Another Home

I made it to Wanaka, but not without effort! The day before I was to depart another storm raged through! The rain there is no laughing matter. This one caused 7 slips that we could identify and driving from Franz Joseph to Wanaka. One was caused by a river diverting itself from it's bed and and crossing the road instead of going under the bridge. That was the biggest and took most of the day to clear up! It was all worth it though to see the waterfalls raging through the canyon!

All the plans I had to hike and camp around Wanaka disappeared with each rock climber I met. the first three days were spent climbing, the fourth watching a few better climbers and doing short hikes in the area, the fifth, climbing. I suppose that's not ALL I did though. I stayed with the young lady I met on the Nelson Lakes hike who was hiking with her dad. Her roommates took me in without question and we had some awesome group dinners all week long! We also spent a day playing acrobatics in the park, I have learned a bit about juggling, though I need a lot of practice still!! Here's a pic of Claudia, my hostess, juggling on her friend's shoulders! Slack-lining was taking place just behind us :)

Wanaka is by far my favorite city/town in NZ so far! There was never-ending opportunities to meet new people and have a little adventure each day!

Leaving Wanaka I hitch-hiked, headed for my next set of roots. Grapevine roots! Misha's Vineyard! My new office!

Mishasvineyard.com

The website is lovely but doesn't come close to showing how awesome these guys are! Misha grew up an opera woman's daughter. The star of and center of the stage in her mom's life. She doesn't, and never did, have any inclination to raise children. She's been a successful dancer, having grown up in the theater, naturally she took up an aspect of theater. But her big success has been in business and marketing. She made a name for herself working for Dell and a few other big names. Born and raised Aussie, lived and worked in Singapore for the 17yrs leading up to starting her vineyard.
Andy is a whole 'nother story! Having been married and divorced, he's got a few kids wandering the world, popping in and out of his life. I can't wait to meet Dean, he's a high class chef! Andy grew up with a number of siblings, so the thought of having a young lady, such as myself, barge into their home with no departure date wasn't quite as daunting for him. Born and raised a Kiwi, Andy has lived in a few countries including Singapore with Misha. He's done well for himself starting out in type-writer maintenance, moving along to selling personal computers, managing people, working for IBM and a few other big names...

They take really good care of me and feed me well! :) Which is a very important part of my happiness...full tummies make happy people. Proven fact. I was at their house a mere week before my first full wine tasting of Misha's Vineyard's wines.  Andy is a great chef. He's got breakfast on the table every weekday by 7am and always an interesting dinner! Anything from home made pizza to poached pork to a melt in your mouth steak!! It's lovely!

Each Sunday we make eggs benedict. I'm in charge of the hollandaise sauce. Which has been working out quite well. On this particular day ----->
 we were distracted by a few people that required a vineyard tour. Sadly, breakfast was put off until lunch time (LATE lunch at that) so we pulled out all the stops! We accompanied the eggs benny with sausage, bacon, caramelized tomatoes, and champagne!



I've now been here a month. I work on the vineyard most days and man I have some beach workouts to do if I think I'm gonna get rid of the tan-lines made from working on the vineyard! Luckily the tan-lines all match the various, and few, shirts I have here. I am a professional leaf plucker and tucker, and we've just started to thin out the grape bunches. I gotta say,  cutting off bunches is one of the most painful jobs. I understand WHY we do it and I fully support it to make better wine. It still makes me sad to see potential fall to the ground, but I have tasted their wines and they know what they're doing so I continue to chop off bunches and bunches of unripe grapes.

A good friend Heather Krebs will be arriving to wreak a bit of havoc with me in just a few days time, so I'm sure there will be more pics to share with you all when she leaves!

I think I left off somewhere with a plan...?

Right, luckily it had no details to it! Leaving Kat's place I dove back into Abel Tasman park, took a boat ride past all the tourists and the fur seals(have I mentioned they aren't actually seals? They are sea lions) I digress, lovely coastal track they've got there, I hiked there two days and had a flushing toilet and toilet paper provided everytime! Amazing! I was spoiled. My next stop was Nelson Lakes National Park.

After two days of hitchhiking and 7 different drivers (longest ride was 1.3hrs, shortest was 2mins, not alltogether sure why some people stop) I finally arrived! Got a decent start by 11am that first day, a solid 7hrs on the trail, I felt awesome! (ok that's a lie I was horribly cranky cuz I skipped breakfast in order to get a ride) but once I ate I felt awesome!!

