Hiking Lake Waikaremoana -- New Zealand

We spent four days/three nights hiking around Lake Waikaremoana with the NZ company Walking Legends. There were 5 of us on the hike, along with Brad (the bearded guy) who was our guide.

The hike was challenging. In New Zealand, they call them "tramps" and they rated this one as moderate, but by our standards it was pretty hard. I would call it a "scramble" with a very rough track. Lots of tree roots to negotiate and a several sections where we went up and down and up and down and .... When we first heard about it, we sort of thought about this as a "walk around a lake." But it was much more than that.

All of which is not to say that the hike wasn't well worth doing. On the contrary, the trek was through some wonderfully beautiful country, it was well-organized, and we both had a real sense of accomplishment in the doing of it. We are pleased and proud to have done the hard work on this (and we should also note that some of our companions, who were younger than us, didn't find it particularly hard at all!).

The first day was a nice slow hike in from the entry point down to the lake. Waikaremoana means (if we remember correctly) "lake of rippling waters" and on a clear day it certainly deserves the name. The breezes across the lake set up ripples and waves that reflected the sunshine delightfully. The lake itself is located in Te Urewera national park, a rugged area of large mountain ranges. Amusingly, Urewera is Maori for "Burnt Penis" and commemorates an unfortunate event involving a Maori warrior and his camp fire -- one can only imagine.

We ended the first night at a wonderful cabin in the woods, right at the lake's edge. After a robust dinner and a good hard sleep it was off for the second day -- a much harder hike of 18 kilometers (11 miles) all on the same rough track. Still, even with the ups and downs the track was essentially flat near the water and pleasant enough.

The third day's hike proved a different story. Essentially, it was 4 hours of up and nothing but up through a silver beach tree forest with wonderful ferns grown throughout. As if "up" wasn't hard enough, it was raining all day. After a 600 meter climb, we arrived at the third hut soaked to the skin and dog-tired.

But oh what a great afternoon and evening. Soon Brad had a blazing fire going in the iron stove fireplace. We climbed out of the wet clothes and into dry ones and hung the wet ones up on the line above the fire to dry. The dinner was a simple chicken, vegetable stir-fry but it tasted fantastic. The only thing missing was the promised view of the lake -- the rain clouds set in and just covered the sky.

On the next morning, we took a group photo during a brief clear moment (that's it at the top) and then headed down, down, down to the waiting bus. It was dry this time around, but as always the stress of down on the knees is almost as challenging as the stress of up is on the quads. But we made it ... and at the bottom, Rob (the owner of Walking Legends) had waiting for us grilled sausage with onions and a beer. Honestly, we both thought it was probably the best meal we'd had in a long time -- nothing tastes better than a beer to wash down a hard physical effort and success.

We really can't say enough about Brad, our guide, and the Walking Legends team. The entire trek was well organized and put together, the people were friendly, and the scenery (despite the rain) was just magical. We are glad we got to see New Zealand in this special way.

Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef

We came to Cairns (oddly enough pronounced Cans -- nobody can tell us why) for one reason -- t0 spend a day on the Great Barrier Reef. We did that yesterday and it was good fun. We took a small cruise ship out to Michaelmas Cay for the day and did some snorkeling on the reef. To prove it we even have this photo.

In some ways the Reef is alot like any other reef -- we saw plenty of coral and lots of interesting wildlife. One of the most notable things we saw was a "cleaning station" where the fish line up to have the cleaner fish remove the parasites from their gills. Along with some pretty big clams and schools of parrot and rainbow fish we were pretty impressed.

But in an odd way the Reef is hard to appreciate. Its greatest feature is its sheer size -- the reef runs more than 2000 kilometers from end to end. But you can't really see that or experience it when you swim the reef. The little piece we saw was perhaps a bit more well-populated than reefs we've seen in the Caribbean or the Indian Ocean, but it didn't scream "I'm unique." We wonder how to capture that uniqueness in size and scope in a single day.

Today, we took another side trip to Fitzroy Island, a local beach. We spent the day just lying about and swimming trying to get a short break before the long flight home. We ended the day with a superb Balinese Risttaffel -- a tasting course in Balinese food -- at a local restaurant. It was definitely worth the time and not something we're likely to experience anywhere else.

And so, the trip draws to an end. Tomorrow, we start home with a 3 hour hop to Sydney. After an overnight in Sydney on Sunday we leave for home. 14 hours to LA and then 5 hours to DC. It'll be a long day. We've had a great time, but we are looking forward to sleeping in our own bed.

Adelaide and the Yoda of Wine

We spent two days in Adelaide, which is a quiet city near some of Australia's best wine country. To start with let us commend the hotel -- the Sebel Playford. It was really a wonderful gem of a hotel to stay at. The staff were friendly and helpful, the breakfast buffet was sumptuous, it was centrally located, and they gave us a nice upgrade to a better room. Who could ask for anything more?

Adelaide itself is set out on a grid. The northernmost street is North Terrace. No points for guessing what the East, West, and South-most streets are called. Notably, however, on the outside of the 4 terraces it is all parkland -- so the city sits neatly inside a protected green space. Makes it a small, but pleasant place.

On the first day we went walking (despite the poor weather) and had some fun at a couple of the museums. We saw some good Australian art (both native and settler) at the South Australia art gallery and a fine exhibit on Aboriginal culture at the South Australia natural history museum. The day ended with a pleasant dinner in the parklands overlooking a lake, where Katy had barramundi and Paul ate kangaroo for the first time.

But the highlight of the time in Adelaide was, of course, the wine country. On the second day we went to the McLaren Vale. There are some fantastic boutique wineries there. So much so that we bought 3 bottles for suit case imports to the States from Kay Brothers, Samuel's Gorge and Perritinga.

