2023 - Bonnie's Journey to Australia and New Zealand

 Bonnie’s Journal -

 Australia and New Zealand, November 2023

 

We had been to Australia before but wanted to see New Zealand. We are travelling with Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT). We invited our daughter Tammi along and added the pre-trip Australia booking so she could see a few of the highlights.

Before leaving on the trip, we went to the websites for Australia and New Zealand to complete electronic requests for visas. At the airports before we departed for each country, our passports were scanned and the approval for the visa showed up. Otherwise, we would never have been allowed to board the plane. After months of planning and anticipation, we were finally ready to travel. Travel from Phoenix to Sydney took three days.

·        November 8 - First travel day, 3:10 pm, American Airlines, Phoenix to LA (1 hr, 31 min), Layover until 8:25 pm, Qantas Airline, LA to Sydney (15 hrs, 10 min)

·        November 9 - Cross the international dateline, lost this day

·        November 10 - Second travel day, arrived in Sydney 6:35 am

We did final tasks around the house, packed toiletries, and ran errands to the PO and to the dentist. Our Uber driver picked up David, Bonnie, and Tammi at 11:45 AM as planned and the ride to the airport was uneventful. There were no lines at American check-in, so we got our boarding passes after the agent reviewed our credentials from Australia allowing us entry.

There was a line at security, but an agent suggested we could use a different area across the terminal with no lines, which we did. There were no issues with security, which was a great relief to David as he routinely expects to be pulled aside for additional screening.

We had plenty of time before the 3:05 pm flight to LA, so had lunch before settling in at the gate.

Heidi and David, our other travel buddies, arrived and told us their story of getting delayed on the way to the airport. They had planned to get lunch after airport arrival, but the call soon came for pre-boarding, so they got a snack instead.

David was concerned because our first flight was economy seating and he had asked for upgrades. Tammi looked online to confirm that the international flight was booked as premium economy, so the hour to LA was ok at the economy level. We were pleased our bags were checked through to Sydney, so no need to recheck in LA.

We boarded and took off, and flight attendants served pretzels and drinks before landing.

At LA, Tammi helped us find and follow signs to the international terminal. She quickly became our group leader for the four older travelers. We had about a 5-hour layover, so wandered around window shopping. Heidi and I got coffee and tea and little snack bags of popcorn at Starbucks. I took my motion sickness pills and put on my sea bands. The shops were all high-end, Gucci and Coach. Heidi speculated the anticipated customers might be Asian. It wasn’t us for sure! The merchandising window displays were gorgeous!

David Roupp stayed with the hand baggage while the rest of us wandered around the airport. David W and Tammi admired the architecture and took photographs of the windows and spaces featuring dramatic angles.

We also admired a platoon of crew for some flight as they marched confidently along the terminal. We speculated which flight they might be serving.

Boarding was delayed by 30 minutes. Qantas never said why. There were 460 passengers on this flight to Sydney and we marveled at the two-lane boarding strategy. Three of us were directed to the premium economy seats on the upper level of the Airbus.

We found our places, three seats together in the center section. The flight attendants brought champagne or sparkling water to welcome us on board.

 Qantas provided a blanket wrapped in plastic, a pillow, and a comfort packet with toothpaste and toothbrush, socks, earplugs, and an eye mask.

The seats here were wider than economy with more legroom and a footrest, which improved our comfort. The seats reclined a bit more than usual and had “wings” at head level to fold forward to help hold your head in place. David immediately began searching through the vast movie selection.

I sat in the middle seat with Tammi on my right. I put on my socks for flying, which kept my feet warm and comfortable. I couldn’t get interested in a movie so started reading Mutant Message Down Under, a memoir about a woman’s walkabout adventure with Aboriginal people. Glenda, a woman from my church, bought it for me when she heard we were going to Australia.

We discovered this plane had a crew of 22 and figured it must have been the troupe we saw in the airport. I wondered how everyone took shifts on this 15-plus-hour trip.

As time passed, I rummaged in my bag for my nighttime meds and eye drops. I was glad I put such things in a separate case in my backpack, so I didn’t have to search around inside the whole bag for them.

Dinner and a cup of hot tea helped, although the cup was small and I didn’t get my customary portion. Note to self: Tammi suggested packing a bigger mug like I use at home. I covered up and got settled in my nest to sleep. Actually, I did get some sleep despite the noise and lights. Good thing I had an eye mask. Attendants darkened the cabin and passengers became quiet as folks slept or watched movies. The footrest made me more comfortable.

Tammi got up at times and made friends with the flight attendants. She was intrigued with the intricate storage layout in the galley. As an organizer consultant, this was right up her alley! She had trouble with her phone slipping to the floor, and we used my phone flashlight a couple of times to search for it.

The airline provided electronic on-screen maps of the trip and pointed out our location along the way. Somewhere we crossed the international date line and lost a day. We left on Wednesday and skipped over Thursday to Friday.

I left my phone set on Phoenix time so I would know when it was morning back home and got out meds and drops for my AM doses. I wanted to get it done before they served breakfast because, with my tray table down, I couldn’t access my backpack.

Flight attendants distributed immigration cards, and we filled them out with our identification and answered several questions about how long we would stay and whether we would have large sums of money. (If only!) At breakfast, Tammi had a hot meal with eggs. David and I opted for the cold plate with lovely fruit, yogurt, and muesli.

We arrived in Sydney at about 6:00 AM and headed toward the immigration hall but stopped on the way at a kiosk that took our pictures and asked whether we have TB. Tammi missed this step and had to return to the kiosk. We made it through immigration, claimed our bags, and headed to customs. They had several queues through this area, and the Roupps were directed one way and we three were sent down a different path.

On our route, a dog was searching luggage for food and fruit and who knows what else. We watched curiously as the officers lined up passengers with their belongings along the center of a wide lane. When they released the dog from her kennel, she tugged at the leash and raced with her handler down one side of the lane, sniffing passengers and luggage very quickly, then rounded the end of the line and raced back on the other side. Some signal from the dog indicated what contraband might be concealed, and the handler would ask specifically if a passenger had an apple, for example. It was fascinating watching the dog work, but it also took some time. We discussed whether we thought the Australian method of processing incoming passengers was more efficient than the US system. Doubtful.

Heidi and David didn’t have to go through the lab screening (ha – dog search) so were waiting with our driver when we exited. He led us to his van, loaded us up, and drove us to the Rydges Sydney Central hotel. Our rooms were ready for us even though we arrived at 8 am. Amazing! We were tempted to rest, but we managed to stay upright and busy to get our body clocks adjusted.

November 10 - Arrival & Sydney on our own

After depositing our bags, we studied our surroundings. The room looked clean and comfortable. I liked the idea that tea-drinking countries provided pots to heat water and lots of tea bags. David was not impressed at having only instant coffee in the room.

Our friends, Heidi and David Roupp, Tammi, David, and Bonnie were the only people who opted for the New Zealand pre-trip extension in Australia. The itinerary was to visit Sydney and then fly to Cairns (pronounced CANS) before joining the main tour group in New Zealand.

Even though she wouldn’t join us until the next day, our OAT trip leader Tina has been in touch with us using WhatsApp. She supplied us with some suggestions about the day, and the five of us agreed to meet to go to the Botanic Gardens.

We met in the hotel lobby and discussed whether to walk or learn to use the light rail. The hotel gave us maps so we could find our way. David stipulated that he didn’t want to walk a lot and we agreed to get a taxi back. So much for that idea.

We walked north toward the Botanic Garden and agreed not to go to the harbor or the opera house. We wanted to save that for tomorrow. Tammi again became our informal leader, checking the map and suggesting routes, although we were headed generally north.

We walked several blocks, passing shops and walking through Hyde Park, noticing statues and fountains. I said, “This statue could be George Washington, but we aren’t in the US.”

 Everything was green and blooming, reminding us November was springtime here. We noticed lots of people in the park and a very diverse community.

We were careful about crossing the street because the traffic drives on the opposite side of the street and we had to remember to look to the right for oncoming cars. Tourists were instructed to walk on the left side of the path, as well, and a group of schoolgirls in uniform reminded Tammi to step to the left.

We passed St. Mary’s Cathedral, and the gardens were still beyond us. We planned to have cold drinks and maybe lunch there, but jet lag slowed us down.

We finally reached the garden entrance and stopped for more photos. We saw for the first time the statement that would become routine: “We honor and respect all Elders and Traditional Custodians of the lands the Botanic Gardens of Sydney stand on. We acknowledge the lands as significant historical, ceremonial, and traditional trade grounds.”

The Royal Botanic Gardens of Sydney is a beautiful park that showcases the flora of the South Pacific. It encompasses three world-leading botanic gardens, Australia’s premier botanical research institute, and Sydney’s leading outdoor activation precinct. With more than 4,000 species of native plants representing all of Australia’s major vegetation types, the garden is a living collection showcasing the enormous diversity of Australia’s unique flora.

It is hard to believe this beautiful space does not charge admission. Two women volunteers greeted us and, because we asked, told us about the three kinds of fig trees. You can tell them apart by the size of their leaves. The trees are enormous, very tall, and so big around it is like walking around a car! The trunks split into dozens of legs, all fused together but still distinct. We saw many flowering trees and shrubs and lots of gardens and smelled the gardenias especially.

We kept looking for a café, but we were too early.  The one we sought opened at noon. I felt like we were in the desert looking at café mirages, thinking this cafe would work or perhaps the next one. Finally, we came upon an open-air café with outdoor tables, so plopped down, glad for a respite, as we had walked a long way.

Using the online menu, we ordered “toasties,” which are grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, and drinks. David ordered hot tea for me, but I got coffee, which I had to throw out. We later learned that coffee is often called "long black", not to be confused with black tea!

Refreshed, we wandered the garden to see the roses and admire a huge sundial.

Ready to head home, we found our way out of the garden maze to the street and tried to hail taxis, but they waved us off. Obviously, we didn’t know the local custom.

David tired of walking so Tammi suggested she and the Roupps walk back while David and I figured out our own solution. They left and David and I soon followed. With no taxis available, we wound up walking back to the hotel, a total of about six miles. We arrived about 3:00 and David immediately crashed and slept until dinner time.

We met at 5 to look for a nearby restaurant. It was Friday night, and all the pubs and restaurants were full and noisy. We opted for quick meals at a chicken restaurant and were ready to go back to the hotel to sleep and recover.

November 11 – Sydney Day 1

We got up and headed to find breakfast. The included buffet was quite generous, even boasting an automated pancake maker and a juice machine. We all were exploring options and chatting when a woman came to our table introducing herself as Tina and guessing we must be her travel group. She appears to be in her mid-50s, has lived or bicycled in many countries, loves adventure, and works part-time as a tour guide. We learned later that she and her husband own a small farm outside Sydney and raise strawberries and macadamia nuts. They have a small shop to sell what they make, including ice cream.

Sydney is a large metropolitan city surrounding Sydney Harbor. Residents are called Sydneysiders and are connected by an intricate system of public transportation, all of which use the Opal card. As long as the card has a balance, you can then “tap on, tap off” at any stop for the train, light rail, bus, or ferry. You can use a credit card at any station to add more value to the card, or just use your credit card to tap on and off. The automated system calculates the distance you ride. There are several tap-on and off kiosks at each stop. Riders use them like tapping a credit card when purchasing something. Just remember to tap off!

