Greetings from New Zealand!

Christchurch

New Year's was spectacular in Australia. Up in the morning and off to New Zealand. The flight, though relatively short (4 hours), was one of the most dreadfully turbulent filled trips of my flying life. For the last hour and a half of the flight the plane moved subtly from side to side. The last 20 minutes proved to be the roughest for me. We landed and how happy I was. To show my glee I pulled out one of those airline barf bags. We all SEE them located in the back pocket of the airline seats and think, wow, that would be a real bummer to use. Anyway, I barfed as the passengers deplaned. Thank god the stewardess came up to me and said it was the worst flight ever. As we left the plane, other crew members were mumbling the same thing. Surely they weren't all just trying to make me feel better.

On through customs and into a cab, we arrived at the hotel at about 1am. This newly renovated historic hotel is located right in the middle of town. But it was a bit of a surprise to hear a leaf blower and street cleaning vehicle at 3am. After little sleep, we woke to get some breakfast and walk the town. We visited an outdoor and an indoor arts market and saw some nice pieces of carved jade on slim pieces of leather. We visited the library to learn more about Maori culture so that we might visit Maori communities in our travels. There was an entire room dedicated to this subject. We sat and read about the past history and contemporary life of Maoris and among other things learned that most Maori communities are located in the north island (not the south island where we were staying). All in all Christchurch was non-eventful.

Queenstown

We took a six hour bus to Queenstown. This coach bus is the kind you see retired people and Japenese tourists getting on and off of. Now, we are one of them! The bus driver gave commentary most of the ride down and we stopped at plenty of sites and gift shop/eatery/toilet stops. One interesting place was the Church of the Good Shepherd (not to be confused with the Bad Shepherd). This teeny little church sat on a large bluish white lake with a mountain in the background. Sitting in the church and looking at the view, one could definitely 'find God'. So far New Zealand is stunningly beautiful with lots of glacier mountains, lush trees, and when the sky is blue it's quite blue.

We are dropped off at Bungy Backpackers, our home for a few days. Here there are tons of people from around the world bunking up together, cooking and eating in a communal kitchen, splashing around in the hot tub, doing laundry, watching tv or just reading. It's really the first backpacker place we stayed at. We were lucky enough to get a room to ourselves. As it turns out this accomodation also books whatever activities you want and in Queenstown there are more things to do than you can shake a stick at. From jet boating to bungy jumping, sky diving or just shopping.

We decided that taking a half day to mountain bike with a bungy jumping break would be just thing to get us in the swing of 'NZ adventure travel'. So, the folks at Gravity Action picked up Peter and I from Bungy Backpackers. We drove to the top of a moutain, got out and got fitted for our bikes. There was the choice of two trails to bike down. One was technical, the other an easy ride down a gravel road. Peter took the technical and I rode the gravel road. My ride was so amazing. It was so relaxing and quiet to ride down this narrow little road among sheep and green terrain with mountains on virtually all sides. Every once in a while I could see Peter with the rest of the crew slowly plodding through the muddied track. We all meet at the bottom of a hill and on a river where some of the group will go white water rafting, while others get picked up by a helicopter for the ride home. We, however, get back into the van and head to the bungy jumping site. Peter was the only one in our group to jump that day. I was a nervous wreck, but Peter was so incredibly calm. We get to the site, Peter gets weighed at xx stones. He walks onto the plank and is fitted for ankle straps.

I stood on the side bridge with a really sweet man from Edinborough who was saying things like, "Well, it certainly looks safe." We watched one man jump while Peter got ready. No problem, I tell myself. Peter is on the platform and I can hear 5,4,3,2,1 and Peter is glorious. He jumps, arms out, feet together, he looks like a beautiful bird. I cannot remove that image from my head. He gracefully falls to the water and bounces a number of times raising his head to his knees with every bounce. A small boat rides up underneath him and he is lowered into the boat and is dismantled from the bungy. I have to say I was a little teary, it was over. He came up and was so excited, yet very calm and wants to do it again. But, we have to move on to finish our mountain biking trip. We drive to the main road into town and we remount our bikes for the ride home. The weather is perfect, the sky blue-blue, the town below is a sweet grass green punctuated by mountain and water. It's paradise.

