Some photos from the trip!

The Birthday Girl!

Isn’t this a great photo of Stephen?

Canon at Ft. Delaware:

Some scenery from the trip south:

Kudzu (plus Stephen and my mother. The kudzu ate Joel already.):

One of the skillion photos I took at the Museum of Appalachia:

Okay, yes, I have been very bad about updating. Let’s see if I can remember some of the fun tidbits from the drive and our last few days in the US.

Two days was not enough time to really explore the back roads of West Virginia. We saw some lovely covered bridges. We accidentally stumbled across the first battlefield of the Civil War (300 confederates vs 2000 union troops, fighting for a ridgetop farm).

We were struck by the lack of sheep. We saw a few small mobs, but all that lovely landscape NOT covered in sheep is a bit weird after living in NZ. But considering how many wandering dogs there are in the area, I can see why people would want to stick with cattle.

The final push down to Knoxville was a bit of a death march. Since we had not covered ground as quickly as planned in WV, the last bit of driving was quite long, and we did not arrive until late. Carol and Joel have a lovely new house. The AC was appreciated, as we had driven out of the unseasonable cool weather in Delaware, and into a southern heat-and-humidity filled “normal” summer. Our poor little antipodean bodies were not ready!

Some highlights of this part of the trip included a trip to the Museum of Appalacia- which is all of 5 minutes from their house. The poverty of the region led to a great deal of ingenuity. The hand-carved rifling-jig in the gun workshop was especially nifty. (as was the specialized “gun anvil”)

We also visited an alpaca farm. While Tam and I had a perfectly reasonable conversation with the retired husband, Carol and Joel were talked at by the seriously crazy wife. You see, she had helped her brother co-author a series of books (The Arc of Millions of Years). Apparently they had “cracked the Mayan callender”, and this led to a revelation about the truth of 2012, the book of revelations, how all the animals fit on the arc, magnetic tetrahedrons, the dead sea scrolls, and a bunch of other stuff. AND she and her borther are apparently the last living people who saw the Roswell crash. Boy-howdy, you meet some interesting people in this world.

One other weird thing we noticed- lots of people in that exurb of Knoxville had what we would call “lifestyle blocks”- a nice house sitting on 3-5 acres of land. In NZ this would be fenced off, and there would be stock grazing it. In the US, there was not a fence to be seen, and the entire vast expanse of lawn was mown. Yee Gods, what a waste of time and money mowing that much grass mechanically. It does explain why the market for pet-alpaca is worse in American than it is in NZ- people with 5-acre blocks are the perfect sales target for selling alpacas. But when they don’t have fences (and don’t even consider having stock!), it makes it more difficult.

Packing for the trip was a bit stressful. Thankfully all the stuff made it through fine. We wre bringing back my kilograms of books and had carefully backed the bags to limit the danger of (a) theft by the TSA, or (b) having the luggage “searched” by the TSA in such a way that ends up damaging most or all of the contents.

The flight across the pacific was going well, and then I fell ill. After the fact I realized this was one of my classic “24 hour bugs” which lays me out flat, and then I am fine the next day. Not surprising I picked up a bug, what with all the travel, eating-out, lots of strangers, etc. Having this bug hit half way across the pacific was not fun. Headache, nausea. Bleach. By the time we reached Auckland I was a serious zombie. I have vague memories of Tam collecting the luggage and keeping things organized. I was lying on the floor, drifitng in and out, most of the time when we were not actively moving from point to point. I must say all the Customs/Biosecurity/Border agents were brilliant. When they saw Tam escorting one of the restless dead, they quickly moved us along. We jumped to the front of lines. This was good.
At biosecurity we had them spray all our shoes. We had been on that alpaca farm three days earlier- and after the owner told me of the dieases they have to test for I wanted to be VERY SURE we were clean. Some of those diseases are on the “OMG- nuke it from orbit” list MAF maintains. In the same category as foot and mouth. Sometimes I forget how lucky we are in terms of many animal diseases down here.

Anyway, just as we finished biosecurity and were free to go- I felt trouble coming. I ran out into the terminal looking for a bathroom. NOTE FOR AUCKLAND AIRPORT- YOU NEED BETTER SIGNS SO DISTRESSED PEOPLE CAN FIND A LOO QUICKLY!!! Knowing I only I had moments, and since no bathroom was in sight, I ran out the front doors– and prompty chundered all over the street. At least that made me feel a bit better.

