we like new zealand
We're all home safe and sound. The trip is over.
And we'll resume communication back at
we like rain.
For the curious:
June 1: Leave NZ
June 2: Arrive in LA
June 3: Arrive in Portland
June 12: Arrive in Baltimore
June 21: Arrive in Concord
See you soon.
There are enough beer drinkers reading this site that I'm going to go ahead and bore the rest of you with this...
As I promised, during our time in NZ we have always been on the lookout for a good NZ beer. We didn't have great luck, but we did find some hidden gems that you won't see mentioned in Lonely Planet.
The first really good beer we found was made by
The Mussel Inn, which is located near the northern tip of the South Island. For a while now Beth and I have considered the Full Sail brewpub in Hood River, Oregon to be the best brewpub ever. At Full Sail you can drink some of world's best beer while looking out over the Columbia River Gorge. The Mussel Inn is now a strong contender to take over that top slot.
We found the Mussel Inn on the afternoon of the rainiest day of our entire trip. It poured down steadily all day. All day. Without stopping. There was no hope of defogging the car's windows so we resorted to wiping the fog away with our hands, which only made things worse. We were dreading having to find a campsite, pitch the tent, and then cook dinner in the rain. All those worries evaporated when we stepped inside the Mussel Inn with its log tables and crackling fire.
It was the sort of place where you wonder if you've maybe gone in the wrong door. We felt as though we intruders in someone's very cozy house: newspapers on the tables, families playing games, more people without shoes than with... and
no tourists. We found ourselves a table by the fire and pretty much settled in for the evening. Their Captain Cooker Manuka Beer, made with the tips of the native Manuka Tree, is one of the best beers I've ever tasted, and you can only drink it there. I also had a Pale Whale Ale which was a very fine beer, though more like a Belgian double than a pale ale. The nachos weren't too bad either.
Yesterday, we took the bus to Auckland's Mt Eden neighborhood to visit
Galbraith Brewing Company, a NZ beer landmark. The beer, brewed and served in an old library, was amazing. Brewed and served according to English "Real Ale" methods, this beer has earned high praise from just about everyone, including me and Michael Jackson (the beer writer, not the singer). Their beer menu even makes a cut at "novice Antipodean drinkers" who might find the beer to be "warm and flat". It made me very sad to see someone come in and order a Heineken. No, Dan and Doug, the someone was not me. I tried one of their three bitters (Bitter & Twisted) and their Porter. Sadly, they were sold out of their most famous beer, Resurrection.
Lastly, I should mention that as far as mass-produced beer is concerned,
Speight's beer is the best. It's the "Pride of the South," and feelings for this beer run deep -- I saw two blokes ready to throw punches after one of them insulted Speight's. I was in the company of one of these blokes, the one defending Speight's, and I'll tell you this -- Speight's would have won that fight quite easily. The sheep farmer that we stayed with bought crates of Speight's Big Bottles, which are basically wine bottle sized beer bottles. You can take your crate of empty Big Bottles back to the brewery to have them refilled. Genius. That farm is where we were inducted into the cult of Speight's, and we've been proud members ever since.
The car has sold! Saturday morning we got up early and went to one of Auckland's car fairs, where you pay $20 to park your car for the day and hope that some backpacker is smart enough to see what a good deal you're trying to give them. We didn't have to sit all day, or even sit for a single moment. In fact, we created quite a commotion when we arrived. There were more car dealers there than backpackers, and they were stroking The Mighty Hyudai's gleaming hood with their greedy hands before we'd even had a chance to park. We sold it to the first guy who test drove it for $800, only $100 less than we paid for it. It all happened so fast that Beth didn't even have a chance to say good-bye. We are very happy about the sale, because the general consensus was that we'd be lucky to get a couple hundred for it.
Well, NZ Idol has ended, and our man Ben won. That's wonderful, but now there is a big whole in our lives where NZ Idol used to be. (That's pronounced En-Zed Idol, for those of you not in the know.)
Our trip is really starting to wind down now. We are back where we started, in Auckland, and our wandering is over. We're going into town today to post advertisements for our car, which is all tidied up and selling for the low-low price of NZ$1000. While we are in Auckland we have a few things we want to do, but nothing that exciting. We're mostly looking forward to being home, seeing family and friends, and going to a lot of weddings.
