Liz More on New Zealand

What makes The Pines in Wanaka, Otago, South Island, New Zealand the nicest timeshare I can remember? The 2 bedroom, bath and a half townhouse is so thoughtfully put together and the quality of construction is so high. Furniture is high quality wood throughout from the kitchen cabinets to living room credenzas, bedroom dressers and night tables, and even the patio set. The kitchen ceiling is wood. Recessed lighting and reading lights are throughout. 2 late model TVs and a stereo entertain. A tidy foyer with hooks makes this a nice place for skiing in winter (June, July and August). 4 saucepans in the kitchen have polished copper bottoms. Not only did it come with every possible appliance, it also had instant coffee, tea, hot chocolate, salt, pepper, a pepper mill with peppercorns, and a bottle of milk was in the fridge.  An iron, ironing board, laundry tub, drying rack, washer and dryer with lots of detergent are just like home for even the most fastidious. The 2 story townhouse has 4 foot wide sliding doors without screens. We can leave those doors open all day or night to let in fresh air. Only an occasional house fly appears. When Mike sits outside a few little birds snatch any crumbs he offers.

                                        13 Rainbow Trout and Ducks competing for Breadcrumbs 

On Wednesdays guests are invited to attend a mixer; a BBQ sausage lunch is served. Unlike huge Massanutten, a timeshare in Virginia no water aerobics class or organized baseball games are offered but The Pines has size appropriate amenities. 

                                                 Sample of Landscaping around The Pines

The Pines provides an array of handy stuff at no charge. Included are bicycles of every size in good condition, bike helmets. Golf clubs and carts include left hand clubs. The extremely nearby course charges $60 per person for 18 holes. A sun room includes a heated pool, sauna and hot tub. The game room has ping pong and a library. A stream with a water wheel with ducks and trout entertain young and old. Tennis courts, trampoline and a chess board with large pieces amuse the inbetweens. BBQ grills complete the offerings.

This timeshare is most family friendly. Included are sugar packets with little sayings; the saying that fits in here is by Bill Cosby. "Parents are not interested in justice. What they want is quiet." The activities here give parents a fighting chance to lounge around while their children have lots to do. 

We are on the same latitude in New Zealand as southern Alaska but we see occasional well established palm trees. The Pines has bushes that include azaleas. Obvious pockets of year round warmth are here. The water is the bluest I've seen since the Finger Lakes near Cooperstown. I tried a swim in Lake Wanaka but water is too cold. I entered up to calves and decided to bike back to my heated pool in resort. Considering proximity to the South Pole the cold water is understandable. It is also wine country. We sampled excellent wines from Rippon, a vineyard started in 1982.

I'll repeat Mike's assumption that if you visit Australia, turn your watch back 30 years.  Some old fashioned notables in NZ: only 9 TV stations, 2 travel agencies, no internet cafe (no McDonalds) but the internet office is jammed and charges $5 NZD for first hour. The Otago Daily Times is printed 6 days per week and is a compliment to timeshare residents. Nice blasts almost forgotten from our recent past. We were comfortable here even if we missed the fiords. Our sit bones are in shape for bicycling in Asia. We leave with clean clothes, fresh and rested for Singapore tomorrow. 

More on The Otago Times and NZ media in general

As I looked for the daily Sudoku puzzle I couldn’t help but note the classified ads in today’s Wednesday paper. Four solid possibly 5 not so solid pages of classified advertising include a wide category of job openings. Sex ads are still in print here and not only on Craig’s List. Farm work ads are as follows: Herd manager for950 cows with 2 years current experience (danandbridget@farmside.co.nz), dairy worker for 600 cows (mia@3.net.nz), relief milker, please phone 03-415-7782, Bread Plant Supervisor in Christchurch (night shift for Tip Top Bakery) and a warehouse and logistics manager for a wine making and bottling firm are a few standouts. Of course construction jobs in Christchurch. Find the usual retail ads including grocery and restaurant including chef. Apply here the sugar packet with an old Chinese saying, “Of all the 36 alternatives, running away is always the best.” NZ is somewhere I’d run to if I were in the market. Mike was surveyed and asked if he’d return here and he said, Hell, yes!

