Rainy Day Raspberry Parfait :)

A few weeks ago, Ryan and I made the most delicious parfait.  It was comprised of homemade yogurt, homemade granola, and raspberries from the farmer's market.  It was delicious.  Even this far after the fact, I'm just too pleased with the way it turned out to not share a picture or two!

Hump Ridge Track

Another amazing New Zealand tramp this weekend!  I decided to join one of my best friends from Bowdoin, Elizabeth, who's also studying at Otago, and a few of her friends on the Hump Ridge Track in Southern Fiordland, as they had an extra spot.  It was one of those trips where even though we had a few obstacles along the way, the struggles will only make the memory that much stronger in my mind.

On Friday night, we drove to the trailhead and stayed in the carpark so we could start the tramp the next morning.  The drive there was struggle #1... we got a much later start than we wanted, so we didn't get to the carpark until 2am, when it was alternating hail and pouring rain.  On the drive there, Sammy was pulled over for the first time for driving too SLOW...apparently since she was feeling a little unsure about driving on the left side of the road the police officer noticed that she was driving less than half the speed limit and swerving in and out of the lines.  Oops.  But we eventually made it there and got a few hours of sleep before our first day on the trail...

The first day was estimated to take 7-9 hours and included 1000 meters elevation climb (a pretty good climb, if that's unclear).  It started along the beach, which was beautiful if not for the hail pelting our faces.  Then, the climb through the trees up the hill began.  The forecast for the weekend had predicted a few millimeters of snow at the hut our first day, so we were expecting it to be cold but nothing too bad.  So we were shocked when halfway up the trail was covered in snow, which only kept increasing to be almost half a foot deep at the top!  There were times where I wondered if the fitness and preparedness of our group really made it prudent for us to continue, but through the hail and snow and wind we prevailed to make it to the hut in a solid 8 hours time. To be fair, once making it to the dry comfort of the hut, I really appreciated the snow for how beautiful the snow made the already stunning landscape.  Another group of international students was also doing the track at the same time we were, and arrived at the hut only shortly after we did.  After a delicious warm dinner, we spent the evening in the bunkroom playing cards, enjoying tim-tam slams (sucking hot chocolate through chocolate wafers until they almost melt in your hand then slamming the whole thing in your mouth at once), and passing out in our sleeping bags to the sound of the wind outside.

Rainbow ahead on the track the first day!  A promising sight!

Entering mossy Fiordland.  Unfortunately this is the extent of the photos I have from the first day, as a result of the inclement weather, so you'll have to use your imagination for the rest... 

   

We woke the next day to a surprisingly clear and beautiful morning.  The snow from the day before had left a magical white covering on everything around.  From the hut, there was a short 1-hour summit loop around the top of the mountain, which I did with a few friends from the other group.  The scenery was beyond incredible -- simply indescribable.  So here are some pictures....

On top of the world! (picture credit to Caroline)

A hearty breakfast of oatmeal followed, then we headed off on the second day of tramping.  This day covered as much distance as the day before, but was mostly downhill then flat along the coast, and was much improved by better weather.  We split into two tramping groups and ours made it to the second hut in record speed, with plenty of time to walk down to enjoy the beach nearby.  The second hut was situated in historic Port Craig, where a lumber mill used to be.  (The hut was actually a renovated historic schoolhouse from the town).  While enjoying the beach, we also enjoyed many of the relics scattered around the premises.  It was really interesting to be in such a rugged wilderness location and also be surrounded by so much history.

 Whole group on the porch at the hut before setting off the 2nd day (picture credit to Brett)

Matt, Sammy, Elizabeth and I near the beginning of the tramp down

Tramping down the very snowy (and beautiful) track (picture credit to Brett)

Along old railroad tracks

These trees showed so much creep!  Would have made my geomorphology professor proud!

Port Craig Village Beach

We saw Hector's Dolphins at the beach!  This is apparently a very good beach to see them, as a pod of ~100 lives in the bay, but they are actually the rarest dolphin in the world, so it was quite a treat to see them in the flesh while tramping.

