Gladys Goes North: Road Trip Route and Tips

A few people have asked for our trip itinerary and tips. So here you go! First I've got a map and a few comments about our route, then some detail about each day, then some overall tips and links.

Route

This map offers a rough approximation of our route. Google Maps limited me to 10 destinations, so I couldn't fit everything on there. :)

In general, if there was a scenic byway in the general vicinity of where we were headed (and sometimes even if it was considerably out of the way) we'd take that instead of the most direct route. Because a major goal of the trip was to enjoy seeing and experiencing parts of the country we'd never seen before ... so if it took an extra hour to get somewhere via a pretty road, great!

An atlas was helpful in this endeavor. It's much easier to open to the Western Montana page of the atlas and see where all the national forests, scenic byways, and other such things are, than it is to see these things on an internet or mobile map. 

We moved around a lot and covered a lot of ground. We stayed only one or two nights in each place. Which seemed like it would've felt stressful or rushed, but somehow our pace still felt relaxed. This worked well for two adults who are generally self-sufficient and responsible.

Itinerary

Day 1 

• Drove to Boulder, CO.
• Dinner at Community.
• Stayed with friends night 1 and night 2.

Day 2 

• Spent the day in Boulder area. 
• Brunch at Snooze. 
• Did some hiking from NCAR and accidentally wound up in Chautauqua Park. Tip: NCAR has lots of parking. Tip: read the trail map more carefully than I did, and do not incorrectly assume that the Mesa Trail is a loop. It is not. Hence, our 3-mile hike turned into 6.
• Afternoon treats at Gelato Boy.
• Dinner at Five on Black.

Day 3 

• Leisurely morning and breakfast. 
• Spent much of the day driving to Badlands National Park (Wall, SD, entrance). We took some scenic byways, including part of Needles Highway, and swung by Mount Rushmore because Josh remembered that the road to get there was really pretty. It was.
• Camped in a free camping area that was basically a field with a canyon on either side. I don't know the name of it. I don't know if it even has a name. Pros: beautiful, free, I drank my morning coffee overlooking a canyon. Cons: very windy (this would probably be the case anywhere in the Badlands area), and privacy was a challenge when nature called since there were no trees. 

Day 4 

• Visited Badlands National Park in SD. 
• We did the Notch Trail hike, which I think was about 3 miles total. It was beautiful. It would not be great for you if you're afraid of heights. At one point there's a big wooden ladder you have to climb. This was fun and no issue, but if you do this trail, go early in the day. By the time we came back down the ladder (around midday) the wooden rungs were hot!
• Also did a couple shorter hikes, some of which were wheelchair accessible.
• Tip: do your hiking earlier in the day. It's pretty hot and desert-like, with limited shade.
• Then we just drove around the park and the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands; the grasslands and the national park kind of weave in and out of each other. It was a lovely drive.
• Headed back west and camped at a little, free, public camping area just across the SD-WY state line.

Day 5 

• Visited Devils Tower National Monument in WY. It was really cool! We spent an hour or two there. I'm glad we did, though if it's not on or near your route, I don't know that it would be worth going way out of your way.
• Drove to Bighorn Canyon National Recreational Area in MT, near the MT-WY state line. 
• Camped overnight in a free camping area inside the park, by the Yellowtail Afterbay Dam. This was our first night with bear lockers at the campsite and warnings to be bear aware. There were a bunch of campsites, but we had the whole place to ourselves, which was kind of awesome.

Day 6 

• Did Bighorn Canyon. We did part of a short hike that turned out to be really blah. Drove around the Bighorn area, we think into the Black Canyon area. 
• Tip: if you visit Bighorn Canyon, go to the more southern part in WY. We did the northern part, because pre-trip research suggested the south part was real touristy and the north part was real chill. That turned out to be true, because there's apparently not much to do in the north part ... and the north and south aren't easily connected by roads because of the whole canyon thing. I mean, there are roads, but they have to go around the canyon. It was still pleasant. No regrets. But we'd do it differently if we had to do it over again.
• Drove farther west into Montana. Camped at Pink Creek campground in Paradise Valley. By far, this was my favorite campsite of the whole trip! Quite possibly my favorite campsite ever. It smelled like pine trees and sounded like happy birds. The ground was grassy and soft, and there were lots of trees, which provided privacy and beauty. It was quiet. It was well-maintained, with an awesome host. Even the pit toilet restroom was super clean and actually more pleasant than a lot of public restrooms with flushing toilets. Highly highly highly recommend Pine Creek!

Day 7

• Took a scenic drive through the Paradise Valley (down 540 South to Emigrant, MT, or thereabouts, then back up 89 North. Almost dipped into WY. Definitely recommend Paradise Valley; it's so pretty.
• Drove farther north and west into Montana. Enjoyed the drive. A nice thing about Montana is that a whole bunch of the state (especially the western part) is national forest, scenic byways, and general beauty.
• Camped at a KOA just outside Glacier National Park (in St. Mary) because that's all we could find. I must say, I wasn't a fan. It was $60 (compared to $20 or $0 nearly everywhere else), and the site was basically just a field. They do have showers that are included, which was nice but not worth an extra $40. They also have other amenities like pool and playground, but we just wanted a quiet, pretty place to pitch our tents.

Day 8

• Glacier National Park!
• Driving down the main road (Road to the Sun) is a treat, simply because Glacier is gorgeous.
• Did the Johns Lake hike, which was about 3 miles (?) and included some wooded areas, some running water and waterfalls, and even a tunnel. Met a random couple at the trailhead and enjoyed their company throughout the hike. My new life goal is to be in half as good a shape now as they are at age 70.
• Also did the Rocky Point trail (2-ish miles), mostly wooded with a massive lake at the end of the trail.
• Camped night 8 and night 9 in Glacier National Park, in the Avalanche campground, which was relatively central. 

Day 9

• More Glacier!
• Did part of the Highline Trail. I highly recommend this one! The trail itself is 7 miles one way (not a loop). The shortest way to do the whole trail is to hike the 7 miles, then connect with another trail that intersects with Highline, and you end up with 10-11 miles total. I am not in good enough shape for that, and neither of us had come prepared for such a lengthy hike. So we hiked for about 3 miles, then turned around and hiked back. It was beautiful and wonderful. It's marked rigorous primarily because it's so long. I thought there was a really nice mix of up, down, and flat, and only in a couple parts was it a very steep incline for very far. 
• Drove out to Many Glacier, another portion of Glacier National Park. We started a hike there but turned back because the clouds looked ominous. It looked like there were a lot of great hikes in Many Glacier, including several with good views of glaciers.
• I loved Glacier and could easily have spent the whole vacation there. It's beautiful. There's tons of hiking with varying levels of rigor. The park was lively with visitors, even crowded at some parts, but still felt relaxing and awesome.

Day 10

• Bid farewell to Glacier.
• Brunch at Jam! in Bozeman, MT.
• Late lunch and internet at Post Creek Steak and Tap House in St. Ignatius, MT. It was in the middle of nowhere, and I had low expectations, but the food was outstanding.
• Camped at Jocko Hollow Campground near Arlee, MT, which was great. It was basically a souped up backyard, with some amenities added (like electricity at each site, very reasonably priced laundry facilities, and super clean and awesome bathrooms), all for just $20. We had been planning to find a laundromat the next day anyway, but suddenly we no longer had to. Win.

Day 11

• Drove to West Yellowstone, MT, and set up camp (Bakers Hole campground) for nights 11 and 12.
• Drove around Yellowstone National Park. Saw some geysers (including Old Faithful), hot springs, and bison.
• Tip: it takes a very long time to make your way through Yellowstone. The park is big, but also the roads get really congested. Most of the roads are just one lane each way, and very often someone will be driving around, then they'll spot an elk or a bear or something else interesting off in the woods. So they'll stop their car in the road (because no shoulder) to watch the animal and take pictures. And then a couple more cars come along, they get interested, too, and stop. And pretty soon you have 20 cars lined up, at a complete stop, and only the front 3-4 cars can see anything, so the rest of you are just sitting there speculating about which animal is being viewed this time. Of all the places we visited, I think Yellowstone is where we would have been wise to be more strategic about planning ahead. Because our normal method of just showing up, looking at the park map and pamphlet(s) for things to catch our eye, and meandering through the park, wasn't as conducive to a park that takes 2-3 hours to get across.

