Down Under - 2/23/14 - Franz Joseph Glacier, Copter, Te Waonui Forest Retreat

Arriving in Franz Joseph Bruce first drives us around the small town.  We all immediately agree that this place reminds us of Winter Park, Colorado.  It is filled with tourists, well dressed for the brisk cool weather that greets us.  Franz Joseph is home to its namesake glacier as well as the Fox Glacier. http://www.westcoastnz.com/newzealand/glacier-country-area/  It is totally based on tourism...glacier activities, hiking, snowing, helicopter adventures...you name it.

We turn back and head to the Te Waonui Forest Retreat.  http://www.tewaonui.co.nz/  The first person to greet us is Melvin the doorman, an official looking Maori warrior.

He is initially quite formidable looking but the ladies all think he's quite cute and he is ultra friendly.

The hotel is in the forest and it's posh, including dinner and breakfast.  We crash for a bit and then emerge to...find the bar.  Anne & I meet a couple of Brits sitting in front of the fireplace.

Shortly we head upstairs to the dining room for our 5-course meal (should have taken a picture of the menu).  It's elegant service and one of the waiters is from St. Charles, Missouri!  There are Missourians all over the place.

The next morning it's...breakfast buffet time and we tank up as today we are scheduled to do a helicopter ride up onto the glaciers.  The weather has been dicey and they are extra careful about not running into a mountain.  Yesterday's flight got cancelled in the afternoon as the ceiling lowered around lunch.

We head in town to register and it seems that we are "go" to fly but only to 1 glacier instead of two. We head out across the street to where the helipads have been constructed out of rocks, copters landing, loading and taking off.

The pictures speak for themselves so enjoy.  Here are also some links to longer, raw videos that I took:

VIDEO http://youtu.be/SO2z0_0zbRw  On the Fox glacier, copter idling. 1 minute

VIDEO http://youtu.be/6UE7SDPmd58  Long video of flight back from the glacier.  10 minutes

The helipads

On Fox glacier

Yours truly and bride

Bruce, the driver

Baby snowman, shortly before Godzilla crushed it

Time to go

Pilot printing out photos for us

Down Under - 2/23/14 - TranzAlpine Train from Christchurch to Greymouth

Another early morning greets us with cloudy/rainy skies BUT another great hotel breakfast...I should have bought clothes with the "relaxed fit" as my waistline is surely relaxing with all of this scheduled eating.  We did bring our fitbits over here but sadly we are not even maintaining at 10,000/day...many days we break the 10k goal but some we do not.

Our driver meets us at the hotel and gives us a short ride to the station where we dump our bags at the back of the train and head for our seats.  Sadly, this is yet another trip where I have overpacked and probably could have left 30-40% of what I brought...I can easily tell this by the wincing of the baggage person as he lifts my little bag into the car...oh well, next trip.

The TranzAlpine train  http://www.kiwirailscenic.co.nz/tranzalpine/   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TranzAlpine
starts on the eastern side of the south island, climbs the mountains and then descends to Greymouth on the western coast.

Sitting in our seats were 3 local women who needed to be politely moved...they then took over seats in front of us.  They were kind of funny and were in constant motion, especially when one of them went to the bathroom.  I don't think they understood you could lock the bathroom door and seemed to post a guard whenever one went in.

The first part of the trip was cloudy/rainy and this was due to the geography of the plains that smack up against the mountains.

Then, as we begin to climb and gain altitude the clouds give way to glorious sunlight and stunning scenery.  The train has an audio track that is tightly synchronized to where we are in the journey...it is filled with history of the area, the train and mining.  Gold played a significant role in the colonizing of NZ and the growth of various towns...miners flocked to NZ from all over the world including the US.  They are also rich in coal.

You can see the ghost of Arthur Pass wandering the hillside

Hotel

We eventually arrive at Greymouth  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greymouth ...it looks pretty sparse.

Our driver meets us at the station and his name is Bruce Jeffords and he will drive us around for the next 3 days.  NZ is a very big place with not a lot of transportation, a car is essential or in this case a large windowed van that seats 10 or so.  He packs all of our bags in the back like a complex puzzle and we are off.

Bruce is a talker...did I say Bruce liked to talk?  He really did like to talk and would periodically ask us if we were awake!  He was from the UK and so far in his life he was adopted, found his parents, was a cop, wrote travel articles, had a wife he referred to as "the dragon", been to Antarctica for months, had various businesses, lost all his money in the stock market...there's lots more.

Our first stop is the town of Hokatika http://www.hokitika.org/ and our primary mission is to scout the native green stone...jade.  This town is also the setting for the Man Booker award winning book, The Luminaries. 

Come in to be abused!

We walk around town looking at the shops.  The first shop we walk into, knitted stuff, the proprietor greets us with "Here come the rich Americans" and she begins to verbally abuse us in various ways...we love this and buy a lot of things!  I also play with her little dog who loves me.