Emirates Airlines has an open house in Dunedin. If I were younger and without interest in a degreed occupation and just wanting to travel, I’d immediately apply to work as Cabin Crew for Emirates. They ask for a resume, passport size and full length photos. The interview is in the Scenic Hotel Southern Cross on Jan. 26 at 9 AM sharp. I would not have any tattoo visible for that interview. Emirates Airline is apparently an expanding airline (makes sense since they pay a lot less for their jet fuel than anyone else) and their uniforms look so smart. Stewardesses wear a red beret with an elegant white scarf on the side and nice pleats in their skirts. Mike questions what a person can learn when confined to an airplane for weeks at a time. While attending Sci Fi conventions in Romulus Mike cannot help but see the crews arrive in the hotel late and leave early. I agree that domestic flying is brutal but if someone does not want a degree international travel might be a good experience for the attractive go-getter.  

Angel in Wanaka (Woman spray Painted herself Gold and bestows Blessings mostly upon Charmed Children. She moves very slowly to give angelic effect.) 

Forgive me if I repeat my comments on Qantas and then add LAN (Latin American Airlines). For this trip we fly a variety of airlines. Since we are not trying to accumulate air miles since we do not expect to be frequent flyers, we try a lot of different airlines based purely on price and destination. Their service is so good. Baggage is not extra. Seats are not extra. Food is not extra. Individual TVs with lots of programs including The Big Bang Theory pass the flight time. We finally watched this recommended show on the plane and laughed and laughed. Head sets are complimentary.  

Air New Zealand and Jet Star charge for everything. Air Zealand has a safety video from the World Rugby Competition held last October, 2011. It features Richard Simmons doing exercises (like fastening seatbelts) and the winning New Zealand All Black Rugby Team. Otherwise they are the same profit driven fanatical airlines that we have in the US.

Liz in New Zealand with minor comments on Australia

Liz in NZ with comments on Australia too

Australia and New Zealand governments advertise for the sake of their citizens to a greater degree than the public service announcements that I observe in the US. They are more Nanny-like. They also support tourism with I-Site centers throughout both countries. Practically every town has an I-site where an attendant will answer questions and hand out a local map. In one town in Australia the I-site was in an art gallery. Just as long as someone keeps the door open and will talk to a visitor. Cigarette retailers post the telephone# of the Quit Line. No smoking except in certain limited places. Call the national Quit Line and Nicabates are shipped to a citizen for a cost of as little as $3. (Mike pays $30-$50.) Highway signs warn motorists to Rest, Stay Fresh, Share the Drive. A Micro Nap kills...Enough to make a motorist sleepy. A poster shows an assembly of macho men united against battering women. Bowel cancer incidents are high in NZ. Since it is highly treatable they post signs about bowel movements and pain. Do not use candles in Camper Vans is another warning in a place just loaded with RVs. A free brochure on preventing objects from falling during earthquakes is a handy dandy booklet to take home since my mom’s china cabinet rattled during a quake in Washington, D.C. and we read about a tremor in Ohio, of all places. Governments give a voice to prevent horrors that confront firemen, teachers and medical workers. Government I-sites assist us, the budget traveler and that broadens their tourism industry.

I asked Jean Dunstan in San Remo in Australia how Mums potty train their children to push which of the 2 buttons on toilets. I asked because I did not really understand the buttons. Do the plumbing pipes vary for the 2 buttons? I wondered if one pipe is for pee and if a second pipe eliminates black water. She said the waste pipe is the same. A child learns to ask, little flush or a big flush? The flush simply varies by volume of water.

Mike can't get over the cattle and sheep on steep hillsides. They're in separate pastures on the steep hills. It's a wonder they don't tumble down. While biking in Wanaka I heard a sheep on the back of a truck bleating woefully. Then I saw the same sheep at the Wanaka Lion’s Club Fair and offered to feed her the crust of my meat pie. Her shepherd declined for the obvious reason that the pie crust had been near meat (Mad cow). He expressed sympathy for her bleating and her hideous fright. He said that  she’d never been transported before and that she’d seen numerous of her friends go off and not come back.

Hostels continue to be excellent and their operating mechanics interest me. In Rotorua the bed frame was made out of plywood. The window had a sheer curtain and a pulled-up Roman blind, both apparently locally made. The hostel in Kaikoura won a prize for best small hostel in 2010-11. It felt intimately small sandwiched on a beach road with a straight up cliff in back. The road led to a seal colony. 

