Adventure 10: To where the spirits head home

March 26^th- March 28^th

On Saturday morning I bid Amanda farewell and hopped on a shuttle to the Dunedin airport.  Upon my arrival, I got my ticket from the counter and wandered about 25 metres to the gate area, which consisted of a few cafes, a gift shop, and the gates...sans security.  Wait, what? Did I somehow miss the big conveyor belts and metal detectors which are an integral part of any airport that I’ve ever been to?  Looking around for the security gates or any uniformed guards running after me, I was surprised to see that there didn’t appear to be any sort of security check once you get your ticket and check your luggage.  I guess Dunedin isn’t exactly a hub of crime or target for world threats, but this completely took me by surprise. 

If you ever visit New Zealand, let me recommend flying Air New Zealand.  Even though my flight up to Auckland was relatively short, they still provided us with free tea and coffee, snacks, and a little lolly (hard candy) during the flight.  Much better than most U.S. airlines and quite a bit better service than some of the other local airlines I’ve flown.  Upon arrival in Auckland, a shuttle took me to the hotel (not a hostel or a tent? Whoo hoo!) and my parents!  It was so great but kind of unreal to see them there in New Zealand.  They’d already done a bit of exploring and scoped out the closest bakery, of course, but for dinner we decided to go into Auckland and eat at the rotating SkyTower restaurant since there was a deal for free admission with the price of dinner.  Even though it was rather cloudy, which impeded our views of the city, it was still a delicious, and much fancier than I was accustomed to, meal and it was fun to be able to catch up while watching Auckland rotating slowly below us through the mist.  Around 9 o’clock jet lag began to catch up with the ‘rents which, considering they’d been travelling for over 24 hours, was not surprising.  It was so nice to sleep in the hotel room that night since Auckland is much warmer than Dunedin and I didn’t have to worry about being cold all night or getting ready in the near dark to save power...ahh the luxury J

The next morning we had to get up early to catch a bus up to Kaitaia, from where we would travel to 90 Mile Beach and Cape Reinga the next day.  We attempted to get an early breakfast at the bakery, but it wasn’t open before 7, which is pretty normal in New Zealand.  They value sleep much more than Americans which is frustrating at times (like 6:45am when you’re hungry) but overall seems to be a much healthier lifestyle than the “go, go, go” attitude in the States.  A taxi took us into central Auckland, where we were able to find an open coffee shop right across from the bus terminal.  We don’t have a coffee pot in our flat so I had been living on the cheapest instant mix that we could find and, let me tell you, that mocha I got was the best coffee I had tasted in a looong time.  I’m pretty sure I mentioned how good it was no less than 15 times...it was amazing.  Another interesting thing was that the door of the shop was left open and a couple of birds flew right in and perched on one of the tables to eat someone’s leftovers, which didn’t seem to perturb anyone.  After our wonderful coffee and muffins, we boarded our InterCity bus to head north. Though I had become somewhat used to seeing the beautiful rolling hills and sheep pastures and all of the other mountain scenery, for my parents everything was new, which helped to give me a fresh perspective as well and renew some of my wonder at the fact that I actually get to live here for 3 more months still!

Kaitaia is a very wee town and, especially on a Sunday, nothing much was open by the time we arrived.  As we hauled the suitcases down to the motel from the bus stop, it seemed like the only option for food that wasn’t going to cost an arm and a leg might be Subway.  I was told by a Kiwi (so hopefully a reliable source) that New Zealand has the most Subways per capita, surpassing even McDonald’s.  They do seem to be everywhere, even in the small towns that don’t have any other fast food venues.  Upon our arrival, we were greeted by the manager of the motel who was extremely nice and immediately offered to drive us back to the bus stop when we left since it was a rather long walk with suitcases.  After this hospitality, we felt rather bad for leaving his restaurant in search of cheaper food, but Subway and the Pak ‘n’ Save (New Zealand’s discount food store) were calling our names from right down the street.  I’d wanted to check out the Pak ‘n’ Save in Dunedin for quite some time, but it’s about 2 miles away which would be quite the walk with groceries so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to bargain shop!  We picked up sandwiches from Subway, found some breakfast and snacks for the next day, and headed back for another early night before another early wake-up call for our tour to the Cape.

The next morning, the bus picked us up right in front of the motel and we began the journey to 90 Mile Beach.  The driver, who also served as the tour guide, loved to make jokes and would laugh (it was really more like a cackle) loudly over the microphone after every one, presumably to encourage us to laugh as well.  Before we got used to this however, it was rather grating on the ears and seemed like we could be headed for a long day with a thick Kiwi accent and jokes we didn’t realize were supposed to be funny until the cackling would, once more, commence.  From what we could understand, though, he was very informative and stopped at quite a few places to let everyone get out and take pictures before carrying on.  Once we reached 90 Mile Beach (which is actually closer to 70 miles) he drove right down onto the sand, explaining that the beach is actually better to drive on than the roads at low tide and is the cleanest road in New Zealand...because it gets washed once a day but the surf! Ha ha ha ha ha!  It was really cool being able to drive so far along the beach, right over the sand and through the occasional stream that would be making its way down to the ocean. 

After driving almost the entire length of the beach we turned into a stream bed which took us inland to the sand dunes.  The transition from ocean to grassy hills to enormous dunes and plains of sand only took about half a mile.  Then we parked on the more solid part of the stream bed so that the bus wouldn’t sink in and were handed our toboggans and given a brief tutorial on their proper use: sit down, lift up your feet, hold on to the back, and keep your mouth shut.  My mom and I took the first hike up the dune while my dad stayed at the bottom to take pictures.  It was very windy on the way up and the sand kept trying to whip us off of the dune and steal our toboggans from us.  Looking down from the top, it was actually more intimidating than I thought it would be and hurtling through the sand towards an uncertain end in the creek bed at the bottom appeared slightly dangerous.  However, after bungy jumping, this dune was not going to get the best of me.  As instructed, I sat down in what appeared to be the chosen path (though I couldn’t see any distinction between it and the rest), grabbed onto the back, lifted my feet up, was instructed by one of the guides to scream (trying to get me to eat sand, the trickster), and took off!  It was not quite as exciting as expected the first time, but going back for another trip was made more interesting when I took an unexpected hard left about halfway down the dune which nearly toppled me right over.  Fortunately, due to my extreme sand toboggan prowess (ha!) I was able to right my course and complete the journey with no more major mishaps, but completely covered in sand and very windswept. 

