Day 6: The Great Seal Hunt
Day 6: Tuesday 01-04-2005 Finding Seals
BREAKFAST: I woke up again early this morning and beat my alarm clock. For me, this is revolutionary. I feel like a new man. Must be the air. Something tells me this won’t continue, however. I wander downstairs and have a mediocre breakfast. The “chef” here, if you’d call him that, doesn’t really try too hard – eggs again, with what appears to be leftovers from yesterday mixed in.
VEGGIE JAM: I’ll take a moment to elaborate on this Remolade stuff they love down here. It’s some sort of vegetable jam that they spread on everything. They use it like we use peanut butter or jam. We proceed to entertain ourselves by betting each other to eat it and laughing as one girl twists her face like she just ate a lemon. After several looks of disgust, I decide I won’t have any better luck and I put off trying the stuff.
Someone comments on my sunburn. Sleep was troublesome again; I hate sleeping on my back. Now that it’s been two days since burn-day (henceforth known as B-Day), you can definitely separate the men from the boys when it comes to burns. I’m pretty burned, but Jeff gets the award for most with his fabulous impression of a tomato. A rumor is going around that someone got sun poisoning. Oof. The class still looks funny, when you see a row of burned faces in a line during lecture. We’re such tourists.
Classes are uneventful. Biogeography gets more interesting, and I start goofing off in Economics. I have a feeling my antics will land me in trouble at some point, but so far all I’ve gotten is some dirty looks from the teacher.
TO THE SEALS: Anyway, someone heard a rumor there’s a seal colony that we can go see and maybe get some photos of seals. Sounds interesting, so being in a bandwagon mood and not wanting to find anything else to do, I tag along. I load up my backpack with some water and granola bars, not knowing how far we’re going, or even bothering to ask.
We catch a bus down to the shoreline. It was an interesting ride, I meet a school teacher and group of kids going home from downtown. We chat about a variety of things. I find out some good places to eat, and I apologize for contributing to the hole in the ozone layer. One of the kids tells me not to move to New Zealand after I profess my love for it, she says it’s boring. Understandable, if you look at the available playgroup equipment. “Take a clothespin with you,” the kid tells me. I ask why, she responses “Because the seals stink!” and she makes a face. The teacher comforts us by reminding us we might be lucky if the wind’s blowing the right way.
We arrive at the coast and the view is amazing. Most Kiwis (New Zealanders) probably take it for granted, but being able to see out across the sea with beautiful green mountains and unspoiled oceans is quite refreshing. Across a river outlet, we can see houses perched in the middle of green hills – the kind of hills you want to roll down on a summer day. Jeff comments on how this is what he was wanting to see when he came to NZ. I can see now why the producers of Lord of the Rings picked this country to film in.
THE WALK: So, I finally ask Erik, who seems to know what’s going on, how far we have to talk to see the seals. He casually replies, oh, about 6 KM or so. For the metric impaired (we’re just starting to get used to the units), that’s almost 3.75 miles. Factor in the round trip we’ll be making, and these sneakers are gonna rack up 7 miles on the ol’ soles. When you consider that we’re also loaded with cameras and liable and stop at every pretty spot we see and take pictures (which will be a lot), this is going to take a while. At this point, it is about 4pm, and we have about 5 hours of sun left. So, without further ado, we head out.
There’s not a whole lot to say about the trip except that it’s long. I feel like we’re on a pilgrimage through the desert, except replace desert with beautiful scenery and we have seals for a destination. There are some unique features out here, like dried seaweed which looks like a dead animal at first glance. The rocks are red from high iron content, which make for good photos. New Zealand used to be located on a huge fault, which accounts for the mountains and rocky features of the island (if you could call it that). The path we are walking on can also be driven on, if you have an all-wheel drive vehicle. We are passed a few times by vehicles, and the girls start plotting ways to get rides from the next one that comes by. None of them go through on their ideas. One group of drunk scuba divers drives by waving and hollering out the window. We wave back.
I continue shooting pictures – the scenery provides some great opportunities for panoramic shots. Someone asks me how many I’ve taken, I think I’m up to 5-600 at this point, and it’s only been a few days since we’ve gotten here. They make fun of me, I reply that they can't have any pictures. They shut up.
WHAT SEALS? Fast forward two hours, and we get to the point where the seals SHOULD have been. Curses, foiled again. We see some old-timers in a rickety boat hanging out on the beach. One of the guys goes and asks them where the seals were. I’m standing a little ways away and can’t quite tell if they are laughing at us or with us. The guy returns to our group and informs us that, if there were any seals, they’d be back a few hundred meters. Darn.
