Iceland 2016

We spent 10 days in Iceland over the Memorial day weekend.  We visited the Golden Circle, Snaefellsnes Peninsula, the Westfjords, and Reykjavik.  Here is our experience to share.

Highlights

Hotpool in Drangsnes

Geothermal hotpool in Drangsnes, Westfjords. The 3 pools are built into the seawall.  they mix the water so each pool has a different temperature. the natural hot water drains directly into the sea with a magnificent view of snow cap mountains across the fjord. what's more incredible is that it is free!  We had a fantastic time meeting other travelers and renew our inspiration to travel - priceless!

camping at Pingvellir

With the exception of a night in Reykjavik, we camped for the entire trip.  Camping was an amazing way to experience the environment.  We happened to visit when the bird life is prolific, Arctic Terns, swans, Common Snipe etc.  While the hotels were all booked out, there was hardly anyone camping.  We spent two nights at Pingvellir National Park, one of the 3 stops in the very popular Golden Circle. We had the campsite all to ourselves.  There were many fishermen with waders in the water, it was nice to chat with them.

Camping in the lava field

 Camping in 30+mph windstorm:  The weather came in during our first night in the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. We camped in 30+mph windstorm.  We visited the house by the campsite to pay, and lady exclaimed "Camping?  now?!"  Classic.


Lava Field:  one of the coolest campsite was in a lava field (picture right) in Hellinsandur, in Snaefellsnes Peninsula.  The Snaefellsnes Peninsula is one giant lava field filled with craters. 


Food was amazing. expensive but well worth it. We'd spend $0 to $10 on accommodation, $25 on
lunch, and $50 on dinner - per person. I never had a travel expense like that.    Fish soup, in Gamla Rif, the only store in a tiny fishing village in West Iceland.  Lamb soup and fish at Old Iceland in Reykjavik. Skyr, the Icelandic Yogurt, is amazing. It was thick and creamy yet non-fat. We tried a different flavor every morning.  Baked Apple and good old blueberry were our favorite.  We also enjoy the rich selection of Licorice and the Krispbread, which was quite a treat for Peter.

24 hour daylight.  Sunset was at midnight and the sky never got dark before sunrise.  you can read through the night without needing light.  we were jet lag during the first few days, since we were in the wilderness and we weren't waiting for shops to open, we were moving and doing things at our own timezone.  Golfers were teeing off after midnight - carpe diem!

a mountain hut for emergency stay

Itinerary
Day 1: arrived at 7a.  picked up grocery at Reykavik, drove to Pingvellir National Park, First of the 3 stops of the golden circle. we toured Pingvellir and camped in the park.

Day 2.  The Common Snipe flying over our tent.  next 2 stops of the Golden Circle.  Geysir and Gulfoss. took a nap at Gulfoss. decided we had the best campsite by the water after touring others, so spent a second night in Pingvellir.

Kirkjufells

Day 3.  Drove North to Snaefellsnes Peninsula.  it is one big lava field.  reserved ferry at Stykkisholmur in 2 days, paid the last day of the winter rate.  Great dinner at Stykkisholmur.  still energized so we started the loop in the peninsula, then windstorm came and we pitched camp at Grundarfjordur in 30+mph wind.

puffins at Latraberg

Day 4.  woke up to a beautiful blue bird day after a windy and wet night of camping.  First stop is one of the most photographed mountain in Iceland, Kirkjufells, and Kirkjufellsfoss right across the street. Drove on and found the best fish soup in a tiny fishing town called Rif.  drove to the western tip and hiked the amazing Lava fields and craters. we could see Snæfellsjökull.  camped in a lava field in Hellissandur.

Day 5. continued the Snæfellsjökull National park loop counterclockwise.  more hiking in lava fields.  back to Stykkisholmur and camped by the golf course, where golfers teed off after midnight.

Day 6.  picked up goodies at the Stykkisholmur bakery to get on the ferry ride at 9a. about 3 hours North and we arrive in Westfjords. We drove to a big bird cliff, Látrabjarg. Amazing bird colony. puffins, seagulls, guillemots. We found a beautiful spot on our drive and we freedom camped over a fjord.  It was amazing.

Dynjandi - the top waterfall is 90M high

Day 7.  Westfjords: Dynjandi waterfall.   had my first icelandic hotdog in Patrekfjordur.  magnificent fjord. took some short hikes to a local summit.  found another beautiful spot and wild camped.

