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Friday, April 29, 2011

Auckland

You will notice that my last blog was on April 23 as I was sitting in the Sydney airport waiting for our flight to Auckland, New Zealand. Now I am sitting in the Sydney airport again waiting for our flight to Melbourne, Australia. Why no blog since then? One word – rain. Rain, rain, rain. We arrived on Saturday, the 23rd and had rain every day we were in New Zealand! Except, of course, today when we were leaving. And that caused us to change plans on what we were going to do.
We did get out of the car one day to walk the bush in a small reserve, but as you can tell we had to walk with an umbrella. That doesn’t work real well while walking amongst the trees. (Wow, that sounded so --- English!) Every morning we would get up, turn on the TV to see what the weather was going to be like and plan accordingly. Most of the time we drove to different areas of the upper North Island just to see the area. As we got farther out into the country and away from Auckland Karl and I both exclaimed that it reminded both of us of the highlands of Scotland. Rolling hills, sheep and cattle galore. The only thing missing were the rock fences.
One day we did take a Greyline bus tour of Auckland just to see what was there. During one of the stops we were able to go into the Auckland Museum for an hour and look at Maori items. The Maori’s are the native people that were in New Zealand long before the white settlers ever got there. The country keeps a lot of the Polynesian influence.
Auckland is called the city of sails and it’s a good moniker for it since 1 in 4 people of the 4 million that live there has a boat. Sailboat, motorboat, fishing boat – you name it and it’s there. The landmark that overlooks the city is called, surprise, the Auckland Tower. And like most towers it has a revolving restaurant on the top with observation decks below. It’s a bustling city, but has rather poor mass transit. We finished our tour at 5pm on Thursday and it took over an hour to drive 3 miles to the Harbor Bridge to get out of town. Trains only go just outside the city so if you live farther out, like we did; you either drove or took a bus. And the bus would still take about 90 minutes to cross to the other side of the harbor.
And to give you an update on Karl driving on the left – he is doing very well! But you need to ask him about his love affair with rumble strips. I am getting used to seeing cars coming at me on my right and the fast lane on the freeway is on the far right, but I still have a problem seeing into the back of the car in front of us and not seeing a head on the left – just on the right. That can cause a bit of a start. We were watching a TV show last night and it was filmed in the US show that meant people were driving on the right. It took us a moment to readjust seeing that. And no one should grumble about the price of gasoline. Since we rented a car we had to fill it up with gas a couple of times. The car was a Toyota Corolla. We put in 12 gallons and the total cost? $100 nzd!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is over $6 US currency per gallon!!!!!! So don’t complain when you have to pay ONLY $3.50 a gallon.
Hopefully we will have better weather in Melbourne.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

On To Auckland

On Wednesday we took a ferry ride to Manly Beach on the northern part of Sydney Harbor. It is an old beach town that remnds me of Santa Cruz in Ca or the old Atlantic Beach. We got off of the ferry and walked about 10 minutes to the main thoroughfare that is a large shopping and restaurant area before you get to the beach. There would have been surfers there, but the surf was almost non-existant that day. It is a great place for families to be at the beach on a hot day ( or on holiday).


Coming back to Syndey Harbor we took in THE Opera House. It is a marvel of architecture and artistry. Here is where all things cultural meet. They have operas, but they also have childrens plays, dramas, comedies, ballet, musicals, new-age performances, anything that has to do with the arts are held there. The one thing I really loved (and I wish all attractions had these) everyone, had individual headsets! That way nobody was left out because they couldn’t hear the tour guide. When you first look at the sturcture at a distance you think that the roof is just plain concrete. But as you get closer you notice that the roof is covered in individual tiles that are cream and tan colored. The concert halls are pre-built and placed inside the “shells”. They are made of wood and the acoutisc are awesome. But there is about two stories worth of space between the top of the halls and the “shell” walls. Think about when was the last time you were in anyplace as large as a concert hall made of wood? Even the seats were wood! They were designed by a micro-surgeon and they are the most comfortable seats I have even sat in. The construction itself was unbelievable. The “shells” were constructed as individual concrete ribs and were put together on-site.