We returned to the bus, attempting in vain to get rid of the sand which was now firmly lodged in every crevice which had been exposed, and continued on our way along the stream.  This eventually led us back to a paved road, from which we travelled to a deserted beach for our picnic lunch.  Though rather windy, it’s hard to compete with scones, cookies, coffee, and lots of snacks overlooking waves breaking on the beach and crashing against the rocks.  The next stop was Cape Reinga, which is what I was really looking forward to after learning of its history and importance in my Māori Society class.  The bus dropped us off at the top of the Cape, from which you could see the lighthouse at the end of the point.  Only a little ways down the path we turned a corner to see what looked like a huge foamy anchor in the sea where the Tasman and Pacific oceans collided.  You could actually see the waves coming in from different directions and meeting in the middle before rebounding back.  The path ended at the lighthouse overlooking the sea where the Māori believe that the souls of the dead leave New Zealand forever and travel to spiritual home.  You could also see the lone tree, known as Te Aroha, which appeared to be growing out of the rocks a little ways down the cliff and whose roots form the steps which the spirits take on their descent to the sea.   

By the time we had all taken pictures and tramped back up the hill to the bus it was getting on into the afternoon and we only had a couple more stops before returning to Kaitaia.  One of these stops was at a convenience store in a little town which was advertised to have the biggest ice creams on the north island.  Of course we had to check the validity of this claim and I was pleased to find that, though the south island definitely gives you bigger cones for less money, they had cookie dough ice cream! This is a rarity in NZ for some reason, so I was extremely happy after missing it for 2 months J  The day was made complete when we stopped at a beautiful bay which had the brightest clear turquoise water and opened into the ocean, in from which swam a giant sting ray!  Much excitement and picture taking ensued, after which we boarded the bus for the final time and headed back to the hotel for our last night in the north before we travelled down to Dunedin for our next adventures (and a couple classes, in my case, but those aren’t nearly as exciting).

Adventure 9: 3, 2, 1, JUMP!

March 19^th-22^nd

The 19^th of March marked the arrival of a much anticipated visitor: my friend Amanda from St. Olaf!  She had decided to come visit me for Olaf’s spring break pretty much on the day that I got my acceptance letter to the program, and now she was finally going to be here!  Conveniently timed, there was a rugby game, the Otago Highlanders vs. the Canterbury Crusaders, that evening starting right after Amanda was scheduled to arrive so we all got tickets and once she got out of her taxi from the airport, with a quick intermission for hugs and exclamations, we shuttled her right off to the game and into Dunedin life!  What better introduction to New Zealand culture than a rugby game, watched from the student section which, not surprisingly, gets quite into the game and, more surprisingly, apparently LOVES to do the wave…over and over and over… It was good that Ash went to the game with us since he actually knew who the players were and could explain the game to Amanda much better than any of the rest of us could.  After the game (Highlanders won, whoo hoo!), we took Amanda out to meet some of our friends and introduce her to the scarfie nightlife but jet lag was starting to catch up to her and we were catching the bus early the next morning so we observed a 9 o’clock bedtime; not quite up to the New Zealander’s stamina for staying out into the wee hours of the morning!

Sunday morning found us at the train station to catch the Atomic Shuttle to Queenstown.  If there were a direct route from Dunedin to Queenstown the trip would probably take about an hour or two.  However, there is no direct route anywhere in New Zealand, so it was about a 4 ½ hour journey including a shuttle transfer and a short lunch stop.  We arrived at “The Station” in Queenstown with about 10 minutes to spare before our bus left to take us to Kawarau Bridge, the world’s original bungy jump!!  It was very nice that the bungy headquarters was also located at The Station; they stored our packs for us, checked us in, and sent us out to the bus that would take us about 20km back out of the city for our jump.  We were both so excited and nervous that we could barely sit still on the bus ride.  On the way, we decided to jump tandem so that we could have moral support the whole way (definitely necessary to jump off a bridge 43 metres over the water) and we would both be in the same video, which Amanda had gotten included in her ticket price.

The Kawarau River is absolutely beautiful, with bright teal water running between the cliffs on either side.  A bonus, it was also used for part of the Lord of the Rings filming and the part that we would be jumping over/into was where Frodo and Sam first set off on their own when they left the rest of the Fellowship!  Both Amanda and I are shameless LOTR fans, so this made our experience all the more epic to follow in the hobbits’ footsteps, in a way J  After being weighed and measured (literally) we were taken out onto the actual bridge with the other people who were crazy enough to jump off with only a bungy cord tied around their ankles, sounds like a good plan, right? Right.  As we waited in line, listening to the hard core rock music which was playing (to cover up people’s screams? Didn’t work…), we watched the people in front of us get tied up, scoot to the edge, and jump off with varying degrees of fear, excitement, and decibel level. 

Finally, we were up next so I crawled down onto the platform to have my ankles wrapped tightly together with a towel-like pad and secured (hopefully) with a contraption of straps and caribbeaners.  Next it was Amanda’s turn and let me tell you, we definitely had the right idea about moral support.  After her ankles had been properly trussed up, our straps were connected and attached to the bungy cord.  We were given the option to be dunked in the water, but weren’t quite outfitted to be soaking wet for the rest of the day so we requested to be able to touch the water, but not be completely submerged.   It was then time to scoot up to the edge of the platform, a feat made rather difficult by the fact that not only were our feet tied together, but we were tied together as well and being asked to do something which seemed frighteningly similar to walking the plank.  I was lucky that I was on the side that I could hold onto the bridge, but Amanda didn’t have this luxury and so needed some friendly urging (aka kicking of her feet by the guide) to get close enough to the edge so that we’d be able to jump.  After instructions to hang onto the other’s waist strap with one arm, extend the other like Superman, and tuck our chins to our chests we were deemed ready to go!  By this point, I had pretty much steeled myself to the realization that I was actually going to jump off this thing and my nerves had transformed into excitement (mostly).  We got a count of 3, 2, 1…and jumped!!  It was the most exhilarating thing to just be falling through the air, even if only for a few seconds, and watching as the water came closer before we sprung back up, caught by the cord.  At one point on our initial descent we got turned around somehow and ended up going down backwards, with our faces to the sky which was rather shocking but after the initial catch we both started laughing because it was so much fun and we were more than just a little loopy from the adrenaline rush.  After bouncing up and down a couple of times, the raft came out into the middle of the river and one of the guys held up a long pole which we were supposed to grab onto to be pulled onto the raft and disconnected from the cord.  The first time we tried to grab for it we were much to high still, “Well, that never happens,” from the guy below…we were pretty sure he was kidding…but the second time we managed to latch on and we lowered rather ungracefully into the bottom of the raft, laying on our backs with our feet up in the air, laughing slightly manically and feeling like bugs when they get stuck upside down, helplessly waving their legs in the air. 

