Milford Sound

I only have a few minutes on my internet card. If you are ever in NZ you must see Milford sound. It is really a fjiord. A river between massive mountains carved by a glacier that lets out into the Tasman sea. It rained, of course, Fiordland is a rainforest, but that only meant that the hundreds of temporary waterfalls snaked down the immense cliff walls like silver threads spilling into the calm blue water. It was spectacular. I cannot begin to put words to the immense scale of the place. A wonderland for the gods. I'll post pictures once I can upload them to the computer. Tomorrow to Wanaka, then home. Good travels my friends and for those of you in Maine - stay warm.

More about Paragliding and other stuff

To answer a couple of questions about paragliding that came up in the previous post:

The pictures don't show the big semi circle of a parachute that is above us making for a gentle ride to the ground. While it is a bit like hang gliding (I imagine, never having gone hang gliding, as you can steer and ride the lift). It is done with a parachute, hence the name paragliding. To get airborne you take a few walking steps, then a few running steps, then a few steps that aren't, off the side of a mountain. It is very peaceful and I felt like what I believe birds must feel like gliding over great forests of pine, high in the sky.

Today we are in Te Anau and took a boat ride across the Te Anau lake to see the glowworms. Again a facinating and mystical experience in its own right. First we walked, then we took a boat in utter dark and utter silence to a grotto at the end of the cave. The glowworms entice insects off the river that runs through the cave by lighting a small bit of its tail and then capturing the insects in threads that hang from the ceiling. All the lights together in the dark of the cave fool the insects into thinking they are flying into the night sky. They fooled me too. I felt we had floated into another universe with unknown constellations gracing a distant black expanse. I can see why the Maori of old thought the place was sacred. I felt like it was magical. It must have been. My children were silent for over twenty minutes.

Tomorrow we are off to Milford Sound.

Cheers.

Adrenaline City

If you can bike it, hike it, row it, pedal it, ride it, jump off of it, hang out of it, slide down it, dive under it, float on top of it and scream while you are doing it - you can do it in Queenstown. We've been here since yesterday. So far we have ridden the luge down a mountain track and while eating lunch on the hill watching the paragliders jump from the edge of the mountain into the abyss, made a split second decision to take the plunge ourselves. It was brilliant as you can see.

I'm not sure what else we will do while we are here, because while anything extreme is possible in Queenstown, it is not only the adventure that gives you an adrenaline rush, it is the price as well. We may yet take a boat ride on the turquoise blue, glacial Lake Wakatipu or a hike through the mountain range called the Remarkables. We'll see. Tomorrow afternoon we head off to Te Anau to see Milford sound for two nights and then back toward Christchurch via Wanaka.

After that our south island adventure really comes to an end at that point as we have made a decision to move to the north island. Steve got a job in the last town before the end of the north of the north island. It is a place called Kaitaia. It is around 70% Maori. A very different place than very English Christchurch. He will be working in a regular general practice with very regular hours and the kids will go to school there for a term. We expect a different experience, but beyond "different" we have no idea what it will be. Anyway, just about out of money on the card for the computer. If you ever get the chance to jump off a mountain. DO IT!

Back from the Void

Sorry about the silence on the blog. I got really depressed for a while and couldn't think of anything to write that wasn't negative, so I stopped posting. I found posting removed me a little from the 'here and now' and I had an attitude of judgement and watching instead of doing and being. That wasn't helpful when I was feeling bad, but I am doing a whole lot better now and really enjoying myself.

 

The kids are off school for 6 weeks of summer vacation. We have done some traveling. We went to the west coast one weekend, to Greymouth (about three weeks ago) and it poured (it is a rainforest over there, so it often pours), but we were expecting it and were prepared. We went to a place called Shantytown, where you get to experience what the pioneers in the 1800's live like. The kids panned for gold and saw a sluice gun and other cool stuff. We went to a place called Pancake Rocks and saw the natural formations and the blowholes when it was hightide. We learned about Pounamou or jade which is an important part of the Maori culture and is found in that area. On the way back, there were historic 150 year floods. It was cool to see the rivers in flood stage and see their raw power. It did add about 4 hours to our driving home as passes and roads were closed due to wash outs and rockfalls, but made us go a way with the great hot springs in Hanmer, so we stopped there and had a good time for a couple of hours.

 

We went again to the west coast this past weekend to see the Franz Joseph and Fox glaciers. This time the weather was magnificent. We walked as a family to the terminal face. Ruby was too young to walk on the glacier, but E, Sam and I took a four hour tour and it was really neat. (Though coming from Maine, there were parts that just felt like walking on the front lawn in Feb.) The Franz Joseph is the more spectacular of the two. It is in a massive valley. The scale of everything is so large that it is deceptive. The terminal face of the glacier looks like it is just a few minutes walk through a dry river valley away when in fact it is over two kilometers. The walls look high, but not two high compared to the glacier, but they are about 9,000 feet. When you see the helicopters that land every few minutes against the glacier, they appear as only a dot. That gives you an idea of exactly how large everything is. It is a valley of the giants.

 

Next week, we are taking the grand southern tour. We are going to Twizel to see Mt. Cook and Lake Punakaki for two nights, to Queenstown to take in the adrenaline for two nights, to Te Anau to explore Milford Sound for two nights and then stopping in Wanaka on the way back for a night to break up the nine hour drive. It should be fun.

 

After that, everything gets a little crazy. Steve is moving to the far north to start a different job. The kids and I are staying in Sumner because my father and stepmother are coming to visit and have arranged their whole trip. The kids will start school here and go for a month, then after my Dad and stepmom leave, we will move up north also and they will transition into school there.

 

I am excited about going up to a new place. There are some amazing things about Sumner: it is beautiful, a small village with everything you need and a lot of independence for the kids, but the people are just not genuinely friendly. They are very closed and insular. I am not sure if this is Kiwi or Christchurch, with Sumner as the epitome of Christchurch, (as I have been told it is.), so the chance to be in a totally different place will be nice. I don't want to leave NZ thinking this is what Kiwis are, if in fact this is just what Christchurch is. Also, up north is a lot more Maori. Christchurch is almost exclusively white and the most British city outside of England (so it is said). It will be interesting to get more exposure to Maori culture. The job is for three months unless we like it and want to extend it. After that, we are working on going to Samoa for three months too. Of course we still have to see Australia. Working there takes six to nine months to arrange, so I think it is out of our time frame. We will just visit.

Our plan at the moment is to return to the States in time for the kids to start school in Sept. So that is it for now. I will try to post more regularly and keep you all up on our adventure.