Photo uploads to Flikr

Two more days of pictures and video have been uploaded.  These show our March 8th completion of the rail trail at Clyde, a few more miles of biking on the highway up the Clutha River, and farm stays on March 8th, followed by a set of the March 9th morning bike ride to Terras and the Pottery Shop.  From there we took the van to Wanaka airport where Trixie, Julian and Claira did their sky diving.  On the last set I've reversed the chronological sequence, putting them in the order in which you would view them as we progress through the day.  (The March 8th is in reverse order, as are all the previous.)  This seems to be the way Flikr intends that sets are organized, so I'll do that from now on.  Only 8 more days of photos to go!!

Picture Upload

I know, I know......the picture uploads are taking for-ev-er.  But the weather in Springfield is perfect, there are outside spring cleanup chores (including mowing) to do while the weather is cooperating, meetings with tax guy, etc. etc.  But I did wade through our second day on the rail trail pictures and managed to get a few of them uploaded and described.  Look for March 7th set at Flikr.  I'm hoping to get it all finished before dementia sets in!  Jim

Picture Upload for March 6, 2012

Just a note to whomever has been following this blog that I've uploaded pictures from March 6th.  This was a van-train-van-bike day.  Beautiful weather, and a great ride on both the railroad and the Otago Rail Trail.  As in the case of all first day rides, the part of the anatomy in contact with the saddle gets mighty sore!  Especially in this case as the rail trail is more bumpy than what we normally have here in the states.  A LOT more bumpy.  In fact, I wore out a pair of bike gloves this first day!!  That may have been partly due to the ancient age of the gloves, however.  But regardless, it was more than worth it.  The broad vistas, the tunnels, the scenery near the trail, and the sharing of the adventure with friends and family are indelibly printed in my mind.  Hard to beat it, but this is just the first day of riding.  More is to come, and each one is different and sometimes more exciting than the one before.
I want to give credit again to Pat and Simon for many of these pictures that I just uploaded.  We all took pictures throughout the day, and often the only way I can tell who took them was by the file number. I do appreciate it!  Again, the link to the pictures is:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/tandemcouple   Jim

URL to Flikr pictures

Hi "everyone"....OK, so one or two..... who have been eagerly awaiting more pictures of our trip.  Here is the first upload of our days in and around Dunedin.  I can see this is going to be a project that will take some time, so I'll be adding to the pictures as I can get them organized with some description of where we were and what we were doing.  Those of us who shared pictures with one another didn't all have the same date and time on our cameras (after crossing the international date line I'm not sure Einstein could have figured out what time it was!), so the picture file is somewhat jumbled up and takes time to un-jumble into a reasonable sequence of events.  You might check in every few days to see how well I'm accomplishing the task.  I'll stay at it!!  The URL is http://www.flickr.com/photos/tandemcouple/  Jim

Home Sweet Home

Yes, this is being written from home, after about 26 hours of being in the air and waiting at airport gates for connecting flights in Los Angeles and Denver.  We're a bit jet lagged and blowing our noses from colds we picked up along the way, but we'll get over that soon, no doubt.  We and the Wingets said a hurried goodbye to one another in the terminal transfer bus in LAX as they headed for their American Airlines flight to Dulles and Susan and I to our Frontier flights to Denver and on to Omaha.

I think Susan and I along with Scott, Rebecca, Claira and Lillian will look back on this New Zealand bike tour in future years with much fondness for the time and adventures we shared with each other and our tour leader friends, Simon, Jessica, Julian, and Paula, and our new fellow bikers, Pat and Trixie.  We're very thankful there were no accidents or even close calls in all our many miles of travel.  New Zealanders were invariably friendly and gave us plenty of room as they passed us on their narrow roads.  It's hard to be grouchy when you are as fun loving as the people of New Zealand seem to be.

Here is a shot that Simon took of the group (excepting himself, of course, and Paula, who was to meet up with us after the picture was taken).  We'll get them recorded for posterity when I get through wading through a couple thousand pictures and videos that we all took and shared with one another on the last day in Oxford.  I've just started a new Flikr account and will be uploading some of those in the coming days (including live video of Claira jumping out of an airplane) so check this blog in a couple days to get the URL.

Jessica, Claira, Lillian, Susan, Rebecca, Jim, Scott, Pat, Trixie, Julian near Brunner, NZ on our last day of biking.

ty

Saturday at Christchurch

It’s Saturday so we must be in Christchurch.  In fact, out luggage has been checked,  boarding passes in hand and we’re all set for departure to Auckland in a couple hours.  The Wingets are visiting the Antarctic Center for quick look while Susan and I wait.

Getting on line has been a problem the last couple of nights, so no way to bring you up to date on our adventures since Okarito Lagoon.  We woke up to rain Thursday morning, and the report was that it was raining all the way to Hokatika.  No one in the group was interested in biking in such conditions, so we loaded up the van and drove all the way, stopping a couple times for a bathroom breaks and snacks.  Unfortunately, the clouds obscured the snow capped peaks that otherwise would have been visible for much of the route.

