March 5th

We have done a bit of driving the last few days, moving from the West Coast up to Nelson.  It is going well with reasonable weather and everyone is enjoying the trip.  We stopped at a steam museum in Wakefield which was actually closed but the two old blokes that ram the place let us roam the grounds and they even started up a couple of the old tractors for us.  They  even had an old Gravely in the barn!

Then we progressed along up the Buller Gorge and saw evidence of recent floods and earthquakes.  This place makes Alaska seem placid!  We ALL (including Wendy) crossed a suspension bridge over a flooding river just for the sake of doing it and taking a walk on the other side.  Here is Jim and Lynndeen halfway across.

Then we got to Nelson and were able to pick up the bikes a day early.  Dang!  We all have a bit of the jitters because of driving on the left side of the road.  the straightaways are easy but doing corners and roundabouts takes a bit of concentration!  Lots of errors but no real mishaps. We are getting ready to check out of this cute little cottage we stayed in last night in Nelson and are headed up to Abel Tasman Park where we have a little beach place near Pohara.

More later as we get the bike portion of the trip underway.

West Coast New Zealand

Well we are alive and well but have had a couple of days of limited wireless access. Thus no news from us.
We stayed one night in the Fox Glacier area. We were able to walk into the town and get a nice dinner. Next AM we walked up to the glacier itself. We have seen plenty of glaciers in Alaska but every one is unique and this one was no exception.

Then we drove on to Greymouth and stayed for two nights there ina downtown hotel. We were supposed to visit the Quinns in Greymouth, but their trip had major disruption and they were not with us. They had left a very welcome note for us at the front desk on arrival. Greynouth is very industrial, located on a river mouth. While there we took a tubing trip through a cave with glow worms on the ceiling which was very cool. Jim and I did some cliff jumping into the river. We found a great Irish pub with Murphy Stout on tap and all was well for a while. We got to tour a brewery Monteiths and sample all their wares. On the tour were a bunch of stodgy Brits who we had to work on loosening up in the tasting room.

On Monday we got back in the van and drove further North to Karamea, a little idyllic town on the coast. On the way we stopped and walked for several miles on Foulwind cape and saw a cool lighthouse and a big seal colony. The have several species of flightless birds here like the Kiwi. We encountered one called the Weka on the trail. They look like a duck but have no wings.

Karamea is near the end of the road and gets very little tourist traffic in comparison. Jim and I did a little fishing and the girls walked about exploring. They came back with more than we did. The owner of the hotel is a retired dairy farmer and a great guy. We had dinner with them at their home last night and had a pleasant evening.

 It is a friendship with a future as they are planning a trip to Alaska nex summer and we have made plans to host them for part of it. They invited us to stay a third night no charge and since it is a typhoon outside we are going to take them up on it. We ate Red Snapper with them which he caught off the beach at his former dairy farm. The pastures here go right down to the beach and there are hundreds of miles of them. He had a unique method of fishing. He has a powered torpedo sort of thing which he points out to sea and it drags several hundred yards of heavy line with it. The line has places to clip short leaders on with hooks and bait on the ends of the leaders, like halibut long lines. Then he reels it back in after a while and gets the fish, if anny took the bait. They also scuba dive right off the beach and get plentiful crawfish, which we call lobsters, and eat them in abundance. Limit 6 per day per diver. Not a bad spot of the globe I Would say.

We are still at their place and plan on heading over to the East probably tomorrow, arriving in Nelson around the 4^th to begin the Motorcycle portion of the trip. I will post this and add pictures later today.  Dick

South Island!

Today we got to the South Island finally and met up with Jim and Lynndeen in Queenstown.  they met us at the airport and we got to go on the road up North on the West coast of the island.  Tonight we are staying in Fox Glacier after about 6 hours of driving.  We drove through a lot of nountains and farm areas.  Strange seeing a glacial river, looking up at glaciers on the peaks while standing in the edge of a rain forest.   Those things do not belong in the same frame in our minds.  Here we are at Lake Wanaka, which is a real jewel.

