Western Dancing at the Stagecoach

Today was a lot of fun! We went skiing for a solid hour in Teton National Park and I didn't fall once! John lapped me but I was at least 50% better than yesterday. After skiing we went over to Ian and Dawn's (neighbors next door) to watch the hockey final between the US and Canada. Dawn is in Colorado on a buying trip so we hung out with Ian, his eight year old daughter, Kendall and her buddy, Lexi. The girls played while we three watched the hockey game including the exciting overtime/sudden death round. After the hockey game John and I drove to the National Elk Refuge where we spotted about 20 rocky mountain sheep also known as big horn sheep. I got a few photos but the big horn sheep like to stay high above it all so even with the telephoto lens I didn't get the best images of these interesting looking creatures. Next we met Bob and Lynne at the Stagecoach for dinner, drinking, and dancing. The Stagecoach was tons of fun and two weekend cowboys asked me to dance, Mark from New York, and Bob from Western Massachusetts. Finally my own weekend cowboy asked me to dance. Believe it or not this was the first time John and I have danced together in public and we didn't even make complete fools of ourselves. The night wrapped up around 9:00 PM and now we're back at the cabin making plans for tomorrow. Hee Haw

photos 1. at the Stagecoach last night 2. John admiring Lynne's snazzy cowboy boots

XC Skiing and Sprouted Grain Pasta

We're just back from cross country skiing in Grand Teton National Park. It was my first experience on xc skis and although I managed to fall at least 4 times in less than an hour I had a pretty good time and a decent workout. Cross country skiing is basically gliding along in the snow while using ski poles for balance. I also discovered ski poles are meant to prevent falls and intended to be used to get up out of the snow if and when you do fall. It was a very good workout, so good in fact that I had to take off two layers of clothing because I was sweating so much. Of course as soon as I stopped skiing and the cold air hit my sweaty body I got chilled to the bone. Now we're back at the cabin making dinner for John's friends Peter and Inger who are due here at 6:30. After the dinner party John and I plan to watch Deliverance.

We had a very nice time with Peter and his mom, Inger. Inger was born in Denmark and as a young adult was active in the Danish Resistance movement. Inger and her husband Bob helped smuggle Danish Jews out of the country to safety in Sweden, their home was used as an underground railroad for Danish Jews trying to escape German occupied Denmark. Inger often speaks about her experiences in Denmark at local schools and community centers. She is 95 years old and still drives wherever she wants to go in her Subaru wagon. She also skis and hikes despite some knee/hip aches and pains. Peter is 65 years old and has worked as both a log cabin builder (remember he built John's cabin in the late 80s) and climbing guide. He developed cancer a few years ago and moved back to WY from CO to be closer to him mom and medical treatment. He still has cancer in his lungs but says the treatments appear to be working. He takes a lot of supplements and is very particular about what he eats, but John says that has been the case for as long as he's known Peter. When we ran into Peter at the grocery store a couple days ago he asked John to buy a specific type of pasta made of sprouted grains for dinner tonight. Unfortunately, the sprouted grain pasta was absolutely disgusting and pretty much ruined John's homemade pasta sauce. Oh well! The evening was still great fun.

After Peter and Inger left we watched Deliverance. All these years I've thought Deliverance was a comedy so I was mentally prepared to watch a comedy. I guess I thought it was a comedy because guys are always quoting a couple famous lines from it and laughing, but I'm here to tell you there's absolutely nothing funny about this movie.

Dinner at High Heskett

We're just back from a wonderful evening with Bob and Lynne, Lynne's friends from WI Ellie and Joanne, John and Bob's friend Loring and his partner of 25 years, Melody, and Bob and Lynne's neighbors Deborah and Greg. The drive to Bob and Lynne's takes about 25 minutes and their house is located at the top of a hill near the science school. Their place is the ultimate Wyoming getaway my favorite features are the enormous stone fireplace and plank floors. We had a blast hanging out with everyone, enjoying a wonderful dinner and lots of laughs. I'm feeling dog tired at nearly 11:00 PM so unfortunately I'll have to come back to this post tomorrow to share more details. I watched Good Hair while John was out skiing in the afternoon. I guess my expectations were a little too high and Good Hair turned out to be a Bad movie. John had a really good day of skiing including a 45 minute hike up a mountain to a remote area carrying his skies all the way up. He called before skiing down to report his exact location in case something went wrong, and about 10 minutes later he called from the bottom of the slope to report that he was safe and sound.

I couldn't resist posting this handsome photo of John posing in front of the cozy fire he built last night.

Huckleberry Hot Springs

Today got off to a rocky start for John and me but we managed to get back on track by the early afternoon and the rest of the day was fantastic. John decided to ski in the morning and left the house around 9:00 AM only to discover once he arrived at the gate to the park that he had left his wallet at the cabin. So he went to the library and caught up on emails before driving back to the house. The Comcast guy showed up around 11:00 to install wi-fi service and after about 45 minutes the cabin was wired! Fortunately, I checked to make sure it was working before the guy left because it was not working and he had to spend another 25 minutes or so working out bugs in the system. John arrived home a few minutes before the internet guy completed the installation. We decided to drive up to Dornan's for cookies and snacks before driving out near the entrance of Yellowstone National Park. We stocked up on cookies and milk and hit the wide open highway for about a 40 minute drive. The point of the drive was to get within snowshoeing distance of a geothermal area and hike to a hot spring there: "Grand Teton National Park’s worst-kept secret is actually located just north of the park in the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway area. Formerly the site of a private campground, all traces of development have been removed and the 100°-105°F springs have reverted back to their natural state. Locals soak here year-round, using cross-country skis to gain access in the winter." The drive was beautiful, clear and sunny and even a little warm with temps in the 30s. The park ranger told us that sea otters had been spotted near some open water about 3 miles into Teton National Park so we stopped hoping for a sighting but no luck. The hike to the hot spring was really nice and very easy because others had made a trail so this snowshoeing adventure was really just walking in those clumsy snowshoes, and as a matter of fact we didn't even use them on the walk back to the car. The hot spring was HOT! A jacuzzi in the middle of nowhere surrounded by snow covered mountains and evergreens. The water was very warm probably close to 100 degrees and in some spots scorching hot, but unlike a jacuzzi the natural spring is muddy, slimy, rocky, and a wee bit stinky. It was still a lot of fun and I'd definitely recommend a trip to the hot spring to visitors to the park. We got back to the house around 6:00 PM and had a really nice dinner, a fire in the fireplace (finally), and watched a western, The Outlaw Josey Wales starring Clint Eastwood. I could barely keep my eyes open 20 minutes into the movie but John enjoyed it; he loves westerns. This post is late because I really couldn't keep my eyes open long enough to blog last night.

Snow Day

Today was the first overcast day we’ve had since arriving in WY a week ago today. We lazed around the house for much of the day enjoying the snow falling outside and catching up with friends and family over the phone. I had a nice catch up chat with Judy who brought me up to speed on what’s been happening in her life since she retired at the end of January. I took what I believe was only my second afternoon nap since going on leave in December and it was absolutely fabulous! Today was the perfect day for napping and the only thing that could have made it better would have been a fire in the fireplace. I’m trying to talk John into building a fire for us later but for some reason he’s just not all that big on fire building. The internet installation was pushed back by a day so I’m still “borrowing” wi-fi from one of the neighbors and it should be installed here on Thursday. We went into town for groceries and for a stop at the library. We also made a stop at the video rental where we picked up three movies including two westerns, John’s favorites and I rented Good Hair. It’s been snowing all day so ski conditions should be great tomorrow and John plans to spend most of the day on the slopes. I will be at the cabin watching my movie and reading tomorrow.

