Sabbatical Pictures

How to use this page:

Select Week# above to see the footage (or use hyperlinks to right). Some weeks have 2 levels of pictures.

Navigation shortcuts:

Week1

Week2 --> Caving

Week3

Week4 --> Rafting

Week5 --> Glacier Hiking & Doubtful Sound

Week6 --> Canyoning

Week7

Week8

New Zealand Fun facts (from our 6 week stay there):
- Kiwi as a name has many usages: fruit, small wingless bird and the average New Zealander

- Imagine a cat that hasn't been fed for days, meowing at your feet for food. That is the same sound the airport electric carts have adopted as their horn sound when they want you to get out of the way.

- Toyota SUV's are typically benign, except if you are biking in Auckland, whereby they just a soon run you off the road then look at you. I have white paint on my handlebars to prove it.

- It is essential to fill bike bottles before starting a 76 mile bike ride. Getting local currency is a good idea as well. We did neither on the 1st day. We're not too bright.

- Average girl cyclist can eat 3 tangelos in one sitting; average guy cyclist can eat 6 tangelos. Tangelos are New Zealand oranges.

- Driftwood in NZ won't burn, even when soaked with white gas camping fuel.

- You know your going the right direction when there is a constant head wind.

- If you're in NZ and traveling on the Coromandel highway and see a small white dog, go see the farmer at the top of the hill.

- Gold rush in the 1800's brought thousands of people into Coromandel. Now the gold is gone those that are left have resorted to making mussel sausage.

- Vocabulary:
        Takeaway = take out
        Rubbish = garbage, bad weather
        Take a trek = go for a hike
        On holiday = on vacation
        Going for a wander = walking around
        To feed = getting something to eat

- If the weather is a bit rubbish, Big Jim can bring in the sunshine. He would be a good man to have in Seattle/Tacoma area.

-100km/hr unless otherwise posted. This applies to mountain roads, switch-backs, gravel or washed out roads.

-Courier service = people that will transport 17kg (~45lbs) of biking gear to next town so we don't have to haul up the hills in BOB trailer.

-Only thing more challenging than biking uphill, with headwind in the rain is biking uphill, with headwind in freezing rain.

-Injury count (Christy): sore toosh

-Injury count (Todd): slice hand on front chain ring, slice index finger on BOB trailer, fell off bike & hurt left knee, hit head on stairs (walking underneath), Walked into metal pole (note to self, helmet not just for cycling safety)

-No lawyers in New Zealand = no one to sue outdoor companies for dangerous activities = lots of fun stuff to do in NZ!!!

- A dot with a town name on a NZ map doesn't necessarily mean there is a community. Sometimes just a school, but many times nothing at all. Beware the dot on the map unless you are sure something is really there!

- Many beaches in NZ are covered with black sand. Its like normal white sand except its got lots of iron. As the locals tell us, you can't even use your radio on the beach because all the iron from the sand prevents reception.

- NZ's only Glockenspiel is in Stratsford near Mt Taranaki. It does a 10 minute skit on Romeo & Juliet. You almost feel like you are in a Shakespeare play except for all the road traffic zooming right in front of it.

- Economics of the North Island: North area is cattle & sheep; central is sheep and south is dairy. We could tell by the type of 18 wheelers that were zooming by us.

- When you see a gray cloud in NZ you have about 10 minutes to find cover before buckets of water are upon you.

- After 23 days in NZ: we've taken 400 pictures, 670 miles on bikes, caving trip, sea kayaking and white water rafting along with numerous day hikes

- Eggs are everywhere in NZ. You can get eggs on burgers, main dishes, side dishes, etc. Some have just given us eggs because they had extra.

- Ketchup, on the other hand, is quite scarce and expensive. $0.50 for a tiny little packet. Perhaps if those biotech geniuses would figure out how to genetically engineer a chicken so their eggs are filled with tomato sauce then I wouldn't have to eat my fries plain anymore.

- Bicycle repair count:
        Todd's - 6 way pinch flat, rear tire true (from when I fell off back on Day 6) and brake pads halve worn
        Christy's - 2 puncture flats and brakes 3/4 worn.

- The area around Murchison is on a major vault line (much like most of NZ). In 1929 there was a 7.1 earthquake that significantly changed the landscape. Rivers were re-routed and mountains altered. Luckily the region was sparsely populated at the time, so few were hurt. In 1968 another earthquake occurred. About 6.8 this time. More landscape altered. According to the Te Papa museum in Wellington, NZ gets ~15,000 earthquakes yearly, but only 30 are above 4.0 on the Richter scale. It would appear Murchison is due for another earthquake in about 2007 (good thing we got here early before the big one hit!)

- There is nothing in the bush of New Zealand that can harm you in anyway other than falling off a cliff. No poisonous snakes, spiders or other critters. No bears, lions, cougars, crocs or any other scary animal you can think of. Austrialia, on the other hand, goes to the other extreme. Not only does Aussie have poisonous snakes, spiders and vicious crocodiles, but they have like the top 3 deadly of everything. (Sydney here we come!!!)

- Every creature in NZ is either protected or endangered, except for two...one being the possum. Like most of the NZ's inhabitants, the possum was brought over by European settlers. Its primary diet is trees. It will climb up a tree and eat its leaves until its dead and then move on to the next tree. Of course that doesn't make the Kiwi's very happy since they like the trees and have worked quite hard to preserve the forests. Which brings me to the the only native predator the possum has...the Kiwi driver. Christy and I have yet to see a live possum, but we've seen hundreds of them mutilated in some gruesome way along the roadside.

- Here's a little South Island NZ town mad-libs to keep you busy: Welcome to <insert town name> nestled in the gorgeous <insert valley name>. We started as a mining town during the gold rush in early 1900's. With all the gold gone, we now base our economy on <pick at least three: lumber, sheep, cattle, tourism, possum killing>. Please notice all the pictures we have posted on the flood and/or earthquake that demolished our town in the past 50 years. Our town bird is the rare and endangered <insert endangered bird>.

Back to top