Hawaii... then Home

The flight from Auckland went well and we arrived in Honolulu as scheduled. It took almost no time to clear immigration and customs and we were at the hotel long before the room was available.


The hotel was very accommodating about everything and we spent the morning lounging by the beach and the pool and strolling around for a few blocks. We stopped back by the desk around 11 a.m. to see if one of the "loaner" rooms was available for us to change into swim gear and found that our regular room was all set. So, we changed and headed downstairs for some lunch and a dip or two.

Our friends, Maria and Barry, had gotten in the previous evening and would join us in the afternoon. By the time we were through with lunch, they had arrived, gotten checked in and were on the beach with us.

We spent the afternoon doing nothing, as we would also do all of the next day.

On the second day, we rented a car and took a little tour of the island. We started out at the U.S.S. Arizona memorial.

We then headed up the middle of the island for a stop at the Dole pineapple plantation, a walk through the maze and a sample, of course.


Afterward we drove along the North Shore and came back toward Waikiki via the Windward Side. We crossed over the mountain range and drove through Honolulu for a stretch before crossing back via the Pali overlook and around by the eastern tip of the island. The weather was typical for Hawaii with occasional showers. Along with the showers, come these:


Before coming back to the hotel, we stopped at the location where I used to live. It is no longer an army post, but is now a community college. I think I found the location of the house based on the view. It looked mighty familiar.



The next morning, we checked out of the hotel, had lunch then went to the airport for the overnighter to Chicago and on to Atlanta. Here's the last look we had on the climb out:


The flight was pleasant enough and we arrived on time and easily made the connection home. Our neighbor, Tom, the United pilot, had once again made some contacts with the flight crew and we were presented with a nice bottle of wine from the captain. We arrived in Atlanta on schedule and ran into Tom at the gate, where he was waiting to take the return trip to Chicago and get started on a six day trip.

Mark and Braeden met us at baggage claim and got us to the house at about 10:30, dropping us off where we started from 61 days ago. It was a lovely trip and, as always, it is good to be home.

Bula! from Fiji

So, with the flight cancellation in Queenstown, what was supposed to be our first night in Fiji was actually spent... getting to Fiji. It wasn't too bad after all, though. Had everything worked as initially planned, we would have arrived at the hotel in Fiji at 7pm-ish, had a bite to eat and gone to sleep until it was time to hit the sun and sand. As it turned out, we arrived at 5 am the next morning, had a bite to eat (since breakfast began at 6) grabbed a few winks, then hit the sun and the sand.

Here are a few shots I took shortly after breakfast:

As mentioned, the relaxing began in earnest after a short nap and the rest of the entire stay was spent doing pretty much nothing but having a few sunbakes, watching the ocean, eating and repeating the cycle... no tours...no obligations... just doing nothing in particular. It was great!

Not to take anything away from Mallory Square, but the sunsets in Fiji were pretty good, too...
Here's one as viewed from inside the hotel room:
Susan has made a practice of photographing the boys every year at the beach as a variant sort of means of tracking their growth. In every year's picture, the boys are side by side (acting as though they like each other) facing the ocean. Here is this year's edition:


The stop in Fiji was a good way for us to take a little vacation away from the vacation. The weather couldn't have been better if we had ordered it. However, the rain gods weren't ever too far away. Here is a shot from the morning we left Fiji:
It did let up enough that we didn't get too wet on the way to the airport. We caught our flight to Auckland as scheduled and were on our way back to the USA.

South Island

The weather for the flight out of Rotorua was marginal and, although we were mildly concerned about it, all went well. We found out later that it was the last flight to get out that day.

As we crossed the Cook Strait and flew along the coast of South Island, the clouds broke and we had some nice views of the Southern Alps. By the time we got to Christchurch, the ceiling had gone from overcast to broken and there were some patches of sunlight around. It didn’t last, though.

The next day was overcast and drizzly again as we headed north to Kaikoura. The trip was a couple of hours each way and the guide was very personable and gave us a good commentary along the way. The primary purpose of the expedition was to take a whale watching tour, which we did. This time, we were looking for Sperm whales and the outing was successful. We also saw several New Zealand fur seals , but no dolphins this trip.



The following day we left Christchirch via bus and headed for Queenstown via Mt. Cook. The weather was much better for this trip and the scenery was spectacular, although Mt. Cook itself was never fully visible.







