January 15th and January 15th- Heading for home
We leave late in the afternoon of January 15th from Sydney and arrive back in Fort Worth late afternoon of January 15th. Total elapsed time… about two hours. Qantas must have a really fast airplane?
It has been a wonderful trip. Kudos to Susan for all her planning that made it so enjoyable. We have seen many sights and met people who will always be friends.
Now it’s time to get back to family, friends, Cessna, Kincaid’s, Hot Tub’s, Railhead and Tex-Mex.
See you in Texas!
January 13 Last day in Blenheim
Sorry about the TV debut confusion yesterday. NBC postponed the Chase show until next Wednesday (Jan 19th), unless “Minute to Win It” goes into overtime.
Taking a short break from Marlborough wine tasting, our Czech companions indulge Mike and take a detour to the Omaka Heritage Air Center. This is an experiential air museum dedicated to flyers in World War I. Peter Jackson’s (Lord of the Rings) film production company designed and created this one of a kind museum. The pictures show off the unique design. If you expected another hangar with carefully restored aircraft sitting on their landing gear, surrounded by rope barriers, you will be surprised and delighted with this presentation.
The aircraft are shown in scenes in the condition they would have presented when they were in service… dirty, oily, patched… some with bullet holes… some crashed in muddy fields. Each scene is a reenactment of an actual occurrence during the war. Examples: Baron Von Richthofen’s (the Red Baron) final flight, with British troops taking souvenirs from his crashed tri-plane. A wounded airman being carried to a waiting US Red Cross ambulance. A downed British pilot surrendering to his German counterpart with his Camel crashed into a tree ina snow covered pasture. Just a first rate experience and unlike any air museum I have ever seen. (Pilot friends, e mail me and I’ll send more pictures)
More vineyards to sample before the day is over. Maria (Ria) our designated driver, pilots us to four more tastings, before we surrender and break for fudge.
Dinner with Richard and Ria (who have agreed to visit in Fort Worth in May) at Gibbs. This restaurant is a small farmhouse way off the road back in one of the vineyards. Interesting conversation with our favorite Czechs as they were born under the Russian’s control and they grew up in a very controlled environment. Then, when the Soviet Union collapsed, their lives abruptly shifted from control to freedom.
Ria told us about her first trip outside Czechoslovakia to Vienna as an 18 year old. (Czechs were not allowed to leave the country under the Soviets.) She was stunned by the retail goods in Austria that simply were not available in her country. Imagine living in a country where you are required to take language lessons to learn the language of your oppressors? Both have adapted well and thrived, but we wonder how many people in Eastern Europe had difficulty making the change… or simply could not cope.
They were polite about it, but it was obvious they blame 40 years under the Soviets on the settlements between the Allies at the end of WWII. They are correct of course. The US, Britain, France and the other western Allies sold out the people in Eastern Europe to appease the Russians.
Perhaps that should be a reminder to our current politicians and statesmen so that they may remember that ending a conflict is not the goal, rather reaching the correct solution for the people who are going to live with the solution is the real goal.
Tomorrow is a travel day from Blenheim to Auckland to Sydney. We are carefully weighing luggage. That last 6 ounces of fudge may put us over the limit. I guess I’ll have to eat it to be safe?
January 11, 12
New Zealand’s south island is a long skinny land mass that has a ridgeline like a backbone that runs its entire length, north to south. As we fly from Queenstown to Wellington, we see a curious weather (weether) pattern. In the west side of the ridge, not a cloud in the sky. On the east side, low clouds right down on the deck. Must be a terrain feature that causes it?
After a few hours in Wellington, we are on the 15 minute commuter flight to Blenheim. The airfield shares a New Zealand Air Force base with the civilian terminal. On the field are 17 A-4 Skyhawk fighters wrapped in white plastic, as they have remained for over 10 years awaiting sale. NZ Air Defense has been trying to sell these relicts to a purported US buyer. The NZ government has spent $11 million to store them and $2 million in legal and consulting fees. Now the sale has fallen through and they plan to give them to museums as static displays. After sitting in a humid climate, wrapped in plastic, engines not pickled, they would be of no other practical use anyhow. Who knows what it would cost to get one flying again.
On to the Marlborough Vineyard Hotel in the Blenheim wine district. Our room is a small cottage/apartment at the edge of a vineyard.
