Life Between Naps

i was listening to that song the other night and couldn’t help thinking of the allegory of the cave. yeah, i should tell you about the dream i had last night.

well, a sad day has come, one that neither of my parents really prepared me for. no, i am not pregnant, but i do have like 5 gray hairs…fuck. sorry grandmas. apparently when you are out living the dream, living off of donuts and premium ice cream, a stress free vagabond way of life and all that jazz, well apparently it takes it’s toll haha. oh well, it’s not like i have a receding hairline or anything, so all is not lost!  the way i came to realize this was it came to my attention that i might need a haircut. you see, i last had the hairs trimmed some time in mid august, so it had been about 3.5 months since the last snip. well, after deciding between a $20 haircut or a $30 set of clippers i went to the local target-ish superstore and purchased some hair trimmers. i gave them away to a fellow hostel mate after i spent about an hour having my hair ripped out in a most painful fashion. despite the pain, i succeeded and am now looking pretty slick once again. unfortunately the trim also made some educated looking follicles stand out. oh man, does this mean i have to start drinking scotch?

i was walking down the trail, mind wandering, when it occured to me that the scariest thing i could encounter would be a giant, small car sized moth.

think about it. freaky.

so after my last walk i exchanged infos with one of ze germans, ali, kinda like alexan-dra(or -der if you are a super awesome sister). we met up in queenstown to do the rees-dart track. the track was pretty rad and the people we met were pretty ‘diverse’. there was yoyo, from miyagi, japan, who apparently is famous in te anau for being rescued from some pass in milford when he got lost in winter after being told repeatedly not to go by locals. his picture is even at the local doc office. the israelis were a strange bunch, although very reluctant to pay hut fees or clean up their mess, they had a pretty sweet birthday party for their friend and always showed a lot of concern for the coloradians. the coloradians were a couple who thought it was a good idea to take enough pictures to turn 6-7 hour walks into 10-12 hour epics, of the alexander variety. ouch.

day 5: “when i get back i am going to take a nice long shower and smell of mountain dew.” -ali

sometimes the language barrier is horribly funny.

the strangest group was some more of ze germans. it was a girl, she quit her job, was about to leave for wherever and met a boy. he quit his job, followed her, and they got pregnant. the doctor told her to slow down, so she went trekking in nepal and miscarried. now they are in new zealand tramping. so aside from the strange group we were synced up with on the trail, everything was awesome. the highlight of it all was the dart glacier, a massive slab of ice, snow, and rock slowly receding back up the mountain. the whole thing looked like a raging river, flash frozen behind a crashing wave. we walked to the snout of the glacier and the thing is just massive, dripping gallons of water every second and throwing off all sorts of rock and debris. it was pretty crazy to see this immense hunk of nature(no, i wasn’t looking in a mirror!) that had carved out these massive valleys being reduced to basically nothing in a very short amount of time(i have heard estimates that it is receding 50 meters a year). not to get all corny or anything, but i felt very fortunate to see one of these forces of nature in person before they all melt away.

i had a dream about nicole, sarah s, one of the israelis at dart hut, and myself; we were at a banana pancake festival, all dressed up as different pieces of fruit.

so of course i immediately made banana pancakes the next day, and choco chip banana pancakes the day after. i feel this is somehow related to the abc’ song that i can’t stop singing while hiking.

the rest of the walk was pretty normal by my standards, my feet have some new terminal disease, i was dive bombed by a rabid falcon, took a dip in a snowy creek,  saw a ton wildlife, and even arrived at a hut to a pot of water after walking 7 hours in the rain. good stuff. it was super nice having an intelligent and pretty friend to talk to while walking, even though i fell off the track, nearly to my death, while trying to think of the 49th and 50th states. it was certainly a bit different though, as anyone who as ever lived with me will attest, i am not very friendly in the morning. so between my crankiness and our different hiking paces i became a bit of a trail nazi, always pushing us to the saddle ‘before the rain gets here and we die on top of a mountain’. of course it never came, and her optimism kept the day nice and bright.

