Goldbach, Home Away From Home

Although sad to leave the summer of the southern hemisphere and the wonderful countries of Australia and New Zealand, we were definitely excited to be heading back in Europe. What we were not looking forward to was the travel we had to endure to get back. We learned quickly that you get what you pay for when using miles to book an across the world flight.

Our first leg was the 11 hour flight from Auckland to Bangkok. We arrived in the middle of the night, tired and groggy. Our layover was 9 hours, so we didn’t have a gate to go to. Instead we had to try to get rest on a set of metal seats, something very uncomfortable for any extended period of time, let alone trying to lay across them. Plus there were constantly people arriving and passing through the terminal. The airport was pretty; there were walls of orchids and this lovely faux temple.

Next was the 4 hour flight to New Delhi. We got through customs much more easily this time around, which was really nice since we could browse the shops, eat at restaurants, and lay down on these wonderfully designed lounge chairs. We probably got the most rest on those chairs during our 17 hour layover. Delhi was not to be outdone by Bangkok and there was this enormous statue sitting in the middle of the terminal.

Finally we boarded our flight for the final leg, which was an 8 hour flight directly to Frankfurt, giving us a grand total of 49 hours. The trip was almost without incidence except that we discovered an entire pocket from Megan’s backpack was empty and we were short 1 Razor cell phone, two phone chargers, 1 computer charger, and 1 power converter. Kinda sucks, but not that big a deal in the big picture.

We were greeted at the airport by Uli and Eva early on a Saturday morning. They whisked us back to Goldbach where we were treated to their signature lovely breakfast, then shortly thereafter, passed out on a comfortable bed.

Uli and Cornelia took us to a nearby town where we parked at the top of a hill and hiked several kilometers through a forest famous for robberies by a group of bandits in the past. At the end was this castle that is complete surrounded by water, which you can’t see in the picture because it is closed for the winter and we couldn’t get close enough. The family still lives in a portion of the castle, the rest is open to the public for tours because they couldn’t afford the upkeep on it.

Next to the castle was a little restaurant that was decorated like a fancy hunting lodge. There were old muskets, pistols, and antlers hanging from the walls. We had a coffee and Megan had a homemade hot chocolate.

Later we dined at one of the Seubert’s favorite restaurants that is also a guest house and that makes their own schnapps. The meal was excellent and the company even better.

The next day we walked along a trail that took us to Hosbach the next town over from Goldbach. It was a nice stroll through fields and woods with some views of the town below. We also saw a few of these hunting towers that lazy hunters sit in and shoot non-human things that run by.

At the end of our hike we were joined by Eva and had another delicious meal at a guest house. You might notice a theme of hiking and eating.

We took Uli’s “Shortcut” back to Goldbach, which means going the long way up a mountain. But it was nice to see more of the area and this strange set of wrestlers. The area was famous for producing excellent wrestlers back when the sport was much more popular.

The Halfway Point! 6-months of Excellent Adventures, cumulative summary

It’s been 6 months already, and we are at the halfway(ish) point in our year-long(ish) travels. What an amazing 6 months it’s been, easily the best of my life.

Here are the cumulative numbers, so far:

- 9 Countries (Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Italy, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand)

- 7 Languages

- 7 Currencies

- Countless cities, towns, and villages

- 100+ Trains, buses, and subways

- 2 Taxis

- 12,700 kilometers (7,900 Miles) driven (rental cars in Australia & New Zealand only)

- 500 miles walked (low-ball estimate). and I would walk 500 more…

- 10 miles walked on marble (unbelievable amounts of marble in Italy & Ephesus)

- 1 minor theft (out of checked baggage during our international flight from NZ back to Europe)

- But still… 0 stolen organs, moped-vs-pedestrian accidents, carpets purchased, lethal crocodile encounters, or kayaking mishaps

- 1 jellyfish sting, 2 bee stings, 14 sandfly bites

Some reflections…

On a personal note… (that’s your cue to skip these 2 paragraphs if you despise all things sappy).

I feel compelled to acknowledge the enormous gratitude that is a central part of my life right now. Just getting out of my “daily routine” and seeing so many different places has put a spotlight on just how many blessings I have. First, and most directly, I’m grateful that we have been able to take on the endeavor of long-term traveling; it’s literally my dream come true. Second, (and perhaps more importantly) to have found a life partner who (1)shares the dream of traveling, (2)doesn’t mind leaving the comforts of having a home and car, (3) is an awesome travel companion, and (4) is, in more general terms, my best friend and a great husband. I’m grateful that I grew up in a free, prosperous country with educational opportunities. I’m grateful for my specific upbringing and all the values, lessons, love, support, and privileges it entailed (yes parents, I guess I said it). I’m grateful for family and friends (and how we miss you!!). I am extremely grateful to friends abroad who have shared their homes with us: having some time in “real homes” during our travels has been immeasurably comforting and refreshing. Beyond that, I’m grateful for every day to explore new cities and beautiful places; I’m grateful for health and for time; and I’m now disproportionately grateful for well-functioning showers with steady hot water.

Beyond “all the sappy gratitude”, the traveling has changed my perspective of things a bit, mostly of time: It passes quickly, and it’s important to seize it. (Ferris Bueller did say it best, so I guess I’m advocating calling in sick.) I think I’ll try not to “sweat the small stuff” so much… I truly hope that I am able to hold on to my value of time and well-being when I re-join the Real World in 6 months.

Some more reflections,

On a non-personal note (your cue, it’s safe to read again) –

We’ve seen lots of different cultures and ways of doing things, and have had to adjust our lifestyle and expectations accordingly. In general, the U.S. is one of the most efficient and convenient places you can be – probably the result of a more capitalistic and profit-driven culture (Germany, England, and Australia are also way up there for efficiency and convenience). Everything in the U.S. is so EASY - You can go to the bank at 7pm or the grocery store til 9pm (or later?), sometimes 7 days a week. You can even buy your meat, bread, shampoo, Ajax, and dvd’s in one building.

WAIT a minute! Is that a good thing? Maybe, long business hours and big-box stores are convenient. On the flipside, what America has in convenience, it lacks in charm and integrity of small businesses. There has been something very refreshing about going to a separate butcher, bakery, fruit stand, and drug store. Even if they do have shorter hours. Something feels good about supporting these small business owners instead of some big-box mogul who makes millions/billions at the expense of so many others.

So we’ve gotten used to restaurants and shops being closed Sundays (or Saturdays, or Mondays, and sometimes Tuesdays too) – especially in smaller towns. The Siesta is not only a Spanish thing, we’ve learned - - a lunch break or afternoon break is just part of the business schedule in many European towns. I think it may reflect a higher value placed on time and “living,” a lower value placed on possible revenues. GDP and per capita incomes are lower (than the U.S.) in most countries we’ve been in, but people certainly seem to be no less happy.

The lower “convenience” factor (and different customer service expectations) sneaks into other daily aspects beyond business hours. Sometimes internet doesn’t work - and other (European) people seem satisfied that there is no explanation or solution to the problem. Sometimes the line for train tickets is over an hour long - - and management is not putting more people at the ticket windows (even though there seem to be workers around). Sometimes the water is shut off during the night/morning, but you don’t find out until 10pm or 7:30am when you start your shower. Sometimes you have to pay for plastic bags at the checkout (although that just makes us use our pockets and hands, so the conserving may actually be a good thing.) Like I said, we have changed our expectations. We have missed trains even though we left ample time (what should have been ample time) to buy tickets; and we have gotten used to “things just not working right now.” Things that would cause an Outrage, or a Customer Service Scandal in the US are shrugged off – and we are the foreigners here, so getting “outraged” is out of the question. Most times these are small, trivial things and we shrug them off too; but rarely there is a very long day when I feel rather defeated, when I long for the convenience of “home”… and our couch. Or any couch. And an English movie on TV. (Those are the homesick days, thankfully few and far between.) And thankfully there is good dark chocolate everywhere.

We love public transportation and trains, and wish that the U.S. had more of them. Gas is expensive here (Europe) – it’s about US $2 per liter, which is roughly $8 per gallon (and that was before the recent price hike). So people are motivated NOT to use their cars – and public transportation supports that. The emissions are bad in Europe, though – cars use less gas, but for some reason the fumes from most cars are terrible.

We have adjusted completely to the metric system – it’s just easier to adopt the local way instead of constantly converting… So we talk (even to each other) in liters, kilometers, even Celsius degrees. We’ll adjust back to the local way when we’re back in the U.S.

We also make every effort to speak the language of the country we’re visiting (albeit badly). It’s easier in France and Spain (since we took those in school), but we still made an effort in the other countries – people seem to appreciate the effort (and a big apologetic smile). Australia & NZ were a welcome respite from the foreign language barrier, communicating seemed so EASY for 2 months!