Tina brought us each an Opal card loaded with AUD 20. The exchange rate is roughly 3 to 2, so AUD 20 is about $13 US. This morning, we rode the train across the harbor bridge to walk in some neighborhoods across the bay. Tina took us to the train stop at Central Station near the hotel. We tapped, boarded, and found our seats. Tina suggested riding backward to see the harbor and opera house and we did but turning around made Tammi nauseous. The train runs mainly above ground but goes into occasional tunnels. We got off at the first stop, tapped off, and started our walk. Tammi sat out to recover.

The upper-class Lavender neighborhood has residential homes with corner convenience shops and little cafes. Tina pointed out architectural features and gave some history.

We stopped at a descending street with flowering jacaranda trees on both sides, bright red flowering flame trees, and the water of Sydney Harbor in the background. It's a true Kodak moment, and we took photos and selfies, just like all the tourists around us. The street was filled with people taking photos of themselves and each other with the trees and the water in the background, not even moving for traffic.

The residents weren’t happy, and the traffic control people put up cones so cars couldn’t turn down the street, except residents. A young woman checked IDs to allow residents in. Tina talked with her and learned she was a temporary worker. This led to an explanation of Australia's system to find temporary labor.

Under this scheme, people under 30 from several specific countries, not including the US, can apply to work in Australia for a year, which can be extended to a second year. These folks are well-paid and do a variety of menial tasks like picking strawberries and checking residents' IDs. The service provides Australia with a huge workforce of young people who come here for an adventure. This woman had a job sorting macadamia nuts before this traffic gig.

We walked to an area with cafes and chose a bakery for lunch. Tammi felt better and joined us here. Our quiche was too peppery for me to enjoy, but Tammi liked hers.

Now David chose to sit out. He’d had enough walking.

We headed to Wendy’s Secret Garden, designed and planted by a woman who lost her daughter and husband. Tucked in the heart of Sydney overlooking Lavender Bay, the garden began in 1992. Wendy Whitley channeled her grief into transforming an abandoned lot next to their property into a beautiful garden filled with native Australian flowers and winding pathways. It's a beautiful sanctuary from the bustle of the city. Filled with huge trees and many blooming shrubs and flowers, it's home to many birds including kookaburra who laughed for us as if on cue. 

Also, Tina pointed out the tawny frogmouth, a bird who looks like an owl but isn’t really an owl.

We strolled along leisurely enjoying the peace and beauty and watched people picnicking and kids frolicking on the lawn.

On the way back, we walked past Luna Amusement Park, then decided to ride the ferry back to Circular Quay (pronounced key) rather than walking the mile and a half across the bridge. The quay is a long shopping district and loading area around the harbor that reminded us of Fisherman’s Wharf. Tina and I backtracked to pick up David and we all enjoyed the quick ferry ride back.

We planned to see a symphonic performance at the Opera House in the evening, so Tina pointed out some restaurant possibilities. We made a reservation at Rossini’s for 6:00.

We hopped on the light rail and were soon back at the hotel to rest and freshen up before dinner. While on the light rail, Tina suggested we might try the Opera House bar, so when we returned to the quay, we walked there through the crowd, only to discover it packed with folks from the nearby cruise ship and way too loud. We turned around to walk back to Rossini’s, checking other restaurants along the way to no avail.

We sure got our steps in after walking all morning and then walking around the quay six times in the evening!

To our relief, we arrived at Rossini’s a found a Reserved sign on our table. We all ordered Italian, and found it delicious! Heidi and David spoke with a woman asking if she is Mrs. Rossini. She said yes, but she is Greek! We all laughed.

We headed to the Opera House for our 8:00 performance and arrived plenty early, which was good as Heidi and I wandered around forever trying to find the bathrooms.

Tammi bought the tickets and herded us into our seats not long before the music began.

David had an interesting seatmate of a tall young trans man in a huge, netted skirt and boots with four-inch-high soles. The skirt was so layered and full that it overflowed onto David’s lap. They kept trying to stuff their skirt into their own seat. They had black fingernails. David had a conversation with them and their companion and offered to take their photo.

The concert was music from the movies, especially John Williams. Williams also wrote a concerto for the guest artist, internationally known violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter. The audience loved her so much she performed three encores. The score Williams wrote especially for her was very complex. We liked his movie music better.

We had talked about getting ice cream after the concert, but by now it was too late. After such a long day of walking, we all were ready to get back to the hotel and to bed.

November 12 - Sydney Day 2

 Sunday morning, we got on the light rail back to the quay to look around the old customs house where a Christmas tree outside reminded us it is November. 

We then took our first guided tour of the day joining the tour of the Opera House. Our guide was Peter, a retired architect, the perfect professional background for this tour and he was great, personable, and so knowledgeable. There is far more to know than I could write. The opera house has over 100 rooms and its distinctive architecture has made it the city's signature attraction.  This visually spectacular performance facility boasts four auditoriums that host symphony concerts, theater productions and concerts. We admired its intricately decorated interior and exterior.

There was a competition for the design. The winning architect envisioned cutting an orange in half so there was a flat base with a circular dome. Then from the base, he drew lines upward along the dome and inward to the center point forming triangles of different sizes to show how to shape the shell-like “petals” of the roof. All materials were locally sourced except tiles from Italy. It took 16 years to build with many financial and political setbacks. Of course, it continues to be the icon known worldwide to represent Sydney. Queen Elizabeth graced the opening in January 1973.

Over the years, there has been significant refurbishment inside, but the building stayed true to its original design and materials, even calling back some of the original team of workers.

Our second guided tour of the morning was in an area called The Rocks, which is the original settlement site of the first English convicts sent here to populate the continent. Because many of the first Europeans to arrive were exiled convicts, the history of this part of town is unusually colorful. Imagine a Wild-west-like collection of bars and houses of ill repute where drunken brawls were common. We learned that England used to send convicts to America until the US won the war for independence and refused more prisoners.

Many of the convicts were convicted of petty crimes like stealing bread or otherwise trying to stay alive in poverty-stricken England. (Think Oliver Twist). They were used in Australia as forced labor under severe conditions to cut stones, build buildings, and develop other infrastructure. They gained freedom when their sentences were up, and many used their former trades such as carpenter or shoemaker both during and after their imprisonment.

The guide told us many stories such as one about a convicted forger who developed the banking system and eventually had his picture on Australian currency.

Today, The Rocks is a popular neighborhood that invites visitors to stroll its cobblestone lanes and take refreshment in its tearooms. It is now one of the hippest neighborhoods, where stylish Sydneysiders seek out the latest cocktails, attend theatrical events, and keep up with trends in food and fashion. 

Following the tour, it was our good fortune to come across a group of Original Owners, young men and women in body paint and bright orange loin cloths who performed on the grass doing several traditional dances. David took videos.

There has been much intermarriage, so descendants' skin colors can range from very dark black to white, and hair can be curly or straight, blond, dark, or red.

We visited a traditional market called the Blak (no c) market which was selling crafts, clothing, and other hand-made products. Tammi bought a cotton head scarf and was very taken with some beautiful pillow covers. We took a business card, and I ordered two with red Aboriginal designs for our living room when we got home.

When we saw them setting up for the performance, Tina took us to a take-away shop to grab sandwiches and drinks which we carried back to the grassy park to eat while we watched. Tina looked around and gathered up some little stools for us to sit on. She was such a great guide!

Then it was time to walk around the quay to the dock to board the boat for our third tour of the day, a 90-minute sightseeing narrated harbor cruise. I put on my sea bands and took my motion sickness pill, and hoped to avoid discomfort.

The Sydney Harbor Cruise began at Circular Quay, and we enjoyed views of the city skyline and its iconic bridge, the largest steel arch bridge in the world. The harbor is a perpetual bustle of water-borne activity with 15 million ferry crossings per year. Yet it remains a natural wonder, home to 586 species of fish, has its own submerged coral reef and contains water safe enough for swimming.

The cruise sailed in a large figure-eight from the quay in the middle of the harbor to each side of the harbor with Ron, our guide, pointing out everything from the opera house to the navy yards to the house that was in the Nemo film. We learned history and had fun sailing under the harbor bridge. A couple on the boat had two rowdy noisy children who made it hard to hear at times. The cruise furnished coffee, tea, and cocoa. Tammi and Tina brought drinks. 

We took the light rail back to the hotel to rest and freshen up before our included dinner. We again took the light rail to dinner, then walked 15 minutes to the restaurant. Tammi opted not to go. Her hip has had enough walking today.

George’s Restaurant served Mediterranean food, and everyone had lamb except me. I chose vegetarian, which was better than the lamb, it seems. David R treated and toasted with shots of ouzo. Expensive! David W said it tasted like licorice.

We watched a lovely sunset and took the night ferry back to the quay. The ferry sped along, unlike the slow harbor cruise, and we admired the lights along the harbor.

We left the ferry, boarded the light rail, and returned to the hotel.

November 13 - Sydney Day 3

 This was a free day to do what we wanted. Tina met us at breakfast to help us make plans. We woke up to gray skies and puddles from overnight rain so decided against a beach day.

We discussed options and David, Tammi and I opted for the hop-on, hop-off bus. Tina told us where to buy tickets at Central Station. We collected our things, grabbed raincoats, and headed out.

It wasn’t raining but felt like it could start any time. We walked to the station and looked around for the sales desk, and Tammi spied it tucked in a corner. There was a queue. Two guys were working but one was in training, and the system was not working well, so it took a while. They tried to have us tap our card, but that didn’t work so they had us enter the credit card number. Their printer was down, so they sent David our tickets by email. All of this took time, so we had already missed the departure of the first bus. The agent told us to catch the bus downstairs. We looked all around the terminal and didn’t see stairs or a lift.

I went back to the counter and the agent gave me more specific instructions. We headed out correctly and the trainee agent followed to help us find the escalator. Downstairs, we walked to Bay 18 to wait for the bus.

The service has two routes, red and blue. We hopped on the first bus, a blue line that went to Bondi (Bon-dye) Beach, and we decided to sit downstairs as it was chilly in the open-air upper-deck seating.

 The bus used a narration system, and a kind stranger showed me how to plug in my headphones. We had planned to go to Bondi today as a beach day before the weather changed. We enjoyed the ride and got off at Bondi because David wanted a souvenir tee shirt. Tammi stayed on the bus. She doesn’t want to do more walking. She rode both the bus routes, swam at the hotel pool, and had lunch.

When we got off at Bondi Beach, David and I discussed how things were going. We both were a bit stressed at how things got started poorly at Central Station. We stopped at two or three shirt shops before he found a shirt he liked, and he bought a Bondi hat too. We took photos and waited for the next bus.

We wanted to buy David some sandals because his red tennis shoes are pinching his toes. We wanted to shop for them downtown, so decided to get off at a stop where we transferred to the other line. We located the stop on our map, got off, and followed our map into town just a couple of blocks away.

We decided to eat lunch first and bought a toastie sandwich and a drink on the lower level of a high-rise office building. Then we looked for men’s shoes on the GPS. The first two shops we found had shoes but no sandals. The third one had sandals and David bought a pair. He was pleased he held out for less expensive sandals.

It was now 2:30. I wanted to have tea at the Queen Victoria Building, but when I called, they said it was too late to get in today.

We got back on the bus so we could finish the entire tour. Tammi called saying she wanted to try to catch up with us, so we got off our bus to wait for her, looking around a memorial site.

 But she called again saying the agent told her it wouldn’t work out. We got on the next bus, planning to get off at Central Station, but after driving around Darling Harbor and the aquarium, the bus stopped for the day at Circular Quay. The driver told us it was the end of the line at 4:00. Fortunately, by now we were well acquainted with how to get to the hotel from there and hopped on the light rail.

