Susan's Travel Sagas

11-27-2009

I started the day with the usual NZ breakfast - juice, museli, toast, marmelade, and coffee which I ate with
Sandra. We spoke about her children, two daughters one of whom lives in Calgary, Canada, and the other about 30 km away. She shared, as ell, the story of her son, Glenn, who drowned at age 16 while catching white bait near Okarito where I was to go to shortly. Sandra used to work as a the chief housekeeper at a motel in town, but not any longer. She took up wool spinning and dying after her son died.  

While feeling sad from hearing this story, I set out for Okarito, about half an hour drive. Once there, it seemed chilly and was overcast and I wasn’t sure I would go. Richard asked me to decide since a large group was coming soon. With that, I put on my kayaking shorts over my swim suit, donned my new polypro shirt and rain jacket, and got ready. I was given the usual safety instructions as well as information about the route I was to take and a laminated map and bird guide by Sean, a college student working there for the summer. I had my backpack ready to stow, but was told I didn’t need to take it. At the last minute I thought I should remove my watch from the backpack and put it in the dry bag in case I needed to know the time.

I set out on paddling, initially a bit chilly, but eventually I got warmer and removed the jacket. After I left I could tell there were sand flies trapped under the kayak skirt because I could feel them biting my legs, but there was nothing I could do about that except suffer.  I didn’t see many birds, but did see some herons and got a great video of a tui pollinating recently bloomed flax flowers. It was calm and peaceful to be alone on the lagoon. I paddled into the side river, sort of like being in a swamp. The other group eventually caught up which was fortunate because there was one area to portage the kayaks and the guides helped me. (We were all portaged in the kayaks.) I had some help on the return as well. The other group, an American group bicycling through New Zealand went much faster than I, but eventually I made it back. All in all kayaked for about three hours. I was tired, but happy to get the free cup of coffee welcoming me at the end of the trip. I changed my clothes, spoke some with Edwina, Richard’s wife, who knew the Tiniraus and said to say hello to them. I drove down to look at the beach about two blocks  and realized I didn’t have my watch, so stopped back at the office. It wasn’t in any of the dry bags, nor in the tub of water they wash them with. I retraced my footsteps back to where I brought the kayak ashore, but no watch. I was upset, but left my cell phone number with Richard in case it turned up.

I drove back to Franz Josef, looked in some of the shops, and had my first NZ cheeseburger for lunch. Interesting that in addition to lettuce and tomato, they also put a piece of pickled beet on the bun. I then headed to the glacier with the plan being to do the walk up to the face of the glacier. As I arrived at the parking area, it started to rain. Undaunted, I pulled out the rain jacket and headed out. I had envision the hike (tramp) as being through forest or wooded areas. It was for only a short bit, but then crossed the large glacial moraine, flat and rocky. There were a number of very high waterfalls coming down the mountains on the sides. It was interesting to see the glacier. Those who went on guided trips got to climb up high and get closer, but I was completely content doing a walk that, for once, was almost completely flat. There was a poster where the trail entered the moraine that showed how much the glacier had receded over the past few hundred years.

Once back, I decided to go see the heimax movie, a 25 minute movie shot entirely from a helicopter. I had a bit to wait for the next showing so wondered through the few shops again, then sat and read. The movie was impressive, showing the high country, scenes of a man parachuting off an incredibly high cliff.

Then across the street to Beeches for dinner, had carrot and cumin soup and a Caesar salad with barbecued steak. I had no idea the salad included little pieces of ham, but it did. The soup was good, the salad was ok. Then back to the B&B. As I walked in Sandra and Hak were watching some kind of culinary show on TV.  They invited me to join them which I did - the show was the final episode of an Australian show to pick the first “master” chef - a competition among amateur chefs who worked with professional chefs and had various challenges. When I came in the two contestants were trying to identify ingredients in a boeuf borugignon, then they had to prepare a dish using a whole chicken, and finally they had to recreate a chocolate dessert made by an Australian chef from Aria. Once the show was over, I chatted with Sandra and Hak and shared tea and carrot cake with them. They told me about some of their experiences living in India   and Australia where Hak had gone for his work as a coal mining engineer and Hak shared some of his experiences related to being Maori and the impact of the Catholic church on the Maori.  It was then time to go to bed. I was concerned about the next morning’s plan for the heli-hike as it was continuing to rain. I was also upset about my lost watch. Once in the room, I checked the cell phone and Richard had left a message that Sean had actually found the watch down by the water’s edge! I was amazed - when I couldn’t find it, I figured it had flipped out of the dry bag when I removed the camera and was lost somewhere in the bottom of the lagoon. So then I was facing the dilemma of how to retrieve it the next day. If the helihike was on that would mean an early morning drive ½ hour south, the helihike and then a one hour drive back to Okarito and one hour south again + the six hour drive to Queenstown.  This did not sound like fun. Time to sleep on this!