MISSOURI

MISSOURI

We are still in Mount Vernon, MO with Debby's Mom as she continues her rehabilitation. The staff continues to aggressively work with her on her speech, memory, use of her arms and strengthening her legs. The right side has limited usage but she is steadily improving in all aspects of her rehabilitation. Her speech is much better. She is beginning to put words together more frequently.

Kudos to the Nurses, Doctors and Therapists at the Missouri Rehabilitation Center. The staff in this facility is wonderful! Their care and patience is to be commended. Whenever a patient needs help, the nurses are "Johnny on the spot"! They respond quickly and professionally. There is no doubt they sincerely care for their patients. Everything happens right on time. They are seldom late, if at all, for the rehab activities, and mealtime.

The food has been very good. It's obvious the cooks actually COOK! There is little to none, bonafide institutional food. The cooks prepare it all, and it s very good! We have been impressed with the quality and taste. The staff allows family and friends who eat with a patient, to eat for free. This is probably why the food is so good! Free is a very good value!

Debby and I plan to go to church with her sister, Teri, on Sunday. Afterwards, we will headed for Branson and spend the night. We will continue our road trip Monday, headed for Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas.

MOUNT VERNON, MO

Mount Vernon, MO

We are spending every day with Debby's Mom since we arrived. The stroke took its toll on Mom's right side. She has limited use of her right side muscles. It's a lot of work to try to get the brain impulses to reroute, to signal the various parts sleeping to wake up. It makes me aware of how much we take ourselves for granted. We wake up each day assuming all of our parts will function normally. There is little concern of anything breaking down. In our minds, we will live a long time.

This rehabilitation unit is full of adults of all ages with conditions that have greatly reduced their mobility, speech and way of thinking. Any number of things can put you in a place like this; strokes, automobile wrecks, fights, operations, and other unexpected acts. Everyone trying to recover as much as they can and resume life. They still live on the edge. One more accident, fight, or stroke can topple their future because they are still in recovery from the first one. One thing they have in common is hope.

I guess we all do.

BACK IN THE STATES

BACK IN THE STATES

After landing back in the states hours before we left New Zealand, we made our way through U.S. Customs and Immigration without a single glitch, and headed for the UNITED ticket counter. We has a 3 hour wait for our flight to Dallas-Ft Worth, so we had a bite to eat and breathed in the good 'ol USA, even though It was LA air!

Ron and Nancy's son, Jeff, had dropped off his big SUV right outside luggage pick-up for us to use to get back to Wylie. We spent the night there and left about 10:30 to make a Bee line to Missouri. Debby was anxious to come see her Mother where she is recovering from a recent stroke.

It was a long trip but the weather cooperated and we made good time. Mom is in a Rehab unit and doing okay. She is slowly recovering the use of her right side and her speech is improving. The family has a plan to get her back home soon and continue helping her get better.

It's been snowing throughout this area. The ground is covered and more snow is on the way. We plan to stay a few days before heading East. Hoping the weather cooperates.

SERENDIPITY

SERENDIPITY

The long Bus ride from Queenstown to Christchurch did allow us to experience the outback of New Zealand. We learned that NZ is not crowded with subdivisions and housing additions. There are many miles of nothing between these two cities! But sandwiched in between remote places there are scenic hills with wide open skies. In fact, atop one large hill in particular rests a large celestial telescope where one can go to view the heavens. This is the Lake Tekapo Observatory. The neighboring town is required by city ordinances to point their street lights downward so as to not reflect light onto the skies that might inhibit stargazing.

Some of the lakes were awesome even though a lack of rain has plagued the Island. The evening sky reflecting in the calm, blue water provided photo ops in spite of the fast moving bus. Hillsides were brown; few trees grew along this stretch of highway. Lake Tekapo was one of the most beautiful lakes and s the second largest of three lakes in a series along this area. It had a rich turquoise color to it, caused by finely ground glacial rock and carried into the lake by glacial streams.

In the small town, along the shore of Lake Tekapo, our driver thought we shouldn't miss seeing The Church of the Good Shepherd and the nearby bronze statue of a Sheepdog. He said the statue honors all of the sheepdogs of New Zealand, but he singled out one sheepdog in particular. It seems that a rancher had rode out with his dog one cold day, checking on his many sheep grazing on his hundreds of acres of land. Something startled his horse, throwing the rancher to the ground where he was injured and knocked unconscious. When he came to, he discovered it was nearly dark and his horse was long gone. He was all alone except for his faithful sheepdog. The night was bitter cold and the rancher credits his life being saved by his dog who curled up against him throughout the night and provided the warmth he needed for survival. So the rancher commissioned a sculptor to make a cast. About a year and a half later the bronze dog was commissioned, honoring and recognizing the invaluable roll of the NZ Sheep Dogs.

Had we not been blown out of the saddle by Air New Zealand's canceled flight, we would never have gotten to see a turquoise lake and a bronze dog on the side of the road.

Life is good!

AIR NEW ZEALAND REVIEW

AIR NEW ZEALAND REVIEW

I'm not sure what to think about Air New Zealand. Our first experience with them was our flight from LA to Auckland. They were beyond nice, great to talk to, understanding and ready to meet our needs. They made a point to allow us the freedom to check two bags at no additional cost. Our carry-on bags were not a problem; carry what we pleased. There was no issue with weight limits, even though we were well under their limits. But all flights after the first one, baggage limits were changed to checking one per person (to avoid large fees) and one carry-on plus one personal item (purse, computer, briefcase). We did learn that "Duty Free" bags were okay to carry on in addition to the normal carry-on. So we carried a couple of those everywhere we went!

