ALOHA!!

ALOHA!

What a great word – a greeting meaning both hello and good-bye! And for us, it was perfectly appropriate. Hawaii was our first stop back in the great old USA and our last stop of what was an incredible adventure.

The trip to get there was our longest. Eleven hours from Auckland to So. Korea where we spent the night at an airport hotel – pretty cool, since we were able to check our luggage all the way through to Hawaii and just take carry on luggage with overnight stuff. The hotel itself was inside security, so it was all very easy. Then next day we flew from Incheon to Tokyo; had a 7 hour layover, and finally boarded our last leg, arriving in Honolulu around noon.

Thank heavens our Marriott room (acquired with points!) was, once again, splendid and better yet, it was ready for us to move right in. We did pop down to the casual restaurant poolside for a sandwich and NOPE! NOT WINE! We had a Mai Tai, just to make us welcome a short nap in the afternoon. Had to rest up for a little swim and a nice dinner later on, don’t ya know! J

FUN ON THE BEACH

We spent the following day doing the exact same thing – breakfast, swim, read, lunch, swim, nap, read, dinner. What a tough day! Since there was no plane, train, boat or camel to catch; nothing we needed to do culturally; nothing to jump off; and nothing to swim WITH; we were 200% lazy.

Next day, different story. The busy people - Wendy, Christien, and Kiernan - arrived and what fun we had with them! Kiernan was excited to see his Gammy and Grance, but even more interested in the fish in the various ponds around the resort.

KIERNAN AND THE KOOL KOI

The pool was fun for him, although he really preferred playing in the sand on our lagoon. His parents were delighted to laze around the resort swimming in the pool or ocean, walking along the beach, and having cold drinks delivered to their lounge chairs.

NORTH SHORE LOOKING FOR TURTLES

All that lounging was good for one day. We were all eager to go and discover Oahu the following day. We drove over to the north side of the island where all the big waves are, as well as great big sea turtles. Waves were a bit tame, it seemed, but we enjoyed watching the turtles trying to come inshore to nibble the moss on the rocks, while getting buffeted about by the waves. One came very close to nibbling Wendy’s toes.

HARUMPH (FROM GUESS WHO?)

That night was the night for ghosts, witches, goblins, and The Cat In The Hat with his Things 1, 2, 3, and 4. Thing 4 was not particularly pleased with his role or his costume, but for the sake of The Cat kept his costume on long enough for the attached photo. While said Cat and other 3 things went trick or treating at participating stores in a shopping mall, however, Thing 4 read the newspaper. Another note on TCITH - in the first couple of stores he was quite shy and had to be prodded with “What do you say?” (and then a very quiet, “Trick or Treat”) and after receiving goodie, the next prod “What do you say?” (very quiet, “Thank you”). By store four, he was racing in with bag open and a very firm “TRICK OR TREAT!” The appropriate “THANK YOU” followed quickly so he could get on with the business of approaching the next store with his request. Chocolate is an incredible motivator!

ON THE DOLE

Next day we took the little tourist train trip through the Dole Plantation and then all moved into Waikiki. Wendy, Christien and Kiernan had a fancy suite at a hotel around the corner from the Hale Koa, a military hotel where we spent our very last night. The Hale Koa was clean and comfortable, with a view of the ocean. (Notice the lack of adjectives like fantastic, spectacular view, sumptuous room, etc.) After some of the “digs” we had had during our adventure, this last night started our return to reality – it kept us humble!

SUNSET ON WAIKIKI

Walking along the beach at Waikiki was wonderful and watching the surfers, silhouetted against the sunset, was soooo romantic – almost magical. And what follows sunset? Dinner and wine, of course! We won’t go into details here, but can say that Wendy thoroughly enjoyed her escargot and steak and even ordered a Tequila Sunrise (“light on the Tequila, please!”).

WHO'S AFRAID OF THE WAVES?

By the way, speaking as an unbiased Grance, Kiernan is polite and an absolute delight at meals, as he is always. He’s bright, funny, affectionate and a lot of fun to be around. I could put a lot of his cute expressions in here, but will content myself with the one the others found, inexplicably, the funniest: earlier in the day when Kiernan was visiting our room, I came out of the shower and was drying my hair. He looked me over and then asked, “Grance, where did your hair go?” Now that I think about it, it wasn’t really that funny at all.

HANUAMA BAY

On our final day, we went to Hanauma Bay for some snorkeling - a wonderful recommedation from our son Thorsten, who had been stationed there while in the Coast Guard. What a beautiful setting and what a wonderful experience. It was the 1st time for both Wendy and Christien and they took to it swimmingly (sorry). Wendy’s enthusiasm particularly was so infectious. She actually saw some fish which she could identify and described each one in detail. We really enjoyed our time with the kids and are delighted that they chose to meet us there. It was a well earned vacation for them and they stayed a few days after we left. We REALLY need to work on getting all kids and all grandkids together for this kind of fun, and we will!

Our flight out wasn’t until 9PM, so we decided to go to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel for “heavy pu-pu” and drinks beforehand. We had been there (separately) in the ‘60’s, and were curious how this old dowager had stood the ravages of time. It’s still pink and now almost dwarfed by the surrounding high rise hotels fighting for space on the shoreline. The ambience is still first class, however; the food, the service, and the view magical as we said before. There was also a Hawaiian singer and hula dancer - well, two hula dancers – the pretty lady in the pretty dress and Kiernan, the little boy waving his arms and wiggling his little bum. We watched, enjoyed, and knocked back the best Mai Tai’s on the Island!

The perfect ending to the perfect trip. ALOHA!!

WONDERFUL FRIENDS BACK HOME!!

