Day 10

We arrived very late into Christchurch and had a fairly early start to the morning, boarding the bus for the first day of seven in New Zealand in which we will cover nearly 1000 miles. This trip we will cover the South Island of New Zealand, which is home to about 1,000,000 people while the North Island has a population of close to 4,000,000. The Southern Island is about the size of Illinois while the northern Island is about the size of Ohio.

On the brief drive out of Christchurch we could see the devastation that occurred during two major earthquakes in 2010 and 2011, the first over 7 on the richter scale, that was centered outside the town and then one of equal strength that killed 180 people due to being centered in town. They estimate NZ has about 14,000 earthquakes each year!

We started our drive through the Canterbury Plains, which is flat and green and home to Dairy Farms and sheep ranches. Many farmers have converted from sheep to cows, due to the fact there is more money in milk and beef, but there are still over 40,000,000 sheep grazing.

Interesting fact, only two native mammals in NZ, and both are bats, all others were brought in over the years, many from Captain Cook who thought it smart to have animals on the island for food should any of his ships wreck on the island. Today there are deer, many of which are farm raised, sheep cows and the furry tailed possum that was imported from Australia. The primary residents are birds, many of which are flightless, due to the fact they have no predators. NZ has no snakes, fox, wolves, bear or any other predatory type animals, so sheep and cattle can roam free with no issues.

As we drove through the countryside the scenery was breathtaking, and pictures do not do it justice. When I think about all the time we spent driving through the outback of Australia, with desert type landscape and little water, NZ is the exact opposite. Lush green, streams and rivers flowing down from the snow covered mountains. The Southern Alps topping out at 12,350 feet can be seen from everywhere we drove on this day.

Our first stop was at a sheep ranch owned by a couple who took us around the ranch, sheared a sheep for us, then served us tea, cookies, and sausage rolls. The view from their backyard was of the snow covered mountains in the distance and the meadows full of sheep grazing on the green grass.

From there we drove roughly two more hours to the base of Mount Cook and our Hotel, The Hermitage. We ate dinner as a group tonight as we arrived at the hotel after six. After dinner a short walk to take one final look at the mountains before getting a much needed nights sleep.

Day 9

Today we started with a 3 hour tour (that’s right), of Melbourne, which is also know as the Garden City. As we drove through the city you can see why it gets it’s name, as there are parks throughout the city, and Spring Flowers in bloom.

The city is roughly 4 million people in Melbourne which is located in the state of Victoria. The town was alive with activity, as we happen to be here during one of the biggest events in the city, the annual Melbourne Cup, which lasts a couple of weeks. Throughout the weeks, several races are held, and the Darby Cup was the featured race on this day.

As we traveled around the city we saw men and women dressed in their finest clothes, women in hats, many of the men in tux. I would suspect that the excitement is much like that during the Kentucky Derby, and the other big horse races. The festivities conclude on Tuesday November 5, with the Melbourne Cup. Tuesday is a Holiday in Victoria, and they say that almost all of Australia stops for the 3 or 4 minutes of the race to watch or listen.

After the tour we had a few hours before we needed to board our bus for Phillips Island to see the Penguins ( more about this later). Across the river from our hotel is what,
until recently, was the tallest building in Australia, 88 floors to where we went, where they have a viewing deck so you can see the city from high above. To get to the viewing deck you enter a high speed elevator that takes 37 seconds to travel the 88 floors. Once up to the top there are viewing areas inside and out, and with the clear blue sky the view was incredible. I mentioned earlier that the Melbourne Cup was in town, well one of the pictures below is of the race track several miles away.

Next it was off to Phillips Island to see the daily ritual of the Little Penguins returning from the water after a day of fishing. The roughly two hour bus ride took us to the southern part of Australia, and onto Phillips Island. In addition to being a Penguin sanctuary, the Island is home to countless birds, the Swamp Wallaby, and several other animals. First stop was at a restaurant where we had dinner overlooking the scenic view of the Southern Coastline.

After dinner we boarded the bus for a viewing area a few miles away where we would await the “March of the Penguins”. Along the way we had several sightings of the local Wallaby population as well as a couple of Hawks looking for dinner. Now , know this upfront, no pictures of the Penguins as it is no longer allowed. You can take a look at what we saw by going to

http://www.penguins.org.au

Haven’t looked yet but told it is worth a look. The Penguins take turns during the spring after eggs are laid, going out at sunrise and returning at sunset from a day of fishing. They say that after the eggs hatch, mom and dad take turns fishing and by over feeding bring dinner back for the young. The first group of Penguins arrived on shore about 8:20, when a couple of dozen swam in, checked the area for possible predators, then scurried up the sand towards the safety of the brush and then started looking for their burough. They may be very graceful in the water and move very quick, but on the ground and rocks it was a different story. The process of 6 – 12 Penguins reaching the shore, checking the surroundings continues till all have returned.

