Invercargill to Milford Sound

Greetings from Milford Sound, Fiordland, South Island, one of the Wonders of the World. This World Heritage site is beyond belief as Patrick would say. I actually hitched from Invercargill to Milford sound, one of the longest days of my life. My first lift was from a sweet couple with a great dog and a little girl. Tehy offered me a cup of coffee, did not drive me very far but put me on the right track and the man gave me almost two kilos of freshly caught and frozen blue cod, which I believe is about $36/kilo. Anyway I kept it wrapped and frozen and in my bag for the entire day's journey. Then I met an equine dentist, who knew! Then a series of lifts from a Kiwi couple heading to a beach, a van with 2 Chileans, 1 Canadian and 1 German, two guys studing rare species of plants and insects in Milford Sound, and finally a van full of mostly Kiwi rock climbers heading back to their base camp from town. By the time I actually made it to mIlford ZLodge I was pooped and a little bit of a train wreck considering my ordeal. I had no idea it would take so long or that the roads were so windy or how little foreign travelers helpmout other travelors on foot. It was such fun talking to this group of climbers. Climbing is almost an addiction for them. Such an adrenaline rush that they do it as often as possible.

The vistas as you enter the sound are breathtaking, huge gorges with snow capped mountains, winding steep terrain that feels like us in the north until you see a fiant fern tree and realize again that is subtropical as well.

I also saw a Kea, a rare parrot, that is protected and very smart, clever, amd destructive. It was climbing all over a truck trying to pull pieces off of it. Scientists do lots of studies with the Kea making puzzles they need to solve with trick doors, levers, etc for them to get to food. Great to watch.

That night at the lodge I made Ramen noodles and blue cod cooked simply in a little olive oil, had a shower and CRASHED! Tomorrow night I have enough fish to feed a few others. Ai just need to make some friends.

Hot Water Beach, Coramandel Peninsula

Just 45 minutes to the beach if you do not get lost or distracted with three little kids in the backseat eager to hit the sand and the surf. Darren timed our arrival perfectly! Two hours before and two hours after low tide you can dig holes in the beach where 2 fresh water springs meet the gorgeous blue waters in the eastern Bay of Plenty. Geothermal activity abound on the islands of New Zealand below the ocean and terra firmas. Here at Hot Water Beach the hot rock beds 100s of meters below the sand heat the water rising from the earth of two springs. As you dig into the sand the warm and often HOT spring water fills these sandy pools we have all dug. Sit and enjoy and let your body soak up the heat and then pounce into the refreshingly cooler but still quite warm ocean waves at one of NZ's deadliest beaches. Due to rips you cannot see from land often swimmers are pulled under and out into the ocean. So we waded, tumbled and did not go out over our chests. Safety first!

The Coramandel Peninsula has wonderful vistas overlooking breath taking cliffs and marine reserves. Oh my! Snorkeling trails and hidden coves for the smallest of sailboats and home to the best beaches in New Zealand. Lots and lots of clever cafes, roadside fruit stands, and chic boutiques.

In New Zealand honey bees live the life! There are stacks and stacks of bee hives everywhere and not the typical white colored ones of the USA but all colors are celebrated. Bright blues, greens, golds, pinks, purples, grays, and browns.

Te Aroha, the mountain we love

Te Aroha is about two hours south and east of Aukland nestled into deep cattle farm country at the foot of Mount Te Aroha, the mountain we love in Maori. With a population of only a few thousand Te Aroha has a lovely little downtown shopping area with local artists, an organic food shop, 3 grocery stores, meat pie shops, a chemist, clothing and a lovely geothermal spa with geysers and foot baths to boot. It also has an Asian food shop and a top knotch sushi restaurant called Lavendar Sushi.