After we reached Auckland and checked in for our first Domestic Flight to Queenstown, we were shocked at the absence of airline security, as we know it to be flying inside the USA. This small plane has only two seats across. It was Prop driven; no stewardess service at all. Actually, the lady pilot could have been the Stewardess as far as we could tell. She was pretty young! We walked down a flight of stairs and out onto the Tarmac where portable steps were wheeled up to the doorway just behind the cockpit. As there was no overhead storage, the Co-Pilot came back and took Deb's carry-on up front and set it on the floor behind the cockpit, and strapped it in like a child.

Upon arrival, we grabbed our stuff, exited the plane down the portable steps and walked into the Terminal; no security, no separation of secure and unsecured areas or anything. You just walk in like you were coming inside for outside in any other building. It was very cool!

From here it gets worse. ANZ cancelled our flight from Rotorua to Chistchurch, apparently because not enough seats were sold, and put us on a 90 minute Bus from Rotorua to Queenstown, where we got a ticket to Christchurch. Then because of low clouds and rain, they canceled our flight and put us on another 7 hour Bus to Christchurch. They did stop after a couple of hours and fed us Fish and Chips for dinner.

From Christchurch to Auckland we had to go through Security and also from Auckland to Los Angeles. No biggie. Both were Jets.

The 12 hour overseas flights were killers! The seats seemed to be the closest together of anything we had been on, including the Cessna 206 to Milford Sound! We were crowded in like Sardines in a can, with barely enough room to change your mind! Whenever the passenger in front of you leaned back his seat, the built-in video screen was a mere 12" away! That's a bummer when you wear bifocals!

If you want to make the long journey to Auckland, you might consider inquiring about the space between seats, legroom, etc. of the different airlines and take the best one! That would be a good "Google" project! Or, if you are NOT counting Social Security pennies, you could opt to upgrade to the larger bucket seats in Premier Economy with the little foot rest and only two seats side by side instead of 4 seats side by side!

Or, if you get your wife a second job, you could save up enough cash to reserve the sleeper chairs! That's right! Sleepers! Convertible chairs. First Class all the way! Go ahead! DO IT!!!

TRY IT

I heard the comments thing was not working. I made some account changes. Try it out and see if you can post a comment.
Mike

AUCKLAND

AUCKLAND

Tuesday afternoon we had to go through Security for the first time since we arrived in New Zealand. All of our domestic flights were on small Prop driven planes, a bit larger than a crop duster but still a Prop. One Kiwi commented about the lack of Security checks, as we know them to be in the states: "Who's going to fly a Prop into a building?" Ha Ha!

Our flight from Christchurch to Auckland was aboard a Jet, thus the Security, I suppose. However, Security was much nicer than getting our flight canceled and loading us onto a Bus!

We stayed in the Rose Park Hotel, just across the street from the Rose Garden. Our modest rooms were clean and comfortable. The Staff was nice and everything worked. Their restaurant was very good. I had yet another plate of Fish and Chips, and the fish was excellent!

Wednesday morning we dressed and headed downtown trying to figure out the city bus system. We bought a full day pass that covered busses and boats. We hopped on the Green Bus and rode around sightseeing. We stopped on in a posh shopping area and met up with an acquaintance of Nancy; a friend of a friend kind of thing. We visited for a few minutes before proceeding on our way.

We ate lunch downtown in the main Bus Terminal. Afterwards we walked across the road to the wharf where we took a couple of cruises. It was a beautiful for a ride across the Bay. The harbor was teeming with activity but there was plenty of room. Parked in the harbor was "The Dawn Princess", a cruise ship we had seen cruising in Milford Sound a few days ago.

Following our return to the Wharf, we took a walk through downtown towards the tall spire, or tower, sometimes referred to as the "hypo needle" (as if a needle is giving a shot in the sky). It is similar to the Space Needle in Seattle except this one is much taller. We stayed on the observation deck until after sunset. It was a beautiful evening. The hard part for me was trying to walk the dark streets back to the station, where we caught a taxi anyway! I just can't see well at night and stepping on or off of a curb can hurt!

Today ( Thursday ) we went to the local Aquarium and toured the Penguin exhibit. It was a lot of fun to see them in their own frozen habitat. They are so entertaining! I could watch them for hours!

We are currently in the airport. Our plane is scheduled to take off at 10:45 (90 minutes). It's interesting how the International Date Line and Time Zones make you scratch your head. When we came to NZ, we lost a day, like a Twilight Zone episode. Flying back to LAX, we leave Auckland at 10:45 PM Thursday and arrive in LA at 3:00 PM Thursday. It's like if I sent myself a text message before takeoff, I would get it more than 7 hours before I sent it!!! Go figure!

It has been a good vacation. NZ has a lot to offer and there was much we didn't see or do. I'm sure it will be here for another day, another time.

Richard and Jan: so sorry you couldn't be here with us. We had a great time. Our best to your brother and his family. Keep in touch! My Blogs will continue until June in case you wish to follow us. Come see us in the States!

EARTHQUAKES

EARTHQUAKES

Christchurch was devastated by 4 serious earthquakes over a years time in 2010 and 2011. Although the "no entry" Red Zone has dramatically decreased in size since the last big quake there is still an area of town that has restricted entry due to the serious condition of many buildings and streets. Roads and building reconstruction abounds.

