David Brotsky, Scuba Diver??!! - Who knew I could do this - very flattering shot...I thought the juxtaposition of me and charles was a bit too cool to pass up! 

His Highness - best shot - here he is, as I describe in the text below, just feet from me - what was he thinking? Well, mazal tov Charles, you sure need it! READ THE TEXT BELOW to understand this encounter...

Prince Charles 3 - Here is Charles when he finally stopped stalking me - I mean as he was leaving.... 

Prince Charles 2 - Here is some folks greeting 'Charles' 

Prince Charles 1 - Here are folks waiting for Charles - look at the sense of anticipation! 

Great Barrier Reef Redux - 3 - my instructor and the other person who took the class with me...he is asking if I am ok, as I seemed to gurgle on the water... 

Great Barrier Reef Redux 2 - Coral - very wierd looking stuff! 

Great Barrier Reef Redux 1?! - I recently had my underwater camera developed, and here are more shots from my trip to the Great Barrier Reef - this was some nice coral and an interesting fish in the lower middle.. 

Friday, March 11 to Monday, March 14 – Fiji - “Bullas and Brushes with Royalty”

The first thing you learn in Fiji is a word – “Bulla”. Literally it means hello. But it’s not just any ‘hello’. It’s a very hearty way to greet someone. The sound seems to come from the bottom of some people’s chest and is bellowed out when they see you, even when you are a stranger on the street. “Bulla!” they cry, as if everyone is their brother or friend. Can you hear it now? In fact, in Nadi (pronounced ‘Nadji’) it’s as if most people are your friend. The locals seem genuinely happy, laid back and relaxed, perhaps because tourism is their primary industry, perhaps because being in the middle of the Pacific Ocean means nothing happens too quickly – things seem to operate on Fiji time, which seems kind of like ‘Jewish time’. The pace is very causal and people really are friendly. I had one occasion when I was waiting for a bus to town from the resort we stayed at (more on the resort later). As I waited for the bus, another fellow came near me, about 20 feet away and waited as well, a local. Within 2 minutes, what to all appearances was a taxi showed up, presumably to give this fellow a ride to town. They pulled up to me and asked where I wanted to go.

“To town”, I replied.
“Get in”, they responded.
“How much?”
“Just get in”.

I knew I was not far from town, so I figured, why not, how expensive could it be? As we drove into town, I had an interesting conversation with the fellow who they had picked up, who turned out to be a security guard at the Sheraton, the resort I was staying at. He and another passenger in the car (with me they had 4 folks in the car) proceeded to explain to me about his life and the resort and how Fijians were very friendly, etc. I indicated that I wanted to go to an Internet place, to work on this blog, in fact! Well, anyways, as we approach town an amazing thing happened. At what seemed to be a major intersection on the edge of town (Nadi), many cars where coming and going a bit haphazardly and the spot begged for a traffic light. So what happened? The driver of my car stopped in the intersection and proceeded to direct the traffic for a few minutes from his car, saying a hearty ‘bulla’ to all the cars who passed by, and each of them stopped and said the same, as if they all knew each other, yet of course they did not. A few minutes later we arrived in town, and when I asked how much they said, no charge. It turns our that the security guard was picked up by his friend, who happens to be a taxi driver, and they had kindly offered me a ride as well. They truly are a very relaxed and friendly people.

So where did we stay in Fiji, you may be wondering? Well, up to this point on the Trip, in Australia and New Zealand, we stayed primarily in hotels, apartments, efficiencies (known as ‘self – contained units’ if you ever visit either country) or even chalets. For Shabbat, we would always try and stay in a nice place with extra space since we often were by ourselves and would relax and read on Shabbat.

For Fiji, Elliot and I decided to stay in a really nice place, and we used hotel award points to stay at the Sheraton Denaru Villas, which we were told was the nicest property in all of Fiji. Since Fiji was a ‘vacation within a vacation”, we figured it was a good place to splurge a bit. Well, the room we ended up with was very nice – a suite with a ‘lagoon view’, which meant we could see a little manmade, mostly dried up 1 ft deep pond from our window (no one said what kind of lagoon!), a nice kitchen and a very nice and large bedroom and bathroom. In fact, the bathroom had a device that we later determined was a washing machine and dryer all in one, but it took us 2 days to figure that out ( in the meantime it took our clothing captive and wouldn’t release it till we got the maids to give us an instruction booklet – they were as puzzled as we were!) All in all, a beautiful room, in a great resort. The resort was part of a series of 3 Sheraton properties on a private island adjacent to Nadi (it’s connected by a small causeway, unlike many other islands which are about 10 – 20 minutes by boat from Nadi). The resort had swimming pools right on the beach, several different beaches, sail boats, sea kayaks, and many other activities, as well as a private island with snorkeling minutes away by a free ferry, as well as various cultural events throughout your stay. We had decided to just relax and vegetate at the resort, since we had been through 6 fairly intensive weeks of travel by this point.

As we were going by taxi to the hotel, we ask the driver if this is indeed the best accommodation in Fiji.

“Yes”, he answered (he may be somewhat biased since he often takes people to the hotel, as a main source of business for him, but he seemed honest).

“Has anyone very famous ever stayed here”, we asked?
“Well, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, among others” he replied. We figured if it was good enough for them, it was good enough for us. The driver continued:

“In fact, someone famous is staying here tonight!”
“Who”, we asked?
“Prince Charles!”

Who is that, I wondered, and why is there all this fuss about some English fuddy duddy? Seriously, though, let me digress for a moment before I continue this part of the tale. Throughout the Trip, we had known Prince Charles was planning on visiting some of the same places we were going to. In fact, he arrived in Australia as we were leaving and went to places we had been or had thought of going to, then he flew to the South Island of New Zealand as we were leaving to go to the North Island, again visiting places we had thought of going to or had gone. The Duke of Wales finally overtook us and arrived in Auckland, on the North Island, the day before we did. We thought, that’s that, no more Prince Charles to follow us around anymore. But the day we left for Fiji, I noticed that Charles was going to Fiji as well. The saga continues then. Can we get some protection from this royal stalker, I wondered? Even Fiji isn’t safe.

Now, as we are driving to our hotel later that night, we discover he is even at our hotel, no less. How can we get finally get him to stop following us?!! Well, we decided, if you can’t beat them, join them. At least we knew the place must be he best place to stay in Fiji if the Prince was there. There must be some advantage to having Charles around I mused..

The next morning, word around the resort was that Charles was set to leave in some ceremony at the resort at 10:00 AM. So I dragged myself out of bed at an ung-dly hour (remember, I was on a real vacation for the Fiji portion) and went to the front of the resort, a mere 5 minute walk away. It was a bit early, but it seemed the entire staff and most of the guests were awaiting his royalness. In fact, the staff was singing en mass some traditional Fijian songs for the royal send-off. As 10:00 am approached, I decided to move around to a better vantage point than where I was, across from the crowd. I studied the cars in the driveway area near me and made an educated guess as to which car would be the one carrying Charles. Perhaps the Fijian and Brutish flags gave it away... In any case, no one else had come to this realization, so I decided to plant myself near the car, figuring if I was right, I might get close to the Prince.

As 10:00 arrived, Charles began to walk through the crowds towards my area, stopping to shake people’s hands and chat with the locals and the tourists. Sure enough, he came right near me, then passed to the other side of the car and greeted the crowd over there. You can see two shots of the crowd with Charles, above – One in particular is noteworthy – look at the woman’s expression of awe and joy at the chance to see Charles – she really seemed touched. Immediately after this, suddenly Charles was in front of me, about to get into his car. When I say in front of me, I mean within 3 to 4 feet. For some reason I hadn’t frightened his security detail and I was able to get a few close-ups of the Prince. I then decided, let’s chat for a sec, since it seemed kismet that we would finally meet.

I said, ‘Hello Charles”.

( Note to self - Since it was me talking, I probably boomed it out, in my loud American voice – hard to recall what I sound like since you haven’t heard me for all these months…I am sure I boomed – I mean I must have, right? All American’s are loud I am told by my British and European friends…) ( I also neglected to use the honorific ‘Prince Charles”, which may explain why he even noticed me – that and being 5 feet away help I suppose…)

His Princeliness then replied as follows:

‘Hello. How is your trip going so far?” ( He looked a bit startled, but then I guess my balding pate would do that to most people) ( I was a bit nervous, though fairly cool considering it was him that was stalking me, so I think that’s what He said…)

( As I sit here now, pondering the exchange, I wonder, how did he know that I was on a trip – perhaps I live in Fiji. I wonder? Does he know I am on the Trip??!! Has he been reading the blog to keep up with us, thus explaining his success in stalking us? Then again, I only recently updated the blog with my New Zealand sojourns, so we will never really know?! Food for thought though…)

“Fine”, I meekly replied.

