Back to our regularly scheduled NZ. Milford Sound.
So, now that we're back from Indonesia, it seems like we really ought to get our butt's in gear and finish these posts about NZ. The drive from Queenstown to Milford Sound was truly spectacular. Most of the "spectacularness" started after we passed through a neat little town with a yummy bakery called Te Anau (bakery - doughnuts... yum). Driving up through the mountains and forests in this area was truly impressive, especially as we could start to see and hear quite a storm brewing.
Nearing Milford, you arrive at a tunnel:
This is quite an interesting tunnel, if for no other reason that it goes straight through the bottom of a mountain. The fact that the traffic signals shut down at night makes me fear for anyones life who tries to drive through that place at night. For the record, drive SLOW through that tunnel, wow are there some impressive potholes. Glad the car was a rental.
There was also this neat, um, ice thing:
After we got through the tunnel, it was some more pretty impressive down-mountain-winding on the other side, and a while later we were at Milford Lodge, which was where we stayed for the night. The Lodge was great, and had a nice big kitchen and common area. We met a couple people from Toronto there and played cards for a few hours. The place is run by generator, so quite literally, it was lights out at 11pm. That night there was a storm brewing in Milford, and it was something unlike Carly and I had ever been through. We woke up in the middle of the night to the entire room, including our bunkbeds, being shaken by the wind from the outside. It was insane. The noise was incredible, and it didn't stop all night.
By the time the morning rolled around, the weather had slightly improved, and they hadn't cancelled our boat cruise which was with Red Boat cruises. We were glad for that.
Here are a few shots from the boat (which was a really nice boat, huge catamaran thing).
This shot is of the largest falls in Milford - 160 meters!
This was absolutely gorgeous. At the end of the sound, you can physically see the water change as the Fiord opens up into the Tasman Sea. And as you're coming back into the Fiord, this is the view you get.
Here are a few other impressive falls. It was so windy this day that we were really blown away by the fact that there were a number of falls that were blown to mist by the wind before they even had a chance to hit the water.
We're sorry this is brief, but it's catch-up time in blog-land. Milford was truly stunning.
After our boat ride, we headed off to Dunedin, which was a great little city. More on that soon.
Finding God’s Peace
As with any big life changes, I am sure, we each go through our own set of ups and downs. Though you think to prepare your mind and spirit for the alterations you are about to face as you head out, I don't think one can even be certain how they will go with or react to their new lives.
This first 1/2 year has brought with it many opportunites and challenges. These challenges have presented themselves professionally, spiritually, maritally, personally, and I could go on. I have learned a great many things about myself - some of which I have thanked God for and some of which I haven't liked much at all. I need to say that Daniel has been so solid for me here and I believe we have been relying on each other in so many new ways. Man do I feel he's holding me up more often though!
Having my morning walks to school has been key for quiet time and prayer for me. God does keep his promises and lifts my eyes at those times when I need it most. He is my true rock. A chorus that Daniel and I heard at a worship service we attended here a number of months ago has stuck with me. It is the cry of my heart:
So no matter what the cost
I will go for you
No matter what it takes
I'm yours
Because you paid the price on Calvary
I give you my whole life
I'm yours
There is great peace in knowing that God has a plan for our lives and I am where he wants me. I don't know how long we will be here or where the next steps may take us. When my brain gets carried away with the future I try to remember that decisions will be made when the time is right and not sooner or later.
This week’s funny quotes
Context - I'm out on the playground doing one of my weekly supervisions
Student - "You are taller than the Queen of Narnia". [with awe in her voice]
Context - We've been studying our senses and I've had various senses books out for the students to explore. In the "noses" book there is a picture of a mole. Moles have little pink protrusions they use to feel their way in the dark.
Student - During quiet time while looking at this book, runs up to me with a little panic as she shows me the mole picture "oh no, this monkey has broke its head".
