Thaipusam: A Hindu Celebration

WARNING: This post contains graphic images 

Back on January 27th (yes, I'm really behind on my blog), there was the Thaipusam festival in Singapore.  Thaipusam is a Hindu festival dedicated to the god Murugan.  For this celebration, devotees  prepare for 48 days by cleansing themselves through fasting and prayer.  On the day of the festival, the devotees will go on a pilgrimmage with a kavadi (burden).  Sometimes the kavadi can just be carrying a jug of milk on their head but in Singapore, they practice the piercing kind of kavadi.  The piercings are outlawed in many countries but for some reason they allow it here and I got the chance to see it.

The festival started at a temple in Little India where the devotees would cleanse themselves and put on their kavadi before walking 4 km down the road to another temple.  We went to the first temple to watch them put on their kavadis.  What you can't gather from the pictures is the loud drumming going on in the background and the thick smell of incense.  

The devotees are said to be in a trance like state so they feel no pain as they are being pierced and do not bleed.  They are also said to not be left with any scars after the ritual.  There is a special piercing team that helps the devotees so they must do everything just right.

Preparing for their devotee begin putting on the kavadi

A devotee getting these chains/string connected to his body with fish hooks

Every metal object touching his body is piercing his skin.  

Kathy, Shelly, Nicki, and Ed.  Kathy and I were the first timers at the festival.

All of those pins are going in his face 

Almost finished with connecting the chains 

Hooked up (pun intended) and ready to go

More preparations

No words 

Jason was on a business trip so he got to enjoy this with us. 

This was too painful to watch 

Carrying more fruit 

Not only did this guy carry oranges on his back but he did it while wearing spiked shoes

Almost all of them pierce their face like this.  The horizontal spike goes through both cheeks and the tongue.

I am a bit squeamish (or maybe it was the fact I had just come down with a stomach virus) so this was hard for me watch.  I am glad I got the chance to go see it but hopefully will not have to again.  I am in awe of the devotion these people have to their religion.

If you would like to see more on Thaipusam, check out my friend Kathy's Blog.

New Zealand: Mt Cook, Rafting, and Christchurch

Our last three days in New Zealand seemed to contain the most driving.  We left Wanaka after breakfast to head up to Mt Cook for a day hike.  We heard that Tasman lake had icebergs in it so we had to go see.

Stop by Lake Pukaki.  Mt Cook is to the left.

One of the bridges on the path to Lake Tasman

Mt Sefton

This cloud hung around the top of Mt Cook all day keeping me from getting a perfect picture.

Made it to Lake Tasman.  The icebergs are chunks of the glacier that have broken off. 

See the edge of the iceberg at the end of the lake?  It is covered by till which makes it hard to see how big the Tasman
Glacier is. 

Up close of the edge of Tasman Glacier.  The till turns the lake this cloudy tan color.

Trying to get a picture with cloudy Mt Cook

A clear glacial stream

A resting point along the trail

 After the hike we headed to a B&B just outside of Twizel.  The B&B was located on a family farm and we had a spectacular view out the window of our room.  We ran into town for a bottle of wine and pizza which we enjoyed from these two chairs as we watched the sunset.  Definitely our favorite evening of the trip.

Peaceful

Sunset over Mt Cook

The next morning we headed to Geraldine to go rafting but there was some miscommunication and we missed our trip so we continued on to Christchurch to spend the day.  There wasn't much to do in Christchurch after the earthquake so all we did was go to Cashel Mall.  Cashel Mall is street shopping that was setup after the earthquake and vendors were not allowed to operate within the Red Zone.  The shops are in modified containers that they stacked and lined up along the street.

Derek and I studied the construction of these shops for quite some time.

The following day we were able to get spots on the rafting trip so we headed back to Geraldine for some rafting along the Rangitata Gorge.

Our rafting group.  We were with a group of European backpackers and our guide, Dan.

Heading down one of the first rapids, cheesing real hard.

First class 5 rapid 

Where did the boat go?

Probably screaming and choking on the river I just drank 

Beautiful Rangigata Gorge

About to disappear into another rapid

We made it through alive

At the end of the trip was Jump Rock where we leaped into the freezing cold water.  There were two different jumps and I only did the first one.  I didn't enjoy the long swim back to the shore in frigid glacial water.

Jump Rock

Here I go! 

About to hit the water

Derek's turn

Derek jumping from the higher point

Still falling....I think this was about a 15 meter drop.

We questioned taking the two hour drive back to Geraldine for rafting but it proved to be worth it and it was the perfect ending to our trip.  We are so thankful we got the opportunity to make this trip to New Zealand.  I hope we will get a chance to go back and see more of it before we move back to the States.  We still have half of the south island and all of the north island to see.  New Zealand is incredible!

New Zealand: Wanaka and Mt. Aspiring Helicopter Tour

When we decided to go to New Zealand we debated on whether or not to take a helicopter tour to see some of the glaciers.  We did a helicopter in Kuaui, HI which was one of my favorite things I've ever done on a trip so I really wanted to try a helicopter again.  The week before we left we finally decided to book it and we were not disappointed!

There were heli-hike options to a few of the popular glaciers but we opted for the Mt. Aspiring and Glaciers tour.  This provided us with an alpine landing and a glacier landing in our 60 minute flight.  It was 60 minutes of some of the most spectacular scenery we have ever seen!  Hopefully my pictures will back up this statement.

Lifting off from the north end of Lake Wanaka

On our way to the alpine landing area

Derek video taped almost the entire ride.  We haven't gone through the video yet so nothing to share right now. 

Enjoying the beautiful views from the alpine landing area

Where the plane landed.  It snowed a few days ago so there was still a bit where we landed.

Can you spot the glacial lake in the valley between the mountains? 

Back in the air and headed to the glacier 

Flying past one of the glaciers in Mt Aspiring National Park

Waterfall from the glacier

Up close with the edge of one of the glaciers

Stream running through the valley

Cracking on the glacier

Made it to the top of the glacier

Pretty excited! 

The clouds wanted to block views of Mt. Aspiring but we did get a picture with it peaking out above the cloud.

Mt. Aspiring National park

Heading back to Wanaka

After the helicopter tour we headed into the town of Wanaka to check into our B&B for the night.  It was our first authentic B&B experience and we really enjoyed it.  We stayed in a private apartment off the side of this retired couple's home and in the morning they cooked us breakfast, complete with fresh squeezed orange juice.

View from outside our room at the B&B 

The picture below captures something interesting we watched as we sat on the shore of Lake Wanaka and ate take out for dinner.  These people hooked a hose to the water jet of a jet ski.  They had made some contraption so that the water provided propulsion to push this lady out of the water like a rocketman.  Genius.

Rocketman?

In the end, it was a perfect day!