2025 New Zealand: January 1 - Milford Sound to Alpine Junction (Wanaka)

Xiaoqin woke up early, around 6am, and we got up in time to capture Alpenglow photos of the surrounds. It struck me then that the overnight cruise boat probably has the best view. The land resort would have trees nearby, while we were far enough out on the water to get excellent views of the surrounding mountains, and yet be far enough away from land to avoid the sandflies.

The crew got up onto the deck, and I had a chance to chat with the skipper, Jimmy McKay, and I had a good chat about the boat (I noticed the bow thrusters and he realized that I had some experience sailing). The kids woke up and while we ordered breakfast, the Fiordland Jewel weighed anchor and took us on a second tour of Milford Sound, this time in the morning light.

The cruise was much shorter than in the morning, as the boat had to arrive back at the dock by 9:00am for a 2 hour turnaround for the lunch cruise. This was a very hardworking boat! But we had breakfast, and got more gorgeous pictures in the morning sun. Jimmy told me that after we docked we needed to walk down to the last pier to get a picture of Bowen with the boat known as the Lady Bowen.

Indeed, in the time it took us to pack, the boat was already docked. I got a video of the first mate Jack docking the boat with just the controls on the port side of the boat—and he never needed the bow thrusters, which was how practiced he was.

We got off the boat, got a picture of Bowen with the Lady Bowen, and then hiked back to the car. From there, we reversed yesterday’s journey out to the Routeburn Track to hike up to the Key Summit. While Lake Marian was also an option, I noted that the Routeburn Track started higher and would likely get us better views from the Key Summit.

Indeed, the walk was fairly easy (we did not have a load), and when we got to the Key Summit we took the nature walk all the way to the far end, where we got a nice view of Lake Marian! The view was hard to find, and we were lucky that there were other hikers who told us where to stand and where to look.

We hiked back down slowly, taking pictures of the spectacular wilderness all around, and then got into the car to drive to Te Anau, where we had lunch at Miles’ Better Pies again and put more gas in the car.

We then drove back onto the Queenstown Road, but now instead of stopping at Queenstown, we kept going towards Wanaka. Just before the Crown Range  road there was a crash between an SUV and a Station Wagon, which stopped up the road. Fortunately, the crash was pretty recent and we made it past before getting stuck for very long at a traffic jam.

The Crown Range Road was astonishing in grade and narrowness, steeply climbing at 20% before cresting at 1121 meters. 1121 meters is not very high for California, but that was sufficient to make it the highest road in New Zealand! From the top we stopped for photos before descending into the Wanaka area. We actually couldn’t find any lodging in Wanaka, and instead stayed nearby, at Alpine Junction Apartments at Albertstown.

We arrived at 5pm and it felt hot! We checked into our apartment, and realized that it being New Year’s Day, there weren’t many restaurants that were open. We ended up buying pizza at the supermarket (which was open) within walking distance and cooking it and eating it at the apartment, which thankfully had both laundry machines and AC.

Review: Covacure Collapsible Hiking Poles

 We bought a pair of Covacure Collapsible Hiking Poles for the New Zealand trip. While we have full sized hiking sticks for use at home, they don't pack well. These sticks are very light, so much so that I was worried about fragility. They are composed of 3 aluminum sleeved sections, which snap together like a tent pole. You assemble the 3 sections and then pull on the main section to take up the slack on the shock cord, which then makes the stick flexy but not in a bad way.

We used these sticks nearly every day on the New Zealand trip. They assembled and disassembled very well, taking up little space in the small car we rented. They fit nicely into the checked bag that we have. We never used any of the accessories that came with the sticks and for a weight-limited trip I'd leave the accessories behind.

The stuff sack the sticks came with was very fragile. We destroyed them by the end of the trip. That's a minor nit. I'd highly recommend these sticks for anyone.

2024 New Zealand: December 31st - Queenstown to Milford Sound

 

We got up, packed everything into the car after breakfast, and then drove to buy cough medicine and fever medicine for Boen. The pharmacist asked if it was a dry or wet cough and Boen demonstrated that for her, and she immediate said, “Dry.” She gave us the appropriate cough medicine, and some fever medication as well. However, we discovered we’d forgotten the CPAP battery and had to go back to the hotel to get it, where it was lying on Bowen’s bed.