We do actually have a routine, or rather several routines. We have a “train day” routine a couple times a week; we have a routine when arriving in a new city; we have a working routine, usually every evening (or for a full day at a time if no internet for several days). We love when our accommodation has a kitchenette, which is about 10% of the time. (The routine was entirely different when we were in Australia & NZ, having a car and a kitchenette changed things drastically.)

We’re reading a lot, sometimes about the places that we’re visiting. It’s a really cool way to learn about history and culture.

We enjoy the local foods and drinks. All of them. A lot.

What about the Cost of all this gallivanting? Do we regret it yet??? Well, it is admittedly about The Worst Financial Decision we could make: One year, foregoing 2 incomes in addition to the cost of traveling. And the exchange rate (everywhere) is horrendous. No, Suze Orman would definitely Not Approve at all: Denied. But we don’t regret it. Sometimes the best choices aren’t necessarily the best financial choices. I’m still paying off school loans, but I don’t regret that decision either. The work/small income that we have while traveling helps a little. And besides, we’ll buckle down again and build the savings back up when we’re back – we save pretty well when we are in buckle-down mode. (Very little shopping 3 years in a row so far, that’s one of the sacrifices that stings a tad – but really, it’s worth it now that we’re traveling – and the small sacrifices are Nothing compared to the traveling.)

That’s our strange lifestyle in a nutshell (a big 6-month nutshell). We feel blessed beyond compare. And on to new traveling adventures for the next 6 months.

Summary #5: 4 weeks in New Zealand

We were already pretty mellow and decompressed from all of our “nature time” in Australia, and New Zealand relaxed us even more. We hiked nearly every single day – even fit in some hiking on the long driving days. The entire country is the epitome of fresh air and scenery. There are a ton of cows, even more sheep, and more variations scenery than you can shake a stick at (what does that even mean?) - mountains, lakes, glaciers, bays, fjords, and even volcanoes.

New Zealand by the numbers:

- 1 country, 1 currency (NZ dollar), 1 language (English. Sort of.)

- 2 large islands

- 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) by car (an old Mazda Familia)

- 2 3-hour inter-island ferry rides (with the old Mazda Familia)

- 1 historic sailboat ride

- 3 kayaking trips

- 0 Thefts, pickpockets, stolen organs, moped-vs-pedestrian accidents, carpets purchased, lethal crocodile encounters, or kayaking mishaps.

- Another half-liter of strong sunscreen

- 13 sand fly bites in 2 days

Not as many animal sightings here as in Australia. We saw a lot of New Zealand fur seals (which are actually a mis-named species of a small sea lion); some sting rays while kayaking, and a plethora of rare birds.

Here are a few of our new favorite things, uniquely New Zealand:

- Shower floors made of sheet metal (almost everywhere had them)

- One-lane (two-way) bridges on major state highways

- Gurgling mud and highlighter-green geo-thermal areas

- Rugby team (NZ All Blacks) that does a traditional Maori war dance before every game

- Flightless birds

- Real-life scenery breath-taking enough to be the set of “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy

Our Route:

Our route was pretty simple (no domestic flights like in Australia). One giant loop beginning and ending in Auckland – all driving. But get out your map again if you’re curious, skip this paragraph if you’re not. Starting in Auckland, we spent 10 days on the North Island, going as far north as the Bay of Islands, and then made our way south along the lakes & volcanic areas (including Rotorua and Taupo) until we got to Wellington. From Wellington, we took a ferry to the South Island, where we spent 16 days. From the Picton ferry stop, we went a tad further north (Abel Tasman), and then made a beeline for the west coast. We worked our way south (through Franz Josef) until Queenstown & Milford Sound. Then we headed to the east coast (Christchurch), and then northward on the South Island; another ferry; and northward on the North Island back to Auckland. A lot of driving.

Our roadtrip logistics were much the same as in Australia. We had lots of kitchenettes (and a car for carrying groceries), so we made most of our meals at “home.”

Observations, Opinions, & Gross generalizations:

- The sun here is strong, like in Australia. Sunscreen. Sun hat. Seriously.

- The people are part of what makes New Zealand unique. They’re really nice, down-to-earth people. They are often surprised and/or puzzled as to why you are visiting their small town.

- They seem to take their drinking age (18) very seriously – we got carded each time at the grocery store for a bottle of wine. And even rudely denied once, which was kind of flattering in a strange way.

