My head is still in the clouds

May 10, 2011May 10, 2011 / one2travelfar / 2 Comments

I can’t believe we’ve been home a month already. We’ve been busy organizing and getting reacquainted with family, friends and our lovely home in the mountains.

I made my first batch of cream cheese from a batch of yogurt that I heated too high and killed all that good bacteria. It was delicious on home made toast with jam. ‘ve got bread, bagels and, almost, english muffins perfected, I still need to get those nooks and crannies like Thomas’ does. Now that I’m discussing food, I imported ten boxes of Tim Tams and gave them away to a select few (and ate a couple of boxes myself with a little help from Tim). I was shopping in Brooklyn, NY and right at the checkout counter my son discovered Pepperidge Farms Tim Tams. Apparently they are an affiliate of Arnott, the original Tim Tam baker and sell them in the United States from October to April. So we can all enjoy the Tim Tam slam next winter and fill the void when the Girl Scout thin mints are all gone.

We’ve got a new visitor too. This pheasant seems to enjoy our house, walks up to the window and pecks and cleans up after the birds at the feeders

House hunting and foraging

April 26, 2011April 26, 2011 / one2travelfar / Leave a comment

Not us, the birds. We are comfortably settling in at home and are adjusting to a life among people again. I am very happy to get to spend time with my family and to become reacquainted with friends.

The birds, however, are just moving in. A pair of blue birds checked out all the bird houses (five in total) and selected one on the fence. They got down to business and built their nest in it. The feeder has attracted goldfinches, chickadees, purple finches and blue jays. The northern flickers, robins and blue birds are dining on whatever they find in the grass.

In the meantime, we are having our own little Caddyshack battle. Moles are digging up the back lawn faster than Tim can flatten the mounds. He was even standing on one while it was still getting bigger. Soon there will be dynamite and those words, “Hello Mr. Mole, it’s just me Mr. Squirrel”.

Benched

April 16, 2011 / one2travelfar / 1 Comment

Prototype bench on Seguin Island

We thought we discovered an ingenious design when we were caretaking Seguin Island in 2008. There was an unpretentious, very comfortable, little grey bench down by the cove. I don’t know when it was built or by whom. On the west side of the island was a platform with an Adirondack chair on it and it was one of the best places to watch the sun set. But with only one chair, we had to take turns. And when families visited the island, one person would get the chair and everyone else would sit on the platform or rocks around it.

Seguin Island Sunset bench

So we decided to make a bench for it. I painstakingly copied the dimensions and angles of the bench by the cove. Then on rainy days, we stayed inside in the whistle house where the work shop was located and played with all the power tools and built a bench. And it was good. Now we could both enjoy the beautiful sunsets with even room to spare to balance a glass. When families went to the platform, 2-3 people could sit on the bench and enjoy the view.

When we were on Deal Island, we tried to think of a project we could leave on the island. We didn’t have power tools and had to salvage lumber and bolts. I had the design details with me and we went to work building another bench. We thought about where it would go and decided to place it in a corner with good cell phone and internet reception for visitors and us. The only problem was that corner was at the switchback, or zigzag in New Zealand, of a steep hill. We had time, so we played around with the geometry and built a level bench with four different length legs.

Deal Island bench on the only place it's level

: Deal Island bench on level land

Imagine my surprise when we got back home and learned my friend Bethany has several of the same bench! It was designed by Aldo Leopold, environmentalist and author of Sand County Almanac, “There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot. These essays are the delights and dilemmas of one who cannot,” How fitting. Now we have to decide if we want to build a bench, lean-to or log cabin on our property. There are plans for the bench on an Environmental Protection Agency site. I didn’t see log cabin plans though.

My fall into spring

April 15, 2011 / one2travelfar / Leave a comment

We’re back home in the Adirondacks. There’s still some snow on the ground and the rivers and lakes are high. Our last three weeks in New Zealand were pushing into fall and we were in the southern most part of the South Island. We enjoyed coal stoves in the huts and the heater in our camper van. We flew from cold fall to cold spring. But there’s hope for things warming up. I heard frogs and pheasants and saw turkeys and a bluebird. The gig is up for the deer though. I think they have been hanging around the house while we were away. When we were eating dinner the other night, four walked onto the driveway and looked at us as if they were thinking, “what are you doing here?”