We really should be having dinner right about now but John has been "helping" Mary with a paper for well over an hour more like two hours, so I skipped on over to the Swedish cabin to post this entry. Call me old fashioned but in the olden days our parents didn't "edit" our papers or help with homework after say elementary school; apparently things are different now it's common for highly educated parents to "edit" college writing assignments! It seems a very fine line between helping and cheating when a college student gets over 2 hours of help writing a paper it smacks of academic fraud in my opinion and how can someone feel good or right about turning in work they haven't done entirely on their own? Ugh! This is becoming a major source of conflict and might well be the death of our relationship because I can't stomach cheating of any kind! Does this sort of thing happen on college campuses all over the country? Have we really became a culture of "whatever it takes to win"? Am I just so out of touch? Should I just keep my opinions to myself and mind my own damn business, because after all what does this have to do with me? I am struggling with this and could really use some advice and guidance.

All is well here in WY with nothing too exciting to report. However, our dance cards are booking up for the weekend with plans for dinner with Bob and Lynne and some of their friends on Friday night, and dinner here at the cabin with Peter and his mom Ingar long time friends of John’s Saturday night. Peter built John’s original cabin in 1987. We ran into Peter this afternoon at the grocery store and I think it was the first time they’ve seen each other in several years. Peter is battling cancer and has been for over a year, but John thought he looked pretty good considering his prognosis and said he seemed in good spirits. I met his mom last summer when she came to the cabin for dinner. She’s in her nineties and still drives herself all over the place and is quite active in the Jackson community. She has an interesting story so I’ll tell you more about her in a future post.

Walking Through Snow

It’s hard to believe that two years ago tonight I was meeting John for the first time at Lucia’s restaurant in Minneapolis. Tonight we’ve just finished dinner together in Wyoming after an afternoon of snowshoeing in Teton National Park. In my wildest dreams I could not have envisioned this journey and that has made it all the more amazing. Although we’re embroiled in a disagreement tonight I wouldn’t trade him for anything in the world.

I met John at the airport at noon and we headed into town for lunch at Shades Café and then to the library for a wireless connection. Fortunately, we didn’t spend much time at the library because it was an absolutely gorgeous day and one to be enjoyed out of doors. We stopped at the cabin and picked up the snowshoes and drove up to the park. This was my first experience on snowshoes and the hardest part was getting them on properly. Lucky for me I got it right the first time around and my snowshoe remained intact throughout the hike. John wasn’t as fortunate or maybe as skilled so his snowshoes came off a few times. Snowshoeing is basically walking through deep snow on something resembling a lightweight mesh skateboard (the original ones looked like gigantic tennis rackets). While snowshoeing is just walking through the snow it is much harder than it looks. Imagine walking through mud with 5-10 pound cement blocks on your feet! I stumbled a few times and fell down in the snow but my new soft shell pants and jacket kept me warm and dry. Actually once we got going on our snowshoes the performance gear proved a little too warm because it was easy to work up a sweat even in the cold because it’s hard work and the sun was intense. We pranced around on our snowshoes for a little over an hour but it felt more like two or three to me. We were back home before 6:00 and just finished dinner and I’m off to the Swedish cabin to copy and paste today’s blog post

Oh I forget to mention that I managed to lock myself out of the Swedish cabin last night after I posted that I would be sleeping there. I decided around 11:00 last night to put John’s car in the garage. Once I walked out to move the car I realized the door had locked behind me! Luckily I only had to drive about a 100 yards to find shelter and warmth.

Idaho Falls, ID

Whew... I'm really just too tired to blog tonight, but I'll give it a shot. I slept pretty well at the western cabin all by my lonesome and didn't let a few creaks and rattles disturb my slumber; although truth be told I didn't go to bed until I was absolutely exhausted because I was a little nervous about being there alone. Bob and Lynne picked me up for our field trip to Idaho at 8:30 sharp and I was at the bus stop right on time. We stopped for coffee and bagels in Wilson, WY and then off to ID. The drive to Idaho took a little over 2 hours although the distance from Wilson to Idaho Falls is only 89 miles. The ride takes longer because there's simply no way to drive 65 over the pass and up the mountains and around the curves and turns so the speed for much of the trip was below 50 mph. We made it to Idaho Falls just after 11:00 where we shopped at Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, looked in on a furniture store, had delicious lunch at Cafe Rio, Bob went to his doctor's appointment and Lynne and I shopped some more at TJ Maxx and made another stop at Bed Bath and Beyond. We met up with Bob at the mall and all shopped at JC Penney and made a stop at Barnes and Noble where I was able to pick up a copy of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a book I've been wanting to read for a couple of weeks . Our last stop at the mall was at Precision Mountainwear where I picked up a pair of soft shell ski pants and a soft shell jacket. Yikes performance gear... are you reading this Gretchen? Finally we decided to check out "downtown" Idaho Falls to complete the trip, but the drive to downtown took less time than the actual scoping out of downtown Idaho Falls. It was 3:30 or close to 4:00 when we started the drive back to Jackson. I had my picture taken in front of the the Welcome to Wyoming sign and shortly after my photo shoot we were back in the town of Wilson where we stopped at the Stagecoach bar for beers and a little mixing with the locals. The same band has performed at the Stagecoach every Sunday night for the last 40 years so we're planning to stop in on Sunday night and I'm hoping we can talk John into going. We met a couple really nice people at the bar and they're expecting us back on Sunday so we can't let 'em down. A note about the Stagecoach, it has a drive thru liquor store! I've never seen such a thing so of course I had to snap a photo. After the Stagecoach it was definitely time to head back home because Bob and Lynne had plans to hang out with their neighbors, and I was anxious to see how my purchases would go over at the Swedish cabin (shower curtain, towels, kitchen stuff, mats, etc). On our way to Solitude we spotted a woman stuck in a snow bank in her Subaru station wagon, fortunately she had a tow rope so Bob was able to pull her car out of the snow. It turns out she's a hospice nurse who was answering a patient's call when she got stuck. Her job seems stressful enough without the added stress of not being able to get to a patient in need; so glad Bob was able to help her out. I made it back to the SW around 7:00 PM. I think john will be pleased with my selections but I predict another trip to ID is in our future. I'm spending the night at SW because Bob located the circuit box so I don't have to blog in the dark tonight and since I'm already settled in here there's no point packing up at this late hour. John's flight arrives tomorrow afternoon at that's just perfect because February 23 is the 2nd anniversary of our 1st date:-)

Flying Solo in WY

John and Gretchen left for the airport around 11:00 and Dan, Ross, and Faust headed out around 12:30. I've been on my own in WY most of the day. I read, washed a few loads of laundry, drove into town, and at 6:00 met up again with Bob and Lynn. Bob and Lynn kindly invited me to dinner after learning I would be own my own for a few days. They picked me up and we drove into town to the Rendezvous Bistro for a tasty dinner. We ordered two of the meat loaf dishes, three small salads, and a bottle of wine and the portions worked out just great for three. The dinner conversation was a lot of fun and I'm really looking forward to spending time with them tomorrow. They're picking me up at 8:30 and we're driving over to Idaho Falls, ID and you're probably wondering... what the heck is in Idaho Falls? Well Bob has a Drs appointment and Lynn wants to shop and guess what... Lisa wants to shop too, and there's a mall in Idaho Falls as well as a Target and Pier 1 and all sorts of other stores. Jackson Hole has a lot of expensive shops and a Kmart! I'm looking forward to my big exciting outing with Bob and Lynn tomorrow and to picking up a few things for John such as wine glasses because I think I broke the very last one the other night. I'm writing this blog post from the Swedish cabin but I'm sitting here in the dark because none of the lights will turn on probably due to a circuit switch but I don't know where the circuit box is located so I'm trying to write fast and get over to the other place before the wild animals start prancing up and down the road. It's 9:35 and way too dark and late for me to risk stepping on a fox or getting trampled by a herd of elk. Nighty night.

