Our First Leg is Over!

We're blogging today from my old friend Catherine's house. She and her husband were nice enough to put us up in Auckland for a night.

Later today, we're off to Australia. We're sad to be leaving New Zealand. It's amazing how quickly the first leg flew by. We take some heart in knowing that this was one of our shortest visits.

We had a bit of an odyssey trying to find a copy of the Lonely Planet for Australia. Books here are ridiculously expensive - the Lonely Planet book that costs $30 in the US is NZ$60 here. We called every used bookshop in Auckland and managed to find one for $11, after turning in a few paperbacks we had already finished. That was pretty satisfying.

Anyway, we apologize for not blogging for a few days. We were up in Paihia, in the far north of NZ, just relaxing a bit. While there, we were able to stay at a really magnificent hostel called the Saltwater Lodge. The place was the best hostel we had stayed at so far. NZ is set up for travelers and there are hostels throughout the country, where the quality of type of accommodation varies widely. We've been getting double rooms, which sometimes feature their own bathrooms and sometimes don't. All hostels have a kitchen so you can make your own food.

I am sure some of you have been wondering about our accommodations, so here is a photo of our room at the Saltwater Lodge.

Why was this room the best one we had so far? A few reasons:

• It's spotlessly clean
• It has a king size bed (as opposed to a full or queen)
• It has a TV (not in the photo)
• It has heat - in NZ, heat is sometimes not included
• It has an ensuite bathroom
• They provide towels
• And - this one is really shocking - it has its own fridge!

Most hostels provide some of the above, but to find a place that had it all was truly wonderful.

The TV was key because it was Tuesday, and that's the night House is on here in NZ :) The hostel was doing some construction and we thought we could only stay one night, and when we found out that we could stay a second, Gina was literally jumping up and down.

Also, here's a photo from a town called Tirau, where there are several buildings built out of the wavy corrugated material that Kiwis are so fond of.

That is a corrugated Jesus, although Catherine's husband Greg, who is from Tirau, calls it the Corrugated Osama.

Also, here's a photo that shows a very typical scene as we drive through NZ.

Finally, I thought I'd share some thoughts about New Zealand. It's a really fascinating country, with only four million people at the corner of the world. The locals here are fantastically friendly, welcoming and accommodating. I'm sure that has helped tourism take off here, as it's the industry that keeps the country afloat. Historically, sheep farming was the main industry here. But, I read that the number of sheep in NZ has gone down by 20% in the last 10 years, caused mainly by a steep decline in wool prices. (Wool that used to command $6 per kilogram now goes for $2.)

Kiwis know that opportunities are overseas. London is full of expatriates, who all moved there right after college. Lots don't come home, contributing to a major brain drain. The country is also very tight regarding immigration.

Those factors, plus the weight of the social democracy here and the fickle nature of tourism, makes me think that the coming decades will make it very tough for the country to continue to prosper. Count me amongst those who love this country and wish it all the best.

Anyway, onwards to Australia. We'll be in Tasmania for five days, then flying to Melbourne and driving to Sydney, where my friend Tom will be flying in for the drive up to Cairns in the far north. I am really excited!

Farming is Cool

Today in Rotorua we went to a tourist farm show, called the Agrodome. It was a brilliant example of tourist kitsch, but we loved it. We got to see a sheepdog round up some sheep, and a guy shear one right on stage.

The best part was that Gina got to milk a real cow. On stage. In front of about a hundred adoring Japanese tourists. And yes, there are pictures!

Here's also another shout out to Gina's mom, who sent us on this trip with a few Purell wipes. Suffice to say Gina was pleased to be able to use them after that experience. She said it felt greasy. This, you see, is why I chose not to partake of the cow-milking. The funny thing was, when the presenter asked for volunteers, her hand shot in the air like a teacher's pet answering a particularly tough question. A once in a lifetime opportunity, I guess. At least there are pictures so we can be sure to never let her forget it.

Here I am in front of a real, live Merino sheep.

Finally, as an added bonus, we blogged a few days ago that we saw seals swimming. We took a little video with our camera and we're pleased to be able to post it here. It may not be available until Sunday morning, 6/3 thanks to YouTube. Hopefully it'll work!

Rotorua is Stinky.

