Feb 2008

As promised, I’m posting a more detailed update. This one even has photos (lots of photos!) so I can get you all caught up on our travels.

I briefly mentioned in our last post that we left our apple thinning jobs. We never intended to stay too long at that job. We loved the area and found the position easily and figured, “Why not?” The work was tough and the sun was hot and we were itching to see more of the country. Most of the group we were working with (the Estonians, Belgians, etc.) we’re all leaving soon anyway since there would be a break in work before harvest season. Our last day really reaffirmed the fact that we are not cut out for manual labor – we were crawling on our hands and knees pinning huge, white tarps to metal posts. The tarps are put in place a couple weeks before harvest to redden the backside of the apples. The sun reflects off the tarps and increases the temperature by about 20 degrees. It’s hot and sweaty work. But just before we left, we had a fun bonfire with the group we were staying with. I taught everyone how to make s’mores with New Zealand replacements for graham crackers and jet-puff marshmallows. I was a little afraid that the pink marshmallows would affect the taste, and the others would all think we were crazy Americans with poor taste in food, but the s’mores we’re just as tasty here as they are at home.

We will be back in the area in a few months for the New Zealand Marchfest, so hopefully we can get a good feed on yummy apples!

After leaving, we went to Nelson Lakes National Park. Its really a beautiful place that doesn’t get as many tourists because it’s a bit off the main path. We have both been very surprised by how beach-oriented the locals are. We didn’t realize the beaches here were so beautiful and that many tourists would flock there. It was nice to be away from the crowds and back to the mountains. The only downfall to the place is the sandflies. Brody and I had heard about the wretched creatures, and how terrible they are all over New Zealand, but we really hadn’t run into them at all. That’s most likely because every sandfly in all of New Zealand just might have taken up residence in this park. They were out in force. We didn’t hang by the shore for long. The next morning, we went for a fantastic hike that provided some amazing views of the park.
After leaving the park, we drove back towards the east coast, to Kaikoura, stopping in Hamner Springs for the night. This town apparently had some nice geothermal pools, but the price (and the hot sun) kept us from checking them out. That’s another thing, we cannot get over how expensive New Zealand is. The locals have really capitalized on the tourism industry here and many of the activities are ridiculously expensive. We hike A LOT to offset some of the paid for activities that we want to partake in.

Such activities include the swimming with the dolphins tour we went on in Kaikoura. This tour was absolutely fantastic and I highly, highly recommend it to anyone who might be in the area. It’s expensive, but worth every penny. A little boat takes you out in search of a local pod of dusky dolphins. Because of the formation of the continental shelf in this region, there is a huge up swelling of food from the bottom of the ocean. Hence, lots of dolphins, sperm whales, orca whales, albatross, seals, and other sea creatures. There is a great chance that you’ll see something. Also, the dusky dolphins are extremely playful. The group we found were jumping and doing somersaults everywhere. There were literally hundreds of them. You jump in and they swim all around you, and you can hear them talking and watch them jumping. Its amazing. Brody (and many others on the trip) were not as thrilled with the boat ride as it was a small boat and the sea was a bit rough. But he still thoroughly enjoyed the trip.

After Kaikoura, we went to Christchurch (not before stopping at our first New Zealand microbrewery – “Brew Moon” – another must see if you’re in the area). We didn’t spend long in the big city since we knew we would be back with Adam, but we enjoyed seeing some of the major sites on our way through. We toured the main district, stopping by the Christchurch Cathedral, Dyslexia Museum (Brody is convinced he’s dyslexic), Canterbury Museum, and Botanical gardens. While on the coast, we also made our way out to Akaroa, a little village with a French vibe to it. Way back when the Europeans were making their way to New Zealand, the French landed in Akaroa, the English in Christchurch, and the Scottish in Dunedin. These three towns still are heavily influenced by their founders. We had some fantastic fudge there (thanks for the recommendation Jenny) and some delicious locally made cheese. The Kraft style cheese here that you get at the grocery store is terrible, and the homemade cheese is fantastic. I think we’re spoiled and cursed to spend lots of money on cheese the rest of the time we’re here.

Our path towards Queenstown, where we are now, took us back through the middle of the country through Lake Tekapo and Mt. Cook . Lake Tekapo was amazingly blue – particles in the water from glaciers rubbing together make the water reflect the sun in this electric blue color. The photos don’t do it justice.

The weather wasn’t fantastic near mount cook, so we only saw the bottom half of the mountain during the two days we spent there. We will most definitely head back up there since its only a Summit County’s drive away from where we are staying (we keep justifying everything in terms of Colorado driving times, since NZ is roughly the size of Colorado.) We did get to go on a great hike to the base of a glacier lake. We had to take several bridges over the glacier run-off, full of glacial till (look at all I’m learning from traveling with a geologist).

For now, we are in Queenstown. No photos yet of the area since we’ve been spending most of our time looking for jobs. It reminds me a lot of the ski towns in Colorado. It’s cute and quirky, and full of delicious, fancy restaurants and expensive shopping. Brody keeps calling it Vail because its got a bit of an uppity feel to it, but I don’t care. It’s beautiful.

Wish us good luck in finding jobs – we applied to about 8 places yesterday, so I hope something good comes of it. If not, we’ll be back in the fields!