Oops! (for Jan. 12)

A couple of final comments about Auckland. In the downtown, I don’t think there are two streets that are parallel. And I don’t think there is a single street that doesn’t either angle off in a new direction or change its name every four blocks or less. I have never been in a more confusing city.

And a clarification about driving. The drifting to the left is a combination of feeling too close to the centre line (which is far to your right at home) and too far from the shoulder (which is near on your left at home).

We headed south from Auckland through rolling country with lots of corn and some grazing land. We turned west, where the land began to flatten out and become almost exclusively grazing. Then we turned north up the coast of the Coromandel Peninsula. The road snakes above the water at the foot of small, rounded mountains. It makes the old Katepwa road look like a walk in the park, with no shoulder, more turns back and forth, more and steeper ups and downs, and frequent sharp turns. It is very narrow, with some single lane bridges, and one stretch where there was no centre line because it wasn’t wide enough for two legitimiate lanes. Although the speed limit is posted as 80 kmph, turns every couple of hundred meters are posted at anywhere from 35 kmph to 65 kmph. Then there are frequent 50 kmph postings for little one street resort villages wherever there is a bit of level land and a beach. Finally we climbed up an equally challenging road over a small peninsula to the town of Coromandel.

First oops. When I planned this leg, I used the brief description from the self-drive section of the tour company’s travel book. If I would have researched a little farther in the other travel books I have, I would have found that there really isn’t anything here, except a nice quiet, artists’ village. The Hot Water Beach that I was looking for is elsewhere on the peninsula. But we were already booked into the motel and unpacked, so we settled in. We will go by there tomorrow, but the water is hot only two hours either side of low tide, so I don’t know yet if it will be worthwhile.

Second oops. We went for a little exploratory walk, but it was still only late afternoon, so we decided to go for a little drive. First, the excuses. Once again the roads are very narrow with no centre line. I was facing into the sun, driving into a shady area and into a left hand turn. We had previously observed that, when driving into the sun, the dash reflected onto the windshield, creating a glare, much like the effect you get from a dusty windshield. It was particularly bad looking into shade. We had noted that this was quite a design flaw. I was trying to leave lots of room in the centre in case there was someone coming the other way around the bend. Can you see where this is going? Suddenly, bang, rumble! The left front tyre (we are in New Zealand, you know) caught a tree root right on the edge of the pavement and sticking out at about 8 inches high. Blew a hole in the sidewall of the tire (tyre). We stopped to change the tire. I was not a happy camper. Funny how that clouds your judgment. I didn’t put the emergency brake on or block a tire. I am just about high enough to change the tire when the car moves just enough to tilt the jack. So now it’s put on the E brake, block a tire, crank the jack back down, reposition it, and crank it up again to change the tire. With all sense of adventure now snuffed out, we slinked back to the motel and called it a night. There is a car rental office in the town we are aiming for tomorrow, so I will have to suck up my courage and tell them my story.

Other than that, I guess it was an OK day.

Hot Water Beach (for Jan. 13)

We made a short trip to take pictures of where we blew the tire, although the lighting was different, the hit the road about 9:30 AM. The roads didn’t follow the coast like yesterday, but the were much the same: up and down, back and forth, with many turns at 35 kmph and some at 25 kmph. It kind of reminds me of the old road across Vancouver Island to Long Beach, if you have ever been on it. Except this goes on all day. We figured our average speed at 60 kmph.

We arrived at Hot Water Beach at 11 AM. Low tide was at 1:26 PM, so, since we were so close, we decided to hang around. We walked the beach, returned to the car, had some lunch and, about noon, we headed out to watch the action. Cold Water Beach would have been a better description on our beach walk. Yikes! Straight from the Antarctic. Not like Fiji, where the ocean was almost bath water warm.

It was a bit windy and wavy, so people were having trouble digging their holes. The idea is that you dig a hole in the sand and it fills up with hot water from underground springs that are only exposed at low tide. People were frantically digging away, but every few minutes a wave would wash over their handiwork, eroding their dikes and filling their holes with sand and cold water. Nevertheless, a few keeners managed to get little puddles started and you could see steam blowing off the water in them. We never got right into the action, as it was a crowded scene and we really didn’t want to spend too much time. Let someone else do all the dirty work and we will stand around and take pictures.