This particular blog needs a P.S. The adventure was over, but the joy of being back home with friends was beginning all over again. Our dear friends and neighbors, Angie and Ray, who had watched over our house all those three months, met us at the airport with champagne and flute glasses, so we toasted our trip and the future right there in the parking lot. LIFE IS GOOD!!!!!!!

More in New Zealand

As always, we need to posts to get all the pictures in, but rest assured we continued our adventure with New Zeal And Enthusiasm! (Sorry, I couldn't resist)

On the lake

In between bits of rain, we took a nice walk along a peninsula that runs from Queenstown into the lake and visited some wineries (surprise surprise, right?). NZ is justly known for its Sauvignon Blancs, but they are also developing a really excellent Pinot Noir. I tried a whole bunch of them, and even found the one that had been rated best red in the world at a wine competition held in the UK the previous year. In fact it was excellent, and yes, one or two bottles found their way into our luggage. Unfortunately, to find room for them, we had to throw away all the gifts we bought for our kids, but I’m sure they will understand. Someday.

MINIATURE HORSE

We also visited the Queenstown Golf Club – just to look – and drove up into the Animal Park where part of Lord of the Rings was filmed as well as a Disney film years ago about a prison in North Korea. The animal area was really good, with some of the animals domestic enough to be hand fed, so we bought the obligatory $2 bucket of food and set out up the hill. Fed some very enthusiastic miniature horses, donkeys, OVERLY enthusiastic goats and llamas and kept looking for the “wee tarns” mentioned on the map until we realized that “wee tarns” were little lakes - not small, exotic animals! Another laugh and back on the road again!
OVER ZEALOUS DEER
Next stop was the West Coast. To get there, we decided to take the short cut north, over a mountain named Crown Point, to reach Wanaka, a delightful town on a lake (with lots of wineries) and from there head NW to Haas, first stop on the West Coast. As we gained altitude on Crown Point, rain turned into slush and then into snow, with very little visibility or guard rails. We went slower and slower, until finally we rounded a curve and saw a car backing down the road toward us. The driver kindly stopped, came to our car and in NZ English let us know that it was much worse up ahead and that there had been an accident partially blocking the road. He then suggested “If ya want ta go fahwahd, ya must just kip goin’. No stoppin’ or ya’ll not git goin’ agin on th’ ice”. At that point, we also backed up, turned around, and opted for the long way around. And that was the first time during this whole trip that weather – or anything – had prevented us from doing what we had planned, WHEN we had planned.

JUST ANOTHER WATER FALL

So our trip that day was a bit longer, but just gave us more to see. We went over a couple other passes, by lakes, meadows, forests, and the most remarkable landscape you can imagine. And a beautiful waterfall that got me into trouble!! The bottom of it was very pretty; the top magnificent. Unfortunately, I was driving when I got carried away with its beauty and made Rance just a bit too uncomfortable as I swerved left and he thought we were destined for the woods. He threatened to take away my driving privileges, but no worries, mate (said I. R’s thoughts were not nearly as optimistic)! We carried on! (no “good on ya” for me, however!)

Stayed in another warm, friendly B&B that night in Hokitika, a village right on the ocean. Again, our hosts were everything one hopes for and although we arrived late afternoon, we spent at least an hour chatting with them and learning so much about the country, and more specifically about the town and local library right across the street. Some town father had decided they needed one and had written an endowment request to the Carnegie foundation ~ 1910, and darned if Andrew himself hadn’t approved it. So there it still sits, now serving as a tourist information center.

BLOWHOLE AT PANCAKE ROCK

The West Coast of the southern island is another rough, rugged, exciting area. With semi-soft rock and sandstone along the coast there’s lots of bits of land now standing in the sea, having fallen away from the mainland over the years; some still with greenery. North of Hokitika, we visited the Pancake Rocks as the best example of this phenomenon. A nice walk through beautiful vegetation led us to the waves crashing on and through the rocks, creating new landforms of exotic shapes, and pulsing out through blow holes. Very majestic – sailing east from there you’d be lucky to find any land until Patagonia, and the waves had a long running start before they got there – it’s not called the Roaring 40’s for nothing!

PATAGONIA JUST BEHIND US

Spent that night at Hanmer Springs, the health playground for many from Christchurch and surrounding area. Although we went to bed that night smelling of sulfur, we loved every minute in the natural, hot springs. Rance’s knees, particularly, thanked him!! By the way, not sure if we mentioned all the snow capped peaks – they are particularly evident here, since it’s also a ski resort. The mountains are much lower than our beloved ones in Switzerland, but since we’re so much further away from the equator, they get snow lower and longer.

READY TO SWIM WITH THE DOLPHINS

From Hanmer Springs to Kaikoura, the east coast NZ Mecca for whale watching, dolphin and seal watching, AND swimming with the dolphins! Once again, at Amy’s suggestion (challenge!) we chose the swimming part and our very latest new best friends are dolphins! We went out on a small boat into very cold, choppy seas – one of our fellow adventurers (about 12 total) was sea sick almost the entire time. They had given us full wet suits, and we cruised along until we spotted a pod of dolphins. There are about 15K of them off this coast, which is ideal for their feeding purposes, and they stay there year round. The boat moved past them and dropped us swimmers off in their path. We had been encouraged to make noises and do other things to make them curious, and so we snorted and dove and generally made fools of ourselves, but it must have worked because suddenly there would be a beautiful dolphin swimming in circles around us as we tried to keep him in sight. And then if you lifted your head out of the water you’d see them jumping in their mating dance – the female first followed by four or five or her ardent swains – breathtaking. The water was icy, but we were warmed by our exercise and the thrill of it all. In fact, the hardest part was not the water coming into the snorkel by the choppy waves, but when the smiles and laughs at the dolphins’ antics would break the seal on the mask! As the pod passed us we’d return to the boat and move on ahead again, until finally after about 5 repeats we had to start the trip back to shore. We stripped off the wet suits and bathing suits and pulled on every piece of warm clothing we had brought, modesty forgotten in the quest for warmth. And then some celebratory hot chocolate as we watched the dolphins dance more for us. Everyone enjoyed it, even the sea sick young lady who still made every swim with us. And it was obvious the dolphins enjoyed it too – they were clearly curious about us, and amused by our antics. Unforgettable.

