May 21, 2007, Kaitaia, New Zealand

Jeanne and Carell puttin up triboard.

 

Triboard going up.

 

 

Date:  Monday, May 21, 2007

Kaitaia, New Zealand

Today was a long day working from 8:30AM until about 6:30PM.  We started with the subfloor in place from Saturday and began putting up the tri-board panels.  It’s an interesting type of construction and new to everyone but Joan and I as tri-board was used on the Manukau house last year.  Basically the outside, interior walls, and ceilings are particle board that has about an eighth inch of hard particle surface bonded to it and then primed with paint.  The panels are all very accurately cut and fit very tightly with a plastic spline that fits a routed slot between them on butt joints.  On square right angle joints they are screwed together with polyurethane glue between them.  The panels go up quickly and once complete all that’s required for finishing is to fill any screw holes that show and then paint.

 

At the end of today we had all the walls in place and the ceiling on in essence making a rectangular box with the walls inside.  Tomorrow’s task will be to install the roof trusses on top of the ceiling and put on the purlins.

 

Another good day.

May 20, 2007, Kaitaia, New Zealand

Cape Reinga lighthouse - northend of NZ.

 

Bob and Esther.

 

Cape Reinga lighthouse.

 

Date:  Sunday, May 20, 2007

Kaitaia, New Zealand

Today we were picked up at the campground about 10AM for the 90 Mile Beach trip.  This time it seemed like a long ride up highway 1 but still interesting.  We made a couple of stops along the way one for ice cream.  I’m still preferring Hokey Pokey the national flavor favorite here in New Zealand.  We went on up to the Cape Reinga light house and the very Northern most point of land that you can drive to in New Zealand.  It’s a beautiful vista and the meeting of the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean in a never ending expanse of visible water is truly a sight.  The waves from the Pacific join seemingly opposing waves from the Tasman resulting in a confusion of waters.

 

The driver then took us to a nice little bay (the same as last year) where we had a packed lunch that was supplied by the bus company.  From there the next stop was at the giant sand dunes and some sand boarding.  After the hike up the dune I was optimistic about being able to make it to the stream but had a wipe out about two thirds of the way down.  Nothing hurt but ate some sand.

 

The bus trip back down the beach was fast with just a couple of stops for photos and then pulled right up the beach exit and into the campground.  Tonight we are having dinner in the campground restaurant which will be lamb with trimmings.

 

A pretty good day all in all.

 

The Tasman meets the Pacific.

May 19,2007, Kaitaia, New Zealand

Subfloor done, bring on the triboard.

 

Ninety Mile Beach - our backyard.

 

Doris and Glen working out details.

 

 

The Canadians - John and Carell.

 

Kori - Partner father.

 

Date:  Saturday, May 19, 2007

Kaitaia, New Zealand

Today we finished up the subflooring, the fence, and formed and poured the slab for the garden shed.  It appears that we are ready for the arrival of the triboard panels.  The outside walls will come preassembled and the interior walls will be triboard also along with the ceiling panels.

 

This evening Joan and I and a few other couples went to town and had dinner at The Beachcomber Restaurant and then to the Salvation Army band concert at the Community Center.  It was a nice evening.

 

Latisha the supervisor.

May 18, 2007, Kaitaia, New Zealand

Andy - can't decide which hat to wear.

 

Larry and Jeanne.

 

Putting down the subflooring.

 

Roy and Dave putting in nogs.

 

Date:  Friday, May 18, 2007

Kaitaia, New Zealand

 

Today we finally got to work which after 17 days of touring and sightseeing was a pleasant change.  It was nice to just leave the Kea’s in one spot and do some physical labor for a change.  It was also nice to work off some of last night’s excesses from the barbecue. 

 

The local Habitat crew had put in the support system and floor joist for the house.  Malcolm suggested dividing us into four smaller teams so that he can supervise us better.  We worked on finishing the installation of the nogs and also putting up the wood fence that was going around two sides of the property.  By the end of the day we had accomplished a lot.  The nogs were finished, the sub-floor was 99% completed and the fence posts were in and cemented in place.  Also about three fourths of the wood fencing was completed.  Tomorrow we willprobably finish up the sub-floor and be ready for the tri-board panels to arrive Monday.

 

As in the past here in New Zealand the local Habitat was well organized in theway that they start the day.  The devotions were handled today by the pastor Doug from the Salvation Army.  The day’s instruction of what we hoped to accomplish was handled by Malcolm.  They have a site safety person assigned to maintain safe operating conditions and providing instruction on operation of any power tools as needed and general use of ladders, etc.  I think that they set a standard that we could all learn from.  Everyone was smiling at Malcolm’s wrap-up meeting indicating to me that everyone was feeling good about the hard work they put in during the day and the accomplishments that were made.

 

Esther and Bob went into town to see a doctor about having her stitches taken out and a cast put on her ankle.  The doctor basically said that the mechanical brace that she had on was the best solution to maintaining the position of her ankle and why would she want to have a cast?  So the good news is – no cast.  She was back to the site and up on the sub-floor helping nail down the panels in the afternoon.  This helped to relieve some of her frustrations in the morning of wanting to help in some way but being on the sidelines for the most part.  She is a real trouper. 

 

Tomorrowa 25 piece Salvation Army brass band is coming to Kaitaia and will be putting on a performance tomorrow evening.  We have been invited and everyone is looking forward to seeing and hearing them.  Sunday we have a 90 Mile Beach tripplanned.

 

This was a great day.

 

A nap never hurts anything.

May 17,2007, Kaitaia, New Zealand

Auckland harbor from Skytower.

 

Our team's Kea's at Manukau campground.

 

 

Date:  Thursday, May 17, 2007

Kaitaia, New Zealand

Another nice day (mainly fine) to drive.  We left Matakohe around 10:30AM after visiting the Kauri Museum.  After two visits there it was still an enjoyable stop to see the old sawmill and many pictures and history of the kauri trees.  What a shame that more of the trees were not preserved.  The Northland area at one time was completely covered with the kauri and they were huge specimens similar to the American redwood and sequoia and met the same fate.  The kauri grow with a trunk that is straight up with no limbs until about 60 to 80 feet and then a relatively small crown compared to the magnitude of the trunk.  Lumber people must start to salivate when they see one of these trees. 

 

Driving through the Waipoua Forest you see a number of kauri and you can only imagine what the forest must have been like before they were harvested.  Many of the trees were shipped off to Europe for shipbuilding and a lot were used for furniture building and other general use.  The other interesting by-product from the trees is what they call gum.  The gum is a sap that oozes from small wounds on the tree and drops down and into the ground.  This gum was used for varnish and to make linoleum and became a valuable product.  A whole industry developed around the digging and production of gum.  The men that searched for the gum and dug it out were called gumdiggers.  It was not a high paying job and it was a lot of work.

 

The gumdiggers in their spare time did carvings out of the gum, some of which were very intricate.  Lumps and pieces of gum are now valuable items to have and collect.  In the museum there are a number of personal collections that are on display and are back lighted and make a beautiful display.

 

In the Waipoua Forest we stopped to see Tane Mahuta, a kauri verified to be around 2000 years old.  It is totally awe-inspiring to see and almost impossible to capture the size in a photograph.  All you can do is stand there an say “wow, that is a really big tree”!!

 

Doris had found a short ferry ride  that would save us about 60 kms and all but Linda who decided on a different route took the short cut.  It was a nice 15 minute ride on the ferry from Rawene across the Hokianga and on up to Kaitaia.  The campground that we are staying at for the build is at Waipapakauri about 15km north of Kaitaia.  The campground is a short walk from the Tasmine Sea and the 90 Mile Beach.  We haven’t had a chance to check that out yet but will when we get a chance.

 

We all arrived in good shape at the campground anticipating meeting with the local Habitat group and a barbecue they were preparing.  The evening was very enjoyable and the barbecue was great.  Malcolm Bellete the head of the Northland affiliate was the organizer and also will be the site manager.  Malcolm acted as chief cook on the barbecue and cooked steaks, chicken, bangers, and hamburgers.  With all the other side dishes it was a real feast.

 

The local affiliate has teamed with the Salvation Army in Kaitaia and the Salvation Army team joined everyone at the barbecue and also the partner family.  The Salvation Army is supplying a van for transportation and is supplying a lot of the effort for organizing food at the site.  They also have made one of the best offers ever made to us Care-A-Vanners and that is to do our laundry.  All we have to do is bag it and give it to them and they are going to do it and bring it back bagged.  We love them for that.

