New Zealand: Te Paki Dunes, Whangaroa Lookout, Kiwis at Aroha Island

Date Traveled: 03 January 2013

After a hellishly adventurous morning of hiking, soaking wet, in the rain out to New Zealand's westernmost point, I wasn't sure how much more adventure I'd be up for for the rest of the day. But then, as I was driving from Cape Reinga to Paihia, where I had accommodation booked that night, I passed the sign for Te Paki Sand Dunes and thought to myself, "I might not ever get the chance to come back this way in my life, so I might as well stop and see it now."

Coming over the first rise at Te Paki Sand Dunes

Good thing I did! Te Paki sand dunes are the highest dunes in New Zealand, and they are massive (though not as big as Sleeping Bear Dunes or Pictured Rocks). I parked my car and pulled out my rain gear, because it was still raining and I had had enough of being soaked to the bone, and crossed a shallow little stream to get to the base of the dunes. The blisters on my feet weren't enjoying being cramped up in shoes or sandals, even, so I went barefoot climbing the first steep ascent which opens up on top to a vast, wide, plateau of sand with a few rocky outcrops sticking out. On the other side of the plateau was another climb to what looked like the highest dune peak around and when I got to the top of that, I realised just how expansive the dune fields here are! According to Lonely Planet's New Zealand Guide, there are 7 square kilometres of dunes here offering all sorts of recreation activities like sand tobogganing (which you can rent from the little van in the parking lot) and the start (or end) of the famous 4WD off-roading expedition up/down 90 Mile Beach is also here.

Well, I knew I wasn't going to spend a huge amount of time here, so when I got to the top, I had a nice look around, took some photos of the area, and then starting heading down. But this wasn't just any saunter down the sandy slopes. Oh, no! Growing up going to the beaches, one of my favourite things to do was go dune jumping. Usually this involves finding a nice sturdy tussock of grass near the top of the dune, getting a running start, and then throwing yourself off that tussock into the air and landing on the downslope surface of the dune. If you land on your feet without breaking your legs, it's possible to then use that momentum and run all the way down the rest of the hill. There was no dune grass here, but the sand slope was steep and a good running start was all I needed and with arms windmilling through the air, I ran down in big, leaping steps to the sandy plateau.

Here on the plateau, one of the rock outcrops caught my interest. It was circular from above and looked almost dome-like except that while the middle of the dome and its edges were still in tact, the rest had eroded out by some means of chemical or physical weathering. Up on the dune slope I'd just run down, there were a few other people using their footsteps to make large pictures in the sand. I think the one group of kids must have been from Switzerland since they made a big square with the cross in the middle.

I crossed the sandy plateau and dune-jumped my way back down to the creek and crossed over to my car, brushed off and got back on the road. Not much further down the cape, there was a sign pointing toward "New Zealand's Northernmost Pub" and I thought I should stop in for a bite to eat and charge my phone at the same time. I figured it would be some British-esque pub with a warm fire, carved wood booths, and a generally cozy atmosphere. Boy was I wrong. This place I don't think ever was cozy or welcoming, and while the staff was friendly and accommodating, I didn't want to stay there a moment longer than I needed to and I don't suggest anyone stop here. You will be sorely disappointed!

The Whangaroa lookout

Finally, I was on the road again and kept driving for a few hours, listening to local Maori radio which had some good music on there, including a lot of Christian songs I remember singing in elementary school, but sung in Maori with a South Pacific twist. I'd read about another spot that I thought might be worth looking into. The hills in and around the town of Whangaroa (remember, in New Zealand, Wh- is pronounced F-) are generally forested except for their tops which are exposed, bare, rocky knobs made of conglomerates and granite - if I remember right! The hilltop in Whangaroa offers an awesome 360° vista of the entire area and the Whangaroa Bay right next to it. I found the parking area at the Saint Paul's Rock Scenic Reserve and started up the trail which was really slippery thanks to the mixture of mud and rain. To get to the top of the rock, though, the trail climbs up through the exposure and you need to hold on to chains fastened into the rock to pull yourself up to the top! It was a nice view indeed. Even in the gray late-afternoon you could see all the way out to the ocean, see all of Whangaroa Bay, and even an expansive oyster farm.

I didn't stay long, though, just long enough to get a 360° panoramic shot but then I got back in the car and kept driving. My destination for the night was the Aroha Island Ecological Centre, just east of Kerikeri. I'd read about Aroha Island in the Lonely Planet guide and after reading that they have a few northern brown kiwi birds living on the island, I didn't think I had a choice but to book a camping spot here! Kiwis are exceptionally rare in the wild in New Zealand. In fact, many New Zealanders haven't seen a kiwi in the wild! Since I've been on my "must see all Australian wildlife in the wild" kick, I figured I may as well add kiwis to the list and do my best to see them in their native habitat, too! And Aroha Island was the perfect place for that; they offered nightly tours of the island for an additional charge saying that most tours see a kiwi. But when I checked in, the lovely woman at the Welcome Centre said they weren't doing any tours...but that I could use one of their flashlights and have a map of the island and see if I could see them for myself!

I set up my tent in the last remaining hours of daylight and backed up all of my photos from my hiking adventures at Cape Reinga to my iPad, waiting for darkness to settle in. The woman told me that the kiwis are seen all hours of the night and that they start roaming around 10:30pm. I was told to not make much noise because while kiwis have bad eyesight, they hear very well; I was also told to use the flashlight given to me which had a red filter on it because the kiwis couldn't see that red light, and that any regular flashlight would scare them off for sure. It started raining again, though not too hard, and I figured I'd have to put my rain gear back on if I didn't want to get wet, but that meant I'd be making a lot of noise while walking along the path. The island isn't large and only take about 30 minutes to walk the perimeter, so I set off with the red light and the map.

