Homeward Bound

On our homeword bound journey we had a full 55 minutes to kill.

And so we headed into the old college which has no been transformed into an arts center/gallery with little restaurants tucked in the gorgeous old buildings as well.

The inner courtyards were particularly soothing and very charming. We happened through no fault of our own to be in the city during the Buskers festival. we unfortunately had no time for Buskerers and saw no Busking. There was a tent set up in the middle of the courtyard and it did look like alot of fun but alas it was not to be.

In what seemed like a prudent move at the time Jay and Regina decided not to fly from Christchurch to Auckland to LA to Denver. and decided to take a 30 hour lay over to allow them a quick drive up north. The color of this is hard to describe much less convey over a blog, but imagine if you fed a new born baby corn and pickles for a week.
This car had a supercharged engine, 18" alloy wheels, a unique pickles and corn color, and a country that has a top speed of 62 MPH. How I wish that the speed limit was higher so I could have put my foot down and seen what this car could do, but the law is the law and I never speed ;) Regina was good enough to put on some rockin' music for our leisurely drive north from Auckland. I swear I never went over 60, but maybe I was looking at the Tachometer?

Well worth the drive is the Waipoua Park that is the dwelling place for the Maori Cosmology story of the beginnings of the earth. Indeed the oral history of the Maori tell of the first great seaman who travelled from the home land of Hawiki to the inlet river not far from here, a scant couple hundred years before the Europeans discovered the new world.

I think this gives some pretty good scale to the size of these massive Kauri trees, I'm probably 20 meters or so from the tree. The girth of this the 'father of the forest' is 16m, and sprouted about the time of Christs Birth.

Regina and Jay were both quite taken with the ancient lush forest and the startlingly huge treese that were not near each other. A 10-20 minute walk would suddenly round some foliage and a giant would suddenly supplant the peace of the forest with the grandeur of the ancient. Very glad we made this stop.

On our way from the west coast to the east for the drive by of the Bay of Islands Jay spotted this little gem set back from the road. Regina made a point of photographing the most beautiful churches, and this is maybe the best of the lot.

Here is a little glimpse of the countryside near the ocean up north of Auckland, a striking difference to the south island, Jay and Regina both wished we had more time to spend here. I guess we'll just have to go back.


Good bye to Auckland, New Zealand, summer, and our much needed soul mending break. We are already picking out our locations for the next time we are fortunate enough to make it to New Zealand. Then again this might be the trip of a lifetime and we're glad to be alive.

Queenstown & Arthur's Pass

With the striking scenery, dashing damsel and brilliant looking beard you might mistake this photo for a scene in the Two Towers. Indeed this area is where Gandalf was photographed for his promotional stills, and was depicted as the trail to Helms Deep. Specifically just behind us is where Legolas miraculously mounted Gimili's horse after shooting Wargs. After taking this brief photo we jumped back into our Helictopter! We were then whisked back towards the airport flying over Queenstown. We had tried to land on the top of the mountains of Mordor, the Remarkables, but gusting winds forced our retreat to this lower landing. Both Regina and Jay's first time in a helicopter, and very memorable! Thanks for this Christmas present!
This view shows the incredible cloud patterns and weather movement of the 'high' country . We are riding the chair lift to the 'Luge' after riding the Gondola to the top of Bob's Peak. The Luge was Regina's favorite activity in Queenstown, however there were slim pickings: 60 Mph Jet boat ride with 360 turns, 2.5 hour horse trek, LOTR helicopter ride.

A view from the gondola as we ride down. The gondola rises 1200 meters vertically at an average angle of 39 degrees, very very steep and impressive to ride. The Remarkables are in the background where we tried to land on the far left ridge before retreating to the lower hill in the foreground.
In Queenstown we also took a trail ride that followed a creek through a canyon and then turned back to follow the ridge back to the stables. This brief instant is when we may or may not have had actuall control of the horses during our 2.5 hour ride. The scenery here was very stark and very beautiful, a little on the hot side it was a nice feeling when crossing the stream (we must have done this over 20 times) and the horses ahead and behind would splash water on us. A bit of an adventure: one of the other "experienced riders" took a tumble when 'cantering' on the way back. The guide leading us inexperienced green horns took off to check on the lady (she was fine, with not harm done to her Mercedes Benz brand sunglasses and matching water bottle) Jay took this smile of fate and tried to get his own horse 'Sid' to a canter. Sid wasn't having it though having just hauled 90% of his body weight around the hills and had had quite enough work for one day. Jay did succeed in getting Sid to trot for about 30ft. Jay didn't consider this a defeat, it was definitely a tie. The guide mentioned that Jay made their biggest horse look small.
With the sunsetting on our Queenstown adventures we headed up the Crown Ridge Road (The highest paved road in NZ) on our way out of town. We are headed back to Christchurch, via the scenic route to fly back to Auckland and ultimately back to our cover identities as business owners in Colorado.

