Ottsworld Travel Experiences » Australia-Oceania

Photo of the Week – Milford Track

admin — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 04:30:53 +0000

Colorful Carpet - Milford Track New Zealand

The Milford Track (Kiwi speak for hike) is called the most beautiful hike in the world. It received this accreditation when an English journalist walked it and wrote about her journey titling it “Milford Track, Possibly the Most Beautiful Walk in the World”. Her editor looked at it and crossed out the word “Possibly”. After that Frommers, Lonely Planet, Rough Guides as well as many marketing brochures has used the quote to describe it.

I hiked this 3 day 32 mile trek in November of 2006; certainly one of the most beautiful walks in the world! Waterfalls and colorful landscapes surrounded us making one feel that they had been transported to another world.

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Photo of the Week – New Zealand

admin — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:21:31 +0000

Wai-o-tapu thermal Park New Zealand (2006)

Near Rotorua on the North Island

Read about my New Zealand Travel Adventures

Too much time to think

Sherry — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 14:34:51 +0000

I’m currently leaving Australia and heading for Bali – I’m coming close to traveling for 3 months now. There are a lot of wierd stages I go through and I spend time in my mind chewing on these stages and try to make sense out of them or figure out how to simply get through them quicker without losing my mind.

As I reflect on my last 3 months I think about all of the stages I’ve gone through in my head. Back in Eastern Africa my head was obsessed with not having a job and not using my brain in any logical, money-producing way. In South Africa I was so worried about traveling on my own once my sister left I was scared that I would be bored and not meet anyone! In New Zealand I was struggling with my budget living and sharing spaces in hostels. In Australia new craziness entered into my head – mainly around spending too much money and generally feeling rather old and boring. During my time in Australia I was living my old life of spending – yet knowing that I didn’t have any money coming in was torturing me. As much as I desparately wanted to live that old life of shopping, having spectacular dinners, taking cabs everywhere, going out clubbing every night – basically spending about $100 on a full night out – I was wracked with guilt. I was painfully aware of the taxi meter, the cost of each bottle of wine, the cost of having an appetizer AND an entree – and I felt myself add it all up oin my head and then be depressed. The wierd thing is that I wasn’t upset about spending the mjoney as much as I was upset about what I was spending it on. I love going out – but I didn’t want to blow through my travel budget on a New York like existance – I wanted to blow it on something different than NY and the life I was so accustomed to. However in all honestly – there wasn’t that much different between Australia and say – California. Maybe that’s why I was on edge a bit. I loved being with Angie, but I was luke-warm on Australia. Sure it was nice, the cities were interesting, beaches were nice – but it was all really expensive there and I didn’t get anything that different for my momey. I didn’t have to struggle through a language barrier, the landscape was like the US and the food was pretty much the same as home. Except for the occasional ‘G’day Mate’ or ‘How you going?’ – I felt like I was at home living my old life. Yet – there was another thing missing in that scenario besides my old salary…my self image. When we would go out on the town I felt rather dowdy and old. Maybe I was just sick and tired of my clothing choices or the fact that I felt like I’ve gained weight or the lack of any male attention/interest for 3 months. I have no idea why I was so bitter about my self image – but I was. This then all mushroomed into me feeling badly that I douldn’t really vacation with Angie the way I used to – I felt like I was letting her down when I declined shopping outing to go to the free museum or go write at an internet cafe.

I have no idea where some of these neurosis come from – but they stick with me for a while and drive me a bit insane to a point where I’m not really happy with my behavior. Sometimes I wonder if I just have too much time to think now so I’m slowly driving my mind to insnaity! Or maybe this extra time is what I needed in order to stop and really think – without work distractions and everday life – maybe I was meant to ponder all of these things. Maybe I’m learning (in a sometimes painful way) what I like and dislike and what I want to get out of this year of travel. Hopefully this process will help me understand what is really important to me. I need to take these learnings and apply them to the next 9 months. The rest of my trip is fairly unstructured so I can contyrol my destiny a bit – which is a great feeling!

Turkey and Dolly Parton – Bizarro Sydney

Sherry — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 06:56:18 +0000

Photo: The famous landmark of Sydney

To view all of my Australia Photography – click here!

For all Sydney/Thanksgiving snapshots – click here!

Upon arriving in Sydney I realized that this was really the first big, cosmopolitan city that I had visited since I left NYC. It was a welcome site – however that came with a price…costs like NYC! However – I was willing to try to suck it up for a few days to enjoy city life again – the bustling streets, the hip bars, the high rise buildings…the only thing missing was a Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade! The first day we walked all over Sydney business district – we ended up in an area called Martin Place – a large outdoor mall area surrounded by the tallest business buildings Sydney had to offer. A thought kept popping into – Bizarro.

If you are an avid watcher of Seinfeld then you will know what I mean when I say bizarro…there was a whole episode dedicated to it. The short explanation is when everything in Jerry Seinfeld’s world was opposite in a bizarre way. For example – the character of George was a normal, well-adjusted, responsible citizen with a job…hopefully you now get my drift when I say bizarro. As I looked around Martin Place and saw all of the busy-blackberry-carrying business people (to which I used to be a member) bustling around looking important, a mix of wide-eyed tourists with maps, high end Gucci stores, a fountain, Starbucks, and a large decorated Christmas Tree in the center of the mall area, surrounded by a sweltering 85 degrees temp…I realized that this was Bizarro Rockefeller Center halfway around the world in Sydney! There were big signs up about the big Christmas Tree lighting ceremony coming up on Thursday and they were busy building a stage for the performance. The only thing missing was an ice rink (probably impossible in the heat), the Today show, and the Rainbow room (however they did have a tall business tower with a revolving deck to see ‘fabulous’ views of the city). As I continued to walk around the city – I found more bizarro sites such as Bizarro Times Square, Bizarro Central Park Poet’s Walk, and even a Bizarro Brooklyn Bridge…it was a bit eery to me.

Photo: People climbing on top of the Harbor Bridge

The first day in Sydney I had to actually take care of some business too…I needed more pages added to my passport. I’ve only had my passport for 6 years and I was already out of pages…and none of it was business travel…a fact I’m rather proud of! (pat on the back for me!).

I found the American Consulate in the heart of Martin Place and went through the 3 levels of extensive security to get to the waiting room to request more pages. While I was there – I thought I would ask our friendly American/Australian hosts if they knew of any American Thanksgiving celebrations that were happening the next day that we could partake in.
They provided me a list of names and numbers of various Australian/American groups to contact…good enough…I was on a mission to find pumpkin pie. I started contacting the groups and found that one of them was putting on a traditional Thanksgiving dinner at a place nearby…for a mere $80 a person. This included one drink, turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. I guess turkeys are hard to catch in Oz…as the price was rather steep! However Angie and I were desperate for pumpkin pie so we decided that we would buy the ticket as we had nothing else to do for the holiday. When I called back to the Australian American Association to book it – the woman I talked to on the phone asked where I was from and what I was doing in Australia. I told her that we were just traveling through on holiday and wanted a place to celebrate Thanksgiving since we were both away from our families. She then did something that floored me…she said that the association would pick up our dinner fee and we would could go as their guests. I decided that this was not a good time to tell her that we were staying at the Four Seasons Hotel…instead – I graciously told her that it wasn’t necessary to do such a thing – but we would greatly appreciate it! I was amazed as this woman didn’t even know us and she was being so hospitable…the spirit of Thanksgiving was alive down under!

The next day I spent the day at the museums, and walking around taking photographs while Angie shopped. I found that I had to stay away from shopping temptation in Sydney else I would be coming home in February instead of September! The Sydney Opera House was my favorite site – it was really quite beautiful in the sun! For some reason the roof has always looked like eggshells to me – so the opportunity to photograph it was fantastic. When you look at my link of photography you’ll notice that I loved it considering that I think I took about 50 pictures of the building! I wandered around the Harbor Bridge (Bizarro Brooklyn bridge), and the Rocks neighborhood (bizarro South Street Seaport). Another bizarro siting…the Australian Idol show was prepping for their big finale at the Opera House grounds that coming Sunday night.

Angie and I met back up and I salivated over her great purchases as I told her about my day of bizarro sites and museums. We got all dolled up and went off to the big turkey day banquet! We arrived in time for the cocktail reception and met our host, Anne, and others that would be sitting at our table. The dinner was for about 150 people total and our table had 10 people at it. All of them had some tie back to the US (a husband, step-dad, or just a love of the US) – and none of them really knew what the holiday of Thanksgiving was really about. So Angie and I dusted off that part of our brains that we hadn’t used since 4th grade and tried to recount the story of Thanksgiving…the pilgrims, Indians, corn offering, etc. This was right next to the space in my brain which held the names and order of all of the planets of the solar system…so it was all a bit rusty. We managed to get the point across – and then told them that it was really about family, food, and football….American football that is.

We went to sit down at our table and I was immediately struck by the table centerpiece…a couple of ears of fresh corn (technically it wasn’t really harvest time in Australia) and an American flag! I found it rather cute…and a bit bizarre too. Next Anne, our host, came around and gave us all a little pin to wear (an Australian flag and an American flag next to each other), and she also gave us a patch. The patch was precious…I may have to figure out a way to sew it to my backpack. This picture of a kangaroo and an eagle shaking hands/wings was over the top! We were so thankful to be guests of this group…they were really wonderful!
There were Australian and American speakers that got up to address the eating community and talk about Thanksgiving and the partnership of Australia and America…the whole thing kind of brought tears to my eyes as I really missed being home for the holidays. Angie and I glanced at each other with tears in our eyes and raised our glasses of wine to our families.

Now…bring on the food. Hold on though…there was one more ‘event’ that happened before we could dig into our feast….something VERY bizarro. All of a sudden…a person in a chicken mascot outfit came out of the kitchen – he was running around all of the tables. Everyone seemed happy to see him…Angie and I just looked confused. I thought maybe they were trying to mimic a football mascot or something. However – we came to find out that this chicken was supposed to represent a turkey (I liked to refer to it as a churkey)…ohhhhhh…now do you get it…in a bizarro way. As the churkey was running around, the next thing that emerged from the kitchen was truly stunning…Dolly Parton…no – not the real one – someone dressed up like one. They played Dolly music in the background and Dolly was running around the banquet room trying to catch the churkey. I looked at Angie and wondered just how much wine and champagne we had been drinking…or was this Land of Oz really this strange? The only real explanation we got regarding this whole episode of Dolly and Churkey was that Dolly was the most American person that they could think of for the skit of someone hunting a turkey…or maybe they just had a couple of extra soccer balls laying around and thought they would make good boobs…who knows. So – after that shock…now we were ready to eat.

