All good things come to an end (weep)

Well, we are now well and truly back in to work and - like you do - barely feel like we have been away.  Tans fading, fitness fading!  But it was great while it lasted.  Nice to have a weekend ahead (despite need to do work because of darn IT issues - sigh - bane of my life!).

Anyway, thought I would add a few last thoughts and experiences.
Boston - truly a lovely city, but I think we were quite touristed out by the time we finally did the trolley tour.  We ended up not really finishing it and the freedom trail.  But, gives us an excuse to go back in the future!

Boston, where the horrible raised highways used to be, after the big dig and they were removed

Glass Harmonica, invented by Benjamin Franklin

Paul Revere's house, which has been restored and made into an interesting small museum

 Cycling - we really missed the cycling in the last week of our trip, so now we know how we enjoy holidaying.  We have thought about organised tours, but the fun (and the bit of the holiday that means I don't think about work) is the planning, the riding, the packing.  So I think it will be more cycling and camping in the future.  But I don't know when...

We thought we were so fit and were so proud of ourselves.  Then on Wednesday (we got home to Turangi about 1pm on Tuesday), it was a beautiful day, so we got our our road bikes and went for an hours ride up and back up Waihi Hill  WELL I can tell you, I have rarely felt so vulnerable on a bike.  My road bike is about 1/10th the weight of my fully laden nice heavy secure touring bike.  I felt like the slightest breeze would knock me off.  Then I discovered that the handlebars are so much narrower, the seat and frame are so much higher, the brakes are on the opposite side and the bike goes so much faster! 

I didn't realise how different riding the two bikes are.  I was a nervous wreck coming down the hill, with the back brakes on the whole time (Peter thought I'd got a puncture I took so long!).  The climbing up the hill was exhausting (so much for the fitness), so Greg, it will be a lot more work if we are going to join you on the Round the Lake this year!!

Dunkin Donuts - I can't believe it, when we arrived at Auckland Domestic Airport (and saw the queue to get through security which was the full length of the terminal), we sat down and saw the Auckland Airport Dunkin Donuts.  So healthy!!!! And $2.30 for one donut vs $1.03 in the US. DONT try them, even for people without a sweet tooth usually (me), who worked in a bakery for 8 years and hated doughnuts... they are addictive.  You have been warned!

Auckland Domestic Airport Dunkin Donuts, what is this country coming to!

Home Despite having to work, and having IT issues, it is nice to be home.  Have two incredibly clingy cats and we are chomping through the firewood (ok, I admit, its COLD!!!). Looking forward to seeing everyone! Thanks for your feedback, it's been fun.

Till next year and next trip!  Carey and Peter

Bass Pro Theme Park.... Shopping and Boston

BassPro Outdoor World fishing and hunting shops take shopping to a new level.  This is a 'must see' if we are doing any shopping when we are in the USA and every time we find one, it seems bigger and bigger and more extreme. They DO sell stuff, lots of clothes, much much much fishing equipment (it was an hour and a half visit for Peter, I got to sit in the car and read more of my book that I am determined to finish before we come home...). They also sell lounge suites covered in camoflage, and a number of other extremely tacky things, but also some cool things.  The easiest way to describe it to you is with photos...

Go fast as you can fishing boat, $30,000 with 150hp Mercury on the back, to get to the fishing site before anyone else

Peter in front of another moose, trout pond and turtle pond.

The shooting range, where people pay to shoot.  and the bear

Huge aquarium, another pond next to it with trout in it, another one with turtles

Moose, with trout swimming around

Outdoor walk and cranberry bo

Peter showing how big the fishing boat is, registered in Gloucester

A fly fisherman casting

The whale

Entrance and fireplace, I assume for the wives to sit and wait at....

This says' Welcome fisherman, hunters and other liars'.

We had our long day shopping as planned.  Didn't get everything as planned, and I thought it would be not as long as we have whittled down the shops to look in, but no, after the Basspro visit, and a trip to Target to get another bag....  (camping stuff takes up so much room, and we still had to buy our normal quota of books....), it was a solid 7 hours shopping, exhausting stuff!

