Oz wrapup - Hello New Zealand

Now that we've left the Land of Oz, it's probably time for a summary. First, however, let's cover the last couple of days there. We got to Cairns a day late due to a mixup in airport arrival times. The folks at Alice Springs, both at the airport and the YHA, couldn't have been nicer but we did lose a day of touristing in Cairns. Got there late Christmas Eve. We exchanged Christmas gifts. One of us got a copy of "A Town Like Alice" by Nevill Shute (Hell of a good read, Shute is a master.) and the other got a CD of "The Shepparton Talk". Len Bidell, a surveyor who spent 30 or more years in the outback surveying roads, a bombing range and a nuclear bomb test site is drily hilarious and this CD is a cult classic. An added benefit, we aided the book store in Alice Springs. Christmas Day was as unfulfilling for a traveler as anywhere else. Nevertheless, Liz was frantic to see the area's fabled beaches. Buses weren't running, but the airport shuttle was, sort of. Liz negotiated a ride to Trinity Beach for a mere 30 dollars. One way. Before I'd let go of the driver, I insisted on some kind of deal for a ride back. Got the number of the airport service. Okay, the beach was fine, though most of it was just to look at and sunbathe. Seems there's a bit of a problem this time of year with jellyfish there (more on that later). If we were to swim, it would be only in one little area where a jellyfish-proof fence had been installed. A nice swim, some sunbathing and a stroll through a very pretty (read expensive) neighborhood. Call the shuttle service, wait an hour and a half for a ride back to the hostel. Later we discovered there was a rather nice lagoon a ten minute walk from there. Sigh.
The hostel was hosting a free Christmas dinner (barbecued sausages) and a couple we'd met at Uluru came over to join in. Jorrit and Audrey are both captains in the Dutch Military Police in their early thirties and use up their 9 weeks a year leave travelling the world. Next day they'd be scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef. We'd be there too, in a different spot, snorkeling.
This was something Liz had been waiting for the whole trip. Me, not so much. The water and I are not one. Liz, on the other hand,seems to have had a fish in her near ancestry. After few minutes, I'd seen the reef, a few fish, gotten tired of trying to breathe salt water (I kept dipping the snorkel) and went back on deck to a well-deserved beer and cigarette. Liz used nearly the entire three hours out there. Back to the jellyfish. It was highly, very highly, advised that we rent a lycra suit. Very reasonable charge. Very. The jellyfish were certainly out there. Did I mention I am not one with the water? I am even less than one with jellyfish. We did rent an underwater camera that Liz used to good effect, though the tide was high and the coral itself was nearly invisible to the lens. Lots of fish pics, though. Lots of fish, period. Even from the deck, there were always a few visible. All told, one of the things you must do in Australia and hang the expense.

Now for the summary. Damn nice place. They speak English here and will find your accent charming. Almost every little thing is a little different. Some things a lot different. Fascinating, from beautiful Sydney Harbor to hot, dry Alice Springs. One memory: riding the bus back from Kata Tjuta (The Olga's) in full cloudburst with "Riders On The Storm" blasting on the bus PA. The plants and animals are like nothing back home, though you often need to look closely to spot the differences. Hostels there are a pretty cool place to spend your time. You need to make your own bed, go down the hall to the toilet, wash your own dishes, that sort of thing. No need to depend on restaurants if you can find a grocery store. For half or less the price of a hotel (a lot less than that if you're alone and don't mind dorm sleeping) they're just the ticket.
　
Ah, beautiful New Zealand. Lush, green, soft contours of hills. Cold and wet. We've once again worked our magic on the weather. Saw a little of Auckland the afternoon we got there before the rain hit. Science note: Auckland is built on 48(!) dormant volcanoes. Not extinct, dormant. The youngest is 600 years old. At low tide it looks like a mud island in the harbor next to the bridge. About the harbor. Full of sailboats. 1 in 4 Aucklanders has access to a sailboat and uses it regularly.

Next morning, early of course, it was off to the Bay of Islands, way up on the northern tip. Because of the foul weather our excursion in the bay was limited and we didn't get to take the boat through the Hole in the Rock. Saw some dolphins, though. Big beasts. I forgot, we also saw them off Trinity Beach in Cairns. One of the people nearby said he'd been coming there for 20 years and this was only the second time he'd seen them. At the Bay of Islands, they're a fixture. On the bus ride, we also saw a damn big Kauri tree. Not in the redwood class but impressive. They were once quite common but proved way too useful with the young ones especially handy for ship's masts due to their self-trimming growth. 60 feet of very hard wood without a single knot, even about the right diameter. Never mind that it took a hundred or so years to reach that point, with the really big ones 800 years or so. No surprise, they're now rare and protected

One more early wakeup and a 4 hour bus ride to Rotorua. About the scheduling of the New Zealand leg of this trip. Liz was going quietly crazy trying to make sense of the New Zealand tourism web sites. Nothing seemed to add up and they all wanted you to pay up before you saw what you'd scheduled. nearing desperation, she spotted a phone number for the national tourist service. 1-888-792-5368. Global Support Center (USA) for New Zealand. Jackpot! She spent two hours with a nice young man who gave us a fully workable (if frantic, 2 weeks is not a lot of time to work with) itinerary, scheduled our route, made bus reservations, lodging and tour accomodations. One stop shopping. At a reasonable rate.

