Stand By Me

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New hobbies

2012 expanded my horizons.  I tried more new things in the last year than I've tried in a long time, and my life was richer for it.  I thought I'd do a post about some of the new hobbies I picked up in the last year.

Rock climbing

Some of my coworkers are really into rock climbing: indoor, outdoor, alpine, etc.  They've been going as a group to a rock climbing gym on Thursdays at noon since forever (as well as Tuesday nights and weekends).  I always thought of them as this elite group of climbers who climbed with other elite climbers, but one day one of them invited me along.  I was surprised they would include a beginner, but they were really supportive and helpful.  And it was different from anything I'd done before, but I liked it enough that I went the next Thursday...and the next...and the next.  And eventually I bought my own equipment and became a regular.  I climb with a bunch of men who rely on their strength.  I don't have much strength so for me figuring out the routes is a mental game, like solving a puzzle.



Swimming

Yeah, that's NOT me, but it's a cool picture.  I wanted to learn to scuba dive, but in order to take a course I had to be able to swim 200 metres.  But I never really learned to swim.  I could stay afloat and play around in the pool and all that, but I never actually learned how to do a stroke (and I couldn't put my face in the water without holding my nose).  I could just see myself trying to dog-paddle for 200 metres--um, no.

So I signed up for adult swimming lessons, thinking I would just learn enough to be able to pass the test and start scuba diving.  But to my great surprise, I really liked swimming.  I got promoted through the ranks from Goldfish to Stingray to Whale in two terms.  And I've been spending Saturday mornings at the pool doing laps.

Sadly, I almost didn't sign up for another term of lessons--the women in my new class are more interested in chatting than in swimming and I get annoyed that I'm paying money to sit around and listen to them talk.  But we're learning breaststroke this term and I really want to learn it!  So I'll give it one more try.  Classes start again next week.


Running

And that's also not me (in case you were fooled) but I like the picture.  My sister-in-law's sister (Nikki, I'm sure there's a better way to phrase that but I can't think of it) did this running challenge thing a few years ago, and although I signed up, I never did it.  A year later I decided to give it a try.  She recommended a program called Couch-to-5k (Google it if you're interested) which is supposed to get you from doing no running at all to running a 5k (in 30 minutes) in 9 weeks.  It took me a lot more than 9 weeks to complete the program but along the way I discovered that I like running.  Well, I don't necessarily like it while I'm doing it, but I feel great all day after going for a run.  (Heh, "going for a run"--I never thought I'd hear myself say that.)  And I can't do 5 km's in 30 minutes.  I'm pretty slow.  But at least I'm doing it.

I'd love to learn more new things in 2013, but I don't want to give up any of my other activities and I'm running out of free time!

Queen Charlotte Trek

My friends Tara and Jo had never been on a multi-day trek, but after watching me go on trip after trip this summer I guess they got curious.  They asked if I could recommend an easier trek that we could all do together.  I did the Queen Charlotte Track a few years ago, so some of these pictures might look familiar.  

I recommended Queen Charlotte for a couple of reasons.  For one thing, there are resorts along the way with good backpacker rooms, so instead of spending the night in a hut eating backpacker food we could look forward to a hot shower, a restaurant, a hot tub, and a bed every night.  And for a small fee, a water taxi carried our big packs from resort to resort so we only had to hike with day bags.  But at the same time, at 71 km over four days with some decent-sized hills, the track isn't trivial.

The weather was beautiful: bright and sunny but not too hot (usually).  My friends were fun to hike with--it was four drama-free days (which doesn't always happen when hiking with women, believe me).  And Tara and Jo want to do the 4-day Abel Tasman track next year, so they must have had fun too.

Routeburn Track

I just posted about the Kepler Track; three days after completing that hike, I started the Routeburn Track.  The Routeburn Track is only half as long as the Kepler, 32 km, but I still took four days to do it.  (I had originally intended to do it in three days and skip the last hut, which was only an hour from the end of the trail.  But then I realized that would put me in Queenstown for New Years Eve, which would have been horribly expensive, not to mention noisy.  So I decided to stay at the last hut after all.  Whether that was a wise choice remains to be seen.)

I took a bus to get from Queenstown to the trail head.  As the bus was driving towards the mountains, we could see blue sky everywhere except where we were headed.  Great.  However, the rain held off until the moment I entered the hut, and then there was a huge downpour.

