Trip reflections from the other side of the world
"Is this the way it's supposed to be?"
Saturday March 8, 2014
Our last day in Sydney and thankfully we had nothing planned. We spent most of the day walking around the Rocks area as they had a big open air market going on. I loved that our street stall lunch selection was German sausages at the "Munich grill" served by Germans followed by dumplings from the stall next to it of unknown Asian origin. All this while listening to a pretty good Aussie street entertainer playing acoustic reimagined Def Lepard songs.
Our last day in Sydney and thankfully we had nothing planned. We spent most of the day walking around the Rocks area as they had a big open air market going on. I loved that our street stall lunch selection was German sausages at the "Munich grill" served by Germans followed by dumplings from the stall next to it of unknown Asian origin. All this while listening to a pretty good Aussie street entertainer playing acoustic reimagined Def Lepard songs.
This week, other than a great pub (which had the windows and doors all wide open) we didn't eat an indoor meal. This is always a key vacation quality metric for us. If you can’t tell already, I love this place. The area in and around Sydney Harbor is probably my favorite urban space. Beautiful, peaceful, green, blue. Great food, nice cafes, lots of public spaces with great locations to sit and people watch. Yes, the weather was perfect but that's hardly atypical for here either.
 |
| Last Day Lament |
When I was last here in 2000 I vowed to come back someday and show Lisa why I liked it so much. It took 14 years, but the wait was worth it. It's not perfect, You have to get over the price of just about everything, it feels too touristy in places, and I'm not sure if they have hidden all the homeless people somewhere, but it manages to consistently impress; mostly with shear natural beauty and excellent urban planning.
Tomorrow we head to New
Zealand.
Friday, March 14, 2014 Queenstown
After two days of organized activities (wine tasting and Canyoning) we are sitting back a bit in our room here in Queenstown overlooking the lake. What a beautiful place. The lake is unbelievably blue with "The Remarkables" (that's a mountain range, not a new Pixar movie) right behind them to make it even more picturesque. A running/biking trail (along the lake) 30 steps from our back patio doesn't hurt either.
Queenstown (correctly) organized itself around
the outdoors; and for good reason as it has a lot to work with. The lake,
the mountains, the vineyards, the trails are a great base. Add on to that
the whole "extreme" tourist infrastructure (bungie, jet boats,
paragliding, sky diving etc.) and you have a lot to choose from. They
also manage to have a town (a bit touristy to be sure) with great restaurants,
bars, cafes, and a nice waterfront village. There is also a strong back
packer culture here which I think helps moderate the town in a good way.
You have big tour buses alongside college kids having an impromptu bash
in the park. It's a good mix. It's
probably. 40% mountain resort town, 40% backpacker haven, and 20% Chinese
tourist destination. While we were here we ended up in conversation with a lot
of the guides, waiters, servers, and other people who make this place go.
Most of them are European, working here for a year or two in between life
events. Many of them are on extended "gap years" with a plan to
head back to the Netherlands, or Sweden, or Germany "at some point"
to go back to school. There are some Americans but they are definitely
underrepresented. (Although one of my favorites was our tour van driver from
California, who moved here 6 months ago from Hawaii (zip line tour guide) and
in 3 weeks has a 1 way ticket to Amsterdam. "I don't do winter".
Duuuuuuuuuude.) But anyway, as a group we found them to be
intelligent, worldly, conversant, and incredibly hard working. I suspect many
of them work 7 days a week for not much in a town where an $8 beer is the norm.
<tangent> I can't help but think I (and maybe others of my age) and our culture may have missed something. Many of us tend to construct linear paths for our lives and convince ourselves that anything else is irresponsible, selfish, or lazy. Really? I confess I tended to think of gap years as the privileged indulgence of trust funders and those who looked to avoid hard work. But as I reflect about it more now; working long days, for low pay, and living with roommates in a small flat doesn't sound easy to me (certainly harder than my life was in college). Despite all this I sense that the lifestyle is incredibly rewarding. To listen in as the guides make their plans for a meet up in Croatia next summer is to experience 1 part admiration for their guts, and 1 part envy for their lives. I suspect that in 20 years many of them will be married, raising kids, and living in the suburbs of whatever country they are from. But I suspect there lives will be richer for these years. </tangent>
Driving the South Island
We drove from Queenstown up to a rural area near Christchurch. This was my first opportunity to rent a car a drive on the left. It's actually not too bad and other than the roundabouts it's all pretty easy. I had heard people say that you shouldn't expect to cover long distances quickly by road as you would on interstates in the US. And to a certain extent that true, you don't have 4 and 6 lane divided highways where you can set the cruise on 70 mph and roll along. That being said the 2 lane roads that connect the cities are much better than I expected. I was prepared for winding, slow, narrow roads with a fair amount of white knuckle driving. To the contrary I found the rural driving to be very easy and non-stressful. This is helped by the fact that in our experience the 2 lane roads were nearly empty.
There is no 4 lane rural "interstate" type highways simply because there is no need for them based on the traffic volumes we experienced. Our drive was also very scenic; so much so that after a while you stop taking pictures because it's just beautiful valley after beautiful valley ( ho hum).
Waiheke Island
Our last stop was Waiheke island, located near Auckland. It's a short 30 minute ferry ride to get out there but it's a world away from Auckland. In truth we spent very little time in Auckland so I don't want to judge too harshly but it was impossible not to compare the beauty of Sydney's waterfront with the rather ordinary one of Auckland’s. Both cities have beautiful water, great weather, and geography to work with but the difference from an urban planning perspective is night and day. The wide open public green spaces appear to be almost entirely missing from the "main" urban waterfront in Auckland. The ferry terminal has none of the great public spaces of Circular Quay.