Charles then proceeded to shake my hand, get in his car and speed away, in that order. You can see some shots of this as well above, though not of me with the Prince or of “the handshake” ( I still haven’t washed my hand…) I did forget one thing – you always remember the great lines afterwards. I should have wished him ‘Mazal Tov” on his upcoming nuptials. That would at least have gotten a laugh, I suppose…

In any case, that was the extent of my royal interaction. A friend remarked to me that now, if I play the Kevin bacon six degrees of separation game, I have pretty good contacts - imagine all the people that I am now linked to via Prince Charles…

From what I read in the news today, Charles seems perturbed by the media stalking him…maybe he will consider that next time our paths cross – see this link for more on Charle’s views…

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=629816


We stayed in Fiji for Shabbat, and left on a plane at the weirdest time for a flight in my life. I was going to Auckland, and then connecting via Auckland to a flight to Osaka, to begin my adventures in Japan (with my Star Alliance ticket, no airlines flew anywhere from Fiji except via Auckland). The flight from Fiji to Auckland, (lucky flight number 13), was scheduled to leave Fiji at 3:55 AM. When the reservation person told me this, I thought, there must be some mistake. No one would leave in the middle of the night? It would ruin your entire night, because you can’t easily go to sleep early enough to wake up and be well rested by 1am to leave for the airport, and you can’t sleep much on the flight like a red eye because the flight is less than 3 hours long! But sure enough, it was at that g-d forsaken hour. What happens, apparently, is that South Pacific Islands get the short end of the stick. Most of the flights are ones from the US or Canadian mainland, on their way to Australia or New Zealand. They typically leave the mainland at 10 or 11 pm, and arrive two days later in the early morning, like 6 to 8am. So you leave on a Wednesday night, and arrive on a Friday morning, since you cross the dateline in the middle of the flight. As such, when you arrive in the area of these South Pacific Islands, like Fiji, the Cook Islands, Tahiti, you get there in the middle of their night, all to please travelers on either side, in the US and in New Zealand/Australia. Consequently, the airport is on a very weird schedule. When we arrived and checked in by 2:30 AM, we go up to the gate and lo and behold every store is open and fully staffed at this forsaken hour! Apparently this is normal and the best time to be open to snag the travelers for duty free goods. So they have all the staff awake and ready to serve you, between their yawns and naps. However, for those folks like us getting on in Fiji, we are all tired and cranky to be on such a flight at such a desolate hour, when everyone not engaged in shift work should be sound asleep, so we are not in the mood to do much shopping. So you can imagine the scene. The place is wide awake, with music and lighting everywhere at 3 am, fully staffed bright eyed and bushy tailed, waiting for hordes of customer, and yet mostly without customers as we were all asleep or otherwise resting before the flight. A bit surreal if you ask me…

In any case, we had no trouble making Flight 13 of the trip, and I then had a 1 hour layover in Auckland before my flight to Osaka ( which is the closest airport to Kyoto, where I was scheduled to meet up with 4 new traveling friends for the Japanese leg of the trip) (and my baggage was thankfully checked through for me!), as well as flight 14 to Osaka, arriving via train in Kyoto on Monday night, March 14.

Elliot decided he wanted more time in Thailand, so he went straight there while I went to Japan. We decided to rejoin each other in Hong Kong, my next stop after Japan.

So ends the portion of the trip in predominantly English speaking countries, at least for now…

Fiji 2 - Sunrise - here is a shot at sunrise on our last day in Fiji - though if you read the text, it wasn't my last morning on Fiji...just the last sunrise! 

Fiji 1 - Here is a shot from my resort, across to the private Island I mention above... 

Lake Taupo - Pumice - here is a shot of the Pumice I mention in the posting below! 

Monday, March 6 till Thursday March 10 – North Island, New Zealand - Lord of the Rings, Tongariro Crossing and Beyond…

We arrived in Auckland, rented a car (Our 5th rental of the trip so far) and were off to the races. We decided to go to a place called Matamora, which featured prominently in the Lord of The Rings (“LOTR”) movies. As you can see from the shots below, it was the place they filmed the Hobbit village scenes at, which was known as Hobbitown in the movies. We went on a tour that the owner of the property runs, which shows the sets that are still left. Normally film companies remove all of their sets after a shoot (and in fact are usually required to by contract). Almost all of the main scenes filmed in New Zealand were in fact filmed on public lands, and as a condition of the permission to film on these lands, the Lord of The Rings folks had to remove all traces of their sets. As such, many folks are disappointed when they try to go on LOTR tours, because they often digitally composited several places into one place which never really existed, removing tress or mountains that didn’t fit their vision of the filming. They also have people who go on Lord of the Ring tours of New Zealand, where they spend up to 2 weeks visiting LOTR sites – in fact we met one such group of about 20 folks when we were in Te Anou, with people from 20 to 70 on that tour…lets just say they are a bit fanatical when it comes to LOTR – not that I know any fanatical fans of things like Star Trek or Star Wars, mind you…)

The site of Hobbitown is one of the few sites filmed on private land, but even still the LOTR folks intended to remove their sets and return the land to its original state. However, it rained during the time they started to take the sets down, and because of the mud and bad conditions, the crew asked if they could postpone taking the sets down for a few months till things dried out a bit. During that period of time, the first movie came out and the owner started having tourists showing up wanting to see the set of Hobbitown. The owner decided to try and preserve the site and open it for tours. Unfortunately, some of the sets had already been taken down and others were incomplete. For some reason, probably having to do with the rights to LOTR characters and the like, the owner is not allowed to restore the place to the way it looked during filming. As such, they have pictures of what things looked like. You need to use your imagination a bit, but I found the tour to be very interesting because it showed you many of the behind the scenes things that occur on a film set, and enough of the site remains, especially the famous tree that Bilbo Baggins disappeared under in the first movie. It was a bit expensive though, as many things seem to be in New Zealand – but when in Rome….You can see some of my shots below, including the sheep that seem to inhabit the place and leave their ‘byproduct’ all over the place – its on as sheep farm and they let the sheep go everywhere! They even have shoe brushes to wipe your shoes off when you leave!


Anyways, that night we drove to where we were staying, south of a large lake called Lake Taupo, in a place called Turangi.


The next day we went hiking in a beautiful park nearby, the Tongariro National Park. The park has an interesting history. It was the first National Park in the New Zealand and the 4th one established in the world, in the 1880s. It came about because area was a sacred area for Maori and the Maori chief in the area, Te Heuheu Tukino IV, was afraid that the area would become overrun by westerners, which would affect the sacred nature if the place. As such, he deeded it to the New Zealand government as a park. Quite foreseeing, since that really did the trick of preserving it till today. For more information on this, see the following site:

http://www.teara.govt.nz/1966/H/TeHeuheuTukinoIvhoronukuOrpataatai/TeHeuheuTukinoIvhoronukuOrpataatai/en

The first day, Monday we went on a short, 2 hour hike to a waterfall near the visitor center in the park, with some nice views along the way. We also drove to an area known as Lake Taupo, which is a resort town similar in its own way to Queenstown on South Island. They have bungee jumps and all sorts of adventure stuff in the area. It’s also a very pretty town on a very large lake. We ended up renting bikes and having a nice ride for several hours along the shore of the lake. The lake shore was filled with pumice, which for those who don’t know, are rocks that are so light (mostly made of air) that they can float. They were cool, so I collected some and had it shipped home. They weighed very little, after all! I have a shot below of what one looks like, in fact!

The second day we went on a great hike known as the Tongariro Crossing. It’s a 17 km, 10 mile hike through varied terrain, including volcanic craters, hot springs, scenic views and forests. The only thing negative about the hike is that it’s known as the best 1 day hike in all of New Zealand. As such, it was quite crowded with people. We went on a midweek day (Tuesday) in the off season between the end of summer and Easter, the equivalent of going in September after school starts, yet there were still 300 people on the hike that day! On weekends they can get over 1000 people, in fact. If you look closely at the first Tongariro Crossing shot below, which was a steep hill we all had to climb, you can see at least 100 people ahead of us – they look like little dots on the landscape!

The hike was very difficult, and it was surprising to see how unprepared some people were. The hike goes above an elevation of 5000 ft and is above the tree line in that area. As such, it can get quite windy, foggy and cold at the peak elevation, with temperatures in the 40s (single digits in Celsius), yet some people were dressed in shorts, did not have warm clothing, etc. Also, there were people of all ages, from an Israeli family with a 5 year old to people in their 60s (maybe even 70s?!), yet it was a very difficult hike. Besides being long, having several very steep portions and changeable weather, it had one extreme section. Basically, you had to climb for about 20 minutes, on the highest portion of the hike, at a 45 degree angle. This is not so bad, except when you add in the fact that there was fog so thick that you often couldn’t see more than 20 ft in front of you. Also, did I mention the winds? You had 20 – 30 mph winds, and it was an exposed rock face. So all this combined made it one of the more challenging things I have yet hiked. Then when you got to the top, and thought it would be easier and all downhill at that point, you realize that downhill can be harder than uphill. The slope of the downhill portion (which goes for about 20 minutes) was about 60 to 70 degrees, so steep that you literally would slide down with the rocks, like a mini avalanche. All in all, a challenging hike in good weather, death defying in bad.

The hike has some varied terrain, from volcanic features, craters, hot springs and thermal features like the red crater (pictured below), scenic views and ends in a nice forest. In a way, once you got used to the people, it became quite fun meeting different groups of folks and chatting along the way. Certainly a very unusual experience, to be on a long difficult hike and feel like you are in Times Square at times!! At the end, we all had to wait for our buses to pick us up, since the hike is a one way hike in one direction. You can see a picture of some of the folks waiting below in fact.

The next day, Wednesday, we went to some of the thermal areas around Lake Taupo, near an entire thermal area called Rotorua. Throughout the world, there are less than half a dozen true thermal areas, which means that they have a large combination of hot springs, geysers, bubbling pools, mud pools, steam vents, terraces and other types of thermal features. All of these areas, of which Yellowstone National Park is the most prominent, are in heavily volcanic areas. Basically, they are all caused by magma heating water near the surface and this heating causes the water to force its way to the surface, with all different types of effects. These places are rare because magma does not usually linger near surface areas, and over time these thermal areas change, day by day and year by year.

In fact, some geysers and the like are very short lived and peter out in a matter of weeks or months, others go for decades. You just never know. You can see some pictures from two of these areas, Craters of the Moon and Orakei Korako, below. Having been to Yellowstone previously, which has 70% of the world’s active thermal features, this was a nice place, but had little on the scale of Yellowstone. But it was worthwhile to visit since we were in the area and each of these things are different in their own way. We then ended the day by driving to Auckland for the night.