Playing with the dog did not get us any discounts

NZ possums are much cuter than ours

Sock machines...never saw one before

Turns out she regularly travels to Joplin, Missouri and all over the US.  She is a major knitter and makes socks and gloves out of possum fur mixed with Merino wool.  It seems like a couple of Aussies brought over some possum from Australia and now there are 40 million of the little buggers and NZ wants to kill them all.  She has a great collection of knitting machines.








Back to the van and we continue to drive south along the coast, heading to our hotel that is in Franz Joseph.

The scenery is rugged and spectacular and there are not a lot of people around.

We eventually arrive at our hotel and look who greets us!

More about Melvin in the next post!

Down Under - 2/22/14 - Christchurch, New Zealand

We say farewell to Sydney knowing that we will be back yet again on this trip.  Up and early in the morning we say farewell to the Langham Hotel and head for the Sydney airport...I really hate getting up early but on this morning I'm glad we arrived 2 hours ahead of the flight as we needed it getting thru security.  Two of our party lost tiny knitting scissors, the TSA agent graphically demonstrating how these tiny scissors could be turned into stabbing instruments of terrorists mayhem!

The Qantas flight is actually a codeshare flight with Emerates Airlines on a Boeing 777.  It's quite slick with outstanding food selections, entertainment and seat to seat phones!  Why can't we have this service in the US?  It's a lengthy flight, roughly 3 hours, and we arrive at Christchurch, NZ and our driver takes us to the George Hotel.

Many people have told us that this is not a place to be since it got whacked by not one but two category 7-8 earthquakes.  It just so happens that today is actually the 3rd anniversary of the first quake and there are various ceremonies around the city.  http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Society/Disasters/Canterbury-Earthquakes/

We dump our bags and head on foot into the center of town.  Everywhere we walk we see signs of the massive destruction...building missing, blank lots, building braced and the closer we get to the center of town the more 7-10 story buildings that are simply empty with broken windows...abandoned and no doubt waiting to be demolished.  The entire city center seems unlivable and unworkable.  Yet there does seem to be hope here.  We have arrived in the middle of a flower festival and there are tons of flowers, plants and topiary everywhere.

We walk a few blocks outside of the central district to the site of the "cardboard cathedral" that was designed by a Japanese architect and constructed in large parts with cardboard! http://www.cardboardcathedral.org.nz/

Cardboard Cathedral

It's important to know that 100,000 of the pre-quake population of 400,000 simply left town after the quakes!

We march onwards in search of our dinner destination and after about an hour we arrive at our destination and have a delightful meal of appetizers...I am personally on a quest to eat calamari in every restaurant...it's a defining dish to me.

We hop a couple of cabs and mine strikes out as he is unfamiliar with the city and relies totally on the GPS!  To complicate things there is a gigantic Chines lantern festival all over the city with streets blocked wherever you turn.  We make it back.

They have built a new shopping center out of shipping containers...unique!

Empty buildings

An outside cafe made of pallets

Down Under - 2/21/14 - Boating with Dick & Pip Smith at Akuna Bay

I have meet so many interesting people via the X Prize and two of them are John & Martha King who are well known in the aviation world for their aviation training videos.  Anne & I have spent some time with them in St. Louis and other locations…and even got to fly with them in their Falcon Jet.  They were involved with helping Erik Lindbergh when he did his solo flight across the Atlantic back in 2002…the 75^th anniversary of his grandfather’s flight.

We were heading to the Smithsonian for Erik's celebratory event in May of 2002 when we hosted them at our house for dinner along with their friends from Australia, Dick & Pip Smith.  Rather than try to describe Dick I would suggest you read his Wikipedia entry en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Smith_(entrepreneur) …he’s done quite a lot and is a real unique personality.

Recently, John & Martha reintroduced us to Dick/Pip as we had ALL forgotten that we had met before!  Dick invited us to spend the afternoon on his boat and we jumped at the chance.  Tony Mikus rented a van and volunteered to drive us, out we head up the coast where it is lined with houses for everyone to go on the weekends…30 minutes from Sydney.

Arriving at Akuna Bay we follow Dick’s instructions and request permission to board…I guess it’s about a 60’ one designed for open water cruising.  It’s magnificent, but the real gem is engaging in conversation with Dick…or rather listening to his stories and trying to get a few words in:

• He’s flown to both the north/south poles
• Flown around the world numerous times in fixed wing and helicopter
• Flown vertically around the world
• Driven around the world
• Flew his helicopter around Mt. Everest
• Fooled the media into thinking he was towing an iceberg from Antarctica to Sydney
• Involved in various political activities
• Tweaked the noses of various authority figures
• Successful businessman

Life preservers

 There are significant rules about when you are supposed to wear a life preserver on a boat...pages of rules that Dick was making fun of...and in the process was explaining how Australians were the most rule based people in the world.

His current insignia

We picked up some local babes!

