Subject: Trip Report #5 (finally!) Tauranga, New Zealand.
From: "Sarah James" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2001 16:56:28 -0500

December 2001                   Tauranga, New Zealand

Looking back at the last newsletter I wrote, I see I have some catching up
to do - it was October and we were leaving for the Borneo rainforest.

We thoroughly enjoyed our 2 days/3 nights at the Danum Valley Conservation
Area near Lahad Datu in Sabah, Borneo. It is a primary jungle and we learnt
a lot about rain forests. We didn't see lots of wild life but when we did
spot something it was very exciting.  We saw heaps of interesting fauna on
our walks through the jungle with our very nice guide.  We saw lots of vines
just like what Tarzan swung on!  We enjoyed our nightly walks and jeep
escapades.

After Lahad Datu we made our way to Sepilok where we visited the Orang-utan
rehabilitation centre.  It was very educational and a wonderful opportunity
to see orang-utans up close.  One ran across David's foot as he was taking
videos.  I guess they are used to humans though they are raising orphan
babies and looking after older ones who have either been relocated or who
have been injured, with a view to releasing them back into the wild.

We organized a 5 night 6 day trip with Wildlife Expeditions which originated
at our bed and breakfast in Sepilok.  First stop was the Gomatong caves,
where we had a chance to see swiftlets, whose nests are used to make bird's
nest soup.  It was not a harvest time so we didn't see the collectors in
action, but we could see some of the unbelievably tall primitive scaffolding
and the equipment used in the collection.  People are clearly perched rather
precariously as they harvest.  Apparently people get both killed and
injured, but the risk must be worth the enormous cash payments for these
delicacies.

Next stop was the Kinabatangan River Lodge where we spent two nights.  It
was an unbelievable wildlife experience where we traveled slowly up a river
in a small boat. just feet from the wildlife. We saw long and pig tailed
macaques, red leaf monkeys, proboscis monkeys, gibbons, orang-utans,
crocodiles, water monitors, a cat ring snake, pit vipers, reticulated
pythons, scorpions, leeches, sleeping birds, hornbills of many kinds,
poisonous centipedes and.. I know I've forgotten lots.  We have become quite
the experts in both spotting and identifying wildlife.  We really know now
what the saying "swinging around like a monkey" means.  It was absolutely
wonderful to sit and watch all these animals in the wild.   We were all
quite mesmerized.

Another highlight was our night time adventure on Selingan Island watching a
large Green Turtle laying eggs in the sand, burying them, digging a false
nest beside the real one and then crawling back to the ocean.  David, Mark
and I were awake until about 5:30AM for this magical experience.
After our Borneo experiences we returned to the wonderful Shangri-La Rasa
Ria for a night or two before heading off to climb Mount Kinabalu, which is
4095m (about 13,400 feet) high.  We met our guide at about 8 a.m. and set
off for our ascent.  It was unbelievably grueling.  3 hours into it, it
started to rain and at the end of 5 hours we were fairly wet, in spite of
our gortex jackets.  We arrived at the Laban Rata rest house, which provided
a roof with bunks and light meals.  We stopped here to warm up, rest, dry
off and sleep.  Unfortunately the MEC back pack with all of our warm clothes
leaked so one of the first things we had to do was to hang everything out as
close to a heater as possible.  We had an early bed in order to meet our
guide at 3 a.m. to climb to the summit to see the sunrise.  We started out
in the pitch black with our assortment of booklights and one decent
flashlight which stopped working after about the first five minutes.  We
stumbled and gasped as we slowly made our way up the face of the mountain,
with a mixture of pulling ourselves up on ropes and climbing on all fours,
all of us feeling nauseous from altitude sickness and with legs like jelly.
Every breath hurt and, after Heather started to vomit, the girls and I
stopped about 400m from the summit.  Mark and David decided to push on.
They made it, but David says it wasn't without a struggle. The climb is not
a tourist attraction. It is a test of endurance and determination that was
much harder than we expected. The descent was tough too as both David and I
had knee problems. The kids did much better than us going down.  We arrived
back at the Rasa Ria and promptly paid a fee to change each of our air
tickets in order to recover for a few days.  David and I were unbelievably
sore, the kids were not nearly as bad. Hmmmm D. and I thought we were in
reasonable shape??
We spent several days taking in the sights in Kuala Lumpur. We found the
Petronas Towers stunning and quite an architectural achievement.  We spent a
few more days in Singapore before heading to New Zealand.

