3/18/15. L. A.

We arrived at LAX this morning and experienced long lines at customs and immigration.  We finally got to our hotel and have just come back from lunch.  We will have an early dinner tonight since we will have to get up at 3:30 AM to catch our flights to Philly and then Providence.  We are a bit bleary-eyed and look forward to sleeping in our own bed tomorrow night.

3/17/15. The Papa National Museum

We had a wonderful tour of the museum (an overview) and then went in to see a cute movie that took place in an old junk shop.  As the movie went through the years of European occupation, various objects in the shop were highlighted or came to life - player piano, etc.  After the film, we went to the cafe for a quick bite.  Dave went back for a nap and I continued to enjoy the museum.  I then decided to ride the cable car up to the botanical gardens (John and Lana had gone there straightaway from the cafe).  I walked through the gardens and took pix of many of the flowers.  I walked to the city center past the Parliament building (bee hive) and now I will put my feet up for an hour before getting ready for dinner.

3/17/15. Wellington

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  We spent some time yesterday afternoon re-packing our suitcases, which had gotten a bit shuffled over the last few weeks.  We did walk around the corner to the Green a Parrot for dinner.  It was still raining and very windy.  Dinner was very good.  John and I had fish and Dave and Lana had scallops.  We came back for some quiet reading time and then sleep.

Today we are walking to the national museum and then have the afternoon free.  I'm not sure what we should do as it is weather dependent.  While it is not raining yet, the skies are cloudy and it is again very windy.  We will see how it looks after the museum tour.  We have our farewell dinner tonight and tomorrow we leave for the airport at 4:30 AM.  We will fly to Sydney, Australia and then on to L.A.  We will stay overnight there before flying home the next day.  We keep hoping that the snow will be gone when we get home, but have heard from Amy and Susanne that while it is melting, it will not be completely gone.  We look forward to catching up with family and friends on our return.

3/16/15 Wellington

We had a city tour this morning and stopped at Weta Cave.  This is the area where The Lord of the Rings, Avatar, and The Hobbit were filmed.  The filmmakers have their production buildings here and we saw a behind the scenes film showing how the films were made including characters like Golum and all of the armor for the Lord of the Rings.  It was quite fascinating.  We then stopped at the Roxy Theatre - an art deco theater which has been restored.  We continued on our tour and went by the parliament building which looks like a giant bee hive.  We have the rest of the day to ourselves, but it is pouring out (remnants of the cyclone that blew through yesterday).  We went for lunch at Ombra (Lana had read about it in Sky magazine on the plane) and then walked back stopping in a few interesting shops on the way back to the hotel.  We are thinking of going to The Green Parrot for dinner later tonight.  It seems hard to believe that our trip is almost over.  We have just one more day here and then will fly back to Australia and then to Los Angeles.  We should be home on Thursday.

3/15/15 Greymouth to Christchurch to Wellington

Today we are headed to Christchurch to fly over to the North Island again.  We stopped at Flock Sheep Station for a great visit to a sheep farm.  He has 36,000 acres and raises both sheep and cattle.  We were so lucky because today they were crutching the sheep - shearing around their faces and backsides.  We also got to see the dogs at work with the sheep.  There is a head dog who runs to the front of the flock and heads them in the desired direction.  The other dogs are barkers and push the flock from the back.  Each dog has a particular whistle and the directions can change depending on the tone and length of the whistle commands.  It was fascinating.  We stopped along the way for lunch and over Arthur's Pass to Christchurch.  This city was heavily damaged in a 2010 earthquake.  The aftershocks lasted for 18 months and the rebuilding is continuing to this day.  Our first stop was to the Anarctic Center where we got to see the little blue penguins.  They are all rescue animals - very small and cute.  We then boarded our plane and headed to Wellington on the north island.  We had enough time to have a quick bite to eat and then went out to Zealandia for a night walk.  It was a magnificent night.  We saw kiwi, glow worms, takahe (a purple chicken), kaka (parrots), tuatara (lizards), kerero (wood pigeons), ducks, eels, and an owl.  We had red flashlights to use on the path and had to stop and listen for the kiwi as they generally don't make a noise, but do rustle as they move through the brush.

3/14/15 Greymouth

Happy Pi Day (3.1415)!

We took a coach ride to the gold mining town of Reefton.  We had a guided tour of the museum and then came back to town for billy tea and scones at The Bearded Miners.  The mayor of the town took us for a walk around the town and we ended up at the Odd Fellows Hall,  We sat in the dark hall with just two candles for illumination before he turned on the lights.  He was showing us how dark it was in the houses before electricity came to town.  They were one of the first to have it in every house. He then went around and asked us to say one odd thing about ourselves.  He turned everyone's oddness into a positive - he was very quick to do so and we were amazed at how well spoken he was.  The best odd thing was that Ted, who is a retired policeman, was a pornography expert and was often called upon to testify in court.  We had lunch in town and then drove out to the beach where we had a lovely long walk on the bluffs.  We started at the lighthouse and walked along the bluff until we could see the fur seals playing in the water below us.  The path was steep and gravely and I took a tumble at one point and turned my ankle.  Fortunately, I didn't break anything and was able to continue walking to the car park.  We had dinner in the hotel dining room and Rhonda gave me an ice pack to put on my ankle.

3/13/15 Fox Glacier to Greymough

The majority of of group were planning a helicopter ride and walk on the glacier this morning, but the weather was rainy and quite cloudy so it was cancelled.  We drove up to Franz Joseph Glacier Valley and took a lovely long walk in the rain to see the glacier.  It is much smaller than what we saw in 2007.  I would say that it had receded at least a quarter of a mile.  We had a local guide for the walk and he was very knowledgeable about the area and glaciers in general.  We got a bit soaked, but it didn't take too long to dry out.  We had lunch in town aftr the walk and then continued on to Hokitika, home of the pounamu (New Zealand jade).  We watch some of the carvers at work and then admired the lovely pieced in the shops.  We then continued to Greymouth where we had dinner in the hotel.  Lana and I had brought extra school supplies thinking that we would have a school visit in NZ,  We decided to give the extra supplies to Rhonda, our waitress, as she has two little girls, 6 1/2 and 4 1/2.

