And that's why all my clothes smell like sulfur

First full day at Rotorua! Once again, we were not concerned with getting up early since we had nothing firmly planned for the books. Once we did get up we made our way down to the hotel breakfast and once again it was overpriced and nothing very special (although they did have dim sum and I am starting to really grow found of that). But we are starting to come to terms that, despite the convenience—of which we are huge fans being Petersen males, it makes more since to find a restaurant outside of the hotel; especially if you are looking for the full local experience.

Next we made our way to Hell’s Gate! The area was named by George Bernard Shaw, the Irish playwright when he visited the area and stated that it must be the gates of hell that his theologian colleagues said that he would be passing through if he didn’t change his atheist ways. It always puzzles me when atheists focus so much of their thoughts on religious imagery, but I imagine that is another topic for another blog. Hell’s Gate is a highly active geothermal area in the region that produces boiling pools, hot water lakes and many other eerie phenomena. It his home to the southern hemisphere’s largest hot waterfall and New Zealand’s largest mud volcano – both of which are very impressive to see in person.

 

If St. Peter meets you at the gates of Heaven - Who meets you here?!

It is quite an experience to walk from a green and lush environment right into a barren area smoking from water steaming up from the ground. Then, just as quickly, the trees and grass and flowers decide that it is alright to exist again and you are in a scene that could be described as Eden – to continue with the religious imagery.

I found the waterfall to be particularly mesmerizing. Apparently the Maori warriors would come to the waterfall after battles to heal their physical wounds as well as the spiritual and mental ills that can come with war. It really is a special place – an oasis in the middle of a barren, sulfur infused, landscape. There was a tree growing all around the waterfall that had pink and red flowers that bud very similar to roses but, closer examination shows a much different petal once it is in full bloom.

I would totally hang out here to get myself right - Good call, Maori!

It really was striking, but I didn’t even notice them until I was walking back through the area at the end of the tour. I was too focused on the waterfall itself, and the scene as a whole, to notice the details that made up the entire image. But once I saw them, I was as equally enthralled with their accent as I was of the waterfall centerpiece of this wonderful example of nature – truly beautiful.

Just one more dimension to the beauty of the area.

In addition to the tour of the geothermal activity, Hell’s Gate also offers mud and sulfur spas to rejuvenate and relax. I’ve never much subscribed to the notion of needing such things, but Tyler seemed to be up for getting the full Hell’s Gate experience and the price seemed reasonable, so after we made our way around the geothermal activity tour, we set out to enjoy a mud bath spa and sulfur spa treatment next. It was certainly amusing to see Tyler covered in spa mud from head to toe! I imagine I looked just as amusing too. But we left the phones/cameras in our tub lockers due to concerns of sulfur corroding the metal so you will just have to take my word on that.

Go on! Tell him spas aren't manly!

Once we had sufficiently adjusted our chakras, or whatever we were doing there, we drove up the road a little to the buried village of Te Wairoa. On June 10, 1886 Mount Tarawera erupted in the early hours of the night and covered the surrounding area, including the village of Te Wairoa, in 6 to 7 feet of ash and mud creating New Zealand’s not-quite-as-cool modern era version of Pompeii. I did enjoy the tour and certainly learned a lot about New Zealand’s history, but it wasn’t quite what I had built up in my head so I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. Not that it wasn’t worth it – because it was! I just found myself saddened about the loss of the Pink and White Terraces and trying to imaging what they might have looked like, more than I actually enjoyed the archaeology.

June 10, 1886 - Probably wasn't their most favorite day here.

The Pink and White Terraces were formed from a millennia of silica-rich geyser water pouring down the hill slope and slowly depositing the silicates, forming beautiful terrace shaped formations. They were considered to be the Eighth Wonder of the World at the time and thought to be the largest such formations on the planet . . . that is until the eruption of Mount Tarawera destroyed them – Like Mother Nature spending eons creating a beautiful work of art and then, in an instant, saying, ‘Just kidding’ and taking an erasure to it.

Seriously! What I wouldn't have given to see these before they were destroyed.

As it turns out, I was beginning to get sick too, so that may have had something to do with not really enjoying the buried village as much as I thought I would too. But by the time I got to the hotel I was not up for much anything so I turned in early, in the hopes I would beat the sick before it had a chance to fully develop. 

A Trek into Middle Earth

After the very adventurous day we had yesterday, today started a little on the late side. We had our usual breakfast sandwich at the little pastry shop and slowly packed all our stuff to check out of the hotel. We managed to get everything ready and checked out right at the hotel’s 10am check-out time. They let us stow our bags at the front while we went to exchange a bit more money for the remainder of our trip in New Zealand.

We weren’t supposed to pick up the rental car until noon, but we figured that the rental place might appreciate if we came early on the off chance that they had everything ready to avoid the same bottleneck that happened with all the groupon people at the hotel during check-in. So we chartered a cab and were on our way shortly thereafter.

