Grogan Teek Travels

Photos: Rio De Janeiro

florida_family — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 06:31:00 GMT

Second part of our Brazil trip

Photos: Joao Pessoa

florida_family — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 04:15:00 GMT

Visiting Mackenzie's new hometown during her year in Brazil

Gallery: views of wellington

florida_family — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Gallery: seal

florida_family — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:56:00 GMT

Gallery: Makara Beach

florida_family — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 14:13:00 GMT

near Wellington

Gallery: Mt Ruapehu

florida_family — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 14:03:00 GMT

Snow Play

Snow in July at Mount Doom

florida_family — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 13:54:00 GMT

4^th of July weekend in New Zealand isn’t a holiday, obviously – the Kiwi’s haven’t quite gotten round to severing ties with England yet so I suspect their loyalties would not be with us on the Declaration of Independence. They would probably deem it too impolite…..

So the 4^th was a regular day here but afterwards we hopped in a car and headed for the central plateau to explore Mt Ruapehu in the winter. Ruapehu is a volcano in the middle of the north island that is currently covered in snow. The mountain has been burping lately – letting off gases – which make the scientists think that it may be getting ready for some more activity. It apparently has been active intermittently over the years, with some spectacular eruptions as recently as 1996, but none while we were there.

Lord of the Rings fans will remember Ruapehu as Mount Doom, particularly from Return of the King, or so I am told.

My poor deprived Florida children had one significant item remaining on their wish list: to play in the snow. We don’t get much of that in Tallahassee. In fact, their only other experience in snow was 4 or 5 years ago in Vermont. It was June and we came across an 8 ft square of leftover, ice encrusted snow on the side of a mountain. We had to stop the car to let the girls play in it. It was pretty pathetic so they have been looking for more. We wondered if we might see some in January in England or China, but no such luck. So off to the mountains we went.

We stayed in a tiny little town called Owhango. When I say tiny, little town, I mean that by NZ standards. It was little. There was the hotel were we stayed (maybe 4 rooms?), a ski shop, one other hotel with a restaurant (but it wasn’t open on Mondays, and about 3 short streets. That was it.

The snowfield was about 20 minutes away in Whakapapa (which is an even funnier name when you remember that WH is pronounced “f” sound in Maori). The word papa is anything that is broad, flat and hard, like rock slabs or a board. Whakapapa means to place one layer on another. The word, interestingly, is also used to describe the recitation of genealogies within a tribe or iwi.

So we rented some sleds and snowpants and went off to the mountains. For a couple of days the girls got their fill of cold, wet snow. I’ll attach some photos.

We have also been exploring things closer to Wellington. A few weekends ago we went off to Makara Bay, where we walked along the beach, climbed some rocks and found paua shells. Perhaps we should have made some jewelry for, them, because paua jewelry is ubiquitous. Pauas are a form of abalone, thought to be the most vibrantly colored.

We also went to the newly-opened Weta-Cave. Weta is the workshop of Peter Jackson, the maker of Lord of the Rings, King Kong and a bunch of other movies. Rings fans apparently have been peering over the fence at Weta for years, hoping to see some movie magic , so they finally decided to open a little store for the tourists. Kiwis just don’t market like Americans. The store was small and most of the items were too expensive for all but the most committed hobbit fans: $300 sculptures and $65 King Kong t shirts. I think they would do a lot better with a variety of lesser priced items. Get your rubber kingkong and gold rings here.

On the way back home we drove along the coast of Miramar. Mackenzie shouted to us to stop to see the seal. Sure enough, right next to the road there was a huge seal sitting on the rocks. The girls hopped out of the car and the seal obligingly posed for a few pictures. It was really rough weather, so I think he was just getting out of the pounding waves for a while.

July has been fairly dreary – grey skies, rain and cold, but mostly in the 50s or high 40s, not as bad as I anticipated. It will be quite a shock to return to the Tallahassee heat wave next month.

