A photo just doesn’t do the Te Puia bubbling mud pools justice. I was mesmerized, watching them pop up and flatten down. If there were such things as witches’ cauldrons, I imagine they would look exactly like this.
But the real show was the Pohutu Geyser.
Hmmm, that wasn’t all that special…but wait…
It’s getting better…
Our guide, Albert, took this photo of Mike.
Mike’s quite a distance from the geyser, so it gives you an idea of the size of the water column. But there is more to come.
NOW you’re talking!
Speaking of Albert, here he is with our Maori guide.
While I was busy photographing Albert, Mike was surrounded by a crowd of Asian women. Just like in Thailand, but this time only one wanted to be photographed with him, so I wasn’t fast enough to capture the scene. Mike was only to happy to explain to me that his new friend told him he was very handsome…
But back to the tour. After viewing the geological wonders, we visited the woodworking school.
This one is my favorite.
I didn’t think that anything could come close to being as glorious as yesterday’s experience in the Waitomo Caves. I was wrong. The Waimangu Valley Geothermal Site was equally magnificent, but in a very different way. This valley is the only geothermal system on the planet that was created by a volcano–the Tarawera eruption of 1886.
The result was Lake Rotomohana. Our group was divided in two, with half cruising the lake first while the other half hiked, and then we switched. Our boat was the only one on the lake that morning, and with only 18 passengers, it was easy to get an unobstructed view of all the geothermal phenomenon. Before the volcano erupted, what is now Patiti Island was part of a small hill. It became a lava plug, cooled, and is now home to cormorants.
The steam vents fascinated me, so I kept snapping away.
The hike gave us the opportunity to get close to craters and geysers. The lake water is acidic. It looks like it is boiling because of the gases (carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide) bubbling up to the surface.
Here is our smiling guide Chas, holding a silver fern, one of New Zealand’s symbols. Do you think he usually carries a Winnie the Pooh back pack in front? Something to look for in future installments. More bubbles, then time to head back for lunch.
Pretty amazing, right?
Once again, our guides came up with a great lunch venue. The Princess Gate Hotel has it all: an owner that welcomed us with a brief history of the hotel, fantastic food, wonderful ambiance, and a location close to the most beautiful section of Rotorua.
After lunch, we had time to stroll through the gardens, and ogle the beautiful buildings.
One of the many reasons we thoroughly enjoy Road Scholar trips is their high quality lecturers. Wednesday morning, New Zealand journalist and author, Gordon McLaughlin, gave us a brief overview of this very young nation. Some interesting facts and figures:
New Zealand is the last land mass to be inhabited, settled by the Maori about 800 years ago. DNA analysis has proven that the Maori migrated from Taiwan, providing a perfect example of Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest. The long ocean voyage was an endurance test that only the strongest, biggest and fittest could pass.
In the 1840’s, the Maori were joined by settlers from the United Kingdom, with the those of European descent now making up the majority of the population. About 3.5 million live on the North Island, mainly in Auckland, with about 1 million inhabiting the South Island.
New Zealand was the first country to allow women to vote, in 1893; at one time the top three government positions were held by women.
In 1898, New Zealanders instituted an old age pension, with free health care since 1938. Seems Kiwi are not horrified by the thought of “socialized medicine”. And it doesn’t seem to have impacted their quality of care because their life expectancy exceeds that of US males by 3 years, and a year and a half for females.
Both countries have similar percentages of those over 65, and under 15. Education is free, including some university and trade schools. Pensioners also enjoy a variety of freebies, such as train and boat transportation, admission to museums, etc. So how do they pay for all of the free services?
The top tax rate is 35%, with a 15% GST (goods and services tax) built into their prices. So, when dining out, a menu item priced at $25 means that you actually PAY $25. Tax has been included and the wait staff has been paid a reasonable wage, so tipping is only for extraordinary service, and even then is about half of what is customary in the USA. I guess if you are not bristling with weaponry and fighting senseless wars, you have money for such things.
New Zealand is geologically young –a mere 12 million years old. If you have ever walked along the Trail of Time in the Grand Canyon’s South Rim, you may recall that equates to only 12 of the trail’s 2,000 footsteps. If you haven’t been there, each footstep represents a million years. Samples of rocks from that particular era exhibited along the trail–starting 2 billion years ago, which is the age of the oldest rocks in the canyon.
