December 11, 2023
The crossing over the Cook Straits was as calm as could be. The three and a half hour ride was barely long enough for me to get my last email done. The surprising part of the ferry was that we came upon land earlier than I expected. The last hour of the ferry ride was navigating through the Marlborough Straits which reminded both Nick and I of our 2015 Norway cruise from the Arctic Circle down to Bergen. The ride through the Marlborough Straits was a gentler version of the Norway fjords but no less stunning. As we entered the Picton harbor there was a line of tiny sailboats being towed out, no doubt for a sailing lesson, that looked amazingly like little ducks behind their mother.
Our tiny house Airbnb in Blenheim lived up to its dimension. It was perfectly appointed with everything you needed with the exception of a little more space for our growing store of food, laundry, traveling detritus, etc. The main house was next to a small river which allowed the owners plenty of water to show their green thumbs.
L: Marlborough’s vineyards are just a picturesque as our California counterparts. Middle:
This is Jackson Estate Winery. I loved the fun of incorporating an old shed with a new structure to highlight the old and the new. As it turns out, it is not an “old structure” but this winery was designed by the set designer for…wait for it…Lord of the Rings and he carried his overall sense of this winery by capturing the old and the new. Note the old truck parked to the right and back of the building with old wine barrels on it…Just a prop! R: Nick had his work cut out for him as he handled the flight of beers. I relented and helped him a bit. Note that this is the Moa Brewery named after the giant flightless bird that went extinct within 100 years of human settlement of New Zealand. Some species of moas were up to 12 feet tall and over 500 lbs. almost double the size of ostriches.
The next day was dedicated to me….and the wine country. Nick took on the driving while I took on the wine tasting….at least until we figured out there were just as many craft beers to be tasted as wines. It was a lovely day…very Napa-Sonoma.
Basking in the afterglow of good wines and beers, we realized that night that our first big hiking tour was only days away. Sitting all day tasting wines and beers was not necessarily the best training regimen, although there is something to be said for rejuvenating the spirit.
The 4.5 mile walk through the Wairau Lagoon. Looks easy, right? R: Prepping for our walk in our tiny kitchen in our tiny house. This was the beginning of our obsession with peanut butter and jelly in New Zealand.
To add physical rejuvenation, we decided to find a longer walk that would require some sustained action. I found a gentle 4.5 mile walk through the Wairau River lagoon that eventually empties into the Marlborough Straits. The treasure halfway around the loop was the S. S. Waverly, a boat that had been decommissioned 30+ years earlier and was slated to become part of the break water. While towing it to its spot, a storm broke and carried it far into the marshland lagoons, where it was destined to slowly get reclaimed by the tidal lands.
About two hours into the sustained walking, which was extremely level and punctuated by long boardwalks over the wet parts of the marshlands, I began to wonder if we weren’t a little late to get the training started. Sort of like finally choosing to study the night before the final…Truthfully, I had upped my walking game back in July in anticipation of the NZ trip. But I had gone from maybe walking 1,200 steps a day (a level reached only when I was cooking and had to walk between my office and kitchen more than usual), to walking 6,000 steps a day. All of those steps represented no elevations.
By the time we got to the Waverly, I had put in 7,500 steps, and a life-saving picnic table where I could sit for a few. Nick, of course, went off to explore the wreck while I sat and sweated. Hmmm. We will be walking 5 to 12 miles a day in a few days and it won’t all be flat. Should I be worried? That is a rhetorical question.
With that in mind, when we found out about a monument in Nelson that defined the geographical center of New Zealand, and that there was a “steep” but “short” climb up the mountain, I decided it had to be done. I sent Nick ahead to go at his own pace up. Nick’s big hike comes up in mid-January and it is not a wuss-hike. He needed to test himself.
The path was well-defined, about a yard wide, and very steep with plenty of switchbacks to slow the climb. My walking sticks kept me going. Although the climb was supposed to be about a 30 minute walk, they were not considering an out of shape 71 year old testing it out. The night before Nick and I had watched a movie that we chose randomly, knowing nothing about it, on Netflix, “Nyad”…It was about a marathon swimmer who at aged 64 achieved her lifetime goal of swimming from Cuba to Florida. The many scenes where she was attacked by jellyfish, hallucinated, was beyond exhaustion kept rolling through my brain. As I came to what I hoped was the summit, although the trees didn’t allow for vistas, I found myself trying to hear Jodie Foster, the coach, urging Annette Benning, the swimmer, on to the last few strokes. I made it to the top. I survived, pouring with sweat, but there. Nick was there. It was a good moment.
But then…there is the downhill. What you gain in cardio as you push yourself up, you also gain back in cardio as you try to negotiate down the steep path. Nick stayed close, more as a coach than anything else. But I did it. We did it.
Tomorrow we head off on the Abel Tasman track: 5 days, 3 of hiking and 2 of kayaking and short hikes. The hiking days will include 5 miles, 12 miles, and 8 miles. The greatest elevation gain will be 400 feet, which isn’t that bad. But there are plenty of beaches, tidal areas, amazing views, and a million sand flies waiting for me. Most of my daypack will be, hopefully, lethal ointments to the pests. We’ll see.
As we will be hiking for the next five days with minimal access to internet and electricity, then recovering after that, there will be a little break from these emails. We should have some tales to tell on the other side.
Kia ora,
~Wendy and Nick
P.S. As for steps…we are doing between 12,000 to 15,000 when we walk, The walk up to the center of New Zealand disappointed me as the number of steps for the day was only 11,000 steps. However, I got smart and checked how many “flights” (of stairs) climbed. Generally I average about 2 flights over the course of a week. Yesterday was 13 flights. So, yeah, it was steep!