One main reason why these quakes were so devastating is because the last quake was different. The one before was a shaking, or horizontal earthquake; the kind that makes buildings sway left and right. The last one was a vertical quake that would lift the buildings and then drop them; lift and drop, lift and drop several times. The immovable concrete could not withstand such stress and much of it cracked or crumpled. The wood structures survived mainly unscathed. One lady who gave us a guided our of the Botanical Gardens said the ground "rolled along". The oldest Catholic Cathedral sustained irreparable damage and will never be reconstructed. They are deciding on how to leave it, whether with part of it as a facade for a memorial, or whether to tear it down completely. There is much controversy in the decision.

I spoke to a construction worker who agreed that there was a lot of work to do and construction trades would be very busy for years to come. Our tour guide on an open air bus tour of the city told us that there was a great shortage of skilled tradesmen in New Zealand. The country has been getting the "help wanted" word out to Asian countries and also, to Ireland, where unemployment is very high.

One Japanese tourist was overheard ragging on the slowness of the NZ government, Christchurch's City Council in particular, to rebuild, citing Japan's quick recovery time from their tsunami. The problem here seemed to be the Council's indecision of agreeing on a reconstruction plan. We have heard talk of 3, 4 or 7 story height limits. At any rate, strict new earthquake guidelines and safety measures will be required. The procrastination is hurting many businesses. One devastated building I saw had a plywood sign out front, on which the owner had scrawled these words in black spray paint: "We will be back, no thanks to the scum". Our driver said it refers to the City Council, which, apparently, is not well liked right now!

Because of the high tourism in Christchurch, the City Council allowed the use of shipping containers to create a shopping area downtown as a means of boosting the economy quickly. Containers were brought in and set up in mainly one area of town, although not limited to that. They were cut open, ends and sides where windows and doors were added, many were set up side by side and welded together to seal out the elements and opened up to resemble large stores. Once inside, you couldn't tell you was inside a container! Containers were stacked on top of stores to provide storage of goods for restocking the shelves at night. Even the public toilets. Banks, and Coffee Shops were shipping containers! It was very cool!

Christchurch has had their share of quakes. Since the last of the big ones in 2011, there have been more than 13,000 quakes and aftershocks around the city. Fortunately, they were small enough in magnitude to not cause further damage. Why, in the past week there have been 13 quakes recorded; Four since we've been here! It's no wonder they refer to NZ as the "shaky isles"!

TRAVELING

TRAVEL DAY TO CHRISTCHURCH

Air New Zealand canceled our flight out of Wanaka to Chrstchurch and put us aboard a bus to Queenstown instead. In Queenstown we picked up tickets to fly Air NZ from Queenstown to Christchurch. It was raining and overcast; clouds were low, so Air NZ canceled our flight and put us aboard a bus to Christchurch instead.

The thing about NZ roads: NZ is very hilly with huge mountains near Wanaka and Queenstown; very steep mountains. This condition requires the roads to have numerous switchbacks, with many turns. Even a normal rider should take Dramamine before attempting country travel! Air travel, on the other hand flys like a Crow, taking less time and less distance to make the journey. The 55 minute trip air time from Wanaka to Christchurch ended up taking from 7:00 AM to 10:30 PM to make the journey, with actual windshield time being a little over 8 hours. *sigh

If this should happen to you, don't expect Air NZ to offer any compensation! They will ante up for the bus fare, but no air fare rebate or "free ticket" to a future destination. After all, they were "put out" as well.

I believe that our Aussie friends, Richard and Jan were flying out of Queenstown this same morning on Virgin Air. If that is true, Richard and Jan, your flight was canceled as well and you would have had to remain overnight to possibly fly out the next day, if the fog lifted. If not, you would still be there! Unless, of course, they could figure out a way to bus you to Sydney!

The bus driver dropped us off out in the pasture near the air terminal and we walked in, dragging our luggage behind us. I had canceled our Super Shuttle as soon as our flight cancellation was announced. It was going to meet us in Christchurch at 3:30 and I knew we would not make in time and didn't want to still have to pay the $39 (no show) fee. As we neared the taxi station I spied two Super Shuttles at the curb and asked them to reinstate our reservation. After they made a couple of phone calls, we climbed aboard and was soon at our hotel.

We are staying at The Dorset House, a backpackers hostel with tiny, but private rooms and community bathrooms. The bedrooms are small, barely enough room to change your mind! But once you close the door, turn out the light, jump into bed and close your eyes, it's very large!

We took a bus tour of Chistchurch today. The earthquake damage is slowly being repaired, although it will take years more to complete. More than 1700 buildings were damaged and around 200 people killed in the 4 earthquakes they had.

More about that later.

LAST DAY IN WANAKA

LAST DAY IN WANAKA

Wanaka has been a wonderful place to visit, for sure. The South Island Alps, with their magnificent peaks, countless glaciers, beautiful weather and blue lakes has been an awesome destination. There is much that we did not do that could have been done if we had the time and money. We have never seen so many Sheep and Deer in one place!

At one time, this was a boom-country, full of gold miners, diggers and panners looking for their fortune. It was estimated that there were as many as 10,000 of them, from all over the world. Tons of gold was taken from this land in the 1800's. one fellow told me the first men to discover the gold just picked it up off the ground and filled their wheel barrows! I can't really imagine that! I'm certain that story has stretched a bit over the years (like the big one that got away)! But I wouldn't mind having a Wheel Barrow full of gold!

