New Zealand Aotearoa Bound

 A quick photo essay of our travel to New Zealand and our first day in quarantine. 

Saying goodbye to our house 

Saying goodbye to the spot in our house where I found late husband dead.

My last night with Sage

Saying goodbye to our pet chickens

Saying goodbye to Sage at the Sea-Tac parking lot
shortly after this we said goodbye to my oldest child as well, but I don't
have a picture from that.  

On our Alaska Airlines plane on the tarmac at Seattle, bound for Los Angeles

Nearly empty flight to L.A. 

Last glimpse of the Pacific Northwest somewhere South of Seattle

Landing in Los Angeles

Nearly empty International Terminal at LAX (Los Angeles)

Nearly empty International Terminal at LAX (Los Angeles)

Our ride to New Zealand

Nearly empty International Terminal at LAX (Los Angeles)

On Air New Zealand all the middle seats are empty

In flight entertainment

Seat back screen shows we are about to land in New Zealand Aotearoa

Sunrise shortly before landing

First glimpse of Aotearoa

Passengers all from just our plane transit through the Auckland Airport international terminal 

Welcome to Aotearoa

Passengers on just our flight in a single file socially distanced line
waiting to enter passport control 

Setting foot on the ground for the first time at the exit to
the Auckland Airport where we were loaded directly onto a shuttle

We are the only people on this shuttle headed for our Managed Isolation Hotel

Passing by the Novotel Auckland Hotel also a Managed Isolation while
on our way to isolation at the Holiday Inn.  
Fences are up all around to keep people contained. 

 Our Hotel room at the Holiday Inn.  We will spend the next 14 days
quarantined here. We are not allowed to leave our room at all until
we get the results of our day zero covid test. 

Breakfast or lunch the first day, I can't remember and it does not
matter since my body clock was completely out of sync with my
surroundings by this point.  It is food and it tastes good.  We eat on our
 little patio but we have no patio furniture so I use the heat pump as a table.

Wynoochee Wandering

I was so tired, but I forced myself to go hiking anyway.  My days left here are short and this was supposed to be a sunny day.  I took Cougar-Smith road short cut to get to Wynoochee.

I was turned back by snow before my goal.  I've never given up on today's goal before and this was probably the last time I would ever be able to go there, so I was a bit sad about giving up.

I went down to the lakeshore trail to have my lunch on the lake. It is so peaceful and wonderful on the Wynoochee in the winter.  I got some photos that made me happy and I relaxed a bit on the beach.

5 miles with 600 feet elevation gain

Climacium dendroides moss

Wynoochee river

more Climacium

This is where I turned around

Big Creek and Lower Ellinor

 

Insomnia struck again and I had been fretting that I would not be able to find the time to hike this week.  Every non-rainy day was booked with single appointment in the middle of the day.  But when I could not go back to sleep after waking up at 5am, I realized I had time for a hike.

I packed up and headed for Big Creek.  This time I decided to wait until it was light before I hit the trail.  I parked up at the trail head just before sunrise and took my time putting on my boots and gaiters and scrolling on my phone.

I had a good hike up to the lookout with pure solitude, but I just had to go and ruin my solitude by heading up to the beautiful forest at the lower trail head.  It was so pretty up there though with the snow and the fog. It was so pretty and I was having fun taking photos, but then a very loud group came by.  I was off trail so they did not see me.  They were so loud and the stayed loud for.  Every time I thought they were gone they started making noise again.  Oh well.

Back down on the lower trail a guy saw me coming up behind him and he would not let me pass him.  He kept looking back and going faster and faster.  But he was so slow that even walking I was going faster than he was running.  It was so annoying, if he had just let me pass him I could have been rid of him instead of having to look at him for the next ten minutes.  Finally I said to the guy "why don't you just let me pass you".  He said he was about to take a side trail ( a side trail that used to be semi-secret) I wondered what that had to do with anything.   A  moment or two after I passed him I realized he might have just been trying to avoid being within six feet of me due to COVID.

I made it back down by 11am in plenty of time to take my kid to the dentist and to attend an online grief group.

I made a video of this hike but I'm not sure if it will get edited and uploaded since my computer is about to be shipped off to New Zealand and my wrist is hurting me.  I'll be working on my lap top for a few months until I am reunited with my shipping container. 

6 miles 2,000 feet elevation gain.

Back to Big Log

I had a fun hike up to Big Log camp last week.  There was a lot of snow and I took my time, so I got caught in the dark.

It was fully dark when I got back to the bridge and I could see fresh cougar tracks in the snow under the bridge.  I could not quite make out the object that the tracks were surrounding.  

I made it that last mile back to my car quickly after seeing those tracks and noting the warning sign about a cougar at the beginning of my hike.  

This was my first hike with my new mirrorless camera.  The camera has in body image stabilization and I was able to take some good waterfall shots just hand held.  Shots with a tripod like the one at the top of this post look better, but the hand held ones were okay too.

10 miles 

Hand held shot