Nov. 17 - 20 - The Marae

The next adventure was our time at the two marae with our Maori hosts.  We were welcomed into their community and learned a lot about the Maori attitudes toward their land and people.  It was a fascinating experience and we were truly fortunate to be able to stay in this unique environment.  All the students slept together in the big common room of the marae, and we all helped with the kitchen chores.  One of the highlights was a hangi feast - think Maori clambake with chicken, mutton and pork instead of seafood.  The preparation happened while we were white water rafting, then we all helped dig it up and eat it.  We also got to check out their "waka" - a huge canoe manned by sixteen people.  It was hard to say goodbye and head off to Auckland for our last night before heading off on Friday.

New Zealand countryside - Lake Taupo

Our first Marae near Rotorua

Hangi Feast being dug from ground

Our Hangi feast

Bubbling mud near Rotorua

The Waka 

Nov. 15 - Tongariro

This was the day of the Big Hike - the famous (or infamous) Tongariro Crossing, said to be one of the ten best one-day hikes in the world.  It is a 20 km (12 mile) hike across a volcano, and it was beautiful and hard and worth all the effort.  Annie and I both made it all the way, and were tired, proud and sore at the end.  It is hard to describe it all in just a few words and pictures - just think endless trail, endless stairs up to a height of 7000 feet (yes, it was harder to breathe) and after the summit, a truly endless trail to the end.  Our host at Discovery Lodge ran the whole trail in 1 hour and 25 minutes - but he was a world class mountain runner.  It took us a little longer...

Tongariro National Park

Heading out up the trail

Mount Doom in the background

The Red Crater

Heading down the trail to the Emerald Lakes

The trail goes on and on and on

More endless trail

Finally the forest

Fording the river!

We made it!

Nov. 13 - Wellington

Well, a lot has happened since the last post - namely we are no longer in New Zealand!  I will have to back track and fill in some of the gaps.  We went to Zealandia as I said in the last post, but I don't have any pictures to show.   The highlight was a night tour where they took us out to see kiwis - and we did!

The next day we went to a wind farm high in the hills above Wellington.  We had a great tour by the wind farm operators, and were treated to the sight of a real live working herd dog herding his sheep from one paddock to another.  It was fascinating to watch the dog do his job and obey whistles from his master.  He chased runaway sheep and got them where they were supposed to be!

View from the Wind Farm

Turbine with 100 meter (100 yard) blades

Nov. 12 - Wellington NZ

We have been in Wellington a few days now, and love it.  It is a beautiful city with lots of fun stores and restaurants and a wonderful free museum - the Te Papa.  We had some adventures getting here with biosecurity at the airport (just missed a $400 fine for bringing in an orange that we forgot was in our luggage), but managed to arrive with our wallets intact.  The museum store has lightened my wallet considerably, but that was preferable to losing it to the good folks at the airport.  The students arrived Sunday, and yesterday we started our excursions with them.  Today we go to Zealandia to find out about restoration of native species.  Here are some shots of our first few days here:

Nov. 6 - Sydney

On the way back to Brisbane from the Blue Mountains we stopped in Sydney for the afternoon and met up with my nephew Lee and his wife and Annie's friend Graham.  We all had a nice lunch at the Opera Kitchen Cafe, and then we walked around the Opera site.  Downtown Sydney lives up to its reputation - take a look:

Nov. 3 - 6 - Blue Mountains

On Sunday we flew to Sydney and then took a train to the Blue Mountains for a couple of days of hiking.  The awful fires a couple of weeks ago were in the Blue Mountains, but fortunately not around Katoomba where we were staying.  Katoomba is a town just on the edge of the Blue Mountains National Park.  It seems to be kind of a run down little town, but the national park was spectacular.  It truly is like the Grand Canyon with rainforests - the park goes on for about a hundred miles, and has big tree-filled canyons.  On Monday we thought we would hike along the canyon rim.  It was an 8.8 kilometer (5+ mile) hike that we thought would be fairly level.  It was NOT!  We went up and down and up and down all day and were exhausted at the end - but it was spectacular.  The next day we decided to take the Grand Staircase (1000 steps) down to the valley and hike across the valley through the rainforest.  When we got to the other side, we went up another 1000 steps to get to the rim again.  Somehow this was a lot easier than the first day, and we were really happy that we did it all.  Aside from the scenery, we saw the "elusive" lyrebird and lots of sulfur-crested cockatoos.  We did not see any snakes or lizards, but the cicadas were deafening!

Blue Mountain view - the blue haze is from eucalyptus oil in the air

Oct. 31 - Nov. 3 - Brisbane

We had a great time in Byron Bay, then returned to Brisbane for the farewell dinner for the University of Queensland program.  The dinner was on Halloween, and we of course had to dress up.  Annie was the infamous Ned Kelley and i was a beleaguered bike rider being attacked by a ferocious magpie.  Here we are in all our glory:

On Friday we found out that we were expected to be out of the apartment on Saturday (as opposed to a week later) so we scrambled around, packed our stuff, and finally left on Sunday morning.  We stored our luggage at a motel where we would spend the last two nights in Brisbane, and headed off to the Blue Mountains for a couple of days.  We were really sad to be ending our stay in Brisbane.  Somehow packing all our stuff and doing everything "for the last time" made us realize just how wonderful our time here had been.