The Colorful Names of New Zealand

The last two days have been filled with daily tasks, granted they are being done in a gorgeous locale. Trips to the pharmacy, grocery, haircuts, and a dr appt for Liam. He was due for his 6 month immunizations. We found a clinic up the street and they obliged us immediately and with no charge at all! We've also managed some beautiful walks, a trip to the local water park, cooked some yummy meals at home and managed to make a few ice cream trips. And we've been laying out our next few weeks, there is much to see and do here.

When studying the map, I love reading the names of the capes, bays, mountains, etc. They have such colorful, descriptive, and clear-cut names.

Most of the names have been attributed to Captain James Cook who performed the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand in 1769. His discoveries signaled the onset of colonization in New Zealand, and gave birth to the following mountains, bays, capes, inlets, and more.

There is the descriptive Mount Difficulty, with it's brutal terrain. And Mount Aspiring, nearly the highest mountain in New Zealand, but not quite. Of course, the highest is named Mount Cook.

There is Poverty Bay, where Cook first landed in NZ. The Maori fought him off and he was unable to get fresh supplies, thus the name Poverty Bay. The Maori were the first settlers of New Zealand, they were of Polynesian descent. Colonization of NZ dwindled their numbers, but there is still a sizeable Maori population in NZ.

The Remarkables, there are two explanations given for their name. One is that they are remarkable because they are one of only two mountain ranges in the world that run directly north to south. An alternate explanation is that early settlers just thought that they were quite remarkable. And they are, with their high, black, jagged peaks, remarkable.

It is said that upon seeing Doubtless Bay Capt Cook simply said, "This is doubtless a bay". And the name stuck. And when they passed a bay at dusk, it was simply deemed Dusky Bay.

There's the self explanatory 90 Mile Beach. And the Bay of Plenty, where there were plenty of supplies to reprovision his ship.

Doubtful Sound came about when Cook declared that he was doubtful it was navigable under his sail and thus he passed right by it, but not without first naming it.

The Bay of Islands is simply, an enormous bay filled with islands.

Cloudy Bay was named on a day that must've been overcast, although I now read that it's actually seldom cloudy in that region.

When one of Cook's servants was taken by the Maori when trying to organize a fish trade, the bay was deemed Kidnappers Bay.

Cape Foulwind, sounds like an awful place, but apparently it's alright. Cook named it after his ship was blown quite a distance offshore from the point of the cape.

Capt Cook shot a cannon at a boatload of Maori's who were approaching his ship, and rightfully the Maori turned and ran off. Cape Runaway was borne.

Mercury Bay was where Cook and his crew watched the transit of Mercury in the night sky.

In a show of ambivalence, Capt Cook sailed south to this point and then changing his mind, decided to go north again. Hence the name, Cape Turnagain.

And in a move that seems highly unlike him, on a return trip to NZ, he renamed Murderers Bay, Golden Bay. Personally, I think it was just to piss off Abel Tasman (a competing explorer)who named it that first.

Finally, Cape Farewell which was the last land seen by his crew as they headed for home.

And there are many more...

"One of my best days ever"

Says Justin.

After watching the bungy jumpers for a bit, I saw a glint in Justin's eye that I recognized, he decided that he was going to bungy. He was a man on a mission. He walked to the register, paid his fee, walked straight to the platform (wouldn't even stop for me to take his pic), got strapped in and very nervously walked off the edge! I am shocked, impressed and proud! For all my big talk (I was the one talking about doing it), I totally wimped out. It looks thrilling and scary as hell.

Then, we got home and he went to the shore of Lake Wakatipu and caught this beautiful salmon.

He's a happy man.

A first shot of Adrenaline

What a day! We set out to take the gondola to the scenic overlook and possibly have lunch in the restaurant at the top. 5 hours later we made it down. We had a fantastic lunch overlooking Queenstown and the surrounding mountains, and then set off for a bit of thrill-seeking.

First up, luge. Elle was excited because she could participate in this, she was like a wild child wanting to do it over and over again, and faster and faster. Liam nearly got to participate himself... see the pic with him wearing a helmet above. We were getting our helmets and the attendant said "little bub going too?" I laughed until I realized he was serious. We thought, "well if he says it's ok, why not?" He was in the baby carrier and we got him a helmet. Up the chair lift we went. Once we got to get the cart, however, we had second thoughts. Liam will have to wait a few more years for his first luge. New Zealanders are a littly nutty this way...

