Ball Pass: A view of the Hooker and Tasman Valleys

The Monday after a weekend of tramping is rough -  my legs feel like cement and it hurts to lift my arms.

It's so worth it, though!  If only for the simple fact that I can watch a sunset and sunrise from here:

On Saturday, four fellow Tramping Club members and myself set out to reach Ball Pass from the Whitehorse Hill car park.  The weather was nothing less than perfect.

This was a difficult trip because of the length of walking time (around 8 hours each day), slippery scree slopes and icy conditions.  Basic mountaineering skills were a must for sections like this:

A view of Hooker Lake:

A peek (pun intended) at Mt. Sefton:

We set up camp right on the pass.  Holy moly, the view was spectacular!  The sun went down and the stars came out.  The Milky Way was easy to spot and some folks in our group saw shooting stars.  

The wind picked up during the night, but I slept wearing a knit hat, wool socks, my feet wrapped in a thermal shirt, two pairs of leggings, three shirts, a down vest, a cotton sleeping bag liner and a down sleeping bag, needless to say - I wasn't cold.  

...Good morning!

We trudged across the wee glacier in the picture below and got another look at Mt. Cook.  

From this point we continued along a ridge and bumped into a few trampers from the Canterbury Tramping Club.  In true kiwi fashion, we accepted their car keys and promised to drive their vehicle from where it was parked at the end of the track we were following to the carpark where our car was parked, which happened to be where they would finish.  Then, off we went...down to the Tasman Valley and along the Tasman glacier back to the shelter that we slept in on Friday night.  

The only minor hiccup in the trip was the possum that joined us in the shelter on the first night.  Penzy suggested that I shine a flashlight at it to scare it out, but I was not interested in knowing for sure what our company looked like (also, I pictured the furry beast running around our packs, knocking things over, and Phillip yelling like a little girl).  After we heard the nails of little feet run across the floor there was dead silence until the pest let out a huge sigh.  It sounded pretty annoyed and I was convinced it'd bite my nose off during the night.  So, I hid under my blanket until the morning without incident.

The major hiccup in the trip was a "sudden" lack of gasoline to fuel the car.  As we drove along Lake Pukaki the station wagon's fuel light went off.  The thought at the moment was that we'd have 80-100k worth of petrol left. Wrong.  Luckily, an Irish couple was kind enough to let us siphon some gas out of their van.

This definitely was my most favorite trip so far.  No tramping plans for the near future, though, just lots of thesis work!

Only in New Zealand - I got lost and ended up on a farm.

Yesterday, all I wanted to do was go for a little walk.  The sun was out, the sky was blue, and frankly I didn't want to sit in my office hopelessly procrastinating on thesis-related work by checking Facebook status updates all day.

I decided that I should walk to Swampy Summit since I'd be running it as part of the Three Peaks race course in a few weeks.  I asked two friends if they were keen to join me, but they couldn't waver from their plans for the day to take me up on my last minute offer.  Hours later, I found myself in thick as hell gorse and thanking the high heavens that I hadn't successfully recruited some poor soul(s) to join me in my off track shenanigans.

My walk started out innocently enough.  I headed to the Pineapple Track and enjoyed exchanging greetings with people that I passed (especially those folks with dogs because I really miss having a dog around).  After an hour or so I turned towards Swampy Summit and was on my own to enjoy the peace and solitude.

Here's a very lame picture from the walk...there really wasn't much to see!

Now, I assure you that the rest of my walk didn't turn out according to plan not because my map was upside down (as friends have questioned).  See, I walked right past Swampy Summit because, apparently, it wasn't as spectacular as I had hoped it'd be... it must've blended into the scenery or something. I swear.  Or, maybe I was so caught up in singing "Walk Like a Panther" at the top of my lungs that I didn't notice the summit?  (Hey, no judging! I was 100% certain no one could hear me and the song is quite catchy.)

Anywho, long story short, I found myself getting rather annoyed that I had detoured to some dirt road underneath power lines.  Normally, this isn't an issue, but over the past several weeks the lecturer for my Biostatistics and Epidemiology class brought up power lines and cancer more than a few times while explaining recall bias - cancer patients may remember living next to power lines for three weeks back in 1987 while control cases can't remember the last time they meandered around anything with a high capacity for carrying electrical current.  Needless to say, I kept thinking that 20 years from now I will definitely remember this day walking under the power lines if I end up with some sort of medical anomaly.

