Even though I haven’t been home for very long, I’ve already spent some time thinking about what my favorite part of the trip was. I think my answer is the people I met and made friends with. I miss the company of Susie and Michael during my time in the Outback, along with Lorenzo giving commentary on all sorts of things. I definitely miss Elizabeth along with Carl, Ethan, Connor, Gary, Lyn and the rest of the Costigan family. Meeting my pen pal after 18 years of correspondence was a very special moment, and I wish we could visit each other more often and easily. I miss Joanne’s company; she’s a very helpful and caring person. I’m glad we’re third cousins once removed (we spent part of our eight-hour wait for the Sydney New Year’s Eve fireworks figuring out our exact relationship)! And I miss the friends I made during the Connections tour around the South Island of New Zealand: Fredrik and Henrik, John, Paolo, Surena, Christina and Mike, Jo, John, Joakim, Christine, Sam, Antony, Chris, Leanne (I could go on) Everyone! I’m amazed at how people from all over the world can come together to enjoy a foreign country in each others’ company.

Thanks to Craig and Lana, our fearless tour guides, my memories of New Zealand are forever tied to the Black Eyed Peas’ song “I’ve Got a Feeling.” Every morning when we set out on the bus, and sometimes in the afternoon, they played that song over the bus’s PA system. I had a love/hate relationship with that song, but now I just love it and reminisce. Thanks to Did and Carl, and with Shaun’s help, I have the music of John Williamson to tie me back to Australia. The singer/guitarist/songwriter is a well-known folk artist who writes about his home country (my favorite being “Old Man Emu”). You can liken Williamson to John Denver, except that he’s still alive.

About three weeks into my trip, I had finally internalized which way to look when crossing the street. Now I have to readjust yet again. After picking up my car last night, I got in on the left side behind the wheel and could simultaneously imagine myself as a passenger on the same side. I have to remember that the up escalator is back to being on the left side rather than the right. I do NOT miss walking on a sidewalk in Australia or New Zealand. Walking on the opposite side was the hardest thing to adjust to.

It might take me awhile to stop saying ‘toilet’ and go back to using ‘restroom.’ I miss the option to choose the light or heavy flush. When I used the toilets in LAX and MSP, I realized that I had not been around an automated flushing toilet since leaving the U.S., and I actually don’t like them because they flush at the wrong time!

I definitely miss fish and chips. I’ve already vowed to make it here, although I won’t be able to find barramundi fish, the common choice Down Under. I already stated that I crave Bundaberg Ginger Beer and Lemon Squash. Luckily, I found the Australian Catalogue Company online which sells all sorts of Aussie goodies. I didn’t try Tim Tams until very late in my journey and will need to order some of those. I also need to find more 2% beers in this country and will need to purchase some Central Otago and Marlborough (New Zealand area) wines.

I miss not having to deal with pennies and dollar bills. Aussie and Kiwi coins start at 5 cents, 10, 20, 50, $1 and $2; bills are 5, 10, 20, 50 (if there’s anything larger I wasn’t rich enough to come across them). This means that all prices are rounded to the nearest 5 or 10 cents which is awesome. I’ll also miss not having to factor in tax; they already include it in the listed price. And although not having to tip was great, I won’t miss the corresponding slow/bad service that resulted from it when eating out. I will no longer complain about soft drinks being overpriced in the U.S. The cheapest bottle I found while abroad was A$3 or NZ$3; shocking, even if you factor in the exchange rate. By the way, check out Target Australia’s website to see how closely it imitates Target Corp USA.

The accents and slang words are two things I’ll miss hearing. I’ll have to start shortening my words and adding ie on the end. I wish I’d gotten a recording of Craig pronouncing Maori-influenced places because they’re just fun to hear: Lakes Hawea, Pukaki, Tekapo, Wakatipu; Te Anau, Hokitika, Ruataniwha.