The rental place is called Jucy, which is really an awkward word to use in a sentence when food is not involved – and let’s be honest, sometimes it is a bit awkward even when food is involved. But they had our car ready when we arrived and we were out the door with minimal effort on our part. We decided to rent a GPS too, so as not to rely on our memory and questionable satellite coverage on our phones; which greatly improved the entertainment value of the drive listening to our new friend tell us where to turn in a New Zealand accent. It ended up being pretty handy and definitely worth the extra money. The system would chime in throughout the trip when things were coming up that required a little more attention and talked us through exactly how we should react with plenty of time to do so.

And then we were off to our next stop in our New Zealand adventure – Rotorua. But first, a small detour to a small hamlet in Middle Earth known as Hobbiton!

We found out that the day before was Bilbo’s birthday and we were more than a little miffed that we had missed it. But then I reminded Tyler that Bilbo would certainly not have any issue with celebrating his birthday twice and we felt a lot better about our tardy arrival.

We were certainly ready for Party Business!!

We made a pit stop for lunch in a small village called Gordonton, at a small little café known as the Firepot. After taking one look at today’s special, we both knew what we would be ordering – Ribs served with Kumara Fries and Coleslaw! Our plates arrived relatively quickly and we were ready to enjoy our meals when the waitress also brought out a bowl of water with a lemon wedge for both of us. We thanked her for the new items and as she walked away we looked at each other with the same puzzled look on our faces.

‘What do you reckon we are supposed to do with that water?’

‘I’m not entirely sure, maybe we are supposed to dip our fingers in it to get the BBQ sauce off our hands?’

‘That’s kind of what I was thinking too, but I imagine we might get some pretty funny looks if we dip our hands in it and that is not what the bowls are for.’

‘True, but to be fair, we will probably get strange looks either way we use them if it was not the appropriate use.’

I figure we had a 50/50 chance of getting it right here.

Sound logic. So we made our best educated guess and went with it – Sidenote: Lemon and warm water does pretty well at getting BBQ sauce off of one’s fingers.

Hobbiton really is a magical place! It is in the heart of absolutely beautiful country, with rolling green hills accented with an appropriate number of trees. They really did an incredible job of recreating this little town. I really can’t do it justice in my description so I won’t try past this.

Try not to be happy surrounded by views like this!

Our tour guide seemed like he would fit in quite nicely amongst the Hobbits. He was extremely excited about everything and anything that was said seemed to make him happy – almost giddy. He even talked with a slight lisp that seemed to be right out of a caricature of middle earth.

I mean, I guess I could get pretty giddy too if I got to hang out here every day!

All in all, the tour was amazing and a must see for anyone! Even if you are not a big, huge Tolkien geek, at the very least you get to see beautiful country and make your Lord of the Rings geek friends completely jealous! Tyler and I were a bit disappointed with the time the tour spent at the Green Dragon though. We felt a bit rushed drinking our complementary beer and I couldn’t help but feel a bit remiss that we could not try all four of the varieties that were offered. They had food there too, which makes me believe that you could have found a tour during the day that spent a bit more time at the Green Dragon – It just wasn’t our tour. Tyler concluded that they should make a special ‘Dwarf’ tour of Hobbiton where they take you to an overlook of the town and say, ‘Look, there’s Hobbiton. Now, everybody, let’s get some ale at the Green Dragon!’

Here's to life - The Hobbit Life, that is!

He had clearly given it a lot of thought, explaining further how he had thought of first calling it the Drunk Hobbiton Tour, but that probably wouldn’t fly with marketing. But if you called it the Dwarf Hobbiton Tour, everyone would be able to read into what you meant.

After a quick jaunt into the gift shop we were back on the road and on our way to Rotorua. It was getting dark so we did not get to see much of a view, but there were two parts where the vegetation grew up and over you so that you were driving through a living tunnel. I love it when that happens! It is such a foreign concept to this desert rat.

Rangitoto - Bloody Sky!

9/22/16

Today was our grand adventure on Rangitoto Island! We got a relatively early start to the day in order to make the 9:15am ferry and decided to skip the formal sit down restaurant for breakfast. Instead we decided to check out the small pastry shop built into the hotel, which turned out to be a much better proposition. They had a great breakfast sandwich that we enjoyed the following day too!

The walk down to the ferry was just shy of a mile and all downhill, so it was not a big deal. We made it with plenty of time to get a ticket and enjoy the cool, fresh sea air for a bit. Riding over on the ferry really was a wonderful site with the breeze blowing past us; a great way to start the morning!

Good morning Rangitoto! We'll be seeing you soon!

Rangitoto Island is the most recent addition to the Auckland area viewshed and its most predominant feature too. It formed when the volcano erupted roughly 600 years ago and sprang up from the water just west of Motutapu Island. Human and dog prints preserved in the ash from the Rangitoto eruption found on Motutapu indicate that the Maori were living on the island at the time of the eruption – What an intense experience that must have been to witness! One day nothing but sea between them and mainland New Zealand and the next day a big island pops out of the sea right in front of you! Crazy.

Once we landed, we decided to take a side trail into a Kowhai grove to let everyone else get ahead of us and avoid seeing too many people. It was a much smaller trail and before long it felt like we were the only ones on the island. Kowhai is a tree native to the island that blooms with a pretty yellow flower in the spring and summer. Our trip is at the end of winter/beginning of spring here so there were not very many flowers in bloom. But there were a few, so I felt lucky to see at least a couple. I imagine it will be quite a site in another two or three weeks.

The Kowhai Flower.

The little side trail spit us out just a little bit past the start of the main trail to the summit and we began our ascent to the top of the volcano! It was not too difficult of a hike but we took our time during the first part – although I imagine that Tyler may not have been taking his time as much as I was. I recently finished reading A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, who had often described walking on the Appalachian Trail for hours until he found a nice spot to sit and wait for his friend to catch up and enjoy the view. Those parts in the book became a little more real to me on this hike. I didn’t mind at all though, it gave me an excuse to stop and take in the views that I rarely take advantage of on my own. And the company is always nice too.

But I also wanted to take a side trip to Boulder Bay, where New Zealand took a lot of their old ships to die, and that was not going to happen if I continued at that pace. So when we got to the turn to check out the lava tubes, I parted ways with Tyler and we agreed to meet back at the wharf just before the last ferry left the island at 3:30pm.

I made my way ahead to check out the lava tubes; a fun little side trip, but there were only really 4 of them and none went any serious distance. Plus, I had other places to go and not a lot of time to do it, so after a good 20 minutes exploring a couple of them, I was off to Shipwreck Bay . . . I mean Boulder Bay.

Still, the Lava Tubes were worth the side trip.

If the suggested times were accurate, it was going to be tight and there would be a small chance that I wouldn’t get there before I had to turn around to make the last ferry. But when I put my mind to it, I can make my way through trails pretty fast and I had a feeling that I might be able to make it happen. When I made it through the first part in 10 minutes when the map said 35 minutes, I felt a lot better about being able to make the trip in time before I had to leave.

Sure enough, I made it to the bay with plenty of time to briefly look around and take it all in. The waves from the ocean are incredibly loud and you would expect to hear them a lot sooner than you do, so when I first heard the faint sound of the beach I figured I still had another 5 or 10 minutes to go. But it grew louder a lot quicker than I expected and by the time I turned around the bend in the trail I could see the water. It is kind of crazy the dampening effect the trees have on the sound that goes through them. That was one thing I noticed on the island – just how quiet and still everything seemed to be. It was very peaceful.

Boulder Bay - Where ships go to die!

Boulder Bay was another great view, but not much of the ships could still be seen – at least where I was. Apparently the most intact ones were a short hike further north, but I didn’t have time to make that trek if I wanted to make it to the top of the volcano too. So I just looked around a bit, enjoyed the sea breeze and then made my way back toward the top

A lone piece of metal lets me know that I am in the right place.

By then I was starting to feel the aching from the hike. I have not been able to do much hiking (work or fun) for a while now so I was not in great shape. I was definitely going to feel this in the morning, but the views were worth every step. The top of the volcano did not disappoint! I stayed up there long enough to eat a snack and enjoy the view, as well as help a couple people with their photos. Then I was on my way back down to catch the ferry.

The photo does not do the view from the top any justice.

Tyler ended up checking out the lava tubes and making it to the top too, so he was feeling the effects of the hike as well. We had also planned on checking out a WWI and WWII defense over in Devonport on the way back. I was certainly feeling the Rangitoto hike by now and would have been completely alright if we had not gone to Devonport too, but I didn’t want to make that suggestion. So I left it up to Tyler, thinking that he would have had his fill of adventure for the day. Imagine my shock when he said, ‘What the heck, we are only here once!’

Way to go Tyler!

And with that, we were off to Devonport. I certainly am glad that Tyler made the decision to check it out, because they were really impressive. I guess the local newpaper decided it would be funny to report a spoof article about a Russian ship attacking Auckland in the late 19^th century that got a lot of people up in arms about New Zealand’s lack of defense. Despite the fact that the article was a farce (apparently, the name of the Russian ship in the article was Kaskowiski – Cask-of-Whisky), there was legitimate concern with current Russian expansion in the area, so they started a project to build up their defenses on North Head that expanded during WWI and again during WWII.

Battery Observation Post built in 1889 - one of the oldest structures still remaining.

After the wars, it was used for training by the New Zealand Navy for several years before it was turned into a park open to the public – that is pretty cool! Anyone with the gumption to get outside can go soak in the history and beauty of the area at no charge. Great job New Zealand!

Well, by then our feet were certainly not happy with us with the full day of walking so we limped back into town to find a restaurant to get some dinner and have a couple of pints with the hopes of dulling the aches a bit. A quick ferry ride back to Auckland and we were ready to walk the mile back to the hotel uphill . . . yeah right! We totally took a cab.

Who jumps off of a perfectly good building? - Apparently this guy

9/21/16

First full day in New Zealand! I wonder what kind of crazy hijinks our two subjects might get into here in the City of Sails . . .

The day started innocuous enough. We slept pretty well all considering, but were relatively slow to get started on anything. We made our way to hotel breakfast place – because we are lazy that way. Nothing to special about the breakfast, but I did come to the conclusion that I drink way more water than most people do; even in other countries. The water glasses they gave us weren’t much more than a glorified shot glass . . . and that has been pretty consistent throughout the trip to date.

Really? You should probably go get a pitcher and just stand by my table because it is going to be a long morning for you.

After breakfast we made our way to the Auckland War Memorial Museum – on foot, of course, because the trip took us through two parks that appeared to make for a very pleasant stroll. And it was, indeed, a very nice walk. Albert Park was small, but very pleasant with huge trees surrounding a very nice open area with a gazebo in the center. The work house had a date on it that suggested the park was created in 1882 – seems to me that makes for quite a few people that have enjoyed the park over the years; which was a pleasant and comforting thought to have going through my head at the moment.

The next park was the much bigger Auckland Domain that surrounds the museum. We took the centennial walkway which was very well-maintained and paved and had lots of lichen and moss covered trees growing up and over the path. The museum itself was quite enjoyable, with the bulk of the first level devoted to the Maori culture that were the first inhabitants of the island. It turns out that New Zealand was one of the last major areas of the planet to be inhabited by humans – The Maori did not reach New Zealand until about 600 years ago. So, in the grand scheme of things, New Zealand has a relatively young history. But no less impressive. The second level was devoted to the natural history of the island while the third level had a significant exhibit devoted to New Zealand’s efforts in World War I and World War II.

On our way back from our trip to the museum we stumbled onto an Irish pub. It would appear that Tyler has not found an Irish pub that he did not feel obliged to stop in and have a pint. So when we passed Father Ted’s, Tyler suggested we use this time to have a beer or two. I obliged, curious as to what makes a pub ‘Irish’ in New Zealand. Apparently it doesn’t require Irish music as we were listening to some quality modern pop music, including my main man, JT for most of our stay before it switched to 1980s Classic Rock.

Not that I don't appreciate a bit of that sunshine in my pocket.

All in all, it was a very relaxing and informative way to spend the late morning/early afternoon.

Which is good, because the next part of the day was not designed to be relaxing. Remember that Sky Tower that dominates the skyline of Auckland? Well, apparently they let you jump off of it! Okay, well technically you are guided by two wires and slowed at the end by a third so it is not quite as much of a jump as it is a slide straight down. But it is 192 meters (630 feet) and you can reach speeds of 85 km/h (53 mph), so if the opportunity presents itself, then why not – right?

Given my audience I imagine most of the people reading this came up with at least 20 reasons not to do it from the previous paragraph to this one. Well, turns out Tyler didn’t quite see things my way either. But he did agree to be my moral support. It was definitely a fun experience and I’m glad I did it, but it wasn’t quite as exhilarating as I thought it would be – But the view alone was worth it!

My favorite conversation was between myself and the guy strapping me in:

Guy: ‘So are you ready for this?!’
Me: ‘Sure.’
Guy: ‘Have you done this before?’
Me: ‘Nope, first time.’
Guy: ‘You seem pretty calm for your first time?’
Me: ‘Yeah, well I figure there have been a few people that have done this before me . . . ‘
Guy: ‘Haha, yeah, that is a good point.’

I did the jump at the same time as another person. He is a doctor from India and decided to go first, which I was quite fine with so I could observe the process before hand and, perhaps, gain a bit of that calm that my helper friend noted. They get him all secure and holding on to the poles on either side of him, leaning just slightly over the edge with the guy holding on to his harness. Then his assistant said that when they were ready, they would count to three and he would let go and lean off of the building.

‘Are you ready then?’ The guy asked

The doctor indicated that he was with an audible, ‘yes’ and they counted off to three . . . He was still there after the count, holding on to the poles with both hands. The assistant stood there awkwardly waiting for the doctor to let go then looked back to the lady that was operating the pulley the wire that would be employed to slow the doctor down safely right before he reached the bottom. They exchanged a look of amusement and the guide turned back around to the doctor and told him that he could let go at any time and counted to three again. The doctor still didn’t let go. This continued for what seemed like 20 minutes when one is waiting for their turn to go, but probably not much more than a minute. Finally, the guide was able to relay to the nervous doctor that no one was going to push him off and it was completely up to him to let go and lean off the building.

He finally let go and proceeded to make his 11 second decent to the bottom of the tower.

Having to go through that with the doctor probably served to accentuate my calmness to the two guides, who switched up their roles for me so that the young lady was the one giving me instructions on the ledge and the guy was the one manning the pulley. One . . . Two . . . Three . . .

And I was off!

Rock and Roll!

I must say, in hindsight, it was not the rush that I had worked myself into thinking it would be for me. Not that I was disappointed . . . I guess I just thought it would be faster. Still, definitely glad I did it.

Once I landed and got the jumpsuit and harness off, Tyler and I headed back to the hotel for fancier clothes. We made reservations to eat dinner at the top of the tower in the Orbit restaurant. Apparently they frown on wearing shorts and a t-shirt in the restaurant – Picky.