This sign on the inn (used as the inspiration for the Prancing Pony) just made sense as we drove past.

'Speights' The beer of Rugby players. Regina had a sip and had high praise for its bouquet of rich barley and hops with a strong medium flavor and a smooth finish. She commented "it's nice, we could have been drinking this the whole time." Jay thought it unwise to spoil the moment with the common Rugby terms revolving around Speights. "Getting Pissed, Piss-up, and Shit-Fight, came readily to mind but Jay thought "why can't this beer be all things to all people?"

Here is a photo of the now most wanted thief on Interpol's most wanted list. Jay and Regina always keep a wary eye out for the forces of darkness that would prey on the blissfully ignorant and naieve international traveller. However, this local was a born natural with a real talent for deceit and betrayal. The heist began with a darling touristic photo op of the perpetrator in the trees. Regina and Jay were lulled into a sense of awe and wonder at this most beautiful native, the furthest thing from minds was the sense of danger that should have presented itself. Our little friend then started to lull Regina and Jay into a sense of amusement as he came closer and comically ate a cracker that Jay gave him after a loud 'awwwkkk'. Little did they know this was just the cold calculated movements of a real professional.

As soon as the novelty of the feathery visitor wore off, the game was afoot. The kea first feigned fatigue and moved to the creek for a sip of water returning nonchalantly to the campervan and displaying the "i am so cute, would you happen to have any other snacks in there" act, morosely pecking at the crumbs of the first cracker. By this time Regina had busied herself organizing the front of the campervan and Jay was reluctant to dole out any of the heavily rationed lemon crisps. The kea then wandered back down to the water and pulled the "pitiful" card by lifting out old scraps of food left in the creek by previous campers.
Suddenly the wind seemed to shift and Jay realized something was not right. The kea had been spending too much time by the creek and Jay decided to investigate. The awful truth struck home when Jay discovered one of the waterbottles that had been placed in the creek to cool after boiling drinking water had been pecked through. But the nightmare had only begun. With an outtcry of disbelief Jay alerted Regina to the predator in their midst. It was, of course, too late. The bait had been too finely laid and the trap had been sprung. In half horror and half amusement, Jay watched as the kea disembarked the back of the campervan with the entire tub of canola-oil softened margarine table spread gripped firmly in his curved-fruit-eating-forager beak. Regina was just in time to see the kea loping across the campsite because the weight of the butter tub denied the crook a clean flying get away. The kea had set its sights high and scored big. Awkwardly, yet expertly, he disappeared across the creek, over some logs and into the underbrush, gone forever. Jay and Regina opted not form a possee to attempt a recovery as they were both stunned and surprised into paralysis. Paralysis gave way to tears of laughter, the tears stung when the realization of their betrayal took hold and finally turned to the bitter taste of ashes in their mouths. That dinner of noodles, corn and black beans could have used more butter.
Talking to locals in a cafe the next morning they were consoled. After telling our story to the lady behind the counter she said "Oh, cheeky Keas. I've seen one unzip an entirebackpack with it's beak!" Another lady came out of the back to say, "Are you talking about keas? They are so cheeky!" We learned that this type of bird is apparently the most intelligent creature in the entire animal kingdom per brain size. This information would have been useful to us YESTERDAY.

On our way through Arthur's Pass going to Christchurch we saw some unique Kiwi engineering as exhibited in this photograph.