After we’d been all unhooked we climbed onto the shore and made our way up the steps to the shop to watch our video and see the pictures.  On the video we could see how we’d gotten turned around and watch ourselves flop into the raft, getting a good laugh out of the whole thing and so happy that it would soon be ours.  We had time to go back up to the bridge to take some victory photos before the bus came back and we returned to Queenstown to retrieve our packs and find our hostel.  The place I’d booked was right on the lakefront and one of the newer hostels so it was pretty nice and a very convenient location to walk to our dinner at the legendary Fergburger!  This burger joint is known throughout New Zealand to have the best (and the biggest) burgers and has been said to be a Queenstown rite of passage, so of course we had to try it out after conquering Queenstown’s other claim to fame.  There was a huge crowd waiting when we arrived, so we figured it must be good.  I ordered the original Fergburger and Amanda tried the burger with cheese and asked for barbeque sauce, clearly labeling her as an American to the workers behind the counter.  Approximately 15 minutes later, we had decided to get an order of chips (fries) as well since we were getting so hungry as we waited (probably their master plan).  The ketchup substitute they use here (tomato sauce, as they call it) is less than desirable so we chose sweet chili as our sauce, which is much more popular here for good reason.  Everything ended up coming out at the same time so we sat down in the window to our feast.  Not long after we had started in I looked up to see none other than my flatmate, Amanda, along with her dad and sister waving at me from outside the restaurant!  They had just gotten back from Milford Sound and were staying in the same hostel as us for the night, what a small world! 

The burgers were delicious, as promised, and extremely filling, also as promised.  When we had finished our meal, we headed back to the hostel to settle in a bit since all we’d done was drop our bags before heading to Fergburger.  There we ran into Amanda and her family again and headed to the “Pub on the Wharf” about a block from our hostel to relax by the lake for a little bit.  Relaxing was rather chillier than expected, however, so Amanda and I headed back to the hostel for warmer recommendations from the staff and were sent in the direction of $3 glasses of wine by a fireplace…sounded good to us!  Not surprisingly, we were rather tired from our big day so we called it an early night again and returned to enjoy a good night’s sleep in a bed to prepare for the next day’s hiking and camping adventures!

We woke early (6:20am…yuck) to catch our bus down to Te Anau, the walking capital of New Zealand.  It’s aptly named, as it provides access to at least 3 major tracks and many smaller hikes, all of varying degrees of difficulty and length.  Amanda and I planned to do part of the Kepler Track, which is a 60km Great Walk, but easily divided into shorter day walks by taking a water taxi across lake Te Anau and then hiking back around the lake for about 3 hours, instead of taking 4 days to do the whole thing.  On our way across the lake, the driver recommended that we add a little to our hike by going about 2 ½ hours up Mt. Luxmore until we reached the bushline, by which point he promised that the clouds would clear and we would have amazing views of the surrounding country and lake.  Since we didn’t have any other plans for the afternoon, we figured we might as well add a little to our tramp and took his advice in leaving our packs at the bottom, making sandwiches (more PB&J, of course!) and taking a few snacks in our pockets for lunch once we reached the top. 

Leaving our packs was definitely a good idea.  The distance to the hut at the top was not marked anywhere, which was probably a good thing, because I’m not sure we would have been quite so ambitious had we realized that it would be between 7 and 8km up the mountain before we reached the bushline, where the trees abruptly stopped and we finally came out into the sunlight again.  Once we reached the top, however, we both agreed that the exertion had been well rewarded.  We had made it all the way up above the clouds and looking around us it appeared that the tops of the surrounding mountains were just floating on the clouds and we were literally on an island in a sea of fluffy white mist.  So incredible.  Now that we’d gotten out of the trees we were in a field of yellow grass with big grey boulders strewn about, looking incredibly Lord of the Rings-esque.  One of these rocks served us quite well as a picnic bench/table and we enjoyed our sandwiches in the sun, looking out over the floating mountains as we swatted off the occasional fly who had realized that we might be a tasty treat.

Eventually, we figured that we should start making our way back down, since we still had about a 3 hour hike back around the lake to the start of the trail, and then another hour back to Te Anau.  Going down the mountain was much easier (and faster!) than the way up and was a good opportunity to look at the surrounding forest again, much of which we had missed on the way up as we were trying to maintain our footing and our motivation.  Back at the bottom of the mountain, it was time to don the packs and start our trek back to Te Anau.  We attempted to take a short rest on the beach at Brod’s Bay before setting off, but the sandflies came out in force once we stopped moving, so our short break ended up being about as long as it took for us to sit down, swat flies, stand up, put our packs back on, and high-tail it on out of there.  The walk around the lake was very nice and relatively easy.  It followed the shoreline so we had great views of the lake for most of it and could occasionally enjoy the sunshine when there were breaks in the trees.  We were hoping to find a shuttle or some form of transport other than our feet once we reached the control gates, at the official start of the track, but had no such luck.  By this point, however, we’d already come so far, what was another hour of great scenery?  It was really cool to stop at one point when, looking back across the lake, we could pick out the peak that we had been on only hours before!

Back in Te Anau, we were definitely ready to part with our packs and relax for a bit but still had the task of finding a (preferably cheap) campsite for the night and booking a tour of the glow worms caves after which Te Anau is named.  This entailed a bit more walking than desired, but, fortunately, Te Anau is a rather small town and it was only about a 15 minute walk from the holiday park which we ended up staying at to the booking agency for the tour.  After pitching our little tent and changing into warmer clothes we set off back into the town center for our trip back across the lake to the caves!  It was beautiful crossing the lake as the sun was setting.  We were lucky that the water was almost perfectly calm, so you could see the reflection of all of the mountains and colors of the sky on the surface of the lake when the boat slowed to a stop in the middle to let us take pictures and appreciate the beauty surrounding us.

