Spring has Sprung!

Officially, September 1st was the first day of Spring here in NZ.  With all the cold and rainy days, it sure didn't feel like it.
Last weekend was Daylight Savings Time.  We sprung forward, which the later sunset helps it feel a tad more like spring.  We had two GORGEOUS sunny days this week, on which my colleague Steve discovered a true blue sign of spring----

Asparagus!   YAAAAY!
Steve found a farm one town away that was selling fresh asparagus.  He cooked me up some and had me instantly hooked.  Within five minutes of finishing my bowl, we were in the car to go get some more!

For a few facts, there are 200 growers of asparagus in NZ, producing 500 tons of the tasty stuff every year.  There are about 24 million asparagus plants in the country (that's nearly as many as the number of sheep here!). 

The farm had a sign along the highway with directions, and a little serve yourself roadside shed.  Here's Steve in the shed checking the fridge to find me a fresh bunch!

Gotta love the honor system. :)

Here's my purchase!  Freshly picked and BEAUTIFUL.

Did you know that asparagus ranks #2 (behind OJ) for best sources of folic acid?

Three minutes in boiling water, and voila!

Yes, I ate it all.   And it was delicious!


Hopefully this is the start of a spring full of produce adventures!

Lindsay and the Tramp, version 2.0

So my tramping buddy Lincoln knew I have a half marathon coming up next weekend, so he took it easy on me this time.   We hit up Mount Egmont again, this time from the southwest.

The black dotted line trail in the Lower Left side of the mountain was our tramp--- the Ihaia Track to the Waiaua Gorge Hut. 

 Ihaia? Waiaua?  With all the a's, i's, and u's in theses Maori names, all it'd take would be to slap on an "-ski" and you've got one heckuva Polish name, doncha think?  :)

Anyways, since the tramp was a short one (2 hrs each way), we had an early afternoon start, with absolutely gorgeous weather.  Check it out--- i'm dry!!!

We passed the remnants of an old hut, which only used to have about 4 beds in it.  Talk about tight quarters!   Hopefully the other guests were nice, quiet (and not too smelly!) back then!

The tramp was through lots of moss and forests, definitely somewhat spooky-looking...

Fog makes just about anything look creepy!

There were a few river crossings, involving more rock and boulder hopping than actual river fording:

So a quick two hour trip (only half of it rainy!) to arrive to our home for the evening, Waiaua Gorge Hut!

Hello, Hut!

A peek at the inside:

The view from the front porch:

There was a tiny waterfall in the distance, but mainly TONS of trees!

Here's the helicopter landing site for hikers with bad boo-boos.  (only boo-boos this trip were a Lincoln wardrobe malfunction and a Linz 'tree branch versus face" incident).  No helicopters necessary for either.

We had two others joining us in the hut this time-- a young guy who got lost in the dark the night before, and this little man who got a free ride in on my pack!

Call me a meanie, but I made him sleep outside on the porch.  :)

The night consisted of another INCREDIBLE steak dinner, and a nightime porch visit by a cute little possum!   I wish I could've grabbed the camera in time, but didn't.    These possums must know when there's a gourmet chef like Lincoln staying the night....

The next morning...after an awesome bacon n eggs breakfast, we headed back down the mountain.    While the rain mostly stayed away, there was *plenty* of water on the trail! At some points we were almost up to our knees in water and mud!

I received some nature lessons, including learning about this tree:

The rimu is a large coniferous tree endemic to NZ.   It used to be called a red pine.  It used to be a great source of timber for furniture and housebuilding for NZ, but now it's protected.  It's absolutely beautiful the way the branches and pines just softly sag.   Kind of looks like a green Snuffalupogus.  

So, the two hour trek back (NO rain whatsoever on the return!) and we were back where we started.  Success!

(PS, that sign lies, the OLD track used to take 1hr 40 mins, the NEW one takes 2 hours each way--- or longer if you're not as awesome as us....) 

Cheers from the mud bog!

 

September Showers bring.... Cherry Blossoms and Swiss Chard!

So in case you haven't heard, New Zealand has had its share of storms lately.  Last week, a storm the size of Australia(!) was over the island, leading to rain rain rain and more rain.  I thought it'd be a good week to lay off the outdoor activities and spend sometime indoors, so I headed to Palmerston North.   

Palmerston North is named after Viscount Palmerston, a former Prime Minister of Great Britain.  With a population of 80,000--- over half of its habitants under 33 years old--- it is often called "Student City."   Three universities are located here, including the International Pacific College, which happened to be hosting their annual Sakura (Cherry Blossom) Festival!

Despite the soggy conditions, the trees were gorgeous!

There were cute international pacific dancers, and refreshing pink Bubble Tea to match the color of the blossoms.

My main reason for the trip to a "metro" area was to purchase a decent waterproof jacket that wouldn't fail me on my future tramps.  Palmerston North has some great shopping, so that mission was easy.   The jacket got its first test on my visit to the Te Apiti Wind Farm, just 10km outside the city.

This $100 million dollar project consists of 55 wind turbines, with each tower being 70 meters tall.  In total, the farm generates enough electricity to meet the annual needs of 45,000 homes!   Awesome, huh?

So just how windy is it up here?  It depends on the minute. 

WINDY:

WINDIER:

"holy @#* I'm gonna blow away" WINDIEST!

So yay for wind farms. 

In other exciting news, I bought a bike!

Thank you, free ads at the grocery store!   I had read that P.North was a bike friendly city, so I stashed it in the back seat, with hopes of a few breaks in the clouds to catch a short ride.   

