New Zealand Part 5 - January 2010

We are currently in the lounge in Queenstown and awaiting our flight to Christchurch; a four hour layover and then off to Sydney Australia.

NZ has been wonderful. It is definitely one of the most beautiful places we have visited.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our 9 days here...highly recommended.

Best regards

Fran and David

Wednesday Morning

We will catch you up on the last few days...

When we arrived in Christchurch in order to catch our connection to Sydney, we had a four layover. Immediately across from  the airport was the Antarctica Centre because Christchurch is the jumping off point for all the research teams that are based on the subcontinent. 

We saw the USA C130 cargo plane that makes three trips a week to deliver   food and supplies to the more than 10000 people who are permanently housed down there. The exhibit included a live penguin area and a room where you could experience a real antarctic windstorm with windchills of -50 (they do provide boots and parkas, thank God!). 

They also gave us the opportunity to ride in a real Antarctic vehicle. 

It was a very good way to spend the time between flights.

We then headed back to the airport to catch our flight to Sydney. On a map, NZ and Australia look quite close, but in reality, they are over 2000 kms. apart...well, more Aeroplan miles....:-)

 More from the Land Down Below....OZ

All the best

Fran and David

New Zealand Part 4 - January 2010

We have had a very busy three days since Shabbat.

On SUnday morning, we went for breakfast to the kosher cafe. She opened early especially for us and we had a home cooked omelet with bagels and coffee....delish!

We then set out for the drive over the southern Alps and Fox Glacier. In order to get there, you have to drive thru Arthurs Pass...the only road that crosses the mountains. 

At Arthur's Pass we went on an hour and half hike to the Devil's Punchbowl Falls which was very picturesque and quite tiring cuz we must have walked up the equivalent of 15 stories to get there. 

We continued our drive thru the mountains (very curvy driving) till we reached the coast (Tasman Sea) and began our drive south along the coast (sort of like the coastal California Drive). 

We stopped numerous times along the way to see beautiful vistas and to actually dip our feet into the surf with 10 foot high waves...awesome. We finally made it to Fox Glacier which we visited before evening fell. 

Dinner in our apartment and then off to sleep.

On Monday morning we drove about 5 minutes to do the walk to Lake Matheson, which is a hour and half hike from the road. It is a perfectly calm lake which mirrors Mount Cook in perfect reflection...wow! 

Google it to see what we saw...we'll send pics when we get back. We then were off to Queenstown which is the gateway to Fjordland and Milford Sound.

We arrived in the afternoon and again were very pleased with the beautiful apartment that we had rented. We did some shopping, walked around in this tourist packed town which sits beautifully on a lake and then were off to our apartment for dinner overlooking the lake.

This morning we left early for the long three and a half hour drive to Milford SOund, one of the most photographed spots on earth...again...google this and you will see what we mean...

We are now about an hour away from there and we stopped for coffee and emails at Te Anau which is the largest town in the area.

Well, the drive from Te Anau to Milford Sound was amazing...up and over tall mountains, a number of mirror lakes with the mountains reflected in the clear pristine waters and a walk through a glacial tunnel of ice, all preceded our arrival to Milford Sound. 

The Sound has many cruise ships leaving every hour for the cruise thru the fjord out to the Tasman Sea which separates NZ from Australia (about 1700 miles) and from Antartica (I think about 2500 - 3000 miles). It is a beautiful sight and it was a beautiful day. Waterfalls everywhere cascading down from the tall mountain cliffs in the fjord and lazing on rocks all around were baby seals and swimming near the boat was the occasional dolphin. This is totally protected nature with literally no development...it is G-d's country in its purely natural state. 

And then there was Milford Sound...it is magical! You have to see it to really experience it. You literally drive for hours to see this spot and then you drive back. Some people actually hike the Milford Track which takes days.

btw, it was originally called Milford Bay named by Captain Cook. He was afraid to venture in too close to the waters because of the roughness of the sea and out of fear for the safety of his ship, and therefore he never saw the much larger sound that was hidden behind the bay....the cruise lasted 2 hours and it was beautiful, well worth the three hour drive there and back. On the way back we stopped at a few more sights (there are so many) and we arrived back at our apartment at 8 PM to eat and pack for our departure.

What you really have to plan for when driving in this part of the world is fuel...we are used to gas stations all over...the sign as you come into Te Anau is "last chance for gas for 250 km"...even though there are thousands of travelers who make their way to Milford Sound...it does not have a gas stations; so the 120 kms there and back equalling 250 kms means you have to plan for fuel here and now. The driving today was amazing crossing valleys surrounded by mountains (the range is called THe Remarkables.....wonder who named them?) and all thru the valley there are sheep farms with hundreds of thousands of sheep....very few people, very few drivers on the road...but lots of sheep...

Anyway that's all for now...we leave tomorrow morning for Australia so we may have time for an update at the business lounge at the airport.

Best regards to all

Fran and David

New Zealand Part 3 - January 2010

Shabbat in Christchurch

We just completed a very nice Shabbat here. Shabbat comes in very late  

here ...about 8:45. Chabad here sponsors a Friday night meal for about  

100 Israeli backpackers and a few other tourists . There are almost no  

locals who participate in anything Jewish.

We had a problem with the place we were staying...the night manager  

only stayed on till about 8pm and therefore we would have problems  

getting back in after 10 pm, so we decided to stay here and daven and  

eat in the apartment. 

Fran prepared a wonderful gourmet salmon meal  and after reviewing the 

parshah we called it a night.

Shabbat morning we went to the shul at 9:30. There were about 17 men and  

about about 13 women. There was a group of 15 people from Israel who  

were touring together (8 men and 7 women) so without them there would  

not have been a minyan. I lained and the Rabbi and one of the Israeli  

guests took care of tefillah.

After davening  there was a little kiddush where we met the Israeli  

group and it turned out that a few of them lived in the Modiin area  

and we had common friends.

We ate lunch at Chabad and there was zemiros, diveri Torah and a  

general good time. We walked to the Botanical Gardens after lunch and  

then back to the apartment.

Tomorrow we are off to the western side of the island across a high  

mountain pass and we stay at the foot of the famous Fox Glacier.

Shavua gov and best regards

Fran & David

New Zealand Part 2 - January 2010

Erev Shabbat in Christchurch (somehow, that doesn't sound right!)

We are now in Christchurch after a short flight last evening from Auckland.

When we arrived at our apt for this leg of the trip we were amazed to find that we were upgraded to the Presidential suite....you should see this place...I am taking pics.

Today it is a bit overcast and the South Island Is quite a bit cooler than the North. 

This morning we went out to explore the town and bonus.... it turned out that the World Buskers Festival is here this weekend. 

We walked through town...very pretty and bustling with tourists ...and made our way to the centre of town where the Buskers were entertaining. There was also a very nice craft market there. 

We then went to the kosher cafe and bought our challot for Shabbat and reserved for an early breakfast there on Sunday morning (she is opening early just for us!!!).

Upstairs from the restaurant is Chabad...so we went up and met the rabbi (he knows Shloime Adler) and we had a long chat about the matzav of Jews in NZ ...we reserved for the Shabbat morning meal. And surprise,.... I am laining the parshah.

Tonight we are having a wonderful meal that we cooked in the apartment that we rented...true gourmet a la Fran!

Three days and over 500 pics already!

So we wish all of you a Shabbat Shabbat even tho' for most of you it is still Thursday!!!!

Shabbat here begins at 8:42 pm....ends close to 10 pm 

Have a great Shabbat!

Fran and David