riverECHO

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.

Guest blog entry by BJ’s mum, Jean Hansen . . .

Here we are at day 9 of my visit to New Zealand and I can’t believe all that I have seen and done in the time that I have been here. I couldn’t ask for better guides and traveling companions than BJ and Lisa. Of course, I am a little prejudice –‘cause BJ is my son.

Today is a “layover day” which means that we are actually spending more than one night at one location. As I write this update, I am sitting in the upper level of a holiday home, looking out over the tree canopy at the Tasman Sea on the west coast of the south island of New Zealand. BJ and Lisa have gone for a walk and looking out at the rain falling, I expect that they will be coming back soaking wet.

The nonchalant attitude of the native New Zealanders and the pristine environment – seemingly unaffected by humans – is extremely addictive. From my first night in Christchurch where we were greeted by two giant Schnauzers and two Clydesdale horses, to the Albatrosses on the Otago Peninsula when we were staying in Dunedin, to the playful seal who raced to our cruise ship in Milford Sound so he could surf in the wake of the boat, to the friendly cats who hung out at the cottage in Arrowtown, to the Samoyed, Mike, in Wanaka , and finally here, Milly, the small black Labrador who earns her keep as a ski resort rescue dog – we have found “pets a plenty” during our travels. Even where we have been eating seems to have taken on an “animal” theme. Starting with the Three Cows in Christchurch, to the Fat Duck in Te Anau, to the Blue Duck at Milford Sound, and thought about eating at the Cow in Queenstown.

I have seen sheep, sheep, and more sheep, as well many deer farms. Just across the lake from where BJ and Lisa live is Deer Park Heights – an animal preserve of sorts and also the place where several scenes of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy were filmed. BJ and I enjoyed watching Lisa get mauled by the goats, thars, donkeys, and miniature horses as she was trying to feed them pellets out of her “little tin bucket”. As the goats were knocking her down, she was hollering, “BJ, did you get that” so expect some interesting animal interaction photos to be posted!

I have been fortunate to see in my brief time here, the Cathedral at Christchurch, Craft Market on the Square at Christchurch, the Moeraki Boulders along the east coast, the University at Dunedin (where BJ spent part of his junior year in college), the Otago Peninsula, the Farmer’s Market and Happy Hens in Portabella, the Larnach Castle, the bird wildlife park in Te Anau, watched the Milford Sound Movie, cruised the Milford Sound, and then a long layover of two days in Arrowtown.

BJ and Lisa had to catch up on work, so I browsed Arrowtown on my own during the days and we got together at night. I visited the local Museum, checked out the shops, and toured the Chinese Settlement. I did get to see where the kids live and met their flat mates. Their house was filled with flat mates’ mother and a new baby, thus the reason that I stayed in a great place in Arrowtown.

Then on to Wanaka where we went to the “chick flick” He’s Just Not That In to You with most of the teenage female population of the town. The movie theater was great. It was platform seating, but on each platform was a couch, a love seat or a recliner. Other seating options included regular turn of the century theater seats and a complete Volkswagen Buss Convertible. Apparently we didn’t’ think that I had spent enough time in airplane seats so we settled into our row of three airplane seats and watched the movie – complete with a twenty minute intermission. Time enough to have a pizza, ice cream, cookies or other meal items from the adjoining restaurant. I went from flying in an airplane watching movies on my trip over to NZ to watching a movie in an airplane seat while here.

I woke up in Wanaka with a fever, so the trip from Wanaka to Franz Joseph was filled with my sneezing, coughing, and blowing my nose. We did stop at Fox Glacier to see ice floating in the river and to get up close and personal to a glacier, then spent the night at Franz Joseph. I was feeling a little better this morning and had high hopes of taking a small airplane ride to the top of one of the Glaciers for a snow landing”, but the weather didn’t’ cooperate with us. So no airplane ride. I will have to keep that one on my bucket list for a little while longer.

I have eaten some new and interesting meals. But the most fun I had was Sex on the Beach in Dunedin. I thought about having it with a Nutty Italian, but I thought that the one drink was enough for the night.

