July 30, 2009
This is the end of my trip! It’s been a wonderful month down under but I’m definitely ready to be back home. There was frost outside of Raven’s house on the 28th and now it’s the 30th and it’s 104 degrees in Seattle. Yipes! That’s like a 70 degree jump. This’ll be interesting.
I got up, got ready and tried to be quiet because of the other occupant in my room. She was STILL asleep. She had gone to bed at 9 or earlier and was still in bed. I packed and got ready to check out at 10 and she was still asleep. I don’t know why it annoyed me so much but it did. I guess it’s because I hated being quiet the entire time. LOL. Anyway, I went to a cafe for breakfast and finally had kiwi french toast. Yummy! I then headed outside to wait for the bus to the airport. I was incredibly early but knew there wasn’t anything really worth doing in an hour so I waited for the bus. The bus came behind another bus and didn’t wait to pick up their passenger. The other bus driver honked at him, trying to get his attention but he wasn’t interested in stopping. It’s a good thing I was early! I waited 20 more minutes and this time I got on no problem. I headed to the airport, got my luggage, checked in and headed to the duty free area to buy more last minute stuff. I went through customs, which surprised me, and then waited for my gate to be called.
I had an aisle seat on the plane but it was in the middle row, being a 747. No one sat next to me or next to the guy on the other side of the middle row so we had two seats open between us. Score! I could actually lay out to sleep, not that I could sleep a lot. Really, nothing to report on the plane. LOL.
I landed in LA and went through customs. Raven had told me that she loves coming back to NZ because the customs agents say “Welcome home”. I’m happy to report that when I went through US customs, the agent said exactly the same thing to me! Yep, welcome home! No issues going through customs and the atmosphere felt so much better than 5 years ago when I came back to the US. I’m not sure if it’s just time passing after 9/11 or if it’s the change in administration or both but it was nice to not be made to feel like a criminal going back to the country. Yay! I had a 6 hour layover in LAX and headed back to Seattle. My dad picked me up at the airport, we went out for dinner and I headed back to Olympia where Chloe was waiting for me. I’m home!!!
July 30, 2009
This is the end of my trip! It’s been a wonderful month down under but I’m definitely ready to be back home. There was frost outside of Raven’s house on the 28th and now it’s the 30th and it’s 104 degrees in Seattle. Yipes! That’s like a 70 degree jump. This’ll be interesting.
I got up, got ready and tried to be quiet because of the other occupant in my room. She was STILL asleep. She had gone to bed at 9 or earlier and was still in bed. I packed and got ready to check out at 10 and she was still asleep. I don’t know why it annoyed me so much but it did. I guess it’s because I hated being quiet the entire time. LOL. Anyway, I went to a cafe for breakfast and finally had kiwi french toast. Yummy! I then headed outside to wait for the bus to the airport. I was incredibly early but knew there wasn’t anything really worth doing in an hour so I waited for the bus. The bus came behind another bus and didn’t wait to pick up their passenger. The other bus driver honked at him, trying to get his attention but he wasn’t interested in stopping. It’s a good thing I was early! I waited 20 more minutes and this time I got on no problem. I headed to the airport, got my luggage, checked in and headed to the duty free area to buy more last minute stuff. I went through customs, which surprised me, and then waited for my gate to be called.
I had an aisle seat on the plane but it was in the middle row, being a 747. No one sat next to me or next to the guy on the other side of the middle row so we had two seats open between us. Score! I could actually lay out to sleep, not that I could sleep a lot. Really, nothing to report on the plane. LOL.
I landed in LA and went through customs. Raven had told me that she loves coming back to NZ because the customs agents say “Welcome home”. I’m happy to report that when I went through US customs, the agent said exactly the same thing to me! Yep, welcome home! No issues going through customs and the atmosphere felt so much better than 5 years ago when I came back to the US. I’m not sure if it’s just time passing after 9/11 or if it’s the change in administration or both but it was nice to not be made to feel like a criminal going back to the country. Yay! I had a 6 hour layover in LAX and headed back to Seattle. My dad picked me up at the airport, we went out for dinner and I headed back to Olympia where Chloe was waiting for me. I’m home!!!
UPDATE: Oh my goodness, how could I forget to mention the flight from LAX to Seattle?! First of all, in my LONG layover I was getting close to boarding the plane when I looked over at the seats and saw a girl that looked a lot like one of my former students. Then I saw her twin. OMG, it was the Drama Twins!!! Joyce knows of whom I speak. They were in California with their mom and partner and they were very excited to see me. It was funny because they were freaking out saying "Are we really in California?! We're not in Shelton". Ha ha. THEN I got on the plane and while I was walking down the aisle I saw one of my favorite professors from HUC, Dr. Cutter. He was happy to see me and arranged so that I traded seats with someone so that I could sit next to him. It was a wonderful 2 1/2 hours talking with him. He said that the school sees it as one of its biggest failures that I left the program. Wow! He said that a lot of people assumed I'd be back after a leave of absence, including himself. There's no way I'd pursue that path again but it's nice to hear. Funny how no one from the college ever contacted me if they were so concerned about me leaving. He also asked me about my thoughts on our year in Israel. A few years ago, I may have sugar coated what I thought but not now. I told him exactly what I thought of my experience and he thanked me for my honesty. He really was one of my favorite professors in LA and I may have blogged a few years ago (it would have been in 2005) about when he took me to a Dodgers game and when he called my phone and left a message when he heard I was leaving. I should go back and reread the post because I seem to remember transcribing the message onto here. Anyway, it was strange to have my own students and my own professor on the same flight as I'm feeling very jet lagged and out of sorts but it was truly an amazing conversation and I was glad that I hadn't flown standby for an earlier flight.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Masterton to Auckland
July 29, 2009
This is the beginning of my journey back to the States. I woke up this morning, Raven had made breakfast and we got ready to leave for Wellington. She had an errand to run downtown so we were there much earlier than would otherwise be necessary. We drove to the Immigration office so that they could get permanent residence visas for their passports. We got into the office, sat there for a while waiting for our number to be called and I decided that I needed to get something from the car. I left Raven and went back downstairs chatting with this other girl on the way. She asked if I was immigrating to New Zealand. I said that I wasn’t but my friend was and she asked if I would want to move to New Zealand. I said I wouldn’t be opposed to it. LOL. On the way back from the car, I ran into Raven who was not happy. Apparently, in order to get the visas they need to fill out a form she didn’t know about. All the way to Wellington and all for naught. We went to give G the form that she would have to fill out, sat with her during her lunch hour and then headed over to Te Papa because I wanted to eat at One Red Dog and get their lamb salad one more time (OMG, it’s DELICIOUS). We found it and had that amazing salad and then headed out to the airport. Thank you, Raven, for being such an amazing host and making this trip so memorable!
I said goodbye to Raven and headed inside to see about getting my luggage to Auckland. I was worried because my luggage is within the limit for international but not domestic. Just like in the States, there is now a baggage fee for checking luggage and because I was not flying Air New Zealand to the States, only to Auckland, they wouldn’t waive the fee. Bastards. I checked my luggage and headed over to my gate. You don’t have to go through any security until you get to your gate and you’re boarding the plane. I thought those days were gone forever. We got on the plane, no problem. Flew to Wellington, no problem. Transfered to the International terminal no problem. Stored my suitcases overnight, no problem. Got on the shuttle to downtown, no problem. Checked into the backpacker... kept getting placed in a top bunk. The guy gave me four different keys before I got a room with a bottom bunk. If there are no other options, I can deal with it but there were other rooms available so I kept trying until I got the room I wanted. No one was in there yet so I took a bottom bunk, set down my stuff and headed out into Auckland. I decided on an easy evening so I went to the local movie theater, had dinner, book shopped and got a few last minute things before my flight the next day. I came back after the movie and there was another person asleep in the room. I grabbed my laptop and headed down to the main area. While I was online, I overheard this group of obnoxious backpackers, one of them American. The American was going on and on about how he doesn’t think that backpackers should allow people who are over 30 into them. Yes, us 30 somethings are really ruining his backpacker experience. *Grumble, snarl, young whippersnappers, growl* I was so annoyed and almost said something but then decided it wasn’t worth it. While fuming about this conversation, my laptop decided to give me the blue screen of death over and over again. I had it with that darn computer (I’m writing this from the States a few days late and I’m now typing on my new mac!!!). I paid to use the computers at the hostel and stayed up for a while before finally heading up to bed. My last night in New Zealand!
This is the beginning of my journey back to the States. I woke up this morning, Raven had made breakfast and we got ready to leave for Wellington. She had an errand to run downtown so we were there much earlier than would otherwise be necessary. We drove to the Immigration office so that they could get permanent residence visas for their passports. We got into the office, sat there for a while waiting for our number to be called and I decided that I needed to get something from the car. I left Raven and went back downstairs chatting with this other girl on the way. She asked if I was immigrating to New Zealand. I said that I wasn’t but my friend was and she asked if I would want to move to New Zealand. I said I wouldn’t be opposed to it. LOL. On the way back from the car, I ran into Raven who was not happy. Apparently, in order to get the visas they need to fill out a form she didn’t know about. All the way to Wellington and all for naught. We went to give G the form that she would have to fill out, sat with her during her lunch hour and then headed over to Te Papa because I wanted to eat at One Red Dog and get their lamb salad one more time (OMG, it’s DELICIOUS). We found it and had that amazing salad and then headed out to the airport. Thank you, Raven, for being such an amazing host and making this trip so memorable!
I said goodbye to Raven and headed inside to see about getting my luggage to Auckland. I was worried because my luggage is within the limit for international but not domestic. Just like in the States, there is now a baggage fee for checking luggage and because I was not flying Air New Zealand to the States, only to Auckland, they wouldn’t waive the fee. Bastards. I checked my luggage and headed over to my gate. You don’t have to go through any security until you get to your gate and you’re boarding the plane. I thought those days were gone forever. We got on the plane, no problem. Flew to Wellington, no problem. Transfered to the International terminal no problem. Stored my suitcases overnight, no problem. Got on the shuttle to downtown, no problem. Checked into the backpacker... kept getting placed in a top bunk. The guy gave me four different keys before I got a room with a bottom bunk. If there are no other options, I can deal with it but there were other rooms available so I kept trying until I got the room I wanted. No one was in there yet so I took a bottom bunk, set down my stuff and headed out into Auckland. I decided on an easy evening so I went to the local movie theater, had dinner, book shopped and got a few last minute things before my flight the next day. I came back after the movie and there was another person asleep in the room. I grabbed my laptop and headed down to the main area. While I was online, I overheard this group of obnoxious backpackers, one of them American. The American was going on and on about how he doesn’t think that backpackers should allow people who are over 30 into them. Yes, us 30 somethings are really ruining his backpacker experience. *Grumble, snarl, young whippersnappers, growl* I was so annoyed and almost said something but then decided it wasn’t worth it. While fuming about this conversation, my laptop decided to give me the blue screen of death over and over again. I had it with that darn computer (I’m writing this from the States a few days late and I’m now typing on my new mac!!!). I paid to use the computers at the hostel and stayed up for a while before finally heading up to bed. My last night in New Zealand!
Masterton
July 28, 2009
I woke up, got ready and went into Raven’s house to start my day. We didn’t have any definite plans but quickly went into town to stop at the pharmacy and run a few errands. While out, I mentioned my interest in seeing a kiwi school while I’m here. Raven called R and we looked in the phone book for schools. We called a school nearby and the secretary told me that the principal would call right back. Well, the principal did not call right back and I kind of gave up. R called back and said that his coworker knew the principal at another school and to give them a call. I did so and the principal took my call. He was very gracious and invited me to come to his school at 1 pm to meet him and get a tour of the school.
Raven dropped me off at the school and as promised, I met the principal and he told me about the school. It’s a public school and I think I remember him saying that it’s a high poverty school (well, the kiwi term for high poverty, anyway). I was so impressed by the school. He said that the staff and students all take ownership of the school and that it’s a tight knit group. They created their own vision a few years ago that I really liked.
So, this school lived their vision. I loved the habits and I heard teachers using them in their interactions with students. “Now Eddie, was that a peaceful action?” I loved it. I had 3 kids walking me around the school. They’re all grade 6, which seems to be 4-5 grade in the States. This is their final year at the school and they made a point of telling me that because of this fact, they didn’t have to wear uniforms. They called themselves counselors, which I guess means that they’re the leaders of the school. They plan social activities, organize the class garden and work on the radio station. The principal told me that the kids are taught how to think for themselves and work for what they want. He gave an example of a local company offering solar panels for 7 schools on the North Island. The kids decided that they wanted this and filled out the application themselves. The company came to the school and interviewed the students. The kids showed them around the school and answered questions. Not surprisingly, the school won the panels. While I was there, the 6th grade teacher took her kids outside to take a vote on where they wanted to put artwork that they were designing for the school. They were about to submit a proposal to the principal with permission to create this artwork, which was going to reflect the different cultures at the school. I got the email address of the teacher and we are hopefully going to have our kids write to each other via email next year. Yay!
After school, Raven picked me up and we went to Moore Wilson to buy some yummies to take back to the States. We then headed back to her house where I tackled my suitcases and she cooked dinner. I don’t know how it happened, but I had sooooo much stuff to take back with me. My lovely fantail iron coat hanger hanging wouldn’t fit into my suitcase so Raven said she’d bring it next time she’s here. I was really at a loss on how the stuff would fit when Raven brought out these vacuum bags she uses when she travels. They did the trick and with her help, I got most of my stuff into both of my suitcases. The rest fit into my carryon, phew!
Raven had been promising me a lamb shank dinner since I got to NZ and she did not disappoint. She made a wonderful feast and it was a terrific way to end my trip. After dinner their neighbor David came over and I got to meet him. He was hilarious. He is from the UK and listening to Raven and David in conversation was quite funny. It was a really nice evening.
I woke up, got ready and went into Raven’s house to start my day. We didn’t have any definite plans but quickly went into town to stop at the pharmacy and run a few errands. While out, I mentioned my interest in seeing a kiwi school while I’m here. Raven called R and we looked in the phone book for schools. We called a school nearby and the secretary told me that the principal would call right back. Well, the principal did not call right back and I kind of gave up. R called back and said that his coworker knew the principal at another school and to give them a call. I did so and the principal took my call. He was very gracious and invited me to come to his school at 1 pm to meet him and get a tour of the school.
Raven dropped me off at the school and as promised, I met the principal and he told me about the school. It’s a public school and I think I remember him saying that it’s a high poverty school (well, the kiwi term for high poverty, anyway). I was so impressed by the school. He said that the staff and students all take ownership of the school and that it’s a tight knit group. They created their own vision a few years ago that I really liked.
So, this school lived their vision. I loved the habits and I heard teachers using them in their interactions with students. “Now Eddie, was that a peaceful action?” I loved it. I had 3 kids walking me around the school. They’re all grade 6, which seems to be 4-5 grade in the States. This is their final year at the school and they made a point of telling me that because of this fact, they didn’t have to wear uniforms. They called themselves counselors, which I guess means that they’re the leaders of the school. They plan social activities, organize the class garden and work on the radio station. The principal told me that the kids are taught how to think for themselves and work for what they want. He gave an example of a local company offering solar panels for 7 schools on the North Island. The kids decided that they wanted this and filled out the application themselves. The company came to the school and interviewed the students. The kids showed them around the school and answered questions. Not surprisingly, the school won the panels. While I was there, the 6th grade teacher took her kids outside to take a vote on where they wanted to put artwork that they were designing for the school. They were about to submit a proposal to the principal with permission to create this artwork, which was going to reflect the different cultures at the school. I got the email address of the teacher and we are hopefully going to have our kids write to each other via email next year. Yay!
After school, Raven picked me up and we went to Moore Wilson to buy some yummies to take back to the States. We then headed back to her house where I tackled my suitcases and she cooked dinner. I don’t know how it happened, but I had sooooo much stuff to take back with me. My lovely fantail iron coat hanger hanging wouldn’t fit into my suitcase so Raven said she’d bring it next time she’s here. I was really at a loss on how the stuff would fit when Raven brought out these vacuum bags she uses when she travels. They did the trick and with her help, I got most of my stuff into both of my suitcases. The rest fit into my carryon, phew!
Raven had been promising me a lamb shank dinner since I got to NZ and she did not disappoint. She made a wonderful feast and it was a terrific way to end my trip. After dinner their neighbor David came over and I got to meet him. He was hilarious. He is from the UK and listening to Raven and David in conversation was quite funny. It was a really nice evening.
Kaikoura to Masterton
July 27, 2009
We woke up, had breakfast and packed up, ready to leave Kaikoura. We had a ferry to catch in Picton and a 2 hour drive ahead of us so we headed out and drove north. I had wanted to stop at some wineries while in NZ so we made a point of stopping at some wineries in Blenheim. We came across Montana Winery, the largest winery in New Zealand so we stopped. We walked in and one of the employees was walking out. She smiled at us and walked out the door. No one was in the wine tasting area, even though they had just opened. We walked around the shop for a little while, hoping that someone would come help us. Finally, the same lady came back in and seemed surprised that we hadn’t been served. Apparently, there was another employee that was supposed to be helping us. Anyway, she was very gracious and let me sample a bunch of their wines. They sell wine in the US under the label of “Brancott” because they don’t want to confuse people with Montana. Raven wasn’t impressed with the idea of wine tasting at 10 am so she let me try the wines on my own. Since I have already exceeded the booze quota I can bring back into the US, I didn’t buy any but I did take note of the label and I’ll be sure to look for their label at home.
We arrived in Picton pretty early and had over an hour before the deadline for check in. We went to the ferry terminal and it was still closed so we drove into the heart of the town to go get some lunch. After all, the ferry food is disgusting in New Zealand. We decided on a cafe based on liking the name (of course, I’m writing this a few days late so I can’t remember the name... something to do with dogs ... bad sign). It was not the best lunch I’ve had in NZ, that’s for sure. I ordered a sandwich with salad and asked about the dressing (learning my lesson in Kaikoura). Sure enough, they only had that icky mayonnaise dressing so I skipped the salad. Ew. They had a wall with a map of the world on it. New Zealand’s place on the map had a 1 inch hole where the country should have been because people kept putting in pins of where they’re from. There was room for Olympia, surprise, surprise.
We headed back over to the ferry gate and were still early but the gate was open so Raven handed the lady our reservation. The lady handed it back and waved us through to a specific lane. Raven commented that she didn’t give a ticket to us. I figured that might be normal since we had our printed reservation and she’d confirmed our reservation but Raven commented that we got a boarding pass on the way over. Well, after waiting in the car for an hour it was time to board and she was right about that boarding pass. The guy taking tickets said we needed one to board, called the lady, she confirmed that we did check in and then made us pull over to see if the boarding pass fell onto the floor. We insisted there wasn’t one, looked on the floor and told him. He then said to look around the car. UGH! THERE WASN’T ONE! He let us through and we hurried out of the car and onto the boat to search for a seat with an outlet. On the way to the South Island, we were on a different ferry, one that had tables with power outlets, much like the States. We were now on a fancier ferry, one without power outlets and lovely tables by the window. It even had an elite area where only those who pay $40 extra per person can go. Ugh. Well, we finally found an outlet and two French guys were using it. :( There were no other ones accessible on the ship. We sat above them on a loft and a little ways into the trip, I noticed that they had left for a bit. Raven and I moved down there, unplugged their computers (yes, we did. LOL) and took the table next to theirs. They soon came back and looked quite disgruntled until Raven told them that we could all share the power with her power strip. Much better. I walked around the ferry a bit and I really didn’t like it as much as I did on the way over. It is a fancier boat but I’m a northwest girl and I like the other ferry, which has a closer resemblance to the ferries in WA. It didn’t even have a good deck to go outside and take pictures from so I mostly sat at the table and worked on my computer with Raven. We got close to Wellington around 3 or so and noticed that we could already see the ferry dock but we were suddenly traveling at a snail’s pace and it took forever to get into Wellington. We arranged to meet up with G for dinner so we drove over to her work. We were a bit early so we walked over to a drugstore and looked at magazines for a while until it was time to meet her. We went out for Indian food at a place next to her office and had a good chat before saying goodbye and heading out to the Rimutaka, a crazy, windy road between Wellington and Masterton, where Raven lives. I personally think Raven has become a pro at these crazy, windy roads especially after the roads we’d been traveling on all month. We made it back to Masterton, unpacked the car and I called it a night, staying in the sleep out trying to figure out how I would repack all of the stuff I had bought.
