Day 23: Sweet Home, Chicago

As today is one of those days when I need to be up, I set two alarms: my phone alarm, which continues to have a very annoying tone, was set for 6:30 , and the clock radio in the room, which I set for 6:45 a.m. I therefore continued tradition for this trip by awakening at 5:40, and being unable to fall back asleep. Since I’ll be spending at least 18 hours on airplanes during the coming “day”, maybe it would be a good thing to be a bit tired, so I got up.

I was showered and fully packed by 7:30, and my shuttle bus pickup back to the airport was not until 8:55. So I watched a little of Australia’s “Today” show and then continued to read a new book I purchased about a guy who makes one lap of Australia on a motorcycle powered by used cooking oil, titled “Is That Thing A Diesel?”

I decided to use the hotel’s luggage cart to get my bags down to the lobby, so at 8:30, I rode the elevator down and grabbed the cart. Back up the elevator to the room, put the bags on the cart, and close the last hotel door I’ll have on this trip. The shuttle bus showed up about 5 minutes early, and since I was the only pick-up, we left early. We made only one other stop enroute to the airport, so I was inside the United terminal by 9:15.

The United check-in counters didn’t open until 10:50, so I spent the time filing the blogs from the past two days (using free WiFi) and reading. I got in line to check-in at 10:30, and when the counters opened, I was one of the first to check in. I checked my bags all the way through to O’Hare, and was able to get reassigned to an exit row for the Sydney to Los Angeles leg of the trip; leg room – YES! When I cleared outgoing customs and security without incident, it felt odd; almost none of my air travel has gone smoothly on this trip, and I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.

My flight home was at the gate when I arrived at 11:50, although we would not board the aircraft until just after 1:00 – so I called home, checked E-mail and walked around, knowing I’d be inside an aluminum tube about 8 miles in the air for the next 14 hours. We began boarding at 1:05, we pushed back at 1:50, as scheduled, and were in the air at 2:05.

The next 14 hours are a bit of a blur. I watched “The Lincoln Lawyer”, the second half of “The Adjustment Bureau” (again – it’s pretty good), slept a while, ate dinner, a snack, and breakfast, and read a little. Normally, I can entertain myself by watching the world go by through the window, but all I could see was a lot of clouds or water. Between video presentations, they put up a “Moving Map” graphic that shows your planned route, where you are along the path, as well as how far you’ve gone / still have to go, how long you’ve been in the air/ time left to arrival, etc. Entertaining, but when you see that you’ve been in the air for six hours and aren’t halfway yet, your butt begins to protest a bit.

We arrived in Los Angeles after just under 14 hours in the air, yet arrived almost three hours before we left Sydney – we left Sydney at 1:50 Thursday afternoon, and arrived in Los Angeles at 10:55 Thursday morning. I cleared U.S. Customs, reclaimed my bags, cleared Agricultural Customs, and rechecked my bags onto O’Hare.

It was about 70 F in Los Angeles, and during the walk from International Terminal #6, where I arrived, to Domestic Terminal #7, from where my flight to O’Hare would depart, I felt HOT. I took off my leather jacket, but was still sweating a lot waiting in line to clear security in the domestic terminal. I went through one of those new full-body scanners – when they tell you to empty your pockets, they mean empty them of everything. I took out all my coins, keys, wallet, etc., but left my Kleenex in my pockets. The scanner caught this, so then I had to remove the tissues and be pat down manually.

They decided my Kleenex and map were not a threat to aviation safety, and I was at the gate for my flight to O’Hare about an hour-and-a-quarter before its scheduled departure time of 12:18 noon. We boarded nearly on time, and pushed back from the gate 5 minutes late. Even though the captain said we had a tailwind, we managed to lose enough time enroute to land about 20 minutes late at 6:35 p.m. But my bags were waiting for me, so I called my wife, who was waiting at the Des Plaines Oasis on the tollway, and I was met by a very happy Labrador retriever at 7:50 p.m.

In summary, I traveled roughly 1,631 miles by motorcycle, 74 miles by ferry, 1,496 miles by campervan, 6 miles by taxi, 63 miles by train, and 21,903 miles in airplanes, or 25.073 miles altogether – just slightly greater than the circumference of the earth at the equator (24,902 miles).

And would I do it again? Yes – sort of. The trip was about one week longer than what I’d take if I did it again; 23 days is just a long time to be gone from home. But it certainly was the trip of a lifetime, and I thank everyone who made it possible by pitching in and helping keep Kings Mill up and running while I was off playing. E noho rā (so long) from beautiful Saint Charles, Illinois

Airline mileage: 9,238 miles for the day

Day 22: The Second Location Involving “Pancakes” and “Rocks”

As usual, I woke up about an hour before my alarm was scheduled to go off: 6:25 a.m. instead of 7:30 a.m. I read through some of the free tourist guides for Sydney that I had picked up yesterday, and plotted a tentative route. The “Today” show’s weather bunny was forecasting partly cloudy skies with a high near 12 C (53 F), so I showered and was ready to leave by 7:50 a.m., although I delayed my departure to avoid commuting into the city during rush hour.

I walked out of the hotel at 8:45 a.m. to cool temps and solid gray skies – which made me wonder if I should bring with my rain gear. I asked the opinion of the girl at the front desk, who looked out the window and said that on a partly cloudy day like today (?), no rain should occur. So I walked back to the Walleye Crick (sorry, that should be “Wolli Creek”) rail station, bought a pass good for all day travel, anywhere on the system, using the bus, rail, or ferry system, and caught a train back to Circular Quay (pronounced “Circular Key”).

Downtown by 9:25, I navigated back to my first planned stop: Pancakes On The Rocks. I was seated immediately, although there were a lot of “mums” also in the restaurant, with a lot of kids in tow. (It turns out that Australian schools are on holiday until July 25th.) The pancakes (with strawberries) and hot tea were good, but The International House of Pancakes (of which I’ve seen none on this trip) is missing out on a big, untapped market in Australia and New Zealand.

Finished with breakfast, I headed back to the wharf at Circular Quay to catch the 10:55 ferry to Sydney Olympic Park, home to the 2000 Summer Olympics.

