Travels with The Rayman

A glorious day today. It’s Sunday in New Zealand on the Pukerangi Station sheep farm, high in rolling hills out 30 minutes from the nearest grocery store. Heaven. It is so quiet we slept in until 8:45 a.m. And then before ever putting a foot on the floor declared it a day to not get in the car. This proclamation was made for several reasons. Mostly, it was my back. I wretched my back schlepping my bags in Sydney and haven’t been the same since. That and we just want to luxuriate in these surroundings we find ourselves in. As far as we know we are only sharing our digs with two cats, about 10 dogs that help with the 6000 ewes and who knows how many baby lambs and men lambs(?) and a group of chickens which I mentioned earlier.

Here’s some pictures.

 
The vistas pictured above is what you see looking out from around the house. We walked down toward to lambs and the babies ran to their mothers and they all headed away from us so the picture I took involved the zoom.

So, here I sit with the kitty next to me in front of the fire which we hardly need. And did I mention the lamb shanks I have braising? Oh, I do love lamb in oh so many different ways.
Yesterday the weather changed about 12 times. It was very cold when we got up and got ready to head into Napier. Napier is pronounced just like it is spelled. It is not pronouced Nap e yea. It is Nap e err. My own special phonics treatment. Anyway, it is a town that was destroyed around 1931 by a powerful earthquake. And what rose from the ashes was an art-deco town. There are art-deco buildings everywhere. It is quite a throw-back that makes it a great tourist mecca. That is where we found a Starbucks that had wi-fi and actually much better coffee than in the U.S. What is it here about the coffee? So much better everywhere.

But I digress. We shopped for some warmer clothes as it does get chilly here at night and we’re planning to head off for the Southern island in a few days and figure we’ll need some insulation. Ray is wearing his new duds in the picture above…a sweatshirt-like hoodie. I bought a pair of unattractive drab green warm-as-hell fleecy pants. But who cares?

I digressed again. It is an a 75 minute trip to Napier and we had to go there to rid ourselves of the rental car. So, I drove the Holden and Ray drove the Honda back to the airport in Napier. When I went to signal the windshield wipers came on. What? I used the opposite side lever. Was I going crazy? Quite possibly. I spend the entire time going to airport noodling thru the roundabouts and the windshield wiper dilemma. Was I just confused? Well, as soon as Ray drove he noticed the difference too. So…now we have a car that has switched levers. If I want to turn left, I hit the lever on the left hand side of the steering wheel which is on the right hand side of the car. It was opposite in the other cars we’ve driven in Australia and the rental we just returned in NZ. EEEKKKKKK.

The other thing that was amazing is that as we left the farm, we noticed high peaks with snow on them that we like entirely didn’t notice when we arrived. How was that? How can you miss a entire mountain range? We have no idea. But they are there. I’ll try to snap a picture so that you, the reader, can be as amazed as we were.

We are VERY FAR OUT!!

Last night we went out to dinner and sat next to a lovely couple from D.C. They had lived in Wellington, NZ for 7 months and this was their first trip back. They enjoyed living here. So, our tables were next to each other and so we spent the entire time visiting. Very fun. The waitress brought one of their courses (it was tapas, actually) and they had ordered smoked eel. Thing was, they brought the eel all wrapped up inside a bowl, cooked of course, but unskinned. Can’t say too much about the presentation…I was thinking perhaps I should bolt for the door…but it was too funny watching him skin the thing (9 inches long perhaps) and then eat it. They offered us some and we felt it would be rude to turn it down. It was actually quite good…but the visuals were just dreadful.

Because we were eating and drinking and having fun, the clock hands just whirled around the clock face and we ended up pulling into Cottage Mew Motel around 11 p.m., threw off our clothes and piled into bed.

This morning, when I got up and checked the time it was 10 a.m. OMG. Check out time. What happened to us? A bit tired I presume or someone perhaps laced our drinks? Naaaa. They are way too nice in NZ. The lady at the front desk (owner), told us to take our time. There were 3 other units to clean, no problem. Wow. Nice.

