Adventuring

Today is August 16^th and Joan and I are eight days away from returning to Scottsdale after an amazing vacation here in Wanaka with Dan, Annie, Phoebe, Malcie and Iris. Our very gracious hosts have made the entire stay so enjoyable but somehow saved two adventures to the end. 

On Saturday we all went down to Queenstown to pick up our friend Lori Baylor who is visiting for a week. Lori works with Dan and Joan and I have known her for many years so its been fun for all of us to see her here in New Zealand. Annie picked her up at the airport, did a little shopping and then met up with the rest of us to take the Shotover River Jet Boat adventure ride! The Shotover River is a somewhat shallow narrow river draining the high snow area near Queenstown. The river has very fast moving water but thankfully not huge rapids, but rapids that certainly do get your attention. The boats used for this ride are very high horsepower very flat bottom crafts, designed for this river. You can go top speed in water only a foot deep. We were all bundled up for the cold plus lifejackets. All got in and were told to hold on tight!  Of course there are no seatbelts for safety reasons. Once we got going we couldn’t believe the speed as we passed by outcrops of rocks a foot or two from our heads. A bit scary so you just trust that the driver knows what he is doing. Then for extra excitement he would signal that he is going to do a 360 degree turn at full speed! Not the most comfortable experience but quite thrilling as it rearranged our spines each time he did it! The ride was about 25 minutes long and ended where we began. The kids really enjoyed it and wanted to go again immediately. Once was enough for me. See photos below.

 

The second big adventure took place yesterday. Dan treated Joan, Lori and me to a one hour helicopter ride here in the Wanaka area. This was to be our first helicopter ride ever.  I quickly wondered if this was something I wanted to do but Joan suggested that I would be a wimp if I didn’t go so off we went and I'm glad I did go. Wanaka has a local airport housing the helicopter tourist industry so we left from there. The copter held six including the pilot so it was very comfortable with five. After a very gentle take off it proceeded to be a ride as comfortable as sitting in your living room. No crazy tilts, no jerkiness or sudden drops.The beauty of the mountains is really indescribable .We were quickly a few thousand feet above Wanaka looking down on now familiar areas snapping lots of pictures, including Dan’s house and the neighborhood. We headed over Lake Wanaka with both Dan and our pilot, Pete, giving a running commentary of what we were seeing.  We were all wearing ear phones that made hearing easy except for Pete’s NZ accent which was a little difficult.  After crossing over the lake we gained altitude to see the spectacular Mount Aspiring National Park, a massive land area creating the range of mountains that rises up on the west side of the South Island and eventually drops right into the Tazman Sea without any roads or beach areas.  Extremely rugged, covered by winter snows and gorgeous in every direction. As we got higher the pilot landed for about 10 minutes which allowed us to get off and tramp around in the snow and take more pictures. He landed one more time and we repeated our picture taking. Very, very cold at above 8000 feet but quite worth a little pain. We continued on seeing the various mountains and very deep valleys from different angles giving us such beautiful scenery. Dan took his GO-PRO camera so we look forward to seeing his footage.  Dan asked the pilot to make a few loops around Mt. Aspiring itself as he is involved in mapping projects and indicated it would be very helpful in his work. We were all happy for this extra look at a mountain top that looks remarkably like the Matterhorn in Switzerland.   The return trip was fun as we gently lost altitude towards Wanaka and I finally stopped holding my breath as we set back down at the airport.   I urge all of you to Google  this area to enjoy some really topnotch photos. Hopefully you enjoy the photos posted below. 