We wander back a little ways and look for a good dinner spot. Most people had packed extra sandwiches, and I realize that I’ll have to make a meal of my granola bars. Oh well. Luke gets bored and climbs up one of the rock peaks. Dumbass. I take cue and climb up a shorter one that doesn’t look as dangerous. Dumbass. I snap some cool pictures and make my way down. We kick around for a few minutes more and start the long journey back. While walking, we notice a side trail that shoots straight up one of the large hills (borderline mountain). With no good reason, four of us take off up the hill to get a better view. It’s quite nice at the top, the rest of the group looks like little dots. Since the trail is sloped, we do an impromptu reenactment of Donkey Kong with Dan rolling rocks down the hill and myself jumping over them like Mario. Of course, no Donkey Kong reenactment is complete without an adequate soundtrack, provided by me and Dan.
Come 9PM or so, we finally reach the bus stop. Needless to say, we’re exhausted and starving at this point, and we begin our journey back to town. We stop at a good local chicken place and chow down. We hit up one of the local bars and have a few beers, then call it a night.
To wrap up the hike, I must say it was one of the most beautiful walks I have ever been on. It was also by far the longest. My feet were extremely tired, and I don’t know if I’ll ever walk that far again. I took over 300 pictures on the walk, and had some good conversations. The coast vaguely reminds me of the California cost in the northern part of the state, but I definitely like this better. Oddly enough, in a country full of sheep, we only saw one animal, and it was a goat. Hmm.
NEW ZEALAND BEER: I’ll take a minute to talk about NZ beer, should you ever find yourself in the area. First and foremost, the staple brands of the US are nowhere to be found. No Bud Light, Coors, Natty, or any of that crap. Thank goodness, this is one area where NZ has escaped US influence. The expensive imports are still around (Heineken, Newcastle, Corona), but they are usually out of our price range. Case in point: $18 NZ (about $13 US) for a 6-pack of Corona. No thanks.
So far, I really like Speight’s Gold and Dark Ales, Lion Brown, and Export Gold. There are a handful of others I can’t remember at the moment. The standard price of a beer at a bar here is $5 NZ for a pint (or ~$3.50US) and you aren’t expected to tip. So, needless to say, it is cheaper to drink here. I have yet to be disappointed with any beers.
SCRUMPY: For a staple drink, we’ve found something very interesting: Scrumpy’s Strong Cider. Aside from having a name that’s fun to conjugate (“Scrump-run anyone”, “That’s scrumptastic!” “Scrumptime!” etc.), it’s cheap and tastes pretty good. I think the locals are concerned with the quantities of this stuff we’re buying. I have a feeling nobody from around here actually drinks it.
Cheers and Beers,
--P
BREAKFAST: I woke up again early this morning and beat my alarm clock. For me, this is revolutionary. I feel like a new man. Must be the air. Something tells me this won’t continue, however. I wander downstairs and have a mediocre breakfast. The “chef” here, if you’d call him that, doesn’t really try too hard – eggs again, with what appears to be leftovers from yesterday mixed in.
VEGGIE JAM: I’ll take a moment to elaborate on this Remolade stuff they love down here. It’s some sort of vegetable jam that they spread on everything. They use it like we use peanut butter or jam. We proceed to entertain ourselves by betting each other to eat it and laughing as one girl twists her face like she just ate a lemon. After several looks of disgust, I decide I won’t have any better luck and I put off trying the stuff.
Someone comments on my sunburn. Sleep was troublesome again; I hate sleeping on my back. Now that it’s been two days since burn-day (henceforth known as B-Day), you can definitely separate the men from the boys when it comes to burns. I’m pretty burned, but Jeff gets the award for most with his fabulous impression of a tomato. A rumor is going around that someone got sun poisoning. Oof. The class still looks funny, when you see a row of burned faces in a line during lecture. We’re such tourists.
Classes are uneventful. Biogeography gets more interesting, and I start goofing off in Economics. I have a feeling my antics will land me in trouble at some point, but so far all I’ve gotten is some dirty looks from the teacher.
TO THE SEALS: Anyway, someone heard a rumor there’s a seal colony that we can go see and maybe get some photos of seals. Sounds interesting, so being in a bandwagon mood and not wanting to find anything else to do, I tag along. I load up my backpack with some water and granola bars, not knowing how far we’re going, or even bothering to ask.
We catch a bus down to the shoreline. It was an interesting ride, I meet a school teacher and group of kids going home from downtown. We chat about a variety of things. I find out some good places to eat, and I apologize for contributing to the hole in the ozone layer. One of the kids tells me not to move to New Zealand after I profess my love for it, she says it’s boring. Understandable, if you look at the available playgroup equipment. “Take a clothespin with you,” the kid tells me. I ask why, she responses “Because the seals stink!” and she makes a face. The teacher comforts us by reminding us we might be lucky if the wind’s blowing the right way.