Unfortunately, my camera died when we were just taking the boat to the Milford Track’s starting point in New Zealand. So all my photos were taken on my phone. I brought two cameras and a phone to Deal Island just in case. My new Nikon camera developed a dark spot in the center of every picture. The Olympus camera’s pop out lens got stuck for the fourth time. The Nikon is still under warranty, and miraculously I found the paperwork and will send that in. The Olympus was under a Geek Squad contract and has had three strikes and I am finally entitled to a new camera. The camera broke on March 27, my contract expired April 8 and I brought it in April 11!! I pled my case to a sympathetic manager and was granted a new camera. Woohoo! I still can’t find my keys and have combed all our bags and the house. There’s a slim chance I packed them in the box I shipped on the slow boat from Tasmania. It may get here in a couple of months. I don’t even remember what I had keys for. Miraculously, I remembered the combination to the post office box though; not with my mind, with my hands. Interesting.

These pictures are from the first walk, the Milford Track, one of the finest walks in the world. We spent 4 days, walking 43.5 kms. At night, we slept in huts with 40 other hikers. We were lucky to only have rain one day. I didn’t cry.

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Journey home

April 8, 2011May 10, 2011 / one2travelfar / 2 Comments

Our two or three day journey begins today. We spent our last night in the camper van at the Christchurch airport. We fly to Auckland today, LA then NY tomorrow and will get to spend Sunday night in Brooklyn. We’ll run errands on Long Island then drive home on Tuesday. What a long, great trip it’s been. Christchurch campsite
My sense of humor remains the same. I took a picture of this town name on my last day in NZ last year. Not a good food association. Te Puke, NZ

Day tripping

April 7, 2011May 10, 2011 / one2travelfar / 3 Comments

Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore. We took a day hike in Mount Cook National Park on a perfect day with beautiful views. Two rangers recommended it to us as “easy” with fabulous views of Mount Cook and the glacial valley.

Well, if you climb high enough, everything is beautiful. And climb we did. Straight up boulders and timber stairs. For two hours. There is something about getting to the top that makes it better.
I guess it is about getting there.

Besides there aren’t many tramping options. This park is for serious mountain climbers with all the gear. People fall off the cliffs with some regularity.
We heard and saw two avalanches and Tim watched a glacier calve.

Our view

Our campsite

April 6, 2011May 10, 2011 / one2travelfar / 2 Comments

We are traveling the South Island of New Zealand in a moaner home. Here’s tonight’s resting place.

Mount Cook

Lord of the rings?

March 28, 2011May 10, 2011 / one2travelfar / 1 Comment

Our last day on the Milford Track was a bit of a slog. We had a boat to catch, our longest walk, 11 miles, in the rain and met a local celebrity along the way. Maybe. I thought he was a sweet old man on the track who I hadn’t slept with. (I slept with our group of forty hikers for three nights).

He was very helpful and told us where we were most likely to slip on the wet rocks and fall off a cliff into the Arthur River. Then he told us to stop because he was going to make a loud noise.

He pulled a ram’s horn out of his pack and blew into it. The echo reverberated for nine seconds in the canyon. He tod us he made the horns for the movie and helped rock climbers set up the cameras. Then he walked with me for about a mile. Later, Tim pointed out he wasn’t wearing any pants. He did have gaiters on though.
. Mitre Peak

Post Milford Track

March 27, 2011May 10, 2011 / one2travelfar / Leave a comment

We are relaxing after our four day, 33 mile walk on the Milford Sound. We experienced two days of rain and debated the meaning of the forecast: showers clearing or showers, clearing. Either way, we got wet.

I didn’t tackle side trips so opted not to climb McKinnon Pass, elevation 1000+ meters, when the sky was clear the day before we really had to climb it. It was clouded over by the time I got there the next day and then we had to climb down it.

Naturally, my camera broke for good on the boat ride across Lake Te Anau en route to the start of the walk and I was left with only my phone.

We slept in huts with 38 other walkers. I won a top bunk most nights, which was a challenge to get out of in the middle of the night. I am looking forward to the Routeburn Track, where we get to share a bed with eight other people. But tonight, a hot shower, glass of wine, private bed and lots of ibuprofen.

Rainbow McKinnon Pass

Away we go

March 23, 2011May 10, 2011 / one2travelfar / 1 Comment

We are heading out for the first of our two long walks. The first on the Milford track, from Lake Te Anau to Milford Sound, will take four days to travel about 50 kms.

The brochure says to expect rain one day but it looks like we hit the jackpot and may get wet three days. Then the weather should be “mainly fine” during the five days on the Routeburn track. We bought all our food and will drop half at the start of the walk. I won’t be writing about these meals.
Lake Te Anau