Tag Archives: New Zealand

“I Love You” – “Bye” Part I

January 30, 2020 krisellenlang 1 Comment

Years ago, my little brother Kory went to New Zealand – as a “bounty hunter.” He was paid to cull overpopulated fallow deer, chamois sheep, and feral hogs in the Haast region. It’s a controversial subject, but is an on-going practice -even while we were there. Key points : 1) he was an amazing bow hunter 2) he was a strong spirit who celebrated the connection of ALL things. 3)he hunted for purpose, not sport 4) he was VERY successful in New Zealand.

He brought back coins for my kids – (which the Tooth Fairy shared with them and which are part of my ‘penny floor’). He shared photos and stories, but I was a busy ‘Mom of Quadruplets’ – and I didn’t really listen. He had several of his different animals made into mounts (to add to his multitude of mounts collection). I wasn’t ‘impressed’ – – we weren’t close at this point.

But we got wiser or better or older- and we ended up as adult friends.

We talked about New Zealand shortly before he died. We were sitting together in a room in the VA Hospital in Minneapolis, watching our father die – and I asked Kory to describe the most beautiful place he could and he said “New Zealand”. He said that ‘it was incredible . . . that around every curve was something MORE incredible . . .waterfalls and lakes and rainforests — you’ve GOT to go.’ I laughed and said it was ‘on my bucket list’ and Kory got really serious and said again “You’ve got to go – seriously, it’s the one place I dream of going back to.”

Our Father died. Kory and I talked daily. Whenever we talked I would end the call with I love you – and he’d say BYE. I asked him why he never said ‘I love you too’ at the end of our call- his answer was typical Kory “you know I love you, why do I have to say it?” I dug out the pictures he had given me from New Zealand and we talked about his trip. I told him I was impressed. He said- “you’ve got to go. You have to see it to believe it. I want to go back.” We talked about grief and family and parenting and dogs and weather and nothing and everything.

And then Kory had a massive heart attack, 26 days after our Dad died – and my world got really quiet and incredibly loud – all at once.

And on this misty grey, blustery morning, Dec. 30, 2019, Kory and I went for a walk on Haast Beach.

This was the area where he had hunted — where he had eaten and slept years before

Mother Earth – in all her raw beauty

and a fine place to rest for awhile. . .

You’re here. Sweet Dreams. I love you…. bye.

Mosses and Fungi, Nature, New Zealand, Travel

Lake Matheson and the West Coast

January 30, 2020 krisellenlang Leave a comment

After we finished our Heli-hike we headed over to Lake Matheson for lunch. The clouds had continued to get thicker and we heard rumors that the rest of the days flights to the glacier had been cancelled, so we were really lucky that we were able to get the whole 3 hours of ice time in.

The food was excellent, and we once again had a feathered lunch guest. **As the trip progressed, I noticed that none of the windows in New Zealand have screens, and doors and windows were often left open during decent weather. After we ate and did a little shopping we headed out for a 2 mile trip to the lake and back.

Lake Matheson is surrounded by a podocarp rainforest (evergreen trees that have linear or scale like leaves)with species dating back to the Cretaceous age. As a Botany major I was in complete awe, and took tons of plant pictures. Who knew that moss control was an actual thing in a rainforest?

We didn’t have high hopes for the lake- if weather conditions are good (which they weren’t), and there’s no wind (which there was) the lake boasts the chance at capturing stunning photos of the Southern Alps reflecting in a mirror like surface. Not today —

So we headed back to Ladybug —

and headed south along the coastline. First stop was Bruce Bay Beach – with black sand, incredible views and SANDFLYS! They obviously could smell us coming – even with 40% DEET on. Their response was immediate and extremely irritating, but I managed to build my first rock stack in record time. The wind had picked up and a light rain was falling, but they seemed oblivious and undeterred.

Next up, Knights Lookout Point – another fabulous photo spot (on a clear day). I took a few shots anyway, and enjoyed finding a coincidental connection on the plaques — my birthday is November 6.

The rest of our day was kind of a washout. We drove to Haast in the rain and checked into our hotel. The hoped for sunset on the west coast was a bust. We walked to dinner at the Hard Antler – ate venison and LOTS of potatoes and turned in early.

