India plans

Right now we are in Kolkata (see Ali's post for details!) but leave tonight on a midnight train- we have to move quickly as we have only a week or 10 days or so to get up north to our Buddhism course. Plus, it's going to be sgetting hotter so being in the mountains will be good!

Tonight we travel west by sleeper train- to Varanasi (April 10-12), Hindu holy place along the Ganges River. Few days there, going to get some Indian clothes.

West to Agra, Taj Mahal. Will be here from April 13th-15th.

On the 15th we'll travel North through New Delhi up to Dharamsala/McLeod Ganj. Lots of tourists go here because it's where the Dalai Lama is (although he'll be in Australia when we are there! we should have organized with him better). We are going to come here a 2 days before our course. There are many recommended cooking schools in the area. As well, we won't be able to use the internet during our 10 day course, so we hope to get in touch with everyone before it starts.

After our course, we'll have 4 days left.  We might go to Shimla, cool touristy mountain station town.

Then on May 3rd its back to New Delhi, where we fly out!

That's the outline!

Here's a picture of the mountain area of our retreat...

Check out the stuff about the course if you want, "Intro to Buddhism."

First few days in India!

Hello. We are in India! We are safe and well-fed. We have enough light to read and we are warm enough. What else would people worry about?

Wonderful comments on the blog all! Thanks. The NZ posts are set on a timer. We're at our first internet cafe in Kolkata. We took a rickshaw the wrong way to get here and then walked. This place has a low ceiling and Jingle bells just played, followed by an Indian tune.
3 - Number of times I thought I was having an allergic reaction. Just spice.
2 - Number of times I actually was having an allergic reaction. One was very tiny bit of puffy eyes (no problem) and the other is ongoing - I'm am either actually sick or allergic to the pollution. Lots of coughing and nose blowing, most ever.
1 - Number of times we cried together so far about the state of the world.

So far our routine is to hang out in our ballin sweet hotel room with AC and then get hungry. We venture out to eat and have an adventure. Once we are getting too overwhelmed, we come back and gear up for the next outing.

4 - Number of friends. Already it seems we've met more travelers than in NZ and AZ. We met a couple from Portland and it was also their first day in India, so it was great to relate to each other. At a big church yesterday we met a woman from Seattle with whom we went to the art gallery. She was great to talk to because she'd been in India three months already, and three times before this trip. We also chatted a great deal with a man from India who told us all about the best city in the world, his city, Varanasi. He was very nice, and scowled at the boys that were walking by looking at us. ("I have three daughters..." he explained to us. so he doesn't stand for that sort of thing.)

5 - number of people wanting to take our picture so far because.. we are white tourists? We'd actually been told in advance about this. A girl we met in AZ said, "well, it is nice at first, feeling like a celebrity." It's true, nearly everyone looks at us, many are blatant stares.

Sights:
Queen Victoria memorial - big nice building in beautiful park
Mother Teresa's mission/orphanage and room and tomb. The nuns were all very happy, smiling all the time. The kids seemed very happy too. Felt odd touring a orphanage, didn't quite feeling right.

1000+ - Number of things we've never seen before. Life is all around you, on the streets. I mean, people bathing, sleeping, begging, working, eating, peeing, driving, puppies playing with flies, people selling you books or any number of things, men with no legs, blind singers, children working, honking, honking, honking, garbage piles, business men, goats, butchers... this is really hard to discribe. Just... everything. Think Guatemala, but even more exaggerated. We were both glad we had been to Guat or things would have been a totally shock. There's more poverty here than in Guatemala, at least that we see. It's hard. I've thought many times "why are we here?" Why would you be a tourist here? But really, it's not really about the buildings and the sights, but seeing how billions live in this world. It's hard to see, but I think it's important to see. Not much we can do - what do we know of India? Nothing.

Good news
not as hot as we thought it would be. I feel safer than I thought I would feel, obviously not everyone wants to rob you or rip you off, hardly anyone of course. Actually, there's huge protests in New Delhi right now against corruption. A man named Anna who follow Gandian practises in on a hunger strike til death!

