All Jew, All Day!

(Me and the 3D Night Watch)
Saturday was a mix. I needed a couple of exterior shots which put us in line to see a few sights I’d been hoping to catch.
We started with a shot of the boarding house where my grandfather lived when he first moved to Amsterdam from the town of Enschede, we think it’s were he met my grandmother. She lived in the boarding house as well.

Around the corner was the Hollandsche Schouwburg. A pre war theatre that was used as a staging camp for deporting jews to concentration camps. All that’s left now is the Facade.

(Dutch Jewish Star)

(Jewish War Children)

(Jews Forbidden)
Around the opposite corner was the Resistance Museum commemorating the Dutch WWII resistance movement and relative war events. It really gave a more personal feel to that time. The most amazing thing was a map they had up that showed the concentration of the Jewish population in Amsterdam.

(Nazi map of the Jewish population concentration)
Each black dot represented 10 Jews. Over the apartment block where my father was born and returned after the war, there was a single dot that probably included him, my uncle John, grandfather, and grandmother.

(My families dot, just left of the building marked "Concert-Geb")
As we worked our way west we stopped at Rembrandt’s house. He’s a favorite of mine and the last time I was in Amsterdam it was closed for renovations. I was so glad to finally get inside.

(The Rembrandt House)
It has some of his work but it’s mainly a reproduction of what the house was like when he lived there. How does this fit the days jewish theme? He lived on the Jodenbreestraat, or the “Jewish Broad Street,” the heart of Dutch Jewish life in Rembrandt’s era.

(Check the blue street sihn above the neon sign)
We sauntered through the flower market district and the area behind the palace as we made our way to the Anne Frank House. When we got there late in the afternoon the line was still around the block, as it often is. We decided not to wait and got a picture of a small Anne Frank monument instead. Maybe we would see it later.

(Anne Frank Memorial)
After a stop back at the apartment to clean up and rest we headed back out Chai’s house at the edge of the city, not far from where Joop and Johan both live. Chai is a cousin of my father and a brother to Bennie. He’s the youngest of three siblings in that family and the most Orthodox. Their had been much going back and forth about where we could be hosted for a seder (the ceremonial dinner had on the first 2 nights of Passover). The only big concern with Chai’s place was that as an orthodox jew he couldn’t start until about an hour after sundown (less religious folk tend to relax the timing rules) which meant that between the prayers and the meal it would be a very late night. But Dad and i are both night owls and were happy both to be invited and to get to see Chai and his family. It was especially nice because as the owner of one of the few kosher food store in town, it’s his busy season.
Actually Chai ran a pretty tight ship, although he didn’t skip any parts he kept things rolling and we were done by 2am, which may sound late but Dad and I had made an estimate of 4. So a cab ride later we were happy, full and getting enough sleep to prepare us for the nest day .... “The Grand Holland Tour Deluxe!”

Joop

(Dad making calls)
Between a wonderful late night in Utrecht and jet lag, wakefulness was in short supply come Sunday morning. Dad and I got up. had the hotel’s pricey breakfast buffet, ran some local errands, made some calls and then proceeded to fall asleep again for a notable chunk of the afternoon.
The main errand was a search for a camera adapter that I couldn’t find in my video bag after we arrived and that I really needed. The search was fruitless but of course a few days later, I found the stupid thing tangled up in a dark corner of my bag.
The calls were all to arrange meetings with my local relatives all of whom had been e-mailed explicitly about my film project and most have whom had committed to at least some kind of get together. Of course now that I was here it was quickly starting to become like herding cats. People were away, people were coming back, people were leaving soon. ... and I don’t mean leaving the house, leaving the country!
It’s easy as you get frustrated to start laying blame for this stuff on everyone else but one of the major problems was in good part my fault. Our visit crosses over the Jewish holiday of Passover. I had this romantic notion of a sort of Hebraic Norman Rockwell scene unfolding as my father returned to the old country to be welcomed with open arms, and I would film it all! ... but like any holiday from any background, everyone was very busy cooking and cleaning and arranging to see family and very short on time.
Two particular family members had a much bigger problem to face. My fathers cousin Joop (pronounced like YO with a “p” on the end) and his wife Bettina had found out recently that she has cancer. It sounds like the diagnosis is comparatively optimistic but she was to start treatment the next week. As well they are fairly Orthodox so once both treatment and passover start overlapping they were just going to be overwhelmed. But they still wanted to see us before things got crazy, so late Sunday afternoon Joop picked us up to take us to his home on the south end of Amsterdam for dinner.

(Joop comes to pick us up)
Along the way he stopped off at the first home where my father (Hans) was reunited with his parents after the war, a place dad didn’t even recall. Finally some filming!
The reason Joop knew the location so well, My grandfather also took in Joop because he was a nephew and had been orphaned by the holocaust. They all lived there together. Which is why I wanted so badly to interview him. Plus it seems Joop has a much stronger sense of recollection than my dad.