Walking from the light rail to the hotel, we met Tammi and Tina coming towards us. They were headed to the Episcopal Church for an evensong service. There, a boys’ choir sang beautifully. Tammi participated by reading part of a psalm. The homily was about the 23rd Psalm and the importance and strength of a shepherd.

It was our last night in Sydney, and we all decided to go to the Sydney Brewery, part of the hotel, for dinner. Tammi ordered three large, assorted charcuterie trays for the table. We all chatted and polished off the trays. Really good! Thanks, Tammi!

November 14 - Flight to Cairns and David’s Birthday 

Today we flew from Sydney to Cairns (pronounced cans) on the east coast of Australia. We arose before 6 for my eye drops and final packing. We set our bags outside our door for pickup at 7 and headed to the breakfast room where the rest of our group had already gathered.

A large group of 8th-grade girls from Tokyo entered dressed in school uniforms with plaid skirts. They were under the watchful eyes of men and women teachers. Heidi and David tried to engage the teachers, but they seemed to have little English. David suggested the girls probably spoke better English.

We finished eating, checked out of the hotel, and loaded into the van, smoothly and on time. Tina talked about the Australian education system while we drove to the airport. Private schools are very expensive. Public schools are run by the government and are called state schools. Roughly 20% of students go to private schools.

We unloaded and carried our bags downstairs on the lift to the group check-in. Tina had it all managed. The agent printed boarding passes and bag tags. Qantas is very strict about weight, and both checked bags and carry-ons were weighed individually.

We got to security, each with our own security incident to tell. I had to take off my Fitbit and put my phone in my backpack. Tammi had to go back to send her RFID-proof passport sleeve through screening. We all survived and regrouped, heading for gate 11. Tina stopped us partway to show us the hallway to get to the international terminal. She is preparing us as we will be going there, unescorted, on the way to New Zealand in a few days.

We got to the gate with time to spare, made pit stops and I bought hot tea. We people-watched until time to board. The flight is three hours long along the eastern coastline of Australia. Tina suggested that since Qantas has in-flight Wi-Fi, we follow along on our maps app to see where we are. The flight attendants served a small vegetarian pizza which smelled good but wasn’t that great.

We landed, deplaned, and collected our bags. Tina had the van waiting to take us to the hotel. She picked up our room keys from the desk. This is a sustainable hotel, and the room key looks like a large wooden nickel. They offered us a $20 discount if we opted not to have towels changed daily and we agreed to do that.

We went to our rooms to get settled and planned for lunch on our own. David’s feet were swollen from the flight and he wanted to lay down.

Tammi and I looked around outside for a restaurant and split a toastie at the Cairns Burger Bar. This little shop had good food and the waitress brewed hot tea and poured it over ice for our drinks. Great customer service.

Tina offered to show us how to use the public laundry. Tammi and I combined a load and walked there with Tina and Heidi. The name Coin Laundry is deceptive because it doesn’t take coins, only credit cards. There is a automated central control panel to select a machine, buy soap and products, and, just like putting things in an Amazon cart, pay for it all with a card.

We started our loads and Tina offered to mind them for us while we went shopping for eye drops for me. Tina marked a pharmacy on a map for us. We passed several shops and I stopped to buy a little kangaroo for David as a birthday gift. It is an inside joke because he’s pretended to whine like a child for a stuffed kangaroo.

We haven’t found the pharmacy Tina mentioned so I put pharmacy in my GPS. It headed us away from the laundry, so Tammi went back to see about the clothes while I hiked to the pharmacy for eye drops and a couple of other small items.

I returned to the room to find that David had gone to the pool. I found him there saying he was about ready to leave because he was in the shade. The pool is outdoors on the roof of part of the hotel on the shady side of the building. Shade is fine with me so I stayed a while.

David Roupp came by saying he could not find his room key. Heidi had returned from the laundry and spread some clothes out to finish drying. Maybe his key was somewhere under the clothes, but he couldn’t find it. For security in this hotel, your room key only took you to your own floor, so he was stranded. I asked if he wanted me to take him downstairs to the desk to get a key, and he said yes. We got on the elevator and the doors opened on the ground floor to find Heidi standing there.

The plan was to meet for dinner at 5:00, and it is now 4:00. Heidi forgot to make the hour time change between Sydney and Cairns on her watch. She was ready for dinner too early!

We went to our rooms for an hour and met in the lobby again at 5:00 for our orientation walk.

Tina walked us down the street pointing out various restaurants and shops as well as the location for the night markets – a kind of a flea market and farmers’ market in one.

We walked along the coastline, and she pointed out trees and various statues as we walked to the wharf and our restaurant.

The restaurant had a table reserved for us. Its pleasant open-air ambiance reminds me of Mexico. We ordered drinks and dinner and had a great evening of conversation on wide-ranging topics. The meal was leisurely paced.

I had texted Tina before we left AZ that the 14th would be David’s birthday and requested a cake. During the day, she went to the market, bought a cake, and delivered it to the restaurant to serve with ice cream for dessert. All went well. We sang Happy Birthday. People brought cards. I gave him the little kangaroo. Roupps gave him a bag of chips. Tina gave him a bag of cookies. He was pleased and thanked everyone.

We walked back to the hotel through the night markets but did not linger over the tourist stuff for sale. We looked for the fruit drink bars which are supposed to be numerous here but didn’t see any tonight.

November 15 - Great Barrier Reef

We are staying at the Crystalbrook Bailey Hotel. Tammi says it is her favorite hotel ever. Part of the room’s interior design is that two of the walls have vertical wooden slats one inch wide with spaces between one inch wide, essentially one-by-twos on edge facing you from floor to ceiling. One of these walls looks like the other, but Tammi likes that it is actually two sliding doors that overlap when open.

 The closet is behind one panel and the other side is the “kitchen” area with an apartment-size refrigerator, a countertop to make tea, and three drawers for clothing storage. The third wall is drape-covered windows, and the fourth is a flat-painted wall. A long countertop is mounted on this wall to serve as a desk and storage. There are cubby spaces beneath.

The lighting is designed to gently dim to dark when you turn it off. The closet wall partitions off the bedroom and bath. The bath is tiled in stone. All is very modern.

Over the bed is a metal sculpture of an oversized leaf about three feet long with giant ants on it. It looks like what we will see in the rainforest.

Speaking of rainforest, my skin is already much softer than at home because of the humidity.

We had to hurry with breakfast this morning because the restaurant opens at 7, and the shuttle bus to the dock comes at 7:20. I ate a light breakfast of yogurt because I was worried about getting seasick today.

The shuttle was on time, loaded us up, and in a few minutes, we were at the dock. Tina led the way for us to walk down to Pier No. five. Our boat is a beautiful three-story yacht.

Tina introduced us to an attractive young woman named Sammy who is a marine biologist and part of the crew on the ship. She is an American from California working in Australia on a special work permit because of the limited number of marine biologists living in Australia. She was knowledgeable and very personable.

We waited a few minutes while other people started boarding. Just before we stepped on the ship, a photographer took our group picture.

There were about 150 people on the ship, including the crew. The crew was very professional, highly organized, and neatly dressed in their uniforms. Everyone knew their duties.

As we checked in, we were able to get a cup of coffee or tea and a pastry. When everyone was on board, the crew did a count, which they repeated several times throughout the day. There are true stories of people being left behind when snorkeling ships return to shore. They next conducted a safety briefing, and we soon were underway.

People were on board the ship for several activities. Some were divers, others were snorkeling, and some were riding the helicopter which took off from a pontoon after we anchored at the reef.

Once we were underway, the crew invited people who were snorkeling to come and get fitted for their masks and fins. It took about 90 minutes for us to get out to the snorkeling area. There were three other ships nearby for snorkelers. To help protect the reef, snorkeling ships are restricted to certain areas.

The crew gave further instructions about how to enter the water. They especially cautioned people not to wear their fins when walking. They instructed people to sit on the step at the edge of the ship and put on their fins before entering the water. They also gave instructions about how to view the fish, and how to protect the reef.

Throughout the day, the divers were called to go down in small groups. Snorkelers began going in a few at a time after the ship was anchored, and while it wasn’t moving a lot, there was enough motion that both Tammi and I got seasick. We had taken our medication and were wearing our sea bands, nevertheless we both became ill.

Tina was very concerned about us and tried to make us comfortable. All we wanted to do was to lay down. Tina brought us some sickness bags and napkins.

We spent most of the day being ill, although Tammi recovered sufficiently to go into the water to do some snorkeling near the end of the trip. She was glad she was able to do that because both the reef and the fish were so beautiful. She said the little blue and green fish were like a thick cloud and the light was shining on them so that they looked like confetti. She also saw larger fish. Tina snorkeled with her.

David spent quite a bit of time snorkeling. There were many beginner snorkelers crowded around the back of the ship. David swam away from the ship and was rewarded by seeing many large, beautiful fish. He also saw a grouper like the one that he had seen when he was on the reef at our previous visit to Australia. 

David R and Heidi went into the water, but only for a short time because Heidi had some sort of accident. She doesn’t know what happened but suddenly had a nosebleed. She may have been kicked by another snorkeler. She found her nose and her mouth bleeding and needed to come back on board the ship. Tina and the crew were very attentive to her. She was soon chatting with other guests on board and had a good time visiting.

Tina went into the water and really enjoyed the light. She said that this trip was one of the most beautiful that she had ever seen and wished that she had her underwater camera to take pictures especially of a huge clam that she saw.

The ship provided lunch which Tammi and I were not able to eat. After sleeping for a couple of hours I was feeling well enough to be able to sit up and to ride the rest of the journey back to shore. There was cheese and crackers for afternoon snacks and we both had some of that.

For me, it was a pretty miserable day, and I am not interested in hiring future snorkeling trips for myself.

When we got back to the hotel, we decided to find dinner on our own. David and I chose a Mediterranean restaurant. He had falafel and I had a great salad and chicken wrap. Tammi had made plans to go with Tina to the night market, but their plans changed, Tammi joined us at the Mediterranean restaurant. We had quite a lengthy conversation about the Indigenous people and how well Australia was trying to accommodate them.

It was time for bed, so we headed back to the hotel.

November 16 - Rainforest Dream Walk

We had our own private van today driven by Karen. We loaded up to travel 90 minutes north along the coast. Tina says people don’t swim along this long coastline because of crocodiles, and as the climate warms, crocs are moving further south.

As we passed the airport, Tina described the Royal Flying Doctor Service which was started by a preacher named John Flynn who is honored on the Australian $20 bill. This service provides emergency medical care by flying doctors and/or nurses into the Outback and other remote areas. People who own ranches, called stations here, have a runway on the property so a plane can land in an emergency. The planes are equipped like an ER and can transport sick and injured to a hospital.

We noticed large oil-slick-looking spots out on the water. Tina explains that this is the time of the year for the coral to spawn. The coral burst open spewing out a mixture of eggs and sperm which join to form an embryo related to the reproduction of the coral reef. The embryo secretes a lipid which causes the fatty mass on the water. It is all timed by the moon and water temperature. No wonder they say scientists haven’t figured it all out yet!

We passed through Port Douglas, which is a favorite spot of Bill Clinton. He was here on 9/11, and of course, returned to the United States immediately. He frequently returns to Port Douglas and is said to pull up a barstool and chat with the locals.

We have two primary destinations today. First, we visited a cultural center where we went for a walk through the rainforest with an Aboriginal guide. The second stop was at a wildlife sanctuary.

When we arrived at the Mossman Gorge Cultural Center, we were met by our guide, named Ben. He was a large young man, 23 years of age. He attended elementary and high school in public schools in Port Douglas. He lives as a member of his Aboriginal tribe, which is managed by elders.

