New Zealand & Australia, March 2013

NEW ZEALAND

 (more photos of New Zealand here)

It was March 3 when I left New York. We crossed the date line so it was March 5 when I arrived in Auckland. This was a very, very long trip! I managed to sleep on and off for about 6 hours, deeply enough to dream a couple of times. On the NY to LA leg I had the row to myself, but I didn't want to stretch out and possibly make it hard to sleep on the long flight.  On the LA to Sydney leg the middle seat was empty, so that gave my row mate and me a little wiggle room.

Once we got to Auckland we met the whole group – 32 of us all together.  Eight would leave at the end of the New Zealand leg of the trip and seven others would be joining us in Australia. We had a very brief introductory meeting and then dispersed to our rooms to collapse after the long trip.

I rearranged some stuff, showered, did a little hand laundry and was brushing my teeth when the fire alarm went off. I was stark naked at that point, scrambled to put on my PJs, poked my head out and was told that some folks had already gone down the fire stairs. Not one to jump to a hasty decision, I called reception and was told to do just that, so down we marched, out to the street.  Some folks were still dressed, some were in night clothes.  We were out on the street for about 15 minutes, I think. It turned out that there was a small fire in the kitchen. Everyone seemed to take the experience in stride and I felt that boded well for the rest of the trip. There’s nothing standing around in your PJs, chatting with strangers on a strange street in a strange city to bond a group together!

We started the first official day with an interesting lecture about New Zealand history, told with lots of neat little anecdotes. The lecturer was lively and engaging and I learned a few interesting facts. For example, New Zealand was the last major land mass to be discovered and settled by humans - only about 900 or 1000 years ago. And also New Zealand gave women the vote in 1893 - nearly 30 years before the US woke up.

We had morning tea after the lecture - tea or coffee and tomato and cheese sandwiches on croissants. Then we set off to walk to the harbor very close by for a cruise. It was very pleasant, quite lovely and interesting.

The final stop of the day was the Auckland War Memorial Museum. Despite the name, it's a museum of New Zealand history with lots of gorgeous Maori stuff and some flora and fauna displays and a war memorial section on the top floor. We really could have used another hour or so to explore, but the overview we got was well presented.

When we got back to the hotel I went exploring. In a nearby bookstore I picked up a nice anthology of New Zealand poetry. Afterwards I joined one of the couples for a very nice seafood dinner in a restaurant near where we had started our harbor cruise. Our site coordinator had handed out a list of suggestions for our first dinner on our own and the one we chose, Soul, was listed as one of the 50 best restaurants in the world! I had a lovely red snapper served with a mint and cilantro salad for $32NZ. Although I had a very pleasant evening, in general I feel that dinner on our own the very first night is not a great idea. It really is too soon for anyone to have made any connections with the other travelers.

The next day we were accompanied all day by Dr. John Walsby, an inshore marine biologist, and the most exciting speaker and repository of knowledge on history, geology, biology, climatology and you-name-it-ology.  We began with a lecture at the hotel where he introduced us to various types of shellfish found in NZ, went on to discuss the climate and how NZ's position roughly halfway between the South Pole and the equator results in a very changeable climate. This was illustrated with high pressure systems, low pressure systems, cooking analogies, and more. He then went on to explain how the land actually came to be, introducing plate tectonics, a lovely comparison of the earth to an egg that has been cooked in a microwave so that the yolk is solid but the white is still jelly-like and then dropped so that the fractured shell can move on the jelly surface. He barely stopped for breath, peppered his talk with jokes, wonderful analogies and generally made what could have been pretty dry stuff sound very interesting and engaging.

Then we set off to explore a bit, still with John, visiting a volcanic lake, which was beautiful and populated by many of New Zealand’s flightless birds. It seems that there were no mammals native to the islands, so the birds had no need to develop or continue flight to escape predators.

After lunch we set off for another excursion, this time to a volcanic cone. In this part of the world they are common, but not very high. This one really was a stroll to the top, with frequent stops for explanation of the types of rock and how they came to be where they were and how they were - strata of scoria and ash, some basalt. The top had been a gun emplacement during World War II and the tunnels and gun turrets are still in place. We had an amazing view of Auckland Harbor and the city on the other side. Just gorgeous.

All of us seemed to be as fascinated by John's energy, knowledge and infectious enthusiasm for his material. One of the women commented that she could picture a freshman in his class hearing some of his lectures and deciding then and there to major in whatever the subject of the lectures might be.

Albert, our tour leader, told me about another book store in Auckland where he was sure I’d find a collection of poems by Hone Tuwhare, the Maori poet I had read about. They had exactly what I want: a complete works collection, with several poems that he wrote in English translated into Maori by the editors. Maori is pretty much phonetic so I can read the words and feel them in my mouth. I may not be perfect but I won't be too, too far off.

Auckland is a lovely city. I have enjoyed our couple of days here and now I'm looking forward to exploring some of the other parts of this beautiful country.

On Friday we left Auckland after breakfast and drove to Rotorua with a couple of stops along the way. The first stop was basically a bathroom break at a nice little spot in Hamilton. We had about a half hour to stretch our legs, walk down to a river and look at souvenirs. I found put that there are three other knitters in the group who were all looking to buy nice merino yarn. There is some yarn that combines merino with possum fur and is referred to as New Zealand mink.  We saw some things made with that yarn and they were yummy!

At lunch I got a chance to taste New Zealand mussels – different from the ones I’m used to – which had been highly recommended by John Walsby.  They were indeed delicious.