3/12/15 Queenstown to Fox Glacier

Have been having a terrible time with the internet so have a few days of catch up now that I have service again - we will see how far I can get.

We left Queenstown and headed out of town to see the world famous first ever Al Hackett bungy jump.  No one in our group of senior citizens wanted to participate so we all watched as others took the plunge.  One couple who were getting married on Saturday did a tandem jump.  A few of our group did go on the zip line.  We stopped at a fruit market and then at a winery.  When Kate and William were visiting New Zealand, they stopped at this winery, Arrum Wines.  We stopped for lunch at a seaside town and bought some food to feed the fish and eels, but the ducks got the bounty as the fish and eels were no where to be seen.  On our way out of town we picked up a Buddhist monk who was walking to Fox Glacier.  We were happy to give him a ride.  He was an interesting young man - originally from the Boston area, Amesbury.  I didn't realize that they don't carry money, but rely solely on the charity of strangers.  They only eat once a day and stand around with their bowls each morning, hoping for donations. We stopped at a Mom and Pop stand to sample white bait fritters (I didn't try it as the white bait is an immature fish that looks like a worm).  Those who did try it, said it was mild.  We stopped along the way to have a nice walk in the rain forest where we heard and saw tui birds also known as fantails.  We arrive at our hotel in Fox Glacier and had an included dinner.

3/11/15 Queenstown

We had a free morning so after breakfast, we walked downtown to the grocery store to pick up a few snacks for lunch.  We ate out on our balcony and enjoyed the sunshine.  At 12:30, we were picked up by coach and driven to Glenorkey to board the Dart River jet boats.  They race along the Dart River and can run in only 6 inches of water.  We did a few spins and then had a glorious ride along the river with majestic mountains on both sides of the boat.  Lana was a bit scared at first, but she soon loosened up and I heard her laughing behind me several times although I think she had her eyes shut most of the time. Our driver was wonderful and really gave us a good ride.  We stopped for photos at several places - each more beautiful than the next.  The Dart River is called a braided river as there are many branches flowing across the rocky bottom.  Our driver must make sudden decisions about which braid to follow so sometimes the boat took sharp turns - a lot of fun.  The river changes hugely after a big rain and can fill up the whole valley, but it drains back down to the braids in just 36 hours.  They used to go a bit further down the river, but last January there was an enormous rock slide which went right across the river bed and blocked access to the boats.  It caused the river to dam up and now there is a 2 1/2 mile lake on the other side of the rockfall.  We went halfway back and were picked up by a bus that traveled along the (mostly dry) river bed.  We stopped for a walk through the forest and took turns sitting in a hobbit chair from the movie, which had been moved there.  Much of the local area was used in "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" movies.  It is quite beautiful country.  We got back to town just after 6 and went back to the Ballarat restaurant for fish and chips.  Some of the group went for burgers at Fergburger (famous in Queenstown), but I didn't feel like standing in line for a burger.  We tried to walk off our dinner by walking back up the hill to the hotel, but I don't think we expended enough calories.  Tomorrow we have another long coach ride and we will have new things to see along the way.

3/10/15 Milford Sound

We had a really long day today!  We boarded our coach for the five hour ride to Milford Sound.  We stopped along the way for potty stops and views.  This area is a national park that is larger than Yellowstone and Yosemite put together!  It is mountainous and in a cold, temperate rainforest - very beautiful.  The weather was sunny to drizzly to rainy.  Apparently, this area has rain 200+ days of the year.  We saw kea parrots outside of the tunnel, but were unable to stop the bus there to take pictures.  They are big and quite colorful as well as smart and sassy.  They like to chew on windshield wipers and rubber gaskets so the drivers tend to chase them off.  We got to Milford Sound in time to board our ship for a two-hour tour of the sound and into the sea.  It was quite drizzly, but I found a place with a bit of cover outside to take some pix of the many waterfalls in the area.  Most of the falls are taller than Niagara Falls, but quite skinny rather than wide.  We had a box lunch on the ship and a great ride.  When we got back, we stopped at the chasm, which is a wonderful spot where the rushing water has carved holes and curves into the rocks.  The ferns grow so tall in this region that I thought I might have been on the set of Jurassic Park.  We had a rest stop and a bubblegum blowing contest at one point and then continued on our way.  Di put "The World's Fastest Indian" on the TV.  I love that movie and it turned out that our young bus driver, Hamish, is related to the main character, Burt Munro!  Burt is his grandfather's cousin.  Burt died before Hamish was born, but he grew up with all the stories and actually got to sit on the famous Indian motorcycle!  It was almost 9 PM by the time we got back to town, so we decided to have a small meal from the bar menu of the hotel before going to bed.

3/9/15 Rotorua to Queenstown

We had another travel day today.  We got to the airport and did not have to go through any security at all.  It felt strange to just walk to the terminal and then out onto the tarmac to the plane.  We had a nice flight to Christchurch, where we had to disembark for about five minutes and then re-board the same plane - this time with different seats!  The tour used to stay in Christchurch, but the town is still recovering from the earthquake they experience about two years ago.  We then had a short flight to Queenstown.  We were picked up by coach and taken to the small gold mining town of Arrowtown.  We caught a small lunch and then just had a poke into some of the small shops on the only street in town.  It was about 3 PM when we finally got to our hotel, which is on a hill just outside of town.  We walked down the hill - magnificent views and poked around for a while.  It was a beautiful day so we found a bench at the waterfront and watch the people, boats, gulls and ducks.  There was a car display on the green behind us so I took a pic of a Maclaren and a Boxter for the car nuts in the grandchild sphere.  We then met up for dinner at The Baccarat restaurant.  The regional manager from Australia and New Zealand, David, had dinner with us.  He was a charming young man and we had a good chat.  We also had a lovely waitress, Christine.  She is originally from Sheffield, England (known for their steel and "The Full Monty") and we had a great time joking with her.  She seemed to side with Lana about the pronunciation of Norwich (an ongoing joke between us) and we had a good laugh!  David very kindly gave us a ride back up the hill (and bought a round of drinks for us) so that we didn't have to walk in the dark.

