Gender: Male
Status: Married
Age: 30
Sign: Virgo
City: Melbourne
State: Victoria
Country: AU
Signup Date: 4/25/2007
|
|
|
|
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
|
Category: Travel and Places
You probably are wanting to hear of our latest escapades in the land down under so once again with an attempt to be brief we will share our adventures in our final destination, well that is for now anyway.
We arrived on a Jetstar flight direct in from Christchurch to Brisbane, about 4 hours and unfortunately we had been delayed so arrived a few hours late. Despite having visa's we were not grilled on our arrival in Oz, simply a stamp and in we go. So, here we are on Australian soil and home for now at least. We made our way towards the bus depot and caught a bus about 1hr 15mins south the Surfers Paradise where we were met by our wonderful hosts Tony and Edna Panrucker, friends from years back in the UK. Tony and Edna have an amazing 12th floor unit in the Bel Air apartments down in Broadbeach. The views were amazing and we couldn't believe what we had come to. Stunning views of the Pacific Ocean and also our own suite. The apartments had a gym and an indoor and outdoor pool. We grabbed pizza that night and had some time to catch up. It felt so weird to be Australia, the place we have been so keen to arrive in for almost a year now.
On with another day and we decided to wake semi early to take in the views and we weren't disappointed. Tony and Edna took us to church which was real big and then for some time up and down the shores of Surfers Paradise, which is mainly a seasonal town and is getting ready as we speak for the Indy 500 road race. They then took us to their favourite Greek restaurant and we weren't disappointed. I had for the first time Barramundi in Mornay sauce and Amy had the calamari, more than you have ever seen on a plate before!! So with that they took us for a drive to Sanctuary Cove and checked out a few mansions set around a private golf course. Put it this way Bel Air, California had nothing on these places. Loosing track of time we woke next morning and Amy wished me Happy Birthday as we thought it was now the 11th but it was only the 10th, so we felt a little silly. Anyway we laughed and went off to plan a trip to Australia Zoo. We took a stroll over to the mall over the road and much inspired by our brother-in-laws marathon efforts back in Minnesota we bought a pair of running shoes. In fact it so worked out that they were matching Nike's, mine in red and Amy's in pink. After a walk on the beach we headed back to "Bel Air" for the night to a delicious home cooked meal, something we had longed for after 3 weeks in a camper van.
Finally the 9-11 arrived and it truly was time to celebrate my birthday. Although the plan was to go to Australia Zoo for my birthday we left it to next day because it had forecast rain, but hey this is Queensland, a place where the sun just keeps on shining. Amy snuck out and bought me a pair of "thongs", oooh missus. Nope, not underwear but you Brits will know them as flip-flops.Yep, the Aussies call them thongs. Edna cooked us a lovely lamb roast which is my favourite meat and a little cake to celebrate. We took a walk over to the casino to Prince Albert's pub, and had a good old pint, apart from watching the Socceroos it all felt very English. Now, at 28 years old I took the next turn of events as a compliment, as we entered the casino we were both asked for ID. Yes, indeed a baby face. The first time since my days up Broad Street is was asked to prove that I was over 18. To my great contentment I whipped out my drivers licence and the bouncer almost fell back. Oh yeah!!!!
The next day was to be the fulfilment of another dream. Australia Zoo. We got up real early and headed out to the road to be collected by the coach for almost a 2 hour drive to the Glass House Mountains and the zoo. What an exceptional day it was. If you have been to Oz and not visited (yes I know it's a big country) but you are nuts. This is definitely one of Australia's boasts. You walk and feed the Kangaroo's, stroke Koala's and get face to face with the biggest Python in captivity, not to mention the almost 2 hour show in the Crocoseum. But, sadly old Stevo wasn't there although his legendary status lives on. The Crocoseum is lined with tributes to him, and you couldn't help but shed a tear. What a top bloke! Just a fact for you, Australia has 18 of the worlds most venomous snakes. The Inland Taipan also known as the Fierce Snake can kill up to 10 men with a single bite, he's the daddy of all venomous snakes. But for all of you who are too scared to visit Oz because of the snakes and spiders, you are off your head. We have been here 4 weeks and not seen one, and we have been very remote at times in the rainforests etc. If all you do for your next holiday fly to Brisbane and go to Oz Zoo.
The next few days were spent relaxing. Time for swimming a bike ride and a few sauna's, ahh this is the life. We did take a drive up to a place called Tambourine in the mountains and went to a coffee shop called the Polish Place. The views from the mountains to the ocean were amazing, and you are joined for coffee, literally by the noisy Rainbow Lorikeets. The most stunning green little parrots you have seen. Amongst seeing other Cokato's and pink parrots.
It was time to move on again and a 2 hour drive North to Peregian Beach near to Noosa, to stay for the weekend with Tony and Edna's son Mark and his wife Diana and their family. They have a typical Queensland timber home with stunning views of the bush. We later on that night met Tony and Edna's daughter Rene and her husband Joe and their kids. We got on so well with them all and they invited us to stay with them for the week. So, we obliged. Anyway on the Saturday we took three 4x4's and went to Noosa beach for a trek along the beaches. For the average Brit who would never consider driving on the beach you could say there were as many cars on the beach as the M40. It was heaving with 4 wheel drive vehicles and doing about 40mph and people that had pitched their tents and trailers for the weekend. It was real fun stuff. Well I thought so anyway. Amy started to turn whiter and whiter from all of the bumping around on the sand and finally conceded that she would be sick. Yep, indeed she puked, which has been a common theme for our more adventurous trips on this holiday.
We spent a few days hanging out with the family, playing PS3 and watching some movies. We really miss them now. Later that week we went to stay with Rene, Joe, Brock and Jade up in the mountains. We stayed in their caravan which was totally cool and just hung out with them. One night we entertained ourselves with Joe's online assessment that he had to do for work, flip it was funny. Anyway we hung out chatted and did some more sightseeing. What an awesome family who just welcomed us in, Panruckers and Favorito's you guys have been a real blessing to us, you wont know how much your welcome has meant to us, thanks!!
In normal fashion we packed our bags and made way for our 10:15am flight from Brisbane to Cairns. There was some confusion around our ticket and whilst we were on a domestic flight we were supposed to be in the international terminal, mmmm ok?! Anyway the airport was packed as it was the start of the Queensland school holidays. We did arrive safe and sound into Cairns on our very first Qantas flight, wahoo. Suddenly the humidity just hits you and it was hot, but it's not even summer yet so would hate to think. We made our way to pick up our rental car which carried an excess of $2200, ouch. So, believe me we drove carefully. We made our way to Ellis Beach on the first night to camp and set up camp right next to the beach. We dropped into a beautiful resort called Palm Cove for something to eat and we just saw the beauty of the coast open up before us. The next day we headed north towards Port Douglas, and thought we had arrived back in the UK. It was just heaving with European backpackers all looking for work and cheap accommodation. Port Douglas is the hub for the boats out to the Barrier Reef. Now before you start asking did we visit the reef, the answer is no. You see cash flow is running a little short right now so we thought once we are earning we will head back up north for a long weekend on the reef or something like that anyway. We quickly packed up the next morning as we just hadn't come to be swarming with loud drunk Europeans. We headed north to the Daintree, an amazingly preserved rainforest and well worth a visit. We first took a cruise on the Daintree River Train looking for Crocs and other animals and we saw a few smaller crocs. It was well worth the $20 each for 2 hours. After that we crossed the Daintree river to the rainforest and took a few night in Lync Haven where you are just surrounded by wildlife in your campsite. We had flying foxes above our tent, which we thought was cool until they woke you up screeching at 5:30am. But hey that's camping in the rainforest for you.
The next day we drove up to Cape Tribulation the last stop if you haven't got a 4x4 before you head to Cooktown. The Cape was amazing, beautiful water and beaches. The Cape is famous for where Captain James Cook beached the Endeavour for repairs after being damaged on the reef, hence the name Cape Tribulation. You do also need to be careful of the Stingers otherwise known as Box Jellyfish in the waters up north, not to mention the Crocs. The Box Jellyfish can kill a grown man in 45mins and put it this way they school together. In other words, no chance! So, we headed back across the Daintree River on the ferry and made our way for the Atherton Tablelands. It's inland and on top of the Great Dividing Range. We visited a few farms and tasted the most delicious Mango wine. It was our first taste of the outback as we purposefully headed down a few remote roads to see the red sand. Oz, is just so diverse and the most amazing place. The Tablelands were nice but we were longing for more time on the beach so headed back to the coast to stay at the Palm Cove campsite for a further two nights. We were supposed to have 2 weeks but decided to cut it short by a week due to cash flow. We took the next day in Cairns which is a really nice city. It has a great vibe about it, and we could have spent a little more time there.
There concludes our time in Northern Queensland and another flight from Cairns bought us direct into Sydney Domestic terminal to be met by my brother Aaron. We hadn't seen each other for over half a year so was good just to be reunited with him again. So, here we are in Sydney, another piece of the bigger picture and here we are back to the reality of work. As I write it has been 175 days since we left the UK. Our intention was never to really journal our travels on the train to work so for now this will probably be our last email journal that we will be sending. We really hope that you have enjoyed reading about our adventures. Travelling is the best thing we decided to do. Settling back into the 9-5 is going to be tough, but whoever said that things need to be permanent?! That's just the thinking of people who can't think outside of the box. As we always say, life is for living not for enduring!
Powered by  | | English | | Albanian | | Arabic | | Bulgarian | | Catalan | | Chinese | | Croatian | | Czech | | Danish | | Dutch | | Estonian | | Filipino | | Finnish | | French | | Galician | | German | | Greek | | Hebrew | | Hindi | | Hungarian | | Indonesian | | Italian | | Japanese | | Korean | | Latvian | | Lithuanian | | Maltese | | Norwegian | | Polish | | Portuguese | | Romanian | | Russian | | Serbian | | Slovak | | Slovenian | | Spanish | | Swedish | | Thai | | Turkish | | Ukrainian | | Vietnamese |
|
|
|
|
Saturday, September 08, 2007
|
Category: Travel and Places
Well one more country down and another to go. On the 18th of August we after much anticipation we touched down at our next destination of New Zealand. As with our flight from LA we flew with Air Pacific from Nadi to Auckland. We were sad to wave farewell to Fijian shores but being such huge Lord of the Rings fans to be able to finally visit 'Middle Earth' was something we had both been so eagerly waiting for since we left England. I know you are not meant to summarise a visit before you write the review, but, New Zealand was everything we had hoped for and so much more. A little colder than we had expected, but it's worth enduring.
We decided to book a campervan whilst back in the US, but thought before exploring the country we would take some time in Auckland. Our first impressions of Auckland were that if it weren't for the American street signs we would have thought we were driving through Leamington Spa or a similar sort of city. We arrived at our hostel on Albert Street, just a short walk from the Sky Tower (the tallest observation tower in the Southern Hemisphere) and also a stones throw from the harbour. It's a nice city, but a city at that. We were told of the 4 million people that live in New Zealand, about 1.2m live in Auckland. Hey don't get me wrong it was a great city, but we have grown a little tired of visiting cities now. We walked around the cities parks and gardens, and took in the architecture, very English but we were so eager just to get out to see the real New Zealand.
On the Monday we headed down to Escape rentals to collect our campervan so that we could head out of Auckland early. Escape are pretty unique, the campervans are all personalised with graffiti. Well, to our amazement in true fitting with our trip we collected 'Woodstock'. The name should speak for itself, but let me assist your imagination. It was based on the flower power era, so donned with the peace sign, the word 'LOVE' and a silhouette of Jimi Hendrix amongst other brightly coloured symbols reminiscent of the love generation. Of course our parents would remember it well. So, we though the theme was relevant, given our 'Hippie' tendencies of late. Anyway following our time in Auckland we picked up some food and headed South towards the town of Thames and north from there around the Coromandel Peninsula. This was our first exposure to real NZ and it wasn't before long that we saw the famous multitudes of sheep and cows. In fact we thought we saw more cows than sheep, but anyway. The Coromandel was beautiful and took us about 6 hours to our first camp site in Whitianga. We were pleasantly surprised by the facilities at the camp site as they are more than us Brits would expect. Clean and hot showers, fully equipped kitchen facilities and lots of things to do around the site although given the cold that we had not yet acclimatised to, we declined and cooped up in the warm van.
We headed South towards the city of Tauranga to stay with Claire and Derek Warren, friends of the Smallman family from South Africa who now live in NZ. Although so soon into our trip we appreciated the opportunity to indulge in a lamb roast and a warm, comfortable bed. Thank you Claire and Derek your hospitality was much appreciated. Tauranga is in the Bay of Plenty on the North shores of the North Island. We awoke to sunshine and decided to head off for a walk up a volcano, Mount Munganui, which gave us awesome views of the bay and out to sea. After a walk that took us a few hours we headed South towards Putaruru where we were to stay on the farm of Maralyn Short who we had met in Fiji. Again we had a delicious home raised lamb roast along with Maralyn's home grown peaches. We also got to ride on Kelly a dressage horse that belonged to Steph who we had also met in Fiji. The hunt was now on though as this is where we picked up a copy of Ian Brodie's Lord of the Rings filming sites and began our quest to find the locations nationwide. We were awoken the next morning by a gunshot killing one of Maralyn's cows for dressing (to a non farmer this means that the meat is prepared).
