LivingOverland.com's 2012 Trip Reports

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We just returned from a 16-day trip across New Zealand's south island. Over the next couple of weeks we will be posting information on the places we visited.

First up is Christchurch

Christchurch Rebuilding



On February 22, 2011 a magnitude 6.3 earthquake devastated Christchurch, New Zealand’s second largest city, causing millions of dollars in damage and the loss of 185 lives. Over the next year the community has been subject to numerous aftershocks, resulting in even further damage. Large sections of the city’s downtown have been fenced off to create a red-zone, leaving office and retail buildings abandoned. The city’s namesake, the Christ Church Cathedral, was nearly completely destroyed in the quake. A large portion of the main roof and over half of the cathedral’s spire collapsed, killing several people inside.





We arrived in Christchurch just as the Christchurch Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) was opening a walkway, through the red zone, to allow people to say their goodbyes to the cathedral. Earlier in the month the dioceses confirmed that it would be dismantling the cathedral, as it would be too costly to rebuild. This was the first time, in over a year, the public was allowed to enter into the area and over 60,000 showed up to say goodbye.





We made our way to the city center to pay our respects to those who lost their lives in the disaster and see the damage first-hand. What we witnessed was more like a war zone than the financial and spiritual heart of a city. One could not walk through the area without being overwhelmed with sadness. The community was grieving over the loss of life, the loss of a landmark, the loss of their city, and the loss of hope.





To read more about our visit to Christchurch, or our travels to New Zealand, check out www.LivingOverland.com or click here.

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Speight's Brewery Heritage Tour



Located in beautiful Dunedin, Speight's Brewing Company is the oldest brewery on New Zealand's South Island. While visiting Dunedin, we had the opportunity to take a tour of this wonderful brewery. The cost is $23NZ per person and lasts roughly 90 minutes with the opportunity to 'sample' the beer produced at the brewery.

Before I go into our tour, I wanted to thank Speight's for their dedication to the community. We really liked how the company gives back by providing clean drinking water to the resident's of Dunedin. Each year local's fill their water jugs with over one million liters of water from this tap. It was a great place to fill up the water bottles. Good on ya guys!







The tour begins with a history lesson detailing the origins of beer and how it influenced civilizations. The tour guide explained how beer built the Egyptian pyramids and saved Europe during the Middle Ages. We saw how it was brought to New Zealand and how the brewing industry influenced trade in the region.



To find out more about our visit to Speight's Brewery in Dunedin, visit our blog by clikcing here!

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Dunedin and the Surrounding Area



Dunedin, the South Island’s second largest town, is quite lively, featuring many museums, theaters, plentiful shopping, lots of restaurants, and two large Universities to boot. Situated at the mouth of Otago harbor, Dunedin was first established for the gold trade; the University of Otago was established during this time period as was the beautiful railroad station of 1908, which still stands today. As the amount of gold being found in the area dwindled some prospectors left, but many found the mild maritime climate as their home.


Otago Harbor at night

While in Dunedin our gang enjoyed a several-hour tour of the Speight’s Brewery. This six-story gravity-fed brewery has been around since 1876 and is truly the pride of the south. Well, after a tour provided tasting at the brewery it only seemed right to eat at the Speight’s Restaurant. Speight’s Restaurants can be found throughout New Zealand and could be considered a chain restaurant, but the food is of top notch quality and the presentation is impeccable. One could expect to find venison, several types of fresh fish, lamb, beef, and several vegetarian dishes on the menu as well as the ever present green lipped clams.



For more information on our trip to Dunedin, check out our website at www.LivingOverland.com, or click here.

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Te Anau New Zealand



Pleasantly surprised was our first thought of Te Anau, the somewhat touristy town sitting in the western part of the island, on the edge of Lake Te Anau, and on the road to the Milford Sound. This little hub had just the right number of restaurants, hotels, activities, and shopping opportunities (including several good grocery stores), and did not have the pretentious air we noted while later visiting Queenstown. We found an advertisement for the Fiordland Great Views Holiday Park and noted their nice bathroom photos, so the women made the governing decision to stay there; it was a great decision. The rates were very reasonable and the bathrooms were impeccable and there was never a wait for a morning shower. The community kitchen setup was also quite nice; a large refrigerator was available to store perishable goods.



We normally try to do as few guided tours while on holiday to get the most authentic experience, but Te Anau had some tour locations that were only available to those taking part in Real Journeys tours. Our first tour was of the Te Anau glowworm caves (there are other glowworm caves found in New Zealand). We embarked a large ship in the downtown area, road across the South Island’s largest lake where we learned about the over six feet of rainfall per year in the area and the famous Milford Track. This 53 kilometer tramp (NZ for hike) through the Beachwood rainforest from Te Anau to Milford Sound is described as the “finest walk in the world” and takes visitors six days to complete; each night there are cabins or other lodging options available to trampers. Besides the Milford track, most of the surrounding mountains are off limits without proper government permits or clearance; there is a severely threatened species of flightless bird that inhabits these forests and the government is making great strides with their repopulation efforts.



For more on our visit to Te Anau, visit our blog at www.LivingOverland.com or click here.

