McCrain's
in Middle Earth
A travel dialogue of our adventures
in New Zealand
In February 2004, Jim and Kathy McCrain began a five month oddessy in New Zealand. Kathy was transferred to Auckland for a temporary work assignment, and Jim followed her for moral support. (Isn't he just the greatest husband?)
What follows is Jim's account of this adventure.
More Sight-Seeing!
June 19, 2004
Kathy
and I are trying to make the most of our time here in New Zealand. Right
now, though, we are relegated to having "weekend adventures"
so that she can be back at work on Monday mornings. Still, we have been
able to pack in a LOT of 
activities. Today was no exception.
Our
first stop was at "One-Tree Hill." This is the
site of an ancient Maori "Pa", or fortified village.
It is hundreds of years old, and is a major archeological site. It stands
high above the City of Auckland, and has a very impressive obelisk monument
on the summit. The entire area is preserved as a public park, but also
has a lot of area that is still considered to be 
Maori Cultural and
Ancestral
Lands. The views from the summit are breath-taking, especially when
you WALK to the top, as Kathy and I did! You can see Rangitoto Island
in the background of a few of our shots.
By
the way, I think I am starting to get pretty good at taking a "self-portrait"
of the two of us. I can actually "aim"
the camera while holding it out at arms length! You will see quite a
few of these shots throughout
these pages! It has become one of our new "traditions."
Our next stop for the day was to take Kathy out to some black-sand sand dunes that I found. I have posted pictures of this area before, but Kathy didn't get to go out there with me. Now was my chance to show her some of the most dramatic landscapes I have yet encountered here.
Of course, this being New Zealand, the weather changed! What had started off as a nice sunny day turned into a wet, muddy, and very windy afternoon. Still, we "trudged on" and reached our objective. I will simply let the pictures tell the story this time.
Kathy is such a trooper! Even with some pretty fierce winds blowing in her face, she still wanted to keep going. She is an amazing woman!
These
yellow flowers aren't quite as innocent as they might appear. Upon closer
inspection, you find that they
are actually covered in thorns and have very sharp leaves. Forcing a
path through them is an experience in both pain and pleasure! Be sure
to wear long pants while hiking in New Zealand, otherwise you will come
home with a lot of scratches!
This path may LOOK good, but looks can be deceiving! Here is what you get for walking on such a "nice" trail. And Yes, those are Kathy's feet!
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But here is what we were hiking towards!
Do you think Kathy enjoyed the day?
With only a few more weeks to go on our stay in New Zealand, ... what more could we possibly experience? Only time will tell!
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