March 15, 2011 The End

Ides of March; Pacific Rim

Getting a day to live over again might be a good thing and we got to do it on the Ides of March. Our result was a lot better than Julius Caesar’s.

We see on the news here in LA that the drug stores are selling out of potassium iodide, the pill to prevent cancer from radioactive contamination. There is concern that a radioactive cloud could be released into the atmosphere from the damaged reactors in Japan and then travel thousands of miles to the West Coast. We missed the earthquake in Christchurch, the tsunami in Westport and it looks like we’ll miss the contamination here in LA. Living on the Pacific Rim isn’t for sissies.

Dragon Boating, Sheep Busting and Lesson Learned?

On the Fourth of July, 2009, I went to my first rodeo in Interior, SD, population 67. One of the remarkable competitions I observed was sheep busting. 5-year old children were placed on sheep, and then the gate was opened, the sheep was slapped on the butt and the sheep took off with the child gamely hanging on. Many fell off in the first few seconds and a few last 8-10 seconds. All of the children, but one, wore no protective clothing of any kind. That one wore a helmet. Why? Because he might have hit his head or fallen off and gotten kicked in the head, I suppose. But what was that child being taught?

And when the children in New Zealand go out dragon boating every day, rain or shine, no matter the wind, what is that teaching them?

Now back in the US, I think of our children and grandchildren and wonder what we are teaching them when we require that they wear helmets when they ride a bicycle, or when they go skiing, and wear lifejackets when they go sailing, and wear all sorts of protective gear when they go skateboarding, and we take away diving boards from swimming pools, require that fences be put up around swimming pools, require car seats for children, helmets for motorcycle riders (in most states), when we build swimming pools with the “deep” end being 5’ deep. Whatever the cause (lawsuits, insurance requirements, safety, protecting the lives of our children), I believe that all of this is teaching our children and grandchildren to fear life, or in the words of the plaque in Wellington, to fear the verb. We made it through without all of this, why can’t our kids?

While some of our children here (but not the sheep busters) are being taught fear and an expectation that an active life will lead to injury or death, it appeared to me that the children of NZ are being taught courage and that their society expects them to live an active life free from unreasonable fear.

If personal injury lawsuits are the problem, should they be abolished as they appear to be in NZ? On the other hand, will that lead to our cherished big corporations running roughshod over the consumer in the name of earnings for its shareholders, something it is pretty good at now even with the threat of personal injury lawsuits? Or should limited liability for corporations and other entities be abolished? Lots of things to think about.

Things I will remember

Sky Needle; Sugar at the helm in an American Cup boat showing the Kiwis how to sail in a big wind; liquefaction; Mayor Bob Parker and Christchurch earthquake; beer battered blue cod; Queenstown; “You’ve gotta change your attitude, mate”; paragliding; $94 fill up; learning to be old; landing attitude and trim to best glide speed; grass strips, uphill/downhill; Geordie Hill Station; foot rot; sheep dog; Matt and Jo’s “white truck” [Lexus SUV]; tenure review; golf at Jack’s Point; ridge flying; saddles; ag planes and strips; flying through rain showers and snow showers; dawn at the station, hills clothed in overnight snow; cruise climb; soft field takeoffs and landings; jet boat; flying a Gypsy Moth; Staggerwing and Bill; Mt. Aspiring, the Matterhorn of the Southern Alps; beach landing at Big Bay; Sydney Beach; Milford Sound; Sutherland Falls; Lake Quill; Mount Cook and Harper Saddle; glaciers; earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and tsunami warning in NZ; Queen Charlotte Drive; Picton and Marlborough Sound; dragon boating “rain or shine”; Matt and Jo; Megan; and Sue, our fishing and hunting guiding, field hockey coaching, and flight instructing co-pilot who took such good care of us and taught me the thrills of flying in the mountains.

Good night to everyone who kept up with us. Your messages were always welcome and made us feel closer to home. We look forward to seeing you soon.

