Thursday, November 27, 2008
broken laptop
Somehow the laptop screen cracked overnight while sitting on a counter. So needless to say, this makes updating this blog a pain if not impossibility at the moment.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Day 4-5
Our night in Kingston was the coldest yet. We have adjusted to sleeping under the covers. However, we decided to splurge a little on warm wool socks. For a country that produces so much wool and despite the fact that demand for wool is waning, prices of wool products are through the roof. If you add some possum fur in, prices seem even higher. It's a national pest!
Mini Bananas!
We spent some the day checking out Queenstown. Unbeknown to me, Queenstown is some sort of adventure capital. There is paragliding, bungy, rocket boating, white water activities, and giant swings. So, to take part in this theme, Heather and I went... golfing. It was a nice mountain course in Arrowtown. Heather was only 5 shots back after our 9 holes. The highlight of my day was slicing three balls off the last teebox so wickedly the balls were nowhere to be found. Heather thought one of them hit a bus on the highway.
Heather teeing off on 18
We then drove to Twizel and spent the night. It wasn't as cold this time, thanks to our warm socks. We then did take in a little adventure activity by doing some helibiking yesterday. We went up in a helicopter with bikes strapped on and biked down from the top of a mountain. Heather did very well to keep up and only needed oxygen twice. We were also shown some of the Lord Of The Rings film locations along the way, including the battlefield of Pelennor.
We stopped for lunch to view Mount Cook at the edge of Lake Pukaki and made our way to Christchurch last night. We decided to spend a night in warmth a checked into a hotel. We went our for supper where I had some local fare: lamb. I don't think I've ever ordered it before, but it was amazing. I'm not sure if lamb is baby sheep or what it is, but delicious nonetheless.
Cold campsite
Mini Bananas!
We spent some the day checking out Queenstown. Unbeknown to me, Queenstown is some sort of adventure capital. There is paragliding, bungy, rocket boating, white water activities, and giant swings. So, to take part in this theme, Heather and I went... golfing. It was a nice mountain course in Arrowtown. Heather was only 5 shots back after our 9 holes. The highlight of my day was slicing three balls off the last teebox so wickedly the balls were nowhere to be found. Heather thought one of them hit a bus on the highway.
Heather teeing off on 18
We then drove to Twizel and spent the night. It wasn't as cold this time, thanks to our warm socks. We then did take in a little adventure activity by doing some helibiking yesterday. We went up in a helicopter with bikes strapped on and biked down from the top of a mountain. Heather did very well to keep up and only needed oxygen twice. We were also shown some of the Lord Of The Rings film locations along the way, including the battlefield of Pelennor.
We stopped for lunch to view Mount Cook at the edge of Lake Pukaki and made our way to Christchurch last night. We decided to spend a night in warmth a checked into a hotel. We went our for supper where I had some local fare: lamb. I don't think I've ever ordered it before, but it was amazing. I'm not sure if lamb is baby sheep or what it is, but delicious nonetheless.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Day 3-4
Our flight yesterday went well. Although it was only a 2 hour flight, we were served egg & bacon brioches or something like that. Free food rules. The swirling landing into Queenstown was unlike any other landing I've ever done, skirting the edges of the mountains. I was manning the emergency door so nobody had anything to worry about.
After picking up more essential supplies in Queenstown, like a pillow and a chili bin, we headed for Milford Sound. For those of you who don't know, a chili bin is a cooler. Because wacky names and slight changes are essential to make anything you are looking for difficult. The other night I asked for a hotel bar food order to go and the lady asked “to export?” and I thought, alright, that's their way of saying it. But no, she poured us two pints of Export beer. Heather rightly noted that “takeaway” is their version of “to go.” On the bright side, the beer was pretty good. Along that note, I was able to find a long lost beer which I had in Hawaii that I thought I lost forever. It's called Steinlager. And despite the German sounding name, it's from New Zealand. I have amazing memories of that pint I had whilst honeymooning. Of course this time around, it made me wonder what the big deal was.
Half the Milford trip was along straight flat highways through mountain valleys amongst literally millions of sheep and the other half was the craziest mountain driving ever; some might even use the word “ghetto.” In some parts, it wasn't wide enough for two lanes and you had to share one wide lane, barely wide enough for two vehicles to pass. Homer's tunnel is an unlit tunnel that looks like it was blasted out of the rock yesterday.
Just a few switchbacks
So I'm pretty sure we left Canada hoping for warmer weather. Well, we've had two freezing nights camping in a row and the prospect for a third is looking pretty good. It rained all last night and all day. Apparently it was only 8 degrees at 8AM this morning (better than the 4 degrees the day before). Fortunately, the scenery was rendered quite stunning by all the rain on our nautical tour around the sound. The tour also included a buffet lunch, a deep sea aquatic tour in an underwater observatory, and an old lady losing her purse.
