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The four of us began the Routeburn Track at around 3pm on Christmas Day. The Routeburn Track is one of New Zealand’s “Great Walks,” which are very busy in the summer for good reason . . . beautiful locations, huge huts, and although lots of elevation gain, the actual trails are so well maintained that any level “tramper” could complete the track. It was a bit of a late start, but since the sun wouldn’t set until 10pm and we only had 3 hours to walk until we reached our first campsite at Lake McKenzie, we weren’t too worried about time. It was cloudy and misty when we left the trailhead and it actually didn’t clear up until the following afternoon once we crossed the saddle at Harris Pass. We set up our tents in a little bit of rain but enjoyed cooking dinner under a large shelter located at the campground. Our Christmas dinner: brie and crackers for an appetizer, freeze-dried-meal-in-a-bag “Chicken a la King” for an entrée, a chocolate bar for dessert, and box red wine for drink. We then strolled down the trail to the hut where we were invited to partake in singing Christmas Carols by candle light. Although we didn’t join in, we sat outside to listen while we watched the skies clear and the stars start to appear.

The following morning we awoke to rain drops hitting our tent and decided to stay “indoors” until it passed. By the time we crawled out of our tent, everyone else in camp had packed up and left except for Brad, Gretchen, the two of us, and one other camper (who packed up his tent and backpack while we were cooking breakfast and before starting off on the track, popped open an umbrella!). Our destination for day two was the Routeburn Flats campsite, a five hour stroll up and over Harris Pass and down the Routeburn River valley. Although we knew the views into Fiordland National Park from the trail were spectacular, our powers to part the clouds were squashed by the wind, fog, and rain. The skies finally lifted in the afternoon as we made our way down to the Routeburn Falls and Flats. Brad and Gretchen, with a wet tent and sleeping bag in tow, continued on down the track to their van that was waiting at the trailhead. BJ and I enjoyed the evening at the Flats campsite staring up at the enormous surrounding mountains, cooking another delicious dinner-in-a-bag, and getting to know our new friends from the Netherlands.

We met Brad and Gretchen at the trailhead the following morning and before heading back to Wanaka, they drove us about 30km down the road to the beginning of the Caples Track, which meets up with the Routeburn Track about an hour from the trailhead, where our car was parked. We had decided to save $100 bucks on a 225km bus ride back to our car and walk the 30km over the mountains instead. The Caples River meanders through a wide open green valley until the mountains tighten and the green pasture land turns to thick rainforest. A side note for any anglers that may be visiting us (ahem…Steve!): Every time we just looked at the river we saw another huge fish just below the surface; I don’t fish but seeing the size of these things sure made me wish I knew how. The day was beautiful and warm, some of the best weather we had experienced on the trail yet, and after about 4 hours on the trail we camped at the end of the wide green valley in sandfly heaven. We actually retreated to the tent very early just to keep the “flying teeth” away . . . so early that after we realized we forgot our deck of cards we played a game of “Can you name all the 50 states and capitals?”

Today we woke to experience a similar system that is hitting Jackson Hole, although while it falls in feet of snow there, it falls in feet of rain here. It was a soggy long day on the trail, through the “rainforest flats,” up the “don’t-get-your-foot-stuck-under-a-root” ascent, over the “damn-I-bet-there’s-a-really-pretty-view-over-there” saddle, down the “slip-n-slide” ravine, and across the “I-know-it’s-just-around-the-corner” valley. During the final hour on the track, BJ asked “So, what Great Walk should we do next?” Tired and wet, I replied “I suppose we should get on the waiting list for the Milford Track . . . what do you think?” BJ giggled and said “My next Great Walk is from the dry car to a bar for a beer and some good food.”

Wishing all of our family and friends a very Merry Christmas!