Here was the view from the first hut.

Day 2 was a gorgeous walk, at least for the first half.  (It all would have been gorgeous, but the clouds covered everything up for the second half.)  The hike went up a mountain, over a saddle, and then back down the other side.  But the up and down parts weren't nearly as steep or unrelenting as the Kepler Track.  It would go up for a while, then level off, then go up again, then level off again.  I can handle that!

The weather started closing in during the afternoon, so I was glad I got an early start.  This was probably the last good view; you can see the clouds blowing in to obscure the mountains. 

The next hut is way down there next to that lake.  As I was taking this picture, I dropped my walking pole and it slid a few feet down the hill.  I looked at it for a few minutes, wondering whether it was worth it to risk life and limb trying to retrieve the pole.  My knees were still sore from the Kepler and I didn't want to go downhill without the pole--otherwise I might have left it there!  I finally decided to go for it and carefully eased myself down to the pole.  That part was easy.  I didn't fall until I was getting back up...and then I fell over backwards onto the trail.  But with the pack on my back, I couldn't get back up!  I felt like one of those beetles that gets stuck on its back.

Once again, the moment I stepped inside the hut the clouds opened and there was a huge rainstorm.  And it rained and rained and rained.  We didn't know it, but this was the beginning of a storm that was about to shut down half of the South Island.

Day 3 was only about 3 hours long, since I had decided to stay at a hut that night after all.  It was cold and rainy and wet.  I was wearing my thermals, rain gear, and my gloves.

The trail went practically under this waterfall, which was gorgeous and would have felt wonderful on a hot, dry day.  This was not a hot, dry day. 

When I arrived at the hut, there was a notice up saying there was a severe weather forecast for a storm that was expected to hit early that afternoon and continue throughout the next day.  And wow, it really hit.  The rain, thunder, hail, and wind roared all night long.  There was a little stream just outside the hut, and when we woke up the next morning the stream had become an angry river.  Our hut warden said he'd never seen it that high before.

In the morning there was a hut meeting, and everyone who was heading up the way I had come was discouraged from going any farther; the hut warden suggested staying at the hut another night or two.  Since I only had an hour-long hike to get to the car park and catch my bus (and the trail was just slightly downhill) I decided to head out.  

It was a long, wet hour.  The trail had turned into a streambed and the water came up over my ankles.  It was pouring rain, although (thankfully) the hail had stopped and the trees protected me from the worst of the wind.  And, also thankfully, the bus had arrived early and had the heater running full-blast so I could warm up a bit.  Unfortunately I was stuck in my wet clothes for the 2-hour ride since I wasn't really going to strip down and change in front of everyone.  

Later I found out that they had started helicoptering people off my track and the nearby Milford Track--I was bummed that I missed riding in a helicopter!  Several of the roads in the area were closed due to weather-related slips (landslides).  When I got into Queenstown there was no accommodation available anywhere since people were stuck with flights being cancelled and roads being closed, etc.  Luckily I had a reservation.

Someday I want to go back and do the Routeburn during good weather.

Kepler Track

The company I work for closed down for two weeks over Christmas and New Years, so I took the opportunity to hike two of the Great Walks in the South Island.  The first one was the Kepler track, a 60 kilometre, four-day trek.

I'm not ashamed to say this hike KICKED MY BUTT.  The first day was about six hours long, four hours of which was steeply and unrelentingly upwards.  I started the uphill portion strong, but by the end I was stopping every few metres to catch my breath and rest my aching legs.  Most of the trail was below the treeline and there wasn't much of a view...until we ascended above the treeline and could see EVERYTHING.  

Suddenly all the effort was worth it.  The view was gorgeous, and the feeling that I had earned the view was even better.

Even so, the hut was a welcome sight that night.

From the outside, the hut looked like a 1980s split level home, randomly stuck on some hilltop where the only access was by helicopter or walking track.  But on the inside, the hut slept something like 60 people and was incredibly luxurious for a backcountry hut, even on a Great Walk.

There were individual bunks instead of a bunk platform...

 There was a big kitchen with gas cookers, so people didn't have to carry a stove.  (I carried a stove anyway since experience has told me that sometimes the gas cookers in the hut are unreliable.)

