* Home again, home again

Internet access was sparse during our last few days in NZ (or we were too busy wrapping things up to find it). I am writing this entry from home, but I will go back and tell you about the end of the trip. First of all, Murphy did not leave me alone. Throughout the entire trip I was thrice-thwarted from swimming with dolphins. We tried one of our first days in Akaroa. When I went to swim on Friday afternoon, I actually got on a boat with that purpose - the only of the three times there was a possibility. We spent four hours cruising around the Bay of Islands. Early in the cruise a couple people spotted a pair of dorsal fins, but those dolphins didn't want to play - they disappeared and we couldn't find them again. Then in the last half hour we did find another dolphin (or 2, depending on how you look at it). Unfortunately the dolphin we found was a female who had given birth, but the pup had died. She was carrying around the dead pup on her back in mourning. I was thankful that we didn't get too close to the dolphin. I did get to see her, and even in mourning she was a beautiful and graceful creature.

Since that sighting did not count as a "dolphin experience" we were offered either a partial refund or a blue card to ride again on another day. The card didn't expire. I decided to try again the next morning. After making my reservation in Paihia in the Bay of Islands, I drove South an hour to Whangerei to meet Terry, Rachel, Angela, Ben, and Tom for dinner. *Side note: It is very difficult to drive a CamperVan by yourself, especially when it's standard and you're driving on the wrong side of the road. I did not appreciate how wonderful it was to have someone to ask "Am I clear?" to until there was noone there.* As Angela wrote, we went out for turkish dinner and had ice cream in a parking lot in the camper afterwards. Then we drove back up to Paihia. I had made a reservation and arranged to get picked up by the company, since it was a couple kilometers of two large hills away. I got to the dock and was waiting to board when the captain came down. There was a wind speed of 40 knots in the bay. We could see large waves even from the harbor. There would definitely not be swimming, and it was uncertain if there would even be a boat ride. Twenty minutes later I was in the office getting a partial refund. Since it was still early I managed to convince them to give me a ride back to the campground as well. Rachel and Terry were still asleep, so I laid down for a little more rest. When I woke up again at 9:45, the bay was still. I really don't like Murphy.

Rachel, Terry and I went back into Paihia but there wasn't much to do on such an overcast day. After a while we left and saw the grounds of the Treat of Waitangi. It is amazing to hear about the early settlers and how much they were able to do with the Maori people, despite the settlers having little or no backing from England. It was drizzling rain so we didn't stay very long before we headed west. There is a forest on the Western side of Northland that has giant Kauri trees. We took small hikes to see a couple of them, including the largest and second largest trees, as well as four giant trees that grow so close together it looks like they are growing out of one root. After the forest we headed back toward Aukland, camping about 50 km from the city.

Sunday morning we packed and cleaned the campervan after waking up. We went briefly into Aukland for a visit to the sky tower. Terry tried to convince me to do the Sky Jump - a modified form of bungee jumping, but I was not interested at all. Then we headed toward the airport to return the CamperVan. The return went smoothly and we got to the airport about 4 hours before our flight left. On the flight from Aukland to Los Angeles I got to sit next to a newlywed couple from England on their four-month honeymoon. And here, I was excited to have three weeks off!

Flights home were uneventful until the last one. We boarded our plane in Chicago at 10:10 pm to fly back to Appleton. Then, rather than the takeoff safety instructions, we were told that there was a mechanical problem and they were bringing another plane over for us to board instead. Well, we finally boarded about 12:15, arriving in Appleton at 1:10 am. By the time I got my baggage and picked up my car from my parents' place to make it home, it was 2 in the morning. I think that makes about 26 hours travel time coming back. First reaction on coming back: IT'S COLD!!!!!

Some closing thoughts...

(From Tom) One of my first impressions on visiting New Zealand was how friendly the people were. They seemed open, honest, and cheerful. Everything was operated somewhat casually, but effectively.

Unfortunately, going from New Zealand back to America resulted in the opposite impression (makes logical sense, but was still somewhat of a shock to the system). Americans at the airports and on planes came off as brusque, mildly angry, and insensitive. I found one thing quite interesting; at the entry point to customs, there is a sign advertising a "pledge" to provide a pleasant welcome, courteous service, the personal touch; but as I watched the guards, I saw anything but this (with one exception). The Kiwis had lived up to the spirit of the sign; but the Americans, though they had written it down and advertised it, really failed.

This caused me to speculate further. I should preface by saying that as I was away, my respect for America grew; we have a lot of wonderful things and for the most part, our country is run very well. But, on return, I see some things that concern me. Aside from the aforementioned courtesy issues, some more general impressions stood out in my mind, which I can't necessarily substantiate with examples. Americans strike me as being fascinated with hierarchy. We chart the path to the top closely, and expect constant promotions; we carefully observe and judge what position someone is in. We are obsessed with management; management principles, techniques, books, managers, CEOs, and Presidents. I think the original plan was for us to be a distributed system (computer speak for leaving decision making and power to the smaller subdivisions, in this case individual voters); but I guess that like many people in history we have become fixated on the idea of a king; be it at the company manager level or the Presidency level.

Also, I see us as dedicated to competition. We have truly seen the benefits of free competition; many of the great things America has produced have been driven by this. But it seems we are ready to extend this to all areas of life; and I'm afraid we may be going too far. To what degree should the arts be shaped by market competition? (also, I think we start to devalue things that don't adapt well to competition, like the arts and personal relationships) What about Healthcare? Obviously, we want that to be results-based; but I think many studies show that we actually get the best results when we dump competition and provide the personal touch. (Perhaps it is best to foster competition in the drug industry, but not in the doctor-patient care industry) It's probably a stretch, but could the lack of courtesy and interest in each other I am observing be a result of our drive for hierarchy and competition? For after all, if it's really a competition, what are other people but standards to measure ourself against and possible competitors to be squashed?

It did seem that I met a lot of people in NZ that were pretty free to do their own thing; and flying over the US on the way back, I saw an obscene number of identical suburban housing blocks. Theoretically, we are all free to do are own thing; but are our devotions to competition and hierarchy binding us? It is hard to imagine anyone here living the lives of the Land family we couchsurfed with (heck, it's hard to imagine anyone opening up their homes to couch surfers); or the lives of the folks traveling around the world working as they go; or even the lives of Ian and Caitrona, who at one point left for a three-month trip to America without any guarantees that their jobs would be there when they got back. I think we may be a bit worse off despite greater material wealth if these are ties that bind us.

So, as soon as I have a place, it'll be up on couch surfing. I find a renewed conviction to be interested in my neighbor, and to live life less influenced by the patterns of the closed world around me (if it happens that I fit most of those patterns anyway, no problem; but I want to make sure that I'm not just blindly following them). I hope that I will realize that managing isn't the most important thing in the world, and that it's not about finishing ahead of your neighbor.

~ Samoans & Sky Towers

It's a blur! This can't possibly be our last day here! I guess I'm glad that I'm feeling this way, rather than be glad to be leaving... it means our trip has been terrific.

Sky Tower

View from the tower

That's 600+ feet down, baby!

Today we had kind of a different experience - I had in my head that I wanted to attend a church service in Auckland today (and Ben and Tom were game too!) but had quite a time trying to find service start times between the internet and the yellow pages. I wish someone had told me that the reason they put "English" beside some church service listings is not to denote Anglican influence or something! Imagine our... (fright? chagrin? delight?!) at finding ourselves the only non-Samoans in a 100-strong Samoan-speaking service in Papatoetoe (for real - it's a somewhat run-down subdivision of Auckland). It was actually very neat to be there; they specifically translated several bits into English for us so we would know what was going on. It was really sweet to hear people singing with all their might and in great harmony, and to do our best to join in. It's extraordinary to experience worshipping God with people in a different language and culture, even if you know theoretically that it's happening all the time. They welcomed us to stay to lunch after the service, but we decided to head to downtown for a last good-bye to Auckland before heading out.

We went to the Sky Tower (the tallest building in the southern hemisphere) for a magnificent view of the city, did a wee bit of shopping, and headed to the airport. We returned our rented cell phones & vehicles, and everyone made it safely to the flight home (well - we hope that's the case - Patrick's staying through Monday to finish up the rally fun, so he won't hit Appleton till Tuesday morning). GOOD BYE NEW ZEALAND! WE LOVE YOU!

~ How do you say "Whangarei"?