The coffee here and in NZ is incredible. Long black is what you order if you want a cup of joe without anything in it. Then there is the flat white. That’s coffee with milk on top. Not quite a latte. The coffee is rich, unbitter, strong…we haven’t had a bad cup anywhere. So today we headed South (think colder) to our sheep farm. Well, as always, there were adventures to be had thanks primarily to my questionable planning skills in this case. Here’s a picture of the lake we stayed by in Taupo. Actually the lake resides in a caldera. About 70,000 years ago a huge volcano erupted and the caldera formed and it filled with water and now it’s where you can go and pay money to try to hit a man-made floating ‘island’ with a golf ball. Really. Here’s pictures to prove it.

 
Just had to stop. Watched these young guys with big egos try to hit the island and then I piped up and said, “You need to club up.” He was missing everything short. The kid that ran the business, if he also owned it, was laughing all the way to the bank. And there was a snorkeler out in the freezing water retrieving the balls. Too funny.

After a cup of flat white and an orange and date scone for breakfast, we headed to the Craters of the Moon. Here is a picture. It was a nice day out and the walk was great. We really enjoyed being out in the sunshine and out of the car…the world’s most expensive rental.

 

 

 

But I digress. We then headed to the sheep farm, our base camp while in NZ. It appears to me, the tree hugger, that they are clear cutting NZ at a rapid rate. Oh, there is some replanting going on but look at these pictures.

 
A bit disappointing to see this. It also explains, I think, why the dirt looks so unstable…it is …because of erosion. And cutting all these trees down is not a form of beautification. What are they thinking? Went for miles observing this. This is nothing new. There are more sheep in NZ than people, I’m sure. And they graze this land that has been relieved of it’s trees. Oh, well. I’m sure they know what they are doing…it was just a bit shocking to see this on the way down to Napier. Another picture.

 
Napier is an art-deco community. We only saw one art-deco building as we drove through. The other thing we saw was a McDonalds which we stopped at to use their free wi-fi. Who knew McDonalds provides free wi-fi? We didn’t know this. It was when we stopped along the highway at a small turn-out that advertised coffee (on the way to Napier) that we discovered that they did. Actually we split a veggie ‘loaf’ and a chocolate brownie for lunch along with coffee. We were the only people there and it was wonderful. And, get this. The owners were from Africa and the whole place was decorated in African motif and they had a retail business selling African stuff. I admired one basket but they wanted $265 for it and so I just kept admiring it. Outside, I also admired Lizzy the lamb.

 
But I digress. We needed free wi-fi because, well, I didn’t have the address for the sheep farm. Small oversight. So, we got the address but it wasn’t too specific. It was near the town of Waipawa. We wrote it down along with the phone number. Did I mention that we are not using our cell phones? So…we needed a phone. I spotted a hospital so we ducked in to the maternity ward of the Napier hospital (it was not art-deco either) and I asked the woman behind the desk if there was a pay phone. She replied, “Is it a local call”? I showed her the number and asked her if she thought it was local. “No, it not. Here, let me dial it up for you.” OMG. What fabulous people the kiwis are. They are helpful and genuine, friendly, funny and smart. And the woman behind the desk was no exception.

No one answered. Now the rayman was starting to ‘be concerned’. In truth so was I. But I put on my happy face and got back in the car and kept heading toward Waipawa. When we reached Waipawa which as about 30 or so minutes down the road, I pulled over and announced that perhaps the grocery story had a pay phone. So we went in to ask. Nope. They did not but the manager let me use the store phone (I didn’t even ask, she just volunteered). Ring, ring, ring. No answer. ugh. So, Ray asked a woman that had a name of a local fire district on her shirt and between her, the store manager and the fire woman’s husband, we got some directions. Oh, yes, the Kerr place. They knew where it was. And the directions went something like this:

I’ll fill this in later too!!

 

 

 

 

So, we followed the direction and lo and behold we found the place. It was 30 minutes from the town which had probably 300 people living it it. We were out in the middle of nowhere. When we turned onto 139……, it was a gravel road. And up and up it went. When we arrived at the house, no one was there. OMG. Now what? There was a truck in the driveway but whose?