The woman also mentioned that I would know the kiwis were there long before seeing them because they make a very distinct snuffling noise. Kiwis are different from most birds in that their nostrils are located at the end of their beaks and since they use their beaks to sift through the soil while looking for food, they constantly have to clear their airways and in doing so make a very dry wheezing sound. Well, even with that information, I couldn't hear much more than the rain dripping through the leaves and my rain pants brushing up against each other. I moved so slowly along the path, thinking every noise was a kiwi, that it took me about half an hour just to walk half the island. I started along the other half thinking I was on a wild goose - errr kiwi - chase when I heard it!

One of the two wild northern brown kiwis I saw on Aroha Island

Above the pitter-patter of the rain I thought I heard people talking and I thought it must be some other kiwi-scouts, but looking ahead, I didn't see any lights but kept hearing a dry, scraping, snuffle sound. I rounded the corner in the path, and sure enough, right in front of me, no more than 2 metres away were two adult kiwis! They were big! I mean big compared to what I imagined them. I always thought they were maybe the size of a grapefruit, but these were each the size of a rugby ball, stuck up on what looked like three spindly legs, but then I realised the third leg was just their beak! I didn't want to make too much noise but I wanted to get closer to see if I could get some photos of them with my phone. I'm not sure if it was the rain or if their hearing isn't as great as the woman told me, but I was able to sneak within a metre of them both without them realising, or caring, that I was there! I just stood there for about 20 minutes watching these amazing birds do their thing, rooting through the soil along the path looking for food, and they eventually moved off and started heading down the hill toward the water. I decided that if they were going to leave, I'd try getting a few photos of them with my flash on, and while they moved away after the first flash, they didn't seem to be terrified by it and stayed relatively close, so I took a few more before leaving them to eat in peace! I think my heart was pumping just as much as it had been that morning when I was trying not to be swept out to sea by incoming waves! Here, on tiny Aroha Island, was some young Yank who just wanted to see kiwis in the wild, and with very minimal effort was able to do what so few people have ever had the opportunity to do!

Needless to say, at the end of the day, hiking 15 kilometres, climbing a large sand dune, hiking to the top of a rocky lookout, and successfully sighting some wild kiwis, I was exhausted and slept very very well! The next morning, as I was packing up my tent, some very friendly ducks came by to wish me safe travels and to thank me for staying at Aroha Island, insisting that I recommend it to anyone who wants to have wild kiwi adventures while traveling through New Zealand. I told them I surely would!

Australia: Melbourne

Dates Traveled: 8-9 December 2012

After spending a week at a geomorphology conference (and the months before it preparing), my friend, Caitlyn and I decided it was time for a bit of sightseeing. She's been in Australia for a while and hadn't yet been down to Melbourne and since I also had not yet been down there, we found a cheap deal on tickets with EasyJet and the day after my conference ended, were on our way to Victoria where we would spend two days in Melbourne and two days driving the famous Great Ocean Road!

Melbourne (pronounced "MEL-bin" and not "mel-BORNE" as my dad likes to say) was awesome! It's the second largest city in Australia, only a half-million behind Sydney, but has been able to retain a larger amount of it's Victorian charm. A lot of people say that Sydney is the cosmopolitan international city in Australia whereas Melbourne is the cosmopolitan Australian city in Australia, and I was able to see that. The city, while big and having everything a big city must, was so much quieter than Sydney and it just felt more relaxed and easy-going. In fact, it took us a while to figure out why the city was so quiet, and we realised it is because there are no buses in the whole of the Downtown area! It's true! Melbourne has maintained its tram network, the world's largest, which dates back to 1885! And while the trams are noisy when they rumble on by, once they are gone, you don't hear anything but cars going by, which is so much quieter than buses constantly starting and stopping.

Melbourne tram in front of Flinders Street Station

We flew into Tullamarine Airport (Melbourne International) and were able to hop a bus to the city for relatively cheap, and then the bus company, after dropping us off at the Southern Cross Train Station, had other mini buses that drove us right to our hostel, free of charge! Caitlyn booked us a room in a clean hostel, right down near Federation Square, arguably the main central meeting place in the city. The hostel, the Greenhouse Backpackers, was located just around the corner from Federation Square on Flinders Lane, right in the middle of all sorts of alleyways lined with tiny cafés and coffee shops and stores of all kinds. We were super-hungry and Caitlyn, who had planned most of the goings-on of the Melbourne part of our trip, led the way east to a Chinese restaurant, Chin Chin, she heard about and we gorged ourselves on a delicious smattering of menu items. Caitlyn was always on the lookout for restaurants that didn't just offer your everyday generic menu items but something more and unique that you couldn't just get anywhere else. I was glad she'd done her research because we dined like royalty in Melbourne!

After lunch, as full as we were, we walked back toward the hostel and wandered around the lanes and alleys for a little bit, taking in some of the nearby sights including the magnificent Flinders Street Station and St. Paul's Cathedral. It felt a bit odd walking around because it was early December and everything was decked out in Christmas decorations all over the city, but it was HOT! It was such a weird feeling seeing and hearing all the Christmas cheer without the cold and the snow that we are used to back home in Michigan! But our destination was another place Caitlyn had heard about called, Little Cupcakes. After walking past it two or three times, we finally found it and stepped in for a wee coffee and some of the dare I say cutest cupcakes I'd ever seen!