Cyclone Hits Aitutaki

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-pacific/3315061/Cyclone-hits-Cook-Islands

John learned of this from a New Zealander whom he met while skiing yesterday. The storm hit about 10 days after we left the beautiful atoll of Aitutaki and according to reports the damage to the island was devastating. This is just heartbreaking after spending time there and meeting so many wonderful people; now we're left wondering how many of these people no longer have homes (up to 90 percent of houses on Aitutaki were reported to be severely damaged) and just how the people we met such as Teking, Sonja, Jim, Jo-Ann, Lovey, Theresa, Mama, the coconut man (Dave), and the those kids we saw clutched tightly to their parents as they rode along on motorbikes. I plan to spend time on the internet trying to answer these questions and will update you when and if I find any answers. In the meantime please pray for the people of Aitutaki if you pray or simply think good thoughts if you do not.

Solitude

I'm coming to you from the new cabin where I managed to tap into a neighbor's wi-fi just as I was about to drive to town to pickup wireless at the library. I stopped over here to get my computer and discovered I had very little battery life so I plugged in the PC and low and behold a wireless connection! I'm still planning to drive to town but now there's no rush. John, Gretchen, Dan, and Ross left early this morning for a day of skiing. I didn't mention that Dan brought along his 6 month old rottweiler puppy named Faust (we're all renamed her Fausta) she's a sweetie pie and it's been kind of fun having a puppy around the house. Butch got an early start on the road leaving here around 5:00 AM. Last night John took Butch and me out to dinner at the Wort Hotel in Jackson, the food was excellent and they had a really good blues band performing. Gretchen and her friends hit the hot nightspots and took a taxi home around midnight.

I'm on my own today making the most of the time to catch up on my blog and maybe finish my latest travel book The Member of the Wedding. So in catching up on my blog I'd like to write about the Solitude subdivision and also about an experience I had here on Thursday. Solitude is the subdivision where John's cabin is located and I think from this point on I will refer to the two cabins as 1. the Western Cabin (W) and 2. the Swedish cabin (SW) for kicks and simplicity. The subdivision came into being about 20 years ago, and John's cabin was one of the first. The subdivision allows building on 5 or 10 acres lots so nothing less than a 5 acre lot is ever available for purchase and the cabins on these 5 and 10 acre lots range from quaint log cabins like John's to mansions; there's plenty of open space and great views of the Grand Tetons (you can see the Grand Tetons from both living rooms) and Sleeping Indian is easily seen from the Western Cabin's kitchen window. The road through the subdivision is private so there's no thru traffic because the road doesn't connect to any other road. Thursday I was walking from W to SW about a 2 minute walk, but I needed to walk along the road because the snow is too deep to cut across the yard. So Thursday as I was walking to SW a passing car slowed down alongside me... I thought "oh no someone's going to ask for directions and I'll be of no help whatsoever." I guessed wrong. It was a man in his late 30s or early 40s wondering if I wanted a ride. I laughed out loud because the question seemed so utterly ridiculous. After the 5 second interaction with the man in the Lexus SUV my amusement turned to irritation, then to anger, and now I'm blogging about it because more than anything it was confusing to me; so I'd like to use this post to sort it out. Did the man in the SUV really believe I was hitchhiking through a subdivision on a road leading to nowhere? Was he concerned for my safety and well-being in a subdivision overrun with multimillion dollar homes at 2:30 in the afternoon? Was he trying to pick me up? I've probably seen a few too many episodes of Cops and Law and Order but isn't the, "you want a ride" line one used by guys cruising for hookers?! Was he just a well-meaning guy who had no idea how far I was planning to walk simply offering to give me a lift if I was in need of one? I don't know the answer so I'm trying to sort out my feelings about this confusing encounter with the man in the fancy SUV. It clearly raised questions for me about race, class, and to a lesser extent gender. I have to believe this guy passes people walking in the subdivision every single day but doesn't offer to chauffeur them around the neighborhood, maybe that's because they look like they belong here, and I don't look like I belong or at least mine isn't exactly the face most expect to see walking around snow covered Solitude. Okay, now that I've blogged about this I'm starting to get over it;-) Oh solitude.

On a lighter note... internet service will be up and running at the cabin Wednesday afternoon:-)

Friday, February 19 John and I were just trying to piece together what happened on Friday since I wasn't able to blog that day. I have no idea what we did all day but in the evening John, Butch and I went into town for dinner at the Wort Hotel and listened to some music at the Silver Dollar Bar, the music was really good soul/blues. I think we were still dog tired from the long drive so after dinner we posed for a picture in the square still decorated in bluish lights for the holiday season, and then headed home. Gretchen and her friends went to the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar for an evening on the town. John had wanted to stop by there but was too tired, fortunately.

Jackson Hole, WY

I'm coming to you live from the Teton County Public Library. John, Butch, and I arrived into Jackson last night around 8:00 PM after driving for just a over 1200 miles from the Twin Cities starting out Tuesday morning and arriving here Wednesday evening. The second day of driving was a bit more harrowing for me because while I was driving John's car we ran into both a thick wall of fog lasting for about 15 miles, and a few hours later blowing snow and ice. When we drove into the fog the temperature was about 33 degrees just outside of Miles City, MT once we got out of the fog near Billings, MT the temperature increased to about 50 degrees, it was so nice out; unfortunately, it didn't last and a couple hours later while going up the mountain the temperature dropped to the low 30s and it started to snow, We had to take a couple alternate routes because the road conditions prohibited trucks and trailers due to the windy and icy conditions in the mountains. We finally made it into town after dark and immediately went to the grocery store where we stocked up on food for the weekend. John prepared a nice dinner and after dinner we all went over to see the new guests cabin. The cabin looks very nice but it's very different from the other cabin modern with light colors and lots of windows. Everyone hit the hay around 11:30.

Today has been full but low key. Butch and John went over to the new cabin first thing and started putting up shades and sorting out some minor details and making lists of things still needed from the hardware store before moving furniture into the house. John seems to have had a slight change of heart about some of his furniture choices because the cabin is so new and modern and the furniture is not. I suggested taking a wait and see attitude. John's friend Bob and his wife Lynn stopped over to see the cabin. They have a place not too far away and have been here for a couple of months since Bob retired from banking. I'm not sure what Lynn does or did for a living, she seems closer to my age and John and Bob have been friends since high school. Gretchen got to the cabin around noon and while she likes the look of the cabin she was horrified by a few of her dad's decorating choices especially the orange kitchen wall and dark blue counter tops:-) I don't really mind the colors but they are a little bright and shocking at first glance. She's also not wild about mismatched colorful knobs and drawer pulls he picked for the kitchen cabinetry. John picked out everything and he's clearly happy with his choices so while it's not my style or Gretchen's he is happy and that's all that really matters.
Butch went to the hardware store and John, Gretchen, and I drive into town for lunch at Shades and now we're all at the library catching up on computer stuff. John is getting internet service at the cabin but it will take at least a week so I won't be able to blog as frequently until the service is installed. Gretchen's friends, Ross and Dan arrive tonight from CO. Tonight we're having a big dinner at the cabin with Bob, Lynn, Butch, Gretchen, Ross, and Dan. Tomorrow and Saturday Gretchen, her dad, and her friends will ski all day and Butch will do stuff at the house and I'll read and relax.