Quick post as we don't have a lot of time at the internet cafe today..

We just arrived this morning in Rotorua, in the center of the North Island. The entire town smells like rotten eggs due to the nearby volcanic vents. We're planning to do some of the touristy stuff here, like go to a sheep shearing show.

Yesterday, we completed the Tongariro Crossing, a fairly strenuous one day hike across the Tongariro volcanic complex. The weather was fantastic. As my mom and Jill will recall, last time I did the walk it was absolutely pouring rain. Very nice to do the walk and be able to see it. It was windy, cold and steep, so we're sore, but we had a great time. Here are some pix:

Don't worry, it was perfectly safe. The volcano hasn't blown since '93 :)

At some point we will find a better internet cafe and post some more photos and such.

Windy in Wellington

Hi Guys!
This is my first crack at the blog. Bob has been primarily in charge of it. We have been under the gun having to pay at the Internet cafe and he has been having a really good time with it.

We have make our way out of Kaikoura which was brilliant as the locals say. We were leaving Kaikoura and a woman who runs the place suggested that we stop at Ohau lookout and waterfall. We stopped at the lookout and there were hundreds of seals and sea lions just lying around enjoying the day. There were a few playing in a crevasse in the rocks that had made a natural pool. Spend a good bit of time watching them. We went over to the waterfall thinking that not much could beat that. We did about a 10minute walk into the forest and came to a beautiful waterfall with a small pool at the bottom of it. There were about 20-30 baby seals jumping and playing have a gay ol' time for themselves. They were only about a foot away from us. Nice to see nature in the wild rather then an aquarium like we do at home.

Finished the day in Picton at the top of the south island, which we thought would be a small nothing town but proved to be quite a nice place. We spent the night and took the ferry boat over to Wellington the next day. The ferry was really interesting. We drove our Corolla onto the bay of the boat along with all the trucks carrying sheep and cows.. so it left this great urine smell absorbed into the apolstery of the car. Really an enjoyment. But as you have read, with our car that would take the cake wouldn't it?

We are in Wellington now and were a little shell shocked at the scale of this city. We have been surrounded by sheep, cows mountains and populations of no more then 100 that a "big city" (loosely termed) felt a little wierd. Hope all of you guys are doing well and enjoyed the well deserved warm weather.

Dolphin Swim and First Pix

We did our dolphin swim this morning and it was amazing. There were a lot of dolphins out and we were able to get very close to them, closer than the previous times I've done the swim.. It's just very cool to be in the water, making eye contact with a wild dolphin!

I took this picture, which shows a swimmer in the water and a dolphin frolicking just behind. And here we are on the boat just after the swim:

Since we found a good internet cafe, here's a few more photos:

This is us at the pass overlooking Doubtful Sound. It's a pretty cool spot, there is a lake that's about 150 meters of altitude, and a road over a mountain pass that about six miles later hits Doubtful Sound (which is actully a fjord). We took a day's tour. The rain prevented us from seeing the mountaintops but the waterfalls were amazing. I was wearing my very fashionable bright yellow raincoat, which won't win

This is me at the terminal face of Fox Glacier.. note the warning sign behind me.

Here's a yellow eyed penguin coming out of the ocean, taken at the bottom of the South Island in the Catlins.And finally, a self-portrait of us sitting in the car..

We're having fun and these are highlight pictures.. we've taken many more. Hope all is well with you back home!

-bob

Kaikour-aah!

No, we didn't take that picture, but that's where we are - Kaikoura, NZ.

We made our way up the West Coast today from Hokitika. Click here to see the route. It took about six hours. Kaikoura is an awesome town on the East Coast - of all the places I've been to up and down NZ, this one is my favo(u)rite.. It's famous for its mountains, which rise pretty close to the sea. The cliffs basically drop right into the ocean, meaning the water is pretty deep right off the coast.

The geography of the area means it's frequented by all sorts of great marine life within a mile or so of the shore, and tomorrow we're going to swim with wild dolphins. They basically take you out in the open ocean, put a snorkel on you, and drop you in a pod of dolphins. It's pretty awesome. This will be my third time doing this, and I am ecstatic for the opportunity to do it again. Hopefully the dolphins will oblige and give us a show.. Gina's very excited for it and I hope she gets what she's expecting! We're planning to come into this internet cafe tomorrow after the swim, so we can describe it and hopefully post some pictures.

