Kepler Track Y'all!!

Just to be clear, this is me getting my PhD! :)



So I was off to the Kepler Track this weekend! Another one of New Zealand's "Great Walks" which basically consists of unbelievable views and several days of hiking or "tramping" as it is known throughout New Zealand.


The Kepler Track is a 69 km or about 43 mile circular path that walks through part of the Fiordland National Park in the South West of the South Island of New Zealand.


Once again listed as an "easy" tramping track, I want to murder the guy or girl who rates these things because I walked 43 MILES in 4 days and up and down 1500 meters or nearly 4000 FEET!! It was NOT easy! :) I thought the bones in my feet nearly broken and by the time we reached the car, almost every muscle in my lower body collapsed!


Basically, the entire area was carved by glaciers from the ice age carving through the mountains and forming the lakes and valleys. Lots of ferns and beech forest cover the area and then there is the Alpine section where you traverse across the top of the mountain for some amazing views. You'll see!


So Day 1 took us about 4.5 hours to complete. You start by walking along Lake Te Anau through mountain and forest beech and then you CLIMB for 2 hours passing through limestone and eventually climb out of the tree line and hike to Luxmore Hut for the evening. It was starting to get windy that day so by the time we reached the hut, in another 2 hours we were sitting amidst a snow storm! Glad we made it to the hut early and actually the snow made for AMAZING views the following day!

Walking out of the tree line

Track to Luxmore Hut

River through Mountains

Luxmore Hut (not a bad location!)

Headlamp heading to the caves!

On Day 2 we hiked from the Luxmore Hut to the Iris Burn Hut but not before climbing to the peak of Mt. Luxmore. We then followed the Forest Burn Saddle and ridge system for about 2 hours before then descending again to the Iris Burn shelter.

Luxmore Hut Morning After!

WOW!!

Te Anau Lake

Day 2 Track through Luxmore Mountain

Summit of Mount Luxmore

Alpine Ridge Trail!

Iris Burn Hut

Day 3 we hiked out of the Iris Burn Hut through the forest, pass a gorge and alongside a river before reaching our 3rd Hut, Moturau Hut, which sat lakeside to Lake Manapouri with yet more great views.

River Fun!

The Great Slip (1984) - Rainfall collapsed the mountain and formed this valley

River opening to Lake Manapouri

Moturau Hut

Enjoying my PhD on Lake Manapouri!

Lake Manapouri Sunset

Day 4 ended by walking through beech forest and wetland to Rainbow Reach and finally out to the carpark (parking lot) :)

Rainbow Reach

Rakiura Track Stewart Island, New Zealand

GOOD GRIEF MY LEGS HURT!!

So this past weekend was one of the highlights of New Zealand thus far. 3 of us decided to "tramp" (or hike as we call it) the Rakiura track located on Stewart Island, New Zealand.

Stewart Island is a small island just 30 km south of the South Island of New Zealand, across the Fouveaux Strait. Home to only about 300 permanent residents it is an isolated island with one of the most beautiful national forests in the world.

The Rakiura National Park was opened in 2002. The Rakiura Track is a 36 km circuit which takes 3 days to hike. The Rakiura track has been named one of New Zealand's "Great Walks" which basically means it is known as one of the premier hiking trails with better hut systems than some of the others.

We were blessed all weekend with spectacular weather!! Absolutely ZERO rain which is almost unheard of on Stewart Island. Day 1 walked near the shoreline with several views of spectacular beaches followed by a day in the Bush on our way to our 2nd Hut. Day 3 continued through Bush and back to our starting point!

This hike is labeled as an "easy" hike suitable for anyone with a moderate level of fitness. I am not in Olympic condition by any means, but one would think I maintain at least a moderate level of fitness and I could barely walk at the end of day 3!!

Once we finished our hike, we made a quick side trip over to Ulva Island which has become a New Zealand bird sanctuary for many rare and endangered bird and plant species.

I hope you enjoy the pictures, in some of them i may look extremely tired and DIRTY after 3 days without a shower! My pack weighed about 25 lbs to start loaded with noodles and granola and trail mix and of course, SNICKERS!! I mean seriously...they have nuts!! Protein!