There’s my list; I’m sure I’ll think of more, but for now it’s time to put my travelog to rest until my next big adventure. I hope you enjoyed reading! Please don’t forget to turn your attention to my photo blog (sign up here to receive my daily photo via email) as I’ll be picking that up again and posting daily. I took more than 2,600 photos on this trip, so you can be sure I’ll be displaying them for quite some time!

Cheers, mates!

I am finally home after a month on the other side of the globe. The last leg of my journey was somewhat eventful. On the flight from Christchurch to Auckland, a woman two rows blacked out during our descent. I first knew something was up when the flight attendant ran forward and then ran back to the row with another attendant behind her. If you fly a lot, you can be sure you’ve never seen attendants run unless something’s amiss. The crew asked for any medical practitioners on board to make themselves known and then proceeded to bring an oxygen tank to the lady. Thankfully she had come to by the time we landed. Very reminiscent of my and my parents’ flight from Manila in 1997 when an old man on board died two hours out and by law the plane had to return to our point of origin.

In Auckland, I made my way through customs and security just fine. I was nearing my departure gate when I was greeted by a very long line. Up ahead, I could see that people were being manually searched. I thought that random people were being chosen for this procedure, but as the I got closer, I realized that everyone was being thoroughly patted down. When it was my turn, I even had to take the chapstick out of my pants pocket to show the lady what it was. After that, my carry-on bags and jackets were thoroughly searched by another officer; he unzipped every compartment to look at every item. I thought wow, New Zealand sure does one heck of a job, but later I heard people talking and realized that this search had been requested by the U.S. government in light of the attempted airplane bombing in Detroit last month.

The Boeing 747 that flew us 12 hours to Los Angeles was an older version than the plane that I took to Australia. The video selection on my seat console didn’t work properly, so I wasn’t able to watch my choice of movies when I preferred. Instead, I had to choose from a select number of movies that were playing continuously, so if I missed the beginning, I was stuck watching it at the point I tuned in. I wasn’t too happy about that. I was really sleepy when we took off and probably should have decided to sleep then and there, but I didn’t want to miss dinner being served.

Speaking of dinner, I have been very impressed with Qantas’ service. I haven’t been on a 10+ hour trip since 2002, so perhaps all airlines are this good now, but on my two int’l flights with Q, I felt like I was in first class. All passengers received a menu detailing the flight’s food. For dinner, I chose the chicken in tomato and olive sauce served with penne pasta instead of the beef in burgundy sauce with potato mash and vegetables. We also got a salad, cheese and crackers, chocolate, and coffee or tea plus any other beverages. I chose an Australian sauvignon blanc. After dinner, we were served ice cream bars and hot cocoa or peppermint tea. After that, the crew handed out cute snack bags that included bottled water, chocolate, chips, mints, and shortbread cookies, probably to tie us over during our famine until breakfast. For breakfast we had a choice of continental or hot. I went with the former which included orange juice, fresh fruit, cereal, a raspberry and white chocolate muffin, and coffee or tea. If I could have taken liquids on my next flight, I would have asked for a Bundaberg Ginger Beer and a Solo Lemon Squash. Mmm, I miss those Aussie quenchers already.

I don’t think I fell asleep once on that flight even though I shut my eyes. Of course when we started our descent I felt like I could doze off. We approached L.A. just before dawn so the view with the painted sky was absolutely beautiful. Just before we landed, our plane started to ascend. I started to think of all the terrorist possibilities of such a maneuver, but the captain soon announced that another plane needed to land before us. So we made another circle and finally touched down safely. I made it through U.S. customs without a hitch, but then I for probably 40 minutes for my bag. As I walked out of the customs area, my cousin Sherryl was there waiting for me. My aunt and uncle live an easy 10 minutes from LAX and had invited me to come and have breakfast and a nap before my flight home. Waiting for my bag had already killed a lot of that precious time. I decided to go ahead and check in for my last flight so that I wouldn’t have to worry about it later. I enjoyed having Sherryl with me as we walked to the domestic terminal and then stood in a long, long line to deposit my checked bag.

