Travels with The Rayman

On or about Oct. 6, we booked our Doubtful Sound trip which included renting a car to drive 2 hours to meet the boat on Lake Manapouri at 8:30ish a.m. Yesterday was Oct. 15th, Sunday. So according to my calculations…Oct. 6th was quite a while ago. We were taking a gamble. We knew that. The weather here in NZ in the spring is completely unpredictable. And so…this is how our weather started out…
Here we are looking down on Doubtful Sound. To get to the sound, you meet at the lake and travel for an hour on the lake. Then they drag you to a hydroelectric power station that is located deep in the earth. And it takes the water from the lake, forces it into two huge pipes that run down inside the mountain and this turns turbines that generate electricity for an aluminum plant located south of here. The water is then pumped into the Sound. It was built between 1964 and 1972. An engineering feat that was so big and expensive, private enterprise could not afford to complete it, once started. So…the government finished the task and now they renegotiate the repayment to the government every 10 years with the aluminum company which is owned by Australia and the money is getting repaid to the government as we speak. (none of monetary info was included in our underground tour, I asked the guide about it). And did I mention it was really, really underground. Does buried alive mean anything to you? A bit eery but we did it without freaking out!!

 
But, I digress. Once we got on the sound, I snapped this picture. It illustrates our weather. Further, it shows how important light is when photographing.

Doubtful Sound got it name because Capt. Cook was doubtful that the opening from the Tasman Sea would lead to much. That’s because Doubtful has many islands in it and to the casual observer in a rickety old ship, you might not want to take the time to sail into a place that wasn’t very promising. With no GPS or, let’s say, map to follow…and quite possibly with people on board with scurvy, say, you needed to make every exploration count. So it turns out that the Spanish ended up being the mapmakers for Doubtful because they were the first to explore it. Looking for gold, I think.

So, our long journey from the place we took off from ,,,at the Sound to the Tasman Sea (our furtherest point out), the clouds were in abundance and few pictures merit viewing.

HOWEVER…sun was spotted over the Tasman Sea. The ocean was calm and the guides were really excited because they had only ventured out on the sea twice in the last two months. And away we went. And the sea got rough so we didn’t go too far. I think it was when our guide announced, “For those of you on the bow…you may want to move back as you might be hit by ocean spray”, I closed up my camera and headed inside.

Message interruptus.

We have just returned from our progressive dinner. It’s our last night in Queenstown, it is cold, it is raining and we had way too much fun. Our plan was to have fish at Fishbone, a local joint, followed by tapas at a place we ate at this a.m. So…we had a fabulous asparagus grilled salad and appetizer of mussels (me) and scallops (Rayman). Then we progressed to our breakfast place for tapas and it was CLOSED. So, we sauntered down the avenue in the rain and found another tapas joint. Who knew? Well, we had chorizo con tomate, judias blancasy aceitunas negro (or spicy Spanish chorizo sausage with white bean, tomato and black olive. Accompanying our dish was papatas con alcaparras y chili or olive oil pan fried gourmet potatoes with capers, chilies and chives. Finally, Goats cheese with truffled honey comb, balsamic figs and walnut toast. OMG. Fabulous. And we were two of four in the joint. The other two were busy on their electronic devices. We were busy admiring the small, comfortable room with a real fire roaring and birds flirting on the leafless branches of a tree outside a window. So…the progressive dinner was a big success. We plan on doing this more often.

And back to our regularly scheduled program. That is my story of yesterday.
The Tasman Sea entrance and a rock full of seals.
We were treated to a rare sighting of Crested Penguins. A bit blurry but it was very hard to photograph these with the boat rocking, the birds moving etc. However, aren’t they sweet?
So, here is another rare sighting. Ray sans wine glass. He’s drinking TEA. And look at that sky. That view.
Did you know that Sounds have arms? Well, yes they do and here is one. They are all named but my wine from dinner is interfering. Sorry.
Heading back the sun kept exposing all the sights we had missed going in for lack of sun. It was spectacular.

 

Below please find a picture of our guides. They were great!!

 

Here I am turning my back on what lies ahead. And below…well, what can anyone say about this? There aren’t words.