The flight to Wellington was also a blur, with a bit more chundering. First time I ever used an air-sick bag. The ones provided were well suited to the task. We then retrieved the car from Steve and Jennifer’s place, and drove home.

We returned to find our that the house had no water. Not a drop. Let the fun begin!

Saturday the 23rd was the big party. It was held at the DuPont Country club, which is quite a nice venue (no surprise there when old money is involved!) My Grandmother was not nearly as stressed this year- for my parents anniversary last year she worked herself up so much she didn’t really enjoy the party. This year I think she had a good time. Happy number 88! We were seated with a variety of interesting folk, including some neighbors of my parents who are avid film buffs. Some time I would like to see the basement-coversion home theater that they have.

Sunday morning we hopped the Amtrak to NYC. A quick transfer onto the Long Island RR got us out to Valley Stream and Judith. Plus Marshall (AKA Mars Hallifax, AKA Serial killer). Plus the kids. Tam had never met Marshall before, and the kids were new for both of us. Holly made it down later that afternoon, and we managed to convince her (and eventually even Judith!) to try out the slack-line Marshall had set up. Much fun! Being blind does not slow the kids down, and Bradon plays a mean game of Wii boxing.

After an overnight in a local hotel, we said goodbye to Holly, and hopped the train south. It was a day of Mucho public transport. Long Island RR to Penn Station where we rushed to the NJ Transit (3 minute window!) to catch the train to Trenton. There we had a 45 minute wait (enough for lunch) then caught SEPTA down to center city Philly. We stopped off for shopping in Chinatown and the Reading Terminal market, then got back on the train to Rose Valley to spend the evening with the Clarks’. Plus of course a quick stop by the comic shop to restock on Girl Genius, BRPD, and a variety of graphic novels. Much to our (and his!) surprise we ran into Trent who was working at the shop. It’s fun to meet someone unexpectedly after 11 years! Nice gobsmacked look, too. :)

Tuesday morning we took the train back down to WIlmington, though the train we were on only made it as far as Marcus Hook, so my parents had to drive an extra 10 minutes to pick us up. We decided to stay and extra day at my parents place. This allowed us more time with them and my Grandmother, plus time with my Uncle, plus a dinner at the classic Itallian resaurant of Wilmington- Mrs Rabinos.

Thursday morning we picked up our rental car (a nice white Chevy Cobalt), and started the drive. Trying to go around the middle of town at rush hour, I ended up putting us on a nice scenic route along the Brandwine river. I don’t know if I had ever been on the road before, and I grew up in Wilmington. It was a lovely drive. One great thing about the car was the radio. XM. Best. thing. ever. Well, for long car trips at least. Once you find a station you like, you don’t have to worry about losing it as you drive along.  We took the scenic back roads across Maryland and into West Viginia. Thoughts and observations of that ride in the next post.

So, we are back, safe and sound, from our US trip. Over the next few days we hope to put up a series of posts detailing the many adventures we had (including a few unexpected adventures after we returned home).

The start- Wednesday August 20th.

It was a long, long Wednesday. We had a 6:40AM international flight from Wellington. Which meant being there 2 hours early. Which meant getting up at 3:30. Ugh. We then flew to… Sydney- yes, kinda going backwards there- for a 5 hours layover. As we don’t have NZ passports yet and had not arranged visas we were not allowed out of the airport. We went over to Customs and asked if we could just get out for a few hours to get some non-airport food. Now, to their great credit, they seriously considered letting us out, but we only had 3 hours until the next check-in. That is not much time to escape an airport and eat. I am pretty sure if we had been looking at an 8-hour layover they would have probably let us through. I do respect officials who are willing to be flexible and helpful!

After that was the long-haul to SanFran. The United 747 flet rather old and dingy. No in-seat entertainment, there were only ceiling-mounted flickering CRT televisions to watch- if you paid for the headsets. Thankfully we managed some sleep. I must give credit to all the various federal employees in SanFran, they were uniformly polite, friendly, and efficient. We got through all he border procedures without difficulty, and made our way to the US Air terminal for the final leg. Once again, a full flight (every plane the whole trip was packed). This was also our first exerience at “now you buy your food and drink.” Thankfully we managed to get soem snack-boxes before they ran out, and they contained enough nutrients to prevent any unfortunate cannibalism incidents. We made it to Philly, met my parents, and got driven to their place for much-needed sleep.

Time of transit- 32 hours. Uggh. Long trip. And due to the magic of the international date line that was all on Wednesday.