                                                  Jet boating

                                                 Joan, Gene, Dan and Lori

A lake in the middle of a island which is an island in the middle of a lake 

                                       Joan and Lori

                                        A beautiful sunset taken from our front porch

                                            The Shotover group

                                                  Lake Wanaka

                                       Looking down

                                              Shark's Tooth

                                                         Glacier

Panning for gold

Goldfields Mining Centre

Today is another rainy dreary day and a good day to go back and fill in some blanks.  The biggest omission took place on our drive to the Milford Sound about ten days ago.  As you may recall we headed out but as usual Dan and Annie planned a few sightseeing stops along the way.  On the road from Wanaka to Queenstown we passed through a beautiful gorge created over the eons by the Kawarau River from the always present snow runoff. I mentioned this ride in a previous posting. This time we stopped at the historical Goldfields Mining Centre. Gold was discovered in New Zealand just a few years after the gold rush in California of 1849.  In fact many gold miners left the California mines and headed to New Zealand to seek their fortune.  The conditions here were as primitive and difficult as California but the pot at the end of the Rainbow apparently made up for the physical pain involved in seeking fortune. The Goldfields Mining Centre is situated high on a bluff above the river with massive statuesque mountains in the background. A beautiful sight for us to observe but treacherous to mine. For a while the gold was plentiful and the small community grew to 100’s of men. All known mining techniques learned from the Californians were put to use.  The controversial method of water blasting was used to cut through the rock and debris resulting in plentiful results. Some would call this damaging the environment and it probably was but all these years later looking at the sight you really don’t notice it. When we arrived we parked on one side of the river and crossed a very sturdy bridge to the other. The “old” way of crossing was sitting on a very small platform and then being pulled over by hand to the other side. This device is still in place and looks like an easy way to die. These people were determined. We took the tour offered and it was excellent! The guide gave us a blow by blow description of the extraction methods, describing the torturous workload. It was work, eat and sleep, day after day after day.   At the end of the tour he gave us a demonstration of panning and the allowed us all a chance to do it ourselves.  None of the group found any gold and it was back breaking work!  Annie brought a delicious lunch which we had while sitting in an ancient building and then headed out for a short walk around the perimeter of the entire site. A difficult walk because of the hilly terrain but well worth it.  We passed the Chinese encampment built out of rocks. These had been destroyed over the years but re-built to give us a look at the way they lived back in the day. Yes, even the Chinese journeyed all the way to find their fortune. They were hard workers but not treated well and were pushed out to the periphery to eat and sleep. We were at the gold mine area for about three hours and found it very enjoyable. You can read more about it at www.goldmining.co.nz .   I think it would be worth your time.  

                                                         Iris and Annie panning for gold

                                                       The way across the river

Water blasting

                                                                 Kawarau River

 

 

 

Phoebe's Italian Dinner

 On Saturday Phoebe invited Grandpa and me over for dinner Sunday evening. She was preparing an Italian dinner and asked us to be her guests. We, of course, were delighted to accept. She asked for my help and I said to let me know and I would be right over. She was able to do everything herself and my help was not needed. An hour or two before we were due to be there she face timed to tell us that it was a fancy dress occasion and we should dress accordingly. Gene and I did the best we could with the limited amount of clothes we had. Dan and his family put us to shame. The menu for the evening was all made by Phoebe: 1st course:  Tomato soup with freshly baked ciabatta bread, 2nd course: Rustic Pizza Pie and salad with Italian dressing, and 3rd course: Tiramisu. Everything was delicious and we all scarfed it up.

To finish the evening we had a rousing poker game. Gene and Phoebe were the big winners.

                                              Phoebe the princess

                                            Annie the scullery maid

                                                Malcie the sous chef in his toque

                                                    Ready to dine     Mangia bene!

                                                              Dan       

                                             Iris the little princess

                                             Phoebe's freshly baked ciabbata

                                                     Iris, Malcie and Phoebe

                                                   The princess and the chef

Random photos

                              The big poker game

                                      Bird sanctuary in Te Anau

                                    Malcie just watched Top Gun

                                                   

                                       Gene's photos of trees

                                               Milford Sound

                                        Heavy rain at the Bird Sanctuary.

                                                 Friendly Kea

 

Malcie's birthday trip

 An exciting and beautiful four day and three night adventure! 

With the grandchildren in the middle of their two week winter break Dan and Annie put together a beautiful mini trip to the Fiordland National Park area on the very far Southwestern area of the South Island.  From Wanaka to Milford Sound it is a 285 kilometer drive. (175 miles).  I may have mentioned before that there are no freeways in New Zealand so the entire trip is on two lane highways and thus overall speeds are significantly slower than in the US.  This may sound like a detriment but it’s quite the opposite.  Although the trip is slower it is truly through magnificent scenery the entire way.  A combination of snowcapped mountains, rugged low lining hills, forests, massive meadows, farm land, cattle and sheep pastures, lakes, rivers and creeks. Interspersed with small towns seemingly out in the middle of nowhere.  We probably averaged about 50 MPH from Wanaka to Te Anau and 30MPH from Te Anau to the Milford Sound Ferry Terminal. 