We then took a drive about 45mins East of Putaruru towards Rotorua. Rotorua is very famous for a few things, mainly the smell of sulphur from the active hot springs in the area. Basically the area is one great big bubbling volcano. It's the main tourist town on the North island so we took a few days to take a few tours and really taste our first experiences of cultural New Zealand. We arrived in the town and basically there is steam coming from all over the place and every now and then you get a stonking whiff of rotten egg. We decided that we would really taste some of the Maori culture so decided to book an evening at Mitai Maori Village, and we also got a free ticket to visit Hell's Gate. So, we decided to head off to Hell's Gate that afternoon. It is the most amazing place, bubbling mud, mini volcanoes and hot water lakes. It's quite eerie being in a place where the earth is so active. We took our time walking around and then made our way to the campsite for the night which had 5 natural hot spa pools.
The following day we took some time around the town a walk around part of Lake Rotorua and also the Old Government Buildings and later in the evening headed to Mitai Maori Village for a cultural show and got to participate in a Haka which was very cool. We saw some glow worms and then headed back to the marquee for a Hangi, which is a meal slow cooked under ground. The food was delicious, the lamb was the most tender we had tasted, and once again delicious NZ food. We stayed one more night in Rotorua and then headed South on the SH1 towards Lake Taupo and then onto Tongariro National Park. Ok, so this is where things go nuts. Nestled in the heart of Tongariro is Mount Ruhapeau the largest on the North island, it is an active volcano, great, but it is also a ski resort. Yes, Kiwi's ski on an active volcano, and an amazing one at that. It was here that we saw our first Lord of the Rings site. Mount Ngauruhoe was 'Mount Doom' in the LOTR, again a spectacular site. We stayed overnight at the Whakapapa ski field campsite which was freezing cold, and also in the middle of the lava channel had Ruhapeau erupted, nice!
After a 6 hour drive further South we made our way to the Upper Hutt region and visited Kaitoke Regional Park. A really spectacular place and if it hadn't have been for the LOTR guidebook we wouldn't have visited. This was the site for Rivendell of the elves. We made our way to Harcourt Park and stayed overnight in the grounds of 'Isengard' and some of the pathways that had been covered over since filming with grass since filming are still evident. We then made our way down to Wellington just 45mins away. Wellington is the capitol of New Zealand and very similar in it's layout to San Francisco, minus Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. As far as a Kiwi city this is the most liveable we felt. As we drove into the city it was very misty but as the day went by the cloud lifted to reveal Wellington in all it's glory. We decided to head up Mount Victoria for some great views of the city and also some more LOTR filming sites. It's amazing when you recognise them. We spent the next day heading around the coast for some scenery and stopped off to watch some surfers in Lyall Bay next to the airport and then spent a bit of time in and around the city, sending postcards etc. We decided to save a few $ and changed our ferry crossing from 8am the next morning to 2am. So, we parked up in the car park and the beauty of a camper is that we slept a few hours, parked up on the ferry and slept on the ferry. By the time we reached Picton on the South island it was about 6am so we headed straight from there to the city of Nelson.
We drove through some spectacular scenery and took a drive through some of the well known Kiwi vineyards. The terrain became more apparent on the South island as it took it's toll on Woodstock and also the fuel bill. Which incidentally is about half of the price of fuel in the UK. We took some time in Nelson at the campsite a caught a few Z's and then back into the city for a walk around. Nelson isn't famous for a huge amount apart from being the nation's second city for some time. We managed to get some wifi time finally in the town although we must have looked like hackers to the locals sat in the brightly coloured campervan. No bank robberies in that baby! Nelson was pretty famous for it's contribution to the LOTR movies. Harrington Breweries brewed a stout called 'SobeRing' especially for the scenes in the Prancing Pony in Bree, and also the 'One Ring' was crafted here for the movie by Jens Hansen Goldsmiths. We checked out both places and bought 6 bottles of 'SobeRing', but at just 1% alcohol, almost like Shandy. The novelty was fun though.
It was a 6 hour drive from Nelson to the Franz Josef Glacier where we stopped overnight in a very luxury campsite, with sauna's and spa's etc. However, for 6 hours we had seen rain, rain and more rain. In fact driving through some of the passes of the mountains were quite frightening as there was rain running off just about every ledge, we saw some huge waterfalls right next to the road. Sadly although we had driven about 100k's into the Southern Alps all we could see was grey misty skies and rain. We had made our way to Franz Josef Glacier to witness our first glacier but it wasn't to be so, because after a 30min walk through rainforest and torrential rain only the terminal of the glacier could be seen. But, all hope was not lost so we took the 30min drive further down the road to the Fox Glacier. Totally worth it and indeed we got to witness our first ever glacier. The drive to the glacier was amazing, and we witnessed our very first Kea (mountain parrots) trying to rip off the rubber seals from rental cars. We walked towards the terminal and ignored the signs to not cross the barrier for an up close and personal look at the glacier. Totally worth it to stand at the foot of a glacier. Dangerous but we only live one. Well, until you hear the ice cracking and falling down, so, maybe we weren't that daring and turned back to take some pics. What an amazing achievement to walk right up to a glacier.
From hear we headed further south towards a town called Wanaka just an hour over the mountain pass to Queenstown, but we though we would save Queenstown until the next day, despite rave reviews of the town and the sites. Finally the rain had subsided and for the first time in almost 2 days we saw the sun. Wanaka is a bustling town for skiers and snowboarders so we both got a little jealous and wish we had our gear with us, but anyway that's for another trip. We were right in the heart of the Southern Alps now and surrounded by snow capped mountains. This is what we had come for. People, it is without doubt the most spectacular scenery you will ever witness. If you haven't been to NZ and choose Spain over there, you are crazy. Save up hard and go visit, you will be glad you did.
We woke up nice and early to the cold and headed up over the mountain pass towards Queenstown and The Remarkables (mountain range) appeared before us, completely breathtaking. Queenstown was nestled in the huge valley. It was at this point we could not believe what we were seeing. We found a parking area and got out to just take in the views. From here we headed into the valley towards AJ Hackett's bungee bridge (the first one in the world). After one look we both said no thanks but took a walk on the bridge to say we had been there all the same. We both agreed that we would sky dive but not bungee. Sorry folks, no bungee stories from us. From here we headed further on to a few more LOTR sites. On the river Kawarau this doubled up as the River Anduin and also the Ardonath or Pillars of the Kings. We then headed onto a little gold mining town called Arrowtown. Just totally idyllic and we both decided that if we were going to live anywhere in NZ this would be it. You are just surrounded by huge mountains and these quaint little town houses which used to be miners cottages back in the 1800's. We checked out a couple more LOTR sites, The Gladden Fields and the Ford of Bruinen. By now no doubt you are saying what a sad pair they are, but quite honestly the movies sites are the best views and scenery of NZ and we would both recommend the sites even if you are not a fan of the movies.
From Arrowtown we headed over the Shotover River which is famous for it's jet boating and onto Queenstown. A busy little year round holiday town with THE most breathtaking surroundings as far as walking out of your home every morning. Again just spectacular and if you want scenery this is the place to be. The town is busy with skiers and has a very young vibe to it. Lots of ski lodges and backpacker accommodation but it has preserved it's Kiwi feel and not sold out, yet, to overseas investors. Or at least it isn't apparent just yet. There isn't a whole bunch to do in the town unless you are there to ski or a boat trip on the lake. But in freezing cold weather we declined a trip on the steamboat that has been in operations for over 90 years. So, we headed out on a 40k road towards the tiny farming/fishing town of Glenorchy. This was the site for another LOTR filming site of Isengard. However on the way we stopped off at a place called Twelve Mile Delta, we dared to cross a flooded area in an attempt to see another LOTR site, where Sam, Frodo and Sméagol watched the Oliphant's in 'Ithilien'. We headed back to Shotover just outside of Queenstown for the night, and finally were able to get onto the internet for some wifi time.
The next day was spent in Queenstown just walking around the town and checking out the mountains all around us. The view of the Remarkables range of mountains is just amazing and has to be seen to be believed. It was at this point that we had hoped to head South to Milford Sound, Invercargill and Dunedin. But, we sadly had time against us so we decided to head North towards Mount Cook National Park. It was a case of we couldn't do both. We were so glad that we made the choice that we did. So, we set out once again in old Woodstock and made a 4 hour drive North towards the little town of Tarras for another LOTR filming site and then onto Omarama where we camped up for the night so that we could have a full day the next day. From Queenstown to Omarama however we had met with gale force winds which nearly blew us off the road. In fact we came across a few massive trees that had been uprooted. We really had faced all of the elements except for snow, well not yet anyway. The wind was so strong it was even causing some of the falcons to nose bomb and crash into the ground. We had never seen wind so strong, yet in good old Kiwi style everyone just gets on with it and goes about their daily lives. You could say the old Kiwi's are pretty hardy people.
So, the next day we awoke to blue skies and a fresh coating of snow on the mountains that surrounded Omarama. It was just totally amazing yet again, another little surprise that awaited us. From Omarama we made our way North towards Twizel, a tiny town that was almost flattened in the late 80's. It was in Twizel that the climax of the LOTR site of the Pelennor Fields in the Return of the King took place. By the time we had got there the sky had gone dark so it was difficult to really picture this site, but took some photo's all the same. We stopped off at the Twizel visitors centre. Twizel was unique in the filming of LOTR as all of the town were involved. They all dressed up as Orc or Rohirrim riders, so I asked the guy in the visitors centre and yep indeed he had been an Orc. How cool a genuine Orc! We chatted to him for ages and he told us all about the filming, it just sounded real fun. Essentially all but the petrol station closed down for the filming, and just to think when you drive into the town, a real sleepy one at that, the little old man walking his dog or the ladies working in the banks, were involved. It was such a surreal feeling, but everything is now just a distant memory for them and life goes on. You would be surprised how many people you see on the road heading to these remote locations to visit the sites. Honestly there are loads of people still visiting.
Well enough LOTR talk for now so we headed up to Mount Cook National Park for the night and drove alongside a glacier lake that was so turquoise you would not believe. We arrived at the visitors centre nestled at the heart of the Alps and decided to take the walk up to the Tasman Glacier. Again just another breathtaking vista, and we watched a snow storm blow in. It was just as well that we were equipped with snow chains for the van. However we did make it to our campsite just in time to avoid the storm. We spent another lazy night in the campervan and I read Tolkien's latest book 'The Children of Hurin', which is real good, and Amy updated our journal. Our next morning was just the best so far. We awoke to a snow covered van, the land and the mountains were covered as far as the eye could see, and the bluest skies we have ever seen. We made an early start for our 3 hour walk up to the Hooker lake and glacier. We donned our winter gear plus some extra supplies just in case and made our way up the mountains. This was by far the best experience of New Zealand. It was true magnificence. It got real cold as we made our way into the mountains, but we endured and got to the glacier terminal. Completely rewarding. We took loads of photo's and by the time we got back down to the van a few hours later most of the lower valley's snow had melted. Sadly we were unable to see Mount Cook, which is the highest mountain in NZ due to cloud cover but we saw the rest of the range surrounding it.
We warmed up in the van and headed out back towards Twizel for some fuel. We decided to drop back to the 'Pelennor Fields' as the skies were blue and we were able to appreciate the view for what it was. En route we finally got our glimpse of Mount Cook from about 40k's away. After we had refuelled we headed North towards the little town of Methven, a ski village for Mount Hutt. We checked into a nice ski lodge that had a campervan site on the side, and had a nice surprise as we had become accustomed to in NZ. Our heater decided to break in the van at about 1am. So, to our surprise we woke to an ice covered inside of the van and by about 5:30am it just became unbearable so we started the van up and used the van's heater to warm us up. By about 6:30am we had thawed out along with the van and decided to make for our last stop before Christchurch. This was to be the pinnacle of the whole trip. We had declined the NZ $240 each to take a 4x4 out to our final LOTR site at the base of Mount Potts and made way in our little campervan. Well the going was good about 20km's into the trip and then we were met with a sign. "Recommended for 4x4 vehicles only", but hey there was nothing 'Woodstock' couldn't handle, so we made our way onward and upward towards Erewhon. We passed a crystal clear lake en route and it wasn't long until the unsealed road took it's toll on the driving. Rocks were flying up everywhere, but hey come on this is a Toyota they can endure anything. We carried on for about another 25k's and then we saw it, the scenery unravelled to reveal Mount Sunday, the 11 month filming site that was totally transformed for the movies into Rohan. If there is scenery in Paradise, this is what it will be like. We hadn't passed a single car on the road, so in our graffiti'd van I would suggest that we were clearly LOTR fans as nobody else does this site in a campervan. We could have done with Matthew's Mitsubishi Pajero, because we got stuck!! I (James) being the Townie that I am panicked but my little hardcore outdoor MacGyver got us out. I guess in South Africa you just find away, but I was almost in tears as I thought it was cost us loads to get us towed out. Well anyway after all the drama, Amy dug us out and a strong Springbok push and we were out. Phew!!!!