Playing cards by candlelight in the hut, 2nd night

The next day was our last day on the trail, so our group hoped to get an early start to get home at a decent time.  I woke up early and took a little walk around to enjoy the morning light by myself a bit first before waking the rest of the group up.  For the track back to the carpark, we had two options: the beach route, which is only supposed to be done within 1 hour of low tide each day, or the inland route, which can always be done but takes a bit longer.  I, knowing that we didn't have a tide chart and having seen the tide fairly high that morning, wanted to listen to my instincts and go with the safety of the inland route.  However, Sammy and Matt really wanted to do beach route and Matt assumed that the tide was low enough to do it. You know what they say about assuming....  Big mistake not trusting my instincts.  While some parts were fine, and we were able to walk on rocks or sand on the beach, others were much worse.  At one part, Elizabeth and I decided to climb up the hill and bushwhack for a while as opposed to climbing over sketchy rocks hanging over crashing waves, but at one part there was no way up the hill, and we had to walk over slippery seaweed-covered rocks with waves crashing against our legs the whole time!  I don't want to be too melodramatic, but I think it's fair to say that near-death experiences were not out of the question.  LUCKILY we finally made it to the end and the trails converged again!  With all the obstacles, the trail took longer than expected, but after a quick lunch break to re-coop a bit and change to dry socks, we powered the rest of the way and made it to the car in good time.  

Enjoying early morning light on the last day

Post-near-death experiences (Sorry Mom, no pictures of that. I was too busy trying to stay alive to pull my camera out...)

Peek-a-boo views

New Zealand weather and landscape always keeps things interesting!  In spite of, or maybe actually BECAUSE of, the obstacles we faced, it turned out to be an incredible weekend.  I am so sad to think that I only have a month and a half left in this beautiful country, so I'm trying to soak in every moment of it. Looking forward to Kepler Track and Milford Sound next weekend with Ryan!

New Zealand Thanksgiving

By the time Thanksgiving roles around this year, most of us studying abroad here at Otago will either be traveling around New Zealand (or other parts of the Pacific) or already headed home.  So while we were all still here and before final exams start picking up, we decided to celebrate with a proper Thanksgiving meal last Saturday, with Americans cooking the food and spreading our traditions to our Kiwi friends.  

Stuffing preparations

Grandma Mabel's rolls

The food, of course, was delicious.  It was wonderful to share traditional things we make and see the different things that other families ear.  Ryan and I cooked stuffing, broccoli salad, cranberry sauce, and Grandma Mabel's rolls.  It all turned out beautifully and was enjoyed by all, but it was definitely an interesting experience for me to make cranberry sauce from dried cranberries!  We got to enjoy others' family traditions as well, including Brenden's family tradition of dessert punch before dinner :)

Delicious spread of food!

Dessert spread :)

For the benefit of the kiwis on their first American Thanksgiving, we had hand turkey making before dinner, just like we used to do in elementary school.  We also had a reading of the traditional Thanksgiving story (from Wikipedia, but that's okay) and it was actually nice to remember the reason why Thanksgiving started.  Before eating, we all went around and said what we were thankful for this year.  Not surprisingly, everyone was thankful to be in such a beautiful country with such beautiful friends!

Charlie and Steph learning to make hand turkeys

Playing rain-making games after dinner

Hand turkey wall!

Rugby time

As a crucial part of my New Zealand cultural experience, I have now attended a rugby game of both the Dunedin 'Nude Blacks' and the world-famous New Zealand All Blacks!  A few weeks ago, the All Blacks were having a game at the stadium in Dunedin against South Africa.  One of the local club teams has a tradition of playing a game completely in the nude on any day when the All Blacks are playing in town.  To get in the rugby spirit for that night (and at the insistence of dad), Elizabeth and I decided it was necessary to check it out.

To be honest, nude rugby was probably one of the weirdest things I have ever witnessed.  Rugby is a very contact sport, and both teams were very naked.  And of course, as the ''nude blacks'', they started with the traditional haka dance.  It made for quite a spectacle, and thousands of people of all ages came out to watch.  Quite a cultural experience!  Don't see things like this in the States.

Later that night, Ryan and I donned our black clothes and headed off to the stadium for the real game of the day.  On the way into the stadium, we bought a couple of All Blacks flags to wave and show our support during the game, and of course as souvenirs.  They started off with the world-famous Haka, which was amazing to see live.  (If you don't know it, you should probably look it up on youtube.)  I hadn't seen much rugby before, but I was amazed at how quickly it went by!  Though there were some times during the game when it came close, the All Blacks eventually pulled out the win.  It was so fun to claim the All Blacks as 'our team' and celebrate the win in the streets on the way home with the 20,000+ other people all there to see the game.  The national spirit in the stadium and in Dunedin that night was amazing.  I guess I've never really been into sports much in the states, but it was really fun to be apart of it here.

