Day 21, 22 - Leavin' on Jet Plane and Sittin' on Top of the World

Day 21 -

Today was a travel day. We were heading North to "The Top End." That is what Darwin and points around are called. Darwin was named by the captain of the Beagle after his friend Charles Darwin. It sits on the Indian Ocean in the Bay of Timor at the top of Australia. Beautiful harbor.

Two flights and a twisty turny bus ride later we arrived at our Novotel hotel, which faces the beach, but of course we had a city facing room. Well actually our floor was so low we had a parking lot facing room. No matter, it was only one night now and one at the end of our trip to the Kakadu National Park, and maybe we will get a higher floor. This being Thursday, there was craft/food fair at Mintil Beach. We took the shuttle bus to the fair and there we were on Broadway, Columbus or Amsterdam Avenues in the Spring/Fall, except this was on the beach. All kinds food and crafts booths. It was quite a treat for Maddi to be on the other side of the E Z up tents. There was a verity of international foods many Asian, we settled on Vietnamese and found a seat on the beach to watch the sunset, and a beautiful one it was. This may have been one of the least expensive and tastiest meals we had in a long time. Just two days earlier it cost us 25 bucks for ONE box breakfast of a breakfast bar, muffin, apple, OJ, a croissant, and a small bottle of water. For under 20 we feasted on two summer rolls and two boxed meals with spring rolls and some meat and rice noodles and greens with a terrific sauce. There was some kind of sports event going on all over Darwin and some were on the beach, relay races were what we saw.

Darwin Sunset

We returned to our room to prepare for a 5:00AM wake up call for the trip inland to the national park. Oh, and because we could, we did laundry.

Day 22 - Sittin' on the Top of The World

Ladies and gents, another spectacular day. Although we had to be up at 5 and on the bus to Kakadu National Park at the crack of dawn it was worth it. It was a long drive with 11 people on a 47 passenger bus. Most people on the bus were day trippers, we are staying through Sunday with an actual day off in a warm place tomorrow.

Our Kakadu Hotel - shaped like a croc - OY

A day off, you muse. How can that be? Because the wet season has not dried out, our Saturday tour was cancelled so no Jim Jim or Twin Waterfalls (known to be spectacular). No matter, we took an optional scenic flight over the park today, which included a fly over both falls. The flight, in an 8 seater plane with just three of us, flew all over Kakadu Park. Not only did we see the falls we weren't going to see tomorrow, we saw three other falls as well, the escarpment and so much more. There we were up in the sky just clicking away.

Egret

From there we took a cruise (use the term loosely) on the Yellow River which starts as a billibong and becomes a full fledged river before becoming too narrow to traverse. Crocodiles, egrets, both great and medium, bee eaters, cockatoos, kites (the bird type), and the Jabiru, an odd looking bird with a red beak and red stilty legs and for which the town is named, all kinds of interesting flora. The trip took about an hour and it was lovely to be outside in the warmth and sunshine.

Aboriginal rock painting

After lunch we went to see the aboriginal paintings at Nourlangie Rocks. Very interesting aboriginal art. What can we say. Off to the Crocodile Hotel for an evening and day of R and R. You may not hear from us tomorrow, we expect to be basking in the sun by the pool. So, see you in a couple of days.

Day 19 and 20 Wheels on the Bus, Rock of Ages and Sounds of Silence

Day 19 and 20  - The Wheels on the Bus

6:25AM off we went to Ayers Rock and the Red Centre. Looking in the guide book the area seems to be a place one could visit for several days, taking in all the crevices, hills, gorges and of course Uluru. We will be there 2 days.

On the road - great vegetation

Red Center plant life

The trip from Alice Springs takes 5 1/2 hours with three stops for food, bathroom and some photo stops. The bus driver, Adam, was also the guide and we tooled along for about an hour and a half, stopping first at a camel farm. They don't raise camels but give camel rides, have toilet facilities, a restaurant ( which was good because we left before breakfast), some kangaroos, emus and a dog.

Outback Tour Driver - not ours

The next pit/food stop was at an aboriginal center, a restaurant but this time had aboriginal art instead of animals. Maddi found her mint Magnum ice cream bars there just like the ones in China and Namibia.

The third stop was to transfer some passengers to another bus for their trip to Kings Canyon (wherever that is).