Queenstown
In New Zealand there is no "take out" food, but rather it is "takeaways". That said, with an early morning head start to Queenstown we grabbed some takeaway coffee and we were off on our intended 5 hour journey. Lots of photo opportunities on this stretch of road such as Thunder Creek and Lake Hawewa. Along the way in Makarora we stopped at a small cafe (the type that proudly hangs chainsaws, trumpets and hubcaps on the walls?) to try the all famous New Zealand meat pies. British influence! Blasting out of there we were off again only to realize that 1.5-2 hours later Daniel had left his "man bag" with his passport back at the cafe!!! Needless to say we were very concerned, turned around and hauled it back towards Makorora. Apparently NZ police aren't okay with the "hauling it" even when a passport is at stake. A minor run in with an officer of the law for $80.00 - oops! Thankfully everything was in tact in the "man bag" and away we went again towards Queenstown via a new route recommended by the officer through Wanaka. This route took us through the amazing Cardrona Valley. We hadn't seen such scenery here in New Zealand - very desert like mountain ranges and vegetation. When we reached the summit there was a neat lookout point where we could see all of Queenstown. To get into the town below we had to wind down some extreme hair-pin turns at 15km/hr or less.
Queenstown was packed! No accommodation left anywhere (but we'd prebooked of course) in hostel or hotel. In Dan's words "it is like Bethlehem at census time!".
Queenstown was definitely a favourite town and it reminded us of Alberta's Banff or BC's Whistler. The hostel kitchen overlooked the lake and Mordor - gorgeous little shops, pedestrian only streets and sail boats.
Dinner was at the all famous Fergburger - burgers so big that sharing one was enough for us! Funny burger names too, here are a few: The Codfather, Holier Than Thou and Cock Cajun! The people in Queenstown were very friendly...at one point when Dan was back aways checking out a store some group of guys told Carly she looked lost and could come join them! We also ran into another couple from CIS that evening who'd been doing some camping in NZ.
New Years Eve Day we enjoyed some blueberry pancakes in a funky cafe and went for our wine tour. We visited 4 wineries and even went into a neat cave at one of the wineries where the wine was maintained at a constant temperature and humidity. We learned lots about the making, the tasting, the business and even discovered that neither of us are Pinot Noir fans. We did buy a great bottle of Pinot Gris though for our celebrations that evening.
After 5 hours of wine tasting...
We cooked our New Years dinner together around 9pm in the hostel kitchen. While we were cooking we met a really nice family from South Africa. We joined them for awhile and then decided to spend the evening with the son and daugher and a couple other friends for the night's events. Son, Duncan, and daughter Claudia now living in Sydney Australia. We headed to a bar for a little while where Long Island Iced Teas were had from teapots - clever! Do you remember Sun Peaks and the UBC Chinese Varsity Club, Krista?
Later we checked out the live band at the lake and watched fireworks. All in all, a great way to ring in our new year.
Punakaiki and Franz Josef Glacier
On the drive down from Westport to Franz Josef, you end up driving past Punakaiki which is famous for what is known as the pancake rocks. There is a nice 15 minute or so walk here and some amazing sights and sounds as you listen to the water crashing and eroding the rocks, and funnelling and smashing into these long narrow channels carved into the coast.
So - after that we headed off to Franz Josef. The hosel that we stayed in their was called "Chateau Franz" and was one of our favorite places that we stayed. It was good stuff. We had some good pizza (ok, we had beer too) at some pub their (I think it was called Blue Ice) and got all rested up for our glacier hike the next day.
The glacier hike was a love hate relationship 
- we were on the ice about 2 hours longer than scheduled due to our 2 guides carving a new path for us to hike through as their had been some recent shifting of the glacier. We were exhausted by the time it was over, but it was well worth it. The scenery from up on the glacier was stunning. The glacier ice is really amazing, so blue, and so interesting to the touch. It's almost as if it is a massive 3-dimensional puzzle assembled by God himself, that's quite literally what the ice is like.
As for the scenery:
So yah - by the time it was over, we were both wishing we were dead, and were extremely glad to get off our feet. But it was truly an amazing and unforgettable experience. The danger of huge crevasses only a slip or wrong step away, along with the sheer size and majesty of this age-old mountain of ice was truly fantastic.
