JANUARY 19, 2009 - QUEENSTOWN TO DUNEDIN

JANUARY 19, 2009 - (11/121) - QUEENSTOWN TO DUNEDIN
We leave Queenstown just before 9:00 and stop by Arrowtown to see its Chinatown, where the Chinese miners lived during the gold mining days. We drive through the stunning Kawarau Gorge past the relics of serval gold mines on the way to Cromwell on Hwy 6. As we come out of the Gorge we see the beautiful Lake Dunstan. When it was formed it flooded the original Cromwell and the old highway. The lake water is so incredibly blue and clear, we can see the old river bridge at the bottom of the lake! This is a prime fruit growing area. We replenish our cherry supply and buy some chocolate covered honey comb and dried apricots. The chocolate is different but tastes good and is crunchy.

Crossing the head of the lake on the new bridge we head down Hwy 6 following the river to Alexandra. Leaving Alexandra, we enter another gorge like area following Lake Roxbough and the Clutha River. This area has almost an other worldly look to it, large boulder filled, steeply sloping fields and craggy gorges that feed the lake. As we come to the river the land becomes high rolling hills, that look, for all the world, like a green patch work quilt, covered with sheep of course!

We leave the Clutha River at Raes Junction and continue working our way south to Gore where we have lunch at a local café. Dick has steak and kidney pie and we both have a milk shake, which is just a large glass of milk with a scoop of ice cream and vanilla added, interesting. If they are not growing fruit, they are raising sheep or forage. There are millions of sheep!


After Gore, and getting a bit lost on the back roads, we head for the southern coast. The winds are blowing a gale coming off of the sea and we begin to appreciate the large wind breaks that have been planted all over this area. The trees are some sort of fir and they are planted very close together and grow 50-60 feet high. They make a very dense screen and the screens run for hundreds of yards in a row. Most houses are surrounded by them and the fields are crisis-crossed by them.

At Fort Rose we pick up the Southern Scenic route which actually starts in Te Anau, follows the edge of the Fjordlands National Park down to the ocean, then follows the coast all the way to Dunedin. The road is a mixture of well maintained paved road with a few sections of good gravel road. Our first stop is Slope Point, the southern most tip of the South Island.The Great Southern Ocean is kicking up. It is a beautiful blue with large breakers coming to the shore. Then we are on to Curio Cove where we walk out on a petrified forest from the Jurassic Period. You can see the tree trunks quite clearly. As interesting as the trees were, the waves crashing ashore, coupled with the blue of the water was worth several hundred photos. Maybe we got a good one!
This part of the South Island is called The Catlins. It has a rugged isolated feel to it. Even though we are right on the coast, it is very hilly and a mix of sheep stations and forested land. We see few cars again which is good since part of the road is gravel. We make a stop at Nugget Point with its light house.Our last stop is at Kaka Point. This is a pretty seaside area that would be worth a stay, if you could get a cottage as there are very few services.At this point, we leave the coast and drive up to Dunedin (DUN EDEN). We check into our Bella Vista Motel with another 561km under our belt. The owner sends us to a nice Italian place, Etrusco, in downtown. After a great dinner of wine, wonderful garlic bread and spaghetti, we walk around and enjoy the Victorian feel of Dunedin. It is a pretty city.

JANUARY 18, 2009 - MILFORD SOUND

JANUARY 18, 2009 - (10/122) - MILFORD SOUND

Milford Sound is a World Heritage site in southwestern New Zealand in the Fjordlands National Park. It is a 598km (371 miles) round trip from Queenstown. We have been told to allow twelve hours and it takes exactly that amount of time.

We are up by 6:00, daylight comes early this far south, and on the road by 7:00. It is Sunday and there is no traffic on the road. We follow Collins Bay for about 30km out of Queenstown.
It is a cold morning and the sun is very pretty as it came up over the mountains to our east. The landscape is very much like New Mexico and portions of Colorado. Bare, high hills with cultivated valley bottoms and some irrigation. The clouds are below some of the mountain tops and, in one place, on the road as fog. In the first 180km we only saw 35 cars and trucks going with us and heading toward us. Where are all the people?

