Monday, February 26, 2007
Photos and Update
We believe we have fixed the photo problem, please view the previous photo postings to share in our journey. We leave for four days of kayaking and hiking through the Abel Tasman National Park, and will update photos upon our return.
Good on Ya!
Good on ya... Throughout our tour we have heard this phrase many times, mostly from the older Kiwis when they see us huffing and puffing on fully loaded bikes up steep hills. One of our favorite "cheerleaders" is Bill, aka the defacto campground host at the Otto/MacDonald Department of Conservation campsite. He and his wife Pat have been spending their summers at this tiny campsite for 22 years. Through an elaborate concoction of generators, pipes, and curtains, Bill (age 84) and his wife had made this their summer home.
Bill was quick to offer smiles, words of encouragement and friendly greetings throughout our stay. Our second night we were invited over to see his "camp" and share his home-made Moonshine and Brandy. He offered history of New Zealand's West Coast, opportunities for laughter and advice for a long healthy marriage and life ("live well and love each other"). Bill and Pat have been married for 63 years.
We would like to offer a "Good on ya!" to Bill and Pat, for your wonderful hospitality and for being wonderful representatives of Kiwi culture and hospitality. For although Bill and Pat have to share their summer home with many different tourists, they enthusiastically continue to embrace all newcomers, whether they are there for one night or a fortnight.
Bill was quick to offer smiles, words of encouragement and friendly greetings throughout our stay. Our second night we were invited over to see his "camp" and share his home-made Moonshine and Brandy. He offered history of New Zealand's West Coast, opportunities for laughter and advice for a long healthy marriage and life ("live well and love each other"). Bill and Pat have been married for 63 years.
We would like to offer a "Good on ya!" to Bill and Pat, for your wonderful hospitality and for being wonderful representatives of Kiwi culture and hospitality. For although Bill and Pat have to share their summer home with many different tourists, they enthusiastically continue to embrace all newcomers, whether they are there for one night or a fortnight.
Books and Aussies
Our last night in Queenstown, Ari and I met Peter Campbell, an Aussie cycling through New Zealand to raise money for mental health services for men throughout Australia. He had traveled to Tasmania with his wife and saw the cycling NZ book, which inspired his journey. He was flying out the next day, and we exchanged stories of cycling adventures over dinner.
Ari and I had trouble obtaining a current cycling guide book for our journey, and had been traveling with a Cycling New Zealand book published in 1994. Although the roads haven't changed, some critical information had (for example the book would read, "When you travel to Alford Forest, ask at the store where to camp"- store had closed 5 years prior). So when we saw Peter reading his 2000 Lonely Planet cycling book, pangs of jealousy set in. Ari, trying to mask his excitement, offered to buy his guidebook. Although Peter was not willing to part with his book on a permanent basis, he graciously offered to loan it to us for the duration of our journey.
About one week later, while we were cycling through glacier country, we had our first book mishap. We had a relatively hard day of cycling, and while we were eating dinner we realized that the guidebook was nowhere to be found. Peter had written his name and address in the book for us to return to him, and without the book we would have no way to contact him.
After mentally retracing our steps of that afternoon, we figured out where we may have left it. Ari reluctantly volunteered to cycle the 30 km rountrip to retrieve the book. We then noticed our "campsite neighbors" Mick and Liz. We shared our situation with them, and being friendly Aussies, quickly volunteered to drive us back to retrieve the book. The book was exactly where we had left it, and Ari purchased wine and chocolates to share with the Aussies as a thank you. After an evening of long conversation, we realized we had a lot in common and hope to meet them in NSW Australia in the future. Thank you Peter, Mick, and Liz.
Ari and I had trouble obtaining a current cycling guide book for our journey, and had been traveling with a Cycling New Zealand book published in 1994. Although the roads haven't changed, some critical information had (for example the book would read, "When you travel to Alford Forest, ask at the store where to camp"- store had closed 5 years prior). So when we saw Peter reading his 2000 Lonely Planet cycling book, pangs of jealousy set in. Ari, trying to mask his excitement, offered to buy his guidebook. Although Peter was not willing to part with his book on a permanent basis, he graciously offered to loan it to us for the duration of our journey.
About one week later, while we were cycling through glacier country, we had our first book mishap. We had a relatively hard day of cycling, and while we were eating dinner we realized that the guidebook was nowhere to be found. Peter had written his name and address in the book for us to return to him, and without the book we would have no way to contact him.
