Our flight from the United States to New Zealand had us sitting in the middle isle of this huge airliner bus. This airplane was ten seats across, and first class had it own floor to sit in. Our seats were in the back bottom bowels of coach. When we walked on board I felt like cattle being loaded onto a box car. I held a ticket to a tiny sliver of space, where I felt tightly packed and stowed away. A young Chinese woman traveling with her grandmother was sitting next to Kathy, and I was sitting on the aisle seat. During the flight there was an international incident. The old Chinese woman thought Kathy was taking up to much floor space. By the end of the flight national borders have been drawn and the no mans land had been frequently invaded. Just so we would not forget the airline had a count down of hours before reaching our destination on every TV screen. They slowly moved this tiny little plane across the TV screen. The airline did make the trip some what tolerable by serving us free drinks, showing us three moves, with local New Zealand news, and show New Zealand’s tourist attractions. Five o’clock in the morning, Shoot, Kathy was asleep and I can not reach my water; man this flight will take forever.
The last local New Zealand tourist broadcast ended and we were about ten minutes from landing. The flight attendant passed out customs declaration slips and it was time to inventory everything and declare it. I fill out the usual details, what country was I from? What purpose was my visit? what food items did I have with me? and was I on a farm or have I been in the woods in the last three months? I filled out everything until I got to the question about the food. I had a roll of lifesavers and I thought nah why should I declare them, so I checked off no on the question I did not have any food items to declare. Kathy kept the passports and declaration forms for safe keeping. The pilot announced final approach and ordered everyone to their seats. We could not really see anything from the windows because they were just too far away, so we watched the TV monitors air speed and altimeter. We were slowing from around three hundred miles an hour to two hundred and seventy two. The plane sank and we felt gravity pull the huge plane down the airstrip. The brakes pushed us forward and then everyone started grabbing their stuff getting ready to run off the plane. Beat up and tired from the twelve and a half hours of flight the passengers in a trance like state spill out into the Auckland international airport.
Dazed and tired from the flight we walked up to customs like zombies. “DECLARE IT OR DUMP IT ” this was on a sign that was pasted on every wall with photos of people in jail or in hand cuffs. “IT IS BETTER TO DECLARE IT THAN TO TAKE THE CHANCE OF IMPRISONMENT AND HEAVY FINES.” This was also on the declaration form that we had filled out on the plane. “You know? maybe I should have declared the roll of lifesavers.” I was getting close to the customs booth I did not declare my roll of life savers. “What do I do? If I hang on to the life savers and they catch me what do they do? What if I walk through customs with the life savers in my mouth not in my pocket?” “LAST CHANCE DECLARE IT OR DUMP IT.” OK so I dumped them. We went to baggage pick up and there was this big custom guard walking around with this large black lab sniffing peoples bags, and we watched the carousel turn. It was exciting seeing all our bags and we walked to the customs gate. We declared yes to the agriculture questions and we went to the red line. I had to unzip the back of my suit case and let the customs officer look at our hiking boots.
They pass the boots and we were finally free to wander around in New Zealand. The first thing we did was walk down the gray blue hallway and stopped at a bank teller to exchange some money. After looking the money over, Kathy and I walked through the airport and found a sign that led us to the rent-a-car area. Kathy called the New Zealand Rent-A-Car number and they told her to expect them in about ten minutes in front of the McDonalds sign driving a little red Toyota. We collected all of our stuff and wheeled the luggage out side to find a cool damp day. When the rent-a-car person showed up we pushed the luggage into the boot and piled into the car. The car was a small Toyota but it had a large boot which we filled with our bags. The agent was a women who enjoyed talking about New Zealand. I got into the front seat because I was going to be the next driver of the vehicle. When she pulled out Kathy and I watched as we swung around to the left hand side of the road and merged into traffic. “Oh boy! here I am with twelve hours of jet lag in the rain about to drive on the left hand side of the road.” We pulled into a hotel parking lot and swung in front of the entrance and pulled over to the left and parked.
We finally got the car, directions, and maps and we were on the way. “Left” Kathy yelled and we swung out of the parking lot.
I was driving in the left hand lane and had to make a right hand turn. Kathy asks “Why do you have the windshield wipers on.” “This is annoying I said.” Both the turn signal and wiper were switched. Another thing was the rearview mirror was hard to adjust. Man, this is going to be hard to get use to. Kathy really looks out of place sitting on the left hand side without a steering wheel in front of her. We made it to our highway and started off to Auckland. Kathy had the worst seat in town. I was not use to sitting on the right hand side of the car and I was bad at getting too close to the other lane. Kathy would let out shrieks of horror as I would get close to other cars and trucks.
The speed limit was 100 K an hour and I wanted to go 100 K an hour. Then it happened I found us behind a slow truck and I had to make my first pass on the highway. I pressed the gas petal and looked up to the right and then quickly to the left and found the rearview mirror. I could beat that car coming up so I whipped around the truck. I looked over and Kathy was looking nervous and I asked her which lane slow traffic was in. We both decided that the outside lane was slow and the inside lane was fast.
Kathy successfully navigated us downtown Auckland. We found our hotel on the corner of Wellesley and Albert street. I had to make a right hand turn so I promptly turned my windshield wipers on and off.
The hotel was a tall slender building and it was surrounded by a larger hotel. I made the right hand turn and got into the other hotels parking garage.
This was very entertaining because driving in tight places on the left hand side half awake from the plane ride was keeping Kathy shrieking. We pulled into a parking spot and walked to our hotel with our bags. We checked in and discovered that our room was small and narrow. Kathy liked it and said it was not that bad. The first thing I did was look for the mini-bar. I found none, but there was coffee and tea. The coffee was an instant coffee brand that would follow us through out the entire trip. We moved our car to the correct parking garage, which was under the Sky Tower. Walking back to the Hotel we cut though a plaza that had a McDonalds in it and decided to get some coffee. I ordered coffee and some sandwich. When I opened the coffee it was white. Maybe I should have ordered black coffee oh well. We walked around and found maps and lounged around in our shoe box the first day. Opening my eyes at around two o’clock in the morning, I was awake, then I was not, then I woke up at six o’clock in the morning and was not going back to bed. We were the first people in Auckland to wake up. Well, it at least seemed that way. Kathy and I spent our first real day walking around Auckland. Not driving.
We walked downtown for black coffee and scones. We walked to the water front. They had a very nice Maritime museum. There were different shops we could go into as well as the museum itself.
We walked to a fish store with wonderful colors of pink, and piles of delicious looking fish. This was the place I saw my first green lip clam. I inspected them carefully to see if they had painted their lips, but Kathy assured me they came that way from the ocean. Walking back I asked Kathy if she was thirsty and we decided when we got out of the red light area we would find a pub. The pub was small filled with slot machines and two old men playing them. One wall was covered with currency from all around the world. We knocked down some brews and left. “Yea know” I said to Kathy “they did not have a women’s bath room.” “That was strange” she said and we walked around some more down town. We passed a theater and decided to watch the movie. The move was good it was LA Confidential. The rest was good. Later we ate at a Thai restaurant. We were both becoming tired and were slipping back into the twilight zone of jet lag. I found myself starring at a whole baked fish looking back at me from the plate while listening to a large man argue about some tip thing. You do not tip in New Zealand but he was going to anyway, and was explaining where his tip should go. My fish seemed to become annoyed at this so I ate it.