We arrive in Te Anau around 9:00 and start the 120km drive to the head of Milford Sound. The road is well maintained and two lanes with some passing lanes. Lake Te Anau, which we follow out of town, is huge and the same beautiful blue we have seen all along our trip. The land also begins to change too, from the Colorado look to the Jurassic Park look we mentioned a few days ago. Huge ferns line the road and the trees are moss covered. As we begin the climb up through the mountain valleys following a rushing stream, the land changes again to lush, high meadows full of alpine flowers and lots of camping spots, no services provided!About 20km from the head of the sound, we have to wait for the signal at the one-lane tunnel on the road. It is on a 15 minute signal cycle; cars or no cars! The tunnel is very rough and steeply sloped downhill for its 1.2km length. At the exit, you come out onto a steep downhill, switchback road that is slow going but not all that bad. At 10:45 we pull into the Milford Sound parking area.We purchase tickets for the 11:45 "Red Boat". The famous Mitre Peak is visible as we are boarding, but disappears into the clouds by the time we get out into the sound. Our ticket includes lunch, the three hour tour, "Threee Hour Tour", that will take us to the Tasman Sea plus a visit to the submerged research station, the Underwater Observatory. On the tour, it is explained that Milford is really a fjord not a sound. The early sailors made a mistake in calling Milford a sound. We see Southern fur seals, a nest of baby Black Back gulls with a very upset mother and two groups of playful dophins. The research station is interesting. Basically it is a tube 30 meters down into the water with a circular room at the bottom of 60 stairs. There are windows all the way around that look out onto the underwater life of the sound. We saw six armed star fish, black coral, anemones and various fish.
Now, don’t get us wrong, Milford Sound is very pretty and impressive and worth seeing. But, if you have been to Alaska or Norway, it simply is not worth the effort and time to get to this Fjord. We have seen much more impressive roads and fjords in Alaska and Norway. If you have not been to those places, then, by all means, go to Milford Sound. If you have been or plan to go, do something else with your time and money. The Queentown area is loaded with other great things to do and see!

We were back at the dock at 2:45 after a pleasant outing and on the road by 3:00. The four hour drive back was something of a beating and we were very glad to back in Queenstown at 7:00.

JANUARY 17, 2009 - FOX GLACIER TO QUEENSTOWN

JANUARY 17, 2009 (8/124) - FOX GLACIER TO QUEENSTOWN

Breakfast at Misty Peaks is anytime after 8:30 so we sort of sleep in but we know it is raining hard. It is still raining after breakfast and we load the car in the rain. Bidding the Bentleys farewell, we are on the road by 10:00 and it is pouring. We drive ever southward following close to the shore in places and climbing into the foothills in other places. We marvel at the waterfalls coming off the hillsides and the streams and rivers that are now rushing torrents. The Tasman Sea which was so calm and blue yesterday is a rough, muddy, mess today.

We begin our climb up Haast Pass in the rain. The road follows the raging Haast River up to the Gates of Haast. This is yet another one lane bridge crossing over a deep rocky gorge formed by the river. Remember the roads that we described yesterday? They are even more fun in the rain. But, we do not encounter any problems and the little traffic we meet is being as careful as we are so time and the kilometers flow on as we head up the pass. Once again the views are spectacular, but the stopping spots are few. We do manage a few pictures as we start up the mountain; at the Gates of Haast and the Fish Tale Falls in the rain. These are all taken amid swarms of the awful sand flies! Once over the pass, we enter a new climatological zone. The rain ends and the land is noticeably more arid. Instead of Jurassic Park, we are now in a land that reminds us of New Mexico with sand flies!

We drive along the shores of Lake Wanaka and comment on the color of the water, a topaz blue and the arid hills all around. Surprisingly, there is not a single boat, that we see, out on this beautiful lake. Surely someone is fishing it somewhere but we don’t see a boat or any sign of human use of this national treasure. We climb over a saddle in the hills and drop down onto the shores of an equally beautiful Lake Hawea. This lake is just as impressive and we do finally see two boats with fishermen and some campers along a far shore. Fortunately we finally say goodbye to the pests!

The next town of any size is Wanaka and we gas up the car. We are paying from $1.349 to $1.549 for 91 octane gas. That is per liter by the way. That works out to $5.86 a gallon at the higher price.

Heading on south along the "Crown Range" highway between Wanaka and Queenstown is another stunning drive. After a while we reach a view point overlooking a green valley with Queenstown in the distance.

We arrive in Queenstown and check into the Novotel Queenstown Lakeside hotel. Our room faces on a waterfront park and Lake Wakatipu which is as pretty as the ones we saw earlier in the day.

We head out for the pedestrian area of the town, two blocks from our hotel, and find dinner at the HMS Britannia Bar and Grill. This time, while having the same thing again, it was not too much and we both finished off prawns cooked in garlic butter with rice and steamed vegetables. We order a traditional "Spotted Dick" pudding for dessert and call it a day.

Tomorrow, we plan to drive the 582km round trip to Milford Sound. We hope to be on the road by 7:00.

JANUARY 16, 2009 - NELSON TO FOX GLACIER

JANUARY 16, 2009 (8/124) - NELSON TO FOX GLACIER

This is an interesting, 516km (321 mile) drive back into time.