It was still early in the afternoon and we decided we'd walk off our lunch on the way to the Old Melbourne Gaol (jail), an historic building in both the city's and Australia's past. We got there right before the last tour started, and while it was a bit more expensive than the general ticket to get in, it was SO worth it! You get put in a group that is led into the Gaol as if you had been arrested. The men are lined up across from the women and everyone is given an inmate card with the background of a convict and then your guide, the Warden, makes it very clear that you are to follow all rules of the Gaol and address him or her as Sir or Ma'am throughout the tour. It's kind of funny at times, but if you have a good guide, like we did, you quickly become afraid of stepping out of line (though humourous comments were appreciated). The warden checks you for any contraband and then leads you into the holding cells for the inmates, one of which is a giant padded room, and you learn how certain inmates, like the pedophiles, get a separate outdoor space in the yard during physical activity time because otherwise they'd surely be beaten to a pulp by the other inmates. It seems short, but the tour took about half an hour and culminated in a photo op where you get to hold up the inmate clapboard and have your mugshot taken! The tour only takes you through the holding cells, but the other half of the Gaol is in the main Men's hall - three stories of cells just like in the movies, lining a central corridor with walkways around the perimeter and stairways at the ends. In each cell you learn about specific convicts, or about jailed women, or immigrants, or whatever the case may be, but the Gaol is almost most famous for being where Ned Kelly, the famous Australian outlaw, had his last meal before being hanged.

Thoroughly worn out by history, Caitlyn and I headed back toward the hostel, but not without stopping at the James Squire brewhouse (which I thought was just a Melbourne thing, but apparently the first James Squire brewery is along the Parramatta River near Sydney). The beer was good anyway and we were back to the hostel soon enough for a wee nap before once again heading out for more alcohol and food! We got dressed up a bit and Caitlyn lead the way to Mamasita for some delicious late-night Mexican food and drinks in this upstairs restaurant that was well-worth the 20-minute wait for a table! Good food, delicious drinks, and great music put us right in the mood to find a place to go out for the evening. And while we asked around for a good place to find free live music, no one could tell us of anything nearby aside from places with $20 covers, so we went off to find our own adventure.

And find it we did in the form of Cherry Bar on AC/DC Lane where there was a live band covering The Doors in celebration of Jim Morrison's birthday. It wasn't really a dive-bar per se in that it was crowded, loud, and everyone was having a great time! The band played for another hour or so before calling it quits, and we followed suit, headed back to the hostel and crashed pretty quickly into bed.



We woke up early the next morning and headed off to one of the nearby cafés in the alley-ways for a good breakfast place. We found a place, and it was good, but the food was pretty generic, and not much to remember. Caitlyn wanted to do a bit of shopping so we stopped in a few stores and then headed out to the Queen Victoria Markets which are the largest open-air markets in the Southern Hemisphere. Frankly, I was pretty unimpressed; the market stalls were filled with the usual knick-knacks, Aussie t-shirts, and iPhone covers that you can find in Sydney's Paddy's Markets. Maybe the produce was good, but we weren't planning on cooking, and there was only one aisle, off to the side, where local Melbournian vendors were selling their art. Needless to say, we didn't stay long but made our way over to La Trobe street and hopped on one of the free trams that loops the Downtown area.

Back at Federation Square, Caitlyn and I decided to split up for a few hours. She stayed in the Square and stopped into the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and National Gallery of Victoria and I took my camera and headed off to the massive Botanical Gardens. While much of Melbourne is relatively flat, the Botanical Gardens are anything but! Paths wander in and out of groves and parks and plazas and statues of royalty, but I eventually found myself looking up at the the Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne's ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) Memorial. Sydney's is nice, but Melbourne's is Grand! I hadn't planned on spending as much time as I did there, but the memorial is so full of symbolism in the carved reliefs high up in the central sanctuary and an outer hall with the flags of each of the main branches of the armed services. You find marvelous views of Melbourne's skyline from the rooftop terrace of the Memorial and down in the crypts are more rooms honoring fallen soldiers and special moments in military history.

Looking at my watch, I needed to get a move on to meet Caitlyn back at the hostel but I still had a bit more of the Botanical Gardens to walk through, and I was going to go a little out of my way to see the Melbourne Olympic Stadium (which I found out is actually the Cricket Grounds and farther than I was willing to walk!). But I did walk along Batman Avenue and I passed the Rod Laver Arena where the Australian Open is held.

The afternoon was drawing on and after rendezvousing, we headed out to the suburb of Fitzroy to have dinner and beers at the Little Creatures Dining Hall where we had delicious pizza and amazing doughnuts!! Fitzroy reminded me a lot of Burlington, Vermont, with its anything-goes attitude, hole-in-the-wall boutiques and cafes, and somewhat bohemian vibe. I think it was in Fitzroy that we decided what we'd do with the rest of our evening and concluded that the best option would be to go to an open-air cinema in St. Kilda, hosted by Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream to see a showing of the sing-a-long version of Grease! Haha.