Let me digress. The owners of this farm and farm house are in Beijing. We had arranged for their son to meet us at the house today…all through the wonders of email. We didn’t had his phone. We only had their phone and no one was answering. Panic was setting in…except my fall back was to drive back into town and get a motel. We thought we should leave and as we were driving out the driveway (it was sort of circular), I saw some people at a house a couple of hundred yards away getting into a van. Ray got out and asked them if this was the Kerr residence. A woman said, no, it’s that one…pointing to the one we had just found. So, Ray drove back to the Kerr house. Then I jumped out and headed to the driveway where I waved the woman down as she was driving by. She was taking her kids to a dance party and she said, “oh, just go inside. Duncan is probably out with the sheep. I’m sure the place is open. He’s expecting you”. OMG. This was really stunning. Fabulous people everywhere.

Indeed the house was open. Indeed Duncan was down on the farm training a new dog. He showed us around and told his he’d be back tomorrow. I can see why. This farm is about 1700 acres and has 6,000 breeding ewes…and lots of babies are running around. They are so cute! And they need Duncan. And so do we. Who knew I’d have something in common with sheep other than loin chops, dare I say. Or wool.

But I digress. This house is way out. I mean it. Perhaps we’ve never been quite so alone. Although there are two cats, a dog, 6,000 ewes and even some cattle. And some neighbors. But still, we are very isolated if you compare it to say, San Francisco.

Well, the story doesn’t end here. We needed to go back to town to get something to eat and some cereal etc. for the morning. So we jumped in the Holden, the car we are going to drive while we are here, and it wouldn’t start. And it was in the garage, a one car garage…and the jumper cables weren’t long enough. So, Ray went back in to get the keys to the rental car…and the phone rang. It was Keith, the foreman. He wanted to make sure we had arrived. Was everything okay? Did we need anything? These people are helpful. Ray had a great chat and it was decided that we’d deal with the Holden tomorrow. So, off we went. We ate, we shopped (and told the store manager we actually found the place) and returned home (saw one other car in 53 km) to find more lights on than we left on. Found a note on the counter. ‘The car is fixed…Cheers, Duncan.’

So, we arrived in Auckland on a beautiful day. And it quickly deteriorated. This is my story and I’m sticking to it. I forgot the name of the car agency I had made a reservation with. OMG. How could this have happened? Well, I made the reservation in Sydney and did not have a printer at my disposal and figured I’d just keep all the info on the computer. Only the computer did not work at the airport. Oh, it did work but they wanted about $10 for 20 minutes. So, things didn’t go well. There was free wi-fi access thru Samsung and we waited in line for that…only to find out that Samsung doesn’t support mobile me(Apple). How could that be? So we approached two women at an information booth and they tried to figure out who had our reservation…that did not go well. Finally, they offered me their computer and I found the reservation and printed it out. And you can just imagine Mr. J. He was beside himself. HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN? Well, shit happens when you travel. Right?

But I digress. It seems that autoslasher.com, the people that I booked through had the car rental agency as Fox. Turns out it was JUCY. What? Why? Who knows? Just another curveball. To make a long story short, we took the Jucy van to the Jucy off-site rental location. Stood in line and when we got to the counter and produced our licenses, the nice man said, “So you’ll return the car here in two days.” I said, “No. We made arrangements to drop it off in Napier (which is about 8 hours south of Auckland).” He said, “We don’t have an office in Napier.” End of Jucy.

Now rayman was really steamed. OMG. “Just how are we going to get to Taupo by dark? It’s already 2:30 (we landed about 1:00). And it’s at least a 4 hour drive. We don’t know the roads. Now what the @&** are we going to do?” This was challenging. A man was waiting for a ride back to the airport with Jucy mentioned that Europcar had locations around the country and they were next door to Jucy. So, Ray approached them and, yes, they would rent to us. I’m not even going to tell you how much this cost us. Arm and a leg comes to mind. But, it is just too embarrassing. But what could we do? Shop around? Okay, we did. After the nice man at Europcar gave us a ride to his terminal location, Ray went to Budget and I went to Avis and they wanted even more. OMG. So, Europcar it was and that’s how we got to Taupo today.

