TranzAlpine Day Trip

This is where we were heading on the train.  This was the TranzAlpine; I took the TranzCoastal from Picton to Christchurch.  It was only at the end of that trip that I realized there was an open-air viewing carriage at the back of the train!  I could have taken some cool pictures.  Oh well.....I knew it for this trip, so I took as many as I could.  It got a little cold now and then, but here you go.

Anyway, the first few days down here in Christchurch were a little rainy and cloudy, but yesterday it really cleared up and was beautiful.

Then we saw this up at the pass.

And then we rode right into this!  It was actually cool - it was misty, damp, cold and very amazing.  The conductor every now and then would say something like "there's a beautiful view of the Southern Alps from right here, but not today...." or "there's a spectacular view of the narrows, but it's hidden in the mist....."  But it was still cool!

Once we made it to Arthur's Pass it cleared up and we had some nice views of beautiful countryside.  We ended up at Greymouth (the mouth of the Grey River).  It's a cute town - a little small (11,000 people) but the base for all the nature experiences on the West Coast of NZ.

Then it was back over the Southern Alps.  The views were amazing, and I think they're just even more amazing as you got south.

Anyway, that's it for New Zealand.  I'll be in Istanbul in a few days, so more once I get there.

Some Views of Christchurch

Well, I'm in Christchurch now.  It's on the Southern Island.  It's a smallish city.  Fun, but getting a little cold now that it's late Fall.  Here are a few photos.

These are the fountains at City Hall.

Cathedral Plaza - it's the core of town.  But I didn't take a picture of the cathedral!  (But the link has some good ones - better than I could have taken, actually.....)   But there all are sorts of things going on there - little vendors, cafes, the Information Center, the tram.  It's sort of happening, in a small-town sort of way!  :-)

One of the cool things they've done here is build up a Cultural Precinct.  It extends from the Plaza across the Avon River toward the Botanical Gardens.  The Art Museum, Contemporary Art Museum, lots of galleries, and the Art Centre are all there.  The Art Centre used to be the University of Christchurch.  It's a very cool old complex.  It has galleries, live theaters, movie theaters, cafes, artist workshops and restaurants.  It's very cool.

This is a sculpture out front.  I liked it.

This is the Peacock Fountain at the main entrance of the Botanical Gardens.  I was wondering why it's called the Peacock Fountain because there are no peacocks to be seen.....then I read that Mr Peacock donated it.  There you go! 

There's a Conservatory.  The cacti were pretty cool.  They've painted the wall behind the cacti like Arizona - I guess to make them feel at home....

Tomorrow I leave for London.  I fly back through Hong Kong.  That will be a long flight but fortunately I bought a novel by Orhan Pamuk for the flight.  It's called The New Life.

Yesterday I took a train ride across the Southern Alps.  I'll post some of those pictures next.

The next time I come to NZ I'll spend more time down here.  There are some amazing things to see farther south - the fjords, the glaciers, a few more cities along the coast, amazing lakes.  There are hot air balloons, boat trips, etc.  It will be amazing!

The Ferry ride to the South Island

I took the InterIslander Ferry on a Sunday morning from Wellington to Picton (this link is to a Google Map and you can see how amazing the route is!)  Picton is a teeny tiny town that for whatever reason is the place the ferries land.  It must be the first safe harbor you get to on the Southern Island.  The route there is across the Cook Strait (links the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean) and then through a really beautiful fjord.  Here are a few pics of the trip through the fjord.

That's the Pacific Ocean right on the other side of the rocks!

A rainbow just behind the boat as we sailed into a sunny patch while it rained behind us.

Here are a few almost black-and-white photos of the distance mountains as we sailed toward Picton.  They remind me a bit of the photos and scenery on the River Li in China when I visited Mom and Dad - two years ago?  Three years ago?

This was looking down at the water as we docked.  I thought it looked pretty cool, and I might even use it as the wallpaper on my computer at some point.

I walked about 5 minutes down the way to the train station.  The trip to Christchurch on the train is really amazing.  It's called the TranzCoastal.  I highly recommend it.  I sat on the left side as we travelled and the train went right along the edge of the sea for at least half the time.  I had really spectacular views over the Pacific - the crashing waves, the headlands, seal on the shore, clouds stretching out lit by the setting sun.  And then we traveled through mountain passes, across rivers, along valleys filled with changing leaves.  

Sadly, the double-glazed windows on both sides of the train meant that all the pictures I took turned out to be of me taking a picture of me.  So there aren't any.  You'll all just have to come/go to New Zealand and take this train!

