Untethered

The southwestern corner of New Zealand is spectacular.  A massive rainforest plus mountain ranges that crop up in every direction create the magic of this landscape.  It has been made famous through travel ads but also via movies such as The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Trilogy.   It rains nearly every day in this part of New Zealand so a day with sunshine is treasured.  One of the must do's in this part of New Zealand is a trip to the fjord lands where glaciers have ground to a halt and melted into clear deep lakes.  Our trip up to Milford Sound started with a rainbow! How beautiful is this! Glaciers created these mountains The water is crystal clear Stunning valley views Everything is covered in a blanket of green moss, ferns and mushrooms including the trunks of the trees themselves.  Walking through these forests, one can imagine all sorts of mystical shapes flitting about.  The lushness of the forest is due to the ...

Our travels have taken us to the very southern tip of the South Island.  First stop was in Riverton, a small coastal town where beach homes line the bays and we routinely saw people gathering oysters at low tide.  There aren't many "touristy" things to do here.  It's a place to unwind , take a few walks and just watch nature in all of her glory.  The sunrises from our kitchen table were absolutely stunning every morning of our stay. Morning Glory The beaches along this coast are sandy but also covered in smooth rocks like the kind we would find on New York's coastline.  Shorebirds certainly outnumber human visitors in the area! Variable and Pied Oystercatchers resting Coastal views on our morning walk through a preserve Next we headed to Stuart Island which is only accessible by ferry.  It is 90% national parkland and only the 400 permanent residents are allowed to have a vehicle on this island.  Tramping (backpacking) is a ...

As I start this blog, it's Friday the 13th here on the South Island of New Zealand and the address of our home right now is also 13.  We figure the double whammy is a positive sign for continued good luck!  We flew from Sydney to Christchurch with no real challenges caused by COVID-19.  At the time of departure, we were only asked if we had been traveling in China, Iran or Italy.  Things became a little more intense in Christchurch only because we needed to access the NZ healthcare system for routine maintenance stuff.  It was our first experience with socialized medicine which meant that we had to use the equivalent of a walk-in clinic versus going to see a general practice physician.  In NZ, physician groups don't take "casual" patients. Costs were equivalent to seeing a doctor in the US with a wait time of about an hour so no real complaints.  With dentist and doctor visits out of the way, we were ready to start touring our new locale. Christchu...

Our last week in Tasmania was filled with so many different experiences.  Upon returning to the main land, we stayed in an area close to historic Port Arthur.  The Port Arthur penal station was established in 1830 as a timber harvesting camp, using convict labor to produce logs for the British Empire.  The structure of the penal system was built on a philosophy of discipline/punishment, religious/moral classification, and training (becoming a tradesman of some sort).  As a prisoner, you worked in leg irons that weighed more or less depending on the type of crime you had committed. But you were kept alive as the labor you performed was crucial to the empire's financial well being.  After 6 months in Australia, it is  clear that while the Empire did not condone the type of slavery used in the US, the convicts were indeed slaves. A view from inside All prisoners went to church on Sunday Day two on the Tasman Peninsula was spent on one of the toughe...