Day two was planned to take the brunt of the hike, if you check out the travers-Sabine loop trail there is a gorgeous mountain pass, the travers saddle, completed base to base from the east to west in one day. Ooooh my knees and my feet hurt, I may be exaggerating but I think it was a 1200m climb soo what is that 3k ft? I give it a 14er rating for you Coloradoans back home :)

http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/tracks-and-walks/nelson-tasman/nelson-lakes/travers-sabine-circuit/

Day two was successful got to the bottom on the other side and crashed, I think I slept on a rescue heli pad, apparently there were no emergencies. (seriously though, who puts those along a hiking trail in an idyllic camping location?!)

The most astounding part of this trek was the rivers! There were waterfalls and river crossings and little lakes all over the place! I have never seen so many water bodies in one general area.

Unfortunately I had to cross each of them. Occasionally there would be a bridge but typically the bridges were for marshy areas not raging rivers, no you had to balance on rocks or wade through the rivers, they spared you from the mud. Stupid.  Though I suppose it could be lightening mud or something that I don't know about.!? Thankfully I only slipped in one river crossing and the walking stick I decided to carry along like an old english person did me well!

Day three was an adventure!! I slept late and conversed with a couple from the north island that we should make a lazy day of it and stop at the next hut. They had a nice big fire place there and we could dry out our boots for the first time in three days! They took off and I carried on shortly thereafter. Now anyone that knows me well, knows that direction is not my forte. At all. Left from right is tricky enough and mountains always mean west to me (thanks to the view of the Rockies from Foco). I was in the middle of the mountains. I was screwed. So I left headed east, naturally, if I came down the mountain the day before east was the only option. (I was actually supposed to head north. For those of you that checked out the trail map)

I was so excited for that big fire and cozy hut that I hit the trail running (not really running, my pack was somewhere around forty lbs at this point).  Long story short I hit the next hut after 3.5 hrs, I was shocked (it was supposed to take 5) then dismayed...I had gone south. It started to rain as I stepped up to the hut. Blue lake is a gorgeous little side track but completely out of the way and some of the worst river crossings I had done yet, and I had to backtrack. After thoroughly berating myself I settled down to have a nice night of solitude. There was no way anyone would follow me up there in the rain that was pouring down. So I had the luxury of a fire and a bath!!! It was lovely :) I just tried not to think of what the water level would be like going back the next day!

Day four was absolutely beautiful!!! And I made it down to where I had intended to go the previous day...and at that hut I met a cool groups from Nelson city that invited me to hike back out with them and they'd give me a ride into Nelson!! Score!  They continued to include me in their pre-holiday activities, Christmas eve BBQ Christmas day beach fun, etc and I got to ride around in their shiny new corvette!! (they use buttons now to open doors, I had to ask how to exit the first time!) anyway, total success in the end :)

I do well in groups.

That being said, I left Nelson alone for another hike that goes in to a large overhang (they tried to call it a cave, but it's definitely not a cave). More river crossings. There were actually parts of the trail where you just walk along IN the river. My feet are so tired of being wet while hiking...but it's the kiwi way! I think that's why I see so many guys walking around in short shorts (like 1970/1980s basketball shorts) and gum boots.

I continued down the coast pitching my tent where no one could see me but I could see the ocean :) it was awesome! Though the further I go south the worse the sandflies seem to be (they look like fruit flies but they are worse than mosquitoes! They leave sores not just itchy spots, not sure why they are needed on this planet)

I hit Franz Joseph on new years eve and met a nice guy at a hostel that had a car and drove a handful of us around to seethe glaciers and do some hikes, lovely really. And a good thing!

New years day I wasn't really too keen on adventure, let alone movement, but I met a nice couple that run a hostel and offered me a room, dinner each night, and free laundry in exchange for 2hrs work each day cleaning at their hostel. I'm still here. Hahahaha! The rain started on he second and didn't stop until the fourth. Next thing we know the bridge to the north fell out due to a landslide (they call them slips here) and all the hiking trails were closed for two-three days. I've finally seen the tops of the mountains here though and the bridge was just opened up last night. Just in time for the next rain storm starting tomorrow. So I decided to skip hiking this area and jet down to Wanaka, which is the next city south of here but inland a bit. And perhaps do some camping out of there. I thought I was in summer here, I'd hate to see the spring showers if this is nice summer weather...