After settling in, we catch a ride to Herzog’s Restaurant that is one vineyard over from the hotel. Run by German’s with precise efficiency, we are seated in a beautiful patio and forced to drink a ‘mandatory’ before dinner champagne or wine. Then we are marched to our table to order from tonight’s dinner selection. The food is excellent, the service is obsequious, the schedule runs like a Swiss watch. They have a system that is set in stone. If you go there, just understand you will do what you are told and accept what they serve as they serve it. Exceptions are not encouraged and barely tolerated. “You vill enchoy the food and the vine, ja! Ve do not serve crackers mit de cheeses.” Great meal anyhow.
January 10
Planes, trains and automobiles… no, I mean to say “boats, helicopters and gondolas”
We told you about all the adventure stuff they promote in Queenstown. Today, we succumbed to the hype. Actually we had planned to take the Shotover River jet boat in a reenactment of when we were here 15 years ago. Only this time we bought the “combo package”. It consists of the jet boat, followed by a helicopter trip over the mountain ridge and a gondola ride down the mountain to town. After all, Queenstown is the adventure capital of the world!
Up early to get to the jet boat dock on the Shotover River. This river was the second largest alluvial gold find in the world. In 1862, miners clustered along its banks and took millions in gold dust and nuggets out. Now the Maori tribe who owns this operation takes million in dollars, Euros, pesos, rupees, yen and rubles from the tourists who cluster along its banks.
We are issued stylish back rain coats and life vests and climb aboard a custom made, twin engine jet boat that weighs 3,000 pounds empty and draws 10 centimeters of water under its keel. Its’ propulsion is from twin streams of water that are spurted out the rear of the outdrives.
Our driver is a young man who possesses absolutely no common sense. He revved up the throttle and we hurtle down a rock strewn river at 50 knots. He dodges boulders, trees and gravel bars with one hand on the wheel and occasionally lifts his water spotted sunglasses to locate the next target of opportunity. At the last second he swerves to miss a crash that would surely hole the hull and disturb Susan. Occasionally, he raises a finger in a circular motion and we spin around in the rushing water and we get full benefit of the rain gear they issued us. In spite of all this, Susan is giggling and screaming. I will remind her of this next time she gives me driving advice.
January 9
Jack’s Point Golf Club
Some investors paid a lot of money to build a housing development and a Jack Nicklaus designed golf course on an old sheep station (station means ranch in Texas) just in time for the recession to hit them. Almost no houses are built, but Jack’s Point Golf Club is in great shape.
We are the beneficiaries of their real estate debacle. We played on a sunshiny Sunday morning and had the whole golf course to ourselves. At $110 New Zealand for green fee and cart, it was the best golf bargain we have seen on this trip. The course runs along a ridge line that overlooks the lake and the city of Queenstown. It has interesting terrain and dramatic views from almost each tee box.
A grass airstrip alongside the course was busy with jump planes carrying skydivers up and dropping them over head. We could hear their chutes pop open and their screaming as they descended. Why someone would choose to jump out of a perfectly good airplane puzzles me. If it was on fire or a wing fell off, I can understand, but otherwise a jump into the thin air would certainly result in some serious dry cleaning.
Back to Q-town for lazy afternoon of strolling the village and watching the rugby championships on a field next to our hotel. We grabbed late lunch at Fergburger’s (pronounced Fergie burger). Big burger. Not our taste. Busy spot though, so some people must like them.
A grandmother from Maryland, who is on a five week backpacking trip with her 15 year old grandson, sat next to us at Fergburger. She told us she had heard about the shooting in Arizona. We got the news flash on the internet and a brief story on BBC TV. Tragic story, but we have no details yet.
Back to the Queenstown Park Hotel for our next to last night in Q-town.
January 8
Flying to and cruising on Milford Sound
Before today’s episode something requires clearing up. We have always believed we were going to Milford Sound. We found out on our tour it’s not true, even though all the literature and signage says Milford Sound. This place is in point fact a ‘fjord’. I know we were shocked too. Shocked.
I asked the tour guide, “If narrow body of water surrounded on three sides by steep, rocky cliffs is called a ‘fjord’; and on the other hand, a narrow body of water surrounded on three sides by steep, rocky cliffs is called a ‘sound’, pray tell what is the difference? He stared past me and tried to ignore the question. But I persisted. He stammered and his young female assistant jumped in and offered, “A ‘sound’ is a body of water that was formed by erosion. A fjord is a body of water that was formed by ‘glaciers’.
I was about to get into how anyone would know whether Milford was glacier formed or erosion formed, since its formation took place before we had the Discovery Channel, but Susan had me firmly gripped by the elbow, so that question will have to wait. Hopefully the confusion over ‘sound’ versus ‘fjord’ has been permanently put to rest in your mind now.