We arrived in Queenstown that evening and stayed in a very nice place on the shore of the lake.



From there, we took full day tour to Milford Sound. this is the part of NZ that looks like Norway and, as with everywhere else we have seen, it is spectacularly beautiful. The road to Milford Sound is long, winding and (pardon the pun) gorgeous as it goes over a couple of passes and through one mountain. Each way took about four hours.




The second day's tour was a half day trip up to the village of Glenorchy at the mouth of the Dart River for a jetboat ride. It was an exhilarating ride, for certain, and was made even more so by the rain. This is definitely on our "places to come back to" list... next time, we will do it in the summertime, though. It was interesting to note that at this location, we were about 25 km from Milford Sound, as the crow flies.




Leaving Queenstown proved to be very trying and was the second big snag we hit on the trip. The airport is in an area of quirky weather and our flight out got cancelled because of it. Nevermind that the ceiling was actually pretty high and the visibility was good. Apparently, owing also to the mountainous conditions, the aircrew certifications vary from company to company, which resulted in all the airplanes operated by the carrier we were NOT booked on to continue to come and go.

Fortunately the folks who held our ticket were able to rebook us on a flight on the competition to Christchurch and to connect to a different Air Pacific flight on to Fiji. However it involved a 7 hour layover in CHC.

A note to myself and for anyone else interested: When scheduling flights into or out of Queenstown, New Zealand... do NOT book on QANTAS.

Kia Ora!

North Island
Auckland - Waitomo - Rotorua

The flight from Sydney didn't even begin boarding until well after it was supposed to depart, yet we arrived in Auckland 15 minutes ahead of schedule. Hmmmmm. Strong tailwind, I reckon.

Our stay in Auckland was only an overnighter, but we did get out for a nice walk down to the wharf and got a bite to eat along the way. It appears to be a very nice city and we will have to add it to our list of places to go again sometime. We made an early night of it as we had an early pick-up the next morning for the ride south.

All of New Zealand is rich in Maori heritage and North Island is especially so. The driver for the ride to Waitomo had a Maori and Scottish background plus a great sense of humor and it made for a very entertaining and fun trip. Waitomo means water falling through rock and that is exactly what it was... a huge cave with water dripping through to an underground river. A short boatride on the river and a look up to the ceiling of the cavern and we saw what we came to see... about 25,000 glow worms. Pictures were not allowed inside the cave - sorry.

From Waitomo, we worked our way through the North Island countryside which was very lush and green and nice to see, even with the ever-present gray skies and occasional drizzle. Part of the route to Rotorua passed near where portions of the Lord of the Rings films were shot. I have never seen them, but I may have to give a look just for the scenery alone.

We also passed through a town, the name of which escapes me, whose claim to fame is artwork done in corrugated metal. They even make art of entire buildings. This one is a depiction of a sheepdog. The building just beyond it (and not visible in the photo) looks like a sheep.



Rotorua is in an area of intense geothermal activity (similar to Yellowstone) and has the smells to match. Unlike Yellowstone, development abounds and they do make good use of the hot water by heating their buildings and swimming pools with it. Our tour there consisted of a trip all through the region including the thermal features as well as a visit to a village that was buried by the eruption of Mt. Tarawera in 1886. The re-established vegetation after the desolation in the relatively short time since the eruption was incredible.

Mud pot

Champagne pool

The valley today

We also got to see a geyser erupt. This one goes off every day at 10:15 am. Not that it's more predictable than Old Faithful... They had discovered years ago, when some prisoners used the hot water from it to wash clothes and it erupted, they figured out that the soap they were using broke the surface tension of the water down inside the nozzle of the geyser, causing it to blow. So... now, every day at 10:15 in the morning, they chuck in 300g of soap powder and, voil

à!





The next evening, we went to the Tamaki Maori Village for dinner and a presentation on Maori culture. It was truly an evening to remember. The food was great and the presentation was most impressive. It consisted of an in-depth explanation of how the Maori came to New Zealand and how they lived here. It was quite a change from their tropical earlier home to a place that gets pretty cold in the winter.

The concert included Maori songs and dances as well as the Haka... what is widely considered a war dance, but it really is more like posturing and feigning, along with the hope that the opponent will give up and go away. If they do... fine. If not... then war it shall be. This picture was taken during the Haka demonstration. Sorry its so blurry, but those fellas don't stand very still during it.