My annoyance grew and I just wanted to be done with the walk.  I didn't want to turn around and backtrack over 2 1/2 hours worth of nondescript grassy trails, so I continued following the road and the power lines.  At the very least the dirt road would turn into a paved road that would lead me back into town, right?

Wrong.

Wouldn't you know... the dirt road ended abruptly and it seemed like I was going to have to turn around. *grumble*  In a last ditch effort to avoid making the walk any longer than it needed to be, I referred to my map and made a huge assumption that I knew exactly where I was.  I looked around and found something that looked like a path and made another huge assumption that it would lead me to the big blob on the map labeled "mud".  Once I got through that I'd just have to skirt around another blob of land labeled "private" before easily spotting the road to take back into town.

Being no stranger to a little adventure, I didn't think too much at first about the spikey gorse that enveloped the beginning of the path down the hill.  But, I took a few steps down the path and one small slip on wet leaves made me rethink my plan for a hot second.  After all, the hill was steep enough that another fall could send me tumbling through gorse for a solid 25 feet or so.

Suddenly, being in the office checking Facebook status updates didn't seem so bad compared to potentially becoming a human pincushion.

It was pure stubbornness that prevented me from turning around.  I'd managed my way through way worse situations, so this should be nothing!  I made my way down the hill by thoughtfully placing each and every step.  Surely, at this moment my friends would have been reconsidering their decision to come along if they had joined me on this walk!

Eventually, I reached a fence.  On one side was a huge field with a lone sheep sitting quietly under a tree and on the other side was more gorse infested woodsy stuff.  Here, I had two options: stick close to the fence and follow it around the perimeter of the field (while avoiding getting snagged by gorse) until I could get to a better spot to look down the hill and find a road to follow to town or hop the fence and do the same, but without the hinderance of creeping over/under/around gorse.

I really wanted to go with Option 2.  In front of me was a wooden step to enable me to get over the fence and I reasoned that there'd be another one somewhere.  Surely, the step wouldn't be there if they didn't want me in the field.

The problem here was that a) I was pretty sure it was an electric fence and b) the sheep that was sitting quietly in the shade started to go a little crazy.

While I was scanning the length of the fence to determine if I could stick close enough to it so that I wouldn't get caught up in gorse and stay far enough away to avoid electrocution the sheep stood up, walked around as if it was trying to figure out what I was doing and then started running around in a tight circle - a bit like when a dog chases it's tail.  Now, I'm not a sheep expert, but this behavior seemed a bit weird.

I took my chances and went up and over the fence.  Then the thought crept into my head - what will I do if the sheep charges at me?  Man, I should have checked if the fence was electric or not.  But, how was I supposed to test it?  If I spit on it would it sizzle?  Was I supposed to throw a stick at it and listen for a little zap!?  How does someone test an electric fence?!  I carried on nonetheless.

Not far down the field I found another section of fenced off field with a lot more sheep.  This made me think the sheep that was still running in circles was isolated in the sheepy version of an inpatient psychiatric unit "quiet room". Yipes!

I made my way over the next fence thinking I could probably get out of this field undetected and no one could blame me for setting off the "special" sheep.  But, gosh darn it, I kept starting mini stampedes as I passed small clusters of sheep.  I was certain that the farmer was somewhere on this property wondering what the hell was causing a couple hundred sheep to suddenly shift to the other side of the hill.

Finally, I crested the top of another hill and saw a road! Yaaaaaaaaaahoooooooo!  Only about three more fences to hop and I'd be home free... except all these fences surrounded a small house with kids yelling from inside.  It sounded a little chaotic in there - did I really want these kids to spot me and alert an adult that I was blatantly causing a commotion on their property?

You know... I recalled a time when my high school band teacher told us to make our mistakes loud because that's how we learn and get better.  I decided that I'd make myself really obvious.  I'd get someone's attention so that they could help me get off the property without climbing over more fences (they probably wouldn't be thrilled to catch a stranger trespassing and I was pretty sure I looked rather silly trying to avoid touching the wires just in case it was an electric fence) and then I'd vow to never again cut through a sketchy gorse infested path and never enter fields with crazy sheep.

