We are recovered from our mtn bike trek and back to day hiking. We hiked a small portion of the Heaphy Track. Another 4-5 day backpack and mountain bike trail that cuts across the top left corner of the South Island through national park wilderness It was enjoyable, picturesque, partly along a real rough, west facing sea (Tasman Sea). At the end, we found two women that we had passed along the trail. They had just finished the whole 5 day trek, but missed their ride. So we collected their giant packs and loaded them in our SUV (called Ute in NZ).
On the way home I made Mark brake hard. There was a cow in the paddock (pasture) just off the road that had just delivered a calf. We stopped the car and watched as the new born calf managed to finally, after several attempts that ended in spectacular falls, stand. And a couple more attempts, finally nurse. There are lambs lambing and cows calving everywhere in New Zealand at the moment (it is officially Spring). I have been saying to Mark that of all the fantastic experiences we have been having, nothing beats witnessing a long legged baby standing for the first time. It is a bucket list experience that is not on your bucket list until you witness it. Mark finally has. The whole package: Mom grooming it to the point of knocking it over on its spindly legs. Baby finally standing on both back and front legs at the same time. Nothing in the world beats that. Nothing. Sorry folks, some things you just have to see with your own eyes – I took no pictures.
We left the Westcoast behind and drove all the way from the Tasman beach to the Pacific Ocean (East Coast). We traveled over the highest of the Southern Alps passes (Aurther’s Pass) to get from one side of the other. This trans-New Zealand trek, including some north-south stretches to meet up with the road going east-west, took all of 4 ½ hours. We passed waterfalls, rivers and streams, snow covered peaks, one lane bridges, and calves and lambs. I think we probably saw more waterfalls than one lane bridges, about a dozen each, but the baby lambs numbered in the hundreds. We are spending a few days on the small farm of our friends Dean and Julliette. They have a menagerie of animals that warms our hearts: 2 donkeys, 2 very lucky steers (they are never going to be beef), chooks, ducks, 2 big dogs and 2 manx cats. And a deaf alpaca. And 2, day old lambs next door. The weather has been teasing us, but Spring may finally have arrived.
We are trying to get our visa extended. Like everywhere else, bureaucracy is slow and stupid. We get mixed information. Well not even mixed information, just that the government policy makes no sense and contradicts itself. There was an announcement that most visas are being automatically extended but only if: you cannot leave, but are trying to. So what is the mechanism to prove these facts? There is none. So what is automatic about that? What is the mechanism to verify if we are part of the “most”? Before this announcement, we started an application for a visa the straightforward regular way. This requires a chest x-ray. To make sure we do not have TB. But we’re already in the country, so what is this going to do? In order to get the x-ray, we need to visit a doctor first and open an imigration file. Check (“check” the box, and leave behind a bank “check”). Then have the x-ray taken, another check. Hopefully pretty quickly we will find out if we are allowed to stay. In the meantime, we are staying.
We thought we were to be leaving New Zealand, so we packed in every nook and cranny of the country we wanted to explore. Now we are taking a wee (little) break from the break-neck touristing. Mostly because we had done everything. We have two or three short housesits coming up and will use that time to plan more travel. With the warm weather coming, we have a whole new bunch of stuff we can do. Fun times ahead.