We left about 12:30 and arrived at Rotorua around 4PM. Except for the last hour, the roads were all as described previously. It is kind of interesting at first, but gets pretty tedious after several hours.

Rotorua is a geothermal area and a traditional Maori area. Mmmmm! Sulphur smell. Tomorrow we will take in some of the attractions and look after our car tire. This evening we took in some of the motel attractions, like their free washers and dryers! Their pool is heated to 30 degrees C. Very nice. They also have 6 separate private hot tubs heated to 40 degrees C. Tried them too.

We had a little taste of home this evening. We were in a grocery store and saw a door to a separate room marked “Delicatessen.” We wandered in to discover a huge walk-in refrigerator set a “very cold.” Not conducive to leisurely comparison shopping! They could have made a bundle from a jacket concession outside.

We thought that this motel was perfect until we found that they have Internet connections, but no actual Internet. You have to dial up an ISP or, they have a wireless hotspot. We will get ourselves all ready to go tonight and get a wireless connection tomorrow.

Observations

• Laptops are a lot harder to use than you'd think - especially without a mouse
• I must say (and not because Glenn may read this) but I'm impressed with Glenn's driving. He's getting us around this strange backwards city in this strange backwards car rather well. Even if we make a wrong turn he's able to get us quickly back on track - I think he's using something called 'sense of direction' ! Anyways - it's something I couldn't do in a million years
  
• New Zealanders talk fast and with an accent - tough for me to follow along - like watching Coronation Street without closed captioning
• Auckland is a lot like Vancouver - clean, yuppie and yachts in the harbour
• Auckland has beautiful parks - reminds me of Wascana Park only larger and with more tree varieties - maybe a little more "British" influence in the flower gardens
• Lots of trees in bloom - didn't know so many trees flowered!
  
• American culture and businesses are everywhere - especially in the mall. Lots of American celebrities in their advertising
  
• Lots of fast food franchises - McDonalds, KFC, Wendy's, Burger King, Subway, Starbucks etc - feels like home
• Checked out a couple of supermarkets - same kinds of foods offered only different brand names. Dairy products and fresh fruits and vegetables seemed a little more expensive but once you do the currency conversion - its about the same as in Regina
  
• Strawberries are in season - delicious! We've already eaten two cartons.
• Weather has been lovely - around 25 degrees. Much more comfortable than Fiji!!
  

Auckland

We tried to set up Carla’s old cell phone this morning, but couldn’t get it to work, so we bought a new one that is supposed to also work back home. We have to charge it overnight before we use it, so we will post the number as soon as we test it out in the morning.

We toured the city all day. Auckland is built on 48 old volcanoes, so they turn them into parks. We visited a couple of those, learned about their history and enjoyed the views. We took in an interesting show of Maori music and dance at the Auckland Museum and toured the exhibits. Very interesting. One of the Maori warriors tried to pick up Celeste as you can see from this picture, but she beat him off with a stick.

After the museum we went downtown and explored around the cruise ship docks. Very much like what Vancouver is doing with their waterfront. We picked up some souvenirs, then explored a bit by car and settled in to our hotel. Hallelujah! They have Internet connections in the room! We went for a little walk around the neighbourhoodand discovered a park. In the distance, behind a small hill, we saw some kind of athletic activity and wandered over for a closer look. As we approached, it looked like they were wearing some kind of helmets. Sure enough, it was an American football practice for some Regina Thunder aged kids. That sure caught us by surprise! We then settled down for some serious blogging.

Hello, New Zealand (from Jan. 10)

A pretty uneventful day. The bus ride, airport wait, and flight all went smoothly. On arrival it took us a while to get our car and find our hotel. We checked in about 6 PM, then went out to pick up some grub. This evening we will do some more detailed planning for tomorrow.

Still no good Internet options. We have all this info typed and all these pictures to post, but we have not yet found a way to do it. We can get on the Internet, but we have not yet found a way to paste what we have onto the blog. We don’t want to start over, and we want to post some pictures, so we will keep searching for the right service.

