Summer 2019 (Cumulative)
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Mueller Hut - quite a view. The weather was pretty much perfect on this day. Even this high, it was only slightly below freezing. Didn’t stop the bottom of my pants from being completely frozen!
The hike back...
As soon as I went over this crest to face the downhill journey ahead of me, I knew I was in for a “fun” time. This is one of these situations where photos don’t do the slope and situation justice.
The slope was pretty extreme at places - basically going straight down the mountain.
It was at this point that I had to give myself a little pep talk that I could indeed do this. This is probably a 45 degree slope with no firm footing. Thankfully, if you fall (back), you land in several feet of snow. If fall forward...well, don’t fall forward!
The hike was a definite effort - but the views were incredible. No other way of getting views like this without renting a helicopter.
Selfie time again!
Mt. Cook. Notice the glacier feeding Hooker Lake at the base of the mountain.
At the bottom, the scope of the hike was clear. The route was generally up the right third of the mountain.
Cool bridge to Hooker Lake. This is one of these situations where photos sometimes make adventures look more exciting than they actually were...the bridge was closed (the camera is resting on the gate) due to a washed out trail ahead. Bummer!
Beautiful sight as the last rays of sunset reach the upper peaks of Mt. Cook.
Pretty mountains at sunset
One of the nice benefits of Mt. Cook being in the middle of nowhere is that the night skies were incredibly beautiful. On my last night there, the clouds were gone and I got a few shots of the sky.
I love being able to see the plane of the Milky Way.
The stars aren’t the best in this shot (I was struggling on my long exposures with no tripod - having to smush the camera into the soft ground and trample all the tall grass around the lens). The cool part of this shot was when a car drove by on a nearby road lighting up the buildings in front.
After my time at Mt. Cook, I had a long drive ahead of me to Christchurch. Thankfully, the scenery didn’t disappoint. Near a town called Tekapu was an important observatory on top of a mountain. There were some very nice views. The water of many of the New Zealand lakes, being fed from glaciers, takes on the turquoise hue you see in the photo (that’s not photoshopped...)
There was a cafe at the Mt. John observatory. They even made my hot chocolate look neat!
Mt. John’s Observatory
Christchurch, New Zealand. More on this church in a bit...I just liked the sunset shot.
One thing we need in Chattanooga is a Food Hall. It’s like a Food Court at a mall, but with really good stuff (sorry Sbarro, but you know it’s true...). This was one of the delicious treats I enjoyed!
Christchurch is full of small little rivers passing through it. You will often see “punters”, people pushing boats around taking people on the river. It’s quite a lovely town - I would imagine that in Spring time, it’d be INCREDIBLE with the amount of gardens and plants everywhere. This was a neat misty shot in the morning.
A cool fountain in front of what used to be the Canterbury University. The very famous alum of that institution is Ernest Rutherford.
Canterbury Museum - Christchurch, being the main city on the south island of New Zealand, is home to many countries Antartica program. Many of the famous Antartica expiditions started here. The town’s museum featured a large exhibit on past expeditions and the history of the people of New Zealand - very well done!
When Ernest Rutherford was a student at Canterbury College, he petitioned the staff to allow him and a friend to run electromagnetism experiments in the cloak room under the Mathematics lecture hall. This cramped room became known as Rutherford’s Den. Rutherford would go on to discover the nucleus, along with many other scientific phenomenon. He was one of the most important scientists since Newton.
Mathematics Lecture Hall - Rutherford’s Den is under this. It was neat getting to sit in the benches imagining that I was listening to an inspiring Mathy Kathy lecture on Math. The students in the day must have been quite skinny because its a VERY tight fit.
One of the defining events in Christchurch’s history is a massive earthquake that devastated the town in 2011. This memorial, 185 Empty White Chairs, memorializes each of the 185 victims of the earthquake. Everywhere you go in town, there are buildings being supported by beams, being demolished, or being rebuilt. I’ve been to many cities - Christchurch is a bit unique because they’ve very recently had a recent on how their town is laid out. They are trying some new things and making a very unique place.
The Christchurch Cathedral was destroyed by the Earthquake. In place of the cathedral, the people of Christchurch built a temporary cathedral. The walls are made from shipping containers and the beams holding up the roof are partially made from cardboard - giving the church the name the “Cardboard Cathedral”. The building stands as a testament to the resiliency of the residents of Christchurch.
The Christchurch Cathedral was destroyed by the earthquake, including the bell tower directly in the front of this photo. There have been many legal fights about what to do with the cathedral (and who should pay for it), but the final story seems to be that the church will be rebuilt as it was before the quake.
Thus ended my adventure in New Zealand. It was a packed few days, but there’s certainly a lot more to do on a return visit at some point. I snagged a ticket on an Emirates A380 (I’m actually captioning these photos on this plane at the moment). I could get used to this! This plane is sweet!
Parked on the tarmac of the Christchurch Airport is NASA’s SOFIA aircraft. This is a modified 747 with a giant door in the back of the plane that hides a telescope. The airplane is able to fly very high above a lot of the atmosphere and take much better images than would be normally practical on Earth. Really cool plane!
While isn’t the most glamorous part of travel - I figured I’d show what I did my first morning upon arrival to Australia. Heck, the trip is three and a half weeks long and I had been hiking all over New Zealand - my clothes needed a bad wash!
My first exploration of Sydney was interrupted by this bird who kept squawking something about “P Sherman, 42 Wallabee Lane, Sydney”. Australia is a crazy place y’all!
Some pretty scenes as I walked along the water in the Botanical Garden.
While I didn’t have near enough time to see all of it, the Sydney Botanical Garden was quite nice - even in winter!
The Maritime Museum was very interesting, letting you roam around several boats. This is a submarine - HMAS Onslow. In a war game, it actually succeeded in sinking the USA’s own nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Carl Vinson (to the carrier commander’s severe displeasure)
This ship is a reproduction of Captain Cook’s ship, the HMB Endeavour. Quite interesting to roam around and imagine such tight quarters while you sail around the world (taking three years to do it!). One cool thing about this ship is even though it is a reproduction, it does get sailed a lot - it’s even been around the world twice! Hard to imagine!
A lot has changed to Sydney since the first visit of the actual ship!
A fun way to get around Sydney is by taking the ferries to different points. They also provide some nice photography opportunities.
Sydney Opera House
The next day, I went for a tour of some of Sydney’s famous beaches. While they weren’t too busy (being winter of course...) - there were still several surfers having a good time out there. This is a shot of Coogee Beach. There’s an amazing path that leads from this beach (the actual beach is in the background) - by the coastline - to Bondi Beach.
Beach
The famous Bondi Beach. It’s a sad thing that I left my Speedo at home...
Later in the day, I took a ferry to a beach a bit away from Sydney named Manly. Went on a nice hike around the area and had some great views of the ocean and city.
Sydney from one of the lookouts at Manly.