Thank you John and Patricia Sampson

Blog Post 14 - the last one.

Woke up bright and early at 3:30am NZ time to catch our flight.  I had another hour to sleep, but as anyone who ever has an early flight knows, once you are up, you are up - don't want to miss that flight!  We got to the CHCH airport - thank goodness we were early since there is a 23 kilo weight limit on bags and we had one at 28k.  Ugh.  We shoved a bunch of stuff into plastic bags and off we went.  Sadly, that meant no duty free wine from NZ.

Flight was an uneventful 3 1/2 hours - they have about 20 new release movies available, so I was quite happy and could have stayed on the plane longer.  Imitation Game and Horrible Bosses 2.  Landed at 8:30am (2 hour time change).  Got through the airport and into a taxi in a record breaking 30 minutes - including customs, etc.  We stayed at the Park Hyatt on Sydney Harbor (thank you Hyatt points) with an astounding view of the harbor and the famed Opera House (see FB picture from our balcony). 

After quickly dumping our stuff, we took off - with only one day in Sydney, no time to waste.  We walked to the opera house for a tour and while waiting in line, a woman walks up to us and says she has free tickets that she got from purchasing opera tickets and they weren't going to use the tour tickets - she gave us two tickets for the exact tour we wanted ($76 savings) - we just had to be them.  Thank you John and Patricia Sampson!  The opera tour was interesting - the inside has a bunch of different theaters and we got to go into a few while sets were down (could see behind the scenes, literally) and while the Sydney Orchestra was practicing.  All and all, a good show.

I was starting to fade, so we grabbed lunch on the wharf, which perked me up a little, then we walked  around downtown trying to find the local office of my new company so we could take a picture by the sign.  Given that we hadn't showered and were pretty grubby, we decided not to go up to the actual office.  Barely made it back to the hotel before collapsing - keep in mind we had the bridge climb still scheduled.

We relaxed for about 38 minutes and took off again for the bridge.  We had to walk pretty far and up a bunch of stairs to get there (exhausted) and made it with 10 minutes to spare.  The climb organization is amazing - they have a system of safety and processes that is really thorough - we noticed this a lot in NZ, too.  We harnessed up and again, off we went. 

After jumping off a 43 meter bridge, climbing to the top of a 141 meter bridge was no big thing.  Very windy as we went up (40-50k winds), but the views were spectacular.  Yeah sunny skies!  Lots of good stories from our climbing guide about how and when the bridge went up. Totally rejuvenated!

Post bridge, we scrapped our plans for further touristy things and a fancy dinner.  We had some local pizza and beer on the way back to the hotel and then just relaxed.  It is now morning - we have about an hour left before leaving for the airport.  We are looking at the sun rise over the Opera house.

It has been a once in a lifetime experience and we are so thankful to have been given the opportunity to do this.  For those of you who followed our journey - we hope you enjoyed reading about it even a fraction as much as we enjoyed doing it.

G'Day.

Kia Ora New Zealand! :(

Blog Post 13:

NOTE:  Kia Ora in Maori is the basic "hello, goodbye, good tidings, good life" greeting that you get everywhere.

Well, here it is, our last night in NZ and it has been an absolutely fabulous trip.  Very sad to be leaving, but as anyone who knows me knows, I'll be thankful to get home to Thorkey - of course we still have one more adventure in Australia, but that is for later. 

To round out the last day or so, I left off yesterday on our way back to Manapouri.  From Manapouri, we drove to Te Anau, about 20 minutes away and we did find wifi - more coffee, more dessert - you have to buy something to get free wifi, and we have basically been eating our way through these blog postings trying to find wifi anywhere in this country that actually works! 

We had one final tour yesterday out of Te Anau to see the famous NZ glow worms.  We took a (nother) boat out to more caves, hiked into a cave with a guide, got on a boat and turned out all of the lights and looked up - it is pitch black except for these little glowing blue dots all over the cave ceiling.  It is pretty cool.  Without going into too much detail - the glow worms are some sort of fly in the larvae stage.  The make "fishing lines" - sticky silk lines (like spider webs,) a few inches long that hang from the ceiling.  Then the larvae butt (not the official terminology) has some glowing blue junk (also not official terminology) in it to attract other cave bugs who fly to the light and get stuck in the sticky silk lines. All in all, it was pretty interesting.

As this was our last scheduled outing in NZ and we had an 8 hour drive back to Christchurch to return the Campervan, we decided to knock off as much as possible in the evening.  Plus, we still had 4 hours left in The Martian.  So, we basically drove until the book ended somewhere North of Dunedin (we stopped for a delish Italian dinner in Dunedin).  I won't tell you the ending - it is a great book, though.  Will be a movie one day.

We found a place to freedom camp near the ocean - NZ is awesome about letting you camp in certain areas gratis.  In the morning, we were very rudely woken up by a chicken. Damon says it was a rooster, but it looked like a chicken.  Anyhoo, this damn thing was cockadoodle doing from a ways away and walked up to our camper pretty much yelling at us to get out - about a foot from our front door.  I have pix and video - it was kind of funny and did get us moving. 

We were going to just knock out the last 3.5 hours but I convinced Damon to do 2 more stops that our guidebook recommended,  They were right near where we camped and we had the time, so we went.  The first stop was a lighthouse that somehow became a penguin habitat for one of the rarest penguins around - the yellow eyed penguin - or something like that.  We found the place and started walking around the bluff and sure enough, we came across a few penguins, took like a billion pictures, and kept walking - there were a bunch of penguins roaming around (always in pairs) and we got close to a few of them - they are endangered and in a loosely enclosed area, so no touching, but we were maybe a foot or two away from them.  We kept walking - more penguins - and then we saw the fur seals - everywhere,  Lots of babies playing in the water, and adults sunning all over the bluff - with no barriers.  NZ lets you get up close and personal with nature a lot of the time - we are on a bluff, with huge cliff drops on both sides, and a bunch of seals between us and where we wanted to go.  We just kept a few meters (I speak metric now) between us and them and hoped none got pissy.  I'm sure they are used to people up there, but they are also very aware of what is going on.  One movement and 25 seal heads turn in your direction.  The babies just race to the water if they get scared.  Lots of pix and videos.

