Arrowtown

Our trip was almost over, but Chris was not going to just dump us at the airport when we still had a few hours. He took us to Arrowtown for breakfast.

Arrowtown was a gold rush town that saw the population surge and then fall, but it's not a ghost town now. It is now a charming small town with historic value. What we saw of the downtown was very pretty, and there is just a short walk from street parking to look at the remnants of miners' cabins and outbuildings. I think the second picture is of an actual mine entrance, but I am not positive.

The miners' settlement is just a stone's throw from the Arrow River (hence the town's name). It was blocked off so we could not get too close, and I don't really have any pictures of it, but this is where Arwen and Frodo crossed the river before the Nazgul were washed away. I believe it was just a matter of the ground being very soggy and dangerous, in combination with the high waters, so you might be able to go down to the river at a different time of year.

Anyway, we wandered around the settlement, had breakfast at the bakery, and then drove up to a couple of scenic overlook areas. It just gave us a chance to breathe in a bit more of the pure air, and to drink in more of the beauty of the South Island.

But all good things must come to an end. We did need to make our flight, so we did need to say goodbye.

When we were leaving for Australia, we had very short layovers where we were constantly on the run, and yet with the time zone change, we left Thursday and arrived Saturday. This trip was the complete opposite. We had a four hour layover in Auckland, and I think it was seven hours in Los Angeles. Despite that, we left on Tuesday and arrived just a few hours later, in a manner of speaking.

I'll never be a fan of long flights, but it's worth it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrowtown

Inside Queenstown

This post will probably be quite short, as I have already written about the Deer Park, and that was our highlight for Queenstown.

I had mentioned that the Deer Park has all of these adventure options, and that makes sense, because Queenstown is the adventure capital of New Zealand. There is rafting, luge, bungee jumping, skiing (with or without helicopters), and sundry other activities, which is great, but not something that we were particularly interested in. We are lame in that way.

We had heard that Queenstown had good shopping, so that was something we looked at, but after wandering through many stores, we did not find anything we really wanted. (This included looking in three different bookstores for Five Kiwi in a Kombi.)

So, why go to Queenstown? Well, there are really two reasons for it. (That's two reasons for us. If you are into adventure activities, go for it. If you are more into shopping, I'd say our best luck there was Queen Street in Auckland.)

First off, for the places we wanted to go, it was the most logical airport to use. There is an airport in Christchurch, but that puts you considerably further north, and we pretty much stayed in the southernmost third of the South Island.

The other thing to think about is that it is absolutely beautiful. Those adventure activities work because you have mountains and rivers and lakes, and it was some of the most gorgeous scenery I've ever seen. That doesn't mean you have to spend a long time in the city. We basically had the one day, plus our trip out, and I'm not sure you can drive in any direction without seeing something breathtaking. Like the rest of the island, the air is fresh and pure, and being there just feels good.

Population-wise, it is somewhere between Te Anau and Dunedin. Dunedin like most university cities. A large part of the population is college students, but there are a lot of businesses supporting that, as well as the tourism, so you have a lot of regular residents. Te Anau is mainly vacation homes, that are rented out more as investments than used by the owners. There are some regular residents, but it gets pretty empty in the off-season.

Queenstown is based on tourism, but there are more hotels and hostels than vacation homes, so more support staff is needed. A lot of the tourists are young adrenaline junkies, so it feels more alive, but not homey. Most of the people who work there are from other parts of the country, and they are only there temporarily.

There were two interesting encounters. On our way back to the hotel for the night, we stopped in a grocery store, and as we were chatting in line a man behind us said, "Oh good! I was afraid the Americans would stop coming." He was referring to the news of economic disaster. Well, things had been fine when we left. I have no idea how they're doing now. I certainly didn't expect to follow the trip with ten months without income.

The other thing worth noting is that we found an excellent food court, and needing to conserve funds had both lunch and dinner there, in between checking out stores and such. (There is a lovely path around the lake that I only noticed after it was too late to explore it, so that was a regret. If you get there, take a walk around the lake.)

Anyway, I don't remember which meal it was, but we were there and Julie noticed someone familiar in line at McDonalds. It was John and Marie from the Great Barrier Reef.

This was without a doubt the farthest in between jaunts that we had seen anyone. There were people that we kept seeing all around Kangaroo Island and Adelaide, and one family we had seen in Port Douglas, North Queensland had also turned up in Port Arthur, Tasmania, but here we were in a different country--and climate!

With everything that had happened in between, it was almost surprising that we had recognized them, but we talked quite a bit, especially Marie and Julie. They were both a bit concerned about snorkeling, so they talked about that, and then Louise basically towed them both around for the entire time. (She was a strong swimmer.)