The next day, Thursday March 10, we had a whirlwind tour of Auckland. We had to do things quickly because we had a flight that night to Fiji and only had the day to cover Auckland. We went to few very pretty scenic lookouts, and saw some nice sights, such as Roto , an extinct volcano which is now an island in Auckland Harbor, which is pictured below. We also visited a very fascinating place, the Kelley Tarleton Antarctic Center, which is essentially an aquarium. I usually don’t enjoy aquariums, especially having seen some of the fish and mammals up close in the Great Barrier Reef, yet this was different.

One thing is that they fish are presented in a different way. They have one tank, where I photographed the ray, below, which is at chest level, so you can see some of the fish from above or even out of the water, like the rays, part of whose body comes about 1 foot out of the water when they are near the surface. So you can be much closer than in other aquariums. Also, the main tank is designed in such a way that you are beneath the tank and go through the area on a moving walkway, inside a clear plastic tunnel – its cool because the fish can come right next to you and above you – you can get a sense of this in one of the pictures below. But the main reason most people visit Kelley’s is for the Antarctic materials. They have recreations of the huts and equipment that the original explorers of Antarctica used, as well as many photographs and films, and even the deerskin sleeping bags and package food that they used in those days. Hard to believe, with the primitive equipment they had, that they could survive in such conditions. Some didn’t make it, in fact!

The best part, though, are the penguins. They have some beautiful penguins who ‘live’ at Kelleys, and what makes this special is that the penguins are in a sealed area which is temperature regulated to minus 20 or some such. In order to properly view them they have you travel in a vehicle inside the penguin area, which protects you from the cold, so you can get pretty close to the penguins. There must have been about 30 penguins, at least, and each are 1.5 to 3 feet high – they also have an area where they show the penguins swimming, and they really look like they are flying because they flit about so quickly in their ‘tuxedos’.

They go so fast in the water, it’s almost impossible to photograph them. I didn’t have any luck, that’s for sure! All in all, a great place to visit. We also went to the shul in Auckland, where they have a school and a kosher shop with food and the like, where we were able to purchase some much needed kosher food – they import just about everything from Australia, most of it by boat a few times per year.

We then went to the airport and boarded flight number 12, for Nadi Fiji.

Auckland 5 - Here is Elliot in the aquarium at Kelleys - note the reflection on the glass to the right of his head... 

Auckland 4 - penguins - they have a whole penguin area in Kelleys, where they keep the temperature at about minus 20 to keep the penguins happy 

Auckland 3 - ray - this and the next few shots were taken at Kelley Tarlton’s Antarctic Encounter - a very cool place! 

Auckland 2 - flower - from one of the viewpoints we drove to in Auckland 

Auckland - Volcano - here is shot of an extinct volcano which is now an island off the coast of Auckland called Rangitoto 

Thermal 4 - Orakei Korako - more of the same, this is tinted by minerals 

Thermal 3 - Orakei Korako, a place we went to with terraces, geysers and other thermal features 

Thermal 2 - more from Creaters of the Moon 

Thermal 1 - this was a place we went called Craters of the Moon with many thermal features such as hot springs.. 

Lake Taupo 3 - a rare shot of me, on a bike no less! 

Lake Taupo 2 - swans in the lake 

Lake Taupo 1- we went bike riding along this lovely lake, formed 26,000 years ago by a huge volcanic eruption, one of the largest in history...very large and pretty lake 

Tongariro Crossing 10 - crowds - here are some of the folks waiting at the end for the buses - it was quite crowded! 

Tongariro Crossing 9 - view - the clouds finally started to clear up towards the end of the hike! 

Tongariro Crossing 8 - Hot Springs - here are some of the thermal features we came across during the hike 

Tongariro Crossing 7 - the latter part of the hike, when we had to go single file through these fields, with 200 people all hiking here at the same time - like being in times square! 

Tongariro Crossing 6 - Emerald Lakes, where we stopped for lunch 

Tongariro Crossing 5 - Mars Landscape, inside one of the craters we hiked in, it really looks like a shot from the Mars Rover! (excepting the people in the shot, of course...)

Tongariro Crossing 4 - Red Crater, very pretty, but very foggy! 

Tongariro Crossing 3 - Winds - here is Elliot being blwon about on the worst part of the hike, when the winds reached 30 mph on a 45 degree incline we had to climb, where you couldn't see more than 20 ft in front of where you where hiking...
 

Tongariro Crossing 2 - Here is an example of how foggy and windy it was - see text above... 

Tongariro Crossing 1 - this is the hike we took on the second day - it was about a 10 mile walk throuhg many interesting areas - see the text above for details - here is a very steep hill we hiked up, and if you look closelyon a diagonal line across the middle of this shot, starting in the top right corner, you can see all the people that were hiking that day - there are about 200 people visible in this shot, all hiking in single file up the mountain! 

Tongariro 4 - Ngaruahoe - this is the famous Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings movies... 

Tongariro 3 - Mountain - there is skiing from this mountain during the winter 

Tongariro 2 - Here is Elliot and I by the falls... 

Tongariro 1- Waterfall - this is a stop action version of the next shot - the shutter was set at about 1/6th of a second

Hobbiton 6 - sheep....they were everywhere, since this is a sheep farm primarily... 

Hobbiton 5 - Bilbo Baggins Hobbit hole - some folks have actually proposed in front of this dwelling, according to the guide - the interiors were shot on a set, so there is not much to see inside... 

Hobbiton 4 - view of some hobbit dwellings, including the largest one, which is Bilbo Baggins's 

Hobbiton 3 - Sheep - here are some of the sheep that take up residence on ths set - see text above... 

Hobbiton 2 - Tree - this is the famous tree where Bilbo Baggins had his party and 'disappeared' 

Hobbiton 1 - These are some shots from the Hobbit set we visited in Matamata, on the North Island of New Zealand - read the text above for details of this visit 

Thursday , March 3 till Sunday March 6 – Driving, Dolphins, Chabad and Christchurch

We arrived in Christchurch on the night of Thursday, March 3, after a very nice drive via the West Coast of South Island, New Zealand. Along the way, we stopped in a place called Hokitika, which is known for pounamou, - literally ‘greenstone’ or Jade. They do much handwork with Jade jewelry and the like, as well as glassblowing. I bought some glass penguins here, which were pretty nice and cool looking! We then began to climb through the main mountain chain that runs down the spine of South Island, which accounts for the very different weather that South Island has vs. North Island – the mountains really make for interesting weather on South Island. One side has a good deal of rain, and the other eastern side has much less, as an example. The main road from West to East runs through a very scenic area called Arthur’s Pass. We stopped at Arthur’s Pass for a bit and saw some waterfalls, as well as had an encounter with a Kea. A Kea is a bird that is as common as pigeons in some parts of New Zealand – annoying as pigeons also. This Kea (pictured below), would walk up to folks and peck you if you weren’t careful. In fact, it sat on top of our car and was pecking away at the roof for a few minutes!

Anyways, as I mentioned we arrived into Christchurch on Thursday night. Bright and early the next day we drove to a place nearby called Akaroa, in an area known as the Bank’s Peninsula. It’s very pretty and full of winding roads and the like. We saw a beautiful sunrise, as you can see from the shot below. In fact, that shot could almost be in black and white – it doesn’t need color!

Why were we going to Akaroa, you ask? Besides the chance to see a French village (more on that later), it’s a very nice place to visit. But most people come for the dolphins. Akaroa and other spots in New Zealand offer something which is not available in many places worldwide – to swim with dolphins in their native habitat. The dolphins in Akaroa are called Hector’s Dolphins. They are about 4 to 6 ft long and swim very fast. They also seem to like murky water for some reason, which can make it hard to spot them. Basically, the company we used takes you out into the bay area around Akaroa to find the dolphins, which everyday seem to be in different spots. They then release you into the water with a wet suit (the water is in the high 50s), goggles and a snorkel, and you can swim right in the area where the dolphins are. They tell you to make noises like singing and to keep moving and you might attract the dolphins. They must choose to come to you, and they are not allowed to feed them in any way to attract them to you. Some people seemed to have a knack for this and they had dolphins swimming right next to them, quite fast at times. Since the water is murky and there was a lot of chop, I quickly concluded I would be better off trying to spot them from the boat. That’s how I got the shots below – it’s very hard to photograph them, because they move so fast, maybe 15 to 20 mph and appear with little warning, so you just have to get lucky!

In any case, they are very special creatures and you really do sense their intelligence. They would come in pods of 2- 4 at a time, and were very playful, sometimes circling someone and then swimming by very quickly a second and third time within minutes in the same area, though always from a different direction it seemed!

We then returned to Christchurch and walked around the downtown area where I got the shots you see below. Christchurch is the largest city by far in South Island and its very nice and well laid out and laid back. You can tell the pace of life is a bit slower here, but that’s part of the appeal. We also visited a very nice museum, the Canterbury Museum, which had local exhibits, and one of my favorites, a whole floor on expeditions to Antarctica. Christchurch is the jumping off point for people and supplies going to Antarctica (it’s on 2000 miles or so south in fact!). This was very cool, as they had a good deal of original artifacts from the famous expeditions in the early 1900s like Shackelton, Amundsen and Scott. It was like going to the moon in those days, with gear much less developed than what we had for the trip to the moon – very dangerous and stupid in some ways for them to try at that point, which resulted in some deaths along the way…

For Shabbat we had our own food, but we went to the shul in town which has been there for about 100 years, on Shabbat morning. I have a shot below in fact. It’s a very pretty shul, but the membership is not very large these days. They did not have a minyan, which was not so surprising it turns out – in fact, they and chabad seem to compete for a minyan. Chabad just recently opened up here in fact. What was amazing though was that they had some type of ‘abridged version’ of the Shabbat service, so you were done in less than 1 hr – they would sing the beginning of some sections and then skip parts – since we didn’t have a minyan they didn’t have to lain which also saved time. We ended up going afterwards to Chabad, in the heart of town, where they did have a minyan, made up mostly of Israeli backpackers. Very interesting mix of folks, from religious Jews traveling after the army to secular Israelis who months before had been into drugs and other deleterious behavior. I have to give chabad credit for locating themselves in places with very few Jews but many of these Israeli backpackers who seem to be seeking there place in life. We will see much more of that when I get to Thailand in April, so stay tuned!

