riverECHO

Paparoa National Park, which basically surrounds us and the small small town of Punakaiki, is the youngest national park in the country and only has a handful of maintained tracks. One of them, its only multi-day track called the Inland Track, is actually doable in three shorter day trips. It links four rivers together which all dump into the sea including (from south to north) the Punakaiki River, the Porarari River, Bullock Creek and Fox Creek. We hiked the southern most segment yesterday, walking up the Punakaiki River, over a ridge to the Porarai River and back down through the high limestone cliff walls covered in rainforest along the Porarai to the ocean. Although lightly sprinkling for most of the day, we were fully protected by the high rainforest canopy. It wasn’t until we had to walk along the open highway back to our car that it started downpouring. We quickly busted out the newest addition to our New Zealand wardrobe . . . two dark green heavy duty ponchos that BJ’s mom thankfully bought for us a month ago. While they win no style points (we looked especially silly because we were wearing shorts which meant that the only things extending out from beneath the ponchos were our bare legs), they are completely waterproof and extremely breathable. Anni, before you come down here next year, forget the $100 rain jacket from REI and go for the $10 poncho from the gas station. You’ll stay dry and look really cool . . . take it from your super stylish big sister.

Enough about style, the highlight of our hike was the many feathered friends we made along the way. One thing I will miss about New Zealand is the number of bird species we have encountered throughout our tour. Read on for some very scientific field notes about the birds of New Zealand’s Paparoa National Park. We encountered many birds yesterday, only four of which we could identify. A pair of tui, a mostly black bird with two distinguishing white tufts of feathers on its chest which make it look like its wearing a very perky bra, visited us at our house yesterday morning. Then on the track we were followed by a fantail, a very small bird that likes to show off its very large fan-like tail. This particular bird followed us for about a kilometer, chirping occasionally, who was very serious about keeping track of us. We also watched a bell bird, a lime green colored bird, belt out its range of notes from a nearby tree. I’ll remember the noises this bird makes forever . . . a range of high pitched squeals to gurgles to squelches make this bird’s presence obvious. Finally we watched a number of pukeko couples scrounging for food in a wide river valley. The pukeko has a spectacular silvery blue chest with a distinguishable and kind of ugly red face which resembles the top of a pick ax. They don’t fly but can be seen wandering the wetlands on there long skinny legs looking for some good eats.

Enough about science, we also had a very exciting day at our post office box. Yes, I know, it’s the little things down here. We not only got our passports back from the Chinese embassy yesterday, who have decided they will let us in to their country in August to visit BJ’s brother and sister-in-law, but we received a package from my mom containing a game called Bananagrams, basically a fast paced version of Scrabble. We’ve already spent a couple hours splayed out on our living room floor playing this very addictive game. Thanks Mom . . . . you obviously knew how to liven up our quiet dark evenings on the beach!

Home bound by work and a little rain over the last couple days we got to a point where we needed to stock up on a few staples . . . milk, eggs, bread, and a bag of gummy candy. We drove into Greymouth this afternoon, making a point to combine our trip with a meal out and a photography exhibit opening. The rain had picked up by the time we reached Greymouth, so for some reason we parked on the edge of downtown, and spent a majority of our time in town running from one overhang to the next and jumping over puddles. No one else seemed to be walking and I’m sure we looked pretty ridiculous to everyone who was warm and dry in their cars. We spotted a pizzeria and jumped inside for an early dinner. It was shining with “clessic” New Zealand décor and 50s music, although the radio station kept saying the best from the 60s and 70s. We really thought we found Greymouth’s little gem. But in the end the pizza was just-okay and our “Chocolate Bomb” dessert left much to be desired. We made a quick swing through the gallery, displaying landscape photography from the area, and then set out on our grocery shopping mission. We are going to try to make it two weeks before going back to the store and from the looks of our fridge and cupboards I think we might make it a month . . . we may have gone a little overboard. As we left the grocery store it started raining buckets, possibly bath tubs. For a few moments we thought we may have to pull over and wait it out, but the minute we left the city limit, it stopped almost immediately and opened up so the stars twinkled during the rest of our winding drive home.

We don’t have any photos from this morning but I woke up to the moon shining in our bedroom window. BJ was already upstairs with coffee in front of his computer watching the sky barely begin to lighten up on the eastern horizon. This house has a ton of windows and it was a pretty cool experience to watch the moon set over the ocean out of one window and the sun rise through another. Here are a few shots from earlier this week. BJ attempted kiting his wing on the beach but the wind just wasn’t cooperating. Further up that same beach we found a sweet cave but we actually didn’t realize there was a way through the cave until we explored the other side and saw light shining through.

We’ve been looking forward to our weekend since we arrived last Monday night and we woke up to pink skies and what looked like would turn into a beautiful day. But by the time we had our first cup of coffee the rain started falling. Although I was a bit antsy to get outside and move around, I was quite easily persuaded to pick up my book, fill up another cup of coffee, look out over the ocean, and wait until it cleared. We were also able to talk to my little sister over Skype, who is currently studying for finals at UCSB . . . it wasn’t too hard to pull her away from her studies for an hour and always nice to hear her voice.

