New Zealand Wrap-up

New Zealand or at least its South Island has some excellent scenery, but not much else. The landscape is certainly unique given NZ's geological, geographic, and weather patterns, but I'm not sure that its that different from things you can find elsewhere in the world. It seems like it would be a great place to come to if all you wanted to do for several weeks was camp, hike, and do other outdoor activites, but probably isn't the greatest place to blow through as quickly as I did.

Culturally, its probably even less exotic to an American than Austarlia. If anything, New Zealanders are more like Canadians or British than anything else I can think of. Its British heritage is very apparent; it almost seems in many ways like NZ is still a British colony. (The food is relatively bland and they eat lots of fish'n'chips in addition to meat pies.) There was less Maori culture evident than I expected, but I guess that's always true with such things.

Another thing that seemed odd about NZ is its economic future: it is clearly a first-world country, but doesn't seem to have much of an economy beyond tourism and farming. I can't understand how it will be able to sustain itself economically because the more tourists come here the less desireable of a place it becomes for tourism. People in NZ also seem resistant to the idea that they should probably strengthen their economic and political ties to Australia and to Asia as Britian is no longer looking out for it.

Day 80 (25 August): More Driving

I spent most of the day today driving back to Christchurch, so I can make my 5:50 am flight to Hong Kong via Sydney tomorrow. The drive included a stop in Hokitaka where I saw some stores selling 'Maori' Jade Art and went to a wildlife shelter that housed NZ's National Symbol: The Kiwi, which is a bird not a fruit. Further along the drive, I travelled through Arthur's Pass, which is NZ's highest town. Reaching Christchurch, I walked around the town a bit, but there isn't much to see other than the big cathedral in the central square and a bunch of tourist oriented shops selling things made from 100% NZ Merino wool or 'NZ All Blacks' Rugby 'Kits.'

Observations:
1) The Kiwi is a weird national symbol/animal. It is a funny looking, nocturnal bird, that digs a really long beak into the ground hunting for food. It is nearly extinct, New Zealanders claim because the Australians introduced the oppossum to NZ which hunts down the Kiwi and kills it. (It should be noted that an Australian Oppossum is more like and American Raccoon than any other animal and in no way resembles an American Oppossum.)
2) A lot of Asians (particularly Koreans) have come to NZ for education at its high schools and its universites as a means of learning English in an English speaking country.

Day 79 (24 August): Walking on a Big Ice Cube

I went on a guided hike of the Franz Joseph Glacier today. The Franz Joseph Glacier is unique for two reasons: 1) it is the world's steepest commercially guided glacier and 2) it is the only glacier in the world to be surrounded by rainforest. (NZ's rainforests are temperate ones meaning they have lots of moss, unlike tropical ones.) After strapping some crampons to my feet and picking up and ice axe, the hike included climbing up some big ice falls across ladder bridges that spanned 150 deep crevices, and putting myself in some other rather precarious but exciting situations while seeing some amazing scenery up close.

Observations:
1) The town of Franz Joseph exists only so people can hike the glacier. Its kindof weird, but restaurants are only open when glacier hikes return and shut down after that crowd has left. Otherwise, its pretty much a ghost town with nothing else for about 100 km in either direction along the only road that goes up-and-down the Island's West Coast.
2) The glacier guide was complaining the whole day about how everything in NZ is being bought up by foreign companies, particularly Canadian ones which said owned the whole timber industry and were going after farming as well.

Day 78 (23 August): Extreme

I spent the morning wandering around Queenstown before driving onward to Franz Joesph (which is on the South Island's 'Rugged' West Coast.) This meant driving across several mountain passes for about 6 hours and only passing 2 'towns' the whole way. There were a number of cool waterfalls that I stopped at along the way.