We left feeling really tired and went to bed. I woke up at two o’clock in the morning feeling as if maybe I had been here before. Oh! I had I forgot the nap. I got up and looked out the window. It was raining and I thought it was cute. I woke up again at six o’clock and Kathy was already awake so I said “lets go find breakfast.” We walked around for a while until Kathy became tired of me saying “I just want a familiar breakfast” and we found ourselves in a small scone shop. We ate and had our coffee black. The decision was made the day before, we would get back into the car. LEFT! Kathy did not have white knuckle horror in her face. I must be getting better at driving, now all I have to do is learn to slow down a little bit. We went to a Corian shop that was recommended to me back in the States and had a good time. I am of course leaving out the near miss of very large truck incident. I try to blank that one out. Dave Roberts was the owner and he showed us around in his shop. Dave also gave us some tips on what to see in Auckland. The shop was large but he was doing a lot of laminate work in there too. After getting a nice tour we said our good-bye and went exploring.
We had to drive over a bridge that had super tight lines and Kathy looked a little white faced a couple of times. I learned it was better not to ask how close we came some times. We drove to an arctic museum were we saw the clothes people wore in early exploring, they had us ride through a freezer to see penguins. This place also had a huge aquarium. We walked inside a clear tube under this huge aquarium and saw the large sting rays swim over our heads. We saw sharks swim right up to us then change course right as they got to the tube wall. The museum was located under ground and the parking lot was on top of it. After the tour of the museum we were in the gift shop and I saw a security camera showing the parking lot. Yep there is our little red Toyota. After we left we got lost looking for the cities museum. “Hey what direction are we going in?” Kathy asked. “ I do not know” I said and we pulled over so Kathy could figure out where we were. It turned out we were nowhere near the museum so we got a little extra tour of the city. Kathy did successfully navigate us to the museum, and it was OK. The very top floor was closed but the first two were open. The first floor was dedicated to the Maori`s. They had weapons of war, boats, old photographs, and stories. The next floor was New Zealand at war. Man they stared at World War One and ended with the Second World War.
Kathy called the place New Zealand’s War museum and I agreed. Later I got to do the parking garage thing again. This time I was prepared with the correct amount of fear in me about driving in tight places on the wrong side of the road. With the car parked we made it out and walked back to the hotel. Kathy said “Hey! look a clear sky” lets go to the Sky Tower. I said “OK” and off we went. The Sky Tower was cool. We could see all of Auckland. On the outer rim of the tower there was an area on the floor that was made of plexi-glass. Man it was scary to stand an clear glass so far above the ground. On the way down there was this booth were two young Women who asked us if we wanted our photos done. I said OK and they took a picture of me lying on my back in front of a blue screen and with a computer pasted my image bungy jumping off it. That was cool. We did not eat anything much that night because our bodes were going through this weird time thing. I did go out for a burger while Kathy read a book. About two o’clock in the morning I woke up and watch early morning traffic for a while and went back to bed. At six we forced New Zealand up and prepared for the road. We got down to the lobby where the receptionist was arguing with a customer about some pointless thing way too long and checked out. This was it. We wheeled our luggage up to the car and started off to the east coast. Man this was cool cruising along seeing rolling hills of grass curving around up steep hills then down them again. We choose the longer route because it would take us through some parts that were not paved and I thought that was too neat to pass up, Kathy agreed. I had to drive over these narrow one lane bridges, and every time I would pop out the other side I would intently go to the right. We finally made our way to the mountains where parts of the road that were not paved were narrow and we had to go very slow around hair pin corners because of oncoming traffic that would zoom up out of nowhere. We got to see mountain side that were dotted not with trees but with huge forty foot tall ferns. There were times when there were not ferns but mountains covered with grass. We saw the side of a mountain that moved like ripples in water because the wind was blowing the tall grass around. We stopped for a break at a store and I drank some local pop. The pop was not that good but it had a manly label. We finally made it to our next hotel. We stayed at the Puka Park Lodge in their treehut chalet hut. Very cool. Our room was up a narrow path past a helicopter (that was used to ferry the rich back and forth from the city) on the back side of the lobby tuck away in big black ferns.
The first thing I did was check for the mini bar . YES. Man this thing was packed too. Chips, candy bars, cookies, beer, soda, wines, waters. The Hotel chalet was pretty large but the bathroom was still real small. The countertop was so small the sink would not fit in it. The sink stuck out the front. After unpacking we walked down to the beach through a neat neighborhood with strange trees and shrubs. The beach was long and ended at a point. We walked for I would say three hours and enjoyed the views of the water and jagged mountains sticking up out of the ocean. I collected a few rocks from here and we went back to get ready to drive into town to eat. Kathy stopped by the receptionist and arranged a day thing with somebody called Kiwi Dundee. That night Kathy had green lipped sea food and I had steak. The next day we put our raincoats on (you see it was raining again) and went down to the lobby. The walk to the lobby was down a very steep trail through thick black ferns we passed the pool, helicopter, and entered the lobby and waited for Kiwi Dundee to show up. Doug Johansen showed up wearing khaki shirts and a blue shirt with his shirt sleeves rolled up. Doug took us to see the gold mines first. The gold mines were at the end of a thick forest trail and had worms that glowed inside. We saw where they carved out a jail and walked deep inside the bush were we could have easily gotten lost for ever and would have never been found again.
We stayed in the deep bush for a few hours then went to the hot beach. The sand was always hot because of the thermal action under the sand. So we stood around in the cool rain, and cold surf with our toasty toes buried in the hot sand for a while. Doug turned out to be a real back bush man. He was the reason for a lot of the forest. You see so gold miners were going to burn the forest for its gold but he stopped them. He got a medal from the Queen of England for his bravery. Man Kathy and I were tired after that day we decided to order room service. I ordered a hamburger so I got a sandwich with ham on it, and Kathy had some pasta thing that looked real good. This is where Kathy noticed I liked room service. The next day we checked out and left for the farm stay. Time to STAY ON THE LEFT HAND SIDE!. Kathy asked “do you want to go the long way or short way. I said long way (I liked to drive) and see the sites. New Zealand’s roads are made up of very sharp turns. Yes, we wound our way around to the east coast side. Native New Zealanders seemed a bit annoyed at the fact that we were not breaking any land speed records but I did not want to run off the road and careen down a two hundred foot drop off. A few miles later I noticed that the landscape got flatter and we were in farm land. Driving down a two lane road for hours then all of a sudden this feeling that I am on the wrong side of the road hits me and I just have to laugh.
