Pictures on line

I now have a website where I can post lots of pictures. Right now I have a 3 different albums up - use the link to check them out. Clicking on any of the pictures will open up the album for you to view.

Link

New Zealand trip

You know, you never realize how BIG the world is until you’ve sat in a plane for 17 hours to get somewhere! We left Nagoya, landed in Singapore, twiddled our thumbs for a few hours, and then finally flew on to New Zealand. What an ordeal!!! It’s hard to be cramped inside the plane, unable to cross your legs easily, sitting squeezed between 2 people – doesn’t help that one of them was Jeff – and watching mind-numbing movies. Yuck!
Now, the airport in Singapore is really interesting. First of all, they don’t leave you to just twiddle your thumbs; they work on involving you in the place. First, there’s the landscaping, yes, landscaping inside an airport. (It seems that other countries do much more with their airports than we do.) They have koi ponds with pathways around and oh, such exotic flowers! The variety is unbelievable and they have them everywhere. They’ve also included bookstores – not too surprising really but a delightful treat after living in Japan (spent a lot of time in bookstores!) They also have numerous eateries, very international so if you want something, you can probably find it. They are also the only airport where I have seen free computers all over the place. You can walk up and use them almost anywhere in the place. They have numerous quiet areas that include massage chairs - all for free. If you're going to have to sit around for hours, it's at least a pleasant place to do it.

Otanui Bed and Breakfast

We landed in Auckland and took off to visit our friends, Joe and Mary. They worked at our school in Japan and have just retired to a spectacular 144 acre cattle ranch perched on the top of a hill in the Coromandel Peninsula, the site of the future Otanui Bed and Breakfast. OK…here comes the shameless ad. The views are spectacular and the bed! Oh my gosh! It’s got to be the best bed I’ve ever slept on! (I didn’t want to fall asleep; I just wanted to relish the comfort). There’s a wonderful little garden area that is nestled between the house and the view from the room is outstanding. We had a delightful time hiking through the area, visiting with Joe and Mary, driving around the peninsula and just plain relaxing. If you’re looking for a great little place to go…we’ll fill you in. Jeff has taken some spectacular pictures. I hope to put some of the up soon.

Coromandel Peninsula

The Coromandel Peninsula is a breathtakingly beautiful area with a spectacularly rugged coastline views, nestled between stretches of fabulous coastal forests. Really was a stunning drive. We were plagued with rain, so while the scenery was still gorgeous, the clouds lending some interesting play in the sky, the pictures we took were rather dim and fuzzy.

Joe directed us to some great areas for hiking along the coast and we managed to fit one of the beach walks in. It was a wonderful trip up over a small hill to another secluded beach tucked away from the throngs playing in the waves. It may have been overcast and drizzling but hey, if you’re in the water, you’re all wet anyway!

Rotorua

We made our way down to the town of Rotorua - an extremely geothermal active area, that is, coincidentally, sister city to Klamath Falls!!! The city is also home of many spa resorts, featuring, of course, naturally heated water – complete with a distinct scent of sulphur to assault your senses. The lake there is the oldest lake in New Zealand, formed in the crater of a huge caldera left from a volcanic eruption. (hmmm, sounds familiar) It’s still a pretty active area, the last eruption occurring only a little over 100 years ago

At one time, there was a rather large, Tudor-styled “Bath House” that was the famed center for numerous health treatments that utilized the readily available thermal water and mud for a variety of bathing, mud and massage “cures”. People came from all over the world to 'take the waters' at the Bath House. Some of the treatments were absolutely bizarre, including the introduction of electricity into the ‘bath’ to stimulate healing. Looking at the equipment they had and pictures of what they I had to wonder what future generations will think of our “modern” medical care. It really looked quite barbaric.

Whakarewarewa Village

We had a great tour through the Whakarewarewa Village area of the city. This “living” Maori Village is set in a vast sea of erupting geysers, hot thermal springs and bubbling mud pools. The hot pools are an integral part of their lives, used for cooking, cleaning and ceremonies – and are still used today. While we were given tours of the area, after 5 pm, the gates were closed and the Maori people used their village. Pools were reserved for different things, one to scald feathers off, one for cooking only veggies, ones for bathing people, ones for steaming the food. Every pool was selected on the basis of where it sat in the chain and what the use in the next pool would be. The picture shows one of the steaming boxes on the ground – it is used communally, you just return and pick your stuff up when it’s done.

Te Puia

Te Puia is another thermal area, immediately next to the Whakarewarewa Village. They’ve taken a different approach, featuring lots of things to see – far more park like. We attempted to see the largest geyser go off…standing in the pouring rain, watching the small one go on and on and on, waiting for Pohutu to do its thing….and waited…and waited…and waited…. Finally, after probably an hour, we left. (Actually, they were closing so we really had no choice). We took lots of pictures but it was raining and steamy and really foggy – great shots of steam anyway.

