Routeburn Track and...coffee

That's right, big news down here. Steph got a coffee maker. Not sure if we've covered this yet, and maybe it should be one of New Zealand's "quirks" (I've realized how lame that part of the blog is), but they don't really do normal coffee here. It's hard to even find a coffee maker in the stores, and when you do they are expensive. Apparently they used to have it, but once espresso machines got popular and came down in price, EVERYTHING switched to espresso. In fact, you can't even get regular coffee (they call it filtered coffee) at most coffee shops, except Starbucks of course. You can get different concoctions like the "long black" (shot of espresso and hot water), "short black" (just espresso), or "flat white" (espresso, hot water, steamed milk). And that all leads us to Steph getting a coffee maker off Trademe, which is the NZ equivalent of eBay. Of course she is very excited and insisted this news be the headliner to today's blog.

Steph is also enjoying her work so far. She works 4 days this week and 5 days next week. Mostly its dinner shifts but she does have a breakfast/lunch shift tomorrow and a conference or wedding every now and then. That has been good to keep her busy and provide a little cash flow for us, while I continue to sit on my butt unemployed. I have a couple of leads for lawn mowing services, and apparently a tortilla factory in town is looking for people. Now don't everybody flock to New Zealand at once, there's only so many of these "dream jobs" to go around and I don't need the competition. On another slightly embarrassing note, in my desperation to find something to do, I have officially signed up to be a secret shopper. While there aren't many opportunites around here, it does look like I'll get a free meal at McDonald's ("maccas") and some free gas ("petrol") from Shell. Things are looking up!

Since Steph had the day off yesterday, and I hadn't yet completed my secret shopper orientation, we decided to check out some of the supposedly great hiking we have nearby. The weather has actually been really good lately, and yesterday was no exception. It was calm and sunny and reasonably warm (when in the sun at least, the shade is a different story). So we decided to try out one of the "Great Walks", which are nine "premiere" hikes (called "tramps" here) all over New Zealand. We have 3 or 4 of these Great Walks within about a 2 hour drive of here, but the closest is the Routeburn Track, at only an hour and 15 minutes away. All of these walks are multi-day trips and have huts set up along the way for you to stay at. Steph wasn't that impressed with the weather and wasn't very keen on spending the night up there, so we decided on just a day trip. We only hiked to the first hut and back, which is, at 6.5 km each way, only 20% of the total hike. Because of this, we weren't really expecting too much, but were really impressed with what we did get to see. It had hardly rained in the last 2 weeks in Queenstown, yet the forest was damp and cold, with moss and ferns growing over everything not covered in gravel (i.e. the path). There were birds chirping and buzzing around, and poisonous traps periodically placed to kill the invasive stouts (ferret-like creatures). How lovely. We got to cross at least 3 or 4 swinging bridges, which were always fun to bounce around on and freak Steph out. A lot of the track was along the Route Burn river, which was astonishlingly clear. The entire time I could not get over how amazing clear the water was. We stopped for a snack at a little beach area next to the river with a huge pile of trees that had been left after a flood. It took me about two minutes before the branch I was balancing on broke and I fell in the frigid water, though luckily it was only my feet. Eventually we made it to the Routeburn Flats, which is a huge flat area (surprising I know) covered in tall grass with the calm river flowing through. This was the location of the first hut, which is similar to something you'd see at a summer camp. There were two big rooms filled with bunk beds and foam mats, a communal room, and a kitchen. Only two other groups were there at the time, and it appeared nobody was spending the night, but I imagine these could be pretty fun and lively in the summer. We had our lunch in the grass next to the river and headed back down to our car.

the start of the Routeburn Track

We were so impressed that we're planning on doing some more of these in the near future. Not only do we have the time (cough, cough), but its low season for the next month and a half and thus its much cheaper and less crowded. In the summer you usually have to make reservations and the cost is normally tripled. For the most famous and popular track, the Milford Track, you usually have to make reservations months in advance. In fact, we are probably going to make reservations here pretty soon to do the hike next April. So over the next month or so we'll try to check out some more Great Walks and maybe even stay in a hut or two...our heat pump is still broken so its probably warmer in those huts than it is here.

Steph on the first hanging bridge

Routeburn Flats