We also went on a very nice walking tour of Christchurch with one of the midwives we met up with on Shabbat, who had grown up in Christchurch. They also had a nice Chinese New Year celebration in a nearby park that we walked too. All in all, a nice Shabbat in a nice place. On Sunday, Lisa left us after having braved 5 weeks with us, to fly back to the US, and Elliot and I took Flight number 11 (flight 10 was from Christchurch to Queenstown, which I neglected to label in the ‘Day from Hell’ entry below) to Auckland, where we would begin our North Island of New Zealand adventure….

Christchurch 4 - Shul shot - this is the inside of the main shul in Christchurch - see the text above for details of this and chabad - its a nice looking shul though. 

Christchurch 3 - this is an activity known as 'Punting' on the Avon River that courses through the heart of Christchurch...its very shallow! 

Christchurch 2 - this is in the main square in Christchurch - its a sculpture in honor of the milenium celebration they had in 2k. 

Christchurch 1 - this is in the downtown area of Christchurch, where they have a tram for tourists 

Sunrise - we got lucky on the drive to the dolphins and managed to see the sun as it was rising - very cool views, alonga great place known as the Banks Peninsula 

Dolphin - best shot! These Hector's dolphins are about 4 to 5 ft long (1.3 to 1.6 meters) 

Dolphin 3 - well, this isn't a dolphin, but it is a creature from the sea....( i am probably in trouble with Lisa for this shot, but it was just too good to not use...pray for my well being - then again, I am half a world away now, so what could happen! For those reading this, I am posting these shots from South Korea, where I found a wifi connection and have a few hour layover before we fly to Beijing!) 

Dolphins 2 - look at the middle, to the left a bit - its a dolphin and in the lower portion of the photo you can see the person swimming, who was looking for this dolphin - they swim very fast! 

Dolphins 1 - Here is a rare shot of a Hector's Dolphin - they move very fast so its hard to take pix of them! 

Here are some of the shots from when we went swimming with Hector's dolphins at a place called Akaroa, on the banks peninsula, near Christchurch, New Zealand.  

Wednesday – Thursday March 2 and 3 – Drive baby drive – to Wanaka and beyond…

The next day, after we returned to our civilized selves, where we really appreciated trhe value of good bathrooms and showers, we had set to drive to Wanaka, a scenic town about 75 minutes from Queenstown which also sits on a lake and is starting to rival Queenstown in terms of adventure sports and activities. Its about 5 years behind, which is pretty good considering most everywhere else is at least 10 years behind…We ended up going to the lake, and to a fascinating museum called the Puzzle Museum. Check out their website here

They have some great optical illusions, including a room of holograms and a room of faces of famous people where the faces and especially the eyes seem to follow you as you walk around the room. You have to see it to believe it!

We had set as our goal to get to Fox Glacier that day, which is about a 6 hr drive from Queenstown, with stops and whatnot. We intended to go on a heli-hike, where they helicopter you to a spothigh on the glacier and lead you on a hike for 2 hours on pristine parts of the glacier, where you might be lucky and see an ice cave, which are very hard to get to and rare in most parts of the world. Unfortunately, the weather is very variable around the glacier, because in the summer its melting and seems to create its own weather – in the winter the glaciers are more stable and less likely to throw uo weather problems. It turns out we managed to get to Fox in time, but the clouds came in and they cancelled our tour for the day. Well, we thought, we can go tomorrow, since we were aware of the variability of the weather and were staying there for the night anyways. It turns out that earlier in the day on Wednesday it had been clear enough to go, but we couldn’t have made it any earlier that day, what with the Routeburn the day before. On Thursday we wake up and the weather looks to be great – except as we later find out, on the glaciers – I say glaciers because there are two accessible glaciers in the area, Fox and Franz Josef. We had switched to a heli-hike the next day at Franz Josef, to make our Thursday driving easier. Well, the weather was great, but the only 2 clouds evident on the entire South Island of NZ seemed to be hovering over the two glaciers. After waiting around for a few hours, they cancelled the flights for that day and advised even the next day would not have much chance of flights – sometimes it can be bad weather for 2 weeks, then good weather everyday - you just never know. So we didn’t manage to do a heli-hike – we settled for a short hike to the face of the glacier, and I have some pictures of that below.

I should have known better. This wasn’t my first time trying to fly near glaciers – in Alaska we had tried to do something similar near Denali, and that was cancelled 3 times over the course of a week – so with this try, I have had 6 overflights cancelled in a row – perhaps someone is trying to tell me something….

We then Drove to Christchurch via the West Coast, stopping in Hokitika and Arthurs Pass along the way, where we saw a Kea – they are quite like pigeons, very annoying birds…

Kea - this is a bird we saw on the drive to Christchurch - it even landed on our car and kept us inside for a few minutes - it liked to peck things! 

Glacier close-up - this is as close as we managed to get, as you will see in the text above... 

Franz Josef Glacier 1 - the bottom of the glacier, known as the ablation zone... 

Wanaka 2 - This is Elliot at the Puzzle Museum 

Wanaka 1 - This is Lake Wanaka, a very pretty place, similar to Queenstown in some ways, different in others - they are big into the adventure stuff... 

Routeburn 30 - The End! What a great hike - in fact Lisa liked it so much she kept her pack on after I dropped mine...( she will probably poke me with sharp objects for this comment, but hey, thats life..) 

Routeburn 29 - Group Shot

Sunday, February 27 – Tuesday March 1, 2005 Routeburn or Bust!

Day 1 – "Do you really expect us to carry our heavy packs for 8 miles through the rain? Get serious David…"

Well, in order to do the Routeburn, you must know a few things…it’s a hike through about 5 different types of climates, and can have severe weather because one of the climates is alpine, at over 4000 ft on exposed ridges. It can snow in the middle of summer, in fact, or it can be in the 70s during the day and 30s at night. Also, the hiking distance is 33 km, about 20 miles or so. Some people hike it in one day by running the course – the record so far is under 3 hours! Others do it in 4 days, 3 nights. The most popular way is to do it in 3 days, 2 nights and to stay in some of the DOC (Department of Conservation, the NZ equivalent of the National Park Service) huts along the way, which is how we chose to do it

A word about the huts. For anyone who has ever gone backpack camping, where you need to lug everything with you, tent, stoves and fuel for the stoves which can run out!, water filtration, I mean everything, the huts are a dream. They have mattresses for all, hot stoves to dry your wet clothes, screens on the windows, running water, and propane cookers with gas supplied. In a word, for a camper like me, the place is heavenly, because it allows for the a good deal of comfort in a true wilderness setting ( they resupply the huts with goods every once in a while via helicopter since there is no road access once you start until you finish!). For others who have never camped, it’s the barely tolerable, and the most they can imagine allowing themselves to be in a wilderness setting – I guess it all depends on your perspective. In any case, because of all these variables with food and weather, we had to carry a good deal of clothing. Did I mention that it’s near Milford sound, and gets less rain ( only on average about 14 ft instead of 20 ft…seems like a big difference, right? Not when you get to a hut and see that it has rained nearly 70 out of the last 90 days…) But we had less gear than I am used to, so off we went.

We rented sleeping bags and began our hike with a 4 hr drive from Queenstown, to a place known as the Divide. We had woken up at an ungodly hour to make our 7am bus – or was it that we just stayed up late? Details are hazy about such things….

As we are about to depart for the hike, we see a tour bus pull up – we pride ourselves on always being ahead of these things, which makes for a most enjoyable day usually. It turns out these folks are on a guided version of the 3 day hike. They stay in separate huts and have their food flown in. Sounds great, but it costs a lot more. However, some of the folks are in their 60s! Well, we decide to let them go first and then perhaps we will catch up with them along the way.

As we soon discovered, there was little worry of that happening, as we had a fairly long, though gradual uphill trek for about 1 hr, to a place called Kea Summit. A note on trekking first – that’s what they officially call hiking in NZ and OZ – trekking or tramping. Officially it’s called the Routeburn Track, which we tramped. Anyways, we get to this wonderful lookout called the Kea Summit. Till now, its been cloudy and even foggy, so you can’t see anything, but since our packs seem quite heavy and it was time for lunch, I thought why not, lets hike an extra 45 minutes there and back (what they call ’45 minutes return’ in empire speak), and see the sites – maybe the fog will clear! We see that many have the same idea, and have left their packs at the foot of the trail – this was off the main ‘track’ mind you. Another thing worth mentioning. You wonder, why would you leave your pack in plain site at the foot of a trail? Mightn’t someone steal it? Well, since everyone has heavy packs on this trail, what would be the point? In fact, our packs as you might imagine were heavier than many others, which was part of the plan to ‘protect them’. At least it sounds good for their being heavy, right? Anyways, we do the deed, hike to the top, and as we go further and further, it starts to rain, then the winds come and next thing you know it’s a real rain storm, as we try to eat lunch on an exposed mountain summit, where we can see nothing but the next cloud. Very appealing place to eat lunch. We did have one saving grace – we met some Israelis along the way, and started to realize that this was like India or Nepal – Israelis were thick as thieves on this hike! Each night, in fact, we had fun encountering groups of Israelis at each of the huts. Fun, you wonder? Well, the Israelis stick together as if they all know each other, which they don’t, but I guess because there is strength in numbers and the language barrier to overcome for some. They all have some secret handshake that allows them instantly to realize who is Israeli and how many people they know in common even though they just met. I am not exaggerating – they told me this is how they get on while on their worldwide travels. What was fun was that we spoke English of course and wouldn’t let on that we understood Hebrew, so we were ignored. Then all of sudden, in the middle of an interesting conversation, I would respond in kind and that blew their socks off, to find someone who knew Hebrew but wasn’t Israeli, or identifying as Israeli at least…. This is how one has fun on a long trek….