Oh, but I failed to how rayman kidnapped me. I drove for about the first hour. Then Ray took over because my eyelids kept closing…I was really tired. He took the wheel. About 2/3 of the way there he announced he wanted to stop to relieve himself and find the info on the hotel we had booked in Taupo. Only he just kept driving. And driving. And driving. Did I mention that I needed to relieve myself too? He was like on a mission from god to get to Taupo before dark. Which we DID thanks to things like overtaking trucks in 200 meters or less on uphill climbs? EEEEEEKKKKKK. That is when I accused him of holding me hostage in the car. To no avail I might add.

NZ is really interesting. As I sat on the wrong side of the car looking out, what got me was that the dirt looks unstable. Lots of interesting shaped rolling hills. Green. Lush, even. Water everywhere. Their rivers have lots of water (and trout) if you can believe the ads along the road. The main highway we took here was most 3 lanes. Part of time there were 2 lanes for one direction and then it would switch and there would be 2 lanes for the other direction. Plenty of traffic. The country feels more inhabited in a way than AU because they have so much less land mass. And we saw an abundance of cows and sheep. All those chops and steaks on the hoof. And they were all busy eating before the sun went down. At this point Ray had more in common with them than say, me!!

But I digress. We finally arrived in Taupo.

So, I really am wedged into my seat. Between the fuselage and the Rayman. He suffers in the center seat. On the aisle is a woman from Auckland who’s already given us ideas of what to do on the North Island. And I am looking at my individual screen that tells me things like the speed of our aircraft, estimated arrival time (12:47 p.m.). Nevermind that we left at 6:55 a.m. and it’s a 3 hour flight. We’re losing some hours here. And it shows a picture of our airplane heading south with a tailwind. Perhaps too much info?

Our last night in Sydney we went to the Opera House and listened to Mike Daisy. He was appearing there as part of a series of programs entitled ‘Festival of Dangerous Ideas’. I think the title of the festival illustrates quite nicely the Aussie’s spirit and humor. So, good ole Mike spoke to us for almost 2 hours straight. The Agony and the Esctasy of Steve Jobs was the title of his presentation.No powerpoint presentation here. In fact, he did a great segment on powerpoint presentations and how much he hates them. He was completely irreverent and reminded me as a cross between Hunter S. Thompson and Lewis Black with a bit of geek mixed in.

OMG. We’re flying toward the international dateline which I knew we were…but I didn’t realize the IDL was just east of NZ. Who knew?

But I digress. His talk was about Apple, Steve Jobs and the terrible working conditions in China. Bottom line, Apple products are made in a plant in Shenzhen that houses 450,000 workers. That in it’s self is fairly mind blowing. And this place has cafeterias that hold 25,000 workers at a time and there are 10 cafeterias that size in this complex. My beloved Apple is using slave labor to assemble it’s products. OMG. Thing is Mike is trying to expose all this through his speaking engagements and writings. And he was very funny. I mean really, really funny. While I am aghast at this, it makes me shudder to think that all U.S. corporations are doing this too. And it is not pretty.

But since I am writing this epistle on my MacBook…I’m going to change the subject because I am in charge of this blog!!

We met a very friendly N.Z. couple at the Opera House and they told us that our next trip to AU should be takens up north near Darwin etc. As natives they hadn’t been and people kept telling them about it so they took the leap…and now they are converts. Beyond beautiful I undertand.

The Opera House has a theater in the belly of the beast and that’s where we were seated. A small but very comfortable room that had plush red chairs and a heck of a lot more leg room that I have right now. My MacBook is pressing up against my “uhm”, midriff. And I’m going to have to run to the loo any minute. Anyway, the Opera House was wonderful. A great deal going on in many different theaters so the restaurants on the lower level were buzzing and the bar scene was VERY lively.

