40 Million Sheep

Always in the big woods, when you leave familiar ground and step off alone into a new place, there will be, along with feelings of curiousity and excitement, a little nagging dread. It is an ancient fear of the unknown and it is your first bond with the wilderness you’re going into. What you are doing is exploring. You are undertaking the first experience, not of the place, but of yourself in that place. It is an experience of essential loneliness; for nobody can discover the world for anyone else. It is only after we have discovered it for ourselves that it becomes a common ground and bond, and we cease to be alone. – Wendell Berry

Greetings from Christchurch, New Zealand! We’ve been quite busy driving the South Island on the left side of the road. We have seen, this is a rough estimate, 20 million of the 40 million sheep in New Zealand. A few were being chased by a few eager Kiwis. Apparently “baaahhh” means “more” or “harder”. Unfortunately, today is our last day in New Zealand as tomorrow we head to Australia and warm weather.

Skiing Kiwi Style

From Lake Tekapo, Nadine and I migrated south to wintery Wanaka. Skiing was the only goal. Nadine had suffered a spell of two years without playing in the white powder. Cardrona and Treble Cone were the two ski fields to choose from. From eager encouragement by a wild haired Aussie, we decided on Cardrona Ski Fields and this proved to be a good choice too.

We climbed the steep “35 minute from the bottom to the top” dirt road with our very own Japanese snowboarder we had picked up along the way. The climb had no safety barriers to prevent our car slaloming down to the valley. We soon realized a 4X4 vehicle would be a nice upgrade to our rental go kart. Despite all of this, the view was amazing. At least I know if I died, I had a great view.

Nadine and I spent the day tearing up some hellacious green and blue runs. Surprisingly enough, Nadine was just as nimble on skis in the Southern Hemisphere as the Northern and I managed not to fall. Now for your average American or European, you think of long ski trails lined with trails that you can ride for long distances. That is not the reality here. Ski trails are shorter and avoiding rocks peeking up out of the snow is part of the game. Hidden rocks proved to be more dangerous than the snowboarders.

Time To Repeat

The next day, we drove to Treble Cone Ski Resort. Same routine. Drive a very large kid car up steep dirt road with spectacular views. Kiwi beer really helped us out on the slopes. With the purchase of a 15 pack of Speights Beer, a coupon on the packaging allowed two ski lift tickets for the price of one. Great deal, plus breakfast on the drive up!

I called it a morning after two challenging green runs, and spent a good part of the day with some hot cocoa, a camera, and some crazy green birds with a massive beak. Nadine took her newfound freedom and hit all of the blue and black runs. She got so excited, she almost strayed out of bounds on the opposite side of the mountain. We finished the afternoon with a some couple skiing on the kiddy runs and greens, and Nadine had her skiing fix for a “wee” bit.

Extreme South Island

Wanaka was followed by a quick drive to Queenstown, “the capital of extreme sports” in the country that is “home to all extreme sports.” If you wanted to use the word “extreme” for any part of the U.S., you could use it with New Mexico and the fact that they use green chile on all dishes. Cereal included. Now that is extreme! After our quick visit to Queenstown, we continued our clockwise route up the western coast past the calm dark blue of Lake Hawea. It simply had a single boat grazing the flat waters.

Towns dot the South Island, with the exception of Christchurch with its whopping population of 320,000. We stopped at the town of Fox Glacier that just happens to be at the foot of a rather large glacier. You could call this the glacier district, because 25 kilometers north is the Franz Josef Glacier. What makes these two glaciers so unique and spectacular is that they have advanced intact so close to the sea. Both glaciers average about a meter, 3 feet, of downhill descent everyday. On a good day, they may move as much as 15 feet. Imagine this scenario – driving along a two-lane road and seeing a vast sea to your left and a humungous mountain capped in snow on your right and in the ridge of that mountain, a big ol’ glacier just sliding down the mountain.

We hiked Fox Glacier to the terminal face. We were minuscule compared to the glacier. It was like Pepper at a dance full of WNBA basketball players.

The Franz Josef Glacier was our destination the next day. The Maori legend states that this glacier was created when a girl lost her man when he fell down one of the local peaks and died. She searched for him at the summit of the mountain and her resulting tears from the loss of her lover froze and created the glacier. The only force bringing tears to my eyes was a full gale force wind smacking us in the face. Honestly the wind was strong enough to keep us upright while leaning forward and not fall over. Eventually, I ran to the terminal face, took a few pics, wisely did NOT pee into the wind, and ran back to the car where Nadine was shivering. Both glaciers were still quite spectacular.

Time For Pancakes

Departing from the popular glacier district, we traveled north to the small town of Punakaiki. Here you find another unique geographical anomaly, pancake rocks and blowholes. Not two items you usually associate with breakfast. The limestone has eroded to the point over time that they resemble stacks of skinny pancakes. As the high tide rushes in, the water races up and through the limestone canals until it explodes out the top of the blowholes. Like a kid at Disneyland looking for Minnie Mouse, I ran from spot to spot trying to catch the “money shot.” The spot was interesting enough that we went back in the morning to watch the show again.

Our final noteworthy experience was in the town of Kaikoura on the eastern coast. Travel from coast to coast is quick. We decided to hike the peninsula along the ridge and return via the beach. Passing a colony of seals, we reached a small and wet jetty. The passage wasn’t easy as it had to be timed perfectly as the tide was coming in or we ran the risk of returning to the hostel wet as a dog. We made the safe decision, we turned around and climbed back up a grassy cliff to the top. We did return home safely just a bit wet from our sweat.

I already have named our first entry from Australia. I will not reveal it until week, but it is does have its origin from Dumb and Dumber, the greatest movie of all time. Hope all are well and enjoying the blog.

Peace from the home of the All Blacks

John and Nadine