Lake Taupo afternoon

From Rotorua, we continued down the north island until we came to Taupo, another city sitting on the edge of a lake. We had a wonderful walk along the edge of it; in fact our hotel looked out right across the lake! Spent a wonderful afternoon sitting out on the ‘deck’, watching the rain play on the water and the wind stir it up. It did let up in the evening for our walk around.

Talk about hotels…we had some fabulous place with views that were spectacular!!! The top picture shows our view from our room on the lake in Taupo. The second picture was taken on our walk on the same lake.

Hamilton Park

We were in Taupo on Christmas Eve, and spent Christmas Day driving back up to Auckland to catch a late plane to Christchurch. We stopped for a while in the town of Hamilton because they had a rather large park, appropriately named Hamilton Park that was open. Now, you’ve got to picture that this is summer. Christmas traditions in New Zealand include barbecues on the beach or in the park and the rain wasn’t going to stop any of them from their plans so…the place was packed with picnickers hiding out in small areas that afforded some shielding from the insistent rain. The park is a honeycomb of gardens created in numerous different styles. We wandered through the themed section; old English, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, and others. It was wonderful to meander through the paths to encounter a total change in presentation and vegetation. We didn’t even remotely get a chance to stroll through the entire garden (it’s huge).

Christchurch

From there we headed back to Auckland to catch the LATE flight (picture red eyes here). We had reservations for a small B&B here – turns out this one is located right next to English Park. This particular place was definitely eco-friendly and caters to vegetarians. It was really great to find a place like that – though I must admit I felt quite guilty coming in so late on Christmas Day.
Boxing Day (news flash…it used to be St. Stephen’s Day in Britain. Long ago there was a practice of giving cash or durable goods to the ‘lower classes”, the day after Christmas) we had a chance to catch up with Peter, a friend of Tim’s – and another bicycle enthusiast. He took us on a tour out to Lyttleton – a cute little village nestled on the coast overlooking one of the many bays. Had a great time visiting, talking and touring!
From there we headed down to Ian and Rosie’s. Oh my gosh, their home is absolutely fabulous. We arrived in the early afternoon and had a spectacular time visiting. Their home is situated on a triple lot and it's gorgeous! There are olive trees interspersed between the lavender lending a heavenly smell. The middle lot is where their home is, nestled in an English Garden - a riot of color cascading through the grass. In the evening we even go to see a hedgehog trundling through the flowers, though he did the freeze thing the minute he saw us around. I got to "pet" him, if that's what you call attempting to stroke a bunch of prickly things. The back section of the lot has a wonderful vegetable garden that is producing everything they need and more. They also have 2 beautiful alpacas in the back. We had a wonderful time talking and visiting and enjoying the fresh air – laced, of course, with rain and lots of wind.

Lake Tekapo

Leaving in the morning, we headed off to Lake Tekapo to visit the Church of the Good Shepherd, probably the most photographed church you’ve ever seen. Its setting is stunning. The view behind the altar is an impossibly turquoise colored lake, with the New Zealand Alps towering behind. I can just imagine what it would have looked like on a sunny day. The fields surrounding the church were awash with the colors of lupines – another popular photo-op for all of us camera carrying tourists tramping around

Queenstown

We drove for the day through lupine covered valleys, forested foothills, towering alps in the background, dark clouds skittering across the sky, eventually enveloping the alps as well the sky. We traveled through rain and wind and….actually, no snow or sleet or gloom of night, thank goodness. The scenery was spectacular and breathtaking in places. We arrived in Queenstown late in the afternoon. Ah…Queenstown, the southern island’s tourist haven, the jumping off point for many excursions, and the home of hundred’s of touristy shops just waiting for the camera-toting tourist’s wallet. We did find a great Mexican restaurant there – they had just about everything there to satisfy a tourist from any part of the world.

We stayed in a great B&B called “Little Paradise”. It was quite a ways outside of Queenstown, nestled off a quiet, peaceful lake. The man who ran this place definitely has too much time on his hands…or else he loves his hobby. The woodwork in the place was stunning. Large wooden carved ferns and other plants were placed about the walls in the bathroom and hallways. Moss and small plants were artfully placed about the branches of trees and various carvings. The floor, rather than being made of stones or rocks or whatever, was actually made of polished wood blocks, creatively inlaid throughout the place. The yard was the picture of an English garden with flowers erupting everywhere. We were also right on the 45th parallel – complete with a sign to let us know (now, Jeff had to check and his GPS said that it was actually marked at 45.00005 S)

Land of Rain

This is the land of rain and rain and did I mention rain? Either it always rains here or we are the bringers of rain - haven't quite decided which it is. We have seen the sun a total of 2.5 days, and that's a generous estimate.