Our afternoon excursion was a visit to the Waitomo Glow Worm Caves. The initial cave part was interesting, but not particularly spectacular. We got to a section where there were glow worms and we saw a few little sparkles, got to see the "fishing line" secretions that they drop down to catch food and I think many of us were wondering if this was all there was. Then we got into a boat and were pulled silently through the dark along an underground stream through an area where the ceiling was covered with hundreds and hundreds of little lights. It was breathtakingly beautiful and unlike anything I've ever seen before. I don't even know how to describe it adequately.

Saturday in Rotorua was a very full, very interesting, very productive day. Our morning was spent at the Waimangu Valley Geothermal Site - the newest geothermal site in the world. We started with a ride on Lake Rotomahana to see various rock formations and geothermal spouts. it was a little cold and windy but it was beautiful.

After the boat ride we explored on foot, with a walk down the valley learning some of the history of the geysers and volcanoes, a little about the plants – we tasted something bitter that is used for stomach upsets, saw tea trees and a couple of varieties of tree ferns. The silver fern, so-called because the stems are silver, is a symbol of NZ. We also saw black ferns which are carved into beautiful objects with really intricate natural graining.

Lunch was a lovely old hotel called Princes Gate. For the first of several times during the trip we had chosen our main course and dessert a couple of days before and, of course, no one remembered what they had picked. I had salmon, which was delicious, and a chocolate raspberry tart that was sinful. Then we had a little time to stroll in the Government Gardens just a little ways away.

Our afternoon visit was to Te Puia where we got to see the geyser Pohutu, which sprayed me a little but not as much as Geysir in Iceland. We saw the mud pools and went through the kiwi house, although I did not actually see the kiwi, and then a quick visit to the weaving and carving schools. We saw a couple of people working on thing and, but didn't get any lecture or real demonstration from our guide. He did show us how to strip flax (actually a kind of agave) down to fibers using a mussel shell. There were some nice pieces in the gift shop and I bought a green stone pendant, a single twist design that symbolizes the path of life.

That night we went back to Te Puia for a ceremony including haka dancing and dinner. One of the men in our group was selected to be our chief for the welcoming ceremony and several oour group participated in learning some traditional women’s dances and men’s warrior dances called haka.

Sunday was a big travel day with most of our sightseeing consisting of what we saw out the bus window. The flights from Rotorua to Christchurch and Christchurch to Invercargill were notable mostly for the total lack of security.  It was like the old days.  We went into the airport, got our boarding passes and got on the plane. No x-ray machines for carry-ons, no shoes coming off or liquids in little baggies. It was nice being in a country that trusts people to do the right thing and one, as someone pointed out, that has no real enemies.

As always, our tour leader regaled us with stories and jokes during our bus rides, interspersed with information about the places we were visiting. On this journey he told us one about Captain Cook, constipated sailors and a Maori herbal cure that ended with the punch line "With fronds like these who needs enemas." Groan!!

Lunch was at the Salvation Army citadel in Invercargill. It was a lovely, home-cooked meal served by three older lady volunteers and one man. It was an interesting and pleasant change from restaurants and many of us commented on how nice it was to have this kind of home-y experience so far from home.

After lunch we had a lecture introducing us to the geography, climate and a little history of the South Island. Then we drove on to Te Anau with a stop for ice cream. The scenery along the way was gorgeous and we made one stop at an overlook with a gorgeous view of the sea with rolling waves and breakers. There were beautiful cloud formations in the sky and the sun shining on the water through the breaks looking like silver. The rest of the scenery was rolling fields, many with cows, sheep or deer grazing, and  mountains in the background.

 We got off to an early start the next day and made several stops on our way to Milford Sound to enjoy some amazing scenery. We stopped at Mirror Lakes and saw mountainsides reflected in water that was a still and clear as glass. We made another stop to look across an open field into a pass connecting two mountains with others hiding in the mist behind them.  A third stop was at The Chasm where we saw tall silver tree ferns, a river running over rocks that had been smoothed by the bubbling water until they were shiny. We walked along a path that felt as if we were miles and miles from any civilization. One quick stop was by a bubbling little brook with sweet, clear cold wate

The Milford Sound boat ride was super. The scenery was astounding – tall rock faces, mountains, beautiful water, several lovely waterfalls, glaciers in the not too far distance, cute little fur seals swimming and sunning themselves on the rocks.

On the way to the sound we went through the Homer Tunnel – long, very dark, unfinished side walls and only one way. Traffic has to wait until there's nothing coming the other way to enter. They have a good system of lights and timer countdowns and the wait wasn't bad, but you can see that it must be a pain during heavy traffic in one direction or the other.

The drive to Queenstown was long, but very scenic. We had to backtrack south almost all the way to Te Anau and then turn north to Queenstown. I actually dozed off once or twice for 10 or 15 minutes each time.  I don't think I've ever done that on a bus ride on any of my trips. But having awakened at 5:45 and then spent the morning out in the fresh air I'm not surprised.

Our hotel in Queenstown was right on the shore of Lake Wakatipu and every room had a lovely private balcony with a great view of the lake. This one was is a little ritzier (I guess, since I'm in NZ I should say its posher) that the others. The rooms were bigger, the TV was also Internet capable for a price, and the bathroom had one of those fancy showers with only a half door. I hate them! I must say, however, that with this one I did not flood the bathroom the way I have in past encounters with this style.

