Meeting in the middle

Ten days have already past since we stepped onto our Cathay Pacific flight to Phnom Penh via Hong Kong. Unfortunately the journey did not start so well. We met Hayden and Sarah in Auckland for a night stop-over as planned. We boarded our early flight but then the Captain gave us a message to say “ we have inadvertently closed a valve and do not know how to open it again”!!! 45 minutes later the engineers had set us on our way but we knew that was a lot of time to catch up and our connecting flight Hong Kong to Phnom Penh was going to be missed. They rebooked us but it involved a 5 hour hotel booking and meal, flying to Singapore at 1.30am then flying to Phnom Penh 5.30am. A much longer day than expected and we landed just a few hours before Meghan and Blair. At least our hotel room was ready on arrival as we’d paid for the extra night.

Our first impressions of Phnom Penh were so many more cars and congested streets than when Rob and I visited in 2010. A lot of the tuk tuks are now LPG which hopefully will help with some of the air pollution problems. There was one smiling familiar face however who joined us for lunch. Julie Lowe now McGregor hosted us in 2010 and is still working in PP. Blair and Hayden really enjoyed catching up with their ‘cousin’ after 9 years or so. Julie tells us there is a developing wealthy ‘middle class’ there now but still too many only earning a pittance. Blair and Hayden were straight into the swing of learning snippets of the language, (which was always greeted with broad smiles) facilitating Tuk tuk transport and bartering in the markets. Meghan joins the team with great research of sites to visit and restaurants with yummy food. They visited the Palace then the sobering Genocide Museum and Killing Fields over the 2 days before heading by taxi up to the more laid back city of Siem Reap to visit Angkor Wat.

Tarantulas anybody!

Airport transport

Rob and I flew ahead to Ho Chi Minh and spent a few days walking around near our District 1 hotel. It was an interesting area with small residential alleyways leading off the main hustle and bustle. Pretty quiet but a reality check as memories flood back to the firm Asian mattress of the cheaper hotels US$36 per night. Very friendly helpful staff. At night the lead alley to our hotel ‘came alive’ with beautiful ladies adorning the doors of their establishments!!! They were so keen to greet Rob until they spotted me following!!! As you can imagine the boys got even better greetings on their later night return alone after some beers. Rob and Blair made some purchases in the main Ben Thanh Market. Everything you need is available in this bustling organised Market stacked to the gunnels. It is very oppressive though and helpful to know “khong cam on”….no thank you.

B M H & S took a Tour out to the Cu Chi Tunnels. This is a War Memorial Park with 121 km of tunnels that were used by the Viet Cong soldiers as supply routes, hiding places and accommodation during the Vietnam War. They have enlarged some of the network so larger western visitors can go down and get a feel for what it was like. On their journey back through HCM Sarah spotted us getting a geocache from a platform over a small lake!!!! What are the chances in a population of 3 million or so. I did have a bright pink top on but still. They then visited the War Remnants Museum which has a thought provoking collection of photographs and history of the War from a Vietnamese point of view. We felt very safe walking the streets and tasting craft beers and sampled a broad range of restaurants. One of these was accessed through a cane bag shop. It was quite swept-up modern décor and had two little chickens wandering around under the tables! When we left they were side by side asleep perched on the edge of a pot plant!!

Intersection mayhem

Community Hall

Our last day was spent together on a very memorable for the wrong reasons Tour to two Mekong Delta Islands. We are not sure if our Guide was new to the job but he gave us very little information and we felt we were just herded through lots of market stalls. There were so many other Tours in the area and the “Canal paddle through villages” was a punt with front and back paddlers. The boys 2 ladies obviously felt hard done by drawing the short straw propelling 4 giant westerners through the mud filled narrow waterway and hassled them the whole way wanting money groaning and grunting for effect!! Needless to say they gave them about 50c which may have been more inflated if they’d had a friendlier disposition. We couldn’t see anything over the banks and learned very little about the Delta existence even after lots of questions as our Guides English was not great. You win some and lose some. The highlight of the day was our conversations with an actor from Manchester who was the only other visitor in our group. He is between jobs so taking a break. After looking him up when we got back to Wifi we discovered he has had some big parts in The Bill, Vera, Cold Feet, Eastenders and movies. I suppose he was happy that we didn’t ask for a change. We were surprised to see that Saigon embraces Christmas in a big way. Giant decorations are rolled out on hotels and department stores. People wearing Santa suits and kids in Christmas clothes.

