Into Texas
Day 1 - 1/04/2020
11:44 pm (1225)

 

 

 

 

Rosana takes a bit much on the plane
Day 5 - 1/08/2020
1:27 pm (1222)

 

 

Our trip started in Houston, where we picked Rosana’s mom and immediately hit the road for Austin, where we visited with Aunt Ta (Kathleen), who had just moved into an independent living complex. The complex looks great: nice artwork, immaculate cleaning, and plenty of amenities, up to and including a salt-water pool for water aerobics!

We had a real nice Indian-fusion meal, and it was a family meal: Kathleen, Josephine, Blue, Rosana and me. The rest of my relatives are either in Ohio (/Illinois) and Colorado, so this was a bit rare.

Our New Zealand flight was direct from Houston to Auckland, but 15 hours long. The flight itself was fine, but then customs took at least an hour (Kiwis are serious about inspecting any camping equipment for foreign biota), and then we headed to Hahei.

Hahei is on the Coromandel peninsula, beautiful hilly land with spectacular rock formations on the coast. The most famous is Cathedral Cove, where there are gigantic hollowed-out rock formations on the beach and off-shore.

The walk down (“30-minute rolling walk”) was relatively steep but very pretty. Tourists like us huffed and puffed our way down (and back up), while locals wandered up and down in flip-flops.

After having an early dinner of beer and wood-fired pizza (fish and chips for Rosana) at the Pour House, we headed up to our airbnb on a bluff overlooking Mercury Bay.

Over the years Rosana and I have often wistfully mused about a glass house on a hill, and this place is that and more. A retired couple built a complex of three houses on the top of the bluff, and are now renting out two of them. Absolutely stunning views, and a nice morning walk down to a picnic table on the bluff’s edge, complete with power and water, surrounded by large logs w/ signs indicating “90-meter drop”. And that’s pretty much a sheer drop.

Evidently the clouds went away and Rosana spent time in the middle of the night viewing the southern sky, but I got in 11 or 12 hours of much-needed sleep.

Hobbiton!
Day 6 - 1/09/2020
2:01 pm (1230)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Redwood Treewalk
Day 7 - 1/10/2020
2:02 pm (1234)

 

 

 

Twenty meters off the floor of the redwood forest. Brought to New Zealand at the turn of the LAST century for export, but with the high rain and ash levels they grow three times faster than in California and they are too soft to use for building.

Mt Doom
Day 8 - 1/11/2020
1:55 pm (1233)

 

Mt Doom

 

 

 

 

 

There are many hikes to do in Tongariro, including the five-day Nothern Traverse, and the Alpine Transit, which is an eight-hour hike up to Mount Doom and out the other end. We decided not to do this on the one day we had, but we did the 2-hour Taironga Falls hike instead. This hike started out in the lush forest, following a river as it climbed up out of the forest. We crossed the river once, and then came out of the forest with a view of the upper falls. The trail then climbed up steeply over the top of the falls, where we emerged into alpine tundra. We stayed up high on the return journey, having gone through two or three different biomes on a spectacular hike.

 

 

Moa!

We woke up today at our bucolic AirBnB on a dairy farm. There was a very friendly young dog named Mojo, some sheep, and many, many cows, including a yard of young bulls under our window. Luckily, they were a few months shy of being territorial, and were very quiet.

First picture is of what we were assured is a standard kiwi breakfast. Looks and tastes like something from the 50's.

Our big event today was a visit to the Waitomo Glow-Worm caves. Our guide, Mangu, was knowledgable, was a mean driver on precarious gravel roads, and quietly hilarious. On the "glow-worm" moniker: "No one would line up to see a 'maggot with a light on it's bum' now would they?"

The glow worms were pretty wild. They are essentially the larvae of bugs called "fungus gnats". They attach to the roof and drop a several-inch-long sticky line and start shining. Bugs go to the light and are caught, then hoisted up to be consumed. When ready, the glowworms drop off the ceiling and have one day to mate and create new larvae, as they have no mouths and will soon starve. While still larvae, they will readily eat each other if compacted too tightly.

The tour is mostly on a boat gliding along inside a cavern. Once your eyes acclimate, the ceiling is like looking up at the milky way.

We saw a moa! Or at least the fossilized bones of one. Also bones of goats, sheep, and cows, who had all fallen through sinkholes and not been able to get out.

We also stopped at a kiwi preserve. They had six, but we only saw them in the back of their dark cages.

First day of tour: Arrowtown
Day 10 - 1/13/2020: 5 miles (25 total), 10522 steps
12:02 am (1242)

 

 

 

 

 

 

We flew into Queenstown at 9am, were picked up by the whole crew (Dan and Kristy, Bill + Julie, Than + Amy, Jay + Nancy, Helen, Jeff+Julie, Marilyn).

