Quo Vadimus

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! While I did not celebrate it here, I was able to watch Texas defeat Texas A&M, courtesy of the cable TV in the gym!! Hook 'em, Horns! Surprisingly, I only have a week remaining in my travels. What have I been up to? My second weekend, we went to the equator, know as Mitad del Mundo, or middle of the world. There's a sizeable monument erected by the French to mark the equator, but the French got it wrong. The actual equator as indicated by GPS is about 200 metres north of the monument. Once again, I was reminded of high school chemistry class . . . one of the demonstrations performed relates to the Corealis effect. The museum at the real equator has a portable sink to show ... read more

(I've added photos to the previous entry, which is probably more interesting that the photos here, so check those out first!) We set off on our four day tramp with the sun shining and a clear blue sky. After six hours of walking, half of it around a lake and half of it uphill, we arrived at Luxmoor Hut. I'm slow as Christmas going uphill, especially with 20 pounds or so on my back, so I was relieved to have reached our peak (1,085 metres) for the day. It's always a terrific feeling to see snow-capped mountains at eye level. The total distance of the trek is 60km (40 miles), spaced over four days for a total of at least 20 hours of walking. I felt a little ambitious for doing this trek, but then we ... read more

Back in Auckland now! I made the 3 day journey from Sydney to Perth two weekends ago on the Indian Pacific train. It was quite remarkable to see the various landscapes across the southern portion of Australia. We stopped in Broken Hill (ghost town - previously busy mining town), Adelaide (charming city - great parks and botanical gardens - I went for a run and skirted around a number of lovely outdoor weddings, one of which had the bride and groom leaving on motorcycles!), and Kalgoorlie (once famous for the Australian gold rush). We passed through the Nullarbor Plain, which was quaint, but perhaps similar to driving through Kansas over and over again. Upon my arrival in Perth, I stayed at Cottesloe Beach for two nights and had a great view of the Indian Ocean! Unfortunately, ... read more

Greetings from Sydney!! I have been traveling for a week now, spending the first half in Auckland, New Zealand and the latter half in Sydney. Both are beautiful port cities that also do a spectacular job of maintaining green space within the cities. I visited the Auckland Museum, which houses a great Maori exhibit and has performances of Maori dances. It's interesting to see how another country handles a minority community displaced by colonization. Most Maori children attend regular public schools, but a quarter of them remain in traditional Maori schools and begin to learn English at a later age (12 or 13). I also noticed the New Zealand government has an allotted number of parliamentary seats for Maori representation. NZ has a number of special rights for the indigenous culture (see below). In reading the ... read more

Taking everyone's advice, I went out to Seattle since that's supposedly where I'm meant to be. I did my standard morning runs to explore the area and tried the food (I had my first crumpet!) and the beer . . . all of which exceeded my expectations. Seattle was unusually sunny (note glare in the pictures), but that doesn't make it warm. For a girl who's lived in the South all of my life, it's odd to want a sweatshirt in August. I hit up one of Tom Douglas' restaurants (the one at 5th and Lenora), Wild Ginger, Zoe's, Pike Place Market, and Top Pot doughnuts . . . the Experience Music Project, the Art Walk, Volunteer Park, the Arboreteum, the Boeing assembly line for 747s, and the majestic Mt. Rainier. While Seattle is certainly walkable, ... read more