Never having seen glow worms before, neither of us had any idea what to expect.  The caves are actually a huge network, but the public is only allowed about 200m in before serious spelunking gear is necessary.  Our guide took us first through a short tunnel and then walked us across the top of a tremendous (and tremendously loud) waterfall that had been carving its way through the rocks for the past centuries.  Then we all climbed into a little boat that was riding a bit too close to the water for my comfort and set off into complete darkness, our boat pulled by the guide using a rope which was strung overhead.  It was eerie to be in complete darkness and know that another boat was passing us, probably less than two feet away, but not be able to see anything and only hearing the slightest ripple of the water as they passed in the opposite direction.  After only a few seconds though, the ceiling of the caves and walls surrounding us were covered in what looked like tiny blue stars.  You could almost imagine that they were the constellations in the sky, except for the obvious lack of the Big Dipper and the fact that it looked as if they were close enough to touch, which at some points they definitely were.  It’s hard to say how long we were in the boats, but it was hard to get tired of looking at the little lights and trying to imagine that they were actually tiny creatures trying to seduce their prey (sandflies, yes!) with their glowing tails.  However, by the time we glided back to the little dock and made our way back out of the caves our long day of hiking was seriously catching up to us and the couches in the TV lounge at the campsite and our last Caramel Tim Tams were calling to Amanda and I.  We had to catch another early bus back to Dunedin the next morning, so after relaxing for a bit we crawled into our sleeping bags out in the tent and, thankful that the night wasn’t too cold, drifted off after a long, but very successful, adventure J

Adventure 8: Cartwheels in the Catlins: Is this real life?

March 12th

After spending a weekend in Dunedin, we decided it was time to continue our adventures in the rest of the country.  We wanted to try renting a car to see how driving on the left side of the road would be so we chose the Catlins as our destination, only a couple hours away and a good wee day trip.  After much investigating of various car rental companies (the most intriguing being “Rent-a-Dent”), I found a company that would give us a medium-sized car for one day for only $75! 

On Saturday morning, Amanda, Leslie, Sarah and I started out early to make our way down to the market before picking up the car.  We figured we might as well get fresh fruit and veges (vegetables) at cheaper prices since the market was kind of on the way to where we needed to pick up the car.  Emily was supposed to come along with us, but unfortunately she woke up with the stomach flu and, not surprisingly, wasn’t really feeling up to a full day of traveling and exploring.  Luckily for us, one of our other friends, Alyssa, had asked to come along at the last minute so we were able to let her know that we had an opening and fill up the car. 

It was a bit nerve-wracking renting the car and signing the papers, but very exciting to get the keys to a very nice Toyota, ours until Sunday morning!  I was the first to drive and remembered to get in on the right side of the car, instead of the left; good first step.  Fortunately, the gas and brake pedals were the same, but a difference was that the windshield wipers and turn signal were on opposite sides.  Oddly enough, people don’t seem to realize you’re turning if you wipe your windshield at them…drat.  The rental company was on a one-way street, so pulling out into traffic for the first time didn’t seem too different, except that I was on the opposite side of the car than normal.  My first test was getting onto the main motorway out of town before coming to the relative calm of Highway 1, which would take us south to the Catlins.  I was pleased to discover that driving on the left side wasn’t too different from driving on the right, especially once I clued in to the fact that the right lane was now the passing lane and I needed to be aware of how close the left side of the car was to the shoulder, instead of the right.

The great thing about traveling in New Zealand is that it’s not only your destination that is scenic, but everywhere along the way, as well.  Our drive took us through rolling hills, pasture upon pasture of sheep, cattle, and the occasional deer farm.  Yes, they actually farm red deer here, brought over more than a century ago from Scotland.  Coming from the Midwest, where it sometimes seems that the deer are actually preparing to take over, this seems very strange to me.  However, this variety does not appear to have realized that they could easily jump the little wire fences enclosing them and escape so for now they are just farmed for venison and are amusing to watch as they scatter every time a car drives past. 

After a couple of hours, we reached our first stop: Nugget Point.  The guidebooks promised us a lighthouse, seals, and interesting rock formations from the point, plus we were about ready to get out and stretch our legs.  It was a short walk from the car park down to the point and, as promised, we were able to see a whole colony of seals playing in a pool on the rocks below us!  Upon reaching the lighthouse, we found that it was rather small and surrounded by a huge fence, which detracted from the beauty a bit, but there was a great view of the ocean.  There were huge rocks sitting in the water off the point that looked almost like (very hard and rocky) bread that had been sliced by a giant knife.  Alyssa is a geology major, so she was able to explain to us that the “slices” were actually the different layers of the rock (what they were specifically I can’t remember…) and that they had fallen off the cliffs and bigger rocks sideways into the sea, enabling us to see all of the layers going vertically, instead of horizontally. 

Our next destination was the Cathedral Caves, which can only be reached 2 hours before and after low tide, so we decided to continue on our way down the road.  Leslie decided to take a turn at driving, which she regretted a little when she had to start off on the winding gravel roads that led back to the highway from the point.  She came through with flying colors, though, and got us to the Caves, about 45 minutes farther south only a wee bit after low tide, plenty of time to explore!  After about a 10 minute walk through the woods, we arrived on a huge expanse of beach, from which we could see the enormous caves in the cliffs at the opposite end.  We were lucky that it was a beautiful day, with only a few clouds in the sky, perfect for our outdoor adventures!  Not really knowing what to expect, except what I’d seen in pictures, I was not prepared for the looming mouth of the cave soaring overhead and then disappearing into semi-darkness near the back before it curved around and came out on the opposite side of the cliff.  Fully embracing our tourist sides, we took an excessive amount of pictures doing various poses (jumping, cartwheels, the Ole Lion mascot pose) in the mouths of the caves so that you could only see our outlines in front of the picture perfect ocean before heading back into the twilight underneath the cliffs.  It was really cool to be able to walk back into the cliff as it narrowed slightly and then made a U-turn back towards the sunlight outside, with a huge cavern at the back.  We could definitely tell why they didn’t allow people down too close to high tide, though.  You would not want to be stuck in the back of the cave if a huge (or even a small) wave came in!

