90 Mile Beach and the Cape

We're staying at a lodge in Houhora, it's actually more like a B & B. It's a beautiful house with huge vaulted ceilings and large windows. We woke up and had a lovely breakfast at 7:30. There was toast, cereal, poached eggs, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes and avocado. Delicious. Then we drove up to Cape Reinga. We got up to the Northernmost part of the Island and saw the lighthouse. The 800Pohutukawa tree was sticking off the edge of one of the cliffs. According to maori legend it's the leaping off point for their dead spirits. Also at the Cape you get to see the Tasman Sea from the West meeting with the Pacific Ocean from the East. The Tasman Sea is a teal color and the Pacific Ocean is a darker blue.

Then we drove to the Giant Sand Dunes of 90 mile beach. Leigh and I climbed up some of the dunes and slid down on boogie boards. Unfortunately, even on the extremely steep sand dunes, you don't slide that quickly and you start to slow down super fast. Before sliding down the dunes are intimidatingly steep. After climbing the dune and sliding down a few times we gave up and just sat on the dunes for a bit. We couldn't see the ocean because the dunes in front of us were so high. By the time we left, my shoes were filled with sand and my skin was covered in sand. My pant's cuffs were rolled up while we were at the dunes and when I unrolled them, tons of sand fell out. It was just like that scene from "The Great Escape" when they sneak dirt out from the escape holes in their pant legs. We left and went to buy some ice cream from a general store. It was awesome, we got waffle cones with boysenberry ice cream.

Then we went to Rarawa beach to see the silica sand beaches. They were crunchy. I took a

picture of my footprint because it reminded me of a tar heel.

After we got back to the Lodge, Bruce, the owner, took us down to 90 mile beach in his 4wd SUV. We had a fun chat and talked about shellfish and ambergris. Ambergris is to a spermwhale as a hairball is to a cat. It's apparently something spermwhales hack up and it's something lucky people can find once it has washed up on the shore. Bruce said perfume companies pay between $4-$8 per gram. They use it to neutralize the alcohol in the perfume. Some local dude once found a hunk that was worth $45,000. We drove up and down a bit of 90 mile beach and we didn't get stuck. It was low tide when we drove on the beach. Bruce said that between 6 and 12 cars per year get stuck and then buried once the tide comes in. The nearby forests house lots of wild horses. Unfortunately, we weren't able to see wild horses. They totally symbolize the wildness of Diane Lane's heart.

Also while driving from place to place there were a lot of sheep farms with giant pastures and Leigh kept seeing baby sheep, getting distracted and almost driving off the road. Good times.

It's almost 8 pm and I'm about to crash so peace out.

Cheers,

Molly

Also 90 mile beach is actually 65 miles long. They used horses to measure distances and knew that on average, it would take a horse a day to go 30 miles. However, they didn't take into account that moving through sand is more difficult than normal hills and is going to tire out the horse quicker. So it took the average horse 3 days to get down 90 mile beach even though it was actually only 55-65 miles long.

Failure 2.0

So clearly I did what most people expected me to do, I stopped writing on here. Most likely the few who read this in the beginning have stopped checking it, so my apologies go out into the universe and hopefully I'll get a little credit for at least putting it out there.

Quick synopsis. After leaving Hanmer Springs, I drove up to Orewa which is located a little North of Auckland and crashed at Leigh and Seiger's house. It's a really amazing place with a sheep named Snowy. I've tried to make myself useful around their house: a bit of yard work, some painting, wallpapering and such, you get the general idea.

Gordon left and went back home. I stayed in Orewa and house sat while Leigh and Seiger went to the US and then to London for 3 weeks. After they got back I lived in Seiger's daughter's old room. Leigh and Seiger are the best and I've had an amazing time in Orewa. I spent a lot of my time reading, walking or running on the beach, relaxing and hanging out. I tried bikram yoga, spin class and resistance pilates. Surprisingly enough, none of them were my style.

