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.

Day 11 (mile 151)

It has got to the point that my only way of knowing which day of the trip it is is these note, how time has very little meaning out here.

I was back in the oar boat for a short river day. As it was such a short day we had a sleep in, it must have been 7am before I got out of my sleeping bag, as one of the guides pointed out to me we had our coffee in the sun. It must be said that out here this did fell like a sleep in.

We walked up a side canyon, well we walked up the first little bit of then it was about a meter wide and 20 meters high. To get over some falls we had to go with all 4 limbs (and often our backs etc) pressed against opposite walls, sort of an outward bound trip, without the safety ropes. I struggled with at couple of points of this but eventually I managed to get up. Tiered but very pleased. The top of this side canyon was a natural amphitheater which was quite spectacular.

Day 10 (mile 136)

Back in the paddle boat, but we had no head wind so a whole lot more fun. A couple of rapids today that could have gone either way, if done well nice fun rides if not then things could have got messy. Service to say they both went without a hitch so no problem.

Stopped at a place called dear creak. This starts with a walk along the top of a truly exceptional slit canyon where you can hear the water below but you can’t actually see it so this requires carful foot work as I have no desire to see how deep this actually is.

The valley at the end of this is actually quite lush, not a word you use a lot around here. It is amazing how a little stream can change things so much only 20 meters wither side of the stream it is back to desert but here it is actually a little overgrown.

We then walked up to the start of the stream, it is strange to see it just spurting from a hole in the canyon wall but that is what it is.

Some camper with too much energy and spear time have moved a whole lot of rocks into chairs in what is known as the throne room. It is surprising that a chair totally made from lumps of sandstone can be quite comfortable. Maybe it is just that I haven’t seen a real chair for so long but I don’t think so.

Day 9 (mile 122)

My second day on an oar boat, it is amazing how relaxing this can be after exertion of yesterday. Today also has less in the way of rapids than yesterday.

Two walks today to see waterfalls up side canyons. Elves chasm in particular was simply stunning and well worth the scramble up some rocks.

At lunch we meet up with some people who had special light weight canoes that they had carried in to the canyon themselves. Now that is really the hard way to do the canyon.

Apparently in the outside world today is 1 October. This is the first day that you are allowed camp fires out here. This adds a whole new appeal to camp life as we sit around and ate dinner by fire light.

Day 8 (mile 110)

The very useful guides on the websites of the rafting companies have all sorts of information about life on the river, one TLA that they don’t explain is ABC – Alive Below Crystal. Crystal rapid is one of those that all the guides out here have the outmost respect for and I can see why. Its not all that technical but it has a lot of water going though a very small area very quickly. Again I was in the paddle boat and we ran though it without major incident but I really think that if something did go wrong it could go very wrong.

The rest of the afternoon had a series of rapids collectively called the ‘gems’ as they are all named after gem stones. A lot of fun as they were all very good rapids (and only one person out of the boat though the day). Unfortunately we were faced with a strong headwind which made the day very very hard going and my arms were burning by day end.

Just before camp we stopped and saw a waterfall in a side canyon, the difference to the landscape by a little flowing water is just starterling.

Day 7 (Mile 96)

Very strange day today, 5 of our people are only doing the upper part of the canyon so they leave us today. It is wired you only know people for a week but the goodbyes are very hard.

Spent the morning around Phantom Ranch, which is the first meeting with ‘civilsation’ in a week. Not sure how to take this, but a nice change of pace. Sent some postcards from the bottom of the canyon which is odd but cool thing to do.

We then waited for our 7 new people who are doing the bottom canyon. They all seam nice enough it is just a wearied transition into what is becoming a tight group. The afternoon had some of the best rapids to date so fun was had by all on the paddle boat.

Day 6 (mile 87)

Another day on the paddle boat after a relatively quite morning we went for a walk over and then down a dry river valley with nothing really growing in it. It was clear that it floods regularly and as if to prove this point I looked up and saw the first clouds of the trip, with the canyon being very deep this brought a bit of pause for thought, the clouds were only very wispy so no chance of any rain, but I made sure I knew how far it was to get out of here.

After lunch there was a serious of very good rapids, not Shotover like but still a hell of a lot of fun.

In the evening a birthday cake for the two people on the trip who were having their birthdays while we are on the river.

Day 5 (Mile 78)

Today is my first day in the grand Canyon. Officially up to the meeting of the Little Colorado we were in the Marble Canyon, who knew. The result of the change in name is the canyon opens up and you often can’t see the rims on either side, both of which are now over a mile above river level.

