Namaste from India!

Namaste in Hindi language means hello, good day, good evening. We have safely arrived in Dehli, India and have begun our week long orientation and exposure to Indian culture, history, religion, and language ---and what a culture it is. Over 5,000 years old, the birthplace of Buddhism, yoga, ancient dynasties, 684 local dialects of the Hindi language, the second fastest growing economy in the world, and yes even Bollywood. With a population of over 200 million, and 14 million in Delhi itself, we have obviously been struck by how many people there are and the struggle to work and provide for one's family. The traffic is well...bad, and every form of transportation is used - walking, bikes, 3 wheeled taxi carts, cars, motorcycles, rickshaws, buses - and all on the same streets. Deb and I have agreed that there really is no reason to put lane lines on the roads because they are seldom followed. We have cringed a few times (ok Deb was freaking out in the back of the cab) when we passed families ( yes Mom, Dad and 2 kids) riding on a single motorcycle in busy traffic without helmets. But it all seems to work for the locals.

So far we have been overwhelmed by the vibrant colors, tasty spices, hard- working nature of the people ( everyone either has a job, or desperately wants one), beautiful dresses, historic sites, and general friendliness of the people we have encountered. It has been awesome.

This week in Delhi is our orientation to India and our volunteer stint that begins next week in Dharamsala. We are staying in a high-rise neighborhood apartment with our program director Ananta ( his place) with 8 other very friendly college age kids. We are the "older couple" as we heard one of the girls describe the group to her parents over the phone. We are learning some basic Hindi language as well as customs and culture. We also have scheduled some sight-seeing and will be visiting the Taj Mahal this Sunday.

Our cuisine has been tasty and vegetarian and we have gone from Sauvignon Blanc in NZ, to beer in Australia, to diet cokes here in India - either we are adjusting to culture or we are running low on funds. All in all, we are very excited about our time here in India. Ananta describes India as a rich country ..."If you see India, you have seen half of the world".

We wish all of our Packer fans a hearty well done ( any quotes from Brett Favre in the Mpls papers???), hence the picture. We will stay in touch and keep you updated.

Fir milenge (See you later),

Pat and Deb

DELHI NEWS UPDATE

INDIA WILD ABOUT GREEN BAY PACKER WIN; ORDER ALL CABS PAINTED YELLOW AND GREEN ....

Pat at the Great Barrier Reef

Sydney Opera House

Snorkeling the reef the day before cyclone Yasi hit ,,,

Aussie Hospitality ...

We are at the airport in Cairns, grateful to be here and checked into our 5 pm flight back to Sydney. What an adventure this is turning out to be; we made it through the most powerful cyclone in Australia's history, and by our good fortune (or as Barry, our hotel owner, says "you sure are a coupla lucky blokes!) we spent the time reading and sipping tea in the last motel room available in Kuranda. Our rental car also survived without a scratch! Luckily, the hurricane veered slightly south of Cairns, so it hit a less densely populated area of beaches, and while there is extensive damage to banana and sugar cane crops and many homes and buildings here, not a single injury or death has been reported. We really feel that the preparation and governmental disaster response were outstanding.

Below you will see Barry and Gail, the owners of our motel, who actually pulled out the "barbie" and grilled steaks and barramundi (a very delicious Australian fish) for all of their guests to enjoy the afternoon after the cyclone. Barry is a real storyteller; he regaled us with his fishing trips and even brought out the lure which he claims will catch any fish anywhere - "they can't help themselves, you'll see!" He gave Pat a bag of them the morning we left, and while we would like to share a picture, we don't want all of you rushing out to buy them before we have a chance to try it out.

We are so appreciative of the help and generosity of the people we have met here ... what a wonderful country!

Pat and Deb Meet Cyclone Yasi ...

Well, our relaxation in Port Douglas was cut short due to the untimely approach of the largest cyclone (the word for Hurricanes down under) ever to hit Australia. Who would have imagined it, we could have stayed in Sydney for the rest of our time here, but thought the northern coast would be more relaxing ....

We had a beautiful two days there, and then went to the Outer Reef for snorkeling yesterday (Tuesday the 31st) morning. We caught the only boat willing to set out that day because Cyclone Yasi had headed further north overnight, and was going to hit closer to Port Douglas the next day. We had a little trepidation about heading to sea with a storm approaching, but thought "who are we to judge" safety at sea, and the captain and crew were happy and at ease.

What can I say about the Great Barrier Reef? Pictures can't do it justice. Beautiful coral, shades of red and blue and brown and yellow and orange, with fish swimming all around. It was really fun. Pat and I sat on the top level of the boat where there were about 20 lounge chairs, even though it rained on and off during the hour and a half out to sea ... when you're from Minnesota, you have faith that things will improve ... and lo and behold, the sun came out and was shining the whole afternoon! A really memorable day for us ... and then we motored back to the harbor, and saw that every single one of the many boats that had been anchored there when we left at 9 am were gone at 4:00 pm. All of them! the shops closed, streets empty, an eery quiet. We got back to our apartment and our wonderful hostess Anne said that we were being evacuated, and she suggested we head to Cairns immediately to see if we could get a flight out before the storm hits tomorrow.