WONDERFUL EVENING WITH FRIENDS

Once again, feeling proud of our aging bodies and unrealistically optimistic attitudes, we headed north to Blenheim to spend the next two nights with dear friends we made many years ago when Rance was at the Canadian National Defense College in Kingston, Ontario. Beth is an original Kiwi; Dick a Canadian who succumbed to Beth’s wiles and the beauty of New Zealand. What a wonderful couple and how great to be in touch with them over these years. They could not have been more kind, welcoming or generous. They have just recently completed building a beautiful new home in Blenheim – at the north end of the south island – and we were privileged to be the first to stay in one of the two very comfortable guest rooms. The house – even without landscaping completed - overlooks pastures with sheep grazing, hills, trees, and vineyards. How bad can that be!!??? And can you guess? They took us to a number of those wineries: to sample; to sample and have lunch; to sample and then finish it off with one last sample. We liked, as we knew we would, the various Sauvignon Blancs, especially Cloudy Bay, whose vineyard overlooks the eponymous (love that “e” word) bay opposite Blenheim. But I also wanted to continue my exploration/evaluation of the up and coming Pinot Noirs. My verdict on those, for what it’s worth, are they are good, but not as good as those we had on the South Island, where the cooler weather seems to work better for them. And at days end, we went back to their beautiful home. By this time, at the rather unnecessary urging of our hosts, Rance and I took a nap. We awoke to the heavenly smell of roast leg of lamb in the oven. The taste matched the smell – it was fantastic! And we found the Pinot to go very well with it and its accompanying vegetables. Very good indeed, especially in the warmth of such wonderful friends. Once again we thought, “Life is good!”

PASSING OUR SISTER SHIP HALF WAY

The next day we drove north to catch the Picton-Wellington ferry. That’s the only non-flying connection between the two islands, and it’s a 3 hour, very beautiful ride. You also have to drop the South Island rental car off in Picton and pick up the North Island one in Wellington, but apparently we were not the first to have ever done this, since it went so smoothly. The ferry was cool – a truly huge ship loaded not just with us walk-on passengers, but lots of lorries and even some train cars! It all makes sense and works. A very beautiful, windy, choppy ride. We drove north towards Auckland, with the scenery not as interesting, at least initially, as the South Island. There are a lot more people and industry on the North Island, and it showed in the traffic. Still lovely territory, though. Dick Gentiles, our host in Blenheim, had spent 10 years working for the NZ MOD after leaving the Canadian Forces, and had recommended our visiting their Army Museum at their major training area at Waiouru. Dick really knows his stuff, and his recommendation that it was world class was all I needed to hear. So we pressed on as hard as we could to get there before closing, but drive as hard as we could, we arrived at 1625 with the doors shutting in our face. I even played the retired US Army card to the uncaring guardian of the gate, to no avail. Rats.

From there we pressed on to Taupu on its namesake lake and found a neat motel with in room Jacuzzi. I must admit that by this time my old knees, perhaps knowing they’re scheduled for the knacker’s shop on the 15th of November, had really begun to lodge protests over their abuse, so the warm water flowing over them is a well-deserved luxury. Dry and reasonably mobile, we headed into town to see what culinary delights we could uncover, but not expecting too much – only to be delightfully surprised by one of the best meals on the trip – rack of lamb for Susan and seafood pasta for me. Nice treat.

Our last day’s drive took us into Auckland. The first part of the road was beautiful, taking us on what they call the desert highway past three gorgeous volcanoes, one still somewhat active, and then on a now pretty busy highway. We had asked a gent on our Great Barrier Reef boat (back in Australia) where to stay there, and he had recommend the Sebal Reef, which was right on the Viaduct Harbor, overlooking the America’s Cup harbor. Had our last meal on the water, and then flew off the next day, ending our NZ adventure. What a beautiful country, and what lovely, friendly people! Watch out, we shall return!

And as we ship this blog off, we are back in our wonderful motherland – having spent the fastest 11 weeks in history out of the country. We’re in Hawaii – and will write our last blog when we return to Phoenix. Indeed, Dorothy was right. There’s no place like home!!

GOOD ON YA!!

…………….and good on us, we humbly (but giddily) admit. More on that later!

As dear Kiwi friends told us, you don’t visit New Zealand for the museums or culture, but for the beauty of the landscapes and the outdoor activities. We took full advantage of both.

SUSAN AND OUR HOSTESS ANN

We flew from Brisbane, Australia to Christchurch, NZ, easily found our rental car and 30 minutes after landing were at our wonderful old B & B. This was the kind of B&B we all hope for – old Victorian furniture, a fire in the fireplace, big, healthy (or not!) breakfasts and a hostess named Ann who knew all there was to know about the home and her country. We felt right at home immediately. It was a wonderful way to start our visit to a new country.

Christchurch, although the 2nd largest city in NZ, seemed like a small town to us (admittedly we did stick to the quaint, tourist areas). Our B & B was just blocks from that area of town, centered on the cathedral, so we walked there through the beautiful botanical gardens which were just coming into full bloom and visited the art and natural history museums (there ARE some – and they were excellent!), had a bite to eat, poked in alleyways, etc.