Back to the car and to our second pit stop, the Moeraki Rocks - imagine a big gray sand beach at low tide (there are not many beaches in NZ that we saw).  In the middle of this huge beach, clumped together, are these completely random out of place perfectly round rocks about 4-5' in diameter.  Think big balls from Wipeout, only rocks, not red balls.  Some of them have broken apart - almost like they have exploded - and you can see some sort of yellow mineral all through the rocks - but the surfaces are perfectly rounded rocks. I'm convinced they are alien rocks and the split ones have just hatched already.

The last few hours of driving were brutal mostly for Damon - we hit the "Iowa" section of NZ - nothing but flat and farms for the last few hours.  NZ has about a gazillion deer (on farms), about 10 gazillion cows, and about 100 gazillion sheep.  We saw a lot of them en route.

Got to our final hotel in Christchurch and went downtown for dinner.  You may have heard CHCH had two huge earthquakes in Nov '10 and Feb '11.  The city was devastated.  Here we are more than 4 years later and the city is still in pretty bad shape.  Buildings are down everywhere, lots of empty spaces, tons of fences, buildings still being propped up and the early stages of new construction.  They made a temporary shopping mall out of shipping containers which people say will be permanent.  We had dinner on the main restaurant drag and I'd say easily 1/3 of the buildings were barricaded.  Every building has cracks on it.  Very sad.  The huge "Christchurch" cathedral is in ruins and there are signs everywhere trying to get funding to restore it.  Meanwhile, it stands as it was after the earthquake, propped up with a gaping hole in the side and slightly crumbling.

We are now getting ready for our 4:30am wake-up so we can spend our one day in Sydney tomorrow.  But before I sign off, a few things about NZ toilets - first, while we love Duke, we have a no "Duke" rule inside.  It will be nice to have regular toilets again.  Second, they have strange flushers here.  There are always two buttons - presumably one is for a light flush and the other for a heavy flush.  I've flushed about 500 toilets and still have no idea which button does what.  And finally, regardless of the button you push, the toilets flush like a jet engine, no matter where you are - so for anyone who wanted to know if NZ toilets swirl backwards, we have no idea - the water generally just shoots out like a canon without swirling.

Off to Australia tomorrow for our final blog post.

Seals and Dolphins and Penguins, Oh My!

Blog Post 12

Woke up early and made ourselves a nice hot breakfast (thank you Duke) and then made the easy drive (only about an hour and a half) to a tiny town called Manapouri and waited for our tour. 

To get to Doubtful Sound, we started with an hour boat ride across Lake Manapouri, followed by an hour bus ride in a completely remote area to get to our boat (ship?) "The Fiordland Navigator".  Solid pouring rain the entire time, but in Fiordland, that is a good thing - the rain makes thousands of waterfalls off the mountains that typically dry up about an hour or two after the rain stops.

We had about 68 people on the boat - the cabins were really spacious and we had a private bath and shower.  The Kiwis who run these tours are amazing - everyone is friendly and all of the guides infuse humor and history into their talks - everyone seems very proud of what they do.  Refreshing.

How to describe Doubtful Sound… Imagine mountain forests with occasional breaks in the green where the trees have fallen down to the water creating a rock "path", which is where the waterfalls tumble down the mountains.  The first half of our day was a very spooky grey - mist, low clouds, rain - everything was one color but very shadowy - think of a pirate ghost ship backdrop and you'll nail it.

A few hours in, the rain let up so we stopped in a cove for kayaking.  Of course, the minute we get in the kayaks, the rain starts back up again in full force.  The temperatures were not bad and we were well prepared, so it wasn't cold or uncomfortable despite the rain.  Of course Damon forgot a change of pants, so he went out in his "ranger panties" that happened to be stashed in his pack for emergencies (think 1980's running shorts.  SHORT shorts).  Made me proud.  After kayaking, they let people jump off the boat and go for a swim - Damon went, it was just a bit too chilly for me.

Post swim, there was a lot of hanging out on the various decks taking pictures.  As soon as we got out of the water, the sky cleared up and we got sun, which gave the Fiord's a whole different look.  We made it out to the Tasman sea, saw a bunch of fur seals and some blue penguins, and then turned around.  We had an amazing dinner and eventually docked in a small cove for the night.    The sky cleared up and it was dark enough for good stargazing, and then we went to bed - the overnight was so calm, you wouldn't suspect you were sleeping on water.

Woke up bright and early - they start the engines at 6:30am, and a delicious breakfast, and started the cruise back - exploring different Fiord arms along the way.  Everyone was on the lookout for the resident dolphin pod, and (thank you very much) I happened to be in the captain's lookout area (the "bridge") and I spotted the dolphins first, informed the captain, and we bee-lined in that direction to see a pod of dolphins swimming around - a few came close to the boat.

Rest of the ride was uneventful - no rain (yeah) and we saw a few more penguins. Well, I saw some ripples in the water and maybe a head or a tail feather - they are tiny and don't like to come near the boat and mostly stay under water.

We are now on the boat back to Manapouri as I write and hope to come across Wi-Fi soon so we can post.  More later!

Rain rain you can stay

Blog Post 11

Aahhh, glorious hotel bed (sorry Duke).  We slept in and had a leisurely  morning, yeah right, that was right up until I convinced Damon that the Shotover Jet Boats were listed as a "must do" and we had to schedule that in before we left Queenstown.  So, we ran to breakfast, gobbled quickly, and then sped over to our next adventure.

The jet boats are crazy - they put about 14 people in a boat - you sit like a roller coaster - 4 across - with a handlebar to hang onto.  Then they whip up and down a river gorge in these specially designed boats getting you super close to the canyon walls, doing 360 degree turns and basically giving you an exhilarating 25 minute ride.  With no time to stop and watch the video, we jetted (ha ha) off to our next activity - a four hour drive to Milford Sound.

You may think that all of these long drives are awful and boring, but the reality is that they seem to fly by.  Partly because the scenery is generally awesome, partly because Damon has to concentrate driving on the twisty turnys (while I still clutch my armrests), but mostly because we started listening to "The Martian" - book on tape.  A great book about a guy who gets stuck by himself on Mars (obviously fiction), but a really good read (or listen).