Fox Glacier Heli-Hike, Nature, New Zealand, New Zealand, Travel, Uncategorized

Fox Glacier Heli-Hike

January 29, 2020 krisellenlang 1 Comment

**Fair warning – this post has LOTS of pictures.

The day dawned fairly clear, and everything seemed to be GO! We grabbed breakfast in the Alpine Guide Cafe (Yum! ) And queued up for check in. A curious situation when everyone else is physically weighed and the clerk says, ‘we’ve got your weights already’, but we go along with it. There’s a security and safety briefing

and we get assigned to our seats in the helicopter. The guides explain that the lightest people will be sitting up in the front seats and Drake and I enthusiastically high five – (since we are both under 120 pounds). Imagine our surprise when 2 other people are called up for the front seats — imagine the guides surprise when Drake and I are finally called up, and they do a double take at the printout, look at us, ask us to step on the scale, and explain that somehow our weights were listed at almost 2 times heavier than we actually were. Unfortunately, we still had to sit in the back.

I couldn’t get many good shots from my middle rear seat, but I was able to get the leading edge of the glacier as we approached

We landed on a small area of snow, got fitted with crampons and walking sticks and waited for the remaining groups to arrive.

And then we got ready to hike . . . up there–

Drake and I started out in the middle of the pack, and it only took me about 15 minutes to catch my crampon in my pant leg and do a complete face plant into the side of the Fox Glacier! A few bruises (especially on my ego) and a reminder to “walk wide”, and were moved up in the line a bit.

As we climbed, the clouds started to cover the tops of the surrounding mountains, and the temperature was dropping, but we were getting pretty warm. About this time I was hitting my “MS Wall” – legs feeling weak, anxiety rising, breathing too fast in the thin air – and I ask if I can stop here – about 3/4 of the way to our goal – and catch them on the way back down. Bad news is – we don’t come back down this way. Good news is – I admit I’m feeling like a 58 year old with Multiple Sclerosis and I could use some extra ‘help’. And now, we’re in the front of the line!!

And this is where we stop–

And then, we hiked back down – with a stop for a drink of the freshest water possible

Took congratulatory selfies, and obligatory ice pick shots

Loaded back up and flew out over the Fox River

the leading edge of the glacier that used to extend down this valley and past the mountain in the background

And we haven’t even had lunch yet . . .

Fox Glacier, Hokitika, New Zealand, Travel

Greymouth To Fox Glacier — Our First Driving Day!

January 28, 2020 krisellenlang Leave a comment

We got into Greymouth right around 1 pm, giving us about 8 hours of daylight to complete our next challenge — learn to drive on the left side of the road from the drivers seat on the right side of the car!

The plan was to grab the car and then park it and explore – but we ended up walking back and forth through the tiny town of Greymouth several times just to finally track down a live person associated with the rental car company. (Probably should have booked a national chain?!) When all the paperwork was done – we were given some basic tips and the keys to “Ladybug”.

She ended up being an excellent car – albeit really slow on the uphill!

We grabbed a few supplies from The Warehouse, took a quick walk along the newly constructed seawalls in Greymouth and then decided to brave the roads.

The struggle was real, and we immediately got lost. . . and ran across a rancher moving his cattle across the road. . . and missed the next 2 planned stops. . . and realized that one way bridges are very popular and that 100 kph feels WAY faster than 62 mph.

I’ve never seen so many variations of curves ahead —

We drove for about 40 minutes and stopped in Hokitika for a break. It was a GREAT stop! The weather was partly sunny, and super windy, so no swimming, but the beach was beautiful

I wish this place would have been open – my DD is named Addison. . .

We had a very disappointing lunch at Stumpers — but treated ourselves to mini doughnuts from the food truck on the beach . . .

my $16 ham and cheese and flat white lunch

We learned about greenstone and the brushtail possum explosion, which led me to believe I would be seeing these adorable pests all around the country. Alas, the only ones we saw were roadkill . . . (which resulted in learning another fun fact — New Zealand has no carrion birds!)

Possums were brought over for the fur trade and well, you know what happened after that. They are WAY softer, fluffier and cuter than the American Opossum. Their fur is really pretty, really pricey, and used for a variety of things from rugs to mittens to being spun with Merino wool in clothing. At this point they are wreaking havoc on the ecosystem due to overpopulation – and there is open season on them, including poisoning and trapping. Human vanity and greed really throws a monkey wrench into the balance of Nature.

After Hokitika, we drove down the West Coast. Clouds had rolled in, and were threatening rain, and I was driving up the sides of mountains. At one point Drake counted 8 triple curves in a row – 3 landslide warning areas and 2 other actual slides on the road – and speed limits varying from 100 kph to 15 kph within eyesight of each other. We weren’t able to see Franz Josef Glacier through the clouds, so we went straight to IvoryTower Backpackers in Fox Glacier, where it took about 7 minutes to pry my hands from the wheel.