(Dad's first post war home)
Funnily when I pulled the camera out to film the house, Joop moved the car to a new parking spot. He was nervous that his car would be targeted by thieves if they saw me pulling out expensive equipment. We thought he was being a bit over zealous but Dad and I just rolled with it.

(Bettina)
After that it was a very pleasant dinner with Joop and Bettina. I had brought my video camera hoping we could squeeze in a quick interview that night, figuring it would be my only chance. I found myself in the tough position of trying to balance sensitivity for a tough situation and trying to do what it takes to do the job right.
Interestingly I found a strong ally in Bettina. It wasn’t going to happen Sunday night because they had plans after dinner but she made Joop agree to do it Wednesday. It made a kind of sense to me. Bettina had the treatment, it gave her something to do but all Joop can do is wait and fret. I think she wanted to give him the distraction.
So after tea and some proper Dutch apple pie, Joop put us on a tram back to the hotel and I finally felt like the engine of this project was starting to pick up some speed.

(Joop)

Rok'n Utrecht

I have to admit when I chose the dates for this trip I had a second motive. By leaving Toronto a few days early I could see a band I’d always wanted to see live in concert, The Presidents of the United States of America.
For some reason I keep missing opportunities to see them in North America, so why not see them in Utrecht? It’s just a half hour south of Amsterdam by train.

Dad was good enough to humor me. We spent the day in Utrecht together and saw the local tourist sights.

This mainly consists of walking along the Ouderacht canal, visiting the Dick Bruna Huis (a museum dedicated to a children’s book author and illustrator) and climbing the Domtoren which is the tallest church tower in the Netherlands. Although it’s no longer connected to any actual church.


After all that Dad headed off to catch the train back to Amsterdam while I went to a bar called De Reunie, where a group of fans were meeting before the show and I was so glad I did.

In a mere hour or so, I went from some poor shlub going to see a band all by his lonesome to part of a group enjoying a show together.


And the show was great! I love my hometown but I do forget how reserved Toronto audiences can be. The whole club (The Tivoli) was immediately whipped up and dancing as soon as the band hit the stage. I may have come the farthest but amongst the people I shared drinks with their were attendees from Belgium, Denmark and Germany.

The Best Thing ... EVER!!!

Two hours north of Christchurch, in the town of Kaikoura I got to do one of the things I had been most looking forward to since I started planning my trip. Maybe something I could say I've wanted to do since I was a child. I swam with dolphins.

(Rema's in the middle getting ready to jump back in)
Kaikoura is a coastal town situated at the feeding banks for all kinds of sea life. It wasn't actually included on my bus pass but my driver for the past few days had enough room to do me the great favour of letting me hop on for free. This saved me the hassle and cost of buying a partial leg from the bus company's head office. As we cruised along the coastal highway Stuart the driver told us to keep an eye out for seals and dolphins. We saw a few frolicking seals, which although adorable were no surprise by this point, but no dolphins. Instead I happened to be the first to spot something far more rare in those waters; Killer Whales. A pod of three or four with sleek black fins gliding in and out of the waves. They seemed to be following us up the coast and into the heart of town.

The dolphin swim was arranged through magic bus who had a group deal and I'm lucky they did because I tried booking ahead on my own and there was nothing available for at least two weeks. Thanks again to Stuart. We dropped our gear at the Dusky Lodge hostel and were dropped off ourselves at the Encounter Kaikoura tour company.
I've always liked dolphins. I still have a somewhat beat up book on dolphins with excellent photos that my uncle Gerard got for me through the book business he used to run. My parents took me to sea world a few times where I one got to feed one during a performance and pet a different one in a tank, but this was a whole different experience.

The Dolphins I met this day were not trained, they were not caged, and they were not being lured with food. They were totally wild. Keeping this in mind we were instructed not to touch them and to not think of them as our entertainment but instead to think of ourselves as their entertainment. We were encouraged to make noise and to dive down a bit in hopes of engaging their interest.

(A Dusky nearly brushing up against me)
The tour works like this, two boats get loaded up with ten swimmers and groups of other people who are just going to watch from the deck. Meanwhile spotters locate the pod of dolphins as they are heading to the feeding grounds. The boat pulls up ahead of the pod and then they just drop the swimmers in the water. The Dusky Dolphins, which is the local species don't find us threatening so the just swim right around us. Hopefully you get a few to check you out before they all pass by. Once they move on we get back in the boat and repeat the process a few times.

The first few moments as we confronted the pod were stunning. As boat came to a stop we were sitting on the back launch pad and we could really see the size of the pod for the first time. When I think of a pod of dolphins or other sea mammals I tend to think of not much more than ten. This single pod consists of over one hundred Duskys. The effect of seeing that many large animals stampeding straight at you is indescribable. Then we jumped in.

