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| the gardens at the hotel |
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| Carl loves the pool |
On Tuesday, Aug. 19, we headed to Australia to visit Carl’s
brother, Alan, and his family with a side trip to New Zealand. We left MO. at 6:00am and we got to LAX at 10
AM, but since our flight to NZ wasn’t until 11 PM we went to a hotel for the
day. The Travel Lodge was a 1950s design and decor and a great pool that we
swam in before taking a nap then out to the airport. We finally arrived in NZ at 4:30pm on Thurs.
Aug. 21. A long trip, many hours in the
air!!
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Our Van the "All Blacks"
The New Zealand rugby team |
We rented a Wicked Van as it was cheap, $30/day, but
didn’t realize they had not only weird paint jobs, but also some controversial
saying painted on the vans. They have a
rep of renting to younger back backers, whose disregard for the local
population has not helped the reputation. We got the most conservative paint
job we could, The All Black, which is their national rugby team. It was a great
van as the big game between Australia and New Zealand was during the week we
were there, and New Zealand won.
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| Some scenery in NZ |
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| We feed cattle on the way |
At the first camp site I saw an ad for a tour of Lord of
the Rings film sites so I signed us up. I gave her the credit card and found
out I had signed up for an all day $250/person trip! A bit more expensive than
I had thought, but we were signed up so the next morning we met the driver and
found out we were the only ones on the tour, so we had a private tour drive of
4 hours with a stop at the Big Salmon for breakfast.
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Edoras was on top of the rock and
the town was at the foot at the right |
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| Leslie stands where the entrance was |
At the film site for Edoras of the Riders of the Rohan, nothing was left, but we saw pictures of what
it looked like when they were filming and then hiked up to see the site. It was
quite spectacular scenery, but only took us 30 minutes to hike and we were back
at the tour van, where Carl found out it was the only site we were going to on
the tour. We had a sword fight with some props and a champagne lunch. Then it
was 4 hours driving back to the camp site through beautiful lightly touched
fields, hills and farmland.
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| We drink champagne at the site |
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| We sword fight at the site |
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| A bueatiful island on the way back |
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| The big Salmon stop |
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| vinyards on the way |
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| Carl meets a woman |
We only had 5 days in New Zealand so we didn’t see as
much as we would have liked. We
definitely will have to go back and climb the glacier as it was a three day
round trip from our campsite. On the drive to Hanmer Springs we stopped and did
some wine tasting. They have a vineyard area with a lot of wineries. At one we
met a group of ladies traveling the tasting trail in a cute customized van.
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| The wine tasting room |
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| inside the "wine mobile" |
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| The ladies "wine mobile" |
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| Three different temp hot tubs |
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| some of the hot tubs |
We spent a day in
the hot springs at Hanmer which was great! They have water slides and a dozen
hot pools of different temperatures, and it was only $15/ person/day. We met a
group of people heading to the US Antarctic Station. It sounds like an exciting
experience. Maybe I’ll apply. There was also some hiking just outside the town
so we hiked up a hill at the edge of town. The view was spectacular!
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| The view from the hill into the valley |
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The life guard thought it was colder
than Leslie did |
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| steams between the pools |
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| Carl enjoyed the water slides |
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| Leslie with Admiral Byrd |
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| Leslie in the streets during the 1800s |
We also toured Christchurch and saw the damage caused by
the earth quake of 2011 and the museum about them, there were 2 that year.
There is also a free museum about the history of Christchurch which has a replica
of a street in Christchurch in the 1800s among other exhibits.
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| Leslie got shock socks |
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| The church damaged by the quake |
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| Leslie and our van |
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| Leslie boards the cross island train |
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| The view on the ride |
We took an all day train ride across the south island and
back that was great! They had a narrative about the area throughout the ride
and we had about an hour to walk around Greymouth, the end of the train ride.
At the top of the Southern Alps, Arthur Pass, we had to add two engines to go
down through a steep tunnel which was the longest tunnel in the world when it
was built to connect the East to West coast. It is still the 4th
longest tunnel in the world.
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| Athurs pass the high point of the trip |
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| they add an engine to the train |
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| Some of the mountains |
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| one of the lakes |
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| A yatch club on the lake |
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| our tain winds through the valley |
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| An antartic cat |
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| The cat obstacle course |
We turned in the Wicked Van and took a taxi to the
airport early so we could go to the Antarctic museum. New Zealand is the
staging area for many Antarctic explorations and stations. The museum is really
neat! We took a ride on an arctic cat through an obstacle course that
demonstrates the abilities of the cat. We also went in a room that simulates an
Antarctic storm. They gave you clothes to wear in there as it was really cold!
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| Leslie in the cold room |
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| Carl slides down the ice |
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| Carl stands on both poles |
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| Leslie in an "ice cave" |
Then it was time
to head to Brisbane Australia.