Years ago, there were no mammals on New Zealand, so the birds had no predators, which resulted in flightless birds, like the Kiwi.
Sitting atop two tectonic plates, New Zealand has an abundance of hot springs, geysers, and mud pools, all of which we will see when we visit Rotorua. But for our second day in Auckland, we are scheduled to sail in Waitemata Harbor.
View of Auckland from the water.
It looks like it is going to be a tight squeeze under the bridge. That’s our North island site coordinator, Albert.
Not to worry, there is an experienced skipper at the wheel.
Is that a concerned look on that passenger’s face?
The Road Scholar portion of our journey began on Tuesday, October 29, with a walking tour of downtown Auckland. This city has lots of interesting architecture, much of it newly constructed, so that it is earthquake-proof.
The sky tower is visible from just about everywhere in Auckland, but during our stroll we managed to catch someone jumping from the tower. See that little black speck in the lower right hand corner? That’s him, and yes, it IS an approved activity. The Kiwi are very big on bungee jumping. And no, I had absolutely no desire to “give it a go”, as they say down here.
We ended our walk at the Art Museum, which has a wonderful gallery of Maori portraits. We weren’t allowed to take photos there, but this postcard gives you an idea of what a tattooed face looks like.
As one might expect, the facial swelling from face carving is fairly severe. the guide showed us a large funnel, which functioned as a feeding tube while the facial wounds healed.
I as quite captivated by the flower sculpture hanging from the ceiling in the entryway. The petals move!
Auckland has a number of incredibly beautiful parks. The museum is next to one–Albert Park has this interesting entryway, and we did a quick walk by after our excellent lunch at the museum cafe.
Our hotel has two things going for it: a great location near the harbor, and a spectacular view from the restaurant on the 13th floor.
I told told you you could see the sky tower from everywhere!
We had just enough time for a brief walk around the waterfront before joining our group for dinner. This picture is for our former host, Norman, to show him that we actually DID see some tall ships!
New Zealand is an amazing country with many things the USA could learn from, but their wifi isn’t one of them. It is very limited, and blogging is a challenge. So, uploads are being done on the fly, and proof reading is a luxury to be reserved for better connections and more time. Typos will become a regular feature!
Time to hit the road again! For years, Mike and I have wanted to visit New Zealand, but we knew that a twenty hour plane ride could only be justified by a loooong stay. So, visiting that wonderful corner of the world had to wait until my retirement. Although I had been able to get away for three weeks while working, SIX weeks didn’t seem do-able.
Mike and I were so lucky to meet Davina and Norman on a river cruise in 2008. Our fellow cruisers were were almost evenly divided into thirds, from the USA, Canada and Australia, with Davina and Norman being the sole Kiwis. It was during a presidential election year, which made dinner discussions VERY interesting.
I’m amazed at how well informed other citizens of Planet Earth are! Makes me want to listen to the BBC more frequently, so I don’t embarrass myself with my ignorance of events outside our borders. Of course, Ted Cruz has done a good job of making me embarrassed by what has happened INSIDE our borders!
And yes, there actually IS a reason for that digression. Mike and I will be staying with Davina and Norman in Auckland for several days before our Road Scholar trip commences. I’m excited about spending time with them again, and have been blown away by their gracious hospitality. Davina offered to pick us up at the airport at the ungodly hour of 6 AM! And she has planned several days of sightseeing for us.
Getting maps into WordPress is a multi step process, easier done from my computer than iPad, so I figured I’d get it completed before we head to the airport.
First a map of the ground we will be covering during our Road Scholar trip.
Our New Zealand Adventure
At the end of that trip, Mike heads back to the USA and I start a three week project with Global Volunteers in the Cook Islands. So, where ARE the Cook Islands, you ask?
The Cook Islands
Because I will be crossing the date line, I’ll be arriving before I leave. Given that I have always been calendar challenged, this will not be a problem for me.
If you look at a map of the world, the Cook Islands show up as fifteen tiny dots, so here’s a close up of “my” island.
My home for three weeks
I’ll be staying in Rarotonga, the largest of the islands, which has a population of around 9,000. That’s about twice as many people as my home town.