They paraded out the turkey (real ones)…about 100 of them…it was quite impressive. After the turkey parade they set one at the head of each table…gave the oldest looking man at the table an apron and had him start to carve. The food was good – and they had a bit of everything…turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and veggies. However, I found myself missing my traditional family menu that my mom and dad always cooked up…German stuffing, peas and broccoli, and fresh cranberry sauce. However – mom and dad didn’t have Dolly…so I guess there are trade-offs. Overall – we had a wonderful night and were so thankful of our guests to treat us to this big dinner (and many, many drinks) – the whole night was priceless! Oh yeah….and there was pumpkin pie…at last!

The final days in Sydney, Angie and I toured the opera house, ran around the parks, found great restaurants, took the ferry ride to Manly beach, enjoyed our Sydney accommodation, and soaked up the sun. We also were able to get out and enjoy the local nightlife and dancing when we met up with a friend of Angie’s for Friday and Saturday night. The trip to Sydney was complete with some late night clubbing with our ‘new friends’. Who would have thought that we could find all of these familiar, yet bizarro, things in Sydney…however – I have to say…Dolly still takes the cake…or should I say, takes the churkey.

Photo: Angie and I at pre-dinner cocktails at Thanksgiving dinner

Some information in this post provided by Sydney Accomodations

Kindness of Strangers Down Under

admin — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 07:14:01 +0000

Travel for Wine

The mission in Melbourne was to eat, party, and shop…never mind that I have no money…I was willing to forget that for a few days. The good news was that I have a friend who lives in Melbourne, PK, and I enlisted him to show us the nightlife. I knew I picked the right man…he was good at finding the nightlife in NYC when I knew him – so I knew he wouldn’t disappoint me!

We joined up with him and his work colleagues the first night. We quickly learned the Melbourne tram system and made our way out to St. Kilda for Mexican food and drinks. Got home at 1:30AM…not bad. The next day we spent the day wandering around little alleys of shops and cafes that make Melbourne such a cute town. This town had character – it was really charming. Every little alley way had a cafe or shop – it reminded me of Europe a bit. In addition – it was a very artsy town – there were great public art displays peppered all over the town. The architecture was a nice mix of old and new – it reminded me of Boston in a way. That night we found some great nightlife and met up with PK and his gang again and danced the night away until 2:30AM…getting better. Day 3 we decided that we spent enough money shopping and we should instead take in the culture in Melbourne. We went to a few art museums. The Museum entry was free…what a great town! The museums there were very impressive – great architecture and nice exhibits. We met up with PK and gang again for dinner that night in another part of town and enjoyed one last night of shak’in our booties until 4:30AM…just like NYC. Yup – I liked this town.

The next morning came way too soon and we had to drag ourselves out of bed to get checked out of our Melbourne hotels and make our way to wine country – Yarra Valley. We had a plan to take a taxi to the train, to the bus, to our Yarra Valley apartment – this should take us about 3 hours…not bad considering if we had just rented a car it would have taken us 1 1/2 hours. So – we loaded up all of our luggage and took off. Things were going really well – we made it onto the train – I was reading a magazine that Angie brought me and she was sleeping.

All of a sudden a train announcement came on and said that the train was stopping at the next station and we would have to take a bus for a few stops and get back on a different train. Now – by this time we had aquired a good amount of luggage – shopping was good in Melbourne – but it was heavy unfortunately. Racing off this train and up and down stairs to a bus was not my idea of fun. It was a really hot, humid day and the flies were out in force.

Side Note – I haven’t told you about the flies yet…but they deserve a side note. The flies in Oz are really one of the most annoying creatures on earth. I equate them with the flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz movie…simply annoying and a bit frightening. There are tons of them…more than I’ve ever seen…and they are completely acclimated to humans. Humans to them is just like a cow…they land on your face when you are walking down the sidewalk…they have no fear. They don’t bite or anything…they just frickin’ annoy you until you are ready to tear your hair out. I’ve never seen such bold flies in my life – and don’t want to ever again. I now know why cows have tails.

Ok – back to catching a bus to the next train stop so that we can get back on the train and then get back on another bus and get to our apartment in Yarra valley. It’s even exhausting to read – isn’t it? Now add our 30kg worth of luggage (converts to aprox. 60 lbs) it’s a good thing we are both rather fit. However – by this time – I was hungover, hot, fly-ridden, hungry, and tired…a lethal combination for me. I was so ticked off by this whole ordeal I could hardly think. I call it ‘Traveler’s Rage’ – and I had it.

However while we were waiting on the bus to fill up so we could take off – I had a nice man strike up a conversation with me. He was a local and also a tennis umpire for the Australian Open…very cool guy. We got to the train station and got off the bus – I said goodbye to my new friend and we were trying to figure out what track to go to when 2 teenage punk rockish girls busted out into a fist fight in front of us…no joke. I felt like we were in Detroit or something – but we were in the suburbs of Melbourne…crazy. The train officials had to come over and break it up – I simply tried to avoid it. This was more violence than I had ever even seen in the NYC subway.

We found our track and had to wait for our train in the heat – and the flies. When the train came we lugged everything back on to the train and sat down. Some more kids that looked like they were about 12 and skate boarders were behind us…all of a sudden we smelled smoke and they had lit up and were smoking (something) on the train. My conclusion was that the youth around this suburb were really, really annoying. Great birth control. I didn’t have the energy to say anything…plus – I had been trained that in NYC you just ignore people who are doing illegal things on the subway. So I ignored it. All of a sudden the guy next to Angie got up – walked over to the kids and yelled “What the F##* are you doing – you can’t smoke here – people are around”. He then sat back down next to Angie. I was damn impressed. The kids stopped. I wanted to take this man to NYC and see how he did there…but I was too intimidated to ask him to go – so instead we just said ‘thank you’.

Phone Home - outdoor art in Melbourne

While we were sitting on the train the lady next to me started talking to us. She asked where we were going and we exhaustively said – we are catching the bus from Lilydale to Healesville (Yarra Valley). She said that with all of the delays with the trains/buses that we may no longer be able to catch our bus to Healesville…ugh!!!! When we arrived a the Lilydale train station – it looked like the armpit Australia. More hoodlum kids were walking around causing trouble and our new friend Hennie led us to the bus stop and checked the schedule for us. Unfortunately she was right – we missed our original bus and now had to wait for an hour and a half for the next bus so that we could drive literally 20 minutes to Healesville.

This was infuriating to me…I could walk there faster…but not with this luggage. Hennie seemed to be very concerned about us and the fact that we had to wait around. We said that we’d be ok – no problem – and we bid her goodbye and many thanks for her assistance. We sat down in the hot sun and flies and basically bitched to each other about how this little trip had turned into a nightmare. Pretty soon we hear a beep…beep of a car and turn around and it’s Hennie…in a little white Fiat. She had come to pick us up and take us to Healesville! We were both stunned. We thanked her profusely and crammed all of our stuff in her little car and took off. Along the way we found out that she was 70 years old and loved to travel…my hero. She said that she had a prior engagement at the church but she just couldn’t bare to see us waiting there for a long time so she thought she would do her ‘good deed’ for the day and pick us up. What an angel.

So – 5 hours after we left our hotel in Melbourne – we arrived at our apartment in Healesville and got settled in. The apartment was swank and charming – so we were both finally relieved to be at our destination. We went to the local grocery store to get some food and walked by a local bar at an old hotel. Live music was playing on the veranda so we decided to stop in and take a look – and get a much deserved cold beer!

It was a very small, local joint with about 15 people in the bar altogether. The ‘band’ consisted of 2 young high school boys playing guitars – I think at least 10 of the people there were their family taking pictures of them! The boys kind of looked like a modern day Richie Cunningham and Potsey – dressed in their skateboarder gear and shaggy hair. However – they played some great old rock ‘n roll such as Johnnie be Good, Summer of ‘69, some Van Morrison…it was a priceless scene. We got our cold beers – sat at the bar, sang along, read the paper and watched people dance to the music.

Our day from hell had really taken a turn for the better. These are the types of days that I seem to remember the longest and enjoy the most. The ones that take you places where you never expect, and acquaint you with local people.

After we spent the next day in the Yarra Valley tasting wine – we got back to Melbourne (with no delays!) and we hopped a plane to Sydney. Our last stop in Oz was going to be the big city where our adventure will continue!

Some information in this post provided by Melbourne Hotels

Land Down Under

Sherry — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 06:59:30 +0000

Photo: Round mushroom in the Daintree Rain Forest

To view all of my Australia Photography – click here!

For all Australia snapshots – click here!

I followed the yellow brick road to OZ…and finally – I learned why Australia is called Oz. I was expecting some witty reason – something about Dorthy losing Toto and being raised by kangaroos- but unfortunately – it was quite simple. It’s simply a short way to say Australia. One syllable is easier than 3 I guess. However – I asked the locals why they didn’t simply spell it ‘Aus’ instead of ‘Oz’ – they said it’s more recognizable as ‘Oz’ and easier to pronounce (a.k.a better marketing). So – this is how I made my entry into Oz…asking stupid questions to locals.

This is the leg of my around the world journey that I choose to dub “Familiar Faces and Places” (kind of sounds like a Garth Brookes song). In Australia – I met my great girlfriend and frequent travel partner, Angie. For those of you who have followed my travels before – you’ll recognize her from my Italy, France, and Costa Rica photos…and many drunken nights in NYC. The whole time I’ve been in Australia it’s felt like a 2 week vacation as opposed to small part of my trip around the world. I feel like I will be heading home to NYC shortly with my new stash of shopping purchases and a few bottles of wine. I think this is due to the fact that normally when I travel with Angie – it’s for 2 weeks, we eat well, live well, party well, and shop…that’s the norm when I’m with her. So my brain has immediately switched into that mode. The only downside to this is that my travel budget isn’t the same as it used to be when Angie and I normally travel…but the value of having a familiar face with me during my travels – outweighs the cost!

The other familiarity to this part of the trip is that I’ve actually been here in Australia before. This is one of only two places on my big, worldly itinerary that I’m going back to (the other being Italy). I really came back here because the last time I was here 5 years ago I was only able to see one part of Australia…Queensland. I wanted to see the great cities of Australia this time – plus – Angie had never been – so it seemed like a logical place to spend 2 weeks.