Well, as we continued to hike after lunch, the packs seemed heavier and heavier, the climbing stopped for awhile, there were even some breaks in the clouds as we hiked through a beautiful rainforest with fern encrusted trees hundreds of years old. I have pix below of some of this. Then of course, it started to rain, and we thought, we can ignore the rain – our packs will be fine and we must be close to the end of the day…two hours later, soaking wet we arrive in camp, exhausted and last to make it, which means we have very choice accommodations at the ‘First Come First Served” Hut we are staying at. After some hot food and clothing changes, we settled in for the night and boy did I sleep well that night. We also met some nice folks, including one woman in her 50s who was on a very personal mission on this hike. It turns out it was her second time doing the Routeburn. “How long ago was the first time” I ask? “Over 10 years ago, with my late husband” she answers. That always puts a damper on a conversation, but you can tell she wants us to understand her mission, but she needs to get there her own way. So we talk about other things, and one question is, “are you carrying any non essential items in your pack?” “Yes, wine.

She then proceeds to explain about her husband. It turns out that he was a very devoted hiker/tramper, so much so that he founded a local tramping club in their local area of NZ. She then tells us that her husband passed away about 16 months before, and she had the wine along in order to toast her husband's memory. “Celebrate?” Yes, she explains that earlier that day she had climbed to the top of a place called Conical Hill, which is on the portion we are going to cover the next day and is nearly a mile high, the highest climb along the hike with stunning views on a clear day. The last time she had climbed Conical Hill had been with her husband and it had been one of his favorite places. So she decided to return to the Routeburn to scatter her husband’s ashes on the top of Conical Hill, which she had done earlier that day, and that’s what she brought the wine for, to drink a toast in her husband’s honor along the track. Even as I write this I have chills, because of her devotion and purity of purpose – she asked us to think of him the next day when we went there, which I did. I think I will always think back on this story when I think of my time on the Routeburn, which is not a bad way to be remembered….


Day 2 - Superb Alpine Views and Weather, more heavy packs!

Well, we woke and got ready with some difficulty, since there are no showers along the Routeburn, and it was a bit cold. But my spirits were lifted by the new weather forecast, which each hit updates on a board about 8:30AM each day (they have radio contact with the outside world since cell phones most certainly do not work along the Routeburn). The day before the weather for Day 2 had called for rain and possibly snow and hail! at higher elevations. Remember, this is like the end of August in NZ, yet snow was possible!

However, we had learned to discount weather reports in that area somewhat, since the weather is very variable in that area of NZ. In fact, the day we drove to Milford Sound, it looked cloudy and possibly rainy the whole way, until the last 15 miles when we crossed over into the valley that Milford Sound occupies, where the skies were sunny and few clouds were to be seen. So who knew, maybe it could even be nice if bad weather was forecast…It turns out that’s exactly what happened, as our weather luck on the trip continued to hold. We had a superb day along the track, with very clear weather, though a bit chilly at times in light of our elevation. We could even see all the way to the Tasman Sea, about 30 miles or more in the distance. See the pix below for some of the spectacular shots I managed to get that day. We had a pretty tough climb in the morning once we left the hut, but once that was under our belt, we had a few shorter climbs until we reached the Harris Saddle, the highest part of the track, about 5000 ft high where a side trail goes very steeply up to Conical Hill, which is another 800 ft higher or so. To our amazement, as we reached Harris Saddle, we saw two incongruities; we saw most of the folks from the guided hike, many of them in their 50s and 60s, who had managed to beat us again, and about 30 8 year old kids, who were on a day hike of about 8 hrs return, going all the way to the top of conical hill and back. In fact, many of these kids had never even gone on a hike, but here they were climbing at a fairly high elevation. This is part of program, we later learned, to introduce local kids to the outdoors and to their local attractions. In fact, the next day on our way out, we met the same group leader, bringing in another group of 30 similarly aged kids, to the same destination as before.

Anyways, luckily it’s all downhill from the Harris Saddle cause we were beat that day, and we again arrived last to the hut, part of our abiding reputation at that point. I also neglected to mention another group of folks, which we affectionately call the ‘midwives”. What could childbirth have to do with hiking, you ask? It turns out that a group of 5 women, all friends and all midwives, live in the same area of NZ and some even work together. They also like to go away on ‘holiday’ once in awhile without their husbands or kids. This is there version of vacation, hiking in remote areas with packs on their back, for days at a time. They in fact hiked a longer version of our hike, over 5 days which allowed them to do a circular loop and return to the same place they started. Anyways, we had a very nice time with these ladies and there is a shot of some of them with us below. All in all, the people we met were very friendly and interesting, and each one had a story to tell, as to how they got there and where their path in life was taking them. Many were young, some were old, but all were interesting to talk to, if you took the time to get to know the people.

Needless to say, we had no troubles again going to sleep that night!


Day 3 – "Is it really over? Can I stop wearing my pack? Say it ain’t so, I want to hike for longer…"(well, the last part was my wishful addition..)

If you have been following along, day 3 is the final day of the track, and the easiest as its all downhill and after the first hour, very well graded and in most cases very gradual. Each day we had hiked about 7 - 8 miles, and we only had under 5 miles left! We decided to leave early, given our history of arriving late – we did not want to be late, because we had arranged for a bus pickup at 2pm that day – if you miss it, fat chance that you are easily going to get home that day! Anyways, we left at a reasonable time, and had as our hiking partners the midwives, who turned out to be two things;

a) pleasant and enchanting company on the final leg and
b) good pace setters.

In fact, because we were eager to finish and were hiking at a good pace, we managed to finish in less time than the expected time that the DOC specified along the hike for various segments. Previously, we had found that the time specified was more of a ‘recommended time’ – something a person might strive for if they ran the whole way without a pack, and maybe without their clothes, which after all could slow one down, right? Perhaps we just got used to our packs at that point, perhaps we were beyond caring – in any case, we finished nearly an hour sooner than the recommended time, thanks to the midwives! We finished so early that it looked like we would have to wait for about 2 hours till the bus came. In actual fact, we were lucky and got a ride from an Israeli we had met along the way, who through a piece of great luck, managed to have a car waiting at the end of the hike with spots in his car, even though he had hiked in our direction, a one way hike. Anyways, we had a great time, once we finished and managed to eat, shower and sleep properly – by then we were telling war stories of the hike, as you might imagine. These become sagas, that you relive and retell. I highly recommend the experience, if you have any inclination to try a long hike. The hut system in NZ is very unusual and little seen in the US – I have heard they have it in some other countries, but I doubt as developed as the NZ hut system is, with about a dozen hikes that have top quality huts – they have a reservation system and even have 3 LEVELS OF HUTS, in terms of amenities – ours where they top, and were in very good shape, I can report. All in all, a highlight of the trip, as you can see from the pictures below.

Routeburn 28 - Midvives and us - here are two of the midvives i mentioned in the text above- very nice folks! 

Routeburn 27 - mushroom - not sure what kind this one is - very unique for sure! 

Routeburn 26 - waterfalls 2 - stop action - I held the shutter for about 1/6th of second for this shot 

Routeburn 25 - waterfalls 1 

Routeburn 24 - Sunrise - hard to tell the difference between rise and set sometimes...! 

Routeburn 23 - Sunset from our cabin, at Routeburn Falls 

Routeburn 22 - Setting sun - shadowed across one of my companions... 

Routeburn 21 - Winding Trail - this is typical of the routeburn's windyness, if thats a word... 

Routeburn 20 - Self Portrait - with the pack on.. 

Routeburn 19 - Me - a rare shot, as I celebrate successully climbing Conical Hill - about 800 ft in about a 1/4 of a mile... 

Routeburn 18 - Lake Mackenzie - a beautiful lake along the hike on Day 2 - we saw this as we climbed Conical Hill - very moving, as I describe in the text above.. 

Routeburn 17 - Scenic view 

Routeburn 16 - Elliot along the trail...or is he in the foreign legion like me - i wear such a hat and call it the 'Bonet Legion' 

Routeburn 16 - Flowers 2 

Routeburn 15 - flowers - of a sort! 

Routeburn 14 - not sure what kind of plant this was - we saw it all over the place though 

Routeburn 13 - Lisa - real snow, in their equivalent of August! 

Routeburn 12 - Tasman Sea - this is a shot of one of the Sounds, like Milford, that on a clear day you can see from the Routeburn... 

Routeburn 11 - Group Shot 

Routeburn 10 - Day 2 - View shots 3 

Routeburn 9 - Day 2 - View shots 2 

Routeburn 8 - Day 2 - View shots 1 - we had great weather on the second day - these are a series of nice view shots along the way... 

Routeburn 7 - Lisa - on the first day, this was a rare moment when the weather cleared for a few minutes- it wasmostly rainy and windy! 

