3/22 - Christchurch and Jailhouse

The first part of the day consisted of a long drive up to Christchurch. The land here is mostly sheep pastures, which while interesting from a land use history point of view, is not terribly exciting to drive through. Though there was one really beautiful view of Mt. Cook in the distance.

Arriving in Christchurch I needed to check into my hostel, then rush to the airport to return the car in time. It wasn't particularly good timing on my part, but I was able to return the car on time (with about 15 minutes to spare) and get into the hostel, so dropping off the car, I decided to walk back to the hostel since I hadn't had much physical activity for the day. It was about a 9 km trip, but I thought it would give me the chance to see a little of Christchurch, which had been damaged by several large earthquakes in the past six months. Walking through the suburbs I didn't really see much damage, just several brick walls that had collapsed. In all, it was a nice, much needed walk, allowing me to decompress from a day of driving.

I decided to try to save some money on food, as well as to use up some of the food I had left from the road, and so needed to walk to the grocery. This meant another rather long hike - about 6 km return. When I returned, I was tired and hungry, but in good spirits.

After cooking a meal of grilled cheese and stir-fry greens, I (finally) settled in to being in the hostel. Unfortunately, my flight was early the next morning, and I needed to go to bed soon. It was a nice hostel, built in an old jailhouse. The rooms were the old cells where the prisoners were kept. And they even had one that hadn't been renovated. The artwork on the walls was quite interesting and provocative.

After eating and doing Internet for a bit, I was more than ready for bed, and was excited to head off to Australia.

3/21 - Milford Sound and the Kindness of Strangers

The road to Milford Sound.

My first view of the Sound (technically a Fiord) itself:

Milford Sound is incredibly beautiful. There is nowhere else on earth I've been that has quite the same level of blow-you-away amazing views, and the sheer scale of it is astounding. The mind, I think tries constantly to put things into a scale it can understand, and so with things that don't fit that scale - either too small or too big, the brain shrinks or enlarges them to fit. The road to Milford, and the Fiord itself, were prime examples of the minimizing powers of the brain. The nature here is absolutely immense. It completely dwarfs the human presence, but unless you are really paying attention, you can let your brain fool you. The waterfalls, for instance, looked tiny. One, as tall as a fifty story building, looked like a tiny little streamlet...until one of the big cruise ships got near it and looked like a little toy boat underneath it. In general, in my pictures, I tried as much as I could to include a human-made object in them for scale.

On the way, I ended up chatting with a couple who are retired and sailing around the world on their sailboat over a four-year period. I mostly talked to the woman. She had lots of strong opinions to offer about many things. It was definitely interesting to ask her questions about her lifestyle. After a bit, though, I really just wanted to enjoy the natural spectacle, and I eventually excused myself to go take pictures.

After the boat tour I picked up yet more hitchers. There were a couple from the Czech Republic and a guy from Israel who had just finished up the Milford track. This great track is the hardest to do. Not because it's a difficult walk - in fact it's one of the easiest. Its ease and the incredible beauty of its scenery means it is the most in demand. It must be done in a tightly controlled 4 day schedule, and day walks are not allowed. One needs to book it weeks to months in advance in order to get a spot. The finish of the track is right near Milford Sound. And many of the backpackers look for rides back to Te Anau (the town nearest the beginning of the hike).

We had an interesting conversation on the way back. The Israeli and I talked about the medicine in Israel. He said that medicine was one of the most difficult fields to get into in Israel, even though there aren't enough doctors in the country. He had recently finished
his tour of duty in the military - 3 years - and was now traveling prior to starting an engineering degree in university. He hadn't seen any direct action in the recent offensive in Gaza nor in the war with Lebanon, but he had friends who had. He was rather dryly ironic about his reserve status ("I'm not sad that I didn't see any action, since I get to go to any war that happens in the next ten years") and about the role of the US in the reigon ("The US supplies like 90% of Israel's weapons instead of using the money to feed people"). Interesting guy.

After dropping the hitchers off at the same hostel I had stayed in, I continued along the road to Queenstown. I had made a plan to drive through to Wanaka, where I'd booked a hostel for the night. I wanted to see a place just outside of Wanaka called Puzzling World which has a number of large optical illusions. It was recommended, somewhat with tongue-in-cheek, by Hilary's friend John in Seattle.

About an hour outside of Te Anau, I saw a woman at the side of the road with a small sign (which I couldn't read). I pulled over thinking she might be a hitcher. Now, when driving, since I finished Tolstoy on my way to Te Anau, I've listening to music, which I blast. When I stopped this time I had Wagner blasting and the woman, MJ, and her husband, Hamish, both in their 40s, walked up to the car somewhat circumspectly as I struggled to shut the iPod off. When I finally stopped Sigfried during the forging of his sword, MJ and Hamish explained that they had taken a trip down to fish and play golf and heading home to Queenstown had been involved deeply in conversation so they didn't notice that their car was almost out of gas. They asked me to give them a ride up to the next little town to get gas. I readily agreed and Hamish hopped in, MJ waiting with the car. On the way, we ran into a flock of sheep who had apparently missed their turn-off into their paddock, and were walking all over the road. At Hamish's urging I passed the several cars backed up behind the sheep and started pushing slowly through them. Hamish said it's the only way to get past them. And, indeed, they did get out of the way.

We reached the station, and Hamish at first tried to insist that I just drop him off and he would flag a ride back. However, he was a rather big guy, and had just spent a day in the sun, and so was a bit disheveled looking. It may have taken some time to get a ride. So I gently insisted that I would be happy to take him back. He accepted, then said that I should come home and have dinner with them. I happily accepted this offer. On returning to their car, I realized that they didn't have a funnel to pour the fuel into their tank. I looked around my car for something to use, but when I turned my head back the two had already come up with a solution - cutting a plastic water bottle's bottom off, and within a couple of minutes we were underway. They stopped and filled their tank, and asked about my diet. MJ used to lead hiking tours and suspected, since I was American, I might be vegetarian.