 

 

Lake Manapouri.
AND our new Minnesota friends, Jim and Mari (mary). We met them on the train trip from Picton to Christchurch. Their schedule was very much like ours. So, we invited them to ride with us and take the tour of the Sound, which they did. So, here’s a few interesting tidbits about our new friends. They have two daughters. One married a fellow from Alameda and they moved to Sydney for his work and they are visiting them. Jim has worked for the same firm for 42 years. That’s almost unheard of…and according to my calculations he entered the work force at about age 4. Isn’t that illegal? Mari is a scream. She managed to lock herself into the bathroom near the power generator and before Jim approached the restroom to save her, he said, “Is there anyone naked in here?” He swears that was a question, not wishful thinking. I have my doubts.

Jim loves old cars and heats his garage to 46 degrees so he can work on them. I’m not kidding. 46. I can’t even feel my fingers at 46.

When we were in Christchurch, we ran into them (a very small world) and went to Antarctica with them (the exhibit). While we were there, Jim (works in IT) spent all of our tea time (we took a break) trying to get a reservation made for the Doubtful Sound cruise using his computer. Every time he hit the “purchase” button, something went wrong. I think it was because he was using a DOS based computer. He did not give up. In fact, he missed the all-important feeding of the penguins trying to spend money on a cruise. And he works with computers all day. Just saying.

Oh, I kid Jim. He was a hoot.

But I digress.

As we were driving back from our cruise, we were all high from the scenery. Rayman was trying to perfect his driving skills…when a beep sounded. “What’s that”, Ray exclaimed. ( To save you from wondering yourself…it was the I’M OUT OF GAS warning from the Toyota we were riding in.) “Maybe we’re out of gas! The gas gauge shows empty.”

NZ is very sparsely populated. That is really the beauty of this country. You can drive for HOURS without seeing people. You see sheep, yes. People no. And gas stations are even more infrequent. “My RAV emits a sound and it means I have about 2 gallons remaining.” exclaimed Mari. “We are back at the lake, we’ll probably make it.” pronounced Jim. Rayman said, “Where’s a road sign showing how far we are from Queenstown? Why the heck don’t they provide more signs with distances?” Like that would help, I thought.

“Well, I’m confident we’ll make it”, Jim asserted while Mari added, “My RAV has two gallons remaining when it beeps at me.” To which I proclaimed, “Let me read the owner’s manual.” “There’s a car manual in the glove box”, Jim wondered aloud.

After flipping through the index and locating the “LOW FUEL ALERT”, it was determined that 1.7 gallons remained and that the car would, in fact, alert us in the event of low fuel. Having delivered this news, “How far are we? Why don’t they post more signs?”, Rayman intoned. “Oh, I’m sure we’ll make it. I mean we’re here at the lake”, Jim suggested again.

Then we came upon a one-car bridge with a traffic light. We had to stop. “OH, GREAT. I DID NOT WANT TO STOP.”, Ray snarled. The light changed. We were on the bridge and I murmured, “If we’re going to run out of gas, let it be here because we will get all the help we will ever need.” Snorting and snarling ensued.

Drifting in on fumes, we arrived at a gas station and it took $97 of fuel to fill the car. Does “just by the hair of your chinny, chin, chin have meaning to you?

Isn’t the driver of the car responsible for the status of the fuel? Just saying…now. Didn’t dare say it then.

The end of the story is more heart rendering. As we drove back, Mari invited us to dinner as a thank you for us inviting them to Doubtful Sound. We thanked them but thought maybe they could just buy us some gas (and in our defense, this was before we knew it would cost $97). So Mari remarks, “Well, it is my birthday”…(yada yada yada). IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY? OF COURSE, WE’LL LET YOU TAKE US TO DINNER!!! She had us at birthday. So, we had a delightful dinner with Jim and Mari followed by a complimentary dessert because the meat was too tough. Tasty but tough is how we all described it to the server. But it didn’t really matter. We have a perfectly lovely day and dinner and with our wonderful new Minnesota friends. And we sang happy birthday during the half time of the Rugby World cup semi-finals in which the All Blacks held off the Wallabies…and then we hugged goodbye. I think they were going to the bungie jumping place today to watch. Personally, I was planning on a major collapse. This involved sleeping in, eating breakfast late, publishing my blog, writing my new blog entry, having a progressive dinner and then throwing myself into be at 7:45 to relax, regenerate and repack my suitcase for about the 25th time so that we can head out tomorrow back from the most southern place I’ve ever been to Auckland for 2 nights, then Sydney for 2 nights and the, OMG, back to LAX on Saturday (which will be Friday for you) which I have marveled before allows us to take a 15 hour flight and arriving before we take off. And the highlight of all this just might be that Air New Zealand safety film at the beginning of our flight back to Sydney.

