Hello again! My apologies, it's been a few weeks since my last post, but it's finally here. Okay, so where was I? That's only half rhetorical, because I really don't remember what my last post was about.
Kepler! Alright, the weekend after we did Kepler, we had a short week of school, and we got an early start on mid-semester break by leaving Thursday afternoon (March 28th). Sherry, Claire, Josh, Pierre, and I crammed into The Nug (short for Golden Nugget - Sherry and Claire's car) and left for Queenstown. We got there around 5:30pm which was just in time to beat the rush at our favorite restaurant, Fergberger. There was also a professional bike competition going on, so we watched some bikers do some cool tricks on a pretty intense course. We hung out on the beach and climbed some trees for the rest of the evening before driving the short distance to Wye Creek where we stayed the night. We weren't "technically" allowed to camp there, but we figured we were safe enough, and we took our chances.
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| View from our campsite |
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| The Nug with its attached tarpitecture |
Friday: We were up by 8am, and after our standard breakfast of muesli and powdered milk (so good), we packed our backpacks and hiked 45 minutes or so up the valley to a waterfall and our climbing area.
The first climb that Josh and Pierre set was a 5.8 (pretty easy), but it was high, about 30 meters to be exact. Josh, Pierre, Claire, and I cruised up to the top and enjoyed a fantastic view of the lake and mountains. Sherry wasn't in the climbing mood, so she watered the plants around where we were climbing. What a gal.
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| Josh nearing the top |
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| Pierre belaying Claire |
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| On my way up... |
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| At the top! |
Our next climb was a pretty gnarly 5.10d (a few notches above my skill level) roof that finished with an easy 5.7 climb. Pierre completed it first, and Josh followed by flashing it (making it up his first try without coming off of the wall). They both made it look pretty easy. Claire and I tried it after but didn't have much luck. Although we both got in a few moves and worked our way up the roof before we had to come own.
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| Pierre getting ready - how cool is that rock? |
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| Pierre on the crux with a casual mountain and lake background |
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| Josh working on the roof |
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| A pretty cool shot of Josh climbing via Claire |
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| I only made it a little bit farther than this - thanks for the pic, Josh. |
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| Sherry straight chillin |
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| Not enough selfies |
We ate lunch, read, enjoyed the beautiful weather, chatted for much of the afternoon, and Josh climbed one more route before we decided to head back. We walked across the road and Josh and Claire swam while Sherry went for a run and I relaxed in my Crazy Creek. Sherry and Claire cooked a carrot, lentil, onion, and tomato stew (with cheese)for dinner on our new grill ($14 at K Mart, score), and it was great. It was a beautiful night, so we slept under the stars.
Saturday: We were up by 6:30am, because we had to drive Josh into town to get a ride back to Dunedin with our program director, Jane, who is one of the greatest people ever. Josh decided that he'd rather spend his break kayaking with his "other friends" instead of joining our road trip. We were ecstatic to see him go; we felt like our break had finally begun! Just kidding, he was missed greatly throughout break.
We got breakfast at a bakery in Queenstown and drove about an hour north to Wanaka. We played a game of Settlers on a picnic table on a gorgeous lake - it was, to no surprise, another beautiful, sunny day. We then planned to continue further north, but signs for
Puzzling World! We decided against the pricey tour, but there were plenty of optical illusions and (fairly frustrating) puzzles that we could enjoy for free. At some point, we realized that we had been sitting in silence trying to complete our respective puzzles for over an hour. We left with headaches (seriously).
We then drove about three hours to Fox Glacier and enjoyed it from afar. It was pretty cool, but we didn't have the time to explore it very closely, because we had more driving to do. Two hours later we arrived in Hakatika for groceries and camping. I prepared a luxurious, complicated dinner of pasta with red sauce, peppers, and onions. We played Hearts in the tent before Pierre and I slept under the tarp during a rainy night. His excellent tarpitecture kept us dry!
Sunday: Lots of rain today, which was probably good for the NZ drought. Thankfully, it was a day of mostly driving again. It was six hours to our Motueka, and we continued to Takaka where we stopped at a petting zoo kind of place (lama, sheep, emu, donkey) right near our campsite. We camped at a place called Canaan Downs, and we found out they shot some scenes from The Hobbit there. It was a pretty cool area. Sheep were roaming freely all around us! We played Settlers under Pierre's tarpitecture and drank wine for our Easter celebration! Dinner was quinoia with tomatoes, chic peas, corn, and spices, and hot cocoa for dessert! Early to bed, and fortunately the rain stopped, too!
Monday: Our 6 am wake up was cooooold. Like, really cold. We drove to Mahau in Abel Tasman National Park and got to our kayak rental place just in time for probably the most beautiful sunrise of my life.
