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.

  

Malcie and the Millennium Falcon

                                            About 2/3 complete

 

Matariki Week

Matariki bonfire

Waiting for fireworks to start

Matariki fireworks

Pembroke Patisserie

                         Roaring Meg on the way to Queenstown

                          Summit

                        Queenstown

                         Matariki celebration at Iris' school 
 

Annie's birthday

 

                       Lemon poppy seed cake made by Phoebe. Grandma was her assistant.

It's not summer down under

Fog from the living room window

                                                 Saturday poker game

                                                  Lake Hawea

A local butcher

 

Calm day on the lake

Sunrise from Cardrona Ski Run taken by Phoebe

                                        
 

We are slowly becoming native New Zealanders as it is now almost four weeks since we arrived here in Wanaka. Well, not actually. It’s so beautiful here yet so very cold, especially for we Arizonans who would be experiencing weather in the 100’s at this time of the year.  Being the opposite season we are only two days away from the shortest day of the year and the official beginning of winter in the Southern Hemisphere.  Sunrise was 8:20 this morning with Sunset at 5:08 this afternoon, giving us only a little over 8.5 hours of daylight for the day.  The temps have been in the low 30’s to the mid 40’s Very normal for this time of the year.  

 

Here is a little bit of an update on our driving around town.  We’ve been using Dan or Annie’s car when we need transportation to the store, etc. I’ve been a little surprised how quickly I have gotten used to driving on the left side of the road. It’s all about paying attention ALL of the time.  One rule I follow religiously: no phone, no radio. Joan has been very helpful reminding me to stay to left and so far so good.  It has helped that the traffic is very light in Wanaka and no one seems to be in a rush.  Interesting enough I have yet to see a cop car at all.  Dan says they’re out there and in fact they have the legal right to pull you over for no reason and give you a random breathalyzer test.  Can you imagine that in the US?  Hopefully it does save lives.   I know I must be on the left side 100% of the time, not 99%. This coming Tuesday Joan and I are taking a ride to Queenstown, about 75 miles south of here. We’ll report on this adventure next week.

 

On Thursday afternoon Annie asked us if we would like to go for about an hour ride to see the surrounding countryside and get a better understanding of the beauty of the landscape.  It is hard for me to put into words how beautiful the area is, even though the trees have lost their leaves and the farmland has turned brown.  Lake Wanaka has a natural outlet that begins a river, the Clutha.  That exact spot has a park designed for picnicking , camping, fishing and swimming.  An idyllic spot. We drove on to another lake, this time with a dam built in the 1950’s backing up Lake Hawea.  Both of these lakes get their water from massive snow runoff drained from Mount Aspiring National Park.  Even though we were only about 15 miles from hilly Wanaka the surrounding area is known as Hawea Flat, encompassing many many acres of farmland and pastures for cattle and sheep.  Expansive and very scenic.  And, of course, always majestic mountains in the background. A great way to spend a few hours in an afternoon. 

 

Yesterday Dan and the family went snowboarding and skiing for the first time this season.  The plan was to arrive back here at 3PM for us to babysit while Dan and Annie went to the movies and dinner.  It’s always great to have them here at our rental but this time was the best.  After dinner Phoebe, Malcie and I started playing poker and the night became raucous beyond belief. What started out as a quiet game soon became a blood thirsty  take no prisoners battle.   I have always hated to lose at anything but they moved it to another level.  You would have thought the fake hundred dollar bills we were using were the real thing.  The laughter and screaming was music to my ears.  Phoebe was the big winner for the night but I look forward to a rematch.  

 

More to come next week.

Traffic Guard

 We walked down to Malcie's school to see him performing his traffic duties. Gene took some photos of the mountains as we walked down.

Rain and snow

 This week it rained most days with some sunny moments. And yesterday it snowed. We haven't gotten out as much as we would have liked but still make several trips to the grocery store, net ball games and library and a few walks. According to Dan, June 1 is considered the first day of the winter season here and we definitely saw winter this last week. Much more rain than usual and snow in Wanaka town itself is very unusual.

We watched the final episode of Legomasters NZ with Malcie and Iris (Phoebe had watched it earlier as had Malcie and Iris but they were up for another viewing) the other night which was quite exciting. This was our 3rd episode so we were really into it. Amazing what two people can do when they have 24 hours to build whatever they want. We will be looking for Legomasters USA when we get home. Malcie has been hard at work on his Millennium Falcon lego set but still has quite a bit to go. We've made a few 500 piece puzzles with the kids. We have to wait for Malcie to finish his lego before we can make a 1000 piece puzzle on the big table

Last night I made dinner for everyone. Baked Rigatoni with Lamb Ragu was on the menu with Apple Pie Bars for dessert. It took me a while to familiarize myself with the kitchen and the grocery store. Food prices are quite high and it seems like we spend $200nz every time we go to the store. I have my New World club card (similar to a Safeway card) so I now get some discounts when we shop.

After dinner Gene had a rousing game of poker with Phoebe, Malcie and Annie. Phoebe and Malcie are new to the game and Grandpa had a great time teaching them the basics. Gene had a big pile of play money they used for betting. It looks like the Sunday night poker game will be a regular thing. As all the family was leaving, they received a text letting them know that Monday was a Snow Day. No School!!

We hope to get out more this week and make it to Queenstown. Wanaka is a small resort town and there is not a lot of the choice you would get in a bigger city such as Queenstown. There is a lot of building going on here. The large supermarket and Home Depot type hardware store opened not long ago. 

We've had some good takeout food. We had Sal's pizza at Dan and Annie's house the other night when Jo was visiting and we also tried Red Star Burgers. Both were both very good. We also tried sausage rolls and a mince and cheese pie from the supermarket which were  just ok. Next time we'll go to a recommended  place for better pastry. Sorry to write so much about food but the differences in local cuisine is what I find so very interesting about foreign travel.

                      Baked Rigatoni with Lamb Ragu

                        Apple Pie Bars

                        Millennium Falcon in process

                      First attempt at Raisin Scones which were very good, just not too attractive

Let it snow

 

          Iris and Molly built a snow rabbit

          Looking out our window

          Sledding 

          Phoebe and her snow man