A Kiwi Adventure

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  Christchurch, New Zealand
Monday, November 21, 2005

Full of anticipation, we arrived at the Christchurch Holiday Inn lobby to join our Active New Zealand tour group. Half of what we had hauled through SE Asia was earmarked for this 2-week hiking/biking/kayaking adventure circuit around New Zealand's South Island, and we were eager to finally put some of our warmer clothes to use in the cool spring weather. But even more exciting was the reality that months of speculation about how our itinerary would come to life and with whom we would share these memories, were about to end.

After a quick round-up, we were introduced to each other and to our bus "Wayne," so nicknamed by our tour guide. We started as a somewhat reserved and well-behaved group: a doctor and his ophthalmologist-in-training son, a VISA analyst, a drug rep, an Intel lab technician, an FDA lawyer, a bon-vivant retiree with an amazing travel and work history, an Australian safety manager (the lone non-American), and ourselves, the unemployed couple. Sparked by our guide's inadvertent innuendos, the group soon turned raucous. Witness Kevin's identity transformation within the group (all in jest, of course) from his normal lawyer persona to (fellow group member) "Master Bill's" man-servant, to "Master Bill's" male prostitute--and when his performance was deemed sub-par in the first two roles--to a Remarkable (superhero), back to a man-servant, and on the final morning, by proclamation from "Master Bill," to a free legal man. Such were the group dynamics, that annoyed some, perplexed others, but entertained and engaged all. Well, you just had to be there.

The tour was certainly active: 33 hours of hiking through warm sun, rain, hail and snow; 8 hours of kayaking in ocean lagoons and fiords; 5 hours of cycling and one afternoon snorkeling with fur seals. We spent a total of 48 hours of blood-pumping exercise along pristine lakes and waterfalls, in lush and rocky creek beds, across the freshest freshwater streams (we could refill our water bottles from them!), into alpine meadows and even above snow level, along precipitous ridge lines, around the mammoth Franz-Joseph glacier of the Southern Alps, in the deep-cut fiord valleys of Milford Sound, and almost always under the shadow of snow-peaked mountains or under the unamused gaze of a thousand sheep. These 48 hours of exercise were punctuated by scenic stops at turquoise-blue pools, rugged rock formations cut by the sea, and several overnight stops at bachs(beach houses), farmstays, and on the last two nights, sheep station accommodations directly in front of Mt. Cook and surrounding peaks of the Southern Alps. If all this mean, clean, and green scenery ever resulted in sensory overload, we always had our entertaining group to bring us back down to earth and our perpetually-wet boots (from all the stream crossings and rain) to sober us up.

The tour would not have been so memorable had it not been for a third crucial element: the true Remarkable superheroes, our tour guides. With years of experience, Paula could handle a bus and its cargo (both passenger and inhuman) with the best of them, while Clare kept us amazed at her Wonderwoman-like ability to cooly scale any steep trail quicker than a mountain goat, while carrying the heaviest pack (the one with our cooking pots and pans and celebration champagne bottles), and then turn around and prepare high tea on short notice. With all the activity, you might guess that we would have become lean and fit. In reality, Clare's fine cooking ensured our caloric intake always stayed above our ability to burn it off.

We thoroughly enjoyed our South Island experience, but we now recognize that were we to ever enter the TV show "The Amazing Race," we would certainly be eliminated early. We will spare ourselves the humiliation and deny you our viewers any pleasure of witnessing our physical floundering or internal bickering that would undoubtedly be our downfall. In spite of our weaknesses, we derive great satisfaction in sharing our NZ (that's pronounced "enzed" here) experience together, and we would recommend the South Island to anyone seeking an active getaway. We have way too many pictures to share, so we selected a small sampling. For those who may be interested, we plan on posting the entire New Zealand collection on Shutterfly in the near future (i.e. before the holidays)- just let us know if you'd like us to send you more pictures of beautiful scenery! Fortunately, we were on tour with a handful of photographers who possess and use much more expensive camera equipment than we do, and we eagerly await their pictures as well. To all our fellow group members and tour leaders, thank you, and we send you a cordial and heartfelt Alabama salute!!

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04-A view during the ascent	05-Climbing the alpine meadows	06-Can you find our cabin?	07-There's the hut!
08-Cooling down on the snowy ridge	09-Taking in the sights	10-Smiling with sore knees	11-West Coast sunset
12-Tramping in the mud!	13-Pancake rocks	14-Okarito Beach backdrop: the Southern Alps	15-Okarito sunset
16-Kayaking through the fingers of Okarito Lagoon	17-Franz Joseph Glacier	18-Another cool glacier view	19-Turquoise-blue streams and pools
20-Got Milk?	21-Dirty laundry	22-A long way down	23-Bungy jumping fool
24-Queenstown lake view	25-Tour de Fiordland	26-Another picture with mountains in background!	27-Reward for another "undulating" hike
28-Fiordland sunset	29-Cheryl the mustache contest judge	30-Milford Sound at dusk	31-Kayaking in Milford Sound
32-Who are those strangers looking at us?	33-Pavlova unveiling	34-Group photo	35-Mount Cook on a clear day
36-Sothern Alps at dusk	37-Proclamation of a Free Man

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