I left New Zealand early to fly to Sydney and meet Angie who was flying in from San Francisco. Miraculously we did meet up at our domestic gates just as planned. It was as if I had a muzzle on for the last 2 months – we had so much to talk about – I think I talked her ear off. It was a bit of a strange feeling getting back into my old life routine. We flew directly to Cairnes (in Queensland) and took a shuttle to Port Douglas where we were staying for the next 4 nights. Yup, that’s right – I was going to stay in the same room for 4 nights in a row…wooohoooo!! For the last 3 weeks in New Zealand I have stayed in a new location/hostel/lodge every night. The opportunity to actually unpack my suitcase and see what was on the bottom of it was like heaven to me! I had only been wearing those things that bubbled to the top…I was quite sick of them by now! We were staying at an apartment – so we got settled in and went to the grocery store to get breakfast food and fish for dinner. We had a great little night in our apartment, cooked dinner, rented a movie, and continued to catch up. Finally – I felt like I had a home again for a short moment! It even had a washer and dryer in our apartment…no more washing my panties in the sink – I was back in civilization!

I was also back in the warm weather…this was also a welcome site! The first day we decided to go to the beach and simply relax and work on our tans…or for me – work on my sunburn. I went out and bought the thickest SPF30 I could find – but still got burnt. While we were making our way through town – we heard the rumor that a Hollywood movie was being shot in Port Douglas…the town was all abuzz. This was a small town…maybe 1000 people living there total – then an influx of tourists makes it about 2500 people I suppose. The small town had turned into Hollywood though…it was pretty exciting. The movie was called Fool’s Gold and I’m not sure when it is coming out…but it stars Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson. Needless to say – Angie and I were hunting for Matthew the whole time we were there. We came up with things that we would go up and say to him if we met him in a bar…the standard comment was ‘nice abs’ – however I wanted to go with ‘nice knees’…I figured something as absurd as that he would actually remember. Alas…I was never able to use that opening line though as we never saw him! Probably a blessing!

Photo: Mr. Fluffy lecturing us

After our beach day, we decided to go to the Great Barrier Reef. We booked a tour on a dive boat (with about 50 other people – it was a big boat!), took our motion sickness pills, dawned our bikinis and off we went! The advantage to taking one of these large tour boats out to the reef is that they are fast…they get you far out on the reef in a matter of hours. While we motored out to the far reaches of the reef – our Snorkel Guide – Mr. Fluffy (no – I’m not joking) – gave us a refresher course on snorkeling and educated us on the marine biology of the Reef. Honestly – it was the most thorough snorkeling ‘lesson’ I’ve ever had. My normal experience is – “pick out a mask and some fins in that bucket over there and jump in…good luck.” However Mr. Fluffy was really an expert…we learned about getting the right equipment that fit, how to snorkel the correct way, how to see sharks, etc…really amazing. We had a total of 3 snorkeling stops and each one was really beautiful. The fish were amazing and the coral was colorful. The highlight though was the last stop where Mr. Fluffy went down deep and woke up a couple of sleeping sharks…normally I would not stick around to see groggy sharks – especially if they were anything like me when I woke up…BITCHY. However, Mr. Fluffy assured us it would be ok and they would take no interest in us…so I trusted him. The sharks were big…probably about 5 feet – pretty spectacular to have them swimming about 10 feet away from us, it makes your heart stop! We also saw giant barracudas – however they seemed to have no interest in us whatsoever – thank goodness. One last thing – I believe that it’s too bad that Jack Palance (Mr. Ripley’s Believe it or Not) passed away recently as he should have come out and met Mr. Fluffy. The man could hold his breath longer than anyone I’ve ever seen. Honestly – it was like for 4 minutes. I think he was part fish – or at the very least he had to have gills. He definitely could have given David Blaine a run for his money – maybe I should have told him to come to NYC/Lincoln Center and live in a tank for a week.

The last day we were in Port Douglas we went on a day tour Cape Tribulation, the Daintree Rainforest, and the Daintree River. When I was here 5 years ago – I actually went and camped in the Daintree Rainforest for a night – it was a terrifying night for me then as we didn’t even have tents – only a hammock that we tied between a couple of trees – I just prayed all night that a snake wasn’t going to slither down the tree and into my sleeping bag cocoon. So – I was happy to simply go on a walking tour of the rainforest this time around! Our guide Grant was great – he took us to the Cape where we got Kayaks and did a little kayaking, then we went for picnic lunch in the rainforest and visited a swimming hole to cool off. During our rainforest walk – Grant explained to us the ‘Battle for Light’. No – this isn’t a new Star Wars prequel/sequel – this was the battle that every plant/tree/fruit goes through in the rainforest to get above the tree canopy and to the sunlight to be ‘king of the jungle’. The vines were amazing – you could follow them up trees and you knew they had been around for hundreds of years. We also saw a tree that was the same design as Angie’s bikini she was wearing…once you look at all of the pictures you’ll see what I mean.
We saw the rainforest wild life – dragons, and ants…but no cassowary’s (Patty – you are probably the only person who knows what a cassowary is – the rest of you will need to google that). Finally we hopped on an electric river boat and did a river safari of sorts…we were hunting for crocs…and we weren’t disappointed. Sure enough – Scarface made an appearance – and we followed it through the river as far as we could…it was pretty cool to see him swim on the surface.

Photo: Me practicing how I would fight off Scarface

We left Port Douglas without Mathew McConaughey – but at least we had good tans. Well – Angie had a good tan…I had my normal red, German glow. We were headed for the city now…Melbourne!

New Zealand Finale – Land of the Sheep

Sherry — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 06:22:14 +0000

Land of Sheep

For all snapshots of the South Island Finale – click here!

To view all of my New Zealand Photographs – click here!

My last days in New Zealand and I feel as if I was looking through a kaliedascope for 3 days. The colors were so powerful on the South Island – plus – the sun was out so we had bright blue skies…yeah!! I left a very cold Queenstown (it actually snowed there all day and was 1 degree C when I left) and hopped back on the Magic Bus to finish off my tour of the South Island. It was weird to re-integrate myself back on the Magic Bus as all of my friends had moved on the past week – so I was back in the business of making new friends again! With a new bus, came a new driver, Mark. Mark really left something behind…like a personality…but he had his weird quirks and generally got us to where we were going safely! He loved to use the term ‘wee little town’ and the word ‘keen’. It was cute for the first day – but after the 3rd day I was about ready to jump out of the moving bus if I heard the expressions again!

Photo – the clouds…it looks like a canvas!

We headed to Dunedin – a cute little college town and home of Speights Beer. I decided to skip all of the touristy stuff that afternoon and instead treat myself to a movie in a theater as opposed to a plane movie! I decided to go to Flags of our Fathers as I knew it was rather recent and everything else showing was a few months old – I felt like I needed to be on the cutting edge. The movie theater was great, HUGE, Lazy-Boy like recliner seats…and I was the only one in the theater!! I sat smack dab in the middle and enjoyed the fact that it wasn’t packed with people like in NY. However – as I started to think about NY – I realized that being in this theater was just like being at the Lowes on Broadway…all of a sudden I thought…what if my past 2 months were just a dream and when I walked outside I would exit on a bustling Broadway street. My mind was playing tricks on me – it was a very eery thought. Anyway – after the excessive violence in the movie – I was jolted back to reality and exited out into Dunedin…thank goodness! I stopped in at a local photography exhibit and it inspired me…so make sure you check out this blogs picture link…it will be worth it! The town had an overall artsy feel…must have been the college influence there.

The next day we were off again to Lake Tekapo – but first we stopped in Dunedin at the world’s steepest street…yep…that’s right – it’s not in San Francisco – it’s in Dunedin New Zealand! I have to admit – I was skeptical – but honestly – it was really steep! Pictures really don’t do it justice – but I tried! Then we stopped at the beach to see the Moeraki Boulders – they were these amazing limestone boulders that were shaped by the sea…much like the Pancake rocks of the West Coast. However – these were perfectly round!

Next we headed into sheep country again – the vistas were beautiful as ever. There were these fluffy clouds that looked as if an artist just painted them on a canvas. We then rode into a flat area where we had an amazing view of snow covered Mt. Cook – the tallest mountain in New Zealand. We stopped at a lake to take some pictures and I experienced the most beautiful blue lake I’ve ever seen.

The color was so unique! The color of the water was such a perfect blue because it was glacier water. Once again – I felt as if someone had painted this view on a canvas…it doesn’t even look real in the pictures! We were so lucky to see it on such a clear day! We arrived in Lake Taekapo late afternoon and I hopped on a horse and rode around the lake for a a short time. Having never really spent much time on a horse – it was more like I gingerly got on an old horse named Jimmy and we slowly followed the other horses in front of us around a trail for an hour. It doesn’t sound quite as glamorous that way though!

During this leg I met some new friends on the bus from Canada. A mother and daughter traveling together for a couple of months – Terri Ann and Lois – they were so cute and full of energy it was wonderful to see! The mother, Lois, even went sky diving…my idol! We spent time talking about all of the funny Magic drivers and playing cards – they really were fun to see and it made me miss my mom! We were off for Christchurch the next morning. Christchurch was a great town full of art and architecture! I was only going to be there for 3 hrs before I had to catch a plane – but I had a great time taking pictures on the sunny day. I wish I would have had more time there – but I had to hop a plane that evening back to Auckland.

So – I’m back in Auckland now reflecting on my Magic Tour of New Zealand. My time was too short here – I needed about 2 more weeks. Even though it’s a small country – it has some much to offer. I toured both islands in a matter of 3 weeks and there were so many places I wanted to stay longer! Overall – I can’t seem to find the right words for the hills, mountains, and the color that surrounded me. Some of the words that come to mind are Mighty, Presence, Pure, Vast, and Vibrant. The hills were so green – like a golfcourse fairway – but for acres and acres. The green against the blue sky, and the white clouds and sheep seems too perfect at times. Everywhere I went on the bus I thought that it couldn’t get more beautiful than where I am presently – but I was constantly overwhelmed by a new breathtaking landscape. It actually at times didn’t even feel real. In this world of digital artistry and retouching I felt as if someone created these views for me. I half expected to see the Dreamworks logo on the bottom corner of the mountain view!

Let’s talk about sheep.

The sheep outnumber the people in this country…which I find rather unique. there are 60 million sheep and 4 million people. The sheep could actually unite and form a coo and take over the whole country if they wanted to. I actually would entertain myself on the bus thinking about that scenario! When I was in grade school – each year a sheep farmer would come and the whole school would gather in the gymnasium to watch a real sheep shearing. I was reminded of those days…I thought it was so cool. I never thought that I would end up in New Zealand – the sheep mecca of the world! I was reminded of one of my favorite movies…Babe…yes, Babe. I would see the sheep dogs running around in the fields and marvel at the beauty of it all! Sorry – no pigs to be seen though.

