Day 40 - 45 Stella Australis Cruise

Day 40 - Fly ALL day

We got up at 5:30 this morning to catch our 9:15 flight. We were a bit nervous on catching a cab and getting to the airport on time. The traffic was horrible yesterday into the city. Ironically, we walked downstairs at 6:50 and there was a cab waiting at the entrance to the apartment complex. We flew to the airport as the city was not up yet.

We left our flight on time and had one stop over in Puerto Montt for 30 minutes. Everything was grand until we broke through the clouds in Punta Arenas. Nothing seemed abnormal until the pilot yanked the plane back up right as we were about 5 seconds from touching ground. He went straight back up above the clouds. After about 5 minutes (which felt like 30) he came on the over head and let us know that it was too windy and that we were going back to Puerto Montt. WHAT! Eventually we were told that the airport had been closed earlier in the AM, but was open when we left the airport. It was too windy to land and the pilot chose not to fly to a closer airport for some unknown reason.

So we flew 2 hrs from Santiago, then 2 hours from Puerto Montt, and now we are flying 2 more hrs back to Puerto Montt. We did not get any instructions until we deplaned in Puerto Montt. Here we learned that we would fly another 2 hours back to Santiago. After an hour layover, we took the flight back to Santiago and were put up in the Crown Plaza for the night. We were rebooked (along with 130 other people) on a direct flight at 8:50 am. We left the hotel in Santiago at 6:50 am and returned to another one at 9:00 pm. What a travel day. We most certainly should get double airline miles for this trip.

There were many interesting pieces during all of this. We did not buy a SIM card for my iPhone as we were waiting until we got to Argentina. The problem with the extra day was that our five day cruise to Ushuaia left at 5:00 pm, so we missed it. I had no cell phone to even call and rebook. During the layover, we met many people in the same boat. Luckily I was able to use one of their phones to get our agent with Southern Explorations back at the states to figure out a solution. When we landed in Santiago, I had an email with confirmation for the same cruise leaving two days later. We are going to spend one extra night in Punta Arenas after the night in Santiago. We will then skip our two days exploring Ushuaia as we have a flight the same morning our new cruise lands in Ushuaia. What a disaster. Not being able to land really changed our itinerary. Although we did get to eventually do the cruise, we were bummed to have to skip hiking at the southernmost city in the world. Additionally, we cruised on the older cruise ship. Lesson learned, give yourself more time in the port city when disembarking on the cruise.

With Puerto Montt not having any internet and me not having a cell phone, we got very lucky that there were English speaking tourists on the flight too and that they were willing to let us barrow their phone. We ended up meeting Gary from Albuquerque/DC who is trying to hike in Torres de Paine. We also met a couple (Richard and Kate) from the UK who have been living in Santiago for the past six months and were able to help translate the chaotic situation. I feel like I know them pretty well for only having met them less than 24 hours ago. There is also a group of US journalists who got rebooked on our flight and our cruise.

 

We took advantage of our wified Crown Plaza and found that the California Cantina played US sporting games. It is in the part of town that many expats live. We made our way to the bar since we couldn't get the game live on our iPads. Their Direct TV FOX channel was showing Transformers. However, they could stream it live via some random sports gambling website. So we got to watch it pixilated on a TV screen. There was one MSU fan there for the first half until he gave up on the constant breakage in internet coverage. Eventually another OSU fan made their way to the bar. We did have the privilege of listening to a few Michigan and SEC fans rooting against the buckeyes. We did enjoy experiencing the "local" scene with some local beer, and the best nachos you could possible eat at 2:00 am. The game itself, well, it sucked. No more comments needed on that front. We got to bed at 2:30 for a 5:00 am wake up call.

We are very thankful for the hospitality that LAN airlines has shown us. Despite their lack of frequent communication, their execution has been stellar. They fed us lunch, dinner, and breakfast, put us up in a hotel, shuttled us, and rebooked us all on the next flight. All of this for a domestic flight and due to weather. No airline in the US would have done this. Being a tourist with minimal Spanish, we were thankful. I can't imagine how frustrated tourists in the US get when they get our airline treatment. All of the hospitality for a weather (wind) problem.

I think I will buy a SIM card in every country moving forward.

Day 41 - Flight to Punta Arenas

Early rise this morning at 5:00 after going to bed at 3:00! We quickly got our luggage ready, ate breakfast, and left on the shuttle at 6:30. An uneventful shuttle and airport experience. Our direct flight (thank goodness) from Santiago to Punta Arenas was smooth getting us into Punta Arenas at about 12:30. The airport was very efficient and the luggage was out within minutes. We said goodbye to Richard, Kate, and Gary as we felt as if they were friends at this point. They were all leaving to go hiking in Torres del Paine.

We took a 10 minute cab ride to our hotel Cabo de Hornos which was beautiful. Thinking back, I actually don't think I took pictures of the solid rock first floor. And by solid, I mean floor to walls. You would think it would be a cold area, but the complimentary wood and decor made it feel warm and inviting. There were hide backed chairs in the bar area that were very unique.

We dropped our stuff off and went out exploring. Being Sunday, many shops and restaurants were closed. Our tripadvisor lead was close, so we ate at the corner Spanish styled restaurant. Since they were out of the meat empanadas, I ordered what Kristen ordered, a vegetable "omelette". Turns out that you have to specify egg as the default is a potato based omelette that I did not care for. Luckily the grilled potatoes for a side were delicious. Kristen ate her omelet and liked it. The best part of the lunch was that we sat next to an American couple who just got married and where three months into their 12 month vacation around the world. We talked about where and what we liked in SE Asia as they were heading their. They talked about their Antarctica 19 day trip that they just came back from. A very fun conversation, but they had to catch the bus so it only lasted about 15 minutes.

We then walked through the local grocery store. We both enjoy looking at what foods the locals buy. Many things the same, many things different. It is also an easy way to test some of your foreign language knowledge as things are well labeled. This part of the world is more about meat than about produce which was obvious in the store.

We walked to the highest hill in town to get a perspective of the area. This was the best attraction in Punta Arenas. We started to walk along the beach, but I was exhausted and only had a few hours left in me. We decided to head back to the hotel for our free welcome drink and dinner. Wine, spinach pizza, cookies, the best homemade chocolate ice cream, and a few games of cards was all I needed before hibernation. We both slept from 7:00 pm to 8:00 am. We needed the catch up from the two hours the night before. I was actually impressed with how well we managed for that little sleep.