The trams took us from Fitzroy down to St. Kilda and there was plenty of time before the movie started for us to walk out to the end of the St. Kilda Pier Breakwater where the Lonely Planet Guidebook mentioned we could see tiny fairy penguins swim ashore to their nests in the rocks of the breakwater at sundown. Not too many people were out on the breakwater when we got there which allowed us to enjoy a little bit of fresh air out and watch kite surfers on Port Phillip Bay in front of the Melbourne skyline. We didn't see any penguins swimming ashore, but more people were coming out to the breakwater and soon we noticed tourists pointing between the rocks and shoving their cameras into the holes. Clearly, there were nesting penguins already ashore and we walked right past them! I kind of felt bad for the little penguins, having all those cameras and flashes being shoved in their faces, but they took it like champs and either didn't notice or pretended not to, anyway. I was conflicted because I didn't want to be part of the mob, but these were the first penguins I'd seen in the wild and had to have my own proof, so I briefly joined the mob of tourists, took my photo and left. The sun was actually setting now, so we headed over to the open-air cinema, got our free samples of B&J ice cream, rented some seats (and blankets because it was windy and freezing!), and kicked back to enjoy singing along to Danny and Sandy, Frenchie, Rizzo, Jan, Kenicke, Doodie, and the other guy. I should have known, or realised before, but it only dawned on me that Sandy was a new student from Australia, played by then-breakout-star Olivia Newton-John. Who knew? Apparently everyone else.

Once the movie was over, Caitlyn and I headed back into town to get some sleep before our road-trip started the next morning. But before any good road-trip can start, one must have a good, filling breakfast, and Caitlyn was back on top of things and we found ourselves the next morning having an amazing breakfast at The Hardware Sociéte where I wish I could remember what I had for brekkie because it was to die for! And Caitlyn was in Heaven, too, snapping photos of the light and cheerful café before heading back to the hostel one last time to pick up our bags and then it was off to pick up the rental car for our journey along the Great Ocean Road!

Orkney by Bicycle and Kirkwall Sights

Travel Date: 03 June 2012
(There is a slideshow with more of my photos from this post at the bottom of this page.)

As I was trying to go to sleep last night, I was worried I wouldn't be able to get around Orkney today for one reason: it's Sunday. In America, Sundays really aren't much different than the other days of the week; shops close at 7pm instead of 9pm and you can't buy booze in Michigan until after noon, but bus schedules and businesses typically stay open. This is not the case in Europe and definitely not the case in Orkney. You get around Orkney on Sunday by your own vehicle (which I didn't have), a bike (which I couldn't get because the rental companies were closed), by hitchhiking (which I am reluctant to try), or by bus (which ran maybe six return journeys between Kirkwall and Stromness). Thus, my choice was clear - bus it was.

I got up early enough to take the bus into Stromness. I tried accessing the internet on my phone, which had a °-symbol where the 3G or E symbol usually is. As someone explained it to me, having ° is like having 2G (if there were such a thing). Regardless, I tried accessing the bike rental companies' websites to see if they were indeed closed on Sundays. The one was definitely closed, but I couldn't tell if Orkney Cycle Hire was open or not. So once in Stromness, I started wandering around the town, praying for a miracle, but deciding that Stromness wouldn't be all that bad of a place to get stranded for the day - afterall, the Orkney Folk Festival was in its last day and there were plenty of musicians around.

Stromness is a beautiful town. There is only one main road going through the central bit with one or two smaller roads running parallel up the hill and multiple other spur-roads (they were more alleyways) that turned off the main street. The main road was narrow, only wide enough for maybe a car and a pedestrian, and was in-laid with flagstone and cobbles. Above your head, zig-zagging all the way from the end of town into the town square in front of the Stromness hotel and harbor is a strand of colorful pennants like the type you'd see strung around a car dealership's lot. It was early and not too many people were out, but then my prayers were answered as I saw a sign for Orkney Cycle Hire and an arrow pointing to a patio where a man was walking out with a bike! I could rent a bike! I was so happy because I really wanted to do my sightseeing and now I'd be able to! I paid for my bike, an 18-gear hybrid, and zoomed down the narrow, empty streets of Stromness to a wee general store where  I picked up a few snacks for my day, and then pedaled out of town.

Orkney is not mountainous, so there are no really steep hills, but it's not flat either. I quickly learned that I was out of shape, though I soon got used to pedaling up the long inclines that are too steep to be flat, but too shallow to walk your bike up a short distance and coast down the hills. But it didn't matter, I was on two wheels, on an empty road, cycling past cows and sheep under a blue sky. My first stop was one of Orkney's do-not-miss sites that my Orkney Explorer pass covered entrance: the burial tomb of Maeshowe (pronounced mays-HOW), which is part of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney UNESCO World Heritage Site which includes all of the sites I had on my list. I got to Maeshowe only to be told that I was supposed to sign up for a tour time and that I could come back later that afternoon. I rescheduled for the following afternoon since my biking route wouldn't take me back toward Maeshowe that day again, but determined to carry on.

Maeshowe

Just down the road from Maeshowe is a solitary standing stone called the Barnhouse Stone. It sits in the middle of a plowed field, surrounded by a square fence, maybe 3 meters on each side, so you can't really get to it, but interestingly, it is the smallest UNESCO-protected cultural site by area. Pretty cool!

The Barnhouse Stone

Two large lakes dominate the landscape here and a low ridge separating them is home to a host of other neolithic sites, the next of which I visited were the Standing Stones of Stenness. Originally, there were 11 (maybe 12) stones, 5-meters high, in a circle surrounding a central hearth, all of which was surrounded by a deep ditch that was only traversed by an earthen causeway. The site, like Maeshowe, is nearly 5000 years old and is thought to have been a ceremonial site. A few meters away in one direction is the Watchstone, of the same age, and a few meters in the other direction is a recent discovery of a settlement, Barnhouse Village, also 5,000 years old.

Standing Stones of Stenness

Barnhouse Village

Barnhouse Village was only discovered in 1984 by archaeologists who soon uncovered the foundations to eight structures including two ceremonial structures: one was larger than the other domestic structures of the village, and the other appeared to be two domestic structures fused into one - very much unlike the other structures here and at the nearby Skara Brae (see below).


In the same vicinity, sort of between the Watchstone, Stones of Stenness, and Barnhouse Village was yet another massive stone (the Odin Stone) that early drawings show having a hold carved through it. However, a non-Orcadian farmer moved to the site in the early 1800s and fussed that people were traipsing over his land, so he smashed the massive Odin Stone as well as some of the Stones of Stenness but was fortunately stopped by a massive protest by the locals. It is thought that this site in Orkney held particular significance of some kind due to the large number of sites being used at the same time including the Stones of Stenness, Barnhouse Village, Maeshowe, and the nearby Ring of Brodgar and Ness of Brodgar. It is even supposed that neolithic people from all over met at the Stones of Stenness for spiritual ceremonies here.

Down along the ridge that separates the two lakes (one of which is freshwater, while the other is salt water), past the Watchstone are even more neolithic structures. The Ring of Brodgar is a circle of stones, each of different sizes, shapes, and heights, on the perimeter of this wide henge (or flat circular area surrounded by a deep ditch). The site originally had 60 stones, only 27 of which are still seen today. I spent quite a while at the Ring of Brodgar taking it all in from many different angles, walking around its perimeter, and having my own guess at its purpose. I'm not sure what it is about neolithic sites that fascinates me. Maybe it's the fact that as a geologist, I'm drawn to stone structures? Maybe it's astronomical precision with which these stones are aligned? Maybe it's their antiquity? Maybe it's the fact that with all of our modern knowledge, we still have no clue as to what their purpose was? Maybe it's a combination of all the above; I'm not sure, but I could spend a very long time at these sites conjecturing.

Ring of Brodgar

 It started to drizzle and I decided to take off to the site that made me want to come to Orkney in the first place: Skara Brae. I first heard of the ancient village of Skara Brae while listening to Bill Bryson's book, At Home: A Short History of Private Life, on tape driving to Michigan from Vermont last summer. I usually ear-tag pages in books I find interesting, but since I was driving, I couldn't do any more than search for some scrap paper and scribble down the name of this village, having no idea how it was spelled and hoping that I'd be able to decipher my scribbles later. Like the Barnhouse Village, Skara Brae was discovered by accident after a terrible storm struck the British Isles, killing hundreds of people. The storm ripped away the grassy field that covered this coastal site, revealing to the locals for the first time an intact village, 5,000 year old, with numerous dwellings and walkways connecting them. The dwellings all had the same internal plan, indicating that all inhabitants lived as equals to each other, and furniture including stone beds, dressers, hearths, and storage places were all intact. Unfortunately, some locals having a party in the nearby Skaill House decided to go investigate and knicked many of the original artifacts from Skara Brae.

Two things interested me about Skara Brae when listening to At Home. Firstly, of all the dwelling places, there was one that while it was set up just like the others was situated with a stone door to the entryway that could be shut and locked only from the outside. While the other houses at Skara Brae had doors, none were fitted with the locking mechanism, so it raises the question, what use could a seemingly peaceful community have for a dwelling place where someone could be shut and locked in? The second interesting bit that caught my attention was that some of the storage chambers at Skara Brae were fitted with drains and plumbing. Now, these weren't just stone alcoves with a hole in the bottom, but actual conduits leading away from the houses, draining into the ocean. It is remarkable that this society, older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids of Egypt, had the wherewithal to install drainage systems into their village, something that doesn't show up in other civilizations for another few centuries (and very far away, at that!).

Actually visiting Skara Brae was amazing (oh, by the way, it's also covered under the Orkney Explorer Pass). I hadn't realized that all of the passageways connecting the houses would have been covered, but the ceilings were so low that one would have to crouch to navigate their way through. Also, while the houses were mostly set up the same way, one of the houses had a storage chamber behind their stone dresser, only accessible by crawling under the dresser shelves, as if it were a hiding place. So many questions to be answered but with excavation being complete at the site (once a historic site is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, no more excavation can be carried out), and much of the original artifacts having been looted, we can only rely on supposition based on excavations of similar sites elsewhere. It is fortunate the site actually is protected, however, as coastal erosion in the Skaill Bay would have otherwise continued to eat away at the sand banks Skara Brae is built on, resulting in the site being lost to the ocean forever.

Skara Brae

Time was marching on and I needed to get back to Stromness in time to catch the last bus back to Kirkwall, so I hopped back on my bike and pedaled back to town. The bike ride back to Stromness was equally as beautiful as everything else I'd biked through. Orkney really is a biker's dream: wide, empty roads, quiet, with few cars passing (and those that do, even the tour buses, are sure to give you plenty of space and very non-threatening). My legs were happy to get a few nice long descents where I could just coast and talk to the cows and sheep as I went past.

With my bike returned, I did have a little time left to waste in Stromness, so I headed into the Flattie Bar just at the base of the Stromness Hotel, ordered a Scapa Special (from the Orkney Brewing Company), and drank it outside amongst the people celebrating the last night of the Folk Festival, under the waving flag of the Orkney Islands.

I got back to Kirkwall around 5pm and decided to do some sightseeing in Kirkwall, too. Right near St. Magnus Cathedral is the Earl's Palace, which was built in 1606 by Earl Patrick Stewart, half-brother to Mary, Queen of Scots, who granted him the Crown estates of Orkney and Shetland. Earl Patrick was considered to be an evil man who eventually had to sell his palace to pay for some debts, was jailed in Edinburgh, and killed on accounts of Treason. The palace fell into the hands of the Orkney Bishop, whose palace itself was just across the courtyard, and at one point connected. All that remains of either palace now are the stone walls, the rest having been destroyed in retaliation for Earl Patrick's treason. You can still walk around the ruins of the Earl's Palace and the Bishop's Palace and even climb the stairs up to the tops of some of the towers where you are rewarded with magnificent views of the Cathedral.

My mother would have scolded me big-time if I didn't take time to stop in the cathedral, so that was next on the list. It is a massive structure, built from red sandstone found throughout the island. Originally a Catholic church, and the seat of the Bishop, it was converted to a Protestant church during the English Reformation, and stripped of all Catholic symbolism, which is why many of the windows are no longer inlaid with stained glass. The rose window at the end of the nave faces west, and at 7pm in the Orkney summer, the sun shines right through the rose window, splashing color over the insides of the church in a beautiful way. Unfortunately, the organ wasn't being played, which would have made the visit extra special.

Sunset illuminating St. Magnus Cathedral

Finally, I was hungry and since it was still before 9pm, I headed to Helgi's for a beef pie and some more local beers from the Highland and Orkney Brewing Companies (the Orkney IPA and Northern Lights). I chatted with some locals while watching the BBC coverage of the Queen's Flotilla down the River Thames in London for her Diamond Jubilee, and then with a young guy from Florida who was taking on an apprenticeship at the Highland Park Distillery, which I'll have to visit next time I'm there.

Before it got too late, however, there was one more thing I wanted to see, and I knew I wouldn't have time to get to it tomorrow: the Churchill Barriers. We'd driven across the barriers on the coach ride into Kirkwall from the ferry docks, but I wanted to get a better look, so I hired a cab to quickly take me out there and back. The Orkney Islands surround a large, well-protected harbor called Scapa Flow. During the World Wars, the British used Scapa Flow as a home-base for their naval fleet. At the end of WWI the German naval fleet was in surrender in Scapa Flow, waiting to hear the results of the Treaty of Versailles. The message that Germany surrendered did not reach the German Commander of the fleet by the pre-arranged time, so he ordered his entire fleet of 74 vessels to scuttle themselves so that their ships could not fall into the hands of the British, who watched in horror as the boats all began to sink into the depths of the water.

If that isn't a good enough story, Scapa Flow's WWII history is even better, if better is the right term. The British Navy was based up at Scapa during the war and was constantly on the watch for German u-boats who might try and break through one of the dozens of channels between the islands to get into the harbor. Churchill sank numerous vessels to block some of these paths, while installing underwater mines and anti-submarine nets at others. Many of these structures built to guard the island channels are still standing today, even. But the story picks up when a German u-boat commander got a hold of aerial photos of one of the channels and decided that he could squeeze his boat between one of the British vessels holding one side of an anti-submarine net and the shore. And this is exactly what happened. The u-boat nearly ran aground sneaking around the anti-submarine nets, but did make it into the harbor and after making a few rounds torpedoed and sunk one of the British Battleships before making its escape. Over 800 men lost their lives in the attack. After the attack, Winston Churchill sent Italian POWs up to Scapa to build massive cement blockades across some of the narrower channels, including the one the submarine sneaked through, and beefed up the security of all other entrances to the harbor. The last place I wanted to stop at was the Italian Chapel, a little church built by the Italian POWs while working on the Barriers as a place of worship.

Blockships sunk into entrances of Scapa Flow

With that, the cabbie drove me back to Kirkwall where I quickly retreated to my hostel, cleaned up from the day, planned my timetable for the next day, and went to bed. I know this was a lot to do in one day, but like I said before, Orkney is a fascinating place with so much varied history, it's hard not to detail all I learned and my thoughts and experiences! Hopefully you made it to the end here, and you'll be rewarded with some nice photos below :)

Arthur's Seat in Holyrood Park, Edinburgh

31 March 2012

A week ago, as the last days of nice weather were coming to a close in Scotland, I was getting really anxious and just needed to get out of town and be outside doing something. I looked into taking a 5 hour train ride out to the town of Mallaig, an industrial fishing town that also serves as the gateway to the Inner Hebrides. Even though the train ride is rated as one of the most beautiful train rides in the world, and even though the ride brings you over the famous viaduct used in the second Harry Potter film, I decided I would leave that for another weekend when I had people to go with. That, and poor planning on my part just made it near impossible.

Instead, I decided on Saturday morning to head over to Edinburgh and hike Arthur's Seat, the top of a mini-mountain right in the center of town. The mountain, situated in Holyrood Park, is not terribly tall (see the photos for scale), but it is the eroded and weathered center of an old volcano. Originally used as the hunting grounds for the Royal Family while they stayed at their official residence in Edinburgh, Holyrood House, the park is now open to the public and on nice days is teeming with people taking walks below the craigs, along the lochs, and all over the grassy fields.

