riverECHO

It was a nice surprise last night when we were joined at dinner by the whole crew from Mt. Edward winery. We had planned to just meet Brendan and Jess at Mantra, an Indian restaurant in Arrowtown, for dinner but in walked Duncan and his wife Helen as well as Yoshi and his wife Keoko. It made me realize how much time I actually had spent at the winery over the last four months. It’s been a great experience and after chatting some more with Brendan about his connections in California and Oregon, it might not be the last vintage I work.

We’ve spent the better part of this week cranking out work hours while also preparing to leave Queenstown. Our car has even been packed full since Tuesday . . . I’m really not sure how we came down here with a backpack each and now have a full car. We are ready to move on and can’t wait to get up the west coast. The weather has been cold and sunny all week but, not surprisingly, we’ve been warned of a “Severe Snow Storm” that is supposed to hit the entire South Island tomorrow morning, just as we leave town. So in preparation, we bought ourselves some good ‘ol fashion snow chains today for our 2 wheel drive family wagon. What’s amazing is that chains are a way of life down here. No one really has snow tires because it doesn’t snow down low. If you want to ski you have to drive up to winter, which doesn’t start until half way up most mountains. I suppose we’re just spoiled at home. So we’ll do it the Kiwi way and use chains if we have to. And if we do have to stop and put chains on tomorrow it will be slow going . . . because according to the fine print we are only allowed to drive 20kph with chains on . . . by the way that’s 12.5 mph!

The subject of this book had me a little turned off . . . capturing pandas from their wild and natural environment to bring them back to a zoo in the states so that scientists could learn more about them. But, once I got over that, I found it to be an amazing story about a widow who sets out to pursue the dream of her dead husband by travelling to the remote western region of China to capture a baby panda. No one believes she’s capable of going through with it because of her sex and her background, a high class partier from New York. It’s her fight against her many critics and her determination that made me keep reading but her love for China and its people really opened up my eyes to this enormous country we are about to explore.

Yeah, Yeah…what am I doing reading another business book just after the very first one that I’ve very read in my life? Well, I enjoy them…they seem to have found me at a perfect place in my life and my role at Vertical Media. In analyzing a few key rules that Google plays by, Jeff Jarvis explores how business and culture could apply the same rules and really revolutionize our world. The first half of the book establishes the “rules”, while the second half applies them to various segments of society. Imagine if Google ran the media, our utilities, airlines, banks, and even education and government? Although Jarvis doesn’t dive too deeply into an analysis at each level, this book is an incredible tool to rethink the very roots of business and life as we know it. Put what you know and expect aside…and be ready to create open, trusting relationships with your users…oh yeah, and be sure that they are in control of your product at every step of the way. Because they are gaining more and more control than they ever have had…and its a great thing!

We didn’t realize until the middle of last week that we had a 3-day weekend coming up. It was a very nice surprise but we also realized that it was going to be our last official weekend in Queenstown . . . at least during this trip to New Zealand. We also didn’t have many options as three of the four roads leading out of town would be covered in snow and our desire to camp out in the single digits (that’s Celsius by the way) was overruled by our softening habits. So instead, we planned out a few local bike rides and spent the mornings reading as we waited for the clear air to warm up. Funny enough, we’ve actually hit every biking trail that we know of in the Queenstown area. Looking at the map this weekend, we searched the edges to find a couple that we still had yet to ride. A few of our favorites were out of the question as the snow slowly crept down the mountain side during most of last week. But we settled on a ride up to Lake Dispute along the road to Glenorchy and a ride out to Macetown, just upriver from Arrowtown.

The first ride out to Lake Dispute was slightly muddy, requiring a few more walking sections than normal, but lead out to a very quiet and serene lake that sits in a valley between Mt. Crichton and Mt. Ben Lomond. We only ran into one other group who found our loud conversation, about why anyone would “dispute” the lake, quite amusing. The downhill was a combination of cruisy singletrack, switchbacks, and wide sections covered in babyheads, but all in all a fun ride.