After another mini photo-shoot and climbing up some of the rocks outside the caves, it was time to head out so that we would have time to make it to Porpoise Bay, our destination furthest south and the home of the world’s smallest dolphins!  Next to the car park above the Bay was a small shop advertising ice cream and since we’d had a rather meager lunch of PB&J we decided to treat ourselves before walking down to the beach.  Right as we got down to the water and were about to stick our feet in, Sarah and I simultaneously let out rather high-pitched, undignified squeals and pointed to the same spot in the waves right next to the rocks at one end of the beach.  We’d seen what looked remarkably like a very small dolphin jumping towards us out of the waves!! Ahhh!  The others were doubtful of our reported sighting, but soon enough Leslie saw another jump in the distance!  There turned out to be quite a few playing farther out by the rocks at the end of the beach, it was so incredible!  Watching the world’s smallest dolphins playing right off shore, standing on a beach in New Zealand on a beautiful day, and eating Hokey Pokey ice cream…”Is this real life??” I asked Amanda, only partially joking.  We both agreed that it would be hard to find much better J

Sarah and I were both anxious to see the dolphins a bit closer and hopefully get some good photos so we decided to do a little adventuring over the rocks to get farther out into the bay where the dolphins were swimming.  Unfortunately, by the time we made it out to place we had seen them they were nowhere to be found.  However, we discovered some an amazing place to sit and watch as waves crashed against the rocks, creating huge sprays and subsequent miniature waterfalls running down over the rocks and into tide pools.  As usual, on the coast, the rocks were covered in tiny mussels which we had to avoid sitting on and the water below was filled with seaweed longer than we were, looking from above like great, black hair swirling in the waves.  Although it looked interesting, it certainly had a distinctive odor, shall we say.  When we had given up on spotting the elusive dolphins again we climbed our way back to the beach and were rewarded with the sight of a sea lion making its way up from the water!  After having read the sign that they can move up to 20 km/hr on land, we were hesitant to get too close, but we snuck up on it as close as we dared (not very) and watched while it flippered up to the grassy knoll above the beach before laying down to rest after all of its exertion.

A couple at the DOC had told us at one of our stops that our best chance of seeing penguins would be at either Curio Bay (still farther south) or back at Nugget Point around dusk, at which time the penguins begin making their exit from the sea to nest on land for the night.  Since we still had a couple hours drive back to Dunedin, we decided to drive back up to Nugget Point since it would be on our way back and so would involve less driving in the dark.  You aren’t allowed to go down onto the beach after 3pm for the safety of the penguins, but there was a little observation hut from which we could see the whole beach about 200m below and, lo and behold, a yellow-eyed penguin was already sitting on the shore! He must have been waiting for us, considerate little guy J  After only a few more minutes of watching, we spotted a little dot surfing in towards the shore and soon we got to watch the whole process as the little penguin fought against the waves and slid up onto the beach before standing up and beginning his waddle out of the tide.  It was so funny to watch him waddle a little ways, stop and stand with his wings out like he was trying to either take off or look much larger and impressive than he actually was, preen a bit, and then continue on his way, repeating the process about every 10 feet.  By the time we had seen 3 other penguins surf ashore, it was starting to get a bit darker and we were starting to get colder so we decided to call an end to a very successful day of exploring natural wonders, spying on wildlife, and being our own tour guides down the coast.  We made it safely back to Dunedin around 9 that night, after managing to dodge some rather trickily placed (and occasionally overturned) construction cones and maneuvering the one-way street system again once we got back into town.  All in all, another great day of adventure in a country which continues to amaze me at every turn J                  

Adventure 7: It could be worse: Stewart Island (part 2)

February 24th-28th

It was a rather long first night on Stewart Island.  Neither Sarah nor I could fall asleep for quite awhile, being as the ground was not the most comfortable resting place and it was much colder than expected, even in our long clothes, warm socks, and heavy duty sleeping bags.  Once we did fall asleep, we were woken in the night by what sounded like a heard of creatures having a battle royale over our food and leftover cans.  I was torn between my desire to see what was making a noise like it was being torn apart (kiwi??) and fear that I would get in the middle of some epic creature battle and come out on the wrong side.  The tipping point for my decision was the fact that my feet were so cold I could barely feel them and I didn’t want to expose the rest of my body to the same fate.

When it was finally a decent time to get up in the morning (7am) Sarah and I both rolled over and looked at each other, asking, “So, how’d you sleep?”  Our synchronized response: “Eh, could have been worse.”  It was at this point that the first round of tired and slightly manic giggling began.  We could hear Amanda and Leslie awake in their tent, so we psyched ourselves up to leave the (relative) warmth of our sleeping bags and venture to the shelter to get some breakfast from our packs.  We were greeted by a bag of raisins partially ripped open, some gnawed on carrots, and a couple pecked at apples.  Apparently “the creatures” as we dubbed them weren’t too impressed with our healthy food selection.  They must have been rather devious little creatures, though, since they had managed to partially unzip Ford’s pack to get at their feast.  I’ll give them credit for persistence, at least.  Ford’s face was pretty hilarious when he saw that the creatures had gotten into his pack and no one else’s, and he vowed to sleep with his food that night to

We broke fast with some dry muesli, brushed our teeth with the roof water, and then packed up the tents and the flap.  Even though we were sure it would get warm hiking in the sun all day, it was a painful process to change out of all our long clothes into shorts, with the hope that we would warm up sooner, rather than later.  Putting our packs on for the first time that morning brought a series of grunts and groans as we realized that our hips had indeed been bruised, our legs were a little sore, and our shoulders did indeed feel the strain of wearing a pack all day and then sleeping on the ground.  Sounding like a bunch of senior citizens as we moaned over our bruises, we reminded ourselves that “it could be worse” and started off across the island.

The man at the DOC had warned us that the section of the track between Sawdust Bay and North Arm Hut, about an hour and a half away, according to the sign, would be the muddiest section, due to the recent rainfall.  He wasn’t kidding.  The majority of the morning was spent clambering through the forest around the trail, clinging to trees on the side of the trail so that we wouldn’t fall in the mud pits, and climbing up multiple hills which we named “Mud Everests.”  It was somewhat of a miracle that no one had any big wipeouts, only a couple minor slips, especially when we would forget that we weren’t quite as nimble with a huge backpack on as we would be normally.  As we passed people every so often coming from the opposite direction, they would almost invariably take a look at Leslie, Sarah, and my tennis shoes, wish us luck with the mud or give us some other sort of warning of what was to come, and carry on their way.  When we reached the top of one hill, much to our surprise the girl we were passing had gone to Williams, where Ford goes to school, and they knew each other!  She was backpacking around New Zealand and hiking the track on her own for a couple of days, what a small world!

It was a big relief to see a sign pointing us in the direction of North Arm Hut, 2 minutes!  We took a short snack break down by the water below the hut then continued on our way.  Fortunately, it was slightly less muddy after the hut, as had been promised, but we were met instead with huge hills and what seemed to be never-ending flights of stairs.  Our lunch break was taken sitting on a rail-less bridge, which ran over a little stream and seemed like as good (and non-muddy) place as any to sit and enjoy some more PB&J.  It was nice to take a seat for awhile, but the chicken wire that covered the bridge was rather uncomfortable on the hind end and we were all getting pretty ready to make it out of the woods and to the beach so we didn’t linger long. 