Routeburn 6 - Earland Falls - this was a very high waterfall, about 200 - 300 ft at least! 

Routeburn 5 - Trees - some of the unique trees we saw int his rainforest - many are hundreds of years old... 

Routeburn 4 - Kea Summit 2 

Routeburn 3 - Kea Summit - some of the rocks to the summit were covered by lichen and looked different colors - this was one that was particularily striking

Routeburn 2 - Falls - one of the many falls we saw, in part because of all the rain this trek gets - see above for details 

Routeburn 1 - Here begins a large series of shots from the Routeburn - this was a 3 day hike, where we slept in cabins along the way, carrying all of our food, supplies and clothing - please read the description above for more details of the hike - this is Elliot and Lisa in their packs, at the start of the hike, on Sunday, Feb 27
 

Routeburn 1 - Here begins a large series of shots from the Routeburn - this was a 3 day hike, where we slept in cabins along the way, carrying all of our food, supplies and clothing - please read the description above for more details of the hike - this is Elliot and Lisa in their packs, at the start of the hike, on Sunday, Feb 27 

Sunrise 3 

Sunrise 2 

This is a sequence of 3 shots of sunrise, looking the other way... 

Here are some sunrise shots from our Chalet in queenstown... 

Wednesday February 23 – Saturday February 26 – Queenstown and Adventure Touring

We next went back to Queenstown, where we had landed on that fateful Sunday evening.

Along the way we had a funny thing happen to us. We stopped at a scenic pullout right outside of Queenstown, in the middle of the day. We took some shots, some of which I have posted below. Then we tried to leave the pullout, which was packed gravel. To our amazement, we were stuck, almost like when your car gets stuck in snow up to the top of the wheels. It seems we had sunk into the gravel and couldn’t get out. After unloading our luggage, and amazing thing happened – various tourists parked at the lookout all came over and without us asking began to help us get the car out of its predicament. As you can see from the shot below, it was pretty well stuck. About 6- 8 people came and gave us suggestions on how to get it out of the gravel and then helped us push it out – it was a wonderful example of a random act of kindness, and left us all with a warm feeling. It makes me err on the side of helping out others when I have the chance, because you never know when you will be repaid in kind…

Anyways, we made it to Queenstown safely that night (seems like we always have troubles on the way to Queenstown, doesn’t it?) We also encountered some more sheep along the way. See the pix below….

Queenstown is a very beautiful and touristy town that we stayed in off and on for almost a week, with a 3 day hike on the Routeburn Track mixed in the middle – more on the hike later on…

We had the nicest accommodation of the trip in terms of space and view. It was a beautiful ski chalet set on a mountain side right as you enter town. The views were stunning, as you can see from the pictures below. When we are staying for Shabbat in a place, I try and get a nicer place than usual, but in this case we really lucked out. It was a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house, with a garage, full kitchen, a laundry room (with a dryer, which we learned is not always the case when a place says it has a laundry), a living room, dining room, and 3 balconies! Really a treat to stay at.

Queenstown is the capital of adventure touring – if you can imagine it, they seem to have it, from bungee jumping in many different ways, to skydiving, white water rafting, parasailing, hang gliding, jet boating, etc…Too many to list here. As most tourists to the town, we picked a few things.

On Wednesday evening when we arrived in Queenstown we went to the top of the mountain in town and went alpine sledding and saw some beautiful scenic views of the city. See the pix below. The next day, on Thursday, we first all did an event that was called Jet boating, where they take you in a boat up a canyon with walls as narrow as 20 ft and water as shallow as 6 inches and you go on a ride which I can only liken to a rollercoaster – the pilots intentionally go within a few inches of the canyon walls, zoom over shallow water that you think won’t be deep enough, and then do 360 degree spins every once and a while. All in all, an amazing thrill ride if ever there was one. We all heartily enjoyed this event – there is a picture of us in the Jet boat below, in fact.

In the afternoon, Lisa and I decided to try something called river surfing, which was an activity similar to one I had seen on the Amazing Race. Basically, you have a flotation board and you are in a wet suit and you go down a river that has rapids - its like white water rafting, except you are the boat – you have to kick to stay in the middle of the river, allow yourself to get spun around and dunked in the rapids which g over your head at times, and occasionally you feel like you might drown out there. At first it was exhilarating, but very exhausting, then nerve-wracking as you start to have the rapids go over your head and realize how little control you have in the middle of a raging river. I am glad I finished it, but I doubt I would ever seek to do this again on such a raging river – it was one of the hardest things I have ever done and put me into fear of drowning for a few minutes – not a pleasant thing to experience, believe you me!

River surfing did have one good effect – any other event seemed a piece of cake compared to this, which is how I managed to psych myself to go hang gliding the next day, on Friday. As some of you are aware, I am a bit afraid of heights, and don’t usually like to get too close to the edge of a roof, for example. Yet here I and Lisa were being driven to the top of the Remarkables (here they are again!) to do something incredible – to fly like a bird, if only for a few moments. I did manage to convince myself that this would be simple compared to the river surfing, which it was, and I wasn’t even very scared! Before you know it, they have you in the air and you then sit for 7 – 8 minutes flying a few thousand feet above the ground, making languid circles across fields and roads. It was quite good fun and something I would do again. Also its very safe, with the new equipment they have now – you go in tandem with a very experienced pilot who does everything, and you just sit back and relax – they let you steer if you want to, which is cool because you use your whole body to ease the glider into a turn – the latest gliders have a built in mechanism in the wing itself that corrects a stall, which occurs if you go to slowly while in the air. It was a great experience. See the pictures below, a mixture of shots of me and lisa flying in the air and from the glider. Very cool!
I also took a slew of sunrise shots on Friday morning, some of which I have posted below…All in all, we had a great time, as we prepared for our 3 day hike along the Routeburn Track.

Sheep 3 - my favorate sheep shot! 

Sheep 2 - More sheep! 

Sheep 1 - Here are some sheep we saw another day, while driving in the Queenstown area 

Hang Gliding 7  

Hang Gliding 6  

Hang Gliding 5 - Here I am, flying! 

Hang Gliding 4 - This is Lisa, flying! 

Hang Gliding 3 - Here is lisa, as she was taking off 

Hang Gliding 2 - right before I took off! 

Hang Gliding 1 - here I am, being prepared for my hang gliding experience - see the text above for details 

Alpine Slide 2 - Lisa and Elliot taking the ski lift up for the Alpine Slide.. 

Alpine Slide 1 - from the top of the mountain the ski lodge is on... 

Aerial View 2 - another shot, from the ski lodge - we had nice weather that day! 

Aerial View 2 - another shot of queenstown, from the ski lodge 

Chalet View 2 - Here is a better shot, without the window in the way, taken from our deck - see the text for more details 

Chalet View 1 - This is the view from our lovely ski lodge in queenstown 

Queentown Aerial View - this is the view from the top of ski resort that overlooks Queenstown - this is Lake Wakatipu again and in the other shots to come 

Car Stuck? it sure looks like it here... 

Here is a shot of all of us, at the same viewpoint.. 

Here is a shot of Lake Wakatipu, which is the lake right next to Queenstown - you will see it in many shots above..this is where we stopped with out car, before we had some 'difficulties' as I explain above 

This is a shot of the kind of caves we were in for the glow worms - you are in a boat, and the worms appear as little lights above, kind of like the seeing stars in the night sky.. 

Tuesday, February 22 – Doubtful Sound? And Glow Worms…

Why is it called Doubtful Sound? Well, we thought so because we had to wake up at an ung-dly hour (4:30am) to get to the meeting place for our kayak tour of the sound (it was about a 30 minute drive and we had to be there before 6AM – when we get there, no one is there and we start to wonder if we are in the right place! Sure enough, we are and everyone else is late. Since its summer in NZ, everything is crowded and booked up, so this company adds a 6am kayak when they have enough people for it. Despite the time, it ended up being a very enjoyable day. It’s the hardest place we ever had to get to for a 1 day excursion, for the entire trip I suspect. We had to drive 30 minutes, then be driven for 5 minutes to the dock at a place called Lake Manapouri, then take a 40 minute boat ride across the lake to a power station, then change to our wet suits and hop in a 30 minute van ride to the other side of the planet in order to arrive by 8:30 or so at Doubtful Sound. Needless to say, we hardly saw anyone else that day because of the remoteness, which is part of the appeal. Doubtful was named by James Cook, who discovered NZ and Australia as far as Europeans are concerned, because he was doubtful that the winds in the sound were enough for him to get into and back out of the sound, so he didn’t even go into the sound. Its very different from Milford, in that it has a good deal of vegetation, since the surrounding mountains aren’t as steep and that allows more soil to accumulate. It was good that we went so early, because we started to get some winds and choppy seas as we returned in the early afternoon. I have posted some shots below from this trip which I took with one of the disposal waterproof cameras. They work quite well, in fact. I also have some more shots from the Great Barrier Reef, which I took with another underwater camera – I had the film developed for both of these since undeveloped film in your checked luggage can get ruined nowadays with the scans they do for bombs (its not a problem in your hand luggage, but who wants to carry those things around for months!). Let me know what you think of these shots, as well as any others – I think the disposable cameras are quite good, considering how cheap they are! We then went to visit the Glow Worm caves near Te Anou that evening. Glow Worms are very fascinating creatures who literally glow in the dark – it’s a bioluminescence that they use to attract insects into their version of a web. They are quite fascinating, and you feel like you are looking at stars in the milky way, as you wend your way in the bowels of a pitch black cave by boat – no photos though, you must experience them for yourself!

Here are the folks we went kayaking with - very nice people that we got to know, as has been happening the entire trip..

