Dec. 30 - Invercargill

Dec. 30, 2008
Invercargill (the "arsehole of NZ", according to Mick Jagger)


Well, I woke up at the southernmost point in NZ's So. Island this morning 1 day ahead of schedule: I was shooting for NYE.

It wasn't quite clear whether I was camped on public land or not, so I was a little wary when I heard an ATV driving around the bluff in the middle of the night. I looked over and he was sweeping through the fields with a spotlight, clearly looking for something. Then, I heard the gunfire:

KRAK! KRAK! KRAK!

in rapid succession, and very close. I was frozen. Not much I could do, really. Leaving the tent, I could be mistaken for whatever he was hunting. So I staid put.

When he drove around to my side of the bluff, he flashed his spotlight on my tent three times in succession. This is it, I thought, this guys gonna fuck with me. But then he took off.

I realized today that he probably didn't intentionally flick his light on my tent 3 times; he was probably sweeping over the landscape back-and-forth with the light. And what the hell was he hunting? I thought maybe some pest species that was affecting his cattle ranch...?

To be honest, I felt less in danger here than I would have in the US. I figured that at most, the guy would buzz me...but it wasn't clear to me that he even intended to do that. He did leave after he spotted me.

Dec. 27 -- Dunedin (post-Routeburn Track)

Dec. 28
Brighton (just S of Dunedin)


The highlight of the Routeburn Trail was celebrating Hanukkah on Christmas Day at the Routeburn Flats Campground with 3 Israelis (a woman traveling solo and two guys.) They lit 6 candles in the rain and all sang songs. It was a special moment.

I won't go into the Routeburn -- the clouds mostly obscured the alpine scenery. You could "sense" that it was there, but you couldn't see it. I may make another bid -- just a dayhike -- coming from the Milford Sound side...if it's clear.

In my final analysis, NZ backpacking cannot compete with that of the Sierra Nevada. You just can't beat that California sunshine! Plus, the abundance of alpine lakes and opportunites for solitude in the Sierra reallly place the home front in first place. Give me a summer day in the Ansel Adams or Emigrant Wilderness, and you can pretty much be sure that it's going to be a great day.

Anyway, Queenstown had become an unbelievable jam of tourists who were peeing in Moke Lake, harrassing my favorite waitress at Sombrero's, and basically just acting like Fisherman's Wharf tourists. Plus, the sandfly situation was not improving. Those things come out when it's rainy/wet, and they disappear when it's hot and sunny. So, you get a double-whammy when it rains b/c the shitflies swarm you.

Thankfully, the sandflies are not everywhere...and this red-blooded Californian still hadn't been in the ocean. So, I drove out to Dunedin on the East Coast. The Central Otago countryside is remarkably arid and treeless; many places could pass for California.

Dunedin is, well...Dunedin. The architecture is styled after Scotland and I don't find it very warm. Plus, there seem to be very few trees for some reason. The city center is oriented around an octagonal street grid, the center of which is called "The Octagon". So, everything orients around The Octagon.

Now, if you just go 3 km south from the Octagon, you find yourself at St. Clair Beach, which is a beautiful beach with perfect white sand in a salty, laid-back beach community. This is a cool place. And, the surf looked really nice.

I picked up a surfboard and had my first surf session today at Blackhead, which is a cove that looks incredibly similar to Rockaway. The kiwis were just as friendly in the water as they are on land. The water is about 58-60, the swell was about 2-3', and the predictable offshore wind was howling.

So, I am heading south via the Catlins coastline to Invercargill, from which point I need to head back to Queenstown to pick up my birthday package. I don't know what the email connectivity will be for the next few days, but I would presume not that good. I'm sure I'll get online by NYE.

Dec. 24 -- Q-town

Dec. 24, XMAS Eve
Queenstown -- Sombrero's Mexican Restaurant (deja vu)

It happened just as promised....and it happened overnight: summer arrived in NZ. It's hot as shit, the lake is pure glass, and the streets of Queenstown are manic and choked with tourists like Fisherman's Wharf in high season. Wow.

I can't tell you how different this is from the days when I was cringing in my Subaru in the rain in deserted beach towns. Today is like one of those perfect summer days at Tahoe, when the lake is mirror glassy, the sky is clear, the beaches are packed with screaming kids splashing around, and it's all good. Chrismastime..... and the living is easy.

I got the 411 from a local gal on on the primo lake spot for "freedom camping" (that's what they call guerrilla camping here). It's warmer than the big lake with the impossible-to-spell name, has nice grass to walk around barefoot in, and -- here's the clincher -- no sandflies!!!!!!

