second time around

After Poe went home I drove over to the eastern coast of the North Island and spent a couple of days. Then another long travel day. I checked out of the hotel at noon and drove back across the island to Auckland where I got to wait at the airport for my 1:10 in the morning flight to Singapore. Then clear customs and get to my flight from Singapore to Jakarta, Indonesia. Then clear customs again, after getting the visa on arrival. Then on through security to get my domestic flight to Bali. It always gives me such a reassuring sense of safety when the metal detector doesn’t ring with the couple pounds of metal in my hip. Nor did they care about the liter of Jim Beam (could have been gasoline) in my carryon bag. But the plane was too full to be able to reach anything even if I wanted to. My ride picked me up at the airport and took me to the hotel. School had just let out and the motorbikes on the road looked like a swarm of locust. At least 4 rows of bikes, two of cars/trucks and all in 12 feet of asphalt. I was impressed that nobody died they all just sort of do this incredible dance of death weaving in and out at will. The island is pretty dirty, lots of litter and stuff floating in the canals. I stayed a couple of days in Sanur, the tourist area for “older” tourists and families, not Kuta where the young, hip partiers go. As my driver told me, “drugs and crime.” My very nice hotel/resort is full of Aussies and Europeans, mostly old and seriously obese. If I put on 20 kilograms and wore a speedo I would fit right in. They did check under the car with a mirror when we passed the security gate to the resort.

gita statue anyone?

lobby demon

protecting me

overhangs my balcony

Friday morning, after a couple of days there I got my two and a half hour ride up to Tulamben on the north shore of Bali to go diving on the Liberty Wreck. Two lanes with motorcycles and cars and trucks in a sort of free for all. I was only scared once, when the gasoline tanker passed the pickup full of propane tanks around the blind corner uphill right in front of us.

note the truck to road ratio

NOT a one way street

The USAT Liberty was a WWII transport ship that was torpedoed and grounded on the beach until 1963 when the eruption of Mt. Agung caused an earthquake that rolled it over onto its side into 90 feet deep water. Now it is a premier dive site. My dive guide Ngoman walked me to the beach where we gear up and walk into the water. A 30 meter swim puts me 5 meters deep at the stern of the 123 meter long wreck covered with corals and a crazy amount of fish and other marine life. We make our way along the seaward side (the deck of the ship) to the bow in about 30 meters of water and back through the wreck itself. Pretty amazing for my first wreck dive! It is impressive how much the sea has claimed the framework of the ship to grow life. Not only are there lots of corals and bunches of fish, but the place teems with Nudibranchs (look it up), sea horses, starfish and fish from the tiny frog fish (1 cm.) to potato cod (50 kg.).

Mt. Agung from my back balcony

The past few days have been little down, those times when I wonder what the hell I am doing half way round the world eating my dinners alone. Sometimes I would like to just click my heels together three times and be home. But as I told the kids growing up, “this too will pass”.

And now it is two days later and it has passed, life is good again. Looking this over I see that I put, “walked to the beach and walked into the water.” while true, that does not exactly do the experience justice. First we check the tank/BCD so a porter can take them to the beach for us two at a time (often a woman). Then we put on our wetsuits, booties, weight belt and carry our fins and mask. Walk out of the back of the shop and cross the road (definitely look both ways, this is the only road). Then about 100 meters through the field, the cement tiny soccer pitch with the teens playing and past the parking lot for busses and the “convenience store” shack/table. A few stairs and the dirt path through the field with two cows. It is too brown and short to support them, but they try for the bits of green here and there. Once at the beach we put on the BCD and walk into the water. I say it easy enough, but it is not. The top of the slope is shifting tiny rock that your feet sink through on the slope. Then comes the larger, round “river rock” about tennis ball to grapefruit size on top of the tiny gravel that has been washed down, so these larger rocks besides hurting the soles of the feet will shift and sink randomly. Once into the water the rocks are a mix of the mid size and larger, basketball size covered in slick algae. Staggering and stumbling I make it out twenty feet or so to almost waist deep and fall into the water, float with the BCD and put on my fins. Then roll over, dump air and swim down and out to the wreck, maybe 30 meters across the silt and rock. The going out is easier than the return. Coming back I am tired and once I get the fins off, have to clamber back uphill over the slick rocks with my feet occasionally sinking and slipping. My feet ache from heel to toe, and I have lost skin on the tops of my toes from the booties/fins. I like boat diving!