Driving on the left hand side is quite a challenge. I am used to driving with confidence and without having to think too much. Suddenly, I am a beginner again. I have to be tentative and think my way through everything. It is quite an eye opener. My co-pilot’s gasps of alarm help to keep me on my toes. I keep reaching for the shifter with my right hand and grasping at air; I keep turning on the windshield wipers when I want to signal a turn; I keep drifting to the left because I feel too close to the centre line; I get disoriented looking to the left to find my rear view mirror; I always want to check to my left first at intersections, when the immediate traffic is actually coming from the right; and I can’t get comfortable with where my left front fender is when pulling into a parking space or around an obstacle. Other than that, there’s nothing to it!

Fijian Culture (from Jan. 9)

On Monday, we took in a day of Fijian Culture at the Arts Village. They constructed a facility almost 30 years ago to interpret their culture to tourists. The day began with firewalkers, followed by some local dances, a mock battle between two villages, a boat ride around an island with stops demonstrating various village functions, a tour of a temple, and a visit with the Chief, who warned us sternly that he was the boss in this here town and our lives were in his hands. Their past history was quite violent and primitive. Life was cheap, with human sacrifice being quite common.

The ride was air conditioned for a change, but still underpowered. We frequently crawled up hills in low gear. Between that and the speed bumps, it takes about twice as long to travel as you would guess based on distance and speed limit.

We passed the “height of land” on the way there and there was a noticeable change in vegetation. The guide explained that the east side of the island gets about 100 inches of rain per year, while the west side gets only about 60 inches. While the west side has some plants that we would consider indoor, tropical plants at home, it was mostly grasses, bushes, and trees that wouldn’t be out of place in well watered parts of Canada. On the east side though, it was far more forested and jungle-like.

That’s it for Fiji. Our bus departs 6:15 AM tomorrow for a 10:25 AM flight to Auckland.

Vinaka (Thank you) Fiji.

Tivua Island

On Sunday we took a short cruise that was part of the “Fiji Stopover” package that we booked. After a two hour bus ride, including stops at other resorts and a change to a bigger bus, we arrived at the harbour. There we boarded a motorized sailing vessel for a one hour ride out to their private island for a day of miscellaneous activity, including sunburning. We tried to be careful, but still got a little bit red. The crew also serenaded us with Fijian music as we were boarding, on the island, and again on the way back. They harmonize beautifully. They put up a couple of small sails, just for show, and motored out to the island, anchored offshore, and transferred to the island by smaller boats.

On the island, there were numerous activities, like kayaking, snorkeling, etc. We went on a reef tour in a glass bottom boat and went swimming. There was a BBQ lunch of fish, chicken and lamb sausage, salads, and fruit, and an open bar.

One of the guys showed how to open a coconut with a stake and a karate chop. He also performed a Kava ceremony. Kava is made from a dried root that is pounded into a powder, then mixed with water. It is quite the big deal here. It is kind of like being “Screeched in” in Newfoundland. There are lots of “Bula’s” throughout. I didn’t rush to the front of the line. It smelled to me like one of those male bravado things, where this stuff is so bad that you have to have lots of clapping and cheering to do it and congratulations if you can manage. If you don’t drink it all in one gulp and smile, you have to do it again from a bigger cup. No thanks!

The wind was pretty light on the way out, but had become quite brisk by the time we headed back. The rough water made for an interesting ride back to the ship, docking alongside, and transferring people back aboard. They put up some more sails this time to take advantage of the brisk wind. A rain storm blew up on the way. With only a tarp overhead and the rain blowing sideways, we all got wet. We had a pretty good list on all the way and, one time, a gust coincided with a course correction to cause about a 30 degree tilt to the deck. The bench we were sitting on started sliding to the low side of the ship where the deck was just above the water. Many of the less adventurous passengers were getting pretty anxious, but we experienced prairie sailors took it all in stride, having a wealth of sailing experience under Captain Doug off Vancouver Island this past summer.

The bus rides were interesting. There is a “National Maximum Speed Limit 80 KMPH” posted frequently, but it seems to be only a guideline. The road winds up and down and around hills; there is livestock everywhere, horses, cows, goats, pigs and dogs, sometimes tethered, oftentimes not; other traffic is often hardly moving; and there are several speed bumps as you go through each village. They are often posted for 20 kmph, and they mean it. Sometimes you have to virtually stop. So the drivers go like stink to make up time between obstacles.