Some quirky things about this country: the toilets (the flush is weird, and you often choose which kind of flush you wish to flush based on the... well, never mind), the outlets (most have switches that let you turn them on or off - we haven't quite figured out what for), the dryers (there are many fewer than washers - we think people hang their laundry a lot more than we do), the electric teapots (nearly every room - hostel to B&B - has one, along with instant coffee packets & tea), milkshakes (New Zealand food is marvelous, but they simply don't get milkshakes. They whip up some kind of flavored syrupy something that just doesn't compare. Ice cream is good and milk is mostly whole, though, so we're not holding that one against the country), road signs (very pictorially descriptive even though they're just using silhouettes and stick figures!), and, of course, they drive on the "proper" side of the road. Given that the roads are generally small, and only four-lane in the biggest of cities, this made for a neat bit of acclimatizing, even to the end of our trip. The nice thing about all these quirky things is that they're different enough to make us sit up and take notice, but they're not SO different that it's stressful to be here in any way. The natives are friendly - with the exception of Bad Santa ('nother story) - and we had nothing but positive encounters with any of them. The accent is heaps of fun. We got no end of mileage out of saying "speecial eeria" ("special area" - used by multiple tour guides to describe the place we were visiting), and I sent one of the kids at Simon & Shantini's off into peals of laughter by saying "I don't know" (instead of "I deeon't kneeah")! I think everyone else probably laughs too, they were just a bit more discreet about it. Oh, and "Whangerei" is a town that we stayed 2 nights in near the Bay of Islands, and it's pronounced "Fang-er-ay"! Who knew?! It's been fun that we came at the very beginning of the tourist season; people aren't weary of foreigners asking dumb questions. We really haven't run into tons of Americans here, either. Mostly other travelers have been from Europe, Asia and Australia.

Saturdays are lovely, yes? Although ours started with a 6:30AM knock on our door (from our overly friendly B&B host who wanted to say "goodbye" before they took off for the day), we managed to hold off till 11 or so before finally rolling ourselves out of Whangerei. The B&B had a washing machine in the bathroom, so we were actually able to leave with clean, if somewhat damp, clothes!

We arrived in Auckland and decided to crash the museum. We spent several hours looking at war memorial stuff, volcano stuff, and stuffed animals. I think one of the reasons that Tom, Ben and I make good travel buddies is that we all like museum-y type places (and actually read a good percentage of those little informational cards! I know...), and that we all like figuring out the flora and fauna (particularly birds on this trip) around us. I really think we would drive most people nuts. But we amuse ourselves and are relatively harmless, so we don't worry about it overly much.

Ben's cousin Frank lives in Auckland (going for his master's in genetic marine biology at the university here), so he met up with us at the museum as it was closing up. He gave us a mini tour of the university, and of the city, and we ended up in a Mexican restaurant comparing notes on the country. We also got to hear about his upcoming month-long trip around the South Island collecting rock crab species. Sounds like it will be really neat - he has only been on the North Island so far so we gave him what little perspective we could on various places there.
We're jealous! We would have loved even a bit more time there - I don't think any of us regrets spending two weeks there and one on the North Island. Though we would gladly take more time in either place if it were possible! (Photo is of Tom, Frank and Ben, inspired by some art we walked by at the university.)

Moray Eels and Blue Maomaos

Today was another “together” day (with the notable exceptions of P-diddy, who we all hope is having a marvelous time at the rally, and Serena, who went on a solitary quest to swim with dolphins!). Terry, Rachel, Ben and I had achieved PADI Open Water Diver Certification throughout the year in anticipation of our trip here, and Tom wanted to try a “Discover Diving” course, so the five of us headed out to Poor Knights Islands (one of Jacques Cousteau’s top ten dive locations in the world!) on the Calypso. Even with the wind in a not-great direction and the sky slightly overcast, we had a abso-stinkin-lutely aweso-blinkin-some experience. We got to see moray eels, scorpion fish, long- and short-tailed sting rays, blue maomaos, snot-on-a-rock (what it looked like – can’t remember the name!), lots of sea-slug-type beautifully decorated creatures, urchins, cool seaweed, schools of two-dot fish, red pigfish, and lots of other beautiful fish that we aren’t experienced enough to identify. The part Cousteau liked particularly was the Blue Maomao Arch that we got to swim down through – with the entry underneath a huge boulder. When we came through there was a huge school of – you guessed it, blue maomaos! - to greet us. (from Terry: As we reached the far end of the tunnel, sunlight came in through an opening in the archway, and illuminated the water like a cathedral – but instead of stained glass there was a wall of glimmering blue maomaos.) All in all the four of us got in two dives each, and Tom had a great first-time dive as well.

After our lovely diving experience, we met up with Serena, who (unfortunately hadn't been able to swim with the dolphins) and found a Turkish restaurant to eat in. We felt like SUGAR after that so found ourselves in the campervan with a 2-litre (think half gallon) ice cream container and a bunch of spoons. Unfortunately, we had no freezer, so we HAD to eat it all. Here's the proof! We can't believe that there are only two more days of this lovely trip (*sob!*), but it was definitely fun to have a chance to get together and swap stories on our most recent adventures.

(side note: we've added updates on the dates they occurred, so they'll be intermixed with previous posts below!)

* Escape from Murphy?

Terry, Rachel, Ben, Angela, and Tom have converged upon Tutukaka this morning to take a ship out to Poor Knights Island for some scuba. I realized that I would rather be on the surface of the water than underneath, so I drove a little over an hour north to Bay of Islands. Hopefully this will break Murphy's Law, because I am signed up for a Dolphin Swim. Last time I tried this we didn't see any dolphins. Hopefully today will be better.

As for zorbing, Terry and I each took two rides in the zorb. I wanted one dry and one wet, but they only had the wet zorb working. So, what is a zorb? It's a plastic ball inside a plastic ball. The inner ball is held in place by over a hundred bungee cords connected to the outer ball. The dry zorb has a harness to keep you into place, and after riding down in the wet, I understand why. In the wet zorb (they put a little water in it with you) you are not attatched to anything. What's it like? Imagine a waterslide that you can't tell which direction you are going next. It doesn't matter if you go down head first or feet first. You can attempt to get up and surf down it. Actually, at the start they have you walk the beginning of the hill, as if you're in a gerbil ball. I don't think I made it more than ten feet either time before falling down and just enjoying the ride. Terry kept attempting to stand up, but failed at that as well.

After zorbing we went to kiwi encounters to see some kiwi birds. Due to introduced predators, kiwi chicks only have about 5% chance of staying alive in the wild to maturity. Kiwi encounters takes the egg, incubates and hatches the chick, and then nurtures the chick through adolescence, the first six months. The kiwi is then released back into the wild, the place where it was taken from. The re-introduced kiwi have had no problem adapting back to natural habits, so that's a good thing.

Yesterday morning Rachel and Terry went to Hobbiton. After that we drove North to Tutukaka to camp for the night, so they could go diving this morning.

I will let you know if the dolphins come out to play, and have someone else tell you about diving!

Serena

~ Treaty of Waitangi

We woke up around 7am and Simon and Shantina were already at it making porridge and playing with one of their youngest children. After restoring the family room area and having a quick breakfast, Simon and Shantina showed us their house drawings that were freshly stamped with approval from the Council. Simon had drafted all of the elevations and floor plans by hand. The house looked like it would be absolutely beautiful when it was finished. They gave significant thought to many portions of their sustainable lifestyle including a wood alcove under the covered car park and cellar that had one wall which was made of a boulder that was too big to move. They also showed us pieces of some rocks they found up the mountain that looked like green granite only with larger crystal formations. They had already made a sink basin of one of the rocks, and were planning to use slabs of cut rock for their flooring. Geologists were baffled by the rocks because of their location, and the strange quality of the stones. After sharing the drawings, they gave us a tour of the hydroelectric setup and a swimming pool that Simon had made. We thanked them, and then we were off on the road again.

The afternoon was spent at the Treaty of Waitangi Center and the Mangrove:

~ Couchsurfing into Northland

The hostel only had window-less rooms left, so we woke up in complete darkness. After being used to the sun coming up before 6:30am every day, it was surprising to roll out of bed at 8:30 and have to turn on the sun! Patrick's reliable ticker woke up to the clock, and he made it downstairs to plug the parking meter. Breakfast was fatty, sugary halos: Dunkin' Donuts, washed down with mochaccino and coffee. Patrick's plan was to split off from the group and chance it on his own. One of the big items on his list was to get to an off-road Rally down in Hamilton, which was opposite the direction of north. His solution was to go sailing in Auckland, book a night in Auckland for the evening, rent his own car, and head to the Races through the weekend. So we dropped him off downtown at his next hostel and tore outta Auckland en route to the original growth forest up north. On the way out of town, we were finally able to see Auckland's impressive skyline. Just as we were about to leave the city, we received an urgent message from Patrick saying he forgot his camera. So we turned around and got another great view of the Auckland skyline. An hour later we were out of town and heading up the coast. It was late, we were pumping Bob Dylan, and we were ready for some natural wonders. We stopped off at a cafe to pick up lunch and a bottle of wine for our first ever couchsurfing stay. We were hoping to find a pinot noir by the Anchorage vinyard, but the owner didn't have any of that, so we settled on one that he liked.