Thursday the 21st and Friday the 22nd-

A bit of rest, recovery, and shopping. The Delaware weather was very un-August-like, we were getting lovely cool non-humid weather. Walks were taken along rivers and in local parks. We went to BJs Price Club for some shopping (and we regret not bringing the camera, properly explaining the horror of a 20L tub of pork rinds to really requires photo evidence). These relaxing days really helped us get over the jet-lag quickly, and prepare for the main event on Friday- my grandmothers 88th birthday!

So as some of you may have noticed, petroleum prices have gone up a wee bit. This means that the oil fields in the waters around NZ are actually worth doing something with.

That, in turn, has brought my friend Tim — an old friend from the semester I did at Edinburgh — down to New Plymouth, to teach the people working on the off-shore drilling rigs useful life skills, like how to get out of a helicopter that has just ditched in the sea, without drowning or being decapitated by the rotors. This involves strapping your victims students into a mock-up helicopter chassis and tipping them into a swimming pool. Apparently, the training used to feature a wave machine, a firehose, and a strobe-light as well, but someone decided that much verisimilitude was “mean”.

Anyway, in the course of trying to find something to do with his weekends in New Plymouth, Tim spotted my name on one of the local SCA websites, and got in touch. We finally managed to have him down this past weekend. Yay ! Thanks, Peak Oil !

We lucked out with the weather, so he got to see Wellington in the sun, with the boaties out doing their thing, and when the weather turned horrid Saturday night, we had the usual suspects over board games. We established that despite lots of stuff happening to both of us in the more-than-a-decade it’s been since we saw each other last, neither of us has had any radical shifts in personality or tastes. I’ve been assured that New Plymouth compares favorably to Yemen and Nigeria (although the architecture in Yemen makes up for a lot).

Sunday, Stephen and Tim went to Te Papa, while Emily and I oggled at astrolabes built into finger rings and accoutrements for your stint as Galactic Empress at the jewelry show. (Aside to so-called “avant garde” artists: taking random bits of rubbish and presenting them as “art”, or “a statement” has Been Done. A lot. It’s not clever anymore.)

Yes, I completely failed to get photos. But Tim’s promised to come back down for the mid-winter party next week, so I’ll try to get some then.

The first week Holly was here I was her assigned entertainment provider. This involved a trip over to the Wairarapa and a walk up the Putangirua Pinacles (site of the “paths of the dead” from the LoTR). We also had another visit to Te Papa, a morning of walking a llama and an alpaca up the valley, and a trip to the Nga Manu nature sanctuary. I think Nga Manu might have been the best, as when we went into the Kaka enclosure one young males decided that the scented soap Holly uses was the best thing ever. He sat upon her shoulder, and rubbed his rather large beak against her neck with manic glee, then preened his own feathers to transfer the scent. When I tried to get him off her shoulder, he just pushed me away withh his beak. Very amusing.

On Friday morning Tam, Hollly, Emily and I hopped in the car and drove north, to Rotorua. Renting a hotel room where you have your own private hot-spring mineral bath in the back- brilliant. Going to the Hangi was also fun, Tam and I realized after the fact that it was the same place we went to 8 years ago when we first visited NZ. On the way back from Rotorua we swung east through Napier, the art deco city (flattened in 1931 by a huge earthquake and rebuilt in the “modern” style off the time, the city then sunk into a lengthy economic malaise which preserved that nifty architecture long enough for it to be appricated, and protected as historic landmarks). We returned home Sunday night.

Tuesday we were off on our next big trip- this time on the Ferry for the South Island portion with Tam, Holly, me, and a well-packed little car.

Tuesday- Took morning ferry acorss, drove to Nelson, visited the Wearable Arts Museum (WoW).

Wednesday- A morning of art&craft shopping in Nelson, we then drove to Westport.

Thursday- We visited cape Foulwind just south of Westport and saw the fur seal colony there, drove down to Punakaiki and saw the pancake rocks, drove down to Hokatika where Tam and Holly left me in a cafe to read as they shopped for carved jade jewlery for hours. Then down to Franz Joseph for a hotel.

Friday- Walked up to the face of Fox glacier. Drove to Haast where we bought a nifty rack of deer antlers+skull. Drove up over the Haast pass, stopping to admire the raging torrents of water. Had dinner in Queenstown, and fled the crowded over-development as quickly as possible. Ended up in Te Anau.

