April Adventures, Part 2

Well, I'm still unemployed and have plenty of free time, so here's the next part of our April Adventures!

Abel Tasman Coast Track

Where I left off last time we were en route to Marahau, and it was probably raining. For whatever reason it rained pretty much any time we were on the road in the south island. Rain was in the forecast for the next three days as well, which meant our three-day trek on the Abel Tasman Coast Track would not be as pleasant as we'd hoped.

When we arrived in the sleepy beach-side town of Marahau, though, we found the forecast had changed! Three days of clear, blue skies and warm sun awaited us.

In the way of background information, the Abel Tasman Coast Track is another of New Zealand's 9 Great Walks. It's generally considered the easiest, and therefore the most visited. The ascents on the hike are sudden and steep, but few and far between. Most of the walk consists of easy, flat walking through coastal forest with bountiful opportunities to stop along at the many beaches with pristine sand, stunningly-turquoise water, and fantastic limestone rock formations and caves for exploration.

All told, the track is 51 km long, taking 3-5 days to complete depending on how many hours you let yourself get sidetracked by the beautiful beaches. As we were a little pressed for time on this trip, we opted to hike the first 3 days, or 33 km.

Conveniently our hostel was located just 1 km from the start of the track, so we took our time in the morning to have breakfast, finish packing our bags, and stow the car in a special car park before making our way to the track.

The first day was incredibly easy. We stopped at three or four beaches along the way and still made it to Anchorage Bay, our first campsite, well before sundown. Mike and I had a little excitement at one of the beaches. Inside a small, dark limestone cave I saw the light from a solitary glow worm. I'm not sure what it was doing all alone, but I tried to take a picture. Flash fully illuminated the cave for a split second, and when I looked down at the camera to review the picture I realized Mr. Glow Worm and I weren't alone.


Creepy cave weta! At first I thought they were spiders so I got the hell out of there, but later on I realized they must've been New Zealand's most darling little insects. And by darling I mean disgusting, and by little I mean frickin' huge. They're generally about 4-5 inches long, sometimes longer depending on leg and antennae length.

At the campsite we tried our best to make a fire, but the wind was relentless. On the bright side I learned how to chop wood, adding another valuable life skill to my repertoire.

Early the next morning Mike and I set out on an hour sidetrack to Pitt Head, a promontory which was supposedly the site of an old Pa (Maori fortification). As it turned out, it was only the site of the Pa indeed, as we could find no evidence of the fort itself. We were rewarded for our efforts, though, with great views out across the Cook Strait. We could even see the hazy outline of the north island in the distance.

Back at camp I dragged Alexa from her sleep so we could breakfast and pack up our gear for the next section of the height. From Anchorage we had an option of an easy low tide route (ten minutes) or a long, uphill high tide route (1.5 hours). It was low tide so we could have crossed the estuary easily, but we wanted to see Cleopatra Pools, a series of fresh water pools, so we had to take the high road.

After our stop at the pools we noticed we were running parallel to the low-tide track, so we took a shortcut down a ten foot embankment and crossed the estuary. Thousands upon thousands of empty clam shells littered the sand and under every piece of soaking rotted wood were dozens of miniature crabs. It was like walking on the ocean floor, which made it one of the cooler parts of the hike.

Clam shells scattered across the sand. These are all empty, dead shells. I'm not sure what living clams do when it's low tide. I guess they can burrow?



We eventually made our way to Bark Bay, our second campsite. At Bark Bay a thick line of trees sheltered the fire pit from the wind, so we thought we might have better luck with the fire. Wrong. All but two-three small chunks of the wood provided were too wet to burn, so once again we found ourselves nursing a pitiful flame. Later on, a large group of European travelers happened by. Daniel Boone himself strolled up, smirked at our would-be fire, and with broken English said, "I fix it?"

Not ten minutes later he had the fire going, through some mystical combination of shaving off small pieces from the wet wood, blowing, and flapping air into the coals. With smoke flooding the campsite and our egos crushed, we decided to head into Mike's tent for a few rounds of rummy before bed.

The final day presented us with two gruelling uphill segments and a few pretty beaches to explore. Mike and I found another cave, so we grabbed the flashlight and headed in. This time we kept an eye out for cave weta and spiders. After about twenty feet we came to a large chamber and the only way to continue would have been to crawl on our stomachs through a small gap near the ground. No thanks.

Eventually we made our way to Awaroa Bay, our final beach, and laid out in the sand to wait for our water taxi back to Marahau. Here are a few more pictures from the hike:

Sea birds sitting on a sign in Marahau:



Alexa and I standing at the start of the track:



All three of us standing on a cool limestone formation:



Just a pretty beach from the first day:



Scenic view near Anchorage Bay:



Awaroa Bay, where we lounged and waited for the water taxi.

Picton - Ferry - Wellington

After returning to Marahau and repacking our very, very smelly car (by then the garbage bag of dirty laundry had reached tremendous proportions), our first order of business was getting some warm food in our aching stomachs. We made a fast food stop in Motueka. Alexa got herself KFC, while Mike and I took a more piggish route. In New Zealand, McDonald's offers family meals after 5 pm, so Mike and I ordered the $20 "Family of Four" meal consisting of two cheeseburgers, a McChicken, a Big Mac, two large fries, two small fries, and four drinks. Delicious (not really, but it was cheap).