Day 42 - Disembarkment on Via Australis

Finally, a day of Disembarkment! This is what we came to the end of the world for. We ate breakfast and kind of relaxed a bit until about 10:00. Kristen went to the gym and I ran some laundry to the lavenderia. 4,000 pesos for 2 kg (4 lbs) of clothes. I dropped off about 11:00 and we picked it up at 3:15 pm. Not bad service for the price!

We ate lunch at the grocery store where I got to try two different empanadas. They were not good as you buy them cold and heat them in the microwave. I will have to give them another try. Kristen was excited as they had a good selection of vegetable dishes, but both turned out to be poor also. I saved the lunch with some delicious chocolate ice cream. Thank god Kristen knows Spanish as it would be much more difficult to get things accomplished here. They speak very little English.

We tried to check into the cruise at 1:00, but we were not in the "system" since we switched cruises due to the delay. We showed them the confirmation, and the lady asked us to come back at 3:30 to give her time to process. She was not worried and tried to calm our fears of a problem. We tried to tour the local Astralis brewery, but it was closed for the day already! We showed back up at 3:30 to another, come back at 5:00. Now we were worried as check in was from 1:00-5:00! However, we came back at 5:00, and they had things processed! We were the last ones to check in.

The craziest part of the day was how we chose our time from 3:30-5:00. We had two leads on apartments in Portland that we decided to investigate. I was hesitant as I knew we would have to finalize one of them or it was a waste of time since we were going to be off internet for about a week. The internet service was poor, especially the wifi. However, there was a decent connection in their business office. I couldn't call on skype since I couldn't connect our iPads or iPhones. I remembered that google chat had a calling function. I logged in and downloaded the plug-in and bam, we had a telephone line. I loaded $10 into my account and Katherine answered at Kearny Place in the Pearl District of Portland. She confirmed that there was a two bed two bath available January 15th! She sent pictures and the link to apply online. Of course, today the link does not work! Damn! It is not 4:15 and we need to get moving. I called her back and she sent the application. We quickly filled them out and faxed them to the office at 4:45. While the faxes were going through, we ran across the street, checked in with the cruise to return to the business office to call Kearny Place back to confirm they received the fax. They had! We quickly called Kristen's mom to ask her to send in the application check (since the online system was down, there was no way to pay online). So, as long as our background goes through, we most likely will have a 4th floor 2 bed, 2 bath with a balcony right in the heart of Portland! We haven't toasted with champaign yet but hopefully I have an email right now confirming our arrangements! No way to check since we don't have wifi.

We boarded the cruise and we were the first room on the main floor. It is much bigger than I expected. The cruise ship is nice since it was built in 2004. It is the second newest in the fleet. We were supposed to be on the newest ship on our original cruise, but we try not to think of it. Most notably, the rooms had floor to ceiling windows for better viewing and a fitness gym. I think I was most disappointed about the windows and Kristen the gym. Turns out that neither would have been better as Kristen would have had trouble with the bigger windows and there was not way she could have ran on a treadmill in the seas we had.

We met a great Swiss couple at the welcome reception who have travelled all over the world. We enjoyed hearing about their adventures. We learned a lot of travel tips from them. It turned out that Franziska was in Cambodia weeks before us and she saw the temples in flooded waters. We were lucky to experience Cambodia when we did!

We met a couple from DC who are at our dinning room table assignment: he a professor in modern European history and her working in the satellite intelligent office. To say the least, I think we talked about everything we had in common in that one dinner.

On board we have 12 countries represented:

Germany, Argentina, Canada, Spain, US, France, Italy, Malyasia, UK, Singapore, Switzerland, and Chile.

Following dinner, we had drinks again at the expedition lecture and continued to chat with the Swiss couple until about 11 pm. It was cloudy out, so we could not star gaze tonight. It is amazing that at 11 pm, the sun still puts off a lot of light. It officially is setting at 10:30 pm and rising at 5:00 am.

Day 43 - 1st day of exploring

I woke up at 5:30 to bright skies. Since we left the curtains open it was easy to get up. I was excited to start the day, so I could not fall back asleep. I waited for the alarm to go off at 6:00 so I wouldn't wake Kristen. We were up for early riser coffee at 7:00. Most of the boat was still in their cabin, so it was very peaceful to walk about and take in the mountain views. I think we will make this routine the next few days.

We spent some time this morning chatting with the group of travel journalists. We both enjoy talking with them as they are our age and have very different but interesting stories.

We got to meet the other couple at our table this morning. They were from Luxembourg! How cool is that! He is a general surgeon and she a tax lawyer. We didn't get to talk long with them, but will get to know them more over the next few days. After a quick breakfast, we got dressed and disembarked to Ainsworth Bay. We were successful in getting in the group with the travel journalists (key as your first group is your group for the trip). We were excited to be able to converse more with them, they seem to be up to our speed in exploring, and we got the head guide to take us around! We got on board a Zodiac boat to take us to shore where we got to walk though the forrest to see life on the land. Where we landed was under the glacier less than 100 years ago. What is cool is that you can see the glacier in the distance and can imagine it being there. Additionally, you can see the various levels of growth in the plants as the glacier moved through the land. It was very interesting. Our guide explained how the plants have adapted over the years to be short and sturdy to be able to handle the high winds. There is minimal mammals in this area: a few birds, beavers, and mice. That's it.

One of the coolest parts of the hike was that I got to wear Google glasses. One of the journalists has apair for her tech business. One of only a 1,000 pairs. They were fun to play with and I am excited for the future of these.

After our trek, we came back to whiskey and hot chocolate. What an amazing combination. We were joined by a sleeping elephant seal! We had about an hour to kill before lunch, so we sat in the Yamana Lounge where there are 180 degrees of view from the front of the boat. I caught up on past blogs, Kristen some sudoku, and both some southern Patagonia views.

Later in the afternoon, we arrived at Tucker Islet to see the Magellenic penguins. The weather was pretty brutal in the afternoon: blowing wind and rain. It made for a true Patagonia experience as warm sunshine would not be reality in Patagonia. We were the second of three zodiac boats to go out. It was soo wet that I was not able to get our good camera out. I did get a few shots of various penguins with the Go Pro, but almost all have water drops on the them. I need to create a "windshield wiper" for them that is timed like a flash: press the button, quick swipe, and snap of a dry picture. The Go Pro works best for underwater movies when wet. We spent about 45 minutes freezing during this expedition and we were happy for it to be that short. The one interesting factoid is that the penguins main predator, the Skuas nests on the same small island literally a few meters away. The birds all nest and hangout in one pod, next to a pod of penguins. It puts a whole new meaning to "keep your friends close, but your enemies closer".

