After 3 days in Melbourne, we have to say goodbye with tears in your eyes. Seeing the family was a thrill. Karen and Leon were the most gracious host and hostess who could not do enough for us. Being at the beautiful huge house was a resting point in our trip, even though we did a lot of activities. Yesterday they took us to Queenscliff where we took a ferry across to Sorrento. A beautiful charming little town with great restaurants and boutiques. We loved it! We came home exhausted and tired and still managed to go out to dinner. Today we decided to take it easy, and we went out for brunch and visiting our ailing uncle Felix. At night the family got together for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. It was great being with all of them and saying our goodbyes.
We will miss them all, and we hope to see them all at Dan and Jenny’s wedding.
It is now the end of Dan’s birthday for us and just beginning for him. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAN. We love you.
Irith has some wonderful family in Melbourne. They are rather distantly related, but they were among the only family her mother had after the Holocaust and they remained close. The grandmother of Irith’s mother (Golda) was the sister of the grandmother of Harry Flicker, his sister Keila Pruzanski, and his brother Felix Flicker. Below is a picture of Harry, Keila and Felix’ wife, Ursula. Felix was not well enough to come to the party. We had brunch at Helen and Paul Forgasz’ home. Helen is the daughter of Felix and Ursula. We were met at the airport and are staying at the home of Leon and Karen Pruzanski. Leon is the son of Keila and Tewel Pruzanski (of blessed memory). Also there were Yaron and Andrea Flicker and Yaron’s brother Mark. Yaron and Mark are the sons of Harry Flicker and his beautiful wife Masha (of blessed memory). One of Yaron and Andrea’s sons – Jess – the daughters of Helen and Paul – Rebecca and Rachel, and Rebecca’s partner, Debbie Kertesz – and one of Leon and Karen’s children – Kimberley - were also there. So it was a great reunion. The identification of each person in the Melbourne Mishpacha picture can be seen on geni.com (although you may need to be a member of the family to access it).
And, we were surprised with yet another Happy Anniversary cake. I think this is a world’s record, one being better than the previous. A wonderful time was had by all.
It is our last night in New Zealand. Some final thoughts. First and foremost: We love New Zealand. This is our third trip and every time the scenery and activities were different. There is something for everyone in these two small islands. We recommend that everyone visit New Zealand and that everyone use New Zealand Encounters for custom trip arrangements. They are fantastic. You fill out a survey and they design your trip exactly with what you want. We did it all online. Our flight to Melbourne leaves at 6:25 am, so off to bed. But first, some favorite photos that have not yet been posted:
Avalanche Protector for the Train Tracks
Looking Down the Glacier to the Rain Forest
Climbing Up the Glacier
Still Climbing Up
The Guide Carving Steps
Drain Hole in Glacier
Fox Glacier
View of West Coast
Contrasts
Interesting Fern
Interesting Tree
Everyone Stops and Piles Stones (I don't know why)
This is strictly for you girls. For all of you females who read our blog. I discovered a fantastic new line of lotions and face moisturizer, etc., here in New Zealand. It is NZ made, in Christchurch, and the product is amazing. Apparently, it has been created originally by a mother who’s daughter had problem with eczema. It had developed through the years into the Linden Leaves line of fantastic products. The only way (that I know of) to get it in the States is through the Internet, and it is worthwhile doing it. My favorite body lotion that I found here is ginseng and orange blossom.
Yesterday, we awoke early and went to town to join the Half Day Glacier Adventure. It turned out to be a half day very difficult hike with only a very little adventure. They issue you rain pants, boots, socks, a rain parka, and a fanny pack with crampons, which you need to walk on the ice. It was a bright sunny day, so we did not need the pants or the coat. I opted not to take the pants and never used the coat. The glacier was about 2 miles from where the bus let us off. The first half mile was on a path through the temperate rainforest and the last mile and a half was over a dry riverbed to the face of the glacier. There we put on our crampons and started the climb over the ice and moraine (dirt and gravel left by the glacier), until we reached the beginning of the climb over the glacier proper. The initial climb was very steep. The part that was ice was carved into steep steps that could be traversed by pulling on the rope that they had as a railing. Then walking up a mountain of gravel on a switchback trail. When we finally reached the top of that mountain, where the trek on the ice began, Irith was totally exhausted. She had to stop and rest and pant every few feet when we got near the top. I finally pushed her over the top and she decided that was enough for the day and waited there for us to get back from the rest of the hike. I then went on with the rest of the group. The guides had hacked steps out of the ice most places and by stomping with our crampons, we could make our way up out of crevices and up the ice face until we were on a plateau with a great view and a good way up the beginning part of the glacier. The full day adventure people kept on walking.