- We were accustomed to a lack of road signs from our time in Australia. Or signs that pointed the direction and simply said the name of the next town, instead of a street name or highway number. (The exception for both countries is the bigger towns, which usually have real road signs). We found that road signage in New Zealand is even more “challenging” than in Australia. If/when there was a sign for a turn-off or national park, it was usually just slightly after the turn. So we turned around a lot. Also, they have these square orange signs with a single exclamation point (!). We came across one in Milford Sound, just one sign with an exclamation point, and we wondered what it meant – until we found out 30 feet later: The side of the cliff (and half the road) had fallen away – our entire lane was just gone, indicated by just one sign. We liked the creative use of punctuation marks, though.

- If you’ve read any of the blog posts, you have an idea of how pretty the country is from the over-use of the word “gorgeous” and it synonyms. There is so much diversity of topography and vegetation (and geothermal areas) for a relatively small country.

- We also may have underestimated its size… We spent a month there, but were still unable to see many places, including the northernmost and southernmost coasts.

- The towns are charming. We had great international food in a couple of places.

- The fish & chips there are AMAZING, maybe better than the “original” fish & chips in the UK (from my memory, NZ’s fish & chips are better, but we’ll compare fairly when we’re in the UK this spring). I wanted to put fish & chips in “our favorite things” category, but I didn’t allow it because they’re not uniquely NZ. Sigh.

To sum it up...

We leave New Zealand feeling refreshed and healthy, ready to pound the pavement (and cobblestones) of Europe once more.

Auckland (Part 2) – Back In The City Of Sails

We finally made it back full circle in Auckland after 6,000 kilometers of exploring New Zealand. It was nice to see familiar faces and to again be treated to extremely warm hospitality. We spent a day gathering ourselves and getting caught up on a few things, but then set out again to explore more of Auckland.

Gisela took us to a local pizza joint for their weekly quiz night. The pizza was very good, but our ability to answer questions correctly was very bad. We did fairly well on pictures of pyramids from around the world, but got absolutely blanked on New Zealand history (no surprise) and did very poorly in Animals and Quotes (but seriously, how many May West quotes do you know and there were two of them).

The next day Gisela took us to Voyager, which has to be the most extensive maritime museum in the world. It is an entire wharf with room after room of boats and exhibits. We only spent a few hours, but could have easily spent the whole day.

The entrance to the museum included a ride on a sail boat Ted Ashby, which is a square bottom boat modeled after transport vessels used in the late 19^th century to the early 20^th century to move things like coal and timber around New Zealand. That day was not particularly windy, so we “sailed” using the inboard motor.

We did assist the crew made up of retiree volunteers with of an average age of 70+ hoist the sails for posterities sake. It was a nice calm hour-long journey to the Auckland bridge and back. The only extraordinarily eventful thing that happened was when the captain rammed the ship into the dock as we pulled in afterwards, creating enough of a ruckus to draw the attention of the entire museum restaurant.

We got a great view back towards the Auckland CBD and got to see a retired America’s Cup boat sailing tourists around. There was very little wind, but that boat was still moving at an incredible pace; it was definitely doing laps around our own retired crew.

We sailed under the Auckland Bridge and checked out the bungee jumping platform situated underneath it.

Back on land we toured the museum. One room was focused on the whales and dolphins of the region. It had a lot of interesting information about the different types of whales, whale behavior, and the past whaling industry and current plight of many of them. Pictured is an old harpoon gun used to hunt whales in New Zealand, who no longer has whaling industry and is a big advocate of stopping the practice. In fact, Japan is really the only nation that is still hunting whales for “research purposes”. Somehow the research subjects end up in their supermarkets.

Another section had a collection of Polynesian and Pacific Island vessels. This outrigger boat was really cool with a little hut on it and was used ceremonially.

There were a number of different model boats, this one is of a French ship that traveled to New Zealand in the 1800’s. Vince has a special affinity for model ships and has aspirations to acquire one.

This recreation of an early 19^th century hull is arguably the best exhibit in the museum. Not only does it recreate the conditions of early travelers to New Zealand visually, the entire room sways back and forth to the sounds of a creaking ship giving you the full experience.

Another amazing exhibit is dedicated to the America’s Cup and New Zealand being the only country besides the United States to win it, even though they have only entered the competition in the 90’s. This is the actual boat that won the 1995 America’s Cup.

They have a bunch of very cool interactive displays including a program where you can build your own racing boat and the one pictured where you virtually work together as a team to race the boat. They also had other rooms including ship mast figures, pictures from an Antarctic expedition, replicas of seaside homes, and a really great one about Peter Blake who spearheaded New Zealand competitive sailing. He had a great personality that he was able to use to raise money to fund the expensive endeavor, including the nationwide sales of his trademark lucky red socks.

