I'm not even going to try and remember the first 2 weeks of March, so we'll just start in the middle with the Great New Zealand Trek. The GNZT was started 4 years ago and takes place for a week every year, with the ultimate goal of trekking from the top of the North Island to the bottom of the South Island (Cape Reinga to Bluff). It was created as a fundraiser for Multiple Sclerosis Research by a guy named Steve Old, who lost his mum to MS when she was only in her 40s. He's an incredibly-talented horse wrangler, and was head-horse-wrangler for the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Last Samurai. So it was originally created as a horse-trek; but to accomodate non-riders, you can also walk or mountain bike. This year there were 140 horseriders, 75 walkers, and about 28 mountain bikersI chose to mountain bike, because there is no way I could sit on a horse for 7 hours every day and I didn't like the thought of huge blisters all over my feet from walking miles and miles. Also my aunt Phyll (who's done the trek since the beginning) is a mountain biker, so I followed her lead. We did a fair bit of training, riding for about 2 hours every other day for 3 weeks leading up to the trek. Little did I know what was coming...
We drove up to the end point, Kawhia, stopping at Taupo for a night along the way. We stayed in a friend's ecohouse which was absolutely incredible. All the water is collected rainwater, all the materials were either recycled from the previous house or from various parts of the world, there were solar panels, and automatic motion-detecting lights so you don't even have to remember to turn them off! They also had the most beautiful fireplace, created from large stones that the couple had collected from their travels all over the world. I've never been to an ecohouse before and it was cool to see just how much you can do to change your impact on the environment every day. Here's a picture of Lake Taupo, and you can also see two of the three Tongariro National Park volcanoes, Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe
After that stopover, we drove on to Kawhia. Pip (Phyll's friend, also a mountain biker, who carpooled with us) was absolutely certain that we had to be there at 2pm to get on the bus to the start point which was about a 4 hour drive away. When it was about noon, Phyll said "maybe one of us should just double check that we have to be there at 2pm." I was thinking that we shouldn't worry so much, but I pulled out my info sheet anyway and read the transport information. It turns out we had to be there at 1pm. BRILLIANT! I tell this to Phyll & Pip and there's a stunned silence in the car, then Pip says "right, well it's nobody's fault is it?" Phyll and I are thinking "Actually Pip, it's YOUR fault", knowing that we should have checked ourselves... so long story short Pip slams her foot on the accelerator although this didn't help much because were on windy back roads and there was a "slow down, 30km/hour" sign about every 5 km... haha. But she hit about 110km/hour on every straight bit of road which was impressive. Phyll goes into a panic, saying things like "WE'LL HAVE TO DRIVE ALL THE WAY TO THE START POINT!" and "Let's look at the map and try and figure out which way the bus will go so we can intercept it!". She also got on the phone to the organizers, but because we were in the middle of nowhere, she kept losing reception & cutting out. I was sitting there trying not to laugh as Pip sees a sign saying "Kawhia: 45km" and announces "we're only 45 km away! we'll be there in 20 minutes, no problem!"... this is as she takes yet another tight corner at 25km/hour haha. It was absolutely hilarious. In the end, we pull into the carpark at Kawhia at about 1:30 and the bus has only just arrived so we were absolutely fine.
So after a 4 hour bus ride, we arrived at the start point: Port Waikato. We all find our bags/bikes etc. and Phyll & Pip greet everyone they remember from the previous years, introducing me to dozens of people whose names I definitely wasn't going to remember. Phyll, Pip, and I had ordered a camping package, which is where they provide you with a tent and camping stretchers, and even put your tent up in the afternoon & take it down the next morning! Yes, yes, I know, it's totally cheating but trust me, after mountain biking up and down hills all day, the last thing you want to do when you get to camp is wrestle with tent poles. So anyway, we found our tent and headed over to the first dinner, held in a huge marquee. The campsite is one of the most remarkable things about each day of the trek. Some poor unknowing farmer gives up a few fields to a group of 300 trekkers & crew and we fill them with a huge marquee, hundreds of tents, horse floats, portaloos, showers, a catering tent, a massage tent, medical crew, information caravans, quad bikes... it's madness. And every day the crew would pack everything up, drive to the next site and have it all up & running before any of us arrive. Here's an aerial view of one of our campsites. This was taken by a mountain biker who climbed to the top of a mountain just to get this picture!
