I just got back to Craftsbury after spending about a month and a half in New Zealand. Its going to be hard to summarize it all in one blog post without it turning into an epic, but I’m going to try, and then I might give more in-depth accounts in future posts. So with no further ado:
I lived down in the valley by Lake Hawea (shown below) with Nils, his brother Ben, and Zoë Acher. It was a 5-minute walk to the lake, which was probably the prettiest lake I’ve ever seen, and it was surrounded by excellent skipping stones.
Lake Hawea
We worked teaching ski lessons at the Snowfarm, a nordic ski area (as far as I know the only one in NZ), which was located at the top of a high rolling ridge. A crazy switchbacked guardrail-less dirt road brought us up to work each day. The trails were all carved into the hillsides. When it was sunny and well-groomed, I went on some of the best skis I’ve ever been on. When it was in a cloud, ungroomed and windy I went on some of the most miserable skis ever.
At the Snowfarm
When we weren’t up at the Snowfarm working, we went on lots of adventures–mountain biking, trail running, hiking, wallaby hunting, beach running, you name it:
- Sheep on the way to Mt. Aspiring National Park for a run/hike.
A marsh we biked past near Dingle Burn (on a bike ride along lake Hawea)
Running along the beach with the southern alps in the background. Mt. Cook, the tallest mountain in New Zealand, is on the right.
The huge magical hedge that you could walk on! It was at a family friend's of the Koons' in Warrington, which is on the east coast.
Some typical scenery from the sheep farm where we hunted wallabies.
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- Wallabies were accidentally imported to a small area of New Zealand, where they are a pest to farmers, one of whom we were “helping out” by hunting on his land. Nonetheless, it was sort of sad when I actually shot one.
I had a terrible time picking out which pictures and adventures to include here, so I guess I’ll just have to write more soon!
If you want to see lots more pictures, I’m working on a Picasa album, which you can find with the following link. eventually i’ll get it organized and put in a few captions and things.
http://picasaweb.google.com/hdreissigacker/NewZealand?authkey=Gv1sRgCLuPwKueidLnEQ&feat=directlink