This New Zealand adventure was also about testing myself. I wanted to see if I could do the backpacking thing. I felt like I missed out on the ‘backpacking life’ in my 20’s – so I wanted to try to experience it in my 30’s. I will admit – at first it was a bit challenging. I was really not comfortable with sleeping with strangers (no laughing), sharing showers, and trying to live on the cheap – it was so different than my regular life that I have come to love! There were no 400 thread count sheets here! However – I adapted – I grew to embrace my budget lifestyle again. I got used to sleeping on the top bunk and not falling out. I even enjoyed eating PB&J every day until I got through a whole loaf of bread! I proved to myself that when I needed to – I could be thrifty again. However – I never did get used to coming home from the bar to a dorm room full of people sleeping, trying to be quiet – and use my flashlight to find my way around in a drunken stumble! I missed my past life of simply getting a cab home, having my cat greet me at my apartment door, turning on the TV, grabbing a bowl of cereal, and sitting on the couch in my pj’s trying to sober up before I went to bed! Having to be considerate of others in a drunken state was not my forte!

This trip wasn’t about immersing myself in the local culture – in fact – I met very few local except for the guides. However I did learn some of the local sayings – my favorite was ‘Sweet As’ – used to express something that was ‘cool’ or ‘awesome’. For the first few days here I thought they were saying ‘Sweet Ass’…but alas…they weren’t complimenting my bum…they were just saying ‘cool’.

The trip through New Zealand was more about learning about myself – some inner exploration. I had lots of time on the bus to think…think about life, think about the past, think about the future, family, and friends.

Photo:Art Gallery in Christchurch…the shadows were great!

I feel like my creative side has been allowed to come out. The good news is that I feel like I have a creative side again! I feel like I’m looking at the world through new eyes…the color is so intense – and the thoughts are so intense. I constantly carry a little note pad around with me and write down thoughts just so I don’t forget them. I don’t really know what I’m going to do with all of this new vision…but I hope to God I do something with it. I know I will do something with it!

So – I came to New Zealand without ever seeing Lord of the Rings…however, I felt like I really SAW New Zealand – my way. Sweet-As!!

Milford Sound – waterfalls, snowfalls, treefalls, and television?

Sherry — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 08:34:22 +0000

Milford Sound

For all snapshots of Milford Sound – Click here!
There are some great pics of New Zealand mountains, ferns, and rain forests!

To view my New Zealand Photography – click here!

I’m starting over again – I’ve moved on from my current backpacker friends and headed for Fiordland Park and the Milford Sound on my own. The drive to Te Anau (pronounced tee-anow) was beautiful – a crisp, sunny day brought all of the powerful colors out on the countryside. Blue sky, green grass, yellow spring flowers, and white sheep was on the canvas – I just loved it! I went on a full day kayak trip on the Milford Sound the next day. The first thing we learned on the van ride to the Sound was that even though it’s called Milford Sound – it’s really a Fiord. A Sound is carved out by a river, a Fiord is carved out by a glacier. Milford was carved out by a glacier which is characterized by it’s U-shaped valleys. I must have missed all of this in 7th grade geography…but now is as good of time as ever to learn it. So – long story short – Milford Sound is named incorrectly…don’t worry though…it’s still beautiful!

I was paired up in a 2 person sea kayak with Matt from Santa Monica. We took off paddling and I immediately struck up a conversation with my new partner as I was going to be sharing a kayak with him for the next 5 hours. Within a few minutes I realized he was a big bore – or simply wasn’t the talking type – so I backed off on my social-ness and just paddled. This could be a long day. Throughout the day we saw waterfalls, had dolphins swim past our kayak, and paddled through big waves and pelting rain – but Matt was quiet through it all. Oh well – to each his own.

The next day I started my Milford Track/Hike.

Let me back up about 6 months ago when my friend Jean Spinner (world traveler extraordinaire) told me that if I was going to go to New Zealand that I HAD to do the Milford Track as it was beautiful. However she warned me that I needed to book early as they only allow a limited number of people on the Track each day and it fills up very quickly. So I googled it and found a place that offered the hikes as a package and I booked it. I even changed my dates in order to take advantage of the special half price offer. It seemed rather reasonable, it covered meals, huts, and transportation…standard stuff. I got my reservation confirmation in the mail over the next week, I filed it away in my travel pile, and forgot about it for the next 5 months. The day or so before I was supposed to report in for the hike – I dug the info out of my suitcase again and determined that I needed to do some shopping as I didn’t have the long underwear, fleece hat, and gloves that they required us to take. Damn…why did I send all of that home with Cyndi after Kili??? Anyway – I went out shopping and outfitted myself in Queenstown. So – the basic point of this paragraph is to let you all know that I knew very little about what I was getting into except that it lasted 5 days and I would be fed and have lodging – and apparently it was cold on the hike.

I met up with my fellow hikers in Te Anau – there were about 24 people total and 4 guides – hopefully they weren’t like Matt the kayaking bore. The Milford Track (Kiwi’s call hikes, tracks – I have no idea why) is called the most beautiful hike in the world. We found out that it got this accreditation when an English journalist walked it and wrote about her journey titling it “Milford Track, Possibly the Most Beautiful Walk in the World”. Her editor looked at it and crossed out the word “Possibly”. After that Frommers, Lonely Planet, Rough Guides as well as many marketing brochures has used the quote to describe it. So I had to see this for myself. When I met the other hikers I had a short debrief about the hike…we were covering 33.5 miles over 3 days of hiking – upon learning this, I regretted not staying in better shape the last 2 months!

Te Anau to Glade House – .8 miles

From Te Anau we took a bus to a ferry on Lake Te Anau. We rode the Ferry for about an hour to a little wooden dock where we got off and walked for about 10 minutes to the Glade House (our lodging for the night). I can’t really call this day a hiking day – it was more of a journey to the beginning. On the journey – I met some of my fellow hikers – they were all very friendly, mostly married, all ages and very outgoing. When we got off the ferry there was a little basin of water that we were required to step our boots into. These Kiwi’s really protect their parks – I’ve never seen anything like it. As I arrived at Glade House I quickly realized this was no normal hiking trip – this was luxury hiking. This place was dorm living – but much nicer than the hostels I had been in previously. We had thick bedding, towels, real toilets, hot showers with shampoo AND conditioner, tea & biscuits – and a hair dryer. I really was floored by all of this – I guess I should have read the brochure. I went into the lounge where there was a bar (yeah!) and had a drink and marveled that they called this trekking. It hit me at that time – Kilimanjaro changed me more than I knew. I honestly felt that I was cheating here – this was too comfortable in a way.

We sat down for dinner and was served Kilimanjaro memories of peeing on rocks, freezing in our tent, sleeping on rocky ground, long drop toilets, carrying toilet paper around in our pockets, and wiping off with ’shower wipes’ for 7 days came rushing back to me – and I missed it. I’m not going to even admit in type where my mind went to next – I’ll wait and see if I get the feeling again before I put it in black and white. I had to marvel that on my trekking trip – this was the best accommodations and food I’ve had so far in New Zealand! No more carrying a loaf of bread and PB&J, no more Kraft Mac&Cheese! For the next 3 days I was going to eat well!

After our sophisticated dinner we all had to get up and introduce ourselves and then we had a slide show of what we were to expect on the trail the next day. I thought about Douglas from Kili trying to explain what new torturous trail we would encounter the next day at our ‘evening talks’. Maybe he would have gotten his point across better with a slide projector – I’ll have to let him know. My new guides were young Kiwi’s (Ash, Tim, and Ant) and 1 Aussie (Rosco). Up to this point I fogot to mention the film crew too. You are probably all aware of my secret desire to be on TV – preferably Globe Trekker – well strangely enough my wish came true – sort of. For this trek (trekking group #3 of the trekking season) included in our group was a Korean film crew. They were filming this trek as a documentary of New Zealand hiking for Korean Public Television (KBS). I will be seen across the whole nation of Korea…how freakin’ exciting! The camera guy/producer, Jay, and the narrator, Hoon, sat at my table that night and I was fascinated talking to them about their project, jobs and travels…really cool guys.

After dinner when we did our formal introductions we also had to sing a song from our country. The Americans chose to sing American Pie – there were many of us – so I could schlep along out of tune without being noticed – phew. However – Jay was the only person from Korea – so he had to sing by himself. I kind of felt sorry for him – until he grabbed a guitar in the corner, sat down and literally belted out “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” with an American accent – I was floored. We all had tea before retiring to our rooms. The lights went out (generator was turned off) at 10 PM in order to rest up for our big day tomorrow.

Glade House to Pompolona Lodge – 10 miles

We woke up when the generator started at 6:45AM. We made our lunch sandwiches from a huge spread of choices – I was a bit overwhelmed. We then sat down for a breakfast feast! I ate oatmeal for the 1st time in 2 months – I didn’t realize how much I missed oatmeal! We took off on the trek and I quickly realized that this was less of a hike and more of a walk. We had to cover 10 miles today – but we were walking in the Clinton Valley and the trail was impeccably groomed – much like the impeccable lodges, and the impeccable food. I kept thinking about what Cyndi and Heather’s reaction to this impeccable trek would be. That hard reboot that Kilimanjaro provided me was more ingrained in me than I thought – I was really surprised to my reaction to the whole thing. The views were beautiful though and it was nice that you didn’t have to watch your footing on the trail and could look around you – and there was plenty of oxygen! It was a good day for photography – the rain forest was very green and there was no rain! This was the land of waterfalls – I have never seen anything like it – the snow melt was heavy and the typical rain fall created these long water falls all the way down the steep, rocky cliffs to the valley floor. Since day 1 was a cruisy day, I talked to my fellow walkers to find out where they were from, what they did for a living, find out how many kids they had, etc. There are only 45 guided walkers allowed on the track each day and about 45 ‘Freedom Walkers’. Freedom walkers are the people that don’t use guides – you can consider their origin to be kind of hippieish. Back when only guided walkers were allowed on the trail – a group of crazy hippies barged onto the trail and walked it. There were so many of them that they couldn’t stop them. Since then, they changed the rules and they built ‘primitive huts’ for the Freedom Walkers (which are nicer than most camping accommodations I’ve ever seen – but no showers or wetbar).

We arrived at our guided walker lodge – Pompolona Lodge – and were greeted by a hostess with orange juice and orange slices. She led me to my bunk room and I hopped in the shower and was ready for tea time…I loved this new life! They had fresh scones with cream and jam. I think this will be the only 33 mile hiking trip that I will gain weight on! After tea many people washed their hiking clothes and put them in the drying room. I kept thinking about the 7 days Cyndi, Heather and I went without a shower wearing the same clothes…what a different experience! Dinner was another feast followed by ice cream and chocolate sauce and a slide show of the next day. The next day was supposed to be more grueling as we had to go over the Mackinnon Pass….lights out at 10PM!