Saturday- We had planned to go to Milford Sound, but rain and landslips had closed the road. Luckily we managed to get on one of the tours to Doubtful Sound. More expensive, but totally worth it. A 45 minute both ride across lake Manapouri to the power station (nifty underground hydroelectic station), then a bus ride over the pass to Doubtful Sound, whereupon we had a 3 hour cruise on the sound (Technically it is actually a fjord, but the old incorrect name of “sound” has stuck). Thankfully the rain, which was pouring at start, lightened up considerably towards the end. The mountains of Fjordland are steep and rocky, so the water comes off immediately. So we were presented with the most amazing array of waterfalls. Hundreds of them, and they were vast in scale. 500+ meter drops were so common they stopped being remarkable. Clouds hid the mountaintops, so it looked like rivers of water were just pouring out of the air in places. A great experience.

Sunday- Drove to Dunedin. Stopped for lunch in Gore. What more can I say. Gore. Whee! We determined that it is impossible when driving across Southland on a Sunday morning to know if Z-day has come or not. The towns are empty, and what little movement can been seen looks all to much like the shuffling restless dead. In Dunedin we drove out to the end fo the penninsula to see the albatross colony, which was fully of young but very large chicks that were just getting ready to take first flights, so they stood in the wind, wings spread, practicing the feel of it. That evening we stayed with our friend Andy.

Monday- The big drive northwards. Saw the Dunedin railway station before we left, as it is a world heritage site and worth the visit. We then motored north, stopping to visit the Moeraki boulders, and ending up in the Christchurch area. We had some time to explore downtown as the sun was setting. We then drove up to Amberly to spend the night.

Tuesday- Took the inland route to Kaikoura, which put us abover the snow-line for a time. About 2 inches of fresh snow made for a landscape different from the persistent green (and maybe brown in summer) which is the NZ norm. In Kaikoura we went out on the noon whale-watch. Great success! Where they expect you to normally spot 1-2 whales, we spotted 5! There were also wandering albatross about (largest wingspan bird), plus plenty of other seabirds. We also spotted fur seals and a small pod of dusky dolphins. All the whales were young male sprem whaes, which spend much of the year off Kaikoura diving into the deep trench looking for squid, trying to bulk up so that one day they will be big enough to compete in the mating game.

Wednesday- Drove up towards picton. Stopped off to chat with Russel at Totara Grove. Had a great meal in Picton, where you can get some fabulous home-made Haggis at the local pub, called “The flying haggis” of course. The pub is for sale, if anyone is interested. Then it was on a ferry back acorss to Wellington.

Thursday- Tam took Holly up to Waikinae to visit the studio of the potter that did most of the clay-ware for LoTR.

Friday- Took Holly to the airport. We were sad to see her go, it was a great trip.

So, we picked up a somewhat jet-lagged Holly Thursday morning. As she was not totally wrecked from the journey, we immediately started with the fun. It started with a drive around Moa point and the eastern (Seatoun) edge of Wellington, with a stop at Chocolate Fish for second breakfast. The weather was winter-Wellington at its best– clear, sunny and still. We sat out by the harbor channel and watched the sea birds as we ate. After that it was back to the farm, a tour and meet-and-greet with the cute and fluffy animals. After lunch we got back into the car, and drove through Wainuiomata and down the coast road. With it so sunny and still, it was a great day to walk on the beach. The snow-capped Kaikoura ranges on the south island were clearly visible, and we even saw a fur seal, perched high atop a rock spur with the waves crashing all about (I don’t know how it got up there with flippers, but it surely was Orca-proof up there!). After that we drove back around to Eastbourne, and got a great view of the city from across the harbor. Dinner was at Day’s Bay pizza, one of the two good Italian-style pizeria places in Wellington.

Friday Tam went into work. Once Holly got up (after a rejuvenating 11 hours of sleep), we went into town. Up first was Mt Victoira, both for the panoramic city views, and for the “Get off the road!” spot from Fellowship of the Rings. After that we went down to Te Papa, and in two hours managed to get through about 5% of the place. We then met up with Tam, Steve and Kerry for lunch. Tam pointed out we should not be spending a nice day in a museum, so after lunch Holly and I drove up to Otari-Wison bush, which is an old-forest remnant at the western edge of Wellington city. It is filled with lovely old native trees, and Holly got to hear her first R2D2-like Tui call. Friday evening our normal role-playing group came over, and we all had a fun social time (I believe Holly described our friends to be “as she expected”).