Time to rest the legs a bit before the next adventure and should probably work on that PhD thing as well!

Cheers!
lexie

Patterson Inlet - Starting Point!!

Rakiura National Park

Hiking Day 1!

Lexie and Emily stop for a picture Day 1!

YAY!! Hut #1 - Time for a rest! - Port William Hut

Crazy hiking trail Day #2

Crazy Swing Bridge - made of fence!

Thank Goodness!! Hut #2 - My legs are dying!

View from Hut 2 - North Arm Hut

Looking sleepy! :)

We made it! Barely standing!!

Family, oops I mean group Photo!

Views from Ulva Island

Last of Ulva Island!

Victory Beach then Christchurch

Hello everyone!!

Had some time last Sunday to do some day hiking out on the Otago Peninsula here in Dunedin. The peninsula is indescribable in it's beauty and so many different beaches! The beach we checked out last Sunday is known as Victory Beach due to the shipwreck of the mighty "Victory". You will see some photos of the Victory as it was low tide and you could see part of the ship. Apparently people go diving out here often. Notice the surrounding landscape as well and the baby fur seals! :)

This past week I was sent up to Christchurch for a conference. Had 1 free day to do some exploring so some views of the city as well as the surrounding peninsula. Chrischurch is a city of about 300,000. Quite a flat city in comparison to Dunedin and known as the city of gardens! I also love the picture of the giant Chess set where you will find people daily playing here in the city. I took a ride up the Gondola to get some views of the city and hiked my way back down.

Christchurch Cathedral

Lyttleton Harbor

Botanical Gardens

More to come later!

Love,

lex

Rugby then Wanaka

Hello Friends!!

It's been a few weeks since my last blog so I'm ready to update again! A couple weeks ago the New Zealand National Rugby Team was in town playing South Africa. Unfortunately, the All Blacks lost the game in the final minutes but it was a great game to watch! People go NUTS here for Rugby and especially for the All Blacks. People traveled from all over the South Island to see the All Blacks play here in Dunedin. Central City was actually blocked off for the game, concerts were being played in the street, and big screen TV's out in the middle of town. A group of us went to a local pub to watch the game and it was great!




Between weekends just catching up on some work. I'm currently reviewing about 3000 article abstracts to include in a systematic review I will be writing up and hopefully submitting for publication this December/January. Between reading the abstracts and fighting the New Zealand internet which is a dinosaur at downloading things, you would be amazed at how long this actually takes me to do! I'm also working with the Dean of the School of Physiotherapy on another project as his Assistant Research Fellow so that it taking up some of my time as well.




Doesn't take up too much time though because this past weekend a bunch of my mates and I traveled over to Wanaka for some snow skiing!! First time skiing in New Zealand and it was beautiful. They are due for some more snow and the mountains aren't as high as the Rockies so it's more equivalent to East Coast skiing where it can get a bit icy!! However, the views are spectacular and you are looking down on the glacier filled lake from the top of the mountain. Did 2 days of skiing and will be going back a few more weekends in the next few months.

Cheers!

Go All Blacks!

The view of Lake Wanaka!!

Treble Cone Ski Field

Treble Cone Ski Field 2

It just keeps getting better in New Zealand!! Milford Sound Weekend!

Dan, Emily, and myself at Milford Sound

The Chasm at Milford Sound



Cool looking stuff at Milford Sound

The Tasman Sea


Bowen Falls at Milford Sound (yes, this is a real picture!)

Milford Mariner on Milford Sound (our boat!)

Well, I have to admit one thing...the kiwis may have socialist medicine and weird food but they sure do their landscaping right!! This past weekend was Queen's Birthday Weekend which meant we had Monday off work (even though they don't even do that in England!) But Kiwis love themselves some holidays so if there is a questionable holiday, be certain we will have it off! I'm not complaining...just relaying the facts.

Anyway, Dan, Emily, and myself made the most of the weekend by traveling 3.5 hours to the western part of the country to Fiordland National Park and Milford Sound. What a beautiful place indeed! Snow capped mountains surrounded by glacier carved Fiords and Lakes clear out to the Tasman Sea. We were able to take a boat out to the Tasman Sea while sailing the Milford Sound. AMAZING! We also visited Te Anau and took a boat cruise out to see caves and glowworms which was pretty awesome.

