17.Oct.2016 The Antarctic Experience and on to Queenstown

The fox in this photo started the day at the top of the world as Victoria's essential companion, but had been demoted by mid-morning and was left in the car in favor of a new blue penguin when we checked into the hotel. #Darwin


Victoria wanted to see the penguins, so we went to the International Antarctic Centre, which is across the street from Christchurch airport. Funny thing, the airport looks to be about the size of Colorado Springs or at best Omaha, but I could see planes from across the street and they were from abroad (Singapore and Australia). Well it was very windy when I left Christchurch (like feel your car getting pushed windy) and I realized that yes, despite its size, Christchurch is probably the biggest city this close to Antarctica. The experience itself is pretty cool (pun acknowledged but unintended). They've got a ride and a 4D thing (whatever that is), but Victoria's not one for too much adventure on a Monday morning, they had an option without it, so we went with the basics. We got to meet a young penguin and they have a room that they keep at 17 F (-7 C) so Victoria got to walk around on crunchy snow and prepare for visiting grandma in Pittsburgh come Christmas (photo with the red coat). They also did a bit where they crank up the wind to 30 mph, dropping the wind chill to about 0 F. We stayed on the other side of the glass for that. I grew up in an all too real simulator of cold wind and now live in a place where it drops below 40 about twice per decade. Everything else just looked cold, but was not. They even had a wall with the contributions various countries had made to science in Antarctica and Victoria recognized the Bulgarian flag - unassisted! Anyhow, it was a fun way to start the day before hitting the road.











Today was another gorgeous sunny day. Yes, it was blustery around Christchurch, but otherwise nice. Not sure if the weather will hold now that I am in the mountains. The scenery on this drive was flat out spectacular from Geraldine onwards. I had to stop myself from taking pictures every few miles. Among the portions not photographed, parts looked like the east slope of the Sierra Nevadas (picture US 395 from Mammoth up to Carson City) and parts resembled Colorado. If you have not seen either of those, I'll just stick to the word spectacular. My photos don't do them justice. The two lakes with views of snow-capped peaks were Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki. Lake Pukaki features New Zealand's tallest mountain, Mt Cook, at the far end of the lake. Both lakes have that bright greenish-blue water of glacial runoff.








On our way, we did get in a little playtime in Central Otago.


Not sure if I've mentioned my love for Hilton. 8 years ago, they just kept being good to Alex and myself in Australia. They've always done a great job with the kids on vacations, So far in NZ - 3 properties, 2 amazing upgrades. Again, I'm just appreciative of jobs that have allowed me to travel a bit and earn status. The view from the deck:
 


But its not just me: Victoria has gotten not one but two Hilton ducks (complete with the white ferns and black background of the national teams like the All Blacks rugby team). They had a kids check-in (complete with steps up to the check-in, putting her on our level), and two sets of coloring materials. Finally, we test drove the indoor pool- much joy.
 

Tomorrow, we plan to get out on Lake Wakatipu and maybe take a gondola to the top of the mountain, but if the rain comes, some of that may not happen. At the very least, we can take a water taxi across the lake to Queenstown. Regardless, I've got a day without driving on tap.

16.Oct.2016 Ferry Crossing, Down to Christchurch

We are now on the South Island and yes, it is spectacular. When I get back home, I'll check with Father Michael at St Dominics if skipping mass but driving to Christchurch (on a Sunday) "counts". Honestly, I am not super optimistic on this one.

In the spirit of trying to get credit when I know I don't deserve it, I made a projection that there would be a meltdown by the time Victoria and I rode the ferry out of Wellington. Well, my alma mater Virginia Tech was a 22 point favorite vs Syracuse, yet they kicked off, played, and lost while we were on the ferry. I'm counting that as a meltdown.



Victoria, on the other hand, had a blast. We met a dad (Mark) and his daughter (Caro) downstairs at breakfast at our hotel. They were moving from suburban Wellington to Nelson on the South Island. A big selling point was the better weather. We chatted, figured out our girls were born two days apart, figured out we were on the same ferry, and kept an eye out for each other. We found each other and the girls had a blast all 3.5 hours on the ferry. Nice story around Caro's name, they had friends and family with names like Carol, Caroline, and so on, so they named her Caro "after" a few of them. More presents, more happy family members, and names that end in "o" work down here.

 

In other news, Mark told me who from the Lord of the Rings lives around the city and pointed to sites where some of the movies were filmed. Yep. Australia has salt water crocodiles that can eat you, man-eating sharks, snakes with enough poison to kill an entire rugby team with one bite, jellyfish that can kill you, aggressive backyard spiders that can kill you, fish that look like rocks and (all together now) can kill you. New Zealand has no crocs and nothing with any poison anywhere on the whole island. But they have Hobbits and Orcs everywhere.