So, here we all sit watching the waves and enjoying the slight drizzle and planning our adventures for tomorrow. Might try to get in a little whale watching and/or penguin viewing before flying out in just 5 days!!

This week was all about planning and preparing.

At the winery, we’ve been spending the afternoons making space and cleaning huge tanks to get ready for the delivery of grapes that we are expecting this coming week. The grapes will go through a de-stemmer and then a press. The juice will then sit in a huge tank with the skins until it is ready to be put into barrel. It’s been a learning process and I still don’t understand all of the steps but it’s been a fun way to spend my afternoons. I am genuinely excited for the fruit to show up this week.

At the home office, we went through a time change . . . the southern hemisphere’s “fall back.” Our normal 20 hour difference, which in my mind I think of as a 4 hour difference but a day ahead, has become a 6 hour difference. This means that our normal wake up time of about 7am is no longer 11am in Wyoming but now 1pm. So, we’ve been trying to wean ourselves off the long nights of sleep and get up just a little bit earlier each day. We’ve also been wondering how a work day will work once we are in China or even further west when the time difference is even closer. One thing is for sure . . . as the time change has come so have the turning of the leaves. It is fall in Queenstown.

Another area of planning has been Jean’s upcoming visit. With her help, we have been researching places to stay and go and see all over the South Island. She was a little shocked at the first itinerary we sent her which had us relocating every day. There is just so much to see on the South Island but we are embracing the idea of an actual vacation for Jean and staying for a little bit longer in a few places like Dunedin, Queenstown, and the West Coast.

One area that we haven’t been planning is in our travels and, therefore, are still unable to answer the question “When are you coming home?” We received a wedding invitation today from our good friends, Clay and Steph. They’ve known that we won’t be able to come to their wedding in Montana in June, but they took the time to take a photo of their wedding invitation and email it to us just so we could feel like we received one. We love you guys and will definitely be there in spirit.

We’ve been spending the weekend somewhat battling the rain and were able to escape yesterday afternoon for a short ride, a solid session of BJ’s hacky sack lessons in a park, and dinner and a movie in Arrowtown. Today’s outlook for rain isn’t much better but I am sure we will be able to keep ourselves entertained . . . even if it is a trip to the local pool or a café.

As my mom and stepdad left town last week our weather seemed to change instantly. No offense mom and Steve, but I think you took the rain with you. We spent Saturday afternoon at a few local events. The first was the Queenstown Aerofest where paragliders, wakeboarders, and sky divers showed off their skills in the air above the Queenstown beach. The second was the Arrowtown Street Party where we drank local beer, ate local food (we sampled our first “cheese roll” which is basically just a piece of white bread rolled around a piece of cheese and grilled a.k.a. grilled cheese sandwich), and watched local musicians and fire dancers twirling fire hula hoops and whips. It was all pretty entertaining.

We woke up early the next morning, loaded our backpacks in the car and headed up the lake toward Glenorchy to hike along the Dart River. The Rees-Dart Track is a popular 5 day track with a side day-hike up to Cascade Saddle. We didn’t have enough time to complete the entire circuit and hope to get up to Cascade Saddle at some point, so we decided to just get a taste for the Dart River and hike in and out on the same track. The forecast called for two “fine” days in a row and we debated camping under the stars but then remembered our last experience with a few thousand sandflies and decided to spend the night in a hut. We started out our hike behind a group of 30 who were heading just 20 minutes up the trail to catch the Dart Jet Boat. The short walk was part of their “Safari Package” which also included a 4 wheel drive tour to the end of the road (the same section of road that we drove in our family wagon). We heard the tour guide yell out to the group to “please stop and take photos as walking and taking photos at the same time can be dangerous.” We were excited to leave the group behind and continue down the trail on our own. The track followed the Dart River for a while before climbing up and over a steep bluff. It was such a steep drop off that we felt like we could have jumped directly down to the river from the top of the bluff. We took our time on the track and at one point spent about a half an hour trying to capture a bird’s song on our camera. BJ also discovered the “foliage” setting on the camera making for some very brilliant photos this time in the rainforest.