Ok, more later loves, we are fine and happy. Hope you are too.

Wanaka + Queenstown

Alison: So, we headed down the mountainous west coast, stopping at various waterfalls. Caryn drove for a while while I read her the Hobbit. Soon the landscape changed as we got higher and more south. No more trees! To me, it looks like an exaggerated Beaver Flat. Higher hills, bigger lakes, but that same brown scrub look of river valley South Sask.

Down by a beautiful lake we checked into our little ski town hostel in Wanaka. Wanaka is a cool cool town, no wonder it was (cousin) Em's favourite spot. Here we went to the gypsy fair (and you're lucky we didn't stay with them!). We got errands done for India, watched LOTR2. Oh I slept for 14 hours one night, don't know what was up with that...

Caryn: I thought she had gone into a coma!  Anyways, after 6 weeks of craft deprevation, i was suddenly overcome with the urge, nay, the need to craft.  Luckily 1) we found a awesome wool shop full of NZ wool and 2) i had found this super cute slipper pattern on ETSY before we left, and bookmarked it thinking i would make a pair this summer.  The shop owner was awesome- we ended up going back a couple of times and our last time we just chatted and chatted (mostly about a possum that had been sneaking into her house through her cat door).  In the end we bought enough wool to make myself the ruffly slippers, Alison these ones, and a scarf (which believe me, i wish i had right now it is chillllllyyyyyy!) 

Alison: Another classic Wanaka thing to do is go to Puzzling World. It's a place full of... puzzles. There was a wall of faces that follows you, hologram art, etc. Our favourite room was build on at 45 degree angle or so, but then everything was at that angle so it looked normal (except that you were standing "sideways" and walking up or downhill. So in this room, water looked like it was flowing uphill, and there was an uphill slide, etc. It's hard to walk in there, pretty sure I heard a kid hit the ground pretty hard.
This link will give you an idea of the displays at puzzling world.

We headed an hour or two over to Queenstown, down to another beautiful lake town. Queenstown is like a bigger version of Wanaka, much more touristy. And it's the place you always hear about with the extreme sports! Of course I had to do one....

Canyon Swing
Canyon Swing is kind of like a bungy jump but instead of bouncing back up, you swing 200 m. (It looks way scarier than it is. Watching the other people go was alarming!)

Caryn: So, we arrived in Queenstown and Alison headed to the info booth while i stayed in our car as to not get a ticket in the 15 min parking.  Her proclaimed mission, as she headed off from the car, was to grab a couple of brocures on stuff to do.  She came back 10 mins later, and had signed up for the Canyon Swing- for 4:30 that day.  It was 2:00.  The next 2 hours were a combination of Ali psyching herself up ("well, I like swings," Alison said, when wondering if she would like it.), me trying to rev her up a bit more (she was pretty jumpy- we were just walking down the street and then i pointed and yelled, and she jumped about 2 meters in the air), and me being reasurring that she would indeed not regret it, and it would be fun. 

Of course there was no way i was going to pay $200 dollars to be terrified out of my mind.  Plus i wouldn't have been able to jump off the platform.  They would have had to hurl me off, and it would probably take me years to recover from that kind of trauma. I did however pay the required $20 fee to watch Ali (literally) jump off a cliff.  It was pretty fun to watch!
Alison: before the swing part it has about a 60-70 m free fall drop. Yeah. Luckily that only lasts 3 secs. One of those seconds is quite scary. However, I think the scariest part was when they hung me over the brink, holding on to me to take a picture. I didn't trust those guys. I mean, I did, safety wise, but I didn't trust them not to drop me. Plus, the guy that hooked me in seemed like he was on drugs, but I'm sure I'm the one that was paranoid. I think I went into defense mode.

SO anyway, I stalled for a long time, and then, the launch guys banter was getting so annoying that I just... hopped off. Seriously, they were annoying enough to hurl yourself off the brink. The first jump felt like a dream: "this isn't happening." Didn't seem real, like I was watching. Trance like. Can't believe I did it!