a small prayer offering for Bali

Six dives in Tulamben and now I am back at the south of the Island getting ready to fly on to Singapore and then Thailand. I have been trying to make the arrangements for some side trips and a live aboard in Thailand but am unable to get it done. Something about trying to book a trip from Thailand to Cambodia on an American credit card online from Indonesia just screams “FRAUD, FRAUD.” I will hopefully get it all done once there, or not and do something else.

Final thoughts on Bali: Shrines and decorating them is a big thing on a personal family level. The “offerings” in tiny baskets made of leaves on the sidewalk. The traffic is quite a ballet. Everything on the ubiquitous motorbike, from family of three with the toddler hanging on, to sidesaddle mothers to major loads beside-behind-above the driver. The Balinese headgear and “Sarong” (which is not the technically correct term) are very common. It is a poor country and needs employment, I don’t feel laziness here, only lack of opportunity. The ones lucky enough to have jobs work hard. They sift and load the road gravel and asphalt by shovel, hours at a time. Lots of smiling. I am a little weirded at being the rich white guy, but I guess better they get my money than somewhere else. Women walking with large loads balanced on their heads using one hand to balance or smaller loads with no hands, just strolling along chatting. 


Greetings from Middle Earth (not the Middle Kingdom). My apologies for the long delay in the blogging, but I have been too busy living the dream to write it down. I thought the Australians loved their sheep, nothing like the Kiwis! They seriously love their sheep.

but will you respect me in the morning?

Well I figured that I had dodged the bullet when I got on my flight back to Sydney one day before Quantas went on Strike. I didn’t realize that Poe’s American Airlines flight to New Zealand was actually a Quantas flight code sharing with American. So no flight for her. Fortunately the government forced Quantas back to work and it only delayed Poe a couple of days. I holed up in a hotel in Auckland since it was cold, raining like hell and windy. I used the time to look a bit ahead for planning Bali and Thailand. Hoping for the floods in Thailand to clear up. Poe finally got in Thursday and we spent a wonderful sunny day at the Auckland Botanic Gardens. The temperature was perfect and the plants a nice treat, spring is coming in well here. The next day we hit the Auckland Museum and learned some Maori history and New Zealand plants and animals. Did you realize that the only indigenous mammal in New Zealand is the Bat? All others are brought in by settlers. Humans have only been here since around 1000 CE. They had the world’s largest Eagle, the Haast’s Eagle until about 600 years ago when their main food the Moa bird was hunted to extinction by the Maori. The eagle was only 15 Kg. But had a 70 cm Talon span which allowed it to rip through the neck or pelvis of the Moa which were flightless 4 meter (12+ foot) tall and 230 kg. (510 pounds). Some kind of birds!

Flying on to Christchurch we had a chance to check out the roped off center of town which was destroyed in an Earthquake last year. Pretty incredible, it looked like pictures of a war zone. It was Guy Fawkes day, where British celebrate the capture and execution (of course after torture) of Guy Fawkes in 1620 when he tried to guard the gunpowder hoping to blow up the king and start a revolution. Not so weird or anything. Then off over Arthur’s Pass to the west coast of the South Island. It had snowed like crazy three days before and they needed chains to go over the pass then, but had cleared so we had Beautiful blue skies on the first half and wonderful views of snow capped peaks. The west side is foggy/cloudy with mist and winding road. Coming down we pulled into an overlook parking area and saw two parrots on the fence. Poe whispered, “Do you think we can get closer?” As I eased around oh so slowly we opened the windows to get a picture. The Kea (parrots) hopped off the fence and ran/hopped toward the car in an attack formation. “shut the window, shut the window” not in a whisper. They jumped up onto the car and started pulling at things. Turns out the Kea are the smartest bird in the world and love to tear things like wiper blades apart. We pressed on to Franz Josef Glacier for a couple of nights. The west side of the Island is like Washington State, lots and lots of rain as the wet air from the Tasman Sea hits the mountains.