I am on the wrong side of the road. No I am not. Man this is weird. Rotorua is known for their thermal areas and is referred to as Sulfur City. On the way to the deer farm that we were going to stay at we passed the ZORB headquarters. Zorbing is were you are placed inside a large ball and pushed down a mountain side. We also passed the road to the AGRODOME. This is the place to see live sheep farming shows. We took a left past this golf course, which was hard to see because all of New Zealand looks like a golf course, and made our way up a small steep road. The deer farm house was on the top off a good size hill and had a view of the town below as well as the lake. The lake looked like it was shaped from a massive volcanic explosion. The landscape circled the lake and went up with a steep grade with a lot of small peaks with little dots of white milling around going Baaa Baaa Baaa. Rod and Diane Daniel were our host on their 80 acre farm. Diane was still at work teaching at the local high school when we arrived. Rod and his friendly farm dog met us and gave us a tour of the farm. Kathy and I saw a very hilly farm. After the tour we went back to the house and we were met by Diane. We ate dinner and traded stories about our different cultures and then went to bed. The next day Kathy and I woke up early and were off to see the area.
However it was very early and nothing was open. We decided to go for a walk in a very nice park. The park was large and we took at least an hour and a half walk. One part of the trail had a circle area cut into it. Around the perimeter there were trees of the world. Trees from the United States, Japan, Mexico, Germany, Europe. It was getting close to lunch and we decided I should ZORB first. We got to Zorbs headquarters but he was already rolling people down a hill. Kathy and I decided to go watch and what we saw was funny. There was a women diving into a large clear ball. Then this guy pushed her down the side of a mountain. He picked her up and loaded the big ball into the back of a trailer and drove our way. It was my turn. He drove Kathy and I up to the top of the mountain and positioned the ball so the hole inside was parallel to the ground. “Now jump and dive into this hole” he said. So I stepped back and ran toward the ball and dove into the hole. I landed halfway inside the ball with half my body sticking out. I crawled inside the ball and there was a seat belt, feet straps, shoulder straps, and hand straps. All strapped and buckled in he pushed me off the mountain side. The first thing I saw was sky, then the ground. This was pretty much the ride. I did hit some bumps and bounced a couple of times. The ball came to a stop and I unbuckled, and pushed the ball around till the hole was over the ground. I then stepped on the ground and pushed the ball away from me. Wow I was a little dizzy the first couple of steps. Next Kathy and I went to see the Agrodome. This place was not crowded at all when we got their. Kathy and I walked around inside looking at their gift shop area. Then we decided to go sit in front of the stage. A few seconds later hundreds of people flooded in and the place was packed. I think there were more Koreans than Chinese, and a few Japanese. They started the show by bringing out all the sheep that were farmed in New Zealand one at a time. There were about nineteen different kinds of sheep. Next they brought out a sheep and sheered it for us. Then they introduced the dog that helped them work the sheep. They had dogs that barked and dogs that stared. Asian people are not used to dogs. They seemed a little nervous around them when they were all barking. After the stage show they had us go outside and they showed us the dogs working the sheep. This was cool. Then we took a tractor ride around the farm and they showed us baby sheep. We all loved the baby sheep. They also showed us their Kiwi fruit farm and their deer farm. Later that night after dinner and right before going to sleep Kathy and I talked about where we were and how much more time we had in New Zealand.
We both woke up early the next day and packed, inventoried, and dressed for the road. At breakfast I started to get tired of the standard English breakfast. Eggs, white toast, (cold,) Canadian style ham, or cold cereal, After breakfast we packed the car said our good byes, petted the dog and drove down off the mountain. Our destination was a hotel in Wellington. This is going to be the longest drive we take. It is really amazing how I never got use to driving on the left hand side of the road. Kathy really never got use to being on the left either. We would just be driving along and both of us would just freak for a second. A long part of the drive was on a two lane highway that was in the middle of nothing. It turned out that a good part of the drive was through a military training area. Flat man you could see forever. There was this big mountain range right in front of us, and Kathy said we were just about to reach the ocean. What? the ocean, no way, well look at the map, we are here, and the ocean is right there. The road extended out in front of us with a mountain range above that. Then we got to the edge of a town and when we turned a corner there was the ocean, with a mountain range on an island a few hundred feet from the beach. OH! Wow, now that was a cool sight. The town was made of shops lined by a street that had the beach on the other side. It rather reminded me of parts of Florida. White sands the sign said. When we got out of the car and walked down to the beach we saw the sand. Grey not white. Kathy and I decided that Florida had much whiter sands than New Zealand. It was getting close to lunch so we walked around and found a place to eat. The food was good, an English looking restaurant that served Thai food.
The people there started chatting with us and insisted that we go to the top of their mountain and check out their spectacular view. So we went to the look out, which was worth seeing. We saw a beach stretch out under us with a town next to it, and a mountainous island out in the ocean we both said WOW, cool, neat view, an drove off. We drove along next to the rail road tracks for a while, and then we drove along side some big power lines for a while. The bird we kept on seeing next to the road pecking on the ground was a black chicken looking bird that had long hairy feathers. We were driving through some kind of wonder land with strange beautiful animals. We stopped at a BP gas station at some point and Kathy wanted to use her BP gas credit card to pay for the fuel.
The man behind the counter looked at the card and said “you know we’ve never seen these cards before and he called it in to see if it would work. It failed, and we had a good time trashing BP, who knows maybe we started something down there. We pulled into Wellington on highway 2. This was a very congested two lane highway that was right next to the harbor. Wellington main street pattern was the old one way street going the wrong way. Kathy did a remarkable job of navigating us through this one way labyrinth. Our hotel was a welcome sight. We pulled up and found a parking spot in back, close to the back door. Our room was on the third floor. When we walked in the door we faced the window, with our bed to our left, the bathroom was to the right, and the mini bar was right in front of us. “Open me” the mini bar spoke. “Yes master” I thought and walked up and opened the mini bar. After about minutes of shopping through the selection of beers, soda pops candy bars coffees, teas, wines, chips, peanuts, and cookies I asked Kathy if she wanted anything. “Sure” and we drank a beer, and Kathy called her SAS contact and we decided to have dinner. We had the afternoon to kill so we decided to do our laundry. So what did you do in New Zealand? well we did our laundry there, and let me tell you it is as much fun there as it is here. Later that night we ate at a restaurant on the harbor. The restaurant was very nice and the SAS guys were nice too.
The next day we pulled out of the parking lot and headed toward the gas station. After filling up we made a bee line toward the ferry terminal. This was the last time I will drive in New Zealand and I was a little sad.
On a personal note about the ferry ride from the north island to the south island, I would like to say it was the mid-point in an incredible adventure. Adventures have always been a goal in my life. Here we are in the mid point of a great adventure, facing unknown challenges of a three day tramp in the back bush with each other. I was nervous, and Kathy made me feel strong. Her confidence in life has always made me feel good. We were both looking forward to a very good South Island time.
