riverECHO

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.

Prepare yourself . . . this is a long one. My mom and stepdad arrived a week ago and although I feel like they just arrived, we really covered a lot of ground . . . so much that I didn’t have a chance to write until they left town.

As I cleaned up the house and prepared a room for my mom and stepdad to arrive on Friday afternoon, my roommate Ali gave me a nervous smile and said “I may be in labor.” She had somewhat expected to be early (she was originally due March 17th on BJ’s birthday) but we couldn’t help but laugh about the timing with my parents showing up in just a few hours time. I was so excited for my mom and stepdad to come to town but realized I hadn’t warned them that there would possibly be 6 ½ in the house instead of just us 6.  When they arrived I could quickly see the excitement in my mom’s eyes and the slight look of terror in my stepdad’s. We quickly moved them into their room and I suggested that we head downtown for a beer and dinner to welcome them into town and to get out of Steve and Ali’s hair as they timed her contractions. During dinner at Fishbone, we got a text from Steve that they were heading to the hospital and just 4 “easy” hours later we got a second text that said they had given birth to a baby boy, Tyler Robert Thomas Hanrahan. We met Tyler two days later in the hospital . . . welcome to the world Tyler!

While BJ worked on Saturday, my mom, stepdad, and I explored Queenstown, the Saturday craft fair and my favorite coffee shop, Vudu. We returned home to pick him up for a little afternoon wine tasting at Peregrine and Gibbston Valley wineries, a quick visit to watch a few people bungee jump, followed by a film in the Arrowtown Cinema where we watched Man on Wire, a documentary on a French street performer who illegally rigs and walks across a wire spanning between the two towers of the World Trade Center. We returned home to what would become the norm for the week . . . a little more wine and a lot of conversation until way past my bedtime.

We triple checked the forecast before agreeing on a general plan for the week. Unfortunately it called for rain, cold temps and even snow! There is really only one place to look forward to in the rain . . . Milford Sound. We packed our rain jackets and warmth, made a quick visit to the hospital to see Ali, Steve and Tyler on the way out of town, and drove straight to Milford where we had reservations on a Mitre Peak Boat Cruise, one of the smallest boats that cruises the fiord. We checked in and found out that so far we were the only 4 that would be on the boat and that the company actually required at least 6 people to book in order to sail.  So we quickly got to work attempting to recruit two more people for our boat and luckily just 5 minutes before departure time we got the thumbs up and hopped aboard. It had been raining most of the day so far causing thousands of waterfalls to pour into the fiord, but just as we set out the rain stopped almost completely. It was just about perfect. Although we couldn’t see the tops of the mountains the clouds, mist and waterfalls were spectacular and easily made up for it. We ventured out into the opens waters of the Tasman Sea and had to hang on tightly as the boat bounced and crashed over waves, making for a very exciting few minutes laughing about the morbid thought of the captain falling overboard and being stuck out at sea. Just as we turned around to head back in the rain started up again and we spent the remainder of the trip, including a dunk under a massive waterfall, under a covered area on the boat. We experienced the best weather possible in Milford Sound and celebrated with a mandatory beer at the one and only bar in Milford.

We drove back to Te Anau from Milford, my mom shooting photos around every bend, where we had reserved a room and a campsite for the night at a Holiday Park. As my mom and stepdad have toured the South Island, my mom found herself constantly rolling the window down and sticking her head and camera out to snap a quick shot of something beautiful. She took so many photos from the passenger seat of the car that she unintentionally began a collection called “Photos from the Road.” Each photo usually contains at least a portion of the car, window, pavement, or fence line along the road somewhat encroaching on, yet another, beautiful New Zealand scene. We checked in to the Holiday Park in Te Anau and while BJ and I set up out tent, my stepdad decided to turn on the small space heater in their very cold, very tiny cabin. We could smell the burning as we walked back over to meet them and come to find that the heater was burning a few small markings in the carpet. We put on our Good Samaritan hats and, instead of covering up the burn with a small carpet runner, we took the fried heater to the front office to tell them what happened. The front desk staff gave us a very disappointed look and told us they would assess the damages in the morning. Apparently they thought we burned the carpet on purpose and they were going to do their best to make us pay! We went to dinner, dismissed our frustration with the Holiday Park, and spent the rest of the evening in the communal kitchen playing many hands of Gin Rummy and keeping watch for the “Carpet Burner Killer,” aka the front desk staff.

We woke up in Te Anau to a cold bite in the air and snow capped peaks in all directions. We planned to dedicate much of the day to seeking out a few good fishing holes for my stepdad. First stop was on the river side of the Control Gates at Lake Te Anau. While he fished, my mom and I went on a short hike through the rainforest along the Kepler Track and BJ read his book in the sun. My stepdad had a couple bites but was quickly learning just how difficult fishing is in New Zealand. I suppose the country is world renowned as a fishing destination because of the challenge it poses . . . they don’t call it “catching” for a reason. We continued on down the road back to Queenstown, stopping in the town of Athol at Stu’s Orgasmic Fly Shop for a little advice, and hit up a number of different well known holes along the Mataura River. We could see the huge trout just hanging out below the surface and watched as my stepdad’s perfect cast floated a fly directly over the trout. But no bites . . . not even a little nibble. It’s as if they were laughing at us for even attempting to trick them. While my stepdad continued to test the trout, my mom, BJ and I kept ourselves thoroughly entertained by taking close up photos of flowers and bees, reading and building small cairns along the water’s edge.