My train left around noon, but I got to the Glasgow City Center with some time to pick up a guide book or two on Scotland, and then a bit later, I got into Edinburgh's Waverly Station around half-one. Armed with my camera and sandwiches in my hiking backpack, I made my way down Edinburgh's High Street, past Holyrood House, and the new (and fairly unremarkable) parliament building, to the entrance to the park.

The weather couldn't have been nicer. The sky was blue with only a few clouds and a warm breeze in the air. And everyone was out. I'm not entirely sure how packed Holyrood Park usually is on a nice day, but it was almost impossible to not constantly be passing people. There are plenty of walks in the Park that are fairly easy to do, but most of the established trails have some pretty steep sections over rough ground. The up-side to that, though, is that it didn't take long before I was up above the city skyline with beautiful views of the city and the Firth of Forth (the ocean inlet alongside which Edinburgh is built).

The Park was beautiful, too. bright yellow flowers were in bloom and birds of all sorts were chirping or singing or cooing while rabbits hopped in and out of the bushes. While there are designated trails in the Park, people just kind of have free reign over where they want to walk, and it was really fun watching the singular person walking along the top of cliffs, or the guy playing catch with his dog in the grassy top of another hill, or the kids running around the little lochs in the park.

Since I had all day, I took my time and walked everywhere I wanted to go, but eventually, I made my way up to the top of Arthur's Seat where I found a nice little seat of my own in the rocks and had my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Throughout the hike, every now and then, and while I was eating lunch, I'd catch a tune being played on some bagpipes somewhere, carried on the wind. It was very faint and I couldn't tell where it was coming from, but it only added to my surroundings: I was definitely in Scotland! With this as my view from Arthur's Seat, I didn't think it could get any better:

Edinburgh from Arthur's Seat in Holyrood Park. Edinburgh Castle is seen to the left of the photo with the old town lining High Street down to Holyhead House and Holyhead Abbey at the bottom right of the photo. Even in the distance, you can see the world-famous Fourth Bridge over the Firth of Forth, a bridge that once held the record for the the longest single-cantilevered bridge in the world. Holyrood Park is in the foreground of the photo while Regents Park is seen just right of center.

It was probably around 4:30pm when I started heading down from Arthur's Seat and walked through the rest of the park. I noticed a blister forming on my foot, and so I wanted to get off my feet pretty quickly. I made my way back up High Street all the way up to the gates of the Castle (a place I still have yet to visit), but I wanted to see some familiar sights from when I was last in Edinburgh, with my high school choir's tour of the British Isles in 2002. On that trip, we stayed in dorms at the University of Edinburgh (which I saw from Holyrood Park) and performed a concert in St. Giles Cathedral, right on High Street. It was really neat to see those places again and even though it was ten years ago since I was on that trip, it seemed like yesterday that we were getting our nighttime ghost tour of Edinburgh and tour down to the depths of Mary Kings Close, where victims of the plague were locked up in a dark and dingy dungeon-like room, well beneath the streets above.

My foot was kind of bothering me, and I didn't want to do too much more walking, so I started to head back to the train station. I was hungry, though, and while I was walking down a narrow set of stairs, I noticed a very small little pub in the alley (the Halfway House, which was Edinburgh's Pub of the Year in 2009) and since only two or three people were inside, I decided to stay a bit longer and enjoy sitting over a pint or two. But it was eventually time to go, and I got back on the train with plenty of time to spare in the day, and actually arrived back at my flat in Glasgow no later than 8:30. So it wasn't really that long of a day, but I was successful in getting my outdoor walk, my day-trip out of Glasgow, and a little more sightseeing and city-exploring!

St. Patrick's Day in Belfast

Trip Date: 17 March 2012

A year ago, I was updating my blog from my friend's, Ruth, apartment in Singapore after flying in on St. Patrick's Day from Sydney! I can't believe that I've been able to keep up this blog for so long (a posting rate of 1 entry every 5.2 days!).

Well, back in Belfast, Rebecca and I woke up in the late morning and I grabbed us some coffee and muffins from Starbucks before we headed off to meet with her friend, Amy, and Amy's friend Katie for a day of St. Paddy's Day food, drinks, and festivities. Amy and Rebecca went to secondary school (that's high school, for you American folks) and now lives in Belfast, so she was our primary tour guide for the day. Since we were running a little late, we took a cab to the City Center and kicked off our morning right by wandering around the St. George's Market. The history of marketplaces in Belfast goes back to the mid 1600s, but the current St. George's Market's history goes back to the early industrial 1800s Belfast. This part of town had all sorts of marketplaces where merchants and farmers would come to sell their items. The May family started the modern marketplace, and after acquiring land next to their open-air market, they decided to build the current sandstone, iron, and glass structure you see today. The structure, completed in 1890, was built because farmers "are submitted to sufficient hardships already, without being compelled to stand in the open air in torrents of rain before they can sell their goods." It didn't take long for St. George's Market to become the place to buy your butter and eggs, as the market's motto goes.

Things changed a wee bit during the second World War. The marketplace was still the best place to do your shopping because everything you needed was found, somewhat bountifully, and in close proximity, whereas folks who lived outside of town a bit would have to wait in lines for limited items at their local grocers. It wasn't long though before the Irish were struck by the Germans during the Belfast Blitz of 1941 (Easter Tuesday). After parts of the city were decimated, St. George's Market was turned into a makeshift mortuary for 255 bodies that were brought there for identification. More recently, however, the Market remained open throughout the Troubles which wreaked havoc on other parts of Belfast and has been renovated and restored such that producers of all sorts - farmers, artists, fishermen, and more - still utilize the space a few days each week to see their merchandise.

