This was a fabulous trip..  I totally want to make it again, hopefully next time with Joe..

Sign

Apt to Miss Road is mostly the whole reason why I went there.  It didn't disappoint.  It was pretty much EXACTLY what I was looking for..

Sign

 I like cemeteries.  A lot.  Like, a LOT a lot.  

Flannery O'connor's grave.



Pretty fern flower motif..




Misc headstones




Angel birdbath




Eroding wreath




Crumbling enclosed plot




Brick wall




Several stones




Wreath topper

Most of the pics I took were in the cemetery.  These aren't.

A smokestack, tower, turret thing.  Heh heh..  Phallic.

 


This is the steam/laundry building just outside the Howell building at the Central State Hospital.



More of the steam/laundry building thing.




And, you know, more.




The Howell Building.  Look for ghosties in the windows..  :-)




More Howell lurve.  




And the final Howell pic.

Madison is a charming little GA town that's overflowing with Victorian houses and interesting old buildings..

This is a small family plot I spotted on the drive next to a dead oak tree.

Ok, so as two of you may know, I'm working on a writing project.  And I've been looking for a nice quiet Georgia town to act as a setting for the story.  

I wanted a few things.  It needed to be near a major water source, have a few cemeteries there, be a smallish town with lots of backroads around it where a sleeply little village/commune could easily hide, be in Georgia, have lots of trees, and be charming overall.  I also wanted some sort of quirky, unexplained Southern mystery about the place.  So I bought a book on Georgia hauntings.  And began reading about Milledgeville. 

Milledgeville is fascinating in itself because of three things.  First, the county where Milledgeville is located, Baldwin County, has 182 recorded cemeteries.  SCORE!  Second, Milledgeville was the state capitol until the 1860s.  It was the last place Sherman stopped during his march to the sea, and shortly thereafter, the capitol was moved to Atlanta.  Third, and most important, MILLEDGEVILLE IS THE HOME CITY TO THE CENTRAL STATE HOSPITAL.  What does that mean?  Well, this hospital was previously known as the Georgia State Sanitarium.  It's a HUGE complex of dozens of large buildings that all comprised an enormous nut house deep in the heart of Dixie.  MAP  25,000 people have died there and a lot were just dumped into mass graves.  I read a rumor online about 'medical experiments' being done there.

I wanted something a bit more remote, however.  So I found a particular spot close to Milledgeville.  It's in the Oconee National Forest, and there's road that runs parallel to (... wait for it......)  Murder Creek.  The road is called Apt to Miss Road.  And while you don't see Murder Creek at all from the road, fuck it, I'm writing fiction.

So, today I took a road trip.  Because A. I wanted to check out the location and make sure it had the feel I was looking for, and B. I wanted to take a damn road trip.  So sue me. 

I'm going to post some pics, but I'm going to separate them so it's not overkill in one entry.  :-)

 

..  that it snowed yesterday on the way back from Doubtful Sound..  When we got here, it was FREEZING cold, and all the mountains had a great new powder coating..  It was a tad warm today, so a lot of it melted, but there's more snow on the mountains then was there when we arrived..  The weather here is so off and on, it's kinda bizarre.

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Today I did the Canyon Swing.  It was THE SHIT!  I didn't think I would be scared, but when you're actually there on the platform, harnessed and hooked up, it's just terrifying.  They kept trying to get me to move closer to the edge, and my feet just turned to lead..  I basically freaked the hell out.  They didn't push me to do it, just let me figure it out for myself..  Finally, I just realized that there was no way that I WASN'T going to do it since I'd paid the money,  was harnessed up, and there were two guys that had already gone ahead of me.  I'm not a wimp by any means, but it was pretty tough..  Here's a vid..



Then, instead of my Indian food, we went for seafood instead.  They don't do seafood the way we think of it, it's kinda crazy stuff, usually cooked with some strange cream sauce or something sweet.  So Navarre got eggs benedict with smoked salmon (that was to DIE for..), and I got a ham and smoked hoki fish cake with a poached egg and a mustard sauce.  Also to die for..  I also had 2 lovely big beers, since I jumped from a very high platform today and I deserved it..  And the music they were playing at this place was AWESOME..  I came back and looked a bunch of it up..  One band I have to download for sure is Salmonella Dub.

