The Ultimate Trip - Has ended

We have been back in the USA for a little over a week now, but nothing has slowed down. It doesn't even seem like our trip is over just yet, probably because we are still traveling around without a long term stop in the near future.
On May 11th, we arrived back in Oakland after a very long flight (17 hours from Singapore via Hong Kong). It was great leaving Singapore at 6:30am (ok, not great maybe funny) and arriving in Oakland at 8:30am. That must be like riding in a Dolorian. Singapore was a nice city, but didn't grab us the way other Asian cities have. It was very clean and organized, but expensive! Can't say that I am itching to get back there.
Oakland was great! We lazed around Patty and Jim's house, enjoying good food, a comfortable bed, and just plain enjoying the company of family. The garden that Jim put in a few years ago was just starting to produce a harvest and we were lucky to enjoy fresh picked artichokes and collard greens.
After 2 days I packed up again and left Patrick and his family for sunny L.A. to visit my sister and mother. Patrick remained in Oakland to work on the talk for his upcoming interview - if that is what he really did...... ;-)

L.A. was much nicer than I ever expected. My expectations were pretty low, so I guess that the experience could only be better. Of course, Tamara lives in Santa Monica, one of the nicer parts of the city, and with the ocean so close to her home how could she go wrong. Every day I was there we had beautiful sunshine and weather in the 70s with a nice ocean breeze. It was almost paradise, if there hadn't been so much pavement and so many other people to "share" it with. As luck would have it, my mother also visited L.A. over the weekend on her way home from Japan. In a week back in the U.S. I have been able to visit half of my family!
Bob (my mother's husband) insisted, as he so often does, on visiting the RMS Queen Mary, a 1930s luxury ocean liner docked in Long Beach as a museum and hotel. The Queen Mary had quite an illustrious career, first as an ocean liner plying the Atlantic waters between New York and Great Britain and then as a troop transport ship during World War II. When it was built, it was the fastest, and probably most elegant, large ship in existence, which made it a favorite of many celebrities at the time. It was larger and heavier than the Titanic and, unlike the Titanic, it's construction was so sound that it made 1001 voyages across the Atlantic before being retired in 1967 due to the growing popularity of trans-Atlantic flights. During the war, the Queen Mary was also involved in the accidental sinking of the British light cruiser Curacoa when she collided with it, splitting the Curacoa in two. Although she was on her way to Scotland at the time, permanent repairs to her hull were not completed until she returned to Boston! Originally, she was built to carry about 3,000 passengers and crew, but during the war at one time she transported 15,000 troops. It was an interesting ship to tour, if a bit expensive, and it was very cool to step on and see how the rich and famous would have traveled across the Atlantic in those days.
Tamara and I also visited the La Brea Tar pits in the downtown L.A. area. I would highly recommend anyone to visit here, as it was not only interesting but fairly cheap too. These tar pits have been a rich site of fossils from about 40,000 years ago up to about 10,000 years ago and tell an interesting story of the animals that roamed this area of North America during the last great ice age. Did you know that there were native camels, the huge Columbian Mammoth that stood over 12 feet tall, saber tooth cats, ground sloths, and many other interesting animals that are now extinct! For fairly thorough information on all the fossils found at La Brea visit this web site http://www.tarpits.org/education/guide/index.html. They have really done a great job with the museum there and you can watch all the work in action from the excavation of the pits to the cleaning and cataloging of the fossils in the lab.
On my last day in L.A., Tamara and I got out of the city and went up to the Ventura county area for a great hike in the coastal mountains. I was amazed to find out that only an hour outside of L.A. there are wide open spaces with few people about. In fact, during our 3.5 hour hike we only encountered 2 other couples hiking. Ah, to have some of the great outdoors to ourselves for a bit. The hike was good - well kept, varied terrain, and great views - but the best part came after the hike was over. Soon after we left the trail head on our drive back to the Pacific Coast Highway, we spotted a mountain lion crossing the road. It is pretty unusual to see these creatures in the wild, so I was pretty excited. I guess there had been a few sightings around the area, but that didn't diminish the fact that it was the first wild mountain lion I had ever seen. However, I'm sure glad that our encounter was from the safety of Tamara's car and not while we were hiking!

After a week in California, it was time to fly up to the state that feels like home, Oregon. I swear that every time I fly into Portland, and we are coming in for a landing over the lush green of the area, I feel about ready to cry. It always feels like coming home, even though I haven't lived here for more than 3 years. Unfortunately, we had to leave Portland right away for the drive down to Eugene, which, by the way, is not nearly as far from Portland as I remember. Not to say that I wouldn't choose to live in Portland if I had the choice, but, well, lets look at the bright side......
Today Patrick is at his interview while I spend my time at the U of O Knight Library, looking for job opportunities in Eugene and pecking away at this blog.

Seems as if our time in NZ, and on this journey, is coming to a quick close. There are so many stories left to tell from this trip, perhaps Patrick and I can continue to add to our blog in the coming weeks.
For the past 2 and a half days we have sat at a "backpackers car lot" in Auckland trying to sell Eden, our little NZ car. She has served us well here and taken us all over both islands without any problem. Unfortunately, this time of year is pretty bad for selling cars - all the backpackers are going home! It was pretty depressing sitting in the lot for all that time, without so much as a single person taking the car for a test drive. We were not the only ones having problems. There were at least 12 other cars waiting for new owners and 6 or 10 campervans. Some of the sellers had been around for more than 5 days trying to get rid of their vehicles. The first day we were there, only 5 or 6 potential buyers came to look at the cars/vans and only 2 vehicles were sold. Those that were sold, went at a pittance. To give you an example, one van sold for $1200 yesterday - in November it will probably go for more than $3000. It was pretty funny to see everyone perk up and start smiling when new backpackers would arrive, only to go back to slouching and reading as the buyers passed their cars by.
We spent the long hours of waiting chatting and playing games with the other owners. A kind of camaraderie develops down there and everyone seems to share in the anticipation, disappointment, and anxiety of trying to sell a car. Everyone celebrates as each car is sold, especially when a deserving person, who has paid their dues by sitting around for more than 3 days, finally finds a buyer. And there is a shared disgust when a car shark comes in and offers $100 for a good car, just because he knows that person has a flight out in a few hours. That is the name of the car game in NZ and it is a strangely special part of the backpacker's world here.
I guess I really haven't answered the question of why we bought a car instead of renting one or finding other means of transport. When we first arrived in NZ we were anticipating staying here for at least 2 months, if not longer. We wanted to have our own transportation so we could go where ever, and when ever, we wanted. The cost of a cheap rental car for 2 months would have cost us around $1500NZ. After looking at a few cars, we decided that by buying a car for $1100NZ, we could afford to drive it around for 2 months, sell it for a few hundred dollars and we would still pay less than if we rented. In the event, 6 weeks worth of rental was about the same as the cost of our car.
In the end, we sold the car for $200NZ to Dennis. A little disappointing but at least it is out of our hands! Now we can relax and enjoy our last day in Auckland and our day in Singapore before heading home.

For all those of you who care what we will be doing once back in the U.S., here is our itinerary as far as we know it.
11 May We arrive back in Oakland
11-20 May Patrick will remain in Oakland until the 20th when he will fly to Portland and head down to Eugene for a job interview.
13-20 May I will be flying to L.A. on the 13th of May to spend a week with Tamara and then will meet Patrick in Portland on the 20th.
20-23 May We will spend the weekend in Eugene, getting to know the town a bit.
24-31 May In Portland, visiting with friends.
????

Although the North Island is not as dramatic as the South Island, we are still having plenty of good fun up here! It was really hard to leave the South Island because our last stop was at such a great place. Hopewell is probably one of the best backpacker retreats anywhere in the world! It is located at the very end of a long peninsula in Marlborough Sound, which is only accessable by either a long, windy dirt track or by boat. The owners have chosen to live out there with their children as a way of life. Mike came out to meet us in his motor boat for the 15 minute trip to Hopewell so that we could avoid the long drive around the bay. He is a great host who, although choosing to live away from big towns, loves to have people come and stay at his place. As soon as we arrived he sat us down at the family table and brought us coffee and muffins while we introduced ourselves around.
The hostel is set right on the water overlooking the sound and is a prime location for all sorts of water activities. We made full use of the free kayaks to explore the nearby coves and on our way discovered a huge oyster bed! The water was surprisingly warm, which was helpful when we were digging around for dinner. A couple of hours later we were surprised to find that the tide had dropped so low that all the oysters were on the shore. So much for wading in the water. The hostel itself was beautiful and comfortable and we felt like we were staying in a 5-star hotel. Even the kitchen was well equipped and the knives were sharp.
We probably wouldn't have left hopewell if we hadn't booked a non-refundable ferry ride!

So far on the North Island we spent a few days in the Napier/Hastings area - towns that are saturated in Art Deco architecture. These towns had to be completely rebuilt in the 1930s after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake leveled most of their buildings. Since Art Deco was very popular at the time, they chose to reconstruct in the fashion of the times. It wasn't until the 1970s that the towns realized what unique buildings they had and went about restoring and preserving their history. These towns are amazingly beautiful, especially when the blue sky adds a contrasting backdrop to the bright pastels of the buildings. We were lucky to have a few good days in these towns for tours through the history of the buildings.
Now we are in Rotorua, the hotspring capital of New Zealand. Last night we attended a Hangi at a Maori village - our first real Maori experience. It was fantastic and well worth the added expense.
We have very few days left Down Under!