Today was our final day in Wanaka. We needed to return our rental car by 1:00 PM, so we stayed close to town today. We drove around a bit and took in some shopping. We ate lunch at the WATERHOUSE. It had been recommended. Although the place was nearly empty, the food was very good! Debby had chicken and fries from the kid's menu; Nancy had the Salmon dinner (it looked very good): Ron had a beef steak with a rib bone attached to the side of it, making it look like a flag, or something; while I had the Venison BBQ Burger with green tomatoes, smoked cheese, Jalapeño Chutney and fries! Yum!!

We stopped in a couple of shops and bought a few necessary souvenirs downtown. We stopped in a "Made in NZ" store and looked over their sweaters, hats and stuff. I was especially intrigued by the items made from Possum hair and Marino wool. The lady brought out a Possum fur rug about the size of a placemat and had me feel its warmth. It was indeed warm to the touch! She said by blending the two together, it made the sweater (or hat, or socks or shawl) about 40% warmer. So the next time you all run over a Possum, consider what you can make out of it before you leave it dead on the road!

We returned to the condo where Nancy dropped us off. She and Debby returned the rental car while Ron and I hit the hot tub for a while. Then we took a little nap while the girls walked the 2.5k back to the condo! Yes! We are watching out for them!

We ate our evening meal in our condo, trying to empty our refrigerator before we leave. We need to pack our suitcases and be ready to meet our bus to Queenstown in the morning at 0700. They were so nice to swing by our condo and pick us up!

We are sorry that our Australian friends, Richard and Jan, were not able to meet us here in Wanaka to spend the week together. They would have been an added blessing to a blessed vacation! The four of us stayed with them a few days in their home a few years ago and really enjoyed our time with them. I've known Richard since 1970 from my R & R to Sydney from Viet Nam. His family was like a second family to me. Jan's brother, David is terminally ill and needed to cancel their trip to NZ. We completely understand. Under the circumstances, any of us would have done the same. Our prayers are with David and his family.

As for Richard and Jan: whether in this life or the next, we hope to see you again!

Tomorrow we will end our day in Christchurch, NZ, The Lord willing!

ROB ROY GLACIER.

ROB ROY TRACK

It was overcast this morning as we arose to face the day. It looked like rain was coming to Wanaka. But as the sun rose, the clouds began to melt away and it looked like today would be a great hiking day!

Ron and I decided to head out to the Rob Roy Track and take a 10 Km hike into the mountains. The 54 Km drive was half gravel road, with the final 10K full of washouts and even a small stream crossing! As I mentioned before, Kiwi's have domesticated Deer and Elk, with all of them now being raised on farms and harvested like cattle. For the males, the animals are sedated and the Antlers removed when they are in Velvet. Along the way to the trailhead, there were miles and miles of Deer and Elk in pastures like herds of cattle back home! Thousands of these animals are raised in this area alone! I have never seen so many in one place. It was a very interesting drive!

We found the trailhead and parked. The trail was well used and clearly marked. We soon came upon the swinging bridge that crossed over the Matukituki River. It was narrow, about 100' long and swinging nearly 30' above the glacier fed river below. It was old but is scheduled to be replaced during the first three weeks of April this year. We were fortunate to have been able to hike the old bridge before it fell!

We met several Trampers along the trail as it was a great day to be out and about. "Trampers" are "Hikers" to us. Kiwi's have a way about the language that makes me smile!

It was a moderate hike with a lot of harder uphill hiking. The trail made its way ever higher, chasing a roaring glacier fed stream, until we arrived at the overlook point. We sat down and had a peanut butter sandwich as we gazed upon the beautiful face of this pristine area! I counted 13 waterfalls cascading hundreds of feet down off the grand Rob Roy Glacier. The Glacier was awesome! It was huge! During the Ice Age this Glacier connected with two other glaciers, and extended far down into the valley. As they receded, melting away over the years, the Rob Roy has but a small overhang now. But though its "small", it is a huge glacier to us.

It was a great hike, getting to see more of God's creation in NZ.

LEISURELY DAY

Leisurely Day in Wanaka

We arose before sunrise today but stayed around the condo until about 10:00. We were looking at exploring brochures to decide what to do next. It's hard to follow a performance like Milford Sound!

We decided to take a walkabout downtown for a little shopping. Along the way we decided we should rent a car for a couple of days and take in some outback sights. Ron and I want to do the Rob Roy Track, a trail that takes in a swinging bridge and ends up with a view. The car will come in handy because the trailhead is 53 Km from our condo!

We looked around downtown and bought a few things. As it was lunch time we decided to eat. I had Fish and Chips while the 3 amigos wanted Subway. We ate our lunches on the grass next to the lake. The Ducks and Sea Birds would come up and stand inches away, begging for food! No fear!

After lunch I decided to power walk the 2-1/2 Km back to he condo while Ron, Nancy and Debby walked to the car rental place and snagged us some wheels!

I beat them home by about 10 minutes. We decided to take a little ride as Nancy was itching to drive! It was pretty scary but I finally calmed down after the medication took hold! We drove about 25 Km into the country towards Mount Aspiring, towards the Rob Roy Track. When we decided to turn around, there was a waterfall across the field on the hillside, as well as a large herd of Deer grazing in the field. There were more than 40 out there. Deer are domestically raised in New Zealand for their venison (which can be purchased in the grocery store), for the hide and for the Antlers, which sells for a very high dollar.

