Changing Times

It has been months since my last post, way back in New Zealand. We spent April back in the US - about half of it in Midland and half visiting relatives elsewhere in the US. May and June were spent in England and Scotland, and July was mostly in Colorado. We are now in Los Angeles for just a one-day layover before we fly to Japan to visit our son. He graduated with dual degrees in Japanese and Journalism and has been living and working in the Tokyo greater metropolitan area teaching English for the past three years. This is our first chance to visit him in Japan. It will be nice to have our own captive tour guide and translator -- I think of it as finally getting a return on our investment in his education!

As we prepare to visit yet another time zone, I realized that every time we change time zones we need to adjust the appropriate setting on 8 electronic devices. Paula and I each have an iPod. We share a laptop computer. I have a new Apple iPad now. We each have a digital camera, and we each have a digital watch. In order to keep the photographs, videos, and emails all correctly time-stamped we must adjust the time zone setting on each of these devices. The iPods, iPad, and laptop each have two different places to adjust, since the calendar application has it's own time zone specification to control how individual appointments or events are displayed. And that's not even counting our two cell phones, which mercifully fix their own time when they are in contact with a local cell tower!

I don't know how readily we will be able to access the Internet while we're in Japan, so don't hold your breath waiting for further blog posts.

Christchurch, New Zealand, March 11-21, 2010

Tuesday, 20 April 2010     Leavenworth, KS

I'm writing this about a month after the events of Christchurch, NZ, from Leavenworth , Kansas, where we are visiting my 88-year-old dad.  Working backwards, we have been back in the US since March 31.  We spent March 22-31 in Australia working our way from Melbourne (to which we had flown from Christchurch, NZ) to Sydney (from which we flew to LA and on to Midland, MI).  We were in Midland from April 1 to 17 to regroup, resupply, and repack for the next phase of our adventure.  This blog post will cover our final days in New Zealand, based in Christchurch, from Thursday, March 11 through Sunday, March 21.

Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island, and the second-largest city in NZ after Auckland.  It is said to be a very English town.  We were able to take in the Ellerslie Flower Show, which they claim is the largest flower show in the southern hemisphere.  Predictably, Paula took most of the pictures at the show, while I concentrated on eating corn on the cob from one of the vendors.  One of the highlights for me was hearing the Woolston Brass Band play in the park where the flower show was held.

We attended two great concerts in the Town Hall Auditorium on successive Saturday evenings.  

The first was the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra with the winners of the national young musicians concerto competition.  Cellist Edward King won first prize with the Shostakovich Cello Concerto - - quite a performance!  The second concert featured the Christchurch Town Hall Auditorium Organ with Thomas Trotter, the City Organist of the city of Birmingham, England.  We had a cool "small-world" experience on the day of the organ concert.  It was Saturday, March 20, and we had spent the day on a field trip inland to the upper valley of the Rangitata River - - more on that later.  While we were driving back toward Christchurch about 3:30 pm, trying to get back in time to have dinner and make the organ concert at 7:00 pm, suddenly my cell phone rings.  Like a good citizen, I pulled over to the side of the road and answered the call.  To my surprise it was Eileen, the sister of my brother Kerry's wife Marlene.  (Does that make her my sister-in-law-in-law or what?)  She was calling from Christchurch where she had just arrived with a tour group.  Now, we knew from Kerry that Eileen was planning to take a tour of New Zealand and might be in the country some time during our stay, and Kerry had passed on our NZ phone number to Eileen.  But this still came as a great surprise.  We talked for a few minutes and concluded that there was just no way we could get together.  Eileen's arrangements were totally made and dominated by the tour group schedule, and of course we had our tickets to the organ concert that night.  So we said goodbye, thanks for calling, and thought that was that.  Later we pulled in to downtown Christchurch, parked the car within walking distance of the concert hall, and walked around looking for a place to eat dinner.  We found a nice place just off of Victoria Park and got a window seat.  We were reading the menu when Paula looked out the window and pointed to a small Chinese woman posing for a picture alongside a row of tour buses.  Paula said, "Is that Eileen?"  I looked up, jumped up, and ran outside.  By this time said small Chinese woman was crossing the street with her friends coming right toward me.  She looked up to wonder why I was staring at her, and then I said "Eileen?"  Sure enough!  So we took her into the restaurant and visited for about ten minutes before her tour group demanded to have her back.

One Sunday we attended the main Anglican church, Christchurch Cathedral, right in the center of Cathedral Square downtown.  It was Commonwealth Sunday, and they put on quite a pageant.  The precession featured some 45 young people each carrying the flag of one of the Commonwealth member states.  The service was very well attended, and in the fine traditional Anglican style - except that I didn't really notice anyone genuflecting.  The choir was professional quality - all male, including a boys choir - and was a real thrill especially for me.  Music has always been a very important component of my worship experience, and I have long held the opinion that the best Christian music is classical: Bach, Brahms, Tomas de Victoria, the Requiems by Verdi, Berlioz, Mozart, just to name a few of my favorites.

