Kristin's Travel Journal

Photos by Malcolm

Monday March 28, 2005

Australia, Woo Hoo!

After shopping for travel size toiletries, new shoes, all the right camera equipment, etc., came the packing. Once again, Malcolm amazed me with his ability to pack the same day of the flight.

Less than a year after our excursion to England and Ireland, Malcolm and I are on another international journey. We are blessed to have this travel opportunity as we have both always wanted to go to Australia. I used to joke that I wanted to go to Australia for my honeymoon — Well, 2 1/2 years after the honeymoon works too!

I dated this entry 3/28, but truthfully I'm not sure what the date is. We flew out of O'Hare in Chicago at 5:50 pm on Easter Sunday, 3/27; got into Los Angeles airport at about 8:30 pm Los Angeles time (10:30 pm Chicago time); had a two hour layover and left LA for Sydney at 10:30 pm LA time (12:30 am 3/28 Chicago time). It is now 9 am Chicago time and we are just over halfway to Sydney. The real question is what time and date is it in Sydney. Luckily I can cheat by looking at the monitor on the seat back in front of me. I love the Map channel that shows our flight progress, altitude, speed, air temperatures, local time, time in Sydney, time left to get to Sydney, etc. Anyway, it is about 1 am on Tuesday 3/29 in Sydney right now. Our expected arrival time is 7:28 am. We have been in the air for 8 hours 14 minutes with 6 hours 24 minutes to go! Of course this does not include the 4 1/2 hour flight to LA. Total flight time if all goes as planned will be about 19 hours.

Our friend Tania advised us to move around as much as possible to reduce risk of DVT's (deep vein thrombosis). This warning made me laugh and I responded by saying "we will try not to get any decubitus ulcers as well." Tania than suggested we ask the flight attendant to turn us every hour. Sure enough, the airline showed the safety video and shortly after they showed exercises to prevent DVT's and suggested drinking plenty of water. I have been pretty faithful with my exercises and I did not sit down at all at the LA airport. Malcolm and I both did laps around the terminal. We certainly don't need to find out about the Australian healthcare system.

So far, we have watched a couple of movies (Closer and Sideways), had dinner, and got a few hours of sleep. I had a snack recently, but I hope they serve breakfast soon because when we fly we always seem to feel the need to eat every few hours.

Tuesday March 29, 2005 — 9:30 pm

Sydney: The first 14 hours

We arrived at Sydney Airport about 7:30 am this morning. We went through customs, got our passports stamped, etc. after gathering our luggage we went to the Vodafone counter so Malcolm could get a sim card for his mobile phone. The problem is there is a lock on his phone so we cannot currently use it. We exchanged some money for Australian dollars, then off to the rental car counter. All went smoothly including the drive (on the other side of the road) to our hotel, The Four Points Sheraton. Malcolm did a great job driving, and I did a decent job navigating. Let's hope this continues throughout the trip.

We checked in at the hotel at 9:30 am, but our room was not ready so we parked the car, left our luggage with the concierge, and set out walking to find some food. We were ready for dinner, but it was only 9:30 am Sydney time. Surprisingly, we found a sandwich shop that was selling cold sandwiches, burgers, etc. Then more walking to learn our surroundings. During our walk, we came close to the Harbor Bridge. We decided to check out the Bridge Climb and booked tickets for 5:05 pm tomorrow. We decided they must make a ton of money on this as tours of 12 people leave every 10 minutes at a cost of $160 to $225 per person. There are pictures of all the famous people who have done the climb with their signatures/autographs. Some are Matt Damon, Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, Cate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman, Frankie Munez, and a group of NY City firefighters. The Olympic torch is also displayed here.

We then walked down near the Harbor for a good view of the Sydney Opera House. We sat for a while then decided to go to the Sydney Observatory, a museum of the earliest astronomical instruments brought to Australia. And, hey, it was free so why not! After a walk back to the hotel in the humid 65 degree weather, we were ready for showers. Not to mention the fact it had been about 40 hours since our last showers. It felt so good to get clean and brush our teeth. Malcolm signed up for Internet access, chatted with Chris online, and got the first set of pictures on the website. I took a 2 1/2 hour nap after reading guidebooks and planning what to do the next few days in Sydney.

We headed out again, walked out to Darling Harbor and through some shops. A store similar to the Discovery Channel Store had pedometers advertised. We decided this would be interesting so we bought one. I wish I had had one in England because we did a ton of walking! We had a nice dinner at Nick's Seafood Restaurant. I had red snapper and Malcolm had a medium rare tuna steak. I can't believe he ate the whole thing. After dinner we went to Sydney Aquarium. It is so nice that it is open until 10 pm. This was a great experience. I will let Malcolm's pictures describe the details as I am getting quite sleepy. Malcolm was falling asleep at the computer sitting up in the desk chair, so I told him he should go to bed.

One more thing I didn't mention is our very nice view of the Harbor from our 11th floor hotel room. We can look down to see the aquarium, the National Maritime Museum, Darling Harbor, etc. Well, enough about the view. I'm ready to view the backs of my eyelids for several hours. Goodnight - 10:22 pm.

Wednesday March 30, 2005

"We Climbed It!"

By "it" I mean the Harbor Bridge. We walked over catwalks, up steep ladders, and up many shallow steps to reach the summit of the bridge at 134 meters above the water. The views were amazing! The skyline at night, the famous Opera House, Luna Park, Fort Dennison, the cars along the highway below were just some of the memorable sights. On the descent, we went down steep ladders between two sets of train tracks with trains whizzing past. Unfortunately, Malcolm was unable to catch this memorable experience via pictures as we were not allowed to carry anything with us. We changed into one piece jumpsuits with rain pants over the top. We also carried fleece pullovers and rain jackets, with everything attached to a ring on the back of our suit and/or to our belt. The belt had a contraption on it that weighs 7 kg and attaches to a cable which runs along the entire climb. Attached to the belt was a radio (Motorola) for communication with our guide, Anna. Headsets, sock hats (called beanies by the Australians), glasses straps (if needed), and headlights were attached to the ring on our suits. All of this is for our safety and the safety of the people below so we can't drop anything. Very awesome experience I definitely recommend!

Okay, so I jumped right into the exciting stuff. here is the rest of the day...We slept well. Malcolm slept diagonally across the king size bed. Luckily I still had room. I woke up once at 2:30 am then again at 8:30 am and decided at that point to get up and moving. Malcolm woke up shortly after and we got showered. We had breakfast at Blackbird Cafe then walked over to the Powerhouse Museum. Here we saw The Lord of the Rings Exhibition including costumes from the trilogy, drawings, armor, weapons, and other movie props. There were behind the scenes videos playing as well. This was a busy place as a class was there on a field trip gathering info for a project. After the exhibit, we went around a few other areas of the museum which focuses on technology and advances.