Day 8 Westfjords: Geothermo hotpool in Drangsnes.  camped among the sheep by a river

Day 9: Reykjavik. toured the city and enjoyed some amazing food.  finally stayed up late enough to catch the sunset at 11:38pm.

Day 10:  Reykjavik in the morning, found a good bakery.   Spent 2 hours at the Blue Lagoon spa.  picked up some Skyr for the flight home.

New Zealand Photos

click on any photo to see them in the original size

  

Sheep freely roaming in Eden Park, Auckland

  Queenstown sits on the southern end of the beautiful Lake Wakatipu

++++3 day kayak in the Doubtful Sound+++++

A light drizzle on Lake Manapuri

on our bus - ferry - bus route to Doubtful Sound

In Doubtful sound, loading the kayaks.  the bald inverted V behind Peter is evidence of tree-avalanche.  Tree are only holding onto the moss which grows on the steep fjord.  you get travalanche when it gets too heavy.   

Rain fills the temporary waterfalls everywhere, no rain, no waterfalls.

 at our camp in croaked arm. 

perfect day 2 morning with no rain and no wind

incredible waterfalls and there are so many waterfalls

++++Routeburn Track Great Walk 3 days++++++

Routeburn track Great walk.  beautiful weather 

Lake Mackenzie - we stayed in the hut on the lake side at the end of the first day

day 2 is a ridge walk up and over Harris Saddle

Tussock field with panoramic view of snowcap mountain on day 2 of the Routeburn track

Beautiful view at Harris Saddle

view down to the Routeburn Flats, where we camped.  

Camping at the beautiful Routeburn flat camp on our 2nd (last) night of the Routeburn hike

+++++++++Arthur's Pass National Park ++++++++

 Hawdon hut -> Walker Pass ->  Tarn Col -> Edwards hut route 3 days

Braided River at Arthur's Pass National Park

shallow and beautiful river is our route of our 3-day Edwards - Hawdon hike 

Tarn Col is one of the two high passes of this 3 day route.

An Adventure to the Great White North - Joffre, Matier and Slalok

1/27/2016 - found a half written trip report in the draft. posting it - Suz

The Cerise Creek Trailhead described in Alpine Select (P.59) has been decommissioned.  Access is now directly from Hwy 99. On Hwy 99 (aka the Duffy Lake Rd). 60km north of Whistler or 70 km southwest of Lillooet, you will find the Joffre Lake trail head (provincial park).  From Joffre Lake TH, cross the bridge across Cayoosh Creek, and pass the road work sheds on your right. Shortly after you pass the road works ("Salt Shed") lot you will see a "no stopping avalanche zone" sign. This marks the beginning of the run-out zone for the south-facing Rohr avalanche slide paths that rise up on your left. The Cerise Creek TH is the pull-out past the end of this no-stopping zone on the right hand side, where you'll see a valley open up on your right. This is the Cerise Creek watershed. There used to be a sign for Cerise Creek Trail head, the hanger is still there but the sign is gone as of July 2013. Park at the pull out, no parking permit is required.  Note that the TH is in between two different avalanche run-out zones from Rohr. If you enter a second no-stopping zone, you have gone too far. 


There was running water 800 feet below the Matier-Joffre col.  Beautiful dry campsite on Matier-Joffre col that would fit half a dozen tents.

Gear notes
Standard Glacier gear, ice axe, crampons, 
4 pickets, which were used on the steeper slopes with bad run out on Joffre and Matier
shovel brought but did not use. NTS Map: 92J8 (National Topographic System - Canada)

Reference: Alpine Select by Kevin McLane
View 130706 Joffre, Matier and Slalok in a larger map

New Zealand 2015

We spent a glorious 30 days in New Zealand over the holidays (Dec 9th, 2015 to Jan 9th, 2016). It was amazing and here is our experience to share. 

Best moments
- over 2 dozens bottleneck dolphins swam around and under our kayaks on day 2 of our 3-day kayak trip in Doubtful Sound. caught on this 20 sec video

Mt Ruapehu on day 2

- Caught a weather window for our Northern Circuit great walk in the Tongariro National park.  We started at 3p on day 1, it was windy and the clouds shrouded the mountains, but no rain for our 3 hours hike to the hut. It had rained earlier in the day as there were lots of wet clothes and shoes in the hut.  We caught our first glimpse of Mt Ngauruhoe (aka Mt Doom) over dinner while we were in the hut.

The next morning, we woke up to perfect blue sky. We had perfect view of Mt Doom and the much bigger Mt Ruapehu as we hiked the 20+km day completing the Northern Circuit (part of the circuit is the Tongariro Alpine traverse).

