a very quiet impending rain.

Eventually though, it was dinner time. And oh boy were we in for a treat! Green lipped mussels, lamb, beet salad, a whole bunch of stuff, and a delicious dessert bar to boot. Whuh, so delicious. I found myself at a table with an Israeli couple, American/Russian couple, and another American and had a nice conversation with everyone through the delicious meal.

Shortly after dinner, Nick the nature guy put on a short presentation in the gallery outlining the history of the fjords, the devastation that took place with the introduction of the pests, all of the conservation efforts, and a few other topics. As I've said before, it's pretty empowering and encouraging to see just how many drastic steps are being taken to return the nature of New Zealand back to its natural state. It's a long road, but they're making progress.

That, and he spent a good time chiding the US and Australia where he could. Pulled out a quick victory with the Haast eagle being bigger than the Bald Eagle, that and the Americas Cup (despite the US having the all-time lead). And he definitely tried to cut down Australia at any time he could. That was pretty comical.

We had an early morning the next day, so it was shortly thereafter time for bed. All in all, I spent the majority of the day on the deck, just taking it all in. It was so awesomely beautiful, and something I'll keep replaying for a while to come.

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A beautiful and early morning waking up. I got my stuff together and headed up: cloudy and great; nippy and serene. A quick breakfast then we started the journey back towards the wharf. As soon as we came out of Bradshaw Sound where we laid anchor for the night, Nick pointed out a pod of bottlenose dolphins tracking our path!

After learning a bit about them, we continued back towards the end of the Sound, but made a detour into Hall Arm on the way. This was probably the most serene part of the trip.

Once the other boats in the arm departed, we pulled up to the end. Once there we were faced with vertical rock walls and a thin valley that led up the end of the arm. The power to the boat was cut, and we sat there in pure silence for a good 5-10 minutes.

What a beautiful experience. The whipping of the light breeze. Waterfalls cascading down from high heights above the water. Faint bird songs of all types coming from all directions. That was such a peaceful time, only taking in the nature around me.

Easily one of the best moments of the trip. But, as all things do, it came to an end as the engines came back to life and we made our way back to the wharf. What an amazing trip on the sound. Just amazing to take in such natural beauty and landscapes. It was a quick few hours, but that whole trip is more than worth doing again!

The bus ride back over Wilmot Pass was a little grey and went by fairly fast, as well as the ferry ride from the Visitors Center back to Manapouri. It was windy and rainy over the lake, so I didn't spend too much time up on the roof on the way back.

We docked back in Manapouri, and I jumped on the bus up to Te Anau for the night. It was a quick drive, and once I got checked into the hostel, I started getting prepped for my upcoming hike. To start, I unpacked and then started repacking all of my crap. Then, I went down to the National Park Visitor's Center to get my camping passes. Not to leave food out of the agenda, I went and grabbed a muffin and a pie for lunch.

Luckily enough, they had a little outdoors store in Te Anau, so I stopped in to grab some socks, a beanie, and some clif bars. That's when I really realized just how expensive things are down there! But, as I learned later, the cost was more than worth the comfort. Food was next on the list, so I hit up the grocery store for some outdoors vittles.

Back at the hostel, I took a nap, did some more organizing, took another nap, wrote some postcards, then took another nap, before going back to the store to get some stuff for dinner. Weirdly enough, that night was the one and only night I've ever cooked at a hostel. I made a simple little pasta dinner, and ended up making a few people jealous in the process.

During dinner talked with a Brit (from the lakes district), a Swede, and the Brit's sister. Interesting to hear that a lot of the gripes I have and the problems I see in the US are also prevalent elsewhere. Sad, but I guess we're not alone in our shitiness. We just don't hear about everywhere else's.

I had another really fun chat with those folks. We talked about Christmas, pantomimes, education, politics in each of our countries, and more. At some point I headed to bed for a good nights sleep in prep for the Kepler Track.

----

I woke up pretty lazily, which was really nice. Then had a quiet breakfast before getting all ready for my big trek. Once again, I had a giant pack. I can't seem to do this right when I backpack. Yes, weight is king, but I can't seem to get that through my thick head.

I had the option to store some stuff at the hostel during the Kepler, but stupidly decided against it in the interest of saving a couple bucks, and ended up regretting it for the majority of the hike. But, I got packed and waited for the shuttle for an easy ride to the trailhead. I got dropped off with a Brit, a Belgian, and a really good looking Swedish chick. So many beautiful women out there, and being so much of a chicken I rarely chat them up. Stupid me. But, now I had three days to let that stew in my head, so I got ready and hit the trail!!!

Hold the phone. I forgot my chacos. Thankfully I was still in cell range, so I called the hostel, and they found them. Whew. Back to the fun part.

Overall, I had myself a good but unfortunately tiring day of hiking. I definietly should've left some weight at the hostel. But the weather was good, the other people on the trail were friendly, and I can't complain; I just put my head down and kept going.

Along the way, I had a nice little rest next to the lake, met a guy from near Köln while eating lunch, took a nice nap under a shelter despite the bugs being incessant and annoying, had a great sit on top of a rock in front of the big slip just envisioning the shittons of landmass that were released from the mountain and filled up the valley (damn, Mother Nature is powerful), and was blown away at how many damn ferns there are all over the place!