Until my next trip to the library or internet service comes to Phelps Canyon Road, thanks for reading and call me any time over the next 10 days if you start to miss my updates.

On The Road Again

I'm writing to you from Mile City, MT pop. 8500! We got started on our journey west a little after 9:00 this morning and made it all the way from Minneapolis to Mile City (over 700 miles). We're caravanning with John's friend and builder Butch MacDonald. John's taking some furniture out to WY for the guest cabin, and apparently Butch likes to drive long distances while pulling a trailer full of furniture! I drove John's car most of the day while he road along with Butch in the truck. For reasons I still don't fully understand I thought it would be a good idea to speed ahead of John and Butch; and got busted by a friendly Minnesota State Trooper and hit with a $125 speeding ticket. Guilty as charged. I really don't know what I was thinking or why I was in such a rush considering the drive will take a total of about 22 hours and I hadn't even left the state of 10,000 Lakes. Well it's probably good that it happened early in the trip because I learned my lesson. So that's about the only highlight or interesting thing to happen all day. The drive is so boring! Snow is everywhere but the sunset as we drove through Bismark, ND was really beautiful. John and Butch had the energy to head into downtown Mile City in search of an authentic western bar for dinner, and I'm as happy as can be at the Mile City Best Western watching the Olympics and eating Lifesavers gummi sours. Hee-Haw

sunset photo taken in Florida 1/10

Cook Island Christian Church

Sunday, January 31 our final day in the Cook Islands. It was overcast and raining lightly on our final day in Aitutaki. John and I were excited to attend Sunday service at the Cook Island Christian Church because we’d heard from several people that we shouldn't miss the opportunity. Jo-Anne gave us a lift into town and dropped us at the Cook Island Christian Church. CCIC is the oldest church on the island founded in 1821. The church is undergoing a massive renovation so we attended service next door at a smaller church in a building probably used for Sunday school. Brightly colored tropical flowers decorated the makeshift pulpit and two gentlemen presided over the service. The minister was a large man dressed in a dark pinstriped suit with a light blue pastor's shirt with a white collar. How he was able to tolerate a suit and tie in the hot humid conditions is a mystery to me. Most of the women wore dresses and hats (straw) and looked very much like the women you see in Baptist churches back home. Most of the men wore slacks and short sleeve island shirts. The teen girls wore skirts and dresses (no hats) and young boys, short sleeve shirts and jeans or long denim shorts. The service began with some remarks in Maori (the majority of the service was in Maori) and then a song. Everyone stands for every song and songs are performed a cappella by the congregation. There's no choir, no music, no conductor and the hymnals have Maori lyrics but no music. The congregation manages to perform multipart harmony without music or a conductor and the singing is in a word SUBLIME! I can't even begin to describe the singing so I'll just try to describe how it made me feel. I got so caught up in the singing and the magic of the Maori voices that I felt like I was being swept up and carried away, I think the word is enraptured. I literary felt at times like I was floating, relaxed, weightless, peaceful and free. Suddenly a gust of hot island air would whip across the ocean, through the palm trees, and finally through the glass shutters and shake me back to consciousness. Until the next song of course, and then the same weightless, free, floaty feeling would grab hold of me again. Some of the selections sounded like lullabies with voices expressing care, comfort, warmth and love. Other selections were chants, rich deep male voices like warriors and elders and female voices offering an intriguing mix of the sound of mothers, teachers and angels. Finally there were selections that managed to create a choir of angels, children, parents,birds, warriors, teachers, and elders. The singing literally took my breath away and at one point I was afraid I was just going to topple right over. I felt like I was standing there completely exposed with no place to run, but I didn’t even feel like running because the songs with lyrics I could not understand surrounded me with a feeling of safety and love and I knew there was absolutely nothing to fear. When you feel your soul is bare and you can't run there's nothing to do but weep because you are free. So I wept as I listening to the voices of the angels, the teachers, the elders, the children, the birds, warriors... the voices of everyone who has ever loved me, worried about me, fought for me, encouraged me, scolded me, and comforted me.

The sermon was on Zion: The Mountain of God, Mt. Zion, upon which sits the city of Jerusalem will regain
its holiness and beauty in ‘Paradise,’ as Christ reigns there over the whole earth:


Aere ra Aitutaki (goodbye)

Happy Valentine's Day

John made blueberry pancakes served with strawberries and orange juice for breakfast..yummy. We had planned to go out to dinner tonight but with the trip to WY only two days off, he's feeling too rushed and I'm still feeling too sleepy. We will have our Valentine's day dinner in Jackson Hole later this week.

I spent most of the day at John's house playing around with my 500+ vacation photos! I didn't take my computer on vacation so all of my photos were uploaded to his PC. I'm having a heck of a time copying them over to a disk to upload to my computer so I'll try a flash drive Tuesday. Every time I think I've copied the pictures to a disk when I insert the CD my computer reads it as a blank! Ugh! Well as you can see from today's earlier post I have managed to transfer many of the Cook Island photos over the my computer, and I'm busily working on collages and I hope to get together a slideshow for your viewing pleasure soon.

I added a lot to today's earlier post so if you haven't read it since this morning you should check it out again and the photo mosaic.

Wake Me Up

Click on image to enlarge
I feel like a hibernating bear forced to wake up prematurely. All I want to do these days is sleep and then sleep a little more. I didn't post last night because I was SLEEPING. Yesterday was rather uneventful because I was sleeping:-). I did however manage to finish the laundry, style my hair so I can go out in public again, and submitted a couple way overdue interview reports to Anne J. at the office. I've been thinking about all the fun and quirky things we saw, heard, and did over the three weeks so I'm working on a list to add to this post a little later today so check back.

First known settlers were Maori and were left alone until Captain James Cook arrived in the 18th century. Captain Cook should have sailed on because the Maori warriors killed and ate nine members of his crew. After that traders and others came and fights errupted. They wanted to trade muskets for fruit and pigs. This period was known as the "Musket Wars".

-capital city is Wellington
-largest city is Auckland
-languages are English and Maori
-majority of people are Christian
-New Zealand means, "Land of the long white cloud"
-30 percent of the land are forests
-90 mile beach is only miles long
-first country to see the sunrise
-"kiwi" is either a bird or a native
-ostrich steak and black swan carppacio do not taste like chicken!
-new zealand has two national athems- God Save The Queen and God Defend New Zealand
-there are nine sheep to every human in New Zealand
-there are 9 billion beef and dairy cattle
-Sir Edmund Hilary was the first man to reach the peak of Mt. Everest- his face now adorns New Zealands $5 bill.
New Zealand has a lot of animals and birds. It actually has the worlds biggest flightless parrot. The worlds oldest reptile. The biggest earthworms. The smallest bats. The only native land mammals. The oldest trees.