The Canterbury Museum at one end of the Christchurch Botanical Garden, part of the University of Canterbury, was a fun place to visit.  Here are a couple of amusing exhibits.  The mama kiwi lays an egg that is almost as big as she is.

The weta is an endemic cricket-like insect.  Which gives me the opportunity to explain the difference between "indigenous" and "endemic".  But I will refrain - - go look it up!

One day we made a field trip inland up the Rakaia River valley to the Rakaia gorge.  Here is the bridge:

From there we drove part way up Mt Hutt, but it was cloudy and raining the whole way up.  Nevertheless we got several moody pictures of the valley below.

I already mentioned the other field trip up the Rangitata River valley.  The destination was Mt Pott Station and the view of Mt Sunday, used as the site of the village of Edoras in The Lord of the Rings.

Paula is working on her own blog posts, and I'm sure she will have plenty to say and show about the Ellerslie Flower Show.  My next post will cover our 9 days in Australia, and that will be the final post concerning our southern hemisphere adventure.

Twizel, Aoraki, Lake Tekapo, and Mackenzie Basin

Saturday, 6 March 2010 - Wednesday, 10 March

Twizel, Aoraki/Mt. Cook, and Lake Tekapo

Look at a map of the South Island of New Zealand and find Aoraki/Mt Cook, the highest peak in New Zealand.  It is at the head of a large glacial valley now containing Lake Pukaki, which receives the melt water from the Tasman Glacier and Hooker Glacier.  Lake Pukaki is one of three similar lakes in the region, all oriented parallel to each other, formed the same way, and all serving the same purpose.  The other lakes are Lake Ohau and Lake Tekapo.  Beyond the lakes to the east and south the land opens up into what is called the Mackenzie Basin, a broad, relatively flat, dry area.  We spent five days in this area.  Saturday night we stayed in Twizel (pron. "twaizel", not "twizzle"), drove up the valley alongside Lake Pukaki to Mt. Cook and hiked up the Hooker Valley on Sunday, and then drove on to the town of Lake Tekapo where we stayed the next four nights.

Here is the mirror-smooth Lake Pukaki.  Note the reflection of the mountains in the water.

Aoraki/Mt Cook rises dramatically from the head of the Pukaki glacial valley.

The hike up the Hooker Valley was exciting.  Here is a moraine lake partway up the valley.  Its color is milky white from all of the fine glacial sediment suspended in it.  Aoraki is not visible from this point in the valley, but it is off to the right behind the very prominent moraine ridge.

We continued the hike beyond the moraine ridge on around to the right and finally got a great view of Aoraki.  This is as close as we ever got to it on the ground.  To see how close we got in the air, see previous posts.

While we were in Lake Tekapo we made a couple of visits to the nearby Mount John astronomical observatory.  It is sited here because the air is clear and climate is dry and nearly cloud-free most nights.  It is a serious working university observatory with several telescopes, the largest of which is the 1.8-meter diameter MOA telescope.

This is the back side of the mirror.  Note the many adjustable weights used to make minor corrections in the curvature of the reflector in order to perfect the image.

We were up on Mt John on a moonless night and tried to capture the star-filled sky.  You will probably have to click on the following photos to blow them up.  The first shows the Southern Cross and its two pointer stars.

Here is the Orion constellation above the observatory's cafe/gift shop.  If you know the constellations you will notice that Orion is upside down with his sword pointing up!  This is the southern hemisphere for sure.

I mentioned previously the importance of sheep dogs to the development of this country.  Here is another memorial right by the lakeside in the village of Lake Tekapo.

And here is another iconic sight: Paula at the computer arranging our future accommodations.  This is possibly the first vacation we have taken where we haven't planned everything out exhaustively ahead of time and secured all reservations weeks in advance.  Paula has been setting it up day by day as we go along - usually 2-7 days in advance.  I rather prefer travelling this way.  We haven't yet set off on a day's drive with no accommodation reserved, trusting that we would be able to find something when we get there.   Maybe we'll try that next.  Up until now we've been travelling in the high season, since it's been summertime down here.  But we're now in late March, past the equinox, which is equivalent to September in the northern hemisphere - - early autumn.  The kids are back in school, and the tourist attractions are perhaps a bit less crowded, although this does appear to be prime time for foreign tourists, particularly Japanese.

Otago, Southland, and Dunedin

Friday, 26 Feb - Friday, 5 March:  Queenstown to Invercargill to Dunedin

Our last morning in Queenstown we visited the Botanic Gardens down by the lake.  As we looked up toward the mountain where the gondola lift and restaurant are, we saw paragliders, whose take-off point seems to be even higher up the same mountain.  Experienced paragliders can, of course, take off on their own, but the big thing for tourists is the tandem glide.  The tourist (usually small and young) straps in with an experienced pilot, and they go down together.  From this photo I can't tell which it is, but it was a good ride - long time in the air.

From Queenstown we drove southeast into the broad dry plain called Southland.  The town of Cromwell on Lake Dunstan was on the way.  Here is a nice overlook.