Day 12

• More Yellowstone National Park.
• Saw Mammoth Springs Terrace, which was cool.
• Picnic lunch in the park (curry ramen).
• Drove up Beartooth Highway, a scenic byway that goes from the NE corner of Yellowstone up into Red Lodge, MT. It's 68 miles and took us about 2 hours one way. Hands down, 2 of the most beautiful hours of our trip. The highest point is just shy of 11,000 feet elevation. It's full of crazy hairpin turns. And the views are just sick. I cannot recommend Beartooth Highway enough!
• Dinner at Carbon Fork in Red Lodge, and then we took a rather roundabout way back to West Yellowstone because a storm had dropped a lot of hail and fog onto Beartooth Highway, and we didn't really want to die that night.
• We had planned a hike but ran out of time and chose to prioritize Beartooth Highway. No regrets.
• Yellowstone was really cool and unique, with geothermal formations/activity unlike anything I'd ever seen before. I'm glad we went. I'm also glad we weren't there long. Because of how crowded and touristy the park is, there was a low level of stress and mild frustration while there. Also, the restrooms there are straight-up nasty, especially in the more crowded areas like Old Faithful. 

Day 13

• Moved to Grand Teton National Forest in WY; it's just south of Yellowstone. 
• Drove around the park, stopped and looked at things that seemed interesting.
• Hung out at Schwabacher Landing, which was a lovely, peaceful place to spend a good chunk of the evening.
• Camped in the park (Colter Bay area) for nights 13 and 14.

Day 14

• Did a couple short hikes in Grand Teton--one in the String Lake area, and the other was the Lake Creek/Woodland Trail loop, with Phelps Lake at the far end of the loop.
• This article was helpful in identifying some good hikes and such.
• Pretty chill day.
• Saw a bear ambling through the campground.
• Grand Teton was probably the most relaxing of the parks we visited. Mountains, lakes, and pine trees are my jam, and Grand Teton has plenty to offer. The campground felt energetic and happy without feeling noisy and crowded. The park smells nice, which I especially noticed on our hikes. We did agree that it was nice doing Yellowstone between Glacier and Grand Teton (because we loved Glacier so much, and Yellowstone is so unique, so it served as a sort of palate cleanser). We think we would have enjoyed Grand Teton less if it had come right after Glacier (since they're more similar). Also, Grand Teton was a nice one to go out on, because it's smaller and less touristy and just felt really chill the whole time.

Day 15

• Breakfast at Picnic in Jackson, WY.
• Drove back to the Boulder area. Stayed with the same friend.

Days 16-17

• Breakfast at PJ's Diner in Superior, CO.
• I abandoned Josh in Colorado, spent the night at an Airbnb in Amarillo, and drove home on day 17.

Tips and general observations

• For food, we ate out sometimes and cooked at the campsite sometimes. Fresh Off the Grid and REI have some great camping and backpacking recipes. Backpacking recipes are sometimes more likely to use only shelf-stable ingredients, which was handy because we decided not to bring a cooler. I brought stuff to make this Chicken Marbella twice, an edited version of this Fiver Can Chili twice, and this Coconut Curry Ramen once. 
• I also made a big batch of this basic pancake mix (using rolled oats in place of buckwheat flour) ahead of time, and I also bought some of those little single-serve fruit cups. Each time we made pancakes, we'd scoop out some mix, add cinnamon, dump in some peaches, pears, or mandarin oranges, and add enough water to get it to desired consistency. Once we added a hot chocolate packet along with the orange segments. And one morning we went the savory route with mild green chilies and cumin-type spices.
• When camping in bear country, you'll need to take some precautions. Like, properly store your food, dishwashing stuff, sunblock, lip balm, etc. All the places we camped in bear country provided secure bear boxes at the campground, and in many places it's fine to store smelly stuff in your car. Glacier and Grand Teton also had specific places to dump any gray water (like dirty dish water). Campgrounds were good about providing information about bear safety in general, as well as any specific guidelines for that area. Be sure to watch for those and heed them.
• When hiking in bear country, be sure to brush up on bear safety beforehand, and be sure to carry bear spray with you. The main goal is to avoid encountering a bear in the first place, but also to know how to react if you do meet one. A simple Google search yielded a number of helpful articles and discussion boards, and REI has some helpful videos.
• Also, don't approach the wild bison. Or really any wildlife. We're guests in their home, and they often don't take kindly to pushy visitors.
• If you are someone who menstruates, I found this article about bears and menstrual products to be helpful. Tip: for the most part, if a campground has flush toilets they usually also have trashcans in the restroom, but if they have pit toilets (or composting toilets) they usually don't have trashcans in the restroom, which requires some extra effort to properly dispose of used products. 
• If you're a woman, trans man, or nonbinary person with anatomy similar to mine, a pStyle or similar is awesome when nature calls while on the trail. Also great for nasty bathrooms.
• With each place we visited, we went into it with the mentality that 1) each place was great and had many many things to see, do, and appreciate, 2) we would experience many of these great things, 3) we would come nowhere close to experiencing all the things, and 4) that was perfectly good. We visited each place with the hope of enjoying it but with few (if any) specific goals for that place. I highly recommend this mentality!

Vacation Day 2: Three churches and a village

Day 2 (Monday, October 13)

Before coming on this trip, I looked up things to do in and around Annapolis, and what appealed to me more than the city life were the claims of beautiful countryside south of the city, along the Chesapeake Bay. In fact, this countryside played host to an "annual, international, noncompetitive October birding event hosted by Bird Watcher's Digest" called the Big Sit. I ask you, how on earth would bird watching not be noncompetitive? Maybe it's like BINGO--each person gets a card full of bird varieties, and the first person to get five in a row wins. Or maybe it's a competition to see who can see each bird first (or for the longest duration). "I saw it first!" "No, I did!" "Who cares about first. I've been watching it longer than either of you."

Regardless, I did not work the Big Sit into my itinerary, but I did visit one of the three maritime villages advertised on the Visit Annapolis website. I went to Galesville, established in the 1650s, current population around 600. It was a cute little town nestled on the Chesapeake. I parked and wandered around taking pictures of the bay, sailboats, cat crossing signs, and the like. 

Around lunchtime, it started to rain, and fortuitously I was right next to a restaurant (called Thursday's) when that happened. So in I went, and I ordered a crab cake with onion rings and a baked sweet potato. Sadly, the crab cake was disappointing. It boasted no fillers, but it was mealy with only okay flavor. But the sweet potato and onion rings were great! 

From there I headed back toward D.C. The woman I met Sunday at Delia's had recommended a couple churches to visit. And although Wiki Travel had warned me to never even think about driving in D.C. or I would surely get in a wreck, she said I'd be fine, particularly in the part of town where these churches were. So off I went!

The first stop was Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America: An Oasis of Peace, and it was probably my favorite of the three churches I visited Monday. Bordering a section of their grounds were some outdoor corridors (would they be called porticos?) lined with arches. Along the walkways, there were plaques with Ave Maria and the Lord's Prayer in many languages, as well as mosaics of various biblical scenes/stories. Inside the area surrounded by the corridors was a massive rose garden as well as a driveway. Beyond the corridors was a large garden . . . or grounds . . . lots of area to walk and think and pray. They had replicas of various shrines from the Holy Land, statues, ponds, trees, flowers, and generally beautiful things. There weren't a lot of people there besides me, so it was really serene and wonderful.

Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America: An Oasis of Peace

From there I decided to skip the second church my Delia's friend had told me about, in the interest of getting to the Washington National Cathedral (and figuring out parking) in time for the Evensong service. But as I was driving along, I looked over to my right, and there was a massive cathedral that was just too pretty not to explore! Fortuitously, I was in the correct lane to pull right into their parking lot--and lo and behond!--it was the second church my Delia's friend had told me about, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. What's with these long names, Christians of D.C.? 

