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Date: Tuesday August 12 2008

Jakob initially eschewed the little league route two years ago in favor of learning golf. I balked at first. I had played golf about twice in my life. And you can’t just go hit some balls at the park like a game of catch. Also, it was expensive. But Jakob insisted and promised to keep up with it. He did keep up with it, along with baseball, soccer and tennis. So here we were playing ‘bad golf’ fast – enjoying the morning air and the occasional correctly hit shot.There were no ocean views, but its presence was hardly kept a secret. There was heavy ozone in the air, produced from the waves smashing the shore, the white foam releasing oxygen. Dampness invaded everything. And a wind with a distinctive maritime flair blew in with a chill and just a smidgen scent of salt. I could close my eyes and feel the ocean all around. The holes were long but had multiple tees, and by the sixth, we realized we needed the ones closest to the hole.

At the end of the round, we chanced upon Bruce Olson, who runs the course.  We mentioned traveling to New Zealand in the evening. His eyes got wide, and he smiled.  Information burst forth from him like a volcano. I told him our plan was to not rent a car and stay in Auckland all three days. He told me to skip that plan. Auckland is nice, and you should see it he said, but if you go to New Zealand and don’t see the countryside, you’d miss some of the most spectacular scenery on Earth. He advised me to cancel a night at the Auckland hotel, rent a car, head north towards Whangaparaoa peninsula, stop at an information center and wing it. I’d be traveling halfway around the world, and this guy had just advised me to cancel my plans in favor of chance.

“I don’t know,” Jaime kindly said after hearing Bruce’s pitch back at the hotel. She is an event planner and makes a living from having plans, backup plans and backup plans for backup plans. That is not to say she is not adventurous (which she is), just more cautious than I, especially in foreign countries (usually a smart move).

We returned the rental car, checked out of the hotel, stored our luggage and headed to the nearest cable car. Today was Alcatraz day. (Note: we discovered a nice rental car tactic. Rent a car from an airport and return it to the city center when you are done if the city has adequate public transportation to get you back to the airport. In San Francisco, we rented a car to travel to Napa and Muir Woods, but were done with it now. The extra day of usage and parking would’ve far exceeded the $5 per person train charge to the airport. There is usually no charge for this tactic and saves money on parking and daily rates.)

The cable cars of San Francisco are one of the coolest museums on the planet on top of being a terribly inefficient way of getting around. Hordes of tourists clog the stops and can make waiting for one interminable. The routes are limited and fairly slow as well. But everything is original and authentic and stepping on a cable car is stepping back in time. We got fairly lucky and were traveling somewhat off-peak. Still, there was no Rice-A-Roni moment this trip. Along with 1,000 other people, we were packed in the back far away from the quintessential hanging off the railing.

As we move further into the digital world, nothing could be more analog than the cable car. A steel tether runs underneath the streets at a constant 9 1/2 miles per hour. A metal “claw” grabs onto it, and the cable car is thrust forward. This is done by a series of levers the pullman swings back and forth. Physical labor indeed. The sounds of the clanging and the metal and the levers and the ding ding take you way back – as if I know what the 1920s sounded like. It is an ethereal experience. Just give yourself a lot of time.

The cable car took us to Fisherman’s Wharf and the ferry to Alcatraz is a little more than a mile away at Pier 33. In between lies Boudin Bakery, the commercialized home of sourdough bread in the Bay Area, complete with museum and tastings. As always, wanting to see everything inevitably means seeing very little of everything. We were left with less than 30 minutes to explore Boudin (give yourself 90 minutes to tour the museum, build up desire for sourdough and then alleviate that desire with some outdoor eating). Jake was particularly impressed by the loaves in the shapes of lobsters and sharks.

When you step off the boat, park rangers greet you with an introduction reminding about the many steps and to be careful. Alcatraz’s strategic location in the middle of the bay has made it a military garrison, lighthouse and prison. Next, you are herded (I did feel a bit like cattle; this is a top destination in San Francisco and A LOT of people visit) into a room to pick up an audio device for the tour. I was skeptical at first, but this audio tour was by far one of the better tours I have ever been on in any museum. The audio used actual prisoners and guards and sounds to bring the story alive. The intense storytelling resonating through the headphones created a surreal moment as I took them off in the middle of Broadway, one of the hallways in the main part of the prison, and not a single word could be heard as several hundred people were fully engrossed in following the instructions of the audio guide.

I learned about the attempted prison breaks and the famous prisoners who made Alcatraz home. The view was tremendous, and some cells had a direct gaze onto the great city by the bay…imagine being locked up within sight of freedom the entire time. Apparently, every New Year’s Eve, the prison would get very quiet because the sounds of jubilation would flow across the bay and into the main prison house. I had my obligatory picture inside a cell before it was time to leave. We had a plane to catch and a country to bid adieu.

Jaime told me on the boat ride back to the mainland that she thought the new plan for New Zealand was great and gave it her blessing. I quickly sprung into action by calling the hotel and a rental car company to make the arrangements. I didn’t even notice the boat docking as I was engaged in my $2.39 per minute conversation. The unplan was planned and in about a day’s time we would be on the other side of the world.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 20th, 2008 at 3:19 am and is filed under Australia / New Zealand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.