We came back on board to a pleasant happy hour. Having open bar on the ship is nice as we get to try all sorts of new drinks. We tried a Calafate Sour which is made with their local Calafate berry. It was similar to any fruity beach side drink you might have in the Caribbean. Additionally, we tried all of the three Astralis beers, a local lager that I didn't take a picture of, and later that night I tried a new scotch for me, Chivas Regal.

We attended a lecture on glaciology which was the one lecture I was the most excited about. It didn't go into great depth, but we learned how the snow at the snow tops eventually compacts and becomes a glacier. We also learned how they move forward or recede. If the glacier gets more snow than it looses in the "summer" then it grows. If it looses more than it gains, it receds. It forms the groves into the rock of the earth as it goes back and forth each year. The result is moraine, dark rocks that break off and which is the dark gravel that sits on top of the edges of the glaciers. It makes the glaciers look dirty. The blue in the glaciers is due to the color reflection from the sunlight. These were the three questions that I had going into the trip, and now they are answered!

Dinner was a bit salty, so I didn't care for it too much. After dinner I watched a National Geographic video on mammals in Patagonia as Kristen went to bed since the seas were rough. I ended up watching with the Luxembourg couple, who I find interesting to chat with. The video was actually amazing as it caught video of orcas catching seals and various birds catching their prey. After trying to catch various videos along this trip, it reminded me just how difficult and precious some of these photos and videos are. I can't imagine the amount of time is put in to catching such rare photos and videos.

After the video, I went to get a drink at the bar and walked into this:

Absolutely hilarious! I listened for the remainder of the song, but wanted to catch the tail end of the lecture on Charles Darwin that was not scheduled for all, but was there for the six journalists. The biggest thing I came away with was that Darwin spent two years in Patagonia vs a few weeks in the Galapagos. I find this ironic as he is associated more with the Galapagos than Patagonia. It was in Patagonia where he experienced and observed the most wildlife. It was is in the Galapagos where he put it all together and created his theories.

I spent the remainder of the evening at the karaoke show. Hilarious. I eventually got persuaded to participate so I made a joke of Pitbull's "Give Me Everything" and Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA". I didn't do them solo, so I can't take all of the credit. I found it amazing that folks from Singapore, Malaysia, France, Luxembourg, US, and Italy could all have a blast signing American music.

Day 44 - 2nd full day on cruise

Today we had early coffee and breakfast before our lecture on "Discovering Tierra del Fuego" and seeing the captains bridge. Both were interesting to hear about the history of the rugged territory at the "end of the world." We also learned that the most southern "town in the world" is Port Williams, which is a navy town in Chile and the most southern "city in the world" is Ushuaia in Argentina.

In my down time, I went to blog but ended up spending time with a few of the journalists on board. It was interesting to learn about their profession and the life of a freelance travel writer. On the surface it sounds like the perfect job, but like anything in life, there is pros and cons. They obviously get to see many amazing parts of the world, but lack stability at home and talk about the difficulty in maintaining relationships as they are on the road a lot.

We had a great lunch as we continued towards Pia Glacier. I was wrong about running out of things to talk about at lunch. I have enjoyed the various topics that we get to discuss at our meals. The upside to having an assigned seat for dinner is that you have no choice but to get to know the other four passengers with you. It forces us to converse with people we ordinarily wouldn't think we had things in common with. Additionally, it also allows you to learn about things you wouldn't normally discover. We got to learn more about health care in Germany and Luxembourg, academic life, and other places that people have visited in the world. One of the added bonuses to this cruise was meeting so many great people.

Additionally, before embarking at the pia glacier, we got to meet an Italian couple our age, Andrea and Francesca. Andrea also had a GroPro camera, but he had it attached to a pole that he could lengthen. I want to get one of these as I find the strap for the head is limiting. We ultimately ended up bonding well with this couple and spent many hours conversing with them over the next few days. He would take our pictures on many of the remaining excursions, so I have to give him credit for any good group shots. We did the same for many of their group shots.

Pia Glacier was absolutely amazing. Seeing my first glacier was breath taking. Seeing it in the distance as it went from mountain top to the bay (tidal glacier) was just as good as seeing it up close and seeing pieces of glacier (calving) fall into the water. We had soo much fun just watching ice. Sounds weird, but it was something I hadn't experienced before. I am even more excited for El Calafate when we will get to hike on a glacier. One of the added benefits of finishing an excursion is that the bar tender comes on land and serves hot chocolate with or without whiskey!

After returning from the glacier, we reserved a spot at the front of the ship on the top deck in preparation for Glacier Alley (Romanche, Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands). Each glacier was named after different countries and the waiters brought various drinks and snacks around that represent that country. Our favorite (and probably most people's favorite) was Glacier Italy. We took turns taking photos of the Italian couple and the glaciers.

After dinner, we decided to play bingo with many of the passengers. Good drinks and company with the Italian and Luxembourg couple made it fun. Maybe too much fun for me. The rule that was established first was that anyone who yelled bingo, but ultimately proved to be incorrect had to sing a song in front of the group. I of course didn't think anyone would do that. How hard is following bingo? Well, I think that paints what comes next. Either I marked a wrong number or I was set up to fail while getting the group drinks. So when I excitedly yelled bingo, I quickly started to get nervous. What if I was off. Before I even got to the front of the room, the entire group was rooting for me to be wrong. It turns out that 10 was not called so I quickly had a microphone in hand and was pressured to sing a song. Now I can easily participate in karaoke where you get the lyrics up on the screen and the background music. However, a cappella is a whole other story. I hadn't prepare for this kind of pressure. I know so many songs, but without background music? I ultimately embarrassed myself by attempting to sing "YMCA." I have no idea why that song came into my head, but in hindsight, maybe I should have stuck to "99 bottles of beer on the wall." Or then again, really represented the US and went crazy to "Baby Got Back." Thinking back, that would have been a riot, "my anaconda don't want none..." Pretty sure Kristen is still proud she married me. I try not to bring it up as time heals.

Day 45 - 3rd full day Cape Horn

Our last full day on the cruise was full of hype. We were going to cruise to the "Tip of the World!" In the morning we disembarked to do a hike in Wulaia Bay where the Yaghan inhabitants used to live. This tribe currently has only one full blood person alive and she is in her 70s. This hike was unique as we got to divide into three groups, each one escalating in adventure.

Being cooped up on a ship for four days, we were all eager to get out and explore. The idea was for the fast and agile cruise members to get together and explore at a faster pace, ultimately seeing more. The pace of disembarking and waiting for everyone in all different abilities has been somewhat frustrating for the couple dozen or so "younger" cruisers. As it turned out, about 60 people (50% of people on board) thought they were agile enough to hike up the huge hill over downed trees and along various non-man made trails. The tour guides try to warn the few who really didn't belong on this excursion frustrating many and defeating the point. But utiltimately I couldn't be upset:

1) my wife is going to be that 60 year old who wants to prove she can keep up with any style of hike

2) I can't blame the cruise company for telling someone what they physically can and can't do

3) I enjoyed seeing some of the older cruise members keep up and see the enjoyment and accomplishment on their faces.

The views at the top of the hill over looked Wulaia Bay. There was a rainbow like glare off in the distant that made one of the islands look magical. I tried to capture it with my camera and filter. One of the things the guides did at the top was ask us to all take five minutes of silence to simply listen to the wind and nature. This was really cool. You got to hear birds and the wind in ways you rarely get to hear. We were on top of a big hill in total silence. It is amazing what you can hear when background and distraction noises are eliminated. Luckily no one got hurt on the way down the hill. In all fairness, the hike was more difficult than I expected as there were many camouflaged holes and big trees to climb over. We all managed to help each other out despite the vast differences in abilities. We again got to end the excursion with hot chocolate and whiskey, my new favorite concoction.

Upon returning to the boat, we got watch a documentary "Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure" which highlighted an explorer and his crews adventures in trying to explorer Antartica. It is amazing how tough these explorers were. The seas were about as good as possible when we crossed and it was still windy and choppy. We have a state of the art exhibition boat with all necessary technology. These explorers had nothing but a wooden ship and had no idea what they were going to come across. Amazing to hear about their trials and tribulations.

We made our way to Cape Horn about 4:00 pm. The seas were very rough and the wind as hard as we had ever felt. We decided to explore the top deck and face the wind. The pictures won't even do it justice, but Kristen's video highlights it perfectly. This is by far my best video to date!

The wind was so fierce and you had to be very careful. There is one memory I will never forget despite not capturing it on photo or video. On the top deck, we turned the corner to be at the front of the boat and there was the 60+ old lady with arthritis in both knees holding on to the railing with both hands and howling in exhilaration. The smile on her face was priceless. I have no idea how she managed to get to the front without being blown over, but she was there and there was no happier person on the planet in that moment. She was truly living and I was so excited to have witnessed her living so much in that moment. We later asked her about it and she said she just fell in love with the power of the wind. It was something she had never experienced.

Somehow during the wind and the various picture taking on the top deck, our good camera stopped focusing. We were not able to use it on our disembarkment. We tried to dry it out as we figured it got wet, but nothing seemed to work. Very sad!

There was only a 50% chance the weather was going to be good enough to disembark. We all figured it was too windy, but the conditions on the beach were good enough for the zodiacs to land, so got to step foot on Cape Horn. We got in and out of the zodiac boat just fine as the beach was at the bottom of a cliff and well protected from the wind. We had to climb a bunch of stairs to get to the top! Wholly wind!

The wind at Cape Horn was the hardest wind I have ever felt. We slowly managed to get to the monument for a few pictures, but only after I caught Kristen from blowing away. The problem was you were prepared to walk slowly in what had to be 60 mph winds, but then a stronger gust would knock you off balance. Thankfully, I don't believe anyone got hurt. We were able to get a few pictures and video with my iPhone before the captain ultimately decided the conditions were unsafe and ordered all to get back on board. We were sad it was cut short, but thankful to have the opportunity to experience the winds!

The three other stories on Cape Horn:

1) there is a house on the island that each year, one Chilean family wins a lottery to stay there for a year. Kids are home schooled and they are on the island. I haven't gotten a chance to research what that must be like, but very interesting to contemplate: Living at the tip of the world by one of the worst feared seas. We didn't have a chance to go into the house, but did get to peak in the window. It looked like any other house, decorated for Christmas.

2) while waiting to go down the stairs to get in the zodiac boat, a sea lion came into the cove and decided to play and show off for the group. How cool. He (or she?) would jump out of the water all different ways and would dive behind the zodiac boats as we went back to sea. My go pro battery was dead so I didn't get to capture it and the iPhone was too risky to handle in the zodiac.

3) we learned that Cape Horn isn't truly a cape in definition as it is an island. A cape should be connected to the mainland continent.

Once we got back to the boat, we had a farewell dinner followed by a slideshow of pictures that different cruise members submitted. Earlier in the afternoon, I uploaded maybe a dozen or so pictures for the presentation. It was a cool idea as you got to see what other photos were captured. They are all going to be uploaded and shared via email. We spent the remainder of the night chatting about all sorts of topics with the Italian and Luxembourg couple. We really enjoyed hanging out with them that night as we were all in similar places in life and had a lot in common.

For pictures click here

For pictures click here

For pictures click here

 

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Day 30 - 38 New Zealand

Day 30 - Flight to Auckland/Queenstown

Today we landed in Auckland about 10 am and were not scheduled until 2 pm to fly to Queenstown on the South Island of New Zealand. We were able to change our flight to the noon flight for free! What a great start to New Zealand! We were in Auckland no longer than an hour!

Air New Zealand was a great flight. They have the most entertaining flight instruction videos. One from the Golden Girls and one from The Lord of the Rings.

We decided to rent a car in NZ so we could explorer as we pleased. Queenstown is not that big as they only have about 15,000 locals, but can have up to 50,000 people at one time with tourists. Luckily we got upgraded for free to a Holden SUV. The mountain climbs would have been less enjoyable in a small economy car.

The hotels were pretty expensive in Queenstown so we tried Air BnB. We rented a room in a two bedroom condo with its own bathroom from a couple in their thirties. It was right on the beautiful Lake Wakatipu. We were able to do laundry for free, park for free, free wifi (very uncommon we later found out), and we were able to use their kitchen. Being Thanksgiving, we were excited to go the store to get fresh ingredients for a home cooked meal!