We stopped on the way back to look at another Track around another lake. We didn't walk far.

The girls cooked a very nice spaghetti dinner. We headed for the hot tub, then returned to play a few hands of Pitch before retiring.

It was a good day!

MILFORD SOUND, NZ

MILFORD SOUND
Wednesday, March 13

We decided the best thing we could do for ourselves today, would be to treat us to a plane ride into Milford Sound. To drive to Queenstown for a bus tour would take 13 hours plus the trip to and from Queenstown, plus the expense of a special ride from Wanaka. So after contacting Southern Alps Air, we opted for the Fly By Mount Aspiring, Land at Milford Sound, and Take a Cruise on the Sound (which is actually a FJORD but has been misnamed by people who didn't know the difference!).

Our 6-seater, Cessna U 206 F aircraft was the type fitted with fixed wings above the cockpit which gave us full viewing down below. Our young pilot, barely out of high school, said this was his first flight. I asked for another pilot but they were out. We stuffed ourselves into the tiny cabin, strapped on the seat belts, put on the headsets, crossed our fingers and listened to the 300 brake horsepower engine spin the Prop with enough force to take us into the wild blue yonder with ease.

The girls were apprehensive at first. With only one propeller between themselves and impending death; and with a little kid at the wheel straining to see over the dash, thoughts of what could be flushed through their brains like a toilet. I sat in the back seat on the first leg of our trip snapping pictures left and right like we were having a contest of who could take the most in the least amount of time!

Our continuous climb gave us awesome views of Wanaka Lake and the city below and offered perspective to our lay-out. It also opened up a whole new world of vistas, as mountains after mountains began to come into view. Hundreds of glaciers clung to mountainsides. Snowfields and lakes dotted the landscape with splashes of color. Spires and Pinnacles projected to the heavens enticing would-be climbers to just TRY to "sit on top of me"! The view from our vantage point was awesome! Hundreds of snow capped peaks touched the sky as far as the eye could see.

As we neared Milford Sound, our pilot descended into the Sound from the Tasman Sea side and flew between the glacier carved mountains towards the upper end to the boat dock and landing strip. He set her down gently on the asphalt runway and taxied towards the parking area where a bus met us and took us on in to the terminal.

We had cruise tickets given to us as part of the tour package and we boarded the Mitre Peak for a 2 hour cruise. The small ship headed towards the Tasman Sea; the wind was making white caps on the water but no one seemed to mind as we snapped a few hundreds more photos and stared at the jaw-dropping scenery. The sheer cliffs offered views of Copper, Quartz and Gold veins imbedded in the black rock face and Fur Seals sunning themselves upon warm rocks.

We turned around where Sea meets Sound and headed back in. The wind subsided as we turned the other direction and provided some relief. We cruised along the north face of the towering cliffs, passing by another herd of Seals. The Captain piloted the ship close to a 60 meter high waterfall, nearly drowning those of us in the Bow (although we did disregard his advice to move indoors). But it felt good. There were two more waterfalls but we didn't park below them! The Falls near the Docks provided fresh drinking water and hydro power for the facility. About 60 people live here; employees of the facility and those who work on the boats. Otherwise it's a long drive in and out every day.

I sat in the Co-Pilot's chair on the return trip. Fortunately the pilot did not fall asleep, or have a heart attack, or something that would necessitate me taking over the controls. Flying in NZ would be more difficult to do as one would have to concentrate to fly on the left side of the sky! We returned along a different route and was able to see more glaciers and terrain. I spotted a very cool backpacking trail down below as it wound its way up the mountain, skirting a gorgeous blue lake before plunging down into a canyon and beyond to Milford Sound. The glaciers were awesome, as typical. The mountain peaks had cool names like Rob Roy, Aspiring and many more I can't remember!

Our landing was smooth. The Tour was just as good as they said it would be. The Cessna, held together with Duct Tape, performed very well. Our kid pilot knew his stuff and actually pulled it off. It was a great experience; one that we are glad we took!

And the girls will be fine after a few hours of medication.

WANAKA, NEW ZEALAND

WANAKA, NZ

The weather is beautiful here! We had a leisurely morning enjoying coffee, breakfast and the hot tub. The mountains surround us on all four sides. Due to the lack of rain the hills are more brown than they should be. It's still beautiful!

We decided to take a walkabout and look around Wanaka's lake and head downtown. The lake water level is down quite a bit but it was nice. People were out and about boating, swimming, sailing and picnicking. We also took a picnic lunch with us and found a comfortable table near downtown.

We found an information station and inquired about Milford Sound excursions. They either take a long time, as they leave from Queenstown, requiring is to spend a couple of nights there in order to make early morning and late night connections, or consider airplane options from Wanaka. Those are quite expensive! We are looking at other options.

After walking around downtown a bit, we headed back towards out condo, taking our time, resting, sitting beside the lake and enjoying ourselves. After we returned to the condo, I checked my GARMIN ETREX 30. We had tracked 5.5 miles! Not a bad walkabout if you ask me!

Our condo is very nice. It's a two bedroom, one bath unit with a large living/dining and kitchen area with a spacious deck overlooking the courtyard swimming pool area. After our hike, Debby and Nancy used the hot tub and later this evening, we sat around the poolside and barbecued hamburgers for dinner.