Wellington, Ferry Ride and Caverafting…
After our train ride to Wellington from Auckland (12 hour ride, 700 kilometers or so) - we made it to our hostel in Wellington and went out to find a bite to eat. Neither of us found Wellington very spectacular - especially in the evening on Boxing Day, pretty much everything was closed, and we didn't really have time to explore the place. Our hostel was in the downtown area, and by the time we arrived we were off hunting for some food. Ended up having some great Nachos and stuff at a sports bar, and then had a great coffee and some dessert at this cool little coffee shop called Espressoholic. Our kinda place (especially Dan's).
So we slept, and basically first thing in the morning made it over to the InterIslander ferry terminal where we jumped on for a gorgeous three hour ferry ride over to the South Island. We couldn't have had better weather, which was great. The ferry ride reminded me a lot of the Vancouver-Victoria ferry, except longer. Here are a couple shots we took from the way over.
Once we arrived at the other side, it took about 45 minutes for our luggage to come out on the luggage rack, which was what we like to call a huge pain in the arse. After that, a rather unorthodox rental car pickup (not worth detailing) and we were on our way to Westport. Unfortunately we didn't have time to make it up to Nelson or Abel Tasman, it just wasn't in the books.
The drive from Picton (where the ferry arrives) to Westport is absolutely great. Stunning scenery and forests and mountains, which we both thoroughly enjoyed. Can't say much for Westport really - by the time we arrived we managed to get to a grocery store to get some milk and a Hokey Pokey ice cream cone, but other than that, it was sleep time. All good - cuz the next morning we were off to do Underworld Rafting
The cave rafting experience was absolutely awesome. We basically got driven a little ways into the forest, then hopped on a little train to go further into the forest. They suited us up with fully body wetsuits, bootys, gloves, and those geeky helmets with the lights on them, and we were off on a bit more of a hike through the forest until we got to the entrance of the cave.
Walking through the cave was quite an awesome experience. I've never been in a "real" cave like that - where you are actually "deep in the earth" so to speak. Unfortunately Gandalf wasn't with us, but fortunately we didn't run into any Balrogs or Orcs.
Here are some pictures from inside the cave, wonderfully taken by our guide and made available to us from their web site:
Once we had found the water in the cave, our guide got us all linked up into a line, turned off all the lights, and started to pull us through the cave in the dark. This is when things got really spectacular. As we came out from under this ledge, the cave exploded into a blue-green light put-off as energy by 1/2 million glowworms who had made the cave ceiling their home. Unfortunately no pictures of this - you have to see it to believe it though. Really amazing.
Once through that part of the cave, it was out to the river for a few small rapids and a nice ride down the river!
That was probably one of our best experiences in NZ - but there were a lot of them, so it's hard to really differentiate. After our cave rafting time we immediately headed out to spend the afternoon driving down to Franz Josef Glacier.
Pictures and blog entry to follow! We promise!
North Island
Well, since we are getting these posts up here so
So basically, from Auckland we drove about 4 hours north to Paihia (pronounced something like PIE-HEE-YAH) which is on the Bay of Islands. It also happens to be where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed between the British and the Maori (New Zealand natives) back in 1840. The highlight for me (and probably for Carly, too) in Paihia was some time we spent with a few Maori folks there doing a couple of tours, which were highly personal - and not at all commercialized (unlike Rotorua). We got to row a Waka (read: big war canoe thing) across to a small island, where we witnessed what was a typical and traditional Maori welcome ceremony. They told us some stories, and it was a really fabulous time - despite the fact that it was raining all over us and freezing cold. The "owner" or "leader" of the group was named Hone (pronounced something like HO-NAY) - and later that evening, Carly and David and Noer and myself went on another little tour with him where he took us to some of the historical places of interest (fighting grounds, the church where the Maori are credited for inventing trench warfare, he also took us to his house, where we had tea with him and he introduced us to his wife). It was a fabulous experience. After that he took us to the Ngawa (pronouced something like NA-FA) hot springs, which are naturally occurring hot pools. Also a super-neat experience.