From here we walked back to the hotel and Malcolm changed into shorts. It rained on and off most of the day. Luckily we had very little rain while on the bridge. We had pizza for lunch, then went to the Sydney Tower, an observation tower similar to the Seattle Space Needle. The ticket included a virtual reality adventure called OzTrek. This was actually pretty lame. Of course, we were there for the observation deck and enjoyed a nice view. Malcolm took several pictures and had someone take a picture of the two of us.

After this, we were very quickly on our way to meet our 4:50 pm time to get to the bridge climb at the suggested 15 minutes before schedule. I'm pooped tonight after 17,450 steps on the pedometer NOT including the climb!

Saturday April 2, 2005

Catch Up Time

Oops, I didn't write the past two nights. Luckily I made notes of Thursday's events, and hopefully I can remember yesterday and today.

Thursday 3/31/05

This morning we slept in until 10 am. We missed breakfast so we found a small restaurant and ordered "toasted specials" for lunch. They are not called "toasted specials" here in Australia, but we learned to love this sandwich of ham, tomato, and cheese on toast in Ireland, so we continue to use that name. We then walked to a shopping area near the Sydney Tower. This was a very busy area with many people bustling about. The center was called "Westfield" and the sign looked the same as the Westfield mall (Fox Valley Mall) near where I work. We went to the Opal Collection which is a store as well as a museum. They have many bones, fossils, etc that have been opalised. They have a fairly complete opalised skeleton of a pliosaur dinosaur known as "Eric." Apparently opals are a big thing in Australia. the jewelry was gorgeous, but we kept our money and moved on.

After an ice cream break, we walked over to the bridge. Our bridge climb tickets came with two passes to the Pylon lookout. The bridge has four stone pylons mostly for decorative purposes. One you can go inside, climb up about 200 steps, go out on a balcony, and look around sydney. Great views of the bridge and Malcolm took many pictures. Following this, we walked back to the hotel to get the tripod for some sunset photography.

They have these very handy water taxis that transport you across the harbor. We got one of these and headed for Luna Park. Luna Park is a small amusement park that is illuminated by many lights at night. There is a huge face at the entrance that you walk into the mouth under huge teeth to enter. Though it is free admittance, we didn't actually go inside the park. Malcolm was engaged in taking pictures of the sunset with the bridge and the opera house in view. It was a gorgeous evening. We had planned to grab some junk food at the park, but it closed at 6 pm and we missed the food. So, we caught a ferry back across the harbor to Circular Quay where we had dinner at a restaurant called "City Extra."

Energized by some food in our stomachs, we walked back to the hotel stopping at a convenience store for some breakfast for the next day. At the hotel, our key cards would not work for the door, so we had them reprogrammed at the front desk. The pedometer read 20,292 steps, 16.233 kilometers, and 822 kcals burned at the end of the day! I fell asleep by 9 pm while watching TV and we were both in bed at 12:30 am.

Friday April 1, 2005

This was an early morning to shower, get packed up, checked out of the hotel, and on to the Blue Mountains. We drove, well Malcolm drove, west of Sydney to the area called the Blue Mountains. The air does look blue because of an oil given off by the eucalyptus trees. There were gorgeous views as we stopped at a few lookouts. We ended up in Katoomba where we saw the Three Sisters rock formation. Aborigine legend says three women were turned to rock by a witch doctor. We did a scenic railway tour down into the gorge, walked along the scenic walkway, and then back up on the scenic flyway. The railway goes down (and up) the mountain at about a 50 degree angle — very steep, like a slow roller coaster. The flyway is a car hanging from a cable. They also have a skyway which is a glass bottomed car similar to the flyway that takes you across part of the gorge. We went back to the Three Sisters for more amazing sunset pictures. Then, we were off to find Michelle's place...

Michelle is a friend of Malcolm's family who lives in a suburb of Sydney. She has a fabulous condo on the beach at Morubra Beach. We were fortunate enough to catch her at home and stayed with her for Friday and Saturday nights. Friday evening we met up with her and had dinner at the bar beneath her apartment. It was great to meet her and for Michelle and Malcolm to have a chance to catch up as they spent time together as kids in Racine!

Saturday April 2, 2005

Okay, now I'm getting caught up, but I'm also getting sleepy. Today was a great day with Michelle and her friends. This morning we had breakfast at a cafe across the street from the apartment with a friend Carrie. Then, we met Dan a friend who lives in the same apartment building as Michelle. Dan and Malcolm went to the beach for a bit of surfing and swimming. I started some laundry, then we meet the guys down at the beach. Malcolm and I got quite a bit of sun in a short time. It was an absolutely beautiful day.

Next, we got cleaned up and headed to Sydney for a show at Star City Casino. Dan had gotten free tickets to Women In Voice. This turned out to be a very cool show featuring six Australian women singing and performing with a wonderful band.

Back at the apartment after the show, we chose to see the movie Million Dollar Baby starting at 8:45 pm. This gave us time for a delicious thai dinner before the movie. We have certainly enjoyed staying with Michelle. She is a very vibrant fun person and a perfect hostess.

Thanks, Michelle!

Sunday April 3, 2005

What a Change!

We have gone from city living to desert living. This morning we woke up in Michelle's beautiful beach front apartment, got ready, had breakfast, called Michelle's parents and Malcolm's parents, took a few more pictures, and headed to the airport. The original plan was to leave at 8 am. Well, it was about 8:40 when we left for our 9:40 am flight. Michelle drove her car, and we followed in ours. We went first to the gas station to fill up the tank to return it full. Then to the airport where we were running short on time, but all went quickly and smoothly as we returned the car, checked in, got our boarding passes, and headed to the security gates. As I started to undress to put bags, jacket, etc on the security conveyor belt, I realized I did not have my backpack. A bit of panic set in, and I realized it was in the back seat of the rental car. Malcolm left his bags and sprinted to the car while I waited with Michelle. She was confident that we had plenty of time to make our flight though it was only 5 minutes to boarding time and we weren't even through security. I was not so confident. Malcolm made record time and we were near the gate so Malcolm even had time to use the restroom and cool off from his unexpected morning jog. That never would have worked at O'Hare Airport where you have to take a train to the car rental lot.

We said goodbye to Michelle and boarded our flight to Alice Springs. After leaving the city, it was red desert below us the entire flight. We got our rental car in Alice Springs and set out for a long boring drive through the desert to Uluru AKA: Ayers Rock. The road was quite deserted and very straight, so I decided this was a good place to learn how to drive. We stopped to stock up on water then I took the wheel. Kilometers per hour instead of miles per hour, gear shift on the left instead of the right, windshield wiper switch where turn signals should be, volume knob on the right side of the radio...all this plus the other side of the car and the other side of the road! I was glad I was on a deserted road.

We were really hoping to see some kangaroos and we saw several. Unfortunately, they were all roadkill. We also saw a dead cows on the side of the road. We saw a few living cows and a few birds, but that was it for wildlife.