Not too long after my peaceful rest at the Big Slip, I made it to the campsite with a good amount of time to enjoy the evening. While setting up, I met an Aussie couple and tagged along with them for a short walk over to the nearby waterfall, where we got eaten to death by sandflies, and saw a pair of blue ducks in the river.

While making dinner, the ranger came over to collect tickets and told me to be prepared for strong to gale forced winds along the ridgeline tomorrow. Absolutely great, not only do I have a 22km hike with at least a 1000m elevation gain (not cumulative), now I've got to worry about getting blown off the damn ridge, which means it'll probably not be too scenic with the rain to boot. Oh boy. Oh well though, such is life.

New Zealand Stuff - As we all know, New Zealand has a different accent than us yankees from the US. Here's a funny video to highlight this. NZ deck video

Dinner was standard but delicious. That, and I was treated to a lovely glass of tea and a chat with the Aussies and a Brit. Before I hit the sack, I walked over to the field to take in the campsite and mountains. After that though, it was time for bed, and time to buckle up and do this shit. Tomorrow.

----

Woke up, packed up, and hit the trail. Tough sledding there in the morning. Nothing but uphill for four miles as I gained about 1000 meters. Once I got to the ridge line, I took a break to look around, but could see some nasty weather rolling in. I continued up the trail, and made it to a shelter. But after leaving from my short break at the start of the ridge, it was clear for about ten minutes, then started dumping rain as I got to the first shelter.

I thought about posting up at the first shelter for a bit, but it seemed quite full of people. Time to power on. Needless to say, it was a bit rough, as it took about another hour and a half until the next shelter.

I was pretty stoked to finally get there. I was cold, wet, and hungry. So I took off a few wet layers, threw on a dry jacket, had some lunch (and made everyone jealous), and took a nap. Win. But I was still a little cold. So that was subpar.

Eventually the rain slowed down a little bit, so I packed it in and kept going. It was still really friggin windy and a bit rainy, but I lucked out and gained a hiking partner in Carolyn from Augsburg until the next hut. I toyed with the idea of just heading straight down the hill, but in the interest of dry feet I took a nice break.

Talk about great timing... As soon as we started getting to the hut, the sun came out and the rain went away. Cheeky mother nature. Would've enjoyed the hell out of some of that during the entire day... But, with that, I was able to post up on the patio for a good bit and let things dry out, all the while chatting with Carolyn. At some point we met Claire and Jack from Darwin, Australia and continued chatting.

At that point in time, I received (I think) the nicest compliment of my life. I'm not sure how it came up, but Jack was calling me out for something and said, "you Canadians". I was absolutely flattered to be considered part of one of the friendliest and welcoming societies there is :-)

As all good things come to an end, so did a bit of the sunshine. Thankfully most of my clothes had dried off adequately enough to get me down the hill. I said adios to Carolyn, Claire, and Jack, and headed out from the Luxmore Hut on down to the water.

From the hut, with the now clearer skies, I had a b-e-a-utiful walk along a ridgeline before heading down into the trees. It was an absolutely gorgeous view with mountains, fields in front of mountains, and more mountains, with a clear divide between your elevation and everything else, Kinda like that one scene in The Gladiator.

From there it was all downhill, literally. Thankfully it didn't take too long, but I was really itching to be done with it the whole time. The best part of it all though, the campsite was right at the bottom of the hill! I arrived, threw my stuff down and slowly put my campsite together. I gotta say, amazing view. It's right on the beach.

I was really stoked to get my hiking gear off and let it air out. At one point, I threw on my swim trunks and went for a dip. It was nice to spend a good amount of time just standing there and gazing at the beautiful nature in every direction. Quite gorgeous.

After that though, I made a meal (same old same old), read a little bit, but because of the long day, was more than ready for a very early night...

----

After such a long day, it was a nice breath of fresh air to take the morning a little leisurely. I got up, had some grub, and sat around for a bit taking in the nice views. But, not to put everything else on hold, I had plans to finish the Kepler that day, and then start the Routeburn. Doable, for sure, but not for the faint of heart. With that in mind, I packed up and got things slowly under way.

The hike was quite flat there in the morning. It just shadowed the lake and slowly made its way around to a dam. From there, it was just another short little bit and I was on my way into town. There was a small little bird sanctuary along the path, and I got to witness a real-life Takahe!

They were a pretty nervous little bird, but their iridescent plumage was gorgeous!!! I took a little bit of time to enjoy that, but had a number of things to get done before heading up to the Routeburn. I stopped by the Fjordland Visitors Center and picked up my passes for the trail, headed to a comfy spot along the water for a quick nap, and then went and got my grocery shopping done for the next few days of hiking.

Food shopping went quick, and then as I was about to go find a spot to hitchhike, I walked past a little cafe and my friendly Aussie campmates from a couple nights before were sitting there hanging out! I chatted briefly with them, and left a business card hoping to get in touch later, but then headed off to post up in the hopes of hitching a ride up north!