So, that's when I started casually waving at the house, kind of like when you acknowledge a friend on the other side of the street.  I wanted to make a good first impression by coming off as a friendly lost person, not a panicky lost person.  A man on a motorbike came from one corner of the field and rode towards the house as I was waving.  He stopped, got off his bike, and looked at me.

I continued waving.

He rode up to me, said "G'day," and listened as I apologized for being on his property and explained that I took a bit of a wrong turn and ended up with the sheep because I was looking for a road back to town.  He wasn't pissed, but he wasn't impressed.

He told me to make my way through the two paddocks and over the last fence.  Then he confirmed my hunch that all the fences were electric.  I thanked him and scurried up and over the first two fences.  The last fence for some reason was higher than the rest, but there were two horizontal wooden posts that joined together in a corner and it looked like I could place my hands in the perfection position on them to push up high enough to place my knees on top of one of them.  Then all I'd have to do is push off my knees and get to the other side.

The man watched from up the hill as I tried very carefully not to get electrocuted in my fine china.  This was so embarrassing.

I managed to get over the fence.  Before hustling down the driveway, I turned around to give him two thumbs up.  I hope that he recognized that I was sticking up my thumbs...

My trip was just over 11 miles and took about 4 hours to complete.  Since I started at 10am there would be time to go home, take a shower and head to the office to do some work.  I couldn't fight back a smirk - I pictured bumping into my supervisor once I got back to the office and thinking you have no idea what happened to me today.

Hopeless Ridge Part IV - a.k.a. the trip to Lake Monowai 2013

We began Day 3 with a descent to the lake where we were met with dense tangles of trees and vines.  Nothing about our trip was easy!  Hours later we reached Monowai Hut - such a sight for sore eyes!  We  cooked up a hot lunch and lounged for a little while before embarking on another 3 1/2+ hour walk to the Clark A Frame.

My walking slowed to a snails pace on our way to the A Frame.  Walking up hill was bad, but walking downhill was even more painful for the quads.  Nonetheless, I carried on.  What choice did I have?

The forest eventually gave way to a wide open field surrounded by, you guessed it, more mountains!!  It's amazing how the scenery can take away a bad mood in seconds.

After a night on the mountain, we were overjoyed to be in a hut, but the funny thing is this one in particular was quite cramped for four adults, had signs of mice-like inhabitants, and had mighty big spiderwebs with creepy crawly things lurking in them up in the corners of the ceiling.

No matter.  Chris surprised us with CHAMPAGNE!  I was walking slow enough that Chris had time to scoot ahead and scout out a place in the nearby stream to chill sparkling wine for us. It was SO refreshing to feel those little bubbles with each sip!  We had another special treat after dinner - steamed chocolate puddings. YUM!  Daniel broke off pieces of his chocolate bar with hazelnut chunks and sprinkled those on top, too.  Deeeelicious! 

It seems silly how little things can be such a big deal out there in the backcountry, but I guess that's why I love tramping so much... everything, from cold water to a cool breeze to a tasty treat, means so much more when you're far away from the comforts of home.

That night, I assumed, again, that sleep would come easily.  But, again, it did not. 

We tried killing all the sandflies that had snuck into the hut, but the crack in the door was wide enough for more to enter.  We tried retreating into our sleeping bags to escape getting bitten, but our bodies in such tight quarters generated so much body heat that it was too hot to sleep!  

My sleeping bag has a special zipper at the feet so that I could unzip it and allow some colder air in, but this put me at risk of something biting me.  So, I'd stick the toes of one foot out for a few seconds, assuming that sandflies wouldn't notice, and then I'd quickly pull my toes back in.  Then, when I assumed the sandflies lost hope of biting my feet, I'd stick out the toes of the other food for a few seconds.  Eventually, I realized the ridiculousness of this - there was no way I could play peek-a-boo with my feet and the sandflies all night.  So, I caved and just laid out there in the open - I didn't care if the sandflies feasted on me - I just wanted to sleep THAT bad.

Our last day had it's own challenges, but I think you get the idea that this was a tough, tough trip.  We reached Green Lake Hut on our route back to the car - what a fantastic location for a hut!  Mt. Cuthbert looked amazing from across the lake.  