Our main destination was to get up to the Waipoua Forest where the oldest and largest trees in New Zealand live. Due to the late start, we weren't able to make it to the visitor center before the 4:30 close time. The walks were still open though, so we checked out some of the gi-normous trees. Pictures don't do them justice. On the trail we met a mid-30's Alaskan commercial fisherman and his ~8 year old daughter was still wet from jumping in a swimming hole. He had a huge greenstone heart necklace and an easy going Alaskan style. His daughter was really excited to run into some people who were playful enough to go along with her pretending. She had a note pad that was acting as her camera/video recorder. She'd snap a picture of us, pretend to tear out a page, and give us a photo copy. They'd just come from Australia and you could tell both of them wouldn't have minded some more company. The trees were gigantic - they had a smooth bark like a eucalyptus tree and were on the scale of the huge Sequoia trees out west. We wanted to dawdle around them but were running late for dinner with the couchsurfing family. So instead of miss all the sights, we decided to run through the rainforest to pull in the schedule. The woods were a perfect place for a run - just the right cool temperature and plenty of humidity for us mouth breathers. We ran around giant fern trees and under huge fallen tree trunks with green moss drooping around them. The idea worked out, and we shaved a good 20 minutes off of our round trip time.

The family we were planning to stay with that evening was about 40km up the road from the forest (near Oponini). As soon as we pulled out of the forest, the road followed a big channel off the Tasman Sea. On the other side of the channel were huge golden sand dunes all the way down to the shoreline. We continued on and found our dirt road turn-off called "Mountain Road." We were all sweaty and stinky from running through the forest, so we pulled over right there and changed into some less stinky clothes. We didn't know what kind of dinner we were heading into, and we were concerned that we'd look a bit too grungy for the occasion. I had read the couchsurfing description a long time ago before flying out, and all I could remember was that this was a family that I wanted to meet. Tom tore up the mountain on his own offroad rally. The road switched back and forth on a very steep and gravely grade all the way up. The Land Family was the driveway at the very top. When Tom slid around the last corner and up to the driveway, he let off the gas to check where to park. When he put on the gas again, the tires just spun. At that point, Shantina was coming out to greet us. Meanwhile, Tom the Rally Master was still racing up the mountain - only standing in place! Dust and gravel was kicking up, and the smell of a burning clutch added to our grand entrance. So much for fancy first impressions! :) Tom finally relaxed a little and found a shallower grade to advance up while I got out and pushed.

The property was not quite a home - it was more a long-term construction site. Simon and Shantina came out to greet us just as we were coming up the driveway. Down below us was an impressive poured concrete foundation straight with rebar jutting up out of it and in-floor heating pipes popping out. There was a retaining wall made of stacked stone and mortar to control the runoff around the bottom (valley-side) of the foundation. It was also going to make one great deck. From the lack of heavy machinery and from the placing of the building materials, you could tell this was a home project. On a habitat for humanity trip, I had helped pour a foundation for a hillside house in Oregon, and what we were looking at was not an easy thing to do alone. There's a lot of rebar bending and placing that goes into it, not to mention leveling off everything exactly. I talked with Simon a bit about it, and he explained the drainage, grading, insulating, and waterproofing required before even pouring the foundation. This sort of thing fascinates me, and we talked for quite awhile while the dogs said their hellos, and the 10+ chickens (silky bantam and other breeds) pecked away around our feet. Shantina later mentioned that she thought of the chickens as mobile flowers. Simon told us how the house design had been in the works for over 8 years, and that he had only just now gotten clearance from the village Council to build it. From what he described, the house sounded like it would be a perfect blend of low-consumption living and creature comfort within a gorgeous natural setting. All of this talk happened while looking down at an endless green valley and a simple foundation showing significant past labor and approaching future promise.

The house was sustainable - they generated their own electricity from a pond further up the mountain. Water was routed from the pool down an ~1" pipe and then squeezed into about an 1/8" tube which jettisoned the water into a 350 Watt hydroelectric turbine. Then the AC was rectified and converted down to 24 volts DC and the electricity recharged a bank of sealed lead acid batteries in a shed further down the hill. Any excess AC input was burned off in some load lights in the shed to prevent overloading. Simon had installed this complete system himself, and it was currently running it in their "shed" that had become their temporary home. Simon is a "joiner" by trade and does a fair share of construction and cabinet making. He had another battery bank further down the mountain in his workshop that ran his electrical tools. That battery bank had come from an old telecom cell-site backup station that was just given to him nine years ago and was still running strong.

In addition to this electrical setup, he had also designed in extremely simple, practical, and smart construction methods. First, the concrete slab was properly insulated underneath the house in such a way that the slab would provide an efficient thermal mass for the inside temperature. This would be in-floor heated by a wood stove that would only have to be active a couple hours of the day to restore the temperature of the thermal mass and keep the house a constant temperature throughout the day. The hot water heater would also work on the same circuit, with an optional gas point-of-load heater when it wouldn't be practical to run wood. During the hot summer day, the slab would cool the house, and vent windows on the top of the house would be opened to allow natural airflow to cool and ventilate. The water coming from the mountain is also clean enough to not need any purification other than settling debris in a collection tank. They were about the only people that remote that had cell phone and wireless internet coverage due to the line of sight vantage point of being on the top of a mountain. So for all intents and purposes, this house would be completely self-sufficient save for the occasional gas/propane refill. It was a perfect spot for what they wanted to achieve. It was so exciting and refreshing to see simplicity of design actually being implemented! And best of all - if anything went wrong, they knew how to fix it!

They had at least one cow for milk, five horses that were out on the mountain side, three dogs, plenty of chickens, and free roaming goats on the property. Oh! and they have seven children still with them! The oldest had married and moved out, but they took in one other child, so there were 9 people living there. After a talk outside, we walked up and into the habitable "shed". On the way to the door there was another out-building: a large lean-to out of the hillside where laundry was hanging to dry. Above that was a "long drop" A.K.A. outhouse. The house was definitely small for nine. Simon said they originally expected to be in it for two years while the house was built, but you know how that is (insert Vladimir Jones here) - two years can easily become eight!

Inside, there were two levels with multiple purposes. The first floor was probably about 8 to 900 square feet and was a family room, kitchen, dining room, office, pantry, utility room, and classroom all in an open space with few divisions between spaces. It looked very cluttered and mildly dirty at initial glance, but once you started to take in each "station", the area started to make a lot of practical sense. As for being clean - it wasn't what our single self-cleaning selves were used to, but it was cleaner than a lot of houses I've been to that have 7 kids. There was no bathroom - if you wanted a bath or sink you went out the back door where a bathtub lay outside under an overhang of the house. This was the wash area and toothbrushes and razors and such lay on some shelves. Nine people used one tub!

Nikki, the oldest girl still at home, was watching television off to the side (joined a few times by Francis and Flynn, the youngest ones), and all the rest of the kids occasionally came down from the lofted second floor. The way up to the loft was a ladder made of shellacked tree branches and a trap door at the top. Very Swiss Family Robinson-esque. Every once in awhile one of the children would climb down. To me, it looked like they were just about to fall off the ladder at any second, but they had clearly done it hundreds of times. The kids up top took some fascination in throwing newspaper or pieces of wood down at Tom before Simon chewed them out.

Shantina set to making dinner, and Angela helped out where she could. Right before we sat down for dinner, Chris (the oldest boy) walked in from target practice with his freshly oiled .22 which he hung in the rafters over the kitchen table. Then Simon said grace and we set into a dinner of quiche and potato salad. Simon continued to answer my housing questions through dinner. Shantina set the kids up at the table, and we ate in the family room area. Dinner was great, and we had plenty of good political and socioeconomic conversations. All of the kids were being home schooled in that house, and we talked about that system a bit. Simon also talked about his upbringing, and Angela got a lot of her sheep questions answered. After dinner, Chris served hot drinks, and Simon showed some pictures of a house he helped build last year while Shantina organized clean-up and got the kids ready for bed. She also pulled bedding down for one of us to sleep on. We were all impressed with the kids - especially the two older ones who helped out and seemed to have a confidence, motivation, and purpose which a lot of kids their age seem to lack. After figuring out the bathroom/clean-up station, we slept on mattresses in the middle of the floor.

* Maori Culture and 7 Meter Falls

Ok, I only have a few minutes to write this, so I will try to summarize. After leaving the spas and the campground, Terry, Rachel and I saw the craters of the moon, which are natural thermal pools and got to see a flooded river after a dam opening. Then we drove North to Rotorua for the night and reserved a place for a trip to a Maori village for a show and dinner. It was very enjoyable. They had a traditional opening ceremony where we had elected chiefs and the Maori tribe came out to meet us, enquiring whether we came in war or peace. Thankfully our chief had the right response and they welcomed us into the village. We got to see their ancient ways of basket weaving, cooking, and combat training. Then they performed some native Maori songs and dances for us. The really neat part was they encouraged us to take photos and videos of the performance, so that their culture will be passed on. Most performances require patrons to turn off cameras. The dinner was enjoyable. I think most of the dishes were actually more native New Zealand than native Maori. On the drive back our bus driver decided it was time for everyone else to entertain, so each country represented was supposed to sing a song from their country. And he enjoyed going round and round the roundabouts singing "She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes".