One VERY funny moment was when I came out of a public ladies room and found Rance in deep discussion with some stranger. Gregarious as he is, I thought he’d made another new best friend, but alas! the guy had approached Rance and wanted to proselytize. And he had met his match!!! I will not go into detail, but I believe that most folks doing whatever sort of mission they need to do either meet someone like me who would simply say “I have my own beliefs”, i.e. “Go away! I don’t want to hear yours”. Or, they would be in agreement and carry on a nice, conversation supporting one another. Not our boy Rance, who challenged the zealot as to why in the world he believed in such ideas. ‘Nuf said!

IN ANN'S FRONT PARLOR

We had planned to drive from Christchurch down the East Coast to Dunedin, following Amy’s trip of a few years ago, but it would have meant two long days of driving and Ann, our new B&B mom, suggested it would be a much prettier and shorter route over the inland scenic route. Don’t know what that East Coast drive would have shown us, but the route we took was absolutely breathtaking. We’ve always been amazed at the beauty of the Swiss Alps. Although these Southern Alps weren’t quite as high, they went forever. We could truly turn our heads 180 degrees – horizon to horizon - and see snow capped mountains. It was just beautiful. And in the foreground were all the bright green pastures with sheep, cows, domestic deer and horses grazing. Tranquil may be another right word for the scene.

Reaching Queenstown we went immediately to our next B&B experience. We had found Hulbert House on-line from our B&B in Christchurch and had called and left a vmm that we’d like a room for one night, be away for two, and return for another two nights. We weren’t in when the proprietor called back to confirm, but Ann’s assistant told us that he was quite a nice, older, chatty fellow and maintained the B&B all by himself. SHOULD HAVE BEEN A CLUE!!

COZY BUT OH SO COLD (ROOM, NOT WIFE!)

As we entered the front door of this beautiful, old home, Edward rose from his wood burning stove and 10 inch TV in the entry hall to greet us. He obviously had no other guests to fuss over so he fussed – and fussed – and fussed – over us. Showed us to our room which had a glorious view out of 12 ft. windows of downtown Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu upon which it sits. All lovely except that it was SO COLD!! The house was an old Victorian model, with very high ceilings and equally poor insulation. Although it ostensibly had central heating, use of it was apparently prohibitively costly and hadn’t been used in generations, probably. Instead each room had one or maybe two electric radiators, and a heating pad on the bed - into which we gladly retired as soon as possible for warmth (but it wasn’t that bad, even cozy, sitting in the chairs flanking one of the heaters; as long as you didn’t move more than 6 inches away from that source of the heat).

That first night, cuddled closely together under the quilt and on top of that heated mattress pad, we experienced our SECOND earthquake of this trip. At 1:29 a.m. those gigantic windows rattled like they were about to give way and the whole house swayed gently back and forth. My reaction was “Wake up, Rance! What was that?” Rance (not following the “wake up” part) told me it was the wind coming up. There was no wind to follow, however, until about 3 minutes later when there was an aftershock. It occurred in the Tasman Sea off Milford Sound and luckily, there was no real devastation to the mainland, but personally Rance and I felt this one heck of a lot more than we did the one in Peru back in August.

CHEATED DEATH AGAIN!!

Next day, after Edwards’s gourmet breakfast of coffee, kiwi fruit, and one piece of toast, we went dutifully off to answer Amykins’ challenge --- BUNGEE JUMPING AT THE KAWARAU BRIDGE!!! This is where the first “good on us!” comes in. We did it! It’s a very expensive 6 second high – and having jumped out of airplanes, Rance assured me it wasn’t nearly as exciting, but I’m here to say that flying from a bridge 45 m. above a very cold, fast flowing river was, indeed, exciting for me. I’m not sure how many of our family and friends would think it a wise investment of $160 each for this questionable thrill, but because I’m 65, I got the deal – complete with video, still shots and postcards – for half price! There now, dear friends my age and older. It’s a deal! Go for it!

It had started raining just before our jump and continued on and off for the rest of our stay in NZ and for the first time this entire trip, I had to get out the nifty, lightweight REI poncho I had purchased before leaving Phoenix. But the rain still didn’t interrupt any of our plans.

We left Queenstown for the 2 hour drive over to Te Anau, the small town where we overnighted for our trip to Doubtful Sound. Most folks (and Amy) visit Milford Sound, the more well-known one, but both our B&B hosts had suggested that Doubtful Sound was the more dramatic of the two – and less traveled, so we took their advice. It was a good thing we made that choice because the night before our day trip to the sound, there was an avalanche on the road from Te Anau to Milford, probably triggered by our earthquake. In any case, all the boat trips on Milford sound had been cancelled, so not only was our Doubtful Sound the best choice, it was the only choice. Speaking of roads, this may be a good time to mention that the roads in NZ are really small, and most of the bridges are one lane – takes a bit getting used to, especially when driving on the left side of the road (I wish I had a buck for every time I put on my windshield wipers, instead of the turn signal).

LOAD WIDER THAN THE ROAD

So on these small roads, one has to be prepared for large loads coming in the opposite direction – like the time we saw first a truck with a sign reading “Danger, slow down” and hands waving us to the side of the road. Another truck followed with a sign reading, “House follows” and, indeed, the third truck was carrying a house – an entire house taking up the road - the whole road!

Back to Doubtful Sound. Remember the old adage, “Rain before seven; gone by eleven?” it was, luckily for us, true on that day. To reach Doubtful Sound, we had to first cross a long, beautiful lake and then travel over a very primitive road through thick rain forest and over a pass, to get to the sound.