Admittedly this sounds like it could have a double meaning. I report. You decide.

Flying at 15,000 feet, I came upon this. A list of definitions.

Spiral: style of kicking perfected during the psychedelic era.

Coathanger: Dressing room equipment which doubles as a car aerial as required:; Also an illegal tackle in which an outstretched arm catches an opponent under the chin causing a sudden and spectacular rotation of his body – making the crowd go “ooh!”

Box kick: When a kick is hoisted over the line out, scrum or breakdown to theoretically land in an imaginary box with no defenders in it. Hardly ever comes off. Not to be confused with a “chip”, “grubber” or “dink” which hardly ever come off either.

And finally:

Down his throat: Directly into the arms of the opposition fullback. See “box kick”.

This is an illustration of how fun the kiwis are. They are absolutely obsessed with rugby, but they don’t take it too seriously. Of course, they haven’t lost yet. They compete tomorrow night in the semi-finals against Australia.
This was just before landing. It was harrowing. Many mountains to miss. But what a beautiful sight even in the overcast. On the way from Christchurch to Queenstown (seen below), I observed lots of meringue in the sky. Example.
These are the Southern Alps and they run all the way down the island.

We left this morn at 5:45 a.m. to the airport. Upon arriving we couldn’t find any of our paperwork. And that’s all I’ll say about that. No telling where it is.

We got in our room early and went to get our car nearby. We jumped in the car and OMG…a standard transmission. It was the only car they had and we got it. Soooooooo…Ray managed to drive us to Lake Wanaka shifting from first to third, thereby bypassing second gear about 25 times. Of course, it didn’t help that we were taking hairpin turns that required constant downshifting…so that allowed Ray the opportunity to miss second gear on the way down too…many times. And while doing that as we approached intersections, he always signaled his intention to turn with his windshield wipers and on occasion, he tried to turn into oncoming traffic. He was very tense (an flagrant understatement) and so the other thing that he did was he kept veering toward to the left when oncoming traffic appeared thereby putting me in the position of closely examining any variety of weeds and shrubs that might be on “my” side of the road. Oh, and the drops in the gorge area caused a bit of concern on my part so that toward to the end of our outing I announced that I would definitely be driving tomorrow…with Rayman strenuously objecting…with words like damn, dead body, and my ass. But I will not bore you with the details.

The Welch captain just got ejected for slamming another player into the ground. He was “sent off”. Oh, dear.

But I digress.

The highlight of our day must be reported at this point…lest the casual reader think that Rayman’s driving is the end of the story. Au contraire. Bungy jumping has always been at the top of our bucket list. So this was our chance.

Part of the charge for the jump is free video of the jump. We welcomed that because we decided on a tandem jump. That way if anything went wrong…well, you get the picture. Problem is I screwed up the video and can’t seem to figure out how to rotate it. So, just turn your computer 1/4 rotation and you can see it the way it really was. Oh, and this is the movie so just click on the arrow on the left side to view.

So…well…we did the jump. How fun was that? Oh, you protest do you? Do you think we are crazy? No, we’re not. We tease you, dear reader. Wasn’t that fun???? Well, it turns out that trying to publish my blog with the movie was causing a problem. So, in order to get published, I have dropped the movie. I will figure out another way to share it with you. And you just have to see it.https://www.me.com/gallery/#home Click on the link and it will take you to my mobile me gallery. Then click on bungie jumping. And this is how much it costs. What a deal. The picture below is the building that is undergoing renovation at the bungie site. Rayman wondered aloud what they might be building. I chirped, “The mausoleum for all those that didn’t make it.”

 

 
Some of the other things we did:
I singlehandedly lifted this tower by myself. And we came across this giant fruit.

 

Ray seated in the car which has no scratches on the outside…but as we arrived at the hotel it became clear that the clutch was half gone based on the burning smell permeating the air.

 
And this is how we started the day. On our way to get the car, we observed this guy running up the stairs (behind us) with his behind in front of us as he did. (yes, it’s a thong). By the time I recovered from the shock of it all…he was already back down the stairs and I politely yelled out, “I’ve got to get a picture of you.” At which time all his buddies cheered as I snapped. You don’t see this every day. Oh, and he was wearing lipstick…like it mattered!!

