Hellensville booya

We're heading into busy season here in Auckland. Short days and full weeks of rain mean that people tend to come to more concerts. From now until our wedding, things will be pretty full-on with huge concerts one week after the next. So we decided to skip town for just one night before the madness started.


The weather gods smiled down on us, and we spent two blissful days soaking in thermal pools and exploring the quaint town of Helensville.


We hoped to take our new bikes for a spin on Shelley Beach, but when we got there we discovered that it's called Shelley Beach for a reason....

So we found some other spots to christen the new wheels.


As well as a prime spot for a plank.


Our new funky coffee table from an antique shop in Hellensville

Here's proof of our unplanned skype reunion yesterday: Naomi, Mom, Dad in Christchurch, Emma in London, Camille, Carl, Todd in Auckland. Clearly a serious affair!

Central Otago Rail Trail

Camille and I just got back from the most beautiful easter weekend on record. We flew to Christchurch to meet up with my parents before driving to Central Otago to cycle the famous rail trail.

In perfect autumn weather we cycled 130 kilometers over 4 days. The trail exactly follows a former train route, so it's very flat despite the surrounding mountains. Hi Mom + Dad down below!

We took breaks whenever we pleased. For a view from above, or to visit an historic gold mine with fitting gold autumn colors:

Here I approach one of the three tunnels. One tunnel famously has a bend in the middle making for pitch black danger.

Here's one of the more beautiful original rail bridges we traversed:

Family portrait time!

A few more of my favorite shots:

In Otago there is the annual easter bunny hunt. It's not what you might think. Rabbits are a major pest in New Zealand, and what better time to wage war on them than Easter? Teams of hunters complete to see who can bring in the most easter bunnies. In this picture, a football field is covered in row upon row of bunny carcasses. Happy Easter?

Fortunately we spent the our four days in more appealing scenery:

-Carl

Christchurch

I made a surprise trip to Christchurch for my Dad's birthday. You can read about my adventure getting to the airport over at Cycling in Auckland.

Here is the moment of surprise!

intense moment of wishing

The next day I joined the student army for seven back-breaking hours of shoveling liquifaction out from some backyards in a badly hit neighborhood. This pile alone took four hours to collect with 13 people working nonstop! This stuff is as heavy as concrete. Very sore shoulders and hands for the next few days.

I also accompanied by brilliant sister Naomi on a scientific reconnaissance mission to document the impact of the raw sewage flowing into the streams. She made me feel very important!

We also took a day trip up past Hanmer Springs. Here's an extremely successful attempt to look happy:

Here's my dad trying to skip a stone, but I only see one splash....hmm.

Because my shoulder was already sore and strained from my day shoveling, I somehow managed to pull my shoulder even worse skipping stones. A very manly injury.

Back in Auckland I had three days spending time with my old teacher from Boston, Daniel Katzen. Lessons, masterclasses, sectionals, and smiles all around!

My fantastic horn section in the APO: Nicola, Emma, Simon, and David. This was lunch after our final sectional with Danny. Why are we all smiling so nicely? Because the photographer said a dirty word. Funny every time!

-Carl

we have a winner

My corner for the past month. I tried so many oboes

and finally, we have a winner.

MEANWHILE in the outside world...

snopocolypse. i took this picture of our street, in the five minute gap between blizzards today. 24 more inches tomorrow...?

sarah and jody made a sweet tunnel in our driveway.

Lovely snow...

but it will be nice for me and the oboes to get back to auckland.

also about shoveling

This post is about my recent American holiday. It's also about shoveling.

It started snowing Boxing Day in Brooklyn NY. Here I am wasting my time shoveling two feet of snow off the car. There wasn't much point since the road wasn't plowed for four days. But we gave up waiting and took the train.

Impressive drifts the next day:

We had the pleasure of a visit from Emma + Rhys, who had the pleasure of a very crowded van ride to Amherst MA.

Shoveling is fun for the whole family:

Same driveway a few days later. Priscilla supervises me:

Snow also means sledding on Suicide Hill!

Yay!

-Carl

It was a good choice

Kayaking the Avon River through downtown Christchurch with Carl's parents and Daisy. What a beautiful and peaceful way to see the city! Thanks to my parents- they had been thinking of attempting this adventure for years.

Carl had some navigational issues:

Amazing earthquake damage- the famous twisted bridge:

We bravely took on our first Great Walk - the Kepler Track.

Day 1 - relaxing at the hut after 5 hours of walking uphill. Beautiful weather, scenery, and company:

Day 2 - Luxmore Hut, before the storm set in...

Day 2 - Luxmore Cave. In the morning we only explored the first hundred feet as we still had a lot of walking to do this day. If we had more time the cave can be explored for hours.

Day 2 - to Iris Burn Hut. The track was closed due to a Severe Gale. Of the twenty people staying at the hut the previous night, half went back the way they'd come, and half ventured forth despite the 110 kilometer/hour winds and rain. We decided to go for it! We knew we could turn around at any time if the wind became too strong.

It was a good choice

...but really hard work. At times we had to lock arms for stability against the wind. Because this days' six hour walk was all on exposed alpine ridges, there were two emergency shelters along the way. Thank goodness for the breaks!

Toilet with a view! Camille could barely get the door open due to the wind.

Day 3 - Eight hours walk through mossy forest in the rain. My face pretty much sums up our condition, but our spirits stayed high. After catching the bus back into town we could barely walk - ordering pizza has never been more luxurious!

The following day we were picked up at 5:40 AM for our Milford Sound kayaking adventure. Milford Sound is actually a fjord and is New Zealand's most popular tourist destination. Most everyone takes a boat tour with booming announcers and lots of people. We decided the best way to see the fjord was by kayak. It was just brilliant!

The scale of the landscape was hard to comprehend even while being there, but to get a sense, the waterfall in the centre of this photo is 8 kilometers away and three times as high as Niagara Falls. These steep mountains are over 5,000 feet high and descend just as steeply underwater.

The view towards Milford: