Canada - Failing the Science & Technology Grade

I imagine that many Canadians have forgotten about the medical isotope issue from some months ago because it's really disappeared from media attention.

Recall that the aging NRU reactor in Chalk River had to be shut down for repairs, disrupting the supply of medical isotopes to much of the world.

I was reminded of this story while listening to a recent podcast of Quirks & Quarks, reminded that Canada spent quite a sum of money to build 2 new reactors (Maple 1 and Maple 2) to replace the NRU reactor and that the current government, in its "wisdom" seems to have decided to get out of the medical isotope business altogether.

Canadians need to remember that we are (were?) world leaders in this technology, an area where we can be more than hewers of wood and drawers of water. It's just one more case of our political "leaders" lacking a vision and ambition for Canada, relegating us to being "followers" in the area of nuclear technology, not to mention alternative energy development and many others.

New Zealand Retrospective

I’ve had about two weeks to at least partly recover from our trip so perhaps it’s time for a few final comments.

It’s a long way to NZ. Our flight was about 11,500 km. While there, we drove about 7100 km. Then there was the drive from the Koots to Vancouver and back – add another 1600 km. In total, I figure we traveled almost 32,000 km in the space of 6 weeks. With the increasing hassles of air travel, one wonders if it’s worth it. Our experience with Air New Zealand was excellent, though.

My favourite thing about NZ probably had to be the coastline. All of it was wonderful. The ocean had that tropical ocean blue, there were miles and miles (km and km) of beautiful sand beaches, excellent rocky shorelines, great views everywhere. As it turned out, most of our trip followed the coast, so we saw a good bit of the NZ shoreline.

Although there were some very nice areas on the North Island, the South Island appealed to me more. There are fewer people there, there is more “wilderness”, the scenery is more rugged and, well…, scenic, and, interestingly enough, the roads were better. If I were to go back, I’d probably spend most or all of my time on the South Island.

We learned that the weather might be better in their fall – late February and into March. This shouldn’t have been a surprise because it seems fall is a good time to visit anywhere.

NZ is getting to be quite touristy. This was most apparent in prices of some things. For example, there is a Royal Albatross colony near Dunedin on the Otago Peninsula. The whole end of the peninsula is fenced off, which is fair enough if you want to protect the colony, but it would have cost almost $60 per person to visit the colony and we just couldn’t justify the expense. The trip over to Stewart Island would have cost $63/person each way, so a one-day trip would have cost almost $250.

Some places, like Queenstown, seem to exist solely to provide adrenalin-linked activities like bungie jumping, parasailing and so on. Frankly those kinds of things didn’t interest me at all, so I really didn’t give places like Queenstown the time they perhaps deserved.

I was also rather disappointed to see the helicopter traffic over the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers. The buzz of choppers was nearly constant and quite annoying after awhile. These are National Parks, but there seems to be some sacrifice of “park values” to accommodating tourists in any way possible.

Internet access is a real issue in NZ. It’s expensive and sometimes difficult to find. I’ve since heard that some businesses have chosen not to set up in NZ because of this, so it’s not just me, apparently. It’s the kind of infrastructure thing that you start to take for granted in a developed country in the 21st Century.

Speaking of infrastructure, roads are also an issue. They are certainly are twisty. I expected this, to a certain extent, because I had been warned. They are also quite rough in many areas. Lots of narrow roads and single-lane bridges. I suppose it’s charming, in a way, but you’d think a country would want at least some efficient transportation links. There comes a time when just paving over a cow path turned into a wagon track just isn’t good enough.

Kiwis are certainly friendly, but we’ve experienced lots of friendly people on our travels, particularly in the USA. I think Kiwis were more interested in what you thought of your travels and experiences than what we’ve encountered in other places.

My least favourite place had to be Rotorua. This is the hot spring center of NZ. It wasn’t that interesting after what we’ve seen elsewhere, not that attractive and so we didn’t stay long.

I liked being able to buy my wine in a grocery store. It would be interesting to know if NZ has more of an “alcohol problem” than more “regulated” countries (like Canada???), not that state liquor stores have anything to do with liquor control in any way.

The wine and cheese were great in NZ and we enjoyed both of them lots while we were there.

Kiwis can’t be into breakfast cereal that much. I was surprised at the small selection of breakfast cereal and what was available was all packaged in small boxes. Maybe they are more into the “full English breakfast”.

It was a good experience being south of the Equator, essentially, so far as we were concerned, on a tropical (or at least sub-tropical) island. It was interesting in many ways. That said, there’s no place like home!

Camping in NZ - Part II - Equipment

We didn’t come to NZ really equipped for the backcountry, wherever that might be, but instead we were kitted out more for travel “camping”. In our case, that turned out to be a small Toyota HiAce van with an extended roof so you could stand up inside. I should point out that generally only ONE person could stand up at a time. The space could be described as cozy or cramped, depending on how charitable you’re feeling.

Our van is shown in the picture, camped at the Holiday Park in Raglan, North Island, underneath a flowering pohutukawa tree, a day before we flew home to Canada.

There were dozens and dozens of rigs like ours on the roads, along with many, many, many other types, most being larger and some even smaller and simpler than our rig. Although our rig was quite small, it had the advantage of being easy to negotiate the narrow, winding roads that were so common in many parts of NZ. I’m not sure, given the narrowness of some roads, if I’d want to be driving anything much larger than the vehicle we had.

Inside was a cabinet with storage and a small sink. Another cabinet with storage and a “cooker” which was a 2-burner propane unit. A small fridge went below the stove.

The unit was small and compact and just barely big enough for the two of us. For an extended trip like ours (about 5 weeks), it was a tad confining. Fortunately, it was spring so we were outside as much as possible. Unfortunately, there were blackflies….and wind….

Some interesting equipment (unusual in our camping experience) was supplied with the van: an electric kettle and an electric toaster. The fridge was also electric only, meaning that you either had to drive some each day to keep the battery charged up or you had to stay in a “holiday park” where you could plug into the “mains”. We also had a little plug-in electric space heater which was actually quite useful on a few nights.

Camping in NZ - Part I - The Holiday Park

Spending a few weeks in NZ “camping” certainly made me appreciate even more the freedom we have in our part of Canada to really camp. I’m sure there must be places like that in NZ, but we didn't really see them. NZ is a small country and there were many sheep farms and other forms of agriculture everywhere. Real wilderness seemed a bit elusive.

Some of the best wilderness is in National Parks like Fiordland, but there you’ll likely be on one of the famous “tracks” where you pay a pretty high fee to use it on a multi-day hike. In some cases you must stick to a set itinerary and might have to use the hut system if tenting isn’t allowed. The Milford Track, for example, may see in excess of 10,000 hikers on it each year. You won’t be alone.

What we saw a lot of people using for camping were vans, van campers, motor homes and the like and they all seem to be staying at the ubiquitous “holiday park” or “motor camp”. We rarely saw tents being used.

To me, this seems a lot like having most of the conveniences of home while traveling. What I mean is it isn't really camping. You get to tent or park on a gravel, asphalt or open grassy space, usually cheek by jowl with other campers. We were lucky: it wasn’t really high season when we were there and few campgrounds were really busy. In some “fields” where we camped, we were the only ones there. Some holiday parks had hedges separating the sites, but most were set up in open fields, usually very well mowed fields.

These holiday parks were everywhere. They had many sites with power outlets for the campers and “caravans” (trailers), but there was much more. They almost all had showers, kitchens, bathrooms, laundry facilities, and often quite a number of older trailers and small cabins (self-contained units). Some of these caravans are privately owned, the space being rented on a yearly basis. At one holiday park, I was told that renting a site for a year cost about NZ$2700. Some holiday parks even had dorms, sort of like hostels.

Speaking of which, there were hostels and “backpacker” accommodations all over the country as well, not something we needed to try out.

Rates for this kind of camping appeared to have increased significantly in the past few years. Few charged fees based on the site, but rather by the number of people. For example, a powered site might be $16/person, so for two people, $32. This was about the top end of what we paid, many were at least somewhat lower, but I understand there are other holiday parks that were more expensive than that.