After a yummy dinner (breakfast & dinner were catered every night) we had a nice early night. In the morning we woke up bright and early (about 6am), got dressed into our lycra bike tops and shorts (a highlight of the whole trek experience... haha), packed up our bags, had breakfast, made lunch, filled our water bottles, checked our bikes, heard about the route for the day, and were all ready to set off by 8am. At the gate each day is a number station where you have to yell out your number (everyone was given one) to a crew member so they can make sure you leave & return every day. This was comedy in itself, because all 250 trekkers are attempting to form a single file line yelling out numbers to the slightly deaf woman who's slowly writing them all down. Not to mention the fact that we mountain bikers always tried to be first in line, otherwise we had to dodge hundreds of horses & walkers.
The first day was unbelievably dificult. 35km of every kind of terrain imaginable. We started on farmland which was either beautiful mowed grass or horrible rutted, bumpy, knee length scrub. We then entered a section of muddy bush forest, going through huge mud puddles that took a lot of balance to ride through. Then it was STEEP downhill along cliffs to sea level. Then it was sand, which speaks for itself. Then we had to cross a river (done by either wading & carrying your bike, or hitching a ride on one of the horses). THEN (this is the "best" bit), we had to climb up huge steep black sand dunes. For example:
But the scenery was absolutely stunning and despite the fact that I was completely exhausted and slightly annoyed that I had to walk & push my bike most of the way instead of actually riding it, I was already hooked and completely in love with the whole experience.
The rest of the days varied in distance and terrain. We had another beautiful coast day, and the rest were more inland with stunning views of the sea from the tops of mountains. I really enjoyed being on a mountain bike, and was getting tips & tricks from all the really experienced cyclists which made each day easier... the people overall were absolutely amazing. So many different ages and backgrounds and stories, success stories and tragedies and obstacles overcome and goals for the future. The trekkers nickname themselves the "gray mass" because of the number of older people who participate. The majority of the mountain bikers were 50 or older, and the average age of the walkers had to be at least 55. I met several people in their late 60s or 70s. And yet they were the ones leading the pack & making it to camp first! It was crazy and incredibly inspiring! Steve put it in perspective on the first night when he was talking about his mum. She got MS when she was only 28, and had passed away within 20 years of that. He said that seeing her body get weaker & weaker and unable to do simple things like walk or ride a bike, he vowed never to take his body for granted. I mean we are seriously lucky that our bodies allow us to do so many things!
Moving along... I can't possibly recap the entire trek but some great moments include:
-kareoke night: Phyll, Pip, I decided (with the influence of alcohol) to perform "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" in front of the 300 people in the marquee on kareoke night. I don't think it could have gone worse... we had no plan as to which one of us was going to hold the microphone/which sections we would sing; we couldn't hear the music & the words were rolling much too fast; none of us actually knew the song except for the chorus; the audience refused to clap along despite my efforts to get them going... our scores from the 'judges' were 1/10, 3/10, and 4/10. It was quite possibly one of the most embarrassing experiences of my entire night. But then...
-the next night: John the guitar player came to entertain us but he forgot he set-list & chords & lyrics etc., basically he forgot everything but his guitar, and so he was struggling a little. Phyll thought it would be a great idea if I got up and sang to redeem myself from kareoke night. Of course I had no idea she was going to inform John that I'd be happy to sing with him... so the next thing I hear is "Rachel from Holland is coming up here to sing for you guys!" WHATTTTTTTTTTTTTT!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? I decided that I might as well get up and give it a go, because the alternative (crawling under the table and pretending to be dead) might not be as well received. So I got up and sang a few Van Morrison songs & Don McLean's American Pie and I LOVED it! The mic took some getting used to, but everyone seemed to like my singing & was dancing :) It was cool because I'd felt like "Phyll's 17 year old neice from Holland" just because I was much younger than everyone else & was sort of tied to Phyll so it was cool to do something that really set me apart! Here's a picture of John & I jamming:
The rest of the pictures will be up on the usual website: picasaweb.google.com/rachtait
The pictures are better at describing the scenery than I am!