The second jump was still very scary, but I wanted to prove the first one wasn't just a fluke. The second jump, they wanted me to go off backwards or something crazy. I argued with the annoying guys about it, because apparently I'm very assertive when in defense mode. So, the second one I ran off forward. As I leaped, they both sort of gasped (somewhat alarming). I saw why when I looked at the pictures - I was nearly horizontal as I left the platform! My instinct is to dive apparently.

After the 3 seconds the swing part is fabulous!

The rest of Queenstown was more low key. Mostly doing errands for India and bumming round town. Very nice.

After Kayak School- West Coast

Before we set off from Kayak school in Murchinson, we asked Mick and Shannon what we should see on the west coast as we headed down to Queenstown. Without hesitation, they advised us to go do a hike "to the gorge," which would lead to a class 5 rapid (that they regularly run) flowing with water the colour of Bombay Gin. Not like the crowded hikes that the Department of Conservation sends tourists on, Mick stated, brushing these DOC walks off as "boardwalks." Hike time? "I've done it in 2 hours carrying my kayak" said Sophie, aka boat slave operation's manager, of New Zealand kayak school.

So, we jotted down instructions from Mick and Shannon on how to get there. Although they seemed somewhat vague at the time, we had confidence it would all become clear once on the trail. They were somewhat as follows:

"Go to Hakitika. Turn left at a roundabout, towards Kanerie. Follow signs to Lake Kanerie. Turn left on gravel road. When you drive over a bridge that crosses the Arahura river, drive 200 m. On your left there will be a fence made from a railroad tie. (at this point Mick sized us up, and stated "It will take both of your strength to lift it").

This is really where the instructions fell apart:

"Park your car- or continue driving, until your car gets stuck. Continue on this path. Cross the suspension bridge. Go up up up. Once the trail begins coming down, take a left down the second dry creekbed you cross. If you come back to the river, you have gone too far on the trail."

Well, we found the trail head, and continued on what was a road through a farmer's field with cows for about half an hour. There was really no one else around. After a few wrong turns we found the suspension bridge, and continued on the trail. We crossed two massive creek beds (which were not completely dry by the way) hopping across rocks in the midst of this flowing water and scrambling up boulders. As for the trail: well, as Mick promised, this was no boardwalk. We passed two hikers, and felt a little silly, as they were decked out in full gear, including gators. There were sections of the hike that were completely mud - and sometimes it was like we were hiking up a stream that flowed on the path. At one point, while trying to leap across a mud patch, I slid and ended up with quite muddy jeans! Alison claims it was her walking stick that saved her. At every creekbed Ali and I were like "does this count as a dry creek bed?" , "have we gone 'up up up'?".

We did ask one of the hikers that we passed, who advised that they actually fly kayaks in to this river, and it would take another 3 hours to hike to "the gorge". We had already been hiking for ~2 hours, and so a bit dismayed, we continued on.

All along the way we were seeing these numbered wooden boxes, about the size of milk crates, which read "Blue Duck Predator Control, Do not touch". Alison and I speculated about what exactly they were trapping and what the bait was for a while, passing another trap every 100 meters or so.

Just when we were about to turn back (after yet another creek bed) we came across another pair of hikers- one who worked for whoever was monitoring these traps! ("A duck man!" Alison exclaimed. She had really wanted to meet one.) We explained that our Kayak friends had sent us on this hike to see a rapid and we had no idea if we were on the right track. He thought for a while, then stated we should continue on to trap #18. At this point we would head down the creek immediately following it. "Its a bit steep" he warned. Then we found out that they are trapping stouts (non-native weasels, predators of endangered blue ducks) (or trying to) and using chicken eggs as bait.

Happy as clams with shiny new (and clear!) directions we continued on. At that point we were at trap #13. At #18, we swung a left down this steep creek bed. There we were, sliding down rocks, holding onto trees as we descended towards the river.