Which reminds me. Air NewZealand has the funniest safety announcement tape I’ve ever seen. It makes Southwest look tame. It was laugh out loud (LOL) funny. It featured a little old lady (yes, much older than me) trying to pry a framed picture of an almost nude male athletic into the overhead bin. And at the end, she is shown running down the aisle without clothes on (blurred out, of course). NZ is going to be fun if this is any indication.

Yesterday we were busy cleaning the house, re-filling the tank for the barbie, doing laundry and then getting ourselves to downtown Sydney to spend the night as our flight required us to get up at 4:20 a.m. so we could save money riding the public transit to the airport. Of course, never mind the fact that we had to pay for the hotel…but it was convenient for the Opera House too. So that’s what we did. The only ‘tourist’ problem we had was that the Museum CityRail entrance/exit had no lifts or escalators so we had to schlepp our bags up two stories of stairs. Does Advil have any many to you? We both took some after dinner. The luggage thing wasn’t easy especially since it was up stairs. I’m pretty sure that is the only station without a lift and with escalators. Damn we’re good. The good news was this morning it was so darn early that “dropping” them down the stairs was much easier and we were, I’m pretty sure, the only people in the station at 5:00 a.m.

What were we thinking? Well, it was the cheapest flight and we were lucky because as we checked in the lady behind the desk informed us that the Customs agents were going on strike from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. and that we shouldn’t dilly dally or we would miss our flight. They were expecting quite a back-up today as a result. So we scurried to the Customs area and Ray was lucky enough to be randomly chosen to be searched for dangerous weapons while I watched the man prod and probe him. A check was done for gun residue…it was quite thorough. And all the time I’m thinking to myself, ‘I’m the secret weapon!’. OH, I kid immigration!

Traveling the backroads was a kick. We struck out from Bowral and followed our noses, finding a road marked ‘Tourist route’. It was lovely. And we found a road that was like Old Creek Road on steroids in that it was much longer. So, tootling along, we saw a sign for a ‘Walk Above the Treetops’. Let’s go see what this is… we said almost in unison.

We found ourselves at a very interesting exhibit.
As you can see, it was quite a big structure and, no, we didn’t walk on the top of every single tree…but we did walk on top of a lot of trees.
Looking down was an interesting sensation.

But I digress. It turned out there was a charge for this adventure. We decided to do it because, unbelievable as it might seem, we didn’t have to pay for any of the National treasures we saw yesterday. And parking was free too. So, why not pay a little now? Well, it cost $48 for both of us and we paid, Diana. Yes. Quite an informative person behind that desk. And she also refers to herself as Princess Di! We really hit it off. Here’s a pic. She’s on the left and seemed excited that she would be in my blog!!
So…she sold us the tickets. The tour involved a fair bit of walking and lots of stairs. On the way down, they had posters on polls that gave information about the flora and fauna. When we reached the one that said ‘Reptiles’, I had a look. Black snakes, lizards…pythons. OMG. Am I going to be eaten by a python? Why didn’t dear Diana mention this? OMG. So…I was very vigilant though I didn’t think I’d see one because it was a bit cold. Did I mention that we were the only ones there as it was still early? What could go wrong?

But I digress. Here’s some more pictures.
The tower we climbed up. See Ray?
See Ray again? it was quite high. But what a view. Too bad it wasn’t completely sunny but we thoroughly enjoyed it anyway.
The ocean in the distance.
Looking down from the tower to the walk way.

Oh, no snakes. However a parrot.

 
After the tour I asked Diana about the python. “Oh, yes. The gardener here found one under a bush and brought it up for all of us to see. It was absolutely HUGE.” OMG. She added, “Won’t be out for about a month. Too cold. And anyway, they are interested in us. All the snakes are looking for smaller things to eat.” Well. That was a relief.