Observations:
1) Queenstown is the world headquarters for any sort of exterme activity. Bunging jumping was invented there. Also on offer is sky diving at the world's cheapest rates, driving ATVs over boulders, mountain biking on the same boulders, jet boating, paragliding, and anything else you can imagine as long as it means being outdoors and putting your life on the line (or at least feeling like you are.) I didn't really have time to get to risk my life with any of these activities unfortunately.
2) Towns seem to be definied by having a small church in NZ wheras cities are definied by having cathedrals (most of which are Anglican.) (As a side note, in the only rural part of Australia I was in near Melbourne town seemed to be defined by having a hotel/pub in them.)
3) NZ Lamb is not special. Obviously given the large number of sheep around it shouldn't be expensive and it isn't at restaurants. Its also one of the cheapest meats in supermarkets. I wish someone could explain to me why buying a 'rack of NZ lamb' in the United States is one of the most expensive meat purchase you can make when the country has over 40 Million of the animals that produce the stuff.
4) Land mammals. NZ had no land mammals until the 1800s when the Europeans arrived. The only mammals it had were bats and whales. It was a country entirely filled with reptiles and birds, meaning there are a lot of interesting looking birds around, including the Kea which is the world's only tempeate zone, alpine parrot.

Day 77 (22 August): Skiing in August!

I went skiing today at a mountain called Treble Cone (about 1.5 hours from Queenstown by bus since my rental car agreement said I couldn't drive the road to the mountain as it was too dangerous). Treble Cone is supposed to offer NZ's best, most advanced skiing terrain on a mountain with commercial ski lifts. The skiing in the morning wasn't great as there were white-out snow conditions. In the afternoon, however, it was great as the sky cleared and much of the mountain had about 6 inches of fresh, untouched snow--making it one of my best ski days ever as the mountain had some nice shoots between boulders on its backside.

On the bus ride back, the bus took a long stop at Cadrona Hotel which has one of NZ's most famous pubs known for its Apres Ski specials that include outdoor fires, hot black currant juice, etc.

Observations:
1) Finding what you need. Apparently the Austrian Ski Team comes to NZ during every European summer to find the snow that it needs.
2) Size doesn't matter. Treble Cone only had two chair lifts operating (and only three chair lifts total) but still had a lot of terrain that was accessible from those lifts.
3) NZ is one of the cheapest places in the world to go Heli-Skiing (e.g. jumping out of Helicopters to go skiing on fresh snow) at around only USD 425 a day. Too bad I don't have that kind of money to spend at this point because some of the mountains around here look amazing.
4) British in New Zealand. There are lots of British people in New Zealand many of whom become New Zealand citizens, but it seems like most of the other travellers here are either from the UK or Australia. (Although the locals make fun of Australians a lot.)

Day 76 (21 August): Sound?

This morning I drove up from Te Anu into Fjordland National Park where I took a boat out on Milford Sound. From there I drove back through Te Anu to Queenstown. (Again, like most of my days in NZ, you'll have to wait for the pictures.)

Observations:
1) Milford is not really a Sound, but a Fjord. A Fjord is a large body of water carved out by a glacier whereas a Sound is carved out by flowing water, not flowing ice.
2) Obvious names for roads. The road from Te Anu to Milford is called 'The Long and Windy Road,' no joke. This is even more obvious than the 'Great Ocean Road' in Australia.
3) Maps and tourist information in NZ. There is an overabundance of tourist information in NZ. When I booked my boat ride on Milford in Te Anu at the Tourist Info Centre I was handed a map from there to Milford. While the drive may have been a 2.5 hour one, I certainly didn't need a map as there was only one road, but the lady behind the counter insisted I needed one nonetheless, so I wouldn't miss the 'well marked' lakes and other 'sites' along the way.
4) Over touristed? NZ gets 2 Million tourists a year for a population of only 4 Million (only 1 Million of which are on the South Island which is where most tourists go.) Since it is Winter here now, there are very few toursits as it is not 'high season' but it feels like there are certainly more visitors around than locals.
5) Racism. This topic came up as I was talking to a lady at a petrol station after she correctly identified that I had an accent. She then proceeded to talk about how she wanted to go to New Orleans with her family for Mardi Gras next year but was worried about racisim in the American South as she was part of a mixed race family since her husband was Maori. (She also told me that some of her kids are completely white while others are dark; kindof a strange phenomenon.)

Day 75 (20 August): Lots of Driving

I spent most of the day today driving as I expect to for a large portion of my time on New Zealand's South Island as its know for its scenery and scenic drives. Today I spent most of my time on the way to my first jumping off point which is in the South-West of the Island, Te Anu, the gateway to NZ's Fjordland National Park. On the way from Christchurch (the Island's biggest city with around 300,000 people) I drove down along the West Coast and turned Westward at Dunedin (the Island's secon larest city. Along the way I stopped at various lookouts (including one where there were supposed to be pengiuns that I couldn't find) and took short walks as well.

Observations:
1) There are 10 times more sheep in New Zealand than people. (There are only 4 Million people.)
2) Rugby is huge here. The only times I saw people other than inside gas stations and small places that I stopped for food they were outside playing rugby. Otherwise I heard about Rugby on the radio (when I got reception.)
3) Farming in NZ. It is not machine farming like in the US, but is locally done and the farms are small. Mostly, farmers tend sheep, but deer for venision meat is also popular. Next most popular but pretty far back was cattle, closely followed by Alpaca and Emu.
4) College traditions. They exist everywhere. I was driving in the opposite direction of 'Grand Prix' day for Otago University in Dunedin. The kids there paint things over beat up vans and race them up to Chirstchurch.
5) Maori (or Pacific Islanders that were first to settle New Zealand) have blended into the paheka (or white population.) I met a guy today who looked completely white (almost albino) who told me two of his grandparents were Maori. Maori genes must not be that strong.
6) Buying and renting cars in NZ is very cheap. I am paying less than USD 25 per day. Prices for used cars that don't look that old or in that bad of shape are as low as USD 3000.

Australia Wrap-up

Australia has certainly been the least exotic place that I've visited on my trip thus far, but has also been one of the most pleasant. As I have a tendancy to compare things and places, its hard for me not to think of Austalia as being a mix of what I consider the better elements of California and New England rolled into one. Even the cities I visited seemed similar with Sydney being like San Francisco and Melbourne being like LA, both with a bit of Boston mixed in. The biggest difference between those parts of the US and Australia are that the wildlife is different, the scenery is different (although it is a lot like California scenery,) and people have a funny accent. People are also more friendly in Australia than either of those parts of the US: culturally, its almost like what I would have imagined the US would have been like 50 years ago (or at least as it comes across on old TV shows,) where everyone supposedly had friendly neighbors, left their doors unlocked, kids didn't argue with parents, and no one worried about much of anything. Its distance from the rest of the world probably has a lot to do with why people can afford to have such an outlook. Its the type of place that would be nice to live (although I'm not sure that I would move there) as the lifestyle is very appealing: 1) sports that I like (Rowing, Triathlon, and Surfing) are all taken very seriously in Australia and its a great place to do them; 2) food in Australia is also taken very seriously as most restaurant have a much higher quality standard than in the US; 3) businesses in Australia have a more natural Asia orientation (or are at least developing one as ties to Europe fade) and it realizes that Asia is the only thing geographically closeby.

Day 74 (19 August): Urban Markets

I explored a bunch of Melbourne's neighborhoods before heading to the airport for a flight to Christchurch, New Zealand. I started out by checking out the Victoria Market which is a large covered famer's market with other merchants too. I then saw a number of Melbournes sights in and around its flat, grid-like CBD (or Central Business District) including the Shopping Arcade, the Flinders Street Station (Austalia's busiest train station, although by world standards not very busy), Federation Square (a modern arts complex with some interesting architecture), Rowing Boathouses along the Yarra River, Chinatown, and the state of Victoria's parliment house.

Observations:
1) Preservation of Old Buildings. Melbourne has done a very good job of this while also having some of the nicest modern architecure I've seen. Doing so makes cities a lot more pleasant even if they don't have a lot of history (which Melbourne doesn't.)
2) Rich countries other than the US also have markets as I saw at the Victoria Market. In many ways it was like a very upscale, cleaner, and more organized version of the type of thing you expect to find more in third-world countries.
3) Don't lock your keys in your rental car! I did this today which meant a round-trip (read as expensive as two days of renting the car) taxi ride out to the airport to get a master key so I could get them out. It also almost made me miss my flight.
4) Immigrants to Australia. The upside of the taxi ride to the aiport was that I had an interesting conversation with the taxi driver who immigrated from China under some sort of assylum type arrangement after having been a student who participated in the Tianmen Square incident in 1989. He said that immigrant life in Australia's pretty good but noted a bit of racism (which he actualy though might have been brought about by the Chinese Community in Melbourne as many of them refused to learn English as they could get by in his neighborhood speaking Mandrin.)