We had the opportunity to view the little guys ( only about a foot tall) from several vantage points sometimes only a few feet away. There were roughly 10,000 people there viewing this event, which takes place almost every evening from spring through fall, but many head to other places in the winter only to return to their old home the next spring.

This was worth the 2 hour plus bus trip to and from.

Tomorrow we have a few hours in the morning free, then head to airport for flight to Sydney then on to Christchurch New Zealand.

My iPad is acting up, and the guy manning the Apple kiosk in the Sydney airport got me up and running, but thinks my battery may be getting ready to go, so may have to switch to Mary’s iPad which means Blogs may not be timely, but will do my best.

Hope everyone is enjoying reading about our trip as we are experiencing this great country.

Day 8

Today was simply a travel day, as we left Alice Springs to fly the 3 hour or so flight down south to Melbourne. There is a 1 1/2 hour time change between Alice Springs and Melbourne, why the 1/2 hours I don’t know, but Melbourne is later.

We arrived at the airport, the largest we’ve seen since landing in Sydney last Friday, picked up our luggage and headed to the bus for about a 45 minute drive to our hotel in downtown Melbourne. Our hotel, The Rendezvous Grand Hotel, built back in the early 1900’s, looks just as you would have expected.

The temperature here in Melbourne was a bit cooler then we have had since arriving, but as we travel south down under it is like traveling north in the US, so colder temps are in our future. Even so, it is expected to climb to mid to upper 60’s tomorrow, so not terrible.

Dinner with group, as we didn’t get settled until after 6, then we decided to take a walk and see what we could tonight as our stay here is brief and busy. Our hotel is located just across the street from the Yarra River, so we walked under the train station and across the pedestrian bridge to what is know as Southbank. The entire river front was packed with people enjoying dinner, drinks, and just walking along the river enjoying the fresh night air. Mary and I both thought that the feel is much like that of Vancouver BC.

In addition to the people walking there were many many street performers playing instruments, singing, dancing, magic, and even a guy that lays on a bed of nails.

I took a few pictures of the night skyline including one of our hotel from the other side of the river. Tomorrow we do a city tour in the morning then off to Phillips Island to see the Penguins.

Till tomorrow

Day 7

Today was more of an educational day, as we learned more about the Australian Aborigines some of their cultures, and how they lived. We also visited the “School of Air”, the Outback version on the University of Phoenix, only for young children.

The first stop of the day was a small aborigine community just a few miles outside Alice Springs. We were met by a gentleman from an organization that works with the aborigine people and listened while he explained many interesting facts: currently there are about 400,000 Aboriginies remaining in Australia, most of which live in the warmer northern part of the country. They have only 8 male and 8 female names, and we were told it is the way they say the name distinguishes who they are calling, and he said even though they understand it is difficult for outsiders to catch the difference. The mother picks the husband for her daughters, typically at age 14, and she picks because she understands bloodlines and this keeps cross breeding to a minimum. After daughter is married the mother is no longer allowed to look at or speak to the son-in-law.

We visited several Aborigine people in the camp, one Johnny Possum (in 1967 when Australia finally made these native people citizens they assigned them English names), who braided hair into various things they needed such as belts to hold there spears. Then we had an opportunity to meet several women who painted scenes in much the same way they have from the beginning. Although they do not like their pictures taken, they did allow us to photograph them with a painting if you bought one (they learned fast). Picture below

Then we got to hear about the foods they ate and actually got to taste a few, including Kangaroo tail, and several spices and desert fruits. One guy on the tour actually got to try a live grub that was found in the tree bark of a tree we sat under. Lastly we got an overview of there tools and weapons, and got to throw a boomerang.

After this we headed to the School of Air, where we learned a little about the challenges of trying to educate children spread out over 750,000 square miles! This school was started in 1953 by a doctor who also started the flying doctors. As you can imagine trying to teach children and take care of the sick or injured has a great many challenges when dealing with the distances here in the Northern Territory as well as other states here in Australia.