We immediately drove in the van to Arrowtown and did a fun, testy little ride ending at one of the original bungie-jumping bridges (hundreds of people a day).

We then drove to an isolated lodge on Lake Ohau, smack in the middle of the Mt Cook dark sky site. Rosana and I have a (short) list of southern-sky-only objects we want to see. Sadly, however, there were clouds.

Pete goes Heli-Hiking!
Day 11 - 1/14/2020: 6.7 miles (31 total), 341 feet (341 total) , 14055 steps
12:02 am (1243)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day two we woke to a second "blue-bird" day in our secluded lodge. There were two main alternatives available: a long scenic hike down Hooker Valley, and a crazy climb up the side of the mountain via 2200 steps to the "Sealy Tarns". Everyone opted for the former, though Than then also climbed Sealy Tarns.

Bill, Julie, and I opted for taking a helicopter up to the Tasman glacier, strapping on cramp-ons, and doing a two-hour hike. Good choice!

At night, Rosana and I led a whole crowd out on the deck for beautiful views of the Milky Way, Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, and the two best globular clusters anywhere: 47 Tucani and Omega Centouri. Also saw the southern cross and Alpha Centauri, the closest star to our own. The new 12x36 stabilized binocs were surprisingly useful.

Into ChristChurch
Day 12 - 1/15/2020: 5.9 miles (37 total), 880 feet (1221 total) , 12710 steps
12:03 am (1244)

 

 

 

 

 

Today we started with a beautiful 1000-ft climb of Mt John to an observatory run by Canterbury University (need to contact them about next sabbatical). It was short (<2 miles), but relatively steep all was good.

Afterwards, embarked on a five-hour drive to Christchurch, broken only by lunch at a famous meat-pie location (they were actually very good). We had a very good dinner at a brew pub in Christchurch, followed by a short walk through the town center, which was punctuated by building still closed because of damage from the earthquake in 2011.

I spent much of the dinner talking to Bill who was a heart surgeon in Salt Lake City. He's not a mormon, and was told that he'd never get anywhere w/o the web of LDS contacts, but in fact did very well, and still lives there 30 years later.

As a side benefit I got to talk basketball a bit, their kids were on a swim team with Karl Malone's kids back in the day.

Christchurch
Day 13 - 1/16/2020: 6.4 miles (44 total), 300 feet (1521 total) , 12764 steps
3:07 am (1247)

 

 

 

Today basically another travel day, but we had a great breakfast and a good morning walk where I left my phone on the top of the trailer and didn't remember it until we were a mile down the trail. Kristy immediately turned and jogged back to the trailer to get it. Oops.

Tomorrow it gets real, though. We get up at 4:15 to make the dolphin boat. We get to swim with dolphins a maximum of 40 minutes (gov't regs), but then will continue on to see what else we can spot.

After coming back, we jump on a water taxi and cross the Queen Charlotte Sound to our island stay.

The next day we kayak back!

Swimming with the Dolphins
Day 14 - 1/17/2020: 1.8 miles (45 total), 3767 steps
4:20 am (1252)

 

 

 

This day was advertised as swimming with the dolphins offshore. Dolphins will come play with you if you make noise, matching you in tight circles. "Right," me thinks. I've been on this kind of expedition before: "guaranteed sightings!" or you get to come back for free the next day, but you seldom have the time to ever use such a guarantee.

In any event, this was a whole 'nother thing. We go to the "Dolphin Encounter" office where we are fitted w/ wetsuit (including hood), flippers, mask, and snorkel. After a couple instructional videos (during which we were warned not to get too bent out of shape if the dolphins "just aren't into you") we are tossed on a boat where the tourist bureau allows up to 40 minutes of interaction with dolphins. In this case this consisted of four different stops.

For each, they staged us at the rear of the boat; I was usually sitting on the ledge on the back of the boat, trying to hold fins out of the boat's wake. When dolphins were sighted they would steer nearby and cut power. When the props had stopped turning, but well before the boat stopped, the horn would sound and we would slip off the back, taking care not to splash too much and scare the dolphins.

Moving quickly away from the boat we would then get into our routines, which consisted of making lots of verbal noise (mostly everyone just sorted of tooted in high-pitched tones). Given our poor seeing underwater, the dolphins would arrive without warning.

Usually they would just keep going to see if they saw anyone else more interesting, but if you immediately started going into circles, they would often start keeping pace with you a few feet further out, and a few feet down. Sometimes I had two dolphins spinning with me. Once we kept spinning faster and faster until I got dizzy and stopped, at which point they sped away.

These were Dusky Dolphins, basically like the dolphins we picture except shorter snouts. On the way back, the boat was usually shadowed by anywhere up to a dozen "Common" dolphins (longer snouts), jumping clear out of the water next to us, swimming right under the front of the boat or speeding along on the sides. Others saw dolphins doing complete somersaults in the air, and dolphin calves mirroring their mothers inches away as the mothers jumped and frolicked.

