feldmanlarry

Nov. 8-11, 2017 — From Margaret

Queenstown, NZ

Queenstown is inland in the southern part of the South Island (see #11 on the map)

Early morning hike – the Sunshine Bay Track – along Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown

Onto Queenstown!  How fortunate that everywhere we’ve been, there are nice venues for hiking, walking, and running.  Often, the scenery has been spectacular.  We then head to Te Anau.  Shortly after arriving, I head out for a 2-hour hike on a small portion of the Kepler Track, one of what are called the Great Walks of New Zealand.  It is along Lake Te Anau, and offers a different feeling from some other hikes – ferns and moss are prevalent.

Te Anau, NZ

Te Anau is in the southwest corner of the South Island (see #12 on the map)

Sometimes when I hike, I ask myself – isn’t it all the same?  Trees, hills, vegetation, the  path in front of you.  What’s different about this trail from others I’ve recently hiked, or those I’ve walked in New York or Pennsylvania?  But I really do get a different feeling in each place.  Sometimes it’s because it really is different in terrain, vegetation, surroundings, weather, time of day, birds, insects, other wildlife, or what you anticipate.  If I were more knowledgeable about some of these things I would probably be even more sensitive to these differences.  It’s also comforting to feel the similarities.  Noting differences where there are commonalities, and noting similarities where there are differences, are ways we use our intelligence.  I can think of so many occasions in mathematics where this deepens your understanding – how is divisibility by 2 the same or different from divisibility by 3?  or 4?  or 5?  The concept of modular arithmetic opens up in exploring this notion.

Notice the huge log across the trail – these pictures show a different portion of the Kepler Track that I hiked a couple days later.  This was along a river, and included some climbing, but not too much.

I was treated to a double rainbow on the early morning of November 9, over Lake Te Anau.  It lasted a long time, and changed during that time.

You can barely make out the double arc here.

Our bus trip to Milford Sound and the cruise on Milford Sound was spectacular – waterfalls, snowcapped mountains, steep cliffs, an avalanche, seals, penguins, and dolphins.  Our pictures cannot capture what we felt.  Larry will have a separate blog on Milford Sound.

Queenstown, NZ, Again

Queenstown is inland in the southern part of the South Island (see #13 on the map)

We returned to Queenstown and enjoyed a wonderful dinner at an Indian restaurant.  The next morning, while Larry rode the Gondola up, I hiked to the top of Bob’s Peak.  The trail is very steep and rocky in many portions – often, there are steep drop-offs and no railings.  The last part was a much wider path, and while still quite steep, there weren’t the dangerous drop-offs.  In the 2-mile hike, it is 1500 feet of elevation change.  I hung onto tree trunks and rocks as I climbed, and made it without incident.  Fortunately, I took the gondola down with Larry.  What a treat at the top!  The view was spectacular, and it was the first sunny day in a while!!