Gallery: Music Video

florida_family — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:35:00 GMT

Gallery: Mt. Taranaki and beach

florida_family — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:30:00 GMT

Waves-Camera-Action!

florida_family — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:25:00 GMT

Now this was a cool New Zealand experience that you can’t get on your average two-week vacation. When we first arrived here I started looking for drama opportunities for the girls, since they both have been involved in acting, singing and dancing back home. (Don’t ask me where this comes from – I certainly had no talents in that area and was never particularly interested in it myself.) So I signed up for this website that sends information on opportunities. There was a casting call for actors 10-13 for a music video. I sent in the girl’s photos and was amazed that they asked both girls to participate. The only problem was that the video shoot was to be in Auckland, but we are fairly flexible so we decided to go ahead and combine a little travel with this unique opportunity.

We hoped in a rental car and drove to New Plymouth – a small city on the west coast, primarily known as an entry way to Mount Taranaki. Taranaki is NZ’s version of Mount Ranier. It is a single peak, often snow-covered, that is just beautiful, see the pictures. It also has an interesting Maori legend: Taranaki apparently once lived further inland with the other mountains, but was caught fooling around with a bigger mountain’s girlfriend. When he was caught he ran away to the coast, where he now sits lonely and alone.

We stayed at a Holiday Park. This was a compromise of sorts with the girls, who wanted to rent a camper (here called caravan). Dave wasn’t too thrilled with driving one through the mountains and I wasn’t too thrilled with the idea of no toilets or showers. A holiday park is a campground, but many also have cabins and hotels. We found one right on the beach with “chalets” – which are little pre-fab buildings with bathrooms and kitchenettes. A fine compromise. The beach was gorgeous, with one of the best sunsets I have ever seen. I took a million pictures, but will only post a few ;)

Then it was off to Auckland and stardom. We met the rest of the cast at the musician/composer/producer’s house. He is a German musician of some repute who has done some pretty impressive work – not exactly a household name but known in certain music circles. The product is to be a music video. The girls were costumed then it was off to the beach. Like many Pacific beaches here, the beach was stunning. There are huge cliffs in the background and bright blue water. The sand is sparkling, black, ground-up volcanic rocks. There were caves and cool rock formations.

Acting in the video included dancing on the beach, which meant skipping and twirling in a circle over and over. Then they had to lie on rocks (until the potion woke them up). The rock thing went on for some time. I have to say it was a beautiful spot – the water came bursting in with sprays of waves in the background – and occasionally spraying on the girls. As the day wore on it got cooler and cooler and the girls got wetter and wetter. They were real troopers sitting there for long periods for their close-ups.

The video won’t premier until at least August, so we will miss the red-carpet event, which upset them a little. Who knows – maybe someone will see them and decide they are perfect for a movie. Mackenzie would really like a part in the new Hobbit films they are going to make here. America may be the land of opportunity, but sometimes opportunity comes in other places as well.

Gallery: Auckland and Area

florida_family — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 15:53:00 GMT

Gallery: Glowworms and Spelunking

florida_family — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 15:38:00 GMT

Waitomo

Gallery: Horses on the Beach

florida_family — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 15:30:00 GMT

Muriwai Beach

Gallery: Volcano - Rangitoto Island

florida_family — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 15:04:00 GMT

Exploring a volcanic Island

Black sand, red rocks and glowworms

florida_family — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Once again a weekend finds us out hopping on a plane and jetting off – this time to New Zealand’s largest city –Auckland. Of the 4 plus million people in NZ, close to one and half million live in Auckland. Since the girls are off school for two weeks for a term break, it seemed a good time to go exploring.

It may seem that we are flying around a lot, but you need to know that flying TO New Zealand may be outlandishly expensive but once you get here its pretty cheap to fly around. Pacific Blue, the affiliate of Virgin Blue, generally has tickets for about $50 one way or less, and Air NZ has these great “grab a seat” offers that are as good or even better. So we are being as extravagant as it may sound. Plus gas is hovering around $6 a gallon, so flying makes more sense.

Anyway, back to the interesting stuff. I went off and got my work done so then we had a few days to play. Dave had some space work to do, so Pam the girls and I braved public transportation and made our way to the ferries. Believe it or not we are getting pretty good at buses. From the buses we got on the ferry to Rangitoto Island. Auckland has something like 50 volcanoes and Rangitoto is the youngest one, about 600 years old. It isn’t as tall as many volcanoes you might think of and it take about an hour and a half to walk to the summit.