Rex Hotel

Old and new

So we left HCM on Christmas Day flying here to Con Dau Island. It is so fresh peaceful and compact after the smoggy traffic filled city. We arrived around 2pm and had a bit of trouble finding somewhere to have lunch. Most days people here have a rest at that time as they all seem to stay open late in the evening. Anyway a helpful lady called a taxi which took us about 2km to an authentic local restaurant with some Saigon beer. Just what we needed and then we crashed for a nap as you do on Christmas Day. Different but great to be together for sure. 

Yesterday we had the first sleep-in after a lot of early starts. In the afternoon we took a Guided Tour of the Museum, cemetery and prisons on this Island. The French first opened the prison in 1861 to house political prisoners. Then it was handed over to the South Vietnamese until the end of the Vietnam War. There is no doubt it was a pretty inhumane place but there was also a lot of propaganda artwork in the Museum and the officials don’t seem too happy with the Guides speaking English.

Island electric taxi

It is not very touristy here yet but a few very cool restaurants branching out to meet the market. We finished up in a Karaoke Bar last night which is quite a big thing in a lot of places. There was a piano and guitar and the boys gave it a bit of a lash along with some talented Danes. Fortunately I have not much voice!!

I have had a cold for the past 5 days which is pretty annoying so I passed on the walk up over the hill today to another Bay and am writing this instead. By all accounts it wasn’t that great so I think it was a wise choice. We are early on the plane tomorrow heading for Hoi An on the East Coast near Da Nang.

The Last day

Our penultimate day has arrived after 4 months dodging the New Zealand winter. By all accounts we may be home a day or two too soon, but it feels as though we have been away a year.

Our last few days in Vancouver were packed with activity. We had dinner events with Peter and Penny Pearce and Joan Fisher and Michael Carruthers, who are distant family relatives of Diana’s from both sides of her family. We also had dinner with good friends Elaine, Joel and Bryn. Thanks to all for great Canadian hospitality.

Blair and Meghan drove us to Osoyoos (tricky to pronounce isn’t it) for a weekend, where we went hiking and wine trailing. After half a dozen wineries we had succumbed to visiting Jucy Lucy, forgetting how to pronounce the name of an age old Indian tribe from about these parts. While in Osoyoos, raging wildfires on all horizons limited vision to 5 kms or so…not sure those Blenheim fire fighters had much effect down in Idaho.

Back in Vancouver Diana and I spent a day hiking in the Lynn Canyon, a short drive north of the city and also spent more time in Stanley Park. Stanley park is brilliant for walking, biking and running. We managed two of those three. Blair also bought us tickets to the “Bard on the Beach”. This is a pop-up Shakespeare type seasonal event and was fantastic. The play we saw was “As You Like It”, not one that either of us had studied at school. Where else do you read Shakespeare these days? Surprisingly there were 28 Beatles songs interwoven into the script, pretty sure that old William didn’t put them there but this crew sung them in and it was a rip roarer great night out.

Finally we had to say good bye to Blair and Meghan. Their 13^th floor apartment is two bedrooms but quite small and I know they will be pleased to have their space back. We really appreciated our time in the beautiful city they call home and especially Meghans amazing cooking and snacks.

A flight with Alaskan Air to Honolulu took us out of falling leaves and crisp mornings into non-stop summer, all day and all night. The weather here in Hawaii is hot but the beach is only a stones throw from just about anywhere. We hired a car one day, turned up “Surfin USA” and headed north to the Banzai Pipeline. I thought while we were in Hawaii I had to try surfing, everyone does it here and there is surf rolling in on all sides of the island. It didn’t take long before we were listening to the Surfaris and “Wipe Out”….darn good music from the olden days.

We climbed Diamond Head on a very hot afternoon and were proud of ourselves not to falter due to dehydration. While heading up we watched one young lady lifted off by the rescue helicopter! Couldn’t hack the pace.

