Pack Travel Part I

Hello readers (mostly just me and my dad)! It's been about a month since my last post. Rest assured, I did some travelling over the holidays. This time I even changed islands, from the North Island to the South Island of New Zealand. The next couple of posts will chronicle the highlights from two weeks of camping, hiking, driving, drinking/partying, and community meals. We were a group of 5 determined travelling companions...a fellowship if you will - two long time and great friends, Dr. Michael Spoelstra and Joseph A. Katarsky, and my wonderful sister Lee and her husband-to-be, Keegan Peters.

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One thing becomes immediately apparent when traveling in a group - everything takes a little bit longer. This probably is pretty obvious. For me flying alone, I have no patience for the minor setbacks in an airport that I'm causing:  a mistyped booking reference number, a belt that was forgotten to be removed, a checked bag that is half a pound over weight. 

So now imagine me traveling in a pack, albeit a group with quite a bit of travel experience. And now add that one of those group members is very recently physically disabled, and that he's (normally) the most helpful, mobile, and punctual member of the travel team. This is the scenario I faced on our way down to the South Island. Keegan, not more than 26 hours earlier, had learned that his right foot was broken - a result of a lost Kung Fu battle in Macau ("But you should have seen the other guy"), a 16 ton pagoda crumbling down onto his foot in Hong Kong, or...just falling off a narrow street curb. Whichever you want to believe. In any case it was a bummer and presented us with a number of relative difficulties. The most nagging of these being that we all felt bad for him on several levels, and because there was a collective guilt circulating related to being able to properly experience the trip versus his crippled lifestyle, only able to look on forlornly. He's a champ, and my experience is that the group wants what's best for everyone. In this case it meant Keegan hopping along as best he could while we experienced the trip we had all originally planned and wanted.

Luggage cart used as a walker. Action shot!

Four of us began the trip:  me, Lee, Keegan, and Joe; Michael would fly in and meet us 4 days in. The trip began with a Christmas Day flight into Christchurch.

Obligatory airplane sunset picture.

After navigating our way to the hostel in Christchurch late at night, we all slept very well because 1) it was Christmas Day evening, meaning nothing was happening in Christchurch, 2) it's Christchurch, which is known mostly for its earthquakes and not much else, and 3) we all knew that we'd be sleeping in tents and on hard ground for the next ~10 nights, so hostel bunk beds seemed pretty cushy. 

The next morning began with me having to go back to the airport to pick up our rental car, and then we immediately hightailed it out of town. Perhaps I'm being a little too harsh with Christchurch, but it did feel pretty sad and desolate save for the random street art (children avert your eyes):

Side of a dilapidated building.

We drove northwest toward Arthur's Pass, which was nice. But the highlight of the day was undoubtedly Castle Hill, or as I like to call it, my ideal playground. I'll let the next several pictures do the talking:

Enter the Labyrinth. RIP Bowie.

Prepare yourself for at least 20 more of these 'Joe is staring into the distance' or 'Joe is really into photography' pictures in coming posts.

Photos do not capture the scale and vastness, but you get the idea.

Oh, there he is again. Wonder what he's thinking...

"This is my house now. I live here."

Surprise!

A climbing paradise, for all ages and skill levels.

One more for good measure.

That night we camped out for the first time in a Department of Conservation free campsite by beautiful Lake Pearson. As I slapped the first sandfly from leg, enjoyed my first propane-fueled community pot meal of pasta and tomatoes and sundry vegetables, and laid down to my first night of sleep on hard ground, I knew that many more feelings of being uncomfortable, awestruck, dirty, relaxed, and just generally in good company were to come.

Cheers!