The ferry drops you off and you have to be careful to get on the last ferry of the day. I don’t know what happens if you get stuck there, but there aren’t many facilities and it probably gets pretty cold at night. The rocks along the ferry dark are dark black but have lots of little holes in them.. As we walked up the hill we could see fields of rubble of black, hardened lava. (Mackenzie noted that a friend had bought some lava rocks in Hawaii and was impressed b the money she could make selling the huge fields of rocks.)

Before we got to the summit we reached the cone. While vegetation has grown over the hole where the lava spewed out, you can clearly see the round area going deep down into a whole and you can imagine steam and lava pouring out.

Then we climbed to the summit. I guess I expected the top of the cone to be the summit, but apparently the volcano tosses rocks and lava high, creating a point even higher than the cone ridge. From the summit you get a beautiful view of Auckland and the surrounding islands. Truly spectacular -- with nearly deserted islands on one side and the bustling city on the other. At the summit there were fewer rocks and those that were there were red and maroon in color. We also got to explore lava caves.

On our walk we saw some of New Zealand’s icons. You may know that the “Silver Fern” is famous here – kind of like the Canadian maple leaf. You can find ferns on just about everything here to represent NZ – including the netball teams. There are lots of ferns and since we’ve been here we’ve been wondering which ones were the silver ferns. Finally we found out. They grow on Rangitoto in tall (9-10 feet ?) fern bushes. The top of the leaf is green but when you turn it over it is silver. Apparently the silver reflects the moonlight, which made them good for track markers.

The ferns also gave us a view of another icon in NZ. The spiral shape of the plants (I’ll post a picture) is found everywhere – in sculpture, in jewelry, everywhere. We finally saw where the image came from!

The next day we rose early and went to the other side of the island to Muriwai Beach and checked an item off our bucket lists: we rode horses on the beach. This is one of those things that I had always wanted to do but never really had the chance. We saddled up (English saddles and bridles, of course, so it was a little challenging for us western-style riders) and took off.

The sandy beaches of Muriwai are a little different from my horses on the beach fantasy because they weren’t white sandy beaches – they were black and sparkling. Remember the volcanoes? Well, they leave behind rocks that, over the years, turn into fine, black sand. Because there is lots of iron and other minerals in the sand it sparkles in the sun.

After the beach we went into the woods. Like just about every part of New Zealand, the forests we rode in had been used as a setting for a movie. These woods were in Xena, Warrior Princess, Narnia, and even parts of the Lord of the Rings. Recognize anything?

That night we explored another famous NZ site – One Tree Hill. Here’s a tidbit. There is a TV show called One Tree Hill. It gets its name from a U2 song of the same name. The song was released in NZ and was written in honor of Bono’s assistant, a Kiwi, who was killed in a motorcycle crash. Long before Bono and tv, One Tree Hill was a Maori Pa (fort) for a Maori community. From the top of the hill you can see incredible views of Auckland – even the sulky races down the road.

The moon is up and over One Tree Hill
We see the sun go down in your eyes

(U2 song)

The next day we again got up early and headed south to Waitomo Caves. Waitomo means water hole. Waitomo lies along the fault line and is peppered with these “pancake rocks”. They are called pancakes because (duh) they look like pancakes – layers of thin and thick rocks. In small groups, the rocks look like a short stack of pancakes. In large groups, they look like an ancient fortress that has since been overgrown. Hard to believe they aren’t manmade. If you saw them on Mars you would be convinced there was life on another planet. The rocks are formed by limestone sediment, layers after later, thickness relating to the amount of sediment deposited over millions of years.

Next we donned our hardhats and began our spelunking adventure. We went into the caves, got on a little raft and headed off into the darkness. Finally we got to see the famed glowworms. The glowworms are beautiful – they look like stars on the top of the caves. Up close they look like worms that drape long strings (like a spider web) down from the cave ceiling. They really aren’t worms, though, they are actually the larvae of a gnat (in other words – maggots!) You try not to think of that when drops of something fall on your head in the caves. It is probably just water.

We stayed at a hotel – gasp, not a bach, this time. Here was one of my favorite examples of the sort of casual approach Kiwi’s have to safety. I suspect that the national accident policy has a lot to do with this, since it covers injuries from accidents (including lost wages) and people largely don’t sue each other. I have to say that the trial lawyers are right about one thing – the lack of a threat of a lawsuit certainly changes behavior. At the hotel there was a trampoline, which is fairly common here at hotels and baches. This one was placed along a fence – with a clothesline along the top at one side! Doesn’t that seem like a bad idea?