I also made a bunch of random friends through couchsurfing and I swear I saw one of them on one of New Zealand's tv shows called Noise Control. It's a tv show similar to Cops, but obviously it only deals with noise violations. Yes, it's a great bunch I'm meeting here, but seriously, they're good people even if they are mostly Kiwis. Once again, just kidding, all the Kiwis I've met here been fantastic people.

A few weeks ago I put out a help beacon on Couchsurfing to see if anyone wanted to participate in the Russell Birdman Festival. I got a few responses and the week before the Festival I drove up to Whangarei and worked on my entry with 4 other people. I stayed with a couple, Karen and Colin and we worked to create the entries with another couple, Aaron and Morgan. We watched a lot of world cup and got up at ridiculous wee morning hours to see the games. We constructed our giant kites out of bamboo which the guys cut down from a nearby park and old curtains which Morgan sewed to the bamboo structures. Then we all took turns making little bows to attach as the tail and painted the backs of both kites.

Then the next week rolled around and I carpooled up with an Australian named Michael and an American named Cassie. We watched the All Blacks test match and tried to figure out the rules of rugby, no luck, but at least it's more interesting than cricket.

The next morning we left for the Festival. We were unable to partake in any of the other activities for one reason or another: the spaghetti eating contest, dinghy boat race, bbq cook off and the like. It was sad, but Aaron and I did get to jump in the water in our matching North Power jump suits, courtesy of Colin who actually works for North Power. I also made a red mask that looked kind of like the mask in the Princess Bride.

We ran down the wharf to the song "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" by the Beatles. An appropriate choice considering Aaron and I both had giant people sized kites. Though I suppose our matching blue and orange jump suits and my red face mask didn't really match the kite idea.

One website I found said that in winter the ocean water temperature in Russell is a balmy 18 C. So the water was the type to knock the wind out of you on contact. So you run down the wharf, jump in the water, jettison your entry so you don't drown and then rescue swimmers make sure you make it to the pick up boats which swoop in quickly. Fun times in Russell.

For more Russell Birdman Festival info, you can see their website http://www.russellbirdman.co.nz/

I went to the Mustang Saloon with a new friend to celebrate the 4th of July with other expats. I don't know why but I really enjoyed meeting up with other Americans to celebrate our Independence. They had a US menu that day and I had nachos.

Leigh, Seiger, Megan (Sascha's girlfriend and Sascha is Seiger's son) and I went to the the theaters to see Inception. What an awesome movie. We saw it on opening night and there were only about 3 or 4 other people in the theater. Small towns rock!

Now I'm in the Northland right now on a road trip with Leigh. We stopped by Tane Mahuta which is the largest Kauri tree and it's supposedly about 2000 years old. So this seedling was hanging out with Jesus.

Then we went to the Wairere Boulders. A nifty place with sweet as volcanic boulders and lots of moss. There was a no entry area that Leigh wouldn't let me go into. Some of the formations (cuts) were have been caused by acidic soil from kauri trees that used to grow in the forest. Weird, but sweet geological formations.

Tomorrow we're going sandboarding i.e. hurling ourselves down sand dunes on top of boogie board. Then we're driving up to the tip of Cape Reinga to watch the Tasman Sea meet the Pacific Ocean, check out the light house and find the 800 year old Pohutukawa tree which is the leaping off point for spirits in Maori Legend.

I'll try to keep up with this a bit more as I'm approaching my exodus from the country. I'm leaving Aug 22, but on Aug 7 I'll be joined by my buddy, Emily and then Aug 12, Jon will arrive and we'll be driving off into the New Zealand sunset. No really, we're going on a whirlwind tour of the North Island complete with a rugby game and glow worms.

Also I went gambling at the Sky Tower in Auckland. I played for 20 minutes with $10 dollars and ended up winning $115. Then I went back the next day and lost $440. I've learned my lesson and I'm not going to gamble anymore. I've been berated many times by many different people.

Cheers until next time,

Molly

Also I'm on "M" in my iTunes list by artist. I'd like to thank my tenacity.

iTunes Library

A few days ago, I think on Thursday, May 13, at least that's when I posted it on my facebook status, I decided to listen to my entire iTunes Library in alphabetical order according to Artist name. To understand the gravity of this situation let me explain the size of my iTunes list. It's 6,109 songs, 15.7 days, 29.14 GB.