Today was also the first day where we didn’t move camp which did make things more relaxed in the morning.

Mid morning we hiked up a valley. The first thing we came to was a 19th century attempt at a copper mine, in these conditions it is no surprise it didn’t succeed but the work to even attempt this here must have been truly immense.

Some of us then walked up a bluff, about 500 vertical meters up a sharp, slippery, very hot, very steep hill on a day well into the 30’s this was a whole lot of work. The view from the top was amazing, truly the view that people come from around the world to see, and we didn’t have to put up with the crowds of the south rim to see it.

After the trip down I just fell into the river and had a cold beer, there must be something in the beer here because it has never tasted that good anywhere else.

Day 4 (mile 78)

My first day in a oar boat where one of the crew paddles and all I need to do is sit back and take in the view. Rapids become a much tamer experience as all you do is hold on and try not to fall in, not needing to paddle over flat water has some appeal.

At one point someone asked what the date was, the best I could do was ‘day 4’. Days of the week leed alone days of the month are such ‘outside world’ concepts that don’t have any meaning out here.

At lunch we stopped where the little Colorado river flows into the Colorado. This is much less clear and warm(er) we went up to a spot where you can just go with the flow and float between some rocks.

Latter a few of us took the opportunity to ‘swim’ a rapid. I got a mouth full of water early on so this was quite a hard trip down at the end I was totally tiered and all I could do was lie in the boat and get my breath back. Saying that it was one of those things I am pleased to have done.

We then walked up to the ruins of an ancient native building. No one is quite sure what it was for as it is far bigger than any dwelling site. Seeing the truly amazing outlook I imagined it was some sort of temple, but who knows.

A few miles down river we set up camp for 2 days, had dinner of stake cooked on the Barbie (we do live well out here). Latter our crew had an concert with ukulele, garter and violin. The songs ranged from ‘Fulsome prison blues’ to ‘I danced in a lesbian bar’ much fun was had by all.

Day 3 ( Mile 58)

Another day in the paddle boat. Stopped mid-morning for a short walk up a side canyon where there was a nice stream running down. It is startling to see the vivid greens after the muted reads and browns of the canyon.

Mostly flat water for the rest of the day it was notable how high the walls are becoming, when we started walls of a couple of 100 feet looked spectacular, now the walls are well over 1,000 feet on each side.

We made camp on a bend in the river we walked a short but very step trail (700 feet up in under a mile) passed some of the most pitcher postcard views to date. At the end of the trail there was an 1,000 year old granary caved into the cliff wall. Amazing to see such a amazing structure just inserted into the cliff, felling the effects if climbing this route just one gave a new appreciation of how hard these peoples lives must have been.

Day 2 (38 mile)

Woke for my first morning in the canyon, after a night sky that is impressive even if you can only see a small section of it due to the canyon walls going high over hear. Another day in the paddle boat. A quick detor to walk up a side canyon and see a animal pictograph that marked a way out of the canyon that really would need marking as it looks a really hard route.

The morning included a serious of rapids called the roaring 20’s, none too major but having one after the other made things more interesting.

After lunch we intended to do some hikes into the hills but other people were already in our intended camp sites so we kept going for some time and it ended up being another almost 20 miles on the river day. At night a large vat of margaritas materialized and just when I didn’t think it could get any better it just did……

Day 1 (mile 19)

Got up early in Flagstaff, aware that this would be the last bit of ‘civilization’ I would see for 2 weeks. Meet up with the others doing the trip, all sorts of nervous introductions, people from several US states and even another Kiwi there aren’t that many of us but we do seem to get around. Got on the bus for the three hour trip to the canyon. Most of the trip is though the Navaho reservation it looks a very poor and quite depressing place , that will show them for not taking the small-pox blankets.

At a place called Navaho bridge there are two steal bridges one early and one late 20th century. You can walk over the older one and this gives you your first real glimpse of the canyon and it really does live up to all of the photos, simply stunning.

Then down to Lee’s Ferry for the put in after the expected safety briefings I got onto the paddle boat and got going. (note: on this trip there are two types of boats, the paddle boat with one crew and six guests who all paddle and the oar boat with one crew and up to four guests where only the crew member paddles). Mostly flat water with a couple of very minor rapids before lunch. After lunch paddeled on till the final rapid of the day (house rapid) This is by far the biggest rapid after a period of being hit by water from both sides we hit a standing wall of water side-on and it was quite surprising only one of the people went overboard.