The final leg of our trip took us to Ayers Rock Resort, our home for the next 2 days.
We checked in around noon, had ridiculously expensive Caesar salads for lunch and at 2:15 were off for our first journey to the Rock, Uluru in aboriginal. Much of this land is aboriginal and reserved for them (reserved sounds a lot like reservation to us). Our afternoon tour consisted of several walks, viewings of aboriginal art on the walls of the rock, a visit to the cultural center and a final stop at the Sunset

Aboriginal wall writings

viewing area. Talk about a crowded little area!! We set up our tripods and took a whole lot of photos of the sunset and incredible night sky. Our next and last stop of the day was an official Australian outback barbecue which included steak, shrimp (yes - on the barbie) and kangaroo meat which was okay. Being out in the middle of nowhere with no city lights the night sky is amazing. Being in the southern hemisphere made it all the more interesting. After dinner we had an explanation of the Southern sky. Our sky guide pointed out the Southern Cross, Leo, Sirius, Gemini, Virgo, and of course Orion ... very interesting. We got back to the hotel at 8:30, Pat was asleep at 8:45, Maddi a bit later for a 5:00 wake for the next journey, sunrise at Uluru. We did get a message when we got back to the room that there was a problem with our trip in Kakadu.

Sunset

As this is one of the first times we have traveled for any length of time in a group we actually met some people to chat with. Of interest, at least to us, was a very elderly woman and a much younger man. It turns out she is 90 years old, he is her butler and she goes all over. He was wonderful to watch with her, good fun on the bus rides and told us he and she had an extended trip to the US planned for next year.

Day 20 - Rock of Ages or Sound of Silence (readers get a bonus ... This is a 2 song day)

Tree with white bark - at the hotel (Patricia)

We awoke at 5:15 and set off for Uluru for sunrise. Neither of us was impressed with the sunrise on the rock, although the sunrise itself was quite lovely. From there we went to The Olgas, Kata Tjuta in Aborigine, for a walk at the god awful hour of 7:15AM. For some time management reason we had our early walk, when the sun is golden and the light spectacular on the opposite side of the rocks where the sun would not get to for several hours. These are very impressive structures, millions of years old and way larger that Ayers Rock. From there back to the hotel at 10:30AM when we both took a long nap. Had the afternoon free so we took a walk to the Town Centre (read shopping mall) on the grounds of the resort, had lunch, went to the supermarket and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in our little back patio playing cards., the gin game that has been going on for almost 10 years.

Kata Tuja (Patricia)

There is much history here. Some is aboriginal folklore and some in geologic past, all of it intertwined. It seems that this whole area where Uluru is was a huge water basin thousands of years ago and the aboriginal tribes of the area have many tales of how this last evolved to the outback we know today.

Sunset at the Sound of Silence Dinner (Patricia)

At 5:15PM we left for the Sounds of Silence dinner, which brought us back to Uluru for sunset, this time in a beautiful location with champagne and hors d'oeuvres before dinner. The menu was a little different but also included grilled kangaroo. We sat at a table with some people we had been on tour with that morning and the previous day and dinner was great fun. After dinner there was a minute of silence, not quite what we expected, but the wine kept flowing, along with the tawny port and another explanation of the southern sky. There were two telescopes set up for incredible viewing of Saturn and the moon. We returned to the hotel at around 9:30 to pack for the next day's journey to the north and Darwin. FYI by now the issue at Kakadu has been sorted out after some communication with out rep in Australia and an E mail to our contact in the US.

Days 18 and 19 - Ticket to Ride

Day 18 - Ticket to Ride

Another day up at 6 to get to the airport for our flight to Adelaide for our train trip to Alice Springs. It's exhausting just writing about it.

The Flight was uneventful, up and down, an hour, but a half hour difference in time. So we picked up a half hour on you all.

We took a taxi and arrived at the train station with 2 hours to spare. The train is The Ghan after the Afghan Cameleers who first went out to Alice Springs. Who would think a train would have more strict rules for luggage than a plane - 20 kilo and that be all for any single bag. When we checked in Maddi had to take 1 1/2 kilo out of her suitcase, which gave her another thing to carry onto the train. Pat had her purse, large bag and camera bag plus the roll-on suitcase for carry on, Maddi her backpack, the item she took out of her suitcase, her camera and her roll on suitcase. Ring and Gilman Sherpas Inc. They are VERY strict about the weight allowance of checked baggage. Something about not having the trainmen hurt themselves!!!!!