 

The small town of Te Anau was our base for three nights. Dan and Annie found two beautiful AirBnB’s for us and they were very spacious and comfortable. We intended to do some outdoor walking and sightseeing but were quite hampered by the weather. The first full day in Te Anau there was a steady, fairly hard rain but we still ventured out and spent time at a bird sanctuary and saw some very beautiful and unique birds. Small streams were running everywhere so we had to do some serious leg stretching to get over them.  All very much worth it. We finally had had enough of the cold and rain and headed back to the rental for some game playing. None of us like losing so we had some real battles but everyone was having a good time with jokes and gentle insults flying back and forth.  We have been playing a lot of poker with some loose local rules so Dan decided that we should all learn how to play exactly how they play in Las Vegas!  This changed the strategy a lot but we all got a lot of fun out of it.  Naturally Dan took everyone’s money!  A big thanks to our friend, Sue Flint, for giving us a huge wad of “play” $100 bills a few years ago and we continue to use them repeatedly.  

 

The next morning was July 19th and it was the beginning of Malcie’s 11^th birthday.  We got up earlier than we wanted to but with a pile of presents on the table Malcie didn’t feel like waiting around.  Lots of fun with the openings and the singing.

  

 

The highlight of the trip was the 75 mile drive out to Milford Sound.  There is very little in the world to compare to this drive other than perhaps driving in the Swiss Alps.  The two-way road is very narrow with a few one way bridges.  We drove through hills and massive mountains the entire way, with water everywhere including large lakes, small lakes, creeks, rivers, waterfalls and everything in between.  Something dramatic to see around every curve.  We made a few stops along the way to see some very special sights. The nearby pictures tell a beautiful story way better than any words I may come up with.  A big thanks to Dan and Annie suggesting these stops.  We knew that when we got to the Ferry Terminal there would be no scheduled tours available because of the time of year and the weather but it made no difference.  Yes, it would have been nice to cruise in the Sound and see more beautiful landscape but none of us felt we missed out on anything.  We visited the Tourist Center/restaurant and celebrated Malcie’s birthday with singing and a very delicious cake!  We did have our first encounter of flying bugs, namely Sand Flies, a nasty cousin of the mosquito.  We have had none in Wanaka but they were out in force at the Sound. The kids said keep walking and the won’t bite.  Good advice as none of us suffered any bites. Dan suggested a contest to count the number of waterfalls we would pass. The guesses were in the 15 to 30 range.  Dan went last with 115.   Malcie stopped counting after we passed Dan’s guess.  Actual number had to be in excess of 300.  These were serious big volume falls.  We were awestruck.  We stopped at one that was right next to road and I took a one minute video of it.  Instant death if you fell into it!   Another stop was made at a flimsy suspension bridge over a rushing river.  I really doubted crossing it but was shamed by the kids so I did it.  Joan wisely declined and was unmercifully teased about it.  We all survived!   This was a drive that will be long remembered. I urge our readers to go on line and check out both Te Anau, Milford Sound and anything  else you can find of the actual drive.  We finally got back into town after dark and had a very nice dinner in a kind of Western Restaurant. We all left stuffed.   

 

The next morning we had planned to take a tour of the Te Anau Glowworm Caves but because of all the rain the Caves were flooded and the entrance blocked.  This was unfortunate as the caves are the home of thousands of worms that have a tiny light, the result of a chemical reaction, that attract insects for food. Joan had toured this years ago and said we unfortunately missed a very cool trip. I’m sure we’ll have another opportunity at another time.  We needed to vacate the AirBnB by 10am so we drove back to Wanaka in time for a nice afternoon nap.

 

Check out the pictures.

                                      Kea taking a break on the car's mirror

                        Happy Birthday Malcie in a cafe at Milford Sound

                                       The suspension bridge

                               Big waterfall

                                        Duck

                                         Waterfalls along the road

                                        Milford sound

                                       Mirror Lake

                               Waterfall video

 

 

Fastest Known Times

 Dan has a website where he tracks the activity of 2 hikers who are attempting to set a world's record for the fastest know time of the 247 recognized peaks in the Sierra Nevadas in California. One of the 2 climbers has only 8 peaks to go which he expects to complete tomorrow.