(a fellow swimmer getting back in the boat)
I flattened out my body and dipped my besnorkeled head in. Instantly I saw a Dusky less than three feet below me passing in parallel. Below him were two more moving in layers. I forgot myself and said "wow" taking in a mouthful of sea water. I think I wasn't the only one to make that mistake.

(Gliding)
They were everywhere. This was one of the two big reasons I had bought a diving shell for my camera. I didn't want to get so preoccupied taking pictures that I missed the moment itself so I just fired away and hope for the best. Soon enough they had passed us by so we got called back onto the boat and we took off trying to get ahead of the pod again.
(I feel so pretty in this outfit)
We repeated this process four times and I think we spent 45 minutes in the water all together. Between swims we got to ride sitting on the rear step of the boat.

(just a portion of the pod, look closely at the top end)
On our fourth run I managed to finally get enough interest from a Dusky that he circled me a couple of times before moving on, which is considered a real coup.

(baby seal)

After that we caught our breath for a bit while we watched from the deck. On the way back into shore we passed the seals we'd seen from the coast highway.


(our twin tour boat)
I was riding high after that so I enjoyed a stroll through town back to the hostel with Rema and Chris, two people I met on the bus into town. There was a park lined with archways made of sperm whale jaw bones (left over from Kaikoura's now illegal whaling days) and we stopped in a local greasy spoon for a much needed late lunch after all that swimming in high waves.
(Sperm Whale jaw bones lining the park path ... ok, it's weird)
There also seemed to be a strange conflagration of events going on in Kaikoura that day. Firstly I ran into Dermot Canterbury as I checked in for my Dolphin swim. He had been the kayaking partner that I had gone into the drink with in Cathedral Cove at the start of my trip. After that it seemed to be Canadian day in Kaikoura with a special concentration on Ontario. Most of my time here I had been a minority surrounded by European tourists. The few Canadian I had met were mainly from the west coast. This day however the girl that checked me in for the Dolphin tour had gone to U of T for school. one of the guides on the boat was born in Windsor and had done some primary school in Scarborough. Rema and another guy on my bus Brian were both Torontonians, although Rema was living out west now. Back at the hostel we bumped into Trish from Alberta and Keith a Torontonian living in Sydney. Finally we had all the others nationalities surrounded!

(Barry Sanders, abusing art around the world)
This made for a tremendous night. The Hostel had a huge pool and fantastic Thai restaurant out back where we congregated for a dinner. Franci who I had hiked the base of Franz Josef with was also there. We had been traveling in parallel on and off since then and I was glad to be seeing her one last time. She was right up there amongst my favorite travel companions. We picked up an Irish guy named Dermot (not the one from kayaking) and we ended the night in the town pub.

(THE CANADIANS: Brian, Keith, Rema, Trish and Me)
Maybe it was just the high from the Dolphin swim but of all the little towns I had seen in New Zealand, Kaioura had been my favorite. I wished I could spend an extra night because it was a beautiful place and despite having a couple more days in Christchurch ahead of me, I had already been through there. I felt like Kaikoura was the final chapter of my Journey through New Zealand ... and it was perfect.

The Antarctic Centre

Christchurch sits on the South Island's upper east coast. Beside the airport, along the city's outer rim you'll find The Antarctic Centre. An educational/entertainment attraction based on the fact the Christchurch Airport acts as the launch point for missions to the frozen continent.

One of the airport landing strips points straight south and there is literally nothing but ocean between the end of the runway and the Antarctic coast. Flights to the research stations have to get constant weather updates because fuel limits create a point of no return.

The United States Antarctic Program uses a Hercules heavy cargo plane. A plane of such gross tonnage that once it lands it is on a strict 8 hour turnaround clock. If it doesn't take off again by then it will sink to deeply into the ice to get it rolling again.

We stopped in on our way into the city and I figured while I was there I would due the full package. So I bought the admission that included aHagglund ride as well as entrance to the indoor exhibits. A Hagglund is the vehicle they use to get around in the South Pole. It looks like two lunch boxes on tank treads connected by a rail car joint. It's not an impressive sight, nor is the gravel track out back where the ride it around. Your first impression is that this pretty much is a kiddie ride. But then they put theHagglund through it's paces and you know why this is the machine they use in the harshest climate on earth.

A Hagglund can be immersed 3/4 into water, can be tipped more than 30º backward, forward or sideways without rolling over or losing it's grip on shifting materials like loose snow, ice or gravel, and it can cross a gap of about 3 feet. The ride is a little rough but a lot of fun.

Inside there were many informative displays very reminiscent of Toronto's own Science Centre dealing with the flora, fauna, ecosystems and conditions of the Antarctic. This included a habitat of Blue Penguins, the smallest species of penguin. Even though most of them were adults they all looked and moved like adorable little babies.


There was also an indoor snowstorm where you could get a taste of the South Pole's wind conditions. I quite liked the emergency storm stop button. I want one for home.