It's going to be a great week!

TRAVELING

TRAVELING TO WANAKA, NZ

Today we have a traveling day. We arose early and had our dose of breakfast, coffee and vitamins. We finished last minute packing and headed for the tiny Hyundai Compact with our luggage; it was like stuffing 10 pounds into a 5 pound sack, but we managed! Ron has been our designated driver these past few days and he was glad that this was his last day of driving! Driving on the left side of the road takes a lot of concentration, not to mention all FOUR of us! We joked about sightseeing with a dyslexic driver, a blind navigator and two hysterical women in the back seat, as we made our way about!

We left Rotorua this morning about 10:30. Our twin engine prop-driven Air NZ craft was about 20 minutes late taking off because of heavy ground fog in Wellington, where we will switch planes, bound for Queenstown. The longer we waited, the longer the delay, the more Debby and Nancy shopped in the airport gift shop! Ron and I would have bought handcuffs or manacles and tied the girls to their chairs but we couldn't find any! We were grateful when the Wellington fog lifted enough for us board the plane!

The hour long flight to Wellington was uneventful.....THANK GOODNESS!! Flying over the NZ countryside was fun. Looking down on the farmlands and mountains; seeing steam rising into the sky from volcanic fissures was interesting. The crops seemed to be planted as near to the geothermal vents as possible. What I could see from the air was probably nothing to what could be seen from the ground. I guess this thermal activity makes one understand why NZ is referred to as "The Shaky Isles"!

We still made our connecting flight in Wellington. It was delayed also due to the fog. The 90 minute flight to Queenstown was mostly above cloud cover. We were originally scheduled to meet our Australian friends in Queenstown and rent a vehicle for the week. They had to cancel due to Jan's brother's bad health. She felt like she was needed to be closer to him during his battle for his life. We completely understand and would probably do the same if it was us! We aren't sure what we will do now regarding us to getting to Wanaka from Queenstown. Guess we will figure that out after we get there. Right now, I've got to focus on FLYING!!!

UPDATE:

We had a good flight to Queenstown. After picking up our luggage, we checked on car rentals, road conditions, shuttles, taxis and bus transportation to Wanaka. We opted for the $35/ea. bus transport. In about 15 minutes we were onboard and heading into the mountains.

Beautiful country arounds here! Our Worldmark Resort is about 2 Km from downtown. It sets on the shore of a beautiful lake; mountains all around. Our second story two bedroom condo has a beautiful view of the pool and the mountains. I think we're going to like it here!

It's ALL good!

TOURANGA, NZ

TOURANGA, NZ

Sunday morning, March something, 2013, we headed to church. We had scoured the Rotorua phone book and the Internet search engines for a local church, but we found none of our particular constitution. We did, however, locate a couple of Churches of Christ in Turanga, NZ, about 90 minutes drive to the coast.

The drive was adventurous, for sure. We left our condo with maps and rough directions that we had copied from the local third world Internet service, which I may talk about later.

The highway took us through a Gorge along a narrow, winding two-lane road. The NZ countryside is mostly hills and dales, created from a lot of volcanic upheaval a few eons ago. There still abounds a lot of geothermal activity around Rotoura. The belching sulphur. hot water and steam vents are plentiful. I told Ron that being in the "down under" part of the world, we might be closer to Hell than we think! So driving down the road not far from the airport, we see a sign pointing down a side road that says, "Hell's Gate". Really??

As we approached Touranga, the road split without signs identifying the roads. We quickly took our best guess and headed towards city center. Running out of time and still half way displaced, Nancy spied a "Church of Christ" sign on a modest building. Ron wheeled a "U-ie" and we pulled onto their grass covered parking lot.

The church was small. Debby counted 22 in attendance. The preacher was from Texas. He had moved his family here to work with the church, living off his savings and retirement income. After services, we were invited to remain for their "pot luck". Not wishing to pass up a good NZ meal, we stayed. The food and fellowship was great! We also learned that there is a church in Rotorua, just down the road from the airport (hopefully not down the road that leads to "Hell's Gate")!

We drove downtown and crossed the bridge over to Mount Maunganui to see the beach and all the hubbub. It was a busy place; lots of people about. The mountain was not that big and was a local hiking spot. It's an old volcano a few hundred feet high.

We headed back to Rotorua on a different road so we could see more of the same kind of countryside, only different. We came back to the condo and called the church in Rotorua. They were meeting tonight in one of the members' home on the other side of town. One of the church families is moving to Australia this week and they were having a farewell BBQ. We were invited to come, so we did! It was a great time of fellowship, meeting new people and sharing great NZ food! It was a great evening!

Today was our lucky day!!

OKERE FALLS

OKERE FALLS and the REDWOODS

Another leisurely morning around the Condo today. We are nearing our end of stay on the North Island. Still craving new sights, we took a short drive out to a scenic river to see OKERE FALLS. The parking lot was only about halfway full as we pulled in, so the trail should not be too crowded. The short hike though the thick New Zealand forest was beautiful. We could hear the roar of the falls as we neared the overlook point. A few people stood by waiting for a group of whitewater rafters to come. With cameras ready we all prepared ourselves for some free entertainment. The colorful rafts and screaming rafters came floating down the falls, crashing into the white foam, performed time and time again, until 5 or 6 rafts had jumped the falls.