On Thursday we took in a lot of things around the city of Sydney itself. We started off going to the Justice and Police Museum (of course). They had a special exhibit about the corruption that made up Sydney during the 40’s until the 90’s. And we though Chicago was bad in the 30’s!. They had criminals, politicians, juddges and police all involved. Talk about massive abuse of power! We then walked to an area called The Rocks. This is a great place to get around the locals. There are small shops, great little resttaurants and lots of people. We had lunch at a small outdoor restaurant and just sat and watched. Our last stop was on another ferry (surprise!) that took us up the Parramatta River. It was an express, but it still took over an hour. The scenery was wonderful and, as our hosts said, a lot of real estate up on that river. Meaning expensive placces – and there was! That night we had a great dinner with some Aussie Blue Knights. We had a wonderful dinner and the conversations (sometimes a little hard to understand) was fun and full of laughs, both on our part and theirs.

On Friday we took off for a long train ride just to experience the railway away from the city. We first stopped in a small town called Brooklyn on the Hawkesbury River. Since this weekend is Easter weekend and they have attached Anzac Day (which is like our Veterans Day) on the end they locals have a 5 day holiday and it seemed like about half of them were in Brooklyn. It is a small riverfront village that everyone goes to for boating, fishing, picnicing, sunbathing, etc. After we walked around the village we boarded the train and rode for about another hour to the south of the city and saw the changing of the houses which went from condos to houses.

Today we are sitting in the airport waiting for our flight to Auckland, New Zealand. We will be there for a week. Now the fun (?) begins. We are renting a car and Karl is driving!!!!!!! Remember they drive on the “wrong” side of the road. Oh, boy!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

The Land of Oz

Oh my goodness, where do I begin this blog?  I guess I will start at the time we left Hawaii.  We left Debbie at the condo sleeping while Tom was a sweetheart and took us to the airport at 5am.  We had to catch a plane to Honolulu at 6:30am so that we could catch our plane to Syndey at 9:15am.  It's funny, but I was so into the two weeks in Hawaii that I didn't really think about our next stop.  Then we were about half way to Syndey that I suddenly realized - we really were going to Austrailia!!!!!

The flight was 10 hours long, but it worked out great that we left at 9:15am Hawaii time and arrived in Syndey at 4pm (Sunday) which was 7:30pm Hawaii time and I didn't feel any jet lag.  We were able to ease into the next day by going to bed at our regular time.  So on to the fun stuff.

Monday morning we were greeted by our breakfast guests (that show up every morning) and they wanted their food!   There are three of these Lorikeets that will show up every morning waiting to be fed.  And will show up whenever we sit on the deck.  They are very tame and will sit on your hand and wait to be fed.  We also have cockatoos flying around the trees in the backyard.  Boy do they make a noise!  That is one thing that I have to get used to is the bird noises - there are no familar sounds at all.  The apartment we rented is surrounded by trees and so there are tons of birds calling in the trees from sun-up to sundown.

That afternoonn our host dropped us off at the Koala Park Sanctuary. It is a small zoo that has a lot of native Austrailian animals including about 25

Koalas. They aren't caged in and are allowed to be anywhere in the park. There were some in a small area that were shown to people and we were able to pet them and get out picutre taken. I didn't realize how lazy and lathargic they are. There was also an area that you were able to get up close and personal to kangaroos.

Today we took a ferry ride to the Watson's Bay and walked around The Gap.  Syndey runs on trains, ferries and buses.  We bought a 7 day pass that covers every public transportation, unlimited, for 7 days which is a great way to get around the city.  Our apartment is about 1 hour outside of Syndey and we took a train into the city then boarded
a ferry and off we went!  Watson's Bay is a cute little harbor that was once a fishing village and a place where ships would come in to offload their cargo.  The Gap is called that because it is a false harbor that is just before the real harbor and a ship, in 1857, was destroyed and sunk because it crashed against the rocks after mistaking it as the real harbor.  122 crew were lost and the only survivor ended up staying in Austrailia and running the lighthouse.