On the way out there are plaques for all the signatories to the Antarctic Treaty. The treaty that preserves the antarctic as a shared resource for research and prevents and one country from claiming it. Canada joined when I was in high school.

Afterwards we got headed into the city centre. In three days I would be leaving for Australia from Christchurch but before I did I had to make a side trip to Kaikoura. There was one more thing I had to see.

Streets, Boulders and Horses

Dunedin was charming but short on sights and activities so I was fine with leaving after only one night but I was glad our bus made a quick stop at Dunedin's only claim to fame; The World's Steepest Street.

Baldwin Street reaches angles as steep as 35º which would lead one to believe it was named after Stephen Baldwin's plunging career path but in fact it was named for the city planner who saddled them with this traffic challenge.

The distance from Dunedin to Christchurch is just a little too much for a single days drive so the trip is broken up with a night in LakeTekapo (tek-u-poe), which allows for quite a number of relaxed stops along the way.

The first of these was to see the Moeraki Boulders. Arranged in several clumps strewn along the beach these naturally occurring rocks are almost perfectly spherical.

We had a great deal of fun scrambling up and down them for pictures and just for the fun of it.

Further down the road we saw Mt. Doom again ... sort of. As in most movies Lord of the Rings used multiple locations for different parts of the same set and Mt. Cook was the other mountain utilized to stand in for Middle Earth's dark heart.

(Mt. Doom!!!! ... again ... but different)
As we got close to Tekapo Sonja (not the one from Melbourne but another one from Germany) ran into some trouble. Her camera battery died and she had signed up for a scenic fly over of the Tekapo area. The problem was it only took a special rechargeable battery made for her camera so she had no way to record her flight. Since we had been traveling together a while I took a measured risk and we popped her memory card into my fully charged camera and I let her take it on the plane.
This left me cameraless for the day and dependant on the kindness of one Elizabeth Ramirez of Austin TX to take photos on my behalf. Elizabeth was definitely one of the most enjoyable people I've met on my travels. A real homage to southern charm. Not the plastic, big haired, drawling, artificial smiled beauty queen version of southern charm that we get from TV but just an honest friendly demeanour and a delightful light accent. The smile was just as big as you'd expect but entirely genuine.

There was a pause to check out The Church of The Good Shepherd which is a small weathered stone structure that sits alone at the foot of a glassy lake surrounded by snow capped mountains. A stunning view. I've posted some photos from Aaron, a Scottish friend.

We arrived in Tekapo around mid afternoon which was early enough to take advantage of the local trail ride. I've only been on a horse once before that I can remember and that didn't go well. It was in Nashville Tennessee where I was visiting Mary, my girlfriend of the time. She insisted I try riding her horse but it was a tiny welsh pony. I think the poor thing didn't weigh much more than me and I felt guilty for just getting on it's back. Mary trotted us around the deeply sloping stable yard while warning me to beware the several mounds of fire ants. My girlfriend couldn't understand why I didn't seem to be enjoying myself. This ride went so much better.
I was put on a full sized chestnut horse named Dick. He was a beautiful but a bit stubborn and he was definitely taking advantage of me. Dick kept stopping to graze or just stopping out right on some of the harder hills. This meant I had to try to show him who was boss which meant kicking him in the sides. I know that sounds awful but that's how it's done the angle of a saddle doesn't allow for much force. In fact he didn't even seem to notice. None the less I felt awful doing it which is probably why he was behaving so poorly. He could tell I wasn't going to be very aggressive with him but In the end I think we managed to come to an accord and I really liked it.

(since I don't have the pictures from Elizabeth you'll have to pretend this picture of her is actually me on a horse)
The trail led out through a field that looked exactly like the set of a classic western, then though the woods to an open plain on a mountain side overlooking Lake Tekapo. The view was unbelievable. I'd go Horse riding again in a heart beat. Unfortunately I don't have those pictures yet but they are coming. Elizabeth and I have been trading e-mails and she's still making her way back home but she hasn't forgotten and will get them to me when she gets settled.
Myself, Elizabeth, Stuart (our bus driver) and 3 Irish sisters who had been on our trail ride, finished the day with dinner and drinks in the what was pretty much the only restaurant/pub in town. One of the Irish girls worked for a hotel chain that has a Canadian office and because of that she somehow had the strange impression that St. Thomas Ontario is a really big city instead of the one street town that it is. We had a good laugh about it over desert before walking back under the stars to our hostel, The Tekapo Lake Front Lodge where I reclaimed my camera from Sonja.


(The Lakefront Lodge)
A last note about hostels, you never know what you'll get. The Lake Front was less than two years old and generally well designed and yet the beds were so poorly made that they squeaked loudly if you even shifted your weight minorly. The guilt over possibly waking everyone else up while you got comfortable made it hard to fall asleep. All the same I woke up well rested and ready for Christchurch.

