We are in China

We have been in Shanghai for about three days now. We have been entering the new world slowly, like tip-toeing into the cold ocean. After another afternoon on the town today we will take an overnight train to Beijing, where we will spend a few days. From here we will head west then south, on a combination of trains and buses and through everything from cities, villages, mountains, plains, sun, and snow. Pictures and more blog about Shanghai and the rest to come soon.

Last week in NZ - caves, dolphins, mussells, sell car

Tuesday, Feb 26: After using the internet at a local hot spot in Queenstown, we head to Christchurch and after a beautiful drive arrive at our hostel late in the evening.

Wednesday, Feb 27: A nice simple day. We shop some used bookstores for new reading material, eat great huge burritos for the first time in over a month, visit a Cathedral and local market, and have champagne with dinner. It is still Kristin's birthday week for sure.

Thursday, Feb 28: We drove 2 hrs to the Cave Stream Scenic Reserve not quite sure what to expect. There are several camper vans in the parking lot and a small bus of other folks, perhaps this place is pretty safe after all. The landscape is big and beautiful. We put on our warm fleece jackets and headed down the trail to the cave entrance (stream exit). The deepest pool was about as far in as the sunlight went and it was belly deep and very very cold. After a 10 yards of this deep pool it was less than knee deep, dark, and exciting. It took us about an hour to go through the entire 1/3 of a mile or so through the cave. There were many turns, lots of cool rock formations, tiny waterfalls, and always at least ankle deep ice cold water. It never got old, but our feet were ready for a good warming when we finally saw the first speck of light ahead. The way out was up a 10 foot ladder built into the rock wall up the side of a little waterfall. Soon we were out in the bright sun and happy for the experience. We then made it back to town for some frisbee throwing in the awesome city botantical gardens.

Friday, Feb 29: We left early to get to Kaidura by 12:30 to see if anyone had canceled for the last dolphin swim of the day. No one had, but someone had canceled for the next day, so we booked the 5:30 am trip and headed to the holiday park to set up our tent, do laundry, and sit in their hot tub. That evening we got in our first run for a good while and enjoyed more great scenery along the seaside cliff track.

Sat. March 1: 5 AM wake up for 5:30 Dolphin Encounter. About 40 of us were suited up with thick 5mm wetsuits, hoods, masks, fins, and snorkels anh rode the bus over to the water to board 3 different boats. After nearly an hour of searching for the right groups of the local dusky dolphins we were in the water with them. The water was rather clear and very deep. i would guese you could see 20 or 30 feet. We were in a pod of over 300 dolphins. The got in for around 20 minutes on three different occations. The dolphins darted all around and often came more than close enough to touch, sometimes in groups of 5 or 6. Particuarlly interested ones would cirlce you just a couple of feet away looking you right in the eye. It was pretty expensive, but well worth what is likely to be a one in a lifetime opprotunity. On the boat ride home Tommy enjoyed the complimentary hot chocolate and ginernut biscuits (ginger snaps), Kristin didn't feel so well and tossed her cookies.
After a power nap we drove on North and visited the Preznel distillery where we both a tiny bottle of honey liquer, and visited 4 different wineries. The region has exploded with wineries in the last 30 years, there are now oaver 50 within about a 40 minute drive. A short drive more in the rain brought us to Picton at the top of the South Island.

Sunday, March 2: Back at the same hostel in Picton were we stayed a few weeks earlier we again tried our hand to picking local mussells for dinner. This time we went at low tide and had a great time picking about 30 big mussells from the nearby bay. We went exploring around town and did a long hike/run along a popular seaside trail. For dinner we cooked our mussells in wine, garlic, and mild sauce, which we searved over a wild rice. On the side we had milk with honey liquer. It was probably the fanciest meal of us had ever cooked, and it turned out to be perfect. Afterwards we walked the shells back down to the bay.

