"I could have sworn it was night time..."

Up until two days ago, I could honestly say that I had never hit an animal in a car. Today, I can now say that I brutally killed an innocent New Zealand duck. I was driving late at night after a long day on the river with the boys and this duck appeared out of nowhere. In my defense, this duck made no effort to fly away or escape his death and I can only assume his wings were working, so perhaps it was a suicide? Thats what I tell myself at night when the quacks haunt me. It didn't help that shortly after I killed him, P. Diddy's "I'll be missing you" came on Drew's ipod. Talk about kicking you when you're down.


Anyways, let me flashback to a day or so before this happened....

Friday night I drove to the Christchurch Airport to pick up Les, Drew, and Zach. For those of you who don't know... they are all 4UR Ranch boys that I met this past summer who are here in NZ for a 3 month long fly fishing trip. Their flight got in around midnight so I responsibly left the house around 11pm or so incase they got in early. BIG MISTAKE. 

The flight landed on time and as soon as I saw on the arrival screen that they had landed, I got up and stood right by the gate, ready to greet my favorite ranch boys with open arms. I stood there for 2 hours and creepily watched every other passenger off every flight greet their loved ones but my friends were nowhere in sight. Finally, an Australian flight attendant came up to me and asked, "Are you waiting for three American boys?" Once I heard that question, I knew that I wouldn't be leaving that airport anytime soon.

Turned out, their fly-fishing rods were lost in transit. To put this feeling into perspective of someone who has never come across an avid fly fisherman, finding this out would be equivalent to losing your child. Knowing how much they dream about trout, I was nervous about greeting three grumpy, jet-lagged boys. Luckily, they were so damn happy to be off of that plane and excited about finally being here that they were in good spirits when they finally walked over that international line, legally bringing them into the land of the long white cloud. Maybe they were over tired or loopy from  all the traveling,  but I give them serious credit for staying so calm. 

I'm not so sure I believe in karma, but their optimism led them to the rods to show up on the doorstep just two days later. After finding the missing rods, we toasted with some cheap red wine to the beginning of their fishing adventure and the next day headed up towards Arthur's Pass to fish the Broken River.

Arthur's Pass never ceases to amaze me. It really is one of the most beautiful drives you will ever come across. I drove our little Toyota Vitz through those windy roads and despite some trouble accelerating uphill, I was impressed at how smooth the drive went. That was until we got to the 10 mile dirt road that would lead us to the Broken river. Now, I don't know if any of you are familiar with a Toyota Vitz, but you would not likely to see it off-roading in a TV ad. 10 miles (20 some-odd kilometers), 2 hours, and a lot of nervous passengers later, the Vitz made it across the rocky terrain to the river. The boys had a great first trip--reeling in about 20 New Zealand rainbows. It was exciting for Hannah and I to just watch them do what they do and now that Les got me a rod for Christmas, hopefully I will catch some trout of my own once we start heading South.

The rest of this week has consisted of getting the boys settled with bank accounts, a car and introducing them to our Christchurch friends but within the next few days, we will be parting ways. They will be heading North and we will be heading down South towards Dunedin and slowly making our way over to Queenstown and the West Coast over the next two months. Luckily, this country is pretty tiny so I'm sure we will see them a few times again on our trip. 


Until next time...

Diamond Harbor & Akaroa

Arthur's Pass Tramp

Hannah and I spent the past three days hiking through the Hawdon Valley. It was our first attempt at a NZ "tramp", so we were a little nervous but luckily we had a kiwi friend with us to help us through the river crossings. Our friend, Sarah, was also the Hut Warden for the hut we were staying out which meant we got to stay the two nights for free! Despite our nerves at the beginning, it turned out to be an unbelievable trip. Spent hours hiking each day seeing some of the most beautiful scenery and ended the evenings playing a card version of Monopoly with other trampers, which provided an unbelievable amount of entertainment. The hut we stayed at was one of the nicer ones-- we were told we had a very spoiled first tramp experience so we have to keep our standards pretty low for the huts to come. Ah well, it was good fun. We are back in Christchurch now taking a break from the sun and sand flies. Probably sticking around here for the week because on Friday our 4UR boys get here! Can't wait to see some familiar American faces. Below are some pics from the tramp...until next time!

