Wanaka Stories

Wanaka, Wanaka, Wanaka, is where I'm making my home at the moment, in the center of the southern part of the south island near Queenstown. Living in a van down by the river. well, only some days by the river. About 3 weeks ago, i bought a converted van for camping just like every other traveler in New Zealand. It is a 1989 toyota, with the back seats removed and a wood platform built to carry a foam mattress. i sleep there, and store all my junk under me. I bought the van here in Wanaka from two french canadian girls, who i have
since become fast friends.

The first day i had the van i left Wanaka for a trip up the west coast to the Wildfoods Festival. Quite a wild event, there was music, costumes and heaps of crazy, disgusting foods to try. The main attraction was the Huhu Grub, which is a disgusting larvae of a gigantic black beetle, and lives eating its way thru rotting wood. So, outside a tent on this rainy day, there were men hacking away with axes at heaps of rotting logs to the cries of, “Oh there's one, me, me, can i have that one?!?” “Look at that one, it's huge.” The chopping men, would sort thru the rotting mass after every hack or two to examine their latest split for the nice little bundle of joy ready to explode it's pustule juices in an eagerly waiting mouth. Oh, it was disgusting. Depending on the size, the men would yell out, “five dollars! who wants one for five dollars?” those were the biggest or “two dollars! Who wants one for two dollars?” Those were the smallest. People next to me were game for the largest of the larvae and were placing them in their mouths with the head sticking out, squirming for freedom, while photos and video were made to record this savage event. Then squish! Gasps of disgust. Faces contort. The magnificent creature is gone. And i decide to go in the tent and eat one that has been cooked. I couldn't bring myself to eat that live thing, ah man, it was really gross, but i couldn't leave without participating in the main attraction. Wasn't bad, a little gritty, cooked with garlic and oil, in the end not such a big deal. I also ate a whitebait pancake, rabbit banger, broom flower wine, raw black tree fern, not bad but quite slimy, and wild stag heart. The stag heart was the best. Not raw, it was marinated and cooked and placed on a piece of white bread as a sandwich. I don't know why, but they love to eat everything on this plain, nothing, white bread. Sausages, hot dogs, stag heart, whitebait, everything. And with tomato sauce on top, which is much sweeter catsup. So, many beers later, and after reuniting with a friend that night and making some new ones, i lef
t Hokitika for Franz Josef to climb the glacier.



was of a vast playground of crevasses and melted rivers running thru the ice, looking for tunnels to go thru, high ice mountains to climb. It is an amazing land mass and i want to get my ownf glaciers here all over the place, but the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers are i think the biggest and most accessible on the West Coast. I didn't feel like it was so dangerous tho many people told me it was incredibly dangerous. The guide was very good and was mostly concerned with keeping us from falling by guiding us in the bottom of the crevasses in the gear so i can go back. there are heaps oIt was amazing to be surrounded by the ice. My feeling crack and over the flat ice. My guide, Jason, is apparently always getting into a bit of trouble because he pushes the limits of safety to go to the more interesting, unexplored places. It means he does more work, hacking at the ice with his axe to fill in cracks, bringing down dangerous flakes of ice that could fall and making steps all along the way for us to more easily walk. Most of his efforts were unnecessary for me, but they are a company who have to protect their asses and make it so less stabile people don't hurt themselves. Ah, it was great tho and i want to go out by myself or with friends to explore at my own pace. It's incredible to be surrounded by walls of ice that are melting in front of your eyes. Then look at the valley and all the rock that's it's mashing up. there are some pictures to show you what i mean.

Now, I'm staying in Wanaka to rock climb. There are 500 routes here and many are just off the road or a 20 minute walk. Heaps and heaps of walls to play on. I met two swiss, Stephan and Eva, who have gear and a rope that i go out with. For those who know, I've been leading 5.10a/b and top roping up to 5.11a/b, not without falls tho. I've been learning heaps from Stephan because he's been climbing for 30 years since he was 11 years old. Now his nerves are not as good so I must do all the leading, which means i have to go first with the rope to get it to the top of the wall. It's much more dangerous than going second because the falls are much longer. We're going tomorrow for some multi-pitch climbs, which means getting up about 60-90 meters up the wall. I have to climb, then hang from the wall while he climbs up then, he holds me while i climb up the next pitch, then i hold him and it's a kind of leap frog. Ah, so great. I can't wait to climb the swiss alps with him some day. He's the other one in the picture and we are about 20-25 meters up the wall.

Anyway, if you've made it this far i hope you're not bored. Let me know if you want to read more and i'll share some more of my adventures. It seems like I'm doing something everyday. I haven't worked yet, but next week I'm gonna start. just a little landscape labouring in a campground to earn back a pittance of the money i've spent. I'm here in Wanaka to climb and this job is one with complete flexibility to do as little or as much as i want. pretty sweet for me.

I hope everyone is well. please write back with your own stories and adventures from wherever you are.

cheers
Glenn