After that, the drive to Te Anau was no big deal. From Te Anau, we drove towards Milford sound and the scenery began changing dramatically, first with the Eglinton Valley views that were spectacular, a long flat plain backgrounded by mountains that invited you to spin around like Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music. At the far end of that valley at Lake Gunn, there was a turnout where we found large groups of lupines backed with pine trees also with a grand views of the mountains behind them.

At the next lake over, Lake Fergus, there was an opening where you could see the river just flow down from the mountains onto a rocky lakeshore. That was beautiful as well. It made me wish that we had an RV and could just roam the area camping wherever we liked and enjoy the scenery at leisure. Of course, that would have made the drive much harder and slower.

At the Pop’s View Lookout, we stopped for a view of Lake Marian. We would have to pick either Lake Marian or the Routeburn track hike to do the next day. The road soon routed onto to a traffic light that controlled traffic into the single lane tunnel. This light actually had a timer that told you how long you had to wait, and there were two lanes for the wait, enabling me to avoid being stuck behind an RV.

The tunnel wasn’t very exciting, but the road after the tunnel was nothing short of amazing, a video game drive if there ever was one, with steep descents and grand views that made me wish someone else was driving so I could enjoy it. Even so, I didn’t ever feel like I’d rather be cycling the road as the thought of badly driven RVs coming up on my tail on these narrow roads with high speed limits filled me with fear.

We stopped at the Chasm Bridge viewing area. To our disappointment, the bridge itself was closed. Having run out of buffer time, we drove to the Milford Sound Cafe, where I dropped off everyone else, before driving back out to the free parking lot. The short walk from the park to the Cafe was only 15 minutes, and I arrived to find that the actual ferry terminal was another 10 minutes away. We ate a quick lunch, and then hiked over.

The Milford Sound Cruise terminal serves multiple cruise lines, and ours was the smallest, with a passenger limit of 18 people. Despite that, it was fully booked except for New Year’s Eve, which is why I had ended up driving back and forth from Te Anau to Queenstown and back rather than going straight from the Kepler track to Milford Sound, which would have been the most logical thing to do. We checked in, got our boarding badges, and then waited to get onto the boat, the Fiordland Jewel.

Once aboard, we were given the customary safety briefing, and then boat immediately left the dock, driving past Lady Bowen falls. Of course we had to get photos of Bowen with the falls in the background. The day was beautiful and the skipper celebrated New Year’s Eve by giving everyone onboard a free drink. I picked a low-alcohol beer that was surprisingly tasty, while Xiaoqin picked the Apple Cider, not realizing that it had alcohol in it. The kids grabbed fruit juices.

The nice thing about being on the overnight cruise is that the skipper doesn’t have to be in a hurry, so we took a leisurely cruise, exploring many nooks and crannies, including waterfalls that only are seen when it’s been raining recently, a seal rock, and watching a team of climbers attempting to climb one of the cliffs before heading out into the Tasman Sea.

On the way back, one of the highlights as that the skipper would drive the boat straight into Sterling Falls bow in, giving us a chance to shower in the falls. Boen bowed out of it, but the rest of us did it, and it was much less dramatic than advertised (for a cruise like this would they really let you do anything too uncomfortable?), but I got a photo of Bowen with a rainbow halo, which looked great.

We then returned to Deepwater Basin, where the boat anchored for the night and we got in line to Kayak. Kayaking on Milford Sound was one of those activities where when I inquired about it from various outfits, they required a minimum of 10 or 14 years old and wouldn’t make an exception for Boen. The Fiordland Jewel was the only exception and another reason we picked the overnight Cruise rather than trying to stay at the only lodge in the area, which was likely booked up anyway.

The Kayaking was fun and Bowen even got to see a seal up close and personal. After the 45 minutes of Kayaking, we got back onto the Jewel and were coached as to how to jump off the boat into Milford Sound. The water was cold, but we had to have the experience. We then showered and sat down to a 3 course dinner followed by a short show about the Fiordland Jewel’s winter expeditions to other sounds in New Zealand, as well as footage from the underwater drone that’s part of the research program.

To round out the night, we also got first dibs at the hot tub on top of the vessel. The adult passengers probably preferred the hot tub only after dark so they could do star gazing, so they were happy that the noisy kids got out of the way.