The website is https://www.sps2022.com

Lost days

 Much of the last 2 weeks I spent with first a cold and then bronchitis. Everyone got the cold in Dan's family and Gene finally succumbed the other day. I seem to be the only one who took it further. We did get out yesterday and drove to Clyde to see the dam. It's construction was started in the late 70s and it was completed in the late 80s. Most of the power used in NZ is hydro electric.

                                       We had to pull off the road to let this large house pass by.

We have been here in Wanaka for 6 weeks as of today. We have had beautiful, cold weather this last week. Rain and perhaps snow is coming in the next few days. A 2 week school break starts tomorrow and we are planning a family road trip around July 19 (Malcie's birthday, also Marys). We will be going to Milford Sound and Te Anu to see the glowworms. 

Happy 4th of July

 

Happy birthday to the good old US of A.  It ain’t perfect but it’s way ahead of whatever is in second place!

 

Another good morning from Wanaka New Zealand.   While it is summer at home it is definitely winter here.  Not too rainy in recent days but rather a combination of fog and sunshine.  This morning it’s crystal clear and in the high 30’s. Of course, they refer to the degrees in Celsius rather than Fahrenheit so this mornings temp is about 4 degrees. 

An easy way to do the conversion is:  take the Celsius temperature times it by two and add 30. So for this morning take 4 times 2 plus 30 and you have 38 Fahrenheit today.   Not spot on but close enough.

 

I completed a major accomplishment the other day and while patting my self on my back I took an amazing amount of trash talk from the entire family including the  grandkids. Dan suggested that he and I hike Mt. Iron, a mountain about half the size of Camelback with slightly less grade on average.  It’s a very convenient site from his house.  We started the hike from his back door.  Molly, Dan’s 10 month old Labrador, came with us.  Knowing that there were hikes in my future down here I had been going for morning walks in Scottsdale to get ready but these were flat walks.  No, I wasn’t really prepared. The views on the hike are really magnificent and well worth the effort but what an effort.  Here are my built in excuses:  I wore the wrong shoes, Molly was pulling me too hard while I held the leash, the terrain was uneven, the escalator was broken, I fell over a little bit when Dan suggested that I sit down and rest a bit and brused my ego AND got a very tiny scratch on my shoulder, I stepped on a snake, oh wait a minute there are no snakes in New Zealand, but the small branch did look like a snake, and many other trials and tribulations which I won’t mention as you might, just might, think I’m a bit of a baby.  Anyway, we finally made it to the top in 45 minutes and the view was truly stunning.  (see photos nearby).  Dan started right in and mentioned we didn’t set any records getting to the top and then hesitated.  He corrected himself and said we set the World’s record for the slowest accent on record!  I’m rightfully proud of any record I set!!  We hung around the top for a while with Dan pointing out various sights to me. I would actually like to do it again.

 

The decent was very pleasant and spending quality time with Dan is a joy. Just listening to him on various topics is quite educational. This has always been the case with all three sons.   One last repercussion from the walk.  We got back over to the rental and I sat down to rest for awhile and then stood up quickly and instantly got very light headed. I sat down quickly on the floor because I didn’t want to faint.  Well, apparently, I didn’t look graceful with that maneuver so I still haven’t heard the end of that either.  The kids only comment was that I’m getting very old.  My next climb is Mt. Everest.  I’m obviously ready.  

 

Joan has been fighting bronchitis.  It’s been going on for a while but this morning we feel she has turned the corner.   A visit to a local doctor, a prescription and hopefully a quick recovery.  Pretty much feeling lousy.   A lot of hacking and coughing.   Pretty sucky for her.   I have a bit of a cold now but nothing close to Joan’s ailment.    I think we’ll both live.

 

 

 

MATARIKI

 Matariki is the Maori new year. In 2022 it became a national holiday in New Zealand. On last Wednesday night the second year students (Iris's class) had a celebration in her pod. The pod contains 3 second year classes with 3 classrooms and a common area. They sang several songs and showed friends and relatives around their classes. Some Maori games were played. We also were served a soup and sausage dinner followed by hot chocolate. Granny Jo (Annie's mom) was up from Dunedin to celebrate Annie's birthday and Iris's class celebration. Phoebe and Malcie were also present but attended reluctantly.

