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Hither and Yon travels far and near

Oct. 6: Travel for work has been practically nonexistent for the last few years. My personal travels have continued apace, however. Left: The New Zealand flag. The big one was a trip to New Zealand back in November through December of 1996. I met the Gregories when they spent a year in Huntsville in 1987, and dated the eldest of the three daughters, Tristan, for most of that year. We've kept in touch by post and e-mail since then. The marriage of Natasha, the youngest of the girls, was excuse enough for a trip down under. Right: The Wright family just outside their place in Suva. Allen, and Julia in back, Angel, Judith and Matthew in the middle. I don't remember the dog's name. Credit: Bryan Walls Sign up for our EXPRESS bwalls news delivery I stopped for several days to visit the Wrights in Fiji. The Wrights are a family that I went to church with at Central, who are doing mission work in Suva, Fiji. Fiji is strictly tropical. Nadi, which has the big airport, is on the dry side of the island, and is at the center of most of the tourism trade. Suva is on the wet, jungle side, and is the capitol and largest city on the islands. I got a taste of Suva, including meeting some of the swindling sword merchants (free, now please pay $8) and being offered some amazing deals on jewelry. For the most part the Fijians were genuinely friendly, though. Angel Wright accompanied to the market to bargain for me, so I did bring home some snazzy Fijian geegaws.

Left: Matthew, Allen, and me under water in Bequ Lagoon. Credit: our divemaster Allen, Matthew, and I took a diving trip to Bequ Lagoon. There were some really nice soft corals on the dives, and some sand eels and various fish. I was a total diving klutz on the trip, though. My tank fell off on one dive, I ran out of air on the second (the valve was closed -- worked fine once it was opened!), and I dropped my snorkel into the drink coming up from the snorkel trip. I had to free dive 30 or 40 feet to retrieve it. Oh, and I turned off a valve on the boat that was spewing fresh water. By turning it off, I caused a water line to blow. I'm sure they were glad to see me go, though I think the dive master preferred me to the Japanese kids that generally ignored him and dived where they wanted to. Right: A snapshot of me above Queenstown, New Zealand in a para-punt. A para-punt is basically a parachute with a sort of seat that you launch from a mountain, rather than by jumping from a plane. This one was tandem. Credit: Simon, the pilot Left: Thanksgiving at the Gregories. Around the table from the left is me, Stuart Ellis, Natasha, Tiffin, Tristan, and Joyce Gregory. Well, Natasha was an Ellis by the end of the visit. Credit: Joe Gregory After a few days there, I flew on to Auckland just in time to celebrate a fairly American sort of Thanksgiving. Tristan, Tiffin (the middlest sister), and I flew to the South Island of New Zealand for an amazing week of touring where we viewed and traveled across pastureland, mountains, Alpine rainforest, beaches, glaciers, fjords, snowcapped mountains, arid planes, desert mountains, and lush green plains. Lots of sheep, deer, great roads, beautiful stars (including the Magellenic clouds, and a great view of the Spider nebula from St. John's Observatory!), flowers, and friendly people. The next week was mostly nice visiting and getting ready for the wedding, with a side trip to see geysers, hot springs, and such weird stuff. I got to see Tiffin, Natasha, and Stuart again, and met Tiffin's boyfriend Ed, here in the States up in Baltimore in August of '98. We got to go crabbing that time. Left: Natasha Ellis blowing a kiss to a recently captured crab. Credit Bryan Walls Right: The Mexican flag. More recent was a family trip to Mexico in the summer of '98. We couldn't convince Mother to come, but all the siblings and all the nephews except Alan were there. Also, Karen O'Donoghue, a dear friend from Tennessee Tech days, joined us there. We stayed a bit south down the coast of the Yucatan peninsula from Cancun, a small town called Playa del Carmen. Right: Some of us among the beautiful formations in the underground caves called cenotes. Left: Karen O'Donoghue and I as dive buddies.Credit: Dickie Walls We visited ruins of Mayan and Toltec complexes (including Tulum, Coba, and Chichen Itza), went scuba diving in the Caribbean and in Cenotes, beautiful water-filled sinkholes, and we ate a lot of wonderful food. Despite many warnings to beware the banditos, we felt safe and welcome there. What's more we met two friends in a ruin, Nancy and Sidney, who were vacationing in Playa del Carmen as well, and they are now the girlfriends of Ron and Dickie, respectively. Right: Dickie at his fateful first meeting with Nancy and Sidney, standing atop the Mayan ruins of Tulum on the sea coast. Credit: Bryan Walls I've done a few more domestic trips, too. In June of this year I spent a week in Seattle with Jennifer and Jereme Zimmerman. The area reminded me of New Zealand, really ­ cool, wet, and lovely. I've also done some travel for dance weekends, as far afield as Virginia and Florida. Of note was bringing in the 1999 New Year at the Florida Rhapsody dance week. There was contra , swing, Cajun, and Zydeco dancing, wonderful workshops, and lovely people. I may end the year the same way, after a week at Dickie's new place in Florida. Left: The Mexican crew, except the O'Reagans, in front of the big pyramid at Chichen Itza. Dickie, Sydney, Nancy, Ron, Karen, and me. Right: Jennifer Zimmerman in front of the ferry in Friday Harbor, in the San Juan Islands between Seattle and Vancouver. I met Jennifer in a Youth Hostel in Winter Park, Colorado, a few years back, and went to her wedding in 98 in Berea, Kentucky.Credit: Bryan Walls In the next year I rather hope to make it to Mobile to see family, and Lafayette, Louisiana, to dance. Not much planned for the future other than that. Got any ideas for great trips? If you want to come to Huntsville, my home is available for company, and I'd be glad to have you visit!

Web links Fiji Mission Report - Background on what the Wrights are doing in Fiji, at least through 1998. I created their site at the Central Church of Christ web site, and it has been idle since I handed over the reins to others. New Zealand Tourist Site - This wasn't one Iooked at before going or anything, but it has some nice pictures. Hostelling International - A lovely, cheap way to travel when available. In a hostel you share accommodations with other travelers, often from all over the world. We stayed in "backpackers" on the South Island in New Zealand, which are basically private versions of the same thing. Sun Club/Continental Plaza, Playacar - Where we stayed in Mexico, thanks to Ron's timeshare. Very nice. Casa Cenote - Casa Cenote is a restaurant on the beach just north of Tulum, and barely across the street from a beautiful cenote, or sinkhole. This was one of the more memorable spots on the whole trip. This site has some great pictures, and a listing of the ruins, several of which we visited. Amazon Books -- Jeremy Zimmerman works at Amazon.com, as did Jennifer till she got her teaching slot. Seattle's Best - It's not, really -- there are dozens of coffee shops better than any of these chain monsters -- but it's better than Starbucks. A week in Seattle could almost get me addicted to coffee. More Headlines - Bryan news on the web Bryan Walls Home Page

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