Off to the good 'ole USA next week for conference in San Antonio and then home for a week to see family!

Lex

Easter Weekend - Queenstown Adventure Part II

So I survived Queenstown once again! Easter Weekend was a blast as 7 of us went over to a small town called Arrowtown about 15 minutes outside Queenstown. It was one of the clinicians from the PT clinic, his wife, myself, Dan and Emily.

We spent a lot of time NOT doing anything related to the PhD which was a nice change. Ate a LOT of chocolate and by a lot, I mean ridiculous amounts of sheep's milk chocolate! :)

So being the adventure seeker I am, I decided to forego bungee jumping this trip (been there, done that) and decided to take a little trip down the river on a knee board. They call this Mad Dog River Boarding. http://www.riverboarding.co.nz/ Check it out!!

So basically, you get into a wetsuit because this is all glacier water so it's about 10 degrees celsius. Full on wetsuit, wetsuit jacket, booties, life jacket, helmet, and flippers. They are hard core too because when you sign up to go you sign a waiver saying you won't sue them if you experience death...i'm like, ok....sure...when i'm dead I won't sue you! Anyway, you hit the water with your wetsuit, flippers, and knee board and basically you experience white water rafting, but you are in the water vs. in the boat! About grade 3 rapids but when you are in the water and the waves are eating you they seem a bit larger!! It was hilarious...i'm not sure how much of that water I drank, but i have to admit, probably some of the cleanest water ever, very cold and refreshing...great for drinking! At the end of that, they strap you on the back of a jet ski and pull you around, then i jumped off a 7 m rock into the river, followed by a slide down into the river on the knee board and finally a rope swing!

Lasted about 3 hours in total and I had already run about 7 miles in the morning so I seriously wanted to collapse afterward. Huge amounts of fun though and some near crashing into large boulders!

The rest of the weekend we spent hanging out around Queenstown, grilling out, running down by the river, playing cricket and some tennis. You know, your typical everyday backyard cricket game!!

Back to work tomorrow with our first patient!!

Birthday Kiwi Style!!

So I celebrated my 27th here in New Zealand the Kiwi Way. Not much difference but I'm pretty sure I just turned 27 a day earlier than I was supposed to! Anyway, enjoyed a little Turkish Dinner (which at first scared me but then I realized it was just kebabs and such). Such an American girl, I am.... i'm like, oh..kebabs...that's totally American ..just throw it on the grill and eat with some corn on the cobb and whatever....but OH NO...here it's like a fancy restaurant where I pay good money for meat off a stick...and then they try to pretend like I couldn't have made that myself! But New Zealand is great like that....in a 1 block radius I could have Thai, Seafood, Indian, Thai again, cambodian, turkish, mexican, thai again, some weird deer or lamb burger (GROSS!!), Mickey D's!, Irish pub food, indian...and of course Thai. Have to admit, I've tried lamb a bit but it's just not my style... plus it's like eating my childhood stuffed animal...they are too cute to eat...mary had a little lamb and all and I'm going to eat it....NOPE.

I really need to take some pictures of the lifestyle here....HILARIOUS....for instance, throwing your couch up onto your roof and chillin in the middle of the day....completely normal...no one even looks at you twice unless you are me. Burning couches....another no brainer....and don't try burning chairs, that's just LAME....if you are going to burn, burn for REAL. umm....streaking...yeah, they don't save that for night, it's midday...apparently there is a national nudity day here...what is that?? Are you serious? I need to get into shape before that one! :)

So I figure this much, when I get back to the states I'm definitely bringing back some Kiwi traditions and will try to lift my couch on my roof and sit and drink beer out there...I'm certain I'd be arrested but all I have to say is "It's Kiwi Style" Back off! :)

Off to Queenstown for the Easter holiday and hoping to get myself into some kind of dangerous activity since I already checked bungee over a river off my list.

I think I may try knee boarding down a rip-roaring river and try to bang my head against a few boulders....if I'm not bleeding by the end, I just didn't try hard enough!