apteryx wa: November 2006

grape escape

here are some pictures from a winery tour we took in hawkes bay last week. we partook in tastings at five different wineries (there are 70 or so throughout the region) and also indulged in some local cheeses and fresh cherries along the way.

as you can see it was a beautiful day. we had a great time and we're looking forward to visiting marlborough, the other major vineyard region in new zealand.

koromiko

we are enjoying ourselves in wellington. the city is very vibrant and it seems that most everyone is keen on being social. the city also appears to appreciate the arts, so right now it is on the top of our contender list for possible places of residence.

we are now wwoofing at koromiko homestay with three great hosts; chris, kris and andy. the picture above is the view of wellington from one of their decks; the same view can be seen from a couple of the floor-to-ceiling windows in the house and from the outdoor bathtubs. we hope to enjoy the latter at some point - our hosts have actually assigned us the wwoofer task of taking a soak before we leave. our host's house was designed and built in the 1970's by wellington famous architect roger walker (check out the link above for pictures of the 'architectural curiosity'). here is a shot of the very comfortable 'summer house' we are staying in, which was recently constructed by our hosts in the same architectural composition (della's been pumping iron in the afternoons lately).

our wwoofer tasks so far have been pulling weeds and digging out a basement (i.e. converting a crawlspace into a basement), so our muscles are growing.

we leave for the south island in two days. in order to get there we need to take a three and a half hour ferry across the cook strait. hopefully the weather is decent.

and christmas is upon us

thanksgiving is opposite day

after early morning phone calls to our families (we miss you!), we headed off to a rather strenuous day of work. while it sort of reminded me of childhood thanksgivings spent chopping wood, tyson noted that it was the first time he'd ever worked on thanksgiving. it was also the first thanksgiving we'd spent without relatives or turkey or pumpkin pies or parades on tv. and just by happenstance, our homestay hosts had plans for the evening, so the day came down to just the two of us, alone in a (beautiful) house overlooking the city of wellington, eating a thai green curry (we made it ourselves!).

so-called scenic

last week while we were staying in taupo i went out for a day hike to tongariro crossing, locally billed as the best one-day hike in New Zealand. i left at 5 in the morning in order to finish the 7-8 hour hike by early afternoon and hopefully avoid any storms late in the day. the weather was fine as i left taupo but i drove into light showers as i neared the trailhead an hour later. nevertheless, i set off up the trail with a brisk pace. an hour later the drizzle turned into a real rain and i started seeing my first patches of snow, which i misunderstood to be remnants of last winter (it's late spring now). so i kept going, hoping to outlast the rain. as i got higher the rain turned to sleet and then to snow and i realized the snow that now covered the ground was actually new. but the snow wasn't that deep so i kept going higher. then the wind started blowing as the terrain became more exposed. and the snow kept getting deeper.

i stopped to ponder my reasons for going forward. on the one hand, i was supposedly in for some incredible scenery once i got to the summit 600 meters above me. on the other hand, i couldn't see more than 30 meters in front of me. also, for being the most popular day hike in the region i hadn't seen another person all morning, and it was saturday. so, i turned around.

maybe i'll try it again sometime; and get some better shots of the scenery.

world rally championship new zealand

so we are in hamilton now where the new zealand rally took place over the weekend. the great thing about rally racing is that the "racetrack" is generally broken up into a series of stages that are actually made up of country roads throughout the region. for new zealand's rally there were 17 different stages. so in order to watch the stages you drive out into the country, get lost a couple of times before finding a line of cars in the same predicament as you, follow them around for a while until you stumble across one of the spectator points (by the way, at this point you're late and everyone is a racing fan so you're all driving pretty damn fast) and then tramp around in some farmer's fields looking for the track. Once you find the track you can walk along it or across it until you find a good viewing area - of course you have to make sure you get out of the way when you hear one of the cars coming down the gravel road at 160 k/hr. Once you find a good viewing area it is quite amazing to watch the cars fly along the small gravel road and slide around the turns.

our hostel was overcapacitated with mostly rally fans from around the world and it was fun to sit around at night and hear everyone's stories from the rally that day or from the previous night. a guy from ireland told us that as he was driving to one of the spectator viewing areas for stage eight, he took a look in his rear-view mirror and noticed that marcus gronholm was driving his racecar right behind him. marcus gronholm was the eventual winner of the new zealand rally (and a former two-time chapion who should finish second overall in the world championship this year) - it turns out the rally drivers don't always use trailers to get to the various stages. another couple of guys from finland told us about stumbling into a bar downtown and ending up buying drinks with some of the drivers and co-drivers/navigators.

