Sights & Sounds

Foreword: to those of you who have been patiently awaiting this installment, I would like to apologize for its tardiness. I wasn't able to finish between backpacking Abel Tasman and our friends' arrival (tough life problems, I know). Since then, time has been dominated by our now five-person (!!!) road trip across the South Island, and my quiet moments have been (overly) dedicated to processing, reflecting on, and reading about last week's divisive result back home. But since everyone has heard enough about it already, hopefully from a few different angles now after the fact, I'll just say I hope for a few simple things. That we can still work towards taking positive steps forward as a country. That love, peace, and understanding can still prevail despite the fractured chaos and uncertainty so many are feeling now. That our politicians will properly represent their constituents before their own political interests. That we can end the name calling, stomp out the fires of hate that were created on the election trail, and collectively work toward progress. Now, without further ado, on to the good stuff.

View from Te Mata Peak Mountain Bike Park. Aside from the great coffee, craft beer scene, and hip urban vibe, Wellington offers some okay landscapes too..

Welcome back, friends! We last left you in Wellington, the artsy capital on the water that is also similar to Madison in its size. Well, hundreds of kilometers of driving, dozens of kilometers of walking, and exactly four boat expeditions later, we find ourselves on the heralded South Island en route to Christchurch for a rendezvous with the first of our visiting friends (welcome Andrew, Alyssa, and Kevin)! As the title hints at, we again encountered some spectacular scenery, particularly amidst the stunning Marlborough sounds and the coastal rainforest sites of our kayak & backpacking trip in Abel Tasman National Park (the second of our great walks!). Since many of these landscapes largely speak for themselves, I thought I'd let the pictures tell that narrative (sights) and elaborate on the sounds and quotes that have become somewhat emblematic of our journey, both on this leg and throughout.

Sight (for sore eyes): After taking the car ferry from Wellington, our first stop was this superb German restaurant with 24 taps, schnitzel on special, and a historic brewery on site. Here I experienced a feeling unlike any I'd had to date, being simultaneously overjoyed to feel so at home, but with a twang of homesickness knowing that there weren't quite as many mugs to clink together as I'd like (the hefeweizen I had was dedicated to you, my beer people!)

Sound: "So About That Election Coming Up?"

Throughout our time in the country, Kiwis have not been shy about asking us how we feel about the political "situation" we are in, typically with the same curious dismay that has epitomized this election cycle. It is definitely interesting that this is considered a simple form of small talk with anyone from cafe employee to campsite ranger. I won't lie to you, to me anyway, it's pretty embarrassing to discuss how these were the best candidates we could come up with. We usually offer our individual two cents and carry on, no worse for the wear. If nothing else, it's been better in a way to not be inundated by the media coverage, though. It feels strange that many of these people are well-informed about the process back to the primaries even. If nothing else, it's a glaring reminder that the world is watching us. 

Sight: A view from our Marlborough Sounds boat cruise. We were dropped off amidst these beauties to do a breathtaking three-hour walk on the Queen Charlotte track, before being picked up by the boat's next voyage later that afternoon. (This is boat ride #2, in case you're counting).

Sound: "Well, that was a freebie"

Travel, by its very nature, regularly requires a dash of luck. In our case, we may have piled up a bit of credit. Laura discussed the usage of this phrase a bit in the last post, after the "oh crap I don't know where the keys are they might be somewhere on the volcano" incident, but I have since made contributions of my own. The first was a close call with big red herself, since that wily minx continues to lock herself whenever she pleases. Luckily when I left the keys on the front seat she decided to leave one door open. Then, on the boat cruise above, I was briefly tasked with holding Laura's phone. As I did so, mine slipped out of my lap and onto the deck- in most situations, this would be a non-issue. However, on a moving boat with a borderless deck that slopes outward, there was nothing but Laura's quick foot between iPhone and iNlet. Luckily she pulled out those dormant soccer skills when I needed them most and saved the day. It is in these situations that there's not much else to say besides "well, that was a freebie."

What a beauty! Oh, and the Marlborough Sounds backdrop too ;D

Sight: the Weka, a common visitor of ours on both the Queen Charolotte track and Abel Tasman. Wekas are flightless relatives of the kiwi with legitimate dinosaur feet, and they are fearless. You know how the velociraptors in Jurassic Park bob their heads around the kitchen? That's these guys around a picnic table or campsite. One was close enough to peck at my feet, but before it could I decided I didn't really want to know what that feels like.

Sound: “Rattle & Hum”

After our Marlborough Sounds cruise, we took a drive along the sun-soaked coast to Nelson- a vetted candidate in the ‘where should we settle in come December’ race. It’s credentials: wine country, shimmering coastline, more sunny days than anywhere else in the country, and New Zealand’s craft brewery capital (guess who liked that?). Our first day in town, our primary goal was to be responsible and take the van in for an oil change and a few minor checks and repairs prior to loading three more humans in back whilst crossing mountain passes. While Big Red was being serviced, the epic game seven of the world series was happening. Now, many of you might not know this (I barely did), but Laura is a passionate – albeit admittedly fair weather – Cubs fan. The desire to potentially witness history had us scrambling to find somewhere we might be able to watch. Rattle and Hum, oddly enough, was not only partly why we took Big Red to the shop, but the name of the first bar we sought out looking for the exotic game. Of course, it was a biker bar, and empty in the early afternoon, and didn’t have the satellite package required to show it. We awkwardly finished our beers while using their wi-fi to stream the radio broadcast (gotta love technology!).