It was not a pretty site to see me biking against wind gales of up to 100km an hour, but I was able to take a short ride along the Manawatu River.  Above are some of the cliffs on the river banks.

I also stopped at a park.   These New Zealand kids have *the* *coolest* *playgrounds* ever!

Powered by kids, not electricity:

Boys jumping on trampolines!   And a cool echo toy in the background:

And I'm not quite sure, but this looks like some David Copperfield inspired magic trick/chain toy:

Palmerston North has a central square with some neat looking art:

But one of my favorite parts of the weekend was the Palmerston North farmer's market!   Tons of fruits and veggies for CHEAP!

Everyone (especially my patients on wafarin) kept on talking about "silverbeet"

----"Doc, can I still have my silverbeet when I'm on warfarin?"

Silverbeet is just NZ terms for swiss chard.  

Did you know just one cup of these leafy greens has over 200% of your daily needs of Vitamin A and 700% of your daily Vitamin K?

---"Sure, Mrs. Jones, you can eat your SilverBeet while on warfarin, just make sure to have the same amount every day, ok?-----

So I tried to cook both the leaves and the stalks.  Leaves tasty, stalks not so much.  Bought some beetroot too (aka red beets)--- always a winner.

I also bought a bag of the cutest, brightest yams you've ever seen in your life!

So vibrant, but they sadly lose their color when roasted. Boo.

From red to pink--- maybe it's to match those Cherry Blossoms!  :)

I heard that the highway I drove to P.North on Saturday morning was closed for the second half of the day.  On my return trip Sunday, I saw why:

No rainbows this weekend, just landslides :)

That's all for now, from wet and windy Palmerston North!

Lindsay and the Tramp! version 1.0

I did it!  I survived my first tramp!   And lived to blog about it!  Here goes:

Just as a reminder, a 'tramp' is a NZ term for a long, often multi-day hike.   Tramping requires sturdy gear, a tolerance for mud, wind, and cold, and some endurance.  I mentioned to the owner of my gym that I was interesting in trying some tramping, and he put me in touch with a local guy who's a tramping pro (and well skilled in wilderness survival to boot).  Who better to take a rookie like me on her first tramp, right?

Lincoln (tramping pro) and I set out mid Saturday morning on the 4.5 hour tramp to Holly Hut.   As you can see below, Mount Egmont is quite a symmetrical mountain--- I'm betting it has something to do that it's an old volcano!     There is a "round the mountain circuit" which takes about 4 days, with huts to stop at night to rest.   We did one leg of the journey from Puniho Road (the 2nd black dotted line from the top on the left) across to Holly Hut.

It started out to be a nice day, but then (in typical Mount Egmont fashion) turned windy and rainy quite fast.   The trail followed along the Stony River, which we had to cross a few times.   Some parts were shallow (like below), others were definitely mid-shin to knee deep.   Thank goodness for gaiters to keep your legs somewhat dry and clean!

When we weren't exposed in the open crossing the river, we were in the bush, which looked like this:

Close to the end of our tramp in, Lincoln took me a little off the path to show me Bells Falls.   Pretty!

I look cold and wet because I was.  I learned that to survive in NZ, I need a new STURDY rainjacket, not this puny one that kept me dry in desert AZ.  Rain is a SERIOUS business here.  It rained ALL afternoon and ALL night (kept me up most of the night, too), and some on Sunday too.    Lincoln guestimated it rained about a foot in 24 hrs.   Yipes!

So after 4.5 hours of hiking, and one sprained ankle (*not mine*, I might add), we made it to Holly Hut!  Here she is!

And here's the view from the porch:

These huts are so neat!  They're first come-first served free accomodations for any tramper.   This one had 20-some bunks, but we got quite lucky that we were the only ones here (and crazy enough to tramp on this chilly, wet weekend...) so we had the whole place to ourselves!

Here's a shot of the common area inside:

Gotta love the drying racks over the firestove!   (although half of our clothes were *still* quite soggy by morning)

Lincoln is quite the gourmet tramper, so I was treated to Porterhouse Steak and Pasta w/Veggies for dinner (SEVERAL steps up from the traditional Pork N Beans, eh?)    There was a deck of cards in the hut, so I taught him how to play war (he won, beginners skill i guess :) ).    We slept in and let the skies clear up a bit before starting our trek back down.

Pictures were few, because my camera didn't like being soggy, but here's a pic on our descent down from the hut (elevation 3000ft approximately)

Fast forward 4.5 hours, a few more inches of rain, and here we are at the end of the trail!

Soggy, tired, sore, a bit bruised and scraped, but happy and proud of our accomplishment!

I couldn't have asked for a better first tramp, or a more awesome, patient, experienced tramper to show me the ropes!  Thanks, Lincoln!

On the drive home, the skies were one big dreary cloud.  I remarked to Lincoln my amazing Sunday rainbow reputation.  The sky showed NO signs of a rainbow developing... or so I thought!

Yay!  The streak continues!   I saw a few more on the ride home, too--- including this DOUBLE rainbow near my house!

And, upon zooming in, the inner rainbow was actually partially a double on its own!  Checkitout!

SO AMAZING!

So, after 9 hours of hiking and 12 inches of rain, 1 soggy Linz did a quick load of laundry and and made it an early Sunday bedtime.  I'm sore today, but excited for Lindsay and Tramp version 2.0, hopefully real soon!

Thanks for reading!!