Day 224 (February 1): Jon Goes Walkabout

My mother is fond of the phrase, "The way will open." As this picture shows, sometimes the way is exactly in front of you going in a straight line to where you want to go.

My walkabout began in Wanaka, where the family headed west along the Tasman Sea coast to see the glaciers and I headed east to see the alps and lots of stars from the east/leeward side of the mountains. I picked up a tin can of a rental car that would have easily fit in the back of the campervan we've been driving for these two weeks.

By late afternoon I arrived at the foot of Lake Pukaki in Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. I enjoyed a short and easy hike to views of small ice bergs floating in the milky alpine lake. This landscape seems like a great location for making a movie. It's almost otherworldly. Someone should really think about it. Something with good versus evil, strange magic, epic battles...definitely hobbits.

This is Lake Pukaki

 I reached the Mount Cook Lodge just as it began to rain a little and by the time I was fetching my stuff from the car it was raining hard. I had a dorm-style room in the hotel, which turned out to be so new I wondered if it was still in its soft opening phase. I had plenty of time to enjoy an okay steak, two good beers and many chapters of an excellent book. My roommates were Americans in this part of the world to see the Australian Open and we watched a bit of a terrible ron-com from about twenty years ago before going to sleep near midnight. In my mind, they could do or ask anything as long as I didn't have to brush their teeth, wipe their butts or tell them a bedtime story. I was off duty!

Based on the advice of several travel blogs about visiting Aoraki, I set my alarm for 5:15 so that I could reach a certain point on my morning hike by sunrise. The Macenzie Region is reknowned for its dark skies and I was all in. The dark made it a little hard to navigate the carpark, to find the trail head and to pick which way to turn at some early splits in the trail. Fortunately, my iPhone is remarkably good at taking night sky pictures.

The Hooker Valley Trek has three of these suspended bridges.

I reached my sunrise goal (at about 6:30) and sat there for about 20 minutes watching the changing shadows on the peak of Mount Cook. I don't think it comes through in photos, unfortunately.

With dawn breaking I was now in the Hooker Valley and feeling stunned by the mighty mountain. I've learned since that the Maori creation myth involves dividing the parents of life and assigning mother to earth and father to the skies, making peak elevations - especially Aoraki - important sites of convergence. The big photo-op is at the foot of a lake beneath the mountain, which is the closest you can get to the peak. I took a lot of photos.

Only one of these stones is my contribution.

Finally I had to accept it was necessary to leave. (I tried writing that sentence with "it was time to leave" but that misses the mark by so much I almost laughed.) I realized that was trying too hard to process my emotions. I think I've written more about the contrast between "being" and "doing." I had taken this walkabout determined to regain some emotional health and stability and now, in this extraordinary place, I realized I was trying so hard to DO reflection that I was actually failing to be reflective. I wanted to much to BE relaxed and serene in this location that I was binding myself in knots in the concerted and determined effort to relax. Geez, Jon, take it easy. Seriously. Do a better job of taking it easy. Take it easy! TAKE IT EASY, JON! I hope you can see the humor in it. Maybe so many people had tried so hard to meditate on that beautiful rock that the end broke off. So I took a picture.

There was much more light on my way out so I took pictures of more rocks. I love talus slopes, mainly because I love the metaphor of Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose. In one, there's this huge pile of fine rock below such a small crag in the hillside. It's stupendous to consider the forces involved. Across the valley from that one was a waterfall that roared with such power that I took a video in hopes of capturing the sound. A person without sight would have a fascinating experience in this place;  I think they'd perceive the geologic scale and pace of the environment just as well as I did with my eyes, maybe better. Then I started trying to remember the equations from physicals class for force (easy) and work (still not sure).

That little trickle you see made a sound like a jet engine.

Small crack, big pile.

One more picture from that spot.

As I write this, I'm joking with my mother-in-law that I've added 34 pictures and the story has only reached about 9:30am. Maybe I'll write a cliff notes post to accompany this one.

My next stop was the visitor center, which I thought would be a perfunctory acquisition of souvenirs. It turns out that this is one of the best visitor center's I've ever seen. First of all, it's architecturally stunning. What you see in the picture below is, at top, a carved/engraved piece of wood about 8 or 10 feet across. What I can't show is that each side of this is strikingly different. Aoraki - the alps in general - divide the coast from the central valley and the territories of two peoples and their cultures. The visitor center favors neither side and so many features incorporate two elements, such as this monument at the entrance.

Below it are these four metal arcs that also convey circles and the joining of pieces. On each lower piece is a piece of stone and they are in different condition. The furtherest from the camera is rough and represents the stone in its place on the mountain. The nearest is smooth and polished and has been carved to allow it to serve as an anchor (the hole allows a rope to be attached).

Beyond the windows shown in the picture above is a courtyard that I've tried to capture in this picture. The path from the internal center to this external center is a spiral that brings you down to a rock garden. The rocks are two types, one from each of the tribal communities on either side of the mountains (again). I didn't take enough note on the arrangement of the larger rocks in the garden but it's not for nothing, I'm sure. The benches were lovely for BEING reflective.

Somehow I've hiked nearly ten miles, spent a while in a visitor's center and there's still an entire day ahead. Time to drive for a while and listen to old music that the kids would hate.

(Note to reader, that was the first third of this story. I don't mind if you take a break!)