Tomorrow I embark on the 3-day Routeburn Track. This is the one that they say is "one of the finest trails on the planet." So, I'll be out of contact 'til the 27th or 28th.

Here's wishing you happy and mirthful Christmas stylings this year.
Miss you all,
Tomate

Dec. 23 -- Queenstown

Dec. 23
Queenstown
Sombrero's Mexican Cantina

NZ continues to blow my mind. I talked to these local high schoolers from Glenorchy (Glenorchy is like Point Reyes Station). These kids were so damn mature, courteous, and wordly, I was totally surprised. You'd think in some end-of-the-road they'd be hicks or burnouts -- or at least, hate where they live -- but they were were totally stoked to be living there b/c of all the outdoor offerings. One had an Olympian skiier Mom and they had basically been raised tramping, skiing, etc...

Three things these kids told me really stand out as distinctly NZ:

First, they kept talking proudly about a 2 week outward bound-style wilderness trip that their high school is famous for in NZ. They said that they have friends who had transferred to the school just so they could do the trip! Thinking of my Big City Mountaineers youth, I am so impressed that the average kiwi public high schooler would be so excited to go on a demanding 2-week backcountry experience.

Second, they said that Lake Wakapittiu (whatever) is the only lake in the world that has noticeable tides! ~ 16 cm!

Third, their classmate gets dropped at high school in a helicopter. !!!!!

Dec. 23 -- Glenorchy (back from Rees Valley tramp)

Kinloch (across Lake Wakatipu from Glenorchy)
Nov. 23, 2008

I was so "bushed" coming out of the backcountry last night, that it was all I could do to pull into the campground here by the lake, throw out my tent, and collapse. Apparently, I did it right in the middle of the boat ramp! Oh well. This morning I'm having banana pancakes and listening to the muzak version of "Easy Like Sunday Morning" at some super-groovy end-of-the road "hotel". I am celebrating completion of my tramp on the Rees Valley!

The trip was uber-stunning, a life experience...and a crash course in NZ tramping, too. (it'll be in my forthcoming guidebook: "New Zealand: It Ain't Mexico (or Yosemite)).

Friday:
I hiked out of the TH into cloudly skies at 5:45 pm. I thought I'd do at least 2 hours and stop at 25-Mile Hut, which is "maintained" by a private mountaineering club. Of course, I spent over an hour negotiating various creek fords, only to posthole in a swamp near the end.

There was a sign for the hut, but only the faintest track going straight uphill and out of sight. As I huffed up the hill, I wondered if the hut was even still there? surely they would have removed the sign?

Well, the hut was there, or at least, 3/4 of it was. The chimney side was mostly blown out by fire, and the chimney stones were blasted all over. Inside, there were 2 passable bunks, but some of the others had trash, branches and spiderwebby-animal detritus. In truth, it would have made a perfect set for a horror movie.

Saturday:
Within an hour of falling asleep on Friday night, it started to rain madly...and never stopped, all through Saturday. I was trapped: even if had I braved the rain, the various river and creek crossings would have been impassable -- going up-trail, or back to the car. So I had to chill...and that is precisely what I did, as the storm was colder than shit and the wind came right in through the open wall. I built a sarcophagus with my tent fly, and spent all day cringing in my bag. It was not a stone groove. The next morning, there was snow just upslope.

Sunday:
In true NZ style, the miserable rain passed and left the most beautiful day ever. The Rees Valley is a broad river basin flanked by impossibly big mountains with brilliant white glaciers. It's a million-dollar view. And the river is so damn clear, you can see the bottom perfectly.
A couple hours upriver, the basin closes up, and the trail enters forest and starts to charge up the mountain. The only rule to NZ forests is that there is growth everywhere...whether its ferns or beech trees or tussock, it's like someone put dynamite in a massive vat of green paint and BOOM-SPLAT! there you have it. And endless little waterfall grottos and Elvin environs, Middle Earth-style.

Climbing higher, the trail passes through some alpine meadows that offer sick views as you traverse avalanche runoff chutes. Then, you arrive at a flat-ish basin right below the finned ridge where the Shelter Rock Hut is located. "Hut" doesn't really capture the true plushness of the joint; running water, flush toilets, and like 30 bunks. Plus, a veranda for chiling out and mixing it up with the Germans and Fins. But -- and here's the rub -- no swimming!!! NZ tramping is mostly about carrying your backpack from hut-to-hut. It's not like the Sierra, where you hike to a lake, and drop the pack for swimmming and day bags.