The four of us wandered around the market for a good while, sampling local cheeses, salsas, curries, vegetables, and even got ourselves some Guinness-soaked Irish Sausages on a bun with egg (called a bap). Super super delicious! It was just after noon when we left the market and headed closer to the City Center to get a good spot along the street to watch Belfast's St. Paddy's Day Parade pass by. The parade was fantastic: not too long, but lots of people were out and those who were in it definitely were having a good time. Belfast has a lot to celebrate this year. All over town there were posters touting that 2012 is "Belfast's Year" as the world remembers the fate of the Titanic on its centennial anniversary (Titanic was built in Belfast - and it was fine when it left the docks, they say!) and they are celebrating the United Kingdom's opportunity to host the 2012 Summer Olympics. Even though they are in London, all UK cities are opening their arms to any visitors that may be coming their way as part of the Olympics. Belfast is even opening up a brand new Titanic Museum in the harbor this year to commemorate the ship-building history of Belfast and the history of that ill-fated voyage.

The tail end of the parade passed by and we followed it a little bit, back past Bittles, the pub Rebecca and I started at the night before, and down to the Albert Memorial Clock. The clock tower was built as a memorial to Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband, and was finished in 1869. Like so many other famous towers, the tower was built on swampy ground and has taken on a generous lean (4 feet) to one side! But the tower is stunning and the city is paying millions of pounds to try and halt the continuing lean.

While the throngs of people hustled into Custom House Square for some free live music, we meandered through some back alleyways until we got to a little pub called The Duke of York, a pub our restaurant server the night before suggested to us but apparently could not give us directions to. And so it started, the drinking that is. The pub was decked out with any and all sorts of vintage posters of Irish beers and whiskeys, advertisement trays, stickers, and tins. And in true Irish pub fashion, the tables were what looked like refurbished church pews and other benches and stools, and the table were hand crafted out of wood or recycled sewing machine benches.

We had a drink or two and watched as people from the US, Australia, Europe, and Ireland came in and out of the pub, but then it was time to move on because rugby was going to be starting soon, so we marched over to another bar, 21 Social (not a pub as it was much trendier). They had a big screen with rugby on (Scotland v. Italy - Scotland lost...again) but were not playing the commentary and few people were there, so we left our front seat table to find a better setting to watch the Wales v. France and England v. Ireland games.

First we went across the street to a pub, The Cloth Ear, where young Irish dancers were prancing about throughout the pub and you literally had to watch where you were walking or else you'd get a foot in your face. These girls were not joking around. If you were in their way, they were not going to stop for you, but you wouldn't realize it until you came to, sprawled out on the floor - a direct K-O from their dancing shoes. Needless to say, we moved on. It seemed like none of the other pubs people were suggesting worked out. We tried The Garrick, which looked great and they had the game on, but it was small and way too packed for us. And then we tried McCrackens and The Morning Star before finally going back to The Cloth Ear where the dancing had stopped and the Wales-France game was back on in full swing with commentary and everything. Everything but seats. We stood around and shared some stools and drinks for a little while, before I was sent on a reconnaissance mission back to 21 Social to see if our table was still open.

Our table had been taken by a group of guys we saw waiting around before we left that bar earlier in the day, but decided to head back there anyway since their screen was much bigger and the crowd was much more into the game. Drinks were passed and laughs were shared as Wales beat France to win the Six Nations tourney. We didn't have too long to figure out a game plan to find seats to watch the game (as we were standing behind the crowded table of guys). But then one of them suggested two empty stools they had open, so Katie and Amy took those, while Rebecca and I parked it on the floor. So much roomier and right in front of the action. Unfortunately, the action was all England, and they beat Ireland pretty well. And unfortunately for Katie, from England, she was unable to cheer for England as she was totally surrounded by rowdy, drunken, Irish folk. But she'd smile a bit when England did something good or Ireland messed up.



By this time it was quite late in the day, or actually, well into the evening...it's hard to remember at this point, but we needed food. The only open place was McDonald's (eyes are rolling, I know) but it was what we needed, something greasy and salty. When we were finished, we headed toward Filthy McNasty's, the pub that Rebecca and I ended at the night before. We were rendezvousing with another of Rebecca's friends from secondary school, Lydia, her husband, Daniel (a SoCal guy), and some of their friends. It was a bit chilly out, but Filthy's back courtyard was jam packed full of people and had lots of little alcoves where small fires were lit (which is a thing here in lots of pubs - real open fires!). The music was playing, the drinks were flowing, and flowing, and flowing. We met some locals by one of the fires and ended up chatting the rest of the night with them and eventually moved to one of the inside rooms where we could enjoy our drinks without worrying about the cold.

Suffice it to say that we closed out the pub and before we knew it, Rebecca and I walked to a taxi stand with Amy and Katie to see them back home, but we kept walking back to our place, only stopping to pick up a pizza. Once back at Rebecca's aunt's flat, we ate our pizza, enjoyed another beer brewed in Rebecca's hometown, and watched YouTube videos for a while before calling it quits and going to bed. Even with its past history of St. Patrick's Day riots and considering their loss to England in rugby, it was a fun, friendly, and successful SPD - the only kind I assume you can have in Ireland :)

Now we just had to get through the next morning...