Monday, March 3: We checked in at 7 AM for the 8 AM ferry back to the North Island. The weather is not so pretty, with all the wind and rain, so we are little worried about how rough the trip will be. On the way down the weather was beautiful but the huge boat still rocked enough to make elegant walking hard at times. We were tossed around a bit at times and were forced to take naps to settle our unsure stomachs/ears. In Wellington our Indian visas were ready at the Indian High Commision so we were happy and ready to drive on toward Auckland. We drove to Waitomo Caves for the night, ready to explore the caves tomorrow before driving the rest of the way to Auckland.

Tuesday, March 4: We did a tour of the Raikura cave for about two hours around lunch time. The cave was very large and our tour guide tried very hard to be funny. Together it made for a pretty good tour. Much of the concrete paths were made with a lot of pumice to be water permiable like the natural limestone of the caves. We got to experience the very famous glowworms of the area. They were tiny green dots on the ceiling, very easy to see, but not enough of them to provide enough light to even play cards by. Before leaving town we stopped at the angora shop that has over 300 angora rabbits. We got our picture taken with one of the very cute and cozy bunnys, then continued on to Auckland.

Wednesday, March 5: Someone stole Kristin's Diet Coke she had in the kitchen fridge at the hostel, our first such experience, but that did not ease her pain after a poor night's sleep due to very noisy neighbors who got home from the bars at 3 AM. Our goal for between now and Friday night was to sell our car, "Boss Hog", our 1989 white Honda Civic that had gotten us around both the North and South island so reliably. We headed to the Backpackers' Car Market where we had bought him a month earlier, paid the $69 fee, made our for sale sign, and sat, and waited, and waited. Only one copule came in all day looking for a car, they bought the car next to ours. Which was disappointing, but thinned the competition, as there were only three cheap cars there (<$1,500), now there were just two. This evening we posted a couple of local internet ads.

Thursday, March 6: Two emails overnight from the ads, looking hopeful, but no cigar, yet. Back at the car market for more sitting. Around noon a UNC grad from Charlotte that we had met there the day before brought in two of his hostel roommates who were shopping for a cheap backpackers car. It ended up that these two guys from Holland (19 and 20 yrs old) bought our car, although a mechanical check turned up some potential problems and we were cornered into dropping our price some, but still sold it for $800, $200 more than we paid for it! By the time all the paperwork was done it was time to meet some of my distant family that lives in Auckland for dinner. Gloria came and picked us up at our hostel and we had a great dinner and a few glasses of wine with Gloria and Stan. After an a cab ride home we worked our packing for life without a car.

Friday, March 7: Our last day in New Zealand. We did the Auckland Museum, including a Maori song and dance show. We had a less than ideal time of getting to the airport, but got there on time and were in the air to China before midnight.

Back from the tramping trail

We have been backpacking (known as tramping here in New Zealand) for the last 5 days/4 nights. We have showered, eaten a hare leg from the grocery store washed down with some free soup from our hostel and are now out at a big internet cafe uploading pictures and updating the blog....

Saturday, Feb 16: We signed up for a full day hike on the Frans Josef glacier, which is one of two very large, but very accesable glaciers on the west coast. They are only 30+ miles from the beach! This region has very tall mountains very close to the shore where there is a near constant wet wind blowing inland. They coast gets meters of rain a year and the mountains get tens of meters of snow a year! This snow then oozes down in glacier form. From balmy downtown Frans Josef it was a 10 minute bus ride and a 40 minute hike to the face of the glacier. We strapped on crampons and started up ice steps cut into the ice by the guides with their ice axes. It was an amazing 5 or 6 hours on the ice. Our group of 11 hike up maybe a mile of the glacier. We went through ice caves and climbed some rather step crevasses. It is hard to describe life in the glacier. To get an idea see the picture we just uploaded in the 2nd and 3rd weeks in New Zealand folder.

Sunday, Feb 19: Today we did our first overnight hike in NZ. We hiked to the Welcome Flats hut on the Copland Track. The track continued on, but quickly headed up into a snowfield requiring ice axes and crampons which we did not have, but our hike was realatively flat and warm. It was a 10.5 mile wet and rocky walk and then we were rewarded with nice mattresses and a natural hot springs, which were nice, but could not hold a candle to the 'hot cold rivers' hot springs from last week. To our surprise there was a german trio hiking with a 9 month old baby. The baby got to ride on her dad's back the entire time. Kristin only got a backy ride over a few streams. I ended up wearing my crocs the entire hike so that we could cross these streams quickly, which meant carrying Kristin to keep her running shoes dry.