FEED ME!

The Glaciers were very cool and the forests thick and deep temperate rain-forests. I thought that the Australians were frugal with their use of asphalt on winding mountain roads, but the Kiwis are downright cheap. Poe had a few moments of puckering while we drove the South Island. Up through the passes and down through the hairpin turns (believe the sign that advises 15 and that is kilometers per hour not miles per hour!) The rivers and lakes have “stone flour” or super tiny particles of stone ground up by the glaciers long ago which makes them a wonderful turquoise color at times and at other times a deep, deep blue. Strikingly beautiful. Went to a Kiwi research center and saw some six week old Kiwis. In their wisdom the early settlers brought over animals to populate the islands for hunting and such. The rabbits got completely out of control so they brought in Stoats (a sort of weasel) to eat the rabbits. The stoats however prefer the much easier to catch flightless New Zealand birds Kiwis and such. So they are very endangered now. Also they brought the brush tailed opossum for a fur trade. More dead birds! The deer trash the forest but the export of venison was a big industry so now they farm the deer and have cut the wild population down to size. Just as in Washington some Scots missed their homeland and brought a wee sprig of Scotch Broom plant to remind them of home. Now the islands are covered in this expanding mess of bright yellow blight. Ain’t we smart?

A hard decision is whether to see the more dramatic Milford Sound or the more intimate and quieter Doubtful Sound. I found the solution though, do both. Even though we had a car, we took the two hour bus ride from Te Anau to Milford Sound so we could enjoy the view and not have to drive the road. It was spectacular from lake and fields through the Beech Forest and then Rain forest into the mountains and to the fjords. The driver kept telling us that we were unlucky to have the perfectly clear blue skies and dramatic vistas instead of rain. He thought the temporary waterfalls created by heavy rains were more dramatic. I was OK with the sun. It rains there 200 days of the year. The sight of Milford Sound was dramatic and something to experience. We had a group of Dolphin swimming along side the boat for a long time, the fur seals were out sunning and there were plenty of permanent long, long waterfalls.

Doubtful Sound

rare blue cloud over the sound

some reflection

Back to Te Anau and it started raining. Rained all night and the next morning while we took a short bus hop to a 45 minute boat ride across Lake Manapouri and a ride up over Wilmot Pass on the gravel road to Deep Cove the end of Doubtful Sound. We boarded the overnight ship and it stopped raining. The waterfalls were pretty amazing to see, sparkling sheets and raging torrents everywhere. Doubtful is more covered with trees and ferns which is in itself incredible as it is solid granite. There is virtually no soil, the plants all grow with tiny roots in minute cracks in the rock. We saw fur seals, and plenty of penguins (yellow crested and little blue like I saw in Philip Island Australia). Food was great, company was great and we slept well. The next morning the sun was out and the views were striking. As soon as we got up they announced on the speakers so we ran out to watch the dolphins jumping and playing around the boat. More penguins and Shag birds (cormorants) all morning.