It was nice a relaxing to have a lovely leisurely breakfast talking politics with Helen,then she kindly drove us up to Boston, whereby we completed our shopping (with the book purchasing stage of our trip to the US, books are SOOO much cheaper here, and there are a lot that we never get in NZ... but our bags aren't as heavy as usual this time...).  Caught up with John and Joan for dinner, lovely meal and company, and back to talking business, John is a business friend.  Made us realise that we only had 2 1/2 days holiday and plane trip home before we get back into it.  Sigh...

Today was the long planned trip to Harvard.  And, we were right, so many less people on a Friday, and so much easier without the bikes!!  Did the tour around Hahvahd with the students.  We had two of them, Chase (who is studying English and Portugese, guaranteed to get him a job, not!) and Wes (studying Statistics).  There were around 75 people on the tour, and the recommended tip was $10 a person. An hour later, it was such a great performance, we definitely felt it was worth that much, hope others did as well. 

I had the opportunity to quietly ask Wes how you got into Harvard. Chase had already told us that if your parents earn less than $60,000 and you got into Harvard, there were no fees, and the normal fees were $52,000 a year, but there were discounts if your parents earned $300,000 or less (that is if they were 'poor'- our emphasis).  He said that the first two parts depended on your SAT's and your GPA. Now, I've read about these for years in american books and never understood them, so this was a great opportunity to find out.

Your SAT's (Standardised Achievement Test) is sat in your senior year. Your marks are out of 2400. He said he got 2070 (which is around 87%), and he said that that put him in around the bottom 20% of all his Harvard class mates.  The GPA is your 'grade point average' in your last year in school.  I've seen these written down, but had no idea what they mean.  Each of your subjects gets a grade, and A is worth 4, B is worth 3, C is worth 2 and a D is worth 1.  They are then averaged so that you get a score out of 4.  Your goal to get into Harvard is to get the highest score possible.  Any of our US friends reading this, please email me if I've got this wrong???

Then, you have to write an application and have an interview, and they look at all the things you did in High School (I presume sports, clubs, volunteer work). Unfortunately he had to go and do his share of the entertainment then and I didn't get to ask him about how you get into Graduate School.  There are 6500 undergraduates and 12,000 graduates.

Also visited today was the Harvard Natural History Museum, primarily to see the Glass Flowers exhibit. The photo's don't do the exhibit justice.  There are over 4,000 of these flowers and bits of flowers that were made in Dresden, Germany from 1890 until around 1936, by a father and son, who were commissioned to do this by a wealthy benefactress and her daughter, for Harvard. The point was to have models for students to study the flowers and how they are made up.  It is quite unbelievable that these flowers and branches are all actually made of glass, they look so real.

Glass flowers made in Germany for Harvard University research, from 1890 to 1936

The Museum also had a lot of stuffed animals, which was quite hard to look at, it was quite sad. Again, these were collected in the 1800's and up to end of 1920's. There were lions, elephants, tigers, cheetahs, jaguars, giraffes, zebra's, rhinoceros', whales, hippopotamus, wolverines, armadillos, anteaters, gazelles, sharks, a kiwi, bears, monkeys, apes, chimpanzees, antelopes, gorillas, etc etc.  A lot of them were so old that they skins were cracking.  We understand that this is how they learned about the animals back them, but it was sad to see them in the museum.

Wolverine, Hugh Jackman looks much better

There was also a dinosaur display, with one notable one below.

Swimming dinosaur from Queensland Australia, Harvard Natural History Museum

And for all of you that have been giving us grief about 'Dunkin Donuts':  this was lunch yesterday:

6 Dunkin Donuts, talked about them so much, this was lunch

5 minutes later (chocolated donuts too rich for me

Well, only one and a half days left, then we get home, good to see the weather in NZ is getting better!!!

