Hanmer Springs - 2010

I have now landed hack in Hanmer Springs where I am continuing with the training as an instructor, which is going really well. Unfortuntly ue to staffing issues I have been reduced to 3 days a week there, so I decided to get a job to fill in the other times, and managed to get position at a café/ restaurant. I'm there as a front of house/ barista (in training – because I'm really not that good at making coffees), dealing with drink and food orders from the cabinet. It’s a really awesome place to work as the owner/ manager is a very experienced chef, and there is a lot of gluten free and veggie options and all of the food is made/ baked in house and there is nothing like chips or bog standard food. All top line and beautiful.

I last posted when I got to Takaka in Golden Bay for my summer, but more has happened since then. I spent until the 25th of January at the Hang Dog camp site climbing with friends I met there, an in that time I also went on a 9 day tramp in the Kahurangi National Park. A section of that tramp was on the Heaphy Track, one of the NZ ‘Great Walks’ which was just stunning, crossing from the east coast, across a high coutry plateau, before descending slowly to the west coast. The track follows a river lined with giant native ever-greens, moving in to groves of Nikau Palms next to the rugged wind ripped Tasman Sea. After completing that 80km stint we cut inland up the Karamea River, bush bashing for 4 days to the totally isolated Roaring Lion Hut with views up the Beautiful River. We continued up the Kakapo spur on to the Peel Range ridge where we stopped after climbing 900 meters through the dense ever-changing bush. For the firt time on the tramp the weather came in and we cut the route short, dropping back in to the Peel valley, catching a ride on the back of a ute when we hit the road.

I recovered for a few days back at Hang Dog (which is the term used when a climber is working a climb and is resting on the rope in between trying moves) before I finished my holidays at a 5 day festival, also in Golden Bay, called Luminate. This topped the holiday for me as I went with a troop of friends from the campsite, and just had an incredible time. I saw the best band I have seen live there, which was awesome.

Now I have 2 weeks left of this term before I finish with Activity Hanmer, where I will go full time with the café for the easter break, then ……… onwards. Somewhere. Something. We will see…

Takaka

Yaay, so here I am in Takaka - or rather Paynes ford, the rock climbing area - where I am camping in a climbers only camp ground due to high demand. So I am surrounded by climbers and really cool people, all into doing the same things as me - climbing and not much else!

Saying that there are options to do tramps in the 2 close National Parks, the Abel Tasman and the Kahurangi as well as mountain biking in the surrounding hills and swimming in the river that runs at the bottom of the lime stone crags we climb on.

All in all with the temperatures in the late 20's and me basking in the sun whilst doing outdoor pursuits I'm going to wish you a Merry Christmas, and I hope the weather does something proper like snow!

x

Hanmer Summer - to Takaka and beyond

An apology to start with, I have been very remiss about posting, but my life has rather busied up since coming to hanmer.

I am just wrapping up 9 weeks of full time work with an activity centre where I have been training on a 3 days paid, 2 days voluntary basis. The activities I have been running are orienteering, a series of team building activities, mountain biking and tree climbing (although I'm shadowed on that as I don't have the necessary quals). So i have been learning the art of leadership, flanked by some really awesome instructors, and great bosses. I suppose it isn't a run of the mill job as every day is totally different, from the students and teachers, to the weather to the time. We work with school groups from year 5 though to year 13, so one session you'll have extremely competent 17 y olds from an all girls school, followed by a bunch of lovely but needy 8 - 9 year olds from a city school. On top of this start times for work range from 7am to 11 am, and finish between 4.30 and 7.30 pm, so one can never fall in to a proper routine, which can be hard, especially as I find routine useful. On the up side, it never really gets boring!.... Its a perfect level for me to learn at.

So the job has been very stimulating and challenging, my people skills have developed considerably and my confidence with groups is hugely better. The first couple of weeks of instructing on my own were scary, and I got nervous leading up to them, but now I'm much more relaxed and I'm able to concentrate on the quality of my delivery and making sure the client gets the most from the sessions and the sessions are appropriate for the age and ability.

Not only is the job really cool, the area around Hanmer Springs is beautiful, surrounded by mountains with huge areas of forest, many mountain bike tracks and tramps, places to camp and fish, swim and kayak, plus there are hardly any people here!

Sadly after the summer holidays (the company follows the school holidays as we work mainly with school groups) Activity Hanmer are only able to offer me 3 days a week. I decided to take it anyway as it isn't for too long a time (from early Feb to easter), plus it gives me the opportunity to work 2 to 3 days a week at the hot pools and gain an internationally recognised life guarding qualification.

In the mean time I have about 6 weeks of free time! Which I am going to spend rock climbing and mountain biking and chilling and sitting on beaches and sleeping under the stars and swimming in rivers and drumming and going to concerts and festivals, and probably not working that much in Takaka - Golden Bay. Its going to be awfully good. At the moment my only issue is getting up there as I will probably have to hitch with quite a bit of stuff and a bike.... hmmm.

Possibilities for the winter season are - doing a ski instructors course, try and get into mountaineering, or working more in a cafe or outdoor shop... so i need to do more endless research and make more decisions. Following the winter season my plans become even more vague, with Canada becoming a possibility in September where I would ideally train in wilderness survival and bushcraft instruction. Otherwise I would follow up on the ski instructors course and instruct at a ski resort in the northern winter. Following THAT I'm hoping to go to the US to work at a camp america in North Carolina on which a few of my current colleagues have been, and bring awesome feedback on. Next, who knows....

So that is my plan. But at the moment I'm munching on some short bread i have just baked, whilst waiting for my climbing gear to drop through in to the letter box from america, and considering wether I should get into aggressive inline skating if I go back to Wanaka.