The ferries that head upriver are jet-drive catamarans that are quick, maneuverable, and shallow draft. The ferry I rode (shown leaving after it dropped me off at Olympic Park) was the “Evonne Goolagong”, named after the Aboriginal Australian who won atotal of seven women’s Grand Slam titles during her career. The ferry also stops at Cockatoo Island, which was the Aussie version of Alcatraz: a prison on an island in the middle of the bay. It is now a resort, where you can stay overnight in accommodations ranging from a tent to a luxury suite.

I arrived at the Olympic Park ferry terminal at 11:45, and a subsequent bus ride had me standing in front of what was the main Olympic stadium at 12:15.

I headed to the visitor information site, and found out that you could tour almost any building, but each was a separate fee, and would take from 30 to 60 minutes per tour. As I wasn’t planning to make this my only stop of the day, I freelanced my own tour.

This forest of what appear to be anodized aluminum poles is located just in front of Olympic Stadium. Each pole has two engraved stainless steel plaques attached to it, and the name of every athlete who competed at the 2000 Olympic or Paralympic games is on one of these plaques:

Across Olympic Boulevard is Cathy Freeman park. Cathy Freeman was an Australian Aboriginal sprinter, who was the first Aboriginal gold medalist in the Commonwealth Games in 1990. She won a gold medal in the 400 meter sprint in Sydney, and was selected to light the flame for the 2000 games. Fittingly, the Olympic Cauldron is in the park.

The names of all medal winners at the Olympic and Paralympic Games are inscribed on gold, silver, and bronze plaques attached to the base of the cauldron. By now, it was approaching 2:30, and I still wanted to visit the Opera House in the city, so I hopped on a train and headed back into town. I arrived at the Opera House around 3:30.

From a distance, the roof lines of the Opera House appear as sails. On closer inspection, they appear more like sea shells:

This is achieved by having the roof covered in geometric patterns of ceramic tiles:

I wandered around the Opera House for a while, and also watched some of the street performers around Circular Quay. As the light was fading due to the persistent cloud cover, I stopped at a “Hungry Jacks” restaurant (Burger King of Australia), and took a Whopper on the train with me back to my hotel. (No one speaks loudly, eats, or drinks beverages on the trains here, so I followed tradition and waited the 40 minutes it took to get back to the hotel before eating. It still beat the heck out of the previous night’s epicurean delights from Café Sept-Onze.)

I have some packing to finish up before retiring for my final night abroad, and the shuttle bus to the airport picks me up at 8:55 tomorrow morning, so I’m closing here. By the grace of United Airlines and God (not sure I have the billing order correct there), I should be home “tomorrow”. The closing chapter will follow from there.

Train mileage: 58 km for the day

Ferry mileage: 16 km for the day

Day 21: Now I’ve Seen Both Sydney, Nova Scotia AND Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

With my alarm set for 7:30 a.m., I woke up at 5:30 – which would have been 8:30 a.m. back in New Zealand yesterday. This was somewhat surprising as the hotel had two “false alarm” fire claxons go off during the night, so my sleep was not quite as restful as I had hoped. But finally gave up at 6:30, turned on Sydney’s “Today” show, and finished reading “Where Men Gain Glory”. I was showered and ready to go by 8:15 a.m., under blue skies and a temperature of 8 C (47 F), with a forecast high of 18 C (65 F).

The hotel where I was staying was pretty basic: clean, but only one, flickering, blue overhead fluorescent light, and no room furnishings other than the main bed with a twin bed bunked over its head. Combined with the false fire alarms, I decided to try switching hotels. I was able to find the Airport Sydney International Inn for just slightly more than what I had paid at the Formule 1. I checked out, called a cab, and rode over to my new digs.

It was 9:30 a.m., and my room wouldn’t be available until after 12 noon, so I checked my bags and headed for the train station. At the Wolli Creek station (pronounced “Walleye Crick”), I obtained a map of the rail system, and bought a round-trip ticket to downtown. I could not, however, figure out from which of the four platforms the train I wanted would depart. So I played the odds, and went to the platform with the most people (about 5) waiting on it. Fortunately, they were right and 25 minutes later, I disembarked at the Circular Quay station.

One of the buildings I was hoping to locate was the former Customs House, as my neighbor back home had recommended a restaurant (Café Sydney) located on the roof of the building with its spectacular view of Sydney Harbor. I walked out of the railway station looking for a muffin and a cup of tea, and found the Customs House instead:

I looked at their menu, posted by the door, and decided I wouldn’t be eating there – but it certainly would have had a spectacular view! Instead, I walked around to the other side of the railway station, and to my left was the Sydney Harbour Bridge:

And to my right was the iconic Sydney Opera House:

All this by only 10:30 in the morning! So I found a bakery, where I bought a chocolate muffin and bottle of water, and a bench ,where I could eat my breakfast while enjoying the sun. Afterwards, I headed over to investigate the Harbour Bridge. Construction of the bridge began in the mid 1920’s and opened in 1932. It is similar in design to the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, but its span and height above the water are both significantly longer and higher, respectively, than its New York counterpart.

It is also very visitor friendly. At a minimum, you can walk underneath its approach spans:

You can also walk across the bridge, obtaining some spectacular views of the Harbour, Opera House, and surrounding area:

And if you’re so inclined (pun intended), you can attach yourself to a safety cable, and walk across either the lower or upper span of the bridge:

The woman at the top of the ladder is at the south end of the upper span, and will walk across to the north end of the bridge. The climb costs about $200, takes an hour, and puts you about 700 feet above the water – not for the faint of heart.

While wandering through “The Rocks” area at the south end of the bridge, I located a restaurant called “Pancakes On The Rocks” where I hoped to have my first flapjacks of the trip. So I headed back to the restaurant, but realized that somewhere during the past hour, I had lost my hat. It wasn’t an expensive or fancy hat; it was just the blue stocking hat that you’ve seen in the photos of me in this blog. But we’ve spent a lot of time together for the past three weeks, so I retraced my steps to see if I could find it.

No joy. After over an hour of searching, I decided to give up and head for lunch. Except that now it was around 1:30, and there were people lined up outside the door and down the street waiting to get into Pancakes On The Rocks. Ah well – maybe tomorrow.

So I went looking for a new hat. You wouldn’t believe how difficult it is to find an inexpensive, functional “beanie” (stocking hat in Aussie parlance). I could find “designer” beanies ($$), pure merino beanies ($$$), or green-and-yellow beanies saying “AUSTRALIA” ($, but WAY ugly), but nothing functional yet reasonably priced. I wound up at Kathmandu Sporting Goods, and purchased a Gore Windstopper beanie that will double as a rain cap – something I’ve wanted often on this trip.