Then we just kind of bummed around the lake, got gelato, and leisurely made our way back to the room here.  Now we're just hanging, because we're kinda too broke to do anything else, and again, I deserve the leisure because I jumped from a very high platform.  Yeah, I'll be milking that for a while..

Here's a video by a guy named Tiki Taane.  They're playing this song everywhere, and I LOVE it..  There's always one song from every trip that stands out..  In Germany, Bonz and I kept hearing Life after Love by Cher..  In Mexico, Navarre and I discovered the joy that is Gasolina.  And here in New Zealand, the song of songs is Always on my Mind..  I need to travel enough so that I can compile a CD..



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Birds we've seen here:

(Livestock)
Ostriches
Emus
Turkeys
Peacocks
Chickens

(Wild)
California quail
House sparrows (natives call them brown bush robins)
Several species of duck and/or mallard
Pukekos
Blackbirds
White swans
Black swans
Geese of some sort
Tuis (they sound like R2D2)
White faced heron
Native parakeets
Red-billed seagulls
Black-billed seagulls
Black backed seagulls
Several species of albatross  (ALBATROSS!!)
Shags
Kestrels
Kiwis
Some sort of hawk that we keep seeing everywhere
Shearwaters
Cape pigeons
PIed stilts
New Zealand pigeon
Fantail

We didn't see any penguins or kea birds.  We'll just have to come back..

.... was KILLER!  Seriously, who gets to go look at glaciers?  It's surreal.  It looks like it's really close, until you realize that those tiny black specks on the glacier are PEOPLE..  I took a pic at full 10x zoom, and they still look like specks.  It was pretty kewl.   There was a ton of walking tho, and I really wasn't up to it.  But I AM getting better..  

Once we left the glacier, we went to a great little bar in town called 'The Monsoon' where we had some kick ass burgers and I had some more kick ass NZ beer..  They were also playing pop videos, and the music here is just SO good.  They really like the weird, groovy music that's difficult to find in the states..  Kinda accoustic/folk/funk type stuff..  I've been spending time trying to find some of it on iTunes, but to no avail..

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The next day, we made the drive South to Queenstown.  We left at 6am.  It was supposed to take 6 hours, but it took 8 because there were so many rivers/waterfalls/glaciers to stop at that we couldn't help ourselves..  Also, on a bizarre side note, we were driving along and saw a couple from Israel that we saw a couple days before in Abel Tasman..  They were on the side of the road at a scenic overlook.  It was bizarre..

We got here, checked in to our really cute little B&B, and took the car back to the airport to turn it in..   

Queenstown is the perfect little alpine city..  (We're in the 'Southern Alps' so it fits..)  From our hotel balcony, we overlook a lake and snow-capped mountains..  And the owners here are really sweet..  We've gone into town twice, and it's a crazy climb back up the hill..  But there are cute little shops, and we sat by the lake for a while..  It's been pretty mellow.  We even ordered pizza since we found a good place here..  Mostly we've been chilling..

Today, though, we got up and got picked up at 6:30 for our Doubtful Sound cruise..  It was AAAWWWEEESSSOOOMMMEEE..  It was like a 3 hour drive, then a 30 minute boat ride across a lake, then another 30 minute drive all over this crazy steep, twisty gravel road, and it just opened up into the most amazing place I've ever seen..  It was stunning..  

We didn't see any seals, dolphins, or penguins, but the scenery was just outstanding..  I got lots of pics..  And now, when I come home, and I'm feeling goofy, I can just say that I'm PINING FOR THE FJORDS!!!  :-)

Tomorrow I'm going on the Canyon Swing..  http://www.canyonswing.co.nz/index.php ..  CAN'T WAIT!  Navarre refuses to go, of course..  Weenie..  :-D

But there are loads of Indian restaurants here in town, and I get to get some Vindaloo for my bravery..  Life is good..  :-)

 We’re here at a lovely little lodge/ B&B at Franz Josef national park.  And we slept in until 11am this morning.  Which is terrible, and hedonistic, and a rotten waste of this beautiful glacier behind us that we should be exploring by now, but MAN it felt good.  And Navarre’s having some really bad stomach problems, so we may not do too much exploring.  Oh well.  We got some great pics of it yesterday, so if that’s all we do, I’ll be satisfied.  Also, the weather is really rotten, and we’re up in the clouds as it is.  The glacier is even higher up, and I just don’t think that today is the best day to go traipsing through the rain and nastiness with Navarre needing a bathroom break every half hour.

