Last Flight to Darwin

Well, probably not the last flight but probably our last visit. We arrived late in the afternoon, pleased to be in cooler climes than Broome. The temperature down a massive 2 degrees to 33! Just on dark we picked up our Skoda rental car and drove into downtown Darwin traffic. Skoda, being a European type car, decided to put the indicator lever on the wrong side of the steering column so our windscreen was well wiped by the time we found our apartment.

Saturday was race day at the local course so travelling with a horse owner/trainer practically guaranteed us a profitable time at the pay out window….didn’t it? There were 6 races on the card, almost all 1200 metres give or take 100 metres and the field generally numbered 6 horses. Picking a winner couldn’t be easier….could it? Yes it could! We never spent much money and although collectively we never came home jubilant I did come home with a little more money than I went with. This was not due to any of the aforementioned advantages that I had perceived but as usual due to a couple of misunderstandings and forgotten pre-researched winners that I had selected being left out due to brain fade at the tote window.

There was plenty to do in Darwin and we gave the Darwin museums a thorough inspection. We visited the Darwin Military Museum and the Aviation Museum. This museum houses a B52 bomber, it’s huge. An F1-11is parked under one wing, they’re pretty darn large up close. Darwin has a dogged war history being bombed by 242 Japanese aircraft 10 weeks after Pearl Harbour. 236 people were killed and 11 ships sunk. There is a lot of history in the town about Darwin in February 1942, they still seem a little aggrieved that the Japanese surprised them 80 odd years ago. In the evening we dined with Pam and Sandy’s friends at the “Ski Club”. We thought that sounded a bit cooler than the 33 degrees that had enveloped us since arriving but there was no snow in sight….water skiing it was. I’m sure Iain Bill would have been impressed.

We headed south to Litchfield National Park for a look, in our trusty Skoda….with the very clean windscreen. Very different to National Parks in our land of wet and green. This seemed to be a cooling off spot for Dawinians on the weekend. We never got our togs wet but there were a few who did.

We made a daylight start in quest of an Esky full of fish on Tuesday morning. Our skipper took us well across the bay but never more than a couple of kms from shore looking for barramundi, or anything unfortunate enough to get hooked. We caught a variety of species although nothing worthy of display over the fire place. We got enough for two meals.  Sandy cooked them to perfection, which he has done again and again. A great day on which we observed a birthday for Diana ……but we didn’t really celebrate.

One more museum type visit beckoned on our last afternoon. Two nurses among us convinced the entire party that a visit to the Royal Flying Doctor Service and Bombing of Darwin Tourist Facility, would be time well spent even though it was near closing. It seemed interesting enough on entering but we were quickly fitted with a skull cap and goggles, a bit like snorkel goggles with head phones. “Take a seat” the man said which we did. We were then chucked in the hold of a ship, the Japanese started bombing the wharf and before we knew it we were on the wing of Curtiss P-40 Warhawk flying with an American hellbent on taking out 100 Japanese Zero aircraft (made by Mitsubishi). We got shot down almost immediately and then I was gasping for breath at the bottom of Darwin Harbour. Eventually exited my skull cap sweating profusely pleased that the bombing had stopped and back on dry ground, exhausted.

On our last day we had a couple of hours to spare before flying out to Brisbane so went back to the RFDS and climbed into another skull cap. Same result, sweating and exhausted…these virtual experiences are virtually fair dinkum. Off to Brisbane.

Western Australia

Another adventure begins on the flat West Island. Our start at 5.00am on Saturday morning had us in Perth by 2.00pm so a fairly long day by the time we positioned ourselves in the prostrate position. We were fortunate to be picked up by Colleen, an elderly friends daughter who now lives in Perth. We spent a lovely evening in her home rather than commercial accommodation.

Sunday we met up with our Australian friends, Pam and Sandy Lennox in the Perth Airport and flew 2 hours north to Broome. Once the cabin doors were open we began to believe the 35 degrees and realise that the winter Olympics weren’t going to be held here any time soon. We hired a car and drove to our Air BnB and broke open some refreshments to ward off the temperature.

We have done some exploring about the town of Broome, a smallish rural town with a population of 4500 but thousands more tourists in the peak season between May and September.

We watched the sunset set on one beach then jumped in the car and drove 5 kms to watch the moon come up on the other coast and view the “Stairway to the Moon” effect which was quite spectacular but unphotographable with our limited knowledge of how to operate the DSLR. You can’t put things on hold like this while you read the manual. We wandered through a night market but couldn’t be tempted into buying anything. At some stage in your life you find you have everything you need and even a delightful imitation porcelain koala in a tree is not really necessary. Still delightful though.

We have checked out the local museum, an art gallery, some shops, Matso’s brewery, a lighthouse and the port. We went to the beach a second time to watch the sunset and photograph a camel train. Many tourists ride the camels at sunset and while this was enticing we didn’t fancy standing in line at the local chiropractor to get ourselves back into walking condition.