This morning we each went our separate ways. Rachel went off to explore Rotorua, Terry went 4-wheeling, and I got picked up to conquer the Kaituna River, just a 2 km stretch of river that includes a 7 meter water fall. My record holds true: we didn't lose anyone in my raft. The other two rafts each lost two people on the falls (they got back in the boat afterwards). It was very enjoyable and exhilerating.

This afternoon's activity, for me at least, is zorbing. What is that you ask? Well, you'll have to wait until the next post to find out. The big question for me right now is: dry, wet, or both?

Serena

~ Frodo and the Ring

Once upon a time, Frodo had a beautiful ring. He loved the ring very much because it told him what mood he was in. After a while, though, it started to have negative effects on him and the hobbits around him. He started to believe he had superpowers - invisibility and the ability to control others - whenever he would wear it. Finally his friends convinced him that the ring was evil and needed to be destroyed. The problem was that the only place the ring could actually be destroyed was in very hot, volcanic fire. Realizing that the future of the world was probably at stake, Frodo and his faithful friends booked a helicopter ride to White Island, a live volcano. Having never ridden in a helicopter or tramped on a volcano before, they were all quite excited at the prospect of saving the world and having a one-of-a-kind experience at the same time. Unfortunately for the world, however, upon arrival at the island the hobbits were so entranced with what they were seeing and smelling that they completely forgot about the more weighty matters. When they did remember, it was too late. They begged and pleaded with Mr. Frodo to throw it away, but being near the site of so much power and sulfuric stench, Frodo was too overcome to resist the ring's power. The other hobbits shrank from the only possible positive solution to the problem (jumping him and biting the ring from his finger) so they reluctantly hopped back into the helicopter with Frodo, now completely in the ring's power. They flew away from the island, grateful for the incredible experience, especially since the world's doom was now imminent. Sorry everybody...


















(from Ben) After the Bagginses fled White Island, we chugged back into Rotorua to the Agrodome. This is a tourist attraction that puts on sheep shows and educates the fascinated on all the aspects of sheep shearing and sheep dogging. We were a little late for the shearing show, but the sheep dog demos were a lot of fun. We bummed around the grounds and checked out the exhibits on the different types of wool and the history of sheep shearing. After that, we motored up to the biggest city in New Zealand – Auckland. The drive took the rest of the day. On arrival to Auckland (pop 1.2 million), we were able to get lodging at a hostel just outside city center. We drove downtown and found out that parking takes eight eyes to find! Patrick had driven all day and was tired, hungry, and not a bit interested in navigating clogged streets. This was definitely a weary moment – not an ideal time to tackle a huge city. We wandered around downtown until we finally found a place called “Little Italy”. Angela and I split a delicious fettuccini dish, while Tom and Patrick weren’t as thrilled with their meals. But it was late, people were getting grumbly in their tumbly, and this place was a quiet spot in the middle of a noisy city. The only thing we heard was the peaceful screaming of the bungy swing across the street. We learned there that if you say “Earl Grey” quietly it sounds like “Peppermint”. :)

After dinner, we wound our way back to the hostel. Patrick found a pub to explore, and the rest of us were so tired that we stayed in and did little things like check email, and bathe.

*The Tongariro Crossing (aka How to Give Rachel and Terry a Heart Attack)

Well, you already caught up with the end of the South Island tour, as we met up a few times with the other group. Kayaking was a blast, the stroll was neat. Unfortunately we didn't really get to sail - mostly motored back to the final beach. But it was neat to jump into the ocean a couple of times. And I maintain that the second time jumping in was not as cold as the first time. Maybe the bay was a little warmer, or I was just excited about swimming to Split Apple Rock.

After we parted ways on Sunday, we walked back to our campervan to find one of our headlights had burnt out. It was only one bulb on one side (each side has two), but we went to two gas stations and were unable to find the correct bulb. Then we decided to just continue on and deal with the light bulb the next day. We drove until about 11:00 and then stopped at a campground for the night. Since we were out fairly early the next morning, we never did see the caretakers, but just left our payment under the door.

Monday we continued North to Tongariro National Park. This has three main mountains in a circle, two of which are active volcanoes. It includes the volcano that was Mordor in Lord of the Rings. This area include New Zealand's most popular day trek, which claims to last 7-8 hours. Halfway through the trek, at the top of the mountain are the emerald pools, left behind by the volcano to reflect vibrant colors. As we started the journey, I half-jokingly told Terry and Rachel that I wanted to walk the whole crossing. About 45 minutes later I had left them and was heading up the mountain at a slightly quicker pace. The crossing is such that we had about an hour and a half walk where it rose only about one hundred feet, followed by a short stretch where we climbed up the mountain. I was able to look out from further up that stretch and see them climbing the bottom. Thankfully I got a little bit of a rest on walking across a plateau, which Rachel and Terry also crossed a little later. It was amazing to look around throughout the whole journey and picture how the volcano had formed the area around it. There were fields of volcanic rock in various formations. The plateau was a muddy substance, yet I could tell it was from the volcano. After the plateau there were two more inclines, with a smaller plateau between them. I summitted a couple of the lower mountains, not any of the main three in a row. At that point, I almost turned back, but I wasn't sure how far Rachel and Terry were going, and if I would be able to meet up with them. The wind at the top was very strong, and there was almost no protection from the mountain. Not only that, but it was more like volcanic dust that I was climbing up, which gave no grip. But there were some views from the top that were definitely worth it. I got to see what they call red crater, a gorgeous deep red fading to black valley inside the mountain. Shortly after that I reached the highest point and was able to see the emerald pools below me. They were pretty, but nothing compared to the blue pools and other pure water we had seen on the south island. The initial descent was very scary, as I was descending very steeply on volcanic dust or snow. After that, however, the path was very smooth. The descent was either an easy grade or there were steps cut into the path. The distance I descended was about twice as deep, and twice as long as the ascent. Shortly after I passed the pools I met up with a guy from Germany who was heading the same way. His girlfriend was waiting for him at a hut halfway down the descent. We walked to the hut together, which was enjoyable. We spoke a mixture of German and English. The descent was interesting because I could see most of the trail ahead of me, whereas the ascent twisted around a lot. All in all, I travelled 17 km in 6 hours, and I don't remember the height, but it was specatcular. Terry and Rachel did the first climb and got across the main plateau before they turned back.

After picking me up on the other end, we came North the Taupo. We stopped for dinner at Hell Pizza, very interesting restaurant/marketing. They have everything fit the theme, including phone numbers. The pizza boxes were also quite interesting. They have a tear-out box within the main pizza box that is smaller for leftovers. The campground we stayed at last night just happened to be attatched to the Taupo Hot Springs, which we got a discount into. After yesterday's exertion, we thoroughly enjoyed spending an hour this morning in the different temperature pools, ranging from 17 C to 42 C.

We hope to get the opportunity to explore some Maori culture today or tomorrow.

Hope you all are doing well!

Serena (and Terry and Rachel)

~ A pleasant day (with a brief interruption of sheer terror)

The call goes out from the hotel room. Today will be the day. Everyone quietly contemplates. Bungee lies ahead.

After booking tomorrow’s activity (helicopter ride to an offshore volcano, stay tuned) and tonight’s lodging in Rotorua, we were free to enjoy the day. We started out driving past Tongariro National Park. The area around this place is reminiscent of the American West; very desert-like; which is surprising to see after leaving forested coastline in the morning. The park is famous for its volcanoes, one of which (Mt. Ngauruhoe) was used as Mt. Doom in the Lord of the Rings movies. The volcanoes are beautiful; they stand apart from other mountains, so you see them rise from plain to peak. They have quite a bit of snow on them, which contrasts starkly with the desert in front.

I’ve always said that bungee jumping is something I’d have no problem with, but that I didn’t “need” to do it. I’d play it cool and casual, “no big deal”. First, you go out on the jump platform and get a view of the river, 154 feet below, that you’ll be jumping into. It looks blue, beautiful, and very far away. Then, you get in line and hand over hard-earned NZ dollars, for a ticket and a mark on your hand with your weight. Then, you queue for the jump. Ahead of you, you watch people that seem quite calm and happy react with absolute terror as they shuffle towards the end of the platform and really see what they have to do. But you still think, “no big deal, everybody’s safe, so many people have done this.” And then, suddenly, you are standing up, feet tied tightly to a bungy cord, and your eyes open wide with fear as the immediacy of jumping off this platform rushes upon you. NO WAY says brain. Oh my goodness gracious. But you do it, on the jumpmaster’s count, and never again will you say you don’t “need” to do it.

Bungee jumping was just great. All hands in our group participated and survived. It was just a great feeling to jump off this insanely-high platform, free fall for what seemed like a long time, and then rebound up and down for a little while until finally settling onto a raft below. Ben, the instigator of the whole thing, had to take a second count at the top and screamed like a Minnesota loon the whole way down. Next time I think I will too.