Our second ride turned into three short rides. The trail to Macetown follows the Arrow River for a couple hours, crossing it on twelve different occasions. We figured a clear sunny day, although cold, would be a great day for this particular trail. But we failed to remember that Arrowtown is situated perfectly to the south of a small mountain range, which blocks out a majority of the winter sun. Crossing the rushing Arrow River in the shade all of a sudden seemed much less desirable. So we ventured out as far as we could to the first crossing, looked at how deep we would be wading to cross it and at the snowy peaks in the distance, laughed at ourselves, and quickly turned around. Back at the car we turned toward the Chinese Settlement and continued out a road that led to a trail up and over a mountain to Macetown. We figured we might hit a little snow at the summit but it was better than hypothermia. We reached the trailhead and found a sign that said “Track crosses private land. No bikes.” Our chances of getting caught were pretty slim but we played by the rules and turned around . . . once again. Back at the car we rode over to the small skate park and played on a couple little jumps which warmed our freezing fingers and toes right up. We finally settled on the rolling and wide river side Millennium trail. It was busy with strollers and dogs but still a nice leisurely ride.

With most of our afternoon still open, we decided to give our bikes some very overdue cleaning attention. Our patio, where we normally clean our bikes, is now shaded for most of the day so after spraying them off, we loaded them back into the car and drove to a sunny park in Frankton to give them a thorough clean. We had two little boys, probably no older than ten, approach us asking if we could fix their seat height. We should have put up a sign for our temporary bike shop.

Today is Tuesday and our last day on this long weekend which we’ll be spending giving the house a deep clean. BJ and I move out next weekend and Steve moves out not too long thereafter but today is the only day we all have together to pitch in some elbow grease. Looking at the frost covered deck and neighboring rooftops on this fine fall day, it may not be so bad to spend the day inside . . . cleaning.

We had a very social week and weekend . . . which, as it may be obvious, is a bit unusual for us down here. We first said goodbye to our roommate Ali and 2-month-old Tyler last week who are flying back to the UK for two months so that the rest of Ali’s family can meet her new little boy. If we don’t see them again up in Punakaiki we hope to return to Ali and Steve’s wedding within the next couple of years. Then it was off to dinner . . . and breakfast and second breakfast . . . at our friends Brendan and Jess’ house in Gibbston. Over my last four months at the winery, I have spent a majority of my time following and helping Brendan. It has, of course, taken all of us up until our last month in the area to actually hang out outside of work. We had hoped to spend Sunday either hiking or kayaking with them as well but 18 hours of straight rain persisted and refused to let us get outside. We spent the day indoors before meeting up with another friend Nik, who we know from Alaska. Nik spent a handful of years as Points North’s primary heli-ski pilot before he and his partner moved to Queenstown. He still flies for a living, whether it’s doing tours over Milford Sound or heli-skiing around the Southern Lakes area or doing his share of med evac flights, but he definitely misses his time and the lifestyle up in Alaska. It was so nice to finally reconnect with him, especially since we have been living in the same town for the last five months.

The rain and clouds finally broke at around noon today. BJ thinks Mother Nature was trying to give New Zealand an end of the summer wash down in preparation for winter. There is a thick layer of snow on all of the surrounding mountain tops, the rivers are completely blown out and Lake Wakatipu has risen considerably. Biking was out of the question and with a fresh coat of snow we thought we could see the best views on a drive up to Glenorchy, a small small town at the head of Lake Wakatipu. We attempted a short stroll through Glenorchy’s Lagoon but the track and wooden walkways were completely under water. So we settled for a hike along higher ground, leading to some old mines and beautiful views overlooking Lake Wakatipu and the Rees and Dart Rivers. You could actually see a very distinct line of muddy river water dumping into the lake’s clearer waters. The rainfall has also refreshed the farm fields which, despite it being the middle of fall, were glowing bright green. The contrast of the green fields, the aqua blue lake waters, a few lingering leaves on deciduous trees and the snow covered mountains was spectacular.

I was initially directed to this book about a year ago by Tim Bradshaw, President of our company, Vertical Media. Initially, he requested this book as it has a chapter addressing a goal of ours at Vertical Media – employee ownership. Of course, I will be picking that specific chapter apart in the months ahead as I prepare a plan to make that a reality. Yet, what I did not expect is how much of the rest of the book could apply to our work. The ideas, concepts and achievements of this simple design/build firm in Martha’s Vineyard are inspirational. If you have any interest in how to create a sustainable business that is deeply woven into a community, this is must read. This is the first truly business book that I have ever read in my life. I can only hope that we achieve a portion of what the South Mountain Company has done for its employees, clients and the surrounding community where it thrives.