- New Zealand has the highest car ownership rates in the world

++Cook Island facts and observations:

Every Cook Islander holds dual citizenship with New Zealand
The population of the CK is shrinking because the young people are leaving typically for NZ or Australia in search of better jobs and opportunities. The young woman we met upon our arrival at Etu Moana, Theresa (manager) is off to Australia for two years leaving her three young children in the care of her husband while she earns a degree in "beauty therapy." Her hope is to return to the Cooks and start her own business but she will be the exception if she returns because most do not.
What we call "to go or take out" at a restaurant the Cook Islanders and the New Zealanders call "takeaways"
Many New Zealanders believe the original inhabitants of NZ came from the Cook Islands
There are laws prohibiting the buying or selling of land. Ownership is hereditary; land can be leased, but outsiders are not allowed to own land. Land is divided among the descendants after the death of the owner. As a result of this system, a family may possess several plots scattered over an island.
The people tend to be large and the children look like sweet toasty marshmallows (brown and pudgy). Everyone looks well-feed and healthy, and it's no wonder because there's no shortage of fresh fruits and seafood on the island.
Most people ride motorbikes so you will not see many cars just a few vans for shuttling around tourist.
There are very few non-Maori living/working in Aitutaki it seems the Maori run 95% of the island and it seem to run efficiently from what I was able to observe over just six days.
I also loved how the Maori don't "kiss up" to the tourists. They have a lot of pride in themselves and their culture but aren't bending over backward to impress or educate tourists. I felt right at home in my brown skin in Aitutaki! A few asked if I was from Nouvelle Caledonie (New Caledonia) French Polynesia (Melanesian Kanak) apparently I look a bit like the darker brown folks there:-) I never really felt like a tourist, I never felt like an Islander, but I always felt completely comfortable and welcomed by all... I want to go back:-)

I still owe you guys a post about that amazing church service at the Cook Island Christian Church on our final day on the island.., no worries I have great notes and great memories so a post is in the works.

Desynchronosis also known as jet lag

I am hoping that by writing this blog post tonight I'll be able to stay awake for another hour or two. I finally woke up at 11:30 this morning! I couldn’t believe it was so late, but boy was it ever some good and much needed sleep. I had breakfast and headed off to the gym. Today was sunny and clear but cold, cold, cold. It was quite a shock to my system after spending the last three weeks in summer climates. After a light breakfast I hit the gym for my first real workout in three weeks! Because I was so late getting there I didn’t see any of my pals but am hoping to on Monday. I had a pretty good workout because although I haven’t been to the club in weeks, John and I managed to bike or hike practically every day while we were traveling. I spent extra time at the club deep conditioning my hair because the sauna is so great for that. I had intended to schedule an appointment with my hairdresser, Del Marie but her weekends book up far in advance, and even if she could have squeeze me in it would have meant spending several hours at the salon. It has been 4 months since my last professional hair appointment and although it seems to take forever to detangle my hair it looks pretty good and healthy. I tried an apple cider vinegar rinse (tip from my favorite Youtuber) ¼ ACV mixed with 2 cups of water the works as a clarifier. Maybe it’s my imagination but I think my hair looks shinier and feels softer after the ACV rinse. I ran a few errands before returning home. At home I did a couple loads of laundry and went through the pile of mail held by the post office. The only interesting thing in three weeks worth of mail was a letter from Alamo Rental Car claiming damage to the car we rented when Tracy and I were in Florida last month. I was speechless, but after speaking with the claims representative I calmed down and chilled out. Apparently, a bumper clip was missing from the car we rented and they are required to contact the last person to rent the car before the damage was discovered. The claims representative was very nice and told me not to worry that it was just a form letter and she doubted I would hear from Alamo again…whew. Now I’m watching the opening ceremony of the Olympic games and struggling to keep my eyes open.

Home Again

I am home safe and sound, and while we had a wonderful time traveling to California, The Cook Islands, and New Zealand; there's no place quite like home. Our last day in NZ was very nice. We had a bit of driving from Tekapo to Christchurch but with Christchurch being the largest city on the south island the road into Christchurch was wide and we even crossed a few two lane bridges (a rarity in NZ). I know I mentioned in a previous post that there's no freeway system but I don't think I mentioned that there are very very few traffic lights. In our 10 days of extreme driving we saw perhaps 4 traffic light but lots of roundabouts/traffic circles. We really wanted to spend time at the Botanical Garden in Christchurch so once we got into the city and found our way there that's how we spent the majority of our last day in NZ. The Botanic garden is lovely especially the roses and the hydrangeas. After lunch and touring the gardens we had a couple errands and then it was off to the airport for the first of three flights. We arrived into LAX around 2:00 PM and took off for MPS at 6:15. I finished the second travel book "Push" whew was that ever a tragic tale. I must admit to caring more about the fictional character Precious Jones than I did about the real life Welsh siblings "The Kids Are All Right." Well, it's very late here 3:00 AM and since I didn't sleep much on the 12 hour flight from NZ to LAX or the LAX to MSP flight I think I had better shut my eyes and try to rest.

John and I compiled a list of 10 Magical Moments over the past three weeks:

1.Snorkeling
2,Milford Sound
3.Cook Island Christian Church (singing)
4.Abel Tasman National Park
5.Lunch at Sonja's
6.Kikoura dusky dolphins, whales, seals
7.Fox Glacier
8.Dinner at Cafe La Dolce Vita (lousy food, good wine, much laughter)
9.Christchurch Botanical Gardens
10. Trip to the swimming hole with the Murphy's

+honorable mention Dave "the coconut man"

The three photos were taken on our last day. The girls appeared to be on a field trip to the Botanical Gardens, we thought their uniforms were so cool. Field of sheep, rose. click to enlarge

Don't Have a Vegemite Sandwich

All is well but this post is late because I couldn't keep my eyes open after a long hike followed by a heavy Italian dinner. Before we left Te Anau I noticed some Vegemite in the refrigerator at our cottage and decided to have a taste. Quadruple Yuck! Vegemite taste like rotten fish paste mixed with motor oil! It is truly disgusting, no I've never tasted rotten fish paste and motor oil but I imagine it would taste just like Vegemite. We said good bye to the Murphy's and the farm around 10:00 and began our drive West. I drove for the first two hours and felt amazingly comfortable behind the right side wheel. The drive west was pretty easy but boring and the scenery looks very much like the American west with rolling hills and farmland. John drove for the last 3 hours because he was pretty bored. Once we checked into our motor inn like motel in Tekapo we decided to get some exercise after being couped up in the car all day. We hiked to the summit of a mountain over looking Lake Tekapo. The hike was steeper and more difficult than I imagined and 2/3 of the the way up my legs felt like cement blocks. We reached the summit and the view of the turquoise colored lake was magnificent even on a cloudy day. We trekked back down in search of dinner around 6:30. Tekapo is believed to have the cleanest air in the world and the turquoise lake is another big draw to the area so the town attracts loads of hikers and campers and there's a youth hostel just down the road so lots of young people. We decided on Pepe's Italian restaurant. For some reason the restaurant has a ski theme with poster and ski memorabilia decorating the walls. The place was packed so the waitress asked if we would be okay sharing a table with other guests. We joined Anne and Barie for a very enjoyable dinner. Barie and Anne and sisters in-law from the US. Anne is a librarian from Massachusetts and Barie makes custom sails for sailboats on Maryland's eastern shore and she sails. They are staying at the youth hostel despite being in their 60s and that's how they've managed to see so much of NZ on a budget, they seem to be having a blast and talked about their most interesting night when they stayed in a jail converted to a hostel in Christchurch!

