Trekking to Chisapani and Nagarkot

Even with our somewhat overwhelming introduction to Kathmandu (re-introduction for me), we were still excited to spend a couple of days doing some light trekking northeast of the Kathmandu Valley. We’d hired a guide and porter through Himalayan Holidays — the same company that Room to Read was working with for their anniversary trek — and they met us that Monday morning to start our trek. Laxman (our guide) and Jhalak (our porter) introduced themselves as cousin-brothers: their fathers are brothers (making them first cousins), their mothers are sisters (again, first cousins), and as it turns out, their wives are also sisters (making them brothers-in-law)! Pretty funny. They both spoke English well enough, and after a short drive out of the Kathmandu Valley, we started our trek up to Chisapani.

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Milf(j)ord Sound

For a portion of our New Zealand tour that we almost skipped (the “deep south”), the southern loop turned out to be one of our favorite parts of the trip! There weren’t a heck of a lot of funny backpacker stories to share, just some incredible scenery, a few more million sandflies, and some looooong days of riding on the Stray bus.

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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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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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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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Going a-Stray

On our last day in Auckland, we started to think “Hmm, maybe we should figure out where the heck we’re going from here and how we should get ourselves there.” We researched all the New Zealand-owned car rental companies, which are pretty damn cheap but use really old, high-mileage cars (one company said the Nissan we rented might be from 1998!). Having just finished months of being in logistics mode at home getting ready for a wedding and a year-long trip, we weren’t exactly excited about having to sort out mobile phone cards, booking lodging for ourselves every night, finding our way in a rental car, and deciding what to do and see everyday. Quite the intrepid travelers, no?

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