The scenery on the way to the Fiords is crazy - from rain forest to open grassy plains to gorge-like mountains.  It rains something like 200+ days per year in these parts, so needless to say, the weather was not great - on the positive side, it is the rain that makes the Fiords so spectacular.  Imagine black granite rock walls covered in dark green trees with waterfalls coming through everywhere - literally hundreds of them.  A jaw dropping site.

We were the last Milford Sound boat out - we did that on purpose so our views were not blocked by other tour boats. We steamed through the Fiord out to the ocean and back over about two hours,  The views are truly amazing with those canyon walls and waterfall after waterfall after waterfall.  We also got up close and personal with a bunch of baby seals that lounge around on the rocks.

After the boat tour, we found a campsite in one of the big grassy areas, made dinner, listened to more book, and crashed.  Weather was rough overnight - crazy wind gusts and rain, but the Duke kept us safe, sound and dry.

Tomorrow we go on our overnight cruise through Doubtful Sound - another Fiord,  a cave tour of glow worms, and then it is back to Christchurch for our final stop before heading to Australia.  Hard to believe our time in NZ is winding down.  Of course, there is still the Sydney Bridge climb for our final hurrah!us hotel bed (sorry Duke).  We slept in and had a leisurely  morning, yeah right, that was right up until I convinced Damon that the Shotover Jet Boats were listed as a "must do" and we had to schedule that in before we left Queenstown.  So, we ran to breakfast, gobbled quickly, and then sped over to our next adventure.

The jet boats are crazy - they put about 14 people in a boat - you sit like a roller coaster - 4 across - with a handlebar to hang onto.  Then they whip up and down a river gorge in these specially designed boats getting you super close to the canyon walls, doing 360 degree turns and basically giving you an exhilarating 25 minute ride.  With no time to stop and watch the video, we jetted (ha ha) off to our next activity - a four hour drive to Milford Sound.

You may think that all of these long drives are awful and boring, but the reality is that they seem to fly by.  Partly because the scenery is generally awesome, partly because Damon has to concentrate driving on the twisty turnys (while I still clutch my armrests), but mostly because we started listening to "The Martian" - book on tape.  A great book about a guy who gets stuck by himself on Mars (obviously fiction), but a really good read (or listen).

The scenery on the way to the Fiords is crazy - from rain forest to open grassy plains to gorge-like mountains.  It rains something like 200+ days per year in these parts, so needless to say, the weather was not great - on the positive side, it is the rain that makes the Fiords so spectacular.  Imagine black granite rock walls covered in dark green trees with waterfalls coming through everywhere - literally hundreds of them.  A jaw dropping site.

We were the last Milford Sound boat out - we did that on purpose so our views were not blocked by other tour boats.  We steamed through the Fiord out to the ocean and back over about two hours,  The views are truly amazing with those canyon walls and waterfall after waterfall after waterfall.  We also got up close and personal with a bunch of baby seals that lounge around on the rocks.

After the boat tour, we found a campsite in one of the big grassy areas, made dinner, listened to more book, and crashed.  Weather was rough overnight - crazy wind gusts and rain, but the Duke kept us safe, sound and dry.

Tomorrow we go on our overnight cruise through Doubtful Sound - another Fiord,  a cave tour of glow worms, and then it is back to Christchurch for our final stop before heading to Australia.  Hard to believe our time in NZ is winding down.  Of course, there is still the Sydney Bridge climb for our final hurrah!

I can't do it I can't do it I can't do it - AAAAHHHHHHHH

Blog Post 10

So, if you've ever been on a camping (ish) vacation, hygiene starts to go after a while.  At the beginning of our vacation, it was shower every day, dry hair, flat iron, make-up, and clean clothes.  First to go was flat iron, then make-up, then dry hair.  And let's face it, it is SO much easier to just pick up clothes off the floor than to figure something else out.  And the ponytail/baseball hat combo just works.  We are not completely gross - we do make it a point to stay in a real campground at least every other night where we can shower.  But right now, I'm writing from the Hilton Hotel in Queenstown - we have a suite, unlimited free Wi-Fi, a hot shower, comfy bed, down comforter - we are happy, happy, happy.  And clean.  Maybe I'll even dry my hair tomorrow.

But back to our day… we woke up and SHOWERED, and headed to the bungee jumping place - about an hour drive.  Damon was VERY quiet during our drive.  He told me he hadn't slept most of the night. Now this is a guy who has no problem with adrenaline activities - we've gone hang gliding, sky diving, etc.  No problem.  But bungee jumping got him.  Didn't help that it was pouring rain and the clouds/mist made the morning super dreary.  Oh, then we accidentally went over the pass to Queenstown instead of coming in on the "major" road.  Think rain, switchbacks, WOOD guardrails (I said they were more for decoration than function), massive drop-offs (thousands of feet) down cliffs.  Blind turns everywhere.  Oh, and throw in a few road bicyclists for good measure.  In a stick shift campervan.  On a laughably narrow road.  At least it kept Damon's mind off the jump.

We got to Kawarau bridge where supposedly the first bungee jump happened (Damon says it was the first river/wet jump - will have to research later).  As we turned a corner and got our first look at the bridge, we gave an "Oh Fudge" in unison.  We did not really use the word fudge.  We went in to register - Damon was not happy and I was not entirely convinced he was going to go.  Long story short, we watched a few people go and then suited up.  We decided to go tandem for moral support.  Let me tell you - standing on this little bitty platform 43m (about 140 feet) in the air above a river (a very pretty river) and being expected to voluntarily jump is a bit nerve racking. With one final "I can't do this" we leaned forward and took the plunge.  Possibly the only time Damon has yelled louder than me.  The free fall feels very free fall-y.  The bounce is gradual, so you are not yanked back up.  There are 2-3 bounces  and then a lot of swinging upside down waiting for the boat to come get us.  It was pretty awesome.  First thing Damon says when we got back up - I want to do it again on my own!  Ultimately we didn't go a second time, but I'm so glad he wanted to.  We have video  and some amazing photos.  Damon - Let's not forget that we also have, voluntarily overcoming what turned out to be a major fear.

