Mary's point of view......

Queenstown is almost too pretty to be real. We flew into Queenstown for our Otago bike trip and out of Dunedin to go back home to Palmerston North. Dunedin is also gorgeous. It reminded me a little of San Francisco in that it is a seaside hilly city. Wish we could have had more time to enjoy it and the Victorian architecture.

I had myself in a dither before we left for the biking trip because the instructions said to bring "torches" for the tunnels we would pass through. Now, we've had several train trips here and have passed through mountain tunnels on said trains that were 8 kilometers long. Turns out that there were only 3 tunnels on the biking portion and the longest was about 250 meters. You could see the light at the end of the tunnel on 2 out of the 3. Still made me claustrophobic, but not the stuff of nightmares.

Really did enjoy the biking despite my sprained thumb and Ralph's inability to keep up with the vigorous pace I set! :) Scenery was breathtaking most of the time. The population in Otago is very sparse. We would periodically pass through towns about every 10 kilometers that boasted populations of 800 or less. Sheep on the trail outnumber people by (made up statistic here!) 1000 to 1. That's probably true in all of NZ also. The folks we met were hospitable and kind. I asked one of our hosts about schools for the kids. In his town of Middlemarch, there are 54 children in the one school building, ages 5 to 13. And they also come from the surrounding towns. After 13, kids either have to go to "college" (high school) by bus a few hours away or off to boarding school. He gave us the impression that most go to boarding school. Weather in central Otago tends to be extreme for geographical reasons---they have the coldest NZ temps in winter (accompanied by lots of snow) and the hottest ones in summer. Guess that makes long bus rides to school a less popular option also.

We passed a post on our bike ride that marked the 45 degree latitude line. That meant we were equi-distant from the equator and the South Pole. Another sign that we are a loooong way from home!

From the end of our bike ride we took the Taieri Gorge Railway to Dunedin. They bill it as the 4th most spectacular train ride in the world. Don't know if it is, but it was certainly stunning. From The Lonely Planet, "With narrow tunnels, deep gorges, winding tracks, rugged canyons and more than a dozen stone and wrought-iron viaduct crossings (up to 50 m high), the scenie Taieri Gorge Railway ...". I'll try and attach a picture Ralph took out the window of the train, but doesn't do it justice!

One delightful thing about flying in NZ is the total lack of security at airports. Well, they do have it at the big ones like Auckland, etc. but flying domestically is a breeze. You just show up 20 minutes before your flight, 30 if you have luggage to check, and walk right on the plane! In Palmerston North we live about a 5 minute drive from the airport, so that makes it even better.

In other news, I've started volunteering in a church thrift store and enjoying it very much.

Otago Central Rail Trail WE did it!!!

Four days, 150 kilometers (or kilometres), luggage transport, meals, lodging and weather - it all came together and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Mary also survived it.

Cycle Surgery provided fat tyre knobby mountain bikes with shocks and panniers. They also took our regular luggage from one stop to the next while we were riding.

Mary did catch a pannier at a gated bridge crossing that caused a bit of a fall on day one. It caused a bit more caution at similar crossings and bravely she pressed on, with minimal medical attention. Preferring recumbent cycling myself, it was necessary for me to surgically remove my underwear at the end of each day's ride. Day one 32 km, day two 34, day three 34 and day four 50 km or thereabouts. The only real low was toward the end of day two after long slow uphill grade it was tiring, Mary was struggling and we were passed by two turtles and a snail. It wouldn't have been so bad if they hadn't turned around and waved as they went by. These were the only real lows.

The food was usually at or near the place we stayed and the cooks were good, with one exception. At the Omakau Commercial Hotel, no cook, must have been a real chef. I had pork tenderloin stuffed with onion jam wrapped in bacon with au jus over fresh vegetables --- outstanding.

The weather was cool to fine. One evening at Oturehua, our host started a wood fire in the stove which added to a very pleasing atmosphere at his place (picture with Mary and rather relaxed dog, named Dillon).

The scenery - mountains, bridges, rivers, tunnels, birds, sheep, bees (honey hives), friendly people, blue sky --- well, it's why we came. No picture captures it - only hints at it.

The escapism, relaxing, calming, mind mellowing, exhausting pleasantness --- well, it's why I did it. Ride your self powered bike by a field of bleating sheep in a green pasture, ride under a bright blue sky, head towards mountains that touch the slow moving clouds; in a scene where everything seems momentarily special; and maybe created just for this moment to be as it is. Know how special the moment and the experience are.

At the end lay down and rest on a picnic table. Just that tired.
So it was.

Another New Favorite City (NZ ?Favourite?)

Just a few days ago we made it to a city in the central South Island. It is on the edge of a LARGE (in length, width and depth - quantities likely to be known by other blog coauthor) lake. The city so beautiful and grand-- "tis fit for a queen" - Queenstown. Population not too large - maybe 8,000 with about that many tourists on any given day. Surrounded by mountains - it seems surreal. Good food, relaxed pace but the adrenalin crowd comes here for skiing, bungee, white water etc. The real South Islanders, it seems, take exception to the changes the tourists have brought and say with its sky high prices and glitz "it's not the real New Zealand." But there's a reason the rest of the world likes it here --- and so do I!