It was now around 3:30. I had walked a LOT of Sydney, was getting hungry, and wanted to make sure I could find my way back to the hotel before rush hour and/or dark. So I walked to the Museum train station, and after one false start, figured out how to catch the train I wanted. I was back in Wolli Creek around 4:45 p.m., and checked into restaurants in the area at the front desk of the hotel.

There were two restaurants: one in the hotel and one about two blocks away, but both only served full, formal dinners and I wanted something lighter. I went for a walk and found a serviceable but definitely low-class dinner at… 7-11. A ham and mustard sandwich, bag of chips, and a Coke. I’ve had worse, but it’s been a while. At least it gave me plenty of time to type up today’s entry.

Tomorrow, I hope to go back to Pancakes On The Rocks, out to Sydney Olympic Park, and whatever else is of interest on my last “day” before I leave at 1:50 Thursday afternoon, travel for twenty-one hours, and get home at 6:10 Thursday afternoon. More later from Oz.

Train mileage: 43 km for the day

Day 20: Experiencing Carole King’s “I Feel The Earth Move Under My Feet”

: It was clear when I returned to the campervan for the night, but the winds were quite gusty. Wind gusts here have a different profile than back home: in the U.S., you might have a fairly steady wind of 10 mph, and then the wind will increase to 20 mph for the “gust”; in New Zealand, you’ll have dead calm, and then you’ll get a blast of wind at 20 mph. As a result, the more sudden increase makes the van rock a lot. And I awoke to rain at 2:45 a.m., so I was expecting bad packing conditions this morning.

Wrong again; the alarm went off at 6:30, the skies were partly cloudy, the temperature felt like 7 C, and the grass around the van was pretty squishy from the night’s rains. Over to the ablutions block – surprise! – there’s already someone else in the building, which means it’s warmed up a bit. Showered, and packed up the bedding in the van for the final time.

Now it’s time to pack all my “stuff”. I came over in one very large, very heavy duffle bag that was just over the weight limit for the Australia – New Zealand leg of the trip, so I got hit with an overweight / 2^nd bag fee by Air New Zealand. Well, the trip home wouldn’t be any lighter, so I bought a second duffle bag at a Katamandu (sort of the REI of Australia) clearance store in Christchurch to make the packing more organized. I put my two camping duffles in the original bag, and all of my clothes & riding gear in the Katamandu bag, which made each one a lot more manageable.

All packed by 8:45, so I ate a final bowl of Black Currant Kellogg’s Mini-wheats and milk. I dropped a half-full jar of boysenberry jam, a three-quarters full jar of peanut butter, and the rest of my cereal in the “food donations for other travelers” box in the kitchen, and I had the wheels turning at 9:15 a.m.

I filled up the van one final time before I dropped it off at the rental agency. I had rented an inverter to help keep my laptop and cell phone charged while camping, but it never worked properly, and they refunded the rental charge accordingly. They agreed the van was in the same condition in which it left (have I mentioned previously that the van had 239, 300 km on it when I took it out?), so we closed out the paperwork and they dropped me at the airport just after 10 a.m.

My check-in at Christchurch proceeded smoothly (I didn’t even get charged for the second bag), until they asked if I had a camp stove with me. Is it empty of gas? Why, yes it is, as I had poured the small amount of remaining fuel into a bottle and left it at the camp office that morning. Can they verify it? Sure; so I opened the bag, located the stove and gas bottle, and gave them to the agent. She said I’d need to open the fuel bottle to make sure it was empty, so I did, and it was, except “it still smells like fuel” – and it can’t.

So I headed to the men’s washroom with my fuel bottle, and spent 20 minutes filling the bottle half-way with warm water, adding hand soap, agitating, then rinsing and repeating and repeating and… you get the idea. By the time I finished, all it smelled like was hand soap – and they agreed – so I replaced it into the duffle and headed to security. At security, I passed through without incident and waited for my plane to arrive.

When the Airbus A320 I would be flying to Auckland arrived (at 12:10 noon for a 12:25 departure, I knew we would be leaving late. About 5 minutes later, I felt my seat bounce up and down, and a bit to the side over a period of three to five seconds – sort of like sitting in a car where the right-side wheels drove over a small speed bump. I looked around, and there were several other people looking around in concerned confusion. It turns out we had experienced a magnitude 4.3 earthquake, according to what I later learned from New Zealand’s equivalent of the U.S. Geological Survey. Can we get airborne, now, please?

The plane was painted in black and silver – the colors of the All Blacks, New Zealand’s national rugby team. Jetways and ground equipment prevented me from getting a shot of the entire plane, although the tail section can be seen in the following picture:

We departed Christchurch about 25 minutes late, at 12:50, so we didn’t arrive in Auckland until 2:20 p.m. – still plenty of time for me to make my 5:30 flight to Sydney. To get from the domestic side of the airport to the international side is either a 5 minute bus ride or a 15 minute walk, so I walked outside on a fine day with temperatures around 15 C (59 F).

Once at the international terminal, I had to pass through outgoing customs and security. Security for this leg of the flight was considerably tighter, so I had to remove my steel-toed boots (normally, you get to leave your shoes on for New Zealand security), They also detained my helmet bag, as I had neglected to empty my water bottle, which was subsequently confiscated.

My flight to Sydney left on time, and arrived about 20 minutes late at 7:20 p.m. (Sydney is 2 hours ahead of Auckland) due to strong headwinds. I cleared Australian customs (after they cleaned the soles of my boots, which had some soil in the lugs of the soles), caught a shuttle to the Formule 1 Sydney Airport Hotel, and here I am just before 9 p.m. But that equates to 11:00 p.m. in New Zealand, so I’m heading for bed.

Tomorrow, I explore the Sydney public transportation system and, hopefully, downtown Sydney. G’night, mates, from Sydney.