Well, I was quite impatient and a little worried. I knew there was a bus as a last ditch effort that left from the visitors center, but I was really hoping to be frugal and catch a lift with some friendly people instead. Long story short, I got cold feet. Rather than risk not making it up, I went for the sure-thing and walked all the way back to the center for a lift.

It turned out to be ok. I was pretty tired and didn't really enjoy the walk all the way back, but once I got there, I met Carin and Jessica while waiting for the sure thing bus. They were from the US, but Jessica was living in New Zealand at the time, so it was cool to talk with her and get her perspective of an American in Kiwiland during the bus ride up. Once we got to their stop, they headed off to the Milford Track; and I was off toward Routeburn.

The friendly bus driver dropped me off at the trailhead, and it was a cool feeling to be hitting another trail in the beautiful down-under. I got squared away, and was off!

It was sure quite the slog getting from the trailhead to the Howden Hut. Just an up and then a down, but I still beat the posted time by almost half.

Quick Thought - My mental state is a fucking rollercoaster when I'm on my own.

I was pretty lucky for this night, as it was the one night I had booked in one of the huts. A perfect night for it too, after a few days of long hiking, it was nice to be in a shelter and take it nice and easy. I got in, immediately took a wonderful nap, and woke up to realize just how sweaty and stinky my shirt and bag were. Whuh.

After getting re-situated and putting my smelly clothes outside, I got ready to go for a walk and went down to the lake. I quickly realized I still needed to cover back up and heavily re-apply the bug spray to counteract the damn flies.

A few pictures by the lake which was really quite pretty, then I talked with a friendly lady from Auckland who builds tiny houses, then chatted with a couple ladies from Queenstown on the the way back up the trail the way I came in (this time with no huge pack!!!) to the summit. The trio of ladies were through hiking the Routeburn in a day, and it was fun chatting with them and cheering them on!

Got to the cutoff that led to the summit and started heading up. On the way, I met a friendly lady from the Netherlands and we talked for part of the way up. She took a break and I kept going. What a difference not having a 50lb pack on makes...

Well, I made it to the top and was hit with a beautiful panoramic view of nothing but clouds!!! Hot damn!!! Just my damn luck on this trip so far...

Despite the lack of a jaw-dropping view being visible through the clouds, it was still a nice place to walk around. At the summit there was a really cool alpine wetland, with a nice little nature trail going all through it. They had a number of informative signs posted, and because of that I tried to find the carnivorous plants native to the area, but all to no avail. Sorry KC.

The walkway eventually led to the main lookout. I sat down for a bit, then shortly thereafter the Dutch lady, Roshita, showed up and we had a nice chat about a lot of things.. She's on an around the world trip. She got laid off and decided to backpack as her first time traveling abroad alone. Talked about the polarity of refugee opinion in the Netherlands, as she worked with them for a time, and really enjoyed being able to help people in such a hard situation.

Eventually, the clouds never parted, so she headed back down to continue her travels, and I followed shortly thereafter. Again, so much easier without a pack...

I made it back to the hut, laid down for a tick, then decided to eat. I was planning on eating my freeze dried meal that night, but ended up deciding against it in favor of saving my big meal for after the long hike the following day. I knew I was gonna be hungry.

While sitting there making my little sandwich, I met a dude that went to Santa Clara, then chatted with a couple on their honeymoon from the bay. Tyler was from Boise though, and that's how the convo started. Helluva place to honeymoon... Lovely chat with them, and good on Tyler for how his now wife (I forgot her name... later learned it was Lauren) is getting him to travel!

After a while, the hut warden, Helen, came in and gave her spiel. What a delightful lady! Bunch of fun facts (the greenstone valley has been traveled since 1863, key summit feeds three coasts of NZ for water, she snores) and gave a weather update. I was told rain clearing in the afternoon for the next day, but she said rain starting in the afternoon. Whoah. Change of plans to an early morning. Got all checked in, had a yarn with Helen, then got prepped for an early day.

----

Despite sleeping on top of a sticky rubber mattress with a warm sleeping bag and 30 other people in the same room, I didn't sleep too well. Due to the change in forecast for the day, I decided on getting up and going early on, so that made it tough, but eventually I got ready and got a move on.

Consistent with the rest of the trip, uphill I kept going with "my feet can't fail me now my feet can't fail me now..." on repeat in my head. It turned out to be quite a slog again. Once I got higher up, there were a couple spots where there was a brief hole in the clouds, and I could see across the valley to some magnificent peaks. But not completely, and not all at once. I kept going but stopped to gaze when an opening showed up.

Somewhere along the way there was Earland Falls. I eventually got there, took the short trail to the foot of the falls, and was glad I did. Holy damn it's huge!!!

This picture is looking back at Earland Falls from about 1km away. See, huge!!!

I kept pushing on and made it to Mackenzie Lake lodge. Twas a beautiful lake, and there was only just a little bit of cloud cover. To stay energized, I threw down my pack for a well needed break and sat down by the water. Beautiful. Went and got some food at my pack, and as soon as I did, a swarm of Chinese tour groups headed down there, and sure enough, the clouds set in.