Love x

To Hanmer

My ski season wrapped up with a couple of telemarking lessons - a form of skiing where the heel of the boot is free from the ski, so it allows the skier to ascend slopes aswell, as you can do a walking motion, which gives a telemarker access to backcountry and alpine touring. I left my ski gear at a friends house for another season and hitched 560km north to Hanmer Springs.

I had previously done a lot of research into activity centres as I knew I wanted to spend the next part of my time here training to be a leader - it is the best place in the world to do it! So fortunatly for me 'Activity Hanmer' responded to my e-mail very positivly, and invited me to join them for the year as a trainee instructor.

I have just spent my first week up here, and managed to stay in a beautiful modern straw bale house with my colleges whilst I found more perminant accomodation. The week has been awesome, ive really enjoyed doing the work - climbing and mountain biking, and my colleges are a similar age and really in to the same things.

As the activity centre (http://www.activityhanmer.co.nz/) works with secondry schools, the work periods and holidays conincide with the schools, so im actually now on 2 weeks holiday. I've allready spent one night camping on bank of the Clarence river, over in the next valley, and im just planning a 5 day tramp on the St James walkway, so trying to keep busy.

Im considering doing a mountaineering course over summer, but Im wieghting that up agains having a job (which would be really useful), or rock climbing and kayaking and tramping (which would be alot more fun and would help towards qualifications).

I will update again when I have got a bit more stuck in to work and have some more responcabilities.

I hope your well.

x

Ode to the Snow

THERE is now a time when meadow, mountain, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me seems
Apparell'd in snowy light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream. 5
Projected on the flanks of the hills great;—
Turn wheresoe'er I may,
By night or day,
The flashes which I have dreamt, to see'th no more I wait.

Ricky Wordsworth: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Late Childhood, 1770 - 2009

Given that I couldn't possibly write a legible original ode ill now stick to my usual format.

Well skiing is incredible, I absolutely love it! it is so exhilarating and exciting and fast and the best thing is you don't necessarily die when you fall down a cliff. What better sport for learning how to do cool things?...

So given that I bought a season pass for one of the ski fields I have been skiing whenever I can, 2-3 out of every 4 days, interspersed with: recovering (from skiing and evenings out); some casual labour; lots of cooking and learning to bake; kayak polo (water polo but in kayaks - awesome fun, a very full on and exciting game, and it quickly gets your confidence up with going under water!); a bit of wood carving; badminton; labouring around on my single speed bike; occasional adventures in to the hills; helping at music concerts and volunteering at ski competitions.... so I have been keeping busy!

The renting has turned out OK, my flatmates are amazing, but the house is cold and dark, so not very inviting, not a place I could ever call 'home', albeit it is a roof over my head.

A couple of the most memorable times I have had have been the tramps I have done. One up to Mt Roy for the sunrise (allready said about) and the other up the Copland Track, which starts on the West Coast and cuts striaght inland towards Mt Cook. The track follows the valley, climbing only maybe 100m in its 17km, so an easy walk through bush, towering valleys and along the stunning river. But that is not the good bit....
When you get to the hut at the end of the track there are 3 natural hot pools lined with the most gloriously soft mud and the perfect temperature. And you wallow and sooth your muscles in the turquose water under the full moon and look at the snowy mountains surrounding you before dragging yourself out 4 hours later in to the chill air, and run back to your bed. Not bad.

Another rather wonderful highlight has been my parents coming over, sadly Alex had to stay at home due to a rather vicious bit of Glandular Fever, but it was a really wonderful time when I could totally relax and be pampered! We had a great time, starting off in Christchurch for a couple of days looking around the city, before coming down to Wanaka where we stayed for 5 days, where M+D skied for their first time ever too, and did rather amazingly! Also in Wanaka we did a couple of day tramps up hills, and inevitably back down again in beautiful scenery and in beautiful weather.
Following that we popped down to Doubtful Sound, the most extensive inlet in New Zealand’s Fjordland where we spent the night before departing on a two part cruise, first by boat over lake Manopouri, then by coach on totally isolated road across a neck of land to the sound, where we jumped on another rather luxurious cruise boat and spent the next 3 hours pottering around the damp and mist fjords that rose imposingly on all sides and disappeared into the cloud before we could even catch a gimps of the tops. Trees and bushed clung to every crevice and where one fell a swath of plants below it were wiped off their precarious perches. Tree avalanches aren't that common on Dartmoor... Nor is the sound of a real avalanche, something else introduced to me by the mountains of New Zealand - if your wondering it sounds exactly like a very short burst of thunder, a deep, powerful, rolling grumble.

Back on track we headed up north past Wanaka again for two nights before the long haul up the west coast, notorious for its rain, with figures of up to 10m a year! But fortunately that comes hand in hand with funnily enough, glaciers, blow holes and stunning temperate rainforest. We were able to explore some forest on a couple of occasions going for one walk to the foot or one glacier, and another day to where a river came out of a cliff. One big difference between native bush and English forest is that NZ has only a couple of native deciduous species so in winter the trees are as green as ever. As well as that there are a few species of palm trees which are all rather beautiful.

Continuing up the west coast we crossed over, inland, to Motueka, to meet up with family friends, from there we walked part way up Mt Arthur, way above the snowline at times trudging through over a foot of snow. That was so pretty. We diverted for one night over Takaka Hill in to the Golden bay area and made our way to the northern most point of the south island, Farewell Spit. The 26km long sand spit is decidedly long and sandy, and that’s pretty much it, apart from sad occasions when a school of wales become stranded there. This is particularly poignant in NZ as whales hold special spiritual significance to the Maoris.

I’m going to stop there for the moment and start again when I don’t have fudge, a necklace and dinner to make before going out to a talk by an English mountaineer [the first British guy to climb Everest without Oxygen…].

x