Fiordlands and Queenstown (Adventure Capital of the World)

regina again. jay is so very good at writing but has a hard time sitting still unless playing a game that involves shooting and winning.

i, however, am committed to the task of sharing our travels with those we love, as well as our enemies, while jay saves the world.

in the little town of Omaru on the East Coast they have a colony of Blue Penguins- the smallest type of penguin in the world. volunteers protect these little birds from all predators. they poison rats, trap cats, shoot possums. they have built more than enough little box homes under mounds of dirt for all the pairs of penguins so they don't squabble over them. they put rocks on the roofs of their houses so when the mates get in a "row" (rhymes with cow) in their box, which apparently happens often, they won't knock they lid off their home exposing themselves to the bright light they don't like. but the volunteers do not interfer when they are sick. they said, oh no- we don't interfer in the natural process! that made me kind of chuckle. but anyway, here's a little yellow-eyed penguin up the road. these guys are on their own. and very fuzzy!!

this little tiny town (omaru) also had one of the most gorgeous public gardens. i am so happy here. the sun sets about 10:30pm, it is warm but not too muggy, it's quiet and there are gardens everywhere!!

we stopped for a few hours in Dunedin-the 2nd largest city on the South Island. Gorgeous Botanic Garden (of course), an eight-sided town square (interesting! how do you figure?), huge old imposing Victorian and Gothic-style buildings. We found a pub and drank Montieth beer (the Ragler is my new favorite!) and watched a soccer game for a while. Then back on the road! Jay really likes to make tracks!Along the coast we stopped to see the famed Moeraki Boulders. I can't remember how they got that way but it has to do with millions of years & water. But guess what- I took some photographs of them! Jay liked this one best for the blog:
Perhaps the most unbelievably spectacular and awe-inspiring things i've ever seen or done was the drive through the Fiordlands and down to Milford Sound. These images do not come close to doing it justice. It took our breaths away and we drove in silence (mostly) for what felt like hours, although LOTS of parking and getting in and out for a better look and better shots. It was a very soggy drive and had a difficult time shooting up at the fiords as the lenses got soaked. I used the fish eye lens primarily just to try to get it all in. this little parrot greeted us as soon as we got out of the car. he didn't like strawberries as much as he liked cereal. well- that's what i heard!
here we are all the way down at Milford Sound. good think jay has such long arms!! otherwise my head would always look huge. also good to do these shots with the fish eye so some of the background gets in the shot! we drove out at sunset- about 9:45pmour heli ride!! jay will have lots to say about it! he was very excited! we both also super loved the jet boat ride we had down the shotover river, but no photos as i was holding on for dear life. these kiwis are totally crazy.
view of queensland from above!

After 2 such exciting rides Jay's tummy was a bit confused so we decided to get a couple beers and then take in a movie to give it a chance to re-orient. Regina's opinion of National Treasure 2 = Zero. Regina's opinion of new Alien vs. Predator movie (saw in Sydney with a stubborn Joshy) = -16. Regina's opinion of Stranger Than Fiction (saw back at home many months ago) = 10/10.

Queenstown, New Zealand- by regina

After reading jay's contribution to the blog i decided to stop writing entirely as my narrations are so totally blah & perfunctory compared to his eloquent, informational & witty pieces. For example, i say: had fish & chips for $14.50 somewhere in NZ while jay gives the route to which we arrived at that spot on the map, the history of fish & chips as well as the unique method to preparing fish & chips at the place where we got them in addition to some interesting facts & descriptions of the town we were in. As usual, he is better than me at writing, along with almost everything else. i.e. skipping stones, learning foreign languages, using & understanding a gps/computer/car/phone/anything with cables or words or diagrams. For my birthday present i asked Jay to write about why he likes me because i feel so dumb and awkward compared to him. The only thing i can really think of is that i jump around a lot saying "look at me, Jay!" and that seems to make him laugh. anyhow, i just sent off a really quick email to my mother that i thought i may as well post since jay is otherwise engaged in a video game next to me here at the internet cafe in queenstown and unlikely to break for blogging.

btw: i will add photos to these blogs as soon as we can get the laptop online succesfully- or i haul in my little external with all the thousands of images we've taken on this trip.

we totally forgot it was my birthday on my birthday! i was very very sad. so jay suggested that we could make all the rest of the trip my birthday which after long & deep consideration i agreed to (about 2.5 seconds). that made me very very happy! but really, this whole trip has felt like my birthday, so i am coming home chubby, happy & with lots and lots of photos of flowers!! luckily i am starting a juice fast and dedicated exercise regimine the day after we get home!

