Mt. Cook's a bust

When we left Methven, we stopped for some awesome hikes along the way. First we went to the Puddinghill reserve and hiked down to a stream - by the way, Kiwis don't believe in switchbacks so it's straight-up and straight-down! We then drove up to NZ's largest ski field which is only a gravel road and guess what? Yup, straight-up. Our van seemed to be at the edge of its limits on that one! Apparently in the winter you can bungie jump with your snowboard or skis. Crazy. Next we drove about an hour south to get back on Robin's itinerary to hike in the Peel Forest. It was awesome. They classify the tramps as either walks, so somewhat easy well-formed trails, or trekking routes, which require much more gear and skill. Well, the "easy" walk required walking through (not across) numerous streams,

climbing straight up, straight down, straight up, you get the picture. It was fun, but like I said, these Kiwis don't believe in switchbacks.





On the way to the Peel Forest, we saw fields and fields full of elk - it was like having our elk refuge tour again! Ok Jackson Hole, here is a lesson on the global economy. Unless you shot it yourself, the elk steak you are eating right now probably came from here.



After the hike, we made it to Fairlie, where the next day while searching for such things as a cash machine, chilly bin, etc... where the phrase, "No... not in Fairlie" was the standard answer. It's not quite the back of beyond but....  

After breakfast, we left Fairlie for Lake Tekapo and Mt. Cook. Lake Tekapo was somewhat disappointing, though the lake was pretty. The busloads of tourists didn't help, and the hikes surrounding the lake looked a little too barren for our tastes. So it was onward to Mt. Cook.

Just outside of Lake Tekapo, we picked up a young German hitchhiker to take to Twizel (twhy-zl). He was 18, and had taken a year off highschool to travel the world. He wasn't getting along with the teachers and was screwing up in school, so his mom sent him with a backpack and little cash to go work and travel. So he went to Australia, NZ, and was heading to China, Mongolia, Russia, then would hitch-hike back to Germany in time for school to start. It makes our adventure pretty puny, huh? Note to any frustrated teenagers - you could just complain all day or you could get yourself out into the world and check it out!  

Stunning Lake Pukaki leads up to the Southern Alps and Mt. Cook. We couldn't see Mt. Cook yet, but were getting pretty excited about getting closer. The last 50km of lake started storming, with strong winds, rain, etc...At the Alpine village it became clear that we would not be able to see one of the largest and most scenic mountains in NZ. We sucked it up, and walked up to the Tasman glacier. You couldn't actually see the glacier, but the lake at the head of it had cool icebergs floating around. On a clear day, it was supposed to have stunning views of Mt. Cook, but considering we could barely stand upright in the wind and rain, no luck with the view.




Giving up, we headed to a campground with a bar and restaurant. Good thing too, because we were total amateurs and only had a few warm beers and a bottle of white wine left! Well, the "bar" wasn't a bar at all!! It was BYOB(bring your own beer/booze), or buy an expensive entree and get one glass of beer or wine, but no more. What the??? I accused them of false advertising, and we were off to drink crappy white wine. To top it off, they wouldn't let us use our own cooker, so we had to pack all our pots, pans, food, oil, spices, cutlery, plates, warm beer, etc...to the share kitchen where we elbowed our way through the other tourists to attempt to use broken hotplates. It was then that we knew Mt. Cook was a bust. So we're off to the Coast to see some penguins, and good riddance! The stormy mountains were pretty, though :-)

Good engine, great times

Good News for us! Everything checks out with the van.

              Cocktail hour at Methven Campground

As our mechanic said "she's a good little runner". The engine has a timing chain versus a timing belt, so no worries. He also said it looks like somebody has been maintaining it over the years, so that's good news. Our other worry was that she had been overheated as the last owner put a new radiator in, and during and after driving down the mountain passes, it smelled gassey and had a bit of smoke. He reassured us it's just as Grant thought, "it's a carburated engine, what do you expect?" So, we are pretty stoked that the mechanic likes our wheels. We also got a glowing report from the local museum clerk that the local mechanic loves his job , loves to work on cars and helps out the locals so we're glad we talked to him! We got some fresh new oil and filter, a new set of wiper blades and some confidence so now we're really doing it!  While waiting for our oil change, we went for a walk  in the pastures and hills (steep).  As Robin said, "Are we going the right way?  Where the hell are we?"