We wrapped up a very short work week in two days and spent yesterday afternoon bustling around to get ready for our Christmas Eve dinner with Brad and Gretchen and a 4 day tramp along the Routeburn and Caples tracks. Four trips to the grocery store reminded us that Christmas Eve is not the ideal day to go shopping. While the boys spent three hours shuttling a car to the end of the track, Gretchen and I started on the apple pie. We prepared a small plate of appetizers and awaited the return of BJ and Brad before cooking salmon, cous cous, corn on the cob, and a loaf of bread. It wasn’t the most traditional of Christmas dinners, but it was a delicious summer meal. We spent the remainder of the evening eating pie (without the burnt edges) and ice cream, listening to the rain and enjoying the fact that we weren’t spending the night in a tent, looking at our mini Christmas tree and talking about how un-christmassy this year felt, and looking for a Christmas movie on TV but resorting to watching and falling asleep to Monster’s Inc. This morning we are packing our backpacks and getting excited to hit the trail for a few days. We’ll celebrate Christmas in our tents at Lake McKenzie eating fine morsels of freeze dried food and, of course, chocolate. We’ll be thinking about you on the trail and hope you all have a wonderful holiday.

A torrential downpour and freezing temps kept us bundled up indoors all day Saturday but we awoke on Sunday morning to blue skies, sunshine, and snow capped peaks in all directions. We quickly packed the car and drove to Wanaka to meet Brad and Gretchen at the Sunday Farmer’s Market and Crafts Fair. After quickly browsing the crafts, we drove out to Treble Cone, Wanaka’s local ski area and apparently the best ski area in New Zealand, to drop Brad and Smiles off at the top for a flight. BJ, Gretchen and I then continued up the road toward Rob Roy’s Glacier. What we didn’t realize was that our good ‘ol station wagon, which has acquired the name “purple people eater” because although we thought the car was quite blue it is in fact quite purple, was going to have to ford about 6 rivers. We stopped just above the first crossing, next to a handful of smaller cars that had decided not to test their luck. BJ, on the other hand, decided to test the purple people eater’s skills. He waded into the stream to measure its depth and returned to the driver’s seat and said “I am 95% positive we’ll make it.” So…we went for it and as the water started to spray up over the hood of the car I told him to speed up. Despite being a little preoccupied with the fords, the drive along the Matukituki River to the trailhead was amazing . . . surrounded by pasture land and enclosed by bright green mountains with high snowy peaks.

Our short hike to the Rob Roy Glacier was shaded by thick beech trees so we had no idea how close we were to the glacier until we were standing directly before it. Rob Roy is a hanging glacier which means that the giant ice wall at the glacier’s toe ends at a tall cliff. We didn’t witness any calving but the endless waterfalls and snowfalls to the valley floor captured our attention. We returned to Wanaka and found that Brad and Smiles had already made plans for us for the evening. We met them at a local winery called Maude, where the wine master was throwing a small barby, or BBQ, and party while the wine owners were out of town. We hung out in a giant warehouse-type-room filled with wine barrels and casks with just enough room for a ping pong table and cricket court. Although small it’s the biggest social event we have been to yet and it was a nice change to meet a few locals.

The following day, our Monday, BJ and I drove up towards Haast Pass in Mt Aspiring National Park to hike up the Makarora River. The river actually follows the main road over the pass for a while but is fed from a side canyon that has such steep walls you can only access it by climbing over a ridge from the next canyon. This was not a typical one-foot-in-front-of-the-other walk. The track either led straight up over roots and rocks covered with moss or straight down stream beds and slippery mud or just straight through the rivers and bogs themselves. After carefully removing our shoes to cross two rivers within the first 20 minutes, we gave in and tried to enjoy our soggy water logged feet for the rest of the hike. When we reached the ridge, we could immediately hear the raging waters of the Makarora below us. We quickly descended the track to meet the river and had lunch at the water’s edge in a very steep gorge. The white river gurgled and bubbled at our feet and we were careful to watch where we stepped because a simple slip into the icy water led to . . . well we couldn’t see where it led to because the water seemed to just drop through a rock chute at the end of the gorge. It was clear now why the trail could not follow the water’s edge until now. We continued up the canyon a ways until the valley widened, the river became calm, and we could see another 10 km back to a distant ridge. It was one of the warmest days we have had so far in New Zealand and we found a perfectly protected swimming hole that seemed to be calling our names for a very quick and chilly dip. We didn’t see a soul the entire day. BJ votes for the Rob Roy Glacier, but the Makarora gets my vote, without a doubt, as our best hike so far. Two days . . . two classic (in New Zealand is sounds like they are saying “clessic”) hikes.