Wealth beyond belief - Newport Rhode Island

We have just returned from a 2 day trip to Newport, Rhode Island and are now back at Helens, cleaning, and packing up camping gear and packing to come home (sigh). Peter is doing the long tedious task of breaking down the bikes and packing them up:

Peter in the middle of packing up bikes, with fluorescent duct tape, cardboard boxes and bubble wrap as packing.  Don't you  love his cycling tan on his arms!!!

Newport is about a one hour drive from New Bedford (where we are now) and truly has amazing history.  Settled in 1639 by some people rejected from original settlements because their religious beliefs didn't conform, Newport seems to have become a byword for extreme wealth (but there are totally normal people like us who live there too...).

If you ever get a chance to visit, it is worth it (and we would in retrospect probably have spent a few more days there as we didn't get to see everything).  If only to marvel at the immense wealth created in the US from the 1600's to, well really, to now. 

Newport has had a strong history for religious tolerance, with a range of religious settlers and different religions in the early days and has the oldest standing Jewish Synagogue in the US.  It is also a major Naval centre for the US Navy and Naval training.  But the two main claims to fame that most people know about are the 'summer mansions' and for us kiwi's, The America's Cup.

We didn't get to see a lot of the harbour and America's Cup associated features, but had dinner downtown last night and saw streets and restaurants named after sailing and America's Cup features.  Newport has a terrific natural harbour, which has been not only an important leisure sailing and naval harbour, but also a significant trade harbour in the 18th Century (sadly including being the centre of the slave trade for New England.)

The quick look at the harbour that we had showed some amazing leisure yachts, I'm sure a bit more time would highlight more of them, it is an important location to get work done on the luxury yachts.

But we spent all our time looking at the 'Cliff walk' and the Summer Mansions, and then at the International Tennis Hall of Fame (more on that later).  For the cliff walk, we had a book which we read as we got to each house, so rather than try and summarise that (and our about 4 hour walk), I've copied this from Wikipedia for you:

Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, wealthy southern planters seeking to escape the heat began to build summer cottages on Bellevue Avenue such as Kingscote (1839). Around the middle of the century, wealthy Yankees such as the Wetmore family also began constructing larger mansions such as Chateau-sur-Mer (1852) nearby.Most of these early families made a substantial part of their fortunes in the Old China Trade.

By the turn of the 20th century, many of the nation's wealthiest families were summering in Newport, including the Vanderbilts, Astors and Widener family who constructed the largest "cottages", such as The Breakers (1895) and Miramar. They came for a brief social season to grand, gilded mansions with elaborate receiving, dining, music and ballrooms, but with few bedrooms, since the guests were expected to have cottages of their own. Many of the homes were designed by the New York architect Richard Morris Hunt, who himself kept a house in Newport.

The social scene at Newport is described in Edith Wharton's novel The Age of Innocence. Wharton's own Newport cottage was called Land's End. Today, many mansions continue in private use. Others, including Hammersmith Farm, the mansion from which Jackie Kennedy was married, are now open to tourists as house museums. Still others were converted into academic buildings for Salve Regina College in the 1930s when the owners could no longer afford their tax bills.

Ochre Court, Newport, Rhode Island

Entrance Hall of Ochre Court, now Admin offices of Salve Regina, private Catholic College

Ballroom of Ochre Court, now Admin offices of Salve Regina, private Catholic College

The Breakers, Newport, Rhode Island.  We didn't have time to do the tour inside, but we did see the 'childrens playhouse' with fireplace and kitchen, real working ones with children sized facilities, so that the children (up to the age of 12 or 13) could learn independence.  They spent the afternoons of their 8 -10 week summers in the 'playhouse' learning how to be independent.  It was a full two room house.

Newport was where the truly wealthy had their 'summer cottages'.  Some of the stories of the wifes of the wealthy magnates catfighting and bitching were truly amazing.  What can happen when you have nothing else to spend your money on.  They competed to get the most amazing house, the most terrific garden, the largest staff, the most famous guests to dinner, the best balls.  The two houses that we took photos of where Ochre Court and The Breakers.  But there are many many magnificent houses.