And lastly, no blog would be complete without a picture of the famous Opera House and the Syndey Harbor Bridge. Tomorrow we are taking another ferry ride to another part of the harbor and then we are taking a tour of the opera house.









Now to explain my title - everyone calls Austrailia Oz. And why is that? Well, it is colloquially pronounced Oztralia. Hence the Land of Oz.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Grand Canyon? When Did We Go Back To Arizona?

On Tuesday we took Tom and Debbie up to Waimea Canyon on the east side of the island.  They missed going there on their last trip to Kauai (18 years ago).  It's a 26 mile, very winding, road that goes from sea level to over 3500 feet.  But before we stopped at the canyon I had them go another10 miles to a place called the Kalalau lookout point.  Here you look down into the Kalalau Valley, the highest point of the Na Pali coast.  The Na Pali coast is an inaccessible coastline on the north of Kauai that you can only get to by hiking a steep 11 mile hike.  But Kalalau lookout is a lot like Mt. McKinley in Alaska.  It only shows itself once in a while and you have to be either lucky or patient.  So here is what Kalalau looks like -


And this is what we saw!  Last time I was up at the lookout we waited for about 20 minutes, the clouds cleared for about 5 minutes and I got to see the above picture - but not this time.  : (







After we waited for about 30 minutes it didn't look like  it was going to clear at all so we took off back down the hill to the Waimea Canyon.  When Mark Twain visited he called this canyon the Grand Canyon of the Pacific.   We timed it so that there was mostly sun shining in the canyon and all the colors popped.  Unlike the one in Arizona which is awash in browns and tans, this canyon is filled with greens, browns and tans.  It's 10 miles long, 1 mile wide and 3500 feet deep.  It was formed by the rivers and floods from Mt. Waialeale, which is the wettest place on earth (averaging 450 inches of rain per year).

Now that the sightseeing is over we will be at the resort just relaxing and letting the three of them snorkel to their hearts content in our little cove while I stay on the lanai and read.  Tomorrow we are off to lunch at Puka Dog (Google it).  Aloha, y'all.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

What a Birthday Present

We arrived in Kauai yesterday after spending a week on the big island of Hawaii.  It was great showing Tom and Debbie a new island that they had never visited before.  They asked us if we grew tired of showing people around that haven't visited before and I explained that when new people come it's like I'm seeing things I've seen before with new eyes.  I love showing people my favorite places and taking them to our favorite restaurants so that they can have a good time.






Well, today is my birthday and what better way to spend it than on my favorite island at my favorite home resort?  When I first started coming to Hawaii ( about 17 years ago) I was working as a travel agent and would come over on fact-finding trips (yeah, right).  But it did help me serve my clients better when they wanted to see Hawaii, but had never been before.  Judging what they wanted and how active they wanted to be helped me decide which island to suggest to them.  Oahu (a mini San Francisco), Maui (party central), big island (explorers).  When I got to Kauai I knew that I had found "my" island.  It's laid back, very relaxing and reminds me of the old Hawaii more than the others.  While on Kauai my husband and I took a timeshare presentation of the property we were staying in  - oceanfront, big condos, very friendly staff.  While we were standing in the "presentation" condo and trying to decide if we really wanted to buy, out on the ocean we saw a sailboat sailing under a full double rainbow.  That sealed it.  I have been an owner since 1998 and try to come back every 2-3 years.

So anyway - we are having a great time and since Tom and Debbie haven't been back to this island for 18 years we get to show them all over again!  And as I sit on the lanai overlooking the ocean, hearing the crashing surf and feeling the cool trade winds I keep reminding myself how blessed I really am.

Friday, April 8, 2011

I Double Dog Dare You!