It’s cloudy outside. A few minutes ago it was sunny. Weather in Aussie land turns on a dime. The other day we were at our base camp in Oatley and it was warm and beautiful. Suddenly a terrific wind started blowing. The house has a flagpole with a flag. It got so windy my over-active imagination figured the pole might snap and the top end might become a projective crashing through the glass door and flying through the house. Ray was out getting something at the store and he said when he went in it was warm and nice. He came out and it was cold and blowing gale force winds.

Australia is a country the size of the U.S. with the population of Los Angeles. Wrap your head around that one. They have hundreds of mile of beach front that haven’t even been explored, I’m guessing as no roads go near it. Opportunity cries out. When you drive around the countryside you get a sense of how big the place is and how sparsely populated as well.

The Blue Mountains are part of a range that run down the eastern side of the continent, like a big spine. And boy are there eucalyptus trees. Everywhere. That is what gives the Blue Mountains the name Blue Mountains. The trees emit some chemical? and the sun reflecting off the trees look blue from a distance. When we flew to and from Cairns, we got a birds eye view of the range.

The streets and freeways are very clean. No sponsors needed for clean up. There are Hungry Jacks, McDonalds, and KFCs all over the place which is a sad thing to report.

We haven’t seen a skunk so they must not be here. And we haven’t seen a rabbit. Why rabbits? Well, a fellow from the Britain brought some rabbits down here in the 1800s and rabbits being rabbits, they multiplied and multiplied. Rabbits became a big problem eating everything in their way. So the Aussie’s have been busy killing rabbits anyway they can since then. Poison, shooting. Even fencing. Hence the name of the film “Rabbit-Proof Fences”. Check it out of you can thru either Netflix or the video store. Anyway, they actually installed these fences all over the place to beat back the rabbits. So…given all this history, I’m surprised we haven’t seen rabbit on every menu, not even one. And we haven’t seen dead rabbits on the roadway. And no lucky rabbit’s feet.

Sydney has the highest standard of living of any city on the planet according to something Ray read. It is quite lovely for a big city. And very expensive. It’s very easy to get around if you use the train. Cars, not so much. There are many rolling hills in Sydney with water seemingly everywhere. Bays, rivers, estuaries. You name it in the water department and they have it. Even a quay.

This country is young. Lots of babies and baby carriages. Sometimes you get trapped on the trains by the carriages, there are so many. With plenty of room to grow, more people seems to be a priority!!

Australia seems like America in many ways. It is a melting pot of different nationalities. Not many blacks, however. Lots of Asians from all over Asia a few muslims based solely on noticing the head scarves. And the country seems to have figured out how to separate church and state. If they have a “fundamentalist” group, it doesn’t show. And actually, there is not an overabundance of churches that I’ve noticed.

According to one of the young women at the Sydney aquarium, it’s easy to get a one year work Visa. She was the U.S. She applied, came over, and found work immediately. Unemployment is not a big problem. And I’ve not seen any homeless people. Admittedly, we might not be in the areas they would hanging out at…but we haven’t seen any…just saying.

They have fun street signs. ‘Stay left unless overtaking’ means, stay in the slow lane unless you’re passing. People really follow that rule. ‘Giveway’ means, yield. ‘Form one lane’ means the lanes are collapsing from 3 to 2, say. ‘Don’t queue in the intersection’ means don’t block the intersection. Fun differences.

Now, about driving on the wrong side of the road. It is challenging. Besides that problem of signallng a lane change with the windshield wipers, it messes with your mind. I don’t know left from right. If Ray sas, “Turn left”, my natural inclination is to want to cross the intersection…but that’s on my right. EEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKK. And going to right side of the car to get in the drivers seat is a hoot. We keep getting that wrong too. What I LOVE about their roads are the roundabouts. The roundabouts make driving so much easier with very few actual stops required. Saves on stop signs, stops lights. Keeps things moving. Very, very good. I’ll miss them when we return. The roads here are in good shape and when you retreat from the city, they are uncrowded compared to ours. That makes driving pleasurable.

What’s really fun are the names of towns, cities. Lots of words ending in ‘oo’ and ‘gong’. Just fun, descriptive names. Look at a map and you’ll get the flavor of the language.

So, those are some our observations.