Returning to our cabin, I discovered that the outlets were too far for my CPAP machine to reach, so I was very happy that I brought along a CPAP battery and ran my CPAP machine that way.

We’d packed a ton of activities into one day, but it was clear that the medicines we’d gotten for Boen worked. He stopped coughing, slept well, and didn’t need medicine for the rest of the trip. I, unfortunately had caught his cold, and would intermittently be coughing until we got home. We slept well, not waking up until the next morning.

Review: Osprey Daylite Plus Daypack

 The Osprey Daylite Plus daypack is something my brother has used for years and he loves it. The MSRP is incredibly high, so we waited until it was on sale before we bought it. The reason to get this daypack was that the REI Flash did not have provisions for side pockets for water bottles. While hydration bladders are great, I couldn't really get my family to like them, so the Daylite plus with its twin outside water bottle pockets and small size that fit my wife and Boen was what we ended up getting for New Zealand.

The organization of the pack is pretty good, with a main compartment, an outside compartment for small items, and an external zipper pocket just right for the Kindle. The pull strings on the zippers are also well done, and the hip-pack means that if you have to you can use it while cycling as well.

For larger persons the Deuter Speedlite is better. Otherwise this is the one to get.

2024 New Zealand: December 30th Ben Lomond

 

It was cool enough to wear a jacket in the morning when we got out of the car at the Queenstown gondola. We had snacks, full water bottles, jackets and raingear.

The gondola wasn’t open when we got there, but after buying tickets (a family ticket was cheaper than individual tickets) we didn’t end up waiting very long before the gondola got started and we were amongst the first to board.

Once at the top, we followed the signs for Ben Lomond, helpfully marked with time and distance by the department of conservation. We felt a few drops early on, but soon it was dry, though the clouds never completely lifted. The forest around us looked strange, with some of them with grey leaves. We would later discover that pine trees were an invasive species and the department of conservation was trying to kill them off!

Boen was not himself today. He was coughing, and had a strong sense of malaise. By the time we got to the saddle, it was obvious he didn’t want to be there, and didn’t want to try for the Ben Lomond summit. I took out the meat pies and some snacks, and gave them to Bowen and Boen, as once one brother decided not to summit the other one used that as an excuse not to summit.

Xiaoqin and I pushed on up the summit. It wasn’t a super tough hike, but the days had taken a toll on Xiaoqin as well, and we had to take many rest stops for her to catch her breath. The weather was a lot like our time on the Kepler track: the clouds would form an impenetrable layer, but once in a while they would part and we’d get strong beams of sunshine and beautiful views. Despite the summit not being in sight and under fog we decided to push on in the hopes that just like on the Kepler, we would get a grand view.

We got to the summit after an hour and a half under cloudy skies and no views, but while eating our lunch the clouds parted and granted us fantastic views of the surrounds, including Moke Lake far below us. Nearby hiking trails were also revealed. We must have spent at least an hour taking pictures before reluctant heading down as the sprinkles started again.

On the way down we met up again with Bowen and Boen, who weren’t eager to go below the treeline without us. The downhill was easier, but by the time we got back to the gondola it had started to rain, and it was quite wet by the time we got to the car, which made me feel good about paying the exorbitant price for the gondola.

We bought some more food at the local supermarket but of course the highlight of the day was the Sherwood Queenstown restaurant. I started a load of laundry just before dinner and then by the time dinner was done (interrupted by a run to move the laundry from the washer to the dryer) the laundry was dry. I settled up the bill so we could check out early and then we repacked for the Milford Sound cruise the next day. We packed a night’s worth of clothing, swim gear, waterproof camera, and a CPAP battery into the backpacking backpacks. We packed the rest of the gear in such a way that everything would fit into the car. It would be a long drive to Milford Sound so I got the kids to bed early. Boen’s cough was not getting better though, so we made plans to visit a pharmacy the next day so we could buy some cough medicine.

2024 New Zealand: December 29th Glenorchy

 We woke up to wettish weather, but the forecast was actually just for occasional rain, and I was getting the idea that New Zealand weather forecasts tend to be more pessimistic than reality often is. Regardless, having come off a 4 day walk, and everyone not having recovered yet, I decided that this was a day to do more driving than hiking.

