Two quick weekend adventures

As the semester draws to a close here in New Zealand, I am busy trying to cram in a few more trips on the weekends. Last weekend I found myself back in Queenstown (for the third time!) with the other Emily and her Kiwi friend Alex, on our way to do some tramping in the Paradise/Mt. Aspiring/Routeburn region. Once we arrived in Glenorchy we stopped to get some information on the track conditions. This was a wise move, because the guy we talked to warned us about the rain which would make many of the fords impassable for our wee little car. So, we headed up to the Greenstone/Caples track on the far side of lake Wakatipu. Even the three small fords on this road gave the car a run for its money. but Alex was able to cruise right through them without damaging her car too much (I hope!). We tramped up to Greenstone Hut, where we had the entire hut and campgrounds to ourselves!

Overnight we had quite a bit of rain, so the clear blue river we followed coming up the track was a rushing torrent of milky brown water as we hiked back down. 

We hiked down the next morning, taking a side track to lake Rere.

As we reached the lake the rain began to clear up and by the time we got back to lake Wakatipu and the car park we had some sun and blue skies!

During the week I did a little cooking (of course). I made some vegetarian lasagna on Monday and we had our first ever flat dinner with full attendance! (Everyone loves lasagna!)

I have been following up my cooking hobby with diligent attention to the TV show Top Chef. In the spirit of competition, I challenged myself to poaching an egg (something I heard was not trivial). The results were fairly successful - see my egg Florentine - but I think I will stick to fried or scrambled!

Then, this weekend I went on an overnight trip to Quarantine Island. This small island in the Otago Harbor was used for holding sick immigrants until the 1890s. Now, work is being done on the island to regrow native flora as a case study for reintroducing native ecosystems. I tagged along with SEA (Students for Environmental Action), a club affiliated with the university for a free trip to see the island, learn about the ecological restoration being done there and help out. We got a full tour of the island, including the rebuilt dormitory where the sick people were housed. We also got to plant some native trees and shrubs and do some other work in the greenhouse and upkeep of the islands trails and forests.

The dock on Quarantine Island

Above is a picture of Ken, the man in charge of the ecological restoration project, and the rest of the group from SEA. We sat on this slope on the west side of the island and he told us how when he started you couldn't even sit on this slope because it was so steep and windy, but since then his plantings have helped break the wind and allow new growth on the hillside. Ken, also told us many hilarious stories about the history of the island and general DOC (Department of Conservation) politics and drama.  

Planting a flax plant on the south east side of the island.

In the evening we had a potluck dinner with lots of delicious food in the nice cozy guest lodge on the island. Even though the lodge had several bunk rooms and many beds, we all slept in the lounge near the fireplace (not kidding, the warmest I have been, indoors, since arriving in Dunedin). We also went for an evening stroll and I took some crazy pictures of the city lights with my camera!

I really enjoyed spending time on Quarantine Island - it reminded me of the 5 weeks I spend on an island in Lake Superior last summer doing ecology research. It was also really nice to meet a group of Kiwis who were all active in environmentalism. It was interesting and valuable to compare the different types of projects that they have worked on down here to different projects I have been exposed to in the states. 

Still Cooking...

So, I've sort of strayed away from talking about food because I find the non-cooking related blog posts far more interesting and less likely to make me hungry. But I wanted to show off a few of the things I've made over the past month. I have really been enjoying perusing some other food blogs for inspiration. 

Homemade bagels made with Courtland.

A rockin' breakfast sandwich with egg and cheese on my homemade bagel.

French Toast with mixed berry compote.

Lentil soup.

Polenta pizza - the crust is made from baked polenta and there is feta, spinach, tomato, kalamata olives and mushrooms on top. 

Spinach pockets with roasted root vegetables (potato, pumpkin and parsnips).

Another spinach pocket (I used frozen pastry dough). 

Stuffed courgettes (courgette is the kiwi word for zucchini; these were particularly good stuffed with peas, carrots, onions, rice and cheese). 

I've also made (but not photo documented) hummus a couple of times, potato leek soup, chocolate cookies, cinnamon swirl bread and granola.

Hiking in the Rock and Pillar Scenic Reserve

On Saturday, my friend Emily took us out to Middlemarch (in Central Otago, about an hour outside of Dunedin) for a hike in the Rock and Pillar Scenic Reserve. We hiked up a trail at Lug creek, about 1350 meters to a snow covered ridge. Hiking up we encountered some feisty cows, right in the middle of the trail! But they eventually let us pass. 

As we moved up the rolling hill, it was like watching the seasons change from a sunny day in autumn to winter over just a few hours climb. Below is a picture of me after we finally reached the snow line. Hooray for snow! It made me want to just strap on a pair of skis and go!

We had fun scrabbling on and around the rocks and pillars (hence the name) at the top of the hill, though we didn't hang around too long because it was so cold! 