This was our first experience with staying in a hostel, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Our check in was great, the room was clean and comfortable, and we had our own little garden. Yes, we had to share a bathroom, and some of the younger people stayed up past MY bedtime, but overall, it was a great stay.

We had another disappointing meal at Bigfoot Bar – potato soup that was thin and tasteless and dry garlic bread. The service was poor as well, originally being told we could only sit down if we were going to order something to eat. They did have a great view though. . .

At Cook Saddle Cafe and Saloon we had a shot, a beer and a fabulous conversation with Sean about whitebait, our current POTUS, New Zealand’s climate crisis, and local brews and foods to try. All in all – a great day.

Keeping our fingers crossed for clear weather tomorrow.

New Zealand, Trains, Travel

Tranzalpine — Christchurch to Greymouth New Zealand

January 28, 2020 krisellenlang Leave a comment

Early morning checkout at the Abbey Motor Lodge – (a great place– that we thoroughly recommend – I didn’t take photos unfortunately, but it was a wonderful place, with extra touches and an awesome Manager).

and we are off to the Tranzalpine Train Station to travel from Christchurch (on the east side of the south island) across the South Island Alps to Greymouth (on the west coast of the south island).

Drake saves the day with Uber (again) and we end up in the queue for the train in record time, get good seats and settle in for the 5 hour ride. The cars have huge windows and skylights, an ongoing commentary and incredible views as we travel across the south island. We will encounter 5 major bridges, 5 viaducts, and 17 tunnels (Including the Otira Tunnel that is 5.3 miles (8566 m) long, as we climb from 66 feet above sea level to 2425 feet and then back down- in a 223 km ( 139 mile ) journey.

The ride was incredible – starting through the Canterbury Plains

no idea what they were growing but it was breathtaking

past the Waimakiriri Gorge

up into the Southern Alps — with so many photo opps I was overwhelmed!

Up into Arthur’s Pass – with a resident population of 29

Then through the Otira tunnel and into the Misty Mountains

alongside and over the Waimakirri River

and into the Grey River Valley – where we slowed WAY down “due to slip activity on the tracks” in the area.

I didn’t ask . . . I just held on. . .

and then, into Greymouth. . .

where we picked up a car- and started the epic road trip

– on the left!

Uncategorized

Christchurch Tramway Restaurant Dinner Tour

January 24, 2020 krisellenlang 1 Comment

We started our Tramway Dinner tour at Cathedral Square- an area heavily damaged in the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes. This is what the area looked like before —

and this is what it currently looks like —

The Chalice sculpture was largely untouched by the earthquakes, but the cathedral sustained heavy damage – the plans for it have changed repeatedly since the quakes, but at this point, it is being dismantled and will be rebuilt.

We were lucky enough to have made reservations (months in advance) to have dinner on the Christchurch tramway restaurant. It was originally built in Australia as tram 411 by the Melbourne metropolitan tramways board as a passenger car. It was withdrawn from service in 1982 and put in storage. In 1986 it was purchased by the Maroubra Junction Hotel in Sydney, who used it to function as a dining area, referred to as the “Trattoria”, between a bar and poker machines. In 1995 it was acquired by the Sydney tramway museum. In 1999 it was transformed into a fully functional restaurant bar in the colonial vein but with air conditioning. On December 21st, 1999 tram 411 arrived into Christchurch. It began operating on the Christchurch tramway in January of 2000. The devastating February 2011 earthquake stopped it in its tracks and put a halt to all tramway restaurant operations for a period of four years. It was reopened in December 2014, and has been operating since.

We enjoyed an exquisite 4 course meal (with wine pairings) as the Tram traveled through and around downtown Christchurch for approximately 2 and 1/2 hours.

Smoked salmon roulade with soft cheese & gherkins, pickled cucumber, beetroot paint and toasted rye Wine match – Chard Farm Rosé

We were able to see more street art, people watch, and just enjoy the scenery as we got slightly snockered — (our waiter had a heavy pour hand).

It was a fun experience – made even more memorable by the late night, full bladder, weaving walk back to our hotel.

New Zealand, New Zealand, Travel

christchurch – first impressions

January 18, 2020 krisellenlang Leave a comment

Drake and I were lucky — our 13 hour flight from LAX was overnight, and we landed in Auckland at 6 AM local time. The 19 hour time difference didn’t even really seem to exist, and we felt like we were just starting a new day on the other side of the world. We grabbed our carry ons and headed through the airport for customs – with a brief stop to replace my phone’s SIM card with a NZ compatible one. (This effectively made my phone unavailable to any human being that I knew – no texts or calls, but WIFI available whenever a signal was strong enough.) Drake relied on his mobile data plan or free WIFI for the entire trip, and I used the Marco Polo app to send messages and daily video clips to family at home.

