Thankful 2.0!

Yesterday was our last day in Texas and much of it was spent running from appointment to appointment.
Pacemaker check (still working), dentist (still have a few teeth) & financial advisor (Jeff Atwell @ Edward Jones if you live in the Burleson area and are looking for a good one)kept us pretty busy.
I even had one doctors visit cancelled because the doctor had a family emergency.   This was with my dermatologist who thanks to my time spent outside in my younger years without sunscreen is a very wealthy person.
This cancellation opened up a little time for me to stop by the hospital and roam around a bit.
I didn't realize it until late last night but yesterday was my seven month anniversary of being retired.  Time has sure flown by since that day. The adventures and new memories Beth and I are making are awesome and so are the memories of 23 years at Huguley and 31 total years with Adventist Health System.
The new hospital opened in early August and is absolutely amazing!
While it was special to see the building what was really meaningful was to have a chance to say hello to so many people who mean so much to me.
Ken who was my boss and CEO was in and took me on a tour through the new areas. It was exciting and humbling to see many of the areas that I had played a really small part in designing. When I say "small" I mean "small" because the hospital design and processes were developed by the most important members of the team, those who directly or indirectly are taking care of the patients.
Based on what I saw as well as what I experienced while having some blood work done they did an outstanding job!
While on the tour as well as in the administrative offices I  loved visiting with so many familiar faces that I'm not even going to attempt to name them. What I can tell you is that every hug, hand shake, hello was so appreciated.
Although my visit was short, it should have been since everyone had more important matters to attend to than to talk to an old retired guy. The visit created another special memory of a place and some of some of the people that will always be a part of me.......another reason to be thankful!




The New Texas Health Huguley!

Thankful!

We're back!

After a couple of extra hours in Sydney due to weather we were finally on our way. 

We landed at DFW around 3:00 PM and even though it's supposed to be the busiest travel day of the year it wasn't too chaotic. 

We appreciated Ben letting us stay at his place Wednesday and Thursday night. It was a busy time because we were helping him shop for a new car which was something he really needed. He's now the proud owner of a low mileage one prior owner Nissan Rouge. 

Thanksgiving Day was a little bittersweet since we weren't going to be with Sarah, Joey and Sweet Baby James although we knew we'd be seeing them on Friday. 

We're so fortunate to have great friends like Rob and Pam McNeely who I've written about previously. They were kind enough to open their home to a homeless family so Beth, Ben and I joined them for an outstanding Thanksgiving feast.  I told them that they could possibly include the expense of the meal as a charitable contribution since they were feeding homeless people! Friday afternoon after

 helping Ben finalize the purchase of the car we were off to Fort Smith. 

We arrived around dark and boy was it great seeing Sweet Baby James........and Sarah & Joey too!  

He's almost five months old now. He's grown so much, has a smile that will melt your heart and in my unbiased opinion is about the cutest thing ever. 

Even though we couldn't all be together at the same time we're grateful that we have been able to spend some time with both Ben in Burleson and Sarah, Joey and SBJ in Fort Smith. 

A special weekend with very special people!

Sweetest Present Under The Tree!

Sarah, SBJ and Max  James and Max are real buddies

Mimi and SBJ at feeding time

Starting to get the hand of "solid food"!

!&/@?;:"?!#<^% did Nelson Street go?

We just took off from Auckland.  While we're looking forward to seeing family and friends it's a little sad leaving this magnificent country behind.  Obviously I can't predict the future but I'm thinking we'll be back hopefully soon and often. 

So while we were here I would occasionally turn on the TV to get a little news or sports. As I had mentioned previously Fox, CNN and ESPN were usually available. Additionally the New Zealand networks would also show some American shows. If you were a New Zealander and you formed your opinion on America strictly from what you saw on TV your impressions would be based on shows like; Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Housewives of _____________ (there were a bunch of different ones), Toddlers and Tiaras, Hoarders and Dance Moms to name a few. Let's hope they get a little more exposure to the real America than just those fine exports, or is that who we are?