Given the crappy weather, not much else to do, plus, totally emotionally drained.  We got to our hotel and took a water taxi across the lake to Queenstown, had lunch, and wandered the streets and the park for a few hours until we could check in.  Queenstown is a cute, somewhat touristy, little town on the banks of a lake and surrounded by mountains - it is really beautiful here.  Back to the hotel where we immediately changed into our jammies and started to unwind.  Damon crashed immediately - it is only 5pm.  Nothing else planned for tonight - maybe dinner and an in room movie.  Almost forgot what a TV looks like!

Tomorrow we head to Milford Sound to go on a boat cruise around the Fjords.

No more wearing hats in the Duke

Blog Post 9

This post will be a long one, as it was a LONG day for us. 

Forgot about one major stop we made yesterday when crossing Arthur's Pass - we went on a hike to a waterfall called Devil's Punchbowl.  It is the kind of waterfall you expect to see in Hawaii - really tall, cascading, several layers - worth the hike, although it didn't look devilish and there was no pool or punchbowl.  No clue how these folks name things.  

Back to today… as mentioned earlier, we had a fancy dining experience in McDonalds for breakfast.  We are not huge fast-foodies normally, but free Wi-Fi (any Wi-Fi) and good coffee were pretty hard to find in Greymouth while waiting for our laundry to dry.

Laundry - they had washers and dryers at the "holiday park" (campground) we stayed at a few days ago, but the dryers were more decorative than functional.  After hanging our clothes around Duke for two days and having them still not dry (couldn't find a laundromat anywhere), we finally found one in Greymouth.  This "laundromat" was actually a small hut with four stackable washers and dryers.  That's it.  No people, no room - just a 5x8 hut with washers and dryers.  $5 to dry for 25 minutes.  It did the trick.  No more skivvies hanging from the rearview mirror. We're starting to class up the joint.

From Greymouth, we headed South to the Glacier area - about a 2 1/2 hour drive.  The West side of the south island gets a lot more rain and there is a noticeable difference in the terrain - so much more green.  Cows and sheep look a lot happier, too.  BTW, there are sheep everywhere.  We actually also started seeing water in some of the rivers!

We decided to take a side excursion en route to a place called Hotatiki Gorge (sp??) that was supposedly an otherworldly color of blue from glacial runoff.  Totally worth it.  Short hike - maybe 2-3k (we speak in kilometers now) round trip, over a rope bridge across a river that was the brightest blue I've ever seen.  The guidebook said this was the place where the pictures make other people jealous - we agree.

After the gorge hike, we continued South to Franz Joseph Glacier and Fox Glacier - sadly, these glaciers have been melting at such a rapid rate, it is hard to actually get close enough to be overwhelmed by them.  We decided that the better view was at Fox Glacier, so we went there.  After another hike, plus a 1/2k hike straight uphill, we did get a glimpse of the glacier from about 200m away (think two football fields).  Cool to see, but also sad.  There are signs along the route showing where the glacier was 200 years ago, 80 years ago, and even 5 years ago.  Suffice it to say, the Fox glacier is disappearing very quickly.

We also hiked to a lake (Lake Mathieson) where you can take an absolutely perfect mirror picture of Mt. Cook.  In true fashion, the weather did not cooperate and we could not see Mt. Cook (clouds) and the wind kicked up so the lake was too rippled.  Still a pretty hike through a tropical rain forest.

With all of our side excursions, we were behind schedule (yes, I had us on a tight vacation schedule) and we still had about a 3-4 hour drive to get to our next overnight spot.  Just after we left Fox Glacier, we lost all cell service and all GPS signal - it is desolate out here!  But, with admirable navigational skills and a healthy dose of luck we had a pretty good idea of which way to head, there is exactly one road in New Zealand. 

Our halfway point was a town called Haast - the biggest town we would see for the rest of the day.  We got there around 7pm and planned to gas up and make dinner before finishing the last 90k to Wanaka.  We pull into the "last gas station for next 88k" and it was closed.  They had a 24-hour self-service machine that you could put your credit card in and pre-pay for gas.  Understand that their gas stations in the boonies do not have a "pay at the pump" option that we take for granted in the US.  You always pay inside.  This machine let you pre pay, somehow.  Of course, it didn't take US credit cards because it requires a PIN, which we don't have on our credit cards.  We tried bank cards, multiple credit cards, swearing, crying, yelling, etc.  None of it worked.  We debated making a run for it - we showed enough fuel to get us 140k, but running out of gas at night, with no phone, on these crazy twisty turny two lane roads was not appealing.  We debated just parking and staying overnight, but that meant missing bungy jumping in the morning.  We wavered back and forth and ultimately agreed to sit in the gas station waiting for another customer to show up.  No one showed.  Finally, Damon walked up the road to a restaurant that was open (only thing around) and got a super nice lady to come to the gas station and use her credit card to charge gas for us - we gave her cash.  We hugged.  We cried tears of joy. We hugged again. And then we were on our way.  Stupid Americans.

We drove for another hour or so - tried to get in the last bit of daylight (driving these roads in the dark is scary as sh*t for the passenger and I'm sure for the driver, too) before stopping next to a river to make a lovely chicken dinner.  Duke rocks!  Pulled into our campground around 10:30 pm and crashed hard.  Well, I did.  Damon apparently did not sleep all night in anticipation of the upcoming jump.

Other tidbits - there are hitchhikers everywhere - we haven't picked anyone up yet.  I'm sure we would get the crazy killer.  The Duke hit a bird yesterday (sorry PETA).  We also swerved to miss a rabbit and almost went off the road - which is probably why the bird had to go.  There is a lot of road kill out here… critters running amok.

One final note - why the title of this post?  So, Damon and I can both stand up at full height inside Duke.  To get to the front seats, you have to duck hit your head on the wall that comes down to create a storage space above the front seats.  I have been wearing a baseball hat most of the time for the past few days, which limits my upward vision.  I have hit my head so many times there is actually a permanent bruise and a dent on the top of my head (aggravated by nearly knocking myself out on a cave wall in the flashlight-less cave walk).  Lots of swearing going on inside the Duke.  Damon keeps yelling at me "no hats in the Duke" so maybe I will see the ceiling and stop hitting my head.  Joke is on him - I smacked my head with my hat off, too.  He nailed his head pretty good yesterday, too.  He had a hat on.  Ha!