This was a quicker stop, partly because of the time constraint due to Evensong, and partly because the Basilica didn't have massive, inviting grounds for wandering around. But it was lovely. Coming from a church tradition that doesn't put a lot of focus into creating elaborate sacred spaces, it's always a little awe-inspiring to step into a place that is elaborately ornate and very "other." The ceilings were covered in mosaics, with many of the tiles being gold (or gold-colored), so the ceilings literally sparkled. Fun fact: this basilica is the largest Catholic church in North America and one of the 10 largest in the world. 

Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

Then I really did go to the National Cathedral, and it, too, was gorgeous! Sadly, though, they weren't having Evensong that night. The choristers each night come from the neighboring Catholic school, and it was Columbus Day and thus a school holiday. But the helpful woman at the information desk promised that they would have Evensong the following evening.

Washington National Cathedral

So I set out in search of 2 Amys, a Neapolitan pizzeria that had come highly recommended by a friend. A perk of traveling alone: even at the most bustling restaurants, you get seated rather quickly and easily when you're a party of one. Since they boast authentic Neapolitan pizza (apparently there are strict guidelines, detailed in their menu and on their website), I decided to go with the simple classic margherita pizza and let these fresh basic ingredients shine. And shone, they did! The pizza they brought me was probably enough for two people, but I definitely at the whole thing. And got a bowl of delicious poached pear sorbet for dessert.

As I was leaving the restaurant, I got a call from a friend, which lasted longer than the two-block walk back to the cathedral parking garage. So I took a seat on one of the benches in the lawn/park surrounding the cathedral while we kept chatting. It had been overcast all day, and the night was foggy and chilly. The cathedral was all lit up, and the tops of the towers were only barely visible through the mist. It looked like something out of a dream.

While wrapping up this post, I'd like to take this moment to say that I successfully drove in D.C. And I did not get in a wreck like Wiki Travel guaranteed I would. Granted, I didn't go all the way to the White House or the mall area, and I did my best to avoid highways during rush hour. But the places I drove weren't nearly as congested as the parts of Atlanta I drive in once a year, and it wasn't as fast-paced as many places in Dallas or any other big city. What was nerve-wracking was that so many of the streets are super narrow, with street parking making them feel narrower. Even with a small rental car, I frequently felt like I was going to sideswipe the parked cars or oncoming traffic. Also there are a lot of pedestrians. So I wouldn't recommend driving in D.C. without Siri or a skilled navigator guiding the way. Between watching for pedestrians, trying not to scrape against parked cars, and trying to go faster than 20 mph so the people behind me wouldn't hate me, I didn't have much focus available to do things like read street signs. I just turned when Siri said to turn, and I was okay. Take that, Wiki Travel!

Vacation Begins

Aside from Christmas travels, it's been a little over two years since I actually went on vacation. So when my job took me to Fairfax, Virginia, for the weekend, I decided to take a few extra days for myself. 

This morning I slept in, had a leisurely morning at the hotel, sleeping in and lounging around with the Food Network and a cup of hotel coffee. Then I hopped in my rental car and headed toward Maryland! Because when you live in Texas and are 6 or more hours from any other state border, it's exceedingly exciting to drive for just under an hour and be in another state! 

It was around noon when I checked out of the hotel, so I looked for good restaurants along the route from Fairfax to Annapolis. Urbanspoon recommended Delia's Pizzeria and Grille, which serves Italian, Greek, and Peruvian food. Wait . . . Peruvian? Yep. Why not throw some South American cuisine in with the Mediterranean? I was intrigued, so to Delia's I went! 

It. Was. Delightful. 

I was greeted by Nick/Niko, the uber-friendly restaurant host with a heavy Greek accent, who showed me to a table and checked on me frequently throughout my time there. Since it was my first time at Delia's, Niko also brought me a complimentary appetizer of tzatziki and fresh pita. So nice, and so tasty! One of my dining strategies while traveling is to order things that are most unlike what I could get from the restaurants at home . . . so I went straight to the Peruvian section of the menu and ordered chicharron con yucca, which the menu described as "marinated pieces of fried pork, served with yucca, onions, and green garnish." And just for kicks, I also got a Peruvian drink called chica morada, which is made from purple corn and pineapple, with some cinnamon and cloves thrown in for good measure. 

Everything was so good! The yucca (which I'd never had before) was cubed and fried. It tasted kind of like a cross between a white potato and a plantain--very starchy, with a hint of sweetness. The spices on the pork were just wonderful. The small bowls of green and creamy yellow stuff were sauces for the meat and yucca--a jalapeno/lime/cilantro sauce and a honey-mustard mayo sauce. The chica morada was sweet, yummy, and unlike anything I've ever had before. Corn and pineapple sounds strange, but if you think about it, corn is kinda sweet and creamy, which complements the sweet tanginess of pineapple. The corn-pineapple combo reminded me a bit of eating a corn and pineapple salsa/relish, and the pineapple-cinnamon-clove combo was reminiscent of wassail. 

While I was attempting to eat the vast amount of food before me, a woman sat at the table next to me, and we struck up a conversation and chatted throughout the rest of my meal and all of her meal. She's from the area and suggested some places to visit while I'm in the area--including some restaurants, a basilica, and a monastery. She also told me the story of why there's Peruvian food on Delia's menu. Delia's used to just be Italian and Greek, and there was a Peruvian restaurant next door. Well, I guess the Peruvian restaurant had to close, and Delia's acquired that space and expanded their own restaurant into the former Peruvian restaurant. But they hired several of the Peruvian cooks and added a handful of their dishes to their own menu!

Between the amazing food, the delightful conversation with my dining companion, and the friendly banter with the waitresses and Niko, it was unquestionably my favorite dining experience in a long time.

With a very full belly, I continued on my merry way. The highways there (at least the ones I drove on) were lined with trees that were starting to change colors for fall. So pretty! After getting checked into my hotel in Annapolis, I headed downtown and just walked around, took pictures, and in general looked like an oblivious tourist. The best word I can think of to describe downtown Annapolis is charming. It's preserved a lot of its historic character, many of the buildings are red brick and look so classy, and a number of the streets are cobbled rather than paved. There's apparently a sailboat show going on this weekend, so downtown was bustling. 

I had already picked out a place to eat dinner, but was still really full from lunch. But dinner was really my best bet for going there, and I didn't want to wander around downtown after dark (that whole being alone thing), so I decided to head toward the restaurant and order something small and light. 

On the way, I drove over this wonderfully scenic bridge. While driving over, I thought, "I need to find a place to park so I can come back up onto this bridge and take pictures!" I went back and forth across the bridge a couple times looking for parking on either side, and landed in a great little park right at the base of the bridge. The bridge was breezy and beautiful, stretching over the Severn River which branches off the Chesapeake Bay. The park was serene, with lots of folks out fishing or just sitting quietly.

From there I went to Cantler's Riverside Inn, about which I was excited for two reasons: 1) they're right on the Chesapeake Bay and serve very fresh seafood, and 2) Wiki Travel described them as a family style restaurant "where you sit at park benches and eat shoulder to shoulder with everyone." Now, on my Santa Fe vacation two years ago, my friend L and I ate at a restaurant with a communal table, and it was so much fun--we met people from Austin, Portland, and New Zealand, had a grand old time, and one woman and I were even sampling bites off each other's plates. 

So that was my expectation for Cantler's, but sadly that was not how it went at Cantler's--or at least with my tablemates at Cantler's. My table consisted of a girl attending the Naval Academy, her parents who were visiting her for the weekend, and me. After an awkward interchange where I eagerly sat down with them, then learned very quickly that they had no desire to chat it up with a random stranger during their special night out and their limited time together as a family, I scooted down to the far end of the table and pulled out my iPad to do a little reading. 

I ordered a crab caprese salad because it sounded light and had crab meat in it. But the balsamic dressing really overwhelmed the crab and mozzarella, and the greens and tomatoes were unimpressive. Upon the waitress' recommendation, I tried a bowl of soup--actually a mixture of a tomato-based Maryland crab soup and a cream of crab soup. It was far tastier than the caprese, and much more appropriate fare for sitting outside on the patio in the 63-degree night air.

