Ain't no Mountain High Enough...

Our Funyak guide summarized the difference between the North Island and the South Island as saying, "they have a Sky Tower, we have Mountains." Quite biased, but he may be on to something. The South Island has Mountains... a lot of them... and they are quite high. The change in elevation will take your breath away - especially if you are traveling by foot! 

Our plane was greeted by the most incredible, razor-edge mountain range, appropriately called, "The Remarkables". Because of the beautiful mountains, we decided to spend our first day hiking. When viewing the options, we made sure to scale back our ambitions - not to let our eyes bite off more than our legs could chew. Therefore, we opted for, "Queenstown Hill". Despite the lyrics of Aretha Franklin's ballad, which played in our head, for us, the "Mountains" were probably high enough to keep us off them. After living the hike, we are grateful for our timid approach. As a fellow hiker shouted to us at the base of the hill as he was coming down and we were going up, "It does not stop going up" - an uplifting encouragement as we embarked. The hill was a straight up set of switchbacks that took us to the top without any pesky meandering delay. The trees at the bottom felt like Lake Tahoe or Mammoth - all pine (unfortunately, non-native). Once we got to the top, the original vegetation was all that existed - just shrubs, sun and amazing views of mountains. The rest of the day was spent resting from the trip, where we viewed the same mountains from more comfortable restaurants and pubs. 

The next day, we decided to get a bit closer to the mountains with a jet boat tour and "Funyak" paddle on blow-up canoes - all through the valley where they filmed a lot of Lord of the Rings. Our jet boat guide shared some incredibly interesting tips. First, the only native "wild land animals" on the island were some local jet boaters. Seriously, we couldn't believe that there are no wild, native non-flying animals anywhere - and it is true! The only predators are rats and possums, which came over on shipping vessels. Second, we sat in a U-shaped valley, which means it was carved out by a glacier. The milky colored stream was the sediment from the existing, receded glacier still in place. Finally, we were traveling up a "braided" river valley, which meant that the river would change with each storm causing some hesitation by our driver at key turns. He showed us just how "wild" jet boaters are by skidding the boat over just inch(es) of water and cutting like a slalom skier around boulders and debris in the river. Once at the top of the river valley, we joined our paddle guide and "the cleanest water known to man kind". Kiwis seem to battle with Chicagoans on their abilities to exaggerate. It was a tributary carrying run-off water from the mountains way above. From there, we enjoyed a little swimming and mostly floated down the river while we enjoyed the high mountains around us.

We were not the only looky-loos to enjoy the mountainous terrain of Queenstown. Mr. Rees first founded the town as a great spot to raise sheep. He gave way to some gold miners. They left when the rivers stopped sparkling (no more gold) and left the town to be overtaken by adventure seekers. Now, it is the adventure-sport capital of the world for both Winter and Summer sports. The town was packed. Restaurants and pubs are built for tourists in all seasons. The food is made to suit people from around the world. Queenstown is quite a melting pot of people all brought together to seek one thing: Mountainous adventure. 

As we wind around the roads from town to town and between farms, you can see adventure seekers jumping off bridges and cliffs. At one bungee jumping adventure site, Jessica and I decided to get a little closer look. We were introduced to what seemed to be an extreme form of spectating. We were greeted with a giant jumbo screen with a live feed to the bridge showing each bungee jump from at least 2 angles at any given time. We saw multiple people wobble up (their ankles are secured to the cord) to the edge and face their fears. Most gobbled up the adrenaline, while some succumbed to the fear. Either way, it made for excellent viewing. We did not partake in the jumping.

At the end of our third day's driving adventure (after bungee jumping spectating), we found ourselves in a valley the Maori called, "Hole in the Sky." Apparently, the mountains surrounding the town block out all the weather. They get ~1/10th the rain the nearby communities get, while still getting hot days and cold nights. The result: great conditions to grow grapes (wine) and fruit (mostly cherries). We dove in head first with some tasting. 

Notably, we finally found sheep! A whole lot of sheep. In fact, a local guy claimed many parts of New Zealand could handle up to 5 sheep / acre (likely an exaggeration, but those things were packed into every farm we saw). Additionally, we were a bit surprised to find out that New Zealand farms venison! We saw farms with herds of both white tailed deer and elk. I guess maybe more surprising is that we didn't see any of these deer outside of the farms. Only remaining food-related mystery - where does all of Jessica's consumed bacon come from?