We arrived at Hokatika in the early afternoon, had lunch, and everyone scattered out to check out the town.  It’s the largest town on the New Zealand west coast, and was the destination of the gold miners back in the 1800s.  Today it is known for its greenstone (jade) jewelry, usually made in Maori symbols of life, togetherness, fish hooks, etc.  We were warned you have to be careful or you might be buying something made in China.  I was very careful and didn't buy a thing!

The clouds started breaking up soon after we arrived at our beachfront hotel, so Claira, Lillian and I took a stroll on the beach, while the others poked around town.

Dinner was on our own, but most of us walked to an Indian restaurant a few blocks from the hotel.  The band that had entertained us in Okarita was playing in a nearby theater, and Simon and Pat went to see that, reporting the next morning that the audience numbered about 100.  The rest of us went back to the hotel, and I spent a half hour trying to connect to the internet.  No luck.  Some places here do not like Apple computers.

Friday (yesterday) dawned bright and clear, and we left Hokatika in the van for Greymouth.  The bikes were unloaded next to a cemetery where those who had died in a coal mine disaster back in the 1890s were buried.  The road and weather was perfect for biking, and everyone rode.  It was a lightly traveled road, mostly flat, but a couple challenging hills.  It wandered along a valley with high mountains on either side.  Thirty four miles later we came to Jackson Tavern and the end of our biking on this tour.  We had lunch at the tavern, and walked down to the railroad tracks to await the train.  Simon and Jess stayed in the van with our luggage while the rest of us rode the train up to Arthur Pass where the train made a 15 minute rest stop before proceeding on to Springfield, NZ.  We got off the train at that point, and the van and Paula arrived just a few minutes later to shuttle us the remaining distance to Oxford.

A one hour shuttle ride took us to the small, quiet town of Oxford and our last night’s stay.  Our final dinner together was at a nearby restaurant.

We said goodbye to Trixie and Paula as we left for the airport this morning.  There was a brief stop at a marino wool outlet, and then arrived at the airport where we said our goodbyes to the rest of the group.  We have a stop in Auckland, then the long haul flight to Los Angeles.  Will work on uploading some pictures when time allows.  We are now at the gate and should be boarding in a few minutes.  This report hasn't been anything exciting, but fills in the blanks of our past two days.    Jim

Thurs AM in Okarito

It’s Wednesday afternoon and we’ve just returned from the town of Franz Josef where we had lunch, and attempted to get a helicopter ride to the top of the glacier.  No such luck as the clouds around the mountains were too low for the helicopters to operate.  Our back-up plan was to have Simon lead us on a hike up the valley floor towards the foot of the glacier, and that’s what we did.  I should say several of us did.  The others wandered around the village, or, in the case of Claira and Lillian, took a long soak in the hot springs at the north end of town.  Alas, there is was no quilt store in Franz.  Looks like I finally have a few minutes to write, although I’m doing this on a Word program off line, and not sure when I’ll get to paste it into a blogspot posting. [Got on line this Thursday morning] The little café  here in Okarito where I wrote earlier today has Wi-Fi, but it apparently doesn’t like MacBook Air computers.  It repeatedly rejected the valid password before accepting it on a last try.  A little later it again wouldn’t take it.  Someone said that the router had problems with the MacAit.  Oh well.

I think my last full-length posting was after our beach walk at Wilderness Lodge on Monday.  After we returned from that we had a late lunch at the Lodge, cleaned ourselves up, and took kayaks up the Moeraki River to the Lake.  Everyone but Rebecca and Susan, that is.  They caught up on the washing and drying.  It was a lot of fun, seeing Harry (or possibly Harriet), the White Heron who has claimed the territory around the lodge, and some black swans. 

Later in the afternoon Scott and I took a 45 minute nature walk led by Nikki, one of the staff naturalists.   While she was doing that the girls did the eel feeding walk, and it’s been reported that Lillian was able to actually “pet” one of the eels when it came out of the water to feed.  Hmmmm…..not too sure about that kid! 

Just before dinner, while we were all sitting in the lounge, Gerry came in and gave a talk on the history of the Lodge, and early events along the beach where we had walked that morning.  Regarding the latter he opened a book and read the journal of a seaman, who, along with 4 others were on that very beach (in fact in a cave that we saw) to harvest the fur seals.  They were attacked by the Maori, and 3 of them killed (and probably eaten, as the Maori were cannibals).  The two survivors managed to escape in their boat, and rowed some 200 miles to safety.  Gerry said it was unusual for sealers to be literate, and fortunate that one of the survivor’s journal has made it to the history books.  Dinner that evening was, again, at the Lodge.  (There really aren’t any other options.)  The Backroads Company also had a group of 7 staying there.