Prices were surprisingly high in the duty free area – but, in hindsight, we should have taken advantage of some things here. Lesson learned. We decided to skip the ATM and blasted through customs in 15 minutes. Then we trekked about 3,000 miles (seemed like it) to the domestic terminal, joking about the heat and how overdressed we were and hit up the ANZ ticket counter. I was able to score a flight that was leaving in 20 minutes – and we were off to Christchurch.

We got our first taste of NZ public transportation , and quickly found out that we shouldn’t have skipped the ATM. LOL The bus system there is amazingly efficient, but also a little intimidating. Drivers don’t announce stops, or anything else, for that matter. They don’t always stop at every stop, and you can ask them to stop anywhere along the route, and as soon as they can, they do. So, if you know EXACTLY where you are going, and the associated landmarks, you are GOLDEN. We were poorly prepared, but made it to the Bus Interchange in good time . And then things started to “unravel”. .

My PLAN was to purchase city bus passes at the terminal, get train maps and information for the next few days, and go to the bank nearby to exchange currency. None of this happened, because I had failed to realize that 12/26 is Boxing Day – one of the MAJOR PUBLIC HOLDAYS in all of New Zealand. All the places we needed were closed, and all the public spaces were filled with shoppers and tourists. Now what?? Drake came through with his Uber app – and we were off. . .

My first impression of Christchurch was one of opposites.

Mountains and asphalt —

New construction and crumbling buildings —

beautiful side yard gardens and unkempt lots —

And our driver reminded us of the earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 and how truly devastated this area was.

And my ignorance was lifted and my perspective tilted or something – and I saw things differently. I saw street art and progress,

preservation and restoration —

beauty within the damage —

and a real sense of community woven throughout. If I had to live in a city- this would be it.

Next up – Christchurch Botanic Gardens and walking tour…

Uncategorized

December 25th DISAPPEARS –and we are in new Zealand

January 17, 2020 krisellenlang 2 Comments

I’ve actually had a really hard time with this– and my time/space continuum has been affected deeply since I flew the first flight– and I still can’t, really, wrap my brain around it. . . but basically,

Drake and I did not experience December 25 —

as we crossed the International Date Line during our flight.

Knowing beforehand, that somehow, “Christmas”– December 25 on a calendar –was being erased, was more than weird, it was transcendental.

Yes, that sounds cliche and stupid but I struggled with decorating, shopping, baking, and preparing. . .knowing I wouldn’t actually be “having” a Christmas -( and G could care less.) So, I didn’t decorate – or shop – or bake – or prepare. In some ways it was liberating and freeing, but for the most part it was just weird.

I woke up to a beautiful sunrise at my home on Christmas Eve —

the start of the first day of my adventure

Gary drove me to Little Rock airport (2.5 hours) and I flew into Los Angeles–

I met up with Drake, had dinner in the airport next to a lovely young couple (who love to travel – and had ” 862 life plans, because then at least, some of them will come true”) and eventually, boarded a plane bound for Auckland – New Zealand at 8 PM.

We enjoyed a lovely dinner in Premium Economy Class while I watched the latest rendition of ‘A Star Is Born ‘ –(very disappointing IMHO)

We basked in the ‘pampering’ of warm towels, close bathrooms, a small amenity bag, airline food that looked – and tasted – good, and a little extra leg room.

We both got halfway decent sleep and had another nice meal for breakfast ( around 4 AM)

including the most perfect fruit plate– EVER. (Yes, I took a bite before the pic.)

premium economy breakfast — the most perfect fruit plate ever

I saw the sun rise across the horizon as we started our descent into Auckland

This is what sunrise looks like from an airplane

And I realized, exactly how tied we are to dates on a calendar (and times on a clock) when no one, (except Drake, in the middle of the night, during a body re-adjustment) wished me Merry Christmas.

Not even in the morning, when I woke up –

after going to bed on Christmas Eve.

I’m still not sure what happened.

My watch and phone said it was December 26, 2019 –

so I guess we actually ‘lost’ Christmas,

and ‘found’ New Zealand.

I have SOOOOO much more to share. . .

Carry on only, New Zealand, New Zealand, Packing, Travel, Uncategorized

anxiety Level — FLUCTUATING wildly!!!

December 19, 2019 krisellenlang Leave a comment

I am packed.

For glacier hikes and thermal pool soaks,

for New Year’s Eve and tramping the bush,

for planes, boats, trains, cars and helicopters,

for whatever adventure finds us along our route.

19 pounds for 19 days.

I am ready —

A.L.B.O.E.