So, all that being said, here are the photos from our trip North up to Paihia:
Picnic on our way to Paihia from Auckland
A typical meal (box of food and junk scattered across table)
The Waka (canoe)
The four of us with Maori guy and Waka in the background
Carly with Hone - this is a typical greeting for the Maori - symbolic of sharing the same "breath of life"
This was a shot we took while we were out being shown around that evening by Hone
This is Carly, Noer and me in one of the hot pools at Ngawa. This particular pool was almost too hot to get in to. I think I was the only one of the four of us who actually made it in up to my neck. What was crazy was that there was one called the "Favorite" that I could barely put my feet in for 3 seconds. I think if anyone actually went in - they'd be scalded. It's crazy how all of these are completely naturally occurring.
Ok - so there's Paihi. After that, we drove back to Auckland, spent another night with Anne and Paul - and then headed down to Rotorua. On our way down, we stopped in Hamilton (which is about half way) and had lunch with Keri-Lee and her parents, and her husband Miles. These are some of Carly's co-workers. We ate amazing food, cheese, berries and all sorts of good breads. A stellar time.
The hostel in Rotorua was awesome, staff was great. Our highlights here I think included the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, photographing the boiling mud pits, going to Lake Okataine and walking through the Redwood forest.
These first two shots here are from Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland which contained a phenomenal display of boiling sulphur pits and all sorts of geo-thermal goodness unlike anything we've ever seen before. A little smelly, but really really interesting.
Once we left Wai-O-Tapu we saw a sign that pointed to "Mud Pits" --> That way - or something like that, so we took a slight detour and we were greeted by some super awesome boiling mud!
Here are a couple shots of us at Lake Okataine. Some of the scenery around here was just fabulous - but we can't put up all 500 photos - we'd bore you to death - and it would take me 1/2 a lifetime.
Here are some of the shots from the Redwood forest... Um, not a lot of Redwood in these pictures, but like so many things in New Zealand - the photos you take don't seem to do justice to what you see (I guess that's not all that different from back home in Canada - try to take some photos of the panoramas you get heading up the Sea-to-Sky, just doesn't quite capture it).
First up here, we have Carly and Noer - I don't think this was actually in the Redwood forest - but I'm not exactly sure where it was taken (might have been in Paihia?) - but whatever - there are some trees.
Nice shot that Carly took of a fern tree.
Me and David looking "tough".
Another really nice shot by Carly.
After we finished up our time in Rotorua, we headed back to Auckland where we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas. It was really super spending that time at Paul and Anne's place, they were fabulously hospitable. We opened up a few presents on Christmas morning (there's a story behind that bandana I'm wearing in one of the pictures - that can wait for another posting).
This is a shot we took on our way to church on Christmas Eve - Paul and Anne drove us up this mountain in Auckland - which is actually this huge volcanic crater (inactive). Really quite beautiful up here - you can see the sky tower in the distance.
Us.
Carly - looking mighty spectacular if I do say so.
After our huge Christmas lunch (where much turkey, ham, hokey pokey ice cream, and christmas pudding with brandy sauce was consumed), Carly and I went for a nice walk up "One Tree Hill", which is the neighborhood where Paul and Anne live. Paul and Anne led us around a bit, super nice walk, and some good scenery along the way.
We decided that none of the photos we took on the train from Auckland to Wellington on boxing day were "blog-worthy", so that just about concludes our North Island entry.
More to come!
Driving the NZ
OK! Here goes! It's 8:11am and I'm sitting here with a large mug of caffeine-infused-goodness, so if I'm not quite awake, and I try to be witty, you'll have to forgive me. Carly and I talked lots about how to organize all of this junk into blog postings, and we figured we'll mostly try to do the blog postings by location (city / town / whatever). Some of the photos don't really fit into that category, however, for example, driving in the middle of nowhere, etc.