I’d read about “freedom camping” before we’d left home. This might be called random camping in Canada but where we live, it’s kind of the norm, other than BC Provincial Parks, which usually just have gravel spaces in the trees. We seem to be doing more camping up some logging road pretty much where we want. There seemed to be less freedom in random camping in NZ these days, probably because of increased numbers of tourists, more areas where such camping is banned; the usual situation.

Some of our favourite camping was in DOC (Department of Conservation) sites. These were spotted all over NZ and were often in very nice locations: close to a beautiful beach, in old wooded areas, and so on. These “camping grounds” ranged from basic (pit toilets) to standard (water, flush toilets and some with campground hosts) and charged usually $6/person

Priorities - A Visual

This should make you think...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8381597.stm

A Brief Diversion

The following article caught my attention and diverted it from travel and my recovery from travel to something probably a bit more important:

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Huge+stakes+Canada+climate+change+deal/2337221/story.html

Kiwi Speak & Other Random Thoughts

It is well-known that Aussies and Kiwis speak with a characteristic accent. Just a few examples that I've heard or seen on our trip:

On a TV business show that we were watching in Auckland, a woman was describing how a company was going to use the proceeds of a share offering to reduce "net bank debt". How I heard it, though, was as "nit bank dit". This is more or less how the letter “e” is pronounced, as in saying NZ (en zed, but as Kiwi’s say it, “in zid”). The accent was unique, but not too difficult to catch on to.

Many, many of the towns, especially on the North Island, have Maori origins with names that are difficult to remember, unusual to pronounce and confusingly similar, at least to our ears. Finding a specific one on a map is a challenge. We finally got into the habit of referring to "that town that starts with an A", and the like.

As just one example, as we were leaving Rotorua, there were several small towns which went this way: Rotorua, Rotokawa, Ruato, Rotoiti and Rotoma, all within a distance of 20 km. Further along, there is Whakatane, Waingarara and Waiotahi. And then there's the puzzle about how to pronounce Hgongotaha. Suffice it to say, when we run into places like Hamilton and Cambridge and (on the South Island), places like Christchurch, Invercargill, Dunedin and Nelson, navigation seems easier.

We've been told that any name with a "wh" in it has that part of the name pronounced as "f". So "Mangawhai" is, we believe, pronounced "mangafay". There are many names with "wh" letters in them.

There are also untold numbers of place names starting with “w”, and not just easy ones like Wellington. By the end of our trip we were as confused as we were in the beginning.

Judder bars - these are what we know as rumble strips or speed bars or speed bumps. In NZ, the "judder bars" are serious enough to take the undercarriage out of your vehicle if you are unwise enough not to slow down. We encountered some in Franz Josef that were river rocks embedded in concrete.

Road construction is referred to as "works". You "give way" rather than "yield" and if there is a flagperson, you are supposed to "stop when requested". There are many road projects in the "works". In fact, I think NZ must have most of the orange safety pylons produced in the Western World. There were a few roads where travel for us was slowed down to 30 km/hr around and up and down very winding roads. What NZ probably really needs is a good supply of dynamite and some large earth movers to build some straighter roads. It’s made me wonder if NZ could cut their asphalt costs in half if they could straighten out their roads. I'm sure that all the wiggles in their roads must at least double the distance. But I digress.

Hot and cold water taps are often reversed, at least most of them seem to be. Maybe that’s just the “older installations”. Some of the newer places seem to have the hot and cold in the “normal” places.

Light switches are switched on by clicking them down, not up. There’s the left side driving, of course. Wall outlets are all switched individually with small switches on the wall outlet itself.

Camping is different. I’ll call it “camping” but it’s quite foreign to my kind of camping, but then I’ve never stayed at a KOA Kampground, so what do I know? I’ll write a separate post or two about “camping” later on.

Warning signs on the highways are big exclamation points. Some other highway warning signs are unusual and we have some pictures. You might encounter a herd (flock?) of sheep at any time.

Before coming to NZ, I was specifically warned about two things: the narrow, twisting roads (and they were) and the sandflies. The flies seem much like our Canadian blackflies and they are really quite bad plus they are almost everywhere. I guess that’s one good thing to say for high winds!

If you’re a pedestrian, you should be aware that vehicles don’t stop for you anywhere, with two exceptions: at controlled intersections with walk lights and at special “lollypop” crossings. Everywhere else, yer on yer own. Having been pedestrians in NYC and watched how aggressive they are there, the contrast was quite striking. Pedestrians here are very well behaved. Must be a form of behavioural natural selection.

Liquor laws are a bit different in that there are no state or government-owned booze stores (so we were told). You can buy your supplies of wine and beer at any grocery store or at independent liquor stores. The nice thing is that at most grocery stores, you can often find stuff on sale! I found beer more expensive than I was used to but wine was not bad in price and was often on special. Beer is less common in cans. Apparently cans have been decreasing in popularity to bottles in the past 10-15 years.

New Zealand has done away with the penny and the five-cent piece. The smallest coin you will see is the dime. A process called “Swedish rounding” is used to bring sale amounts to the nearest 10 cents. New Zealand also has a $1 coin and a $2 coin. They don’t have any special name for these coins the way we do in Canada. The $1 coin has the Kiwi on it, but I guess there is a limit to how many things you can call a kiwi in a country this size!

The End of Days

We’re finishing up the few days we have left in NZ (or as the Kiwi’s seem to pronounce it – “in zid”).

The ferry ride back to the North Island was uneventful and really quite smooth. We even had some sunny, warm weather in Wellington while we walked around a bit.

Our direction took us across a range of hills to the west coast of the North Island because we wanted to go by New Plymouth and Mt Egmont and perhaps do some hiking. We found a nice DOC campground for Friday night and made it to New Plymouth for Saturday night, with a great view out to the Tasman Sea, a sunset, a nearly-full moon and even a view of Mt Egmont.

Sunday we drove to Mt Egmont’s north side with the intentions of climbing the Summit Track. Unfortunately, the best views were just as we were starting off. The fog began to roll in so we really only climbed about 6-700 meters before giving up. Above that, the route became increasingly rough (Mt Egmont is an extinct volcano, so the rock is volcanic, of course), it began to shower and really sock in, so we dropped down to a lower track and after a few hours arrived back at the Visitor Centre and the van.

From there, we headed up the west coast as far as Mokau where we found a cheap campground next to a beach of fine, black sand. Not much beach walking, though, because the rain really started up in earnest. Maybe tomorrow.

Monday – we’re making our way back towards Auckland and with about 48 hours left to sightsee, find a sunny beach and get rested up for the flight back to Vancouver.

Pictures from Mt Egmont and area have been posted.

Maybe more later on depending on Internet access.

Closing the Circle – Christchurch to Picton

The weather in Christchurch wasn’t the most salubrious; showers and some rain, but it was an interesting place to walk around for a few hours. A very excellent Botanical Garden and nice old buildings in the city, including a cathedral and a stream they called the Avon, where you could take punt rides. Just so very British!

The road north was rather uninteresting – generally flat terrain, rain, cloud, fog and too far inland to see what the ocean was doing.

Eventually we did get back on the ocean where we found some nice beaches and a coastal track that Catherine walked. We stopped briefly in Kaikoura where there was a very nice coastal track.

The coast north of Kaikoura was a bit of a surprise. I had expected sand beaches and low-lying land, but instead the hills (can’t really call them mountains) descended right to the sea and there were rocky beaches and headlands for quite a distance. Hundreds of seals were littering the rocks along the way. Sunshine and blue skies would have been nice, but there were clear spots and a misty ambience to the shoreline that was quite nice.

By Wednesday we had arrived at Blenheim, a city of about 30,000 and the last large place before Picton where the ferry to the North Island docks. We found their library had APN Internet access so we made use of that before heading off to the nearby coast to look for hikes and camping.

Thursday morning was still windy, cloudy and showery, so we did one hike and headed for Picton, found a campground, got some food, found a fish and chips place and did some hiking. The weather continued to improve so that we were able to enjoy spots of sunshine and get our stuff dried out.

The weather forecast seems to indicate better weather for Friday so we’re hoping that the ferry ride over will offer some nice views. Where we’re camped here in Picton we can see the ferries as they come and go out through Queen Charlotte Sound.

We have 6 days left in NZ and will have most of 5 of those days making our way north out along the west coast of the southern North Island, past New Plymouth and Mt Egmont and further north to Auckland.

