Several times per year Wanaka's population of 12,500 explodes for a few days, and the Agricultural & Pastoral Show weekend is one of those times. The A&P Show (as it is known) brings in roughly 45,000 people for two days of activities, demonstrations, food, and fun in what is the South Island's second largest Agricultural show.
After dropping Reef off at School on Friday, March 8th - River, Sharyl & I headed down to check things out. Immediately upon walking through the gate we spotted a tent where guys were forging steel horseshoes - it was fascinating to watch as they put the metal into the furnaces - turning it red hot, then proceeded to hit it with a sledgehammer to shape it.
As we walked on just a bit further Sharyl nearly shouted "Sheep Shearing!" - grabbing River's hand and whisking him off toward a large tent with myself in hot pursuit. We scored front row seats and watched as professional sheep shearers did their thing. The lady whose job was to collect the wool and section into good vs bad quality gave River a handful, which he enjoyed holding onto throughout the demonstration.
The first six or eight sheep that were sheared were of a lower quality wool breed - meaning that their wool would be used for things like carpets and insulation primarily. These sheep could be sheared very quickly - generally less than a minute per animal, and their wool would only sell for a few dollars per kilogram. Next they moved on to Merino sheep, which has extremely fine and soft wool used in high-end clothing. Shearing a Merino sheep takes a bit longer, and is a more difficult process as more care needs to be taken to ensure the entire coat comes off as one large piece. The Merino wool sells for more than ten times the price of the more corse wool of the first sheep.
From sheep shearing we continued on exploring, finding everything from locally made gin to wood fired hot-tubs and saunas. The festivities included various carnival rides, including the giant trampolines often seen at US ski areas in the summer where you are harnessed into bungees which launch you way in the air - which we knew Reef would love on Saturday. There were two stages featuring various musicians throughout the day, and we settled in on a hay bale to watch Jackie Bristol and Barry Saunders for a bit before heading out.
On Saturday Sharyl and Reef headed down to the A&P Show, while River and I went for an exploratory walk around Peninsula Bay (our neighborhood) and on down the hill to the lakefront. As expected Reef LOVED jumping on the big trampolines at the A&P Show - soaring 10-15 feet into the air with a massive smile on his face throughout. Also as expected, Saturday was a much busier day at the event than Friday had been, and it was a good day for River and I to hang back and do something a bit less crowded while Sharyl & Reef faced down the mass of humanity (and livestock) at the A&P.
Sunday morning I was excited to get back in the lake for another swim with the Wanaka swim group. As with the first swim it was refreshing and invigorating. I switched up my goggles from my first swim - going from a heavily tinted pair which fogged on me early to my clear pair. With my clear goggles I was able to see just how shallow much of the swim was around the buoys. Even though they are a good 100 meters out in the lake you could seemingly touch the bottom at several points throughout the swim. The water is crystal clear, the lake is beautiful, and the swim community is really welcoming - it's just a great way to start a Sunday morning out. The rest of the day was relaxing - taking the boys to a movie at Cinema Paradiso, then grabbing some excellent wood fired pizza from the pizza food truck in town. Sharyl rapped up the weekend making some strawberry jam with he berries left over from Red Bridge.
Monday Sharyl and I headed out past Glendhu Bay to the Minaret Burn Track where we hiked out toward Colquhouns Beach. The hike proceeded along the lake edge up and down 700 vertical feet of undulating hills. the views from a hundred feet or more above the lake were spectacular - as we could look down on the clear water and little bays and beaches along the way. We unfortunately didn't have time to get all the way to Colquhoun's Beach - which turned out to be further than we anticipated (probably about 8 - 10 mile round trip) - but it was nevertheless a great hike in a new area.
On our way back from the Minaret Burn Track we stopped by Bike Glendhu - one of our favorite spots - for a quick lunch. I'm going to take an aside to say that one of the things the US could learn from NZ is to incorporate pies more frequently into our diets. Savory pies are available at nearly every bakery and cafe in NZ and are a delicious alternative to having a sandwich. At Bike Glendu I scored an Irish inspired pie of corned beef with a mustard sauce which was excellent and I have since enjoyed their Vegetarian curry pie. So good, so simple, and so portable. Well after all that it was off to Rock climbing for Reef, with Sharyl on belay, while River and I went out and picked Apples and Plums in our yard and biked around the neighborhood.
Tuesday we really leaned into Kiwi culture (well at least our youngest did), when we visited the barbershop and officially requested River get a mullet. The bangs were brought up, the sides brought in, and the back was left to flow.
For dinner we headed to Rhyme & Reason Brewery where we were thrilled to discover that three days earlier they had released their first Fresh Hop Beer of the year! Fresh Hop beer, for those who don't know, is only available in the Fall when hop harvest occurs and fresh hops are transported directly from farms to breweries for a month or so enabling a different dimension to the beers. Needless to say it is a time of year we look forward to as beer lovers!
Finally on Thursday I was able to bike Reef to school for the first time. I had been tinkering with my new bike trying to get it set-up properly and was thrilled to get out the door with Reef on our short ride to Wanaka Primary. The school has recently added dedicated bike paths around campus and the playing fields leading to campus - making for a safe cruise to the classroom. The school has several bike racks, all of which are full to the brim. There are literally hundreds of bikes on the racks each day - and many other kids walk to school - it's something the school actively encourages in their weekly newsletters and obviously prioritizes with the addition of the great new bikeways.
