I’ve taken loads of photos here, and I’ve processed lots of them, but not quite all. Here are a few cool panoramas I’ve done. Click the photos to make them huge.

This photo is from a drive up to the Remarkables ski area, just a few kilometers from Queenstown. It’s a steep, winding, 13km road with incredible views.

Here’s a panoramic view looking roughly southwest down the Rees Valley. We started at the bottom of the valley around the corner to the left and reached the high point of about 1500 meters.

The next two are from the Routeburn Track, which we connected to the Caples Track to form an almost-complete loop. We climbed up Conical Hill for some amazing views. The first photo is looking east toward the Darran Range, with the Hollyford Valley below. You can just barely see the ocean toward the right side.

This photo, also from Conical Hill, looks down on Harris Saddle, the high point of the official track. We came up the valley to the left, then traversed around along the slope above the Hollyford Valley.

There’s an unspoken rule that if you live in Queenstown you must climb Ben Lomond. It’s the tallest peak ’round these parts, and thus offers the best views in the area. The hike gains 1,000+ meters (3,000+ feet) in a short distance, and the end climb is known to make even the fittest bums sore.

We’d been wanting to climb “Big Bad Ben Lomond” for a while, but every time we thought about going we either went somewhere else (like the Routeburn Track or Mt. Cook) or indolence would strike and we would hike something tamer, like one of the many great walks around Arrowtown. Yesterday the weather was perfect, Alex had a day off day, and I realized that because I’m leaving on Tuesday that if I didn’t climb it now then it was never going to happen.

Ben Lomond offered everything I thought it would: amazing 360-degree views, some easy bits that were a breeze, some really steep trail that made my knees cry, and of course no terrain that phased Alex in any way. We ran in to a Coloradan on the summit, who works as a rafting guide in NZ and has eluded winter for the past four years. As a helicopter of tourists encircled us he shouted “hey you spent hundreds of dollars to get up here but we used our feet!” I waved and secretly wished it could fly me back down.

It wasn’t until I got back from this perfect day that I found out had I skipped out I would have had a chance to mash wine grapes with my feet, my #2 not-so-secret goal in New Zealand. While that would have been neat, Ben Lomond is definitely worth the 5 hours if you’re in Queenstown.

I see these people all over New Zealand, almost every day, despite the weather. They range from men to women and grubby teens to people who look like they might be doctors. They are on trails, around town, and all over grocery stores. They’d be shunned in America.

They’re barefoot!

The idea of barefoot grocery shopping is one of my favorite things about the Kiwi lifestyle. In a laid back country where doing your taxes is as simple as filling out one (one!) short online form it’s no surprise that I’ve seen souvenir shirts and signs in windows proudly declaring “No shoes, No shirt, No problem!” I always try to make a conscious effort to keep my head down while shopping to count the number of eau de natural shoppers, but even if I forget I always see at least one, such as the young man I spotted in the Fresh Choice in Te Anau on a day it had been snowing. Their “I don’t really care if you think it’s weird” attitude makes me feel better about singing along when Hootie & The Blowfish comes on the store speakers (which they play a lot down here considering it’s 2012).

So have I ever grocery shopped barefoot? Nah. While I have no qualms walking around nature sans shoes, the idea of treading over ground that is saturated in street scuzz somehow freaks me out. I have, however, walked short distances around town barefoot, in a small effort to work up to my goal of grocery shopping barefoot once while I’m here. Maybe it sounds goofy, but knowing that I will never be able to do it in the U.S. makes the challenge tempting.

You’ll notice a lot of posts recently are from me. Yep, Alex is still alive and well, just working a lot, and until recently was using his online time to follow KU basketball. He’ll post soon and tell you about his job, which includes encounters with important political figures and throngs of adoring older Asian women.

I, on the other hand, have been caught by the virus called “shoulder season” that happens to backpackers trying to compete for jobs in tourist towns driven by a seasonal economy. Unemployment has given me many transportless days on the farm to mull over my thoughts of moving on, escaping winter, and employment that would either help start a career or at least be enjoyable (no offense to the toilets).

Applying for a slew of jobs has left me in limbo for another few weeks before I know my options. In the meantime, I can either go crazy from cleaning and folding laundry or follow up on the promise I made to myself long ago that if I ever made it to this corner of the world I would get to Australia, the country I’ve wanted to visit since as far back as I can remember. I chose Australia. Yep, I’m aware it’s expensive. Yep, I’m aware I just said I’ve been unemployed. Yep, I’m going solo. It’s been my dream, and if I don’t do it now while my frequent flier miles can cover the distance between Queenstown and Melbourne than I’ll most definitely end up regretting it.

So off I go in a couple of weeks to write and take pictures to share with you from Australia. I’m looking forward for a break from the bush and seeing a real city for the first time in months, the thrill I get from navigating foreign public transit, meeting other solo travelers in hostels, seeing a koala bear, summer temperatures in the north, meeting up with a friend in Melbourne, and doing and seeing exactly what I want to do and see on a schedule that is 100% mine for the making.
Have any recommendations for things to see in Australia, staying in hostels, Couchsurfing, or traveling solo? Send us a comment– we’d love to hear your story!