We made our journey back up the dirt road which felt a lot shorter, and towards the Canterbury Plains. It had been a little different scenery to what we had become accustomed to for the last week. It was just totally flat and lots of sheep and cattle again. After a couple of hours drive we reached Christchurch, which was to be our last destination in New Zealand before our flight to Brisbane. Christchurch, well basically just another city. We decided to drop back by the rental depot to pick us up a new heater, which was very much appreciated. We made our way into the city to the Arts Centre, and just to see some of the good old city buildings, parks etc. By now we are all accustomed to the standard city layout and they are all pretty similar. There was nothing overly exciting about the city but it gave us some opportunities to send some postcards etc. We finally caught our Jetstar flight on Saturday afternoon and sadly we departed from Woodstock and said our farewells to our little travelling companion.
In summary New Zealand is a stunning country. Hiring a campervan is a must to be able to see all of the scenery, but anyone who is planning a trip should be warned you need at least 4-6 weeks to see both islands. We missed so much and can't wait to go back. You could quite easily spend 2-3 weeks on either island and with an average of 4-6 hours between each destination you can spend easily a day travelling between destinations. New Zealand is not a country to be missed, and don't be put off a flight to the other side of the world. You will be so glad you went. We would definitely recommend the LOTR locations as they really are amazing. The next time we update you will be from Australia and we will give you the low-down on a new country and new culture.
We did have some sad news and some good. I (James) sadly lost my Nan after a brave fight, so we would like to dedicate our journey to Lillian 'Nan' Middleton. However, as we loose one isn't life funny, you gain another one. Well two in this case. Claire and Ben welcomed into the world our little nephew, Jacob Benjamin Lees, so we are a proud Auntie and Uncle again. We also got some news from the US and found out that we will be an Auntie and Uncle again, when the Cooksey's expect a new addition in April 2008.
Powered by | | English | | Albanian | | Arabic | | Bulgarian | | Catalan | | Chinese | | Croatian | | Czech | | Danish | | Dutch | | Estonian | | Filipino | | Finnish | | French | | Galician | | German | | Greek | | Hebrew | | Hindi | | Hungarian | | Indonesian | | Italian | | Japanese | | Korean | | Latvian | | Lithuanian | | Maltese | | Norwegian | | Polish | | Portuguese | | Romanian | | Russian | | Serbian | | Slovak | | Slovenian | | Spanish | | Swedish | | Thai | | Turkish | | Ukrainian | | Vietnamese |
|
|
|
|
Saturday, August 18, 2007
|
Category: Travel and Places
Bula from the South Pacific and the tropical islands of Fiji,
We finally made it away from American shores (not that that is a bad thing) onto our next destination, Fiji. Just to wet your appetite it is hot, we are currently overlooking the beach, there is music playing from the bar, and we just feel all lazy. One things for certain, Fiji didn't disappoint our visions of turquoise seas and coral beaches. We got what we paid for! To put it all in perspective Fiji is about 1000 miles from anywhere but despite there being no mistaking that we are in the South Pacific, it oozes Colonial remnants. For a start the Union Jack sits in the top left hand corner of the Fijian flag and everybody from England is from the "Motherland" as the people here say. It's quite weird to be in a place the other side of the world with so much respect for a country that most people here will never even visit.
Sadly Fiji is currently under an interim government due to a military coup a few years ago. The British Foreign Office advise against travel to Fiji but believe me you will find tons of Brits here. Mainly backpackers en route to or from New Zealand/Australia. Saying that things are very peaceful here and the prospects are looking pretty good for the future. However I will say things are so quiet here, despite it being the tail end of winter here in the tropics it's still hot but very few tourists who usually frequent the shores from Oz and New Zealand. The people are very friendly, kind of reminds us of how England was a few decades ago. It is impossible to walk any street without being greeted by everyone, no exaggeration, everyone greets you with a smile and "Bula". In so many ways it is just like South Africa. Amy says it reminds her so much of her childhood in the Transvaal. Lots of fresh fruit on the side of the roads, you have to watch out for falling coconuts and you can pick fresh papaya if you can beat the locals early in the morning. Everything here is on what the locals call "Fiji time", basically the bus turns up when it does. Now this is the life we are talking about.
Anyway lets update you with what's been going on. Well, we arrived on an Air Pacific (part of Qantas but the national airline of Fiji) flight from LA, we were kind of a bit anxious as to an 11 hour flight with them, but we were pleasantly surprised at the standard of the flight, in fact a lot better than some of the major airlines we have flown with. We arrived into Nadi on the West coast of the main island Viti Levu. This is kind of the main tourist town although not the capitol. Our flight left LA at 11:30pm on the 31st of July but we arrived in Fiji on the 2nd of August at 4:50am, work that one out? Well we crossed the international date line so that takes us from 8 hours behind GMT to 11 hours ahead of GMT. Yeah so Anna out there in Paris, we didn't even exist for your birthday on the 1st!! We arrived just in time to hear the first of the native birds singing as the sun rose over the top of us. We arrived at our hotel right on the coast at about 6am however our room was not yet ready. Sadly we had to lie in a hammock from then until about 11am, watching the sunrise over the mountains behind us. The crystal clear waters then became apparent. In fact they aren't just crystal clear but also the temperature of bath water. Are you exotic travellers getting a taste yet?
So, we finally checked into Smugglers Cove and a nice ocean view room. Also sounds very plush well it was very nice actually but this is budget accommodation for £28 per night. We caught up with some Z's and then made our way into the town on the local bus to get some Fijian $. The bus was a rickety old Leyland bus, which the badge should reveal just how old it is, but open sides to allow the air to flow freely. No air conditioned buses here like we had come to know in the US. We got into Nadi and walked through the main street. The general street selling and shell shops. There are the same amount of Indo-Fijian people here at there are indigenous Fijian so the streets are lined with curry houses and lots of holler's of "best price mate" and "good deal mate". Just like being back in Brum, LOL. We decided to drop by a cafe for a drop of fresh coconut juice and got to know one of the locals, Anna. She invited us to a Kava ceremony. Ok, let me explain Kava. Well, we were told it is not alcoholic or narcotic and completely herbal. We took their word for it as we had read a little previously. The locals drink tons of the stuff, and afterwards we find out very mildly narcotic. Sorry Mom and Dad Smallman and Middleton, we are not addicted, LOL. It's basically a dried out pepper plant, which is mixed with water. It is a "welcome to Fiji" ceremony and drink. In the bars of a night time you hear the locals shouting "Kava time". You cannot escape it, and it is an ancient tradition here. They get very offended if you refuse at least one cup of it. So, Fiji still has traditional tribes with a chief at the helm of it. Bare in mind a couple of hundred years ago when the British arrived these guys were cannibals. Christian missionaries soon arrived so Cannibalism was outlawed here very quickly. If you have ever seen a Fijian, they are basically massive people. Believe me once they are decked with tribal face and body paints and a spear or club in hand, you don't want to mess. However, they are some of the most wonderful people we have ever met. So friendly. So, after our 2nd cup of Kava and me at the helm as chief, your mouth basically goes numb. In a nutshell if you drink a lot, I mean a lot of the stuff, it basically has the same effect as marijuana, but we are told you have to drink like a few litres (like the locals). On the plus Kava is exported by herbal companies as a supplement worldwide. So, just maybe you have had Kava and not known it!
We spent the next day at Smugglers cove swimming, lazing around and tanning. Our body clocks were adjusting so we woke real early for another sun rise. It really is the best way to make the most of the day. The next day we got picked up at 7:15am from the hotel by Awesome Adventures Fiji to go to Denauru harbour for our catamaran out to the Yasawa group of islands off the West coast. Anyone who read our first journal and our whale watching expedition will understand why Amy was a little nervous of a long boat ride. Anyway all was ok, amazing what a travel sickness pill can do. So we made our way out literally into the middle of nowhere towards the most remote islands you have ever seen. Due to the size of the catamaran and the shallow shores of each island a local boat from the island comes to pick up the guests from the main boat. The first couple of islands were unreal. I mean we never believed this type of place existed. A few little Bures (palm topped bungalows), a ton of palm trees, and waters surrounding the island like Evian water. I understand why they call them "Paradise Islands". These places can fit no more than about 30/40 people on them. The accommodation is basic, clean and usually outdoor showers with cold water. So, we made our way further North up the islands and passed the island where Castaway with Tom Hanks was shot. It was also the place of Jodie Fosters, Heaven scene, in the movie Contact. This place was becoming more and more like something from Treasure Island. Well in fact yep, this is where Robinson Crusoe and Treasure Island were set. Anyway not to digress, but we eventually arrived at Kuata and opposite the island was another called Waya Lailai. Doesn't that just sound so tropical. Well we had this tiny little boat head out to us and our bags containing a laptop were hurled about 10 feet down into a little boat on the choppy seas. We climbed in with a few others and headed off to Kuata. As we approached the native residents of Kuata dressed in Bula (Hawaiian) shirts and sarongs (men and women) sang as we approached. With a final shout of "Bula" and we touched the coral sands. We were shown to our little private Bure whilst others went off to the Dorms. Ok, so not mobile phone signal, no land line, no internet, one boat a day back to the mainland. This was as remote as it gets. But what bliss to be out of touch with the world. We spent the day exploring the tiny island, not even half a mile in length or width. This was what dreams were made of. Three square meals a day of fresh caught fish, (Red Snapper, Barracuda and Mackerel) along with fruit and veg grown on the island. People this is a must before you die, ideal for families, couples and singles. Don't miss a trip here. Well we couldn't leave the locals to the fishing so we joined in and headed around to the other side of the island along with about 4 boats of other locals and did some line fishing. Spear fishing is still popular here off the reefs but this was good old, sardines on a hook and a piece of fishing line. We scored a duck, but the locals pulled in about 20/30 pounds of Barracuda and Red Snapper. It made good for dinner the next night.
The great thing is you can get a flexi pass that allows you to hop on and off of the Yasawa Flyer and you just go to the island you want to, that has a vacancy. Basically we encountered Brits and more Brits. Think evidence of the strength of the £. There were about 20 guests on the island and 10 staff, so talk about having a tropical island to yourself! The next day was Sunday, and like good old fashioned Christian nation style, EVERYTHING stops for Sunday. This is a day for family and church, so we obliged and took the boat to Waya Lailai for the village Methodist church at 10am. So, not to miss out with the local attire, I (James) donned a Sulu, wait for it, yes a Sarong. However, believe me guys you would look the odd one out if you didn't wear one. Sunday is the day of the Sulu. I can just see some of you office bods in a Sulu and shirt and tie as is traditional here. So, church was cool, but as each of the three villages gave their contribution to church the guests were also invited to sing "Amazing Grace" to the rest of the church. Now, anyone heard our voices?! So, along with about 10 other visitors we sung the good old hymn.
Then, our first casualty of the last 4 months. Little critters by the name of Sand Flies decided to indulge on Amy's flesh. Within a few hours her body was covered in boils and weeping sores due to a reaction. She spent the next 3 days braving things hoping that they would go, but a packet of Benadryl later no joy so we had to miss out or trip to Korovou, another island for 2 more night, for a trip back to the mainland to see a quack. So, sadly our trip was cut short and to our disappointment we were back in Nadi. There are no doctors or nurses on the islands so this was our only option. We checked out the doc the next morning who looked like a Fijian Doc Emmit Brown from 'Back to the Future'. He knew straight away what it was so a prescription of penicillin and some cream. Within 48 hours Amy was back to her good self.
We lugged our bags onto a local bus for a 2 hour drive South on the Queens Road to Momi Bay and our next accommodation, Seashell Cove. Basically a huge resort in the middle of nowhere about 20 miles down a dirt track. Despite it being a really beautiful resort there was nothing within 20 miles of here, no shops or anything to do but sit next to a pool. Ok, sounds like some of your ideals, but there was nobody on the resort. We had it literally to ourselves. Despite enjoying remote places, this was too quiet and found ourselves on day 1 of 3 getting quite bored. Anyway it was memorable none the less. Well for the fact we ate crackers, peanut butter and apricot jam for the next three days. There was a little Indian lady that had a shop outside the resort gates. She sold the absolute basics, and offered us curry and rice, but we declined due to the dogs running around her kitchen and also chickens. Erm, spicy oily, curry with dog hair, maybe not. There was a restaurant but not budget priced food. They knew they had the monopoly, so being the anarchists we refused and shed a few pounds in weight.
Back on the local bus for a $2 (60p) transfer to the next town about 60 miles away, Sigatoka. We arrived in this town, opposite the market and smelt all the fresh fruit and veg. We passed through tiny little villages where everyone got on the bus with no shoes. Basically nobody wears shoes here. From Sigatoka we caught a taxi to our little resort Vakiviti, owned by Kiwi's. We had a little self contained unit, poolside with a view of the coral coast from our room. We walked down to see the reef which you could walk out to. Again crystal clear waters and warm. On the day that we arrived we decided to head out to the Kula Eco Park. It is in a nutshell a nature reserve of all of Fiji's indigenous animals. I was of course really chuffed as we walked through the doors to see a pair of South Pacific or Fiji Boa Constrictors. We got to hold two yearling boa's and 3 crested Fiji Iguana's. This was the highlight, but as we made our way through the open bird cages we were surrounded by brightly colour parrots, and other native birds. Even a few fruit bats which are huge but actually very inquisitive and cute. The park is responsible for bringing a number of the animals back from extinction and have been breeding animals successfully for introduction back into the wild and also for export to other zoo's worldwide.