We arrived to an almost empty hut and were relieved to be staying when the sandflies started to swarm. Taking advantage of a quite hut, we took some time to read and quickly fell asleep for about two hours! We were groggy from our afternoon nap and shook it off by heading further up the valley on what turned into a two hour stroll. We ran into a very skinny bridge that left the main trail and provided access to the other side of the Dart River. I walked across to see if there was an actual trail on the other side and found that the bridge ran right into an enormous boulder. You either had to climb up and over the boulder or down a very sketchy construction ladder that was sort of attached to the bridge. We were puzzled as to why they decided to put a bridge there and not over the handful of streams that we had forded earlier in the day. Not until we started walking back to the hut did we run into two hunters who had been searching the forest on the other side of the river all day unsuccessfully looking for deer.

Our evening in the hut was quite loud with the help of four young American girls whose high pitched giggles weren’t very fitting for our idea of a quiet night of cards, chocolate, and books. Damn, we are getting old.  But we did make a few evening-long friendships with a couple Kiwis and two other Americans from the Bay Area. It’s hard to make the switch from the solitude and serenity of the track to the social scene in the hut . . . but we sure do appreciate not being eaten alive. We hiked out the same way we came in, stopped in Glenorchy for a bowl of potato wedges and a couple beers and returned home by late afternoon to cook up a few, what BJ referred to as Dolly Parton sized, chicken breasts and watched an episode of New Zealand’s always entertaining Flight of the Concords.

BJ turns 33 today . . . Happy Birthday to my best friend and the love of my life. I don’t think it’s felt like much of a birthday for him yet as he has been glued to his computer in meetings for most of the day. We’ll get out this afternoon to celebrate with the rest of the town with green beer and some good ol’ Irish music. Is it me or is it funny that the entire world seems to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day . . . maybe it’s just a good excuse for another drinking holiday . . . but it sure does make for a fun birthday.

By now I would assume most of the world is aware of the fires that have been engulfing Australia, the largest fires in their history, having killed 130 people! Yesterday we experienced their magnitude when we woke up to an orange haze, the haze that back home I associate with a fire. It had us perplexed for a while as we tried to think of what was west of us . . . mountains covered in rainforest, the rainiest place in New Zealand, and the ocean. It was hard to imagine a fire taking place in any of these very wet places. But across the ocean a ways . . . Australia . . . of course.

The eerie apocalyptic sky set the tone for the day for us. Our plans for a big bike ride turned into a morning of drinking lots of coffee, cooking a huge breakfast (eggs, bacon, mushrooms, and onion covered in puff pastry), and reading on the couch. BJ’s quote of the day, which almost won as the title of this blog: “I love drinking coffee and doing nothing.” That pretty much sums it up. We finally dragged ourselves out of the house, went on a 30 minute bike ride, half of which was up a paved road near Coronet Peak, and then drove to Arrowtown to spend a couple hours reading and napping in a park under a tree under an orange sky, followed by our classic kiwi date . . . dinner and a mooooovie. This time, however, we didn’t watch the typical blockbuster. Waltz with Bashir, an animated portrayal of an Israeli soldier’s memory (or loss of memory) of the Lebanon War in the early 1980s, is one of the most unique and powerful films I have seen. Based on the dreamlike memories that he has, and those that he discovers through interviews of fellow soldiers, it seems only fitting that the film would be animated. We quickly drove home to look up a map and details on the war.

The orange skies had moved on from Queenstown today and we woke up with a bit more energy. We still spent a little time with coffee, breakfast, and books on the couch, but sooner than later got antsy and headed out to a place called Moke Lake for a bike ride. Despite the encroaching dark rain clouds, we set out anyways along a dirt road that wrapped around the backside of Ben Lomond Peak, which shadows Queenstown. The road eventually meets up with singletrack along the Moonlight Track. We had some hellish climbs and fast descents along the road but were clearly enjoying worrying the sheep, the lack of people, the historic feeling of riding along an old mining road, and the incredible views over the valley that dropped off from the road. On our way back to the car, BJ got an idea in his head (or maybe his belly) of a Fergburger, a famous burger joint in downtown Queenstown that we had yet to experience. I pictured Homer (BJ) sleepwalking (riding a bike) to the fridge (Queenstown) with a thought bubble of beer (big juicy burger) above his head. We tried the burger kiwi style by asking for a topping of sliced beets and, of course, a side of chips (fries). It was a delicious Monday afternoon in New Zealand.