First we decided to be a bit active and hike the Queenstown Hill. Being in an area with huge mountains, it is named appropriately. However, it was higher than anything we hiked in the Finger Lakes. It provided great views of town and the lake.

We stopped at two different grocery stores as we thought the first stop was too expensive. Turns out all of the food here is expensive.

We got all sorts of food for happy hour and dinner. Turns out our eagerness for fresh food had us buy more than we could eat that night. Ironically, we only had Thanksgiving happy hour with wine, hummus, cheeses, and crackers.

Aside from the obvious mountains in Queenstown, Lake Wakatipu is what makes it unique. This huge lake sits at the bottom of the mountains where fresh glacier and rain water flows over rocks for miles before reaching the rock bottomed Lake Wakatipu. Additionally, the temperature of the water is very cold preventing plant life from growing in the water. This along with minimal pollution, create the bluish water either of us have ever seen. It is the color of the "fake" water color you see in water rides at the amusement park. The bluish water is just gorgeous and I hope the pictures capture this.

 

Day 31- Queenstown

Our room in the condo does not have an exterior window. This turned out to be a pro and con. The pro is we got to catch up on sleep. The con is we got a later than planned start to the day. Despite going to bed at 11, we slept until 9 am. We could have kept sleeping, but we were excited to get out and see the countryside.

We decided to rent bikes for the day and explore the extensive bike paths in New Zealand. By the time we got the bikes rented, we didn't start until about 12. The weather was bit more chilly this morning, about 60 degrees Fahrenheit. We headed east out of Queenstown with the goal of going around Lake Hayes. The ride was beautiful. The yellow flowered mountain side was on one side of Lake Wakatipu with sharp mountains over looking us. It was weird as it was very cloudy today, but clear enough to see the peaks, unlike yesterday. We stopped and took some pictures along the way. I have to say it was the most fun mountain biking I have done. There were just enough up and downs to make you have to switch gears and jump your heart rate, but flat and wide enough paths that you could look up and enjoy the scenery.

About two hours in the ride, the rain started. Luckily, we had our rain jackets which we put on. My rain golf pants seemed to hold up pretty well. We trekked on to the lake despite the drizzle. About the time we got to the lake, the rain really picked up and the ride become no fun. The lake itself was a let down as the rain was heavy and the clouds were thick. We just were not meant to see one of the most photographed lakes in New Zealand on a good weathered day. Oh well. The ride over looking the river to get to the lake made the first half of the ride worth it. After about two hours of peddling in the steady rain, we made it back to the condo wet, cold, and hungry. Not a great combination. A warm shower and a snack quickly lifted our spirits. The condo owner gave us free laundry detergent, so we spent the next two hours cleaning all of wet and remaining clothes. All in all, we have no idea how far we rode, but we were on bikes for 5 hours.

Since we did not eat our planned Thanksgiving dinner last night, we were able to load up on fresh vegetables for dinner tonight. It was nice to have a meal that did not involve eating out. We had hummus, salad, falafel, cheese, crackers, and wine.

The rain was still steady, so I was able to get the two bikes into our rental car (thank goodness we got a free upgrade to an SUV). We made our way into to town to return the bikes and stopped for a beer at a local pub, Pig and Whistle. I had another great beer, Speight's Gold Medal Ale. Pig and Whistle was an English style pub playing all sorts of random American music before a local band started playing. It was a great bar that I would recommend to visitors.

It's 11:36 and I am trying to get better about blogging each day vs a few days later when we travel. However, we have a 6 am wake up call for our trip to Dart River which is supposed to be one of the best and most beautiful things to do in Queenstown. Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow!

 

Day 32 - Dart River Funyak

Today we arranged to go on funyaks on the Dart River (see pictures to see what a funyak is). After some mix up on where to pick us up, we finally made it to Glenorchy where the Dart River starts from Lake Wakatipu. The boat ride up the river was freezing as it was only 50 degrees and we were flying on a jet boat. See the video below to see some of the action.

Once we got to our drop off, the clouds separated and the sun shined through! The weather ended up being better than expected. The company had all sorts of layers of clothes so we were warm. It was the first time I have worn wet socks under my wet boats. The views were stunning and the go pro camera doesn't even come close to capturing the magnificent mountains and river. The current was extra strong today since we had all sorts of rain yesterday. It was the most fun I have had kayaking. Strong current that was fun and manageable with amazing views. Despite being expensive, the experience was worth the price.

We got all sorts of Lord of the Rings factoids as the movie was filmed right on the Dart River. I haven't seen any of the movies, but a lot of the tourists were fans. Isengard and Lothlorien were filmed on the Dart River and the mountains surrounding it. The drive back was right on Lake Wakatipu and is supposedly ranked in the top 10 drives in the world. The bluest possible water was absolutely stunning to look down at.

Biking in the rain yesterday has given me some sinus troubles. Hoping my trip preparation of psueudophed and loratidine will help prevent it from being major issues.

We cooked dinner again tonight at the condo. We were able to grill BBQ tempeh. I have found it delicious since trying it in Bali.

We spent the remainder of the evening hanging out in our condo room preparing for our move to the Milford Sound. Early wake up for a 6 am Buckeye game.

 

Day 33 - Buckeye/Michigan game and drive to Milford Sound

My one lead for video streaming the game live did not turn out, so we were only able to listen to the Buckeye game. Not gonna recap the game, but the announcers stunk at calling it on the radio. They would get excited, but the offense would get 2 yards. Next play be even keel and gain 20. Additionally, we didn't play that great and the whole fight on the field made for a stressful Sunday morning. Luckily we pulled it out, so we could start our 5 hr ride to the Milford Sound on a positive note.

The drive along the lake with windy hills was amazing. No doubt the prettiest drive I have ever taken. It beats hands down the drive to the Florida Keys (my favorite drive before today). We took all sorts of pictures of the landscape which we will post.

We stopped over a dozen times to just take in the views. This isn't common for us as we see it and usually move on. This was on a whole other level and we had to stop. One of the popular stops on the way was Mirror Lake. Seeing it on the day we beat Michigan was ironic. Brought back memories from our days at OSU.

We took the advice of our funyak guide and hiked to Key Summit which was right up my alley on perfect hikes. 3-4 hrs in length with a good climb and unobstructed lookouts along the way with an open 360 degree view at the top.

We then checked into the Milford Sound Lodge. Since we booked so late, we had to stay in dormitory style rooms. 3 bunk beds in our room, so Kristen and I were with 4 others from Ireland, Australia, and 2 US. One of the Americans, Guy, was a marine biologist in California and I found him interesting to talk to. He has been scuba diving all over the world and can talk animals all day long.

Four of is went out at 11 pm to check out the stars. I have never seen that many and that bright of stars. Being so far south, with virtually no air pollution and minimal light around the mountains, just made them "dance". The only issue was the sand flies which are annoying like Mosquitos, but only the females bite. We could only handle so many of them, so our star gazing only lasted about 20 minutes. I wish I could have captured the sky in a picture to reference it.

What a great day! Excited to kayak the Milford Sound in the morning!

 

Day 34 - Kaying in the Milford Sound

Well, sharing a room with four other people didn't seem to be a problem. That is until you wake up in the middle of the night to a guy snoring so loud, you feel like you are being tortured. I'll tell the truth, just stop the noise! This is when I wished I would have purchased replacement ear plugs. Come to think of it, I doubt that would have actually silenced the madness. After an hour of tossing and turning and a bathroom break, I was ready to sleep in the car. Until, I thought why don't I get my headphones and listen to music. Brilliant. I got my phone and got back in the top bunk to realize that it was 515 and we were getting up in 45 minutes. At least my "slow" mix got me 45 minutes of some sanity. I still got up grouchy.

At 6 am, we quickly gathered our belongings and headed to the lounge where we took turns brushing our teeth and taking bathroom runs. PBJ toast tasted excellent this morning.

We were picked up at 715 for our morning kayaking trip in the Milford Sound. This is the main attraction that we had planned for this part of our trip. We were pumped that there was to be clear weather, but somewhat worried about the lower temperatures (~50 degrees at 7 am). Still a bit grouchy, the process to get dressed was dreadful. All sorts of different layers with some skirt that went on last. I hit my head twice on the low drying lines. The worse for me came when we were all dressed and I went to get my go pro camera out. It wouldn't turn on. Damn! I had it all charged up two nights ago in Queenstown. The only thing that I can think of is that it got turned on in transport and the battery ran low. This is one of my big complaints about the camera as it is soo easy to turn on and there isn't an auto off function (at least that I can figure out). All in all, bad start to my day and no pictures of our kayak trip.

The trip itself was excellent. We had a guide who was on his 9th season, which is a ton of experience. The views of the cliffs were magnificent. The temperature ended up being better than expected so it wasn't an issue. The other three couples were good kayakers so the pace of the group was good. Two from California and one from Germany. It was the first time I kayaked with a rutter in the back. It was easier to steer once I got a better handle on it, but definitely different to push your foot left or right to turn vs using your stroke. I was definitely disappointed that we didn't get to see dolphins. The commercial really made it seem that everyone experienced them swimming next to your kayak. Oh well, it ended up better than my expectations as the views were better than I imagined. There were all different types of mountains- some snow topped, others straight cliffs, others in various shapes and colors, all with beautiful water in the middle. I find it very difficult to imagine glaciers carving out such vast cliffs and mountains. Just stunning.

Since we didn't have the camera and we didn't get to kayak the entire sound, we signed up for a 2 hour boat cruise. This allowed us to really take in the surrounding and get some pretty cool pics in the process. The cruise we took was the last one out for the day, so all of the tourists buses were gone. How awesome. We got out to kayak in the sound before the tourist buses came and out after they left. Perfect. The views were still as stunning and we couldn't have been happier that we decided to do it. We even got to drink water from the glacier waterfall! I wouldn't have known the difference, but I did see the waterfall fill up the glass, so I know it was true. Tasted like bottled water.

Kristen decided to test the force of the waterfall on the return trip. I tried to capture it all on video, but the camera was getting soaked.

We ended the night with pizza and beer at the only pub in Milford Sound.

 

Day 35 - Drive back to Queenstown

This morning we got up to prepare for our 5 hr drive back to Queenstown from Milford Sound. We dressed to hike to Marion Lake as our kayak guide said it was a beautiful hike. Since we got an early start, we had the path to ourselves. Interestingly on the way to the lake, we passed over somewhat of a recent rock slide. Kind of eerie to leave a jungle path to nothing but rocks and downed trees.

The scenery at the top was stunning. The most clear water in a bowl surrounded by mountains. No one in sight. One side of the lake had a huge waterfall splashing in which kept it from being a glass surface. Just as we decided to head back, a French couple arrived. Interestingly, the guy passed us later on the hike, barefoot and practically running. He and his wife/girlfriend had to get back to Queenstown. We thought we were in great shape, but we are no where close to running down the mountain barefoot.

We stopped at the Chasm on the way home as many said it was spectacular. Having lived in the Finger Lakes with many gorges, we were not that impressed. They did not come close to the Watkins Glen gorge.

We did get to see Humbolt Falls which is a waterfall taller than Niagra and Taughannock Falls. It as not very wide, but had three steps as it came down the cliff.

We broke up the drive with a stop for lunch in Te Anau. I tried Bangers and Mash, a traditional dish made with sausage and green beens over mashed potatoes and gravy. It was good, but not something I would eat all of the time. Kristen had the veggie burger, which she was impressed with. We strolled through the two main streets downtown. A quick stop at the pharmacy to reload on loratidine and pseudophed. We were able to get loratidine, but pseudophed is not sold over the counter in NZ, so we struck out. Guess I should have brought more with us. We use a lot of it when treating sinus congestion. Turns out we both got sinus congestion from two hours of biking in the rain. I think the allergens in the Milford made it even worse.

I have been wanting to get a hair cut, so we found a salon. My hair isn't longer than it usually is back in the US, but with the hiking and activities we have been doing, it has been hot. Additionally, we don't have access to the best hair products, so long hair is too much of pain. I've begun to enjoy the simplicity of short hair.

Te Anau was a great city that would have been nice to stay one night in. We had to get back to Queenstown for a flight out the next morning. We checked into the Rydges Hotel and I went to catch us up on laundry. When coming back, Kristen reconfirmed our flight itinerary. Holy cow, we have one extra day in Queenstown. Some how we thought we were a day later. It gets hard to keep track of the day of the week and the actual date. It doesn't really matter to us, unless we are trying to catch a plane. Kristen was excited to have one more day in Queenstown. I was glad to have an extra day, but was mentally prepared to repack and head north.

