Going Running

Why My Life Is Nuts: Some friends and I decided that it would be fun to run Routeburn. No big deal.

Who? Paul, Liz, Mackenzie, Tim, Mike, Kristen, and I

What? Routeburn Track

Where? Fiordland National Park/Mount Aspiring National Park

When? Saturday, April 24th 2010

How? That is a very good question

Why? No clue, it kinda just seemed like a good idea :)

Routeburn Track is 32 kilometers (about 20ish miles) long. Also, it's not a loop... you can start at this place called the Divide and end at Routeburn Shelter, or you can start at Routeburn Shelter and end at the Divide. So this was Our Basic Plan:

1. Drive up to Fiordlands National Park (near the Divide) Friday.

2. Camp someplace near the Divide

3. Wake up super early and Group 1 would be dropped off at the Divide at about 6am to start their run.

4. Group 2 would then drive 5 more hours to Routeburn Shelter, ditch the car, and start their run at approximately 11am. Cool beans.

5. Eventually Group 1 and Group 2 would cross paths, say hey, exchange hugs/high-fives, etc. YAY

6. Group 1 would finish at Routeburn Shelter (around 1pm, maybe 2pm), drive back to the Divide and pick up Group 2. Everything would be sweet as, and then we would all chill and relax and cruise home Sunday.

And This Is What Really Happened:

- On Saturday, we woke up super early and our car battery was dead... and it had started to sprinkle.

- We eventually found someone with jumper cables and ended up at the Divide around 9:30am. - Paul, Liz, Mackenzie, and I started our run and Mike, Tim, and Kristen headed out to Routeburn Shelter.

- 16 waterfalls, 12 kilometers, and 1 hour and 45 minutes later, Mackenzie got hypothermia.

- We had stopped to fill up our water and stretch at Mackenzie Hut (kinda ironic/weird coincidence) and our Mackenzie was freezing, getting dizzy, and turning blue. Oh Shoot, This Is Not Good.

- Our New Mission: First, make sure Mackenzie was okay. Second, stop Tim and Mike from running Routeburn (because the weather was meant to get worse - heavier rain, freezing conditions, probably snow - and we did not want them to get stuck at the top of the mountain because that would just be a bad situation).

- Sidenote: Evan (the warden at Mackenzie Hut) is the nicest person alive. He helped us get our Mackenzie warmed up, He gave all of us hot drinks and snacks and then he gave us some old lost-and-found clothing so that we could stay warmer and drier. SO NICE

- The New Plan: Mackenzie and I were going to run back to the Divide and get a ride to Queenstown. Paul (who goes on random 30-mile runs around the peninsula just for kicks) and Liz (our triathlete) were going to run the rest of Routeburn, find Mike and Tim along the trail, tell them what's up, get Kristen (who was just doing an out-and-back run from Routeburn Shelter), and then all of them were going to drive to Queenstown and met up with us.

- We were very successful with this new plan because, at 7:50pm Saturday night, Paul found Mackenzie (alive and well) and I sitting in front of the fireplace at Nomads (a hostel in Queenstown) and we all were reunited YESSSSSSSSSS :) :)

Other Happenings:

- We found out that there was a race being held on at Routeburn Track on the same day that we had planned to run it for fun. (Mackenzie and I got a ride to Queenstown with some of the race officials so that worked out really really well.)

- Paul and Liz finished counting waterfalls - there are 38 waterfalls on Routeburn Track :) :)

- Mackenzie and I met a woman from Huntington Beach who has run the Western States 100. She looks like she's in her seventies and she ran a 50 mile race last weekend and was just doing the Routeburn race just for kicks. Pretty Flippin INTENSE. (She was recovering from a leg injury, so with the crazy weather and not wanting to risk further injury, she decided to turn back and not run the whole thing.)

- On our way to Queenstown, we stopped in Te Anau for restrooms and snacks... And so I was walking into this cafe and the automatic sliding doors shut on me. Yep, that's right, I'm the girl who got stuck in the automatic sliding doors. Sweet Life.

As weird as this might sound, I have to say... Saturday was pretty fun. Pretty Nuts/Bizarre/Random, but really fun... like running Routeburn was REALLY REALLY FUN. Running in the rain + trail running + Great Walk + friends = super fun good times... It wasn't that hard/bad at all and we were all feeling pretty good and talking and having a good time (except obviously Mackenzie who was blue and all). Liz (who had never even walked Routeburn before and had got to run the whole thing in one day) and Paul ran about 20 miles, Mackenzie and I ran 15 miles, and Tim and Mike ran about 11 miles. Mackenzie got all better which was WONDERFUL and we had fun running back to the Divide and journeying to Queenstown together.