Getting a reasonably early start, for us, 08:00, we head for the sparsely populated west coast of the South Island. To understand New Zealand’s roads, at least the ones we have driven on the South Island, you have to picture well maintained, two-lane, no shoulder highways like the ones in the US prior to the building of the interstate system in the 1950s. Remember? You know, the ones that followed the curve of the land and twisted like a snake on hot cement. The ones that went up, over or around all obstacles with a minimum of grading and fill to smooth out the route. To this picture you must now add one-lane bridges that are, occasionally, shared with train tracks! As you approach these bridges, there are signs telling you who has the right of way. Of course, they are not consistent so you must watch for them each time to see whether you can proceed or have to wait if there is oncoming traffic. Surprisingly, it works pretty well. Of course, one reason it does work so well is that the traffic where we are going is very light. I can’t imagine how it would work on, say, Highway 290 between Houston and Brenham.

Anyway, one of the highlights of the day’s drive is an area called Buller Gorge. The road runs along side the Buller River. It is a very interesting drive. The road is very much like all the ones so far, including a section along the river that is literally chisled out of the rock beside the river. The water is clean, clear and blue while running over a bed made of rocks and white sand. Our only complaint is that there is virtually no place for a car to pull off and admire the scenery! When there is a place, we stop and take in the views.

After exiting Buller Gorge, we come to the coast and the Tasman Sea. The Tasman has a reputation for being rough, but, today it is calm, blue and behaving itself. We stop at "Pancake Rocks and Blowholes" and take the 25 minute walk out to the shore to see this phenomenon. While doing so, we make our first acquaintance with the scourge of the west coast, sand flies. These are not the no-see-ums of the Caribbean. These suckers are the size of a small house fly and bite! We are to learn that they are everywhere.

We followed the coast line for miles (kilometers) and then finally turned inland and began to climb into a forest/jungle that surely must have one or two surviving dinosaurs hiding in it somewhere. This is now a highway lined with Jurassic style ferns and palms. You just know it has to be 90 degrees and 100 percent humidity out there but it is actually 20oC or 68oF. And, to top it off, there are twelve glaciers hiding out there in the jungle. The clouds are lowering and we only catch a glimpse of one, Franz Joseph Glacier, but we can vouch for its existence in this strange place.

Finally arriving at the wide spot in the road named Fox Glacier, we find our B&B, Misty Peaks. Our hosts, David and Lea Bentley have created a purpose built home for themselves with five guest suites of first class quality and appointments. We settle in and then enjoy cocktails with the Bentleys and the other couple staying at Misty Peaks tonight. They are a young couple from Perth, Australia.

The Bentleys offer an optional prepared to order dinner and we take them up on it. Now we like lamb and rack of lamb is on the menu. But, we are tired and not thinking too clearly so we both order rack of lamb. There are 7-8 chops in a rack and we are presented with our own rack, each! The food is good and we give it the old college try and have ice cream for dessert!

During the night, it begins to rain and the heavens really open up, The building has a metal roof and wide porches. The windows are open (no A/C) and the sound of the rain is like a narcotic. We sleep the sleep of the just and the well fed.

JANUARY 15, 2009 - NELSON AND THE ABEL TASMAN NATIONAL PARK

JANUARY 15, 2009 (7/125) - NELSON AND THE ABEL TASMAN NATIONAL PARK

Carolyn slept until 7:30 or so. I got up around 6:30 and made coffee in the French Press pot provided in the room. A paper was at the door so I enjoyed a cup of coffee and the paper.

Our plan was to get an early start to Able Tasman and catch one of the water taxis for a three hour tour of the beaches and wild life spots. But we seem to be having technical problems on this trip, today we have a problem with our power converter and so head, instead, downtown to the electronics store recommended by the lady of the couple who own the motel. At this point, I have my first experience with "Kiwi English"! I asked for a recommendation as to where to find what I needed and she asked her husband and came back and told me my best bet was "Dittsmuth" down town. I asked her to repeat the name and she did and showed me on a map where to find the store. I asked one more time and spelled what I had heard: D-I-T-T-S-M-U-T-H. Right? No, she says, "With a K. Dicksmuth! Oh, Ok. And off we went. Now, downtown, in the location marked on the map, we found...........are you ready?............"DICK SMITH ELECTRONICS". And they say Texans have an accent!!

Now, you have to believe me as this is the honest truth. We carried our little international electrical converter and all of its adapter plugs into the store. The whole think fits in half of a coffee can. We bought it in 1984. I showed it to two of the young men and asked if they had a replacement. They examined it carefully and announced that, "You won’t find anything like that in New Zealand. In fact, I don’t see how something that small can do what it says it does. All we have is this." And, he pointed to a brick sized black box that weighed no less than three pounds. It had a heavy black cord and plug on one end that would fit a New Zealand receptacle. That ran to a clunky, black box, the size of a large man’s fist, in the face of which was one USA style, three prong plug receptacle. For this, they wanted $80NZ or $50US. You can buy a complete international current converter and all the adapter plugs from Magellan’s catalog for $25US! We solved our problem by realizing that all of our camera battery chargers and the computer have built in converters. All we really need are the receptacle adapters and we have those so we are good to go.

