Also From January 1, 2011

I typed this blog entry up earlier, but refused to publish it until Perin had posted her ideas/thoughts first. I didn't want to pollute her memories:) I like us each to have our own insights.... You may notice some variations in the story but will have to accept both as fact - subjective realities and all...

Oh, it's so weird to type 2011! That'll change soon enough though. Perin and I just finished tramping (NZ for hiking, but when you stay overnight in the bush (NZ for wilderness)) the Milford Track. It took four days although first day's hike only took about about 90 minutes.

We expected prodigious amounts of rain through the fiordlands and we got it. Our guide at the first hut was Ross and he gave a long and humorous lecture on the hut, the tramp, the wildlife, and himself. Ross informed us that the prodigious amounts of rain we were experiencing were merely showers, and we had no need to worry about fording giant rivers and fierce currents - at least on our second day.

We met a nice couple from England/Vietnam who were statisticians (and rather boring) and a Scottish couple of doctors traveling with a Kiwi couple of doctors. All of that Scottish pay went to funding international travel, so they were pretty fun. However, they refused to drink the whiskey I had humped through the bush for them- so they were suspicious:)

The second day through the rain was uphill and lightly strenuous. We got some great pictures of some waterfalls and the overall beauty of the walk - but we'll share those with you soon. The third day was the most strenuous of all: up over a mountain and back down again. The weather cleared up for the first time in six weeks and we got spectacular views everywhere.

However, both Perin and I were exhausted at the end of that day and even though we got sweet pictures, we went to bed pretty early.

On the last night, we finally met a group of outgoing Aussies. They were a family of four brothers - all under 26, with their WAGs/sisters. They were super competitive with each other and ran each section of the track to see who'd arrive first and/or who could walk the furthest on the rocky terrain while barefoot and wearing a huge pack. They were pretty fun, and they were down for some bourbon. Should have met them the first night!

We left some extra food behind because the Department of Conservation saves it up for when flooding is so high that people get stuck in that last last cabin for days with the river goes down.

From there we did a cruise on Doubtful Sound which was awesome. We had clear blue skies and the water was like glass everywhere. We met some Americans from New Mexico and they're totally into whitewater rafting and put in for river permits all over the American west and always need more rafters, so that was some spectacular networking. Their daughter might one day attend my whitewater alma mater. We'll keep in touch with them for sure.

And for coincidences, we met Ross's wife Carol on the cruise. She was the wildlife guide and did a spectacular job. We learned about their relationship together and how they both ended up with their dream jobs in semi-retirement. Definitely inspiring talking to both of them!

From January 1, 2011

My boy Ryan hooked me up with Shogun by James Clavell a while back. Do people even say "my boy" or "hooked up" any more? My exposure to American hip hop has decreased tremendously during my time abroad.

In fact, I was reading about the popularity of "Teach Me How to Dougie" in the Wall Street Journal and a separate article about the "Black and Yellow" song a few weeks back and thought about what a lame ass I have to be to get my pop culture news from the WSJ. I disgust myself a little bit when thinking about it...

Anyway, Perin and I were eating a salad with dressing produced by a company called Eta. In Shogun, I learned that the lowest class people in feudal Japan (the sewage workers, those in the tannery business, etc.) were called eta. In discussing this with her, Perin decided that Japanese probably don't consume that brand of dressing while here.

But back to present times. The very present. I'm skipping over our badass muliti-day trip over the world-rek owned Milford track and our overnight cruise on Doubtful Sound (perhaps the most beautiful place in NZ?) to discuss the guy at tonight's campsite reading in the kitchen facilities. The kitchen facilities are for everyone at the campsite. All 119 sites. Some people cook at their own sites, but there's free running water at the facilities so everyone goes there to wash dishes.

It was super packed with everyone cooking and cleaning (Perin and I learned our lesson and made a nice chicken, artichokes, capers, and cream sauce with pasta in case any French people tried to intimidate us.) So this guy is choosing to sit in the middle of all this to read his massive tome and proceeds to get upset with how loud everyone is! I'm sure I'm not the only one who was thinking "screw you, this isn't the place for quiet reading!"

Which reminded me of staying in our mountain house in Tahoe a couple winters back. One of the house members was a Berkelely Law professor (lecturer?) who would sit in the kitchen of house packed with ski people cooking and ask them to be quiet while he read law books about to prepare his upcoming lectures.

Nobody could stand that law guy so after dinner one night Perin went to bed and I hit the bars with a few other guys. Most of them dropped off after a beer or two and I ended up being wing man for some investment banker. I had just read Market Forces (in which the characters drink much Laphroig) and got all pumped up to try it. The i-banker loved Laphroig and bought me my first glass of it. I liked it a lot but in exchange, while he hit on this hot South African ski cougar, I had to jump on a grenade for him (her blind California friend - who had retired from nursing 10 years earlier before she lost her sight.)

My drink was finished long before the banker's, and since I had the blind chick, I didn't feel bad about frantically signaling him across the bar for him to buy me another while re-assuring her it was totally normal for blind retired nurses to pick up young dudes at ski-town bars. Only after he bought my second three-fingers worth of Laphroig and I had consumed it, did I eject from my wingman duties and let her know that I was going home without her.

Perin wanted to know what she missed and I let her know the truth: massive amounts of social awkwardness. Which brings me back to the Japanese culture of politeness. From my understanding there are 3-4 major politeness levels/sentence structures in Japanese, with numerous sub-variations. A question: what is the proper way (and correct politeness level) to dismiss blind retired nurses in Japan when you're flying wingman?

Our 2010 Summer Holiday

Paul and I just had (our last) two week holiday around NZ. It was amazing, exhausting and exhilarating all at the same time. It begain with a four day hike (tramp) on the Milford Track. Being out of shape added to the physical challenge of hiking and carrying your own gear, but the dramatic and pristine scenery made up for it. It was just amazing.

On New Years Eve we took an overnight boat cruise on Doubtful sound and I got to have my first encounter with Dolphins in the wild. A pod of bottlenose Dolphins swam alongside side us, jumping in and out of the water.

Next stop (so to speak) was Wanaka. We hung out there resting up and enjoying the rain on our first day off. We sat in the car next to the tent and read our books for hours. Truly relaxing...

But the physical challenges had just begun and it was time to head over to Fox Glacier and do an all day walk on the glacier. Again, the walking part wasn't so hard, it was learning to use the crampons and really pushing your feet into the ice so you don't slip that took a bit of finess and fitness. But no-slips later we were on our way to take pictures of Franz Joseph glacier and head to Hokitika for the night.

With the weather continuing in our favour, we found an Indian restuarant open at 9pm, grabbed the food to go and sat at a picnic table at that beach and ate dinner. It was all quite exhuisite.

The next day we were able to catch high-tide at the blow holes of the pancake rocks and then a super smooth sailing from Picton back to Welly. On the boat we ran into our friend Andy and got to tour the Bridge!

And to end this fabulous holiday we headed north and completed the Tongariro Crossing. A breeze after the Milford track but oh boy were my feet sore. All in all it was a spectacular vacation. We ran into people we knew (from work, soccer and through friends) throughout the trip, reminding us how small and wonderful New Zealand can be.

Here are the pictures from our adventures. I tried my best to reduce the photos but couldn't get the albums under 80 photos (we took about a 1000 between the two cameras so I figure 80 isn't so bad). I've split them into two albums - Enjoy!

The first album is of our different adventures and includes photos of us:

South and North Island 2010-2011

The second album is just nature. We took a lot of pictures of really beautiful scenery. There is some overlap between the two albums but overall they are fairly different.

Nature - South Island Summer 2010-2011