FROM TOP OF PASS TO DOUBTFUL SOUND

It rained until half way across the lake and by the time we reached the top of the pass, the clouds were lifting revealing a magnificent sound below and majestic snow covered mountains above. What a view! The trip out on the sound was equally magnificent, especially since we were the only boat there. I’m not sure what the Norwegian fjords look like yet (probably our next trip), but they may be very much like this one. We went all the way out to the very rough ocean, where Captain Cook, when urged by his crew to sail in to investigate it, had replied it was doubtful if they would ever be able to get out again.

WET BUT HAPPY ON DOUBTFUL SOUND

Really lovely. We were then back over the pass, which is billed as the most expensive road on NZ, hacked as it was through some very difficult terrain. The road’s reason was to bring in the generators for a hydroelectric dam on the lake side, taking advantage of the 120 meter drop from there to the sound. Of course they had to build a 12 Km raceway through the mountain to get to the sound. It turned out that it would be easier to build that road than attempt to reinforce all the roads and mostly one lane bridges to approach this task from inland. We also were given a short tour of the plant itself, all making for a very long, soggy but beautiful day.

GOOD OLD EDWARD

Back to Queenstown – and Edward – who was really a dear old man but shouldn’t have been running a B&B all by himself. We paid quite a good bit for coffee and toast, keeping him company, and making our own bed (he would have, but we didn’t want him to have to!). Ah well, he’s another memory of this adventure of ours – he goes into the “takes all kinds” category, I think.

Oz II: From Adelaide to Really Great Barrier Reef

In Beautiful Adelaide

Helen at her front door

Next day’s trip was the one which brought us into Adelaide and Helen’s incredibly beautiful home. But before that, we drove through miles and miles and miles of Australian wine vineyards. In all of our earlier blogs mentioning vineyards, we had no idea we would see vineyards like this in Australia! (Haven’t yet reached New Zealand!) Truly we traveled for 10 miles at a time with nothing but vineyards on both sides of the road. And since we’re in the southern hemisphere, entering spring, they were just beginning to bud. Seeing the new growth was just an impressive and pretty sight. We also recognized some of the producers which was fun – and thought Ah ha! You little bud! In the future you may well be in a glass in our home in the U.S.A.

Indoor/outdoor dining at its best!

Helen’s house! WOW! What a neat old home built of stone. Adelaide itself is a very green city with more of a “town” atmosphere. Helen’s house is on a quiet street just across from a big park, but a 15 minute walk from the center of the city. We entered through a rose filled courtyard into this wonderful house filled with warmth, really nice artwork, and …………….did we mention? A real wine cellar. Years ago, before Helen’s husband, Nick, died (much too early), they needed to have some restoration work done. In doing so, the builder discovered a small cellar below their bedroom, approachable from the outside patio. Like any good friend of ours would, they immediately had it dug out and made into a small (not much more than 4-500 bottles J) wine cellar. Besides being beautiful, Helen’s house is quaint. She has made a sort of indoor/outdoor dining room from what was a patio and it was there and the back garden where she entertained 32 of our new best friends. Aussies are really fun folks! We’ve invited all 32 to Phoenix and promised that if we didn’t have room in our house, our friends would!

Helen's Backyard before the party - with the Queen herself!

One picture missing is one where Helen’s hairdresser and nail techs took pity on me and sat me in a chair and the stylist started cutting my six-week-too-long hair while two nail techs started the manicure process – one on each hand. I REALLY felt like someone important at that juncture. I’m sure they felt I was someone in desperate need! After my clean-up, Helen had arranged for us to have a city tour. Adelaide is really a very small (in the sense of getting around) big city, and we could walk to all the neat sites, mainly centered on the University. All recognized and celebrated the creation of the city around 160 years ago and its rapid but orderly growth. Unlike most other Aussie cities, there were no convicts imported here, but willing immigrants who wanted to make good in this world and succeeded magnificently – particularly after gold and copper were discovered nearby. These early settlers gave back to their city in schools, parks and museums and they are all worth visiting and in easy walking distance.

Feral Kangaroos

Later we visited some beautiful wineries and a wildlife petting zoo where we could get up close and personal with the kangaroos, wallabies, and koalas. And to stock up on some more wine for the party (as if she needed it!!). The wine is, as you would expect, great here with Shiraz the favored but by no means the only outstanding grape. I was forced to drag up about 15 bottles from Helen’s cellar to re-circulate some of the old ones for her party, and of course had to taste them to ensure they were “palatable”. I tried to steer her guests away from my favorites, but I’m afraid they caught on to me.

It was hard to leave, but alas! We had to go to Queensland for the Great Barrier Reef and Rain Forest. It was about a two ½ hour flight across the country – southwest to northeast – over………………..pretty much nothing! The middle of Australia is truly just various colors of desert sand. All the population is located from the far northeast along the coast over to Adelaide which is just starting up the west coast. Perth is in Western Australia and Darwin on the very northern shore, but there’s “bugger all” in-between.

Sunrise on beach in front of our hotel

Landed in Cairns and were transported to Palm Cove, a delightful, quiet, tourist area further up the coast. Our small hotel was just across the street from the beach but the street was more like a lane, upon which very few people traveled. We loved it, even though Rance had to endure the sight of nubile young maidens with a healthy contempt for unnecessary bathing tops, ...but alas. Our time was all too short! Next morning we had to leave for our reef encounter. We left everything except bathing suits, tooth brushes and clean underwear at our hotel to which we would return later, and were off for two wonderful days of new adventures and perfect weather. One boat took us out from the Cairns Harbor to another boat called the Reef Encounter. The Reef Encounter was a small boat with only 20 staterooms which generally stays out among the reefs and accepts eager tourists like us.
Getting ready for the plunge

After lunch and before the 60 minutes our mothers always said we had to wait before swimming, we were off on a snorkeling venture like we couldn’t imagine. The first few seconds with face in the water we both thought we must be inside the most incredible aquarium in the world. In fact, all these multi-colored, multi-sized fish were real! As was the coral --- different shapes, different sizes, so many colors! Unfortunately, even as long as this blog is becoming, there is not enough space to describe how dazzled we were by what we saw. You didn’t even have to move – new incredibly colorful fish would swim beneath you, in front of the most amazing coral you can imagine. It was truly an unforgettable experience, but one we would repeat many times over the next few days.