I am dying to show all the images i've been shooting in the botanic gardens throughout australia and new zealand. My mother is an avid lover of roses but it took a trip to new zealand for me to finally find an appreciation & love for them! maybe not growing them as they are high maintenance and prick you a lot, but i sure love photographing them!!

Only a few days left- we are trying to make the most of them! We blew our wad today in Queenstown on a helicopter ride up to the cliffs of Mordor, a jet boat ride which was ridiculously crazy & horse trek and gondola ride tomorrow! I think jay is in heaven after a day like today. It makes me so happy. I've really enjoyed the time just to be quiet, to drink a beer and watch a soccer match (australian-style, much more exciting!), to wander through parks, to drive in contented silence, just comfortable being. i knew i was keyed up- really wound tight after the last few years of non-stop something or other. i definitely needed a good long month to remember how to be still and quiet. a few days ago we sat alongside a river and skipped stones for over an hour. jay was like a little boy, just laughing as his bounced all the way across the entire river and mine sunk "kerplunk" the second they touched the water. i liked the way he laughed so much that i continued trying in spite of my frustration at being so incompetant. and eventually a few of my rocks actually skipped- a very little bit. i wish we had more quiet times like that in our life. it is just too hectic. i wish i could make everything with cables & cords disappear from my life. ah well. we'll be back at it in a week or so, but hopefully more clear & reinvigorated. i've been reading "champagne for the soul" by mike mason outloud a chapter a day in the campervan and discussing. very good. very challenging. definitely feeling like i'm missing the point most of the time and focused on the wrong things. perhaps during my juice fast i will hear God more clearly as well as look better in the most popular oufit of the season: belted sweater dress over stirrup pants- without the stirrup part. people here seem to wear what's in fashion with absolutely no regard for how it will suit their body. unbelievable. and people think i dress weird. at least i'm not silly enough to try to squeeze myself into what only looks good on a 6'2" 110lb girl! but i guess we're all silly in our own silly ways.

will add photos later of campervan, the unbelievable Fiordlands, Milford Sound, baby penguins, and most likely more flowers. because shooting is what i am good at. but only compared to some.

Mt Cook to The Coast (by regina)

Everyone wants a shot of the campervan so here it is! So cute! I love it! It's worked so well and totally reminds me of the brown van Av had rigged up for camping trips when Daniel & I were little. When we finally picked it up in Christchurch it was like my whole body & heart sighed with relief and thought, ok, now the vacation begins. Out of the cities, out of the hotels and onto the back roads, into the hills, into the supermarkets and porta potties! Definitely much more my speed.In the little coastal town of Akaroa we found some cool old French cemetaries and snapped some images before breakfast! This lens fits jay so much better than me. This was one of my favorite spots on the trip. These are the Tasman Glaciers in the Aoraki Mt. Cook National Park. Stunning and totally awesome (as in grand, not rad). I loved hiking out here. Amazing strong breezes, a light misting, gorgeous rocks and breathtaking views on every side. And look at this big strong mountain man i came across along the way!! i lured him into my campervan with gummy worms and earl grey tea, promised to travel the world with him and keep everything sorted, convinced him to carry the camera equipment and make me peanut butter & honey sandwiches! if you ask him lots of questions you'll learn more than you thought existed about space, physics, science, history, mechanics and other complicated things. also he uses many big words.
and i take cool photos.

I am also allergic to the south island. "chemists" are not open on the weekend, only holistic herbal stores. so we bought the least expensive $40 "havfever" box because i could not stop sneezing and could barely see my eyes were so itchy. surprise: the herbs did not help. Jay was not surprised. He said, "OK, Regina, are you ready for it? Are you? Homeopathic remedies don't do shit. You need real drugs." So on Monday morning we got drugs and I've felt right as rain since. (But I'm sure all those herbs were helpful for my body in many ways. Just not $40 sure.)

Christchurch, NZ

Our first day in Christchurch and we went directly to the world renowned Botanic Gardens. Regina was like a moth to a flame (or a moth to a campervan light). With many, many beautiful pictures to show for the approx 8 hours we spent in the gardens over 2 days.

But the gardens are not all flowers and fun, there were many locals who heckeled us all through the park. Putting up with the constant barage of tourist trappings is a small price to pay for these free gardens. Truly a sense of the peaceful here.