Love, Dad, Nat, Matt and DB

March 14, 2011 Wellington

Dragon Boating

“It’s true you can’t live here by chance. You have to do and be, not simply watch or even describe. This is the city of action, the world headquarters of the verb.”

So read an inscription on a granite walk on the overhead walkway to the shore from the Civic Square in Wellington. And how true it is. As we walked toward the shore, we noticed high school age girls with paddles (similar to canoe paddles but squared off at the end and a little shorter), wearing shorts and what appear to be rowing shirts. Since it was howling again today, with a steady wind of at least 25 knots and fierce gusts over 35 knots (so strong that it would knock you backward), we thought they’d never get near the ocean today. Wrong. We came up to an inlet in the wharf where the Boat Club is located, a place to launch dragon boats, long, narrow wooden boats that have the shape of a rowing shell, manned by 20 oarsmen or oarswomen, a coxswain seated in the bow shouting the cadence and the coach in the stern standing and steering with a long oar. From this inlet they would pass under a foot bridge into the maelstrom of the harbor, into the whitecaps and gusts of wind, cold waves hitting their low freeboard vessel and spraying them. The safety boats were inflatable dinghies with outboards on them. I told a girl who was dressed for the sport that I didn’t think they would be going anywhere near the water in conditions like this. “Oh yes. We go out every die [day], rine [rain] or shine.” They practice every day and then have their competitive races on Sundays.

Something Sue said leads me to understand that their school year is divided into sections of several weeks duration. And I think this section is dedicated to sport, where much of the day is spent in training for, and competing in, a sport. In this case, about 200 kids were on the wharf waiting for their turn in the dragon boats. Some looked like they were still in grade school. Again, you wouldn’t see this at home. We take our hats off to them. You’ve got to love this country.

We walked miles today and that was our “doing.” Tomorrow we fly to Auckland, and then cross the Pacific landing in LA at 10 in the morning of the 15th, the same day we left Auckland at 6 PM. Say what?

Good night, Nat, Dad, Matt, DB, your simple describer

March 13, 2011 Picton to Wellington

Picton; Movie Star Jo and her poor American cousins; Hippopotamus

Picton is a small town, with yachts in its basin, hotels crowding its shoreline, a park with flower beds adjacent to the paved walks right on the shore in the middle of the town shoreline. I was up at 7, just before sunrise, and the clouds had creeped into the upper portions of the town, but were soon to burn off. We actually opened up the main street by helping a cafe carry its tables and chairs outside where we sat and had breakfast. By the time we were finished, had returned to our hotel to check out and came back around 10, all the stores were open so we did some more shopping. Sugar has to make up for the time lost when we spent 9 days flying. We dropped off the rental car at noon, got our boarding passes, dropped off our luggage, and after a short wait in the waiting area, boarded the ferry for Wellington. Just as we were getting ready to depart, a plane swooped down over the town and landed on the water beside us - I got four pictures of it coming down. It’s another beautiful day, and the departure through this part of Marlborough Sound is unique and beautiful, being a passage between high hills on each side and continuing for 30-40 miles.

As we were baking in the full sun and gale force winds on the top deck of the Interislander Ferry proceeding from Picton on the South Island to Wellington on the North Island, Sugar with her down coat on and me with my Patagonia turtleneck sweater zipped up to the neck and baggy dungarees, this lady wearing a flowered print dress, dark unbuttoned Cardigan sweater with sleeves pulled up halfway up her forearm, necklace, dangling earrings, Mary Jane flat shoes, big dark glasses, with naturally dark curly hair, strolled by with her head erect and headed for the stern. Sugar turned to me who was half-asleep, “Wasn’t that Jo?” I looked up and saw this lady walking away from me. When she reached the stern, and turned around, I waved. She didn’t react, perhaps wondering why this old man with his hair standing straight up and his face beet red from two hours baking in the sun was waving at her. She started back and Sugar and I walked toward her - then she recognized us, or probably Sugar who is hard to miss with her cast in a white sling. Instead of running away, she came up and gave us both a hug. She explained that they had started their vacation yesterday, driving from Geordie Hill to Blenheim after leaving at 4 AM, and that Matt was down in the First Class lounge - she had stepped out just to get a breath of fresh air. She led us down to Level 7 so we could see Matt too - while Matt came out and was talking with us, Jo was talking to the staff and pleading for them to let us in the lounge too, all to no avail, especially after looking at us. Jo had good news about Heather - she had come in third in the Wanaka horsejumping competition, and had been complimented by an older woman who won the all-around medal for the show. We had a short talk and then we went back to being hoi polloi, and they went back to being a movie star and her agent. Actually Matt looked a lot less stressed than he had looked when he was lying on his back all day examining each kicking foot of 4500 upset sheep.