Anyway, it was exciting to see them. We chatted and got caught up. They were doing the adventure stuff, and had some close calls skiing, so that was fun, and then we talked about what everyone was doing next. After the second encounter, it becomes acceptable to exchange contact information, so we took e-mail address and promised to send them information on California (which was eventually on their itinerary--they were going a lot of places).

So that was nice. I was glad we ran into them. I kind of wish I had exchanged contact information with Vicky and Camille from Kangaroo Island. Yes, only ran into them at one thing, but it was a two-day thing. It could have counted. Maybe Peter too. (At least one of the Peter's. There were three or four.)

That was our last full day in New Zealand, but we had a good guide who wanted to make sure that we didn't miss any opportunities, so there was one more stop.

Deer Park Heights

Chris picked us up early in Dunedin, and we set out for Queenstown. He gave us a quick look at the town and our hotel to get us oriented, and then drove us up to Deer Park Heights. He was going to take us through the attraction, then drop us back in downtown to do some exploring on our own.

This was his first time at the Deer Park, but after we had worked out the things that we definitely wanted to do, he told us he would fill in some other activities to suit us as he got to know us. He had learned that we were complete suckers for animals, and somewhat interested in seeing places from The Lord of the Rings, so this place turned out to be perfect.

I have the web site at the end of the post, so you can check it out, but the page advertises safaris, where they will pick you up, and you can combine it with a jet boat or helicopter ride. This was not our experience at all. We drove up to the gate, inserted $20 NZD into the slot, and the gate opended automatically. Since we had four people in the car, this was a pretty good deal.

There were maps that you could take you give you an idea of the layout, and various feed stations with empty coffee cans, where you could put in $2 NZD and get the can full of food, thereby being able to feed the animals. Truly, it is a bargain.

The place does have its flaws. Some of the animals are penned, and some are not, but the areas are large enough that if they want to avoid you, they easily can. Therefore, we never saw any bison, though I believe we saw all of the other species. There are no attendants, so I suppose there can be a certain danger to that, though there are no carnivores. (Well, there were these very hairy pigs, but they were penned, and they did not seem particularly fierce. Some day they may find that they have to protect the animals from the people, but I hope not.) Regardless, we had a good time with what we did.

At the first area we had the pigs, chickens, ducks, and donkeys. I guess this was the farm area. Chris got some food (they called it "nuts", but it was more like kibble), and we started feeding the animals. He made a game where we tried to throw directly to specific animals, and scored points for each direct pass. Julie got all three, thus becoming the clear winner.

The donkeys were fascinating in that, rather than grazing at the food from your hands, they shaped their mouths into cups, expecting you to drop the food in. Well, if that's the way they want it.

We got back into the car and drove to the llama area. There was one baby (a cria) with its mother, and she was pretty protective. I was able to pet it, and then she herded it to the side so no one else could. This was a shame because the baby was so soft.

Really, all of the llama petting was made a little more complicated because of the other one pictured. If he looks kind of "in your face", well, that's because he was. He kept trying to get into the food can. We didn't have any objection to feeding him, but we wanted the others to get some too. What we ended up doing was taking a little to give to him and then passing the can to the next person. He kept catching on and going after the next can holder, but in between that we could feed and pet the others.

We drove on and saw more animals. I had never heard of a thar before, but they had them. They're a lot like goats.

Back to the information sheet, one side was a map that showed the roads and the general areas where the different animals could be found. The other side had the list of species and information about them.

The map side also had numbers for different filming locations. Most of the footage shot here was for scenes set around Rohan, so it was primarily for The Two Towers, and then the scene in The Return of the King where Gandalf is riding away with Pippin. That picture of Maria was taken where Aragorn fell over the cliff after the wargs attacked.

One thing that we thought was odd was that there was an area on the map designated "Movie Set". I mean, wasn't the whole thing? We understood better when we turned and came across a Korean prison. Lo and behold, there was an actual set left standing from the movie, The Rescue. I vaguely remembered seeing ads for a film where a bunch of navy brats go in to rescue their parents when the government won't, because, you know, that's likely. I also thought I remembered Sean Astin being in it, but it was actually Kevin Dillon and the kid who played Skippy on Family Ties. I guess for Sean I was thinking of B.R.A.T. Patrol, but that's okay, he was in a different movie that filmed here, even if he wasn't in those scenes.

What was funny was that Chris had just been saying that they ought to have some sort of coffee stand or something in the park, so once we saw that, the obvious thing was to put in a bento stand. In reality though, the set is falling apart, and is fenced off because of how dangerous it would be. Maybe it's just as well that the Rohan set was taken down.