How the west was won (and where it got us)

So here I am back in the 21st century (well Flagstaff Az and that is quite close). The trip down the canyon was completely fantastic, below is a day by day description of the trip, this as I noted down each day. Looking at this it is not quite s I would write this now but I guess that is the advantage of a blog it show what I was thinking each day not the overall view. As this is a major trip the thing is quite long by hay it was 226 miles so that is just what you would expect.

Out of contact

Oh well I have just got back from the pre-trip Orientation and I am 9 hours away from leaving on my river trip which is all good. I will be back in the 21st century on 7 October I think it is (that is of course US time so the following day in NZ) So I will catch up with you all then, have fun and keep yourselves well and I will catch up in October.

The road that drives though American culture

I am sitting at my hotel that is on route 66yes the famous road from Chicago to LA, that is a central story in 20th century American culture. Inspiring art and all sorts of songs (some of which aren’t even terrible). In the town of Flagstaff it looks like just another multi-lane road, but get out of town a bit and you see the amazing straight road disappearing out into the future in both directions, with thousands of trucks moving in both directions, it also has a train track alongside it with truly massive trains going pass it 70 times a day. Many people say that the road has lost it’s appeal now that it is just like other inter-state roads, but it still has a whole lot of unique (and usually tacky) road-side attractions and a fell all of it’s own).

On Sunday I went into town a decided to have a beer (or several) and watch the football. Now this is a very different experience from watching sport back home. Mostly there is just so much of it, for two games in a row there is 5-8 games on at the same time. So all of these games are on different TVs, and there is commentary that moves from one game to another when something is happening, lets just say it is takes some thinking to see all of this stuff happening and try and not miss too much (at one point I realized it was about 9am Monday morning back home, at that point I was pretty happy to be where I was )

Yesterday I went on a trip out into the Arizona desert. The first stop was a Meteor Crater (This being America it is not ‘a’ Meteor crater but simply ‘meteor crater’) This is the best preserved impact creator on the planet it is about 1.2km wide and could fit a 70 story building inside it. It is impressive to be inside something like this with the walls completely intact so you have walls around you for 360 degrees. This is so well setup that Apollo astronauts came here to train before going to the moon and it really does have a other worldly fell to it.

We then went off to the painted desert national park, the park has two different attractions. The first5 is the painted desert area, which is a desert area (imagine that) which has quite amazing stator of different colors. It goes out as far as you can see with all of the land at given highest being the same color, which is quite hard to get your heard around but is quite quite impressive. Further into the park there are large deposits of petrified wood, this is where ancient logs have been filled with silica and turned into wood. Now I have seen petrified wood down in the Catlins, but these are really large logs and they have amazing colors in them which makes this very impressive to see. The park also has some 1,000 or so old Native American buildings it is amazing to think that people lived in this very though environments for generations.

Life on the 40th parallel (well the road that marks this is about 100 meters from the hotel)

I went up to the hills, this one wasn’t any little old front range this was the real Rockies. The majority of the track was in a pine forest, it was dusty as there isn’t any real rain during the summer. At one point there was an old rock slide, I say rock as you couldn’t see any soil or dirt or anything like that, not like it would look back home at all. I walked up to a place called royal arch, where there is a natural arch about 30 foot high, that has amazing views over the Colorado plan which is great to see.

I had a bus trip around Boulder, this is a very different town it is officially the best educated town in the US, with the average of those over 25 having 5 years at University (although how many actual courses passed isn’t recorded) Among people from Boulder are JonBenét Ramsey and Jello Biafra which does say something. Someway said to me that this town’s one way system doesn’t allow right turns, just left and far left (although this is by American standards), so it has some nice appealing features. However, it is a little too self-confident for me they fell they have the good life and anyone else needs to come up to their standard.

Today I flew down to Flagstaff Arizona, this meant taking two planes, total flying time of under two hours, but due to times you have to spend in Airports in took around eight hours. The first flight was from Denver to Phoenix over the expanse of the Arizona dessert, which does just seam to go on forever with very little actual to see. I didn’t spend much time outside in Phoenix but oh my god was hot. The next flight was in a little commuter plane up to Flagstaff. It goes up over the grand canyon, I flew over that a few weeks ago in a 747 at almost 40,000 feet but this was different for a stuff it was only about 5000 feet (above the ground as that is already about 7,500 feet above sea level). Strangely it was actually raining and cold when I arrived in Fllagstaff but there you go.

Boulder rocks (and other bad puns)

Boulder is a town on the edge of a massive plan right next to Rocky Mountains (technically it is beside the Colorado front range, but as this is part of the Rockies who’s counting). So it is kinda like Methven back home, if you add a 30,000 person University to it (which currently has about a 55,000 seat stadium for the university sports team, which is a little bit different to winter tournament….)