Airline miles: About 1,500 miles for the day

Day 19: The Penultimate Day in New Zealand

The gale force winds predicted for last night never materialized, so I slept peacefully until eight minutes before the alarm was set to go off at 7:00 a.m. Being parked adjacent to the ocean, I decided that if it was going to happen, today was my opportunity to see the sun rise over the Pacific. I opened the drapes, and it appeared to be clear – but surprisingly cold, given the generally moderating effect of the ocean. The sky was already beginning to lighten in the northeast by the time I got the camera set on its tripod at 7:15 a.m.:

I walked over to the surprisingly roomy ablutions block, and by the time I finished my routine and was ready to head back to the van at 7:45, it was raining lightly – although it was still clear over the ocean to the east. I converted the van to travel mode, then thought “Hmmm… sun at my back, rain in front of me… there should be a rainbow here somewhere…”

It was a complete, unbroken rainbow (I have a photo of the middle section as well, and I hope to PhotoShop it into one image when I get home). I poured a bowl of Black Currant Kellogg’s Mini-Wheats with milk, and ate breakfast at the table in the van – although this also meant no coffee or tea this morning as I didn’t feel like heating water to boiling in the rain. Cleaned up the dishes, and I was ready to roll at 8:55 a.m.

I drove the 8 km back to “downtown” Kaikoura, and arrived at Sacred Heart Catholic Church at 9:15 for 9:30 Mass. They only have one Mass every weekend, unlike the ten Masses we have at St. Patrick’s, and the priest was waiting in the back of the church, greeting people as they arrived, so we talked for a few minutes. There were about 80 people in attendance, with no missalettes or hymnals for the congregation to use; instead, they had an overhead projector set up at the front of the church, and they just displayed the prayers and hymns on the front wall of the church. No guessing how many verses of a hymn would be sung – if it was on the overhead, we sang it.

Out of Mass at 10:30 a.m. (there must be a worldwide goal of “Mass in an hour”), I headed out to Point Kean to see the Peninsula Seal Colony – to see what a real seal looks like. They look like this:

There were about a dozen New Zealand fur seals, mostly resting in the sun, in an area of the beach less than a hundred meters long. These seals can swim at 30 kph, dive to depths of 230 meters, and sleep soundly underwater, surfacing every 30 minutes to breathe without waking up. And when they really relax, they roll over and sleep on their backs, sort of like certain yellow Labrador Retrievers:

I hiked around this area quite a while, as the day was mostly sunny, and the temperature was about 12 C (54 F). I decided it was time to start heading south toward Christchurch, however, around 12:45. I stopped at a café on my way out of town, and picked up a mini-ham and mushroom quiche that I could reheat for dinner tonight, then stopped and fueled up to prevent a repeat of yesterday’s Close Encounter of the Petrol Kind.

It’s about 180 km to Christchurch on SH 1, and except for two technically curvy sections of road - one just south of Kaikoura, and a second just north of Cheviot, the road is straight and I could make good time. I did, however, stop to document one horticultural feature prevalent throughout New Zealand: the use of hedges as fences:

Sort of like the bonsai project from Hell; I can see how with some scaffolding (and a lot of free time), you could shape the sides flat over time. But how you trim, and then maintain, the tops of the hedges to be so flat, is a mystery. (And I didn’t see a lot of articulated bucket lift trucks in the farm sheds, either.)

Back into Christchurch by 3:15 p.m., I stopped to buy some final souvenirs and a small suitcase padlock for the trip home. I checked in to Amber Park Holiday Court again, as I had been here a week ago, although on the motorcycle then as opposed to the campervan today. I did my (hopefully last) load of wash, purged some of the crap that has accumulated in the van during the week, and ate dinner. (I also talked Air New Zealand into putting me on an earlier flight from Christchurch to Auckland tomorrow, such that I should have adequate time to make my Auckland to Sydney flight later in the day. I originally had one hour from the time my connecting flight landed in Auckland until my flight to Sydney departed, which just didn’t seem like sufficient time to clear customs and get from the domestic side of the terminal over to the international side.)

And it’s now 8:50 p.m. Sunday night, so the New Zealand part of this blog ends here. I’ll try to check in from Sydney during the next couple of days, and I should be home on Thursday. I miss being home, and am looking forward to seeing my family, warm feet and cutting the grass, somewhat in that order. Adieu from Aotearoa.

Campervan mileage: 225 km for the day, 2,391 km for the trip

Day 18: Pumpkin Soup and Good Luck

“Lights out” last night was at 10:15 p.m., so I set the alarm for 6:45 a.m. I know I’m on vacation, and should be sleeping in, but: (1) 6:45 a.m. is still more than 2 hours later than I wake up during the school year, so I am sleeping in; (2) it’s still more than 8 hours, and (3) I wanted to be on the road early to allow as wide a window as possible for traveling through Lewis Pass, but not so early that frost or ice would be a problem.

It didn’t matter; I woke up at 5:30 a.m., fell back asleep briefly, but then kept awakening until I decided to just give in and get up at 6:35. When I opened the van door, it was both warm (I’d guess around 7 C) and quiet; not much happens in Hokatika, New Zealand before sunrise on Saturdays. Showered in the ablutions block, dressed, and the van was in travel mode by 7:45 a.m.

Had my “usual” breakfast of tea, puffed wheat (used up the last of the box), and milk in the campground’s kitchen, then went over to the TV / Lounge / Internet room to check the weather & driving forecasts. They were forecasting rain and strong, gusty winds for the West Coast (where I was currently located), rain changing to wet snow by late afternoon with accumulations of 5 to 10 cm (2 to 4 inches) in Lewis Pass, and clearing skies on the northeast coast (where I was headed). I also called home to check in and let Karen know of my plans for the day.

The weather when I left at 9:00 a.m. would best be described as “unsettled”: you’d have large patches of blue sky, but a slightly greater area of dark gray clouds that would dump substantial rain as they passed. After 20 minutes northbound on SH 6, I was retracing pavement that I had previously traveled on the motorcycle last Saturday, when I was also headed from the West Coast toward Christchurch – except today, there was persistent, heavy rain.

New Zealand has a lot of one-lane bridges. One direction of travel has the right-of-way, as indicated by signs at each end of the bridge, although you’re frequently halfway across when someone shows up at the other end with the right-of-way. (Fortunately, they wait.) I remembered crossing one such bridge on the bike, as there are rails on the bridge deck and you have to stay between the rails on a bike to be safe. Today, while I waited for oncoming traffic to clear, I commemorated the bridge:

I made the turn-off onto SH 7 toward Lewis Pass at 9:45 a.m.; it was 77 km to Reefton, and I arrived there at 10:35. The road so far was straight sections of perhaps 1 or 2 km, followed by a section of sweeping curves that were marked at 100 kph, but I negotiated at 85 kph. The road follows the Inangaliua River, which was running quite heavy with the rain (note the tributary feeding into the main river as a small waterfall):

About 60 km east of Reefton, the curves became tighter and more technical, and the road started to climb quickly. The rain started to lighten a bit, but was becoming a light snow / sleet: uh oh – the same thing that happened yesterday.