The elders selected him to be one of the tour guides because they saw that he was comfortable speaking to people. Ben enjoys leading the tours. He says it helps strengthen his spirituality. The elders gave him a new name which means “he speaks about the rainforest.”

He began our time with a smoke ceremony, which is to cleanse us from cares and troubles before we enter the rainforest. He put some melaleuca leaves on the smoldering fire to create more smoke and led us as we walked in a circle around the smoke, while he spoke a blessing in his native language.

When the smoke ceremony finished, he invited us to have tea and a damper, which is a bread roll served with honey and jam.

When we finished eating, Ben invited us to choose a walking stick. We boarded a shuttle bus that took us to the trailhead.

The driver of the bus was one of the elders. Ben introduced us and told us that the elder has great wisdom and knowledge. There is a reciprocal relationship between the elders and the younger people in the tribe. The younger people need direction and wisdom, while the elders need the support of the younger generation.

For the next hour and a half, Ben led us on a gravel pathway through the rainforest, pointing out different kinds of trees and plants and giving history and information about his tribe. He stopped at one tree which is used as a signal tree by pounding on the tree with a rock that makes an echoing noise that can be widely heard through the rainforest.

He took us to a sacred place with huge boulders and told us about the ceremony for young boys to become men. He encouraged us to walk around the area and said that he could feel the spirits there. There is a similar area where young girls become women.

When we came to a small stream, he stopped to show us how different native plants are used to form dye which he then used to paint stripes on his arm. He said the colors are associated with his totem sign. It is up to each individual young person to determine for themselves what their totem sign is. His totem is the rainforest. He wore a headband with trees on it to depict the rainforest.

His mood throughout the walk was somber. He seemed at peace and respectful of the area. He called this the dream walk.

When we finished our time with Ben, we moved to a different section of the rainforest to walk on a boardwalk to see the river. The forest was a lush tropical landscape filled with long flexible vines which made me think of Tarzan movies.

We ate lunch at the visitor center and browsed in the gift shop. David bought a bright red native-patterned shirt, and I bought a shift in a blue traditional pattern.

We boarded the van with Karen and drove to the wildlife sanctuary, a large zoo filled with Australian animals. We saw a wide variety of birds. One cockatoo, called Crackers, kept nibbling on the shoes of the guide.

 Australia boasts about its birds and there are many here, colorful, and noisy. They have a cassowary and an emu, the second and third largest non-flying birds. The ostrich is the largest. Tina told us to pronounce emu not emoo, but emwoo, with a w.

We saw koalas, wallabies and kangaroos. One of the wallabies had a baby joey in her pocket, and in the pictures we took, the joey was clearly visible. We saw snakes and crocodiles. The wildlife tour was a good experience in seeing Australian wildlife and birds.

Karen drove us home through the traffic. The highway had lots of curves, but Tammi and I didn’t get sick.

When we got back to the hotel, we decided to eat dinner together and picked a Thai restaurant. The server was new and kept coming back to the table to get our order straight. We discussed our day and talked a lot about how Western countries treat native people.

After dinner, David, Tammi, and I decided to get ice cream before heading to bed. It was actually gelato. David got two scoops and said it was too much. His was cherry and very rich and delicious.

November 17 - Flight to Auckland

 We flew from Cairns to Auckland via Sydney today. This was the trip Tina had prepared us for previously.  She showed us where we needed to go inside the Sydney airport to reach international departures. 

This was to be an all-day journey with two three-hour flights and a three-hour layover in Sydney.  We made a three-hour time zone change as well. When we arrived at midnight New Zealand time, our bodies would think it was 9:00 pm.

 A bit confusing but all good.

Our flight was delayed and the driver who was to pick us up at the airport was late, so we did not get into Auckland until about 2:00 am!

November 18 - Auckland Day 1

 I set the alarm last night for 8:30 in the morning since we got to bed at 3:00 am. Breakfast was served until 10.

 We had rooms on the 13^th floor. I guessed they were not superstitious here. We headed down to the second floor to eat breakfast and to attend an orientation briefing at 11. Kelly, our new guide, had us introduce ourselves by telling where we were from since this is the tradition of the Māori culture. It had us laughing and Tammi said Aunt Janet would like this game.

 Kelly gave us welcome packets with several informational handouts, including some Māori words to songs. She also invited several people to be keepers of the imaginary weather stick, so no one would complain to her about the weather. Bud wound up with it and Kelly ceremonially handed over the pretend stick.

 Kelly was a 35-year-old woman of Māori descent. She was attending university to study the Māori language and culture. She was energetic and friendly.

Kelly taught us some basic words in Māori. Like aloha and ciao, the generic greeting here is kia ora. It means hello, goodbye, and thank you, and conveys good feelings. (I remember it by saying to myself in Spanish, “What time is it,” or, “Que hora”.)

We left in the pouring rain on a bus at 12:15 for lunch at Mission Bay. David had seafood chowder and thought it delicious. I had an omelet.

 From the restaurant, we drove up the hill to the home of Dane, a man who would be the next Māori chief of his clan, the Ngāti Whatua Orakei. His 93-year-old father is the current chief. We gathered on Dane’s covered porch sitting on various stools, sofas, and chairs to hear him tell us about the history of his culture.

 He performed a traditional welcome ceremony, with an incantation for peace, introduced himself, and had us each say our name, where we are from, and what from our home impacts us most. He gave each of us a small, folded card with translations in Māori for common phrases, greetings, and names of places.

 He presented a chronological history of the Māori people and talked about the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s founding document. The terms of this treaty are not being respected by the government. Land has been taken away and the people have been discriminated against. They now disproportionately experience poverty. He says drugs, alcohol and gangs have had a very negative impact.

 He passed around photos of historic events, and he showed us artifacts such as masks and abalone shells.

 Dane talked about a tribunal working to remediate the historical grievances and determine what reparations are appropriate.

 He briefly demonstrated the menacing Māori dance, called haka, and the threatening “woof” sounds of his culture. He was emotional and passionate. He concluded by speaking a blessing in Māori language for us to be safe in our travels.

 Kelly spoke in the native language to say thank you to Dane and honor him for his time with us.

 They put their faces together to touch foreheads and noses in the Māori way to say goodbye. The point of this contact is to share the breath of the other person.

 We rode back to the hotel to rest before walking to the harbor, again in the pouring rain, to the restaurant for dinner. Kelly joked about the scenic harbor views, which were totally obscured by the rain and mist.

 David had a rib eye steak which was undercooked and not a very good cut of meat. Tammi and I had salmon, which was also a bit rare, but edible.

 We had Hokey Pokey ice cream, a New Zealand tradition, which was like butter brickle. Tammi led four of us ladies to do the gestures in a verse of Hokey Pokey. Put your right hand in… Everyone enjoyed the fun, including the staff.

 We walked back up the hill from the harbor to the hotel, hung up our dripping rainwear, and took hot showers before bed.

November 19 - Exploring Auckland

We had so far gone without needing cash either in Australia or in New Zealand. It was not customary to tip anyone as people are paid a living wage. We used cards to tap to pay for meals or other purchases. We brought US cash to tip our tour leaders and they are fine with that. We did not need to go to the ATMs to get local currency. This electronic technology has certainly improved the life of a tourist.

Today featured a ferry ride to Waiheke Island to do a winery tour and lunch, followed by a tour of an olive oil processing facility.

Kelly reminded us to take our seasick medicine, and Tammi researched alternatives to the ferry trip. The city tour bus was booked, but the Roupps wanted to do museums and that sounded good to me. It turned out to be a great decision. David went on the ferry and texted that the water was really rough.

David and the group did the winery tour and wine tasting. They opted out of touring the olive oil facility and returned early on the ferry.

While the other group was gone, Tammi, David R, Heidi, and I walked to the harbor to the Maritime Museum. We arrived a few minutes before they opened, so looked for a coffee shop, but nothing was open this early Sunday morning.

When the museum opened at 10, we bought tickets and had hot drinks at the café in the museum. The agent at the ticket counter told us that a tour would start soon, and we decided to do that.

The museum was a large three-story building containing sailing vessels and navigation from several thousand years ago when the Māoris left Asia and traveled to many of the islands in the Pacific. It contained maps of the migration routes and replicas of their ships. The guide was very knowledgeable and gave us lots of information.

The museum also had information about the America’s Cup yacht races and replicas of the racing boats. David R was quite interested in that.

When the tour was over, David wanted to explore the museum more, so he went off on his own. Heidi and I wanted to go to the Auckland Museum. Tammi wanted to go to a pharmacy for sinus meds. Tammi taught me to use Uber and I called for a ride. We dropped her off at the pharmacy and Heidi and I rode to the Museum. Heidi paid for our admission since I paid for the Uber.

The Auckland Museum was a large building on a high hill with views of the city below.

We were most interested in Māori culture, so spent the afternoon looking at carvings, buildings, boats, and textiles. The weaving techniques were fascinating, from how they obtained the materials and dyes to the actual designs and creation of final items.

We took a break to rest and have lunch, but both wanted more time at the museum. We asked for directions to the community room, where a display showed a current project of teaching the techniques to weave a sail like the sail on the boat the Māoris migrated on. There were videos of the process and photos of the women teachers. The actual sail was here on display on loan from the British Museum. New Zealanders hoped Britain would allow it to be displayed permanently in New Zealand.

We were ready to leave but first took a quick run through the volcano area. Volcanic activity and earthquakes were still a threat in New Zealand. Kelly said she regularly feels tremors.

Confident in my new skill, I called for an Uber to take us to the hotel.

Dinner was on our own. Kelly suggested the Occidental Restaurant. David and Heidi wanted to go to the oldest pub in NZ. We agreed to join them but found it too noisy, so we fought with the GPS to find the Occidental and meet some of our group there. I had a great pumpkin and orzo dish.

We decided to split a Belgian Waffle with ice cream and chocolate sauce. It tasted great but we regretted ordering it because it took so long to arrive.

Off to bed then.

November 20 - Travel Day to Rotorua

We boarded the bus this morning at 8:15. The bus driver was Sharon who has driven for O A T for 17 years. She was a very competent driver and easily navigated the busy Auckland morning traffic. Kelly said traffic here is very bad and public transportation is limited.

We headed three hours south to Rotorua, driving through lush green pasturelands in the center of the north island, which is the epicenter of Māori life. It’s believed that New Zealand Māori people settled on the north island about 1000 years ago and they have held on firmly to their identity and traditions. Nearly a quarter of a million indigenous Māori still maintain their unique lifestyle and culture, adding to the rich heritage of New Zealand and accounting for 14% of its population.

We often passed large herds of cattle, dairy cows and Angus and Hereford cattle being raised for beef. Kelly said NZ exports large quantities of dried milk to China as well as lumber. There were also horse pastures. We occasionally saw pastures of sheep, and often passed huge collections of beehives and learned honey is a national export.

One of Kelly’s tasks, as we drove along, was to talk to each person to enter on her laptop our food orders for lunch and dinner. Later she got a call from the hotel, saying that they’d changed their dinner menu, and she had to re-interview people to get their food order request.

Our first stop was to be at Hamilton Gardens, a public garden park on the banks of the Waikato River, complete with a lake and nursery, open lawns, and enclosed gardens. Each garden had its own theme, which together told the history of gardening around the world, including China, Japan, Egypt, and Rome. We had a tour guide who led us while speaking to us through our headsets. We took lots and lots of pictures because it seemed each garden was more spectacular than the last. The gardens were beautifully laid out and meticulously cared for. The roses smelled heavenly, and all the flowers were stunning. There were many water features. We had some time to roam around the gardens on our own before having lunch in the garden café.

