And So It Begins – Again

Posted on June 18, 2017 by JeanEB

The noise begins, my heart lurches and my summer harmony turns on its ear. It will take who knows how many solitary forest walks to sort this one out and hold on to my peace of mind. The humans are out in force to destroy my landscape.

We’ve lived in this house for 6 years now. and we have been lucky to have a large vacant property behind us. Large trees and brush have provided coverage and habitat for wildlife and from my backyard I watch the birds doing their thing, attracted by the berries of the mountain ash and the early flowering salmonberries. One day I walked over there to trim back a bramble bush that was overtaking our fence and inadvertently disturbed a family of deer taking a nap in the brush cover.

I always knew I was living on borrowed time. And borrowed landscape.

The Japanese have an expression for it. Shakkei, borrowed scenery. The art of incorporating what lies beyond, into the garden. In our case, our borrowed scenery was the trees and that is part of the source of the upset. Those trees seemed part of the garden view, even though a fence separates the properties.

Now the property has changed hands and the new owners are getting ready to start construction on what is no doubt their dream home. The bulldozers, backhoes and other heavy machinery have been on the lot cutting down the huge cedars that used to be part of what remains of the forest at the end of the road to make way for the new house. The mountain ash that backs the corner of our property and provides a stopping off point and food for hundreds of songbirds that I enjoy watching daily was yanked out of the ground by the machine in a matter of seconds and dumped on the heap. I cry.

Unlike many in this neighbourhood that completely clearcut the lots for new builds, due to a lack of imagination and a desire no doubt to build cheaper and easier, these people have left a few trees behind and for those crumbs I have to be grateful. A bit of my borrowed landscape remains. But the droning and clashing I listen to now from the machines foretells the noise and upset ahead for the summer to come. I fear for my garden refuge where I live outdoors all day and evening too in summertime. I’m not counting on that for this year.

It’s all far too much deja vu. Six years ago, the day we moved into this house after returning to Canada for good after our time in Asia, our new next door neighbour on the other side, a builder and developer, came over to meet us over the fence and informed us that that wonderful lush, park-like acre and a half property next door was about to be razed and scraped and clear cut to create a bare, level stretch of dirt to build 3 houses on. It was a hard time living through all that and it took a very long time to get over it, if indeed I ever have.

I think about what’s going on in this one little neighbourhood as a micro version of what’s happening everywhere, as humans continue to decimate the natural spaces to fuel the beast of supporting too many people on this planet. Some say that we (humans) are “destroying the planet” but that’s not really accurate. Planet Earth will eventually transform into something unrecognizable, as it has many times before. It’s the humans and other life species that will be long gone. We’re not destroying the planet, we’re destroying ourselves.

Meanwhile I daydream about living in a garden where I can neither see nor hear any neighbours. In these suburban gardens we delude ourselves into thinking we have privacy because of all the fences and hedges we put up between us. But we’re still plenty close enough to hear and see what’s on the other side of the fence. Much too close.

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The Most Isolated Country in the World – NZ Part 4

Posted on June 11, 2017 by JeanEB

“Bullshit!” I said aloud, almost spluttering my Diet Root Beer onto the pages of the guide book.

Here’s the very first line of this glossy, picture filled book on New Zealand. I’m naming names – looking at you Eyewitness Travel New Zealand.

“New Zealand is one of the most isolated countries in the world” it states with confidence.

WTF?

Isolated? Let’s talk about Fiordland, in the far south of the country, with its challenging geography of mountains and valleys and fiords and coastline, lightly populated. Here’s how to get there. Go to the airport, in my case Vancouver, get on a plane to Auckland, 12 hours later get off the plane, transfer to another plane for an hour-ish flight to Queenstown, rent a car and go. The roads are paved, there’s internet, the locals even speak English and most of the time you can understand what they are saying.

Far from isolated, it is very accessible. And there lies the other side of the coin.

I went to New Zealand last fall to be far away – eager to be away from the raucous political noise of the northern hemisphere. I wanted to explore more of a country I had so thoroughly enjoyed on my first visit. I looked forward to a change of scenery, and I wanted it to be breathtaking.

I found all that and more. But guess what? I’m not the only one, and I had the definite feeling that far from being in exploring mode, and not in the slightest bit feeling “isolated” instead I was following a very well-beaten tourist track.

New Zealand is one of the easiest countries I’ve traveled to. Once in Fiordland, you can drive around, take a boat ride on the fiords, hike for days through the well maintained system of tramping tracks, rent a helicopter or plane for a tour above all this gorgeousness or even, if all of that is too much, visit the movie theater in Te Anau where during the day, every hour on the hour they screen a beautiful movie made of the awesome Fiordland scenery, filmed mostly from helicopter.

Check out this 4 minute trailer for a taste of what this beautiful landscape looks like…

A Real Most Isolated Place on Earth

I’m reading a book right now about a place called Pemako, in eastern Tibet and a man’s quest over a number of years and 8 separate expeditions to reach its most innermost gorges and legendary waterfalls that no Western explorer had yet to find – a place of tales and rumours that inspired the story of Shanghri La.

Previous explorers – English military officers on geographical surveys to map the far reaches of the British empire, plant hunters and curious adventure seekers as well as Tibetan lamas on pilgrimage had been turned back in their quests to reach this innermost gorge. The seekers climbed up and down mountain cliffs, hacked through thick, tangled vegetation, faced torrential rains, hail, lightning, river rapids, landslides, poisonous snakes, gnats, and coped with masses of leeches. One of the travelers woke up one night to find a leech in his mouth, firmly attached and sucking blood.

In addition to these considerable obstacles, there are human problems as well. 19th/early 20th century explorers had to contend with tribes who took great exception to their desire to cross this land, sometimes attacking and murdering those who passed through. Porters sometimes abandoned them mid-journey and nowadays there was the Chinese military presence to deal with, or avoid. Not only is this Tibet, occupied by China, it is also in the place of the disputed border lands between India and China.