The Northward Track

After leaving Dunedin on Nov 28th, the direction remains north, with only slight diversions, until we get back to Auckland in about 10 days.

We found another very nice DOC campground at an out-of-the-way place called Trotter’s Gorge. It was only about 5 km off the main highway, but you could have been in a secluded valley miles away. There were probably 10 other vehicles staying there that night and we woke to blue skies and nice temperatures.

Just up the coast were the Moreaki Boulders. I’m not really sure of the proper geological term, but they might be very large geodes. Some had fallen apart, revealing a semi-hollow interior. In any case, they are like large, round boulders just lying on the beach. Probably about 4 feet high, partially buried in the sand. Interesting.

The “town” of Oamaru turned out to be a city of 12,000 with a surprising number of very nice sandstone buildings and another excellent public gardens. We continue to be amazed at how nice these public gardens are in New Zealand, keeping in mind that most of them were started back when the cities were first founded (over 130 years ago) and they aren’t just “parks”; they are botanical gardens with themed areas (Rhododendron Glades, azalia plots, rose gardens, and so on). Oamaru’s did a good job with various water gardens along with everything else. This town also had a breeding population of Blue Penguins, but we were there at the wrong time of day so we skipped it.

We’ll be in Christchurch in the morning (November 30). Christchurch is reputed to be a very “British” city. We’re planning to do the mid-city wander to try and get a feel for the place. After a great morning, the day’s weather has slowly deteriorated to cloud and a cool drizzle.

New Zealand – Dunedin

Another hurricane-like gale here on the NZ coast. We got bounced and jostled as we drove along the coast and finally into Dunedin, a small city of about 120,000. The city is built along a harbour and the sides of a long-extinct volcano. Needless to say, it’s steep, the roads are twisty and when you have no idea where you’re going….! Even with a map it can be tricky to figure out where you are and where you want to go.

Attractions worthwhile taking in (or not) while visiting Dunedin…:

The Dunedin Railway Station – interesting architecturally. Lots of nice tile mosaics inside.

The Speights Brewery Tour – not just because it makes good beer but because it’s one of the last gravity-operated breweries in the world and because it’s old. Lots of nice gleaming copper tanks and fixtures. My personal favourite is Old Dark.

The Botanical Gardens – we were astonished at how really, really great this was. It’s very large, the beds are excellent and very diverse, it has an aviary, a wonderful rhodo garden and so on. If you visit Dunedin, you really don’t want to miss this park. Allow at least a couple of hours. Sadly, many of the rhodos were on the decline by the time we visited (Nov 26); apparently they are at their peak in October, but they were still very nice to see.

The Otago Museum is nice as well with lots of displays, but don’t go there after a day of city walking because you’ll be far too tired to do it justice.

The Dunedin Public Art Gallery – had modern art when we visited. Sorry, but modern art doesn’t do much for me, in fact, it reminds me of the debate in Canada over public funding for such stuff – Voice of Fire and all that.

I spent some time just wandering around taking pictures of interesting buildings and things that are different from home. It’s a nice little city with lots of green space and attractive old buildings.

New Zealand - Southlands & the Catlins

After leaving Fiordland, we headed further south. From Te Anau to the next largest place, Invercargill, is only a drive of less than 3 hours on good roads and we were able to stop by mid-afternoon at a motor camp just north of Invercargill. The wind had been howling pretty much the while way and although it did calm a bit overnight, it was off again first thing in the morning.

Invercargill is a city of 50,000 and it’s seaport is a small place just south called Bluff. It was even windier there with nothing much other than a few small islands between the southern tip and Antarctica. Bluff is essentially the end of the road. We watched the boat to Stewart Island leave and it looked like it was going to be a very rough crossing.

Invercargill had a nice Museum and some interesting buildings, but otherwise, we only re-supplied the camper and headed further south and east. There is a Coastal Route that we took, stopping at a few places along the way to battle the wind and capture the views. Slope Point is the most southerly point on the South Island but I could hardly stand up in the wind. It was a brief stop.

We camped at Curio Bay where hedges of NZ Flax (large, broad-leaved plants) provided very good shelter from the wind. We were able to see 3 Yellow-Eyed Penguins coming ashore which was quite exciting as they are very rare and this is the only place where they can be seen. A sea lion was visible on the beach later in the evening, and the surf kept pounding and the wind kept blowing he rest of the night. A neat place.

The next morning, we drove slowly along exploring more of the Catlins, hiking to a few waterfalls and visiting another lighthouse on a very scenic point. We saw sea lions and/or fur seals (from a distance it was hard to tell which they were), and ending the day a bit early at Kaka Point Campground. The wind, which had disappeared for awhile, came back with a vengeance, so we found a camp spot in a sheltered location and hunkered in for the evening. We’re off to Dunedin tomorrow.

NZ - South Island - Fiordland National Park

New Zealand – South Island – Fiordland National Park

We arrived in Fiordland later in the afternoon. Weather had been getting more cloudy as the day progressed and we learned that MetService was forecasting a major downpour starting later in the night. We decided to camp and see what the weather was going to do.

It was a windy night but no rain. There was even some blue sky visible in the morning. We got up early and headed for Milford Sound. The scenery got progressively more scenic and spectacular as we went; unfortunately the rain started and got harder as well. We were able to see enough of the mountains to get some of a feel for how spectacular this place is. Huge cliffs with dozens and dozens of waterfalls pouring off them. There was also a single-lane1.2 km tunnel that was started in the 1930s and not completed until the 1950s. The rain, however, continued. This area apparently gets over 8000 mm of rain each year – that’s 8 meters of water. Maybe I should have brought my snorkel! Weather systems blow in from the Tasman Sea, hit these mountains and dump water for over 200 days of rain each year.

By early afternoon, things were looking a bit brighter. Once we could see Milford Sound well enough for a few pictures, we headed back up the road towards the tunnel and the south Milford Road. Bits of blue sky appeared. We were amazed at the number of waterfalls coming down from precipitous cliffs on each side of the road. Fantastic waterfalls just pouring with water after the rain and with melting snow up higher.

After enjoying the views as we progressed down the valley, we found another DOC campground and settled in for the night. It was a cute little place by a stream with good views of mountains up and down the valley.

In the morning, it was still raining. That had started during the night. We took the opportunity to sleep in. Hoping that the clouds would life, we drove back up to the start of the Routeburn Track, which we planned to hike some of today. We hiked for 4 ½ hours but the skies did not clear even once. The hike in the forest was nice, there was the sound of running water everywhere and we passed one of the huts that trampers use on this Track, but there were no views. Not one.

The next morning, Sunday, we woke to clearing skies so we went back and walked yesterday’s trails again. Skies cleared, blue appeared and views were great in all directions. We also hiked the rough trail to Marian Lake, nestled in a cirque surrounded by towering peaks.

One final night camping here and we’re off for the south coast and back up along the east coast – the Catlins, Dunedin, Christchurch….

NZ - South Island - Nelson & the West Coast

A ferry ride of about 3 ½ hours takes you from Wellington on the North Island to Picton on the South Island. Picton is small. It’s there mostly as a ferry terminal and we didn’t see much else to recommend it as a destination.

Within half an hour of Picton, we were in vineyard central. Field after field of grapes and wineries. So far, in a day and a half, we’ve made it from Picton to Abel Tasman National Park, which is about an hour past Nelson.

On the way to Nelson, we did a hike from Cable Bay to Glenduan, which climbed up steep open hills littered with sheep and sheep by-products and through some forest. It’s called Cable Bay because marine telecommunications cables connect to the North Island from here.

Further west of Nelson lies Abel Tasman National Park. We wanted to try at least some of the Abel Tasman Coastal Track, one of NZ’s “Great Walks”. In 4 hours before lunch the other day, we hiked up the trail a bit over 7 km and then back. This track was easy, with a trail about the width and smoothness of a sidewalk. Access here and there to really nice beaches and pretty good views. However, nice as it was, it wasn’t “spectacular”, so we moved on.