Anyway, since we are in town, we explore downtown Nelson. It is a fair sized town but still has a very quaint feel. Colorful flower baskets hang from every lamppost. The streets are cobbles or brick with cross walks marked by different colored cobbles or bricks. The city has a very large cathedral, Christ Church Cathedral, sitting in a large hilly area called Church Hill, as a focal point. West of Church Hill is the historic precinct and South Street. This is area of old worker’s homes dating from the 1860's that have been restored and turned into B&Bs and artist shops. A glass blowing artist’s work caught our eye. Now there is a box of treasures on the way to the US. After spending the morning in downtown Nelson, we continue to get the feeling that we are in a time warp. New Zealand seems to be stuck in the 1950's.

Leaving Nelson, we once again head out toward Abel Tasman National Park. This time we drive through the Upper Moutere area. With the little side trip into Nelson, we are too late for the water taxi tour. So we continue on through Motueka and then come to Takata Hill. Hill, my you-know-what! This thing is between us and where we want to go and it is 15km up and 10km down of the steepest, most crooked road I have driven in a long while. Driving in 2nd gear up and 1st gear down, we make the 25km in one piece and head for the town of Takata where we cut off the road and drive out for a view of Golden Bay and a picnic lunch while watching the swimmers and boaters play in the beautiful water.

We then continue on around Golden Bay to Collingwood. You have never seen such clean, clear water in both the rivers and streams and in the harbors and bays. There is no litter and no junk. I bet you can drink out of the streams!

We are actually in time to take an Eco Tour out to the end of Farewell "Spit" but it is a four plus hour tour and neither of us are in the mood to be driving back over the "HILL" after dark! The lady with Eco Tour is kind enough to give us directions to Cape Farewell and the entrance to the Spit. So we do drive over to the most northerly point on the South island of New Zealand, Cape Farewell. The wind is blowing a gale but the Tasman Sea Is relatively calm and the natural arch is impressive. We then

go to the head of the Spit which looks like giant sand dunes curving out into Golden Bay. It is a protected area so the group tour is the only way to actually go out onto the spit.

We start back toward Nelson about 4:00 and arrive,135km later at 7:00 after another trip up and over the "HILL", a grocery stop and a stop to pick up a bucket of KFC for dinner! Back at the room, we do two loads of laundry, have supper and call it a day.

Tomorrow we move on to the West Coast and Fox Glacier.

JANUARY 14. 2009 - WELLINGTON TO NELSON

JANUARY 14, 2009 (6/126) - WELLINGTON to NELSON, NEW ZEALANd

We are up at 6:30, have breakfast load the car and head up the road to the ferry terminal. After checking with the car park attendant, we park the car and head to the check in. We have to be checked in by 7:55 and there was a large crowd trying to do just that as we arrived. We check all the luggage except the electronics and hand the clerk the cars keys...how easy is that! The Inter-Islander ferry "Kaitaki" sails from Wellington across the Cook Straight to Picton on the South Island at 8:30. The ferry is huge and used to work out of Cherbourg, France, judging by the welded name on the bow. It will hold some 600 cars on three decks.

The public areas were full of families on holiday so we spend some extra money and purchase access to the Kaitaki Plus lounge. Here we have some space and snacks are free and plentiful. We also can leave our gear that we didn’t store in a $3NZ locker at our seating area and go out on deck to take pictures. This was worth the extra money to us.

The sail into Picton by way of Whekenui Bay, Tory Channel and Queen Charlotte Sound is quite impressive and reminds us both of some of the areas we saw on our cruise through the Norway fjords. It is another blue bird day! The water is clean and a pretty green with white sand beaches. There are lots of boats out with people enjoying the day.

We arrive at 11:30 after the three hour, 50KM passage. Hertz has our rental car ready for us and by 12:15 or so we are on our way to Nelson by way of the scenic route; up and over the steep hills along Queen Charlotte and Mahau Sounds. It is roughly 75km to Nelson on Tasman Bay. We really enjoy this gorgeous drive.

After locating our accommodations, the Bella Vista Motel, one of a New Zealand chain of spartan but clean studio room units, we check in, unload and head out again to explore the area.

We head on around the Tasman Bay to nearly the entrance to Abel Tasman National Park. This is a truck farming and fruit growing area between the forested mountains and the blue green water. We stop at two orchards and purchase peaches at one and a kilo each of strawberries and cherries at another. There are also vineyards growing both grapes for wine and olives for the oil. We drive as far as Motueka where hunger and thirst call a halt at "The Gothic Restaurant and Bar." We are one of the first customers of the evening and take a nice, shady table on the patio.