We also visited Pearl Harbour and saw how the Japanese caught the Americans napping and wiped out most of their airforce and navy stationed here in 1942. While they did explain that the Japanese failed to break the Americans spirit and in fact only strengthened it. They did tell us that the Americans were ultimately victorious but they didn’t explain how those final moments were arrived at. There were several Japanese tourists there so I didn’t dwell on that. 

Today we have visited more breweries and been swimming in the sea. Packing and bracing ourselves for normalcy is next on the agenda.

But I must tell you about the President here. We watched a bit of TV and it is like a soap opera, not unlike Coronation Street. Same character line up and similar story lines. The only thing is that Donald Trump is the producer, and he casts himself as the lead actor. Not so bad so far but there is no script, no rehearsals, he just belts it out at anytime of the day and the other players react best they can. And this goes on and on. There can be three or four different stories going at once, no one is sure how they will finish, it is unbelievable. I think that being in the north of the country, and in Hawaii, that we are meeting people who predominantly voted for the Democrats. But some of his antics are so far off the dignity that we would expect of even the most uneducated illiterate of politicians that one wonders when it will all finish. Hopefully at the end of his 4 year term if not before.

Better wrap this up and we look forward to seeing you back in New Zealand…from tomorrow afternoon onwards.

The Final Curtain is Nigh

Our trip across Idaho was most uneventful. We headed south west from Spokane to a little town called Yukima. It is something of a fruit bowl for much of USA and also lay claim to growing the best hops in USA. We checked out a small hop museum which was just that. From there we headed back into the mountains, this time the Cascade Range, not as iconic or as well visited as the Rockies but still quite impressive. We had booked a chalet type accommodation in the centre of the park and from there travelled on to Sunrise which is a high altitude hiking, skiing, snow shoe walking destination in Mt Ranier National Park. It was almost snowing so we limited ourselves to some short walks and got to see most of Mt Ranier, she kept her veil on unfortunately.

Out of there and our next destination was Mt Olympic National Park. We booked 4 nights in Dungeness near Sequim with no agenda. We had a nice homely AirB&B and spent a day hiking on the Obstruction Point walk. One interesting thing with the Parks here is that they quite often have good vehicle access to high points in the park. I’m sure that obesity would be less of a problem if everyone had to walk from the park boundary. We drove high in the mountains and then walked about 15kms, much of it in smoky air as fires continue to burn, many left to themselves if no buildings are threatened. There are hundreds of fires in North West America during summer and most are started by lightning. Unlike NZ, they have dry electric storms whereas ours are usually accompanied by rain.

We also spent a day biking 30km on a rail trail between Port Angeles and Sequim. (The number of accessible large juicy blackberries next to this trail brought back family memories of picking with my Mum Kathleen around Fernside so we couldn't resist picking some. We had beautiful blackberry yoghurt desserts for a couple of nights.)

Dungeness Spit 10.5km long

Mt. Olympic is north west of Seattle and we needed to head back to Interstate 5 to go back to Canada. We took a couple of days and a couple of ferries across a little island to get there. We visited the John Wayne marina while out that way but no sign of the Duke …or his horse.

We also spent a short while clambering about Fort Worden, near Port Townsend. The Americans started building this multi gunned, bunkered, fortified complex in 1898, to protect themselves from enemy forces. They kept adding to it and eventually stopped manning it and departed about 1955. They tend to give me the impression that they believe that the Worlds populace all strive to live in the US, and become a US citizen. I’m happy to tell them that we’re hoping to get electric lights next year. The more that live here the better off we all will be. 

While on Whidbey Island, Sally, my sister, had put us in touch with 2 friends that she had travelled overland from Asia to England with back in 1978. Ted and Robin were marvellous and treated us to a night in their seaside house in Puget Sound. We drank wine and watched cruise ships sail up the Sound, blotting out the sun as they went past.

Away from there, we visited some small villages, one having a 3 day music festival (not quite Woodstock though) but both quite quaint. We experienced the Boeing Factory Tour on our way past. I was surprised to learn - 35,000 people work 3 shifts, they only make planes to prepaid request, make 54 per month of one model (767 I think) and they have 8 years of orders in front of them. Only 20% of the Worlds population have flown on a jet airplane and as third world countries develop, the demand for aircraft will grow. It was an interesting tour on a massive scale. Disneyland and its car park would fit in the factory!