Monday, Feb 18th: Back out again from the Welcome Flats hut. We were a little quicker on the way out. Again I hiked in Crocs and helped Kristin over the creeks. Once back at the car, we sped away from the swarming sandflies and drove 5 hours to Wanaka for a two night stay at a very nice holiday park there.


Tuesday, Feb 19th: We had a very enjoyable day celebrating the eve of Kristin's Birthday. We visited the Wanaka Brewery for the daily tour of the tiny brewery on the outskirts of town. It shares its building with a much larger toy and transport mueseum. One of the two employees gave us our tour and our samples. One of the people on our tour was a man that lived nearby that was thinking of purchasing the brewery. It was for sale by a type of silent auction that ended in a couple of days. The only other employee was the owner/brewmaster/delivery man. A very quant and fun little place that had won many top awards for their beer. Also in celebration of Kristin's birthday eve was our visit to the famous and popular couch movie theatre. Also a small owner owned business, which had only old couches as seats and had an intermission so you can buy homemade ice cream and cookies.



Wednesday, Feb 20th: Kristin's birthday! The day started with pancakes and mimosas and ended with a few candles in a little stawberry marshmellow bunny. In between we preped for our big upcoming hike, walked up to the top of the tall ridge overlooking the town, enjoyed a "5 O'Clock Thing" of cheese and red wine over looking the town. Happy Birthday Kristin.


Thursday, Feb 21: We started out today picking up a rental MacPac backpack and catching up on internet errands. Then we drove to a newarby tiny town to pickup the shuttle. We did our last packing at breakneck speed in order to catch the bus. By early afternoon we had started the Routeburn Tramp, one of NZ "Great Walks". We only had two and a half hours walk to the our hut for the first night. Kristin had to hike in flip flops due to the lack of skin on the back of her heels from the Frans Joesef rental boots. There were amazing views from the hut and we sat our at a picnic table for dinner and the sunset, where we met at Swiss traveler and shared a game of Farkle (a dice game we like and carry), known as "10,000" to him.


Friday-Monday, Feb 25th: For the next four days we hiked and then relaxed at our hut for the afternoon/evening. Our light packs and young legs left us with lots of hut time int he afternoons. The weather was perfect and we had jaw droping views of the mountains surrounding us. It is too hard to explain the views, it get an idea see our posted pictures. By Saturday the rain hit and we hiked for a few hours in some serious rain, but we were in good spirits and had packed a liter of hot tea that we made that morning. Technically around the middle of the day we completed the Routeburn trek and started on the Greenstone trek. The trail was the same, but the huts were smaller and much less expensive. We got the hut before 2pm and had an afternoon of drying clothes by the coal stove, talking to other travelers, working on riddles, and playing farkle. Sunday was predicted to have more rain, but it didn't start until about an hour after we reached the hut. The trail that day was through a long mostly flat valley and included many grazing cattle, so of which we had to walk around. Monday we completed the Routeburn and Greenstone trek before noon and the shuttle was right on time at 2. Back in Queenstown we stayed in a great hostel with a hot tub and free veggie soup. For dinner we had the soup and a big wild hare leg (bought in the supermarket) that we grilled on on the BBQ.

Onto Franz Josef!

Tuesday the 12th: Kristin and I drove the remaining 5 hours to Wellington, where we would get our Indian visas and catch the ferry to the South Island. Our only major stop was to do part of 'the best day hike in NZ/world'. We only had time for about 30 minutes in and another 30 minutes back out, which was enough time to get us to a backcountry hut. This was our first look at one of the many backcountry huts and we were very impressed. It is not like the shelter on the Appalacian Trail, this is like a hostel in the woods. It had a nice kitchen with sink and gas cookers and bunks for sleeping. There was a beautiful view of a volcano which was several hours hike away.
We did not arrive to Gareth and Anna's until about 10:30pm. We had a setback because I forgot to write down Gareth's phone number from my email earlier and then we could not find anywhere to get online. It took looking in 3 different towns and then driving about 30 mintues out of our way to a larger town that had an internet cafe. Then we had the challenge of finding somewhere to buy a phone card so that we could make a call at the payphones (very few of them will take coins, they only take prepaid cards). We had a great time with Gareth and Anna and got some good guidance for our time in the south island.