Darren, Caleb, Jade and I took several wonderful hikes experiencing magical vistas across the cow paddocks and through the lush green tropical forests littered with giant fern trees Jade calls Spider Monkeys. We saw heaps of stick bugs, giant ferns called Korus, silver ferns, one of the signature symbols of New Zealand. We hiked up Mt Tearoha to Bald Spur Lookout and then we hiked Wairongomai Loop, which was a gold mine for years in the early 1800s.

We then drove to Karangahake Gorge which too was a mine in the 1800s. The Karangahake Gorge has tunnels and tracks laid to move mold and minerals and today you can walk through the tunnels and along the tracks. The swinging bridges were my favorite because it felt like a wee roller coaster just much safer.

Paeora, an adjacent little town is famous for a local soda drink L & P (Lemon and Paeora), now sadly owned by Pepsi but in its' hayday was New Zealand's signature soda made with natural spring water and lemon juice. Quite refreshing and served really everywhere in NZ.

The landscape of NZ is the first one notices arriving in this pristine modern society. New Zealanders grow up recycling, celebrating and protecting their environment.

Tauranga and The Rena

I am currently in Tauranga for 4 days while Darren's parents are on holiday we are housesitting for a few days. Yesterday we went to the beach for the kids to body surf. Beautiful huge waves. It was lovely. Due to the wreck of the Rena there is still oil floating toward shore. We got soaked by the waves and we had small specks of oil on us as well, little specks on our feet and the backs of our legs. Imagine what it does to the sea life. We struggled to wipe it from our skin. The worst wreck in NZ's history. Lots of seabirds died from the oil spill and are dying from the massive amounts of food mostly milk powder and styrafoam bubbles spilling onto the shore. The amount of volunteers pitching in to clean up was amazing and information about the extensive clean up is now at museums around the country. Why the news does. ot report hardly any of this is beyond me and somehow the ship itself is respnsible for very little of the $ burden. Craziness.

Jade and Caleb did see a healthy little blue penguin while the grown ups went for a walk up a cliff on Mount Mauganui called the blowhole. We watched the surfers surf. We have climbed up 3 mountains in 3 day one was Te Aroha mountain and the other was called Wairongimai Valley. We also visited the Karangahake George, walked over 2 swinging bridges (scary) and through tunnels and tunnels used for rail cars to move gold. We also found some silver ferns, the symbol of the All Blacks, the 2011 world rugby champions and native baby fern fronds called koru which symbolise new growth in Maori culture.

My observations of milk farming in New Zealand

Cow farming unlike sheep farming is growing here in New Zealand. There are 16 sheep for every person in New Zealand but the numbers of cows are increasing because of the world demand for milk. There are the most shwep in the south of the south island with huge cow herds in the middle and northern part and smaller herds on the northern island. there are no real predators here so farmers can easily keep their calves and cows in pasture year round. No foxes, bearsm coyotes, cougars, bobcats. but lots of pests including hares, possums, weasels, cats and dogs. Each small farm may have 100-300 cows at a gross profit of $1,000/cow. And each farm has its own milking shed where the cows are milked 1x or 2x a day. Smaller milking farms are found on the North Island and families seem to make a pretty good living out of it. There is a "Meat Works" down the road. This is where newly born young bulls are sent off to be butchered along with females about age 7 that are not producing as well. Cows produce milk productively for about 7 years and then they are sent to be turned into petfood. Females who do not get pregnant by awrtificial insemination or by bulls are also sent to the Meat Works. This place is the largest employer in Te Aroha with I believe several 100 employed. Trucks regularly stop by to load the cows and huge milk trucks stop by once or twice a day as well. Very well organized system that is for sure.

I met a cow farmer on the west coast of the South Island who has 4 partners, over 25 staff and several herds of cattle numbering in the thousands. He is a very wealthy man, loves his life and says that most Kiwis hate milk farmers because they are destroying the environment. I asked him why the price of milk here in NZ was so high considering that it is produced so efficiently in everyone's backyard. Stunsaid that since they get more money on the international market, the general population hates them then why wouldn't they charge as much as they could.