We bumped into two ladies from New Zealand and joined them on the first night for a meal in a local restaurant, Le Cafe. The ladies were on a house exchange with the owner of the hotel, who is moving back to NZ. Maralyn is a 67 year old sheep farmer. She has 100 acres of land in the heart of the North Island of New Zealand. Steph is a friend of the family who is staying with her whilst the house sale is going through. Steph (38) basically was a mounted police officer, and a really good laugh. We got to know them and they helped us plan our three weeks from Auckland to Christchurch. Of course I got all the inside secrets of the Lord of the Rings locations and they are taking us to Hobbiton!!! So, we will be diverting by Maralyn's farm for a home cooked lamb roast, with all the produced cooked and raised on her farm. We'll be parking our camper up there and spending the night. Her farm is within distance of what will be the snow capped mountains and surrounded by Eucalyptus and Pine trees. Sounds fun hey! A true taste of New Zealand life. Isn't this just the most awesome reason for travel.
Anyway, back on our travels and we caught the Coral Coast bus from the hotel back to Nadi, and our favourite hotel, Smugglers Cove for one more night. So, this morning we caught an Air Pacific flight from Nadi to Auckland. Another country and more memories to be made. Crazy stuff, guess who was on our flight, Maralyn and Steph. Auckland it is, but that is for our next update. Sorry that we have sent the last two journals together, basically Fiji still operates on phone cards, internet service is few and far between and expensive.
In summary, we loved Fiji, the people and the scenery are infectious. We will definitely return, but there are so many places to visit in this awesome world we live in. So until next time "Vinaka Vakalevu Fiji, Moce" (Thank you very much Fiji, Goodbye).
Powered by | | English | | Albanian | | Arabic | | Bulgarian | | Catalan | | Chinese | | Croatian | | Czech | | Danish | | Dutch | | Estonian | | Filipino | | Finnish | | French | | Galician | | German | | Greek | | Hebrew | | Hindi | | Hungarian | | Indonesian | | Italian | | Japanese | | Korean | | Latvian | | Lithuanian | | Maltese | | Norwegian | | Polish | | Portuguese | | Romanian | | Russian | | Serbian | | Slovak | | Slovenian | | Spanish | | Swedish | | Thai | | Turkish | | Ukrainian | | Vietnamese |
|
|
|
|
Thursday, August 02, 2007
|
Category: Travel and Places
So, we finally conclude our three and a half month stay in the US of A. What an incredible time we have had, we have made so many memories, just wish you were all with us to share them. We have been real busy and have updates to give you from 4 States: Illinois, California, Nevada & Arizona. Each one of them with their own story to tell but for us more importantly a memory engraved on our minds. Well as we write it has been 108 days since we left the UK for Boston. It just feels like yesterday yet looking back over our journal entries we have achieved and seen so much. Ok, so we haven't quite slept on the beach, yet, but we have done the lugging of luggage through the streets of Manhattan and Chicago looking for cheap modes of transportation.
The last time we wrote we had just arrived in Chicago, at the Arlington House Hostel. Only our second hostel so far but, not the greatest reception to our favourite US city. Basically the first room we were shown to had not been cleaned of the beer cans and previous nights party. I returned to the front desk to advise the chap on night duty and he nearly jumped across the counter and ripped my head off, nice. It was a bit scary as the maid's clearly had not done their job, so a few obscene words towards them in my direction. Room number 2, a bunk, hardly what a married couple wanted so sheepishly we went back to the front desk, and I think this guy was about to quit. Quite funny really, so we ended up in the penthouse with a view of the city. So can't really complain.
So more interestingly we had a lie in the next morning and headed off East through Lincoln Park to Lake Michigan and the beach. Yep, the lake has a beach and a stunning one at that, with a great view of the city skyline. We hung out there and watched the waves and people go by on skates and bikes then walked towards the city and stayed on the coastal route for the Navy Pier. Chicago as always is famous for its food. Pizza and hot dogs. So, we indulged in a hot dog, and watched jet ski's and sail boats pass us by as the clock rolled on un-noticed. We had been to Chicago in 2002 for New Year and were so impressed we wanted to go back. For those of you who haven't visited, it is a must. So much to do and see, and by far more cultural than New York. As cool as NY is, we would advise a trip to Chicago over NY any day.
From the Navy Pier we headed into the city to the newly built Millennium Park and outdoor auditorium where we joined a few thousand people for a free outdoor concert of the local orchestra. Kind of like the Proms. Aren't we cultured?! We checked out the newly installed Anish Kappor sculpture "The Cloud Gateway" which is just inspiring, we stood literally for hours staring into this kidney shaped mirror which basically brings the heavens to you. It has to be seen in person to understand it's awesomeness (is that even a word??).
The next few days in Chicago were hot and the traditional wind from the lakes blows most of the time, but it's nice just to cool you off. We walked the 3 miles or so from our hostel to downtown Chicago and went to the free night at the Art Institute, a walk around the Hancock Observatory, and yet another free concert in Millennium Park. Now these guys got a few thousand people to their feet, a band made up of West African's. Bongo's, marimba's, guitars and drums galore, and all for that special price that we love - FREE. We watched them into the late hours of the night and headed back to the hostel. We went to Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago Cubs baseball, and spent the next day on the beach and fell asleep watching the day tick by. We concluded our time in Chicago with a trip around the botanical gardens, man we are getting old. Chicago is the daddy as far as American cities are concerned.
So we gathered our bags made our way on the CTA and spent virtually the whole day travelling South to San Francisco. Neither of us have ever been way out West neither have we even seen the Pacific Ocean. Now we have though. So, we arrived into the San Fran airport and made our way towards the Bay on the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). Our hotel the La Luna was out towards the Golden Gate Bridge so quite off the beaten track from the BART so we had to get off for alternative modes of transport. We thought we might be able to walk the two miles but for those of you who have been to San Fran you will know the streets 'aint quite flat. So, after getting off in probably the most dodgiest part of town, our first impressions of San Fran were not great. Basically passing about 20-30 homeless guys and gangsters all at dusk with our luggage was a bit hair raising so we called a cab and cut our losses. Our cab driver was cool, a Russian with a bit of a chip on his shoulder but nice none the less.
The next day our friends Mona and Glen were arriving so we decided to scope out the city before we had to collect them. San Francisco is basically foggy every morning so we sat out on the bay for about 2 hours waiting for the first site of the bridge... but it never came. So, we walked on and saw a nice treat, our first sight of Alcatraz. From there we walked the rest of the Bay up to Pier 39 where all the action takes place. Our expectations were real high of San Fran but all in all they say first impressions count, verdict = not that impressed. It was a bit smelly from the fish, tons of seagulls (which = seagull poop), lots of litter and just seemed like it needed a face lift. It reminded me a bit of St Andrews football stadium in Birmingham, up the Villa! But you have to give it time to impress so we did, and went a collected Mona and Glen from the airport. It was nice to hear some fellow Brummies around. We took the same stroll with them the next day around the coastline, into Ghirardelli chocolatiers for a free sample, watched some cool funk band and had lunch at Bubba Gump's on Pier 39, one of our favourite restaurants from the movie Forrest Gump. We did wait ages for our meal so without prompting they offered us the food for no charge. Just wish we had of ordered the most expensive meals, LOL. So that was a nice arrival present for the Darby's and of course us budget travellers. The bridge became no clearer, but we saw a first peak at the base. The next day we had an early start and headed out to Pier 32 to catch a boat to Alcatraz. It was very cool and totally eerie. The only thing, it stank (I mean, makes you want to puke) of seagulls. It really was very cool to visit and get the audio tour. Lots of history and quite a brutal place, but not quite as bad as Robben Island in Cape Town. After this we headed over the Bay on the BART to Oakland for a baseball game. We saw the Oakland Athletics loose miserably to the Texas Rangers. It was fun though, and a pretty full crowd.
We also caught a day ticket for the famous trams up and down the steep streets and saw the crookedest street in the world, Lombard Street. Which our hotel was actually on. The next day we felt quite daring so picked up a bike each and headed off over the Golden Gate Bridge. We picked the perfect day, we could see the bridge in all it's full glory. We saw some seals and dolphins swimming under the bridge, and above it, a massive eagle. The bridge is very impressive and helped to salvage some of the disappointment of the city. We took a walk through Chinatown, ate lots of nice food, and checked our a few tacky shell shops. All in all, cool to visit but only for a few reasons. Go to Chicago instead!
We made our way back to the airport and took Mona and Glen to one of our favourite restaurant's, Olive Garden and to pick up a tent and sleeping bags from Target. We picked up the beast that would carry us around for the next 12 days, a black Chevy Trailblazer. The next morning was an early start so we headed through the busy rush hour traffic across the Bay and Eastbound towards Yosemite National Park for a bit of black bear spotting. When we arrived we pitched up our tents and made our homes for the next few days in a dusty campsite under huge pine trees. We weren't exactly kitted with the traditional camping modcons so got a bit filthy collecting fire wood. One problem, no showers on the site, and the places that there were some wanted to charge us $10 each. No, thanks so we headed down to the valley and the 'free' river for a wash. The river ran off the glacier so it was flippin' freezing, but the most crystal clear water we have ever seen. We headed back to camp for dinner, quesidilas over the fire. Well 2hrs later and the final result, soggy quesidilas but what a laugh we had. The view the next morning was amazing and we were surrounded by wildlife. Jay's, prairie dogs, squirrels, chipmunks but no sites of black bears. I mean come on that's why we went to Yosemite! Anyway we made our way back into the village in the valley and went for a swim in the pool, why, they have free showers! How clever are we. Yosemite was beautiful, miles of pine forests, valley's, plains, rocks and rivers. We were there mid week, but by the weekend the locals headed for the park so it got busier. And finally we got our first sight of a mommy and baby black bear. Totally and absolutely worth the wait. They are not regular sightings and you have to have a keen eye, so out of the corner of my eye I saw one, we pulled over and within a few minutes about 30 cars had stopped and blocked the roads. We got the best pics though. We took a walk up to the Mirror Lake which sadly over recent years has dried up due to global warming. The Happy Isles trail and then a walk up to the most stunning falls where people were jumping into a freezing cold lake. Not for us though but it made for some great photo's. Then came another surprise, another black bear. We got our pics and then three rangers ran up to it and chased it off. They come looking for food and generally end up bending a car door off it's hinges!!!
From there we headed through the windy roads down from Yosemite and into some of the largest crop fields we have ever seen. It was so hot and dry. Perfect for wine growth. Lots of driving, well 6hrs later, we arrived in Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. These were well worth the journey. The Giant Sequoia's are simply amazing things to see. These things are huge, I mean probably bigger than the UK's largest building. They live up to 1700 years old, and we saw the 3rd largest tree in the world, General Grant, also called America's Christmas tree. They start their lives as tiny seed's no bigger than a sunflower seed, and look like baby Christmas trees when they are young. A long drive down the canyon to our lodge next to the Kings river. There were a lot fewer people, but even more magnificent that Yosemite in our opinion.
Another early start the next morning and a 8hr drive out to Las Vegas, with lots of renditions from the back seat by Glen of 'Viva Las Vegas' by Elvis. We hit a major storm heading up the freeway so couldn't really see the lights from the strip as we made our way into the valley. Nevada is unbelievably hot. Lots of dry deserts and mountains en route, but a great drive. The air con is a must. By this stage we had trekked over a 1000 miles throughout California into Nevada. We made the most of a late arrival into Vegas and checked into the Planet Hollywood hotel and casino opposite the world famous Bellagio. You would all recognise it from Ocean's 11. Vegas is everything we expected it to be. Lots of gambling, shops, shows and sleaze. It was all of the above but just something to say we have done. We would need a reason to go back. We checked out all the casino's took a few photo's outside all of them, and inside at the lions in the MGM and the flamingo's in the Flamingo, funnily. In honour of my Nan and Aunty Pat I spent a whole $1 on the Elvis slots, sadly I did not win us millions but was fun all the same. We checked out the 'Sirens at Treasure Island' which was a live pirate show but it might has well been an adult show. Great effects but if you call 'family entertainment' women in bikini's and pirates that looked like the Chippendales then, hey-ho take your kids.