Pompolona Lodge to Quintin Lodge – 9 miles

This was the ‘hard’ day where we reached the highest point in the trek – 3,300 ft. We woke up to rain – so I suited up in all of my rain gear (which consisted of a rain jacket) and took off. The first 3.5 hours today were made up of climbing up to the pass among a series of rugged switch backs – now this was trekking! When I stopped for a bathroom break in one of the nicely furnished outhouses, I was leaving and I heard a noise that sounded like thunder and realized that it wasn’t thunder. It was an avalanche! I looked up in the distance and there were big chunks of snow falling off the mountain. I stood there in awe and watched it – definitely a first for me. I started up the switchbacks and was getting pelted with rain. The rock beds that formed our path turned into flowing river beds with all of the rain so I had to walk through quite a bit of water on my way up. I was wearing quick dry hiking pants – unfortunately quick dry material can’t dry if it doesn’t stop raining ever. Therefore my pants were soaked and sticking to my legs. This wasn’t a big deal – but I remembered the guides saying that when we get above the tree line it would be very windy and cold – I was going to freeze when my tree shelter was gone! I calmed myself by thinking of positive things such as – as least my feet are dry. For the next hour as I climbed up the pass slowly I was marveling in my satisfaction of my dry gortex Vasque boots. I thought back 6 years ago when David Henshaw told me to buy Vasque boots and they’ve been wonderful, blister-free boots – what good advice David! As I went above the tree line the wind picked up, the fog settled into the surrounding mountains, the rain was now blowing sideways – I was wet, cold, and ready to be at the top.

One of our guides, Ant, was near the top and gave me a cup of warm soup. That was enough to help me make it through the next twenty minutes to the top! It wasn’t the hardest climb I’ve done – but definitely challenging especially among the elements. We warmed up and dried off in the Pass Hut at the top. I put my boots under a heat lamp and tried to find all of the dry layers that I put in my pack that I could change into. I’m not sure why I went to all of this effort to try to get dry when there was no chance that the rain was going to let up – but I changed clothes in vain, ate my sandwich, put all of my wet clothes in a plastic sack in my pack, had a cuppa Milo and took off again down the pass.

I’m not real sure why I didn’t wait to go with someone in the group – I guess I was feeling independent – or just stupid. Before I descended I went to the ‘lieu with the most beautiful view’ hanging off the side of the pass looking over the valley and surrounding mountains. Unfortunately the view was fog today…you couldn’t see a thing…but at least there was toilet paper! I pointed myself downhill and took off. I figured that I would make the descent pretty quickly. The rain was still pelting down sideways and all of a sudden my nice little immaculate, groomed trail turned into a very disorienting riverbed full of water.
I wasn’t real sure if that’s where I was supposed to follow – but it was really the only option that I could see. The little river bed was flowing with water from the heavy rain which made it hard to navigate through the wet, slippery rocks and deep mud and water. Pretty soon I noticed this squish, squish sensation in my boots. My socks were soaked inside my boots! David Henshaw was no longer my idol…in fact I think I was cursing him mentally every squishy step. I stopped and looked around me to see if anyone was near but no one was in site. My mind started wandering off David and onto “I wonder if I’m on the right rail – it’s weird that I haven’t seen anyone.” I decided to take my mind off of it by whistling. The whistling turned to humming, then to singing – I must have really been nervous as I NEVER sing. However – no one was around so it seemed safe enough to sing a few tunes to keep myself company.

I got to a part of the riverbed that branched off in three different directions. I stood there dumb founded wondering where I should go. This normally would not be a big issue except all of the flowing rain exacerbated the situation and they all looked the same. I looked behind me in hopes that I would see someone…no luck. so I picked a route and started following it – the water was getting deeper and I still didn’t have any sign of a trail. I looked behind me once more hoping to see someone. I thought about turning around and trying to go back up to the start of my confusion and wait for other people to come – yet I wasn’t even really sure how to retrace my steps back up. All of a sudden I panicked, thinking – so this is how people get lost in the woods – and people can’t find them for days and they survived off of tree bark for food. I always thougt those people were idiots for getting lost in the woods – yet who’s the idiot now?! I kept following the water in a panicky state – kicking myself for walking alone, cursing the rain, cursing David and my wet boots, and hoping that I had picked the right trail. I was starting to worry that this water was going to lead me to a giant uncontrollable water fall and I would walk right over the edge to my imminent death.

Then I saw a clearing on the right that resembled a trail. I went over there and looked down the trail and debated on what to do, I figured muddy trail was better than waterfall to death so I opted for the muddy trail. As I walked the trail, my anxiety built. What if this wasn’t the trail, no one knows where I”m at. I looked around again – still no one. As a little girl – I quit being a girl scout after 1 year when I found out that I had to camp to get a badge – I was scared of bugs…therefore that was the end of my scouting. In hind site – that might not have been the smartest idea. As I panicked I did a mental list of what I had in my pack in case I had to camp out on my own because I was lost on the mountain pass. All of my clothes were wet, however I did have some snacks to live off of and a pair of flip flops – it seemed as if I might be able to survive a night if I had to. I could use my hiking pole and rain coat to build a shelter put on my bug spray to stay safe and eat granola bars until someone found me. Plus – I had an emergency whistle that I could use! Yet it wouldn’t have been heard above the roaring waterfall so I guess it would’ve just been entertaining for me. I could whistle some songs to keep me occupied through the night.

Then I saw a muddy footprint on the trail pointing downhill…hallelujah!!! I was on the right trail! The rest of the rainy descent I cursed myself for being so stupid to hike alone! I also entertained myself by taking rainy pictures of the beautiful surroundings with a piece of me in the photo – it was kind of a weird way to embrace my solo hiking. After 2 and 1/2 hours of descending down waterfall like trails and bridges – I finally came across someone else – a freedom walker – it was so comforting to see people again! I blew past him like I owned the mountain (since I had confirmation I was on the right mountain now!) – plus I really had to pee! About 5 minutes later I reached the entrance to Quinton Lodge! I had never been so happy to be greeted by our lodge host with hot tea and orange slices! Maybe this luxury hiking thing wasn’t so bad!

I dried off a bit and then dropped my heavy, wet pack and took off for a short 45 minute trek to Sutherland Falls. This was supposed to be the whole reason why the Milford Track was in existence. When Donald Sutherland discovered the waterfall – he first named it, and then had to figure out a way for the everyday non-explorer people could come see his namesake waterfall. The waterfall is the 5th highest in the world at 1,900 feet! I took off with Charles and Chris (a couple from our group) as I didn’t want a repeat of the descent alone again – so I decided to stick with others this time! We got to the base of the waterfall and it was so powerful you could hardly stand up!

Photo” Charles at the base of the falls – braving the elements!

The wind and spray from the fall was mighty. We went back to the lodge, I got a hot shower, tea, and put all of my wet items in the drying room and sat down for dinner. Much better than granola under a raincoat, lost on the mountain. The day had turned out ok after all!

Quintin Lodge to Mitre Peak Lodge – 13 miles

We took off the next morning to a nice sunny day and many waterfalls gushing down the mountains. The scenery was lush in the valley again and it was simply nice to be dry again! 13 miles today seemed like a long day – especially with a 25 pound pack on – but it went pretty fast. I felt really good and strong and I just kept thinking of every mile in NYC blocks. We went through some massive tree avalanches. Apparently the root system of the trees here are very fragile due to the fact that they grow on steep, rocky cliffs and are exposed to excessive rain. The roots don’t go deep, instead they just intertwine with each other only a few feet deep. So when one tree goes tumbling down the cliff they take all the rest with them. It creates this massive tree/mud/rock slide. Luckily…we didn’t experience any of those! We stopped at a waterfall for lunch and then finished the walk in time to grab a fresh scone and catch the 3:15 ferry to Milford Sound and the Mitre Peak Lodge.

Photo: Sunset on Mitre Peak

That night at the Mitre Peak Lodge we all had our own rooms with bathrooms (I was living large!!). We had our final celebration dinner finished with warm chocolate cake…I love luxury hiking!

Milford Sound to Queenstown

The next morning we were up early for our last nice, warm breakfast and then we had to catch a boat on the Sound the go tour the Milford Sound. We toured around the cliffs (the same area I paddled through a few days before!) and had a clear day to see Mitre Peak – rising vertically over one mile from the water line…very impressive. It was a wonderful day for pictures – despite the chilly wind. We caught our tour bus back to Te Anau and went through the famous Homer Tunnel. It was a tunnel that was blasted through one of these huge mountains – very primitive- and climbed about 1,500 feet inside the tunnel. Apparently they have a running race through the tunnel in April that only allows you to wear 2 pieces of clothing…running shoes and a head lamp as it’s pitch dark in there. I think the tunnel is about 3 km – so a good little run uphill, in the dark, naked…you gotta love these Kiwi’s – maybe I’ll come back in April! For all of you runners out there – you should consider this…it sounds like Bay to Breakers Kiwi style!
We arrived back in Queenstown in the afternoon and bid everyone farewell.

On the bus ride back to Queenstown I struck up a conversation with Jay the Korean producer/camera man and we talked a ton about travels. I ended up going out that night with Hoon and Jay for Chinese food…I had been craving Asian food for quite some time now…so I wasn’t going to pass that up!

We chatted the whole night about travel, food, adventure, jobs, tv – it was very fun. I couldn’t help but thinking that I was out with the (Korean) Globetrekker hosts! At the end of the night we had a bottle of wine, they tried to teach me Korean (they promised me that if I worked at it that I would be able to read Korean within 24 hours…yeah right) – so I took a little pamphlet to practice with. We finished with dessert – a Korean delicacy that they had brought along – myeong-ran-jot – basically fish eggs. I have to admit – it was really tasty! So – I may have to now add Korea to my list of travels…after all – I will be a star in Korea after their show airs!! The show is supposed to air in January…so for all of you in Korea…check it out – it’s on KBS! Apparently it will also be on their website too – so I will keep an eye on that and let you all know if/when that happens!

Overall – the trek was great – in a very unexpected way! It went to show me that I don’t have to know everything about an adventure before I go – it’s more fun to just experience it and live in the moment. Oh yeah – I also learned to not hike alone in the woods…I knew I never should have quit the Girl Scouts!!

Halloween – Jelloween

Sherry — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 23:57:38 +0000

Photo: Bill, Ghost (Trent), and Jello…Happy Halloween!

Magic Bus from Franz Josef to Queenstown:
To view all snapshots of the drive from Franz Josef to Queenstown – click here!