From there we drove the 2.5 hour voyage to Picton. After an awesome shower to wipe off layers of sweat, sunscreen, and insect repellent from the past three days, we headed straight to bed. The next morning we caught the 8 am ferry to Wellington and drove to our friends Jason and Tammy's flat. Once again they were awesome enough to let us crash at their place.

Over the next couple days we toured Wellington, spending plenty of time just walking around the city, but also made stops at the Botanic Gardens and Te Papa. Since Wellington is known for its night life we planned on having a big night out Friday. Unfortunately, our plans were cut short by ANZAC Day (similar to Veterans' or Memorial Day) being on Saturday. On public holidays employers are required to pay employees time and a half, so many restaurants and bars will either close or charge a 15% surcharge to make up for the difference. We hadn't counted on this starting at midnight until all but three bars closed at 11:59 and the rest started packing on the surcharges. Fortunately Burger Fuel (the best burger chain ever) hadn't started with surcharges yet, so we had a nice midnight snack before heading back to Jason and Tammy's.

Saturday morning we had to pack up and bid Jason and Tammy farewell. With less than a week until Mike had to be in Auckland for his flight home and lots to see and do, we had to get on the road.

Next stop, Taupo. I'm going to end this post here because once again I've written too much! Next time I'll finish up our trip with Mike and get on to what Alexa and I have been up to for the past week, promise.

Mission Accomplished!

On my third attempt, I finally did it! Did I get a job that will give me more than 20 hours a week? Nope! Did I find a flat where the other tenants aren't pigs? Nope! Did I cure AIDS? Certainly not!

But I did, after somewhere over an hour of not-quite-aimless but not-quite-purposeful wanderings through the forests of Mt. Victoria, manage to find one of the Lord of the Rings filming locations!

After getting a rough idea of where I was heading from good old Google Earth (including a few pictures of what the area was supposed to look like), I set off on my journey. After about fifteen minutes of walking, I came to this map and used it to figure out which way I should walk:

Keep that image in mind. There's something incredibly ironic about it, but we'll get to that later. I spent the next three quarters of an hour wandering through the forest. Eventually I came to an area Alexa and I had been to earlier, on the day we hiked up to the Mt. Vic overlook. I decided to head in the opposite direction from our last hike, and it eventually lead me to a little signpost that said "Lord of the Rings Filming Location" and had an arrow pointing in a vague direction. Sure enough, it lead to the right spot.

Are you guys ready for this little piece of Hollywood history? It's pretty exciting and intense. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Here it is:

Ooooh. Ahhhh. ....yeah, I know. It's not all it's cracked up to be. Elijah Wood didn't even spraypaint "Frodo wuz heer!" or anything. What a jerk.

Anyway, hard to tell from this picture, but the area in the center (where the sunlight is most concentrated) is a shallow alcove. It's the place where the four hobbits jumped off the road and crouched in the shelter of a massive tree's roots to hide from the Nazghul in Fellowship of the Ring. Apparently the tree was an artificial set piece/computer generated, so it's not there.

Once I was sure that was the right spot, I continued along the trail and shortly came upon the very first map (from the picture above) where I'd started. This time I noticed something I hadn't the first time. Scroll up to the picture. See the little, two-foot-tall signpost in the foreground? Guess what it says. Yep. "Lord of the Rings Filming Location." So I probably could've saved myself a good deal of wandering if I'd noticed the sign. Maybe that's where Alexa would've come in handy?

Now that I've wasted all that time talking about an over-rated patch of dirt, I'll give you a few general updates:

The weather has been uncannily fantastic for the past week. It only rained once! Alexa and I took advantage of this and checked out the Botanic Gardens. Yes, for a third time. I'm pretty sure we've seen just about everything there, though, so we probably won't go back for a while. We also took one of the free tours of the parliament buildings. I know that doesn't sound like a very exciting thing to do, but it was actually pretty interesting. We learned a bit about how New Zealand's government works. Unlike the corrupt, broken-beyond-a-grain-of-hope pile of shit we have in the US, the New Zealand government still cares enough to take their citizens' opinions into account (what a novel idea). Whenever a new bill is being discussed, the bill is advertised in the newspaper. The general public are allowed to write in a request to attend a council meeting about the proposed bill. Each and every Kiwi that sends in a request is allowed to attend, and they're all given a turn to voice their opinion to the government officials involved (house members, cabinet ministers, the prime minister; so it'd be like the average US citizen being able to talk to Bush, his cabinet, and the senators) without fear of intimidation, or being interrupted, or any other sort of rudeness. The only requirement is that they return the courtesy shown to them--anyone who interrupts or speaks out of turn will be removed from the premises and banned for six months. Of course, New Zealand's small population (four million) gives them an advantage, but I still think it's pretty cool.