So here is a post about driving in New Zealand. Based on our astute observations, we would like to nominate New Zealand as "Roadkill capital of the World". At some points, we would pass a splattered and mauled possum every few hundred meters. In addition, we'd like to dub New Zealand the home of the "Stupidest Birds in the World". I forget the name of the species, but there are these birds in New Zealand that just sit on the highways and try to dodge cars at the last second. Except, sometimes they aren't quite fast enough. We managed to obliterate 2 of these birds (one off the front grill, and one off the windshield) and narrowly missed about 200 others.
They drive on the "wrong" (read: Left) side of the road in New Zealand, and getting used to that (and especially to the traffic circles / roundabouts) took some getting used to (especially the 2-lane ones). Most of the highways between cities were only 2 lanes, and you can almost always pass the slow people in front of you using the oncoming traffic lane. Driving tended to be really enjoyable, and the scenery while driving tended to be absolutely stunning almost all the time.
In my opinion - the absolute best drives were:
From Rotorua to Auckland - through Matamata via state highway 27 / 24
From Picton to Westport - along state highway 63
From Charleston to Greymouth - along state highway 6
From Te Anau to Milford Sound (absolutely stunning)
From Wanaka to Queenstown (via Cardrona Valley)
From Dunedin to Oamaru (via the Coast Road)
Ok - not that you probably know or care about that detail - but here are some photos of our "driving" times, and I'll try to remember as best I can where we took them.
Driving from Picton to Westport
The scenery driving from Picton to Westport was ever-changing, and always stunning. Mountains, forests, rivers, fields, combinations of the above. And sheep, plenty of cutesy little sheep.
Next we have a picture that was shot somewhere around Punakaiki which is along the West Coast of the South Island, famous for the "Pancake Rocks". We have some really fabulous shots of the open ocean (Tasman Sea) along this drive, but we can't put them all up.
Now, another interesting thing in New Zealand while driving is the abundance of one-lane-bridges. We don't really have those in Canada (or in Singapore, for that matter) and I can say that these are one of the worst inventions EVAR. Coming up to the one lane bridge (which, I might add, is sometimes so long or windy, you can't even see the other side) - you basically stop (one side has to stop - the other has a right of way - indicated by signage) - and if you don't see anyone - go right ahead and use that bridge. And hope that there isn't some moron flying towards you from around the corner at 120KM/hour.
Every now and again, if the one-lane-bridge wasn't enough - you would see something like the following:
Now, if you can't make it out, this is a one lane bridge we were driving across, with the added bonus of a set of train-tracks. So what are you supposed to do when a train is coming? For a while I thought it was maybe just some sorta sick joke they were playing on the tourists, but these train-tracks are legit!
Another really awesome part of the drive was when we were heading from Wanaka to Queenstown, and we took a less-documented highway through the Cardrona valley. This was a super awesome drive as you're basically winding through these desert-like mountains at the bottom of a valley, and then as you get closer to Queenstown, you climb to the top of the mountain range, and are rewarded with breathtaking scenery, and probably a bunch of hang-gliders and other such adventurous folk flying around above you. This is one shot we took from the top of the mountains overlooking Queenstown, which is the circle-shaped town down in the valley there.
As we were leaving Queenstown heading toward Milford Sound, Carly managed to grab a shot of The Remarkables (AKA Mordor) out the Window:
Later on in our drive to Milford, after we passed through Te Anau, we got a few other good shots. I thought this part of the drive was totally awesome. To see the huge plains leading up to these massive mountains was super cool.
Alrighty. Well, I think that will be the end of this little section on our drive around New Zealand. The drive back across the South Island from Te Anau to Dunedin (which is on the East Coast of the South Island) was not as spectacular as some of the other drives. They have a much longer scenic route that you can take, which goes along the Southern Coast, but unfortuntately, we just didn't have the time to be able to take that longer way around.
I have to say that a lot of what we saw in New Zealand reminded us of parts of Canada, but also that a lot of the scenes we saw in New Zealand simply can't be captured in a photograph. The lush green is too green to be captured in a picture, and too big. The mountains are the same, and same with the waterfalls. Hopefully you enjoy the photos, at any rate, and there are more to come!