After about 4 1/2 hours on the road we reached Uluru, a great monolith in the middle of the desert. We arrived at a sunset stopping point about 30 minutes before sunset. Perfect for Malcolm to get the tripod and camera set up for sunset shots. We then drove back the way we came to our hotel in Yulara. Yulara is a small town with hotels, resorts, and campgrounds all owned by the same company — Yes, a monopoly where the prices are quite high as it is the only place to stay near Uluru. We checked into the hotel, thought we had no electricity then figured out you have to put your key tag in the light swatch to get power. Quite odd that they did not explain this when we checked in. We decided to drive to the shopping center to buy hats and fly nets for our faces because the flies are terrible and you are constantly swatting them. At the shopping center, we also got a pizza for dinner and some breakfast food at the grocery. We have a refrigerator, microwave, dishes, silverware, etc in our room. The room is modest with cinder block walls, but seems clean.

Tomorrow will be an early morning as Malcolm wants to get sunrise pictures at Kata Tjuta, the Olgas. Tonight we got passes into the park that are good for three days at $25 per person.

This is Aborigine country and I forgot to mention that we saw some Aborigine folks at one of our bathroom stops along the way. We also saw a family/group sitting on the ground near the road with one man trying to flag us down to hitch a ride. We did not stop so I don't know if he was hitching a ride for himself or the whole group.

A sad day in the news today — Pope John Paul II died today after a long battle with the flu, respiratory distress with tracheotomy, urinary tract infection, sepsis, and other complications. Also, an Australian military helicopter crashed during tsunami relief operations in Indonesia, killing 12.

Monday April 4, 2005

Uluru and Kata Tjuta

This entry is for Monday 4/4/05. I am writing at 9 am on Tuesday morning. Monday we rolled out of bed about 5 am threw on some clothes, had breakfast, and headed out to see the sunrise at Kata Tjuta (The Olgas). When we arrived at the lookout there were only three other people there, but many were yet to come. Malcolm set up the tripod for pictures. People kept coming with their cameras. The sunrise was beautiful, but I had not planned on spending it with 200 other people. I was getting bumped into by eager people with their cameras! So, I wandered over to an empty platform, sat on a bench, and attempted to ignore the many people at this tourist trap.

We were surprised how very cold it was in the desert before sun up. Malcolm was only wearing shorts and a T-shirt. Luckily I had long pants and a sweatshirt with a hood. We did not spend much time in the park that morning because it was so cold and windy. We thought it would be hot in the desert!

We drove back to the hotel, put the Do Not Disturb sign out and took a six hour nap from 9 am to 3 pm. After showering, we decided we should eat as it had been about 10 hours since breakfast. We ate at a food kiosk at our hotel. Malcolm had a beef burger and I decided to be adventurous with a kangaroo burger. Malcolm was adventurous too by tasting the kangaroo meat. The first impression was that it was very tough. I felt like a big time carnivore trying to tear the meat with my teeth. They only had plastic forks and spoons — no knives — so I decided to tear the meat with my fingers. I was about to give up on it when I tasted the other piece on the sandwich. This piece was much more tender. I shared a tender bite with Malcolm, but he did not care much for it saying "it is a bit gamey." To me it did not have a strong flavor, of course some flavor was masked by the barbecue sauce. At least we can say we tried it. We got ready to go out again for sunset.

Tonight we decided to go to the Olgas for sunset. We went to a different area than where we were for sunrise. There were several people here, but I was not getting bumped around like at sunrise. Malcolm set the camera to take a series of pictures automatically and plans to make a movie clip of this.

We wanted to stay at the park for night pictures and star gazing, but the ranger kicked everyone out shortly after sunset. We drove back to the hotel, found a path away from the bright lights and enjoyed a view of the night sky from the southern hemisphere — Amazing! We could see Orion, the Milky Way, and the large and small Magellenic clouds (nearby galaxies). Then, a change of clothes for a dinner reservation at 9 pm at the Bough House restaurant at our hotel. It is a buffet for $40.50 per person or wine and dine special for $99 for both of us. We chose the wine and dine, but were quite disappointed in both the wine, a house red Shiraz Cabernet, and the dine. The food was mediocre and I wondered how long it had been sitting there as it was not a very busy place. They close at 10 pm so when salads, desserts, etc were gone, they did not bother replacing them. Again, we tried some new foods. Barramundi for me — a fish that I thought was too fishy. Malcolm tried a piece of kangaroo which he still did not care for. Thank goodness for dessert — we both chose the double chocolate mud cake.

Back to the room for a movie on the laptop. We went to bed about 12.45 am only 4 short hours until the alarm would go off for another sunrise.

Tuesday April 5, 2005

We seriously considered skipping sunrise to sleep in this morning, but we knew it was our last chance to see Uluru. So, we rolled out of bed, had breakfast, and were out the door to catch sunrise. We stopped at the sunset viewing area instead of the sunrise area so we were the only people there most of the morning.

We were not in a place to see the rock change colors with the changing sun, but it was awesome to see the sun come up over the horizon. It seemed to happen so fast.

Malcolm did another series of pictures. I hope they turn out, but he is skeptical as the wind was shaking the tripod.

We returned to the hotel for showers, second breakfast, and packing. Malcolm used the pay Internet service to book our hot air balloon flight in Christchurch, New Zealand. We checked out, got gas for the car, and set out for the long boring journey back to Alice Springs. What am I saying boring?! We're going to see a live kangaroo I just know it!

Well, I'm finishing Tuesday's entry on Wednesday. It is 1:30 pm and we are on yet another airplane. We did not see any live kangaroo on our way back to Alice Springs, just a bunch of roadkill. We checked into our hotel which turned out to be the same company as the hotel at Yulara — Voyages. The room here was a bit nicer. We laughed because they had the same bottle of crappy wine that we had at dinner in Yulara available from the mini-bar.

We went to the pool for a swim. It was soooo cold! It took me forever to finally take the plunge. Right after I did Malcolm said okay, let's get out! I convinced him to swim a while longer then we got out to bask in the desert sun. Actually the air was quite chilly and I put my shirt on and covered my legs with Malcolm's shirt. We read for a while by the pool, but my goose-bumps were not going away. We went to the room for hot showers and got dressed for dinner. The hotel restaurant menu was not appealing, so Malcolm found an Italian restaurant in the Frommers guidebook called Casa Nostra.

Dinner was tasty and the pizza bread we had for an appetizer was awesome — homemade bread rolled out like pizza crust with herbs and olive oil and baked crisp. Yum! We had walked to dinner, so we walked back a different way through the main part of Alice Springs. We saw many Aborigines on our walk.

Back at the hotel we debated about going to the bar for a drink and use of the Internet hot spot wireless connection. But, we decided against this and played some cards in the room. Malcolm started a movie on the computer, but I didn't last long. I think I fell asleep between 8:30 and 9 pm. I guess that is what happens when you get up before 5 am.

Wednesday April 6, 2005

Desert Park

Today we got up at 7am, got ready, packed up, had breakfast at the hotel restaurant, checked out, and drove to Desert Park.