Sound: “The Cubs are [X] outs away from winning the World Series for the first time in over a century”

After leaving Rattle & Hum, we found a park where internet access enabled us to keep listening via radio. Just for the sake of fun juxtaposition I think, a some kids practicing cricket while we walked around to avoid the sandflies. The game swung back and forth tensely, but peppered in throughout the seventh inning especially was this dastardly phrase. If I was more than a temporary Cubs fan, and at least sensitive to their jinxed nature, I would have been livid. It was simply begging for trouble. Surely enough, the Indians tied it up just as we got the call to come pick up the van. We hustled back to the auto shop, having discovered a bar a few miles away that advertised ability to show international sports. After a few minutes of their staff’s fruitless searching, we began to dismay. Extra innings were about to begin. Then, an older man who worked there approached us, looking to help, and said “Can you tell me what the score is?” “6-6,” I said, unsure what difference it made to them. “Yeah well even I can tell that, look behind you,” he muttered, directing us to a TV. We thankfully bought a jug of beer and perched in front of it for the finale of the most intense baseball game I’ve ever witnessed. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Pictured: Baseball at it's absolute best (top left), a sudden and intense rekindling of nerveracking fandom (bottom right), a bunch of older working class guys enjoying happy hour and paying no attention whatsoever to this mayhem (everywhere else in the bar)

Sound: “Sweet As(s)”

This one, as my uncle has told me, is lingo that also exists in Australia. The saying, apparently, is a shortening of ‘sweet as sugar/pie/whatever’. It is synonymous with an exclamation like ‘cool!’ or ‘rad!’ or ‘nice!’… But um… lost on me within the accent the kiwis bring to it, until about two weeks ago I simply assumed the saying was, well… just a bit more innocently crass. I guess language barriers can still exist even when you know the damn language. 

Sight: Common throughout New Zealand, suspension bridges like this one near Pelorus are one of my favorite features, though mildly terrifying with their creaking and swaying

Site: A sunset view from our campsite across the bay from Nelson. It was nice to have a relaxing walk after the Cubs-related stress of the day before and the fun-related stress of investigating the Nelson craft beer and wine scene (you know, for job-related purposes only).

Sight: day one of our Abel Tasman track was a sea kayaking adventure along the coast, a vessel we were unfamiliar with to that point (boat #3). We had planned on a second day of kayaking but opted out when the rental company mentioned the 30km headwinds and up to two-meter swells that we would be facing. We decided we are better- and more comfortable - walkers than we are kayakers. It did give us the opportunity to come within 15 feet of a seal- one that was vigorously in the middle of lunching on a squid. As it thrashed back and forth on the surface of the water, it looked like it was having quite a tough time chewing its calamari.

Sound: “Sooo when are you gonna shave that thing?”

Admittedly, Laura has only said this a few times- and was a primary catalyst for the trial run of this free flowing facial hair phase. Nonetheless, I never thought I would find myself cutting my mustache with a scissors simply to avoid storing food in it. If teenage me could see me now?!? The answer to the question, Mom, Dad, and prospective employers, is I’m not sure. Might as well ride out this storm while I still can.

Sight: the next three days of our trek on land were marked by fast-moving clouds. This meant intermittent heavy rains along with gorgeous moments sprinkled in. This sunrise from our campsite was certainly one of them.

This was another

Sight-Sound Combo: The Earthquake (I'm cheating and skipping ahead here)

Thankfully for us, all is well. The 7.5 earthquake that hit the east coast of the South Island yesterday was a few hundred miles away from Wanaka, where we were. However, as I was hacking away at the keyboard during this very post, I thought for a moment I was suddenly becoming dizzy. Weird, I thought, as I had only had two beers. It was then that I felt a subtle vibration in my feet, and looked up to see the hostel chandelier swaying gently from side to side. I wasn’t shaking, but the room was, ever so lightly. This was one of the dozens of aftershocks it caused. I’m skipping ahead here, but this is just for everybody’s peace of mind. Pray for the victims in Kaikoura especially, as they got hit hardes

Sight: Exactly what I imagine hammocks are made for

Sight: Since our day hikes at Abel Tasman were reasonably short (10-15km), we spent some time poking around the campsite areas. The further along the coastline we went, the more dramatic the sea caves we found. (See also below)

Sound: When are you going to finish the blog post?

This one, I think, explains itself. I wish I could tell you I’m not a slow and finnicky writer with a tendency to procrastinate. I also wish I could tell you that this  hasn’t been a source of… tension, at times. But the way I see it, if the timely documentation of this thrill ride is one of the only consistent quarrels we have, then we’re doing pretty darn well in my book. Cheers everybody.

With Love,

Will

Either an absolutely delicious oak-aged port, or sendin' out an S.O.S