Tea on our 36th“Give me your hand before you slip…just a little more. Okay, hang on…don’t release…got you. Ease up. I think you’re going to make it. Do you need the rope?” we suggested to our brave editor. We undertook not to take chances when climbing. Let’s hope nothing happens when we try to get off the bed and back down to the bathroom, we thought after hauling our editor on to the three feet high bed in our hotel room.
Serious Rock back There--Nice on the fingerYou may laugh and think that the sixteen miles on the last day of our hike extended us. It may have, indeed. However, that’s not the cause of our current malady. Prior to the commencement of the hike one of us got the sore throat and ‘weak muscles feeling’ while the other, in sympathy, achieved the same state after the hike. So, we are now what is termed: sick-on-the-road not to be confused with sick-of-the-road. This is a real pity because we are ‘raring’ to go. Instead, we are a pair of crocks. What can we do? Nothing but sleep. We gave Shabbos a new meaning of rest yesterday. We kept waking so that we could get back to sleep. We woke late for davening and then slept; we woke for lunch and then slept; we woke for Torah study and then slept. We think you could probably discern a pattern. It is probably the first time in all our travels that we did not leave the room in thirty-six hours. By the way, Shabbos came out at 10:29 pm. Theoretically, it’s possible to go to sleep for the night before the night begins.
Swiss-like MilfordThe accommodation in New Zealand has been superb. The rooms are bright and cheery, windows front and back. We have enjoyed time-share type accommodation including ground-level access to beautiful flowering gardens. We like quiet areas and thus far, it is just what we have experienced. In Te Anau, for example, the road is so quiet that a person is ‘forced’ to sleep the whole night without being wakened. We end up missing the goings-on in the outside world—what a sacrifice.
The South Island of New Zealand is very quiet. We travelled from Te Anau to Milford Sound and back and then on to Wanaka. These trips amounted to some seven hours. Queenstown is the only meaningful size town that we came across. Nobody is home on the Island. One can travel for hours and only see the occasional farmhouse and fellow travelers on the road. Sheep and cattle are aplenty. The scenery, of course, is exquisite. Mind you, the North Island is not that busy outside of Auckland either. If you thought there was only tension between Yankees and Southerners in the USA, follow this. We mentioned to a ranger in the south that we were amazed how quiet and unpopulated it is. ‘That’s how we like it—the northerners should stay put’. We were taken aback slightly. ‘What about the tourist income?’ we asked. ‘Okay’, she conceded, ‘they can spend their money here and then return immediately to the north.” This was a ranger on duty in the Information Booth. We’d like to believe that’s not the official position.
Milford Sound AreaRandom acts of chesed touched us. In the ‘coffee picture, the Israelis presented us with a cup when we arrived at the rest station, 4000 feet up. Another Israeli, when he saw our flimsy sleeping bags, fretted about us being cold during the night, showing genuine concern. He has just completed his 3-year army stint. A young woman from Slovenia, offered to take the upper bunk and give us the lower ones. Our pride was ‘insulted’; our human side was touched. Two Swiss youngsters, Adrian and Todd, offered us hospitality in Switzerland without qualification. Acts of chesed bring Hashem back into the world and we, closer to our neighbors.
Israeli Prepared coffee at 4,000 feetWith some luck tomorrow, we are expecting an exciting experience in the mountains. Of course, we have to be able to get out of bed first.
Near-miss birds at Lake Te AnauCheers,
Crick and Crock.
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