MOUNT RUSHMORE: A LASTING LEGACY, Guest Post by Cathy Mayone

52 Places to Go: Week 19

Mount Rushmore, South Dakota

Ever since my childhood babysitter returned with tales of working at Mount Rushmore one summer, I’ve had a fascination with this iconic National Memorial.  Chances are you won’t have a business trip to the area or have it be “on the way” to another destination given its western-central South Dakota location so it takes some proactive planning to make a visit happen.  We had to go out of our way to make the visit during our recent pandemic, cross country road trip as we drove from Connecticut to Utah, where we spent our 2021 winter months.

We arrived on a cold, late December day, which was favorable for avoiding crowds.  But it also meant there was off season construction and the Presidential Trail that goes part way up the mountain for a closer view was closed due to ice and snow.  Nevertheless, the granite sculpture did not disappoint, and the Visitor Center provided a fascinating overview of the history and process that produced the remarkable feat, completed on October 31, 1941.

The narrative leading up to its debut goes back seventy-four years, when John Gutzon del la Mothe Borglum is born and then goes on to study art in Paris and New York.  In 1885, a New York attorney, Charles Rushmore, goes to the Black Hills (South Dakota won’t be a state until 1889) to inspect mining claims.  According to Travel South Dakota, the story goes that when Charles asks his guide what the mountain is called, he replies, “It’s never had one…till now…we’ll call the damn thing Rushmore.”

 Flash forward 34 years and now South Dakota is old enough to have an historian, Doane Robinson. He approaches Gutzon Borglum, now a well-known sculptor who has been working on Stone Mountain in Georgia, about carving Old West heroes in the Needles, which are granite formations not far from Rushmore.  Borglum, however, has a different vision.  He chooses Mount Rushmore for its size, morning and midday light, and fine-grained granite.  And he proposes the subjects be U.S. presidents to gain federal funding and support.  Borglum abandons his work on Stone Mountain to focus on Mount Rushmore, leaving Sculptor Henry Augustus Lukeman to finish Stone Mountain.

The presidents are chosen for the Memorial based on their significant contribution to the founding, expansion, preservation, and unification of the country.  George Washington, of course, because he was the nation’s founding father.  Thomas Jefferson not only authored the Declaration of Independence, but he also signed the Louisiana purchase that doubled the size the country, ultimately creating South Dakota and 14 other current states.  Borglum greatly admired Theodore Roosevelt, who helped to link the Atlantic and Pacific oceans with his negotiations of the Panama Canal and who championed conservation legislation that set aside millions of acres of public land.  Borglum admired Lincoln so much for issuing the Emancipation Proclamation to end slavery and his dedication to end the Civil War and restore the Union, that he named his son and after him.

While Gutzon Borglum lives to see most of his ultimate life’s accomplishment finished, he sadly dies about 8 months before its completion.  His son James Lincoln, also a sculptor as well as an engineer involved in the project, oversees its completion and dedication.  Granite erodes at roughly 1 inch every 10,000 years which means the Presidents’ noses should last another 2.5 million years and the basic shape of their heads for up to 7 million years.  That is quite a legacy for these sculptors, their workers and the funders and supporters for this inspirational project.

Sources:  National Park Service, Travel South Dakota: 75 Surprising Facts About Mount Rushmore

All text and photos copyright Caroline Arnold at The Intrepid Tourist 

HIKING AND BIKING IN NEW ZEALAND, Part 3: Guest Post by Cathy Mayone

New Zealand, Milford Sound

Over the Christmas holidays, my niece and her husband, Cathy and Mike Mayone, spent two weeks in New Zealand, driving, biking and hiking on both the North and South Island, enjoying the southern hemisphere summer and New Zealand's unique landscape. I thank Cathy for sharing their trip with The Intrepid Tourist. For more about their biking experiences, you can go to her blog .

Queenstown

Part 3:  New Zealand’s South Island Alps, Lakes and Fiords

As our airplane approached Queenstown, we marveled at the surrounding snow-capped mountains.  As we procured our rental car, the agent casually said, “Oh, you are lucky to have landed. They often divert to Christchurch due to the weather.”  Having heard about the terrible floods that had been ravaging the South Island in the prior weeks, I had been monitoring the weather and relieved that we had some partly sunny days ahead of us.  Given the unforeseen weather, I had also kept our itinerary loosely planned for our five days in Queenstown, which makes for a great home base for many of the South Island’s sites.

Otago Wine Trail

We rented bikes in the old historic town of Arrowtown.  Its buildings reminded me of Colorado’s Old Western towns.  Upon hiring (as they say, rather than renting) the bikes, we didn’t get very far since the Farmer’s Market was just coming to life.  Once on our way, we headed to the Otago Wine Trail that follows a creek to the larger river and gorge.  The highlights of this trail include two suspension bridges we had to cross, one of which was quite long.  The trick is to not look down and not have too many people the bridge at once!  

Kawarau Gorge suspension bridge

We also came to the Kawarau Gorge Suspension Bridge, the world famous, original bungie jumping site.  Seeing even the most fearful people give it a go, it was tempting, but the vineyards were beckoning us.  The vineyards are all right along the trail so we stopped at a couple of them before turning around for the return.

Drive to Milford Sound

We picked one of our sunniest days to go to Te Anau and the Milford Sound.  Your options are to fly, bus, or drive from Queenstown, with some tours providing combination fly/bus/cruise day trip options.  It’s a two hour drive to Te Anau, and then another two hours to Milford Sound.  We seriously considered the expensive flying option, but determined there were too many things we wanted to see along the way.  Mike was up for driving, so call us crazy, but we did a day trip, stopping in the small lake town of Te Anau in both directions for a break.  The beautiful landscape kept us occupied the whole trip, and the road into Milford Sound cuts through a tunnel rather than having too many hairy turns, so the driving was more manageable than anticipated. 

Milford Sound cruise

Once in Milford Sound, we took Cruise Milford’s two hour “boutique” cruise, which was a smaller boat advertised not to be filled to capacity.  It is recommended that you book in advance during the high season, as it would be a shame to show up in Milford Sound and not be able to get a cruise.  Also, there are not many eating options in Milford Sound, so plan for picnic food.  The other tip is to avoid the $10 / hour parking that is closest to the cruise docks and do the free parking / shuttle that is near the airport, making sure you allow enough time.

Milford Sound waterfall

The cruise does a loop on Milford Sound going down on one side to the opening of the Tasman Sea and back on the other side.  The greenish-blue Sound waters contrasted beautifully with the steep, snow-capped mountains abundant with waterfalls.  The boat even went up under some of the waterfalls, giving advance warning to those who did not want to get wet! 

Lupines

We made several stops along the way in and out of Milford Sound such as Mirror Lake, and to take pictures in the fields of lupines--the beautiful, pink and purple flowers that bloom all over New Zealand in the summer.  We arrived back in Queenstown around 10 pm at night, just as the sky was turning to night.  (New Zealand summer days (December) are filled with long daylight hours, making this day trip more doable.)

For a shorter day trip from Queenstown we did the 90 minute drive over to Lake Wanaka.  It was one of the busier lakes with swimmers, kayakers, jet skiers, boaters, and parasailers.  Tired from our previous two days, we kept it simple with a beach take-out lunch and a lakeside walk.  Plus, we needed to conserve our energy to stay up for the New Year’s Eve Queenstown activities.  After happy hour on our balcony, we walked down into town around 7 pm when we heard the music begin.  There were local bands playing to an enthusiastic, mostly middle age with children crowd.  We found it to be a very “sane” New Year’s celebration but perhaps it was still early.  We headed back to our AirB&B for dinner and balcony viewing of the fireworks at midnight, and we wished our family and friends a Happy New Year 18-21 hours before the U.S. would celebrate.

