Catching up.

True to form, it's been a while since my last blog post.  Sorry.  But this always happens when I've been off on good adventures, and this time I certainly have!  Work has been keeping me busy with lots of people in town, and silly questions seem to be coming out of the woodwork lately.  Like this one:

A middle-aged lady from the US comes up to the counter and starts asking about all the tracks to do in the area.  She's planning for her next trip to NZ and is getting really excited about the possibilities for going on a Great Walk or two.  She looks at me and says, "I know this may be a weird question, but I travel by myself and I just wonder...do people get murdered on these tracks?"  Wait, wait, wait, rewind.  People murdered in Fiordland, the nicest place on earth?  "No, no, you don't have to worry about that here.  Everyone's just happy to be out there," I tell her.  Her response: "Oh good, because I'm from America and in America we have to be careful."  Apparently it went right over her head that I have an American "accent", even though we'd been talking for a good ten minutes at that point...and please, tell me where in the States people get murdered on a hike?

Or the one that takes the cake:

In the Fiordland NATIONAL PARK Visitor Centre: "So is there like a national park here?"  DOH.

Needless to say, customers have been keeping us entertained.  Time off has too.  One day early in the month Anja and I went for a little walk on the Circle Track, in Manapouri (a 20-minute drive, or in my case, 1-hour bike ride south of Te Anau).  The steep track led to a cliff edge and this lovely view:

A few days later, I went out as one of the DOC staff members on a special day hike up to Lake Orbell, in the Murchison Mountains (the Murchies, as the locals call them).  The special thing about the Murchies is that it was in this range that Dr. Geoffrey Orbell rediscovered the takahe, one of New Zealand's native flightless birds.  They were thought to be extinct until Orbell's discovery in 1948 - since then, DOC have been running an intensive breeding/recovery program to try to bring the birds' numbers back up.  We're currently at around 160 birds in the entire world, 60 or so of which live in the Murchies around Lake Orbell, in the appropriately named Takahe Valley.  Here's a map:

The track led steeply up through the forest to the valley, which was moody in the clouds:

We tracked a couple pairs of birds and used a caller to see if we'd get any response - in the end we heard two pairs calling back to us, but since they were hiding out in the trees, we didn't actually see any.  Would've been nice, but it was a great trip either way.

The next week I went up Gertrude Saddle with Pi'ilani and Matteo, two friends from Te Anau.  This time we had much better weather (last time I went it was all cloudy) and the view from the top was phenomenal, as always.  Check it out - the water in the distance is Milford Sound.

 Last week I went up to Queenstown to join Cory and his parents Rick and Gina for a fun little weekend.  We played frisbee golf, ate good food, played cards in the park, and went to the Classic Hits Winery Tour concert at the Waitiri Creek Winery a bit north of Queenstown.  Concert day couldn't have been better: it was clear and sunny and beautiful and we got to sit outside listening to great music and sipping great wine.  One of my new favorite groups from the show is Anika, Boh & Hollie, a trio of Kiwi girls with great voices and harmony.  But of course, the highlight was Fat Freddy's Drop, probably the most well-known Kiwi band ever.  I'd heard of them before ever coming here, on recommendation from a friend who'd studied abroad in NZ and told me that if I ever got here, I had to make sure I went to a Fat Freddy's concert.  His recommendation was spot on - what a great time.

One evening we also went to see Django Unchained (and I'll give you one guess who got to pick the film, ahemcory).  True to Tarantino's directing style, there were some over-exaggerated shoot-outs with blood flying everywhere and painting the walls red....not quite my style, but it did have some great actors and a few redeeming funny lines.  The film's been quite controversial for its violent scenes and free use of the N word - I can see now why Tarantino decided to delay the film's release, which was originally scheduled for the same time as the school shootings in Pennsylvania.  But it did win two Oscars last night, so they did something right - especially Christoph Waltz who won for best supporting actor.  He really was phenomenal!

Now later today, I'm heading out to help with a vegetation survey near Milford Sound.  I couldn't be more excited!  We'll get to camp out in a gorgeous spot for a couple days and do some important work - this is part of an ongoing study of deer browsing on vegetation as an indicator of deer numbers and ranges (at least that's the general gist of it).  I'll get more of a specific idea in the next couple days and update you when I get back.  Oh, and did I mention we get to go out in a chopper too?  This is too cool.  Here's where I'll be:

All photography copyright Kendall DeLyser.

Best Of.

I've found a way to put up more pictures!  I've had to shrink the file size so that I can upload more photos, so they won't be as high-quality as the ones I've posted before, but at least y'all can take a look. I've tried to pick the best-of shots from the last wonderful couple months (months already?!)...enjoy.

Key Summit.

Lupines in the Eglinton Valley.

Beautiful beech forest on the Kepler Track.

