Thailand Psicobloc video

Hi friends:

Check it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbBgBQSmkvw

We're back on the mainland now and have spoken with many of you. All our pictures are up on the Picasas and we're adding videos slowly...

The link above is from a friend of ours from Zaragosa.

Gracias!!

Safe in Oz

Well, we made it to Melbourne, Australia, right at the beginning of the Easter holidays hoping that we'd be able to get into a campervan quick and easy as we had in New Zealand. We had semi-spaced that Easter was coming (we have been in places were Islam, Hindu, and Buddhism are the major religions) and were surprised to hear that a lot of bookings had already been made and that we couldn't find one available for the weekend. But, we had made contact with a very gracious Couchsurfing host who proved to be our savior over the next few days. We caught the bus out of Melbourne to his country home in Leongatha where we stayed for a few days and we happily ensconced in the bush, surrounded by kangaroos, wallabies and kookaburras. We headed back to Melbourne city, planning on picking up a van, when we ran into some silly paperwork problems and had to call on our same host at his city home in Melbourne to take us in. We enjoyed seeing all the sights around the city: the Zoo, the Docklands, and the various districts. It is a very beautiful city. We also met some new friends who were very welcoming in the classic Aussie way.
After a few days in the city, helping our host get his city house ready for renters, we got our campervan all sorted and blasted off South down the coast to Bell's Beach and Torquay, the center of South Australian surfing. Their was some kind of pro surfing competition going on, so there was definitely some electricity and excitement about it. Down here, these kinds of sporting events are big news. Back in the states, you never hear about who won some surf or skate competition, but here, its on the national news. It was especially exciting this year, because a local got first place in the Men's. We got to see a bit of the big league surfers doing their thing on some very large waves in the cold, wine-dark South Sea, not too far from Antarctica again. Very inspiring. So, inspiring in fact, that we picked up some cheap wetsuits and hired some boards and got out there on our own. The water is very clear and beautiful, but sooo cold. It had us wondering why we ever left Bali to go surfing here, and now we also know why there were so many Aussies in Bali! Haha.
So next is some more coast time as we head West on the Great Ocean Road, and then we'll head for the hills and see what the Grampians have for rocks that we can climb on.
We got tickets to head to Maui in early May, so be on the lookout: we're heading back across the Pacific before too long!! But this place is amazing, we definitely hope to return someday, maybe when its a little warmer...
Love from Down Under!

Wow, two months since our last post!

Holy cow. We are slackers! Just kidding! No, we've been doing some serious hanging out with great friends and amazing family; traveling and exploring Asia. Internet access is not too cheap and we don't have our own computer, so I hope you can understand our lack of posts. Sorry. But I'm glad to hear that somebody at least is still interested.


So our time in Thailand blended into a blur. We ended up spending the better part of 3 months there, traveling around, but mostly climbing around at Tonsai. After Cambodia, we headed back to Tonsai for a good long while, then down to Turutao Island in the Andaman, almost to Malaysia. There we had some amazing adventures, like exploring mangroves and the Crocodile Cave, an estuary that flows through a 200m cave that had freshwater crocodiles living in it some years ago. Luckily, we didn't spot any, but we had quite a day. It felt as if we were exploring some jungle from a long time ago. Untouched and wild, filled with cliffs and caves and massive, I mean massive stout palm trees with seed pods that looked like huge spiky bowling balls hanging down. We portaged our kayak several times over razor sharp rocks and downed logs to continue our progress on the water. We found some vividly colored red and blue crabs in the mud, and we quite amazed at how little distance we had actually covered in so much time. We were so engrossed in our surroundings; it felt like Jurassic Park or something.

After that, we bussed it down to Penang, Malaysia, for a short break from Thailand and to get our passports restamped for 30 more days. Penang is a beautiful city with an amazing culture and history, full of Hokkien Chinese and Indians. All along the southwestern coast of the Malaysian Peninsula, we had felt the depth of history of this area begin to sink in. Being shadowed from the wild Indian Ocean by the Indonesian Archipelago, these Straights of Melaka have been major shipping channels for many hundreds of years. The impact of the confluence of cultures is deep here, but the sea life still predominates, and pirates operated in the Straights during the chaos of the Second World War. Still, a major economic indicator for Southeast Asia is how busy are the container ports in Singapore. It felt like we had dipped into the stream of a long-flowing time, of human history , struggles, and geography.