Life is Good!!

Later in the day we both took an “introductory” scuba dive. That meant we were given a brief class but then after loading up all the gear, we had an instructor with us at all times. I (Susan) was happy for that. Not only was I a bit nervous about going 20 ft. below the surface with oxygen coming in through a tube, I got to hold this cute, French, young man’s hand most of the time. We were down about 30 minutes and enjoyed it, but both felt we enjoyed the snorkeling just as much, and quite honestly, when the sun is shining one sees the colors of fish and coral better along the top of the reef. In any case, we wanted to try that – and did! The next day our first snorkeling was at 6:30 a.m. There really are different fish to view at different times of the day. After that our boat moved to another site and Rance snorkeled 3 more times. I passed on one session and sat top deck reading, but joined him at the next session and the one on the boat going home where we saw more turtles. What a great experience! Recommended for all!!!

Back to our nifty hotel, the Sebel Reef. That evening, a couple we had made friends with on the Reef Encounter drove up from Cairns to Palm Cove and the 4 of us had a nice dinner together. We’ve met so many nice people on this trip – the Valentine’s Day (possibly becoming the St. Patrick’s Day) card list is increasing! Next day was 10 hours in the rain forest and although we enjoyed seeing it and the many views of the ocean along the way, it was probably one of our milder experiences. Did see some flying foxes (oversized bats!) and a frog jumped into the boat on our trip down the Daintree River, but that less exciting than it was startling to the tourist onto which it jumped. No crocs; no cassowary! (look that last one up) J

The Sebel Reef House was another place we didn’t want to leave. Such great atmosphere; such nice pampering. But oh dear! We had to leave for New Zealand. Still no place like the home of the free and the brave!

No Worries Mate!

No Worries Mate!!

And, indeed, there were no worries for us in Australia – a beautiful, clean, organized country. Even the cows were where they were supposed to be – in lush, green meadows munching grass – not competing for lanes with us in rush hour traffic!

View of Sydney Harbor from our room

Our flights from Mumbai to Sydney were again long legs, with a four hour layover in So. Korea. Happily the Executive Lounge there had a nice shower room, so we cleaned up a bit and felt more refreshed going into the second leg of the trip – another 9-hour flight.

Sydney is a wonderful, very cosmopolitan city and, once again, the Marriott was right on the harbor with our big, comfortable room overlooking part of the harbor and the fabulous opera house. We had 2 ½ days there before meeting our friend, Helen, so we took the time to walk around the city. We started by taking the lift to the top of the City Tower for an incredible view of all of Sydney, the harbors, and the sea. We chose this path instead of climbing the very steep steps up the Sydney Bridge as one of our more adventurous friends (Joanie B) did! Once we had our aerial orientation, we walked through their beautiful version of Hyde Park, with its very moving ANZAC (Australian New Zealand Army Corps) Memorial. We also wandered along the harbor, into a section called “The Rocks”, an old sailor area with neat alleyways, quaint shops, and pubs.

From Harbor back to Opera House

The Opera House is world famous, so months ago Rance purchased tickets for us to attend an opera - the only one playing was The Gondoliers by Gilbert and Sullivan. The house was beautiful, with great acoustics and very intimate settings, but G & S sure ain’t Mozart! We also took a harbor cruise, getting off at the Sydney Aquarium to view all the wonderful fish we hoped we would see on the Great Barrier Reef, and walked back via Chinatown for some exquisite dim sum. Opps! Sorry! Out of India and it seems we’re back to the food and drink! J

As we were discovering Sydney, our dear friend Helen was driving cross country with her niece to meet us and drive us back to her home in Adelaide. She took the shorter route like the string of the bow, and we would follow its longer arc back.

Bathing Beauties: Helen and Susan

On the appointed day we took a passenger ferry across the expansive harbor to Manley Bay where Helen’s niece lives - a picture perfect beach occupied by young, picture-perfect, male and female bodies. Helen was there at the ferry dock waving to greet us and tell us what we would be doing and seeing for the next 9 days. We had underestimated Helen. Not only is she an intelligent, warm, fun friend - she’s one helluva good tour guide (with a great wine cellar). But, again, we digress! She also has good friends along the way who were willing to take in her wandering American friends.

Dinner with her was again on the harbor, where the fish lived up to its reputation. Early next morning for the first day out on our “road trip” we drove about 4 hours to Canberra, the seat of the federal government of Australia. It’s much more compact than our capital, and we easily drove by all the government buildings and foreign embassies. Needless to say, the American Embassy was the largest and most impressive – at least what we could see. Sadly, the street leading to it was blocked off and the brick wall surrounding it had grown by a couple feet since 9/11. We had also seen this sad but necessary commentary on American safety concerns abroad in other places, most notably our beloved Bern.

From Memorial to Parliament Hill

After checking into a lovely little boutique apartment hotel Helen knew, Rance was given a kitchen pass to visit the Australian War Memorial while Helen and I visited a Flower Festival which was on for the weekend. Rance: I thought the War Memorial was one of the best I have ever seen – very well laid out, thoughtful and incredibly moving. It started with the Boer War (the first one in which Aussie troops had fought overseas, albeit as part of the Commonwealth) then through the terrible sufferings of Gallipoli, WW I and II. That was about as far as I got in several hours before they kicked me out at closing. Before I left I watched their version of Taps called Last Post. I really loved it, especially how informative the presentations were. They treated the events honestly and fairly, neither glorifying war nor glossing over the mistakes, but still recognizing the incredible sacrifices made. Anyone who has a few hours is invited to discuss these aspects with me!