3/8/15 Waimangu

We got on the coach after breakfast (by the way our driver, Logan, is very informative about the area) and headed to Waimangu volcanic valley.  Our first view was of the mountain, Tarawere, which is a restlessly sleeping volcano, having erupted five times in the last 18,000 years.  In recent history, there was a huge eruption in 1886, which completely destroyed all plant, animal and bird life for miles around.  There was another big eruption in 1900 which resulted in the world's largest geyser, and in 1917 there was an eruption of Frying Pan Flat.  There was loss of life in each of the eruptions, but the worst was the one in 1886 which completely destroyed several Maori villages.  We took a lovely long walk with our local guide, Steve, who also pointed out native plants and birds.  We had to stay on the path as just off the path was just a thin crust in spots.  Steve put a probe in the ground next to the path and it measured 212 degrees.  He said that last year a new guide stupidly stepped off the path into the bush to take a leak and crashed through the crust.  He got burned quite badly on his leg.  My favorite part of the walk was climbing up stairs to get a great view of Inferno Crater Lake.  The water is a pale blue and is covered in steam.  The water temperature can reach 180 degrees.  At the end of the walk we took a boat ride around Lake Rotomahana.  Many hot springs discharge into the lake and we saw large groups of native ducks, scoots, and lots of black swans.  We also saw a hawk overhead who was  looking for fish.  There used to be white and pink terraces formed by silica from the hot waters flowing into the lake and rising for up to 85 feet, but they were destroyed in the 1886 eruption.  We took a bus back to the visitor center and had lunch in the cafe.  Lana and I elected to be dropped off in time to poke around, but as it was Sunday, most of the shops were closed.  We walked back to the hotel and will go out again for dinner soon.  Tomorrow we leave here and will head to the south island of NZ.  Sorry about not putting any pix on lately, but the space on the ipad is full and I have not had enough time to send then to the cloud to make more room.  I will have to come up with a faster way to get the pictures on the blog.

3/7/15 Auckland to Rotorua

We hopped on the coach after breakfast and were on our way to Rotorua.  We stopped off at Hamilton Gardens and had a 45 minute stroll in the gardens.  There were so many different types: Japanese, Chinese, Indian, English Country, herb, contemporary, Italian Renaissance.  We had a lovely walk and took pictures.  Our next stop was to an organic farm where we had a home-hosted lunch.  Our hosts were a lovely couple who have a herd of dairy cows.  Their youngest son has taken over most of the day to day operation of the farm now, but they both still help in the busy times.  The cows are milked twice a day, twelve at a time.  Apparently they line up in some sort of pecking order to be milked and woe to the cow who tries to cut in line!  The milking process takes 2 hours each time.  Quite a commitment.  The lunch was lovely, a variety of sandwiches, homemade mini-quiches, blueberry muffins, watermelon, barley-lemonade, and apricot cake for dessert.  The cows are grass fed and we heard about the rotation of the fields which takes a month to repeat.  There were many flowers, bushes and fruit trees around the farm house - lemon, persimmon, mandarin orange, sour apple.  We had a lovely time, but eventually had to board the coach for the rest of our journey.  Rotorua is a volcanic area and we passed many dormant fumerols along the way.  Our hotel is just a ten minute walk from town.  Lana and I did laundry before dinner - very nice as the machines in the hotel are free to guests.  We had dinner as a group in the hotel dining room and then went to bed.  The rooms here are very nice and big.  We have a patio overlooking a horse racing track and a separate room with a jacuzzi tub.  Tomorrow we will go to see the volcano.

3/6/15 Auckland, New Zealand

We had an early wake-up call this morning and after breakfast, walked down the street to catch a local bus to the Auckland Museum.  We were met by a local Maori guide, Prince Davis, who was very interesting and explained much of the Maori culture to us.  We were given the traditional Maori greeting which consists of standing forehead and nose together while clasping shoulders.  This is done twice while saying Kia Ora (pronounced key-aura), the typical Maori greeting.  He walked us around the gardens and pointed out many of the ferns and trees that were native as well as some stories from his youth - a very interesting man.  We ended up in a treed area where his wife, Cathie, was waiting with tea and refreshments of grapes, cheese and crackers, and ginger cookies.  They were quite a lovely couple.  As we got back to town, some of the group elected to take a ferry ride around the harbor, but since it was spitting rain, Dave, John, Lana, Nancy from Minnesota, and I decided to poke around the downtown area.  We found a lovely place for lunch and then did a walk about the Queen Street area.  We had heard there was a craft market down by the waterfront on Friday nights so with maps in hand, we went to look for it.  Dave stopped off at the Maritime Museum and we said we would meet up with him later.  We walked a bit and then I stopped to ask for directions and some ladies pointed up back in the direction we had just come from.  Apparently, there was a footbridge that was not clearly marked on the map which cut out a lot of walking.  The Volvo Ocean Race was in town and there was a lot of hoopla going on about that.  We could not seem to find the market, but finally found a janitor in one of the buildings in the area who said there is generally one there on Fridays, but not tonight.  We saw a huge ship down the way and stopped to look at it.  It must have been 350 feet long and 75 feet tall - it hailed from Georgetown, Bermuda.  On our way back over the bridge, we stopped to asked someone about it and learned that it is owned by a Russian who owns a vodka company.  He only uses it 17 days of the year - what a waste!  We stopped into one of the Volvo tents and watched two short movies about the Around the World race.  The people who do this are more than slightly nuts!  There were pictures of men almost being washed overboard, covered in ice, etc.  In one clip, a ship ran aground on a reef off the coast of Africa and were lucky to be alive.  I stopped into a grocery store on the way back to the hotel and bought bananas for dinner as I was still full from lunch.  When I got back to the room, I found that Dave had not had any luck either as he got to the Museum just a half hour before closing so didn't go in.  We got our bags ready for the move tomorrow and then read before going to sleep.  The internet here is sketchy at best so have delayed the blog.

