South Island travels I: Routeburn Track

My mom arrived last week for a three week whirlwind tour of New Zealand, and luckily we have it worked out so I won’t be seeing anything I’ve already seen! In a lot of ways I saved the best for last, including the famous Milford Sound (on the cover of all the NZ guidebooks) and the Routeburn Track, allegedly the best out of all nine of NZ’s “great walks”. So we set off south through beautiful Tekapo, where I couldn’t resist taking pictures of the blooming lupine even though I’ve been there once before. From there we headed on to Queenstown, where we enjoyed checking out the town and some great food before getting ready to embark on our hike the next day.

Next stop, Routeburn Track! We drove out to the trailhead in the rain, dreading the possibility that we might spend the next three days cold and wet. But by some miracle the rain stopped right as we reached the car park and we barely saw it again for the rest of our hike! The first leg of our journey was short, only about 3 hours, and it paralleled a pretty river for a while before climbing through the forest up to Routeburn Falls Hut. The rain started up again about halfway through and turned to snow as we gained elevation so we were quite glad to get to the hut! Unfortunately the hut was freezing, stupid coal stove in the corner, but the ramen and reading and people watching kept us entertained.

Track profile - we walked from right to left

 Clean!

Crazy New Zealand water colors

Weather deteriorating but pretty anyway!

View from the hut after the blizzard stopped

On the second day the track climbs through the alpine section, which is at high risk for avalanches. We didn’t know this until we picked up our hut tickets in Queenstown but part of the track is still in avalanche danger so DOC is offering a subsidized helicopter ride across the short section of the trail that is unsafe. We had our hearts set on doing the whole track so we decided it was worth it and on the second morning we had a pretty hour-long climb up a snowy valley to where the track was closed. We waited for our helicopter at the gorgeous Lake Harris and soon saw what a slick system they have worked out. The helicopter ride was very short, just up over the ridge and back down, but it was still fun! The way they run their national parks is very different from what would, excuse the pun, fly in the states, but I tried not to consider the environmental effects of my tourism until I was done enjoying the hike. Sorry, dad.

View of Routeburn Falls Hut and valley below

Lake Harris

From Harris Saddle where we got dropped off there were amazing views of an open valley in front of us and mountains all around, which I soaked in as we hiked for the next few hours. Then we started winding our way down a side valley and soon we had a view of our next gorgeous destination – Lake Mackenzie. After an annoying downhill we were there! I feasted on ramen and then went outside to enjoy the sun. I don’t think I’ve ever had a more scenic spot for reading. These were some of the best hours I’ve had while I’ve been in New Zealand.

View of Lake Mackenzie and the hut

Gorgeous Lake Mackenzie

Crazy NZ water

Best reading spot ever, totally worth the sunburn

View from my spot

The last day of the hike was mostly in the forest and pretty but not notable aside from the big waterfall we passed and the pretty Lake Howden on the way out. After four hours my feet were finally feeling the strain of 34km of hiking and I was very happy when we got to the car. Overall, though, this was one of my best hikes in NZ – good weather, good spirits, little pain, amazing scenery. Two great walks down, seven to go!

Earland Falls

Lake Howden

Done! and apparently lost my eyebrows and got a lot uglier on the way.

Leaving Christchurch

This blog marks my last few days in Christchurch, which is incredibly sad. I can’t believe how fast my time here has flown by and how much fun I’ve had. Living in a new country, coming here knowing no one, seeing so many spectacular parts of New Zealand, and making amazing friendships I know will last far beyond my stay here have all made this easily the most amazing experience of my life. I’m so thankful that my study abroad experience exceeded my high expectations and I can’t imagine what my life would be like if I’d chosen to go somewhere else or especially if I hadn’t forced myself to get out of my comfort zone and follow a dream at all. I hope that I can hold these feelings with me as I go on in life and continue being willing to do things that might be hard because new experiences and connections are so rewarding in the long run. For anyone who’s been part of my life in Christchurch who might be reading this, I hope you know you’re amazing and thank you so much for coming into my life. I will always carry these last 4 months with me.

I spent my last weekend here out on the nearby Banks Peninsula camping with Bernard. It’s a beautiful area but every time I’ve been out that way it’s been rainy so I was hoping this last hurrah would treat us kindly. Of course that was too much to ask and it was so stormy as we drove over we could hardly see 10 feet in front of us. Luckily when we got to the campground things started clearing up, and by the next morning it was pretty nice and we were able to wander around and check out the beautiful area. This combined with plenty of hot chips and movies made for a great last weekend.