 

Well, this was also a very good day.

May 16, 2007, Matakohe New Zealand

Hmmm - kinda sexy these jumping harnesses.

 

Well - that wasn't so bad!

 

Date:  Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Matakohe, New Zealand

The weather today was “mostly fine” once again here on the north island.  We have been hearing reports that there have been some very bad weather on the south island with winds up to 120-140 kmph.  Bob and Esther said that they had gotten into some very bad rainstorms which left snow on the higher elevations of the Southern Alps.  They said that the mountains were beautiful.

 

Bob also bungee jumped at the AJ Hackett bungee jumping center.  The pressure was on Bob since his brother-in-law Carl who is on the trip had jumped there.

 

Today Joan and I left the Manukau campground and drove into Auckland.  Joan had decided to do the Sky Tower Sky Jump.  It’s New Zealand’s highest jump of 192 meters (630ft).  It’s a cable-controlled base jump.  Joan had to be fitted with a jump suit and a harness to attach the cable.  Basically they drop the jumper in a somewhat controlled manner with a cable 630 feet down to a target at street level.  Joan says it’s a great view of the city.  It takes from 9 to 11 seconds with the dangling person reaching a speed of about 85 kmph.  Joan is a brave person!  The jumper stands on a gangplank and then steps off into space.

 

From Auckland we droveon up through Warkworth, Wellsford, and turning at Brynderwyn and going over to Matakohe where we have camped for the night.  Tomorrow we will drive on up through the Waipoua National Forest which has some of the large kauri trees.  From there on up to Kaitaia where we will be spending the next couple of weeks building.  I talked with the project coordinator this evening and the floor joist have been laid and ready for the sub-floor.  He expects that by the time we leave the house will be enclosed, roofed, and sided.

 

Well, Joan’s jump was the excitement of the day.  Joan lived to tell about it and had bragging rights at happy hour tonight.  Everyone was really impressed with the video, even the bungee jumpers.

 

Another good day!

May 15, 2007 Manukau, New Zealand

Date:  Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Manukau (Auckland), New Zealand

The weather today was “mostly fine” once again.  A few dark clouds but it finally broke up and was broken clouds and sunshine.

 

We started out today in Rotorua and drove to Auckland by way of the Waitomo caves.  On the way to the caves we were going across one of the smaller but more direct roads when we came to a road closed sign.  After a short conversation with a couple of guys at an auto repair shop close by we found out that the detour around was relatively short.  Apparently they are replacing a bridge close to a power dam.  The detour made for an interesting addition to the days drive.  It was single lane for most of it and overlooked the dam and some very high vertical cliffs along the river.  Everyone found their way and stopped at varying times at the caves.

 

The boat trip through the cave and the glow worms in the dark was fantastic to see once again.  Looking up from the boat there are thousands of lights from the glow worms.  Almost like little white LED’s but yet with a subtle movement and a three dimensional look.  The guide had instructed everyone to be quiet and no flash.  It makes for a very moving sort of experience.

 

We arrived at the Manukau Top 10 Campground at the same time as Bob and Esther.  They were a welcome site to us as we were to them.  We had been thinking of them a lot and praying for them during their absence and ordeal and it was hugs and kisses all around.  It’s amazing how quickly you connect and have empathy for someone after only knowing them a few days and then being apart and knowing what they must be going through.

 

Some of the stories they told of the kindness of people along the way reinforced what we have learned about the New Zealand people.  They are really nice people.  At a restaurant Bob had asked if he could get some carry-out for Esther and explained the situation.  The owner said no problem and had a couple of burly guys come out and carry her into the restaurant.  I’m sure that you would never see that happen in the United States.  It probably would have generated a few lawsuits of some type.

 

Donna, our Global Village coordinator here in Auckland, greeted Bob and Esther at the airport and had a wheel chair for Esther.  At the campground we wheeled Esther out the drive of the campground and into the Happy Day Buffet right next door where we feasted once again.

 

It was another great day in New Zealand.

May 14, Rotorua Day 2, New Zealand

Date:  Monday, May 14, 2001

Rotorua, New Zealand

Another “mainly fine” day in Rotorua.  Broken clouds and sunshine.