We journeyed to TeAnau, the jumping off point to visit the famous Milford Sound as well as the gorgeous but less famous Doubtful Sound (so named, according to the story, when Captain Cook saw the opening to the sound and wrote that he was "doubtful" that the winds would be right to sail back out of the sound). The B&B we stayed at there was called Keiko’s and sure enough, the young woman who ran it was Japanese. Her husband was a kiwi so while we took our shoes off before entering any building and she had slippers available for all, the yard was again a gorgeous English garden. I think the gardens and the proliferate blooming of flowers was the only clue that it really was summer.

Fiordlands

We spent the next few days exploring the Fiordland National Park, a designated World Heritage area. This area is fairly remote and imposing. Our trip to Doubtful Sound was taken totally in overcast/rainy weather – a fact that had both positives and negatives (gee…heard that before). Because it was raining, we saw, quite literally, hundreds of waterfalls cascading through the forests, ferns and down impressive cliff sides. On the other hand, because it was raining, our pictures leave much to be desired. Oh well…it is one of the world’s wettest regions but nevertheless…some sunshine would have been nice.

Our trip to Doubtful Sound required quite a bit of coordination – fortunately on the part of the tour company, not us. All we had to do was show up on time. We started off with a bus ride from Te Anau up to the small village of Manapouri, situated on, well, Lake Manapouri. The driver was interesting and funny, sharing historical information and anecdotes all along the way. We boarded a boat that took us across the lake, past numerous islands and bays to the other side. Here, in the mid 20th century, they had undertaken a huge project to create an underground power station. It has a very low profile on the lake itself, unlike the huge, massive things we have. From here we got to travel down the access tunnel to check out the power station (looks just like Bonneville only a bit smaller and underground). When we came out, we traveled across a connection of land (the general direction the water travels after the dam), over the Wilmot Pass and down to Deep Cove where we boarded the boat that actually took us through the sound. Apparently there’s an ongoing battle with the name of these sounds…this is the Fiordland National Park and since these ‘sounds’ were created by glaciers, they’re actually fiord, however, way back when, someone named them ‘sounds’ so it has stuck. So…we took a trip through the fiord named Doubtful Sound. (sounds are made by rivers). End of lesson.

The scenery was spectacular - despite the clouds and rain. The falls are absolutely everywhere, traveling over cliffs, through cracks in the walls, meandering through the foliage and finally cascading into the sound, fiord, whatever. The guide on the boat gave us an opportunity to experience the awesome silence of the fiord. They stopped the boat in one of the small arms and turned off everything; motor, air conditioners, microphones, and asked everyone to go outside, get comfortable and just stand still. It was amazing – the birds you could hear (New Zealand has no indigenous mammals except for one bat – the original wildlife was all birds). It really was one of those exotic, shivery, calming moments.

Milford Sound

The following day we traveled to Milford Sound; definitely the more touristy and popular trip. While the day before had been rejuvenating and interesting, this day was a pure tourist trap trip. We stopped, en mass, at all of the designated places (I think so picked because there was room for 50 tour buses to park) on the bus from Te Anau up to Pearl Harbor. The driver on this trip, however, while sharing some historical information, was also a sales person for the many different air trips you could purchase from Milford Sound. It really got old after a while – I think he must have gotten a commission from all of the fly companies. We did run into a LOT of sheep on the road. The farmers were moving them after sheering and they completely blocked the road at one point forcing all of the tour buses to slowly work their way around the milling sheep. Our recommendation would be to drive yourself out to Milford Sound and catch the boat.
The boat trip itself was great. While it’s very similar to Doubtful Sound, we had a bit of a sunny day so the waterfalls were not quite as plentiful. They do have a spectacular waterfall called Bowen Waterfall that was well worth seeing.

Goodbye Auckland

The return trip to Christchurch took us back through the Alps. There’s a northern route that weaves around the highest mountains, through the valleys and over the only pass, Arthur’s Pass. It’s a small community, nestled on the side of the last of the mountains.

Upon returning to Auckland, we spent the in Devonport, a charming seaside village on the northern shore of Auckland. We took a ferry over in the wonderful, delightful sunshine. There are more of those wonderful touristy places to walk around through (including a used book store) and some pretty unique restaurants. There are 2 hills, North Head and Mount Victoria that give you a great view of both the city and the gulf area. They’re also filled with children with cardboard boxes – they throw themselves on the pieces of cardboard and soar down the hill, laughing and giggling. There are also a lot of cool looking colonial style houses there with more of the wonderful English gardens – a delightful day in the sunshine and breezes.
The ogre was an interesting statue, located up on the top of North Head.