Day 73 (18 August): Lots of Scenery

Today, I did a lot more scenic driving. I headed further down the Great Ocean Road through some rainforests and then along some Sandstone cliffs and to the '12 Apostles National Park' where there are some cool sandstone pillars sitting out in the middle of the ocean. I then headed inland and back towards Melbourne, taking a Ferry across the bottom portion of the Bay that Melbourne is on the Northern edge of and driving up through the Mornington Peninsula (which is sort of like a Cape Cod type area for Melbourne.) There were also a number of wineries and vineyards along the route. I stopped at St. Kilda (a Santa Monica like suburb) before heading into Melbourne itself where I stayed in the urban-hip Fitzroy District which is full of restaurants, bars, coffee shops, etc.

Observations:
1) Australia is a really big place. The towns in the country are really spread out.
2) Hungry Jack's. I passed a lot of these along the drive today. They are almost exactly the same as Burger King with an quivalent logo only it says Hungry Jack's on the inside of the Burger on the sign. Apparently, Burger King messed up its licensing contract and the local chain gets a lot of leeway and keeps a larger portion of the profits than anywhere else in the world.
3) Racisim in Australia. I had a conversation with an older lady on the ferry to the Mornington Peninsula about it. She seemed to think that Australia needs to get over its problems and be more accepting of outsiders and particularly Asian immigrants if it is going to compete going forward. She thought that Austarlians on average tended to be a little racist because historical the Whites there had dominated the Aborigines and then had very little interaction with non-white people otherwise.

Day 72 (17 August): Southern Surf Coast

I took an early flight from Sydney to Melbourne where I rented a car and avoided the city altogether, as I headed Southwest from the airport to the 'Great Ocean Road' which is akin to California's Pacific Coast Highway although the coast line is very different. Incidently the flight had some decent scenery out the windows as we flew over Canberra (Australia's capital) and the Snowy Mountains (no joke that is their name and yes they were snowy.)

The part of the 'Great Ocean Road' that I drove down today was along the part of Australia's Southern Coast (which seems like a strange concept, but yes they actually have coasts for each cardinal direction) know for surfing. As such, I found a place to rent a surfboard and wetsuit, making Australia the fourth country I've surfed in. Unfortunately, however, the break was probably the worst along the coast, but happened to be the only place where I could walk from a rental shop to the water that was open. Further along the coast, I drove by a golf course that had Kangaroos in the wild hoping around it while people played golf.

I eventually made it to a town called Lorne where I spent the night and went on a short hike to a waterfall there.

Observations:
1) A bunch of people told me that Sydney-Melbourne is the world's most travelled air route, even above NY-DC, NY-Boston, San Francisco-LA which I find hard to believe, but given that their is only one airport for each city along the Australia route, I could see how there could be more flights between the two airports than any other two airports given that there are several airports for each of the US Metro areas.
2) Winter slow down. I was surprised how much was shut down along the Great Ocean Road, but apparently no one visits it during the winter (which is quite mild as day time highs were around 70 degrees.)
3) Employment schemes. The Great Ocean Road was built after WWII to employ all of the Australia serivcemen returning home in a massive employment scheme. It doesn't really connect anything and just sort of trails off at the end unlike the Pacific Coast Highway in California.
4) Driving on the left hand side of the road. Its a weird thing to do for the first time and as a result I kept turning on the windsheild wippers instead of my turn signal since the two levers are reversed.
5) I ate Kangaroo for dinner today. It was actually quite good, along the lines of venison. Its quite strange, however, that Australian's would eat and even farm their National Animals. (They do the same with the Emu which is their second, lesser-known National Animal.)

Day 71 (16 August): Rougher Neighborhoods

This morning, my cousin James and I headed to Manly (in the Northeast) to seek out waves to surf at a location where we could rent wetsuits and boards. Finding none, James decided it would be a good idea to take me on a short tour of the neighborhood his parents considered too 'dodgy' to see, but what he considered the real Sydney (and I suspect he was right even if the guidebooks say nothing about them.) These were neighborhoods in the so-called 'Inner West' which were further inland. While we barely got out of the car to wander around, they were clearly where the younger crowd that's more my age would live and include Glebe (near the University of Sydney), Surrey Hill (which has become the gay area), Paddington (which his parent's also showed me a bit of), and 'The Cross' or King's Cross (which has been Sydney's Red Light district.)