We took off again early for the pinnacle of our trip. We headed yet again further East into the deserts and even hotter lands of Arizona. After a few hours delayed due to construction at the Hoover Dam we made our way across Arizona towards the Grand Canyon. On our arrival we were greeted by a stag with the biggest rack (it's antlers) that you have ever seen. Again we set up camp in a lot less dusty campsite right on the South Rim of the canyon. We caught the courtesy bus up to the rim and as you approach this thing is just HUGE. I mean you would not believe how big it really is. The TV and photo's cannot do it justice. We were a little scared as it is rated as the most spectacular as all of the natural wonders of the world. If so, what next? Honestly it will be hard to beat, you cannot begin to imagine the size of it. If you are American and reading this and have never been, you need your head looking at. Book a flight to Phoenix, hire a car and take the short drive North. I promise you will not be disappointed. The next morning we woke at 5am to see the sunrise over the canyon, it has been a long time since I felt the hairs on my neck stand but this is a moment I will never forget. From there we made our way down the canyon about 1000 feet so not to get hit by the mid day heat on the way back up. Well worth it, and you are just silenced by the sheer size of it when you are so deep in. Amy got bitten on her butt cheek by a fire ant, and sadly we got hit by the mid morning sun on the way back up. There is no such thing as "cool" in Arizona. Later that evening and so we could take advantage of our last night with the Darby's we bought a bottle of Valpolicella and headed for sunset over the canyon. Again another breathtaking moment of life. Sadly we made our way back West towards the shining lights of Las Vegas for one last night and dropped the Darby's at the airport for their flight back to Brum. We stayed in the Stratosphere over night and then a 6 hour drive West to the Hollywood hills baby.
LA, is a lot cooler than San Francisco, but the roads are just total chaos. Seven lane freeway's (on each side) and more cars I think than in the whole of Europe all in one sprawling metropolis. We dropped 'The Beast' back at the airport and headed to our hotel on the free shuttle bus. The next morning so to make the most of LA we got up early and took the Metro to Hollywood Boulevard to see the star lined streets. We caught our first glimpse of the Hollywood sign and thought of Hollywood, Birmingham. It was so surreal to see it for real (what a poet). Sadly we indulged in a tour around the stars homes but it of course is a must for any visitors to the city. We saw all the famous ones plus a few we had never heard of, but these places were unbelievable. The most expensive, $100m! Back down to earth or was it. Well we saw Jackie Chan's house and little did we realise a few hours later we would be stood next to the guy. The premiere of 'Rush Hour 3' was on, so being the sad bods that we are and having lots of time on our hands we waited for the arrival of Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan. We were perched in just the right spot and got some video footage and photos of both of them. What a way to end your time in the US! One more day so we headed on the bus to Santa Monica and took a stroll on Venice Beach and down the pier. No sign of the Hoff though (David Hasselhoff). A short bus ride North and we were in the heart of Beverley Hills, and a stroll down Rodeo Drive. People, this place has money, the people are filthy stinking rich, and there of course are those that think they are. More Ferrari's, Lambo's, Mercedes and Porsche's than in the factories. It's all good though.
A short trek back to the hotel to collect our luggage and back to the airport for our flight on Air Pacific to Fiji. Thankfully we had no one next to us on a row of three so the extra space on a night flight was much appreciated. We arrived in Fiji at 4:50am, oh what bliss to be away from the busyness of life and back to a place where people live without watches. But we will save our Fiji adventures until next time.
Powered by | | English | | Albanian | | Arabic | | Bulgarian | | Catalan | | Chinese | | Croatian | | Czech | | Danish | | Dutch | | Estonian | | Filipino | | Finnish | | French | | Galician | | German | | Greek | | Hebrew | | Hindi | | Hungarian | | Indonesian | | Italian | | Japanese | | Korean | | Latvian | | Lithuanian | | Maltese | | Norwegian | | Polish | | Portuguese | | Romanian | | Russian | | Serbian | | Slovak | | Slovenian | | Spanish | | Swedish | | Thai | | Turkish | | Ukrainian | | Vietnamese |
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
|
Category: Travel and Places
Well it's been about 3 weeks since we last updated our myspace journal but we keep tabs here in the good old paper and pen format. The second half of our Minnesota leg of the journey went so quickly. We got real comfortable having been able to completely unpack, the creature comforts of a home cooked meal every night, a nice cosy duvet and of course the luxuries of modern living. There has never been a dull moment living in a home with a 7 and 10 year old. Some of you are probably thinking "I thought they we travelling?". Well yes, but we thought we would break it up with a 7 week luxury stint in Minnesota.
So as we write from a Chicago hostel, it's back to tortillas and salsa for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Anyway we will tell you more about Chicago once we have lived it in a few weeks time. The last time we wrote was the 20th June, so we have done tons of stuff since then. This last few weeks has been a season of firsts for both of us, and of all places in the quiet burbs of Mid-West, USA.
First and foremost we need to make a big noise and shout out to the Cooksey's, who of course with the added bonus of being family have also made Burnsville, Minnesota home for us. The have indulged us with lots of healthy and organic foods, introduced us to some spiritual uplifting thoughts and ideas, and not forgetting good old fashioned laughs. We made some great friends whilst there and can't forget Veda and Alan all the way from sunny South Africa, just to bring a little bit of Amy's homeland right to us. Well, lets update you all with what we have been up to.
Well on the 21st of June Brett took the day off work and we headed off to the local theme park, Valley Fair for homeschool rate day. Of course when you are travelling on a budget you latch onto anything with the words discount, sale, clearout or we really like the word FREE. You see the bank balance is only going one way right now, that's down! We had a great day, scorching sun and a very quiet park in midweek. We braved all of the coasters and even our nephews joined us for their first exposure. Isn't it crazy that you can be just tall enough not to fall out and yet crave more twists, turns and the need for speed. It's funny because we normally would indulge in all of the traditional theme park fare, but the smell of deep fat fried doughnuts did not appeal. We are organic converts! So we tucked into a good old spelt bread home made sandwich. For those of you who haven't yet considered organic, trust us within a few weeks you will notice the difference. We were previously sceptical.
Of course we cant forget our morning wake up call. In fact we get two, one from Rascal the 2yr old Yorkshire Terrier scratching on the door for a play and then usually a cap gun through the window or a plea to come play Xbox360, which for me is not usually an issue. So back to the hustle and bustle of a busy city with lots of noises to get you going in the morning.
Friday was a chill out day to recover from an adrenaline pumped previous day, but a Friday night tradition in the Cooksey house is home made pizza and movie night so we indulged. We watched the Disney 3 Musketeers (remember there are kids so no Alien vs.. Predator) and also some real cheesy movie with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore, 'Music and Lyrics'. Amy loved it, it was a real chick flick but for me, I am not the greatest Hugh Grant fan so, it was painful endurance. Anyway I digress.
We spent all day on the Saturday clearing out the double garage in anticipation of the addition to the house of a combined school room, office and music studio. Folks in England are probably thinking that's a house?! Well yes in England, but here in the oversized USA, just a modest addition to what we know as a mansion. It's amazing we all accumulate junk, so a trip to the thrift store to offload a few things and a pile ready for the skip/dumpster to arrive on Wednesday. So we thought we had worked up an appetite and headed to 'Cold Stone Creamery'. This is America right so food is always on the agenda. There is nothing organic about this stuff, good old full fat ice cream, made with as many flavours and toppings all to your taste buds delight. It's a must for any visitors to the US.
So Sunday again was a chill out of course being the Lords day of rest we must oblige as we have been for the last 3 months, but taking every day as a day of rest. Terrible shame for you all stuck in sweaty offices back home. We have become accustomed to hot days here, so we needed to cool off with an afternoon around the pool at the Hall's. Our tans are shaping up pretty good now and we are getting it all levelled off quite nicely. No t-shirt tans here!
Monday was geared up to be another chill out, again relaxing and swimming in the Hall's pool, but with the weather being so hot how could we resist an afternoon out on the jet ski. So Brett got off early and we packed up again for Lake Marion a few miles down the road. It was real quiet on the lake so felt like we had it all to ourselves. Brett, I and three boys in tow (Jonny came with us one of Daniel's friends) went off to the launch and the girls went and got some shopping in for a bbq on the beach at the lake. What more can you ask for?!
So, here comes one of our firsts. Amy and I went for an afternoon on a pottery wheel. Yes, I know very craft orientated for a shaven headed thug like me, but flip was it intense. It's real hard but we both finished off tow great pots although one of mine went a little skew so it became a pitcher. Not bad for a first attempt though. Amy being the more artistic of the two of us of course whooped my booty at it. Of course your mind runs off with what colours and patterns am I going to paint it. For a guy this is pretty tough as pots and bowls are usually associated with leaves and flowers, but me being a man decided that the handle to my mug would be a snake. How masculine. We headed off later that evening to eat at 'Punch Pizza', genuine Neapolitan pizza cooked in a clay oven with wood flown in from Italy. For those that know us well, you will know we have a weakness for pizza, well folks this is the best we have tasted. To date it cannot be beaten, and believe me we have tasted a lot of pizza from across the world. We had made home made Parfait for desert but it really wasn't like Momma Middleton used to make it. We just didn't have the secret ingredient whatever that is.
The next morning we were awoken by Rascal banging on the door at 5:30am which freaked us out as he looked like he had seen a ghost. He was throwing himself at our door literally. How weird! So following the disturbance we slept until 10:00am what bliss. Then we went to see the boys in their last morning at Vacation Bible School. They put on this cool little presentation and of course the little kids stole the show as always. We made ti-die t-shirts (a first for James) which came out cool but will more than likely end up as pyjamas.
The next day again was Friday and blisteringly hot so we headed out to Cascade Bay water park and then back home for a bbq with Alan and Veda. Brett and I crowned the evening with a movie, 'Chronicles of Riddick', a real lads movie till late. We got news also that my brother had arrived safely in Sydney to start his new life, "down under". The rest of the weekend was packed with yes more food, we had 'Famous Dave's' ribs for lunch followed by a calorie killing bike ride, then on Sunday out to 'Good Earth' for desert. I had an ice cream sundae and Amy a piece of cheesecake. All organic but unfortunately lots of calories.
Today was a start of a new week and our last full week in Minnesota before flying out to the neighbouring state of Illinois. So we kicked it off with a day on Grand Avenue in St Paul, looking at some cool shops, art galleries and just a little indulgence in cosmo city life. Oh darling! Earlier that morning we headed out to drop the critter at the groomers where we checked out some reptiles and I got all excited about seeing my snakes again. So we collected a clean and trimmed Yorkie, dressed with a bandana which looked very cute but, a Yorkie in a bandana? He looked like Wyatt Earp's dog, and I am sure our family in Yorkshire would not approve. Later that evening we went with a group of 15 other adults and kids to a local organisation that pack nutritious packaged foods for children in poor nations. There was a great vibe and altogether as a team we packaged 4,000+ meals enough to feed 11 kids for a year. There was a great sense of achievement and a great programme to get involved in. We have put some more info. about 'Feed My Starving Children' in a blog on our myspace page.
The next day we headed out to some friends of the Cooksey's. It's a real sad story actually. They are a young family who just 2 weeks ago lost their dad/husband to cancer. On the morning that he passed away the daughter Anika had a dream of her dad in heaven and wanted to paint where she saw him. So, Mary the mum called Amy to see if she could help Anika paint this scene, which she had been unable to paint because of all the gold and crystal waters. Incredible, really, there is nothing like knowing a friend/family member has gone to a safe and happy place. Later that evening we took 'babootie' a traditional South African dish to the Hall's household for dinner and spent the night chatting politics and life in each others country.
So, finally we reach the climax of the British calendar, the day we finally shook off those Yanks for a bit of peace and quiet, the 4th of July. The day we celebrate our Independence (sorry our American friends I'm only kidding). To be honest it wasn't as hyped up as we thought it would be, just another excuse for a bank holiday we thinks. A couple of families headed over to us for a bbq in the early evening so lots of conversation but more importantly Xbox360 tournaments. Oh yeah! We went to Apple Valley High School for some fireworks in the evening and said our first farewells to a few people.
The next day was a relaxer, so Veda came over and we chatted life, religion, politics, and the worlds problems... and we resolved all of the above. We went to paint our pottery as it had now been kilned, but unfortunately one of Amy's bowls had an air bubble so exploded, so sadly just the one piece that survived. We painted them ready for their next kiln session to seal them with glazing. The anticipation was really hotting up now for the end product. We spent the following day at a few art galleries and also went to check out some graffiti at this one huge studio. It was so cool and we took some very 'ghetto' pictures some of which made it onto myspace. To crown the day off Brett joined us at about lunch time as he was done so we headed off for another afternoon of jet skiing at Lake Marion and then onto Alan and Veda's for a meal and movies on their Colossus 50ins Plasma TV to watch 'Fantastic 4'.
The weekend had arrived and this would be our last with the Cooksey's until ???? So, an early start and a 2 hour drive North towards Alexandria to the home of Bob, Sandra, Karissa and Carter for some weekend action on Lake Amelia. We arrived at this great little place in the middle of nowhere. We set up camp overlooking the lake and headed out on the jet ski and lots of lounging around. Later that evening we washed in the lake and climbed out for some time around the fire pit and marshmallows. The sunset was stunning and we took some postcard perfect shots. Early to bed for another early start out on the lake. The kids soaked up some action on the tube and after lunch we headed out on the neighbour Randy's 4.3 litre monster boat. So, this is another first. I learnt to water ski followed by the old professional herself. Wow, what a buzz, it took a few times to get up out of the water which kills your arms for like a week but well worth it when you are up. They just couldn't shake me baby, oh yeah! We packed up and headed home .