We finally got to their home around 9:15am which left only 1.5 hours of visiting before I needed to be whisked back, but it was still nice to see my aunt and uncle and my other cousin Ryan. Aunt Bella fed me a tasty breakfast and we chatted, plus I got to see their wonderfully remodeled first floor. It was a good thing that Sherryl took me back to LAX when she did because guess what, I had to stand in another ridiculously long line (that extended down the hall and out the door) to get through security. I made it to my plane 10 minutes before the scheduled take-off. And then I slept the whole 3.5 hours home. As we descended, the sun had already set but enough light was still available to display the blanket of snow, now a dark blue in the fading light, covering the landscape. I was greeted with a lovely -1F temperature when I stepped outside. My friend Erick picked me up and already had the passenger seat warmer on high for me.

Back home, I semi unpacked and finally went to bed at 10pm. I woke up this morning at 8am but decided I wasn’t yet done sleeping, so I woke up again at noon. It’s nice to be back in my own bed. During my odyssey Down Under, I slept in a total of 17 different beds! Also, the 33 hours between when I woke up on January 9 at 4:00am in Christchurch, NZ and when I touched down on January 9 at 6:00pm in Minneapolis, MN (you do the math) hasn’t been the greatest thing for my cold. My friend Benadryl helped with the sleep though.

Our brief visit to Mt. Cook was pleasant. Nestled between the mountains is a resort/lodge for visitors, as well as a Department of Conservation visitors’ center and another exhibit area. Just after we arrived, the clouds hiding Mt. Cook parted and gave us a nice view of the pointed peak rising to roughly 3,700m. Part of the group went on an hour’s hike with Craig, but I went off on my own to take photos and enjoy the fresh air. I stopped in at the visitors’ center but didn’t get past the gift shop. I’d like to come back to this area someday and spend a couple of days here.

When we stopped for lunch, Joanne, Fredrik, Henrik and I went to a Japanese restaurant for some tasty sushi. The pieces of sushi were generously large, and I could only eat four. After our food break, we went down the road to have a quick look at the Church of the Good Shepherd, a tiny little chapel built by some early settlers back in the 1920s or 1930s I believe. Back on the bus, Lana collected DVDs from people who opted for adrenalin activities in Queenstown so we could watch them. We all had good laughs watching people scream as they jumped from a cliff for the canyon swing, bungyed from a 150m bridge, or fell out of an airplane for some skydiving.

Our last stop of the trip was in the town of Geraldine. This place is home to the Guinness world record of largest knitted jumper (sweater). It’s on display in a yarn store. Craig would not tell us ahead of time what the object was, so we had a good time guessing.

At 4:45pm, we arrived in Christchurch where we’d left seven days earlier. I was excited to take a nap but really sad that I’d soon be saying farewell to everyone. Craig and Lana had arranged for a meal out that evening for anyone who wanted to join, so we didn’t have to say goodbye to everyone just yet. Upon dumping my belongings in my room, I took a nap and then had a refreshing shower. About 20 of us came out for dinner at an Italian restaurant. For whatever reason, I could only eat about 10 bites of my pasta before feeling full; this might be a result of my being sick. After the meal, we all said our farewells to Lana and Craig who were off for some well-deserved rest and a day off the next day. Most people still wanted to stay out, so we walked around the city center looking for a bar to hole up in. At about 11:15pm, the group was ready to move on to the next venue, but I knew I should return to the hotel and get some sleep. I said my goodbyes with promises to keep in touch via email and Facebook. Fredrik and Henrik were also ready to call it a night, so the three of us walked back to our neighboring hotels and said our farewells then. I’m sad to be without their company; how fateful that Fredrik sat in front of Joanne and me on the first day and introduced himself.

This morning, my flight out of Christchurch departed at 6:40, and my shuttle to the airport came by at 4:45. Yuck! I quietly left Joanne sleeping in our room; she’s got a full day in town before flying back to Sydney and then home. I leave out of Auckland this afternoon at 3:40pm for L.A. Hopefully I can catch a nap in the airport before boarding.