It was a long bus day today and a very full bus (I guess everyone wanted to get to Queenstown for Halloween). By now I had a group of ‘new friends’ that I enjoyed hanging out with from the Magic Bus so we all worked together to get our way through the long pushing group of passengers to get our packs loaded and get seats together on the bus. My New Yorker memories of crowded, pushy subways came rushing back to me – but this time I wasn’t wearing 3 inch heels so I was able to maneuver quickly in my tennis shoes – yet I looked like Jerry Seinfeld in my jeans and running shoes. However – I did used to be darn nimble in heels – and I haven’t worn them for a month now – my toes have never been so happy! We managed to all sit together and we were off once again! We drove through National Parks that surrounded Mt. Cook (the tallest mountain in New Zealand) – everything was so green and lush. I swear when they came up with the color green – they were thinking of New Zealand. The day was a mix of sun and clouds and generally the vistas out our windows were stunning. We had a number of quick stops for photo ops – so I was pretty happy about getting some good photos that weren’t taken out of a speeding bus window!

Oh – I forgot to mention – we had a new Magic driver, Trent. Trent seemed pretty laid back and chatty. I swear he was only looking at the road 50% of the time as he was mainly talking to the people in the front seat. He mixed things up by having bus quizzes in which Jen (from Ireland) and I teamed up and won! I needed a good healthy competition to satisfy my competitive muscles once again! Do any of you know the difference between a Peninsula and a Cape??

One of our last stops of the day was at a bungy bridge. This was the first commercial bungy jump ever…in essence – the birthplace of bungy. I knew that I was in no mood to bungy after my abseiling adventure in South Africa – so I happily played the part of photographer. Gavin, from Long Island, decided to try it. I have to admit – it looked like fun – but the thought of being dipped in freezing cold river water below sounded terrible. Isn’t it bad enough that you are jumping off a bridge hoping that they bungy cord works and then you have to land in the freezing river…oh yeah…and pay for the enjoyment of it all…no thanks…I’ll stick to jumping out of planes with hot men strapped on my back!
Gavin survived…

For all snapshots of Jelloween Madness – click Here!

We arrived in Queenstown and it completely reminded me of an adorable little ski town in Colorado. It had a little bit of everything – snow covered mountains (The Remarkables – not to be confused with moved the Incredibles), a massive lake, green hills, and a great little main street full of bars and restaurants. This was the home of adventure and it was Halloween – we were bound to have a great time! None of us had costumes, but we were hungry and thirsty. A large group of us – Jen, Graeme, Bill, Nick, Alistair, and Jordy went to the famous Fergberger. I have no idea who Ferg is/was – but word on the street was that they had the best burgers on the South Island. After days of meals of PB&J, I was ready for some meat! The burgers were superb!
They were huge – the size of a dessert plate. Mission accomplished – the base of food was now established – now it was time to party.

I think I was so excited to get cleaned up and put my best ‘going out’ shirt on (basically something that wasn’t dri-fit material) and shoes that weren’t tennis shoes – I was in a party mood. I remembered one of the last days that I was in NYC I was walking down Columbus St. with my dad and he said “Do you think you’ll miss this?”
“I don’t think so” I said.
He went on to say “I think you’ll miss getting dressed up and going out – the glamorous, social side of NYC.”
I hate to admit it – but my Dad was right. So this was my night on the town and I was ready to hit it – never mind that ‘the town’ was 3 blocks long!

We went and met our driver, Trent, out at the Red Rock Bar. Trent promised us free drinks and shots – so being budget minded we headed there first. Trent was true to his word – he came in a sheet as a ghost and he came bearing jello shots…jello shots have a gravitational pull on me – so this could be dangerous. Graeme and I got into a big debate about the term Jello vs. Jelly. He called them Jelly shots which sounded horrible to me. Potato – potato (I guess that point doesn’t really come through to well in type – oh well – you get what I mean). After more brightly colored free shots from Trent we moved on to another bar – one that served their drinks in tea pots – what a great gimmick.

The Brits were in heaven with their ‘tea’. The fun continued to the local dance club and then home for a good drunken sleep on a bunk bed! The whole night to me felt like old times – it felt good to be out on the (small) town hanging out with new, interesting, fun people. I felt normal again. Despite our different nationalities and many heated conversations about jelly vs. jello, jelly vs. jam, what makes up the contents of a sandwich (the Brits couldn’t stomach the idea of PB&J – so I told them to take their Marmite and go home) we had discovered that we all had a few things in common. Travel, adventure, drinking, and an outgoing attitude. For all of you San Franciscans reading this – if you see a vivacious Irish, redhead in San Francisco wandering around – it’s Jen – buy her a beer. For you New Yorkers – look out for Alistair. He is coming to town around Thanksgiving – lets hope he doesn’t get escorted back to his Madison Square Garden hostel by the NYPD! I really enjoyed all of my ‘new friends’ from backpacking New Zealand. The hardest part is watching them leave your world as easily as they entered it.

The Ice that Warmed my Heart

Sherry — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 09:26:03 +0000

The Mighty Franz Josef Glacier

For all snapshots of my Glacier Hike – click here!
Definitely check out the pictures…they are worth it!

To view New Zealand Photography – click here!

Ahhh – let me take you all back to grade school when you learned about glaciers – but probably weren’t paying attention…

A glacier is the remaining winter snow that the summer melt has been unable to remove from the cooler heights. Each year another layer of surplus snow is added to the glacier. Time and it’s own weight soon transforms this residual snow into glacial ice, which then oozes its way down valley to melt away in the warmer temps of lower altitudes. The glacier finally terminates where the rate of melt equals the rate of flow. Basically – the other way to think of it is – it’s a HUGE chunk of ice that creates a kick ass playground for a few hours to walk around on!

I went to the playground today…I did the full day guided Glacier Hike in Franz Josef. This is one of the very few glaciers that exist in a warm/tropical climate. So it’s pretty unique – I believe the other 2 are in New Zealand and in Argentina…but you’ll have to Google that yourself. This Glacier is alive…it actually moves every week due to the massive snow falls at the head of Franz Josef and the rate of ice turnover is among the highest in the world, upwards of 2.5 meters per day..therefore the guided hike did include the ‘danger factor’ that I seem to love. Plus – it provided me some much needed exercise and a break from the bus, the hostel, and my sour mood!

I checked in at the guide center and ran into one of my fellow Magic Bus backpackers – Jordy. We hung together and went through the very impressive and efficient process of getting our boots, ice talons, socks (yes – I had to wear rented socks…eewwww), rain pants, rain jacket, mittens and hat – it was like an assembly line. A quick trip to the restroom and I was set! As a side note – I think this past week I’ve officially gotten over my germophobia that I was holding onto for a while. Rented hat, socks and mittens…no problem…as long as I was going to stay warm – I didn’t really care. I’m a step closer to being a ‘real’ backpacker!

Photo: Starting the climb up – this picture can’t really depict the sheer size of it!

We were introduced to our guide – Cliff who looked like a very fun-loving Kiwi – and cute too! He carried his big ice pick and led us to the glacier head where we saw the terminal cave – where the wet slurry of gravel and ice melt are flowing out of the glacier at a tremendous rate and form the glacial lakes around the region. First off – the glacier is HUGE – but since it’s surrounded by large mountains – you really don’t have any perspective to judge it by (kind of like looking at the hotels on the Las Vegas Strip). Finally – I could make out a few little dots on the ice…people…then you got a feel for the enormity of it! Each day there are about 20 guides on the glacier maintaining the original trails and steps and cutting new steps. Since the glacier moves so much – they have to constantly go on it and check the safety of it and create new trails as old one may have split in half and been replaced with a large crevasse.

Cliff showed us how to put on our ice talons, told us to hang on to the ropes when they existed – and off we went! It really wasn’t that cold when you were moving – and the day was sunny – so it was a perfect temperature to be climbing. The first part of the glacier had a trail of steps cut out as many people go up on half day hikes. However we were doing a full day hike which meant that we would go beyond the pre-cut stairs and get onto the real playground of ice – Cliff would cut the trail/steps as we proceeded up! Also – at the lower elevations – the ice was a bit dirtier – whereas the higher ice had this beautiful soft baby blue color to it…the only word I could think of when I saw this blue ice was ‘pure’.

We got up the heavily traveled steps and decided to break for lunch. We sat on the ice and I ate my PB&J (for the 4th day in a row now) and took in the view around me. I was overtaken with the amazing beauty surrounding me. I looked left and there was a large valley of blue ice with a green, lush mountain. In front of me was Cliff (which was a nice view) and the vast plane of gray slurry rivers flowing out into the green valley. On my right was a waterfall on the green mountain side. I was warm with joy inside – as I thought about all of my past lunches at my desk eating crap and working on email or eating at a meeting. I was sitting on a glacier, surrounded by beauty and the sounds of flowing water so far away from corporate life that it was mind boggling.

After eating lunch Cliff took us to a box of ice picks/axes for each of us and we followed him around as he created his own ice playground for us. He was like a little kid in a candy store – you could tell that he loved to be on this big block of ice more than anything. The stairs he cut were not like normal stairs…they were more like footholds in the steep places. He showed us how to walk up and down them sideways and balance with our ice pick…he called it the Franz Josef shuffle. I called it scarey.

He took us to an area with a large hole. He told me to put down my backpack and follow him – being a good follower – I did what he said. He took me in this hole/cave a bit larger than a man hole.

He told me to get in, grab the rope that was there and lower myself down the hole. I looked at him and said ‘no way’. I honestly thought he was kidding. I looked at this hole that went straight down and I couldn’t see the bottom. I pulled the rope in hopes that the end would pull up quickly – but I could see no end. I really thought he was joking with me – but he wasn’t. I argued with him for about 5 minutes trying to figure out if he was serious and just decided to go for it. These are the times when you figure out if you are claustrophobic…I was hoping I wasn’t. It was really wet as the ice was melting and I didn’t have my rain pants on – so needless to say I was sitting in a pool of icy, cold water and started to lower myself over the edge into this hole which was now a bit narrower than a man hole (I guess that’s why he told me to leave my pack behind). I was still thinking that by starting to go down the hole that I was going to call his bluff and he would tell me to stop – but that word was never uttered. Instead – I lowered myself down the hole wondering what in the hell I was doing this for. It was about a 15ft. drop and then I hit a bottom – sort of. There was another hole/cave that I went through (I just followed blindly as I couldn’t hear or see Cliff anymore) and it was downward sloping – so I sat on my bum and slid down it. I wondered for a second if I was going to slide all of the way down the glacier and get deposited out of the terminal cave – but soon I saw light – and I ended up safely outside again! Cliff was there to greet me with a big smile on his face – I was laughing hysterically at the fun of it all – and the fact that I was drenched in freezing cold water also was a bit humorous! He immediately wanted to know how I liked it…I loved it! We went walking back to the rest of the group to show them that I was still alive so that the rest of them could now experience this cave labyrinth. There’s nothing like the thrill of going first!