As you can see from the sign in the picture above, we still had 5 1/2 hours to go before we hit the road that the car was parked on.  We ate lunch, I threw my bathing suit on and went for a quick dip in the lake (it was hella cold!!!) and then we set off for the last leg of the trip.  

You'd think that after four days of walking I would have gotten used to walking with a pack, but it never got easier.  That last day was hot and I wasn't sure how I was going to manage another 6 miles after already walking 6 miles before lunch.  I mustered up all the energy I could and got moving.  

But, you know what?  Just when things couldn't possibly get worse a sandfly would come along, as I walked uphill, and would look at me and say, "Oh! Hello there!  You look like you're a bit cranky and I see that you're walking a bit funny - you must be sore!  I'm also guessing that you're probably thirsty or hungry or, heck, both!  Well, why don't I make your day a little more craptastic!" and then, gosh darn it, the damn thing would fly right up my nose or straight into my eye.

ARRRRG! WHY?!!!

Somehow, all of us made it back to the car without a mental breakdown (confession, I may or may not have whimpered once or twice because I just wanted it to be over).  Honestly, this was the type of trip where tempers could fly, but our crew kept it all together.  We put one foot in front of the other until we finished.

Once again, we were back to smiling once we reached the car.

This is our "And what?" pose after four days of tramping.  We're so badass.  

The great thing about this experience is that we saw parts of New Zealand that so few people get to see - most people don't think to hike off track where we had been (for good reason, I suppose, but those views were pretty darn awesome!).  There's something special about that.  So, no hard feelings.  We all knew going into the trip that no one in the group had been in this area before and we were in it together.  It makes me smile that the four of us pushed on and accomplished what we set out to do.  

With that said, I'm determined to make my next vacation destination as sandfly free as possible.  Maybe Antarctica?!!

Hopeless Ridge Part III - a.k.a. the trip to Lake Monowai 2013

Our 6 mile hike into Rodger Inlet Hut was just a warm up for the rest of the trip.  Ah, yes... our second day of walking was quite eventful!  We left the comforts of Rodger Inlet Hut to head up to the bushline (roughly 4 hours of walking).

There were sandflies everywhere!

Lake Monowai - with some snowy mountains in the distance

It was obvious to us that no one had been on the route to the bushline in quite some time.  The giveaway was downed trees along the route that were supposed to mark the track, but looked like they had been down for a while, and the track markers hadn't been replaced on different trees.  At one point, the trail disappeared abruptly and we spent a considerable amount of time fanning out trying to find the next tree on the trail with the orange marker.  Our maps told us that, basically, we just had to head up the mountain and that we did; eventually, finding the trail again.

The crew checking the maps.  Lake Monowai in the background.

The trees gave way to a breathtaking view.  At this point, it got much easier to navigate.  It didn't get any easier to climb, however!

Photo credit Chris Niebuhr

But, my God, the effort was worth it!  The views at the top were spectacular!  

I don't care that it's cold, snowy, and windy, or that the climbs can be long and grueling... I love being in the mountains!  

Photo credit Daniel Bilson

Photo credit Daniel Bilson

Eventually, we needed to walk down to the lake and end up at Monowai Hut on the far right side (can't be seen in this photo above).  The original plan involved walking along this mountain in the picture below (sort of like a tramper's highway) and then cutting down to the hut.  We were expecting this to be (very) roughly a 20+k day (over 12 miles).  

But, the plan changed and we went a different way.  Cutting diagonally became the new plan.  This proved to be more challenging than originally expected.  The mountain range is clearly very steep.  What we couldn't foresee was the number of fallen trees we had to climb over or under or go around... or the number of times we'd get stuck in the given space between two trees or a fallen tree and the ground because we'd forget we're a wider load with packs on... or the number of streams we'd have to cross (balancing across logs requires greater concentration when one's legs have turned to jelly after so much walking).

We tried following streams down to the lake twice to speed up the process of getting to the lake.  The second time was a vain attempt to get to the hut before the sun went down.  