We started Tuesday with a walk through the Queensrown Gardens. The garden is very beautiful. Lots of gorgeous trees, including a couple of huge redwoods, lots of lovely fall flowers, fountains, pools and a memorial to the Antarctic explorer, Scott.  Then we joined the rest of the group to board a coal burning vessel called the Earnslaw for a trip along the lake to a sheep station. We had a demonstration of sheep shearing – interesting, but I'd seen it before in the Faroe Islands where it wasn't a demonstration for tourists but actual work – and a show of how the sheep dog, a sweet border collie named King, gets the sheep to go where he wants them to go. Apparently some sheep dogs get their message across by barking and some by simply eyeing the sheep. King is an eye dog and it was pretty neat to see him fix the sheep with a sort of schoolteacher stare and off they went to the place he wanted them to go.

When the boat trip ended we were free to do whatever we wanted, so a bunch of us set out to find the yarn store. I remembered that it was on Beach Street, so we just had to walk along and there it was. We all found something we liked. I bought some very pretty hand-dyed merino, possum and nylon in shades of blue and gray which I had shipped. Then we set out to wander, found a very nice little shop where I found a very cute little jade owl. So I had my poetry books, owls, a tee shirt and yarn. All my New Zealand quests were fulfilled.

The gondola rides up and down to the Skyline restaurant were not as bad as I thought they'd be, but I also did not ever look out. Both ways I was facing the side of the mountain, so it was almost like being on the ground. I rode up with one couple who did a wonderful job of distracting me, and I rode down with two sisters who were both a little nervous so we sort of gave each other moral support. I would have been happier with a different means of transportation, but I did it. There was a terrific observation deck and I went out to get a few photos of the spectacular view. I was less nervous out there than I would have anticipated. Maybe having made myself do some of these things has resulted in my getting over some of my fear of heights. Or maybe it’s possible to outgrow a fear just as you can outgrow an allergy.

The following day was a travel day, so not as much sightseeing as some other days, but we did see quite a lot nevertheless.  In the morning we checked out of the hotel and went to Arrowtown, an old mining town that has been partially preserved. We saw a very nice small museum showing a lot about the town in the 1800s. We had been told to check out the toilet so the tour leader and I found our way to the schoolroom and the "lavatory" sign. When I opened the door I shrieked because there was a man sitting on the toilet! Of course, it was a mannequin, but he was very realistic looking!

I walked around a bit, including a jaunt down to the Chinese village. The Chinese had been brought over to do the labor and, much like the railroad workers in the US, were segregated and shunned. It was interesting to see the shacks and read the explanations but none of it was surprising or new to me.

The schedule for the day had gotten changed around because our flight to Wellington was later than the original itinerary called for, so lunch was odd. Lunch was theoretically included even though the schedule didn’t allow for us to eat together, so we had been given money to purchase our own meal whenever and wherever we wished.  This happened a couple of additional times during the trip.

Our flight to Wellington was about an hour and a quarter over some awesome mountains and glaciers. When we landed got a little tour of the city along with a cable car ride up to the botanical gardens and a slow walk down from the top. The gardens were beautiful, especially a special section of roses and begonias in glorious colors.

The hotel was right on the harbor and all of our rooms had gorgeous harbor views. After dinner at the hotel about half of us went to see the city lights from a scenic observation point on Mt. Victoria. It was really spectacular. And we got to see the Southern Cross in a beautifully clear sky.

Our first stop early Thursday morning was Zealandia, an area of the valley that has been fenced off with a cleverly engineered fence to protect, preserve and encourage regrowth of native birds, some plants and some insects. We got to see several kinds of birds that are native to NZ and, in some cases, endangered. The funniest was the takahe – sort of small turkey-sized bird with iridescent blue feathers and bright red beak named Little T. He was sort of hiding until one of the volunteers came walking through.  Apparently T thought he was about to be fed and he followed the guy around like a puppy dog. It was very funny to watch and gave us some great chances to take his picture.

The fence is amazing.  It is 8.6 kilometers long and is specifically designed to keep out the animals that are known to be predatory, either because they eat the birds or because they eat the eggs. The fence is several feet high to stop the jumping animals, the wire mesh has only tiny spaces to block little ones like mice, there is a metal piece called a top hat that foils any animal that tried to climb, and it extends a ways underground to stop the burrowing animals. When we drove a ways off to visit the Wind Turbine lookout we were still within the borders of the fence. Our guide told us that they have managed to re-establish populations of some birds that were seriously endangered. It's really a pretty amazing concept. They even ask visitors to open and shake out bags in case something might be stowing away that could cause a problem. Our guide told us that a little girl visiting with her family had a kitten in her bag. On the front of the main building is a quote: The future is no longer what is going to happen; it is what are we going to do.

Our afternoon excursion was to Te Papa Tongawera, the National Museum of New Zealand where we saw exhibits about Maori culture and, New Zealand history. Most memorable to me was the information about the Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840 and considered to be New Zealand’s founding document. The Treaty states in broad terms the intention to establish New Zealand as a nation and to establish a government.

After lunch we had a very interesting lecture on New Zealand politics. I had never really understood the whole parliamentary election/prime minister process and our lecturer explained it very well. It's really an interesting approach with a party in control really being in control and the whole idea that parliament, not the prime minister or, in the case of a Commonwealth country like NZ, Australia or Canada, the Governor General is sovereign. And the Queen, even though she is technically the head of state, basically has no real power at all. This system seems to result in a more representative and also a less confrontational arrangement than what we have - at least compared to what we have now with the two parties basically refusing to agree with each other regardless of the merits of the other party's position.

Friday morning we had a very nice tour of the Parliament Building along with some more explanation of how the system works here. It's very different from our political system, but has some features I like a lot. My favorite is the fact that, although MPs are required to vote aye or no with their party on many issues, there are some, such as abortion, gay marriage or legalization of pot where they are free to vote their conscience without regard to their party's position.