Rotorua marked the end of our visit to North Island and the next day had us heading further south.

Melbourne

There is a great deal of friendly rivalry in Australia, most notably between the Aussies and the Kiwis, but also within Australia itself. We heard one Sydneysider refer to Melbourne as "Melboring". It is actually a very beautiful and cosmopolitan city.



Partly because of the rivalry between the two, we were told, is also part of the reason that neither is the capital of Australia and that Canberra was conceived and built to serve that purpose. We had a shaky start with Melbourne, as the flight schedule had been changed and it took some extra time to get into town from the airport as a result, but we weren't too long at taking a liking to it.



It is a sports-minded city with a rich background in tennis, cricket, Australian rules football and rugby. The 1956 Olympic Summer Games were held here and it is the 8th city we have passed through on this trip that has been (or will be) the site for the Olympics.


After spending what was left of the first evening getting something to eat and heading for bed, the next day was spent visiting the Queen Victoria Market in the morning:



and going on a tour out to Phillips Island for the rest of the day and well into the evening. The island is about an hour and a half southeast of Melbourne and the tour included a stop at a wild life sanctuary that specializes in koalas. It is also home to the Little Penguins. These critters are noted for their return to their burrows in the sand dunes every evening just after sunset. It was an incredible sight to see but photographs were not allowed. Here are a few shots of some other parts of the tour:


The second day was spent going out to the southwest and spotting koalas and kangaroos in the wild at You Yangs Regional Park. The tour included a nice lunch of huge sandwiches, fresh fruit and swagman's tea.





The chocolate shop next to hotel was selling chocolate in the shape of a fish to support the preservation of the Murray Cod, so we did our part:



If only the shop also sold Nestlé Toll House morsels, we could have had chocolate fish and chips.

We leave Melbourne tomorrow and so ends our journey through OZ.

Potty Talk

This post pertains to exactly what the title indicates.

I am pretty sure that some folks may not particularly care to visit this particular subject, so I have buried it deep in the blog. That way you get to choose... if you don't care to read about it there is nothing you need to do. If, on the other hand, you just can't contain your curiosity... click here.

Celebrate! Sort of...

Susan's birthday was yesterday and was celebrated by spending the whole day traveling to Melbourne. We had to connect in Sydney and the flight schedule had changed, so we got into Melbourne later than we expected. We also got in later than the transfer company expected, as the driver was not there to greet us. A quick phone call later and the driver arrived, but we also had to wait for some passengers from another delayed flight before we were on our way to the hotel, so we arrived much, much later than we had planned. We had a tired dinner to cap the evening off.

Not really the way she had hoped to celebrate, but her spirits got lifted by all the birthday wishes she received from all of you. She sends her thanks for them. Also, she was able to find a pair of Uggs she likes today, so she is slowly forgetting the down side.

Happy Birthday Susan!

Ayers Rock and The Olgas

Uluru and Kata Tjuta in the Aboriginal terminology, and that has become the more common way to refer to them. We had a good glimpse of it on the way into the airport:


Once we got on the ground and into the hotel bus, the view got better:

Our first outing was an excursion out to Kata Tjuta to do a little hiking and view the sunset:


The next morning, we went to the sunrise viewing area at Uluru:


Breathtaking doesn't really begin to describe the experience.

The entire stay at Ayers Rock was quite good. For one thing, I can no longer complain about the rain, because there was none. The temperatures were quite mild in the afternoon, rising to the low 70's, and the evenings cooled down very quickly with overnight lows dropping to near freezing... not at all unusual for a desert.

The hotel was very nice and comfortable and was a part of the overall resort complex consisting of several lodging facilities, restaurants and shops. I can easily recommend a stay here, but I will add that two nights are exactly enough to see all there is to see here.

In addition to the sunrise/sunset viewings and the associated excursions, we also had what was was called the Sounds of Silence dinner. It was held in a position that both rock formations were visible for the sunset and included hors d'oeuvres and champagne. The dinner consisted of "bush tucker" as well as normal food and both were quite good.

The program, in addition to the meal, included a period of silence to listen to the sounds of the outback, a didgeridoo player and a talk about the night sky. The stars were incredible to view and there were telescopes available also. There was a very concise explanation of how to use the Southern Cross along with Alpha and Beta Centauri to locate the south celestial pole. I'll stick with taking the bus.

Melbourne is the next destination...