Yesterday was Anzac Day. We stopped in this place called Arrowtown on the way back to Dunedin and it totally reminded me of Colorado (particularly Aspen) in the fall because the trees were all brown and orange and SO YELLOW :) and it was all very very pretty. Made it back to Dunedin all in one piece, got some groceries (chips and salsa for dinner = man, sooo good), hung out with some friends, etc. Right now, it's Monday and I have a paper to write (big surprise) but life is quite good.

More Great Walking

Basically, my mid-semester break was more or less structured around one simple idea: Great Walking. More specifically, doing Routeburn Track and Abel Tasman Track. So pretty much this past week has been all roadtripping, hiking, camping, mountains, and beaches... and it went like this:

Friday was Pretty Easy:

We (Alan, Gray, Mitch, Luke, and me) left Dunedin, drove west toward Fiordland National Park and Mount Aspiring National Park, stopped in Queenstown to book our bus tickets and our hostel (for Monday when we finished Routeburn), and found a campsite by Lake Te Anau... so yeah, that was all good stuff. Next day/Saturday was when things got a little more complicated... probably because when we woke up it had started to rain...

Routeburn Track was The Great Walk of Water:

Day 1 - Okay, so.... on our first day of tramping, it was definitely raining - Like A Whole Lot. Because of all the rain, our tents, sleeping bags, and clothes got pretty wet so that was unfortunate. It honestly wasn't that bad while we were hiking and all. The worse part was when we were setting up our tents because the rain got pretty heavy and crazy. Anyway, the highlights of that day included our encounter with Earland Falls... the biggest and wettest waterfall ever... as we were walking up to it, it was like we had our own personal super stormy raincloud. Basically, this waterfall was epic. I mean, seriously, the track had its own "flood detour" route (which we took because at that point we were still hopeful that our gear wasn't too ridiculously wet). Highlight #2 was when Mitch and I ran back to the hut (to get our backpacks and to try to dry up) after setting up the tents at the Mackenzie campsite. Basically, we just running along this trail in the rain without our packs (so we were feeling SUPER FAST) and just leaping and flying over huge puddles of water/mud. The rest of the night was dedicated to hanging out in the little shelter by the campsite where we hung up our clothes to dry, made some dinner, and taught Mitch how to play Hearts.

Day 2 - As Alan cleverly pointed out, there's no way that God would let it rain on Easter. And lo and behold, there was definitely some sun shining on our Easter Sunday. Day 2 was great - we hiked up above the tree line, crossed big and little waterfalls legitimately every five minutes, found a HUGE lake on top of the mountain (it was beautiful and all sparkly like the ocean), descended back into the trees, and set up camp at Routeburn Flats right next to the river in the middle of the mountains. We laid out all our clothes and sleeping bags to dry some more and then we made some dinner and played some cards before bedtime.

Day 3 - Monday was sunny again YAY... super easy hike, crossed a lot of bridges with waterfalls, took a break by the river and had a rock skipping contest with Mitch and Luke, and then successfully finished up our Great Walking for the day. After Great Walking, we took the bus back to Queenstown, met up with Gray (Gray was pretty sick the very first day so he decided to just chill and hang out in Queenstown and Dunedin for the rest of break), took showers, GOT THE MOST DELICIOUS BURGERS EVER!!!!!! and then we just hung out and found Tim, Paul, Mackenzie, Liz, Jenny, and company because they were in Queenstown for a couple days too... seeing everyone slash just being back in civilization was quite awesome =]

Highway 6 to Abel Tasman National Park:

So Tuesday and Wednesday involved some serious car time....

- Tuesday, we left Queenstown and drove for about 7 or 8 hours... we stopped by Fox Glacier, but it honestly wasn't that exciting so we continued on until we reached the town of Greymouth and all the wonderful things it had to offer (a New World grocery store, Domino's Pizza, and a motel with a shower and beds).

- Wednesday was nice (and with only a total of four hours in the car = very nice)... we continued driving up Highway 6 which was AWESOME because I LOVE THE OCEAN (technically the Tasman Sea but I mean huge body of salt water + waves = ocean... at least to me) and Even Though I ABSOLUTELY LoveLoveLove PCH and It Will Forever Be My Favorite... New Zealand's Highway 6 was indeed VERY Beautiful.... Ocean + Me = Total Happiness.