Arab Street (nope, that’s not in New Zealand)
If anyone is still actually reading this blog, you're probably waiting to hear more about our trip to New Zealand. Sorry, but a few interludes of completely unrelated-to-New-Zealand posts may make it in scattered here and there.
Yesterday (that's the 7th of Jan, I think) , Carly and I made our way (for the first time) down to Arab Street late in the afternoon because we were starving, had no groceries, wanted something to eat, and had been meaning to get to that part of town for a long time, but hadn't quite got around to it yet. Armed like a tourist (aka with my "Best of Singapore" Lonely Planet guide tucked away in my man-purse) we set out.
Now, thanks to some handy street navigating by yours truly, we made it to Arab Street without a hitch after a few minute walk from Bugis MRT. What I noticed about Arab Street right away is that there are, um, a lot of fabric shops around. We were looking for a place to eat, and as much as I'm sure eating silk and carpet could potentially be considered a high-fibre diet, I much prefer, well, meat.
So after we passed the fabric shop, we passed the fabric shop. After that, then the fabric shop followed by the fabric shop. After that particular fabric shop, we passed 8 more fabric shops followed by a carpet shop followed by 19 more fabric shops, a silk shop, a carpet shop and then a fabric shop. After that fabric shop, across the street, we saw a fabric shop, and a shop that imported and exported fabric. After that, we saw a fabric shop, a silk shop, a carpet shop, and then 4 more fabric shops. For a change, we saw a couple more fabric shops (Are you getting the picture here?). Now, I don't have anything against fabric shops whatsoever, but I was bloody starving by this point, so you can imagine my sigh of relief when after passing a few more fabric shops, Carly with her ninja-eagle like eye-balls spotted Cafe Le Caire (the place we were looking to get some grub).
This place was stellar. Kind of an Egyptian cafe with little wicker chairs and super-yummy and cheap eats. To start with we had some Arabic salad, bread and hummus, and some fried eggplant in some kinda yummy spiced yogurt. I had a wicked-awesome beef and lamb Scharwarma (sorry Elliot, I don't think I can send you any) and Carly had something called Shish Tawouke which was some kinda chicken kebab marinated in some spices and tasted super-awesome. We packed all that away along with a couple ice coffees for about $30SGD ($20CDN give or take), which was a welcome change from NZ prices where our pita and hummus cost us $8.50NZD (which is about $10.50SGD) at a Greek place we ate at in Christchurch.
So um, yah. Cafe Le Caire - highly recommended, and if you need some fabric, I highly recommend Arab Street.
NZ Primer…
Well, judging by the fact that I'm typing this happy new blog posting from Singapore, you can gather that we have returned to our humble abode from New Zealand, and that we didn't die. As much as driving on the right side of the road, or being eaten by sheep, or falling off a glacier could have been a good time, we were well-behaved and have returned with all our limbs and toes intact (is that one word, or two?).
It's going to take us some sweet time to get our photos all organized, so I thought I'd at least throw up this mini-collage to give you a taste of the pain you're going to have to experience should you choose to read all of the blog postings we put up about our trip to NZ, and all of the photos we've taken (I won't be that verbose, I promise).
What I'll give you an idea of really quickly is where we went and what not. Here goes:
1) Arrived in Auckland (Upper middle of North island)
2) Drove to Paihia (Northeast portion of North Island)
3) Back to Auckland
4) Drove to Rotorua (Center of North island)
5) Back to Auckland (for Christmas, yummy turkey! Thanks Paul and Anne!)
6) Train from Auckland to Wellington (Didn't bump into Peter Jackson)
7) Ferry from Wellington to Picton
Drove from Picton to Westport
9) Drove from Westport to Franz Josef Glacier
10) Drove from Franz Josef Glacier to Queenstown
11) Drove from Queenstown to Milford Sound
12) Drove from Milford Sound to Dunedin
13) Drove from Dunedin to Oamaru
14) Drove from Oamaru to Christchurch
Fewf! Hopefully didn't bore you to death with that, but that's basically what we did and the order in which we did it. Lots more info and photos to follow sometime in the next few days. Bare with us as we get it all sorted out!