We did have one more animal encounter that I want to share. The last animals we fed were the feral goats. "Feral" makes them sound more ferocious than they are. All it means is that domestic goats went into the wild, and kept breeding, and it does not make them particularly dangerous, but they can be food aggressive, just like tame goats are.

Anyway, we went in, and started feeding the goats. Maria had the coffee can, and this one goat was following her around, and stuck his face right into the can, and she got scared and dropped it. Now all of the goats went for it.

That could have been funny on its own, but then Chris said "Now that's two dollars wasted." There could not have been more than an inch of food left in the can, because we had been using it at many stops. But the Scots are cheap, and it's funny.

We had a good time.

http://www.thedeerpark.co.nz/

Sunday in Dunedin

Although we were discouraged by our failed attempt to go to church, the fact that we had managed to find our way back to the motel may have given us a false sense of security in our ability to navigate. We changed clothes, and started walking in what we believed was the general direction of downtown. It wasn't.

After wandering around in residential tracts, we wandered into a little convenience store, talked to the clerk there, and decided to call a cab. This part actually went quite well. Our cabbie was prompt, got us right into town at a reasonable price, and gave us helpful advice about getting back when the time came. Every now and then, something has to go right.

Dunedin was founded in 1841 by the Lay Association of the Free Church of Scotland. Their spiritual guide was the Reverend Thomas Burns, a nephew of the poet Robert Burns. That statue in the town center is of Robert Burns.

The Scottish influence is felt in other ways. Dùn Èideann is the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the Scottish capital. Chris told us that Dunedin was planned following the basic design of Edinburgh, including using the same street names. However, the street names were not used in the same order, so maps are not interchangeable.

We had the cab take us to the Octagon, because it is the center of town, and so an easy starting point for getting around. It worked out even better than we thought. You have the statue here, and a small park area, but many attractions are just a stone's throw away, so we were able to see a lot in a short amount of time.

We started out at the Art Gallery. In addition to the art exhibits, they have a video library where you can see historic footage, documentaries about the area, and even works by local filmmakers (they had a large Peter Jackson section).

Next, we started off towards the First Church Otago. Under the architect's original design, it was going to be a beacon on the hill. While he was away, they moved it, considerably lower down. This was quite disappointing for him, but it is still a very pretty church, and probably easier to get to this way.

Going down one more block we arrived at the Settlers Museum, and took in the exhibits. I think we ended up being most intrigued by the transport gallery. In addition to vehicles from several eras, you could see early drivers training videos. It was just kind of a fun departure from the typical museum exhibit.

Exiting the museum, we had a choice to turn left or right. We sort of intended to go to the classical Chinese garden, and we thought right looked more promising for that, because all we saw to the left was a shopping center. Well, it turns out the garden was left, just set back from the road. We had heard mixed reviews on it anyway, but I think the real issue is that some people like classical Chinese gardens and some don't. If you like the Portland one, you would probably like this one and the one in Sydney. It's just a guess.

Now, I can't say that going right was a mistake, because suddenly everything else is right there. We had explored this area a bit with Chris the previous day, but we were able to go over it again at our leisure. Here you have the historic courthouse and jail, the Cadbury factory, and the Dunedin Railway Station.

The station is quite famous, and commonly referred to as either the most photographed building in New Zealand, or the second-most photographed building in the Southern Hemisphere (following the Sydney Opera House). In addition to the elaborate gingerbread architecture on the outside, there are all sorts of flourishes on the inside, from mosaics and stained glass to wrought iron work and statuary. Tour trains still depart from it, but is has very much become a tourist attraction more than a working train station. There is even a sports hall of fame on the second floor. I would have liked to have taken more pictures of it, but my batteries were running low, again.

That was pretty much our last stop of the day. We casually worked our way back up to the Octagon, caught a cab back to the motel, did laundry, ordered pizza, and watched the Simpsons movie on TV. Monday would be Queenstown, and Tuesday we would head back to the States. Our trip was quickly coming to a close.

I have to say, Dunedin is a lovely spot, with a lot to do, and on those grounds I recommend it. Still, and this may be heresy, I think the Octagon looked more like a hexagon. Maybe I just needed to stop and count.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunedin
http://dunedin.art.museum/
http://www.firstchurchotago.org.nz/
http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/otago-settlers-museum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunedin_Railway_Station

Why we never went to church on vacation

To be fair, growing up we never went to church on vacation. In fact, stake and general conferences were treated as vacation days. I didn't even know there were Saturday night sessions of stake conference until I was on my mission.