The wealthy got ideas from France, Italy, England, and incorporated them in their 'cottages'.  Many of the houses cost $2m - $5m to build (back then, in the 1800's)...  Ochre Court, was estimated to cost $4.5million when it was built.  Fortunes amassed, were as much as $100 million (in 1800 dollars...., who nows how many billions that would be now).  There was so much money, that European royalty was readily lining up to marry into this wealth, and there were a number of counts, countesses, dukes etc etc living here.

Remember though, these were their 'summer cottages'.  They also has mansions in New York (that we primarily read about).  We wonder what those places were like if these were only their summer cottages!!

You could spend several days looking at the exteriors and visting the interiors of the places that are open to the public.

The Newport Casino was opened as what would probably be called a 'country club' today. No gambling, but tennis, restaurants and many other leisure activities.  It has since become the International Tennis Hall of Fame.  Again, absolutely fascinating, and we could have spent another hour or so there (but it closed, and we had to get help from the security guard to get out!!!).  Andre Agassi has just been inducted, in an apparently emotional speech, there was a special exhibit honouring him.  In addition, there was information on the history of tennis, of the Davis and Federation Cups, the ATP (mens international professional tour) and the WTA (womens international professional tour). 

There were profiles of each of the inductees, learned how amazing Suzanne Lenglen (french) was, one of the main courts at Roland Garros (where the French Open is played) is named after her, and surprisingly, how many of the really outstanding players died quite young, a number around their late 30's and early 40's.

We learned about 'court tennis' and went to see a 'court tennis' court, where a game was being played. It is one of the original forms of tennis and is kind of a cross between squash and tennis (looked way too confusing for me!!!).

We had a lovely visit with our friend Carolyn, thanks so much for your hospitality.  One of the features of the house that we stayed at is below.  As a financial planner, I loved it.  It is believed to be a hollow pole at the base of the stairwell.  When you have finally paid off your mortgage, you put the mortgage document in the pole and cap it off with the medallion on top.  Then when people come and visit they know (admiringly) that the house is freehold.  Pretty cool huh, what a sense of achievement and celebration (not necessarily that everyone else knows that the house if freehold, but pretty cool that you would know).

Post which we believe is hollow, you put the mortgage document in the post when it is paid off and top it off with a medallion

Medallion on top of the post - with the mortgage inside it we assume.

Weather has cooled down a smidge....  apparently going to get hotter again.  We have the packing day today, the shopping day tomorrow, then off the Boston to discover Boston, and hopefully get out to Harvard this time!!!

A change of pace...

The end of the cycling and the camping.  Just under 1400km, darn, we couldn't crack the 1500 - maybe some other trip.  We are now enjoying the fantastic hospitality of Helen Goddard and her family, Buzz and Kim, and Laurie.  Kims mother, Hanna is staying here from San Francisco as well.

We are in the middle of a hot humid heat wave, but there was a doozy, but quick thunderstorm today and it looks like things have cooled down a lot, what a relief. We were cycling in around 100 degrees Fahreinheit yesterday, when we got off the ferry (about 38 degrees Celsius).  People were being warned to stay indoors.  We were totally mad, and for once were really happy to get off the bikes after only about 20km!

We have had 3 fascinating days since the last blog, a total contrast again, from day to day.  We are already missing the cycling, but I have to say that for me, I'm not entirely sure on the camping experience.

There are times I've really enjoyed the camping and other times when I've just longed for an air conditioned room, proper shower (where you don't have to wear jandals), and a nice soft bed.  The things that have made the camping possibly more challenging than anticipated have been the heat wave.  It really is difficult getting a good nights sleep in a hot little tent, with two people breathing (maybe if one of us didn't breathe the other one could sleep....). 

The neighbours being so close together and hearing everything they are doing was another continual problem.  How significant this was as a deterrent became really clear at the last campsite where we were at the end of a row, the neighbours were all a long way away and we got good nights sleeps (so I was thinking, yeh, this camping lark isn't all bad!!)