One of the things I became fascinated watching on TV was the game of Cricket. I had occasionally watched a little while traveling in the past but really got a kick out of it this time. 

First of all there is a dedicated Cricket channel so it's "all Cricket all the time".  Second, even after watching for quite a bit over the past few weeks I still have absolutely no clue what's going on. Third, the matches seem as if they can last for centuries!

I got to noticing over the past few days that every day India and England would be playing something called a "test match".  I'm thinking "test match" stands for something like "marathon", "never ending" or "till Gabriel blows his horn". 

The last I saw it was day five of the match, England was trailing by over 300 runs but the announcers were talking as if the Brits could still pull it out. If I get any further updates I'll pass them along. I do understand the matches can end in a tie. Can you imagine that, five+ days and they still can't determine a winner. 

When we arrived in Auckland on Monday we returned the rental car to the downtown location where we picked it up two weeks earlier. We put just under 1000 miles on the car and covered quite a bit of the North Island. Beth was a great help with the driving. She became quite proficient at navigating the roundabouts as well as training herself to not turn on the windshield wipers every time she'd turn. 

Our plan was to drop off the luggage at the hotel before taking the car back. We would then walk back to the hotel which looked to be around a 15-20 minute walk. 

Auckland like most big cities is a mish mash of roads that are one way, suddenly become one way, change names, etc.  Mix in a bunch of pedestrians, bikes, motorcycles and driving on the left side of the road. What could possibly go wrong?

Since we didn't have a GPS I had written down the directions. Keep that word "written" in mind till the end of the story. 

With Beth navigating and me driving we actually made it from the motorway to the hotel with just one minor navigational mistake.  A friendly (I'm serious) cab driver helped us get back on track and we were easily at our hotel. 

Having dropped of the luggage we headed back out for the short drive to the rental car location. This required going right through the cities central business district where thousands of Kiwis were ready to head home after a long Monday in the office. 

The confusing roads suddenly became more confusing, the one ways became more common, street signs disappeared and Nelson Street was nowhere to be found!

!&/@?;:"?!#<^% did Nelson Street go?

What looked like it was going to take 10 minutes was now working on an hour and the rental car location would be closing soon. 

!&/@?;:"?!#<^% did Nelson Street go?

We passed Albert Park for about the 5th or 6th time. Started recognizing shops, businesses and homeless people because we had been by so many times. 

!&/@?;:"?!#<^% did Nelson Street go?

Wait, there it is!  Seems as if I had written "turn left" when I should have written "turn right". 

I was honored that I could provide Beth such an in depth tour of downtown Auckland!

The rental car was returned within minutes of finding Nelson Street and to the best of my knowledge no dings, dents or scratches. 

Our way back to the hotel was pretty easy....we knew the roads!

Yesterday was our last full day in Auckland and we wanted to take in as many sites as possible while spending as little money as possible so we did what we usually do, walked a bunch!

We saw a sign in the harbor for a "Coast to Coast Walk" it was free, went by a lot of cool places so off we went. The walk was just under 10 miles from the Waitemata Harbor which is the main harbor over to the Manukau Harbor. Along the way we went through Albert Park which we had driven by numerous times on the rental car return fiasco. Climbed Mount Eden which is actually an old volcano for incredible 360 degree views of the city. We walked through many tree lined parks and pristine neighborhoods.  It was a great way to wrap up this adventure. 

Three hours to Sydney (where I will probably post this), a six hour layover followed by a 14ish  hour flight to Dallas. Breakfast on this flight consisted of scrambled eggs, sausage, hash browns and baked beans thrown in for good measure....what could possibly go wrong?

Auckland City Tower from Albert Park-Nelson Street is down there somewhere!

Winter Gardens Auckland

Winter Gardens-Auckland

Surfers Beach near Ragland-I was doing my Japanese Tourist Pose

Flowers, Bungee Jumpers, Sheep Shearing, A Dam and Flatulence All In The Same Day!