We then went on to the Supreme Court building - another beauty with lots of wonderful features. For example, there is a large window into the courtroom so that passersby can see the court in action and the court can see what is going on outside – true transparency of justice in action. Our guide told a very interesting, story about a recent case involving a Maori man married to a pakeha  (European) wife. He died and, as per his request, was to be buried in Christchurch near plots for his wife and kids. But his Maori relatives, whom he had barely seen in years, descended on Christchurch, took the body from the mortuary, and buried him on the family Marae up north. The wife went to court and ultimately won the right to bury him in Christchurch as he had wished, but so far no one has wanted to go get the body away from the Maori relatives!

We had a lovely lunch at the Wellesley Hotel and our leader presented little token gifts to the eight who would be leaving us the next day.  After lunch four of us walked to Old St. Paul's, a very lovely old church and then to Katherine Mansfield's house. One of the women I was with asked the gift shop volunteer how to get there and she actually drove us there! Amazing! I know I read Mansfield’s stories at some point, but I don't remember them. The house was small, very well restored, and the guide sheet mentions various stories that include mention or description of certain rooms, family members and so on. I decided to try to find them online when I got home and discovered that they are available.

Then we set out to walk back to the hotel. It was a pretty long walk and we took our time, but it took about an hour for us to get maybe three quarters of the way. We stopped in a couple of shops and once just to sit a rest for a few minutes. I got back to the hotel in time to wash up a little, change my shirt and meet the couple with whom I was having dinner. Our tour leader had recommended a place where we could get Bluff oysters, but the only available reservation they had was at 5:30. Ortega's it was pretty close to the hotel and we had a lovely meal. I had 6 oysters, which were delicious, and feta empanadas with an apple and orange salad and a selection of sorbets (raspberry and mango) for dessert.

Now it was time to pack up and get ready for the second half of the trip. I cleared all the New Zealand papers, brochures and maps out of my folder and put them in the front pocket of my suitcase. New Zealand is absolutely beautiful. The scenery is just gorgeous and very different from one place to another. The people have been very nice – especially the woman who drove four total strangers to our next tourist stop! Shopkeepers have been totally low key, servers in restaurants and hotels have been great, notably the bartender in Wellington who gave me two hours of free Wi-Fi. All in all it has been a wonderful place to visit.

Saturday we had a lovely last day in New Zealand with a bus ride all along the southern coast, punctuated by several stops to walk along the shore with a lecture about geology by Hamish Campbell who rode with us on the bus and pointed things out as we passed. We finished with a picnic lunch on the grounds of one of the Marine Life Reserves where we could also walk the shore, look at the water, catch glimpses of the South Island through the clouds and enjoy each other's company on the last day for 8 of our group. Our leader had even provided a choice of wine or fruit juice to go along with our sandwiches, bananas, muesli bars and cheese and crackers.

AUSTRALIA

 (more photos of Australia here)

We were met at the airport by our site coordinator for Sydney and arrived at our hotel about a half hour later. I was not impressed with the hotel. Dinner was pretty mediocre. For one thing, the tables and somewhat battered wooden chairs felt sort of like a high school cafeteria. There was no water except what looked as if it was left over from breakfast with tiny glasses. The food was OK, but not great. There was plainish chicken, some nice salmon, potatoes and broccolini and some salad stuff, but no dressing. There did not seem to be enough dessert for everyone. And after dinner, while the site coordinator was trying to give a overview of the program for the next few days there was a lot of noise coming from somewhere nearby, making it hard for people to hear. Our handout said there were safes in the room, but there was none in mine and a couple of people discovered that we could not use the stairs to get down to the lobby from our rooms on the second and third floors.

We met our 7 new group members - 3 couples and a single woman. One of the couples had been in Adelaide, but the other folks were pretty tired from having arrived that morning. One of the women expressed what seemed to be some concern about the fact that we all knew each other already, but I think they found that we were a pretty friendly group. It was hard to tell who was where at dinner - two long tables too close together to move much - but it seemed as if the new folks were scattered among the “veterans” and were getting to know people.

I looked in the yellow pages phone book Sunday morning and found that there is a big book store not very far from the hotel so I felt sure I’d find my Australian poetry fairly easily.

In the morning we had a really interesting lecture on Australian history with an overview that started from the arrival of the first humans about 60 thousand years ago – the first humans to travel over deep water in their migrations rather than overland like the precursors of the American Indians over the Bering land bridge or the migration out of Africa into Europe and Asia. The lecture took us through to the European settlers, the transportation of convicts, the recent influx of refugees from Vietnam and now from Somalia and the Middle East and a little about the government parties. Our lecturer included lots of funny anecdotes, like the fact that when Cook landed the Aborigines were fascinated by nails. They had never seen them and realized that they would make building things a lot easier.  So the sailors started trading nails for sex and Cook had to post armed guards at the ship's carpentry shop. He also talked about the "Columbian exchange" that affected most settler countries. Eurasian colonists brought smallpox, but caught syphilis. They brought alcohol and were introduced to drugs. I took lots of notes that I will most likely never look at again, but it really was interesting

One more demerit for this hotel, which our leader described as "interesting." We had a tea break during the lecture and they brought up some very tasty little meat pies, a tea selection that did not include any black tea – no English breakfast, no Earl Grey – and two urns, one marked coffee and one marked hot water.  Turned out they both had coffee, which I discovered when I drowned my green tea with jasmine in coffee.

