Portland Moment #4: Long Hours

Overheard, an earnest conversation:

     Person #1: It's kind of an adjustment ... I haven't had a full-time job in a while.

     Person #2: Yeah, 35 hours a week is a big time commitment.

Portland Moment #3: Working Late

This afternoon, on a lovely 78-degree day, I was one of 2 people remaining in my 10-person office at 5:10pm.  As the other guy got up to leave, we had this little exchange:

    Me: Oh, you're leaving?

    Him: Yep.

    Me: I think I'm going to go too. I'm not nearly busy enough to be the last one out of here.

    Him: Even if you were that busy, have you seen how nice it is out?

It's a different world out here...

Portland Confessions #1

Our under-counter compost bin makes me feel happy, responsible and, yes, just a little smug.

Portland Composts!

Portland Moment #2: Portland Recycles!

It's no secret Portland is a "green" city. So much so that, every week, we have 3 different bins to take to the curb.

Oh, except for every other week, when we have FOUR.

WHY?! Green for compost, Blue for recycling (cardboard, metal, plastic), Black for other garbage - every other week - and Yellow for recycling (glass).

Add to this that Oregon is a deposit state, so we separately collect soda cans and beer bottles inside and take them for refunds separate from our weekly trash ritual.

And, of course, Portlandia nails it:  http://www.ifc.com/portlandia/videos/portlandia-sanitation-twins

Portland Moment #1: Hipster-in-Training

When we were looking for a place to rent back in January, we met with the owner of a house in Southeast Portland, very close to a street rapidly becoming known as a dining hot-spot. As he showed us the house, we talked about the neighborhood, and he remarked on how much it was changing. I asked "more yuppie than when you moved in"?  He replied, "More like more hipster." Then he gave Jason a long look and said, "But that's OK, you look like a hipster."

"Hipster" Jason, enjoying his non-fat soy latte organic drip coffee.

Our Move to Portlandia

In early January, we moved to Portland. If you're not familiar, this will help.

Since neither of us is currently employed at a full-time, reasonably well paying job, our travel budget is a little thin so we won't have many travels to write about. We will, however, begin sharing our own Portland(ia) moments here.  There have been many already. Stay tuned...

Christmas in March

Last weekend, on March 1, we had Christmas morning over breakfast here in Portland, courtesy of Mom & Dad LeMay.

These were shipped, once we had an address to send them to, since we didn't make it back to NH for Christmas this year.  And since "Christmas" happened so recently, I guess I can't be held too accountable for wrapping up the last of our NZ trip just now, a good 2+ months after we returned. Plus, finally writing this will enable me to get on with my life and share current musings, and don't we all want that?

So, where were we?  A couple days before Christmas, we hopped a flight (JetStar!) to Auckland, back up on the north island.  We were met at the airport by our friend Frank, with whom Jason worked in both New York & London.  He and his Kiwi wife Tanya moved to Auckland from London last fall, in advance of the birth of their son Finlay - the best baby ever. Seriously. 8 weeks old and the kid sleeps 10 hours a night.

We spent a few days, including Christmas, with Frank & Tans. They took us out on the ferry to Waiheke Island, where we visited Stonyridge winery for a tasting and a delectable lunch, and followed that up with drinks & oysters on a balcony bar overlooking the bay. December in the Southern Hemisphere is a good thing.

We're on a boat.

We spent Christmas Day lounging around, having a "potluck" brunch, watching classic films like Anchorman and Christmas Vacation, opening a few gifties, and drinking bubbly. Through the power of Skype, I was able to chat with the family back in NH - Mom & Dad, Greg & Kaity, and Grammie - at the tail end of their Christmas Eve festivities, which helped make Christmas feel a bit more complete.

The guys working on brunch

Our hosts and the lovely brunch spread

Best Hats Ever

Making somewhat flawed but still tasty paella for dinner

On Boxing Day, we picked up our final rental car of the trip and hit the road to Hawke's Bay, about 4 hours drive. There, we had our first AirBnB experience, staying in the spare room of a couple who have redefined the meaning of active retirement. We spent a day and a half touring the wine region of Hawke's Bay, known more for its Cabernets than Pinot Noirs. The region stood in contrast to Marlborough's homestead-style cellar doors, with many large, modern facilities with large tasting bars and high-end restaurants attached.