You can tell Sugar was helping me with the description of Jo. So now we add Movie Star Jo to our collection of Master Chef Jo, Pilot Jo, Nurse Jo, and Farmer Jo.

We entered Wellington Harbor, a large harbor surrounded by hills on its western side where Wellington is located. The downtown is full of modern high rise buildings, flanked on each side by homes climbing up the hillsides, one on top of the other. Kumar (some things remain the same) of Super Shuttle grabbed our bags and drove us to the Museum Hotel, which has a Hippopotamus on the roof of the entry and two classic motorcycles in the Lobby. I swear to God I did not know this - Sugar doesn’t believe me. This small hotel, across the street from the waterfront, reminds me of the funky Hudson Hotel in NYC, but the rooms are much bigger here in this hotel, although small by other standards. Contrasted with the motorcycles is a boxed glass display of a pistol, a bullet heading away from the pistol and suspended in midair, and then a skull. Then, another contrasting exhibit is a painting of a nude lifesize woman, from the backside, on the wall. A little something for everybody apparently.

It’s been another good day for us, and not just because of the weather and the high 70’s temps. Tomorrow we’ll check out Wellington, where South Islanders go when they want to go on vacation.

Love to all, Nat, Dad, Matt, DB

PS The pictures are of lawn bowling, Marlborough Sound from Queen Charlotte Drive, Sugar in Picton, and the seaplane descending over Picton for landing.

March 11-12, 2011 Motueka and Picton

March 11, 2011

Thriving Business in CHCH; Tsunami Warning for NZ; Bad Luck

We left Jackie and Charlie behind at Archer House in Westport, and headed northwest toward Motueka, a town near Abel Tasman National Park where Matt had suggested that we visit. The distance there is only about 250 km but the roads are very winding, with speed limits between 100 kph on the straight portions to 35 kph at the sharpest turns. Driving in the mountains, with no guardrails and very sharp curves, is wearing. Add in single lane bridges, single lane road in one portion, road construction and mowing the bushes on the steep rockwalls next to a curve in the road, and you’re relieved when you see you have only 11 kms to go. Having gassed up and picked up a newspaper, drinks and sandwich in Murchison (the only town of consequence on our route), Sugar read some of the paper to me. One of the stories was how prostitution was thriving in Christchurch, due to the influx of foreign search and rescue workers, policemen, etc. According to one prostitute, she was having the most prosperous time of her career, earning an average of $700 per night, and $1400 on her best night. She continued, “If they need that release, with all the pressure they are under, then I guess it’s okay.” Two of the men wanted their picture taken with her while they wore their Australian police uniforms, apparently for their buddies back home.

As I write this, we are watching the TV and are learning of the magnitude 8.9 earthquake in Japan two hours ago. New Zealand and most of the Pacific have been put under a tsunami warning. And of course, we are staying in lowlying country next to the ocean. Sugar wants to go back to Geordie Hill Station where there is no risk of such things and there is no news from TV. I guess this is our welcome back to the real world, a world of tragedy and suffering for so many. If a tsunami hits here, a NZ rep just said it may be another 4-6 hours - in other words in the middle of the night. This fear reminds me of the following: “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” When I was a little boy, I kneeled at my bedside and said that prayer every night before I went to bed. And continuing “God bless Nanny, Gammy, Mommy, Daddy...” and so on down to the cats and the dogs. And God bless the Japanese and all those suffering at this time.