And there was a large dining area (inside and outside) with plenty of seating.

And the best part was...there were flush toilets!  In a hut!  (I didn't take pictures of those because you all know what they look like.)  The bad part was the sandflies, especially in the toilets.  I could never remember to put bug repellent on the parts of me that were exposed when I was using a toilet, and those sandflies would swarm as soon as I sat down.

Day 2 continued upwards until the trail reached the peak of Mount Luxmore.  I took my shoes off and had some lunch at the top.

And then we crossed the mountain saddle.

And then the trail went down.  Down, down, down.  I thought down would be fun, especially after going up the day before.  But I was wrong: down was no fun at all.  It was steep and difficult and unrelenting, and my knees were killing me by the time I finally got to the bottom.  I was trying to protect my knees and ended up pounding my ankles instead--one ankle is still stiff almost a month later.

The next two days were relatively flat and wandered along a lakeside.  I didn't get any pictures because, after crossing the saddle, none of the views seemed quite photo-worthy.

I did, however, like this detour sign.  It says, "Danger, Track closed due to: NAZGUL ATTACKS."

And the "After" picture.  I'm tired but I made it!

Early Christmas

A few good friends came over for Christmas dinner and a little gift exchange tonight.  It was quiet and low-key, exactly how I like it.  My flatmate, Tara, had decorated our apartment for Christmas a few weeks ago and it looks great!  (She decorated the houseplant because I said something about how the decorations weren't tacky enough.)  I made ham, mashed potatoes, and green beans a la Wendy (since I didn't get them at Thanksgiving); Tara made rolls and carrots, Jo brought pavlova and berries for dessert, and Andrew brought drinks.  This almost felt like a family celebration; this is my Wellington family.

Tara, Jo, and Andrew

(They're not flipping me off...it's this "fox" thing that they do.)

Even though I like spending Christmas doing outdoors-type things, and even though I don't miss the snow AT ALL, it still feels weird to be playing Christmas music when it's 26 degrees (80 degrees Fahrenheit) outside.

After this Friday my office shuts down until 3 January.  I'm taking advantage of the holiday to do some more backpacking, this time on two of New Zealand's Great Walks in the South Island, the Kepler and Routeburn Tracks.  They're both four-day hikes (Kepler is 60 km and Routeburn is 32 km) and I have three days between them to recover.

So have a merry Christmas, everyone!  I love you all!

Caples Track

I had a meeting in Queenstown last Monday, so I flew out the weekend before to do some hiking (taking advantage of company-paid airfares...).  I backpacked along the Caples Track for three days.  Here are some pictures--it was gorgeous!  (I also dropped my camera in the river while trying to cross, so I'm glad it still works and the pictures turned out okay.)

(Megann, this one is for you: sheep on a hillside)

Project is done!

Yeah, I know.  I'm surprised too.  I didn't think I would ever post again.  But the camera and the computer were in the same room for once, so I thought, "Why not?"

"So, Heidi, why haven't you posted anything in so long?"  Check this out: http://systemoperator.co.nz/publications

Some of you have heard me talk about the big work project that consumed my life for half a year.  Here it is: the System Security Forecast.  It required the efforts of ten full-time engineers for six months, plus about a dozen other people on a part-time basis.  And I was the one assigned to oversee the whole thing.  I've discovered that project management is not my thing.  The project went well (we met the deadline, the work done was of excellent quality, and nobody got extremely crazy until the very end) but I'd rather be working on a project than trying to get other people to work on it.  On the plus side, we're already getting good feedback from people who are reading the report.

I've spent the last two weeks learning how to exhale again.

Ward Christmas Party

This is what the Ward Christmas Party looks like in New Zealand.  Don't forget to bring hats and sunscreen!

Hydropower governor course

A few weeks ago I blogged about my coworker Lekshmi and me going skydiving in Taupo.  We were in Taupo for a week-long course for work, all about control systems and hydropower governors.  The teacher was nice enough to send us some pictures of the course, so I'm posting a few here.

We were told at the beginning of the course that there would be an exam at the end, and whoever got the highest score would get a trophy with their name on it.  Anyone who scored above 80% would get a certificate saying that they passed the course "with distinction."  Guess who busted her butt, studied hard, and won the trophy?