My second destination was the town of Tekapo on the lake of the same name. This is the home of the Dark Sky Project and the focus of my year-long search for epic stars. I had made a booking for a 1:45am tour that would include the Project's observatory on the top of nearby Mount John (coincidence) but now I had about twelve hours to kill. After lunch I rented a mountain bike from a terrific one-woman outfit operating out of a van and a trailer outside a real estate office. She gave me a map and some pointers and off I went.

I'm not much for mountain biking and I was pretty terrified of hurting myself, especially because I was alone. But I had a good time bumping along the lakefront and then exploring some "easy" single track routes in the regional park. 

Having just recovered from biking steeply uphill, I sat in awe of this view.

The second part of my ride was a small climb to Cowan's Hill. I got to hoist the bike onto my shoulder to cross ladders over ranch fences and bump some more along paths through beautiful countryside.

Tekapo's Church of the Good Shepherd. Google it to see some beautiful night sky compositions.

For the last part of my ride, I went in search of the Alps to Ocean (A2O) trail that they have recently opened. If I had known this existed before we arrived, I probably would have figured out a way for our eight person family to spend a week doing this ride. It seems to be mostly or entirely off road, on well-groomed gravel paths or abandoned/unused roads. It's the kind of end-to-end route that I love and it is inherently downhill! Also, I got to meet the architect when I returned my bike, which gave me the opportunity to order some swag;)

My next appointment was at Tekapu Springs. I had booked an evening stargazing tour, which entitled me to use of the hot pools. After the hiking and the biking, I was excited to enjoy this. I booked a bed in a hostel, dropped my stuff and took my book to the pools where I soaked for about an hour and a half before forcing myself to admit that I'd need to get out before the stargazing at 9:30 (four hours later). 

One enormous burger, two more beers and a few more chapters later, I walked back to the springs for the stargazing tour, which included a 30-minute virtual reality tour and another one hour in the hot pool with a guide pointing out a few interesting features. I learned that the Maori see Orion as a butterfly rather than a hunter. I learned how to find the southern equivalent of the North Star (an empty spot in the sky).

Non sequitur: NZ parks have these awesome zip line structures. I want one!

Unfortunately, my night ended on a downer: the Dark Sky Project tour was canceled on account of high wind. So I walked around on the lakefront, acquiring a nasty windburn on top of the day's sunburn and attempting to take acceptable pictures of the night sky.

I learned to find the southern cross by finding alpha and beta centauri, the two bright skies on a diagonal. They point (up and to the left) to the southern cross, which is on its side. To find the non-existent South Star, follow the long axis of the cross to where it intersects with a line that is perpendicular to the centauri. Get it? Good!

On Friday (were you keeping track?), I had a bit of breakfast and then took the scenic route back to Christchurch, which took about four hours of driving. They were beautiful two-lane roads past endless cattle ranches and small farm towns. My favorite was Geraldine. At the visitor center there I got tips on a view places that sounded so good I nearly delayed my arrival in Christchurch. I'd really like to go back here and spend some time. I also met another traveling family. They had SAILED from Seattle to New Zealand over the last 18 months with their 7 and 9 year olds. I'm in awe.

Now onto Christchurch. Remember, this city was heavily damaged by an earthquake nearly ten years ago. Our hometown, Portland, is somewhat-busily preparing for something similar to happen to it one day. Christchurch is a beautiful city with a very compact and lovely city center that drapes itself along the winding Avon River. Most blocks include vacant lots, midcentury buildings that survived the shaking and brand new architecture. I walked for several miles, meandering after whatever I noticed a few hundred meters away. 

I ate a terrific dinner in a tapas restaurant in the Riverside Market, a sort of highend foodcourt being occupied on Friday evening by all the Beautiful People. I felt very chic to be among them. I found a quiet bar in the vicinity of several very large bars. I got to chat with the bartender and his buddies who were there to trade ideas for their fantasy basketball league. They knew much, MUCH more about the Portland Trailblazers than I do.

Christchurch's central cathedral, almost 10 years after the quake.

That's some serious bike infrastructure!

This was a typical sight in central Christchurch. I'm standing in a gravel lot carpark. The edifice on left is being held up by a stack of shipping containers because of its heritage value. The empty lot, awaiting redevelopment that is required to incorporate the heritage wall, is currently home to a foodcart pod that includes an outdoor music venue. It was packed!

Near my hostel, I walked past a small circus tent that was the temporary home of Bread and Circus and the World Buskers Festival. In an act of uncharacteristic spontenaity, I bought a ticket to something called The Nasty Show and then spent an hour, chin on the floor, watching a combination of cabaret and freak show. There were contortionists and clowns but also a woman in a sequin evening gown who mimed an act of self gratification to match Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. Didn't see that coming.

This recovery is going to require faith and hope

I still haven't learned whether this street survived the quake or was rebuilt because of it's appeal. The tram tracks are new.

The beams are holding up one church while the central cathedral is in view.

The new earthquake memorial along the meandering Avon River.

Dahlia border around the rose garden

In the morning I went for a run. I started toward the Botanic Garden and then meandered along the Avon with a few side tracks. I kept finding myself in places I had been the night before. I crossed and recrossed my path until I felt I had seen the entire city. I had run about 4 miles. I recovered in the Rose Garden and then walked a few blocks back to my hostel. The only thing left was to return my rental car and wait for the others to arrive at our hotel. This gave me just enough time to spot a really cool exhibit in the hotel's courtyard.