Our afternoon excursion took us down, or rather up, to the harbor for a walk around and a view of the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge along with some other lovely sights. One stop was at Mrs. MacQuarie's Chair, a seat carved out of the rock where she sat and watched the harbor to see if her son's ship was coming home safely. One of us  had been delegated to play the role and she mimed watching, crying and smiling as our site coordinator told us the story. There is a steel rod supporting part of the rock and we heard that a previous group, after hearing the story, asked if she then went out and became a pole dancer, so our “Mrs. MacQuarie” mimed that as well.

We then went to the Opera House for a guided tour, which was fascinating. We heard about the design, the problems that arose in building it and got to see a couple of the performance spaces. In one of the small theaters we were told that we all needed the chance to tell people back home that we had sung at the Sydney Opera House.  Our leader told us that his birthday was the next day, so we sang happy birthday to him.

We started Monday with a drive around some of the eastern suburbs of Sydney with lots of scenic stops for photos. One stop was at Bondi Beach where I took off my shoes and socks and waded into the Tasman Sea. The sand was the softest I've ever felt and the water was surprisingly warm. The waves are pretty big and every now and then one came in farther and faster than expected, but it was fun to be there.

One other stop was a place called Gap Park. There are high, rugged rocks over the sea and apparently it was at one time a popular place for suicides. Now it is well-lit at night and there are signs all over telling people to call hotlines if they are in need of help or of they see someone who seems to be in need.

One of the suburbs we visited is Double Bay, humorously referred to Double Pay  because it is expensive. Our site coordinator told an amusing story about the Woolworth's supermarket that wasn't doing very well there.  Someone had the idea to frost the windows and now it is one of the most successful in the chain.  The reason? Folks in Double Bay didn't want to be seen shopping in a chain market and now they are not!

After the drive around we had a cruise on the harbor ferry.  We got to see the bridge and opera house from different angles, heard a little about the zoo, which we are visiting tomorrow, and got a different view of the city.  As one of our group put it, we saw things from the inside and from the outside.

We had lunch at a cute little café and afterwards walked back to the hotel. I stopped along the way at the big Dimocks bookstore to look for poetry. I spent a while combing the shelves and found two books by indigenous women, both winners of prizes given to indigenous writers and so I got them both. I think I will be happy to have them.

I have friends who have been living in Sydney for a while and this was a “free” evening so I had made plans to get together with them. We made one stop at a fascinating and very cool butcher shop called Victor Churchill, established in 1876. We then went to Bondi and walked along the park above the water, stopped at their apartment in Double Bay (very cute and cozy) and went for dinner at the yacht club. It was very informal, outdoor seating near the boats and lots of fun. After dinner we went for ice cream in their neighborhood, walked a bit more and it was back to my hotel. It was a lovely afternoon and evening and I was delighted that the scheduling worked put so we could get together.

After breakfast on Tuesday we visited a jeweler who specializes in opals, learned about where they are found, the three kinds (white, black and boulder), how man-made pieces are made (a mineral background, a thin slice of opal and a silica coating) and had a chance to see some lovely pieces.  A few folks bought for themselves,  or for kids and grandkids.

From there we went to the zoo.  We didn't get to see the whole place, but did get a nice tour of the part that has Australian animals and a little lecture with a chance to see a lizard, a very poisonous spider, a stick insect and a sleepy possum close up. It was interesting – and a good thing that no one in the group seemed squeamish about touching the lizard or getting close up to the bugs, which were in closed containers, but still... The koalas are very cute, the wallabies are fun, we saw a kookaburra, but not in a gum tree although some of us did sing the song, a napping kangaroo, a few nocturnal critters like possums, bilbies, various mice and rats, echidnas, a platypus and more.

After lunch at the zoo our leader had us go around and introduce ourselves for the Australia folks and give a bit more information about ourselves than just names and home towns. It was interesting to hear who said what. We all learned some things about each other that had not come up in conversation. We are a very interesting and diverse bunch.

The ferry back was fine and then I again joined the group that was walking down George Street back to the hotel. I made a detour through the Victoria Building to take a couple of pictures, strolled along and snapped a few more, detoured into the Chinatown shops and bought a souvenir tee-shirt and then came back to relax before our very early dinner and evening at the opera.

The production of La Bohème was lovely. The voices, the sets, our fabulous seats all made it a memorable evening.

The next day we had an early departure for Melbourne where we were met by our site coordinator.. We got a bit of a tour around the city, with a stop for a light lunch of finger sandwiches and fruit  in Fitzroy Gardens. After lunch I walked around a bit. The highlights of the garden were a miniature Tudor Village, donated by a borough in England in gratitude for food packages sent to feed the children during World War II, a fairy tree, Captain Cook's Cottage and the Conservatory. The begonias in the conservatory were beautiful.

Then we went to the Galaxy Skydeck - an observation deck 85 stories up. It's all glassed in, although there seemed to be one place you could go outside (I didn't) with a spectacular 360 degree view of the city.

Next stop was the Shrine of Remembrance, built to honor the huge number of young men from Victoria State who died in World War I. Nearly 10% if I remember correctly. And because recruiters put men from the same town or village into the same regiment, in some cases the entire male population of a community was wiped out. The shrine is very moving. There is a stone engraved with the words "greater love hath no man" set in an enclosure slightly below floor level so that you have to bow your head to see it. There is a skylight directly above it that is opened every November 11 at 11:00 AM. The sun shines directly on the word "love." Visitors can create a replica of the event, complete with prayers, and it is very, very moving.