We caught a few flights to land us back up in Thailand, far to the north, in Chaing Mai. We climbed a bit there and again, felt a touch of the history of the region. It makes our puny American history look infantile by comparison. We did get to see some Asian Elephants, which was quite interesting. I guess the treatment they receive there varies wildly, and I have heard that there are few wild elephants anymore. Capitalism is in full swing here though and, as has been shown with the recent capitalist crisis, it's difficult to get the true story out of anybody. In any case, seeing the elephants was bittersweet. Of course, they are amazing, powerful, sentient animals, but their drivers use hooks to prod their thick skin and we heard about some spirit-breaking practices that would make any wild animal lover cringe. But getting to interact with them, for our part, was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

In Chaing Mai, Mac and Steph headed home after much deliberation about what to do next. It seems that we all are at a crossroads in our lives and careers, and have enjoyed having some time to reflect. Short digression: this might be part of the reason for the lack of posts. We have been having some introspective discussions with many friends and family about the crossroads we are approaching, and have needed some time for reflection. In any case, we are coming to draw our own conclusions about life, through the lens of this trip. Nothing too definitive, but at least some guidance that points us toward where we want to be, and hopefully works for us. I hope to share them all with you in person when we meet again.

Anyhow, Anna's folks showed up soon after Mac & Steph left. We were very excited to see them after so long, but after having many discussions with them over Skype, the separation of distance had had less of an effect on us all. We also ran into an old family friend, Eloise, who happened to be travelling through Chaing Mai at the exact same time. Pure luck. We all enjoyed being with each other in a new place, but its amazing how relationships maintain this continuity, that "picking up where you left off" kind-of feeling.

After Chaing Mai, we flew back down to Bangkok where we met up with Julie at the airport. The family continued on their way on (back) to Siem Reap, Cambodia (Anna's 3rd trip there) and I (Tony) caught a train to the South, where I made my way back to Tonsai for the 3rd time in as many months. I know that the family all had a great time at Angkor where, again, one is steeped in a history that goes a bit beyond comprehension, and the artfully piled stacks of stones and intricate reliefs show something of the depth of human creation and how nature's fecundity can swallow it all up into the teeming jungle again.

Tonsai was a treat, as always. I took a 2nd deep water soloing trip, which is as crazy as it sounds for those who don't know about it. It's where you climb on rocks above the water, no rope, just the ocean's pillow to catch when you do, inevitably, fall (or jump) off. It's easy to feel your heart pounding up into your throat as you ascend, knowing that for every meter you greedily climb up, you will have to drop back down again. It is quite a feeling though, to climb up unencumbered by equipment, and it's remarkable how quickly you can get higher than you were hoping to get. A friend took some video footage of the leap of faith, and as soon as I get the link, I'll post it up.

We all met up again on the Ao Nang Princess, which is the ferry that runs between Ao Nang (imagine that) and Phi Phi Island. It was great to get back to Phi Phi Island, although it's a little frantic there and the party scene can get a little out of hand. That is where we spent St. Patty's Day. We took the folks climbing up at Tonsai Tower there right up off the beach, which was a special treat for us, to share our passion for adventure in the outdoors with them. We also did a great little snorkeling trip out to the little island, Phi Phi Leh, where we were amazed by all the fish and had a private beach for lunch all to ourselves.

