Blaze, The Gentleman

Nelson, New Zealand – 10 February 2011 at 10pm
Kansas City, USA – February 10, 2011 at 3am

[I actually wrote this post before the earthquake in Christchurch but didn’t have internet access to post it…I was proofreading it and came across the section about visiting a museum in Wellington that had an exhibit about earthquakes…I’m still having a hard time digesting the fact that there was actually an earthquake while I was here…my thoughts and prayers go out to those who have lost loved ones and who are in search of survivors…Many blessings to the residents and visitors in Christchurch.]

Yesterday I joined the Top Deck tour – Pure Adrenaline and will be cruising around the South Island with a bunch of people on a bus for the next ten days. Last night, I roomed with three girls who were departing from the previous part of the tour. It actually started in the North Island and works its way South. I was really only interested in joining it for the South Island and figured I’ll do the North on my own. 

My three roommates from last night consisted of a girl from Sydney (who had an excessive amount of energy and spoke very quickly but she was very sweet) and two girls from Denmark who were traveling together. They gave me some tips about what to expect on the tour and then we parted ways in the morning.

I met up with the group in the bar that had been turned into the breakfast area of the Nomads hostel in Wellington. I love meeting new people but I’m not really good in large groups, I’m much better in one-on-one situations or groups of four or less. I get a little intimidated and overwhelmed in large groups…I can never tell where I fit in. So, joining a large group of people who had already been traveling together for a number of days made me a little nervous. As it turns out, I had nothing to be nervous about at all. First I met the twins (I refer to them as The Twinkies) from England, Maria from Sweden and Marijn from Holland. They were all so welcoming and filled me in on where they had traveled for the previous part of the tour. Next I met Lance, the tour guide for the group. Lance is full of energy and I love his enthusiasm for life…I think he will be a great leader. There was another girl from London named Lorena who was joining the group the same day as me so Lance pulled us aside and explained some things about the trip. He needed us to choose our “excursion activities” for the next day in Nelson so he could make the reservations. I chose horseback riding. I’ve never ridden a horse so this should be interesting.

After breakfast we had part of the day in Wellington to look around before we made the drive to Nelson. Since I had arrive a day before I had seen most of the things I wanted to except for the cable car and the museum, Te Papa…it is the National Museum of New Zealand. I knew that these were both options for the day on our tour so I waited to do them with the group. I joined up with the twins, Maria, Kyle (the original American on the tour), Marijn and a couple of other girls. First we went to the cable car which takes you up to the botanical gardens and overlooks the city…we walked around for awhile and then road it back down. On our way down, we were almost to the bottom and it broke…as in we got stuck. It was kind of funny…they had to get a ladder and help us climb out.

Next we walked around the city and headed for Te Papa…one of the major exhibits in Te Papa is about earthquakes. They have simulators for what it would feel like and instructions for how to prepare your house in case of an earthquake. The last major earthquake was in Christchurch in the South Island in September 2010. I remember seeing it on the news…it looked devastating. Christchurch is on our itinerary so I’ll be interested to see if there is any noticeable damage. Apparently, New Zealand gets several earthquakes a year…let’s hope that doesn’t happen while I’m here. New Zealand is also known for large number of volcanoes (not active) but let’s hope one of those doesn’t erupt while I’m here either.

After the visit to the museum we grab some lunch and made our way to the bus, where I met Scotty our bus driver, to make the trek to Nelson in the South Island.

A few facts about New Zealand…

It is an island…in fact it is made up of two islands….the North Island & the South Island. The only way to get from one side to the other is to fly or take a ferry. Since we are on a bus, we are taking the ferry.

Wellington is the capital. Auckland is the largest city…both are in the North Island.

The North Island is flatter and has more farming. The South Island is lush and has more extreme sports (summer and winter) and more tourism…I hear it is the prettier one of the two.

Its a little windy on a ferry

We rode the three hour ferry over to Picton and then drove about an hour or so until we reached Nelson where we would be staying for two nights at the Aloha Lodge. We’re actually staying just outside of Nelson but those are just details. Every time we enter a new city Lance passes around a sheet to fill in your name for a room and choose roommates. I was teamed up with the Twinkies from England and Maria from Sweden…all of who I had already met…and they seemed very nice, so this was a good thing.

We checked into our room, which happened to be round…it was very bizarre but clean so I was thankful. Then we met up with the group for dinner at Hot Rocks, an Italian joint just around the corner from our hotel. The food was delicious and the conversation was fun…I got to know a few more people in the group… Catherine and Suzy who are both from England but are traveling alone. Actually there are several single females traveling alone on this tour.

After that, we all hung out and got to know each other a little better before going to bed.

Today I woke up, ready to ride some horses…giddy up! The shuttle picked us up around 8am to take us to Happy Valley. The driver was a maniac…apparently he was in a hurry. There were five of us in the van…three of us (Simon, Catherine and me) were going horseback riding and two others, Chris and Brittany from Melbourne were going quad biking (aka: 4-wheeling).

We arrived at the farm/ranch and were introduced to some crazy fellow who had us sign our life away on some waivers and pay him for the ride. Chris and Brittany headed for the bikes while Simon, Catherine and I made our way to the horse stable were we met Lana…a young girl who would be our guide for the day. 