Yesterday (Tuesday) morning we got on the bikes and headed North on Hwy 6.  It was quite chilly--definitely in the low to mid 30s, but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and when we finally broke out of a long valley into the sunshine it warmed up to “just right” temperatures.  Pat, the star athlete in the group, headed out to do the whole 72 miles, the final 14 miles of which are called the Triple Bypass, a winding, steep, narrow road with over 3 major climbs.  (Katie, if you are reading this, I bet you would have been with her!)  Pat is an (almost) 57 year old Wonder Woman on a bike.  She handles the flats and downhill’s at a fast clip, then, it seems to me, speeds up when she heads uphill. Probably not, but she doesn’t attack a hill, she eats it alive.  Lillian did a few miles on her single bike.  Scott and Claira rode together and made the 58 miles to Franz Josef.  I rode along with Rebecca, Trixie, and Simon about 40 miles, then, along with Trixie, decided to take the van.  Rebecca and Simon continued on to Franz, making the 58 miles.   Regardless of how you travel that stretch of road it is beautiful.  As you get close to Fox Glacier you can see the snow covered peaks of the Southern Alps.  In other places you are along the beach with great views of the rain forest coming down to the shore. 

As I wrote earlier this morning, Paula and Swade had prepared a very delicious dinner of barbecue chicken, venison and pork sausages.  Then there was the walk across the road to the concert in a room about the size of an average living room.  Fiona, on the violin, was the “front” person, and just full of energy and talent.  The first row where some of our group were sitting were close enough that Fiona said she hoped she didn’t step on their feet.   Following the concert, most of us returned to our cabin, but Scott, Claira, and Lillian went back to Paula and Swade’s place to hang out with the musicians.

A bike is a great—if not the best—way to see New Zealand.  Simon, Jess, Paula and Julian have done a super job of putting this tour together and supporting it all the way.  Simon led tours here for several years, so is very familiar with the attractions and best places to eat and stay.  Paula also led bike tours here for a number of years, and was an important resource in planning the tour.  This is actually the inaugural bike tour of their new company “Great Bike Tours”.  For those who are interested you can Google their website.  Simon says he’s working on putting something together for South Africa next year.

We’re spread out in different homes here in Okarito, right in the area where Abel Tasman, the Dutch navigator, became the first European to sail these shores in 1642.  Captain Cook came much later, then the whalers and the seal hunters.  Tonight we’re all getting together at the Snyder/Winget’s spacious 3 bedroom cabin to eat the takeout that we got in town.  Tomorrow it will be back on the bikes to Hokitika, the jade center of New Zealand.  The following day we head back towards the east coast for the final night at Oxford, a suburb of Christchurch.  Sad to say, this tour is winding down.

Thurs AM Footnote:  It's a wet morning, and looks like we'll be riding the van to Okarito.  Jim

Quick Note from Okarito Lagoon

Hello All,
Again, I have such as short time to write.  We just came in from a boat tour of this lagoon, going up into the rain forest and having a cup of tea before returning to the town.  So much to write about.  Last night we were given a surprise after wonderful dinner at Swade and Paula's in this little town of 30 residents.  We walked across the road from their house where people were going into a small building:

There we sat down in a room with a capacity of 40.  And we were then given a concert by a quartet of violin, keyboard, double base and electronic guitar.  (In fact they all just walked into this little cafe where I am now writing!)  What a terrific performance of jazz arrangements, classical, broadway, etc.!  The violin was Feona Pears, and she played with such talent and energy!!  

Wish I could write more, but we're about to leave her for Franz Josef glacier for lunch and (probably) a glacier hike.  Will catch up when I can, but we're packing so much into the days that there's not much time to write.  By the way, Dave and Kitty, the whole family did make the beach walk, and all did just great!   Jim

Sunny Monday

As you might have guessed from my not making a post soon after breakfast, the rain forest tour did take place beginning at 8:00 am.  But, as it turned out, it wasn't so much a rain forest hike, but rather a combination rain forest, beach walking/scrambling, seal watching, and cliff climbing adventure.  And what an adventure it was!  The sun did break through by 8:30, and we had a spectacular trip, led by Gerry, the owner of Wilderness Lodge, and since last December, its manager.  But, I'm getting ahead of myself......allow me to first catch up with our adventures yesterday.  And, by the way, I notice in looking at our blog after being published, it dates the blog on the day of the week in the US, not the day here.  We were 21 hours ahead of PST, but now that Daylight Saving Time has kicked in (thank you Dave and Kitty for mentioning it in your comment) we're now 20 hours ahead.   The other thing I'll mention at this point is that I'm not going to upload any images from here. They charge by the megabyte, and at the rate web pages download, it's a pretty slow bandwidth.  Probably satellite I would guess.