Next up, we went to view the bungy and skyswing. Both of which were invented right here in Queenstown. I have always said if given the chance, I would bungy. After watching today, I'm not so sure. But someone else was inspired....

Elle too, she wanted to do it. But, she has to be 10 years old. She's already making plans to be back in a couple years.

She was able to bungy jump in a more tame way, and I mustered my courage and joined in;)

All in all, a very, very fun day for everyone!

Queenstown Pics

Queenstown is set at the base of the Remarkables Mountain Range (another one of those names that I just love). It's on Lake Wakitipu which is an enormous lake carved by a glacier a few years back. It's a resort town that is often compared to Whistler or Aspen, but I didn't see much resemblence.

One of the first things that struck us driving into the area was the lack of trees, most mountains are barren. It's a rather stark landscape. Apparently, trees are not indigenous to the area, although once planted they grow quite well. The area directly around Queenstown has been planted with many trees over the generations and the difference is immediately noticeable upon arrival.

Certain vistas seem a bit otherworldly. And, in fact, the areas around Queenstown were the settings for many scenes from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Like many names of places in New Zealand, Queenstown has it's root in a very literal sense. Legend has it that upon finding gold in the area, the town was deemed fit for a queen.

This is a four season town, with hot, dry summers (now), wet springs, gorgeous fall colors and cold, snowy winters. The town center borders Lake Wakatipu and there are many waterfront cafes and beautiful parks and quaint shopping streets. The town is really rather idyllic. That said, it is the adventure capital of the world and thrill seeking is limited only by your imagination. Elle has already decided that she is going to hang-glide, luge, jet boat, rock climb and bungy jump while she is here. Crazily enough, she can do just about all of those things. Minimum ages are ridiculously low.

We've never seen water as crystal clear and clean as the river and lake waters here. It's actually astonishing. The one river near our house is so bright blue/green that it actually looks fake or digitally enhanced, almost like when the Chicago River is dyed green.

Interesting too is that the city is so far south, 45 degrees south latitude, that it gets light around 5 AM and is still light now as I type this at 920PM. The sun is just now setting over the mountain range. It makes it a bit hard to convince Elle and Liam that it is time for bed.

We unpacked, stocked up on groceries and explored the town today. I think we are going to like it very much here.

We made it to Queenstown!

I don't know what it is with us and washed out roads, but once again... this was our road to Queenstown. We had a navigation system that liked to take us on shortcuts, and generally they were quite efficient. But when we deviated from the main road, which was small to begin with, and went past a chain fence down a gravel road we started to question the system. Then we hit this. This time, however, we we decided to cross the river, mostly because we had no other earthly idea where to go. Luckily, we made it unscathed, although we haven't yet checked the underside of the car. Soon enough we had jumped back on the main road and probably cut 20km off our trip!

After 6.5 hours of driving, through mostly nothingness (again reference above pic) we arrived to Queenstown. And by morning we were already enamoured by our temporary home, thinking and scheming about staying forever. The other pic above is the view from our living area/deck. It's gorgeous here, more on that later...

We Killed the Camper

After five very successful days in our camper, this is how our trip ended. An hour outside of Auckland, with 3 hours until our flight departed, we killed the camper.

No idea what happened, but it was not fixable in the time we had left. In a display we are finding quite typical of New Zealanders, everyone was willing and wanting to help. We pulled into a petrol station and they very nearly gave us their only telephone for an hour until we had it all sorted out. In the US, they most likely would not even have let us use the phone. The lady at the camper rental persevered until finding us a taxi that would get us to Auckland in time. This was no small task in the remote rural area we were stranded in. In fact, the driver that did show up stated that she had only even been to Auckland once or twice in her life! Everyone was so kind and helpful that we got through this mishap with nearly no stress at all, and even had a few laughs.

Justin did note that he hopes not all our adventures end in some kind of mishap, as did this and Fiji!

We made our flight and are now in Christchurch. Once again we are in awe at the ease with which one can move in this country. Everything seems cleaner, more efficient and nicer. The kids are both still doing great!

We are happy to be in a large hotel room tonight, although camping was a great experience. Onward to Queenstown tomorrow, only a 7 hour drive;)

The Sheep

Because it's New Zealand....