We were booked in a twin compartment with washing facilities (toilet down the hall) and access to the lounge and dining cars, meals being extra. Since we had so much time to kill we decided to check out an upgrade. We upgraded to the Gold level, which is a compartment with an upper and lower bed, but en suite facilities and meals included. You only live once, right!!!

The compartment was small but compact, the "en suite" was very cleverly designed. The sink and toilet ware pull downs, so they stow flat one on top of the other. What fun flushing!!!!! The shower was the whole room, with the drain in the floor, (all hotels have the drain in the center of the bathroom floor). The lounge was lovely and the dining room very pretty but
food - not up to snuff for these New Yorkers. Everyone else on the train seemed to love it, so much for taste.

The views were okay, waiting for the Outback which we are to be in in the morning.

Repaired to the compartment after dinner and that was it for us. Once again, the night owls were done in by 9:30! Pat in the lower bunk and Maddi upstairs. Moving around with the suitcases and the upper bunk ladder made getting ready for bed a comedy of errors.

Day 19 - Alice's Restaurant

Today we slept in - 7AM. We awoke to the Outback, a huge expanse of short green trees and red earth. Along the way a cow or two and some birds. It was a vey relaxing 24 hours. We read, photographed out the window and got in several games of gin. We have a travel game we started 10 years ago. Then off the train in Alice Springs and went to the "resort" into which we were booked, dragged our suitcases up a flight of steps (no help it seems) and checked in. Not what we would call a resort, but we can deal with our travel agent later. Best thing is it is 70 degrees and sunny, way better than the weather down south.

Unloaded in our room and went for a walk to the centre of town. Went into several souvenir shops since that's about all there is to do, bought a few things and came back to the room. Since we have to get up very early again tomorrow, it will once again be an early night.

Day 17 - The Magic Bus

After a long and comfortable night's sleep, we are off to see the Blue Penguins, Koalas, and other native creatures near Melbourne on Phillips Island.

What a day!!! If this day is any indication of things to come, we are in for a great time in Australia.

Maddi and her Wallaby

Patricia and her Koala

First stop was an animal reserve where we saw the following: Koalas, Kookaburra, Emu, Wombat, Pukeko, Dingos, Cockatoos, wallabies , Tasmanian Devil, Barking Owl, Gray Heron, Cape Barren Goose. Upon arrival at the Reserve we were greeted by a gentleman with a snake, which Pat had wrapped around her. Cool. Pat also had the treat of petting the Koala, see picture on Facebook as well as here. We both petted a wallaby. Soft and furry and cute.

Our first kangaroo

Cute little Wallaby

From the reserve we went to the Koala Sanctuary where the Koalas are free (more or less) and you walk on a boardwalk and look in the trees for them. And they were there, balls of fur up in the trees. They sleep 20 hours a day high up in eucalyptus trees. We saw at least five of them.

Moving along down the island there was a visit to what looked like an old wild west town. There was a demonstration of herding dogs, sheep shearing and whip snapping. The sheep shearing was pretty interesting and there were several animals to photograph.

Next stop was an overview of an area of fur seals and penguins, of which there were none, but a beautiful view of blowholes, the sea and sunset.

Wonderful Shoreline - but no seals

Finally, the piece de resistance. It's called the Penguin Parade. At dark, the Little Penguins (Blues in New Zealand) come marching out of the sea to go to their burrows for a few days rest. They are the smallest penguins in the world, about 12 inches high and weigh about 2 pounds. They have blue backs and white bellies to protect them from predators. When they swim their blue backs camouflage them from flying predators and the white fronts make them blend with the sky when viewed from below. They are very social within their groups but not so much with people. There is no photography allowed because it disturbs the penguins. The guide told us that the penguin population in the area doubled when they stopped the flashing and clicking of cameras. One would need to use flash, which probably wouldn't work anyway, they are pretty far away when they come out of the water.

We waited sitting in stands at the beach. At first one or two penguins came out of the surf, stood at the edge of the beach near the water and seemed to be waiting. All of a sudden there were 10 or 15 more on the beach. (this happened in several spots along the water's edge) They gather together like a group hug and march off across the beach towards their burrows. They know which burrow is theirs and their mates are either with them or will be arriving soon. These little guys mate for life. Once they marched off the beach, we followed them from a boardwalk as they walked towards their burrows. It may have been one of the coolest experiences of our travels.