It’s official. I got Ray on a train. It was touch and go…but he did it!!

 
And as you can see, shooting photos didn’t work so well. Too much glare. However, it did make for an interesting picture in this case. Ray, vineyards, mounts, clouds. C’est bon.

The trip was 5 1/2 hours straight south. Most of it hugged the Pacific coast which is on the east coast of NZ.
So, here’s a shot…most had more glare but you get the idea. We are right on the beach. And then as we proceeded further south, you could view the coast on one side and this on the other.

 
Yep. Snow capped Southern Alps. It was extraordinary. This picture came out because I was standing outside. What? Yes.
The train had an open car where you could go to freeze and get totally wind blown. This was helpful, say, if you had a glass of wine to accompany the cheese and crackers and fruit…and then you felt a bit sleepy. It would wake you right up!!
Here’s Ray by the open car before leaving Picton for Christchurch.

And, as you might have noticed, we did have sun so the it made the trip all the more special. You do know that there is a reason for all that green grass.

 

Two pictures. One looking back, one forward. Miles and miles and miles of this beauty. With no development. NZ is sparsely populated. And my apologies for that cable in the bottom photo. I don’t know what it is. There were no phone lines. Maybe a crack in the window?
Finally, a picture of the surf and the snow. Enjoy.

As we approached Christchurch, we saw evidence of the earthquake. However, it wasn’t until we checked in that the true enormity of the devastation became evident. The entire downtown has been fenced off. The lady at the front desk showed us on the map. We plan to investigate this today.

We met some people from Minnesota and sat near them on the train. They may book the same cruise of Doubtful Sound as us since their travel plans include the same itinerary as ours. Or…it might be doubtful because they only had one night’s lodging arranged in Christchurch (we have 2) and every hotel/motel we passed had ‘no vacancy’ signs lit. The earthquake rendered so many downtown places useless…that it is hard to get a booking here. We are lucky to have ours. Blind luck, but, luck nonetheless.

We couldn’t even get close to downtown. It is all fenced and it was so cold today, we declined to walk and buses are diverted away from city center. So, alas, only one or two opportunities to snap pics from the bus that we took to Antarctica. We just couldn’t get over the fact that entire downtown was reduced to an unusable city because it was built on swampy land and they had never had a strong earthquake anywhere near this large before.

What you say? We decided to visit the exhibition that Christchurch has on the Antarctica. Fun exhibit. We saw Blue penguins. And we learned that the name penguin originated from welch ‘pen gyin’ or something like that and it means white head. We learned that Antarctica is the driest continent on earth and lack of water is a very big problem for scientists etc. that work there (think Fred and Desiree).

C130 transports are used to fly between Christchurch and the base camp in Antarctica and instead of wheels, the planes are outfitted with pontoon-like gizmos (a technical term) so they can land on ice…and perhaps more importantly, take off from ice. You will always want to leave is my suggestion here.

The continent of Antarctica doubles in size as the sea around it freezes and when the ice melts in summer (remember, they have almost continuous sun in December/January), the rocky mountains are exposed. We saw a movie of the change of seasons (speeded up, of course). It is quite a place.
Here is Ray in the room that can be adjusted temperature-wise down to about 20 below or so. The kids loved it. Coats were provided for use in the exhibit.
In kilometers, distances to far off places. Some surprises, really.
And here are the adorable blue penguins. Very small. All of them had been rescued and are living out their lives at the exhibit. One was 23 years old. They mate for life which might explain why we witnessed so much haggling. Just kidding. But they do fuss with each other. They had a cut out of an Emperor penguin and they are really big…like 4 feet high or a bit more.
Walking back from the temporary bus stop (because of the quake), I noticed this sign hung up in front of a, well, port a-potty. You see the darndest thing when you walk. In a car, this would have been missed. The sign was associated with a little coffee wagon on the sidewalk. Too funny.
And then there was this. Today was the Garden Party at University. All the kids were dressed up or down for the occasion. It felt like it was going to snow today. This women have got to be freezing. Anyway, it was quite a fun bus ride because every where you looked, kids in strange clothes were out and about. Made a gray day quite lively.

So…tomorrow we fly out really early to Queenstown (to our west) for a look at fjords and other natural wonders. High of 64. Low of 31.