Currently the school teaches 140 children from the cattle stations (ranches), and remote areas. The furthest children are almost 1000 miles apart, and happen to be in the same class. Children and the parents make about 4 trips per year and spend 1 week in Alice Springs so as to allow interaction between the children. The Australian government gives the school roughly $21,000 per student which is what it costs to teach children in the public schools. To set up the children’s home school the school provides each child with satellite dish, computer, and all necessary books and supplies. Teachers actually visit each child in their home school once a year but the rest of the time teaching is done on the Internet using cameras. We actually got to see a class being taught while we were there, very interesting.

The rest if the day we had free, so we walked around the downtown area, had lunch then back to hotel to read for awhile, clean up and head to dinner. Tonight dinner was on our own so we went with two other couples to the local casino where we had dinner at an outdoor restaurant. It was Halloween so the casino put on a little party for the children of Alice Springs, and they were all there in costume.

Tomorrow we head off to Melbourne, a 3 hour flight south of Alice Springs, and do to timing and a time change (1 1/2 hours ) the day will be spent traveling.

Day 6

Day 6 began at 4:15 AM, as Mary and I were heading out to watch the sunrise over Uluru, on a Camel! Wait til you see the pictures below. The bus picked us up at 5:00 and drove us the short distance the the camel farm, just outside the National Forest. After a few words of instructions, we climbed aboard our camel and were lifted high into the air as the camel stood up on all fours.

The 45 minute trip out to a spot where we watched the sunrise over the top of Uluru. Along the way out and back, the guides gave us a history lesson on camels and their contribution to the settling of the Australian Outback. Today they estimate there are close to 1,000,000 wild camels living in the Northern Territory. An interesting fact, Australia actually exports live camels to the Middle East.

After our ride, we returned to the farm for fresh baked bread and hot coffee, worth the price of admission. Mary guessed the age of the youngest camel and got the chance to bottle feed the baby, see pictures. We have all heard someone say it’s a small world, well this morning as we sat eating our fresh bread and drinking our coffee we talked to another couple that came on the ride with another group, who were from Cincinnati. They lived in Indian Hill and he had just retired from P&G, their names were Rob and Merta Robinson.

Back to the hotel, on the bus and prepared for a 6 hour ride back to Alice Springs, the same trip that took us 30 minutes by air. We took the Lassiter Highway to the Stuart Highway, which are the main North/South and East/West Highways. The Stuart Highway is over 2000 miles long and runs from the Southern City of Adelaide to Darwin in the North. Between Uluru and Alice Springs, 275 miles, we did not pass through another city, but did pass through 8 “Stations” or what we would call ranches, each in excess of 750,000 acres. Hard to believe how very large and unpopulated Australia’s Northern Territory really is.

Upon arriving in Alice Springs, we visited the Telegraph Station that finally connected Australia with the rest of the world. Many stories were told about the explorers that were the first to try and seek out the route that the telegraph lines would ultimately take.

Off to our hotel to check in, clean up and prepare for a presentation by a group of aborigine girls, then off to the Bush for an Aussie BBQ.

Long day, we have been up since 4:15, now 10:15, so goodnight for now.

Day 5

Today we spent our last morning in Cairns, before flying to the center of Australia, The Northern Territory, The Outback! We decided to take one last walk around the city, doubling back to take pictures of some things we had not gotten earlier. On Sunday we walked to Church at St Monica’s and on the way thought what appeared to be a very large Bat! Looking into this further, there are thousands of very large Fruit Bats, living in the Mango trees in the City Center. (pictures below).

I also wanted to get a few pictures of the stained glass at St Monica’s.

We headed to the Cairns airport for the 3 hour flight to Alice Springs, where we changed plans and flew a short 30 minutes to Ayers Rock Airport where we would get to see Uluru/ Ayers Rock, considered sacred by the Aborigines. We dropped off the bags at our hotel, made our way to the National Park, and spent about an hour at the Visitor Center learning some of the mystic about Uluru. They said that only the aborigines have earned their right know the complete story, we must settle for bits and pieces. We were told several stories passed down through the years, and walked to parts of the rock that allow “white people”. Pictures were forbidden in many areas, as they were considered sacred.

After our short visit to the rock, we went to a viewing area several miles away where we prepared to watch sunset on Uluru. This is something people from around the globe come to see, and we were not disappointed. The sun changes the color of Uluru from light to dark and back again, pictures do not do it justice.

After this we headed back to the hotel, which did not offer wifi, which is the reason this blog is late.

Day 4

The morning began with a short walk from our hotel to the Marina, where we boarded a high speed catamaran for a trip to Green Island, located at the edge of the Great Barrier Reef. The Catamaran took about 45 minutes to get to our first stop roughly 16 miles off the coast of Cairns. This was our first stop, before boarding another high speed catamaran that would take us another 20 miles further to a floating platform from which we would get a close look at the reef and all its marine life.