(I will continue later as I am watching Lemmeny Snickett the movie on the plane).

We are on the plane early because as we arrived at Alice Springs Airport for our flight to Cairns scheduled to leave at 2:25 pm we were met by a Qantas employee. He asked if we were going to Cairns and said the flight was postponed until 2 am! So, they rebooked us on a flight to Sydney boarding in 5 minutes with a 2 1/2 hour delay then a flight from Sydney to Cairns arriving at about 10 pm. We are spending more airplane/airport time than expected, but will be arriving earlier with two flights than with one. Anything to get away from those pesky flies! The flies in Alice are smaller than we are used to, but also slower...slow enough you can actually swat them.

Our first night at Uluru we saw many people with fly nets covering their faces. We decided to buy some while shopping to use the rest of our visit. I was glad we had them the next evening at sunset. Malcolm was pretty annoyed by his because it was tight on his neck. He also commented that they put fly attractant on the nets so people who wear them will tell everyone they are a great necessity!

Okay, back to Desert Park...We were encouraged to go there by the guidebook that said you can walk among kangaroos — Yea, finally some live kangaroos! The book also said the Birds of Prey show is a must see. We got to the park just in time for this show at 10 am. I agree with the book that this was very cool. There were two guys describing, explaining, and demonstrating the birds movements, prey, habits, and way of life. I think/hope Malcolm got some great shots of this.

(Oh no, another movie to distract me on the flight from Sydney to Cairns. The Incredibles — at least I have seen this one before so I can still write. We have been lucky so far to have a different movie each flight.)

The next stop at Desert Park was the kangaroo and emu exhibit. Finally — well, there was a kangaroo - one - laying under a tree about 100 feet away. No fence between us and him/her and it was alive. But, I don't know that I would call this walking among kangaroos. My expectations were not met. As far as the emu, there were two I think at a distance amongst some trees.

I said earlier that we did not see any live kangaroos on the way from Yulara to Alice Springs but this was wrong. We stopped at a gas station that had a fence with two kangaroos lying under a shade tree and an emu walking around and came quite close to us. Kind of a nasty looking thing.

We walked around the three habitats in the park and saw mostly birds of all kinds. We saw budgies (parakeets) which come from Australia and got a little bit sentimental about Merry and Pippin, our budgies. But we know they are enjoying their holiday in Racine, WI.

There was a building containing a few diurnal animals behind glass, but mostly nocturnal animals. We assumed they must adjust the animals Circadian rhythms so they are active during the day. The cages are dark with special lighting. It was hard to spot many of them, but I was pretty good at it. There were several snakes, some rats (cuter than our rats as they have big ears), beetles, lizards, a huge stick insect about 8-10 inches long. My favorites were the Thorny Devil lizards — very interesting looking animals. While I was looking at these, Malcolm noticed a large spider on the wall. We stared at it trying to figure out if it was real and alive. I thought I saw it move once, but it may have been my imagination. We decided it was real and Malcolm noticed many cobwebs on the ceiling and walls. Malcolm took a picture, of course.

The only other uncaged animals we spotted were birds, a grasshopper type bug, and yes, I spotted a lizard. A small one, but it counts as wildlife.

We had lunch at the cafe at the park. Then off to the airport for our surprise flight. We are now on the second leg of our journey to Cairns. During the Sydney layover I did some souvenir shopping. Only small things though as we are having enough trouble with packing.

Thursday April 7, 2005

Lizards

I ended yesterday's entry excited that I had spotted a lizard in the wild. That's nothing...

To finish yesterday, we called the bungalow office to let them know we would be arriving late, but we did not think to call the rental car office. They usually close at 10:30 pm, but thank goodness they were still there waiting for us when we arrived about 10:40 pm. The girl was very nice and said she planned to wait until 11 pm before giving up on us.

We drove to the northern beaches to Ellis Beach and found our bungalow — number 2. The office is only open 7:30 am - 7:30 pm. When Malcolm called earlier from the airport they said they would leave it open for us with lights and air conditioning on. This was great because we could feel the humidity as soon as we stepped off the plane at Cairns.

We are in the rainforest now! It was too dark when we arrived to see the beach and ocean, but we did find a lizard in our bungalow. Malcolm saw him skitter as I closed a sliding door between the bedrooms and the kitchen area. We have been watching our step ever since.

Tonight I saw the lizard. He was in the same spot as we saw him when I closed the same door. Malcolm has since named him "Lizardy" and he is our official bungalow mascot. We decided there would likely be a lot more bugs around if Lizardy didn't live here. And, you know how much Malcolm hates bugs! We are such city folks when a 3-inch lizard makes us squirm. I told Malcolm a lizard and bugs I can handle, but NO SNAKES!

We did see some snakes today, now starting Thursday's entry, some big ones. Luckily , they were below us as we walked on a walkway where they could not get to us. We saw black snakes, a python, and some others. This was part of Koala Gardens at Kuranda.

We got up early this am, enjoyed the beautiful beach right outside our front door then booked a trip to Kuranda via the tour desk. We started with a scenic railroad ride on a train up through the rainforest to Kuranda. Beautiful views and a few waterfalls along the way. We spent a few hours in Kuranda which is very touristy. Lots of shops, souvenirs, etc line the streets. There are a few attractions including Koala Gardens. I wanted to go because they advertised that you can cuddle a koala and have your picture taken. We joked on the train ride up that this was a sham like walking amongst kangaroos in Desert Park. Malcolm said you probably get a picture poking the koala with your finger through cage bars.

So, we had lunch at Rainforest View Cafe — cute place with yes a rainforest view, as advertised. Then off to the koala park, not getting my hopes up too high. Well this place kicked Desert Park's you know what! I got to hold a koala for at least 5 minutes. The koala's name was Wally, short for Wallace, and he was very cute. Stinky? Yes! But very cute. And, though we had to pay $14 for this experience and the photo, Malcolm was allowed to take photos too! The guy even took a photo with Malcolm's camera of the three of us together = me, Malcolm, and Wally. Pretty cool...but wait...it gets better. There was not one, but two grey kangaroos and three or four swamp wallabies that we could walk amongst, get very close to, and even hand feed! The kangaroo were not interested in eating food from a bucket labeled "Wallaby Food." We're not sure if they don't eat this food or if they just were not hungry. The wallabies were quite interested in the food so we both fed them and took each others pictures.

Also at the park we saw other reptiles — monitors, turtles, lizards, etc — as well as crocodiles. There were eight or ten of them lying on the sand when we arrived many of them partially in the water. Then two went into the water for a swim/float.

After more browsing at the shops and a break for ice cream, we caught our 3 pm gondola on the railway cable system. We soared high above the rainforest canopy with great views. We spotted a few butterflies as well. There were two stations along the way where we got out to see the waterfalls, and walk around. The trip up on the railroad took about 1 hour 20 minutes and the trip down on the railway took about an hour including two short stops.