Within 10 km, I reached Lewis Pass – there were several inches of snow by the side of the road, but the road itself was wet, and covered with a heavy layer of grit, and snow free. The road began to descend quickly past the pass, and within another 10 km, it was snow free and back to raining hard. I drove on in heavy rain until I was about 25 km west of Hanmer Springs; safely out of the snow zone, I pulled off into a turn-out and made a PB&J sandwich for lunch at 12:30.

I was ready to get back on the road by 12:50, and as I walked from the side of the van around the front, I noticed that I had left the headlights on while I ate lunch. Oops. I turned them off, buckled up, and turned the key – to a VERY slow starter; not good. I decided to wait 15 minutes- with everything off - to give the battery some time to recover. My luck held out a second time; the van turned over more slowly than usual, but still started.

I went another 40 km on SH 7, and was getting low on fuel, so I turned off onto SH 70 toward Waiau, which had been advertising itself as the last fuel for 70 km. When I arrived in Waiau around 1:45, however, both gas stations were already closed for the day.

Ii had two options: take a more heavily traveled road (SH 70), with no intermediate cities shown on the map, toward Kaikoura – 78 km away, or take the road less traveled, which was 45 km from Cheviot, where I had called a local motel and verified that a gas station was available and would be open when I arrived. I took the road less traveled (in the rain), and made it. I’m going to run out of luck if I’m not careful….

Back on SH 1 northbound from Cheviot, I headed toward Kaikoura. The sun broke through, and I rode part of the way with the windows down, enjoying the (somewhat chilly) ocean air and sunshine. I arrived at the iSite just before they closed at 4:00, got a map of town, and headed toward the Kaikoura Peketa Beach Holiday Park for the night. My campsite is actually on the beach of the Pacific Ocean, although the ocean itself is at least a block away. It was too dark to get a decent picture of the ocean, but if you look away from the ocean, the mountains are also quite close:

Dinner was a can of Campbell’s Country Ladle Butternut Pumpkin soup (made with 100% Australian pumpkins, it’s sort of a pumpkin bisque and pretty good) and a slice of bread and butter. After washing the dishes, I’m finishing writing this entry around 8:30 p.m. I can hear the rain falling outside, and they’re predicting gale force northwesterly winds over pretty much the entire south island tonight (100 to 130 kph , or 60 – 75 mph - gusts!), so I may hit the sack early as the van may be rockin’ a bit tonight.

Tomorrow, I hope to see some of the seals near Kaikoura, then head south toward Christchurch. I hope to stay in or near Christchurch in preparation for my flight to Sydney on Monday afternoon.

Campervan mileage: 433 km for the day

Day 17: Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

As Queenstown is filled with quaint cafes and skiers, I decided to try and leave before it got crowded – so I was up and headed for the showers at 7:00 a.m. – which you have to realize is about an hour and ten minutes before the sun comes up this time of year. When I opened the van door, I knew the temperature had dropped below freezing overnight – the ice and frozen ground in my campsite were my clues, and the sky looked mostly clear.

The showers were $2 for 8 minutes of hot water (the cold water is free!), so I deposited my $4 and showered up. I went back to van, finished dressing, and had the van packed up and in travel mode by 8:00 a.m. Over at the kitchen, I made a cup of coffee to go with my bowl of puffed wheat and milk. The dishes were washed, and I was rolling at 8:50 a.m.

With the clear skies, I could see some of the nearby ski hills; this is Cecil Peak, which is actually across Lake Wakatipu from Queenstown. I took the Malaghan Road bypass out of town (inadvertently), and rejoined SH 6 northbound in Arrowtown. The traffic on SH 6 was light, and the road was primarily sweeping curves as I followed the Kawarah River to Cromwell.

I chose the longer distance (92 km) route on SH 6 through Cromwell to Wanaka, rather than the shorter distance (52 km) direct route from Arrowtown to Wanaka as you’re advised to carry chains on the shorter route – which I don’t have in this rented van. This route also takes you through Gibbston, which is New Zealand’s Napa Valley”

Fuel stops are at least 100 km apart on this route, so I decided to fill up at virtually every stop – so I gassed up in Wanaka around 11:15 a.m. About 65 km north of Wanaka, I entered Mount Aspiring National Park, and the Southern Alps. The sunshine I had enjoyed all day quickly vanished, the clouds rolled in, and by noon, I was driving in steady rain. Until I hit the top of the pass at “The Gates of Haast”, where the rain changed to light snow:

I thought that since I was at the top of the pass and descending, that the snow would transition back to rain just as quickly. Not so; the snow continued, and I was descending the pass in one, then two, then probably three inches of wet, slippery (duh) snow. Plows appeared, along with grit (gravel & cinder) spreaders, but there was at least 2 km where I didn’t exceed a walking pace, as any loss of traction could have had real consequences.

I picked my way on through the snow for about an hour before the snow changed back to heavy rain, And that was the story of the rest of the day; the rain was constant and heavy as I entered Haast Village around 2:15 p.m., and decided to beat feet northward in case the snowy weather decided to follow me north. I had considered stopping in the town of Franz Josef Glacier around 4:15, but based on a conversation with a ranger at the Department of Conservation, I decided to continuet past Mount Hercules as he indicated it gets quite icy in this area in the morning. The next town was Hokitika, still 140 km further north. It had been a long day already, but I decided to push on. The rain continued non-stop until about 10 km south of Hokitiki, which also accounts for the lack of photos accompanying today’s blog.

I arrived in Hokitika at 6:15 p.m., and checked in to the Hokitika Holiday Park. A “takeaway” (carry-out) restaurant provided an order of fish & chips for dinner, and I’m sitting here in the (unheated) lounge typing this while it periodically rains heavily outside. Now it’s time for bed; tomorrow is another primarily travel day, as my plan is to try and make it over Lewis Pass back toward Christchurch tomorrow afternoon. Pray for “warm” weather and that the pass stays open long enough for me to make it through!