On Friday, Gene and I walked over to Dan and Annie's house and joined Annie and Iris. Iris was not in school as she had a cough and runny nose. We then went to lunch at Pembroke Patisserie. We sampled several of the pastries after a great lunch. Excellent! The best in town!

Saturday was the Matariki celebration at the beach at Lake Wanaka. In the afternoon we visited Puzzling World (www.puzzlingworld.co.nz) for a few hours of illusions and puzzles. Gene and I chose not to do the maze as it was raining but Annie, Malcie and Iris were not so afraid of the rain. Dan picked up Gene and me at sunset and took us down to the lakefront for the festivities. It was very crowded as people milled about waiting for the fireworks at 630pm. There were bonfires, booths with Maori food and activities for kids. As we were huddled around one fire waiting on the fireworks we stuck up a conversation with a couple with a 6 week old baby who were standing near us. The woman was from Scottsdale and went to Chaparral High School. Small world! The fireworks were outstanding but a shorter program this year from the last. The fireworks were set off not even a 100 feet from where we were standing. Something that would never happen in the US.

Malcie came over Sunday morning and spent several hours working on his Lego. The rest of the family came over later in the afternoon with their dog, Molly and we all took a walk around the neighborhood. We came back here for dinner. Gene and I had sampled earlier in the week a pastry when we stopped for a hot drink. It was called Date and Ginger Slice. We both loved it so I made some for dessert. It was a big success. We introduced the kids to the Abbott and Costello comedy routine "who's on first" which Gene and I performed after printing the script. They were laughing uproariously and took the script home to memorize.

A good week...

                                                        Date and ginger slice

Off to Queenstown

June 27, a very gloomy Monday morning in Wanaka.

 

A great but very busy weekend has ended and we’re sitting here this morning with very little to do.  Joan has come down with a cold and has promised to pass it to me in the next few days.  This will end up being a resting and reading day, at least for me while Joan adds “doing the laundry” to her list of activities.  

 

A review of last week:  on Tuesday we finally took our driving trip to Queenstown.  We had been talking about doing it for a while now and drove off around ten in the morning.  There are two ways to get there, one short and one long.  We decided to enhance our viewing pleasure and took both circuits, starting off with the long one to Queenstown and the short route back.  Two completely different landscapes.   It was sunny when we left but unfortunately we ran into some heavy fog that interrupted the scenic views.

  

The sun lasted through the flat farm terrain but when we entered the Kawarau Gorge, which is supposed to be stunning, the fog deprived us of the view. We were able to stop at a turn out and got a nice shot of the Kawarau River running through it (see nearby picture, Roaring Meg) but otherwise we have to take Dan’s word that it is a beautiful drive.  This might have been a good thing as the road was very very twisty and when driving on the left side of the road safety is paramount. This portion of the trip was 70 miles or 112 kilometers.

 

Queenstown is a very picturesque town, known for it’s lake and mountain beauty and its skiing.  But it is actually more than that for the true sportsman.   Skydiving, bungy jumping, canyon swinging, rafting, paragliding, jet boating, heli skiing, snowboarding , mountain biking, hiking and trekking are a few more of the activities if you are so enclined.   We left these outings for the younger people!  The main tourist area consists of walkway after walkway of boutique stores catering to the sporting group and the souvenir collector.   We both enjoy going in and out of these stores but kept the shopping to a bare minimum.   A nice lunch and the obligatory ice cream cone topped off the day.  As we were leaving we couldn’t help but notice the huge number of very nice apartment buildings apparently rented out by the day or week for the visiting skiers. Business was good in Queenstown!!  

 

The ride back was quite a bit shorter.  We chose to ride over the Cardrona pass which is the site of the Cardrona ski resort, the home of one of the two ski areas used by the skiers from Wanaka.  Very mountaineous and very curvy.  As we drove higher and higher we finally hit snow, snow that closed the road 10 days previous. Thankfully the snow removal guys did a great job and it made the drive scenic yet very safe.  I don’t know how safe Joan thought it was but it was a blast to drive.  It reminded me of a few of our Swiss drives.  Pretty much an engineering feat.  Made it back tired but happy. The return trip was 40 miles or 65 kilometers.

 

More to come.