Our first real rain (intermittent showers, really), on the way to Westport, located on the South Island’s West Coast. Westport is a small town, but it had free Internet, courtesy of the APN. Also close to Cape Foulwind (so named by Capt Cook, so you can see what “his” view of the place was…), a seal colony and the beginning of some really spectacular coastline, right up there with the Oregon coast for spectacularity. Pounding surf, offshore and coastal rock pinnacles, short trails down to interesting bits on the shore and even some blue skies.

Our views of the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers were somewhat impeded by clouds obscuring the mountains, but the glaciers themselves were visible. I’m going to be a bit of a snob here and say that I was underwhelmed. As glaciers go, and I’ve seen a few, these were kind of narrow and unimpressive. The most interesting thing about them was the near-tropical rainforest that you walk in, almost up to the toe of the glacier. Just a bit incongruous. One annoyance was the constant buzz of helicopters. Many commercial operations run flights to the glacier and over the surrounding peaks. Consequently there was a constant stream of choppers flying up and down. Kind of affected the pristine wilderness image. Anyway, we’re hanging around here for the night to see if views improve in the morning. Given the nearness of the Tasman Sea, I’m not holding out much hope.

Nov 18th/09 – woke to clear skies!! Hiked around Lake Matheson and took pictures of Mt Tasman and Mt Cook, hiked back up to the Fox Glacier and then headed down the coast. Clear skies, warm temperatures and little wind; a perfect day for hiking and traveling around. After Haast, the last place on the coast, the road headed inland up the Haast Valley. Quite spectacular scenery with the river valley, the blue water and the Southern Alps poking up all over. We found a DOC campground where we could be right on the beach of a large lake with views of the “hills”.

Our next morning wasn’t completely clear, but there was great sunlight on the peaks and the drive down to Queenstown was scenic and easy, including a recommended shortcut that ended with a very steep hill and multiple hairpin turns.

Queenstown is in a very scenic location but it was bustling, crowded and busy. Kind of reminded me of a cross between Banff and Canmore during their busy seasons. I tend to get turned off when I can’t even find a place to have lunch. We spent the next couple of hours driving towards the entrance to Fiordland National Park. That will be in the next post.

NZ - South Island - Nelson & the West Coast

A ferry ride of about 3 ½ hours takes you from Wellington on the North Island to Picton on the South Island. Picton is small. It’s there mostly as a ferry terminal and we didn’t see much else to recommend it as a destination.

Within half an hour of Picton, we were in vineyard central. Field after field of grapes and wineries. So far, in a day and a half, we’ve made it from Picton to Abel Tasman National Park, which is about an hour past Nelson.

On the way to Nelson, we did a hike from Cable Bay to Glenduan, which climbed up steep open hills littered with sheep and sheep by-products and through some forest.

Further west of Nelson lies Abel Tasman National Park. We wanted to try at least some of the Abel Tasman Coastal Track, one of NZ’s “Great Walks”. In 4 hours before lunch the other day, we hiked up a bit over 7 km and then back. This track was easy, with a trail about the width and smoothness of a sidewalk. Access here and there to really nice beaches and pretty good views. However, nice as it was, it wasn’t “spectacular”, so we moved on.

Our first real rain (intermittent showers, really), on the way to Westport, located on the South Island’s West Coast. Westport is a small town, but it had free Internet, courtesy of the APN. Also close to Cape Foulwind (so named by Capt Cook), a seal colony and the beginning of some really spectacular coastline, right up there with the Oregon coast. Pounding surf, offshore and coastal rock pinnacles, short trails down to interesting bits on the shore and even some blue skies.

Our views of the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers were somewhat impeded by clouds obscuring the mountains, but the glaciers themselves were visible. I’m going to be a bit of a snob here and say that I was underwhelmed. As glaciers go, and I’ve seen a few, these were kind of narrow and unimpressive. The most interesting thing about them was the near-tropical rainforest that you walk in, almost up to the toe of the glacier. Just a bit incongruous. We’re hanging around here for the night to see if views improve in the morning. Given the nearness of the Tasman Sea, I’m not holding out much hope.

NZ Photo Album

We're on the West Coast of the South Island of NZ. Weather has been mixed but nice enough - sunny today, rain last night.... Small towns, real rural New Zealand.

Pictures are in two Picasa Albums:

North Island: http://picasaweb.google.ca/dave.mcc51/NewZealand2009NorthIsland#

South Island: http://picasaweb.google.ca/dave.mcc51/NewZealand2009SouthIsland#

We're probably spending another couple of days along this coast before we head up over the mountains towards Queenstown and the real Southland.

So far, we've been driving for 2 weeks and I think we've covered about 3400 km. And we've hiked, wandered around on loooooong beaches.....

North Island Impressions

Much of the area north of Auckland, which is by far the smallest part of New Zealand, is rolling hills, scenic shoreline areas and lots of agricultural fields. We've seen some logged-over clearcuts, just like in BC, although the regrowth is a bit different, being made up of giant ferns and other plants not seen in Canada.

There are long stretches of uninspiring scenery (mostly inland) and then stretches of shoreline with great views and beautiful beaches.

Travel is generally slow and most of the roads we've been on are very winding and quite narrow. Not, perhaps, as narrow as some we were on some years ago in Scotland, but pretty narrow considering the traffic on them. After driving on NZ roads for a week or so, I've decided that their roads are really quite rough. With the rough surface and winding nature of the roads, a full day of driving tends to make one pretty tired. We have had one "easy" stretch of highway, and that was most of the 300-odd km from Napier/Hastings south to Wellington. Except for a 13-km section of steep, mountainous, narrow and winding road through a range of hills, most of the road was more or less straight, adequate width (ie: to a modern standard), mostly with shoulders and quite smooth.

The winding road south from Kaitaia (about an hour south from Cape Reinga), following the west side of the island, is much nicer. There are many hills, much winding road and fields of livestock, but the whole area is just greener and more pleasant. Most of this is called the Awaroa Road and is quite a bit more attractive than the more easterly road, the SH1 (state highway 1).

Lots of the west side of the north island seems to have long stretches of sandy beaches. One long stretch is called, somewhat inaccurately, 90-mile beach. It might have been 90 kilometers, but I quibble..... It's a Loooooooong piece of beach no matter what the measuring system. Part of this would be the result of persistent pounding from the Tasman Sea. Apparently a good deal of the sand came from volcanic eruptions. In any case, there are huge sand dunes, some the size of minor mountains and miles of beautiful beaches made of impeccable sand.

We've been somewhat surprised at the shortage of water in many places. A number of campgrounds have had NO water at all, some just no potable water that they recommended boiling first. We can't say that we've noticed this shortage justifying a lower campground fee...... We've started making sure our water tank and other storage devices are filled with water whenever we do get the chance.

Internet access is becoming a favourite bugbear of mine. So much so, I’m dedicating a single blog post to the topic.

Foodies amongst the readers will be interested to know that diary products, despite NZ having a reputation in this "field", are more expensive than in Canada. Cheese and milk in particular. I have also been confused by the fat content of milk. I'm a person who drinks powdered skim all the time so I'm making a big concession on this trip and trying to drink just plain skim milk. Just try finding "that" information on the milk containers here. There is "standard", "slim" and "extra slim" but what those terms refer to, numerically, is anyone's guess. I'm sticking with "slim" since that's the body style I think I'd be most comfortable with. I’m guessing that’s 1%, but so far I’ve been unable to confirm that.

Chocolate milk, which we are buying because Catherine doesn't really like milk and this is one way to encourage her to drink the stuff, is advertised as being 98.5% fat free which I take to mean it's 1.5% fat. Finally, some information I can work with!

Finally, still on the topic of milk, I saw in the "Pack 'N Save" yesterday milk I hadn't seen before: bananna milk, lime milk and strawberry milk, as well as chocolate. If my taste buds get jaded on this trip, I might try those varieties.

Gasoline (petrol) is surprisingly not all that bad. I had expected worse. Also interestingly, the price has been almost the same all over the country. The "normal" price seems to be $1.659/litre. With the currency exchange in Canada's favour.....

If you want to kick your Coke habit, this is the place to come. I saw a flat of 24 cans of Coke selling for about $19.00. That’s more expensive than beer!!

NZ Internet - Definitely NOT Up To Speed

We're used to easy access to free or nearly free Internet in Canada and the USA. At home, we have always-on, 24/7, "high speed" virtually unlimited access for about $1 a day and a few pennies. Since telecom companies can charge that and still make money, I'm assuming that providing Internet access like that must cost a lot less, given the way telecom companies operate.