At last we got there. As promised, a beautiful rapid with beautiful water. There was a gorge, with either water smoothed walls or covered in green. The area was sort of a pool with various waterfalls falling into it. We clambered on the giant smooth rocks surrounding the area. My only complaint was the sand flies.

Hiking back up the steep creek bed from the rapid (up by the smaller rocks).

Alison with her prized hiking stick.

Part of the rapid (as always, it is really hard to capture the magnitude of any water feature on film. Take our word, it was awesome). More waterfalls behind Ali.

The suspension bridge with Bombay Gin water.

Alison with her hiking stick on bridge.

Besides our hike, we pretty much drove down the coast, stopping at waterfalls and other little viewpoints along the way. Of course there is never enough time- and there is so much more we could have and would have like to have seen! Next time though ;)

These were the Pancake rocks on the west coast. Here is Alison, eating pancakes.

Caryn to Alison: "be the pancacke"

kayak school

Caryn:
New Zealand Kayak School in Murchison is a haven of kayaking.

First, the digs: you live in a sweet roomy lodge with a large kitchen. The staff make a fire for you while you are out kayaking, so you return to a warm haven.

Second there are 13 (plus) river runs all within 30 mins- all classes of water. And it is beautiful!

The founder of the Kayak school we attended is Mick Hopkinson is like a founder of white water kayaking. He was a member of a small team that made first descents of the river Inn in Switzerland and Austria, the Blue Nile in Ethiopia and the Dudh Khosi in Nepal. He tells tales about paddling down the Blue Nile with Ethiopians shooting at him in crocodile infested water. He's pretty hard core.

The course that Ali and I took was this 4 day intermediate course entitled something like "Catch the Wave". Alternative names could have been : "so, you think you can kayak" or "Roll camp". I don't want to give you the wrong impression- it was lovely and we had lots of fun, however it was loads of work.

The first thing that was a bit of a shock was after 6 weeks of doing whatever we want, whenever we want, all of a sudden we were on a schedule!!! (I do not want to think of how hard the adjustment to returning to work will be after 6 months...i'm not thinking of that right now though). Our days started at 8am, when we drove with our coach Shannon to the pool for roll practice (aka roll boot camp). We both abandoned our old CtoC (or what had become some version of the CtoC) roll for the Sweep roll, which Shannon swears by. After about a million rolls, he would film us doing them.

Side note: Alison asked Mick "how many rolls do you think you have done? Thousands?" to which Mick replied "Oh- I don't know. But i still practice my rolls. A thousand is a good number to start with". I think we did around 200-300 in our 4 days there. We've still got a ways to go.

Anyways, after pool session we had our first break and it was back to the lodge for second breakfast, dry off, warm up, watch the videos of our rolls...then it was back into our wet gear again for our second session. First day it was a flatwater session, other days it was our first river trip. Which involved more rolls (of course). Then second break. Then third river session.

Needless to say it was awesome, fun to get in a boat again, but exhausting. We learned a lot, tearing around in our Dagger RPM's (NZ kayak's school's philosophy is that you should paddle a very long boat for a very long time. Gives you more boat control they say. I still want a Fuse.)

It has been 4 days since Kayak school, and i am still doing rolls in my sleep. Wish we could do more kayaking on our trip! (Mick Hopkinson did tell us that we can kayak in both India and South Africa.).

The staff at NZ kayak school had recently acquired a pet goat: which we called cory because we couldn't understand what they were calling it in their kiwi accent (cordy? horty??)

Alison with goat.

There were kayaks everywhere! Here are just a few.

Alison in front of the 10 meter waterfalls we ran on our first day. No biggie.

Our Lodge: Kitchen

(Oh: tots joking about the waterfalls. no waterfalls for us)

Loungy area.

The Decor of the lodge is very appropriately all kayak related. This includes several of Mick's paddles from his expeditions. This one is the one he used on the crocodile infested Blue Nile.

Hanging around til kayak school - Westport

We went through Murchison (where we would come back to do kayak school) to go do an "easy" hike called Charming Creek Walkway. How can you go wrong with a name like that?!

