Home at last

Well that trip home was really unpleasant, but its over now. Mark Twain once said ‘the longest winter of my life, was the summer I spent in San Francisco…’ and I can tell him the autumn is no picnic either. I wasn’t being picked up from my hotel until 4 so I went out to have my last walk around in the US, but there was a storm (which I here was the tail end of a cyclone). This may have been the first rain I saw since my first day in New York but it really did make doing anything seem like a bad idea. I though thou where I could stay warm and dry for several hours, and I realized most pubs fit that bill, so my last few hours of the trip where in a Irish pub just up from Fisherman wharf.

I then went back and waited from my shuttle, now with the conditions everyone was running late. This meant that I was a little late for the final check in time. Lucky (and very un-American) this didn’t cause any problems. Un luckily the plane was also delayed, by a little over 3 hours as it turned out. We were sitting on the plain wondering if this meant we were too late to make the plane out of LAX, with great timing we landed after boarding had commenced but before the plane was due to takeoff, so this meant I spent a total of 8 minutes at LAX, most of this was running from one gate to the next (The best LAX experience ever). After the fun little 12 hour trip arriving in Auckland we found out that our bags weren’t as quick as us and were still in LA, bugger. This meant a whole lot of form filling etc to make sure we got our bags (they were only 26 hours late getting home) which pushed me a bit close in getting to my next flight, the time the plane started boarding I was still with customs. After a quick trip across the Auckland airport (Oh how I do like the efficiency of the NZ aviation security) I made it with seconds to spear. Now I am not sure it was some new form of clam I picked up on the river or simply I was to tiered to do anything else but all this didn’t seem all that bad in the seam of things but I was really glad to be home and have decent coffee (the flight that had great views of the sounds and the snow on the Kaikouras also managed to welcome me home.)

Day 49 and all is well

Well my last full day of the trip is here, I am quite looking forward to being home but the holiday has been so cool I will miss it. I had a tour today, the first part was a bus trip out (over the Golden gate again) to a place called Muir woods, this has an original forest of California Redwoods, which is quite spectacular (especially compared to the desert of the previous few weeks) not as large around as I imagined but certainly very very tall. After this I came back into the city for a harbor cruise, under the bridge and around Alcatraz, this city really does work well when seen from a boat.

I went the short distance back to my hotel via the section of Lombard Street where it is so steep they have made it into a zig-zag. I looked at it and yes this is actually quite steep, but hay I have seen worse (well not as steep as Wellington that isn’t saying much) and one day I could see this becoming a solution back home. The area I am staying in is called the Marina district, and bit of re-clamed land jutting out in an earthquake zone, with streets that were designed without any though to the rather step hills they then cross (oh it is just like home). The area has lots of Victorian town houses and looks very well off, kinda like some sort of uba-Thordon (I realized this was a little odd when I went looking for something to eat and the first bakery I found was for dogs, because there is no way Fido should have biscuits that are not freshly made….). I hear this area got quite severally damaged in the 1989 earthquake and I can really see why, but saying that I can see it would be a pleasant place to live otherwise.

…To shinning sea

I have made it to the ‘left coast’ after a day of doing very little (and trying to cope with this indoor thing) in flagstaff and flew to San Francisco, via Phoenix Sky-Harbor airport (which is one of the silliest names for an airport I have ever heard, but it has great free wi-fi so I will forgive it). You know you are traveling in the states where the equivalent of flying from Nelson to Auckland takes all day and when in the Phoenix to SFO flight I saw military jets (F-16 & F-21) at both take off and landing.

I walked down to the waterfront and over to the Golden Gate bridge, and yip it just as spectacular as all those pictures (I also quite liked seeing the Pacific again). The walk over the bridge is quite long and a little disconcerting when you fell it move when a bus or something drives over it. I noticed one of the differences between the coasts of the US. When I walked the Brooklyn bridge there were fences and barbed wire to make sure that people did jump from it. Out here none of that, just a normal 4 foot high fence that anyone could get over no problems, what they do have is phones up and down the bridge that will put you though to someone to tell you it is all right, on bridge cancelling how San-Fran.

By all accounts this week is the end of fleet week (Cue whichever sit-com joke about San-Fan and additional sea-men you want here). This is where the Navy based here puts on displays to connect with the people (and try and recruit them). The result of this was while I was on the bridge and walking back they put on an air display for me (and several thousand other people who were there), to see these modern jets doing tricks this low was quite amazing (there were no-go areas on the water, as the jets were so low a big mast could have been hit).

I found a way to stop me noticing a women in a low-cut top real quick, noticing her boy-friend in the Hells-Angels California jacket…….