Next day, a half day of horseback riding. Again, we are picked up by the stables and head out for a 45 minute drive to Glenorchy. On the way we stop at another accomodation and pick up Lynn, a woman who happens to be from Atlanta! I have to say, it was nice to hear her soft southern accent. At the stables we are shown our horses. I'm given a 22 year old horse who, "is great with lightweights and little kids." So I introduce myself to Barton. He ignores me and then I win him over by rubbing in just the right place--behind the ears. We line up behind the guide and my horse makes it known that no one except the guide can be in front of him. Fine with me, I get to watch the guide post and try to remember my pre-pubescent days of posting and trotting. The views, once again, phenomenal! Water, mountain, green. As it turns out, my horse rarely gets to trot and cantor, so when we broke out into both it was an absolute blast! I was laughing and the horse was making all sorts of happy noises. The guide said, "I don't know who is having a better time, you or the horse!" I think it was equally great! The four of us (Peter, Me, Lynn and the Guide) rode for about 2 hours. I have to say, that was about all my butt could take. Toward the end of the trail Peter fell from the horse and was left with a bit of a scrape (right next to his mountain biking scrape). Blood, but nothing broken. His horse spooked, Peter, once again, handled it with grace.

Back at Bungy Backpackers we decide to prepare dinner and Peter makes sushi for the next day's lunch on the bus to Milford Sound (a 6 hour bus drive). A few hours after dinner I feel a little weird, but nothing extreme. We go to bed early making sure to be up at 6am for our bus. At about midnight dinner hit me in the gut and I spent the rest of the night on my knees with my head in a plastic bag. Now, there are some friends of mine who don't mind throwing up. They feel sick, puke and then it's over. But I'm type A, control freak and I HATE to puke and haven't done so in at least 10 years. This seems to be the trip of sick, so why not. It's pukarama time. Next morning we get on our bus, it's a double decker. It's very high off the ground with HUGE IMAX type windows in front, side and on the roof. Basically it's an amusement park ride. A few minutes into that and I went to the lounge below and puked some more. That six hours was bad, but hey, it could have been worse, we could have been on a bus in India!

The folks at Milford Sound Lodge pick us up and they find a private room for Peter and I. We extend our stay, Peter makes friends with EVERY staff worker at the place and I rest. Milford Sound is a town of about 150 folks during tourist season and 50 people in winter. It's like the shinning. Milford is situated in I think the most beautiful part of the world, it's truly astounding. Again, mountains, waterfalls everywhere, a greenish-bluish glacier water, and basically rainforest. After a few days of rest and lots of reorganizing, Peter and I set out on our sea kayaking adventure. We are missed in the first pick up from the lodge, so we finally arrive on the water via a motor boat with our kayak attached to the side. We lower into the water to meet our guide and 2 other double kayaks, so there are four double kayaks in all. It's rainy (which is par for the course in Milford Sound where they get 20 feet of rain a year!) but that makes for good kayaking as we sit on a very still water. The day is magical. We see three rainbows, lots of wild seals including a 3 day old pup and it's very proud mum, waterfalls up the wazoo, and trees that grow off the rock. The kayaking takes 4 hours. At hour 3 we put our boats together in the middle of the water for tea. The guide has us go around sharing who we are as we float in the water and the sun breaks in. Now it's blue sky and the cormorants and paradise ducks are out. We are so happy to see wildlife! We take lots of pics and head for shore.

A very restful sleep that night. We wake and wait for our afternoon bus back to Queenstown. Once again, we are on the double decker bus, but this time I'm feeling much better and we secure a seat at the very front. This is THE BEST SEAT! Bascially we are above the driver and the glass is right in front of us and it's a clear shot down. For six hours I gasp at the views that I missed on the way to Milford. There were also tons of sheepy and some great looking cows, glaciers, waterfalls, blue green water and green grasslands. We strike up a conversation with the folks beside us and it turns out they are from DC on a 2 week vacation of NZ and Australia. We talk about the mood of DC and the states and we understand that patriotism is abound with lots of people wearing little flags on their lapels and xmas lights were red, white and blue. Is this true in Boston/NY too?

Back in Queenstown we stay in an apartment with a couple from Germany. We sleep in the next morning and move to another apartment. When we walk in our next apartment our house mates are there and one of them is wearing a Boston T-Shirt. (Come to think of it in Milford a Dane was wearing a Red Sox hat that he got in Boston but said they sell them in Denmark!) Anyway, we spend 3 hours chating with the Englishman who worked in Dorchester for 8 months and with the Dane who we were trying to convince not to spend 2 weeks in LA and instread go to SF! It was really great talking about all of our travels and learning how other backpackers do it. These two guys met on a ferry from North Island and are hitching around the South Island. Tomorrow we are on a 7/8 hour bus ride to Franz Josef Glaciers. We hope to do a day hike in the ice.

Until next time. Be well, be happy and enjoy the snow (or rain, for those of you in the South!)

xosharon and peter, Queenstown, NZ, 11 January 2002