my story is less glorious. as i was driving back into town after stage nine i found myself about 20 cars behind a tour bus that was having difficulty navigating the winding and hilly road. instead of pulling off and letting some of us pass the driver opted to just mosy on down the road while the line of cars piled up behind him. well after about 30 frustrating minutes we finally made it to a passing lane. a quick glance in my rearview mirror showed me that almost all of the 40 or so cars that had piled up behind me had a lot more horsepower than old T.O. but as i had just spent the day watching a number of people navigate much unsafer roads at three times the speed i was in no mood to stay trapped behind the tour bus. i was going for it.

so as soon as the passing lane opened up i gunned it up towards the summit of the winding overpass. i passed two or three cars through the first turn so I was feeling confident as i went into the second. and then i saw the sheen of water at the apex of the turn. i got off the gas but it was too late. at first i fought the slide but once i entered the oncoming lane i let it go - and ended up doing a 180 with a little help from the side of the mountain i crashed into.

luckily, when we came to a stop i felt OK and T.O. wasn't as banged up as i thought he would be. it's been a couple of days and i still feel fine; T.O. is currently at the body shop getting street-legal.

all's well that ends well i guess.

changing our tunes

we hit a real low point when we bought the bulworth soundtrack.

not only was it the soundtrack to the movie bulworth, but it was also a promotional tape, which apparently means a tape of samples--about the first 45 to 60 seconds of each song. so just when you found yourself nodding along to that one black eyed peas song, well, the song faded out. done. on to the next 60 second clip.

we'd pretty much given up on tapes altogether when we found a music store in hastings that happens to specialize in cassettes. yay.

there we found and purchased these car-trip classics:

radiohead the bends
bob dylan the freewheelin' bob dylan
neil young harvest
michael jackson thriller
u2 the joshua tree
leonard cohen highlights
smashing pumpkins pisces iscariot
pearl jam ten

road tested, road approved.

art deco capital of the world?

on our way to our next farm-stay in hastings, we're stopping for a tour of napier, which claims to be the art deco capital of the world (tulsa and miami also claim the same title). at any rate, napier is impressive. it reminds me of universal studios, florida. we feel like we are on the set of an old detective movie (in which we are trying to find the true art deco capital of the world and unmask the imposter cities). here are the facts of the case thus far: in 1931, napier suffered a terrible earthquake (7.9), and in the two following years, the city was rebuilt, almost entirely in the art deco style. these days, an art deco celebration is held every summer, in which locals dress in 1930's attire and participate in 1930's activities. watch out tulsa and miami.

rotorua

as previously mentioned, we are now in rotorua. it smells like rotten eggs due to all sulfur venting out of the ground.

here is a picture of some boiling mud (these mud puddles can be found all over the city, which is actually quite disconcerting), a geyser that erupts about 20 times a day and frequently reaches heights of 25-30 meters, and a natural thermal pool that is used by the maori (the indigenous culture) to cook food on a daily basis.

indoor rock climbing

our hostel in rotorua has a rock climbing wall. actually, let me back up a minute, we are now in the most popular tourist destination in the country, rotorua. the place is so popular because it sits directly on a volcanic range and there are boiling mud puddles, geysers, thermal spas, champagne lakes, crystal-clear natural springs and an unsettling number of active volcanoes. but we'll tell you more about that later and post some pictures.

right now, the important thing is that della and i went rock climbing without any hands-on assistance. we obvoiusly had to go through a short discussion about the belay device but after that we were left alone to choose our routes and belay each other (which della had never done, and i had only done twice). it was really fun and a good workout. we hope to do it again soon.

bone jewels

here we are learning the old art of bone carving. nowadays the bone designs are made with beef shins (instead of the traditional whale) using these newfangled electronic drills. the maoris often wore and still wear this fish-hook design, made of bone or jade (also called greenstone). the hook is associated with the legend of maui and the magic fish hook, the north island's creation story.

cathedral cove

i went on a short hike in coromandel the other day. the trail was only about 5 kilometers long on a well worn track through a forest right on the edge of the south pacific. there were short detours off the main track down to various cliffs or beaches but the highlight was the cathedral cove.

in the past the cove consisted of two seperate beaches (each about 100 meters long) seperated by a giant rock face that juts out into the ocean. to get from one beach to the other you would have to either hike or swim around the large rock. but it just so happens that the rock is very slowly breaking apart and there is now a large tunnel that connects the two beaches. the tunnel, or the so-called cathedral, is about 30 meters long and maybe 10 meters tall at it's highest point. above is a picture from about halfway through the cathedral; below is just a picture of cool looking rock just off the beach.

hot water beach

here the sand burns our feet.
when we dig, we build a tub,
a spa till high tide.

night time is the best time.

international posts

if anyone is interested in mailing something to us, we've arranged for the post office in christchurch to hold any mail in our name until december 14th. you'll need to address the mail as follows:

Della Watson OR Tyson Miklebost
c/o Christchurch Post Office
Counter Mail
3 Cathedral Square
Christchurch, New Zealand

we are told a letter will probably take 2-3 weeks to get there from the states, but you can go to www.nzpost.co.nz for more information.

apteryx wa