The haka

The scrum

This is my favorite part, when they hoist one of the players up in the air to catch the ball after a throw in

During half time, most of New Zealand's olympic medal winners came out onto the field and were interviewed and enthusiastically applauded

Waving the flag after a score

Celebrating the All Blacks win at the end of the game

Greenstone Track

As the end of the semester nears and I've gotten increasingly busy, I realize that I've also gotten increasingly bad at doing blog posts.  School has really picked up, with all the internal assessments just about due, and with every spare moment I've been trying to take advantage of what feels like too little time left in Dunedin.  But I'm sick of working on my final lab report for my soils class, so I'll take this moment to tell you about last weekend...

A few friends and I had been hoping to do the Kepler Track (one of the Great Walks) this last weekend.  But, when we went to the DOC to buy hut passes, we learned that the avalanche danger had increased and it was not safe for us to do the track, at least not without ice axes and crampons.  So at the recommendation of the lady at the DOC office, we decided last minute to do the Greenstone Track.  It also was a loop, but would take us 4 days instead of 3.  There was significantly less elevation gain (which is why it was still safe) but we thought that this also meant it wouldn't be as nice.  We didn't realize what a surprise we were in for!

We left early Friday morning and drove the almost 5 hours to the carpark, starting the track a little after 1.  Just from the drive it was already clear what a beautiful place we were in!  The track begins by working its way up the Caples valley, with beautiful meadows tucked between snow-capped mountains, where our hut the first night was located.  The second day, we passed through the mountain range over the McKellar saddle to the Greenstone valley.  Then the 3rd and 4th days were spent making our way back down the Greenstone valley and completing the loop to the carpark.  And every day was full of the most incredible views!  Most of the time in the valley we followed rivers, with stunning clear blue-glacier water.  On the day when we went over the saddle, we passed through probably 4 different types of forest, each more beautiful than the next.  And we were fortunate to have the BEST weather possible - sun every day, warm enough for a light shirt and just a bit of sweating on the uphills. :)

As I don't think I could ever do the beauty of this landscape justice using words, here are just a few pictures...

(You can click on them to make them bigger, which I recommend, but you also can't see my comments that way)

Even on the drive in, the views of the rivers and mountains were beautiful.

Happy to be hiking in the valleys in New Zealand!

This was up the Caples valley on the first day.

A typical view through the trees across the valley

There were some pretty crazy trees, and we spent some time standing in awe of them.

Claire trudging up another hill, just before arriving at the first hut.

Even all the way out here, seeing sheep is not uncommon!  Farmers lease the land along the trail, and there were sheep and cows wandering around next to us much of the way.

Morning sun on the mountains, the 2nd day.

This bridge wasn't on the track we were doing, but we all took turns going out to see...

...this stunning view! Perfect!

One of my favorite parts was hiking through this wonderful mossy the 2nd day on the way up to the saddle.  It reminded me of Washington, my home!

Good place for an apple and water break, don't you think?

Lovely friends at the saddle!  (Morgan, Brenden, Claire, Meredith, and me, left to right)  We took a well-deserved break here to enjoy the view, eat lunch, and toss the frisbee :)

Oh just some more mountains.

And a little glacier stream.

McKellar Hut, 2nd hut.  Very new and very nice!  Apparently if you're here during peak season there's even flush toilets, which seems pretty plush to me for backcountry backpacking.

Getting excited about geology, near this huge past rockslide that we walked through.

Tussock in the Greenstone valley on the 3rd day.

Sunrise from the 3rd hut, last day. Good view to wake up to :)

About to set off for our final day of tramping, looking a little bit sleepy still

Even more lovely mossy mountain streams

4 days later and back at the sign, a little bit grimier but still in good spirits!

We made a stop in Queenstown on the way back for our beloved Fergburger... Best tofu burger I have ever had.

On the drive back from Glenorchy to Queenstown (which as a side note I've been told is the most scenic drive in New Zealand, and I believe it) we had to drive through a pack of sheep just casually being herded through the road.  The car in front of us was being too timid so I had to take charge and just basically push my way through the sheep to get them to move.  Claire helped as well by barking like a dog to scare them out of the way....wish I had a picture of that part.  Only in NZ!