Off to our next adventure - a 5 hour drive through huge glacier carved, U-shape valleys where we will take an overnight cruise offering kayaking, swimming and late night pictures - all of which will be with the worlds' highest sea cliffs surrounding us in a fjord called, the Milford Sound. Jason is expecting massive waterfalls on all sides, jumping dolphins and hopefully a rainbow. Maybe he has drank too much of the exaggeration kool-aid. 

Until our next post!

Jason & Jessica

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Summer vacation with the locals: Driving, Beaching and Dreaming

We got behind the dash of our brand new rental car and ventured outside the city limits to the Coromandel Peninsula. It would seem that we migrated with the locals because the traffic was terrible and everyone had a boat. This was the adventure where we realized a few critical nuances of the Kiwi culture that we may have dismissed as we walked around the city (all cities seem similar).

Let's start with the drive. We coached ourselves in the parking lot to drive with New Zealand laws - primarily, staying on the left side of the road. Jessica created helpful mottos, which she continued to repeat for the 7 hour drive: "Take a left, and stay on the left… Left on Left" and "Wide Right coming up". Little did we understand, that was the easy part. The road between Auckland and the Coromandel has two prominent ridges that we must drive over. These ridges are complete with 15 and 25 mph blind turns (speed limit is 55) on a way too small two lane road surrounded by campers and trucks with boat trailers. We quickly realized why all the trucks looked thinner. They are! They have to be! New Zealanders really understand the width of their cars. It would seem that Jason was a bit more fuzzy on the issue. When we were not on the hair raising turns, we were in beautiful pastures, or on weird one-lane bridges. That is right, the two lane road (one in each direction) quickly turns into a 1 lane bridge. Traffic laws provide one direction to have a right of way, which is designated by a sign just before the bridge. Aside from rarely being able to see if cars are coming from the other side of the bridge, the most distorting part of crossing a one lane bridge is the realization that you (as a driver) need to give yourself more room on the left, not the right (as a driver from the US would normally do). While we are still safe from even the slightest scratch, Jessica calmly and quickly suggested that Jason was "cutting it close" on numerous occasions. After 3 days of this kind of driving, we are now feeling much more comfortable. The take away: New Zealanders are excellent drivers!

Our new abode lies ~100 feet off the nearby beach. Between us and the beach lies a simple hike, but a hike nonetheless. This should have given us a suggestion that there would be more to come. The Coromandel is a series of beautiful coves, many of which require hiking. Serious hiking. At the suggestion of a few locals, we called an audible on our first day and went to a beach way off the beaten path. We were told we would have to get there a few hours before low tide and leave a few hours after low tide in order to find the trail and get back dry. We followed instructions to a tee - well as much of them as we remembered. If we followed Jason's instructions, we would probably still be cutting our way through the bush looking for this beach. Instead, Jessica saw some locals walking and we followed them… over a stream… over some rocks… through the bush… over a ridge with a super old forest and finally to a beach called "New Chums". This is where the locals were. They went there in single file just before low tide and we followed them out just after. That is when we realized that good beaches require hiking. We subsequently saw "Cathedral Cove" with a beautiful rock arch simulating a Cathedral (45min hike), "Hot Water Beach" with hot springs just off the beach such that we could dig holes in the sand and sit in fresh spring water (10min hike) and "Crayfish Cove" a mostly rock, completely private party cove (20min hike). We beached it up with the locals for the majority of our time here on the Coromandel - always sure to bring our hiking shoes just in case.

If the locals were not hidden away on some hike-in beach, they were on a boat. In fact, giant beaches across the Coromandel support the local lifestyle of several plots of suburban-like homes, close together. Each plot had a giant garage that would store a boat, and usually a tractor (to pull the boat over sand without getting stuck). Occasionally, we saw boats with built-in wheels and drive trains which locals would drive out of their garages and straight into the water. These locals were built to fish, wake-board and sail. Water and boating was their source of relaxation. The very rich would have massive houses on the edges of these little beach/boat/party towns. The less well off would have small cottages supporting a bathroom, a kitchen and maybe one bedroom, but a yard big enough to put their whole families up in tents. In both situations: the nearby beach was central to all enjoyment.

With all that partying, every town was sure to have at least one restaurant. That restaurant was sure to have two items on the menu, and maybe nothing else: wood-fired pizza and french fries. Of course we dug in. Both were of the highest quality.

Additionally, as you might expect with so much partying done so close to a beach, the sun burns reached a next level extreme. Again, not to be left out, we (especially Jessica) gave our best shot at fitting in.

Finally, between all the beaches were cow pastures and dairy farms cleared of growth of local plants. Apparently, there was a lot of clearing that happened after the English settled in the 1830s and through until a conservation movement starting in the 1980s. Regardless, this created some very interesting plots of land near the coast. Which, as you might expect, spurred no end of discussion on the possibilities of getting a farm on the coast. We realized these plots were at least 5x outside our budget, but that is better than 20x like in California.

