New Zealand in Springtime

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Ahhhh, the joy of Spring - where you can experience all four seasons in about an hour. It can truly be sunny as you are walking out and within the next hour - rain. Could be light, could be diced with hail. This usually comes just about the time you get halfway up or halfway into whatever you have chosen to do that day. However, you can always count on the Spring Wind to come and dry you off in a hurry. Yes, the Spring Wind, which we have been told will last until approximately Christmas, blows at a steady 20 to 35 knots (that's 40 - 50 mph to out non-knot knowing friends) and can sometimes gusts up to 120 kilometers per hour (that's about 75 mph to our non-metric friends), although that is in the north part of the North Island. I have heard the news reports warning folks in the South Island to stay indoors and some schools have been cancled. And then, of course, the sun always comes back out to warm you up. It's all good.

Because of this abhorrent weather, we have not had our usual outdoor hiking/biking weekends. However, we have not been without adventure and spectacle. We traveled to Auckland to see the sights of the big city and escape indoors from the weather. After a 2 1/2 hour bumper to bumper traffic jam (imagine everyone in Little Rock getting off at the same time and trying to leave the city via Cantrell Road), we made it to our hotel with only one person yelling, "LEARN TO DRIVE"! Once there, we only had to change rooms three times to get a room with connecting doors (the lady at the desk swore to me there was a door drawn on her map) before heading out to find what we had been told was real, honest to goodness Mexican food. Our mouths were just watering for cheese dip and spicy salsa! After a short run in the rain, we found , closed for the night except for the bar. Hopes and spirits dashed, we turned and ran to the nearest open restaurant with a name we could pronounce and Grace found acceptable - a steakhouse. As we entered, we were greeted with a friendly "Howdy!". I immediately ask, "Well, where are YOU from?", and the guy says, "Here, mate. I just like the word 'Howdy'!"

The next day (after loosing my car keys and finding them in the FIRST room we had been given) we set out for Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter and Underwater World. This is an aquarium housed in an old sewage holding tank, housing tanks of all sorts of tropical fish that are fun to see close up, like Puffer Fish, Lion Fish, Octopus, Piranha and Eel. They have also created a tunnel made of glass that you pass through on a conveyor belt and see huge rays, fish and shark swimming about. One of the ray is over six feet across and weights almost 450 lbs! That is a pretty awesome sight when it glides just above your head. At one point, a diver goes in and hand feeds the shark (about half a dozen Wobbegong, Bronze Whaler, Sevengill and Schoolshark - pretty impressive). The type of shark in the tank changes frequently, as the migration paths and water temperature changes at different times of the year. The shark are caught in the Auckland area and brought to the tank where they are "taught" by the divers to maneuver around the turns of the tank without crashing into the glass. They have never had walls before! After the shark have been in captivity for a length of time, they are released in the ocean in the very same area as they were caught. Just a few shark facts here for those of you (Mother) who worry about us being eaten by sharks: In 150 years of New Zealand history, there have only been 2.6 attacks per decade, one fatality from the attacks every 13 years, and you have a better chance of being killed by an elephant, bee or crocodile than eaten by a shark. Also, humans kill about 100 million sharks per year. No wonder they want to bite us!

The Antarctic Encounter takes you by Snow Cat through a colony of King penguins. The largest, Fat Boy, weighs in at a whopping 22kgs (that's almost 50 lbs. to you and me). You get to observe the nesting habits (they build their nests out of rocks and the male presents the female with a "gift" of a beautiful rock to start the mating season) and, by golly, it WAS mating season! The highlight of this tour is the gigantic fake killer whale that surges up out of the floor to catch the little flightless birds! After that scary ride, you can take a walk through Scott's ship and hut that he and his crew lived in during his 1911 trip to Antarctica. They provide short film clips from that voyage (the movie camera was invented just before he left England) and more information about Shackleton's adventures than you want to know (well, not more than Mark wants to know - so we sat and watched another film and learned about frostbite). Just before we left, having just watched the film and learned more than we wanted to know about frostbite, Ben found an interactive display that lets you test you will (intelligence) against that of freezing antarctic water. Basically, it was a bucket of freezing water and a big clock. The sign above it says to see if you can keep you hand in the water for a full minute. I think it says you are a weenie if you take it out at 30 secs. So Ben, being the competitive sort, dunks his hand in and starts the clock. After 1 minute, a group of boys forms around him, watching in awe as he tests his will (intelligence). At 2 minutes, Ben starts to grimace and I walk away, muttering something about him being an idiot. After what seems like a very long time, as I am standing and reading a display about frostbite, complete with horrible pictures of split flesh, that tells me that human skin starts to freeze and become damaged after one minute in freezing water, Ben appears with a blue/grey/red/white hand and jubilantly tells me that he was able to last a fulll 3 minutes! His hand is numb and his fingers are dead looking. He can't feel a thing. How proud I am to have such a strong willed (intelligent) boy!

We decided to leave Auckland earlier to try to avoid the same traffic jam, and set off on backroads with me at the wheel and Mark navigating. We only got lost three times before we were speeding 100 kmph towards Tauranga on a traficless road. The only thing to worry about now is the Cow Crossing signs we meet every few miles. Don't want to hit one of those babies at 100 kmph! (That actually sounds a lot faster than it is. 100 kmph is only about 62 mph, but on these roads, with my wheel on the left, I swear it feels every bit like 100 mph!) It was a beautiful drive back through farmland and the upper Kaimai mountain range. The rain did not really start to come down until dusk and by that time I was almost home (radio off, mouths closed, hands clenched on the door handles, lots of praying going on...). I do love this Spring weather.

Speaking of driving...I have now gotten so numb to the constant yelling and gesturing of my fellow kiwi drivers, that I now am somehow scrambling their words in my brain to become shouts of camaraderie. For instance, as we were leaving McDonalds the other day, I clearly heard someone yell, "Hey, lady! You forgot your fries!". What a nice gesture, I think to myself - someone is concerned about my fries! Ben, however, having not developed this ability to scramble words yet, insisted I was wrong. He thinks they were really yelling something totally silly like, "Hey, lady! LEARN TO DRIVE!" Why, I just can't imagine....

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Comments

[Jennifer Eubank]

Good adventure to the Robbins family!
Heard from Karen H at HS Radiology that you would be doing a blog this year. I have read it from cover to cover and am enjoying it immensely! Please keep us - the folks in Hot Springs who care for you - informed of your travels and adventures. We are rooting for you and envy you your courage to take this journey. Sincerely, Jennifer Eubank from St. Joseph's.