More from Down Under

The second week in Australia brought us to Adelaide, Albany and Perth – although I never actually saw Perth. 

Adelaide was a lovely town to walk around along with its ocean-front sister town of Glenelg just a short tram ride away.  Lots of walking around the two towns.  I only took a few photos that day, this one is from Glenelg.

 

 

 

In Albany I did an excursion out to the Valley of the Giants.  The tingle trees that grow here are massive, on the scale of our red wood trees, and grow only in Australia.  There were paths to walk around (and through a few) of these ancient trees as well as a treetop walkway.   Afterwards we fit in a bit of wine tasting to round out the day.

 

Perth was our last stop… actually Freemantle, where the port is located.  The first day was spent in Freemantle, a great town to walk around with everything within easy reach from the ship.  A fun little town with good shopping, restaurants and beaches.   The second day was off on an excursion into the country to Yanchep National Park to see koalas (in their enclosure), kangaroos and various birds.

 

At home we have pigeons and seagulls stealing our food.  Here the thieving birds were more interesting.

 

We also went down into the Crystal Caves and out to some big sand dunes.  Busy day.

Moving on to Mauritius next.  In the meantime, the annual World Cruise Olympics are starting up.  Should be entertaining over these upcoming sea days.

 

My Last Continent: Australia

We’ve been in Australia for a week now.  The day in Sydney was spent with friends walking around the city. I never did go into the Opera House, but yup, it was there and it was pretty.

In Melbourne I did a night excursion to see the ‘penguin parade’ on Phillip Island.  The smallest penguins in the world, aptly named Little Penguins, gather in protective groups to return from the sea to their nests at sunset every night.  Very cute little guys and fun to watch.  Photos are no longer allowed (to avoid folks who couldn’t/wouldn’t shut off their flash), so this photo I stole from the internet.

The next day I was out in ‘the bush’ to see kangaroos and koalas in the wild.  What a great experience.  We saw lots of kangaroos – pretty much stalked them as a group (about 20 of us).  If you stay together they see you as one entity and get use to you so you can get pretty close.  If you separate, then they start to feel threatened as it must seem that they’re being surrounded.

 

 

We also saw two koalas.  One was curled up in a ball sleeping (they sleep for about 20hrs per day), but the other was awake and active.  And so darn cute.  Even with this cute guy high up in a tree I would have had great photos had I remembered to bring my long lens.  As it was, I just had a wide angle lens, so these photos are cropped.  Not a brilliant move on my part. But regardless, it was such fun to watch him climb up higher in the tree to reach leaves, smell them to be sure it was something he wanted to eat and then munch on them.

 

 

 

 

Today we were in Adelaide.  Again, I just roamed the city with friends and had a great time.  Now its 2 days of cruising again before our last 3 days in Australia.  Time is going by much too fast!

 

 

 

Glaciers and Weird Rocks

We traveled many miles from Akaroa (the port town being used since the Christchurch earthquake) over the beautiful and ever changing landscape of the south island.  This included crossing the Canterbury Plains, traversing Burkes Pass and finally on to our destination in the ‘Southern Alps’.  We had a number of stops along the way, including Lake Tekapo, where we checked out the Church of the Good Shepard. If you google this, you’ll find some wonderful photos – mine don’t even come close but it is a pretty spot.

Late in the afternoon we arrived at Mount Cook airport and went off on a ski-plane adventure flying around Mt. Cook and landing on a glacier.  So cool!  And, I got to be co-pilot!  There were a couple of times that I thought the pilot was forgetting to turn as the mountain kept getting bigger and bigger in front of me.  But, I think he’d probably done this one or two times before as I survived quite nicely J.

 

Coming in for a landing...

 

OK, close enough to that mountain top.  Please turn now!

 

 

Glacial water runoff to the lake below.

 

We spent the night at the Hermitage Hotel where we had rooms with huge picture windows looking out at Mt. Cook.  The next day we drove to Dunedin where we met up with the ship.  This gave us the chance to see more of the countryside as well as a few towns along the way.  One of our stops was at Hampden Beach to see the Moeraki Boulders.   These enormous, round rocks measure up to 12 feet in circumference.  If one could lift them, one could imagine them being used for marbles or bocce ball.  Alas, no Maori stories of giants, so I guess that theory is out.

 

Today we were in and out of the New Zealand fiords on the west coast of the south island.  I’ll post a few photos within the next couple of days.

Napier and Wellington

We've still been enjoying the North Island of NZ.  Yesterday was an all-day wine tasting tour in the Hawke's Bay region south of Napier.  I found it interesting that some of the bottle labels noted the latitude and longitude of where the grapes were grown, as with the bottle held in the first photo.

 

I want to assure Parker that I'm finding oysters here in New Zealand.  Good ones!

 



Today was a fun off-roading trip out to visit some seals.  Getting there was quite a ride for miles over the sand and rocks. 

 

And there were cute critters at the end. 

 

Tomorrow we reach Christchurch on the south island.  From there I’m off for an overnight excursion to Mt Cook.  I'll rejoin the ship in Dunedin the next evening. 

 

 

 

Geysers and Hobbits

Traveled from the port town of Tauranga to Rotorua where we saw acres of kiwi vines, mountains of logging and field after field of cattle and sheep.  Visits included a Maori Arts & Crafts training center, where new generations learn carving and weaving.   Of the stops for the day, the highlight was a walk through the Whakarewarewa Thermal Reserve to see the boiling mud pools and the Pohutu geyser.   

 

 

 

The same evening was the first of two shore events for those of us on the full world cruise: an evening at Hobbiton.  The set used for the Hobbit/Lord of the Ring films was built in the middle of beautiful, hilly farmland and is now a popular tourist destination.  After a tour of the hobbit homes we partied with hobbits in full garb (many shoeless since, from what I heard, Hobbits don’t like to wear shoes).  Tents were set up with music venues, Hobbit food, and entertainment.   The evening ended with a light show and fireworks.  What fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Auckland NZ

After a day in the Bay of Islands, NZ and we moved on to Auckland.  During our 3 days here I spent 2 days on excursions to the hills, woods and beaches of the North Island’s west coast and one day with friends doing the hop-on/off bus in the city.  There was a bit of Maori art, checking out the many local sheep, beautiful beaches and a visit to one of only two mainland gannet colonies in the world. 

Cruising into Auckland

The Arataki Center at the start of the Waitakere Range - with mountain views down onto the Tasman Sea.

 

 

A well trained dog herds some sheep.





 

At the gannet colony.

 

Loving the South Pacific Islands

After enjoying a stretch of 25 hour days I can unequivocally state that traveling westward is the only way to go!  We didn’t have the best of weather in either Tahiti or Bora Bora, but that didn’t really matter.  The warm temperatures – air and sea – made cloudiness and a touch or rain insignificant.

 From Papeete, four of us took a ferry over to Moorea.  This is the island of the musical ‘South Pacific’ fame – the one they sing ‘Bali High’ about.   This photo is taken at the hotel where we had lunch.  Someday I need to come back and spend a week or two in one of the little huts over the water.

 

The day in Bora Bora was probably my favorite so far.  In the morning I snorkeled at a beautiful reef, then swam with stingrays and sharks, then swam at the most beautiful beach of a lovely little outer island.  In the afternoon I did a ‘walk on the ocean floor’ excursion that was quite fun if not a bit Jules Vern-ish.  

 

 

 

The color of these clams was so vibrant.

 

So happy to be here.  Wishing everyone in NE could be here as well J.