After a while, it was time to go. Despite my sluggish pace and gigantic pack, I passed a number of people on the climb out of that valley. Once the trail overtook the brush line, it really got pretty everywhere you looked. Unfortunately, the consistency of the clouds didn't go away. But, that ended up making it kinda cool and hairy; it felt like I was walking on the edge of the world. Everything to my left was covered in clouds, it could've gone on forever. Every now and then though, the clouds would break and give views of mountains on both sides of the valley. Unreal.

At some point, I had to make a big push. I REALLY needed a bathroom, but it was still a ways off. Not to bore you with the details, but I had to battle hardcore. After rounding one of the ridges it cleared up well and gave a view of Harris saddle, where the next shelter stood. Despite my pain, it was beautiful. And then the clouds rolled in. Still beautiful.

I trudged on through. The shelter wouldn't come and wouldn't come, goddamn false summits! Finally it showed up! Bathroom. Then taking in the view with some absolutely delicious and plain food. Boom baby.

It was nice to spend a little bit of time in the shelter enjoying my food and a little rest. I talked to a few people, and ended up getting a recommendation on a lens cleaner from a Coloradoan. Eventually though, just like the rest of the trip, I got back under way and had no idea what I was in for.

As soon as I started walking, I was in awe. First, the alpine lake, backdropped by beautiful mountains sandwiching a tucked in valley with a gorgeous waterfall. Although I'd just left the shelter, I stopped for a good bit to soak it in. The trail went up and past this beautiful section and eventually started heading down into the next valley.

Mountains all around (and visible!!!) with an alpine meadow and a stream swerving through. The waterfalls to the next alpine meadow, yet more mountains all around. I am getting to the end of writing this post so I'm getting lazy writing, but this was easily the most breathtaking and remarkable stretch of hiking the whole trip. Granted, 70% of all that I'd hiked was cloudy as shit and shitty weather, but this was absolutely amazing. Slowly traversing this open valley with jagged peaks on each side, a mountain river weaving its way down each valley step to the next meadow with a slight change in view and perspective. I was really taken aback the entire way.

Eventually it got to the last big waterfall, right in front of the next hut, but also right at the precipice of an amazing valley! Green grass on a flat plain squished at the feet of some huge mountains! I had to sit down to take it all in. Impossible beauty, it really floored me... really the most beautiful hike I've ever been on. And that was only part of the actual hike, if only I'd been able to see the full trail beauty!

I made my way down to the hut, stopped for a bit, and was then ready for the long hike to be done. Still some beautiful views on the way down, but I had my mind set on a warm tent, taking my shoes off, and a delicious dinner I'd held off on the night before knowing it'd be way more valuable now. That was absolutely the right call.

I arrived at the cozy campsite, found a camping spot, set up the tent, took off my nasty and soaked shoes and socks, and then met Rob and Heather from the Bay Area, as they kindly let me borrow their jetboil so I could cook up my dinner! Great conversation with them over autonomous driving (he's an urban planner and so is she) and how that could be shaping up in the next decade.

Delicious dinner, really clutch call. Afterwards, I moved around a bit, but ended up back in the shelter to sit and just stare at the amazing mountains straight across the valley. Beautiful. I kept chatting on and off with the Rob and Heather and Tyler and Lauren (the couple from the night before), as well as a friendly French guy, but was really digging the views.

After a time, I grabbed my kindle and read a bit laying down next to the river. What a peaceful spot. I then grabbed my camera and walked around the river area snapping pics. Shortly after though, I was pretty pooped and went to the tent and hung out. My ankle was feeling kinda bad, hopefully better by the morning!

After a long day, and the most beautiful hike I'd ever experienced, I was quite ready for a good nights' sleep!

----

Ahhhhh, the beauty of waking up whenever the fuck you want. :-) It was a nice and easy morning for me, as I'd definitely earned it! And the cherry on top? This beautiful sunny view right out of my tent.

I took my time, enjoying the beautiful day ahead of me as I got my stuff packed up and squared away. I was lucky to learn of a low-key trail heading straight into this picture above called the North Banks trail. Not wanting to skip a beat, I forded the little river with just a little day-pack and had this wonderful trail all to myself.

A blue sky and beautiful sunshine hike with mountains all around. It weaved in and out of the trees, each time giving off a new perspective of the giant rocks all around me. It was really a cool valley, and the trail was super peaceful being deserted. I got to the end for a sit and snack, and was lucky enough to watch a small family of blue ducks playing around in the rapids right in front of me.

The walk back was just as gorgeous. There was a lone kea off in the distance and simply gigantic mountain views the whole way. I was in awe of the massive rock slide that happened, and the huge alpine bowl I was walking towards. At one point, as I got back to the main valley, I ended up following a mama duck, who definitely wasn't a fan of that.

It was a bummer to end the short hike, but I got to the hut again, snagged my pack and headed back to a bench to hang out for a bit. While I was sitting there and getting ready to hike on out of there, I chatted with a lovely older couple from Nelson who were having a little picnic. They were absolutely delightful, and our chat was as well. While we were sitting there, we got to see a sun halo, which was awesome!!! All in all, just a gorgeous spot to sit and chill out.