3/5/15 Sydney to Auckland

Today was a travel day.  We got up early to get to the airport outside of the city.  We left Louise at security, but just by happenstance, we got Bruce as his flight was delayed.  He walked us through customs and then we lost him as he was traveling on a different airline.  We had a nice flight into Auckland where we were met by our Kiwi guide, Di.  My bag was searched as they thought they saw candy on the x-ray (and they are very strict here about bringing in any food, seeds, etc.), but it was my laundry pods that they had spotted.  It was a good thing as we heard later that a man from the last group that came through from Australia had forgotten that he had an apple in his backpack and he had to pay a $400 fine!  Despite the security search, Dave and I must have gone through the VIP line at passport control as we met Di and waited at least a half hour before anyone else from the group got through.  We took the coach to our hotel in Auckland, had a few minutes to freshen up and then took a coach down to the waterfront to have dinner.  The dinner was very good, but the service was extremely slow so we lost the time for our coach to pick us up and most of us elected to walk back to the hotel since it was a pleasant evening (a couple of them took a cab).  Brian, Di's boyfriend, joined us for dinner and he walked back with us.  We stopped on the way to exchange some currency at an ATM.

3/4/15 Sydney

We had a lovely day today.  We started by walking to the Maritime Museum.  The "boys" enjoyed going through the ships on exhibit outdoors, while the girls went through the exhibits inside.  My favorite was a display of x-rays of a variety of fish - very interesting.  We took a local ferry (transportation tickets given to us by Louise) to Circular Quay, where we enjoyed lunch at the same food court we ate in yesterday.  We walked over to the Museum of Sydney - it was okay, but nothing to write home about and then walked down to the Queen Victoria Building.  It is a shopping arcade, but we were mainly interested in the lovely and massive clocks hanging from the ceiling of the third level. We then walked back to the hotel to put our feet up before dinner.  This is our farewell dinner in Australia and we will say our goodbyes to Louise as we will only see her briefly tomorrow when she puts us on the plane to New Zealand.  It has been a lovely two weeks here.  We have seen some new things and enjoyed anew some of our favorites from our last trip here in 2007.  I am hoping we have better internet connection at the next hotel so I can put some more pictures up.

3/3/15 Sydney

We had a very full day today.  We picked up our laundry after breakfast and although it had been washed and dried, I would not say it was folded properly.  I had to refold and hope that some of the wrinkles fall out - oh, well, at least we will be clean.  We left the hotel at 8 AM for a sightseeing tour by coach.  We visited The Rocks, which is the site of the first settlement here, and then drove around the coast stopping at various places to walk a bit.  We went to the famous Bondi Beach, where we watched the surfers and dipped our feet in the Tasman Sea.  We came back to the harbor area and went to Altmann and Cherny for a talk about opals by the granddaughter of the first owner of the company.  She explained the different mining styles and differences between the various opals.  We then walked across the street and took the elevator to the 39th floor where Bruce has his office.  The view from the conference room was amazing!  The windows look over the harbor and we could see both the bridge and the opera house.  I don't know how anyone can get any work done with that view. The Queen Elizabeth ocean liner was in port and was a massive ship.  We ate lunch in the food court of his building.  We then took a harbor cruise and saw many of the places we had been to in the morning, but this time from the sea.  We came back to Circular Quay and then went for a tour of the opera house.  The tour guide was delightful and gave a great talk about the history and building of this wonderful building.  It was quite the story as the design had been originally rejected and the estimates for completion were way off.  It took 10 years more to complete than originally thought and was millions of dollars over budget.  Some of the group were going to the opera, but the six of us who were not ate dinner together at the side of the opera house and then walked back to the hotel.  Tomorrow is a free day until dinner time so we will see if we can fit in all that we have planned.

3/2/15 Port Douglas to Sydney

Today was a travel day so right after breakfast, we boarded the coach for the hour trip to Cairns.  This time we could see the sugar cane fields and the coast that we had traveled along in the dark the other day.  We had a coach trip around Cairns, which looks like a nice seaside city, before going to the airport.  We had a two and a half hour flight, dropped our things in our room and then headed en masse to the laundry down the street.  It was $10 a bag - wash, dry, and fold.  We will pick it up tomorrow morning.  We were told there was no laundry in the first hotel in New Zealand so wanted to make sure we had some clean clothes.  We then met Louise's husband, Bruce, back at the hotel and all went for an orientation walk around this side of the city.  We are about a kilometer from the harbor.  We ended up across the street from the hotel where we had a nice dinner.  We don't have unlimited access to the internet here so I will be unable to download pictures for a while.

Alice Springs Photos

Here are a few photos from Alice Springs: Dave in flynet (very necessary here as well as Uluru), a gullah parrot on the grounds of our hotel, a view inside a plane from the Royal Flying Doctor Service, Dave with some students as the school after we had read to them, and a quilt put together by a group of students from the School of the Air.

Adelaide photos

Isn't the shopping arcade lovely?  I couldn't resist the bronze street art.

3/1/15 Daintree National Park

We had a very nice dinner last night:  ciabatta bread, three different types of salad including one with butternut squash, barbecue beef medallions and mushrooms, reef fish, a selection of mini cakes and fresh fruit for dessert.  The watermelon here is outstanding!  We celebrated John's birthday after dinner as he is a leap year baby and doesn't have a proper day this year.

