Just as they left Punakaiki, BJ and I began cleaning the house and packing up. We enjoyed a final walk down to the beach before we left. The wind was howling and the waves were crashing further out than we had ever seen. We came to the conclusion that the Tasman Sea was just really upset that we were leaving.

Once we returned to the house, we picked up our backpacks, two carry-ons, and two bikes to head to the bus stop and it immediately started raining. We had already given the keys to the neighbor so we took cover on the porch as it poured down. As it started to let up we quickly made our way down the road. We were a pretty funny site . . . each carrying a full backpack, BJ with his computer bag and my rolly bag and I with both bikes. It was only a few kilometers but we got lots of stares from passing cars along the way. We stopped at the half way point at the local Tavern for a final Puni Burger, the most delicious burger in New Zealand, and a beer, and then continued on to the “town center” to catch a bus to Nelson.

After what seemed to be a very short 5 hour bus ride we arrived in Nelson for a week in the “big city.” We are staying in a family’s home about a 20 minute bike ride from downtown Nelson. Since their 21-year-old son is away at university, we get his room for the week. It’s decked out with old records nailed to the ceiling, a keyboard and amp in the corner, and a small shrine that his parents put together of his photos, but totally comfortable and perfect for what we need for a week. We spent all day yesterday in town, running a few big city errands and gearing up for Thailand and China with a few essentials . . . like climbing shoes, a bikini for me and some new surf shorts for BJ. Our method of transport has been our bikes and it has been so fun to cruise around and be so mobile in the middle of winter.

It was back to work today but we are venturing out for a movie tonight and hopefully a not-too-cold-or-wet bike ride home. For those of you I haven’t shared this with, I am going to start working full time for Vertical Media next month as their Content Manager. I am super excited about this opportunity and can’t wait to officially join the team.

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!

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.

My mom and stepdad, Steve, threw us a small going away party on Tuesday night and it was a pleasure to spend time with a group of family and friends that mean so much to me . . . my mom and dad, Steve, Fran, Katie, Michele, Merrik, Shannon and Jimmy. Our last night was spent with Shalyn and Randall in the city. We stayed up much later than we all normally do, drinking wine that they still have left over from their wedding. It felt like way to short of a visit with them. I think Shalyn and I could spend a week straight together and still have stuff to catch up on. My dad and Fran are picking us up in a couple of hours to head to lunch and then on to the airport.

I am not sure it has fully hit me yet but I am generally excited about the days that lay ahead. I have spent so much time with my family and friends out in California this year, more time than usual, and I fear that I will be pretty family-sick while we are gone. But there is an easy solution to this. Everyone that I love will have to come visit us! Please let us know when you will be arriving.