We have been hearing about Fluer’s Place, a seafood restaurant in the town of Moeraki on the East Coast, over and over again from our friend Brendan, who I work with at the winery. So we waited for a rainy weekend in Queenstown to drive the three hours each way to the coast just to go to dinner. We woke up on Sunday morning to a fresh blanket of snow in the mountains but the roads were all open so we optimistically packed the car with our tent and bikes. Only a half hour out of town in Cromwell, BJ spotted a sign that said “Motorcross Race.” He quickly flipped the car around and said “we gotta check it out.” For those of you who don’t know BJ spent his entire childhood professionally racing motor-cross and I had yet to experience a race. We pulled up and BJ was immediately taken back to his early years . . . there was a distant humming (what I kept referring to as a swarm of bees) and a distinct smell of exhaust hovering at nose level. We watched a few races, all kids under 13 years old and even a 6 and under class. It was so exciting and even though we didn’t know anyone there we began to root for some of the riders. It might possibly be the highlight of our weekend.

We hopped back in the car and drove another hour to Naseby where we hoped to go on a bike ride. The last time we were in Naseby the forest was closed due to fire danger. With so much snow over the last couple weeks we knew we wouldn’t face the same problem. We waited out the rain, and the decision making, in the only café in town over a few coffees and finally talked ourselves into a short ride. Had the trails been dry the riding would have been amazing. It reminded me a lot like riding in Utah, without the slickrock. But the wet clay that we encountered seemed to eat us up, bikes and all. To top it all off, it started to snow half way through our ride and we started joking about how we should have packed our ski goggles. Although slightly frozen, we continued along the more stable fire roads until it was time to return our muddy selves to the car and head through more snow country to dinner.

Despite having packed the tent, once we were in Moeraki we were both easily persuaded to step it up and pay a little extra for a one room cabin. It was perfect, equipped with an oil heater which we instantly turned on high, and had views overlooking the Moeraki harbor. We arrived at Fleur’s Place later that evening to a packed house and immediately remember it was Mother’s Day in New Zealand. We tried to pace ourselves so we could enjoy the experience for as long as possible. Our appetizer, a huge pot of green lip mussels, was delicious and my entrée, John Dory with caper lime sauce was perfectly flaky and flavorful. BJ’s baked sole melt entrée was a bit of a letdown but maybe that’s what we should have expected ordering fish covered in cheese. He got over it, scrapped off the cheese, and helped me finish my meal and a scrumptious berry crème brule for dessert.

The following morning we drove a little further up the coast to the historic port town of Omaru where we gave ourselves a tour of a Whiskey storage house and watched an Antarctic blast throw giant waves over the harbor’s retaining wall. We encountered enough snow on the way back to Queenstown that we are on the lookout for a set of chains. Once we move north, and even if it means skiing in our jeans and rented alpine gear, we will only be a couple hours from a handful of ski areas.

We took advantage of the sunshine this weekend and spent two days on two very different types of biking tracks in Wanaka and Queenstown. On Sunday morning, after a leisurely breakfast, we drove over the Crown Range to Wanaka to explore the Sticky Forest, a network of trails that overlook the lake. Each trail was actually quite short but they all join together making it easy to ride most of them in just one afternoon. Navigating was somewhat of an issue as only a handful of the trails were actually marked so we spent a few minutes during every ride looking at a tiny map we bought for $2, trying to figure out where we were. We spent about three hours exploring the forest before heading to the lake front to skip rocks and brainstorm ideas for BJ’s upcoming redesign project at Vertical Media. Although we had planned to camp in Wanaka that night, we somehow managed to remember everything but our tent and sleeping pads. We even brought an extra blanket because we knew it was going to be a cold night. So instead of spending the night restless in the back of the car, we drove the easy hour drive home and snuggled in to our warm bed.

The following morning, we ventured out for another bike ride in Skippers Canyon. A very different ride from yesterday, the Mount Dewar track has a lot of climbing in the beginning and the end and a huge downhill in the middle. It is a classic cross country ride with a handful of hike-a-bike sections. Although on a 4 wheel drive track for most of the downhill we both concluded that it was probably one of the longest descents we had ever rode. The trail flattened out for a while as we rode high above the bright blue waters of the Shotover River before meeting up with the road again for our final ascent to the car. We have been up the same road a couple of times before, coming in from a different trail, but this time it seemed to take us twice as long. We were beat after four hour ride of ups and downs and arounds. But we weren’t nearly as tired as our friends Tim and Mary Lynn were this weekend. They completed an 18 hour race together in Fruita, Colorado . . . nice work you two!

Now it’s back to another week of work and wine in beautiful NZ . . . damn, we have it rough.