We woke up early this morning for a sunrise walk on four-mile beach.  One of the couples is from California and I hadn't thought about the fact that they never see sunrise over the water there - only sunset.  We went back for breakfast and then hopped on a coach for our trip to the Daintree.  We had a guided walk through the rainforest at Cooper Creek Wilderness.  We saw some trees that came from a species that has been here for 170 million years.  We had morning tea and then went down the road a bit for a boat ride on the Cooper Creek to see the mangroves and spot some crocs.  There was one huge male about 15 feet long, a female and a baby croc.  We had lunch at a nice lodge down the road - sandwiches and fresh fruit and then stopped at an ice cream shop.  Dave had frozen mango puree and I had the special of the day, which was four small scoops - banana, wattleseed (like a coarse chocolate), raspberry, and soursop (quite tart and good).  On the way back to our resort, we stopped to see the flying foxes (large fruit bats) hanging from the trees.  The bus driver made some noises and some of them flew overhead - they have a very long wingspan.  Just as we were getting ready to leave, someone spotted a baby in a small tree nearby.  It was very cute with large eyes.  We stopped at an overlook to four-mile beach and took a few shots before coming back to the hotel.  I was going to go for a dip in the lagoon pool before dinner, but Louise said that the next hotel does not have good wi-fi reception so I thought I should work on the blog a bit and see if I can catch up on some photos.

2/28/15 Great Barrier Reef

We got on a large catamaran to go out to the reef.  It took about an hour and a half.  We stopped and tied up at a large multi-level pontoon where there were activities for all.  There was a viewing station, a submersible, scuba, snorkeling, helmet diving, guided snorkeling with a marine biologist and a heliocopter ride over the reef.  The water was a lovely temperature and I saw two turtles, two white tipped reef sharks (about three feet long), a giant clam, and a number different corals and fish species.    Unfortunately, we could see some damage to the hard corals and there were very few soft corals in our immediate area.  We had a lunch buffet on the pontoon and got back to shore about 4:30.  We have just showered the salt off and will go to dinner soon.  I believe we are having another BBQ tonight.  We had another full day, but hopefully I will have some time soon to post some more pix.

2/28/15. Port Douglas

We had a great flight to Cairns.  It was amazing to look out the window and see the great salt plains and the desert over the center and then to notice the green fields and the ocean and estuaries as we neared Cairns.  We had an hour bus ride to our resort hotel, which is quite luxurious, here in Port Douglas.  Apparently we drove along the coast and many sugar cane fields, but it was too dark to see anything but the road ahead as we sped along the curvy roads.  We have had breakfast (including a pineapple and leeche fruit smoothie) and will leave shortly for our catamaran trip to the Great Barrier Reef for snorkeling.  There is a high predicted for 109 and 89 percent humidity today, but since we will be on the water, I suspect it will be cooler.

2/27/15 Uluru to Port Douglas

We got up early this morning (4:30) to catch a ride to the sunrise viewing station.  We stopped along the way at the sunset station to view the night sky.  The milky way was brilliant and we were able to see the Southern Cross.  When I turned back toward Uluru, I was able to see Mercury just over the rock.  The sunrise if not as spectacular as the sunset here, but it was still nice to see the rock lit up by the rising sun.  We took a walk to the Kantju Gorge and along the Mala walk where we were able to see more rock art in a teaching cave.  Our bus driver then delivered us back for an 8:00 breakfast buffet.  Dave had skipped the sunrise tour as he was pretty wiped out by the heat yesterday (about 103 in the shade) so he slept in and met us for breakfast.  The extra sleep was great for him.  We will be leaving here at 10 AM so am trying to catch up on the blog before we leave.  Some of the group are going for a heliocopter ride over Uluru.  The plan for today is to drive to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) and take a walk into Walpa Gorge.  We will then return to Yulara Town Center for lunch and a quick shopping before going to the airport for our flight to Cairns and a bus ride to Port Douglas.  I am so glad we brought our flynets as the flies are quite pesky - always trying to get into mouths, eyes, and ears.

2/26/15 Uluru (Ayers Rock)

We had a 5:45 AM wake-up call this morning and then boarded a larger coach for our trip to Uluru.  We stopped for a bathroom break or as Louise would say "a stop at the Happy House" at a camel farm and four of our group took a camel ride around the paddock.  We had lunch at Curtin Springs Cattle Station.  We had sandwiches and orange cake while the woman of the house gave us a history of the station and some of the trials and good times on such an isolated ranch.  They have 1.1 millions acres and run only 5000 head of cattle maximum.  Even though it is green right now due to the rains in January, it is usually much drier.  She said they can only count on a good year once in every ten years.  They rely on dug wells from 9 feet to 400 feet down.  At this cattle station, they make half their income off of tourism now.  We continued on and at one point saw what looked like Uluru in the distance, but Louise said it was called "Fool-aru" as so many people make the same mistake.  We stopped to take pictures of the great salt flats and arrived at the Outback Pioneer Hotel (more like a motel) around 2 PM and had a chance to throw our bags in the room before going off to visit Uluru.  We stopped at the Cultural Center for an introduction to the local Anangu people and their land and customs.  We then traveled partway around Uluru with a nice walk from Kunya Piti to the Mutitjulu Waterhole.  We saw some indigenous rock art and had a chance to tap the rock, which sounded hollow in some spots much to our surprise.  We arrived at the sunset viewing spot and were treated to champagne and orange juice and some cold nibbles.  Unfortunately, the sky was quite cloudy so we did not get the full effect of the setting sun, but it was quite beautiful all the same.  We came back to our hotel for a quick dinner and then off to bed as we have a 4:30 AM wakeup call tomorrow to view the sunrise on Uluru.

