| Myrons Daily Journal - Page 2 February 28, 2004 Today we left the mountains for the rolling hills, ending up in Nelson on the Tasman Bay. We checked into the Paradiso Backpacker Hostel. It is quite a large hostel with large pool and Jacuzzi(*). The average age of everyone here must be mid 20’s. I stick out somewhat at 72 but everyone seems to respect me. They are glad to see a senior that isn't traveling by tour bus. I fit in well. It started raining just as we pulled into town and hasn’t let up all night. We are staying in what they call a TP. 3 4 x 8 plywood sheets are side by side leaning against 3 others with canvas on each end. Included are a wood floor, heater, lights and smoke detector. The rest of the hostel is in an old big Victorian house. I will try and contact Doreen’s father while I am here. We plan to lay over tomorrow. February 29, 2004 (Correction for last email dated 2/28. Forgot about leap year) we were very lucky. Yesterday (2/28) was great weather. It started to sprinkle as we rolled into nelson. It rained all day 2/29 while we stayed at the hostel for a rest. I called doreen's father stewart smith. He met shiangold and I downtown and we had a great chat (NZ lingo.) I bought a lightweight sleeping bag for use in the cabins we stay at. A few stops back I had no covers and froze during the night. The next day I had a sore throat. I was happy for the layover during the rain. I am fine now. This morning (2/29) before we left the hostel in nelson we had breakfast there. I was talking with an 18-year-old girl just out of high school from Italy and asked how she was traveling. She said she was hitchhiking throughout NZ and working at the hostels for 3 hours cleaning and doing odd jobs for food and accommodations. I asked what her parents thought of what she was doing. They thought it was great. I told her that would not be advisable in the US. It shows a little of what life is like here in NZ. March 1, 2004 Yesterday we cycled 75 kilometers from Nelson to Havelock. We stayed at the local Youth Hostel. The Hostel is housed in an old elementary school that was built in 1882. I read on a wall of the building about 2 famous students that graduated from this school. One was Lord Rutherford. He received the Nobel Prize as the person to first split the atom. You might say he is the father of the atomic age. The other famous student is Dr. William Pickering. He became the director of interplanetary space exploration. This was the fore-runner of NASA. Today we were to bike only 35 kilometers to Picton where we would catch the ferry. We took the wrong road and ended up doing 61 kilometers. Still a light day. It caused us to travel through wine country so we stopped at the Wairau River Winery. It was interesting to find that the "wine connection" store in Del Mar carries their wine. Their family owned vineyards cover 125 hectares (1 hectares=about 2.1 acres). After a 3-hour ride! Weaving through Marlborough Sound with its multitudes ofIslands and across Cook Strait, the ferry brought us to Wellington on the North Island. We are staying at the downtown backpacker’s hostel. I am living in a world of young people from all over the world. People my age should experience this more often, but they tend to huddle together in tour busses and act old. March 2, 2004 Spent last night in the downtown backpacker’s hostel. Spent the day looking around Wellington. I wanted to bike around the center of town, but Shiangold said he was not sure. He does not like riding in city traffic. I love it. It’s a challenge. I can't believe to number of joggers here in Wellington. There are hundred of them. We stopped at a coffeehouse full of locals. I told Shiangold that it was too bad Jim isn't here checking out how a NZ coffeehouse is run. We are having lunch next to a cinema that I remember seeing in a magazine. It is where The Lord of the Rings had its world premier. We have found out that it is not a fun ride for bikes going north out of Wellington. Everyone suggests taking the train until the scenic areas north. We are riding the train to the Village of National Park next to the Tongariro National Park. We will explore the area. There are still active volcanoes in the area. We will most likely do some hiking in the area. We plan to then cycle on to Lake Rotoaira and then to the East Cape area where a "bike NZ" book says is one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world. I will let you eventually know if this is true. March 3, 2004 Today we left Wellington by train. We were an hour late leaving because the train didn't have a loco (kiwi for locomotive.) I consider it quite hard to loose a loco. I saw the rear car had a large windowed area for viewing so I told shiangold, let's sit there. later the attendant told us we belong in the backpackers car. they had assigned us there because of our bikes, but she let us stay put. we had a great time conversing with 3 others. One couple from Holland had done the entire south island by bicycles with tent camping. The other gentleman, Peter, was from England, but living in Italy. he had been traveling by van. It is remarkable how many languages Europeans know. I believe all three could speak four languages each. I have trouble with just English. The Dutch couple, Anne and William Klippel, are from the City of Zealand, Holland. I now know how where "Old Zealand" is. A Dutch explorer by the name of Tasman traveled from Zealand and discovered this land, hence! "New Zealand. What a close and personal way to discover the answer to a question I had humorously asked before; "if this is New Zealand, where is old Zealand?" the land we traveled looked very much like traveling in the states. Our conversation made the miles fly. We detrained at the town of National Park. We stayed the night in the national park backpackers. We will be biking to Lake Taupo tomorrow. March 4, 2004 A very easy day to Turangi at the bottom of Lake Taupo. At a viewpoint overlooking the lake we stopped for 2 to 3 hours. Shiangold surprised me by bringing out a Taiwan set of portable watercolors. He did a very good rendition of the lake. We stayed at the Extreme Backpacker’s Hostel. It is a beautiful hostel that has won awards in NZ. It has a climbing room that is larger than the last hostel. We plan to do a 17-kilometer tramp (kiwi for hike) tomorrow. March 5, 2004 We got up at 6:30 so we could get the bus that would take us to the Tongariro crossing. The tramp (kiwi for hike) would take us across the lava fields and craters of the Tongariro National Park. When we got to the drop off area, there were 100's of people there to do the tramp. It was at this point that I began to see the difference between vacationing in NZ and doing the same in the US. You would never see this many people show up for what I found out to be an extremely difficult climb and descent. On a 1-10 difficulty I would put the climb and descent at an 8. I expected to see 3/4 of the people give up. Much to my surprise, everybody just kept going. I have to say I held my own as one of the oldest there. Almost all were in there mid 20's. I had expected to pass up a lot of people because of my biking. To my surprise, there were people bunching up behind me. I would stop to let them by. Looking back down the very steep lava field, there was a line of people for as far as you could see. I compare this hike to one I did in Glacier National Park while on my perimeter ride. That hike would have been a 2 on the difficulty scale. It was a beautiful hike from the summit of the "going to the Sun Highway" down to Hidden Lake. Like here, there were 100's of people at the lodge at the road. All these people walked up a boardwalk to a lookout where you could look down into the valley at the lake. From the lookout is where the trail became a 2 with many switchbacks. That is where everybody stopped and I kept on going. When I finally got to the lake there might have been 5 people there. I am describing all of this to show the difference between how Americans travel and how it is done here. Americans generally get out of their vehicles, view something, get back in their vehicles and move on. The people and tourist who come to NZ are very active. This is another reason I see very few people overweight here. Another reason is the food consumption! It is much smaller here. When I describe the US to the kiwis, I say everything is BIG. Many times I have brought up the "big gulp" from 7/11. I compare its 64oz size to the 6oz-coke bottle I knew while growing up. Jenny Craig would have to apply for unemployment over here. |
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