Good food and drink, Glow-worms, Sand flies and more Incredible Scenery

Pass from Murchison to Nelson

The week moved along at a somewhat steady pace…practicing our regular weekly routines, work, run, dinner, movie/read and sleep. Thankfully the weather continues to get nicer and when it’s a good day, ending our run at the top of Princess drive overlooking the Tasman Bay is a wonderful way to mentally relax from whatever may be on your mind.

Shannon received a call early on in the week about a new job opportunity with a NZ Real Estate Company, Bayleys. Bayleys is one of NZ’s largest property services companies with 60 offices across NZ and Fiji. A fixed term position for the marketing and advertising manager at the Nelson hub would keep me working until we take off from Nelson to explore the rest of the islands. The interviews went well and I will say farewell to the council and hello to the real estate world in the next couple of weeks.

We started off the weekend right with beers at the Freehouse with some of the council peeps. Beautiful weather, good beer and great conversation. The weekend was looking bright. Homemade pizza for dinner, delicious as usual and movie rental to bring our generation back to childhood, Mrs. Doubtfire. (Yes shmeegs, I thought of you and how many times we watched this movie growing up). Saturday was spent catching up on much needed rest and indulging in a season of Dexter…embarrassing we know. That evening we headed over to our American friends house for dinner and drinks. It’s great hanging out with people who understand all of your stateside references. A great dinner and good time all around. Sunday started with a killer breakfast (as per usual) and John getting a pork roast that had been marinating for two days in the oven…needless to say, we ate well all weekend. Along with all of the eating we were able to accomplish some other tasks, including, booking our official return tickets to the states (for everyone that has been asking, no, we are not extending our trip…we miss you all way too much and will be back in May). After a quick stop over in Brisbane, we will be back stateside summer 2012. We also fit in some grid iron and basketball research on Sunday as well.

And then, another week was upon is! Same thing, the week went something like this… work, run, dinner, movie/read and sleep. Then it was time for another exciting weekend.

train up to the caves

We made our second attempt at an exciting West Coast weekend…and thankfully this one proved to be more interesting than the last. We made our way to Charleston on Saturday morning, a bustling town of 150 people. Charleston was founded as a gold mining town after a major gold rush in 1867. The gold ran out, as did the people (once 30 thousand strong) and what remains is a tourist trap – tours of the young limestone caves, dense fern covered forest and last but not least, the glow-worm. The tour we signed up for was the underground tubing and glow-worm tour.  We’ve mentioned the glow-worm twice, and I’m sure you yanks back home are wondering what the heck it is. Well…it’s not the cuddly toy some of us had as kids, although finding this image of the toy version glow-worm brought a smile to my face remembering how much my sisters and I loved that thing – no they’re actually a genus of four fungus gnat species which are, in their larval stage, glow-worms (thank you Wikipedia). They are kind of like lighting bugs that don’t fly and are blue instead of yellow.

Our float crew: Teams USA, German and Brit

The tour starts with a train ride and short hike through the forest to get to the cave entrance. After the standard cave tour you’ll receive anywhere in the world – stalactites, stalagmites and columns – we jumped in our tubes inside the cave and headed off in search of the elusive glow-worm.

You tube through the limestone cave in complete darkness, which is worth it once you glance up and see the thousands of glow-worms decorating the cave ceiling.

It truly is an incredible sight, similar to a sky filled with thousands of stars, they almost seem to create rivers through the darkness and you are able to pick up the dimensions of the cave through their glow.

After you exit the caves you have a short float down the Nile River to catch the train and make your way back to town. Now, both you Idahoans and Montanans and all of the other people we grew up with share the same concept of ‘floating’. It’s comprised of hot days, some rapids, some slow relaxing parts and of course, enjoying and not spilling your beer. It was quite funny listening to the tour guide explain to us how to safely float down the river (an approximate 10 minute ride). We bit our tongues and both reflected on float trip memories back home and how this one couldn’t ever stack up to the floating trips from our past. Fun nonetheless and glad that we know are educated in the world of the glow-worm.

Once we reached the adventureship we were off to Karamea, the northernmost settlement on the west coast (south island). Karamea is a small farming community with south west access to the Heaphy track - a popular 4 day tramp through the Kahurangi National Park to Golden Bay. We arrived at the campsite at the base of the track with enough daylight left to pitch the tent. Waking up the next morning eager to hit the track, we had our first real encounter with the widely condemned sand fly (yeah I know you’re thinking flies, not as bad as mosquito’s right? But these little things swarm like mosquitoes and keep biting you relentlessly).

Between the tent and the rain fly, hundreds of sand flies bopped around looking for the chance to break through and eat us alive. We cunningly came up with a plan to escape and once we did, a short tramp to Scott’s beach was on the agenda. The vegetation on the west coast varies drastically from the east and north parts of the south island we have visited. Everything is very damp, mossy and very dense. Similar to what you would see in Olympic National Park. It was beautiful as was the coastline and we enjoyed spending the day outside yet again, exploring new territory.

We made our way back to Nelson just in time to enjoy a classic Kiwi Sunday roast with our flat mate and his mates. A fabulous way to end a great weekend.

The next couple weeks will bring us Shannon’s new job, starting to prep for the 3 week trip to the states and some time in the beautiful Marlborough Sounds.

Cheers,
John and Shannon