Our next stop was to visit a kiwi hatchery called the Nest Egg Kiwi Conservation Project. The kiwi bird is the national symbol of New Zealand, however, because of predators they have become endangered. Kelly asked us about the three kinds of kiwis. Kiwis are birds, fruit, and New Zealanders.

David didn’t clearly hear where we were going, and he thought that this hatchery was for fish. He asked Kelly if he would be able to have a fishing rod and reel. She was puzzled about his request and asked him if he wanted to plan a fishing trip. It took a while for the two of them to figure out the confusion. The rest of the tour group was laughing.

When we arrived at the Project, we learned that kiwis were nearly extinct in the wild, so NZ established two of these Conservation Projects. We learned from staff about breeding, raising, and caring for the NZ national bird. We had a lot to learn. Kiwis are nocturnal and live in burrows on the ground, not in nests. They are the only birds with no tail feathers. They are much larger than I thought, larger than a chicken, but much rounder and a bit taller. The eggs are huge, laid one at a time. If you touch your fingertips and heels on both hands together as if holding a small football you get the idea.

Many predators in the wild eat either the egg or baby kiwi or both. The Project hires farmers to locate kiwi birds in the wild. The Project also uses trained beagle dogs to find the burrows. A human steals the egg and brings it to the Project to hatch. The project has a strict timetable for turning the eggs and keeping them viable until they hatch. They care for the chick until it is able to fend for itself and then return it to the forest area it came from.

It was quite an interesting program. There was even research being conducted to determine the best diet for the young birds.

We finished our drive and settled in at the hotel. This hotel catered to tourists and there were four tour buses already parked outside. We went to the bar so David could get a drink before we joined the group for dinner at the hotel. Dinner was served quickly since Kelly had us pre-order on the bus.

I was ready to go to the room, and we left before Kelly gave us the itinerary for tomorrow. Tammi called us to come back for the details. She’s handy that way!

I was finally ready for bed!

November 21 - Day in the Life

We planned to spend most of the day today learning more about the Māori culture by visiting the tribal lands of the Ngāti Manawa people. We learned it is their custom to give their genealogy when introducing themselves, often going back to naming the canoe that brought their ancestors here. Saying who you are and where you are from is important, as well as stating your intentions. “I come in peace, Kelly.” After introductions, we had an official welcome.

I woke us up a half hour early because I hadn’t carefully read the itinerary Kelly sent us. When we went to breakfast, David asked Kelly to add him to her distribution list so that he could read his own itinerary in the future.

We traveled in a large 40-passenger bus and with 13 of us on the trip, we had lots of room. Our bus left at 8:30 this morning, headed south out of Rotorua. It was a sunny day. We carried raincoats just in case, but the only rain we had seen so far was in Auckland. We passed the same kind of terrain as the day before, large pastureland, and beautiful, lush grass. It looked like velvet. We saw many herds of cattle. There were also large stands of timber, mostly pine trees, sometimes lining the road so that there was no visibility beyond the roadside. There were areas where the trees had been clear-cut. Kelly said the land and the trees have separate ownership. The Māori have ongoing litigation to try to get the land returned to them and say by the time that happens there will be no trees.

The bushes along the road were very bright yellow, and some people speculated that they might be forsythia bush. I thought the color was right but not the shape. Kelly said they might be broom, an invasive species. She explained that, because New Zealand was an island, it had limited species of flora and fauna.  Humans introduced all the four-legged animals, and they are now predators and pests as well as meat, dairy, and companions.  Humans also brought other plants.  While some are beneficial, others might take over if left unchecked.  Kelly held strong opinions about foreign plants and animals. Rats and opossum as well as dogs and cats eat kiwi birds or their eggs and impact other species as well.  On the other hand, California redwoods introduced here have become a cash crop and supply jobs and income to many human Kiwi.

Māori families include aunts, uncles, and cousins. They live in large groups, like a clan, with houses near each other. A clan is called an iwi (eewee). The area where they live can also be called an iwi. Clans belong to a tribe that lives within its tribal area. These are not reservations, but boundaries that have been worked out between tribes, sometimes with warfare.

We spent some time practicing the song we learned in the Māori language, which we would later sing as a part of the welcoming ceremony.

When we reached the tribal border, the bus pulled over to the side of the road and Kelly got off to meet our local guide, a man also named Kelly. He stepped on our bus and invited us to come outside for him to introduce himself. We agreed to do this, although I was puzzled about why he asked us to because we were right beside the highway and the traffic noise made it hard to hear what he had to say.

The local guide greeted us with a pepeha (introduction) and karakia (prayer). He told us his name was Kelly and that he was from a nearby area. He joined this local clan because it was the clan of his wife. They have a four-year-old son. We all got back on the bus for a short tour of the local community. The big bus drove along the residential streets which Kelly told us were all named after trees. We drove by two or three schools and Kelly told us that these are immersion schools for the Māori language. Children learn the universal language, English, the Māori native tongue, and are also taught Japanese at school.

When our driving tour was finished, we pulled up to the gate of the Marae (land where the welcome center building sits) and lined up outside the large gate as instructed with the women clustered together in a small group and men behind. We were in a large outdoor area. Several yards in front of us was the building which sat on the Marae and a Māori woman stood in front of the building singing to us.

Following our female guide Kelly’s cue, we walked forward a few steps and stopped, and we repeated that again, walking forward and stopping, forward and stopping. This stopping related to different topics the woman was singing about. One part was acknowledging ancestors, hers, and ours. Another was for our safe travels. The third was to welcome us into their iwi and Marae. We finally reached the place where we were to be seated and we moved into the area of chairs with the women seated in the back row and men in front. The chief of the clan spoke to us in the native language, giving us a traditional Māori greeting, thanking us for coming, and giving us a welcome. He moved around a bit as he was speaking, then moved back in front of the building where he was joined by another man and the woman who sang to us before.

The three of them sang a short welcoming song in the Māori language. Kelly led our group in singing the Māori language song we had been learning as a response. The words meant there is love, peace, and faith for all of us.

Next, they invited us Inside the building, and we took our shoes off before entering. This was a sacred space. Once we went inside, we were seated again with the women in the back row and the men in front. They told us that by tradition, the men walked behind when we were walking outside as protection for the women from the rear, and now that we were inside the building, the men sit in front as protection for the women from the front.

The chief continued to tell us the story about the place which included giving history of creation, migration, and the settlement of the area. He told about the missionaries coming to teach Christianity and said there are many different religions represented in the local area.

As he finished speaking, the male guide Kelly came to the door of the welcome center to invite us to come for tea and biscuits (cookies.) We walked over to a different building and stood in front of the table with the tea and coffee while a man prayed, We each got a cup of tea or coffee and sat at the table distributing ourselves leaving space between us to make room for some of the group that had been welcoming us, so that we could have some conversation while we had tea and cookies. This gave us an opportunity to ask more one-on-one questions of our hosts.

The chief appointed David Wilson to be the king of the group and instructed him that it was his duty to be thankful to our hosts when we left. David stood up and said thank you to the people who prepared the food, we were then ready to get on the bus and drive a short distance to another building where we would have lunch.

Lunch had been cooking all morning in a traditional Polynesian underground oven called a hangi. This group hosts so many tours that they do not dig a pit in the ground. Instead, they have created a hole three meters square that is lined with concrete in which they place hot stones and then metal baskets of the food, which is then covered in blankets, and finally covered with earth. The food is steamed and heated for about three hours. They demonstrated the process of uncovering the food by shoveling away the earth, folding back the covering materials, and lifting the metal baskets of food off the hot stones. They carried the baskets inside where the food was cut and placed into serving bowls and served buffet style.

When the food was ready, someone blew a conch shell to call us to eat. We went inside and chose our tables. Someone said a blessing and another person explained what the various plates of food were. Instead of plates on the table, we had woven baskets lined with foil.

We went through the serving line helping ourselves to a variety of foods: a coleslaw salad, a fresh vegetable salad, cooked pork and chicken, other vegetables, sweet potatoes, and various types of dressings and baskets of delicious fry bread. We ate our food, turned in our baskets, and were then served dessert which included fruit salad, pudding, and a vanilla cake.

When we finished dessert, the local guide Kelly invited us to sit outside to learn about the weapons from their culture. He explained three different weapons and then demonstrated the haka (menacing dance) where the males stick out their tongues and females jut their chins forward. We took lots of photographs. We said our farewells and thankyous. Kia ora!

We boarded the bus to head back to Rotorua to go to the Paradise Spa, a natural hot spring in a geothermal area where we would spend a couple of hours before dinner. David and I got off with most of the group. Tammi and three others chose to return to the hotel, where she took a nap.

Those of us going to the pool paid our fees, changed clothes, and put our things in a locker. This spa had seven pools: three were for good skin and three for muscles and joints. The areas were very clean and had signs in English, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Each pool had the temperature listed. We moved around the pools, trying a few before showering and dressing. We were all ready for some delicious ice cream.

As we walked back to the hotel, we passed a public building with lots of children outside. Kelly asked and learned this was a competition between schools to demonstrate native dancing. David and I wanted to watch. A nearby parent gave Kelly tickets for us, but the tickets had already been swiped. The ticket taker went inside and found those seats vacant, so she showed us into the dark auditorium. There were about 30 children on the stage, 20 girls and 10 boys, all dressed in native costumes. They did different dances, sometimes with the boys in front and sometimes with them in the rear. Parents were shouting and applauding. At the end, the boys stuck out their tongues and the girls jutted their chins forward. We enjoyed the show but got there late so only got to see about 15 minutes of it. We found there would be another performance at 7:30 and we asked for tickets which they supplied.

Then we hurried to join our dinner group on Eat Street, where all the restaurants were. Tammi, David R, Heidi, and Phyllis were at the Italian restaurant. We joined them and waited a long time to order, and even longer to be served. People who were seated behind us came and went. The wait gave us no chance to use our show tickets. The evening wore on and finally, Heidi got up to speak to the manager. We finally got our delicious food! We had a bus waiting to take us back to the hotel and bed.

November 22 - Volcano Walk

Our adventures began with a drive to the Waimangu Volcanic Valley. The area around Rotorua is called a thermal wonderland because of its volcanic activity. The region is replete with bubbling mud pools, geothermal geysers, and steam vents. It’s not at all unusual to spot the occasional small vapor stream rising from the crack in the pavement there. On the volcanic plateau, it simply comes with the territory.

A volcano called Tarawera erupted on June 10, 1886, and seven small villages were destroyed during the eruption with 105 lives lost. All plant, bird, and animal life in the area was extinguished by the eruption. The area prides itself on being the youngest geothermal area in the world.

We drove to the area and met our local tour guide, who took us to the Waiotapu Geothermal Area on a one-hour hike, mostly downhill, alongside several lakes and geothermal areas, including geysers, hot springs, pools, and mud pots. 

We saw a beautiful blue water hole which reminded me of the Morning Glory water hole in Yellowstone. 

 This local area has several lakes, one of which is called The Frying Pan Lake, the world’s largest hot spring. After our hike, we boarded a small cruise boat and took a cruise of Lake Rotomahana, where our captain explained more about the history of the area and showed us geothermal sites that aren’t accessible by land.

Tammi and I were a bit concerned about riding the cruise boat, but the water was very calm, and we were able to sit on the front of the boat in the refreshing breeze. Neither of us had any trouble.