Fortunately, all was well. no horses names "Spook", no trampoline accidents and we are home again, with a quintessential Kiwi dinner of a leg of lamb in the oven. Enjoy spring, because it is fall in the Southern Hemisphere and getting colder.

Gallery: Antarctic Center

florida_family — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:27:00 GMT

Christchurch

Gallery: Akaroa Bach and Town

florida_family — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:20:00 GMT

Akaroa, South Island

Gallery: Swimming with Dolphims

florida_family — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:13:00 GMT

Akaroa Habour, South Island

Dolphins and Penguins and Snow, Oh My!

florida_family — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:28:00 GMT

David’s parents have been visiting from Florida and my sister Pam just arrived, so we decided it was time for another road trip. We hopped on a plane and made the quick flight to Christchurch on the South Island. From there we made a 90 minute drive to the coast to a cute little French-inspired town called Akaroa.

Akaroa (it means long harbour) was first settled by the French around 1840s. This caused the British to rush down there and claim the area for England, worried that that France would establish ownership in the area. Think of the timing – that was 65 years AFTER the U.S. had declared independence.

It is a cute little town, and I do mean little. The permanent population is less than 600 people, though that swells considerably on weekends. The streets have French names and the architecture is different from the very British Christchurch. It takes less than half an hour to walk from one side to another. We went to the little lighthouse and happened to be there when it was open so got to explore inside.

The region (called the Banks Peninsula) was formed by two volcanoes about a half a million years ago. The harbor is long and protected and one of the few places in the world (all the places are in NZ) where you can find Hector’s dolphins. This is one of the smallest species of dolphins and what is really cool is that we went swimming with them!

Swimming in the Pacific, even in a harbor, is different than swimming in the Atlantic. Having grown up on the beach in Florida, ocean swimming is nothing new, but never before required a wetsuit and boots! But we dutifully suited up then went off on the boat. As we looked for dolphins (since they are wild they aren’t just waiting for us in an assigned area) you could see the beautiful hills, caves along the harbor walls and the water splashing into the rocks. The first dolphins we saw were mothers with calves, so they didn’t want to play.

Just as we reached the mouth of the harbor a couple pf dolphins showed up. They seemed happy to see us and played alongside the boat. Ten swimmers hopped into the cold water and spread out. Sure enough the dolphins came to play. I felt a little like one of those orange cones on a bicycle track as the dolphins swerved in between the people. Two more showed up and played in front of the boat as it circled our group.

The neat thing about the experience was that the dolphins were there because they wanted to play. There was no trainer giving them fish or blowing a whistle and they could leave whenever they wanted. Instead, they chose to just have some fun, swimming with funny people wearing black rubber clothes. We would float in the water then out of nowhere two dolphins, sometimes all four, would appear right next to you. They seemed to have no fear of the people and happily swam between us to get a good look at everyone. Very cool (and pretty cold!)

After the dolphins it was back to the bach for a fire and some steaks on the grill. A bach, you may remember from other posts, is usually a second home or weekend retreat that you rent from an individual through a service. This one was particularly nice, with all the comforts. The backyard had a little spring running through it, complete with its own bridge, and a main house plus an extra “sleep out” room.

The next day we returned to Christchurch to wander through the botanic gardens and museum then visited the Antarctic Center. Our poor little deprived Florida children have never really seen snow, except a patch of old icy stuff during a summertime visit to Vermont a few years ago. They were very interested in the storm room. You bundle up in coats and go inside a very cold room where there is an ice slide, and snow on the ground. Then they start up the storm machine and the wind blows and the temperature drops and you get very cold.

The Center also has a penguin sanctuary for blue penguins. Most had been injured by boats or other animals. One was blind, another had a paralyzed wing and others had different problems. Check out the cool pictures!

Dave’s folks have been exploring Wellington and depart for home this weekend. Next week we drag Pam up to Auckland to mix a little business with pleasure. Who know what adventure is next.

Gallery: Napier

florida_family — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:10:00 GMT