We woke up, had breakfast and packed up, ready to leave Kaikoura. We had a ferry to catch in Picton and a 2 hour drive ahead of us so we headed out and drove north. I had wanted to stop at some wineries while in NZ so we made a point of stopping at some wineries in Blenheim. We came across Montana Winery, the largest winery in New Zealand so we stopped. We walked in and one of the employees was walking out. She smiled at us and walked out the door. No one was in the wine tasting area, even though they had just opened. We walked around the shop for a little while, hoping that someone would come help us. Finally, the same lady came back in and seemed surprised that we hadn’t been served. Apparently, there was another employee that was supposed to be helping us. Anyway, she was very gracious and let me sample a bunch of their wines. They sell wine in the US under the label of “Brancott” because they don’t want to confuse people with Montana. Raven wasn’t impressed with the idea of wine tasting at 10 am so she let me try the wines on my own. Since I have already exceeded the booze quota I can bring back into the US, I didn’t buy any but I did take note of the label and I’ll be sure to look for their label at home.
We arrived in Picton pretty early and had over an hour before the deadline for check in. We went to the ferry terminal and it was still closed so we drove into the heart of the town to go get some lunch. After all, the ferry food is disgusting in New Zealand. We decided on a cafe based on liking the name (of course, I’m writing this a few days late so I can’t remember the name... something to do with dogs ... bad sign). It was not the best lunch I’ve had in NZ, that’s for sure. I ordered a sandwich with salad and asked about the dressing (learning my lesson in Kaikoura). Sure enough, they only had that icky mayonnaise dressing so I skipped the salad. Ew. They had a wall with a map of the world on it. New Zealand’s place on the map had a 1 inch hole where the country should have been because people kept putting in pins of where they’re from. There was room for Olympia, surprise, surprise.
We headed back over to the ferry gate and were still early but the gate was open so Raven handed the lady our reservation. The lady handed it back and waved us through to a specific lane. Raven commented that she didn’t give a ticket to us. I figured that might be normal since we had our printed reservation and she’d confirmed our reservation but Raven commented that we got a boarding pass on the way over. Well, after waiting in the car for an hour it was time to board and she was right about that boarding pass. The guy taking tickets said we needed one to board, called the lady, she confirmed that we did check in and then made us pull over to see if the boarding pass fell onto the floor. We insisted there wasn’t one, looked on the floor and told him. He then said to look around the car. UGH! THERE WASN’T ONE! He let us through and we hurried out of the car and onto the boat to search for a seat with an outlet. On the way to the South Island, we were on a different ferry, one that had tables with power outlets, much like the States. We were now on a fancier ferry, one without power outlets and lovely tables by the window. It even had an elite area where only those who pay $40 extra per person can go. Ugh. Well, we finally found an outlet and two French guys were using it. :( There were no other ones accessible on the ship. We sat above them on a loft and a little ways into the trip, I noticed that they had left for a bit. Raven and I moved down there, unplugged their computers (yes, we did. LOL) and took the table next to theirs. They soon came back and looked quite disgruntled until Raven told them that we could all share the power with her power strip. Much better. I walked around the ferry a bit and I really didn’t like it as much as I did on the way over. It is a fancier boat but I’m a northwest girl and I like the other ferry, which has a closer resemblance to the ferries in WA. It didn’t even have a good deck to go outside and take pictures from so I mostly sat at the table and worked on my computer with Raven. We got close to Wellington around 3 or so and noticed that we could already see the ferry dock but we were suddenly traveling at a snail’s pace and it took forever to get into Wellington. We arranged to meet up with G for dinner so we drove over to her work. We were a bit early so we walked over to a drugstore and looked at magazines for a while until it was time to meet her. We went out for Indian food at a place next to her office and had a good chat before saying goodbye and heading out to the Rimutaka, a crazy, windy road between Wellington and Masterton, where Raven lives. I personally think Raven has become a pro at these crazy, windy roads especially after the roads we’d been traveling on all month. We made it back to Masterton, unpacked the car and I called it a night, staying in the sleep out trying to figure out how I would repack all of the stuff I had bought.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Kaikoura
July 26, 2009
I woke up this morning and jumped out of bed to look out the window. I’ve been so excited to see the view of Kaikoura as it was one of my highlights the last time I was here. I don’t want to give the impression that I stayed out of bed, nor that I was awake because Raven would be the first person to tell you that I’m a delusional liar. I slowly got up and lazed around in my room, as did Raven as we knew we didn’t have any pressing plans. We decided to secure our rooms for one more night and see if we might be able to book a sea kayaking trip, which is something I’ve wanted to do this entire trip. The receptionist called for us and made a booking for 2 pm. Woohoo! We sauntered down to the kitchen, had a leisurely breakfast and were getting ready to wash dishes when a German girl came up to us in a panic because she was supposed to be at her whale watching trip and the cab didn’t show up. Raven kindly gave her a ride and while she did that, I cleaned up and went outside to take pictures of one of my favorite places on this planet.
When Raven returned, we got into the car and drove down to the center of town so that we could walk along the beach. We parked and walked to the beach, which is filled with little pebbles. There was a steep hill on the beach so we stomped down on the rocks and found our way down. We walked closer to the water and we listened for the rain stick sound that I love so much. The beach didn’t disappoint and we stood there mesmerized by the rain stick sound the water made when the water receded. We took pictures of seagulls, beach, mountains and waves and it was glorious. Kaikoura is hugged by gorgeous snowcapped mountains and it really dominates the town so it’s easy to get good pictures. We walked along the beach for a while, noticing that as we walked along, the rocks got smaller and smaller until they turned to sand. Also, the rain stick sound faded as the rocks got smaller. We saw three more oyster catchers (this was the third time on this trip and they’re actually a rare species) and took pictures of them and the seagulls and then headed back towards the car.
Time had flown by while we’d been on the beach and we had about an hour or so before our kayaking trip so we decided to get a quick bite to eat. I wanted to go to the Cray Pot, which is a restaurant that I went to and loved last time I was here so we went. I ordered a tomato and basil soup and a side salad. Sounds harmless enough. Ew! The salad had some nasty, sweet mayonnaise dressing on it, which I wouldn’t touch and the tomato soup was SWEET. Again, EW! Raven had also ordered the soup and we thought it was awful. Putting lots of salt in it helped a lot but it was not what we’d been hoping for. We didn’t eat all of it and were full enough for kayaking. We walked around the shops for a bit so that I could pick up a couple of items and then headed back to the hostel to get ready for kayaking. I had brought a bunch of clothes for precisely this purpose and was very happy to be able to make use of them. We got ready and at 10 minutes until 2, the kayaking people showed up so we went down and headed out.
Our guide Matty picked us up and told us that we were going to head out to the South Bay because the conditions were best for us there. This was good because that was where I wanted to go when the trip was described to us. We drove out to the beach (very close by) and got out the kayaks. Since Raven and I had gone kayaking numerous times he didn’t have to spend a lot of time talking about how to ride in a kayak. We decided who would be in front and who would be in back, took the kayaks down to the water (they’re heavy buggers) and got in. We had to quickly paddle out away from shore and our guide would meet us out in the open water because there were a lot of rocks in the water. Our guide directed us to the open water and we experienced the enormous swells on the water as we paddled to the sea. We gave the rocks a wide berth and we could see the water crashing against the rocks so we were happy to do so. We then paddled closer towards the edge of the inlet so we could see the seal colonies. We got close to shore and had to maneuver between two large groups of rocks, again with crashing waves so that we could get close to the seals. Yep, they were seals. I took pictures but I wasn’t that excited about seeing a bunch of seals, since I can see them in Washington as well. The guide was talking about them and we think he was running out of things to say because he started rambling on about the mountains. LOL! We headed back out and were going to go to the tip of the inlet when we all noticed a large spray of water in the distance and big boats racing towards it. It was a whale! Our guide got incredibly excited and asked if we wouldn’t mind going to see the whale instead of more seals. Hell yeah! He said for us to paddle like our lives depended on it so we huffed and puffed and puffed and huffed our way out into the middle of the bay, watching spouts blowing out water all over the place in the distance. Our guide was far ahead of us and had my camera (because he was going to take pictures of us in the kayak) and we kept paddling after him, noting that our stomach muscles were getting a serious workout. As we were coming closer, maybe 40 feet in front of us, two whales emerged, a mother and her calf! OMG! We all shouted and cheered because it was one of the most incredible experiences ever. They were RIGHT THERE! We watched them spout water and saw their humps. The whales went back down and we saw whales in the distance still spouting and I was wondering if there were any whales right under me. We took off the other direction, hoping to see the whales come closer. That mother and baby had indeed gone under us and came out on the other side. The whale boats came careening after the whales again and we were all making a mad dash to see the whales again. We had decided that they’d gone and were about to head back to shore when the whales appeared again! We hightailed it back towards the seal colony and saw the whales spout a few more times. The guide took a video of one of the whales with my camera as well as some video and pictures of me and Raven on our kayak. The guide was so excited by what we had seen (as were we). He said that seeing whales in the bay is incredibly rare and has only happened once this entire year. It was so much fun and so incredibly awesome. They are such beautiful creatures and being on the kayaks, we could hear the sound of the water bursting from the blow holes. It was just incredible. We finally did have to head back towards shore and did so slowly. We reached shore right before sunset and packed up the kayaks to head back into town.
When we got back to our rooms we briefly talked about dinner. For some reason, I was really craving steak so we decided to go out to eat. The woman downstairs in reception recommended “The Green Dolphin”, which turned out to be the perfect place. The steak was very yummy and we topped it off with dessert (cheesecake for me, creme brulee for Raven, not to mention wine (for me) and cider (for Raven). It was such a wonderful way to end an incredible day. It’s just been one of those days!
I woke up this morning and jumped out of bed to look out the window. I’ve been so excited to see the view of Kaikoura as it was one of my highlights the last time I was here. I don’t want to give the impression that I stayed out of bed, nor that I was awake because Raven would be the first person to tell you that I’m a delusional liar. I slowly got up and lazed around in my room, as did Raven as we knew we didn’t have any pressing plans. We decided to secure our rooms for one more night and see if we might be able to book a sea kayaking trip, which is something I’ve wanted to do this entire trip. The receptionist called for us and made a booking for 2 pm. Woohoo! We sauntered down to the kitchen, had a leisurely breakfast and were getting ready to wash dishes when a German girl came up to us in a panic because she was supposed to be at her whale watching trip and the cab didn’t show up. Raven kindly gave her a ride and while she did that, I cleaned up and went outside to take pictures of one of my favorite places on this planet.
When Raven returned, we got into the car and drove down to the center of town so that we could walk along the beach. We parked and walked to the beach, which is filled with little pebbles. There was a steep hill on the beach so we stomped down on the rocks and found our way down. We walked closer to the water and we listened for the rain stick sound that I love so much. The beach didn’t disappoint and we stood there mesmerized by the rain stick sound the water made when the water receded. We took pictures of seagulls, beach, mountains and waves and it was glorious. Kaikoura is hugged by gorgeous snowcapped mountains and it really dominates the town so it’s easy to get good pictures. We walked along the beach for a while, noticing that as we walked along, the rocks got smaller and smaller until they turned to sand. Also, the rain stick sound faded as the rocks got smaller. We saw three more oyster catchers (this was the third time on this trip and they’re actually a rare species) and took pictures of them and the seagulls and then headed back towards the car.
Time had flown by while we’d been on the beach and we had about an hour or so before our kayaking trip so we decided to get a quick bite to eat. I wanted to go to the Cray Pot, which is a restaurant that I went to and loved last time I was here so we went. I ordered a tomato and basil soup and a side salad. Sounds harmless enough. Ew! The salad had some nasty, sweet mayonnaise dressing on it, which I wouldn’t touch and the tomato soup was SWEET. Again, EW! Raven had also ordered the soup and we thought it was awful. Putting lots of salt in it helped a lot but it was not what we’d been hoping for. We didn’t eat all of it and were full enough for kayaking. We walked around the shops for a bit so that I could pick up a couple of items and then headed back to the hostel to get ready for kayaking. I had brought a bunch of clothes for precisely this purpose and was very happy to be able to make use of them. We got ready and at 10 minutes until 2, the kayaking people showed up so we went down and headed out.
Our guide Matty picked us up and told us that we were going to head out to the South Bay because the conditions were best for us there. This was good because that was where I wanted to go when the trip was described to us. We drove out to the beach (very close by) and got out the kayaks. Since Raven and I had gone kayaking numerous times he didn’t have to spend a lot of time talking about how to ride in a kayak. We decided who would be in front and who would be in back, took the kayaks down to the water (they’re heavy buggers) and got in. We had to quickly paddle out away from shore and our guide would meet us out in the open water because there were a lot of rocks in the water. Our guide directed us to the open water and we experienced the enormous swells on the water as we paddled to the sea. We gave the rocks a wide berth and we could see the water crashing against the rocks so we were happy to do so. We then paddled closer towards the edge of the inlet so we could see the seal colonies. We got close to shore and had to maneuver between two large groups of rocks, again with crashing waves so that we could get close to the seals. Yep, they were seals. I took pictures but I wasn’t that excited about seeing a bunch of seals, since I can see them in Washington as well. The guide was talking about them and we think he was running out of things to say because he started rambling on about the mountains. LOL! We headed back out and were going to go to the tip of the inlet when we all noticed a large spray of water in the distance and big boats racing towards it. It was a whale! Our guide got incredibly excited and asked if we wouldn’t mind going to see the whale instead of more seals. Hell yeah! He said for us to paddle like our lives depended on it so we huffed and puffed and puffed and huffed our way out into the middle of the bay, watching spouts blowing out water all over the place in the distance. Our guide was far ahead of us and had my camera (because he was going to take pictures of us in the kayak) and we kept paddling after him, noting that our stomach muscles were getting a serious workout. As we were coming closer, maybe 40 feet in front of us, two whales emerged, a mother and her calf! OMG! We all shouted and cheered because it was one of the most incredible experiences ever. They were RIGHT THERE! We watched them spout water and saw their humps. The whales went back down and we saw whales in the distance still spouting and I was wondering if there were any whales right under me. We took off the other direction, hoping to see the whales come closer. That mother and baby had indeed gone under us and came out on the other side. The whale boats came careening after the whales again and we were all making a mad dash to see the whales again. We had decided that they’d gone and were about to head back to shore when the whales appeared again! We hightailed it back towards the seal colony and saw the whales spout a few more times. The guide took a video of one of the whales with my camera as well as some video and pictures of me and Raven on our kayak. The guide was so excited by what we had seen (as were we). He said that seeing whales in the bay is incredibly rare and has only happened once this entire year. It was so much fun and so incredibly awesome. They are such beautiful creatures and being on the kayaks, we could hear the sound of the water bursting from the blow holes. It was just incredible. We finally did have to head back towards shore and did so slowly. We reached shore right before sunset and packed up the kayaks to head back into town.
When we got back to our rooms we briefly talked about dinner. For some reason, I was really craving steak so we decided to go out to eat. The woman downstairs in reception recommended “The Green Dolphin”, which turned out to be the perfect place. The steak was very yummy and we topped it off with dessert (cheesecake for me, creme brulee for Raven, not to mention wine (for me) and cider (for Raven). It was such a wonderful way to end an incredible day. It’s just been one of those days!
Dunedin to Kaikoura
July 25, 2009
Today was a travel day so there probably isn’t much to say about it. We met A this morning at 8 am, had breakfast and then headed over to the Dunedin Farmers Market downtown. It’s much smaller than Nelson’s market but it was wonderful. It had about three rows of vendors to walk through and explore. We loaded up again on goodies to take with us on our travels, including creamy cheeses, sausage, fresh bread and taboulli (random, I know). We then dropped A off at her work and said our goodbyes before heading over to Baldwin Street. Baldwin Street has the distinction of being the steepest street in the world. Raven has gone up it in her car before but we weren’t feeling quite as adventurous so we took pictures from the bottom instead. We then left Dunedin and headed north. We had an original goal of reaching Kaikoura from Dunedin. If you look at a map of the South Island in New Zealand you’d see that Dunedin is far to the south and Kaikoura is up north. As we went along we started to wonder if this was a good idea or not.
We drove north and I really wanted to see the big boulders at Moeraki. They are these big, round balls of stone scattered in the sand. I’ve seen lots of pictures of them and here was my big chance to take pictures as well. We parked at the lot and started walking along the beach. It was a gorgeous day so the sun was shining and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. We noticed a bunch of shells that we hadn’t seen in other parts of New Zealand so we beach combed a bit and stuck some shells in my pocket. We then approached the rocks and began to take pictures. Every time I would try to take a picture the same guy kept walking in view of the picture. It was uncanny. I may be on the other side of the rocks but somehow he’d find his way into the shot. Raven had me climb into a broken boulder and took a picture of me. I was close to getting my foot stuck in it. That would have been cute.
After exploring the beach we took the advice of the guidebook and went to a restaurant called Fleur’s Place, which specializes in seafood. Raven had the seafood chowder and I decided to be brave and have the NZ specialty of green lipped mussels. Mmm. It was a very cute little restaurant and the food was superb. It was well worth the stop into Moeraki.
When we got back into the car we realized that it was already after 2 pm and we were only an hour or so outside of Dunedin. We were really, really far away from Kaikoura and decided to play it by ear and see where we ended up. I was fretting a little bit because I really wanted to go sea kayaking in Kaikoura but we just played it by ear. We finished the last couple of CDs from Harry Potter and were out of audio books by the time we made it to Christchurch. Raven was apprehensive because we were arriving in Christchurch around 5 and she didn’t want to get stuck in rush hour traffic. Except, it was Saturday so all was well! To entertain ourselves since we were out of Harry Potter, we started singing cheesy camp songs. It was really funny. We then played the alphabet game, except we got stuck on the letter J. You get really creative when you don’t have any more books on tape!
We did make it into Kaikoura and it was about 8 pm when we arrived. We drove to the YHA and got out of the car. We walked up to the door and looked through the window, noticing that the gate to reception was closed. Uh oh. We decided to get back into the car and call them to see if there was any way we could make a reservation. Raven called and the woman answering asked if we’d tried the door. She was there the whole time and didn’t we feel stupid for not trying to open it. LOL. We settled in, had a light dinner and relaxed for the rest of the evening, quite pleased that we made it from Dunedin to Kaikoura in one day.
Today was a travel day so there probably isn’t much to say about it. We met A this morning at 8 am, had breakfast and then headed over to the Dunedin Farmers Market downtown. It’s much smaller than Nelson’s market but it was wonderful. It had about three rows of vendors to walk through and explore. We loaded up again on goodies to take with us on our travels, including creamy cheeses, sausage, fresh bread and taboulli (random, I know). We then dropped A off at her work and said our goodbyes before heading over to Baldwin Street. Baldwin Street has the distinction of being the steepest street in the world. Raven has gone up it in her car before but we weren’t feeling quite as adventurous so we took pictures from the bottom instead. We then left Dunedin and headed north. We had an original goal of reaching Kaikoura from Dunedin. If you look at a map of the South Island in New Zealand you’d see that Dunedin is far to the south and Kaikoura is up north. As we went along we started to wonder if this was a good idea or not.
We drove north and I really wanted to see the big boulders at Moeraki. They are these big, round balls of stone scattered in the sand. I’ve seen lots of pictures of them and here was my big chance to take pictures as well. We parked at the lot and started walking along the beach. It was a gorgeous day so the sun was shining and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. We noticed a bunch of shells that we hadn’t seen in other parts of New Zealand so we beach combed a bit and stuck some shells in my pocket. We then approached the rocks and began to take pictures. Every time I would try to take a picture the same guy kept walking in view of the picture. It was uncanny. I may be on the other side of the rocks but somehow he’d find his way into the shot. Raven had me climb into a broken boulder and took a picture of me. I was close to getting my foot stuck in it. That would have been cute.
After exploring the beach we took the advice of the guidebook and went to a restaurant called Fleur’s Place, which specializes in seafood. Raven had the seafood chowder and I decided to be brave and have the NZ specialty of green lipped mussels. Mmm. It was a very cute little restaurant and the food was superb. It was well worth the stop into Moeraki.