We got back to Te Anau and drove on up the pass to Queenstown. It is full of young people and adrenaline rush activities; jet boats, mountain biking, climbing, rappelling, kayaking, white water rafting, bungy jumping and hang gliding on thermals. So we did our laundry and drove out of town. We did peek over the rail of the Kawarau Bridge, the birthplace of Bungy jumping. I decided it probably was not in my best interest to jump, I might like it too much. Going up the center of the South Island toward Aoraki/Mt. Cook we stopped for coffee and chatted with a local. We were getting a little burned out on spectacular mountain scenes and crazy blue lakes. She told us not to head up to Twizel and instead to go to the East coast to a town called Oamaru. What a great choice. Oamaru was a thriving port in the mid 1800s and has 20-30 great old buildings left in town. We got in early enough to go to the Little Blue Penguin colony research center and watch them come in at dark. This was not a gentle waddle up a sandy beach like Philip Island Australia. These guys ride BIG waves crashing onto a steep rocky shore and hop on up to their burrows. It was pretty cool. In the morning we had a plate of cheeses at the Whitestone Cheese factory and watched them empty a vat and separate the curds and whey. Then around the town and enjoyed the buildings and the amazing artwork (welded statues) all over town. Google Steampunk HQ to see what I had to put my $2 into.

Finally we dragged ourselves away and up the coast to a small town of Akaroa. It is inside the caldera of an old volcano the side wall of which is blown out, connecting to the sea creating a huge, huge harbor. The drive in was quite the puckering road with switchbacks and fortunately the tour busses passed us going the other way before we got to the steep descent. On the way out the next day we took the “summit road” and found out the first road really was the wide and straight one. Akaroa is a French city and was lovely. We bumped into some friends we had been on the Doubtful Sound overnight with and just marveled at the views. We went to the Giant’s House and toured the gardens (beautiful) surrounded by the giant mosaic artworks (mind boggling). In the afternoon we headed back to Christchurch to overnight before flying to the North Island.

After getting to the city we went to the place we had stayed before and it was full, and the one next door and the two down the street. We drove over to the main motel street in town and found one after the next “no vacancy” finally we stopped to ask if ther was something going on in town and the very nice lady explained that since the center of Christchurch was trashed and all the big hotels shut down the motels are full every night and without advance booking we were SOL. God smiles on fools; she made a call on the off chance of a cancellation and found us a room. Later checking in I overheard the desk clerk telling someone that all the motels help each other and there are no rooms in all of Christchurch, they could try Akaroa (a two hour drive).

A morning flight to Auckland, pick up the rental car and off to Rotorua, the area with lots of Geothermal activity and Maori culture. We got in and the very nice duty manager Darren told us all about the various activities around the area. We were just in time to go to a Maori village show and Hangi (earth pit cooked dinner). It was a bit “touristy” but a great show none the less, good dancing and lots of fun. The food was excellent and we saw some glow worms and silver leaf ferns. The next morning we slept in, had a breakfast at the “Fat Dog Cafe and Bar” before we went on to Waimangu Valley. It was an amazing 4 km walk through a valley created in 1886 by several volcanos erupting and creating the most recent geothermal area around. There are pools and steam vents and incredible views. It was a great walk and we saw very striking colored pools of boiling hot water with algae and silica forms.

Thermal pool

Poe’s last full day in New Zealand was pretty good, we got over to see the glow worms in Waitomo caves which was interesting. The roof of the cave is covered with bioluminescent worms which look like a million stars at night. We couldn’t do the “pretty” cave tour because it was booked until later in the afternoon, but that left us time to drive up through Cambridge and take a left on Buckland Road which led us to “The Shire Rest” and a tour of Hobbiton. They recently finished shooting the Hobbiton scenes for the new movie “the Hobbit” and last week opened the set for tours. It was pretty cool seeing Bag End, the party tree and all the rest of Hobbiton in perfect condition. We took loads of pictures but have a confidentiality agreement to not put them on the web.

I left home with New Zealand as the number one spot on my list of where I wanted to see, based on the crazy beauty of the landscape and the rave reviews from everyone who ever came here. Now that I am set to move on I must say that it did not disappoint. The Kiwis are wonderfully friendly and giving people, always ready to help with advice or whatever you need. The landscape spans everything there is; spectacular mountains, fjords, waterfalls, rainforest, pastoral hills, evergreen forests, beautiful beaches and an amazing palette of green colors everywhere. The spring coming into bloom was just overwhelming and next time I will come in the fall to see those colors. Next stop: Bali.