I am sooo tired. Last night was our last as a full group, and many of us stayed up pretty late. After dinner at our accommodations by the shore of Lake Ohau (OH-how), I played some pool with Joanne then Fredrik. Then I taught Henrik how to play gin rummy after which I received a “Swedish” massage (he’s a Swede, so it’s appropriate I use that adjective). I finally went to bed at 12:45am. And of course breakfast was served bright and early at 7am.

Today, we’re driving north back to our journey’s beginning in Christchurch. Joanne snagged the front seat of the bus, right behind Craig, so we have an excellent view out the front. The Southern Alps are flanking our left, and they’re extra magical because their tops got dusted with snow last night. We’re hoping to get a view of Mt. Cook, N.Z’s tallest peak.

Yesterday, we had a long drive from Milford Sound to Lake Ohau. I slept well on the boat, as I always tend to do while at sea. We were woken up by a soundtrack of alarm clocks, roosters, and other wakeful sounds. And if that didn’t get anyone up, they started the motor soon after which could easily be heard and felt below deck.

We motored out to the Tasman Sea which required the use of strong sea legs at times. When it started to rain, I went and sat back inside and enjoyed the view along with some hot tea. A few things were pointed out to us including a crack in the mountains at the fault line between two tectonic plates. During our journey back through the fjord from the sea, I could only imagine what it would have been like for the first explorers to make their way inland through such a majestic place. After we disembarked, we retraced our steps back through and out of Fiordland National Park were once again treated to spectacular views.

Since we had a lot of time to kill on the bus, Craig put on a movie to keep us entertained. It’s only appropriate for a bus driver to pop in a DVD of “Speed.” The unfortunate thing, though, is that the DVD player was acting up, so from time to time the movie stopped, usually at critical moments in the plot that had the bus in an uproar. In the afternoon, we stopped at Mrs. Jones’ fruit stand, a farm that grows many fruits and imports others, then sells a variety. The place is an adult’s candy store–cherries, plums, peaches, apples, kiwis (green and golden), apples, nectarines, etc. Plus, you could grab bags of dried or chocolate-covered fruit, honey made from the manuka plant (a beautiful evergreen-like tree that produces tiny white flowers making it look like it’s dusted in snow), and jams.

I was glad to reach our final destination that afternoon. I am definitely sick, although I’ve been able to keep it just to a stuffy nose and occasional cough. A hot shower helped. Right now I could do with a nap though.

Photos have been uploaded here.

I sit below deck on the Milford Wanderer, a 61-passenger sailboat, on which our group is spending the night. Joanne is reading, and three ladies from Slovakia are playing cards, while the rest of our crew and the other passengers are above deck playing various board and card games with Michael Jackson playing in the background.

Although it has mostly been a rainy afternoon, preventing us from seeing mountaintops, the wet weather has actually been a blessing. Our drive to Te Anau for lunch was pretty short, and then we left for Milford Sound in Fiordland National Park, New Zealand’s largest park. Craig commented that the scenery within the park is what this country should look like without the influence or destruction of humans–very lush forests blanketing mountains carved by glaciers. Craig also mentioned that humans didn’t inhabit New Zealand until 800-1000 years ago, and before that no mammals existed here, just birds. One of the European settlers introduced 30 opossums for fur trade; now there are over 60 million and are a nuisance.

We stopped at a few places along the way, in order to avoid the crowds tomorrow, and first pulled over to a beautiful valley of grasses. Craig urged us to frolic in the field, and to further the suggestion he played “The Hills are Alive (with the Sound of Music).” Christine frolicked so much that she lost her camera, so we formed a search line (like what you see on made-for-TV real life dramas when recreating a body search in the woods), and Fredrik was the hero of the day.

We passed through Homer Tunnel (according to Craig, a little-known fact is that it was named after Homer Simpson before he began his TV career) and made our way down to the water to board our vessel. The views while zigzagging our way to sea level were fantastic. Because of the enormous amount of rain, the mountains on either side were covered with waterfalls. Craig had said we’d probably see 2,000 waterfalls; I stopped counting at 100, and I’m sure his estimate wasn’t far off. It was as if the landscape was crying.