First glimpse of Mt Doom as the cloud lifted in the evening

Magnificent emerald pools and volcano vents.
lots of people on the Tongariro Alpine Traverse

- Brunch at the Vudu cafe in Queenstown
- Pizza at the Cow in Queenstown. After 3 days hiking the Routeburn Track great walk, amazing pizza hit the spot.

beautiful Tussock fields and braided river in Arthur's Pass NP

- A cold dip in the braided river at Arthur's Pass National Park on day 3 of our hike.  This was a magical moment when I am reminded how the most simple thing can bring so much joy.

 - It was X'mas Eve.  We had hiked 2 days into the wilderness to a hut at Arthur's Pass National Park.  We met 6 other hikers from all over the world.  The two Germans carried a bottle of wine 2 days and shared the the group.  We played Durok all night!  Durok is a card game often played at work in our team. I'd never guess that I'd be half way around the world, days into the wilderness and I'm playing the same card game!

Beach and Sunshine on the Abel Tasman

- 4 days on the Abel Tasman great walk where we walked on the beach, swim, eat, repeat.  3 days of warm blue sky weather.  I'd also count the last day of torrential rain as an experience.  We had a short 6km to the trailhead to meet the shuttle.  Totally drenched, we stopped at a hut in the middle and brewed up some coffee which hit the spot.  Our last shower was 4 days ago, backpacks were 100% water logged, we still managed to get on an earlier flight to Wellington - score!


- First time mountain biking.  full suspension bike and hydraulic seat. 130km of bike trail in tree fern and redwood forest was a great intro to mountain biking - I'm so spoiled.

- 16 hour daylight in Dec and Jan.  I can't tell you how much sunshine and warm temperature makes me happy.  How about skipping winter solstice and have two summer solstices a year? I'll definitely be looking to make more trips to the southern hemisphere in Dec/Jan.

Pancake rocks, West coast of the South island

Thoughts and observations
-Kiwis love walking around bare feet.  we were surprised to see many people walking around bare feet in the city and in the wild.  Frodo is a real kiwi!
- when kiwis are not bare feet, you'd likely find them wearing flip flops, which they call jandals.
- The song of the birds in New Zealand were captivating.  you can hear the bell bird, tui, the fantail. I have never paid much attention to birds.  but the bird calls in NZ instantly captured my attention for the entire time i was there.

- Food:  savory scones, we have found more savory scones than sweet scones in the cafes and we love savory scones. Cheese and rocket scones.   Why are savory scones so rare in Seattle cafes?  (the rare exception being savory scones at the Mazama store and Wake n' Bake in Glacier, which we love)

- The Kiwi name for Arugula is Rocket. We bought a bag of rockets on our hikes.

- We found vibrant cafe scene in all the cities and small towns that we visited with great pastry selections. kiwis take their coffee differently than what we're accustomed to.  Tall Blacks is like a 4 oz Americano.  you can ask for an Americano but you will have to ask if you are used to taking cream with your coffee. ask for cold cream, else they'll try to give you warm milk.  oh they use real cream, not half and half, and it's soooo good!  Flat white is like a 4oz latte

- NZ has an amazing network of backcountry huts. we stayed in or passed by over 10 of them during our time there and all were well maintained and well situated. New Zealand Dept of Conservation (call the DOC) maintains over 950 huts. The huts on the great walks (there are 9 great walks in NZ) were not the cheap but not prohibitively expensive.  Other huts (non-great walks) range from free to NZD$15 (US$ 10) per person per night.  It's amazing to hike in the wild for 2 days and come upon a hut with stove, running water, flushing toilet, beds, fireplace and supply of firewood.

- energy and water conscious.  Every power plug has an on-off switch, I suspect it's code there.  There are a lot of signs reminding you to conserve water.  The city of

Wading in the braided river, Arthur's Pass NP

Christchurch is supplied by the underground aquifer.

- no need to filter water!  we brought our filter and didn't need to use it.  you can drink straight front the streams, the huts get water from streams and consider the water safe to drink. don't need to bring water filter next time.

- Showers at Auckland airport. You read that correctly - The Auckland airport offers complimentary showers. Such a great and idea when half of the passengers on the 24 hour international flights arrive  to the airport directly from their latest outdoors pursuit.

- Christchurch: 5 years after the 2011 earthquake, Christchurch downtown is the closest i have felt i was in a post apocalyptic sci-fi book. The city is making major effort to clear out affected structure, half the main city block is of dirt parking lot.  It got me thinking as Seattle is expecting the big earthquake.