First day of an overnight kayaking trip in Doubtful Sound.  When we got to the fjord the wind was gusting up to 75 mph, so needless to say we didn't paddle, but went on a big boat cruise instead.  The rain was blowing sideways and upwards and came down in tons of waterfalls.  I have a new appreciation for how wild and nasty Fiordland can be.  We stayed in the Deep Cove hostel overnight instead of camping out in the fjord.

Just about the best view we got that day.

We woke up to the most beautiful still morning the next day.  We really got to see Doubtful Sound at its worst and its best.

Looking down into Hall Arm, Doubtful Sound.

The kayaking crew: Rob (a fellow DOC employee), Wouter, Karin, our guide Nicola, and yours truly.

Doubtful Sound from the top of the Wilmot Pass road.

The beauty of the Milford Road, at the start of the Gertrude Saddle track.

Heading up the Gertrude Valley on the way to Gertrude Saddle.

Me and Sanjay on Gertrude Saddle, with a lovely view of Milford Sound behind us.  NOT.

It cleared up on the way back down from the saddle - great view of Black Lake and the Gertrude Valley below.

Team Awesome at the start of Dore Pass: LJ, Sanjay, Lyn, and me.

Chilly early morning river crossing.  We headed up to the left of the left peak.

It was cold, but gorgeous even at 6:45 am.

Making our way up to the pass.

On Dore Pass, looking back on how far we'd come.

The Clinton River valley (where the Milford Track starts) from Dore Pass.  I'm in love.

Team Awesome at the top!  Sanjay, me, LJ, and Lyn.

On the descent, looking down on Lake Te Anau.

On the (pretty narrow) track.

We were all the way up there!  To the right of the highest peak, in the middle of the frame.

Tired tired girls on the boat home.

Kayaking on Lake Manapouri, to access a hike up to the Monument.

Another bit of Team Awesome at the top of the Monument on Lake Manapouri: Ed (hut ranger at Mintaro Hut on the Milford Track), Lyn, Rob, and me.

Beautiful Lake Manapouri.

Mt. Titiroa (the whitish part is weathered granite) over Lake Manapouri.

From my ipod: Mt. Ruapehu, the massive volcano I flew over on the way to visit Cory in Taupo.

Huka Falls, Taupo.

From my ipod: Lake Taupo, with three volcanoes (Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe, and Tongariro) in the distance.

Cory "working" on Lake Taupo, kayaking to the Maori carvings.

Ngatoroirangi.

Friendly BBQ with Ian and Amy, two of Cory's coworkers at Rapid Sensations.

Happily reunited.

Tongariro Alpine Crossing.

Soda Springs falls.

The best view we got all day.  It was cloudy the whole time and really windy and cold at the top so we couldn't wait for the clouds to clear.  We huddled behind a rock for some lunch and that's when this wee patch of blue showed up for about 10 seconds.  Have to go do that hike again...

We're finally getting summer here, so on one of my days off I went on a massive bike ride up the Ramparts Road to this little lookout over Te Anau.

From my ipod: On another day-off adventure, I went for a blue duck survey on the Hollyford River yesterday.  Our two-man team and dog scrambled our way down the river bank for four hours and found six ducks - two pairs and two loners.  It was a beautiful day to be out but a bit hard on my knees; they're still sore today.  Worth it.

All photography copyright Kendall DeLyser.

Happy 2013!

The new year blew in with a rain storm that's lasted three days.  It's forced me to stay indoors for some quality relaxation and reflection time.  I've found, in catching up on emails, that I keep mentioning how happy I am here, but I can't quite explain why.  If you put it out on paper, there's so much going well at the moment - great group of friends, beautiful place to live, good job, people that love me... but that doesn't do it justice.  There's some kind of feeling, some kind of intrinsic connection I have with this place that I struggle to put into words.  The knowledge that there's really nowhere I'd rather be.  Of course, I miss lots of friends and family all over the world, and I selfishly want you all to come here because then there really would be nothing missing.  It's the kind of feeling you just have to experience for yourself before you understand.

I'm always a happy person and try to make the most of wherever I find myself, but this, right now, tops it all, and I can't help but feel incredibly lucky and thankful.  Once again I feel like I've magically ended up in the right place at the right time, and I do consider myself lucky for it.  I know they say happiness is the journey, not the destination, but right now I feel like it's a combination of both - I'm going to rename Te Anau and call it Happiness.  I live in Happiness, New Zealand, and you're all welcome to visit.

Here's to hoping that the good karma I have, for whatever reason I have it, reaches out to all of you too, and that your endeavors this year end well.  I hope my luck can rub off on others, and that they too can share in the felicity of being content.  I wish for a happy and healthy year for all of us, a year of growth and overcoming challenges with grace and strength, a year of happiness.  I'll toast to that!

More photos!

Hiya friends,

I've got some more pictures ready!  Sadly I've run out of room on my blog to upload more photos - I'm working on this issue, but for now the pictures are all on Facebook and the album should be public so anyone can see it...

Click here: Aotearoa!

More stories to come.  New Zealand is the coolest.  This is my new favorite photo:

Dore Pass, with Sanjay.