Anyway, on to Waiheke. Beautiful beaches, world class vineyards, a thriving art scene, and fantastic vistas; all within 2 hours of a major international airport. What's not to like? Where else in the world could you be dropped off on a sandy beach and hike across an island stopping at vineyards to sample great red or white wines the whole way. And again, so much less crowded than anything you might find in California. On the downside Waiheke is an expensive destination in an already expensive country. Also, because it's kind of a spread out small town it's a bit difficult to get around without a car.
Friday, March 14, 2014 Queenstown
After two days of organized activities (wine tasting and Canyoning) we are sitting back a bit in our room here in Queenstown overlooking the lake. What a beautiful place. The lake is unbelievably blue with "The Remarkables" (that's a mountain range, not a new Pixar movie) right behind them to make it even more picturesque. A running/biking trail (along the lake) 30 steps from our back patio doesn't hurt either.
 |
| Looking across the lake from just outside Queenstown |
<tangent> I can't help but think I (and maybe others of my age) and our culture may have missed something. Many of us tend to construct linear paths for our lives and convince ourselves that anything else is irresponsible, selfish, or lazy. Really? I confess I tended to think of gap years as the privileged indulgence of trust funders and those who looked to avoid hard work. But as I reflect about it more now; working long days, for low pay, and living with roommates in a small flat doesn't sound easy to me (certainly harder than my life was in college). Despite all this I sense that the lifestyle is incredibly rewarding. To listen in as the guides make their plans for a meet up in Croatia next summer is to experience 1 part admiration for their guts, and 1 part envy for their lives. I suspect that in 20 years many of them will be married, raising kids, and living in the suburbs of whatever country they are from. But I suspect there lives will be richer for these years. </tangent>
Driving the South Island
We drove from Queenstown up to a rural area near Christchurch. This was my first opportunity to rent a car a drive on the left. It's actually not too bad and other than the roundabouts it's all pretty easy. I had heard people say that you shouldn't expect to cover long distances quickly by road as you would on interstates in the US. And to a certain extent that true, you don't have 4 and 6 lane divided highways where you can set the cruise on 70 mph and roll along. That being said the 2 lane roads that connect the cities are much better than I expected. I was prepared for winding, slow, narrow roads with a fair amount of white knuckle driving. To the contrary I found the rural driving to be very easy and non-stressful. This is helped by the fact that in our experience the 2 lane roads were nearly empty.
 |
| Miles and miles of beautiful emptiness |
There is no 4 lane rural "interstate" type highways simply because there is no need for them based on the traffic volumes we experienced. Our drive was also very scenic; so much so that after a while you stop taking pictures because it's just beautiful valley after beautiful valley ( ho hum).
 |
| View of Auckland at Sunset from the island |
Our last stop was Waiheke island, located near Auckland. It's a short 30 minute ferry ride to get out there but it's a world away from Auckland. In truth we spent very little time in Auckland so I don't want to judge too harshly but it was impossible not to compare the beauty of Sydney's waterfront with the rather ordinary one of Auckland’s. Both cities have beautiful water, great weather, and geography to work with but the difference from an urban planning perspective is night and day. The wide open public green spaces appear to be almost entirely missing from the "main" urban waterfront in Auckland. The ferry terminal has none of the great public spaces of Circular Quay.
Anyway, on to Waiheke. Beautiful beaches, world class vineyards, a thriving art scene, and fantastic vistas; all within 2 hours of a major international airport. What's not to like? Where else in the world could you be dropped off on a sandy beach and hike across an island stopping at vineyards to sample great red or white wines the whole way. And again, so much less crowded than anything you might find in California. On the downside Waiheke is an expensive destination in an already expensive country. Also, because it's kind of a spread out small town it's a bit difficult to get around without a car.
Conclusion - Reflections on a “trip of a
lifetime”
17 days is a long time to be on
vacation. But it didn’t really seem like
17 days and I found that other than missing people, I never really had the “ok,
it’s time to head back” feeling. I know
that sometimes vacations can bring their own sources of stress (unfamiliar
surroundings, logistics/travelling issues, etc.) but I’m not sure I have been
so relaxed and non-stressed as an adult as I was on this vacation. This despite that the trip did not go
perfectly. Both of us got sick and one
point or another on the trip. I was
bitten by some kind of Australian bug from hell that gave me welts all over but
none of it was enough to derail our plans.
The nearly perfect weather and the differences from the winter we had
just survived probably helped.
Ultimately, I don’t know whether the success of the trip was about the
destination, the amount of time we were gone, the weather, the activities and
lack thereof or some other factors. But
I do know that if the goal of a vacation is to help you relax and re-create,
then a trip was never so successful. I
know that in this life those moments are the exception and not the rule. If heaven is a banquet then it was nice to
have an opportunity to chew on some table scraps for a few weeks. On our 2nd to last day of vacation
we were walking around Waiheke island to various vineyards and found an
absolutely beautiful spot among the olive trees where the winery had setup a
small shop with some outdoor tables. We
were reflecting about the peacefulness of it all and I played a song from our
trip playlist; Jack Johnson’s “Upside Down”.
He said it perfectly: “I don’t want this feeling to go away...”
