Labour weekend in Duntroon

This weekend is Labour weekend in NZ, and we and our flatmates spent a night on Blair's family farm near the town of Duntroon in central Otago. We hadn't been there for 30 minutes before Blair coaxed me to let him pull me through a pasture while sitting on a plastic bucket tied to the back of an ATV. While it's hard to beat that kind of excitement (when you get pitched off the bucket, you go sliding through sheep poos at about 45 km/hr on your back), Blair made a worthy suggestion: hunting pidgeons and rabbits with their shotgun. I won't embellish my shooting skills, except to say this: Andrew -1, Pidgeon that used to live in the hayshed -0. Christine had a go as well, and handled the 12 gauge recoil like a pro. We also had a chance to go boating and enjoy a picnic on the shore of a nearby lake the following day. All in all, a great escape from Queenstown for the weekend.

Chef Christine

We have a problem: we both love food. This might not sound like a problem to most, but for us it's compounded by two things: our budget (food ain't cheap in Queenstown!) and my lack of talent in the kitchen. But I am a blessed man, as Christine enjoys cooking enough that even after putting up with my bullsh*t she still cooks for two. I cannot lie about it- she cooks 98% of the meals (I do the other 2%, but admit that this includes takeaway as well as microwave popcorn) and does a consistently incredible job at it. Our food is always good, always healthy, and I always go back for seconds. I like to do my best to help out though, as evidenced by this photo take by our flatmate Blair. Judging by the utensils I'm holding I'm at least proficient in peeling and stirring, and as all good cooks know that's at least half the battle. Oh, and I'm quite handy at washing dishes too...

Good old Mark

Andrew's buddy Mark from back home is out in NZ on a surfing venture and crashed out with us in Queenstown for a week or so. Since we pretty much have about 3 friends in New Zealand (including ourselves) it was great to see another familiar face, even if he does look a bit handicapped in some (well, all) of the photos. We still love 'im though.

Parental visit!

Christine's parents took their summer holiday in New Zealand this year; after winding their way down the North and South islands, they arrived in Queenstown to spend nearly a week with us. It was so good to have them! Here are a few pics from their time here.

The blog runs cold!

Just because we haven't made a post in two months doesn't mean that we aren't doing anything... it just means we aren't doing much. Actually, that's hardly even a half-truth: we've been very busy with all sorts of diversions, from snowboarding, to visits from friends and family, to a few good parties, to work. However, the past two months have proven one of traveling's most desparaging maxims to be true: that you cannot escape life's routines and drudgeries, no matter where you go. We still have to buy groceries, and pay bills, and put gas in the car, and find time and energy and money to have fun with whatever time is left over. It's been a good lesson though, and there is light at the end of the tunnel. Additionally, spring has sprung in New Zealand and the days are getting longer and warmer, and that alone has buoyed our outlook on life a fair bit. It turns out that cold, damp weather is not the best environment for Christine- could this prove to be the final undoing of Andrew's ongoing persuasions for her to move to Seattle someday? Stay tuned...

Kick, Push, Coast

And later that evening... Lupe Fiasco at Snow Park in Wanaka. OK, so sure it was below freezing outside with no hot drinks and nowhere to warm up, and sure there was no vegetarian food at all (which especially sucked if your name is Christine), and sure Christine may have developed frost nip on her left hand... but we saw Lupe do his thing on stage on the side of a mountain in New Zealand and it was awesome. It was just too good an opportunity to miss.

The man is a lyrical genius:

Not at all nervous as he dug to the surface

Tarnished gold chain is what he loosened up the earth with

He used his mouth as a shovel to try and hollow it

And when he couldn't dirt spit... swollowed it

Working like a.. hmm.. reverse archaeologist

Except.. his buried treasure was sunshine

So when some shined through a hole that he had drove

It reflected off the gold and almost made son blind

Freshies at Cardrona

There's nothing more s*** hot about snowboarding than a morning of fresh tracks under blue skies. Our first visit to Cardrona two Saturdays ago treated us well.

4th, not 5th!