One more thought entered our heads as we drove through the local cow pastures: where in the world are all the sheep we heard so much about!?

We will let you know if we solve that mystery in our next stop: the South Island.

Jason & Jessica

So far, a Breeze!

The seed of the idea for this trip to New Zealand germinated in a fit of sleep Jason had on the 4th of July, 2016. He woke up and announced his grand plan: we should move to New Zealand. The idea was that there would be massive plots of land for low prices, and it seemed easy. They speak the same language, the land seems lush, so who couldn't grow something and there has to be massive opportunity. Despite this infallible logic, Jessica simply suggested that we visit before making a big move. One and a half years later, here we are in beautiful New Zealand - for a vacation, not a move. 

Jason's hypothesis was half wrong, but let's talk about where he was right first. It certainly is easy! We are only 16 short hours from our lovely bubble in Santa Monica. When we landed, we breezed through customs in the shortest passport checkpoint we have ever seen - no interaction with people at all. I guess we don't look threatening. Then, we jumped in the first cab and our driver not only spoke perfect English, he knew exactly where "the downtown Hilton" was. When we asked our hotel staff where we should walk to eat, we also asked, "where should we avoid." It was all the concierge could do to stop from laughing at us, "You might want to avoid the drunks on Queen's street around 3am tonight, but otherwise, you are fine." Imagine someone telling you can walk anywhere in LA! Near our house, there is a street that we always give a 2 block radius. Not in New Zealand. This place is just easy!

We made the most of the easy town with a walk through downtown on the first day and a day trip out to a nearby island on the second. We saw a downtown, mixed with great parks, all kinds of ethnic foods, interesting museums and lots of sailboats - with the mandatory drawbridges. One of the attached pictures has us at a recent exhibit of Yayoi Kusama, an artist famous for her colorful dots. Yayoi's exhibits typically have long lines and expensive tickets. This one was free and we just walked in. Easy! After you look at the picture, you might say we became a part of the piece. The second day included a zip line through the local canopy, followed by a bush-walk through 600 year old trees with a trail guide and finished up with a tasting of the local wines. To further underline how easy this country is, Jessica highlighted that her zip line tour in Panama included mattress tied to trees for "safety" versus our Waiheke experience where we had at least 4 safety mechanisms providing backup to our backups' backups. 

The town is truly easy…. but it ain't cheap. We think the cost of living hear is about as "dear" as Santa Monica. We can really only estimate by our short stint at some nearby restaurants and a few slow walks by real estate windows. In the end, we realized a few important factors that changed our estimates. Jason strongly believes that one contributing factor to the increase in prices: Oprah and Reese Witherspoon each announced their love for New Zealand on their Instagram feeds with millions of followers. Dam celebrities! Jessica is a bit more practical. She thinks that we were not the only ones to think, boy, this seems easy and a nice place to live. 

Either way, a life here is likely the same, but slightly different, to a life in the states. Our vacation (so far, in the North Island near Auckland only) feels more like a trip to Hawaii (sun and beaches) / Seattle (waterways and sailboats) than it does a trip to a different country across the Pacific. 

Our next few days will have us at a "Hideaway" near Otawa Beach - off the grid. Time to double down on the Hawaii similarities. 

Until our next writing! 

Jessica & Jason

Off the trail

We are heading home and maybe it is the thought of airplane food, but our final reflective thoughts wander to food we have had over the last few days.

The most important lesson Jared took away from the trip is that beer, bread and chocolate are necessities of life. If not for our rations, we may not have made it to our first hostel given the train delays. Later, these foundations of good health kept us in good spirits on the long train rides between Munich and Gimmewald. Finally, we made sure to grab a loaf for our ride home... Just in case.

The second most important lesson Jared learned was the expert skill of wandering. Not only does it lead to new favorite spots, new adventures and new friends, but it also leads to the best food. We found that the further away from other tourists, the better the food. In Switzerland, we were half way up Mt Shilthorn, and the best food was a 1.5 hour walk further up hill. We were welcomed with a warm cheese kitchen, homemade dumpling soup, a loving dog named Joey and a family still celebrating their recent perfect score on their cheese competition. In Germany, while driving along, we took frequent turns off the "highway" (racetrack) to see the countryside. While out there, we stopped for food twice. It was by far the best food we had. The locals each had some homemade special and we both lost all self control. Jason's diet didn't stand a chance and Jared's appetite grew as large as him. To give you an image of what we mean, here is Jared finishing off a homemade, homegrown strudel and locking in the memory. To give a little context, he already finished up a schnitzel, and a plum cake. He wanted the strudel to be the last taste he had. Look at that face:

Cooking with petrol

Well, after a few hiccups in getting situated, we now have this traveling thing down to a science. You might say we are now "cooking with (diesel) petrol!"