Tomorrow I take the TranzAlpine up into the NZ Alps.  I discovered too late there is a carriage on the back of the train with no windows so I'll be wandering back there now and then to take pictures of the Alps if we can see them!  I'll just take my hat and scarf and hunker down for a few good photos.

I'll try to get those up before I head back to London on Thursday.  Oh, and it's FREEZING here in Christchurch!  I knew I would be traveling here in late fall (it's weird to think of late May as late Fall!), but I wasn't really prepared AT ALL!  So while I've been having a great time down here I'm looking forward to getting along to Istanbul where it will be nice and warm.  (And I'll probably be complaining of the heat before too long!)

The Botanical Gardens and Farewell to Wellington

A few final thoughts on Wellington and the Botanical Gardens.

Wellington does sort of think it's a little version of Hong Kong, I think.  Here's the Cable Car that goes up to the Botanical Gardens.  Sort of a small version of the one in Hong Kong that goes up to Victoria Peak.  This one's not as steep and the view isn't quite as impressive, but it's still very cool!  Oh, and I've added a picture of the view from Victoria Peak in Hong Kong just for comparison right after this one!

Hong Kong from Victoria Peak.  A little larger than Wellington!  :-)

Here's another view of Wellington from the Botanic Gardens.  There's a rainbow on the top of the hill across the bay (I think that's Victoria Peak over there.....)

Now just some photos from the Gardens.

That's it for Wellington.  Definitely a fun city.  There are TONS of Kebab places (just like Auckland).  I tried to hold off on those since I'm going to be in Istanbul in just a few days!  But one night I just had a massive craving for Iskender Kebab.  (Isn't it interesting that Wikipedia has entries on all kinds of things including Iskender Kebab?)  So off I went and had a great meal!

I also had some great Malaysian food at a little place on Dixon just off of Cuba St.  Had a bad meal at a Cambodian place that was supposed to be good.  Bad karma from the start and I should have left before I even ordered!   But that's what happens when you don't follow your intuition!

In any event, the morning came that I had to get up early and catch the Ferry to the South Island.  I'll post a few pictures of that trip next.

Pictures from Wellington, New Zealand

Well, I'm in Christchurch now.  But here is a little update from Wellington.

First a few facts:

• Wellington is the capital of New Zealand.
  
• It sits on a large bay with mountains all around.  Sort of like San Francisco.  But much smaller - there are about 150K people in the city and about 400K in the metro area.
• This is where the Lord of the Rings movies premiered.  I just saw a little news blurb this morning that someone (Peter Jackson? Guillermo Del Toro?) is making a two-movie adaptation of The Hobbit, both being filmed here in New Zealand.
• I went to see the new Indiana Jones movie at the theater where the Lord of the Rings movies opened.  The theater is cool; I was a little bored with the movie.

Anyway, below is a picture of the mountains around Wellington.

Here are a few pictures of the harbor of Wellington.  You can pretty much walk along the harbor from one end to the other in about 30 minutes.  The major cultural buildings are strung out along the waterfront.

Me trying to get some Art in my photos.....

I stayed at a place up in the hills above Wellington.  Every day I walked down the "mountain" and back up at the end of the day.  New Zealand is really good at having all sort of urban tracks and paths for walkers.  The path I took went right up the hillside; sort of hard to walk it (but good exercise) and definitely safer than walking on the roads that twisted up the hills!

This is a little house that I passed every day.  Totally needs repair - a good paint job and tender loving care.  But it has this great bell hanging by the door instead of an electric bell.  And it has a TV dish!

This is the view from the window in the room I was in!  That's Wellington down there at the bottom of the hill.  In the morning the sun came up over the mountains off in the distance....I don't usually see the sun rise, so it was pretty cool.

In addition to walking all over I did a few things while I was in Wellington:

• Visited a fantastic museum called Te Papa.  It's the national museum.  Covers geography, history, art, Maori history, emigration, etc.  I'd like to learn more about the Maori history and culture, but I'll do that when I get back to the States.  Otherwise I'll have another 15 pounds of books to lug around!
• Took the train to Porirua (a small town north of Wellington) to visit a small museum called Pataka.  It was showing two interesting exhibits - one of Samoan artists living in New Zealand and one of Native Americans!  That was cool.
• Saw the New Zealand Symphony.  They played the Brahms Symphony No.1 and the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto.  It was great - maybe I just needed a classical music fix, but I think they were actually really good!  They played with a lot of passion and energy.
• I also say a Tango performance that was part of a Tango Festival.  Sadly it wasn't very good!  :-(    But you can't win them all, right?

Anyway, I also went to the Botanical Gardens, but I'll post some pictures of that in the next blog.