When we got back into the car we realized that it was already after 2 pm and we were only an hour or so outside of Dunedin. We were really, really far away from Kaikoura and decided to play it by ear and see where we ended up. I was fretting a little bit because I really wanted to go sea kayaking in Kaikoura but we just played it by ear. We finished the last couple of CDs from Harry Potter and were out of audio books by the time we made it to Christchurch. Raven was apprehensive because we were arriving in Christchurch around 5 and she didn’t want to get stuck in rush hour traffic. Except, it was Saturday so all was well! To entertain ourselves since we were out of Harry Potter, we started singing cheesy camp songs. It was really funny. We then played the alphabet game, except we got stuck on the letter J. You get really creative when you don’t have any more books on tape!
We did make it into Kaikoura and it was about 8 pm when we arrived. We drove to the YHA and got out of the car. We walked up to the door and looked through the window, noticing that the gate to reception was closed. Uh oh. We decided to get back into the car and call them to see if there was any way we could make a reservation. Raven called and the woman answering asked if we’d tried the door. She was there the whole time and didn’t we feel stupid for not trying to open it. LOL. We settled in, had a light dinner and relaxed for the rest of the evening, quite pleased that we made it from Dunedin to Kaikoura in one day.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Dunedin
July 24, 2009
Ah, lovely Dunedin. We got up, got ready and went out to pick up A and her boyfriend Nick. We went to a cafe in the Octagon (town center) called Nova and sat and chatted for quite a while. A and I got to watch Raven grill Nick, which was pretty entertaining. We dropped Nick off and went onto campus to see the museum.
Dunedin is definitely a college town. Its big school is Otago University and it really has the feel of a college town. The museum has a bunch of local art and a kids area complete with a butterfly exhibit. We of course had to go see the butterflies. We walked through the displays talking about butterflies and then walked in, armed with our cameras. It was so hot and humid in there that my camera lens immediately fogged over. I had to keep wiping the lens in order for my pictures to show up. As with most butterfly exhibits, there were butterflies flying everywhere. Raven was hoping that a butterfly might fly into my hair or A’s so that she could get a picture. No such luck as each time a butterfly flew at my hair, I kind of panicked (it’s that moth thing). I thought one was on my jeans and jumped into the air. It turns out it was my belt sticking out. A thought my reaction was very funny. We walked along the different levels of the butterfly house and when we got to the bottom we saw a cage with an incredibly fat, 7 headed bird. WTF? It turns out it was a finch that was carrying all of its babies around on in its feathers. It was so strange. A few minutes later, it must have tired of piggy back rides because they were hoping around near her.
We looked around for a while and then A and Raven left to take A to a lecture somewhere on campus. I had an hour or so to kill so I wandered the butterfly exhibit some more. I had planned on checking out the rest of the museum but I was restless so I went to the gift shop and then the coffee shop instead and people watched. I then walked over to the bookstore and browsed, happy to explore. I waited there until A was done with her lecture and we got back into the car and headed out for lunch. I’ve been so bad on this trip foodwise. I’m afraid to step back on the scale when I get back. Oops. Anyway, we went out for Thai food. A and Raven love Phad Si Yew (spelling, sorry) and haven’t been able to find a good one in NZ. It’s funny the things one takes for granted at home that are so impossible to find elsewhere.
I imagine that this part of my entry will be quite boring. Maybe I’ll spare everyone the details and say that we ran some errands, we dropped A off at work and I shopped on my own until 5:30 or so when I met up with A and Raven again. OK, I should mention where A works. She has an atypical retail job. She works at a place called Coco Bella, which I saw while we drove down the street and thought it was an Italian restaurant. Um, I was a bit off. It’s actually an upscale sex toy shop, selling a variety of dildos and lingerie. It was quite entertaining and educational getting A’s tour of the shop.
We went back to Nova, the cafe we’d gone to for breakfast and almost didn’t get in because we didn’t have a reservation. While wandering on my own I’d seen that the Dunedin Film Festival was starting that evening so we perused the pamphlet and found a movie we thought might be worth seeing. It was called “An Education” and it was a good movie. Basically it’s about a 16 year old girl in England in the 1960’s who gets involved with a 40 year old man. It was well done and we thought we’d made a good choice.
Ah, lovely Dunedin. We got up, got ready and went out to pick up A and her boyfriend Nick. We went to a cafe in the Octagon (town center) called Nova and sat and chatted for quite a while. A and I got to watch Raven grill Nick, which was pretty entertaining. We dropped Nick off and went onto campus to see the museum.
Dunedin is definitely a college town. Its big school is Otago University and it really has the feel of a college town. The museum has a bunch of local art and a kids area complete with a butterfly exhibit. We of course had to go see the butterflies. We walked through the displays talking about butterflies and then walked in, armed with our cameras. It was so hot and humid in there that my camera lens immediately fogged over. I had to keep wiping the lens in order for my pictures to show up. As with most butterfly exhibits, there were butterflies flying everywhere. Raven was hoping that a butterfly might fly into my hair or A’s so that she could get a picture. No such luck as each time a butterfly flew at my hair, I kind of panicked (it’s that moth thing). I thought one was on my jeans and jumped into the air. It turns out it was my belt sticking out. A thought my reaction was very funny. We walked along the different levels of the butterfly house and when we got to the bottom we saw a cage with an incredibly fat, 7 headed bird. WTF? It turns out it was a finch that was carrying all of its babies around on in its feathers. It was so strange. A few minutes later, it must have tired of piggy back rides because they were hoping around near her.
We looked around for a while and then A and Raven left to take A to a lecture somewhere on campus. I had an hour or so to kill so I wandered the butterfly exhibit some more. I had planned on checking out the rest of the museum but I was restless so I went to the gift shop and then the coffee shop instead and people watched. I then walked over to the bookstore and browsed, happy to explore. I waited there until A was done with her lecture and we got back into the car and headed out for lunch. I’ve been so bad on this trip foodwise. I’m afraid to step back on the scale when I get back. Oops. Anyway, we went out for Thai food. A and Raven love Phad Si Yew (spelling, sorry) and haven’t been able to find a good one in NZ. It’s funny the things one takes for granted at home that are so impossible to find elsewhere.
I imagine that this part of my entry will be quite boring. Maybe I’ll spare everyone the details and say that we ran some errands, we dropped A off at work and I shopped on my own until 5:30 or so when I met up with A and Raven again. OK, I should mention where A works. She has an atypical retail job. She works at a place called Coco Bella, which I saw while we drove down the street and thought it was an Italian restaurant. Um, I was a bit off. It’s actually an upscale sex toy shop, selling a variety of dildos and lingerie. It was quite entertaining and educational getting A’s tour of the shop.
We went back to Nova, the cafe we’d gone to for breakfast and almost didn’t get in because we didn’t have a reservation. While wandering on my own I’d seen that the Dunedin Film Festival was starting that evening so we perused the pamphlet and found a movie we thought might be worth seeing. It was called “An Education” and it was a good movie. Basically it’s about a 16 year old girl in England in the 1960’s who gets involved with a 40 year old man. It was well done and we thought we’d made a good choice.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Wanaka to Dunedin
July 23, 2009
We got up this morning and got out of Wanaka pretty quickly. We headed towards Dunedin, where Raven’s youngest daughter lives and saw the sun coming up over the mountains. It was stunningly beautiful, as usual, but one of those moments that can’t be captured by a camera. We tried too, twice. The lighting wasn’t right so it’ll just have to be in our memories. We decided that we needed to stop to get gas as we had 4 bars left on the tank.
We pulled into a gas station in Cromwell and while Raven was filling up I decided to pull out the Lonely Planet. I read that the residents of Cromwell have a legendary chip on their shoulders because the government built a dam and flooded the original town. Sure enough, when we asked for directions, townspeople would say “When they flooded the town…” Yep, they’re not over it and can you blame them? I continued to read about the town and Lonely Planet said that it’s a town with really good food. We looked at the recommendations and chose a place called the Seed & Grain Cafe. We asked about it and a guy told us it was in “Old Cromwell Town, where they flooded the town.” Did I mention a chip? We found Old Cromwell Town, which is a bunch of old buildings that they’d moved uphill right before they flooded the town. We found the Seed & Grain Cafe and were a few minutes early but she let us in and we ordered breakfast and a moccacino (aka a mocha). They had a breakfast called a bacon and egg buttie. Raven ordered it and it was two pieces of white bread, butter, a bunch of bacon and a fried egg. Hmm, not sure what a buttie is. A said that her boyfriend’s mom made chip butties for her family… that means white bread, butter and fries inside it. LOL! The moccacinos were fantastically yummy. I’m glad we stopped but I don’t think Cromwell was the foodie paradise described in the book.
We continued on our way to Dunedin. After breakfast we stopped at a sign that advertised fresh cider in a shop. We got some cider and then headed next door to the distillery. I’d been to one of the distilleries when I was here last and I soooo loved it so we definitely had to stop again. It was 10 am but we were sampling all sorts of delicious schnapps and I’m bringing home a bottle of a lemon schnapps that is divine. Raven bought some other lovely types including their famous butterscotch schnapps, which we’re sampling as I write this.
We then headed to Dunedin and stopped at the bookstore because I had heard that NZ has a very progressive approach to math and I wanted to get some books for my classroom. The university bookstore wasn’t the right place though. They directed us to the teaching college and we thought it would be a quick walk but took forever. We finally got there and I did indeed find some books I can use in my classroom. Yes, I am a nerd. While there, A came to meet us. We walked hella far back to the car and went out to lunch at a Korean restaurant. A pointed out that if we’d like to see the penguins now would be a good time to leave. A spent her summer working with the yellow-eyed penguins, which she says are the second rarest penguins in the world (some people say the rarest but they’re not from the Galapagos). The penguins nest in the evenings on the beaches of the Otago Peninsula and it’s not a far drive from Dunedin. Raven and I really wanted to see them (OMG, PENGUINS!!!) so we finished up lunch and drove out to the peninsula.
We got to Sand Fly Bay in the late afternoon and started out on the trail. A had warned about a giant sand dune on the way down and she wasn’t kidding. This thing was huge and steep, which was incredibly fun to run down. We were laughing as we stepped into the deep sand and commented that it might not be as fun on the way back. We then headed to the beach, Raven and I armed with our cameras taking pictures of the surf. As we were walking towards the water, Raven and A spotted a sea lion frolicking on the edge of the water. We watched it, taking pictures and walking along the beach when suddenly, it spotted us and started charging. Uh oh. We quickly turned around and started walking back so we could avoid it. Raven and I followed A as she walked towards the water, which worked because the thing lay down in the sand instead. We continued on, noting that the tide was way in and keeping our eyes open for penguins as we walked. There was one point where I noticed that A hopped up onto a sand ledge as the waves came in. I didn’t follow suit and seconds later a big wave tried to drench my feet. I did this sort of hopping dance trying to stay dry (and succeeded, thank you very much) while A cracked up. We finally made it up to the trail where the hide was situated, high up on a hill.
We got into the hide and waited for dusk, the time when the penguins come in to nest for the evening. There were sea lions on the beach and we would see them moving and think it might be a penguin. Nope. Raven and I noticed a sea lion playing in the waves. It was moving so that every time a wave would come, he would ride it and it looked like he was surfing. We were admiring how much fun he was having when all of a sudden he darted in and out above the waves. In front of him was … a penguin. The penguin was darted in and out of the waves, racing for its life, the sea lion in hot pursuit. :( All of a sudden, they both disappeared under the water. Poor penguin. We waited quite a while longer for other penguins to come to shore as A said there are 4 nesting pairs right at that point of the beach. No penguins were coming and it was getting darker and darker. Suddenly, A found a penguin! It was already out of the water and a couple of meters from the bottom of the hill. It kept looking out to sea and we were wondering if it was waiting for the penguin that was being chased by the sea lion. Finally, it gave up and started to hop up the hill. This was not some little hill, this was a serious mountainy hill and apparently they hop up this hill every evening. He looked back again at the water and while he waited, we decided that we needed to get back to the car so we left and started walking in the near darkness. The tide luckily had gone out a little so it was easier to walk along the beach. The sea lions were gone too as we walked along. We spotted a set of penguin tracks from the sea up to the beach so there was at least one more penguin who made it back safely. By the time we made it to the sand dune again, it was really hard to see. We huffed it up the hill and by the time we made it to the top we had taken off our heavy coats and I was tempted to wear only a t-shirt. That was definitely much harder to go up than it was to go down. We got back to the car, drove back to Dunedin and checked into our motel. We then went out for Indian food at A’s favorite Indian restaurant and now we’re back at her apartment with schnapps and our laptops.
We got up this morning and got out of Wanaka pretty quickly. We headed towards Dunedin, where Raven’s youngest daughter lives and saw the sun coming up over the mountains. It was stunningly beautiful, as usual, but one of those moments that can’t be captured by a camera. We tried too, twice. The lighting wasn’t right so it’ll just have to be in our memories. We decided that we needed to stop to get gas as we had 4 bars left on the tank.
We pulled into a gas station in Cromwell and while Raven was filling up I decided to pull out the Lonely Planet. I read that the residents of Cromwell have a legendary chip on their shoulders because the government built a dam and flooded the original town. Sure enough, when we asked for directions, townspeople would say “When they flooded the town…” Yep, they’re not over it and can you blame them? I continued to read about the town and Lonely Planet said that it’s a town with really good food. We looked at the recommendations and chose a place called the Seed & Grain Cafe. We asked about it and a guy told us it was in “Old Cromwell Town, where they flooded the town.” Did I mention a chip? We found Old Cromwell Town, which is a bunch of old buildings that they’d moved uphill right before they flooded the town. We found the Seed & Grain Cafe and were a few minutes early but she let us in and we ordered breakfast and a moccacino (aka a mocha). They had a breakfast called a bacon and egg buttie. Raven ordered it and it was two pieces of white bread, butter, a bunch of bacon and a fried egg. Hmm, not sure what a buttie is. A said that her boyfriend’s mom made chip butties for her family… that means white bread, butter and fries inside it. LOL! The moccacinos were fantastically yummy. I’m glad we stopped but I don’t think Cromwell was the foodie paradise described in the book.
We continued on our way to Dunedin. After breakfast we stopped at a sign that advertised fresh cider in a shop. We got some cider and then headed next door to the distillery. I’d been to one of the distilleries when I was here last and I soooo loved it so we definitely had to stop again. It was 10 am but we were sampling all sorts of delicious schnapps and I’m bringing home a bottle of a lemon schnapps that is divine. Raven bought some other lovely types including their famous butterscotch schnapps, which we’re sampling as I write this.
We then headed to Dunedin and stopped at the bookstore because I had heard that NZ has a very progressive approach to math and I wanted to get some books for my classroom. The university bookstore wasn’t the right place though. They directed us to the teaching college and we thought it would be a quick walk but took forever. We finally got there and I did indeed find some books I can use in my classroom. Yes, I am a nerd. While there, A came to meet us. We walked hella far back to the car and went out to lunch at a Korean restaurant. A pointed out that if we’d like to see the penguins now would be a good time to leave. A spent her summer working with the yellow-eyed penguins, which she says are the second rarest penguins in the world (some people say the rarest but they’re not from the Galapagos). The penguins nest in the evenings on the beaches of the Otago Peninsula and it’s not a far drive from Dunedin. Raven and I really wanted to see them (OMG, PENGUINS!!!) so we finished up lunch and drove out to the peninsula.
We got to Sand Fly Bay in the late afternoon and started out on the trail. A had warned about a giant sand dune on the way down and she wasn’t kidding. This thing was huge and steep, which was incredibly fun to run down. We were laughing as we stepped into the deep sand and commented that it might not be as fun on the way back. We then headed to the beach, Raven and I armed with our cameras taking pictures of the surf. As we were walking towards the water, Raven and A spotted a sea lion frolicking on the edge of the water. We watched it, taking pictures and walking along the beach when suddenly, it spotted us and started charging. Uh oh. We quickly turned around and started walking back so we could avoid it. Raven and I followed A as she walked towards the water, which worked because the thing lay down in the sand instead. We continued on, noting that the tide was way in and keeping our eyes open for penguins as we walked. There was one point where I noticed that A hopped up onto a sand ledge as the waves came in. I didn’t follow suit and seconds later a big wave tried to drench my feet. I did this sort of hopping dance trying to stay dry (and succeeded, thank you very much) while A cracked up. We finally made it up to the trail where the hide was situated, high up on a hill.
We got into the hide and waited for dusk, the time when the penguins come in to nest for the evening. There were sea lions on the beach and we would see them moving and think it might be a penguin. Nope. Raven and I noticed a sea lion playing in the waves. It was moving so that every time a wave would come, he would ride it and it looked like he was surfing. We were admiring how much fun he was having when all of a sudden he darted in and out above the waves. In front of him was … a penguin. The penguin was darted in and out of the waves, racing for its life, the sea lion in hot pursuit. :( All of a sudden, they both disappeared under the water. Poor penguin. We waited quite a while longer for other penguins to come to shore as A said there are 4 nesting pairs right at that point of the beach. No penguins were coming and it was getting darker and darker. Suddenly, A found a penguin! It was already out of the water and a couple of meters from the bottom of the hill. It kept looking out to sea and we were wondering if it was waiting for the penguin that was being chased by the sea lion. Finally, it gave up and started to hop up the hill. This was not some little hill, this was a serious mountainy hill and apparently they hop up this hill every evening. He looked back again at the water and while he waited, we decided that we needed to get back to the car so we left and started walking in the near darkness. The tide luckily had gone out a little so it was easier to walk along the beach. The sea lions were gone too as we walked along. We spotted a set of penguin tracks from the sea up to the beach so there was at least one more penguin who made it back safely. By the time we made it to the sand dune again, it was really hard to see. We huffed it up the hill and by the time we made it to the top we had taken off our heavy coats and I was tempted to wear only a t-shirt. That was definitely much harder to go up than it was to go down. We got back to the car, drove back to Dunedin and checked into our motel. We then went out for Indian food at A’s favorite Indian restaurant and now we’re back at her apartment with schnapps and our laptops.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Wanaka
July 22, 2009
I wanna go to Wanaka. Hee hee. Wanaka is pronounced “WAH-nah-ka”, FYI. We’d decided to stay here in Wanaka two nights so my stuff has exploded all over the floor of the hostel. I think I’ve made myself a little too much at home! I woke up this morning at 8 am so I think I’ve finally adjusted to NZ time. No more 6 am wake ups for me! I hate to think how I’ll do when I get back to Washington. We got ready and had breakfast in the kitchen. I forgot to mention yesterday (in my uber long post) that the Woofer (willing worker on organic farm) here at the hostel is from the US and he came in to use the toaster oven. He laughed and commented that the darn thing only went up to 200 degrees and how can you cook at such a low temperature. I replied, “Do you think it might be in Celsius?” Yep, that was the problem! LOL. Anyway, we had breakfast this morning and headed out to the i-site to see what they might recommend for a day in Wanaka.
At the i-site we were given a map of Wanaka with a bunch of trails listed. I had wanted to come here because I knew that Wanaka is at the base of Mt. Aspiring National Park, a place I’d hiked in last time I was here and absolutely loved. It turns out that it is snowed in and they don’t recommend going there without at least a four wheel drive vehicle. Drat! No Mt. Aspiring beech forests for me this time. That changed our plans considerably because we’d planned to use Wanaka as a base to go off exploring. So, we stuck around Wanaka instead. I also asked about other activities here and the woman at the i-site mentioned a boat out to a nature reserve that looked good. However, they were not going out in the morning because of choppy waves on Lake Wanaka. Drat! We therefore settled on a hike so we went out to the lake (which is super long) and walked along the trail. I think that in the summer the trail must be green and lush but in the winter all of the trees are bare and the grass is blah. Wanaka is not green the way most of New Zealand is. The lake is a brilliant blue though and snow capped mountains loom overhead. We walked for quite a while until we came to an area of the lake that lent itself to beautiful views. We took tons of pictures, as usual, and then headed back. When we started the hike, it was sooooo cold out. I had to fish out my scarf and hat for the first time, truly feeling like it was winter. By the time we got back the sun had warmed everything up and it was no longer scarf weather. Yay!
After the hike we went over to “Puzzling World”. Yep, it’s cheesy. It’s a touristy place in Wanaka full of optical illusions including a room that is uphill so that you look like you’re leaning when you’re standing straight. Water flows ‘uphill’ and when you roll a ball it looks like it’s rolling uphill. There was also a room with 100+ statue faces following you around the room. It was just like the ghosts in The Haunted Mansion in Disneyland only many more of them. There was also a room where one side makes you look huge and the other side makes you look tiny. Finally, there were a bunch of holograms, some better than others on a wall. After entertaining ourselves with that we went over to the labyrinth to see how we’d do. You’re supposed to find four towers in all four corners of the maze before exiting. Raven and I couldn’t find the first one and decided to get out if we could. Sure enough, once we voiced that we found one. A few minutes later we found the next one. Raven figured out the third one and then we found an exit before finding the fourth, which was fine by both of us. Enough, already. It was funny watching other people go through though. Some Israelis were giving each other directions “Yamina, yamina! Bo! Lo! Kein!” There were two little kids tearing through and Raven asked one if they’d been before. They said yes so she asked them if they come here all the time. They replied that they’re from Australia and then tore off in the maze again.