Today is our final day in New Zealand. We will leave Tekapo and drive to Christchurch where we plan to visit the Botanical Gardens and have dinner before our 7:00 PM flight to Auckland. From Auckland we will fly to Los Angeles (12 hours). We are departing NZ at 7:00 PM Thursday night and arriving into Minneapolis at 11:00 PM Thursday night. We're on Air New Zealand until LAX to MSP when we switch to Delta/Northwest.

Fiordland Explored

Today was spectacular! We drove about 2 hours to Milford Sound for a cruise of the sound and the fiords. I've never been on any type of cruise ship so this alone was a treat. We booked the smaller of the two boats because our cruise boat offered an on board naturalist. We probably had 25 people on our ship and the boat seemed very large and spacious for so few people. I don't even know how to begin to tell you how amazing the cruise was and how much we learned in a little over two hours. A good starting point I suppose is with a definition of a sound and a fiord but I don't want to bore you if you already know and I don't feel much feel like writing a lecture, so let's just say the area is the arm of an ocean with mountains all around so it looks sort of like lakes in the ocean.http://www.milford-sound.co.nz/ The scenery is really out of this world absolutely breathtaking. A couple of things we learned. New Zealand has way too many possums and is trying all sort of things to kill them off. We were told if we hit a possum while driving to be sure to backup and run over it again! Possums were brought to NZ for their fur but have become a real nuisance in the last 100+ years since possum fur went out of fashion. There is only one colorful tree native to NZ it' s called the Rata tree and produces a bright red flower. There were no bees in NZ so the trees didn't need to be colorful to attract the bees for cross pollination. Moths pollinated and the only flowering trees had white flowers to be seen in the dark by moths before bees were introduced. Lobster is one of New Zealand's biggest exporting tons to Asia. The species of fern trees seen throughout the rain forest in NZ is over 100 million years old. We also saw a chasm today after we completed the cruise, another sight not to be missed in Fiordland. Well it's getting late and we have to get an early start tomorrow because the drive is over 6 hours. Good night

Glacial Rock Cottages

Today was one of the easiest driving days so far. I started out the drive today because John was too sleepy. I drove for about 1.5 hours; we seem to be off the curvy roads at least for the time being so the driving wasn't bad at all. The total drive time today was around 4 hours to Te Anau. We're staying on a farm here and it's amazing. We have a self contained cottage with a stocked kitchen and even a barbecue outback in case we decide to do some grilling. Our hosts are Sarah and Finn and their three children: Olivia (10), Josiah (7), and Esther (8). Sarah and Finn must be two of the hardest working and busiest people in New Zealand. They own and run a huge farm with elk, sheep, horses, "pegs" aka pigs, cows, and chickens. We have milk fresh from the cow and eggs straight from the chickens in our kitchen. Finn is a police officer, they're building a new home on the farm, they own and manage the two cottages, and are raising three kids! They must have 200+ elk and goodness knows how many sheep and cows. After we settled into our cottage John and I headed down to the "swimming hole" in the river. Finn and the two little girls came down on their four wheeler with the 4 month old puppy Lucia chasing after them. The girls jumped into the cold river like it was a warm bath and Lucia got in on the fun too. John swam in the river but I only managed to wade out to about waist high (too cold at around 70 degrees), We all relaxed on the rocks and talked about school with the little girls..Esther reports that she has more homework than her brother or sister and that she's the fastest runner in her class. Finn talked about the national health care system in NZ and how it's poorly run and a basic failure. Most New Zealanders buy private insurance if they can afford it because the wait for public services is so long. New Zealand is a country of less than 5 million people and according to Finn the country is hugely in dept. After the nice chat with Finn and the girls he offered us a lift on the 4 wheeler back to the cottage. Three adults and two kids on a 4 wheeler with a puppy chasing along side. The ride on the 4 wheeler was great fun and it was really thrilling and a little frightening when the puppy managed to disturb the elk and we had over 100 elk running behind us! After being chased by a herd of elk we went through the sheep area and I learned something really interesting about sheep farming. Apparently wool isn't worth much these days and sheep are being breed for food rather than their wool. Shearing sheep is expensive so sheep are being breed that do not produce wool or much less than normal! See attached photo. We also learned that Teddy Roosevelt gave the original 4 sets of elk to New Zealand. Te Anau is in fiordland and the scenery is absolutely stunning. The town of Te Anau is a stop off for tourists heading to the fiords about a two hour drive from the town, there are very few hotels any closer. We ate dinner at Cafe Dolce Vita on Finn and Sarah's recommendation; unfortunately, the food was a real disappointment and not much better than The Olive Garden. John said the owner Roberto must have been a waiter back in Italy definitely not a chef! Today was great fun and it's really neat to have kids around.

Fox Glacier

We had a wonderful breakfast with our hosts and the other guests at Tichelmann's this morning. Frances had an incredible spread of fresh plums, guava, roasted tomatoes, fresh baked bread, eggs, thick smokey bacon, cereal, etc. We met the other guests at breakfast. In addition to the couple from Nottingham mentioned previously there we two other couples. Roger and Janet from Cheshire, England and Julie and Ojon from San Francisco. Julie and Ojon work for Google and appeared to be in their late twenties. This was by far the fanciest and most high brow place we've stayed in NZ. Tichelmann's B&B offers top of the line accommodations with huge sun -filled rooms, comfy beds, high quality lines, thick towels, lots of small and impressive touches. The house has been completely remodelled and updated but the remodel maintained the period of the original home. After breakfast we started our drive south toward Fox Glacier or as they say here glass-Y-ER. What makes Fox Glacier unique is the location in the middle of a rain forest. It is 1 or only 3 glaciers in the world located in a rain forest. The drive to the area took a little more than two hours. We had lunch in town and then hiked to the base of the glacier. We could see the ice but only groups on guided tours are allowed on the actual glacier. We see enough ice back home so seeing the base of the glacier and later getting a a view of it from behind Mt Cook was plenty. After the hike we drove to Lake Mathison where the the view of the glacier was reported to be very good but required about an hour long walk around the lake for the "view of views." The walk around the lake was great exercise but the view of views was nothing special; we actually got the best view of the mountains and glacier as we drove away from Lake Mathison. Then we were on our way to Wanaka. The drive to Wanaka took over 3 hours but the scenery was great and we made several quick stops to enjoy the mountains. We arrived into Wanaka around 9:00 PM and got checked into Te Wanaka Lodge and headed into town for a late and light dinner. When we booked a night at Te Wanaka they were full but offered us one of their cottages instead. The cottage turned out to be a 3 BR 2 B home with a fully stocked kitchen, laundry, garage,etc. The cottage would be a great option for a family staying in the area for a few days but was far too much for two people spending just one night. Wanaka is a ski resort town but the main attraction in the summer is Lake Wanaka, a beautiful bluer than blue glacier lake. The town looks new and upscale offering trendy restaurants, shops,bars and loads of healthy looking blond people.

Lake Wanaka

All is well but we didn't have an internet connection last night and only limited service at the moment. We're in Wanaka NZ a beautiful town located in the mountains with popular Mt. Cook for winter sports and Lake Wanaka in the summer months. The Lake is lovely and we're getting ready to take a nice long walk around it. I will write more about yesterday later. I had a very nice chat with my grandpa earlier today and another with my mom. Bye for now.