Rainy bay

Sunny bay!

Gorgeous Banks Peninsula

I’ve spent my time since finals frantically hanging out with everyone, trying to squeeze in as much time together as we can before many people head home. It’s been sad to say goodbye to so many of the other exchange students but my consolation prize is I’m not even close to going home yet! My mom arrives in New Zealand today and we’re taking off for a few weeks of travel together and then I’ll meet up with some other friends to round out my month-long tour of the sights I’ve missed. As Semisonic said, every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end, so though I’m sad to wish Christchurch goodbye I’m also very excited for this last leg of my stay here. I might not be blogging as much because I’ll be traveling but I will have internet with my couchsurfing hosts and such so I’ll do my best to keep whoever might actually be reading this posted! Bon voyage!

Nelson Lakes National Park

My last weekend hiking trip while still living in Christchurch was north to Nelson Lakes National Park with Bernard, Jenn, Daniel, and Drew. We headed up on Friday afternoon and checked out the pretty lakes on the way, then settled in to camp at the trailhead after some very impressive tinkering to get our camp stove to work.

Lake Rotoroa

Lake Rotoiti

The forecast for the weekend had been a little snow but not too bad so we thought we’d be fine, but we woke up to at least a few inches of fresh snow on the ground – crazy! This meant there was snow on the ground for our entire hike and everything was slippery and muddy and annoying. We got to Speargrass Hut, which was halfway in distance to our destination but only about a quarter of the way up in elevation. Soon after we passed the hut the snow got to knee and then thigh deep and the weather looked stormy. We decided to turn back and stay at the halfway hut because we knew the snow would only get more impossible to trudge through and we still had hours of climbing ahead of us. Making it up to Lake Angelus would have been awesome but it just wasn’t worth the risk and effort.

Snowy campsite in the morning at the trailhead

The hut we ended up staying in

Annoying river bed we hiked up

Happy to be turning back!

Instead we enjoyed a relaxing evening in front of the fire playing cards and doing crossword puzzles, then hiked out quickly the next day. When we got back to town we needed to get gas but found out there was a scheduled power cut that day so we had to hang out for a few hours until the power came back on. Small towns, eh? Luckily the lake wasn’t too bad a place to kill time and before we knew it we were bound back for Christchurch with a satisfying fish and chips stop on the way.

I have my last two finals today and tomorrow and then I’ll be done! I can’t believe that this is my last week in Christchurch and how fast my time here has gone by. I’m really sad that something I’ve enjoyed so much is coming to an end but I’m just trying to be grateful for this amazing experience and enjoy it while I can.

Kiwisms

New Zealand has some pretty hilarious signs and names for things so I thought it would be fun to make a haphazard list of the little differences I've found entertaining while living here! Enjoy :)

Slang phrases

Ay/eh: isn’t that right. Attached to sentences as confirmation, as in “those chips were good, ay”

Bogan: white trash

Bugger: damn

Cheers: thanks, goodbye

Jafa: “just another f***ing Aucklander”, derogatory

Keen: interested, as in “I’m keen to go on a tramp”

Kiwi: New Zealander

Piss: alcohol, as in “keen for a night on the piss?”

Sweet as: cool, sweet. As can be attached to emphasize any adjective, as in “hungry as”

Ta: thank you

True: yes or is that so, as in “your tramp was good? True”

Real: really, as in “I went to Australia last week” “ah, real!”

Adjectives

Knackered: tired

Manky: gross, nasty, low class

Skody: gross, nasty, low class

Trolleyed: drunk

Actions

Suss out: figure out

Take the piss: make fun of

Top up: put money on, as in phone or bus pass

Tramp: hike

Whinge: complain

-PG-13 section-

Pash: make out, as in passionately kiss

Poke: go to second base with a female. Guess facebook didn’t ask any Kiwis before they named that feature right?