We had contemplated spending a night in the Aspiring Hut up the Matukituki Valley the following night but the combination of the rainy forecast, lack of time, and a snoring habit helped us change our plans to just a day hike up to the Rob Roy Glacier. The first section of the walk is out in the open, along pasture land, and the sideways blowing rain had us drenched in no time. BJ and I were pretty willing to turn back to the car but my mom encouraged all of us to keep going. Once we crossed the river we thankfully found tree shelter along the track and continued up to the glacier. Since my mom and stepdad had only seen Franz Joseph Glacier from distance on the west coast, they were really excited when the trail ended just below the calving Rob Roy Glacier. It was completely worth the initial dousing of rain! Of course as we returned to the car the rain softened and the clouds lifted so that my mom and stepdad could get a feel for why the Matukituki Valley is one of BJs favorite places in New Zealand. That evening we dined at a small Thai restaurant in Wanaka where we happened to run into our friend Smiley, who we hadn’t seen since Brad and Gretchen were in town. He joined us while we ate and, being an avid fisherman himself, reassured my stepdad that the New Zealand trout are very smart fish. As we drove back over the Crown Range to Queenstown we encountered the worst of the forecast . . . It was actually snowing on top of the pass. There was barely a dusting of snow on the road and normally, like all winters in Jackson, we would have cruised on through at high speed, but I felt out of my element as if I had never even seen snow before. I quickly threw it into 1st gear, white-knuckled the steering wheel, and clenched my teeth as we inched over the pass in our two wheel drive family wagon. It’s funny to think about now.

We woke up the following morning to dark clouds, a little rain, and snowcapped mountains around Lake Wakatipu. I cooked Breakfast Pie (bacon, mushrooms, onions, eggs, and cheese, all under puff pastry), we drank lots of coffee and even got in a group video Skype call in to my little sister Anni who was hard at work, like always, at UCSB. But this only delayed us until about noon when we finally decided to face the weather and get out of the house. We drove the winding lake road up to Glenorchy to fish the Caples, Diamond Creek, and Rees River. We, of course, started out the afternoon with a very necessary cappuccino at the Glenorchy Café and then made our way to the Caples Trailhead. We had assured my stepdad that it was just a 5 minute stroll to the bridge, but after 15 minutes, realized we had quite a ways to go yet. He backtracked towards the car to fish an area that had caught his eye while my mom, BJ and I ventured on a bit further to the bridge we had remembered. Thankfully we did not see as many fish as we had expected . . . my stepdad made a wise choice but still encountered the same smart trout of New Zealand. After a cold day (I was hiking in long johns, my puffy jacket, and a rain jacket), we returned to Queenstown for my parents last night in town and went straight to the Cow for a yummy warm pizza dinner. It was hard to believe our time together was coming to an end and we prolonged saying goodbye by spending another late night catching up on life, work, my stepdad’s partial retirement, and looking at photos from Fiji. As my mom and stepdad departed yesterday morning, I felt like they had just arrived but looking back over photos and remembering funny moments all over the southland it is clear that we really packed a lot in to their limited time in the country. We decided that if we aren’t back home in a year, they would come visit us again wherever we are. I plan to hold them to it!

We’ve made it through both the first and second films and are about to embark on the third one. My dad and Fran have even watched most of the extras that go into how the trilogy was filmed, the costumes and props, and the characters. While BJ had to return to work the day after we returned from Milford Sound, the rest of us drove up to Glenorchy, a small town just an hour’s drive up the lake from Queenstown. We knew many scenes from the Lord of the Rings had been filmed in that area but didn’t know which or where. We weren’t a minute away from the house when the questions started coming and I decided that we better prepare ourselves with a bit of solid information to guide our journey instead of just making it all up. We stopped in Queenstown before our departure and went into an official Lord of the Rings Store where Fran purchased a Lord of the Rings Location Guide. My dad narrated the drive up to Glenorchy and we followed a dirt road out to an area called Paradise. It was beautiful and we could see the glaciated peaks of Mount Earnslaw in the background. It was fun having the guide to tell us what had been filmed where but to be honest, all of the names in films sound so similar that I could never really picture which part, or even which of the three films, they were referring to. After a while along the road to Paradise, we backtracked a bit and drove out towards the Routeburn Track where we strolled along the nature walk for a while.

As we left Glenorchy we could see clouds starting to build in the mountains and sure enough the rains came pouring down the next morning. Our big outings over the last two days have been to a local coffee shop and to the cinema and museum in Arrowtown. It’s actually been quite refreshing for us, and my dad and Fran, to have some down time while it rains.

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.