We finished up rainy Switzerland a day early on an epic day of canyoning. With big jumps, repelling down waterfalls and lots of floating through the Sax canyon, we left Interlaken on a great note!

Then, we traveled back to Munich, which involved flawless transfers between six trains and trams. We spent some time in Bern and had a breakfast of beer, vegetables, sausage, kraut and coffee, with a beautiful view of old town Bern and next to some bear pits (seriously). Then, we checked out the Einstein museum and a beach volleyball tournament in the city. (Again, seriously). That was not enough though, we saw a parade and a greeting for Angela Merkel (Chancellor of Germany). We could not make this up! She waved to the crowd and the crowd waved back without cheering - cheering must not be considered austere enough.

We settled into our final German digs, a comfortable hotel. No more hostels.

The next day, we visited a moving museum for concentration camps. It is at the site of Dachau, the first camp of its kind. Both of us were quite touched and shocked by the horrors that occurred. Though it reflects activities from so long ago, humanity seems to be making the same mistakes in other regions over and over again. Shocking! We were marginally uplifted to hear there was a nearby uprising against Dachau and Hitler at the local university. A couple students published brochures stating their disagreement. Unfortunately, two days later, they were sentenced to death and executed. The University keeps their brochures enshrined in gold plates at their main building.

The next day, we rented a car (BMW 2 series convertible) and head off to see some castles. As a perk, we enjoyed a little drive down the autobahn. We knew we had started on the autobahn as soon as we saw an Audi R8 blow by us with a huge roar, making us look like we were standing still. Welcome to Germany, Jared and Jason! As a metaphor for how the drive went, let's just blur the details - it was a good time and we are safe.

The castles were a monument to the childhood tales of a Bavarian King. He was repeatedly called an "enigmatic" character and eventually pronounced officially unfit to rule. We think he was just misunderstood. He was a significant patron of arts and science, following in his father's footsteps. His primary focus was on medieval literature. His aesthetic style followed King Louis the IX. All these details led to a castle filled with scenes from legends and tales from his childhood in extremely intricate and beautiful detail. It's existence suggested he had a lot of free time. We thought the castle was more pretty than defensible, but that could have been the timing of the build at the end of the 19th century - not many feudal wars were still expected by then.

The museum experience helped enlighten us about Munich and the Bavarian culture. We were fascinated by the strategy to make Munich a cultural and scientific hub. This was a version of power and influence in the area. To solidify this strategy, "October fest" was created to bring the various houses closer together. We agree with the strategy - fight for the best beer, not the most land and we will all prosper together (albeit drunk)!

One more detail about the autobahn, Jared looked good in the ride:

Hikology

The syllabus for the Switzerland school of hiking:

Hiking 101: we had already taken this class

- Plan your trip using a local map (we can read one now)

- Ask for tips on places to go

- Take note of other people's thoughts on the weather

- Plan backup options in case the weather gets bad

- Plan for good, hot soup and cold beer for when the trail is over

- Pack a great jacket just in case 

- Remember to pick something up to leave in the lockbox on top of the mountain (Jared's choice was eyeliner that he claims he "found")

- Heard cows and sheep off your path using clapping and loud noises

Hiking 201: we skipped this class 

- Wake up early enough to miss weather 

- When you don't wake up early, don't bite off too much trail

- Goats do not herd as easily as other livestock - they attack 

- When the third person you pass reminds you to get off the mountain before the rain starts, consider it good advice

- When the fifth person gives you good advice, follow it

- Always remember the name of the backup option in case the weather gets bad 

- Ravines you crossed when the weather was good fill up when the weather gets bad

Hiking 301: we had to take this class because we skipped 201

- Nearby wood makes a great bridge 

- Ideal climbing approach in bad weather uses all four limbs

- Water in your shoes can feel warm after your feet go numb

- Hand driers and room heaters at tourist joints along the way can dry clothes too

- Dumpling soup warms the soul

- The dog that spent the morning herding the cows to be milked is also wet and cold, and should absolutely eat with the tourists

We found this hiking curriculum wonderfully effective. If you do decide to take the course, we highly recommend professor Shilthorn (our mountain)

-Jared & Jason

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Breakfast in Bern

Totally normal breakfast, right?