Dead Cow in the Road

This weekend's tramping trip brought me to Mavora Lakes Park and Snowdon Forest.  I can't say whether I enjoyed the scenery or the company more!  Two spunky Portuguese ladies and a happy Italian chick certainly made for a fun time.  I even learned a new phrase - la fantastico zucca zanzara! (Yes, the fantastic pumpkin mosquito).

Day 1 - 10k walk to Careys Hut on a cheesy easy four wheel drive track that hugged the North Mavora Lake...

...and was partially blocked by a dead cow.  Gross.

At the hut we were greeted (?) by at least eight adults and two kids (it's a 4-person hut).  Let's just say it made for a restless night's sleep between the person with sleep apnea (ohmygod it's scary to hear someone stop breathing, make a few gagging sounds, and then bust out some loud snoring) and the child who decided to start whimpering in the middle of the night because... it was dark.  Hmm....  At least the views outside were lovely!

Day 2 - 10k walk back to North Mavora Lake car park...

Then a quick drive over to the Kiwi Burn swing bridge to cross the Mararoa River.  Kiwi Burn Hut is located on a "simple" 3 hour loop.  I use quotes because it was a well marked track and there wasn't much elevation gain, but it got tricky when we were about 300 yards from the hut - oohhhhhh! It was so close, yet so far!  The ground was saturated and at points my leg sunk into the depths below up to my knee.  I lovingly refer to this area as The Deceptive Field of Hope (or something like that).  

Once inside the 12-person hut we were happy to find that we didn't have to share with anyone!  I celebrated by cracking into my new FAVORITE tramping treat - Lindt's blueberry intense chocolate. Delish!

Now, being a Heinz 57 American, I opted to have no part in meal preparations (honestly, my mangled heritage is utterly useless for instinctively cooking anything that is not supposed to be bland, super fatty, super salty or super sugary - I just cannot compete with ladies from Portugal and Italy!), so I was responsible for keeping the hut warm.  We were all quite pleased with my fire building and we stayed toasty all night long.  

Day 3 - Easy as pie 1 1/2 hour walk from the hut to the car through beautiful mossy forest.  So pretty!

It'll be interesting to see what happens to this area in the future.  There are plans to build a monorail to create some sort of fancy schmancy experience to get tourists from Queenstown to Te Anau.  A Kiwiburn terminus would be built right in the area that I was tramping this weekend.  Frankly, the idea seems like crap to me... the group that we shared Careys Hut with all came in on 4 wheel drive vehicles.  Just their four vehicles were enough to turn me off to the idea of having more noisy vehicles in the area (part of the plan for that project mentioned above involves 4-wheel-driving through the area).  It really killed the experience of enjoying nature in a peaceful way when the group zoomed by us on our way to AND from the hut...and we were left to inhale exhaust fumes after the cars were long gone. Ick.

Anywho, plans are in the works for my next tramping trip.  Now that spring is here I imagine I'll be out and about quite a bit in the great backcountry of New Zealand!

Things A-Brewin'!

Last weekend I went to Dunedin's first Craft Beer and Food Festival.  It was a hit!  It was SO awesome to have breweries from around the south island in one spot to sample deliciousness after deliciousness.

Emerson's made a special festival brew with Whittakers chocolate - this stout was so yum!  It had just the right amount of chocolate in it (I love the taste of stout, so too much chocolate would have made me sad).  My favorite beers came from Velvet Worm.  Hands down.  They totally rocked my taste buds.  I've had cravings for their Periportous Pale Ale ever since I left the festival!  The Eve of Jupiter Red Ale was also pretty darn tasty.  The word on the street is that Velvet Worm is served up at local restaurants and thus I am on a mission to suss out exactly where I can get more (Dunedin Malt House looks like a promising spot to get my fix if I'm not looking for nibbles to go with my pint).  Golden Eagle Brewery's Big Yank American IPA really impressed me - I may have been nostalgic and felt like I was right back in the States when I sipped it (overstatement? Maybe. But give 'em a try if you can get your hands on this stuff!).  The last beer stop of the day was at Twisted Hop.  They had a heated mulled cherry beer that was sooooo delightful in that c-c-c-c-cold stadium.  The day finished up with music by Sola Rosa - man, were they FUN!

Now that I've tasted everyone else's beers, I probably should get around to brewing my own.  iMake donated Mangrove Jack's Series brew kits to the Otago University Brewers Association and so all OUBA members will have a crack with them.  Funsies!  But, before I do that I need to bottle the plum wine that I started back in March.  The color looks good and it doesn't smell funky, so I think it's ready to be consumed in the near future. Hurray!

Great Naseby Water Race

What a weekend in Naseby!  The weather was stunning for the Great Naseby Water Race - my first glimpse of ultra running.

I traveled out of town on Friday with friends - one of which was signed up for the 80k (49.7 miles) race.  When we reached Naseby, we stopped by the start/finish line to watch some of the 100 mile runners (oh.my.god. why would someone want to run that far?!).  It was hard to believe that we'd return in the morning and they'd still be running.

Runners of all distances ran the same 10k (6.2 mile) figure 8 shaped course.  This was fantastic because the start/finish line was located where the two loops intersected-spectators could see their athlete every 5k and athletes had access to their own nutrition and gear every 5k.

On Saturday we were up around 5:30am to take our runner to the start line.  I had never been to a race that started in the dark!  It was actually really neat seeing athletes and spectators donning headlamps to make their way to the start line.

The sky was amazingly clear - the stars were incredibly bright and the crescent moon was sitting pretty just above the tree line.  But, my enjoyment of the moment was short lived - holy hell it was freezing out there!  I was thankful that I wasn't running; to think... those 100 mile runners had been in that cold all night!

During the day, the air temperature was great for a race - I was able to stand in a t-shirt and shorts without getting chilled.  The sun was out the whole day and so the snowy mountains really stood out against the clear blue sky.

Our runner did his first 40 kilometers by himself and then his brother and I took turns running with him.  The original plan was to alternate pacers every 10k for a total of 20k each, but I ended up running 25k because the other pacer wasn't feeling well.  I hadn't run that far since the Christchurch marathon, but I made it through with few issues-the course was forgiving because it was on trails for long stretches and our runner alternated running and walking, which helped my knees cope with the distance.

The experience of watching the ultra reminded me of my experience with Ironman Lake Placid - enduring a lot of pain and digging deep for patience/strength to make it to the finish line.  Oddly enough, it got me excited to take a shot at an ultra marathon next year!  I've started training for the Northburn 50k race and so I have my fingers and toes crossed that I can make it to March with no injuries.