I realized that I have not listened to every song that I own. This is ridiculous. If I've never listened to it then it's just wasting my precious computer space. It's strange, but having programs I don't use or random useless things on my computer really bothers me. I like to run a tight ship when it comes to the old laptop.

How did I get music that I don't listen to? Simple, people have given me music over the years. I've gotten entire albums for just a few songs. This means I didn't end up listening to all the songs. I'm sure there are other ways that music has crept into my iTunes Library. Those two examples are just the most likely scenarios. I like to have complete albums, it's definitely part of my completion-ist attitude. It's part of the problem, not the solution. Once I get over that I'll be able to delete the songs I don't like while keeping the ones that I do enjoy.

What am I accomplishing? I'm basically spring cleaning and organizing. I'm starting to rate the songs that I really enjoy with the star system provided in the Library. I'll debate whether or not to delete music, but I probably won't delete anything. I'll make a note and transfer it to my external hard drive when I get home. I'm a music pack rat. I worry that I'll regret deleting some song or album because I'll really want to listen to it or need it one day. I also have a lot of songs that are incomplete and just cut out so by listening to each song I'll be able to weed out the songs that end half way through. I also have a lot of duplicate songs because they appear on different albums and some were just singles that I acquired on their own. This means I have 3 copies of Aretha Franklin's Respect, one from the Forrest Gump Soundtrack, one from the Very Best of Aretha Franklin and just a stand alone single. If I can get over my completionist attitude then I should be able to delete all, but one of these. This is asking a lot because what if I end up wanting to listen to the Forrest Gump soundtrack and I've deleted Respect from there, but kept it in the Very Best of Aretha Franklin? I'll miss out on that song while listening to the soundtrack. I wish iTunes would allow you to double flag songs, that would make this easier. So when I searched for the Forrest Gump album it would show up and when I searched for the Very Best of album it would also show up, but there would only need to be one copy in my Library.

I read, draw and play online while listening to the music. Just so you don't think I'm sitting in a yoga position and focusing entirely on the music. That would be crazy.

I'm currently on The Beach Boys and I have 1, 026 songs where the Artist's name begins with an "A" or a "B". So it's going to be a long journey. I think I'm going to ding dong ditch the Beach Boys into my external. I don't know why, but I always feel like I should like them, but I just don't. Since I own 62 of their songs, I'll kick all but a few choice songs off of my computer.

So I sign off listening to Student Demonstration Time by the Beach Boys.

Working Inn Hanmer

It's way past time to dust off the old blog keyboard. Though the previous sentence suggests that I have a special blog keyboard that is used only for AKFA or that I haven't used my computer since the last blog entry. Now I'm just stalling for time, trying to come up with something interesting to blog about. Apparently when I'm no longer adventuring like the Dread Pirate Roberts, I dread the blog because I know I will only end up filling it inanities. So here goes.

The "In" is intentionally misspelled in the title as I am now working at an Inn in Hanmer Springs and have been working since March 15, 2010. I set out breakfast in the morning. I wash dishes. I clean rooms. Occasionally I work around their house and apartment. Sometimes I clean the holiday homes. I also clean around the hotel. It's every bit as mundane as it sounds, but it's a job. I believe it was Emily P. that once told me that you can do anything for six months. That's what got me through the AICPA and the same phrase is getting me through this. I work 7 days a week, but I also get a place to stay by working 14 hours a week. When the hotel isn't busy we get our own rooms in the hotel, but since it's full at the moment, we're staying upstairs at the family's house.

I used to work just with Gordon and occasionally Karen, a kiwi who also works at the local vet office, but now there's a new German fellow named Eno. Nice to have someone new around.

Hanmer Springs: Wikipedia says that the 2006 census put the Hanmer Springs population at 729 people. This is a mini resort town where people come to relax in the thermal pools. There are two fish and chip shops, a slew of hotels/inns and various accommodations and that's about it. I have cabin fever and the only prescription is getting out of here. I'm looking forward to August because two Chapel Hillians are coming to visit! Hoorah!