We returned to the dock to enjoy lunch in the local café, then boarded the bus to head back to the hotel. On the way we stopped at a nice gift shop where David bought a T-shirt. I was surprised to find a set of Lemmi sticks, so I bought them too. My friend Pat and I learned this game in Girl Scouts, including the related Māori song.

We walked back to the hotel. This hotel had its own self-service laundry room, so I spent the afternoon in the basement minding the washer and dryer and visiting with other people coming to the laundromat.

Tammi came downstairs to practice with me on the Lemmi sticks. She had the song on her phone and we practiced several times. We thought we had the routine down good enough to perform at our dinner in the evening.

After laundry, we walked to the Rotorua Farmer’s Market, a bustling place full of locals and tourists with many vendors with kiosks of fruit and vegetables, clothing, jewelry, crafts, collectables, plants, souvenirs, and other goods. It was a family-friendly atmosphere full of vibrant live entertainment, ethnic eateries, and boutique-style shopping. We shopped here for gifts.

Later, we all went to the bar where people gathered to chat. We were being picked up for dinner at 6:15 to go to the home of a local family for a home-hosted meal.

We were warmly greeted by this couple who lived in a lovely home. 

They told us about their children and their lives. He has a degree in Fine Art and teaches painting. He has beautiful, framed artwork around his home. She works for the government.

As is the Māori custom, they asked us to each introduce ourselves and tell them a bit about ourselves. We then had dinner served buffet style, including two kinds of salad, pork sausages, beef steak, chicken breasts and creamed potatoes. We had cake and ice cream with fruit salad for dessert.

During the dinner, we asked our hosts several questions about their daily life. The family practices Māori martial arts, and since the husband won the local contest, his picture was on the cover of the championship program.  They had a framed poster of him in his “haka” pose just inside the front door! Far from “a day in the life”, we found this couple to be outstanding and well-to-do, with strong family values and a love for sharing their hospitality and culture.

Just before time to leave, Tammi organized our group to do three different performances. The first was for Tammi and me to play with the Lemmi sticks. Tammi then asked the host couple if they wanted to play for us. And they did! They skillfully played with the sticks and said that tossing the sticks and flipping end-over-end trains children to master the hand-eye coordination needed for the martial arts movements.   The hosts had fun and so did the rest of the group. Tammi then led us in singing the Māori song that we’d learned to sing at the welcome center. And because they served Hokey Pokey ice cream, we also did the Hokey Pokey dance. Our hostess showed us a very similar dance, which is the local Māori alternative to the American hokey pokey. Our ride appeared, and we scrambled to say our goodbyes and leave. It started to rain, so we hurried to the bus to make our way back to the hotel and head for bed.

November 23 - Flight to Christchurch

 On the way to the airport for our flight to Christchurch, we stopped to go for a walk in a redwood forest. This forest is well known in the area as it was specifically planted by local people to develop forestry management. It is used as a productive plantation forest, where visitors and jobseekers alike can learn about the forestry management cycle. The redwood trees are huge, although not nearly as big as the ones in California because they’re not as old. Suspended wooden walkways strung between the trees form an elaborate network to allow visitors to walk through the trees high above ground level to look upward through the trees to the sky and below to the variety of ferns that grow on the forest floor.

 This site charges $17 US to traverse the elevated walkway. Five of us ladies decided to participate, and we took photos of each other and of the trees and the ferns below. Ferns are an important part of NZ flora. In fact, many souvenir caps and tee shirts have ferns on them.

It rained the night before so the air felt damp, but at least it was dry while we walked the suspended path and bridges. There were no other tourists on the walkways at the time that we were there, so we felt like we had the place to ourselves. Near the end of the walk, David and Kelly took photos of us from the ground.

People can enjoy and explore the forest environment through various recreational activities like hiking, biking, and horseback riding. We stopped in the gift shop and looked for souvenirs. Once everyone had finished, we boarded the bus and drove a short way to the airport at Rotorua. Kelly made sure we could all manage the self-check-in kiosks and of course Tammi, the ultimate techie, helped me and David get our boarding passes and our luggage tags. This must be the only airport in the world that doesn’t have security scanning, but then again it only provides local service. Water bottles were safe even with water in them. We moved to the gate and found a snack bar for people to get drinks or snacks while we wait to board the plane. 

The two-hour flight left at 11:30. The ride was smooth until we descended into Christchurch where the high winds had the plane rocking from side to side. I wondered if the pilots could set us down safely, but they managed it.

Kelly gathered her flock at baggage claim and walked us completely through the terminal and out the other door where our bus was waiting.

Rachel, Kelly’s new supervisor, joined us at this point.  We understood she was along to experience the tour herself as she was new to OAT.

We boarded the bus for a 30-minute ride to the hotel. Kelly distributed our room keys. We planned to meet again in 30 minutes for an orientation walk, lunch at Riverside Gardens and a visit to the Botanic Gardens. Kelly pointed out restaurants and museums and suggested activities for tomorrow afternoon.

Christchurch suffered a major earthquake in September 2011, their own 9/11, and recovery has been slow. We saw many examples of buildings that couldn’t be used or vacant lots fenced to keep people out of danger zones. The Cathedral is being restored but much of the footprint is fenced off or boarded up.  They had a giant sign with a picture of their stained glass rose window hanging like a billboard covering the place where the window will eventually be replaced.  The community lost much of its tourism-based income with the earthquake and suffers even today.  They don’t have the workforce to rebuild very quickly, and the lack of tourists means poverty and homelessness are more visible here.  We walked around the city some and rode the city bus but found we didn’t need long to size up the situation.

By the time we arrived back at the hotel, it was 6:00. I walked nearly 13,000 steps. We ate lunch so late, there was no need for dinner. I was ready for a cup of tea, shower, and bed.

November 24 - Farm Visit

We woke to pouring rain. We had the luxury of sleeping in because the departure time from the hotel was 9:50. Our van drove over an hour to a working farm in the Rubicon valley nestled in the Southern Alps. We had the opportunity there to see the impressive teamwork of sheep dogs herding sheep into the pens. We also looked at the other animals and activities at the farm, including chickens, alpacas, hogs, a stable of riding horses and the growing of produce.

After we watched the dogs work and petted the alpacas, Chris, the manager of the farm, had us take our seats in front of a small stage where he sheared a sheep. He explained to us about the various kinds of wool, comparing Romney sheep to Marinos. He said the Merino sheep live in the Highlands. They are smaller sheep and don’t need as much food, and the growing season is shorter. The Romney sheep have coarser wool, which is too harsh to wear against skin but is primarily used for housing insulation. Who knew??

Chris also talked to us about the process of sheep shearing, showing the old-fashioned way with handheld clippers, and the more modern way with electric clippers. He said sheep-shearing professionals move around the world seasonally, and they shear each sheep in a matter of seconds.

Chris brought a sheep out of a small pen and sheared the sheep while we watched. Before he finished, he allowed those of us who chose to come up and try our own hand at sheep shearing. I volunteered and had a good time learning how to hold the handheld shears.

This entire morning was conducted in pouring rain. We were glad we brought our raincoats! After the sheep shearing demonstration, we went into their house and were served a hearty lunch of the foods the farmers prepare when the hired crew comes to shear all the sheep on the ranch. The meal included two kinds of meat, a lamb patty, and a beef sausage, two kinds of salads, vegetables, bread, and two kinds of dessert.

As we were driving back home, the skies began to clear and by the time we got to town the sun was shining although the wind was still blowing, and it was 50°.

We dropped off our bags at the hotel. Tammi and David and I walked four blocks to the tram stop to buy tickets for the city tour. The trams were gleaming red and green trolley cars similar to those in San Francisco. We rode the tram for the complete 50-minute route. The driver narrated as we went, describing the local buildings as we passed. It was sometimes hard to hear him over the noise of the tram. The trolley tour further demonstrated the damage to Christchurch by the earthquake, 

Christchurch calls itself the garden city and does boast quite a number of small parks and a large botanic garden. The Avon River runs a circuitous path through the city and the botanic gardens. It’s possible to hire someone to pole you on a boat on the river like the gondolas that are poled in Venice. Here they call this activity “punting” on the river. When the city tour by tram was finished, we walked back to the hotel.

This day was Thanksgiving back in the United States, but there were no turkey dinners here. Instead, we organized a group of six of us including the Roupps, me, David, Tammi, and Phyllis to go out to dinner at a Spanish restaurant.

Kelly helped us book the dinner and arranged for a private room. It was really a very enjoyable evening because we had the room to ourselves and had extended pleasant conversations over our meal.

We traveled both directions by Uber. I’m getting the hang of that!

After returning to the hotel, we said good night because we needed to pack. The next day would be another travel day with a departure time of 8 AM.

November 25 - Travel Day to Dunedin

We had been steadily heading south this entire trip and this day was no exception. We drove 250 miles by coach to Dunedin, the Edinburgh of New Zealand, established by the Scottish Church. Clerks here still say “wee,” as in “I will just take a wee look around.” The drive was regularly broken up by stops for toilet, shopping, lunch, and scenic views. Kelly educated us as we rode along. We saw huge dairy herds. Much of the milk is dehydrated and shipped to China. China even owns some of the herds. The combined impact of these cows gives off so much methane, the dairy owners are charged a special tax used to offset the effects.

We saw lots of irrigation methods being used here. They want to keep the grass growing so there to feed the cows and sheep. New Zealand has over 45 million sheep. The demand for sheep-growing is less for wool and more for lamb. New Zealand is respected for its organic raising of lambs, feeding mother’s milk and the lush grass, not artificial enhancements. There is a world-wide demand for this organic lamb meat.

By the way, “dairy” is also the generic term they use for small convenience stores, like those we would call 7-11, which have signs saying Dairy. Another question is why is there an off-on switch for every electrical outlet? Each outlet with two receptacles has two switches, one beside each plug. I found myself more than once plugging something in and coming back later to find it had not received any electric current because I had not flipped the toggle.

Our first stop was in a town called Geraldine, which is in a vast forest reserve. We stopped for lunch at Oamaru, a quaint little town with a historic Victorian district and many shops for handicrafts as well as museums and galleries. The town sponsors an annual Steampunk event. I had never heard of this, but of course, Tammi knows about it. Steampunk is a subculture of science fiction looking back into the times of steam power, using gears and industrial features in designs, and clothing restyled from the Victorian era. It’s the style typified in the movie Wild, Wild West with Will Smith and Kevin Kline. Shops here are filled with antiques from this time. David Roupp climbed on an antique bicycle with a huge front tire – a great photo opportunity. We all had ice cream from a little shop that blends flavors. The wind was chilly, and we ducked into the shops to browse and keep warm.   

Back in the bus, we crossed the 45th parallel, halfway between the equator and the South Pole, stopping to take photos like we would at the Continental Divide in Colorado.

We had been following the coastline with views of the Atlantic.  Along the way, we stopped to see the Moeraki Boulders, large oddly spherical stones scattered across the beach. They originally started forming 60 million years ago through ancient sea floor sediments. There is a Māori legend about their origin as the remains of a wrecked fishing boat, its hull, fishing baskets and nets now petrified.

We finally arrived in Dunedin and took photos at the steepest residential street in the world.

 At our hotel we unpacked and got settled. Dinner was at the hotel at 6:30. We loitered a bit for conversation and because it took so long for our dessert to be served, but we were then off to our rooms for the night. Heidi hadn’t been feeling well with a drippy nose. She thought maybe she had a cold, tested negative twice for COVID. She kept perking along. Tammi treated her with an antihistamine, then Heidi found something stronger at the pharmacy. We considered all the colloquial terms for businesses.  A drugstore is called a pharmacy. Fast food places are called takeaway. Auto body shops are called panel beaters.

