E noho ra Aotearoa

Fiordland

In like a lion out like a... kiwi? My time in NZ has flown by and it's already time to say my goodbyes. My last week has been a whirlwind of activity. Waiting for opportunities to arise has been quite fruitful. Just by hanging out around the cafe I've been able to tag along on three different outings this week. 

The first of these outings was a day trip to Dunedin, the second largest city in south island and home of the university of otago. I had hoped to see the albatross colonies on otago peninsula and maube see some penguins and sealions. But when I got to dunedin I quickly found out that they have been very intricately marketed and commercialized. A huge disappointment, the cheapest shuttles and/or tours out to the colonies ran about $90!  For a cheap vagrant like me that's just a bit out of range, even for albatrosses. So it was on to plan B, chocolate factory! Cadbury World in downtown Dunedin gives tours of the factory every hour. Having grown up on Cadbury eggs and Charlie and the chocolate factory this was a welcomed second choice. With Gene Wilder singing in my head I proudly donned my white hairnet and matching mustache snood and followed behind our purple overall-clad slightly oompa loompa like tour guide. It was not quite as fantastical as I had hoped but there was a chocolate waterfall, a mountain of crunchie bars and plenty of chocolate to eat along the way! After sickening myself on chocolate it made perfect sense to visit another one of Dunedin's famous landmarks, the world's steepest street. Baldwin Street is just a residential street on the northern side of Dunedin which is dauntingly steep, and yes they do get snow there.

pretty steep

My second tag-along outing was an offer to go boating on Lake Dunston with one of my coworkers at the cafe, Bridget. She and her boyfriend own a jet boat and go wake boarding there whenever they get a free weekend. The beauty of getting invited on these trips is that I've gotten a chance to see a part of the country that most tourists don't get a chance to. Lake Dunston is a sparkling gem of a lake; crisp green glass like water with dramatic rock faced mountains shooting up its banks. Having never wake boarded before my new friends were kind enough to give a quick rundown of the basic idea. So I squeezed into a wetsuit and scrunched my feet into the bindings. The preferred method is to sit in the water and bring your knees up as high as they'll go to your shoulders, I call this "frog boy" position. Then the boat goes and you let your instincts tell you how to stand up on this thing. Well, I'm no pro but that's the best advice I can give. It was a blast! The wipe outs are half the fun but for the next two days I was sore in muscles I  didn't know existed.

Water sports!

My third local-to-Lumsden adventure was a day trip to Fiordland. Dave, the Lumsden electrician was heading out to NZ's largest national park and most remote wilderness area for "a hunt and a fish" and asked if I'd like to come along. Fiordland is often referred to as the most scenic part of the country and is home to the infamous Milford and Doubtful Sounds. The Milford Track is the hottest tourist activity in the country, and with good cause. The scenery is spectacular and the 4 day hike has become sort of a cliche tourist adventure. So getting to see a part of Fiordland that most Kiwis haven't even had a chance to see was thrilling! I met Dave at the cafe at 5 am and we took off in the dark. At dawn we were just entering the gates of the park. We drove along a  rugged access road in the white Nissan sedan, which he treated like a ute (pickup truck in Kiwi). Along the way he would stop and use an electronic stag call to try to summon up some deer, with poor results. I don't hunt, and don't have much interest in it but I was eager to catch some fish. At the end of the road was Lake Manapouri where we would drop our lines in hope of some hungry trout. But the highlight of the day was bush whacking our way out to a spot along the river that he and his family have been coming to for 30 years. It's everything you want a secret fishing spot to be, tranquil doesn't do it justice. With high hopes we fished until dusk, but unfortunately never reeled anything in. It's alright though, I left Fiordland with a full sense of gain, and the fish didn't seem to matter.
So it was back to Lumsden for my last couple of days in New Zealand. It's been a wonderful couple of months full of unbelievable scenery, beautiful birds and wildlife, the freshest air, cleanest water and  caring and funny people. I'll miss New Zealand for sure, but I'm definitely amped up for the next chapter...

Lake Manapouri

Leave your stepping stones behind something calls for you
Forget the dead you've left they will not follow you
The vagabond who's rapping at your door
Is standing in the clothes that you once wore 
Strike another match go start anew
And its all over now, Baby Blue.


-Bob Dylan