Day One in Quito

We are staying in a family run hostel some where in Quito.  This city in enormous. We got up and had freshly cooked eggs for breakfast maid by the hostel owner.  Our leaders Taylor and Sam made us order in Spanish.  The students are way better at that than I am.  Next we had a 2-3 hour orientation session and photo lesson. Then off to lunch. English is not spoken very much here so our lunch and dinners have been interesting. Let's just say I had corn nuts, pork skins and molassas soaked fruit for dinner.  Earlier in the day we took a tram up to 12,000 feet for a panoramic view of the city.  Quito is located at 9,000 elevation so what is 3,000 more feet when you cannot breath anyway. The views were grand and the students took lots of great photos.  There was a horse corral up in the mountains which also made for some interesting shots.  For our night time activity we went on a historical tour of the city with El Diablo as our tour guide. It was well done and very educational.  Now we are in our rooms trying to figure out who is showering when and how soon can we get in bed and get some rest.  The day way typical Nat Geo exhausting.  

So the summer blogging will begin again. I look forward to this  adventure with a new group of great students. We are not sure how often we will have access to upload to our blog. Our leaders, Sam and Taylor flew to Quito today and will meet us at the airport.  Both leaders have led this trip to Ecuador before. I hear the weather is cool and rainy today but better weather coming.  

What a beautiful final morning in Fiji

After having overcast skies yesterday, we awoke to a sunny day. I am sure all the kids will be excited when they get up. Kevin, Lauren, Van, Bri and Gemina have booked a morning fishing trip. I can't wait to hear those stories.

We had our final nightly meeting on the beach under an amazing blanket of stars. In fact, several saw a shooting star. Sarah was particularly touched by the shooting star and was breathless for a few moments after seeing it. We talked about what we we miss from the trip and everyone was in agreement that they will miss the group of people that has become their family for the last three weeks. Makenna said how odd it will be to wake up alone in her room and not have three other faces to look at it. The bonding of friendships has been a huge bonus for all of us. The students were wonderful travelers. They have shown great maturity as they have had to deal with many obstacles on this trip, especially the last few days of travel. They have been patient and supportive. All their parents should be proud of how well they handled this trip. We got along great and their were no cliques formed....every was everyone's friend.

And their photography....WOW....you will be amazed. Ulla, the NG photographer, was very impressed with their work. After one student's critique she was telling me how good she thought they were. I told her they were a beginner and had just learned how to use their camera. Her eyes got big and she said, "a beginner? Their photos were unbelievably good."

I said, Yes, a beginner....she was overly impressed. She told me that in the 5 days of time that she was with them that she really saw ALL students work improve. She loved watching the advanced kids try new techniques and move to the next level of photography. She said our group was one of the best, talented groups she has worked with....I believe her.

I am off to the open air restaurant to have my breakfast and then hope to get a little color on this white body.

The last few days of NZ

Wednesday - Friday, June 22 - 24

Hanmer Springs - Christchurch, New Zealand

We are currently sitting in the Christchurch airport with 30 minutes of internet access. We have been up since 5:15 am. Our flight to Fiji has been cancelled on Jet Star Airlines because of the volcanic ash coming from Chili. We are trying to get rebooked for tomorrow on Air New Zealand; they and Emirates are the only airlines flying out of this airport. This ash problem has been an issue for us before because Ulla could not get to us from Australia. It took her several days of rebooking for her to finally get a flight. Hopefully, we will not spend out last few days of the trip at the airport.

The stay in Hanmer Springs was very nice. We met up with Dave, our local contact who provided some interesting activities for us. We went horseback riding along the mountains, and then spent the afternoon in a huge outdoor sulphur pool, complete with water rides.

Next stop Christchurch. I had been looking forward to coming to New Zealand and spending time here. Once the September earthquakes hit and the main city centre was damage, I was sad. Yesterday, as we drove around the residential areas and walked around Christchurch city centre, the sadness became more real. What once was a very busy, bustling downtown area looks like an abandoned movie set. There was a restaurant that you could look inside the windows and see the RESERVED sign on the table and the dead flowers in the fallen vase. The pepper shaker had dropped to the floor and the pepper had spilled. It was all surreal. Time was frozen. All the group was deeply moved by our observances.

Our last stop of the day was to experience the Maori culture tradition. We participated in the program by electing Kevin our chief. The girls did the poi dance and the guys did the haka. We all had lots of chuckles.

Now to Fiji…we were so excited to get to the warm sunny beaches but that has been delayed. Keep your fingers crossed that the rebooking goes well.

Coast to Coast

Monday - Tuesday, June 20 - 21

Hokitika - Hanmer, New Zealand

Hokitika is a small mining village on the western coast. From our lodge, we walked to the roaring beach and were impressed with the stormy waves. This was just a preview to the next day when we drove to Pancake Rocks and saw and heard the powerful sea. This day was a photographers dream as we had great lighting and a different scene around every corner.

In the evening we grabbed our tripods and hiked to the glow worm dell. The stars were out and it was a beautiful clear night. The glow worms and stars looked very similar. It was interesting setting up the glow worm shots because we all had to use the self timer and long exposures and every one had to turn off their "torch" at the same time and keep it off so as to not disturb the others pictures. You can imagine what that was like with 14 kids in total darkness. The shoot was successful and we had lots of fun.

Ulla Lohmann, our National Geographic photographer, joined us in Hokitika. She is a fireball of energy and the kids really enjoy working with her. She is an exploration/expedition adventure photographer and has a most impressive bio. She is extremely down to earth and very fascinating to talk with.

Today was a very long bus ride from the west coast to the east coast….five hours….but we stretched it to an all day event because we stopped at several beautiful places. The most powerfully scenic was a place called Castle Hill. It is an area full of boulders. Scenes from the Narnia movie were filmed here. In fact, the landscape of NZ has been in many movies and now I know why.