Another shot of Doubtful - these were all taken with one of those disposable water camera, fyi 

Here is Lisa - everyone had to share kayaks... 

Here is Doubtful Sound - its very different from Milford in some ways - see the text above for details... 

This is Lake Manapori, which we crossed at about 6am on our way to kayaking in Doubtful Sound...read above for our oddysey... 

Ode to Driving, the Letter Z and Post Offices?

Ode to Driving, the Letter Z and Post Offices?

Several of you have asked “How tough is it to drive on the wrong side of the road?” Well, a few comments. Its not as hard as it seems and not as easy as it looks. Its not as hard to get used to driving on the opposite side. You just have to keep making a mental note to be on the left side of the road, not the right side as you are used to. Its not as easy as it seems, because once you do get somewhat used to driving like this, you always have to do it right. Its easy to forget when you turn onto a road and you are by yourself and you sometimes tend over to the wrong side, unconsciously. You just need to focus on where you are, kind of like focusing on your breathing at first to breath differently, then internalizing it over time. At this point, given that I am in Fiji and then Japan, where they all drive this way, I wonder how it will be going back to the right side of the road?! Will I remember what to do instinctively, or will I need to relearn that as well? I will let you know – I still have a few more weeks on this side of the road…

The letter Z, you ask? Well, I think I will always pronounce it ‘Zed”, not “Zee” as I was taught in the US. Everything in New Zealand, NZ, uses zed. All the web addresses constantly intone www.whatever.co.nz, as in ‘en zed” at the end. SO you get so used to it that you forget what “zee” refers too! Also, they like to shorten everything here and in OZ (Australia). As an example, I started hearing people on the radio say “dub” a lot. At first I thought it was a way to refer to President Bush, but they don’t seem to hold him in such high regard here…I then realized that it was really “dub,dub,dub”, as in “dub,dub,dub.whatever.co.nz” - they shorten “w” to “dub” when giving web addresses. Not a bad idea, as these things go….

Post Offices – what could I possibly have to say nice about them? Well, what is nice is that they are private in OZ and NZ. Meaning that a bank can have one on its presence, as we saw in many places in NZ. That means its open later, sells other things like newspapers, magazines, candy, postcards, all the boxes and packaging items you might see in a good Staples, and that the tellers can then do your banking after you do your postal needs. Makes sense if you ask me. In fact, in the Sydney airport they had one open all day Sunday when we were on our way to NZ, which was very helpful cause it let me get stamps for my last postcards…The only thing that was a bit weird was that the stamps for some postcards had been bought from a competing post office in NZ. I didn’t know this until I tried to mail them with my other postcards, and I was told that they couldn’t accept this mail, because it was from a competitor. Who knew? Do they each have their own post people ( I suspect postmen is very ‘un-pc’ these days) who deliver the mail? I have no idea, all I know is I had to look around for a few blocks to find the competitor’s mail boxes. All in all, worth the confusion though…

Monday, February 21 - Onward to Milford Sound

Milford Sound. What can I say. For those who haven’t heard of it, it’s a fjord along the west coast of the South Island of NZ. Its world renowned in many ways, for its beauty, for the fact that the main mountain there, Mitre, is the tallest mountain along a coastline anywhere in the world, over 6000 ft straight up from the surface of the sound. Its also got a lot of wildlife and is very scenic. All you need is good weather or bad weather. If you have good weather, as we had, then you get stunning views, as you can see from the pictures below this entry. If you get bad weather (Milford gets about 20 FEET of rain per year, one of the highest totals anywhere in the world) then you can see many temporary waterfalls, and if its windy to boot, then some of these waterfalls seem to flow UPWARDS because of the force of the wind. So it’s a great place in most conditions. As it happens, we had a perfect sunny day, which happens only about 10% of the days during the summer, and we counted our blessings. Maybe next time we will be privileged to see bad weather, cause those waterfalls sound amazing…in any case, we also saw some fern crested penguins, which is quite rare in February since they are supposed to be out at sea until the winter, which starts in June here (remember, everything is opposite here in the southern hemisphere, also known as the antipodes – even the driving as we remarked on above!) I have a picture I enlarged of them – they were quite cute, but only about 8 to 12 inches in height (20 to 30 cm for those of you into metrics) – we got to see them for a few minutes, till they got scared and jumped across some rocks into the fjord. Its more of a hopping motion, that’s all I can say….

Also, that reminds me of the drive to Milford – its an very spectacular and winding drive through mountain gorges and a long tunnel. We saw some very nice waterfalls and streams along the way, which are also pictured above, and we had a sheep encounter. Whats that, you ask? Well, imagine its 8am after getting little sleep after the day from hell, and suddenly you have sheep streaming across the road – did I say streaming? I mean engulfing the road – we came across a farmer who was moving his thousands of sheep across the road – instead of fighting the flood, all the cars parked and watched the sheep calmly obey the traffic laws and stay on their side of the road, with only a few sheep dogs to keep them obedient. Quite a site, as you can see from the pictures…As I said, 70 million sheep, and they have to live somewhere…

We ended off the Milford cruise with a side trip to a unique underwater observatory. Since Milford Sound gets so much rain and is quite narrow with steep mountains on both sides, all the rain essentially blankets the ocean water, and provides a 3-5 ft fresh water layer of rain water on top of the sea water. What happens is that this layer filters out much of the light and some of the warmth from the sky and fools plants and animals into thinking they are much deeper, 100 to 300 ft deep instead of 10 ft deep. As such, the conditions are like on the ocean floor, and there are rare fish and coral in Milford that you can only view out at sea usually. I also have a few pictures of this below – the coral is especially beautiful – its black coral, which is white when alive, though most of us only ever see it when its dead and turns black…a great day, and our weather luck continues to hold…

Here is a group shot of Lisa, Elliot and I, taken on the boat we were on for the Milford Sound cruise - see the text above for all the details! 

this is my favorite coral shot... 

more cool coral 

Here is some of the 'black coral' we saw - its black when its dead, and its often not seen alive, when its white 

This is a fish that we saw in the underwater observatory at Milford Sound - As I explain in detail above, it has unique conditions, similar to an ocean floor..not sure what kind of fish this is exactly - let me know if you know! 

Here is mist at the end of Milford Sound - we went out into the Tasman Sea briefly after this, then back down the sound - its amazing how rough the Tasman is compared to the Milford... 

Here are the fern crested penguins I mentioned above - they are rarely seen this time of the year (Feb) because they are out to sea...we got very lucky! They are about 8 to 12 inches high ( 20 - 30 centimeters) 

This is the classic shot most people take of Milford Sound - this is Mitre Peak at the beginning of the Sound - its the highest mountain in the world that rises directly from a shoreline - its over 1 mile high! The name "Mitre" is derived from its similarity to a bishop's mitre when viewed from the south 

more water, along the drive to Milford... 

Here is a waterfall we saw on the drive to Milford Sound..i slowed the camera shutter speed to get the 'flowing' effect... 

Here are the sheep up close  

Here is a shot of the Remarkables Mountain Range, next to Queenstown - they are quite impressive and were used in the Lord of the Rings movies...we had an encounter with them much more up close and personal as one of our 'adventure tours' see details above... 

Here are the sheep we encountered on the way to Milford Sound - they have many sheep in NZ! 

Here we are, about to board the last plane on the 'day from hell', to queenstown... 

Sunday February 20, 2005 - “The Day from Hell” – The Journey to Queenstown, New Zealand (“NZ”)

Well, it has been a few weeks since I updated you all on my comings and goings. So far things are going smashingly, as I write this in our villa near the beach, in Fiji. I am at the halfway point between when I left and when I arrive in Israel for Pesach, though not the halfway point of my travels, which won’t occur till early April.

Picking up where I last left off, we had a real saga getting to Queenstown. It was supposed to go easily. We were Sydney veterans after all. We had a lot of luggage (chiefly food since we wouldn’t be going to a Jewish area in NZ for the first two weeks of our sojourns) and we knew we would need to order a large taxi from a company called MaxiTaxi, which has enormous taxi mini vans which are called MaxiTaxis, and which must be specially ordered. So we ordered a MaxiTaxi the night before we were set to leave. We then checked the next morning to make sure that our MaxiTaxi was coming as ordered. So far no worries, as the aussies like to say. Well, imagine our surprise when the MaxiTaxi company, whose sole purpose in life is to supply people with hard to find MaxiTaxis, sends us an standard, no excess luggage taxi, smaller than what we would usually be able to hire right from the street in front of our hotel! As all this was occurring, I was about 5 minutes drive away at a nearby bakery, ‘Grandma Moses’ for those who have been to Sydney, buying our bread and pastries for the next week. Luckily, I called Lisa and Elliot and was aware of the situation. As I hung up the phone, I spotted a fairly large taxi (not a rare MaxiTaxi) pulling into the newsstand a few doors down from the bakery. I waited for a moment till the driver went and got his coffee and asked if he would like a fare to the airport. He was happy to oblige. In fact, it turns out that he was a retired Russian Jew who had lived for several years in the US and he loved Americans and especially new york (brighton beach and NJ if you could believe it!). Even more amazingly, unlike every other taxi driver in Sydney we had made use of till then, he did not have ‘back troubles’ though he was in his 60s and he helped us with loading our luggage very quickly into the taxi! We managed to get to the airport about 2 hours in advance, thinking our troubles for the day were over. Boy where we wrong! As we got to the check in area, we saw over 100 people waiting in the same line ahead of us. It turns out that we had a perfect storm – 3 flights at the same time leaving on the same airline (Air New Zealand) on a Sunday morning, which was bad enough. What made this the perfect storm was that the day before several flights to NZ had been cancelled because of a bad rain storm in Sydney the day before. SO every flight was full to bursting, to accommodate all of the passengers on the previous cancelled flights.