I can deal with having to walk over to the camp office to use the internet, with sharing showers and loo's, and even paying astronomical prices for cold milk in the morning to eat with the cereal.  However, the other two things that made for a less than delightful camping experience were: 1.  the dirt and 2. packing up and moving every day.

We worked out that all except one of the USA campsites were on gravel or dirt. No grass to be seen (in contrast in Canada, they were all nice grassy sites).  The one grassy site in the USA was by far the equal worst campground we stayed at, so we aren't counting that one!!!  If anyone has camped in France/Germay/Croatia/Italy please let us know whether the campsites are grass or dirt....  We have worked out that to make the dirt and gravel work, we just need to get a groundsheet made to fit the whole area of the tent and the entrance areas on both sides.  We get to clean the tent on Tuesday, lots of nice soapy water to get rid of the squashed bugs and dirt!!

The last campground we were at was probably the first equal best, and we were there for three nights. It showed how much nicer it is to be somewhere for a few days in a row and not have to pack up and unpack each day.  We even treated ourselves to a campfire on our last night camping.  We now know that this is something that we should have done more regularly.  All of the campsites have a fire pit (most of them being rusty old truck/car wheel rims), and good quality firewood is sold at the camp office, or houses on either side (we could always tell when we were getting close to the campground as the firewood stalls started advertising.)  But it was $5 for a fire for a few hours, but it was a lot of fun.  There are a lot of rules in Maine in particular where you aren't allowed to bring firewood into the area because of the risk of transferring bugs.

Last night camping, finally a campfire, should have done it more often

So, I think we have learned how to do the camping bit, and pending a new groundsheet, I think it will remain a good way to travel when cycling, as long as I get the odd day in a motel...  Our gear was fantastic, particularly the little stove purchased at Katmandu the day we left - it is so small it fits in a mug.

Tent site at Martha's Vineyard, last camping

The cycling will definitely be done again!  But if I am going to study for the next 4 years, we are thinking we will need to investigate organised bike tours to fit them in to the short amount of holidays that I will get in June each year.

Our last day on Martha's Vineyard was classic in two ways.  The first was the weather. They have 'smoky souwesters' a lot of the time.  But this was one of their 'foggy' days.  These can last for days, or fortunately for us, just the one day.  It was stinking hot and foggy as anything.  We got our flashing reflector lights out, even though we were riding on bike trails most of the time.  I tried to get a photo to show the fog, but it was too hard (but I've tried below...).

Katama Beach, on the south side of Martha's Vineyard, trying to show the fog

The other outstanding thing was the 'Martha's Vineyard Camping Association'.  This is a religious revivalist meeting, originally Methodist, but now non-denominational.  It has been going for 176 consecutive years. Originally 6 people went to the island at Oak Bluffs to have a serious study meeting.  Then husbands and wives started coming (but no children allowed).  They stayed in segregated tents, men on one side and women on the other.  Eventually the mothers convinced the powers that be to have children attend too. 

The meetings were for a week, and the families had 'family tents'.  They would arrive by steamship with all their fine furniture and accoutrements, set up their tent, then pack it all up and take it away when they left.  Over time, people would arrive earlier to set up the tents, and eventually the tents with canvas, were transformed into 'tents with timber',  These 'tents' has the original wooden tent poles, and had tongue and groove timber nailed on.  These were adorned with 'gingerbread' as was the fashion at the time.

Gingerbread houses at the Marthas Vineyard Camping Association, Oak Bluffs, Marthas Vineyard

Gingerbread houses at the Marthas Vineyard Camping Association, Oak Bluffs, Marthas Vineyard

These houses were unheated and 'temporary'.  But they are still there today.  The camp association eventually purchased the land, and there are 315 of these houses remaining.  They are built in concentric circles around the 'tabernacle' and they now have 2 months of prayer meetings, entertainm ment, and bible study (we picked up a programme, as it is the middle of the two month season.)  Of these houses, 51 have been 'winterised'.  It is virtually impossible to purchase a house, they are passed down in families, and there are many rules and restrictions that come with being an owner.  When houses are available for sale, they sell for between $300,000 and $500,000 and the land is leased, not owned.  If the owner or any of their tenants break any of the rules, they can lose the lease (and therefore the house, but I think houses can be moved away, as there are a number of the houses around Oak Bluffs, but not in the campground area.)