Back to the bungalow office to complete the booking of our day trip tomorrow to the Great Barrier Reef. We had dinner at the bar and grill across the street after playing cards on our deck and enjoying the ocean. At the bar and grill, we met many more lizards. They seemed to have marked territory as there were one or two lizards occupying each light above us and along the row of outdoor tables. It was interesting to watch them catch bugs that were attracted to the lights.

We had a scare that we may lose power when the lights flickered and we saw sparks coming from an electrical box across the street. The staff at the grill said the box gets corroded by the salt water. Luckily it came on for good and no more sparks. We later saw the people from the office at the bar who said the power was fine, but they would notify someone about it in the morning. Would a power outage have been romantic? Pitch black in a bungalow on the beach: Yes! No air conditioning in the humidity of the rainforest: No!

Now that I am freezing in the air conditioning that is on or off with no temperature adjustment I think I will curl up under the covers close to my sleeping husband and call it a night.

Goodnight at 10:42 pm.

Saturday April 9, 2005

Another passport stamp!

We are going to yet another country today. It is 6:45 am and we are securely fastened into our airplane seats. We will first go to Sydney and from there to Christchurch, New Zealand. Now for yesterday's entry...

Friday April 8, 2005

Finding Nemo

Today we had an early start leaving the bungalow at 6:40 am to be at Palm Cove Novotel Resort by 7 am. A bus picked us up there to take us to the Ocean Spirit catamaran boat. The boat took off at 8:30 am toward our destination, Michaelmas Cay. This Cay is a reef sand island surrounded by coral and marine life. There are tons of seabirds there as it is an important nesting spot.

On the way to the Cay, crew members discussed the activities available for the day: snorkeling, scuba diving, and a ride on a semi-submersible. We definitely planned to snorkel, but we did not plan to dive. However, they made it sound so easy in their presentation that they reeled us right in. We could not miss this experience of scuba diving in Australia at the Great Barrier Reef.

I really wanted to do it, but I was hesitant. We signed up, filled out our medical forms, and soon we were in a small boat on the way to the Cay. This was after some instruction about using the regulator, the scuba gear, and what was to come. There were five of us and two instructors. There was a free lesson before the dive so there was still a chance to bail out at no charge. There were three skills we had to practice and demonstrate in the shallow water on our knees wearing a weight belt and the scuba vest with air tank. Skill #1 was to neutralize pressure in your ears by holding your nose and blowing to pop your ears. Skill #2 was to get water out of your mask if leakage occurred by pressing in the top middle of the mask and blowing out your nose. Skill #3 we had to learn just in case the regulator came out of our mouths. (Thank goodness this is very rare as I think it would be quite scary.) To demonstrate this skill, we were on our knees underwater, took the regulator out of our mouths, replaced it and blew the water out by sharply saying "two." We also practiced breathing slowly through the regulator which makes you sound a bit like Darth Vader and makes lots of bubbles.

After the instruction, we split into two groups. Our group was just Malcolm, me, and the instructor, Marty. Here we go diving down as Marty deflated our vests. Marty controlled our vests, though Malcolm played with his a bit, and he watched our air gauges to ensure we had plenty of air. All we had to worry about was breathing, regulating our ears, and enjoying the magnificent views. Marty knew I was a little nervous so he held my hand until I was completely comfortable, with Malcolm's permission, of course.

There was a series of hand signals we used to communicate since we were unable to speak. This worked surprisingly well. Most of my communication was with the instructor, as I kept fairly focused on him, my breathing, etc. I did see Malcolm a few times. The instructor took turns with us, pointing out the shark which was lying on the bottom in a small cove so we had to peer in. He also showed us how we could touch the anemone and come very close to touching Nemo, or a clown fish anyway. I didn't notice a short fin, so I don't think it was Nemo himself.

It goes without saying, but this was a great experience and we were both so glad that we did it. We were diving for about 30 minutes and went to a depth of nine meters (about 27 feet).

After the dive we had a buffet lunch on the boat that was cooked below by the chef on the boat. It was very tasty. As soon as we finished lunch, we took a small boat again to the cay. This time, we took our snorkel gear with us. We had signed up for a snorkel lesson for a review as it has been two years since we snorkeled in Jamaica. But, we decided we didn't need this after diving and trying out snorkeling on our own. We were fine.

We did go on a guided snorkel tour with a marine biologist as our guide. It was very informative. We swam along with him for about 40 minutes stopping frequently so he could explain what we saw. He would dive down to point things out and bring things to the surface for us to touch and hold. These things were soft coral, two types of hard coral, and a starfish. He demonstrated how quickly the animals reacted when he tried to touch them. He poked at a predatory fish that fought back by lunging toward his finger at every poke. He played with the long tentacles of a worm. We went out pretty far and were swimming or treading the whole time. Dave, and biologist, had to get back to the beach for a bird talk so he left us to wander around the reef and make our way back to shore. At times the water was very shallow above the coral and we had to take care not to kick the coral with our flippers. On this swim back, I saw a huge leopard sea cucumber and another black feather starfish. The first one of these I saw on the dive because I was on my knees in the sand a few inches from it while Marty showed Malcolm Nemo.

It was difficult to find a clearing among the coral to get to the shore. We made it back and we were glad we chose to do the guided snorkel tour instead of the semi-submersible. Hey, why see from a boat what you can swim among?!

A few things I forgot to mention. During the dive we traveled from the cay to the big boat. We swam up under the anchored boat. There were about six small squid swimming around the anchor. There was a large number of fish under the boat possibly still feeding as crew members fed the fish on the left side of the boat when we arrived. Malcolm and I missed the feeding because we were preparing to dive with a pit stop, gathering of flippers, and undressing.

On the boat ride back to Cairns it started to rain. Lightly at first but it got much stronger. We stayed out on the deck as long as possible but eventually went to the enclosed area of the boat. We were dry at this time and had already changed into dry clothes. We ended up sitting across from a couple that was on our bus transfer from the hotel to the boat. We chatted with them to discover they were on their honeymoon. They live in Melbourne so I asked all about Melbourne so I can give Cindee and Morrie the scoop as they will visit Melbourne. The guy said he would be glad to get back on land since he got sick two times after the semi-submersible ride. This made us extra glad we chose snorkeling instead. They were very nice and we enjoyed talking with them. We also met a couple from Indiana. Malcolm had a Purdue T-shirt on and the gentleman made a comment, as he was also a Purdue grad. They live in Culver, IN and his wife was originally from Louisville, KY. It's a small world!

The evening ended with dinner, a shower for me, and packing for yet another flight. The lizard fooled us last night. Malcolm was in the kitchen area and I was in the bedroom area. I closed the door and Malcolm was prepared to see Lizardy run along the wall in the kitchen. But, instead, he was on my side and ran along the bunk bed frame and disappeared. This morning as we were walking out the door, I closed the sliding door hoping to see Lizardy one last time, but we did not see him. I'm just hoping he was on the other side again and not in our luggage! As we pulled away from the bungalow at 5:30 am there was a smaller lizard on the windshield. He hung on for quite a while, then disappeared.