After this high, we were pretty beat. We ended the day walking around the Governer’s Gardens in Rotorua. This was a pretty spot; combination croquet grounds, rose garden, bird sanctuary, and geothermal area. I actually enjoy all the rose gardens in this country; they definitely give the place a quaint, yet civilized feel. We found an amazing Thai restaurant, and then retired to our cabin, looking forward to a helicopter ride tomorrow.

Tom

hither and thither

Everyone we meet here is aghast that we only have 3 weeks here. People quit their jobs, take unpaid leave, get work visas, or do whatever else they have to in order to spend significant time in New Zealand. Many people from the Commonwealth (Irish & Canadian, that we've met so far) do a one or two year world-wide tour (it's a cool thing they work out with the airlines where they'll spend time in South America, Australia, Asia, Africa) and New Zealand is one of their stops. We try to explain that 3 weeks is a looonnng vacation in the U.S. but I don't think they're all that sympathetic to the Midwest work ethic! :)

Well, all 7 of us have regrouped a bit over the last few days. We had ferry tickets to cross from South Island to North Island today (Sunday), so we all ended up at Abel Tasman National Park on Friday night/Saturday because it's fairly close to the ferry departure point.





6 of us (Patrick decided the appeals of the open road, a half tank of gas, and a beautiful "alone" day were a superior way to regroup himself) decided to make a day of it and did a combination kayaking/hiking/sailing day. It was delicious. We started off with kayaking. It was in tandem kayaks, which some of us had to reconcile ourselves to a bit, but we had a lovely paddle of 2 miles or so in the Tasman Sea. We got in a quick, cold swim before they fed us a lovely little lunch. The hike was up a lot and then down a lot, but the view in the middle was fantastic, and then the sail was great fun. The wind was choppy and came off the valley in many directions, so it technically didn't end up being much of a sail, but the world was beautiful from that vantage point. The captain stopped twice so some of us could jump in the ocean for a while. The water was STILL cold but it was exhilarating! The second time only Serena and Ben were brave enough to venture out of their warm clothes (again!) to explore Split Apple Rock.

We ended up rejoining Patrick and eating Thai food (yum!) and then going our separate ways until today, when we met up for the ferry ride. That was three hours of drowsy lovliness. I think both groups are still trying to figure out how to maximize this last week in this too-big-and-beautiful-for-the-small-time-we-have place. Upon reaching Wellington, we wandered around the "beehive" (Wellington is the capital of NZ, and the beehive is the parliament buildings), then rode up a cable car to an outstandinging look at the city, and then finished up by meandering back down the hill through the botanic gardens. Wellington is a great town. Our groups ate at McDonald's (much to Tom's delight and Patrick's disgust!), then split for the night. We'll see if we end up meeting up again before we head back on Sunday.

Speaking of the two groups: I think I'm going to go back put a * in front of every post from the camper van (Terry, Serena, & Rachel) and an ~ in front of every post from the other group (Tom, Patrick, Ben and me). Don't know if that will be less confusing or not, but worth a shot!

* Murphy's Law as it applies to Wilderness Sightings

So, it has been determined that I am no longer allowed to make reservations for wildlife trips. I'm lucky Terry and Rachel are still willing to let me come on them. I am afflicted by Murphy's Law with anything of the sort, and he pulled through again. Earlier in the trip we attempted to swim with dolphins but were told that the dolphins had left the bay we were going to. Then, yesterday we went on a whale watching tour. We stayed out on swells that were a meter and a half to two meters high for almost two hours without seeing anything. In the meantime, half the boat got seasick. It wasn't just waves, but also choppy. Finally we were at our time limit and were about five minutes headed back to shore when the boat turned around suddenly. The other boat for the company had a whale pop up right next to them, so we went back to try to get a view. We did get back to see the whale on the surface for a bit. He's a regular whale there, a sperm whale named Little Nick due to the nick in his fin; not his size. After we watched him for a couple minutes (Terry's feet got soaked as a wave came over the side of the boat; Rachel and I were on the upper deck), he raised his fluke and dove down again. Did you know that whales can stay underwater for over two hours, even though they breathe oxygen like us? The average length of time is only about 45 minutes. As we were leaving Little Nick, another whale dove near us. We only got to see the fluke, but it was pretty amazing as well. Especially knowing that they are completely wild.

So that was Thursday in Kaikoura. That was after we drove from Dunedin to Kaikoura on Wednesday. Apparently this is New Zealand's rainy season. The only day it really was rainy for us was on Wednesday, which we had set aside as a driving day. We started Wednesday morning by attempting to visit an Albatross sanctuary, but all the Albatross were offshore for breeding season, and there was no guarantee of seeing one. Then we toured Larnach Castle, the only castle in New Zealand. It was an enjoyable self-tour. They gave us a lot of the history of the original family and also the current owners. We then started our 8-hour journey up to Kaikoura, with a brief stop at the, umm..., some rocks that have quartzite in them. (I think. Otherwise Terry will come after me and edit this. =0)

Our whale watch tour was Thursday morning, and a good thing we booked the morning tour. By the time we got back, they had cancelled all afternoon tours. We spent a liesurely early afternoon in Kaikoura, had lunch, did some shopping, and stopped at a seal colony. We were seriously within meters of seals. Although I believe they are actually sea lions. After that we journeyed northwest to Nelson, the gateway to Tasman Abel National Park. This morning we slept in and then drove up to Manarau. We then cruised for three hours on a water taxi, seeing the shoreline. Again, absolutely breathtaking, as was Kaikoura. The water in both places is amazingly clear! And we have mountains, or at least large hills, right by the seashore. Tomorrow I'm hoping to kayak some of that shoreline.

We have a campsite for the night and will be meeting up with the other group for dinner shortly. Terry and I also went for a short, brisk swim in the ocean, since we are on the north end of the south island. It is frigid!

That's the news from the CamperVan. I hope you are all doing well!

Serena, Rachel, and Terry

~ Tourism

I haven’t written for a week, so I want to try to give some general impressions of New Zealand, and our trip, as I have become a bit more acclimated.

First off, the purpose for this land seems to be tourism. We trekked over McKinnon pass on the Milford Track last week. The reason that McKinnon was searching for a pass in the late 19th century was not an improved trade route, or to discover new land; it was actually to facilitate tourism (essentially, to open up the hike we took for tourists). There are agriculture and industries here; but tourism seems to be the raison d’etre.

And for good reason. The views I saw today once again took my breath away, and gave me a real sense of wonder and awe. Our last stop for the day was a seal colony on the coast. We watched (and listened to) seals of all sizes in the wild. There were incredible views of a pounding blue-green surf stretching each way for miles (the wind was up, the waves were huge), with actual mountains in the same frame. It is pretty amazing to stand in a fairly isolated green pasture on a hill, taking all this in, and to see a sign with distances and directions to major cities; 12000 km to New York. You can imagine European explorers, so far from home, viewing and setting foot on this land.

This is definitely a place for driving; the roads are in good condition, tons of fun, and the only way to get anywhere. The road along the west coast here is by far the most beautiful I have ever driven on; offering hundreds of great views as it meanders up into the hills and then plunges back to the beach. Our group seems to do best when we motor along, pulling over for a hiking trail, lookout, or just a pasture every hour. Some pretty funny things can happen in random pastures; today Ben backed off a boardwalk while lining up a picture and fell into a fragile wetland; Tom got attacked by a Weka (their beaks are sharp); and we chased Pukekos and frightened sheep.

Food isn’t quite as good over here on the west coast; but motels are still inexpensive and clean. It is nice to be able to go along and not worry too much about procuring lodging and food. I think everyone has adapted better to each others’ habits (for example, Angela demands a long, drawn-out, full breakfast; whereas Tom insists on skipping breakfast and panics about stopping for lunch on time). We have less time pressure now (basically, just hit the ferry by mid-Sunday), so that helps. I think we’re all going to return to the states a bit more laid-back.

Sherlock Holmes is meant to be read aloud. The Hitler Book, maybe not so much. Good night from Lat. 42 S,

Tom

~ Boo to the stinky plant

I really looked forward to seeing all the different plants and animals when I came to New Zealand. But I kind of guessed that they would be so out there, so varied and so different, that we wouldn’t be able to consistently identify them during our short stay here. But what with the nature walk on the first night of the Milford Track, the explanatory sign posts that the DoC puts in various places, and random information gleaned from people we’ve come across, we can positively identify most of the plants and animals common to the south and west of the South Island. I’ll try not to assume that because these things excite me that they will be equally interesting to the rest of you, so I’ll just list them here – and you can skip the list if it doesn’t interest you!

• Marble Leaf: a cool brush-type plant with… you guessed it… leaves that look marbled!


• Lancewood: a goofy long narrow-leafed plant that looks so different in juvenile form from the adult form that early botanists classified it as two different plants. Theory is that the moa (an extinct ostrich-type bird native to here) ate them, so they only sported un-appetizing leaves until they reached a certain height – beyond where the moas could reach.


• Pepper Tree: a bush that has glossy leaves. If you chew on a tiny bit of it, it really tastes like hot pepper – or like the first taste of Big Red chewing gum! It’s spicy enough that you really don’t want more than a bit at a time, but it is refreshing for when you’re walking through the woods.