This is the time where your electronics are supposed to support you. Our blackberry mysteriously died in Sydney, and we haven't been able to resurrect it yet. We called the airport from the hotel land phone, but there were no flights sooner than our Friday afternoon flight with openings, and the Friday was doubtful if the airport is still closed then. We packed quickly and drove to Cairns, thinking we might have better luck in person.

Nope. Just a recommendation to head to higher ground, or to drive 12 hours inland, because the storm was estimated to reach that far. It was 8 pm by now, and we were getting concerned, because we had no place to sleep and the shelters wouldn't open until the morning. So we headed up the mountain to the village of Kuranda, hoping and praying that there would be a hotel there. At home I would just fire up the Ipad or blackberry to find a place, but no wireless connection was available, so we just had to put the "if only"'s aside and drive.

Now let me just add that if you are ever in a crisis situation (I can head my kids imitating Arnold Schwarzenegger saying that ...) you want my husband in charge. There he was, driving up a mountain in pitch black with his pathetic wife chiming in every few miles "I'm feeling a little scared ..." And at one point, "Is it bothering you that all of the cars are going the opposite direction from us?" But he just kept driving, telling me this was the best option. We got to Kuranda, and the only hotel we found had the lights out and office closed and a "for sale" sign in front, but there were cars parked in front. We went to the only open building in town, a pizza cafe, and Pat asked the owner if there were any hotels open. She said there were a couple, but we would be best off with the one we had already driven by, because it is a brick structure and the others were wooden. OK, now I was really scared. As happens in small towns, she knew the owner and called him at home to ask if he had rooms and he had one left and offered to meet us at the hotel to let us in.

So Pat keeps saying "Now this isn't going to be your three star hotel", but when we walked into the room it was clean, large, and had a small refrigerator, hot water device and microwave, and best of all, it truly was made of bricks. So the category 5 cyclone - Yasi, she has a name at this point, can huff and puff but she isn't likely to blow this building down. Plus we are in the mountains, so in a good place should a "storm surge" hit (their word for tsunami, which I like much better, it doesn't conjure up as many bad images).

We made a quick trip to a grocery store so have tuna, bread, cheese, water, milk and cereal. The poor guy who owned the coffee shop right next to the grocery store came in to batten down the doors and windows, and people kept coming for coffee, so he started making latte's (they call them "flat whites" down here) and ran out of milk and had to go buy more ... I hope he got the job done, but I guess there are just too many people like me in the world who want that last cup of coffee before ______.

So back to Dr. Calm-in-a-crisis, Pat has been busy helping tape windows and getting to know our motel family. Most of the people staying here came because they have pets and you can't have pets in the shelters. So there is a lot of barking going on. We still have electricity but expect to lose it soon, and we are both feeling anxious for the effect this really powerful storm may have on people here in Australia, but we feel very secure ourselves. Pat borrowed a phone from some really nice Aussie's down the hall and got through to his mom, who will pass the word on to our kids and my mom so that they aren't worrying about us.

The birds are really loud outside, as if they know something's about to happen ....

Sent from my iPad

G'day, Mates!
We were in beautiful Sydney from January 24th to the 28th, so got to celebrate Australia Day while there! We sat down next to a fun couple from Sydney, a primary school music teacher and high school administrator named Julia and John, who wrote out all of the places we should visit during our stay on their napkin ... And I think we did the entire list!

First the ferry across Sydney Harbor and the Opera House ... then the ferry to Manly Beach where it seemed as if all of Sydney's students were celebrating at the beach. We went to the Quarantine Station where ill immigrants stayed until they were no longer contagious which is a short bus ride from Manly beach. Then back to Sydney, for a day at Bondi Beach and the great walk along the shore. Really beautiful! We then flew to Cairns on the 28th, rented a car and drove north about an hour to Port Douglas, a lovely seaside village along the Great Barrier Reef. We plan to read, rest up for India and relax, with a day trip to the outer reef for snorkeling.

Sent from my iPad

Milford Trek Part 1

Sometimes you start out with one expectation of a trip or experience, and end up getting something quite different. Our 33.5 mile Milford "Track" as they call it here was like that, in that we expected beautiful scenery, clean air and pristine waterfalls, good exercise and while we got all that, the highlight of our trek was the wonderful people we met along the way.
We quickly realized that we were completely unprepared for this. This is a four day, three night hike which you book through the New Zealand Department of Conservation, and you stay in huts along the way which have bunks and toilets and cold running water, but no electricity. Only forty other hikers are allowed on the trail at one time, so you are sleeping and eating together all three nights. I was a little worried about that, but it turned out to be the least of our problems. You were so tired at the end of the day you didn't care who was sleeping next to you.
So we had reserved our places, rented backpacks, sleeping bags, and equipment, and our rental guide said "oh, you can't wear those shoes, you'll have to have tramping boots" so we rented those too. Big mistake. The packs weighed at least 30 lbs each, the boots felt fine the first day, but by the second we had sore toes and aching backs. Pat said "I don't know if we're too old, too out of shape, or too stupid, but I'm thinking it's all three". This wasn't a walk down a nice path, it was over rocks and at times boulders. And the other 38 hikers - some older than us, some younger - were literally flying over the trail. Smiling and snapping photos and saying "Isn't this grand?"
Humbling.