Day 15 (Flagstaff)

Got up early and we polished off the last 9 miles of the trip to the road end at diamond creak. Knowing that today it wouldn’t simply be drying our gear on a rock keeping dry actually became quite a priority. We got there around 11am and saw car and other odd things that reinforced that we were back in the ‘real world’. With all of the trips they do the river companies have all the logistics down to a fine art and this was brought home when all the rafts and all the gear were broken down and loaded onto the back of one truck. The local native Americans who own this land are quite a reserved people and therefore we were told that if we needed to pee in the river we should go out of site behind some bushes first. You really know the river is a different world when this is defiantly something that requires saying.

The road out of the canyon is very bumpy, much of it is actually up a river bed so is must get ripped up whenever there is any water in this river. The owners of this land charge $50 per person to come up here, oh well this must be one of the few ways of making any money with there very difficult land. Looking at their town it is clear that this isn’t making them rich at all.

We drive back to town and although we are all tiered there is a number of conversations going on, the in-jokes that have developed out here are clearly quite remarkable in such a short time. Thinking back to being in the same bus two weeks (or a lifetime ) ago when we were put in the atmosphere is just so different, and so much better.

We stop at what has to be the most tacky tourist town I have even seen (and I have been to Rotorua), where the whole town goes over the top celebrating route 66. Every building has paintings and collections of artifacts of some mythical 1950’s of the soul.

Got back to Flagstaff and court up with the world, it is interesting that while things have happened (missing children, earthquakes, tsunamis etc) that are clearly significant you can really be out of the modern world for 2 weeks and it really only takes a few minutes to catch up as if you never left, it does remind you that you can spend a whole lot of time with the trivia that is called news because there is nothing else on but at the end of the day very little of it actually matters.

Spent way to long in the shower getting much of the sand off (I am sure there is much more to come) before I went off to the group dinner. It was great to spend one last evening with these people, even if it was a little odd realizing we would never be all together like this again. It was also interesting to see closer how people look cleaned up (I got told I looked, taller, thinner and younger so I guess it might have had some effect on me). There were some of those moments where the things of real life just become issues, like working out how much we all had to pay, oh how easy is life when you don’t have such issues.

There is talk that spent this amount of time in the canyon can change a person. I guess the only way to know that is after a bit of time but short term it does kinda fell like it has. Not certain how but it does just fell a little bit different I don’t feel like I would let thing get to me, but that might just be that I am really relaxed.

Day 14 (Mile 219)

Another full day on the river with about 30 miles to do. Felling much better I was back in the paddle boat. Last night we heard a story about the legendary 205 rapid (moral do not upset the guides they will get you back), amazingly we got though this without any real problems. We even had a tail wind so we jury-rigged a sail and tried to use it to move down stream. Unfortunately the wind was as up and down as the New Zealand dollar so this wasn’t all that useful, but worth a go.

Even after two weeks it is still the case you can come around a corner and simply go wow, the amazing views of the canyon simply cannot be show by a photo.

Arrived at our last camp for the trip, it is interesting that now a small sandy hill with a few plants on it looks so completely like a camp now days I am not sure how I will cope with beds, walls and all those other things in the outside world.

After dinner we all polished off whatever drinks etc were left (no point in taking them back) and had a fun time working thou the problems of life the universe and everything.

Day 13 (Mile 188)

After last night I woke up felling better but still with little energy. I therefore went into an oar boat, I felt slightly guilty about this knowing what today would be but I wouldn’t have been any good in the paddle boat.

Today included one of only two rapids that we got out to scout, which gives you some idea how much the guides respect it. This rapid is called Lava Falls an even my un-trained eye saw a couple of places we didn’t want to be. With their usual skill we were stared away from the bad places and we got though with no problems.

We pilled in the miles today to make sure we make our pull out time in a couple of days so all of the day was spent looking at the canyon and as we are now in a part of the canyon that was a lava flow many years ago it is another totally different set of views that stops this trip from ever being boring. At this point it is inevitable that thoughts are moving to the end and the comforts of the 21st century that we will have available in just a few days. But it is a reflection of this place that I knew now I will almost inevitably miss this place.

Day 12 (mile 158)

This morning I was again in an oar boat, thou this didn’t work out as the rest I thought it would. We were hit by amazing head winds and the paddle boat was barley moving. So we tied it to oar boat and we all paddled. This wasn’t quick moving but we did manage to move forward.

We then got to a place called Havasu Creek, which is an amazing aqua-marine colour caused by calcium in the water because it flows thou so much limestone.

We went on a walk up to some waterfalls at a place called Beaver falls. This is a 3.5 mile walk (each way) up relevantly flat mostly sandy path, with some very pretty views of the stream. None of this was too bad, except that as we only had limited time we had to do it very quickly (the words death march were banded about several times) At this point of the trip I wasn’t really up to this, and as it wasn’t all that hot I forgot about my water intake. Amazingly we made it and it was very pretty.

When we got to camp I wasn’t felling well and at dinner ( which have been universally excellent) I couldn’t keep anything down. I went to bed early (even by the standards of this trip) drank a whole lot of water and felt much better.