Regina looking like the most beautiful moth :)

Here is the church for which Christchurch was named. We unfortunately had to trade the gardens for the choirs that sing here every night, but the exterior is amazing enough. The chap on the statue is a founder of Christchurch. Apparently there was another key figure in the founding of Christchurch, but unfortuntely he traded his statue for a heiress kidnapping escapade. We only needed on statue for this shot anyways.

Here is a picture of the entrance to the gardens. The background building is an old college building. Many of the beautiful victorian and gothic stone buildings in the city used to be schools, that the were outgrown. All the shools moved out to the suburubs and, they are now arts centers etc...
The number 3 thing to do in the guidebook was a bit of punting. Punting is a verb, to which you apply to the punt, a noun. We however saw an adjective that rhymed with mooring, and decided on taking out a kayak.

A Kayak?
Ever been in one? Jay had once.
Need any life jackets? "Ta" (another of our favorite aussiei/kiwi-isms, its meaning is unclear, pretty sure it's used out of context here but the word has something to do with politeness and leaving)
Doubling the weight limits of a oversized two liter bottle? No problem
Rowing up river? We live in Colorado, we're practically bred on these things.

No real trouble ensued just wet knees and a half wet T-shirt for Jay and the real adventure of punting (extreme kayaking) on the Avon was ours.

Did we mention that the river was basically a pond and never more than knee deep? But very beautiful and peaceful.

Jay does his best to look like a confident pro of many kayaking adventures. Notice the wet knees, the half wet t-Shirt would come later when Jay decided you could simply paddle hard enough on one side of the kayak to straighten her out. This kayak was very smooth but did not want to turn. In the end Jay always reverted to the rudder technique. Hence the wet knees as the paddle wasn't quite big enough to rudder and the other end always dripped on our knees.


We ended the day at "The Holy Grail" a huge pub that had a movie theater sized screen designed for showing rugby. We could tell it was only designed for rugby games because it was showing golf and nobody was looking at it. I don't know if we'll get enough fish and chips on this trip, but we had better start eating better or we won't fit on the plane ride home!

begonias

i can't resist. have to share a few of these images. there's about 1000 more! but how can one resist when they have a whole greenhouse full of these lovely specimens smiling up at me??

The Banks Penninsula, New Zealand

The Banks penninsula is only 20km away as the crow flies, but is about an hour and a half drive as the kiwi flies with many ups and downs and twists and turns. I'm beginning to think that the road engineers know how much tourists like taking pictures and purposefully curve the road in every direction, multiple times, to make sure that anybody taking pictures out of the passenger window gets many chances for a full 360 view of the landscape. Coupled with the tiny engines in all the cars, rocketing us uphill at around 40km/hr, and it's a "full-on" (check later post for Aussie/Kiwi 'isms' we've had a great time colleting them) consipracy theory. Not going anywhere very fast and plenty of time to take pictures of it all. I think I read somewhere that tourism makes up to 40% of the economy in some areas of the South Island.

Our large campervan is the new accomodation for the rest of the time on the south island. It is a the 'economy model' with a double bed, grill, heater, and keyhole. All 4 cylinders make going uphill like a 4th grade school play: Lots of enthusiam at the start, lots of encouragement needed in the middle, some swerving and swaying from the original path, and thunderous applause at the end because it's over. We do love it though, and sleeping at night, with all the curtains drawn and the beds made up, reminds me of the forts we used to make out of blankets and pillows when I was in 4th grade. Mostly it was high time we got out of the cities and into the best parts that new zealand has to offer.



On our first day in the campervan we drove through Lyttelton harbor where the ships originally landed for the new pioneers, it is now a quaint harbor town with a large shipping dock full of containers and lumber. We took a quck picture of the 'Time Station'. Similar to a lighthouse in size, it was also used nautically.A large ball would be dropped from a tower at 1pm everyday and took 5 seconds to get to the bottom crew could test the ships chronometers to make sure they were accurate for lattitudinal navigation. I guess my new handheld GPS (birthday present :) takes the place of the tower/ball, ships navigator and the chronometer.

Regina's response to the GPS navigation was one question "How does it know?" She was of course sorry she asked because Jay immediately started explaining the velocity/angle requirements needed to launch an orbiting satellite far enough away from the planet that it can maintain a geo-synchronous (freefall velocity equal to the acceleration caused by the mass of the earth) orbit. The explanation went downhill from there.