Then we had to go back down the way we came, which was another adventure. When we finally reached Irith again, at least four hours had passed from the start time. The female guide, who was very nice, let Irith hang on to her backpack as we made our way down the mountain. Once at the bottom, we had that 2 mile hike on level ground back to the bus. OY!! I won’t tell you about the distress I was in on that final walk, but I was extremely pleased to see toilets at the bus pick-up place. Enough said.
We then drove about 5.5 hours to our next night’s stay at Wanaka. We stopped at another glacier (the Fox Glacier) for a picture opportunity, stopped at a salmon farm for lunch, and otherwise just enjoyed the fabulous scenery of rainforest, mountains, plains, etc.
Today we drove about 4.5 hours. We made a side trip to the foot of Mt. Cook, the tallest mountain in New Zealand and hiked a half hour to a scenic point and then hiked back. It was incredibly beautiful, with hanging glaciers and a view of the mountain that looked as if a face was carved in it.
Among the pictures below is a rather unique bridge. South of Greymouth, the railroad tracks followed beside the roadway. Here, there are many bridges that are one lane and cars on either side have to wait for oncoming traffic to clear before proceeding on the one-lane bridge. There was one bridge, however, that was one-lane for cars and the train. The train track ran down the middle of the one-lane car bridge. The locals highly recommend that cars make way for the locomotive if it appears at the bridge when you do.
Tonight we are in Lake Tepako. We did our laundry, had pizza and killed a bottle of wine and staggered back to our room to get the laundry out of the drier and fall into bed. Tomorrow, back to Christchurch.
As Roger told you in the previous blog, we went yesterday for a little shopping spree. I am one lucky woman!!!! Roger bought me the most beautiful necklace with the Ruby Rock in it. The stone to me looks like a Monet painting. This particular stone contains Ruby and Sapphire and a little bit of Tourmaline gorgeously arranged by nature in one stone. It is set in a simple/elegant 14 K gold frame, and I LOVE it.  A spectacular momento from our trip for our 40th anniversary. So, I have to repeat myself. I am one lucky woman to have the best man around for my husband.
This morning we awoke early, were driven to the train station and boarded a train to Greymouth, on the West Coast. This train is rated the sixth most scenic in the world. Unfortunately, due to track work, we could only take the train to Arthur Pass (about half way) and then switch to buses the rest of the way. This turned out not to be so bad as the train went through a mile long tunnel, while we got better views from the bus driving over the mountain, rather than through it. It was fabulously scenic, passing over the Southern Alps.
When we got to Greymouth (see map) we picked up our rental car and started driving south along the coast road toward Franz Josef Glacier (that’s the name of the town as well as the glacier). We stopped on the way at a little town called Hokitika, which is on the Tasman Sea and is a center for carving and jewelry making with special jade found only in the area, special colorful shells called Paua, and the very rare ruby rock. We went to the shop of the man who has all but cornered the market in these beautiful gemstones. Since they were gorgeus and contained rubies and the 40th is the ruby anniversary, well, Irith will blog about it tomorrow.
We then continued south to more mountains and checked in to our beautiful little bed and breakfast (Holly Homestead). Tomorrow we have a half day guided glacier adventure. Should have lots of great pictures for you.
Please notice the words above that are underlined and in a different color, indicating that they are links. Click on them for more about the things we are talking about.