The terrain is very hilly and not suited to large scale agriculture. No market for Accutrak here, unless we can steer oxen. There is quite a bit of sugar cane south of Nadi, but along the coast where we are, it is mostly subsistence farming and tourism. There is a large pine forest south of Nadi. Apparently, they imported the pines from India many years ago to use as a source of building materials.

We had another excellent supper and took in the resort’s entertainment before retiring. They had a selection of dances and music from various South Seas islands.

“Bula!” from Fiji (from Jan.7)

“Bula” is their greeting, like “Hello.” But they also seem to use it often as an exclamation. Like, if you have accomplished something or you are having a good time, you might blurt out “Bula!” enthusiastically and indiscriminately.

While clearing customs and immigration we noticed three young Mormon missionaries from Canada in their new dark suits. I wonder if they are aware of the history of cannibalism of missionaries in this country? After meeting up with our tour company, we had a one hour bus ride to our resort. It was before 7 AM and they didn’t have a room for us yet, so they sent us for a buffet breakfast. We finally got to our room about 8 AM. I don’t know if you have been counting, and I am not sure I can do the math, but we were traveling for about 29.5 hours from home to getting settled in our room.

The room is quite large and very nice. It features a large walk in shower with another large private walk out shower with tub off the bathroom. There is no ceiling, so it is open to the stars at night. Kind of cool. It was strewn with about a dozen fresh picked Hibiscus flowers when we checked in.

We weren’t too tired, having slept on the plane, so we explored our resort a

bit. It is very nice. I
will post some pictures, if I can. They say they have an Internet connection, but it is pretty slow. There was a heavy rain while we were on the bus and a couple more during the day, but the sun always came out afterward and it was otherwise a pretty nice day. Very warm and humid. Takes some getting used to – especially for Celeste!

Although we weren’t too sleepy when we got here, we crashed for an hour after lunch. We went in the pool for awhile, elbowed some little kids out of the way to use the waterslide, and explored the resort. We had an excellent supper (They have a Canadian Executive Chef), and made an early night of it.

Blastoff! (from Jan. 5)

We were up until 2 AM Thursday morning making preparations and were up again at 6 AM to finish up. My Dad picked us up at 8:30 and drove us to the airport. We departed a little after 10:30 for Calgary.

By the time we got to Calgary, Celeste was getting a headache and it looked like it would be a tough day. We spent a couple of hours in Calgary airport, then 3 hours enroute to LAX. Celeste took some Advil and dozed off enroute, and was good to go by the time we landed.

I tried to catch some winks, but was only able to doze for a few minutes a couple of times, so I stared out the window. I found the US Rocky Mountains interesting. Whereas our Rockies are very rugged and sharp featured, in pretty clearly defined ranges, running north/south, and separated by deep narrow valleys, theirs are older and worn down, with clumps of mountains separated by open area, seemingly devoid of vegetation. If you know what the terrain around Vegas is like, it seemed much like that pretty much all the way down.

We spent 5 hours in LAX airport. Here is a picture (if I can load it properly) of Celeste under the slogan they ripped off from Regina, which we ripped off from New York.

We departed on Air New Zealand, had a very good meal, were able to sleep a bit, and were treated to a pretty good breakfast before landing at Nadi, Fiji at 4 AM their time on January 7. We lost a day crossing the International Dateline. Sleeping was difficult, even though we had 2 of those blow up neck pillows. Your head still wants to flop sideways and give you a sore neck. Just before landing, we discovered the secret. The seats had built in, adjustable supports to hold your head up! Who’d a thunk it? Not two country bumpkins from Saskatchewan!

Hallelujah! We have a connection!

Yes we do. Here comes all the stuff we have been holding back.

Stand by some more

We arrived safe and sound in Auckland last night. Still haven't found a place where we can hook the laptop up and post all we have written and our pictures. Will keep searching. Maybe the next hotel.

Standby

Having a wonderful time in Fiji! But standby for more info. The connection here in the resort lobby is a slow dial up, so we won't sit here and type. They don't want us to copy from a CD because of the chance of virus. We can get a connection from our room for $47. Not likely! Will post from New Zealand in a couple of days.