The drive from Queenstown to Glenorchy is famous for being pretty, and we had failed to find the Bob’s Cove trailhead 4 days ago, so I decided that this was worth doing. After breakfast, we got into the car and drove to up the road and visited Bob’s Cove trailhead. This was a beautiful shoreline and well worth the short walk, and on this day with overcast skies, we had surprisingly good sight distance even though all the nearby peaks were surrounded by clouds.

We stopped by one beach to practice skipping rocks on the water, but I slipped at one point and fell, which gave me some scabs to bring home from New Zealand. It hurt, but didn’t affect my hiking much.

When we got to the peak, the sun came out for a few moments, though the surrounding clouds did not all lift. We eschewed the Google Maps pointer to view a Lord of the Rings shooting location and walked back to the car. With that done, we kept driving towards Glenorchy. The road was amazing, with steep climbs followed by descents with grand views. There were only occasionally some stopping points, such as the Bennetts Bluff viewpoint, but by and large the road was too narrow to stop.

We drove past Glenorchy to the Lord of the Rings shooting location “Isengard Lookout”, but it was very disappointing. Fortunately, just a little bit further and we would be at one of the endpoints of the Routeburn track, so we drove there for a looksee. We arrived in the rain, but ate at the Routeburn Track shelter. After that we had time so we did a two hour walk on the Routeburn first to the Bridal Veil Falls (every national park must have one of those!), and then over to the first flats just before the Routeburn Flats hut. It drizzled a bit here and there but it was pretty enough to justify the walk.

We drove back to Queenstown to discover that it was rainy and when we tried to get reservations at the hotel they had no room indoors but could accommodate us outdoors in the a covered seating area, so we had an early dinner that was again quite delicious. I looked up the weather forecast and it had changed to the point where paying for the cable car to do the famous Ben Lomond hike wouldn’t be a total waste of money, so we made plans to do so.

Review: Sea-to-Summit Spark Ultralight Down Bag

 For this year's New Zealand trip, I decided that the 0 degree REI bag was much too warm for the inside of a New Zealand hut, even for Xiaoqin who sleeps cold. Bowen had long outgrown his sleeping bag, and refused to use Boen's sleeping bag ever since Boen peed in it in 2021.

I decided to buy the lightest sleeping bag that I could find, even if it wasn't the warmest, since the inside of a hut with large numbers of humans should keep things at a reasonable temperature. The lightest item that came up was the Sea to Summit Sleeping Bag.

To my surprise, this came in 2 versions. The regular men's and a special women's version that's warmer! The women's version is rated a full 5 degrees F warmer than the men's version, and it is correspondingly larger and heavier, but costs the same. Both pack down really nicely, small enough to fit in an Osprey Daylight Plus daypack (yes, daypack!). The rated weight is for the men's is 493g, and the women's is 584g.

The quality of both bags is good, as well as the loose stuff sack that comes with the bags. The bags are pricey (I got them on sale for $269.40 each) but are well worth the price. Recommended.

2024 New Zealand: December 28th - Manapouri Hut to Queenstown

We woke up at the late hour of 7am, ate a leisurely breakfast, got rid of all our food, and then stuffed the now much fuller garbage bag into my backpack last after packing everything up. I noticed that the electric toothbrush that Boen and I had been using is down to its last bar, which was no problem since we were going to be done hiking today.

We walked down to the lake for one last goodbye and then headed onto the trail. Bowen was determined to get to Rainbow Reach by 10:00am, but I calculated that we’d be there by 9:00am. My secret plan to avoid paying the bus fare was that we’d get to the parking lot, and I’d hike out to the main road and hitch-hike to town to pick up the car and then drive it back to pick up the rest of the family, saving NZ$80 in fees.

The hike along the lake was short and we quickly ran out of sight of the lake, which was a pity. But there was a short side-trip to see the swamp, which we dutifully took, and then the forest resumed its somewhat monotonous character. Knowing that it was only an hour and a half, the kids were motivated to move quickly. We soon got into view of the river, and after that found the divergence between the control gates path and the walk to rainbow reach. Nobody volunteered to walk all the way back to Te Anau, even though it was only another 3.5 hours away.