From there we got to the hotel – once again we were in Chinatown! My big project was contacting my credit card company who once again ignored my instructions that I would be traveling and denied my card when I tried to charge something.  The same thing happened in Turkey and I had to call to straighten it out.  I was told that notifying them of travel plans was no guarantee that the card wouldn’t be denied! Ridiculous! I will contact them to try to get some resolution, especially reimbursement of the phone charge for the call.  We’ll see how it works out.

After dinner we saw a really good little film about Australian birds and wild life and how they have adapted to the climate and landscapes. Some shots were really funny – a frog trying to eat a nasty-tasting snail . And some were amazing to see – a baby kangaroo, really an embryo, coming out and crawling up its mother's belly into the pouch.

We had an interesting lecture Thursday morning about the Australian economy, before, during and after the global financial crisis of 2008. In a nutshell, the country went from having a long history of a budget in surplus with no national debt and low unemployment to resolving the problem with widespread stimulus packages that led to a deficit and unemployment that never went as high as predicted, but was still pretty high.

The health care system is similar to England or Canada – mostly government subsidized, people get the national program and can have private insurance, it is relatively low cost and it covers just about everything. Private insurance gets you faster treatment for non-emergent conditions but not necessarily better care. The public hospitals are all teaching hospitals so the doctor who sees you there might be a leading specialist in his field using you as a teaching case.

We then took the tram up to Victoria Market. We were provided with tram cards for the duration of our stay which have been preloaded with money. Cool system! We were also given cash for lunch today and tomorrow, since it is that odd combination of meals on our own and yet included in the program. We got $30 for the two lunches and the one I had today cost $6 and change, so I was ahead of the game. (Not so far ahead as one of the men in our group who popped into the casino, put a dollar into one of the machines and won $250! He treated everyone to drinks at dinner with his winnings).

The market was interesting, but not all that appealing. It's pretty big with sections for meat, fish and poultry, sections for produce, household stuff, clothes, and so on. in the food sections some vendors were calling out to attract buyers, but everywhere else was low key. I found a very cheap wooden owl, so that quest was covered in case I didn’t see another one. I had pizza at the food court and then I wandered a little more and then strolled back down Elizabeth Street. This was the first hotel that did not offer even 20 minutes of free internet time, so I popped into the internet café across the street to check email and post on Facebook. I managed to do that for at least a few minutes just about every day, usually thanks to some sort of free Wi-Fi arrangement in our hotels..

At 2:30 we took off for Philip Island and the Penguin Parade with a stop at Maru Animal

Park where I fed wallabies and kangaroos and saw emus and a koala. We saw a female with a joey still on her pouch and that was pretty amazing. We made a second stop at a scenic spot called The Nobbies where we could see waves crashing into rocks and where breeding boxes for penguins were set up, so we saw a couple of penguins there and a glorious view of sun on water.

After a huge dinner of fish and chips we headed for the Penguin Parade. After dark we saw groups of birds coming onshore and walking up a long path to their nests. It was really amazing to see so many of them – dozens and dozens  – and to hear them calling and talking to each other. The sound was like a whirring chirp punctuated with cries that almost sounded like a baby. They came marching up the path in groups of maybe 10 or 11, pausing periodically and seeming to rest before continuing their trek up to the nests. These penguins are small, so the walk must have been very hard for them.

In the gift shop we saw plush penguins wearing knitted sweaters. Our site coordinator told us that when the penguins get covered with oil from a ship they are washed off with detergent that also removes their natural oils so they can't swim for a while. To keep them warm they actually are put into sweaters.

We had a relaxed start at 9:30 Thursday morning to walk up to the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia Collection.  The lecturer told us a little bit about several pieces of aboriginal art and also showed us pieces from the early colonial period and a couple of more modern pieces. After the guided tour we were free so I tagged along with one of the couples to spend more time looking at the art. Then we strolled down Swanston Street and stopped at Pie Face for lunch. I had a classic mince meat pie which was yummy and a little lemon tart which was a little too sweet, but still good. My companions left to go back to the hotel and I decided to wander some more.  Since the city is laid out on a grid, it's pretty easy to roam around and not get lost.

I found some neat things to look into - the Scots Church, an alleyway covered in fabulous graffiti art, St. Paul's Cathedral, a busker on Bourke St., a little demonstration demanding that bank that owns and/or manages a number of commercial properties pay its cleaning staff a living wage, a street corner evangelist and several interesting buildings and interesting pieces of public art. I have no idea how much area I covered walking up and down streets, but after a out an hour and a half I was ready to come back to the hotel for a cup of tea and a chance to rest my feet for a while.

That night was a dinner on our own, but our site coordinator invited us to join him at one of his favorite restaurants. Several of us joined him for a very pleasant meal, a stop for ice cream after dinner and a stroll back to the hotel. Earlier in the trip we had seen something called “bugs” on a dinner menu. I had been fairly sure that this referred to something akin to crayfish which are called “mudbugs” in some places in the US. When I saw Moreton Bay Bugs on the menu here I had to try them. They were like small lobster tails, broiled and garlicky and quite yummy. I have also become a fan of lemon, lime and bitters, a very refreshing soft drink. And for dessert I had fig ice cream – actually vanilla mixed with fig preserves and also quite delicious.

Saturday found us in Alice Springs, right in the center of Australia. The temperature was in the high nineties when we arrived. We got to our hotel – reminiscent of the Spanish courtyard arrangement - had some lunch and got a program overview and then visited the Alice Springs School of the Air. It services about 120 students scattered over an area twice the size of Texas via Internet. They have their own satellite! It's a pretty amazing set up with just a few teachers conducting lessons for a handful of students,  book work delivered by special mail pouches and home tutors for each kid, often a parent but sometimes a hired live-in. A few times a year there are activities that bring the kids together to meet their "classmates" face to face, and the teachers also travel around and meet each student personally a couple of times a year.