I found this description of Rarotonga on the internet: “The island is one of the most beautiful in the South Pacific making it popular with around 90,000 visitors each year. The volcanic peaks and white sandy beaches with overhanging palm trees, inside a coral reef make Rarotonga a paradise island.”
Pretty tough duty, wouldn’t you say?
So, over the coming weeks, Mike and I will be hanging out in gloriously beautiful places, and I will be doing my best to capture all that fantastic beauty for your viewing pleasure. Who knows…maybe a contest down the road?
Come on along! And feel free to comment, so I stay connected with everyone!
Magnificent! Spectacular! Those adjectives are far more accurate descriptions of the natural wonder that we call The Grand Canyon. It is very difficult to capture in a photograph the enormity of this “hole in the ground”.
An early explorer, with the catchy name of James Christmas Ives, was unimpressed. He dubbed it a “profitless locality” and predicted “the Colorado River, along the greater portion of its lonely and majestic way, shall be forever unvisited and undisturbed.” Had cable news been around during his day, he might have had a brilliant career as a pundit. (I leave it to you to decide which station would hire him).
After meeting at the Scottsdale Cottonwoods Resort in Scottsdale, our group of 35 headed off to the Hualapai Lodge in Peach Springs via Sedona and Flagstaff. Our hotel is on the reservation, right by the railroad tracks. Somehow that image didn’t make it into the hotel’s decorative window.It occurred to me that the trains’ engineers might have been a little annoyed that they were working while others were sleeping. That’s the only explanation I can come up with for blasting the horn multiple times as they approached the town. And yes, there were many, many trains–about 1 every 15 minutes. Made me feel really sorry for the people who live in the Peach Springs.
The big attractions for the western Canyon were the helicopter rides down to the canyon’s bottom, river rafting to Lake Mead on the “snout rigs”, and the Sky Walk.
First the Sky Walk. It wasn’t quite what I had envisioned. We didn’t go out on it, but we saw it from the top of the canyon,
View of the Sky Walk from the rim
then later from our river raft. It’s that silver oval, jutting out from the top of the photo. What do you think? Worth an additional $70?
View of the Sky Walk from the Colorado River
We didn’t think so either.
Back to the western canyon–here’s the view from the rim–very subdued colors, with a sediment laden river (that very brown ribbon) winding along the bottom. The Colorado River is quite low because of 12 years worth of droughts and the additional water needs of the area’s growing population. Mike and I were in the last group of chopper riders, so we had time to become “one” with the landscape and to take pictures of our new friends as they climbed aboard.
The flat Colorado Plateau gave no hint of what was close by
I was lucky enough to get a front seat.
Prior to this trip, we had toyed with the idea of rafting and camping through the canyon. Our ride on the snout rig absolutely settled that issue!
I’ll let you in on a little secret. Those rigs are not the most comfortable way to travel. And if you are seated in the front, you are guaranteed to get wet, even when there are no rapids. Guess what–the water is COLD.
Our land transportation, on the other hand, was luxurious. Good thing, because we traveled from one end of the canyon to the other: from Lake Mead to Lake Powell, logging many hours on that bus.
Our next stop was the one most visited by tourists–the south rim. The advantage to going a little later in the season was that the park was not crowded. Fortunately, we didn’t go TOO late. Had we waited another week, we would have found the park closed, thanks to our fine congressmen. But that’s another story.
There are so many possible captions for this next photo. “Death Wish”, “Just one more step back, honey”, “Did you send the check to the insurance company?”…
No, they were not with OUR group!
For the more adventurous, the South Rim offers the opportunity to hike (or ride) along Bright Angel Trail. Dinner at El Tovar was not part of our tour package, but we decided to forgo the Maswick Cafeteria and enjoy that beautiful setting.
Mike and Augusta on the porch at El Tovar
The next morning, while my two favorite traveling companions caught up on their beauty sleep, I returned to the edge of the rim to catch the sunrise.
I had the view pretty much to myself.
Our last leg of the journey was to Glen Canyon where we enjoyed another raft trip and a tour of the dam.
View of the dam from the river
If you look closely at the next photo, you will see our rafts on the left hand side of the river. We get there via a two mile tunnel carved through the rock.
View of river from the dam
Drew, our fantastic river guide, kept us informed and entertained, as he guided us down the river. A former Marine and lawyer, he chooses to spend his days piloting rafts on the river, and we all benefited greatly from that decision.