Crossing that last suspension bridge across the river, we reached the bus stop just as a ranger was there clearing out the toilet. “The bus will be here at 10:00am but if you’re in a hurry you can just hike to the road, 20 minutes that way.” I put down the pack and said goodbye to the rest of the family, meaning to beat the ranger’s time since I didn’t have a pack!

While not having a pack made things light, the gravel road was a pain to walk on, with the rocks on it slipping every time you took a step. It didn’t take me 15 minutes to get to the main road. However, traffic was light, and no cars came for about 10 minutes in the direction I was going. The first car was an RV, which didn’t even slow down, but you don’t expect vacationers to pick up hitchhikers. The second was a small car, which dutifully stopped, and it turned out to be the husband of a park ranger who was stationed on the Milford track. “I make it a point to pick up every hitchhiker I see at Rainbow Reach.”

He not only drove me to Te Anau, but he also dropped me off within 100m of our rental car, which was exactly where I parked it. The car started up with no problems and I drove back to Rainbow Reach, where I’d arrived before the bus. One of the other hikers we’d met asked if he could hitch a ride with us, and I pointed out sadly that I’d rented the smallest possible car and it was full. (I suppose I could have strapped him to the roof)

In any case, the shuttle bus passed us driving the other way as we left the Rainbow Reach parking lot, so he saved a lot of time by not hitching a ride with us. We drove to Manapouri, for a view of the lake from the other side from the hut and then drove back to Te Anau to Miles’ Better Pies again for lunch, buying drinks from the supermarket across the street. When I went to the public bathroom, I noted that they offered showers for people who’d come off the Kepler track (for a fee of course)!

Before driving back to Queenstown, we paid a visit to the Te Anau Lions Lookout Point, with gorgeous views across Te Anau Lake. It was surrounded by sheep farms and was well worth a stop. It also looked like RVs had camped out there overnight as well. I made the drive back to Queenstown slowly, this time, stopping at every viewpoint at Lake Wakatipu. We also stopped for gas before driving into Sherwood Queenstown hotel. I didn’t even remember why we picked the hotel, except that we’d gotten notice that the hotel now had new management and to reconfirm our booking. To our dismay, our rooms weren’t ready when we arrived, so we had to find something else to do.

A look at the internet showed that KiwiPark Queenstown had Kiwis, and so we drove there for a visit. I expected very little from the park, but it turned out to be small but quite well-done, and educational for me! For instance, I’d always thought that I’d seen Kiwis in the wild on my last visit to New Zealand. However, the Kiwi exhibit and the lecturer taught me that what I’d see were Buff Weka, a different species that wasn’t nocturnal. Given that Kiwis were Nocturnal, I wasn’t like to be able to see one!

With that visit over, we went back to the hotel and got ourselves checked in, making reservations for dinner as well. The hotel room was small, and didn’t have AC, so I had to go back and beg for a fan. I noticed other guests asking for milk, and upon inquiry discovered that the hotel had a “unlimited free milk policy.” Not being a dummy, I asked for both oat milk and regular milk for the rest of the trip. I bought tokens for the laundry machines, and we got a load started. I also asked for 2 fans. One of them was delivered right away, but the other would take a while as they had to dig them out of storage. The hotel staff looked at me strangely. “Why do you want fans?” “It’ll be too hot to sleep!” “It’s always cold in New Zealand!” “I’m from Singapore. I’ve got enough heat to last a lifetime.” They stopped arguing and gave me the fans.

The food at Sherwood Queenstown was outstanding. We ordered 4 dishes to share and each of them were well done. I finally remembered why I’d made reservations. It turned out that this hotel was famous for its food, and even non-guests would eat here! In fact, it was so busy that getting reservations for dinner was hard even for guests! We would not bother eating anywhere else for dinner for our 3 nights there. Bowen wanted to explore every part of the menu, and we ate pretty well for our entire stay. The food was cheap too, considering the exchange rates and made up for the less-than-ideal rooms. The staff also told me that if you booked the hotel directly from the hotel website, you would get 20% of the price of your stay credited against any dining costs! “Don’t book on booking.com, book from us directly!” chanted the staff.