Indeed it was charming. It follows an abandoned train track. I am fond of trains. It leads to the abandoned coal mine! There's lots of cool abandoned stuff along the 6 hour trail to have a look at.

Caryn at the first train tunnel to hike through.

Photo with flash.

A long suspension bridge to cross.

This is just beautiful. It's quite big in real life.

This little bird was so neat. We stood verrry still and it curiously poked about near us for quite a long time. It seemed interested in us.

Yellow orange black wall

Yeah, so no pics of the coal mine or any stuff along the way, but it was sweet. And charming.

Love you!

Hanging around til kayak school - Nelson + that other little town

Ali: We got to the south island, as you recall, verrrrrry early in the morning after the night ferry. I drove for a while and then parked the car and we had a nap. Woke up and drove to Nelson.

In Nelson we had sweet accom - our first place with a little kitchen, and quite big for what we are used to.

The first day we were so tired from night-ferry fiasco that all we fit in was a little walk to the beach. That night I felt I might be "coming down with a little something."

The next morning I was still feeling "sick." Since I was having a sick day, and it was Caryn's birthday, we took the day off. We did nothing much, and then much later, we did an art walk around town. We treated ourselves to nice things all day since I was sick and it was Caryn's birthday. I think my birthday will be in India and Caryn will have a sick day there too. I highly recommend this, by the way. Maybe tomorrow will be your birthday! Caryn actually turned a year younger!

Art: we saw many lovely things, highlights include a giant knitted Jesus face and The One Ring To Rule Them All from the film. (Real one was destroyed in Mount Doom when we did the Tongariro Crossing.)

One very cool bookshop. We go to loads of bookshops.

Beach in Nelson. I have no pants because when we do laundry, boy oh boy, we do laundry.

Caryn says: This picture is for Michelle and Nicole. Sea Mustache? I think so!!

Jesus.

Ali says: These are "kiwiberries." I don't know if they're made up or what but they taste flippin good. They taste like kiwis, better than kiwis. And aren't endangered like the birds.

Which is fudge and which is soap? Wanted to eat them both. The fudge we went back for 2 more times and almost drove an extra half hour a few days later to get more. We restrained ourselves. Come to NZ just for this fudge!

Another stunning waterfall!

To get to the waterfall. Feels cool to cross those babies.

"A sheep!" This trail lead to sand dunes and a magnificent beach:

Up on some conglomerate cliffs. Poor Saskatchewan! One of our claims to fame is repeated in NZ.

Caryn, not getting sucked out to sea.

I took a wrong turn and Caryn said, "no you didn't, now we can go to that pirate coffee place." So we headed down the hill from this sign and found...

Pirate mocha with anchor at the...

ESPRESSO SHIP! so cool.

Docked at the harbour for your caffeine needs.

By now we were out of Nelson and staying in the Golden Bay area. This is very near the top of the south island - NW. If you look on a map you'll see a sand bar reaching off the land up there, a "spit." We tried to do a spit hike but it was high tide, so no luck. We did do another awesome little hike though:

We found a magical place. It was rocks, in cool formations. Skinny high high parts, holes to look in, water shaped stuff, ledges, house type stuff. I said I wanted to live there and started saying, "this is where I'll have my storehouse" "this is where I'll keep my slaves"

and I went on and on, and then Caryn started doing it too, and she was ahead of me on the path so she was getting the best spots so i ran in front shouting

"this is where I'll have my harem!"

and her: "this is where I keep my cupcakes!"
"stables!"
"computer lab!"
"yoga studio!"

and pretty soon we were RUNNING the trail

and then we popped out into the carpark and I almost shed a tear because it was over.

If I lived in the area I would go there all the time and climb high high up and crouch and watch tourists way down below me.

The next day, we went back. We did the hike again.. and... my dream came true! I climbed way way up which was sweet as, and then, no lie - tourists walked by! The first two didn't see me and the second two glanced up, just as I, as Katherine so eloquently put it, "dropped, and their whole world went black."

Love you!