Our major reason for the Broome visit was to experience the “Horizontal Falls” an attraction some 200kms north on the Dampier Peninsular. We were picked up before the sparrows had passed wind and headed north in a 4x4 bus, a crew of 12 of us and “Cob” the driver. We visited a little old church on the way built in 1917 by French Trappist Monks, (you’ll have to Google them), in a Germanic style with Aboriginal influences using the mother of pearl shells that were harvested for years in the area for buttons. During the drive we passed several active roadside vegetation fires and I was feeling compelled to get out and give them a hand. It wasn’t until we got to the 3^rd fire that I realised that “Them” weren’t in attendance. These fires were just another of natures’ deliverances, like a shower of rain but probably more common. 

We stopped at Cygnet Bay pearl farm. While we were shown how to culture the pearls and even though a small one costs $500 it didn’t look like easy money to me. They take 2 years to form and involve a lot of maintenance. No purchases were made in our group but it was interesting.

We were then flown from Cygnet Bay to land on the water by the Horizontal Falls Hotel, a floating establishment. We were quickly ushered into a 3 engined juice guzzling (100 litres per hour per engine) speed boat for a trip through the horizontal falls. This is a tidal phenomenon where the water rushes through 2 small gaps, filling then emptying Talbot Bay. We dropped about 2 metres into the swirling boiling type water in the bay then rushed back through, several times. Great fun. A lunch of fresh cooked BBQ barramundi and then a boat ride amongst interesting upthrust rock formations that make up the Kimberleys.

We flew home in a Cessna Caravan, an hour back to Broome. It was a long day but although they describe themselves as the “Best Horizontal Falls Seaplane Adventure” I thought they sold themselves short. It was expensive but it was a great day out…..35 degrees all the way.

One last day today in Broome and we are off to Darwin tomorrow.

The end is nigh

Our flights from Con Dao Island through HCM City and then to Da Nang went without incident even though there was some claggy sort of weather to fly through. Hoi An is an old city and is rated a UNESCO World Heritage site. There were old buildings in the old town centre showing history of Japanese, Portuguese, Chinese, and local Vietnamese. Most of the buildings are now used for selling stuff to tourists. They seem to have 100 shops all selling little trinkets and cloth bags and the like but they also have suit making and shoe making services. Both boys lined up for suits to be tailor made. Hayden had second thoughts so bought two. Blair had a pair of shoes made. Measurements are made and first test sizing is 24 hours later. Within 48 hours suits and shoes are made and packed for travel back home.

While in Hoi An we also did a cooking class. Firstly we walked to a village garden area and looked at different plants and herbs - all very interesting. We had an excellent English-speaking guide and she got us underway making some “creations” out of vegetables. We made a variety of things and mostly looked quite good to us. We manufactured spring rolls and then cooked them. Everything turned out perfect. At Blairs insistence we have eaten spring rolls on every day we have been traveling. Surprisingly rarely have there been two the same. It seems that they are always made with different ingredients, from raw fish to deep fried beef and veges….I trended away from the raw stuff. We also spent most of a day cycling in Hoi An, picking up a few geocaches and dodging rain showers. In the evening there was a lantern Festival in the old town so we had a wander for a while. It gets a bit hectic after a short time with motorbikes going in all directions, people running interference on every street and not less than half a dozen peddlers doing their utmost to sell you something that you need or want. It is unbelievable how determined a sun glass seller can be when he sees that you are wearing tinted prescription glasses but still seems to give himself a reasonable chance of making a sale.

Away from Hoi An we drove to Hue, about 4 hours north. We had another 2 nights in this city where the children took a full day tour of sites and Diana and I did a bit of wandering and cache hunting. Just happened to be a geocache at a temple that we hadn’t seen so we took a boat ride down the Perfume River for a look. “Perfume” is hardly the right word for the body of water that carries anything and everything along with it. I must say that the Vietnamese are at least aware of littering but they are light years away from getting on top of the rubbish problem.

Another flight out of Hue had us in Hanoi the capital city and the stronghold of the Vietnamese during the American war. We took an afternoon guided tour of Ho Chi Minh museum  which gave us a good insight to the struggles that HCM the man went through, to obtain power, enforce communism, try to get his people out of perpetual confrontation with foreign countries and out of poverty. Seems they aren’t under attack these days as they have been over the past 200 years but the poverty is still prevalent. In saying that we see no beggars and no one hassling us just for money. They will try and sell you something you don’t want and even just asking the price is a sale as far as they are concerned.

We had an overnight excursion to Halong Bay where we boarded a junk with 12 others and were treated royally while floating among the kharsts in the bay. This is quite a big tourism business and I found it most enjoyable.  We had an excellent English speaking guide who insisted we call him 007 or James Bond for reasons that I missed when he convincingly explained them. James was able to answer all our questions, some before we even asked them and in the evening played us songs on a 2 string banjo come ukulele/guitar type of instrument. He was very good I thought but not the strongest in the family to make statements on the performance of any said musician.

Our junk with the sails

Back to Hanoi we have had a couple of days with shopping, massages and packing our bags. We squeezed in a water puppet show of traditional Vietnamese ways of life. None of it was in English but we got the gist. Some of the family thought it was entertaining but not all. We agreed, as it is with any experience, even the bad experiences are worth having and all add to the quality of the travel.

Have pots will travel!

We’ve had a great trip so far and are beginning our goodbyes this evening as Blair and Meghan leave us for Vancouver in the morning while Hayden, Sarah, Diana and I will be out of our hotel with the sparrows and on our way to Auckland via Hong Kong and home on Wednesday.

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.