First South Island Experience

And so it was on December the sixteenth the days were accomplished, and Ralph was delivered from work unto a Holiday - our first trip to New Zealand's South Island. A bus to Wellington, the ferry to Picton, gateway city to the South Island; bus to Nelson - the sunniest city in New Zealand; rent a green car and drive west coast Hiway 6 (described as one of the most beautiful drives in the world by lonely planet), TranzAlpine railroad from Greymouth to Christchurch - fly back to base in Palmy.

And so it was.

It was also wet - too wet for pictures. In the sunniest town in New Zealand, rain 3 of 4 days. In Arthur's Pass, the alpine layover where we planned to spend 2 days to optimize weather - day one rain and winds to 110 km/hr; day 2 improved to rain and winds to 90 km/hr with Dept of Conservation (the tourism dept) saying it was unsafe to hike.

Still the place is awesome and obviously no one controls the weather--- anywhere---just explaining why there aren't more pics of the beautiful scenery which we got hints of through the mist.

One of the best days only started out in Nelson with rain briefly and bright sun as we got to AbelTasman National Park, one of the Kiwi's most visited National Parks. You must take ferries (aka "water taxis") to the bays and then kayak, hike, or just beach it in any of the areas. Things are, amusingly at times, different here - a Kiwi safety talk (loosely translated from memory) from the Sea Shuttle we took to Bark Bay:

"I am captain Mike. The law requires a safety talk so this is it. Life jackets are optional. On some boats the captain goes down with the ship. This is not one of those boats. If I put on a life jacket you might want to get one too. If you hear my splash, you might want to join me in the water. Any questions?"

The Abel Tasman was as strikingly colorful as described, hopefully I'll be able to post pictures of the color of the beaches, Split Apple Rock, and the trails at the edge of mountains and beach.

The TranzAlpine Train was not deterred by the local hurricane, here called the wet westerlies. And the sense of respect and awe for the countryside and those who settled/explored here has been deeply reinforced.

Merry Christmas (the Christmas tree was at the station in Wellington)

May peace, beauty and true warmth, warm your soul in every hemisphere and climate.

ralph and mary

? Christmas and seasonal thoughts

In the mid to upper 70 degrees F or 25 degrees C, and a very nice day. But the weekend off is coming and some bad weather is scheduled for our trip and we have canceled the kayaking. Still we plan to get to the south Island for the first time and check it out. I'm wearing shorts, sandals, and Mary said it's the first time she's seen me in full Florida wear since coming here.

Two days ago, 2 nurses not in work clothes, came in to the hospital A&E (that's Accident and Emergency) department and put up the first Christmas decorations; that I have seen in the hospital. About a 5 foot tall tree and some beads with bows overhead. One of the nurses asked if I would participate in the gift drawing on Christmas day where everyone working is to bring in a gift of about $10 (New Zealand) to be drawn. There are signs of Christmas --- it's different. The church we went to Sunday had no Christmas decor and I don't remember it being mentioned. The young docs I work with are going to a Christmas caroling on the square Christmas eve and planning a party. They are from the United Kingdom - most trained around London.

Will attempt to include pics of nurse decorating - taken out of focus (sorry with Iphone) and one of Mary's favorite pizza place (see posting 2 below).

Date Explanation

You might notice that the date shown for a posting and the one we refer to in the post are often off one day. That's because this computer thinks it is in Knoxville, TN. We are greeted every morning with Knoxville weather, time and news. And I don't want to change that----makes me less homesick.

December 13th

We've got a week long trip coming up Friday. Should have lots of pictures to post. Looking forward to kayaking in Abel Tasman National Park, riding the TranzAlpine Railway over the Southern Alps, riding the ferry from the North Island to the South, and hiking at Arthur's Pass among other things.

Visited a new church yesterday which we liked. Also met very friendly people there, as well as neighbors who live 2 houses down.

Ralph was off for the weekend and we stayed "home". Got to watch Tennessee defeat Pittsburgh in basketball which was great. Go Vols! Did a lot of shopping. I think that by the time our 6 months here is over I will just be learning how to live and shop here. Found a great store, Davis Traders, that has food ingredients not found elsewhere in NZ. And we found a pizza place that is closer to what we are used to back home. It's called Hell and the pizzas are named after the 7 deadly sins. We enjoyed Lust, a meat lovers pizza. You have to tell all pizza restaurants here to NOT put on BBQ sauce, which I find disgusting on something that's supposed to be Italian.