Milford Sound is actually a fjord –the difference being that a sound is formed by a river and a fjord is formed by a glacier–and the explorers who named it were confused. We boarded our vessel, and after a safety briefing by a fast-talking captain (I don‘t know how the foreigners with English as a second language could‘ve understood if I didn‘t), we were served delicious hot soup. For a late-afternoon activity before dinner, we could choose to go out on a tender craft, go kayaking, or go for a swim. I chose the warmest and driest activity and hopped on the small motorboat with my rain jacket, camera, and Joanne’s umbrella to protect the camera. Good thing the last item came along, because it poored cats and dogs while we were out. Our guide talked a bit about the fjord and puttered us around to see a variety of things up close. We were packed around the edge of the boat and the rain was so heavy that I should have just left the camera behind. A hot shower after returning to the main vessel was the perfect remedy.

Dinner three hours later was also very tasty. Joanne and I spent the afternoon playing gin rummy. Then after dinner, Henrik and Paolo joined us for a game of Scrabble. The party is still going on upstairs, but I am ready for bed. I’m more sure than I was yesterday that I am getting sick, but hopefully the Sudafed and some throat spray, which I bought today, will help. I hope I can sleep quietly, because we are all housed in tight quarters of two bunks in each room. And hopefully I won’t have to pee, because toilets are accessed by going upstairs and outside. Brrrr!

This afternoon, Joanne and I have taken it easy. After our tour, we went into town for some lunch at the highly recommended Fergburger, well known for, you guessed it, its burgers. The wait can be long, but our order was ready in 15 minutes. The burgers are huge, so we split one and also enjoyed an order of fries. We wondered how many orders this place fills each day; when we walked in, order #90 was being called, and when we left they had circled from 99 back to 1 and up to #40. That’s a lot of flipping!

After stuffing ourselves, we walked around and peeked in a few of the shops before heading back to our room. We both read and took naps. I’ve been sneezing a lot and blowing my nose the past couple of days and thought was just allergies. This afternoon, I acquired the chills so I went to a nearby pharmacy and picked up some Sudafed. I would have thought that N.Z. carries the same meds that the U.S. does, but all of the packaging and brand names were foreign to me. I didn’t even see Tylenol. Hopefully I’m not coming down with something.

By the way, I need to correct a couple of things. First of all, I incorrectly stated that the Sydney to Hobart sailboat race ends in New Zealand. Hobart is actually the capital of Tasmania which is the island state of Australia off of the south-eastern coast. Second, thanks to a comment left by a friend, the Target stores I’ve seen around Australia are not owned by Target Corp. in the U.S. It’s actually a knock-off by some Australian company that uses our dear own Target’s marketing and such, but U.S. Target can’t sue because it doesn’t own any stores in OZ. How crazy is that?!

Please see uploaded photos here.

We’ve got a double bed and a bunk set in our room, so I went for the top bunk last night. This morning, we woke up to more great weather in Queenstown, perfect for our outing of the day–a tour of “Lord of the Rings” movie filming sites in the area! Actually, we have a perfect view of the Remarkables, the mountain range used to depict Mordor, from our hotel window. After a light breakfast, our tour guide, Tom, picked us up in his 4WD Land Rover. We picked up two more couples, two college-aged guys and an older couple, both from England.

Our four-hour tour began with a drive part way up the Remarkables. They are quite remarkable; I’ve never seen any other mountain range with such jagged tops which is what makes them so perfect for the evil land of Mordor. We had a great view of Queenstown and the surrounding area, but boy was it cold up there, especially in the wind. We learned that in the LOTR scenes showing the Remarkables, other foothills, which don’t exist in front of them, were pasted into the movie.

