Routeburn, Day 1

This is Lydia and myself at the start of the trail. We were standing in a steady drizzle, that lasted for a good two more hours, but the hoods soon came off (as did some extra layers) - it turns out that hiking with a 12kg pack on warms you up!!

This is the first of many scenic moments that were labeled, at the time, "the highlight of the trip" ...

Above is Lydia with Tim, a South African man who was traveling between jobs in Sydney, Australia.

Our other two hiking companions, Jamie and Peter. Jamie is an American girl who just graduated from college and decided that traveling would be a better use of her time than a job hunt. Peter is Danish, the youngest of our group - he just left the Danish army and cheerfully describes himself as "homeless and unemployed".

The valley outside of the Routeburn Flats Hut, a Department of Conservation hut that we did NOT stay in. However, we decided to stop for lunch at a strategically placed picnic table and enjoy the lovely view.

Same valley, different (much HIGHER) perspective. This is about when I decided that I should have spent a bit of time at the gym before this hike ... turns out that you have to go UP a lot when hiking through mountains!

About an hour after we arrived at our DOC hut for the night, it started snowing. This is the view from the terrace.

Hiking the Routeburn and cruising Milford Sound

The highlight of our Easter vacation was undoubtedly our three-day trek through the Mount Aspiring & Fiordland national parks. New Zealand has nine "great walks" (one of which is actually a river journey), and ideally I'll conquer them all before I'm done here. While that may be a needlessly lofty goal, at least I've managed to mark one off the list.

Lydia and I picked up a few stray travellers on our bus ride to the trailhead, and the five of us made a pretty good team. Jamie, a recent college grad from NYU, had never really done any hiking before and was the least prepared, in terms of gear, for what was ahead of us. I would NEVER have tried to hike the trail in sneakers! Tim, a South African working in Sydney, and Peter, a Danish man who recently finished his mandatory stint in the army, were both vacationing around as well. We made a good team over the 33km hike (the shortest of the great walks, although definitely not the easiest), with Peter blazing trail when necessary, and Tim patiently waiting for me or Jamie when we'd fall behind. We all took so many pictures that we consistently missed the Department of Conservation time estimates by hours, but it was a great trip! (Although I was VERY grateful to get back to Queenstown Friday night for a shower!!)

It's hard to describe the experience, so instead I'll give you pictures - lots and lots of pictures. Unfortunately, I seem to be having some technical difficulties posting them right now, so until I get it worked out, here's a link for you impatient types: click HERE.

There are over three hundred photos there (which are only the ones that I took over a three day period) ... more than enough to keep you all busy for a day or two until I get a chance to post the best pictures right here.

Mini Rotary Roadtrip

As part of the Ambassadorial Scholar funding, I'm required to give several presentations, both in my host country and once I return to the US. Because these presentations are often accompanied by free dinner, Lydia and I decided that we should schedule a couple along the way during our Easter vacation on the south island. We visited Rotary clubs in Dunedin and Queenstown. In Dunedin, we kept our remarks relatively brief - the club was giving out its annual Pride in Workmanship awards - but in Queenstown we were allocated a full 20 minutes. Both presentations went quite well, and managed to lend a sense of accomplishment to our vacation - "well, we're not working, but at least we got SOMETHING done!"

Remuera Rotary VIP Camp

For over 20 years now, the Remuera Rotary club has been holding an annual weekend camp for several visually impaired students from a school outside of Auckland. The camp is held at YMCA Camp Adair, which is equipped with ropes courses, a climbing wall, even kayaks. While the students are accompanied by helpers from their school, Kings College students (a private prep school) attend every year to lend a hand and keep the kids company. This year, as the Remuera ambassadorial scholar, I attended as well.

While I wasn't sure what I was getting into, having never really done the summer camp thing as a kid, it turned out to be a great weekend. These kids were fearless, and they had a great time participating in all the activities. I was peer-pressured to ride the zip line (they call it a 'flying fox' here) and climb the rock wall, and Saturday night there was a social night/talent show - the highlight, for ME, was the singing Rotarians!