Almost all libraries in Canada and the USA offer free Internet. Most hotels and motels just offer free access (including WiFi) as part of the collection of amenities available. Kind of like hot water, TV, a bed...... Safeway food stores in some parts of Canada (ie: Nelson, BC), at least the ones with Starbucks or whatever coffee purveyor they have, offer free WiFi. I can stand outside most Staples, Office Depot and Best Buy stores and pick up a signal. We live in a small town of about 1000 people and there are, by a rough count, at least 4 places where a person with a laptop can pick up a signal. That includes the local bar/hotel where you can catch up on your e-mail, book a hotel, check ferry connections or do your social networking, all while having a pint of a local brew.

In NZ, there is almost nothing, by comparison. Very few libraries offer free Internet access and even fewer have WiFi access. The main city library in Auckland did have free wireless, but it was, like the library in Devonport, just across the harbour from Auckland, slow to the pont of unusability. You "can" buy access, but being spoiled the way I am, I've been resisting this option. Frankly, I'm not prepared to pay up to $10/hour for access, no matter whose currency that amount is in. Further south, in Greytown, an organization called the APN (Aotearoa People's Network) is working to get free Internet access to libraries. They are making progress, but apparently they have a long way to go. I was able to use the same network at the library in Westport, out on the West Coast.

I need to find out from a local what home Internet costs; perhaps telecommunications costs significantly more here than in North America. We have seen fewer people with cell phones, so perhaps that's the reason. It's difficult to see how people would use the Internet to do business, communicate and do research if it costs so much. Is this caused by a lack of competition in the ISP field or has the wireless "craze" just not hit here yet? I have to say I've seen few if any of the small computers similar to what I'm carrying on this trip.

Wellington - NZ Capital City

About 450,000 people live in the greater Wellington area, but the downtown core is so crowded and space is at such a premium that only about 150,000 people actually live there. Most live north of the city in some extended suburbs with names like Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt.

In at least some ways, it’s a typical hilly (very hilly) old port town. Narrow, winding streets, buildings crowded together in a very limited space.

In addition to being a port city, of course, Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand, so it has all the infrastructure of government there as well.

The city has a very nice Botanical gardens, the city seemed clean and tidy, and it’s busy building better transportation lines to move traffic in and out of the city more efficiently. The “motorway” near the city seemed very new and some parts were still being worked on. One can only imagine the traffic problems before the motorway was completed.

We walked around a bit, went around the Parliament Buildings (one part being a building they call The Beehive – gotta be the hive of activity generated by all those civil servants), saw the old Dominion Observatory overlooking the city and enjoyed the flowers and trees in the Botanical Gardens.

Wellington has a reputation of being a very windy town. For us, it was windy and cool one day and sunny, calm and warm the second day while we were waiting for the ferry. The wind does whistle through the Cook Strait, that body of water separating the two islands.

No Remembrance Day Here....

Just a quick update....

It's Nov 12 (Nov 11 back in North America) and Remembrance Day came and went here, seemingly without notice. I guess it's not a date observed here.

We're just passing through Greytown which is about 80 km north of Wellington. We stopped here mostly because Catherine wanted to look for a particular shop (chocolate, would you believe??) and so she's out looking for it. I took the wee computer and went looking for likely prospects for Internet connections and immediately found one at the town Library. Let's hear it for Libraries!! Actually, this wireless connection is provided courtesy of some area "people's network". All I can say is NZ needs WAY more of this.

I'm getting caught up on bills, e-mail, blogs and picture uploading.

We'll be in Wellington today, probably later this afternoon, and likely will sail to the South Island tomorrow - I think that's Friday, although I've somewhat lost track of what day of the week it is. Not that it really matters!!

The South Island is supposed to be WAY different and we're anticipating some stellar scenery. The North Island has had some superb beaches and seacoast, but more about that later on.

New Zealand - Heading South, slowly....

On Saturday, Nov 7th, we got up to a beautiful morning - cool, calm, some morning fog to burn off and the town of Rowene looking very pleasant. We walked around the town for awhile, took a boardwalk through a mangrove swamp and checked out the local Saturday market. This a very attractive looking area with nice green hills and valleys. A sky full of blue also helped.

We followed Rte 12 south through the twin towns of Opononi and Omapere and on to an exceptionally twisty road through the Waipoua Forest, home to some very large Kauri trees. These trees aren't all that tall, by BC standards, but they sure are thick. The old one we saw, listed as being about 2000 years of age, was about 13 meters in circumference, pretty much from base to the top where the branches started sprouting out. Not sure how the average chainsaw would handle one of these.

The town of Dargaville was a good find because Catherine noticed an i-Centre as we rolled into town and decided to find out where Internet might be available. It just happened that the operator of the i-Centre was just getting the wireless set up and her tech guy had just walked in the door. We had a lunch and by then everything was ready. The wireless was fast and nearly free. The attached shop sold various wood products, and although very nice, they were pretty much out of our price range.

We continued on down the coast, ending up just past Helensville at Shelly Beach where we found a campground - no potable water at this one either. Pretty cheap, though, as campgrounds go (NZ$20).

We picked a Sunday morning to go back through Auckland. The North Island is quite narrow at this point and you must go through the city, or at least part of it, to get anyfurther south. We took the opportunity to drop by the rental agency to extend our vana rental by 3 days. We'll now be dropping it off just a few hours before our flight home leaves Auckland.

South of Auckland by about 90 minutes is the city of Hamilton. One of its notable attractions is the Botanical Gardens. We had a nice, sunny, warm few hours to wander around the gardens and took lots of pictures. Some plants were familiar but many were not. Where there were plant labels, we often did not even recognize the plant families listed.

The night of the start of our second week in NZ was spent in Cambridge, a short drive from Hamilton and another place (of only a very few we've seen so far) with a pronouncable name. Our weather continues to be quite nice although somewhat cool at times. We haven't had any truly miserable weather yet. It's been fairly windy, but to people who have lived on the prairies, nothing too unusual. We seem to get some sun and some heat, each day. Generally the cool weather has made for quite pleasant traveling.

Monday, Nov 9th - from Cambridge to Rotorua, which seems to have a reputation as being kind of New Zealand's answer to Yellowstone in the USA. Personally, I didn't see much here to interest me. We walked around but all I saw were a few steam vents, some bubbling mud pools and some hot water ponds. It's a town of about 75,000 people and it was probably as interesting walking up and down the streets as anything else. I would have been happy to spend less time there.

Since we were already over on the east coast, almost, we decided to travel out around the East Cape, from the Bay of Plenty around the coast to the east and then south to Gisborne and then Napier and Hastings. We've read that this area is very quiet, very scenic and not so touristy as some areas (like Rotorua?). Sounds like an area we'd like. We found a quiet motorhome camp near the small village of Opape. It didn't give the appearance of being very nice (quite a few old trailers and old vehicles around), but it's clean, very quiet and we are the only people staying here tonight. We're also about 100 feet from another of New Zealand's extensive beaches.

Tuesday, Nov 10th - spent the day traveling the East Coast highway, heading more easterly in NZ. Around lunch time, we arrived at East Cape which is the most easterly point in New Zealand. Sunrise arrives here each day before anywhere else in the world. There was a short hike up to a lighthouse with a nice view of the Pacific and an offshore island where the lighthouse was in years past. Stayed at a campground near Tolaga Bay, site of NZ's longest wharf, even if it is slowly falling apart!

Spent Nov 11th driving to Gisborne and then on to Napier. The drive south was exceptionally tortuous, windy and rough. NZ is a hilly place, but their roads do seem to wind around and up and over everything in the way. Makes for slow and tiring travel. Captain James Cook landed in these areas back in the 1700s and there are numerous memorials and the like. Napier has a good collection of Art Deco buildings so we did a short walk around the downtown to see some of these. This was done during a series of intermittent showers and wind. About the only unpleasant weather we've had so far. Tomorrow we're off to Wellington. It will be interesting to see how long this this drive takes. It's only about 350 km....

New Zealand - The First Few Days

Our second day in Auckland (Nov 2nd) is mostly done and our feet are tired again.