We made our way back to the mainland, and stayed a short while in Railay. The beach there at Phra Nang really is amazing, but we parted ways with the folks before too long. Their short two weeks were over in a flash, but I must say that we all saw a lot in that time. We waved goodbye to them as they set out in a longtail boat from East Railay; a pretty classic way to depart, and before we knew it, it was just the three of us. Our plan was to make our way back to Tonsai that day but we hung out at our place in Railay until dark, watching our new favorite movie, Kung Fu Panda. That was a double edged sword though, because the rain soon started to pour and thunder and lightning resounded within the cliffed-in bays. We heavily considered taking a longtail boat for the short ride, but the cost was just too high for us. Anyway, we were in need of an adventure; so we set out across the beach in the pouring rain with our fully-loaded packs in the dark. Anyone who's done that walk knows its not too far, but is steep and slippery in parts, even when dry, and darkness can't make it any easier. But we smiled and laughed our way through it and, of course, by the time we were through the hardest part, the rain abated. We trudged on through to Paasook, where we settled in and dried out over the next few days. It was there that we bought some plane tickets to Bali and then (after Julie flies home) on to Melbourne, Australia. We climbed some more and got our fill. We really love Tonsai and were amazed at how easy life is there. It is easy to see why people keep coming back year after year for long trips.

We caught a cramped van-ride to Hat Yai where we switched to a posh overnight bus to Kuala Lumper. We enjoyed getting to know the city a little bit before our flight to Bali. So here we are now. We arrived just before the Balinese Hindu festival called Nyepi, which we related to something like Passover. It is a celebration of the lunar new year (which happens to coincide with the end of the rainy season and the start of the tourist season) so on the very dark night just before Nyepi proper, people go out into the streets for a parade of paper-mache monsters called Ogoh-ogoh. These monsters are quite masterfully prepared and are super realistic. I wish we had pictures to share with you, but our camera was pickpocketed in the fray that night, so we'll have to get some shots from Julie. There were so many people there it was crazy. I thought to myself 'I didn't even know this many people existed in the world'. So we don't have too many pics of Bali, although we just bought a new camera, so hopefully we'll get some more good shots before we go. Anyway, on Nyepi proper, no one is allowed to go outside. We were essentially locked in our hotel. The belief is that if you light no fires and keep quiet, those monsters who fly over head that day and dark night will see a deserted island and decide not to stop and torment its inhabitants. People are quite serious about it, and it was surprising to hear that you might get arrested if you go out into the street, and the day was uncharacteristically quiet and the night was super dark. We relaxed and laid by the pool and were psyched to be at a nice hotel if we were required to stay there all day. But very late that night, a serious rain set in and thunder and lightning boomed so loud that we were awakened. Anna and I thought that must have been the Ogoh-ogohs passing by...

So we've been doing a lot of surfing around on the beach breaks here that are good for beginners, lots of water in our noses, body rash, and sand in our shorts, you know. But it's worth all the pain for that moment of clarity on the crashing wave. The day Julie flew home, we met up with our new friend Ed, for some waves at Legian and watched as the squall came in from the Southeast. The rain started to pour and the little system brought some bigger swell. We were surrounded by water and it felt so amazing. A very elemental experience, as Ed put it. We're catching on and realizing that our love for water is pretty deep...

Also, the snorkeling here is out of this world, best I've ever done (which isn't saying much). Big fish and beautiful coral. With so many miles of coastline in this massive archipelago that straddles the equator, there is still a lot of wildness under the surface of the sea.

That's our story for now. Thanks for reading and sorry for the huge post. I hope we'll do a better job of updating as our trip wraps up. It's April already and we're thinking about how we are going to get home...

Sending our love from Bali, Indonesia,
T&A

Tonsai bliss blending into the land of Khmer

Once again, We're overdue for an update. In short, we travelled from Phuket to Phi Phi Islands and then on to Tonsai beach for an amazing climbing adventure, and then back to Phi Phi (climbing and snorkeling) and after much travel, reached Phnom Penh, where we now are, and Siem Reap Cambodia.

The time we spent in Tonsai was so fun, joined by our wonderful friends, Mac, Steph, Lydia, and Madge. We arrived a few days early and sussed out the situation and knew that we had found paradise. We greeted our friends with smiles and laughter (and holding up a sign with their names on it at the Krabi airport) and settled into a blissful rhythm of sleeping, eating, climbing, swimming, slacklining, and climbing some more. That place is pretty much everything we were looking for in a destination. Definitely a place to spend some serious time.