I went for a walk into hills, and they are quite spectacular, one thing I noticed was the advisory signs at the start of the track (before you read this mum don’t worry I am sure I will be fine) They tell you what to do if you see a rattle snake, a bear or a mountain lion, as I saw plenty of people walking their dogs or playing with their kids I am sure it is simply the authorities being over careful (all the same it does make you a bit more careful when you hear a sound you don’t recognize)

The nature of this town is there is great food, good bear and amazingly for the US even good coffee (only 19 days in I found a good café, that specializes in cupcakes and espresso, and the nice seats and the white stripes on the stereo and I was in haven). I went for dinner at my hotel and the bar here had really good white-man blues being played, I not a major fan of blues but there is something about being here and hearing it in it’s natural environment that makes it really very cool.

Welcome from the flyover states

OK so I have made it 13 and a half hours of travel without even crossing any boarders, now that is just wrong. Firstly I took the Amtrac back down to Boston, which is the usual efficient nature (OK I still haven’t forgotten the trip from NY). Then I got to the joy that is the Boston integrated public transport system. Coming off the long distance train (at the Boston Garden sports stadium) I just walked a few meters to the subway, where the train turns up in a couple of minutes, after a couple of stops get off walk to the next platform onto a train, a few stations on I get to the station by the airport, where there is a free bus that takes you to the terminal, all just too easy. Now Boston airport is really quite big. The terminal I was in was at least double the size of any airport in NZ, as I had plenty of time I went for a walk and saw the four other terminals all of which were even bigger.

The flight itself was pretty impressive, we went west over the great lakes, and really they look more like oceans from the air, then came down over Chicago it is always impressive to see a major city from the air. I then came down the farm belt, just farms for hours on end, the most notable thing is in areas where the irrigation areas cause these massive circles of green in what are obversly only marginal farm land.

Landed in Denver and this airport is truly massive, I mean there is no way to truly give you an idea of how big this place is, lets say it takes about 20 minutes to walk to the end of the terminal and then you have to catch the airports subway the five minute trip to the baggage claim area. Once I got out of this place I got the shuttle out to Boulder. This is about an half hour trip accrues a major plan, it looks a bit like the Canterbury planes back home, it is like the worst drought every, but I don’t think they think it is anything unusual around here. Randomly put over this truly epic landscape are a large number of new housing estates and condos, some of these look fill some much less so. Anyway the mountains here a pretty amazing, even compared to the good old southern alps. I am still on east coast time so I am up before the sun (how many times do I say that) so I will let you know more about this town when I actually get to see it.

Sea to shining…… well I will get there

Today I went out to South Portland. This includes some very fancy suburban areas. Most notably is the Portland heads lighthouse. Regularly when some ad here wants to show they are including all of America they will start with the golden gate bridge then include a corn field then the Portland lighthouse. (currently both the US Army and marines have exactly this ad for their recruitment at the moment). This area of the coast is very attractive. As this is the most northern (mostly) ice free harbor in the eastern USA it has a whole lot of old military bases, basically they went over 150 years assuming that someone was going to sail in hear (it only happened once and for some reason they have issues with their town being burned down by the royal navy at one point). This however adds to the things to see in around the coast. All in all today was the hottest day on my trip to day well into the mid-30’s and humid as hell, so this was more than a little bit draining. I know the issue of complaining about the heat in Maine when I will be in Arizona in a few days, oh well I will have to cope, I see good old Wellington has a high of 17 today, so you all enjoy that…..

In the morning I have my biggest travel day without going from one country to another, I have to take a train to Boston, then two subway rides, then a plan half way across the country and then a shuttle about 30 km into Boulder, bugger of a day but oh well has to happen.

Maine Sound

I was walking around Portland, I noticed the slightly fake tourist town, with a fishing/ industrial section that doesn’t merge at all well with the tourists. I thought about it for a moment and with a shudder I realized this is all eerily recognizable. It is older and less plastic but this really feels like a Picton of the North East (I say ‘a’ because I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there is more than one). Once I got over the shock of this I though what is the best thing to do in Picton, and of course there is only one answer, get out on the sounds, and so that is what I did. So I went on a trip on a really nice 90-odd year old schooner. The Maine sound is quite spectacular, the hills aren’t as high as Marlborough but it is quite impressive.