After Puzzling World, we headed back into town and went to lunch at the Cheeky Monkey. How could we resist? I ate a chicken, brie and apricot burger with fries and I’ve regretted it all day since. Blah. It was yummy but I feel gross after eating it. I think I’m going to hate stepping on the scale when I come back home. I’ve been really bad on this trip. *sigh* We then decided to go for a walk around town because we both felt blah. We pretty much covered all of the shops in town and Raven commented that she was done with Wanaka. We went back to our room at 3 or so and went online for a while before I promptly fell asleep and took a long nap. Not sure what the deal is with the naps every afternoon lately. I’d been chocking it up to being in the car but today … well, I napped. We’ve taken it easy this evening, walking to the store and then having a light dinner and now we’re in our room online again. Tomorrow, like I mentioned yesterday, we’re going to Dunedin and I hope we get to see penguins. Yay!!!
Oh, the heater is working today so we're actually nice and warm. Phew!
I wanna go to Wanaka. Hee hee. Wanaka is pronounced “WAH-nah-ka”, FYI. We’d decided to stay here in Wanaka two nights so my stuff has exploded all over the floor of the hostel. I think I’ve made myself a little too much at home! I woke up this morning at 8 am so I think I’ve finally adjusted to NZ time. No more 6 am wake ups for me! I hate to think how I’ll do when I get back to Washington. We got ready and had breakfast in the kitchen. I forgot to mention yesterday (in my uber long post) that the Woofer (willing worker on organic farm) here at the hostel is from the US and he came in to use the toaster oven. He laughed and commented that the darn thing only went up to 200 degrees and how can you cook at such a low temperature. I replied, “Do you think it might be in Celsius?” Yep, that was the problem! LOL. Anyway, we had breakfast this morning and headed out to the i-site to see what they might recommend for a day in Wanaka.
At the i-site we were given a map of Wanaka with a bunch of trails listed. I had wanted to come here because I knew that Wanaka is at the base of Mt. Aspiring National Park, a place I’d hiked in last time I was here and absolutely loved. It turns out that it is snowed in and they don’t recommend going there without at least a four wheel drive vehicle. Drat! No Mt. Aspiring beech forests for me this time. That changed our plans considerably because we’d planned to use Wanaka as a base to go off exploring. So, we stuck around Wanaka instead. I also asked about other activities here and the woman at the i-site mentioned a boat out to a nature reserve that looked good. However, they were not going out in the morning because of choppy waves on Lake Wanaka. Drat! We therefore settled on a hike so we went out to the lake (which is super long) and walked along the trail. I think that in the summer the trail must be green and lush but in the winter all of the trees are bare and the grass is blah. Wanaka is not green the way most of New Zealand is. The lake is a brilliant blue though and snow capped mountains loom overhead. We walked for quite a while until we came to an area of the lake that lent itself to beautiful views. We took tons of pictures, as usual, and then headed back. When we started the hike, it was sooooo cold out. I had to fish out my scarf and hat for the first time, truly feeling like it was winter. By the time we got back the sun had warmed everything up and it was no longer scarf weather. Yay!
After the hike we went over to “Puzzling World”. Yep, it’s cheesy. It’s a touristy place in Wanaka full of optical illusions including a room that is uphill so that you look like you’re leaning when you’re standing straight. Water flows ‘uphill’ and when you roll a ball it looks like it’s rolling uphill. There was also a room with 100+ statue faces following you around the room. It was just like the ghosts in The Haunted Mansion in Disneyland only many more of them. There was also a room where one side makes you look huge and the other side makes you look tiny. Finally, there were a bunch of holograms, some better than others on a wall. After entertaining ourselves with that we went over to the labyrinth to see how we’d do. You’re supposed to find four towers in all four corners of the maze before exiting. Raven and I couldn’t find the first one and decided to get out if we could. Sure enough, once we voiced that we found one. A few minutes later we found the next one. Raven figured out the third one and then we found an exit before finding the fourth, which was fine by both of us. Enough, already. It was funny watching other people go through though. Some Israelis were giving each other directions “Yamina, yamina! Bo! Lo! Kein!” There were two little kids tearing through and Raven asked one if they’d been before. They said yes so she asked them if they come here all the time. They replied that they’re from Australia and then tore off in the maze again.
After Puzzling World, we headed back into town and went to lunch at the Cheeky Monkey. How could we resist? I ate a chicken, brie and apricot burger with fries and I’ve regretted it all day since. Blah. It was yummy but I feel gross after eating it. I think I’m going to hate stepping on the scale when I come back home. I’ve been really bad on this trip. *sigh* We then decided to go for a walk around town because we both felt blah. We pretty much covered all of the shops in town and Raven commented that she was done with Wanaka. We went back to our room at 3 or so and went online for a while before I promptly fell asleep and took a long nap. Not sure what the deal is with the naps every afternoon lately. I’d been chocking it up to being in the car but today … well, I napped. We’ve taken it easy this evening, walking to the store and then having a light dinner and now we’re in our room online again. Tomorrow, like I mentioned yesterday, we’re going to Dunedin and I hope we get to see penguins. Yay!!!
Oh, the heater is working today so we're actually nice and warm. Phew!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Franz Josef Glacier to Wanaka
July 21, 2009
Last time I was in New Zealand, I made the best of my time in Franz Josef Glacier. In one day I went kayaking on one of the Mirror Lakes and then took a glacier hike with a group up Franz Josef Glacier. I loved the kayaking and didn’t love the hike so much but I felt that I made good use of my time, none the less. When we woke up this morning, we had no plan for what we wanted to do. This is kind of normal for us as we kind of play things by ear usually, but since we’d come so far we should make an attempt to do something at Franz Josef. After all, it is one of the key destination points in New Zealand. We went and looked at brochures and Raven looked online. We tried to get info on river rafting but the websites were ridiculous and most of the places required you to be at the site by 9:30 and it was already 9:15. Ultimately, we decided to go to breakfast at a cafe and decide what to do over coffee.
We went to the same place we’d gone to the night previously for Quiz Night and people there recognized us from the night before. We ordered breakfast and tried to partake in the ‘bottomless coffee and tea”. Raven ordered “filtered coffee” which I learned means regular coffee. How I’d gone 19 days not knowing this, I have no idea. I stuck with tea, which I realized was a good idea when Raven sniffed the coffee. It was apparently vile. We enjoyed our breakfast and decided that we had no idea what to do and we were going to drive to the glacier itself and take our own walk out to it.
We headed out of town following the signs to the glacier. Unlike yesterday, which was sunny and beautiful, today was a torrential downpour. We turned off at the correct road and soon found ourselves sliding along the road. Raven said the road seemed like wet porcelain clay, not something we would want to drive on. Raven gave it her best shot but finally decided the car would slide off the embankment if we continued (which would most certainly put a damper on the trip). We slid back to the main road and decided to head south. At least we tried to do something in Franz Josef. We decided we’d head down towards Wanaka. We drove about 20 minutes or so and then saw signs for Fox Glacier, the other famous glacier in NZ. When I was in NZ the last time, I did not stop at Fox so since we were driving through the town anyway, we decided to go to the i-site to see if they had any info about how to get to the glacier. Not one but both visitor centers were closed, one attached to a cafe which said that they were open when the weather was fine. Did I mention the torrential downpour? So we got back into the car and kept driving. We saw a sign saying there was an access road to the glacier so we took it. Again, the road was unpaved but this time, it wasn’t made of clay and Raven had traction under her tires.
We found our way to the parking lot and saw that there were some cars there. We put on our coats and headed out towards the trail, noticing a sign saying that people should consider wearing a hat and warm clothes. We had the warm clothes, not the hat but went out anyway. The ‘trail’ was really the river bed where the glacier had passed through years previously. The water was brown and muddy but there were random pockets of aquamarine pools that were in sharp contrast to the browns and grays everywhere. We started walking along the river bed and noticed some amazing rocks laying on the ground. They were a brilliant green with white and brown flecks. As we walked we came across a sign warning about ice slides next to huge boulders of ice (the boulders were on the ground). Raven had me pose by it and then posed herself. Probably not one of my smarter moments but I survived my stupidity! I then noticed the signs warning about rock slides so I turned and saw that there was a temporary trail that was marked in the center of the riverbed. I decided to walk to it, Raven preferring to continue walking where we’d been doing so previously. The two trails connected at a point where the trail started going up towards the glacier. We walked along it for a while until we had a view of the glacier that we liked. We took numerous pictures of it and then started heading back. I should point out that people without a guide should not walk onto the glaciers because one, you need crampon ice shoes and other appropriate gear and two, because the ice is unstable and one misstep could easily become your last. So we went to look at the glacier from a safe distance instead. On the way back down I saw the posts for the temporary trail and Raven followed me. Right after we did that, a ranger came by with a shovel. We stopped to talk to him and he told us that he was on his way up to see if there had been any slides by the creek. Apparently, the muddy brown water is usually the same aquamarine blue as the pools we saw before. Rangers can tell there has been a rockslide when the water turns muddy. He also told us that he was trying to decide if he needed to close the trail because major rainfall was predicted for the afternoon. Apparently the creek rises fast when the rains hit, rising 1 meter every 15 minutes. He also pointed out a place in the cliff where the vegetation was clear because of a rockslide. He said he was glad that we’d walked away from that area because the cliff is still unstable. Apparently, the rockslides began 10 months ago (including HUGE boulders sitting at the bottom) and they’d had to close the glacier until a week or so ago. He also pointed out that he was not allowed to wear a hood because he needed to be listening for rockslides. Oops. I immediately took off my hood. I guess we timed it really well. We walked back up towards the car park and saw another ranger working on digging a hole. He talked to us as well and said that if the rains come that they’d have to close the glacier for the day but it was clearing up so he thought they wouldn’t have to. Minutes after he said that, it started to rain again. We hurried back to the car and by the time we got there it was hailing and coming down so hard that we couldn’t see the cliffs near us. I guess they were going to have to close the trail after all!
We felt incredibly fortunate that we got to see the glacier and stayed dry. After we got back into the car the rains really came down. We drove south towards Wanaka with the water pouring down in sheets. There was one point where we were driving along the coast and saw hundreds of little piles of rocks by the side of the road. Raven stopped the car to go and take pictures. She got out with her coat and I jumped out right after her without a coat and crossed the street to take pictures. I lasted 3 quick pictures with the wind howling, the rain pouring down and zero visibility so I ran back into the car while Raven took more pictures. It was a good place for a picture stop, I was just too cold, wet and couldn’t keep my camera dry. We continued on and decided not to have lunch in the car as it was way too wet. We stopped at a scenic sight of sand dunes and beach as the rain had let up a bit and we needed a pit stop. We got some great pictures of the beach and cliffs and I went up into a look out tower to take more pictures and noticed Raven trying to take pictures of a fantail that was flitting around her. When I got back down the same fantail started darting between the trail and my feet. He almost flew into my jeans he was so erratic. I got some pictures of him but again, he was so darn fast. It was awesome.
We got back into the car and drove towards Haast, a small beach town. We took a chance on a cafe as there really weren’t other options. One thing I like about New Zealand is that when you go to a small town you don’t see McDonalds and other fast food places. Instead you see local cafes. We ordered lunch and sat as close to the fire as we could because that place was freezing. As we sat waiting for our food I saw a flash of lightning outside (some of you know my hatred of lightning) followed 2 seconds later by a boom of thunder. Then the power flashed off. Oh, cute. The power came back on but we were witnesses to a thunder storm and more torrential rain. I had pumpkin soup (as in squash… it’s all pumpkin here) and a tomato and cheese toastie (now anything called a toastie has to be yummy) and a ginger beer. I’m liking the ginger beers a little too much. I fear I might be getting addicted and unfortunately, I know that I can get ginger beer at Cost Plus in Olympia.
After our lunch we headed back out and towards Haast Pass. Yep, we were going into the mountains in the middle of winter, something I hate to do in Washington. The drive was beautiful. Since the rain was pouring down, there were countless waterfall cascading down along the road. I commented that it was like we were in Milford Sound. We’ve being listening to books on tape this entire trip and I tried valiantly to stay awake but sleep found me during the drive. I woke up to find that there was snow all along the sides of the road. Oops. Luckily, even though there was a lot of rain coming down, it didn’t snow. The mountain pass would NOT be fun if that were the case.
Finally, we drove along Lake Wanaka and we could finally see little spots of blue poking out of the clouds. Lake Wanaka is a brilliant light blue, kind of like the glacier water at Fox Glacier. This seems strange when the sky is grey. It’s one of the most beautiful sights, truly. The blue water, the looming snowcapped mountains, the clouds and mist weaving in and out of the mountain tops and the lush green forests are just incredible. I hope I can get some pictures tomorrow. We got into Wanaka when it was still daylight and went in search of a backpacker. The Wanaka YHA was pretty full and only had a dorm with 7 rooms available. We found a place called the Matterhorn, which has been wonderful. Well, it was until now because Raven is closed and can’t get the heater to do what she wants it to. We are sharing a twin room again and this time it has *gasp* a bathroom attached to the room. Luxurious! LOL. We made dinner tonight and now we’re sitting in our room online. We plan to stay here for two nights because we want to explore Mt. Aspiring National Park. I loved this park when I was here last time because of the mystical beech forests and I would love to have time to do it again. Tomorrow is my big chance!
This trip is about to start winding down soon. I’m still traveling south but not for much longer. Tonight and tomorrow we’ll be in Wanaka. Then we’ll spend two nights in Dunedin, followed by two nights in Kaikoura. We’ll then cross the ferry again and stay two nights in Masterton before I fly back up to Auckland for one more night and then I’m heading home. It’s hard to believe and yet I’ve seen so much this trip. I’ve definitely packed in a lot in a month. Yay!
Last time I was in New Zealand, I made the best of my time in Franz Josef Glacier. In one day I went kayaking on one of the Mirror Lakes and then took a glacier hike with a group up Franz Josef Glacier. I loved the kayaking and didn’t love the hike so much but I felt that I made good use of my time, none the less. When we woke up this morning, we had no plan for what we wanted to do. This is kind of normal for us as we kind of play things by ear usually, but since we’d come so far we should make an attempt to do something at Franz Josef. After all, it is one of the key destination points in New Zealand. We went and looked at brochures and Raven looked online. We tried to get info on river rafting but the websites were ridiculous and most of the places required you to be at the site by 9:30 and it was already 9:15. Ultimately, we decided to go to breakfast at a cafe and decide what to do over coffee.
We went to the same place we’d gone to the night previously for Quiz Night and people there recognized us from the night before. We ordered breakfast and tried to partake in the ‘bottomless coffee and tea”. Raven ordered “filtered coffee” which I learned means regular coffee. How I’d gone 19 days not knowing this, I have no idea. I stuck with tea, which I realized was a good idea when Raven sniffed the coffee. It was apparently vile. We enjoyed our breakfast and decided that we had no idea what to do and we were going to drive to the glacier itself and take our own walk out to it.
We headed out of town following the signs to the glacier. Unlike yesterday, which was sunny and beautiful, today was a torrential downpour. We turned off at the correct road and soon found ourselves sliding along the road. Raven said the road seemed like wet porcelain clay, not something we would want to drive on. Raven gave it her best shot but finally decided the car would slide off the embankment if we continued (which would most certainly put a damper on the trip). We slid back to the main road and decided to head south. At least we tried to do something in Franz Josef. We decided we’d head down towards Wanaka. We drove about 20 minutes or so and then saw signs for Fox Glacier, the other famous glacier in NZ. When I was in NZ the last time, I did not stop at Fox so since we were driving through the town anyway, we decided to go to the i-site to see if they had any info about how to get to the glacier. Not one but both visitor centers were closed, one attached to a cafe which said that they were open when the weather was fine. Did I mention the torrential downpour? So we got back into the car and kept driving. We saw a sign saying there was an access road to the glacier so we took it. Again, the road was unpaved but this time, it wasn’t made of clay and Raven had traction under her tires.
We found our way to the parking lot and saw that there were some cars there. We put on our coats and headed out towards the trail, noticing a sign saying that people should consider wearing a hat and warm clothes. We had the warm clothes, not the hat but went out anyway. The ‘trail’ was really the river bed where the glacier had passed through years previously. The water was brown and muddy but there were random pockets of aquamarine pools that were in sharp contrast to the browns and grays everywhere. We started walking along the river bed and noticed some amazing rocks laying on the ground. They were a brilliant green with white and brown flecks. As we walked we came across a sign warning about ice slides next to huge boulders of ice (the boulders were on the ground). Raven had me pose by it and then posed herself. Probably not one of my smarter moments but I survived my stupidity! I then noticed the signs warning about rock slides so I turned and saw that there was a temporary trail that was marked in the center of the riverbed. I decided to walk to it, Raven preferring to continue walking where we’d been doing so previously. The two trails connected at a point where the trail started going up towards the glacier. We walked along it for a while until we had a view of the glacier that we liked. We took numerous pictures of it and then started heading back. I should point out that people without a guide should not walk onto the glaciers because one, you need crampon ice shoes and other appropriate gear and two, because the ice is unstable and one misstep could easily become your last. So we went to look at the glacier from a safe distance instead. On the way back down I saw the posts for the temporary trail and Raven followed me. Right after we did that, a ranger came by with a shovel. We stopped to talk to him and he told us that he was on his way up to see if there had been any slides by the creek. Apparently, the muddy brown water is usually the same aquamarine blue as the pools we saw before. Rangers can tell there has been a rockslide when the water turns muddy. He also told us that he was trying to decide if he needed to close the trail because major rainfall was predicted for the afternoon. Apparently the creek rises fast when the rains hit, rising 1 meter every 15 minutes. He also pointed out a place in the cliff where the vegetation was clear because of a rockslide. He said he was glad that we’d walked away from that area because the cliff is still unstable. Apparently, the rockslides began 10 months ago (including HUGE boulders sitting at the bottom) and they’d had to close the glacier until a week or so ago. He also pointed out that he was not allowed to wear a hood because he needed to be listening for rockslides. Oops. I immediately took off my hood. I guess we timed it really well. We walked back up towards the car park and saw another ranger working on digging a hole. He talked to us as well and said that if the rains come that they’d have to close the glacier for the day but it was clearing up so he thought they wouldn’t have to. Minutes after he said that, it started to rain again. We hurried back to the car and by the time we got there it was hailing and coming down so hard that we couldn’t see the cliffs near us. I guess they were going to have to close the trail after all!
We felt incredibly fortunate that we got to see the glacier and stayed dry. After we got back into the car the rains really came down. We drove south towards Wanaka with the water pouring down in sheets. There was one point where we were driving along the coast and saw hundreds of little piles of rocks by the side of the road. Raven stopped the car to go and take pictures. She got out with her coat and I jumped out right after her without a coat and crossed the street to take pictures. I lasted 3 quick pictures with the wind howling, the rain pouring down and zero visibility so I ran back into the car while Raven took more pictures. It was a good place for a picture stop, I was just too cold, wet and couldn’t keep my camera dry. We continued on and decided not to have lunch in the car as it was way too wet. We stopped at a scenic sight of sand dunes and beach as the rain had let up a bit and we needed a pit stop. We got some great pictures of the beach and cliffs and I went up into a look out tower to take more pictures and noticed Raven trying to take pictures of a fantail that was flitting around her. When I got back down the same fantail started darting between the trail and my feet. He almost flew into my jeans he was so erratic. I got some pictures of him but again, he was so darn fast. It was awesome.
We got back into the car and drove towards Haast, a small beach town. We took a chance on a cafe as there really weren’t other options. One thing I like about New Zealand is that when you go to a small town you don’t see McDonalds and other fast food places. Instead you see local cafes. We ordered lunch and sat as close to the fire as we could because that place was freezing. As we sat waiting for our food I saw a flash of lightning outside (some of you know my hatred of lightning) followed 2 seconds later by a boom of thunder. Then the power flashed off. Oh, cute. The power came back on but we were witnesses to a thunder storm and more torrential rain. I had pumpkin soup (as in squash… it’s all pumpkin here) and a tomato and cheese toastie (now anything called a toastie has to be yummy) and a ginger beer. I’m liking the ginger beers a little too much. I fear I might be getting addicted and unfortunately, I know that I can get ginger beer at Cost Plus in Olympia.