When we got to Fox River we had dinner at an outside restaraunt and had a good meal.  We could walk there from the Inn we are staying in,  Nice country for sure.

This is Thunder Falls which we saw on the way to Fox Glacier.

We are pretty tired, not feeling very creative tonight.  We are now where we wanted to be and in good company.  We will keep in touch.

A day of sunshine in Auckland

Well we finally had the time and weather together on a day when we could leave the stresses of dealing with the earthquake behind and relax a little.  There is so much going on even way up North here that it is hard to relax and you almost feel bad enjoying yourself. 

Our friends Jim and Lyndeen left this AM for Queenstown and we hope to get the flight tomorrow AM to join them.  Wendy and I took a bus into downtown Auckland and visited the Maritime Museum there, which is famtastic.  First we had a little lunch at an outdoor restaraunt.

They have an old two mast schooner that they sail every day and for only a little increase in the museum ticket you can go out on the harbor in this boat for a sail   It was great.  That is it behind me in the picture.

Here is a little better picture of it from the front.

After we got on the boat they asked for stooges to help with the rigging, so I was volunteered by my lovely wife.  I had to help the guy on the lines hoisting the sail. 

We had great wind.  We passed underneath the big bridge across a narrow part of the harbor, and got to see some folks bungee jumping as we passed pretty close by.  Not for me. 

It was a beautiful day.  The sails looked so good against the blue sky.

Auckland is a beautiful city with a very diverse population and lots going on.  It is a big center for sailing, shipping and business. 

We will sadly leave it tomorrow for a place which may not be as peaceful.

Plans to leave N island

We are still in Auckland and the arrangements and the arrangers are all a mess-good people trying very hard to accomodate the disaster. We have reservatons now to leave early AM Fri (about 9AM Thursday to all you statesiders) and fly to Queenstown where Jim and Lynndeen will be waiting for us, then we will drive to Greymouth and be back on schedule.  IF we can still get a car in Queenstown.  More later.

Day after quake

We are fine 24 hours after the quake.  Still in Auckland and attempting to get to the Souith Island despite the quake, since most of our plans were for being not near CHC. 

Winter in Alaska

Wendy came up to Fairbanks to visit on my last trip up there.  We went to Chena Hot springs and visited the Ice Museum.  It is a big building built entirely of ice and kept frozen year round by geothermal energy.  In fact the whole resort is powered by geothermal energy, even their electric cars and trucks.  Being no Greenie, I was quite taken aback by the success and am very interested in where else this could be applied.  there is s couple who are ice carvers and they have created all the stuff in the museum.  Here Wendy is sitting at one of the bar tables.  They serve Martinis in stemware made of ice, but it was early in the morning and we passed on that.

They had made several bedroom suites in the Palace, and claim now and then somebody books the rooms and spends the night.  Not us!!  the bed was cold and hard, but very interesting.

There were these two jousting knights which were very cool.  they stand about 10 feet tall.  Backlights provide the color.  In aboiut two weeks there will be an International Ice Carving Competition in Fairbanks and there are hundreds of sculptures on display outside, many of them are huge and very intricate.  If they survive outside until late March when I go back I will try to photograph some of them.

Valentines Day at the Cabin

We decided to hit the cabin for a couple nights before our big trip coming up.  We went out on Sunday and got back today, tuesday the 15th.  

 We lucked out and had great weather, and an almost full moon.  We got out on Monday and did some snowshoeing and cross country skiing. Poor Buddy is barely making it around the track any more.

There was a lot of snow there, as opposed to in Wasilla, where hardly any has survived the wind.  The first lap around the cabin I was breaking trail and got major stuck.  the Tundra (yellow) snow machine died on us and had to be towed home.  Never goes the way it should.

Heading out on Tuesday early morning with the Tundra in tow.