Yesterday I went out on a canoe trip around the sound and again it is very pretty, and in plenty of places where you get that amazing felling where the sound of your paddle in the water is the loudest noise around. These island of the sounds have a whole lot of holiday homes, which again makes it fell a whole lot like the sounds back home (It even has that familiar black line at high tide that I always associate with Marlborough). I was talking to the guide about the what it is like to live out here and he was explaining about the winters, he told me that it is quite cold in Winter, averaging about 0 degrees in the middle of winter, I thought yip that cold but hay I have played Hockey in that weather so its not all that bad. Then he said ‘sorry I don’t know what that is in Celsius’ so I realized he was talking about 0 Fahrenheit (I have just checked that on line and that is negative 18 Celsius) and this is the average for several months, that is not weather that is a natural disaster and they have this every year.

Hello from Portland (Maine not Minnesota)

Yesterday I went out to the JFK presidential library and museum, these Kennedy’s are kinda a big deal in Massachusetts. They have some pretty impressive artifacts from his life and remakes of the oval office etc, his comments about his trip to Germany in 1939 were very interesting. Overall a little too apotheosis for my taste but it does show what they think of the guy even this number of years latter. I realized this family is a metaphor for this part of the country a mixture of old money mad desire for power and liberal (at least by American standards) all and all I am with Shona Lang on this one

This morning I court the train up the coast to Portland Maine, this is about a two hour trip though some quite spectacular countryside. There is a whole lot of bush around here (maples etc) that are just starting to change colors so this is great to see. Portland itself is an old coastal settlement, my initial look around town it looks a little too much of a tourist trap for me but it is in a pretty impressive part of the country.

What the???!!!!????

With all the issues they have had with Governors it is good to see they are prepared for anything......

Only in America

I have had my first real ‘only in America’ moment. I was going though a mall, as it was the best way to get from one place to another. There right next to the food court (where they are destroying great foods from all over the world) I saw it, there was a chapel of St Frances. There we have it they have been able to mix the two places that Americans hold dear, the male and the church. Brilliant

I looked around old Boston it is an amazing rich and very cool part of town with cobbled streets and the whole bit. All of the houses are red brick and obviously the overall designs haven’t changed in well over a century. Add in actual gas lamps and it fells like going back in time, much better than actually going back in time would.

Yesterday I went to the Boston Museum of science (thanks for the tip Judi) this is one of those places which has some really clever ways of showing some really difficult scientific concept (Judi yip the Riemann function thing is cool, but I have to admit I though the Gaussian probability thing was better, but that might just be me). Then I went to a baseball game at Fenway park, it wasn’t much of a contest 8-0 by the end of the 4th inning. The atmosphere was good, with the game being a sell-out like they are all here (and they have over 80 home games a year) the crowd went home happy (well you would with the home team winning 10-0) and I can add another sport to the games I have seen at the highest level…..

Cradle of the American revaluation

I went on a bus trip around Boston today, firstly we went over to Harvard and walked around that famous university. It must be said it looks a little different from good old VUW, but at over $50k per year you would hope for a nice campus. This city has over 40 universities, ranging from the world famous like Harvard and MIT to Dunkin Donut U (I am not making that up) so you do look different at the socially awkward people walking the streets.

We then went out to Lexicon and Concord (although they really pronounce that so that it wasn’t until I saw a sign I didn’t know which town we were going to). This is where the first couple of battles of the American revolution happened, where some enemy combatants (sorry patriot minutemen) took on the army of the world super-power. While this day they didn’t win this lead to the super-power leaving a few years latter. This created the freedoms that Americans take for granted (I am not sure what problem they have with the current English democracy but they are completely certain that their life is better because of the revolution).. Anyway this is a very nice part of the county and it was good chance to go out and see the nature of this part of the world.

I also had a boat trip around the Boston harbor, it is interesting that with it’s round harbor and the city that is largely reclaimed land at the relatively low intensity it is a lot more like Wellington so yip that is a good thing

Hello from Boston (not the terrible 80’s band)

Today I moved up from New York to Boston. Unluckily my train was well over 2 hours late leaving NY, talking to one of the people at the station and she said that I was one of the few people who didn’t get upset about this, well I have had training by New Zealand rail…..