November 26 - Dunedin

The next morning we headed for Dunedin, pronounced DUN-ih-den. The OAT-planned event for this morning was a tour of a castle. One by one folks began to opt out of this trip. Finally, Kelly canceled it all together as the group headed to various destinations on their own agendas. Tammi, David, and I, at Tammi’s suggestion, decided to go to a local Presbyterian church service at the First Church of Oatago.

 We walked 10 minutes to one of the most beautiful church buildings I have seen, with a huge bell tower and magnificent stained-glass windows. Inside, we admired a magnificent pipe organ, with an organist who obviously really enjoyed playing this instrument.

We learned that this church serves three Presbyterian congregations and that it has three services on Sunday morning: one in English, one in Māori language, and one in Samoan. The pastor speaking this morning began by playing the guitar and singing as welcoming music. He mentioned that announcements were in the bulletin, but someone called out to say that the announcements printed are for the following week not this week. The minister took this in stride, made a joke and we all smiled.

The pastor told us that one of the disadvantages of growing up is that no one read us stories anymore and proceeded to read to us out of a story book. He sat on the steps at the front of the church and turned pages in the book. Pictures from the book showed up on the overhead projectors following the story. The point of the story was that we should use our gifts wisely to serve others.

We sang a couple of hymns. A woman went to the front to give two scripture readings. The pastor played another song on the guitar. We were given a time to greet each other, and the service ended. People sitting around us recognized that we were strangers and greeted us warmly. They invited us to join them for a cup of tea in the fellowship hall following the service. One couple visited with us while we were still in the sanctuary about where we’ve been on our trip and what our future plans are. We decided not to go to tea thinking that this might be a larger time commitment than we want to make.

Instead, we headed out to the train station using the GPS on our phones to navigate. The train station was a beautiful old building filled with painted wrought iron and stained-glass windows. Others from our group were there as well and we compared notes on what we each had seen in our wandering. We took photographs, crossed over the garden in front of the building and begin to search for the pharmacy.

I have been struggling for a few days with seeing double. I could see well out of either eye when one or the other was open, but when they were both open images appeared one above the other. It helped for me to hold one eye closed, and I thought that an eyepatch would relieve me of having to squint. Since it was Sunday, most pharmacies were closed, so we went to the food store. Their pharmacy was open, but they did not have the eyepatch I was hunting. The pharmacist referred us to a nearby pharmacy which was open on Sundays.

We split up briefly because Tammi wanted to take a picture of the panel beaters sign and David was tired of walking. He sat down to wait for me to finish walking two blocks to the pharmacy. They had an eyepatch, so I bought it and returned to where David was sitting. Tammi reappeared and had met up with David Roupp. We walked together back to the hotel.

On the way into town the day before, Kelly had us stop at the grocery store to buy food for Sunday lunch and dinner hoping to give us more time for sight-seeing. Once we were back at the hotel, Tammi prepared a charcuterie board for our lunch with sliced cheeses, crackers, cheese spread and sliced pears. She also had packages of tuna and crackers. I ate one of these for my lunch. This relaxed meal was a delightful break in the day.

The plan for the afternoon was a tour to see wildlife. This area is touted as the wildlife capital of NZ. The tour company picked us up in a van at the hotel and drove us to their office to pay our fees. This tour would take all afternoon, returning us to the hotel about 8:30 pm. Tim, the tour guide, showed us a map of the various areas around the edge of the city where we would be going.

We traversed the rugged and beautiful Otago Peninsula, exploring several inlets with wading birds. The shallow basins of water were perfect for water birds, and Tim stopped the vehicle to name several of them, educate us about their habits and give us time to take photographs.

From there we moved to the ocean where we walked a narrow sandy path through shore vegetation to a remote beach. Our goal was to view sea lions and we were rewarded for our hike. First, we saw one large male in the middle of the beach. Next, we noticed a smaller male who walked using his flippers like legs putting one flipper in front of the other. from the left side of the beach to the right, crossing near the larger male.  The old bull roused up to challenge the smaller male, who gave way, waddling into the water to detour around the stronger animal.

The young male swam along the beach, waddling back onto the sand further away toward the right side of us where he approached a female. We watched them in their courtship process.

Back in the van, we moved to another section of the beach where we were rewarded by seeing three young adult males sparring with each other. Everyone took pictures and we felt fortunate to have found so many sea lions active today.

I asked Tim the name of a large bush that looks a lot like a Joshua Tree. He says it is called a cabbage bush.

Our next stop was the Royal Albatross Center. We climbed out of the van and went into the building to hear a brief lecture, check out displays and watch a video which explained about the local royal albatross as well as other species of albatrosses and where they live worldwide. Next, we moved to the viewing area to see the albatross nesting. We hurried as we walked up the trail to the viewing area because the path was literally covered with bird poop. Could we avoid being hit by birds flying overhead? I pulled up the hood of my raincoat just in case.

At the top of the hill, we found the observation station building. Inside, we stood in front of a huge wall of windows to watch the birds. This viewpoint looked out over dozens of nests with royal albatross and other birds.  We watched birds taking off, landing, and feeding their mates and young. One albatross flew by making circles around the hilltop, going right past the window, and giving us several opportunities for photos.

Albatross from window

We boarded the van again, this time to look for penguins. This area of southern New Zealand has two types of penguins. The smaller blue penguins are common and many of them nest in small bird houses that have been specially built for them near the beach. They are very shy and will only reproduce in privacy. We also hoped to catch sight of the rare, yellow-eyed penguin. There were only 11 adults living on this beach penguin reserve.

We walked on a path down to the beach and watched the water wash up on the shore for about 20 minutes. Tim pointed out other birds and finally spotted a lone yellow-eyed penguin. The penguin was quite far away, maybe 250 yards, and even with binoculars I had trouble finding it, but Tammi patiently pointed out nearby rocks and small landmarks until I could finally identify it. When everyone had seen the penguin, we walked back to the van to take us to the hotel while we ate our sandwiches brought from town. Kelly shared with us some Girl Guide cookies, a sure sign that the first Costco has finally come to the South Island.

David made plans to meet a few folks at the bar, but after such a long day, only Bruce and Ruth joined us. None of us lasted very long. Time for bed.

November 27 - Travel Day to Milford Sound

In order to get to our overnight cruise in Milford sound, we rode over seven hours heading south then west, all the way across South Island to Milford Sound on the Tasman Sea.

Driving along state highway 94, also called Milford Road, reminded me in many ways of rural America. We were on a paved two-lane highway using yellow center lanes to prevent passing. Occasionally we came across construction or had to pass a slow-moving tractor. The terrain was rolling hills, greener than most of America, with hedgerows of shrubs or trees of various types. We came to a section of the highway where the first town was called Clinton, and the next town was called Gore. A sign has been erected calling this the presidential highway showing that it links Clinton and Gore.

 We stop in the city of Gore, which is the country music capital of New Zealand. We studied a monument which has handprints of about 50 country music stars, including Glenn Campbell and Waylon Jennings. In order to accommodate tourism in the country, the small towns have built public restroom stops, which include three or four bathrooms near a park that has parking space for the large coaches. This invites groups to stop in the towns so that tourists can support the local economy by buying their coffee or a pastry.

At one point on the highway, we saw a sign pointing out the old stone cottage, a tourist attraction sitting beside the road ahead.

We stopped for lunch in Te Anu at a restaurant where Kelly had us pre-order. The food was served promptly. David has seafood chowder which was a problem later.  

We had some time to wander around town. Wander was the operative term. The Lord of the Rings series was filmed here on the South Island and Kelly pointed out many points of interest.  One famous quote from Tolkien says, “Not all who wander are lost.” This could well be the slogan for New Zealand, which encourages exploration and adventure in these remote settings.

North of Te Anu, and about halfway to Milford Sound, we stopped to see Mirror Lakes. A wooden viewing platform and short walking track run along the lakes.

We boarded the bus to head onward toward Milford Sound. We gained elevation steadily with more trees and higher mountains. After many long hours, we reached a sign that says Fjordland National Park. We still had miles to go, but at least we felt our destination was closer.

We stopped here to see some Kea Parrots. These are beautiful green parrots with bright orange feathers under their wings. They are very smart and attract many tourists as the birds just fly freely in this area. They love to eat any rubber molding on the vehicles or on the soles of our shoes.

We passed through a one-way tunnel dug entirely by hand, and finally reached Milford Sound, a fjord in the southwest of the NZ southern island. The fjord is known for the towering Mitre Peak, with rainforests and waterfalls that plummet down its sheer sides. It is home to fur seals, dolphins, black coral, and marine life.

Milford Sound is on the southern coast of the southern island of the southern land mass closest to Antarctica.  The Tasman Sea sits between Australia and New Zealand, but the opening to the fjord is where the warmer Tasman Sea waters meet the colder South (Pacific) Ocean, creating huge waves.  The cruise route would take us around the perimeter of the Sound, anchoring in a cove overnight, with plans to venture out into the open ocean if the weather conditions were suitable.

Facilities at Milford Sound were adequate for a rest stop but also limited.  The boardwalk from the parking lot led to a visitors’ center where the various tour operators had kiosks.  The center had restrooms and some seating, but no food or drink and limited souvenirs. Beyond the visitors’ center were a couple of other buildings including a café and gift shop, but we didn’t plan to stop there.

Eagerly awaiting our first glimpses of the Sound, once we parked near the pier, we got off the bus and waited while Kelly picked up our boarding passes for the ship. We had brought only small backpacks for our overnight on board.  Kelly directed us down the pier to the boarding area and assisted us in getting into the ship’s dining room area where the safety briefing would be given. Following announcements, we were given our cabin keys and staff assisted people to find their cabins.

Tammi quickly went up to the second deck outside to get a better look. The ship started moving and while turning, caught a big wave just right to splash people standing on the first deck, like Kelly, and totally soaked Tammi on the second deck. She was wearing her rain jacket, so her top was protected, but her face and hair were splashed, and her jeans were wet. Kelly and Tammi came dripping into the dining room and we all laughingly expressed our concerns.

The ship had three water activities available. Passengers could choose to ride around a small segment of the shore in tender boats or in kayaks, and anyone brave enough could jump into the cold water of the Sound.

No one in our OAT group was up for kayaking, since the crew said it was rough enough that only experienced kayakers should try. About half our group boarded the tenders for a 45-minute trip into the small coves to see waterfalls up close and watch some small penguins on the rocks.

Two penguins jumped down the rocks to greet us.

When all the watercraft had returned, those who chose could jump in. Kelly, David R and Tammi decided to go for it. I took a video which I enjoyed sharing with them afterwards. The ship’s crew served appetizers before dinner. 

We kept walking around the ship to look at the beautiful scenery and waterfalls that surrounded us.

Dinner was served at seven. Given our surroundings, it was a very elegant meal, followed by dessert served on chilled plates. After dinner, the naturalist on the staff invited us to watch videos and photographs of the local area. She showed spectacular sunsets, beautiful waterfalls and some disasters that happened when the ship got into rough seas. On one trip, all the dishes fell out of the cabinets in the kitchen and broke.

David had not been feeling well since lunch and took two Tums and laid down. He covered himself up with blankets and did not eat dinner. When I came back later to check on him, he had vomited and had diarrhea. Whatever he ate disagreed with him, and definitely made him ill. I helped him settle in and get comfortable for the night. We went to sleep about 10 o’clock.