It turns out Christine actually placed 4th overall in the banked slalom- the person scored in 1st place was actually not a woman but a man! He had a Japanese name and the judges thought he was a she- which he was not. Sweet!

Lib Tech Banked Slalom at Coronet

We both took part in this great event last weekend. It was based in concept on the world famous Mt. Baker Banked Slalom, but like everything in NZ it was smaller. Significantly smaller. The course was good- tricky snow conditions- but we both rode well. Christine took 5th in the +18 women's division, and Andrew took 14 in the +18 men's (although I'm convinced my time placed me 9th. Oh well.) Good times for all though- if they hold another event this season, we'll be there in force to uphold North America's honor.

The way home

Our trusty Beagle was simply not built to properly handle roads like this, but it's still our favorite way home after snowboarding or work.

Early Morning from Coronet Peak

Another cold, clear morning above Queenstown. This was taken about two weeks ago. Our house is down there somewhere!

Yeah, we're still alive!

We're working like slaves/dogs/banshees (or insert your favorite colloquialism here) right now as it's school holidays in New Zealand and Australia, so the mountain is jam packed with vacationers. The past week was so long that we couldn't bear to go to Coronet to snowboard on our day off, but we're making up for it with riding during the night on Friday and Saturday nights. Hoping to get some good snowboarding photos up here soon!

Brrrrrrrr.....

A Kiwiland travel tip: if you're planning on coming to New Zealand during winter, be sure to pack warm clothes, a thick duvet, a hot water bottle, and an electric blanket. It seems that no houses in New Zealand have central heating, even here in the mountains where it's been below freezing every night for over one month. While it's true that part of the fun of travelling is experiencing the things that you might view as unusual from the perspective of your old life at home, this particular one is not so fun- especially when you get out of bed in the middle of the night and have to walk across the tile bathroom floor to go for a pee. The novelty is wearing off...

Snow!

A quick update to the previous post... the snow did indeed start falling last week and while we could still use more, the season is still in its early stages. The snowfall also coincided with Beagle's battery dying an untimely death as we tried to leave the house to get to work on time. That, combined with the snowfall (Queenstown is like Seattle in that when it snows, everything closes and cars are abandoned all over the place) made for an interesting couople of days. Oh, did I forget to mention that once it was repaired, Beagle was still snowed in, with no chains? G-o-o-d times! Anyway it's all sorted now and life goes on.

June is for... snowboarding?

We logged our first day on the hill this past Saturday. It's nothing like riding in WA or Alberta- no trees and not much snow either! It's pretty much all man made for now but Coronet Peak is the only area open within 5 hours of Queenstown so we're feeling lucky to be able to ride at all. It's still quite a lot of fun and we're praying that (real) snow will fall soon. Yes, I had to pirate this photo but at least it was taken at Coronet! We'll get our own posted soon.

Working at Coronet Peak

Since we've bedded down in Queenstown for the winter, we've also both managed to secure jobs at nearby Coronet Peak ski area for the winter. As we both have a fair amount of professional experience as well as univeristy degrees, you might think that we landed great administrative or manegerial jobs, right? Guess again- Christine works in The Brasserie and Andrew now calls the West End Cafe home. The work is not challenging, glamorous, or well-paying, but we came to the realization that a job is a job and even if it sucks we only have to do it for a few months. And so far, it's actually pretty fun. The job's biggest benefit is that it comes with free season passes to Coronet Peak, The Remarkables, and Mt. Hutt so we'll certainly get our fair share of snowboarding in this winter (or is it summer? I can never remember.)

Moving in and moving up

Let it be known- I no longer force my lovely girlfriend to sleep in a van. Although Beagle has served us well for months, we finally found a place we wanted to stay and as of about two weeks ago have been living in a beautiful home about 10 minutes from downtown Queenstown. The Remarkables mountain range is just outside, so we can moniter the snowfalls from the front door. Our room is spacious, light, and unlike the van, the ceilings are tall enough for me to sit up straight while on the bed. Such luxury! We share the house with a young Kiwi couple, both from Canterbury, and it's a great match. My new roommate Blair and I have discovered that having two women in the same house who both love to cook is only to our benefit.