Now about yesterday (Sunday): We all loaded up the van in Wanaka after breakfast and drove along the shores of Lake Wanaka for some length of time heading West on Route 6. The weather was a little threatening with rain coming at intervals.  A few miles East of Haast Pass we stopped, and Scott, Pat, and Julian got on their bikes.  (Julian is the "sweep" and responsible that no one gets left behind.)  The rest of us stayed in the van and drove to the top of the pass. At that point it was not raining, and I decided that I wanted to ride the remaining 40 miles to Haast.  The descent starts pretty gentle, but soon gets quite steep, and with wet roads and occasional cattle guards, speed control was necessary.  I had to stop once just to rest my hands from clutching the brakes so constantly.  I was in and out of sunshine and showers (and sometimes both at the same time) for quite a few miles. The van passed me and we had lunch at a rest area.  Soon after that Scott, Pat, and Julian had caught up with me, and we all headed further down the road together.  Then the rain really got serious.  At some point Scott decided he had enough.  Simon stopped the van with 18 miles yet to go, and asked if I wanted to call it a day, but I was so soaked by then I decided I might as well keep going.  So Pat, Julian and I continued on thru a deluge of rain, but WE MADE IT!  We all felt like drowned rats, and probably looked like it as well!
After a brief rest at the Haast Visitor Center we all got in the van, and arrived at Wilderness Lodge a half hour or so later.  A hot shower and dry clothes never felt so good.

The Wilderness Lodge is a beautiful place just a few feet from the Maoraki River.  Susan and I had stayed here in 2001, and had fond memories of the place. In the meantime they have remodeled and built new rooms, and it is even more up to date and pleasant.  Any of you considering a NZ trip should plan on at least 2 nights here.  Soon after arriving, Gerry led us on a short walk to see the eels that inhabit this river.  The river, of course, is fresh water, but apparently these eels go all the way to the Solomon Islands as part of their life cycle.  Gerry explained that these were all females, and some were up to 4 feet long.  The males are much shorter.  I took lots of pictures and will try to include them in a future post.  After a super dinner of either lamb or salmon, we gathered out front and took a long walk along Route 6 (not a single car!) and looked for glow worms. There were quite a few, and their glow is very much like a dimmer version of our lightning bugs except they don't flash....they just glow. That was it for the day.

Now for today's nature walk: After an early breakfast we took a short van ride south along the coast, and got out at a wide spot in the road.  We walked maybe 3/4 of a mile through rain forest, and the first clue this was not your grandmother's nature walk was when we had to cross a fast flowing stream.....4 times!  Good by dry shoes, socks, and about a foot of pant leg.  The next challenge was climbing a bluff maybe 40 or 50 feet, using ropes to pull ourselves up.  A short distance later, we used ropes to descend about the same distance. If any of you are wondering if Susan was with us at this point, the answer is YES.  Before ascending the first cliff, she said to me "READ MY LIPS: ONCE IN A LIFETIME".  As it turned out that was not true.  When we left the beach later we went back a different way, and had to use ropes to climb the bluff, about 300 feet of it using ropes and another 300 feet of only slightly less slope.  When we finally exited the rain forest we walked out on a pristine beach, with waves from the Southern Ocean crashing against off-shore rocks, and waterfalls coming off the bluffs.  We continued down this beach about 2 miles, scrambling through boulder fields, running around points with the waves chasing us (and sometimes getting caught)

I've been interrupted 3 or 4 times in writing this posting, due to their internet system cutting me off and I lose everything I've typed since it was last saved.  It's just happened again, and it's too late to rebuild what I've lost.  I'll try to pick up the story as soon as I can.  We're off on the bikes tomorrow, heading for glacier country.   Jim

Quick Note From Wilderness Lodge

It's time for breakfast and just time for a couple sentences to let you know we are at Wilderness Lodge and doing well.  We're supposed to do a rain forest walk with a nature guide this morning, but the rains have returned after clearing up last night long enough to let us see the southern constellations and glow worms.  If the 4 hour walk is cancelled I'll write more after breakfast....otherwise later today.  Jim

Saturday in Wanaka

Dinner here at our lodging is now over, and it's time to give some coverage to the plane ride to Milford Sound and back.
The weather on the coast was OK, but expected to turn into rain about midday.  The normal routine would have been to fly from Wanaka to Milford, take a 2 hour boat cruise of the Sound, then return by air to Wanaka.  But with the deteriorating weather the aircraft operator (named Tom-O.....a Kiwi nickname for his last name: Thompson) said it wouldn't work to take the boat ride.  Instead, they would fly us over the Southern Alps, making a pass by Mt Aspiring, and along the length of the Sound, then land at the Milford airport for a brief walk-a-bout, then return to Wanaka by a somewhat different route.  So that is what we did.  It was a smooth ride, and the view from 9,500 ft was pretty spectacular.

The pilot explained to us that so much fresh water flowed into the Sound, carrying sediment, etc. that the fresh water, being lighter than salt water, floated on the top, and the sediment blocked light from penetrating deeper.  As a result, many sea animals came much higher in the water than they normally would.