Milford Part 2

Day one was a nice three mile hike to Clinton Hut. Here are some pictures:

Milford Trek Part 3

The second day was 10.3 miles of a gradual climb to Mintaro Hut, estimated as a six hour hike and it took us 9 hours. As we ate our dehydrated backpacker meal, we saw families with creative pasta meals and nicely planned lunches. We had such a nice group - two young couples from Israel, a family with two young sons and one with two young daughters, a retired physician and his wife from North Carolina in their late 60's, another physician who has connective tissue disease who has hiked Kilimanjaro and the Appalachian Trail with her friend who is a dentist, several young couples from Australia and New Zealand - and a group of Kiwi's who must have been in their late 70's who completely outpaced us.

This is one of the lovely families we met,
Chris and Pauline and their beautiful daughters Michele and Caroline, from the Nelson area of New Zealand. Those girls never whined once.

Milford Trek Part 4

Day three was the killer. It is an ascent to Mackinnon Pass, with switchbacks up the mountain and then back down again totaling 9 miles. We went from rainforest to alpine meadows, and could look across at several glaciers on the adjacent peaks. We were in the clouds, so at first couldn't see much, but the sun came out and it was really something to behold. I'm glad I didn't know how bad the descent was going to be, because I was feeling relieved to be up there finally, and if I had known how painful going downhill with a backpack on would be, I probably would have begged for a helicopter rescue.

So we started the descent, and after a fall and some dehydration, I pretty much hit the wall around 5 pm. I just couldn't get my legs to work. Pat was also exhausted, and his feet hurt, so it was hard to know what to do. I decided to take the boots off and put my Ecco sandals on, which was a big help to my poor toes, but I just couldn't move very fast and we still had several miles to go to our next hut.

Pat went ahead hoping he could drop his pack and come back to help me, and Chris offered to carry my pack for me, which was really so kind. But Pat declined, and came back when he realized how far the hut still was, and actually tried to carry both packs for a bit.

While Pat had gone ahead, one of the young couples came along and offered me a second walking pole, as he said it is really a lot easier to go downhill with two poles, but I said no and thanked him. He offered again when he saw Pat further down, and Pat brought the pole back to me. It really did help.

I'm still embarrassed to admit all of this, as it isn't easy for me to ask for help. And Pat was also exhausted, and shouldn't have been carrying two heavy packs. So along comes Max and his wife Ingrid and their two boys, pictured below, and Max sees Pat struggling with two packs and pretty much insists on carrying it. He carried his own pack and mine the last several miles to the Dumpling Hut.

Here are Max and Ingrid and their sons. The Milford sandflies were attacking right then so I don't think the boys appreciated posing for the photo ..

Milford Trek End

And then about a mile before we arrived, this beautiful young couple from Israel met us on the track, and said they had been concerned about us and wanted to see if they could carry our packs for us. Ofre took my pack from Max, and Hadas actually offered to take Pat's, but he felt he could manage, and we all walked the last mile together. We were just overwhelmed by their thoughtfulness.

Ofre and Hadas are from Tel Aviv, and are both working on their PhD's after having served in their country's military. We had a great chat with them the night before about their views of our country, theirs, and their hopes for a peaceful future. We were so impressed with them, and it helped my loneliness for my own kids to spend some time with young people their age. Here is a picture of Hadas (a lovely name meaning flower) and Ofre (which means "deer").

So the last morning we knew we had to get up earlier and leave earlier because we had a six hour hike to make the 2 pm boat at Sandfly Point which we had reserved to get back to Te Anau. And six hours to others would likely mean 8 for us. So we left early, and made it to the boat just in time.

By the way, the Sandfly name is very appropriate. I'll take mosquitos. And note my "I'm so happy!!!" look to be sitting on that boat!

We spent our last night in beautiful Te Anau, got up early and took a 10 hour bus ride to Christchurch, which was just perfect because we badly needed to rest our aching bones. The rolling hills, grazing sheep and kind New Zealand people we met are so present in our thoughts; we hope some of them will keep contact with us, come to the US for a visit and stay with us in Minnesota.

And this morning, as we sat down in an unfamiliar church, Pat and I were both struck by the last hymn of the morning, which is one of our favorites:

"We are pilgrims on a journey and companions on the road,
we are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load.

Brother, sister, let me serve you, let me be as Christ to you;
pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant too."

We came to Milford seeking beauty and enjoyment and ended up receiving so much more. We are so very grateful. It will be hard to leave New Zealand tomorrow morning, we have had a wonderful time here.

Kia Oro


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