WELL you KNOW
We turned onto the right fork in the road and drove to the bottom of the ramp. I was looking at a crowded condensed parking area that had construction peppered all around. There was a tall fenced in area that had a RENTAL CAR RETURNS and PARKING sign hanging from one of the chain link gates. Well?
What we really need is a fifteen minute or hourly parking. To my left there was a pile of steel beams. To my right there was a small area surrounded by orange plastic webbing. A crane was a few feet away, about to finish this hole in the ground, that the crew had been working on for several hours, and, three fifteen minutes parking spaces. This was next to a concert mixer, a pile of sand, and a stack of barrels. I pulled into the gate because the sign also hinted at public parking. I was wrong. We turned around and I wound my way around the debris in the dirt area and stopped. We had to wait for about EVER for this STUPID person to finally see they HAD to go straight. Kathy agreed instantly to snagging one of the fifteen minute parking place in the middle of a constitution zone, and we left our little Toyota with the big boot forever. Amazement, we could just dump the rent-a-car and stop worrying about it. You know? The whole trip has been amazingly good. Every place we go, has been snag free. We both feel good about this trip. Inside the terminal, we were the first of the rush hour to get there. Not knowing this we walked up to the ticket counter and returned the car but did not check our ferry vouchers. We then walked over to the line that was forming, where people were dumping their luggage and getting seat arrangements. I looked behind me and this flood of people came in like a tide of water. Kathy looked at me, and all of a sudden we were in deep water.
“ OH Shoot! I hope we are in the right line?” “All we have are ticket vouchers.” Kathy looked at me, and I looked behind me, and this huge open terminal was filled with people. We stood in line for long minutes before we got the good news. Yes! They took our vouchers. Man, this has been the story of this trip. Everything has gone right. We have time to go to the concessions stand and buy ten minutes of entertainment. Yea ,GAMEBOY was shacking in its bag but I was not tempted at all to pull it out and play. So a soda pop and a magazine entertained me in-between crowd watching. Kathy was into drinking this local pop and reading this new book she had paid too much for. At 9:30 we boarded the Interisland ferry. We had a three hour ride ahead of us. The ferry was a large wide boat. Passengers' cars parked on the bottom, with this small train system on the next deck up. passengers boarded were on the third deck on up. We walked on the boat about midship. We walked aft and looked inside a door marked BAR. It was full of small tables and smokers. We decided to walk up a level and we found another BAR that was not that crowded. This Bar was large and had big booths to sit in.
We slid into a booth and started to become settled. In-between paying GAMEBOY and staring out the window I would poke at Kathy. The ferry finally pulled out and we were on our way. I had to roam so I went to watch the south island fade away and came back to Kathy.
About 10:30 Kathy got restless and we went for a walk. We walked down to the first deck, down a wide stair case that was next to the ferry’s theater. We made our way forward passed a tourist information counter, and a slot machine room. We passed a small store, when Kathy decided to look for a new book. “LOOK AT THESE PRICES” Kathy was showing me a paperback book that cost double what she would pay in the States. We finally made it to the front of the boat where there was an eatery serving cokes, sandwiches, chips, and smelled like cooking tea. We doubled back passed the heads and went out side to go up the stairwell. Up stairs we walked to the front area where the middle of the room was filled with airliner type seating. The perimeter was filled with small booths and people filled every crook and cranny. They were reading, playing cards, or just fumbling around with their stuff. We breezed through that section and walked back aft. We past a small room that had video games in it, and we went up to the viewing deck. It was windy and there was a thick cool wet mist. It smelled like the cleanest air I have ever smelled. We decided to go aft and hang out of the wind behind the structure, and watch Cape Jackson go by. Sheer cliffs, Great mountains of sheer cliffs, covered in grass with sheep trails cut into the sides, like lines drawn horizontally, zig zagging their way up and down the mountain sides. We watch as the ferry went into Endeavor inlet and past MT Stokes. We pulled into Picton and we were suddenly in the middle of the departing crowd.
Kathy and I walked down the long covered ramp and into Picton`s terminal. We collected our bags, went outside, walked through the parking lot, that was filled with large buses, and crossed the street. The train terminal was a long building with a restaurant next to the ticket office. Kathy got our seats and we decided to eat lunch. This was the worst lunch we had in New Zealand. It was a English looking pub that served what appeared as a light Thai dish. When they brought the food out it turned out to be dripping in grease, and dark brown. We did not eat this but had a couple of good beers instead. When the train arrived we had to walk down the long row of train cars to find ours.
We had the two seats alone next to the door. That was cool. Hey, something was wiggling in my bag. Game time! yep time to kick some Mario butt. Kathy listened to her CD player with her headphones on and read a book. The ride was nice with wide rivers big grassy fields filled with sheep. We ended up traveling along the coast. There even was a rock seal sighting. The train follow the cost going in and out of tunnels cut through the mountain sides. We pulled up to Kaikoura. Our stOur stop, we jumped off the train, and walked to the baggage car. A conductor tossed bags out the side door. We picked out our bags and made our way around to the parking lot. There were a couple of taxis waiting and one gave us a ride to our hotel. We stayed at the White Morph Motor Inn. Kathy opened the door and we spilled in with the luggage. I checked out the Mini-bar, Yes! it was stocked to the rafters, and Kathy changed clothes. We went for a small walk on the rock beach that looked like a long rock garden with an ocean on one side and a small town on the other side. The sound that the rocks made when the surf came in and went out was soothing. My feet sank in the smooth rocks as I walked with Kathy. The weather was warm and the night was clear. We stood around looking at the stars holding hands and enjoying our surroundings. Later we went to dinner and ate a very nice meal. The next day we found out that our whale watching boat had been canceled due to high winds and rain and we had to entertain ourselves. OH NO, we were already checked out of our hotel.
It was cold, windy, and wet. We walked around until we decided it would be better if we checked in one of these back packers' rooms for the day. I took a nap and Kathy read. Later the weather calmed down and we went to town walked around some and did some shopping. This is where I bought my art piece the porcelain YES and Kathy bought her print of New Zealand country folks. At 4:08 we got on board the train again and headed for Christchurch. We would arrive there about 7:00 that night. This train ride was much like the last one except that we left the coast behind and the rivers and field came next. We got to Christchurch and checked in to the George hotel. Now this place had a Mini-bar spread, Kathy made some remark about my mini-bar obsession, then I dove into the bar. We were both tired and we went to bed early. The next day we got onboard the Tranz Alpine Train. We traveled through some very beautiful alpine mountains. Snow covered peeks on top of sold rock and massive gorges with wide rivers running through them hundreds of feet below. The train went through tunnels and when we popped out the other side we would see valley surrounded by snow covered mountains. It looked like a valley of volcanoes.
