HIKING AND BIKING IN NEW ZEALAND, Part 1: Guest Post by Cathy Mayone

New Zealand: Sheep at Lake Pukaki, South Island

Over the Christmas holidays, my niece and her husband, Cathy and Mike Mayone, traveled to 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 details about their biking and hiking experiences, you can go to her blog .

Mike, on the Hooker Valley trail, South Island

Part 1:  Introduction to New Zealand

New Zealand wasn’t on my bucket list, but I recommend you put it on yours.  It’s actually now on my list of countries I would return to explore more. With little to no tourism advertising or iconic pictures beckoning me to New Zealand, it had simply gone unnoticed until a colleague recommended it, knowing how active we like to be.

New Zealand. South Island landscape.

Requiring advance frequent flyer tickets during the busy Christmas to New Year’s holiday and having absolutely no knowledge of the country and its geography, we began researching the trip a year in advance.  I quickly became overwhelmed prioritizing where to go in a country the size of the U.S. East Coast for our two-week, 25-year wedding anniversary trip.  We decided to make this a “reconnaissance trip” and see different parts of the country, so that if we ever came back, we would have a better sense where to “zero in”. 

Auckland

We flew into Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city with only 1.5 million people.  This stat alone tells you a highlight of New Zealand – it will feel like one of the least populated, modern day countries you will visit.  In fact, according to Stats NZ, the country’s 2015 population included 4.6 million humans and 29.5 million sheep.  New Zealand does not have any of the scary creatures that inhabit Australia; they do not even have any snakes!  In 2016 the New Zealand government introduced Predator Free 2050, a project to eliminate all non-native predators (such as rats, possums and stoats) by 2050.

Typical landscape on the North Island

New Zealand’s Kiwis (the people) and kiwi (the bird)

I would be remiss if I didn’t start by mentioning one of New Zealand’s biggest attractions –they are the friendliest people you will ever meet. The people of New Zealand became called Kiwis after soldiers donned a patch of the national bird, the kiwi, on military uniforms in World War I. They are proud to be called Kiwis, and they are eager to have visitors to their country. To my surprise, a simple connection turned into an offer for dinner in Auckland with a lovely family, who are now new friends. Throughout our trip, it was easy to strike up conversations with locals, who openly shared their stories, adventures, and heartbreaks.

The Māori, who self-identify as 17.5 percent of the population, are the indigenous Polynesian people who settled in New Zealand in the early 1300s, before the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight New Zealand in 1642. The official languages of New Zealand are English, Māori, and New Zealand Sign Language. New Zealand was a colony of the British Empire from 1841 – 1907, and then a dominion from 1907 – 1947, when it gained full statutory independence with the British monarch remaining the head of state to this day.

The fact that Kiwis like to welcome visitors is perhaps why I was able to find amazing AirBandBs for every step of our trip.  For each stop, I had researched hotel options and AirBandBs, and opted for the AirBandB every time, and they met or exceeded our expectations every time while giving us easy laundry and kitchen facilities.  Another option we may do if we return is to rent a camper van, as free or low-cost camping is plentiful.

In Part 2 (to post next week), I will recap our week on the North Island, and in Part 3 (to post in two weeks), I will recap our week on the South Island.

PHOENIX, ARIZONA: MUSICAL INSTRUMENT MUSEUM – Guest Post by Caroline Hatton

Miniature glass orchestra from Murano, Italy, at the Musical Instrument Museum, Phoenix, AZ

My friend and fellow children’s book writer Caroline Hatton visited the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix in April of 2016 and sent me this fascinating report along with a few of her photos.

Phoenix had long been on my list of weekend getaway destinations because I wanted to visit Taliesin West, which was the winter residence of legendary American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. When the trip became reality, I wondered, what else is there to see or do? Online search results pointed me to the Musical Instrument Museum.

Burmese wooden string instrument

Normally I spend no more than one or two hours in a museum before I get saturated. Therefore, I was stunned by the fact that I spent three hours at the MIM and delighted by how much I enjoyed it.

Afri-can guitar made by recycling a car-engine-oil can

The museum includes the following:

- Geographic Galleries (with displays organized by continent and country)

- a Mechanical Music Gallery

- an Artist Gallery (about individual performers)

- a gallery for special exhibitions (you have to pay extra to see it)

- an Experience Gallery (where you can experience the noise made by kids pounding drums—those in the room and those in your ears)

- a Conservation Lab (where experts repair instruments)

- a Store

In the geographic area, I was most attracted to the displays about a few countries to which I have an emotional attachment based on personal history. I went straight to the exhibit on Mongolia, because my heart still lingers there, galloping on a spirited horse over the infinite steppe under the eternal blue sky, after a trip of a lifetime there less than a year ago. Like the displays on other countries, the one about Mongolia featured traditional instruments and costumes, engaging photos and paragraphs, and captivating video clips of songs, dances, and instrumental music.

Left to right: Fiddle horse heads from Inner Mongolia (China), Mongolia, and Kazakhstan

The Mongols prize their horses, so it’s no wonder they make and play a horse-head fiddle with horse hair strings called morin khuur, decorated at the top with a horse’s head sculpted out of wood, ready to get your pulse pounding with the intoxicating rhythm of hoof beats racing the wind. I looked for other horse-head instruments made by Mongols living in neighboring countries and found examples from Inner Mongolia (the part of China just south of Mongolia) and Kazakhstan (west of Mongolia).

New Zealand Maori trumpet used as a megaphone to shout insults at enemies

The world-wide diversity of instrument types, materials, designs, sounds, uses, and the emotional impact of their music on me was mind-blowing. So many things were so much fun to discover! I loved hearing Australian country singer Slim Dusty croon about his father Noisy Dan, and watching a wedding party in New Zealand perform a Maori haka (traditional ancestral war dance and cry). Other memorable examples appear in my photos.

Malaysian nose flute

I did not spend much time in galleries other than the geographic ones. The most interesting part of the Allegro Cafe, for me, was the courtyard cacti and succulents, not to eat, but to photograph.

Since I saw less than half of what the MIM offers, I’ll go back if I ever return to Phoenix. To broaden my horizons beyond horse’s heads, I’ll look for all the instruments that include horse hair as strings or decorations.