2/25/15 Alice Springs

Dave and I took the morning off to do laundry and relax while everyone else went toThe Desert Park.  We had been there eight years ago when we were in Alice so decided to skip it this time.  We rejoined the group after their tour and went to visit a third grade class at the Yipirinya School.  This is a school for indigenous students.  They learn in English and also in their own language and learn their own culture.  We read to the kids and some of them were able to read to us.  We visited their library and then had lunch in the cafeteria.  We all gave them gifts of books, crayons, pencils, and markers to supplment their supplies.  The kids were cute and loved having their pictures taken even though many adults do not like to be photographed.  When someone  dies, their picture is covered or removed from view and their name is not spoken until the grieving period is over, which may be a few weeks, months, or even years.  We continued by coach to The Purple House, which is a dialysis unit as well as a clinic.  The indigenous people have a propensity for kidney disease and therefore there is a great need for dialysis units.  Many of them are in remote areas so that the people do not have to come into town, away from their families to get treatment.  Our next stop was the School of the Air.  It is a studio where the teachers give lessons and the children in outlying areas tune in from cattle stations, roadhouses, parks and other areas that are too remote for a school.  The students only get to come together four times a year for a week at a time for assessments and social activities with other children that they have only seen as icons on their computers.  It was all very interesting and we got to see the end of a live lesson and part of a taped lesson.  Later, when we came back to the hotel and were in the pool, we talked to two little girls who attended the School of the Air.  The family lives on a remote cattle station.  They were 7 and 6.  The were moving to another remote area in the north and had to wait eleven days for their furniture to be delivered so were taking a mini-vacation in Alice.  We had a traditional Aussie BBQ out on the lawn of the hotel - steak, chicken, and shrimp on the "barbie", along with bread and salads.  It was all very good.

I am having a hard time finding the time to put pix on, but hope to make up for it at some point.

2/24/15 Alice Springs

After breakfast, we gathered to hear an Aboriginal man, Lindsey, talk about growing up in the outback region of the country.  He spoke of the men's rites and rituals that boys face when they come of age.  These included getting a front tooth knocked out to prepare oneself for handling pain and circumcision (with a sharp rock).  He also spoke of the Stolen Generation.  This was quite a blight in Austratlian history as half-castes were taken from their families and moved many miles away to be brought up by Caucasian families.  Apparently, the Aboriginal blood is recessive so the children of mixed parentage are a lot lighter than the Aboriginal parent.  This practiced started in the 19th century and continued into the 1950's or 60's.  Many of these children were never able to find their birth parents.  Some of the children were encourage to both learn "English ways" and well as retain their native language (especially those raised in groups by the Lutheran Church).  He also showed us some of his native art and told us the story that was depicted on the canvas.  We boarded our bus and headed to the airport for our next adventure.

We arrived in Alice Springs and hour and a half after take-off and it was HOT (about 105).  We crossed the Tod River which was completely dry now, but a month ago, there were torrential rains (12 inches in two days - equal to their annual rainfall) and the river was in full flood.  We had a bit of time when we landed at our hotel so Dave and I jumped in the pool for a refreshing swim.  We walked to the visitor center and museum of the Royal Flying Doctor Service.  We were given a talk about the history of the service and shown a short movie.  They have over 60 planes and cover most of the country except for the coast where the majority of the population lives and has easy access to good medical care.  They service people living in remote areas in both emergency situaltion and as a clinic for non-emergency visits.  Each plame has a pilot and a highly trained nurse on board who is in contact with a doctor at all times.  It was started in the 1920's and is still going strong today.  What an amazing service!  We were picked up by coach and driven to the Old Telegraph Station - a repeater station for the telegraph line that ran from Adelaide to Darwin a distance of 1800 miles.  The advent of the line allowed news to reach outlying areas in hours rather than months.  We practiced throwing boomerangs in a field there.  I absolutely stunk at it, but some of the guys (including Dave) had the knack and did have some great throws and returns.  We also visited the Anzac monument and got some great views of the foothills surrounding the town.  We went for dinner located in the mall area and then came back to the hotel to catch up on email before going to bed.

2/23/15 Adelaide

We took advantage of a free morning and walked down the street to the mall area.  Unlike our malls.  these are individual shops and beautiful Victorian arcades in a car-free zone.  We did a little window shopping and picked up a few things for the grandkids.  The weather was in the 80's with a nice breeze.  We stopped for lunch and picked up some fresh fruit to supplement our breakfast tomorrow.  The breakfast buffets have been lovely, but there has not been an abundance of fresh fruit.  After lunch, we met up with most of the rest of the group (three of our single ladies went off on an all day bus tour into the wine region) and took a bus to the Haigh's chocolate factory.  The factory has been family owned for one hundred years and we got to see them working on cherry cordials, hand dipped truffles, and the Easter collection.  They don't have Easter bunnies here, but Easter billbies along with eggs, chickens, and ducks.  We were given samples both before and after the tour so all was good!  We met up later and walked to the Red Ochre restaurant for a lovely dinner.  Dave had kangaroo, but I stuck with chicken, not being as adventuresome.  We didn't get back to the hotel until 10 so it was off to bed.

More pix from Melbourne and Adelaine

Here are a couple more pix that didn't make it on the other day.

Melbourne/Adelaide photos

Cradle Mountain Photos

2/22/15 Adelaide

We had a good last night in Melbourne.  We went to a restaurant in China Town and then walked around with several hundred thousand of our friends (it was sooooo crowded with people just milling around the closed-off streets) to enjoy White Night.  There were a multitude of venues for film, bands, the symphony (which we were going to attend, but as we had had a thundershower, we decided to skip so as to not sit in the wet grass) and light shows.  The highlight for me was the huge display of giant lotus flowers on the river - magnificent (see pic).  There were fireworks later on, but we were at the hotel and in bed so could only hear them.  Apparently, the festival went on all night as one of our group met someone as she was going to breakfast and that someone was just coming back to the hotel from the festival at 7 AM!