But the highlight of the trip, sure, was our lunch at the d'Arenberg winery. Besides the fact that the food was quite good and the tasting flight of their best wines a great accompaniment, the bonus attraction was the man at the next table -- Barry d'Arenberg, third-generation wine maker. We actually had met him 8 years ago when he came to DC and hosted a wine tasting at Blackie's House of Beef, that we remember as one of the best wine tastings we've ever gone to. And there he was at the table next to us. He's retired now and his son Chester runs the business -- but he is still on site. We sort of think of him as a "Yoda" of wine making -- you can almost hear him saying "trust the grapes Luke" or something like that -- because they make really, really good wine there!

And so, we told him how much we liked his wine and asked him to take a picture with us, which he graciously did. Later, as we left, we saw him tooling around on a tractor cutting the grass -- a real "regular" guy. Since going to d'Arenberg was one of the plans for the day, meeting Barry just put a cherry on top!

Rotorua

We will double back to talk about our "tramp" around Lake Waikaremoana (which deserves a good long post) and skip over for a short post about our day in Rotorua. It was, as Katy says, "quainter than it seems." Indeed, it seemed like a small slice of yesteryear in the middle of this century.

We were able to get a better sense of the city thanks to our new friends, Paul and Jos, who picked us up at the hotel for a short tour. After a quick cup of coffee we went driving around. Down by the old bathhouse (which is now a museum) we saw people playing lawn bowling and croquet -- the croquet was actually wonderful to see with the players all wearing red jumpers and sun hats and sitting in little shaded huts while the other team played. All like a picture post card from the 1900s.

The tour continued with a trip around the lakeside (Rotorua's lake is a sulfur hot spring) where the scenery was delightful -- down to and including the lakeside Anglican church with the window looking over the lake. If you knelt in prayer, the window was precisely positioned so that the stained glass Jesus figure was walking on water. Another highlight was the local park where it was "Fairy Day" with dozens of little (and not so little) girl running around with fairy wings on.

After we left Paul and Jos (1000 thanks guys for a great visit) we went into the Polynesian Spa to sit in the sulfur hot tubs and have a much needed massage (after the long 4-day hike boy was it needed).

We finished the day with another great museum -- the new Maori wing of the Rotorua museum was a fantastic introduction to the Maori culture and well worth the time we spent. Between that one and the Te Papa in Wellington, we can definitely say that the New Zealanders have a lot of great ideas about how to make a native culture come alive -- in fact, we only wish that the American Indian museum in DC were as good!

From Rotorua, we left New Zealand behind. It was a long, three-legged hop but we are back in Australia now, in Adelaide, and looking forward to the last leg of our adventure.

Flying to Rotorua -- NSEA

Even though all pigs are created equal, some are less equal than others. So, too, with excellent adventures -- some are less excellent. And so we've created a new category for these -- the "Not-So-Excellent Adventure" or "NSEA." Today we report on our first of these, the flight to Rotorua.

We left Queenstown last Tuesday without too much trouble -- just a short delay into Wellington. That's when the "fun" started. Our flight to Rotarua was delayed on takeoff for more than an hour. When we finally left, the ride was quite bumpy, but we were content to be on the way (especially since our big hike around Lake Waikaremoana began the next morning at 8 AM).

Sadly, a prompt arrival was not in the cards. Weather in Rotorua stank. Our pilot tried TWICE to land (full flaps, gear down, etc.) but both times he couldn't see the runway and so we powered up and went around. Eventually, we were diverted to Hamilton where we landed 3 hours late at 7 PM. Of course, the airport was closed so there was no food. Dinner was two tins of tuna fish bought from a vending machine. The bus to Rotorua took about an hour to get organized and then we endured the rain-soaked 2 hour bus ride to the airport and a taxi (thank god there was a taxi there!) from the airport to our hotel.

Instead of arriving, as planned at 5 PM with a leisurely evening to pack up our bags for the hike and put the rest of our gear in storage, we got to the hotel at 10:30 PM. We hurriedly tried to repack for the hike (hoping we didn't forget anything) and had a horrid late night "dinner" from room service. We finally got to bed at 12:30 AM, with the alarm set for 6:30 AM for a wake up to begin a 4-day hike.

This truly qualifies as an NSEA -- but we just have to roll with the punches. Onward.

Milford Sound -- FAIL

Oh well. So much for the perfect vacation. We had been planning to go to Milford Sound yesterday. It is said to be a spectacular glacial fjord that you can cruise in with rocky peaks, and clear waters. [We did NOT take this picture but it should give you an idea of what we missed.]

There are two ways to get to Milford from Queenstown -- a 13 hour round trip bus ride or a 30 minute each way flight. We opted to fly but, unfortunately, the weather was not good -- too windy -- and the flight was cancelled. We might have made it on the bus, but ... we hadn't chosen that option.

There are worse things of course than being stuck in Queenstown. We went for a long walk along the lake and then went out wine tasting. Found some truly stunning wines at Peregrine Winery and actually bought some for shipment back to the States. Ask us for a taste when they arrive and you'll see what we mean. We also tried to go watch someone bungy jumping -- but unfortunately nobody was brave enough/stupid enough to do it while we were there, so all we saw was this deep, fear-inducing gorge.

And so, our trip on the South Island ends today. We fly north to Rotarua and tomorrow morning we begin a 4-day hike around Lake Waikaremoana. Should be fun, though they say it is raining up north today. In any event, we will be "off the grid" until Friday afternoon NZ time and there won't be any more blogs until then.