It is very bazaar spending the week before Christmas in a place where the days are sunny, warm and light until after 10pm. This year we won’t be anticipating a white Christmas, seeing family, wrapping gifts, or eating hoards of food for days on end. Our roommate Ali decorated a small Christmas tree las t week but it actually surprises me every time I look at it. It doesn’t feel like Christmas at all. I feel spoiled that we were able to spend so much time with family and friends this year before we left and we’ll miss our annual visits to Buhl, Boise, Tempe, Sonoma, and San Francisco (where the rest of our family will be over the holiday). But we look forward to all of our visitors this coming spring…my dad and Fran in February, my mom and Steve in March, and BJ’s mom in April. This year we will be spending the holiday camping near the Milford Sound and on the Routeburn track with Brad and Gretchen. Instead of packing up gifts, we’ll be packing trail mix, chocolate bars, and freeze dried dinners.

We’ve been enjoying the late light nights in Queenstown, but last night we spent those light evening hours in two very dark places. We hopped in the car at 5pm and drove to Arrowtown, a funky little town about 10 minutes from Queenstown. After a short walk along a lupine-lined river’s edge we moseyed to the far corner of an underground bar we took note of a few days before. The bar, more like a wine cellar, served food from a neighboring restaurant and local beer and wine. The walls were finished with rough stone and mortar and lined with long stone benches covered with rugs and pillows. The décor included heavy leather chairs, overturned wine barrels as tables, and just enough candle light to notice the cobwebs in the corners. We ate a delicious lamb, mushroom, and blue cheese pizza and wet our palates with Montieth’s beer.

After dinner we ordered two coffees from the corner bakery and walked upstairs to the cinema where we had tickets to the evening showing of an indy film called “The Visitor.” The lobby of the cinema is part bookstore, part café, part wine bar. We’ll probably just come back to hang out in the lobby if nothing is playing. We were ushered into “the den” with one other person and had our selection of a huge velour sofa and a handful of comfy chairs. Worried we may fall asleep if we snuggled up on the couch, we chose two chairs in the front row. By the time we left the cinema the sun had set but the sky was still light. For those of you who are coming to visit us, I am sure we will be returning to the cinema in Arrowtown.

Our roommate Steve showed us this YouTube cartoon and we couldn’t help ourselves from sharing it with all of you. For those of you who are coming to visit us, this will give you some good vocab words to practice before you arrive. See notes below for translation.

Chup = Potato Chip
Bru = Bro or Friend
Beached As = Really Beached
Heaps Beached As = Really Really Beached

On another note, we’ve been continuing to enjoy Queenstown. I don’t think the views from our deck will ever get old. We ventured into town a couple evenings ago to meet up with Brad and Gretchen for dinner. There were dark clouds looming overhead when we left and although we packed our rain jackets, the clouds let loose about half way to town. We showed up at Dux-d-Lux, a local brewery, completely soaked. We still haven’t succumbed to buying umbrellas. Thankfully they found a table by a fireplace and we spent the next hour rotating in front of the heat, trying to dry off. We ate at a delicious pizza joint in town called The Cow, located down a dark ally, which we of course followed up with a visit to Patagonia Chocolates for some hot chocolate and ice cream.

We spent last night at home with our roomies, cooking an Indian dinner and then watching a British classic and one of their favorite movies, Hot Fuzz. After taking Ali to work today, Steve took us up to the Remarkables, the jagged mountain range that we stare at every morning from our deck. He has wanted to hike up to Lake Alta ever since he moved to Queenstown and we were excited to join him. A treacherous drive up the mountains leads to the Remarkable Ski Field. We hiked from the ski area up to Lake Alta which sits at the base of the Remarkables. We, of course, checked out the ski resort as well. The lift accessible ski runs seem pretty flat compared to what we are used to, but there seems to be a ton of steeper shots if you’re willing to hike a little. But winter won’t be here for another 6 month so we’ll enjoy the hiking trails while we can.

