Clinton Canyon
Fiordland National Park, New Zealand - Day 10
Before the break of dawn, we were startled awake by the flash of light in our eyes. The lodges electricity come from a large generator that they run from early morning (different for each lodge) to 10pm at night. Since very few people want to pack and haul a battery powered alarm on the trail, the suggested waking method is to just leave the light switch on and when the generator fires up, the lights come on and wake you up. Katie and I scurried a bit to get packed and ready on our first morning (we would soon get these mornings down to a science), and hit the trail. We hiked for most of the day and only really stopped for lunch. Along the trail there were suspension bridges across rivers and streams as well as boardwalks over bogs. The trail to the next lodge was ten miles long with some elevation gain throughout. Being a rain forest, everything was shades of green and rocks and bark were all covered in soft moss. Apparently, this area gets on average 9 meters of rain a year. That is nearly 30 feet! Near the end of the trail there was a small pond, fed by a snow melt waterfall. Not wanting to pass up the chance to cool off, I took a dip. Being fed by snow melt, one could imagine how cold it was. After I got back out of the water, we also learned that a rare mountain eel was swimming around in it too, probably a couple feet long and a few inches thick. For a bit we hiked with one of our guides, Toshi-san. He is one of ultimate hikes bilingual English/Japanese guides (Top three nationalities for hikers is USA, Japan, and Australia). We talked about the use of -san (which is used similar to sir/ma'am to be polite and respectful), tornadoes, motorcycles, Japanese traditional architecture, and how he loves to ski, but always missed winter (because Japan and New Zealand have opposite seasons and he works summers in NZ). He is a real nice guy and teaches kindergarten while in Japan. For dinner that night we met another kiwi duo, Fiona and Jackie. I believe they said they met in birthing classes for their first child and have been close ever since. One of the two had asked what we do for work. After I told them I work in IT, they both said that there is a great need for IT professionals in New Zealand and that there is a list of "fast track" work visa's that includes IT. Katie then answered, to which they said nursing was on the list as well and that we will just need to move to New Zealand! Jackie went so far as telling us to reach out to her when (she said when, not if haha) we make it over and we could stay with her until we get settled. Jackie and Fiona were both lovely ladies to chat with and Katie and I enjoyed hearing their stories and having dinner with them.