After some more hills, stairs, and not-so-graceful dodging of mud pits, Sarah and I were so happy to see a sign which told us that Maori Beach camp was only 1.6km away that we probably would have run there, had that not seemed rather treacherous with the addition of the pack and less than even footing.  We did, however, pick up the pace substantially and were soon rewarded by the sight of a huge swing bridge over some of the prettiest water I have ever seen.  The reward of stepping onto the bridge and into the sunlight and being met with the sight of bright blue water, which transitioned to a turquoise color as it reached the beach before turning into a red-orange color in the stream that ran below the bridge made the long day of hiking through the forest more than worth it.  With happy little squeals, we ventured onto the bridge for some pictures and then followed the boys’ path down to the beach and along the water to the campsite.

The camp was on a little grassy knoll, probably less than 20 meters from the beach, and was an ideal spot to drop our packs and take off our shoes and rest our weary feet, while attempting to regain full range of motion in our shoulders.  Once everyone had arrived at the shelter, we changed into our bathing suits and went down to test the waters.  It was rather chilly, but the boys managed to survive all the way in for a couple minutes, while the girls jumped waves closer to shore and tried to avoid the larger waves that would sneak up on us.  We also did a little exploration of the shoreline and our own little private beach behind the campsite. 

It was around 5:30 by this time so we decided to eat our dinner, which meant it was time to tackle the cans again.  Sarah wanted to try her hand at the can opener again, more power to her.  Minor problem: taking it’s cantankerousness to a whole new level, the thing decided to put itself out of commission and broke into 3 separate pieces, rendering it completely (as opposed to just mostly) useless.  Great…  After some futile attempts at putting it back together, we ceded and took the knife to the top of the cans, instead.  This worked just about as well as the can opener, if not slightly more precarious.  But, we’d already carried those beans for 2 days we certainly weren’t going to waste them!

After dinner, it was so nice to lie on the grass with our faces to the sun and be able to completely relax, listening to the waves and without feeling any pressure to be productive or talk or even move.  Finally, we decided we had better find a good home for the flap for the night, which proved to be slightly more difficult than it had been at Sawdust Bay.  After dragging it around to various locations and trying (and failing) to tie it to the trees in any semblance of a shelter, we ended up putting it basically in the bush, a little ways back from where we’d set up the tents on the grass next to the beach.  Fortunately, there is not much native wildlife in New Zealand, other than the reclusive kiwi and the occasional small rodent, so we figured we should be fine.  It was Amanda, Leslie, and my turn to sleep in the flap, so after watching the sun set over the mountains, setting our alarms for 6am so that we could watch the sunset, and playing a couple rounds of cards we crawled into our mummy bags and hoped that we wouldn’t get stepped on in the night by any curious and/or mysterious creatures. 

Though we didn’t have any large visitors in the night, what we didn’t take into account were the sandflies.  These small black devils are extremely populous near beaches and we had been constantly swatting at them as the sun went down.  I don’t think I’ll be able to hear a buzzing noise for quite some time without automatically jumping and brushing at my face, trying to escape the imagined bugs.  It wasn’t too bad as we were falling asleep, we could just hear them buzzing over our heads so we pulled the mummy bags closed as tight as possible, while still leaving a small hole to breathe through, and drifted off.  One little guy (and possibly all of his immediate and extended family) must have managed to sneak into my sleeping bag with me, though, because I woke up around 2:30am to find that the left side of my face was so swollen that I couldn’t open my left eye…not a good sign.  After debating a little bit as to the best course of action, I realized there was not much I could do for the time being except for fumble around in dark for the Benadryl which I had fortunately brought along in my pack, take one (it was too dark to read the directions and I didn’t want to OD on an OTC drug in the middle of nowhere), and crawl back into my sleeping bag to await the morning and get a better assessment of the damage from everyone else, who would actually be able to see what my face looked like.  Needless to say, I did not get much sleep after that, as I could still hear the flies over my head and the one(s) that was keeping me much closer company than I desired.

It was a relief to hear my alarm go off and when Leslie and Amanda had both woken up I warned them of my predicament so that they would not catch their first glimpse of me and freak out when they saw my disfigurement.  Since we were already up, we figured we should at least drag ourselves (and our sleeping bags) out to the beach to watch the sunrise.  This plan was foiled, however, by the cloud cover that completely obscured our view…leaving us lying on the beach, in the dark, freezing cold, and me with a swollen face.  Needless to say, this is not my fondest memory from the trip.  On the upside, though, the sand was much more comfortable than the flap had been and who doesn’t like napping on the beach, right?  When we realized that we really weren’t going to see much at that point, we headed back up to camp to pack everything up and actually read the directions on the Benadryl, in my case.  I was happy to find that I could take not one, but two pills at a time, and so popped another in hope of the swelling going down before we reached civilization later that day.

The hike back into town was probably the shortest, when measured in hours, but it certainly felt like the longest.  The scenery was still nice for part of it, but the last 4k back into town was all on paved roads which were a continuous up and down hill.  To add to this, the Benadryl had really started to kick in by this time so I was feeling rather woozy and more and more strongly considering laying down on the side of the road for a little nap.  Someone would come back for me eventually, right?  There was not much to be done, however, but to keep walking along, and finally we made it back to the DOC, hurray!  Optimistically, we had hoped to drop off our packs and go on a shorter day walk to see penguins or other wildlife, but once we were told that we wouldn’t be able to see anything until dusk, we decided to make use of the DOC’s documentaries and comfortable chairs and spent the next 3 hours or so alternately napping in the DOC, learning about the flora, fauna, and wildlife of Stewart Island, and warming ourselves on the benches outside the office once the clouds cleared.  I kept trying to get up and move around so that I wouldn’t fall asleep, but this just resulted in me sleeping in not one, but 3 different chairs in the office, as well as on one of the benches outside.  We all figured we must look homeless, sprawled about with our packs, but at this point we weren’t too concerned with what other people thought; we’d just hiked for 3 days, and survived!