Hidden Adventures

Blog Post #8

Woke up in our "commercial" campsite today, which meant SHOWERS!  Yeah!  Hot showers in six minute intervals.  Almost made it.  An official campground  also means electricity to charge everything up and the not-so-fun side of campervanning, which is the dump site.  I'm generous enough to leave that to Damon :)  This was a day of driving.  And driving.  And driving.  Headed south, picked up more groceries, and then west across the South Island.  It was interesting to see the terrain change as we hit an area that gets more rain - definitely  more green.

It is hard to describe the landscape here - the hills/mountains are very rounded and not like what we see in Colorado.  I think we are not getting a true picture of the colors given that everything is tan/brown (dead grass) and the rivers are empty.  We finally hit a place called Castle Hill - where apparently Narnia was filmed - there are a bunch of really out of place sandstone rocks (huge) there.  We parked and just went hiking around these crazy shaped rocks.

About five minutes down the road is another place that was recommended called Cave Stream.  Not surprisingly, it is a stream that runs through a cave that you can hike through.  There are signs EVERYWHERE warning people - dress warm, bring flashlights, etc.  Damon and I are very well prepared and went to the cave opening - they also warn you that it is chilly and the first pool tests your wiggly parts by getting you waste deep in frigid water.  I was a bit nervous about it being cold since you are walking in a river the entire time.  In a cave.  So, off we go.

It was SO COOL.  We are walking in what is essentially a slot canyon with a roof.  About 3-5' wide at any given point, you are sort of hobbling along the very rocky river bed with nothing but my flashlight and Damon's headlamp to guide us and no other people anywhere.  That is, of course, until my flashlight battery dies.  Now keep in mind that this is a battery that lasts about 1000 hours, and it chooses to die when we are halfway through a pitch black cave.  So, off we go with nothing but Damon's little headlamp - me gripping him for dear life.  I only slipped and fell once and only conked my head on a cave ceiling twice.  Some Germans finally caught up to us with awesomely bright lights, so I basically stayed on the guy's tail the rest of the way.  It was still one of the best experiences we've had here.

Back in the Duke for a lot more driving.  We went over Arthur's Pass - a very scenic drive with lots of twists and turns and really steep grades.  All of the bridges around here are single lane, so you are coming around a blind curve and then there is a single lane bridge and you just hope the other people "give way" when you are crossing.  There is an assigned order, but people don't always follow it.  There are tourists everywhere you see signs about what side of the road to drive on all over the place.

We reached the west coast and headed North to another attraction called "Pancake Rocks" - it is on the coast where the waves have exposed the limestone layers, ten meters high, that look like stacked pancakes.  We wanted to hit it at high tide (recommended) to see the full force of the water (it booms!) when it crashes into the rocks, and also the blow holes - we only saw one. 

At this point, it is about 8:30, getting dark, and we haven't eaten dinner and don't know where we are staying for the night.  We headed back south to a larger town (relatively speaking) and got there about 9:15.  Had big plans to make dinner, but we were so hungry and tired, we caved and hit KFC.  Embarrassing.  Made it to our camp site on the beach and once again, crashed HARD.

Tomorrow is another big driving day, but we hit the glaciers.  Until then!

BTW - It is very difficult to find Wi-Fi anywhere here.  Right now we are sitting in McDonalds sipping McCafe lattes out of china with metal spoons - seriously - but they have free Wi-Fi and clean toilets.  Done.

Thar she blows

Blog Post #7

Woke up to a gorgeous sunrise over the ocean, took our leisurely time to get ready, and headed into town to get coffee.  They do have amazing coffee in this country, although maybe it is because they use whole milk and real sugar everywhere and I'm just not used to that.  They have something here called "trim" milk, which I think is skim, but I've called it skim, slim and I think I'm finally getting the hang of trim. 

Our whale watching check in time was 10am, so we meandered over there to check in.  The sign on the board said "wind at 15 knots, increasing to 40 knots" and "sea sickness warning".  I have no idea how fast a knot is, but I am well aware of what sea sickness is.  Damon said that 40 knots is pretty big wind.  Anyhoo, we got our safety briefing, swallowed our dramamine, put on our motion sickness wristbands (no one has ever accused me of being unprepared) and headed to the boat. 

There are sperm whales that live in the area most of the year, so we had about a 95% chance of seeing at least one.  We got out to the  area where another boat had just located one - they only rise to the surface for about 5-10 minutes every hour and we got really lucky that the other boat out there had been tracking the sonic beeps the whales make indicating when they are close by.  Sperm whales are big - it floated on the surface for a few minutes breathing and blowing out through the blow hole - we got a lot of pictures.  Still so far so good on the seasickness front, although other people were starting to drop like flies.  They do outfit the boat with about 20 bags per seat pocket.  Not to be gross, but it took all of my concentration to not look, listen or breathe through my nose, because we all know about that chain reaction.

We cruised around for a while and actually found a second whale that surfaced - so we got lucky and saw two.  It was a rough 40 minute ride at full speed over huge swells to get us back.  As Damon said, look at that, we got a whale watching tour and a roller coaster ride as an added bonus!`  I'm pleased to say that both of us made it back to shore without hurling.  We went back to the Duke, made some lunch and crashed hard for about an hour - again - nice thing about travelling with your house - you can eat and sleep pretty much anywhere, anytime!

Post nap, we went on a short hike on the Peninsula Walkway, which is one of Kaikoura's more popular walks - you can take the high bluff route or walk along the water.  At our start point, there were more fur seals that we could get close to.  We chose the bluff.  When we were about 1/3 of the way out, we saw a strange cloud formation rolling in - it was like a tube of clouds - we were happy it was moving in so fast b/c it was hot out and we wanted some shade.  The cloud passed over us, as did the cold front and the 40 knot winds following behind the clouds.  It was like a switch flipped - the winds were unbelievable (we have pix and video) - yet we kept walking on the trail to our destination; then we turned around and came back.  I have to say again, 40 knots is like 50 mph give or take, this wind was brutal and unrelenting.  Once I got over my fear of being blown off the bluff, I wasn't freaking out and sort of enjoyed the hike. 