One thing this trip has given me is plenty of time to read. Before we left
I said that I was going to read
Infinite Jest, but I changed my mind and decided to find some good New Zealand books once we got here. With the help of
The New Zealand Listener's list of the 50 Best New Zealand Books and some good used book shops, I have found some great Kiwi reads. Reading them has been a wonderful way to learn about the country and the people. Here are the books, in the order I read them...
The Bone People by Keri Hulme - A New Zealand classic according to just about everyone. It's about a little boy who can't talk and his adopted dad who brutally abuses him on a regular basis. These two meet a woman who is a struggling painter living alone in a tower on the beach. Everyone, including the little boy, drinks way too much and then fights. The first 3/4 of the book is quite good, but it falls apart at the end and I really wouldn't recommend the book to anyone. I quite disagree about it being one of NZ's best books.
The Penguin History of New Zealand by Michael King - Michael King seems to be NZ's most highly-regarded historian, widely loved for exploring the complex relations of Maori and Pakeha (white immigrant) New Zealanders. King seems to have done much to help this country get to know itself. Tragically, he and his wife died in a car crash about a month ago. New Zealand is lucky that he finished this history before he died. This 500 page history reads like a wonderful story. It isn't often that a history book is a page-turner, but I couldn't put this one down. If anyone is at all curious about New Zealand, borrow this book from me.
A Good Keen Man by Barry Crump - Barry Crump writes about what it is to be a New Zealand bloke.
A Good Keen Man is his first and, I'm told, best book. He writes about his days as a government deer culler, spending his summers in the NZ bush killing the introduced deer that threaten to destroy the native bush and the whole of NZ's ecosystem. Barry's boss sends him one "good keen man" after another to help, and each one is more useless than the last. Hilarious.
The Flamingo Anthology of New Zealand Short Stories edited by Michael Morrissey - New Zealand writers are good at short stories. Very good.
Plumb by Maurice Gee - Mr Plumb is a NZ minister in the early 1900's and his heart leads him to become a non-conformist who challenges NZ's involvement in the war and the doctrines of his church. I loved every page.
I just wish our car had a CD player, or at least a radio, so we could have explored New Zealand music in the same way. I guess we'll have to settle for the small taste that NZ Idol gave us.
Tonight is a big night for us. Yes, tonight is the final of NZ Idol. The competition is down to the final two, Ben and Michael, and they will each sing five songs tonight. In past weeks these two have impressed us with songs from the likes of Huey Lewis and The News and Bon Jovi. It's been incredible. We were so sad to see Camillia go last week after her heart-wrenching version of Whitney Houston's "How Will I Know", but Ben and Michael were clearly better. Beth and I are pulling for
Ben who has cool stripes on his head, big muscles and flash jumpsuits. Five songs.
Five! We can hardly wait.
We haven't paid for any fun touristy activities since we've been here. No bungee jumping, jet boating, cave adventures, scenic flights, glacier walks, luges, heli-hikes, Great Walks. Nothing. Until yesterday when we went for a sailing trip in the Bay of Islands, which is up on that skinny part above Auckland for those of you with maps. It was worth every saved penny. We saw penguins and dolphins up close, visited an island, snorkeled in a lagoon, relaxed on the boat. We had, as they say here, a magical day.
Happy Mother's day to all you moms, including the new moms, Erin and Joanne.
See you all soon.
Beth Morrill's
Abridged Dictionary of New Zealand Words:
Flash - Fancy
Bench - Counter (This makes for more confusion that you can imagine.)
Toilet - Restroom (Harder to get used to than you'd think.)
Tea - Supper
Tucker - Food
Ta - Thanks
Cheers - Thanks
Reckon - Think (No one thinks in this country, they only reckon.)
Ice Block - Popsicle, ice cream bar (Available in many
extremely tasty varieties.)
Hokey Pokey - The best ice cream flavor in the Southern Hemisphere -- vanilla ice cream with tiny butterscotch candies.
Togs - Bathing suit
Kiwi: Did you bring your togs?
Us: My what?
Kiwi: Your togs.
Us: ...
Drink driving - Drunk driving.