Meanwhile Indonesians were by far the largest nationality to attend the show at the Agridome. Not Chinese as I first assumed. I enjoy a chain store called I think, Cost Plus World Market. It sold numerous Indonesian-made household items. 15 years ago or so I remember reading that their currency fell badly and that wages went down to $1 per day. I felt sorry for Indonesian woodworkers and guilty for buying their wooden carved exports.

Context on population has to assist in understanding peoples so here are some statistics. New Zealand has 4.5 million people while Australia has 22.5 million. The Netherlands has 17 million while the UK has 62 million. England alone has 50 million. Germany has 88 million and ranks 14th in national population. Vietnam is 13^th next to Germany. Indonesia is the world's 4th most populated nation. The US has 311 million and ranks third after China and India.

Rain fell in New Zealand for 5 days without let up. We rode most of day from Rotorua to Wellington, the capital. We visited the very convenient and comfortable Te Papa, New Zealand’s great national museum. We saw interesting public architecture along the water front. We apologize to Liz Boss and Sci Fi friends for skipping movie set tours for Lord of Rings but they are not that important to us. Wellington is at the bottom of the north island and where we take a ferry to the south island. From the ferry we are bussed to the beach town, Kaikoura.

In the hostel in Kaikoura we met a 26 year old Australian woman who came from and then returned to Christchurch on our bus. She told us to expect tremors. She also said that Re:Start was an interesting outgrowth built from colorfully painted shipping containers. Meanwhile a German tourist deliberately rerouted her trip to avoid Christchurch while I asked myself why I accepted the suggestion to go through there. I woke up in the middle of the night unsure if I were feeling a tremor. I had a bad dream about crawling insects and denial. Then the whole YMCA hostile actually shook in the morning (Jan 5) so I learned the difference between a vibration (feels like an electric blanket) and a mild earthquake.

In Kaikoura and Christchurch Mike and I slept in private rooms on twin beds. He is the most wonderfully tactile cuddly man. Before I met Mike I was not sure what cuddling meant though I’d heard it defined in Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. Mike holds an embrace as he stretches out his arm that is so comfortable. No wonder I don’t sleep as well in twin beds.

Mike admired Burt Munro played by Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian, a motorcycle racer who raced on Bonneville Salt Flats from Christchurch, New Zealand. So when asked if we’d go through Christchurch, I said, yes because the bus driver would manage snarled traffic. 66,000 residents have moved out of the city so traffic volume is fine. When we arrived our cab driver said that he knew Burt Munro and that Anthony Hopkins portrayed him very accurately except for accent. We did not find a restaurant open. Few businesses are open after 5pm. Good thing we had cheese, ham, crackers and a banana for the first night. Christchurch is in the province of Canterbury. Very near our YMCA is the Canterbury Museum. That and the botanical garden amused us during our day in Christchurch. The very crisp and clean Y cost $72 NZD per night or we spent a reasonable $110 USD for 2 nights.    

Our cab driver from Tarras to Wanaka told us that New Zealand tourism is continuing to be really hurt by Christchurch’s tremors, that people are not just avoiding Christchurch but entire New Zealand. Apparently Japanese tourists visit anyway. They understand the minimal risk of earthquake. Japanese appreciate the favorable exchange rate, wide open vistas of mountains and seashore and the diversity of natural beauty that makes New Zealand. 

Diane, you asked what defied planning? What were biggest surprises on the trip? I worried needlessly that Uluru would be too hot and that Wanaka would be too cold. I also did not anticipate that Christchurch would scare me (needlessly) but I was scared at first.