We did spend roughly two hours on Green Island, our first stop. The island is a sand island that was formed over 1000’s of years. The entire island is only 5 acres, but is a hot spot for those wanting to get a look at the Great Barrier Reef without taking a great deal of time. The island has snorkeling, shops, Restaurants, and even a small hotel that runs about $700 AUD per night. While on the island we also did a 20 minute cruise on a glass bottom boat to see some of the coral reef without getting wet, and heard some of the stories of the reef. One of the natural wonders of the world stretching some 1600 miles down the coast of Australia, made up of 2900 individual reefs, and comprising some 900 islands, like Green Island. They say there are 1500 species of fish, and 215 species of birds.

Mary and I spent a couple of hours exploring what is not only an island, but a rainforest as well. The first picture is of Green Island as we arrived by boat.

Next we caught another high speed catamaran that would take us another 20 miles to a floating platform (a couple of pictures included) complete with a kitchen where they served us a hot lunch, snorkeling gear, and dive gear that was available for those wanting to get an additional experience. The area was marked off as to where we could swim and spotters were on top of the platform keeping a close eye on all the swimmers. I assume they might also having been keeping an eye out for unwelcome intruders:).

The water was not warm, but very comfortable, and even Mary thought it was ok, and she hates the cold. They suggested we wear a Lycra suit, as there are many jellyfish in the water, and some can make you very sick, so we took their advice and you will see the pictures at the end. The entire experience was one we won’t forget, and one of those things we can now say we have done.

The trip home from the floating platform took just over 2 hours, including a brief stop a Green Island to unload a few staying at the hotel as well as pick up everyone heading back to Cairns as this was the last boat.

We arrived back in Cairns about 6:00, then walked around Cairns for one final time as we leave tomorrow for Ayers Rock which is about a three hour flight to the West, outside of Alice Springs.

I think Mary is seriously considering giving up her diet coke habit here in Australia, and me my coffee! If you can find a diet coke, most places have coke zero, they range in price fro $3 to $5 per can, bottle or glass. Even McDonalds which was only a few blocks from our hotel charged $4 for what they call large (comparable) to a medium in the states. Coffee averages $3-4 and there are no refills, if you want more you pay the same.

Mary has asked to say a few things in the Blog, but has always been to tired to contribute, so hopefully before we complete our trip will add some of her thoughts.

Having a Great Time, people could not be more friendly.

G’Day Mates

Day 3

Woke up early this morning, again, Sunday and decided to walk to Church at St Monica’s for 6:30 AM Mass. Church was very modest although very big, with stained glass around the entire church depicting what appeared to be Cairns. It showed water, mountains, rainforest, and animals from the area. The Priest was funny, as he gave his sermon you thought you were sitting at a table having a conversation, and not having someone preaching to you.

Back to hotel for breakfast, then a bit of a wait until bus arrived for trip to the rainforest which was about 20 miles or so from where we were in downtown Cairns.

We started at the base of the “Great Dividing Range” which stretches almost 2200 miles down the eastern coastline of Australia. At its highest point it is only about 7000′, not high compared to some of the ranges in the US.

We started by taking the Rainforest Cableway from the base, stopping twice to change gondolas and have an opportunity to walk around at each level taking in the scenery. As we climbed from the base to stop one, you could look back and see all the way to the coastline, pictures will follow. The second trip took us further up the mountain as we traveled above the canopy of the Karunda Rainforest. The sites were amazing and although we did not see much below the canopy, you could hear the birds loud and clear.

The final leg, took us further up the mountain towards the town of Karunda, and across the canyons formed by the Barron River. There was one point as we reached the summit and crossed over the River Gorge that we had to have been 1000 to 1500′ above the river. Pictures to follow.

After making our way to the top, our bus met us and took us the sort 2 miles to the town of Karunda, where we had a couple of hours to grab lunch and visit the small town.

One thing we have noticed is how friendly the Australian people are, difficult to say anything without getting into a conversation about a variety of topics.

Upon returning to the hotel after a day of viewing the sites we decided to relax for an hour or so before taking to the city streets to look for another interesting place to have dinner. Sorry to say, we are still not adjusted to the time and ended up falling asleep for several hours before getting up at 7:00 PM!! After getting cleaned upwelling walked to the Marina to “Dundee’s” sat outside on the Boardwalk and had another great dinner. Mary opted for a lite dinner and ordered Tapas, while I ordered the local fish I have seen everywhere, Baramundi, it is a very light whitefish, very good.