It didn’t take long after our evening riding the downhill trails on Coronet Peak for BJ to find and bid on two mountain bikes on the Kiwi version of ebay. They have yet to arrive and we are very excited to start riding but, in the end, what may hold us up is the delivery of a box marked “Bike” that BJ’s mom just took to the post office in Victor. We left three ready-to-ship boxes in our closet at home, each marked appropriately . . . Bike, Ski, Climb. The big items like bikes and skis obviously didn’t fit very well in the boxes so we decided before we left that we would buy and then sell those items down here.

We spent another evening, with a movie at the Dorothy Brown’s cinema and dinner at a restaurant called The Stables, in Arrowtown on Tuesday. We just can’t seem to get enough of that place. The one detail we noticed this week while sitting in our enormous reclining theatre seats with a glass of wine and cheeseboard in hand, was that we were surrounded by more-than-double-by-age women. There’s just no classy way of saying it . . . middle-aged. But it was the realization that we were there enjoying the film with them that actually made us laugh. The film was Vicky Cristina Barcelona, a Woody Allen film that I thought had a somewhat disappointing ending until, over dinner, BJ pointed out the message about passion that it was trying to convey. I won’t spoil it for you.

On another note, yesterday my Aunt Kate sent me a link to a job she thought I should apply for . . . The Best Job in the World . . . which thoroughly distracted me for most of the day. If you are unemployed (actually even if you are employed), and looking for some quality time writing on the beach, this would be a great opportunity. I think the job requirements say “must be willing to snorkel, sail, or kayak as needed.” I know . . . really demanding.

After wrapping up a work day on Saturday, we popped over to the Queenstown Events Centre, an outdoor venue for cricket and concerts, for the first annual Peak Music Festival. The festival featured a few local bands like dDub and Salmonella Dub, a popular Kiwi band called Kora, British DJs the Utah Saints, and headliner Ministry of Sound. We heard news around 6pm that the Ministry of Sound was still in London and Utah Saints would be appointed the new headliner. Oh well. In the end, we both agreed that the two local bands, dDub and Salmonella Dub, were by far our favorite and perhaps we should have saved the cash and just seen them at a local bar. A majority of the music we have found down here seems to be electronic and Salmonella Dub, with acoustic guitar and bongos, was a live version of what you would normally hear a DJ spinning at a club. They had a lot of energy on stage and we look forward to seeing them live again.

We got a late start on Sunday. Sleeping in to 10am is a rare occurrence for the two of us but with such long days, we hardly noticed. We spent a leisurely morning at home and headed into town around noon for a hike that we have been talking about since we arrived in Queenstown. Ben Lomond peak sits about 4,500 feet above Queenstown, offering views that overlook ALL surrounding mountains. Although a popular trail, we hit it on a beautiful day and enjoyed a late lunch on the peak looking out over Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkables.

Probably the highlight of our weekend in Queenstown was a somewhat unexpected visit from two very close family friends. Alan and Lili Penkower have known my dad since the 60s and are very much a part of our family. Their son, Jonathan, spent quite a bit of time living and working in Queenstown about ten years ago and they have been planning a trip down here ever sense. It was a pleasure to show them around during their first visit to Queenstown. We met up with them right before lunch and didn’t stop talking and catching up until we said goodnight just before midnight. We were only able to squeeze out a few stories from them involving my dad and some sort of riot or political march. We had quite a full day as well . . .we went to lunch at Brazz, took a stroll through the Queenstown Gardens, visited the Chinese Settlement in Arrowtown immediately followed by a delicious ice cream cone dipped in chocolate, and after a quick visit to our house, we spent the remainder of the evening enjoying dinner at Fish Bone. They are spending the next few days in the Milford Sound and we will hopefully be able to see them off on their way back through this weekend.

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.

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.