The conductors walk through the train with coffee and tea. I always drank coffee and Kathy tried their tea. She said it was excellent. I sat next to Kathy playing my GAMEBOY and looking out the window. We pulled into the train station at Greymouth and unloaded all our stuff. We hung around there until our bus showed up. We loaded in the bus and drove to Franz Josef Glacier. Glacier is pronounced (Glass-see-your) by local New Zealanders. The bus pulled up to the Douglas Wing of the hotel and we filed off the bus. Our room was up stairs. We did not stay in the room very long because the day was getting short and we wanted to get out and walk. Kathy led as we plunged into the back bush. The trail was deep gravel mixed with deep moss. We wound around a mountain for about thirty minutes and then popped back out. It was a very nice trail. We then decided to investigate a river that was coming from the local Glacier. We had to make our way down boulders jumping from one then to another. Once at the bottom we tested the coolness of the water. Yikes! that’s cold stuff, “Kathy come here feel this water.” “No thanks, I am just fine were I am.” Oh well can not get her close enough to splash her I guess she’s safe for now. After we played around at the base of Franz Josef Glacier we went to eat dinner. The next day The bus came to pick us up and take us to Queenstown. At this point I am getting a little tired of buses. But the GAMEBOY has been some help.
Kathy notices this when we pull over to view some fur seals and I stay on the bus to play my game. And no I was not pouting. I personally wanted to just get there, anywhere I did not care, I just wanted the bus trip to stop. A personal note from Kathy she would say I was pouting. We arrived in Queenstown and are dropped off by the side of the road. We are met by a taxi driver who takes us to the airport. At the airport we found the airline and checked in. “Oh good! we are glad you made it” the person behind the counter said as he was moving some stuff around. The pilot walked in and introduced himself. He grabbed Kathy`s bag and said “The other people cancelled today, I guess we will take the six seater.” We followed the pilot out to the runway and Kathy said “MAN! that’s the smallest plane I have ever ridden on.” The pilot opened the passenger door and asked me to climb in. When I did I found myself sitting next to his chair. He got Kathy in and ask us to strap in real good because the turbulence was bad today. “No please strap in REAL tight, that’s it a little tighter now, lets go.” “Please sir do not touch any of the controls.” He started the motor, I would say engine but it did not look that big, and we rolled alone the grass.
He turned passed the asphalt and used the turf for take off. We gain altitude and started to hug the mountain because it was less turbulent. We fell for about three seconds and then slammed level. There was an alarm going off and he turned and gave us the OK sign with his hand. The wind was pushing us around and the plane us going up and down and sideways. We started to go in to a valley and he turned and yelled “OK this is where it gets a little bumpy.” The plane lurched and turned sideways and another alarm with off. Kathy`s camera case floated up and drifted back behind her. We fell again and the wind turned us almost backwards. “There! There is, see it? That is where we are heading.” “That’s the airport. We can’t make Te Anau airport because of construction, so we have to land here.” the pilot had to yell all of this because of the noise level in the small plane. I was looking at a farm, with sheep. I started to think Who was this guy, what are his credentials, and I hope he is not suicidal. He tipped the planes nose down toward the ground and dove straight for it. He swung the nose up and pushed the small plane down in the grass. We rolled to a small building and a lady stepped out to give us a ride to town. I turned around to see the pilot get back into his miniature plane and taxi away. “Welcome to Te Anau” The lady said. we gathered our bags from the ground, and loaded them in the taxi.
We got to the Travelodge and checked in. Here are you backpacks. The receptionist handed over two backpacks and told us there was an informal get together later. We got to our rooms and unpacked. Man, I have nothing to wear. Kathy suggested we go for a walk. We walked in the small town and shopped a little. I decided to look in the track office for trekking clothes but they were closed, Oh well maybe tomorrow. Kathy and I walked into the conference room and met with the group who were going on the trek with us. We hung out and chit chatted for a while and the group leaders came in and announced it was time to eat dinner. Later that night I went threw my stuff one more time. OK got underwear, socks, shoes, raincoat, what I need are shorts, shirts. So the next day Kathy and I walked to the track office. Well, I found shirts, shorts, and I had a pair of sweat pants in my hands, and said “Na I do not need the sweat pants.” I put the sweat pants back. OH look there are walking sticks I shopped around and pulled out the two that I thought fit us best, and I handed her the one I thought would fit her. We filled out some check in forms and were told to drop off our luggage off in a certain spot so they stow them. We went back to the room and got the backpacks ready.
OK now the number on my backpack was 706 and Kathys is 751. I was ready, I packed everything in the backpack and was ready. Kathy gave a thumbs up too. I slept good that night and got up early. Today we are going to start the walk. Kathy had her luggage ready and we walked down the hallway to the Track office with our luggage. We dropped our luggage off where they told us to. Kathy looked at her watch and noticed we had an hour to kill before the first trail meeting. Hey we did a lot of waiting around on the first day of the trek. The reason was so we would not end up at the first camp site too soon, but still it was boring just hanging around just to kill time. At the first trail meeting we met our trail guides. There were two guides. Mark and Susan were their names. Mark was a young Maori man, and Susan was a young Scandinavian women. They went down a list of stuff that would need and made sure we had our gear. They also went over what the first trail was going to be like. It was going to be a short walk under an hour and flat. When we get to Glade House we will then get rooms and we can drop off our backpacks and go for a short nature walk which will last around half an hour. After the meeting was over we killed another forty-five minutes before we had our group photograph. Everyone filed into the conference room and we stood together and FLASH it was over. It was time to load the bus and hit the road. Hey it is raining. We tossed our backpacks in the bottom of the bus and quickly walked on the bus. The ride was a short one where the boat was.
The pier was small and it was cold and raining. I forgot my backpack number so I looked like I was busy till my pack was the last one left. The boat was a low narrow ferry at the end of a rolling pontoon pier. I dumped my pack off in the pile of other packs, and walked down and forward of the boat. I sat next to Kathy. She was sitting on a long seat next to a window, forward behind the wheel house. The rain had mucked up the windows so it was hard to see out. We were sitting almost at water level. Hey it is the freedom walkers. A group of hikers got on board right before we launched, they were known as freedom walkers. They walked the trail without any guides, and they had to carry their own food. They were cool. We pulled out and people started to go up to the observation deck. Kathy walked past me and asked me if I wanted to go to go see the view. I said no thanks, and she disappeared. Later I got restless and walked up to the front of the boat. The man steering the boat was just left of the steep stairwell going up to the observation deck. The wind made it painful to watch what was coming ahead, I had to just stand facing backward. Kathy looked rosy cheeked and happy kissed me and told me she was glad I came up.
Tessa a fellow hiker took a picture of Kathy and I standing in the rain ,cold and smiling. The boat pulled up to a aluminum dock and we collected our backpacks and stepped off the pitching boat to solid ground. The rain was steady but not too thick. There was a large tree where everyone gather around To take pictures of themselves standing next to a sign reading, Start of Milford Track. This was the first part of the walk and it is OK. Kathy and I followed four Japanese women down a nice wide path. Their guide was stopping them a lot so we past them and made our way to Glade House. Glade House had a stream in front of it, that there was no part that you could not see the ground under the water. Wide, deep, and clear the river ran fast. Trout would swim for a little bit then lazily let the current push them for a little while, then they would turn as if playing with the rivers progress. We dumped the backpacks in our rooms, drank some coffee, or tea and started to gather around the front door. We were ready for the short mile long nature walk. The walk had us going through narrow trail that was made of peat moss a foot deep easy. It was wet. The woods were cool and thick with moss and ferns. I had to start to pay attention to the walker in front of me because the trail turned into trail roots and rocks. We started down hill and I had to navigate down slippery roots and moss covered rocks, around the next corner the trail disappeared under water. There was a small patch of earth and I went to step for it. Oh man, my boot sank to my ankles in soft peat moss.