- Tree ferns! 

Amazing Mountain Bike park in Rotorua

-I was surprised to learn that the islands of New Zealand do not originally have mammals.  the two token mammals that were originally found there were two kinds of bats.  that's why there are so many ground running birds, the kiwis being the most well-known, there were no ground predators so birds don't need to fly.  so when the brits moved into New Zealand, they found there were no animals to support their gentile sport of hunting, so they introduced rabbits.  guess what happen with Rabbits when there is no predators?  they ballooned in numbers.  to keep the number of rabbits in control, they introduced stouts, weasels, and possums.  Rats also escapes from ships onto the island of New Zealand.  These predators found that it's easier to hunt down the ground running birds, which didn't know to run away, than the rabbits.  so many of the ground running birds are extinct or endanger. Now, DOC is spending major effort to eradicate the introduced predators and bring back the native birds.

Our itinerary.  We spent about 2/3 of our 30 days in the mountain.  2/3 in the South island and 1/3 in the north island.  We rented car for about 12 days in total. first 6 days from Queenstown, returning in Nelson.  second 6 days from Wellington returning at Auckland airport.

• Flew into Auckland and spent 2 days in Auckland
• flew from Auckland to Queenstown
• Bus from Queenstown to Te Anau
• 3-day Kayak trip in the Doubtful Sound, Fiordland National Park
• a day in Te Anau, visited a cave with loads of glowworms!
• 3-day hike Routeburn Track Great walk
• rented a car, car toured to Christchurch
• 3-day hike in Arthur's Pass National Park (X'mas)
• Car tour up the beautiful west coast, visited the Pancake rocks, returned car in Nelson
• 1 day in Nelson, biked to the beach and spent the whole day at the beach
• 2-day bike on the Great Taste Trail from Nelson to Marahou
• 4-day on the Abel Tasman Coastal Track Great walk. Welcome 2016 under
• 1.5 day in Wellington, Te Papa was perfect for a rainy day.  Wellington offers lots of good international food.  rented a car to drive out of wellington
• 1.5.day on the Northern Circuit Great Walk, hiked around Mt Doom in the Tongariro National Park
• Rotorua, Mtn biking, hiking, geothermal stuff and Maori culture
• 1 day on the Papamoa Beach, swimming in the pacific ocean on the other coast
• back to Auckland, return car and shower at the airport, and flew home.

2014 Highlights

Here are the highlights for 2014

·         Skiing Montana.  Long on our list to take the train from downtown Seattle to Whitefish Montana and ski.  Whitefish Montana was where Peter proposed. It was a complete surprise to me and Montana will always be a special place for us.

·         Alaska.  Our minds were blown by the wildlife and nature.  Alaska has long been high on our list to visit.  Such a big state, so much to do, where to start?  We took the state ferry up from Bellingham WA to Juneau Alaska, camped on the ferry deck during the 3-day ride up the inner passage.  Our 5 days kayak trip in Glacier Bay national park was a highlight.  No motorized vessels were allowed.  When our paddles are still, the only sound we hear was seals breathing and sea otters cracking shellfish.  We had perfect weather, comfortable temperature, no rain and no mosquitoes.  The short flight between Juneau and Glacier Bay was another unexpected highlight, the propeller plane was such a scenic flight and it got us to where we need to go.

5 days kayaking in Glacier Bay National Park	we pitched camp any island whenever we want.
we saw no one in 5 days and were out numbered by bears on every island.

·         We did a few ski trips that have been on our dream list.  A successful ski outing to the summit of Mt St Helens, this time in January during a temperature inversion.  We sat on the summit in T-shirts and enjoyed the sun and perfect blue sky.  We skied off the summit of Mt Baker and Mt Shuksan (separate weekends).  We have climbed both mountains before and attempted skiing Baker before.  We did both in style and wonderful weather condition.  We made our first venture into the ragged ridge on Highway 20 and did a loop trip skiing Mesachie Glacier.

With Jack and Peter on the crater rim of Mt St Helens.  soaking up the sun on a January day before the ski down.	View down the crater of Mt St Helens, Spirit lake filled with old trees from the 1980 eruption and Mt Rainier in the distance
Skiing down Mt St Helens a sweet 4,000 ft run	Hiking up the summit pyramid of Mt Shuksan with our skis.