Mount Cook Visitor Centre

We kept New Year’s Day, a partly rainy day, even simpler and opted for a walk around Queenstown, including Queenstown Gardens.  The next day, we headed out for the last part of our trip, driving two hours to Twizel, and then another 40 minutes past Twizel to Mount Cook, New Zealand’s highest peak.  We oriented ourselves at the wonderful Aoraki Mount Cook National Park Visitor Centre. 

Hooker Valley track

Having fallen in love with New Zealand’s suspension bridges, the Hooker Valley 5 km fairly flat track afforded us with three bridges leading us to Hooker Glacier Lake and closer views of Mount Cook.

Hooker Valley hike destination with view of Mount Cook

Back in Twizel, we checked into our AirB&B, slightly different accommodations, as it’s a true B&B in the home of its owners with a farm of three sheep, two young cows, and chickens. Our balcony looked out onto the fields where a Lord of the Rings battle took place. Twizel and the surrounding areas are known for their bright star viewing. With the long days, we were too tired to wait for the pitch black sky but we left the curtain ajar for a quick peak when we awoke in the middle of the night. Twizel, and so many towns we encountered in New Zealand, made us feel like we were returning to a time in the U.S. pre-Big Box stores and Amazon Prime. The towns still have the locally owned hardware and clothing stores, pharmacies, and bakeries.

Lupines and Lake Pukaki

We perhaps saved the best for last with our final bike ride, the Alps 2 Ocean ride, which is one of New Zealand’s 22 great rides.  From Twizel, we rode through the middle of wide open pastures with views of the mountains.  And then we reached Lake Pukaki, with its stunning turquoise blue water juxtaposed with the white capped Aoraki (Mount Cook).  It looked even more stunning on this day now that the Australian bushfire haze had dissipated.  We rode the trail around the lake until the trail ended, ate a picnic lunch, and then did the return trip to Twizel.

Our time had come to make the final drive to Christchurch to catch our plane home.  We left New Zealand wondering why we had never had it on our bucket list. Its people, beaches, mountains and activities afforded us a lifetime of memories and a reminder why we travel.

Related articles and links:

For more information about New Zealand’s amazing Great Rides cycling initiative and an in depth look at all of our New Zealand biking adventures, visit my “Great Riding” articles on my Swim Bike Run Survive blog.

For an in depth look at the Milford Sound, check out Owen Floody’s three part series.

Our South Island accommodations included:

Queenstown – 5 nights in a large apartment with lake views

Twizel – 2 nights in a B&B with small farm

HIKING AND BIKING IN NEW ZEALAND, Part 2: Guest Post by Cathy Mayone

New Zealand, Waiheke Island, view from Man O'War Vineyards

Over the Christmas holidays, my niece and her husband, Cathy and Mike Mayone, spent two weeks in New Zealand, driving, biking and hiking on both the North and South Island, enjoying the southern hemisphere summer and New Zealand's unique landscape. I thank Cathy for sharing their trip with The Intrepid Tourist. You can read more about their biking experiences at her blog . 

Part 2:  New Zealand’s North Island Beaches and Lakes

Auckland’s Waiheke’s Island

We opted to spend our only Auckland full day taking a 40-minute ferry over to Waiheke Island, renting a car, and touring the Island’s wineries.  As scary as the narrow, twisty roads were for my jet-lagged husband to navigate and test his left-side driving skills, it felt safer than renting an e-bike or moped, more pleasant than being stuffed into a wine touring van, and more flexible than the public bus.  Plus, we would be driving the next two weeks so it was good practice!

After a quick 20-minute walk through the small town of Oneroa, we arrived just in time for the morning start at Kennedy Point Winery, a small, organic winery with its beautiful ocean views and enjoyable Sauvignon Blanc, Red Trumpet Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot blend, and olive oils.  Next stop was the famous Mudbricks Restaurant and Vineyard where I had made lunch reservations.  Our vegetarian/seafood lunch did not disappoint on this perfect weather day, sitting on the patio overlooking the distant water.

We decided to venture to the other side of the Island for our afternoon.  The paved roads turned to gravel and by the time we arrived to Man O’ War Vineyards, we were ready for an afternoon nap so we opted to sit on the porch with a view of the beautiful blue bay and consume coffee rather than wine.  With the jet lag catching up, we headed back to the ferry so we could rest up before our evening dinner with our new Kiwi friends.