It is a beautiful ride out of Wellington, across the straight, and up the sound into Picton. Rather than explaining that statement, I'll just post a few shots:

After lots of good socializing, Victoria fell asleep maybe 10 minutes into the drive. Instead of stopping for lunch or at one of many Marlborough wineries, we just rolled south. It was beautiful - rolling hills, snow-capped peaks nearby, and then the road popped out onto the Pacific coast. Also, this strange bright orb appeared in the sky from about halfway across the straights through sunset. It's easy to like a warm (or at least warmer) sunny day.





Having driven for about four hours, some of it behind slow-moving trucks, we saw a winery and pulled in. It was pretty good with a peppery Pinot Noir that I picked up. The smile on Victoria's face is not based on the wine - I promised to play the Frozen soundtrack (yet again) all the way into Christchurch.



So we got into Christchurch. On the drive in, we saw a sign promoting the world's biggest gun shop in a strip mall outside of town. Maybe it's the largest measured in square meters. I am still confused. Anyhow, there were some really beautiful buildings - schools and churches done in Ye Olde English way. The hotel looks like a garden with a small hotel business on the side and it is next to a beautiful park. We got in early enough to go into town for dinner, so I figured that was my plan. Let me preface this with a clear statement that evaluating a city on a Sunday evening is not fair. This tower on Victoria Street (photographed out the window on the a red light) was emblematic of an entire city of quaint, beautiful, English architecture.


Still, much of the downtown is a scene of devastation. On February 22, 2011, an earthquake (6.3) with an epicenter just 10 km from Christchurch's downtown killed 185. Driving around the central business district, it's clearly still an issue. Several buildings - from the mundane (like a pizza shop) to the noteworthy (like an administrative building that appears to date back to the 1800s) - are marked in one way or another. Some are just fenced in and clearly out of business. Some have metal braces holding them up. One had a 3-story stack of containers reinforcing its north wall - seriously, the containers you see on ships coming from China heading for the Port of Oakland. From traffic partitions to boarded up buildings to construction sites, much of it could be confused for an aggressive urban renewal program if you were unaware of the history. From what is there, it is clear that this was an amazing downtown and it is heartbreaking to realize how much was lost and see how much was damaged.

Next up - we've got a few options for the morning. After that, it's off to Queenstown, the gateway to the New Zealand Alps and Fjords.

15.Oct.2016 Wellington

A little lighter update today - lots of driving and indoor time. The whole drive down was really pretty - you'll have to take my word for it, I didn't take any photos from the road. Rain was with us on and off throughout. Started with Lake Taupo - beautiful and large with a few islands. Then we went through forests followed by open grassy hills (like California, but green as if rain were normal). Lastly, we followed a long series of sandstone (lighter yellow colored) ridges until we reached the coast. At the coast, it was really stunning, kid of like Morro Bay, California. It was late lunchtime, so we checked into the hotel and went out for lunch. Initial impression is that this city looks and feels more like a small Seattle than San Francisco. The waterfront definitely has a Seattle feel. In other news, we're right near Victoria University - maybe we can find a t-shirt. We're also near parliament.

Victoria was pretty easygoing, but when we got to the hotel, she made it clear that she wanted to go to the pool. We (I) had to eat first and we found a German Bierhaus "Munich" (with a kids menu). The walk to and from was chilly and windy. Before getting to the pool, we FaceTimed with mommy. Or at least we tried to. Technology is better than it was last time I tried a trip like this, but not perfect. She was pretty energized to be in the pool.

We did one last walk around town looking for dinner. It's still very Seattle, maybe a little Portalandish. Half way through, she got sleepy so we never did get dinner, but we did get better pictures, including a 2-story slide. Funny thing, Wellington has a full-on Oktoberfest going (I checked, adults only so we walked on by). Nothing like an oompah band playing "Waltzing Matilda" - yeah, I thought that was Australian too, but they were playing it and people were singing, so maybe it's universal (around here). Last thing I saw there was parliament - sorry the photo is nothing special. Holding an almost-asleep child over one shoulder, pulling out a phone, crossing the street as the light changes... the set-up was not ideal.

Tomorrow is going to be a full day: we take the Ferry across to the South Island, then drive down the East Coast to Christchurch. 

14.Oct.2016 Lake Taupo and the Geothermal Neighborhood

Yes, I'm here! The pre-amble is over. On to the "amble". Landed, had to stop (more on that in a moment) and had to drive another 3.5 hours to the hotel. I was so wired from the three cups of coffee on the flight that being tired was not an issue. Driving on the wrong side was not an issue - it never is. But just like previous trips to Australia, getting into the right side of the car - yeah, that's hard. Once you sit on the right side and have a steering wheel, remembering where to look and where to drive is not that hard. But when you go to a car (or return to it) ... it probably always seems like I am checking if there is something on the passenger seat. Once I got out of airport/ rush hour traffic, New Zealand got remote pretty fast. I was on Highway 1, which generally means it is a main road, but it was one lane in each direction with poorly lit signs in sparsely populated rural locations once we got an hour from the airport. About those signs, they look EXACTLY like US signs. Same green color, same font, just the same. I'll take a picture later, but if you drove through Oregon, took a picture, and compared it to one on my way to Hamilton, you'd be hard pressed to tell them apart (aside from the oncoming traffic on your right). One of the things when you're driving in Canada or Germany or Australia is that it feels just a little foreign because of everything you see on the road. Now they do put the speed limit in a white field inside a red circle Euro-style, but the exit signs are straight fro the US. Where was I? Oh yes, the middle of nowhere. Yeah, a national speed limit of 100 KM went from seeming unnecessarily low to "hauling ass in the sticks" (in the dark) pretty quickly. Shortly before reaching my hotel, I got to a police checkpoint (they were checking for drinking and driving, not taking down a local rebel cell or anything). They asked me to say my address into the breathalyzer, which seemed novel (to me at least). When I did, he laughed that I was a long way from home. Of course, when I checked in, they asked if I was related to "the big guy". I may claim to be the Prime Minister's illegitimate child.