The smaller farmers in Te Aroha certainly seem respected by the other professionals in the area and I have to say seem to have a wonderful network with each other through farming, social events, sports events and their chikdrens schools.

Darren's Auntie and Uncle

Wow, just returned from a wonderful long weekend up north with Darren's Aunt Carol and Uncle Bruce. His aunt and uncle are semi-retired so spent the entire long weekend showing us around their neck of the woods. They owned a convenience shop in the small beach resort of Oakura Bay working 5 am - 10 pm, 7 days a week. It was one of only two shops where they sold petrol and beer too so THE shop of this beach getaway. Big life change for them leaving their jobs in Tauranga and moving 5 hours north with their three children. We toured the area of beaches, mountains, farm lands covered in sheep, goats, and cows rolling green hills meticulously groomed with gorgeous ocean vistas EVERYWHERE.

We also visited Carol and Bruce's eldest son, Grant and his wife Kerri and their girls in their gorgeous new home in KeriKeri. Their home looks out into cow, deer and sheep filled fields. There are NO predators here in New Zealand. So there are bee hives galore everywhere. Goats, sheep and cows roam freely from paddock (grazing field) to paddock. Everyone makes farming look so easy here.

On Sunday Bruce took Darren out fishing on his boat named Miss Beer-having, ironically enough for a man who loves a cold beer one of his boating rules is no alcohol on board. Good rules and a really great man and wife team. Bruce and Darren caught two 37cm red snappers, two travellis, and a blue codfish. There was a monster that got away but they were not sure what it was perhaps a mako since that seemed to be the large catches that were happening that day. There was a youth fishing tournament this day as well and one kid caught a mako about 40 kgs. on a 3 kilo line.

While they were fishing I went on a day long diving trip to The Poor Knights, a marine reserve off the east coast of Northlands, north and west of the North Island. The Poor Knights are a series of small islands about 23 kms off shore and home to lots of interesting land and sea creatures. There were two boats of divers that went out. A boat full of novices and a boat full of technical divers. Amazingly enough I was on the second boat. There were about 15 of us and all in small groups. Some of the folks dived independently with incredible equipment including these jet propelled hand held underwater scooters. Three divers with 5 tanks each. They dived 60 meters for 90 minutes. They even visited some caves that few have visited. This was the first day in almost 6 months that we were able to visit The Pinnicles which are two islands part of The Poor Knights Islands but a few kms. to the south. Here we dived Tie Dye Archway which was amazing. We were surrounded by a school of about 40 giant sting rays. They were so close that you were looking directly into one of their eyes at times. This is the same critter that killed Steve Erwin so I was a bit nervous. At one point our guide said that I kicked one with my fin they were so close. As you look up from 20 meters toward the light in the sky through the arch there they were floating above us layered straight up to what to what looked like the tip of the archway. Just spectacular!

We also saw Lord Howe coral fish not native to The Poor Knights but carried over as larvae with currents from Australia. Here these bright yellow and black striped reef fish live out their lives. They cannot breed because the waters are too cold for their eggs but it is amazing to see sub-tropical fish in a cold water dive with not one but 2 layers of 7mm neoprene on my body, yikes! We also enjoyed crayfish, gray, yellow and green moray eels, red snappers, kingfish, and pink and blue mao mao fish. At our second dive site we saw three species of nudi branches including clown, gem and white nudi braches. The white nudi branches have a little red skirt. They are like beautiful underwater slugs!

We then enjoyed a delicious dinner of fresh snapper Bruce and Darren caught and homemade chips (French fries), beer and our favorite Smith cider with passion fruit and oodles of laughter and grand conversation at Bruce and Carol's beautiful home in Whangarei.