This weekend was a first for us in New Zealand. Instead of packing up the car and continuing our travels south, we had to ask each other the question “What should we do this weekend?” After a week of mostly work for BJ and some work, as well as a handful of walks to town and local hikes, for me, we decided to jump in the back of Brad and Gretchen’s van and cruise to the north end of Lake Wakatipu where the lake’s edge meets the mountains. We had a track (the Kiwi way of saying trail) in mind called the Rockburn, not to be confused with one of New Zealand’s “Great Walks” called the Routeburn. The sign at the trailhead actually states “Note: This is not the Routeburn track.” We plan to go tramping (a Kiwi term for hiking) on the 3-day Routeburn track over Christmas. Anyways, our track led us along a steep and slippery route through rainforest, passed treeline, and along a very spongy and sometimes bouncy route to the top of Sugarloaf Pass. From the pass we tramped up the closest ridge to find a few lakes that we saw on the map. Although the lakes were quite small, we were surprised with 360 degree views.

  We stayed in a DOC (Department of Conservation is kind of like our NPS and tends to have the cheapest camping options) campsite and enjoyed a huge pasta dinner and campfire. We awoke to the sound of raindrops hitting our tent this morning and it took a lot of effort to pull ourselves out of our sleeping bags. We quickly dismissed the idea of going on another hike and although we had brought food to make breakfast, driving about 30 mintues down the road to Glenorchy for eggs and coffee sounded like a great rainy day activity. A note on Kiwi coffee . . . If you simply order a “coffee” in New Zealand they will always ask you what kind. A “long black with hot water” is basically an Americano and the closest thing you can get to a coffee unless you make it at home. A “flat white” is basically a latte but you can still order a “latte” from the menu. When I asked a barista what the difference was between a latte and a flat white, she couldn’t give me a straight answer.

This evening brought a brief stint of sunshine which lured us outside for a hike and a tour of Arrowtown, a quaint suburb of Queenstown. We found a ton of tasty looking restaurants and a classic Kiwi cinema. Most movie theaters in the country have two types of screening rooms; one has regular stadium style seating like we have in the states while the other has couches, pillows and serves wine, beer, and dinner. We hope to catch a flick at the Arrowtown cinema soon.

As BJ spent the afternoon working away, I spent it in the air on a tandem paragliding flight with Brad at Coronet Peak. I wrapped up my work day at around 1pm and met up with Gretchen in town for a hike up the gondola trail. We made it about half way up when Brad called from the flight park out at Coronet Peak and asked if I wanted to go on my first tandem flight. I turned to Gretchen and asked “Can we cut our hike a little short today?”

Gretchen has flown with Brad quite a few times and she could easily tell how excited I was to go. We turned around, hiked back down the mountain, hopped in the car and drove out to landing zone at the base of Coronet Peak. There were high clouds in the sky so Brad wasn’t sure we would have a long flight. But we were nicely surprised in the air as the sun came out, warmed the mountain sides, and kept us up for a little over an hour.

It was an awesome flight. We soared back and forth along a ridge multiple times and although it’s safer and, I suppose, “better” to be higher in the sky, I really liked being close to ridge and tree tops. As we flew to the landing zone, Brad pulled us into a series of asymmetric spirals, a technical term for flying really really fast in circles. I thought my eyeballs might pop out the back side of my head but I loved it. We landed safely and had to spend a minute figuring out how to walk again. Thank you Brad!!

BJ called just shortly thereafter and I headed back to town to pick him and his wing up and bring them back out to the park so he could kite. He’s not quite mentally ready to launch himself off a mountain, but I think a few more evenings kiting his wing will get him amped up to fly again. The four of us ended the evening over a Mexican feast and Speight’s, our first Mexican meal since we left home, with our roommates back at our flat.

