Pre Christmas Tiki Tour

Having not been out in the bus since 25th Oct, Labour weekend and been putting some time in at the Mens shed running a workshop for the guys on Box making, we managed to squeeze in a pre Christmas trip to test our recent improvements with the new hinging bike rack, and the continued sorting out of the inside.
In my pre trip check I got help to check the tyre pressures (it's a bit tricky with double back tyres) needing a specially long and bent air hose fitting, this proved difficult even for the experts, but when they got to the front tyres...both were showing the steel, highly dangerous and needing urgent attention. All this was 2 days before the Christmas brakeup, my luck held, and I managed on the same day, to find and get two tyres fitted....wheew what a relief!

This was trip #20 leaving the Lane about 1.30pm after loading up for a 6 day jaunt down the Coast (West that is) We never know where we're going till the weather man tell us where the sun is shining.

We called into KMart and got two 26inch tennis rackets for $13 each and three tennis balls, total of $29, topped up with deisel at Brightwater (NPD...Gold Card discount...choice) and on through Murchison and Reefton where we stopped for a hit of tennis, sort of OK though the forehand is very rough on high shots. Plus my footwork is very slow too! Still is was a good test. Christine was not liking the heat of Reefton

We drove onto Slab Hut Creek doc camp managing to get the same spot we had last time.  We had a couple of scottish cyclists over for tea and christmas cake, so nice to get back in touch with the guid scottish brogue!.

While the Doc men were cleaning the Slab Hut Creek camp we headed out to Reefton, used the free wifi outside of the Inagahua Library. After coffee we headed out to Gannons Road and found a likely spot to camp, I biked the 7klms to the Clematis Swing bridge, the track rocky and bouldery in places with some steep bits but I took it carefull

The sandflies were queuing up in style...bloodthirsty little blighters.

We briefly called in for a gander to Blackball, well worth a look, with all the tourist info about......I loved the sign below on Main street Backball. 

Next overnight stay was on the banks of the Grey river, where the Council has set up a great free spot overlooking the harbour, the waves and the hardy West Coast surfers.

The South Bank of the Grey

And the North Bank of the Grey

Room with a view, sea, sand and surf....no complaints

View from the bedroom window.......crashing waves,

..... harder to hear the snoring.

 I cycled from Greymouth on the Wild West Coast Trail to Kumara, the brochure said 3 hours, but I cycled it in just over 2 hours....wind assisted......two types of wind!

Along by the seaside, what a doddle!

The Kumara Gorge

And it's new cycle way bridge

After a shopping spree in Hokitika we went onto Lake Kaniere.

We met some Americans with a hire Motorhome who live in Manilla, a young solo male German traveller touring for 5 months sleeping in his car, and Nora a young American cycle tourer who lives in Vietnam. Christine armed with christmas cake, took the initiative and invited them for tea and we had nice social times.
The next morning after breakie we took the bikes up to Dorothy Falls, a nice little ride.

Next stop was the Treewalk at Mahinapua, discounted cost from $38 to $30 for OAP's. The tree walk was quite good although not many people around, spending at least an hour there.

The first thing I noticed at Treetops, while leaving the entrance to walk to the bush treetops walk, was this wonderfull Gorse seedling growing out of a Punga.

 

Very safe with high guardrails/handrails

 All in all, quite feat of engineering, not to mention planning permission and getting all the materials in situ without disturbing the bush too much, must have knocked a hole in somebody's wallet thou!

After that my photography habit kicked in.....

Fern...tastic!

I loose myself, just by taking photos

Tree...mendous wot nature can do..IMHO!

Back at the Doc camp at Lake Mahinapua we met Phil and Lisa, fellow NZMCA'rs  (they are full timers, bus name "Shutter Bugs" they came and introduced themselves, nice chat about all sorts of things, they are very keen photographers who advised me exactly what camera to get as I was keen to leave iphone photography and return to a Digital SLR. (More about this later in the next blog)

 Ahhhh...Christmas day at lake Mahinapua was sweet as!

A late lazy breakfast then more lazing and stooging around the bush walkways with Christine, taking lots of photos. After Christine cooked Christmas dinner, having Christmas dinner, and a few beers, what else but..... falling asleep in the chair outside....in the middle of the afternoon....oh how terrible of me.... with no wind and one of those blue sky, not a cloud in the sky, west coast days, I then took the mountain bike up State Highway 6 and did part of the Mahinapua Walkway.

"out on the boardwalk...we were having fun"

Rushing past these beauties.

Early model chain saw bar...without chain...

very unique for the coast..... rust patina!

 This went through the Mananui sawmill site and biked the old railway line this was superb though I only went part way. The track still has buried sleepers, making very effective "Judderbars". 

This is why they invented suspension on Mountain bikes.

This tree sort of suggests where the prevailing wind comes from.

Came back and saw an Israeli guy doing a sort of juggling with Dupa (or dopa) a new for me kind of juggling prop. I went over with my juggling balls and hat and joined in.