Our bus eventually arrived, and we had some more good naps on the way back to Dunedin.  The swelling on my face had gone down enough by this time that I could open both eyes, but my face was still a rather concerning amount puffier than normal.  When I woke up the next day after the most wonderful sleep in my own bed with both eyes, one cheek, and part of my lip still swollen, I decided it was time to take a trip to health services.  Luckily for me, I don’t have classes on Mondays (which it was, by this point) and so was able to get some medication which quickly relieved me of my discomfort and most of the swelling, phew!  Despite the last day of mild misery, I would not trade this trip for anything.  It was such a great experience and feeling of accomplishment to know that we could hike for 3 days, carrying everything we needed on our backs, and actually enjoy it! (For the most part.)  I kept having moments throughout the trip where I would realize, “this is real life!” and how lucky I was to be able to hike and take in the beautiful views and just be in New Zealand, in general, to have so many new experiences and adventures.  This was the first of what will hopefully be many big adventures to come and it was certainly a great way to start J

Adventure 7: Canned Spaghetti, Mud Everest, and Frozen Feet? It could be worse. (Part 1)

February 24^th- Feb. 28^th

*Disclaimer: This is a novel...prepare yourself.

There is a checklist on our fridge of places that we need to go and sights that we need to see before leaving New Zealand, so Amanda and I decided that we might as well get started on our first weekend all together!  We decided to head down to Stewart Island, about 60km south of the South Island (confusing, right?) since the weather isn’t going to get any better and we didn’t want to be hiking in the cold or rain.  Never having planned a 4-day trip, much less one in which you need to carry everything on your back, we just dived right in and started searching on Google for buses to get down to the tip of the South Island and then ferries to get across to Stewart Island, where we would start our hike.  There is only one ferry service, unfortunately, so they are able to charge rather exorbitant rates but swimming didn’t seem like the greatest option, so that narrowed things down a bit.  Both Amanda and I decided to buy 15 hour bus passes, which will force us to use them to travel more in the future, oh darn!  Lonely Planet was a huge help in finding a good hostel in Invercargill, which conveniently enough was one of the stops for the bus that would take us to the ferry the next morning to start our tramp!

Of the nine “Great Walks” in New Zealand, one of them, the Rakiura Track, is on Stewart Island.  It starts very close to the town that the ferry lands and departs from and is a 3 day tramp, rated easy-moderate.  This seemed like the logical choice, so there we go!  After a few technical issues in finding buses and ferry times that would get us there and back at reasonable times and leave plenty of time to complete the whole track, we got everyone together (figured we should all meet each other before we set off on a four day trip together…) and let everyone know what we had found and finalized our plans.  There ended up being 7 of us for the trip, myself and 3 flatmates (Amanda, Leslie, and Ford), the other girl from St. Olaf, Sarah, and her flatmate, Jesse, and his friend from school, Emily.  It was difficult to pack for this trip, but fortunately both Ford and Amanda have both backpacked a little before and were able to guide the process.  Our flat decided to buy all of our food together and then split it into individual packages to save on cost and space.  The very organized and professional shopping method we used consisted of wandering down every aisle and picking out things that were a) cheap and b) would hopefully survive 4 days unceremoniously stuffed into a backpack.  Most gourmet purchase?  Cans of “Budget” brand spaghetti and baked beans for the low low price of 69 cents! That, along with peanut butter, trail mix, apples, and dry muesli would be the staples of our diet for the next few days…here we go!

I had a minor moment of panic when we arrived at the bus station on Thursday, all packed and ready to go, and my name wasn’t on the passenger list…oh dear.  The woman behind the counter didn’t seem perturbed, however, so I sat down until the line was gone and then she was able to sign me up without any more problems, phew!  The bus was a little over 3 hours through New Zealand fields and rolling hills filled with sheep and cattle and rows upon rows of hay bales.  We arrived in Invercargill, where we would spend the evening, around 6pm feeling very hungry, which had been aided by our talk of nothing but food for the past hour and reading about all the good restaurants near our hostel.  Conveniently, there was a Turkish and an Indian place right across the street (so diverse!) so we were soon filled with kebabs and curry and much happier.  I decided to be brave and try my first taste of lamb and my first kebab all in one go; it was definitely a good decision J

After wandering around a rather empty Invercargill for awhile, we stumbled upon what must have been most of the population watching Shakespeare in the Park.  We tried to sneakily watch a little, but unfortunately it was about over, so we headed back to our hostel to check out a movie and relax before our real journey began.  Since Amanda has never seen “The Return of the King,” we decided that she needed to watch it, seeing as how she might be traveling where it was filmed.  They had it at the desk, but there was already a man watching what we found out was “Executive Decision,” a very dramatic movie starring Kurt Russell as he attempts to save a plane which has been hijacked by terrorists.  For those of you who haven’t seen it, I won’t give away the end, but it had some great(?) one-liners and kept us right on the edges of our seats, let me tell you!  After that cinematic wonder we decided to call it an early night so that we could fully enjoy our last night both indoors and in real beds for a couple of days.  Unfortunately, the combination of excitement, nerves, and what sounded like elephants running around the hallways was not very conducive to sleep so we were not quite as well-rested as planned.

The bus came at 8 on Friday morning to take us down to the port of Bluff, from where the ferry would take us across to Stewart Island.  We’d heard from others who’d crossed via ferry (my Canadian cousins included) that the journey could be a bit rough so we were all slightly concerned that the doggy bags provided would have to be utilized by at least one of the company.  Fortunately, it was a beautiful day and though the ferry zipped along at around 60 kph, which led to rather large up-and-down swells, there wasn’t any more rough water than that and we got to see not one, but two rainbows on the hour trip before we even got to the island! This seemed like a very good omen J  We also got to see some people on a small boat going down in a cage to observe the great white sharks which apparently swim in the bay where we were headed…that certainly discouraged me from going for a swim, even if I’d wanted to brave the freezing water.