Highlights from our time there are (in no particular order and I'm definitely forgetting stuff):

• Climbing incredibily polished limestone sport routes, protected by rusty old bolts and threaded slings
• Guiding Mac and Steph to our secluded beach at night by longtail boat from Ao Nang
• "Chicken Street", great cheap food and drinks, one minute away from the beach climbs and the water
• Jumping off the longtail boat into a school of colorful fish
• Watching a banded sea snake swimming and coming up for air
• Late night pizza picnic on the beach under so many stars, watching fire dancers and being joined by an uninvited crab on the blanket
• Monkey and people watching
• Watching a pair of snakes mating beside the path
• A monkey playing with a dog
• Climbing with the legendary Leonard Coyne and watching him get tattooed
• The cave that goes from Phra Nang beach to the Thaiwand wall, complete with utter darkness, windy corridors, spacious caverns, sketchy bamboo ladders, and the biggest bats we've ever seen
• A stealthy macaque sneaking up to the crag to steal bananas from unsuspecting climbers only to get shut down in a frightening confrontation by a very bold girl who swung her bag a him and she only came away with a scratch
• Eating lunch from a longtail boat at Phra Nang
• Approaching climbs by wading through the water at low tide, or by a longtail boat at high tide to a deserted island
• Watching the first raindrops we've seen in a long time fall into the sea and staying dry while climbing the very steep walls
• Climbing at Tonsai beach and watching the sun go down over the Andaman
• Our little bungalow and all the animals that lived there with us that only came out at night
• A snake falling out of a tree and landing on Anna's shoulder

Whew. That place is unreal. I think we'll end up going back there.

We reluctantly packed up and made our way back to Bangkok via Phuket and then on to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We knew that this place would be different from the very start. But we are very glad to have come. The people are incredibly friendly. Once again, we are so happy to see what a smile can do. It builds a bond and crosses the bridge of a language barrier like nothing else. After landing in Phnom Penh, we caught our first Tuk-tuk ride to a hotel. The city is relatively small, but it is frenetic. So many people and cars and motos and tuk-tuks and bicycles and carts. The traffic follows pretty much no rules, except more-or-less sticking to the right-hand side of the road. Cars here are both left-hand and right-hand drive. Intersections are chaos. Our first experience crossing the busy road on foot was to hold hands and sort-of wade across, walking very slowly, fighting the instinct to run to safety on the far side. The vehicles will eventually start to flow around you, but really, the only way to cross is to walk slowly. We have seen and heard accidents, even on the road that lead into town from our guest house. But the evidence of trauma lies just below the surface of this country so recently set so far back by the insanity of the Khmer Rouge. First we visited Siem Reap and the Angkor Wat, which was full of temples the likes of which we've never seen. 800 years old and still standing tall, although nature has taken an interesting toll on the walls. In several places, tree roots slowly and excruciatingly separate the blocks and destroy the works of man. It is reassuring to know that despite all our work (or mischief, as the case usually is), nature will eventually reclaim everything, break it up, absorb it. But the distant history of Cambodia calls less urgently than the recent history and, still, the present. We visited one of the donor-supported Kantha Bopha hospitals in Siem Reap and were touched by the vibrant cello music and personality of Dr. Beat Richner. The health system here is in tatters, to say the least, and he works his single-minded ass off to gather donations for the 5 Kantha Bopha hospitals in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. So many things here conspire to destroy good works and good intentions: endless disease and poverty, corruption, landmines, accidents, and the list goes on. I (Tony) hope that maybe by going on and doing this medical education, I can make an impact in a positive way. There are many places in the world in situations similar to that of Cambodia. The world needs help.

Upon returning to Phnom Penh (and saying farewell to Lyd and Madge), we visited the Tuol Sleng Prison site and the Killing Fields at Choueng Ek. This experience was very heavy and moving. It was impossible to fight back the tears. So many people died for no reason here. The fact that Pol Pot was able to come to power and hold his position for so long and never come to justice is sheer insanity. But it is an important and shameful part of our world's recent history that everyone should know about.