(My morning view from the Lakefront Lodge)

Penguins in the Grass

I woke up my last morning in Queenstown to discover the mattress from the bed across from mine had gone missing while I had slept. It turned out one of the girls we had been hanging out with the night before, Cindy was actually one of my hostel roommates.

The three of them had decided to just stay up all night and Cindy had taken her mattress out to the common area so they would have a place to kick back. I must have been dead on my feet because I was the only one in the room she didn't wake.

Maria Mink the dutch painter girl who I had had a great time talking to the night before was still with them and it was nice to have another chance to chat while we awaited my early bus out of town. The third girl, Sonja who hailed from Melbourne was catching the bus with me. Lucky for her we weren't due to arrive in Dunedin until 2pm so she got to catch up on her sleep. I caught a good catch-up nap myself.

We stopped for morning tea in Alexandra. The town's clock was built into the face of the cliff that towers over the little mining village. The ride was mostly taken up with reading, napping and conversations with fellow travellers.

Dunedin is just big enough to be a city but barely. Still it was the first time I had seen a real indoor mall since I'd left Canada and after I got settled in my hostel room I headed straight there. I'm not excited by malls but a food court and the options that came with it were quite welcome. The road food in New Zealand had so far failed to impress and I need something filing before I headed out on my big activity for the day, a late day trip with Elm Wildlife Tours.

Not far outside the city are some fantastic pockets of nature. Just on the drive out there we saw an amazing number of wild birds unique to the country.

(This bird has two legs but they are so thin that he'll stand on one while tucking the other under his body for warmth and circulation)

The first proper stop was at an albatross preserve. I must admit I had not been that enthusiastic about the albatross stop. I mean they're just big seagulls and I had signed up to see the penguins and sea lions. You know, real wildlife, but when you see a bird with a wingspan that is as wide as you are tall and it's gliding like no other thing you've ever seen, you can't help but be impressed.

(an Albatross with a 2 meter wing span, that's over 6 feet)
There was a quick dinner stop where one of my fellow travellers Martin horrified us me and some other companions with a British invention called a Chip Butty. It's just chips (french fries) in a buttered bread sandwich. How these people survived food like that long enough to build an empire is beyond me.

The next stop was a spot at the shoreline where we had to cross through a sheep field to reach the beaches.


(Sheep)
The tour had been timed for late in the day which is when the sea lions wake to feed and the penguins come in from the ocean to nest, so the whole thing was perfect. Not surprisingly there was a seal colony which I quiet enjoyed despite having seen so many already but the next beach over had the colony of sea lions.


(another seal colony)
Sea lions are the seals' much larger and more aggressive cousin. They were right on the beach and we could walk right up to them within a few meters. Beyond that you risked provoking their territorial instincts. As lethargic as sea lions tend to be they are very strong and can be dangerously fast for short spurts on land so it was kind of wild to be standing so close with only a respectful distance keeping us safe.


(sea lions waking up for dinner)
This was also the time that the penguins started waddling in. When I think of penguins I think of the blank white of the antarctic but here they were, slowly making there way across the sand to set up their nests for the evening in the tall grass of hills that slopped toward the sea.

The yellow eyed penguin is as slow and clumsy on it's feet as any bird could be but that didn't stop a single one from climbing the steep hills into their nesting grounds.


They were of course far mores skittish about humans than the sea lions so we kept our distance and even spent some time watching from viewing shelters set up on the hillside. I was amazed at how far up the steep slopes they went.



(A father and son nesting)
It was a good steep hike back up the hills and through the sheep fields and the sun was setting by the time we reached the little tour bus that took us back home to the hostel. I napped a little more on the drive back.

(A sea lion making a quick pace toward the surf)
As much as I loved the wildlife tour I was a little sad that between the mid afternoon arrival, the length of time we had just spent on the beach and the planned early departure the next day, I wouldn't really get to see the city of Dunedin. So I decided to go for a walk around and see what I could see before it got too late.

(napping sea lions and me ... I'm in the foreground)

I'm glad I did because I soon realized I wasn't missing much. Dunedin is pretty and the city center (known as the Octagon for obvious shape related reasons) has some real character, but by 9:30 only a few coffee shops and bars were open. So I grabbed a snack from the only 24 hour variety store around and called it a good day.

Queenstown

Queenstown started out as New Zealands own version of Aspen. It was born to cater to the skiers but soon became much bigger as a summer destination full of "extreme" activities like Bungy Jumping, Skydiving, Jet Boating and a whole bunch more variations on the theme. Of course with that comes the night life and so Queenstown has basically become a 24 hour party. I spent 3 nights there but only one day because we arrived late on the first day and I was in Milford Sound during the second day.The one day I did spend in town was somewhat uneventful because it was raining. I had planned to go jet boating which consists of piling a group of people into a very fast speed boat and having a pilot zip us down a river. A nice combination of excitement with a lack of personally assumed risk. I wanted to take it back down a notch after the bungy jump, but the rain was bad enough to cancel most outdoor activities for the day so jet boating was out.