Chapter 3: Are We There Yet? Please?

Saturday, December 22

Saturday morning began with some Mario on the Wii and some delicious quiche from the hands of our hostess. She brought us to the airport in plenty of time to make our 12:30 flight. Except that when walked in and pulled out our itinerary, the flight was scheduled for 11:55. And for two days earlier. The print-out from Fiji said the correct date (Saturday, Dec. 22) but our more recent printout from Brisbane said Dec. 20. You see, when we were in Brisbane a wonderfully helpful airport employee entered our updated itinerary officially into the system but accidentally put Dec. 20 (the date on our original itinerary from before we left the States) instead of Dec. 22 for this particular flight.

Now, remember how I said that the Fiji airport ticketing area was chaotic? That was nothing compared to the sight we beheld upon entering the ticketing area in the Port Moresby airport. There were about 10 counters at the front of the room, but there were no lines. Just a giant mob of people all trying to get to the front.

There was no way we'd be able to fight through the mob, straighten out our ticket discrepancy, and make it onto our flight by 11:55. So we tried the customer service window tucked in the back corner of the room, and with some persistence and long explanations, were able to get on an afternoon flight, and they were able to print our boarding passes. Though we still had to fight through the mob in order to check our luggage, we had boarding passes in hand and three extra hours to play with!

Oh, and while I was at the service desk, I met an Aussie guy whose flight had been delayed because the pilot was drunk. That bodes well. (At least they didn't let him/her fly drunk!)

We did manage to get through the mob, partially with the help of a security guard who, after our luggage was successfully checked, followed me and repeated in a low voice, "Now you owe me 30 kina" (roughly $15). I'd never had a bribe demanded of me, and I wasn't sure how to respond, so I lied and said I had no kina on me. He was persistent--but also trying not to make a scene and draw undue attention to his asking me for money--so he eventually did give up.

Then began the wait for our flight to Madang. I think it was between 12:30 and 1:00 when we made it through security and into the waiting area, and our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 3:00.

By this stage in the journey, our little introverted selves were so exhausted from constantly being around hordes of people--not to mention the physical exhaustion of jet lag and lack of sleep, as well as the emotional exhaustion of losing two days with our family, having our plans tossed in a blender, and having no control over the situation. We were SO ready to be done with airports!




This particular departure lounge (using the term loosely) does not rank high on the comfort and niceness spectrum. It's overly crowded, only somewhat air-conditioned, and not remotely clean. They do get points, though, for having a decent PA system in that part of the airport, and a woman who spoke announcements very clearly in both English and Tok Pisin.

Somewhere around 2:00 they said that Madang passengers should prepare to board soon.

Then our flight's departure time changed to 3:30.

Then they said it was delayed indefinitely.

Then they said 4:30.

I literally choked back tears when I heard over the PA system, "May I have your attention please. Passengers of flight PX 126 to Madang, your plane is now boarding."

The flight itself was blissfully short and uneventful, and we finally landed in Madang, 49 hours later than originally planned. It sure felt good to hug our parents and middle brother!

Total travel time from start to finish: 84 hours, or 3-1/2 days. I began on Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. CST and arrived Friday 10:30 p.m. CST (5:30 p.m. Saturday PNG time).

Chapter 2: The One Where I Don't Know How to Set a Watch

Friday, December 21:

I don't normally wear a watch, since I almost always have my phone with me, and iPhones tend to be more accurate than cheap wristwatches from Walmart. But for this trip, when I knew I'd be wearing pocketless skirts most of the time and likely not connect my phone to a source of data that would tell it we were in a different time zone, I got a cheap Walmart wristwatch. But apparently I'm out of practice with reading and--more importantly--setting an analog watch, because it seems that when we touched down in Fiji and I set my watch to local time, I actually set it an hour off.

We left the hotel at 4:30 a.m. (or maybe 5:30--we're still not sure anymore) in order to check in around 5:15 for our 8:15 flight, recheck our luggage, and jump through the hoops for getting reimbursed for our $20 shuttle ride back to the airport.

After the indefinite limbo we were in Thursday, and with all the delays and  uncertainties, it felt unbelievably good to have boarding passes in our hands for a flight to Brisbane that morning! While we were in line for our boarding passes, I noticed that our flight had both Air Pacific and Qantas flight numbers, so I made a point of memorizing both numbers just in case.

Since we had ample time before our flight, we meandered through security and customs, purchased a chicken pie for breakfast, huge bottles of water (still dehydrated from the day before--we weren't sure if we could drink the hotel tap water), and a cappuccino. I had been wanting to find an outlet adapter so I could charge my iPhone and iPad, so we wandered through a few stores and leisurely bought an adapter (for under $2!), then wandered back up to the seating area surrounded by gates.

We still had a little over an hour before our flight, but one of us suggested we go ahead and head to our gate, just so we'd be there in plenty of time. We saw an entrance labelled with a gate range that included ours, but it led to four outdoor gates--the kind where passengers go through the security personnel then walk out onto the tarmac and up the stairs that have been rolled up to the plane. Translation: not the kind of gate where you camp out in a comfy leather chair for hours on end.

We glanced up at the list of flights in the gates beyond that exit and didn't see our flight FJ 921, so we started to walk away. As we were turning around, it registered with me that the screen had said QF 398, and I was pretty sure that was our Qantas flight number. We looked more carefully and, sure enough, it said QF 398 to Brisbane, departing at 8:15 . . . boarding now.

Huh. That's odd that they're boarding so early, but we might as well get on. So we handed our boarding passes to the gatekeeper and proceeded outside to where they had tables set up to search our bags the old-fashioned way, with eyes and hands instead of fancy x-ray machines. They pulled out our giant water bottles which we'd only begun to sip on, and said we couldn't take them on the plane. We'd just spent good money on them, so we asked if we could just drink them quickly before boarding the plane. The security guys gave us strange looks but didn't protest, though my guy reminded me multiple times that we could get water on the plane. Just to make sure the flight wasn't leaving early, I asked, "What time is the plane leaving?"

"In 45 minutes."

"Oh, we've got plenty of time, then!" So we kept sipping.

After about the third nervous suggestion that we could drink airplane water, we surrendered our bottles and headed toward the tarmac and our awaiting aircraft.

While we walked--still leisurely--to the airplane, someone alerted us, "Hurry! Your plane leaves in 5 minutes!" What?! Why is it leaving an hour early? Is my watch wrong? But we've been going by my watch all this time. And the security guys just told us we had 45 minutes. What if we hadn't happened past our gate when we did?

Looking back on the interaction, the bag search personnel must have said the plane leaves in 4 to 5 minutes rather than 45. They probably thought we were so ridiculous and arrogant to stand there sipping our water while our plane was mere minutes from departing!

Brisbane airport was gloriously uneventful. And clean. And air-conditioned. And efficient! We even had time to buy 20 minutes of internet. For this layover we checked and double-checked my watch against the clocks all over the airport, and camped out right at our gate.

From Brisbane, we flew to Port Moresby, PNG's capital, and met up with some of our parents' friends who live in Moresby and had agreed to house us for this unexpected overnight so we wouldn't have to figure out how to get to and pay for a hotel. Their six-year-old son is perhaps the most hospitable person I've ever met, and probably has more enthusiasm in his pinkie than I have in my whole body. He gave us the most detailed tour of a house I've ever experienced--even showing us such things as his vitamins he takes twice a day, each family member's bike helmet, the shovel stowed behind the front door, his bag of swim stuff, and the Christmas story book laying beneath the tree. We are so very grateful for this family's generous, warm hospitality and honestly don't know what we would have done without them.

Chapter 1: Off to a Bumpy Start

Note to self: Never, ever, ever again travel through a small island on a small airline the day after said island has been hit by a hurricane. Chaos will ensue. Travel plans will be scrambled.

On Tuesday I began the trek to the other side of the world to visit my parents in Papua New Guinea. I started the trip with a simple itinerary: fly to Dallas, then to LA, meet up with oldest brother, then fly together to Fiji, Brisbane, Port Moresby, and finally Madang. Simple enough, right? Only 36-ish hours in transit. Piece of cake!