We are now in the mountains, where it is much hotter. The town we are in, Methven, is a winter skiing hotspot, so is very sleepy this summer season. Tomorrow we're looking forward to a little jaunt to the river beach and will do some hiking. Then we might drive to Lake Tekapo, then it's on to Mount Cook. Our plans don't go much beyond that, except to meander South. Hope all is well wherever you are.

  Pretty river gorge near Methven

  Summit Drive above Akaroa

New Set of Wheels

Great news! We got a set of wheels. It's a 1987 Toyota Hiace 2.2 liter petrol totally kitted out. We were getting sick of shopping and twice almost bought something crappier just to get out of Christchurch. Then we saw an internet classified ad for this baby and jumped on it. We wanted to buy it straight away, but the couple hadn't been planning on selling it an hour after putting it on the market, so we had to wait it out over the weekend before taking it. It is fantastic and has most of what we hoped for. All of the other vans we saw were a mattress thrown on top of a platform with some crappy camping gear thrown in. This is a miniature motorhome with a bed that folds into a couch, storage in the way of built-in cupboards and whatnot, running water in a sink, refrigerator, and an awesome two-burner camp stove that rolls out for ease of use. Oh, and did I mention the awning? It makes a huge impact when it's dark and you're hungry and the beer isn't very cold, it's raining and you need to stand outside to cook. What? Is that experience talking?...It's a funky old van and it's awesome! I can't believe we don't own one of these in the states. (hey, there's no flowers painted on the side, and it's water cooled with a working heater-sort of, if you don't mind stopping and crawling under the front bumper to operate the heater control valve)



Ok, so I'll back track a little bit. Since we had a few days to kill, we took the city bus to the Christchurch gondola, rode it up to the top, then walked down the other side of the hill to the port town of Lyttelton. (According to the lonely planet, Lyttelton was the base port for such explorers as Scott and Shackleton) It had one container dock with three cranes, a lumber depot, and some other random commercial ships and boats. While Grant and I were walking around looking for lunch, we spotted an old friend from college whom we hadn't seen in six years. This is getting weird, the small world stuff. Anyway, Ian, Grant and I all had a few rounds (well, Grant and I did) and caught up. Ian is a deck officer on the University of Washington research ship (THOMAS T. THOMPSON?) and had been in port about a week. Today they were to head up to Auckland to do more ocean research. We had a good time, and boy were we glad it was he who had to work and not us!!








After getting our wheels, we took her on a test run to Akaroa, a volcanic peninsula that juts out southeast from Christchurch. Let me get one thing out of the way; it's really tough for Grant to concentrate on the driving because there really are a lot of sheep, everywhere! That reminds me of a good joke: What time is it when all the sheep are lined up backside against the fence in Wyoming?...

After a somewhat bad experience at a top-rated hostel/farmstay, we got our money back and went to a NZ version of a KOA. We tried out our new kitchen, and crashed. Today we spent the day touristing around. In the town of Akaroa on the water there's a bust of the captain and navigator of the Shackleton story who miraculously navigated the tiny JAMES CAIRD (basically a dingy) from Elephant Island to South Georgia after the real ship was crushed in the ice. You all should watch the the movie about this feat. Lots of Antarctic explorer related statues around these parts including Scott and Captain Cook in Christchurch. All are well deserved too as those were very impressive men. The ice-season is coming to an end in Antarctica and there are a lot of ice-folk cruising around Christchurch. Christchurch is the supply base and major airport for returning summer crew.

Back to Akaroa, we skipped the swim-with-the-dolphins tour, and drove straight to the top of the crater rim for some awesome views and a picnic lunch. Though it's been raining and cold off and on our whole trip, this afternoon we got a bit of sun which heightened the stunning scenery. Today we are finally on vacation...and it only took a week.