(A Tuatara)
None the less I did manage to accomplish one of my goals. I finally saw a Kiwi Bird. They are extremely hard to see because they are skittish, nocturnal and ridiculously endangered due to the fact that they have almost no defense against any form of predatory mammal. Obviously the arrival of the Europeans did not go well for them. At the wellington zoo the Kiwi was was impossible to see under a single red bulb where it was likely hiding in it's burrow. And the bird sanctuary I had toured a week earlier had been fruitful for seeing every local bird except the Kiwi. I do have to wonder how many actual New Zealanders have ever seen a kiwi at all, never mind in the wild.Lucky for me, just up the hill from my hostel there was a Kiwi Experience reserve. They raise Kiwis to release into designated safety areas but they also have some there to be seen. It is also a darkened room with a red bulb, but they had done a much better job building a habitat that allows the audiences to see them while being considerate of the animals comfort. It was a bit pricey but the admission also included a show which consisted of a talk by some of the handlers followed by a Maori Culture show.The handler talk was fantastic although some might have found it a bit academic. I liked it a lot. The handler brought out some lorikeets (a lot like parakeets) and a live Tuatara, which I got to check out up close. If you don't remember the Tuatara, go back to the last part of the entry "Wellington prt 3." The Maori culture portions was unbelievably sad and cheesy. I wanted to bail but I was sitting in the front and the audience was small. I would have been noticed. By the time they tried to goad us into a Maori language version of the Hockey Pokey I had become embarrassed for the performers and all the more grateful for the show I had seen in Rotarua.

(A Street Performer on the Boardwalk)
So of course the more eventful part of my time in the big Q was the night time activities. The evening we arrived our bus driver for that leg, Trent organized a pub for us to meet up at. So at 8:30 we gathered at the Red Rock. There were many Magic Bus riders from my coach as well as several who had arrived in the past few days. The Red Rock was apparently the "IT" place to start the evening. Of course the evening never ends where it begins and a whole passel of us ended up at the Altitude Lounge for karaoke night. Allan a Scottish business student immediately signed up for a song and with admittedly very little goading I committed to a song myself. I pulled out the one song I know I can do well, Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World. I do it well because I have a surprising ability imitate Sachmo's voice. Laugh all you want, I killed. Kris was at the back of the bar when I went on and when i saw him later he had to ask if I had sung at all or if they had played a vocal track. For my efforts I won a free beer and a Malibu Rum mini skirt. I immediately made use of one and gave the other away. You can figure out which for yourself.For some reason Allan's song came up four tunes after mine and by then he had rounded up a contingent of seven, including myself to help him sing the proclaimers "I would walk 500 miles." For those who don't know it it requires a thick Scottish accent to be sung properly. So I never used my own voice on stage that night.Night Two also started at the Red Rock just as Night Three would.

(The Queenstown Waterfront at Dusk)
Night two started after my return from Milford Sound. I met up with everyone at the the Red Rock again. My timing was good because I had just missed out on some games between the Magic Bus riders and the competing Kiwi Experience passengers but I did arrive in time for the free drinks that followed. From there it was off to the World Bar in the center of town. It's a basic bar with an area for dancing and some loungey areas to kick back in. Their one big hook is the teapots. You can get mixed drinks served in a teapot which makes for easy sharing. A few teapots made the rounds between me, Maaike and Sue. I struck up conversations with some more new people before going dancing for the rest of the night

(The World Bar)
The third and final night started the same way. I met up with Allan the Drunken Scot (as we had now dubbed him) as well as his mates Aron and Marcus, an Aussie named Sonya and two dutch girls including a painter with the very cool name of Maria Mink and an even cooler blond afro. We headed out to a "salsa" night at a bar which I never got the name of but it was over crowded and the music wasn't salsa. They were playing Ricky Martin and Shakira. I'm sorry but that simply will not do. So we went back to the world bar were we stayed much to late while the Scottish contingent was fairly unsuccessful and chatting up the girls.
I squeezed in just a little sleep before hoping the bus for Dunedin the next morning. Three wild days was incredibly fun but I was glad it was time to switch the pace again.

(A Drunken Teapot)

If A Milford Fjords In The Woods, Does That Still Make It A Sound?

I'll leave Queenstown for my next entry. The day after my Bungee I took a day trip out of Queenstown to an area called Milford Sound which in fact is not a sound at all but a Fjord and part of New Zealand's Fjordland National Park.

It's actually quite a lengthy bus trip for a short cruise around the sound, but the scenery is dynamic for long sections and at other times I was able to catch up on some much needed rest (as I said I'll get back to talking aboutQueenstown later).