Occasionally when trying to get service (e.g., more laundry tokens) I’d run into other guests, and we’d all complain about how hard it was to get service. But looking back on the experience, the housekeeping and everything was actually pretty good, and the prices for laundry, etc were reasonable. The hotel even supplied all the detergent you needed. So, it was a pretty decent place to stay. To make things even better, it started raining that night and that cooled things enough that the fans were sufficient to let us sleep well.

Review: Digital Minimalism

 Digital Minimalism was on sale for $2, so I picked it up since even when Cal Newport is being pedantic and paternalistic, he still occasionally has a few good ideas I can use and find interesting.

This book is about detaching yourself from addictive social media use and behaviors. I'm sure by now you're familiar with the claims:

Young people born between 1995 and 2012, a group Twenge calls “iGen,” exhibited remarkable differences as compared to the Millennials that preceded them. One of the biggest and most troubling changes was iGen’s psychological health. “Rates of teen depression and suicide have skyrocketed,” Twenge writes, with much of this seemingly due to a massive increase in anxiety disorders. “It’s not an exaggeration to describe iGen as being on the brink of the worst mental-health crisis in decades.” What instigated these changes? Twenge agrees with the intuition of the university mental health administrator when she notes that these shifts in mental health correspond “exactly” to the moment when American smartphone ownership became ubiquitous. The defining trait of iGen, she explains, is that they grew up with iPhones and social media, and don’t remember a time before constant access to the internet. They’re paying a price for this distinction with their mental health. “Much of this deterioration can be traced to their phones,” Twenge concludes. (kindle loc 1297)

To some extent I've always been skeptical of these claims. For instance, I'll give Bowen a hard time about being addicted to video games. But when we started on the 4 day Kepler Track hike and I told both him and his brother that (1) no internet (2) no possibility of recharge, without reminding or angst they put their phones on airplane mode and didn't use the phones for anything other than photos or to look up maps, etc. They returned back to the car with their phones well above 60%! By contrast, I remember various adults returning from camping trips with social media posts to the tune of "I never want to be without internet again." To my mind, kids are far more adaptable and less addicted to digital devices than their parents are.

Nevertheless, if you find yourself in the midst of anxiety or poor mental state because of your addiction to social media or doomscrolling, Newport suggests the following procedure:

1.  Do without all your social media apps. Delete them. That doesn't mean you have to close your accounts. Just set it up so that you have to use the web-browser. That added bit of inconvenience mean you'll find yourself using it less.
2. Put your phone on do not disturb mode. Tell people to call you if they need you urgently.
3. Change your habits so you do your social media work mindfully (e.g., scheduling time to actively do it so it doesn't become your default behavior)
4. Adopt active leisure habits. Pick a hobby. Do more bike riding (this is not in the book --- Newport touts CrossFit and advocates for long walks) Join a club. Read more books. Meet people face to face. These activities are so engaging you'll wonder why you ever thought social media was a good substitute for real life.
5. Set up office hours. Advertise them. Tell your friends and family that they should feel free to call you during those times. When people text you, reply to them and tell them that you'd love to do a phone call at that specific time.

These hacks are worth considering, though again, I somehow think that the big ballyhoo over digital addiction is just not as big a deal as the press loves to make it. Even Newport admits that the symptoms of digital withdrawal are nowhere close to being as severe that of alcohol, nicotine, or even caffeine. My suspicion is that kids that exhibit addiction probably are living in a condition of stress or lack of control over their lives. It's much more an indictment of American society than that of technology and the social media apps they enable. I myself have bounced off twitter, bluesky, and instagram, only being forced to use them by various schools and other organizations rather than voluntarily spend time on such mediums.

New Zealand 2024: December 27th - Iris Burn Hut to Manapouri Hut

We woke up late enough that several other parties had already left the hut and gotten going. One exception was a party that had an injured hiker from the day before. We would learn later that they had to leave him at the hut for a helicopter evacuation. We ate our breakfast, packed, and started walking on the forest path. While not completely flat, day 3 was supposed to be much easier, and we got going at a good clip.

We met up again with Udi, and had a nice chat with him. He told us about the injured hiker from the day before, and told us he was on a 6 week trip in New Zealand with a rented RV. He’d not managed to get the Milford Track or the Routeburn track, but told us about another Great Walk which allowed mountain bikes, enabling him to do the track in 2 days. Given how easy today’s walk was, he’d decided to hike all the way to his RV today and skip the last hut.