On Tuesday we were off to a rather unique "farm".  It was the Ocean Riders Inc. that raises seahorses.  That's right, seahorses.  Did you know that the seahorse is almost extinct?  And that is because of our disposable lifestyle.  You fish die?  Go get a new one.  Your seahorse die?  Go get a new one.  Unfortunately the sea creatures don't produce as fast as you think they do and so because we feel the need to have to have one, suppliers harvest so much that they are killing the ocean.  Here is a fact that shocked me - if the suppliers continue to harvest they way they do, our oceans will be depleted by 2040!  I don't know about you but I would hate to think that my grandchildren won't know what sea life is like.  If you like to eat fish there is a web site that gives you the alternatives for buying fish that are farm raised - www.seawatch.com - check it out.  Anyway, at this "farm" they raise seahorses for people to buy and own.  They allow you to "hold" one (or actually they hold you) and will either stay there until you open your fingers or they will take off on their own.  We were there before but wanted to take Tom and Debbie because it is such a great experience.  They are now expanding into trying to farm dragon horses.  If you don't know what that is imagine a floating piece of seaweed with a head.  Beautiful, but weird looking.

Okay, now here is where I double dog dare you.   This is a very important and sacred place for the Hawaiians - try and pronounce it -






In English it's called "The City of Refuge".  Many centuries ago, on the islands many things were kapu or forbidden.  If you broke a kapu you could lose your life so you ran or sailed as fast as you could to this small place on the shores of the big island.  Once you set foot on the beach you were safe from harm and persecution as long as you didn't leave.  Only when you were forgiven by a priest or holy man or pardoned by the king could you leave safely.  I have been here every time I have come back to the island, but this time I was shocked because I had totally forgotten about the tsunami and didn't realize that it may have hit the island.  Well it did hit and they had to actually close half of the area because, not only did it damage some areas but it also exposed more undiscovered areas.  So we didn't get to see everything, but we had a good time anyway.  Oh, and for those that weren't successful in pronouncing it I will try and do it phonetically.

Poo (like dog doo-doo) u (long u) hoe new a (short a) o (long o) hoe now now.  Congratulations!  You now speak Hawaiian.  Aloha.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Volcanoes

On Monday we took off for a 2.5 hour ride down to the Volcanoes National Park.  Here, in Kilauea caldera, Pele is slumbering after being awake from March 5 through 9 of this year.  There was an eruption and lava flow for 4 days and nights.  Missed the action again!  Anyway, we took our friends, Tom and Debbie to the volcano since they had never seen one.  From this picture you can see that the crater is still smoking and the flume is filling up with lava for the next flow.   

Next we took them down the Crater road which went through a lot of lava fields dating from the mid 1800's.  You will notice in this picture a black line that runs right to left.  That is a line of lava that ran from Kilauea to the ocean.  Sometimes you have to take a close look because it can look like a shadow, but this line is lava.

At the bottom of the Crater road there is a road block that you can't cross with a car because this is what you will encounter.  In the 1970's an eruption caused the lava flow to come across the road the block this area forever.  It runs about 2 miles wide, but if you want to take a long walk you can actually get up close and personal to the lava flow.  We didn't take the walk this time but about 8 years ago I did walk it, at night, and took some great up close pictures of molten rock.  If you notice the lava formation you will see that the lave looks smooth and polished - that is called a'a lava.  The picture above is pahoehoe lava and it looks like small air filled rocks.  The difference of the two is that a'a is like dark chocolate that is melting and moves very slowly and the pahoehoe is the stuff that is thrown out of the volcano and lands with a splat.  When you see a video of a volcano and you see stuff being thrown up in the air, that is pahoehoe lava.  Notice the sign for the uninformed.  Will that area be opened?  Probably not in my lifetime because the volcano is still active.

After our trip to the volcano we continued on to the town of Hilo on the east side of the island.  Hilo is a rather small town that is almost always in a rain state.  Each time I have been there it rained.  Now here is the part that will tickle your funny bone.  It was getting close to 2:30 and we hadn't eaten since breakfast and were getting hungry.  Normally we like to eat things that are unique to the area we are in - in other words we don't like to eat at chain restaurants, but as we were talking we all agreed that Taco Bell sounded really good this time.  So Tom, who was driving, put Taco Bell in his GPS and found that it was about 8 miles from our present position.  Sounded good- off we go.  After circling around a residential area for about 10 minutes the GPS announced that we had arrived.  We were in an intersection in the residential area with only houses all around!  Okay, so we started again thinking that the GPS took our previous position in Kona.  Put in Taco Bell again and it announces that we are now about 1 mile from our destination.  Off we go.  Nope - still residential.  Debbie and I are in the back laughing out heads off.  Then we remember that both of us has a GPS on our phones.   We whip out the phones and input Taco Bell - Debbie gets a hit about 2 miles away and I get one that is permanently closed!  Tom's GPS finds another one about 2 miles away, but is taking us right back to where we were first sent.  Following Debbie's phone we FINALLY get to the Taco Bell.  Where was it?  About 5 blocks from where we got off the main road to follow the first direction!  Oh well, the best laid plans of mice and men.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Deja vu all over again

As Yogi Berra said, "It's like deja vu all over again."  Why do I say that?  Well, we started our trip and, of course, troubles began.  It's gotten to a point for me that I expect SOMETHING to happen and if it doesn't i get really nervous.  So what happened? 

On Friday we drove to Karl cousin's house in So. San Francisco to spend the night so that we could catch our very early flight the next morning to Hawaii.  We were scheduled to fly on Qantas because after we are through in Hawaii we are continuing to Australia and it was cheaper (less expensive?) to fly them and do Hawaii as a layover.  The problem first started when his cousin dropped us off at Qantas and there was no body there!  No agents, no clients, no lines, no nothing.  In fact the counters weren't even opened.  Oh boy, what now?  On the itinerary that I got from Qantas there was a small legend  that noted that the section from SFO to HNL was by "One world carrier".  OK, fine.  Who would that be?  No name was noted and trying to call Qantas was a joke.  Luckily we happened upon a flight maintenance man and he looked at the itinerary and he  said that we were probably on American because that was about the time a flight takes off to HNL.  So off we walk to terminal 3 from the International terminal (about a 30 minute walk).  We passed the United counter first and after checking the departure board didn't see any flight at that time.  Off we go to the next counter.  Do you know how many ticket agent areas are in SFO for United?  A lot!  But we finally made it to the American counter and did see our flight.  Getting up to the counter we are talking to an agent that didn't really seem to know what she was doing, but I explained to her that our flight was to HNL on them, but we then transferred to Hawaiian Air to Kona.  I gave her the itinerary that showed the departure time and the flight number.  She checks her computer and doesn't see any flights at that time - are we sure of the time?  Well, yeah!  I had the itinerary right there!  Finally she says that she does see the flight, but it was flight #148.  I looked at my itinerary and sure enough I had the same flight number!  So I'm not sure what she was looking at.  But we were able to have out luggage transferred to Hawaiian Airlines and it would follow us to Kona.  Now if you haven't flown for a while the airlines have started to charge for just about everything.  I wanted to have a few more inches of leg room so I did pay extra for exit seats.  Our "wonderful" agent goes and gives us our boarding passes and we go off to the gate.  Just as we were boarding we noticed that our seats were now 36E/F.  Do you know where that is?  Try the LAST row in the frigging plane!!!  Needless to say we are going to have a talk with Qantas soon.

Now we are finally on the plane and are in HNL waiting for our connecting flight to Kona.  We are to meet our friends, Tom and Debbie Struthers, in Kona and then fly together to Kona to enjoy a great week together.  Karl turns on his phone and gets a message from Tom stating that because the flight crew got in late the night before the FAA wouldn't let them fly until they had their "required" rest time.  So instead of them taking off at 8:50am they left at 10:45.  Our connecting flight was at 1:00 (Hawaiian time).  We checked the arrival board and saw that their new arrival time was going to be 12:35pm.  Would they make it?  If not what is going to be our plan of attack because Tom had booked the car.  We boarded our flight and just before the doors closed here comes the Struthers walking down the aisle towards us.  They made the flight so all our plans were for naught.  By the time we got settled in the resort, found a bar for a much needed drink and a great dinner, we got back to the resort and fell into bed at about 9pm totally exhausted.

Tomorrow we are off the the volcano and the City of Refuge.  I will post pictures for those that want to travel vicariously through us.