So we are now at the end. We have been 9 weeks since we drove in to Jasper National Park in British Columbia and 8 weeks since we waved Meghan and Blair goodbye at the Calgary airport. We have had a fantastic time, seen loads of animals, possibly “bunches” up this way, (even managed to photograph a few) met and stayed with wonderful relatives and friends along the way and have and will keep many great memories. Despite the politics here the US has been terrific, great people, good people…I think we only discovered one who admitted voting for Trump!

We are back to Vancouver tomorrow for 12 days then we will be heading home with a few days off in Hawaii. We think we need time to recover! Might get another note away from there.

We finished messing around in Jackson after a couple of great days and headed north west with no particular place to go. We had no bookings and just thought we would find somewhere to rest when we had enough driving. That didn’t take long as Idaho falls appeared in the windscreen and we decided to not let it appear in the rear-view mirror, not today anyway. We stayed two nights at a decent hut so had a day riding hired cycles around the town green belt, basically the river that runs through their town. They even have a wee power station on it and this also helps to create the ”falls” part of the city’s name. Here we dined in a brewery and service wasn’t good until a little old fellow decided to assist. We got to yarning, turned out he was the owner, a devout Mormon, they have oozed northward from Salt Lake City and are all through Idaho. But they are anti-alcohol and he is not only selling it he’s making it! Asked him about Trump and he thought he was doing a pretty good job considering the pasting that everyone seems to be giving him. Seems little old Mormon was a bit hypocritical but I invited him down to NZ as I think he needs to see how honest people live. 

From Idaho Falls we took to the wide-open plains with Craters of the Moon National Park in sight as our first stop. However, before that we came across “Hells Half Acre” and that deserved a look, and it was free. This was an area that had once been an active volcano and the lava was left baked to the earth like a giant cake mix spilled. Interesting formations that we were able to walk all over. Back in the car and on to CMNP which is far more commercialised but better set up with roads and walking tracks. More trouble with the cake mixing but Alison Holst had several mishaps over a number of years….in the millions we are talking, not mishaps, years.  

We spent a couple of hours there before back onto the prairies and then into the Snake River Valley. We got a bit caught up watching canoeists and rafters battling the rapids. The small town of Hailey came up next and we decided that this is where we would lay our heads for a couple of nights. Hiked to the top of Carbonate Mountain a mere 6,700 feet…we’re feeling like mountaineers now, just a dawdle up here.

Out of Hailey and into the hills, mountains really, the geography is starting to close in and things get far more interesting. We drove down rivers across prairies and up over passes and down, or up, more rivers. Logging trucks are appearing on the roads with far more frequency, often overloaded and fires are evident from smoke in the air. As I write there are 12 wild fires in Idaho at present with several more in surrounding states. We passed Boise as a group of New Zealand firefighters were coming in to help with the fire control. A group of these guys were from the Blenheim unit that I had been involved with for a number of years.

Cascade was our next stop for a night just to let the motor cool on the Mazda 6 that has served us so well. Then north again, as far as Orofino, another non-descript little settlement fighting ghost-town status. People are nice enough to us as we pass through, many realise where New Zealand is and tell us that we are one of the “accepted” countries. I presume that Mexico and North Korea are at the other end of the scale. When people don’t know where, who or why we are New Zealanders I explain, politely, go and google “America’s Cup”……and remember we only have 4 million people.

More smoke and more logging trucks and we are into Harrison on the edge of what is called Harrison Slough or more favourably, Lake Coeur d’Alene. We have had 3 nights here and spent the days cycling the Coeur d’Alene Trail, a bike track on a disused railway line. We managed 55 kms the first day and another 30 today. It is very pleasant pedalling through the river valleys and along lake edges, no cars and the grade never greater than 2% or 1:50. That’s wheel chair stuff. However, tomorrow we will move north to Spokane, out of Idaho and in to Washington. 