Highway Billboard:
DRINK
D r I v E
Knickers - Underpants, skivvies
Tramping - Hiking
Older woman to her husband busy taking his knickers off in front of Beth: Why are you changing your knickers?
Older man, bending down to give us a better view: These are for tramping, these aren't.
Older woman: Oh, those are tramping knickers. I see.
We're finally doing some "real" farming here at Slope Point, the most southern point of the South Island. We came to camp at this hostel/farm-stay, asked the owners if they needed any help on the farm and have been here for almost a week running the hostel and helping on the farm. This young kiwi couple, Herb and Justine, own 600 acres and 300 sheep and graze cattle for other farmers. Our offer to help was very timely as Justine gave birth to their first child (Anna Jean) yesterday and we have had to take care of things here while they are at the hospital in Invergcargil, 50 minutes away. Beth and I are just coming in from cruising around their land on the quad-bikes (those are four-wheelers to Americans) and watching the sunset over a field of sheep. We'll be out again early tomorrow morning feeding the calves and pigs, taking the dogs for a run, and probably doing some more joy riding. This farming stuff is pretty fun when they don't make you do the hard jobs, like killing one of the calves who had become so sick that he couldn't stand.
I almost forgot the most important detail of our trip so far -- we are staying at a house where
Orlando Bloom stayed during the filming of The Lord of the Rings. We sat in the same chair he did, and I can already feel myself looking cuter.
We once again find ourselves in the small town of Makarora with Andi and Paul, the same couple we were staying with last time we wrote. We were away and exploring for a week, but we had such a nice stay that we asked if we could come back. We have spent the morning clearing broom, a little tree/shrub introduced by European immigrants way back when to make New Zealand seem more like the Old World. Like most introduced plants, it just loves New Zealand and has become a pest. We also split firewood and picked nectarines. Fall set in here on the South Island, and garden work is winding down.
After we left Makarora we headed south through Queenstown (home of bungy jumping, jet boating and more) to Fiordland National Park. We had plans to do a four-day tramp through the rainforest, but get this, it was raining in the rainforest. Having recently spent a long while on the rainy West Coast, we didn’t feel like getting any wetter and retreated back through Queenstown to Otago. If I didn’t mention it before, Otago is one of the drier places in New Zealand.
I should say that, despite the dampness, Fiordland was great. We couldn’t see any of the high peaks, but we could see that we were surrounded buy huge cliffs, all with water pouring down them in torrents. In Milford Sound we took a twenty-minute walk to one of the biggest waterfalls I’ve ever seen. Venturing out of the bush to get a good picture we became so wet that we could not actually have been any wetter. It was all for nothing though, because on our next hike I dropped the camera, bursting it open and exposing all the film.
Anyway, once back in dry Otago we hiked to a high and rocky valley in the Crown Range and spent four relaxing days at Meg Hut. We had the hut all two ourselves for three of the four days and spent most of the time either staying warm by the fireplace or exploring up and down the small river in the valley. It snowed all of the third day, which was wonderful and made the valley all the more beautiful. That little stay was one of the best things we’ve done so far.
The hut, as you might guess, is so much warmer than our tent. As I said, fall has arrived, blown up from the Antarctic, and we have been waking up to a frost-covered car and frozen water. Our sleeping bags, while rated to 20-degrees, haven’t really been doing their job and we were starting to dread going to bed. In a moment of genius we realized that we needed a blanket to bring into the sleeping bag with us. After searching all over town we found a cheap comforter that has kept us very toasty. A Nalgene water bottle filled with boiling water and shoved down by the feet works wonders as well.
Sorry about that last post. We wanted to say something, but we should have at least said something worthwhile.
The biggest news is that our very good friends Greg and Erin have had their first child, Dylan Connor. We could only be happier if it was our own kid.
We've made our way down the West Coast, through Mt Cook National Park, and are now in the region called Otago. We're WWOOFing in Makarora, a town of 40 people, and their are blue rivers and snow covered mountains all around. I think this is my favorite place yet. The couple we're staying with, Kiwi-Americans both, are exceedingly kind and generous, and Scrabble players too. I was the victor last night, beating the woman of the house by just two points.