The hike around Devonport was really quite nice - lots of shops, a chance to try some Kiwi beer (Speights is nice) and finally, around 2 pm, a lunch of pulled pork and very excellent fries. We finally found a real grocery store and were able to satisfy our curiosity about some prices here. I think, basically, prices here for many things are somewhat like Canada's or a bit more. Some things are a lot more. The currency rate does give us a bit of a break.

We hiked to the top of two little hills in Devonport, both extinct volcanoes, and both of which had been used as gun stations in years past and which are now developed into public parks. Although the guide book describes the views from each as "spectacular", I think that's bit of hyperbole, at least to us. The views were nice, they were certainly panoramic, but I don't think I'd describe them as "spectacular". However....not to quibble too much.

So far, I haven't found a free Internet connection that's been fast enough to be bothered using. Maybe it's just the distance between NZ and the rest of the world :-). I may have to give up and go to an Internet cafe and see if that's better.

The flowers and other plants in the yards we've walked by are most interesting and generally quite different from what we have back home. Lots of nice big blooms and good smells everywhere. I did see a New Zealand Goldfinch - colored quite differently from the North American kind and quite attractive.

We had part of an evening out with the son of one of Catherine's good friends in Saskatoon. He lives in Auckland and plays for the New Zealand Symphony. Supper at an Asian restaurant which was very crowded, very noisy (chaotic, even), but with excellent food. We ate far too much and "took the air" on Mt Evan, overlooking the city.

On Tuesday (Day 3), we picked up the camper van. This involved getting up earlier than our bodies really wanted to and taking the shuttle bus back to the airport and having the rental company pick us up. After the forms and an overview of the rig, we tentatively drove off down the street, Catherine navigating us to the nearest grocery store where we stocked up before heading north. Today merited an early stop and we finally, after some searching, located a campground and spent some time unpacking, organizing the small space in the camper and having a restorative snack. A walk on the beach, supper and some writing, and it's time to get ready for bed. We're both pretty tired, proof being Catherine falling asleep while I was driving. That's not unusual in itself, but for it to happen in a new country, while we're trying to get used to driving on the left, on narrow, winding roads.....

The next days, Nov 4 and 5, we used to travel further north, with Cape Reinga being the ultimate goal, the northern-most point in New Zealand, that you can get to by road, at least.

On Nov 6 (Friday), we finished the drive to Cape Reinga in about an hour from our campground, hiked around, lay about on a very nice beach for awhile, got cleaned up and decided to head south because it was too windy to be really pleasant. A drive of somewhat over 3 hours got us to Rawene, a small town of about 500 people on the west coast of the Island, where we finally found a campground with water. Water does seem to be an issue here. It's often not available or available in small quantities or it needs to be boiled to make it safe to drink. Some campgrounds we've been in didn't have any water at all.

Today, Nov 7th, is a glorious day - sunny, warm but not hot. We're off to explore.....

Auckland....

Although our flight to Auckland was booked through Air Canada, the actual flight was operated by Air New Zealand. I have to say that it was a rather pleasant flying experience, as much as 14 hours of sitting can be pleasant.

Flight crew were pleasant and helpful, and informative. Not something we always experience. We were served a supper and a breakfast. Both meals were very good and we were even given a glass or two of wine for supper, a nice touch, I thought. Small pillows, blankets and headsets were provided, as was an exensive number of movies. I mamaged to watch "The Time-Travellers Wife", "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" and some of "The Last King of Scotland".

I did manage to get a bit of sleep, but trying to sleep sitting up doesn't work well for me and airplace seats are pretty uncomfortable no matter what you do. I spent several hours sanding at the back of the plane and pacing up and down the aisles, as well as peering out the windows. We were getting a nearly full moon shikning out over the Pacific Ocean and I also saw a few small islands along the way. We crossed the Equator at about 4 am (PST) and the International Date Line an hour or two later.

The plane must have had a great tail wind, because we were maintaining a ground speed of over 900 km/hr and got frm Vancouver to Auckland in just over 13 hours.

Arrival day, though, finds us rather tired, having been awake for how long - I haven't even bothered to add it up. Too long. We walked around some of the city's harbour and had a short nap. Several more hours of walking took us through a beautiful park, flower gardens, the Museum and back to our temporary cubicle in the hotel. A good night's sleep will help us be a bit friskier tomorrow.

Monday - Nov 2/09 - had a good night's sleep which made us feel pretty good. So far today, we've taken the ferry over to Devonport where we've spent the last several hours hiking around. It's a beautiful community, great gardens, interesting shops and, a nice surprise, used book stores, where we found a NZ birds and a NZ trees book. Weather has been mixed, but generally quite nice. Easy for us to say, coming from Canada!

Pictures have been uploaded from yesterday's hikes and are at: http://picasaweb.google.ca/dave.mcc51/NewZealand2009#

We're finding free Internet kind of hard to find, but the libraries seem to have it. We are getting oriented and a bit better organized, but I'm still having some trouble realizing that I'm actually in the South Pacific.

Today's the Day

No picture with this post. Far too foggy out here on the wet coast. We spent the night at friend Lucille's fab place outside Port Moody - close to the water, close to nice hikes, the potential of nice views (when the fog lifts)..... and she drove us to the airport! So we're sittin' here, just sittin' here, waiting until it's time to go through security, find something to eat and wait until boarding time.

So far, the trip excitement was the snow we had to drive thru just to get to Vancouver. The mountain passes are snowy already. Paulson pass west of Castlegar had snow, just not quite enough to ski on. The day after, we ran into new snow and slush on the road not far from Summerland in the south Okanagan. As we got further west, the roads improved, although it did rain harder.

Air New Zealand had lots of agents at their ticket counters, checkin went fine and now we're taking turns hiking around the terminal building just to keep the blood flowing in the extremities. It's going to be a long flight in sitting position. Fortunately I can pace up and down and around the aisles of the plane.....don't expect to be sleeping much.

Next stop.....Auckland.

No Room at the Inn...er..woodshed

I should have been packing today, or at least getting organized to pack, but when opportunity knocks....

There's been a fire interface (fuel management) project on some crown land just to the north of our little subdivision. This is where a crew comes in and removes all the dead or dying trees and lots of the little stuff in the hopes that if there ever is a fire, there is less chance of it spreading, or perhaps spreading as fast.

This project is generating lots and lots of firewood, as you might imagine. Our woodshed is full, because we've spent the past month or so hauling and chainsawing dead trees and Catherine has been splitting. We finished filling the woodshed just the other day. This new wood was just so easy to get - back a trailer up to the pile, chainsaw off the pieces and throw them in. Drive down the road about 200 meters to our place and stack the wood ..... well, where, exactly? I ended up piling it up outside the woodshed and covered it with a tarp. It can stay there until spring.

I guess tonight and tomorrow morning, early, I really should get packed.

Goodbye Fall, Hello Spring

The past week or so has been pretty busy. We're mostly working to get the estate here ready for winter, driven mostly by the realization that we will soon be away for about 7 weeks. By the time we get back home, it will be winter.

We've been collecting leaves, horse manure and soil, working on the various garden beds around the place, cleaning the house, splitting wood and just generally finishing off the fall season.

Fall is usually quite pretty here in the Koots. We can look up to the hills above us and across the lake and see many, many golden larches in their fall splendor. The leaves in town might not be quite as nice as they are some years, but the sight of a large maple in full fall regalia is quite pleasing to the eye and the camera.

Today is one of those foggy, cloudy, rainy, soggy days that we get around here on occasion. There is even some snow mixed in with the general precipitation. A good day to work inside.

We're heading off for New Zealand in a few days, where spring is under way already. The packing is close to completed, just the travel to Vancouver and the looooong plane flight (14 hours). One oddity is that we will miss October 31 completely. We leave on the 30th and arrive in Auckland on November 1. October 31 will just disappear.

It should be possible to update the blog once in awhile and pictures will be posted to Picasa as usual. Watch for them.

Pork - Canadian Style

A Canadian institution without doubt, but why do Canadians keep putting up with it?

The recent news seems to highlight how inequitably the present government is handing out infrastructure grants. Reports are that Conservative ridings are receiving a disproportionate share of this funding. In case after case, across the country, Conservative ridings are receiving significantly more money than others.