Waitangi Day

I'm writing to you from beautiful Hokitika, NZ around 11 PM on Saturday. Hokitika is located on the central west coast of the south island, a port town founded during the gold rush. Today Hokitika is still known for gold but also for nephrite jade/poutini greenstone, jade is a very big deal in this town. We're staying at Teichelmann's B&B in the center of Hokitika. Our host are Frances and Brian both native New Zealanders. We've only met a couple from Nottingham, England so far but will meet the others at breakfast in the morning. Today was another day of extreme driving with over 5 hrs in the car but some beautiful scenery. We made a stop at the swing bridge in Murchison, a small gold mining town. The river valley is situated on a fault line and the area has been hit by at least 6 earthquakes with the last significant quake in the 1960s. The swing bridge is a swaying bridge made of steel and cables suspended over the Buller River and you can pay $5 NZ for the pleasure of walking over the river on a bridge that sways and rocks back and forth. John practically ran across the bridge but I took my sweet time going across...rarely looking down at the rushing river below. After the swing bridge we stopped at another little town for lunch but practically every restaurant was closed today because as I mentioned in yesterday's post today is Waitangi Day. Waitangi day is "celebrated as a national holiday in New Zealand, marking the date, in February 6, 1840 on which the Treaty of Waitangi was signed between the Maori Tribes and the British Crown representatives, it is not for all a symbol of joy.Nowadays the Maori, who compose 6 percent of the population of New Zealand, still regard the signing of this agreement as an injustice towards their Maori ancestors." Because it is a national holiday the restaurants that are open are able to collect an extra 20% on all sales. After we checked into Teichelmann's we took a nice long walk on the beach. The beaches here are ful of rocks and driftwood and the sand is a dark grey color.I called Val from the beach and she told me all about the snowstorm that is blanketing the Mid Atlantic. We had a nice dinner at the French restaurant next door but the extra 20% added to the bill in observance of Waitangi day seemed ridiculous.

We learned from our host of the hole in the ozone layer over New Zealand. This explains why John got sunburned despite wearing a hat and sunscreen and why I'm darker than I've been since I don't know when even though I've been using sunscreen and wearing a hat every day. Every child I've seen here has been wearing a hat and the majority of adults. "This year’s hole began developing later than usual, but grew rapidly. There is, however, an ongoing problem for New Zealand. "When the hole dissipates in December, it could mean a period of low ozone during summer," As you know it's summer in New Zealand and feels like August tempatures in the US.

Anchorage to Marahau

Today got off to an early start almost like a fire drill! We needed to leave the hotel no later than 7:45 to make it to the water taxi by 9:10 for a ride to our trail (Anchorage). The drive to Abel Tasman Park took about 30 minutes, then we had to hike to the beach to meet the water taxi, about a 40 minute hike. The attached photo was taken on the beach before we boarded the water taxi...I found a sand dollar on this beach:-) We got on the boat where we received a nice history lesson during the 15 minute ride. Our plan was to hike from Anchorage to Marahau where we entered the park so about 12.5 KM or around 7.5 miles. The beach at Anchorage was absolutely stunning with lots of canoes and sailboats as well as hikers taking the same trail. Our hike was gorgeous! The weather was warm, sunny and clear so we had some amazing views of the cove and hiking in the park felt very much like hiking through a jungle with the ferns, palms, bugs and thick vegetation. The hike should have taken a little over 4 hours but we practically ran it and finished in under 3 hours (total miles hiked today 9). I took the lead for the majority of the hike and John was really impressed with my quick pace (the elliptical is paying off). Next we drove more twisty curvy roads to Kaiteriteri where John had a nice swim. Then back in the car for more twisty curvy driving on the left side of the road and this time I took the wheel on the right for several KM! I hate driving here; it's so stressful. We drove to a little hippie town called Takaka where we had lunch at a Mexican restaurant and dined on food prepared by a French chef. It was long drive and while the town was mildly interesting the food yuck! I had a chicken barrito and John had the veggie barrito; for some reason the French chef thought smothering a barrito in sour cream and honey barbeque sauce was a swell idea! Ick. I wouldn't recommend driving those curves to hang out with barefoot hippies in Takaka. We made it back to Montueka around 5:30 and have been chilling out ever since. We both wanted ice cream so we walked up and down High Street in search of some, sadly the best we could manage was soft serve at McDonalds! Tomorrow is a holiday in NZ so some businesses will be closed including the sporting goods store where I wanted to look for that rugby shirt. The plan for tomorrow is for another long drive to someplace with a name I probably can't spell or pronounce. Cheers.

Motueka, NZ

Another good but very long day. We had breakfast with the entire gang at Nikau Lodge; others staying there included a musician from Auckland and his friend who flew in from somewhere to hear the band, a couple from the UK living in Cypress for the last 20 years, a couple from Amsterdam, and the owners Ian and Sophie. The breakfast seemed pretty standard for this area: cereal, eggs and bacon if requested, yogurt, a single type of fruit, toast, tea and/coffee and orange juice (just like back home). Once we got packed John and Ian spent about an hour talking about and reconfiguring our trip. We made a couple changes to our itinerary because Ian really knows the south island even leading and organizing bike tours and his partner Sophie knows the best places to stay and the best restaurants. Ian and Sophie have Nikau Lodge up for sale because they have bought a B&B in France which they plan to open in 2011. We said goodbye to Sophie, Ian and Buddy (jack russell terrier) around 12:30 and started our long drive north. We made two stops along the way on Sophie's recommendation one at a seal colony and the other at a really good restaurant called the Shop for lunch. The lunch was terrific except for the scary "attack" gulls. After lunch we were in for about 4 more hours of driving. Something I learned about NZ today, there is no freeway/interstate system. The roads are two lane highways and you must remember to drive on the left side. The speed limit in most spots is between 80-100 KM about 45-63 mph. The roads we took were scenic but twisty turny and at times dizzying but fortunately the weather was warm and sunny so you couldn't have asked for better conditions for such a long and unfamiliar drive. We arrived into Motueka at around 6:30 and got checked into the Nautilus Lodge Motel. The front desk attendant is fantastic she got us settled into our room and armed with maps, directions, recommendations and even made sure we had our choice of milk... yep milk whole or "trim." I don't recall being given a bottle of milk upon check in but I guess that's a thing they do around here (we bought cereal at the supermarket after dinner). Our room is very nice with a flat screen TV, fridge, microwave, and balcony. Motueka seems like a hippie or crunchy granola kind of town. The people seem happier here than back in the US everyone seems to smile and everyone is incredibly polite. Our hotel is on High Street the main street in town so we can walk to a big super market, restaurants and cafe, movie theatre, and even a sporting goods store where I hope to find the rugby shirt for Richard later today. Speaking of rugby, a match was just wrapping up in town when we arrived between Auckland (north island) and Canterbury (south islands) so fans flooded the restaurants around 7:00. Back to the hotel around 9:00 and lights out because tomorrow we're heading out on a 4 hours hike and have to get the water taxi by 8:00 AM. Cheers.

The picture was actually taken the day before. Because it's so goofy I had to find a place to post it! People think seals are lazy because they sleep so much, but they hunt for up to 5 days at a time and to the point of absolute exhaustion.