An order of the Bread tray consisting of three homemade breads and three dipping sauces gets us started. Carolyn has fish and chips and Dick modifies one of their steak offerings as follows: "Hold the parsnip puree, baked tomato, bacon, and fried egg. Keep the sauteed mushrooms and caramelized onions. Grill the steak medium rare and let me have some of the boiled new potatoes on the side." The young waiter is very accommodating and the food arrives, hot and delicious. The bar did have a bottle of Jack Daniels and we treat ourselves to a double each.

On the way out of town, we stop at a grocery store and buy a few necessaries. We are back in Nelson around 7:30, way before this summer sun goes down

.

JANUARY 13, 2009 (5/127) - WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND

We both crashed last night and were sound asleep by 20:00. We awoke around 06:30 rested and ready for the day. The hotel served a nice hot breakfast and we headed out to explore what we could do of Wellington on foot.

After walking by the Beehive", the new Govern-ment building and the "old parliament building made of wood detailed to look like stone, our first stop was "Old St. Paul’s", the former Cathedral Church of St. Paul. The first part of this beautiful old church was built in 1865-66. Extensions and additions were made between 1868 and 1891. The building is of native timbers - rimu, totara, matai and Kauri. The carved and painted decorations are richly layered with Christian symbolism.

We were surprised to see that, in addition to the New Zealand flag and the Union Jack, the flags of the United States and the United States Marine Corps Second Marine Division are hung in the sanctuary. The 2nd Marines were stationed in the Wellington area for training in 1942 and the flags were presented when the division left to participate in the island hopping campaign against Japan.

The National Library and Archives, down the street from the church, had an exhibit on WWI and the effects on its soldiers so we went in for a look. There were very graphic displays both still and old movie footage of the war and of the soldier’s homecoming. We visited many of these battlefields on our trip to Flanders in 2006. It is amazing how different the area was when we saw it compared to the archive pictures!

We walked down Lampton Quay, the major shopping street to Cable Car Alley where we bought round trip tickets to ride up the steep hillside to the Botanic Garden. After exploring the observatory area at the top of the hill we stopped for water and to enjoy the view out over downtown Wellington and the harbor. The sky was blue, with white puffy clouds and the temperature was in the mid-60s. The harbor water, under direct sunlight is a deep green.

We rode the cable car back down and then walked over to the harbor side area and Queen’s Wharf. This is a popular lunch area for the financial district workers. We grabbed a table at Dockside Restaurant and enjoyed a lunch of beer battered seafood, shoe string fried potatoes and a nice salad. Carolyn had a banana smoothy and I tried Tui Amber Ale. The beer was very good and Carolyn assured me that the smoothy hit the spot.

Leaving Queen’s Wharf, we walked to the National Museum and wandered through to the Exhibit of a giant squid that was caught in Antarctic waters several years ago. It is an ugly looking creature!

Feet hurting, we took a cab back to the hotel about 14:00 and began working on pictures and other housekeeping duties. After down loading pictures and cleaning up camera disks, Dick had a computer glitch that shut the computer down and erased all the pictures for the last two days from his camera. When he then couldn’t read the chip from my camera, we made a mad dash to the nearest camera store at ten minutes to 5! There is nothing to be done for the lost pictures from his camera, but we just needed a newer reader for the new chips for my little camera. So we do have some pictures of Wellington!

Tonight after another supper of more of the great cheese and wine we bought yesterday and some fruit, in our room overlooking the harbor, we will get everything ready for an early morning departure of the ferry to the South Island.

JANUARY 12, 2009 (4/128) - WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND


After landing and clearing immigration and customs, we caught our 07:00 flight from Auckland to Wellington. It was on time and we landed in Wellington just before 08:00. Our rental car was waiting and we were at the Holiday Inn in downtown Wellington and checked in by 09:30.


We both cleaned up, changed clothes and decided to head up NZ Highway 2 to the town of Martinborough, the center of the north islands wine growing region. It is only 80km but it is up and over a steep, twisty mountain pass and it was raining up in the pass so the road was slick. We arrived in Martinborough at noon and stopped at the information office. They gave us a map and recommended four different vineyards that served food as well as providing wine tastings. We selected, from the description, Tirohana Estate and were not disappointed. We were seated in a very pleasant dining room and were waited on by a young man who had immigrated to New Zealand from England.


We have been married much too long and once again wound up ordering the same things. We both had:
~ A warm brie salad with fresh strawberries, croutons and a red wine vinaigrette
~ French lamb chops on smashed minted peas with baby new potatoes
~ White chocolate bread and butter pudding served with caramel sauce and vanilla bean ice cream


The food was excellent and well presented. Dick sampled two of their wines: a 2007 Chardonnay and their 2008 Premium Sauvignon Blanc. The Sauvignon Blanc was unusual and very good so we bought a bottle to take with us.


