Feb 14:
bad weather delayed our flight out of McMurdo until...I don't remember, it was late. I think we finally arrived at our hotel in Christchurch (CHC) at 4 AM.
2/15:
got up at 7. got a few things ready to mail home, ate breakfast, booked a flight to Wellington. Caught a ride to the post office and picked up mail and shipped stuff home. Wandered around downtown CHC for a while. Went back to the motel, had a power nap. Went to Lytlleton for a beer and a sunset, back to the hotel where we slept very well
2/16:
flew to Wellington. Caught the bus..we were supposed to get off at the train station and catch a cab from there to the Indian embassy...missed our stop...rode the bus back, got off at the train station, hailed a cab asked to go to the embassy and were told by the cabbie that it was just up the hill, so we walked it. Got to the embassy at 1:05 or so..noticed that the sign said open "9:00 - 1:00" I was super bummed, it was Friday and now I would have to wait until Monday...we went up the elevator anyhow only to find a closed door, the feeling of despair only got worse. Marsha went to the door and pushed on it. It opened! Behind the door we saw a little Indian lady behind a cardboard sign that said "Closed", ignoring it, I asked her if I could apply for a visa. She said yes, gave me the application and told me to go eat something, fill it out, and bring it back. I was..uh...the opposite of despair. Later that day, we met George, who we would be staying with while in Wellington. He was a janitor on the ice in 04/05. He has a great place on top of Mount Victoria. We went with him that evening to experience a movie in luxury. We bought the first class seats for "The Last King of Scotland" The chairs were luxurious...that's the way to see a movie!
2/17, 2/18, 2/19 we explored around Wellington. Saw Te Papa (or something) museum..I wasn't in the right frame of mind for museuming, but while we were there, we met Dave, who worked there. He told us about some neat things to do on the north island. He told us about Taupo, Rotorua and the thing he really sold me on was the hot salt water baths near Mount Monganui (sp?), He made these pools sound like an absolute paradise. I was convinced, we were going to go. We spent a fair bit of time in the tourist information center (i-site) looking for something to do. We looked through brochures for a goodly amount of time before deciding on a segway tour. Then we spent more time waiting in line to book it, only to find out that they don't run on mondays..we were opposed to going through the decision making process again so we left with our brochures in hand. One of them was for the wellington cable car. It sounded interesting so we opted to go check it out. We got there and found out that a round trip ticket was only $4.50...we were in! We looked at where the cable car went, but we could only see to the top of a hill about 100 yards away, we waited in anticipation until it finally got to the end of the line. We boarded and then rode to the top of that hill we couldn't see past...and got out. That was it, a 100 yard cable car ride to a botanical garden. We wandered around the garden for a bit. Eventually meeting a toothpaste-sandwich, see god now crazy lady. She told us about the conspiracies that the pharmaceutical companies are involved in. Marsha admired her hat, she swapped hats with Marsha. We made up an excuse to leave and ran the hell away.
2/20
I have been trying to not be so anal about writing down confirmation numbers and things like that. After this day, I'm going back to writing that stuff down. We went to the airport to pick up our rental car. I had rented a car from National, but didn't see their desk. I looked in the phone book to try to figure out where they were. Turns out, they're the same as Europcar...who did have a desk. I walked up to the desk to announce that I was there to pick up my car. They didn't see my name on the list and asked for my confirmation number, which of course, I didn't have. I asked if there were any way I could use there computer to check my email and get it from there. This would be impossible I was told. I asked if there was anywhere in the airport that I could use a computer, again I was told no. I had the number for the company I had used to make the reservation, so I went to the pay phone and called them. They were totally useless and my frustration level skyrocketed. Marsha had been milling about, and somehow found out that there were, indeed, public computers on the second floor. We promptly went upstairs and found them. We also found out that the cards that you need to purchase to be able to use the computers were all sold out. Finally, I left the luggage and Marsha in the airport, caught a bus downtown, checked my email and came back with a confirmation number from,....AVIS..that's right, I had remembered the wrong rental company. Anyhow, we got the car and hit the road. In the town of Featherstown, there is a fell locomotive display, we stopped and checked it out. A fell locomotive uses a second steam piston to drive a horizontally mounted set of wheels that grip a horizontal rail to help pull it up hills. Neat stuff. George told us about an area called the pinnacles, about 2 hours from Wellington, so we went that way hoping to find a quaint place to call home for the night. We were dissapointed. Our map showed a couple of little towns further down the road, so we decided to go have a look around. in the town of Ngawi we saw the most impressive assortment of antique bulldozers.
They use them to put their boats in the water. We tried to find a room at the only "motel" in town, but the people who run it were out so we decided we would backtrack to someplace where we had seen lodging. We stopped by the tractor collection again to take some pictures. While there we talked to a couple who said they'd been at the seal colony. We were intrigued, so we went back to the seal colony.