Sidenote: The owner of our Greymouth motel told us that the Highway 6 is one of the Top 10 coastal drives in the world; however, I couldn't really find anything online to back this up... all I found out was that Highway 6 is the longest single highway in New Zealand and even though Highway 1 is technically longer, it doesn't count because it combines the Highway 1 in the North Island with the Highway 2 in the South Island so whatevers... moving on....

Before our Wednesday journey took us further inland, we stopped by the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks and Blowholes which were Really Pretty and Super Rad. Basically these rocks are columns of limestone that look like stacks of pancakes, and then during high tide and heavy swells, seawater is forced upward through the blowholes. Pretty neat stuff :) After that, we eventually made it to the town/city of Motueka where we found a backpackers lodge for sleeping and a New World for our Abel Tasman/Great Walking supplies. Pretty chill night, just made some spaghetti for dinner, played some card games, almost walked into the Motueka Police Station by accident OOPS, and found some yummy ice cream. Another sidenote: I learned how to play Spades (kinda like Hearts, but with teams) and Egyptian Rat Screw (kinda intense like Spit but really fun once you get the hang out it)... Anyways...

The Abel Tasman Coastal Track:

Overall, tramping in Abel Tasman was pretty relaxed... we basically just wandered through some coastal forests, made a few tidal crossings, found some cool seashells, played little frisbee, Great Walked across some swing bridges, went swimming in the Tasman Sea, camped by the beach, listened to the waves as we fell asleep... not too shabby, not too shabby at all :)

Day 1 - Drove up to the town of Marahau, ditched our car, and started Great Walk #3 at around 11am YESSSS. (By The Way, the Abel Tasman Track just might be one of the best ideas ever... backpacking + coastline + little islands + beaches + warm weather...)We did our first tidal crossing at Torrent Bay, set up camp for the night, made dinner (Alan and Luke caught some crabs... and we found out later that catching, cooking, and eating crabs from a marine reserve was not really allowed, Oops), and played a little frisbee and cards before bedtime.

Day 2 - Woke up and went swimming in the ocean = life is SO GOOD. We eventually got our lives together and hiked through some coastal forests for a few hours, played some frisbee and went swimming in Bark Bay, and ended up at Tonga Quarry campsite.... And that was the night we learned that Mitch was afraid of small animals... Basically, we were just hanging out/playing some card games and Mitch WOULD NOT STOP TRIPPING OUT because of the killer possums wandering around our campsite... SO FUNNY/You Had To Be There because this was definitely one of the Top 3 Best Parts of Break.

Day 3 - #1 of the Top 3 Best Parts of Break was Saturday morning - Waking up to the sound of waves and going swimming and tossing the frisbee around with Alan (I don't think Mitch and Luke were really feeling the early morning swim). After that, we Great Walked through more forests and beaches, made a couple more tidal crossings, and eventually made it to Totaranui Beach where we played frisbee until our water taxi picked us up. Basically, a water taxi is a small motor boat that picks up and drops off backpackers and dayhikers all along Abel Tasman's coastal track. So we took that back to Marahau where we had left our car. (On the boat ride back to Marahau, we randomly saw a penguin swimming in the ocean - Super Neat.)

Abel Tasman to Dunedin:

- Picked up our car from Marahau, drove back to Motueka, got some dinner and bought/stole some snacks at New World (I was in the self-checkout line and I guess I was really out of it because I definitely just scanned my snacks, put them in a bag, and left the store without paying for them... Oops, my bad). Leaving Motueka at 5pm, the four of us journeyed through the night until we made it back to Dunedin. Got back to Dunedin around 2:30ish Sunday morning, so yeah... my Sunday was just sleeping, etc = real nice and super low key :)

Overall, Great Walking has been Really Great and my mid-semester break was some serious good times with good people... Plus mountains and waterfalls and ocean and beaches... and many many amazing starry nights (the Milky Way was looking WAY COOL during Routeburn and Abel Tasman). So although I have decided that sleeping in my own bed is quite wonderful, exploring New Zealand/the South Island has been BEYOND AWESOME. (Dear Parents, thanks for sending me abroad!! Also, just in case you need more reassurance that Yes, I Have Been Feeding Myself, I'm a pretty sure that I mentioned that I ate dinner like a zillion times YAY so you can stop worrying =] 'Kay Cool, Loooove You!!)

Ps. I know this covered a whole week but still... Apologies for the Longest Blog Ever :)