Afterwards, we ate some delicious, monstrous burgers and drove out to a natural hot spring complex north of Auckland. It included this hot Movie Pool with a big screen playing movies. We caught the tail end of Adam Sandler’s Bedtime Stories and the beginning of Cats and Dogs 2; needless to say we were not the demographic the pool was designed for. They also had three slides, two of which would definitely not meet code in the US. Vince managed to bang up his shin pretty bad (after Megan clearly instructed him not to get hurt) on one called the Black Hole. It’s basically a metal pipe that makes it completely dark, which spins you around until you reach unnatural speeds and dumps you out almost vertically into a pool of hot water. Highly recommended to those who do not fear death by water slide.

Back in Auckland, we were treated to a beautiful sky that illuminated the plastic bubble of Eden Park stadium. A perfect way to end our time in pound for pound the most beautiful country we have seen.

Hamilton

We arrived in Hamilton, and went straight to the Hamilton gardens – one of the biggest attractions. They had many themed gardens – one category included national gardens, including:

An Indian Char Bagh garden,

A Chinese Scholar’s garden,

And an Italian Renaissance garden (having spent 6 weeks in Italy, we think that even the Italians would have to be impressed with it).

There was also a Maori (Natives of New Zealand) garden.

It was my 30^th birthday! So we got dressed up and went out to a really nice dinner at a restaurant called Cullen’s. I even pulled out my seldom-used “big night out” make-up kit… Which for this year, consists of an eyeliner.

The next day, we got up, checked out, and watched the Super Bowl at the only sports bar where it was playing, in a casino. Steelers lost L.

Waitomo - where the glowworms go

We were almost getting used to the gorgeous green scenery (and sheep) that comprised our daily drives all over New Zealand. Almost.

We arrived at our first destination of the day, Waitomo Caves, around noon. The Waitomo Glowworm Caves visitor center is really cool – sustainably built, and inspired by the shape of Maori eel trap.

We took the standard glowworm cave tour, which included a walk through some caves with stalactites & stalagmites, and a beautiful Maori song sung by our guide in the “cathedral” cave room – it’s huge with amazing acoustics. Then we got into a boat and were silently pulled along a long cave filled with glowworms. They really do look like a starry sky. Magical.

We weren’t allowed to take any pictures on the tour, so I have borrowed these from the glow worm center:

It was a pretty incredible tour. Our boat emerged from this cave:

Then our drive continued and we arrived in Hamilton in late afternoon.

Ohakune, summertime in a ski town

After taking the ferry back from the South Island to the North Island we stopped in Wellington and found some dinner at a little Vietnamese restaurant off of Cuba Street where we had some delicious pho and fried rice. Since the ferry got in around 5pm, we planned to stay in Wellington, but when we were booking our accommodations, EVERYTHING in Wellington was booked for the weekend.

We only found out that day why when we saw hoards of people around town dressed up as super heroes, cows, sailors, studded leather cops, cheerleaders, and just about anything else you would normally see during Halloween, except they came in groups of 4 to dozens. We learned that it was the Rugby Sevens being played, which is a huge deal in New Zealand. When we got to our motel about half an hour north of Wellington we watched a few of the matches, including New Zealand blank Papua New Guinea 35-0.

The next day we headed north along a slightly different route than when we came down. The topography was most valleys and jagged (as opposed to rolling) green hills.

Ohakune is a ski town and is very similar to US ski towns, except of course on New Zealand population scale. The nicest and most modern building in the town was the tourist information center; otherwise ther were just a spattering of shops and restaurants, and we eventually decided on the fish and chips takeaway. After dropping our bags off at our motel, we took a drive toward Mount Ruapehu. We saw the other side of this mountain a few weeks earlier during our hike of the Tongariro Crossing. The drive up takes you through a dense forest and up past the tree line where the landscape changes into rocky and desolate.

Our very nice inn-keeper gave us some great details about the trails in the area and let us know that this waterfall off the side of the road was used in the Lord of the Rinds as the waterfall that Gollum is hunting fish in.

We reached the end of the road, which is at the base of the ski slopes. During the summer, it is eerily quiet.

The view from the top that was almost in the clouds was pretty spectacular and looked out over forests and green fields below.

This is Mangawhero Falls that falls into a very interesting volcanic red bowl. We were also treated to a wavering rainbow from the spray.

We parked the car and headed out on a trail towards Waitonga Falls. On the way we crossed a small suspension bridge, passed through coniferous forests, and this portion along these small mountain top pools.

At the end of the trail we were treated to Waitonga Falls set in this beautiful valley.