As the rafters continued along, we hit he trail to the viewing platform of the next falls. Again, they were fun to watch. This was definitely something that we MIGHT do. Perhaps if the water was warmer, and my arthritic bones were easier to move, and if it was Tuesday, I might have booked a spot on the boat!

Ron and I hit the trail for the final falls and the end of their excursion, while the girls hit the trail back to the parking lot. We watched the rafts to the end and then we returned to the parking lot. The water was crystal clear and inviting, regardless of its temperature! But we were satisfied without partaking!

From OKERE FALL we headed to another short hiking place along a beautiful creek, through a forest of large REDWOOD TREES. The walk along this crystal clear stream was the most scenic we have seen! The large Redwoods towered more than a hundred feet high, or so it seemed! Some were as much as 4 or5 feet in diameter! The sign said that these were like those in California along the coast, but that these were all planted in 1919. Two thousand years from now these will be more than huge!

Half of the scenic creek came from HAMURANA SPRINGS, a deep, underground cold water spring. There were kids swimming in the 51 degree water. I have never seen water this clear in my life. I always thought some of Oregon's lakes and streams were clear....and they may be! But this water is unlike any I've seen. The deep spring belches more than 1,000,000 gallons of 51 degree water every hour! Quite a sight!

The New Zealand vegetation along the Creek mingles Yucca type vegetation, tree ferns and Giant Redwood Trees, creating a spectacular vision!

This one gets TWO THUMBS UP!!

TE PUIA, ROTORUA, NZ

TE PUIA, The Geyser Park

We enjoyed a couple of hours of pure leisure this morning. Ron was considering going golfing but changed his mind due to lack of interest. So we lounged around the condo and took care of a few details. I found an email that AT&T sent to me, saying I had used more than $100 in DATA transfer. As I have not been on my phone except to send 7 text messages, which I had paid for before we left country, and to make two phone calls, I was shocked! I had locked out all push notifications entirely from every APP listed and was very careful to not incur Data transfer (because I know how expensive it can be). I didn't want any surprises? So when I found this email, I called the attached phone number and spoke to a soft voice on the other end. She told me I had used a lot of data. I asked how that could be because I don't use my phone at all? She walked me through how to shut down my data use. Apparently my Data Roaming was still "on". I asked her how much was my bill thus far. She said $297. As she wasn't interested in giving me a break, I choked it down and let it go. Can't do much from NZ anyway. Travelers beware!!

After lunch at the Mall Food Court where Ron and I put away more fried chicken, we drove over to TE PUIA, a Geyser Park with bubbling pools of mud, steam vents, geysers that blast upwards of 30 to 40 feet of steaming, boiling water more than 20 times a day. The mud pots were not so impressive because of the drought NZ has had. The January rains did not come as expected.

We went into the Kiwi exhibit. The nocturnal birds have been fooled into thinking daytime is night time due to the false lighting. Would that be called "Bird Programming"? It was still pretty dark inside the exhibit. I did manage to see one of the birds as it ran around in and out of dimly lit areas. It looked like a brown Guinea to me. I couldn't see it's 5" long beak. The others could see it better than me.

After we hit the gift shop and they took us for a few bucks, we picked up a few essentials at the local grocery market and came home. Debby fixed Tacos for dinner. Afterwards, we tossed some chairs over the fence and went down next to Rotorua Lake to watch the sun go down. It was beautiful with the Ducks and Black Swans swimming in the water.
(Note to Self: What ELSE do Ducks swim in??)
Today was a beautiful day with temperatures in the upper 70's.
I could get used to this!!

WAITOMO, NZ

GLOW WORM CAVE

Today we drove more than 350 Km on our sightseeing excursion to take a peek at the HOBBITON MOVIE location near Matamata, NZ, where some of "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings" was filmed. It was a long drive to get there! We were also too cheap to pay the $75 entrance fee into the tour area for a 30 minute tour of the movie set. Instead, we just looked around the Shire and had a picnic in the front yard. I was disappointed that we didn't see a single walking tree! We should have because we were smack dab in the middle of their hobbi-tat! What we DID see was, what appeared to be, a dead Possum on the road. It just proves New Zealand Possums are no smarter than OUR Possums!

From there we drove out to the Glow Worm Cave near Waitomo and took a tour of the giant underground cave.
(Note to self: ALL CAVES are underground).
My Codger rate was $25 while my young bride cost me $43. The cave floor has been lined with pavers and stairs. It wasn't too well lit but we managed to find our way. The Glow Worm portion of the cave was seen from a boat as we rode along. The cave ceiling was covered with the tiny glowing creatures. I wasn't able to see them very well but I think the others enjoyed them. Kind of looked like stars in the night sky. They would not allow photography of ANY kind so we bought a post card. I took a picture of a picture and will just pretend its mine. Is that Plagiarism? (Maybe for you, but for Codgers, it's called "fun"!).

We made our way back to Rotorua and stopped by the downtown Farmers Market to get a bite to eat. It was nothing to sneeze at and we soon returned to our condo just after sunset. I ate what appeared to be bits of chicken on skewers and chicken fried rice. if it wasn't, please don't tell me any different! The smell of Sulphur was especially strong around Rotorua this evening. The myriad of boiling mud bogs and sulphur ponds are plentiful around here! I think we're so far "down under" that Hell must be very close! We need to watch our "P's and Q's" very closely!