A typical block in most NZ towns will have several cafes (great food and coffee generally), a couple of takeaways (usually fish and chips or Chinese or both), and Kebab restaurants. The Kebabs are Middle Eastern type places . There's a choice of lamb, beef or chicken for the meat and various topping like at a Subway and 4 or 5 great sauces. They wrap it all up in pita bread and they are delicious. Reminds me somewhat of the gyros that our son Scott loves so much in Budapest. What you don't find in NZ are Mexican restaurants. We have seen just one and it was in Wellington and very high priced. Mexican type foods make it onto a few menus in trendy places, usually quesadillas or nachos. The grocery stores have flour tortillas but no corn tortillas, and a few sauces and that's it. I think it may be growing in popularity slowly. Also don't think I've seen a single Hispanic or African (American or otherwise) person. There are many ethnicities here but they are largely Asian or Polynesian or Middle Eastern. I think the country is 14% Maori, the indigenous people, and the main population is of European descent.

We're getting old hand at driving on the left now except for the occasional bout of what I call "driving vertigo". And that's when you come upon a complicated intersection that you weren't expecting and suddenly---who's got the right of way? where am I? Oh no, what lane am I supposed to be in? That's only happened to me a couple times, but it's pretty scary!

Different December

Maybe kiwis decorate later in the season, or maybe they don't decorate at all. I've seen one house decked out for Christmas in my walking. Department stores have the most. There is a large Christmas tree in the town square and there was a Christmas parade yesterday. Sharon and I spent 3 days in Wellington and the overall city decor was very low key. Plenty of TV commercials for Christmas gifts and flyers in the mail. People mostly seem to be concentrating on the fact that summer is finally here, the weather is beautiful, kids will be out of school soon for a long summer holiday. Lots of warnings about wearing sunscreen and hats as there is a big hole in the ozone layer over NZ, no pollution to block the sun, and the incidence of skin cancer is much higher here. Who knew there were good aspects to pollution?

Sharon and I enjoyed our time in Wellington, except for the early morning someone pulled the fire alarm in the hotel and we had to evacuate from our beds rather suddenly. We passed the time having breakfast in a nearby cafe, not particularly looking our best. :) Took Sharon to Weta Cave, the special effects company for Lord of the Rings, Avatar, King Kong, and many more. Also to the zoo, Mount Victoria and other Welly sites. Sharon thinks Wellington looks a bit like a very scaled down Hong Kong (also harbor city with mountains right at the sea).

It amazes me how many visitors I meet from non-English speaking countries who are so very fluent in English. Makes me wish I had studied a foreign language more intensely when I had the chance. Love hearing some of their stories in these brief encounters. We met a Dutch couple, early 20's, on the hike to the Bridge to Nowhere. They had done the Tongariro Alpine Crossing hike 2 days before. That hike is often touted as the world's most beautiful day hike and one we have considered. It's about 12 miles long one way and transport must be arranged at both ends. It's also extremely difficult with lots of elevation changes, including crossing Mt. Doom from "Lord of the Rings". The Dutch girl (who spoke English perfectly) pretty much talked me out of it. She was hiking that day in flip flops because of the blisters earned on the Alpine crossing, and wasn't yet over the terror of the hike. Hey, Ralph and I have bad knees too. :)

Sharon and I met a Finnish student on the bus in Wellington who was traveling with a Finnish family for 5 weeks all over NZ as their babysitter. She was having a rare day off. Also spoke like a native of an English speaking country. And then we met a Polish woman while walking to Weta Cave from the bus stop who has lived in NZ for 65 years. She was taken in by NZ as part of a boatload of orphans shipped out of Poland during/after World War II. She arrived with some siblings and they finished their childhood in an orphanage. Would love to have heard her whole story.

Trying to learn to live with open windows without screens on them! Very few homes, hotels and public buildings are air conditioned here. Can't figure out why they don't put screens on windows, but they don't. Don't like insects hopping around in my house. Oh well. It's either that or suffocate. We have seen birds flying around in a restaurant and no one seeming to care or notice but us. Cities and buildings are very clean, in case you are wondering, except for this little aberration.

Sharing with Sharon / Going to Nowhere

We are one third of the way through our contract here and have made contact with fellow American sojourners and done our first bit of entertaining this past week. We shared the river walk, Victoria Esplanade and the rose garden there with Sharon Tang. Remembered/realized that she is now the age we were when she came to live with us and our 4 children (wow).

Then we went to Wanganui River National Park, driving for many kilometers or kilometres (depending on your accent) then jet boating for about an hour, then hiking --- all to get to "The Bridge to Nowhere." We were there. The bridge was built in the late 1930's as the population was declining; but informed politicians knew if they built the bridge people would return --- and now many tourists do go. And there is no longer a road to the bridge, just a hiking trail.

Our mascot, guide leader on the front of the boat was Tui, a Jack Russell Terrier who road on the boats and hiked about 2 hours with us - quite the creature. Reminding us of creatures at a distance ----