Yesterday was our last full day in Taupo and in spite of very strong winds it couldn't have been nicer. 

It was early Sunday morning here but Saturday afternoon back in the US. It's kinda cool to roll out of bed between 6 and 7 and the afternoon slate of football games are already on. 

While the Fla/LSU game wasn't on TV (they were showing some Big 10 game) I was able to keep up with it on the internet and through text messaging with my "Gator Boy's".  

We have a running thread of texts all season long that would no doubt seem silly to outsiders but is pretty darn special and funny to the seven of us. The friendship with these guys is something I will cherish forever. 

There were some very anxious moments but the good guys pulled it out in the end. At one point Beth turned to me and said "you look very stressed out and you're shaking". As usual she was right on both accounts. 

So after the game was over we set out to explore the rest of Taupo. 

First up was their botanical gardens which had several really nice short walks through magnificent azaleas and rhododendrons. If the Masters golf tournament was played down here it would be that time of year.....spring is in the air. 

Next up was something a little unusual but very interesting to watch. The Aratiatia Dam on the Waikato River is opened four times to provide water to the hydroelectric power plant. Watching 21,000 gallons of water per second being released to fill up and flow through a narrow gorge is kind of mind boggling and amusing. The dam is open for about 8-10 minutes creating monster rapids that begin to recede within minutes of closing. If you're a fan of The Hobbit movies there is a scene in The Desolation of Smaug that was filmed here. 

There are tons of outdoor "extreme adventures in New Zealand. We love these but only as spectators!  We were able to watch a few folks pay $169 each to bungee over the river. Better them than us!

We finished the day with one final thermal walk at the Craters of the Moon. I ran into a little issue while on the walk. Seems my lunch disagreed with me and as you can see from the picture I had some major flatulence!  I'm feeling much better now. 

Taupo was a great base for four days. We stayed at a very nice 13-15 room motel called The Gables. The owners, Peter and Penny could not have been any nicer. They would greet us or wave goodbye as we would come and go and were very helpful with tips on where to go and what to see. Our last evening there Peter visited with us for about an hour sharing stories about the farm that had been in their family for generations, his kids, technology, sheep shearing (he made big bucks doing this) and of course a little post election discussion!

We left this morning heading for Auckland. Made a short detour to Bridal Veil Falls and then the coastal town of Ragland which has a reputation as a "surfing and hippie town". Neat little place. We had some great fish and chips right on the wharf where the boats come in. Saw a bunch of surfers but only a couple of "hippies". It was only around noon so I guess they were sleeping in. 

Tune in next time for fun stories of the never ending cricket match I've been watching for five days, American TV shows down here, finding the hotel, returning the rental car and other Auckland adventures!

That was a hot one!

Bridal Veil Falls

The Aratiatia Dam on the Waikato River

Ragland Beach

HEY, We know them!

Although we have been in Taupo for two nights we had not really seen much of the town until today. 

Our hotel is located on the lake about a little over a mile from the city center. Yesterday morning we walked down to their very nice harbor near the downtown area before heading off to Tongariro. Today we did a little more exploring. 

We walked back into town but stayed along the river past the harbor. We ended up at their fairly small but quite busy Saturday Market. The doughnut I am stuffing into my face was fabulous. It was covered with fruit so I'm opting to put it in the fruit category. 

In the afternoon we went out for a walk to Huka Falls. We could have driven to the Falls but chose to hike the 45 minutes along the Waikato River to reach them. 

Shortly after starting our hike I looked about 20 yards in front of me, turned to Beth and said "hey, we know them"!  She looked at me and said as she often does "what are you talking about"?  At that point I was still too startled to come up with their names so I replied "there's Holland America"!  

She admitted at that point that she thought I had finally gone off the deep end and was having visions of our ship floating down the river. Thankfully it all became clear after I yelled out, "hey, Holland America" and Jordan and Jason turned around (it was about here that I remembered their names).