The Dusky Dolphins

I didn't post last night because the internet was down here at Nikau Lodg. It seems to working perfectly now. We got an early start yesterday morning because we had what they call here a "booking" for the 8:30 AM dolphin encounter. We had about 40 people in our group at check-in, wetsuit distribution, and the safety briefing movie. We all boarded a single bus to the boats but half the bus went to the blue boat and the other half to the white boat. Once on board we met the crew and got another safety briefing. Our captain's introduction went a little something like this "hello my name is Id and I=will be going along with you today on our the vessel." I thought "Id" who names a kid Id? Turns out our guide's parents actually named him Ed or Edward but the Kiwi accent often makes "e" sound like "i." I was asked last night if I wanted breed..oh bread when I order a crayfish fritter. At first I said no to the breed because I wasn't sure what I was getting with the crayfish fritter. Turns out the fitter is similar to fried egg or igg with crayfish in this case. Signs were all over the place advertising the crayfish (similar to a lobster) but I wasn't prepared to spend $50 NZ for it and thought a little sample would give me an idea. Unfortunately, all that I was able to taste was egg on buttered white bread. Okay, so back to our dolphin encounter. When I left off the other day I told you that John had wanted to swim with the dolphins and was on a waiting list. When we checked-in he was taken off the waiting list and promoted to substitute swimmer. So he was able to dress in a wetsuit and look all cool on the boat but not put on the full gear unless someone got sick or tired. The boat ride to the dolphins took at least 35 minutes but the boat was warm and comfortable and everyone seemed pretty cool. We came to a stop because the crew had spotted not dolphins but at least two orcas aka killer whales but they are actually members of the dolphin family but kill and eat the dusky dolphins we were going to see. We took a long stop to observe the killer whales and even saw a sperm whale at that same stop. Once we took off again we saw an albatross on sitting on the water and flying. Finally we made it to the dusky dolphins and OMG (oh my goodness) I couldn't even count the number of dolphins surrounding the boat at least 100-150 all swimming, jumping, flipping, and inspecting the "vessel." The swimmers got into position and jumped in for their first swim with the dolphins which seemed to last about 5 minutes. John was the only one in a wetsuit not in the water. The swimmers returned to the boat and the boat headed out in search of another bunch of dolphins. Apparently the dusky dolphins are very curious creatures but they lose interest rather quickly so after inspecting the boat and the freaky humans they're on the hunt for something new. On our way to the next stop John was getting fully suited for his swim with the dolphins because one of the swimmers found the water too cold and miserable and didn't plan to go back in. John was able to swim with the dolphins for the next three stops! I took pictures of the dolphins but all the walking around on a rocking swaying boat was starting to make me sea sick. By the time the swimmers were changing out of their wetsuits and the crew was passing out the hot chocolate and ginger cookies as promised before we left shore I was feeling really sick. One of the crew made the following announcement "please feel free to enjoy hot chocolate and ginger cookies....but if you're feeling the least bit sick DO NOT have the hot chocolate because it will make it much worse but a ginger cookies might calm your stomach a bit." Dang it! I was really looking forward to that hot chocolate. The bus took us all back to town and John and I walked back to our B&B Nikau Lodge(there's a link to it right of this post). Sophie gave John permission to use her washer so he did a load of laundry while I tried to sleep off my sea sickness. I awoke feeling a little better but still groggy and not completely cured. We decided to go out an area where you're supposed to be able to see seals about 10 minutes away on the peninsula. I don't remember what the area is called but it reminds me of the desolate opening scene in Planet of the Apes. We walked around what looked a dried out ocean floor for several minutes before spotting a couple big jello like seals lounging on rocks. Eventually we were spotting seals every where we looked and seeming to get closer and better looks at them as the afternoon progressed. After 30 minutes or so of looking at seals we'd grown tied of them so we started up the hill on hike. We must have hiked for about an hour up and back stopping along the way to take in the scenery and talking with a few people we met on the trail. After we got back to Nikau we relaxed before going out to dinner. We had dinner at a road side BBQ (a partially covered stand with a grill and coolers full of fish) and folding tables an chairs nearby. After dinner we were still hungry so we went into town to a nice restaurant for dessert. John had been trying to reach Mary all day so while we were on the hike he called her mom and learned that Mary had been feeling awful. Once we got back to Nikau he finally reached Mary and learned that she had been taken by ambulance to the hospital and was in a private room on an iv drip. By the time they talked she was doing better and had her roommate and boyfriend by her side and reported that her room was very nice. He called her at 3:30 AM NZ time about 9:30 AM Boston today and they had a good talk and he was even able to chat with her physician. Today we're making a long drive at least 5 hours up to Abel Tasman National Park and plan to stop off at a winery or two along the way. Sorry no time to proof this entry so as always my apologies for grammar, spelling and typos:-)

Counting Sheep

After waking up and feeling somewhat disappointed with my surroundings I am happy to report a pleasant change of scenery. We got out of Auckland around noon catching a flight to Christchurch (south island). The flight was just a little over an hour with practically every seat taken. The flight was standard but one sweet practice at least at New Zealand Air is just prior to landing the flight attendants select a couple kids to hand out lollies (hard candies). This was done on our flight yesterday from Rarotonga when two adorable little girls around the ages of 9 or 10 were selected. I figured the flight attendants looked for a couple sweet looking little kids to distribute the hard candies but on today's flight 2 or 3 teenaged boys who looked like they might be returning to a juvenile detention home handed out the lollies. We arrived into Christchurch around 1:30 and picked up a rental car and got my cellphone outfitted with a SIM card making it possible to send and receive calls over the next 10 days. The woman at the mobile phone center at the airport was outstanding and the phone is working just great. I can place a call to a US LAN line for less than $2 for up to an hour so I will be calling the States at least once per day. We picked up our rental car a Ford of some sort with the steering wheel on the right of course and John made the almost three hour drive to Kaikoura. We lost count of the number of sheep and the number of vineyards we passed along the way...lots and lots of sheep. We've settled into our B&B after meeting the owners Sophie (French) and Ian (Kiwi/New Zealander) and their friendly dog. Then we went into town to book dolphin and whale watching outings for tomorrow morning. John really wants to swim with the dolphins but all the spaces are spoken for so he's on a waiting list. We have dolphin watching at 8:30 and whale watching at 3:00 tomorrow. After booking our outings we went out for a delicious dinner at an organic restaurant called Hislops. It's about 10:00 Tuesday night in Kaikoura so I need to say good night to you if I'm going to get up in time for breakfast and dolphins. I've added a couple photos taken in Aitutaki to previous blog post.

Auckland, NZ

I'm waking up in Auckland, NZ to the roar of the city! It's about 8:30 AM Tuesday morning, February 2. We crossed the international dateline late last night so I can add crossing the IDL to my list of "first." Today is the first day back to school after the summer holiday for New Zealanders so the morning talk shows (almost identical to Good Morning America etc) are running programs about school bus stop safety, school lunches etc. Auckland looks pretty much like any big city and it's noisy like any busy downtown area. I'm missing waking up to the rooster's crow and the sound of the ocean. I also miss the island breakfast by the pool the beautiful brown faces of the staff at Etu Moana. Cinnamon smiles have been replaced by white and Asian (Chinese) faces, and the rooster's crow replaced by constuction clanking, beeping, buzzing. I'm sure we will love New Zealand once we get out of Auckland; our flight to Christchurch departs in a few hours, but right now feeling "island sick." There are a few things I like better in NZ for one the highspeed reliable internet connection although it's expensive at $30/day NZ, hot showers (always warm but never hot in the Cooks), dry clothes (nothing ever felt dry in Aitutaki because it was so humid so my clothes are smelly and in serious need of a good washing). Our six days in Aitutaki made a big and lasting impression on me and I will miss the friendliness and beauty of the people, the chubby babies and toddlers, people honking and waving from their scooters, the music, the flowers, the colors, the amazing food, the colors of the ocean, the chickens, goats, and pigs, the mango trees and just about everything I experienced there. I will write about yesterday (Sunday) when we get to our next stop outside of Christchurch tonight. I have to sign off now because we're rushing to catch the shuttle to the airport.