• Beeches! These are the big trees that take over when forests here reach maturity. They’re everywhere and they’re beautiful. There are three types (red, silver and… mountain I think) here – and I don’t think they’re actually related to the beeches we know, they were just named that by English settlers because they reminded them of the beeches from home.


• Caposma (I think): a common, round-leafed brush plant that’s everywhere


• Manuka: a brush that is the first to grow in open places – so sheep farmers really hated it because it would start taking over their pastures. They introduced a blight which makes the stems black. The flowers are really popular and Manuka honey is highly valued here – both for it’s taste and because it has antiseptic properties.


• Ferns: there are heaps of types of those about. Some really interesting ones that we don’t know the names for but can recognize when we see them. One we have learned is the tree fern. It’s very cool and looks like a palm tree with fern leaves and fiddleheads at the top instead of palm leaves.


• and, of course, the Stinky Plant! Well – that’s not its Latin name. But the Latin name really does have the root “foetid” in it. If you crush the leaves of this lovely plant, it smells like – you guessed it – poo poo! Sometimes you can smell it walking down the trail, and (whether the plant is truly the source of the smell or not) shouts of “Boo to the stinky plant” suddenly echo up and down the track.

There are birds and other animals which I could list as well, but I think that should probably be enough to keep you going for a while!

Today we enjoyed New Zealand. We started out in Queenstown. It’s a tourist-trap type place. We wanted to go bungee jumping, but that didn’t work out with the small amount of time we actually wanted to spend there, so we ended up riding the gondola up out of town (BEAUTIFUL!) and racing carts down a luge track up there. We then headed out of town with stops at:

• Blue pools: a place where glacier-fed streams pooled. Amazing blue color that I’m quite sure the cameras won’t be able to pick up. The boys had fun skipping stones there, and I proved once and for all that I really can’t do that. :)


• Knight point: an amazing overlook to the Tasman sea. The color again was indescribable. Some neat tourists from Singapore lent us their binoculars, and Ben and Tom (and I think myself!) were able to see seals way down on a distant shore point!


• A random beach point where the sand was black. It was dramatic and cool. I proved once and for all that I can’t jump – I tried jumping a little stream and ended up soaking one foot and shoe!


• A random sheep pasture: we almost ran over a pukeko! Don’t ask...


• Fox Glacier: One of only two glaciers that actually descends into temperate rainforest. We walked right up to it and took heaps of pictures. It’s really hard to get the scale of something like that to click in your head. It was amazing.

* The Southern Dip from the CamperVan

(from the desk of Serena) Let's see... Last time I wrote it was from East to West. Now we're on West to East, via the South. We spent Saturday night camped in Queenstown. As Terry was writing the last post, we also saw Jason and Robin in the internet cafe. They were with us on our blackwater caving adventure. We then ran into them at the check-in for Fox Glacier. (They went on a different tour.) After Terry got done writing the post, the five of us went out to a bar together. Then Terry, Rachel, and I wandered around town for a bit.

Sunday morning started with a jet-boating trip. Justin, you'll be jealous. A jetboat sucks water in through on onboard propeller and shoots it out the back. They actually have two propellers, and that's how they turn. Also, once they get up on the water, they only need four inches to keep going. Our driver took us within inches of canyon walls. We also did 360 degree spins within a boat length at top speed - the only time that we got slightly wet on the journey. Sunday afternoon we split up. Terry went off-roading on a Lord of the Rings tour, while Rachel and I took a steamboat ride to a farm where we went horseback riding. Unfortunately we didn't get to do much riding - mostly sitting on the horses following our guide. But the scenery was gorgeous! (As if anything here isn't!) We also got to see a sheepdog at work bringing in sheep and a sheep-shearing demonstration. We met up with Terry at the camper about 6 pm and left for Manapouri, the gateway to Doubtful Sound.

Monday morning after calling a happy birthday wish to my mom, we got on a cruise to Doubtful Sound, which is actually the second largest fjord in New Zealand - larger than Milford Sound. It was an extensive tour during the eight hours - we took a boat ride across Laka Manapouri, switched to a motorcoach for an hour's drive across the mountains, and then got onto another cruiser to enjoy Doubtful Sound. History note: Doubtful Sound was originally named Doubtful Harbour by Captain Cook. As he sailed pass he declined to go in for fear that he would have unfavorable winds and be unable to make it out again. There are two islands that block the entrance to the Sound from most of the waves and breakers from the sea. Really, there are no words to describe the beauty we saw. There is no way to reach Doubtful Sound by vehicle without crossing Lake Manapouri, so we were the only ones out there. There was a time when the captain cut the engines and we got to spend a few minutes just listening to the nature around us.

On arriving back to shore we had dinner and then made our way Southeast to Invercargill. We were unable to meet up with the other group during our one night stay. This morning we got up and hit the road, after stopping at a pharmacy to get Rachel some medicine. Hopefully she can get over this cold soon so she can go scuba diving! She crashed in the back today while Terry drove us from Invercargill along the Southern Scenic Route to Dunedin. We stopped for some amazing views of the Ocean. At Curio Bay we saw the fossils of a 180-million year old forest (Think Jurassic Period). Repeated volcanic eruptions fossilized the tree stumps and some fallen logs which were buried by the sedintary rock. The remains can only be seen at low tide, which we were fortunate enough to be there for. All the Ocean views we saw were spectacular. The water was such a beautiful, pure blue-green. Rachel wants to live in the valleys of snow-capped mountains, but my home would be on a hill overlooking the ocean, so clear that you can tell the depths by the ocean color. Hopefully we'll get pictures up soon.

I hope you all are doing well!

Serena, Rachel, and Terry

~ Escaping to an island from an island

Greetings from the southernmost reach of civilization! Tom has a theory that Stewart Island is the last place you can find year-round residents on this longitude line (or at least till you get to the South Pole!). Speaking of which, here's a theoretical question for you. If you're on Antarctica and you want to give directions to someone so they can reach you, how do you do that? North is "toward the nearest coast", south is "toward the center", and east and west go in circles!

We're having fun just chilling here. There are about 3 cafes and 400 year-round residents here. You can't take your car on the ferry; not that you'd need it. All you need to do is blink while you're walking and you'll miss the town! Oh - and that's all there is. The roads go a bit out from here, but there isn't another town, so there's no where else that they go. People do week+ tracks around here, but walking tracks are all you'll find on the rest of the island.

We've heard and seen some neat birds here - Patrick's gone off today to another, SMALLER island, Ulva Island, which is a bird sanctuary (all the introduced predators that have threatened the native species in the main islands have been eliminated from there). I'm guessing he'll have plenty to share when he gets back. We're all hoping to see a kiwi bird in the wild, but the odds of that are pretty slim. We'll see!

We're staying in a fairly interesting hotel; it began operating in the 1880's, burned and was rebuilt in the 1920's, and it feels like it hasn't changed much since then (toilets & showers are separate from the rooms!). The only pub in town is located on the first floor. It definitely gives you the sense of stepping back in time.

We'll probably begin making our way up to the NW corner of the South Island. Expect news of a bungee jump in Queenstown!

(oh, and I've finally got a few of my pictures uploaded to Flickr, so click on the New Zealand set here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ladybugblue/.

~ quick update from the Trackers

Did we ever mention that they call "hikes" "tracks" in New Zealand? So the Milford Track (seriously - read a bit about what they say about it - it's amazing to go on a hike that people have been traveling the world to do for over 100 years!) is really the Milford hike. Our group just got back from one of the most incredible nature experiences of our lives. OK, I know I'm speaking for the whole group, but I really don't think they'd disagree with me too much. It's early Monday morning now. We got back last night, did laundry, and crashed. We're heading to Stewart Island, the third biggest island in New Zealand (still much smaller than the other two), today, but we hope to take it somewhat easy there and pull together the daily updates we journaled on the hike. We have ongoing discussions about what's too much - trying to live here, and not just breathlessly slamming from one amazing experience to the next - and it's really a challenge to figure out that balance. This place is amazing, and I'm feeling so priveleged to be here. The group has been fun too - it's great to experience all this stuff with people who are so fun! That being said, words - and even pictures - don't do well at bottling this up. So I can say this truly: I wish you were here! (Especially now that we're all showered and laundered!).

~ Milford Track - Day 4

Did I mention that Clinton Hut, where we stayed the first night gets an average rainfall of 3m per year? That’s like 108 inches! But that’s nothing to where we stayed, near the pass, the second night. They get 6m a year. But that’s nothing to where we stayed the last night, at Dumpling Hut. They get 9m of rain a year. So we finally got to hike in the pouring rain, and really test the seaworthiness of our gear. I’ll just say that some of it held up better than other bits, and that my passport will never look the same again.Today we had to change our ambling ways. We had a six hour hike to get done in six hours in order to make the last ferry out of here. In pouring rain we made our way across and through stream after stream after stream. I would estimate that there were 20-30 bridges that we crossed, many of them full of crashing water, and there were probably 10-15 streams we had to cross that didn’t have bridges. So no one’s feet were dry by the end. The views continued to be absolutely spectacular, but this time we couldn’t take as many pictures because of the pouring water. We reached the ferry stop and debated about whether to change into dry clothes. We couldn’t resist, but then ended up having to run through a waterfall (literally!) to get to the ferry! Oh well. After a hour wait for a two-hour bus ride, we were able to grab fish and chips from a Te Anau shop, and then book it back to Invercargill for our night’s stay. Tomorrow? Steward Island!