 

Linda joined us for pancake and eggs this morning and then it was off to the Agrodome for the sheep and farm show. We learned probably more than we really needed to know about the nineteen major breeds of sheep in New Zealand.  The main breed that represents the highest percentage is the merino.  It’s a great producer of wool and the one on display must have had about an eight inch thick coat.

 

The show was fun and everyone seemed to enjoy it.  Carl inadvertently bought four sheep during the auction phase.  He scratched his nose at the wrong time.  Don’t know how he is going to get them on the plane back.

 

After lunch in the KEA Joan, Roy, Doris, Jack, and Shirley, and myself took a ride into town to the city park and walked around the steam vents and bubbling mud baths.  It was a nice walk and chance to get some fresh air mixed with the hydrogen sulfide in the air.  After that it was back to the campground where Joan had a nap and I took another dip in the hot mineral baths.

 

Around 6PM the bus for the Tamaki Hangi show and feast picked us up at the campground.  The show was very well done as usual and the Hangi feast served buffet style was excellent.  The meal is prepared in the Maori Hangi style in a pit with rocks that do the cooking.  We had beef,lamb, chicken, fish, kumara, potatoes, etc.  We are going to have to work really hard on the build to get rid of the extra pounds put on during our touring.

 

I talked some with the bus driver from 2005 who is a real character.  The bus trip is made part of the whole evenings experience.  The bus was our waka (canoe) and it’s name was Weka.  So we traveled on Waka Weka.  Andy was made our Chief and will forever be known as Chief Andy.  He did an excellent job of leading the other two bus chief’s in the very intimidating confrontation with the village chief’s.  Until the village chief’s accepted our waka weka chief they did a lot of grunting, tongue extensions, spear action, etc. but Andy held his ground and was eventually offered a peace offering.  We could then follow our waka chief into the village for the evening program.  On the way back to the campground the bus driver had each nationality group sing a song from their country.

 

We had a call from Bob and Esther and they were in Christchurch and will be turning in their KEA, flying to Auckland, picking up a KEA there and meeting us at the campground in Manukau, a suburb of Auckland.  We are all looking forward to seeing them once again.  Bob said that it will be nice to see some people that he knows once again.  We are planning on having a welcome back dinner for them next to the campground at the Happy Day Buffet.  This is the same campground that the team stayed at last year during the second week of building.

 

It was another great day in New Zealand.

May 13, 2007, Rotorua New Zealand

Date:  Sunday, May 13, 2007

Rotorua, New Zealand

 

Happy Mother’s Day

 

Today we drove up to Rotorua from Taupo.  It was a nice easy drive of about 130km and the weather couldn’t have been better with blue skies the whole day.  The New Zealand weatherman would say that this was a “mostly fine” day but I would say that it was a 100% fine day with temps of about 16C (I’m trying to think in metric more).

 

On the way to Rotorua we stopped at the bore site for the steam wells supplying the generating plant.  It’s an unusual site with the escaping steam and lots of huge steam pipes carrying steam as far as 5km to the plant.  There are a few photos included including one of the KEA in a set of expansion loops.

 

Joan, Linda, and I went for about an hour’s hike in the California Redwood forest on the edge of Rotorua.  The redwoods are now about 100 years old having been brought here from California that long ago.

 

We stopped in town and had supper at the Fat Dog Café.  It was a somewhat eclectic place with an interesting atmosphere.

 

That was enough exercise to make the soaking in the hot mineral water tub feel good at the campground.  It seems that you always meet some interesting people sitting there in the communal mineral baths.

 

Poem of the day seen at the Fat Dog:

 

The most considerate bird is the Kiwi,

He sits in the top of the pea tree.

He goes to the loo

In everyone’s view,

But says look out below,

Here comes the pee wee.

May 12, 2007 Taupo, New Zealand

Date:  Saturday, May 12, 2007, Taupo

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Knowing that today was a shorter driving day we decided to spend a little more time in Napier before we left town.  Joan and I went to the New Zealand Aquarium along with Carl and Barb and had a real nice time there.  Especially interesting was a movie on the octopus which was shot (the movie) down around Stewart Island off the southern tip of the south island of New Zealand.  After that we had lunch at a nice sidewalk café enjoying looking at the Art Deco buildings.  Napier had an earthquake and subsequent fire that leveled most of the town in the ‘30’s (need to look up the specific date again) and most of the town was rebuild in a very short length of time.  The style of construction at that time was art deco and as a result the buildings in the town are predominately art deco.