No clouds or rain and almost no wind make this a perfect day to make up for our washed out flight to Milford Sound. We arrive on the back side of Queenstown Airport and join up with Captain Hank of Air Milford. As we load aboard his Cessna Caravan (single-engine, turbine, fixed-gear aircraft) he motions for Mike to sit in the right seat up front with him. Mike likes.
Soon we rumble down the grass taxiway and turn into what little wind exists and we are off and turning left between mountains as we climb at an anemic 500 feet a minute at 80 knots. I thought this was a turbine airplane. Come on, our old Cessna 340 will outperform this. The Caravan is a dog.
Captain Hank makes this trip four or five times per day so he knows every rock along the way. Well he does as we almost scrape wingtips on the peaks while he narrates a sightseeing monologue naming each mountain top and glacier along the way. At 8,500 feet we are above the cumulo-granite and headed down hill to the airstrip in Milford Sound. When Hank turns between two jagged peaks, Susan’s xanax starts to wear off.
The air charter operators all fly into the box canyon from the Tasman Sea on the right side of the fjord and out bound along the opposite cliff line. It passes for pattern separation Milford style. About 25 aircraft are on the ground when we arrive.
A short shuttle takes us to our sightseeing boat and we are cruising outbound in the sound. The views are magnificent. Stone cliffs soar almost straight up over 3,000 feet. Waterfalls cascade thousands of feet breaking over the rocks into the blue water of the fjord. We slow down to watch the seals sunning on the rocks. In the return trip, the Captain puts the bow of the ship into a waterfall and those who are demented happily stand under the spray until they are soaked with icy water.
Back to Captain Hank who takes us on a nature walk that leads back to the airstrip. After a quick 35 minutes of rock watching from the airplane as we claw our way from sea level to over 8,000 feet and we are soon pointed downhill to Queenstown airdrome. Nothing I ever do in our airplane will scare Susan after this.
Dinner tonight was arranged for us by our host at Kauri Cliffs last week so we could tour his new hotel in Queenstown. We invited our new Czech friends, Richard and Ria to join us and they accept. The pictures do not do justice to the Matakauri Lodge. The cluster of lodges perches overlooking Lake Wakatipu and each room on the property has a view.
The manager of Matakauri was formerly an assistant manager at Kimberley Lodge in Russell where we were married. We figured out she worked there about two years after we left. Small world? Wait.
Some of you have traveled with Susan and you know she is normally very reserved and shy. However today she came out of her shell and began to talk with everyone in sight. On the flight to Milford she met a young couple from California, Shan and Sonya on their honeymoon. The man grew up in Grapevine, Texas, graduated from Colleyville High, went to MIT, worked for Microsoft, started a software company that he sold to Google and now works at Google. But, that is all she found out about him. They are staying at the Matakauri Lodge where we are having dinner, so we agree to meet for a drink.
We are seated for dinner and we recognize two couples adjacent to our table were also with us at Kauri Cliffs last week, so Susan chats them up. One couple offers they live in Naples, Florida where Susan’s mother resides. The woman asks, “What is your mother’s name?” When told, “Ann Jacobson”, she squealed, “I know Ann Jacobson. We belong to the same temple!”
Remember the newlywed couple we met on the flight to Milford? At this moment they walked in. So Susan went around the room in introducing everyone.
In order to describe the young Czech couple’s facial expressions while observing this exchange between Susan and a room full of former strangers who now know each other well, allows me to use a new expression I learned on this trip… “Gob smacked”. It roughly translates to “I would not have believed it if I had not seen it with my own eyes”.
I have seen this before with this woman and while I am still impressed, I have come to expect it.
Dinner was great too. Highly recommend Matakauri Lodge.
January 7
Nothing but blue skies come our way
We read the e edition of the Fort Worth Star Telegram every day, so we know what you Fort Worthians are up to in our absence. However, one item puzzles us. When we read our horoscopes for the day, are we reading about today’s forecast or tomorrow’s. Remember, when is Saturday here, it is Friday there.
I don’t know much about horoscope science except that they certainly would not print them in the paper if they were not totally proven to be accurate. But, beside the ‘which day’ problem, since horoscopes are based on the alignment of the stars and planets, are they looking at the sky view from the Northern hemisphere or the Southern? Wouldn’t that make a big difference? What about the stars you can’t see from the southern hemisphere? If any of you can clear this up for us, please respond. We are planning on purchasing a lottery ticket and need to know when to pull the trigger.