I made a few poor decisions that made the day more challenging: choosing not to wear a raincoat or waterproof pants, deliberately walking through the stream, and not pulling the rain guard over my pack.  So, I was starting to get cold from my drenched boots and the water that my shirt and pants had absorbed from rain knocked off of trees that I grabbed to catch my falls.  Plus, I was starting to struggle with the added weight to my pack from absorbed water from shaken trees.  On top of that,  I had used a lot of upper body strength to pull myself up some of the steep sections of terrain that we crossed earlier in the day.

My body ached all over in no time.

We held out hope that we'd make it to the hut (which meant we'd have a dry place to warm up, make dinner and go to sleep).  But, we were losing daylight and so the decision was made to find a place to pitch the tents.

But... we were stuck.

The stream turned into a waterfall that we couldn't go down and we had jumped from a higher point to get to where we stood.  Going back the way we came from seemed impossible because the banks surrounding us were wet and too steep to climb up and the plants growing along the banks couldn't hold our weight plus the weight of the packs.

And then I started shivering... just a little at first... I was only a wee bit chilly... but, eventually it got to the point where I was visibly shaking and my thoughts were slowing down.  Hello, hypothermia.  

D'oh!

Chris managed to push Daniel back up to the point that we had jumped down from and then we handed our packs up to Daniel.  Next, poor Chris had to push and poor Daniel had to pull each of us gals up.  Then, we got Chris up.  The boys left to go find a spot to pitch the tents.  Johanna helped me pull the wet clothes off and put dry clothes on.  What a relief!  Almost instantly I was getting warmer!

The boys found a spot to put the tents and so we trudged up to the campsite.  Chris carried my pack for me because I was exhausted.  

After the tents got set up, I crawled into my sleeping bag to speed up reheating my body.  Chris headed back to the river to get more water while Daniel used what we had to make hot drinks.  Yay!  

I recovered and assumed sleep would come easy.  I was wrong.  The tents were pitched on a slight slope.  So, we'd push against the tent bottom with our feet to stretch the legs for a bit and then slid to the bottom of the tent to rest uncomfortably in the fetal position.

My knees ached so bad from being bent!  My toenails throbbed from being in boots all day!  All I wanted to do was SLEEP!  

The next morning we woke up and tried to wrap our minds around how epic our trip had been - and it wasn't over yet! We still had two days of walking ahead of us!

After some coffee, we packed up camp.  The group had a renewed drive to reach Monowai Hut and we were hellbent on getting there before lunchtime.  So, once again we were on our merry way.

Hopeless Ridge Part II - a.k.a. the trip to Lake Monowai 2013

Whoa, nelly. I've finally started returning to normal - that tramping mission was killer!

Well, there isn't an official "Hopeless Ridge" sitting high above Lake Monowai, but there's good reason that Daniel, Chris, Johanna and I gave it such a name (in fact, we called this particular section of Fiordland a lot of things like, "Helpless Ridge," "Glimmer of Hope Ridge," and various other names that capture our feelings of defeat, hope, and In your face Mother Nature! You didn't get the best of us this time!)

So, I bet you're wondering what all this drama is about?

Basically, we dealt with minor nuisances from the start.  On January 1st, we drove for about four hours (with a hiking pack between my legs in the front passengers side of the car and a pack between Jo and Chris in the back) from Dunedin to the Lake Monowai carpark to camp at the head of the trail for the night.  We put up tents in a light rainfall, got our first taste of sandflies (literally - Daniel swallowed one accidentally!), and experienced the most stinky longdrops in New Zealand (thankfully, my friends from Broome County Office for Aging had given me a fantastic going away present - a turtleneck to wear while running.  I wore it on this trip and it was perfect for covering my nose to block the stench in the toilet!).

The sandflies at the campsite were out for blood, so we took refuge in the car until bedtime.  Much to our dismay there were about 30 little buggers flying around.  We got straight to work squashing them.  The trick was to attack them one by one with our pointer finger because pounding them against the window with a fist was less efficient and just caused our hands to hurt.

Once the pests were dead, we played Hangman on the condensation of the car window.  Everyone took a turn picking a tramping themed word.  You wouldn't believe how hard it was for two Americans and one kiwi to guess the Canadian chick's word "toque"!