The next day was an early start lots to do before we left for Chicago the following day so we headed out to a few of our favourite shops for gifts and some toilettries. We couldn't leave Minnesota though without one final trip to 'Punch Pizza'. Tuesday again was an early start lots to pack and time with the family for farewells. Jane and Amy spent a few hours together painting and chatting, I on the other hand couldn't help but find some time for a final Xbox360 challenge. So we played and played and then we played some more. I had to get my fix as it will be a long time now until I even see a game console. Probably Australia in October! We packed the car up and headed 10mins down the road to Minneapolis International Airport for our American Airlines flight 1093 direct to Chicago O'Hare. Lots of emotional farewells, a few tears but we got checked in fine, before a 3 hour delay due to thunderstorms in Chicago. It was fine, and we eventually made it in at about 7:45pm. So, that concludes our time in Minnesota, and until next time Cooksey's thanks for everything and hope to catch you soon. We'll be updating you next either from San Francisco or Las Vegas in a few weeks time.
Powered by | | English | | Albanian | | Arabic | | Bulgarian | | Catalan | | Chinese | | Croatian | | Czech | | Danish | | Dutch | | Estonian | | Filipino | | Finnish | | French | | Galician | | German | | Greek | | Hebrew | | Hindi | | Hungarian | | Indonesian | | Italian | | Japanese | | Korean | | Latvian | | Lithuanian | | Maltese | | Norwegian | | Polish | | Portuguese | | Romanian | | Russian | | Serbian | | Slovak | | Slovenian | | Spanish | | Swedish | | Thai | | Turkish | | Ukrainian | | Vietnamese |
|
|
|
|
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
|
Category: Travel and Places
..
Feed My Starving Children
The Reality of World Hunger...
Every 4.8 seconds, someone dies from starvation.
18,000 children die each day from starvation or starvation related causes.
A few days ago we posted a blog on our myspace site and also sent an email in regards to the ongoing crisis in Uganda and Sudan - Invisible Children.
I hear you, "oh no not another appeal". The truth we are all getting a little de-sensitised and tired of the TV appeals and being blitzed by charities and organisations and thier campaigns. We can't just leave this problem solving up to the UN, the G8 or our politicians. Clearly just sending a cheque to a charity isn't quite hitting the mark. We have been doing that for over 40 years now. What is needed is people on the frontline taking action. Sending a cheque just appeases the concience after all.
Poverty and injustice is our last real challenge. In a time where space travel and human cloning are more and more of a reality. There is very little left now to conquer. There will always be differences in peoples ideals, for as long as we have people we will have disagreements. Hence this is addressing the basics of human existence, that nobody has the right to toy with.
This problem isn't just going to go away. It's not a case of out of sight out of mind. Neither is it a case of charity starts at home. This planet is our home!
Some say that people dying in Africa is "natures way of keeping the population under control". Do you really believe that or is that just an excuse for not having to think about it?
In the Western world we are constantly living in fear of terrorism. The West spends £/$ billions each year on preventing attacks. Nobody is saying we shoudn't fight to protect "home" but we are very quickly becoming a society of insular people.
Time is the most precious thing we possess. It's amazing just what a simple smile or doing something good for people can mean to them. It's important that we spend time enjoying the freedom of life that we have been given, but for many of us the thoughts of sacrificing time down the pub, watching sport, a meal at Burger King, doing some fishing for someone else we don't know is incomprehensible.
Mud Pies...
A news broadcast in the US recently reported that children in Honduras are fed mud pies to calm their hunger pains. Yes, real mud pies, clay mixed with water just so they can have something in their stomachs. They aren't just for throwing at each other, but this is real food.
We need to act and do something about this. Many of you are wondering what do we solve first. The social and political issues, the corruption, healthcare and aid, water and sanitation, homelessness. Quite honestly all of the above need addressing. So wherever you can plug yourself in please let us encourage you to do so. We want to share an example with you, not for self glorification, but to show you just how much can be acheived when people come together and give up a little of their time to make a change in someones life. The impact is incredible and the reward pricesless.
Feed My Starving Children - www.fmsc.org
Last night, July 2nd, we joined with a team of 15 adults and kids to help package nutritious dried food to be shipped to starving kids around the world.
In 2 hours a team of 17 packaged and shipped 4,104 meals.
This is enough to feed 11 kids for a whole year.
loads of fun...
most importantly the result...
Think?! Discuss?! Comment?!
Is there really any need to?
TO BE CONTINUED BY YOU...
The Mids x
Powered by | | English | | Albanian | | Arabic | | Bulgarian | | Catalan | | Chinese | | Croatian | | Czech | | Danish | | Dutch | | Estonian | | Filipino | | Finnish | | French | | Galician | | German | | Greek | | Hebrew | | Hindi | | Hungarian | | Indonesian | | Italian | | Japanese | | Korean | | Latvian | | Lithuanian | | Maltese | | Norwegian | | Polish | | Portuguese | | Romanian | | Russian | | Serbian | | Slovak | | Slovenian | | Spanish | | Swedish | | Thai | | Turkish | | Ukrainian | | Vietnamese |
|
|
|
|
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
|
Invisible Children - A true story that most of you didn't even know was happening as you go about your normal life... and it has already been happening for over 20 years...
VIDEO: Invisible Children - Do you know who they are?
Many of you have heard the recent talk on the news of Sudan and Uganda, we urge you please to read on.
Those of you who know Amy and i know that we are passionate about making a difference in peoples lives. We all have the ability to affect people locally. However, what we want to share with you is affecting not just a town but a whole region of Africa.
We have both been exposed first hand as many of you have to the effects of greed, violence and the evidence of tribal disputes on the continent of Africa. This is a story that must be told and must reach the ends of the earth. Not only should the videos be observed, but we as a people, irrespective of religion, race, colour owe it to these people to act.
It is our duty as humans to take care of one another.
VIDEO: This is the reality of what is happening
The sad fact, Uganda is not the only country that has invisible children! We would urge you, our friends and families to make a difference in the lives of children globally. They have a right to play in the fields, they have a right to an education, they have rights just like YOU, YOUR CHILDREN, YOUR GRANDCHILDREN.
Let us encourage you...
Many of you may already be giving to good causes, there are so many of them these days. So, we would like to encourage you to help things get better, we can all make a difference.
Remember to love is to sacrifice yourself for another.
Invisible Children - Rough Cut the movie, was shot by ordinary college students in the USA in 2003. They took the time, risked their lives so that we could enter the world of the people in Uganda and Sudan. Check out their website or myspace page for more info. on their attempts to put things right and change the amazing world we live in:
Invisible Children Website*
VIDEO - Invisible Children Update 2007
*Check out the Invisible Children website to see ways in which you can help. We encourage you to buy the video and share it amongst your friends and family.
Alternatively for just approx. US$36/UK£18 per month you can sponsor a child through Compassion or World Vision. You will reieve a letter from the child, and updates as to their progression in school and everyday life.
Compassion UK - Website (operational globally)
World Vision UK - Website (operational globally)
The children of our world deserve a chance, PLEASE, hear our cry, but more importantly hear theirs. This tradgedy has been going on too long now. If three ordinary kids from California can do this, just think what we can do together.
Thank you for your time.
x J&A x
Powered by | | English | | Albanian | | Arabic | | Bulgarian | | Catalan | | Chinese | | Croatian | | Czech | | Danish | | Dutch | | Estonian | | Filipino | | Finnish | | French | | Galician | | German | | Greek | | Hebrew | | Hindi | | Hungarian | | Indonesian | | Italian | | Japanese | | Korean | | Latvian | | Lithuanian | | Maltese | | Norwegian | | Polish | | Portuguese | | Romanian | | Russian | | Serbian | | Slovak | | Slovenian | | Spanish | | Swedish | | Thai | | Turkish | | Ukrainian | | Vietnamese |
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
|
Category: Travel and Places
You will be pleased to know this journal definitely wont be as long as the last one. We know just how annoying it is when people send huge emails. It is so tempting to delete them (in fact I bet some people on our mailing list didn't even reach this far LOL), generally you get about 1/3 of the way in and get bored. All a product of life in the fast lane. Have you ever sat through someone's holiday snaps as they speak about it with such excitement, yet you cannot take in the energy of the place they have experienced. Aren't life's most precious moments just like that. You try to capture the essence of what you have seen or experienced in a photo or a movie. It just is never the same when you look over it again. Neither are people filled with the same excitement. We just figured that some moments are just for us. One thing we hope to do with these journals though is inspire.
Now please don't take that as an insult those of you who visit the same resort in Majorca every year, but get out and explore. We just posted on our myspace a world map of the places we have been so far and the places we are going. We thought we had seen a lot, and I guess we have but we haven't even scratched this huge world we live in. The sad thing being as the human populous expands some of the worlds natural beauty is being lost. We're trying not to be all hippy about this, but to break from our comfort zone is relieving in it's own right. Even if you have only ever flown 2 hours from home, go for 3 hours, you will be glad you did.
One thing travelling does is gives you time and space to think, to ponder and question your purpose.
Well, we now write from Burnsville, Minnesota. A leafy suburb of the Twin cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Minnesota is the state of 10,000 lakes, nestled right in the northern states of the Mid-West. In fact it is more central, although the US has 4 time zones (we are 6 hours behind GMT). Burnsville is the home of the Cooksey's, Jane (Amy's sister), Brett, Daniel and Caleb. On the scale of other east coast states, this isn't famous for much, but boasts lots of variety. Big lakes (including Lake Superior), forests, mountain bike trails, big cities, scenery and more scenery, trees and more trees. Lets just say it is very natural, free from the smell of pollution like other overcrowded states. This is the ideal place to experience the American outdoors. Lots of opportunity for camping, boating, fishing, swimming and sport. Basically a nice flavour of urban and rural life can be found here, but still all of the creature comforts that us humans like. Sadly this journal entry also talks about food a lot, but hey we all know (including our American readers) Americans love food. The reason for those of you who have never taken the flight across the Atlantic, they make great food. You will be pleased to know however Brett has inspired us to start running so we are shedding those pounds with a daily run! Yes, folks we have started to run.
We arrived in from Denver to Minneapolis on a Northwest flight arriving at 2:17pm with the time zone change about 1hr and 40mins flight to be greeted by the family. It was great to be with family again, and Daniel and Caleb soon got us active. We really spent the next few days relaxing, sleeping, chilling out in the forest (their back yard). Yep, eating lots of food but by now it's time to cook on the grill, oh yeah baby! Of course being full of South Africans now, we braii. Great practice for getting us all shaped up for Oz, and "slinging a few shrimps on the barbie, mate". We have played tons of XBox360 and James has had time to complete a few games (Ben, if you are missing your regular butt whooping on Fifa07 let me know, we'll duel on XBox Live). James is getting his daily reprimand for too much screen time! Amy is of course enjoying being with her big sister again, and they didn't take long to get to Michaels. Their favourite art and craft supermarket for some creative inspiration.
So, yeah what else. Well lots of Jet skiing, XBox360, PC gaming, Nerf gun battles, food, parks, turtle watching at the local pond and jacuzzi's at the Hall's around the corner. Lot's of action and lazing around.
After our first week here we both got colds. James started the trend and then Amy of course being competitive as she is had to catch it too. We passed it backward and forward about 3 times until about a week ago. We are now fighting fit and ready for battle once again. We got out to the local Minnesota State Fair, lots of food, and action in the streets down Grand Avenue. I think pretty much the whole of Minnesota was there so it was heaving. After that we headed to 'Punch' pizzeria, basically THE best pizza we have ever eaten. All served by waitresses in Serie A Italian football shirts, which made it a little more authentically Italian. We were served by Miss Roma!
We dropped off the boys for a day and went to the sculpture park, it was scorchio so we got a little further bronzed. We took a walk around the city and met Brett after work for a Greek meal at Christos. The next day we decided to head downtown for a little British familiarity. We had some time in and around the city and went to 'The Loon' for lunch (Loon = native Minnesota bird). We then rounded the day off with the afternoon at Brits Bar in downtown Minneapolis. Yep, it is what it says it is. Serving authentic British cuisine, a bowling green, lots of British, donned with about 40 Union Jacks and heaving with Brits. But to crown it all off we got to watch England vs. Brazil. We sat next to a few eccentric American's trying to work out "soccer", which was quite entertaining. Of course due to their summer trip to Brazil they were cheering for Brazil. However, they thought it was a dull game. On the contrary David Beckham's return was enough to make the game the best for James. C'mon Becks!!!
On the Friday night we went to the launch of an album by Romantica, headed up by Ben Kyle. The Kyle family came here from Belfast 13 years ago and built a massive house with a chapel on it. In their home congregate a home church of about 30 people. Its an inspirational place to be, a really peaceful home. They are an amazing family who have lived through the troubles of Northern Ireland as a family of 10 and now reside in Minneapolis working with the Native American Indian tribes seeking forgiveness for the way their people were massacred by the invading British and other European settlers. We talk of the recent atrocities by the Nazi's towards the Jews, check this. Something many of us Brits were not aware of, but our ancestors massacred and ethnically cleansed approx. 70 million native Indians from the land. Yes this is something caused by past generations, but many of the correctly termed "First Nation People" now are in so few numbers spread across North America. It is exactly 400 years this year since the first British settlement on American soil in Jamestown, Virginia. The same time period that the Jews were in exile in Babylon, in the Old Testament. Significant?! I don't know, but maybe we need to seek forgiveness on behalf of our ancestors greed for land and dominance from these people?!