 

We had a nice drive over to Taupo in partly cloudy weather, a little cool but as they report the weather here “mostly fine”.

 

Taupo is a nice little town on the north end of Lake Taupo.  The lake is the beginning of the longest river in New Zealand, the Waikato.  The lake here is known for it’s monstrous trout.  All of the trout in New Zealand came here as fertilized eggs from California about a hundred years ago.  Now the trout fishing on Lake Taupo is believed to be the best in the world.

 

We had our meeting this evening and in reviewing the days activities with everyone we found out the Jack and Shirley had gone to the Marineland in Napier and he got to hold a penguin.  Now I am jealous.

 

Tomorrow is Sunday and a number of us are planning on attending church in Taupo and then heading off for Rotorua.

May 11, 2007 Napier, New Zealand

Date:  Friday, May 11, 2007

Location:  Napier, New Zealand

 

Today was one beautiful day.  It started off gloomy and rainy in Lower Hutt (Wellington) but soon became partly cloudy with beautiful clouds as we came up over the mountains from Lower Hutt and into the flatter farming areas northeast from there.  There was some white knuckle roads over the mountain with the guardrail along the mountain curves being the 2x2’s with #10 bailing wire strung between.  Since they are painted white we decided they are mostly for visual effect and not practical effect.

 

As the land leveled we started through the beautiful rolling hills covered with green grass for grazing sheep and cattle.  As we got closer to Hastings and Napier it was into the vineyards and wineries once again.  The vineyards are really looking healthy this year and even though the grapes have been harvested the fall leaf colors and the absolutely straight and cultivated rows are really spectacular. 

 

After we arrived in Napier we had a call from Donna Roberts, our New Zealand Habitat coordinator that the word on Bob and Esther (as in broken ankle) was that they were going to turn in their KEA in Christchurch and fly to Auckland on Monday.  They may be able to rejoin the team in Rotorua on Monday but more likely will join us in Manukau (South Auckland) on Tuesday.

 

The day warmed and with more sunshine it really was a nice day as weentered Napier.  It was a shorter drive day today and we all got into the campground around 3-4PM.  Someone made the excellent suggestion that we pull some of the picnic tables together and have a “happy hour” and go ahead and have our daily meeting and devotions.  We all sampled some excellent New Zealand wines, had cheeses and various snacks and then Roy and Doris had devotions and prayer. 

 

Joan and I had decided that we wanted to have dinner out at the Acqous Seafood restaurant in the old part of town again this year making it even more of a tradition.  Some others decided to go along and nine of us piled into out KEA and we went downtown.  Meals were delicious and included between us lamb, pork, snapper, and steak.  Afterwards we sniffed the salt air from the Pacific right across the street from the Acqous and walked the shopping district admiring the beautiful Art Deco architecture.  It was just a beautiful evening out and conclusion to a beautiful day.

 

This was an excellent day!!

 

Tomorrow we’re off to Taupo.

May 10, 2007 Wellington, New Zealand

Date:  Wednesday, May 10, 2007

Location:  Lower Hutt, New Zealand

 

Today we stayed over in Wellington.  At first I thought that it might seem like a wasted day for everyone as we had not lined up anything specific as far as touring options.  As it turned out I think that everyone enjoyed having the day to do whatever they wanted.  Some stayed around the campground and did laundry, three went on an all day King of The Rings tour including Joan, one couple did a 2 ½ hour tour of Wellington and then dropped off at the TePapa Museum, and various other doings.

 

Myself and one other person took the bus to TePapa and started our tour there.  Even though this was my third trip there you can always find things to see.  It’s a very interesting museum.  From there went to the Wellington City and Sea Museum which was another interesting stop.  Then we walked to the Parliament building crossing paths with three others from our team.  We took a public tour of New Zealand’s Parliament (capitol) building.  It is very beautiful set of three buildings that are all linked together.  One of the interesting things is that just a few years ago they installed the large rubber shock absorbers, similar to what they have at TePapa, to isolate the building from earthquakes.

