Sept 10 Update

September 10, 2013

This weekend was the last weekend before classes started and we left the convent Thursday evening and came back to the nun house at supper time on Sunday. Each of us had to plan our own trip to go away for the weekend, two of the girls went to stay in a small cabin at the Tops farm (the sheep farm we had been to earlier) and then the rest of us decided to drive four hours from Kiakoura to Able Tasman to hike (Nz pp call it tramping) for the week end. Well anyway the group all spent the first night at a hut that we were expecting to be a hut but really it was a house with a TV electricity hot showers and wifi so it really wasn’t roughing it. Then the group split in half and the 6 girls got on a water taxi that would take them to the end of the trail and then they would walk back to the car, but the guys, (steve, rob, and I) walked from the car to the end of the trail and would take the water taxi back to the car on the last day.

The Hike:

Well this was a wicked ambitious hike even if we are young and in shape. The trail was in wicked good shape with no rocks or trees to walk over or around, instead it was a nice perfect dirt path  almost as nice as walking on a city side walk. The entire track is sapposed to take 3-5 days of hiking but we thought we could do it in about 2 J it was again wicked pretty but this time we were walking through a temperate rainforest with lots of ferns and mosses and huge tree ferns. EVERYTHING was alive! And there were so many birds it was ridiculous from gannets to sea birds, to hearing. It was on the coast and it was lined with golden sand beaches and huge cliffs and giant hills that ended right on the edge of the ocean.

On the 4 hr drive to this place we passed 4 McDonalds and I was appalled. I couldn’t believe we were just driving by these great restraunts. I was literally going through myself at the thought that we were just passing by without even slowing down to smell the greasy goodness of it. But anyway back to the hike

So I found a really pretty look out spot and the clouds wicked puffy and white and we could see the far off mountains on the other side of the ocean of the north island and there was a sailboat. Then I went to take a picture of this perfect scene and I did and it was one of the best pictures I had taken since I had been here. And I went to take another picture and I saw a red box on the screen that said “no memory card”…. So yeah I brought my camera and no memory card on my three day hike so I don’t have any pictures but the two guys I was with took lots of pictures since I couldn’t.

Well we had to cover 8 hrs of straight hiking in one day to get where our hut was that we were staying at that night. So 8 hrs without stopping of taking pictures so we were booking it through the forest. we kept seeing signs for an upcoming place called Anchorage (not the land of Sarah Palin) we read there was going to be a café there and places to eat and like a small backpackers town but we got there and it was closed for renovations. It was all closed. I was so bitter at this point that I had been walking for 5 hrs and this freaking place was closed. So onward we went and we arrived at the hut at around 6pm but it was still light out and the girls that had started at the other end of the trail had met us there so we played cars and swapped stories with them. We also met a german hiker named carl that was wicked cool as are most germans that I have met (hanna furhop)

What did I eat on this trip? Not much. Raman pb and j and cans of tuna. it was gross. And for any of you that know me well I am not a happy camper if I cant wash my face  Cant take a hot shower Drink coffee …. So all three of these things I couldn’t do. But I managed somehow but I must say when I got back to the convent I had my red stubble on my face and I could wait to wash my face.

The next day the girls al woke up to see the sun rise, but obviously a person like me who require a minimum of 10 hrs of sleep did not wake up. We guys woke up around 9 and made more Raman. And hiked onward. I must say it was great sleeping two nights with the girls because it made rob and steve keep a handle on their evening farts. That day we found a swinging bridge and pretty big waterfall (not as big as katahdin falls) that we played in for a while. And yes Dottie I climbed many things this weekend including to the top of the water fall and to the top of the swinging bridge supports. We then went to this place called the Tonga arches (google Tonga arches able tasmin NZ) we climbed some more cliffs and there were so many of these bugs called sandflies but they never bit me but rob and steve have welts from them. Guess the maine mosquitoes have just toughed me up. We stayed there for about an hr and carved our name into the walls. And swam and stuff. It was a wicked sick place the ocean had carved out these arches in the side of these cliffs and you could walk through them to a room that was 150 feet high and was open to the sky. Just google it I cant describe it.

Later that day we were walking on one of the beaches and could see carl the guys that we met the evening before and we caught up to walk with him for the rest of the day. Crazy thing is he is 19 and has hike 4 of the 9 great walks in NZ and he is just over here in NZ taking a gap year before he goes to college back in Germany. He had some great stories and later shared his cooking stove so we could make Raman and he promised to come visit us in the Nun house in Kiakoura.

Run fast and don’t be late:

We stayed in another hut that evening with carl and had to get up Sunday morning to meet our water taxi that would bring us back to the hut. The ladie who sold us our ticked told us the water taxi would be coming at 10:30 and it was a 40 minute walk from the hut. So we left at 9:30 just so we could have some extra time well we were walking and noticed the tide was high so it was hard to walk on the trail. We get this spot that was walked on the day before that was all beach but so we couldn’t get accrossed because of th tide… we contemplated stealing a tin boat and paddling accrossed. But being good little angles we didn’t steal it instead we set out on a hike back the way we had come that went way out and around the bay. Oh and up a huge hill the size of big rock mountain in maine. I was naturally again very bitter. The signs said it was a 1.5 hr hike to the y at the top of the mountain then another 40 minutes hike down to the other side. We ran it. Up hill. Wind in our face. But we ran and got up the mountain and down the other side in 40 minutes total… a 2 hr hike in 40 minutes. I didn’t even work that hard keeping 20 kids busy in level one swimming lessons. Also there were 2 threes down that we had to find a way around. But we made it.

The water taxi ride was great and we saw more seals and birds and sick coves that our boat barely fit us into and then around other island so it was more of a scenic cruse than just a boat ride back. Then we got back to van, met the girls, smelt bad, really bad of BO, just going to put that out there and I still wanted to wash my face. Also they don’t sell coffee here. Its stupid. You have to get the fancy little feminine latte things. Then after driving past another 2 McDonalds on the way back to the nun house and throwing a legitimate hissy fit because our driver wasn’t stopping at them I convinced them to stop. Bigmac meal and apple pie, need I say more? Steve ate 2 bigmac meals, double cheeseburger mcchicken, fries, apple pie, snack wrap.. yeah he is an American. Rob had about the same but he doesn’t react well to fast food.

Got back and had a spa night for a girl named jenna’s birthday. We Just felt like filling the convent with more estrogen because there isn’t enough in it already. Face mask, lipbalm making, homemade icecream, messages, nail stations…. White robes for everyone. It was her 22 birthday I don’t know her very well but she seemed to like it I think? I don’t really know.

Character development:

Steve, is a junior at messiah studying computer science major. Brought a bottle of cologne on his hike. Pretty cool has a 4:21 mile time,

Rob, is a junior at messiah studying business. He and Steve are already friends from back at messiah and have lived on each others floor.

 

New Zealand fun facts:

The gannet is a bird that doesn’t have hollow bones and can dive from 60 feet into the ocean head first and dive 300 feet deep. Over time the bird gets callouses over its eyes from diving so many times and become blind. Then the bird will die of blindness.

There are houses in able tasman that were in the park with no cars or roads they are just random townships within the park. We walked through a few of these towns and they were like ghost towns, wicked nice houses but not a soul around. In 2000 the houses value was like $30,000. Today the last house that was sold for $860,000. Crazy.

NZ is home to 4 native frogs, and 3 extinct frogs.

NZ is first country to see the sunrise.