We arrive at the coast and the view is amazing. Most Kiwis (New Zealanders) probably take it for granted, but being able to see out across the sea with beautiful green mountains and unspoiled oceans is quite refreshing. Across a river outlet, we can see houses perched in the middle of green hills – the kind of hills you want to roll down on a summer day. Jeff comments on how this is what he was wanting to see when he came to NZ. I can see now why the producers of Lord of the Rings picked this country to film in.
THE WALK: So, I finally ask Erik, who seems to know what’s going on, how far we have to talk to see the seals. He casually replies, oh, about 6 KM or so. For the metric impaired (we’re just starting to get used to the units), that’s almost 3.75 miles. Factor in the round trip we’ll be making, and these sneakers are gonna rack up 7 miles on the ol’ soles. When you consider that we’re also loaded with cameras and liable and stop at every pretty spot we see and take pictures (which will be a lot), this is going to take a while. At this point, it is about 4pm, and we have about 5 hours of sun left. So, without further ado, we head out.
There’s not a whole lot to say about the trip except that it’s long. I feel like we’re on a pilgrimage through the desert, except replace desert with beautiful scenery and we have seals for a destination. There are some unique features out here, like dried seaweed which looks like a dead animal at first glance. The rocks are red from high iron content, which make for good photos. New Zealand used to be located on a huge fault, which accounts for the mountains and rocky features of the island (if you could call it that). The path we are walking on can also be driven on, if you have an all-wheel drive vehicle. We are passed a few times by vehicles, and the girls start plotting ways to get rides from the next one that comes by. None of them go through on their ideas. One group of drunk scuba divers drives by waving and hollering out the window. We wave back.
I continue shooting pictures – the scenery provides some great opportunities for panoramic shots. Someone asks me how many I’ve taken, I think I’m up to 5-600 at this point, and it’s only been a few days since we’ve gotten here. They make fun of me, I reply that they can't have any pictures. They shut up.
WHAT SEALS? Fast forward two hours, and we get to the point where the seals SHOULD have been. Curses, foiled again. We see some old-timers in a rickety boat hanging out on the beach. One of the guys goes and asks them where the seals were. I’m standing a little ways away and can’t quite tell if they are laughing at us or with us. The guy returns to our group and informs us that, if there were any seals, they’d be back a few hundred meters. Darn.
We wander back a little ways and look for a good dinner spot. Most people had packed extra sandwiches, and I realize that I’ll have to make a meal of my granola bars. Oh well. Luke gets bored and climbs up one of the rock peaks. Dumbass. I take cue and climb up a shorter one that doesn’t look as dangerous. Dumbass. I snap some cool pictures and make my way down. We kick around for a few minutes more and start the long journey back. While walking, we notice a side trail that shoots straight up one of the large hills (borderline mountain). With no good reason, four of us take off up the hill to get a better view. It’s quite nice at the top, the rest of the group looks like little dots. Since the trail is sloped, we do an impromptu reenactment of Donkey Kong with Dan rolling rocks down the hill and myself jumping over them like Mario. Of course, no Donkey Kong reenactment is complete without an adequate soundtrack, provided by me and Dan.
Come 9PM or so, we finally reach the bus stop. Needless to say, we’re exhausted and starving at this point, and we begin our journey back to town. We stop at a good local chicken place and chow down. We hit up one of the local bars and have a few beers, then call it a night.
To wrap up the hike, I must say it was one of the most beautiful walks I have ever been on. It was also by far the longest. My feet were extremely tired, and I don’t know if I’ll ever walk that far again. I took over 300 pictures on the walk, and had some good conversations. The coast vaguely reminds me of the California cost in the northern part of the state, but I definitely like this better. Oddly enough, in a country full of sheep, we only saw one animal, and it was a goat. Hmm.
NEW ZEALAND BEER: I’ll take a minute to talk about NZ beer, should you ever find yourself in the area. First and foremost, the staple brands of the US are nowhere to be found. No Bud Light, Coors, Natty, or any of that crap. Thank goodness, this is one area where NZ has escaped US influence. The expensive imports are still around (Heineken, Newcastle, Corona), but they are usually out of our price range. Case in point: $18 NZ (about $13 US) for a 6-pack of Corona. No thanks.
So far, I really like Speight’s Gold and Dark Ales, Lion Brown, and Export Gold. There are a handful of others I can’t remember at the moment. The standard price of a beer at a bar here is $5 NZ for a pint (or ~$3.50US) and you aren’t expected to tip. So, needless to say, it is cheaper to drink here. I have yet to be disappointed with any beers.
SCRUMPY: For a staple drink, we’ve found something very interesting: Scrumpy’s Strong Cider. Aside from having a name that’s fun to conjugate (“Scrump-run anyone”, “That’s scrumptastic!” “Scrumptime!” etc.), it’s cheap and tastes pretty good. I think the locals are concerned with the quantities of this stuff we’re buying. I have a feeling nobody from around here actually drinks it.
Cheers and Beers,
--P
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