Hooray for Moms everywhere!

Mother's day was a good one this year as my mom Julie and her friend Carol did 99% of the work. First, they flew to New Zealand to see the country and visit with Christine and me. Second, they took us along for a two day trip to Te Anau and the Milford Sound and this was something that we never expected to do with them! Frankly, we'd wanted to go to Milford for a while but it was a little bit cost prohibitive due to our, ahem, lack of income. I suppose that's just one more thing that moms are there for.

Milford Sound was incredible. Sheer schist cliffs rise vertically hundreds of meters out of the water while waterfalls intersect the landscape. It is very harsh, very dramatic, and although it's a very touristy thing to do (what in New Zealand isn't anway?) our South Island venture would have been very incomplete without it. Thanks again to the moms for taking us along.

Julie and Carol's visit to Queenstown was peppered with plenty of good food and wine, and we shared a few days of great stories and lots of laughs. If anyone out there needs advice on how to maximize your fun while traveling, my advice is to ask your nearest United Airlines flight attendant and they should be able to get you on the right track.

p.s.- if you want to know how to instantly gain a mother's sympathy, try sleeping in your van-which you pretty much live in- on the streets of Queenstown while the mothers rest comfortably in a hotel room two blocks away. That seemed to do the trick for us, anyway.

Netting: It's got to come down

When internet costs up to 8$ an hour, it's easy to let your blog slide...

Where are we now? At a vineyard just outside Queenstown. We've decided to WWOOF (see the link on the side bar) for a few days. Despite our vast differences (Andrew is systematic and..um one could say anal retentive and Christine is somewhat of an organizational disaster) We have managed to work together and bring in hundreds of metres of vineyard netting. Our hosts Russell and Glenda have been most welcoming and gracious, and we are sad to go.

Only in Texas... and NZ

Pink Cadillac, 60" lift, bullhorns on the hood, my girlfriend, enough said.

Rally time

Our visit to Dunedin a little while back "just happened" to coincide with the Rally Otago, which is the first round in the New Zealand Rally Championship. They ran two special stages in the city itself, and the final stage was run around the outside of a horse racing track. While the venue itself was a bit lame, it gave a great view of all the cars without having to hike off into the forests to watch them run. Plenty of modern cars were entered- Subaru STI's, Mistubishi Evo 9's, etc., but the classics were even more fun to watch. A Mk.4 Ford Escort 1800 RS- fully sideways- is Andrew's idea of what rallying is all about.

Inspiring times

A winding drive past Lake Wanaka's north shore delivered us to Mt. Aspiring National Park, one of the south island's most famous wilderness areas. From the road's end, a hiking track took us across a valley floor bordered by dramatic peaks on both sides and inhabited by miscellaneous cattle and flock upon flock of sheep. We never did actually get an opportunity to see Mt. Aspiring as close as we hoped due to cloud cover, but numerous glacier, waterfall, and Kea (the world's only alpine parrot) sightings more than made up for it. Our trails also led us across some of the longer swing bridges in New Zealand, which can be a little unsettling- but fun.

Up high

We did a hike the other day from Queenstown (more on Q-town later) Here are a couple of photos from the top.

another type of penguin

A lesser known type of penguin in NZ is the one who frequents little bars and plays live music on "jam nights". These penguins often wear tight jeans, have long hair and enjoy playing epic guitar solos. We happened upon one of these "penguin habitats" in Omaru. The bar was tiny, beer was 3$, and the waitress was a volunteer. These penguins also did a Kiwi version of Lynard Skynard's "Sweet Home Alabama". In two words: bad idea.

Did you say Penguins?

Penguins!!! We finally saw some. In Oamaru...we paid $16 each and were ushered into a covered seating area with about 200 other people. At around 6:30pm the first little blue penguin swam into shore. Then he hopped and flopped and scurried up the rocks. It was hilarious. After he came in about 50 more swam into shore. They live in a Conservation area, there are a whole bunch of protected nest boxes for them. This time of year they are molting, and starting to get ready to mate. Some of the males were producing very sexy croaks and quacks. It was one of the coolest things ever. Penguins....we love 'em. Unfortunately we don't have any photos as the little guys are too sensitive to flashes...but we do have a photos of this road sign for you to enjoy.

arf!