 

After the tour we went into the Parliament chamber and heard a speech by one of the members about putting microchips on the country’s social services cards.  The whole proceeding did not seem an effective way of discussing an issue.  While she was talking other members of Parliament were shouting out negative comments and in the end it seemed a constant battle of who could talk the loudest.  I left without a good feeling that the system was a good one.  One interesting thing that I did not know before was that whichever party had the largest number of members of Parliament was of course the majority party.  That party elects a head of the party and that person is then the Prime Minister of the country.  This is apparently similar if not the same way England’s system works.

 

When they build TePapa they installed large shock absorbers that are a composite of rubber, steel, and lead that have about a three foot by three foot foot print and about one and a half foot thick.  These are installed between all the pilings and the main structure of the building effectively isolating the foundation from the building structure.  A significant project to do on new construction but to go in and do it on an existing structure that is basically all stone and marble was really quite the project.  They had to slice the building masonry horizontally all through, cut space between the mortar foundation to install the absorbers and fit them in.  They had to take out a 7 tonne block every 4 meters to install the absorbers.  The building can move 300mm horizontally with respect to the foundation.  Very impressive!

 

As we learned in previous years the western edge of the Pacific Plate goes right through New Zealand with the fault line going between the two islands.  This is the so called Ring of Fire the eastern side of which goes through California.

 

Tomorrow we will be off to Napier up on Hawks Bay.

May 9, 2007, Wellington New Zealand

Date:  Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Location:  Lower Hutt, New Zealand

I am still trying to play catch up on getting our blog site up to date.  On Tuesday we drove from Greymouth, a nice town on the west coast, on up towards Westport.  This drive never ceases to amaze us with the fantastic seaside views.  Highway 6 along here reminds us of the Pacific Coast Highway in California somewhat but we have to say that the views in California don’t compare with the views here.  You drive along the coast varying in altitudes from sea level on up to halfway up the coastal mountainsides.  The road has many curves, switchbacks, climbing, and descending with much use of the six speed manual transmission on the motor home.  Vehicles here are made for left handed people (me) as the floor shift is on your left side as the driver is on the right side.  Joan likes this going north on the west coast as it gives her a good view down the unguarded cliffs on her side of the road.

 

The stop at the Pancake Rocks was enjoyed by everyone.  A few of us stopped at the seal colony closer to Westport.  There were a lot of seals there especially a lot of mothers with their young pups playing on the rocks enjoying the sun.  From Westport we headed back over the Southern Alps and down into the Wairau Valley picking up Highway 63 which is the straightest highway that we will probably be on in New Zealand.  95 Kilometers of straight with a few turns here and there along the way.

 

Joan and I arrived in Picton after dark as usual having stopped to “smell the flowers” numerous times along the way.  Picton is the point where we load the motor homes onto the ferry for the trip to Wellington.

 

The next addition to our strange happenings trip – “The Lost Girl Story”.  John and Carell had just left Queenstown when they saw a young girl, about 2-3 years old walking along the side of the road sobbing and crying.  They stopped and tried to get her to talk with them but the child was afraid and frightened and could or would not talk clearly enough for John and Carell to determine who she was or where she came from.  They were afraid that maybe there had been an accident or car over the side of the road and not visible.  After a short while another car stopped, a local family, and they had a cell phone and called 111 (their local 911).  The police arrived and started to investigate but also had no luck communicating with the girl at first.  Eventually the police said that John and Carell could leave.  John and Carell asked the local couple to email them if they found out anything.  Today they found out that the girl was a boy and had been at a birthday party at a friend’s house and his parents were camping in an RV in the back of the house someplace.  The boy was sleeping in the house apparently and woke up and tried to find his parents but became disoriented and began wandering.  Finding out what happened was excellent closure as everyone was concerned about the child.

 

Broken ankle report – Esther is doing well after her surgery in Invercargill on Monday.  Her and Bob are still there.  She now has to wait about 10 days before they will put on the cast.  We’re now working on having them turn in their motorhome in Christchurch where we picked up the motorhomes and then flying to Auckland and renting another motorhome there and meet up with us at some point around there.  Donna, our NZ Habitat coordinator, has been providing terrific support and going out of her way to get this all pulled together.  Bob and Esther are constantly in our thoughts and prayers. 