Orbit sits at the top of the sky tower and rotates slowly around as you enjoy your dinner. It takes about an hour for the restaurant to rotate completely so the average dining experience gets to see the full skyline of Auckland twice. The view was incredible! Definitely worth price. We both got the three course dinner where you get to choose an entrée, a main dish and desert for NZ$ 75 ($54) – Really an amazing deal when you factor in the view. And the portions were perfect – not over filling, but not the crazy small portions that you expect to find at those kind of fancy restaurants. I enjoyed a very well-made gin drink while Tyler started with a cider and then switched to a rum concoction. You can tell Tyler is feeling sassy when he orders a drink that has an umbrella. I really should have taken a photo of that seeing as I may never see that again – Although I have high hopes that I might be able to duplicate that in Tahiti (I promise to get a photo if it happens then).

Incredible views!

After dinner we went back to the hotel to change again – because you can’t expect us to wear fancy clothes that long – and decide where we might go for a couple more drinks to round out the night. Tyler mentions that he saw another Irish Pub a bit further down the street. ‘You do realize that we aren’t in Ireland, right Tyler?’ I said.

‘Yeah, but they tend to be less snobby and more my style,’ he said as if he had created a flow chart that outlined the benefits and short comings of attending every type of bar. ‘Plus it is Auckland’s friendliest bar!’ He added; reading from his computer screen.

Well heck, how could I not go to Auckland’s friendliest bar?!

So we were off to another Irish pub in Auckland – this time The Fiddler.  It was a very nice, small, two-story bar. And, true to their word, it was very friendly. Tyler made a comment about the name of a rum (it was the same rum used in his fancy umbrella drink earlier) and the bartender proceeded to tell us the story behind the rum and he poured two complementary shots – technically three, but I will not disclose here what happened to the third shot to give our bartender friend plausible deniability should the owner, by some minor miracle, read this blog. The other bartender happened to pour a glass of the wrong beer for a customer that just happened to be the beer I was drinking so she asked if I could help her out by drinking her mistake – Who am I to disappoint?

It was certainly fun to people watch at this bar. There were two flight attendants sitting next to us talking to a couple locals about all things New Zealand. We ended up having a couple conversations with them too throughout the night. One of them seemed to enjoy talking to me much more than I cared to talk to anyone, really. Every time I thought that she may have lost interest in our conversation I would hear her shout, ‘Hey Tucson!’ Really, it is just as likely she just liked shouting that more than she actually enjoyed our conversation. I don’t really remember what she would ask me – just typical small talk silliness.

Toward the end of the night, someone came and started playing jazzed up covers of popular songs on his guitar. He reminded me a lot of Gunther from Friends. It was really quite amusing to watch. It reminded me a bit of Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer’s old SNL skit of Marty and Bobbi Culp.

Hot mic!

All in all, a pretty good day.

Until next we meet!

I've Seen The Future - Lotto Numbers For Sale

9/19/16 - 9/20/16

Anybody that has known my for over a year, can likely attest to my affinity toward looting and pillaging . . . No? Hmm, oh yeah, that’s not it. My affinity is not in looting and pillaging; it is talking like that is what I like to do! Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day, or at least it was until that International Date Line so rudely changed it on me!

When I found out that they day I was going to lose on this trip because of the date line I was crushed, to say the least. Oh the irony! The day I enjoy the most is the one day they decide to skip this year . . . at least for me. Well technically that is not true. Technically I did get to experience about 8 hours of ITLAP before they so rudely changed the date on me! But I slept through at least half of those 8 hours.

And me without my Pirate ensemble.

Hope everyone else enjoyed the day!

Turns out the non-stop flight from LAX to Auckland that I thought I had decided it was never a non-stop flight and landed briefly at the Tahiti airport. So I got to spend some quality time at the airport. Yes, I would have preferred to have gone straight through to Auckland, but it proved not to be too horrendous an endeavor. There was a nice open area (I’m assuming for smokers) so you could sit out and enjoy the cool morning air; the wall prevented us from seeing the beach but we could tell it was close by the smell in the air.

We got to meet a few of the other couples that used the groupon deal there. I use the term ‘couple’ here only to describe that there were two of them, as was required for the groupon deal; although both couples we met that morning did appear to be in a romantic relationship . . . and then there was Tyler and myself – not awkward at all.

As we were talking with one of the other couples, something caught the corner of my eye. I almost didn’t even give it a second look except it looked like a chicken . . . then I remembered we were in an airport. So I did a double take, and sure enough, there was a chicken walking from outside and hoping up inside the main waiting area; searching, in earnest for any small piece of food that may have been discarded on the ground.

I feel like every airport needs a pet chicken.

The flight leaving the island was late by about 40 minutes, but we decided that it was not delayed, but rather running on Island Time. The remaining flight ended up being rather uneventful as well. Played some sudoko, read a bit, slept another couple hours – nothing really worth writing home to mom about.

The plane landed in Auckland almost 20 minutes early – kind of funny how they can make up so much time in the air. Clearly they build in a lot of room for error in the actual flying times. After a quick shuttle ride we arrive to the Auckland City Hotel and step into the front door to see a line of the remaining ‘couples’. In all, there appeared to be about 10 of us and, after glancing around the room at them all, every single one of them looked like they were in a romantic relationship except Tyler and myself – Again, not awkward at all.

A side note: I was starting to get a little concerned that we would end up running into these people the entire trip at restaurants and the different sites and not get to meet many new people because of it. But so far we have not run into any of them since check-in.

There was not a whole lot of time left in the day to do anything with any real substance so we decided to check out Sky City. Sky City is a series of restaurants, bars, shops a theater, and a casino at the base of the Sky Tower; which, at 328 meters (1,076 feet), is the tallest man-made structure in the southern hemisphere and 25^th tallest in the world. An impressive site for sure!

It is a sense of pride for Tyler and his siblings to be able to tell their dad that they gambled in a new location; but none of them really gamble so it usually consists of them going to the first slot machine or video poker machine and putting in $20 and then pressing the required buttons until one of two things happens. Either they lose all the money or five minutes has gone by and they still have not lost all the money so they cash out and go about the rest of their day. So I obliged Tyler and we set out to the casino at the base of the Sky Tower.

Tyler prefers the video poker to the slot machines as it involves a bit more than mindlessly pressing a button and watching three wheels spin randomly until they stop and then repeating the process. Unfortunately for Tyler, this casino only had slot machines and video roulette. We searched the entire casino for video poker and none were to be found. After checking with an employee to verify that this was, indeed, a true fact he found the closest slot and put in the money. Turns out that this go around ended up being the first option for Tyler and he was down $20 within 3 minutes – But he could now brag to his dad that he had gambled in New Zealand!

While Tyler was losing miserably at the slots, I decided to try my luck at video roulette. I’ve never played the game but I seemed to recall hearing some advice at some time that one should always bet on black, so I did. It landed on red – if I could remember where I had heard that advice I suppose I would have given them a stern talking to, but I still had money in the machine so I tried my luck on black again. It landed on black! Okay, maybe this advice was solid so I tried again – Black again! By this time Tyler had lost all his money and was observing my luck. So since he was waiting on me I said that I would try one more time and be done. Black again!

Look at me on a roll!

But I am not much of a gambler either, so I cashed out $4 ahead and we found a place to eat dinner. We sat down at Andy’s, a burger joint in the casino and as I was looking through the menu, my eyes stopped at the lamb burger. I mean I am in New Zealand, right? Known for their abundance in sheep. Seemed I would be remiss if I ordered anything but the lamb burger. Tyler agreed and we enjoyed a couple tasty burgers before we made our way back to rest up for our first full day in New Zealand.

Delays Better Not Become the Norm for My Big Trips!

*Editor's note: Of course I am already several days behind . . . but that was predicted. I feel like tomorrow could have some catch-up time built into it. Enjoy!

Today is the day I leave for New Zealand! I was more or less packed today; just had to take care of a couple small items like drop off the pup at my parents, dishes, trash, etc. Nothing crazy, so it was a pretty leisurely day. I made sure that everything was set to do these updates via my blog instead of through emails like I did when I went to Europe in 2008.

In doing so, I realized I was a bit behind on updating my latest blog project. Earlier this year I decided that I would hike to the top of the tallest peak in each of the named mountain ranges in Arizona and document those experiences on my blog . . . but there was only one post from that project. I’m pretty sure I wrote another one but never posted it because it would require downloading photos from my phone and picking out which ones to post along with the experience. I clearly didn’t feel that I had the time for that task. I also feel like I have done two or three peaks that I have yet to write up as well.

It was around that time that work and HOBY came together to form this perfect storm of chaos in my life that had me going all over the place and staying everywhere except my own bed.

But that was not the only thing that hindered my progress with that project. It was right around that time that I met a girl; a beautiful woman, inside and out, that totally shook my world. Every time I saw her only made me want to spend that much more time with her. I wanted to spend the very little spare time that work and HOBY afforded me in those 3 months with her . . . and that’s what I did.

I reckon that project will have to wait a bit more now that I am using this space and my time to experience and document New Zealand . . . But I will get to it!

Our flight to New Zealand didn’t leave out of LAX until 11:49pm so my flight from Tucson to LA didn’t leave until 6pm, giving me a very easy-going beginning to my day. My girlfriend came over to take me to the airport a little bit early to surprise me with a stack of sealed cards – one for each day I would be gone – to be opened consecutively and only on the appropriate date; straight out of Elizabethtown or P.S. I love You, but without the sad dying stuff.

Have I mentioned how amazing and thoughtful she is?!

Now with slight reluctance, it was time to go to the airport. In the middle of the drive there, I get an update through Google that my flight has been delayed a half an hour. No big deal . . . still within the 3-hour time period they recommended to check into my international flight . . .