Here I will digress for a moment, to relate a weird connection we had to this very storm that caused all the backups at the airport. During our stay in Sydney, our hotel fronted onto Bondi Beach in Sydney, a very pretty surfing beach which is very well known in Australia and throughout the world, especially because its less than 5 miles from the downtown area, so you can surf or boogy board before and after work if you choose. We really enjoyed this hotel since our room had a spectacular ocean view, from the 5th floor of the hotel. Well, late on Shabbat afternoon, as I was fast asleep, the storm began. Apparently it was quite intense, but I have no clue because I sleep like a log. Literally. Perhaps an earthquake could wake me when I sleep, but not anything less intense. Anyways, Elliot was peering out the window at the beach, as we often did, and saw someone on the beach get struck by lighting! As Elliot relates the story, “immediately there were life guards on the scene, performing resuscitation efforts” and within minutes an ambulance arrived and took the poor fellow off to the hospital. We later learned that the lighting struck a 29 year old man who was in serious condition in the hospital. I sure hope everything has worked out for the best by now….


Getting back to the airport, I do have to give Air New Zealand credit for handling the enormous crowds. They were very efficient and managed to check in people as the time came close for a flight to board. But once we got checked in, our troubles really began. IT turns out that Australia, like the US and very few others countries in the world, makes you go through immigration as you leave the country, asking you similar questions as if you are just entering the country. There was a substantial line here as well. The problem was that our flight had already started boarding and we still hadn’t cleared security for our carry-on luggage, which can take awhile. Luckily, Air New Zealand came to the rescue again. They sent someone to ensure that we everyone on a pending flight ‘jumped’ to the head of the line. We managed to get to our flight with a few minutes to spare, but only just!

If you are still reading this, you would think, WHEH, finally we could RELAX. We are on FLIGHT NUMBER 9, from Sydney to Christchurch, we made the plane, no more worries.

Well, let me relate a few facts before I continue. New Zealand (NZ) is divided into two islands, North Island and South Island. North Island has most of the population, along with Auckland and the capital, Wellington. South Island has most of the natural beauty, as well as the sheep. Sheep, you ask? Yes, from what we were told, NZ has about 70 million sheep, and about 4 million people. That’s a hell of a lot of sheep as you can imagine, especially since most of them are on South Island. More on the sheep later though…

To continue with the travel day from hell, if you recall the title of this section, we were supposed to get to Queenstown that day, which is about a 1 hour flight, or a 6 hour drive from Christchurch – it’s the second largest city in the South Island. The airport in Queenstown is not large enough to handle most international flights, so if you want to go there you really have to fly via Christchurch. It’s a short flight of less than 1 hour, so no worries, right? Well, since Queenstown is a small airport, it closes at 5:30 PM. Our flight from Christchurch wasn’t scheduled to arrive till about 10 minutes before 3pm, and we were on the last flight to Queenstown, which was scheduled to leave at about 4pm. However, since we had such a full flight in Sydney, we arrived after 3pm. We had to wait awhile for our luggage, then we had to clear immigration. No problems so far, its 3:30 pm, we still have time to make our flight. But we still had to get through the most dreaded part, bio-security. What is bio-security you ask? Well, NZ like many countries tries to control the food and animal products entering the country, to keep themselves free from contaminants like hoof and mouth disease and whooping corn, or some such. We had gone through the same type of checks in Australia, which even sprayed our plane and all of our hand luggage after we landed. We were always worried about these folks because we were carrying food with us from Hawaii, not knowing what kosher food we would be able to find in places.

When we arrived in Sydney in fact, we filled out the forms, indicated we had some food, and when we went to the special food inspection line, I mentioned we were kosher and he saw my yarmulke and waived us through without any problems. I knew that NZ was much stricter than Australia though. People had told us horrors of having their kosher food confiscated. In fact, I checked out the NZ bio-security websites before my trip, and noticed that they deemed things such as SOY SAUCE AND HONEY as DANGEROUS ITEMS, SUBJECT TO INSPECTION and possible confiscation. So imagine what its like, that Sunday afternoon. You have less than 30 minutes to check in and get on your domestic flight, you are carrying a large quantity of kosher food and you have to get through dreaded bio-security, the toughest I have ever seen in the world in terms of things they are concerned about, and this is the last flight of the day that you can make, you have paid for your room at a hotel on the other side of the island because everywhere in town was sold out since this is peak season in Te Anou the place we were staying at that Sunday night (which is a 2 hour drive from Queenstown, by the way). Well, we had learned in Sydney, be honest and disclose that you have things on the list and let them ‘inspect them’. We indicated that we had some food, and that we had hiked in forest areas within the last 30 days. We started to show the inspector our perishable foods and he asked to see our boots, for the hiking. Well, this started to take awhile, its 3:45 now, and I was worried we wouldn’t have enough physical time to make our flight. I informed the inspector of the details of our flight and he allowed me to go ahead to hold the flight while my friends Lisa and Eliot continued to go through the inspection.

As I left the bio-security section, I was told to go to the ‘Air New Zealand Transfer Desk” which was right outside the bio-security area, and advise the personnel that we were late. As I get out of the bio-security quarantine area, I see the ‘Air New Zealand Transfer Desk`. However, its dark and no one is there. It’s now 3:50, less than 15 minutes from when our flight is SUPPOSED TO LEAVE! I then proceed to run through the airport like a madman, looking for domestic Air New Zealand check-in. After spending 2 minutes explaining my situation to someone from Air New Zealand, seemingly the right people, I am told that this is the International check-in area and I need domestic check-in. As I am about to blow a gasket, I finally find the proper folks, and as I have just run over there, I explain between huffing and puffing that that we are late because of biosecurity, and can they hold the flight for us. Luckily I managed to tell the supervisor, who said he would do what he could to hold the flight. I then look around and realize that Lisa and Elliot will never find the proper check-in area in time, so I run back for 2 minutes to the bio-security area to help them out. Imagine my amazement when I don’t even see them outside the area, and I am not allowed to enter that area because its only for arriving passengers. Luckily, as the door opens to that area each time a passenger leaves, I manage to spy lisa and elliot and shout to them to hurry up. I had to wait a few more minutes till they were allowed to exit ( it seems that the initial inspector left in the middle and someone else came over to finish up, delaying things of course, on a day when we had no extra time!)

Well, the nightmare continues. We are now racing over to the domestic area, after the time when the flight is supposed to leave, and one of the carts keeps falling over, so we have to, like laurel and hardy, race over with another cart and reload the luggage, as people in the airport are laughing at our antics. We finally get to the check-in area, and we are told that we need to check in most of our hand luggage, since the plane is a small 60 passenger propeller plane and our luggage won’t fit in the overheads! So here we are, almost without any luggage or food, but luckily the flight hadn’t left yet and we are told to relax, we can make the flight. We then go through security, go to the wrong gate up a flight of stairs because its not well labeled, and we hear our names called over the PA. We finally find the proper gate and the flight attendants seem to be aware of our saga, and again tell us to relax, we are fine, we will make the flight. We had to walk out onto the tarmac to board the plane, and I managed to snap off a shot of the plane, which you can see right below this blog posting.

So we finally get on the plane and begin laughing, since we have made our flight, we will get to the Queenstown airport before it closes, which means we can then pick up our car before the rental counter closes, and start driving to our hotel room in Te Anou. All is good, right? The day from hell must be over, we have survived all of the challenges. Well, little did we know what was in store for us, what we needed to pass through to allow us to complete the ‘travel day from hell’. We had a very nice flight, FLIGHT NUMBER 10. So far so good. Its still a sunny day, we get to see the beautiful southern alps, the chain of mountains that bisects South Island into two halves. We arrive at the terminal in Queenstown and spy the Remarkables, which are a spectacular mountain range right behind the airport. See the picture below for this view. We also had another experience with the Remarkables – more on that later also!

So we go to get our luggage and I go to pick up the car, as its now about 5:15 and the airport seems closed as of 5pm as all the staff seems to walk by us as we exit the aircraft. Anyways, I manage to get the car just in time before the fellow leaves, and I go to check on the baggage. As I go to that area, I notice a large crowd of people standing around, and very few bags in evidence. Whats going on? Well, it turns out that the propeller plane has a limit on how much weight it can carry and the much of the luggage was not loaded onto the flight because of the weight restrictions. Needless to say, as the last to check in, all of our luggage, including almost all of our usual carry-ons which had spare clothes and snack food for the plane, had not made it either, since we were the last to check in. Most folks had some of their luggage, but we had none. Also, we were not in the Queenstown area that night, but two hours away in Te Anou, where we needed to be so we could go on a cruise in an area known as the Milford Sound, which had also been pre-booked and paid for because it was during the busy season when things often sell out days in advance. Also, amongst our luggage was a good deal of perishable food that had made it through ‘bio-security’, but now it looked like we would lose it all because of the delays in getting our baggage.

Again, I have to commend the Air New Zealand staff. We impressed upon them our situation, and they claimed that our luggage was due to be flown to another regional airport within a few hours drive of Te Anou and they would try and have it driven to our hotel later than night. Since we didn’t know if this would really occur, we went shopping for some food and other items in case we needed to rough it for a day or two till our luggage arrived. Sure enough, to make a short story very long, we managed to drive to our hotel, check-in and within 2 hours of check-in the airline managed to get our luggage to us, thus saving the day in the end. If you have continued to read, you can imagine how we felt at that point, and then we went to bed, to arise early the next morning for our drive to Milford Sound. What a day! I guess we had to have at least one of these, no?