The hike out was killer. It wasn't really difficult in the grand scheme of hikes, but I was dead tired and just wanted to be done. There were a few breaks in the trees showing more insanely big and awesome mountains, but my legs were shot and feet hurt like woah. Eventually, I emerged from the trees to the shelter parking lot. Oh baby. I put in 66.5mi in 5 days with a giant pack and I don't know how much elevation change. Go me.

I sat down for a sec, read some of the signs (cool to see the history of the area, and a birds-eye view of the whole region), but figured I should probably head to the road hoping for a ride. Well I found a nice shady spot, threw my pack down, and waited it out.

My spot gave me a gorgeous view of a mountain right under a tree. It was huge; and jagged. While sitting there, I was visited by a few birds, a fleeting visit if nothing else. I was pretty tired and came close to dozing off, and within a half an hour, not a single car had passed by.

The first one that did however, ended up giving me a ride! Hot damn!!! A middle aged kiwi guy (Doug) and his niece (Hannah) ended up giving me a lift to Queenstown and what a pleasant ride!!! We chatted the whole way, about a ton of stuff. They were both super welcoming and awesome people!!! Hannah just landed from SE Asia but moving over from Britain for a quarter life crisis, how awesome is that! Doug is a geologist who's worked all over the world (Australia, Argentina, East Russia and former soviet states, seriously all over) and is starting a cherry orchard for when he retires. How cool! I seem super fan-girly here, but they were some pretty awesome and laid back people. It was a real pleasure riding and chatting with them! He even stopped off at a view point, and shared some stories of the area the whole way.

New Zealand Stuff - At some point I asked Doug about New Zealand's relationship to the crown, said that the British monarchy is still technically the de facto head of the country, but now its essentially symbolic. The Governor General is the queen's proxy there, and could dissolve the government if needed, but that's not likely to happen. Similar situation and setup to Britain itself.

Back to Civilization, and some Last Adventures

They were super friendly and dropped me off close to downtown. It was a short walk through the boardwalk area, and my journey was done. I got to the hostel, though, and immediately wished I was back in the wilderness. People, ugh. I got checked in, re-organized my bag, and then headed off for some beer and food. I'd definitely earned both...

Not having people to do it with beside the point, I ended up really digging my time at Smith Craft Beer house. Delicious pulled pork po' boy with a raspberry porter, then another Kiwi Pale Ale (love the monicker) to go with my book. They didn't have desserts unfortunately. Lay Me Down came on the radio, which felt supper fitting and put me in even more of a laid back state of mind.

From there I just ended up wandering around. I walked a bit through town, got some deep fried kiwifruit (good but overpriced and small), got some ice cream, and read by the waterfront. From there it was back to the hostel and bed. Score with the bottom bunk.

----

The next morning, it was a lazy and late start, which was perfectly fine as I had earned it. Breakfast first on the list, but I flip flopped pretty hardcore on whether to got MTBing or not. That was the plan all along, but the weather was supposed to be rainy in the afternoon, so I decided against it. As soon as I walked out of the hostel I saw someone geared up and riding by, so it was back on. I got breakfast, walked around, then found a rental place and set it up for that afternoon. From there wandered around downtown and then over to the garden peninsula. Seems like the wind and rain just can't leave me alone... It was gusty and strong, with rain clearly on its way. But it was ok I guess, because I was just meandering around really slow and just taking it easy.

A little tired of walking around, I chilled at the hostel for a bit and got some internet stuff done. After a quick nap, I got changed then headed off to get my bike! Dudes were super chill. Funny thing, the brakes are backwards in NZ and other right hand drive countries, left is back and right is front, whereas for us it's vice versa. Crazy! Bike in hand, I headed to the lift.

The gondola was pretty stringent on the 1-5pm, so I had to wait for a bit and ended up chatting with a dude and his son, their family down from the north island for a full-on bike trip. They'd done three days of XC riding beforehand, and now they were hitting the bike park. Cool stuff. Rode up the gondola with them and hit the first run. Baus. I'm still frustratingly shitty at braking too much on corners, but had a good long run.

There was a long wait for the lift once I got back down, and there were only sending two bikes and riders in a car at a time due to wind, and bikes on only every one in eight cars due to the long pedestrian line. Bugger. First time was quick, second was a half hour from line entering to exit at the top. Sheesh. What a raw deal.

My second run was good, bermy curves with some jumps. A number of them felt like I was about to slip the pedals but somehow stayed on. First crash on some gravelly stuff in a green trail. Gotta crash at some point right?

On the way down I had to lift my bike over a couple fallen trees, but kept pedaling and got back in line. Well, the second wait was long, but the third lift line ended up being infinity minutes long. As I was standing in line, one of the operators came over and told everyone they closed the bike park down due to wind. Makes sense, as I had to carry my bike over a few fallen trees, but shit. What was I going to do?

While waiting in line for a refund (which took absolutely forever), I started chatting with one guy, and it turns out his son was about 5 inches from getting hit by the falling trees. Thankfully he came away unharmed. What a scary experience!