New Zealand or bust January 2012

Greetings or Kia Ora from glorious New Zealand with my hosts Darren, Jade(10) and Caleb (8). This winter I decided to journey to New Zealand for a few months. A destination that has been on my bucket list for almost twenty years but mostly because I had a good friend who lived here who promised to welcome me if ever I came. I have not seen Darren in 18 years since his month long stay with me in Boston. We were flat mates in London for a few years in the early 1990s. He has been a school teacher for 12 years and is currently a middle school teacher in the quaint dairy farming community of Te Aroha which is Maori for "the mountain we love" and he is also the loving father of two wonderful children.

Well my journey was long. New Zealand does not require a visa, however in hindsight I should have gotten a working visa which also would have cost me nothing for 3 months. Anyway ce la vais. After Christmas I travelled from Maine to Boston by car and from Boston to NYC by bus (Megabus.com rocks) and then NYC to LA and then LA to Aukland with American Airlines. I spent a few days visiting friends in Boston (Nathalie took me to Q, a hot pot restaurant in Chinatown that is TO DIE FOR) and in NYC visited with folks now friends we have hosted at Kendall Farm Cottages and my first Peace Corps roomie, Liz who is doing amazing things in Ghana through Columbia Teachers College and even visited TiGeorge's Haitian Cafe in Los Angeles. The flight from LA to Aukland was an arduous 13 hours. I did watch the movie, The Help which was quite a film. We crossed the dateline in the air. New Zealand is the first country in the world to see the beginning of a new day. New Zealand is 18 hours ahead of EST in good ol' Maine so it took me a few days and my body a week to adjust to the changes. I made sure to walk around the plane every few hours but when I arrived at Darren's house 15 hours after departing LA my ankles were swollen. Oh ah ah the excitement of now being in my 40s. Darren's Mom is going to give me some leggings to wear on my way home. Apparently many NZers wear these because for them to go anywhere requires hours in the air and these leggings really help.

It is now summer in New Zealand so the temperatures are 80F - 100F. Darren is off from work for the Christmas school holiday which we timed perfectly with my visit. Currently plums-red, yellow, purple, kiwis green and golden and avocados are in season. I hope to be here for the passion fruit which is one of my all time favorite tropical fruits. New Zealand is LUSH, LUSH, LUSH with mountains, beaches, farmland, small communities, geothermal activity, weird and wild critters and some of the best diving in the world!

New Zealand is made up of two islands which together are the lengthish of Maine to Florida. However you are only really ever 40 minutes from the ocean from anywhere on the islands which is amazing! The population is only 4.5 million for the entire country and last night I learned that Aukland has 1.4 million residents of the 4 million and 30% of that population is Asian. There are lots of immigrants from the South Pacific islands and more and more from EurAsia. The minimum wage here is $12.75/hour, a gallon of gas is $10.00. One-third of the world's milk production comes from New Zealand and the cost is approximately $3.00 for 1/2 gallon. Food prices have jumped 200% in the past 2 years. The bungy jump was invented here in Queenstown so I might have to go and check it out!

Maoris, the native people of this island nation have their own TV channel in their language, their own schools, retain ownership of much of their land however keep it open to the public to explore and appreciate and most names of towns, mountains, rivers are in Maori as are the plant names. Sadly on the first day of Parliment of the New Year the Maori Party was a no show. The Maoris have so many legends and stories about the earth, environment and people. Darren and his kids tell me folklore on a regular basis which is wonderful. Certainly teaching kids these stories while they grow and develop in school helps them appreciate each other's cultures. The culture and language is taught in all schools nationally. It is quite fascinating. The Maori people, men and women are generally extremely tall with large builds and lots of tattoos on their arms, upper bodies and faces as well. No wonder the All Blacks rugby team looks so powerful with their warrior stances and incredibly enormous builds. Yes oh yes The All Blacks won the Rugby World Cup. New Zealanders believe that American football is woosie with all of their protective equipment. Rugby has hard tackling as well and no gear. But I am still making Darren and his son Caleb watch the Super Bowl with me in February!