After our lunch we headed back out and towards Haast Pass. Yep, we were going into the mountains in the middle of winter, something I hate to do in Washington. The drive was beautiful. Since the rain was pouring down, there were countless waterfall cascading down along the road. I commented that it was like we were in Milford Sound. We’ve being listening to books on tape this entire trip and I tried valiantly to stay awake but sleep found me during the drive. I woke up to find that there was snow all along the sides of the road. Oops. Luckily, even though there was a lot of rain coming down, it didn’t snow. The mountain pass would NOT be fun if that were the case.
Finally, we drove along Lake Wanaka and we could finally see little spots of blue poking out of the clouds. Lake Wanaka is a brilliant light blue, kind of like the glacier water at Fox Glacier. This seems strange when the sky is grey. It’s one of the most beautiful sights, truly. The blue water, the looming snowcapped mountains, the clouds and mist weaving in and out of the mountain tops and the lush green forests are just incredible. I hope I can get some pictures tomorrow. We got into Wanaka when it was still daylight and went in search of a backpacker. The Wanaka YHA was pretty full and only had a dorm with 7 rooms available. We found a place called the Matterhorn, which has been wonderful. Well, it was until now because Raven is closed and can’t get the heater to do what she wants it to. We are sharing a twin room again and this time it has *gasp* a bathroom attached to the room. Luxurious! LOL. We made dinner tonight and now we’re sitting in our room online. We plan to stay here for two nights because we want to explore Mt. Aspiring National Park. I loved this park when I was here last time because of the mystical beech forests and I would love to have time to do it again. Tomorrow is my big chance!
This trip is about to start winding down soon. I’m still traveling south but not for much longer. Tonight and tomorrow we’ll be in Wanaka. Then we’ll spend two nights in Dunedin, followed by two nights in Kaikoura. We’ll then cross the ferry again and stay two nights in Masterton before I fly back up to Auckland for one more night and then I’m heading home. It’s hard to believe and yet I’ve seen so much this trip. I’ve definitely packed in a lot in a month. Yay!
Monday, July 20, 2009
Punakaiki to Franz Josef Glacier
July 20, 2009
I love the town of Punakaiki, I really do. It may be one of my favorite places on this planet. I went there five years ago and my return felt just as magical, if not more so. We woke up this morning to the smell of baked muffins. We got up and got ready, heading downstairs to sample the muffins. Monday apparently means chocolate chip day. Yay! We each ate one of the muffins, brewed up some tea and walked outside to the Truman Track.
Te Nikau Retreat is right next to the Paparoa National Park and the Truman Track is part of the park. We followed along the path, which is absolutely stunning. Punakaiki is in the middle of the rainforest so the vegetation is especially lush and green. Somehow, the rains stayed away and we had blue sky overhead as we followed the rainforest path towards the beach. I read a sign saying that little blue penguins nest at the beach starting in August and I was hoping that they might be a wee bit early. No such luck but we did get to see my favorite beach anywhere on this planet. I took pictures from it 5 years ago and they were by far my favorite pictures on the trip. This time was no different. The tide was in so there was no beach walk this time. However, this was not a problem because the waves crashing against the rocks was so spectacular that we didn’t need to be walking on sand in order to see it. Raven made a comment that she had never before heard waves that actually ‘crash’. It is an awesome sound, truly, hearing the slamming of the surf on the rocks. It really does sound like something has run into a rock. In addition to the sounds of the waves hitting the rocks, we also got to listen to my favorite sound in New Zealand. The waves were loud so it was kind of hard to hear but because Punakaiki has little pebbles instead of sand grains, when the water recedes from the beach, the sound effect is of thousands of rain sticks. I heard this last time when I was in Punakaiki and in Kaikoura and I loved hearing it again. Raven heard it too. We took tons of pictures of the waves and the beach and I took a handful of sand again (well, little pebbles, not sand). I really can’t describe this beach and this experience enough. We were truly blessed to be able to witness it. I could truly spend days staying there, which is kind of funny because New Zealanders often comment, “Punakaiki? Why would you stay there?” After our beach walk we headed back into the forest and spent quite a while walking among the trees taking pictures. We were as content walking under the green canopy as we were walking near the beach.
We returned to Te Nikau and got into the car so that we could see the Pancake Rocks (what Punakaiki is famous for). Other people at the backpacker were commenting that now was the time to go see them because the tide was in and the blowholes would be in full force. We headed over and walked along the trail to the rocks. I did this five years ago as well and I’m sure I got similar pictures. It was breathtaking and all, but somehow paled in comparison to my little beach at Te Nikau.
After exploring the Pancake Rocks (and we didn’t eat pancakes, although we’d considered it) we went to the requisite gift shop and then we were on our way. Being the ‘navigator’, I had planned for us to stay the night in Hotitika, which was further down the coast of the Tasman Sea. I had considered it to be a decent drive from Westport (our original plan) and we got there in the early morning. Um, no. I suggested that we try to go far down the coast to Franz Josef Glacier because it felt like we could cover more miles and I remembered liking the backpacker there the last time I was in NZ. We decided to go for it and although we’d originally pulled out brochures about Hotitika, we breezed right through it. In fact, we only stopped in Greymouth for a moment for gas and cash (no ATMs further south for a while). Around 1 pm, as I was eating an apple, Raven asked if we should stop for lunch. We thought of staying in a picnic area but couldn’t find one so we stopped randomly along the road. We made quick sandwiches in the car and ate alongside the road. Even though it’s one of the main arterials through the South Island on the West Coast, it was very quiet. Hardly any cars passed us.
As we were driving along Highway 6, we passed a sign advertising “The Bushman Centre” 6 km in the distance. It triggered a memory for me from my last trip when we’d stopped there on the bus. It is a weird place that specializes in possum pies and other random animal pies, has a bunch of animals not native to NZ in pens outside (like a deer, a tarn and some wallabies) and a possum museum. We’re talking strange. We went in and ordered hot red currant drinks and stretched our legs for a while. We then decided to spend $4 each on the possum museum, which was certainly not worth it. Te Papa is free! What were we thinking? The possum museum is a room in the back of the place that has a boardwalk where you walk amongst stuffed animals everywhere. I was on my way out the door, not particularly impressed, when Raven let out a big yelp. I turned around and she had hot red currant spilled on her sweater and her hair was wet. WTF? Apparently, she’d pulled a lever that promised a ‘weta experience’. For those of you not familiar with NZ, wetas are huge nocturnal insects native to NZ. When she pulled the lever, a bunch of water dumped on her head … it was a pun and not so funny joke. For Americans, that wouldn’t make an ounce of sense but when you don’t pronounce the final ‘r’ in words, weta and wetter sound the same. Har har. We immediately left and it kind of put a damper on the afternoon.
We headed on again and I tried valiantly to stay awake but failed miserably. I had mentioned stopping at the Mirror Lakes near Franz Josef and I happened to open my eyes right at the sign advertising the lakes and pointed it out to Raven. We pulled off and saw that the lake water was rough so the mirror effect wasn’t apparent. Instead of looking at a not so interesting lake (darn lack of mirror effect) we decided to journey on to Franz Josef Glacier. We pulled up at the YHA and booked a room and then went for a walk in the town. This town rivals Punakaiki in smallness, having only two major streets (one of them highway 6) so the walk didn’t take us long.
Raven went up to the room to rest for a while and I grabbed a book and sat OUTSIDE to read. We’re near the mountains and yet it was warm enough to read in July (which is like January at home). I took some pictures of the mountains among the clouds and when it got dark and cold (sun went away) I came in to read some more. Raven came to find me an hour or so later and we went out to a local pub to get some dinner AND participate in Quiz Night. I had seen a sign advertising it and I just had to partake in this Kiwi experience. Luckily, I was able to twist Raven’s arm and get her to do this. The categories were Michael Jackson albums, Potluck, Science and Nature, Sports, History, Music, TV and Movies and Artsy Fartsy. We got to choose two categories where we could get double points and we chose Science and Nature and History. We got all of the Science and Nature questions right, which I was quite excited about, and most of the history questions. When we first started, one of the first questions was “Lake Tahoe borders which two states?” to which I did a little dance as I definitely knew it. The MC saw me and said, “We don’t happen to have a couple of Americans here tonight, do we?” He then said, “Well, it’s better than Australians,” to which a bunch of people shouted out at him (must have been Australians). There was a ‘baffler’ question where they would give out clues each round and you’d have to guess the answer. In our case, it was a year they were looking for. Raven put 1888 as her answer for the first round. In the third round, the question was “The states Montana, Washington (and some other one) entered the Union during this year” to which I got very excited and wrote down 1889 because, well, I’m from Washington and was taught this year in grade school. Someone else beat us to it and they announced that the answer was 1888. WTF?! NO!!! Raven actually had guessed the right date (and it was random) but we didn’t hand in our papers right away so we didn’t win. Drat. Still, I had a lot of fun. The answers to other questions were also wrong, including the answer to the question of who was the First Lady of the United States of America from 1989 to 1993? We put down Barbara Bush and the answer sheet said Betty Bush. They actually went online to check that one. I was surprised by how many American questions were asked. Good thing we could answer them.
I love the town of Punakaiki, I really do. It may be one of my favorite places on this planet. I went there five years ago and my return felt just as magical, if not more so. We woke up this morning to the smell of baked muffins. We got up and got ready, heading downstairs to sample the muffins. Monday apparently means chocolate chip day. Yay! We each ate one of the muffins, brewed up some tea and walked outside to the Truman Track.
Te Nikau Retreat is right next to the Paparoa National Park and the Truman Track is part of the park. We followed along the path, which is absolutely stunning. Punakaiki is in the middle of the rainforest so the vegetation is especially lush and green. Somehow, the rains stayed away and we had blue sky overhead as we followed the rainforest path towards the beach. I read a sign saying that little blue penguins nest at the beach starting in August and I was hoping that they might be a wee bit early. No such luck but we did get to see my favorite beach anywhere on this planet. I took pictures from it 5 years ago and they were by far my favorite pictures on the trip. This time was no different. The tide was in so there was no beach walk this time. However, this was not a problem because the waves crashing against the rocks was so spectacular that we didn’t need to be walking on sand in order to see it. Raven made a comment that she had never before heard waves that actually ‘crash’. It is an awesome sound, truly, hearing the slamming of the surf on the rocks. It really does sound like something has run into a rock. In addition to the sounds of the waves hitting the rocks, we also got to listen to my favorite sound in New Zealand. The waves were loud so it was kind of hard to hear but because Punakaiki has little pebbles instead of sand grains, when the water recedes from the beach, the sound effect is of thousands of rain sticks. I heard this last time when I was in Punakaiki and in Kaikoura and I loved hearing it again. Raven heard it too. We took tons of pictures of the waves and the beach and I took a handful of sand again (well, little pebbles, not sand). I really can’t describe this beach and this experience enough. We were truly blessed to be able to witness it. I could truly spend days staying there, which is kind of funny because New Zealanders often comment, “Punakaiki? Why would you stay there?” After our beach walk we headed back into the forest and spent quite a while walking among the trees taking pictures. We were as content walking under the green canopy as we were walking near the beach.
We returned to Te Nikau and got into the car so that we could see the Pancake Rocks (what Punakaiki is famous for). Other people at the backpacker were commenting that now was the time to go see them because the tide was in and the blowholes would be in full force. We headed over and walked along the trail to the rocks. I did this five years ago as well and I’m sure I got similar pictures. It was breathtaking and all, but somehow paled in comparison to my little beach at Te Nikau.
After exploring the Pancake Rocks (and we didn’t eat pancakes, although we’d considered it) we went to the requisite gift shop and then we were on our way. Being the ‘navigator’, I had planned for us to stay the night in Hotitika, which was further down the coast of the Tasman Sea. I had considered it to be a decent drive from Westport (our original plan) and we got there in the early morning. Um, no. I suggested that we try to go far down the coast to Franz Josef Glacier because it felt like we could cover more miles and I remembered liking the backpacker there the last time I was in NZ. We decided to go for it and although we’d originally pulled out brochures about Hotitika, we breezed right through it. In fact, we only stopped in Greymouth for a moment for gas and cash (no ATMs further south for a while). Around 1 pm, as I was eating an apple, Raven asked if we should stop for lunch. We thought of staying in a picnic area but couldn’t find one so we stopped randomly along the road. We made quick sandwiches in the car and ate alongside the road. Even though it’s one of the main arterials through the South Island on the West Coast, it was very quiet. Hardly any cars passed us.
As we were driving along Highway 6, we passed a sign advertising “The Bushman Centre” 6 km in the distance. It triggered a memory for me from my last trip when we’d stopped there on the bus. It is a weird place that specializes in possum pies and other random animal pies, has a bunch of animals not native to NZ in pens outside (like a deer, a tarn and some wallabies) and a possum museum. We’re talking strange. We went in and ordered hot red currant drinks and stretched our legs for a while. We then decided to spend $4 each on the possum museum, which was certainly not worth it. Te Papa is free! What were we thinking? The possum museum is a room in the back of the place that has a boardwalk where you walk amongst stuffed animals everywhere. I was on my way out the door, not particularly impressed, when Raven let out a big yelp. I turned around and she had hot red currant spilled on her sweater and her hair was wet. WTF? Apparently, she’d pulled a lever that promised a ‘weta experience’. For those of you not familiar with NZ, wetas are huge nocturnal insects native to NZ. When she pulled the lever, a bunch of water dumped on her head … it was a pun and not so funny joke. For Americans, that wouldn’t make an ounce of sense but when you don’t pronounce the final ‘r’ in words, weta and wetter sound the same. Har har. We immediately left and it kind of put a damper on the afternoon.
We headed on again and I tried valiantly to stay awake but failed miserably. I had mentioned stopping at the Mirror Lakes near Franz Josef and I happened to open my eyes right at the sign advertising the lakes and pointed it out to Raven. We pulled off and saw that the lake water was rough so the mirror effect wasn’t apparent. Instead of looking at a not so interesting lake (darn lack of mirror effect) we decided to journey on to Franz Josef Glacier. We pulled up at the YHA and booked a room and then went for a walk in the town. This town rivals Punakaiki in smallness, having only two major streets (one of them highway 6) so the walk didn’t take us long.
Raven went up to the room to rest for a while and I grabbed a book and sat OUTSIDE to read. We’re near the mountains and yet it was warm enough to read in July (which is like January at home). I took some pictures of the mountains among the clouds and when it got dark and cold (sun went away) I came in to read some more. Raven came to find me an hour or so later and we went out to a local pub to get some dinner AND participate in Quiz Night. I had seen a sign advertising it and I just had to partake in this Kiwi experience. Luckily, I was able to twist Raven’s arm and get her to do this. The categories were Michael Jackson albums, Potluck, Science and Nature, Sports, History, Music, TV and Movies and Artsy Fartsy. We got to choose two categories where we could get double points and we chose Science and Nature and History. We got all of the Science and Nature questions right, which I was quite excited about, and most of the history questions. When we first started, one of the first questions was “Lake Tahoe borders which two states?” to which I did a little dance as I definitely knew it. The MC saw me and said, “We don’t happen to have a couple of Americans here tonight, do we?” He then said, “Well, it’s better than Australians,” to which a bunch of people shouted out at him (must have been Australians). There was a ‘baffler’ question where they would give out clues each round and you’d have to guess the answer. In our case, it was a year they were looking for. Raven put 1888 as her answer for the first round. In the third round, the question was “The states Montana, Washington (and some other one) entered the Union during this year” to which I got very excited and wrote down 1889 because, well, I’m from Washington and was taught this year in grade school. Someone else beat us to it and they announced that the answer was 1888. WTF?! NO!!! Raven actually had guessed the right date (and it was random) but we didn’t hand in our papers right away so we didn’t win. Drat. Still, I had a lot of fun. The answers to other questions were also wrong, including the answer to the question of who was the First Lady of the United States of America from 1989 to 1993? We put down Barbara Bush and the answer sheet said Betty Bush. They actually went online to check that one. I was surprised by how many American questions were asked. Good thing we could answer them.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Nelson to Punakaiki
July 19, 2009
This morning we headed downstairs for a relaxing breakfast before heading out for our next adventure. Unfortunately, the teenage dance troupe in our backpacker had a different idea of relaxing. They’d been there the night before with teenagers feeling the liberty of horrible chaperones. That means 14 year olds running around yelling and tearing around the place when we were downstairs on our computers. We couldn’t be in our rooms because, as I mentioned yesterday, we couldn’t get online from our rooms. So we had to deal with obnoxious teenagers. Again this morning they were out running around and again they took over the entire hostel. However, this time the chaperones were getting on my nerves because they were so darn loud. Shhhh! Let us have a peaceful morning in well, peace. I couldn’t get out of there soon enough.
We walked outside and noticed that our car was next to the Flea Market so we dutifully stopped and walked around. I think I like the idea of a flea market more than the actual flea market because minutes into exploring it I was essentially done. Thankfully, so was Raven so we hopped into the car and headed on our way. Ever since the last time I was in New Zealand I’ve wanted to go on the Great Walk in the Abel Tasman National Park. I’ve seen pictures of it and it has always looked amazing… golden sand beaches with deep blue sea. Last time I didn’t book a trip there and the way our timing has gone this time, I knew that a 3-4 day trip to Abel Tasman wouldn’t be possible. I saw that the track was close to the road, however, and we decided to venture onto the edge of the track at least. We didn’t have an actual address for Magda the Bitch so I had to navigate us to the park. According to the map, we had a choice of either taking the windy road by the water or the windy road not by the water. We chose water and OMG did that map lie. It wasn’t just windy, it was scary windy. We were not happy and were very glad to get through it unscathed. I didn’t suggest stopping along the road to take pictures because it was that scary. We finally made it to the park and there was hardly anyone there. We made quick sandwiches and ate before venturing onto the trail. I was sooo excited by this as, like I said, I’ve waited a long time to be on this trail.
We walked out onto the bridge and headed towards the trail. As we walked we could see lots of rocks arranged into words along the beach. This is apparently something that lots of kiwis do with rocks on the beach around here and it was fun trying to figure out what they said. Much more longevity with this than with writing in the sand and yet still not permanent. We took pictures of the sand and the water and I was thrilled to see that the pictures do not lie. The Abel Tasman National Park is a combination of deep blue sea and golden sand. It’s stunning. We walked to the boardwalk until we got onto the actual trail. Once again we found ourselves walking in native NZ bush so we saw ferns galore. At one point, a fantail was flitting about and I told it to hold still so we could take pictures and … it did! I have 3-4 pictures of it and was taking pictures of it until it had had enough and flew off. We stopped over and over again taking pictures of the bush and of the views of the water through the trees. We decided that we needed to have a time limit so that we wouldn’t arrive at our backpacker too late at night so we gave ourselves an hour on the trail before having to head back. We got to a beach access point that said Tinline Bay and decided to stop off and take pictures. It was one of the most beautiful places I’ve been to in NZ and that’s saying something. We walked along the beach taking oodles of pictures and had an amazing time. We were 5 minutes ‘behind schedule’ when we had finished our pictures and decided to head back. We were shocked when we saw the boardwalk again as it took us about 30 minutes to get back. So we’d meandered for an hour and took 1/2 as long to get back. Oops. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed walking along the track and didn’t mind that we spent an hour and a half instead of 3 days, although some day I’d like to make it a multiday trip. We stopped at a shop across from the park on the way back because it was finally open (it wasn’t open at noon when we’d arrived). There was a sign saying that the shop, the property and the art were on sale for $295,000 NZ, which is uber cheap by both US and NZ standards. I didn’t buy it though.