So the habits were not really there, but it was also rarely an issue. The most common vacations my sisters and I take are ones where we leave on Monday and get back on Friday night. I did look up meeting information for when we were in Hawaii, but it didn't work out.

In this case, we were going to be gone on five Sundays, and that was a lot of Sunday to miss. Not only would missing that much church not feel right, but I thought it would be really cool to meet members in other places. Maybe they would suggest places we had not thought of going, or take us home to use their internet, or become pen pals. It was worth trying.

I had to eliminate two of the Sundays right off of the bat. On our third Sunday we would be with the tour group on Kangaroo Island, traveling with them. One the first Sunday we could have had some free time, but there was no branch in Port Douglas. The closest unit was in Cairns, over an hour away by car, which we did not have. (We had already booked all of our air and ground transportation while I was looking.) Still, that left us with three Sundays, and I had the addresses of the meeting houses and the meeting times.

Our first chance was in Sydney, on the second Sunday of our trip. I had printed directions, and it was supposed to only be a few blocks away. We got up, got dressed, and started off. We had an address, and a building name. It looks like the local branch did not have their own building, so they used a room in a public building. No problem, except that the building did not seem to be at the spot we expected.

What was there appeared to be a police station, but hey, at least there were lots of officers we could ask. We did, and he was not positive, but he thought it would be two blocks in the direction he pointed out. Now, it was a very warm day, and the part of Sydney we were in was quite hilly, but okay, we at least had to try. We trudged on in our uncomfortable Sunday shoes, and found the street, and there was nothing there either. There was a race of some kind, though, so there were lots of runners, and officers controlling the crowds, and we asked again.

Oddly, these directions did not work either, and we had kind of circled back to where we started from. Maybe that means that we had been close the entire time, and all we needed was to have gone at a slightly different angle, or one street over, but we were thoroughly stumped, and now hot, sweaty, and tired, so we gave up. After all, our other two times would be in New Zealand, where there are a lot more members, and people would be more familiar with the church, so this was a fluke, and regrettable, but the other Sundays would be different. Well, they were different anyway.

The fourth Sunday was in Auckland, and it was just stupidity that we missed it, which was a shame because we had already had one stroke of luck. You see, this was the first Sunday in October, so it was General Conference. I was worried that would throw things off, because maybe they would not be on their regular schedule, watching the broadcasts. Still, with the time difference, maybe they would tape the broadcasts to play the following week. However, we were lucky because their normal meeting time was 9 am, and that would coincide with the Saturday morning session of conference, so we could not lose either way.

Ha! Well, this one was entirely our own fault. Again, with the time change, and also with being out of our normal routine, sleeping in strange places, we had automatically been waking up at 4 or 5 every morning. Since we would not have to be up until 7, we did not bother setting the alarm, which felt like kind of a luxury. Well, maybe it was that we had been traveling enough to adjust, or the beating that we took in the boat at the Bay of Islands, or just the switch from Australian time to New Zealand time. Somehow, we slept until 8:30.

Okay, we felt bad, but on the next Sunday we actually had a ride to church, because our tour guide had arranged it, so this time we were going to make it for sure. There were just two problems. One was that if we had gone in Auckland, we would have seen that they were on the normal schedule that week, and maybe we could have asked how conference generally worked so we would have an idea of what was different. Having missed that, we were uninformed, and since the people who were helping us get to church were not members (it was actually the motel owner who drove us), they could not advise.

The Dunedin Mornington branch meets at 9. We got up, got dressed, and somehow I knew that I must not wear my church shoes. The Sunday hike in Sydney had shown me that. My sisters disagreed with my decision to wear sneakers with my skirt, but I stood firm. This turned out to be handy.

Our landlady drove us up, and since it was basically a straight shot to the motel, we assured her we could walk back. The parking lot was empty, but it was not quite 9 yet. We should have worried more, but she let us out and drove off. We went to the door and noticed a paper with the conference rebroadcast schedule.

I really do not understand why, when one branch meets at 9 and the other meets at 12:30, the first conference session would be aired at 2. Tell me the sense in that. But that's what it said.

Well, there was no way we were going to stand in a parking lot for five hours, so we started down the hill, making the long march back and feeling pretty stupid. I was glad to be wearing sneakers though, I'll tell you that.

As we started our walk, Maria said, "That's it. We are never going to church on vacation again!" I told her that wasn't the answer. I think the real solution is that you always need to call first. Find a number for the branch president and confirm the meeting times. Ask him for directions. Maybe even see if someone can give you a ride. I can assure you that have the building address and meeting time only seems like enough.