I am wrapping up this Friday entry with a bit of Saturday at the beginning and end at Sydney Airport. We are awaiting the second leg of our flight to Christchurch. We are both feeling the sunburns on our backs and shoulders from swimming in the Great Barrier Reef sun. SPF 30 sunscreen was not enough, but thank goodness we used that. Our backpacks are annoying, but I feel for our Melbourne friends who were scheduled for body scrubs and massages today!

Not much more for Saturday's entry. We arrived at Christchurch airport, waited in line forever to get our rental car, and drove to the hotel. They couldn't find our name for the reservation, and when they entered our confirmation number they found our name was spelled wrong "Dywer." We had arrived in shorts and T-shirts as it was very warm in Cairns. This was a big change — quite cool. We were very lazy once we reached the hotel and decided not to put on pants to get dinner. Room service was the plan, just this once. We had in-room Internet connection so Malcolm was able to get the rest of the Australia pictures on the website. We also confirmed our hot air balloon ride. We were to call at 4:30 am to see if the ride was on. If yes, they would pick us up at the hotel at 5 am.

We got to bed about 10:30 pm prepared for an early morning.

Sunday April 10, 2005

Up, Up, and Away!

3:45 am — the alarm goes off and Malcolm gets in the shower. 4 am — Malcolm wakes me up to get in the shower. 4:30 am — Malcolm calls Up, Up, and Away, the balloon company. The flight is on! The next half hour was spent getting ready, packing up, checking out of the hotel, loading the car, and catching the shuttle bus.

We were surprised to see that the basket and the balloon stuffed into a large bag were on a trailer on the back of the bus. We were the first passengers and we made several stops at other hotels to pick up more passengers. We ended up in a parking lot to pick up some local people as well as the two pilots. There were two buses, two balloons, two baskets, two pilots, and about 44 passengers.

We were divided up, wrote, down our names and weights in kilograms, got instructions from the pilots as we drove to a field. They checked the computer for wind and weather conditions just before we left the parking lot to determine our take off spot. Once in the field, we assisted in getting the basket off the trailer, getting the balloon out of the bag and spread across the field. The balloon was held open by three guys with two other guys operating fans to get air into the balloon. The pilot was busy hooking everything up. Once the balloon was inflated — the basket was turned on its side, by the way — the pilot lit the burners. Huge flames shot out into the balloon, fans were turned off, and we all watched as the massive balloon filled. The pilot turned the basket right side up and asked us to get into our designated compartments.

There were 22 passengers split into four compartments and the pilot had his own space. We had a slight delay in take off as a line was caught up or something. At this point we were still attached to the bus trailer. The pilot climbed around, tugged at some stuff, and soon we were on our way. The other balloon had taken off a few minutes ahead of us. It was neat to be able to see their balloon in flight.

As there is no way to steer the balloon, we had no idea where we would end up. The pilot communicated with the bus driver and he followed us on the road. We flew for about one hour with the other balloon always in sight. It was beautiful, especially the sunrise. The pilot said this is the third largest type of balloon that is flown. We felt a bit packed in the basket — which I was surprised really was a basket — but they do this for safety purposes. At landing time we were asked to get in landing positions, guys in back of girls with their arms around the girls holding on to rope handles. We also were faced backwards. This is all incase the basket tips over when landing we would fall on our backs and we would not have much room to bounce around as we are closely packed.

So we are in landing positions and descending, the field below us is too rough so we go back up over trees to another field which is full of young pine trees. We are also passing over cows, sheep, and horses who are all quite distressed by the sight and sounds of the balloon. The pilot explained that the balloon makes the same sound as a dog whistle so we heard many dogs barking the entire flight. I bet the owners and neighbors loved this at 6 am. Anyway, we came to a clear field and landed. It was a bit rocky, but we did not tip over. The cows were very curious coming right up to the fences to have a look. A couple of guys got out to grab the wire on top of the balloon to guide it to lay down. We all got out of the basket to realize we were surrounded by cow pies, or land mines as the pilot called them. The other balloon was a few fields over and shortly the bus found us.

We all had jobs to do to get the balloon packed back up. Malcolm was one of four guys to hold the bag that we were all shoving the balloon into. Then they all sat on the bag to get all the extra air out. We all helped to load the basket and bag back onto the trailer. Then we had champagne in the field amongst the cow pies.

We had the option of purchasing a photo that was taken in flight. We opted to save this $30. It was pretty cool how he took the photo though with the camera rigged up by three or four wires which swung out and was operated by remote control. The bus delivered us back to the hotel at about 9:30 am. We didn't know we would be back so early or we would have waited to check out. We were very hungry, so we had a big breakfast at the hotel restaurant before starting our long drive.

Malcolm drove the entire way from Christchurch to Greymouth. We went along Highway 73 through Arthur's Pass National Park — a gorgeous drive. Malcolm loved driving all the hills and curves that we don't have in Illinois. There were mountains, gorges, rock formations, and rocky streams with crystal clear water. We made many stops along the way. We took a walk to the base of Devil's Punchbowl Waterfall which involved some steep steps and climbing through rocks but well worth the one hour return walk for the great view. We also stopped at Lake Pearson which has great reflections of the mountains. I enjoyed watching minnows at the edge of the water while Malcolm took pictures.

We arrived at our hotel in Greymouth about 5 pm. I was getting grumpy because we had not eaten since breakfast. We checked in and checked the guidebook for restaurants. We walked to a pizza place to eat. We were surprised at how dead the town was so we termed it a "ghost town." We walked back to the hotel, booked our tickets for Monday's ferry ride, and went to the room. My stomach was upset, so I laid down on the bed at 6:30 pm. I fell asleep and woke up about 10 pm to change clothes, brush my teeth, and go back to bed. We slept until 8:30 am. 14 hours sleep for me — Woo Hoo!

Monday April 11, 2005

The Lynx

We are currently on a boat called the Lynx en route from Picton on the south island of New Zealand to Wellington on the north island. It is a large boat with a cafe, shop, a bar, video games, etc. It is a two and a half hour ride so I am getting caught up with the journal. We booked our tickets yesterday on-line. When we arrived today to check in they said our tickets were booked for a 9:30 pm trip yesterday. There is no way we made that mistake because Malcolm booked them, and I watched him fill everything out correctly. The only thing we can figure out is that 9:30 pm was the default setting as it would have been the next trip at the time we booked. We did have a bad Internet connection and had to enter our info twice so something got mixed up. Anyway, we had to pay $10 extra to get on this boat tonight. Whatever!