We didn't realise until talking to Helen about it, but it makes a lot of sense that most of the attendees were black.  We read afterwards that many successful and prominent black people vacation at Oak Bluffs, we met and talked to a nice lady (about her cool UnderArmour running outfit and she was admiring our 'ugly' but really really cool and comfortable Keen cycling sandals.)  Oh, and before I forget, Whoopi Goldberg was sitting two tables away from us at breakfast yesterday morning before we left Martha's Vineyard.

So, to the last phase of our holiday. (comfortable beds and showers!!)  We are really enjoying catching up with Helen and her family.  Last night we went to an Art Exhibition opening, organised by Kim Goddard (Helen's daughter in law).  There was some fantastic art there, a stand out being the art by Laurie (Helen's daughter).  But it was fascinating watching the people.  I had to take a photo of this guy.  We all looked at the photo last night and fortunately no-one knew him.  There was quite a bit of discussion over dinner about how this clothing was NOT the norm, nor required, and not representative of the people of Nonquitt (please take note!!).

Pink shirt and navy pants with green whales.....

 

Dressed up for night out, dripping with sweat, long hair, which has gone red, at Helens

Dressed up for night out, dripping with sweat

Had a lovely dinner and quick swim in the ocean last night (with phosporesence in the water, which was really cool).

Today was the New Bedford Whaling Museum and a fascinating tour of the 'Lagoda'.  A half life size whaling boat.  The life at sea for these sailors must have been miserable, not for us... Did you know that Whales have 'fins' which look like hands with five fingers, and that their lungs aren't connected to their mouth, (as they would drown when they eat), but only to their blowhole - probably everyone else did know that, but we didn't!

Lagoda, half size model of the actual whaling ship, absolutely fascinating, New Bedford Whaling Museum

Chimneys where the oil blubber was rendered to oil on the Lagoda

The risks were high, and the visit turned into a long conversation between us about how it was acceptable back then to kill whales and use their resources, and what else used to be acceptable and isn't now.  We were musing about what do we do now that probably won't be acceptable in the future.  We both agreed that we feel that things will change around social media and networking, and the the privacy of the individual will probably become much more discussed in the future.  Obviously, we will all look back in 100 years (well not us, but our grandchildrens grandchildren) and be amazed that we ever used and abused the oil reserves.  We had a discussion about how smoking was so acceptable and now isn't really (sorry you guys that smoke...), in Nova Scotia, the whole province is 'non-smoking' and it is really expensive and difficult to get cigarettes (but still not as expensive as NZ).  We finished our discussion agreeing that hopefully people wont look back and say 'why did people ever drink alcohol', our thinking being that it has been done since time immemorial.

This reminds me though, I've been meaning to comment on recycling.  In Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, everywhere you went it was assumed that you would recycle. There were containers everywhere and it was logical to do it.  As we got further south, it has become more and more uncommon to have recycling options in public areas (apart from Martha's Vineyard). NZ has a long way to go to get anywhere near the two Canadian provinces.

Well, looking forward to another enjoyable evening, and to catching up with Carolyn tomorrow night in Newport. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENZ.

Some other photos, a couple which were on  my iphone that I just downloaded.

Gorgeous dinner setting before a lovely meal at Helens

The wonderful Lobster Roll at Side Street Cafe, Bar Harbor (still our favourite place to visit on the trip)

Peter, Beth and Brent, Durham, New Hampshire

Contrasts and near disaster (well sort of)

The more that we travel around this part of the world, the more we notice the huge contrasts, usually between wealth and privilege and the not so wealthy and not so privileged.  This trip, to this part of the world, where there is so much wealth on display highlights to us how different New Zealand is.