We made it out of the nature walk and we all laughed at the time we just had. We went back to the rooms and change into our evening wear. I took Kathy`s and my socks, shorts and shirt to the drying room. The drying room was a small room that had clothes line in it and a propane heater blowing hot air in it. I got back and decide to take a shower. This is also the first time I realized that the bath rooms were shared by both sexes. It was kind of strange walking out of the shower, and brushing my teeth with a bathroom of Japanese women. Yea, I must have looked funny bowing with a tooth brush sticking out of my mouth. After I changed I hung out in the large gathering room with the other hikers. The Glade house leader had us get up with the other people from the same country and sing a song. The group of American choose to sing Yankee doodle dandy. I was cool, I sang along, it was fun. Mark performed a traditional Maori war dance, the haku. The group leader showed us how to unfold and get into these portable sheets. They were envelopes with a pillow cover attached on one end. They also went over the next days walk. This is going to be an easy walk. We should take our time, because there is not anything to do at the next lodge. The walk is ten miles long. After the meeting we went to bed. Kathy choose to be on the upper part of the bunk bed and I said “thanks” and dove in the lower bunk. The Glade House got its power from a generator so we had to be in bed before they turned off the power. Oh boy, I felt like I was in camp again with the lights out rule. The next day several people got up early and took a quick shower before the power was turned on. This was the first day that I met the sandfly. Ow! man that itches. I ran back to my room and slathered myself in bug repellent. I forgot to put any repellent on the heel of my foot, and one sandfly crawled down my boot, made its way down inside my sock and bit me. Ow! shoot, Kathy had one crawl down her hair and bite her on the head. After breakfast we were getting ready for the walk from Glade House to Pompolona Lodge. It was going to be the easiest walk, only ten miles long. We did not leave as a group. We all left when we were ready. The group smelled like a bug repellent factory. The walk started by crossing the Clinton river by a foot bridge. We followed the river though a beech forest. The river was always on one side us and the mile markers posted along the trail seemed to pass by quickly. We took our time because we wanted to drink in the woods as much as possible. The trail looked like it could turn into a river, or it had turned into a river at some point. At around 12:00 we made it to Hirere Falls and stopped for lunch. This is where we met the birds we would soon learn to hate. The largest alpine parrot in the world.
The bird was called KEA (Keeyea). We thought they were very cool as they hopped around looking very intelligent. After lunch we popped out of the woods and were walking in a valley of grass surrounded by mountains that had more waterfalls than we could count. We followed the trail to a sign DO NOT STOP AVALANCHE AREA. OK we walked for about mile until there was another sigh YOU ARE CLEAR OF THE AVALANCH AREA. There were small rivers cutting through the valley floor from all waterfalls everywhere. ONE PERSON AT A TIME, yea these were small brides that crossed the rivers. The bridges were narrow transportable made of aluminum. I could tell that these thing had been washed away a few times before and brought back. At one point Kathy and I walked up to a river bed made of these huge boulders. There was a sign saying if the river was not crossable that we had to wait in the shed till it went down. We continued across the field of boulders till we saw another small bridges. “That way the trail is that way.” We made it to the bridge and crossed over a raging river below.
Man that was hard, we turned around a saw several people climbing their way through the bolder field making their way towards us. This was called a short rocky climb in their brochure. We made it back into thick woods and continued to walk up hill. Every once and a while the trees would clear and expose a sheer drop off and a raging river below. We made it to Pompolana lodge. This was the most remote lodge on the track. It was also surrounded by a large roaming gang of Kea parrots. We sat around talking about the walk, later we had the meeting about what we had to do the next day. It is going to be the most difficult walk of the track. The walk will be only nine miles but five of the nine miles will be zig zagging our way up a mountain face. After dinner I went to my room to settle in there were the Keas sitting on the roof biting at the bolt trying to take them out. I thought that was cute. I started to look around and I realized these were some of the most destructive animals I have ever seen. Every railing at the lodge was chewed on. We were warned that we had to lock our doors because the birds would open the doors and steal our stuff. I hung out for a little while and watched a couple of Kea`s. One hopped up to me then sheepishly tip toed behind me. This fascinated me so I did not move. The bird then slowly scrabbled up behind me and grabbed the sole of my shoe and tried to pull it off.
A couple of people walked by thought this was funny that these birds were trying to take my shoes right off my foot. I thought that these birds could be real fun if I had the proper time to set them up for a little bird practical joke, but I did not have the time, so I went to bed. Later that night I woke up and went to the bathroom and I found myself staring at twelve of these birds. I got a little nervous as they got braver in a larger pack and did not fly away when I stomped up to them. I went inside the bathroom and I could hear them trying to pry the door open. When I came out the birds had the fire hose cabinet open and they were pecking at the hose. Three birds were playing slide down the roof of the cabin across from me and one bird walked me back to my room just out of my reach. These birds were a real terror. Later that night I was woken up by these bird running back and forth across the deck chasing each other and squawking. Man the next day I hated those birds. Kathy and I started the walk to Mackinnon Pass. We walked through a valley until the trail started to get steep. The trail consisted of zig zag patterns and Kathy and I took breaks at each turn. The trail continued to get steeper and we were climbing a mountain. Hey this is not to bad I said to Kathy, who was huffing and puffing. She looked at me with a look that said well not a good word.
We broke free of the tree line and we took another break. I looked around and we were very high up in the air. It was warm down in the valley but it was getting cold fast up here. I put my gloves on and switched from my rain hat to my woolen hat. By the time we reached the summit there was snow on the ground and the wind was blowing and it was cold. Man we had white out conditions. Mark had to hang out up there for Susan to show up with the last hiker. We followed the trail with our heads buried under our rain gear and every once in a while I stepped in a snow spot and I sank up past my ankle. Hey Kathy my water proof shoes hold snow really well.
We stopped at the summit building for tea and coffee for a while before make our descent. Everyone was crammed into this small hut and when we took our coats off we were all steaming. Soon there was a considerable amount of steam in that little shack. They told us that we had to use the emergency trail because of the weather conditions. The trail was narrow steep and rocky. Parts of the trail were blasted out of solid rock. We had to sit down and jump from one ledge to another. We followed the trail for a while. When something told me to look over my shoulder. Sheer drop off at least a three hundred foot drop and here we were slipping on slimy rocks fighting our way down. I jumped from one ledge to another and the rock I landed on gave way and I twisted my ankle. We made it to the tree line and it started to warm up. We climbed down a boulder that had old tree roots growing all over it when Kathy said “Where is the trail?, I don`t know where did it go.”