Since we got back, I've been working like mad. Harvest officially started last week so it's basically 24/7 now, although I'm not required to be there all the time which is nice. My main responsibilities are in the morning. I start at 8am and sample all the tanks and barrels that they're making the wine in. The first day was just one tank, the 2nd day was two etc. etc. so now I'm up to 12 tanks (9 Pinot tanks, 2 Sauvignon Blanc, and 1 Reisling) and 4 different Chardonnays in about 12 barrels. I go to each container, get a sample in a bottle, then analyze & record each one. I do tests for temperature, pH, degrees Brix (sugar content) and total acidity. T and pH are easy, just a one step kind of thing, but degrees Brix is really fiddly and quite sensitive. The temperature has to be 20 degrees C for the test to work so I have to warm each sample in a flask but it's so easy to go too high, then pour the sample into a cylinder and use a hydrometer (basically just something you drop in to the water & it floats/sinks to a certain level- I don't really understand the theory behind it very well... haha) and that tells me the degrees Brix. I also am on a bit of a time crunch so I try to do lots of things at once like warming multiple samples with a thermometer in each, while running the test on other samples. But the flasks, cylinders, thermometers, and hydrometers all have to be washed between each sample otherwise I might contaminate other samples. Each tank/barrel might have different quantities of yeast or acidity, they're all at different stages of fermentation so it's a lot of things to keep track of. I just label EVERYTHING and that seems to work. At the end, I pour a glass of the sample & the winemakers & other assistants come and we all smell & taste them and discuss the lab results and adjust the day's plan accordingly. Here's a picture of some of the "morning line-up" when I've finished all my tests & before we taste them at about 10:30am
The rest of my day usually involves adjustments to tanks or barrels (warming/cooling them, adding acid/yeast), analysis later on to see if the adjustments are working, vineyard samples (testing for average bunch weight, pH, degrees Brix, and total acidity) from various vineyards which helps the winemakers decide when to pick the grapes, and various other things. I also do LOTS of cleaning because it's really important that nothing gets contaminated so that's always pretty boring, but everything else makes up for it. Today I had to sniff check some old barrels to see if they could be used for a new Chardonnay batch that came in today... it was absolutely disgusting. Bad barrels that need to be cleaned smell of a combination of sulfur and really really strong vinegar. I'm battling a cold at the moment, and sniffing those barrels completely cleared my sinuses haha. I also helped sort grapes into the destemmer, which is basically going through the grapes that are on a sort of conveyer/shaker thing and picking out really dried or rotting bunches that the pickers may have wrongly picked. I was actually part of the picking team a few days ago when the winery was under control... that is a TOUGH job. They work 8-5, 7 days a week, over bent over, picking bunches, cleaning bad parts out, up and down rows and rows and rows and rows of grapes. In all weather conditions as well! I have so much more respect for them now...
I only have a week left here then I'm off to Auckland to go out on Keith & Barb's boat for Easter weekend. We're going on a 5 day trip around Great Barrier Island and I've never been there before so that should be awesome! Then I'm headed to Virginia on April 17th for two weeks of hopping from university to university, visiting all my friends! Then it's home to Holland at the end of April! I cannot believe how quickly my time down-under has gone- everyone said it would be gone before I knew it but I didn't realise just how fast it would all disappear! And with work so busy at the moment, all my days are blurred.
Looking back over this post I'm very sorry it's so long! I always send really long emails to my best friend about what I've been doing and sometimes after the really long ones she'll write back saying "Woah Rachel! You wrote about 3000 words in that one! That's as long as most of our history papers and those took us months to write! Our history teacher would be so proud!" Haha.
So if you've made it through that, congrats! And if you just skipped to the end to see if I added anything important, just look at the pictures which will be up soon! They're what I'll spend most of my time looking back on.
Thanks for keeping up with me & I'll update again soon!
-Rach
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