Today Malcolm did the driving again from Greymouth to Picton. We made two stops along the way for walks. The first was at Punakaiki in Paparoa National Park. We walked to see the Pancake Rocks. These are very interesting formations of bands of limestone separated by bands of mudstone that look like stacks of pancakes. There are also blow holes that spurt water at high tide. Unfortunately, we did not see the blowholes, but Malcolm thought sure he saw one spurt from the road as we were driving. The second stop was to walk the Truman Track. This went through a forest to a beach along the coastline — Beautiful!

We made a few other quick stops for pictures along the way. FYI: This was a trip along Highway 6 — a west coast highway, to Highway 63, to Highway 1. We also saw many vineyards. We first went to the wrong Hertz place as this is where it was marked on the Hertz map. There was no one there so we stopped next door at an auto repair shop. They said the place to go is to the ferry terminal. We found the spot, returned the car, and here we are on the ferry. Amazing how things fall into place.

We arrived at the ferry terminal, waited for all the people with cars to unload, then we got off the boat. We got our luggage and walked toward the hotel with intent to get a taxi. We walked a while with all our luggage. I had a backpack and two rolling suitcases. Malcolm had a backpack, the computer bag, and his large rolling suitcase. We started seeing taxis, and I asked Malcolm how much further as my arms were getting sore. He said, " We are about 3/4 of the way there." I said, "well, we might as well just walk the rest of the way." Not long after that we realized the Duxton Hotel was not where the map in Frommers guidebook said it was. We asked someone walking on the street, but he was unsure. He assured us we were right where the map said we should be, but no Duxton Hotel.

We turned around and I suggested we check the map Malcolm had printed from the website when he booked the room. Sure enough, we had gone too far. We had crossed the street right in front of the hotel and did not notice it, because we did not expect it to be there. We made it in one piece and had made up for the lack of Calories burned earlier in the day.

Tuesday April 12, 2005

Wellington

Tuesday was spent exploring the capital city of New Zealand, Wellington. We had breakfast at an all day breakfast cafe (our cheapest meal at $10 total — that's only about $7 US dollars). We then started hitting the Top Attractions according to Frommers guidebook.

Attraction #1: Te Papa Tongarewa — The Museum of New Zealand. This was pretty impressive especially because it is free admission. We saw exhibits called Mountains to Sea about animals that inhabit New Zealand from tiny insects to the huge skeleton of a blue whale; Awesome Forces about volcanic activity, earthquakes, and plate tectonics moving New Zealand as it is on two plates moving in opposite directions; Manu Whenua about Maori culture; Te Marae, a carved meeting house which is very intricate. We ran into another Purdue grad here who noticed Malcolm's t-shirt.

Attraction #2: Kelburn Cable Car. After walking for a while, mostly uphill, trying to get to the botanic gardens we found the cable car station which took us up a steep slope to the gardens at the top.

Attraction #3: Wellington Botanic Gardens. We were a little confused as this is a huge garden with lots of paths and little signage. We wandered around, saw a duck pond where children were feeding bread to a lot of eager ducks, and kept winding down through the gardens to the bottom of the hill. Here we had a choice of the easy route or the steep route to the rose gardens. Malcolm chose the steep route and off we went up a large hill, then down stairs to the absolutely gorgeous rose garden — very impressive.

Though we had bought two-way tickets for the cable car, we were not climbing the hill again to get our money's worth on the ride down. So on to the next attraction.

Attraction #4: The Parliament Buildings One of these buildings is known as The Beehive because the building does look like a beehive. It was close to 5 pm when we arrived so we did not try to enter the buildings. Malcolm took a few pictures from the outside and we headed back to the hotel.

We hit four of six Top Attractions, not bad for a day of vacation/tourism. Now to reserve a table at Wellington's best restaurant, or one of them anyway — Logan Brown. I made the booking and took a nap while Malcolm read. He is really into this book called Dune. We changed clothes, freshened up, and headed out for fine dining.

This place was awesome and I recommend it to anyone visiting Wellington. Great service and great food. We ordered a bottle of New Zealand Pinot Noir which was excellent. (As a side note I always know it is good wine when a fruit fly drowns in my glass. Yes, it happened tonight and this is probably the third or fourth time it has happened — all very good wines. The fruit flies have good taste. I'm convinced!) I had Mahi Mahi on a bed of risotto with spinach and crayfish cream. Malcolm had a beef fillet with oxtail pie and small pieces of potato. We both had green salads that had a very tasty dressing. Malcolm had a mystery ingredient on his plate which he thought may have been some type of shellfish by texture, but not a fishy taste. We both cleaned our plates and were ready for dessert.

The waiter gave us the full menu which included the dessert menu so I was eager to see what the mystery ingredient was. I read and re-read the description of Malcolm's dinner. I asked the waiter what (some M-word) was, but that was the type of potato. So, I asked him what the other item on his plate was...Sweetbreads! The waiter did not want to go into further detail. Malcolm and I both knew this was a type of organ or gland and what it was. I was so impressed that he not only tried it, but ate the whole thing, and enjoyed it.

Dessert was decadent. I had an apple tart that came with some type of custard or flan and lime sorbet. Malcolm had fallen chocolate souffle with espresso ice cream. Nice presentation on all of the food.

Wednesday April 13, 2005

More Driving

Malcolm woke up sick yesterday morning and it has been worse today. He is congested, has sinus drainage, sneezing, and coughing.

This morning we got ready, packed up, checked out of the hotel, but left our baggage, and walked to get breakfast and pick up our fifth rental car of the trip. (Toyota Camry, Mitsubishi Magna, Ford Falcon, Mazda 6, Mazda 6) We drove back to the hotel to collect our luggage and set off to Taupo. This was a long day of driving with Malcolm at the wheel the entire time. I dozed off a few times, but tried to stay awake.

The scenery was not as gorgeous as we were not along the coast, so we made no stops for pictures. We checked into the hotel which I think is the best one so far. It is owned and operated by a couple. The woman showed us to our room and showed us how to use the thermal tub out in our private courtyard. The room is spacious with a king size bed, couch, table and chairs, kitchenette as well as a bathroom.

The owner gave us a carton of milk with out keys that she put in the refrigerator. We find this a bit odd and Malcolm is sure there is some significance to the milk. Are we supposed to use it in the thermal bath? Of course, logical solutions are it is just for us to drink or to put in coffee or tea which can be made in the room. Who knows?

We decided on a restaurant called Chill for dinner. Turns out it was connected to another hotel. I had the chef's fish special of the day which was dory fillets pan fried in creole spices with a salad on top containing lettuce, tomato, avocado, and blood oranges. Yes, it was as good as it sounds. It came with a blend of vegetables — sweet potatoes, zucchini, squash, carrots, and mushrooms. Malcolm had chicken breast served on a bed of mashed potatoes. He was not too impressed with his, but mine was very good. I also tried a different type of wine — Riesling. It was okay, but seemed a bit too sweet or something.

We came back to the hotel for a soak in our private geothermally heated tub. It was very relaxing and we could see the stars which made it extra cool. The romantic mood was somewhat disturbed by the loud farting noise that came from the overflow drain. It was hilarious and we wondered what the neighbors would think!