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Our second guided tour was also hosted through Real Journeys and started in Te Anau, but the but actually picked us up at our holiday park—a nice option, especially when you don’t want to park a vehicle downtown all day. We had the nicest Kiwi, Paul, as our bus driver and throughout our drive to the Milford sound boat area, about two hours away, he made it hilariously clear the friendly rivalry between the Aussies and the Kiwis. Along the drive to Milford , through Fiordlands National Park, Paul told us much about the history, culture, and the environment of the area; too much to include here, but all very interesting and thought provoking.



We stopped at several areas along the road to look at some exceptional features; one of which was a stream where we filled our water bottles from fresh glacier runoff. Paul let us know that the water and lakes, rivers, and streams in New Zealand is free from waterborne diseases, so it is safe to drink the water without boiling first. The Milford sound region receives between 7 and 9 feet a year, so on 300 days a year the area is drenched in showers, but the area is also inundated by waterfalls only present during the drenching rains. We were lucky enough to visit the sound on one of the 65 rain-free days, but didn’t see any of the 200+ rain waterfalls.





To read more about our visit to Milford Sound visit our blog at www.LivingOverland.com or click here.

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Reserved for New Zealand trip reports 4

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We would like to thank Overland Expo for inviting us to this year's event and to everybody who came by and said hello! What a wonderful experience; we had a great time. We could not have asked for better neighbors at the event. The Adventure Trio, Ara and Spirit, the Rough Riders, and the Crew from Adventure Motorcycle Magazine were kind enough to take us in even though the only bikes we have are of the peddle variety. Everybody was very friendly, and we could not be happier with the turnout for our cooking demonstrations.

A big thank you, also, to our blog followers who attended. It was nice to meet all of you. You gave us some great encouragement and motivation to continue with our blog and photography. We left the event feeling proud of what we have accomplished in just over two years of doing this. We have a lot to learn, but we are having fun, and that is what is important to us!

Our Journey Down:
We started our journey to Overland Expo on Wednesday May 16th. We didn't have much vacation time from work, so we quickly drove down to Bluff, UT and camped at the Sand Island Campground. For those of you who are interested, this is a wonderful campground along the San Juan River just west of Bluff. It is popular with rafters and the Sand Island Petroglyph site is nearby.



The Main Event:
We arrived at Mormon Lake Lodge, around mid-day on Thursday, to discover a sea of roof top tents and knew we had arrived at the right place.






We had a wonderful time teaching the Overland Cooking Daily Demo. Friday brought nearly 25 attendees; there were over 35 on Saturday, and we closed with a good group of 20 on Sunday. We are working on posting the recipes, and in a few days we will have links below.

To read more about our Overland Expo experience, be sure to check out our blog by clicking here: Overland Expo 2012 Part 1.

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We were lucky enough to be able to take some additional time off after Overland Expo to enjoy the drive back to Idaho. We decided to make a quick stop at the Grand Canyon as Krista had never been. We were rewarded with one of the most impressive sunsets I have ever had the privilege of watching.



Smoke from nearby wildfires filled the canyon and created a dramatic display of yellows, oranges, and reds. Distant side canyons shown like layers, with their ridge lines progressively getting softer and softer, until they could not be distinguished from the next.



As the sun set behind the horizon and the sky began to darken, the canyon transformed once again before our eyes. The side canyons, once shades of grey and black, turned to wonderful shades of blue. I looked around and discovered we were the only ones left enjoying the sunset. It is times like these I am most thankful for my wonderful wife and travel companion and for being blessed with the means to travel and see the world.



Be sure to check out all of our trip reports and recipes on our blog www.LivingOverland.com! You can find even more photos on our facebook page by clicking the link in my signature.

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Chasing Yellowstone Wolves



On a recent trip in Yellowstone National Park we had spent the day viewing herds of bison ranging the planes, a dozen elk forging the high Madison River, unseasonably warm weather brining Big Horn Sheep down to forage on luscious green grass and a lumbering grizzly bear rooting for spring shoots. Friday night we were driving north towards Gardner, MT, for the night when we saw a couple dozen cars pulled to the side of the road. Photographers with lenses worth several months of salary lined the street along the river where an elk carcass sat a mere 10 yards on the other side of the river. Rumor was that a white wolf was heading back to its kill; no more than ten minutes later the white wolf made its appearance at a drainage just above the river. He slowly and cautiously made his way down to the kill site and began gnawing on the hide and some of the connective tissue. With not much besides gnawing happening at the river’s edge, we decided to make our way back to Gardner for dinner before making a quick jaunt back into the park for a soak in the boiling river then back to Gardner for a good night’s rest. The boiling river is one of my (Krista) favorite places in the world, so we decided to wake up at 6:00am on Saturday and head back for another soak before venturing back into the park for the day.



Well, 4:00am came and I was wide awake. I lied in bed until 5:30 when I couldn’t control my inner child any longer and had to wake Beau so we could get back to my favorite place. Just 50 yards downstream from the boiling river parking lot was the kill site from the previous night’s sighting and there were two cars parked along side the road. We pulled over to see if anything was happening when we saw the same white wolf. It was twilight and as our eyes adjusted we saw a second wolf, gray in color. Soon, four more wolves previously hidden in the sagebrush, ranging in color from pure white to pitch black, came into view. Several wolves were chewing on the carcass, but not much remained besides small pieces of hide, joints, connective tissue, and the random scrap hidden beneath the snow white bones.



To read more on our Yellowstone wolf encounter, visit www.LivingOverland.com or click here: Chasing Yellowstone Wolves.