The trip back to Wanaka was just ahead of the rain showers.  Susan had been dropped off (by Simon) at a quilt store, and we returned there to pick her up.  We then went into town for lunch and a visit to the fair that was going on.  We went to where the sheep dogs were being judged, but got there a little to late.  BUT, we did see our host of our farm stay Peter (aka P L) still in the area.  We were able to visit with him, and found out that he and his dog had been graded 97.5 out of 100, but that was not high enough to win.  It was, however, the highest grade of anyone on the South Island (what he called "the locals").  

We had group dinner this evening here at our accommodations with Jessica grilling steaks and salmon over the barbecue pit, plenty of salad and other side dishes.  Following dinner, Simon went over our plans for tomorrow.  It's over Haast Pass and down into the rain forest.  Looks like a 51 mile ride on the bikes, weather permitting.  That may be an issue.  Not totally unexpected since we are going into a rain forest on that side.  We'll see.  It may be a van ride.  Simon says of the 25 or so tours he has led in NZ he has never before done curling, and he has no intention of doing it again!  I'll let you know from Wilderness Lodge, our destination for the next two nights.   Jim

More From Wanaka

I had mentioned a couple posts ago about yesterday's sky diving by Claira, Trixie, and Julian, and that was most certainly the big event of the day.  For the purposes of filling in all that we did, however, I'll just briefly mention the bike ride that preceded that.  It was another "fine" day, as New Zealanders would describe it.  We all gathered at Hawea in the morning after our farm stay the previous night, and began our cycling.  It was a fairly easy ride on a quiet road through a valley, with just a few hills to challenge our legs.  Some of us biked just the 22 miles to Terras where we all had lunch.  The rest, including Pat, Rebecca, Scott, and Lillian (together on the tandem) went another 13 miles to a point where the van was waiting to shuttle us all into Wanaka. Here are a few pictures.

So, after the sky diving extravaganza, this is how we got to Wanaka, a busy little place on the shores of a fair sized lake.  As it turned out, there is a huge fair taking place this weekend, and there are thousands upon thousands of people in town from all over New Zealand.  After getting to our rooms and cleaning up, most of us walked to town about a half mile away, and looked for a place to grab a bite to eat.  Due to the fair, all the restaurants were jammed pack full.  We finally found a pizza place on a side street.  It was run by Chinese, and any similarity between pizza as any American would recognize one and what we ate last night would be purely incidental.  They are both round, and that's about the end of the similarity.  Ever heard of barbecue sauce on a pizza? There is no danger that the recipe will make it to America.  Oh well, not everything can go well when one travels!  The gelato we had afterwards more than made up for the barbecue sauce pizza.  We are staying at a place on the edge of town called The Wanaka Homestead.  Not new, but quite nice with large rooms.  Upon arriving we met a friend of Simon's who has helped in designing this tour.  Her name is Paula, and she is originally from Canada.  She came here with VBT leading bike tours a few years back.  I think Susan and I just missed meeting her by a year os two when we did our first tour here in 2001.  Anyway, she fell in love with New Zealand, and in particular with a certain Kiwi fellow, and.....here she is.  

Our group has one building to itself, including a large living/dining room.  Any rational person would have gone to bed after biking, sky diving and a long walk to and from town.  But we have a couple irrational folks (who's names are Scott, Claira, and Julian) who decided to watch a movie in the living room.  I had no sympathy for their vacant expressions when we met this morning for breakfast before our flight to Milford Sound.  At last!  Now I'm only one day behind in my posting, and I might yet get that done before bedtime.  Jim 

Saturday Afternoon in Wanaka

Scott, Claira, Lillian and I did make the flight to Milford Sound this morning that I mentioned in last night's post.  (Rebecca decided that getting in a small airplane cabin made her feel a little too claustrophobic.)  But before getting to today's activities let me back up to fill in the blanks on Thursday and Friday.  

Thursday was a long day on bikes.  We finished up the final 35 km of the rail trail, arriving at Clyde, and tacked on another 26 km of paved road that took us to Cromwell for a late lunch.  It was a beautiful, warm day, and the scenery was terrific.  A few pictures tell part of the story:

You can see a sheep dog in the background, and it was fun to watch him keep the sheep bunched up.  After a bit he got the sheep off to the left of the picture and moving behind the camera.

The Otago trail goes through many landscapes.....sometimes hilly, other times along a picturesque stream. There were two tunnels in yesterday's ride which I haven't mentioned.  It changes often enough that you don't get bored with the view.  As you can see, the skies were clear.

After lunch at a winery near Cromwell we shuttled a short ride in the van to our farm stay near Hawea.  Rebecca, Scott, Susan and I stayed with one couple, while the girls stayed with Trixie and Pat in another farm.

Our host and hostess was a little younger than Susan and me, but not by much.  Jan Anderson was a long-time school teacher that is now working as a teacher's aid.  Peter, or P L as he is known locally, had been manager of a large sheep station before retiring.  They have a lovely home with open beam ceilings and a gorgeous view from their family room window:

Jan and P L's view from their living room.  It is hard to see in this picture, but a glacier can be seen in the highest peaks on the right.

