Thanks and More Thanks

At the Sydney airport about to board our flight home! Thank you, loyal blog readers, for coming along on our amazing journey. Keeping a blog inspired us to review each day and reflect on our experiences.

Sincere thanks to the tour agents, trip guides and coach drivers who helped us plan, navigate from place to place and enjoy our travels without a hitch: Chris H., Samantha, Jodee, Brian, Michael, Martin, Ruth, another Brian, Sue, Dave, another Brian, Tracy, Peter, George, Murray, and Mark...plus other unnamed drivers and helpers.

And most special thanks to our hosts in Melbourne Brendan and Tamara and in Townsville Marilyn and Chris. Dear thanks to David B. for helping mend some blogposts from home in Boston (and Wendy says "Thanks, David, for letting Rusty come with me!").

A huge thank you and hug from Rusty to Wendy whose idea this trip was to begin with, and for being an outstanding travel companion. We two sisters-in-law spent 24/7 together for thirty days and there were truly only about two milliseconds when each of us drove the other slightly batty :) What a fine, fine journey.

A Traveler's Dilemma

Enthusiastic travelers want to convey all their experiences, thoughts and images to their loved ones, don't they? For example, I want Emily to know how exhilarating it was to watch hundreds of birds -- Sooty Shearwater birds, to be exact -- take off together from the surface of Doubtful Sound right next to our boat, skimming the water with their brown feathers beating together then, as they rose, the bright white of their wings' undersides glinting in the sun. I want Sarah to see the subtly varied colors and textures of the mountains as ridge upon ridge of green trees recede in the distance. I want Ruby and Hugo to notice how the clouds move quickly over the peaks hugging them like puffy white sea serpents. I want Andrew and Jordan to try to spy the seals flopping on the Tasman Sea rocks and a penguin popping up from his hiding hole and dolphins playing by the shore of the sound. I want Paul to sympathize with me as I try to find a decent brewed cup of coffee in this otherwise stellar country. I want Arun to hear with me Mother Nature's recording studio -- silence broken only by birdsong in Crooked Bay when the engines stopped. I want David to know it all -- all that I have done -- because he would enjoy it too.

And that's the traveler's dilemma. You want to share it all but you can't and should not really try because all those loved ones will have their own travels, as they should. So, loved ones: be patient when travelers come home. Listen and learn what you can and appreciate how excited we are. And then tell us when you have had enough, and you want to take off on your own adventure.

Christchurch Rebuilding

Some devastation is man-made, like the war damage I witnessed in Sarajevo and Mostar, Bosnia this summer, and some is caused by natural disaster. Two years ago tomorrow, February 23, 2011, Christchurch suffered a magnitude 6.3 earthquake, killing 185 people with 1500-2000 injured. A large section if the central city and eastern suburbs were either leveled or badly damaged. The beautiful old Christchurch Cathedral was severely damaged. This quake followed on the heels of one in September of 2010 and created a double whammy.

Two years later, there are brightly colored pods which house former and new stores. Construction equipment was evident next to our hotel (which only recently reopened). The government has not yet made a decision regarding the fate of Christchurch Cathedral.

Rusty and I were both struck by number of barricades and chain link fences separating people from the many construction sites. They were actually surrounding our hotel. The Cathedral Square is only one block away. In spite of the destruction there is palpable spirit of hope and strength.

We took a brief walk this morning before heading for the airport for Sydney. Here is a little of what we saw.

Greenstone

Would have loved to have a personal tour of the greenstone (jade) factory at which we stopped Wednesday morning, at Hokitika. We did get to poke around the workshop and view the lapidary equipment and work in progress. So many varied shades of green!

Rusty, What Day is it Today?

Do you know how confusing it can be to lose track of the days? It's bad enough when traveling and not having any routine to ground oneself to. But add to that being a full day off from loved ones at home and wondering what they are doing at a given moment. I finally added Boston and Denver to my phone's world clock and that helped me feel connected. Of course, it is also winter at home and summer here. Oh well, we'll gain a day back going home - and have Friday twice!

A Little New Zealand Bushman Humor

Our final coach ride from Fox Glacier to Greymouth made a mid-morning rest stop at Bushmans Centre - Food • Crafts • Museum. A "local institution" this overly rustic cafe/store boasts a delightful collection of funny signs and menu boards, a few of which I have censored -:). Enjoy!