We went to try to find a highly recommended "Crayfish" joint we had passed on the way in, but apparently it was either blown away or they closed up early b/c of the weather.  Crayfish is the specialty in Kaikoura - we think Crayfish is actually lobster since the pictures look like lobster and when we tried another place, prices were $110 per Cray.  So, we had spaghetti in Duke.

Weather started to get bad again, so we headed to a camp ground, made dinner, did a load of laundry, and crashed out by 9pm.  Weather took a turn for the worse - we had rain (great for them, sucks for us) and the temps dropped quite a bit.  Luckily, Duke is amazingly comfortable to sleep in!

Tomorrow, drive and hike day as we head back South toward Christchurch and then across the South Island on Arthur's Pass to the West side - hope to get some good hikes in weather permitting.

This is how we roll

Blog Post 6

Today (I think it is Tuesday) was mainly a travel day.  But even slow days here have a little bit of excitement.  Morning was a 2 1/2 hour drive from Rotorua to Auckland where we returned our rental car - oops - returned it to the international terminal where we picked it up instead of the domestic terminal where we were leaving from.  BTW - I will never complain about fuel prices in the US again.  We were paying about $2.25/gallon before we left.  Here they pay almost that much per liter.  We paid $110 NZ to fill about 3/4 of a tank on our mid-sized car!  We walked what seemed like a mile to the domestic terminal to catch our flight - was a little nervous about missing it, but we were good.  Took the uneventful 1 hour flight to Christchurch.

So I've mentioned before that parts of NZ are under a severe drought - Canterbury (where Christchurch is located) is one of those places.  Flying over the area was unbelievable - EVERYTHING is brown.  You can see where rivers - big ones - used to be, but they are nothing but dry gray sand now with maybe a tiny trickle of a stream running down them.  There are big bridges spanning nothing but dirt.  Again, I’m talking about pretty good sized rivers - not streams or creeks - although those are bone dry, too.  Probably horrible of me to say, but the weather is gorgeous - with no chance of rain (ouch)!

From the airport, we went to pick up our Campervan - a Fiat Ducato, now named "The Duke".  The Duke rocks.  It is a very spacious 2-person home on wheels complete with a toilet and a shower.  Or should I say a toilet and a sink in a shower.  Stick shift, right side of car, left side of road, 18-20' of vehicle.  And for a bit of added cruelty, the turn signals and wind shield wipers are reversed again, so now that Damon learned the "wrong" side, they all switched back again.  We have very clean windows.  And no, there is no freaking chance in hell that I will be driving this thing.  

Don't tell Damon, but I was pretty white knuckled during our 2+ hour drive to our first stop - Kaikoura.  The roads are twisty and turn with these flimsy guardrails "protecting" you from really big drops.  Speed limits drop from 100k to 35k around hairpin turns with a little warning, but not enough to keep me from near heart attack.  I'm told that it only gets worse as we head through the mountains later in the week.

Kaikoura is known for its marine life - seals and whales and apparently some delicious crayfish/lobster dinners which we intend to enjoy tomorrow night.  We arrived in town around 7:30pm (still light out) and went right to the area known for having a ton of seal pups - there is an area where you can walk up a stream and (hopefully) see a bunch of seal pups playing in a waterfall - unfortunately, they weren't there, but we did see them all playing on the rocks near the beach - hundreds of seals and tons of babies flopping around the rocks and playing it tide pools.

After the pups, we headed to our "freedom camping" spot on the beach - rules in NZ - if you have a toilet and shower, you can camp pretty much anywhere.  We made an awesome dinner, converted our kitchen/living room/dining room to a bed, and crashed hard.  But not before checking out the stars - and when I say stars, there are STARS.  Damon has some celestial app on his phone, so once we found Orion's belt, we just aimed the phone around the sky and found some other constellations.  Kudos to explorers who could actually tell one star from another - there are a billion of them out there and with few exceptions, they just look like blobs of stars to me.

Tomorrow is our whale watch tour and some hiking around Kaikoura.

For those of you still reading - thanks for being interested enough in our lives to keep reading!  We do this partly to entertain our friends and family, but mostly so we have a detailed accounting of our trip so we can remember years from now.

Zorbing. No need to say more.

Blog Entry #5

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I love the smell of sulfur in the morning!  Not.  Went on our first adventure today - Zorbing.  If you don't know what Zorbing is, google it - imagine a giant plastic ball inside another giant plastic ball.  Imagine a tiny hole that you dive through to get into the inner ball.  Then put a bunch of water and two people in the ball.  Then seal it up and push the ball down a big hill.  The water in the ball keeps you sort of on the bottom sloshing around, so you are not head over heels, but you are still sliding all over the inside of the ball as you roll down the hill. Quite possibly the most fun I've had getting pushed down a hill.  We did it twice.

Right after Zorbing we headed to the Gondola to take us to the top of some mountain - gave us a great panoramic view of Rotorua.  To get down the mountain, we luged - five times on three different= courses.  I think we scared the crap out of the Japanese tourists screaming "on your left, coming through" as we flew by them.  Suffice to say that safety concerns are not overwhelming in NZ - they just stick you on a luge, test the brakes once or twice, and send you down the mountain.  There was one spot on the advanced track that had a big hill where if you were going fast enough, you caught air.  Oh, let's add to the fun the fact that it was raining on and off, so I did skid on one side trying to break around a turn in the rain.  No Cards were harmed and we had a blast.

I think I mentioned in a previous post that the food here is very big and it is pretty expensive, so we thought we'd lay low for lunch and hit up (sorry folks) McDonalds.  I didn't want another ginormous beet and may0 sandwich.  Plus, NZ McD's have special Kiwi food - like the Georgie Pie (meat pie) that Damon had to try.  This McD's had a McCafe - which, in addition to all of their coffee drinks, had sourdough sandwiches, paninis, and a baked goods case that rivals a nice bakery. Fancy! 

After lunch, we headed to the Redwood forest - we never understood why, but for some reason, NZ ended up with a bunch of California Redwoods in a forest, so we hiked through the forest - the Redwoods are not as impressive as the monsters in California, but the forest itself was beautiful and the trees were stunning.  The Redwood forest morphed into a tropical jungle filled with silver ferns and Eucalyptus trees (no koalas).  And yes, it rained on us while we were hiking, too.

