Epic. 9 days, 62 miles; with 40 lb Packs. We Rule.

Snippets of the Abel Tasman National Park Coastal Track experience…

(One quick disclaimer: I did not proofread this gargantuan entry. Sorry!)

Food. Food food food. We didn’t bring enough food! We realized on about day 1.75 that we were short on food. Well, Betsy realized it. I was happy to keep on chomping away until we ran out, then deal with it. Therefore, Betsy had the unenviable responsibility of continually tell me “Chris, we can’t have anymore ______.” Fill in the blank with cheese, crackers, bread, lollies (candy), biscuits (cookies), chocolate, instant mashed potatoes, instant rice, instant vegetables, oatmeal, dry cereal, peanut butter, or peanuts. I was hungry. Constantly. Up hills, down hills; hungry. Cold, warm, wet, dry; hungry. Tramping, reading on the beach, getting ready for bed; hungry. We can go ahead a coin a new phrase. The Abel Tasman Diet. Put it right up there with the South Beach Diet, or the Atkins Diet. It’s so very simple. Tramp 4.5 hours a day, over 9 days, and just don’t bring enough food! However, Betsy and I aren’t preparing for a career in modeling, so we weren’t looking to starve ourselves. Luckily, we came across many generous, caring people that had a bit of food, sometimes a lot of food, to spare for a couple of starving Americans. I want to thank:

1) Sandy, for the 5 snack logs, and ½ jar of peanut butter.
2) Robert and Diana for the scone.
3) Peter and Jess for the Nutella.
4) The Kiwi flight attendant traveling with the girl from Texas for the 2 apples and chocolate.
5) Andrew and Chris for the barbecue flavored rice crackers, and the canned peaches.
6) Josepe for the unopened package of crackers, two slices of cheese, two packets of oatmeal, and the offer of a chocolate bar.
7) Chad and Ginny for the salami, cheese, and the delicious, huge cups of hot chocolate!

Unreal. We would have starved without all this food! Enough about food.

Chad and Ginny, the donors of hot chocolate, are from Anchorage, Alaska. We had the pleasure of sharing a hut with them, about halfway through the tramp. Chad loves wine, and Ginny is a veterinarian. Cool people. They enhanced my opinion of Alaskans. They are NOT fans of Sarah Palin. At all. Two days after saying goodbye, I unraveled a fresh pair of socks to discover they had slipped a $20 bill into the fold, along with a note reading “Chris and Betsy- it’s hard being young, in love, and poor. Have a couple of burgers on us! -Chad and Ginny” Wow. We were shocked. Betsy got goose bumps. What generosity. We have no way of thanking them, no last names, no email addresses. Awesome. Someday we’ll have to pay it forward to another young couple.

We met a great mid-20s Taiwanese guy named Simon. Well, Simon is only his American name. Well, his 2nd American name; his first was Vulcan, but it was “too hard to pronounce and to spell.” He’s about my height, rather slight, with big calves. I absolutely loved Simon. He was the sweetest person I’ve met in a long time. One example involves Betsy. Betsy suggested the answer to a question was a number somewhere in the 70s. Simon replied, “Yes, I cannot remember; it was either somewhere in the 70s, or 82.” He spoke gently, softly, and respectfully. Betsy and I both noticed this moment, and knew the correct answer was undoubtedly 82, but that Simon preferred not to correct Betsy. He was the sweetest guy. He wasn’t a master of the English language, but what he did know he spoke well and pronounced clearly. We told him as much, and he was happy to know it. “I am happy you told me this” he said, smiling. He expressed his wish to be able to express himself more fully, and was very happy that Betsy understood the fatigue that results from speaking a foreign language all day long. He had the sweetest laugh too. I asked the population of Taiwan, and he told me it was 23 million (I think). I then told him (as a Canadian had told me earlier in the day) that the population of all of Canada, huge Canada, was only 34 million. “Only 34 million?! Oh my, it’s so big!” he said, holding his hands far apart to indicate Canada’s vastness, while cracking up. He got a big kick out of that. Simon is a very brave guy. After his obligatory military service, he was working as a mechanic at a natural gas power plant. Against his parents wishes, and against the ethos of his native culture, he decided to travel. To a foreign country. That speaks another language. By himself. Awesome. So brave. I plan to “friend him” on Facebook. One more Simon story… He told us about a guy he met in a hostel, from Philadelphia, that was reading the Tao te Ching. The Tao te Ching! But he was from Philidelphia! Simon thought this was very funny, amusing. “I think this is very confusing!” he said, shaking his head. Religion. What religion are you? I had to ask. “For me, right now, I’m not ready for religion.” He explained that he liked and was interested in the philosophies of the religions, but not really in practicing any right now. I really liked that guy. Betsy got some good shots of us chatting. They’ll be available for public consumption, eventually.