Our last WWOOFing stay was with a family of six who lived exactly in the middle of nowhere. They lived 10km up a rugged valley with no electricity except that which their two solar panels produced. Amazingly and sadly, two solar panels generate enough power to run a PlayStation all day long, so even kids who live off the land can be game-obsessed vegetables. Additionally, those kids can be virtuoso guitarists (I've never seen anything like it), dominating chess players, and able to give you the scientific name of any plant you point to. We had a nice time being away from it all and exploring their property and rivers. Our accommodation was in a cozy little bus parked back in the woods. It was really fun.
At this point, our old routine has become a little old and a lot tiring. WWOOF-drive-tramp-drive-WWOOF is good for a while, but we're ready for a break. Our goal now is to find a hut close to a car park and just hang out for a few days to a week and read and play cards. A vacation from our vacation.
Speaking of huts, the hut system here is amazing. A $60 annual pass gives us unlimited access to all huts except those on Great Walks, and we're avoiding those anyway. As an example, last week we hiked 16km (10 miles) into a hut that had 22 bunks. This hut was nicer than most houses, with beautiful woodwork and hand made furniture. There were natural hot springs right out the front door for soaking and, as is typical, snow covered mountains for a backdrop. Get this - the toilets flushed. We stayed there for two nights.
The other thing about huts is that they are, truly, international gathering spots. We've only met three other Americans in all our stays, and you would never guess whom we most often meet at huts. Germans? Austrians? Brits? Nope. Israelis. More than half the people at any hut are from Israel, most young and just out of the military and looking to relax in the mountains. I've haven't encountered such a consistently excited group of people since having to share the marching band bus with the cheerleaders.
Beth would like to remind all that comments are very much appreciated, even if you just say 'rock on' or 'Jake smells', so she knows who has been reading. Thanks to those of you who always comment, we all know who you are.
We're doing well. In Greymouth on the South Island. No time to write a proper post, but we will soon. Hi-bye.
The farm where we are working right now is also a B&B. Or maybe the B&B we are staying at is also an organic farm. Either way, we feel like we're staying at a free B&B and not doing nearly enough work to pay for these lovely accommodations. We sleep in a camper in the orchard, but it's a nice little camper with a tarpaulin awning and views of the pear trees out front, cows to the left, and blueberries out the back. When we go out for bed I always stop there in the dark and find the Southern Cross hanging right over our camper, and Orion is upside down over my left shoulder. Once inside we turn on the light and call the moths to come bang against the windows.
A few nights ago Beth and I made our famous (now famous around the world) fish tacos for our host family and the B&B guests. Heather, our hostess, taught us to make potato tortillas, adding a new element to our favorite meal. Over dinner we talked about all the places the guests from St. Louis had seen during their three week tour of the South Island. Three weeks seems so short to us. Hell, five months is starting to seem short to us.
Our first WWOOFing stay in Tauranga was wonderful and comfortable. Robin and Jocelyn Hicks, a couple retired from their town jobs to run their organic kiwi orchard, took care of us like they were our grandparents -- fed us well, worked us hard. Our second stay, which sounded good on paper -- "local artist with organic gardens" -- was not so nice. This mother of six lived in filth, consulted crystals, and claimed to be clairvoyant. There was a flea problem in the house. There was a rat problem in the garden. There was a rotting chicken in the oven. This was all at the time that our clutch cable was being repaired and we were, pretty much, trapped. I made some changes to the woman's web site and Beth did the dishes. Workers on organic farms?
That stay in Napier, with the squalor and the car trouble, has been our only low point so far. Everything else has been everything we hoped that New Zealand would be.
When we aren't WWOOFing life is pretty leisurely. (To tell the complete truth, working is pretty leisurely as well.) Beth's watch alarm goes off at 7 o'clock and we stay snuggled in our sleeping bags until 8 or 8:30. Once we're up, it's breakfast, coffee, break camp, shower (if we can), then into The Golfcart to pull out the map and see where we'll go.
The scenery -- the sky, the mountains, the ocean -- is amazing. It is, as they say, impossible to capture such beauty on film, but Peter Jackson has come pretty close with the Lord of the Rings movies. If you want to know what we're seeing don't wait for our photos, watch those movies. Just the other day we stood with our feet in the blue water of Tasman Bay, the mountains of Abel Tasman National Park all misty across the water, and Beth thought it was the most beautiful spot she had ever been.