We reached their house at around 7:30 in the evening. Wanaka is about an hour's drive from Queenstown, so I was thinking about how I would need to call the hostel to plan on leaving me a late key, when Hamish said that he and MJ had talked it over and wanted to ask me to stay the night. I called the hostel, and they kindly agreed to allow me to cancel my reservation. So I settled in to a lovely evening with MJ and Hamish.

While making a salad MJ kept me company, while Hamish prepared a grilled dinner of freshly caught cod and hulumie cheese (yum!). MJ currently works in real-estate. Hamish owns a tile shop, selling to home builders. So both are kind of connected to the tourism industry, like much of the Queenstown economy. They said that New Zealand didn't really experience a big slow-down from the sub-prime bank crisis, the Christchurch earthquake has put a severe dent in their economy. Queenstown, though, has been doing well. After dinner we watched a locally made film of images from Fiordland. Many of the images almost seem to be CGI generated they are so amazing. The mountain sequences looked like the beginning of LotR The Two Towers.

Finally this very full day came to an end. I'm very grateful for meeting MJ and Hamish. They were completely amazing and generous. I can only hope that I will be able to act as gracefully if and when I get into a difficult situation.

3/20 - Kinloch to Te Anau

In the morning, I set out from Kinloch stopping on Queenstown for food and internet. I wanted to set up a boat tour of Milford Sound. I don't know exactly why, but something about Milford has captured my imagination. Fiordland, the name of the area around The Routeburn and Milford Sound, has some of the most spectacular "typically New Zealand" landscape. High mountains cut deeply by glaciers over millions of years has formed these channels so that the mountains seem to emerge directly out of the sea in an otherworldly fashion. I called and made a reservation in Queenstown and then used the Internet in a "McDonalds cafe".

During the drive out of Queenstown I picked up several hitchhikers. The first was a young Dane, who said that he was in New Zealand tying to find "inner peace". Things were too "fast paced" at home. I asked him where in Denmark he lived, and he said that it was a little island town in the north. "Life's too slow there", he said. At the place I dropped him, on the edge of town, I achieved a enviable hitching feat: the hand-off. There was a German guy hitching right where I dropped the Dane. The Dane got out, the German got in. The latter was looking for a rock climbing site he'd heard about, but didn't know the name of, and didn't have very clear directions to. "It's 'shortly' past the sign for a ski resort" was the only direction he had. I went slowly along, and we did pass a ski resort sign, but no turns after it looked at all promising. Finally after obviously having gone far longer than "shortly", we gave up. I left him off at the side to hitch another ride back to town.

The road to Te Anau is not very exciting. Lots of deforested mountains swarming with either sheep or (farmed) deer. The deer look completely out of place here in these treeless fields. It's kind of disturbing to one's image of New Zealand as a natural paradise, and in that way was interesting to me. The stark reminder driving through most of the country, including the road to Te Anau, that a westernized lifestyle has fundamentally changed the landscape here is important. In general, when entering the many beautiful places in New Zealand I have now seen, I feel just as I do when I enter a national park in the US: here is a tiny little sliver of land (that still dwarfs the individual) that our rather rapacious way of life has packaged and commodified for our consumption. The beauty isn't cheapened by being a commodity, but it certainly is changed.

On arrival in Te Anau, I got set up at my hostel, and quickly made my way to the Kepler track. This is another three day "Great Walk" into the Fiordland. I had toyed with doing its 60km in two days, but then realized that I just wouldn't have time for both it and the trip to Milford. So I chose to just do a day walk. The sections of the trail easy to reach on day walks are simple "walks in the woods". Knowing it would lack the mind-blowing views just made me relax my pace and just enjoy the woodland. The birds were out, so I took the chance to do some birding. On the way, I ran into two people headed in the opposite direction who were just finishing the entire track - a German man and a Scottish woman from Glasgow. They asked about how it would be to hitch, and I told them I would probably be just walking in about an hour, then could give them a ride. They gladly accepted. I continued my walk, which included a beautiful marshy wetland, and headed back. The German, Anders (I think) and the Scot, Hazel (I'm sure...hey, she was cuter) were waiting in the lot. We chatted on the way back about my distant relatives in Scotland, on my father's side several generations back, who our family doesn't really keep in contact with, and about their plans for New Zealand.

I invited them out to dinner, but both ended up having other plans. So I ended up going out to a nice restaurant in Te Anau (my second higher-end meal in a row!) and had a nicely done filo summer squash. I ordered a Burgundy with it (having discovered that I like them from my Napier wine tour), but it turned out to be a really atypical Burgundy, not buttery and full-bodied at all! A little disappointing, but it did complement the meal well, so all was not lost. After dinner I bought a bottle of wine, did a little Internet and drank a glass, then went to bed, anticipating my boat trip the next day.

3/19 - Routeburn Track

Early in the morning I awoke with the sun and started toward the Routeburn track. Normally people take three days to do this hike. It isn't a circular path, and normally you have to either have to arrange transport from the other end back to the beginning (which takes about five hours, due to the shape of the valley where the roads go). So I decided to try to hike about half way in, to the high point. Sheila and Gary said that going to Harris Saddle - the halfway point will give a really good sense of the track.

The trail starts out following the course of a river through a  winding mountain pass. The grade is really gentle, allowing views through the trees of the majestic peaks. I did a bit of birdwatching while hiking along. Eventually the grade steepens as the track climbs out of the valley, and up above the tree line. The views for this section were fairly blocked, but you need to concentrate on the track anyway. At the tree line is one of the backpacker huts. Now, "hut" might bring to mind the three sided shelters along the Appalachian Trail. Not even close. The huts in New Zealand are like little backpacker hotels. They are four sided, have sinks with running (filtered) water, and stoves for cooking. I merely stopped at the hut for a snack and the view of the valley I had just climbed out of (which was breathtaking).

Immediately past the hut, the steep grade continues, bringing you above the trees, and into the alpine zone. After rounding a bend in the trail it's almost like stepping into another world. Gone completely, like it never existed, are views of the lush valley. These are replaced with a quiet alpine landscape, with the mountains still climbing on either side. The only noise when one stops is the wind, which moves almost constantly through. The alpine area continues with variable grades, but always climbing, until the trail passes by a high mountain lake. I was reminded of the mirror lake outside of the east moria gate in LotR. Quiet, softly rippling waters sparkle in the sun.

The saddle, the midpoint of the track has a short, steep side trail that takes one to the top of Conical Peak for potentially amazing views. Unfortunately, the clouds were down on the mountain when I reached the top, and didn't allow for views, but I'm still glad I did the trail. (that climber in me got my fix for the day).

The way down was a bit slower. While I love climbing, my boots make descents less enjoyable. I bought these boots recently, and they tend to give several of my toes blisters. This especially happens in the descents, as my feet tend to be crammed toward the front of the boots. By the end of the hike, my feet were definitely not happy. :-(

In honor of my wounded feet, I decided to baby myself in the evening. I had left a message with Kinloch, that if they had a vegetarian option for their 3 course dinner, I would like to sign up for it. They did. And it was AMAZING! They apparently get chefs from various high-end restaurants to cook at Kinloch, and everything tasted divine. Of course, I had just hiked 16 miles with some really steep grades, so just about anything would have tasted good, but I really think this went beyond good. I had some left-over wine from the previous night with Sheila and Gary, and it complemented my meal perfectly. This has been my nicest day yet in New Zealand. Happy and full, I snuggled into bed relatively early to get a start down to Te Anau to hike a bit on the Kepler Track and set up a boat trip on Milford Sound.

3/18 - Whateroa to Kinloch

The next morning I woke to a grey sky, but assurances from several people that the weather should be clearing. I thanked Gary (Arab) for his hospitality, then took off for lands further south. My first planned stop was the Franz Josef Glacier national park. There is a hike here that allows you to get practically to the foot of the glacier.

                                             

There are some guided hikes that allow you to traverse the glacier, but it's dangerous to do on one's own, because the glacier can suddenly shift, trapping an unwary traveller. It was amazing seeing the glacier. What particularly caught my attention was the river emerging from within it. It was carrying so much mineral deposit, that the water took on a whiteish color.

After visiting the glacier, I continued south, and the rains followed me. And because I was driving, this wasn't a bad thing. Some of the most breathtaking scenery passed me by - huge tree covered cliffs partially obscured by low-lying clouds, waterfalls cascading down their wooded cliffs, lending an air of otherworldly mystery to their majestic appearance.

After taking a rest (despite the excellent sleep I'd had at Gary's, I still hadn't caught up on the debt of the several days before), I continued on south, slowly leaving the coast, and rain behind me. I drove straight past Wanaka and Queenstown - I planned to visit both on the way back. I made my way to the Kinloch lodge, about a half hour past the small village of Glenorchy, near the entrance of the Routeburn track - the hike I wanted to do the next day. The picture below is a rainbow I saw on my way to Glenorchy.

                                      
I was placing my stuff in my four bed dorm room and coming out the door which looked across a small courtyard to the common room, and there were three people waving at me. After a second, I realized these were my roommates. I went in and introduced myself. Two of them were a world traveling couple of Canadians named Sheila and Gary. They were traveling in New Zealand for a couple of months. Prior to that they had traveled widely around the world. We ended up sharing a hot tub and a bottle of wine and chatted about travel. They gave me advice about Thailand. Including that it would be a good place to learn how to scuba dive. It is a three day course for PADI certification, so I think it will fit nicely into my time in Thailand. It was really nice chatting with people who I feel like I connected with.

3/17 - Christchurch Airport to Arthur's Pass to Whateroa

My flight from Auckland to Christchurch, despite being unbelievably early, was uneventful. I landed in CC and immediately looked for a car to rent. The several earthquakes and thousands of aftershocks since Sept has smashed the central area of the city. Many people have left their homes, and many businesses are still closed. I wanted to just get out. After getting the car, I started out toward the west coast via Arthur's Pass.

Another area recommended by Hilary's friend John, it is a national park that crosses the Alps and has many waterfalls and walking trails. Along the way, I picked up my second set of hitchhikers. These were a couple - she from South Africa, he a kiwi - who worked for the Dept of Conservation studying the endemic birds of the area, specifically a local parakeet species that is endangered (the common themes of habitat loss and predation by rats). It was raining fairly heavily when I picked them up, and they had given up for the day clearing non-native plant species from the area. Along the way they recommended a hike in Arthur's Pass.

After dripping them off, I visited the park welcome center where I picked up a pair of rain pants. Then I set out on the recommended trail in the pouring rain. It was beautiful watching the water stream down from high in the surrounding mountains. I quit when the trail wanted me to cross a stream, grossly swollen by the rain to a raging torrent. I continued on to the coast, and briefly made my way north to the town of Greymouth, but after finding most things closed, I ventured south toward "Arab's" (my friend Sarah Shepard's father). He welcomed me with a meal of cabbage and potato and gave me a bag of apples to take with me. I was so tired from my journey that I didn't get to talk with him as long as I would have liked, but we did have a nice chat about his past work with the cockapo, and on clearing small islands of invasive predators in order to create habitat for threatened endemic species.

Finally some updates!

Going on the advice that its better to live your trip than write about it, I haven't time to update the blog in a while. I got caught up through my first week in New Zealand though yesterday, so below are those updates. I'm hoping to purchase a USB drive today in Queenstown, so hopefully pictures will be up before long! New Zealand has been beautiful!

3/16 - Waikaremoana, Rotorua, Hamilton

In the early morning, I hiked out of Waikaremoana. The lake was quiet, with few birds stirring, which was a bit disappointing. I arrived at the car around 11am, and began driving toward Rotorua, a town known for its volcanic (and sulphurous smelling) hot springs, along about 90 miles of gravel road. It was slow going, and Tolstoy again kept me company. I arrived in Rotorua around lunch time and went to a "cafe" recommended by Lonely Planet. I apparently didn't read the entry closely, because it turned out to be a high-end cafe restaurant. This turned out to be a fortuitous mistake, as I ended up having perhaps the absolute best waffle with fruit compote I have ever had!

I then spent a good deal of time on the Internet. I needed to write to Brown to accept their offer of admission, as well as try to set up a place to stay in Sydney. The Australian portion of my trip has the most potential for couchsurfing, so I really needed to get a start on it.

I then, because of my flight to Christchurch, needed to head up to Hamilton, a town about 1:30 south of Auckland at which I had set up a hostel stay. My silly flight means that I have to drive to Hamilton, get set up into the hostel, and then leave the hostel around 2:30am, so that I can drive up to Auckland for my 6:40am flight in plenty of time. Grrr! More and more silly!

The drive went off without incident - well, except for getting lost in Hamilton trying to find the highway to Auckland at 3am...

3/15 - Brown and Waikaremoana

In the morning I woke up really early NZ tine to check the status of my Brown Med School application. To my surprise and great joy the result was in: accepted!!! What was supposed to be a short Internet session then turned into a series of excited chats with friends and family. Thanks so much to all the folks who gave their congratulations!

Afterward, I headed out to the Lake. It turned out to be a much longer drive than I thought it would, and much of it over gravel roads. I arrived at 1:05 to the visitor center, right when the attendant was going to lunch. After waiting to 1:30, I bought a ticket for one of the campgrounds, and headed down another dusty gravel road to the trail head. Even though the driving has been long, I haven't minded much since I have War and Peace by Tolstoy on my iPod. My one concern now is that I've been driving so much lately that I'm eating away large chunks of even that titanic novel. At this rate I'll probably be finished with it prior to leaving NZ! All 51 CDs worth! Today I was getting into the abandonment and burning of Moscow to Napolean's army during the War of 1812. Ah, Tolstoy, how I love thee!

Finally, the dusty road came to the trail head, and I started the hike. It turned out that the section I chose to do was the relatively flat area (good) that didn't really have any of the views of the more vertical part (not as good). The path mostly hugged the lake shore, and at one point a bunch of wild pigs ran across my path out of the thick underbrush not 10 feet from me! I was a bit spooked, not only from startling them, but also because it seemed to be a momma pig and her piglets, one of whom didn't follow momma when she ran and became separated. I certainly didn't want to come in between them, so hurried through that section of trail. 

At the first hut I came to, I ran into two Finnish geologists who were taking a quick trip through the north island before heading home where the woman, Anna, was starting a new job. They were quite fun to talk to and I ended up spending a couple of hours sitting and chatting with them. 

Finally, I headed on to my hut/campground area, about 2 hours down the trail. Along the way I had pass next to an area of the lake cordoned off by an electric fence. This was due to an attempt to re-introduce brown kiwis to the lake area. Kiwis are a nocturnal, flightless bird that have large feet with big claws. They are in a family of birds that included the giant moa, a now-extinct bird that rivaled the ostrich in size. Kiwi young are often killed by stoats, brought in the 1860s to control rabbits (in turn introduced in the early 19th century for sport hunting...ugh!) and rats, brought by sailors.

I arrived at the campsite shortly before dark and set up my hammock tent. I then went to the hut and played scrabble with some hikers from Australia on a guided tour of the Lake. 

The stars were out in abundance when I turned into my tent, including the prominent southern cross. I fell asleep listening to the calls of the kiwis, mingled with those of the endemic swans and ducks on the Lake. So peaceful.

3/14 - Napier Wine

This morning I said a leisurely goodbye to Johanna, which included helping her catch and clip the wings on her 5 chickens. It has been really interesting staying with Johanna. She has been so kind, while at the same time she strikes me as rather gruff. We talked about her grandchildren, and she stated that while she wanted to love them all equally, she found that she just really didn't like one of them - her grandson - because "he's completely wild. She mostly blamed her son for this, and the lack of clear boundaries he and hos wife give the boy. In some ways, her gruff and diagnostic approach applied to her family reminds me of other nurses I have met in my career. It makes me wonder if this is all that nurses have in common.

After saying goodbye, I drove Austin up to Taupo, a town on my way over to the east coast city of Napier. Napier had a really big earthquake back in 1931 which leveled its downtown. When it was re-built it primarily engaged the popular style of the time - art deco. Its buildings then are now low-rise and charming with art deco facades with lightning bolts and stars on them. Before walking around the town much, I signed myself up for the other thing Napier is famous for: its wine tours! I took a half day tour of four wineries, getting driven about by a really cute kiwi named Sasha (pictured below). I think I must have tried 40 wines, including some that I'd never heard of, e.g. Gewertsgemuller, and discovered that of the various whites I tried, I most enjoyed several Chardonnays, which were smooth, rich, and buttery. Sadly, many of the wineries in NZ are smaller, and do not distribute overseas.

At the end of the tour, we had a cheese plate, accompanied by fresh figs, that had just ripened at the third winery we visited. Yum!

After getting back, I took a walk around the town and made plans for the next day. I'm limited by having to return to Auckland for my flight down to Christchurch on the south island. If I had it go do over, I wouldn't have bought a plane ticket to Christchurch, instead paying extra for a ferry ticket to the south island from Wellington. The car would have cost a bit more, dropping off at a different city from pick up, but it would have given me more freedom to go to the souls island earlier. Also, the ferry is supposed to be beautiful. Oh well. Next time!

Instead, I chose to drive a bit north to another one of NZ's "Great Walks", the Waikaramoana Lake Track. Here's to hoping that it lives up to its hype.

3/13 - Tongariro Alpine Crossing

To say that the Tongariro Alpine Crossing is beautiful is not quite the right way to put it. This highly active volcanic area is a blasted and barren landscape, looking like something akin to a lunar or Martian landscape than anything on earth. And when the mists rise, it's easy to see why Peter Jackson chose this devastated landscape to be site of the Black Land of Mordor in his Lord of the Rings movies. Walking up the sharp inclines and over the desolate boulders, one can easily imagine walking with Frodo and Sam on the final stage of their journey. One German hiker propped up a Mars bar and took a picture of it in the foreground of the landscape and joked "a little piece of Mars" as I walked by him.

On this hike, I confirmed something I had a vague sense of prior to coming to New Zealand, namely, I love climbing up steep inclines on hikes. I almost couldn't help skipping up the steps that many of the other hikers took slowly, one at a time. There's something joyful about moving my body energetically upwards in space. I found myself singing Nightingale's song Hills under my breath while ascending. My one regret on the hike is that going uphill so quickly meant that I, without realizing it, jumped way ahead of my scheduled finish time. The 19.4km (12 mile) track is supposed to take around 7-8 hours. I finished in 4. My not realizing I was well ahead of my finish time meant that when I passed a side trip up the steep incline of Mount Ngauruhoe, the LotR movie Mt Doom, I thought I wouldn't have time, so skipped it.

After traversing the crossing so quickly, I decided to try to save some money by hitchhiking back to the starting point. There's a shuttle service back, but it cost NZ$25. I'm trying to keep my budget under $100 US a day, and the car along is costing me around $40 already. I walked the 1km down to the main road, but it turned out to be almost empty of traffic. Finally, I was able to catch a ride from two hikers who had parked their car at the exit, then taken a 6am shuttle to the starting point. (That would have been waaay too much planning for me!) they took me down to the intersection of routes 46 and 47, where (I hoped) there would be more cars. There were, and within about 10 minutes I received a ride from a lovely elderly kiwi couple who were "out for a drive". They knew of the crossing, but had never done it. The woman had grown up in Scotland, then moved to New Zealand as a young adult. The three of us chatted about their lives, LotR (I wanted to know if it was a big deal to kiwis (it wasn't), and the difficulty pronouncing Maori names (like Ngauruhoe - hint: the  "g" is silent). Since they weren't headed anywhere in particular, they decided to make the beginning of the crossing their destination, and drove me the rest of the way.

After getting the car, I repaid my karmic debt by giving two hikers a ride back to the ending car park. They were two young computer programmers from the Czech Republic. They were very pleasant and enthusiastic, recommending other places on the North Island to visit.

I then returned to the car park and waited for Austin, another couchsurfer who stayed with my host, Johanna, who did the crossing that day. We had started out together in the morning, I gave him a ride from Johanna's, but it quickly becMe apparent that we hiked at quite different speeds. He was also carrying a SLR camera and a tripod, and wanted to stop a bunch of times to take photos. He showed up at hour 8, and we drove together back to town to buy groceries to cook dinner for Johanna. I really wanted to try a risotto again, since this grocery actually had the right ingredients, namely aborrio rice and Parmesan cheese! Austin (who incidentally went to school at the Berklee school of music for sound recording technology, and now lives and works in Austin, Texas) was completely wiped out after the hike, and went up to take a nap, which ended up lasting several hours - such that he didn't help out on dinner (which was fine). Johanna and I had a nice chat. She is 65, Belgian born, and emigrated to New Zealand when she was a young adult. She took up nursing, and now is semi-retired, though she still tales on home-care clients. I really enjoyed her manner, which struck me as a combination of no-nonsense and experimental - she had just acquired 5 chickens, and for her 60th birthday she had gone skydiving. The risotto was ready and tasted smashing, if I do say so myself. I stayed up for a bit to check Internet, but then went to bed early after a wonderfully full day.

3/12 - Giant Trees on the journey to Turangi

Today I set myself up for another long drive. I want to walk on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing tomorrow, and so I had set up a couchsurf in Turangi, a little town near the Tongariro National Park. This meant that I needed to make it all the way down, through Auckland, and a good ways beyond by a reasonable time, so that my host didn't have to wait up for me. I got a fairly early start out of Hokianga, but I wanted to stop along the way to see some of the remnants of the ancient Kauri forests, trees rumored to rival the Sequoias and Redwoods in size and, especially, girth.

I drove south of Opanani, and stopped at the small pull-offs to see some of the biggest trees. These forests used to cover the entirety of Northland prior to the arrival of the Europeans. But now there are only a few areas that have preserved even a small number of the trees, much less and entire forest of them. Not only valued for their timber, but also having many shallow and delicate root systems, these trees were quickly destroyed. I tried to capture their majesty in my pictures.

I made my long driving day even longer by realizing that I had forgotten my head-lamp at Matt's mum's in Auckland. After retrieving it, I continued south, but didn't reach my destination until around 8:30pm, even though I didn't stop anywhere else along the way. What a long driving day. Good thing the next couple of days won't have nearly as  much car time!

3/11 - Cape Reinga, the public toilet, and Treehouse

I woke up this morning with a somewhat fuzzy plan to drive to what the New Zealanders call Northland, the area of the North Island to the north of Auckland. With climes ever more mild as one goes north, there are many beaches and sights to see, but many seem a bit too touristy for this boy. I tend to go for things a little off the beaten path. I had the Bay of Islands recommended to me, but it seemed quite tourist heavy. Day cruises among the islands, swimming with dolphins, all for a pretty penny, did not really appeal. So even though it was significantly further away, I decided to try to go all the way up to the tip of the North Island, a place called Cape Reinga. The cape is known as the traditional jumping off point of the souls of the dead Maori to paradise. There is a tree there sacred to the Maori, upon whose roots the souls of the dead are supposed to slide down to enter the sea of the next world. 

I arrived after a long car trip to a brilliantly clear day, and began walking down to the Cape from the car park. The point just out in the water is also significant because of the meeting of two bodies of water - the Tasman Sea, the body of water between New Zealand and Australia, and the South Pacific. The waters churn together, forming difficult currents and apparently, in rough weather, whirlpools. There are three islands to the north just visible on the horizon. Apparently a Maori chief swam there and named them the "Out of Breath" islands, since he was quite out of breath upon reaching them. Initially I thought this would be because he had swum 6 or 7 miles, since the islands were visible. It turned out that I was off by roughly a factor of 10. The islands were about 60 miles away. "Out of Breath", indeed!

On the way to the Cape, I stopped in a village called Kawakawa, close to where my favorite architect ever Friedensreich Hundertwasser 
lived out the end of his life. Each little town in New Zealand has a "public toilet" for travelers. As a favor to the town, Hundertwasser designed a public toilet which has become a tourist attraction. It was, as with all of his work, both beautiful and careful use of space, and even though it looks odd on its own, the building both fits into, and enhances the space unobtrusively. 

After visiting the Cape, I travelled down to the Hokianga harbor on the less touristy, quietly beautiful west coast. The hostel I stayed in was recommended to me by Hilary and Erik's housemate, John, who had visited New Zealand several years ago. The place was called The Treehouse. It's main building was built in the middle of a stand of trees, and there's a large skylight in it, that really makes you feel like you are sleeping up in a tree. It was wonderful and quiet. And not touristy. Yay!

3/10 - Flight to Auckland and time with Matt R

After a quiet night with my Fijian host family, during which I tried to cook them a risotto dinner without Parmesan or abborrio rice, which went over surprisingly well...or, at least, everyone politely ate it, I went to bed early to get to the airport by 6am, local time. My family drove me to the airport. Everyone in the family was exceedingly kind and gracious. I'm so happy I met them!

The flight to Auckland went uneventfully enough. My one worry was that, due to my lack of a wireless Internet connection, I wasn't able to contact Meghan's friend Matt to confirm with him that he would meet me at the airport to pick me up. The only information I had about him was that he would be wearing all black with white stripes. It was, then, amazing how well this old-school method for connecting at airports (I.e. pre cell phone era) worked! Within about 5 minutes of milling around in the lobby, I saw a man dressed as described above. At the same time upon looking at each other, we mouthed each other's names. 

Matt then drove me to his mum's house, where he is currently staying in between apartments, and we dropped off my stuff en route to driving me downtown to buy a cell phone and to rent a car. 

These things accomplished, I spent the evening with Matt. He very generously took me out to dinner and drinks at various Auckland pubs and we chatted about travels, especially his adventures in Canada and Australia, as well as what it's like for him to have a kid.  

3/9 - Suva and Anne

Though I arrived in Suva on the 8th, I really didn't get into the city until late morning on the 9th. I had planned to meet up with a friend of Rachel Gordon's who currently lives and works in Suva. Anne, Rachel's friend, married a Fijian man she met while in graduate school in Australia. They decided to settle in Fiji for the time-being, since his job there has fairly significant upward potential. 

Before having lunch with her, however, I had to negotiate the Fijian capital. While walking from the bus station to Anne's work, a Fijian man started walking with me, acting friendly and suggesting that I buy a "Bula Fiji" shirt. He spoke confidentially to me, warning me not to trust people, and telling me to keep a tight grip on my wallet (his presence at that moment actually did make me want to grip my wallet tighter), and then told me "all of the shops here are owned by Indians, you should support Fijians!" He then (supposedly to show me where Anne's work was) took me to a "real local" shop, which turned out to also be owned by Indians, and insisted I buy a "Bula Fiji" shirt (a hideous Hawaian-style shirt). I politely declined. He then said he had something for me. Out of a bag he carried, he pulled a mask he said he had carved. He said he would give to me for free. I said I had nowhere to put it, and he finally let me go. Anne told me later that the scam is to convince you to take it, they will ask your name, then begin to carve it into the wood, then expect you to pay for it. And another man (luckily after I had talked to Anne) actually tried this very thing! 

I think that the frustrating thing about these street scams is that not only are you being marked as a dumb tourist, it also played on my sense of connecting with people. There were numerous people I met in Fiji who were kind and helpful, but it's people like these con artists who sour the ability to be easily open. Instead of my asking "how can I get to know you", I find myself asking "what are you trying to get out of me?"

Meeting Anne was wonderful. We chatted over lunch about both her work - she currently works in the development arm of the UN in Fiji, particularly on women's issues - as well as what it was like to be married to a Fijian man. Both conversations tended to center around her difficulties negotiating the latent  (and many times, blatant) sexism in Pacific Islander culture, and in finding ways to communicate across cultures in a way that makes sense to both people. Most inspiring to me was the way that Anne talked about her relationship as something "necessary" for her. She realized that while there were definitely difficult parts of her cross-cultural relationship, it was ultimately satisfying because the differences made her stay awake more.  

3/8 - Day 2: Kula Bird Park

The second day in Fiji, I planned to take a bus out to Kula Eco Park in between Nadi and Fiji's capital city of Suva. The park apparently houses several species of native birds which, due to habitat loss and the introduction of mongoose from India in the early 20th century, have severely decreased in number. Many ground dwelling native species endemic to Fiji have been lost due to mongooses and rats - which eat their eggs. Many of these birds are now confined only to those few islands in Fiji which do not have mongoose. 

The most interesting part of the trip out to the park was again the entertainment on the bus ride. On the first bus, I heard an indignant DJ (a woman) relate an "interest story" of a Fijian woman who had recently "set a world record" by becoming a grandmother at 23. She had given birth to her daughter at 12, and her daughter gave birth at age 11. The DJ finished the story with a snide "I don't whether to be shocked or to say congratulations." Now, leaving aside for a moment the question of whether this was actually a record, and even ignoring the woman's condescending tone, I was most interested in what came next. Here are the lyrics to the first song that the DJ queued up:

I'm going to bing bang-bang your body, oh
Going to rough you up before we take it slow
Girl, let me rock you, rock you like a rodeo.
I want to make your body surrender to mine 
Because you're one of a kind.

Um, does anyone else see the irony in this?

The next bus ride had non-stop episodes of Mr. Bean. So I was about ready to shoot myself upon reaching the park. 

The park itself was lovely. A small area of preserved forest which housed a selection of birds, lizards, and snakes. 

While it felt a bit like cheating to birdwatch enclosed birds, there were definitely some species there that would be extremely difficult to see in the wild. I found this out the next day. 

After leaving the Eco Park, I caught a bus to Suva. I'll write more about the Suva experience in my next entry. Upon reaching Suva I almost immediately caught a cab up to the Raintree Lodge, a backpacker's hostel a little way out of the city in the rainforest. It was known for it's quiet beauty, as well as its birdwatching. In the morning, I awoke early and grabbed my binoculars, and headed out to the forest path. It turned out that the path, while nice enough, was quite narrow and didn't really afford areas to view up through the canopy, and so made visibility difficult. I walked a little ways down this path, with my main sighting being a black masked shining parrot, a relatively rare bird! However, besides the parrot, all I saw were a few unidentifable, to me, small chickadee-like birds. Of course, walking back, almost having reached the lodge, I ran into the park ranger, a Fijian man named Vindo, who knew birds. He told me that the trail I had chosen wasn't the best place to go. He said he would be available to take me out the next day, but I needed to be on a plane to Auckland, so I had to decline. Birding in Fiji probably could have been better, but I still enjoyed getting out into the rainforest, seeing the birds I did see, and enjoying the process of puzzling out the birds I couldn't readily identify. 