We decided to head into town to try the different beers at Speights Ale House. I found them all to be great, but Kristen only liked the lightest one. We got to pick six beers for our beer flight, so we got to avoid the IPA and heavy porter which neither of us care for. We stopped by the 24 hr mart for what turned out to be the best convenient store bread ever baked. We also got a great deal on a bag of cookies that were the best on the trip so far.

 

Day 36 - "extra" day in Queenstown. Ben Lemond hike.

We got up and made breakfast in the room. Peanut butter and jelly sandwich with coffee. Breakfast of champions. It turned out to be a great breakfast as it helped us climb the summit of Ben Lemond (5735 feet). This is much taller than my highest summit to date of 4,865 feet, Whiteface, in the Adirondacks. This hike was my favorite to date. It was not crazy difficult as we did not have to go over any boulders. Just slow and steady up hill. Almost 80% of the time we had the most amazing views of the gorgeous blue Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkables Mountain peaks.

We also had another first on the hike. We ran into mountain goats, TWICE. And by run into, not physically, but they were on the actual trail starring at us. We waited about five minutes both times and they (4 total) eventually moved on to find cooler tree cover. The 360 degree views at the top of this summit were gorgeous.

About 5.5 hrs later, we reached the hotel pretty stinky as the temperatures were now in the mid 80s. Luckily we started about 9 am. We passed multiple hikers on the way down. Most notably, a couple from the UK who have visited NZ 8 times and Queenstown for a 4th. They had traveled all over the world and were very interested in hearing about Upstate NY and the outdoor activities. Ironically, they were in Oregon four months ago.

We showered and got in the car to drive to Arrowtown to check out an old gold mining town. Quiet town with local shops. We walked around for about 30 minutes before heading on. The drive to Arrowtown was beautiful as expected. We continued on to Gibston where we stopped to check out AJ Hackett's bungy jump site. For a mere $180, you can also get an adrenaline kick during a 10 second free fall. Since I have never tried it, I would one day like to do it. No way would Kristen stick around to watch. Hard to pay that kind of money when you can pay slightly more and jump out of a plane. A much better bang for the buck. The establishment was well oiled and raking in the dough with someone jumping every 3-5 minutes.

It was just past five, so all of the wineries were closed. A disappointment as I was hoping to see if they were much different. Oh well.

We made our way back to Queenstown where we stopped for groceries at New World. We did a picnic date night at the park right on Lake Wakatipu.

 

Day 37 - Flight to Auckland

Today we got up early to get to the airport at 8:00 to return the rental car. Our flight to Auckland was a quick, uneventful 1.5 hour flight. The weather in Queenstown was gorgeous again this morning, but we flew right into downpour. We made our way via bus to the Scenic Hotel Auckland where we had a room with a full kitchenette.

We only had two half days in Auckland and we wanted to at least see part of the city. We grabbed our umbrellas and rain coats and headed out. Since our hotel was right on Queen St, everything was close. Interestingly, most of the sidewalks had huge overhangs on them. This part of the city must prepare for the large amounts of rain and snow. We were able to handle most of the rain. It also helped that I had a HUGE umbrella from the hotel. However, once the wind finally picked up, I realized that I was very dangerous. We slipped into Raw Power, a cafe run by a friendly Chinese lady where I had a delicious vegetable pie with pumpkin mash, Kristen a coffee.

With the rain and wind still uncomfortable, we stopped at the grocery store so we could make dinner. Sure enough, food is still expensive on the north island. However, the prices to eat out were even higher, so we decided to skip eating out in Auckland and bought enough food for dinner, breakfast, and lunch.

We had some to dos, so we spent a few hours "doing business" as we were allowed 2000 MB of internet. We ran through that in the first four hours. It is amazing how much you use when watching videos, uploading photos, etc... It amazes us how poor the internet is here in New Zealand. It was even on the news that New Zealand is investigating their infrastructure. All hotels and cafés charged based on usage and the allowed usage was dismal.

We cooked dinner in the hotel and finished the night looking for a place to live in Portland.

 

Day 38 - Day in Auckland before flying to Santiago

We woke up this morning hoping to take a big walk to Mount Eden. More rain kaboshed our plans. Kristen worked out and I did some more business. It is amazing how hard it is to do basic things when you have slow internet. Paying credit cards, calling to arrange a transport for my Subaru to Portland, and just checking bills is so much harder in New Zealand. However, I wasn't sure when we will have connection again since we will be cruising for five days before spending two weeks in Patagonia.

We were unsuccessful in moving our checkout time, so we had to pack up for 11 am. We ideally would want to check out at 1 pm to get to our flight at 4:15. Kristen steamed and made the rest of the vegetables for the plane ride and for lunch. We dropped our bags off and decided to make the walk to Mount Eden for lunch.

I was a bit surprised to find the huge volcano in the middle of Auckland to be completely covered in grass. I had no idea grass grew on volcanoes, but I guess it makes sense once I stopped and thought about it. It isn't currently or recently active. The views of the city were great despite the clouds. You could see various islands and I bet it is gorgeous on a sunny day. We only stopped for 15 minutes as it was four miles round trip.

Everything went fine at the airport although we both got denied on their automated Customs camera system. I guess we don't look like our passport photos. Not a big deal as a custom agent got us through fairly quickly. A cool system. He thought mine was rejected because I am wearing glasses today and didn't in my passport photo. He offered no reasoning for Kristen, smart man. Not his first day.

 

New Zealand Random Thoughts:

We were happy to have visited New Zealand as part of this trip. Almost all of our experiences were on the South Island. We found it to be stunningly beautiful. The mountains were gorgeous and the water was pristine. The people there are very environmentally friendly. Queenstown was a cleaner town than Singapore, but I do recognize the vast differences in size. The tour guides were very friendly, but the rest of the workers that we interacted with were not as welcoming. We were a bit thrown off by this and maybe it is an unfair perception since we recently visited SE Asia which is known for friendly people. New Zealand is much more expensive than we expected. They should be embarrassed by their internet service being a third world country. The hotel worker in Auckland mentioned that Canadians and Americans are always disappointed as we have much better internet. We didn't wants to tell him that Cambodia and Thailand and China offer better internet, it isn't just a North American thing.