it was really nice to get to wanaka after the track. i was getting a bit tired of queenstown, and wanaka is just as nice, but without the crack head tourists. i noticed the other day the easiest way to pick the tourist out of the crowd is to watch them cross the street, most will look left, then right, usually narrowly avoiding being run over. it is strange how ingrained something like crossing the street is in our subconscious, i was certainly guilty of it for a few weeks in auckland. i got to experience a lot more of the quirks from the passenger seat on our way to wanaka in ali’s duck powered car. the driving on the left stuff isn’t so bad, it’s the 1-way bridges andsuper weird turning rules that freak me out enough not to get behind the wheel here. so while driving on the left hand side of the road, if you are making a left hand turn, and the oncoming traffic is making a right hand turn(the same way you are turning), you are supposed to yield to them. so weird! i am pretty sure this is the only place in the world it happens as my current dorm mate from england has informed me they don’t do it there. ahh!

day 1: it has occurred to me that south park needs to have an episode with a rare cameo by the d, performing their own stylized version of oasis’ wonderwall. david grohl will of course be dueling kyle on the drums as satan.

like i said, wanaka is nice. just as pretty, but half the hassle walking around, i even got to see Anna and Caroline(see what i did there Caroline!!??) who you may or may not remember from my stewart island adventures as daisy and mavis. ali had a day or two left before she had to take off so we spent some time together and went to a really awesome theater to watch the new bond movie. although the movie held up pretty well, thanks in part to strawberry fields and a most excellent bad guy death, it felt like filler for the next in the series. i only mention the event because of the theater itself, complete with couches instead of seats, a car you can sit in, full food and booze menu available during the movie, old school projector, and a really cool owner. so cool in fact that he gave a little talk at the start of the film, informing us that daniel craig was the 2nd best bond, next to sean connery of course. some fo0l unwisely yelled out that roger moore was at least the 2nd best, if not THE best. the owner told him to ‘fuck off’. ahah classic. i guess i am still dumbfounded at the simple and great idea of serving alcohol at a movie theatre. woot.

day 2: “i can’t believe i forgot my gloves, but made it anyways with boxers in their stead” -in the hut book, some guy climbing mount barff from ‘tijuana via wellington’.

sounds a lot like the guy who told me 25 mile creek and 90 mile beach were named so because ‘25 kilometer creek’ would sound stupid. wisdom.

eventually  ali had to take off, she is going home to the fatherland this week and still had a lot of country to explore. thanks for the excellent smiles and german lessons, khat-zen means vomit.  i didn’t stay in town too long though and jumped in a bus for the other side of the cascade saddle and liverpool hut. the hut, situated in between mt. barff and bonar glacier(seriously), ended up being this 6 bunk tin shack with a million dollar view andsome cool people. i watched a lot of people going by with rope, ice axes, and crampons while i sat in my cozy shack reading my book anddrinking tea. it really makes you feel like a fair weather great walks kindof hiker when the real climbers are around, especially when some of them are like 10 years old. a dad brought his 2 sons up to climb mt. barff, they were named peter, max, and jackson. it must be some kind of cult. that night we were attacked by some killer kea and the next morning i dound out that marmite is the most disgusting substance known to man, maybe i should try it’s crazy uncle vegemite instead. luckily ali had bought me some WHOLE DRIED BANANAS before she left. i have seen banana chips, and i have seen a banana, but when their forces combine a force not unlike the carne asada burrito is created. pure awesome.

so yeah, i am now back in wanaka, starring at the very definition of irony, a kitchen with no freezer, but a cookbook of nothing but ice cream recipes… tomorrow i am hitching northto start a 6 day trip that will hopefully not lead to my untimely death. i’ll be back before christmas, but if i don’t talk to you before then, merry christmas or whatever it is you decide to call your exchange of gifts and excellent food. oh yeah, and for christmas i would like to know the difference between a saddle, col, and pass. enlighten me please.

i may very well proof-read this tomorrow morning.