Monday:
Didn't really have enough food to keep going in, and had to be back for the Routeburn Track on the 25th (changed my start date), so I hiked out on another spectacular day. A funny thing happened when I got down to the river basin: this hot chick in full gaiters was coming up-trail, turn's out she was a Mormon from Utah. No shit. And in trying to cross a little pond, she ate shit right in front of me. I wish I could say that I was a gentleman, but I couldn't help but crack up. It was comedy. Anyway, we may hook up after or respective tramps. I hope she is on that "year off" of experimentation that all the Mormons do.

The way back was endless spectacular views, and some demanding swamp-trudging and crazy workarounds at river sections, where you'd climb straight up the banks a couple hundred feet, and straight down. I was most fatigued when I arrived back at my coach. Bushed, indeed.

Dec. 18 -- Queenstown, yo

If I haven't been laying it on thick, it's because it would get redundant...but I just gotta say again that is place is EXQUISITELY pretty. I mean, coming into Queenstown was borderline outrageous. Phenomenal. Visual masturbation for the wilderness pornographer

Damn. I'm still reeling. Basically, the road from Wanaka to Queenstown says 58 km, so I'm like, "cool, it's less than an hour." What the map did not show me is that the road included a high, snowy pass crossing, multiple washouts, ribbon-like switchhbacks, and the occasional sheep herd traffic jam. Plus, I was stopping every third minute to check the view. In other words, your typical NZ drive.

Queenstown is a major tourist hub, providing access to Milford Sound and the Routeburn Track (Fjordland NP and Mt. Aspiring NP, respectively.) It also enjoys a setting on par with Tahoe, with deep blue lakes and wild, fin-like mountain peaks all around. Whether you are driving or walking, every turn brings a new view.

This is also where the first bungee jump was legalized in 1988, and is basically Disneyland for the outdoor/adrenaline junkie. I find it overwhelming, and I'm eager to eat my Mexican meal and blast on to Glenorchy, which is the gateway town for my next 2 tramps (Rees/Dart Valleys and Routeburn).

NZ has sooo much going for it that the guidebook didn't even mention that I was about to pass through a world-class view. They're a dime-a-dozen down here.

Incidentally, I had an interesting conversation with a waitress from Maryland. She says that NZ suffers from talent flight, as the best and the brightest leave for Oz, Europe or the US. Then, I heard on the radio today, that outmigration is at an all time high. Maybe its the sandflies.

Dec. 17 - Wanaka Wanaka Wanaka

Dec. 17, 2008
Wanaka

Fucking New Zealand, man. The weather here is truly unbelievable. Last night, my patience was starting to flag. Between sandflies, mosquitoes, marauding kea, wind, and rain, I've been cringing in my tent or car for like a fortnight. I can't remember the last time that I could sit outside on my camp chair in the evening and read a book.

Then today, I woke up to such a jaw-droppingly beautiful day, it was like being re-born. Stunning. And the best part is today was my first swim! If you could have told me back in October that I would be in NZ/Oz for 6 weeks before I could swim, I would have had second thoughts about the trip. Swimming is the best part of camping...and it's also how you stay clean. But weather and infection have conspired to keep me out of the water...'til today.

I sat in my car at lake's edge, timing my entrry into the lake with the sun coming out from the clouds. When the sun's behind the clouds, it's freezing, and when the sun comes out, it's like a nuclear inferno. This is just how it is in NZ.

I plunged into the lake, and it felt so good, that I just drifted underwater from my dive for a long, long time. I was cleansed of all the crusty days of playing the waiting game.

Anyway, I just read my journal entries for the last 2 days, and had to truncate the paragaphs of griping about the weather. It's not only kept me off the trail, but it makes camping really suck.

The storm is passing today, and tomorrow I set off on a 4/5-day circuit in Rees/Dart Valleys. We are finally at EXECUTION PHASE! 45 fucking days to get to this point, man. I am so ready.

I get back from the Rees-Dart Circuit on the 22nd, and the next day I set off on a 3-day out-and-back on the Routeburn Track, coming out of the backcountry on XMAS day. There is a slight possibility that I will not be able to get online between the two trips, and if that's the case, I want to wish every one a Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukkah!

If I haven't posted by Dec. 27, the point-of-contact is the Dept. of Conservation office in Glenorchy. But I wouldn't worry: these tramps are not only hut-to-hut on well-established tracks, but I am actually reserved by name for the Routeburn Track!


Much love to all,
Tomate.