 

Click here for pictures of New Zealand

 

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Day 27 - 29: Singapore

Day 27 - Singapore Arrival

We were excited to visit Singapore. It wasn't originally on our travel list, but was necessary for a decent connecting flight to New Zealand. Upon further investigation, we learned that Singapore supposedly has the world's best airport, is the world's best food city, is the world's cleanest city, and home to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel!

Being that the Marina Sands is so expensive, we decided to spend the first night in a hostel at the Little Red Dot. This was my first time at a true international hostel with a shared bathroom, etc. This hostel is a bit different from the traditional hostel with dorm bunk beds in a big room. This hostel had pods for each person with a shade at the end to make sleeping private. It was better sleep than I expected. The hardest part is trusting your stuff. Luckily they had free lockers that we could lock up our important items. Definitely much cheaper to stay here in this city as we only paid about $40.

Food hawkers are a must in Singapore. Being next to Little India, we had lunch at an Indian food hawker. Think of it as an area for food trucks to park and serve, minus the trucks as they are permanent. Almost like a less organized food court, but on the side of the road. For $7, we got two naans, Chana masala, and aloo gobi. We didn't even know how much of a deal this was since we hadn't seen the prices throughout the city.

We wanted to walk around the different neighborhoods, but quickly took shelter in a Starbucks. Holy cow what a storm!

The rain really never stopped that afternoon and evening. It did lighten up enough for us to walk around with umbrellas. We had the "must have" Singapore Sling at the Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel. An old school drink, updated to accommodate tourists. It was fruity and would be perfect in the afternoon on a hot beach. Being $20 each, we made sure to eat enough peanuts to skip dinner. That wasn't exactly the plan, but we seem to have a tendency on this trip to turn a happy hour into a dinner. The atmosphere at the bar was British colonial and each table had a huge tub of peanuts and everyone threw the shells on the floor.

Kristen had been wanting to see Hunger Games 2 so it seemed like the perfect night. Being that I hadn't seen the first one, it was actually pretty good. The one interesting item at the theater was that they serve salty and sweet popcorn. The sweet looked like regular popcorn, but tasted like carmel corn, but not as cruncy.

 

Day 28 - Day 2 in Singapore

We got up early as we were hoping that the Marina Sands would let us check in early. So at 9 am, we got in the "Check Out" line and convinced the gentleman to let us check in 5 hours early! At almost $400 a night (1400 standard check in to 1100 standard check out), I see that as a $95 "savings". The hotel is amazing. Room was great with an amazing view. We both got a workout in using their huge and nice gym. I only lasted about half the time as Kristen as the infinity pool on the roof was calling my name. This view was what we were paying for. It did not let down. Unbelievable and a truly unique experience.

After a few hours at the pool, we decided to try and hike to the main lookout hill and check out the views of Singapore. We first walked to Little India again to visit one of the popular Indian restaurants. It was not a hawker, but a traditional sit down. Despite being $40, it was the best Indian I have ever had and Kristen said best she has had outside of India. Maybe Singapore is a great food city. They have all sorts of different nationality neighborhoods similar to Little India.

The hike wasn't close to the subway so we paid a cab $20 to take us there. Less than ten minutes into the hike, we saw the same black looking clouds as yesterday. We picked up the pace some, but the thunder started. We had no interest in being caught in this storm. We jogged about a mile down hill to catch a cab. Luckily, there was a bus stop, so we were able to navigate ourselves back to the hotel for $4!

The rain came and went fairly quickly, so we were able to enjoy the last of two evenings in Singapore. After catching a gorgeous sunset from the 57th floor infinity pool (we actually caught a red sun between two buildings, but had already put away the camera in the room), we got dressed for a night out. We saw the hotel's amazing 20 minute light and water show that was pretty cool. The water show was a bit of a disappointment, but the lasers that they threw off the huge hotel was super cool.

We walked to Clark Quay to check out a bar called Beer Market. The bar had about 40 beers available. The cool thing was that it acted like a stock market with prices changing every 30 minutes. The more the beer was ordered, the higher the price went up. The less others were ordered, the price went down. A pretty cool concept. We enjoyed a couple different beers here!

Orchard Street was supposed to be set up similar to 5th Avenue in NY: High end stores decorated for Christmas. It definitely was not in the same class as 5th Avenue as far as decorations go, but every single high end store that I have ever heard of (and many that I haven't) were on this street. The amazing thing was that they were also all at the shops at Marina Sands and at the mall were we saw the movie last night. How can such a small city/country need all of these expensive shops? We later learned that they have the most millionaires per square mile of any country in the world. Not a huge accomplishment since it is really one big city on a small island. But it does highlight that there is a lot of money in the country.

We strolled the streets taking in the decorations until we saw an odd ice cream cart. The guy was selling blocks of ice cream in between slices of bread! We got in line and ultilmately realized you could get the ice cream between thin sliced bread or in between two thin wafer crackers. We chose the wafer crackers. We ordered two different kinds and he simply cut a small block off his bigger block of ice cream. It tasted like soft serve ice cream, but it was hard enough to go between two wafers. I have yet to see another cart or item in the grocery store.

We made our way back to the hotel via subway. The network of subways has been excellent here, many stops, very clean, and easy to navigate. However, it felt as if we always had to switch lines or trains to get to where we wanted to go. They do have clear glass gates that protect people from falling on the subway track when the train is not present. A great need in the US.

 

Day 29 - Half day in Singapore/ flight to New Zealand

Our flight to New Zealand was not scheduled until 6:50 pm. We attempted to get our check out moved from 1100 to 1400! Another "savings" of $57 since we got an extra 3 hrs out of our stay. Doesn't sound like much, but it got us enough time to workout and hangout at the pool again today. A nice and relaxed travel day! The weather was much better today, so the views and pictures were much clearer.

We were excited to check out the Singapore airport and went early on purpose. It turns out that it is the coolest airport that I have visited. So much to see in the different three terminals. We saw the outside garden walk, the airport museum, and a few other exhibits that I fail to remember their names. One of the best discoveries was the free OSIM uPhoria foot massagers all over the airport. I've tried a fair share of these over the years and this was by far the best one. It may just be the family Christmas present next year.

Our flight went by quick on the way to Auckland despite being 10 hrs. I had a lot of TED talks, pictures, magazines, and blogs to catch up on.

 

Click here for Singapore Pictures

 

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