Wednesday, August 17, 2022
Tuesday, August 16, 2022
Adventuring
Today is August 16th 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.
A lake in the middle of a island which is an island in the middle of a lake
Wednesday, July 27, 2022
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.
The way across the river
Water blasting
Tuesday, July 26, 2022
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.
Sunday, July 24, 2022
Random photos
Thursday, July 21, 2022
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 11th 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.
Waterfall video
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