I wanted to supplement yesterday’s postcard. I realized I failed to mention much of our time in the mountains. The pictures are stunning; some were posted on Facebook and Instagram in a Relive video. But for those who do not follow us on those platforms, I wanted to share some of them. We took one hike near our house along Opihi Gorge. I thought it would be a good running trail. We were told not to go past the bridge because it would be too muddy. Well we have done some slipping and sliding in the slippery mud here, so we were not at all fazed.
It started with a pair of styles (the steps over fences that humans can negotiate, but not cattle or sheep), over 4 strands of thick gauge electric fence without any hand-holds. And that was a hint of the challenges to come. It was a slippery trail, but what we did not know about was the trail was a goat-width ledge on a you-would-not-survive-the-fall cliff. Then crossed a suspension bridge. Then a metal ladder (freezing cold) up about 30 feet to where the goat ledge is now 30’ higher and climbing. At this point we turned back. No phone reception if we got in trouble and no one would find us for weeks. Shirley then we would have gotten snow. We did not want to be those tourists.
For another hike we went out of our way to hike a trail we had hiked before. We had to spend a night in Twizel (Tw-I zel) which was not our favorite town the first time around. That is how much we wanted to hike this track. It is called the Hooker Valley Track and is in the Mt Cook National Park. The trail follows a stream of glacier melt. It is in a valley in between two or three glaciers including the Tasman Glacier/Mt Cook.
Mt Cook is a difficult climb. Unclimbable for a long time until finally conquered by Sir Edmund Hillary who made this area his home. Still a common training prep for Everest. Glacier melt is an opaque light blue from permanently suspended crushed silica. You can always tell a glacier river here; different shades of blue green, but always an opaque quality. We did this hike in Spring and it was gorgeous then, small (VW sized) ice blocks were still present in Spring – with the glaciers melting double time and all. It is beautiful, but sad to see. I was really looking forward to see it under snow. Other travelers were posting pictures of the lake frozen, I couldn’t wait. We had too many days of warm weather and there was no snow for us. The lake looked like a blue margarita with ice cubes floating. It was still beautiful.
We stopped at another hot spring park. We had this one virtually to ourselves. Soaked under snow covered mountains with a view of Lake Tekapo.
Covid Update
And the other news is that right after I posted my letter bragging about our fast moving vacation, life changed again. One family in Auckland turned up with 4 cases of covid. They were not international travelers and the case has not been traced to a source. So, New Zealand government announced we will up our alert level and Auckland is in lockdown again. This country does not tolerate covid. It is hard to believe the response measured against the USA situation. We are still allowed to move around for the moment; because we are a long way from Auckland; it is on the North Island, we are on the south. It was only a matter of time and we have been warned that residents were being complacent.
They have even advised we get a mask. Masks have never been used here. I have been looking for some fabric ones for when we leave here for months; they just are not available here. We have been traveling with the Home Depot disposable type in case we needed them. I’ll need your feedback about what mask we want. I suspect they will be in stores soon.
People have commented online about NZ paying for quarantine of its incoming visitors. But folks, this is not a paid air B&B vacation. It is called “Managed Isolation”. But it is virtually a prison. Selected hotels, surrounded by hurricane fencing and guarded by soldiers and police. Still there have been a few escapes. Escapees all caught and then sentenced to real prison. And one guy caught after he snuck in (and out again). He was apprehended. And now the lucky travelers coming to NZ are paying $3100 per person for the pleasure of this two week sentence. Incoming flights will dry up. The country is fine with that. Lots of covid cases have been snared coming in with international travelers. The residents are increasingly intolerant of these late arrivals. Our flight to Portugal in September has been canceled. With no flights coming in, there will be no planes going out. So we may be here another month or so, who knows.