The one with Benjamin and Elianna

At home, it’s usually pretty easy to identify others who play Ultimate. Even when meeting in a complete different context, you can often just tell. (Ultimatedar?). But backpacking through New Zealand made it tough—most backpackers look like typical Ultimate players. So at breakfast, when I saw this woman who really looked like one, I was still too shy to say hi. Even though she was wearing an REI sweatshirt, so I knew she was probably from the States. Even though she was wearing the same shorts I was—shorts that Patagonia gives to Sub Zero and other Ultimate teams. In some ways, I’m really quite lame.

I left to go on my day-long glacier hike. When I returned to the hostel that evening I walked in with Søren. Breakfast woman was sitting on the couch, talking to Ben. I know Ben from Minneapolis—he played for another local Ultimate team, one of his roommates is one of my teammates, and he was there when we made the Turducken. But I didn’t know he was even gonna be in New Zealand.

We hugged it out.

Ben introduced me to Ellie. They’d met at a tournament in Nelson, which I’d apparently missed by 2 days. (She’d played for a coed team in Perth.) They’d made plans to meet up at the hostel and hike for a bit together. They invited me along on their hike the next day, a planned overnighter on the Copland Track.

We pick up with my journal, with a few red clarifications:

“Ben had to work at the hostel, so Ellie and I planned to hike in to the Welcome Flat Hut and meet him there later, then we’d hike out the next day.

WOW

So the Track, or at least the one-day section we’d done, was AMAZING. Ellie’s guidebook described the walk as ‘superb forest, river and mountain scenery…includes the natural hot pools at Welcome Flat.”

As Danny Devito in Romancing The Stone once said, “understatement of the year, asshole.” The first hour or so, once we’d crossed the river (cold water + sandflies suck) was along a path through a forest. There was some mud. (I stepped in to my calf. Ellie laughed. For a while. She went the other way and…stepped into mud.) We scrambled over trees and around streams and through very narrow cut paths. Then we walked along the Copland River. Absolutely beautiful blues and greens and greys in the water. We stopped for a long time just after the dog rock, by a small little beach w/ thousands of unique stones—reds and silvers and blues and blacks and greens, quartz and metallic flecks, sometimes all in the same rock. Some had multiple layers, and on lots of them the layers weren’t parallel or even crossed each other.

Then, scrambling over boulders. Then, along a shelf above the river. Then, a hundred yards up for a while, meandering along, crossing lots of streams and creeks. It started raining.

[Note that the entire time, we’re in this valley between two absolutely gorgeous mountain ranges, walking along the brilliant blue Copland River.]

A couple of creeks we had to take the flood bridges—ridiculously unstable 1-person-at-a-time contraptions that were often basically a coupla two-by-fours bolted together w/ some underwires for support and some netting or fencing for safety—_had_ to hold on the whole way across.

We sat for a while under one of the giant rock bivvies discussing Halloween costumes and such.

Eventually, Ben caught up just before we crossed the last creek.

We went up a hill. There was a phone there to ring the warden for some help w/ your bags.

Get to the hut—a big old [well, new] house. We’re all alone. Pay the hut warden. Just one other person there.

Hot pools: WOW. The source spring is probably 70º (which means 160º) at least. Burnt our feet a bit, but got in + it was incredible. We’re sitting in hot pools, in the rain. At one point I looked up—HOLY SHIT. Apparently, we’d been sitting basically a coupla hundred yards from huge mountains with jagged peaks, glaciers, 7, 8, 9, maybe 10 waterfalls, all hidden by the cloud cover. I’m pretty sure it’s the coolest place I’ve ever been, w/ awesome people.

So we decide to stay for an extra night. We probably have –just- enough food.

Next day we dawdled. Went to the springs—apparently, you can walk all through the area without walking through the red streams…

Went for a day hike towards the next (Douglas) Hut. Got stopped by an impassable creek so we sat by the riverside. They each napped. I read. We snacked. Took some pictures. I went for a swim in the Copland. Ben took some pictures of my willie. [Note: you will not see these.]

Went back, through the meadows and over the bridge. Now lots of people (lots of Israelis) in the hut—maybe 20 overall; it holds 31 or something and it was hard to tell.

Some time in the pools. Some reading by the river. A late dinner (more instant mashed potatoes in the dark!).

Went back the next day. Left the hut about 9am. Ate _all_ the food. Finished, just as my camera battery died, at 3pm. Waited for the bus a while, back to Fox and the Ivory Towers. Dinner in town.

Kereru all about, hanging out + posing by the garbage cans.

And then they invited me to spend another day with them. I cancelled my Friday reservation in Queenstown, tomorrow Ellie and I will bus to Wanaka; Ben will try to hitch and meet us later.

[journal entry ends]

We woke Ben when we left. Bus stops at every scenic overlook. Stops for lunch. Ben’s hoping to get there, if not he’ll e-mail and maybe leave a message on my cell. We get in at 2:30. Ben sidles up—he’s been there an hour after getting a ride from an Aussie and his Slovakian private guide.

We hung around town, made an awesome curried vegetable stir fry. We drank some, and went to bars.

The next day, Ellie and I went to…Puzzling World!

First a giant maze, with 1.5km (a mile and a bit) of walkways, each of which I probably hit at least 2-3 times.

Object: stop in each tower on the corners, then find your way out.
The “hard way”: yellow tower first, then blue, then green, then red.
Me: B-->G-->R-->G-->Y-->G-->B-->G-->R-->Y-->B-->exit.

Ellie was looking for red by the time I got to yellow, but it took her 45 minutes to find the exit so we wound up finishing together.

Then there’s a hall of illusions, including

- Holography—some pretty good ones
- 3-D faces that follow you—hard to describe but eerie and way cool
- a room at an angle—an effect used in LOTR!
- an awesome slanted room where it was hard to stand, balls rolled uphill, and chairs slid the same.

Finally, we took some pictures at the Leaning Tower of Wanaka, then headed back to town so I could catch my bus to Queenstown.

Pictures of all of this will be up...sometime... In the meantime, Ellie provided the picture above, and Ben's blog entry is here. Traveling with them was definitely a highlight. Hopefully for them too—the South Island of New Zealand sure beats Schenectady!

sg