Off to Adelaide tomorrow and The Ghan, which is a train that runs from Adelaide to Darwin in the north. We are only taking it as far as Alice Springs and Uluru (Ayres Rock). We will be out of computer range for a day or two, but look for us at Uluru for some images of the rock at dawn.

Day 16 -Down Under

So begins our second leg of the journey. We reluctantly left New Zealand at the crack of dawn (the reluctance applies to both New Zealand AND the crack of dawn) and flew, once again, on a great airline New Zealand Air, to Melbourne. Shuttle bus took us to our hotel in the heart of downtown Melbourne. A little shabby but nice. The bathrooms seem to be the best part of all the places we have stayed so far, even the igloo in Arrowtown.

So we arrive and discover we are here for two nights. We were thinking we had to rush through Melbourne, but we didn't. For 2+ weeks we worried not about how may nights we were where. Time to take charge of our own stuff now. Anyway after the glorious countryside and small towns we acknowledge we really don't like big cities. After all we live in the best of them in the world. So what to do on the second day. The Melbourne information center is great. We picked up a few day tour brochures and booked a trip to see the Blue (or Little, as they call them) Penguins and Koalas at a reserve near the ocean with several stops along the way at different beaches, not to swim (it's quite cold here) but for some sites we will report on tomorrow. If we had realized we had two days here and no days in Adelaide, we probably would have split the difference and spent a day/night in each. (A note to trip planners: when you plan a trip 18 months in advance, check it a few months before you go so you remember where you are going in case you want to change something!!!!)

Tram 

Great Architecture

Of course we wandered around the city for several hours and found it to be very eclectic in it's architecture, some quite modern, some quite traditional, all quite nice. Too many people. Having come from NZ where there are no people, this was culture shock even for us New Yorkers, and all the young people wandering here and there, on the phone, on computers in the hot zones, rushing home from work or out for the evening.

Old Baths

Street Sculpture

Melbourne has a huge Chinatown, about a block from our hotel, we ate lunch there and took half of it back for tomorrow's dinner since we will be coming back from the penguins late. The room has a fridge and a microwave and plates and silverware. With that and the chopsticks we packed with our leftover "take away" we are all a set.

We were going to book an opera for the evening, they are doing La Boheme (Pat said that was a good one for opera novice Maddi), but we were exhausted so we went back to the room, got our computers, marched over to the free internet hotspot, posted our blog and, like many of our other days, were asleep by 9!!!! On the first trip back to the room we did find something that cities offer more than other places. There was a wonderful group set up on the street playing Gypsy Kings music. We listened until they packed up and it was as good as much concert music one might hear.

Great street music

Not the most exciting day of the trip but onward we go.

Oh, and the exchange rate sucks.

Day 14 & 15 -Shake Rattle and Roll

Our last two days are combined into one - not a long story in each. We left Lake Tekapo in pretty much the same weather we arrived, cold, overcast, rainy. This part of the trip is ending the same way it started. Thankfully the middle was sunny.

We headed toward Christchurch taking in the sites as we went, not much new to see, rolling hills, the balance of the 40 million sheep we had missed on our other days and no sun. There may not be much different on this ride but it is still beautiful. The thing about this country is not so much that it has beauty, several of the places remind one of Pennsylvania, Iceland etc, but that it never stops. It is a non stop run on changing terrain of continuous pretty. Pretty much an ooh and aah and wow country.

We stopped in Geraldine to see the "world's largest sweater" and a fabulous copy, in steel chips, of the Bayeaux Tapestry. The gentleman who designed and created it also is a puzzle maker, mostly math type puzzles, fascinating. We both bought his CD with the puzzles as well as the info on the Tapestry. The shop was called The Worlds Largest Jersey .... Coulda been a cow .... Was a sweater that they call a jumper anyway . His little tapestry is made of over 2 million of these tiny chips with the colored ones hand painted before application. You can make your own judgement about the sanity of it all.

Teeny Tiny chips for the mosaic

Earthquake Destruction

Driving on through the rain we finally got to Christchurch and before checking into the hotel did a short tour up the rim of the crater which created the harbor. Fog fog fog, mist, mist, mist, ugh ugh ugh. However, we ended up at She Chocalat for lunch and some of the best chocolate around. Then we drove through town and saw some of the rubble from the quake that might have devastated one building and left the one right next door completely unscathed.