Kiwi, Kiwi, & Kiwi

Classify this blogpost as a bit on the silly side, perhaps, but fun. As you already know, a nickname for New Zealanders is Kiwis -- and there are many, many additional references to kiwis in the culture. The dollar coin has the image of a kiwi -- a bird native to New Zealand, the national symbol of New Zealand, critically endangered but still in special birdish places. Perhaps my fascination with kiwis will help keep them going. Surely all the kiwi fruit I have eaten and trinkets I have purchased will help, at least as a contribution to New Zealand's economy!

Fox Glacier: the Movie

Soon to appear in your local theater (we have heard it is playing on laptops but not iPads; good luck):

Movie Link (for iOS devices)

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Home Stretch

This is the 28th day of our trip. You might think Wendy and I would be having some repeat experiences, but no. I tossed off the phrase "new horizons every day" a while ago and, seriously, it is true. I doubt that we have described them all in this blog or you would not still be reading. Trust me. Too much to tell. And we still have three more days to go, or four, depending on how you count the day we gain traveling east to the Atlantic states and home.

You may have noticed I like signs and food. So I will add a few representative images from our day today: lunch and glacier. Lunch was a venison meat pie and an apple purchased at the Country Cafe at Makarora, between Queenstown and Fox Glacier. I chose venison because deer have become one of this region's strong commercial products following the import of deer from Scotland years ago. They became overpopulated but eventually the problem was turned to an advantage; Germany is New Zealand's best customer. Coincidentally, Wendy and I shared our sun-dappled picnic table with a fellow coach rider, a young woman from Germany who is a vegetarian. The apple was, of course, also a local product. Yum.

We reached Fox Glacier late in the day, just in time for a wizened man named Murray to drive us in his well-worn van up to the trail head for the glacier walk. Fox is a serious glacier, with a clear but steep and rocky trail up the side of a roaring river of blue gray water. It was a perfect day for our hike, not just "good" as the sign says. And yes, the other sign says "Danger -- Rockfall next 300 meters -- No stopping." We were good girls and didn't even step beyond the yellow ropes at the top of the trail so that an earnest young man from Hungary could get, in his opinion, the "very best picture" of us when we asked. It was a wonderful hike. We sweated a lot, and gloried in the immensity and beauty of New Zealand's West Coast.

Due to my phone running out of juice, I can't give you a picture of my incredible supper at The Last Kitchen down the street from our hotel in this tiny, tiny town (lamb with wild rice and sautéed vegetables, my best meal yet in New Zealand) but, trust me, it was good.

Roads & Bridges

I have thought several times on this journey how much my dad Casey would have enjoyed the infrastructure of things along the way -- the maps we have followed, the vehicles we have taken, the roads we have traveled, the bridges we have crossed, the glimpses of local industries. As I write this on our 4 1/2 hour TranzAlpine train ride back to Christchurch, we are going through a very long tunnel, the 8.5 kilometer Otira, through the mountain range between the South Island's east and west coasts, the first of numerous shorter tunnels on this route.

A number of our guides have recounted stories of how and when roads and bridges were built. This is understandable, because New Zealand seems (or is) mostly mountains and rivers, and being able to reach communities and points of interest is incredibly important. And guess what: the roads and bridges we take for granted have not always existed:) Just yesterday we heard about construction of the three one-lane suspension bridges we crossed in our Newman coach between Haast and Fox Glacier -- bridges begun in 1936 and completed in the 1950s, after the distractions of wartime.

Maintenance of roads and bridges is ongoing; rock slides are common. One of the suspension bridges we crossed had been disabled for five days recently due to a flood, and today we had a 20-minute wait while workers continued some repairs. We were on the absolute only road from the Southlands up the coast to Greymouth; we certainly didn't complain about the delay... No other options for travel north.

History has it that the first automobile reached Fox Glacier in 1911. Thereafter, the first transport service (predecessor of our coach) was the same company as today (Newman) and it used Cadillacs. There were no bridges so cars forded the rivers at the lowest depths. At nightfall the driver would hold up lit newspapers to guide the car! Talk about adventure. Many children who lived in Haast on the West Coast in the 1930s saw airplanes fairly often (the most effective mode then) but had never seen a car at all.