After mentally retracing our steps of that afternoon, we figured out where we may have left it. Ari reluctantly volunteered to cycle the 30 km rountrip to retrieve the book. We then noticed our "campsite neighbors" Mick and Liz. We shared our situation with them, and being friendly Aussies, quickly volunteered to drive us back to retrieve the book. The book was exactly where we had left it, and Ari purchased wine and chocolates to share with the Aussies as a thank you. After an evening of long conversation, we realized we had a lot in common and hope to meet them in NSW Australia in the future. Thank you Peter, Mick, and Liz.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Bikeless in Wanaka
First of all, we're aware that some or all of the photos are not working. When we have better internet access, we will amend the situation.
A funny little thing happened on our way out of Queenstown. We had decided to take a bus out of Queenstown to our next stop as the traffic was a mess coming into Queenstown. When we arrived at the bus stop with our bikes, the driver started huffing and puffing (minor panic attack) that he was not informed that our bikes would be traveling on the bus with us. Normally not a big deal, they just need to know to allocate space. He asked us if we would mind if we traveled without our bikes, and promised to have our bikes arrive on the next bus over. He then asked to charge us for traveling with our bikes. We arrived to our next stop, Wanaka and set up our tent site and explored the town while waiting for our bikes. By 9 pm, our bikes were nowhere to be found. Now it was our turn to have a minor panic attack. Ari left frantic messages at the shuttle office which had closed 4 hours prior. The next morning we woke up, and went to call the shuttle office again. Fortunately our bikes had arrived, and they promised a quick delivery to our campsite, full of apologies.... Lesson learned, do not leave bikes.
We are now approaching the west coast of New Zealand, Haast (good luck finding it on a map). We finished our climb over the mountain pass late yesterday afternoon, and arrived to our new campsite early this afternoon. Tomorrow we head north for the Fox and Hanz Joseph glaciers. The weather has been amazing, blue skies everyday with clear views of the mountains, glaciers, and sand flies. We met the notorious sand flies last night at our campsite and cannot stop scratching those pesky bites. Happy Valentines Day,
Lisa and Ari
A funny little thing happened on our way out of Queenstown. We had decided to take a bus out of Queenstown to our next stop as the traffic was a mess coming into Queenstown. When we arrived at the bus stop with our bikes, the driver started huffing and puffing (minor panic attack) that he was not informed that our bikes would be traveling on the bus with us. Normally not a big deal, they just need to know to allocate space. He asked us if we would mind if we traveled without our bikes, and promised to have our bikes arrive on the next bus over. He then asked to charge us for traveling with our bikes. We arrived to our next stop, Wanaka and set up our tent site and explored the town while waiting for our bikes. By 9 pm, our bikes were nowhere to be found. Now it was our turn to have a minor panic attack. Ari left frantic messages at the shuttle office which had closed 4 hours prior. The next morning we woke up, and went to call the shuttle office again. Fortunately our bikes had arrived, and they promised a quick delivery to our campsite, full of apologies.... Lesson learned, do not leave bikes.
We are now approaching the west coast of New Zealand, Haast (good luck finding it on a map). We finished our climb over the mountain pass late yesterday afternoon, and arrived to our new campsite early this afternoon. Tomorrow we head north for the Fox and Hanz Joseph glaciers. The weather has been amazing, blue skies everyday with clear views of the mountains, glaciers, and sand flies. We met the notorious sand flies last night at our campsite and cannot stop scratching those pesky bites. Happy Valentines Day,
Lisa and Ari
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Will We Ever Make it to Queenstown?
Will we ever make it to Queenstown? This is what we asked ourselves our third day cycling through New Zealand. We chose to cycle through New Zealand to take more time to see the sights and meet the people. The hospitality and friendliness of the Kiwis has been amazing. We have been stopped to share a cup of tea (while riding our bikes), offered desserts and drinks by locals, and have been flagged down to share some local cherries. Although we are traveling at a slower pace with our bikes, the friendly Kiwis have encouraged us to slow down even more...
We spent the last five days cycling with a Belgian couple who have been cycling the world for the last 13 months (and by the end we could actually keep up with them!). We took in some amazing scenery and shared a lot of laughs along the way. We parted ways yesterday, and Ari and I made it safe and sound, and a bit tired, last evening to Queenstown. We are spending today and tomorrow resting and catching up, and will head out to Milford Sound for a day trip before heading up the West Coast of New Zealand. Cycling New Zealand has definitely been one of the most physically challenging activities I've ever done, but also one of the most rewarding.
Click on the link below to see some photos that we have taken up to this point:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?&mode=fromsite&collid=606468784108.468846936108.1172535881112&conn_speed=1
We spent the last five days cycling with a Belgian couple who have been cycling the world for the last 13 months (and by the end we could actually keep up with them!). We took in some amazing scenery and shared a lot of laughs along the way. We parted ways yesterday, and Ari and I made it safe and sound, and a bit tired, last evening to Queenstown. We are spending today and tomorrow resting and catching up, and will head out to Milford Sound for a day trip before heading up the West Coast of New Zealand. Cycling New Zealand has definitely been one of the most physically challenging activities I've ever done, but also one of the most rewarding.