Supper time again finds us sitting on my foam mattress outside our little blue tent, slapping at sand flies (Granite Staters know these devils as black flies), watching for Wood Pigeons, listening for Morpork owls, and cooking up a one-pot meal to go with our bottle of cheap wine. The real treat of the evening comes after dinner when we make like the kiwis and have a cup of tea and a bicky or two or three. Bickies, or biscuits, are cookies, and we have become quite fond of the hard-as-a-rock Ginger Nuts -- ginger snaps, with more ginger and more snap. Nights have been cold but we are so happy and warm in our sleeping bags. There aren't many things that are better than sleeping outside.
So, yes, our lack of communication means that we are having fun... Exploring the land and meeting nice people, taking note of colloquialisms, trying to determine the proper way to use the urinals (I think I have it right now, without having to peek too much at my neighbor), being together all day everyday. We do miss our oft maligned home (not that we can disagree with most of the complaints) and we miss all of you.
We're staying here:
The Kahurangi Brown Trout B&B. Our hosts, Heather and Dood (he's a Yank like us and Dood is short for Yankee Doodle), are great people. We've been helping in their big garden and around the house. Shovelling sheep dags was fun. Sheep have lots of wool, even around their bums, so they have lots of big dingle-berries. When they sheer the sheep, they can't use the dingle-berry bits to make nice sweaters so they trim them off and use them for fertilizer. I guess 'dags' is the farming word for dingle-berries. You might guess that it's pretty stinky work. We've also been picking and drying plums, pruning the grapes, and helping to build a little stone fish pond.
Things are still going very well for us. The car is once again running well, and we have found this great place to stay. The house is nestled between Abel Tasman and Kahurangi National Parks, so there's lots to do. We can be sitting at a tramping hut, having lunch above tree line about an hour after leaving their front door. We intended to stay here about a week, but they've offered to have us stay another three weeks and it looks like we will.
There have been so big storms on the North Island, so we're happy to be away from there. Three days after we took the ferry over there were 11 meter swells in the Cook Straight. For some reason they let the boats make the crossing in that weather. I would have been terrified.
More soon, but right now I need to get back to work. I'm putting up some netting around the grapes to keep the birds out.
At the time of the last post, there was one little tidbit I left out so that no one would get too worried. We were having some car troubles, but everything is OK now. Last Friday night, while driving to our campsite, the clutch cable snapped. Of all the things that can go wrong when you buy a car, the clutch has to be one of the worst. We have had the car back from the garage for a few days now and I think I can safely tell our woeful tale.
So the clutch cable breaks -- the little metal piece that connects the cable to the pedal just snapped right off -- and we're on the side of the road and I'm wedged down in by the pedals with a Leatherman and some rope trying to figure out how I'm going to get us running again. That's when Dave (Loopy to his friends) pulls over in his pickup to help. After trying to start the car (which proved to be impossible without the clutch), Dave went to get a chain out of his digger to tow us back to town, over about 30 km of mountain roads.
Upon returning with the chain, Dave had the much brighter idea to tow us to a small hill and start the car by letting it roll and then jamming it into gear. Once she was started, Dave reckoned, we could drive her back to town without the clutch. This guy was a genius. A genius who had been working with a bush crew since 3:30 am and was now helping us with our car at 8:00 pm while his wife and kids were at home waiting for him. He's a genius, because it all worked. The car started and I drove it back to town with minimal grinding of the gears. Dave actually followed us all the way to the garage to make sure we made it safely, and then drove us to a backpacker's hostel that let us put a tent up out back and we then spent a worried night in the rain. We love Dave.
As you might guess, there are no 1994 Hyundai Excel clutch cables in Napier, New Zealand. We finally got our car back two days ago after the mechanic was able to, somehow, repair the old cable. When we found out there were no new cables to be had I
begged him to just
try and fix it. Yeahyeah mate, I'll see what I can do. He called back that afternoon and said it was fixed, good as. (I love this Kiwi expression. Good as
what is your first reaction, but soon you realize that's the beauty of the expression. 'Sweet as' works just as well.)