Yellowstone to Jackson, ♫Yeah, I’m going to Jackson, Look out Jackson Town♫

  

A few days ago we arose before the sun to head through Yellowstone National Park one more time and on to Teton National Park. We drove back across the geothermal area and with very few people about this made the experience a little different. A herd of elk entertained us for a while however bears and mooses were what I was looking for. 

Grand Teton Park was the next stop. Teton I understand is French for breast, but then I know some reading this are far more fluent in French than I am, and yes, I do know some French,…..(about 6 words!) The early French fur trappers saw the towering mountains and decided that they looked like three breasts and so named them “Les Trois Tetons”. The Grand Teton literally means “the Big Tit”, so it was easy to like this place.

We took a drive on our first day into an area previously ravaged by fire.  All looked somewhat ruined however in reality fire in these parks is a natural phenomenon. At present there are two burning in Yellowstone and one in Glacier Nat. Park. We saw some deer and a Hoary Marmot but little else to get the blood rushing.

Then it was Down to Colter Bay Cabins in the middle of the Park and a bit of a disappointment catering wise. We have been managing to make our own breakfasts with fruit and muesli and sandwiches for lunch. All we need is a refrigerator and a coffee maker and we are pretty good. This expensive cabin had none of that and clearly steered all their patrons to their restaurant. We filled our chilly bin with ice (learned this trick from our Australian friends) and stuffed the beer and the perishables in there. Change the ice twice a day from the free ice dispenser and you have yourself a refrigerator. The Log Cabins were built in 1920’s haphazardly all over the Park but were moved to this site in the 1950’s to fit with John D Rockefeller’s vision of how the Park should be in the future.  Plumbing and electrics were added but otherwise they have the same quaint old feeling……..hence no fridge!

A walk into Trapper Lake in a sweltering 36° didn’t turn up any big animals but then only mad dogs and Englishmen would go out in that temperature. Nice walk though alongside the towering bosoms and little lakes at the foot. 

Our last day in Teton National Park after 3 weeks of walking, tramping, hunting, glassing, driving and searching for things unknown to us had arrived. Good friend Peri had recommended a walk in Cascade Canyon. We were on the first boat at 7.00am to ferry across Jenny Lake and begin our 7.2km walk up the canyon. Within 15 minutes of starting I spotted a black bear crossing a clearing 400 metres above us. He was too quick or I was to slow to get the lends cap off and get a photo but we were pleased that there were animals in this neck of the woods…more of a cleavage of the woods. We got hiking, (that’s what they do here, no tramping, they hike on trails) on up the valley. Crisp morning and everything seemed perfect for a sighting of the elusive moose.

And wouldn’t you know it! Yes, a lady moose and her calf. We watched her for 30 minutes, not more than 40 metres away, the calf still feeding from the Mum….I was happy. Had the lens cap off and took a couple of photos….probably 50 just in case one didn’t come out. That was a very happy moment for me, and for Diana as she knew I would keep grizzling if we didn’t get a picture of a moose…a very strange animal, so big and yet two steps into the vegetation and it is gone. 

So with that walk hike done we were on our way south…”♫ I’m goin’ to Jackson, I’m gonna mess around..♫” but June Carter was probably right, “they’ll laugh at you in Jackson..!’’. 

We booked in to “The Virginian” a reasonable size establishment hoping to see James Drury wander past with his black hat and spurs.

With two nights r&r here and another beer with Peri and Kevin we are now looking to head through Idaho northwards and across into Washington State. 

Heading to Yellowstone National Park

We had a 3 hour drive out of Seeley Lake but as always the Mazda 6 was as determined to get there as we were, thanks Blair. On the way we stopped in Butte (pronounced Beaut, they didn’t want to be the Butt of all jokes). We took a short town tour in Butte which was interesting. They lay claim to having the richest hill in the World. It is a mile and high and a mile deep, and they have picked and drilled their way into most of it. They are still mining silver and molybdenum while trying to clean up the mess, 50 billion gallons of it (3.8 litres to the gallon!!!) from past mining of copper and other minerals. They won’t have that finished by Fall would be my uneducated guess!

