An Orongorongo Christmas

Christmas in Wellington, for those few who stick around, allows one to experience a bit of still and quiet in this usually-bustling city.

But this year, like many Kiwis, we took advantage of the generous statutory holidays and a stretch of unusually settled weather to head out into the bush.

We snapped this photo of the city as we took the ferry across to Days Bay. Of note, our new digs are in the very last building on the left (and on the far right, you can also see Parliament, affectionately known as the "Beehive." (click photo to enlarge)

So, after a mere 10 hours on foot, 20k and two mountain ranges (including Mt McKerrow 706m) later, we finally made our way to the Orongorongo River, where the Rata bloomed Christmas red-- and everything else was green.

Because we are slaves to luxury, we booked a 5 star room at the prestigious Boar Inn . . .

 . . . which, as you can see, was worth every penny of the $35 rate. We especially appreciated the "al fresco" loo arrangements.

In actuality, we spent both nights in our little tent. Amidst the dense bush, you run into these little stands of beech groves, where the undergrowth is more sparse and the leaf litter is beautifully soft. A perfect spot to enjoy a lullaby of Brown Kiwi, Kereru and Morepork.

Of course, we partook of the traditional Christmas traditions, such as roasting chestnuts on an open fire, with Jack Frost nipping at our toes.

Okay, maybe not, and maybe we didn't have a belt-stretching feast; but we enjoyed our kai and raise a spoon to to all our friends and family this Holiday Season.

 For each of our long hikes, Kristen composes a Tanka (a Japanese poem). This Tanka, and the lovely photo below, are hers:

Orongorongo

Rolls off the tongue, roils off stone

Into the remnant

Ancient green fabric

A kiwi Christmas carol

Kia Ora Kotou, A Te Marie Whanau

Weekend Getaway: Wairarapa and Castle Point

With work finally a bit less demanding and Christmas approaching (meaning soon no vacancy anywhere outside the city), we headed out to Martinborough for a long weekend. It's still pretty deserted, so we didn't have to fight any crowds. But between meals at Medici, The French Market and Tirohana Estate, we needed to do some walking it off.

We started at Onoke Spit to do a little bird watching (and were chased off by a breeding pair of Caspian Terns).

 So we headed towards the remote East Coast and Castle Point.

Then, on the way back home, we stopped by Kaitoke for a wee bush walk. We also did some reconnaissance on the trail we intend to take across the Rimutakas for Christmas. 

Old Bank Arcade Clock

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Sunday Shopping

One of the great things about living right on the harbor is the great market scene. It has become our Sunday ritual to have a "brekkie" at Floridita's on Cuba Street, then wander over to the waterfront market to pick up our kai for the week.

Kristen queues patiently for a peek at today's fresh catch.

Hmmmmm . . . we'll take take that handsome trevally bottom right (although that big blue warehoo and the snapper just above look good, too).

Just for reference, that building in the background is where we just bought our new apartment. We don't move in until March, but its worth the wait.

Our first 3 months back

We have been busy the last 3 months settling into our new jobs: Kristen at Te Whare O Matairangi and Richard at Te Whare Marie. Still, we've been able to get out and about enough to collect a few nice photos. Oh yeah, the Rugby World Cup was going on as well, which was an amazing experience (with a happy ending--Go The All Blacks!)

Now that summer is here and things are slowing down a bit, we'll post more regularly. In the meantime, enjoy these images of Aotearoa.

Young Nick's Head, Poverty Bay, Gisborne.

A frosty late winter sunrise, also in Gisborne.

Shine Falls, the highest in Hawkes Bay, and a perfect reward for a brisk hike along the Boundary Stream Reserve Trail (look closely bottom right to see K)

The Ngatarawa Winery in Napier.

Te Mata Peak outside of Hastings.

The view of Kapiti Island from Paraparaumu, taken on Thanksgiving Day.

The Rimutaka Range in the background, a bog along the Lake Wairarapa.

A remote area in the Southeast coast of the North Island, not far from Castle Point.

The world's longest place name.

The black sand beaches of Mahia.

Back in Aotearoa

We made it! We're both almost out of battery (and no NZ converter yet), so we'll keep it brief- so happy to be back.

Pike's Peak

In many ways, this hike was the culmination of two years of physical training, but also a coda to a summer in which we have focused on back-country skills and adapting to ever-increasing altitudes. In the end, we completed the ascent in 7 hours of trail time and overall covered 16 miles and gained 8,000 vertical feet inside of 24 hours (all above 6,000 ft).