Next we drove past the A.J. Hackett bungy site and back up along the edge of some more mountains near a vineyard. From here we looked down into the ravine of the Kawarau River where Frodo and entourage journey on their boats between the Pillars of the Kings. This is one of my favorite scenes in the trilogy because of how awe inspiring the canyon and the two statues flanking it are compared to the spec sizes of the boats traveling between them. From up above, though, it was hard to grasp the true height of the canyon walls.

After that, we enjoyed some bumpy, fun 4WD action (reminiscent of my journey along the Merinee Loop in the Outback) along and through the Arrow River to enjoy some tea, coffee, or Milo and some biscuits. Then Tom showed us how to pan for gold after which we all had a go. Queenstown became a town because of all the people who flocked here during the 1800s at the prospect of gold. I found some flecks but nothing worth cashing in (rats). Tom drove us to another site along the river where the Ford of Bruinen was filmed, the scene when the Ringwraiths are chasing Frodo across the river but get washed away at the last minute.

Our last stop was up top another mountain for some spectacular views of the New Zealand landscape and an overview of all the places we’d visited that morning. Tom said that “The Hobbit” might be filmed, and some of his fellow tour guides who were extras in the trilogy are now starting to grow their hair out so they can be extras again. Overall, the tour was great, not only to see LOTR film locations but also to enjoy this fantastic country.

Please see uploaded photos here.

The rest of our evening in Fox Glacier wasn’t so shabby. We met our group in a private section of the hotel’s dining facilities for some tasty dinner. We didn’t get many veggies in our diet while in Australia, so we were excited to see a variety of options that evening. A few guys from our trip ended up sitting at our round table and we all enjoyed a great variety of conversation until we were kicked out at 9:30 by the wait staff. Most of the group met up with Craig around 10pm for a short walk to see some glow worms, but I opted for a shower and some good Zs since my night before had been restless.

Yesterday, we spent a lot of time in the bus on our route to Queenstown. As usual, breakfast was served at the unpopular hour of 7am. I didn’t notice until after I’d started scooping food onto my plate that our group was to pay the hotel $5 if we had the “hot” breakfast (i.e. full English breakfast). The sign stating this wasn’t in a very convenient location, but I was never asked for money so I kept it a free meal.

Our first stop was only minutes away, a 20-minute hike through the fern-covered forest to see Lake Matheson. This lake is known for its still reflections of the country’s two tallest peaks. Unfortunately, the skies were still frowning down upon us with occasional rain and constant clouds, so it wasn’t much of a view. We were able to see just the front tip of Fox Glacier, though, and the hike was a great way to start the morning though.

Along our drive, we came across a couple of washed-out roads from all of the rainfall. At 9am, we reached the coastline, and if we had Superman-strength vision, we would be able to see Australia or Antarctica depending on the direction of our glance. At this stretch of roadside, many boulders and rocks separated us from the beach. Along these rocks, passersby had built countless numbers of rock cairns (stacks of rocks) which provided a neat photo opportunity. At this point, Craig checked on the bus’s engine and found that one of the belts needed to be replaced, but he didn’t have the proper tools. After some phone calls to HQ, he drove us about 20 minutes down the road to a place with some handy tools. With some help from handy guys on our bus, the belt did get replaced, although the whole ordeal waylaid us almost 1.5 hours. As we continued, blue patches of sky peaked through, so we kept our fingers crossed for good weather in Queenstown.

During the drive, we crossed the longest single-lane bridge in the southern hemisphere. Not many people live in this region, so why spend the money on a two-lane bridge when one lane is sufficient? We have crossed quite a few of them. We also stopped to see Thunder Creek Falls which is tucked into the rainforest and flows into the Haast River. Part of the drive reminded me a lot of “Lord of the Rings,” the scenes where vast glacier-carved valleys have narrow rivers winding through, their shores much wider and strewn with pebbles and rocks.