We had a cultured night out at the theatre (Minneapolis/St Paul has the third highest concentration of the theatres in the US) to watch Seussical. A musical based on the stories of Dr Seuss's kids books. Not a regular fixture in UK homes but we love them anyway. It was so good and a great night out crowned with cheesecake downtown. We had a day at Cascade Bay, a water park with lots of tubes and slides etc. A day out at Lake Merrien, where James lost his Oakley's jet skiing. We went to Hot Sam's an antique village, the only way to describe it was something like Hitchcock's Bates Motel. This place was FREAKY, but we found some authentic old cars, and basically tat. It was a feast for horror film fanatics. We had a day of bike riding down in Lanesboro, a 46 mile bike track through the country side. We decided to do about 10 of it in the blistering heat, followed by a hunt around the Amish stalls selling jam's, furniture and patchwork quilts. We then went fishing for some trout, only Caleb was successful after 4 hours. Oh well, they say the taking part is the most important thing. We finished the day off in a German sausage restaurant where we were serenaded with Polka by the family who run the place. Of course no day is complete without some Kemps ice cream!!
The Weekend of the 15th to the 18th of June was spent about two hours north in the town of Duluth. This is one of the main harbour towns on Lake Superior which has an outlet into the great oceans that surround the Americas. It's a very industrial town with not a lot going on, but a great campsite which we stayed at with our pop-up tent (called a trailer tent in England). The campsite called Indian point was fully equipped with wi-fi so we took the laptop so that we could wish our dad's a happy Fathers day on the Sunday. The main reason for going was that Brett took part in Grandma's Marathon along with about 10,000 others. Which takes you all the way down the side of Lake Superior. The weather was hot and gruelling for the runners, so quite a few quit at the halfway mark. Brett with injured knee battled on to complete in 4hrs 50mins to collect his medal. The camping was fun, and we were introduced to 'Smores' around the camp fire, marshmallow with melted chocolate and sweet crackers. No mosquito bites but lots of thunder and lightning, so we spent time inside watching Star Wars and then headed home via Jay Cook state park on the Monday.
On Tuesday we hit the Arboretum, and the maze park. A nice stroll around the gardens, all very American and quaint. Then on Thursday we hit Valley Fair for homeschool rates day with the kids. Daniel and Caleb braved their first rollercoaster's, and that need for speed in little boys was booming in them. It was real quiet so we didn't have to wait long for the rides, but a great day.
Not long until our flight into Chicago, but between now and then we will be celebrating Independence Day on the 4th of July, to celebrate the Independence of the British from the Americans. We got our independence right not the other way around?!?! Only joking our American friends, "we love ya'll".
Powered by | | English | | Albanian | | Arabic | | Bulgarian | | Catalan | | Chinese | | Croatian | | Czech | | Danish | | Dutch | | Estonian | | Filipino | | Finnish | | French | | Galician | | German | | Greek | | Hebrew | | Hindi | | Hungarian | | Indonesian | | Italian | | Japanese | | Korean | | Latvian | | Lithuanian | | Maltese | | Norwegian | | Polish | | Portuguese | | Romanian | | Russian | | Serbian | | Slovak | | Slovenian | | Spanish | | Swedish | | Thai | | Turkish | | Ukrainian | | Vietnamese |
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
|
Category: Travel and Places
The last time we wrote a journal for you all we had just arrived in Denver, Colorado. One thing we must start by saying is that for the American's that are reading this after much deliberation, no, we did not eat Rocky Mountain Oysters!
Our overall verdict on Colorado, is that of all of the 15 states we have visited so far in the US this is by far the most scenic and people friendly. That's not to say to our family and friends in Western New York, New Jersey, Minnesota that your states aren't nice, but Colorado just kicks some serious booty. We had the best time there, the state is just packed full of stuff to do, and we didn't venture much further than about 2hrs from Denver.
Well we were greeted by our hosts, Beverley and Sherwyn Hoffmeister's (mom and son) in Denver International airport. We saw our first genuine cowboys donned with Stetsons, tight jeans and cowboy boots. Well the first cool bit about our arrival came when we headed over to collect the rental car. Well we booked a compact size car, travelling on a budget leaves little room for luxury although the appeal of the new Dodge Charger was tempting. To our disappointment there was not a compact available so we thought me might be forced into an upgrade having only booked a few hours prior. However, a little bit of favour from our Big Dad went a long way. We were handed the keys to a 7 seater with a multimedia player. This certainly came in use with a few long trips up the Rockies etc. The DVD player got used well, well we'll come to that later.
We drove to our home in the southern burbs of Denver, a town called Centennial. We had a place to ourselves, the people who's house we stayed in were visiting Europe, so it kind of worked like an exchange although it wasn't planned that way. We later got to visit the rest of the Hoffmeisters, Desmond, Candice and Carmen, a real cool posse from South Africa. So, over various opportunities they reminisced with Amy in particular of TV shows from SA, foods and various memories. We really connected with them and we just had a really good time. Thanks guys we really appreciated your efforts and time that you took to show us around.
Anyway on with the memories. Lets first of all make it clear, we certainly are making those. All of this sightseeing and yes the food is awesome but have you ever stopped to reflect that usually people are involved with memories. People really are so great. It's our interaction with people that forges who we are and what we become. We have lost the ability to appreciate the simple things in life, people, time, sacrifice and generosity. We have had our fair dose of all of the above in just the 6 weeks we have been travelling now.
The first few days we spent finding the roads. Like any other American city the grid system is a gift to travellers. You find your main streets that run North to South and East to West. In our case it was Yosemite and Arapahoe. Find them anywhere and you can be sure you'll get home eventually. We flavoured some of our favourite South African tea, Rooibos and and a great breakfast with the family on the first day. We settled in and found the local shopping precinct and most importantly Starbucks.
On the Friday we were not sure of ideas but our desperation to get up close to the Rockies couldn't wait any longer so we made our way north to the city of Boulder and through to Estes Park situated in the basin of the Rockies. The approach as we made our way down the East side of the Rockies was simply breathtaking. This is something that nobody should miss before they die! We have of course seen mountains before but nothing like this. The snow capped peaks were stunning. We made our way through Estes Park to the Rocky Mountain National Park Visitors Centre. Now this is the bit where we admit we are truly getting old. We bought a season pass to the equivalent of the British National Trust/Heritage. We'll you know you are getting old when you start to appreciate, wildlife, fauna and flora. But no matter how old you are how could you not find this such an incredible sight. Anyway that pass will come in handy when we get to the other National and State Parks. We justified it by the cost effective approach.
We drove about 15 miles around the parks, through forests, past creek's, down the side of rapids and through snow. We journeyed pretty high up to Bear Lake, a glacier lake at the base of the snow capped mountains. The altitude became apparent as we became a little breathless. Bear Lake was nothing short of paradise, still covered in snow in part yet so warm. We stopped and pondered life, and just took the marvel of God's creation in. This was a precious memory! We saw all kinds of birds, chipmunks, daddy, mommy and baby elk and unfortunately although their presence no bear or mountain lions. What a day that left us with an appetite for more.
On Saturday we took the new light rail system into Downtown Denver. Now the cities from our experience usually go very quiet on the weekend. Denver was just that, apart from the Mall about a mile stretch of shops and restaurants it was real quiet. We headed down the Mall to the State Capitol and town hall. Very similar in size and appearance to the Capitol in Washington DC. Don't forget Denver sits one mile above sea level. We found BBC America hanging out by a London red bus. A live gig with British bands and a bar serving Bass beer. In fact we only heard British tourist voices around the Capitol area. We strolled through town, just like most American cities, the skyscrapers and a coffee shop on every corner. It was clean and just cool, easy to navigate around. We walked through LoDo (Lower Downtown) to PlayDo (the nightlife area of the city). Lots of modern developments and apartments and of course the traditional water front area. We walked onto to the aquarium which was incredible and had a great selection of marine and aquatic life. From there we headed to the colossus Invesco Field at Mile High. This is the modern reincarnation that was the old Mile High Stadium. More famously known for being the home of the NFL's Denver Bronco's. Of course James had to get some photos. This was a life long dream to visit the home of the Bronco's. We also went to the Peace Project, a modern art project. Very cool! We headed back to the Hoffmeisters for dinner and saw Carmen and her friends taking photos for their High School prom. We waited for the limo which was very stretched and then went out for dinner at friends of the Hoffmeisters, Brad and Rita Berglund. They had spent a lot of time in England and Ireland so we had a lot to talk about. We sat outside for hours and just talked about life in front of the the fire pit.
On the Sunday we missed church, yes I know heathen's, and spent the day with the family up at Estes Park for a Jazz festival, and of course whilst we were there how could we resist another visit to the National Park.
Monday was a recovery day for the Hoffmeisters so we took ourselves about 45 mins West towards the historic town of Morrison. Now this was our first evidence of an old Western American town, and everything that we thought it would be. We took entrance 2 to Red Rocks State Park and after about a 3 mile ascent up to the top parking lot we were surrounded by literally some red monolith rocks and embedded in the rocks a 5,000 seat amphitheatre where the best performers have played, Santana, Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Mariah Carey et al. The view is stunning and you can see the city of Denver in the distance. Now this is where the built in DVD player in the people carrier came in handy. After driving up to one of the summit's and climbing up on the red sandstone rocks we heard a few cracks of thunder and the black skies rolled in. So we decided to take some time out to let the storm pass. Well and hour and a half later and Amy having a snooze for about 1hr and 25mins, we got through pretty much all of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Once the storm passed we went looking for some good memory shots and drove down to Dinosaur Ridge. Colorado is famous for the fossils of dinosaurs that were found over 150 years ago.
Now I know this might cause some controversy for those of you who think that God planted bones in the ground for the fun of it. Well if he did, this was a work of art in it's own right. The footprints we saw were the best preserved we had seen and not just little tracks these were huge, like the size of elephants feet. Whether you believe in dino's or not this is very cool. In the evening the Hoffmeisters introduced us to Russell Peters. You can find all of his stuff on Youtube. Basically an Indian-Canadian. He is probably one of the funniest comedians we have seen, so carried on laughing for the rest of the evening.
The next few days were chill out time and spent walking around the local mall, and a trip to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal. Nothing too intense but a two hour stroll around an old military base that is now a wildlife reserve. It was just great to get out for some fresh air and see some prairie dog's and white tailed deer up close. The weather by this point had got a little cold, the first time really since we arrived in the US. Anyway, only two days left and we had a few more things to do before our 2hr flight north to Minnesota. Ok, so by this point this is probably turning into a novel, our apologies but there is just so much to share with you. Onward and upward.
Well, Thursday to the famous Colorado Springs about an hour or so south of Denver. There had been a bad accident on the freeway so we left a little later en route for two destinations in a day. We first arrived at Garden of the Gods. If Red Rocks and The Rockies weren't enough, this was a spectacular display of monolith red sand stone rocks. An ancient place of congregation for a number of the American Indian tribes. Both a place of ceremony and also of trading. It was said to be "a place worthy for the gods to meet". From there we headed to Pikes Peak about a 20min drive onward towards the Cog Rail that takes you from the base station to over 14,500 feet to the summit. The cog rail was very similar to that of something you would find in the Swiss Alps. The air was thin and a fresh layer of powder covered the mountain top. The weather was well below zero James' shorts and t-shirt were a little less than ample attire. We were not ready to face the elements although the view was stunning.
Finally, Friday arrived and only one day to go but it was an early rise at 7am to collect the Hoffmeisters for Carmen's Graduation at Cherry Creek High School. Here is some nostalgia for you. Any NFL fans are sure to remember John Elway, the famous quarterback for the Denver Bronco's. Well his son plays quarterback for the school and JE also paid for the football field to be turfed. Well this really was quite the event. The bleachers seats were all full, about 3,000 which is a modest estimation but it was hard to tell, however they were full, and all for a graduation. The ceremony was 3 hours long and it was great to hear the well known British tune of 'Land of Hope and Glory' played for the 900+ students that were graduating as they entered the football field. The day was scorchio so we didn't apply any sunscreen so got a little parched. Back to the Hoffmeisters. Ok for one moment, I know we talk about food a lot but it really defines the US for us. Everything is about food!! Generally good too, but you will be please to know we are both trying to run it off with a daily jog. . Yes, to the Hoffmeisters for food and ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. It was a great day, and also a great experience to see how parents, friends and family all turn out to celebrate people's achievements.
Our final day concluded with an early rise again to be at the airport for our Northwest flight from Denver direct to Minneapolis to the Cooksey's. All in all our 11 days in Denver was not enough but it certainly rose to our US number one state spot. It is truly an incredible place, so if you hadn't considered it previously as a holiday destination, think again. For you Brits, a direct flight goes from London to Denver daily, and for the Americans, sort it out will you. This is a great place to visit and glad we made it there.
