Takaka

Our drive to Takaka was mostly uneventful. I also slept most of the 5-6 hours there. At one point it looked liked a tennis ball flew from the back of the car that John was driving. That was exciting. When we stopped for ice cream and a leg stretching break, Gordon was too tired to continue driving. So I got to drive up up the windy hill on the way to Takaka. I had to downshift to second gear at some points just to get enough oomph to keep the car moving forward. It was crazy! As soon as we got to Hangdog which is the climbers campground in Takaka, we set up camp and then went for a climb at Paynes Ford. Then we went back to camp to cook a really late dinner in the dark. The next day we got up at 7ish and went climbing and then we jumped into one of the nearby watering holes. They all have cool rope swings, bouldering and a slack line, all over water. The river water is chilly, but feels really good when the sun is out. We had an earlier dinner so we wouldn't have to cook in the dark. We always end up cooking massive amounts of food and consuming most of it. It's quite a group: Me, Gord, John, Alex and Shani.

I learned an interesting fact, the grippy handle thing that you use to grip cooking bowls and pans over a camping burner is called a spondonical/spondonicle. Ever since I learned the word, I've been using it almost nonstop.

It's a small world after all. I ran into someone from Franklin, NC which is right next to Asheville! Her name is Sarah. I love running into people from NC. Then an even weirder thing happened. I walked passed  a few people picking blackberries after our second day of climbing. I looked at one of the girls and gave her a weird confused grimace, but then just kept walking on. It was one of those moments where I thought I recognized someone, but couldn't place them and thought they just had a familiar looking face. After about 20 feet she ended up yelling "Hey." So we turned around and went back. The natural "you look familiar" and "I think I know you" conversation ensued. It turns out that she went to UNCA, was a year behind me, but in the math program. What an insane meeting. It turns out she's been traveling for awhile and was in OZ a few weeks ago, traveling around there. Her car got stolen with all her climbing gear so we decided to lend her our rope and a few quick draws while we had our rest day. It was a funny coincidence.

Last night we threw really big rocks off the nearby bridge, a game that I call "Make Big Splashes." Then we went on a night hike to find some cool caves we heard about. We couldn't find the caves, but we did find some really cool bouldering on a steep hill and glow worms.

We have a job interview 3 hours away in about 5 days. Which is good, but bad. 6 hours is a lot of driving for an interview, but I've done it before.

I got hurt. Big surprise right? I was shutting the metal lock on the bathroom door and I managed to gouge a big chunk of flesh out of my thumb and skin my pointer finger.

Yesterday we climbed at Sea Grass Walla, Black Vegetable and Bo Peep Slab. I climbed Franklin's Tower which was the tallest climb I've ever done, about 26m (we're not exactly sure). It overlooked the ocean and was a grade 16. It was fun and at the top someone made a bell from an old fire extinguisher that you're supposed to ring once you get to the top.

My new gear is really awesome, but my feet hurt, my hands hurt and my body is sore.

Next time I get online, I'll upload an entry about Fiji/North Island travels. I just haven't had the time. This next week or two will probably be mostly uneventful because we're climbing, swimming and camping, but not doing much else. No time to proofread this as I'm about out of net time!

The beginning again

At the moment, I don't have time to update the blog and talk about my North Island road trip, coast to coast sunrise to sunset adventure and Fiji. I'm leaving tomorrow to begin my trip of the South Island. It starts with a 2 week climbing trip to Takaka and followed by a 5 day kayaking trip in the Abel Tasman. Then we work our way down the West side of the Island stopping at various climbing spots, interesting cities and sights. There will be a 3 days tramp on Stewart Island which is located South of the South Island. We will have to take a ferry to get there. Then we'll work our way North up the East side of the South Island. I'm going to update this as often as possible, but I might not be able to post photos. It will depend on the amount of internet access I can get for free or cheap. I'll try to write a blog about my travels from Jan 9 - Jan 24 because they were fun and noteworthy! I wasn't able to write them when I got back in Christchurch because the house had once again used the alloted amount of internet. I'm not sad about it because it allowed me to procrastinate from blogging for awhile, but I stayed up until 12 am this evening because the internet reset today. I'm quite tired so please forgive the typos and grammatical errors that are sure to be present in this post.

Cautionary tale 12: Always wear sunscreen in Fiji.

Hot Fuzz

Jan 7: We were just driving around town at about 11:30 pm. I like to drive late because there are fewer people on the road. I'm relearning manual driving and I'm also trying to overcome the last 7ish years of driving on the other side of the road. Apparently we were in a dodgy part of town. I was out practicing my manual driving on Mr. Collins and I got pulled over by a cop. It was a startling experience because I was fairly sure I hadn't done anything wrong. She asked for my license, wrote down my car information, took down my NZ address and phone number. The lady cop asked how long I had been in the country and if I'd been drinking. Then I got a breathalyzer where I counted to five while she held a reader in front of my mouth. Since I hadn't been drinking, I wasn't worried about the test. I was concerned on why I had been pulled over in the first place. I didn't think my driving was erratic, but I am driving a manual car so my shifting is still a bit jerky. After the breathalyzer she just walked away. So I can only assume I didn't do anything wrong and it was a random breathalyzer or it was a breathalyzer brought about by bad manual driving.

Driving:
Here they drive on the left side of the road. Sometimes after I make a turn, I'll start to straighten up in the right lane. Usually I correct myself and it just looks like I've taken a wide turn, but sometimes I completely forget until Gordon says "you're driving in the wrong lane."

The driver's side is also switched in these cars. If you're the driver then you would get in on the right side of the car. This makes driving even harder. When I'm driving here, I veer a bit to the left because I subconsciously want to line up my left with the left edge of the road. Unfortunately, this would put the passenger side of my car on the sidewalk or in the bike lane. When driving in the US the yellow dividing lines were always helpful in making sure my car was centered in my lane. It's difficult to break the habit of trying to line up my car using the leftmost lines. I need to start using the dividing lines on my right.

Give way. This is a weird NZ driving rule. You have to give way at certain places, but there are signs. When there are signs, it's not a problem and it is similar to our yield signs. However, there's a give way driving rule that says if I'm driving down the road and turning right and you're driving up the same road and turning left and we're both turning into the same place, you have to give way to me. It's odd. In the US if that happened, I would have to stop and give way. In NZ if two people are turning into the same area coming from different directions whoever would get hit in the driver's side if there were to be a collision, must give way.

Our car does not have power steering. This is something I have never encountered in a car before. It's not too bad once you're used to it, but wow is it surprisingly hard to turn a car without the aid power steering for the first time.

Traffic circles with more than one lane. Yes, that's as complicated as it sounds.

The Future

Jan 6: I haven't been doing much since the Cave Stream. Mostly hanging out around the house, reading, going for walks and practicing driving the 1986 manual car that we bought. I named it Mr. Collins because the man who used to own the car before us was named Colin. I did see Sherlock Holmes. I thought it was entertaining and well cast. I'm going to see Avatar tomorrow, so I'll write a mini review of that later. I don't know if I ever wrote about it, but I saw Zombieland and I thought it was fantastic. It was violent, but really funny.

On Jan 9 I'm flying up to Auckland and meeting up with Erin and Sam for a one day sunrise to sunset, coast to coast, road trip. Then my mom, her friend Leigh and I are going on a road trip of the North Island. After that I'm heading to Fiji with my mom! I'm looking forward to surfing/scuba diving/windsurfing in Fiji. I'll be back on Jan 24. On the 25th I'm going to the Christchurch International Buskers Festival. Then on the 26th my road trip of the South Island begins. I'm leaving for 2 weeks of climbing in Takaka and then a 5 day kayaking trip in the Abel Tasman. I highly recommend looking up pictures of the Abel Tasman. It looks gorgeous. I think life on the wild side is about to begin. I'll update the blog whenever I have internet. Feel free to send me an email for an update if the blog isn't as timely as it should be.

Cave Stream and Narnia

Dec 27: We went back to Castle Hill because my friend Erin had never been there. On the way we passed through Springfield. Yes, they used to have a giant Simpson's Donut, but someone thought it was ugly and burned it down. So Erin and I took pictures with the giant tire that the town put up in its place. The plaque below the tire said that it was the baby donut and would remain unnamed until the Mom donut came back. We climbed around and I banged my knee so hard that it pooled blood underneath the bandage. Then we drove to Narnia. Well we drove to the place where they filmed the big battle in the huge field against the White Witch. We couldn't see the area because it's on private land but we could barely make out the edge of the valley. I took some pictures in front of the valley where I was pretending to hold a sword.

Then I donned a wetsuit, my vibram five finger shoes, a headlamp and my camera in a dry sack. Erin and Gordon just put on old shoes, old clothes and headlamps. We wandered down to the entrance of the Cave Stream. This is the under a mountain walk where you enter one side and walk all the way through a 362m cave. The water was a little chilly, but I would have been fine even if I hadn't been wearing a wetsuit.

When we first entered the cave it was a little intimidating because the stream drops down a waterfall. You have to crawl along the edge with a chain to hang onto and then you get to a ledge. There are metal bolted rungs that you have to climb down and then slide into the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. It's pretty dark at this point, but you still have a little light from the entrance. Then you can follow the stream to the other end of the cave. The water level varies from ankle to knee high. There are pools in some some areas that are about waist deep. You can also climb into different caves that shoot off in all directions like left, right, up and down. Every now once in awhile I'd lose everyone and mildly freak out by myself. Once their light is gone and your headlamp is the only thing you see, it's a little eerie and makes you feel completely alone even if they happen to be just 5 feet around the bend. It's pretty loud and sounds like rushing water and you have to almost yell to hear each other because the rushing water just echoes on the cave walls.


At one point there was a tiny little opening that Gordon said Leyla, our other housemate, had climbed through and gotten out at another point along the stream. So of course I decided it would be brilliant if I tried it. This was a very tiny hole, just small enough to fit my shoulders through. Erin decided it was too small for her to get through. I really should have thought a little more about the situation before I literally dove head first down the cave. Leyla is super small and skinny and very flexible. She does yoga and has been climbing for 6 years. I contemplated all of this while I was worming my way through a cave that seemed to be growing smaller and smaller as I moved forward. After climbing into the hole, I made Erin wait at the entrance while I crawled forward in case I had to back my way out. This would have been nearly impossible because at one point I had to crawl down a 1 foot drop. I can't imagine trying to crawl back up it backwards. At the end I saw Gordon's light and was slightly relieved until I realized that I couldn't move. There was a really tight spot that pinned both my arms to the sides of my body. I had to hold my camera/dry bag in my teeth like a pirate as I shimmied forward. There was also a build up of mud and sand which freaked me out because it made the end of the tunnel very very tight. Then the crux of the crawl came after I had wiggled my arms free. The very end required you to crawl forward and follow the tunnel in a complete 180 around a thin rock wall. So at one point my feet and arms were pointed in the same direction with my torso bent in a U shape around a rock barrier. I yelled to Gordon and Erin a lot while I was crawling through this tunnel because my biggest fear was getting stuck and having them not know I was stuck. Eventually I made it through, completely covered in mud and slightly shaken. I decided not to go solo caving anymore after that. We all climbed up a bunch of different tunnels and explored as many as we could reach. 

We made it to the end and had to wade through water up to our chest. It was really shocking and cold so I yelped. Outside was a rock valley and a continuation of the stream into a river. The wind had picked up and kept us made us cold so we turned around and went back through the Cave Stream. On the way out instead of climbing up the metal rungs we decided to climb up the waterfall. It was scary, but it was a more challenging and more interesting feat. The Cave Stream was a lot of fun and a unique experience. Every now and then we'd all stop and turn off our headlamps   in the hopes of seeing glow worms. We didn't have any luck, but it made me feel like an intrepid explorer. I didn't see anyone else in the caves nor did I see any evidence of humans other than the metal rungs and chain at the entrance of the cave.

It was cool to have a new sensory experience. My hearing was overwhelmed by the sound of rushing water and my sight was limited by the strength, direction of my headlamp and my feet were slightly numb from cold. Even with a headlamp it's difficult to see the rocks under the swiftly moving water so every step was little adventure. After we exited the cave, we ate a bunch of food. We had apples, cookies, crumble bars and Gordon had salami. It was a good way to recharge because the physical activity and dealing with the cold had taken a lot out of our bodies. My whole body was pretty sore the next morning. I give the Cave Stream two thumbs up.