At our lunch stop, I ordered up some tasty fish and chips. When I returned to the counter and grabbed some ketchup for my chips, the cashier informed me in a somewhat rude manner that sauces are $.50 each. I couldn’t believe it! Well, I wasn’t going to pay for something that I’m used to being free so I tossed it back in the bin on the counter. A Canadian on our trip, who saw the snippy attitude of the lady, came over seconds later and gave me a ketchup. J

On the last leg of our drive, Craig decided (against the tour company’s general wishes) to go through the last bit of mountains rather than around them to make up for our lost time. Before we headed into Queenstown, he took us to the site of A.J. Hackett’s Bungy, the world’s first commercial bungy site, so we could watch some jumpers in action.

After throwing my bags in our really nice room in our Queenstown accommodations, I went with about 25 others for our Shotover Jet experience that afternoon. Queenstown calls itself the adventure capital of the world, with adrenalin rush options such as bungy, sky diving, canyon swing, and jetboats. I decided to try the last of these since I had never heard of such a thing and wanted something unique to the area (sky diving is on my bucket list, but I know I can find cheaper options elsewhere). Luckily, the sun was shining in Queenstown. We were all shuttled to the company’s site along the Shotover River and suited up with raincoats and lifejackets. Fourteen of us filled up the first boat along with our driver. I got on last and was freaked out to be sitting on the end of my row, fearing that I would be tipped out. These special jetboats go up to 80km through the narrow canyon walls that the river has dug out through time, and they even do full 360-degree turns. Let me tell you, the info video is somewhat hair-raising (watch it online). I had a death grip on the railing in front of me (conveniently, they are heated!) as we set off on our 20-minute adventure.

I soon realized that it wasn’t as scary as I’d thought, including the turns, but we all got pretty wet from the splashes. I don’t know how they control those boats, but they sure get very close to the canyon walls and advise people to not stick their limbs out the sides unless you want to lose them. The whole thing seemed to last much longer than 20 minutes and was good fun!

Dinner was on our own, but a good number of us followed Lana and Craig into town for a pre-arranged meal at a pizza place. This restaurant/bar is pretty hip; the roof opens and closes at various times, and they serve beer in 3-litre cylinders. Our table ordered a couple of them. The food was also pretty fantastic. Afterward, many of our tour partook in a $25 novelty at Minus 5 Ice Bar in which you are suited up in Ugg boots and warm coats and go into a -5C room with ice sculptures for 30 minutes and have drinks served in glasses carved out of ice. Joanne and I opted out since we spend our winters in that kind of weather. For free! We joined the group in a bar next door afterward but called it a night at 11pm.

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Greetings from a very, very, very wet N Zed (Down Under, the letter Z is pronounced Zed; and H is Haych). We have encountered cats and dogs downpour since shortly after we left Flock Hill Station this morning. Apparently up here it’s been raining non-stop since yesterday and is to continue through tomorrow as well. Craig said that copious amounts of rain is normal in this part of the country, just not this much in such a short amount of time.

Today we were scheduled to visit Fox Glacier itself; I had signed up for the heli-hike, a helicopter ride onto the glacier itself and then a two-hour hike around, very similar to what Mom, Dad and I did on Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau two summers ago. However, the rain and fog make it unsafe for helicopters to travel. In fact, there’s so much rain that the whole glacier including its access road has been closed down. Even more crazy is that this is the first time Craig has experienced a complete shut-down.

This morning, as we traveled west through the Southern Alps to the Tasman Sea, we have seen numerous waterfalls draining down the mountainsides, roads in low-lying country submerged, and rivers near brimming and rushing underneath our bridges. I am bummed to miss out on this glacier, but on the flip side I’m not spending NZ$380 for the heli-hike!

Along the way this morning, we stopped in the town of Wakitipu for an hour to browse a jade shop or walk around the small town. Joanne and I went to the grocery store to purchase sandwiches for lunch. Between Wakitipu and our hotel for tonight, we watched “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” on the bus, so I did get to see the location in the battle scenes that I hiked around yesterday.