Saturday was the previously scheduled spin-in, where a half-dozen or so of our hand-spinning and weaving friends come over for a social day of work and crafty-education. (These days are great, as we always sell some alpaca fiber. Joy’s lovely chocolate red-brown fleece was in demand this day.) After lunch Emily came by to take Holly away for her LoTR tour of doom. Today (Sunday) Holly and Emily are hiking in Kaitoke regional park, I think. We will find out when we meet them for dinner tonight.

Holly is here! Woot! Let the Death March of Fun commence!

What are you willing to sacrifice for your friends, for honor, to get the job done? In Dunedin this weekend, I might not have given it my all, but I gave my pants. For science.

It was the 2007 alpaca conference. I had foolishly asked the “do you need any help?” question. I took up the call, went down early, and did the scut-work that helps make a conference run well. On Thursday afternoon that involved helping to load and unload animals that were being moved around fro various workshops. The little newly weaned ones were fine, but when it came time to load a massively pregnant girl onto the back of the van things were a bit more tough. A mighty heave got her aboard, but at the cost of my pants, but not my dignity. No fear there, nothing to lose. At least I had emergency pants. Always travel with emergency pants.

The conference was great. Super-informative. I have pages and pages of notes in additional to the comprehensive conference book. It was all rather exhausting, though. I was completely “on” for the entire time (7Am to 11:30 PM, for 5 days) in what has been most eloquently described as “The Stephen Show.” Which is even measures entertaining and alarming. I am sure I left a strong impression in the minds of many of the guests and delegates, an impression that will take major medication and years of therapy to remove.

My talk on Sunday went very well. It is always a good sign when internationally reknowned camelid vets are asking you to mail them your data, and asking when you plan to publish it all. I guess I should start working on that. It would be good to get the peer-reviewed publications rolling again after a few year hiatus. I have also been asked to give the talk again at other conferences.

It does seem that we are in fact the only people running national health surveys. I probably have one of the better alpaca morbidity and mortality databases in the world, now. I had Australians coming up and volunteering to send in their info, as there is no such service there. We shall see if the enthusiasm of the moment translates into action later.

Now to play catch up with all the things that need to get done. All the trips lately have really put me back on lots of projects. My hopes for a quiet winter where I could work on my book don’t seem to be coming to pass.

Ah, the joys of jet-lag.

I returned to NZ on Friday morning. It is now Monday, and my body is starting to catch up. Adapting to a time differential is easier when the environment is warm and brightly lit, coming back to the cold and dark makes it a good bit more difficult to stay awake.

My final week in the States was good. The “big shindig” (my parents 45th anniversary) went off really well. I got to see family friends that I have not seen in, well, decades.

The trip back to NZ was a bit fraught. First, there is the TSA. If anything represents the creeping fascism in the USA, it is the TSA. They have a casual arrogance and thuggary which is not at all healthy in a democratic society. At least this time they didn’t steal any of my stuff. They did, however, “search” my checked bags. This seems to involve pulling out the carefully packed contents, tossing them with giant salad forks, then pouring them back in. This is very helpful for ensuring that carefully packed fragile and delicate items will be damaged in transit. Thankfully the damage is mostly annoying (bent and damaged book covers), but it exemplifies the whole attitude of “we are the TSA- so you can go $%#& yerself.”

The airlines also added a twist for great customer service. One of the flight attendants was late for work for the Philly-LAX leg on US Air, so nobody was allowed to board the plane until she sauntered in. So now we are a half hour late, which gets us caught in a 90-minute traffic jam on the ground (due to develoing storms west of the airport). Did I mention I had 2 hours to make my transfer to the NZ bound flight? Sprinting from end to end of LAx was quite envigorating. I thought my luggage would not make it, but a 20 minute delay loading the Qantas plane gave it time to transfer.

I was hoping the plane would be empty, as we are in the “off” season for tourists heading to NZ. No such luck, every seat was filled. Why? Christian missionaries. There was a big church group, with evangelical kids from all across the US, off to bible camps in NZ and Australia (plus some limited touring around the Auckland region). I was sitting next to one of the adult leaders. My readings in the last few years have taught me enough about Abrahamic religions that I could have totally ripped his theology, but why bother? A pleasant non-confrontation flight was more to my liking, and he was a nice guy in spite of all his narrow-minded religious views.

Now, I need to get back into the farm-groove. Plenty of projects to do, now if I could only remember what they were!