While walking with Udi, we saw an injured goose. It had an injured wing. We wondered if it would survive through the next winter, but it was clearly ground bound and quite distressed that we were apparently chasing it down the trail. It eventually got off the trail, and we walked past it after taking a few photos.

A runner came past us, and as he passed us, he looked like he wanted to talk to me, and then said: “Are you Piaw?” “Yes, but I don’t remember you!” “It’s Nick Su, from Aurora! I’m on my honeymoon!” It turned out that he had planned to do the Kepler Track with his wife, but she got pregnant, and so he had to scrap the 4 day hike and run the entire track in a single day (he did it in less than 8 hours!) instead. If we’d had any pretensions at being strong tough hikers, Nick definitely put an end to that!

We eventually made it to Lake Manapouri, after which it was only a short walk to the hut. In fact, we arrived at the hut at 3:00pm, which was plenty of time to keep going to Rainbow Reach, but the hut looked gorgeous and there was a breeze which would keep away sandflies. The water looked inviting, and Xiaoqin declared that she had had enough hiking for the day, and so we stopped. Udi wrote his name down on the huts list of people who’d had a reservation but elected to walk on.

We once again ended up upper bunks, parked our gear, got changed, and went for a swim. While at first the water felt cold, once you got immersed in the water it was quite peasant and I swam for a good 10 minutes, much more than I’m capable of staying in the water in any Sierra lake. The views were beautiful. The boys were willing to play in the water, but we could not persuade them to swim.

Once we were done swimming, we hung up our laundry, and made dinner. People were arriving in earnest, and we finished dinner just in time to hear the hut warden talk. The hut’s tap water had a strange brownish orange color, and the ranger explained that it was caused by leaves dropping into the water source. As with the other huts on the Kepler, she said she drank the water from the tap without any treatment and had no adverse consequences, but also said: “If I get a bit sick, it’s no big deal. But if you’ve only got another week in New Zealand being sick would kinda ruin it.” Using the water filter got rid of the strange color in the water so we just did it anyway.

After the talk, the colors around the lake looked gorgeous, so we went down to the water for photos, but the wind had died down and the sandflies were out in earnest. We snapped a couple of selfies and retreated back to the hut for some quiet time before bed. I noticed that my CPAP battery was down to one light, and was unlikely to last the night. Fortunately, everyone else in the bunk room were either confident of their ability to sleep through it or already had their own ear plugs, so my efforts to give everyone ear plugs were rebuffed. I used up the rest of my small powerbank charging my phone up, and went to sleep. I’d awake at 1:00am with the dead CPAP, but all in all decided that it was a reasonable trade-off to avoid carrying another pound of weight.

2024 New Zealand: December 26th - Luxmore Hut to Iris Burn Hut

 I woke up in the morning discovering that I’d slept 10 hours! I guess the jet lag had finally caught up with me! By all accounts the second day on the Kepler track is the most beautiful, and hence the most desirous of good weather. The kids got up as well, and we ate our breakfast quickly before packing up and departing around 8:00am. To my relief when we stepped outside, the sun had came out and the Luxmore hut looked gorgeous bathed in the morning sun. 

We took several pictures, started our GPS units, and stared hiking up to Mt. Luxmore. We went up to a ridge and around a lake and to our dismay, discovered a layer of fog rolling in. We pressed on, having no choice, hoping for better weather at the summit. At the turnoff for the summit, Boen chose to eat his freeze-dried ice cream sandwich, so we waited for him, there being no point hurrying to get to the top in the fog. 

Once Boen was done we hiked up the summit with our backpacks, having been warned by the ranger the night before that to abandon your packs meant that the Kea would unzip any zippers and get at your food. (Those birds have the intelligence of a 4 year old, which is sufficient to know how to use zippers) We met Udi, a traveler from Israel, and arrived with him at the top in the fog. Within 3 minutes the weather cleared up and we had brief, momentary glimpses of the surrounding countryside, though not of far off peaks. We rapidly took pictures before descending. For the rest of the day, the clouds and fog would play peek-a-boo with us, usually giving us a square frame with which to view Te Anau Lake, but occasionally granting us other views. Boen discovered that his Fenix 5X had slipped off his wrist. We looked around but realized that he’d probably dropped it much earlier in the day. “Maybe some other hiker will find it. We can ask at the next hut,” said Udi. 