I get to the airport and go through the security check – No line! Not one. Single. Person. I love the Tucson Airport! The security guard that checks IDs looks seriously bored, as he exclaims, ‘Hey look, no line, you’re in luck!’ We exchange a few pleasantries as he checks my ticket and I agree how nice it is not to have to wait in line.

As I started to walk away from him, toward the metal detector, he called back to me asking if I had heard anything about the bombing in NYC. To be completely honest, I had been a bit distracted. I was aware that something may have happened because of a couple vague facebook posts from my friends, but I hadn’t paid attention enough to notice more than that. I said I hadn’t and continued walking away.

Poor guy. That really isn’t the best place to be if you are looking for people to stop for small chat.

Security was a breeze though and I got to my gate without a problem to find out that my flight had been delayed another 40 minutes (1 hour and 20 minutes total). Great! Now I am under the 3-hour recommendation. Now that the NYC bombing has been implanted in my head I do a quick Google search, hoping that it was not so severe that it was the culprit behind my delayed flight. But it turned out it wasn’t, LA just had to many planes flying around it, like King Kong, waiting to land and they wouldn’t let anyone else take off until they had smashed . . . er, I mean let enough of those planes land.

It is a lot more fun to think of this at LAX though.

The announcer said there was a chance we could leave earlier but, lo, that was not the case. Tyler did not seem to be concerned though, so I did my best not to be either. But it was hard not to think about how our Europe trip got delayed a day because of delays in our earlier flights that made us miss our international flight. So I ordered a Gin and Tonic with a drink ticket Tyler had gotten to me to try not to think about it – The attendant totally didn’t take the ticket . . . perhaps my luck is changing?!

That ended up being the case! There were no more delays, my checked bag ended up being the 5^th one off the carousel, I found the international portion of the airport and checked back in for my flight in under an hour, and our gate was the first one past security!

Thanks Southwest for the free Gin and Tonic – totally turned everything around!

We ended up getting there 20 minutes before they were scheduled to start boarding so we found the currency exchange to get some New Zealand dollars.

Yayyyy! I have money!

And before we knew it we were on board, in the air and on our way. After a quality airline meal, we were ready to snuggle in for a quality night sleep on a plane . . . one step closer to Auckland!

New Zealand . . . Well, new to me!

Greetings one and all! The time has come for my next grand adventure . . . and it has been a long time coming! Due to circumstances beyond my control (and a few stupid mistakes – live and learn, right?) it has been 8 years since I last sojourned beyond the country of my birth.

8 years!

When I think about how much has changed in my life in that time . . . but I imagine that is a story for another blog. Today, I am here to announce to the world that, once again, it will have to deal with the misadventures of sandalmarks. And the latest victim, er. . . I mean country? New Zealand!

That’s right, the land of Hobbits and Lorde gets the honor of sharing in my next adventure. Eight years ago I shared my experiences in Denmark, England and Ireland with friends and family via a semi-daily email update. The responses from those emails was overwhelmingly positive and, with the news of my upcoming trip spreading, many of those friends and family have asked if I would continue to do so on this trip to New Zealand.

Well, who am I to let down my fans! But I have decided to switch it over to my blog rather than send out emails since kids these days don’t read emails anymore, but are more than happy to read opinionated blogs passing as news articles. . . I think I may have digressed again. That way, you all can come and go as you please and peruse my adventures at your leisure.

I would like to put a caveat in here at this time though: It has been a long time since I had a real vacation and this one is only lasting 12 days so I am thinking I will want to pack a lot into those 12 short days. This means that ‘semi-daily’ could turn into every 2 or 3 days. I apologize ahead of time for this and hope that you all understand my dilemma.

But I am super excited and super excited to share!

So, until next we meet.

A New Chapter - A New Journey

Santa Ritas – Mt Wrightson

Elevation: 9453 Feet

Starting Elevation: 5331 feet

Date: 03/26/2016

Time: 4 hours 40 minutes* (2 hours 35 minutes to the top, 25-minute break on top, 1 hour 40 minutes down)

Steps: 25, 265

Miles: 9 round trip

* Please note that there is a good chance I am a lot faster than you will be and most people should not use this number as a guide to how long they will take. The guide I saw said it would be a 6-hour hike and reviewers of the hike said they did it in 6.5 and 7 hours. This is not to brag; I know a few people that are much faster than I am on trails and I am sure that there are many more. But these people are serious trail runners with resting heart rates in the 40s. Mine is a much more average 60 beats per minute, but something about how I am built makes me a naturally good hiker. My co-workers call me a billy goat. So on the off chance that someone outside of my family and friends read this, there is a good chance you should add some additional time to your plan.

I have decided to hike the tallest peak in every mountain range in Arizona. I did not put a firm deadline to do this, but I have a serious hiking goal coming up in two or three years that I am not quite ready to make public knowledge and I would like to be over half-way through by the time of that goal. I just googled the number of mountain ranges in Arizona and Wikipedia believes that there are 210 named mountain ranges in Arizona. That is exciting!

