How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Christmas/New Year occurs in mid-summer in Timaru, and so we were off to the states after eight months away. I wondering how that would be, and found it peculiarly not peculiar. Everything felt as with we had been away for a long weekend. Even the driving on the "other" side of the road seemed arbitrary, but very comfortable.
My goals in returning to the US were threefold:
1) To be there for granddaughter Kimarra's first birthday;
2) To see my mother (and the rest of my family) as she continues to recuperate and celebrate Christmas; and,
3) To check on things in Fort Bragg and CA and re-establish my presence at Mendocino Coast District Hospital.
Check, check, and check.
Our trek first took us from Christchurch to Colorado Springs, CO via Auckland and SFO. It was a long day, but because of the vagaries of the International Date Line, we left and arrived on Saturday December 18th, 5 PM. Why Colorado Springs? Because Sofia and Kimarra are living for six months with her in-laws while her husband Marquise is deployed overseas.
The birthday was the next day, and the party girl thoroughly enjoyed her individual cake.

I had never been to Colorado Springs before. There are some things to see and do there, like the Air Force Academy, Pike's Peak, The Garden of the Gods

Garden of the Gods with Pikes Peak in the background

(a region of red sandstone just outside the city like a cross between Sedona AZ and a Road Runner cartoon).
 
It is a sprawling place, now the second largest city in Colorado, with long Phoenix-like streets and lots of new developments. The old downtown has an interesting art museum and outdoor sculptures.
Family duties kept us from seeing and doing as much as I would like, and there were brief flurries that dusted the area with snow, a nice touch for the holiday season. We did have dinner with my nephew David his lovely wife Kay and her parents. They live nearby, it turns out.
My brother Charles' family delights in reminding me how as time goes on I (and David too) seem to resemble him more. I believe my brother feels that is a tremendous compliment to us.
After five days, we were all off to California for Christmas. I apologize to my blog followers for the lack of photos to illustrate the rest of our trip. It was wonderful to see my mother. She was doing much better than I had expected.She is frustrated after six months of non-weight-bearing on her fractured left leg and is anxious to return to living at the Redwoods in Mill Valley. It is just going to take a while longer. My sister Margaret and her husband Cory graciously hosted us all for Christmas Day and dinner. On the 26th, we headed up to Fort Bragg for a whirlwind visit with many dear friends and a three-day working shift as hospitalist. I had hoped to spend more time in FB, but Sofia wanted to re-celebrate Kimarra's first birthday for California friends and family on New Year's Day. This meant hosting another gathering in San Rafael, and touching base with other old and dear friends. The rest of our visit was a bit less hectic, and allowed more time to tie up loose ends, and especially spend quality time with my mother.
On Thursday January 6th, we had one more informal gathering to bid adieu, eat (of course, if you know my family), and prematurely celebrate my birthday. Friday it was spent packing up, getting Sofia and Kimarra off to Colorado, and begin our trip back to NZ, which began at 7 PM Friday in CA and ended back in Timaru Sunday at noon. Just it was unstrange visiting the US, it was unstrange to return to NZ, and felt like home. We got back in time for the last day of the Centennial version of the Timaru Christmas Carnival. Now we have to adjust to the fact we will be packing up to leave again in seven weeks, which will be hard.
The absolute highlight and irreplaceable benefit of our summer holiday was spending three weeks with Kimarra as a twelve month-old toddler. It reminded me of what a special time it was with her mother at that age.She will never be at this precious stage again. She is bright, curious, funny, beautiful, and sweet. May she always be so.

Life on the South Island

Hello, and Happy Holidays/Merry Christmas/Happy New Year/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Festivus to all!
I wanted to get one more post in before the end of the year and catch up with our comings and goings since mid-November. For orientation sake, here is a map.

South Island, New Zealand

We had managed to see most of our South Island, with one major exception: the West Coast from Greymouth to Haast Pass. Mission now accomplished. We had previously been to Greymouth in August, and wanted to visit again. Tragically, several national disasters have occurred since we arrived, most recently and saddest a coal-mining fire on the West Coast causing 29 miners to lose their lives. My mother's family is all from West Virginia, it hits home with me. The whole nation was in mourning.

Pike River Mine Fire

We drove across Arthur's Pass the day after the memorial service. The mood was quiet, but after two weeks, people wanted to relax a bit and get ready for the holidays. We shopped some, then headed south. First stop was Hokitika, a very pleasant artistic community, with a colorful seaside walk.

Fayne on a Nudibranch Recliner

The highlights of the drive are the two glaciers coming down from Aoraki/Mount Cook. It was not raining, but there were clouds, so they were not at their most ideal, but still worth a short walk up the riverbeds to the terminal faces, first Franz Josef
then the Fox Glacier.
The West Coast is the home of the most voracious sandflies (although most are not this large);

and whitebait, a tiny fish delicacy cooked frequently in a fritter.The drive was mostly not on the coast, but when it was there were some nice vistas.
We got to Haast late in the day, and although it is divided into three parts (like Gaul), Haast Junction, Haast Beach, and Haast Township, but none of them are much of anything.
The road across Haast Pass. There were plenty of waterfalls to enjoy

 and a short walk to the Blue Pools.

 

The days are crazy long here, light from about 5 AM to 10 PM. We drove back though Wanaka. The cabbage trees were in bloom; sort of spectacular.
Another big event recently was the Timaru Rose Festival, which featured the national Rose Show. Lots of spectacular blooms, including these prize-winners.

We hosted a whirlwind visit from Nathan Matthews (Linnea and Doug's eldest). He came and went so quickly I didn't get to snap a photo, but it was good to see him.
Last weekend featured the opening of a new Te Ana Ngāi Tahu Rock Art Centre. This region has the highest concentration of these sites in the country. Here are some examples.

 We are packed now to travel tomorrow back to the states for three weeks for Kimarra's First Birthday in Colorado Springs, then all of us back to the Bay Area for Christmas, then to Fort Bragg for a visit and a little work. Maybe we'll see you.

Happy Haka Christmas!!!

Love, John & Fayne

My Best Two Weeks in NZ (so far)-Part 2- The Southern Scenic Route

When we last left our gentle readers, it was Wednesday November 11, 2010 in Dunedin. Our intrepid tramping party of three Wallace sibs had met up with Fayne the night before. Fayne and I spent the morning in the Immigration Office trying to get our work visas extended beyond the 22nd so as to not become illegal aliens. This included a trip to the courthouse to swear we were in a real, not a sham, domestic partnership. Mission accomplished. Next, it was time to deposit Las Hermanas Wallace at the airport. Since they were first off on a brief domestic hop to Christchurch, there was no problem escorting them to the gate. The Dunedin Airport was surprisingly pleasant with good shopping (Athena and Cheryl got a lot of good retail therapy done.)

Heading south, we took the Southern Scenic Route, which winds in a U-shape from Dunedin to Te Anau. First stop, Balclutha, a small town noteworthy to me as the first place I almost worked in New Zealand. I won't go into details, but the job description discussed on the phone was different than the contract sent, so I declined. I had a helpful contact there, Irene Mosley, a woman working as a recruitment coordinator for the hospital. She left a standing invitation to drop by when going through, so we did. She kindly showed us around the hospital and town, and took us to lunch. I got the impression (let me clear these were NOT her words) that the hospital treated American locums physicians like rented mules. I think I made the right choice.
The road led along the coast, sometimes on unpaved (unsealed, as they say here) roads, past too many waterfalls, views, and walks to savor in one afternoon.

Purakaunui Falls

Florence Hill Lookout

Our destination for the night was Invercargill, near the bottom of the South Island. This is another place we almost lived, but we chose Timaru for a better climate- less rain, wind, and cold. Again, a good choice. Invercargill is noted for a few things. The Southland museum is home to the largest collection of tuataras, a fascinating reptile, the closest living relative of the dinosaur. Most famous of all is Henry, the 110+ yo patriarch. It is also the hometown of favorite son Burt Munro, immortalized by Anthony Hopkins in the film "The World's fastest Indian". Here is a replica of his bike made for the film.
Invercargill is a long, straight town laid out in a strict rectangular grid. Landmarks include the 1888 brick water tower and the quite magnificent central Queens Park, featuring tall walls of rhododendrons.
It is also en route to its harbor at Bluff,
the stepping-off point to Stewart Island, essentially a nature preserve for native New Zealand flora and fauna. You arrive in the only tiny town on the island, Oban.

We were essentially on a day-tripping visit, but made time to take a cruise to Ulva Island, one of many islands intended as a predator-free safe haven.Of all creatures, New Zealand is most hospitable to birds, and they are found in abundance.

A Robin (I think)

The rainforest is home to exotic plants and flowers, like these tiny orchids.

I would love to come back to hike across one of the longer trails, but it was time to resume our trip up the Western side of the Southern Scenic Route. We weren't prepared for the beauty of this. (It is as if there are so many beautiful vistas in NZ they tire of bragging about them all.) This was the view of Te Waewae Bay at McCracken's Rest.

We were headed to Manapouri on the lake of the same name to start our next adventure, an overnight cruise on Doubtful Sound aboard the Fiordland Navigator. This fiord is south of Milford Sound, and was named by Capt. James Cook, who was doubtful he would have enough wind to turn his ship around if he entered it. Our voyage began with a trip across Lake Manapouri  to the western edge.

Here, mountains of granite separate the deep alpine lake from the sea. Clever engineers in the 1960's built a power station 200 m. deep down to generate electricity by drawing water from the lake. This project was the beginning of the Green Movement in NZ, because the initial plan also called for raising the level of the lake 30 meters, flooding a huge area. Kiwis arouse en masse, changed governments, and halted that part of the project..
From the end of the lake, you board a bus to go over Wilmont pass on a road built and still maintained by the power company, descending to Deep Cove on the sound to board our vessel. Unlike earlier at Milford, it was now cloudy and drizzling most of the time, which made it perfect to see hundreds of waterfalls. With the mist and water, it was really a Middle Earth experience. Judge for yourselves.

Fun, comfortable, quiet except for the sound of running water and naturalist's intermittent commentary. Of course there were some penguins, dolphins, fur seals, and birds. (See my last posting from Milford for more of that.)  Saturday morning, as we returned on the bus over the pass, the skies had cleared enough for this view of Doubtful Sound.

We drove from Manapouri to Wanaka (again, see the previous blog entry) to spend the night. I was struck by these lovely, multicolored foxgloves (Margaret corrects me: they are lupin) (there may be heaps like this by Hwy 1, for all I know). Sunday, back to Timaru to begin my second phase/overtime with work, concluding my best two weeks in New Zealand (so far)!