Here's a clip of us guessing Chris' word:

After an exhilarating round of Hangman, we turned to asking each other the trivia question on the bottom of the the bottle caps off of our Tui beer bottles.  Oddly enough, two bottle caps had "ABBA" as the answer to completely different trivia questions.

And this concludes the first night.

The next day we set out bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to make our way to Rodger Inlet to spend a night in the Rodger Inlet Hut.  Little did we know that the 6 mile (over 6 hours) hike in would be cheesy easy compared to the days that would follow!

Hopeless Ridge Part I - a.k.a. the trip to Lake Monowai 2013

Welp, the trip to Lake Monowai kicked my ass.  I'm still mentally and physically exhausted after two days of rest.  Our group of four battled wind, rain, snow, sandflies, blisters, scratches, scrapes, bumps, bruises, falls into rivers, slips in muck and even a night sleeping on the side of a mountain.  I had my own personal issues like hamstring tendonitis at the outset, hypothermia and a little issue with dehydration.

Anything I write beyond that description will only sound exaggerated (as if it doesn't already!).  So, until I can figure out how to sum up the experience, I'll leave you with a picture - this one is definitely worth a thousand words.

Enjoy Your Flight

Yesterday, I flew to Wellington for a conference.  I swear the young child in front of me was the victim of an exorcism gone horribly wrong (or, maybe horribly right, depending on how you take it):

Here's hoping the flight back to Dunedin is a little more peaceful!

Milk, maps, and my brush with death (just kidding about the death part).

Most research students can relate to the stress that accompanies recruiting participants for our studies.  So, in the interest of good karma, I've tried to sign up for studies when I can.

A while ago, I participated in a study that examined how our mind relates to an artificial limb.  The goal with the research is to help people with prosthetic limbs.

For the experiment, I sat down with both of my forearms inside a black box and watched a video of the fingers of a prosthetic arm being stroked with a paint brush.  At the same time, the researcher was showing me a video of him stroking my fingers with a paint brush.  He was trying to see if my mind would accept the fake arm as my own.  I could tell which arm was mine, so I thought the experiment was boring. BUT, the student explained that in the original experiment (where he got the idea from) the participants saw a video of a hand getting stabbed with a knife and even though they knew the fake hand was being stabbed, not their own, they still jerked their hand back.  That was kind of cool.  So was getting a huge bar of chocolate for participating.

Last week, I participated in a milk tasting study.  The researcher strongly emphasized that we should NOT swallow any of the milk.  He also emphasized that an ethics committee did approve the study, so anything we tasted wouldn't cause harm.

Alrighty...

I sat in a cubicle and was presented with a pair of milk samples.  I took a swig of one, swished it around, and then spit it out.  Then I did the same thing with the other sample.  I repeated this for 12 pairs of samples.  My job was to identify the milk that I liked better and explain why.  I'm not a huge fan of milk, so I may or may not have sniffed some samples, decided they smelled HORRIBLE and poured out a wee bit of milk into the spit cup so it looked like I tasted it.

Yes, I am a cheater.  But, in the end I still got a $20 gift card to a local grocery store chain.

The most recent study that I participated in was really fun.  A guy from the tramping club was comparing our ability to locate ourselves on a map of Woodside Glen track, one that none of us had been on before.  The weather was craptastic and so our easy/moderate hike turned into a hardcore sliding down the mountain mudfest.  We had to scramble up the side of a mountain, sometimes on our hands and knees, for nearly 3 hours.  I fell into a stream at one point and ended up getting lost with a group of students (all with their own map mind you).  And you know what?  When we realized we had completely lost the track the first reaction wasn't hmm, maybe we should turn around and go find the track.  Nope. Someone suggested we photo-document being lost.

Like I said, the weather was craptastic.  The fog made it really hard to stay on the right track, especially when we walked through this tussocks. 

So, the leader of our little stroll decided to can having us find the last few points where we needed to locate ourselves on the map.  This was fine by me!  I was tired, cold and hungry.  He promised us lunch, so quitting meant we'd get to eat sooner.  We all looked like dogs on ice on our way to find a place to sit for lunch.  It wasn't a matter of if someone would fall on their rump.  It was more a guess of how many times we all would fall.

Oh, the things we do in the name of research!