Tried his dopa, spinning cloth discs, (invented in Spain apparently!) quite difficult especially with my shoulder. Then we had kids from various countries, trying juggling and allot of other people about, then the guitars came out, so I went and got my saxes, and the whole camp came over for singing etc we played on into the dark till the Mossies called halt around 10.40pm.
Ending a great Christmas on the road as a couple of "Grey Nomads"

Boxing day we packed up and left Mahinapua around 10am. Then through to Reefton, where we parked outside the Library to get internet (again) played some more tennis (again) though it was hot and couldn’t get a proper hit yet due to still being rusty, not getting many hits over the net. Onward through Murchison and home by 3.45pm. Just in time to pick up our cat Bella from the cattery...all in all a purrfect trip.

All the photos in this blog were taken by cell phone, this is about to change....see you at the next Blog, which is going to be called "Post Christmas and New Year's Fun"

Till then stay safe and B creative.

Ciao
Jimu

Portlands Joys and Woes and heading home.

Portland is nearly 4hours south from Seattle on Amtrak. The train is a much more relaxed mode of travel than backpacking and greyhound busses as I used to travel the USA in the past.
This is the line/queue that forms about an hour before the train departure time, even if you have tickets people stand, while we sit and wait for the queue to go through and get our allocated seats.
The train stations are often classics building in their own right as is this one in Seattle.

Arrival in Portland, the coach cars are air-conditioned, often I seem to be sitting under a vent with cold air blowing down on top of me! I dress up to get on the train and exit into 90+ deg heat at the other end.

Getting to our hotel and switching the TV on we're told Portland is experiencing a very hot summer with no rain for months, a usual summer has 9days over 90 deg, so far this summer it's 24days over 90 and next week while we were there it stayed that way.

 Shopping for a jacket in a store called Columbia specialising in outdoor clothing, I spot this outstanding coffee table and surrounding chairs.

I know from a past visit 20 years ago that Portland is an area well known for Art/Craft furniture makers/designers and this piece is exceptional, made of Metal (the base), Stone (the chunk on top of the table) and a magnificent piece of tiger eyer Maple joined with wooden butterfly shapes. All in the setting of a clothing store!

I also visited this Art/Craft gallery 20 years ago called The Real Mother Goose, which has changed some to include ceramics, clothes, paintings and sculptures, though nothing IMHO to rival the outdoor clothing store coffee table above.

A poor copy of a Maloof rocker for sale at twice the priced and half the quality I used make!

This is "The Whole Food" salad bar, an oasis in a world of junk food.

Superb, fresh foods, make your own salad, complete with eating area. 

It struck me looking at the queues at Whole Foods, the majority of people are regular sized, in comparison to say other fast food outlets like MacDonalds, Dunkin donuts, Taco bells, Hungry Jacks, Arbells etc.

 An area of Portland near the city has the Zoo, a Rose Garden, a Japanese Garden a Childrens Museum an Arboretum and a Historic house called Pittock Mansion (more of that later)

I decided as a budding clown I'd check out the Children's Museum to see how they entertain children. I was struck dumb (nearly exploded) when they refused me admission...because I had no child to accompany into the Museum. I felt like taking this higher, but advice from the better half said "let it go"

From the Hoyt Arboretum we took the easy 20 minute walk down hill to the Japanese Gardens, which turned out to be a 90 minute walk back to Hoyts Arboretum. (signage on the trail was shall we say, was confusing to kiwi's)

Christine pointed this wonderful tree out to me when we were lost

I was somewhere else, still thinking about the Children's Museum fiasco!

Finally we get to the Portland Japanese Gardens, 

certainly worth a visit and authentically Japanese too 

(apart from the locals and accents)

Yes those shiny things on the bottom are coins!

One of the gateways had recently been vandalised 

and replaced using traditional materials, tools and finishes.

A detail in the handrail of one of the Japanese gardens main buildings

Shioji and Fusuma doors all up to Nihonjin standard, though the nails in the decking lacked finesse!

 Exquisite and traditional and very Japanese!

The thumbs up is for my stretching ability up the bus stop pole, however the loop bus schedule (at the bottom of the pole) was an ominous sign. We got on the bus, which had no bells to make the bus stop and when we went through where we wanted to stop, and didn't stop we then decided to get off the bus and go back. Most of the bus also had the same idea, the driver asked why didn't we say where we wanted to get off, (as if this is a normal activity!) She then informed the other loop bus to pick us up at the next stop. Before we could get to the next stop, the bus had left that stop, therefore we had no alternative to wait again for our original non stopping driver, who duly showed up, amazed to see us (again) finally stopping, without us asking! and letting us off the bus where we wanted to go....eventually...Geez!

That next stop was the Portland memorial to the Holocost.

The back wall is engraved with the names of people who died in the camps,

 followed by the names of their surviving relatives in Oregon and South West Washington.

A most sobering place

Standing in front of the huge slabs of carved marble reading and reflecting

....just how lucky we are to be living today!