With you and George in mind, I really wanted to see the fiords because you said how stunning they are. It really upsets me is that we cannot afford to visit Milford Sound or Doubtful Sound and see the fiords. The whole effort and expense of getting to the South Island was so that we might see the fiords. We spent $830 NZD on the Great Sights Bus Line but that bus line does not serve Wanaka. “Ya cain’t git thar from here.” We can but only for a prohibitive cost. $1000 is too much on top of what we spent. I am too newly retired to spend that much for a single day. Bad enough I spent half that on the Great Barrier Reef. I was really angry and aggrieved when I learned that yesterday in the Wanaka I-Site. I raised my voice. How could we come 6000 miles and miss the fiords! I feel tricked because Wanaka is less than 100 kilometers from Queenstown. Tours to the sounds leave from Queenstown. When I called up the RCI number for New Zealand and found a week in Wanaka, I took it imaging that Wanaka to Queenstown to the fiord would work just fine. We would have been far better off for sightseeing to continue with the bus and hostels but instead we are in the nicest time share I ever remember. If only I had not booked this time share! I looked at car rental at $60 per day with a charge after the 1^st 150 kilometers. Queenstown’s one day boat tour to the fiords costs $170 per person and leaves awfully early and returns by 8 PM. Driving on the opposite side of the road in wee hours is just not the thing to command of Mike and me. Instead we are kicking back in the luxury of a very well appointed townhouse that we may not see the likes of in crowded Asia for the next 3 months. A fly over to a ship (fly/cruise/fly) from Wanaka is a $1000 for 2. Moral of story is do not book a timeshare in Wanaka if you only have 2 weeks in New Zealand.          

While I was upstairs reading and then meditating Mike heard someone stomping in another unit. He worried if I was still acting out my anger. Our 2^nd night in Wanaka we finally watched The King’s Speech. For me it was a story about a man managing anger and discovering friendship in the process. It was a movie that my mother said that she liked and it was Best Picture, so I really wanted to see it. For me it was a movie about the benefits of psychotherapy; feeling listened to is such a gift. We are visiting constitutional monarchies. The Queen of England is on the coins in Australia and New Zealand. The Economist is a magazine referred to here by newspapers. Its surveys show constitutional monarchies far surpassing the US in a number of measurements of democracy (like fair elections). Increasingly the US is struggling to sustain democracy; pressure to be an oligarchy run by the 1 percent is huge. We liked the suggestion that Margaret Thatcher’s funeral be privatized.  

Our Wanaka timeshare, The Pines makes The Moorings in Tomakin, NSW, Australia seem like a dump. I did not want to be too critical on The Moorings since we had just arrived in Australasia and didn’t have a frame of reference. Both were booked through RCI.

Language

In Australia and New Zealand reception is the word used for Guest Registration. When checking in to a hotel, hostel or timeshare, you go to Reception. When I asked if they’d have a reception for guests (typical social mixer in a timeshare) the receptionist looked confused. A reservation is called a booking. Instead of reservations required, they say, bookings essential.

Rotorura to Wanaka

After two nights in Rotorua, we got back on the bus for Wellington. Two nights there. The rain, of course, followed. Nice little town, very nice hostel, The Downtown Backpacker. Only one I ever saw with a bar. Wellington itself is actually rather small, sandwiched between the harbor and the surrounding mountains, no more than a couple of hundred yards with the result of homes being built into the sides of the mountains. Makes it pretty picturesque. That's helped along by a very eclectic mix of architecture.

We spent not a penny on touring in Wellington. First off, it's not as if we had the time - just a day and a half. Second, just walking the harbor and attending the (free) museum are plenty entertaining. Third, well, the hostel is a pretty nice place to hang out. I'd love to see the place in the sunshine but we're glad with what we got. Restaurants around the harbor are plentiful, high quality and inexpensive. In the museum I got a pleasant surprise. There, right next to the cafeteria was the Britten motorcycle. I'd completely forgotten he was from here. Britten was a glassware manufacturer who decided to go into racing. He built this machine from the ground up, apparently using every bit of technology he'd used modernizing his glassworks. From magnesium engine cases and internal parts designed with Formula 1 technology to spun carbon fiber frame and suspension members, it was all hand built. It ruled the Battle of The Twins class at Daytona until Britten's untimely death from cancer at age 45.  We also saw a fine example of a giant squid and the biggest ammonite I've ever seen.

The harbor was very much a working harbor and contained nearly every kind of ship, from cruise ships and freighters to ocean sailing racers, preparing for an intercontinental race.

