Snow. Yep, snow. We climbed out of Dansey’s, on a road that was quickly falling into disrepair, through a treeless landscape that offered no respite from the “Tailwind” that howled with aggression across the snow-covered tussock. While we would receive no quarter from the wind we would gain respite from the saddle; the steep incline of the roads was more conducive to bipedalism than to pedalism and we spent a majority of the day hiking our bikes up ever steepening switchbacks. To commemorate this initial section of our passage Daniel composed a brief poem . The day was long and the rigors of the terrain spread out our group, each finding their own pace, disappearing solitary figures, mirages in the distance on a lonely road in a empty vacant place. Yes the country is beautiful, but it is silent and empty, there is absolutely no one around and very little wildlife to speak of. From time to time you would see a flock of sheep, but that was it, and after a while these fuzzy land-clouds just became an unremarkable feature in this astonishing landscape.

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FOR THIS PROJECT WAS PROVIDED BYPorcelain Rocket

It felt as if we were traveling through a vacuum or rather one of those atmospheric test machines where they create mini cyclones. The wind was persistent and blocked out all other sound, crackling white noise was the soundtrack to our vision, as if there was a wind tunnel behind our eyes. This was perfect sailing weather. The land felt as if it had been wiped clean, taken back to square one, the beginning. This is a strange experience for us foreigners, this absence and sparseness is found not even in the wide open spaces of the Western US, if you are still for a moment even in the most isolated places the world around you comes alive with movement and sound, there is always something scurrying around, life is busy.

Anthropologists agree that New Zealand was the last major land mass to be settled by man, and that its isolation from the rest of the world’s continents allowed the fauna to develop unperturbed. The arrival of man quickly wreaked havoc on the indigenous species, but despite our best efforts the underlying feeling, the bedrock, subsonic, baseline vibe is that nothing much has changed, or rather nothing is old enough to have really changed.

The sun was setting on our second day as we made a final push towards our night’s sleeping hut, we were surprised and relieved when we were greeted by a warm fire, a round of beers, and two amiable deer hunters who had been snowed in the night before. With our shoes and socks set by the fire we laid our heads down and those of us who couldn’t force ourselves to pass out spent the evening as unwilling guests to an all-night concert of guttural staccato John Cage covers. It is possible that somewhere, deep inside the mind of our knowing vocalists, the feeling that man needs to make mark, to leave some trace, the need to have meaning was propelling their apnea, and as their snores careened off the cabin’s wall the wind rushed by our humble little hut, unimpeded by evolution or erosion.

Playlist by Raf Spielman¹¹Raf Spielman plays drums in the Woodsist Records band Woolen Men, who rarely get mentioned without a nod to their New Zealand influences. He also runs the Eggy Records label, which has been documenting the Portland music scene on vinyl and cassette tape since 2008. If you like the sound of Raf’s sounds the Woolen Men have a new EP out on Loglady Records, you can order it here.

@ultratradition’s NZ Camp Stove Quesadilla Recipe for Southern NZ Tramping

Ingredients:

• Vintage Cheddar: that’s what they call it in NZ and it’s the hardest non fancy-pants cheese you can buy at New World Grocer. Somewhat akin to our familiar Western Sharp Cheddar but with a little gaminess that’ll pucker your palate; they claim it’s aged 24 months, but I went ahead and aged it another week once I unwrapped it and left the block floating around my saddle bag in between sawing off hunks for my nightly quesadilla appetizers.
• Remarkable Tortillas: these things are made from a secret recipe, or so it says on the label, but I mainly preferred em for their preservative-free content and durability. They stayed relatively intact despite residing inside a drysack at the bottom of my framebag surrounded by hostile water bottles, tarp stakes, tool roll and a handful of busted chainlinks I somehow found the need to carry with me, all intent on destroying the integrity of these fluffy whole wheat goodies.
• Coconut Oil: never leave home without it. Great for cooking, treating sunburn, chain lube, and dental hygiene, this is the true swiss army knife of oils.

Required Tools:

• SOG Multitool or other sharp instrument
• Snow Peak LiteMax Titanium stove
• Snow Peak screw top fuel canister or whatever brand fuel you can find in NZ
• Snow Peak Trek Titanium Plate (I’ll refer to as a skillet from here on out)
• Ignition Source

Directions:

1. Resist the urge to immediately spark up your stove. Seeing those things light up calls to mind images of Apollo 7’s main thruster igniting as it plows toward orbit and while it’s incredibly intoxicating, it’s rather wasteful when you’re trying to make a canister last a week. Instead prep your extensive ingredient list in the following manner:
2. Slice a pile of Vintage slivers and set them aside.
3. Cut a Remarkable tortilla into about 6 equal triangle dudes.
4. Start your stove up and adjust the jets to about Mach 1 (low-medium flame. *Caution-never use TopGun Mach 5 setting unless you like char-dillas.)
5. Set your skillet on top to give you a nice quesadilla platform and scoop a healthy dollop of coconut oil in there and swish it around so it covers the entirety of your cooking surface.
6. Sandwich some of those Vintage slivers in-between two Remarkable tortilla triangles and place your quesadilla on the skillet and sit salivating while prepping the rest of your ‘dillas.
7. Don’t get carried away and forget to flip that dude. When it’s time, and not earlier and definitely not too late, flip it for REAL.
8. One flip should be sufficient, after it’s thoroughly cooked pull it off and start your second triangle sandwich while you enjoy the first- try not burn your tongue off with molten Vintage
9. Repeat until satiated.

Hobo Tip:

When bushcamping in areas without flowing water, or if you’re just too damn lazy (like we are) to do your dishes after eating, toss that titanium plate covered in Vintage into the flames and let the food and oils cook off. Later after cooling, scrape excess food-char off, and whatever is left on acts as a type of seasoning for future ‘dillas, similar to seasoning a fine cast iron skillet. Any carcinogenic effects of eating burnt food remnants is surely offset by the fact that this consumption occurs while enjoying the fresh air and healthy lifestyle of an active hobo.