We arrived in Bozeman in the early evening and I think they were expecting us! The main street was cordoned off, there were three bands going strong, 10,000 people and plenty of foodstalls. Perfect. We stayed at a B&B with the owners who ran a scuba diving shop downtown. I did my best not to laugh when explaining that they are a wee way from the sea, one of the main ingredients of that pastime I thought. “No, we have lakes…” wiped the smiled off my face …for a few seconds. But it turns out that practice in lakes with 2m visibility and stuff tied to the lake bottom to make it interesting. They showed us a photo of a human skeleton sitting on a chair at 15 metres deep! We were having a sort of rest day here but decided on a short walk in the canyon country to the south of town. Five hours later and after being completely ‘lost’ we were fabricating a letter to the authorities regarding the accuracy of their maps and track numbers…a total shambles, but all is forgiven, we’ve moved on.

From Bozeman our next accommodation was on the north boundary of Yellowstone National Park, in Gardiner. A great place to launch our animal ‘hunting’ expedition. We made an early start, before daylight (about 5.45am) to get ahead of the masses and catch the animals having one last bite before bedding down for the day. The drive in the Park is most enjoyable, exciting around every corner. We saw a lot of Wapiti, hundreds of bison, almost a pack of wolves and some Bighorn sheep. Scenery in Yellowstone is amazing. We spent a couple of days in the north then went east then south. 

On the way we passed through Cooke City, a real western-feeling little backwater. While we stopped at the saloon it would not have been surprising to see Wyatt Earp or Ben Cartwright walk through. I think I caught a glimpse of Clint Eastwood riding out of town as we arrived!

Back on the road south to Cody was enjoyable driving. Roads are good but doing 80mph is just too much...that’s 140kph! We must have seen well in excess of 1000 motorbikes so far, most of them have passed us and 90% would be Harley Davidsons. Interestingly they are often a guy and a girl, mostly older guys (bit of grey showing) but the guys never wear a helmet while the female passenger always does. I figure that they have worked out that if they came to grief then the lady wouldn’t want to ruin her good looks while the men are hoping it improves theirs. The guys can’t claim it messes their hair as many are balding. They sound and look great and are always friendly. Although the driving has been interesting. We seem to have the left-hand drive, right side of the road pretty well sorted but the 4-way compulsory stops are a touch confusing. We generally wait a bit until everyone seems to have stopped then make a dash across.  I think we must have it nailed as we regularly get a wave, either with two fingers or one! The one fingered wavers are particularly friendly as they will often give us a short toot on the horn as well. Lovely folks in America.

Cody is a city that was established by Buffalo Bill Cody back about 1880. Everything in the city revolves around the man. You have the Buffalo Bill Motels, Bill Cody Motels, Buffalo Bill Cody Motels, the Cody Motels and on and on, be it hotels, streets, saloons or cafes…he will never be forgotten. We visited the Buffalo Bill Centre and it was well worth the couple of hours. He was a ‘scout’ in his early days but later became legendary for taking his Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show around the world from 1883. We never bought the fridge magnet though. 

We stayed on Grizzly Ranch for two nights with some more lovely folks. They are semi-retired make a living off growing and cutting hay to sell. We spent an hour with Kim, an old-time rodeo man who has hung up his spurs. Cody is in Wyoming and is considered to be, by themselves, the cowboy state. They have a rodeo in Cody every night of the week! After visiting the Calgary Stampede we didn’t think another rodeo was going to pass muster.

From Cody and back into east Yellowstone we mounted an assault on Avalanche Peak. This is a mountain over 10,000 feet and we climbed it without oxygen! The highest I had ever previously climbed was Mount Egmont at 7000+ feet, and that was 45 years ago! (Where does the time go?) 

Later we headed into the central part of the Park, an area of geysers, sulphur and thousands of people. It was interesting though and many more colours than Rotorua. We did a couple of short climbs to get a view down on the thermal area and were quite amazed at the sights. Old Faithfull isn’t as active as she used to be (…. then, “who is?”), but she faithfully shot a good head of water 15 metres into the air. The sound of camera shutters was deafening! 

So we had more animal watching, mostly wapiti, bison, mule deer, squirrels, and we did see a black bear on our travels…. he was on his in the distance. No moose to date so hopefully in the Grand Tetons National Park where we will head at dawn tomorrow.