 

The ferry crossing today was uneventful other than it was about an hour late.  Why would we think this was unusual since all of our connections with commercial travel has been delayed somehow.  Very unusual for NZ but then this is an “unusual happenings” trip.  Last night at our meeting I told everyone that we would be surprised if no one was lost on the way to the Lower Hutt campground as to the best of our knowledge no group had ever made it to the campground without someone getting lost including ourselves.  Well today another “unusual happening” happened.  Everyone made it to the campground from the ferry within about 3 or 4 minutes of each other.  This team definitely gets the team award for getting to Lower Hutt without getting lost award.

Date:  Monday, May 7, 2007

Location:  Fox Glacier, New Zealand

We are here on the west coast of the south island of New Zealand at Fox Glacier this morning.  Fox Glacier is a small town of maybe 1,000 people on the west side of the Southern Alps and Mt. Cook and Tasman.  The town’s existence is mainly to support tourism and is on highway 6, the main and only highway down the west coast through this area.  The town is named after the Fox Glacier which is nearby.

 

There are numerous outdoor activities including guided glacier hiking (with crampons, ice picks, etc.), helicopter rides and tours of Mt. Cook with snow landings, etc.  Wayland was planning on taking the helicopter ride again this year with the glacier hike as a second choice depending on the weather.  However, it has been raining most of the night and continues this morning so it looks like neither option will probably happen today.

 

So far the trip has been a mixture of unusual and strange happenings.  It all started at the airport in Los Angeles.  Just as we were checking in the Air New Zealand computers went down in Auckland that are used to check in people for flights.  About half of the plane had been loaded and all but three of our team had been checked in.  This caused an hour and half delay leaving LAX.  Next, on the flight one of the single ladies on our team had a bad reaction to a prescribed sleeping pill she had taken to help sleep on the flight.  As a result after one night in Christchurch she decided to return to the United States and we helped with the return arrangements and she flew out the next day.

 

We arrived late in Auckland and missed the flight down to Christchurch and the next flight that we could get seats on was at noon but it was late also and we didn’t arrive in Christchurch until about 2PM.  We were supposed to get in about 8AM so this caused a few problems with doing the paperwork and renting of the motorhomes.  It turned into a rather long day fraught with numerous phone calls, schedule changes, etc.

 

After arriving on May 1st and making it to the next day we headed down the east coast to Geraldine where the goodies at the Berry Barn were just as good as always.  There we all headed over to the east side of Mt. Cook where we stayed at a campground very close to the mountain along beautiful Lake Pukaki.

 

The next morning, before our morning devotions, one of the husbands announced that his wife had slipped in the camper and broken her ankle.  We all felt so bad for her but was an issue to deal with.  They are a very self-sufficient couple with a lot of travel to overseas places and they dug in and basically handled everything themselves.  X-rays at the clinic in Twizel showed that the ankle was broken and the recommendation was to have a pin and plate put in down in Invercargill.  We packed up and headed down to TeAnau.

 

After spending a beautiful day on the Milford Sound day cruise, the broken ankle couple left the group Saturday morning and headed down to Invercargill hoping that the procedure could be completed sometime Saturday or Sunday.  As it turned out the X-ray technicians were on a strike over the weekend.  Today is Monday and procedure has been completed.  She will have to stay in Invercargill for a day or two before the cast can be put on but they look forward to rejoining the rest of the team at some point in the future.

 

Sunday we drove up to Queenstown from TeAnau and it turned out to be a beautiful day.  We rode the gondola up on the mountain overlooking Queenstown and had dinner in the mountain side restaurant.  The sky was clear and the view was spectacular.  We celebrated one of the team members birthday at the restaurant.  It was a good day.

 

Sunday we drove over to Fox Glacier on the west coast.  Four, including myself, took the half day glacier hike.  After two hours of strenuous hiking through rainforest we came out on the glacier and after donning crampons proceeded to hike out on the ice.  I never realized there could be such a huge chunk of ice.  It was a very interesting hike and we got back to the campground around 1:30PM.  After a quick lunch of a panini sandwich in the little town of Fox Glacier we headed northeast for Greymouth.

 

The crossing of Haast Pass and the drive on down to the Tasman was uneventful.  We got into rain and when we stopped at Haast Beach it was really wet and the Tasman Sea was breaking large waves so there must have been a storm further out at sea.

 

Have to pack up here at Greymouth to get moving again.  Will have to save the lost child story (another strange happening) for a later time.