Cliff continued to test our claustrophobia and cut narrow little openings that we had to try to slide through.
At one point I really thought I was stuck…the crevasse was only about a foot wide (you went through sideways) – therefore you had to kind of treat it like a balance beam and literally put one foot in front of the other. However – I couldn’t move my feet and the slushy ice under my feet didn’t allow me to get any grip. Jory saw me struggling like a fly trapped in a spider web and reached out his ax handle to me so that I could use it to try to pull me out. That worked…I was free – I came popping out to the other side with a view of beautiful, blue, tall ice walls!

Soon the recess bell rang and we had to come back down from the ice playground. We had a long walk down and Cliff kept on telling us how when we go down we get lazy and that one slip and we would surly die. These types of ‘pep talks’ from Cliff really didn’t do much for me – instead they kind of freaked me out! It was really easy to get a spike from your ice talons caught in your shoelace and then you would tumble down to your imminent death. Cliff said that if you did fall in a crevasse – they weren’t in any hurry to get you out as you would most likely be dead…what a downer. All the way down the glacier I walked as if I had just gotten off of a horse ensuring that I wouldn’t get a talon caught in a lace! Sure – I looked goofy – but I was alive at the bottom.

By the time we got back down to solid ground the fog had rolled into the rain forest and our beautiful blue skies were blanketed in gray again. But this frozen adventure today thawed me from my sour mood from the last few days. Maybe it was a combination of the sun, the adventure, the adrenaline of exercise, the amazing setting, or simply that I was freakin’ climbing on a glacier…but whatever it was – it did the trick – my gray attitude had been lifted. I went back to the hostel, took a HOT shower, hung out with my new friends and ate another PB&J sandwich – and my ‘world’ was good again. Queenstown…here I come!

South Island New Zealand – Picton to Franz Josef Rainy Days

Sherry — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 06:53:58 +0000

Photo: Welcome to the Gray West Coast

To view all snapshots from Picton to Franz Josef – click here!

To view Photography of New Zealand – click here!

We crossed the famous Cook Straight from Wellington (North Island) to Picton (South Island). The ferry was huge! I was expecting something similar to the Tanzania ferry that Cyndi and I took – so I downed my Dramamine that morning and went to catch the ferry (see Cyndi – I so actually learn from my past mistakes!). However – this ferry was more of a cruise boat – it carried hundreds of cars, people and even trains…crazy. The crossing was gray and chilly, but not too rough – it only took 3 hours to get to the South Island. A couple of days prior Wellington had terrible weather and it took the ferry 10 hours to cross and the swells were huge…thank God I wasn’t on that puke-fest!

When I arrived in Picton all of my fellow nomadic backpacker friends were in tow and we met our new Magic Bus drive, Karl. Karl felt that we needed a drink, so he headed for one of the famous Marlborough region wineries and we all got out and had a wine tasting. This area is famous for it’s Chardonnays (very different than California Chardonnay) and Savignon Blanc. It really hit the spot…along with my PB&J (I’m still working my way through that damn loaf of bread from the North Island!). We traveled on to a town called Nelson – supposedly the “Sunshine Capital of New Zealand”…apparently Mother Nature did not get that memo though as it was gray and cloudy…go figure. Nelson though was a cute little town filled with artists and slow Internet. The best part of Nelson was the pubs and live music though. By now I had made many new friends on the Magic Bus and met more new ones today – so we all decided to go out for dinner and drinks. We had a great time getting to know each other. By this time I had started hanging out with Alistair from England quite a lot. He totally reminded me of my friend David Henshaw in San Francisco – a fellow Brit – therefore I had an immediate affinity towards Alistair and his proper, quiet Brittish demeaner. We went out with this new group of people which included some Americans and more Irish and of course more Brits (they are literally everywhere!).

We woke up the next day and for the first time in 4 days the sun was shining!! I guess Nelson is the Sunshine Capital! Yeah!!! Too bad we had to be on a bus though the whole day…oh well – you can’t have everything. We headed towards Greymouth via the Hope Saddle and Buller Gorge. We also got introduced to the rugged coastline that the South Island is famous for. By mid day – the sun disappeared though and the rain came pouring down. We stopped at the Paparoa National Park and did a quick little walk just to move our legs and see the sea lions. I’m over sea lions though as I feel like they are as common as squirrels anymore…but the chance to get out of the bus and move our legs was welcomed! We drove on to Punakaiki (no this isn’t a name for the new J. Crew Chinos) – home of the famous Pancake rocks and blowholes. It looked ominous outside – but we got out of the bus with our rain gear and went on a short trek to see the pancake rocks.
These rocks were really amazing (even in the rain) – they looked they they were stacked on top of each other (bring on the syrup!) – yet really after years and years of the surf pounding them they were formed like this. I’m sure there is something much more scientific that I should have been paying attention to – but it started to pour again so we had to race through the trail and quickly take pictures…no time for a science class! We headed on to Greymouth…where I had my first real bad attitude. Not really sure why I was so negative and down – but I’m sure the crappy weather had something to do with it. Even though I was getting used to this nomadic living in hostels, I was longing for a nice bed, warm duvet cover, feather pillow, good food, a TV and some familiar friends. Granted – I liked the new people I was meeting – but everything seemed to pile up on me when we got to Greymouth and I was really depressed. To make matters worse – the rain was now blowing sideways and everyone else was going on a brewery tour that I didn’t feel like doing. I was more in the mood for a cosmo than another pint of heavy beer. So I opted out of the brewery, amd did my laundry instead – without fabric softener again. I have become reacquainted with the term static cling – they don’t even sell dryer sheets in the stores! I think everyone enjoys walking around with a random sock stuck to their sweater! I then ran to the grocery store in the pouring rain, made myself macaroni and cheese (yes, Kraft), and wallowed in my depression/homesickness. I sat in the lounge and watched the All Blacks (New Zealand Rugby team) and tried to warm up in front of the fire missing American football. That night I ranted in my personal journal just in hopes of getting all of the bad vibes out of me through my pen. However – my new ‘quiet’ friend Alistair had quite a wild night at the Brewery tour. As he told me the story of putting his hand through the hostel door window (on accident) and ending up at the police station…I started to think that maybe he wasn’t like my friend David Henshaw…Alistair surprised me…which not many people do! The story was harmless and it had me laughing the whole next morning! That boy can put down some pints though!

The tourist brochure on New Zealand failed to mention that New Zealand has rain 80% of the time – all of the postcards are sunny, blue days. I guess those photographers found the 20%. Obviously the tourism board has a good marketing department. However – all of this rain does create an amazing lush, green environment (if you can see it behind the clouds).

A new day…a new attitude – yet still pouring rain…ugh. I listened to my favorite Beatles song “Here Comes the Sun” in hopes that the gods would take pity on me and show us the bright, yellow, ball again….but no luck. We had a short drive today to Franz Josef -home of the Franz Josef Glacier! I had been waiting for this…I was really looking forward to hiking the Glacier the next day – rain or shine – I didn’t care! I had never been on a glacier before – granted – living in Minnesota felt like it – but I really can’t call that a glacier! I canceled my kayaking trip for the afternoon as it was still pouring rain..go figure. However – finally – my prayers were answered – I awoke the next morning and I heard birds chirping! In my tired haze I determined that the birds would not be chirping if it was raining…so this was a good sign! I peeked outside and saw a blue sky and a large snow covered mountain that was not visible yesterday! A great day to climb on a big block of ice!!!

Do you believe in Magic? North Island New Zealand

Sherry — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 10:38:58 +0000

Photo: Tangariro National Park
View snapshos of Auckland to Wellington

View my New Zealand Travel Photography
When I arrived in New Zealand – I had no plan…very unlike me – but I was hoping for some magic I guess. The good news is that I found it – The Magic Bus! No – I wasn’t eating shrooms nor is this some cousin to Scooby Doo and the Mystery Van.

The Magic Bus is a hop on/hop off bus company in New Zealand that I had heard about. I did some research online and then went to their offices in Auckland. There I was able to arrange my whole trip through New Zealand hitting the highlights that I wanted to hit, traveling around with other backpackers, and having some flexibility at the same time. I bought the north/south pass and was off!
Photo: Magic Bus looking out over Auckland – my home on wheels!

Our driver’s name was Rangy – a big Maori-Kiwi guy that certainly knew how to maneuver a bus with ease. We all introduced ourselves and said where we were from when we left Auckland. This is a process that I’ve now grown quite used to – this name, rank, and serial number process. I determined that I need to come up with something more interesting instead of “I’m Sherry from America – New York City”. Maybe something like “I’m Sherry and I’m from a blue state in the US, I like ice cream, the color pink, sunsets, rainy days, and fizzy drinks” – or maybe I could just use my old match.com profile or something. Anyway – after about 10 minutes the bus driver called out for me “where’s that girl from NY, come up front”. I thought I may be in trouble for being to old to be on this bus or something – but instead he simply wanted to talk to me about what it was like living NYC and ask general questions about 9/11. This also tends to be a common question I get a lot – everyone wants to know about 9/11 and being a New Yorker. We chatted for a while – he had one eye on the road and one on me…made me a little nervous – but he was completely in control…I guess.

