New Zealand Mountaintop > 8-5 Desk Job

We are finally the 1%...of people in New Zealand that will be residing on the Northwest coast. We (three gals from America enjoying working holiday in New Zealand) are working on a cycling trail so remote that we had to be helicoptered in.
I am currently sitting by a fire in a cabin made entirely of pine--the deck, dining room table, bunk beds, and shelves. Because of this, everything not in pine sticks out. The 2012 bottle of Silverstone merlot, a yellow dust pan, and a green map on the wall of the very trail we are on, The Old Ghost Road in the South Island of New Zealand. The cabin made of pine sits 1200 meters high and when I gaze out (no “looking” here, it’s all “gazing” or “soaking up”), the mountains are below my eye level. We drove to Lyell Campground in the middle of nowhere, to then take a shiny red helicopter to the even-more-middle-of-nowhere. Wayne, the charming pilot, flew with the greatest of ease, sometimes using only one finger. We soared over mountain ranges and the Buller Gorge and said “wow” and “oooh, my” into our microphones attached to our shiny red ear muffs.
Wayne took us through a gap in the ridge of a mountain and it felt like we were on a rollercoaster. Everyone gasped, and even though Wayne has taken this trip countless times, I think he gasped, too. Mountain after mountain, pointed ridges, rock faces, blue skies, and tui birds. Oh, my.
The Old Ghost Road is connecting an old mining road that was never completed back in the 1870s. Marion and a few of his mates got together and submitted a proposal to the Department of Conservation (DOC) to complete an 80km tramping and cycling trail. Many told them it was a waste of time and it wouldn’t be accepted. Instead, they received 2 million dollars in funding and the DOC claims this walk will be one of the Great Walks of the World. When DOC is mentioned, I picture a man that looks like Gandalf, called Doc, sitting at an old oversized oak desk with a feather pen, wearing tiny glasses that sit on the edge of his nose, making decisions about the trail.
During the “induction” Marion said, “Well, the website said we’d have hot showers, but…that hasn’t happened yet, so I’m using a bucket with a sponge and some hot water from the stovetop. It’s truly glorious. And, another misconception is that it said there’d be a hut mother who would cook. There is not one.”
“Sounds like lots of misconceptions…” Kasey said playfully.
“But there’s more Speight’s ale!” Marion retorted.
“Fair enough.”