Drew explained the significance of the petroglyphs, including the “modern” one. Can you make out the word “Trent” carved into the rock? it seems Trent just had to leave his mark, and in doing so, he also contributed many dollars and hours of community service for defacing a historical site. Yep, he got caught.
Petroglyphs
Some people never learn. Once again, I sat in the front. Once again, I got SOAKED from head to toe.
We spent our final night in Marble Canyon.
Here it is–the town of Marble Canyon
The best part about being in such a remote area is the skies are magnificently dark. We were lucky enough to have a professional astronomer with us–Mike gave us a wonderful impromptu lecture on the heavens. It was a great finale to a fantastic trip!
Colin Fletcher called the Grand Canyon a “huge natural museum of the earth’s history”. Okay, so I didn’t know who Colin Fletcher was either, until I signed us up for this Road Scholar trip. Now that I am a retiree (excuse me, “lifestyle manager”), I have time to actually READ the suggested background materials.
Colin Fletcher wrote “The Man who Walked Through Time: The Story of the First Trip Afoot Through The Grand Canyon”. Given that the canyon was inhabited by Native Americans for about 10,000 years before the first Europeans arrived, it isn’t hard to imagine that one or two of them might have sauntered from one end of the canyon to the other before he did, but then again, THEY never published their adventures and thoughts. I shouldn’t be too hard on Mr. Fletcher, though. After all, his book was written in the early 1900’s; half a century later, when I was in school, we still were being taught that Columbus “discovered” America, as if it were completely devoid of human inhabitants when he arrived.
So, now that I’ve gotten beyond the title, what did I learn from his book? Other than that I would never, ever even CONSIDER hiking through the canyon, I learned that you can tell the age of the rocks from their colors. I created this little chart so I’d know what I was looking at when we get there, starting from the rim and moving on down to the bottom:
Rock
Color
Thickness
Age
Limestone
White
400 feet
225 million years
Sandstone
Pale brown
350 feet
250 million years
Shale and Sandstone
Red
1,000 feet
275 million years
“The Esplanade”, Limestone
Blue gray, stained red
800 feet
450 million years
Bright Angel Shale
Layered greenish gray and purple
600 feet
475 million years
“Tonto Platform”Tapeats Sandstone
Brown
225 feet
500 million years
Schists
Dark gray with granite
Depth is unknown
Almost 2 billion years
Okay, so I have no concept of what 400 feet (or any of the other number of feet, for that matter) looks like–but when I get there, and take photos, and post them, well, then we’ll ALL know. And we’ll also know how long those bloody rocks have been plopped there.
I do better with visuals. So here’s a picture of where we will be for the week, starting and ending in Phoenix.
This trip will have an added element of adventure. The original plan was that this trip would be my father’s day present to my dad. He and Mike were going to room together, and I would be rooming with my “childhood” friend, Augusta. My dad’s knee became uncooperative, causing him to have to cancel out. Well, I notified Road Scholar and told them to change my roommate to Mike. I then learned that doing so would mean that Augusta might be assigned a female roommate, which wasn’t quite what she’d had in mind. So, Mike being an all around wonderful guy, decided to ‘take one for the team’ and agreed he’d be the solo traveler. No, that doesn’t mean HE gets the female roommate. He will only be matched up if there is another solo male traveler. The adventure part? We won’t know how this will shake out till we arrive tomorrow night.
Just think of the possibilities… Mike’s assigned roommate is a Sean Connery look alike, who gazes upon the lovely Augusta and is immediately smitten, causing us to swap roommates faster than your average college freshman. Beautiful sunsets, the canyon as a backdrop..could this be a made for TV movie, or what? Lifetime channel, perhaps?
More likely, Mike will be roommate-less. Hmmm. Maybe we shouldn’t mention that we’ve been married for 37 years. That way, if I am spotted doing the “walk of shame” out of his room some morning, it might liven up breakfast discussions.
So, which part of the blog did YOU find more interesting– rock colors and ages or the possibility of “seniors gone wild”?
Mike and I are now traveling on our own, after our whirlwind tour with Road Scholar, through Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. And what a tour it was!
My blog couldn’t keep pace with our activities and even now, this summary will only provide a taste of those incredible 20 days.
Here are a few of the many reasons I love Road Scholar.
SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE
Road Scholar made contributions on our behalf to the two village schools and hospital we visited.