“Bad luck,” according to Matt, is what happens in life to people, and no matter how or why it happens, it does not give the injured party the right to sue the party causing the injury in NZ. The Govt will care for the injured party and will prosecute the guilty party, if a crime has been committed, but there is no private remedy. So if an accident occurs, as it did with Sugar, the National Healthcare System will care for the injured party but he or she would have no right to sue the fishing trip operator, for example. It’s just “bad luck.” Obviously, I pushed back pretty hard on that point but there was no give with Matt and Jo. This philosophy is widespread, I think, in NZ and helps to explain the ubiquity of bungy jumping, skydiving, parasailing and other intense physically risky activities, and their attitude of self-independence. One might argue that this system permits a guilty party to evade full responsibility for his acts. And on the other hand, maybe the system works here as it is with Madoff and his victims, with the government having imprisoned him and the government also seeking to recover assets to pay back to those innocently injured by his fraudulent acts. This is what is great about getting away from home. You always get a fresh look at your life in comparison with how others live.

We had a short trip to Kaiteriteri, the “most beautiful beach in New Zealand,” where we had a beer at the Beached Whale Restaurant, and then returned to town for supper at Simply Indian Restaurant. Now, with Sugar switching back and forth between American Idol and CNN, I’m signing off. Good night.

Love, Nat, Dad, Matt, DB



March 12, 2011

Mapua, Pelorus and Queen Charlotte; Miscellany

We survived the night so that’s a relief and it looks like NZ will be spared another disaster, at least at this time. We left our host, Stephen, at White Lodge B & B, another very fine accommodation and the only room at his B & B. His wife is away in Great Britain so he cut $10 off the price as he didn’t think his cooking would be as good as his wife’s. The room is in a separate building and fronts on the backyard flower and vegetable gardens.

We joined Route 6, then took a left to Mapua where, we had been told, there were nice shops next to the wharf (so Bay, I am giving Sugar an opportunity to shop - 15 minutes is more than enough time here). The tide was out - their tide is about 8’, similar to home, and there were a few boats in the small harbor.
We continued on through Richmond, Nelson, Port Nelson, all towns on the coast and looking back we could see the mountains in Abel Tasman National Park, and of course the mountains that were hoving over these towns and through which we would eventually have to get through on our trip today. Shortly, we turned east and up into the mountains and the serpentine road appeared again, back and forth, up and down, over and over again. The drivers here are courteous, pulling over when able to let cars past who have piled up behind them. After 20-30 minutes or so, we entered the beautiful Rai Valley with its farms and flatlands surrounded by the mountains. We stopped at Pelorus Bridge, where there are a cafe, toilets and short walk to the river. We took advantage of all three. It is very warm, probably in the high 70’s, but the walk in the heavily shaded forest was refreshing. And the Totara tree is enormous rising to almost 100 feet high. Back to the serpentine road which led us to Havelock, a small town of 400 and a beautiful town on the ocean with a 50-mile sound, one of many Marlborough Sounds. We stopped to see Chris and Philippa, two people we had met last Friday night at pizza. Chris was shocked to see Sugar and wanted to know how she had been injured. He was gracious. Philippa was out so we didn’t get to see her, but did get to meet Olive and Morrison, two doodles, one black and one golden, and neither as cute as Maggie.

Right outside Havelock, we turned left onto Queen Charlotte Drive, a spectacular 1-hour ride along the bluffs above some of the Marlborough Sounds which are surrounded by forested mountains descending into the sea. It is more beautiful than the Pacific Coast Highway, Sargent Drive, the road along the French Riviera on the way to Monte Carlo - you rise to 1000 feet above sea level, drop down to sea level, and then you do the same all over again. And you better pay attention to your driving for again there are no guard rails to keep you from going over the side if you go off the road. At the end of the drive is Picton, a small town nestled between steep mountainsides and the ocean sound. We take the ferry from here tomorrow, a 3-hour trip to Wellington where we will stay until Tuesday. Hopefully, our room there will have better Internet access and I can go back to sending a few pictures.