A prominent feature at the overlook is this big rock with the International Rotary symbol on it.  I think the overlook was a Rotary project.

Invercargill is the southernmost real city in New Zealand.  Earlier in the trip when we had mentioned that we intended to visit Invercargill, people had said we shouldn't bother - there's nothing in Invercargill.  Well, they were wrong.  It's a very nice town with a lovely garden/zoo/aviary which we really enjoyed.  The topography reminds me of the Gulf Coast in the US - - spacious, flat, and low altitude.  But, of course, being south in the Southern Hemisphere means that it is closest to the South Pole, so, although the weather can be humid in summer, it's not oppressively hot and humid like the Gulf Coast.  It's an interesting example of a temperate mid-latitude coastal plain at latitude 46.4 degrees south.

This is a alpaca, a native of South America that is increasingly popular in New Zealand for its wool.

Here is a buck deer that would excite any of my deer hunting friends.  Deer were introduced back in the 19th century and quickly got out of hand.  Subsequently for many years there were extensive government eradication programs during which the wild deer were rounded up when possible, shot from helicopters when capturing them was impractical.  They are now raised in high-fenced farms for the venison market.  I believe that it is always open season on deer in the wild in New Zealand.  Personal opinion: I wish Michigan would do something to greatly reduce the size of its wild deer population. I know that deer hunting brings in lots of revenue to Michigan from hunters all over the midwest, but the deer are also very destructive and are involved in something like 60,000 deer-car collisions every year - - all of them expensive, some of them causing injury or death to humans.  Death to Bambi ! ! !

Here is Paula among the roses in the Invercargill Botanic Garden.

The aviary was spectacular!  The variety of colorful native southern hemisphere birds was just amazing.

The bird I like best in the following photo is the one with the white top and blue back.

We stayed just one night in Invercargill, and then drove around the southeast coast to Dunedin.  Along the way we took a detour south to Curio Bay, which, at latitude 46.661 deg S is within a couple of kilometers of the farthest south point on the South Island.  Out in the sand are the remnants of a petrified forest.  It's not as obvious and easy to recognize as a couple of petrified forests in the US, but there are good explanatory signs overlooking the bay to help the visitor recognize it.

On to Dunedin and its Botanic Gardens.  They have a great rock garden built up on terraces on the hillside, which Paula really enjoyed.

There was a cute statue of Peter Pan in the garden - I'm not sure why.  The sign at the base of the statue says, 

"Dedicated to the children of today, tomorrow & the future

Peter Pan           1966

Wendy Group     1968

Gifts of gratitude from Harold Richmond"

The high point of our seven-day stay in Dunedin was riding the choo-choo train.  The Otago Central Railroad was enormously important in opening up the vast fertile lands of Central Otago inland to the northwest of Dunedin.  Eventually in the mid-twentieth century the road system was sufficiently developed that the railroad was no longer cost-effective for freight, but the City Council of Dunedin recognized its potential as a tourist attraction and kept parts of it alive.  There are two scenic passenger routes that run regularly:  the Pacific Coast trip northeast up the coast to Palmerston,  and the Taieri Gorge Scenic Railway up the Taieri river valley to the northwest to Middlemarch.  We took them both on successive days.  Here is a typical view of pacific coast New Zealand:

The space between coaches was open, as was the rear observation deck behind the last car, and I took advantage of both.  What fun looking backwards and videotaping our entry into the many tunnels along the way!

The Taieri Gorge trip was the most spectacular ride we had on our whole tour of New Zealand.  Here is a train trestle over the river:

Several places we have visited have had memorials of one kind or another to the sheepdogs whose expertise and labor were really indespensible to the operation of the many large sheep stations and contributed immensely to the economy.  Wool and sheep meat are still very important export commodities for New Zealand.

More views of the train:

The city of Dunedin is nestled at the root of the Otago Harbor, which is protected on the southwest by the long Otago Peninsula highlands.  Out on that highland a rich banker named Larnach built New Zealand's only castle in the late nineteenth century.  After he died, Larnach's Castle and its extensive grounds were sold and resold, abandoned a couple of times, and fell into decay.  In the mid-1960's an enthusiastic young couple (who apparently had access to some serious money) bought the place as a historical treasure, and they and their family have spent a lifetime restoring it and the gardens on the grounds.  It is open to the public as a commercial enterprise, complete with restaurant and gift shop, and it is well worth a visit.  

We were able to climb up into the tower and take some spectacular pictures all around.  The rooms were outfitted with historically authentic items, many of them recovered at auction and from antique dealers from among the original furnishings of the castle.

Finally, way out at the tip of the Otago Peninsula on Taiaroa Head is the Royal Albatross Center.  Magnificent birds - 10-foot wingspan.  When I first saw pictures of them, I thought they were just overgrown seagulls.  But no, they are in a different family and even a different order from seagulls - - more closely related to petrels and other true seabirds.  I was glad to learn that, because I hate seagulls!