A Birthday Abroad

My birthday was this week.  Besides my 10th birthday that I spent with the Girl Scouts in Arlington Cemetery I've spent each birthday with family and friends.  Recent birthdays have been celebrated with a nice dinner out and a slice of cake topped with a scoop of ice cream.  What would this year bring?

I made a reservation for one at Luna Bar & Restaurant in Roslyn.  For one you ask? Yes.

Months ago, I ran past Luna and admired the view of the harbor.  I suggested Luna as a pit stop on a girls night out, but others felt it was too far out of the way. Fair enough.  Since I was making plans for my birthday, though, I was going to do what I want even if it meant hiking up a long, steep hill in a nice dress and heels in the cold and wind all by myself.

I had to work at MInT on my birthday, so I hurried to finish things up and make it to Luna for my 6pm reservation.  Before I left, I double-checked directions to get to the restaurant.  Google maps told me it'd take 40 minutes to walk there.  It was already 5:40pm. Oops.  I decided I could make it on time if I hustled - the time estimates are for slow walkers anyway.

I definitely didn't make it on time.  I zigged when I should have zagged (not my fault, the roads aren't marked very well and so I missed a turn) and I underestimated how long and steep Stuart Street is.  I actually stopped partway up the hill to assess the situation: why on earth is this place so far away and why did I think it'd be a good idea to walk there and do I really want a glass of wine and piece of cake this bad?!  Needless to say, I looked rather disheveled when I arrived (I think I looked as if someone had been chasing me) and the kind bartender asked what I wanted to drink even before I found a place to park myself.

So, this was my idea of a sophisticated birthday, huh?

I ordered a glass of Mt. Difficulty Roaring Meg Pinot Noir and the chocolate pudding with a brownie and vanilla ice cream. Then I immediately spread out a bunch of research articles and started highlighting important looking parts to make it look like I was a pro at eating by myself in nice places.

I'm sure I could have asked other people to join me, but the walk to the restaurant was long and treacherous; I don't think people would be too pleased with me.  On top of that, it was a little pricey.  I spent $25.50 on my glass of vino and dessert.

Contrary to popular belief, I think I did enjoy this time by myself.  I wanted to treat myself to something nice for all that I've gone through recently.  The great views of Dunedin and the chocolatey goodness filled that need just fine.  Plus, I tucked this experience away with the other things that I've been nervous to do by myself, but did it anyway to prove to myself that I can.

I didn't stay too long.  I had a date with my friends at Abbey and New Girl.  Here's a picture from outside the restaurant: a vague idea of how beautiful the city is at night time:

My birthday adventure didn't stop there, but I know my mom reads my blog and so I don't want to worry her with my tale of...

...walking home by myself in the dark; cutting through paths that required me to keep hitting buttons on my cell phone so that I could see where I was walking; saying aloud how thankful I was that it was too cold for homeless people to come out and attack me in these unlit woody areas; bushbashing up a bank and falling in the process...

Only I could end up in situations like these.

And guess what? It was snowing!  Not enough to stick to the ground, but how many people who have a June birthday can say they saw snow on their birthday?!

Back at Abbey my wonderful friends had bubbly drinks to share.  It was a delight when the room full of people from all corners of the world started singing Happy Birthday to me.  I acted embarrassed, but I secretly loved every minute of it!

Next year is the big 3-0.  *gasp!* I do NOT plan on spending any second of my birthday by myself.  I want to go on an adventure, but not the kind that requires jumping off a bridge attached to a rubber band or hurtling through the air after jumping out of a plane.  If you have any ideas, please send them my way!

How not to find the Pineapple Track (on the first try), but still have fun anyway

Once upon a time, someone told me I'm just like my dad.  He had this, "I'm going to X place at Y time with or without you" 'tude.  Unfortunately, I also inherited the Dennis Boucher curse... something that should take 30 seconds ends up taking 3 hours.  In my case, I decided to go on a quick walk to the Pineapple Track when my other weekend plans fell through.  That quick walk ended up requiring a 2 hour detour 6 miles away...

Each day that has passed since I arrived in Dunedin back in February, I've looked out my window to see a pretty mountain that gets prettier depending on how the clouds, sunset, snow, etc. alter its appearance.  Often, I say to myself, "I want to go there and check it out."  Today just happened to be THE perfect day to do just that.