We spent a rainy Monday driving around Queenstown, making phone calls, visiting flats, and slowly weeding our list of rooms for rent down to about three that we really liked. We, of course, ended up at the very first one we looked at and moved in right away. We have two roommates – Ali and Steve – a couple from England who has recently gained Kiwi residency. Steve works as a concierge in a local hotel and Ali, an ex-CSI, works at a clothing shop and is 6 months pregnant. They are super nice and really easy going. I think we found ourselves a good match . . . and a great view. We are just a short drive, and about a 30 minute walk, from the booming downtown Queenstown. We weren’t expecting to end up in a bigger city, but it’s a nice change of pace to our quiet little hometown in Idaho. There are trails everywhere and every mountain peak that surrounds Lake Wakatipu seems to be calling out “come to me.” After a day of work at our new flat, we met up with Brad, Gretchen, and an old paragliding buddy of BJ and Brad’s, Smiley, this evening for dinner. Brad, Smiles, and Gretchen spent the afternoon around Coronet Peak, a local ski area, and got in an hour flight, the longest one yet. They hope to get BJ back out there and playing with his paraglider soon.

We checked out of our organic studio at 10am on Saturday morning. After a quick tour of the Saturday morning crafts fair and farmer’s market in downtown Nelson, I dropped BJ off at the library to focus on work for a few more hours while I took a backpack full of dirty clothes to the laundry mat and browsed the crafts and fresh veggies a few more times. At 1pm we hopped in the car and drove south along the west coast to make our way towards the Queenstown/Wanaka region. Brad was able to find the local paragliding hill and Gretchen and he were going to spend the day flying and then head south as well. We hope to meet up with them in a couple of days.

Lonely Planet says that the west coast “will remind Californians of Big Sur.” The tiny highway, violent waves, sudden drop off to the ocean, and the beauty are all very similar to Cali’s coast. Just take away the hoards of people and the tall redwood forests and replace them with a coastal rainforest so dense that you couldn’t machete your way through. Add a few pastures here and there between the road and the ocean, something you would never see along either US coast, and place a few enormous snow capped mountain ranges just a few kilometers inland from the road. Oh, and throw a few glaciers and brilliant icy blue rivers in there as well. This is the New Zealand we have been waiting for. Don’t get me wrong, we have been thoroughly enjoying ourselves down here. But something about seeing mountains again, and big ones to say the least, has lit a fire under our eagerness to explore such stunning landscapes.

Saturday afternoon we stopped for a beer and some fish and chips at the Revingtons Hotel in Greymouth (Tim, we had a Montieth’s beer but the brewery itself was very closed) and then fell asleep to the sound of waves crashing at a small campground in a very small coastal town called Okarito. With many more hours to go on the road to Queenstown today, we briefly visited Franz Joseph and Fox Glaciers as well as Mount Aspiring National Park in hopes that we will return with family early next year.

We now find ourselves in Queenstown. It has become a Mecca for outdoor extreme sports as the signs for bungee jumping and rafting will tell you. But there is a reason it is so popular. It sits directly above the huge Lake Wakatipu and is surrounded by mountains on all sides. Although its busy-ness and bungee-craze may get old after a while, we find ourselves drawn to the area as we were both drawn to Jackson, Wyoming. Nothing like travelling across the Pacific to find ourselves in a place just like home.

We joined back up with Gretchen and Brad two evenings ago and went out to Indian food . . . now the third time we’ve had Indian food since we’ve been in New Zealand. We just can’t seem to get enough. BJ has been working steadily for the last couple of days but I’ve been able to sneak out a couple of times for a short hike and a quick wine tour with Brad and Gretchen. The Nelson region is well known for their wineries. I’m not sure how well known it is but if you like Chardonnay, go try to find a 2006 Wimea. It got 5 stars, whatever that means but it was gooood.

We cooked mussels last night. They happened to be the cheapest item in the seafood section at the market. They weren’t as good as the ones we had on Thanksgiving, but the novelty of cooking them ourselves made them pretty tasty. Probably the most eventful moment we’ve had in the last few days was the 1st Annual National Duck Match. We didn’t realize we had such prime seating until the event started. We were minding our own business on our deck, just as the two resident ducks were minding their business in our meditation pond. In comes male duck number 2 to conquer the other. We couldn’t tell if he wanted his lady or wanted ownership of the pond. Whatever it was, all three ducks put up a good fight. We caught some video of the final round as male duck number 1 is biting his significant other on the neck while trying to drown male duck number 2. See the Duck Match for yourself although it is a little disturbing.