A quick stop was then made at what turned out to be a private garden which was only open until 4pm, we arrived at 5:10. There being no signs we started to walk around until we were found by the owners ferocious toy schnauser. The wife was quite accomodating to us being after hours, the husband less then polite. He was really quite grumpy we were there at all and let us know before walking away. His wife then said, "well since you're here you might as well have a look around" and took our money and gave us the pamphlets. The husband then came back out and was then really crabby because his wife had taken our money and told us that this was a private residence couldn't believe that we had arrived after hours and said that since his wife had taken our money we should have a quick look and be off, because this was a private residence.



Some favorite responses we wished we had made:

"Your sign says open."

"I will tie you in a knot"

"How can we be quick in such a beautiful garden?"

"Go be crabby with your wife, I hope she gives you the back of her hand"



What we did say was "Sorry for the intrusion. We'll take a quick look and leave"

Regina pulled out the second camera and holding one vertically and one horizontally took 300 pictures in 7 minutes and we were off. Without Regina's incredible photographic talent there was little chance of leaving the situation without Jay, Toy Schnauser, Husband, or prized Plum tree getting seriously hurt.



I have been to NZ once before and the scenery is coming back to me and feels familiar; around every turn there is a new postcard-esque picture to be taken and there are lots and lots of turns! Regina is caught up in taking pictures of the scenery and I hope it sticks because last time I seem to remember we kinda've abandoned stopping the camper for every great picture because we weren't getting anywhere. The best part of the country is still to come and we are heading to the sceneic highway and into the mountains.

Auckland, New Zealand

jan 6: We had an early flight out of Brisbane to Auckland, New Zealand (north island). There is a 3 hour time difference so we arrived in the evening. We checked into the City Garden Lodge hostel- so fun! Very bohemian! Big kitchen where everyone makes their own meals, big sitting rooms- in & out, people from all over the world. Here's a picture of our TINY room!

We walked a few blocks down to Historic Parnell Street- very victorian- bricked walks, lots of hanging tropical plants, adorable little boutiques, cafes, & restaurants all nestled in together.

We had a lovely Indian dinner sitting on the little back deck. The air smelled like flowers & Indian spices.jan7: Lazy breakfast at the posh Verve Cafe- i had vanilla pancakes & chai latte- decadent! We took the city bus into the Victoria Park shops and then walked through Albert Park near the university and people-watched. Long nap back at the hostel. (Did I mention that I came down with something somewhere along the way and by the time we met up with Joshy & Steph I had lost my voice?? I've been whispering/squeeking ever since. Almost through a bottle of Robitussin-which I still HATE- but trying to avoid pneumonia!) Anyhow, we went out for a late sushi dinner and a long evening walk down to the Rose Gardens and the loading docks.

jan 8: Woke up this morning and it was raining. Sounded so refreshing. They day was overcast and lightly sprinkling. Pure perfection. My favorite type of day. We picked up fresh fruit from a corner market for breakfast and walked back down the the Rose Gardens. I photographed for a couple hours with a 100mm macro lens manually focusing on rose petals until I could barely see straight. For those rose lovers out there- I am coming back with HEAPS of gorgeous images! Here's just a sample!

To get out of the rain we had a little lunch at the Mink Cafe- ginger beer has become a favorite for Jay!

We walked through the Auckland Domain (an extinct volcano!)

and a hurried back to catch our shuttle to the aiport. We flew into Christchurch (south island) tonight and checked into the Windsor Hotel.

The lady who checked us in toured us all over! Tea & coffee station, breakfast dinning room (7-8:30am! ugh. no way), sitting room with computer, shared showers/toilets, closet full of robes & towels, luggage lift (!)- no elevators, but a a lift for the bags! So fun! She showed us around our room, mapped out all the "popular" attractions and told us that tea time was from 9-10pm. A new experience and very amusing! Walked out to the Cathedral Square just in time to here the Christchurch Cathedral bells ringing. Sigh. Very romantic. Made me think of Oxford. We got fish & chips & beer at a local pub.

I am super excited to hop the trolley tomorrow and photograph all the gorgeous old churches and the world-renowned Christchurch Botanic Gardens!!