Tomorrow we will have the local mechanic change the oil and give us the low-down about our purchase. We've learned that in NZ they do a "warrant of fitness(wof), pronounced "woof") on all vehicles to ensure they meet basic safety requirements. Lights, brakes, windshield wipers, etc all have to be in working order or you can't register the thing. Another thing they check for is too much rust. We saw no problems or rust, just the usual you would expect from a 22-year-old carburated engine. At any rate, our wof is good until June,. We need to re-register in April and be able to resell so we're a bit apprehensive, as she is getting on in age, and been around the block a few times. Hopefully all is well and tomorrow we'll be on our way to Mt. Cook. Until next time, Cheers!

We Made It

Grant and I made it to NZ! After a little initial confusion at the airport when Grant tried to get us on the wrong plane to LA when we were supposed to go to San Francisco, we made all of our flights with all of our bags! Air NZ was pretty good. They had complimentary wine and beer with refills in coach. The food was decent enough, and they had this incredible  entertainment center with hundreds of movies, tv shows, games, etc to choose from. Grant tells me that this is standard on overseas flights, but I haven't flown overseas coach in almost ten years. For work I fly overseas business class quite often, and I still don't remember this range of options.

On our connector flight to Christchurch, we sat next to a really nice man who used to work in Antarctica, so obviously he worked with Patrick G! Buckwheat says hello, Patrick. As the saying goes, it's a small world...or is this an example of six degrees of separation? He gave us a lot of good advice, but basically told us to keep doing what we're doing, which is winging it and 

exploring.

We did pretty well with the jet lag, and stayed up until 10pm with only a two-hour nap in between. We started our search for a campervan on day one, and so far it has been overwhelming. With a good nights' rest, today shouldn't be as daunting.

The Kiwis are already living up to their reputation of being warm, and friendly people. We stopped at an auto shop to ask for directions to a car lot we were trying to find, and they had no idea where it was, but gave us directions to a place they liked, which was all the way across town. So, a customer paying for his car offered us a lift. We took him up on it, and he drove us straight there while talking up a storm about NZ.

Christchurch is very nice, albeit expensive and trendy. Microbrews have been about $7-$8 NZD which is about $4-5 USD. Every restaurant I have seen has a vegetarian option, and we are not talking portabella sandwich and Gardenburgers. They are creative, interesting meals. I would say that this is the most vegetarian friendly city I have been to, much more so than Seattle, even. Of course, Grants "normal" food has been great as well. He had some spicy mussels last night, and the kumara-pumpkin mash was fantastic. . Shhh, don't tell Grant that kumara is another word for sweet potato, because he hates sweet potatoes!

Our hotel is nice. They are tiny rooms. Basically you get an affordable hotel ($60 US) with the important amenities i.e. free wireless internet, tv, restaurant and bar, but it's all packed into a closet. The bathroom is a glass-enclosed cubbyhole, so it does not afford much privacy. Grant and I are pretty close, but not this close. We are going to try to move into a hostel on Friday. So we're off, like a herd of turtles. We'll check in again when we buy our vehicle and move on. Cheers!  

P.S. Our hotel "hi-speed" internet sucks, so I can't load pictures right now.  We'll try to add them later.

Practice Vacation

We decided to spend a week in Jackson at our condo before making the final push for New Zealand next Monday. We came home to our resident moose pair, mom and yearling, in my yard. We have seen the pair, or at least mom, in my yard for two years now. Unfortunately the camera was dead so take a look at these photos from October and then picture snow drifts around them.

Grant went skiing twice. Unfortunately, it hasn't really snowed in three weeks, so no fresh powder. But Grant could still ride the new Tram and hurtle himself down the side of a mountain, which I think is the main point.

Grant took me on a sleigh ride through the Elk Refuge for my birthday, and it was fantastic! I really don't think people should dismiss the tourist things because they are a lot of fun. I can't describe to you the sound of thirty male elk butting their antlers together practice fighting while sitting ten feet away, or the little yearlings mewing for their mothers. They kind of sound like kittens, but not really. It's pretty surreal if you've never heard it before. Now we have a few last minute appointments and things to do, and we will be on our way. Cheers!