Campervan mileage: 545 km for the day

Day 16: Rain, Rain, Go Away

Well – www.metservice.com finally got the forecast right (unfortunately). I woke up at 3:00 a.m. to the sound of rain on the roof, and the van periodically shaking side-to-side due to wind gusts. I was able to fall back asleep, and I awoke again at 7:08 a.m. – seven minutes before the alarm went off. This is a good thing, as the alarm tone on the phone is pretty frenetic and it really jolts me awake.

It was still raining, so I plodded over to the ablutions block (that’s what they call the toilet and shower building in New Zealand) to start the morning routine. SURPRISE – the toilet and shower building is HEATED; this is the first heated ablutions block I’ve encountered, and it makes getting cleaned up a lot more pleasant in the morning.

It had stopped raining, so I went back to the van to get dressed, and convert the van from sleeping to travel mode. Then I grabbed my breakfast supplies and went over to the kitchen to eat: Kellogg’s Mini-Wheats with Black Currant filling, milk, tea, and a slice of buttered toast. I finished packing up and headed out at 9:30 a.m.

Although the turn for Bluff on SH 1 was just past my campground, I headed toward Invercargill to fuel up. After buying fuel, I backtracked toward Bluff as it started to rain; 26 km later, I was passing through Bluff on my way to Stirling Point – the end of the road. If Invercargill is the “big city” at the south end of the island, it might be analogous to Chicago, whereas Bluff is like East Chicago or Hammond: a lot of industry, and the type of town where people look like they work hard to make things.

I arrived at Stirling Point, in the rain, at 10:35 a.m. It was raining fairly at the time, and since this was one of my goals for the trip, I thought I’d wait the weather out, or until 11:00, whichever came first. Well, at 11:00, it was still raining in earnest, so I pushed my deadline back to 11:30. Finally, at 11:20, a second car of visitors arrived, and they got out of their car to take pictures. So I donned the rain jacket from my motorcycle gear and my stocking cap, and got out for my visit.

Here I am; closer to the South Pole than to the equator by 323 km, and 15,008 km from New York (and probably not much closer to Saint Charles) if you can believe the AA (Automobile Association of New Zealand). The rain kept falling, and I could get about three photos before either the lens would get wet or the camera body would be so wet I was worried about having it quit on me. In either case, I’d dodge over to the campervan to dry it off.

The Stirling Point Pilot House dates back to 1912, and was built both as a navigation aid and house for the pilots to spot boats coming into the harbor that would need pilot assistance. As the following photo shows, it’s a pretty rugged location:

I departed Stirling Point, and started heading north – toward home! – at noon, with my pants legs thoroughly soaked down to my knees, as well as my socks. I drove back to Invercargill and stopped at the library to file yesterday’s blog and call home. The Internet connection at the library was slow on both uploads and downloads, and it took me almost 40 minutes to post the blog. I spent the rest of the hour I had purchased calling home, where my son Josh was recharging my well tank at home, “Tanks” a lot, Frank!

Leaving Invercargill northbound on SH 6, I was headed toward either Te Anau and the mountains of Fiordland on the west coast of the island, or Queenstown, still in the mountains but more in the center of the island. I would make my decision when I reached Lumsden, 82 km north, based on the time and the weather.

I reached Lumsden around 2:00 p.m., and as it was still raining, I headed toward the mountains surrounding Queenstown, which is where much of The Lord of the Rings was shot. The rain stopped, but as I climbed into the mountains, I also climbed nearer the clouds. The effect was a bit otherworldly, as this photo near Fairlight on SH 6 about 45 km north of Lumsden shows:

I finally reached the south end of Lake Wakatipu around 4:15 p.m.; my destination for the night, Queenstown, was at the north end of the lake some 47 km further. With the low cloud cover, daylight was beginning to fade, so I snapped this picture before losing the light completely:

I rolled into Queenstown, which is sort of New Zealand’s version of Aspen, Vail, or some other ski resort town, in intermittent light rain just after 5:00 – and in to gridlock. I called the Queenstown Village Holiday Park (twice) to get directions, and was finally parked by 5:45 p.m. I headed for the kitchen to make a can of Watties’ Spaghetti with cheese sauce (Watties’ is Heinz of Australia), and a slice of bread and butter. As the rain stopped while I was eating dinner, I walked into town to buy some souvenirs, then came back and am finishing up this blog entry about 9:00 p.m. The rain has stopped, and it looks like it may be clearing (which also means cold).

Tomorrow, I head for the West Coast – the one quadrant of the South Island I have yet to explore – as I head back toward Christchurch and a Monday afternoon departure. It’s hard to believe I’ll have been here for two weeks tomorrow; still a lot to see!

Campervan mileage: 274 km for the day

Day 15: The End of the Earth

In case it ever comes up, the difference between an overnight low temperature of minus 5 C and plus 5 C is that at minus 5, you periodically wake up because your head is cold, but you’re otherwise comfortable. At plus 5, however, you don’t have to wear a hat to bed, and with the same number of covers as at minus 5, you wake up at 3 a.m. drenched in sweat. I learned you don’t need the duvet at plus 5 to be comfortable.

The outdoor sleeping arrangements are agreeing with me, however, as the alarm woke me up at 7:15, and I got out of bed at 7:30. Walked over to the really bright and clean showers where I stayed at Moeraki Village Holiday Park and got cleaned up for the day. I had the van converted from sleeping mode to travel mode around 8:45 a.m., then had another breakfast of tea, puffed wheat cereal, and milk. I was packed up and on the road at 9:30 a.m., which I think is the earliest start I’ve gotten on this trip.

My first stop of the day was the Moeraki Boulders, just 4 km north of where I stayed overnight.

These spherical boulders started to form about 55 million years ago, when lime began to form evenly around a pebble or shell buried beneath the sea floor. The lime eventually formed a hard, spherical concretion around the pebble. Once the sea floor was uplifted in (relatively) modern geologic time, the mudstone encasing the boulders was eroded, leaving the spherical boulders as you see. The boulder in the previous photo is slightly taller than me.

There are a number of the boulders scattered over perhaps half a kilometer of the beach:

If you turn around, you can see Moeraki Harbor, across the road from where I camped the previous night:

And if you look toward the shore, there is a shrub that grows in very dense groves on hillsides in certain areas. It is quite spiny with yellow flowers about the size of a nickel, and reminds me of gorse, which I’ve seen in Scotland, although the Scottish variety had magenta flowers. Maybe the Kiwi Master Gardeners could identify it for me?

I left The Boulders about 10:30, heading south. SH 1 curves inland for a while, so there wasn’t much to see other than the green, rolling hills that characterize New Zealand. Since I was on the road early, I stopped at a bakery in Palmerston and bought a raspberry muffin that was my first pastry in almost two weeks. I savored bits of it all day.

Rollin into Dunedin shortly after noon, I purchased fuel, and pushed on to Mosgiel, a smaller town just 10 km further south. I was low on milk, so I bought some groceries, then walked across the street to the public library as the libraries here offer free WiFi access. I posted yesterday’s blog, and called home via Skype, although I wound up leaving a message on the answering machine. It was 8:30 Tuesday night back home, and Karen could have been outside during the cooler part of the day.

Southbound again on SH 1 at 1:40 p.m. At Balclutha, I turned off onto SH 92, the Southern Scenic Tourist Route. SH 92 would add about an hour to my travel time to Invercargill versus SH 1, but SH 92 hugs the coastline through the Catlins and is a much prettier (and less traveled) route. While on SH 92, I stopped to prove that, yes, New Zealand does have sheep. Lots of sheep.

Each of the white dots in the photo is a sheep. If I grazed sheep at the same density back home, I’d have about eighty sheep on Kings Mill. I also learned that sheep will walk away – briskly – from you as soon as you stop the car. There were sheep all along the fence line when I stopped, and by the time I got out of the car and set up the shot, they were all about half a block away.

SH 92 was pretty curvy, and I was averaging about 60 kph, so I knew it was going to be a late arrival in Invercargill. But the views along the coast were quite good, as this view of Tautuku Bay shows:

Around 4:30 p.m., I was still almost 80 km from Invercargill, so I stopped at Curio Bay to evaluate their accommodations. When I arrived, a driving rain started to fall, and a strong, gusting wind started up – so I decided to push on. It wasn’t until I started typing this blog entry that I realized I had neglected to take a photo at Curio Bay, as it will be the furthest south I get on this trip – by about 1 km over where I hope to tomorrow (Bluff, New Zealand).

I drove on through gusting winds and periodic rain, arriving in Invercargill at 6:10 p.m. I got a camp site at the Amble Inn Holiday Park on the east side of town, but just wasn’t up for cooking my own dinner tonight, so I drove into town for a burger and fries. I ate back at camp, and am finishing up this entry about 8:45 p.m. I’ll go back, convert the van to sleeper mode, and hit the sack – I like getting the earlier start.

So tomorrow, I check off the last of my goals for this trip – standing at the end of the earth, facing south with nothing but a lot of water between me and Antarctica. They’re predicting rain, with a low tonight of 3 C, and a high tomorrow of 8 C. But now I start heading west and north again, so except for the one night I hope to spend in the mountains, it should be getting warmer. Good night from the southern end of the earth; I hope I don’t fall off overnight.

Campervan mileage: 418 km for the day

Day 14: Happy Fifth of July!

When it gets down to -5 C (23 F) outside overnight, it still gets pretty cold inside an unheated campervan; I woke up several times soon after I went to bed as my nose kept getting cold. But either my body increased the blood flow to my nose, or my brain told my nose to “deal with it”, as the next thing I knew, my alarm was going off at 7:30 a.m.

Due to the cold, I “snoozed” the alarm for 10 minutes, but eventually decided to get up and face the cold. I set off for the showers in my shower clogs, socks, flannel pants, T-shirt, windproof jacket, and leather jacket (a real fashion plate, for sure), The showers were coin-operated: $2 for 10 minutes, but the water was HOT and worth the money. I finished the morning routine, went back to the van, and changed into a more normal ensemble. I packed up the bedding and got the van ready for travel.

As I mentioned yesterday, I was able to buy some food supplies since I now have the space to carry them – so today’s breakfast was a cup of coffee and puffed wheat cereal with milk. It may not sound like much, but it tasted REALLY good; that’s the first milk I’ve had since leaving home, except for what you add to tea in the morning (unless you’re some type of uncivilized (sic) beast, you put milk in your tea).

Then I called home, where the big Fourth of July Kings Mill cookout was underway; I wished them a happy Fourth, and my wife wished me a happy Fifth. It was great to talk to everyone, and it sounds like everyone was having a good time back home. Next year, I plan to be there….

The wheels started turning at 10:15 a.m., headed west on SH 8 toward Mt. Cook. About 4 km west of town, I saw the turn for the Mt. John observatory. Having previously visited the Mt. Palomar, Kitts Peak, Yerkes, and other observatories in the states, I decided to visit.

The telescope in the background is their 16-incher – a pretty good sized telescope, although it pales in comparison to the 100-incher at Mt. Palomar. There is so little air or light pollution here, however, that I imagine they get some pretty good views from it. In their maintenance building, they also had what is, to the best of my knowledge, the world’s highest milling machine:

(OK, since we were only at about 1,600 meters (5,000 feet), it may not be the highest mill in the world, as any mill in Denver would beat it. But it’s the highest mill that I can ever recall seeing.) I departed the observatory, heading toward Mt. Cook. The day was warming nicely, and it was near 10 C when I arrived at the outlook.

One of the problems of solo travel is that none of your pictures ever have you in them. Unless, of course, you mount your camera on a tripod (a VERY short tripod if you plan to carry it on a motorcycle), then put the assembly on top of your ice chest in the middle of the parking lot, set up the shot, trip the 10-second timer, run to get in the photo, wait, and then run to move the ice chest out of the middle of the parking lot before someone runs it over.

The photo shows (left to right) the campervan I’m piloting, me, a distant cloud, and Mt. Cook to the right of the cloud. (You’re not seeing the other five attempts that didn’t quite turn out right.) I left Mt. Cook around 12:15, and arrived in Omarama at 1:00. I decided to take the most direct, but still fairly scenic, route back to the east (Pacific) coast via SH 83; I mean, how could you go wrong traveling route 83?

The Pacific came into view around 2:30, and I pulled into Oamaru for food (a loaf of bread and PB&J for dinner) and fuel around 3:00. Oamaru is home to two different penguin colonies: a herd (pod? group? Bunch?) of Blue penguins, which I had seen in captivity at the International Antarctic Center in Christchurch), and a herd of Yellow-Eyed penguins.