I've been to the Ross Creek Reservoir a few times and no less than four people have told me, "Just take the road past the reservoir to the start of the Pineapple Track."  It sounds so simple, doesn't it?

I decided that I'd start walking towards the track around 10am and then take my time on the mountain until I was ready to come back.  I packed enough stuff to be prepared for anything: map, rain coat, rain pants, flashlight (a.k.a. "torch"), two sandwiches, two bags of nuts, mueslix bar and an orange.  Off I went.

Hard to believe that today is the Mid Winter Carnival when it was this green on the way to the reservoir...

Now, here's the point where things got a little hairy.  I walked past the reservoir and followed "the" road.  But, I didn't find the start of the track.  I did find a mountain biking path that would take me to the start of the track, but no walkers were allowed. Hmm... I noticed the light gray dashes on my map, indicating trails that would take me to the Pineapple Track, so I started walking down Wakari Rd to look for signage for one of these little trails.... and I kept walking... and walking... and walking...

New Zealand needs a little help in the signage department.

I realized that I had walked past the three trails that would get me to the track. *grumble* It seemed easier to just walk to the car park at the start of the Flagstaff summit walk. So I did. This meant a drastic change in scenery...

 I walked through this residential section for so long that it reminded me of the orphans who walked all the way to Daddy Warbuck's house in search of Annie.  (They walk forever, realize they found the correct street, and get terribly sad because they have to walk many, many more blocks to the correct house.  Sorry, couldn't find the related YouTube video.) Eventually, this sign gave me hope that my adventure on one of Dunedin's great Skyline Walks would soon begin.

There was still more walking to be done before I reached the track, so I chowed down on my cottage cheese/beet root sandwich (I know, How delicious! you're saying to yourself) and enjoyed the sunshine.

A nice couple was walking their beautiful fluffy white dog when I reached the start of the track.  They told me to avoid the mucky trail and take the one with better views instead.  I think they did a good job pointing me in the right direction!

Only problem (and it was minor) was the wind.  I tried to pick a video with the least amount of wind whooshing in the background to share.

The trail was VERY easy to follow.  I'd recommend it as the perfect trail to walk if someone wants to get out and has to go by him/herself.  There were few enough people that it was peaceful, but enough people that if I fell and broke a leg I wasn't worried about being stranded.

This is where I had to hang right to head back to the city.  Someday I'll see where the trail on the left goes.

Total trip time was about 4 1/2 hours.  Total distance walked was about 12 miles.  Absolutely worth it!

Down by the (Curio) Bay

Yesterday, I went on a little day trip to Curio Bay with Geoff, Bryce, Emmet and Kate.  It was great to get out of Dunedin for a little while to explore New Zealand some more.  We rented a car and I was the designated driver.  Things went pretty well with Kate as my co-pilot.

We stopped for a second to stretch our legs, take a break from playing 20 Questions, and take a picture of this rainbow:

Our first stop was the Jurassic fossil forest.  At low tide we saw the stone remains of tree stumps and logs.

After all that fresh air, we needed a tea/coffee break.  The place we stopped at just happened to be near Niagraa Falls!

Turns out, it was nothing more than a bump in the water.  It was given the name by a surveyor with a sense of humor.

Next up, a pit stop at Nugget Point.  I really enjoyed the short walk to the lighthouse.

Today, we took another trip, but headed to the peninsula this time.  Our final destination was the Royal Albatross Centre.  It wasn't windy enough for them to be out and about.

I had one minor goof-up with my driving today.  We made a wrong turn, so I pulled over to turn around and my brain didn't process the change in direction very well - I ended up on the right hand side of the road and a car was headed straight for us.  No big deal to move over, though!  The second driving "uh oh" moment occurred when we took the wrong road to the albatross colony.  The roads here are half the size of roads in the U.S. and on one side of the road was a cliff and on the other was the side of a hill - not much room to maneuver! We had to use team work to get the car turned around - my 3-point turn turned into a 12-point turn because I was SO nervous that I'd drive us over the cliff, even with Geoff out of the car directing me!  Despite a few hiccups today, I'm feeling much more confident with my driving. Yay!

Do I see a New Zealand driver license in my future? Stay tuned!