 

I only wish this place had ‘net access tho.  I could work on photos and upload, and maybe even catch some folks in real time.  They don’t have a phone either.  LOL  So at the very least, we’ll prolly go into town and find a ‘net café and/or a payphone.

 

Yesterday we got up EARLY EARLY, and got onto the Trans Alpine train.  WOW.  It was stunningly beautiful.  And of course, the batteries to my camera died in the first hour, and the other batteries were packed away and checked in the luggage cart.  So I had to just sit and LOOK at everything.  It drove me insane for a while, but then I just relaxed and enjoyed..  It was amazing. 

 

Navarre spent hours out on the observation deck snapping pics, so I get to pilfer some of hers..  :-D

 

Then we walked all over the town of Greymouth, looking for the Thrifty car rental place.  Actually, Navarre did.  I had a nasty headache, and sat my booty down at a coffee shop and politely informed her that I would stay with the luggage while she went looking.  She found it, and picked me up in the cutest little blue-grey Suzuki.  I LOVE this tiny little car.. It’s so damn cute!

 

So we drove down the coast to the park..  Beach on the right, snow-capped mountains on the left.  It was awesome.. 

 

We got here too late to do any exploring, so we dropped our stuff and went into town for food.  We ate at a place called ‘Ice Blue’..  Navarre had lamb shanks (she’s had like 4 different variations of lamb shanks since we’ve been here), and I had pasta with a bacon/mushroom alfredo sauce.  And MONTIETH’S CELTIC ALE..  The beer here is SOOOOOOOO good!  So we ran to the grocery store so Navarre could get some milk, and I could get another 6 pack of Monteiths, but I got the Summer Ale.  Stoked to try it..  I’d like to bring home some 6 packs, but don’t know how that will go.  I’ll probably just spend the rest of my life trying to find NZ beers in the US..  Oh well.  There are less worthy life quests.

 

Now we’re watching ‘Biker Build Off’, and Navarre is feeling a bit better.  So I’ll hop in the shower and we’ll drive around as long as she’s able.  YAY!  *we get to see a glacier!!  we get to see a glacier!!!  woot!!!

…  we did a lot today.  We got up at the crack of dawn, cleaned out the camper, made our way to the post office, mailed our shit ($441NZ), checked into our hotel, took the camper back, came back to the hotel for a 2hr bath/nap/room service break, and then walked all over Christchurch.

 

We got a little testy with each other.  Partially because neither of us got much sleep last night, and partially because we just had so much to do..

 

But Christchurch is really pretty.  There are such beautiful old English-style churches everywhere, and I got some amazing pictures.  There’s a beautiful Cathedral in the middle of a big square that I could have photographed for hours.  The architecture is just lovely.  In the Cathedral Plaza, there was a group of obnoxious teenagers playing with inflated condoms.  Just goes to show that teenagers are rotten everywhere you go.

 

The roomservice was also to die for.  I had a great chicken laksa, and Navarre had smoked salmon hash..  It was also pretty expensive, so we then indulged ourselves in McDonalds for dinner.  Yum.  J

 

Tomorrow we have to be up and packed, in the lobby at 7am, where a car will pick us up and take us to the Trans-alpine railway station.  There we’ll board a train to take us to Queenstown.  And we’ll be there for 6 days.  Life is good.

 

The best thing about being in a hotel room is that you don’t have to find your shoes to go to the bathroom.  I feel like I’m just bathed in luxury here.  A bed even.  Aaaahhhhh…

 

Going to go to bed relatively early, and hopefully tomorrow will be easier and more congenial. 

 

Love you guys!  Hope everything is good! J