Powered by | | English | | Albanian | | Arabic | | Bulgarian | | Catalan | | Chinese | | Croatian | | Czech | | Danish | | Dutch | | Estonian | | Filipino | | Finnish | | French | | Galician | | German | | Greek | | Hebrew | | Hindi | | Hungarian | | Indonesian | | Italian | | Japanese | | Korean | | Latvian | | Lithuanian | | Maltese | | Norwegian | | Polish | | Portuguese | | Romanian | | Russian | | Serbian | | Slovak | | Slovenian | | Spanish | | Swedish | | Thai | | Turkish | | Ukrainian | | Vietnamese |
|
|
|
|
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
|
Category: Religion and Philosophy
Bono's speech to the 51st annual National Prayer Breakfast, attended by President George Bush and hundreds of national leaders in Washington, D.C.
If you're wondering what I'm doing here, at a prayer breakfast, well, so am I. I'm certainly not here as a man of the cloth, unless that cloth is leather. It's certainly not because I'm a rock star. Which leaves one possible explanation: I'm here because I've got a messianic complex.
Yes, it's true. And for anyone who knows me, it's hardly a revelation.
Well, I'm the first to admit that there's something unnatural ... something unseemly...about rock stars mounting the pulpit and preaching at presidents, and then disappearing to their villas in the south of France. Talk about a fish out of water. It was weird enough when Jesse Helms showed up at a U2 concert...but this is really weird, isn't it?
You know, one of the things I love about this country is its separation of church and state. Although I have to say: in inviting me here, both church and state have been separated from something else completely: their mind.
Mr. President, are you sure about this?
It's very humbling and I will try to keep my homily brief. But be warned - I'm Irish.
I'd like to talk about the laws of man, here in this city where those laws are written. And I'd like to talk about higher laws. It would be great to assume that the one serves the other; that the laws of man serve these higher laws...but of course, they don't always. And I presume that, in a sense, is why you're here.
I presume the reason for this gathering is that all of us here - Muslims, Jews, Christians - all are searching our souls for how to better serve our family, our community, our nation, our God.
I know I am. Searching, I mean. And that, I suppose, is what led me here, too.
Yes, it's odd, having a rock star here - but maybe it's odder for me than for you. You see, I avoided religious people most of my life. Maybe it had something to do with having a father who was Protestant and a mother who was Catholic in a country where the line between the two was, quite literally, a battle line. Where the line between church and state was...well, a little blurry, and hard to see.
I remember how my mother would bring us to chapel on Sundays... and my father used to wait outside. One of the things that I picked up from my father and my mother was the sense that religion often gets in the way of God.
For me, at least, it got in the way. Seeing what religious people, in the name of God, did to my native land...and in this country, seeing God's second-hand car salesmen on the cable TV channels, offering indulgences for cash...in fact, all over the world, seeing the self-righteousness roll down like a mighty stream from certain corners of the religious establishment...
I must confess, I changed the channel. I wanted my MTV.
Even though I was a believer.
Perhaps because I was a believer.
I was cynical...not about God, but about God's politics. (There you are, Jim.)
Then, in 1997, a couple of eccentric, septuagenarian British Christians went and ruined my shtick - my reproachfulness. They did it by describing the millennium, the year 2000, as a Jubilee year, as an opportunity to cancel the chronic debts of the world's poorest people. They had the audacity to renew the Lord's call - and were joined by Pope John Paul II, who, from an Irish half-Catholic's point of view, may have had a more direct line to the Almighty.
'Jubilee' - why 'Jubilee'?
What was this year of Jubilee, this year of our Lord's favor?
I'd always read the scriptures, even the obscure stuff. There it was in Leviticus (25:35)...
'If your brother becomes poor,' the scriptures say, 'and cannot maintain himself...you shall maintain him.... You shall not lend him your money at interest, not give him your food for profit.'
It is such an important idea, Jubilee, that Jesus begins his ministry with this. Jesus is a young man, he's met with the rabbis, impressed everyone, people are talking. The elders say, he's a clever guy, this Jesus, but he hasn't done much...yet. He hasn't spoken in public before...
When he does, is first words are from Isaiah: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,' he says, 'because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.' And Jesus proclaims the year of the Lord's favour, the year of Jubilee (Luke 4:18).
What he was really talking about was an era of grace - and we're still in it.
So fast-forward 2,000 years. That same thought, grace, was made incarnate - in a movement of all kinds of people. It wasn't a bless-me club... it wasn't a holy huddle. These religious guys were willing to get out in the streets, get their boots dirty, wave the placards, follow their convictions with actions...making it really hard for people like me to keep their distance. It was amazing. I almost started to like these church people.
But then my cynicism got another helping hand.
It was what Colin Powell, a five-star general, called the greatest W.M.D. of them all: a tiny little virus called AIDS. And the religious community, in large part, missed it. The ones that didn't miss it could only see it as divine retribution for bad behaviour. Even on children...even [though the] fastest growing group of HIV infections were married, faithful women.
Aha, there they go again! I thought to myself judgmentalism is back!
But in truth, I was wrong again. The church was slow but the church got busy on this the leprosy of our age.
Love was on the move. Mercy was on the move. God was on the move.
Moving people of all kinds to work with others they had never met, never would have cared to meet...conservative church groups hanging out with spokesmen for the gay community, all singing off the same hymn sheet on AIDS...soccer moms and quarterbacks...hip-hop stars and country stars. This is what happens when God gets on the move: crazy stuff happens!
Popes were seen wearing sunglasses!
Jesse Helms was seen with a ghetto blaster!
Crazy stuff. Evidence of the spirit.
It was breathtaking. Literally. It stopped the world in its tracks.
When churches started demonstrating on debt, governments listened - and acted. When churches starting organising, petitioning, and even - that most unholy of acts today, God forbid, lobbying...on AIDS and global health, governments listened - and acted.
I'm here today in all humility to say: you changed minds; you changed policy; you changed the world.
Look, whatever thoughts you have about God, who He is or if He exists, most will agree that if there is a God, He has a special place for the poor. In fact, the poor are where God lives.
Check Judaism. Check Islam. Check pretty much anyone. I mean, God may well be with us in our mansions on the hill. I hope so. He may well be with us as in all manner of controversial stuff. Maybe, maybe not. But the one thing we can all agree, all faiths and ideologies, is that God is with the vulnerable and poor.
God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. "If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom with become like midday and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places."
It's not a coincidence that in the scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times. It's not an accident. That's a lot of air time, 2,100 mentions. (You know, the only time Christ is judgmental is on the subject of the poor.) 'As you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me' (Matthew 25:40). As I say, good news to the poor.
Here's some good news for the president. After 9/11 we were told America would have no time for the world's poor. America would be taken up with its own problems of safety. And it's true these are dangerous times, but America has not drawn the blinds and double-locked the doors.
In fact, you have doubled aid to Africa. You have tripled funding for global health. Mr. President, your emergency plan for AIDS relief and support for the Global Fund - you and Congress - have put 700,000 people onto life-saving anti-retroviral drugs and provided 8 million bed nets to protect children from malaria.
Outstanding human achievements. Counterintuitive. Historic. Be very, very proud.
But here's the bad news. From charity to justice, the good news is yet to come. There is much more to do. There's a gigantic chasm between the scale of the emergency and the scale of the response.
And finally, it's not about charity after all, is it? It's about justice.
Let me repeat that: It's not about charity, it's about justice.
And that's too bad.
Because you're good at charity. Americans, like the Irish, are good at it. We like to give, and we give a lot, even those who can't afford it.
But justice is a higher standard. Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice; it makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties, it doubts our concern, it questions our commitment.
Sixty-five hundred Africans are still dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drug store. This is not about charity, this is about justice and equality.
Because there's no way we can look at what's happening in Africa and, if we're honest, conclude that deep down, we really accept that Africans are equal to us. Anywhere else in the world, we wouldn't accept it. Look at what happened in South East Asia with the tsunami. 150,000 lives lost to that misnomer of all misnomers, "mother nature." In Africa, 150,000 lives are lost every month. A tsunami every month. And it's a completely avoidable catastrophe.
It's annoying but justice and equality are mates. Aren't they? Justice always wants to hang out with equality. And equality is a real pain.
You know, think of those Jewish sheep-herders going to meet the Pharaoh, mud on their shoes, and the Pharaoh says, "Equal?" A preposterous idea: rich and poor are equal? And they say, "Yeah, 'equal,' that's what it says here in this book. We're all made in the image of God."
And eventually the Pharaoh says, "OK, I can accept that. I can accept the Jews - but not the blacks."
"Not the women. Not the gays. Not the Irish. No way, man."
So on we go with our journey of equality. On we go in the pursuit of justice.
We hear that call in the ONE Campaign, a growing movement of more than 2 million Americans...Left and Right together... united in the belief that where you live should no longer determine whether you live.
We hear that call even more powerfully today, as we mourn the loss of Coretta Scott King - mother of a movement for equality, one that changed the world but is only just getting started. These issues are as alive as they ever were; they just change shape and cross the seas.
Preventing the poorest of the poor from selling their products while we sing the virtues of the free market...that's a justice issue. Holding children to ransom for the debts of their grandparents...that's a justice issue. Withholding life-saving medicines out of deference to the Office of Patents...that's a justice issue.
And while the law is what we say it is, God is not silent on the subject.
That's why I say there's the law of the land?. And then there is a higher standard. There's the law of the land, and we can hire experts to write them so they benefit us, so the laws say it's OK to protect our agriculture but it's not OK for African farmers to do the same, to earn a living?
As the laws of man are written, that's what they say.
God will not accept that. Mine won't, at least. Will yours?
I close this morning on...very...thin...ice.
This is a dangerous idea I've put on the table: my God vs. your God, their God vs. our God...vs. no God. It is very easy, in these times, to see religion as a force for division rather than unity.
And this is a town - Washington - that knows something of division.
But the reason I am here, and the reason I keep coming back to Washington, is because this is a town that is proving it can come together on behalf of what the scriptures call the least of these.
This is not a Republican idea. It is not a Democratic idea. It is not even, with all due respect, an American idea. Nor it is unique to any one faith.
'Do to others as you would have them do to you' (Luke 6:30). Jesus says that.
'Righteousness is this: that one should...give away wealth out of love for him to the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and the beggars and for the emancipation of the captives.' The Koran says that (2.177).
Thus sayeth the Lord: 'Bring the homeless poor into the house, when you see the naked, cover him, then your light will break out like the dawn and your recovery will speedily spring fourth, then your Lord will be your rear guard.' The Jewish scripture says that. Isaiah 58 again.
That is a powerful incentive: 'The Lord will watch your back.' Sounds like a good deal to me, right now.
A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life. In countless ways, large and small, I was always seeking the Lord's blessing. I was saying, you know, I have a new song, look after it?. I have a family, please look after them?. I have this crazy idea...
And this wise man said: stop.
He said, stop asking God to bless what you're doing. Get involved in what God is doing - because it's already blessed.]
Well, God, as I said, is with the poor. That, I believe, is what God is doing.
And that is what He's calling us to do.
I was amazed when I first got to this country and I learned how much some churchgoers tithe. Up to 10% of the family budget. Well, how does that compare with the federal budget, the budget for the entire American family? How much of that goes to the poorest people in the world? Less than 1%.
Mr. President, Congress, people of faith, people of America:
I want to suggest to you today that you see the flow of effective foreign assistance as tithing.... Which, to be truly meaningful, will mean an additional 1% of the federal budget tithed to the poor.
What is 1%?
1% is not merely a number on a balance sheet. 1% is the girl in Africa who gets to go to school, thanks to you. 1% is the AIDS patient who gets her medicine, thanks to you. 1% is the African entrepreneur who can start a small family business thanks to you. 1% is not redecorating presidential palaces or money flowing down a rat hole. This 1% is digging waterholes to provide clean water.
1% is a new partnership with Africa, not paternalism toward Africa, where increased assistance flows toward improved governance and initiatives with proven track records and away from boondoggles and white elephants of every description.
America gives less than 1% now. We're asking for an extra 1% to change the world. to transform millions of lives - but not just that and I say this to the military men now - to transform the way that they see us.
1% is national security, enlightened economic self-interest, and a better, safer world rolled into one. Sounds to me that in this town of deals and compromises, 1% is the best bargain around.
These goals - clean water for all; school for every child; medicine for the afflicted, an end to extreme and senseless poverty - these are not just any goals; they are the Millennium Development goals, which this country supports. And they are more than that. They are the Beatitudes for a globalised world.
Now, I'm very lucky. I don't have to sit on any budget committees. And I certainly don't have to sit where you do, Mr. President. I don't have to make the tough choices.
But I can tell you this:
To give 1% more is right. It's smart. And it's blessed.
There is a continent - Africa - being consumed by flames.
I truly believe that when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital revolution, and what we did - or did not to - to put the fire out in Africa.
History, like God, is watching what we do.
Thank you. Thank you, America, and God bless you all.
Powered by | | English | | Albanian | | Arabic | | Bulgarian | | Catalan | | Chinese | | Croatian | | Czech | | Danish | | Dutch | | Estonian | | Filipino | | Finnish | | French | | Galician | | German | | Greek | | Hebrew | | Hindi | | Hungarian | | Indonesian | | Italian | | Japanese | | Korean | | Latvian | | Lithuanian | | Maltese | | Norwegian | | Polish | | Portuguese | | Romanian | | Russian | | Serbian | | Slovak | | Slovenian | | Spanish | | Swedish | | Thai | | Turkish | | Ukrainian | | Vietnamese |
|
|
|
|