Lunchtime sips at Ngatarawa

The gateway city to the Hawke's Bay region is Napier, a town decimated in 1931 by an earthquake and subsequent fires that altered the coastline dramatically and required residents to either relocate or rebuild. Many chose to rebuild, and did so in the contemporary style of Art Deco. We took an interesting walking tour of the town, noted as one of the worlds 2 best examples of concentrated Art Deco design (along with South Beach, FL).

We spent our last day/night in New Zealand in true W-W-Willey style. After driving back to Auckland, checking in to our off-airport hotel and returning our car, we walked from the airport to have dinner at a restaurant off-airport.

And beer, of course.

Cheers!

Following this, we needed to return to our hotel. Now, rather than acting like "normal" people (what is the fun in that) and calling a cab, we decided to walk back to the airport and get the hotel's free shuttle service. Good plan!  Except about 5 minutes into our mile-long walk ...

We are not amused

... downpour! By that point, though, we were committed. We waited out the worst of it, then went splashing through the puddles (me in sandals and Jason without his raincoat) back to the terminal, shaking our heads and knowing that the "normal" way does not provide these sorts of silly moments.  In the end, we made it back to our hotel, dried out, and caught a looonnng flight back to LA early the next morning.

Around the Sound

The last time we were in New Zealand, on our RTW tour, we had only nine days to see as much of the country as possible. It's not a huge place, but the roads can be slow, and often the old New England adage is true: you can't get there from here. Because of this, we gave Milford Sound, New Zealand's #1 must-see natural attraction, a miss on our first visit, but with a little planning we were able to visit this spectacular place.

Tourist buses will leave Queenstown first thing in the morning, drive for 5 hours, put you on a boat for 60 minutes, and return you to Queenstown in time for supper. Unsurprisingly this is not our idea of a good time, so we picked up yet another sh*tty rental car and made our way from Queenstown out to the Sound mid-day, and spent the night at the uninspiring Milford Sound Lodge - the only lodging option in the area.

Views on the ride out through the Eglinton Valley

The road to Milford is rumored to be particularly slow and winding, but we didn't find it any worse than other paths in NZ. However, it was quite an eerie experience driving through the pitch-black, one-way, 1:10 gradient Homer Tunnel.

Awaiting the green light

Driving through the center of the earth

The Milford Sound is located within Fiordland National Park, but despite this we were luck enough to have dry weather on the day we toured the Sound. We caught one of the first boats out and were treated to a peaceful ride past seal colonies and waterfalls, through the looming vertical rock walls to Tasman Sea at the mouth of the fiord.

Morning sun shining through

The waterfalls are supposedly even more
impressive after a heavy rain

Mineral striations in the rocks

Low-hanging clouds

We have many more pictures that scratch the surface of the magnificence and scale of the Milford Sound if you're curious!  

After our cruise, we meandered about halfway back to Queenstown, stopping just south of Te Anau where we spent a few lazy days at a backpacker lodge in Manapouri. This happily coincided with my New Zealand birthday (one day before my US birthday ;-)) and we managed to make a very respectable birthday dinner on our little gas burner. 

Freestone Backpackers: our cabin was more or less the same as the one seen here

View from our porch

Down by Lake Manapouri

Jason prepares a birthday feast

Lamb, rice, and greenbeans - plus wine of course. Not too shabby!

A relaxing end to our South Island touring.  Up next: back to the North!

New Zealand Nuptials

We love excuses to travel (although we rarely need them), and a wedding is by far one of the best (we have also traveled to Belgium, Italy and Korea for weddings ... along with countless Small Towns USA). When we heard our good friend Jim was getting married to his lovely girl Saun in our favorite country, we were there. Even more so when Jason was invited to be a groomsman, then upgraded to best man when Jim's brother was unable to make the festivities.

Jim and Saun did a wonderful job putting together 4 days of activities for their 33 guests, and they were treated so a phenomenally good bout of weather for their outdoor activities. They took us on a welcome drinks cruise of Lake Wakatipu, followed by a night of fesivities that some (ok, one) of us is still recovering from...

