New Zealand Journal
It is now 3:35 p.m. on Wed. Oct. 3, 2001. I believe that it is 10:35 p.m.on Tues. Oct. 2, 01 for ya'll. After an extremely long (but tolerable)flight to New Zealand we spent yesterday in Auckland, NZ. Auckland is avery nice, very clean city of about 1.5 million people. Since we arrived at5:45 a.m., we literally, had all day to play. We went down to the wharfarea and strolled thru the American Express America's Cup area. Very cool.We continued our walk thru the downtown area and then the time caught upwith us. We went back to the hotel at about 10 a.m. We started exploringagain after lunch, around 1 p.m. We tried to catch a ferry to one of theirnational parks on a volcano and tried to catch a ferry to watch dolphinsbut we missed both of them... too late. So, we walked back thru downtownAuckland and went to the sky tower. The tower is taller than the EiffelTower in Paris but the observation deck is lower than the one in Paris.Note to Tom: there are casinos here but we didn't play. The casino, also,have a dress code.... dressy casual, no jeans of any kind. We walked backto the hotel and pretty much just hung out as we were still really tiredand knew we would have much to do coming up. Regarding food, they likeroasted tomatoes on just about everything. They also have a vending machineitem..... chicken flavor potato chips... YUCK!
Flew to Christchurch, NZ today. Arrived about 11 a.m. (about an hour flighttime). Very pretty, quaint town. Only about 300,000 people. Much older,traditional feel than Auckland which is more modern. Christchurch is veryBritish, according to Keith. We strolled down to the Botanical Gardens,which sit on about 30 hectares and is free amazingly. Very pretty! There isthe Avon river which flows thru town that is all spring fed and the tapwater comes from artisian wells. Very clean spring water all the time!After a couple hour walk thru the gardens and sitting by the river watchingpeople kayak, paddle boat and punt (gondolier types), we ate lunch andreturned to the room to rest a bit. There is much shopping and art areas todo, yet. Tomorrow we are off to Queenstown, I think. It is still verydifficult getting used to the cars being on the other side of the street.You must be very careful when crossing streets. Thank god we're notdriving! Well try to keep you posted but have no idea how much time I willhave from day to day. Miss you all but having fun. Later.
Susan10-8-01
G'day mates:
Wow! Internet access...it's amazing! We must be in a city again. And, yes,after having spent the last few days out of touch we have now returned tothe big time (at least for a short while). It is now 11:15 a.m. on MondayOct. 8, 2001. That's sometime yesterday afternoon you're time...sorry tiredof trying to keep up with the time since we have now experienced daylightsavings time (clock forward) and lost 3 hours from New Zealand to Sydney.Kept up so far? Oh, don't forget, it's spring here!
Well, where were we? Ah, yes, NZ. The land of sheep, one lane bridges andcoach buses. Speaking of one lane bridges, the most interesting one we cameacross (literally) was a one lane road/rail bridge. Yes, you read me right,rail. Needless to say, the train has the right of way. All of this was tosave money...and you thought the states were bad. Overall, though, very,very beautiful countryside. The westland (west side) reminds me a lot ofBritish Columbia.... lots of rain forests and fiords. Simply awesome! Thelakes and rivers here are all a beautiful baby blue-ish color due to theminerals and ground up rock left by the glaciers. Very pure water... andyummy! Yes, we were able to drink straight from a mountain river (I knowwhat you're thinking. Ooo, aahh). Speaking of glaciers, we were mere feetfrom the Fox Glacier outside of Franz Joseph. Just 70 years ago, thatglacier was beyond the point where we were standing at the time!
Briefly: Queenstown is a wonderful resort type town. Lots of skiing in winter and water activities in summer. Rather large town and growing.
Milford Sound: cruise thru fiord. Very similiar to Vancouver, B.C.Beautiful. Got to see a rare species of penguin and bottle nose dolphins.
Franz Joseph Glacier: about what is sounds like... ice, snow and mountain. You can take a heli-hike thru ice caves, if daring enough.
Shantytown: tourist trap/amusement gold mine park. Quirky fun.
Alpine Train: pretty cool scenery from a different perspective (a train versus a bus) Passed thru 18 tunnels. One of which lasted for about 10minutes of riding... it went on forever!
Needless to say, we did lots of riding in buses. Luckily, they were nevercrowded. In fact, the last tour we did only consisted of 5 people,including us. Roomy. Basically, we flew into Auckland and spent the night.Flew to Christchurch and spent the night. Drove for 10-12 hours toQueenstown and spent TWO nights. Drove 10-12 hours to Franz Joseph Glacierand spent the night. Drove to train station, rode train and arrivedChristchurch to fly out to Auckland and spent the night (planes, trains andautomobiles). Flew to Sydney today and are staying with some very kindfriends who are letting us take over (I mean spend some quality time with:>) at their house. NZ was fantastic and Australia is waiting for us.Thanks Tom and Steph for the room. Looking forward to our diving trip withya'll next week.
I've probably bored ya'll to tears now. If not, I'll try harder next time:) Now that we're in Sydney for a few days, I will try to send quick littlenotes to keep you posted. Take care, everybody. Don't worry. We areprobably in the safest place you could be right now. Australia is not verybig to want to bother with and, besides, it takes 3 days to get here sothere is plenty of notice and time to do something about it. Rebecca, sayhello to Harley and Taylor for me. Miss ya'll but having a blast.
Cheers,
Susan