Seals are great- they are fat, noisy, mean and they lie around in the sun all day.

Queen Charlotte Track

A wilderness experience like no other....

We knew that the terrain would be easy (75kms in 3 days) and that the track would be popular. However, we didn't know that we would end our first day sitting at a large resort drinking pints in a manicured garden. In fact, we didn't know that we would later enjoy wine whilst sitting on white leather couches. Yes, this was wilderness.

As it turns out, there are upwards of 20 different lodges, resorts, and hostels along the way. The mandatory water taxi to the start of the track includes transport of your luggage. This means we hiked with our day packs while our large packs were boated to our campsite. At the end of the day, all we had to do was pick up our packs on the pier, and set up camp.

We were of course the only suckers who camped...everyone else munched on 4 course meals and sat in the spa!

Weka Weka

Allow us to introduce the Weka. The Weka is a native bird of New Zealand, and is only found in New Zealand. It is large, clumsy and dumb. It is a wonder they are not extinct. They are, however, hilarious. The Weka is extremely inquisitive and will stop at nothing to get at various human items. The Weka in the photo pecked Andrew's book, leaving a small, beak-sized indentation. Don't worry we didn't feed him anything... but he wanted us to....really, really, badly.

Important Team CanAm Update!

Christine can now sing "The Star Spangled Banner" start to finish! In other news, Andrew has also learned to sing "O Canada" although he cannot carry the tune very well. Team CanAm has discovered that learning new national anthems is a great way to pass time while on long hikes or car trips.

Special Little Car

At the Southward Car Museum in Paraparaumu, stuffed between all sorts of oddities by Stutz, Vauxhall, and DeLorean, a beautiful Maserati 250F once wheeled by Chris Amon sits collecting dust. Andrew would love to have a go behind the wheel of this guy, even with the risk of severe burns to his left arm from the exhaust that is routed right past the cockpit!

Lake Waikaremoana great walk

A 4 day, 45-ish km hike partway around a lake in Te Urewera national park. The first day was a pretty brutal ridge line hike on a never-ending, nonrhythmic, "undulatingly beautiful" trail, although it did end up at a nice hut where we bunked for the night. The next few days took us closer to the lake, where we were able to see more of the water fowl as well as get annihilated by the sand fleas (their bites are 5 times worse than mosquito bites). With a water taxi ride to the trailhead and another from the end, it was a good experience for us both.

The Evens concert in Auckland

This post is very much out of chronological order, but it's worth a look. We took in a concert by Washington, D.C. duo The Evens in Auckland a few weeks back. It's fronted by Ian Mackaye, a longtime favorite of Andrew's for his unique, powerful, and energetic lyrics and sounds. The level of interaction between the band and the audience was great and it made for one of the most fun shows both of us have ever seen.

And the winner is....

BEAGLE. Our van now has a name. The online poll made this one a clear winner; there were, however, some very notable runners-up:

- Grey Vanatomy (thanks to Christine's sister Stephanie; this is our favorite runner-up)

- 1Bedroom, Amusing Domicile, A Sultry, Sassy yet Valiant Automobile of Nostalgia (1BAD ASS VAN) (thanks Stephen Saslow)

- ????????????????? (thanks to Sydney for this one)

Thanks to all those who responded!

PS

PS
Check out

http://www.flickr.com/photos/christine_lynch/

for more photos. Oh and the van-naming results will be out soon. We had some hilarious suggestions- Thanks!

Camping

We stayed at a Dept. of Conservation campsite at Cape Reinga (the very North tip of NZ)

it had wind, sand, sun, grass, ocean and alot of hungry seagulls. We had wine, supper, a cozy tent and various weapons (sticks, pots, rocks) for seagull protection.

The (make believe) Life Aquatic

This is what we would look like if we could go swimming without actually getting wet. Andrew, Christine, and our new American friend Rich at Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World in Auckland. Photo credits go to Rich.