This morning we got on a plane to Adelaide (a smaller city of 1.3 million with the feel of a large town as it is surrounded by green spaces and parks).   I sat next to a young lady, Dominique, who was a PR person for Haigh's Chocolates - we hope to go on a factory tour in Adelaide.  Her father owns a vineyard and produces three local labeled wines.  We were driven straight to Cleland Wildlife Park in time for lunch in their cafe and then we were free to roam the grounds and get up close and personal with the kangaroos, including one with a joey in the pouch.  We also saw echidnas (spiny anteaters), potoroos (small marsupials), wallabies, wombats, a Tasmanian devil, koalas, dingos, kookaburras, and rainbow lorikeets.  It was an excellent day!  We had a city tour on the way back to our hotel, which is right in the city, but next door to the red light district.  The view from our room is the rear entrance to a gent's club and a peep show.  We had time for a wash up and a change of clothes and then went to our home hosted dinner.  Our hosts were Rosie and Dave who live in an 1880 slate house.  It was quite lovely and so were our hosts.  Dave had been an accountant and then they ran a cafe in a technology park.  Rosie later worked in a book shop.  They have two children and five grandchildren.  Their daughter lives in Sydney and their son teaches at an English language school in Thailand.  We had a lovely time.  The temperature today was 110, but it was a dry heat and not too bad.  It did stay hot in the evening so I was glad that we had dinner in their air conditioned house instead of on the patio.

The internet here is very slow so I may have to wait until later to post the pictures for the day.

Koala, Emu, and Kangaroo pics

2/21/15. Koalas and Kangaroos

Today we took a bus ride about an hour from the city to see some wildlife.  We first went to You Yangs Regional Park to see koalas.  We saw two young females, Elizabeth and Aris, and an older dominant male named Anzac.  The were all just hanging out in the crotches of eucalyptus trees - very cute.  We helped to get rid of an invasive of this area by pulling up bone seed.  We also saw some galah parrots, gray and pink.  We climbed up Big Rock, a sacred place to the local aboriginal peoples, to see the water depressions carved into the granite.  We had a lovely lunch of sandwiches, cookies, fruit, and bush tea (flavored with lemon grass) before moving on to Serendip to see the emus and kangaroos.  These were the grey Roos who get about six to seven feet tall.  We saw males, females (including a pregnant one) and a Joey out of the pouch.  Although it was hot, in the nineties, no one was complaining as it was so wonderful to see everything out in the wild.  We had a great local guide, Sam, who was knowledgeable and articulate.  All in all, it was a spectacular day!  We are feet up now and were slated to go to an open air concert tonight, but it is pouring just now so the plan may change.

2/20/15 Melbourne photos

2/20/15. Melbourne

We had a wonderful and long day today.  The weather was in the 80's, but with a lovely breeze.  We started off with a bus tour of the city after breakfast.  We drove by all of the sports stadiums - cricket, soccer, football, and tennis.  The were all huge stadiums and apparently fill up when the matches are on.  We went to the Old Melbourne Gaol and were given a private tour.  We learned the story of Melbourne's famous outlaw (bushranger), Ned Kelly.  He and his gang (think Billy the Kid) heard that the police were closing in on them and built body armor out of plows.  When the confrontation was over, Ned had 29 bullets in his arms and legs, but was alive.  He was taken to the Melbourne jail where he was hung at the age of 25.  The gaol was built by Scottish stone masons and when they finished, they were commissioned to build Melbourne University nearby.  The hours were long and the work hard so they eventually went on strike.  Their mantra was 888 - 8 hours of work, 8 hours of recreation, and 8 hours of rest.  Their wishes were granted and that began the 8 hour work day.  The idea spread throughout Australia and then around the world - the year was 1856!  There is a monument to this effort outside the gaol and I will try to put a pic on the blog.  We stopped at St. Patrick's Cathedral, but couldn't go in as there was a private Mass going on. We then took a stroll through Fitzroy Gardens and saw Cook's Cottage, Captain Cook's childhood home that was brought over from England and rebuilt here.  We visited the Shrine of Remberance - dedicated to the soldiers of WWI and finally took a lovely walk through the Royal Botanical Gardens, where we had lunch in a cafe by the lake.  We saw a black swan there (we saw many of them on Tasmania also) and a number of moorhens.  The flowers and trees were lovely and we soaked up the atmosphere as we know we won't see the same at home for a long time.  We went back to the hotel for a short "feet up" and then went down to the beach for dinner.  There were a large number of kite surfers at the beach - great fun to watch.  After dinner we walked down a long pier to see the sunset and watch the little penguins come back to the rocks to their nests.  They are very small and quite cute.  We didn't get back to the hotel until after 10.  I will try to put pics on separately.

2/19/15. Melbourne photos

Louise took us through a long alley in the city where graffiti is allowed by the local government.   Many of the pieces were quite good.  The first picture shows the artist at work.  I don't know what happened to the third pic, but I think you can get a feel for the alley by looking at the photos that did come through.

2/19/15. Melbourne

We drove to the airport after breakfast and turned in the rental car.  Dave and John were glad to see the end of it as it had bucket seats in the front that were extremely uncomfortable.  We got our tickets and then stood in a hugely long line to get through security.  We only had about five minutes to spare before they started the boarding.  We had a short hour and ten minute flight to the mainland, but then had to wait a half hour to get our bags - such are the joys of air travel!  We were met by our driver hired by the tour company who delivered us to the hotel in the docklands area of the city.  Our tour guide met us about 10 minutes later and we were able to catch up with the rest of the group who flew in this morning.  Louise (our guide) took us on a tram ride into the city (trams are free to ride here for everyone) and then for a walk around and through some hidden parts of the city.  Melbourne is large - about 4.2 million people.  We walked past nice shops and lots of small eateries and then across the river.  The architecture is amazing - late 1800's buildings cheek to jowl with very modern (and equally interesting) ones.  We came back to the hotel and had just enough time to throw in a load of laundry before going to our welcome meeting.  After the meeting, we had twenty minutes to get the clothes out of then dryer and back to the room.  Unfortunately, they weren't completely dry so our room looks like a Chinese laundry - clothes drying on the backs of chairs, on hangers in the closet, and on a line that Dave rigged up from the closet to the towel bar in the bathroom!  We met up again and all walked to dinner at a nice restaurant across the street.  Dave had a steak with fruit for dessert and I had wild mushroom risotto with sticky fig pudding after.  We will go to bed soon as it was a fairly long day.  Tomorrow we will have a city tour by coach and then a walk through the Royal Botanical Gardens.  I will try to put pictures on tonight, but the Internet time here is limited so I may not have enough time to get them on.