In other news, I'm in the process of finding a way to quit my job at the hotel. I signed a contract saying I wouldn't write about my job at the hotel, so we're going to play a game. The game is called Pretend Eoin Works At an Imaginary Hotel. Here's how you play. I'm going to talk about imaginary, hypothetical things that might take place at an imaginary, hypothetical hotel. Your part of the game is simple: just think about how horribly gross it would be if these imaginary things were true (because, who knows, somewhere in the world they might be. Wink wink.)

At this imaginary hotel, which is not by any means a dump--they have nice rooms, nice beds, and charge a good deal--they may or may not lack standards when it comes to cleaning the rooms. Most of the imaginary rooms come with an electric kettle, tea, coffee, and mugs. Some more expensive rooms also have imaginary plates, knives, and glasses. Most people would think it makes sense to properly clean these dishes after they've been used--you know, with water and soap and all that--but not in imaginary land! In imaginary land, the dishes are "cleaned" by running them under water for a few minutes until there's no longer any visible dirt, and then put back for the next guests to use. Hopefully there's no bacteria in this imaginary world.

In the imaginary hotel, sheets are washed after each guest. You might think it would make sense to wash the comforter, or at the very least the smaller blanket, but you'd be wrong. In the imaginary hotel, the blankets and comforters are never laundered. I could go on, but I'm sure you can imagine it for yourselves.

At any rate, I have an interview tomorrow morning at Cafe Maranui. It's a popular cafe right on the beach in Lyall Bay (another suburb of Wellington, where cast members of Lord of the Rings surfed/learned how to surf during their down time--what the hell is with this entry and Lord of the Rings?). I also put in an application at a New World (grocery chain in New Zealand), plus I received a phone call from The Warehouse, another New Zealand chain I applied to back in September. One way or another I should be able to quit the job at the hotel in the immediate future, two weeks' notice be damned.

I think that's about everything for now. You may have already noticed, but I added links to my online photo albums to the right. Right above the link to Alexa's blog. The first album contains Auckland, Rotorua, and a little bit of Wellington, including the Zoo. The second album is all new, though. It includes the Botanic Gardens, parliament, and many pictures of the city in general. Go check it out!

I'll leave you with this parting advice from an old friend of mine: Confucious say, "Man who stay in imaginary hotel wake up with real herpes."

Amen.

Quack quack quack.

Well, it's raining again.

After being lucky enough to have a handful of exceptionally bright and sunny days, this morning I woke up to what sounded like someone throwing handfuls of pebbles against the window. My first thought was, "Oh great. Hail," but it was only rain. The wind was just blowing so insanely hard it made the rain sound like hail. Wonders never cease.

I did manage to do a handful of fun things during the brief bit of nice weather we had. Last Wednesday we checked out the second museum in Wellington, The Museum of City and Sea. Friday was Alexa's first full day of work, so I was left to my own devices and spent the afternoon walking through Wellington's waterfront area. Over the weekend Alexa was sick so we didn't really do much of anything, but Monday we revisited the Botanic Gardens. They had lots of flowers. Yay flowers. Not the most exciting thing we've done, but there was a cool garden filled with surreal, Dr. Seuss-esque plants. And a bunch of ducks and ducklings. I've decided ducks are either incredibly stupid or have incredibly bad short-term memory. I watched a deranged little Kiwi girl run towards a duck. The duck quickly swam away in panic, but when the girl threw bread into the water he just as quickly stopped and turned around to eat. Did he forget he was in danger? Was he really that hungry? What the hell were you thinking, Duck? At any rate, the survival of the duck species will be a great risk as soon as their natural predators discover they're easily swayed by sliced bread.

Moving along to boring serious things, like work (ugh), I was not hired by The Organic Grocer. Boo. I did, however, get a housekeeping job at a hotel (as of about an hour ago). It only has 2/5 stars on Google's review thingy. I hope that doesn't mean I'll have to clean poop off the walls and remove dead hookers' bodies. But money is money, and the job was easily acquired since one of our fellow lodgers here at the Pickled Parrot Lodge (that's what our apartment complex is called, have I mentioned that before?) works there. It'll be nice to start making some real money, since the measly 16-20 hours/week Domino's gives me only nets me about $10 once I pay for rent and groceries. I start tomorrow, so I'll update re: poop/hooker bodies in my next post.

Some more exciting news: the CEO of all the Domino's Pizzas in Australia/New Zealand is coming by our branch today. Since the manager wants everything to look up to standard, I finally got a name tag yesterday. My life is complete.

That's about it for now. My mom just IMed me an idea for my next post: "ok. i was thinking - how about a blog entry on the mundane stuff - what's on tv, the weather, tourists, where you'll get a haircut, what the drug stores are like, what does the mcdonalds serve that's different?
stuff like that , that people want to know but are afraid to ask."

So what do you guys want to know about New Zealand? Don't be afraid to ask. Ask anything; just leave a comment. My next post will aim to answer all of you questions about the day-to-day bits and pieces of the Kiwi life.

Picture time. Did you know you can click on the pictures to see them in full size? Well, you can:

A view of Mt. Victoria from the waterfront. The treeless patch at the top is the site of the Mt. Vic overlook (see my last post):

Ducklings!

The crazy garden that I think looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss book: