March 20--In Bali

The world changes when we change. The world softens when we soften. The world loves us when we choose to love the world.  --Marianne Williamson

    We flew yesterday (Mar 20 over here) from Queenstown, NZ to Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia. It was about ten hours total flying time. This completed 13 of the 16 total flights of this trip. We sailed through immigration and customs much more easily than we were led to believe possible. My friend Cricket, who moved here several years ago from Chicago, and is our tour leader, picked us up with a couple friends. It was raining buckets, which they say is "nothing." It was also dark, so we couldn't see much. The drive to the hotel was exciting with scooters weaving in and out of traffic through the rain. Cricket labeled it "organized chaos." Our hotel and grounds are beautiful, even in the dark. We are on the beach, but we didn't see it last night.

    After a very long day, made longer by a 5-hour time change (I can no longer keep track of my jet lag), it was a joy to climb into bed and go to sleep to rainfall. 

    Leta

The last goofy picture Wayne took:
Kathy, me, Lanie, Kathy, me, Lanie

March 19, Part 2--Last Day of the Australia/NZ Tour

If you are in love--that's a good thing--that's about the best thing that can happen to anyone. Don't let anyone make it small or light to you.  --John Steinbeck 

    We slept in on our last day, a glorious treat. After breakfast, we made the trek downhill to town (after getting the full scoop on the bus that would bring us back up the long, steep hill). We walked along the lakefront, then headed back uphill to ride the Skyline Queenstown gondola. I was not all that terrified--it was a lovely ride up with a worker who told us about the other things we could do--ride the luge, mountain biking (the trail is insane), bunge-jumping or even para-gliding. And here I was proud of myself for doing the gondola! Truly NZ is a thrill-seeker's (do stupid, dangerous stuff) paradise. 

Note the bike inside the gondola

Note the parasail in the background between us--
we saw many taking off

Awesome views!

    On the way to the gondola, we passed an indoor skydiving place. Despite the lovely offer, we passed:

    Riding the gondola back down gave us a clear view of how steep it is! We roamed through some shops and enjoyed another Pad Thai lunch. A bit more wandering led us to the last pub visit of this tour, where we capped off our good lunch with a beer. Then we rode the bus back up the hill--we agreed that we would have paid a much greater fare just to avoid that uphill hike. 

    After some much-appreciated downtime, we joined the group for our "Last Supper." It was a lovely meal but much too loud and long. We had a group photo afterwards. Hopefully our guide will post it on the group photo site eventually. 

    Words to live by:

    Tomorrow we fly to Bali!!!!

        Leta

March 19--Mr. Robertson

    This is in appreciation of our guide Wayne. Lanie and I have been on several Collette tours, and he is far and away the best guide we have had on any tour. 

    Wayne gave us the phrase "rattle your dags." Dags are the dried pooplets at the back end of a sheep that rattle when they run. Although I must confess that I have seen literally thousands of sheep on this trip, I have rarely seen any running. Anyway, "rattle your dags" means to hurry up, and I shall think of Wayne every time I use it. You can google it--this one is true.

    Wayne enjoyed pulling out legs. Here's one of the better ones. You can see paths worn into the hillsides where cattle and sheep meander (few pioneers there). Wayne tells us that since they always walk clockwise (?), genetically over time their right legs have become shorter than their left. When an earthquake hits (often here), they get disoriented and turn around. Because their right legs are shorter, they roll down the hill. This is a stock avalanche. 

    Wayne also told us to be on the lookout in Australia for shamels--a cross between a sheep and a camel. Let your mind wander on that for a bit!

    Wayne has an outstanding ability to share history, geography, geology and "Local Culture." He has been especially good at helping us learn the indigenous Maori culture. 

    He has kept us laughing with his great sense of humor. He has been a tour guide for 26 years and is still ultra-enthusiastic about sharing his countries with tourists. Even sleep-deprived, he is fun, maybe even more so. He kindly took several of us, including me, to the medical center as the crud made its way through the group. 

    Somehow he was able to keep us all on time for nearly four weeks of adventure. 

    Wayne truly made this trip through Australia and New Zealand spectacular.    

    Thanks, Wayne!

        Leta

March 18--Waterfall Day

Like all magnificent things, it's very simple.  --Natalie Babbitt

    Another early start took us over the mountains to Milford Sound, which is a fjord, not a sound. We learned that a fjord is created by glaciers and a sound by a river. It seems that for every waterfall we saw, there was an even more awesome one around the next bend. We did a deep-woods walk at The Chasm, where there were many smaller falls coming off of a good size stream:

    I learned a lot about avalanches. Our bus driver, Andrew, said that the road we used is often closed in winter due to avalanches. This confused me since the mountains are not near the road. What closes the road is the amount of debris that the snow pulls down with it, plus the avalanche creates incredibly dangerous high winds. 