It was really neat to see seals moving. We found a B & B (more of a homestay) in Featherstown. It was run by an older couple, Judy & Neel, and boasted a "Kiwi style breakfast" They had a cat named georgie. Neel called georgie an asshole, I don't remember why, but it was funny at the time. We got some excellent sleep and woke up to find out that a Kiwi style breakfast is apparently cereal and fruit. I think I know why they can't beat Australia in rugby. Nancies.
2/21
Drove to a town called Patea. It's pronounced like Philadelphia or something...everytime we would tell someone that we had stayed in..well, pronounce it like it looks, and they'd look at us like we were growing a 2nd evil head or something and correct us with..well, Philadelphia. The friggin' Maori alphabet only has about 15 letters and I'm supposed to know how the hell to pronounce everything. Anyhow, Philadelphia has some spectacular black sand beaches and cliffs. The beach was all but deserted. We caught a sunset there. Also, there is an old freezing works, which is Kiwi for meat packing plant. It's huge, but in complete shambles, the story is that the support timbers have been stolen from the buildings so they have all collapsed, but nobody has cleaned the sight up because it has asbestos and would be too costly. Wood thieves are sentenced to lung cancer in New Zealand. I like it! We stayed the night in a camper trailer which Marsha really liked, but I'm not going to be one to say she has bad taste so...the camper was great.
2/22
Long drive through beautiful rainforest on a narrow, winding road. The speed limit in NZ is 100. Everywhere, even on narrow winding roads. We got to Taupo, which sits on a beautiful caldera lake. The clarity of the water in the lake was stunning. We saw Huka Falls which is very beautiful. The water there is turquoise.
2/23 & 24
We went to Rotorua which is part Yellowstone (thermal features) and part South Dakota (tourist attractions). We went sprint car racing, lugeing (alpine slide) and best of all Zorbing (get insided a big ball full of water and roll down hill, kind of like being inside a washing machine) We stayed in a magnificent old hotel with a wonderful view and a kooky lady running it. We also drove to Mount Monganui (remember our 'friend' dave, from the wellington museum) to go to the salt water baths. Turns out, it is some indoor, pay to go thing. My Wyoming readers....think star plunge in Thermopolis. Not what I was expecting, alas it didn't turn out to be a total bust though, we went for a sunset hike up the mountain and a pitch black walk back down. It was quite beautiful.
2/25
Went to Napier with surfing in mind. Surf shops weren't easily accesible so I blew it off. We found a neat old building to stay in. We rented bikes and went for a beachside ride. Marsha had a blast!
2/26
We found out that NZ must not have ordinances preventing the remodeling of a building at 6AM. Ya, really, right across from where we were staying a construction crew started at 6 in the morning with full on sledge hammers and skil saws banging and whirring. Didn't fell like sleeping in anyhow. Drove to Paraparaumu, I think it's pronounced like Philadelphia...I dunno, I give up. On the way there, we made a toilet stop in Dannevirke. They have high tech, singing toilets. It was the craziest thing. You go inside, push a button labled "lock door" and then a voice comes on to say "You have 10 minutes" then some canned music "what the world needs now, is love, sweet love" crazy. So, when you're done, and you push the button to open the door, the toilet flushes. Those crazy Kiwis.
2/27
went to the embassy in wellington, got my visa, dropped off the rental car and got on the interislander ferry for a three hour ride across the cook strait and through the Marlborough sound to Picton. Picked up a car and drove to westport.
2/28 - 3/1
Stayed at the Hairy Lemon in Greymouth, ate Kiwi BBQ...it was cheap and filling, can't say much more for it. Went to Hokitika which is touted as a destination for some reason or another....I couldn't see much appeal. We went to Hokitika Gorge and I did find it appealing. More beautiful turquoise colored water through a gorge with a swinging bridge.
3/2
drove back to CHC
3/3
the day that never ended, after getting on an airplane at 2:30, flying an hour to Aukland, then waiting around till 7:30 then getting on an 11 hour flight to L.A., because of the int'l date line, it's only 10:00 on the morning of the 3rd. There were several int'l flights in at the same time with only one baggage carousel. Pandemonium would be an understatement. This was my reintroduction to being back in the states. After all that, Marsha and I said goodbye and I got on yet another plane to Las Vegas. In Vegas, I visited with my buddy Troy and me his family. He had to go home so I went out. Some guy started flipping me shit about my shaggy beard...calling me Jesus. We struck up a conversation. His name was Dustin and he was in Vegas with his friends Marshall and Ricky celebrating Ricky's 21st birthday. They invited me to hang out with them so I did..until 4 AM when I finally had to get some sleep.
3/4
flew to Riverton, visited with my uncle, cousin and grandmother.
3/5,6
drove to Jackson, saw my kids, skied
3/7
drove to Denver and wrote all this stuff. Man I'm tired. Sorry about the lack of proper grammar/spelling/capitilization, etc. My editor is out for the week. I left alot out, but you're probably tired of reading it anyhow.
Tomorrow I leave for Gulmarg. I'm stoked.
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