Also while waiting in line and commiserating on the poor fortune all us riders were subject to, long story short, I was able to talk to my rental company into giving me the rest of the day with the bike, and hitched a ride with an Irishman named Aiden living in Perth to another trail to make up for our lost day at the bike park. We got our refund, smashed a delicious pita pit, and headed up. Boy was I in for an absolute treat.

The afternoon turned out to easily be the best part of the trip. So good I even took a selfie with them. That's when you know it's good. Aiden drove us up to Coronet Peak to hit up Rude Rock, one of the best MTBing trails in the world. I was grinning like a little kid the whole time.

Well, when we got up there, we saw Andrew and Adam (the father and son from earlier) hanging out and getting ready to ride! We all pedaled up to the trail start and hot damn the fun began. WHAT A TRAIL!!!

That first ride down I was in shock! I'm not good enough to blaze down it like those dudes, but what a good fucking trail!!! I got to the bottom and was absolutely flabbergasted with enjoyment. The best part? That was only the first run!!!

Long story short, Myself, Aiden, Andrew, Adam, and Ingrid (Andrew's wife) ended up shuttling Rude Rock for a good few hours. That was easily the most beautiful trail I've ever ridden, and an absolutely fantastic trail to boot!!!! We got in a good five or six runs, and I was completely spent by the time we finished. So tired, but so floored by the awesomeness of the riding and the whole afternoon. I could not have asked for a better time!!! Shoutout to these lovely people for the best part of my trip!!!

On the way back to town, I talked with Aiden a bit about me thinking about moving down there. He said that, with an MS in MechE, I could make a shitton of money in oil/gas or mining in Australia. Not a ton of money to be made in NZ despite a demand for workers, but mining is going gangbusters in Western Australia. Although Oil/gas/mining is not necessarily what I'm interested, I will definitely have to take a look into that.

I got back to town with him, sincerely thanked him for making the best day of my trip possible, and said adios. Dropped my bike back off at the rental shop, then took it easy at the hostel for a bit. Later on I ended up going out for beer and cheap pizza with the guys in my room. It was an interesting mix. An American guy from Maine (kind of a surfer bum), a hip guy from the Netherlands who seemed pretty decent, and then a German guy who gave off a bit of an Agro/asi feel. Some interesting chats about sports and countries and stuff. Left there and then called it a night after wolfing down two small pizzas. I was famished from biking, and that was some well-earned grub.

---- (in the interest of getting this thing written out, I'm gonna speed through the last bit. To be honest though, this last bit of the trip went by pretty fast too, as I had no real plan and was just driving a little aimlessly around a beautiful country)

Still tired from biking the day before after waking up, I slowly got ready, and kinda got organized. I snagged some breakfast before heading to the airport to get my car. As it's apparently obligatory while in Queenstown, I had to stop by Fergburger, an apparent institution. As it was early in the morning, I was expecting no line. It was wayyyy shorter than what I'd seen for dinner, but still out the door, almost exclusively of Chinese tourists. Got the Cock Cajun burger, and was looking forward to it as I took it down by the water to enjoy it with a view. Oh boy, it was fucking delicious.

From there I got my stuff packed up, got out of the hostel, wrote out a postcard, and then hopped on a bus to the airport. Once there I got my free rental car pretty easily. I gotta say, it was damn nice to rent through a reputable company and actually have a decent car...

Wheels on the road, I hit the highway and jumped on the crown pass trail. Unbelievabeautiful. Stopped at a lookout and saw Coronet Peak from afar. Continued on, damn there's so much lavender!!! It's gorgeous.

Wanaka was my next target. Once I got into town I immediately parked at the waterfront park for a walk around the coastline. I wasn't too sure what to do so I just kept walking... I passed That Wanaka Tree and the constant flow of Chinese tourists checking it out.

Eventually my walk took me to a little point where I laid down for a few minutes. It was nice and cool, and as you all know, I'm always game for a nap.

Slightly rested and ready to continue on, I started walking back on the trail. At some point I passed a sign for a winery. I wasn't going to go initially, but ended up going to see what was going on. Holy shit what a beautiful setting, so picturesque with the vines right next to the lake...

As I learned during the delicious tasting, the Rippon family has been on site since 1912 and growing wine since 1975. I got to try five wines and all were delicious. All of their work is biorganic or something along those lines, essentially a step above organic. Great wine and beautiful location...

Because I was walking around, I decided to walk back to the car and then come back in order to get a few bottles. Good call on that part. I got back to the car and then back to the winery to get a few bottles, then headed into town for some food and walking around.

Once there, I did a good bit of walking around town, a little shopping, and had a venison pie which was actually quite good. City'd out, I drove to the local lavender farm. That was quite beautiful. I didn't realize there were so many types of lavender, and so many different shades of purple! I definitely enjoyed walking through their fields.

From there I drove back up to Lake Hawea from the previous drive down for another view and a short little nap.

Next up? Beer thirty. I headed to Rhyme and Reason brewing. Got a porter and wanted a snack so I got the salsa. Weirdly enough they sell the chips and the salsa separately, and the salsa is just a generic old El Paso jar and then a bag of chips. Kinda weird. The porter was delicious though, then got the pale ale. Noms...