Friday we were off to check out a rock climbing area called "Riverside" which is right along the Motatapu River. Sharyl and I are trying to get set-up with a 3-day lead climbing class which will facilitate our safe exploration of the many cliffs around the area - but for now we're just checking them out.
Mount Aspiring National Park encompasses more than 880,000 acres of mountains, rivers, forests and glaciers (an area nearly twice the size of Maui), and on Saturday we set off from Raspberry Creek Car Park on our first hut hike in New Zealand . . . our destination Aspiring Hut. The first mile of the trail climbed up toward a swinging bridge which crossed the Matukituki River leading on a spur trail toward Rob Roy Glacier. The Rob Roy track (and bridge) were closed due to a landslide, but soon after passing the bridge we got a fantastic view up a pocket valley to the Glacier.
Our trail continued on along the river, passing over and through numerous streams, and through ranch land occupied by both cattle and sheep. River lasted for the first half of the six mile hike before going a bit haywire - which was our cue to load him into the carrier backpack. From that point on the hiking pace improved significantly and soon we were on our final approach to the hut.
Never having done a hut hike before we didn't quite know what to expect. Aspiring hut is a "serviced hut", and we were told by everyone it was new - so we knew we could expect better than average hut accommodations - but we weren't sure what the baseline was. Well we were surprised to find that not only did the bunks include mattresses, but the hut had flushing toilets, running water (not potable), LPG gas stoves for our use, a "log burner" wood stove for heat, and lights!
At the hut were a group of Dads and their kids - the group goes on overnight hut hikes 2 - 3 times per year, and they were all super friendly. With more than 10 other kids bouncing off the walls of the hut we were not worried about Reef and River disturbing the peace, which was quite a relief. After a dinner of Saimin, and a backcountry "just add water to the bag" apple pie for desert (it was ok . . . next time we'll add less water), we settled in for the night. In our room (the cabin has 3 bunk rooms) was a young couple from Boston, and a friendly guy named Brett from Russell in the Bay of Islands. Brett has 5 grown kids so was 100% great with the boys. The couple had just hiked down from Liverpool Hut - a higher up hut along a much more challenging trail that we could actually see perched on a mountain ridge out the window of Aspiring Hut, and Brett had spent the entire day hiking up to Cascade Saddle - a high alpine pass with sheer drops on the sides of the trail.
After a good night sleep we got up to find that some Kea - the New Zealand mountain parrot - had come to visit and were outside the hut perched in a leafless tree. Kea are an endangered species of parrot that is endemic to New Zealand, they are best known for their tendency to grab keys or other shinny objects left unattended, and also have a reputation for causing a bit of damage to bags, tents and other items if the mood strikes them. We were really hoping to spot Kea while out in the mountains as they are known to frequent the area around Aspiring Hut, so we were thrilled when we got to see and hear them for a bit in the morning.
Sharyl whipped up some pancakes and Brett was kind enough to brew up some "grunty" coffee for both Sharyl and I (grunty incidentally is one of our favorite local expressions - used in the place of "strong" in certain applications). As it turns out Brett was a great guy to meet, he works for Team New Zealand - the country's America's Cup Sailing team - which is really cool. Sailing is huge in New Zealand, and with four America's Cup wins Team NZ is the winningest sailing team in the world outside the United States. The boats used for the America's Cup race utilize foils - much like those on foil boards used in kiting and winging in Hawaii - but the foils are on a much larger scale for the sailboats and fascinating to see. We'll definitely connect with Brett next time we are up in the Bay of Islands!
For the hike out we got smart and immediately loaded River into the backpack carrier. With River happily helping me navigate the path "Watch out Dad! Puddle! Watch out!" we cruised back to the car in about three hours. Reef did a great job carrying a big backpack and keeping up the whole way . . . not without a few complaints of course, but he really did prove himself again to be a very good hiker.
Being St. Patrick’s Day, and having just finished a solid backpacking weekend we steered the car straight for our favorite NZ Brewery - Ground Up. Neil, one of the owners and father of the brewer was proudly in festive Irish wear, and we enjoyed a well deserved beer and some Bangers and Mash to celebrate the occasion. We also raised a glass to Grandpa Gordon - Sharyl’s Dad - as this St. Patrick’s Day marked 20 years since his passing.
This week Reef's climbing class began work on lead climbing, which is pretty incredible. Being a bit younger than some of the other kids Reef didn't do any actual lead climbing this class but it seems likely he will before the program ends. Some of the slightly older kids (9 - 10) actually climbed lead routes up to 30 feet or more off the floor of the gym. Lead climbing, just for clarity is where you climb with the rope and clip it as you ascend versus "top roping” where the rope is above you when you start. The big difference here is that on a top rope a belayer catches you immediately - where as when you top rope you fall until you reach the last place you clipped the rope to the wall and then you swing that length again below before the belayer can catch you. It is typical in lead climbing to fall 6 - 8 feet if you miss a hold. Either way you are safely hooked to the wall, but the exposure level is much more pronounced with lead climbing.
Today Reef's class at Wanaka Primary spent an hour with Steve Mushin an author and inventor who inspired the kids with his creativity and vision for a green and sustainable world. In classic seven year old fashion when Reef walked in the door today and I asked him how school was he said "GREAT!!!! . . . I mean it was okay . . . " not wanting to seem too excited about school, but he could barely contain how cool he thought it was to meet an author and inventor at school.
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