From Canberra to Melbourne. Beautiful countryside. Lots of Eucalyptus trees, meadows, sheep, cattle. No kangaroos yet – except the ones which had tried to cross the road at an inopportune time. Remember the expensive wine we wrote about in France? It would go well with these particular kangaroos.

Melbourne Mall

We stayed at a neat B & B in Melbourne, Villa Donati. I should mention here that Helen had booked all the places we stayed at on the way to Adelaide – a 2 bedroom apt. in Canberra; this wonderful, old place in Melbourne; her friend’s fantastic home in Mornington, a southerly suburb of Melbourne overlooking the bay just south of Melbourne; and another Victorian B & B right on a river heading out to the ocean in Fort Fairy.

Back to Melbourne. The night we arrived Rance got to choose from the lovely choices in walking distance, and opted for French – what a treat this one was, with its authentic atmosphere and even more authentic food, wine and congenial French waiter/owner – don’t get me started again! After sleeping in a bit and being served a great breakfast by owner, Trevor, we took a nice walking tour of Melbourne. This city is more the every day citizen’s city as opposed to the “up-market” feel of Sydney. We left the car at the B & B and took the tram downtown, then used the tourist tram to get all around. Melbourne (pronounced Melb’n) has some wonderful old buildings and the Yarra River passing right through, to give it shape and tie it to the harbor. It also has another Chinatown where we just happened to be around brunch/Dim Sum time (guess Rance got two votes in a row).

We spent that night at Brit’s (Helen’s friend) lovely house overlooking the sound. Brit was Norwegian, married to an Australian navy guy, and was another delightful and interesting personality (as all Helen’s friends are). Unfortunately, her husband was out of town: a retired 2 star admiral working on a project to raise a WW I sub sunk off Gallipoli, and before that was “hiking in the Pyrenees” – I like the guy sight unseen! After a morning hike with energetic Brit, we drove futher south and took the ferry across the tip of the bay, making the boat with 2 minutes to spare – did we mention Helen’s impeccable timing?

Some of the Apostles

Our route then took us along the Great Ocean Road, and was it ever great! For those who know Highway 1 which goes along the Pacific Coast in Northern California, it was a bit like that. Big cliffs looking down on a magnificent ocean – the Southern Ocean in this case. It was very windy along this part of the trip and the ocean reflected that – great big treacherous/exciting waves crashing on what small beach there was. Along this road we also got to view the Twelve Apostles, great hunks of rock which had ended up separated from the mainland through erosion. The ocean waves continue to batter at them and in the past several years has “taken down” two of them. What can one say about missing apostles??? Of course the wave action constantly (in the sense of over centuries) creates new outcroppings and destroys the old.

The end of that day brought us to our next wonderful B & B in Port Fairy, a really quaint village on an inlet from the ocean. We all rested comfortably there, with excellent food and drink – finally! - at a fantastic, small seafood restaurant Helen had discovered on an earlier trip.

Shark overhead!

THE TAJ MAHAL AND BEYOND

AND IT WASN'T EVEN RUSH HOUR!

Next day started our two days of travel. Day one took us to Agra and its many incredible monuments to include the Taj Mahal. But first, to get there………………. The distance from Delhi to Agra; and later from Agra to Jaipur is 200 KM/120 miles. Each trip took us 4 1/2 hours. Much of each day’s trip was through villages – one little road going through, but some was on what we would consider a 4 lane highway, i.e., two lanes in one direction; median strip, and two lanes in the other. PUT ALL THOSE THOUGHTS ASIDE!!

HOME MADE TAXI PUT TOGETHER FROM SPARE PARTS - NO LICENSE NEEDED

Example: if one is traveling south (together with the other vehicles, people, and animals as listed above) but there is no exit on that side to get to where one is traveling, one simply travels to a break in the median, does a “u-turn”; travels back against all oncoming trucks, busses, cars, auto rickshaws, bikes, pedestrians, holy cows, camels and goats. But here, instead of just beeping the horn constantly; one now also flashes the lights so the traffic (human and mechanical) recognizes this and allows this “whatever “ to not only go from south to north, but also east to west across all this traffic to get off the road. An incredibly intense experience even though we really never feared for our lives! At the end of each trip Rance repeated one of his favorite sayings, “Cheated death again!”

CAMEL POWER

Along these routes was the heartbreaking time for me, not to mention the trauma to the bum! The 3, 4, and 5 year olds dodging the different modes of traffic to beg at a car that looked like it had someone there who could give them something; the filth; the squalor; all underneath the frontages of so many beautiful buildings hundreds of years old – also in gross disrepair. WHY??? So hard to see these things about which we can do nothing. After our last day’s trip from Agra to Jaipur – again 120 miles; 4 ½ hours of constant potholes and dodging vehicles, children, and holy animals – Rance put everything square for me when he said “Do you think the Adopt a Highway program would catch on here?”

Rance will certainly give you our impressions of the beauty and history of the country. As we normally do, I write the “human interest” stuff; he’s the informed tour guide. Truly, this was the perfect example of “Nice place to visit, wouldn’t want to live there!” It’s just difficult to leave a place like this and think that we can only visit – can’t really do a thing to make a change.

