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Down Under
  • Nanaroo
10月 – 12月 2017

Down Under

Nanarooによる42日間のアドベンチャー もっと詳しく
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  • 旅行の開始
    2017年10月24日
    NanarooDown Under旅行者

    Aloha

    2017年10月23日, アメリカ ⋅ 🌧 23 °C

    Dave and I are off on our biggest trip ever. Since the flight to Australia is so long, we have opted to stop in Hawaii for a few days. We got to the north shore of Oahu on Sunday. It is a part of Hawaii I wasn't in when I came a few years ago with my sisters. But it is very familiar none-the-less. It is what you see in every surfing movie or video. The day was hot and sunny and there were lots of people on the beaches and in surfing. You don't swim at the surfing beaches because of the rip waves that would pull you under. We thought the waves were impressive yesterday. At this time of year they start to get bigger. But the waves today were HUGE as a storm came in. We talked to one surfer where the waves were really rolling and he said "only experts here".
    Dave is pictured at our vrbo apartment a block from the ocean, having a cold one in the tiki hut behind the house. We walked over to the beach for sunset. I think a good title for that picture would be "I guess we have to go home. It's getting dark".
    We did some roaming around and went to shops in Haleiwa Town today before the rain got heavy and sent us back home. Who says Josh Donaldson is the bringer of rain? We can bring more rain than him any day. After all we turned Palm Springs from a desert to a river last January.    もっと詳しく

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  • NanarooDown Under旅行者

    Polynesian centre

    2017年10月25日, アメリカ ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Yesterday we want to the Polynesian Cultural Centre. Although I had been there when I was here 4 years ago, it was a place I really wanted to go back to. We were there from noon until about 9:00, and never bored. There is so much to experience about several Polynesian cultures - Hawaii, Tongo, Fiji, New Zealand, Samoa, Tahiti. There is a Luau with the traditional pig cooked in a pit, and plenty of entertainment. And there is a stage show after that. Just a great day.
    Today we went to the Dole Pineapple plantation. It was very informative about pineapples and other crops grown here. There is still quite a lot of pineapple grown here but nothing like 40 years ago. The place is very commercial - 101 ways to part you from your dollar. We bought pineapple ice cream but passed up on the other myriad of purchases.
    We also took a ride up into the interior mountains and rainforest. This small island has so much variety in landscape. Tomorrow is a travel day, actually two, since we cross the international dateline so lose a day.
    Aloha from Hawaii    もっと詳しく

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  • NanarooDown Under旅行者

    Sydney

    2017年10月28日, オーストラリア ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    What a long day of travel. We left Honolulu at 8:30 Thursday morning and got to Sydney, with a stop in Auckland at 9:00 on Friday night. Very strange thing to cross the International Dateline. We will gain a day on our way back in a month.
    We have great accommodation through airbnb in a part of Sydney called Potts Point. There was an organic market just down the street today and we are fairly close to King's Cross, the bar and red light district. No walking in your sleep here or you might get more than you bargained for. It is nice to have an apartment with cooking facilities and a living room. We took the Hop-on-hop-off bus tour today around Sydney. It is a very interesting city. A lot of sleek, modern skyscrapers that Dave says remind him of Shanghai. They have interesting lines, curves, not just tall boxes. They have done a good job of preserving old buildings, and repurposing them, especially on the waterfront.
    We made a stop at the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. The opera house is probably the most recognized building in the world and it is very impressive!! Much bigger than we were expecting. It seems that many of the pictures you see are taken from the bridge. You need to get a distance away to see it's magnificence. We did NOT climb the bridge. Getting a quarter of the way up and having to be talked (or carried) down did not appeal to me.
    The attached pictures are the Opera House from the land side, the bridge with Dave pretending to be Fred Astaire in Dancing in the Rain, a giant tree in the park nearby called a Mountain Fig tree and an apartment building that has green plants growing all over it.    もっと詳しく

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  • NanarooDown Under旅行者

    Sydney Day 2

    2017年10月30日, オーストラリア ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Yesterday was another full day in Sydney. The weather was superb, 30 degrees and sunny, so we went off to Bondi Beach. The taxi driver had told us about Sculptures on the Beach, going on there, so, as well as seeing the multitudes of people, we saw lots of beautiful art works as we walked up and over to the next beach.
    Bondi Beach is very accessible through bus and train service, and there were several surfing schools going on as the surf is gentle there. There was also a kids program on this Sunday. The beach is marked with flags. Swimming between the flags is safe from undertows. I think there were 3 small flagged areas that day, so those water areas were full of people. Life guards and surf guards are plentiful. We stayed on the boardwalk, no swimming for us. The picture shows how many people take advantage of this beach on a nice spring day. There is also a salt water pool for swimming. Apparently, the area gets REALLY busy in summer. Can't imagine more people there.
    One thing we have noticed while here is the expense of eating. Breakfast the first day we were here at a small cafe nearby was almost $50. The Australian dollar is very close to ours. Our apartment has good facilities, so we make our own breakfasts and some dinners here.
    In the afternoon we went on a Harbour tour. Got some great pics of the opera house and the skyline of Sydney and enjoyed being on the water. A beer at a little spot up from the waterfront and we were tired and ready to hop on the bus for home.
    The first pics are at Bondi Beach and the last few are from the Harbour Cruise. There is also a picture of the jacaranda trees in bloom.    もっと詳しく