Instead of explaining what road hazard you should look out for Kiwis just warn you that something exciting is about to happen

Clothes

Jandals: flip flops

Jersey: sweater

Sneans: sneakers and jeans, semi-derogatory

Stubbies: short shorts for men, usually worn in rugby

Top: shirt, even for men

Much more proper than "yield"

Food

Biscuit: cookie

Capsicum: pepper, as in green or red

Chips: French fries only wider, as in fish and

Courgette: zucchini

Fizzy: soda

Flat white: mysterious delicious kind of coffee, like a latte only sweeter

Goon: wine, usually in a box containing the “goon sack”

Hokey pokey: popular ice cream with bits of candy

Lolly: candy, as in “bag of lollies”

Scroggin: trail mix

Toast and sandwich bread: distinction based on thickness

Meal types and times

Entree: appetizer

Tea: dinner

Food objects

Bench: kitchen counter

Trolley: shopping cart

Car dealership with billboards all over the city

Places

Bach: vacation home, usually very simple and rustic

Car park: parking lot

Chemist: pharmacy

Dairy: convenience store

Maccas: McDonald’s

Uni: university

Love this one, it means that they can lower the bus door to sidewalk level if you're disabled

Miscellaneous

Arvo: afternoon

Bonnet and boot: hood and trunk of a car

Orange light: yellow light

Paper: class, as in “I’m taking 3 papers this semester”

Peg: clothes pin, tent stake

Torch: flashlight

Twink: white-out, for correcting mistakes in pen (used in the US as a slur for a gay man)

Christchurch video blog - please watch! :)

The last few weeks I've been working on a video project for my Rebuilding Christchurch class and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I wanted to make something that would help people at home understand how extensive the damage from the earthquakes is and what it's like to live somewhere that's recovering from such a tragedy.

It was a very strange experience for me to come here only knowing what I'd seen on the news and then realize how wrong my perceptions had been - it's at the same time worse and longer lasting damage than I imagined and also less sensational. I've become increasingly curious about learning about the earthquakes the longer I've been here and it's only made me realize now that I can never understand what it was like to be here in February no matter how much I want to. But I think trying to understand is, in itself, valuable and I've been a little disappointed that many of the exchange students I know didn't seem to share this sensitive curiosity. What I'm trying to say with all this rambling is that I wanted to share the small insight I might have gained from all the thinking I've done while living here and I hope people who don't live here might understand a little better too.

This video project came at a perfect time because the first major recovery development since the earthquake came last weekend. There wasn't much hype about this beforehand, which I think made it even more heartwarming. They opened up one corner of the central business district (aka the red zone that has been guarded and fenced off since the earthquake while they knock down most of the downtown's buildings) and turned it into a few blocks worth of shops, bus exchange, and pedestrian urban container shopping area. I was so impressed and touched to be here for this and it was really incredible to see the streets absolutely flooded with people in a place that's just been behind a depressing fence the whole time I've been here. This is the first really visible sign of recovery there's been and I'm so pleasantly surprised that this came soon enough for me to experience it. 

Everything colored used to be closed

Arch in the background is the Bridge of Remembrance - if you go way back to my second ever blog there are pictures of it still fenced off

Being a dork with Prime Minister John Key

Winning the rugby world cup and other fun things

The most exciting thing that’s happened recently is that New Zealand won the rugby world cup! We went to the fan zone to watch the game sporting some finely crafted face paint. The place was packed at it was really fun to see so many people come out and get excited. The game was against France and was too close for comfort – in all honesty France played much better than New Zealand – but somehow the All Blacks pulled out a victory and it was so fun to be there for it. They haven’t won since 1987 even though they’re consistently the best team in the world. Even better, the last time they won was in New Zealand and that time was also against France, so this was a repeat of history. It was especially special in light of the hard year a lot of Kiwis have had with all the earthquakes. Christchurch was supposed to be one of the host cities for the world cup but lost that chance when the stadium was destroyed in the earthquake.

The day after the victory the whole All Blacks team came to Christchurch (with the shiny gold cup in hand) for a parade and speech at the fan zone. I was glad to be there for that because in some small way winning the world cup has made up for the earthquakes for a lot of people (yeah, they’re that obsessed with rugby) and this is really the first happy thing that’s happened in Christchurch in a year. It was also just fun to see all the guys in real life because they’re superstars here and I think it meant a lot to people that they would come to Christchurch. Much of the team is from Christchurch so it was pretty special that they were ‘bringing the world cup home’.

Aside from rugby I’ve been doing boring stuff like relaxing and studying – took one final, two more exams and a video project I’m pretty excited about to go. Only other real stories to share are a few little trips around Christchurch I’ve done.

My flatmate brought a lamb home from her parents' farm!

GapFiller event, an organization that puts public art on sites of demolished buildings

View towards Banks Peninsula, walking around in the hills south of Chch

View of Canterbury plains from a day hike up Mt. Grey

That’s all for now – only  three weeks left in Christchurch (wow oh my god sad), including two exams and one last weekend hike, before I take off for further adventures!