Almost every road we have traveled in New Zealand has consisted of two narrow lanes, one in each direction, involving careful overtaking (passing), not a huge issue because traffic in general is much lighter than the States. The numerous small bridges are single lane, marked by arrows and human courtesy so things flow smoothly (see photo). Our coach drivers are masterful, adroitly navigating mountain valleys and hairpin turns with their 20-ton buses full of passengers. We have only clutched our seats or each other a few times. I mention all these facts because tourism and transportation are key factors in the Kiwi economy and I want to report to you that travel has been remarkably easy, efficient and pleasurable.

So Many Different Sights in just Two Days - Fiords, Rainforests and Glaciers!

Yesterday was Doubtful Sound (was that really just yesterday?) where I saw fur seals on rocks in theTasman Sea. In the evening we watched para-gliders float down to the beach in Queenstown before watching the beautiful sunset.

Today we left the sheep and cattle stations of the south and headed north to Fox Glacier. Along the way we rode through lush green rain-forests and saw snow capped peaks of the Southern Alps, including the other side of Mt. Cook which we had seen just two days ago. After two days on a bus, our one and a half mile hike up the path (and back down again) to see the edge of Fox Glacier felt wonderful and the view was well worth the climb! The colorful rocks, the vegetation, the little waterfalls along the way and the blue stripes in the ice added to the visual pleasure.

One more day of sight seeing and then the long trek home begins. I face that reality with both sadness and excitement. Stay tuned for our last day's adventure.

...And Now

Today's adventure took us to Doubtful Sound, south and west from Queenstown through ever more gorgeous landscape. Doubtful Sound is part of Fjordlands National Park in New Zealand, an extensive array of magnificent mountains and inlets. Andrew and Jordan (Rusty's grandchildren) might be intrigued by the variety of vehicles that took us there: taxi (from our hotel to join the larger group bright and early this morning), coach (bus), boat, coach, boat, coach, boat, coach, and lastly our feet as we walked from the center of town to our hotel at sunset. Whew! Our trip took us through mountain valleys, across Lake Manapouri, through more mountain valleys to the sound, where we boated all the way to the Tasman Sea, the ocean between New Zealand and Australia, reversing to get back to Queenstown.

We learned that the road between the sound and the lake was not built until the 1950s so that visitors before then had to walk ten or twelve hours to get to the boat taking them down the sound. We were driven by Tracy, in the picture with Wendy and me by our coach. Makes our trip seem beautiful, memorable and EASY, doesn't it?! Here are some "now" pictures.

"Quaker Silence" on Doubtful Sound

As many of you know, I worked in Quaker schools for 21 years. One of the things I valued most (besides working with families) was Meeting for Worship - a time of gathered silence. It was a time of centering, inward reflection and letting the truth speak.

Today, on the other side of the world, on a boat with 150 strangers from all over the world, I had that same experience of shared silence. Our tour boat on Doubtful Sound, a couple of hours from Queenstown, NZ, paused for several minutes in a quiet cove called Crooked Arm. The captain requested that all passengers be still, take no photos, no talking or moving. The engines were turned off and it was silent, except for the birds nearby. Looking at the striking scenery on this beautiful day, in this peaceful moment, evoked an internal WOW! Thanks and Amen.

From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

After leaving the splendor and majesty of Mt. Cook and some of the Southern Alps, we had a rest stop at the Merino Country Cafe (see sign below). The contrast was striking! And then we were back to the sublime and more amazing scenery.

Then and Now

A gorgeous place like Mt. Cook has not surprisingly drawn tourists, climbers and trampers for years and years. I got a kick out of the historical photographs in the Aoraki/Mt. Cook Visitors' Center -- news of people reaching the summit of the 3,755 meter peak, images of the old Hermitage Hotel constructed in 1884...

It is fun to compare a photo of visitors with their mode of transportation in 1896 and one today as Wendy and I were spirited up the mountain valley in a bus driven and narrated by experienced Great Sights host Brian! It was a breathlessly scenic, exciting trip.

Our Introduction to the South Island

We arrived by sea and by land. It was another day of seeing a new photo every direction I looked. Rusty described our travels and here are a few more pictures of the vistas along the coast and the farms further inland.