Tomorrow we head out by catamaran to Green Island on the Great Barrier Reef, which is included with our tour. Mary an I have opted to take an additional Catamaran that will take us another 15 mikes or so to the edge of the Reef, where we will snorkel from a large floating platform.

So far the weather has been absolutely perfect, and based on what we have been seeing in daily paper should continue until we leave on Tuesday for Ayers Rock outside Alice Springs.

Just a footnote, it is currently 10:30 PM on Sunday here, making it 8:30 Sunday morning in Cincinnati.

Until tomorrow,

Day 2

Today we got up early got ourselves ready and were downstairs for breakfast by 7:30, finally getting adjusted to the time. After breakfast we went down to the edge of Trinity Bay and walked a couple of miles along their boardwalk.

The area was fairly empty at that hour, but activity was beginning to increase. The Bay itself although a great deal of sandy beach existed, did not have any swimmers as the jellyfish in this area are poisonous and make the area useless.

There is a huge sand bottom pool that sits just feet from the edge of the water, and it was already bustling with people enjoying the water. There was a group of roughly 50 or 60 doing water aerobics with the help of a leader with a microphone that stood at pools edge encouraging the group.

After walking for a couple of hours, looking at the sites we stopped at a sidewalk cafe and had coffee and a diet coke while people watching and enjoying the beach just yards away. After this we walked back to our hotel to charge things like iPads, iPhones, and various other electronic devices.
This trip also included a 30 minute power nap to help with the adjustment to the time.

The afternoon saw a trip to the grocery store to pick up a few things for lunch and drinks for the fridge. The main difference between our grocery stores and this one was the types of fruits and vegetables, more tropical mix like you might find in Hawaii, and the fact everything was sold Blythe kilo and not by the pound. Having to think back to high school to convert things to metric equivalents. After this we walked a bit more before making our way back to the hotel.

After a lite lunch of cheese, crackers, salami and some fruit we walked down to the waterfront to sit and enjoy a drink and do more people watching. Tonight we had a group dinner for all on tour, as most arrived today. There are three women on the tour from Cincinnati…Small World!

Dinner was a Brazilian Style with waiters walking around with skewers of meat slicing off as much as you wanted. We ate our fill then as we were getting ready to head back to the room, fireworks began to fill the sky. Cairns has had a month long festival that was ending this weekend and we were lucky enough to see the ending fireworks display. Certainly not even close to Those on the river over labor day weekend, but very well done.

Learned a coup,e of interesting facts about Australia, first it can be considered the smallest continent, or the largest island! Then we learned the country has 22 million people, not many compared to US, and of those almost half live in either Sydney and Melbourne, while the other half is scattered throughout the rest of the country.

Tomorrow starts the real tour, with a visit to the rainforest.

I will end with a few pictures, one from our balcony and the others showing Trinity Bay.

G’Day Mates

Day 1

Finally after almost 30 hours after leaving Cincinnati we arrived at the first stop on our trip, Cairns. Located in the northern part of the country the weather is very tropical, with everyone wearing shorts or bathing suits.

The flight from Sydney was just under 3 hours, and there was a time change, so arrived at 10:30 AM on Friday morning local time. In that we were early our hotel room wasn’t ready, so we checked our bags and changed into shorts and walked around town to wait for our room. In that we hadn’t really slept much or well on the flights, we were anxious to get in a short nap, but had to wait.

We had made dinner reservations at a restaurant by the name Ochre, so since we had time we walked around town to find it for tonight. After that stopped at a sidewalk cafe, had a sandwich then headed back towards hotel hoping our room was ready. It was, so we checked in, unpacked a few things then laid down for a nap. Luckily we called and left a wake up call, because we both went out like a light and might have slept well past the time of our reservation.

Dinner was Great! And the service was even better! Our waitress was Italian, had only been a resident of Australia for a few years, and met her husband there at the restaurant. She suggested the Australian sampler for two, which we elected to try, and it was delicious. We had Crocodile and Prawns to start, then Wallaby and Kangaroo for our entree, we both enjoyed the Kangaroo the best. It has no fat and because of its diet is very healthy. The kangaroo was from the wild but the wallaby was farm raised.

Our goal was to try and remain awake until at least 10 PM, and I will definitely make it as it is now 9:30 as I write today’s blog. Mary on the other hand is already asleep!

Picture of Mary and I enjoying our first dinner in Australia.

Until tomorrow!