The Hotel George is wonderful, best hotel in Christchurch we were told. Laundry facility and everything. Had we known we had laundry in every hotel we would have taken way fewer clothes and smaller suitcases. So the wet laundry from the day before was dried and we went out for a wonderful Japanese dinner.

Got to sleep in on our last day, but what a spectacular day it was. It started with some rocking and rolling during breakfast. Several seconds of aftershock. All of a sudden it sounded like a great wind and the room swerved a bit.

Akaroa front yard

Hector Dolphins

Hector Dolphin showing off

The sun shone brightly, temperature was warm and we drove out to Akaroa to do a dolphin boat tour. What a treat. The Hector dolphins is the smallest and most endangered of the dolphins. There they were romping and flipping and diving all around the boat out in the Pacific Ocean. And amongst the dolphins were the tiny blue penguin. Very shy creatures so we could not get very close but did manage to see four swimming around. Off in the distance was a trawler so there were dozens of birds in the water and in the sky, Royal Albatross (same as we saw in the reserve but here in the open), Giant Petrels, great brown birds flying and dipping, and makes and models of pelagic flyers, outstanding. After about an hour we had to return to the dock but on the way there were fur seals and cormorants (here called Shags) along the shore.

Seals in the Pacific

Royal Albatross

Upon returning, we met a member of PWP who lives in Christchurch, an American who came here a while ago and stayed. Nice to see someone from home so far away.

For our farewell dinner, we took Sally and John, our guides, to a lovely restaurant called Cookin' with Gas, which was delish. Back to the hotel, one more load of laundry and off to an early start to Australia.

Day -13 -Rain Drops

We arose early (what else) to a clear day and lo and behold we could actually see across the inlet to Dunedin. John 2 (the butler - and apparently our private butler since we were the lone residents in this huge house) was ready for us in the kitchen where we had breakfast and took off for parts north and west. To our surprise this hotsy totsy kitchen had no espresso machine or whipper so no flat white this morning.

We went into Dunedin and stopped at the steepest street in the world, Baldwin Street and took the mandatory photo. We opted out of a morning tour of the Cadbury chocolate factory so off we went. Guess what, it started to rain. We had been so lucky in the South Island, but it caught up to us.

Baldwin Street - Worlds Steepest

Moeraki Boulders

On the road to see the unexplained boulders at the beach at Moeraki (place to sit or daydream in Maori). No one quite knows why or how the boulders got on the beach but there they sit quite impressively. One theory is that they were ballast on Chinese ships hundreds of years ago ..... Who knows? So we tramped a bit through the wet sand and went on to our next port of call.

Glacial Lake Autumnal Color

There was a photo stop along the way at a turquoise glacial lake with golden autumnal colored trees around it. The color contrast was just lovely.

Sheeps

Driving north toward Mt Cook the weather got worse. There was no real hope that we would see the top but as we sat having coffee at the Heritage Lodge at Lake Tekapo the top peaked through the clouds, but that was it. The Heritage Lodge has an Alpine Center dedicated to Sir Edmund Hillary, who we all know(or should know) was the first to reach the top of Mt Everest. The area is a major mountain climbing area and we did see some incredible cloud/sun pattern in the sky (well where else?)

Amazing Sky

We drove on to our lodging for the night at Lake Tekapo, Peppers. Quite a lovely place. The area has a well know observatory which Pat signed up to go see but the weather was so bad that the trip was cancelled. The room was actually a town house with living room, dining room, full kitchen...fully equipped with everything but NAPKINS!!! Downstairs we had a GORGEOUS bathroom, bedroom and laundry facility. So let's do our laundry said we. This turned out to be a comedy of errors with endless wet cycles in our machine, saved by the evening fellow, getting the wrong clothes later that night, getting our clothes back several hours later, back to the wrong wet clothes delivered in the morning to bla bla bla.

It is the morning after, as this is being written so you will happy to know that the clothes are still not dry. We are driving this morning with a bag of damp clothes in the back.

Back to our evening, we ordered room service which was very good, watched NCIS LA and Law and Order SVU (fairly recent episodes too) and played cards. On to Christchurch.