Marching into the New Year

We're enjoying sunny days in the 70's here and not missing all that cold weather and snow back home! Well, maybe a little. I love snow at Christmas. Ralph is in the middle of working 9 days straight, a result of trading around for time off. They've been very short staffed at the hospital, but have another American that just started work this week and a doc that's been on maternity leave coming back soon. This is prime time for vacations here, as the kids are out of school until Feb. 1st for summer break.

We leave Wednesday morning for a 6 day trip to Otago on the South Island. We're going to be bike riding the Otago Central Rail Trail, flying in to Queenstown and back home from Dunedin. This rail trail is reported to be not too hilly (please God, let it be so!), passes through breathtaking scenery and is 150 km long (90 miles). It will take 4 days of riding. We've been riding bikes locally trying to condition the body for the ride. We are both very excited about this trip and feel like we're due a break on the weather when we travel. Stay tuned for how that turns out. :)

Thanks to everyone who sent birthday greetings. It was fun to stretch it out to 2 days with the time differences! We got a boatload of Christmas cards on my birthday, January 11th. They had been mailed between Dec. 9th and Dec. 22 and all came at the same time. This whole country shuts down over the holidays. Most businesses were closed from Dec. 24 to January 5th. In an 11 day time period, the mail was delivered 4 days only.

Last month we discovered a church that we like very much and have visited there 4 or 5 times. People are friendly and God's presence is strongly felt.

While Ralph has been slaving away at the hospital, I've been working on our taxes and getting myself worked up over all the complications this year from our situation. Foreign tax credit, anyone? And I really got churning when I started reading more about NZ taxes, so much so that I had an appointment yesterday with a tax accountant. Their tax year is a fiscal one, ending March 31st. I needed Tylenol when I left his office, a product not sold in New Zealand by the way. :) It's going to be messy and expensive, but the accountant will be a big help.

Where ever you go there you - age

As we enjoyed a recent evening walk, we came upon a sign. Only with much effort was I able to reassure Mary that this was not placed in honor of the impending (3 days till 1.11.11) anniversary of her birth.

Are the Kiwi's agist?

There is very much a youth oriented culture here.

Family

And for one week there were three Kensells in New Zealand. Not quite like 1979 to 1982; though the "family" was the same (before the rest of the family became), the place and the people are now different. I worked while they toured but it was good to be with my ladies, before they left and after they returned. We walked the town and the river walk; had good meals at "home" (home - where you and your family live and are together).

Kelly in New Zealand!

Kelly left snowy Chicago on the 25th of December and arrived here the 27th. She and I flew to Christchurch the next day for a 4 day sightseeing trip ( Ralph had to work). Between the time Ralph and I left Christchurch on the 23rd and my arrival back there with Kelly on the 28th, Christchurch experienced another aftershock earthquake of over 4.0 on the 26th. The really big one was Sept. 4th when the city was rocked by a 7.1 magnitude, greater than Haiti's, but what a difference good building codes make---no loss of life. Anyway, lots of buildings were fenced off downtown for inspection or awaiting repairs. Some were that way from the September quake and others from the one on the 26th. Shopkeepers who were open were busy putting merchandise back on the shelves from the floor and sweeping up plaster, etc. The day after we left, Christchurch had yet another 4.0 quake. Glad we missed these, but we did experience lots of smaller tremors while we were there.

In Christchurch we road the tram, visited the Canterbury Museum and Art Gallery, went punting on the Avon (funky boat ride on the river through the heart of the city), saw Mona Vale, and spent an evening at the Tamaki Maori Village. The latter included a traditional hangi (Maori underground cooking) for dinner and an outdoor drama. We were picked up for this in a double decker bus at our hotel with a group of about 30 students from VA Tech, University of Maryland and Texas A&M. The picture with our tongues hanging out is at the Tamaki Village. The face is representative of traditional Maori war faces and also their haka.

We left Christchurch on the TranzCoastal train heading north. And wow, what a ride! It parallels the sea for about 100 kms and the views are breathtaking. We stopped for a day in Kaikoura to go on a whale watching expedition. I'm going to have to come up with some new words to describe the scenery in parts of NZ. Kaikoura has to be one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen in my life. It's a little coastal beach town of about 3,000 residents, situated on a gorgeous peninsula. It has very high mountains that are snow capped rising right out of the sea. Reminded me of maybe the Grand Tetons sitting right on the edge of California. Unfortunately I forgot the camera on this trip and my cell phone battery died (yeah, left the charger at home) before I got a good picture with it! So go and google for pictures of Kaikoura.

The whale watching boat ride was pretty wild. The sea was rough and the boat is fast and it was literally gut-wrenching. But---we saw two sperm whales up close and personal! We also saw a school of around 100 dusky dolphins who put on quite the show for us all around the boat. Also saw a couple of albatross on the trip. Back on land, Kelly and I took a long walk along the coast to the seal colony and enjoyed watching them bask in the sun. The weather was mid-70's and sunny.

We returned home New Year's Eve via the train, then the ferry from the South Island to the North, then the bus from Wellington. Palmerston North had a family event all evening and into the new year on the town square that started at 6:00 pm with music, food and fireworks but we were too tired to go. But we were wide awake and having dinner when the east coast of the USA welcomed the new year so I'm counting that!

Been enjoying watching college bowl games this weekend.

Happy New Year to everyone!