Roger
Map of Our Trip Around the South Island
View of the Gorge from the Train
The Train and the Scenery
The Flowering Trees were in Full Bloom (with a Passing Cloud)
We got lucky at the Casino without even making a bet! Roger and I decided to check out the Casino before our dinner. Just see what they have to offer. We planned on seeing a comedy show at the Casino at around 10pm. While strolling at the Casino, which was fairly empty, on the floor (and no one was around that area) I found 100 NZD note. Since there was no one around, I kept it. We figured that it will be fun to play the slot machines with someone else money. We went to a great Greek restaurant and had a couple of shots of Ouzo each, ate well and went to the Casino to have fun. After playing for a long time, seeing the Comedy show and playing some more, we still left the place with 60 NZD in our pockets. Good money to have fun with on our trip to the Glacier and wine country.
We spent the day buskering today. Buckle your seatbelts, because the next three days will be a whirlwind of travel about the West Coast of the Southern Island of New Zealand. Hopefully, we’ll have internet every night to keep you appraised.
January 25, 2010, was our 40th wedding anniversary. Today is already the morning of the 26th in Christchurch (or ChCh as they abbreviate it), but it is still our anniversary in most of the rest of the world. So we want to thank everyone for their kind greetings. We had a great day on our anniversary. After arriving in ChCh, we went out to watch the buskering. The festival is great. There are street performers at about 5 or more locations performing continuously (different acts every hour). In the evening there are comedy clubs with buskers or nighttime performances. We are having a great time wandering from venue to venue.
While wandering, we also checked out restaurants that had been recommended to us by the people here for our big occasion. We settled on a beautiful little restaurant called Tiffanys, situated on a park adjacent to the river running through ChCh. The food was gourmet (the tenderest freshest lamb chops I have had in a long time), and the service impeccable (I think we were served by the owner). They bent over backwards to accomodate. When Irith couldn’t find something on the menu for the main course that she really wanted, they happily agreed to make a main course size of one of the appetizers that she wanted. We drank an entire bottle of Asti champagne (or, more properly, sparkling wine since it is not from the Champagne district of France) and it reminded us of the Asti we had at our wedding 40 years ago. We were too full for dessert, but the management surprised us with a special dish of truffles (they called them petit fours). See the picture below. It was a lovely romantic evening to perfectly top off our big day (around which this entire trip was built). Then we walked back to the hotel, stopping at one of the venues for a 10 pm performance of a show involving juggling and dancing with fire.
Today we have 5 or 6 performers at various locations circled in our guide to go see. There is a comedy show at the Casino here tonight that we plan to go to, so our day is set and we are looking forward to getting started. Having a great time and wish that you all were here with us.
We did not have internet yesterday, as it was a day of travel. We had breakfast, took pictures of some of the flowers around the resort, packed and came to the lobby to leave at about 11:30 am. There all the staff were gathered, one with a guitar, and sang us a farewell song in Fijiian. It was very beautiful and moving. They made a little speech asking our forgiveness if they did not serve us well. So, with a tear in our eye, we left for the boat to the main island. As we had a few hours before our flight, we asked to be dropped off in town to do a little shopping. Our service from the port to the airport dropped us off and took all of our bags to the tour operator’s office at the airport, so we could wander around a little and then take a cab to the airport. Bought a couple of little things.
By the way, did we mention the kava? The manager made kava our last two nights and invited people to join him in the bar for some. It was made by soaking the root powder through a fine linen in water, or something like that, but it looked like he was washing his clothes in it. And the color was that of dirty dish water. It tasted like mud, but it really had a relaxing effect. You no longer noticed any aches or pains and I slept really well. Even Irith tasted it. You are supposed to do a little ceremony with your first cup, as the natives take kava ceremony very seriously. You clap your hands once, then drink the entire cup down, and then clap three times. Irith made it through about one swallow, gagged, said thank you very much and clapped three times. I don’t think she will be invited back.
Kava
The flight to Aukland was quite nice. We had business class and, on Sunday nights when many Kiwis are returning home from Fiji, they put on a big 777. They have seats that recline to full beds and have a table, etc. It was extremely comfortable. The three hours went by like nothing. In Auckland we were picked up and taken to our hotel at the airport (which did not have free internet) and in the morning we caught a flight to Christchurch (we arrived to late Sunday night to get the last flight to Christchurch).
Today we had lots of fun at the Buskers Festival. But more on that in the next post.
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