I can remember going on a workshop in Hamilton about small business development in about 2005, where the seminar presenter was lamenting the NZ attitude to wealth.  He said (several times) that one of the big problems in NZ is that our small business people are happy when they have 'the boat, the Beemer and the Bach'.  When they have that, they stop growing their businesses, and dont aspire to more.  At the time, I didn't really understand it.

Over the years though, it has become more clear to me.  Travelling around this part of the world where the wealth is very evident, we can see what he means.

There is the old money (1600's - 1900's), and then there is the 20th Century money and then the 'new new money' - the 'Masters of the Universe of Wall Street' (and I don't use that terminology fondly.....).

Culture Cringe, condo's at Hyannisport

Bare beachs at hyannisport

Houses on other side of condos at Hyannisport, probably cost millions, these three photos were all next to each other

In NZ it is difficult for us to conceive of a market as big as exists in the US, and then in the rest of the world.  We are limited in our aspirations by our 4.3 million population and our geographical distance from markets.  Probably also too (which is not necessarily a bad thing), by our approach to life and living, the more socialist/welfare nature of our society, and possibly our expectations about what is possible.

The questions to our business people in NZ, and the ones that we ask ourselves while cycling and walking around Cape Cod, Boston central, Nantucket, Marthas Vineyard include:
a. Do we really need to have enough money to afford the $20 million summer residence on Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard?  Yes it is pretty, but then how much is it going to cost to upkeep it, to pay all the staff.  How much time could you actually spend at the summer place?
b.  Do we really need to have enough money to afford the hand polished, varnished, immaculately maintained yacht, parked in the marina at one of these places?
c.  Is the cost to personal freedom/integrity worth that?
d. Would you be allowed to eat anything if you were that person (you have to be so thin and fashionable...)

Nah, we think the way we have things in NZ have it right. If we had that much money, how could we justify going on a cycling holiday!!!

The weather is still fantastic.  But we had a huge thunderstorm on our last afternoon in Cape Cod.  It created a dilemma.  What do you do when all you have are two bikes, and a small (very wet) tent?
We hadn't really thought that part through before.  We had lots of discussions about whether we raced back from town to get in our towels from the 'washing line between the trees' at the camp, buying dinner before hand, or whether to stay in town, read some newspapers (haven't been doing much of that), drink beer and wine and eat pizza and wait for the storm to go through.

The problems with rushing back to the camp were that once we got there, apart from huddling in the tent (and it is too small to comfortably sit there - and it would have to be cross legged...), we would have to go up the main common room.  And do what?  Sit and watch the rain...  We didn't know how long the storm would last for but my argument for the sheltering in town, having pizza, wine/beer was pretty convincing and won out.  Shortly after we had made the decision to stay the thunderstorm hit with a vengenance.  It was nice to be dry and well fed and watered while it was thundering and lightening outside.

Drying out from first part of thunderstorm, Brewster, Cape Cod, Mass

Thunderstorm in full force, about 6.15pm, Brewster, we were tucked up inside with wine and beer and pizza and newspapers

It finished before it got dark too, so we could safely ride back on the bike trail to our campground, rescue our wet towels (get them wetter still after our showers) and crawl into the tent to sleep.  Fortunately the thunderstorm cooled the air down a lot, and we got a better sleep!

We have reached 1300km today with our riding. Sadly, there isn't a lot more to do.  Would like to get up to 1500km, but don't think that will happen.  The riding on the Cape Cod and Marthas Vineyard bike trails is superlative.  Flat, smooth, NO POTHOLES!!, fantastic!  There are lots of purpose made bike trails over Marthas Vineyard, that we have been enjoying today, and will go back to tomorrow.