Jan and P L's home from rabbit central.

P L loaded us in his pickup with his dogs in the back and took us a short distance to a pasture where he had 18 sheep.  As we were crossing the field to get to the sheep, we were in the midst of the largest collection of rabbits we've ever seen.  P L said they had originally been imported, and they are now a huge economic drain, eating the same grasses that would go to the sheep.   P L had the dogs move the sheep from one place to another in the pasture, and it was amazing to see the control he had over the dogs from hundreds of feet away.  (You'll hear a little more about P L and his dogs in a later post.  We saw him today (Saturday) at a huge fair where there is a competition between sheep dogs.)

P L and one of his 4 dogs

After returning to the house we enjoyed a fine dinner that Jan had prepared.  I am happy to say that it was not lamb! I asked P L about his ancestry and when they had come to NZ.  He said his grandfather had run away from his home in Scotland and jumped ship in NZ at the age of 12! He eventually became a station manager. (Large sheep farms are called stations.) With that, I'll end this post.  More later.  Hope all is well with everyone back home.  Thanks for the comments Renee, Dave and Kitty!  Jim 

Friday Evening From Wanaka

Sorry for the two days of silence, but there was no internet at our last two inns.  Actually, I guess there was internet last night at our farm stay, but we had taken just a small overnight bag and the computer was left in our other luggage.
We just arrived in Wanaka, and it's already past dinner time (which we've not had as yet), so a complete rundown of Wednesday, Thursday and today will come later, except to say that Claira jumped out of an airplane this afternoon!  No, that is not a typo.  Trixie, Julian, and Claira took a sky diving plane up to 12,000 feet and did a 45 second free fall before opening the chute and descending the rest of the way.  It was one of those piggy back things where the instructor is attached to your harness and does all the important stuff, such as opening the chute.  She said she had no qualms about sliding out of the plane, but she was certainly excited when she landed.

Claira

Now backing up the clock:  As my last post Wednesday morning indicated, we were delaying departure from our B&B in Kokongo due to misty, rainy weather.  So, what do you do when you have unpleasant weather for bicycling?  You do something else, and that was to go curling.

Lillian

Rebecca

The weather did improve about noon and we all got on the bikes to continue our rail to trail journey, making it to Omakau, a small town, where our group was divided between two buildings.  It was nothing fancy, but clean and comfortable.  Dinner that evening was at the Omakau Hotel, where it just so happened that the Lion's Club was having dinner in the party room.  There were perhaps a dozen couples.  We weren't seated in the party room, but our buffet table was, and we got a lot of kidding from them when we went to get our main dishes, and later dessert.  They claimed we were eating their food.  So we all went in their room, lined up, and did a kick routine entertainment to "pay" them for letting us eat their buffet.  A good time was had by all, and perhaps we did our little bit to improve relations with the New Zealanders.

The Lion's Club Meets USA

And with that episode I'm going to close this posting.  It's past bedtime here.  Tomorrow, Rebecca, Scott, the girls and I are flying to Milford Sound while Susan stays here in Wanaka to do laundry and a little shopping.  We should be back by early afternoon.  We stay one more night here in Wanaka before heading further west, and I'll try to get in another posting.    Jim

Trains and Bikes

It is a wet Wednesday morning here, and we're delaying our departure from this beautiful inn. I only have a few minutes to make this post so it will be brief.  The pictures will have to wait for another time.   I would have written last night, but it was like one of those famous "Basin Harbor Dinners", where the dinner and conversation goes on for about 2 1/2 hours.  Our Basin Harbor, Vermont friends know what that means! 

The day started yesterday with a 3 hour train ride from Dunedin through the Tiaere Gorge, a very scenic railway that in earlier times took people from Dunedin up to the gold mining country.  Some of us just stood outside the rail car on the connecting platform to view the scenery.  Everything from pine forests to grass lands.

At the end of the train ride the van was waiting for us and we shuttled in to a small town for lunch, and got fitted to our bikes.  And away we all went.  It started out as a beautiful broad valley, then the path became more curvy, with a river on our right. The trail itself is pretty rough in places, with the old railroad ballast fully present.  Being an old railway the grades were very gentle.  In fact, you can't even see whether you are going up or down, but your legs certainly know the difference.  I don't know our mileage on the trail, but would guess it was in the 25 mile category.  It was quite adequate to give us all sore rear ends from our first day on the bikes.

As for the weather, you name it we had it!  Strong headwinds most of the way, and cloudy enough that we even got dripped on a little.  Not enough to warrant putting on the rain gear.  The last couple hours were in beautiful sunshine, and the winds were not so much of a problem.  We rode bikes through one tunnel maybe a couple hundred yards in length.  The fact that it was a curved tunnel meant that you couldn't see the light at the end.  Having come from bright sunshine to pitch black tunnel made it hard to see with our tiny flashlights, but we all made it through without mishap.