·         We successfully summit peaks that have been long on our list, each takes a full weekend.  Buck Mountain, Luahna Peak, Mt Fernow, Remmel Mountain are on the Washington Top 100 peaks.  Luahna was our 3^rd attempt and finally completed and returned via an elegant yet bushwhack loop trip. Buck was attempted on back to back weekend, it is usually a 3-day trip and we only have Saturday and Sundays off so it’s 2 long days.  We found wild raspberry for the first time on our way to Remmel Mountain. We summit Little Devil Peak on our second attempt this year. Labyrinth Mountain and Chikamin Peak (separate weekends) were scrambles that have been long on our to-do list and somehow we had never gotten around to attempt, we are amazed at the areas so close to us that we have yet explored.   Mt Redoubt and Mt Spickard are Washington Top 100 peaks, also long on our list with a long approach that involved driving to Canada then hiking back into Washington State.   We summit Star Peak and Oval Peak in the Sawtooth Wilderness, we bivy ((no stove, no tents) overnight on the summit of Star Peak under the stars and completing our attempt in the previous year (it was on ski).

Spickard summit 2nd time up.  it was a whiteout the day before and we decided to go back up the next morning, it was worth the extra 2000ft+ to see the view.	a different kind of rainbow, just as pretty
	View of Mt Rainer from Buck Mountain

·         Our wedding in Thailand.  The primary objectives for our wedding were 1) spend time with our family and getting the families to meet each other, 2) a wedding on the beach at sunset, no one should have shoes on, and 3) to be surrounded by our immediate family who have never met each other until this year.  Blenda, Peter’s Aunt, officiated the wedding and had beautiful words for the ceremony.  Arvo, Peter’s dad, manned the BBQ for an excellent dinner after the wedding.  Biking around the resort with Daddy and Mommy.  Unlimited Mai-thais, beach and sunshine and just spending time with family.

·         Hong Kong.  It was great to catch up with my immediate family over our wedding Banquet. 

·         Finally visiting Japan.  We had perfect weather touring Tokyo.  Great food, amazing energy, I loved the city.  Our main impressions of Tokyo

• This city is throbbing with energy.  Pictures can show the busy junction but nothing beats an experience eating in a ramen store.  The staff is efficient, the whole shop stops and greets you when you come in, yell out the order to the chef after taking your order and the chef yell back to confirm.  The entire staff stops for a second and thank you as you walk out the door.  The energy is beyond words, you have to go and experience it.
• The city is immaculately clean.  There seem to be no garbage cans anywhere on the street yet the streets are clean.
• People are polite and orderly and dressed in perfectly pressed suits even on the weekends.
• The elevator lady at the big department store.  The red lipstick, perfectly pressed uniform, and over the top cheerful greeting, all for an elevator ride. It was unreal.
• The food is tasty and has been so thoughtfully and carefully arranged. Menus are all in Japanese, it's quite an adventure to not read or speak the language and no one in the restaurant speak English.

·         Beijing and Shanghai.  I spent about 10 days visiting China mostly for work.  I had a chance to see the cities. My main impression.

• The two cities are so different.  Beijing is spread out with historical sites from the dynasties.  Shanghai is metropolitan and very modern.  
• I thought I'd blend into the local crowd, I still think I do until I have to speak, then I really don't blend in.
• Thirsty.  I was constantly in a drought in Beijing, I was so thirsty all the time. I wake up in the middle of the night of thirst. It was weird.  A friend reminded me to bring lotion for Beijing (thank you Joni) and oh I was going through my lotion quick that week.
• Two friends from Hong Kong now live in Shanghai.  The availability of shopping and good food rivals, if not exceeds, that of Hong Kong. My friends seem to each have settled very comfortably in Shanghai. This is definitely a highlight of my year to catch up and spend time with friends and get a glimpse of how they live.
• Dancing and Singing in the public is a thing there.  oh especially in Shanghai, they love to Sing and Dance.
• The sense of personal space is quite different.  I never adjusted to it. when you line up in Beijing, you can feel the person's nose hitting you in the back.
• The heating system is out of control, it's turned up over 100F / 30C and can't seem to be turned down. This was the case in local supermarket (I was close to turning around and leaving), multiple customer offices, my hotel room (I figured out how to turn off the heat and pop the window open), and our brand new office which was just moved into the week of the visit.

Oh and this little guy is a highlight for us every day.  Here is Tjorven in his usual spot in the afternoon sun watching the boats on lake Union.

We look forward to seeing what 2015 will bring

Touring the tidewater glaciers in Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska