Auckland

We're at Auckland airport waiting to board the flight home.  The last two days have been full - we've squeezed in all we could.

Spent yesterday on Rangitoto Island, just off the coast.  It has no full time residents, just a few "baches" (small cottages) left.  No building has been allowed since the 30's.  Rangitoto is one of 5 volcanoes within Auckland.  It's the youngest, having erupted from the sea only 600 years ago.  There are still large lava "rivers" where plants have not yet colonized, so it's much rougher than the other volcanic places we've visited.  Also intact lava tubes.  It's a conservation area with only indigenous plants and animals being the goal.  Beautiful views from the top, both of the city and of the many other small islands in the bay.

Today we spent walking around the downtown, with a stop at the Art Museum, which is a great building with a wonderful collection.  Lunch in Food Alley - a bunch of stalls in an arcade.  Tasty Indonesian fare was our choice.

So, at the end of two months I'm happy to say that Randy and I have done very well with all the togetherness.  I liked Australia very much - highlights for me were the penguins on Phillip Island; koalas and kangaroos; Uluru; Daintree rainforest; and the Great Barrier Reef.  I have loved New Zealand - it's been one continuous highlight.  We've been to lots of beautiful places, but I've never been anywhere that is so consistently stunning.

Auckland

Not really in the mood for going to the Auckland Museum, we asked the guy at the backpacker's reception desk what was going on that we shouldn't miss.  He said, "It's Easter.  You should go to the Coca Cola Easter Show.  It's great."  So we hopped on the city bus to check it out.

It turned out that the Easter Show is a combination country fair, circus, festival, and art show all rolled into one.  We ended up staying into the evening.  The day's entertainment included sheep shearing demonstrations (traditional manual shears and electric clippers); wool baling demonstrations, done by the top two champion wool balers in NZ; a Chinese Circus in a big top; Cook Island and Tahitian dancers; Maori singers; an Indian Bhangra band/dancers; a few other music groups; and a Canadian lumberjack show!  The art show was very large and included painting, photography, wood turning, glass and ceramics, with many very fine pieces.

It was supposed to rain today, but was beautiful until about 7:00.  Then the rain started, and although it was not pouring, we headed "home" about 8:00, missing the Brazilian Divas and fireworks.

Christchurch to Auckland

We returned to Christchurch this morning and spent most of our day at the International Antarctic Center, a fascinating place.  Can't believe Dan is going to be down there for the whole winter! We're about to check in for our flight to Auckland.

We were not sorry to drop off our camper van - Big Blue or the Luckymobile.  24 nights in a van that size is plenty.  Fortunately we had excetionally nice weather most of the time, so we were mostly inside to sleep.  Campervan was definitely the way to do this trip, but next time we'll go up one size. A backpackers in Auckland is going to feel like the Ritz!

Akaroa

We decided to spend a couple of days in the lovely little seaside town of Akaroa, on a peninsula a short drive from Christchurch, before returning to Chch for another day.  Akaroa bends around a harbor and is surrounded by hills created by volcanic eruptions.

Yesterday's highlight was the The Giant's House, a local artist's home.  It's gardens are full of large whimsical mosaic sculptures of people, animals, a piano,and more - absolutely fantastic!

The plan for today is to hike in the hills...

The drive along the road near the volcano rim is called "absurdly beautiful" by Lonely Planet.  True, and the hike we took was doubly absurdly beautiful.  We walked part of the very top of the rim - on one side we looked down into the caldera where Akaroa village and harbor are nestled, and on the other side we looked down to little inlets along Canterbury Bight (Pacific Ocean).  Spectacular - and we had it all to ourselves.

Came back to a bustling village.  It's Good Friday, a holiday here.  Easter weekend seems to be like Labor  Day for us - big travel weekend for summer's last hurrah.

Christchurch

It was a fairly short drive from Lake Tekapo to Christchurch, through lovely rolling farmland with lots of sheep and then onto the broad coastal plain.  We are in an urban campground which is landscaped with lots of roses.  

Although we were prepared to see earthquake damage here, it hit us pretty hard.  The center of the the Central business district is in shambles 2 and a half years after the first of the two big quakes.  It's surrounded by wire fencing and extreme danger signs, and nobody except construction and demolition crews are in there.  Many buildings within the "red zone" and surrounding it have been demolished and parking lots are plentiful.  Other buildings that they are attempting to save are propped up with steel framework.  75% of the buildings in the heart of the business district will be torn down.  They are still debating whether or not their cathedral can be saved, after citizens protested against its demolition.  Visiting Quake City, a small museum brought me to tears.

Around that museum the hopeful, forward thinking spirit of the city is evident.  Re:Start is a small temporary mall area with cafes and shops housed in brightly painted, cleverly stacked and arranged shipping containers.  There are large topiary animals and canvas sunshades between "buildings".  One of the shopkeepers said they expect to be there for another year.  (The other place we've seen shipping containers used for buildings in a city was for a medical clinic in Lima.  The upbeat vibe of this place was lacking there.)

Aoraki/Mount Cook

We took a detour on our way to Christchurch.  Just seemed like we couldn't drive past the road to Aoraki/Mt. Cook without going there.  Last night we were talking to a couple from Christchurch about Mt. Cook.  They said it was certainly beautiful, but it was often hard to see all of it because of clouds.  Then the man brightened up and said the forecast for today was for complete clearing and "Ye moight o' toimed it jeest roight."  And so we did.....it was a perfect day, with no clouds to block our views all day.

We weren't prepared to climb 12,000 feet (yeah, right!), so we did  a couple of smaller tracks!   One was through the Hooker Valley, between and over glacial moraine ridges, with views of Mueller and Hooker glaciers, the Hooker glacier lake and river, and Aoraki.  Really a nice hike!  A shorter one took us to a view of the Tasman glacier, NZ's longest.  It's so covered with rock and dirt that you could miss it if you didn't know what you were looking for, but the lake at its base is full of calved chunks.

We're spending the night at Lake Tekapo, another beauty.  Christchurch tomorrow, maybe.

Manipouri to Omarama

Had a great night's sleep at an excellent campground in Manipouri (excellent = clean, quiet, nice kitchen, a really nice couple that owned it, and hardly anyone there!). Didn't leave there until 10:00.  We're now headed toward Christchurch, so there will be a lot of driving for the next couple of days.  No major stops today.  Our route was back through Kawarau Gorge and the fruit- growing area, then along a small lake and into the Lindis Valley and Lindis Pass.  This mountain area was different from others we've been through.  Rather than tree-covered, the mountains are more stark and covered with tussock grass (mostly brown at this point).  Also beautiful.  We drove out from under an early morning shower.  Good to be back in the sun!  Omarama is a tiny town.

Doubtful Sound

Today it rained all day.  At first we were disappointed since our fiord cruise in Doubtful Sound was scheduled.  Then some locals started to say we were lucky there was rain because we'd see the waterfalls that disappear within two or three hours after the rain stops.  The boat captain said we see Doubtful as it really is (there is upwards of 10 meters of rainfall per year here and it had been unusually dry for the past month or more).  And they were right!

The day started with a half hour cruise across Lake Manipouri to the West Arm power station, which is only accessible by boat.  It's a mile underground, accessed by a spiral tunnel down into the granite mountain.   Glad I wasn't driving that bus!   It was very interesting, though I had to try to forget where we were.  Water from the lake goes through the station's turbines and exits to Doubtful Sound.  75% of the powere generated is used by an aluminum smelter (some distance away) and the rest is for "public good."  If the power were not used by the smelter, it would be enough for the entire South Island.  There is a watchdog group to assure that the station does not adversely affect the water levels in the lake.

The bus (which stays on this side of the lake) then took us through Wilmot Pass to Doubtful Sound.  On the bus ride is where we started to see waterfalls - everywhere.  The Sound was a full of clouds and rain and the mountains were primarily many, many shades of gray.  What we gave up in distance views of the mountains was more than made up for by the literally hundreds and hundreds of waterfalls, most of them 3 to 4 times the height of Niagara Falls, racing off the mountains into the Sound.  Magnificent!   We happily gave up the dryness of the cabin to stand outside in our rain gear for more than 3 hours!  Also saw a pod of bottlenose dolphins (at the southernmost edge of their range).  We cruised to the end of the fiord to the entrance to the Tasman Sea, where there was a colony of NZ fur seals, and into several of the arms of the fiord.   At one point, the captain turned off the engines and asked everyone to stand still and be quiet - the sound of falling water was so nice to listen to.  Fabulous day!

Queenstown to Te Anau

This was a slow, take-a-break day.  We had a short, exquisite drive from Queenstown to Te Anau, in Fjordland, passing by part of Middle Earth.  Poked around town and Randy fished this evening.  Tomorrow we will be on a boat in Doubtful Sound, a less travelled fjord than Milford Sound.

Fox Glacier and Queenstown

We're in Queenstown and connected again...

Yesterday we spent the morning on a hike on Fox Glacier - awesome!  This was very different from Athabasca Glacier in Canada.  We both remember that as having an icy granular snow surface, with some fairly large flat spaces.  This was hard ice, making crampons absolutely necessary.  There were lots places where the guided had to chop steps into the steep parts with an ice axe.  We saw one moulin cave, with blue ice.  Lovely.

Later in the afternoon, we headed toward Queenstown via the Haast Pass Heritage Highway.  This sealed our opinion that, on a beauty scale of 1-10, the South Island is a 12!  Spent the night at a Dept. of Conservation campground, Pleasant Flat, right on a river.

Today we actually went through the Gates of Haast, the part of the pass that is most tightly squeezed between two mountains.  In less that one km. from our campground, we stopped twice to take photos.  In less than three km., we saw 5 high waterfalls, all in areas too narrow to stop the van.  Other stuff from today:
The tree line is so dramatic.  Looks like the leader of the trees drew a horizontal line and said,  "Okay, guys, nobody sets any roots past here."
Some of the mountains go straight up from the road.  Can't imagine building it.
Passed Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea, long bodies of water that run parallel to each other, with a mountain between them.
There was a huge area of vineyards and fruit orchards where we got wonderful apricots, peaches, plums and apples.
Karawau Gorge with beautiful green water.
Bungy watching - absolutely no desire to jump from that bridge!

Queenstown is in a fantastic setting on Lake Wakatipu.  The focus here is on adrenalin junkies and every other store is related to some extreme sport.  We won't be spending much time here.  Checked out a waterside craft show and walked along the shore.  Unfortunately, obscenely loud jet boats kind of wreck the scene.

Franz Josef

Hiked as close as possible to Franz Josef glacier today (about 300 meters away from the terminus).  You can only get onto this glacier by helicopter and people were ferried onto and off of the glacier all day.  The helicopter noise didn't add to our enjoyment of a beautiful place.  The walk in was different from our northern hemisphere experiences because you go from thick rainforest, to rocky riverbed, to glacier, rather than from alpine environment to riverbed.

Then took a hike up Canavans Knob, a granite "bump,"now covered with vegetation.  From one side there are lovely glacier views and from the other, views of the Tasman Sea.

We twisted and climbed and descended the 20 km. to the village at Fox Glacier, where we'll spend the night.  We're booked for a 4 hour hike on Fox tomorrow morning - no helicopter required :-).

Hokatika to Franz Josef

Last night we went to check out some glow worms after dark.  They were in a fern dell just off the main road.  Same magic as fireflies - very appealing for some reason.  By the way, they are not worms at all, but the larvae of fungus gnats.

This morning we had showers off and on.  Went to the Hokatika Gorge - another gorgeous gorge!  It's  particularly known for bright turquoise water within it's steep granite sides, but with clouds it pales to a milky turquoise.  Still beautiful.  NZ is a fern-lover's paradise.  There are so many kinds and they're everywhere, including along the walk to the gorge.

Poked around in the shops in Hokatika, a nice little town.  Didn't find anything we couldn't live without, other than some scraps of possum fur that Randy bought for fly tying.

Continued on to Franz Josef, arriving late afternoon, after another beautiful drive.  Went to the west Coast Wildlife Center, a place involved in saving endangered kiwis.  They had a darkened habitat set up for rowis, the rarest type of kiwi.  Since they're nocturnal, this was a good chance to see them.

Our campground for the night has a nice view of the glacier.  Spent the evening chatting with two couples, one from Australia and one from NZ.

On the South Island

No Internet yesterday, so catching up on two days -

Yesterday we took the ferry from Wellington to Picton on the South Island. Smooth 2 hour cruise across Cook Strait and about an additional hour weaving through small islands off the north shore of the South Island.  Lovely, of course.  Clouds and an occasional bit of light rain on the ferry became steady light rain for the rest of the day.

It's a different world down here!  Miles and miles with nothing but vineyards and cloud draped mountains.  Teeny towns, narrow roads (not as narrow as Australia so far).  We're in temperate rainforest, so it's very dense and green.  The Upper Buller Gorge is beautiful when you get a peek through the vegetation down to the green water and rocky river bed below.

We traded our parking lot campground (which, I have to say, worked wonderfully for maximizing time and access in Wellington) for a simple Department of Conservation campground above the river.  Stopped driving just in time as the rain got heavier.

Today, we didn't wake up until 8:00 - late for us.  There were no man made sounds overnight, just the sound of rain and, early this morning, van-shaking thunder.  Then the birds took over.  Great way to start the day.

We're making our way south on the west coast - destination is Franz Josef glacier sometime in the next couple of days.  We're taking it easy, stopping wherever we see or read about something of interest and taking short hikes ("tramping"). So some of today's stops:
Lower Buller Gorge - sheer rock faces; a short section of the road was kind of a half tunnel, where you drive under the cut away mountain.
Tauranga Bay/Cape Foulwind - A New Zealand fur seal colony.  They're a rich brown, rather than gray like ours.  Pups nursing.  Wild surf.  Hillsides covered in spiky flax plants.
Flirting all day with a thin band of blue sky between the fog bank over the water and the clouds over the mountains.
Truman Track near Punakaiki - a short tramp on a beautiful track through rainforest to the Tasman Sea.  Eroded limestone cliffs.
Paparoa National Park - "Pancake Rocks" and "The Blowholes".  The rocks here are in very clear layers that look like, yup, pancakes.  The sea surges in and shoots up through the blowholes (and it wasn't even high tide.
At least 75% of the ride today was  knock-your-socks-off beautiful.  (The rest was just pretty!). This coastal route is like Australia's Great Ocean Road on steroids.  Indescribable.

Spending the night in Hokitika, which we'll explore tomorrow.

Wellington

Yesterday was our only full day in Wellington and we made the most of it.  Started off by riding the cable car to the uphill end of the botanical garden, which was the starting point for a short walk through a hillside neighborhood to Zealandia.  This is a very large fenced area which is a sanctuary for native animals.  Introduced species like stoats, possum, etc. have been trapped, poisoned and removed, so there are no predators.  This is important because when NZ separated from Gondwana, it had no mammals other than bats, so it's birds and reptiles developed no defenses from predators.  They even check you bags for stray mice before they let you in!

It was a wonderful place.  Of particular note:  Tuataras - lizard looking creatures that go back to the age if dinosaurs.  What's important is that they are not lizards, but are the top of the evolutionary chain for reptiles.  They are breeding them here and at the university for release here so that they do not become extinct.
Wetas - These are very large ( size of Randy's thumb and larger) native insects.  They are Tuatara food and Tuataras can survive on as few as 4 per year if they have to, although they eat more when they're available.  These insects are plentiful and people said they played with them as children.  They're completely harmless.
Takake - These are large flightless birds (size of a large chicken) that were once thought to be extinct.  There are now 250 in the world and they're doing we'll here.  The pair we saw were 18 and 19 years old.

Then shuttled back to the cable car stop and took an hour downhill stroll through the botanical gardens to downtown.  The gardens are huge and we saw only a tiny fraction.

In the evening was the Southeast Asia Night Market.  This is a bi-annual event, more festival than market.  It was held on the quay outside Te Papa, with some of the performances in Te Papa's outdoor amphitheater.  There was fabulous food from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam Nam, Singapore, Phillipines, Myanmar.  We loved the curry laksa (a seafood a noodle soup) made by The Malaysia High Commission Women, who cooked up a storm.  Ate more things, too, of course!

Performances included an Indonesian gamelan and many dancers and singers from all the countries.  It was fabulous and we stayed until it ended at 10:00.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that before the festival we watched the dragon boat races.  It was a big race weekend for these boats, which were kind of like large canoes.  There are two rows of paddlers, about 30 of them, with one calling out the stroke rhythm.  This was in Wellington Harbor.

To Wellington

Headed off to Wellington this morning.  About 4 and a half hours of driving time with good roads and lots of beautiful scenery.  Along the way were:

Roadsides and hills covered with purple heather.
The Rangipo Desert, which is not truly a desert.  It's a tableland with scrubby vegetation due to high altitude and poor soil caused by the eruption of Taupo.
Taihape, "the gumboot capital of the world," proven by the giant corrugated metal gumboot sculpture as you come into town.  Our timing was off though - the Gumboot Festival was last weekend!
Very dry brown hillsides that should be green, according to the locals.  They haven't had a "proper rain" in two months.

Arrived in bustling Wellington mid-afternoon.  The city slopes down to the harbor and wraps around it.  Very attractive.  Upon the recommendation of the I-Site staffer, we are staying in the most convenient "camper park" in Wellington.  It's right on the waterfront, which sounds good.  However, it's literally a paved parking lot for campers, with the addition of nice bathrooms/showers (and they do leave a vacant space between campers!).  As unlovely as it is, we're very happy to be able to walk everywhere we want to be, and not have to worry about driving in a very busy city or finding parking.

Immediately after parking the van, we headed off to Te Papa, the national museum of NZ.  Another great museum, with both natural and cultural exhibits.  One amazing thing was a preserved giant deep sea squid, that weighed around 900 pounds!  Also a beautiful 1800's Maori meeting house full of incredibly fine carvings and woven walls.

A stroll around the city after dinner capped off the day.

Turangi

We have moved to Turangi, at the southern end of Lake Taupo.  This is a trout fisherman's paradise, so this day is Randy's.  We started at the National Trout Center, a hatchery and education center.  The plan was then "lunch, fish, dinner, fish until dark.". He's now fishing somewhere along the Tongariro River, out of sight, I'm enjoying a lovely sunny afternoon on a grassy (very dry, brown grass) bank, with the sound of the river a major presence.

I've been reading, taking some photos, and playing with my water colors (no skill in that department, but it's fun).  The town doesn't offer much of interest to me, but the area is beautiful.

Taupo

It was a chilly 46 when we woke up this morning.  Makes getting out of a warm bed in an unheated camper less than inviting!  It warms up quickly, though, and the days are in the mid-to-upper 70's.

We started the day with a morning  lake sail - well, not really.  There was no wind, so the captain said we'd have the sails up to "look pretty," but we were under power.  Fortunately, it was very quiet electric motor.  There were about 10 people onboard the Barbary, a 1927 boat which is thought to have belonged to Erroll Flynn in the 20's.

It was a perfect morning, with mountains all around, one of them puffing steam out the side.  The lake, which is huge, is in the crater of a still somewhat active volcano.  It's over 600 feet deep and bubbling at the bottom.  There are also beaches with warm water bubbling in.  The folks that live around here are counting on these little pressure releases to keep the big (really big) volcano quiet.  The mountain spewing steam had a small eruption last November.

We sailed out to see some Maori rock carvings on a cliff at the side of the lake.  They were done recently, in the 70's I think, by a local artist.  Impressive.

After lunch in Big Blue, our trusty, if ugly, camper, we walked about 3 km. on a track leading out of town to Huka Falls.  The track was along the stunning Waikato River, with it's beautiful, clear deep green, aquamarine, and turquoise water.  This is the longest river in NZ, going from Lake Taupo to the sea at Auckland.  The falls were not high, but wild, and lovely light turquoise with lots of white foam.

Then back to the campground for another soak in the thermal pool before dinner.  Wonderfully relaxing day!

Rotorua to Taupo

Two days to catch up on.....

A couple of general thoughts first.  I'll never think of "Australia and New Zealand"  lumped together again.  They're so different.  Although it's not tropical,  NZ has much more of South Pacific Island identity (at least the North Island does).

New Zealanders are very friendly.  They are, however, impatient drivers - very quick to use their horns (with each other, not just us because we're being tourists) and add a gesture which is, I presume, like flipping someone the bird.  They don't conform to the "orderly Aussie" mode of behavior at all - they cross the street any old place they feel like it, just like home!

Anyhow, yesterday we spent the morning and early afternoon at the Rotorua Museum.   It's in the elaborate building that used  to house world famous hot springs baths, where people came for various soaks - water and mud - for their curative powers.  You could go down in the basement to see the elaborate system of pipes that kept the place running.  Some of the bath and therapy chambers were still on the first floor and there was a great observation platform on the roof.  There was also a great movie about the history of the area and the volcanic eruption of the 1800's that destroyed much of the town.  This was complete with real eruption sounds and violently shaking seats.  The rest of the building was an art museum and a Maori cultural section, which was great.

Chilled at the campground for a while in the afternoon and Randy caught (and released) a beautiful rainbow trout .  

We spent the evening at the Tamaki Maori Village (reconstruction of a pre-European settlement).  We were shown and participated in games, ceremonies of welcome, songs, dances, and a "hangi" (huge meal cooked underground on hot rocks).  [Significance of facial tattoos or paint:  Women only had chins tattooed.  The tattoo showed your lineage, with father's on one side and mother's on the other.  If you we're directly related to the chief, you would have a tattoo up to the bridge of your nose as well.  Men also had their lineage on the chin.  Other tattoos on the face denoted particular skills of the individual.]

Today we headed south from Rotorua to Taupo.  On the way, we stopped at Wai-O-Tapu, an active thermal area.  Geyser, fumaroles, collapsed craters, and boiling mud pools.  The same "features" as Yellowstone, but in a very different "bush" setting.  We'd never seen mud pools quite as active as these.  They regularly shot up 6-7 feet in the air.

Our campground here has a thermal pool and we had a lovely soak before meeting up with John and Shelley for dinner.  After 5 weeks of travel, it was great to see familiar faces!  They are enjoying their trip and are headed the opposite direction in NZ, so we got some tips for the South Island.

Auckland to Rotorua

Drove the 200 or so kilometers to Rororua today, with one extended stop in Hamilton.  Roads were good all the way, so it was only about 3 hours of driving time.  Our stop in Hamilton was at the museum and we spent all our time in the history section, learning about the Maori history of the city and European takeover.  Outstanding were the antique Maori canoe,beautifully carved and decorated with shell and feathers, and a fantastic exhibition of the sculptures of a contemporary Maori carver.

We drove through the small town of Tirau that had a visitors' center that made us stop to take a photo.     It was in two sections, one shaped like a sheep and one shaped like a dog.  Wonderful - made me laugh!

We're staying at a really nice campground that's right on Waiteti Stream (one of the country's premier trout streams, according to their ad) and a very short walk to Lake Rotorua.  The stream is literally 15 feet from our van, so one of us is ecstatic.  We can see the trout.

Before the evening fishing, we took a walk to Hamurana Springs. There's a path through a redwood grove (not native - planted in the early 1900's), along a crystal clear river.  The spring produces a million gallons of water per hour (!) that flows into Lake Rotorua, which is in a volcanic crater.  A short way down the river is an area called Dancing Sands, where a couple of dozen small springs make the sand bubble and swirl.  The place was lovely.

Fishing report:  Randy caught and released one rainbow trout and had two more on.  Out of about 10 fisherman lined up at the mouth of the stream, only one other person caught anything, even though there were really big fish jumping all over the place.

Auckland - Pasifika Festival

We spent all of this beautiful, warm, blue-sky day at the Pasifika Festival in Auckland. The festival recognizes the Pacific Island heritage of many of the people of Auckland, and is huge.

First, about the park where it's held. Western Springs Park is a very large area around a lake that used to be Auckland's water supply. The spring produces something like a million gallons of water per day, which then flows out and into the sea.

The festival is organized so that each island has a "village" in a different area around the lake. Each village has food and crafts booths and a performance stage. The villages were Samoa, Tuvalu, Fiji, Tahiti (which also hosted a Hawaiian group), Tonga, Tokelau, Cook Islands, Niue, Kiribati, Aotearoa    (the Maori name for NZ), and Pan Pacific. Many different languages spoken! It was a fun, joyous day of continuous music and dance performances. We loved it!

Sampled traditional Samoan fried crackers (kind of a salty, crisp, non-puffy version of fried dough), Tahitian curry, and wonderful mango ice cream (tied for first place with Daintree Ice Cream Co.) served in half a small watermelon.

Whangarei

Whangarei has a wonderful system of interconnecting tracks that let you walk from one beautiful place to the next, from the Town Basin, an artsy in-town area of galleries, shops and restaurants on the river, and out into the surrounding hills. We took full advantage and walked up to the site of an old "pa" (Maori fortified settlement), along the Hatea River to two waterfalls about 26 meters high (Whangarei and another with less water spilling over), and to an area with huge old Kauri trees. This was all within about 5 miles of walking.

Then we went out to Abbey Caves. This was an undeveloped, unguided area - very cool! There were a few other tourists around, so we weren't completely alone, and the tourist info site mentioned it, so we figured it couldn't be too dangerous. Popped on our Petzls and in we went. Some areas were dry, but we waded through ankle deep water (Goretex shoes don't keep your feet dry when you get in over the top of them :-) ) to get to a chamber about 20 feet high. Although this wasn't the most beautiful cave we've ever seen, the best part was glow worms. There were lots of them on the ceiling, and with Petzls turned off, it looked like a beautiful starry night! We elected not to go into a second cave in the area that had a steeper, more slippery descent and required you to be thigh- deep in the water.

Headed back to Auckland in the evening, ready for the Pasifika Festival tomorrow.

New Zealand - Whangarei

Yesterday was a travel day. Left Cairns around noon and arrived in Auckland at 8:30, NZ time (3 hour time difference). Usual traveling day hassles, but nothing serious.

This morning we picked up our camper. Let's just say it's a pretty big step down from our last vehicle! When we made our van reservations last November, this was our third choice, but everything else was booked. In Australia, we were definitely off-season, but not so here. So, back to the camper. It's about a 10 year old Toyota high top van, fitted out as a camper in 2006. It's got its share of dings, but runs well. Inside, it's basic and once we figured out where to stow all our stuff, we think it will work out fine. Our senses of humor will need to be at the ready for the next 24 days!

We headed north out of Auckland, to Whangarei [pronounced "Fun gar eye" - accent on the first syllable, and a Spanish "r" in the second syllable], on the east coast. Along the way, we passed through some rolling hills (dairy farms); forest that looked much more like home than Australia, except for the tree ferns and palm trees mixed in; rocky, steeper areas; and near deep green water with jagged heads in the distance - gorgeous. Had lunch in a little town at a cafe in an art gallery by the water.

Took a hike to a lookout point above Whangarei and behind our campground.  "Not very long, but a bit of a climb," according to the woman at the visitors' center.  That second part turned out to be an understatement, but it was worth it.  It was late afternoon and everyone else on the trail was a local out for their exercise, huffing and puffing up the hill.  It made us feel pretty good that they were out of breath, too, and all our juniors by quite a few years.

The weather is completely delightful.  Probably about 70 and not at all humid - a most welcome change from Alice and Cairns!

Cairns

Last night we checked out the Cairns night market - nothing of any great interest, but it was a lively downtown, with lots of people out strolling, shopping and eating.

We spent the day in the city.  Cairns seems to be a really laid back place.  Its central business district runs along the water, with an esplanade at water's edge.  Right in the middle of the esplanade, right next to the sea where you can't swim (because of the stingers) is the Lagoon, a huge saltwater swimming pool, with a sand "beach," decks, and shade structures around it, so it's not unusual to see people walking in the center of town, dressed for swimming.  There's lots of public art along the esplanade, too.

Walking near the city library, we heard lots of screechy bird-like sounds in the trees.  Looking up to see what the birds were, we saw that they were hundreds of big bats.  I  asked a man passing by if they were flying foxes.  He confirmed that they were and we chatted awhile.  He told us there's lots of controversy in town about them.  Some people want to get rid of them and some want them to stay. (He offered his opinion, "Myself, I'd like to dynamite them.  They carry a disease like rabies.  Just last week a boy died from being scratched.")

We walked around downtown, took a swim and relaxed at the Lagoon, and then had lunch at a waterside cafe.  Watched clouds and rain move around over the water and the mountains.  We've only had rain during the day twice during the month we've been here.  Yesterday and today there were incredible downpours off and on for a couple of hours in the late afternoon.  (It is the wet season in the "wet tropics" after all.)

Then went to the botanical garden, which was very different from the other cities' gardens.  Tropical and gorgeous.  Great to be there in a downpour.  It was extra lovely after the rain, with everything glistening in the sun.

Off to New Zealand tomorrow.  It's been a great month here!

Cairns

Our destination today was Tjapukai Aboriginal Cutural Park, just outside the city. Talks, demonstrations, multi-media presentations, music, dances, and "try it" opportunities (boomerang and spear throwing - darn good thing we don't have to hunt for dinner), gave us the opportunity to find out about the culture of the local indigenous people.

Dancers skillfully imitated animals in dance stories. Trading, important in part for communicating with neighboring people without a common language, was symbolically depicted in paintings of the snake people trading abalone with the bird people. The Tjapukanydjii creation story goes something like this:

The world was created from a cassowary egg. The egg contained and released both the "wet" and the "dry." All things are either wet or dry. Some wet are crocodiles, snakes, sun, thunder. Some dry are wallabies, moon and stars. (By the way, family lines are either wet or dry, and you must marry someone from the opposite group.) In earliest time, there was only one man. His calf began to swell and a baby came from his leg. When he went to hunt for food for the baby, a woman came from the sky to nurse the baby. This happened repeatedly until the baby became a grown man. His father never knew who fed him. When the child no longer needed to be fed, the woman did not come back. The young man was very sad, so the woman returned and they married and produced more people. Two of these were brothers, one wet and one dry. The wet brother made life difficult for people, because he didn't want them to become soft and lazy. The dry brother made life easy for people. They battled, with no clear victor. It remains important to find a balance between wet and dry. (Hmmmm......I wonder which is the easy season here?)

We weren't far from Kuranda, " a village in the rainforest," so we decided to check it out.  We decided that the other name for Kuranda is Old Orchard Beach, so we didn't stay long.  So it wasn't a total waste, we decided to get some homemade mango ice cream - good, but definitely second best to Daintree Ice Cream Company.

Cairns

We spent all of today on a snorkeling trip to the outer Great Barrier Reef  (Hastings Reef and Breaking Patches, near Michaelmas Cay).  They are about 40 km. offshore.  Magnificent coral, fish, squid (plain and quite fancy), giant clams with beautifully colored edges, and, to cap it off, a sea turtle.  LOTS of swimming.  We should sleep very soundly tonight.

Daintree to Cairns

We're back to civilization (Internet connection)....

Yesterday we spent more time at The Daintree Discovery Centre, spending lots of time at different levels of the tower in addition to walking around. It was great to be in the treetops.  It's very hard to see wildlife here.  The forest is so dense and the critters keep themselves well hidden.  It's a bit frustrating that you know things are all around you, but invisible!  Late afternoon at the top of the tower was a good time for bird activity.  We never did spot a cassowary in our walks around anywhere in the Daintree.

Brush turkey: ground bird, black with red head and yellow wattle, vertical tail fan - very common
Ulysses butterfly: smaller than a morpho, but the same shocking blue; black wing edges

We also went on a boat trip through the mangroves in Cooper Creek, but saw no crocs.  The cool breeze on the boat was delightful.

This morning we headed south to Cairns.  Stopped at Mossman and checked out the Saturday Market, where we stocked up on fruit - local bananas, mango, avocado, rambutan - and some locally produced  vanilla.  Then made a long stop at Mossman Gorge, still part of Daintree National Park.  What a glorious spot!

Now plopped in a campground in Cairns, tuckered out from the heat.  Headed for the pool.

Daintree Tropical Rainforest

We've been in the rainforest of N. Queensland for the past two days and will be here 2 more.  There's no 3G here in most spots, so I'm taking advantage of being at the top of a 75 foot tower at the top of the trees to get online.  We're at the Rainforest Discovery Center for the second day in a row and have the place to ourselves.  (We always take the iPad with us when traveling in a van because it gets way too hot to leave it.)

So...when we picked up the camper van two days ago, we had a pleasant surprise.  They'd upgraded us to a somewhat larger van that has both a bathroom and air conditioning even when the motor is not running.  A major advantage in this very high humidity. Although it's 10-15 degrees cooler here than in Alice, it feels just as hot.  By the way, you can tell the difference between the weather here and in Alice Springs by the toilet seats in non-air conditioned buildings.  In Alice, the seats are so hot they're almost uncomfortable.  Here, they stick to your thighs and fall off with a thud when you stand up.

The drive up here was lovely, on a road squeezed between the mountains and the ocean - where the rainforest meets the reef, as they say here.  It's so lush, with green velvet slopes and beautiful sandy beaches.  (Miles and miles of beaches and no swimming!  Marine Stingers, with a nasty sting, are in the water during summer.). We passed a lot of sugar cane plantations and one banana plantation.  Stpped for a lunch picnic at Wonga beach (a good place to stop when you're wongy, Jared and Kira).  Crossing the Daintree River on a cable ferry puts you in a different world as you hit the heart of the rainforest.

We've gone on a number of rainforest walks, always looking for a cassowary, with no luck so far.  The Rainforest Discovery Center is wonderful, with walkways at all levels of the forest, from ground to canopy.

Some other notes:
First rain of the trip from 6:00 last evening into the night.  Pouring.  It should be doing this every day and night at this time of the year, according to our campground host, but it's been very dry.
Lots of frogs out in the campground after dark
Cape Tribulation (Kulki, pronounced Gool Gy in aboriginal language) -gorgeous!
Daintree Ice Cream Company - out of this world mango and wattle seed favors.  Wattle seed is native, grows in a pod, and the seeds are roasted -  tastes like coffee.
Jindalba boardwalk

Alice Springs

We' re once again sitting in an airport, this time waiting to go from Alice to Cairns.  We have a late afternoon flight, so were able to have a pretty full day here.  Alice Springs temp is supposed to drop to the mid- eighties for a few days, now that we're leaving!

Spent the morning in the Western MacDonnell range at Angkerle (Standley Chasm) , about 50 km west of Alice.  We were the first people in for the day, so had it to ourselves until the walk out.  [It's not tourist season, so we've had lots of places almost to ourselves!]  Short hike of incredible beauty - steep red stone walls, eucalyptus trees with their white trunks reflecting the sun, pretty lush growth since it's along a river bed.  This is a women's dreaming place for the Aboriginal group that owns and lives on this land.

Came back into town to the telegraph station, the first white settlement in central Australia.  There were well preserved buildings and a lot of information about the establishment of the telegraph. Amazing that one wire, strung from the coast, made Europeans feel connected enough to settle in this totally alien, very difficult environment.  Many parallels with the settlement of the west in the USA, including the forced removal of  "half-breed" children from their mothers to be raised in group settings and taught European ways.  The telegraph station became a home for Aboriginal children in the 1930's when the telegraph station was moved.

Additional things to remember from yesterday:
some birds - Tawny Frogmouth (dead branch camouflage)
                     Zebra Finch (black and white stripes on tail)
                     Splendid Fairy  Finch (morpho blue)
                     Princess Parrot
Very clear lines between men's business and women's business (both knowledge and tools, activities) in Aboriginal groups, with punishment for transgressions.  Also punishment for marriage to wrong group.  Punishment is men's business, and includes spearing the leg, not to cause permanent impairment.  After punishment, person is accepted by the group.  If something very serious, then spearing and banishment.
Man may have 2 wives.  If they have a disagreement, it must be settled.  If not by words, they then hit each other on the back with digging sticks (not hard enough to cause injury) and the the incident is never spoken of again.

8:00 p.m.  We just arrived in Cairns.  It's like being on a different planet from Alice Springs - steamy and green!

Alice Springs

Another excellent day!  We spent it at Alice Springs Desert Park and also visited Alice Springs School of the Air.  It was around 100 again, but there were clouds for the morning and late afternoon, making it much more comfortable.

We got an early start at the park.  It's a large place that includes 3 distinct desert environments - woodland, sand country, and desert rivers.  It's kind of a non zoo-like zoo.  There are large enclosures as well as open areas.  People go into the enclosures for some birds and animals, so the critters are moving around pretty freely, but you're guaranteed to see them in an area.  We saw red kangaroos, which we haven't seen in the wild.  They're larger than wallabies.  There was an incredible variety of birds.  There was also a nocturnal house so you could see those animals.  A fascinating tidbit that I didn't know before is that kangaroo mothers can produce two kinds of milk at the same time.  One type is suitable for the little in-pouch babies and the other is for the babies who are old enough to be out of the pouch, but aren't yet independent.  Also, if they have an unborn fetus, they can put a pregnancy "on hold" in times of drought and inadequate food.  Development resumes when the conditions are better.

Also enjoyed three presentations. One was an open air bird fly-in where different birds flew in close to us, coaxed by a ranger with food.  We got to see, for example, how a falcon caught food (that the ranger tossed in the air) in its talons and put it in its beak, all on the fly.  It was great.  The second was about animal survival in the heat, with a lot of info about reptiles. The third was about Aboriginal survival in the desert.  Done by a young Aboriginal ranger, it was packed with information about everything from kinship groups/ marriage, to tool-making, to traditional food and medicinal plants.

When it got hot in the middle of the day, we left the park for awhile and returned in the late afternoon.  During that break, we visited Alice Springs School of the Air.  The school serves 130 kids in remote, isolated locations.  There were two studios with teachers presenting interactive on-line lessons. Before the Internet, lessons were presented by radio. The kids are also mailed a work pack every two weeks, with books, supplies and required activities.  Each child has to have a designated in-home tutor, usually a parent, but sometimes a family-hired tutor.  Costs for computer equipment and mailings are paid by the state.  We were there when middle school lessons were in session, but they also have preschool.  The tour guide says when you visit at some times you may see the preschool teacher doing the Hokey Pokey in the studio or pretending to swim like a fish.  It's a tough enough teaching job when your  students aren't present on site, but having a bunch of tourists watching you through the studio window as you do all the goofy stuff that those of us who teach/have taught preschool do is over the top!

Alice Springs

Today was a take-it-easy day after yesterday's marathon.  Slept late, did laundry.  Then went for a late morning stroll to the Olive Pink Botanical Garden, intending to have lunch at the Lonely Planet-recommended cafe there.  Alas, it doesn't reopen from summer break until tomorrow.  We'll have to try again.  It was over 100 again, so we didn't feel like checking out the gardens.  Strolled back through town, going in and out of air conditioned shops along the way.

Decided that there are some places we want to get to that are a bit out of town, so picked up a rental car for a couple of days.  Actually, we rented a compact car, but what they gave us is a twelve passenger van.  Randy wants to guide some trips to make a few bucks!

Went out to Simpson's Gap in the Western McDonnell Range late in the afternoon.  It's only about a half hour outside Alice and is gorgeous!  Hiked a couple of short trails there.  There's nice, cool water in the gap - no swimming allowed!

Uluru - continued

There are many children's stories related to the shapes, fissures, caves, and other markings of Uluru. While on a couple of 45 minute walks at the base of the rock, we heard some that teach lessons about telling the truth, not stealing, and being nice to peaceful people.

There's an excellent cultural center at Uluru.  Of course it includes a shop.  I decided to buy a painting and looked through lots of them, by many different artists.  When I finally chose one, I asked if there was any information available about the artist.  It turned out that she was one of the two women who were painting at the center.  I asked the store clerk if the artist would be willing to talk to me about the story of the painting.  She told me that she was very shy, but she would go with me to talk to her.  So, I got the story of the painting - about women gathering food - directly from the artist.

We ended the day with a pre-sunset barbecue.  We did not see the incredible color change of Uluru  that sometimes happens at sunset, because of low clouds on the horizon.  

Saw no animals other than a little lizard during the day.  Too hot for them to be out! After dark on the ride back there were many kangaroos along the road.

Remember:
First photos of the day are Mt Connor (Fooluru) and salt flats
Dunny=outhouse

Uluru

Yesterday was really wonderful.  We took an 18+ hour tour to Uluru (emphasis on the last syllable) which is over 400 km west of Alice, about a five hour drive each way.  [Emu Run Tours, leave at 6:00 in the morning and return after midnight] There is absolutely nothing between here and there except the tiny outpost of Erldunda, consisting of a gas station, bathroom, and, in one building, a small store, cafe and bar.  The rest is huge cattle stations, with few cattle.  Because it's so dry, a one million-acre station has only 1500 head.  The road is perfectly straight.  Temperature was 105.  So glad we didn't opt to drive this on our own!

Our two guides alternated driving and information-sharing during the trip.  They were great.  We learned a lot about the history of the area and about the Aboriginal stories of the rock formations, Uluru and Kata Tjuta, that we visited.  We were surprised by the amount of vegetation we saw, particularly during the first 3 hours of the drive.  This is an arid zone, not a desert, so there is a pretty good cover of grass and small trees.  We crossed a number of dried creeks and places labeled as flood areas, but there hasn't been a large amount of rainfall since 2009 or 2010, when there were 2 wet years.  We watched a documentary (doco, in local lingo) about that year and the amazing coming to life of the land and the estuary at the coast that's at the end of the river system.  What a remarkable transformation!  Closer to Uluru, we saw more of the red sand and dunes that we were expecting.

Both Uluru and Kata Tjuta are sacred Aboriginal sites.  Ceremonies are still held at Kata Tjuta.  There are 4 different language groups and Uluru is a meeting point for all of them.  We were told some of the children's stories of the sites.  Being uninitiated, we are not allowed to hear the rest of the sacred stories.  The children's stories, like in every culture, are used to teach values, and also to help people learn their way around this vast area.  A lot of the navigation info is put into songs and dances, since there was no written language.  Hence, the concept of singing ones way to a place.

Kata Tjuta, a group of 30+ domes, was formed, so it goes, when a group of people came to the area and decided it was a good place for a ceremony.  In preparation, the women and children got things ready, gathered food, etc.  While they were doing this, the men went out to hunt.  While they were gone, another group came and chased the terrified women and children away.  When the men returned and couldn't find the women and children, they searched for them.  When they found them and heard what happened, they were very angry.  They found the "invaders" chased them off and captured some.  The captured men were told to dig some holes, and then to stand in them.  The holes were then filled back in, with only the men's heads sticking out.  The heads turned to stone - Kata Tjuta.

Alice Springs

We arrived in Alice Springs, in the middle of the Outback, at noon.  Temperature about 100 degrees -it could be worse!  Settled into our room.  It's nice to think about being in one spot for several days after doing so much moving around.  Went for a walk into town, pacing ourselves and stopping into air conditioned places here and there.  Visited a small gallery of Aboriginal and modern Australian art and the Royal Flying Doctor Service visitor center and museum.

After dinner, we took another walk to ANZAC Hill, a small hill with a war monument on top and  a 360 degree view of  Alice and the surrounding mountains.  We were there a bit after 7:00 and missed sunset.  There were lots of people out walking tonight.  The temp had dropped to about 90 and there was a breeze.  Many of the people in town speak an Aboriginal language as their first language. Apparently there are several spoken, but my ear could not pick up the differences.

Orderly Aussie note: at after school pick up time here, parents line up in their cars along the curb and the kids stay in the schoolyard.  A teacher with a microphone stands at the curb and announces each child's name as their parent gets into the line.  The kid comes out, hops in the car, and the cars in line move up.

Melbourne to Adelaide 3

This was primarily a travel day, with a long drive to Adelaide with only one stop for lunch.  We did check out Blue Lake in Mt. Gambier and it is, indeed, a lovely sapphire.  It's a deep lake in a volcanic crater, like Crater Lake in Oregon, but a darker blue.

We drove the coastal highway, a good road for driving quickly, but with little else to recommend it.  For most of the way, you couldn't see the water because of dense vegetation and dunes.  When it did come into view, it was yucky smelling salt flats and shallows.  I drove part of the way and did well with shifting a standard with my left hand.  That came easily to both of us, much more so than remembering that the directional and wiper levers are reversed.  We have a frequently wiped windshield :-). "Good road for driving quickly" means flat and straight.  The roads have very narrow lanes and no shoulders.  There's absolutely no room to drift.  It is strange to look at the dash and see that you're going 110 (km/hr).  I appreciate Randy's driving much more, now that I've done some myself.  We also drove through a large area that was very smoky, but saw no fires.  It's incredibly dry here.

Arrived in Adelaide about 3:30.  By the time we checked into a motel, we had no time to do anything other than walk around the city.  Museums, public buildings, etc all close at 5:00.  Adelaide is pretty small and it was easy to get the lay of the land.  We did catch a couple of street performances as part of the Fringe Festival and had an excellent dinner in Chinatown.  I will remember Adelaide for the most hideous school uniforms I have ever seen anywhere in the world!  They varied depending on the school, but they were all reeeeally ugly.  I'm sure there's more here than immediately meets the eye, but unfortunately we don't have time find it.  We fly out to Alice Springs in the morning.

One more "orderly Aussie" note:  People waiting for a bus stand in a single shoulder- to-shoulder line, parallel to, and about 6-8 feet back from, the curb.  This is about in the middle of the wide major sidewalks.  There's room to walk on both sides of the lined up bus folks.  Nobody is out of line and the line is never close to the curb.  Only in Melbourne was there a line actually painted on the sidewalk.  In all the other cities, people just know to do it that way.  Is it a city ordinance, I wonder?  A national bus rule?  So civilized!

Melbourne to Adelaide 2

We'd planned to head to Adelaide via Grampians National Park, after reaching the end of the Great Ocean Road, but altered our route due to bush fires in part of the park and the surrounding area. We spent a lot of in-the-car time, making up for the day we spent going to Phillip Island.

Parts of the second half of the Great Ocean Road are inland a bit, so aren't quite as beautiful as what we saw yesterday. On the coast, we stopped at the 12 Apostles, London Bridge, and at Loch Ard Gorge - named for the ship that sank there. The Gorge was pretty spectacular.

The best part of the day was a stop at Tower Hill, a caldera that is now home to many animals. It's an area managed by Aboriginal people and is left mostly in it's natural state, with the exception of a small visitors center. We took a walk around the lake which is pretty dry. It was just Randy, me, the koalas, emus, and other birds.. Wonderful!

There's a completely different terrain out here.  Flat, dry, few trees, with cattle and sheep.   It looks like parts of Texas.

We're staying in the town of Mount Gambier, which has a sink hole cave in the center of town. This was the town's water supply when it was first settled by Europeans. Now it has a garden around it and colored lighting at night. There's also a very blue lake (so we're told, but we haven't seen it yet).  The guy at the motel was great, telling us about all the town's special things and about different routes to Adelaide.  Quite a character!

Melbourne to Adelaide

About 70 degrees, windy and cloudy, quite a drastic change from yesterday!

Zipped back up from Phillip Island, around Melbourne on the highway, and headed west toward Adelaide.Most of our day was spent on the first half of the Great Ocean Road, a stupendously gorgeous route cut into the mountains hugging the southern shoreline. There are mile after mile of sandy beaches, deep turquoise water (Bass Strait), and white surf. We dawdled along, stopping at Bells Beach, where surfing championships are held; Split Point lighthouse; a cafe in the little town of Lorne; and on to Apollo Bay for the night. We've been staying in hostels the last three nights and they've been very nice.

Some things that I've found interesting:
Aussies appear to comply with rules that make things go smoothly - people pay close attention to the speed limit; stop at red lights without trying to beat them; cross streets using crossing lights; queue up to get a cab in busy places - the cabs also take their places in a queue to get customers and it's illegal for cabbies to approach potential passengers around airports.

Toll highways - if you're a local, you get something similar to our Easy Pass (or whatever it's called these days).  If you don't have a pass, you pay at the Post Office.  Your car license plate number is picked up by a camera when you get on the road.  You then have 72 hours to go to a Post Office, where they look up your registration number (called your "rego"), tell you how much you owe, and collect your money.(Expensive tolls!) No wonder car rental companies fine people for unpaid tolls!  It's not something you'd figure out without someone giving you explicit instructions.

A lot of visitors' centers are staffed by volunteers.  One visitors' center along a major road included a fresh fruit market.  Great idea!

Phillip Island

We picked up a little red Hyundai and headed out of Melbourne to Phillip Island, a couple of hours southeast.  This isn't the general direction we'd planned on heading, but we decided this detour would be worth it...... And was it ever!  We had a fantastic day.

First stop was our guest house for check-in.   Delightful place.  Then off to The Koala Conservation Centre.  Even though it was in the mid-90's, we loved walking around.  There were some raised boardwalks so you could get a better look at the koalas in the trees.  They were hanging out, not very active in the day time, especially in the heat.  All the better for photos!  Besides koalas, we saw echidnas (the only mammal besides the duckbilled platypus that lays eggs), black wallabies (darker color and a little smaller than the Bennett's wallabies in Freycinet N.P., a kookaburra, and some honey eaters (birds).

Then off to the very tip of the island to the Nobbies, rock islands just offshore.

And finally to the Penguin parade, the nightly coming-ashore of the littlest penguins, just about half an hour after sunset. We opted out of the grandstand viewing area and splurged on a guided walk with a ranger to another beach.  There were just 8 people and it was wonderful.  He gave us lots of info about the island, the penguins, other wildlife, and the stars.  We each had a night vision scope and sat quietly in a group on the beach as the penguins emerged from the surf and walked past us to get to their burrows.  On the walk back to the visitors' center (by a very different route than the crowd goes), we saw penguin mates greeting each other as they returned, chicks waiting for their parents to show up with dinner, molting penguins, and a little squawk when one penguin was going near another's burrow.  All within a couple of feet of us! They make a happy trilling sound as they arrive back in the burrows.   There are around 30,000 birds in this colony.  This was a dream come true for a penguin lover!

Melbourne

We started the day with a three-hour guided walk through Melbourne.  Heard lots of interesting history and went into some of the lane ways that we may not have found on our own.  These former alleys are now busy areas with cafes and shops tucked in among the big buildings of the main streets.  A very nice part of the city life. Lots of public art in the city. This includes graffiti, which is illegal and punishable by big fines, but there are legal walls.  Building owners can get permits to allow painting on their walls.  Some of them are pretty amazing and always changing.  We then found our way back to some places that we wanted to see more of - lunch in one of the lanes, music in Queen Victoria Square, and the Victoria State Library.  Weary after lots of walking, we decided to have a quick meal at our hostel and just hang out for the evening.

Things to remember:
check out the movie Ned Kelly
"You've got Buckley's to none," an Aussie expression meaning chances are slim to none.  This refers to Buckley, a bush ranger (prisoner who escaped into the bush) with little chance of not being caught.
Green slime building - Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
Vegemite tastes disgusting!

Hobart to Melbourne

Our 33rd anniversary and, once again, we get to celebrate in another part of the world.  So lucky!

We spent the morning and early afternoon at the Salamanca Market, a weekly event in Hobart.  It's huge and jammed with both locals and tourists.  It started as a hippie market in the 70's and has grown from then on.  All kinds of stuff was being sold, but we concentrated on food and entertainment.  There were musicians of all kinds, dancers, gymnasts, and flag twirlers.  Across from the market was an antique car show in the park. All fun!

Returned the van, which was a fine way to travel.  Small, but after a couple of days we figured out how to organize our stuff so we could get at it easily.   A month in New Zealand in a similar vehicle should be  no problem!

The usual "weigh everything and then juggle it around" stuff at the airport, and it looks like our flight is an hour late.  We won't be doing much when we get to Melbourne.

Hobart, Tasmania

Left our campground in New Norfolk to head the short distance to Hobart.  We got a send-off with a fly-by of a flock of white cockatoos.  They make an incredible racket.  There were also lots of black swans on the river.

Found a campground just out of the city and headed into town for a day of exploring.  We liked Hobart immediately.  It's a small, laid back city with lots of sidewalk cafes, art galleries, small shops, buskers and vibrant street life.  Downtown buildings around the harbor are all sandstone and the nearby residential streets have a mix of large and small, fancy and plain houses - all charming.

One gallery we went in had a show of paintings by an artist named Faridah Cameron.  She recently retired and took up a new life as a painter.  She uses acrylic, squeezed out of a small hole in a plastic bag, to make the most amazingly detailed abstract paintings, which looked a lot like weavings to me.  Amazing use of color, too.

Had  a snack at a cafe in Salamanca Square, an area that reminded me of Cuzco a bit.  Hobart backs up to Mount Wellington, so is very hilly.  There's a wall of rock behind the square with a residential area at the top, flowers and vines from their gardens tumble over the edge of the rock.  Some apartments over the cafes and shops in the square are built up against the rock.

Went to South Hobart to the Female Factory, the remains of a women's penal institution.  Such tragic stories.  Australia is very upfront about the horrible parts of its history, including the terrible mistreatment of the prisoners sent from Britain and of the Aboriginal people.  Everywhere we've been, there have been historical sites, monuments, and other educational information about these subjects and about how much the country owes to these people and their descendants.

Next stop was the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Garden (Randy's idea, not mine!) on the edge of the city.  Very beautiful.

We're looking forward to being in Hobart again tomorrow, before an evening flight back to Melbourne.

Cradle Mountain Lake St. Clair N. P.

Very beautiful drive from Launceston to Lake St. Clair climbing through a winding mountain pass.  Got to the park around noon to find that they had no campsites available, but we were welcome to stay in the hotel parking lot nearby.  After going for a good hike, we decided to move closer to Hobart so we'd have more time there tomorrow, rather than stay into the evening (even though it was hard to resist that parking lot!).   We saw no animals, leaving before dusk.  However, hanging out any longer wasn't appealing because of the large flies that plagued you any time you stood still.  This was the first time on the trip that bugs were an issue.  These guys didn't bite, but boy, we're they annoying!  It was hard to ignore them, even though they weren't  harming us.  It was interesting to practice that, none the less (and I think we're going to run into the same thing at Uluru).

We're spending the night at New Norfolk, about 1/2 hour from Hobart.  Chocolate Tim Tams for Valentine's Day.

Mt. William N.P. to Launceston

Up early to a sunny morning at the beach, then headed to Launceston beginning with the same 30 km of unpaved road we traveled yesterday.

This northeast section of Tasmania is mostly bush.  Tiny towns separated by lots of space.  Apparently there are no regulation mailboxes out there.  We saw an assortment of things attached to the tops of posts including a length of PVC pipe, a keg on its side with the bottom cut off, a red plastic jug on its side with the top cut off, and a wooden house that looked big enough to house a small dog.  I suppose it all works.

It was a pretty drive, not a long distance, but slow going over narrow, hilly, winding roads.  Randy is getting pretty comfortable driving on the left, but these roads require really close attention. And by the way, every so often there's a warning sign that tandem trucks also use the road.  So far we've only met up with one and it was only mildly terrifying.

Tonight we wanted a campground with all the bells and whistles - hot showers and laundromat.  Ah, it's wonderful to be clean.

Launceston is a nice small city.  Tired of being in the van, we walked all over, probably 6 or 7 miles.  Highlights were the Design Center of Tasmania, with really wonderful hand crafted furniture made of native types of wood; the city park and conservatory; and Cataract Gorge.

Tasmania

Yesterday was a travel day, and a longer one than we expected.  Although it was only a one hour flight from Melbourne to Hobart, by the time we got through airport rigamarole (carry-ons were the right size, but too heavy, necessitating juggling contents and checking an extra bag), delayed flight, figuring out where we had to pick up our camper, etc., it seemed very late by the time we arrived at Freycinet National Park at 9:00.  It had gotten dark, so we had to watch out for Tasmanian devils and wallabies in the road.   We also were unable to see where the campground was.  Ready to sleep, we decided to park in the Visitor Center's overflow parking, where there was a bathroom, and call it a day.  Truth be told, I was feeling kind of grumpy by then, until...... I looked up and saw the most dazzling night sky I've ever seen. That made everything better and we both had a great night's sleep.  When we woke up, we saw that the campground was a few feet behind us!

This morning we hiked to the Wineglass Beach overlook - stunning!  The park has lots of pink granite and boulders and reminded us of Acadia, except for the turquoise water and the wallabies looking for handouts.  ( Handouts are forbidden, of course, but those critters sure are cute.). We've now stopped for a picnic on our way northward up the coast.

Headed to Mt. William National Park on the northeast coast, we drove through a varied landscape of shoreline, cattle and sheep ranches, and rainforest.  One not so pleasant thing is that I have never been on roads with so much roadkill (largely wallabies).

Mt William was labelled as a 'rough' national park.  What that turned out to mean is 30 kilometers of unpaved road leading to a park with no signs! Fortunately a local was able to direct us to the primitive campground or we never would have found it.  However, the spot is beautiful, with miles of white sugar beaches on the Bay of  Fires and very few people.  We saw Aboriginal shell middens along the beach.  Also a Forester kangaroo, only found in this part of the state, hopped along the road.

Melbourne

This was a very low key day.  Neither of us got much sleep on the train, so we had just enough energy for a 'round the city' bus tour and a brief jaunt through Queen Victoria Market.  We have a good idea of places we want to visit here when we get back from Tasmania.  Melbourne has lots of pretty wild buildings with lots of color on the facades - took photos because they're hard to describe.

Crashed at the hotel this afternoon (which was wonderfully relaxing and much needed) and then walked to Lygon Street, well known for it's zillion Italian restaurants and cafes.  Almost every one of them has someone standing by the outdoor tables aggressively trying to get passersby to choose their restaurant.  We ate at the place where nobody assaulted us and enjoyed a fine dinner.

Oh, yeah, we spotted our first kangaroos from the train about an hour north of Melbourne.

Sydney 3

We' re on the overnight train to Melbourne at the moment. We had until 8:00 p.m.in Sydney and we made the most of it.

Stopped at a farmers' market for fresh figs, and then took a look inside St. Mary's  Cathedral on our way to Hyde Park Barracks Museum.  This was a fascinating place that had several roles in Sydney's history.  It was built to house prisoners, 500 at a time, deported from Britain.  Next it was "home" to young Irish girls who had left to escape the potato famine. No longer needed for that purpose, it became an asylum for old/insane women.  Finally it was a court.  History very well presented.

Headed then to the Chinese Garden of Friendship, but got distracted when we heard music.  We followed a small parade of Chinese dancers and drummers going through Paddy's Market.  The Garden was very beautiful, when we finally got there, and my gardening friends will see photos when we get home.

Once again we followed our ears when we heard appealing music, and found ourselves at a Serbian festival in Darling Harbor Park.  (Sydney is full of lovely parks and gardens.). That was totally unexpected and fun.

Back to the hotel to collect our luggage and check it in at the train station, which was conveniently located near the park where there were Chinese New Year activities.  So we were able to get some food and catch a performance of a Chinese magician before boarding the train.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Sydney - great city!

Sydney Day 2

Another fine day, much enjoyed. Too late and too tired for much more than a list:

Breakfast in the Botanical Garden, followed by a guided walk. One of the guides was an Aboriginal man, Clarence, who is apparently quite well known from his television appearances on Gardening Australia. In addition to info about native uses of plants, we got a demo of didgeridoo playing, including circular breathing while singing into the instrument. Other guide, Jenny, was a passionate gardener, whose enthusiasm was contagious.

Walked on the Sydney Harbor Bridge (just on the deck, not on the girders)

Museum of Contemporary Art

Chinatown for the evening opening of the two-week long Lunar New Year celebration. Yummy food from a bunch of vendors and performances of traditional songs and dances by Musicians from Australia and China.

Sydney

Had a smooth 12 + hour overnight flight from San Francisco to Auckland, a brief layover, and an early  morning flight (another 3 and a half hours) from Auckland to Sydney.  Got some decent sleep during the night flight, so we were pretty energetic when we arrived at 8:30 this morning.  Went to our hotel to drop off luggage and set off on foot.

Walked through the Botanical Garden to the Opera House.  What an incredible building!  The design was selected from rough drawings (not much more than gesture drawings, really), with no idea of how it could be built.  It was supposed to be a 3-year, $7 million project.  16 years and $100 million over budget, it was completed.  The engineers almost gave up, and at one point declared it unbuildable.  (This all reminds me of the Duomo:  out-of-the box architect/artist envisioning curves on a grand scale + almost-defeated engineers figuring out if it's possible + builders getting to the nitty gritty + time + lots more money than anyone expected = iconic building.) Everyone's familiar with how the outside looks (although I didn't know it was covered in tiles), but the inside is just as amazing.  All the structure shows and no matter where you look, there are dramatic shapes and lines.

Then we walked all the way around Circular Quay to The Rocks, an historic part of the city.  We visited the Rocks Museum for an overview of the area from the time it was inhabited by Aboriginal people, to early British settlement - largely prisoners sent to Australia as their sentence, to later settlement.

At about 4:00, we both hit the wall.  Walking back to our hotel, we realized how much ground we'd covered!  Knowing that once we got into our room we were not going to want to leave again tonight, we got a take-out pizza and brought it back with us.  Good decision.  We'd probably sleep well in the middle of a busy highway tonight, so the somewhat-too-hard mattress will not be a concern!

Oh, almost forgot to mention that we feel right at home in our hotel.  The "art" over the bed is a poster of a painting of Portland Head Light!

Finally on our way

Caught the early bus to Logan after getting up at 3:30 a.m.  We're in San Francisco waiting (and waiting, and waiting - a 5 hour layover!) for our flight to Aukland.  Smooth sailing so far, but my body has no clue what time it is and my brain is definitely in neutral.  Hoping for some decent sleep on the next leg.

Meeting the dragon

Countdown continues

10 days before departure, so it's time to obsess about the extended weather forecast for New England.    I'm in list-making mode big time.

3 and a half weeks from departure

Less than a month before we leave, we're watching Australia's news and weather with huge interest.  southeast Australia, where a lot of our trip is focused, has been experiencing a record heat wave, with temperatures well over 100 degrees.  There are also multiple wildfires, with Tasmania hard hit.  National parks have been closed to prevent the accidental start of more fires.

The good news is that in recent days the temperatures have dropped some and many of the fires are now under control.  As usual when traveling, flexibility will be essential!