I made our reservations on the Interislander Ferry today as I was worried that, with the tsunami warning of today, many people may have put off their plan to take the ferry today and instead take it tomorrow. However, I was able to get the tickets ($55 apiece without the car which we drop off here tomorrow).

The following are several things Sugar and I have noticed about New Zealand:
1. Money system - their unit of money is the dollar, worth about 80 cents; the bills are different colored; the lowest denomination bill is the $5 bill; the silver colored coins are worth less than the copper colored coins; they have a $2 coin.
2. There is no tipping! That’s hard to get used to.
3. Serviettes are napkins!
4. I filled up the car with 1/4 tank left and it cost $94 at about $2.20/liter.
5. When you sit down at a restaurant, the server brings you a large bottle of cold water and glasses, no ice.
6. The towels are situated on racks that heat the towels.
7. They have “roundabouts” rather than stoplights.
8. You can drink in public unless you are in an alcohol ban area (usually the downtown area).
9. There are voracious “midgies” (like no-see-ums at home) at the beaches if there is no wind.
10. Roads are excellent but narrow.
11. The roads are long and winding.
12. The speed limit in rural areas is 100 kph.
13. You can get an excellent room at a B & B for $160 NZ.
14. Flat white, long black are two types of coffee.
15. Waitresses are paid minimum wage.
16. Breakfast cost is very high.
17. Risky behavior is the norm.
18. A “sealed” runway is a paved runway.
19. “Give Way” = Yield sign.
20. NZ is “Down Under” and consider themselves as such.
21. Deceased vets are “Glorious Dead” as opposed to KIA.
22. Wifi is limited.
23. Land tenure review - Govt pays all the expenses for such review, appraisals, surveys, etc.

That’s enough for now. Good night to all. Back to the North Island tomorrow.

Love, Nat, Dad, Matt, DB, etc.

Sorry = No pictures due to slow Internet.

March 10, 2011 Greymouth to Westport

Maggie’s; Pancakes and Thunder Hole; Foulwind; Archer House; Northern Exposure

Of course, our day began at Maggie’s (guess why we chose that place), a small diner where we ate breakfast. It felt like we had gone 50 years back in time, listening to music such as “Old Flames Can’t Hold a Candle to You.” I’m not kidding. And every once in awhile they’d throw in a “new” song like “Landslide” by the Dixie Chicks which must be at least 10 years old. And we even met Maggie who brought out our breakfast. But the prices weren’t the prices of 50 years ago, my poached eggs on white toast, Sugar’s cereal with canned peaches and yogurt, two orange juices, and two short whites (coffees) costing $33. Food here is really expensive. But we just had a really good ribeye dinner, the lite version no less, and the meals with a beer and a coffee cost $63, the equivalent in US $ being about $50.

En route on Route 6 from Greymouth, we stopped at Paparoa National Park at Punakaiki, home of the pancake rocks and blowholes. We walked out the path to the pancakes which are quite amazing, rocks layered one on top of another and weathered to look like piles of pancakes. The blowholes are large thunder holes but, due to the tide and lack of large waves rolling in, we only heard one “huuuunh” to remind us of our own Thunder Hole.

Our next stop was an hour or more later, at Cape Foulwind, just west of Westport, our destination. There is a walk there to the lighthouse and out to the end of the cape. The sun is out, there is the sweetest smell coming from all the yellow flowers of the ubiquitous bushes we have been calling “gorse,” with small green leaves and inch long thorns. There were so many of these bushes beside the uphill trail to the lighthouse. And we’re not too jittery after our seal experience - I leaned over to smell the flowers and a small bird in the bush startled me, and also Sugar who was approaching to smell the flowers too. We skipped the seal colony lookout. As you can imagine, we’ve had more than our share of seals.

