Here and there...

8:13 p.m. 12/3/1: Mt. Cook Village

My neck and back are pretty much killing me right now, but this place, and my day was worth it. A quick backtrack to Dunedin. A very cool university town (Otago University) with about 110,000 people or so…it’s not too big, and not too small, and is very near the Otago Peninsula, where there is a ton of wildlife such as albatross, various other birds, and yellow-eyed penguin. The highlights of my trip to Dunedin included to Cadbury Chocolate Factory, which was huge and took up what looked like a couple city blocks. The 1.5-hour tour was pretty nice – especially considering the bag, which they filled up with chocolate whenever you answered some piece of trivia correctly. The only downside was that I was also on the tour with a bunch of teenage girls who were in town for a volleyball game. They screamed when the chocolate waterfall was dropped. Screamed.

The city is cool in that it has a lot of character, a central area called “The Octagon” off of which are a lot of other streets with cool bars and restaurants – lots of cafes, after all, it’s a university town. The other thing I did in Dunedin was the Elm Wildlife tour. It ended up being about 6.5 hours, including transport time. We saw amazing Northern Royal Albatross, with a 3-meter wingspan, and a 1.2-meter head to toe size. This is the only place where they breed on a landmass that is not an island. We saw five of them sitting on eggs; saw one take off to fly, and lots flying about. It’s not too common, unless wind conditions are right, so we very much lucked out. What I love about albatross are the anthropomorphic features of their relationships: they mate for life, so will take a few years to find a partner; they have a one-year get to know you time, then they separate for a while before returning to breed; when they see each other again they spend quality time bonding again; there are divorces and affairs, but these are relatively rare. Oh, and also, the men and women evenly split nearly all the duties (except laying the egg, of course). But watching it, etc…split. Female sea lions are not so lucky. They get the raw end of the deal in seemingly every way. Penguins too are similar to humans in their pairing. We saw these yellow-eyed penguins (and one very small blue penguin!) and it was so strange to see them without any ice or snow, and just in grass. We saw a couple of them walk right by us! One of them was feeling very social (and single), and hobbled over to say hello to another, tilting its head and chin all the way back – a biiiiig hello. Very cute. All in all, it was a pretty cool way to spend an evening. Oh, and last highlight of this town, nearly forgot. A very nice Asian market with rice balls and soups, and tofu! It was so nice to see…

The next morning it was back on the bus for Lake Tekapo. Of course the bus broke down and we ended up hanging out at a café for a couple hours. It was alright, I took the time to get a bit of work done, and also have ice cream. Later we would stop for ice cream again…and, well, later…Yeah, a triple ice cream day! It’s amazing how doing nothing builds upon itself so much so that you end up festering in the laziness of it all…and eating more ice cream.

That afternoon we arrived into Lake Tekapo pretty late. A big group of us had pitched in $10 each for a barbecue, and boy oh boy was it worth it. Well, first of all, let me describe the view. On the way into town we drove past a beautiful lake (can’t remember the name right now), behind which there was a perfectly cloudless view of Mount Cook. This is the tallest mountain in New Zealand, part of the Southern Alps, and also the training ground for Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to summit Mount Everest with Tenzing Norgay. The white snowcapped mountains loomed up above a bright blue, radioactive-looking lake. Apparently it is that color because of the silt (minerals) from the glacial melt that drips into the water. It’s beautiful. Lake Tekapo is a bit of a deeper blue, situated with a backdrop of snowy-capped mountains, and forest around it. We had an amazing barbecue with burger patties, chicken, buns of course, sausage, homemade coleslaw and salad, potato salad, chips and dip, drinks, and more ice cream (hokey pokey, of course) for dessert. It was spectacular, and really fun to hang out with a cool group and relax right in front of such a spectacular scene. Afterward a small group of us headed into town (only a few hundred people live there) to here Mike King, a Maori comedian who is pretty famous in NZ, perform at a local bar/restaurant. We got a bit of a cheaper ticket in and a complimentary beer, which definitely made it worth it. The guy was good, though very rude (seriously)…though I knew enough not to take offense. He tried to pick on everyone in the place, though when he came to me I think I confused him a bit. He was trying to go off on Americans rushing through things, then he asked me how long I’d been traveling – “five weeks” I told him. Oh…that’s a long time… he said. Actually, I’ve been traveling for six weeks…Anyway, he said some other stuff, and I made fun of him back, which stopped him from bugging our table most the rest of the night. It was an interesting show though, and I’m glad I went. I crawled into bed way too late for my 8 a.m. departure to Mt. Cook National Park.

This morning I was making breakfast with a couple minutes to spare before pickup when I saw the van go by. I frantically called the phone number for the place and they got the guy back. I was the only person to pick up, and so it ended up being quite a pleasant 1.5-hour journey to the park with lots of photo stops whenever I liked. The hostel here is far FAR nicer than the one at Lake Tekapo that I was staying at. I forgot to mention that I met a couple Brits at the comedy show (they ended up giving us all a ride over and back) and one had a girlfriend who was headed up to the park this weekend to climb with the NZ Alpine Club. We exchanged info and he gave me a contact…and well, fingers crossed, I’ll be climbing with them tomorrow! But anyway, today I went on a beautiful hike through Hooker Valley, about four hours return, for wonderful views of Mt. Cook and the lake below it. I also stopped at the Alpine Memorial, which had small plaques memorializing the people who had died in the park (primarily trying to summit/return Mt. Cook or Mt. Tasman). It was very sad. Lots of people had left little rocks as markers that they had been there, and I did too. The little commentaries on the plaques were sad, but also uplifting in some cases. After I did the hike it was about 3/3:30 p.m. The sun was blazing and without much shade during the trail, I really felt the heat. I headed back to the hostel, glad I’d done the shorter of the walks I’d been agonizing between – after all, I’m going to climb tomorrow!

Well, back at the hostel I decided to rent a bike to see the Tasman Glacier. A bunch of people told me I could just bike there and it’d be lovely, and very worth it. And I didn’t know when else to do it. So…I did…12 kilometers each way on a gravel dirt road under the sun. At one point I had to stop and reapply sunblock because I could feel my arms burning. Cars would drive by and dirt and dust would fly up and cover me. I could tell who the empathetic ones were because they’d stop and let me pass, or drive slowly by me so as to avoid dust clouds. Others would just zoom by. Once I got to the trail head, I discovered I had a lovely 20-minute uphill climb to the glacier viewing. But, once I got there, it was worth it. I chilled out and thanked the Lord I’d horded food in my backpack, and then reapplied sunblock again and rode back, taking pictures along the way. The 2-kilometer hill on the way over was OK, but on the way back, it was far steeper. I ended up getting off my bike and walking with it for the hill part. When I got back to the hostel I took a LOVELY shower, made myself dinner and well, here I am. I was way too tired to checkout a local band playing very nearby here apparently…argh. I hope I’m good to climb tomorrow. Anyway, there we go, very very quick update. I’ll try and elaborate more on this place next time. I forget so many things when I finally do get the chance to blog…it’s a real pity.

**Just remembered -- the mountain bike I rented was AWESOME! Great shock absorbers...though the brakes are switched here, as are the sides of the road they drive on...I need to get myself a real mountain bike when I get home...and a road bike.