I Discovered a Little Bit of Paradise Today.....

Today I found a little bit of paradise!

I went on a little boat trip to Waiheke island.  It's one of the larger islands just outside Auckland Harbor.  It's a bit like going to Napa combined with Bainbridge Island.  Really beautiful boat ride!  Here are a few pictures!

 

A friendly island welcome:

Some of the wildlife just roaming around...

A view from the Harbor of Mataitai

Some views of the seas - I took a lot of the trails that went up and down the hills.  

Finally a few more pictures of Auckland as we came back to the city.  

Here are a few more thoughts:

• I'm reading a really interesting book called "Mirrors of the Unseen: Journeys in Iran".  It's by Jason Elliot.  It's making me want to go to Iran (I mean, I've wanted to go for a long time, but it's making me think about actually figuring out how to go to Iran!)  And did you know that the word "paradise" is originally from Iran, meaning a garden?  So it was very appropriate to reading about Iran in a paradise of sorts don't you think?

• I went to a great restaurant last night in Auckland.  It's called Mezze Bar.  It had the most amazing lamb tagine!  I definitely recommend lamb tagine if you get the chance.  Especially when you're in New Zealand where there are many more sheep (and lambs) that people.  Of course, it does seem sort of mean to eat lamb - I mean, they're so small and cute!  Let's assume I was eating an old mean sheep that had just died of old age.  Or something like that.

• I was thinking that it's strange to go in just one day of flying from a place where it gets light at about 4:30 and stays light until about 9:30 p.m. these days (England) to a place where it's dark at about 5:30 p.m.  It's a little disorienting!  I mean usually you work up to that day by day, but this time it just happened.  So I always feel like it must be about 11:00 p.m. when it's just 7:00 or so!  That's very weird.

Well, that's it.  Tomorrow I'm meeting an old work colleague from First Data.  I figured since I'd come all this way I should spend a little time socializing with the one person I know here.

Ciao for now!

There's No Place Like Home....

On my first day here in Auckland, this is what I did:

• Walked down to the Ferry Building on the harbor
  
• Took a ferry across the bay to a great little town full of cafes, markets, shops and spectacular views
  
• We sailed right into a massive fog bank on the way!

It sounds like San Francisco, doesn't it!?  I felt completely at home.  It's so much like home.  Here are a few pictures.

This is the view of a volcano (long extinct) right off the coast of Auckland.  It's called Rangitoto Island.  I took this (and many of the pictures here) while walking along the shore and hiking up the two volcanoes over in Devonport.  I also conked my head massively when I was climbing around the old fortifications - I was worried I gave myself a concussion!  :-(  I'm sure I heard bone cracking....but maybe I'm just a worrier!

A few pictures as I wandered around:

Fortunately I didn't give myself a concussion (although I didn't dare take a nap in the sun right after that!)  

Here's a picture of Davenport from one of the volcanoes.

Here's a very cool carving I saw on the side of one of the volcanoes.  The Maori people terraced a lot of the volcanoes in the area, built forts on the top of them, and I guess used them like Europeans used castles.  Maybe it's really old?  Maybe new?  It didn't say, but it was cool - like a petrified troll or something.

A few observations about Auckland:

• There are tons of Internet Cafes all over the place.  I think it's because there are tons of backpackers and tourists here from all over the world.  It gives the city an amazing vibe (and another reason why it feels just like home!)

• There are tons of Turkish kebab places everywhere.  Actually they are more like Doner shops, but whatever, right?  It's amazing!  And they're all staffed by actual Turkish guys.  There must be a massive Turkish diaspora for so many to have come here, so far and at the end of the world.

It's truly a gorgeous place.  Did you know that there are about 1 million people here, so it's bigger than the city of San Francisco.  But there are only just over 4 million people in all of New Zealand, so it's only half the size of the Bay Area.  

A few other thoughts, not related to Auckland:

We should all take a moment to thank the California Supreme Court for reminding us that one of the key roles the Judiciary in the US plays is the protection of all minority groups from the inadvertent / unintentional tyranny of the majority.  We sometimes forget that, and the political debate often makes it sound like the only role of the Judiciary is the rubber-stamping of the voice of the majority.  It's nice to be reminded of this very critical role.  

The Prime Minister of Spain (Jose Zapatero) said it very well when Spain legalized marriage for all Spanish citizens:  "It is true that they are only a minority, but their triumph is everyone's triumph.  It is also the triumph of those who oppose this law even thought they do not know this yet: because it is the triumph of Liberty.  Their victory make all of us (even those who oppose this law) better people, it makes our society better."