When we returned from that visit we had a lecture about Aborigine culture and art. It was interesting and I did learn a few new things, notably some coming of age rituals (circumcision at about age 14 with no anesthetic, but following three days of rituals that keep the boys awake to the point where they are a little delirious), strong kinship taboos, strong attachment to place and to ancestor spirits.

Dinner was at the botanical gardens.  We had a barbecue with nice steak cooked to order, a salad, coleslaw and potato salad and fresh fruit and ice cream for dessert. There was a singer named Skip entertaining us with Australian folk songs, most of which I gathered he wrote himself. He got us singing along and even playing some simple homemade instruments. After dinner we had a little talk by an. It was  interesting and the sky was beautiful. There is almost no light pollution so the stars were very impressive, especially for someone used to the city where I can only see a couple of stars and then only on very clear, moonless nights.

Sunday was my birthday! I got sung to on the bus and presented with a very cute little koala pin that will live on my backpack.  Later in the day the folks I was walking around town with bought me an ice cream cone. :)

It was somehow not as hot as it had been the previous day. Maybe it was a little cloudier, maybe I got acclimated quickly –- don't know. We set out early and first visited the Alice Springs Desert Park. We saw lots of desert plants and trees, a small aviary with a few birds, a walk-through exhibit of nocturnal animals, reptiles and insects, many of which were out and active. And there was an interesting film about the desert with some very interesting images of the land that was and the land that is. And there was a gift shop with some beautiful Aboriginal art and I bought a nice piece for $230.

Our next stop was a visit to the Royal Flying Doctor Service and another well done short film about the service, mostly first person accounts by people who suffered accidents or illness and had to rely on the service to get them proper care. It was interesting, and clearly a pitch for donations.

A couple of people chose to walk around downtown - if downtown is appropriate for basically a couple of blocks of stores - and I went with one of the couples who had joined us in Sydney . A few galleries were open and we explored a little.  I saw some nice pieces, mostly much more expensive than what I spent at the Desert Park, and. nothing that made me sorry I had made the earlier purchase.

We poked into another souvenir type shop and ended up giving the guy there advice on where to go when he comes to the US on a vacation with his family. We talked him out of spending 5 days in Las Vegas and convinced him to go from Los Angeles to San Francisco and/or San Diego and La Jolla. It was sort of funny and also fun to be tourists but giving travel advice.

Dinner that night an experience to try indigenous food. We were told there would be a sampling plate and then a "normal" meal.  Dinner was lovely. We heard a little about the history of the place where we ate, which means in English "women can cook." We were served a tastings plate with kangaroo meat (tasty), bush tomatoes( not a strong flavor), various dipping things, feta cheese, bread and wattle seed (crunchy). The main course was very tame - fish, mashed potato and salad. And dessert was ice cream with meringue bits, cream and fruit. It was all very nice.

We had a very early start t Monday and a long drive to Uluru broken up by a couple of fun stops. The first was at a camel farm where a Japanese camel handler named Sam helped several in the group experience a ride around a paddock. They rode two to a camel with a little bit of a trot towards the end of the ride. It was silly and fun and the folks who did it enjoyed it and the rest of us enjoyed their enjoyment.

The second stop was morning tea break complete with scones, with cream and jam. It was all quite lovely and very civilized in the midst of our drive through a very barren, very forbidding looking desert. We saw a DVD about the man who envisioned a transcontinental telegraph for Australia and the explorer who, after six tries, finally found a workable route from the south to the north for the telegraph to be put in place. I can't even imagine how anyone survived the trek.

The countryside is red dirt and scrub. We passed through cattle stations that were a million acres large with one head for every 80 acres. I can't even grasp such vast areas.

When we finally arrived we had lunch at the Uluru cultural center, had a little time to look around in shops and the information center, and then we set off to see Uluru up close. Like the Taj Mahal, it's even better in person than in pictures because there are details that just don't show until you are right there. The rock is red, but it's also streaked with black and white, there are paintings on some surfaces and in some caves, folds and twists and honeycomb erosion that are gorgeous.

After we checked in and had a little time to refresh we went back to see Uluru at sunset. The colors change almost minute by minute as the setting sun changes the angle and the light, passing through reds and oranges to almost purple. And the sky was also streaked in pink and yellow with a nearly full moon rising as the sun set. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

Dinner at the resort was a food adventure dream. The seafood bar offered oysters, mussels, prawns and marinated squid – interesting choices for a place in the middle of the desert and hundreds of miles from the sea. The salad bar had kangaroo, water buffalo and wallaby and the main course buffet had a different preparation of wallaby and also crocodile stew. I was in heaven! And I was happy to be sitting near other diners who were also excited about trying all the new stuff.

It was the first night of Passover and one of the women had matzah that she got when she visited a synagogue in Melbourne. She put it out and invited everyone to share and then three of us explained a little about explained to several people what Passover signifies..

On Tuesday we had breakfast at the cultural center which meant I had a chance to buy a fly net.  Best $10 I ever spent! The flies don’t bite but they swarm around faces looking for moisture in your eyes, nose ,mouth or just wherever you are sweating from the heat. It made a huge difference in my ability to enjoy the sights as we walked around. It also meant that I had fantasies of being Aiel and wearing a shoufa. (If you’ve read Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time books you get the reference. )

On the bus ride to Kata Tjuta we were treated to the sight of several wild camels. It was really something to see them, just grazing by the wide of the road. There were four or five of them that I saw, including one that was more gray than crown and there was also variation in the size of their humps.