The trip itself is a little over 4 hours, though some changing country side. There are a number of industrial towns that have clearly fallen on tough times. Then there are number of clearly very well off towns, the sort of places that just look like sets from the Gilmore girls, then there are a whole lot of river mouths with large numbers of boats moored in them. A lot of these river mouths have a large coverage of reads making a wetland area, just like you see in Dawson’s Creak (OMG I am using some bad TV explanations, but I can only blame the countryside)

I got to Boston or more correctly Cambridge as I am staying on the side of the Charles. I had a quick walk around and it such a different felling from the last week, I will let you know what it is actually like once I have got my head around the city

Like a masochist from Newport

Oh well after 8 days in NY tomorrow morning I am like a masochist from Newport (New England bound (© Family guy)) So I guess it is time to think about how things have been here in New York. Firstly have I done as much as you can really do in one week in this town, my favourate song about this town is ‘New York City’ by They Might be Giants. This includes a verse showing the best things as they see it about NYC:

“Statue of Liberty, Staten Island Ferry, Co-op City, Katz's and Tiffany's*
Central Park, Brooklyn Bridge, The Empire State where Dylan lived**
Coney Island and Times Square, Rockefeller Center
Wish I was there”

By my count I have 9 from 12, which isn’t bad for one week. So I have done pretty much as I could without being silly for the week. So what do I now think of NYC, this is a real city of contrasts between the haves and have not’s, it is exciting and frustrating, it is exhilarating and exasperating, and many other couplets. Overall I think the most obvious thing is also the most important, I am very pleased I get to come to this city, but I am even more pleased I don’t have to live here

New York days

Yesterday I went out to the US Open tennis in Queen’s. There is an odd felling seeing so many off the best players in the world in any sport (well it could be said that missing the Wellington/ Canterbury game I missed as many of the best people in their sport but this was a new and different sport) anyway I had tickets to see the number 4 & 5 in the women’s game (Elena Dementieva & Jelena Jankovic) against much lower ranked players. Both games went to 3 sets (at about 3 hours each) and the seed lost. Then there was also another very good Men’s game, so there was 3 great games which was defiantly a good day at the tennis.

Today I went out to Connie Island which is out in Brooklyn (and no not on an Island). It is the semi-ledigenary New York beach resort. It has a relatively wide long beach and it seams to have a large retiree population. So basically it is the New York version of Foxton Beach (this would mean that Levin would have a population of 11 Million which is so scary I will stop this metaphor right now). The best and most famous thing at Connie Island is the Cyclone roller-coaster, which is an 80 odd year old wooden coaster, this is often rated in the top 10 coasters by people who rate such thing, It was real bone-retelling and very cool, there are a couple of points where it really fells like there is no way you can be OK but of course for the few millionth time it dies all end well.

Five boroughs of fun

Today I managed to triple the number of boroughs in New York city I have been to (from 1 to 3). Firstly I walked down town and found Washington Square park, and totally against what I have been told my whole life I have to report there wasn’t any improvised singer/ songwriters there (sorry to report mum). I then saw a coffee shop that actually had an espresso machine. I thought that this place has been famous for coffee shops for better part of half a contrary so this should be good. What was I thinking it really seams that no American can make a decent cup of coffee (my theory is the beans where over roistered) I did see a cart today promising ‘the best coffee in town’ which is one of the least impressive boasts I have ever seen in this town.

I then walked over the Brooklyn bridge, this has to be one of the great symphonies of art and engineering in the world. It is quite simply the most stunning built structures I have ever seen. It did lead me an interesting question of all of the truly great buildings I have seen here in NY all of them were built between 1870 and 1940. So why is it that with all of the money and drive in this town has there not been anything great done in the last 70 years, other city around the world still seam able to do it but not this one. I don’t have the answers but I think this is a important question.

Brooklyn has a very different fell to Manhattan. Put simply it seams to be built around the car rather than mixed used, you come in and you have a whole series of 8 lane roads making it hard to get around.

They say (well someone ones said to me so ‘they’ must say) that “there are only two free things in New York, firstly the air you breath and secondly the Staten Island ferry.” (I hope they don’t say this to Donald Trump as I am sure he will try and change both of these things). The ferry is about a 20-30 minute ride south from the bottom of Manhattan out into the bay. It is one of the best rides you will ever see with the statue going past the skyline, but the locals really do seam not to notice. As for Staten Island itself, my lonely planet describes it as “A suburban appendage with an inferiority complex” it is sort of Hamilton on the Hudson (OK so it is not actually on the Hudson but don’t let facts get in the way of my metaphor) Basically it is close to the city with amazing views but really doesn’t look like a rich area, I am still not sure I get this city. Anyway it was a nice change to get out of the hectic hart of the city into something like a human sized area. Off to Queens tomorrow (to watch the tennis) so that will make it 4 from 5 boroughs which I am sure is much more than most people do in this town.