November 28 - Travel to Queenstown

David felt better in the morning. He didn’t want to eat much but was ready for coffee and a roll. We had breakfast on the ship while it moved slowly from its mooring at Harrison Cove to head out to the Tasman Sea. The nature guide described the waterfalls and cascades pouring down the cliffs and prepared us for the increasing movement of the water as we neared the sea. We made another stop to see penguins hopping awkwardly down the rocks and plopping into the water. I could feel the motion of the water increase as we entered the sea and decided it was time for me to get flat on my bed to prevent motion sickness. This worked well, and it wasn’t long before the ship turned around to go back into Milford Sound. We navigated slowly past the waterfalls and into Milford Sound to the dock to disembark, gathering in the main building before walking to the bus.              

Most of the time we were in Milford Sound skies were gray and at times we watched the scenery through the steady rain.  We walked from the boat through the visitors' center and down a covered walkway to the bus parking lanes. 

On the bus, Tammi discovered her seat was wet from a drip above. This water problem appeared to be the same all along the left side of the bus. It was raining inside the bus! Ok, just dripping, but wet anyway. Kay, the driver, had the bus running, but turned it off and it wouldn’t start again. She had phone service and called her garage. She spent the next hour troubleshooting with a technician on the line. It seemed the problem could be electrical because of the water, but also the transmission wasn’t responding even when the engine started. Meanwhile Kelly, who was on the coach with us, and Rachel, her boss who stayed behind in Te Anau, scrambled to find alternative solutions. We were in the most remote area, with no internet, no hotels, and limited cellphone service, so we were in a bit of a pickle. Kelly suggested we walk about 200 yards down the boardwalk to the nearby café where we could be a bit more comfortable and use the toilet, and they had a land line Kelly could use.

The four guys opted to stay on the bus. They went to sleep instantly, and I took their photo. The women, following Kelly to the cafe', bought hot drinks and snacks and visited a while. Finally, Kelly got word the bus was running, so we made our bathroom stops and went outside to board the bus which had driven around the parking lot to where we were. We all got on eager to resume our journey, but before we had driven five miles the bus stopped again. We were at a construction site where there was a signal light to control one-way traffic through the work zone. We couldn’t move the bus and people behind us couldn’t understand the problem, so they weren’t even trying to pass us at this one-lane construction zone. We were backing up traffic.

Three construction workers came over to help figure out a plan. They considered trying to tow the bus out of the way. Finally, Kay was able to start the bus and drove forward far enough to find a pull-out to get the bus out of the way, probably a half mile down the road. Thinking about the remote, rural highway with the one-lane bridge and a two-and-a-half-hour drive to our next stop, we were all convinced this bus would not be reliable to transport us. Leaving us all on the coach with Kay, Kelly hitchhiked with an Australian couple back to the Milford Sound building. She negotiated with another bus driver. He was there with a group who had come up just for a partial day trip on the sound. His riders were on the cruise ship and his bus was empty while he waited for them. Kelly asked him to drive his bus down to where we were and pick us up from the disabled bus, and we all went back to the Milford Sound visitors’ center. His regular passengers only filled about two-thirds of the seats, leaving room for us if everyone cooperated.

We gathered our meager belongings and moved to the second bus. Soon, its original tour group from Germany boarded, filling the bus now completely. We had conversations with them to tell them our plight. We rode together to Te Anou, where by now Rachel had a van with a luggage trailer ready to pick us up. We still had another two and a half hours to Queensland! The day was gloomy, dark, and rainy, and getting longer and longer. We were more than ready to find our hotel!

Thankfully, Kelly had pre-ordered our dinner.  Now, Kelly called to delay it from 6:00 to 7:00 because of our misadventure. Just before we got off the bus in Queenstown, she said, “Meet me in 30 minutes to walk to dinner.” No one groaned aloud, but collectively there was a sigh! Kelly found our room keys and relayed the news that Queenstown had a boiled water restriction. This meant we couldn’t drink water from the tap. The hotel staff gave us each a bottle of water to take to our rooms. David and I tried several times but couldn’t get our room door open. He went down to get a staff person who of course opened it on the first try. We took a few minutes in the room, but we needed to be back in the lobby for dinner. It was blustery and cold, and I considered skipping dinner, but braved the elements to walk about a half mile along the waterfront to the restaurant. The waterfront was filled with cafes and bars and people, all lit up and quite the happening place! The steakhouse served us promptly and David was happy with his food. I had a pasta dish. We waited a long time for dessert, but it was good. I had English fig pudding. Tammi and I were both very ready to leave, but Kelly was at the other table and didn’t look like she was moving for a while. I stood up, and that broke the ice. I said goodnight to all, and we pulled our jackets around us as we stepped into the wind for a brisk walk to the hotel. I was never more ready for bed!

November 29 - Queenstown

We slept in until 7:30 and woke to bright sunshine, predicting a better day. We had breakfast in the dining room and discussed our plans for the day. Tammi decided to take a day to herself at the hotel and downtown. Six of us decided to take public transportation with Kelly and rode about an hour out to an old mining town. Arrowtown is a historic district with information about Chinese miners who came here to try to strike it rich.

Those of us headed to Arrowtown rode the public bus and saw more of the city that way. We headed further into the mountains. Kelly brought her microphone and we listened on our headphones as she pointed out the ski area and other attractions. Locals rely on this vacation destination, summer and winter. On the bus were two Asian women with golf bags. David struck up a conversation. They spoke English well. This is their 4th year to visit New Zealand for golf. David joked with them. They rode all the way with us to play at the Arrowtown course. Kelly pointed out the information building to them as we got off the bus. When we got to Arrowtown, we took a sort of self-guided tour looking at the signs describing the Chinese settlement and the remaining buildings, then wandered among the shops. David and I sat down to have coffee and tea and something sweet. Our entire time at the town was two hours.

The ride back seemed to go more quickly. We connected with Tammi. She and I went to the hotel bar for pizza for lunch. We hung around the hotel, catching up with emails and journaling. Phyllis came to join us. By now it was 3:00. Dinner was on our own, and Tammi contacted Phyllis and the Roupps. David and Heidi wanted Indian food, so we met them at the Bombay Palace. We were novices at this cuisine so got advice from Heidi who has been to India three times. We ordered our food and naan (bread) and enjoyed our meals while Heidi regaled us with stories of India where she lived as a princess. Actual fact! We walked back to the hotel along the waterfront enjoying the ambiance, then turned in for the night.

November 30 - Queenstown Final Day

It was spring and there was absolutely no snow here, but Queenstown was gaily decorated for Christmas with banners and holiday lights, reindeer and snowflakes, all the traditions, and stores marketing for gift buying. Kelly told the legend that two settlers flipped a coin to decide who got which side of the lake. They named the two towns Queenstown and Kingstown. Turns out the Queenstown site was the successful one. 

The day dawned gray and dark, hinting of rain which thankfully never came. We were starting the day early, with pick up at the hotel at 8:30. We went exploring the Dart River on an unforgettable jet boat adventure in the Mount Aspiring National Park, a UNESCO world heritage site. We travelled for an hour overland along Lake Wakatipu to Glenorchy, a frontier town at the base of the Southern Alps, where we boarded a mini coach for a journey through the forest, with huge snowcapped mountain backdrops made famous by movies such as the Lord of the Rings. The mountains looked young and jagged. When the road ended, we walked through the forest to board our jet boat and ride upstream on the Dart River, riding through an area so remote that few ever get a chance to experience it. These jet boats were invented in New Zealand for shallow rivers like the Dart, and this was a thrilling way to view spectacular Alpine scenery. 

The boats were nothing like what I had imagined. They were flat bottomed and held 14 people plus the driver. They have two engines which intake the water and expel it out the rear with jet force. They are loud! We wore warm layers and put over them a large raincoat. Next came a life jacket. They gave us gaiters to wear around our neck and pull up over our head to cover our ears. They required us to wear glasses or sunglasses to break the force of the wind. Skimming over the water at 50 miles an hour, the icy wind could chill our ears. We were pretty bundled up! Kelly wanted us to use bug spray, but I didn’t see any bugs. I put spray on my hands, my only exposed body part except face. I guess at times the tiny sandflies could be irritating. I don’t know how they could keep up with the wind.

Our guide was from Brazil. He gave us a safety briefing and explained how the boat works. When he is ready to spin, he will signal us by rotating his hand. There were two boats going out today. We travelled the same direction but kept distance from each other. The guide educated us about the area, saying the company was owned by the local iwi. He gave the boat a spurt of speed and a couple of spins. The guide checked to see how everyone was doing. He pointed out a long bridge nearby and offered that anyone who wanted to stop could get out here and be picked up by a van. No takers. So we set off for a ride of about 15 miles north up this braided river. The guide explained that the force of the water reshaped the stream daily, and new routes would open up while others would fill in with river rock.  The guide picked and chose which stream of water to follow. Most were only about a foot deep. He zoomed back and forth as the riverbed changed. Once he stopped by easing the front of the boat into the rocks for us to get out to walk around to take pictures. He was knowledgeable and skillful with the boat. Surprisingly, I felt safe. David was really excited, took lots of pictures and said, “I want one of these,” pointing to the boat.

I had worried about getting motion sickness. I took medication and hoped for the best. When we headed back, he did more maneuvering and three more spins. I did not get sick, but I was ready for the ride to be over! Still, I was glad I went. It was great fun! And the weather was great, with sunny blue skies. We peeled off layers. My hands were cold and stiff from hanging on so tightly to the bar in the boat. I couldn’t get them to work well enough to zip up my pants and recruited Tammi’s assistance. We boarded the bus for the hour back to the hotel. It was warm and the gentle motion of the bus made it easy to nod off. Soon, the driver announced we were arriving. We had about an hour for lunch on our own. Kelly suggested we meet at 2:30 for a trip debriefing. Everyone gave their kudos and input/feedback about our time together. 

The plan for our final evening was to board a steamboat at 3:30 and travel across the lake to a buffet dinner. The 1912 TSS Earnslaw steamship is the only commercial passenger-carrying coal-powered steamship in the southern hemisphere. We enjoyed walking a catwalk above the engines to watch the two screws move the pistons. We watched the men load the coal into the fire. I took videos. Tammi explained how the engines work. The ship was crowded with mostly Asian tourists. We slid into a table beside a woman who tried hard to speak with Heidi. They exchanged ages. She was amazed Heidi was 83, and excitedly told her family. She soon left to take pictures. 

Our destination was an old ranch house that had been converted to a huge restaurant with multiple dining rooms set with exquisite China.  We docked and found our way into the building where the food was being served. There was practically pandemonium with everyone from the ship rushing in. Fortunately, tables were reserved. We got our seats and served ourselves plenty of food. 

The house was surrounded by acres of gardens.  We walked around outside, but it was cold and windy, so we sheltered in the gift shop. Prices were outrageous! We boarded the ship for the return and sat inside because of the weather. This was our last meal together, but we expected to see most folks in the morning. In the room, it was time to pack again. Living out of a suitcase is one of the downsides of a land tour.

December 1 - International Travel Day

This was a long travel day since we would gain a day at the International Date Line.

We left Queenstown at 3:05 pm on Dec. 1, transferred to an international flight in Auckland, arrived at 11:15 am Dec. 1 in LA, transferred to the flight for Phoenix, and arrived at 6:45 pm on Dec. 1. We flew more than 24 hours and yet arrived less than four hours later.

David and Heidi had problems because somehow her tickets were not booked for the return trip. At each new airport, they had to get it all sorted out again. They were not pleased with OAT about this, to say the least.

Finally on the ground in Phoenix, we told the Uber driver we were too tired to converse, and he drove us directly home. We were glad for the trip, and also glad to be home.

View from hotel on last night