December 30, 2005
December 25, 2005
Happy Xmas from the Whanganui River!
Hello, hello. I am writing from our hotel in National Park Village, North Island, NZ. Sadly, this is a Win98 machine that despite having USB ports is either ignoring them or they have a clever program installed that refuses to see my USB key with all of my photos. So sad. Alas, photos will come again later in the week.
After leaving the Coromandel, we headed south to Rotarua, on the Thermal Explorer Highway. Rotarua is at the foot of a huge lake and chock full of steam vents, sulfurous gases, and hot springs. Unfortunately, the town (nicknamed "Roto-Vegas") kinda sucked so we moved on after a night, passing through Taupo (on the shores of Lake Taupo, I think the largest lake in NZ) and going for a nice soak at Taupo Hot Springs. Any country replete with hot springs is a winner in my book.
We only breezed through Taupo as we had to make it to National Park in order to pack up for our early departure on the 24th for a three-day canoe trip on the Whanganui river. Sadly, we have to skip the Tongariro Crossing, now the most popular day hike in NZ, but we traded tourists for an extremely peaceful float down the river. The river was nearly empty (only saw 2 jet boats the entire time) as we made our way with a small group of Israelis, Brits, Germans, Japanese, Kiwis, and a Frenchman. Lots of fun dinner conversations over wine trading cultural tales - the Frenchman taught me a great deal about cheese (how to save a dry parmesean) and told me about two types of cheeses I'll likely never try, one infested with maggots, another caked in dust mites. Let it be known that I won't do ANYTHING for cheese.
The river was amazing - muddy, because the day before we left it absolutely, positively poured, and a bit high and fast. Any more rain and our journey would have been canceled. We traveled around 88 km (if you want to see our route click here and check Whakohoro to Pipiriki) through a river valley with sheer cliffs drenched in ferns and other greenery through most of it. There were waterfalls almost every half kilometer, some running down the cliff faces, other hidden in deep valleys with only pinpricks of sunlight showing through. Fish, eels, and lampreys were only a rumor as we saw none. The hut warden at our first camp told us how two years ago the river flooded over ten meters than the current height (30+ feet), which was visible from lines on the cliffs below which most of the greenery was stripped. Several of the campsites had lost most of their landing beaches, so at both of ones we stayed at we had to pull the canoes up steep hillsides and lash them up about 20 feet from the river's bank. I am proud to say that I am now somewhat adept at steering a canoe, should anyone ever require a canoe steerer.
Today was the first day since we've been here that we've had zero rain (it rained all last night until an hour before we got ourselves out of the tent this morning) and it's been hot enough to feel like summer. Our road atlas kindly marks all of the Lord of the Rings locations, and outside my window is "Mount Doom," aka a tall cinder cone. There is also a huge snow-capped volcano which I hope to have photos of sooooooon.
Tomorrow we drive south for two days and stay at a rainforest retreat before catching the ferry for the South Island at Wellington. We then stay in a B&B outside Abel Tasman park, then hike and camp at Abel Tasman on 12/30, and then spend New Year's Eve at a B&B near Nelson. Then, more camping in the wilds of the North Island. Hopefully more photos to come before New Year's. Aloha!
December 20, 2005
Greetings from the future!
Here we are, a day ahead of you all, after 24 looooong hours of airplane travel. New Zealand is AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME and summery and mostly warm but also rainy here and there. After spending the night in Auckland, which reminded me both in appearance and climate of Honolulu, we drove the disturbingly narrow highways of New Zealand eastward to the Coromandel Peninsula, where we are presently bumming about until our next major jaunt tomorrow to Rotarua, land of hot springs and tourists. We didn't get much of a feel for Auckland, though we did spend the night and dine in the fashionable Ponsonby district, where we ate fantastic food and found ourselves surrounded by other Americans (even another San Franciscian).
We are slowly adjusting to driving on the left. It's nerve-wracking and leaves me feeling as if I've been reading backwards all day as my head attempts to reconcile it. Today after a stunning hike at Cathedral Cove, we jumped into a very cold ocean (it's not Hawaii, despite appearances) at Hot Water Beach, where one can dig into the sand and warm one's feet from a volcanic spring at the water's edge.
The hosts at our current B&B can't stop raving about San Francisco (a note to MR - they called public transit in SF FANTASTIC, which should tell you something about Auckland), which is interesting to hear after you've left it to come someplace you imagine is loads better.
Anyway, everything is beautiful and perfect and we are bumming around like proper honeymooners. Tonight after an Indian dinner we will return to our beachfront B&B for another night of falling asleep to the sound of waves under a field of stars. It's rough, really.
A quick note about photos - I'll be posting a few here, but you can find everything I can manage to upload while I'm away on my Flickr account in the New Zealand set. Enjoy!
December 08, 2005
Twenty-five years?
I'm not sure where I was when I heard John Lennon had been murdered - I was only nine, and I imagine that both being in California and in elementary school I must not have heard anything about it until my parents picked me up at the end of the school day. But I remember how upset my parents were, in particular my mother, and I was so familiar with their music from Sunday mornings and long car trips that even I felt like someone in my family had died. And for years afterwards, the famous Rolling Stone with a naked John and a dressed Yoko on the cover was on prominent display in the house, like a small temple that invoked silent prayers whenever you would pass and it would catch your eye. It planted a consciousness of his death in my mind that I always remember, and to be reminded today that somehow twenty-five years have passed since that dream so cruelly died still breaks my heart even today. John Lennon gave us so many wonderful songs of joy that will continue to live on longer than any of us will remember.
December 05, 2005
Monday randomness
It's interesting how you can walk the same route everyday and most days nothing seems atypical, and on others how you notice little distinctions. Right now it's as cold as it ever gets in the Bay Area (which for areas that have a real winter, it feels like autumn), and little hints of the upcoming holiday are everywhere (which I'm noticing more since I'll be off enjoying the New Zealand summer in two weeks). While standing on the Berkeley BART escalator this morning I caught a glimpse of a santa hat peeking out from the bag of a guy in front of me. He was flanked by a middle-aged, conservatively dressed Asian gentleman wearing headphones and unceasingly making sounds that sounded like Morse code.
While on BART, I traded waves with a little girl who was peering at me over her mother's shoulder. She kept pointing at the Uglydoll on my backpack, then at my magazine. I gave her a New Yorker subscription card and she smiled in delight. As I disembarked at Berkeley, I exited the station with a Filipino woman who looked like a ballroom dancer in street clothing, her hair and makeup ornately and meticulously attended to. Finally, I watched a white guy with scroungy dreadlocks wearing wonderfully stereotypical patched corduroy hippie pants run across Shattuck with two bright yellow Forever 21 bags in either hand.