We drove into Westport and followed the “i” signs which signify the office for tourist information where they help you to make room reservations, suggest restaurants, things to do, etc. Not many places had rooms left since there will be horse racing (trotters) in town tomorrow and Saturday, but our clerk suggested we take a look at Archer House. We drove over and fell in love with the place, its 20-foot high ceilings, funky art, its different color rooms (we’re in the Red Room), several sitting rooms, and sunny porch where we ate our lunch that we had bought at the grocery store. And as we were finishing lunch at 3:30 or so, Jackie asked us if we wanted tea or coffee and offered us freshly baked ginger muffins and blueberry muffins. They were delicious with our coffees. Check out the place online. It has quite a story. There are 3 guest rooms and we have the house all to ourselves at night.

As we were driving north from Greymouth on the winding Route 6, the sun was in my eyes and I puzzled at that. Of course, it would be since we are south of the location of the sun which is just south of the equator now. So my blog of yesterday may be wrong about the location of various sides of Mount Cook. As we first approached it, we were approaching the side in shade which would be the southern side, and when we went around to the side where the shelf is for the helicopter to drop off summiteers, that would have been the northern side. Okay, that is better.

So I’ll sign off now while roughing it at Archer House.

Love, Nat, Dad, Matt, DB

March 9, 2011 Mount Cook

Goodbyes; The Knifepoint; Circles over Mount Cook Snowfields; Gentle, Kind Mount Cook; Christchurch and More Goodbyes; Prince William

Having finished packing, we walked up to Jo and Matt’s for one last time. I listened to the sheep baaing and the cows mooing in the distance, the birds chirping in the trees overhead, and felt at peace. Jo was finishing a full setting of scones for the entire enlarged farm crew today as they were going to finish the last 1000 sheep with exams for foot rot and 4 different shots. Due to my request last night, Jo brought out the Flyinn clothing consisting of a merino golfstyle shirt and a vest. We each got the shirt. Matt and I finished our accounting and then it was time to go, with hugs all around. And a last goodbye to Nugget, the 11-year old yellow lab, and a look out at the adjacent pasture with Delta, McGyver and Cookie, their horses, our screen savers for the past 9 days - 9 days of no radio or television and not much news. Life does go on without them.

Sue helped load the plane and we taxied to the grass runway for one last takeoff, fully loaded and with full fuel, destined for the highest point in NZ, Mount Cook. The skies were blue, with a few midlevel clouds over some of the peaks. We banked right to the north after takeoff, doing a cruise climb up Ahurin River valley, then over to the Dobson River valley as the mountains got higher and higher and snow appeared on the summits. Mount Cook, with its distinctive knife edge top, was in plain sight the entire time during the climb up to 9500’. We turned to the west just south of Mt. Selton (10,338’) and then headed directly to Mount Cook (12,316’). As we approached its west face, a knife point of thin rock wall protruded up from the mountain about 100’ in front of the mountain and since our altitude was about equal to the middle of the point, we could not see what was behind the point. Sue said we would fly past the point turning left around it. But I couldn’t see around it at all, and thus could not tell if the point would curve around to the main summit wall. If it did, or even part way, we would not have room to pass through, let alone turn around. To my nervous questioning about what was behind the knife point, Sue assured me that we would just fly over a saddle behind the point and come out over the glacier to our left. So, with a little of me holding my breath and trusting Sue with our lives (again), I flew on in little WAX and turned left behind the knife point and, with the left wing appearing to brush the back side of the knife point wall and the right wing along the west face of the summit wall, we popped over the saddle Sue said would be there to the wide open spaces of the glacier. A big PHEW! We did some 360’s over the snowfield where a helicopter had landed and people were cross-country skiing. Looking out, we felt we were at the top of the world. We headed for Katie’s Col and then turned to the east and then south flying along the eastern slopes of Mt. Tasman (11,473’) toward Mount Cook again. Sue wanted us to fly over the shelf at about 9200; where the helicopter lands on Mount Cook to drop off those who want to summit the mountain. She kept telling me to go “closer, closer” and “closer, closer” again as we headed right for the middle of the summit, but 2,700’ below it. We reached the shelf and Sue pointed out a glacier that folded in to the north that the climbers followed to the summit, very difficult and technical climbing. In the meantime, as I listened to Sue describe the complexity of the climb, I’m looking at a snow covered rock wall that I’m hurtling toward at 105 knots. After we flew over the helicopter landing site, I didn’t wait for her to tell me to turn away to the west. I just did it with my heart pounding in my ears, and it’s still pounding just writing about it. And there was nary a bounce on either side of the summit, a very unusual day, and very fortunate for us. The beauty of the area is astounding. Have I told you that before?