Devil's Punchbowl

Let the tramp begin.

Probably should have followed the track markers...

Hawdon Hut

Trek through Walker's Pass

Fancy hut quarters

Anything tastes good after hiking all day

Last morning at the hut

Home stretch!

Shaky New Year for Christchurch

Happy New Year everyone! It's been almost a week or so since I've last posted...so let me bring you up to speed.

Last Wednesday, we finished up work at Owen River Lodge. It was quite sad to say goodbye to the people we've met there, but it was time for us to move on and explore this beautiful country. By Thursday morning, we were all moved out of our little farm house and on the road to Christchurch to spend time with our NZ parents, Rick and Lynn Vandertie. It had been awhile since we'd seen the American couple that has been amazingly generous to us so we were excited to finally spend some quality time with them. They graciously gave us their spare room so we plan to be here most of January while we gather up tramping gear for the rest of our summer adventures. We've spent the past week eating Rick's amazing meals, watching old movies, walking around the city, going to the beach, and most notably...experiencing a tremendous amount of earthquakes!

Liquefaction from the Dec 23rd quake, causing severe damage to roads.

Growing up in New Jersey my whole life, earthquakes were something I never really understood. I've experienced hurricanes, blizzards, and lots of bad storms over the years... but never have I experienced a natural disaster so unsettling. The first earthquake we felt was the first night we arrived in Christchurch. We were all sitting in the living room watching a movie when the house began to shake and ground started to move back and forth. I barely had time to freak out before it was over. It all happened rather quick but an hour later, another one came. Hour after hour, it seemed like. That first earthquake I felt was a 4.4 on the Richter scale, which was pretty light, but a few days later we felt a 5.5 that violently woke us up in the middle of the night. That one was a lot scarier--things falling of the shelves, more intense shaking. Yesterday alone, there were 17 quakes in 18 hours. What amazes me is  how normal it is to the people of Christchurch--they are barely even phased by some of the smaller ones. I suppose we are getting used to it by now, not waking up in the middle of the night as often, but it is definitely scary! Today has been better so hopefully we will have a break from all the shaking at least for a little while. Not a good way to bring in 2012 for a city who just spent all of 2011 recovering from February's quake that took the lives of 181 people. 

Anyways, despite all of the quakes, the past 6 days have been really fun. We spent New Years Eve in Hagley Park and somehow managed to sneak through the massive crowds to be in the front row for an amazing cover band. They even had a bagpiper perform "Auld Lang Syne" when the clock struck midnight. 

New Years Eve, Hagley Park

NYE Cover Band

Bagpiper, "Auld Lang Syne"

We've also spent some time exploring the different neighborhoods around the city, many of which are now considered "Red Zone" areas, meaning the damage is too extensive and uneconomical to rebuild. (Over 5,000 residential homes are in the Red Zone now, which is the reason why many Canterburians are moving to different cities or fleeing the country all together). We attempted to go hiking on the coast but every trail we found was shut down because of the damage. Kind of a bummer, but that just means we have to travel a bit more outside of Christchurch to do some bigger tramps and hikes. It's really sad to witness it all firsthand, but it's also inspiring that so many people refuse to leave their home despite what has happened here. 


 The sad truth is that there's a lot in this world to be afraid of--if it's not earthquakes, it's something else. I'll never forget what my Pop-Pop told me growing up. In 1996, after the TWA plane crash, I became terrified of flying and swore to myself that I would never get on another plane again.  After I rambled my irrational reasoning to my patient grandfather he just simply said, "Becky, you can't live in fear. If you live your life in fear, you'll wake up one day and realize you never really lived at all." That advice has always stuck with me throughout the years and now that I'm on the other end of the world, I've obviously boarded many planes since 1996.  You can prepare yourself for natural disasters or other unfortunate events, but there's a lot in this life that we can't escape or control. I think that's the mentality in a lot of Christchurch citizens. This has always been their home and earthquakes aren't going to scare them away.

New Brighton Beach

No hike for us that day

New Brighton Beach

On a lighter note, the weather for this week is looking good so we are heading out tomorrow on our first camping adventure!