{"id":5384,"date":"2014-04-30T22:36:54","date_gmt":"2014-04-30T22:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chocolatemooseimages.com\/blog\/?p=5384"},"modified":"2014-07-15T09:33:51","modified_gmt":"2014-07-14T21:33:51","slug":"the-new-zealand-bush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chocolatemooseimages.com\/taketwo\/the-new-zealand-bush\/","title":{"rendered":"the New Zealand bush"},"content":{"rendered":"

—<\/span><\/p>\n

pssssst. i\u2019m still in New Zealand!<\/p>\n

\u2026 and i\u2019m really thankful i am able to say that!<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

after much thinking, debating, discussing and number crunching, i decided to prolong this amazing adventure a few more months.<\/p>\n

so right now, instead of snuggling with the girls<\/a>\u00a0crowded on my lap, in a house filled with the smells of home, my dad, the heaps of boxes i left in Minnesota and the sounds of spring wafting in the windows, i\u2019m sitting in Mapua, New Zealand, looking out the window at the fall colors, the estuary at high tide, the snow on the Richmond ranges in the distance and the smell of peanut butter + chocolate\u00a0muffins baking in the oven.<\/p>\n

when i set out i had this grand plan of going from summer to summer to another summer. sounds pretty amazing, right?? the BEST kind of snowbird there is! but with my change of plans, i will have a bit of winter before i land back in what will likely be the balmy, sticky, sweaty and all around HOT summer in minnesota. i certainly didn\u2019t pack for any kind of winter, so my solution is to wear everything i brought with me. all at one time. ha. i am certainly creating fashion trends.<\/p>\n

but in this new time i have acquired, i\u2019m also on a mission. a mission to explore more of the bush and sleep in some of New Zealand\u2019s amazing backcountry huts. i\u2019m sad [and slightly embarrassed!] to say that i\u2019ve only stayed in one hut the entire time i\u2019ve been here. and that was back in October. i settled into a nice life here – i had 2 jobs, then i had 1 job, then i had friends, then i had books to read, photos to take, beer and wine to drink, people to travel with and then i had those friends again.<\/p>\n

[by the way, ‘the bush’ can be defined as “rural, undeveloped land or country area” and in New Zealand, it’s the bulk of the country.]<\/em><\/p>\n

so i’ve calculated i have the month of May to really get out and get lost. not literally because that could be dangerous, but figuratively, following trails, sleeping in huts, getting cold, wet, muddy and stinky. i\u2019m pumped. though i\u2019m running into some problems\u00a0\u2026 the 2 or so weeks of virtually nonstop rain, rain and more rain has either washed out necessary roads, bridges and trails or has knocked down so many trees that trails are impassible. besides that, fall is here and winter is coming. many of the trails i want to do are alpine trails and i am certainly not the \u201cexperienced parties\u201d the DOC people\u00a0mention, who\u00a0would be\u00a0prepared for\u00a0this: \u201csnow craft experience is required and equipment taken should include at least an ice axe. Weather conditions can deteriorate rapidly and icy snow conditions can be experienced at any time of the year.\u201d yikes. so the sky isn\u2019t quite the limit that it once was, but i\u2019m still determined to get back to my earthly roots.<\/p>\n

now just because i haven\u2019t stayed in many of the huts doesn\u2019t mean i haven\u2019t seen the bush. the bulk of this island is magical, beautiful and virtually untouched bush [which is pretty stinkin amazing, if you ask me] and with the land being so wild, you can see an amazing amount from the highways alone. i\u2019m sure my dad + aunt and uncle would agree with this thought \u2026<\/p>\n

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—<\/span><\/div>\n
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—<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n
\u2014<\/span>\"\"<\/div>\n

—<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"\"<\/div>\n

—<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
—<\/span><\/div>\n
and when you are on the road and sleep in your car, you can sleep in places like this…<\/div>\n
—<\/span><\/div>\n
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this was simply magical.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

i was insanely fortunate to have family join me in both December and March, but beyond that i\u2019ve made some great friends who have helped me suss out the best of the best in NZ beer, exciting jobs, living arrangements that are so outside my experiences, wine that is top notch and outdoor adventures that keep me amazed AND they\u00a0have [really!] helped me in all walks of life here in this foreign land.<\/div>\n
—<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
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—<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

—<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
—<\/span><\/div>\n
one of my biggest regrets of my trip is that i passed up the opportunity to take photos with a BIG number of the people i\u2019ve met here\u2026 i\u2019ve learned my lesson and i\u2019ll know better for the rest of this adventure and of course, for my next one. and if you are one of those folks, THANK YOU and\u00a0i hope the day comes when i\u00a0can take that awkward self portrait of us with something remotely cool [or\u00a0maybe rather mundane] in the background.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
—<\/span><\/div>\n
anyways, the internet is calling me. it\u2019s May 1st and i have some walking to plan!<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

— pssssst. i\u2019m still in New Zealand! \u2026 and i\u2019m really thankful i am able to say that!   after much thinking, debating, discussing and number crunching, i decided to prolong this amazing adventure a few more months. so right now, instead of snuggling with the girls\u00a0crowded on my lap, in a house filled with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[402,432,144,21,85,433,434,267,404,401,435,454,423],"class_list":["post-5384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stray-stories","category-travel","tag-adventure","tag-backcountry-huts","tag-chocolate-moose-images","tag-family","tag-friends","tag-italy","tag-mapua","tag-minneapolis-pet-photographer","tag-nelson","tag-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand-bush","tag-travel","tag-winery"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chocolatemooseimages.com\/taketwo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/MG_1807.jpg?fit=1000%2C667&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Bqtn-1oQ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chocolatemooseimages.com\/taketwo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chocolatemooseimages.com\/taketwo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chocolatemooseimages.com\/taketwo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chocolatemooseimages.com\/taketwo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chocolatemooseimages.com\/taketwo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5384"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chocolatemooseimages.com\/taketwo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5390,"href":"https:\/\/www.chocolatemooseimages.com\/taketwo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5384\/revisions\/5390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chocolatemooseimages.com\/taketwo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chocolatemooseimages.com\/taketwo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chocolatemooseimages.com\/taketwo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chocolatemooseimages.com\/taketwo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}