With last looks at Franz Joseph Glacier, we followed Tasman Glacier downward and turned east to be eventually dropped off at Christchurch Airport. We flew through miles and miles of more mountains, heading for the flatlands around Christchurch - what a contrast, from the numerous high sharp peaks to the green farm country on the flatlands leading us to Christchurch. We landed at an airport that was not that busy and taxied to the General Aviation area where we unpacked and headed for Budget Rental Car. We said goodbye to Sue with tears in all our eyes - she brought so much love and caring to us, and taught me a lot about piloting a small aircraft in the mountains.

We got in our Ford Falcon (really, but a new one) and headed west on Route 73 for Arthur’s Pass and continuing all the way across the South Island to Greymouth on the shore of the Pacific. Sugar asked me if I was nervous about driving here after not having driven for 9 days. After what we had just gone through in the past two days, I didn’t think that driving a car would make me nervous. And I learned on the radio on the way that Prince William may be visiting Greymouth in the next day or two or three in conjunction with his attendance in Christchurch at a memorial service to those who died in the earthquake. We are spending the night here at Greymouth but intend to head north along the coast tomorrow morning. God Save the Queen.

Goodnight, with no planned alarm clock or wakeup call for tomorrow. Sleep tight.

Love, Nat, Dad, Matt,DB

PS Picture is of Mount Tasman in right foreground and Mount Cook in left background - headed for helicopter landing shelf.

March 8, 2011 Milford Sound

Glacier Flying; Sand Beach Landing; Milford Sound Landing; “The World Is Your Oyster;” Manapouri; Home for the Last Time

With Matt and Jo working starting at 7 AM checking the feet of 4500 sheep for foot rot, and giving each shots, Sue arrived at our cottage at 8 AM for our briefing of what we would be doing today. Sugar, despite not having a lot of sleep due to her cast, was all ready to go and so was I. This is our big day - the day we go to Milford Sound, one of the most famous fiords in the world.

We departed over the Eastern Hills again, avoiding an ag plane doing spraying on the ridge line, landing on a strip on the ridge, reloading and taking off again to continue spraying on the ridge and along the sides of the ridge. We flew over Wanaka and entered the Matukituki Gorge in a cruise climb up to 6,500 feet. We turned left entering the West Branch, passing Mt. Rob Roy and glacier with the summit at 8675 feet, Bonar Glacier, past the Pope’s Nose (8856’) to the beautiful Mt, Aspiring (9951’), the Matterhorn of New Zealand, and circled around it to get some pictures. We crossed over the Matukituki Saddle (4915’) , past Mt. Ionia (7434”) to the Olivine Ice Plateau, a shelf of snow and ice at about 7500’. We headed north and then turned west to drop down to the Pacific Ocean and Big Bay.

We descended all the way to 500’ where Sue took the plane and we flew over the beach explaining how we would land at the very northern end of the beach. One plane had already landed. Sue entered a left downwind at 500’, put in 10 degrees of flaps, then turned base just before plowing into the hill of Awarua Point, lining up for final just to the left of the black sandy area, just touching down with full flaps and immediately going to full power to take off, turning the plane over to me. The purpose was to put down some tire tracks of where she wanted me to touch down. I climbed to 500’ feet and basically mimicked what she had done, touching down right at the beginning of the black sand, but staying on the ground. We taxied out of the way of anyone else who might be flying in but were sure to stay in the wet, hardpacked sand and pebbles. We all got out of the plane, and walked around beachcombing and taking a few pictures. The sea smelled nice to us and it was still cool with an offshore breeze from the east.