Kinda cool. Across the bar there was a dad and son hanging out. Playing checkers and then playing foosball. Made me wish I still had a dad I was close to to have an afternoon like that. Board games, giving each other shit, and a nice conversation to go with it. Definitely going to be that kind of dad when my kids get old...

Tried to go to the other brewery next door, but it was under construction. Well, back on the road. Headed towards Omarama over the Lindis Pass. Crazy how much it reminded me of eastern Oregon and Washington. Rolling hills (here more of mountains) with little to no vegetation. It was quite pretty. Stopped at the overlook but there wasn't a whole lot to see as it was at the corner of two bends in the pass. Kept on keeping on.

Made the call and headed for a campsite way off the road. Ended up being wayyyyy off the road, tucked in the Ohau valley. It was a gravel road for the last 3/4 of it, roughly 20km. It was really tucked in there but ended up being gorgeous. On the way in, I encountered only one other car the whole way. Got to the campsite and unfortunately there was another Campervan there, they ended up being really loud and annoying. Not sure why, but I was a little weirded out about them and thought they were going to do something weird.

I parked and then walked over to the river. It was just about dusk, but very gorgeous and peaceful. There were a number of hikes right off of that, one to a mountain hut I wish I could've done. But not to let it get to me too much, I set up the tent and then took a nap. Had some night time activities planned.

Although I was only about 10kms from the actual thing, NZ has a Dark Sky Reserve, where the intention is to maintain and enhance viewing of the universe at night by minimizing light pollution. So I took a nap to get a little bit of sleep, but moreso to pass the time til the night set in.

Once it did, I grabbed my sleeping bag and headed to the field. I plopped down and wouldn't you know it - cloudy, even after a pretty clear day. I guess that's the theme for the trip. Clouds join in on the fun. But fear not dear readers, good things come to those who wait!

Similar to the Routeburn track clouds, these ones would break up in random spots and provide a fleeting glance at the universe hiding behind them. I'd downloaded a free stargazing app beforehand, and was able to find Perseus and a number of other constellations, it even showed the transit of the ISS! How cool!!!

At some point the loud people came over and seemed to be looking for me for some reason, which really weirded me out and put me on guard, but they left after a while. After that bit of sketchiness, the sky really opened up, with the majority of clouds disappearing for a while. It was pretty majestic, with the Milky Way making a beautiful appearance. Absolutely awesome.

After a time though, I got sleepy and got comfy back in my tent. Thank god for ear plugs.

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I woke up after an ok night of sleep, but got a two hour nap in before I got out of bed. Got up and out and packed my stuff amid shittons of sand flies. Damn they're everywhere.

On my way out I got back to the 'main' road I thought about just heading out to the highway and continuing on, but decided to turn and find the end of the road. It wasn't too far on down that I ran into (not literally) a gated fence. Didn't want to open it and barge through, good thing too, because there was a guy herding his sheep right across the road a couple of paddocks over.

I parked and watched him move the good-sized herd over with the help of his son and three dogs. The work was etremely fluid, not in the least because of some really well trained dogs. Honestly, it was pretty mesmerizing and enjoyable to watch.

After he got them all squared away, I got to talk with him as they were walking back, his name's Jamie. Well, he'd been living there for about 5 years. He's got 5k sheep, neighbor across the valley's got 10k, and guy further back up the valley has 6k. That's a whole helluva lot of sheep. And as for land, Jamie's got about 35-40km of land up the next knob/valley for grazing, and also has 1200 cattle to boot and 8 dogs to help do the work. Holy crap! Now that's a farm!!!

We ended up chatting for a good bit, and he shared that he lived for a time in Canada. While there, he showed those cowboys how to do cattle herding with just one guy and a bunch of dogs vs 5 guys on horseback. One time, he needed to move cows from one paddock to the next, no big deal. Well he had it all prepped the night before by opening the gates, and got the call from his boss in the morning to get it done. As he said, he did it all while sitting on the deck of his house sipping a cup of coffee and just having his dogs run around and get them moved over. That's pretty badass.

He also shared that he ended up giving his dogs away to a couple of the guys he worked with in Canada, as it was cheaper that way. A good sheepdog in NZ costs about $4.5-5k, but getting the dogs back from Canada would've cost about $6k each, if they didn't have any diseases or such... That's pretty nuts, but also super generous!

After a time he had to run, as his wife had pulled up with a lamb. I can't blame her for the urgency, as she had no desire to see it shitting in the car. I gotta say, that was a really cool opportunity to talk with Jaime, someone who I would never have known about had I not sought the end of the road. Awesome experience.

Quick Thought - Definitely a good call to run to the end of the road. Always explore the options available to you!

From there, I hit the road out of the valley. Along the way I passed a couple groups of skittish sheep, and a few people, but it was again pretty empty. Back to the main highway and up towards Aoraki/Mt. Cook I went. Hit the turn off and stopped at the lookout for a bit. Good thing too, because I got to watch the rain clouds roll in to the valley right where I was headed.

Hit the road again after taking in the view, and made my way closer to the valley. I'm not sure why I got hit with such luck, but it seemed like every corner I turned, just as I was about to witness some awesome mountains and scenery, I'd get smacked with a wall of grey. But, I kept going forward.