That's what I thought until I went to get my boarding pass at LAX. While in line--a really loooonng line--a kind but frazzled-looking airline employee was making her way through the line to update people on the flight status. Apparently there had been a flight to Fiji scheduled for Monday night but, due to the hurricane hitting, it was delayed . . . until Tuesday night. So anyone who was supposed to be on Monday night's flight would get dibs on Tuesday's plane, and anyone who didn't make it onto Tuesday's plane (most likely us!) would get overnight accommodations and fly out of LA the following morning.

As my middle brother would say . . . loud noises!

I went through the line first, with Matthew about 30 minutes behind me in line. When I got to the front, there was no reasoning with the airline employee:

"That way to the hotel vouchers line."
"But we have four connecting flights, two of which are on an airline that won't let you connect it to another itinerary, so we'll probably lose those tickets entirely if we don't make tonight's flight."
"That way to the hotel vouchers." 

So I hopped back in line with Matthew.

Side note: When your parents live in another country and you don't have international service on your phone, it's really hard to talk to them when things happen like an airline telling you you'll be delayed 12 hours and miss your next four flights. There was a lot of frantic emailing from LAX.

When we got to the front of the line, we actually got ushered to a counter with a computered employee (I had just gotten the pre-sorting traffic director before) and handed her our passports. She looked at her screen and then, in a hushed voice said, "Okay, don't tell anyone, but I can get you on tonight's flight. You may not be seated together, but you can fly to Fiji tonight." We'll take it!!

With boarding passes in hand and our blood pressure down considerably, we proceeded through security and to our gate. When you pack 200 upset people into a tiny gate with very little seating, it gets a little chaotic. Then the plane was delayed. Then they moved us to a different gate, and the flight was delayed some more. Then they put us onto buses to take us to another building where the plane had pulled up. Then we finally boarded. Then we sat for  bit. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 9:30 p.m., and we started taxiing  a little after midnight. Which ordinarily would be frustrating anyway, but we were scheduled to have only a three-hour layover in Fiji before catching our flight to Brisbane. Good bye, comfortable layover!

By this point, I was pretty ticked, so everything about the plane annoyed me: the headrests didn't have the adjustable "wings" to keep your head in place, there was only one choice for dinner, the blankets were really thin, the movie selections were meager. First world problems. One nice thing was that I was by the window so could lean against it to sleep a bit. And there was a lovely couple from Alaska beside me. And since I was by the window, I got to see some stunning cloudscapes and watch the sunrise over the Pacific on Wednesday-turned-Thursday morning (we crossed the International Date Line). It began as a thin, vibrant ribbon of red stretched across the vast, dark horizon. Gradually the colors turned more golden and spread higher into the lightening sky.

Thursday, December 20:
 
Roughly 10 hours later, we touched down at Nadi International Airport in Fiji, at 7:20 Thursday morning. Our flight to Brisbane was scheduled to leave at 8:15, so there was still a slim chance we could make it. Except that we had to stay in our seats while officials sprayed bug spray throughout the cabin. And it takes a long time to get off a plane when seated in row 51. And once we did get off the plane, we deplaned directly into another massive line of our fellow passengers. Fortunately Matthew had been seated near the front of the plane, so he was able to get to the post-deplaning counter pretty quickly . . . only to find out that our plane to Brisbane had already left.

More loud noises!

So we collected our luggage (slightly miraculous that both our bags made it to the same country on the same flight), went through immigration, and into yet another line to see what kind of magic Air Pacific could work for us and our flight itineraries.

Remember what I said earlier about mass chaos ensuing when traveling through a small country on a small airline a day or two after a hurricane has hit? Yeah, that's no exaggeration. It seemed like Air Pacific just couldn't catch up to the delays. They'd delay a flight, put the original passengers on the next flight, which would bump the people scheduled for that flight, setting off this huge, awful domino effect. And since Nadi is a relatively small airport, they simply didn't have enough aircraft present to catch up. Plus, it was hot and muggy. There was little to no air conditioning in that part of the airport. Add to that equation several hundred increasingly frustrated, tired, hungry, and dehydrated passengers who are all frantically trying get to or from a whole slew of countries.  So . . . mass chaos.

After an hour or so in line, we had new itineraries in hand, the promise of hotel and meal vouchers soon, and instructions on when to check in for the Brisbane flight the following morning. We were anxious to find some water (see dehydrated comments above) and internet so we could email our parents with our updates and to tell them not to pick us up that afternoon in Madang. But we were afraid to split up, and we were afraid to go far lest we miss the announcement to pick up our vouchers, and we didn't have any Fijian dollars. So we sat around for a couple more hours, trying to stay awake and alert enough to understand the quiet, unintelligible announcements issuing from the ceiling. A couple hours later we inserted ourselves back into the same line, asked again for hotel and meal vouchers vouchers, and this time received a green slip of paper--which might as well have been pure gold--in our grubby little hands, along with the promise that the taxi was on its way to take us to the hotel.

The hotel was actually a pretty fancy resort, complete with light fluttery curtains, a balcony off our room, a nice restaurant, swimming pools, and other amenities like a spa if we'd been willing and able to pay for it. The airline had included lunch and dinner in our voucher, so we headed down to the resort restaurant for lunch shortly after arriving. I had some chicken and prawn stir-fry with vegetables, a red curry sauce, and jasmine rice. It was outstanding! I was eyeing their fish and chips for dinner, but ended up skipping dinner because I was so tired. You know I'm tired when I turn down free fancy food!

New Zealand trip, days 14, 15, and 15 again: Hamilton and home

Friday, October 14

Last night we said goodbye to our Wellington roommates--Fabio and Nick were the only two left from that first night in the hostel. This morning we caught an early-morning bus from Wellington to Hamilton, and the day was mostly spent driving. It's worth noting that our first bus was a double-decker. Yes, we sat on the second story.

The point of going to Hamilton was to spend the night near Auckland without being in Auckland because of all the Rugby World Cuppers there for the final few games. We have heard that Hamilton is a good place to live, but there's not much to do there. We arrived late afternoon and, after checking in to the hostel, the only thing we did was walk down to a lake which was maybe a mile away. Then we made dinner, I rearranged the contents of my luggage and carryons, and we're going to bed early because my bus to Auckland tomorrow leaves at 5:45 a.m.

The lake in Hamilton

Saturday, October 15, Take 1

This morning we got up an an ungodly hour, tried really hard not to disturb our sleeping roommate, and walked to the bus station with all our luggage in tow. Normally, 5:45 a.m. is not my friend. Today, though, it was at least better than 4:55 a.m., which is when we initially thought my bus was leaving. There was no point in Josh paying for a bus fare to Auckland, only to immediately turn around and go right back the way we came, all the way to New Plymouth. So we said goodbye in Hamilton; I got on the bus, and he hitchhiked back to New Plymouth. 

Most of the people on the bus had been on it all night, so they were mostly asleep or highly groggy when I boarded. Sleeping on buses is impossible for me, so I stayed awake and soaked up the last few hours of New Zealand scenery. 

The bus went to Manukau Centre where I did not go inside again with all my luggage again, but instead caught the first bus to the Auckland airport international terminal. The Qantas desk wasn't open quite yet, so I killed time for an hour before checking in and proceeding to security. Then I still had a few hours until the gate opened for my flight to Los Angeles. Fortunately, Auckland airport has an awesome passengers' lounge with comfy chairs and plenty of electrical outlets. There's also a large, lighted sculpture in the middle of the lounge, and the color of the light gradually changes, and it plays nature sounds. How cool is that?

On the screen that shows each departing flight's status, they have little directions out to the side for the passengers. For a long time it just said "Relax" next to mine since boarding time wasn't for a while. Closer to time, it changed to something like, "Gate opens in 50 minutes," and later, "Go to gate." Quite helpful!

Another thing I like about Qantas is the way they board. First they allowed families with children and anyone needing special assistance. Then the first class and other important people. Then they started boarding from the back of the plane and worked their way up. That makes infinitely more sense to me and is so much more efficient than loading the front first and moving back!