That brings you all up to speed. The golf cart is back to being a good-runner, and we are preparing to leave Napier tomorrow morning. We'll be doing a 3-day tramp in Ruahine Forest Park on the way to Wellington on the way to Nelson and the South Island. We have our next WWOOFing stay arranged for February 13 in Nelson, helping a family who run a small farm and a B&B.
Auckland > Tauranga > Rotorua > Taupo > Tongariro National Park > Napier
I have let this update go too long, and now there's too much to say. I'll just give the highlights and important facts.
- Made our way from Auckland to Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty with help from our new friends in Auckland, who we will definitely visit again before returning home. In Tauranga we stayed with the Hicks family on their Kiwi orchard and cleared the sheep paddocks of thistles. Hard work, yes, but only four hours of it, and then we were free to explore the grounds, swim, relax, ...
- ... Buy a car. We got to feeling a little trapped by our hitch-hiking plans, so we bought a cheap 1994 Hyundai Excel and crossed our fingers.
- Spent a lazy day around Lake Taupo, the heart of New Zealand. Lake Taupo is a huge volcanic crater from an eruption that darkened the skies in China, now filled with clear blue water and boats too many to count. Beth was fighting off a wee stomach bug, so a day in the shade and eating the Bananas Rice Applesauce Toast (BRAT) diet did her good.
- Tongariro National Park, where we headed next, was the second National Park in the world, gifted to New Zealand by a Maori chief who realized that the only way to preserve his people's sacred lands was to create the park. A truly brilliant man. The park is filled with trails and people from all over the world. I did the Tongariro Crossing, The Greatest One Day Tramp in New Zealand, while Beth continued resting. The tramp winds through volcanic and alpine areas, even crossing a saddle of Mt Ngaruahoe, now better known as Mount Doom.
- From Tongariro to Napier we found a long, windy road to take, the better to see the scenery. About half of the 113km trip was on gravel roads. It wasn't enough to just enjoy the scenery, so I found a small side trip. A sign on the side of the road pointed up a smaller gravel road to a tramping hut. Wanting to see what it was like, I headed up against Beth's wishes. Soon, it was too steep for the Excel and we had to head down. As I turned around, we found ourselves stuck in a steep ditch and unable to free ourselves. I may have sworn once or twice. We packed up the backpacks and walked to the main road for help, which came in the form of a couple in their late 60's who drove up to the site of my stupidity and pulled us out with a little rope I had in my pack.
- Now in Napier, we're staying with a local artist who works with Paua shells. We'll be here about a week, and then it's on to the South Island.
Well, we're here.
Our flights went like this: Baltimore to L.A to Taipei to Kuala Lupmur to Brisbane to Auckland. We flew on Malaysian Airlines and they treated us very well, even putting us up in a swank hotel in Kuala Lumpur for our long layover. The hotel let us get cleaned up and recline, and then they served us a free lunch of fresh tropical fruit, sandwiches, assorted deserts, and espresso.
We're staying this first week in Auckland with friends of Beth's aunt Jennie. This family is showing us that the Kiwi hospitality we've heard about is no myth. The two little girls, Tayla and Kaitlyn, are hilarious and cute and absolutely in love with Beth (or, as they say, Baith). Beth must always sit in the middle and go in the pool for tricks and hold both hands. As you might imagine, Beth couldn't be happier.
We've explored Auckland a bit, but not extensively. Some parts of the city are quiet and touristy (like the harbour viaduct where last year's America's Cup was held), and others are like any other huge city. Auckland is proof that even the paradise that is New Zealand isn't immune to urban sprawl... this city is vast.
Being ever curious about the World's beers, we stopped in at The Loaded Hog yesterday (happy birthday to me) for a pint. The beer was nice, and very fresh, but that's all. Very unimaginative, especially compared to American microbrews. I won't stop my beer research just yet, but I'm starting to think that NZ wine (with it's unpretentious screwtops) might be more fun.
We're at home today, watching the girls while mum is at work and planning where to go next. Our latest thinking is that we should do a circuit route around the country -- down the east coast, and then back up the west coast, returning back here to Auckland to catch our flight home.