Milford Track

Over the weekend, I took a rather spontaneous trip to Fiordland National Park to do the Milford Track, one of New Zealand's famous "great walks". At the end of April, the great walks season ends meaning that trampers and students like myself can have access to the track and the huts at a cost far less that what tourists pay during the summer season. Of course, there is a risk that at this time of year, weather can make the tracks impassable. Early last week we saw that the weather report for the weekend wasn't completely rubbish so we decided to go for it! 

We left Dunedin for Te Anau on Thursday night and spent the night at a backpacker so we could be ready for our early transport to the trail head. The first phase of our journey was a short shuttle ride to the wharf and  then and hour on Lake Te Anau to the beginning of the track. Here is the lake and our little boat:

The weather was a bit gray and overcast for our first day on the trail, but we pushed past the first hut and on through the Clinton Valley for 22km. It was neat being one of only a handful of groups on the track this weekend. What is normally one of New Zealand's most popular tourist destinations we got to have all to ourselves...

The hut we stayed at was a great time. Eventually two other groups, a couple from Slovakia and a group of five Otago students rolled to keep us company during the cold night. Here is a picture of Courtland outside the hut.  

And here is a picture of our other companions, Cecilia and Amandine. 

 Day two of our journey brought us up Mackinnon Pass - the highest point on the track with spectacular views of the valleys on either side. Heeding the advice of the DOC warden, Shane, we made for the pass early in the morning and were rewarded with about 20 minutes of clear weather and a few patches of blue sky before the clouds came down upon us and we had rain for the rest of the day!

The view down Clinton Valley from Mackinnon Pass. 

 Despite the rain, we trudged on another couple of hours to Dumpling hut, making a stop along the way to ditch out packs and do a side track to Sutherland Falls, the tallest waterfall in New Zealand. This is just the lowest of 3 levels of the falls that go up 580 meters in total.

On the last day of hiking, the track follows the Arthur river into Milford sound. We got so lucky and only had a few sprinkles of rain the entire day. We even got a nice rainbow (poorly photographed below) as we crossed one of the bridges and all the rain meant the waterfalls were full and gorgeous. 

Here is a shot of me in front of Mackay Falls (raincoat on, but beginning to dry out at this point). 

It was a little overcast again by the time we reached Milford Sound, but it was still a fantastic destination. 

Many feet have trekked this 33.5 mile journey to Sandfly point (even in late Autumn the sandflies were voracious!), and our tiered feet welcomed the short journey via raft to the Milford Sound village where our transport met us to take us on a fantastic ride through the divide and back to Te Anau. 

Zorbing Pictures (finally)

I finally got a copy of the pictures taken of the Arcadia group when we went zorbing way back in February! So, for those of you who are still unsure of what zorbing is, take a look:

Wellington!

This past weekend I flew back to the North Island for four days to venture into New Zealand's capitol and to Middle Earth. I would like to start this post with a little disclaimer - I am decidedly only going to blog about the fun, successful parts of this trip, if you would like to hear more about just how many things can go wrong in four days you'll have to ask me about it. Suffice it to say, life lessons have been learned.

The weekend started off with some exploring of the downtown area of Wellington. The four of us, Rachel, Laura, Courtland, and myself discovered Wellington to be a rather artsy city - full of busy streets with funky shops and lots of public art. The city is a lot bigger than Dunedin, which was nice for a change of pace, although it made driving more difficult... (one of those things you will just have to imagine for yourselves).

Her is a picture of us exploring some of the public art near the Te Papa museum.

The highlight of the day was the Lord of the Rings movie tour we went on in the afternoon. We got to go to movie sites in the woods near Wellington. We also reenacted some scenes for photos and went to the town where the studio filming takes place and sets are built. Here are some silly pictures of us acting like hobbits.

After the tour we went out for Japanese food and then went up to Victoria University where we stayed with a friend of Rachel's. We went back down into town to explore the nightlife of Wellington and ended up at a gelato shop (of course!) for a late night snack - YUM. 

The next day we drove up to Tongariro National park, praying that good weather would allow us to do the Alpine Crossing hike. The trail had been closed the past two days due to high winds, but fortunately they opened the trail for us on Sunday. The weather wasn't perfect, winds were still high and it was so cloudy we could barely see the mountain we were climbing up, but eventually we broke through the clouds on Mt. Ngauruhoe and saw some spectacular views of Mt Tongariro peaking through the clouds below us. 

This is a picture of the volcanic cone of Mt Ngauruho (2291m) also known as Mt Doom!

And here is the view of Mt Tongariro and the alpine lakes just briefly peaking above the clouds.

We probably descended in 1/6th the time it took us to climb up because we basically just slid down the side of the volcano.

Back into the clouds all you could see was mist.

After a long day hiking and other ordeals we found a really cute little backpacker in Wanganui where we made hot chocolate and had a really good nights sleep before flying back to Dunedin on Monday. On the plane ride home I enjoyed a nice, complimentary glass of chardonnay - Air New Zealand does it right!