The many falls
Up close to the rock cliff walls
Us in Milford Sound
Milford all encompassing
Heather drove us some of the way to our stop tonight in Kingston, which is down the lake from Queenstown. Just as I was reminding myself that bats were the only native mammal on the island and the only animals that were being roadkilled were birds, we sped past some sheep on the side of the road. This was probably karma for me saying that hitting a sheep was probably like hitting a pillow and hitting one would likely result in a soft thud and explosion of feathers (as per Hollywood cliche)
We have a small, but raging, stream beside us tonight. So camping night 1 we had to listed to a windstorm slamming our flap (see Mitch Hedberg), camping night 2 we listened to pouring rain, and now night 3 will be just as noisy.
After picking up more essential supplies in Queenstown, like a pillow and a chili bin, we headed for Milford Sound. For those of you who don't know, a chili bin is a cooler. Because wacky names and slight changes are essential to make anything you are looking for difficult. The other night I asked for a hotel bar food order to go and the lady asked “to export?” and I thought, alright, that's their way of saying it. But no, she poured us two pints of Export beer. Heather rightly noted that “takeaway” is their version of “to go.” On the bright side, the beer was pretty good. Along that note, I was able to find a long lost beer which I had in Hawaii that I thought I lost forever. It's called Steinlager. And despite the German sounding name, it's from New Zealand. I have amazing memories of that pint I had whilst honeymooning. Of course this time around, it made me wonder what the big deal was.
Half the Milford trip was along straight flat highways through mountain valleys amongst literally millions of sheep and the other half was the craziest mountain driving ever; some might even use the word “ghetto.” In some parts, it wasn't wide enough for two lanes and you had to share one wide lane, barely wide enough for two vehicles to pass. Homer's tunnel is an unlit tunnel that looks like it was blasted out of the rock yesterday.
Down to one shared lane
Just a few switchbacksSo I'm pretty sure we left Canada hoping for warmer weather. Well, we've had two freezing nights camping in a row and the prospect for a third is looking pretty good. It rained all last night and all day. Apparently it was only 8 degrees at 8AM this morning (better than the 4 degrees the day before). Fortunately, the scenery was rendered quite stunning by all the rain on our nautical tour around the sound. The tour also included a buffet lunch, a deep sea aquatic tour in an underwater observatory, and an old lady losing her purse.
The many falls
Up close to the rock cliff walls
Us in Milford Sound
Milford all encompassingHeather drove us some of the way to our stop tonight in Kingston, which is down the lake from Queenstown. Just as I was reminding myself that bats were the only native mammal on the island and the only animals that were being roadkilled were birds, we sped past some sheep on the side of the road. This was probably karma for me saying that hitting a sheep was probably like hitting a pillow and hitting one would likely result in a soft thud and explosion of feathers (as per Hollywood cliche)
We have a small, but raging, stream beside us tonight. So camping night 1 we had to listed to a windstorm slamming our flap (see Mitch Hedberg), camping night 2 we listened to pouring rain, and now night 3 will be just as noisy.
Day 1-2
I got 45 minutes of sleep on Thursday, basically writing a book of instructions to make sure Kevin doesn't burn our house to the ground. Then our parents saw us off at the airport like a bunch of kindergarten kids going off to their first day of school. It was heartwarming. I was so proud of Heather for not shedding tears.
Pre-flight morning
We arrived to LA and promptly had to deal with a minor medical issue which required a prescription. So we wandered around the environs of LAX and happily found a medical clinic and pharmacy nearby. The bonus was that our detour took us past an In and Out Burger. “Do you see what happens Larry?...” Heather even had a burger at this fast food establishment. Crazy. Must have been some halucinigenic prescriptions.
In and Out burger
My additional 3 hours of sleep over the two flights so far was leaving me pretty drowsy and we both slept for most of the NZ flight (Heather sleeps permanently, even while awake). I was able to catch The Dark Knight on in flight TV, great movie. Heather watched Mama Mia, and unsurprisingly said it was NO GOOD, while waving her arms back and forth across her body, like the big football fan she is. Ok, that's not true, but I'm convinced it was bad enough to warrant that. I didn't get a chance to see Tropic Thunder, so that was disappointing, but I was able to catch a bunch of Stepbrothers. “It's the Catalina %&^$# wine mixer.”
There was a guy nice enough beside us to take the window seat and offer his aisle seat to perma-pee-er Heather. Her medicine had this side effect and we didn't want to have to bother this gent every hour. I think Heather went 7 times over the 11 hour flight. Good job Heath. However, he didn't use the toilet once the whole flight. Someone give that man a medal.
Upon getting into cold, windy Auckland, we retrieved our rental car and made our way to go shopping for necessities, like bread and PB and chicken flavoured potato chips. Then it was off to Paihia in the North. I didn't realize the stunning beauty of the countryside while on the way up, but with the sun out on our way back on Monday, it was pretty spectacular.
The driving was the most amazing I've ever done, similar to Hawaii. Not even in video games have I done anything that fun. The roads are very narrow and the speed limit is often 100 kmph around bends where it should really not be. I don't think we had a straight road for more than half a kilometer, so there was plenty of passing lanes. Needless to say Heather was often clutching for something to hold onto. On the way back, her strategy turned to just saying “No” when she thought she would travel through time, followed by napping which made everything less tense.