On the way in we stopped at the scenic town of Te Anau where you can get snacks while admiring a large plaster bird and at Monkey Creek which is fed by a glacier. You can actually fill your water bottle with pure cold and most importantly safely drinkable glacial water. I also love the name. After that we passed through a valley which was used in Jurassic Park 2 (the only movie location I've seen in all of New Zealand that wasn't from Lord of the Rings or any other Peter Jackson film).


(from Jurassic Park 2)

(into the Fjord)

There isn't much to say about Milford Sound itself except how beautiful and indescribable large it is. Even the pictures can't show you how small you feel in there.
The Sound is also one of those places that gets lots of rain so of course they chat up how it's better to see it in the wet weather because the run off creates spectacular waterfalls that aren't there when it's dry, but I think I got the best of both because the rains stopped early in the morning leaving onlyoccasional hints of drizzle during the cruise and lots of waterfalls.

(where the fjord meets the sea)

In the last length of our circuit we pulled up next to a seal colony. I know it's my third one already but I can't get enough of them. It's not like we get to see them laying about on cherry beach in Toronto. I think it's amazing seeing animals like these living free in their own world.

By the way, this is the last you will see of my red jacket. I lost it on the bus on the way back to Queenstown.

Bungeeee!

I swear I'm not trying to give you all heart attacks. It's just that Queenstown is New Zealand's de facto capital of extreme sport rides and as the next stop on the magic bus trail the game was rigged from the start. Magic Bus has partnerships with tourist attractions all over New Zealand which does result in some pretty good deals and opportunities. Unusually they just chat it up a little and offer a sign up sheet for those who want in. This one in particular was a little more blatant.

The drive to Q-town is nearly eight hours including breaks so people were getting restless when we stopped just outside town at the A.J.Hackett Kawarau Bridge Bungy Jump. Where we were taken to the "Bungy Theatre" for a quick sales pitch followed by a short film in the tradition of your classic time share sale. It was actually too annoyingly hard sell for me.

Of course you're asking, "Why did I do it?" Well I "hemmed" and "hawed" about it for quiet a while so there was time for me to get used to the idea while several people off our bus went ahead of me but I was already tempted by the idea andQueenstown seemed the place to do it. Still I chose this opportunity because not only was it the original, not only were we already there, but A.J.Hackett in particular has a total of ZERO mishaps. No fatalities, no injuries, no one even getting sick. At least not during the jump, I'm sure there has been somepre and post nausea.

And yes this is actually THE original bungy jump. Initially they were only given a 30 day license (maybe it was 60, I forget now). The government figured no one would go for it but of course now it's everywhere.

Before you jump you're ankles are wrapped tight in a towel which is then wrapped in a harness. A back-up harness goes around your waist. You're trussed up in a near fetishistic manner by the time you approach the ledge. It's a very weird feeling and different than skydiving. Firstly you have to make yourself jump, that's pretty tough. They help to get you going because after telling you to wave to the crowd and wave to the camera they quite unexpectedly start barking out a countdown from 5. I think I jumped on 3, I certainly didn't hear 2 or 1.

When I did the whole landscape in front of me vibrated for a moment. I realized my head was shaking but then i got it together and enjoyed the ride down. Surprisingly, there is no point where you are jerked back. Thebungy eases your descent gently like someone who is very good at braking a car, but straight downward.

Than you fly back up ... twice, which is quiet cool. On the second I managed to spread my arms, arch my back and get a perfect little moment of zero gravity. In the end I think the hardest part was grabbing hold of the pole that they use to fish you into the dingy at the bottom. Admittedly it's stupid but quiet a thrill.

The photos (except for the first 2) were taken by Maaike a lovely, friendly and always entertaining girl from the Netherlands.

Into The Blue World

The dirty little secret of the south Island is they get a lot of rain, especially in certain areas. For instance Franz Josef gets rain in varying amounts about 200 days a year, and it's not something they go out of their way to advertise. So I was a feeling perturbed and unsure the morning of my big glacier hike.

The weather had been perfect the day before and I was starting to wonder if I would have been smarter to do the half-day hike right off the bus. The morning forecast was for rain and lots of it. They had already cancelled the helicopter tours and ice wall climbing for the day. But I had pre-paid and unless they cancelled the hike I figured it would be hard to get my money back. Between that and the fact that I knew I would regret missing the opportunity I decided to let my hand be forced and barrel ahead.

Before we got underway we were given boots, over-pants, waterproof jackets, hats and crampons. Crampons are the spikey shoe souls you see mountain climbers wear. They fit onto your boots like those strap on roller skates from the 1950's.

The skies were grey and threatening as we took the coaches out to the car park at the entrance to the glacier but as we started walking the sky brightened. It wasn't a crisp blue but it was much better than daybreak had implied.

(The Terminal Assertion)
Glaciers are massive. This was a small one and yet it's still so big it's hard to get a clear perspective on it. As you begin to walk toward it, it looks like the terminal assertion (where the bottom edge of the ice touches the ground) is about tens minutes away. Almost forty minutes later you arrive and your finally ready to begin the ascent.