On a large plane, you know how you have the two sets of seats along the window, with another row of four or five seats in between? Well, I was in the middle section . . . all by myself! So I could stretch out and even lie down. I took a 30-45-minute nap, had a snack, then slept for another four hours straight, which is unheard of for me on planes!

Sulley with the paddle Qantas gave us for stirring tea/coffee.

Saturday, October 15, Encore

Saturday was so cool that I decided to do it again, this time starting the day in Los Angeles instead of Hamilton. One perk of the return trip is that the flights got progressively shorter. First, because the winds were in our favor, so each of the longer flights was shorter (LAX to AUK was around 13 hours; AUK to LAX was more like 9 or 10). And second, because the longest one was first, the second one was only a couple hours, and the third was under an hour.

I would like to point out that I've been in large airports where the primary language was not English, that were significantly easier to navigate than LAX. Some signage and friendlier staff would be helpful. Just sayin' . . .

Since I was back in a hemisphere where it was autumn instead of spring, I had to get a pumpkin spice latte from a Starbucks in the airport. It was tasty and delightfully fallish!

While boarding flight #3, I ran into a friend from home, so we got to catch up for a few minutes while walking down the jetway. Apparently we were also at LAX at the same time but didn't know it. Also, they did give us drinks this time on this flight, which was nice. Then we landed, all my luggage landed with us, a friend picked me up from the airport, and I got to go home. 

And that concludes my adventures in New Zealand. Can I go back?

New Zealand trip, day 13: Middle Earth

Thursday, October 13

Before coming on this trip, my main objectives were to spend time with Josh and Team Cat Biscuit, to bask in the beauty that is New Zealand, and to do something Lord of the Rings-ish. The Shire set is currently closed to visitors (because they're filming The Hobbit there right now!), so a LOTR bus tour in and around Wellington sounded like the next best thing. We looked over pamphlets from a couple different companies, and Asia, the friendly young woman at the hostel travel desk, recommended Wellington Movie Tours, which is owned and run by a guy named Ted. We took her word for it, plunked down some money, and signed up for a four-hour tour that included stops at a handful of locations where LOTR scenes were shot. Asia did not lead us astray. The tour was excellent!

Ted took us to a number of locations that appear (or sort of appear once all the green screens and set pieces have done their jobs) in the films. While driving from one location to the next, Ted shared fun movie facts and cast/crew anecdotes, and showed movie clips corresponding to locations we had just seen or were about to see. He has a brother who works at Weta, so he had some inside scoops that you can't necessarily get by watching the DVD special features. And at each location, Ted was really good about explaining what exactly we were seeing ("Here's a picture of Frodo and Sam walking through Hobbiton woods. See that bend in the path? That's right over there. That twig off to the side if the screen shot...that's this twig right here") and also helping us line up our own camera shots ("Stand right here, camera pointed that way, and make sure you get the hill, the stump, and the twig in your shot").

Due to a slight misunderstanding, Ted thought we had booked the full day, rather than the half day, tour, so he didn't drop us off after four hours, and we didn't realize what was happening until we were well on our way to the next stop. But, although we initially hadn't wanted to invest in the full day tour, we're both really glad we ended up on it. The second half was, by far, my favorite half--well worth the extra money!

After we had visited each location, which I'll list below, we stopped at the Weta Cave where they have a number of display pieces (Gollum sculpture, Sauron's suit of armor, etc.), a lot if purchasable merchandise, and a video about some of Weta's projects over the years. Then we drove past Peter Jackson's studios where they filmed significant portions of LOTR and are filming The Hobbit right now. In fact, we drove down this one road in the studio complex, and we had to stop the bus because they were doing a take on the other side of the wall and needed quiet on the set. Once they finished the take and communicated to the traffic director that he could let traffic go again, I peered over the wall as we drove past, but all I saw was the back of someone's white ball cap.

Then Ted dropped us off at various convenient points around the city, and that was that. All in all, an excellent day! We had a small enough tour group (15) that we got to know some people and, as a group, developed some ongoing jokes throughout the day.

Oh, and after that, we tried again at Flying Burrito Brothers for Josh's belated birthday dinner, and this time were successful. The food was excellent, the atmosphere was elegantly grungy, and Josh got Argentine travel tips from our waiter.

Now, for the LOTR scene locations we saw:

• Helms Deep / Minas Tirith – First we went to Dry Creek Quarry where they built the set for Helms Deep, then Minas Tirith. Since the set is long gone, it basically just looked like some mountains and hills. Fun fact: during filming, the LOTR films weren't a big deal to most Kiwis, so even while these massive HD and MT sets were hanging out on the side of the road, the general attitude was, “There’s a castle by the side of the road. Weird.” People weren't really interested until filming was done, the sets were all gone, and Fellowship was released in theaters.
• Isengard – Next we went to Courtland Park, where several little snippets were shot: Gandalf riding up to the tower; Gandalf and Saruman walking through the garden discussing the ring; and the Uruk Hai starting to tear down the trees. Fun fact: they installed a path for Gandalf to ride along. When filming was finished, they wanted to put the grass back but someone wanted there to be some trace of where the path had been. So they planted a slightly different kind of grass, so the path is subtle but noticeable if you look closely.
• Aragorn Washed Ashore – When Aragorn falls off the cliff (on the South Island) and floats down the river (also on the South Island, I believe), he magically washes ashore outside Wellington, where his horse picks him up. Here's a not great photo. The river was flooded, so we couldn’t see the actual shore where the scene happened, but we could see the rock wall on the opposite bank. Fun fact: The river he floats down flows the opposite direction as the river where he washes ashore.
• Rivendell – We stopped for a lunch of Subway sandwiches at Rivendell. Of all the locations, this is my favorite in the movie, but to be honest, it’s really unimpressive in person—because the beauty of Rivendell relies heavily on all the CG and sets. BUT Ted was awesome and brought a Legolas costume and bow, so we could all take Legolas pictures! While our group was at Rivendell, there was another tour group there, and they did not get to take Legolas pictures. Evidence that Ted's tour was far superior to whatever company those other people used! There was also a fun swing bridge that had nothing to do with the movie but was exciting to walk on. Fun fact: Some of the trees in the park were in the way, so they had a green team who took detailed pictures of where exactly each tree was. Then they uprooted the problem trees, moved them to a nearby greenhouse that they set up, kept them alive during set-building and filming, and replanted them in their exact spots after the set was gone.

Where the Council is standing in Ted's picture is where we were standing.

• Dunharrow Plateau – We visited the place where they filmed the smaller version of Dunharrow (where they gather armies together in Return of the King to prepare for the massive battle near the end; there was also a larger version of the camp, and I think that was on the South Island somewhere). In this picture, the men are actually standing on a ledge overlooking Wellington, but they used green screens to cover up Wellington. This area also shows up in Fellowship when the hobbits are camping at Weathertop and look over the ledge to see the Black Riders approaching.
• Hobbiton Woods – This location was a clear favorite for me. Largely because the real location actually looks like what’s in the movie and actually appears in the movie for longer than a few seconds. Also, we had a lot of fun photo ops that Ted directed. 
• First we recreated Frodo’s Tree, where Frodo is chillin’ in the tree and Sam is cooking. 
• Next we recreated Shortcut to the Mushrooms, where the hobbits fall down the hill and wind up in a heap at the bottom. This was the most fun shot and involved Josh laying on the ground, me laying across him on my tummy, another girl laying/sitting on the ground with her legs over us (holding a broken carrot), and another guy with his legs intertwined with the rest of the mess. 
• Third, we did Hobbit’s Hideaway—which happens when Frodo senses something bad is coming for them and yells, “Get off the road!” Then they hop over a (fake) tree into a little cubby. Ted recruited the four of us from the falling scene, and was very specific in his instructions on how we should pose—“Frodo, you’re holding the ring like this; Merry, you’re confused about the ring; Sam, you’re yelling, ‘Nooooo,” and reaching across Merry to keep Frodo from putting the ring on; Pippin, you have this plastic bug crawling on you, and you’re freaking out.” 
• Finally, we went to an area in the Race to the Ferry scene. There’s a shot where one of the hobbits looks up the path and sees the Black Rider and horse. Ted’s intro went something like this: “So if you stand here and look up, those two trees up there frame the shot. Now, I bet you want a horse in your shot, huh? I need three volunteers!” Josh, the other hobbit girl, and I remained faithful to the duty of posing for everyone’s pictures, so we volunteered to be the horse. I was the head and front leg; she was the rider, horse torso, and other front leg; and Josh was the back half of the horse. I was skeptical about how much we would actually resemble a horse and rider, but we really did! See?

