The Roadtrip: The Zig Zag

Our Great Zig Zag North.

Our first night, we stopped in at the Lake Ohau Lodge, where Lyn, Cory and I will all be working for the winter (Lyn at the Lodge and Cory and I on the ski fields).  Lyn had been there for a week training for her new job before leaving for our roadtrip, and I was anxious to see the place after hearing her stories about it.  The place is absolutely beautiful:

Lake Ohau and surrounding mountains from the road in.

The road to the ski field zig-zags up the mountain in the center, and the ski field is in the basin between the two peaks above the ski road.  The lodge is situated at the foot of the mountains.

We poked our heads in at the lodge and were greeted by Jock, the son of the couple who own and run the place (their names are Mike and Louise).  Mike invited us to sit down for a coffee and a chat, and then we scurried away to run some laundry before Brad (the head chef) served us a tasty dinner with the rest of the staff present - there I also met Tom (assistant chef), Geoff (barman), and Tia (housekeeping).  Everyone was very welcoming and easy conversationalists.  Hopefully this bodes well for the rest of the staff around when the place is in full swing!

The next morning, we were up early to head east to Christchurch to pick up a snowboard/boots/bindings I'd purchased from TradeMe, NZ's version of Ebay.  The 3+ hour drive took us through some beautiful country:

Sunrise and Mt Cook over Lake Pukaki.  I'm going to love living close to these mountains.

We made it to Christchurch in good time and had no problem picking up my snowboard package.  Small world story: the gentleman who had the board, named Alan, is originally from MN (St Louis Park) and lived in Steamboat Springs CO for a few years before making his way to NZ as a deckhand on various boats and ships.

Devil's Punchbowl.

From Christchurch, we made our first zig and headed back west to Arthur's Pass.  We stayed at a hostel there for the night (too cold to camp) and did a short day walk to the Devil's Punchbowl before treating ourselves to dinner at the Wobbly Kea, the local watering hole.

The next morning we were greeted by our first rainy weather of the trip, and decided to go for a short walk before hitting the road again en route to the West Coast.  We went for another little jaunt up the Bealey Valley Track, which would have been a pretty cool area to explore further had the weather been better.  As it was, the misty rain pushed us to keep it short and sweet and, after stopping once to socialize with a group of curious keas, we pushed on to the West Coast.  While it meant a fair bit more driving, it was totally worth it - the coast was beautiful.  We stopped at the famous Pancake Rocks too, which were pretty cool.  Nice idea, Lyn.

Bealey Valley Track.

Welcome to the West Coast.

Pancake Rocks.

A curious weka (native wood hen) who wanted to hitch a ride in the parking lot.

Our time on the West Coast was short and sweet - soon we had to turn inland (and eastward) again to make our way to St Arnaud, the gateway to Nelson Lakes National Park, where we hoped to do an overnight trip up to Angelus Hut.  We checked into our hostel for the evening and cooked some dinner and checked the weather...darn.  Rain coming, and lots of it.  We decided to can the idea of going to Angelus Hut, as the track is exposed and slippery and probably no fun in lots of rain and wind, but still made the most of the day by getting up to photograph the sunrise on Lake Rotoiti and do a short walk up Mt Robert (the orange one in the photo) before the weather turned too bad:

Sunrise on Lake Rotoiti.

View of Lake Rotoiti from the Pinchgut Track on Mt Robert.

The next day saw us moving eastward again, into Blenheim and the heart of Marlborough wine country.  We checked in at our hostel earlier than expected, and decided to hire a couple bikes and take ourselves on a self-guided tour of the many local wineries.

Welcome to Marlborough.  Mountains and vines?  I think I can handle that.

Fantastic lunch at Rock Ferry Winery, our first (and favorite) stop of the day.

Nice view of the vineyards from the Wither Hills Winery.

The following day (the last of our roadtrip) we decided to take a little coast road from Blenheim north to Picton, where I had to catch a ferry early the next morning.  It was a proper coast road: narrow, winding, up-and-down from bay to bay.  The sea made a nice change from the mountains that had dominated the rest of our trip.

Blenheim and plenty of vineyards from our little coast road.

A taste of the sounds of coastal Marlborough, the only true sounds in New Zealand (the rest are actually fjords).

Lunch spot at Oyster Bay.  Life is hard.

At our hostel in Picton, we celebrated the end of an excellent roadtrip with yummy curry and some wine from Rock Ferry (their sauvignon blanc is to die for).  After laundry and packing, we enjoyed the self-saucing chocolate pudding and ice cream made for us by the hostel staff as a daily tradition.  And so came the end of our trip.
                                                                                                                                                                

The next morning Lyn dropped me at the ferry terminal and started her long long drive back to Ohau.  The waters in the Cook Strait were pretty rough and my ferry was delayed in leaving Picton, but at least  the water wasn't as choppy as I expected it to be (no seasickness = success).  The ferry's late departure meant I had to reschedule my bus from Wellington to Taupo, and had an entire afternoon to kill.  Lucky for me, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa was a short walk from the bus stop, and had enough interesting stuff to fill most of my time.  Once the museum closed, I didn't have long to wait until the bus left.  Six hours later (at 2 am grumblegrumble), I found myself in Taupo, treated to a yummy stirfry dinner that Cory made for us to share.  Perfect.

Since then, I've enjoyed going for bike rides, playing volleyball and basketball, kayaking, and spending time with Cory (gosh that sounded like something from a beauty pageant).  Being in one place for more than a day at a time has been nice, and it's warmer here in the north than it was (and will be) down south.  Cory and I will be here until around the 10th June when he finishes work, and then we'll have a little roadtrip of our own before we start our winter work.  I'll keep y'all updated on our shenanigans, but until then enjoy these pictures.  xoxo.