~ Milford Track - Day 3

Today we got a good start – for us – our targeted start of 9:00 AM. That may not seem early, but to have cooked breakfast, cleaned it up, packed everything, and be ready to go by then – for four people – IS an accomplishment! Today should have been illegal. We were told to expect rain, increasingly, throughout the day. We didn’t get more than a drop till 4:00 PM. Since today involved crossing the MacKinnon pass, that meant we had absolutely stellar views of both the valley which we had just come through for the last 2 ½ days, and of our path for today. I hope the pictures will capture those views somewhat. It was hard work – going up 500m along switchbacks, and then – even harder! – coming back down 1000m (I know – you’d think going down would be easier. You don’t get as out of breath, but it really is harder in terms of navigating around rocks and “controlling” each downward step). The vegetation was great – we saw huge fuchsia trees – the biggest in the world is here, apparently – a few wekas (a flightless bird that’s sort of a second cousin once removed to the kiwi bird here), and heaps of keas.This morning around 6:30 I was awakened by a series of loud cries that sounded like a cross between a loud, distressed cat meow and a creaking door. A mob of keas was convening on our roof, with some birds soaring out to nearby trees and back again. I had a view of the helicopter pad from where I slept, and could see them occasionally congregate there as well. The kea is an alpine parrot, which no one seems to officially call pests, but they do eat rubber. (Including car parts and boot soles and rain jackets. They seem to have it out for the Danes in particular – one of their boots got it the first night, and one of their jackets the last.) But later today as they cried and soared across the valleys between the hut and the pass they really were beautiful, and their cries were perfectly fitted to the terrain and the far spaces. We took a detour to see Southerland Falls. That was brutal on our feet – even without packs – it was well worth it. We actually swam, well dipped actually, in the frigid spray. Probably the scariest thing we’ll do here (so far anyway)!The group has been awesome. We get along well, travel well, and laugh with and at each other well. The rain is starting to really pour, and I’m tired, so I think I’ll call it a night!

~ Milford Track - Day 2

We talked today about pitying everyone who couldn’t see what we did today. And I suppose to some extent I do. I mean – we ran out of words, and not long after we started approaching the limit of our digital cameras’ memories & batter power! One of my family’s favorite quotes is, “more isn’t always better, Linus, sometimes it’s just more.” So we spent the second half of the day trying NOT to take pictures. Trying not to capture EACH new breathtaking view. But really, the people who truly need pity are those who see what we saw today without having anyone to share it with. We experienced today together. And we are also incredibly, amazingly rich in that we have you, back home, interested in what we’re experiencing here and in what we find so much difficulty expressing. So THANK YOU for being here with us in some sense.Today was a fun walk. We think we’ve figured out how to do this. This track is not difficult, and we’re not allowed to go further than a preset distance as a part of how they have configured these walks. So many of the group take off, book it to the next hut, get there about 2 or 3 in the afternoon, and then hang out in the hut for the rest of the day. We have been getting half-way decent start times, but we take our time as we hike throughout the day. So we take time to really enjoy views, to look for birds we can hear and hope to see (in spite of how convinced Tom is that they’ll be hideously ugly when we do see them!), to eat, and (in Ben’s case today!) to swim. We (Ben, Tom, and I – Patrick had some painful weird ear thing happening after getting water in his ears swimming) went on a nature walk last night with the hut ranger from Clinton hut, so we spent a bunch of the day i.d’ing plants & mosses we had learned about from him. He also took us on a little night-hike to see glow worms so we stopped this morning to see what they look like during the day! The rain didn’t settle in till 3 or 4 this afternoon (and it’s pretty much a given for much of this hike, so that’s really good), so I can’t think of a way to improve on the day. Except that I burned the rice. :) We spent the evening playing games with Katie & Angelo from Perth (Australia) and Roger, from Victoria (also Australia). Joerg, who made us nervous because he didn’t get here till 9 or so tonight, also joined our table at the end. They play O Heck! in Australia! Woo hoo! Ben & Tom tied for the win, which is a pretty good accomplishment in that big a group.

~ Milford Track - Day 1

This morning started quite nicely – we didn’t have to leave our hostel till 9:15 so we had time for showers (the last for quite a while!) coffee, breakfast, and a wee bit of blogging. The computers here have been somewhat frustrating – slow! – and fussy about payment. We’ve managed to get blogs out there each day, but I would really like to get photos as well. Hopefully things will be better Sunday night – they have tons of the computers at the hostel where we’ll be staying.I’m sitting on the top bunk in a hut on the Milford Track. This hut holds 20 or so, so people and sand flies keep coming and going, but it’s a friendly, well-lit place so it’s all good. There’s a nature walk at 5, and we may try to play some cards before we go.To get here involved a bus ride with a slightly sassy and informative bus driver, an hour-and-a-half ferry ride, and a leisurely 5K walk. Oh and TONS of incredible scenery. The ferry had lovely seats inside, but we spent the entire ride on top, bracing for the wind, lurches, and occasional spray. Patrick & Ben took some incredible photos, and I got to know Mette, a girl from Denmark. She is funny and interesting. I did have to assure her that we did know that Denmark is not a province of Germany NOR the capital of Sweden, as other Americans she has met have believed.We took our time getting started on the walk, and Joerg (pronounced Yerg), a German guy who’s been in Australia and now works for the NZ DoC (Dept. of Conservation – the ones who run this walk) waited up for us and wandered the 5K with us. He’s going to be a Visitor Center guide for them, based out of Queenstown, so he’s taking this hike to be knowledgeable about it when giving recommendations. He’s great to talk to because he knows a lot about the area. He had to wonder a bit at 4 crazy Americans who get excited about ferns growing out of trees, the color of the undersides of the beech trees here, goofy lichen and fungi, and pretty much every view we stumbled across. I’m guessing we put him over, though, when Ben, Patrick & Tom hopped into swimsuits and then jumped 10-15 feet into the clear, frigid Clinton River which the Milford Track has been following so far. What with pauses for lunch in an achingly remote & beautiful valley (with helicopters hovering in & dropping off supplies for a luxury hut, and beautiful black-and-white ducks that wave yet to i.d. soaring overhead) and to wander about the river’s edge to skip stones and climb on rocks, there’s really nothing to complain about. Even the sand flies – though they made Ben’s lip swell up – are nothing to stable flies, so we refuse to complain about them!

* from East to West

(from the desk of Serena) Yesterday Terry, Rachel and I meandered from Akaroa on a bay on Banks Peninsula on the eastern side of NZ through Arthur's pass to Greymouth on the West side. Let's see you cross a country in a day! We had set the day aside for driving, so we stopped several times to enjoy scenery. Terry handled all the winding roads in our campervan wonderfully. I did have to tell him he could have found a more beautiful spot for lunch. He could only find an amazing valley with sparkling blue water. In the distance we had snow-capped mountains. Every now and then a small waterfall gushed out through the rock, falling about 50-100 feet before it hit the bottom. We also took a walk over a footbridge where we could see to the bottom of the 20 foot deep river that gushed through it. The bridge had a maximum of 5 people, until the end where we had to go down one at a time. We also went under a bridge that was built for water to flow across above us. It was wonderful driving through the valleys surrounded by snow-capped mountains.

We spent last night on the Seashore in Greymouth. Rachel and I saw a gorgeous sunset over the water. This morning we got up early to go on a blackwater tubing adventure. We were with an Australian couple, a British couple, and our guide. We had a 20 minute walk through gorgeous rainforest lands to the cave entrance. There was a lot of wandering through the caves and less tubing, but it was amazing. I felt like I was at Devil's Lake in the darkness. We had some small caverns that we climbed through. During our tubing sessions we got to see glowworms on the top of the caverns. At the end, Terry and I slid down a 30-foot natural waterslide. That was a rush! Then we got to enjoy their complimentary hot tub, muffins, and beer/wine.

From here, we plan to head South to Fox Glacier and then on to Queenstown, where we will hopefully catch up with the other group and exchange stories.

Hope you are all doing well!