Through his expeditions to this area Ian Baker, studies the accounts of the earlier attempts as well as the Tibetan Buddhist mythology surrounding this landscape that is considered a sacred place. No one was able to tell him precisely how to get where he wanted to be and those Tibetan early accounts of pilgrimage to this region were often deliberately vague in directions while at the same time framing the geographical landmarks in mystical meaning. The author, who lives in Kathmandu, is a scholar of Buddhism and speaks Tibetan, was ultimately able to connect the dots between the geographic and spiritual accounts of earlier voyages to guide him to find what he seeks. Each trip to the region lasted many weeks and in addition to all the geographical challenges making their way through the terrain they also faced illness on the trail, dwindling food supplies and accidental falls. What settlements they came upon were very small, just a few dwellings and many days’ hike away from any kind of larger center. They were on their own.

This sounds more like “isolated” to me.

“They are nice falls aren’t they. I’ve always hoped someone would discover them.”

On the last trip the team was successful and were able to find the hidden falls in this deepest gorge on the planet, confirming that the tales of this sacred place so central to Tibetan Buddhism were true and it really did exist. The discovery was announced by National Geographic and heralded as a great achievement of geographical exploration. But in the end, our hero is ambivalent about it and questions the wisdom of the outside world knowing about this. At the time of that last excursion, they crossed paths with a very large Chinese expedition looking for the same thing. This Chinese group was unsuccessful but part of what they were there for was to scope out the feasibility of creating a huge hydroelectric dam that would be larger than Three Gorges, that would mean flooding and destroying this entire area so sacred to the Tibetan people to divert water and power elsewhere in China. Gotta fuel the machine. For now the goddesses and spirits that rule this place have kept them away. For now.

Postscript New Zealand

Would I go back to New Zealand? Absolutely I would. Will I? Stay tuned. I have a couple of other things on my very short list of foreign destinations.

But one thing I came back with, after overdosing on all that gorgeous scenery of Fiordland, was a very strong desire to further explore my own beautiful adopted province of British Columbia. So off to do just that this summer.

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Queenstown – Adventure Capital of New Zealand – NZ Part 3

Posted on June 4, 2017 by JeanEB

“So, do I look like a tourist?” I asked the young waiter patiently standing beside the table, as I struggled to shed my paraphernalia. Binoculars, camera, camera bag, Merrell pants, sweater hoodie, Tilley hat, map, sunglasses. Even if I hadn’t looked like such a doofus, it would be an easy guess. Here in Queenstown, over a million people a year descend on this city of 20,000 through all 4 seasons in this “Adventure Capital of New Zealand”.

I can’t really remember another city so completely devoted to the tourist industry, employing 90% of the permanent residents. When we arrived on a sunny Saturday afternoon in (their) early summer, we found this lakefront town crowded with visitors, strolling through the outdoor craft market, watching a Maori dance troupe perform and lunching at the many outdoor patios. It was quite a shock to the system to find myself in the middle of this bustling city unabashedly devoted to servicing tourists after the relative quiet of our cottage perched on a hill outside of Te Anau in Fiordland.

Every second storefront is a tour outfit there to provide anything you want in this “Adventure Capital”. You can go bungie jumping, jet boating through the canyons, rock climbing, white water rafting, sky diving, paragliding. mountain biking. Try and guess which of these activities caught my attention. (The correct answer is zero). What you don’t do is go swimming. Although Queenstown sits at the edge of the stunning Lake Wakapitu, it is fed by glaciers via 5 rivers and is super deep, never getting above 10C degrees all year ’round.

Cable cars take you up the mountain overlooking the town, lake and surrounding mountains and valleys. In true Queenstown fashion, you can choose to descend by mountain bike trails or on a (gentle) luge track.

Fortunately for these last few days of our trip I had rented a 3 story townhouse on a hill overlooking the lake with killer views from every window, in a quiet neighbourhood away from the city action, yet only a 10 minute drive away. Peace and quiet.

Sitting in our perch looking at that lake, of course I had to find a boat to check it out. And what a boat! The TSS Earnslaw is a steam-powered vessel that has been sailing these waters for over a hundred years. Nowadays it takes tourists up the lake several times a day. You can watch the guys in the engine room shoveling coal and enjoy the scenery in comfort, sipping a cappuccino. Adventure for the rest of us.

Near the top of the lake you can choose to disembark and visit the Walter Peak Farm that puts on a great lunch, sheep dog performances herding sheep up, down and around the hillside, as well as sheep shearing demonstrations. I imagine the sheep talking among themselves. “Here we go again, it’s showtime. We know the drill. We’ll pretend that doggie is actually herding us around this hillside stage.” It was nonetheless impressive, watching those working dogs in action, responding to the movement, calls and hand signals of the sheep guy. A big hit for the visitors.

There are 30 million sheep in New Zealand and another 10 million cows. Four and a half million humans. These animals are ubiquitous. Everywhere you travel in this mostly agricultural country you see vast fields and hills covered with grazing animals. I don’t know what New Zealand has to say about the effects of all that sheep and cow poop on the climate of the planet, but the country provides the world with lamb meat and dairy products, so I’m thinking they may want to keep quiet about that. Let them eat lamb.

I hit the jackpot at the uber-cute town of Arrowtown, a half hour drive from Queenstown when I found the legendary lupins I’d heard about that would be blooming at that time of year. Walking along a trail through the restored Chinatown at the edge of town, celebrating all the Chinese men who came to the area along with others looking for gold, I came through the trees down to the river and gasped at the sight. Masses of them stretched for miles and miles along the banks of the river. Stunning. My kind of adventure.