The winding highways
The biggest challenge of course was remembering what side of the road to stay on. Heather needed to remind me several times that we were collision bound. Even walking down sidewalks properly has been a difficult adjustment.
While in Paihia, we did a 12 km walk to some waterfalls, failing to acknowledge how far 12 km is. We made our own spaghetti in the handy campsite kitchen and promptly went to bed. Naturally, Heather's 11 hour sleep didn't satisfy her and she was dozing off the next day while on our nautical adventure (She was dreaming about Costco). We spent the day in the Bay of Islands, touring the sights and swimming with dolphins in arctic type weather. The highlight was gazing down below the water, hyperventilating due to hypothermia setting in, and seeing four dolphins cruise about 10 feet below us. Other than that, they kept their distance. The guides made us aware the dolphins may have been sleeping where they shut half their brain down at a time and just glide around (this may explain Heather's state most of the time). So unfortunately, they did not frolic with us. 60 NZ$ and no frolicking, so disappointing. At least we got some free hot chocolate.
The real highlight of the trip was the roller coaster of a ride taking our tour boat out into open Pacific Ocean waters. The inclement weather made for a nice roller coaster type action. I rather enjoyed it, but I'm sure by the number of people requiring barf bags, I was one of the few.
12 km walk view
Campsite night 1 and Lancer
"The" famous hole in the rock
Heather amongst the sheep pasture in the Bay of Islands
Bottlenose dolphin sighting
Heather all pooped out with purse pillow
We spent last night in a hotel near the Auckland airport and we fly to Queenstown today, followed by a visit to Milford Sound.
Pre-flight morningWe arrived to LA and promptly had to deal with a minor medical issue which required a prescription. So we wandered around the environs of LAX and happily found a medical clinic and pharmacy nearby. The bonus was that our detour took us past an In and Out Burger. “Do you see what happens Larry?...” Heather even had a burger at this fast food establishment. Crazy. Must have been some halucinigenic prescriptions.
In and Out burgerMy additional 3 hours of sleep over the two flights so far was leaving me pretty drowsy and we both slept for most of the NZ flight (Heather sleeps permanently, even while awake). I was able to catch The Dark Knight on in flight TV, great movie. Heather watched Mama Mia, and unsurprisingly said it was NO GOOD, while waving her arms back and forth across her body, like the big football fan she is. Ok, that's not true, but I'm convinced it was bad enough to warrant that. I didn't get a chance to see Tropic Thunder, so that was disappointing, but I was able to catch a bunch of Stepbrothers. “It's the Catalina %&^$# wine mixer.”
There was a guy nice enough beside us to take the window seat and offer his aisle seat to perma-pee-er Heather. Her medicine had this side effect and we didn't want to have to bother this gent every hour. I think Heather went 7 times over the 11 hour flight. Good job Heath. However, he didn't use the toilet once the whole flight. Someone give that man a medal.
Upon getting into cold, windy Auckland, we retrieved our rental car and made our way to go shopping for necessities, like bread and PB and chicken flavoured potato chips. Then it was off to Paihia in the North. I didn't realize the stunning beauty of the countryside while on the way up, but with the sun out on our way back on Monday, it was pretty spectacular.
The driving was the most amazing I've ever done, similar to Hawaii. Not even in video games have I done anything that fun. The roads are very narrow and the speed limit is often 100 kmph around bends where it should really not be. I don't think we had a straight road for more than half a kilometer, so there was plenty of passing lanes. Needless to say Heather was often clutching for something to hold onto. On the way back, her strategy turned to just saying “No” when she thought she would travel through time, followed by napping which made everything less tense.
The winding highwaysThe biggest challenge of course was remembering what side of the road to stay on. Heather needed to remind me several times that we were collision bound. Even walking down sidewalks properly has been a difficult adjustment.
While in Paihia, we did a 12 km walk to some waterfalls, failing to acknowledge how far 12 km is. We made our own spaghetti in the handy campsite kitchen and promptly went to bed. Naturally, Heather's 11 hour sleep didn't satisfy her and she was dozing off the next day while on our nautical adventure (She was dreaming about Costco). We spent the day in the Bay of Islands, touring the sights and swimming with dolphins in arctic type weather. The highlight was gazing down below the water, hyperventilating due to hypothermia setting in, and seeing four dolphins cruise about 10 feet below us. Other than that, they kept their distance. The guides made us aware the dolphins may have been sleeping where they shut half their brain down at a time and just glide around (this may explain Heather's state most of the time). So unfortunately, they did not frolic with us. 60 NZ$ and no frolicking, so disappointing. At least we got some free hot chocolate.
The real highlight of the trip was the roller coaster of a ride taking our tour boat out into open Pacific Ocean waters. The inclement weather made for a nice roller coaster type action. I rather enjoyed it, but I'm sure by the number of people requiring barf bags, I was one of the few.
12 km walk view
Campsite night 1 and Lancer
"The" famous hole in the rock
Heather amongst the sheep pasture in the Bay of Islands
Bottlenose dolphin sighting
Heather all pooped out with purse pillowWe spent last night in a hotel near the Auckland airport and we fly to Queenstown today, followed by a visit to Milford Sound.
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