By lunchtime the rain let up enough for us to venture outside. Anticipating that the trails would be quite muddy we decided to walk down to the beach and head north until we could go no further. We made it through a series of beaches, each one connected to the next by a cave or a precarious pile of slippery limestone rocks, before we reached a cliff that would prevent us from going any further. I searched the bush line and found a “sort-of” trail that looked like it would give us access to the beach we were staring down at but could not access. I hollered to BJ to join me and as he started walking towards me I spotted a spray of water and a dark figure breach the surface of the ocean. I pointed and we both stared out to sea . . . waiting. Then again, the darkness breached and splashed. It was a whale . . . and a big one! Last time we were out here with BJ’s mom, we spotted two dolphins, obvious because of their fins. But this was no dolphin. It seemed to take forever for the entire length of its body to roll through the surface. We watched it until it seemed to get its fill and then ventured off to explore the trail we found, which didn’t end up to be much of a trail in the end. On our way back to the beach, we spotted the whale again, this time it lifted a fin in the air and slapped it on the water and then held its tail high in the air for a while, almost as if it were showing it off. It was just far enough away that BJ didn’t bother with the camera. We were so excited about our sighting and figured, like the dolphins, it was probably a regular occurrence along the west coast. We told Brendan, who owns the house where we are staying, and his eyes lit up . . . “a whale? . . . I haven’t seen one in the twelve years I’ve lived here!” He immediately ran out the door and headed to the beach to try to spot it. We definitely witnessed something spectacular in this little quiet part of the world. This place just gets better every day.

Not even three days into our stay in Punakaiki and we had to make a town run today. We have a pretty small fridge so we’ve been trying to strategically plan out our meals. But our run wasn’t for food . . . BJ needed a new battery for his computer and we both had to send in our documents to the Chinese Embassy to see if they will let us into their country. Now that I write them down they don’t seem that urgent of items but they were two things that needed to happen. Since we had been to Greymouth on the way into Punakaiki, we drove out the northern road into Westport. A very windy 45 minute drive away, Westport gave us the feeling of a classic New Zealand town. There isn’t much to it, only one strip of road lined with shops, banks, and a grocery store, but everyone we encountered was so friendly, which is quite opposite our experience in Queenstown where customer service just didn’t seem to exist. Two rainbows and distant storms over the ocean led us back to our current home.

Although we’ve been putting in long long days in front of our computers since we arrived, switching positions in the living room from the couch to the comfy chair to the countertop, we’ve been able to escape a few times for sunsets on the beach as well as a very short bike ride up Bullock Canyon. We are going to attempt to “get out” every day around lunch time as we can easily spend the early dark evenings finishing up work for the day. The sun sets at about 5pm every night and we’ve been sticking to our plan to go down to the beach and watch it. Every time we are on the beach we keep noticing the same type of birds fly by (we’ll just call them the long-neck-black-flapper species which has a sister species that BJ and I encountered in Alaska). They, of course, are flying north this time of year and they just keep on coming. Probably one of our favorite things about our new batch is that we can hear the ocean, especially when a big set comes in. It’s a constant reminder, in addition to our amazing view, that we live on the ocean. Neither one of us can wait until the weekend when we may have some more time to explore some of the nearby trails in Paparoa National Park, that is if this little rain storm that is pounding us right now lets up.

We spent our last morning in Queenstown packing a few final items into the wagon and saying goodbye to a few friends . . . our roommate Steve and Duncan, my “boss” at the winery, both of whom I hope we’ll see in Jackson someday. We were then off to Wanaka to have lunch with, and finally meet, Carol and Chris Peck, a couple Jacksonites who are down here for the winter on a ski partol exchange program. It was great to finally meet them and our conversation was non-stop from “hello, nice to meet you” to “see you back in Jackson.”

Then we truly hit the road, packed to the max, to our new home in Punakaiki. And it’s a good thing we bought chains because as soon as we hit Haast Pass, just as Duncan had predicted, our severe snow storm turned into blue skies and sunshine. We reached the west coast as the sun was setting and settled on spending the night in the town of Franz Josef, after a soak in their relatively new hot pools of course.

Today, we made a point to take our time driving up the west coast with an extended stop in a book shop in Hokitika (we scored a $4 puzzle and three new books for our upcoming quiet evenings) as well as lunch and a walk-around in Gremouth, the closest town for us if at any point we feel the urge for a bit of socializing. I think we already made a friend too . . .  a local photographer named Steward, who is really excited for us to come back to Greymouth and meet his younger more outdoorsy photographer friend.

And finally, the moment we had been waiting for . . . Punakaiki. Everything was just as we remembered it and we were instantly giddy. We quickly unpacked and headed to the beach, a full five minute walk, to watch the sunset. The waves along this section of coast are enormous and although not in the least bit inviting for a swim, they are spectacular as ever to watch. We’ve already made a pact to watch the sunset from the beach every night . . . that is unless it’s storming and we can’t see the sunset.

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!

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.

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.