3/7 - Natadola Beach and Evening with the family

After lunch, I decided to venture out to the beach. Pio and Ratu highly recommended Natadola beach, one of the most beautiful white sand beaches on Vita Levu (Fiji's big island). The trip required a 45 minute bus ride, and then a 15 minute taxi ride to get there. Before heading to the bus station, I got my first taste of pushy tourism. I met a man ned Kai who told me that "there was no way to get to the beach for less than $50 dollars. He claimed that that it was really hard to find a taxi there (turned out that there were two waiting at the bus drop off), and that they would charge about $40 one-way (turned out to be $10, just like my host family had said it would...yay, couchsurfing!). Kai then went on to try to sell me several day-long tour packages for well over $150 dollars a day. Sigh...I really don't like being a tourist sometimes.

While waiting for the bus it began to rain. Hard. I began to question whether heading to a beach in the rain was such a great idea, but decided to take a chance on it. Based on my experience of tropical weather, the rain will come down in buckets, but it never lasts very long. This proved true. The sun came out again as the bus ride started, and shone amongst the sugar cane as we drove through the countryside. It was a bit hard to pay attention to the passing scenery, because, again like Central America, there was a movie blasting on the bus. It was one of those post-apocalyptic pastiches, with people using swords and bows and arrows combatting mutant monsters and trying to find a cure for a respiratory disease. Very silly. (The movie on the way back from the beach was even worse...a comedy with a white witch doctor, along with a black tribal king get thrown into the future in order to rid their tribe of a curse, and Benny Hill-like humor ensues when they encounter modern technology).

Upon reaching the bus drip-off, I was offered a cab ride by Abdul, a middle aged Indian man who had been running a cab along the beach route for over 20 years. He told me to sit in the cab with him. There was an older Indian man who had been going to sit in the cab. I was going to refuse, but Abdul insisted. It was only when we started moving that he told me that the older man was his father. I felt, yet again, marked as a over-privileged tourist.

Abdul agreed to come pick me up in time for the last bus back to Nadi, and I set off along the beach. Almost immediately it started raining. This proved to be a mixed blessing. I needed to take cover, but everyone who had been in the water also ran for the resort that was set up along the beach. They didn't return outside after the downpour, and I ended up having the beach to myself, except for two native Fijians, one who tried to sell me a horseback ride along the beach, and the other who tried to sell me jewelery.

The beach was beautiful, but I experienced a particular kind of loneliness on it. In part, I'm sure influenced by the limitless Oceanic landscape, and in part from my isolating positioning as a lone tourist, I began thinking about how much I really do value the friendships I've developed in my life, and about how much I really want to actively cultivate and appreciate them more. I really love you, all you wonderous people I have met on this crazy life-journey!

In the evening I did get the chance to sit down to a dinner cooked by another house-guest, a Japanese woman here through an English school with her 5 year old son. After dinner, during which I tried to learn a few Japanese phrases, my hostess and host sat and chatted with me. We got to talking about the social inequities present merely by my presence - why do I, simply through the luck of my birth, get to travel to her country, while she doesn't get to do the same as easily. She did visit the US recently, but described the difficult and expensive Visa process (it cost her $300 for a simple tourist visa, as well as having to be interviewed by the American consulate on her reasons for going...she also said that many people spend the $300, then are denied, and they lose the money). Note: American travellers don't need any visa to enter Fiji. In the end, however, inevitably the question of "what can we do about problems so big" came up, and neither of us had an answer. Shortly after I went to bed, tired and a bit saddened by the state of the world.

3/7 - Couchsurf and Nadi

So I had an interesting morning getting to know my host family a little bit. My hostess, Luisa, was occupied this morning, so while we met I didn't really get the chance to interact with her much, but I spent two men, Pio and Ratu, talked with me for a while. It became apparent that Pio, 23, is in love with the idea of becoming a pilot. He told me that there are only two flight schools in Fiji, both costing about $80,000 Fijian dollars. He found a flight school in California that would cost around $23,000, which he thinks he could raise, but was asking me if it is possible to get loans in the US if you are not a citizen. I was pretty sure that the answer to this is no, but if anyone knows different, please comment. Flight school wouldn't necessarily fall under the Dept of Education's restrictions for non-citizens?

After discussing this for a while, he told me his other plan was to join the US military so that he could get pilot training paid for. So then I found myself in the slightly surreal position of trying to help him figure out what he would need to do in order to join the military as a non-citizen..! After some Internet research (part of which consisted in an online chat with an Air Force recruiter...with me pretending to be him, because I typed faster), we found that he is likely going to be too old to become a pilot in the air force, since he would first need to get US residency (and getting a green card isn't cheap...some online sites estimate it costs around $6K), then join the air force as an enlisted man, then get a 4 year college degree (he has two years of college here in Fiji which likely wouldn't count, since it is not an accredited US school) which would be paid for by the military, then apply for ROTC. All before he turns 28.

Throughout this experience I thought about dreams. I thought about my meandering path into medicine, and specifically about how much I've been given the chance to not only try out different paths, but also to learn about the process of what it means to "have a dream" - especially about how the picture of what you dreamed changes as it actually comes into the world, sometimes changing in a way that makes you realize it wasn't what you thought it was and that you don't really want it. What a luxurious life I've had. Not only have I been able to dream, I've also been able to then decide that if my dream wasn't what I thought it would be, to scrap it and dream again, with an equally high chance I would be able to actually pursue it. Pio will be very lucky if he ever gets the chance to even begin to reach this dream, and it will take all of the tenacity he possesses to hold on to his vision and bring it into the world. No doubt, if indeed he is lucky enough to achieve it, he'll notice how it changes in its birth process, but he will likely just be stuck with where it takes him.