We had met Jordan and Jason in the hot tub on the ship between Honolulu and Sydney. A few things about them stuck out right from the start.

First, they were really nice. Second, on the ship they were two of the dozen or so passengers that were clearly younger than us. Third, they were "travelers"!

Jordan had requested and been granted a three month sabbatical from her job in Virginia so they could visit Australia and New Zealand. Jason shared with me that he had hiked the entire Appalachian Trail over the course of two summers.

We visited with them several more times on the ship before they got off in Sydney and we continued on to Auckland. 

This was a pretty amazing crossing of paths. They have been off the Noordam for almost a month. They got off in Sydney and wandered around Australia a bit before heading to New Zealand. We got off in Auckland fourteen days later, wandered around New Zealand only to end up on the same trail in Taupo twenty yards from each other. 

It was great visiting with them again, they're still nice, still younger than us and still travelers. 

Their travels tomorrow are going to take them on the Alpine Crossing Trail that I talked about in yesterday's post. They have our e-mail and this blog post web site now. I'm excited to hear how they do on tomorrow's hike. I'm thinking it'll be a walk in the park for them!!

PS  I frequently tell Beth that wherever we travel I'm always on the lookout for people we know. It's happened several times over the years. Doug Futch our neighbor from Burleson in New York.  Vince & Evie Liem also neighbors from Burleson on a cruise ship in Alaska. Rich Reiner from Adventist Health System in New York, too. Rich lived in Florida but was the Chairman of the Board for Huguley and was sitting directly in front of Beth and I at a Broadway play. Rich and his wife were traveling with John Harding and his wife. I had worked with John early in my career at the hospital in Punta Gorda, Fl.  

There was Don Wiersdorfer, (sp?) from Burleson in Hawaii and Jean Barnhart(maiden name) who Beth and I knew growing up in Mulberry at London Heathrow Airport. Beth also ran into Sandra Burns, an old classmate from Mulberry on a cruise ship in the Bahamas.  Sarah has even got in on the act. In Junior High she and her friend Allison who was traveling with us ran into a classmate at the Zurich Airport. 

It's a small world out there. Keep your eyes open!

That's fruit on top!

Huka Falls

Lodge on the river above Huka Falls

Tongariro National Park

Our adventure for today was driving a little over an hour from Taupo to the Tongariro National Park. Not only is this a national park it is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Some other spiffy places with the same designation are the Great Barrier Reef, Grand Canyon and the Pyramids. 

One of the walking trails that we wanted to check out was the Tongariro Alpine Crossing Trail. This trail is just a little over 12 miles in length. Along the way it crosses between Mount Tongariro and Mount Ngauruhoe both of which are considered active volcanos. Tongariro last erupted in 2012 and Ngauruhoe in 1977. 

The walk crosses ice fields and requires the use of ice crampons on your shoes and ice picks. The walk was amazing.....at least that's what we read from people who have done it. 

We know our limits and this wasn't within them.  We did see the sign to the trailhead. Does that count for anything?

We did do three walks, two that were within the park and a short one just outside. 

First up was the Taranaki Falls Trail. This trail was the highlight of the day. It was just under two hours long with some moderate elevation changes. Along the first half we had great views of the two snow covered mountains/volcanos while the second half was mostly under a forest canopy along side the icy stream.

It had actually snowed down to about 3000 feet overnight so there was plenty of fresh snow in the distance. The stream feeding the water fall was full making the brisk and breezy mid-day hike well worth it. 

Next up was Lake Rotopunamu which is a secluded lake in the national park that is believed to have been formed by a landslide over 10,000 years ago. The interesting thing about it other than the ridiculously long name is that there are seven streams that feed into the lake constantly but no visible outflow. It was a short but mostly uphill hike to this peaceful setting and there was a three mile trail around the lake but since we had just finished the long hike to the falls we opted out. The good news here, the mostly uphill trail to get to the lake was now magically mostly downhill for our return to the car!