We're the horse and rider!

• Weta and Studios – Next we visited the Weta Cave, then drove by the studios and some of the actors’ housing. A tree outside one of the Weta workshops was used for a mold to create Treebeard’s bark. Ted told us that was as close as we’d get to Treebeard. We also stopped at a scenic shoreline, mostly because it was pretty, but also because it loosely tied in to the films. The texture from the jagged rocks, pitted from years of salt water erosion, were used to help create the rocks in Shelob’s lair, pitted from Shelob’s venom. Fun fact: Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) injured himself while learning how to surf (we drove past the bay where it happened), so until his face healed, they had to shoot only the unswollen side of his face.

And that was that.

New Zealand trip, day 12: A squid, the haka, and some amazing pizza

Wednesday, October 12

The room smelled manly when I woke up this morning, as England, Wales, and Italy got themselves ready for the day. Ireland was still in bed when Josh and I went downstairs to make ginger apricot porridge for breakfast. (Side note: oatmeal is so much more exciting when you call it porrige.)

Today was our "walk around Wellington and mooch free things off the city" day, and we've got a Lord of the Rings bus tour (!) booked for tomorrow. First mooch stop: the library for free WiFi. After our 30 minutes were up and it kicked off our IP addresses, we continued to our second mooch stop--Te Papa (means Our Place) Museum which advertised free admission. Neither of us are big museum people, but they advertised some interesting exhibits about the Maori culture, including a chance to learn the haka, a traditional Maori war dance that has become iconic to Kiwis (for instance, the NZ rugby team does the haka on the field before games).

Te Papa is a good museum. Very kid-friendly and ADHD-friendly, and still interesting to those of us who aren't kids and don't have attention deficiencies. To be honest, I was a little disoriented at first because there wasn't a clear, predetermined, right path to go through the museum. :) Some highlights of Te Papa:
* Colossal squid - this thing was massive and creepy-looking. They found it a few years ago near Antarctica and managed to freeze, transport, thaw, study, and preserve it here on display at Te Papa. I don't remember the exact specs, but this thing was at least 8 feet long, and the blurbs said that its eyes were the size of soccer balls.
* Learning the haka - they allowed only six people in at a time, so we had to book our free tickets a couple hours in advance. They directed us to walk in and stand on a circle in the carpet, facing a giant screen, and we could see a silhouette of ourselves on the screen. We also each had a life-sized (pre-recorded) person projected on the screen in the spots that each of our silhouettes was. So a video of a woman was projected on the screen, overlapping with my own silhouette--so it was easier to mirror her movements. A Maori man on the screen walked us through how to do each move individually, then we had a practice run-through of the haka, then we did it for real. "For real" meaning we did it again with our silhouette guides. Then, after we exited the room, we could watch a video recording of what we actually looked like. As with all dancing I've ever tried to do, it did not come naturally to me, and I looked really robotic. But it was a lot of fun!
* Earthquake simulation room - they had a lot of exhibits about various forms of natural disasters--earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, water, etc. There was a room set up to simulate a level 5 aftershock while watching footage from a much stronger earthquake that happened years ago.
* Free WiFi - about halfway through our museum wanderings, we discovered free WiFi in the building. So we spent a considerable amount of time camped out with our electronic devices going.

After we had milked Te Papa for all its worth, we set out in search of food. Parents had asked me to take Josh out for a belated birthday dinner while here, so we were on the lookout for a birthday-worthy restaurant. First we tried the Hippopotamus Restaurant, but their food was pricey and sounded too fancy for our palates. Then we went by Flying Burrito Brothers, but they weren't open for dinner yet (we skipped lunch so wanted an early dinner). We looked for Fidel's, which The Lonely Planet recommended, but didn't see it. So we decided to postpone the birthday dinner for tomorrow and go to Hell Pizza tonight. HP is a widespread New Zealand pizza chain, and woman was that pizza good! We got two pizzas: the first had peanut satay, sweet chili, chicken, capsicum (green peppers), and onion; the second had apricot sauce, chicken, pine nuts, spring onions, cream cheese, and rosemary.

Because the clouds looked mischievous, we headed back to the hostel rather than walk around more. Fabio told us about the apartment he looked at today; Josh, Harry, and I swapped stories about the colossal squid and haka class, and told Nick and Fabio they needed to go to Te Papa to see the squid; Harry and Nick reminisced about UK television shows from back home; we all shared stories of all the places we've travelled. I'm really enjoying hostel life! It's cool to form community with complete strangers who will never see each other again.

New Zealand trip, day 11: All's well in Wellington

Tuesday, October 11

I wonder what cows think about--or if they think about anything. I've been pondering cows' behavior a lot lately since we've been taking road trips through plenty of pastures for sheep and cows alike. Like today on the bus ride to Wellington.

We woke up early and, since it was raining and the house is two miles from the bus station, we called a cab. A chipper cabbie named Bobsta picked us up and took us to the City Centre (downtown) where we purchased our bus tickets and hopped on the bus. It was about a seven-hour bus ride, and I spent most of the ride reading Grisham's A Time to Kill and periodically took breaks to watch the cow pastures go by.

We arrived in Wellington mid-afternoon, walked a couple minutes to our hostel, and were enthusiastically greeted by our new roommate, Fabio from Milan. If I remember correctly, he's here for a year for school--his university in Milan partners with a university here in Wellington--and he's staying in the hostel until he can find an apartment.

After Fabio excused himself to visit an Internet cafe, Josh and I went down the the lobby to read through Wellington attractions pamphlets and nail down our plans for the next couple days. Then we went out walking on the waterfront, coupled with a search for a grocery store. Architecture in Wellington is incredibly diverse. I don't know all the technical terms to describe it well, so just take my word for it that it's diverse. :)

We came back, made dinner with our newly-acquired groceries in the massive communal kitchen, discussed theology, and went upstairs to our room. Fabio was there, and was just as full of energy as our first encounter. He and Josh headed downstairs to the hangout room while I stayed upstairs to brush my teeth and read more Grisham. Somewhere in there I met Harry, another roommate from Ireland, who has been traveling in Australia, NZ South Island, and is now working his way up through the North Island. Harry left, and in came Nick from South Wales. He's here in New Zealand working with earthquake aftermath. While Nick and I were talking, our sixth and final roommate popped in and back out. He's from England, but that's about all I know about him right now. It's interesting to meet such a diverse group of people and suddenly be their roommate for a few days. This should be interesting. I'm excited about the new experience!

New Zealand trip, day 10: Change of plans and a lazy day

Monday, October 10

One of the biggest lessons I learned while in youth ministry is to remain flexible at all times.

Last night, Josh and I plotted the rest of our time together in New Zealand. We decided we'd hop on a bus first thing this morning and spend a couple days in Wellington. Then we'd hop on another bus and finish up the trip with a couple days in Whangarei (about 2 hours north of Auckland) so I could make it to the airport on time for my 2:00-something flight on Saturday afternoon. We did last-minute laundry, packed, perused The Lonely Planet for activities in Wellington and Whangarei, said goodbye to flatmates, and went to bed.

This morning I rolled out of bed, finished packing, and headed out to the kitchen to grab a quick breakfast, only to be met by Josh who greeted me with, "Okay, we need to change our plans." Due to bus route funkiness, Whangarei is not going to be a good option after all. The bus ride from Wellington to Whangarei is a beast (option A is a 15-hour all-night ride, and option B is a two-day trip with an overnight somewhere between Wellington and Whangarei). Also, the earliest bus from Whangarei to the Auckland airport on Saturday is a little too tight for comfort. So we're nixing Whangarei altogether (disappointing, since there are a lot of good-sounding, low-budget activities there) and are going to just do Wellington, with a Friday night in Hamilton and a Saturday morning bus to Auckland.