More Kiwi-isms:

"Good as gold" - instead of using great or good, insert this phrase.

Example: Got everything you need? Yes, I'm good as gold.

McDonalds - They call it mackers.

"Tea" - They drink it here, but they also call dinner, Tea. Go figure.

There's something akin to an air raid siren that goes off every now and then. I might have mentioned this same peculiarity in a previous blog back when I was in Takaka. They use it here every Tuesday to run fire drills, but it also goes off every time there's an actual emergency. I checked and it turns out they used to use only the siren, but now the fire people have pagers too. When there's an emergency the siren sounds and continues blasting for a long time, cars driven by the firefighters race to the station and then they take off in their fire engine. A few days ago we had our fire alarm go off for no reason. The alarm went off and this triggered the siren at the fire station which is located right next door to the Inn. A few minutes later the truck left the station and promptly pulled into the Inn parking lot. On a completely random note, there was a really cute fireman. Talk about being happy about stereotypes that turn out to be true. Just kidding, I didn't dwell too much on the cute fireman because it was pretty annoying to sit outside and have nothing to do.

I had a wrist injury about a month ago. It was probably from repetitive stress and half my right hand went numb and the wrist itself was quite swollen and tender for many days. We got some anti-inflammatory gel, a few wrist guards and I switched the hand I used to clean. Now I'm good as gold again.

The weather is starting to change. It's the kind of cold where you can feel that the outer part of your jacket is cool, but the inside is still warm. In the mornings my car windows are covered in frost. By the afternoon, the temperature has warmed up, but come evening the temperature drops fairly rapidly. Soon it will be winter and the nearby ski slopes will open. I'm looking forward to some boarding and then a relaxing soak in the thermal pools. I hear the best time for the thermal pools is when it snows. Imagine relaxing outside in the warm pools surrounded by heaps of snow.

I'm starting to plan my North Island Adventures. The first part will be with Gordon, but then he will leave because his visa is up at the end of July. Then mis amigos de Carolina del Norte will arrive and I will continue my North Island travels. After that I'll be heading home to attend weddings, get a job and plan my next adventure. Yes, that is multiple weddings, three at the moment, but who knows who else will get engaged between now and then.

I was having a good time watching the West Wing online, but then it turns out Gordon and I used up all the internet and then some at the Inn. It's impressive because I think they have like 350 gigs a month, but like I said earlier, we don't really have a lot to do here. This is an illustration of how ridiculous we are and how much I miss the unlimited internet back in the States. Heaven forbid if they ever change that.

I'm definitely lactose intolerant. What this means is that I still drink milk, but now I'm certain that it will make me feel bad later. Intolerant is a harsh word. I like to think that I'm a fairly open-minded person about most things, dairy included. So let's call it Molly's dairy discord. Doesn't that seem nicer with a lovely ring of alliteration?

There's a wedding this weekend so the work is about to become insane.

Kiwi-Molly says Kia Ora.

Kahurangi National Park Off Route Tramp

Kahurangi tramp

Got a little beta before the trip, but I wasn't able to get that much information from the DOC office in Takaka. I spoke to one DOC lady who had gone to Mt. Olympus the weekend before, but I didn't have a map and she hadn't gone the same track we were planning. So it was sort of useful, but I was just glad to hear that I probably wouldn't die out there.

2 packs

Just enough food for 5 days and 4 nights though we were hoping to do it in 4 days and 3 nights

1 map

1 compass

1 GPS unit

2 intrepid travelers

We got a late start and drove from Takaka to the start of the Boulder Lake Track. We started walking around 12 on a walk that was supposed to take 7-8 hrs. A lot of the walk was uphill. I prefer sprinting downhill to walking uphill. Gordon was out of my sight for a lot of the walk and I scrambled along after him. We stopped for a bit of lunch and a few water breaks. The walk was through jungle, a saddle, a really exposed rocky area and a ridiculous downhill to the lake. When we got to the hut there was already a pair of trampers there. We rested and had a

nice dinner from a bag.