Click on the link below to see some photos that we have taken up to this point:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?&mode=fromsite&collid=606468784108.468846936108.1172535881112&conn_speed=1
Bula and Vinaka, Fiji
We did not originally plan on stopping in Fiji, but it turned out that it was much cheaper to fly to New Zealand through Fiji, so we thought why not. We had three days and four nights, and decided to stay in Nadi (the mainland of Vitu Levu) as we didn't have the time to go to the outer islands.
Our time in Fiji turned out to be wonderful. I have never seen such beautiful smiles, from everyone we met, passed in the street, or sat next to. Such beautiful, beautiful people. Before leaving the U.S., my high school buddy Hof, introduced me via e-mail to his friend Ravu, who is an officer in the Fijian military serving in Iraq. Ravu then connected me with his wife Rose, who, at 7 1/2 months pregnant, showed us true Fijian hospitality. She took us to her village where we took part in a Kava ceremony, which involved drinking multiple gourds of the traditional alcoholic drink (me many more than Lisa) made out of the kava plant. If you read Troost's "Getting Stoned with Savages," he gives graphic descriptions of his endeavours with kava.
Rose also gave us an all day cruise out to the outer islands, which included crystal clear, blue water, snorkeling, tasty bbq meal, and sitting on the beach and swimming in the bathtub temperature water. Very relaxing last day, except for the sunburns.
The demographics and politics of Fiji are fascinating and intense. After 3 days, we cannot pretend to know much or have much insight, but did learn a lot. The population consists of approximately 40% of East Indian descent, 50% Native Fijian, and 10% other. You can double check my stats. At times, we felt we were in India, enjoying the Masala and Samosas. Many seemed to go out of their way to say there was no ethnic strife between the ethnic groups. This may or may not be true at the social level, but much of the politics, which has included 4-5 coups in the last 20 years (again, check my facts) (including an ongoing coup which began in December 2006) have involved the interactions, land ownership, and politics betweeen the two major groups.
With that said, we loved Fiji, the people, and the scenery and hope to get back at some point to explore further.
Click below to see some photos from Fiji...
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?&mode=fromsite&collid=606468784108.150086936108.1171010154807&conn_speed=1
Our time in Fiji turned out to be wonderful. I have never seen such beautiful smiles, from everyone we met, passed in the street, or sat next to. Such beautiful, beautiful people. Before leaving the U.S., my high school buddy Hof, introduced me via e-mail to his friend Ravu, who is an officer in the Fijian military serving in Iraq. Ravu then connected me with his wife Rose, who, at 7 1/2 months pregnant, showed us true Fijian hospitality. She took us to her village where we took part in a Kava ceremony, which involved drinking multiple gourds of the traditional alcoholic drink (me many more than Lisa) made out of the kava plant. If you read Troost's "Getting Stoned with Savages," he gives graphic descriptions of his endeavours with kava.
Rose also gave us an all day cruise out to the outer islands, which included crystal clear, blue water, snorkeling, tasty bbq meal, and sitting on the beach and swimming in the bathtub temperature water. Very relaxing last day, except for the sunburns.
The demographics and politics of Fiji are fascinating and intense. After 3 days, we cannot pretend to know much or have much insight, but did learn a lot. The population consists of approximately 40% of East Indian descent, 50% Native Fijian, and 10% other. You can double check my stats. At times, we felt we were in India, enjoying the Masala and Samosas. Many seemed to go out of their way to say there was no ethnic strife between the ethnic groups. This may or may not be true at the social level, but much of the politics, which has included 4-5 coups in the last 20 years (again, check my facts) (including an ongoing coup which began in December 2006) have involved the interactions, land ownership, and politics betweeen the two major groups.
With that said, we loved Fiji, the people, and the scenery and hope to get back at some point to explore further.
Click below to see some photos from Fiji...
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?&mode=fromsite&collid=606468784108.150086936108.1171010154807&conn_speed=1
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Hawaii Concluded
Our last few days in Hawaii were excellent. Lisa's college friend Mino invited Lisa, Kathy, and me to her friend's house in Hana. It was so beautiful and relaxing. Thank you Mino and Jeremy and good luck with the rest of the pregnancy. Photos from Hawaii can be accessed by clicking on the link below. Included is the photo of Mino's car as she delivered our bikes (inside the boxes) to the airport after graciously storing them for us...
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?&mode=fromsite&collid=606468784108.807276936108.1172535314504&conn_speed=1
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?&mode=fromsite&collid=606468784108.807276936108.1172535314504&conn_speed=1
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