 

Oh, I almost forgot. Rayman and I split a burger and fries for dinner. Their burger had bacon (which is much different than ours, more meaty), cheese, tomatoes, beetroot and lettuce. Beetroot. Yes. Beets. It was delicious. Who knew? Oh, the kiwis knew…we’ve seen beetroot on lots of menus.

Went wine tasting today on a tour. Here’s half the group. It’s us and the Brits. The two far left are on a world tour, backpacking. The people next to us are from London and he’s a chef. Much to discuss!!
Big Fred there was really, really tall. 6’11’. He ducked everywhere he went. And get this. He and his girlfriend, not pictured, just arrived from Antarctica where they lived and worked for 15 months. And that was their 3rd stint. We ended up having dinner with them. Interesting stuff. He was a biology teacher in Kansas before the Antarctica which prompted me to say, “I get the impression Kansas is anti-science”. Fred laughed and said the problem in Kansas is that people don’t vote. There are a lot of immigrants he explained. I didn’t quite understand his point, but hey, I met a man from Kansas and he was reasonable…and very, very, big. His girlfriend, Desiree, hailed from Texas. I didn’t bring up Perry because I’m not sure of Perry’s status now. Haven’t seen any news in a days. For all I know he’s said enough stupid things to get himself either out of race or leading the race. Incidentally, Fred and Desiree ascribe to global warming.

Here’s a few more pictures.
Looks a bit like CA.

 
Me out standing by the vineyard.

Hate to leave Picton. It is very picturesque and small and our room was wonderful and warm and comfy. However, it is time to move on to Christchurch on the train!!

This a.m. it was raining in Wellington and awoke to a sound akin to blue whales mating because the hotel is busy retrofitting for earthquakes and the machinery used was, well, noisy. So up we jumped and went out to hunt down some food and landed up in a french cafe and spoke some french and ate quiche and salad with a flat white for breakfast. And we bought some fabulous macaroons for takeaway which we had later with hot tea in the lobby of our hotel before heading to the wharf to catch the InterIslander ferry and that’s where I am now composing my blog…in the upgraded lounge, sipping wine and looking out at the sea and a some land approaching. The ride takes about 3.5 hours and we are comfortable as can be having just eaten lasagne and curried chicken with rice for lunch.

Editor’s note: the picture on top of this blog was made possible by a man who worked for the department store. We came across some of these flowers and I said, “Photo op, Ray”. Ray said, “Here, I’ll take a picture of you then”. At which point the nice man said, “Wait, let me arrange these flowers for you”. And he went about bringing along several more big flowers and arranging them into what you see. The flowers will be placed in the big windows of the department store but for that bit of time they served as my own personal backdrop thanks to Fred. (I made up his name.)
Here’s the North Island in retreat as we head south.

 
Here’s me and the South Island in view. A bit windy, shall we say?

We had a few hours to kill so we road on a trolley up a high hill just to see what was up. While up there we watched a movie or two because it started raining pretty good so into the museum we ducked. Seems in Wellington, there are over 400 private lifts from various streets to houses and that is the only way owners can access their property. Does steep mean anything to you? Very creative problem solving. That is also testament to the steep terrain surrounding the harbor.

 
A bit like San Francisco. The vibe was more like Portland.

But I digress.
Entering Marlborough Sound. Beautiful.
While checking into the Harbour View Motel, the owners of the motel said, “Quickly. Come. We’ve something to show you”. And this picture was taken from the balcony of their home. A Holland American ship just leaving. Quite a nice view. And so typical of the NZers. They are so kind and thoughtful. To invite us into their home for a peak of a ship leaving the harbour…priceless.

And so is this pic of the Rayman from our balcony.

 

 
Our room was fabulous. We got an end unit so we had windows all around and we slept like babies.

Today we prepare ourselves for a wine tour for the most famous wineries for white wines on the South Island. Ray is VERY excited. So am I because I don’t have to be designated driver and because I don’t have to ride a bike in the impending rain…it’s cloudy again.

We ate breakfast at Gusto Cafe. Here’s a picture of my breakfast along with a flat white, our favorite coffee drink that I’ve been sputtering about all this time.
Oh, and we met a newly graduated mechanical engineer from Oklahoma in front of the library and he confirmed to us that we can get free wi-fi in libraries and Mobile gas stations throughout NZ. Who knew? We have been having a bit of a problem finding free wi-fi but now our problem is solved!!