On Belmont Street, an older part of town with some history of posters as this pole displays 

At Home Depot, you can get...nearly everything.....here are some planks for smoking/grilling your meat on.....in this massive store they did not have a tool I wanted to purchase for my brother, but did have it in another Portland store, 12 minutes away by car, or 20 minutes by bus then a 45 minute walk. I asked if I could get one delivered here to this store from the other store, no was the reply, we can get you one from HQ (Florida) which would take 1 week. I found one in Woodcrafters in a different part of Portland a 10 minute walk from the bus!

You can even buy steel studs for your building project....at Home Depot!

It's amazing sometimes when you walk from 90+ deg heat outside through a shopping mall 

what you will find...an iceskating rink!

Some young talent too

         An old style diner...couldn't see the Fonz anywhere!

First day in Portland I check out the best Jazz club, 3pm in the afternoon I find it and go into check out the evenings entertainment. No one on the door so in I go, there is a band setting up and a guy comes over to talk to me, it was a sax player I knew from the internet and Facebook.

 Michael "Shoehorn"Conolly.

He plays saxophone while he tap dances on a special drum floor of his invention.

So I returned later to take in the show, which was blend of modern Jazz, tap dancing, trad and irish

All good stuff!

Michael on sax, his daughter skat singing

 and a seventeen year old tap dancer

all on stage.

Genuine Irish tap dancing to saxophone in USA...begorrah!

 Later in the week we walk to have a meal in a local restaurant...an aeroplane is advertising a local airshow. It was spelling out "Cool Moon"....Don't now why! Sure was Cool tho!

We wait 20 minutes to get into Saylers Old Country Kitchen Restaurant, friday nights are busy!

Saylers is famous for meat eating, especially the 72oz Steak challenge.

Rules below.

 No vegetarians where consumed at this restaurant!.....I think?

 The week previous a 13 year old boy had completed successfully the 72oz challenge

...which means the $65 steak meal is free! 

Gluttony is rewarded, while half of Africa is starving!

On one of our many bus rides (as an Honoured Citizen...read OAP or over 65 in USA) into town on the #15 bus..... a guy tries to get on the bus dripping blood onto the floor of the bus. He's holding a jandle, the driver talks to him says "you better go to the Hospital" the guy says "Can't afford it...waiting for my next pay check" the driver says "Go to hospital, you won't need your next pay check if you don't.....sorry Man I can't take ya" and drives off without him. Next stop everyone on the bus was let off to wait for the next bus and told to "Catch the next bus because this bus is a Bio Hazard"

 Checking out local bike shops in Portland we come across Brompton Folding bikes

 (English) Cargo bikes and Scooters?

  An impressive range of Brooks saddles (also English), with colours to match the frames.

Go on scoot....get outta here!

 Portland has it's own little gondola ride, an extension of the Streetcar system.

Each end of the Gondola ride is the Portland Hospital OHSU.
Oregon Health and Science University,
So surgeons dressed in gowns are on the Gondola with us tourists, quite a strange mixture!

The Pittock Family Mansion on the hills

 overlooking downtown Portland.

Henry had all his marbles 

and used some in this impressive staircase

Wonder if those bannisters have been slid down?

As in life...not everything goes to plan

I was floored by the pattern in the floor!

Unfortunately the floor in the kitchen was not spotless!

Portland Pedal Power, complete with a bamboo trailer and front mudguard!

A charging station for electric cars...

I should have asked "How much do they charge"

but as usual my humour would have been unappreciated.

(sigh)

A common past time while on holiday across the river into Vancouver, Washington

That's what I call a cheesy smile...Darling!

 Seattle airport had a live band playing. 

They asked me to juggle while they finished their set.

Of course I obliged

These shaker style rocking chairs were put to good use!

A sculpture wall full of saxophones at San Fransico on the way home to caress my own saxophones.

Reflections on this trip are personal and therefore only my view, others who will remain nameless have views of their own.

There are allot of homeless people around in the streets, allot of very heavy overweight people, public transport is very good, prices of most things are significantly higher than in NZ, distances are still vast, many beautifull places still to see and personally, the vastness of shops, shopping malls and endless fast food outlets does nothing for me.
I never want to see the inside of a Starbucks ever again!

We found getting around the cities difficult even with GPS on the cell phone etc. We very often used the trial and error method for getting around, i.e. your on 4th street and want to go to 8th street, so we walk to what we think will be 5th street and find it's actually 3rd street....trail and error.....self corrections like these all day and especially at the end of the day.....are a great test of relationships.

Upon arriving in NZ we thought we had plenty of time to catch the connecting flight to Nelson. However the baggage carousel and declaring some bought flower seeds and a very long, slow moving line to customs saw us having to catch the next flight home from Auckland.

We had a great trip and are equally glad to be home. My shoulder flexibility has increased, and so has my waistline......another month and I would have been buying more trousers.

Well that's America for 2015, now we get back on track for touring in NZ.
I have decided to give veganism a go, looking for an energy boost, for the fountain of youth, for clarity of health mind and body......which I feel is most essential in my journey to be a clown and spread some fun for one and all!

Stay safe and free and B cre eat iv....plus eat lots of ice-cream
...it's natures best anti ageing food ya know!

Jimu and Christine