The next day we got an early start at about 7:30 and walked off through a marshy saddle. It was a relief to get through the marsh which was full of poke your eye out grasses, huge holes and spongy wetlands. Walking through the marsh made me want to give up. I kept falling into hidden holes, stepping in puddles which soaked my shoes and socks and running my eyes into grass. Finally we made it out of the marsh, back onto the track and up out of the saddle to the top of the ridge connected with Clark peak. This is the moment when we left the track. It was pretty windy, cloudy and almost rainy up on top of the ridge which felt ominous before Gordon and I descended the hill into the trees. We found the creek at the bottom of the ravine and it was really dense walk hopping. We had to leap from rock to rock while dipping and diving underneath boughs and trying not to fall into the creek. It was really difficult because the forest was really dense on both sides of the river, but it was also hard to move through the river while remaining dry. We had only walked for about 45 minutes and then we reached a 20 meter waterfall. So Gordon and I had to climb down with rocks, trees and bushes. It was slightly terrifying because we didn't have anyway to safety up with and we were already off balance with our packs. After we scrambled down the cliff, my first concern was how we were going to get back up on the way home and then I decided that it was best to not consider it.

We struggled down the creek until it finally met up with the Clark river. Then the rocks got huge and the gaps widened so we had to jump. We leapt, crawled and staggered from rock to rock until we hit passed a couple of creeks and were able to identify the area where we wanted to ascend Mt. Olympus. We had trouble finding the area because our GPS coordinates didn't match up with the map and the landmarks. So we ended up rock hopping an extra half km to one km before we realized our mistake had to turn around. We made it to the second creek off of the Clark river and decided to camp near there because it was almost dark. Gordon tried to set up the tent in a really small area above the river's edge in the forest. I cooked dinner while he was setting up the tent. I mean I was trying to cook dinner. I boiled the water and then when I was pouring the water into the bag of dehydrated food, it fell over and half the food fell out. I swe

pt most of it back in the bag along with a little grit and a couple rocks. I got the grit and Gordon got the rocks. Later Gordon asked if I can go get the tent because was moving a tree stump out of the way so we could set up the tent. So I went back to his rucksack to find the tent. After digging in his stuff I looked around and realized that he'd set up the tent and left it on top of a mini cliff. So I had to climb up, traverse over the rocks, get to the tent, break it down in near darkness and then climb back down. So I grumpily broke down the tent in near darkness without my head lamp, hopped over the rocks to the new site and helped set up the tent. So we went to bed around 9:30 after walking and rock hopping most of the day. That night I actually understood the expression "too tired to sleep," it was weird because my whole body was tired, but my mind was just running around wildly.

The next morning we woke up at 6:30 am, broke down camp and stowed our packs under some rocks next to the river. We started from the Clark river and worked our way up a creek that came down one of Mt. Olympus' ridges. We climbed up from the river at an altitude of 738m to over 1200m in a distance of about 1km so the ascent was fairly strenuous and steep. Most of the time we were following the river and swinging from tree to tree to keep upright. At some points we were literally climbing up on rocks and pulling moves that would have felt better if I had been tied to a rope. I just kept on going and following the sound of Gordon's forest movements. Eventually we ascended to the top and had a breather. We were a little too relieved when we got to the top and it had only taken us about two and a half hours. Using the GPS we thought that we were really close to the LOTR site and so we drank a ton of our water and ate all of our scroggin (trail mix).

After that break we continued along the top of the peak and then we descended downwards into the void. We descended through clouds and fog for an elevation drop of about about 200m before it became completely fog covered and we couldn't see more than 20 m away. We realized that we weren't getting closer to the site fast enough and it was almost 2 pm. So we had decided to turn back because we were running out of the time we had alloted ourselves. So we ascended back to the top and realized that we'd gotten really turned around. I also realized via my GPS that we had moved even closer to the LOTR site than when we were descending on the other side of the mountain. So I yelled the Gordon "Oy, can I go check out this peak?" After he assented I rocked over and realized that I was getting there a lot quicker than before. So I called Gordon over and we were on our way once again. We found the rocks where the Fellowship hid from the crebain, Saruman's black crows. It was an awesome time. I sat where Gandalf was sitting on the long rock and stood in the place of each of the Fellowship. We had spent longer than expected on Mt. Olympus and we tried to hurry back down to Clark river.