The VIP camp was another great example of Rotarians giving back. Not necessarily in the largest fashion, but often it's the small things that really make a difference in someone's life. I definitely think that Remuera Rotary makes a difference in these kids' lives, and I was glad to have a chance to be a part of that.

Race around Rangitoto

One of the many benefits of my Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship is that the Rotarians in my host club, the Remuera Club, often extend invites for me to join them on some adventure or other. This weekend past, I was invited by Iain Valentine to join him in a sailing race around Rangitoto Island. Iain is a trustee for a charitable trust responsible for maintaining five historic boats in the possession of the Maritime Museum. One part of this "maintenance" is sailing them regularly, to keep them in good condition. So Saturday, I joined Iain and four other crew members on Frances, a 38 foot former fishing vessel built in 1905.

Unfortunately, I started the day off on the wrong foot, and slipped and fell on the dock before we even made it to the boat. It wouldn't have been such a big deal, except the dock is textured to approximate large-grain sandpaper for better traction, and as I was wearing shorts, my knee was definitely scraped up. (I should have a pretty amazing scab about a week from now.) But after bandaging that up, we got Frances ready to sail and motored out to the starting line. Finally, at the sixth pip on a certain radio station telling the time, we were OFF!!

Except not, as the lovely weather for the day didn't really include wind, which as it turns out, is highly important for this particular sport. It was a long, slow race, and finally, about 3/4 of the way through, we gave up. At that rate, we wouldn't have made it home before 9, and none of us were prepared to stay out quite that long! Quite a few other boats had to drop out as well, and we weren't the first to call it quits, so we were all pretty comfortable with the decision. Besides, it was Cake Day - every boat had a cake to get judged and eaten at the finish line - so, since we didn't cross the finish line, we didn't have to share our cake!

Despite the lack of wind, it was a great day out on the water. I learned a bit more about what needs to be done to make a boat sail, and hopefully my next time out, I'll have a better chance to put my skills to good use!

Weekend on Waiheke

Last Friday, on the invitation of a friend, a group of us headed out to Waiheke. Waiheke is an island about 30 minutes away by ferry, and I had heard from many people that it's absolutely BEAUTIFUL. My friend's parents have a home there, and his mother was having an art show, so we were invited to attend the show, spend the night on the family's boat, and then enjoy some of Waiheke the following day.

Unfortunately, I don't have a ton of pictures - I was kind of busy having fun. However, rest assured that it was a GREAT weekend in a beautiful setting, with some wonderful people. And by the time I made it home, I was exhausted!

Inbound Scholars Conference - Wellington

So last weekend, as one of my scholarship requirements, I flew to Wellington to participate in an Inbound Scholar Orientation. This was the in-country counterpart to the orientation I attended in Kansas City last year, and was a great chance for us New Zealand scholars to get to know each other a bit better, and to discuss some of the hurdles people have dealt with while settling in.

Wellington seems to be a great city, and I'm looking forward to returning with some free time. However, Rotary did make sure to give us some taste of the area - we toured the Parliament building, had a couple of great meals out, and our Sunday afternoon was left free. Many of us decided to spend our extra hours at Te Papa, an amazing museum with great Maori history, including a BEAUTIFUL modern marae, and tons of other great exhibits. In fact, when we were there, they had a traveling Monet exhibit that some people were quite excited to see. (The exhibit was on loan from the Boston Museum of Modern Art, so I'd actually seen it a couple of times already.)

All in all, it was another great weekend organized by Rotary, with great information and a few new friends. Although it might be good to have it a bit closer to the beginning of our stay ... at this stage, topics like "Finding Accommodation" seem a bit pointless. Oh, well ... there were a few Kiwi scholars headed outbound, and I'm sure they found it all quite useful!