Beginning to get in the swing of things, we stopped at a shop in town called "Ingredients" and bought a loaf of sourdough bread and some cheese. Supper was now in the bag. A glass of wine, good bread and cheese! What more do you need to end a very nice day?


We drove north up through the valley to Gladstone and then circled around, back through town, and drove down to the coast to check out the Putangirua Pinnacles. The country side is very pastoral, quiet and beautiful. The coast is pasture land right to the bluffs overlooking a calm turquoise sea, the Cook Strait. We saw very few people outside of the towns and passed only the occasional car or truck. We did, however, see too many one lane bridges and sheep, sheep and more sheep! We passed a shed where several men were busy shearing sheep. Since it is shearing time, the sheep must be gathered in close to be available to the shearers.


We then took the alternate route around the south end of Lake Wairarapa up to Featherston. This is a huge natural lake in another pastoral setting with many thousands of sheep grazing right up to the shore edge. For such a pretty setting we were surprised at the lack of development and activity around the lake. Around the bottom of the lake, we passed by the Wharekauhau Country Estate, a 5000 acre working sheep station over looking Palliser Bay, the place where I would have loved to stayed, but at something over $500 a night was way to rich for our pocketbook! The setting does live up its description though. Maybe next time!


This being Monday afternoon and having been up since Saturday morning, we returned the 80km to Wellington and prepared to call it a day. January here is like July in the US as far as the sun goes. We are told it won’t set until 9:30 or so. It may be summer, but the weather is cool, the sun is bright and Wellington Harbor, just outside our window is glistening in the evening light.


I think I will have another glass of that Sauvignon Blanc and maybe some bread and cheese!

JANUARY 11, 2009 - OVER THE PACIFIC

JANUARY 11, 2009 (3/129) - OVER THE PACIFIC

I am not sure how this works, but we lost a day somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. Our flight took off from San Francisco at 19:00 on Saturday, January 10, 2009. Twelve hours and twenty minutes later, we landed in Auckland, New Zealand at 04:20 on Monday, January 12. We lost Sunday, the 11th, somewhere over the Pacific!

JANUARY 10, 2009 - SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

JANUARY 10, 2009 (2/130) - SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

We awoke to a beautiful sunrise over the bay. It highlights the International Orange of the Golden Gate Bridge and sprays the puffy clouds with a pink light as it rises. Going down to breakfast, we find ourselves to be the only ones in the dining room of this wonderful hotel. It must be strictly a business hotel.

After breakfast, we walk to the ferry terminal and catch the 10:40AM ferry to Sausalito. The winds are mild and, though cool, we are able to sit out on deck and watch the harbor scene go by without dirty glass ruining the view. It is a 30 minute trip. By the time we walk down to the marina and back, lunch is in order. We cat the Winship Restaurant as it opens and we both have a bread bowl of clam chowder. The 12:45PM return ferry is just loading as we arrive and we are back at the ferry terminal at 1:20PM.

We return to the hotel, pack, check out and arrive at the airport shortly after 4:00PM. Check-in and security clearance go smoothly and our Business Class ticket gets us access to the United Airlines lounge where we wait until our New Zealand Air flight #NZ0007 begins boarding at 6:15PM for its 7:00PM departure for Auckland.

We are treated to the new "lay flat" seat-beds and they are a significant improvement over the old chair style lounger beds. The service is very good and dinner is most tasty and accompanied by three glasses of good wine. By 10:00PM, the cabin is beginning to settle down for the night and we join the process.

The twelve hour flight to Auckland is very smooth. The moon is one day past full and the pilots must have a spectacular view of the moonlit clouds over the ocean. Every time I look out of my little window I am enthralled with the view so it must be something to see it out of the front windows in a 180 degree arc.

JANUARY 9, 2009 - SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

JANUARY 9, 2009 (1/131) - SAN FRANCISCO,CALIFORNIA

Our driver picks us up at 5:00 and our flight leaves on time from Houston. However, United Airlines did not win us over as new loyal customers. The two ovens in first class were out so they were running the length of the plane to heat up our breakfast. We were not served until nearly two hours into the flight and then there was no salt and pepper for the eggs and they had to scrounge up jelly for the bread. We land in SF a little ahead of schedule and wait nearly an hour for our one checked bag!

Yes, I wound up bringing an extra carry on size bag that we have to check. Dick wanted a pocket knife and there were a few little extras we wanted to have for the first part of the trip. We will have to ditch the bag in Africa, but by then we will have used up much of the stuff we have now. So that will work out.

We check into the Mandarin Oriental hotel and the staff could not be nicer. Our bridge-to-bridge room is spectacular and the view is of the Golden Gate to the left, Alcatraz in the middle, Richmond San Raphael Bridge in the distance and the Oakland Bay Bridge to the right! The weather is clear and cool with little or no wind and there is a beautiful blue sky. The bay is calm with sailboats out in force from shore to shore.