Have any of you ever picked up a rental car and found that the tire warning is on? So I did and I dreaded the interaction ahead - I had a full tank (i.e. no need to fill up and get air) and no cash (I've resolved that). In the US, that means I have no way of getting air in the tires. But here, not only is it no problem (no fee), but they let you electronically dial up the pressure and tell you when it's there. Check this out - set it at 35 psi, walk around the car, stick each tire, and it will beep at you when you get to 35 and not over inflate it. Now this is not some breakthrough technology requiring a trendy misspelled name, high priced launch parties with Kanye, and an equity play for the eventual IPO (did I just go a little too San Francisco there?), it's just an easy win that makes life better.

So I checked in and got an awesome upgrade: apartment sized room with a living room, kitchen, laundry facilities (let's try that a little later than my first day in the country). This brings me to a truism: being elite matters where nobody else is. If you're elite flying United from San Francisco - Chicago (two United hubs) on a Monday morning or Thursday evening, you will never get upgraded and you may be in a middle seat. Everyone else on that flight is a business person who is "elite" flying their preferred airline on their company's dime. On the other hand, if you are "elite" with United and fly to Hawaii or Orlando, you're likely to get upgraded because many others onboard are on their only flight of the year or even flying their non-preferred airline because they are bringing the whole family and this flight was $120 less per person (times 4). I got my status staying at Hampton Inns - there are no Hampton Inns in here. I am in a country with 5 Hilton properties total (2 next door to each other in Queenstown). So that means (basically) no Kiwis are Hilton elite, so look for me to push my luck at a couple more properties. Here's the view from our balcony table this morning (where I started writing this post this afternoon, until the rain rolled in).


One of the best feelings after a long flight, limited sleep, and finally getting to bed is waking up in sync with your new country. Victoria and I didn't wake up at 3am or noon, but a nice, workable 6:15am. Throw in a really good breakfast and you've got a great start to the day. This morning I put about 10,000 steps on the Fitbit, which translates into at least 15,000 toddler steps, so Victoria is out for a while as I watch some Friday afternoon (Thursday night) NFL and type this - San Diego is just kicking field goals.



This may become a recurring theme - we stumbled into a Lord of the Rings location. At the front desk, I asked if there was anything we MUST see in Taupo. The nice young lady at the front desk asks "Did you see 'The Hobbit'? You know that scene where they fight going down the rapids? That was filmed a few kilometers away". Here is the scene as I see it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzSlLWF5Hjg , but it may be NZ Youtube and you may not be able to see it. If so, search "Hobbit Barrel Ride".  Anyhow, they have reservoir, they release the water 3 times a day, and when they do it is dramatic. When we got to the car park outside the Aratiatia Rapids, Victoria said "Daddy, there is a rooster". I asked, "Do you want to pose with him?" "No, he would rather be alone," she projected, as the rooster followed her...
 

As for the rapids themselves, here are a few before and after shots once the water was released:









Here is a before picture and an after video:

And that takes us back to the car park, where our friend the rooster was continuing to get over his social anxiety. Victoria was still not appreciating it. Spoiler alert, we had chicken for lunch (not this exact chicken, but the sentiment was clear).

From here, we went to the nearby Haka Falls. Not really a waterfall and more like a raging set of rapids. Very cool and powerful, but let's just say it's a quick visit...

And that took us to the nearby Craters of the Moon, a geothermal wonderland of fumaroles, geysers, and bubbling mud pits. The sulfur smell was never that strong and it made a good hand warmer: 

Lots of things to see. Kind of a mini-Yosemite. This whole region is surrounded by geothermal power plants, big bits of steam rising in the distance without a factory underneath, and even a hot springs pool next to our hotel (note the steam, easily mistaken for morning fog).

 

Anyhow, we wrapped up an exhausting morning with a playground, mostly avoiding the rain. For a small town, they've got a really big, nice playground with a lot of nice equipment and even massive chess pieces. 

 

But the rain has come in. We'll see what we can do tonight, then we're off to Wellington in the morning. Wellington is supposed to be "a lot like San Francisco". We'll see about that., but it is the seat of government and our last stop until we cross over to the South Island.  Either way, I'd love to meet the PM.