We arrived in Auckland and after a day or two rented a camper van and set
off to explore the North Island.  We found Camper Vans to be very expensive
and a lot of work. (We've rented a car and stayed in motels on the South
Island  - it is both cheaper and a lot less work). Unfortunately the weather
hasn't been very kind in New Zealand. However it didn't stop us from taking
in a lot of the North Island attractions before heading to the South Island.
While on the North Island we spent two nights in Tauranga on the driveway of
Murray and Raewyn Jamieson, the brother and family of friends from
Vancouver.  They were great fun and we had a terrific time with them.  They
have very kindly invited us to join them for Christmas and New Years.  They
have no idea what they are letting themselves in for!  We have accepted and
we are all really excited about meeting up with them again on the 20th.
While on the North Island, we also had a wonderful overnight stay with the
Bailey's, old military friends of David's parents whom they have known for
years.

We flew from Auckland to Christchurch and stayed in a motel owned by the New
Zealand Girl Guides Lones coordinator.  She organized a visit for us to a
Guide meeting which happened to include Brownies.  A great time was had by
all.  On our return to Christchurch towards the end of our South Island
tour, we stayed at Bev's motel again and went back to the last local Guide
meeting of the year- a car rally to the beach where we built sand castles.
We also visited the NZ Guide house and Craycroft which was the wonderful
camp given to the Guides.  A real highlight was Bev's introduction to Lynda
Spittle who has spent quite a bit of time at Sangam in India.  For those of
you who don't know, Sangam is one of the four world centres owned by Girl
Guides.  She has put us in touch with people at Sangam who we hope will help
us to find a month's volunteer work in India.  We have tried to find
volunteer work but organizations don't seem to want children in third world
countries, a pity because I think they would have a lot to add, as well as
to gain a tremendous experience.

The girls and I have been given lots of Guide friendship badges and swaps,
we are waiting for some to arrive from Canada so that we have Canadian ones
to give to others.  I meant to buy some before we left but the Guide shop on
Merton St. was closed at the time and I couldn't find an extra minute to go
further a field to get them.

While traveling on the south island, we spent a few days in Queenstown,
probably the testosterone capital of the world!  The Carlson girls let the
Carlson boys do their thing which included two bungy jumps each.  What a
pair of nuts!

We thoroughly enjoyed a farm stay in Wendonside.  A working farm with 10,000
+ sheep including rams, ewes, and lambs, and a few hundred cattle. As soon
as we had arrived we were sent off to a neighbouring farm to watch sheep
shearing.   It was fascinating.

New Zealand has provided us with both highs and lows of our year off.  It's
been a different sort of traveling than we were doing in Asia. In Asia, even
the most mundane things were different and interesting. In New Zealand, the
culture and scenery is very similar to Canada, so we were not filled with
the same sense of awe as we travel from one attraction to another. In Asia
we felt like explorers, while in New Zealand we feel like tourists.

Tourism is big business in New Zealand - but it is interesting how some
smaller businesses and individuals have  put together some of the best
attractions.  Like the farmer who built Blinds, tunnels, and nesting boxes
at his farm in order to offer close up views of penguins - he now has one of
the largest colonies of the rare Yellow Eyed Penguins on the South Island.
And then there is Larnach castle outside of Dunedin which a couple bought as
a derelict in the 60's and have done up and opened for viewing by the
public.

We had a bit of a rough ten days while in the south island, but everything
seems to have been re-aligned.   The problems were centered on school work
or lack thereof.  Mark made loud noises about wanting to return to Canada
and he said he didn't know why on earth we had embarked on this year long
trip. Once he started, the girls of course mimicked what their older brother
was saying.  David gave Mark 3 options:  1) return to UCC in January as a
boarder;  2) stay with us, not do any work, and return next year to repeat
remove (grade 9) year; or  3) stay with us and take responsibility for doing
his school work - with diligence he would advance to the upper school with
his classmates.  We told him that we thought option 1 was the only way we
could guarantee that he would pass his year, but we told him to think about
it for a couple of days.  It took all of two hours before he said there was
no way he was leaving us to go to boarding school.  He wanted to go to
Australia, Thailand, Africa and India and he very definitely didn't want to
be a year behind his colleagues.  For the past 10 days he has made great
strides with his school work. May his efforts continue!  At least he
realizes (I think) that schoolwork is his responsibility, not ours. We're
happy helping in any way we can but the constant nagging at him to do work
is wearing a but thin.

We spent an afternoon recently attempting to swim with Hector's dolphins in
Akaroa.  We saw quite a few dolphins but every time we jumped in they swam
away- not in a playful mood we were told.  The water was incredibly cold (15
ºC) though we had wet suits on.  The kids wore two wetsuits for added
warmth, but it didn't help Chloe, even though she was the keenest to swim
with the dolphins.  She spent about 2 minutes in the water and wanted out.
We hope to have better luck in Tauranga.

We have in fact arrived in Tauranga and are having a marvelous time.  More
about the Jamieson's, Tauranga, and a Kiwi Christmas and New Years in the
next newsletter.  We leave for Australia on January 3.

As always, you can read and see the latest adventures on our web site.
(http://canadiancarlsons.com )

Love from us all,

Sarah, with help from David!!