New Year's Eve. Drenching rain you wouldn't believe. And we have a morning tour scheduled to see the geysers and mudpits. Would have been spectacular pictures if I'd dared to take out the camera for more than a few seconds. Not to the level of Yellowstone (or so I understand, haven't been there yet) but pretty cool. The city park also has steam vents all over. That's why it's a park and not residential. Folks here still use the steam vents to cook with. Next on the tour, the Agrodome. Sheep shearing, cow milking, herd dog demonstrations, actually done quite well in a barn structure built for the purpose. This is what a lot of the folks here actually do for a living and they do it well. Last stop, nature preserve. Rush from shelter to shelter,pounding rain again, checking out a selection of several native birds. New Zealand has actually little in the way of native species except birds and the Tuatura, a very primitive lizard, only species of it's family left. Hatched with a third eye, skinned over within a few days. They live in slow motion, 8 heartbeats per minute, 3 year breeding cycle, up to 200 year lifespan. Look pretty much like any other lizard. Yes, we did see real live Kiwis. No pictures, darkened enclosures. They're nocturnal, burrow in daylight. Seems the really cool stuff is always no pictures.

Liz Here:

Mike is really a great travel companion, good natured, practical and efficient. We are on time wherever we go. His motto is " an hour early is no problem but 5 minutes late is a disaster". I say that to explain how we missed a plane in Alice Springs. When we checked in I told hostel Reception that we were going to Cairns (when our plane actually went to Cairns via Uluru). When I booked the trip I did not know if we would even see Uluru due to heat and tour expense. So I thought we might at least fly over it. We had a 40 minute layover in Uluru. I did not look at the travel booking beforehand. Lesson learned is to spend more time on line even if it costs $4 per hour. So the plane to Uluru departed first. We missed it and the next one was full so back to the YHA we went. The YHAs managed our booking changes. Qantas agent said it is covered by travel insurance and I’ll look into a claim when I figure Qantas charge.
Cairns is great! I am so sorry to have spent just 2 days there. I saw tours to Australia that only consisted of arriving in Cairns and leaving from Sydney. We missed the Daintree Rainforest! But we are going into jungles in Asia so we’ll experience rainforests but none so civil and safe as Cairns. The bus in Cairns costs $7 max but it doesn’t run on Christmas. I asked YHA Reception for beaches and as Mike wrote, if we had stayed right in town we’d have had all the beach he’d need (but no swimming). It is "stinger season" so beaches are shielded by nets to keep out jelly fish (and sharks and crocodiles). Trinity Beach is a totally classy beach and I swam and then chatted with a Canadian lady in the water.
Then I signed us up for a really expensive trip on "Quicksilver" to the Great Barrier Reef. Quicksilver dropped an engine and took an extra half hour to get to its diving destination. Insanity set in; I convinced myself that trip would convert Mike into a snorkeler. I even rented an underwater camera. Good thing I just want Mike to quit smoking and take up snorkeling. Otherwise I adore him just as he is. How did illusion of changing my partner sweep over me? Where’s Lisa, my psychologist? At least I got a lot of fish pictures (since the Quicksilver folks feed the fish so well every day). We had a good lunch too. I chatted with various folks on the slow ride out. While Mike watched a delectable girl put on sun screen I chatted with a happy gay man from Townville. He was snorkeling with his charming Chinese partner. Infectious is happiness for people well paired off. Then I chatted inside Quicksilver in A/C (Aircon) comfort with a South African mom with a fine family from Sydney. She too had a bipolar family member and said that there is a 28-day time released mood stabilizer, Depa. That means to me Depacote. A year ago I heard rumor of a time released 28 day mood stabilizer but did not find it in USA. My suspicion of legal conspiracy to keep it out of market is sparked (since so many lawyers are bipolar).

It is New Year's Eve. We are in Rotorua, in New Zealand. The sound of rain was so noisy this morning that it caused me alarm. It was a very wet day. That never ending storm from Antarctica has followed us this entire December. Promise is clearing by Monday. Meanwhile the entire north island of NZ is soaked. Disappointed campers, bikers, hikers and tourists from the Northern Hemisphere are trying to make the most of their holiday. Imagine a long Fourth of July week with drenching and chilling rain. But NZ is green. Agriculture is thriving even if the tourists are sad.
Our bus tour today includes us along with 3 other American couples. Young Chicagoans on a honeymoon, then middle aged folks from Atlanta and Maryland. The young Scottish engineer, Gary works on contracts for electrical energy improvements and bases himself out of Monterey, Mexico. (We invited him for New Years’ Eve dinner but he bailed because he was drenched and his camera was wet and worrying him.) A couple comprised of an Asian woman and her man from Sweden completed our group. (He said he missed skiing.) Are Americans more visible because it is a smaller place than Australia? A tourist can get their arms around NZ unlike huge Australia.
So far we have been served by Maori, a good sign that they actually are employed here (unlike the Aborigines in Alice Springs who are not usually in the tourist trade). Our guide in the Waitomo Cave where we saw glow worms emphasized his descent and was firm about no picture taking in his privately owned family company. No picture; no wonder; the arrangement of lights in the riverboat ride deep in the cave is worth recreating for Sci Fi movie sets. Today’s very competent coach driver, Shelly was Maori and so was our guide Melody who showed us the geyser and boiling mud pits. We saw the Maori building that we saw on our PBS travel log so I felt reassured that we were seeing the right places on our inexpensive bus tour.

Happy New Year to All!!!!!!!