That was a long snippet. Here’s a short one. There’s a lot of time to think on a 9 day tramping journey; I can think about baseball, and sports, endlessly. Bo Jackson, Brad Hawpe, John Olerud’s swing, the Rockies, spring training was awesome, Mugsy Bogues was my favorite childhood basketball player, Barry Sanders my favorite NFL player, I hope Roger Clemens ends up behind bars, Pernell “Sweet Pea” Whitaker was awesome, I can’t wait to learn the King’s Indian Attack, Christian Okoye is my favorite Kansas City Chiefs player ever, the Jayhawks finally won a national championship, I wonder if the Royals will ever win another World Series, George Brett was awesome…

Our camera stopped working on day 2. Oops.

We got walking sticks! I found mine on about day 2 or 3, Betsy on about day 4 or 5. They’re awesome! Just sticks of wood, from some old tree, but priceless to us. I feel some level of affection for my stick. At one point we forgot our sticks at a hut, and we went back for them without flinching.

Once again, the tramp bordered on the spiritual. This time, the exhaustion wasn’t so much physical as mental. It was long, hard, and we were hungry! Showing restraint with food is an act of willpower. So is hiking up a big damn hill when you’re already tired. For us then, it was willpower morning, noon, and night. Mentally, it was draining. But the rewards were great. It was immensely satisfying to make it back to our camp today, and to feast on chocolate sandwich creams! I feel stronger, better, for having survived, persevered.

Tramping in New Zealand, with Betsy, is awesome. The Abel Tasman was such an amazing experience. We saw so many beautiful vistas, and amazing stretches of beach. We hauled our ridiculously heavy packs up and down great big hills, in all manner of conditions. We waded through belly deep tide pools, that were damn cold. We waited for hours in the rain, for a stream to get low enough to cross. And we did it all together. It was awesome. We rule.

Hello South Island

Tomorrow we set off on the Abel Tasman National Park Coastal Track. It's one of New Zealand's "Great Walks." We'll be out there, sweating, eating, camping, and enjoying, for over a week. Wish us luck!

The North Island Border

Walking down Lambton Quay yesterday, on our way back from the Wellingon Botanic Garden, it appeared before me, bathed in a golden light. My Mecca. We had stumbled upon it, as if by fate. Destiny. Borders. The bookstore! Books and music. And tons of magazines! And big comfy chairs. And tons of sections, with tons of books, and plenty of sports books. Home. I love it. I haven’t seen a mega-bookstore since, since… since Auckland!

Nine months or so since Auckland, a bit longer since I last… Two days ago I decided. Too many days of white food, at room temperature. The thought first occurred to me during our Lake Waikaremoana hike. It sounded sooooo good, after hours and hours of hiking. My goodness I’d love a great, big, juicy, fatty, salty… hamburger. A whopper. With everything on it. Who am I? A hamburger? I was a vegetarian for 9 years, and I haven’t had a hamburger since I became a carnivore again. Even before vegetarianism, I hadn’t been in the habit of eating fast food since high school. So when I walked into Burger King two days ago, I ordered a double whopper! With everything. It was divine. Best hamburger I’ve ever eaten.

Got new kicks yesterday! New shoes, that is. They’re Asics. Motion control even, to manage the pronation problem I have. Flat feet. I have flat feet. I blame my dad. Wait, how can we afford new shoes?? We can’t. But we really can’t afford for my feet to fall apart during any of the 46.5 hikes Betsy has planned for us on the south island. My old pair was falling off my feet. My grandpa Sam would have been proud.

I saw a movie in an actual theatre! “District 9” was the lucky winner. It was a really fun, interestingly filmed science fiction movie. I liked it, and loved being in a gigantic, modern, mega, 15 screen movie theatre.

In short, spending a few days in Wellington has been awesome. It has all the comforts a child of the suburbs needs.

We’re heading south. On Sunday we’ll load Hank on the inter-island ferry and float on over to Picton. Round 1 will be the Abel Tasman Coastal Track. Round 2, Nelson Lakes. Round 3, Queen Charlotte Track. Round 4… You get the idea. Betsy is over the moon with excitement, and I’m… wondering if we can see one more movie in the cinema before we go.