We decided to stay the night in Greymouth, which meant quite a bit of driving when we left the park… try 5 hours worth of driving and it was already 3 pm. Mind you, it’s winter here and 3 pm means long shadows as it’s a couple of hours before dark. Such a shock coming here from summer! We decided that driving all the way to Greymouth might not be the best idea so we decided on Westport instead. We stopped along the way in a town called Tapawera because we were really craving coffee. We walked in and the girl in the cafe saw us and greeted us. We walked up to the counter and thought that she’d be serving us quickly. To our surprise, she stayed in back and started doing dishes. We kept thinking she’d come take our order. Nope. It got so ridiculous that Raven and I decided to leave. We got to the door when she came out and asked us what we were doing. Um, leaving? She then took our order and we sat down to wait. There were two men who were sitting outside when we arrived. A few minutes after we sat down she walked out to them and brought out coffees. It was weird. She’d been doing dishes while they had to wait for their coffees. We waited a while and then she brought out our coffees. Not so yummy either. We drank them quickly and headed out, not particularly impressed by the town. We then headed towards Westport, listening to our book on tape and meandering through the passes. I was a little nervous navigating on the road because the map showed lots of twists and turns but we did pass a bus, which made us think that maybe it wasn’t so bad. For once, it wasn’t so bad and we made it to Westport by 6ish.
We followed directions to the backpacker and pulled up in front. We got out of the car and were BLASTED by a horrible burning smell. Raven was worried that it was her car but as we walked away from her car the smell did not lessen. We looked up at the chimney of the backpacker and saw a horrible cloud of smoke coming from it. They were heating their place with coal and it smelled so toxic. We walked in and there weren’t any twin beds available, just a double. We decided to leave because we didn’t want to deal with that, it was crowded and it was hard to breathe. We drove through the town and it ALL smelled of burning coal, which was horrible. I suggested staying at the backpacker in Punakaiki, which is where I’d stayed five years ago when I was here. Raven agreed so we plugged in the address and headed out of Westport. It took about an hour and we saw penguin crossing signs along the way, which we hope to take pictures of tomorrow. We also had to slow down for a bird in the road. Raven was super excited and adamant that we’d just seen a kiwi bird. I, at the same moment, thought we’d seen a weka. I’m pretty sure I was right and the woman at the hostel agreed with me.
We finally arrived in Punakaiki around 7. Punakaiki is a very small little town in NZ and that’s saying something in NZ because there are some very small towns. It really is a row of restaurants along the highway plus this amazing little backpacker a mile or two down the road. It has access to a gorgeous little beach and it’s where I took some of my best pictures the last time I was here. I remembered the owner of the backpacker and I really wanted to come back here. While it was unfortunate about Westport, I was personally very happy to be returning here. There were vacancies and so we are here right now. There are major improvements over how it was five years ago. Most noticeable is that there is now a reception area and staff. Before it was just the owner. The place looks much cleaner and they now sell some food (last time I had to walk to a restaurant nearby along the highway … not one of my smarter moments). We cooked dinner and we’re going to have fresh bread and muffins tomorrow (they did have that last time). I can’t wait to walk back to the beach and I’m hoping for more lovely pictures. The downside to this place is that they’re using coal to heat it, but luckily it’s not AS vile as Westport. Raven and I are still affected by it though and we’re going to risk being cold tonight rather than deal with the coal fumes.
I don’t think that I’ll be posting more pictures on Facebook until after I return to the States. My computer says that disk space is now low and I can’t even upload more pictures. So I’ll just be posting to the blog and I’ll put up pictures later.
This morning we headed downstairs for a relaxing breakfast before heading out for our next adventure. Unfortunately, the teenage dance troupe in our backpacker had a different idea of relaxing. They’d been there the night before with teenagers feeling the liberty of horrible chaperones. That means 14 year olds running around yelling and tearing around the place when we were downstairs on our computers. We couldn’t be in our rooms because, as I mentioned yesterday, we couldn’t get online from our rooms. So we had to deal with obnoxious teenagers. Again this morning they were out running around and again they took over the entire hostel. However, this time the chaperones were getting on my nerves because they were so darn loud. Shhhh! Let us have a peaceful morning in well, peace. I couldn’t get out of there soon enough.
We walked outside and noticed that our car was next to the Flea Market so we dutifully stopped and walked around. I think I like the idea of a flea market more than the actual flea market because minutes into exploring it I was essentially done. Thankfully, so was Raven so we hopped into the car and headed on our way. Ever since the last time I was in New Zealand I’ve wanted to go on the Great Walk in the Abel Tasman National Park. I’ve seen pictures of it and it has always looked amazing… golden sand beaches with deep blue sea. Last time I didn’t book a trip there and the way our timing has gone this time, I knew that a 3-4 day trip to Abel Tasman wouldn’t be possible. I saw that the track was close to the road, however, and we decided to venture onto the edge of the track at least. We didn’t have an actual address for Magda the Bitch so I had to navigate us to the park. According to the map, we had a choice of either taking the windy road by the water or the windy road not by the water. We chose water and OMG did that map lie. It wasn’t just windy, it was scary windy. We were not happy and were very glad to get through it unscathed. I didn’t suggest stopping along the road to take pictures because it was that scary. We finally made it to the park and there was hardly anyone there. We made quick sandwiches and ate before venturing onto the trail. I was sooo excited by this as, like I said, I’ve waited a long time to be on this trail.
We walked out onto the bridge and headed towards the trail. As we walked we could see lots of rocks arranged into words along the beach. This is apparently something that lots of kiwis do with rocks on the beach around here and it was fun trying to figure out what they said. Much more longevity with this than with writing in the sand and yet still not permanent. We took pictures of the sand and the water and I was thrilled to see that the pictures do not lie. The Abel Tasman National Park is a combination of deep blue sea and golden sand. It’s stunning. We walked to the boardwalk until we got onto the actual trail. Once again we found ourselves walking in native NZ bush so we saw ferns galore. At one point, a fantail was flitting about and I told it to hold still so we could take pictures and … it did! I have 3-4 pictures of it and was taking pictures of it until it had had enough and flew off. We stopped over and over again taking pictures of the bush and of the views of the water through the trees. We decided that we needed to have a time limit so that we wouldn’t arrive at our backpacker too late at night so we gave ourselves an hour on the trail before having to head back. We got to a beach access point that said Tinline Bay and decided to stop off and take pictures. It was one of the most beautiful places I’ve been to in NZ and that’s saying something. We walked along the beach taking oodles of pictures and had an amazing time. We were 5 minutes ‘behind schedule’ when we had finished our pictures and decided to head back. We were shocked when we saw the boardwalk again as it took us about 30 minutes to get back. So we’d meandered for an hour and took 1/2 as long to get back. Oops. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed walking along the track and didn’t mind that we spent an hour and a half instead of 3 days, although some day I’d like to make it a multiday trip. We stopped at a shop across from the park on the way back because it was finally open (it wasn’t open at noon when we’d arrived). There was a sign saying that the shop, the property and the art were on sale for $295,000 NZ, which is uber cheap by both US and NZ standards. I didn’t buy it though.
We decided to stay the night in Greymouth, which meant quite a bit of driving when we left the park… try 5 hours worth of driving and it was already 3 pm. Mind you, it’s winter here and 3 pm means long shadows as it’s a couple of hours before dark. Such a shock coming here from summer! We decided that driving all the way to Greymouth might not be the best idea so we decided on Westport instead. We stopped along the way in a town called Tapawera because we were really craving coffee. We walked in and the girl in the cafe saw us and greeted us. We walked up to the counter and thought that she’d be serving us quickly. To our surprise, she stayed in back and started doing dishes. We kept thinking she’d come take our order. Nope. It got so ridiculous that Raven and I decided to leave. We got to the door when she came out and asked us what we were doing. Um, leaving? She then took our order and we sat down to wait. There were two men who were sitting outside when we arrived. A few minutes after we sat down she walked out to them and brought out coffees. It was weird. She’d been doing dishes while they had to wait for their coffees. We waited a while and then she brought out our coffees. Not so yummy either. We drank them quickly and headed out, not particularly impressed by the town. We then headed towards Westport, listening to our book on tape and meandering through the passes. I was a little nervous navigating on the road because the map showed lots of twists and turns but we did pass a bus, which made us think that maybe it wasn’t so bad. For once, it wasn’t so bad and we made it to Westport by 6ish.
We followed directions to the backpacker and pulled up in front. We got out of the car and were BLASTED by a horrible burning smell. Raven was worried that it was her car but as we walked away from her car the smell did not lessen. We looked up at the chimney of the backpacker and saw a horrible cloud of smoke coming from it. They were heating their place with coal and it smelled so toxic. We walked in and there weren’t any twin beds available, just a double. We decided to leave because we didn’t want to deal with that, it was crowded and it was hard to breathe. We drove through the town and it ALL smelled of burning coal, which was horrible. I suggested staying at the backpacker in Punakaiki, which is where I’d stayed five years ago when I was here. Raven agreed so we plugged in the address and headed out of Westport. It took about an hour and we saw penguin crossing signs along the way, which we hope to take pictures of tomorrow. We also had to slow down for a bird in the road. Raven was super excited and adamant that we’d just seen a kiwi bird. I, at the same moment, thought we’d seen a weka. I’m pretty sure I was right and the woman at the hostel agreed with me.
We finally arrived in Punakaiki around 7. Punakaiki is a very small little town in NZ and that’s saying something in NZ because there are some very small towns. It really is a row of restaurants along the highway plus this amazing little backpacker a mile or two down the road. It has access to a gorgeous little beach and it’s where I took some of my best pictures the last time I was here. I remembered the owner of the backpacker and I really wanted to come back here. While it was unfortunate about Westport, I was personally very happy to be returning here. There were vacancies and so we are here right now. There are major improvements over how it was five years ago. Most noticeable is that there is now a reception area and staff. Before it was just the owner. The place looks much cleaner and they now sell some food (last time I had to walk to a restaurant nearby along the highway … not one of my smarter moments). We cooked dinner and we’re going to have fresh bread and muffins tomorrow (they did have that last time). I can’t wait to walk back to the beach and I’m hoping for more lovely pictures. The downside to this place is that they’re using coal to heat it, but luckily it’s not AS vile as Westport. Raven and I are still affected by it though and we’re going to risk being cold tonight rather than deal with the coal fumes.
I don’t think that I’ll be posting more pictures on Facebook until after I return to the States. My computer says that disk space is now low and I can’t even upload more pictures. So I’ll just be posting to the blog and I’ll put up pictures later.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Nelson
July 18, 2009
I really, really love the South Island. I woke up this morning to a bright, beautiful day! Last time I was in NZ, I had beautiful weather every day when I was on the South Island. The rain came when I went back north. So far, this trip is panning out the same way. Raven and I got ready and she went out to pay for parking at 8 am because we parked in the lot where the farmers market would be taking place. We walked out together and went in search of a café that she’d seen. The market was still setting up so we both wouldn’t let ourselves be tempted by the stalls of lovely art and food. We found the café and each of us had a flat white, which is kiwi for a yummy coffee with milk. We then headed to an ATM so that I’d have cash to spend at the market.
We got back to the market, ready to explore each and every booth we might come across. We bought all kinds of yummy foods, such as Braeburn apples, gouda cheese, salami, smoked salmon, salmon pate and mustard. I also came across a coat rack wall hanging made of iron that had a fantail sitting on a branch. I fell in love with it when I saw it and Raven completely agreed that I needed to own it. So, even though it was a bit expensive, I now own it and I love it. I resisted buying a gorgeous merino wool sweater that I completely fell in love of. After all, I already bought a sweater a week or so ago. Basically, the market was fabulous. We spent 4 hours there and we had a blast.
After the market we decided to walk downtown to browse in the shops and get lunch. We stopped at a restaurant that Raven knows from Masterton where they have this cooking method called “stone grill” where you order meat raw and they bring the food on this incredibly hot stone where when you slice up the meat and place it on the stone, it cooks up. OMG, it was so yummy and gave me an excellent opportunity to play with my food. Raven ordered something called fish cakes, which unfortunately were disgusting. We then headed over to a store that sold shoes that Raven was looking for. They sold a merino wool fitted sweater that I soooo wanted to buy. I was sorely tempted but it was $299 NZ, which is $210 US and I have already spent too much… hello?! I bought a COAT RACK today. LOL.
Last time I was in Nelson I went to a rubber stamp store and bought a bunch of lovely stamps from a wonderful lady in a shop here. I asked around about the shop and was given differing stories, one that the shop was still here and one that it wasn’t. We decided to try to go off in search of it in the hopes that she would still be there. Alas, we couldn’t find it and I think she’s gone. We instead walked into a famous bead shop and the music was horrible. So horrible that it kind of made us both anxious and grumpy. Raven says it was giving off beta waves and it really was not a nice sound. We asked the women in there about the stamp shop and they were rude and nasty. One woman said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about. What’s a rubber stamp?” Raven explained and she scoffed and said she wouldn’t know about such things. Beeeyatch! We left and I started singing another song just to get that awful music out of my head. Raven was still grumbling so I started singing to her just to change the mood. Poor thing, having to hear me sing but it made her laugh and we felt better.
We then walked into a bookstore where I asked the owner about a book he had that I was thinking of buying. Somehow he started talking about Bush and one of his cronies. Why oh why does Bush still haunt all of us?! Leave me alone, Bush! Raven popped into the conversation, it turned to the free trade agreement with China and the two of them started arguing. Being an INFP, I stepped aside and went to browse some more. I eventually stepped in to buy a book and we left. It was kind of a weird conversation and I was certainly glad it ended.
We walked back to our room and talked to the receptionist about internet. It turns out that we can’t use our wireless laptops in the rooms and that’s why it wouldn’t work and is why I am typing right now. We had a dinner of produce that we got in the market and now we’re in the lounge on the computer trying to block out the kids who are running around unsupervised.
I really, really love the South Island. I woke up this morning to a bright, beautiful day! Last time I was in NZ, I had beautiful weather every day when I was on the South Island. The rain came when I went back north. So far, this trip is panning out the same way. Raven and I got ready and she went out to pay for parking at 8 am because we parked in the lot where the farmers market would be taking place. We walked out together and went in search of a café that she’d seen. The market was still setting up so we both wouldn’t let ourselves be tempted by the stalls of lovely art and food. We found the café and each of us had a flat white, which is kiwi for a yummy coffee with milk. We then headed to an ATM so that I’d have cash to spend at the market.
We got back to the market, ready to explore each and every booth we might come across. We bought all kinds of yummy foods, such as Braeburn apples, gouda cheese, salami, smoked salmon, salmon pate and mustard. I also came across a coat rack wall hanging made of iron that had a fantail sitting on a branch. I fell in love with it when I saw it and Raven completely agreed that I needed to own it. So, even though it was a bit expensive, I now own it and I love it. I resisted buying a gorgeous merino wool sweater that I completely fell in love of. After all, I already bought a sweater a week or so ago. Basically, the market was fabulous. We spent 4 hours there and we had a blast.
After the market we decided to walk downtown to browse in the shops and get lunch. We stopped at a restaurant that Raven knows from Masterton where they have this cooking method called “stone grill” where you order meat raw and they bring the food on this incredibly hot stone where when you slice up the meat and place it on the stone, it cooks up. OMG, it was so yummy and gave me an excellent opportunity to play with my food. Raven ordered something called fish cakes, which unfortunately were disgusting. We then headed over to a store that sold shoes that Raven was looking for. They sold a merino wool fitted sweater that I soooo wanted to buy. I was sorely tempted but it was $299 NZ, which is $210 US and I have already spent too much… hello?! I bought a COAT RACK today. LOL.
Last time I was in Nelson I went to a rubber stamp store and bought a bunch of lovely stamps from a wonderful lady in a shop here. I asked around about the shop and was given differing stories, one that the shop was still here and one that it wasn’t. We decided to try to go off in search of it in the hopes that she would still be there. Alas, we couldn’t find it and I think she’s gone. We instead walked into a famous bead shop and the music was horrible. So horrible that it kind of made us both anxious and grumpy. Raven says it was giving off beta waves and it really was not a nice sound. We asked the women in there about the stamp shop and they were rude and nasty. One woman said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about. What’s a rubber stamp?” Raven explained and she scoffed and said she wouldn’t know about such things. Beeeyatch! We left and I started singing another song just to get that awful music out of my head. Raven was still grumbling so I started singing to her just to change the mood. Poor thing, having to hear me sing but it made her laugh and we felt better.
We then walked into a bookstore where I asked the owner about a book he had that I was thinking of buying. Somehow he started talking about Bush and one of his cronies. Why oh why does Bush still haunt all of us?! Leave me alone, Bush! Raven popped into the conversation, it turned to the free trade agreement with China and the two of them started arguing. Being an INFP, I stepped aside and went to browse some more. I eventually stepped in to buy a book and we left. It was kind of a weird conversation and I was certainly glad it ended.
We walked back to our room and talked to the receptionist about internet. It turns out that we can’t use our wireless laptops in the rooms and that’s why it wouldn’t work and is why I am typing right now. We had a dinner of produce that we got in the market and now we’re in the lounge on the computer trying to block out the kids who are running around unsupervised.
Masterton to Nelson
July 17, 2009
The sleep out was such a nice place to sleep. I was toasty warm, the bed was comfortable and it was perfect. I slept so well that I ‘slept in’ until 8:30 am. I think I’m finally adjusting to NZ time. I return in less than two weeks so it’s just in time, right? I got up and got ready, in time to have Raven tell me that she had to run an errand in town and for me to pack the car. I paused a moment and followed her out, to which she replied that I couldn’t actually pack the car because she was taking it. LOL. She returned and I did help pack the car and had a quick breakfast (brekkie in Kiwi) before we headed back on the road to our next adventure.
We drove back to Wellington and got to the Wellington Ferry Terminal. We have decided to head to Nelson first so we’re staying at the Nelson YHA at least tonight and maybe tomorrow night as well. As I write this post, I am on the ferry next to Raven. We don’t have internet access so I’m writing this in Word and I’ll post it when I can. The crossing is considered “Moderate”, which is rougher than it was last time I crossed. As I write this, there is an alarm going off. Luckily, they warned us a few minutes ago that it was about to happen. Otherwise, it would be pretty scary. Poor Raven is susceptible to seasickness but she’s holding her own so far. We’re about to approach the tip of the South Island and when we do, I’m going to go and take pictures of the cliffs and waves. Woohoo! I’ll try to post more later.
UPDATE: So we got off the ferry and headed towards Nelson, along Queen Charlotte Drive, which happens to be a very windy, typical NZ road and unfortunately, it was at dusk. Even so, Raven did an admirable job navigating along, even with moments where the driver in front of us decided to drive in the lane with oncoming traffic. Somehow we survived. It got even more interesting when not only were we driving on a narrow road, it was FOGGY! The view was spectacular but there was no way we'd stop. We listened to Half Blood Prince and made it safely into Nelson.
We stayed at the YHA in Nelson. We got our room and headed out for dinner, deciding on a pizza place mentioned in the Lonely Planet. Arleigh went traditional, getting some ham and pineapple thing. I opted for the non-traditional, taking a chance on lamb, kalamata olives, sundried tomatoes and yogurt. We were both happy with our decisions and can I say that my pizza was yummy? Good, because it was.
We headed back to our room and discovered that we couldn't connect to the internet. My computer kept displaying the blue screen of death, being a PC and all. Raven just couldn't log on. Meh. We gave up and went to bed.
The sleep out was such a nice place to sleep. I was toasty warm, the bed was comfortable and it was perfect. I slept so well that I ‘slept in’ until 8:30 am. I think I’m finally adjusting to NZ time. I return in less than two weeks so it’s just in time, right? I got up and got ready, in time to have Raven tell me that she had to run an errand in town and for me to pack the car. I paused a moment and followed her out, to which she replied that I couldn’t actually pack the car because she was taking it. LOL. She returned and I did help pack the car and had a quick breakfast (brekkie in Kiwi) before we headed back on the road to our next adventure.
We drove back to Wellington and got to the Wellington Ferry Terminal. We have decided to head to Nelson first so we’re staying at the Nelson YHA at least tonight and maybe tomorrow night as well. As I write this post, I am on the ferry next to Raven. We don’t have internet access so I’m writing this in Word and I’ll post it when I can. The crossing is considered “Moderate”, which is rougher than it was last time I crossed. As I write this, there is an alarm going off. Luckily, they warned us a few minutes ago that it was about to happen. Otherwise, it would be pretty scary. Poor Raven is susceptible to seasickness but she’s holding her own so far. We’re about to approach the tip of the South Island and when we do, I’m going to go and take pictures of the cliffs and waves. Woohoo! I’ll try to post more later.
UPDATE: So we got off the ferry and headed towards Nelson, along Queen Charlotte Drive, which happens to be a very windy, typical NZ road and unfortunately, it was at dusk. Even so, Raven did an admirable job navigating along, even with moments where the driver in front of us decided to drive in the lane with oncoming traffic. Somehow we survived. It got even more interesting when not only were we driving on a narrow road, it was FOGGY! The view was spectacular but there was no way we'd stop. We listened to Half Blood Prince and made it safely into Nelson.