Lake Wakatipu from Queenstown

Jason & Jim on the boat

They treated us to a wine tasting, a delicious winery dinner at Amisfield AND a hot pools soak as part of the rehearsal festivities...

Big Daddy makes Saun laugh while Jim looks concerned

Petanque at the winery

Hot Poolin'

And of course there was "the big day"... it started off in a typically cloudy, cool, New Zealand almost-drizzle, but Jim & Saun were rewarded when they made the bold decision to stick with Plan A and have their ceremony at Moke Lake, a gorgeous setting with absolutely no shelter in case of emergency (i.e., downpour).

The guests head to the ceremony site

All dolled up

Awaiting the bride

A Maori blessing to start the reception

Jason's toast

The happy couple

The week was nothing short of high class all the way, with all the details thought out and all of us traveling guests (which was to say all of the guests) pampered, well fed, and thoroughly entertained throughout.

I highly recommend scrolling through this page - it has the professional photographer's pictures. Some good ones featuring the Best Man himself!

Take a Hike

I am risking the rest of the NZ stories getting away from me as we start having new stories to tell from our first days in Portland. And I've been delaying writing this particular post, as I worry I won't do justice to the topic/experience.  But here goes.

After making our way to Queenstown and gathering the last supplies we would need to be out on the trail for 5 days / 4 nights, we re-packed our bags, left what we wouldn't take at the Crowne Plaza (where we'd be returning at the end) and got a ride out to the start of the Routeburn Track.

The Routeburn is one of New Zealand's nine "Great Walks," beginning in Mt. Aspiring National Park and continuing west into Fjiordland National Park. In a country replete with truly great walks, these nine tramping tracks have been specially designated by the Department of Conservation (DOC) and receive extra attention: better maintenance, more "luxurious" huts, and as a consequence more trampers.

Very fresh trampers, at the start of Day 1

A little on the terminology.  A tramp is a hike. A track is a trail. What you are doing is tramping, but when you talk to other trampers, you call it walking.  As in "how was your walk?" or "have a good walk today!" or "are you walking out (leaving the trail) today?"

"Tramping track" on day 1

You may have noticed from the picture of us above that the weather seemed to be sunny and lovely.  This was true on the first day.

View from just above our night #1 hut (seen bottom right)

Days 2 and 3 were less than ideal.  In fact, due to the second day's weather at the outset, we put our camera far away into Jason's backpack and didn't take any pictures until later in the afternoon, after the rain cleared and we had dried off and warmed up at our hut.

Forecast at the hut on night #2. Fjiordland National Park is the third wettest region in the world.

These huts we stayed in were essentially bunkhouses, with rows of wooden bunks with mattresses, and a common area for gathering and eating. In these, we dried off, rested our feet, read our books, and chatted with other trampers from around the world from Spain to Montana and right back to New Zealand.

40 trampers' gear drying out, Day 2

Jason drying out, Day 3

Our bunks, Day 4

When we started out, we (ok, I) worried our packs would weigh us down too much and the weather would really put a damper on the experience.  And while we did get a little wet and our shoulders ached at times, these minor annoyances did little to detract from the sense that, at any moment, we might just trip over a hobbit. The sense of scale portrayed in the LOTR movies is not disproportionate to the true sense of the landscape; from enchanted mossy woods to cascading falls to vast plains with grazing cattle to other-worldly rockslides that we encountered over our 5 days on the trail.

In the end, it was a slow trudge to the finish as a running injury of Jason's flared up at the end of the fourth day, making the 12km (7.5 miles) on day 5 particularly painful for him.  He was a trooper (although he says, "What choice did I have?") and we emerged at the end of the Greenstone trail more than ready to hang up our boots for a few days.

Less-than-fresh trampers!

Rather than rushing back to Queenstown after our hike, we booked a night at Kinloch Lodge not too far from the end of the trail. On arrival at the lodge, we headed to the communal kitchen to clean our dishes and discovered an amazing gift from the universe on the "Free Food" shelf of the refrigerator:

Can you see it in there??

Cold beer!  FREE cold beer!

Three whole bottles worth. :-)

Be sure to have a look at the rest of the pix from our hike and some incredible sunrise photos from Kinloch, on the northwestern side of Lake Wakatipu.  The link is at right.