Tomorrow, we go back to Bangkok and will make our way back to Tonsai. We just can't stay away...

Until next time. Thanks so much for reading and keeping in touch. We send our love to you all.

T&A

New Picasa Photo Album

Hi everyone,



We started a new Picasa album under Anna's profile. All our photos from SE Asia will be on it.



Check it out!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/annaberkman

Southern Thailand and the Andaman Coast

Wow, this place is amazing. We spent a day at Patong beach on Phuket (pronouced poo-get) Island and only one word can describe that place: hedonistic. The beach is quite nice though and there were people there from all over the world. Including a 1 to 2 year old half-naked baby boy who was really good at soccer. We kicked the ball with him for a while and we were amazed at how well he was not only running around, but kicking and throwing the ball too! Very funny and memorable.

We caught an early boat to Koh Phi Phi Don, a better smaller and ridiculously beautiful island. That movie The Beach was filmed down here. A true paradise that is a little crowded right now, but we definitely can understand why the whole world would want to be here. We'll hang here for a few days, before rejoining the mainland at climbing heaven at Railay.

'Till next time...

The latter half of New Zealand

So, we ended up getting to do some really sweet sea cliff climbing off the West coast of the South Island at a place called Charleston on Christmas Eve. Definitely a highlight of the trip. The weathered grey granite was smooth with rounded features and cracks on relatively tall walls (up to 30m), situated on top of a flat platform. There was a small blowhole near by, so every couple of waves would bring loud boofing sprays. After climbing to the top of a satisfying pitch, one is rewarded with the sight of dolphins swimming and playing in the waves below. Unreal.

Later that day, we packed up and drove up North to Paynes Ford to settle in for some more climbing and the social scene that abounds at the hippy/climber camp there. We sang Christmas songs all the way. They love the Pogues down here and this song was all over the radio. We sang along happily, thinking of Scott and our last few Christmases back home. We arrived late in the night and slept as best we could, having parked the van in the only remaining spot at the camp, which was slanting to a silly extent.

We woke up to the subtle sound of the sleigh scratching on the roof of the van. We got out and St. Nick had already moved on, but it was a gift to see the Southern Night Sky blazing above with Orion in full cartwheel and the Milky Way the brightest we've seen. On Christmas morning, we opened our gifts (including a new camera that we bought for each other) and looked out to see many others doing the same, families that were there and mates showing their creativity. The guy parked next to us received a mini blow-up doll of the perfect woman. After breakfast, we explored the campervan and tent roofs with the kids of the camp and some of us saw the tell-tale sleigh marks.

The Paynes Ford climbing that we discovered on Christmas was unique to say the least. Being in a temperate rain forest, the limestone layers there are exposed to some weathering that we've never experienced. We saw and touched cool fins, ridges, fossilized seashells, slopers, and pockets. We shared a put-luck Christmas dinner with the rest of the gang that was there and, just like back home, there was too much food on the table. Everybody ate and drank their fill and we talked and played games afterwards. Great swimming holes post-climb count as showers.

In the northwestern part of the South Island is the Golden Bay. It is beautiful and definitely a mecca for green living and sustainable agriculture. We picked a couple quarts of raspberries and boysenberries on Boxing Day and devoured them. It was crazy to think that we were picking berries in the sun in December.

As the New Year approached, we completed our round trip circuit of the South Island by heading East and then South down the coast back toward Christchurch. In the northeast, we were confused for a while as we thought we were driving through Colorado. It was strange; the brown rolling grassy hills of the Marlborough region gave way to beautiful and rugged coastline. Many people were taking their holidays there, surfing, spearfishing, enjoying fresh seafood and hating the sandflies. Again we slept right on the beach overlooking the Pacific.