We walk to China Town and have a nice lunch at the Oriental Pearl Restaurant; good food and attentive service. As usual we order way too much food! We then walk on over to Fisherman’s Wharf with a swing by the lower end of the crooked stretch of Lombard Street just to watch the cars drive down it squealing their tires.

We walk along the Embarcadero as far as Pier 39 and then catch a cab back to the hotel. We watch a gorgeous sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge from the room. As I write this, the sun has been down for about 30 minutes and the bay is growing dark rapidly but the lights are coming on all over and the air is so clear that they are beginning to twinkle. There is a full moon rising over the Bay Bridge. A very special way to start our trip!

We are both very tired so we go down to the bar for a cocktail and have three items off the appetizer section of the menu and some ice cream for dessert before calling it a long day. Tomorrow, lunch in Sausalito and then on to New Zealand!

Just Nine More Days!

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve! That leaves just nine days till we begin our trek around the world...hard to believe it is so close.

The last couple of weeks have been crazy! You may have noticed a little change in the map. The craziness all started when I got a call from SAA that our flight from Bangkok to Johannesburg had been canceled! It was the only non-stop flight to Johannesburg and it was on Thai Air. The agent said that Thai Air was working on a new route and would get back to us. I already knew from the planning stage that we now had two options, neither that great. One was to back track to Hong Kong then to Johannesburg which was a much longer ordeal and the other was Bangkok to Singapore and onward which only added two hours flying time and a three hour layover. So, I told the agent that we wanted to go through Singapore and she said OK. The next thing I hear is that we are going back to Hong Kong with a long layover and on to Johannesburg! Needless to say, I spent several days burning up the ether with SAA getting the route we want. So now we have added another flight, country and airline to our adventure!

We will leave Bangkok at 19:30 to fly to Singapore on Thai Air getting there at 22:45. Then fly Singapore Air leaving at 02:00 and arriving in Johannesburg at 07:00, in time for our original connection to Victoria Falls. If we survive this marathon without a hitch, I will be amazed! We have time to spread it out by leaving Bangkok early, so that may just happen. Another little glitch happened last Saturday. We were going over the itinerary checking reservations and other details including sending emails to the people doing the private tours in the various cities.

I got an email back late Saturday evening from the company providing our GBR helicopter dive tour. They have a private group booking to their pontoon so they had to cancel our booking! Sorry, he thought he had contacted us! The group booking happens to be the ship’s own GBR tour which is going to the pontoon by a 90 minute boat ride which I don’t really want to do. The pontoon is Marine World on Moore Reef and is a good site. That is why I picked them to begin with!

We may ultimately do this tour with the ship. But, I am talking to Great Adventures about a Helicopter trip to Green Island and then on to their pontoon on Norman Reef which would give us two GBR experiences. Although Green Island is a very popular site, it does have some things of interest. The other option is Down Under and their half day helicopter trip to meet up with their big boat, Osprey V, anchored somewhere on Hastings Reef. All three options offer a semi-submersible ride, snorkeling and diving, just at different sites. Great Adventures offers another island and Down Under’s afternoon trip gives us a chance to maybe do the Kuranda train ride in the morning. I need to decide soon!

The last thing that crawled out of the emails on Sunday was from our guide for Cairo. Originally she didn’t want any money until the tour. She has had some no shows and now wants 20% down. That is no big deal as it is not that much money, but she wants it sent by Western Union. Having never sent money by that method, Dick had a bit of fun, or should I say frustration, trying to send the money today.

The DHL paperwork from Seabourn finally came right before the holidays started. As soon as I get the last of the dry cleaning and meds, I can finish the packing. Things seem to be working out OK. I have decided to take one more small bag with us to start. It will have some things that we will use up before we get to Africa where the luggage is aproblem. That has made things much simpler. It is amazing how heavy medicine is! We can just leave that bag at some point as we use up meds and send travel books back in the shipped luggage. Right now our carry onbags are at 15 pounds each and the extra bag is 12. The bag being shipped to Sydney is 27 pounds and the one to Dubai is 39 pounds.

Christmas was nice. Dick had a long weekend so we had plenty of time for good visits with friends and family. We also got some things done for the trip. We have a New Year's Eve party tomorrow so that will be a fun way to celebrate Dick being officially retired! Friday we go to the Travel Doctor at our clinic for typhoid shots and malaria meds plus what ever else we may need. Some of the time we will not be close to medical services. On Saturday we will go visit Robert's family at their lake house for some fun with the grandkids and some hunting for the guys. Then Robert will check our teeth before we leave on Monday. Tuesday, late, after we close up the house we head to Houston. Wednesday and Thursday are for last minute details there. We fly to San Francisco early Friday morning. When we post again , we should be in New Zealand....!