We stood there for a few minutes. I looked behind us we were on the trail but what was in front of us was no trail. Yes it has to be Kathy jumped into a water fall that was streaming down the face of the mountain and grabbed a rope I did not see. She then pulled herself down the across the swift rocky water to the other side. OK I was next. Boy that was fun. We leveled out in a lush green rain forest. The color was magnificent green. The ground gave way like soft carpet and the air was sweet and it was raining. So how is it in a rain forest well let me tell you WET that’s what it is like in a rain forest. Everything is wet. My feet are in water, held there with water proof shoes. My clothes are wet under my wet rain coat, with my wet handkerchief, and my wet gloves, in my wet pockets my head is wet, in my wet hat. I am WET. The trail turns into a wooden walkway that turns into steps. Walking down steps is a good thing after walking down a steep trail. The walkway follows the river which is boiling its way down the mountain. This is a nice area. The coolness, the greenness, the water raging next to us. We are just walking trying to make it to the next lodge.
My legs hurt. Kathy is walking a little stiff. We are making good time. The wooden steps end, and we came up to another foot bridge. This one was called the Poseidon because it had a tendency to swing wildly. I personally like that sort of thing and ran across it making it swing. Kathy waited for me to get across before walking to the other side. The trail turned into solid rock and people were slipping all over the place. Neither Kathy or I hit the ground and we felt lucky. We follow the trail around the bend and up a small hill and a building comes in to view. Yea we have made it. There is a women who is holding a clip board and she gives use a room. We waddle over to the room and dump our gear. Hey Kathy do you want to walk over to see Sutherland falls, “No thanks” She said, and I was off to see a water fall that was higher that the Empire state building. The walk lasted forty five minutes and when I got there it was like stepping into a hurricane. The wind that was generated by the water falls blew water in ever crevice of my rain gear. I could not look straight at it, but only down. Mark told me I could get around behind the water fall, so I went for it. I waded across this rive and then fought my way to the mountain side. I was standing next to the water fall and the wind and the water made it hard to breath. I had to climb over huge rock and I stumbled a couple of times but I managed to force my way behind the falls.
You know all those moves where people behind water fall? and they are dry, IT IS A LIE, man it was windy and wet and the noise was so loud that my ears started to hurt. I started to make my way out but I could not see where I was going. The wind and water and noise made seem like I was lost. I walked climbed and stumbled my way away from the falls and found the river. I waded my way back across the thing, and started the walk back to the lodge when I met some Japanese women and their guide. I acted out what it was like by waving my arms around, and making swishing sounds. They all applauded my charades and went forward towards the falls. I went back to Kathy, My room, dry clothes, hot shower, dry clothes oh did I say that already, well dry clothes was important because I was starting to mildew. Kathy was in the sitting area and asked how the falls were. I said she would not have had a good time, and she made a wise decision by staying. I got an ice pack for my ankle and after dinner I went to bed. Thump, Thump, Squawk!, Thump. Man I am going to put those Keas on the endangered list. Where we were staying was also the place to see the Kiwi bird. The Kiwi bird was once thought to be extinct because nobody saw them. It turns out that the Kiwi bird is a nocturnal bird.
I did not stay up to go Kiwi looking because I was tired, and dry and it was cold and wet out. Anyway here are some interesting Kiwi tid bits of information. The Kiwi bird call is ( Kee-wee ) thus its name, and the Kiwi bird has the shortest beak of all birds because the beak is measured from the nostrils forward and the Kiwi`s nostrils are at the tip of its beak. The next day Kathy and I got a fresh start early in the morning. Yes it was raining steadily. Our destination was Sandfly point. We did not have to worry about sandflys too much because it was raining too hard. We followed Lake Ada for a while till we got to the boat house for tea. This is going to be the last hot drinks till we get finished with the walk. We took off our raincoats and hung them on some nails on a wall and put our packs under them.
Man we were wet. The boat house ceiling had old dusty liqueur bottles from around the world sitting in its rafters. We sat around a large table sipping tea and welcoming fellow walkers who came through the door. Kathy and I got restless and decided to hit the trail. I walked out and saw Kathy pull her camera out of her rain coat pocket. Water was gushing out of every opening. She had the saddest face I saw on her the whole vacation. We stowed the camera away in her pack and hit the trail. It was still raining and the trail stared to disappear under water.
At first we jumped from rock to rock trying to keep our feet as dry as possible. We were in marsh land. The trail turned into a wooden bridge that protected the fragile plant life. One person at a time was the standard for these short bridges. Soon the bridges got longer and longer and they allowed two people. We got to one bridge and the end of it was twisted and broken in half. There were people climbing off as we walked up. We helped people get down and had to wade around the bridge in the deep marshy mud. This time we definitely got wet. Well at this point wet was a mute point. We made it to the spot where we were going to eat lunch. This was a bench that had a little roof on it. Hey this is a great place to eat when it not raining ,but it was raining. We sat down and eat some food. I unpacked my flattened sandwich and soggy cookies. The sandwich was good and the cookies were not. A couple of ducks waddled up and I tried to catch one. This was the only entertainment people had as they ate their lunch. After the ducks got tired of me throwing soggy cookies down then pouncing on them, they left. Soon after we left for the trail. The trail started to go up and we were on solid rock again. This part of the trail was pretty cool. It was narrow with a cliff face on one side and a sheer drop off on the other side. Water was running off the cliff face and dropping on our heads so it did not matter if is was raining or not we were going to get wet.
But Ha! we were already soaked and we did not care anymore. The trail leveled off and widened. There were two deep drainage ditches cut on either side of the trail that had over flowed because of the excessive rain and we were walking in water again. We were getting close to the end of the trail and the end of the walk and we made up our mind that the rest of the walk was going to be done in water. This is fitting Kathy said as she splashed water my way. Hey watch there might be a dry spot some where on me. We made it to the end of the walk Thirty Three miles have been walked (mostly in the rain) and we felt good. The last hut came into site and we walked up to it. The Fellow hikers who already finished applauded as we walked into the door. Kathy and I both had the same thought. Yes Dry socks again. Man I am going to take the longest bath I have ever taken. Yea this is great. The room was cold and we applauded everyone who came in the door. After everyone showed up the ferry came and picked us up. we were dropped off on a dock and were taken by bus back to our hotel. We got cleaned up and changed our clothes and went down to our last meeting as a group. Mark and Susan passed out certificates of completion and we all drank a few beers.