We took off, climbed along the southern ridge of Big Bay up to 1000’ and followed the coast south several miles to the entry to Milford Sound, and what a spectacular entry it is, bordered by huge mountains and ridges on each side, a true fiord. The mountains were between 5500 and 7400’ and Sugar and I were awed as I flew up the right hand (southwest) side of the Sound. There was a plane just ahead of us, tourist boats beneath us, and a cruise liner just of the end of runway 11 that we would be using. Our guide last week, Megan, was in the tower handling traffic and with her critiquing me, Sue saying that “a pilot of my experience should have no trouble with this landing”, the pressure was building. But in this instance, I brought it in fine and was able to taxi off to the general aviation parking about 1/2 of the way down the runway without any problem. What a thrill. But there were certainly more to come. We stopped in to say hello to Megan and Sue kidded her about her (Sue) getting the good conditions whereas Megan flew with me on the day we cut short (and I played golf) due to strong wind conditions. The winds were light and variable at Milford Sound.

We grabbed a sandwich for lunch, took a 20 minute walk around the shoreline, said our final goodbye to Megan, and returned to the plane. We took off on runway 29 toward the water, climbed to 1000 feet and then headed southwest into the mountains up the Arthur River Gorge, cruise climbing up to about 4500’ feet until we reached ABW (“another bloody waterfall” to the Kiwis), this one Sutherland Falls and 1800’ high, Sue took the plane, put in 20 degrees of flaps and slowed it to 70 knots, telling me to fly over Lake Quill from which the Falls comes. The lake is in a perfectly circular canyon and the lake itself is circular. The sides of the canyon are high vertical rock faces dwarfing our altitude and Sue assured me that I could fly around in the tiny canyon at slow flight without steep turns. First I crossed the saddle into the canyon, followed the righthand rockface and did a circle to the left at 70 knots with no more than 20 degrees of bank and coming back out and then, at Sue’s suggestion, returning to the canyon and circling from left to right so Sugar would get a better view. This canyon is ridiculously TINY but Sue was right. Now that flying got the adrenaline flowing big time! At one time I turned to Sue and said, “So when I hear the end of the wing scraping the wall, then maybe I should move away a bit?” “Yeh, something like that.”

From Lake Quill, we turned to the west, then south looking out to our right (west) to see Sutherland Sound, then Bligh Sound, turning southeast along Wild Natives River Gorge and then winding our way around the mountains to Mt Irene (6100’) and Coronation Peak (5804’). This is still Fiordland - it is the perfect playground for pilots on a day like today that was getting sunnier and sunnier the more it wore on. As we flew over passes and went up ridges, I would ask Sue which side to be on, or suggest a side, and her reply was “Today, the world is your oyster.” No wind to speak of, no clouds, no other traffic south of Milford Sound - I could do whatever I wanted. We descended to 3500’ to cross Wilmot Pass into the Lake Manapouri region, a large lake just south of Lake Te Anau. We landed on runway 8 at Manapouri Airport, and had a wonderful view of the lakeside and the mountains on the other (western) side. The east side of the lake is all flat valley, and it is beautiful with its green farmland, windbreak trees here and there and the two lakeside towns of Manapouri and Te Anau. Sue refueled the plane, and we all had a snack and glass of water.

Refreshed but feeling that we needed a relatively short day after yesterday, we flew back to Geordie Hill for one last landing here on this grass strip. I was emotional when I shut the plane down here for the last time. Now that I’m beginning to know what to do, it’s time to leave. Tomorrow, we fly to Mount Cook, the highest mountain in NZ, and then to Christchurch to be dropped off so we can pick up our rental car. It’s time to pack and get organized. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep in touch once we are on the road.
Sugar did very well today - no codeine, just Panadol and is very good about trying to keep her arm elevated. She’s a good patient.
We have dinner with Matt and Jo tonight. They will be exhausted - they have been working with their whole crew, plus some extras they’ve hired, since daybreak.
Good night, love, Nat, Dad, Matt, DB