Lana brought one of the horses up, Peanut, to show us how to get on the horse and then passed Peanut off to Simon. Next was Catherine’s horse Ben…Lana described Ben as a big rocking chair…I referred to him as Big Ben since Catherine is from England…get it Big Ben…okay, lame joke. It was my turn next. I think I had the cutest horse out of the bunch but I’m probably biased. Lana introduced me to Blaze. I asked if there was any symbolism behind the name…mainly because I was terrified of the creature standing before me and I was praying he wasn’t aggressively fast. Lana said that there wasn’t really any meaning behind the name but that Blaze is known as the gentleman of the group. “Good, Lord knows I could you a gentleman in my life about now.” So, to follow suit I climb on Blaze and we were off. Lana gave us some instructions and told us we must show the horse who is boss otherwise we will lose control of him and basically its game over for the rest of the day.

Blaze took his first step and to be honest, it was a sensation I’m not use to and it made my heart race a little. I'm sure some of you reading this think I'm a wimp but I don't know the first thing about horses so this is a real eye opener for me.

Horses are my sisters thing…I was always into sports. Every weekend Rebecca was at the stables while I was playing in some game or tournament. My first word was ball and hers was money…I know, how sad for our parents, neither of us said mom or dad…but to be honest, it fits our personalities perfectly… although I have no idea how my sister learned the word money. 

Anywho, I remember going to the horse barn on weekends when I didn’t have a game and watching my sister compete in riding events. I use to walk up to the horse stalls and look at the horses and feel absolutely nothing. I would have loved to connect with them but honestly we are two different breeds. I use to watch the way my sister would connect with them…it was amazing. I always wanted to try riding one at least once in my life so where better to do that then New Zealand. Bucket list…check.

After Blaze took his first step I realized I was in over my head…what in the heck have I signed myself up for? Blaze is a machine…he is all muscle…he is more than a gentleman, he is like a huge bouncer at a bike bar. I knew we would be riding for two hours, yes, two, count’em, one, two and I would have to make this work. 

Lana was obviously the leader of the group and then the rest of the horse fall into line. They have a hierarchy amongst them so Lana said just let them do what they want to in that respect. She warned us that they like to eat so if they try to eat to pull on the reigns and keep them moving. 

We started on a fairly wide path that ran parallel with a stream…it was beautiful. As I said Lana and her horse Red led the pack, then there was Simon and Peanut, Me and Blaze and finally Catherine and Big Ben.

Lana described Blaze as a gentleman but what she didn’t describe him as was an adventurer. As we were walking down the path we came to a crossing. We were going to go through the stream which had a rock bottom. All the horses are following along the path that smoothly goes in and out of the water…except for me and Blaze…Blaze chose the road less taken…as in he wanted to go up a small hill, down into the water and back up another hill. We got to the first hill and I made him stop. I looked at Lana and said, “are we really going into the water like this?” She said to just lean back and hold on…”okay then.” Down the hill and into the water we went…Blaze missed a step and we almost went face first into the water but luckily he recovered quickly…I’m really stressed at this point but we keep walking…I think we were about five minutes into this little journey.

The horses started getting a little rowdy with each other. Apparently there was a little battle going on between Simon’s horse Peanut and Blaze. Peanut would be walking along and then stop abruptly so Blaze would run face first into his horses you know what. Peanut even stepped on Blazes foot and made him bleed. Blaze was getting furious and making bizarre breathing noises so at one point they had to separate us and put us behind Catherine and Big Ben…thankfully though because Peanut had been eating long grass earlier that morning and had a little bit of a gas problem. Have any of you ever been downwind from a horse with a gas problem? It’s not a good situation to be in.

Next we start heading up the mountain. Now I thought when we signed up for this it was the “beginners ride: so we would be on flatland. You know what assuming does to people? Up the mountain we went. Again, all the horses are staying in a line close to the inside curve of the path...but not my gentleman Blaze. Oh no, he likes to walk right on the edge. Usually I’m up for daring adventures but only when I’m in control (which I guess takes part of the adventure out of it)…with Blaze I was obviously not in control. He would follow my direction for a little while and then test the limits (typically man). 

 

Lana said we were going to trot up the mountain so to give our horses a good kick and they would follow…um, okay, are you serious? She was serious…up the mountain we went at a trotting pace… I was holding on with my knees for dear life…this mountain was steep. We had gotten off the main path kilometers ago and were on a little trail that cut up through the trees. Of course my little gentleman obviously want to have some fun with me by taking me straight into the trees and chopping my head off if I didn’t stay low or my legs if I didn’t cling tight.

Once we got to the top for our picnic I jumped off Blaze and we had a little heart to heart…by the end of the talk we were friends…for the time being anyway.

The view was beautiful at the top of the mountain. You could see for miles. I didn’t realize how close we were to the ocean but you could easily see it. Lana brought some tea and coffee and some biscuits (aka: cookies) for our little break before heading back down the mountain.

Going down was definitely not as bad as going up. I’m not sure if it was because I was a little more use to what I was doing and how Blaze operates but I really enjoyed the remainder of the ride.

Once we were back at the stable we got to feed each of our horses a little snack and then we said our goodbyes. I was really glad that I chose to ride a horse…it’s good to try something new and push your limits. Now if I ever ride again, I don’t know the answer to that but I will never forget my gentleman Blaze.

Once we got back to the Aloha Lodge I changed into my workout closes and went for a jog along the coast…just to make sure I wasn’t walking bow legged the next day. I jogged for a couple of miles and had a chance to clear my head. On the way back I stopped at one of the ‘non-beachy’ (i.e. no sand) areas to soak my feet in the ocean waves since the tide was in and lay in the sun…if felt absolutely wonderful…

That night, Lance and Scotty cooked for the entire group…the meal was delicious.

So far the tour is going great.

Additional Photos: Wellington & Nelson