We stayed at the YHA in Nelson. We got our room and headed out for dinner, deciding on a pizza place mentioned in the Lonely Planet. Arleigh went traditional, getting some ham and pineapple thing. I opted for the non-traditional, taking a chance on lamb, kalamata olives, sundried tomatoes and yogurt. We were both happy with our decisions and can I say that my pizza was yummy? Good, because it was.
We headed back to our room and discovered that we couldn't connect to the internet. My computer kept displaying the blue screen of death, being a PC and all. Raven just couldn't log on. Meh. We gave up and went to bed.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Wellington to Masterton
July 16, 2009
Day 3 in Wellington. I got up and tinkered around online for a while, trying to get information about the earthquake from the night before. Yes, I got to experience a 7.8 earthquake. Mind you, it was far away on the South Island but it was definitely felt. I didn’t realize it at the time but I had felt the earthquake while I was at the movies the night before. At some point I thought that someone had kicked my chair. Then about 20 minutes or so later I felt three rolling sensations but again, I didn’t think much of it and definitely didn’t connect it to the earthquake. Only later in the evening when G’s friend had commented about a tsunami warning and the quake did I realize what had happened. Being so far away, it wasn’t as dramatic as the Nisqually quake but it was a much bigger quake… I can now say I’ve been in a 7.8! Woohoo! The best part is that even though it was a big quake, there were no causalities and only minimal structural damage. Is NZ set up for earthquakes? I’d say yes.
Since G lives in central Wellington, she told me that she lives within 20 minutes walking of downtown. I had taken the bus the previous 2 days and tried walking today since it was sunny. It was a nice, pleasant walk into the city. I stopped off trying to decide where to have lunch, looking at my guidebook once again. I settled on a French bistro and couldn’t quite find it so went back to One Red Dog, a pizza restaurant I’d gone to 5 years ago and remembered liking. Once again, it was wonderful. The pizzas were only sold in medium and large sizes so I decided on a salad instead and it was amazingly good. If in Wellington, definitely stop at One Red Dog. I then decided to keep walking to Parliament, which is downtown but quite a walk. I followed the maps and decided to turn onto “The Terrace”, what I thought was just another typical street. Oh my, no. It was a mountain. I took the mountain up and around to the other side and made my way towards parliament.
I finally arrived and saw ‘The Beehive’, one of the landmark buildings of Wellington and aesthetically speaking, quite ugly. Sorry, NZ, but it’s true! It was designed in the 70’s (enough said) and it looks like it was. It’s attached to the older parliament building, which is classical marble and looks like a government building. I walked to the front so that I could look into going on a tour. I signed up for the 2 pm tour, decided to call Raven before going in and realized that I was out of card minutes. She called at that moment and we arranged for her to pick me up at three out front. I then went on the tour. They started us out watching a film about parliament followed by the tour guide asking how many of us were from outside of New Zealand. Only two of us raised our hands, feeling a bit sheepish. I have noticed a lot less tourists this time around and this was no exception. The tour guide took us around to various parts of the building, starting with the inside of the Beehive, where the inside is much nicer than the outside. Thank goodness. The tour guide said that the queen and king of Spain were entertained in the room the previous week. She also said that the artwork on the walls changes as you move along the room and represents the different landscapes of New Zealand. She then walked us out, not letting us see the different landscapes of New Zealand. Then we walked to a selection committee room and she talked about how laws are discussed in these rooms. She also showed us the Maori carvings along the walls and explained their significance. We then headed over to an area that used to be a parking lot but was turned into a lovely room housing Kiwi art. There was a New Zealand flag on the wall that was recovered from the WTC ruins, which caused an audible hush over the group. They then walked us to the house chamber, which I’m sure had more meaning to the Kiwis than it did to me. The tour guide explained that the carpet was green and that was significant because it signaled to the Queen of England that she was not permitted to walk into the room, nor could anyone connected to the royal family. Apparently, the Upper House, which was abolished in the 50’s but still has a room, has a red carpet which is not Queen-proof. There was also a mace stand for a mace that is brought in whenever the House is in session. There are elements that are like Congress and yet pieces that are so very different. She showed us where the ruling party and the coalition members sit as well as where the opposition sits. There were also some seats with thick sheep skin rugs on them. According to the tour guide, that is one accessory that members of the House can have. This enthralled the kids on the tour and their questions about the rugs were relentless. Finally, at 3:05 pm the tour ended and I rushed back down to meet Raven outside. She was waiting for me and ready to go. Unfortunately, she didn’t realize that I had to go back to G’s to get my luggage and drop off her key so we were automatically behind schedule. She turned down a road which turned out to be a freeway entrance going away from where we needed to go. There weren’t any turn offs for 4 kilometers so we were even more behind schedule. Oops. We did turn around and we found our way back to G’s where I brought my stuff down and we headed out to Masterton.
Raven and R only live an hour and a half outside of Wellington but there is this windy, narrow road that separates them from the city so it is quite an adventure. There are lots of little white posts tied together by wire and Raven told me that a few months ago the maintenance crew repaired a hole in the posts. They didn’t think to check as to why there was a hole in the fence. A man was missing and they eventually found his car at the bottom of the ravine (where the hole was). Why didn’t they check? Anyway, we did not fall down the ravine and made it safely back to Masterton.
We drove up to Raven and R’s farm where Sesame (their golden lab) wagged her tail in greeting, the cat started meowing and funniest of all, the three sheep started baaing and running to greet her. It was a farm of happy animals. She showed me the sleep out, this amazing little apartment they’ve built next to the barn. It has a bedroom, a kitchen and a bathroom AND it’s fully insulated and has heat. It is beautiful. She then showed me her house, which used to have a bunch of alpine trim all over the place. I missed the trim but I got to experience the wood stove, a typical kiwi way to heat a home. Raven made dinner and R came home from work. I haven’t seen him in a long time. He helped me get online with an Ethernet connection and we sat down for dinner. I had quite a bit of wine with dinner and was feeling pretty happy by the time the meal ended. We then headed out to downtown Masterton to see a local Kiwi play called “Home Land.” It was the quintessential Kiwi experience as the play took place in the Otago Peninsula and had the main characters trying to warm up by the fire, just like regular kiwis. They even COOKED and ATE the food in the play in a real, working kitchen. The play took place in July 2003 and included news clips of the Iraq War, arguments about the wisdom of going to war and a comment that Bush should be strung up. One audience member clapped when this line was said and that one audience member was sitting next to me. Her name is Raven. LOL!
Day 3 in Wellington. I got up and tinkered around online for a while, trying to get information about the earthquake from the night before. Yes, I got to experience a 7.8 earthquake. Mind you, it was far away on the South Island but it was definitely felt. I didn’t realize it at the time but I had felt the earthquake while I was at the movies the night before. At some point I thought that someone had kicked my chair. Then about 20 minutes or so later I felt three rolling sensations but again, I didn’t think much of it and definitely didn’t connect it to the earthquake. Only later in the evening when G’s friend had commented about a tsunami warning and the quake did I realize what had happened. Being so far away, it wasn’t as dramatic as the Nisqually quake but it was a much bigger quake… I can now say I’ve been in a 7.8! Woohoo! The best part is that even though it was a big quake, there were no causalities and only minimal structural damage. Is NZ set up for earthquakes? I’d say yes.
Since G lives in central Wellington, she told me that she lives within 20 minutes walking of downtown. I had taken the bus the previous 2 days and tried walking today since it was sunny. It was a nice, pleasant walk into the city. I stopped off trying to decide where to have lunch, looking at my guidebook once again. I settled on a French bistro and couldn’t quite find it so went back to One Red Dog, a pizza restaurant I’d gone to 5 years ago and remembered liking. Once again, it was wonderful. The pizzas were only sold in medium and large sizes so I decided on a salad instead and it was amazingly good. If in Wellington, definitely stop at One Red Dog. I then decided to keep walking to Parliament, which is downtown but quite a walk. I followed the maps and decided to turn onto “The Terrace”, what I thought was just another typical street. Oh my, no. It was a mountain. I took the mountain up and around to the other side and made my way towards parliament.
I finally arrived and saw ‘The Beehive’, one of the landmark buildings of Wellington and aesthetically speaking, quite ugly. Sorry, NZ, but it’s true! It was designed in the 70’s (enough said) and it looks like it was. It’s attached to the older parliament building, which is classical marble and looks like a government building. I walked to the front so that I could look into going on a tour. I signed up for the 2 pm tour, decided to call Raven before going in and realized that I was out of card minutes. She called at that moment and we arranged for her to pick me up at three out front. I then went on the tour. They started us out watching a film about parliament followed by the tour guide asking how many of us were from outside of New Zealand. Only two of us raised our hands, feeling a bit sheepish. I have noticed a lot less tourists this time around and this was no exception. The tour guide took us around to various parts of the building, starting with the inside of the Beehive, where the inside is much nicer than the outside. Thank goodness. The tour guide said that the queen and king of Spain were entertained in the room the previous week. She also said that the artwork on the walls changes as you move along the room and represents the different landscapes of New Zealand. She then walked us out, not letting us see the different landscapes of New Zealand. Then we walked to a selection committee room and she talked about how laws are discussed in these rooms. She also showed us the Maori carvings along the walls and explained their significance. We then headed over to an area that used to be a parking lot but was turned into a lovely room housing Kiwi art. There was a New Zealand flag on the wall that was recovered from the WTC ruins, which caused an audible hush over the group. They then walked us to the house chamber, which I’m sure had more meaning to the Kiwis than it did to me. The tour guide explained that the carpet was green and that was significant because it signaled to the Queen of England that she was not permitted to walk into the room, nor could anyone connected to the royal family. Apparently, the Upper House, which was abolished in the 50’s but still has a room, has a red carpet which is not Queen-proof. There was also a mace stand for a mace that is brought in whenever the House is in session. There are elements that are like Congress and yet pieces that are so very different. She showed us where the ruling party and the coalition members sit as well as where the opposition sits. There were also some seats with thick sheep skin rugs on them. According to the tour guide, that is one accessory that members of the House can have. This enthralled the kids on the tour and their questions about the rugs were relentless. Finally, at 3:05 pm the tour ended and I rushed back down to meet Raven outside. She was waiting for me and ready to go. Unfortunately, she didn’t realize that I had to go back to G’s to get my luggage and drop off her key so we were automatically behind schedule. She turned down a road which turned out to be a freeway entrance going away from where we needed to go. There weren’t any turn offs for 4 kilometers so we were even more behind schedule. Oops. We did turn around and we found our way back to G’s where I brought my stuff down and we headed out to Masterton.
Raven and R only live an hour and a half outside of Wellington but there is this windy, narrow road that separates them from the city so it is quite an adventure. There are lots of little white posts tied together by wire and Raven told me that a few months ago the maintenance crew repaired a hole in the posts. They didn’t think to check as to why there was a hole in the fence. A man was missing and they eventually found his car at the bottom of the ravine (where the hole was). Why didn’t they check? Anyway, we did not fall down the ravine and made it safely back to Masterton.
We drove up to Raven and R’s farm where Sesame (their golden lab) wagged her tail in greeting, the cat started meowing and funniest of all, the three sheep started baaing and running to greet her. It was a farm of happy animals. She showed me the sleep out, this amazing little apartment they’ve built next to the barn. It has a bedroom, a kitchen and a bathroom AND it’s fully insulated and has heat. It is beautiful. She then showed me her house, which used to have a bunch of alpine trim all over the place. I missed the trim but I got to experience the wood stove, a typical kiwi way to heat a home. Raven made dinner and R came home from work. I haven’t seen him in a long time. He helped me get online with an Ethernet connection and we sat down for dinner. I had quite a bit of wine with dinner and was feeling pretty happy by the time the meal ended. We then headed out to downtown Masterton to see a local Kiwi play called “Home Land.” It was the quintessential Kiwi experience as the play took place in the Otago Peninsula and had the main characters trying to warm up by the fire, just like regular kiwis. They even COOKED and ATE the food in the play in a real, working kitchen. The play took place in July 2003 and included news clips of the Iraq War, arguments about the wisdom of going to war and a comment that Bush should be strung up. One audience member clapped when this line was said and that one audience member was sitting next to me. Her name is Raven. LOL!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Wellington
July 15, 2009
I woke up this morning taking my time getting ready. I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my time today so I wasn’t in any great rush to get up. I spent time online and decided to see if I could get a cheap ticket to Auckland. I had been planning on taking the bus from Wellington back to Auckland but it’s an all day affair and I really didn’t feel like doing it, even though it’s $70 NZ for the privilege (that’s about $49 US). I went to the Air New Zealand website and found a ticket for $69 NZ on the 29th. So, it’s cheaper (well, one dollar cheaper, but still), saves hours of travel time, and is much more pleasant. No brainer for sure! Most of my remaining two weeks are still unstructured and unplanned but I now have some definite dates… the 16th: going to Raven’s house in Masterton & we’re going to see a play in town. On the 17th: We have ferry tickets to cross over to the South Island. We’re thinking of heading back across the ferry on the 27th, I believe, in case the weather is bad so I could cross on the 28th as well. Other than that, I have no idea where I’m going to be when. Yay!
I ventured out and decided to hop on the bus to the cable cars. This is one of those things that all tourists to Wellington must do (I didn’t know about them last time I was here) and since I am playing tourist, I headed on over. The cable cars are at Lambton Quay (pronounced ‘key’ in NZ), which is where the prime shopping is in Wellington. Lambton Quay is also at the base of a very steep hill, hence the cable car. I road it up to the top and I can’t say that it was the greatest thrill of my life but worth $5 round trip. My hands were freezing (I’m not used to this winter thing) so I went into the free museum at the top and bought wool gloves at the gift shop. It’s helpful being in NZ in winter because one of their main exports is sheep so you know there are gloves nearby whenever you need them! With warm hands I walked through the museum and then headed up to the cafe. I ordered the soup of the day, a side salad and tea. Simple, right? Hmm, apparently not. The tea came right away and I was thoroughly enjoying myself as I sat at the window overlooking a breathtaking view of Wellington (remember that I went up a steep hill). I then waited for my food… and waited… and waited. Did I mention that it was soup and a side salad? A good 1/2 hour later I went up and asked if everything was okay. The waitress said it was and that it’d be coming up soon. Um, no. I waited and waited again until FINALLY it came. The waitress explained that the cook was new and couldn’t figure (something) out. With her accent, I couldn’t tell what (something) was but it didn’t matter. I had my food. I don’t like to complain, but come on! I’m glad I wasn’t on a time crunch. After the exceedingly leisurely lunch I went outside and explored the Wellington Botanical Gardens. I took a ton of pictures of the view and the plants there and amused myself for quite a while. They had an Australia Garden, which seemed out of place surrounded by tree ferns and lush green forests, but they gave it a shot. They also had a visitor centre that was a tree house, which was kind of cool. I had walked quite a ways downhill as I meandered through the garden and saw a sign that led to the bottom of the major hill. I considered continuing on that path but decided to head back up to the cable car. It felt good to be walking so much as I haven’t been doing enough walking most of my trip. It’s the hazard of being in a car, although I am very grateful for the car! I got back on the cable car and sat in front. A grandfather and his two grandchildren sat down next to me and the kids started blowing raspberries at each other. The grandfather tried repeatedly to get them to stop, to which they would laugh and do it again. I wanted to tell them off and to listen to their grandfather. I didn’t, however.
I arrived back at the bottom of the hill in Lambton Quay and decided to walk around and look at the shops. I was especially interested in bookstores. Lonely Planet listed three or four bookshops in the city so I made it a goal to find each and every one. I started with the country’s chain, “Whitcoull’s”. I walked in and saw the prices listed for the books, realizing that books in NZ are ridiculously expensive. Grrr. I walked back out and against my better judgment, I went into a Borders. Why is there a Borders in NZ? Ugh. I went inside and looked around. Yes, it was much bigger than the Kiwi stores and yes, they had some books on sale, but I just couldn’t be in there. Give me an independent bookstore any day! I walked back out and went off in search of the other stores. The first one on my list wasn’t very far away so I walked along the street looking at addresses until I came to the store. I took out my camera and took a picture of it and then walked up to it. It was out of business. :( I guess being near Whitcoull’s and Borders was not a good thing. I then went in search of Unity Books, a store that I had seen the day before so I knew it was still in business. I had assumed that it was a religious bookstore so I hadn’t stopped in. Definitely NOT a religious bookstore and full of wonderful NZ children’s books. I bought a picture book (still very expensive) and while I wanted to buy lots more books, they were all new so full price. I went off in search of the other used bookstore listed in my guidebook. I walked to the other side of downtown, following the address until I came to 19 Courtenay and then … 15 Courtenay… where was 17?! There was a sign saying that kebabs were coming soon there so… another independent bookstore was out of business. This made me incredibly sad and I opened my guidebook to reread the entry and saw that there were two locations listed. OK, maybe there was still a chance. I saw that the other location wasn’t too far away so I walked over and … it was still there! It is called Arty Bee Books and it was wonderful. They keep their NZ authors separate and when they asked if they could help me, I said I was a teacher in the States and would love to bring back some great Kiwi children’s literature with me. I literally had three employees rush over to pick out their favorite books from when they were kids. One of the employees was recently a teacher and told me the books that the kids were now into. I ended up with a big pile of books, which I had to wheedle down a bit (much cheaper used, but still about the price of a book new in the States). It was really fun hearing them talk about their favorites and I learned about Kiwi authors like Margaret Mahy and Michael Gee. I had a great time and I’m glad I stuck with it and found the store.
By the time I was in Arty Bee, Raven called and said that she was nearby. After I left the bookstore, I went off to find her near Te Papa and then we headed over to G’s work to pick her up. We were a bit early so stopped at a little independent used bookstore across the street from where she works and browsed for a while. We then picked her up, went back to her house so she could change and then headed down to the mall for dinner and Harry Potter. We settled on a Malaysian noodle place for dinner, had a nice meal and then headed over to the movie. It was packed and there were some little Harrys, a Mad Eye Moody and some kid dressed as an insect (I didn’t get what that was all about). We waited in line until they opened the door and we walked in. The nice thing about New Zealand (on days like this where it’s crowded) is that cinema seats are assigned so we didn’t have to rush to be the first ones there because we already had our seat. Another really nice thing that I didn’t realize until we got there is that we were there through R’s work (Raven’s husband) so they had popcorn, ice cream and drinks there for us to have. How nice is that? We saw the movie, I loved it but will keep quiet about it as it’s sure to have spoilers, and Raven and I happily tore it apart afterwards. So much so that G thought we didn’t like it. LOL.
I woke up this morning taking my time getting ready. I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my time today so I wasn’t in any great rush to get up. I spent time online and decided to see if I could get a cheap ticket to Auckland. I had been planning on taking the bus from Wellington back to Auckland but it’s an all day affair and I really didn’t feel like doing it, even though it’s $70 NZ for the privilege (that’s about $49 US). I went to the Air New Zealand website and found a ticket for $69 NZ on the 29th. So, it’s cheaper (well, one dollar cheaper, but still), saves hours of travel time, and is much more pleasant. No brainer for sure! Most of my remaining two weeks are still unstructured and unplanned but I now have some definite dates… the 16th: going to Raven’s house in Masterton & we’re going to see a play in town. On the 17th: We have ferry tickets to cross over to the South Island. We’re thinking of heading back across the ferry on the 27th, I believe, in case the weather is bad so I could cross on the 28th as well. Other than that, I have no idea where I’m going to be when. Yay!
