Chaos With Curry

We woke up on Sunday morning in Picton after three tough days on the Queen Charlotte Track, and we were glad to know we didn’t have to rush for an early Stray bus pickup (the new bunch we were joining up with had taken the 8AM ferry from Wellington, so they wouldn’t be coming through Picton until close to noon). We enjoyed a really great breakfast at a place called Gusto – it was maybe the best breakfast we’ve had so far on the trip. It also arrived at our table in less than 45 minutes, which is more than we can say for the dinner we had at the place down the street the night before. After a bit of email and blogging back at our hostel, it was time to meet the new crew.

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Queen Charlotte & Lady Noeline

Our three days walking the Queen Charlotte Track were both a wonderful gift and an exercise in masochism. As far as the latter goes, I don’t think we really considered the distances we’d be walking each day or how our legs would respond to those distances after two months of virtually no exercise. (The shocking answer? Not well!)

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Gumboots Special Olympics

Our final three days traveling with Mr. Scoobs and Mambo were pretty unexciting, unless you count getting rained out of doing the Tongariro Crossing, a minor gumboot mishap, a semi-major medical emergency (not one of us, don’t worry Moms), and a full-on breakdown of Mr. Scoobs on our way to Wellington.

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Hail to the Chief

Laura and I are taking a “down” day in cloudy Abel Tasman today to catch up on email, photos, blog, and the random bits of real life (mostly bills and the like) that still have to be dealt with while we’re traveling. We’re also taking this opportunity to exercise the “off” option of the hop-on/hop-off Stray bus tour… having spent a really fun week or so on Mr. Scoobs with Mambo as our driver, we’re already missing his laid back style and wickedly dry sense of humor (though not the mechanical unreliability of Mr. Scoobs, may he RIP), so we’re hoping the next bus and driver will suit us a little better than the one we joined yesterday in Picton for our south island loop.

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A Quick Thank You...

… to everyone who has commented on our blog posts and pictures. We haven’t been able to respond to every comment due to really limited (and ridiculously expensive) internet time, but we absolutely love hearing from friends and family — it makes home feel a little less far away. Keep the emails and comments coming our way!

Love, Lustin

Latest Photos

Just a quick post to let everyone know that we have new photos up from our days on the north island of New Zealand (Maketu, Rotorua, & Taupo, and Tongariro to Wellington), plus the ferry crossing from Wellington to Picton and our three-day “walk” (aka death march) on the truly beautiful Queen Charlotte Track. We’re working on a couple of posts with more juicy details, as well as captions for the photos, but we wanted to share the images while we had decent internet. Enjoy!

Hippies & Hahei & Hot Water, Oh My!

Well, we said farewell to gumboots and free wi-fi a few hours after our last post – Mr. Scoobs made a miraculous recovery thanks to some good luck and a very talented local mechanic, and we made it to Wellington only four hours later than expected. We’re in a lovely idyllic hostel in Picton now, waiting to catch a boat up to the northern end of the Queen Charlotte Track. We’ll spend the next two and a half days hiking back down the track along the Marlborough Sound, and then we’ll reconnect with the Stray bus on Sunday. Especially after not being able to do the Tongariro Crossing earlier this week, we’re both really looking forward to getting out on a trail for a few days (assuming Dusty’s ankle holds up!).

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Mr. Scoobs on Life Support!

Lustin is currently stranded in a town called Taihape thanks to an ailing Mr. Scoobs. You may recognize Taihape as the home of Gumboot Day, which includes the world’s largest Gumboot (i.e Wellingtons) Throwing Competition. (Be sure to ask Dustin how he did today when he tried to throw a gumboot. Let’s just say that he would probably qualify for the Gumboot Special Olympics if there were one…)

Today was scheduled to be our last day with Mr. Scoobs, and we thought we were in the clear — but the old bastard had one last trick up his sleeve. The starter engine won’t start or something like that, and we’ve currently got a local mechanic working on it. Not sure when we’ll get to Wellington tonight — it’s still 3 hours away.

We’re currently using the first free WiFi we’ve found in this country (in the local library — imagine that!)… we’re so happy about it that we may just abandon the rest of the trip and move here.

Coromandel Pics

Finally getting some more pictures up. These were taken up on the lovely Coromandel Peninsula last week, where we spent one night in a little beach town called Hahei with a new group from Stray. We had a blast up there and will write more about it soon. :)

Magnum P.I.

I recently learned that there are over twenty varieties of Magnum ice cream bars, sold here in New Zealand (and Australia) under the Streets brand. So far, I’ve spotted nine species of them in the wild: Classic, Almond, Ego Caramel, Peppermint, Ecuador Dark, White (why bother?), Colombian Aroma Choco-Cappuccino (wah?), Big Choc Bikkie (my favorite just for the name), and the new Magnum Sandwich. I’ve made it my personal mission to bag (or in this case, un-bag) one specimen of each before we head to the South Pacific. I will post my trophies as they are won.