All of this goes to say that the people here are poor. On first glance, many here seem to live in what Paul Farmer calls a "dignified poverty", where basic needs are being met, but there is little opportunity for anything more. In many ways I find this place similar to the places in Central America I have visited, but with a slightly higher standard of living. The similarities extend right down to the loud music, which I heard while walking around Nadi, the third largest city here, and the laughing geckos on the walls of the houses. It also seems to extend to the unemployment/underemployment of young people.

On the plane over I discovered that there are a large number of Indians who live in Fiji. Initially brought here as indentured servants by the British, many stayed and started life over here, eventually bringing their families over, or marrying native Fijian people. This has resulted in that after Fijian and English, Hindi is the next most common language spoken. Also fascinating, even if predictable, is that there is a socio-economic hierarchy here in which the Indians are generally more well off and better employed than the local pacific islander population.

While walking through Nadi I saw a physical sign of the large presence of a Hindu community: a Hindu temple. There were also many Indian restaurants, like the one I'm in right now. However, there is evidence of a fair amount of cross cultural influences in the food, some of them unfortunate. Please excuse me now while I "take in" (I can't really say "enjoy") my lunch of "roti" (really just over-cooked vegetables on a flour tortilla), and French fries...

3/7 - Arrived In Fiji!

Bula! This is the traditional greeting in the Fijian native language I have heard dozens of times since my arrival here. After my overnight flight, I arrived in Fiji much earlier than expected...the flight got in about a half hour ahead of schedule. We were supposed to arrive at almost 4:30am local time, but got here around 3:50. There was a "meet and greet" gentleman at the airport who recommended we wait until at least 6:30am to head to my couchsurf. Even though the hostess said for me to come straight from the plane, I thought it would be more polite to follow the meet and greet guy's advice. And as it turned out, my hostess was still asleep when I arrived at 6:35am. Even though the directions were kind of crazy, the taxi driver (and the meet and greet guy, who came to make sure I got there OK) had no real trouble. I include the directions here to show why I'm mildly surprised about this:


DIRECTIONS:
My house is located in a place called "Bountyful" housing estate. The name of the place that has all the supermarkets & Internet cafe is called "Namaka". There is a Municipal food market located almost towards the end of Namaka supermarkets if you are coming from the airport or almost the beginning of Namaka supermakets if you are coming from Nadi or Suva. Right opposite the Municipal market you will find a feeder road, follow the road - the second turn on your right (go through that road on the 2nd turn)- the 4th house on your left is my house. If you are catching a cab from the airport, cost of cab should be F$5.00.

Not impossible, for sure, but I was still amazed that there were no real problems getting here. My hostess is awake now, and I'm going to go introduce myself to her. I'll let everyone know how it went later on. Cheers!

Sent from my iPod

Getting ready for Fiji

Well, here I am in Los Angeles International Airport. My backpack is checked, my accommodations are set up for my first night on Fiji, and I'm excited to start this journey! My flight will transpire entirely in darkness. It leaves LA at 9:30pm, local time. And arrives in Fiji at 4:30am (two days later because we cross the International date line). I won't really know I'm in the South Pacific until I've been off the plane for several hours. The plan is to change some money at the airport, then catch a cab to my couchsurf family.

I'm staying a couple named Luisa and Thomas. Just about all of the people who list themselves as having couches available on Fiji call themselves "travel agents". The upside of this will be that I will be able to quickly get a lot of information about what to do while in Fiji. The possible downside is that they may try to convince me to buy tour packages I really don't want. My past experiences with tour packages are generally they are over-priced and over-hyped for the experience they actually deliver. I'm hoping that among the things they suggest will be (relatively inexpensive) nature walks, and/or cultural experiences where I actually get to meet local folks. Their couchsurf listing seemed to imply that the family is really open to chatting and spending time with the surfers. We'll see...

I'm also kind of hoping to be able to meet up with a friend of Rachel Gordon's while I'm on Fiji. She lives in Suva City (the capital of Fiji), about a three or four hour bus ride away. Maybe there will be something fun to do in that area and I will be able to combine doing it with a visit.

We're getting ready to board soon. Wish me luck!

Preparing for take-off

Right now I'm sitting in Erik and Hilary's house in Seattle. I've had a wonderful week here exploring Seattle and its environs with Hilary, Erik, and Sarah Shepard. It's exciting to watch especially Hilary and Erik begin to put down roots in this town, and to see the first tendrils of community beginning to sprout up around them! Not only have they settled in with their friends John and Freddie, but they are beginning to meet people in the area (ask Hilary about the Magical Dog of Friendship). Last night we went to a contra dance (my first West of the Rockies), and I saw several people who I've danced with before. Contra is amazing this way!

Tomorrow I fly out across the Pacific Ocean for the first time in my life. I'm excited, and a bit nervous. Here's the itinerary:
Mar 7th - 10th - Fiji
Mar 10th - 17th - North Island of New Zealand
Mar 17th - 23rd - South Island of New Zealand
Mar 23rd - Apr 7th - Australia
Apr 8th - Apr 17th - Thailand
Apr 17th - May 6th - China
May 7th - May 14th - Hawaii

I'm really hoping this trip is one long exciting plunge into lands unknown to me, but while I prepare to strike out onto my first solo adventure, some of my old fears crop up and vocalize in my head: you're a terrible planner! You don't know how to travel on your own! You won't know some of the languages! You don't have a "purpose" for doing this! Why are you doing this!?! It's hard being the battlefield for the internal war between the person who I think I am and the person I think I should be. Travel, in particular, has always been hard in this way for me. I think that up until now these internal fearful internal struggles have been the main thing which has kept me from traveling abroad. Part of me knows that I just need to dive in. I know, for instance, that no amount of planning that I do will prepare me for every eventuality, and in reality, I HAVE been planning for this trip. I already have a place to stay for my 3 days in Fiji, as well as my 1st day in New Zealand. I need to remember that what's really important (and what I tend to do in practice) is to allow myself to be swept up in the experience without reservations or worries, and to enjoy where I am at in each moment.