Our evening plans involved going to a traditional Maori dinner where we learned about the customs and traditions of the Maori people - including song, dance, crafts, weapons, history, etc.  And then we had a big feast.  The Maori people came to NZ six hundred years ago from Tahiti and faced similar challenges as Native Americans in the US.  The Maori fought hard for their rights to retain their heritage and culture and are very proud to share it with everyone.  It was really a nice night and we learned a lot.  Damon did a spectacular war dance and it is all caught on video.

On the bus back to our hotel, the guide singled out each country to sing a song.  Australia and UK both did nice songs about their nationality.  When US was called, no one did anything, so Damon broke out into Sir Mix-a-lot - Baby Got Back.  He did our country proud.  Of course that was the only song where the whole bus started singing.

Got back to the "stink hotel", packed up and we are ready to start our next adventure as we head back to Auckland tomorrow, fly to Christchurch, and pick up our Campervan for 8 nights on the road.  We are both having a lot of anxiety about our Bungee Jump, which is fast approaching.

Almost forgot to mention that I did all of the driving yesterday. It is freaky driving on the left side of the road and right side of the car - it takes two people to concentrate around all of the roundabouts and any time you have to turn - but I think I got the hang of it pretty quickly.  Let's see what happens when we add in stick shift tomorrow!

Welcome to MIddle Earth

Blog Post #4

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I have a few days to catch up on - we've been very busy!  We left Auckland Sunday  morning and made the 2 hour drive to a town called MataMata - most famous for being one of the set locations for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies - welcome to Hobbiton, Middle Earth.  Admittedly, I thought it was going to be pretty cheesy, but when we got there, the set was absolutely amazing.  Apparently, after the LOTR movies, they were contracted to tear down the sets, but with the success of the movies, the farm owners re-negotiated to have a permanent set built for the Hobbit movies, and the set is regularly maintained.  The detail is amazing, the plants and wildlife are spectacular, plus they give you a bunch of trivia about the movie. 

Side note - rumor has it that NZ has been in a severe drought recently, which you wouldn't know since it has rained pretty much every day that we've been here!  We are thankful that the rain breaks for periods of time every day and we've been fairly lucky with timing certain events between downpours.  At least the weather is warm enough to do our things even in the rain.

After Hobbiton, we drove one more hour to Rotorua.  Rotorua is similar to Yellowstone, in that it is known for its geothermal activity.  In English, that means it smells like sulfur/rotten eggs.  I was really happy when we booked our hotel late and we were still able to get right on the edge of the scenic Lake Rotorua - little did I know that our hotel was situated on a spot called Sulfur Flats.  To say that the smell is overpowering is an understatement… Luckily, we are only in this hotel for two days and the rest of the town is fine.  Smell aside, it is very pretty here - and lots of fun stuff to do.

We had a rough afternoon - spent a lot of it lost trying to find different spots to visit, and finally made it to The Wai Topu Geo Thermal Park at 4:30.  They close at 6 and don't let anyone in after 4:45.  Plus, it was a raining pretty hard.  But we decided to go for it - we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves in those conditions.  The park was very cool and the highlights were a flourscent green thermal pond (think Chicago River on St. Patrick's Day) and bubbling mud pits that explode like geysers on a regular basis.

Damon's driving has gotten better - I think the biggest challenge he is still having is turning on the windshield wipers every time he wants to turn.  Yes, even that is on the "wrong" side.  I'm sure a lot of people know that New Zealanders are known as "kiwis" - the kiwi is a flightless bird, which is nearly extinct.  As Damon is driving, he could hardly contain his excitement when he thought he saw a kiwi on the side of the road.  Sadly, it was just a chicken.

We went out for a nice dinner but by 9pm, we were tired and went back to the stinky hotel to sleep.  The food here has been okay - they like gourmet presentation of food, but we haven't found great dishes.  Things are literally stacked like 8" high and everything contains beets.

We have a bunch of fun stuff lined up for tomorrow!  Can't wait.

We made it - barely

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BLOG POST 3:

Picking up where we left off in Tokyo...  we spent four hours in the Tokyo Narita airport waiting for the second leg of our trip.  At first, not so bad, but then the tired started to kick in as it was roughly 3am Chicago time by the time our plane boarded.  To kill time, we walked the International terminal a few times - they are really big on Kit Kat candy there - all sorts of strange flavors - like green tea Kit Kat and some raspberry flavor - strange.

Anyways... big shout out to my friend Danae, who saved me from falling asleep on my feet.  Back in October, Danae was in Tokyo and I asked her to make a treasure hunt for us.  She hid notes all around the United lounge for us to find.  We found 3/4 - not too bad!  Especially since one of them involved asking a man working in a computer cube if he could check under the desk for our note - he did, and we found it - he thought it was cool.  Thanks, Danae!

So imagine we are over tired and getting ready to board the plane.  I'm talking to the desk agent to get our updated boarding passes when she asks if we have our Australia Visas.  I'm like - what visas?  11 months of planning, and somehow I missed that we need a visa for Australia, where we are stopping on the way home.  She takes our boarding passes and tells us we cannot board without visas, so with less than 15 minutes to boarding, Damon is on 3G trying to get our visas.  Then they start boarding the plane - one visa down.  They are halfway done boarding and we finally have our visas and they let us on.  Very scary close call.

Not much to say about the second flight - it was pretty miserable.  Squished between Damon and some other guy for 11 hours was rough.  We probably got in about 4-5 hours of sleep, but it was not awesome.  Flew the brand new 787-Dreamliner.  Not really impressed - thought it would be luxurious, but really no different than a regular plane, and no refreshing face spritzer in the lav.  I will say that Air New Zealand does get the gold star for their safety briefing, which is a Lord of the Rings theme and they have a bunch of the real actors showing us how to put on oxygen masks and buckle our seat belts.  Getting through Auckland airport was ridiculously easy and fast - sadly, no one stamps passports anymore.

We rented a car at the airport - I immediately try to get in the wrong side.  So strange with the steering wheel on the right.  It was humorous watching people try to get out of the parking lot.  Damon did a good job driving - we only almost got killed like once or twice.  JK.