ROTORUA, NEW ZEALAND

ROTORUA, NZ

We arrived at Rotorua International Airport aboard a shaky twin engine prop piloted by a blue eyed, blonde sweetie that looked young enough to still be in high school. The flight line attendants rolled up a set of stairs for us to exit from the door abruptly behind the pilot. When we boarded in Auckland, there was no such thing as a security check, although they took our boarding passes. There was no metal detector, nude photo scanner, frisking or profiling. There was no walkway ramp that dumped you into the side door of this baby plane. Instead, we walked down a flight of stairs directly onto the Tarmac and out to the waiting plane. The stairway to the side plane door was so close to the Prop that I could have reached out and touched it! Fortunately, the engines were shut down at the time!

Rotorua International is a tiny airport, totally uncrowded with only a few steps from the Tarmac to the street. Debby made her way over to waiting Taxis and shuttles only to find out the cost to our resort, about 9 km away, would cost $35 instead of the $20 the resort info told us. So we bit.

Upon arrival we discovered the lakeside resort was a little different than we anticipated. There was no resort shuttle for us to use; we were $35 away from the airport, 4-5 km from the nearest tiny store, and $60 away from downtown Rotorua, and $60 more back to our Worldmark Resort. As we began to do the math to cover the next 5 days of running around, not to mention, SIGHTSEEING, we decided to rent a car and take our chances driving on the opposite side of the road. We got hold of Thrifty Car Rental and struck a deal on a compact Hyundai.

The next morning a young lady arrived at our door promptly at 0900 to pick us up and take us to the airport. Ron and I signed up as designated drivers and paid our $400 for 5 days' rental. Ron took the wheel and got us home, where we picked up a couple of familiar girls and drove into Rotorua to see the sights.

Rotorua is a quaint little town with many empty shops about. As a local coffee and sandwich shop keeper told us, quite a few businesses have moved their business down the way to a local Mall. We did manage to go to that Mall and check it out. It is quite large and contains a food court that we promptly explored and stuffed our faces!

We visited a local park. It was not your normal city park by any means. This area abounds in geothermal activity, especially this park! We thoroughly enjoyed walking about and seeing the bubbling mud bogs and steaming ponds, not to mention the sharp odor of sulphur in the air! Rotorua is a hotbed of geothermal heat, belching steam, mud and sulphur all over the place! A couple of businesses like the Polynesian Spa have harness this amazing energy and created bath houses with varying temperatures of bathing pools, both public and private, where singles, couples and families can relax in a strong mineral bath where stress, pain and anxiety melts away like summer snow. We didn't have time to try it out as we needed to head over to do some grocery shopping before our evening excursion in a couple of hours.

Our evenings event was a trip to the MITAI MAORI VILLAGE. For $100/each we were treated to a great dinner of hot coal baked Lamb, Chicken, potatoes and many other side dishes. The main event was a Maori Cultural show put on by young Maori's working to keep the the old culture alive while living in the modern world. Our traveling companions, well....... RON in particular, was singled out of the crowd of more than 250 people to be our Chief and represent us before the great Maori Chief. It included a speech on behalf of his tribe to the Maori Chief that we come in peace and appreciate his hospitality, along with the traditional "nose touching" greeting of friendship. It was a lot of fun and Nancy and I have home videos as proof! Hopefully we will be able to sell these videos back to Chief Ron to keep them off of Face Book or You Tube! If not, you may get to see them!

We also took a walk Into the night to visit the habitat of the amazing Glow Worms along he creek. I guess they were amazing to see. I don't see very well anymore so I couldn't tell how wonderful they were.

We were dropped off back at the condo by our retired driver, who talked and sang songs all the way back, for our listening pleasure.

It's all good!

AUCKLAND, NZ

AUCKLAND, NZ

Our flight to New Zealand was about 13 hours of flying in the dark. Sitting in those hard seats for that long is not fun! I wanted a sleeping berth but I guess those cost extra! My video screen was so dark I couldn't see the movies. Already dreading the trip back! Hours of dozing off and waking up. Bathroom trips from drinking lots of water. Disturbed, bumped and jolted by sleepy passengers frying to make their way to the bathroom, enabled the sleeplessness problem. But I can't complain about the Economy Airfare we got for $1200, when we had seen those fares earlier climb to over $3200/ea. I'm sure th sleeping berths would have been over $4500/ea.

We landed in Auckland a out an hour late. A lot of people missed their connecting flights, but not us! We were scheduled to catch our flight to ROTORUA at 12:30, which we did!

Customs was easy enough. We had brought foodstuff for snacks and cooking in our condo and had to declare it on the provided customs declaration form, or face a $400 fine for trying to sneak in contraband food! The customs Official looked over our list and wanted to see some of them. He confiscated a pound of dry Pinto Beans that we had earmarked for a batch of homemade chili. The remaining stuff was okay.

We took our luggage over to the Domestic Flights area and checked it on to Rotorua. We boarded our small plane a couple of hours later. Our small commuter was a twin Prop that would seat 20 souls on board. About 7 seats were empty. There was a single seat on each side of the aisle. It looked very strange after the wide bodied plane we came to Auckland!

We scoped out the tiny airport and then made our way outside to bargain with a few Taxi's. we picked one and headed to the Worldmark Resort, Checked in and found our 3-bedroom condo. It's not as nice as the American condos, but......

"It'll do, Pig....It'll do."