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free

Today I went out to liberty and Elise islands. This is truly one of those must do before you die trips. The Americans really do not have any sense of irony here and that is really easy to come over to that way of thinking (although I did could heat the Simpsons going in my brain whenever they mention that famous verse, which was often). Anyway the view of lower Manhattan is truly exceptional and it was such a lovely day it would have been worth it just for the trip on the harbor. But there is such a lot more than that, it is one of those places you go that you know it is actually impossible to take a photo that no one has taken before, but even so you do feel the need to take lots and lots of photos (while I’m on this why do people need to take photos of themselves in front of the great views of the world come on people we know you where hear this is simply the photo equivalent of the ‘ I waz here’ scribbling on the wall)

I got to go up the statue which is a pinch yourselves type moment there are moments when you have seen something literally a million times and then you found yourself there, I must say in this case yes it does actually live up to the hype. The symbolism of the place might not be totally lived up to by America (or France for that matter) but at least it set such a high ideal which is better than not having them. Americans tend to think that they contain the biggest and the best of everything. They call this the most powerful symbol in the world, my first though was ‘come on’ then I thought this though and really not sure I can disagree.

You then take a boat over to Elise island, which is where most American immigrants arrived during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The most sticking thing here is the overriding belief in the American dream, that coming to America made life better for all from the problems from the old world. There was an acknowledgment of the trials of new immigrants including economic issues and the problems from people like the KKK. Even given this you really get the felling that these people were coming to a better life at least for their children. I have seen similar presentations in New Zealand and even Australia but the national confidence here is truly something to behold.

New York, from the ground and the air.

On Sunday I took the subway up to northern Manhattan, for those of you who know you NY geography you will know that is another name for the suburb of Harlem. Interesting this is not as bad a area as you might think, actually there is quite a nice community fell to it, people actually live on the street here which is all very nice, saying that I am not sure I would like to be there after dark, but that might just be me taking the media too seriously. I then went over to a place called Wards island which has a park with great views over Manhattan, it was a lovely Sunday afternoon so I have no idea why the place was almost empty but I wasn’t complaining, although the people I saw fishing in the East river were a little braver than I am. Anyway this was where one of the major American 7s rugby tournaments was being played. So this added two more firsts to my experiences, the first rugby tournament in North America and the first 7s tournament I have been to where they are not serving beer. What are they doing to our great game??? Anyway it was quite interesting to watch and I managed to stop myself correcting every tactical decision they were making, even if I should have……

On Monday I went over to a thing called the ‘high line’. This is an old raised railway though western New York that has been turned into a ‘green area’ they have planted some wild flowers, grasses etc. You realize quite how differently they relate to nature being in such a big city. Anyway it is a pleasant walk and actually quite a good way to get around. I then walked down to the Greenwich village, this is a little area that really doesn’t fell like NY, small winding tree lined streets with some even cobbled stoned. Most of the shops you see are really expensive restaurants, but I saw one book shop. It happened to have an sign for the paper back of one of the Sex and the City books, it really felt like in this exact spot this was gritty realism rather than the exploitive chick lit it would be a few blocks away, but this might just be me. The whole place screams money, it is the place where young upwardly mobile people with money have lived for century’s, today this means it is the only place I’ve been here where the US flag is less common than the rainbow flag. I then walked down though the abbreviation suburbs (SoHo tribeca etc) all of which have slightly different feelings even though only a real New Yorker could ever really tell you where they begin or end.

In the evening I went up to the Rockefeller centre and up to the observation deck. I got up there around 5:00pm and the views around New York are spectacular you can see for miles in all directions, all I can say is wow. Then the sun set and things got even better and then wow really isn’t enogth, this city at night is truly one of the sights you have to see. We have all seen the photos but it is simply impossible to explain what it fells like to see it for yourselves. Therefore I won’t try to explain it. I came back home via the madness that is Times Square which is just well mad I can really see why the New Yorkers all stair clear of this area and are totally dismissive of anyone who goes up there.

The future is unwritten…..?????

This morning I went to the NYC fan club of Liverpool FC, which strangely enough is a bar, and they had this mornings game on. Being a minor game here there was only about 400-500 people there in a bar the size of a small front room, so it was quite close. The mode change during the games were fun to watch. As the bar was on the lower east side I wondered around there after the game. This is the part of the city that poor immigrants have gone for hundreds of years (for those who have seen the truly bad ‘gangs of New York’ you will have some idea of how long.) These days this means East Asia, there are whole street where there are no English on any signs I could see. There seams to be a whole lot of churches and fortune tellers, which is an interesting comment about poor people taken out of their country. I walked from there to the financial district which is only about ½ an hour. On Wall street there is a very nice church and Morgan Stanley seams to be doing very well. An interesting comment about the masters of the universe…..