Once we’d landed on the island, we headed for the Department of Conservation (DOC) office to register that we were headed out so that they could give us some directions and send out a search party if we didn’t come back on the day that we planned.  Since we arrived so early in the morning, the man there told us about an additional track, Ryan’s Creek Trail, which we could take along the coast before we started the official Rakiura track, which would have gorgeous scenery and only add 3-4 km to our hike.  Being young and still enthusiastic about hiking, we decided to go for it and started off through town (only about 400m) and off into the bush!  It was definitely worth the extra kilometers to walk along the coast for awhile before heading into the forest.  Some of the best views of the trip were through the trees to gorgeous beaches and rock formations in the bright teal water.  The colors were so vibrant, it almost didn’t look real!  We were very luck in the weather for the whole trip, the only time it rained was to sprinkle on us a little as we started off on the first day, but this led to yet another rainbow, the end of which we could actually see coming up out of the water.  Another good sign? Definitely J

When we reached the actual beginning of the Rakiura Track, the sign pointed us in the direction of North Arm Hut, which is just a little farther than the first campsite: 11.5km and 4.5 hours away…better get moving!  After this the trail moved off the coast and into more wooded areas.  It was really interesting how the trees would change type all of a sudden, from huge ferns to tall skinny trunks with leaves only at the very top, then into more bushy foliage again with no clear reason that I could see for the transition.  Parts of the trail were very wide and easy to follow, but a lot of the time we were following a narrow trail that was fortunately marked by frequent orange triangles to point us on our way.  By the end of about 5 more hours of hiking up and down hills and steps and climbing our way through the trees to avoid the muddy sections of the path, all of our packs were starting to feel rather heavy, not to mention the dents that had begun to form in our hip bones from weight of the bottom strap wrapped around them.  Suddenly, after only a little ways over more mud and up more wooden steps, we came around a bend and to our delight were greeted by the sign for Sawdust Bay campsite! Hallelujah! 

We saw a little path leading down to the actual bay, but decided to set our packs down before braving any more trails.  The campsite consisted of a small shelter with a sink, a couple benches, and a large reservoir with water filtered (hopefully…) straight off the roof of the shelter.  Ready, set, rough it.  There was also a metal port-a-potty, for which we had fortunately brought our own toilet paper.  At first, we were rather distressed because the outhouse seemed to be locked and we were worried that we’d be using the nature latrine for the night.  But, with a little working of the lock with a handy stick and the proper leverage Jesse managed to get the door open, much to the girls’ relief! 

It was around 5 when we arrived at the campsite so we decided to go down and explore the bay before dinner.  It was low tide, which was really cool because we could walk out a long ways and around to a small rock bay on the far side.  We could see what looked like the remains of some rusted submarine or train car back in the little bay, so Jesse, Sarah, Ford and I went to investigate!  It was a pretty easy climb over some rocks to get to the back where we were able to get a closer look at what appeared to be two extremely old train cars that had been abandoned long ago.  A little farther back, there were two really pretty little waterfalls; totally worth the climb!  After we got back to the main beach we were all getting pretty hungry so we walked back across the sand to the shoreline.  Unforeseen difficulty: the beach was so expansive at low tide that we couldn’t tell where we had climbed down from above…uh oh.  We walked along searching for the path to get back up to the campsite and contemplating how difficult it would be to climb up through the trees and whether or not we’d be able to find the trail or the camp.  Luckily, we were eventually able to find the little path back up to the top and so avoided any unnecessary bush-whacking. 

For dinner, we brought out our beans, spaghetti, and sporks (awesome camping utensil which combines spoon, fork, and knife) and the old can opener which had been left in our kitchen by the previous flat owners.  As we soon discovered, this can opener had been abandoned for a very good reason: it is very reluctant to perform the sole function for which it was created.  Shoot.  However, with the proper technique (still not really sure what that was, but it involved a lot of cajoling and threatening of the tool and can alike, on my part) I was able to open (mutilate) the first can enough to squeeze some of the beans out of the top.  Success!  Unfortunately, I was a bit overzealous in getting the top of the can off and ended up getting sprayed in tomato paste before it came off enough to get at the beans…well played, can.  Ford decided to try his hand at opening the spaghetti, but only succeeded in poking a hole in the side of the can and getting rather sticky, from spaghetti tomato paste this time instead of bean tomato paste.  Yum.  Since I’d already had some success with the now appropriately dubbed “devil can opener” I volunteered to wrestle with it again and this time actually had more success!  I managed to cut all around the lid, only having to restart about 10 times instead of 20 and didn’t get sprayed at all!  Anna: 2, Can opener: 1. This feat earned me the title of “The Can Whisperer,” of which I am quite proud J  Sarah, Emily, and Jesse were rather skeptical of our cold, canned meals so of course we offered to let them try some.  The spaghetti was definitely subpar, very sweet and kind of slimy…but it was hilarious to watch their faces as they got their first taste.  Since they had brought enough peanut butter for sandwiches for dinner as well as lunch, they didn’t need to try to convince themselves that cold, canned spaghetti wasn’t really so bad, like we did, and so the true feelings came out.  But really, it could have been worse.   The beans were actually not that bad, and if we’d only been able to make a fire it would have been quite the feast! Kind of…

After dinner we set up the 2 tents, which fortunately were very simple, and then tackled the tent fly, which was basically a big tarp with strings on each corner and in the middle of each side to tie to trees to form a shelter from the rain, if little else.  None of us really knew what to do with the large red “flap,” as we dubbed it, so after much contemplation and many befuddled looks we just started tying it up and managed to form a surprisingly pleasing little lean-to, with part of the tarp folded underneath so that we wouldn’t be sleeping directly on the ground.  After establishing our little tent city, we went back down to the beach to watch the sunset from some large rocks that we’d seen earlier in the day.  By this time, the tide had come in quite a ways so the beach was much narrower and we made sure to keep an eye on our path off the rocks so that we wouldn’t have to do any unplanned swimming.  A little surprise: when we climbed up to a large boulder to make our perch, we were greeted by the skull of some animal planted on a stick amidst the rocks.  Slightly reminiscent of Lord of the Flies and rather disconcerting.  Once we got past that, however, it was wonderful to sit up on a boulder, looking out over the ocean with 6 other people, 5 of whom I hadn’t known 2 weeks before, and be able to share something so peaceful and beautiful.  By the time the sun actually started to set, the tide had come up enough that we were getting a little nervous about our rock turning into an island so we went back down to the now very small strip of beach and watched the most picturesque sunset over the bay, complete with little birds who looked slightly like penguins from afar flying across the sun right as it was dipping below the horizon.  It was just about as perfect as we could have asked for.

Once the sun went down we hiked back up to our campsite and played a few rounds of cards before bed, but we were all pretty tired from our first day on the track and soon crawled into our respective sleeping places.  Ford, Jesse, and Emily got the honor of spending the first night in the flap, while Sarah and I shared one tent and Leslie and Amanda the other.  We said good night and crawled into our mummy bags, pulling the strings tight so that all that was sticking out were our noses and attempted to fall asleep while listening to the sounds of the woods around us and hoping to hear the high pitched call of the elusive kiwi bird.

To be continued…