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| No editing, promise! |
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| Another awesome pic from Claire |
We packed up our kayaks and we were on the water by 10:30am or so. We had two double kayaks, so we decided guys vs. girls was the best option. We saw some seals, and we even paddled past my flatmate, Matt, and my neighbor, Connor. Small country.
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| Probably the happiest you'll ever see Pierre |
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| I didn't bring my new camera on the kayak - my point and shoot is slightly lower quality... |
We ate lunch on a nice beach and dropped our gear off at our campsite. Then Pierre and I decided to explore the shore line of our bay and found an awesome bouldering problem. It was high tide, so our 'landing pad' was about eight feet of water. Sherry and Claire joined us in bouldering for a while, but the barnacle infested rocks were killers on our bare hands and feet. We left pretty cut up, but it was totally worth it.
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| We decided it was probably a V2 or V3. The water creates some awesome jugs. |
Then we paddled around for a while longer, saw some more baby seals, and picked a whole kayak full of mussels. We had an awesome spread for dinner that night: freshly steamed mussels, beans, peppers, onions, cheese, salsa, tomatoes, curry, and garlic salt tacos! Chocolate for dessert to top off a fantastic day.
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| We have SO much fun cooking together, right Pierre?! |
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| Mussels on mussels on mussels |
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| Sherry and Claire are vegetarian, but something about mussels not having souls or something makes them okay to eat. You can tell how upset she is. |
Tuesday: The sunrise on our bay was beautiful this morning, and we ate our normal breakfast of muesli and powdered milk. We read for a while, I explored the coastline some more during low tide, and we were all packed up and ready to go by 10am or so. We paddled all afternoon and picked some more mussels before we had to paddle a few hours back to the beach where we started.
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| I've really been working on my tan - Chaco tan, that is. |
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| We have SO much fun paddling together, right Pierre?! Oh, that's right, he doesn't show emotion. |
Nelson is only an hour's drive, so we were there in time to find an awesome backpackers (hostel) called Accents on the Park and get Thai food. Showering for the first time in a week was pretty nice, too. The room we stayed in had three triple-bunk beds, but fortunately Pierre didn't fall off the very top.
Wednesday: We decided to spend a full day in Nelson, and it proved to be a very wet day. I walked around the town in the morning (because we can't stay up past 10:30pm or wake up past 8am), and then all four of us went to the grocery store and checked out the Nelson Farmer's Market. We took over the hostel kitchen and made eggs (hard boiled and scrambled), and Claire kind of made some chocolate chip pancakes/pancake scramble, but the combination of no oil, old pans, and cheap pancake mix resulted in more frustration than food. We played lots of chess and settled a few times on the balcony while it rained. Coincidentally, Kemper and some of his friends were staying at the same backpackers, and he and Pierre went climbing at the climbing gym in town while Sherry, Claire, and I played chess and explored Nelson a bit more. For dinner, Pierre and I made steak tikka masala and the girls made a tasty veggie stir fry. The hostel had free freshly baked bread, too! Then we decided to hit the town: Kemper and one of his friends joined us in heading to a bar, where we tried some local beer and played pool. We foolishly decided to put Sherry and me on a team, and Pierre and Claire smoked everyone.
We played five or six games of round robin, and by that time, we were exhausted. We were asleep by 10:15pm...
Thursday: We left the backpackers at 10am in order to make it to Blenheim by 11am. Some of Claire's friends and fellow camp counselors, Robbie and Hannah, are working there at a vineyard, and we caught them just before bed time! They work the night shift at their vineyards, so their shift begins at 10pm and they don't finish until 10am. They work 12 hours a day, seven days a week, for six weeks - not even one day off, including Easter! They showed us to their house and were nice enough to stay up until noon with us before finally heading to bed. We got kabobs in Blenheim and drove to a nearby beach called White's Point. It was a chilly, overcast day, but we had a lot of fun climbing on the rocks around the beach for a few hours. Then we found a cafe in Blenheim and relaxed until it was time to get Dominos Pizza (lame, I know, but it's only $5 a pizza, and we're broke!) and we woke up Robbie and Hannah to eat dinner/breakfast: pizza and oatmeal. Claire drove them to work around 9:30pm while Pierre, Sherry, and I played Settlers and Hearts, and we stayed up until 11:30pm, woa! It was really fun to meet Robbie and Hannah, and we were very thankful to sleep with a roof over our heads for another night.
Friday: We woke up this morning and decided that our beds in Dunedin sounded pretty nice. We only made a few pitstops and got back to Dunedin in eight hours or so. More showers and early bed times.
I spent the rest of the weekend working (I know, right?), because I had two essays, an exam, and another assignment the upcoming week. I had to finish all of this so I could be obligation-free for when Grandma and Grandpa Lerner arrived the next weekend! Another post should be up soon with all of our adventures.
Thanks for reading! If only the Wild could win, life would be pretty good here.