    We started the morning in rain and heavy clouds, but by the time we reached Milford Sound it had cleared, and we were quite lucky to be able to see the top of Mitre Peak, highest on the South Island:

    We cruised for two hours on the fjord, enjoying the sunshine and amazing scenery. Waterfalls ranged from pencil-thin so that you could barely see water moving to the big gushers:

    It was a long bus ride back to Queenstown. We don't have to get on a bus again for almost 22 hours! We can sleep in!

        Leta

March 17--Overwhelming Beauty

Never be so focused on what you're looking for that you overlook the thing you actually find.  --Ann Patchett

    We drove today from Christchurch to Queenstown, the last town on this tour. Once again the scenery was spectacular, varied and incredibly beautiful. Mountains, mountains and more mountains. Gigantic lakes. Our bus driver, Andrew, likes to give us a thrill ride on the curvy mountain roads. We saw a backhoe digging on the side of a mountain where they are building a biking trail. There was no room for error--it was frightening to watch. It would be even more scary to ride a bike along there. 

    A note to my husband---today we drove by the place where the wool for the Smartwool brand comes from, a flock of 20,000 sheep. 

    I have noticed that hedge-trimming appears to be a national obsession or hobby. They even trim hedgerows, some as tall as 30'. It's crazy. 

    There are a lot of vineyards as we drew nearer to Queenstown. These are grapes for Pinot Noir. 

    I am grateful to be feeling much better!

        Leta

The center building is the 
Church of the Good Shepherd 

March 16--Jam-Packed Day in Christchurch

The poets are right: love is eternal.  --E. M. Forster

    It was a huge day in Christchurch. We started with a bus tour of the city, which included stops at the Art Center, a very large complex of old buildings that used to be the University, but have been converted into for-rent artist studios. There were popsicles hanging from the trees and a wire house sculpture hanging from?? 

    Next we toured the Mona Vale Garden Park, a former estate that has been preserved as a public garden. This is my favorite photo from there:

"... while the dew is still on the roses..."

    Our next stop was the Willowbank Wildlife Preserve. We saw two kiwis in a nocturnal (dark) environment where we could not take photos. (That didn't matter, they were quite hard to see.) We also saw the lizard Tuatara and the pig Kunekune, which is too fatty for food and are kept as pets. (I'll stick with my doggie!)

    We had beers and lunch at The Church Brew Pub, literally an old church that has been turned into a hopping pub with live music daily. The organ pipes are still there. They were prepping for St. Pat's Day. 

    This fairly "new" city rebuilt after the 2011 earthquake has a large number of spectacular murals. Here are a couple:

    Closing out the afternoon, we had the opportunity to learn more Maori culture and to paddle a waka (war canoe) on the river. We were told not to bring cameras, and our guide didn't get any close-up of my bunch, but this gives you the idea:

    We did a bit of shopping and exploring and finished off with a Mediterranean meal of hummus, baba ganoush, and fattoush. 
    Tomorrow we head to Queenstown, our last stop of the tour. 

        Leta

March 15--WOW WOW WOW

All my life, my heart has sought a thing I cannot name.  --Hunter S. Thompson

    We left Wellington early today, bus and all on the huge ferry to Picton. Everywhere one turns in NZ, the scenery is stunning. This was from the ferry:

    We landed in Picton on the South Island and headed for Christchurch. Much of the drive was along the coast, so there were magnificent mountains on the right and the ocean on the left. 

    We stopped briefly to get a look at the seals, mostly mothers and babies, as the big males are out at sea. 

    The South Island is the Sauvignon Blanc capital of the world. There are literally miles and miles of vineyards. There are windmills in the vineyards which they use if there is frost danger. Just the air movement keeps the frost from settling on the grapes and destroying the crop. As we got further south, we noticed many of the grapevines were covered. Those are grapes for Reisling wine, left to get extra-sweet on the vines. The covers keep the birds away. 

    Wayne took us on a walk around our hotel area before supper. Most of the town was destroyed in the 2011 earthquake, and the rebuilt city is beautiful. Alas the Cathedral in the Square was severely damaged and they do not have the funds to repair it, so it pretty much sits there as an eyesore at the present time. 

    We had a buffet supper at the hotel and we get to sleep in (woohoo!) after a LONG travel day. 

        Leta