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Wayne Lake
Didjamissme?, I’ve been mostly off the grid since the big event at the Woodlands………
After getting a green light to travel from Henny’s Dr. buddies down at Methodist, we took off for the South Pacific for a month. First stop, Roratonga, Cook Islands for a week, digging toes in the sand and swimming with the little fishes in the shallow lagoon that surrounds the small island. Wonderful, warm friendly Maori (Polynesian) folks with lots of tats. The water was very clear but a little cool for me @ 77 F and I like it around 84 F.
Then on to Auckland, New Zealand for a sightseeing journey ‘in search of Frodo’s ring’ where we picked up a camper van that would be transport/home for the next three weeks. It was an almost brand new FIAT chassis, AWD, diesel powered, self-contained rig, 6.7 meter (22’) long x 3.3 meter (11’) high vehicle that was fairly wide for the narrow roads to follow. The first week, we traversed from North to South on the North Island trying to see as much as we could; vineyards that would make you wine aficionados and wino’s mouth’s water, sheep, sheep and more sheep, volcanos and bubble pots, dairy farms (No 1 export is dairy products where milk is dehydrated and sent to China primarily) and what looks like mom n’pop operations milking up to about 200 head of cows which must be a lot of work every day. More sheep, about every bird you have ever heard of and then some with several flightless species (no indigenous mammal predators in NZ) and imports such as chukkas and wild turkey from North America , ring necked pheasant from China, parrots from Australia, hawks, falcons and harriers but no kiwi birds to be seen. From Wellington, we caught a ferry across the Tasman Sea to the South Island and had a nice boat ride to Picton on the North Island. We saw a several Red deer or stag domestic farms and also a few elk farms and some alpaca and llama herds.
The next two weeks was spent mostly in and around the national parks and world heritage sites of the South island that were simply spectacular; pristine beaches with no one else around, clean air and glacier fed mountain streams, huge highland hills and lakes that would make a Scot jealous, glaciers (disappearing, of course but still very visible) that are unusually close to the ocean (Tasman Sea) for this latitude of only 45 degrees, big valleys that would make Barbara Stanwick re-think the name of her tv show, temperate rainforest with enormous trees (Frodo’s friends, I’m sure), more vineyards and millions more sheep and dairy’s, took an alpine rail road trip back and forth across the island one day, Fiords that rival all I’ve seen including Norway, seals and sea lions, lots more birds - one evening we watched about 160 little, (20” high) blue penguins raft in from offshore in groups of 10-30, waddle up the rocks to roost in the dunes, albatross, a few yellow eyed penguins, but still no kiwi. Lots of ‘honor system’ road side produce stands, try that in Texas! Since it was spring down under, lots of wild flowers, some lupients (sp?) that I think are a cousin to Texas blue bonnets
Dropped the van off in Christchurch where they are still rebuilding the city after 18 months of devastating earthquakes between 2010-2011 and picked up a car and drove back to Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world – bungy jumping, sky diving, thrill jet boat riding, kite board sailing, helicopter rides to the glaciers, etc., etc., etc. and you guessed it, we did not participate in these thrills although we did watch bungy jumpers do their thing.
All in all, a very interesting, clean, diverse and beautiful country with great architecture and warm, friendly people. All two lane highways except in the larger cities, driving about 3,000 miles on the ‘wrong side of the road’, crossed hundreds of one lane bridges and white knuckle switch-back mountain passes without any shoulder or guard rails (high pucker factor for both driver and directionally challenged navigator) and a trip that has been on my ‘to do’ list for more than 30 years and now a tick in the box on the bucket list. We came back through Sydney Australia and got to see the famous harbour opera house before a 13 hour plane ride to LAX on Thanksgiving Day.
Peewee’s next adventure planned for 2015 or 2016 is a S.E. Asia tour starting in Hong Kong and China, then to Bangkok to catch the Oriental Express train to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, Bali Indonesia and Yap for some snorkeling/diving. Stay tuned…………..
Motto: Adventure before Dementia
From Aransas where I hope to be ‘dancin’ with dolphins’, fishin and working on the house until it gets too hot except for a few days over the holidays when I return to the frozen tundra of MN and a work trip to Trinidad.
G’day mates,
wtl, the travel’n man
p.s. I hope to be mostly finished with the major house projects by March or so and welcome any travelers down to South Texas/Corpus Area. The address is 108 Dolphin Ct. Aransas Pass 78336, the subdivision is Pelican Cove just off Hwy 361which is the road to Port Aransas. Come on by and we will through a shrimp on the bar-b. Cell is 832 978 1176.
p.s.s Way to go Michele Hilsher, Pat, I’m glad I’m not freezing my ass off too, Beau, try breathing through your eyes aka Bull Durham, it’s easier on your lungs, missed seeing David Blankenship at the Woodlands, Jackie said he had some medical issue, anybody hear how he is doing?
p.s.s.s Listening to a Willie album called ‘Band of Brothers’ (recent, I think). It makes my ears feel really good and the last track is called ‘I’ve Got a Lot of Travelin’ to Do’, now how does that fit with the above?.
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It's warm now, so it has mostly melted.