Ohope beach

North Island East Coast Beaches

We knew we wanted some beach time early in the trip, and the North Island beaches are much warmer than the South Island beaches, although still not “warm” in early summer just like our U.S. northern East Coast beaches.  This was the first trip planning dilemma – do we go North of Auckland, spend time in the Coromandel Peninsula east of Auckland, or drive south down along the East coast?  We opted for the latter, figuring we could see multiple spots along the way and then go inland to the heart of Maori culture and lakes.

Mount Maunganui

Our Kiwi friends had recommended we stop in Mount Maunganui for lunch and hike up “the Mount.” For a popular beach town, we were surprised at how expansive and unpopulated the beach was.  The hike up the Mount provided spectacular views at every turn and a nice one hour hike to work off lunch.

White Island, view from Moto Dunes

We continued on to Ohope, a quiet beach town where we spent the next three nights, including Christmas day.  Ohope neighbors the larger town of Whakatāne, which had tragically made global news two weeks before when the White Island volcano erupted, at last count killing 20 and injuring 27 guides and tourists.  The day before the eruption, I had been researching what to do while in Ohope, and I had prioritized other activities, primarily a bike ride on the Motu Dunes Trail, which is one of New Zealand’s 22 “great rides” established by New Zealand’s Cycle Trail organization, an idea that was born in 2009 at a government ‘jobs summit’.  We spent a half day riding the trails that follow the coastline and then enjoyed lunch back in the town of Opotiki where we had rented the bicycles.

North Island Lakes

I had debated if we should stay in popular Rotorua or Taupo, and decided on Taupo after finding an AirBandB with stunning lake views and determining we could stop in Rotorua on our way to Taupo.  There are a number of Maori cultural attractions in Rotorua.  I would have liked to visit the Rotorua Museum, but it is currently closed for earthquake renovations.  The Maori dinner shows sounded like a Hawaiian luau, which was fun to experience once, but we felt like “we had been there, done that” so we passed.  After lunch, we did stop in the Redwoods – Whakarewarewa Forest ten minutes from town.  This is well worth a walk in the woods, with multiple walking and hiking trails and a fun-looking treetop walk, which we considered, but it was overrun with kids.  We decided to take the free admission low road, which provided a beautiful walk in the woods amongst the giant redwoods and ferns.

Our Air BandB at Taupo

Once we arrived in Taupo, I was glad to call this our home for two nights.  Lake Taupo, the size of Singapore, is New Zealand’s largest lake and the town is livelier than Rotorua, but not too much.  Just like the beaches, none of the lakes are overly populated with people and boats.  Our AirBandB lived up to its pictures and reviews and really was a slice of heaven, with large windows, patio and deck providing 180 degree views of the blue water and distant mountains.

Huka Falls

We spent a day biking the trail that goes part way around the lake, and then after lunch, headed up on mountain bike trails along the river to Huka Falls.  The next morning, we arose early so we could hike the 2.8 km up Mount Tauhara before our domestic flight.  Comparing it to Mount Maunganui, we figured we could do it in 90 minutes round trip.  But the terrain proved to be much more challenging so it took 2h 15min and ate up our airport arrival “contingency time”.  We arrived at the airport in a hurry only to discover an extremely tiny airport in which we didn’t even have to go through security!  So, we enjoyed a leisurely lunch and then boarded our Air New Zealand flight to Auckland, where we changed planes to Queenstown for our next week on the South Island.

Mount Tauhara hike

Part 3: New Zealand's South Island to post next week.

For more information about New Zealand’s amazing Great Rides cycling initiative and an in depth look at all of our New Zealand biking adventures, visit my “Great Riding” articles on my Swim Bike Run Survive blog.

Our North Island accommodations included:

Auckland - 2 nights in a 31^st floor apartment

Ohope – 3 nights in a beach side guest suite

Taupo – 2 nights in a bach (cottage) with stunning lake views