This isn't the first time we'll see rare wildlife. At the bottom of the South Island, we got to see a wild Yellow Eyed Penguin, which is the rarest species of penguin on the planet. It was quite a treat.

Out on the West Coast, we had a blip - we took a corner a bit too close and blew out a "tyre" on our rental car. We were a bit scared because we were on the remote West Coast. We changed the tire in the pouring rain, and hobbled into Fox Glacier village. Luckily the local mechanic was on duty the next day (a Saturday) and we were able to buy a new tire and have him install it for a reasonable nz$83. Could have been much worse!

Hi to all back home and wish us luck for good weather and for many dolphins! Here's a photo I found on the internet of a dolphin off the Kaikoura coast.

-bob

Queenstown (again)

We're back in Queenstown for the moment, after having spent three nights in Fiordland. We found a nice hostel in Te Anau with a nice view and a private bathroom, which was really nice. We spent three days there.

We spent one day in the Catlins, which was a long drive but worth it as we were able to see a yellow eyed penguin (the world's rarest species) come out of the water after a long day of fishing, and the sunset over Nugget Point was pretty spectacular.

Yesterday we went on a cruise on Doubtful Sound which was pretty nice, the weather didn't cooperate much but we were able to see a bit of it when the clouds cleared. No dolphins, though. Gina enjoyed the trip into the Manapouri Power Station.

We are stopping back in Queenstown for the moment, we're heading up the West Coast and hoping to make it to Fox Glacier tonight.

We're learning how to get on whilst traveling, including how to make the most of our budget and especially food. We filled up the car today and it cost nz$59 (us$43), which pretty much blew our daily budget of nz$160. (Rooms are costing nz$60 a night and the car rental is nz$23).

We've met a few interesting folks, including a few clueless Americans who flew here on a whim with no money, a guy just out of the Japanese Navy who was looking for work as a helicopter pilot, and a twentysomething pair from the Midwest who decided to come here for a year to work. They are living out of their car and working as they can find it, including an interesting stint on a pig farm somewhere on the North Island.

Basically we got here thinking we were hard-core backpackers, but we're feeling kind of wimpy. Some folks come here and really rough it.

And we've already learned to dislike Germans. They travel in packs and are ridiculously loud. Kinda like freshmen.

Anyway we might not blog for a few days as we travel up the remote West Coast. All is well with us and hi to all of you back home.

- g&b

Had a nice day today driving around Queenstown..

Drove over Skippers Canyon Road to Wanaka, which was really a beautiful drive, and Wanaka's a great town. When I was here in 1999, this road was not yet paved and off-limits to rental cars.

We went over to the Kewaru Bridge and watched some people bungy jump. Looking forward to doing it myself up in Taupo. Gina said she might even try it!

Everything in Queenstown is ridiculously expensive, so we're going to jump ship and head out to Te Anau tomorrow for some hiking and a cruise on Milford Sound.

And We're Off

Piggybacking on someone's internet here so I'll make this quick..

We made it to New Zealand.. not without issues, we flew into LAX and realized that we had nine hours to kill. So we took the public bus to Santa Monica and went to the pier. It was nice to get a little slice of LA. It was just long enough to confirm that all our preconceptions were true.

Quick flight down to Auckland, felt like a redeye - we slept most of the way.

Six hour layover in Auckland, ick. Got into Queenstown at 2pm or so, got a nice upgrade on the rental car (a Corolla, by NZ standards pretty phat) and spent the afternoon taking a quick drive. We're trying to reset our body clocks to NZ time. The layovers helped with it, surprisingly.

Anyway we are safe and sound and reacting horribly to bland NZ food (even "gourmet" alfredo sauce has no taste whatsoever).

Relaxing here for a few days then we'll probly head down to Te Anau and deeper into Fiordland.

We had our first blip: Gina lost her Oakleys on the plane. The guy at the airport said they found them, but couldn't find them within the lost and found office. A first class operation to be sure. Hopefully we can reclaim them when we go through AKL next time.

Hope all is well with you all back home.

-Bob