Serena, Rachel, and Terry

~ Nondescript Birds

Today was meander about New Zealand day. We started out bumbling around Dunedin - looking for breakfast, antique shops and an internet cafe. More or less successful, and with several longing glances backwards (what a sa-weet town!), we headed off to seek our fortunes on the road to Te Anau (where our 4-day Milford Track hike will begin). We think we found them in the mountains that continued to become larger and more snow-capped as the day went on. It's becoming increasingly hard to think about leaving this place, and we have yet to see the most beautiful (at least, according to report!) sights. This is sheep country. There are domesticated deer and cattle in the pastures about, but mostly, mostly there are sheep. Some have been sheared, and there are many little lambs. I know! You wouldn't necessarily associate sheep with beauty, but seeing the steep, grassy hills covered with them really is amazing!
We needed to reach Te Anau in time to get our Milford track tickets, so once we had done that, we took a long hike along Lake Te Anau. Tom had purchased a "wildlife of New Zealand" book, and when we found a bird with a pretty song was quick to find that it was "possibly the most nondescript bird in New Zealand" - a grey warbler. It did sound pretty. :) They had a bird preserve halfway along the walk, so we wandered about, learning about parakeets, takahes, pukekos, keas, more-porks, and a strange-looking game bird that was introduced to the country in the mid-1900s, the Canada goose.
After an Italian dinner (well, pizza IS Italian!), we headed out to the Barnyard Backpackers hostel - a sweet series of cabins laying along a ridge overlooking a valley and mountains. We watched people herding sheep and deer in their pickup and watched the sun disappear behind the mountains.
We leave tomorrow at 9:15 AM for the Milford Track adventure; so won't be posting anything from our group till next Sunday (our time!)
ps - it's morning now. The clouds hug the mountain sides. The one place we need to go is up. And the time is now. To visit the clouds in such a place... I am reminded daily of the majesty of it all, and of my luck. Oh well, time to go romp in the mountains :) (patrick)

~ ohwow

(Authored by Tom) Yikes. Today, New Zealand ratcheted it up several notches. It cranked it to 11. It started out pretty mild; we decided to do a little shopping and then make our way down to Dunedin, in preperation for making it to Te Anua tomorrow. We had heard that it would take about 5.5 hours to reach Dunedin, depending on how many stops we made. The drive to Te Anua should take 3.5 from there.

So, after breakfast at a delightful little bakery, we initiated the process of parting with hard-earned NZ dollars. The store recommendation we had received proved to be a good one; the service was friendly and the prices weren't insanely unreasonable. We met an ex-Wisconsite working at the store; a gal who had moved to NZ three years ago and who had managed to nail the accent. The other clerk had a pretty good sense of humor; I would say a biting sarcasm that gets right to the point. I've noticed that in a few Kiwis, and I find it very refreshing. Overall, everyone seems very laid-back and kind; the humor makes it interesting. Anyway, Angela purchased a ridiculous-looking brown Merino Wool sweater (when everyone else told her she looked much better in the blue one); at least it's supposed to be pretty warm. Form will definitely follow function.

Further stops included the grocery store for backpacking and snack food (only 200 NZ dollars, about 140 US, for a whole lot of food), and a hardware store, so Patrick and Ben could feed their obsessions for NZ window and door latches.

Finally, at about 12:30, it was time to enter the NZ countryside. First; there are sheeps. Many, many sheeps. It is very difficult to restrain yourself from jumping the fence and burying your face in their thick, woolly wool. The country is very pretty, gently rolling pasture with tall evergreen hedges neatly trimmed in rectangles (often 20 ft. high). We drove for a few hours and stopped for lunch at Timaru, a pretty town where the road meets the Pacific ocean. Ben wanted to go look at the cliffs on the Pacific, and so we decided to stop for a little while.

So this is really where it began. The view we had was just wonderful. The Pacific was doing an azure-blue thing, with nice waves rolling in. On the left was a small peninsula with some picturesque NZ houses; on the right was a large tidal beach and a clean, colorful dock. Combined with the soft greens and yellows of the flora/fauna and the deep clouds, it made a breathtaking scene. I can't imagine living in a town with access to something like this. Plus, most of the buildings are so pleasant; "quaint" is really the word, with very pretty architecture and neatly manicured, colorful gardens.

After a great hike, and a good 10 minutes playing with a curved stick (ah, the simple pleasures of being on vacation), we took off for Dunedin. But now, more and more, the views out the car window included large green hills in the foreground and brilliant white peaks in the background. And then the road would turn a bit and we would see the shining blue Pacific. Back, and forth; back and forth. We stopped next at a place (I don't remeber the name) that we read had funny boulders.

This is definitely where it went to 11. Imagine the a wide beach to the left and right; muted tan sand and cool azure waves lapping on shore. At the edges of your vision are soft green, hilly peninsulas, jutting out into the sea. At your feet are iridescent snails and crisp white seashells. And, at one small place on the beach , there are wonderful spherical stones scattered about as if a giant moa laid her eggs. Words really aren't going to describe this place (or likely, the rest of the trip), but I thought I'd give it a try.

Ben began dreaming up a whole series of pictures with people balancing on the "eggs", doing cartwheels off the eggs, handstands on the eggs, shots making it appear that people were hatching from the eggs...After an hour of this and just walking along the most beautiful place that any of us had ever seen, we aimed to finish the drive to Dunedin.

The last hour was the best for car scenery. Again, high green rolling hills, this time with an incredible sunset. I love this place; it has the charm of England combined with beautiful mountains, rolling hills, and the Pacific.

We picked a hotel; hotels are always interesting here. WE found one that was "a three bedroom apartment" for $160 NZ (~120 American); it turned out to be huge, with a large great room with skylight and kitchen. No standard hotel form, really. Just crazy.

Pictures to be pposted later. Overall, I'm struck with a feeling that life is pleasant. On that note, I bid you good night,

Tom, Angela, Ben, Patrick

~ The Best Dinner North of Antarctica

Well, it's officially embarassing. I think I'm picking up a Kiwi accent. Half the time I do it purposely. The for the other alarming half it's not conscious at all. My traveling buddies smile and are tolerant, but it DOES make me wonder when and how it will end.

We woke this morning to the sound of pouring rain, but by the time we had rolled out of bed, taken showers, had a lovely breakfast at our B&B, and gotten our stuff to the car, it had cleared up quite nicely. The day wasn't warm exactly, but it was sunny and beautiful out. We started out at the International Antarctic Center (which included a romp in the "Storm Room" - nothing like the real Antarctica, but enough like Wisconsin winters to be fun, Tom trying to eat a live penguin and failing miserably because of the darn cuteness of the thing, and learning all sorts of bits about Antarctica that we never knew [like that it's the dryest continent on earth, with fire being one of the biggest hazards of the place!]). That brought us to lunch time, where we met up with the other group and tried for the second time to eat at a highly recommended restaruant, Hay's (the Indonesian last night was second choice when Hay's was closed yesterday), found it still closed, and wound up eating at a comfy little pub. Then we went for a grand, long walk along the Avon River, which ended in the Botanical Gardens with a quick glance through the History of Christchurch Museum. The gardens were incredible - and I, at least, am hoping we get another shot at them before we leave the South Island - many of the roses (including some blue ones!) look like they're about to bloom. The trees were HUGE! We bid the other group farewell - we probably won't hook up with them again till we finish our 4-day hike next Sunday or Monday.


We then took off for what will definitely be a highlight of our stay in this incredible country. Neil (a friend of mine from Appleton) grew up in Christchurch, so when we called his sister Caitriona yesterday, she invited us for dinner this evening. Wow. We met her, her husband Ian, her (and Neil's) mum Alice, and her son Sam. They were so fun and informative. We talked for hours and they fed us an incredible meal (rack of lamb, venison sausages, foccacia bread, asparagus, roasted potatoes and tons more), followed up with a New Zealand specialty that Ian had made: Pavlova topped with boysenberries. I'm kicking myself that I didn't take a picture of it, but it was lovely - merengue topped with homemade whipping cream and fruit. If we had to leave NZ tomorrow, that visit alone would have made coming here worth it!
Tomorrow we have no certain plans whatsoever - we just know that we want to end up in Te Anau (on the opposite side of the island) by Wed!

Be a tidy Kiwi

As you may or may not know, New Zealanders refer to themselves as Kiwis. Kiwis (non-human ones) are small, flightless birds native only to NZ. "Kiwi" is also what they (the humans) renamed the fruit to when they wanted to market it worldwide! When we were in the food court of the Manakau shopping center today, Terry bought soda in a can and we had fun reading its label. My favorite - their encouragement not to litter (presumably with that can), came with the appeal, "BE A TIDY KIWI." That is an obligation and responsibility that we will undertake to discharge as honorably as we possibly can during our stay here.

And, yes, we've made it safely here to Christchurch. Today was a day of travel. We had a delayed flight in Appleton, a long layover in LA, and then got to Auckland later than expected - so took a short jaunt to the Manakau shopping center before hopping on a flight to Christchurch. So if we count wait times, the journey here took us... (calculating here...) 36 hours. Of course, New Zealand is 18 (although I think it's 17 now that Daylight Savings has presumbly struck back there) ahead of Wisconsin time, so between the mad travel changes and adjusting to being on the opposite side of the world, we're pretty bushed tonight.

We went to dinner tonight at an Indonesian restaurant (incredible!), and then barely made it back to our respective resting spots for the evening. *yawn!*. G' night!