queenstown wwoofing

From nz is for lovers

did some more time wwoofing outside queenstown. we stayed at dalefield farms, jon dumble's place. Back in the 70s when he was building his house, Jon figured he would put in solar panels, a wetback fireplace to heat the house and water, double glazed windows, and a host of other sustainable works. as a result, he's been putting energy into the grid for the last 20 years.

From nz is for lovers

From nz is for lovers

remember that scene from fargo?

From nz is for lovers

the farm was as picturesque as you could get: its sits in a valley between 2 ski fields (the remarkables and coronet peak- jon picked up tele skiing in his 60's), has a few sheep in open meadows, and is lined with trees with fall colors.

From nz is for lovers

From nz is for lovers

this is the ice box we slept in:

From nz is for lovers

From nz is for lovers

we picked macadaemia nuts, chestnuts, blueberries, raked leaves, pruned trees, cut down trees, and chopped tons of wood- which is good testosterone filled fun. and in the most bizarre carpentry job i've ever had, jon had me saw a 30 pound block of frozen chicken breasts into manageable, fist-sized chunks with a meat saw. i'm sure this is a crime somewhere.

From nz is for lovers

set-lers

From kiwi tramps

we had been talking about playing the board game settlers of catan for the last few weeks, enough to look for it in the mall. no luck- it was sold out. so we made our own set.

From kiwi tramps

it is the height of geekdom to create your own boardgame. its fortunate that we are comfortable with that label because we have gone far beyond geekdom and made our own expansion kit to the standard settlers game: cities and knights. oh, yes, we are dorks. one of us was even a flag twirler in the marching band in high school. i won't mention any names, but kim seems to be really proud of this fact (that she [kim] was a flag twirler).

anyway, this game is great and our homemade edition is pretty portable. we've probably logged about 20 hours playing so far, easy to do when you're sitting around a hut at night or when its pouring out and you're sleeping in a van with 4 other people.

From kiwi tramps

routeburn and caples track

finally got some more pictures up.
spent 4 days on the routeburn and caples track after going into the milford sound. the routeburn is a "great walk", meaning it is excessively beautiful but also very accessible. the government knows this and charges a premium for staying in huts on great walks. the caples track, which traverses similar terrain with only slightly lesser views, is more rugged. to put the two tracks into perspective: there were deer hunters staying at the huts on the caples while on the routeburn there were american and british families eating popcorn and drinking hot cocoa.

both were fantastic. here's the pudding:

From kiwi tramps

From kiwi tramps

From kiwi tramps

From kiwi tramps

From kiwi tramps

From kiwi tramps

From kiwi tramps

From kiwi tramps

From kiwi tramps

From kiwi tramps

From kiwi tramps

From kiwi tramps

From kiwi tramps

From kiwi tramps

for all your meat storing needs

From kiwi tramps

horse whisperer

From kiwi tramps

in a strange sequence of events that i still don't understand, lola, kim, yu and i were asked by this guy (above) to help load his horse (below) into his trailer. we were sitting at the start of a trail by the coast around noon during a weekday, and the kiwi man gets out of his truck and starts up a conversation with yus (note that yu is like a magnet for troubled weirdos). 15 minutes later, yu is prodding the horse into place and the girls and i are moving fence gates and pulling the horse into the trailer. the whole process took nearly and hour and a half, mostly b/c the man moved like molasses.

From kiwi tramps

we were never entirely positive that the old man actually owned the horse. the horse was in an untended field on what seemed to be public property. we felt more like accomplices in a theft than upright citizens helping out an elderly gentleman. eventually the horse was loaded in the trailer and we can now call ourselves corralers of horses. but for all we know, the man took the horse away to glue factory and made a few bucks off his unwitting accomplices. who knows?

milford sound

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back in april, lkm and i stole the van for a few days and ventured into the milford sound while kim an yu did a kayaking trip on the doubtful sound. the milford area is stunning... its a fjiord cut by glaciers a long time ago.

From kiwi tramps

From kiwi tramps

we did a day hike up to gertrude's saddle. it was pretty rugged. no trail for most of it, just occasional trail markers as you climbed. on the hike in, there was a rock slide coming from a small bowl sitting on top of a sheer rock face, probably 300 meters tall. laura was not impressed by this slide and ordered us to push on.

From kiwi tramps

From kiwi tramps

From kiwi tramps

got to the top of the saddle and got this view of the milford sound and its valley.

From kiwi tramps

we just got to the north island yesterday. wellington is a very fun city... in some ways a lot like san francisco. last night we ate cheap asian food, then went to a dive bar and saw a rock show. felt great to be in a city again, even if everyone talks with funny accents.