Counting Down

Five weeks from today at 07:00 we leave for one of our favorite cities, San Fransico, on the first of 21 separate flights on 8 airlines that will take us around the world! Most of the preparations are done. We got our Vietnam visas back in exactly one week in good order. So now all the visas are taken carry of! Dick has made arrangements for all the day to day stuff to be covered while we are gone.

We got our documents for the Tahitian Princes last Friday. The documents for Seabourn Spirit will be waiting for us in Dubai. I have reserved the ship’s DMZ tour for Inchon. We have private tour arrangements in the ports for Cains, Shanghai, Luxor, Petra and Cairo. The other ports we will get a taxi or maybe rent a car when we arrive and tour on our own.

All the rental cars and hotels are reserved for the land portions in New Zealand, Australia, Asia and Africa. A car is reserved for Europe, but no hotels, we plan to just wing it! We have our reservations for the famous Australian trains, the India Pacific (Sydney to Perth) and the Ghan (Darwin to Adelaide). The ferry from the North Island to South Island of New Zealand and the round trip ferry from Cape Jervis to Kangaroo Island, South Australia are also set. The final arrangements are in place for the three African safaris. However, I am sure there are details that we have over looked, but going with the flow and working things out on the fly are part of the adventure that is traveling!

The fact that traveling can be more of an adventure than expected was brought home very forcefully with the world unrest Thanksgiving week! Fortunately, Dick talked me out of including India in this trip. But we love Bangkok so we have 6 days there! We do not plan to change that at this point, but will definitely keep a watchful eye on the situation. If there is a problem we might have to fly from Hanoi direct to Siem Reap then to Singapore and then on to Johannesburg cutting out Bangkok, but I hope not! The Seabourn Spirit just completed her trip East bound trip through the Gulf of Aden in a French military convoy. They are taking no chances! That is good as we will be on the Spirit as she heads back through that area in April.

I have packed a 6 ½ pound rolling carry-on for each of us with the clothes we will need for the first segment, about 5 weeks in New Zealand and Australia. This will be our basic wardrobe for the whole trip. I have the bags at 15 pounds each plus a small case for the laptop, accessories and pair of binoculars for Dick to carry and a camera bag for our three cameras and accessories me to carry. Actually once we are through security we can put the small bags into the carry-ons since they are no where near full! We are restricted to only a 15 pound bag each, period, on several of the Africa flights so this has been a real challenge. Fortunately I found a travel vest with many pockets we can stuff with meds and other small needs. Dick has one already and I ordered me one.

This fall, we went to a National Geographic photography workshop in Santa Fe NM and had to take all our camera gear and two laptops plus all the accessories for both. Since our first big trip with seven pieces of big luggage, I have been trying to reduce the luggage to only a carry-on each! In the fall we traveled with two 8 pound standard carry-ons with clothes for the week and our laptops weighing in at 18 pounds each plus the fully loaded camera case. Dick carried lots of little miscellaneous stuff in the pockets of the travel vest. The vest is definitely not a fashion statement, but is a sure fired way to get a bit more precious weight allowance in the carry-on!

We have had the DHL paper work for the luggage we are shipping to the Tahitian Princess for two weeks. I am still waiting for the same paper work for the luggage we are sending to the Spirit. Seabourn kepts promising it will be here in two more days! The forth "two more days" came from this morning's phone call.

A piece of luggage is being sent to our cabin on the Tahitian Princess with the formal clothes we will need for the Sydney to Hong Kong cruise leg and the bug repellant safari type clothes for the Cambodia and African segment. It will be picked up on January 28th from the attorney’s office. This bag will then be sent home when we get to Hong Kong with the few cold weather things needed for the first part of the trip instead of the safari clothes. Another bag with cruise clothes and some replacements for the by then "well worn" travel clothes and safari clothes will be picked up at the office in late March and catch up with us on the Spirit in Dubai. I have packed and repacked these bags as they also have weight restrictions though more generous. I think I am happy with what I have put together for us. Dick has not shown as much interest as I would have liked...he will just have to wear what I brought! We can always add to while we are traveling and just give things away if we get too much.

We will visit the doctor after Christmas for the "medicine chest" we will need for 5 months. All the shots needed for the trip have been done. The last big one, Yellow Fever, was done for our trip to South America earlier this year. Meds are one thing that will go in the vest as they have to be available when we go through security.

Now I plan to sit back and enjoy the Christmas season. It is my favorite time of year. The good thing this year is that in trying to get ready for the trip, I got the shopping and the decorating done by last week! It is time now to enjoy the anticipation of our great adventure. I am sure both of us will send time mentally reviewing our check lists and travel plans to make sure we don't forget anything! But, of course, we will forget something.....It will be interesting to see what it is!