After leaving the site we debated a bit on whether the GPS was correct and where we were because we both thought we were in different places on the map. Eventually we came to a consensus and walked along a ridge and found another creek and started to climb down it. It was incredibly steep and we had to rock climb down some of the really difficult bits. I had to literally shimmy down a tree at one point because there was a 4m flat rock with no holds. We flew down the creek in record time and were ravenous by the time we reached our bags. I also fell down a few feet onto a stick and got a huge bruise on the back of my leg. Then we ate some chow and headed back towards the Boulder Lake Hut.

We rocked hopped (which actually gets pretty tiresome after an hour) until we met up with the little creek again and then Gordon started walking up a rockslide. So we took his shortcut and spent about an hour scrambling up the loose rocks and dodging certain death. After getting to the top of the ridge we realized that we were on the wrong side of Clark Peak and would either have to go back down the rockslide, jump back up the creek, climb the cliff of doom and then walk back up the hill to the top of the saddle or we would have to traverse the scary rocky side of Clark peak. Unfortunately by that time it had grown dark while we ascended to the top of the ridge so we decided that it wouldn't be safe to go either route that evening. So we had to sleep on the ridge.

Gordon was worried about hypothermia and exposure. Since we were on a cliff we slept on the side that was protected from most of the wind, but we weren't able to sleep in the tent because if wind picked up on our side it might blow us off the mountain. So we put on all of our clothes and got in our sleeping bags. Sleeping on the side of a ridge, on rocks and dirt was one of my most uncomfortable sleeps. Every now and then I'd wake up and wonder if I was too cold, if I was going to fall off the cliff or just die. We both survived the night and then we did some recon of the Clark peak side traverse. It looked scary the night before and in the daylight it still looked a bit daunting, but by then it looked passable. So we both climbed at different heights and traversed the rocky crossing. I ended up near the top and had to climb down, but we both made it relatively safely. Then we walked over some hills to avoid the marsh and got back to the Boulder Lake hut in time for lunch. We had a leisurely meal and relaxed for about 45 minutes. Since the Boulder lake track was mostly downhill I did a bunch of short sprints and had to leave Gordon behind. He walks much better and quicker uphill and I am more designed for downhills. So at the beginning of the trip he was leading and by the end of the trip I was leading. It was a tourtous journey back because we walked longer and faster than any of the other days and we had all the wear and tear on our bodies from the previous 3 days. Instead of the trip from the hut to the car taking 7-8 hours, it took us 5 hours and 35 mins.

My body was incredibly tired and my feet were really messed up. I took off my boots and I had 3 giant blisters on each foot. Then we drove away back to civilization. That night I woke up and my feet and legs were swollen and I couldn't go to sleep because of the pain. I lanced all my blisters in the hope that it wo

uld help alleviate the pain. This was a dumb idea as they just oozed all over my sandals the following day. The next two days were full of limping and waddling around because our bodies were complaining and sore. After two days we both felt better and the swelling in our feet went down. We were too sore to do the Abel Tasman so we put it off indefinitely and went back to Christchurch. I know I whinged a lot in this entry about pain and getting lost, but it was actually a great time and at some points I felt like Lewis or Clark or both. Also whenever I got hurt or hit a rock, I'd issue an expletive like "Julie Andrews!" That might have been my first and last off route tramp. I do feel more confident in my GPS and map location abilities now and we found the lord of the rings site! At one point I couldn't think of anything else, but the Cadet Kirk line from the new Star Trek movie saying "I will not allow us to go backwards." I felt like that a lot of the trip because we were constantly turning around after going too far in one direction. It was an intense time because we spent 4 days walking an average of 10 or more hours on rough bushwhacky terrain.

Off route tramps = full of excitement, scariness, adventure and a bit of pain, but definitely worth it.