Tony Mikus and Dick

No caption required

The Bridge

 This is a duplicate bridge to the one above it.

Message to John & Martha King

It's for sale

Dick is trying to sell his boat.  He's having a new one built in China...it's 6' longer than the current one and will have twin engines.

We had a wonderful afternoon cruising up and down the coastline looking at all the cool houses and beaches that are only accessible from the water.  His skipper, Dean Snelling, is a childhood friend of Dick’s from scouting.  Pip serves us a wonderful lunch and we all have a great time…thanks Dick & Pip!

Back we drive to Sydney, tired, full and happy to have reconnected with Dick & Pip! We said goodbye to Tony M. and hope to see him after we return from New Zealand.

Down Under, 2/20/14 Sydney Harbor Bridge Climb

Somewhat jet lagged we are to assemble downstairs at 9:00AM promptly to head to the bridge climb.  Anne & I get downstairs early…and hungry…not knowing that buffet breakfast is part of the deal so we get a recommendation from the concierge for a local coffee shop.

Walking two blocks brings us to a tiny café that serves food.  The menu is a bit cryptic and complicated by the owner being Korean speaking English with a unique Korean/Australian flair and using idioms that are totally foreign to us…some local Aussies come to our rescue and give us the code words “flat black with skinny white” for our desired coffee.  After we listen to the owner harangue his wife in Korean (she will no doubt make him pay later) we order some sandwiches, wolf them down and hustle back to the hotel to meet the group.

A short 15 minute walk and we arrive at the entrance to the bridge climb.  I must admit that I was not very excited to do this bridge climb but was being a cooperative HB (that won’t last long).  Well this place was a thoroughly organized and controlled environment.  www.bridgeclimb.com

Visions of me using my GoPro for the first time were quickly dashed…absolutely no cameras or devices at all…for that matter we soon learned that we had to give up all of clothes too!  Dressed in their own jumpsuits and hats we assemble in a group of 13 for the next instruction…how to get into the harness that will lock us in so we don’t try to jump off. 

Becky's Final Benediction

Getting dressed

Getting dressed

I knew we were going to be hooked up constantly but the engineer in me was trying to figure out how we could do this climb without disconnecting at various points…well that was soon answered by an ingenious clip on device that eliminated the need to ever unclip even though we are going around corners, up/down stairs and turning this way and that…it’s not a Mobius strip but it was cool…google it if you want to learn more.  Honestly, seeing how this worked was a highlight for me!

So our leader gives us each radio headphones so he can keep us all in tow and share history of the bridge, bad jokes, etc.  We set off and start winding our way towards the actual bridge span, climbing up vertical ladders until we arrive at the actual bridge span…on top…glorious weather…actually magnificent with a stunning view of the Sydney harbor.

We climb for 50 yards or so and then stop….first history lesson?  Nope, rather a chance for the leader to take individual pictures of us all, naturally for sale at the end.  I realize then and there that there was a non-safety reason why we couldn’t bring our cameras.  I also realize that this is such a cool venue that I will no doubt buy all the pictures too.  They have designed a foolproof method to print money!

We climb, we learn, we look at the stunning views and eventually reach the top of the bridge and not breathing heavily at all.  Apparently you can propose marriage up here and even get married, all for a modest fee!  Down we go.  

Eventually we reach the bottom, exhilarated, happy and all ready to pay whatever they want for the photos and the “free” video they took.  Naturally there is a well designed process to get us back into our own clothes, a customer survey and then funneled into the photo purchase section for the money extraction process.

I loved the last part where you get your free video…all you have to do is give them your email address…they did this correctly.  But overall I thought it was a great experience and would recommend it.  Here are some of the free pix they gave us.

When we come out we meet up with Tony Mikus and head for a well deserved lunch at a nearby bar.  Afterwards Tony takes us to places where we can shop/look for opals.  I know we are in trouble when I see two decimal points with the weights of the stones…expensive.  Luckily we escaped unadorned.  Some of the group peels off to return to the hotel and some of us continue on for a walk thru the gardens and then look back to the hotel.

We all assembled for dinner at the Oyster Bar which looks out on the harbor and is a short walk to the Sydney Opera House where we have tickets to http://lasoiree.sydneyoperahouse.com/.  This is quite a place to watch people…it’s Thursday and weekend for everyone starts today!

The show is quite amazing in a number of ways:

• There is a couple from Sweden who do fantastic trapeze work and amazing things with ping pong balls!!  (Leo you should be in this act)
• A magician who continually hides a red cloth square while removing her clothes…until she is naked and the cloth is nowhere to be found without a cavity search!
• Then there’s the roller skating pair on an 8’ diameter floor…he looks like Elvis
• A whole cast of unusual characters

The harbor is quite lively at night with thousands of people hanging out drinking, eating and talking.  They do know how to party here.

Magnificent Sydney Opera House

Just outside the opera house

Thousands of people partying