It seems everyone has heard of the famous Milford Track, said to be “the finest walk in the world,” but the real question is: have you heard of the Routeburn Track?

The Routeburn Track, second only to the Milford Track in terms of popularity and quickly catching up to its rival is considered a Great Walk. At 32k (20 miles) and can be hiked by virtually anyone in two or three days, and connects Milford Road to the town of Glenorchy, just west of Queenstown. A good chunk of the walking is above bushline, in a sub-alpine setting. It’s stunning, it really is, though if you’re looking for solitude you may be disappointed by the herds of groups passing through. It’s popular for a good reason.

We’d been having a string of fantastic weather, and with the Routeburn extremely high up on both of our lists we decided to make the pilgrimage just a couple days before we set out.  The Routeburn is a point-to-point trail, with about 5 hours of driving between trailheads making hitching hard, but can easily be linked with either the Greenstone or Caples tracks to make a “C” shape.

The first day we purposely planned a late start, figuring we’d have a big breakfast at home, time to stop and do errands in town, and enjoy a leisurely lunch at the trailhead. It was only a few hours of easy hiking to get to Routeburn Falls hut, where we had a reservation, and the trail took us through some nice forest before popping out of the bush and offering views down the Routeburn Valley. We got in early and explored some with hot drinks in our hands before settling in to a big dinner, views of the sunset over the valley from the back deck, and a couple rousing games of rummy.

The second day we woke up just in time to catch sunrise over the valley, and quickly got on our way to Harris Saddle, the high point of the Routeburn and the dividing line between Mt. Aspiring and Fiordland National Parks. From the saddle we headed up to Conical Hill, a short n’ steep side trip that is well worth it. From here we could see the Tasman Sea, and Milford Sound, along with a slew of mountains.

After Conical Hill the trail stayed above bushline for endless miles, still with views of the Hollyford Valley, Fiordland, the Tasman Sea, and even Milford Road in the distance. The terrain was relatively easy, so we made good time and made it to McKenzie Lake Hut for lunch break, then passed by a lovely waterfall that I almost fell asleep at in the afternoon sun, then arrived at Howden Hut. We got to Howden with a couple of hours to spare before sunset, so we decided to drop our packs and run up Key Summit real quick as another side trip. The views were nice, but nothing like Conical, alas definitely worth doing though if you are in the area. We made it to our free campsite, a secret of the Routeburn track at just 1k away from Howden Hut (priced $51) just as it was getting dark. We tried to start a campfire with fellow camper Karina, an Austrian gal hiking solo, but unfortunately the wood was too we from the morning dew.

The third day it was freezing outside, so we skipped breakfast to get a move on. Our first mission of the day was to decide if we wanted to take the Greenstone or Caples track to complete the semi-loop. I had asked countless DOC staff which they recommended, but had received the recommendation to “do them both.” We finally decided on the Caples, mainly because there is a sadle that climbs about bushline and thus is said to be more challenging, yet overall the track is shorter.

Our second mission was to climb to McKellar saddle, which is not nearly as scary as it looks on the elevation profile charts. Crews are currently working on the trail to the saddle, on both sides, and luckily enough they had just finished the side we were climbing up. The track was well graded and in fantastic shape, and before I even began to think about the idea of Alex towing me up the hill we popped out at the top.

Going down the other side of the saddle was a different story. This is the side they are currently working on, and the new trail looks beautiful but is not yet open. The old track is not in great shape– there are huge roots everywhere that hikers need to carefully navigate, and my giant feet kept getting stuck in between the roots. The roots were also wet and mossy, and I managed to keep slipping and falling. The surroundings, when I had a chance to look up from the ground, were really nice, and we followed the pretty Caples River most of the way.

We eventually hit the valley floor, and after the trail wandered through the forest a bit more we popped out at Upper Caples hut. There was no one at the tiny hut, except millions of blackflies, so we had lunch indoors and considered our options. It was only 1:30pm, so we decided to head on to the next hut. Another hour of hiking led us through the Caples Valley, which was not as overtly as breathtaking as the scenery we saw on the Routeburn, but  really nice in a different way. We made it to Mid Caples hut and set up our tent in the valley before heading inside to hang out with the other five hikers representing different parts of the globe. I stayed up “late” talking to them about travel, work, and life before settling into the cold tent.

The fourth day we had about two hours of hiking to bring us to the Greenstone/Caples trailhead, but started early in hopes of catching a ride. The hiking was mostly in the bush, and with terrible blisters at this point I put my head down as walked fast. We made it out to the carpark, and after unsuccessfully finding anyone at all who was leaving, we took an offer from Steve, a friend of one of the guys who was at the hut with us the night before. He had to get up to the Routeburn trailhead anyways, but then needed to bring a car back, so in exchange for giving us a ride in his car up to the trailhead, I had to drive the other car back down to Greenstone, meaning Alex also had to drive our car back to give me a ride out. It took a while, but the scenery was fantastic.

After stopping at the grocery store on the way back, Alex and I had a BBQ and proceeded to eat as if we had never seen food before. Overall, a great trip that we’d definitely recommend. However, if you’re doing the Caples, make sure to bring toilet paper.