Near Disaster, I suppose I need to mention it.  We arrived in Marthas Vineyard last night, navigated our way to the campground, via Vineyard Haven (real name Tilsbury).  I went in to the supermarket and bought dinner (salad, cold meat, salsa and corn chips), and thought 'that wasn't that expensive', then got outside and realised I hadn't purchased any wine or beer.  So Peter went back in, as I organised the groceries amongst our luggage, to appear out to say that there wasn't any in the supermarket.  So we went hunting for alcohol in the small town.  Eventually, I stopped and went in to a shop and asked.  Only to be told that Vineyard Haven was 'dry town.' Oh No!!!  We only had 2 warm Corona's with us.

But, we decided, lets forge on, we don't know how far away the campground is, and it won't hurt us to have a non alcohol night. (As it turned out it was to be a non internet night too...).  Got to our campsite (very nice, and campground very nice clean facilities).  Our lovely neighbours (very attractive Canadians in their mid 30's, from Quebec, both with stunning bodies with a 6 pack abdomen, she (Luce) is a triathlete), were so nice and friendly and INSISTED on giving us a Budweiser each, and then came over with the offer of wine afterwards.  By then, we were Bud'ed and Corona'ed up, so said no thanks. 

We have since learned that apart from Oak Bluffs and Edgartown, the other 4 towns and the rest of Martha's Vineyard is 'dry'.  So we made sure we bought a couple of nice bottles of Argentinian Red (couldn't get it at the supermarket in Edgartown) this afternoon, and will ask Luce and Eric if they would like to join us later.

We went on a tour of Nantucket, but I'm not sure how much of the tour I believe.  Yes, all the houses appear to be clad in cedar shingles, but I'm not sure whether you can build new houses, or renovate historic house exteriors.  I found a booklet that said that you could rip out the interior, but please take some care and retain the historic interiors.There are a lot of 'zealous (as the guidebook says)' zoning laws that have kept Nantucket's appearance 'stuck in the 19th Century.  It makes it very quaint and beautiful (and very expensive).  Houses sell from $500,000 to $20 million (with not many available at $500,000.)  Even little 'shucking shacks' sell for over $1 million apparently.  Unfortunately, I haven't had internet access to try and find out the reality, so you are at my mercy for now!!

Pretty street in Nantucket, Privet hedges, used for privacy around the more expensive houses where they grow quite high.

Nantucket Land Bank sign. 2% of the sale price of each property goes iinto the landbank.  It is then used to buy up land, and either used for museums or parks.  This one was in the walking circuit of Nantucket town.

Cranberries, on the cranberry bog on the land banked property in Nantucket.

Luxury yachts parked up at Nantucket wharf.  There were 6 in a row.

Menemsha, Marthas Vineyard, Mass, a real working fishing village, had great fish and chips for lunch there today from 'The Bite' shack

Beach at Menemsha, Marthas Vineyard, Mass.  Interesing how they are still using the word Handicap, and not disabled.

One thing we did find quite interesting is that there is a landbank.  2% of each sale of each property (that is $400,000 on a $20 million propery) is paid in tax to the landbank.  This landbank then buys up properties and either makes them into bare land, or retains the historic homes.  Reading the local Martha's Vineyard newspaper, we have just found out that they have the same here.  Quite a good idea.

Also found out how cranberry's grow.  They are a native US berry and they grow in bogs.  They can be either wet or dry harvested, one by flooding the bog, letting it freeze, putting sand on top, then letting the ice melt and the sand sinks into the bog and lets the cranberries grow (but I'm not quite clear how they are actually harvested....). 

Common sign in Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, we thought it was amusing

The other place on Nantucket that was interesting was Sciasconset, or 'Sconset.  If you have read biographies of actors who were around in the first part of the 20th Century, you might have heard of it.  This is where much of them 'retired to' to do 'summer stock.'  That, and the Cape Cod playhouses. There were several playhouses in the Cape, would have loved to have gone to a performance, but don't fancy riding bike back to camp in the dark at 10pm at night!

Now, will go and see if the internet is working at this campsite (wasn't when I tried a few hours ago!).