Tramping New Zealand

No, I was not whoring my way around New Zealand. "Tramping" is the Kiwi word for hiking or trekking. I recently traveled around the south island of New Zealand, hiking in many of the National Parks.

Total trip duration: 2.5 weeks
Total miles traveled: ~3,000

Here are some highlights....

Stunning scenery and close encounters with seals (a little too close, in fact) in Kaikoura.



Remote waterfront relaxation in the Marlborough Sounds, pulling fresh oysters and mussels right out of the water and frying them up for dinner.




Beachside backpacking (and even some barefoot backpacking through rivers!) in the Abel Tasman National Park. Here's my solo photo attempt:


Also some awesome dolphin viewing during my boat trip to the trailhead at Abel Tasman:


The amazing southern Alps around Queenstown and Wanaka. Unfortunately I didn't get to do much hiking here because it rained non-stop, and I had a cold. But I took some nice pics in the brief moments of no rain. If the scenery looks familiar, it's because a lot of the Lord of the Rings movie footage was filmed in this area.





Milford Sound. Part of a huge area called Fjordland which was carved out by glaciers long ago. This area rivals (beats?) Yosemite in terms of awesome granite monoliths. You get a sense of the size in this picture with the car.


More of the valley heading towards Milford Sound:



I took an overnight cruise on Milford Sound, which was also really beautiful. I saw Dusky dolphins and Fjordland Crested penguins, and got sprayed when the captain sailed the boat right under some enormous waterfalls.



I drove to the coast to see penguins hanging out by the beach.




I stayed on a sheep farm and got to herd sheep with the farmer in his pickup truck. Turns out that sheep are actually pretty nasty up close. And dumb. But don't they look cute from afar?



Hiked to a glacier in Mt. Cook National Park. Saw bits of glacier crumble down the mountain. Also the lakes in this region are a bright blue color because of the sediment that flows into them from the glacial melt.

Mount Cook:


Lake Tekapo with Alps in the background:



I also stayed on a horse ranch and got riding lessons, but I was too busy holding onto the horse for dear life to take any pictures, so you'll just have to use your imagination.

Southwest Road Trip 2007

I am on sabbatical for three months. Yes, I am incredibly lucky that my work allows me to do this. Mostly I am just going to travel and pick up some old hobbies in my free time. First big trip of the sabbatical was a road trip through the Southwest. I have not been to much of the SW, even though I really love the desert. Here was the basic itinerary. As you can probably tell from the pics, the trip was great.

First stop in Vegas, where we ate like pigs (2 nights, 2 different gourmet steak restaurants), and saw "Ka", a Cirque du Soleil show. During the day, Vegas sucks, so we went hiking at Red Rocks.



Next we headed to the Grand Canyon, which I had never seen before. After spending an incredibly cold night in their campground (31 degrees!), we hiked the Bright Angel trail down into the Canyon. We made it about 4.5 miles down, to the Indian Springs campground, near the bottom of the canyon, but not quite all the way to the river. We wanted to get back to the top in time to pick up our dog from the kennel where she had to stay because dogs are not allowed on the trails. All in all, it was still a good 9 mile hike, at pretty high elevation, so no small feat.


Ever since the first time I saw a picture of Antelope Canyon, I knew that I wanted to visit it myself. So after another freezing night of camping at the Grand Canyon, we headed over to Page, Arizona, where the beautiful Anetelope Canyon resides. It is a slot canyon, meaning that it is basically just a crack in some sandstone, carved out by water over time. Light comes through the openings in the top of the canyon and illuminates sections of the crack with vivid colors. The canyon is on Navajo land (some of the most beautiful country I have ever seen), so you join a Navajo-guided tour in Page, and then drive the short distance to the canyon. More pics on my online photo album, if you're interested.


After visiting Antelope Canyon, we headed towards southeastern Utah through Monument Valley. It was a great intro to the landscape in southern Utah, where it seems like there is a stone monument everywhere you look.


We made it to Moab that night, checked into a hotel that allows dogs (we were done with the freezing nights of camping), and then headed out for a hike the next day. Although we eventually wanted to see the National Parks in that area, dogs are not allowed on the trails in those parks, so for our first day, we picked a trail outside the parks that Lola could hike as well. We ended up picking an 8 mile loop that leads to a hidden arch, called Uranium Arch, after the uranium mining that used to be done in the area.


Next day: Lola went to doggie day care and Pete and I headed to Arches National Park. We hiked several trails, but the longest (and best) one was the Devils Garden Trail, a 7 mile loop that takes you past about 10 different arches, and through a playground of red rockpiles and rock fins. Very fun.



Day 3 in the Moab area was kind of overcast. We drove out to Canyonlands. The park is huge, but fairly inaccessible without a high-clearance 4WD car, and there are not very many trails. So we took in the views and then headed out, making our way towards Grand Junction, Colorado, where Pete had some work to do.


While in Grand Junction for 2 days, Pete worked and I went hiking with Lola. We hiked about 6 miles each day, and then Lola would crash for the rest of the evening.


Then we headed towards home, with another stop in Vegas on the way, including of course another fancy steak restaurant and a show. This time we saw Le Reve, which was a very cool show that combined acrobatics with water. The stage was basically a giant pool, and people were lowered down from the sky, and into and out of the water. Very visually cool. Dinner was at Craftsteak, which was amazing. I highly recommend it. We had the chef's tasting menu, which included 4 different appetizers, 2 steak entrees, 4 desserts, and wine paired with each course. Don't even ask how much it cost, but it was so worth it. Delicious.


The next day, we finished the last leg home. A really great trip, and a great way to kick off my sabbatical. We'll see what i do next!

Catching up

Ok, so it's been shamefully long since my last post, but here is a summary of what has happened since then:

I went to Fiji and learned how to scuba dive.



I hiked to the top of Half Dome.




I ate at Michael Mina, which has ruined me forever.



I got a dog! Deceptively cute:



What adventures lie ahead? I don't know, but I'll try to be better about keeping you posted...

Some quirky things about India

It was my first time in India. I was on a business trip in Hyderabad, and didn't have a lot of time to travel around, but I have been able to notice some funny differences:

1. Cars play music (sounds kinda like a midi file) when they go in reverse. Apparently, people pay a lot of money for this feature.
   
2. People really do carry cargo on their heads (bundles of wood, jugs of water, bags of stuff).
   
3. Even the fanciest buildings have piles of rubble in front of them. Imagine an upscale mall or restaurant where the sidewalk in front is completely torn up.
   
4. The bus doesn't come to a complete stop when picking up and dropping off passengers. It sort of slows to a roll while people jump on and off. Sometimes you have to get a running start to hop on.
   
5. A 4-person rickshaw can really fit 9 people.
   
6. A moped can really seat a family of 4.
7. Cows really can do whatever they want (like hang out in the middle of the road, and everyone has to go around them).
   

In an unrelated picture, people sell delicious-looking fruit everywhere, but us weenie white people can't eat it because we'll get sick because we're not accustomed to the different bacteria in India. So hard to resist all the awesome-looking (and super cheap) fruits!


Seriously, India was awesome, the food was delicious, and the people were really friendly. I would highly recommend it (but definitely bring a stash of Cipro, just in case - I needed it).