Onto the ferry from Wellington to Picton, North Island to South. A 3 hour ride, complete with dolphin sightings a good distance off. Mountains all along the shore 'til we hit Picton harbor, a very long estuary. The ferry was massive, the size of a cruise ship with several bars and entertainment areas. No time for sightseeing, an hour later we were on the bus to Christchurch. Through more New Zealand countryside. Big steep smooth hills, usually dotted with cattle or sheep. These animals graze all the way up the side of the hills, looking as if they were in imminent danger of stumbling and rolling clear to the bottom. For once, our driver was not intent on being a tour guide, just driving at maximum possible speed on the narrow two-lane, full of curves. Then we hit the seashore. A fellow passenger on the ferry had advised us to sit on the left side of the bus. Good move! We met the seashore at Kekerengu. From there on, hills to the right, seashore on the left. Lots of camper parks right on the sea, beaches from pure sand to rough and rocky. About 30 kilometers north of Kaikoura was a seal breeding colony. Hundreds, no, thousands of seals, young and old, resting, playing in the frequent streams. Unfortunately traveling too fast to get any kind of pictures. I tried but got nothing but blurs.

Overnight stop in Kaikoura. Got there about 3 in the afternoon. Cute little beach town, nice intimate little hostel, the YHA Maui. Liz heard from the desk clerk that there was a seal colony a few kilometers up the road and the best time would be at low tide, arount 6 PM. Made a long trek to the rocky point. Saw 3 seals. Well, at least this time I was able to get pictures, though the seals were much more interested in their naps than the dozens of tourists clustered around them. Oh well. At least a few lunch wagons along the road served a very acceptable fish, scallops, squid rings and chips dinner. Next day, we had several hours to kill until the bus came at 3:30. Lots of time to walk arount the tiny business district and along a stream paralleling the ocean shore. Ducks, cormorant and trout in the stream. Profusion of vegetation on the banks, including lots of peas gone wild (and delicious) and dill, sweet clover, flowers. I wonder how all this got here.

Got into Christchurch about 6 PM. Just time to take a taxi to the YMCA, conveniently located near the museum and Botanical Gardens. A good thing, it seems that they're the only things going in this city just now. Wandered the streets looking for something to eat. Only thing open was a high end restaurant where one could easily lose track of a hundred or so dollars. Had some emergency rations, ham, cheese and crackers. Good enough to tide us over. The Y is nice, though pricey as everything is here just now. The whole city is on an emergency footing with a large part of the downtown cordoned off and very little traffic in the streets. Apparently the museum is a sturdy edifice (unlike the cathedral which is apparently going to have to be demolished). The usual general museum stuff,  New Zealand history, geology, fossils - most of the dinosaur bones were from North America, nothing much in the way  of paintings or sculpture, a bizarre wearable art exhibit (Okay, this needs expanding on. Very unusual materials - leather, wood veneer, copper radiator scraps, etc. used to make mostly formal dresses, men's suits, suits of armor. It actually beggars description, therefore  no photography allowed - this means you!), a large exhibit and film on National Geophysical Year, 1957, and the trek across the South Pole. The Botanical Garden was quite large and situated on the both sides of the Avon (Honest, that's the river's name. So much for originality.) featuring a formal rose garden, heritage rose garden, native and non-native trees, even a boat rental shed patterned on the British model. Really big trout in the river, maybe a foot and a half long, also eel. Parallel to the cordoned off downtown is an effort to restart commerce using shipping containers called Re:Start. Oh well. The shipping containers are sturdy, well bolted together and quite nicely done up. On the far side of this is the fenced-off zone, most of the central business district. Strangely, the only evidence of damage visible is shattered curbing and the occasional missing cornice. Oh, and building demolition off in the distance. Most of the buildings are in good shape, but next to structures that are iffy. On the walk back to the Y, we saw occasional houses cordoned off, most with no visible damage. Across the street from the Y was a ministry-of-something-or-other, taking up most of the block, closed off and missing a couple of steeples. Looks like that's being repaired but not yet habitable. We felt one small tremor. Nobody in the street got excited, after the one quick hesitation.

Another long bus ride through the Southern Alps, stoppping near Mount Cook, the highest peak. This resort was dedicated to New Zealander's famous Sir Edmund Hillary. (All the autographs I saw -many- said Ed Hillary, apparently he considered himself just another guy.) He learned  mountain climbing here. Bronze statue of him at the Hermitage, a 5 star hotel, nice little museum and theatrette devoted to his exploits. Breathtaking scenery of truly rugged looking mountains in every direction unlike the nice soft hills we'd seen in the north of New Zealand. Truly alpine monsters complete with a glacier (we only got to see one tiny corner of it) and snow on the 3,000 plus meter peaks. Lots of movies of mountain climbing on screens throughout the museum. Question, why the heck do they seem to all be climbing in crappy weather? Is there some advantage to climbing in the middle of  winter?