Yellow-Eyed penguins are relatively rare, and this group consists of about 60 birds in all. In winter, they swim out to sea to feed around 9:00 a.m., and return about 2 hours before sunset. The guide at the iSite said that they would be returning between 3:15 and 5:15 p.m., and that on a good day, you might see 5 to 20 penguins, whereas you’d see 0 to 5 birds on a bad day. Since it was 3:30 and I wasn’t planning to travel much farther today, I drove out to Bushy Beach to watch.

I stayed until 4:15, and was only able to see one penguin swim by about 100 feet off shore. I would have liked to see one land, but it was still quite a thrill to see one in the wild. Back in the van, I drove the shore route down to Moeraki, where I hope to see the Moeraki boulders tomorrow before continuing south toward Bluff / Invercargill – my southernmost point of this trip. The weather forecast is for a fine start for the day, with clouds moving in during the afternoon. Here’s hoping they’re right; travel is a lot more fun when the sun is out.

Campervan mileage: 272 km for the day

Day 13: The Further South You Go, The Colder It Gets

After typing the blog entries for the past two days last night, then staying up and reading “Where Men Win Glory” for a while, it was 11:15 p.m. before I went to bed. It seemed like it took a while for me to fall asleep (I normally am one of those people who is asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow), but I didn’t awaken until the alarm went off at 7:30 a.m. I felt good, and looked out the window at what was shaping up to be a frosty but fine morning. (It isn’t “sunny” or “clear” in New Zealand forecasts: it’s “fine”.)

I showered and dressed, and was able to get a WiFi connection, so I called my daughter to wish her a Happy Birthday – even though it was already July 4^th here, it was only 2:00 in the afternoon on July 3^rd – her birthday – back in Denver. (Trick question: Do they have a Fourth of July in New Zealand? Answer: Of course; there’s a fourth of July everywhere.) I also called home to check in. My wife and youngest daughter were finishing preparations for the traditional July 4^th party at our house, which is the big event for the year on the Kings Mill calendar. It will be a bit smaller than usual this year, as my sister-in-law Janice, who passed away from cancer this past year, my nephew Alex, who is on holiday in Maine, and I will be absent this year.

After a breakfast of tea and Harraway’s Plain Oat Cereal (I’ve been misspelling the brand name in previous posts; hope it doesn’t jeopardize my contract with them as a sponsor of the Two-Wheeling New Zealand tour), I packed and went out to start loading the bike.

Obviously, it was a frosty start to the day (-1 C on the bike thermometer). This is what Kiwis mean by “frost”; it’s a thick, substantial thing that wipes up like about 3/16 ths of an inch of substantial snow. But I was only riding about 5 km to drop off the bike, so I dressed in my windproof jacket, leather jacket and pants, and retroreflective vest. The wheels were turning at 10:15 a.m., and the temperature had risen to 3 C.

The motorcycle rental agency was near the city center, so as I was somewhat familiar with the route, I arrived around 10:30, and was met by John, one of the owners and the gent who had launched me on my adventure in Auckland 10 days earlier. We visited for a few minutes, then I went out and began unpacking the bike while John removed my electric vest connection and evaluated the condition of the bike.

I had mentioned the scratched tip-over cover to him, and he pointed out some paint chips on the mirror pod and some scratches on the clutch handle- a very fair assessment of the damages from my 1 MPH parking lot tip-over on Friday. He made a VERY fair accommodation to my early return of the bike, and the charges for the damage were also fair. After completing the necessary paperwork, John called a taxi for me, and I headed for Backpacker Sleepervan Rentals, near the airport.

(Side note: If anyone is considering renting a bike in New Zealand, I STRONGLY recommend Te Waipounamu rentals. They have a good Web presence, and can be found by Googling the name of the company. Everyone I worked with was friendly, responsive, and fair.)

I arrived at the van rental agency around 11:30 a.m. I quickly completed the necessary paperwork, but they were still cleaning and preparing the van when I arrived, so I didn’t get on the road until 12:45 noon. Throughout the trip, I have had almost no difficulty remembering to stay on the LEFT side of the road. (When I disembarked the ferry in Picton last Thursday night, I was the only vehicle on the road as I rode into the deserted town – and found myself riding on the right (i.e., “wrong”) side of the road for a 100 yards or so before I caught myself.) In a four-wheeled vehicle, it’s even easier to stay left as the driver’s seat is on the wrong side.

On John’s recommendation, I headed west on SH 73 toward Darfield, rather than heading more directly south on SH 1 with its heavier truck traffic and less scenery. Good choice; there was little traffic and in Darfield, I stopped to pick up some groceries as I now have a cooler and enough room to carry some provisions. In Darfield, I also picked up SH 72/77 toward Mount Hutt. (I need to find out who or what “Hutt” is; back on the North Island, I passed through Upper Hutt and Lower Hutt on my way into Wellington.) The road skirts the east and south sides of the mountain range, and I took the following photo of Mount Hutt just outside of the town of Windwhistle.

Five kilometers south of Mount Hutt, I turned to stay on SH 72 toward Geraldine. I had planned to stop for fuel in Geraldine, but the only station in town was getting fuel delivered, so I decided to press on to Fairlie on SH 79. I made my contribution to Mike and Maddy’s retirement funds at the BP in Fairlie, and also stopped at the iSite to get information on campgrounds at Lake Tekapo, my destination for the day.

State Highway 8 west out of Fairlie started out mostly straight with some gentle sweepers, became quite snaky near Burkes Pass,and then straightened out nicely again. The hills roll gently for as far as the eye can see.

As I climbed toward Lake Tekapo, the snow in the mountains moved closer to me. By the time I made my campground for the night on the shore of Lake Tekapo, the snow was in my campsite.

Lake Tekapo is noted for its magnificently clear skies, and there is an observatory just outside of town that offers night tours. But the tour cost was excessive, so I chose to stand outside and marvel at the sky for free. I’ve never seen the Milky Way so brilliant before, and the Southern Cross was initially difficult to locate as there were just SO MANY stars. But I was getting cold, so I retired to type this missive. And now it’s time for bed.

Tomorrow, I head over to see Mount Cook (the highest peak in New Zealand), then back to the east coast and south toward Dunedin. Stay warm.

Motorcycle mileage: 6 km for the day

Camper mileage: 256 km for the day