Wednesday the 13th: We got up and went to get our Indian visas, well at least turn in our applications, and had plenty of time to get to the ferry by noon. The three and a half hour ride was rockier than we expected for such a big ship on a very clear day, but we went inside and watched a movie and did some south island planning. And lo' and behold, Kristin did not get the least bit seasick. We checked into a hostel on the edge of the town where we were dropped off(Picton). It was bright and cheery. At dinner we met a great couple from Wales celebrating 40 years of marriage with a 2 month trip.

Thursday the 14th: Valentine's Day! We started the day with a couple of hours of kayaking in the bay by the hostel with their old sea kayaks. The wind and water got a bit rough on us, but neither of us flipped and the scenery was great. I loved looking at all the small sailboats anchored in the bay. We biked down to a local spot in hopes of picking some mussells for dinner, but we hit the tide was too high. So instead, we had a great dinner of steak and potatoes, along with some New Zealand red wine, while taking in the beautiful bay view from the hostel.

Today we are headin to Franz Joseph, where we have a glacier hiking tour set up for tomorrow.

World's Best Hot Spring

-picture on camera to come soon-

Last night we stayed at a neat hostel in an active geothermal area. The owner gave us directions to what may have been the perfect hot springs. It was a hot water creek mixing with a cooler stream (about twice the size of the hot water one) and there was a long jut of rock near where the cool one came in that only let a little bit of the cool water into the big pool where they mixed. If you got too hot or cool you just moved over a few feet to a different temperature. It was just off the side of the road and there were 6 to 15 people there (some came and went in the nearly 2 hours we were there). There were other backpacking couples and some locals, including some fun children and an older lady sent there by her doctor. We did not take our camera yesterday, but drove by it on the way out of town today and took a picture. There was just one guy there this morning.

This afternoon we plan to do all or some of what some claim to be the "best day hike in the world" It is about 30-60 minutes from here and it is sprinkling here now. Then we have 3 to 4 hours to drive to get to Wellington where we are planning to stay with the twin bother (and his wife) of my New Zealand friend from ultimate (Robbie Minshall).

Hot Water Beach a dissapointment

Here is Tommy digging along side dozens of other excited tourists at the renowned Hot Water Beach at low tide. Unfortunately "the swell was too high" today and even at dead low tide the water did not go out far enough to allow anyone to get a personal hand dug spa. We did find one spot that you could feel was warmer than the ocean water, but a wave washed into it about 15 seconds later.

We came along the shovel for $2 at a yard sale the day before and felt very happy we had not wasted $5 on renting a shovel from the little store by the parking lot.

Heading south in our new wheels!

Tommy and I got up Tuesday and headed over to the backpacker car market about a 15 minute walk from our hostel. After looking around at our options, we stumbled upon a $(NZ) 600 car. A 1990 2 door white Honda Civic. We had it checked out legally and mechanically and all looked good, so we bought it! We picked it up from the shop yesterday afternoon. After Tommy practiced driving left-handed stick and driving on the left side, we headed out to a couple stores for supplies. We decided to stay in Auckland one more night to catch up on sleep (which didn't happen at the noisy hostel we stayed at) and to get a visit a few thrift stores that were not open yesterday. Now we have sleeping gear, a tent, cooking items, and a car!! Tommy and I plan to head out of town soon and head to Hot Springs Beach, where we plan to dig a couple holes and enjoy our manmade natural spas! We'll post pictures of our new sporty car soon. As long as the doors haven't fallen off yet. As our blog skills increase, we plan to post pics along with our written updates. That will be soon to come!