Evergreen on blue

Until the trees fall away.

Sixteen Golden Stairs;

Absolution for past lives.

All signs point to a new way!

Lake Angeline

For our final trip to the Cloud Peak wilderness, we chose Lake Angeline, just over the divide from the Hidden Twin Lakes (see our post from 2 weeks ago). The approach from the East involves a brutal drive just to get to the trailhead, followed by a 5.5 mile slog through post-fire regenerating ponderosa pine up from 8200 to 10,500 feet. But in the end, a night of meteor showers and a glorious sunrise over the lake and its remnant glacier made it all worthwhile.

Back to the Black Hills: Crow's Peak, Spearfish Canyon, Devil's Tower

True to our emerging Summer pattern, we headed East to the Black Hills after going West to the Bighorns the week prior (any guesses which way we're headed next week?)

This was actually our second trip to Devil's Tower in the past month. On our previous foray, we hiked every last foot of the 8 miles of trail--not a great distance but a lot of variety. This time, we did some bouldering at the base of the tower, then re-visited the prairie dog town and the birdy hill adjoining it (we've seen red headed woodpecker, eastern kingbird, black capped chickadees, prairie falcons, Bullock's orioles and lark sparrows all in the one 1/3 mile segment pictured above).
After bidding our farewell to the black-tailed prairie dogs, we headed onward to Spearfish, where we enjoyed the hospitality of Ginger's WanderInn B&B. But first we climbed up Crow's Peak (el. 5,760), where luckily we ran into a bloke kind enough to snap a photo for us.
Spearfish is a very laid-back little town in a great natural setting. It has a quaint main street, great natural foods store, good restaurants and a well-developed trail system. With thousands of bikers rolling into nearby Sturgis soon, we appreciated the quiet and calm.
Spearfish is also a great place to start an exploration into Spearfish Canyon. The photo above is of Roughlock Falls. Amazing how the trout make it up these things.

Kristen's first "twelve"

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Return to Bighorn, then on to Absaroka-Beartooth

Having whetted our appetite last week, we returned to the Cloud Peak Wilderness of the Bighorn Mountains en route to Red Lodge, MT for the 4th of July.
This time, we planned ahead, and picked a fairly high (9000+ feet) and remote hike (Coney Lake), and were rewarded with a pristine trail. Although we did encounter other hikers on our way back, our tracks were the first in the still snowy upper reaches. The altitude, snow-skirting and multiple river crossings made this a challenging tramp.

Onward then we went to Red Lodge, MT, where early the next morning we hiked deep into the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness and shot the following video hike:

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By breakfast on the 4th we were on the way back to Gillette, but took the (truly!) scenic route from the Beartooth Highway, back across Chief Joseph Highway and then over the Bighorns via Medicine Wheel Pass (which is still snowed in).

Below is the "beartooth peak ' from which the range takes its name.

The 10,000 foot high pass from which we took this photo, incidentally, was where back in the 70's they used to set up a "Drift Bar" in the high snowbanks during the summer. According to Jeff, a local skier we dropped off here, they used to party pretty hard, and even brought up an elephant from the (now defunct) Red Lodge zoo, which they painted pink!

Bighorn Mountains

After our first week in Gillette, it was time to explore them thar' Bighorn mountains to the west. Covered in year-round snow, the summit of Cloud Peak towers above the lodgepole pine forests.

Running from Buffalo to Ten Sleep, route 16 is the southern scenic byway through the mountains and on to Yellowstone. Several locals recommended Crazy Woman Canyon, a narrow and dramatic gorge with a single-lane dirt road. It was slow going, but well worth the detour.

The snow is not as visible from the valley to the west of the range, but the dramatic rock formations add plenty of color.
We took a 5 mile hike along the aptly named muddy creek on our way home, and bought a Forest Service map to plan other hikes over the next month. More to come . . .

South Dakota: Badlands and Black Hills

We had 3 days to travel the 800 miles between Minneapolis and Gillette before starting our new assignments, so we decided to spend our first night in a cabin (got the last one!) in Badlands National Park.

The next morning, we got up early to climb up onto the plateau to watch the sun rise (and moon set).
Then we drove to the nearby Black Mountains to back-country camp in the Black Elk Wilderness area . . .
. . . so that we could get a head start on the 10 mile loop hike-- and see Mt. Rushmore our way (admittedly not the easy way).