On New Year's Eve, we headed back up into the Southern Alps to Castle Hill. This area has some world-class limestone boulders that take some getting used to. This place is overflowing with boulders. The style of climbing there is, um, different. There really aren't very many holds, just a lot of body scraping friction and mantling. The tops of the boulders often roll back to nothingness like a featureless bulb. Imagine trying to climb up a huge upside down Christmas tree bulb. That's what it's like. At the end of the day, there were many abraided limbs and traces of carnage. Nevertheless, we had a great time, met up with some really nice folks there and got some exercise.

New Year's Day: the Cave Stream. An unreal Karst feature has moved the bed of this creek from the peaceful sunny valley where it once lived, to a dark, cold, twisting tunnel of gushing water. A 45 minute dark-wet-scramble-wade through this underworld sees one come to appreciate the sunlight on the far side. Another highlight, to be sure. Quite an awakening and cleansing experience on the first day of 2009.

We hesitatingly turned in the van on the 3rd. We were sad to let it go. Now we're back to the backpacker lifestyle of public transport or your feet. We surfed a classic Christchurch college kid couch. Ian and his mates were very welcoming and fun to get to know. They showed us this HBO show, the Flight of the Conchords, about two Kiwi fellows living in New York City and their struggles to relate. Really really funny. This is our favorite song from the show that we've seen so far. Tony got to play life-sized chess in the Cathedral Square

We flew back up to Auckland for a few short days, during which we rented a small car and drove north to the Bay of Islands for some quality beach time. We found a sweet spot at Russell town and Cape Ngahau, where we saw many amazing boats. The coolest one was the Spirit of New Zealand. We had our last fish and chips overlooking the harbor full of sailboats, feeding the dream of building our own sailboat someday.

We got back to the airport and caught a wonderful flight to Bangkok on Thai Air. Wow. The service was first-class. We didn't go hungry, there was nary an empty wine glass, and for the first time in a while, we were overentertained. Not only were there tons of movies, tv shows and music stations to choose from, you could play games, including trivia against other passengers. There was even a little language primer, so we could get a jumpstart on the Thai. If you ever get a flight on Thai Air, don't plan on reading your book. That's all we've got to say about that. Awesome.

So, here we are in Bangkok, recovering from the jet lag, waiting to pick up our next flight to no-plan-yet Phuket. We don't have too much of idea of what we're going to do when we get there, but we'll figure something out. That's pretty much the theme of the trip.

Thanks for reading all this and sorry for the long delay between posts. Love you all!

New Zealand is Sweet As

What? Sweet as what? I don't know. That's just what everyone keeps saying down here about anything and everything you can imagine. You can describe anything as being as fill-in-the-blank AS... and somehow all the kiwis will know what you're talking about. Pretty funny and we've had a lot of fun playing with this new phrase.

Where do we begin? At the beginning, I guess. So, sorry the long time with no updates. We've been slacking, we know it, but we're glad we did. We can say that we haven't wasted a moment of this precious month in this amazing place. We had a sweet as campervan and had free reign of the south island, so we've been roaming, to say the least.

We started out by flying into Auckland from Santiago de Chile via Buenos Aires (our third long layover in BA, still haven't seen the city). We really had no idea what we were going to do once we got here, no lonely planet, no plan. We knew we wanted to spend most of our time here on the South Island, so after talking to some folks at the airport, we decided to fly down to Christchurch (aka. ChCh) that day and rent a campervan after. Our culture shock began with our first couchsurfing experience as it felt just like home, after leaving the hecticness of South America. Verna's home was very welcoming and so luxurious; beautiful garden, bird-killing kitties, good coffee, and good conversation. We got our first introductions to life in New Zealand from the locals, including the NZ delicacy, whitebait. ChCh seemed so safe, mild, and organized. There are many ingenious public-service announcements down here and people really care for eachother's safety. Bike helmets are required. Signs and advertisments remind people not drive when you're tired or drunk (obviously), be fire-safe around the house, where to go if you're feeling depressed or need help. We got our first meal in the Cathedral Square from some very nice people who insisted on giving us some soup and sausages for free. Every Friday night, they set up shop and feed anybody who passes by, soup kitchen style.