I ventured out and decided to hop on the bus to the cable cars. This is one of those things that all tourists to Wellington must do (I didn’t know about them last time I was here) and since I am playing tourist, I headed on over. The cable cars are at Lambton Quay (pronounced ‘key’ in NZ), which is where the prime shopping is in Wellington. Lambton Quay is also at the base of a very steep hill, hence the cable car. I road it up to the top and I can’t say that it was the greatest thrill of my life but worth $5 round trip. My hands were freezing (I’m not used to this winter thing) so I went into the free museum at the top and bought wool gloves at the gift shop. It’s helpful being in NZ in winter because one of their main exports is sheep so you know there are gloves nearby whenever you need them! With warm hands I walked through the museum and then headed up to the cafe. I ordered the soup of the day, a side salad and tea. Simple, right? Hmm, apparently not. The tea came right away and I was thoroughly enjoying myself as I sat at the window overlooking a breathtaking view of Wellington (remember that I went up a steep hill). I then waited for my food… and waited… and waited. Did I mention that it was soup and a side salad? A good 1/2 hour later I went up and asked if everything was okay. The waitress said it was and that it’d be coming up soon. Um, no. I waited and waited again until FINALLY it came. The waitress explained that the cook was new and couldn’t figure (something) out. With her accent, I couldn’t tell what (something) was but it didn’t matter. I had my food. I don’t like to complain, but come on! I’m glad I wasn’t on a time crunch. After the exceedingly leisurely lunch I went outside and explored the Wellington Botanical Gardens. I took a ton of pictures of the view and the plants there and amused myself for quite a while. They had an Australia Garden, which seemed out of place surrounded by tree ferns and lush green forests, but they gave it a shot. They also had a visitor centre that was a tree house, which was kind of cool. I had walked quite a ways downhill as I meandered through the garden and saw a sign that led to the bottom of the major hill. I considered continuing on that path but decided to head back up to the cable car. It felt good to be walking so much as I haven’t been doing enough walking most of my trip. It’s the hazard of being in a car, although I am very grateful for the car! I got back on the cable car and sat in front. A grandfather and his two grandchildren sat down next to me and the kids started blowing raspberries at each other. The grandfather tried repeatedly to get them to stop, to which they would laugh and do it again. I wanted to tell them off and to listen to their grandfather. I didn’t, however.
I arrived back at the bottom of the hill in Lambton Quay and decided to walk around and look at the shops. I was especially interested in bookstores. Lonely Planet listed three or four bookshops in the city so I made it a goal to find each and every one. I started with the country’s chain, “Whitcoull’s”. I walked in and saw the prices listed for the books, realizing that books in NZ are ridiculously expensive. Grrr. I walked back out and against my better judgment, I went into a Borders. Why is there a Borders in NZ? Ugh. I went inside and looked around. Yes, it was much bigger than the Kiwi stores and yes, they had some books on sale, but I just couldn’t be in there. Give me an independent bookstore any day! I walked back out and went off in search of the other stores. The first one on my list wasn’t very far away so I walked along the street looking at addresses until I came to the store. I took out my camera and took a picture of it and then walked up to it. It was out of business. :( I guess being near Whitcoull’s and Borders was not a good thing. I then went in search of Unity Books, a store that I had seen the day before so I knew it was still in business. I had assumed that it was a religious bookstore so I hadn’t stopped in. Definitely NOT a religious bookstore and full of wonderful NZ children’s books. I bought a picture book (still very expensive) and while I wanted to buy lots more books, they were all new so full price. I went off in search of the other used bookstore listed in my guidebook. I walked to the other side of downtown, following the address until I came to 19 Courtenay and then … 15 Courtenay… where was 17?! There was a sign saying that kebabs were coming soon there so… another independent bookstore was out of business. This made me incredibly sad and I opened my guidebook to reread the entry and saw that there were two locations listed. OK, maybe there was still a chance. I saw that the other location wasn’t too far away so I walked over and … it was still there! It is called Arty Bee Books and it was wonderful. They keep their NZ authors separate and when they asked if they could help me, I said I was a teacher in the States and would love to bring back some great Kiwi children’s literature with me. I literally had three employees rush over to pick out their favorite books from when they were kids. One of the employees was recently a teacher and told me the books that the kids were now into. I ended up with a big pile of books, which I had to wheedle down a bit (much cheaper used, but still about the price of a book new in the States). It was really fun hearing them talk about their favorites and I learned about Kiwi authors like Margaret Mahy and Michael Gee. I had a great time and I’m glad I stuck with it and found the store.
By the time I was in Arty Bee, Raven called and said that she was nearby. After I left the bookstore, I went off to find her near Te Papa and then we headed over to G’s work to pick her up. We were a bit early so stopped at a little independent used bookstore across the street from where she works and browsed for a while. We then picked her up, went back to her house so she could change and then headed down to the mall for dinner and Harry Potter. We settled on a Malaysian noodle place for dinner, had a nice meal and then headed over to the movie. It was packed and there were some little Harrys, a Mad Eye Moody and some kid dressed as an insect (I didn’t get what that was all about). We waited in line until they opened the door and we walked in. The nice thing about New Zealand (on days like this where it’s crowded) is that cinema seats are assigned so we didn’t have to rush to be the first ones there because we already had our seat. Another really nice thing that I didn’t realize until we got there is that we were there through R’s work (Raven’s husband) so they had popcorn, ice cream and drinks there for us to have. How nice is that? We saw the movie, I loved it but will keep quiet about it as it’s sure to have spoilers, and Raven and I happily tore it apart afterwards. So much so that G thought we didn’t like it. LOL.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Wellington
July 14, 2009
Can I just hit the reset button and start my day over? Please?! I woke up early in the morning and it took a while to fall back asleep. I know it was early because G had set her alarm for 5:30 am and it hadn’t gone off yet. Hmm. At 5:30 she got up to go work out at the gym and I drifted in and out of sleep, finally getting up around 8. I had a leisurely morning in G’s room, feeling a bit intrusive to G’s roommates despite G’s assurances that it’s fine and got ready to leave by 10.
I walked out the door eager to head out to the Te Papa Museum (New Zealand’s national museum and treasure) and got 1/2 way down the street noticing the light rain and wondering if (Daveeed, you won’t believe this) I should go back to get my umbrella. I decided against it, being a hardy Seattleite, and thought to double check that my camera was in my purse. A little digging revealed that it wasn’t in there. WTF? OK, fine. I turned around to get my camera and my umbrella because while I can do without the umbrella, I most certainly cannot do without my camera. I looked through my computer bag, sure that I’d set it there at the train station the previous night. Um, no. Until this moment I wasn’t worried, certain that I knew where it was. I dumped out my purse on G’s bed. Nope, no camera. I dumped out the contents of my computer bag. Nope, no camera. I unpacked my suitcases and checked every pocket. Nope, no camera. OMFG, what did I do to my camera?! It was then brainwracking time where I was trying to mentally retrace my steps. The last time I remembered having my camera was while sitting on a bench outside of the train station. I took a couple of pictures of the train station at night and I remembered thinking that the station looks a lot like the one in Back to the Future. Anyway, no camera. Here’s where I started hoping that New Zealand’s reputation as an honest place with honest people would come into play and that some foreign criminal wouldn’t have picked up my camera. I called the train station and was transferred to the “Lost Property” department, what I like to call the “Lost and Found”. No camera was turned in but they said to call the police. Huh?! Surely the police have something better to do than look for some dumb tourist’s lost camera. I looked in my guidebook and found the number for the police anyway, remembering a Kiwi joke from my last trip here saying that the purpose of the NZ police was to serve as a lost and found. OK, worth a shot. I called and was again transferred to the “Lost Property” department. No cameras were handed in (NOOOOOOO!!!) but the police took down a detailed description of my camera and the cell number I had. They said that if it turned up after I’d left Wellington, they’d try to get a hold of me via that number. Wow, I could never imagine the Seattle police taking so much time for a lost camera. Still, I was without a camera and feeling incredibly down. I searched through my bags and pulled out my old camera because being a photo junky I had thought to bring a back up. I put it in my purse and decided to take a bus to the train station so that I could look for myself. Before I left, I did peek my head through G’s car window, hoping that the camera might have fallen out last night. Nope, no camera.
I figured out which bus headed to the train station and amazingly enough it was the one right outside of G’s apartment. While waiting, I called Arleigh on the little cell phone I’ve been borrowing and told her about my camera. We discussed the possibility of going out to buy a new camera and she suggested I hold off a few days in case it turned up. My head agreed with her, my heart didn’t as I really missed my camera. My head won out though and I resisted. I bought an all day pass because who knew where this little adventure might take me and the bus driver snarled at me when I had the nerve to ask him the price. I sat on the bus until I noticed everyone getting off so I again had the nerve to ask the bus driver a question “Is this the Wellington Station.” SNARL. I felt I should ask because the building I was seeing in front of me was not the same as the one that looked like Back to the Future. This one looked sleek and modern, which couldn’t be right. Well, it was right so I got off and went into the station. It turns out that there is a newer area and the old, classic area. I found the area I was around yesterday and backtracked out to the benches by the Gandhi statue, hoping against hope that my camera would be under the seat. Nope, no camera. I then went to the side of the building where I’d also been waiting, hoping that it would be sitting there. Nope, no camera. I tried to make the best of it by taking out my old camera and taking another picture of the train station and where I had sat waiting for G. I figured I could at least document the situation in pictures. I clicked the shutter and went back into the station, deciding to ask the “Lost Property” department once more. It was a reflection of the day that I was having that I could choose from two lines in order to ask the ticket guy where the Lost Property department was and I chose the line that had a major delay. In the meantime, literally 6 people were helped by the guy in the other line. I was feeling very down and unhappy.
I decided that I had likely lost my camera and I decided to suck it up and get on with my day. By this time it was lunch time and I wanted to go somewhere for lunch. I took the bus back to Cuba Street, which is near a restaurant that I loved last time I was here. I retraced my footsteps from five years ago, not really sure how I remembered these details, but I couldn’t find the restaurant. I know I was on the right street though because I had a particular skyscraper as a landmark as well as a store called Pukeko that I remembered. Anyway, I wasn’t entirely surprised considering the day I was having and decided to find somewhere else to eat. I walked along for entirely too long trying to take a chance on a restaurant. I finally pulled out the guidebook and went for Indian food. I was walking down Cuba Street trying to find the restaurant recommended when I came across another one that looked really good. I decided to take a chance and I think that for the first time today things were going well. I enjoyed lunch and then headed back out on the street so that I could go to the Te Papa Museum as planned.
I meandered over to Te Papa and walked into the building, ready to make the best of my day. I did have that extra camera so I could take pictures. I walked in and headed up the stairs to the exhibits. I took some pictures of something in the exhibit and when I tried to focus the camera again, the screen went black and purple. My spare camera STOPPED WORKING. OMFG! I was so angry that I couldn’t stand being in the museum. I walked right back out and tried to think of what to do next. It occurred to me that I had purchased travelers insurance and that it covered loss and theft of personal items. Wouldn’t this qualify?! I decided to go to a café so that I could go through my papers and figure out what to do. I tried to pull my wallet out of my purse and something fell out of it. I wasn’t sure what it was and I looked up to see it was a receipt from the grocery store G and I had gone to the night before. It occurred to me… “What if my camera were left at the store?” I looked around me and realized that I was a block away from that same grocery store. I had a thought as I tried to decide what to do that maybe the Universe was giving me a sign. I mean, why that receipt? Why did my camera stop working? Why did this happen a block from the grocery store?
I walked over to the grocery store and after having to be redirected a couple of times, I went up to the info booth and asked the woman if anyone had turned in a camera the night before. She kind of confused me because she smiled at me and started talking on the phone. She then had another employee come talk to me. He mentioned that a camera had been turned in and asked me what kind of camera it was. I told him and he went upstairs to check. This was looking very promising but I didn’t want to get my hopes up too high. A few minutes later the lady picked up the phone and handed it to me. The guy asked me to describe the camera. I did so, down to the detail where when you turn it on a picture of Chloe appears. IT WAS MY CAMERA!!!!!!! I couldn’t wipe the silly grin off my face I was so happy. THEY FOUND IT!!! SOMEONE TURNED IT IN!!! *does happy dance* I was so grateful and the day felt so different. I went back outside (after making a courtesy purchase at the store) and walked to Te Papa. This time, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and took my time walking through the exhibits.
After the museum I tried to figure out how to get back to G’s apartment. I couldn’t find the main street and came across a bus sign. The bus I needed was right there and I realized that I HAD been walking along the street I was looking for. Ha ha. I got on the bus and headed back to her apartment where I am sitting right now waiting for her to get off work so we can go back to Cuba Street for some Mexican food. Yeah, I know, Mexican food in NZ. And I don’t think I’ll be finding authentic fare either but hey, I have my camera and life is good!
UPDATE: We ended up bypassing Mexican food and went to the restaurant where 2 of G's roommates work instead. I wasn't terribly hungry so it was perfect. It was really nice having some time to catch up with G as I don't think I've spoken to her since we were in NZ together in 2004. We had spent a crazy amount of time looking for a parking space to no avail. We finally gave up and parked at the mall (you have to pay, like in LA) and while we were getting into the elevator, this family walked in. The girl, who was maybe 12-13, was right in front of me and she kept backing up, forcing me to keep walking backwards as well, until my back was against the wall. She was still backing up so this woman next to me, who was watching the whole thing, urged me to stand next to her. It was really strange.
Can I just hit the reset button and start my day over? Please?! I woke up early in the morning and it took a while to fall back asleep. I know it was early because G had set her alarm for 5:30 am and it hadn’t gone off yet. Hmm. At 5:30 she got up to go work out at the gym and I drifted in and out of sleep, finally getting up around 8. I had a leisurely morning in G’s room, feeling a bit intrusive to G’s roommates despite G’s assurances that it’s fine and got ready to leave by 10.
I walked out the door eager to head out to the Te Papa Museum (New Zealand’s national museum and treasure) and got 1/2 way down the street noticing the light rain and wondering if (Daveeed, you won’t believe this) I should go back to get my umbrella. I decided against it, being a hardy Seattleite, and thought to double check that my camera was in my purse. A little digging revealed that it wasn’t in there. WTF? OK, fine. I turned around to get my camera and my umbrella because while I can do without the umbrella, I most certainly cannot do without my camera. I looked through my computer bag, sure that I’d set it there at the train station the previous night. Um, no. Until this moment I wasn’t worried, certain that I knew where it was. I dumped out my purse on G’s bed. Nope, no camera. I dumped out the contents of my computer bag. Nope, no camera. I unpacked my suitcases and checked every pocket. Nope, no camera. OMFG, what did I do to my camera?! It was then brainwracking time where I was trying to mentally retrace my steps. The last time I remembered having my camera was while sitting on a bench outside of the train station. I took a couple of pictures of the train station at night and I remembered thinking that the station looks a lot like the one in Back to the Future. Anyway, no camera. Here’s where I started hoping that New Zealand’s reputation as an honest place with honest people would come into play and that some foreign criminal wouldn’t have picked up my camera. I called the train station and was transferred to the “Lost Property” department, what I like to call the “Lost and Found”. No camera was turned in but they said to call the police. Huh?! Surely the police have something better to do than look for some dumb tourist’s lost camera. I looked in my guidebook and found the number for the police anyway, remembering a Kiwi joke from my last trip here saying that the purpose of the NZ police was to serve as a lost and found. OK, worth a shot. I called and was again transferred to the “Lost Property” department. No cameras were handed in (NOOOOOOO!!!) but the police took down a detailed description of my camera and the cell number I had. They said that if it turned up after I’d left Wellington, they’d try to get a hold of me via that number. Wow, I could never imagine the Seattle police taking so much time for a lost camera. Still, I was without a camera and feeling incredibly down. I searched through my bags and pulled out my old camera because being a photo junky I had thought to bring a back up. I put it in my purse and decided to take a bus to the train station so that I could look for myself. Before I left, I did peek my head through G’s car window, hoping that the camera might have fallen out last night. Nope, no camera.
I figured out which bus headed to the train station and amazingly enough it was the one right outside of G’s apartment. While waiting, I called Arleigh on the little cell phone I’ve been borrowing and told her about my camera. We discussed the possibility of going out to buy a new camera and she suggested I hold off a few days in case it turned up. My head agreed with her, my heart didn’t as I really missed my camera. My head won out though and I resisted. I bought an all day pass because who knew where this little adventure might take me and the bus driver snarled at me when I had the nerve to ask him the price. I sat on the bus until I noticed everyone getting off so I again had the nerve to ask the bus driver a question “Is this the Wellington Station.” SNARL. I felt I should ask because the building I was seeing in front of me was not the same as the one that looked like Back to the Future. This one looked sleek and modern, which couldn’t be right. Well, it was right so I got off and went into the station. It turns out that there is a newer area and the old, classic area. I found the area I was around yesterday and backtracked out to the benches by the Gandhi statue, hoping against hope that my camera would be under the seat. Nope, no camera. I then went to the side of the building where I’d also been waiting, hoping that it would be sitting there. Nope, no camera. I tried to make the best of it by taking out my old camera and taking another picture of the train station and where I had sat waiting for G. I figured I could at least document the situation in pictures. I clicked the shutter and went back into the station, deciding to ask the “Lost Property” department once more. It was a reflection of the day that I was having that I could choose from two lines in order to ask the ticket guy where the Lost Property department was and I chose the line that had a major delay. In the meantime, literally 6 people were helped by the guy in the other line. I was feeling very down and unhappy.
I decided that I had likely lost my camera and I decided to suck it up and get on with my day. By this time it was lunch time and I wanted to go somewhere for lunch. I took the bus back to Cuba Street, which is near a restaurant that I loved last time I was here. I retraced my footsteps from five years ago, not really sure how I remembered these details, but I couldn’t find the restaurant. I know I was on the right street though because I had a particular skyscraper as a landmark as well as a store called Pukeko that I remembered. Anyway, I wasn’t entirely surprised considering the day I was having and decided to find somewhere else to eat. I walked along for entirely too long trying to take a chance on a restaurant. I finally pulled out the guidebook and went for Indian food. I was walking down Cuba Street trying to find the restaurant recommended when I came across another one that looked really good. I decided to take a chance and I think that for the first time today things were going well. I enjoyed lunch and then headed back out on the street so that I could go to the Te Papa Museum as planned.
I meandered over to Te Papa and walked into the building, ready to make the best of my day. I did have that extra camera so I could take pictures. I walked in and headed up the stairs to the exhibits. I took some pictures of something in the exhibit and when I tried to focus the camera again, the screen went black and purple. My spare camera STOPPED WORKING. OMFG! I was so angry that I couldn’t stand being in the museum. I walked right back out and tried to think of what to do next. It occurred to me that I had purchased travelers insurance and that it covered loss and theft of personal items. Wouldn’t this qualify?! I decided to go to a café so that I could go through my papers and figure out what to do. I tried to pull my wallet out of my purse and something fell out of it. I wasn’t sure what it was and I looked up to see it was a receipt from the grocery store G and I had gone to the night before. It occurred to me… “What if my camera were left at the store?” I looked around me and realized that I was a block away from that same grocery store. I had a thought as I tried to decide what to do that maybe the Universe was giving me a sign. I mean, why that receipt? Why did my camera stop working? Why did this happen a block from the grocery store?
I walked over to the grocery store and after having to be redirected a couple of times, I went up to the info booth and asked the woman if anyone had turned in a camera the night before. She kind of confused me because she smiled at me and started talking on the phone. She then had another employee come talk to me. He mentioned that a camera had been turned in and asked me what kind of camera it was. I told him and he went upstairs to check. This was looking very promising but I didn’t want to get my hopes up too high. A few minutes later the lady picked up the phone and handed it to me. The guy asked me to describe the camera. I did so, down to the detail where when you turn it on a picture of Chloe appears. IT WAS MY CAMERA!!!!!!! I couldn’t wipe the silly grin off my face I was so happy. THEY FOUND IT!!! SOMEONE TURNED IT IN!!! *does happy dance* I was so grateful and the day felt so different. I went back outside (after making a courtesy purchase at the store) and walked to Te Papa. This time, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and took my time walking through the exhibits.
After the museum I tried to figure out how to get back to G’s apartment. I couldn’t find the main street and came across a bus sign. The bus I needed was right there and I realized that I HAD been walking along the street I was looking for. Ha ha. I got on the bus and headed back to her apartment where I am sitting right now waiting for her to get off work so we can go back to Cuba Street for some Mexican food. Yeah, I know, Mexican food in NZ. And I don’t think I’ll be finding authentic fare either but hey, I have my camera and life is good!
UPDATE: We ended up bypassing Mexican food and went to the restaurant where 2 of G's roommates work instead. I wasn't terribly hungry so it was perfect. It was really nice having some time to catch up with G as I don't think I've spoken to her since we were in NZ together in 2004. We had spent a crazy amount of time looking for a parking space to no avail. We finally gave up and parked at the mall (you have to pay, like in LA) and while we were getting into the elevator, this family walked in. The girl, who was maybe 12-13, was right in front of me and she kept backing up, forcing me to keep walking backwards as well, until my back was against the wall. She was still backing up so this woman next to me, who was watching the whole thing, urged me to stand next to her. It was really strange.
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