Now we're in Wanaka, 30 or so miles out of Queenstown in The Pines, a timeshare. Wanaka is a high-end resort town with a beautiful little lake, mountain scenery, golf course nearby. Our townhouse apartment houses up to 7 people with every modern amenity. Liz is devastated that we won't be able to get to the fjords. Wanaka is pretty much the end of the road, with minimal bus service. By the time we got to Queenstown (still 100 km form the fjord, the tours would have already departed, as it's a very full day, 7 AM to 8PM. Pretty you can't get there from here. Yesterday, Saturday, we attended a festival sponsored by the Lion's Club in the local park. Games for kids, amateur bandstand and rides in antique cars were the feature events. For a 5$ donation I scored a ride in a 1903 Renault. Chief oddity was a motorcycle style (all 3 forward gears in line) shift pattern, also radiator behind engine, thus no grille.

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!!!!!!!

Adelaide, Alice Springs and Uluru

The last few days have been a whirlwind. First Adelaide then Alice Springs then Uluru.  We boarded  the train to Adelaide from Melbourne at 8 AM. Very comfortable, seating like first class airlines, not all that fast but  a good look at farm country and backyards. Like American trains. We were met at the station at 6 PM by Graham and Jill Ottens, yet another ATC connection.

Again, very fine folks. They're an inviting, cultured couple, secure and accomplished, happy to share their home and all too often overlooked city. They live in an upscale, genteel neighborhood that wouldn't be out of place just off any college campus in the US. Again, a smart and comfortable home. Graham is a retired teacher, principal, administrator and on-going cricket enthusiast. We watched a quick game on the telly (special format, not the multi-day test style) and with his help I actually started to sort of understand what cricket players  do. Jill specialized in infant and child care while raising a family of four. They have been enjoying their retirement with travel in Britain, France and the US.  In a tour-de-force  of hospitality  they served us a a full course lamb dinner.

Sunday, they sacrificed attendance at their Lutheran church to give us a tour of Adelaide and the surrounding countryside. This is the Barossa Valley, wine country, has been since 1851, when a fellow named Seppetsfield started planting vines. Some vines have been there so long they no longer need to be supported, having grown trunks like a tree. Fine wine too. We had a bottle of a dry red at Maggie Beers' with a gourmet lunch featuring duck, pheasant and chicken pate.  Then a true piece of the Australian bizarre, a tree used as the dwelling of a Silesian pioneer , J.F.Herbig and his family ,eventually numbering 16 children.  Then a very pleasant surprise, the Holden antique car museum. There was  an admission charge but I asked if there were a discount for GM employees. "Why yes, Holden employees and their guests get free admission. Isn't GM their parent company? Just go on in."  Wow, saved 48 bucks! A big museum with several hundred cars , a very extensive motorcycle collection and  a special emphasis on alternative fuels. They had the oldest Australian car(?), a steamer built in 1899 and run recently in the London to Brighton antique car run.

Out to dinner  with Graham and Jill and an evening watching "The Promise" a fast paced drama about Palestinians and Israelis and the British caught inbetween and the injustices of the land grab. The weather deteriorated with rain during our stay. Of course our next stop would be at Alice Springs so we'd be sure to experience the brutal Australian summer there. Right?

It did start out that way. A quick plane trip Monday morning and a bus ride to the hostel. A cheap dorm room, mixed sexes, bunk beds. Fortunately, there was a sort of alcove with unclaimed bunks. Turned out it was only for the night. Liz booked a tour, "Have more fun ... on EMU Run. Not cheap at $350 each, but it met the core mission of seeing what's unique in Australia. We exchanged $100 in accomodations and the price of meals for 3 days for a tour to a hot dry group of rocks. Not as if we'd have another chance at it. Chill out a while and dinner at Bojangles. If you're ever in Alice Springs, be sure to go to Bojangles! Damnedest old West style decor I've ever seen (Want to see it? www. bossaloon.com . They have several internet cameras going. You can even buy a friend a drink online.) One exotic mixed grill dinner. Kangaroo (delicious), crocodile meat balls (just okay), camel (also delicious), buffalo (indistinguishable from tough beef), mashed potatoes, salad. Enough for two for $30. No tax or tip of course.