Malcolm got the computer hooked up to the TV so we are starting a DVD. It's 10:12 pm and I will sign off.

Thursday April 14, 2005

"Stenchburg"

We are back at the hotel after spending the day in "Stenchburg," our name for Rotorua. We are chilling out before going out for dinner. We are both getting sick of eating out. Our appetites are also somewhat decreased by our colds. Yes, I'm sick now too. I don't feel as lousy as Malcolm, but I woke up this morning with a sore throat and some drainage.

Our first stop was at Huka Falls on the way to Rotorua from Taupo. This was pretty cool to see — not a high falls, but very fast and a lot of water also very blue in color. This got Malcolm in the mood for white water rafting, but this would not fit into today's schedule. It was quite cold at the falls, but we were headed to the Thermal Wonderland of Wai-O-Tapu.

We could smell it before we could see it. Strong rotten egg smell — Sulfur! We paid admission to tour "Stenchberg" and decided to take the longest of three routes to see it all. They had a great guide with explanations of each site along the way. We definitely warmed up as we viewed the Wai-O-Tapu thermal area in the Taupo Volcanic Zone. We saw craters, mud pools, geysers (none going off), bubbling hot springs, and fumaroles as well as sulfur caves and sulfur mounds — stinky! The many colors in the area are due to different minerals. Malcolm took lots of pictures.

The original plan was to go to another park similar to this one, but we ruled against it due to stench and not worth our money.

We went to Rotorua's city center for lunch. There, we decided to visit Pohutu Geyser which according to the guidebook goes off 10-25 times each day and reaches a height of 25 meters. I thought this would be free, but no, it is within a park called Te Puia. So, we paid our money and took another stinky walk. The map provided was less helpful than the one earlier in the day. There were mud pools — Malcolm's favorite — a cooking pool, several geysers, hot pools, a Maori village, and a kiwi house. Kiwi are nocturnal animals so they have this dark place set up so we tourists can see a kiwi. We were disappointed that the big geyser did not go off, but there was a smaller one that had constant activity.

I forgot to mention that while in Rotorua we walked past the Polynesian Spa, the Blue Baths, and went into the orchid gardens. There were very few orchids here, but we saw some goldfish and two large white birds in a cage. We talked to the birds for a while as we miss talking to our birds. They were very interested in us and probably starved for attention as there was no one else in sight. Good thing they have each other.

We finished off the evening with a pizza at Pizza Hut. We wanted to soak in the tub, but the thermal pump was broken so the tubs were not working.

Friday April 15, 2005

Hobbiton

This morning we had breakfast at the hotel, packed up, checked out, and headed to Matamata. Why Matamata? Because this is the town that contains a farm which was transformed into Hobbiton for The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.

We took a tour through Rings Scenic Tours Ltd. the only way you can see Hobbiton. From the Matamata city center a bus took us twenty minutes to the Alexander farm. The driver discussed the Alexander family as well as why this site was chosen for the films.

Soon we were on a 1250 acre sheep farm dodging sheep dung as we explored Hobbiton on a guided tour. Most of the set was destroyed with plans to return the farm to its original state per contract. However, destruction was halted by rain and delayed. The Alexander family contacted New Line Cinemas, etc to ask to keep the 17 remaining hobbit holes intact. New Line still owns the set and nothing can be done such as planting flowers, etc to make the hobbit holes look as they looked in the movie. They have been reinforced with treated lumber as originally they were built to last only twelve months.

In addition to hobbit holes along Bagshot Row, we saw the party tree, the party field, the tree where the fireworks go off the back of Gandalf's cart in the very beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring, sites where the mill, the bridge, the pub, stable and market were, as well as Bag End — Bilbo and Frodo's home. We got to go inside Bag End, the only hobbit hole built large enough to go inside. They did this to shoot film from inside this one, looking out. Sam's house was also fairly large as they did shots with him outside. All interior shots were done in Wellington at the studio.

The tour was great giving lots of insight to how the set was made, how the actors and extras were treated and how they lived, the stunt animals, all the changes made to the farm, and the bits and pieces that were left behind like pulleys and a piece of pink ribbon in the party tree.

We also saw pieces of an oak tree that was purchased, chopped into pieces that were numbered, transported to this farm, and reassembled with bolts and leaves wired on...a six month project for an 11 second shot in the movie. Wow!

We were able to take as many pictures as we wanted. This is the only remaining movie set in New Zealand as all others were dismantled/destroyed. Apparently Peter Jackson is using the front of Bag End as the entrance to his own home now.

From Matamata we drove to Auckland. We checked into our last hotel of many this trip. We went downtown for some pictures and dinner. We ate at a Middle Eastern restaurant, a new experience for us and it was very good. Malcolm even ate some zucchini. He made sure I noticed because he knew it would make me proud. We went back to the hotel, had a drink at the bar, and are winding down for sleep. Our last night of a wonderful three week trip.

I forgot to mention this the other day, but we saw the funniest sign in the middle of nowhere driving between Wellington and Taupo. It said "Pony Poo $1 a bag." We found this quite amusing and joked that pony poo must be better than horse poo, sheep poo, cow poo, or any other poo for that matter!

It is 10:56 pm - Goodnight!

Saturday April 16, 2005

Heading Home

This morning we checked out of the Hyatt in Auckland and drove to Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter and Underwater World just outside Auckland. This was listed as one of the top attractions by Frommers, but we were somewhat disappointed. It is a fairly small place with three major attractions. We rode a snow cat through simulated Antarctica and saw a lot of penguins. Next was Stingray Bay, a large aquarium with several rays. One, whose name is Phoebe, is huge — over 400 pounds. The other big attraction is the Underwater World where a moving walkway moves you through an overhead aquarium containing sharks and many other fish. There were smaller tanks containing octopi, sea-horses, starfish, crayfish, clown fish, etc.

I think we would have been more impressed if we had not recently been to Sydney Aquarium. And, of course, nothing beats being in the water with all of those things scuba diving and snorkeling!

We stopped for lunch at a beach-side cafe then drove to One Tree Hill. This is a Maori landmark in Auckland — a large hill with an obelisk monument. The one tree that was there is no longer there. Great views of the city from up here.

Then, we were off to the airport to return the car, check in, go through security, and await our flight. The flight from Auckland to LA was luckily uneventful. It was eleven hours of flying time with just a few minutes of bumpy air. We watched the movie "Ray" during the flight and Malcolm did a lot of reading. I tried to do a lot of sleeping. I did sleep, but it was on and off. I had the window seat, Malcolm in the middle (no pun intended), and a guy on the aisle. We concluded an aisle seat would have been the best option as there was nothing to view out the window flying over the ocean the whole way. The guy on the aisle slept almost the entire time so we planned our bathroom/stretching breaks when he was awake.

We arrived at LAX, went through customs, etc and rechecked our luggage to O'Hare. We are currently on the flight to O'Hare and eager to return home.