I got this idea today as I was hiking Mt. Wrightson for the first time. It is the tallest peak in the Santa Ritas and I have always meant to get to the top of it, but only managed to make a plan of it nearing the end of my 37^th year. It really was a wonderful hike and all the way up I was thinking about how great it felt to be out in the crisp morning air and challenging myself at least a little. I was also thinking about this yet to be revealed goal and how I could get myself into a condition where it would be an achievable task. Thus the challenge of the tallest peak in each range was born. I did not know there were 210 ranges at the time . . . this sounds like a real challenge to be proud of when I achieve it.

Definitely a view I wish I had gotten to see sooner!

I also decided that I would create an entry in here each time I got to the top of one of these peaks. Once again, I intend to update family and friends on here somewhat daily when I do this yet to be revealed challenge (as well as another that I hope to do in about 8 years). So I figured writing an entry for each peak I do in the meantime will be good practice.

These entries will not be focused on the mechanics of the hike so they will not necessarily be a good read for those interested in tips about each of the hikes. However, I did decide to start each entry with statistics about the hike – because statistics are fun and I envision that I will enjoy looking back at these entries and these statistics. The entries will be more like a window into my brain at a moment in time when I afford myself a lot of time to think about the world around me, where I am in it and where I want to be in it. But there is sure to be a lot of talk about hiking and being outdoors as well as a few interesting facts about the hike. So read on if you so choose.

Mt. Wrightson is named after a GLO land surveyor that was killed by Apaches just prior to an attack on Fort Buchanan. The fort was burned to the ground and later abandoned. I found that information while doing some research on the area for a survey we had to do for work. I thought it was all very interesting and remember thinking that I wanted to do the hike even more after finding that bit of history.

It really is a beautiful hike. I took the Old Baldy Trail because it was the shorter of the options. I will almost certainly always take the shorter more direct approach when given the option; even if it costs me a few extra dollars. I am sort of known to be a bit frugal, but there is one thing I value much more than money: Time. My time is extremely valuable. The world is big and there is so much I would love to get to see and do. So much, in fact, that I know I will never even come close to making a dent in that list. Time is not on my side – but if there is something I can do to save a bit of it for the next task at hand then I will be that much closer to getting to do or see one more thing on my ever-growing list. That is priceless. So I gladly paid the $5 fee to park at Madera Canyon.

Overlooking the valley that I spent much of my youth!

The approach is from the west side, which would make it an ideal choice for a summer hike. If you got up early enough, you could do 90 % of the hike in the shade. Summertime in Southern Arizona puts a premium on shade. I did get a very early start. I committed to meeting someone at 5pm so I wanted to be sure I would be back with plenty of time to get to downtown Tucson by 5pm. I go back and forth on whether I prefer an early or later start to my hikes. If I get started early the trail will be less crowded and I can move freely at my faster pace; plus, who goes for a hike to be surrounded by a crowd of people? But when I start later, I end up getting to pass a lot more people on the hike. It feels good to pass people on a hike. It makes me feel like I might not be as close to the end of my summer years as I believe. Ultimately, silence is solace. So I usually choose to go earlier if I have the option.

I made it up to Josephine Saddle easy enough and in very good time. At that location there is a memorial for 3 boy scouts that got caught in a freak blizzard in November of 1958 and died. Up until that point my thoughts were mostly going over a predicament that I have put myself into. I hesitate to go into detail on it here as it could cause some of you to look at me a bit of bad light. If I don’t talk about it in the next paragraph, then I have either decided not to or ran out of time and wanted to get the post up on the same day of the hike. But now my thoughts turned to those three boys (ages 12, 13 and 16) and their families. I imagined the scar such a tragedy would leave on a family and hoped that time had healed that scar at least a little. At one time (and maybe it still is) it was the most intense search and rescue effort that took place in Arizona. So I said a quick prayer for them and their family and I was off again.

The remaining part was just a little more intense and steep, but nothing crazy. The trail really is well maintained and the occasional down trees to hop over were the only minor obstacles. I was very content. More content than I have been in a long time. I really believe I was made to hike mountains.

I have just started reading my great-great-grandma’s autobiography. What a wonderful gift that is to her descendants! I have decided that everyone should attempt to write down the story of their life for their family. What a great window into the late 1800’s it has been! I see a bit of myself in her and her father. Both were fascinated by the outdoors and I find myself relating a lot to how she describes her outdoor adventures. Her dad was a very solitary person too; which I can relate to as well. I spent a lot of the remaining hike up to the top thinking about her, her father, autobiography and the idea of writing down my own story (that is the other reason I decided to write these entries – that way I can look back on them and find the pertinent information to write my story when the time comes.

So I made it to the top and spent a little bit of time enjoying the view; it always amazes me just how far you can see in Arizona if you have the right vantage point. Then I found shelter from the wind behind the old foundation of a fire look-out of another life and time and thought a bit more about my great-great-grandma’s adventures. I wonder if she could have even imagined that some of her descendants would have found their way out west and found an equal love of a very different nature than the rural Illinois landscapes of which she was so fond.

The archaeologist in me appreciated that the foundation to the fire look-out was still there :)

Until next we meet . . .