The big day, Uluru. Up at 4:30 for a 5:45 pickup. Warm even at that hour. A 500 kilometer bus ride through an arid, forbidding scrub covered landscape. Could have been worse. Our guide informed us that Australia has had a two year long wet cycle and everything was much greener than it would have been. About our guide. Dan is a true Australian. Lots of personality, a bit rough-hewn, direct, long blond hair, tremendous endurance and unfailing good humor. He's about to leave the guide job for film school and has a couple of documentaries and feature films already scripted. Finally, into the park. Uluru rises out of the flat plain 3,000 feet, 3 miles or so long by about a mile and a half wide. Impressive. We got there just in time for lunch and then had a good hike halfway around the rock - we all opted out of the entire 11 km walk - it was very warm indeed. Dan enhanced the hike with many historic, geological and natural history lectures. Indeed, throughout the bus rides and hikes he had stories about the early explorers (google Stuart, Burke and Wills - too much to relate here but any to any Australian these are household names, like Lewis and  Clark), what's edible and not, how the aborigines survived here. Uluru is fascinating in detail. What at first looks like a featureless smooth rock is in fact riddled with grottos, caves, creases sheltering pools, everything an aborigine would need to make life a little more comfortable.  By now it was getting towards dark. Time to get to the sunset viewing area for the obligatory photo session. Many pro photographers have done much better than I did but one must try. As night fell, the cloud cover got heavier. Lightning flashed in the distance. Hmm, this looked familiar. The bus went through rain on the way to the campsite. We all pitched in for a chicken stirfry dinner, unloaded the swags (pretty neat canvas sleeves with a pad underneath, enclosing a sleeping bag and pillow)  in various sheltered areas (dinner enclosure, laundry room, anything with a roof). Once again the weather was unseasonably cool and wet.

Up at sparrowfart (4 AM), breakfast, then off for sunrise pictures. Foiled by clouds, no glorious colors on the rock. Kata Tjuta looked pretty, though. At 25 or so kilometers it was our next stop. A sister formation of Uluru, it's the other end of a sort of bent chunk of sandstone that is exposed at either end. Enough of that, computer time is running too short to go into a full description. Anyway, it looks a lot different with lots of rock domes instead of just the one big one.  The hike through was a lot rougher than the day before too. Not that it wasn't interesting. Somewhere in the middle the rain came down, accompanied by some majestic thunder and lightning. Immediate waterfalls. A visitor to this site has about a 4 in a thousand chance on seeing it in the rain. Apparently our presence had bettered those odds. Just too cool! Of course we got soaked to the skin but well worth it. I can't include the video but will be delighted to show it when we get home. Very rare footage. Finished the hike about noon, did lunch again, drove to a campsite near King's Canyon, had time for a swim. Barbecued kangaroo steak for dinner. Slept under the stars, exhausted.

Up early again for King's Canyon. Much older than the other two site and much rougher country. Also one heck of a climb just to get started. a couple of hundred yards up a 60 degree slope, fortunately with footholds cut into most areas. Much more and more varied vegetation, including cycads, which are otherwise found mostly in the tropics and are the oldest type of large plant on earth. This valley houses the only members of the species found in Australia (I think I got that right, check me on that). In the very center of the valley is the Garden of Eden (that's the name I heard). Lush ancient vegetation. A pretty pool at the end of the stream running down the middle. Blue sky. Swimming. Very cold water. Lots of tired tourists. A walk out longer and a bit easier than going in. Absolutely astounding and confusing geology. Chunks of sandstone on the ground you can break like a soda cracker. Don't go near the edge of the frequent cliffs. For certain the whole thing could give under your weight. Better hurry to see this one. In a few  hundred  thousand years (an eyeblink, geologically speaking) the whole thing will crumble into a sandhill.

19,20,21,23,24

Time presses. A plane to Cairns to catch. Will post now even though there's so much more. One parting picture of Christmas in Australia.