I started over in Hooker Valley (teeheehee) and had a sopping wet three hour hike to and from Hooker Lake. It was windy, drenching rain, and cold, but I tried to enjoy it nonetheless.

I then drove over to Tasman Valley, and after hemming and hawing a bit about wanting to go out and get wet again, again I made the right call and went for it. Over the previous hour, the clouds had slowly departed, revealing the amphitheater of mountains in the valley, but Mt. Cook continued to be a staunch hold out.

Quick Thought - I've realized I can be a total grouch (salty grandpa level) when I get disturbed by people in nature. I don't want to hear people talk, I want to hear the birds chirp, the wind blow, the rivers flow, the rocks cascade down the mountains, not about your fucking sandwiches...

Sitting down and soaking in the view and the living clouds/gradual clearing of the sky in Tasman Valley was beautiful. Such huge mounds of rock (Moraines) on either side of the valley, impossible for my simple mind to contemplate how they naturally arrived there. A crazy greenish blue lake filled by glacial melt. The glacier on the opposite side of the valley covered perfectly with a blanket of rock - the only visible part of the glacier being the edge. Huge mountains all around, with the highest being Mt Cook, the only one resisting the urge to show its face. It was absolutely beautiful.

I really didn't want to leave. It was beautiful sitting there and just taking in that nature. That's exactly what I wanted and what I could've done the whole trip. Just take it all in. But, all good things come to an end. So I got up and was faced with the other direction of the valley that had cleared too. Damn, so beautiful, so naturally I had to stay for a while longer.

New Zealand Stuff - It seems like the shit weather only really hits during the middle part of the day. Of course, that's my varied experience, and clearly this place just has a weather mind of its own.

Reluctantly I started making my way out of the valley. I was pooped too, as all I'd eaten were almonds, raisins, and chocolate sporadically throughout the day. I was pretty tired, but the drive to Tekapo went by pretty fast.

Crazy how similar the landscape is to the US, especially parts of the PNW, with flat plains bordered by mountains. I crossed over a big canal and then got into Tekapo. Needing some gas, I fueled up and then walked around for a hot second, had to make it over to the cathedral on the water for the standard tourist pic.

Gorgeous setting. Bright blue water, mountains in the background, looked like a storm trying to crawl its way over the mountains but not making any headway, sunny blue skies, another gorgeous location.

From there I needed food. Stopped in at a place and had a delicious IPA and treated myself to a Red Wine braised Beef Cheek. Nomnomnomnom. It was fantastic.

After that wanted to go up the hill to the observatory, but the road was closed, so with that, it was time to head north. I had a little bit of time driving though Eastern WA, I mean NZ, and then as soon as I hit the pass, it got really grey with increasing rainfall. Slowly it got darker and darker out, and eventually night hit.

I drove through a town and thought for a second about getting a motel room for the night. Frugality won out and I kept driving. Not wanting to do something stupid, I eventually pulled over at a rest area and got some sleep. Surprisingly enough I slept pretty well in the car. Alarm woke me up; and it was time to head to the airport.

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It was a pretty quick and straightforward drive, only about another hour and a half. I got gas, then parked in a supermarket parking lot to repack my bag. The trunk was a total mess, but I shortly got it all in order and ready for a trans-pacific flight. Went into the supermarket for a meager breakfast and some sweets, then off to the races.

I only had about two hours, so I dropped off the rental car real quick, then went on the look for a shower. I read that Christchurch Airport had free showers available for use, and the kinda grimy state I was in REALLY needed one. Well, I found one, and jumped in for a quick refresh. It was rushed, but holy balls did it feel good! Cleaned up, I went and checked in and dropped my bag, and soon began the flights home.

The flight to Auckland went well, and it was fairly quick with some gorgeous views along the way. Once we arrived in Auckland, I had to go transfer terminals, and really took the stroll between the two enjoyably. After I got through security, we had to go through a Duty Free store that felt like a Vegas Casino. Neon and bright lights everywhere with expensive stuff as far as the eye can see...

But, relief was on the way. Thanks to my handy-dandy Priority Pass, I had access to the lounge. Oh yeah. It ended up being the best lounge I've ever been in. The full buffet provided some amazing curry and awesome dishes in general. I had four plates of food, mostly cheese, and four glasses of merlot to boot. Gotta love free deliciousness!!!

Headed down to the gate and wouldn't you know it! I luckily got selected for extra security screening! You know, my registration as a trusted traveler with the US GOVT through the global entry program really means I'm a scary and troublesome person... fuck the US travel standards and phony security. All this extra bullshit doesn't do anything. It sets us apart as inefficient and a total bother, and is worthless.

But, that annoyance out of the way, I was ready to board my metal tube back home.

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All in all, this was an absolutely breathtaking trip. It was a tease, as there's so much to see and do in New Zealand, that really no amount of time is enough to get a feeling of the beauty and marvel of the country. But, that holds true with all that I've seen while traveling so far, so I just had to focus on enjoying all the amazing things that I saw!

What an absolutely amazing trip!!!!! I will be back very, very soon.

Original Publish Date: February 14th, 2018