A glacier is basically a river of ice moving in extreme slow motion. Ice is produced at the top and flows downhill, or rather it's pushed down by the new ice forming above. As it comes down it drags rock from the valley walls on either side as well as cold air, so walking on the glacier is actually a little bit colder than being on the valley walls beside it.
The guide companies actually cut stairways into the ice with pickaxes, but because the face is ever shifting they actually keep refining and redigging the steps as they go. It still can be steep so it's not like climbing the stairs at the office but it really helps.

At least that's how it works for the first half of the journey. The stairs go up about as far as the half-day hikers go after that they don't bother and you have to just learn to negotiate the terrain. Two things are working toward you advantage at this point. Firstly all that climbing of ice stairs gives you time to get used to walking on ice and using crampons. Secondly the grade actually gets a little less steep.

(For some perspective look at the ridge a little left of center. That was the group ahead of ours)
This was also the point where the ice got a lot bluer. Mainly because it was newer ice and it had not dragged as much rock and dirt across the glacier face.

Lunch was just off Franz Josef's "True Right" (your right if you are looking up at it from the bottom). If you ever hike a glacier think about this; Where do you go to the bathroom in the midst of untamed nature when there are no trees? Remember you are out for 8 hours and you need to keep hydrated, it will come up. Suffice it to say turns where taken.

Once we hit the upper level I saw some incredible shapes. The ice did majestic things and all in unreal shades of blue, but I think the picture can tell that story better than I can do it in words.

One of the entertaining moments was passing through a crevace so tight that not only did we have to take off our backpacks, but our guide had to take off his radio harness.

(The Crevass)
Unfortunately everything turned around at the same time we did. The rain hit gently at first and it never got too bad but it was unrelenting. The trek down got more risky. We were already tired, dower from the rain and the paths we had come up were now turning into channels for water to run down as well as small sliding rocks.

I must have given my knee a light twist at some point because it was getting sore with every time I had to step a little harder.

By the time we got down even the most chipper of us was getting pretty miserable and it was casting a shadow on the day.

It was unfortunate to end the day on such a down note but then I reviewed the pictures. It did a lot to erase the discomfort of temporary wetness. In the end I was glad I'd seen it.

Arrival at Franz Josef

(me and the glacier)
The town of Franz Joseph exists for one reason only, to service the tourists going up to the glacier. The Franz Josef is (so the guide book says) the worlds fastest moving glacier. It's basically a river of ice tumbling down a mountainside incredibly slowly. At up to a meter a day it is much more active than most of it's contemporaries.

(the whole town of Franz Josef)
The town is actually just two parallel streets. To look at it, you might think it was a movie set designed to just look like a town if shot from the right angles.
Magic Bus rolled in around 2pm. Early enough for some people to do the half-day hike, but I had signed up for the full-day which left me time to kill until the next morning. So I set out with Franci a very cool German girl I had met and we hiked some trails along the glacier approach.
(The non-mirror pool)
It's weird to tramp a rain forest with a view of a giant pile of Ice. There was a "mirror pool" that never calmed down enough to be mirror like but the view didn't disappoint.
(Franci keeping her cool on the bridge)
We crosses an incredibly creaky bridge which unnerved Franci and we had an unusual emerald headed bird fly right over our heads and land in a branch right in front of us. I found later it was actually a kind of pigeon, in fact the largest member of the pigeon family.

I wound down the day with dinner and drink at The Blue Ice Lounge, one of the three bars in town. Phil and Drew were there with tales of their half day hike, as well Franci showed up and Sally a nurse from the UK. I called it an early night because I was looking forward to my big day on the Ice.

A Town Where There is Literally Nothing To Do But Drink

Greymouth is nothing but a weight station between Nelson and Franz Josef. It has only one tourist attraction of it's own and that's the Monteith's Brewery.

I'm not a big drinker but it's definitely been my favorite beer down here in NZ so I was glad that with nothing else to do it would be a beer I found palatable.

It's a basic tour of how a small batch brewery works followed by a tasting and then a half hour of free access to the taps.

Needless to say everyone was walking unsteadily by the time we left but no truly embarrassing moments resulted. I think everyone just slept well.

The Meandering Journey to Greymouth

Greymouth is two thirds of the way to the town of Franz Josef. Making it a convenient place for Magic Bus to stop for the night and allowing for a reasonable arrive time the next day at the Franz Josef Glacier.

This leaves you with a day with some ground to cover but time enough to make some interesting stops. We made two that were well worth mentioning.

The Truman Track is an hour long hike along rugged coastal cliffs. The scenery made me think of Wales or Ireland.

We worked our way through broad landscape and horse fields to the other end where there was a seal colony. It was a nice balance to the kayak trip where I saw fewer seals but was much closer.

Our second stop was Punkakaiki, home of the Pancake rocks.

These oddly formed towers jut out of the water and are made of thin noticeable layers.