The next day we took a boat cruise of the Milford sound. It was nice but I was getting tired of the sound and its rain. I also complained that this tour was never going to end. We went back to the pier and got on a cruise boat. You see it was cloudy, foggy, and raining I personally did not think these were the best conditions for a cruise on the water. We pulled out and the cruise lasted for about two hours. During the cruise several people got together and protest the fact that I was sitting inside playing my GAMEBOY. OK, I looked out the window and saw, Rain, clouds, fog, Oh look another waterfall. After the cruise we took a plane ride back to Queenstown and then a taxi ride to our hotel. Novotel was a nice hotel. We pulled up to a one story building that had a grand entrance. We went in and got our rooms I noticed that the hotel was built going down a side of a mountain. Our floor number was 03 and the lobbies was on the floor 1. We took the elevator down to our rooms and dumped our stuff. I looked in the mini-bar and did some shopping. I got what brochures I could find on bungy jumping out, and started to call around to see how much it was going to cost to do the jump. The first place I called was the Pipeline. It boosted the highest jump of three hundred forty feet. The second place I called was called A J Hackett They boast being the inventors of bungy. They also offered of two for one deal. Two jumps, at two different locations for one price. Shoot two different locations won out so I did not do the Pipeline. My first jump was going to be off of Skippers Canyon Bridge two hundred twenty nine feet. My second jump was off the Ledge which had a dirt base and it was off a man made steel ledge sticking out of a sheer cliff side of a mountain. We unpacked and after pulling our slimy, wet, dirty, clothes out of our suit case we did laundry. It was getting late so instead of going to town we ate at the restaurant in the hotel. We sat next to a wall of windows. We were looking at a lake with a snow capped mountain range circling the lake. Nestled at the base of one mountain range was Queenstown next to a beach. This was the place Kathy and I both will say that the best rainbow of the whole trip came out. The rainbow started in the lake and disappeared behind snowy peaks. I woke up early the next day. Kathy was up and we decided to catch the first available bus into town.
We got to town early and THE STATION (this is the bungy place) was not open yet to pay for the bungy jump. We walked the town. The Station opened and I made the arrangements. Kathy signed us up for a jet boat ride. We had about an hour before the jet boat ride so we had breakfast. Coffee black triple shot, eggs, and bacon, with a tomato slice on the side. The jet boat ride was cool. We would zoom along with the top speeds of forty mile per hour. The river was running in-between steep mountain walls. The pilot would zoom real close to walls and do three hundred sixty degree turns. The ride lasted about a half an hour. It took about thirty minutes to get there and back. We got back into town around eleven thirty and I was hungry. We found a food joint where I had the best burger in New Zealand. I snarfted down the last fry and crossed the street.
Time to jump. I had to weigh in, and hang around until the other jumpers got there. We had to ride to the jump site and on the way I found out I was jumping with two Japanese, three Israel, two Germans, And a English dude. We pulled up to the bridge, got out and walked to the center. I could not stand it, I grabbed the railing of the suspension bridge spanning the river hundreds of feet below and leaned over till I could see directly below. Man, Whew! That is a long way down. A tree looks like a shrub. The bridge crew called us over and weighed us again. One of them pointed right at me and said, You First. No guts no glory. OK I jumped onto the jumpers platform and sat down. A bridge crew wrapped a towel around my feet and then tied a rope to that. He said it was time to go. I walked up to the edge of the platform and I asked what was the best direction to go. He said jump out straight and up. The last thing that I thought before I jumped was my brother is going to be so jealous. I leaned out over this vast space below me and pushed as hard as I could.
I flung my arms and legs around like a maniac and screamed real loud. ARGGGGGGG!! AGGGGGG!! WAH WHO!! straight down like a rock, looking at the river rush toward me getting closer and closer. Free falling for at least two and a half seconds. I slowed down real smooth and the bungy pulled back solid. I found myself back up the air falling toward the river again head first. This is Great I thought! Later I learned Kathy was on the look out platform thinking “I hope he does not die while I am taking pictures.” They lower me head first down to a boat and I watch the other people bungy jump. One fellow jumps backward, while the others do pretty much what I did. We made it back to the Queenstown and hung out for the rest of the day, then ended up back at the hotel. The next day we get up early and headed to town. We had breakfast at the only American style restaurant I have seen in New Zealand. This is the first time I have had real Ketchup in New Zealand. Later that day we took a wine tour. The wineries in New Zealand are small farms tucked away on the side of mountains. One way they keep the vines roots warm long enough is they have slate rock piled around the base of the vine, so the suns heat is stored in the rock for a longer period extending the heat period. They have a traveling bottle plant that goes from farm to farm to bottle wine. After the wine tasting tour we go up the mountain for my second jump. This is a more modern jump off spot. They hook my up in a harness and I have to run off the edge into a free fall. The bungy person waved me up. I was hooked up and I walked up to the edge of the platform and looked down. The women who was sending over the edge told me to back up so I could get a good running start. She also told me to run and jump up and out. Five, Four, Three, Two, One, GO, Go, Go, I ran as hard as my feet were allowing me too and jumped off the ledge. This time I do not fall face down rather swing back and forth, as well as up and down. They lower me down and Kathy and I go back to town. We did some more shopping and then back to the hotel. The next day we catch a train to Christchurch and spend that evening there. The next day we went to the airport and flew to Australia.
We checked in our luggage and handed over our walking sticks. We had to wait for a little while before boarding the plane so I got my game out and played. We boarded and it was a short flight to Sydney. We landed and found a taxi which dropped us off at our hotel downtown. We dumped our bags, checked the mini-bar, and went for a walk. The first shop we passed had some guy playing a diggereedoo. We went in the store and bought one for Kathy`s brother.
We walked over to the concert hall and looked it over real good. We then looked for a place to eat dinner. We walked around for a while longer and decided to eat at this place on the water. The next day we woke up early and checked out. We did not have to catch our plane till later that day so we left our bags at the hotel and went to town. We took a ferry ride around to a maritime museum where we walked through a Russian submarine. After we did that museum we went to the aquarium, and then to another museum. We had a good time, but Kathy had a hard time with the smoke from near by bush fires. She felt started to get sick here. Later that day we caught another huge airliner bus back to the U.S. The plane ride was better back because we were all the way in the back were the plane tapered so we only had two seats across not four. I also had a window seat. We took off and the flight was not too bad. Later that night I woke up and we were in a thunder storm. A young girl was in hysterics, and was crying, shaking, and two flight attendants were comforting her. This made me feel uncomfortable because lighting and thunder with a girl yelling “we are all going to die” made sleep a little hard when your twenty or so thousand feet about an ocean. They made her calm somehow (I think they slipped her something) and a movie started. I wanted to watch it but I found out that I had broken my headset some how.
After an annoying long time I finally got the headset and watched the move. After an uncountable sleep we had breakfast. Hard scrambled eggs, green beans and a tomato. Man they are going to stretch out this weird British breakfast thing out to the bitter end. We landed after about two more hours of agony and we walked out to the LA International Airport. I have got to say that the combination of the LA airport, and jet lag from flying half way round the planet had an hallucinogenic effect on me. We made it to our hotel and it was getting late in the day. We ordered pizza from a local delivery service and enjoyed tipping them. We both started to feel at home the next day at breakfast and felt we had a good time in New Zealand. Who know maybe we will go to Japan next.