One nurse per 500 children at the outpatient clinic of this free hospitalLook who else visited the hospital–but not while we were there.
While traveling in Cambodia a few years ago, the Spitlers asked their guide to suggest a worthwhile project. The end result was this village school.
Sarin, Cambodian tour guide, and head of the Spitler School
Prior to the Spitler School, children in this village had no opportunity for education.
Yes, we were captivated.
JAW DROPPING EXPERIENCES
Mike, taking in the majesty of Angkor WatThe demons guarding the bridge to Angkor ThomOne of the many faces of King Jayavarman 7Good guys on the left, demons on the right, churning the sea of milk with Jayavarman 7 gazing down on it all
And of course, the many Buddha images in Laos and Thailand were unforgettable and impressive.
WONDERFUL LECTURES
Tony Zola, another former Peace Corp volunteer who settled in Asia, was a fascinating lecturer. He spoke to us in Thailand and Laos.Tara (an American)and a local Lao woman created the Museum of Art and Ethnology.We had an amazing lunch at Fabian’s stilt home in a Laotian village, followed by a lecture.
GREAT COMPANIONS
Fantastic experiences are even better when shared with like minded companions.
The jungle templeShowing off our Baci Ceremony strings
CULTURAL IMMERSION
Elephant CampHanoi Water Puppet ShowLanna danceAncient musical instruments. That IS an elephant carved on the end of that bowOne of the marriage stories in the museum of Art and EthnologyFrom night markets…To rice paddies, we saw it all
BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE
INCREDIBLE FOOD
Judging from their rounded bellies, I think these apsaras just finished a Road Scholar trip!
I’ll give your eyeballs a rest, and stop with the photos.
You’ll just have to take my word for it, this trip was AMAZING!
For this post, the pictures will (mainly) speak for themselves.
HaLong Bay is about 4 hours by bus north of Hanoi.
I think the ballot box may have been stuffed for some of these choices, but Halong Bay definitely deserves to be on the list.The surrounding area is starting to get built up, with lots of hotels across from the beach.We, however, spent the night on the Emeraude.Take a good look. Can you find the shower? What about the “closet”?Great views from the top deck (and the middle and the lower decks)but the top deck has the bar!
I didn’t expect penguins in Vietnam Or monkeys…My sister Sue always wanted a pet monkey. I tried to convince this one to come home with me. Check out her facial expression for her answer.
We took a tender to the Surprise Cave. The third cave was enormous!
We climbed over 100 steps (I lost count) to an opening that gave us this wonderful vantage point.
I couldn’t resist posting two shots–one framed,one not. You get to choose which you prefer.
These ladies were waiting for us to return to the ship so they could sell us some of their handmade goods. How lucky were we, to see night fall on Halong Bay And with an almost full moon. My photos don’t do it justice.Sunrise on the bayEast coast girl, hanging out, enjoying the view.We cruised for a while, enjoying the effect the changing light had on the seascape (bayscape?)Time to return to Hanoi for our farewell dinner and the end of this phase of our Asian Adventure.
We spent our last morning in Cambodia cruising to the Tonle Sap Lake. During the dry season, the tributaries leading to the lake drop to a depth between 3 and 5 feet, but during the rainy season, the area floods, with the water level rising to between 24 and 30 feet, which explains why the houses are on stilts.
The children were all very cute and friendly, waving from the banks.
These tykes were too close to the river for MY comfort level.
It was slow going, getting to the lake, because we were quite a bit larger than the average Cambodian (an understatement), weighing the boat down in the already shallow passageway. That gave us plenty of time to take in the sights. A fish farm The bathroom
As usual, our excellent guide took good care of us, bringing along more snacks than we could eat. I’ve developed a very strong attachment to mangosteens, which are rightfully known as “the queen of fruits”.
Tonle Sap Lake was quite beautiful. I particularly liked the floating restaurants.
On the way back, Man tossed fruit and snacks to the kids. This little boy was delighted with his catch.
Time to move — to another country and another climate. North Vietnam is quite a bit cooler than the other three countries we visited, as you might guess from our wardrobe. “Well, east coast girls are hip, I really dig those styles they wear”. — the Beach Boys
And now a preview of coming attractions…tune in again for the Hanoi version of “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride”.
Destination NOW 