Our inn is at Kokongo, which, near as I can tell is a one house town, and that is our inn.  It has a view to die for, looking across a wide valley with mountains of mainly grassland in the distance.  It is owned and operated by Dorothy and Malcolm, and very gracious hosts they are.  As I told Dorothy, it's a 5 star place in our book.

Our plans are to stay flexible this morning.  The forecast is for improving weather this afternoon, so we'll maybe get on the bikes later.  Simon will shuttle us in to a nearby town to see what there is to see.

We're all doing fine, although Claira has been fighting a sore throat.  Lillian is having a great time on the back of the tandem.  Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves very much.  Our two traveling companions, Trixie and Pat are also very congenial, so it is starting off well despite this morning's rain. 

Time to run.  Will post when we can.   Jim

Monday Evening

We're winding up our stay at Dunedin, and will be heading west tomorrow morning.  Simon took a group including Scott and Claira out to the Albatross Center, while Susan, Rebecca, and I made a run to a local laundromat.  We made a new friend there named Wilbur.  Here are a couple pictures of Wilbur.

Wilbur is a Longhaired Griffin.  Never heard of that breed?  Neither have I, but he was very friendly.  Came right up to me, turned around, and sat down as if to say "You may scratch my back now."  He got what he wanted.  He was one of those animals that is so ugly he's cute.

Later in the day I took Scott, Claira, Rebecca and Trixy (the lady from Belgium/Philadelphia) back to the town center to do some sightseeing while I took our rental car back to the airport to be turned in.  Simon picked me up, and we returned to pick up the sightseeing group.

The entire group met for snacks in the dining room, and Simon briefed us all on what to expect over the next 12 days. Tomorrow we're to have our luggage downstairs by 7:30, have breakfast and it's off to the railway station.  By the way, the railway station is quite a famous structure.  It was designed many years ago by a George someone.  After it's construction he was thenceforth called Gingerbread George.  I kind of like the looks of the place.  Here's a picture and you can decide for yourself:

This may be the last post for a few days.  I'm not sure what our internet prospects are after we get on the rail trail, but I'll try to connect as soon as I can.  Pictures, too, may be more of a problem because we may have to use public computers.   Sooner or later we'll be in touch!  Jim and the gang.

Monday Morning Sunrise

Just had a spectacular sunrise, and wanted to share it with all you folks back home!  Indeed, the heavens declare the glory of God!! This picture is taken from our 4th floor room at the St Clair hotel!  Enjoy!!

Sunday Evening

The weather did improve as the day progressed, we are happy to say.  Rebecca, Lillian, Susan and I did head out to the Albatross Center out at the end of the peninsula.  There were a couple ways to go, and we took the high road, with emphasis on the word "high".  Guard rails?  Nah, who needs guardrails!  And who needs room for two lanes when one lane works most of the time?  Add lots of twisting, turning curves, with spectacular scenery of the coast and you will get the idea. Here's a couple pictures:

As you can tell from the girl's expressions, it was just a wee bit windy on top of hills above the beach.  Perfect albatross weather, though.  

The picture above was taken at the very end of the peninsula, where there has been an albatross conservation center for many years.  There are only two places in the world where albatross will nest on a large land mass, this point of land being one of them.  They also nest on small, remote islands.  They are a spectacular bird, with immense wing spans, and have a second joint in their wings so they will fold up properly next to their body.  We took a one hour guided tour, and enjoyed it very much.

After returning to the hotel Rebecca and I went out to the airport to meet Claira and Scott, and they did arrive right on time.  

So now the NZ gang is all here.  Simon, Jessica, and Julian also arrived in the late afternoon.  We enjoyed dinner with them at a nearby pizza joint.  The weary travelers have gone to bed, and that's where I'm heading, too.  All this fresh air makes for good sleeping.  And, oh yes, the weather has cleared up, it's turned warmer, and there were even a few people swimming out in the ocean.  Yes, they were young people, who obviously don't know any better!  Jim

Sunday Morning in Dunedin

Yesterday (our Saturday) was "explore downtown Dunedin" day.  We started off the day with breakfast downstairs, where one waitress was serving the entire place.  I've seen fast servers, but have never seen one that actually ran, and this one did.
We actually made it to the downtown area a few miles from our hotel without getting lost, and let the record show that I have now mastered the location of the turn signal lever.  I think Lillian may have been a little amazed and maybe even disappointed that there was one less item to point out in my list of mistakes and failings.  Nothing like a granddaughter to keep one humble.

Dunedin is a very Scottish city, and who could be more Scottish than the poet Robert Burns? Think you don't know any Burns?  How about "The best laid plans of mice and men aft go astray", just one line of a poem about a poor field mouse who's nest was torn up by the plow?  Dunedin, as it turns out, was founded by his nephew, Reverend Thomas Burns.  The plaque at the church expressed the ambitions of these early settlers:

Susan was happy to see that there are quilters in this part of the world, as the following picture will attest.  It was actually a quilt show, and there were quite a few interesting and beautiful quilts made by quilters in this area.  There was also a fabric store not too far away, and some fine marino fabrics were purchased for some project about which I haven't a clue.  I'm used to it.