VIEW OF TAJ FROM RED FORT

Just to cover Agra quickly: it is the home to the Taj Mahal, which is one of the most beautiful sites in the world. Shah Jahan built it as a tomb for his beloved wife, and it is truly a jewel. You can see it from his palace/fort across the river, from which he gazed at it after being deposed and placed under house arrest by his son (his son, the 6th Mogul ruler was much more interested in fighting wars of consolidation and didn’t understand why you would spend that much money “just for a woman” – even if she was his mother). The Taj is entered gradually, through walls, courtyards and a final gate.

SUBLIME

This last gate allows you to see the Taj for the first time from its shadows, and it gives the intended impression of coming into another world, or passing from the profane to the sacred, or of being reborn. When you first enter that inner area it is best simply to sit and let it sink in to you: it is so pure and perfect, so graceful and symmetrical, so exquisitely inlaid (although that detail is best revealed on closer inspection), that you truly sense a feeling of awe and reverence. Neither words nor pictures can truly do justice to this experience, so I’ll quit with the first and let the pictures try.

AMER PALACE AND PROTECTING FORT

Next day another trip to Jaipur, with a stop along the way at a fort which Akbar built to celebrate the long desired birth of his first son. He had three wives: one Christian, one Hindu (the mother) and one Muslim – an equal opportunity polygamist – plus lots of concubines. It’s good to be king. This fort was beautiful and in good condition – it had been abandoned after only 8 years of use, since the water supply was not reliable. Not to worry, Akbar built a lot of other ones, too! This was noteworthy in that all three wives had their own buildings with their own touches (for example, the Christian wife had gothic type arches in the motif instead of the usual Muslim ones), but the Hindu wife who had given him the son had by far the largest and most splendid palace. They all seemed to get along, and would meet to play a sort of giant Parcheesi game with concubines as the pieces. When you consider the alternative life outside the palace, their lives were good and they were apparently very content, both wives and concubines.

PLANES, TRAINS AND ELEPHANTS

The next day we took a tour of Jaipur, called the Pink City due to its sandstone colored buildings. It had been built in the 18th Century, and had been laid out systematically (for an Indian city of that era) with wider streets and consistent architecture, at least in the old part of town. But first we passed through that old town to visit an even older one, its predecessor Amer, built on the hills above Jaipur. This palace was beautiful and its history interesting as always, but if the truth be told we were sort of getting burned out by this time (information overload!) Nevertheless it offered some spectacular vistas, and included an elephant ride up to its gates. Very cool. It too was protected by a fort higher above it, but that fort is still owned by the current Rajah (they still have them!), so not open to the public.

Back in Jaipur (by car, not by elephant) we visited a jewelry store with its own work shop in the rear where they polished and set the stones. The semi-precious stones were done using an electric polisher, but the precious ones were done by hand, with the artisan manually spinning the grinder by running a bow across a wheel. (Yeah, OK, we did buy some jewelry, but nothing of interest to any girls in the family.)

DEVICE TO MEASURE CAPRICORN

Next stop was the astronomical facility built by the founding Rajah, who was a passionate astronomer; in fact, he built several across the whole country so that all Indians could have access to its information. It included an extremely precise sundial that could measure to an accuracy of 2 minutes. Its real function, of course, was astrological: it appears that most Indians then and now believe in Astrology, including our obviously well-educated guide: he would not consider doing anything significant in his life, like getting married, choosing a mate for his children, or embarking on a trip without consulting several astrologers, providing the time and place of birth of the relevant people, and looking for a consensus among their readings. And yes, everyone with whom we met or spoke had been married to someone chosen by their parents, and they not only felt it natural, but very acceptable.

SHY LITTLE FRIENDS

Most people with whom we had contact were vegetarians and gave us a good introduction to the cuisine of India. The food was excellent, although a bit confusing at first. It would be easy to be a vegetarian here since the vegetable dishes were so good. Two stand out: an eggplant dish with incredible spices and flavors, and a potato/cauliflower thingy that was even better. The only meat we ate was chicken, and both the butter chicken (flavored like the eggplant) and Tandori were superb. We drank Kingfisher beer with those meals, when we could get it (some restaurants were not only completely vegetarian but also alcohol free). And always bottled water, even when we brushed our teeth. For those of you concerned about our wine consumption, have no fear! Despite all water and dietary precautions taken, we did get a touch of Delhi-Belly on the last day. Luckily, our tour agent had arranged for us to be able to return to our hotel and not check out until 6 PM before our long, long, trip to Australia. This was a relief, in more ways than one!

All in all, an exciting, stimulating and interesting visit, with all its different pros and cons. We did shop there, although the constant hovering by the attendants was a bit off-putting. In Agra, we were taken to prescribed, very up-scale shops all contained in one beautiful building – the whole thing designed for tourists who probably had money to spend and possibly the very wealthy Indians. We weren’t even ALLOWED to shop “among the people”, and sadly, wouldn’t have wanted to. In one rug store we were almost smothered by the ones they kept unrolling for us. But they were beautiful, from Kashmir, and more may be seen of one ---- after November, on our dining room floor! Needless to say, we’re hoping against hope that what looked magnificent in a showroom in India will be even more magnificent in southwest USA.

The other aspect was tipping, which seemed almost incessant. Our bags would go from one helper…. to another….. to another – just on checking in to a hotel – and all expected (and received) a tip. In both mens’ and ladies’ rooms, there was often no toilet paper in the stall, but after washing hands, an attendant was always there to give paper to dry hands ---- rolled up toilet paper. Ah yes! Tip!! Rance’s hand became chafed from reaching into his pocket! As we were finally taxiing away from the Jaipur airport (having walked across the tarmac to reach the plane), Rance pointed out the window to the ground guide giving back-up directions to the pilot and, with horror in his eyes, said “Oh, my God! Go back! There’s a guy I missed!”

In any case, we enjoyed India, but were also quite ready to move on to Australia.