So the choices this morning were these: 1) spend an extra day here in New Plymouth and go to Wellington tomorrow, which would give us half of Tuesday and all of Wednesday and Thursday in Wellington; or 2) get on the bus this morning to Wellington, and have half of today plus all of Tuesday through Thursday in Wellington. And since I'm the visitor, Josh put the decision on me. For a number of reasons, I chose to stick around New Plymouth today and head to Wellington tomorrow.

So today has been gloriously laid-back and agenda-less! I threw some pictures on Facebook while internet usage was still unlimited, then crawled back in bed. When I got up the second time, I leisurely went through the rest of my pictures from days six through nine (so they're ready to upload the next time I have access to unrestricted internet), puttered around on Facebook, made another loaf of beer bread with Josh, caught up on email, revived dormant Words with Friends games, had a couple cups of hot tea . . . it's been a good day!

New Zealand trip, day 9: Surf Highway with the Germans

Sunday, October 9

Julia works with a couple girls from Germany who wanted to do a day trip and invited Julia and two of her flatmates to join them. (Side note: I think the term "flatmates" makes so much more sense than "roommates." Unless you actually share a room with your roommates, they're really housemates or apartmentmates . . . a.k.a., flatmates. Why do we just use the term "roommates" in the States?) And Julia picked Josh and me to go with her!

                                          

Caroline and Stefanie bought a car here, so they have a little more freedom when it comes to travelling. They were excited about driving down Surf Highway 45, and we were just along for the ride, so we were cool with whatever. The Surf Highway stretches for 105 km (65 miles) south of New Plymouth, around a bump in the coastline created by Mt. Taranaki (map). Contrary to what the name might suggest, it actually winds through farmlands much more than it trails along the coast. But there are frequent brown signs that say something like "Surf Beach" or "Scenic Lookout" and point toward the coast. So our basic mode of operation was to drive along through the farmlands until we saw a brown sign, then follow the brown sign, get out and walk around the beach, then pile back into the car and hop back on the highway. It was a lot of fun! We took jumping pictures on one beach, picnicked on another, played Frisbee on yet another, and took pictures on/of all of them. At the place labeled "Scenic Lookout," we could look down and see waves coming in from multiple directions and colliding with each other. As in, waves from one direction would be perpendicular to waves from another direction. It looked bizarre but really cool!

On the way home, we took an alternate route around the other side of Mt. Taranaki. Then we filled up the tank, settled up on petrol (that's what they call gas here) money, and the Germans dropped us off at the house. We've spent the evening eating and chilling with the flatmates, and we've got a load of laundry going so we can pack up and head out of New Plymouth tomorrow morning.

New Zealand trip, days 7 and 8: New Plymouth

Friday, October 7

Today we just hung out in New Plymouth, did laundry, processed pictures from the trip, etc. I took over 450 pictures on the trip to the Bay of Plenty, so just touching them up and slapping a border on them in Photoshop is taking a long time!

                       

At some point in the afternoon, Josh and I set out for a walking tour of New Plymouth. It's what we had planned to do on Monday before leaving for the Bay of Plenty, but the rain encouraged us to make bread instead. New Plymouth is a cute little town on the coast. And it has some gorgeous parks. About halfway to town, we ran into Julia who was coming home from work, so she joined us for the rest of the outing. When we got into town, we walked up and down Devon Street--most of the shops and things are on Devon Street, and I read somewhere that Devon Street is the longest main street in the North Island (possibly all of NZ--I don't remember). Along the way, we stopped in a bakery because Julia was hungry, and I got a bottled lemon, lime and bitters. Growing up, we used to have these drinks semi-regularly, but I had never seen or drunk the bottled version. It was okay--reminiscent of the LL&B we drank in PNG (or made at home in the States), but kinda just tasted like Sprite.

We took the long way back to the house and went through a substantial park. If my home city was half as pretty as New Plymouth, I think I would be much healthier because I would want to walk around outside a LOT. Highlights of the park:

The magical waterfall starting to flow again
after I pushed the button.

• The Fernery - Basically a large greenhouse with every kind of NZ fern and flower imaginable. There were multiple levels (maybe only two, but it felt like more), lots of rooms, and fountains with dry ice smoke. Extremely serene and lush. Because the floor was covered in wood chips, it smelled a little bit like we were in a huge (clean) hamster cage. I went a little crazy with picture-taking.
• The Waterfall - When we approached the waterfall, there was water falling from it . . . because that's what waterfalls do. Then a nice man came up and talked with us for a few minutes. Then Josh pointed out that there was less and less water coming down the waterfall. The fall is obviously human-made, so I just assumed they only had the water on during certain times of the day, and it was late enough in the day that it was time to turn it off. It seemed weird, but whatever. But no! It's not just on until a certain time of day. There's a button. A magical button. And when you push it, the waterfall turns back on! It's kind of amazing, really. I mean, where besides New Plymouth could you have the power to turn on a waterfall?

Our evening was pretty relaxed. We made pasta and roasted veggies for dinner and watched a few episodes of Community, which I had never seen but am a little hooked on now.

Saturday, October 8

Today was another low-key day. Julia and I walked in to town to go to the farmer's market that they have every Saturday. We met up with Josh who came from teaching an RPM class, and shopped together for fruits, veggies, eggs, and pita bread. People in New Zealand don't refrigerate their eggs. It's kinda weird, but obviously okay. Then we walked back to the house.

It's interesting to see reactions to rain in various locations. Back home, if it even so much as sprinkles, people break out their umbrellas and sprint from point A to point B, so as not to mess up their hair or get wet. Here, you just kinda deal with it. When it rained on us on the way to the farmer's market, Julia and I did pull out my umbrella because it was raining medium hard. But when we got a light rain on the way back, none of us even bothered getting out our rain gear. It just wasn't a big deal.

Next, Josh and I rode "our" (his and Julia's) bikes up the Coastal Walkway. It's been five years since the last time I rode a bike, so it was a little unnerving to hop back on one and promptly ride through town--on the streets--up hills--to get to the walkway. The Coastal Walkway is exactly what it sounds like it would be. It's a 10 km-long walkway winding up the coast of/near New Plymouth. We passed walkers, skateboarders, parents pushing strollers, children on tricycles, and fellow cyclists. Toward the beginning, it rained on us, but we pressed on and rode all the way to the end and back. And about a third of the way into the excursion, the sun came back out to play. As with everything else we've done here, the view was stunning. Toward the beginning, the sky was gray and the sea bluish-gray and rocky. When the sun came back out, the sky got a little bluer, and the sea a little sparklier. By the end of the ride, my legs were dying but, like everything else we've done, the experience was totally worth the physical discomfort.

In the evening, all the roomies went into town to watch the Irish/Wales game (Rugby World Cup) while I stayed home and enjoyed having the house to myself. There's a takeaway place just around the corner from the Cat Biscuit house, and rumor has it that their fish and chips are the best in town. How convenient! So I called in my order, hobbled down to the corner, and picked up my first ever fish and chips. I also got a crab stick because it sounded interesting. The meal was excellent and included so much food that I couldn't finish it all.

Next week, Josh and I are going to travel some more around the North Island, ending up in Auckland for my return flight on Saturday. So I spent part of the evening looking for Lord of the Rings locations we could potentially visit. What I was most excited about was visiting Hobbiton since they still have much of the set and props set up. But the tour of the set is closed until some time in November, so it's not worth going there just to look at the active sheep farm and go to the Shires Cafe. At this point, it looks like we'll spend some time in Wellington (there are a number of LOTRish things there, and it's the capital so should be cool), then go up north to the area north of Auckland (Josh has heard it's really pretty up there). From my Googling this evening, I discovered that the mountains we saw from Taupo included Mt. Ngauruhoe which starred as Mt. Doom in LOTR. Who knew!?

And that's it for days 7 and 8. I have a lot of pictures from days 6-8 (including video of the boiling mud), but internet restrictions make 2:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. the prime time to upload pictures, and that just hasn't worked well for me. So stay tuned. Pictures will be coming eventually!