2/18/15 Launceston

We decided on a quiet day today so after a lovely breakfast at the B and B (Kurrajong House - see photo), we walked down the hill into town.  We stopped at the post office, which was housed in a lovely old building sporting a clock tower (pic).  We poked into a wood and antique jewelry and found a funny Aussie bling bikini (pic).  I hope this is meant to go over a cloth bikini, but maybe not?  We walked along the river and over a bridge to visit the Queen Victoria Museum.  We spent most of our time in the natural science and history section.  I have included a pic of an Alfa Romeo for Dan and a Tasmanian tiger for Nathaniel (they have been extinct since the 1930's).  We waked back into town and had lunch at a bakery.  We did a little window shopping and then decided to walk back up the hill to cool off before dinner.  We walked through City Park and enjoyed the antics of some Japanese Macaques.  I have included a pic of a mother and baby.  Right next door to Kurrajong House is a sports center.  The last pic is of some folks lawn bowling, which seems very popular with the senior set.  They also have croquet and tennis courts that we could

see.  We will walk down hill again later to have dinner at the Jailhouse Grill, which was reccommended by our Aussie guide in an email.  We will be taking a taxi back as walking up the hill once per day is quite enough!  We will fly to Melbourne tomorrow and join up with our tour.

Cradle Mt. And Launceston photos

The cabin, King's Bridge, the seal, a very cute wombat and the canyon walls at the gorge.

King's Bridge

Photos from Cradle Mountain

2/17/15. Launceston, Tasmania

Dave and I woke up early so took a walk around the cabins.  I was still looking for the elusive echidna and wanted another chance to take a photo of a kookaburra, but we settled for a wallaby who was out grazing.  We packed the car and went back to the cafe at the visitor center for breakfast.  We then hopped on the shuttle to show Dave the view of Cradle Mountain.  Unfortunately, it was a bit drizzly out and the mountain was concealed in the fog.  Dave will just have to look at the pictures from yesterday.  We took the shuttle back to Ronny Creek and took a lovely walk on the overland trail.  We saw another wombat beside the path.  He had a very cute face.  We walked up to Weindorfer's cabin - Weinheim.  Gustavo Weindorfer fell in love with the area and ultimately led to it being named a national park.  It is quite beautiful and we really didn't have enough time to do it justice.  We went back to the car and headed for Launceston (pronounced lawn chess ton).  Our B and B here is in the "blue chip" district according to our hostess - lots of beautiful old and stately homes.  We are located on top of a very high hill overlooking the town.  After checking in, we walked down into town for a late lunch and then continued walking over King's Bridge to the gorge.  The views were lovely and we saw a seal frolicking in the water.  We walked back into town and decided to have ice cream for dinner as we were still quite full from lunch.  Our feet were still smoking from all the walking we did today so we opted for a taxi ride up the hill.  I think I will put the pix in a separate blog.

2/16/15 Cradle Mountain

We packed up the car after breakfast and headed for Cradle Mountain.  We went along many winding roads with hairpin turns and ran into a big traffic jam at one point (about a thousand sheep)!  We were exhausted by the time we got there.  Dave stayed to take a much needed nap while the rest of us walked from our accommodations to the visitor center (enough of the car already) and grabbed the shuttle bus to see the mountain at Dove Lake.  The mountain was lovely.  Lana wanted to go back to the visitor center, but John and I opted to take a short walk through the pencil pine rain forest.  We all met up at the cabins and shortly after went down the road for dinner at Peppers.   On the way, we stopped to take pictures of a wallaby.  After dinner we walked out to the pond to see if we could see a platypus, but they were all in hiding.  On the way back to our cabins, however, we stopped to take pictures of a mother wombat and her very shy baby - very cute.  There was a kookaburra outside of our back porch, but he flew off before I could get him in focus - drats!  We heard there were echidnas around, but we didn't see any.  I will put some pix on after I write the next blog as there was no wifi at our cabins.

2/15/15 Hobart, Tasmania

We got to Tasmania and picked up our rental car at the airport.  We drove about 20 minutes to get to the hotel on the waterfront in Hobart.  Although not the most up-to-date, it is clean and convenient to the waterfront.  Our options were limited for dinner last night as it was Valentine's Day and most of the restaurants were either booked or had a set price menu (very expensive).  The manager of the hotel directed us to a fish and chips place and we had a fine meal.  We came back to the hotel and collapsed as we were all very tired.

We woke up this morning feeling so much better!  We had a lovely breakfast and then headed out to Port Arthur.  The day was a bit dreary with mist and a few sprinkles, but perfect weather for where we were headed.

It was an hour and a half drive along some pretty countryside.  Port Arthur was very interesting.  It was a prison which was used as a punishment station for repeat offenders from all the Australian colonies.  The idea was to use discipline and punishment along with religious and moral instruction and training and education to rehabilitate the men sent there.  Some of them left there as blacksmiths, shoemakers and shipbuilders, while others became broken men.  The facility was quite large (about a hundred acres) with many of the buildings open for viewing.  We got a 40 minute walking tour as an overview and then a 20 minute harbor cruise.  I will try to include some pix.  We drove back to town and Dave took a nap while John, Lana and I did some window shopping.  Unfortunately as today is Sunday, most of the shops were closed.  We came back to the hotel to pick up Dave and went to dinner.  Tomorrow we will drive to Cradle Mountain.  I don't know if there is wifi there so the blog may have to skip a day.