Saturday, November 24, 2012
One Last Post until Next Time
So by midday we were back in Christchurch. We dropped the girls off at the hotel right next to the airport, drop the rental off and walked back to the hotel. We said our rather unhappy farewells during "tea" (dinner), with promises to join forces again. After a whole month of traveling together, we were still friends. Pat and Phil would spend two more days in New Zealand, hosted by Glennis and Max. The map below shows our route. So stay tuned until next time.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Looking for Lunch
While looking for a place for lunch, I found this rose bush. It was far better than the long wait and average lunch we eventually found. It was a holiday so we had to pay an extra 15% sir charge because all employee were on time and a half.
On the Road Again
Here we're coming out of the mountains on the other side along the Waimakariri River. Say that three times fast.
A Possum Downunder
This is what a "possum"--not a opossum (I got it wrong on an earlier post)--looks like in New Zealand and Australia.
A Real (but not live) Kiwi
We didn't see a living kiwi so we were surprise to see how big this stuffed one was.
Protection
Here are two structures within Arthur's Pass designed to protect travelers: one from rock slides and one from water coming off the mountain.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Before Leaving the Chalet
Sad to say, this is our last day of traveling together on this trip. We headed back to Christchurch over Arthur's Pass.
Scottish Highland Cattle, Alpaca and Sow
These lovely creatures were in pens all around our beachfront chalet.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Approaching Fox Glacier
When we got up this morning, we could actually see the very tip of Mount Cook, the same mountain we saw from opposite side on Sunday. By the time we parked the car for our hike to the glacier.
Walking to Lake Matheson
Before we headed off to hike toward Fox Glacier, we took a walk to see Lake Matheson, a moraine lake formed by Fox Glacier when receding from the time when extended into the Tasman Sea.
Thursday Morning
Would you believe these shot were taken from the back side of our motel room? Their the mountains looming over Fox Glacier. We were very lucky. The sky was very clear.
Sunday, November 18, 2012
The Final Journey
Okay, I know I'm a few days behind but I'm going to recount our "adventure" home before I go back and catch up with our touring.
Imagine starting off by getting up at 4:00am in a time zone 18 hours ahead of EST, i.e., in Christchurch, New Zealand. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:00 and it did. So far, so good. The first flight--to Sydney--was uneventful. We would soon agree that uneventful was a good thing. Our first little incident was the confiscation of Nancy's little yarn snips, dull little yarn snips that had made it through five inspections to this point, including that which occurred the first time we passed through Sydney. But this inspector was quite proud of the fact that he caught what others had missed, even suggesting that American inspectors were lax. We couldn't resist letting him know that we had already gone through Sydney a month ago. In any event, this incident would be the only excitement during our seven hour layover in Sydney.
After that we boarded the plane for our 13 hour plus flight to Los Angeles. This leg of the trip was grueling. Seated in the center seats, we were reluctant to get up too often because we would have to disturb the person on the aisle each time. Then add to it a crying, screaming two year old (I learned that she was two later on when the mother told another woman that Stella was "in her terrible twos.") seated right behind us. On our trip from LA to Sydney on Virgin Australia we received masks and ear plugs and managed a reasonable amount of sleep on the way. Not so on this trip with United. Stella managed to keep us up most the night--along with the movie flashing on the video screens overhead.
We were soooo glad to get off that plane, only to encounter a fiasco getting through customs. We had figured that with a layover of over three hours, we would have plenty of time. But after picking up our baggage and checking it for the remaining two flights, we had to back track to get in the queue [Australians do not use the term "line" for this sort of thing] that stretched farther than the eye could see. After some time a woman came through announcing that anyone needing to catch a flight scheduled to leave at 12:45 or sooner could enter an expedited lane. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 1:00, would you believe, so we couldn't use that line. By the time we got through customs, it was just enough time to board our next flight. By this time we had been traveling for 26 hears.
But wait! Guess who was to climb into the seats in front of us. That's right, Stella and her loving mother. I say "loving" because she was not adverse to telling everyone who was willing to listen how bratty Stella was. We also heard her slap the toddler several times. She was not a candidate for mother of the year. I felt sorry for the unfortunate young Asian man who had to sit with them for the five hour flight to Washington. I said to Nancy that he was likely to run out as soon as possible to buy a truckload of condoms. It goes without saying that we did not get much peace and quiet on this jaunt either.
We were concerned about our last connection because we had a little over an hour between flights and this one was running a bit late. The flight attendant was clueless and had little to offer in the way of suggestions for assuring that we made our connection. A couple behind us, however, had overheard us ask about it and looked up the gate number using their smartphone. They were also familiar with Dulles and gave us some pointers. We made it to the gate on time, only to learn that the flight was delayed, first 15 minutes, then 30, then indefinitely before being finally canceled altogether. Apparently there was a small faulty part affecting the outside lighting and that part was nowhere to be found. By this time it was midnight and we were now 31 hours into out journey.
Everyone was rushing to the service counter to stand in a line [we're in the States now] to arrange new flights and hotel accommodations. Unfortunately we were served by a young man who must have been new at the job. He kept having to ask others about what to do. After some time we found ourselves in a taxi taking the half hour trip to the Hyatt Regency in Crystal City, Virginia, a hotel right next to Reagan National Airport. Arriving at 1:00am, we had to ask for a wake up call for 5:00am so that we could catch our 7:30 Delta flight to Detroit. Yes, our fourth flight back home had just become two flights.
Again, with the flight getting off a little late we were concerned about our connection. This time, however, the Delta flight assistant was very helpful and suggested we could use our Kindle Fire to find which gate we would fly in and out of. Since this would be the third time we had been to the airport in Detroit, we had some idea of what we were up against. We also found out that the last flight was also running a bit late, so we had no problem getting there on time. Detroit must have some special magic involving coincidence, because, just as we had encountered Mary Wagner on our way to Australia, we ran into Laurie Holdridge and Darrell Murray on their way home from Florida, waiting for the same flight we would end up taking home. Meisha and Dave surprised us by meeting us at the airport in Binghamton so we wouldn't have to drive home ourselves. It was so good to see them, along with Everett, of course, and after 43 and a half hours ,we were finally home.
I took a picture of Nancy waiting for our last flight but it was too blurring, so you'll have to be happy with this shot out the window of our last plane home.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Arriving at Fox Glacier
Soon we were in Fox Glacier at the Sunshine Motel. Here's our rental car outside our rooms. We ate at the White Pub.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)