Conservatives, having been caught out, are claiming that they are justified in receiving credit for funding and that "their" people are just working hard for their ridings. As if anyone would seriously believe this bull. This government was in denial about the approaching economic crisis in the first place and had to be dragged kicking and screaming into developing any infrastructure plans at all, so I'm not sure where they deserve credit. Besides, it's not their money, it's ours.

This is a government that swore they would improve transparency and end the pork-barrel politics that has been a feature of Canadian life since the days of John A. They promised a few other things as well, but apparently that's another sacred Canadian tradition.

The Conservatives have been denied a majority a couple of times now. Analysis believe it's because voters don't really trust them. Considering what the Conservatives under Mr Harper are doing with a minority, that fear could be well founded.

It would also help if the other parties would find some leaders who aren't such duds. Sorry, but the alternatives to the Tories are pathetic.

I've got a novel idea that might resolve this. In the next election, voters should give the Tories their majority and let's see just how bad they are when they have enough seats to do what they "really" want to do. Then the Canadian electorate (should they actually remember or care enough come the next election), can relegate this regressive crew to the dustbin of Canadian politics where they so justly deserve to be.

It's More Than Just American Unreason

The family librarian brings me a steady stream of fiction and "good literature", for which I am grateful, but recently she brought home this book, an excellent example of non-fiction, and a genre I tend to select when left to my own devices in the Library. It made for an excellent read, even though it certainly leaves one shaking one's head at the benighted state of today's store of knowledge, whether that's knowledge of science, of geography, or whatever. And, despite the title, it's not just Americans who suffer from this.

If I can paraphrase Bart Simpson, the prevailing state of mind seems to be: "Ignorant and proud of it".

I also happened to hear Richard Dawkins being interviewed on CBC Radio's The Current, back on September 29, where you can listen to the whole interview. Mr Dawkins quotes surveys that indicate 44% of Americans deny evolution and believe that the earth is less than 10,000 years old. In Britain, 28% believe that humans co-existed with dinosaurs and 19% believe it takes one month for the earth to orbit the sun. A short clip was played where an Arizona state legislator was recorded as saying that the earth was only 6000 years old, a statement equivalent to, according to Dawkins, believing the distance across the USA is only about 50 meters.

CBC Radio's Quirks & Quarks from last January had a program segment about what the new American President should know about Science (Physics, especially), from a new book, Physics for Future Presidents. Just to remind ourselves, we're only a scant year after the 8-year term of George DubYa Bush, who rejected pretty much all scientific advice. Some of the comments made in this program segment were later attacked by some listeners; these were categorized by another listener as "What you're saying conflicts with what I believe, therefore you can't say that". There's a lot of this going around.

As Dawkins pointed out, we wouldn't want to fly in a plane where the pilot didn't know anything about flying, or go to a surgeon who didn't know anything about anatomy, but we seem to elect politicians who don't know anything about science, or geography, or world history, or economics, and who seem to be proud of it.

When you hear these stories, you need to remind yourself that we live in the 21st century and are surrounded by the results of much applied science (for better and for worse). It's almost inconceivable that so many people could be so poorly educated and in such a state of complete denial of so much of of our natural history. It's time, according to Dawkins and Jacobs, to stop accepting such ignorance as "other valid opinions" and start standing up for the knowledge we've gained in science. Evolution does happen, genetics is real, the earth is much older than 6000 years, dinosaurs disappeared 65 million years before humans appeared....

Monica Meadows

We've been planning a quick hike to Monica Meadows to see the fall larch color and have been waiting for an opportunity in conjunction with the height of fall color in the alpine. Monica Meadows is possibly one of the most scenic areas around here. Last fall we had a glorious day hike at the end of September with beautiful color in the larches, a blue sky and warm temperatures. This year we weren't so lucky.

We've been having a cold spell recently and some rain which almost always translates into snow up higher. As you can see from the photo, there was certainly snow up where we hiked. In some places, it would have been over my boots if I hadn't had my gaiters on. Did I mention that it was also pretty cool? Fortunately, there were blue patches in the sky and spots of sunshine here and there. The drive up Glacier Creek was, as always, very scenic, and the hike in and out of Monica Meadows was pretty fast, helping to burn up some calories on the day before Thanksgiving day dinner. This was also Andrea and Demitri's first visit to this area, although I have this feeling they were looking at the snowy slopes trying to figure out how they could get in here for some skiing this winter.

The photo looks out across some of Monica Meadows to the south, towards the Horseshoe Glacier which is just west of Jumbo Pass, the place where they still (thankfully) don't have another ski resort. For more pictures, visit http://picasaweb.google.ca/dave.mcc51/Summer2009#

Where NOT to shop in Radium, BC

I continue to be annoyed by the way some businesses go out of their way to gouge customers. My most recent experience was at the Mountainside Market in Radium, BC.

Heading back home after a week at Stanley Mitchell, I was hoping to pick up a sub or something for supper. Hmmm - no Subway in Radium. So I tried the grocery store across the street. The deli selections were exceptionally limited and expensive so I ended up with a litre of milk and a bag of chips - protein, fat and carbs in 2 easy packages.

My issue is with their price for milk. At this store, in Radium, one litre of skim milk was selling for just over $3. I don't expect "Superstore" prices in towns like this, but in Cranbrook, about 90 minutes south of Radium, the same milk was selling for about $1.40.

My recommendation? Don't shop at the Mountainside Market in Radium. One hour north, there is an Overwaitea in Golden and south about 90 minutes there is Superstore in Cranbrook. Get supplies before you visit Radium. I can't think of any reasonable justification for what this store charges for milk other than an attempt to capitalize on the needs of the traveling public and the lack of competition.

Exploring the Koots - 0928 - Woodbury Valley

No sooner than I was back from Stanley Mitchell then we were off on another hike. Monday looked like it was going to be a nice day, so we decided to hike in to the Woodbury Cabin in Kokanee Provincial Park.

The route includes a 13 km drive up the Woodbury Creek FSR and an 8 km hike up the valley to the cabin. About 700 meters of elevation gain as well. As we started, it was clear that the day was going to be another stellar mountain day - blue skies, warming temperatures but with that hint of fall in the air.

The Woodbury valley was burned quite extensively in 2003 but vegetation has started to return, most of which was showing fall colors under all the burned tree trunks still standing. A sub-three-hour hike got us to the cabin, situated on a bench overlooking the Woodbury Glacier on the edge of a larch meadow under a number of surrounding granite peaks. It's an oddly-shaped cabin but it sits in an avalanche path (why I have no idea) and has been hit by snow slides in the past, so it's designed to deflect the snow, hence it's shape.

I took an hour to scramble up to a ridge with the desire to see what was on the other side. We were quite close to the main part of Kokanee Prov Park - just over a ridge, but all I could see was the other side of the mountain and down into Keen Creek. There is also a high traverse from another nearby hut, the Silver Spray cabin. A project for next summer.

After wandering around, lunching and such, we headed down, stopping briefly to pick yet more huckleberries. After a round trip of over 16 km, we were at the trailhead, headed for home and supper after another great day in the Koots. A few pictures of the day have been added to the Summer 2009 album on Picasa at: http://picasaweb.google.ca/dave.mcc51/Summer2009#

SM - A New Definition of Party

Another of the Alpine Club's workparties to repair and renovate another of their huts, this time the Stanley Mitchell Hut in Yoho National Park.

This time, it was to replace several logs that were rotting, install a new kitchen and do a number of other smaller tasks needed to keep this historic hut (built in 1939) in good shape.

The Hut is very popular in summer and also in winter as a skiing destination so it sees a lot of use. I had a chance to work on the renovations during the first week of the project. Given that it was the last week of September, the weather was fantastic - clear skies, warm temperatures and the company of a number of ACC staff and several other volunteers made this a great week. It's always interesting to see people so willing to take time out of their busy lives to volunteer on these projects, work from sunup to sun down in the middle of the usual workparty chaos.

Of necessity, most of the hut somewhat resembled a war zone for most of the week. Logs, tools, discarded kitchen parts, generators, excavations around the hut.....