We got to our hotel, dropped off our stuff, and went to walk around the city.  We went up in the Sky Tower to get a good look at everything and Damon terrorized a group of Japanese kids by jumping on the glass on the floor they were sitting on - you can see down 60 stories through the glass.

Jet lag started to kick in so we found a coffee shop and sat down to relax.  Within 30 seconds, man sitting by us struck up conversation, which then led an older couple to walk over and start talking to us.  People are very friendly here - although the wife was not a fan of Chicago - apparently she spent three months on a work study program in Chicago over the summer working as a librarian at the Cook County jail and was not impressed.  I mean - Cook County jail as her impression of Chicago???

We were discussing driving on the "wrong" side of the road and the husband told us that (you have to do this in a NZ accent) "oy, we tend to lose a lot tourists out here from the driving".  Apparently 1/5 accidents here involve tourists in car accidents...

Auckland is a harbor city - there is a lot of waterfront and TONS of boats - not sure what the per capita income is, but there is mega yacht after mega yacht after mega yacht.  HUGE boats everywhere.  We even saw the Vodaphone America's Cup boat parked in a slip.

Being in Auckland is not much different from the US - everything is familiar - restaurants (there is even a Denny's here), businesses, stores, even all of our tvs and movies are the same.

After a 3-hour "nap", we went out for dinner - this city wakes up in the evening - had a nice dinner on the water and called it a night.

Off to "Middle Earth" tomorrow to visit the hobbit set.

Tales from the First Class Cabin

Day 1 or Day 2 or it could be night - I have no idea if it is day or night.


Blogging from 34,000 feet while in full recline with my feet up.  There is no other way to say this - travelling in the first class cabin of a 747 is hands down the best way to travel internationally.  Once again, thank you United miles. 


The spoiling began in the airport where we had exclusive people only access to the United First lounge, which is apparently different from a typical United Club.  With marble bathrooms and shower rooms, a full breakfast buffet with everything from sushi to baked goods to a fully stocked open bar, we started the morning off right!  For those of you worried about my clashing outfit in this fancy place, no worries - I substituted my green fleece for a black one, and I'm definitely not the only one rocking yoga pants.  Not much I can do at this point about the pink socks.  They seemed like a good idea a few months ago.

Enter the 747 - a behemoth of a plane.  We were the first to board and like the geeks we are, started taking pictures of everything and pushing all of the buttons on our seat pods.  Damon was very worried by our uncouthness until the other passengers started doing the selfie thing right alongside us.  Our cabin only has 12 seats in it and we are literally in the nose of the plane.  The pilots are two flights above us and behind us.  Very strange.  No clue what the rest of the plane looks like - we really wanted to see the upstairs, but can't figure out where the stairs are. They hand us five page menus, two gift sets (socks, toiletries, eye mask…) each, we each have two big pillows, slippers and a faux down blanket.  Plus a large personal tv filled with movies, games, audio books and more.

Little bit (a LOT) of turbulence in the first few hours.  Nothing more reassuring that having announcements every half hour for the flight attendants to sit down and buckle up when you are in the over nothing but water.  Thank goodness by hour 3 or 4 it was all over and we had a really smooth ride the rest of the time. 

Our first meal (lunch) in the air was an 8 course meal - warm nuts, rolls, sushi plate, egg roll and coconut chicken skewer, soup, salad, filet mignon with gnocchi and asparagus and a make your own ice cream sundae.  Which was awesome right before 2 hours of pretty rough on and off turbulence...  We've had snack baskets and drinks and are awaiting our breakfast in an hour or so. 

I couldn't tell you what time it is - the cabin is "night" - lights have been off for most of the flight and the window shades have been closed the entire trip, but it is daylight outside (I peeked).  I think it is 12:30pm right now in Tokyo and 9:30pm in Chicago.  So far I've watched two movies, read a book and have thoroughly enjoyed lounging with my feet up for the past 9 hours - only 2 hours to go!  I am well hydrated and have probably broken a new bio break record as I should hit six visits to the loo by the time we land.  I'll confess that I like to go there because they have Philosophy brand hydrating spray and it is refreshing to douse my face every hour or two.  Sadly, the first class lav is pretty much the same as any other plane lav, if it had refreshing hydrating spray.

So I describe this experience in such detail not to be snooty, but because I want to remember the sheer bliss of it while it is happening since our Tokyo to Auckland leg will be slightly less luxurious as we join the masses back in economy for the overnight 11 hour leg of this long haul.

Oh yeah, one more interesting tidbit… in first class, they make you wear a shoulder belt in addition to the lap belt for take-off and landing.  Not sure what that is all about - makes me wonder what I'm missing in coach…

Hopefully my next post will not be at 4am when I can't sleep, but only time will tell.

What the heck is a Monkeyhouse???

So we are not even out of the US yet and my very concerned family twice commented on their confusion regarding the title of this Blog - what the heck is "Monkeyhouse"?  So to explain the origin of Monkeyhouse - it is a name we gave our house when the kids were young and VERY present. 

We called all of our previous vacation blogs "Adventures of Monkeyhouse" and so it continues, only without the kids this time.  I mean, heck, it is our very belated honeymoon.  We've had votes to change the Blog to "House of Cards" (took my mom a minute to realize that our last name is Card, we live in a house… get it?).  So feel free to weigh in.  For now, I'm sticking with Monkeyhouse.  Enough on that.

This vacation blog is for the benefit of our friends and family who like to keep track of what we are doing.  Plus it saves us from having to remember all of the details of all of our stories - and of course, it is completely up to you if you want to read instead of us forcing you to listen to our travel tales!  So here we go...

Day 1:

 

I'm sitting in our hotel (thank you Hyatt miles) in San Francisco ready to get on the first leg of our 24 hour journey to Auckland  We will spend just over 11 hours on our way to Tokyo, and  after a short layover, another 11 hours to Auckland.  By far the longest flights I've ever been on, which leads me to a necessary commentary on long distance travel fashion.  Right now I’m looking at my hot pink compression socks, my yoga pants (I am an American) and my bright green fleece - a fashionista I am not, but I aim to be comfortable.  We are lucky enough to have first class seats for the first leg (thank you United miles) but will spend the second leg, which is the overnight leg, in coach - with me in a middle seat.  Sleeping pills and alcohol will hopefully do the trick!