Note To Future Self

Well, I’m back from the back of beyond. I shall describe my trip in detail later, but someone kindly left a copy of The Deathly Hallows on the living room table and, well, first things first.

It’s an exciting week here at Rancho Marburg because both Anna and I get to go on field trips. Sadly, they aren’t the same field trip.

Anna leaves tomorrow morning for the deep, deep, deep south.

Supposedly it’s for a rain-soaked week of native forest sampling. I haven’t Googled to see if there are any all-inclusive wine-tasting-hot-springs spa/resorts in the area.

The details are a bit sketchy, but she’ll be flying to Invercargill and then taking either a jet boat or a helicopter to the Wairaurahiri river (the right marker below).

Sometime mid-week she’ll be taking another helicopter to a camp on the Waitutu river (left marker). If the forest doesn’t swallow her, she’ll be back next weekend. Besides jet boat and helicopter rides Anna has been promised primitive cabins, torrential rain, and, ahem, local color. Needless to say, our living room now looks like a staging area for an Antarctic expedition.

(For those attempting to follow along at home, the Waitutu is the outflow from Lake Poteriteri, and the Wairaurahiri is the outflow from lake Hauroko, the deepest lake in NZed).

Sadly, my expedition won’t involve helicopters at all. I’m heading back to the States for a wedding and some family time. No helicopters at all. Sniff.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the weather this week has stunk. A little rain, a little frost, a little fog. Blech.

Despite the inclemency, I girded the old mountain bike for a spin up Rapaki to Summit Road, just to clear out the lungs and check out the trails. As I ascended up the trail and into the clouds

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. Zero visibility was a good start

and wet trails

In the end, the singletrack was too wet to ride responsibly, so I settled for spin along the road and a relatively sedate descent through Victoria park

[yes, the sign does say "Down Hill MTB Track Crosses Ahead. Pedestrians Give Way."]

When the sun did come out to play, I was only too happy to say hello.

A kiwi walks into the grocery store to buy some yams.

He walks out with:

Wha…?

I have to admit the whole sweet potato/yam thing threw me for a loop in the US. But what the heck is this thing?

I’m not even sure how to cook it!

Well, winter has arrived here in enzed. We’ve been hunkered down for the last couple of weeks, puttering around the house, going to soccer games. Just the usual routines of life, I suppose.

We’ve started doing a few small projects around the house, hanging pictures, buying lamp shades and dreaming of spring. We’ve even gone so far as to book ourselves a spot on the Milford track next February.

Access is even more highly regulated that the boundary waters, so when the bookings for next season opened on July 1, we figured we should just pick a date out of a hat and go for it.

Oh – and the title of this post? Today’s weather forcast. In its entirety. “fine” is used to describe any day where some part of the forecast area might experience tolerable weather for at least an hour. Hence “Fine with torrential rain developing” or “Mostly fine. Small craft warning for the Bay of Plenty”, etc.