I pulled out a camera at the very end and took a couple poor pictures. Hopefully I'll get some good pics from others later.

This was a fantastic time. No whale-watching or other aquatic adventure has come close (though I haven't kayaked near sperm whales, as some other friends have). Definitely a high point of the trip.

Rosana does not do well on boats, but for this she took two bonine tablets and suited up. Sadly, just a couple minutes in the water was too much and she spent the rest of the trip in a miserable huddle. Argh!

The birds at the bottom are Albatrosses, though the wingspans appeared only half the the 11-foot span quoted on wikipedia. Still fascinating to watch these big birds (made me think of B52s), flapping and paddling for 10 or 15 feet before getting airborne and then transforming into graceful flyers.

After eating and decompressing, we took a water taxi to the Lochmara Resort across Marlborough Sound. Very quirky little resort, lots of fun touches, access to the Queen Charlotte Track, etc. However, we arrived only at 3:30 or so, and didn't end up doing much. I wanted to try out the paddle-board, but was dissuaded when told you had to start on your knees (and my knees wouldn't stand for this). One of the women told me afterwards that she just paddled out sitting and got up from that position. Damn.

Kayaking
Day 15 - 1/18/2020: 4.5 miles (50 total), 7038 steps
11:44 pm (1250)

 

 

 

This morning we got up to insane breakfasts of huge bowls with fruit and quaker oats (plus very good capuccinos) and headed back across the Charlotte Sound.

However, we kayaked back. This was a 3-hour trip, made slightly problematic by a nasty headwind, and working against the current. Turns out both usually go the other way, we just got unlucky.

The kayaks were all two-person ocean-going tourers, i.e. pretty wide/stable, "skirts" that ostensibly prevent any water from getting in, and rudders controlled by the rear paddler.

This was a lot of fun, though Rosana and I were not incredibly fast, and we encountered a bit of chop from boat wakes when trying to get into the harbor proper.

Bit of a trivia: a "sound" is carved by water; a "fjord" is carved by glaciers.

After we finally got in, we lunched and then hit the road. Half an hour in we stopped for a tasting at a winery, and then continued on into Nelson.

Tomorrow is a "free" day. Hoping to get a good ride in.

Off day we biked 25k to the beach....and back.
Day 16 - 1/19/2020: 3.7 miles (54 total), 7388 steps
4:00 am (1253)

 

 

 

 

 

Our guides Dan and Kristy had the day off today, so Than, Amy, Jay, Helen, Nancy (Helen and Nancy friends for 40 years, since college), Rosana, and I decided to bike to Rabbit Island. Not only is it a pretty ride, but there was supposed to be a nice swimming beach there.

All that was true: good ride (30k each way), and the beach was beautiful and mostly empty, the water was warm, and got shallow very, very slowly.

There was also no commercial buildup, in that we had no where to eat until we rode 20k back towards town. Oh well.

Rosana thinks the fields are of "glasswort". In person, the color variations are a bit more pronounced.

The West Coast (Cape Foul Wind)
Day 17 - 1/20/2020: 5 miles (59 total), 10561 steps
10:01 pm (1254)

 

 

 

 

The second half of the trip is on the west coast, which is more rugged and more picturesque. This day had a lot of driving, but included a fantastic one-hour hour walk to the Tauranga Bay Seal Colony. Beautiful rugged scenery of the Tasman Sea, crashing surf. Several other short stops.

More West Coast
Day 18 - 1/21/2020: 8.3 miles (67 total), 18227 steps
10:08 pm (1256)

 

 

 

The second half of the trip is on the west coast, which is more rugged and more picturesque. This day had a lot of driving, but included a fantastic one-hour hour walk to the Tauranga Bay Seal Colony. Beautiful rugged scenery, crashing surf. Several other short stops.

Big Day
Day 19 - 1/22/2020: 7.1 miles (74 total), 12102 steps
10:01 pm (1255)

 

 

 

We started the day kayaking in the lagoon. Saw white heron's and several other birds, but the highlights were that it was a beautiful glassy-water day (unlike the big swells and rapids of the previous trip), and the fact that rosana was having stomach issues, so we booked back early. During this sprint I sort of regained my rhythm and thoroughly enjoyed the sprint.

Afterwards we walked to the face of the Frans Joseph glacier. We were given little time before we had to turn around, so Rosana didn't even bother trying to get there, but I cruised and made it. In the end the "face" was still probably half a mile from the actual glacier, but it was still very cool, with beautiful views on the volcanic plain to get there, followed by a brisk climb at the end.

I ended with over 2000 active calories.