At around noon, we stopped for a refueling and bathroom break where many of us had a unique and relieving experience. There are public toilets on the side of the road in the town we stopped at. Luckily there are also overhangs, too, so we could be sheltered from the rain. Anyway, to use these toilets, you push a button and the door slides open. Once inside, an automated man’s voice instructs you to push another button to close the door. After it’s closed, he tells you that your maximum time inside is 10 minutes. The toilet itself is pretty standard, but when you’re done taking care of business, a posted sign informs you that it will flush either once you start washing your hands or when you exit. Now, for the hand washing, it’s kind of like a coffee vending machine embedded into the side of the room. On the left side, you put your hand under the soap area and it dispenses. In the middle, water is activated. And on the right, there’s a place for blow-drying your hands. And lastly, push the door button to open it. If I’d taken my camera off the bus, I would have taken a picture!

So now that we’re the tiny “town” of Fox Glacier and not doing anything on the glacier today, we’ve got a good 4.5 hours to kill before dinner. Compared to yesterday, Joanne and I have a spacious hotel room and our own bathroom, unlike the shared facilities at Flock Hill. We’re also lucky in that we’ve been placed in a section of the hotel separate from all of the “younger” people. This tour isn’t so bad, but I do prefer the smaller, more intimate nature that my Outback Safari provided with just eight of us.

This morning, after grabbing some brekkie at Starbucks, Joanne and I met our tour group right outside of our hotel. We are traveling with almost a full coach of people, many whom have been touring the North Island, 10 of us who joined today for a seven-day trip around the South Island. Our travel guides are Craig (also the bus driver) and Lana. Craig drove us around the immediate area to point out a few things, and then we had a few hours to explore Christchurch.

A friendly guy from Sweden named Fredrick, who’s in his early 20s, introduced himself to us so we ended up walking around with him and his younger brother Henrik, still in high school and perhaps 17. We strolled over to the free museum in town and spent just over an hour looking around. It’s quite comprehensive, covering subjects from native history and artifacts, an exhibit on area birds, the early expeditions to Antarctica, whales, and so much more. I really enjoyed it and wish I’d had more than just $20- and $50-dollar bills otherwise I would have donated more than just the few NZ coins to my name.

Afterward, we found some lunch and then hopped on the bus with everyone else. It was nice to have the AC on, because it’s quite a beautiful and hot day in Christchurch. I thought it would be much cooler here. Our first destination of the day was Flock Hill Station nestled within the Southern Alps, just a two-hour drive west of Christchurch. Along the way, Craig and Lana told us about our afternoon options and activities for tomorrow as well so that they could call ahead and make reservations.

The area is called Flock Hill because there are a few rock outcroppings that look like a bunch of sheep all flocked together. The station is really beautiful and is set against a backdrop of bare-topped mountains. We unloaded our bags and then set off on a short tour of the place. Heather, one of the workers here, introduced us to a few of the sheep dogs and let them herd a flock of sheep from one pen to another. She showed us the difference between merino sheep and other types. Then she let the dogs herd the group down a road so we could capture pictures of the sheep running. Very amusing. Lastly, she took us into one of the sheep-shearing pens and talked about the process and the differences between wools. Merino is stronger and softer than cross-blends. On the table were a few commercial examples of merino products including my favorite Smartwool socks! Flock Hill Station has about 20,000 sheep on its property. I believe they shear them once a year, plus mothers are shorn right before they give birth so that they are “bare” like their lambs and thus know what kind of temperature the lambs are feeling.

After the tour, we could choose to go horseback riding (which is what Joanne did), walk down to the lake, go on a solo hike, just hang out, or go on a guided hike with Craig. I ended up on the three-hour hike with Craig. Twenty of us hopped back on the bus and drove about five minutes to the trailhead. We went up quite a bit of elevation to where the battle scene of “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” was filmed. The scenes are on Flock Hill property, so I’m sure the owner was paid a good sum for its use. I took a number of photos, but just like with Alaska, it is nearly impossible to capture the grandeur and depth of the landscape. A few people were courageous/foolish (take your pick) to basically lean over some of the cliff edges to have their photos taken. It was quite windy up there, so I opted out. I’m excited to get home and watch the film again to see the scenery that I’ve now visited.