We picked up the van and got settled in right away. We were so excited to cook our own food (we made pancakes everyday for a week straight), as we've been eating out for pretty much the whole time in SoAm. First thing we did was a big grocery shop to get stocked up and off we went, after trial-and-erroring this whole wrong-side-of-the-road driving thing. Well, it took a couple tries, but nothing terrible happened. But we still need to look back and forth twice while crossing the street as we're not quite sure from which direction the near traffic will be coming. The highways here are two-laners, scattered with lots of one-lane bridges, where one direction is to give way. Quite different than the highways we know back home, but it forces one to take their time and enjoy the ride.

The rest of the month is kind of a blur, but we'll do our best to recount it. We headed south right away for some very rainy days, and then overland toward Mount Cook and the Southern Alps. There we found beautiful blue skies reflected in the high lakes. We were quite lucky for that patch of weather, apparently, for most New Zealanders haven't seen the unclouded top of Cook. We got to see our second vibrant Lupine bloom of the year here (first one in June in Wyoming) and in many other high places around New Zealand.

Continuing down the coast, we happened upon these crazy boulders, the Moeraki. To small for climbing on, but very cool to look at and touch. Here was where we started to feel some of the wind that likes to blow around these lattitudes, which the penguins, seals, and sea lions really don't seem to mind. Down around Dunedin, we stopped at the Albatross colony on the tip of the Otago Peninsula. Those birds are huge and amazing. And for a bonus, a pod of small blue penguins lived in the area and were coming home to feed the chicks after a day of fishing. As the sunlight faded, we sat quitely on the sand and watched them gracefully swim out of the water and hesitantly waddle up the beach and rocks into the nest in the bush. They walked right by us. Definitely one of the most unique things we've done. Also, we have to mention Nugget Point. It felt like we were standing on the wind-swept rugged end of the world. A lone lighthouse peers out over the black seas below and the rocks and littoral are rich with life. A mesmerizing surrounding, including the swirling bull kelp beds, which seem to us to be represted in some of the Maori pictographs. In the Catlins, in southeastern NZ, we got our first views of the native bush, instead of sheep on a green-grass hillside. Many waterfalls and ferns in this lush temperate rainforest. The ferns here are the country's symbol. The Maori see the fiddlehead of the fern as having some resonance in human life; the constant unfolding, the spiral that is always changing but always the same. Beautiful.

The Fiordlands. This is a place where, um, a lot of rain falls; some 8 meters annually. So, guess what? We had a wet time. We took a boat tour of the Milford Sound, where the boat captain said "this isn't rain yet, this is liquid sunshine", which in a way, it was. Thousands of cascading waterfalls poured down the sheer walls of the Sound. After the storm, we relaxed at the Mirror Lakes, where the air was so calm and quiet, the reflections give one a false sense of space.

From there, we headed up to Queenstown for more beautiful lakes and mountains. As we drove around, we were vaguely reminded of landscapes we'd seen somewhere before. This is definitely the kind of country that Tolkien must have imagined. We got to do our first bit of climbing in a while, which we were quite excited about. It felt good to get a workout, but we've also been sampling all the pools of the South Island, not only for the lap swimming potential, but for the showers (hehe). Anna's ankle is getting better, and the hike up to the crags at Wye Creek were the first real test. Then up to Wanaka, where we got to climb more on some easier-to-access crags. We took the road through the Gates of Haast (a fitting name, sounds like what it is, especially if you say it with a sinister voice) over to the uninhabited Westlands. We encountered rainbows, dolphins, jellyfish, one massive whale vertebra, and one crazy-eyed daytime owl.

In the West, there are glaciers that are quickly turning into rivers and lakes. As one approaches the Franz Joseph Glacier, it is easy to sense the instability and impermanence of this landscape. The glacier is dripping and melting at an unstoppable pace, shedding rocks and chunks every moment. Markers show the locations of the terminus in years past, which demonstrate the pace of recession.

Sorry to end so abruptly, but we're out of time here. We will add more when we get the chance from Thailand! We were just about to talk about climbing at Charleston on Christmas Eve.