I then went off to an American football game, this is a pre-season game between the two NY team so there was about 60,000 people there this didn’t quite full up the stadium. This stadium is being pulled down at the end of this year to be replaced by a $US1.4 Billion stadium right next door, which is smaller but has more corporate facilities so should make more money (It is covered in corgiate iron and they have just put a train station right next to it, wow what an idea if only someone else had thought of this.) The game was actually quite interesting, this guys are amazing big and strong and can run very fast. The most bizarre thing was at half time there was a group of US shoulders just back from Iraq. Lets just say the whole ‘support the trops’ thing is VERY big here even in the liberal blue states up here in the north east. It was very noticeable that most of the crowd left at ¾ time, to try and avoider the traffic on there way home. By the end there wasn’t many more than a Hurricanes warm up game in Masterton, but even as New Jusry seams to be bad industrial areas and a swamp it isn’t that bad………. (sorry John 1)

Don’t give me Kul-cha…up front with the knobs

Got up this morning and it was raining in New York, not cold sort of mid to late 20s. So quite muggy. I thought ‘you know I hear NY has some quite good indoor things to do’. So I walked down time square and then up to central park (I know this is an odd thing to do to keep out of the rain but there you go). So I then whet up to the Guggenheim, but there was a madly long number of people waiting to get in so I gave that up for next week. So I walked around for a while (yes it was still raining) and I ended up by the East river (that’s the one that doesn’t have planes falling in to it all the time). I then saw the UN building so I went in for the tour.

Very interesting tour it was odd to see the general assembly room, thinking of all the history that has happened in that room, UN trivia questions 1: name the two ‘associate members’ of the UN who get to sit at the back and not vote. We then walked though displays on some of the major Un programs like the peace-keeping deployments, UNECF etc. UN question 2 name the last 4 colonial powers according to the UN?

Answer 1: Palestine and the Holey Sea (yes they sit them beside each other they must have so much to talk about)
Answer 2: France, US, USA & NZ

Tomorrow is a big sports day with breakfast watching a game with the NYC Liverpool FC fan club and an evening with two NY NFL clubs out in New Jersey

Jet lagged in the City that doesn’t sleep….. (well not actually but I am sure I will get a good night sleep tonight let’s put it that way)

So yes I have made it to NY, NY. It did take a while, for those of you playing at home it was 33 hours 2 minutes and 22.65 seconds door to door.

Amazingly I did manage to be OK for 3:50 leaving home on Thursday, but as it is still Thursday for me I don’t know how do tenses for this. This is the first day I have every had with two sunrises that I saw and two sunsets that I saw, I have been on the ground in 4 time zones so it is a bit of a strange thing for me.

The flight from Wellington was OK, a bit bumpy going out. When the turn left came you could pick well which people are used to flying out of Wellington.

Sydney Airport is as dull as ever, and as I didn’t bother going through customs and didn’t have any Aussie Cash I just sat an enjoyed the sun.

Then the 14 hour flight till they re-fueled in LAX. I am so glade I got the emergency exit row, made this a whole lot more bearable. So more or less just sit around watching movies with a bit of sleep, but I don’t think I got more than an hour in one go.

The flight lands to refuel at LAX, I didn’t see LA at all, amazing smog even Americans committed on how bad it was. Then a truly amazing experience to make thing sensible we went though customs and homeland security at LAX. The first step which I have never done in less than about 3 hours before I had completed in all of 10 minutes, not sure how they have changed things but all good. I then had a customs guy want to go though my bag, but I realized he had seen my hurricanes shirt and wanted to talk rugby (no I am not making that up).

Then back on the same plane for the flight to NY, I am so happy to be doing this legg in a 747-400 rather than in some 737 or similar, Not only are the conditions better, they actually give you food, but even better these things go higher and faster. We noticed when we were going over Arizona and about 10,000 feet below us we saw An American airways 737 (soory I have spent a lot of today looking at planes so I am noticing these things) and we simply flew streght pasted them, this leg is over 2 hours shorter then the last time I did coast to coast.

I then got a shuttle into town, the women sitting next to me and noticed my hurricanes shirt (again not making this up) she tells me that she is in town to play in the US all stars rugby 7s comp this weekend, so yes while you lot are watching the shield match I may well be watching rugby in Manhattan.

Anyway I fell the need for non-airline food so must go.