Into Lake Wanaka
Day 20 - 1/23/2020: 8.5 miles (91 total), 16951 steps
10:11 pm (1257)

 

 

 

Impressionist Lake Wanaka

 

This stupid tree went viral on Instagram.

Staying at The Edgewater, a "bougie accommodation" according to Dan, for the next two nights. Nice to not move every night!

Got up in the morning to do a hike on the Rocky Mountain Trail in the Mt Aspire National Park. Mt Aspire is the second highest mountain in New Zealand, after Mt Cook. Evidently Edmund Hillary did training here before assaulting Everest.

The climb was 1500 feet up, but crucially (for me), 230 steps, plus other very steep sections. I was working hard but had no problems going up, but knew I'd have problems coming down (knees), so we stopped about a half-way up at the Lake Wanaka viewpoint, which was absolutely beautiful.

As I though, going down was painful. Short nap and a beer put all to rights.

 

 

 

We got off to an early start to hike up to the Rocky Mountain summit in Mt Aspiring National Park. This was a 1500 foot climb that Rosana and I only did part way, but we were already 1000 feet up after climbing a steep section w/ 230 stairs. I could do the uphill, but was leery about the downhill (actually went down the stairs essentially on one leg). Beautiful view and still a good climb. Conflicting stories about whether the upper half was as steep and difficult as the first.

The most fun story out of this climb is that those who did the whole thing stopped at the lake on the way down. Kristy: "Okay, team, I think we earned a dip in the lake, just strip down to your underwear...", but before she got through it Than had already stripped to the buff and dived in. Dan said "I just saw a flash of some extremely white buttocks disappearing into the water." Sadly, no pics.

Mt Nicholas Station into Fiordland National Park
Day 21 - 1/24/2020: 5.1 miles (96 total), 10600 steps
2:26 pm (1270)

 

 

 

 

We started by taking a cruise across Lake Wakatipu from Queenstown to Mt Nicholas Station, an enormous sheep ranch, at least by square footage. The ranch is the largest Kiwi-owned station in the country, but produces only a tiny fraction of the overall wool. However, IceBreaker got started there.

Beautiful setting, followed by our "4x4" (they put us in an old bus because too many of us) ride across the incredibly remote-seeming landscape of the station. Got an overview of the entire operation in front of a table full of merino wool, which incredibly all came from a single sheep.

This was followed by a demonstration of two "retired" sheepdogs who still loved to work.

Last picture taken from web of "Shrek", a sheep from this station who managed to hide out for six years. Previous sheep picture shows a ram who has snuck into the fold, and the watchful dog in the background.

Milford Sound and Key Summit on the Routeburn Track
Day 22 - 1/25/2020: 8.6 miles (105 total), 1 feet (1522 total) , 18415 steps
2:42 pm (1271)

 

 

 

 

 

Today dawned inauspiciously with unrelenting rain and clouds. Dan and Kristy assured us that this is the best way to see Milford Sound, as the waterfalls are all at full blast. The misnamed Milford Sound (it's actually a fjord, as it was carved by glaciers, not water) has hundreds, perhaps thousands of waterfalls after a rain, but only two permanent falls. The walls on three sides are sheet, up to 4000 feet high.

During this rainy morning it was absolutely spectacular, another in a long line of experiences on this trip (heli-hiking w/ crampons, swimming w/ the dolphins, several of the hikes) that absolutely exceeded all expectations. The only better way to have experienced this sound would have been to kayak (next time). Evidently Milford Sound had over 30' (feet!) of rainfall last year.

The afternoon was a hike up to Key Summit, most of which was on the Routeburn Track. Tracks are well-kept hut-to-hut "rambles" in the mountains. Amy and Than did the entire track after our tour ended, but this hike was just up the beginning and then over and up to the summit, about 2,000 feet up.

As it was the last full day I wanted to do this, and luckily the knees were feeling pretty good. It felt a bit less steep than the hike up the Rocky Mountain Summit, though it was longer and higher. My knees improved as I went, and I ended up the first to the top, though that might have been more because of my laser-focus on climbing, vs gazing at birds and the sights.

The view at the top was totally obscured by rainclouds and fog, but we knew that going in and wanted the hike anyway.

Ended up almost 20,000 steps and over nine miles of hiking!

Last Day, and the Kepler Track
Day 23 - 1/26/2020: 9.3 miles (114 total), 1 feet (1523 total) , 19456 steps
3:03 pm (1272)

 

 

 

We started w/ another of the "Great Tracks" of New Zealand, hiking for several hours on the Kepler Track. The path had only a small amount of climbing, and the ground was positively springy underfoot. Absolutely beautiful and unlike anything seen around here.

Afterwards, we had lunch and scooted to the airport, where several of us had a plane for Auckland to catch (me, unfortunately, without my computer, but managed to get it back w/ aid of Nancy and Jay).

Wonderful, wonderful trip.