Finally, here is a picture of Susan, Lillian and Rebecca at a sign post near our hotel, where it indicates that it is 14,893km (about 9,000 miles) to New York.  As you can see they were bundled up against the cool wind and occasional sprinkles of rain.  The forecast is for better weather later today, and we plan on going out to the albatross center at the end of the otago peninsula before heading to the airport to pick up Claira and Scott.  We haven't heard from them, but assume they've made all their connections.  We're also looking forward to seeing our bike tour leaders, Simon, Jessica, and Julian later today.  They're driving down from Christchurch with the bicycles that we'll be using starting Tuesday.

That's it for today.  Will try to post a couple more entries before the bike tour starts.  I'm not too sure if internet access will be available each day, so we may have to skip a day or two when we can't get to a computer.  Love to all,  Jim

Lili In Dunedin

We just finished with breakfast, and it was very good. Grandpa and I both ate blueberry muffins that had lots of blueberries in them. Driving with Grandpa was very weird, because I got to sit in the front on the left side which is normally where the driver sits. Grandpa Jim also kept using the windshield wipers instead of turn signals so I jokingly told him this morning that in New Zealand people have to look to see if people's windshields wipers are on to see if they are going to turn. It could get very confusing if it's raining though... Mom and GG are walking by the beach while Grandpa and I are looking at it from the hotel room. Yesterday we saw about ten surfers in the waster even though it seemed to be fifty degrees outside-very cold to be in the water. The plane ride was VERY comfortable! We had a screen that we could watch movies, play games, and listen to music along other things. We also got waffles in the morning that were great.  Grandpa just proof read this and said that people have to look at the windows to see if a crazy American is driving.  Lili

From Dunedin

Yes! Have now arrived at our hotel in Dunedin, and are feeling much better this morning after a good long rest. We'll be staying here 3 more nights before launching out on the bike portion of our New Zealand adventure.  Scott and Claira are at this moment on their flight to LA, where they'll catch the same flights we took yesterday to get here.
We got our car rented at the airport, reminded myself to drive on the left--which is to say "wrong"--side of the road, something which Lillian found to be "weird".  I've learned to accept the fact that many things are weird to a teenager.  Maybe even most things.  Anyway, we managed to find our hotel without incident, if you don't count mistakenly using your windshield wiper control as a turn signal a few times, much to Lillian's amusement: "Grampa, you did it again".  I can understand driving on the left, but do they have to make EVERYTHING in the car backwards? There should be a rule that turn signal controls are always on the left side of the steering wheel.
Well, there has not as yet been any sign of life from the room next door where Rebecca and Lillian are located.  They are both olympic class sleep-til-noon sleepers, so it may be awhile before we see the whites of their eyes.
The weather since we've landed has been overcast,  with occasional light rain, and lots of wind.  Things are supposed to get better this afternoon, which fits the late sleepers schedule perfectly.  The St. Clair Hotel where we are staying is a little south of the city of Dunedin. As we look out the window we see a long beach stretching north, with a wide surf zone.  There were a few surfers out there when we arrived yesterday afternoon, but so far this morning it's been dog walkers and joggers.   Let's see if I can figure out how to upload a picture:

What do you know..it works!  Next time I'll figure out how to cut the size of the file down.  That is Dunedin further up the coast, and I would guess we'll be doing some exploring up that way after breakfast..or lunch...as the case may be.  Maybe I'll even learn how to make the turn signals work. Will be making posts a little more frequently now that we're actually here!   Jim

From Auckland

Greetings from Auckland, where we landed about 3 hours ago.  It was a LONG, but not unpleasant flight from LAX through the night.  A lot of turbulence for part of the time, but that didn't seem to bother anyone under the age of 75.  It didn't bother me much, either, except made sleeping a little difficult.
Now we're killing time at the Aukland airport waiting for our flight to Dunedin.  About a 5 hour layover. I had asked Lillian after we landed here what had she learned about New Zealand so far.  She kind of searched for an answer, before I helped her with : "It's an awful long way from home!"  As we were zooming along at 550 mph I couldn't help but think of the early explorers, such as Captain Cook, who would spend months in their sailing vessels, crossing that same vast ocean that we did in a mere 12 1/2 hours.  I wonder what the people 300 years from now will be using to travel such long distances.  Teleportation??  Maybe it will turn out that Star Trek and it's "beam me up, Scotty" will work after all, and they will marvel at how it took us half a day to travel the distance that they can do in the blink of an eye.
They are predicting quite a rain storm here on the North Island for the weekend, but maybe it will not have much effect on the South Island where we will be.  We can hope anyway.
Will write more after we've settled in at our hotel in Dunedin and checked out some of the attractions in that area.  We should connect up with our bike leaders Sunday evening, and be ready to get on our bikes Tuesday after an exciting train ride.
Jim