Day 1 – Auckland to Rotorua – it’s only a fuzzy little bunny…

We left Auckland and headed for Waitomo to do one of the first things on my list – see the glow worms. This area is know for it’s caves and glow worms – so I wanted to go check these little club like creatures out…I thought there may be some great techno playing in the caves – but found out that the glowing worms had nothing to do with raves…damn. I along with others on the bus (my new friends from Ireland, England, and Sweden) went on a Black Water Rafting tour. It was already chilly out – so the thought of getting into a cave, tubing in cold water sounded a bit icey…but you only live once – and they do give you sexy looking wet suits to wear. As I slithered into the wetsuit, I tried to not think about the thousands of other peope who had worn the wetsuits, booties, and wellies – but it was hard not to when they kind of smelled. Oh well – they were warm – so I slid into the suit (more like struggled my way into the skin tight rubber), put on the wellies, and dawned my helmet – I was ready to see the worms! We drove out to a field of cows, walked through the field with the cows in our goofy suits, picked up our intertube that would safely fit our ass and then entered the cave – it was rather creepy. Once your eyes adjusted the guides told you about the glow worms – I honestly zoned out during this scientific stuff and zoned back in just in time to learn that the glowing is actually the worm’s feces that glows…now that was interesting. We followed the guides deeper into the cave, turned off our helmet lights and all of a sudden there were millions of glowing worms on the cave walls and ceiling.
No music or sweaty men dancing – just glowing worms….you can’t have it all I guess. We proceeded through the narrow cave tunnels in our tubes through the cold water! We even went backwards down a water fall (albiet a small one that did enough damage to get water up my nose). As we chained together and let the guides lead us in the dark – it was rather creepy not being able to see where you were going – but after about 40 minutes…we saw the light…yeah! Back up we went to the cows…they had no reaction when we popped back up from the ground. We finished it off with a warm shower and some hot soup…yummy! We also stopped at a rabbit shearing farm. Yup – that’s right – you read it right – rabbit shearing. They raise Angora Rabbits (apparently very rare) and they look like a giant cotten ball.
They shear the rabbits every 3 months else they will die from overheating! They tie up the rabbit and shear it – they gave us a demonstration…it was rather disturbing seeing the rabbit spread out and tied up – but apparently PETA was fine with this and the animal was not harmed in any way! We hopped back on the bus and proceeded to Rotorua for our first night’s stop! That night my new friends and I went to a Maori village and dinner. It was a chance to learn about the large Kiwi population (14%) who are from the Maori tribe. If any of you are rugby fans out there – the New Zealand Rugby Team, the All Blacks, do an old Maori tribal dance before their opponents every game. It includes bulging your eyes and sticking out your tongue. Something my brother and I used to do ages ago – maybe we had a little Maori in us!

Day 2 – Rotorua to Taupo – Some Like it Hot…
For all photos of Thermal Park click here!
The North Island is a melting pot…not of people – but literally a melting pot! It was formed from many volcanic eruptions and those volcanos are still alive and kicking…geysers, hot pools, and boiling mud…a spa delight! We stopped at the geothermal park and walked around it’s colorful hot pools for a while. It was quite beautiful …you can judge yourself on the pictures!

Photo: Hot Mud Pool

We then went on to a few adventure activity stops where I decided to watch instead of participate as I had other similiar things planned for the South Island. It was fun to watch other people scream like little girls though! We stayed in Taupo that night. A bunch of people had went skydiving in the afternoon – but since I had already conquered that on my list of ‘things to do before I die’ – I passed and went to look around the town. The town was beautiful – it is situated by a lake that is as big as Singapore (basically very big). I did some grocery shopping so that I could have really cheap and eat PB&J sandwiches on the bus and spend more money on activities instead! That night a bunch of us from the bus went out for Irish food and had a great time telling traveling stories.

Day 3 – Taupo to Wellington – Land of Sheep
Today we took off early for Wellington as we had a longer drive today. We went through some stunning snow capped mountains – apparently they were in Lord of the Rings (or LOTR as the locals call it). Kiwi’s are LOTR’s crazy…it apparently put New Zealand on the map. I of course wouldn’t know as I only saw the first movie and really didn’t follow it very well (I try not to tell many people here this as they give me this amazed/disgusted look). Regardless – the countryside here is beautiful. There were green hills and valleys – dotted with little white sheep and cows! It was so quaint – I made Rangy stop so I could take pictures!
Photo: Sheep on the landscape…this shot was taken out of the speeding bus!

The colors were amazing! We arrived in Wellington (the little known capital of New Zealand) early in the afternoon – it was a really cute, hip little town. I checked into my hostel and went for a run along the waterfront – I felt sane again! It was cold though…in fact -the weather in New Zealand has been quite grey since I’ve arrived here – but I’m trying to forget that and enjoy it anyway!

The Magic Bus keeps you on the move every day which is good and bad. I like seeing the various areas of the country but I don’t get to stay anywhere long enough to get a feel for it. However – I have some active plans for the South Island – so I will be able to stay longer there and get to really know the area (and unpack my bag for more than one night!) This is a journey through New Zealand – but it equally seems to be an inner journey for me.

Getting used to backpacker type travel and a different kind of quality of life for me has had it’s ups and downs. I don’t really know where I fit in anymore. I know where I came from – a life in NYC where I very rarely cared about what I was spending! If I already had 4 pairs of black shoes – there’s still no reason to not get a 5th – you can never have too many! Broadway shows, dinner out every night – anything goes. Now my peers are quite a bit younger than me, I’m staying in dorms bunk beds for $15 a night, eating PB&J sandwiches, being very budget conscience mainly because my traveling peers are (oh yeah – and I don’t have a job). I carry around a loaf of bread on the bus and generally wear the same things most days (whatever is on top of my pack). This is a far cry from my past life!

As I walked around Wellington I felt like I should be out at all of the tourist attractions as I’m only there one night – but intstead I put on my most classy clothes (jeans and black shirt) and went walking around the heart of the city. I watched the locals leave work and commute home, I window shopped, and I found a wine bar to sit at and feel civilized again after sitting in a bus all day. The wine bar was devine – cozy, quaint, filled with locals grabbing a glass after work. I have just spent more on a glass of wine and bruschetta than my lodging – suffice it to say – there are no backpackers here! In fact, when I first walked in I only saw small tables of men – everyone turned and looked at me. My initial instinct was that I just walked into a gay wine bar – but maybe they were staring at my jeans and wind jacket choice of attire. I looked a little closer and did see some women in the bar – so I felt I could stay and have a glass!

The bar was hip, clean, well-designed…crisp. I felt like this is…errr…I mean was…my kind of place! I’m happy that I skipped the touristy cable car up the hill and viewing the museum in exchange for seeing the locals and enjoying a nice glass of wine in a proper wine glass. Yet I doubt my fellow backpackers would agree – especially if they saw my bill! I guess a part of me would rather be a ’social tourist’ – after living in two huge tourist cities (San Francisco and New York City) I know that it’s not Times Square that makes NY or Fisherman’s Wharf that makes San Francisco – it’s the people, it’s the everyday life, it’s how the locals interact, seeing what they wear and hearing what they talk about.

Wellington really is a lovely town – I enjoyed running/walking around the area. I’m still reconciling where I fit in as I walk back to my hostel and my new group of nomad-like friends. Regardless – I will get on the bus tomorrow again toting my bag of bread and peanut butter, wearing my same fleece and tennis shoes – but I will fit in!

The South Island awaits!!!

Another Day, Another Country

Sherry — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 04:31:11 +0000

I have to admit – getting to New Zealand wasn’t easy. Why is it when you book your trip months in advance you think that the trade off of having a layover for less money is a good idea? I left Cape Town on a Friday morning at 7:30 AM and arrived in Auckland New Zealand at 2PM on Sunday. Need I say more?

On my first ‘long haul’ leg from Jo’burg to Hong Kong I was elated to find out that I had 12 hours to spend with a little TV at my seat and free booze! How in the world could I even think about sleeping when I had “The Devil Wears Prada” to watch! I got virtually no sleep on the flight – but ate and drank well and was rather entertained.

I arrived in Hong Kong a bit late and I was strung out tired and I didn’t feel too great (there was a rumble in my tummy…the joys of travel). I had initially intended to take the train into Hong Kong from the airport – but once I arrived in the airport all I really wanted to do was sleep and I didn’t feel like risking my stomach in a new city. Therefore I stayed put for my 13 hour hangover – I mean layover. If there was ever a good place to have this long of layover – it was HKIA (Hong Kong International Airport – I felt like I spent enough time to there to call it by it’s nickname).

There was shopping, eating, lounges and even a Coach store. I easily entertained myself and rested a bit, plus caught up on email. At 6PM my friend Marcus – my cute pilot friend from Colorado (I thought he would like that plug) – flew in from London to his home base of Hong Kong. Perfect – now I had a mate to talk to and have a drink with! I get so excited to meet up with people I know while on the road. Don’t get me wrong – it’s great meeting new people – but the joy of seeing a familiar face or voice is like being a kid on Christmas morning…pure joy!

Marcus had another pilot friend, Vache, that happened to be going through Hong Kong and was staying at the hotel in the airport (one of the few places I hadn’t been in the airport ) – so we headed over there to get our fill of free food and drink in the ‘pilot lounge’ (I honestly don’t know what it was called – but I really liked the sound of that). It was so fun to catch up with them, learn a little about what it was like to be an ex-pat in Hong Kong, and have a few drinks that would hopefully knock me out on my next ‘long hau’l leg to Auckland.

I was off again for a 10 hour flight to Auckland. I was hoping to catch a movie and then go to bed – but unfortunately my seat-mate had other ideas. He seemed innocent at first – so being the nice mid-western – I let him engage me in conversation for a bit…but then it went on, and on, and on, and on. This guy was really annoying. I tried to put on my headphones and watch a movie. I then had to show him how to work his little TV (why me?). He proceeded to turn and talk to me every so often during the movie. I would remove my headphones and annoyingly say with a NY attitude “What?” – thinking my bitchiness would scare him off. No chance…he then wanted to show me pictures of his fiance, yadda, yadda, yadda….pure torture. He also had no sense of personal space – spilling out into my personal space. I was tired and really annoyed. I don’t think he ever got the picture though…amazing considering I wear my emotions on my sleeve and everyone can tell when I’m bitchy and annoyed (right???!).

I made it to Auckland – home of the most thorough customs agents ever. I was stopped as I had biltong (beef jerky) as well as I was bringing in hiking boots from another country. They threw out my biltong and washed my hiking boots for me – so all in all – it didn’t turn out too bad…my boots at least got cleaned! I made it to my Bed and Breakfast in Auckland – and now the jet lag set in…really set in. I tried to stay awake by taking a ferry to an island in Auckland and having dinner. I found a loud, neighborhood pub and decided to go in and grab fish and chips (yes – I was in New Zealand – I didn’t take a wrong turn and end up in Scotland). I sat down, ordered a pint and in about 10 minutes some guy came over to talk to me…no – not some hot New Zealand boy – but the middle aged, bar drunk instead. It was so bad the bartender (who was a hot New Zealand boy) came over and asked if I was ok and if he should remove the guy. Joy…what a day.

I am now in this weird jet lagged state – waking up in the middle of the night for 2 hours and then finally falling back to sleep. When I lay awake trying to go back to sleep – it hit me…no longer am I thinking about a meeting I forgot to schedule, something that I need to make sure and remind Mitchell to do, a question I had for Varun, an issue that I needed to ’spin’ for the business – I was work-stress free! Instead – I was thinking about friends, family, past boyfriends, lovers,writing, and new people I met…but no Coach.

What a lonnnnnggggg day. The important thing – I made it to New Zealand – another country. Seventeen hours ahead of NYC – and many Kiwi adventures ahead of me.

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