Kat Tjuta is an amazing rock formation with 30+ domes in various shades of brown and red. One of the domes has a row of what looks like windows going straight across, undoubtedly the result of some sort of erosion, but fascinating to look at. We also had a chance to hike a little into Walpa Gorge between the domes. The trail was very rocky and uneven, but the scenery was amazing even though I had to stop walking every once in a while I order to look around. It was quite spectacular and one of the most striking things was the amount of green alternating with the red sand. Just gorgeous.

We had lunch at the same restaurant where we had supper the previous night, so I got to eat a little more kangaroo and wallaby before we set out for the airport. I did find an amulet-like necklace at the resort gift shop. Amulets are not part of Aboriginal culture, but this is a sort of raw looking opal and it ill serve the purpose.

We got into Cairns around 6 and got to the hotel around 7. The first thing we ran into was keys that didn't work.  Apparently they were coded with the wrong date. We had a lecture about the reef from the man who will also take us snorkeling.

Wednesday we visited The Great Barrier Reef! Gorgeous coral in all sorts of fantastic shapes, sizes and colors, loads of fish - some colorful, some fairly drab but all fascinating. giant clams and a ray! The only down side is that I was really, really sea sick on the way there.

The boat ride took about two hours and it was rough with lots of up and down and lots of side-to-side rolling. I was OK at first having taken a seasick pill and then two ginger tablets. But once I had to bend down to try on flippers it was over.  And going below to collect equipment was the coup de grâce! I was told later that I looked pretty green around the edges and I felt pretty awful. I had taken a ticket for the semi-submersible but I passed on that spans went right to the beach as soon as we anchored. I made the right choice since a few who went on the semi-sub came back a little green themselves.

And once I was on the beach and in the water I was fine. One of the guys from the boat came and offered to show me around the reef and I got a fabulous tour of the coral. I hung put for a bit and then went back for a bite to eat - literally a bite. I had a small roll and couple of crackers.

Then I went back to the beach again and went out three more times on my own, seeing all sorts of wonderful things. The water is fairly shallow where we were, and much of the time I could have stood up with no trouble. When I was coming out the final time a group of lovely pale grayish-blue darters followed me like puppies almost to the beach into water so shallow that I could see them without putting my face in the water.

The next day was rainforest day. Our lecturer was terrific. He is apparently self-taught and seemed to imply that he dropped out of school at 16 but he spoke as if he had college degrees in botany, ecology, zoology and a whole lot more. He made one point in particular that fascinated and surprised me. He talked about flowers appearing fairly recently in evolutionary terms but being of paramount importance. Without flowers there would be no food and without food there would be no life. He also talked about the rainforest as 2% of the 22% of earth that is land, but home to something like 75% of all known species.

We walked a little around a village called Karanda - sort of a combination ecology center, arts colony and shopping mall. There is a bat place, a bird place and a butterfly place, a number of shops specializing in wares created by local artisans and several galleries. There is also a very nice restaurant where we had lunch - one of the preselected meals. I had a delicious rare steak!

After lunch we took a cable car up over the rainforest canopy to look down on what Brian had called a field of broccoli. It was very high up and I was not very happy, but the views were spectacular. I was definitely less nervous than I expected. I took a few pictures, but the windows of the car weren't that clear and it had been raining, so some of the pictures were taken through drops of water.

Then we walked a bit more to the Tjukapai center where we saw a demonstration of dance and music (simple animal imitations, very earth- bound movement accompanied by a didgeridoo), a combo film-play about the creation of the earth (mankind as born from someone's calf!) and the a short demonstration of how to play a didgeridoo with the musician accompanying a short film about animals. Finally we had a chance to try throwing a spear in a spear thrower and throwing a boomerang. 

In the evening we had a M.A.S.H. (Memories And Shared Highlights) circle and our official farewell dinner. Several of us commented on how enthusiastic our lecturers and site coordinators were about the topics and places they were presenting.  And several commented on how congenial the group had been. Of course, no one was likely to say anything negative under those circumstances. We got a good laugh when one of two women, next door neighbors traveling together for the first time, said she was happy that she wasn’t going to have to sell her house because they had gotten along so well.

Friday was our last day and we were free for the morning.  I slept in and had a leisurely breakfast, took my time, chatted with various folks, spent a while on email and then strolled around Cairns for an hour or so. I walked along the Esplanade, which is very pleasant, or would be if the humidity weren't so high. In true tropics fashion there was intermittent light rain and I got sprinkled on at least three times during the walk.

There were interesting displays about Aboriginal culture in the area, Cairns history and local flora and fauna. Eventually I needed to cool off and headed back to the hotel. Lots of folks were sitting in the lobby, so we chatted, shared photos and generally killed time.

At the airport I had some lunch and spent my last few Australian dollars on a little pair of heart shaped earrings made of iron ore.

 It was a very good trip. I was surprised at how different New Zealand was from Australia and how different the coastal cities of Sydney and Melbourne were from the desert and then the tropical coast. I sort of knew it would be, but it's always different when you see it for yourself. I was also surprised by how different the experience and present lives of the Maori were from the Aborigines. The Maori are much more assimilated into mainstream life. I suspect it has something to do with their being a much more attractive people by European standards, plus having been more savvy about recognizing what the Europeans could do for them. Even though they were warring tribes, they were more of a single people than the Aborigines and that probably had something to do with it as well.

It will be interesting to see where the poems come from -- the NZ scenery, the desert and Uluru, the reef or the rain forest, the Aboriginal paintings? Well see...