We were flown in on Monday and I hiked out on Saturday afternoon. It was a bit nostalgic, hiking out over the Iceline Trail. This is an area that we've hiked in for decades and there were many pleasant memories of other hikes. That and plus fall is my favourite season. Hiking in the mountains in the fall has to be one of the best ways to spend your time.

Pictures of the week can be seen at: http://picasaweb.google.ca/dave.mcc51/StanleyMitchellRenovationsSep2009#

Exploring the Koots - 0914 - Saddle Mtn

One of the peaks on Catherine's list for this season has been Saddle Mountain. This distinctive peak rises just across Arrow Lake (Columbia River) from Nakusp, a mere 2 hours from home.

Because it's been pretty hot lately and wanting to get an early start, we drove over on Sunday afternoon, had supper in Nakusp and then went looking for a place to camp out for the night. There was one Provincial Park just down the Lake from Nakusp, but we were a bit surprised to find it completely full. So we crossed the Lake on the Arrow Park Ferry and drove along the west side of Arrow Lake looking for possibilities. One overgrown track into the woods seemed worth exploring and we were pleased to find it ended on the shore of the Lake with no reason not to use it for the night.

The night was cool and clear but we were able to sleep in the back of the truck with a sky full of stars overhead. Coyotes could be heard a few times yipping in the distance, but it was a very peaceful night. We were up early to complete the few km drive to the trailhead.

Unlike many trails in the Koots, this one ascended gradually and was well constructed, leading in just under 2 hours to an old fire lookout right on the peak of Saddle Mtn. A few minutes scrambling up the final 50 feet brought us as high as it was possible to go. Views weren't as good as they could have been - there are still some fires in the area and the heat has increased the haze, but we were definitely on the highest thing in the area and after such an easy hike, too.

We spent some time absorbing the views and then began the descent, stopping for a short time to fill 2 containers with huckleberries. Then it was back home, delayed for a short time because of an issue with the ferry but in time for a brew before supper.

Exploring the Koots - 0912 - The 4 Squatters Trail

High above Duncan Lake sits another icefield, the 4 Squatters Glacier, with several peaks poking up above the ice and snow. It was visible several times from our Macbeth Icefield trip last month and there was obvious interest in learning a bit more about it, so.....

Last Saturday, Dan, Robert and I drove the 40-odd km along Duncan Lake, itself about an hour from home, then up a very old logging road, now mostly gone to grass, hiked up a mining track and then onto a trail. This trail has been cleared and improved recently by a couple of dedicated souls, but it's still pretty steep, as the photo shows. Views out over Duncan Lake and the surrounding mountains was quite fantastic. In less than 2 hours of hiking, we arrived at the alpine meadows with increasingly good views of the 4 Squatters Glacier. We wandered in the general direction of the glacier to see where there might be good access, evaluated possible camping locations and generally enjoyed the views in all directions. This was just a short recon trip so after soaking up the scenery, we descended, headed back to the Lake, had a swim and drove home.

Although the trail is locally known as the "Oma Trail" (I think), no such name exists on any map. Possibly the correct name should be "Gravelslide Trail" or the "Squatters Trail". Not that names matter much. It's just another backcountry route that isn't in any trail book and one that wouldn't be easy or perhaps possible to find without directions. Nothing like a bit of local beta.

Midnight Obsession

If Skype, Blogger, Facebook, e-mail and all that wasn't enough, I seem to have developed an interest in a new way to wile away the hours I'm awake in the middle of the night - WikiTravel. It's an on-line, free, travel guide in the style and spirit of Wikipedia. Contributors are called Wikitravelers and apparently I've become one of them. So far, I've developed a page for Kaslo, updated the article on the West Kootenays and fixed up a link to a region of New Zealand called the Catlins. It's one new use for the little Asus netbook that I picked up last month while I was in the south. If I wake up at 2 am, as I often do, I can lie in bed reading and typing away until I run out of battery power. Usually I get sleepy first, though. It could be an obsession, but perhaps I'm the wrong person to be answering that question!

The New BC Economics?

Hot on the heels of finishing my latest book, Hot, Flat & Crowded, I came across this article in the online GlobeInvestor. I was feeling pretty discouraged by the time I finished the book and, although I won't say the Globe article perked me up completely, it did point out some positive moves in the right direction right here at home.

Water, Water, Everywhere, but.....

Regular readers will know that our little neighbourhood has been involved in a project to install water meters over the past year. In fact, the discussion about such a project started over 2 years ago. The good news is that we're finally just about finished. All the meters except 1 or 2 are in, the membership has approved the new rate structure and the new metered system is going into effect at the beginning of 2010. I thought I'd take a look at some of the (occasional) points that I've heard from various quarters about this whole initiative.

Cost of connecting to the system: We're going to be charging $0.65/day just to be hooked up to the water system, even if you use NO water. By comparison, the phone company charges about $26 per month although you do get your local calls included in this. The power company charges about $15 as a flat fee per month although they can spread the cost of the power grid over thousands of connected customers. So we're probably about on par with the other utilities on this one.

Cost of water: Our system is going to charge $1 per cubic meter (m3). That's 1000 litres and works out to $0.001 per litre. That's one tenth of a cent per litre. Today, in our area, gasoline sells for about $1.10/litre, milk is about $1.50/litre and a cheap Aussie wine is going for about $17/litre. Electricity is in the neighbourhood of 7 cents per kilowatt hour. At our house, during the summer, we probably spend about $50/month for electricity. The real comparison? You can do without or cut back on everything I've listed here EXCEPT the water. Yup - water is the cheapest item here and it's also the most essential. You would die without it.

Now everyone knows how much water you're using: At the gas pumps, we regularly watch other customers fill up with gas and I assume other people notice how much gas I'm getting...or do they? We're so used to filling up the car we probably don't even pay attention anymore. But we could...if we wanted. If you're filling up next to a Hummer sometime, watch for how much gas the owner needs, and, if you're feeling frisky, make a comment about it. The phone company measures every minute of your calls, the power company meters every KwH of electricity and Esso certainly won't let you have any gas unless it's measured by the gas pump thing. More to the point, as part of a system that we run ourselves and on which we all depend, excessive users of water are a concern to all of us.

The problem, in much of the "developed" world, is that water has been seen as cheap and plentiful and we've come to believe that it should be free. Well, maybe not "free" but certainly "cheap". Some consumers just can't understand why we should be metering it and charging for what we use.

Can't we just run the pumps 24/7? Then we wouldn't need water restrictions: I can't really take this suggestion seriously, mostly because it's only been made by individuals who don't involve themselves in cleaning filters, turning the pumps on and off or helping to maintain the system.

There's lots of water in the Lake: The same claim was made about the number of cod in the Atlantic, the amount of oil in the ground, the ability of the oceans to dilute our wastes and the atmosphere to absorb whatever we spewed into it. None of these statements were true and were obviously shortsighted. The main problem with all that water in the Lake is exactly that - it's in the Lake. It needs to be pumped, filtered, treated, tested, stored, and distributed. Plus, in our system, the whole thing is run and maintained by volunteers, so we're not even paying the "real" cost of the whole process. These days, it shouldn't be necessary to mention that just because we happen to have lots of a resource doesn't mean we can justify wasting it.

Fairness: Under the current flat-rate system, everyone pays the same amount no matter how much water he or she uses. Obviously, each household's water use is different. As well, the volunteer help to run the system varies widely, from no help at all by some to many dozens of hours of work by others. To put it simply, households using more water than any others and individuals contributing no help to the system are being subdized by people who use less water and contribute hours of labour. It's time everyone paid their own way.

This is BC. No one is metering and there's lots of water: Hmmm - there may be lots of water in some parts of the province but, aside from what we are required to do to it to meet government water quality regulations, the fact is that many communities are starting their own meter programs quite frankly because they are facing a supply or a capacity crisis. The recent news has had several stories making this very point. Some of those communities are not that far away.

It has been interesting through this whole process, so far, to see the range of reactions to water metering. It's all part of the education and acclimitization process, I guess. I don't know of anyone who ever reads his or her own electric meter just to see how much running their stereo is costing. We just use it. If we're feeling thrifty or conservation-minded, we install CF lights and insulate the hot water heater. I expect in a year or so everyone will stop worrying about the water meter. The quarterly bills will remind each of us that water is a commodity with a supply cost and a value. Hopefully we'll all act accordingly.