After all of that he dropped me of at his oldest brother Robert's office. (Robert moved out of his parents house at age 25 but his parents don't really understand why he would want to leave especially to live in the 'Inner East'.) I got lunch with Robert who I don't think I'd seen for at least five years and then we headed further West, stopping at a Wildlife park where we took in some Kangaroos (in 26 years of living in Australia Robert claims never to have seen one before), Wallabies, Dingos (which are essential dogs that can't bark but are known to be quite vicious nonetheless,) Koalas, Wombats, Tasmanian Devils, and all sorts of other strange Australian wildlife that you can't find anywhere else. We then headed even further West into the Blue Moutains to a town called Katoomba which had a great lookout point on some uniquely Australian scenery.

Observations:
1) Smoothies. These have become really popular in Australia, but apparently are an American/California invention.
2) Australia has some really interesting animals, but for some reason much of it despite looking relatively tame is actually quite aggressive towards people. Maybe its because they didn't have much interaction with people until around 200 years ago.
3) Gay neighborhoods and real estate. My investment idea of buying real estate in gay neighborhoods because it will almost certainly increase in value as neighborhoods gentrify apparently also holds in the Southern Hemisphere.
4) Australian cars. A lot of the cars in Australia looked familiar to me, but I couldn't tell why. That's because Australia's big manufactuer, Holden, is actually owned by GM and basically sells GM cars with different names. Ford Australia, however, puts out an entirely different set of cars, none of which you can find in the US. In fact, the Fords in Australia seem like better cars than the ones you would find in the US. Maybe they should move their Australian engineers to Detroit or at least start putting out the same cars in the US?
5) Australia has a labor shortage. The government recently decided that it needs 20,000 new workers from overseas and is aggressively trying to convince people to immigrate to Australia.
6) Toilet issue. James and I could not seem to resolve whether or not toilet water actually swirls the opposite direction in the Southern Hemisphere than it does in the Northern Hemisphere, since most of the toilets in Australia seem to suck straight down rather than swirling. It would be great if anyone has any insight on this trival point.

Day 70 (15 August): Wandering the City

I actually made it around to exploring the city of Sydney today after avoiding it thus far for suburbs. I started out in an area called the Rocks that is akin to its Old Town as that's where some of the first settlers lived. From there I took a walk across the harbor bridge and got another view of the Opera House (as I had the day earlier on a quick drive through the city to the Eastern suburbs.) Around mid-day I jumped in a Jet Boat for a very quick spin (including some random 360 degree turns for fun) around the harbor in a boat that went ultra fast.

In the afternoon I went to the 'Maritime Museum' which had a lot that appealed to me as it had section on both rowing and surfing in Australia. It also had section on the 'discovery' of Sydney, sailing, and Aboriginal maritime culture. Before heading home for the day I also made it to the Aquarium where I got to see a real, live Platypus (which only exist in Australia), some penguins (which apparently live in Sydney Harbor and don't need cold weather, but do need to be in the Southern Hemisphere), and some sharks. To top it off, the aquarium also had my previous day's lunch on display, so I got to see what a Balmain Bug looks like (prehistoric) and a Baramundi too.

Observations:
1) Birds in Australia. They are really different than anywhere else in the world, but I guess the native animals are too, you just don't see kangaroos hopping down the street in Sydney though.
2) It is the law that you must use turn signals when changing lanes in Australia not just a courtesy. Apparently you can get ticketed and fined for not doing so.
3) Telecommunications subsidies in Australia are huge. They are intended to keep the rural areas prices in line with the city prices, which makes the city prices very high. This is a result of the way the government and electoral process is set up.
4) Tunnels and roads in Sydney are frequently operated on toll paying basis where one 'smart chip' on a car works with them all even though each tends to be operated by a different privately owned company.
5) Aborigines. On several occasions so far I've heard people talking about how aborigines are another speices. They get attributed for a lot of the crime as well, but you don't see any or at least I haven't yet.