Monday, February 27, 2006
I’m sitting in a little coffee shop in Christchurch, across the street from the eponymous Cathedral. At 300 thousand souls, Christchurch is by far the largest city on South Island, and it’s quite a contrast from the tiny towns and rural backpacker’s hostels we’ve been living in. You can even get wireless internet here, so I can update the ol’ blog.
In the past week or so, our friendly RAV4, Lurch, has taken us from the east coast to the west coast through Haas Pass, up the west coast, and back to the east coast again through Arthur’s Pass. Driving NZ is really an amazing experience. You can drive across it east-to-west in a few hours, albeit through steep, winding mountain passes that abruptly switch from two-lane roads to single-lane bridges and abutments just as the roads get “interesting”. As bad for the karma as it is, I’m really glad we’re in an SUV — Janelle had booked a mid-size, but they were out, so she got an upgrade, and man, were we lucky.
The places we’ve been driving the past several days — the Southlands and west coast — have actually felt quite remote. Endlessly stunning, highly variable terrain, occasionally dotted with tiny hamlets — usually a gas station, cafe, hotel and hostel, and not much more. There are only a very few towns with populations of over a thousand.
It’s hard to put into words how spectacularly gorgeous NZ is. Pictures can’t really do it justice, but I’m trying. I just posted a couple of new photosets, but I’m still a few days behind. Ack! Too many pictures, not enough internet.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
On the southern tip of New Zealand’s South Island lie a beautiful and remote landscape of beaches, cliffs, forests and millions of sheep called The Catlins (which I keep accidentally calling “The Caitlins”, thank you Degrassi Junior High). I really like the southlands, but I have to admit, the steady blasts of Antarctic air make it seem a bit less summery than other parts of NZ.
Link (to Catlins photoset)
Thursday, February 16, 2006
So long, Canberra, you bird-dominated and oddly quiet little artificial city on an artificial lake.
I went for a jog last night through the city center and saw maybe a dozen people. Somewhere in the distance a band was playing a low-energy cover of David Bowie’s “Heros”. The air was warm and humid and smelled nice, and little blue birds fluttered through the park around Lake Burley Griffin. Somehow, it all kind of summed up the Canberra experience.
I have no idea when I’ll next have internet access and time to blog. Right now, I’m looking forward to a couple of days of being able to relax and play and sleep in.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Muchly delayed, but finally up.
Link to photoset.
Also: link to my entire Sydney/Blue Mountains photoset.
Sunday, February 12, 2006
So last weekend I went to Sydney to meet up with Amy, and we drove out to the Blue Mountains. For those unfamiliar, the Blue Mountains are a broken, primordial land of twisted Eucalyptus forests and kilometer after kilometer of sheer cliffs rising tens or hundreds of meters straight out of it. If there’s a more lost-worldy place on the planet, I don’t know what it is. It was practically a disappointment to not see flocks of Pteranodons soaring over the treetops on leathery wings.
So what did we do? We went canyoning! Well, Amy discovered it and organized it and booked it, which was a good thing, because once I found out it involved donning a wetsuit and helmet, strapping all your gear to your back and abseilling down a 33m cliff to the bottom of a 3m-wide canyon filled with snakes, lizards and icy canyon water, I was, let’s say… http://woosterglass.com/?fbclid=IwAR1xxhZ3abh2IAKMpxNVvadZfMComFCowZ2Zpk9lprsgSaBUiqhDaaXnfH8 apprehensive. However, it it turned out to be fantastic fun. We were accompanied by our very Australian guide and a young Danish couple who, due to an accident of translation, thought they were going canoeing.
We swam on our backs, as instructed by our guide, and looked up at the tiny sliver of sky above. We saw ferns that were hundreds of years old, since bushfires never reach damp canyon depths. We saw lizards: water dragons and bluetongues, but if there were snakes, we never saw them. We jumped (without gear) off a cliff into a pool of deep, dark water. I woke up the next day still exhausted, and sore from head to foot. Amy wanted to do a four-hour cliff hike. We did not do that hike.
Anyway, pics will be up soon, but we used disposable waterproof cameras, so they need to get all developed and such.