We walked the ridge in wonder, enjoying the scenery as it came, and taking pictures frequently, knowing that this was the most spectacular day and it was ok for us to run out of battery for the other days. 

At the Forest Burn shelter, we stopped for lunch. There, another hiker came up to us and told us that he’d heard from Udi that we’d lost a GPS watch! “Now I don’t have to carry it all the way to the hut,” he said. Boen tied it to the hiking stick so he wouldn’t lose it in the future. In exchange, we gave him a couple of slices of cheese. The story told of the Forest Burn Shelter was that the toilet door had blown off in a storm. “Now that we have a national party government there’s no chance it’ll be fixed any time soon.” He continued to tell us that as a result, this was a toilet with a fantastic panoramic view, but in exchange, you had to ensure that there was a heavy rock on the toilet lid. “Without the rock,” he elaborated, “there’s a pair of Keas that have learned to enjoy the leftover corn and other indigestible in the stools of various hikers. That’s kinda disgusting by itself, but if the bird gets in and the lid falls over it, the bird has no way to get out! Then the next time some poor hiker tries to use the toilet the Kea will fly out and flap his wings and he or she will get some pretty disgusting stuff all over her. So do everyone a favor and keep the rock on the toilet lid when you’re done!” With that kind of setup, Bowen and Boen were enthusiastic about checking out the toilet and the famous rock on it. 

Past Forest Burn shelter, the walk took you up and down various ridges, all with beautiful views of Te Anau lake (which we saw) and surrounding mountains (which we only occasionally glimpsed). The day was beautiful and we were in no hurry. Once we got to the Hanging Valley Shelter, it was deeply overcast and we started to walk down a series of steps before the corner which would lead back down into the treeline. From there, we could see Lake Manapouri. 

The ranger had warned us the night before that this last descent to the Iris Burn hut takes longer than you would expect. And indeed it did. By the time we got there, my GPS had registered 10.88 miles. We were amongst the last folks to show up at the hut, so ended up having to sleep in the top bunk of the smallest bunkhouse. We made dinner and ate it, but decided to skip the hut briefing for a chance to swim at the Iris Burn waterfall, which was a 20 minute walk from the hut. 

We arrived at the waterfall—not having a pack made the walk much easier compared to the rest of the day, but it was quite full of sandflies. I got into the water, but it was so cold I immediately got back out. Neither of the kids wanted to bother. I guess it’s a bit of a waste of time. We were exhausted, and pretty much went to bed right after returning to the hut and asking the ranger what we’d missed. She told us it was mostly a safety briefing, and that the latest shuttle from the exit tomorrow if we decided we wanted to just finish the hike instead of staying at the last hut was at 4:30pm. I charged Boen’s watch with my battery bank and went to sleep. 

Review: Keep Sharp

 My wife checked out Keep Sharp from the library and it showed up on my Kindle, so I ended up reading it as a palate cleanser.  I remember being impressed with Sanjay Gupta from World War C, so I kept reading despite already knowing many of the topics he discussed from other books. My biggest problem with the book is that it spends a good 20% of the time telling you what he's going to talk about instead of just telling you what he wants to say.

Anyway, there aren't any magic tricks to improved brain health:

• Exercise, especially aerobic exercise
• Good diet (lots of fruits and vegetables, less red meat, and no highly processed foods)
• Sleep well.
• Having a good social life (the best job is that of a concert conductor where you get to lord it over everyone else and everyone has to pay attention to anything you say, my guess is that being a brain surgeon is the next best thing)

At the very least from the above you can tell that Sanjay Gupta isn't a crackpot and isn't selling fancy supplements (in fact, he cautions against them). There's a 10 week program to get people who aren't already exercising and eating well to do so, and there's a section on how Alzheimers might one day be cured, but you need to get diagnosed early if you want a chance to prevent the disease while there's time to do so. (Or, maybe you want to just live healthily anyway)

I enjoyed the book. I did question how someone with 2 jobs and 3 kids manages to get in his hour of exercise every day plus some time to meditate, but hey, it's quite likely he's a much more organized person than I am!