At our final stop we realized we had made a mistake. We ended the day with a short but very interesting walk at the Tokaanu Thermal Fields and Hot Pools. 

The walk started by crossing over a crystal clear stream that was full of trout of all sizes. As I was watching, an older man walked by and with his thick New Zealand accent said "makes you want to go get your fishing pole doesn't it mate"?  Nothing profound or significant in what he said but for some reason I was struck by the simple and kind greeting. I think he would have been a fun guy to go fishing with. 

The thermal walk took us by boiling mud pots, boiling clear water springs and icy streams. I was fascinated by the fact one body of water would be super hot, walk 20 feet and it would be a near freezing stream. I guess the moral of the story here for this place is to stick your toes in the water before you jump in or you might not get what you were expecting. 

Now about that mistake. There was a really nice hot pool here that would have made for a great soaking but we forgot to pack our bathing suits. 

The story does have a happy ending. Our hotel room comes with it's own private hot pool...no bathing suit required!

Mount Ngauruhoe

Mount Ngauruhoe and Tongariro from across Lake Taupo (taken from our hotel)

Lake Rotopunamu

Taranaki Falls Trail

Taranaki Falls Trail



Taranaki Falls Trail

The Road to Taupo.....Hail Yeah!

Before getting into sharing about the road to Taupo I've got one more story from Rotorua. 

I think I've mentioned previously that for around 10 years Beth has been my barber. She does a great job keeping me looking suave and debonair. For this trip we brought clippers and I've had haircuts all along the way. 

So last night I noticed it was time for a trim and we set up shop. When she turned the clippers on they made a really loud noise but were working so she commenced to trimming. About 30 seconds in she said "they're smoking"!  Thankfully she was referring to the clippers and not the few hairs I have left!  Part of my hair is cut, part is uncut and the clippers are smoking!

We turned them off, unplugged them and let the smoke clear. Still needing to finish the haircut she'd trim quickly for about 30 seconds and we'd repeat the unplug and wait process. Every time we'd plug it back in the smoke would come quicker and the handle would get hotter. 

After about 5-6 times repeating the process  of plug in, turn on, unplug, clear smoke I was semi-suave and debonair looking which was good enough for us. 

We left Rotorua this morning with a little lighter load and some hot clippers in the rear view mirror. 

Hottest and fastest haircut I've ever had!

The drive from Rotorua to Taupo was a pretty simple hours drive. It was through some typically fantastic countryside which is actually where scenes from the Lord of the Rings movies were filmed. The drive today was made even more spectacular because we were still in the geothermal area. Smoke was rising from the meadows and trees all along the drive. 

As usual we turned the drive into an experience stopping at the Waikite Valley Thermal Pools for a multi hour soak. 

I think after today we have a new favorite. These pools were located in a lush green valley. Cows were mooing on one side of the pools and sheep were baying away on the other side. 

In between the livestock choirs 42,000 gallons an hour of boiling hot water was rushing to the surface. The water was cooled to a manageable temperature of 100-105 degrees and pumped into five different hot pools. 

Like at the Polynesian Spa earlier in the week it was cool, rainy and misty. The rain and mist combined with the steam

off the water and made the whole place look like a scene right out of the Lord of the Rings. Instead of Gandalf, Frodo or Bilbo making an appearance we were surprised by a weather element suddenly showing up.....HAIL!

Now this wasn't the softball size, come through the roof and knock you unconscious type of hail we'd get in Texas. This was the pea size stuff that only stung slightly when it would hit you type of hail. 

We weren't going to be run out of the water by this stuff which actually provided a little bit of a massage. I looked over at Beth one time and she was kicking back with little tidbits of ice in her hair as happy as she could be. As for me, I loved it but it wasn't sticking in my hair...I had a haircut the night before!!

Boiling Water coming out of the ground-let it cool a bit and you have a perfect hot tub!

Thermal River!

Before the Hail Storm!

Looks like a scene from Lord of the Rings!