On that note, I'm going to take my Lonely Planet guide out on the deck to soak up some rays that haven't been toned down by some pesky ozone layer.
This is my last post before we leave.
I developed the first roll of film from
our new Lomo camera, and the photos came out pretty well, though I seem to have trouble remembering to set the distance correctly. No, I mostly just forget to set it at all so the first roll contained a lot of blurry shots. I need more practice.
We said our good-byes to Doug and Kristin last night over some delicious beer that Doug brought out of his beer cellar. They were, in the order they were drunk:
Mendocino Brewing's Black Eye Ale,
Watch City's Kingpin Imperial Stout,
Anheuser-Busch's Natural Light, and
a Thomas Hardy's Ale from 1995. I had never tried the famed Thomas Hardy's before, and it was a real treat. Perhaps the quality I perceived was enhanced by the crapiness of the beer that preceded it.
Beth is helping her mom at school this morning, so I'm here all alone with my coffee. I think I'll go repack and make sure I haven't forgotten the tent poles or some other crucial item. While Beth's away I should make sure that all the really heavy stuff is in her pack.
Happy New Year!
In case you were wondering, West Virginia
is a great place to ring in the new year. The O'Neill family has a camp right on a fork of the Shenandoah River, so close that the frequent floods lap at the front porch. We stoked up the woodstove, played charades and enjoyed homebrews by Dan and Ann. Cowboy Up Brown Ale, with its big creamy head, was the crowd favorite, though I preferred the Nutcracker Spiced Ale.
New Year's Day was warm and sunny, so we spent the day exploring the hills and crags around the camp. Beth and I spotted five deer crossing the river. Were also visited by a good New Year's omen -- a bald eagle perched just down river from the camp.
We made it safely to Virginia, where the weather is warmer and there's no snow in sight. We had a wonderful Christmas here with the O'Neill family. Santa brought the family a foosball table, and my shoulder is pretty sore from beating the pants off everyone who dares to challenge me.
We finally went to see
Return of the King, and it was all that I hoped it would be. Best movie ever man.
More good news:
Rumor has it that Apple is going to announce $100 mini-iPods. I knew that my patience (and my tightwad ways) would be rewarded.
We leave in two weeks.
Beth and I both finished work Friday, without much fuss. Beth's last day was more emotional than mine as she had become pretty attached to the student she was helping, and he was pretty attached to her. Looking forward to six months off helps to ease the pain.
Yesterday was the Morrill family Christmas, celebrated early because we will be in Virginia for the 25th. Everyone was very generous, as usual. I got a new camera (the ubiquitous
Lomo LC-A) for the trip, a
Polyphonic Spree CD and
Gould's Book of Fish. Beth scored
a fleece pull-over and some towels (better her than me). All that loot on top of a delicious grilled turkey and
another Pat's win.
The real fun started today... packing. We're going light, with only about 40 pounds of gear between us. We were surprised that it only took us half the day to pack. I guess the Appalachian Trail taught me the finer points of packing light, and the basic principals are the same for this trip, except that we're bringing some cotton clothing so we can be comfortable while we're farming or sipping wine or lounging on the beach. I think I'll have a wallet with me too, instead of a plastic baggie.
We're trying not to be too sad about what we're leaving behind in New England because we know we'll be back soon enough. Onward, to Virginia.
It's getting close enough to our departure date that people are asking when we're leaving. The answer is, in 24 days. Time to start packing, or at least thinking about packing. We know pretty much what we need with us -- tent, sleeping bags, clothes -- but there are still a few things to figure out. Most important to me is what I should bring for reading material. I have it from
a good source that
Infinite Jest is good. And long. My source tells me it'll take a good six months to get through it, so that should work out just fine.
You always need to buy a few things before a big trip; it's part of the fun. So, besides the book, I have invested in
a good pair of boots from
Limmer, the famed bootmaker of NH hiking lore. The break-in process has been slow. Very slow. Beth has decided that cleanliness is the most important part of a good travel experience, and she therefore needs a good toiletry kit to help her survive life in New Zealand. A toiletry kit with the words "family size" in the name. It's on her Christmas list, so we'll just have to wait and see what she gets. Oh please, let it be huge!
Only two more days of work.
We leave on January 10. Stay tuned...