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  • NanarooDown Under旅行者

    On to Cairns

    2017年11月1日, オーストラリア ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Our last day in Sydney we went to the Botanic Gardens right next to the Opera House. The gardens are huge and government house where the equivalent of our Lieutenant Governor, lives, is on the grounds. Unfortunately, we couldn't go inside that day. We looked at some flowers and trees, but found it terribly hot, with not a lot of shade. So we decided to take the ferry to Manly. It is a pretty beach town with shops along a promenade connecting the two sides of a point. The boat ride was cooler than on land and we enjoyed the trip. As we were finding the correct quay to leave from, a young couple from the states offered us their OPAL cards to use. The cards let you put money on them to ride the buses, trains, or ferries. They were leaving Sydney and had money left on them. It turned out there was enough for the ferry, and the train home to our apartment. Nice people!!
    We travelled to Cairns yesterday and after a little trouble in communication with our Airbnb host, got settled into a lovely apartment a couple of blocks from the water. The a manager of the building has been wonderful in helping contacting our host for us, helping us to decide on tours, etc. We went out to the Great Barrier Reef today. WOW!! It was two hours out to Michelmas Cay where we snorkelled and saw so many beautiful fish. We also had a semi-submersible tour which is sort of like a glass bottom boat, that takes you into deeper water coral beds. We saw brown sea turtles, giant clams and had a very good guide to all the kinds of coral. I wish I had accepted Kirsty's offer of her underwater camera.
    It was a wonderful day and just what you come to Cairns to see.    もっと詳しく

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  • NanarooDown Under旅行者

    Cairns Continues

    2017年11月4日, オーストラリア ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    We spent two more very full days in the Cairns area. There is so much variety in landscape here. On Thursday, we took a tourist train up into the mountains to Kuranda. This train line was built to carry equipment and supplies to the gold fields in the 1880's. It became a lifeline for the tableland area when mining died down and agriculture became important up there. Now it is a tourist train, going up into the rainforest. They get four metres of rain there in a year and the wet season is about to begin. Not that day, though. Hot humid weather and we felt it when we went for a walk through rain forest areas and ended up with an uphill trek at the end into Kuranda. That beer for lunch tasted awfully good. Coming back, we took the sky train, which is actually a gondola, over the top of the rainforest canopy. It was quite impressive for those of us who were able to take it all on. I, personally, tried to look back up the slope mostly, and managed to keep calm. (When we were finishing the siding on the house last fall, I found it necessary to go up in the bucket of the lift one day to help Dave. It was my "suck it up buttercup" time, and much the same feeling as this ride.)
    Friday we had another early start to go on a tour to the outback. Before leaving, there was a shower and a lovely rainbow from our balcony.
    We travelled by 4WD mini-bus type vehicle up past where we had been the day before and across the tablelands. Starting off in rainforest, we soon moved into a much dryer climate. It was irrigated agricultural land with fields of sugar cane several hundred acres in size. There were many huge groves of mangoes, some avocados and lychee. These crops are able to grow continuously so that there are canes fields in harvest, some just starting to grow and everything in between. The mangoes trees too, were at almost every stage, except blossoming.
    Once we crossed the area that was irrigated, we got to more "outback" conditions, scrubby trees and bushes and thousands of termite mounds, from small ones, a foot high, to huge round ones higher than our heads. Because there had been some rain, the first since May, things were pretty green. Though this area there are big cattle stations. Gavin, our guide, said at one point, that that particular station covered 20 km to our left and another 20 km to our right. The cattle there were painfully thin, ribs showing horribly and seemed mostly to be crosses with Brahma of some kind. Gavin said they would have had little food through the winter because of the lack of rain.
    We saw emus at one stop, the father caring for two chicks while mother wandered around. The male is in charge of the eggs and then the young. We also had our first views of kangaroos and wallabies. They can really move.
    Our end destination was an old mining town, now almost empty. The sun blazed down as we looked at the old smelters. We moved on to the caves, where it was blissfully cooler. They are in a National Park and we had a ranger as our guide as we went about one kilometre along through big caverns and small passageways. This limestone was once the bottom of a sea and was buckled up 400 million years ago. There were fossils on the walls from the ancient sea. The day required a long drive each way, but really gave us an idea of the vast variety in conditions within a few hours of Cairns. Twelve hours after leaving in the morning, we were back at our little oasis.    もっと詳しく

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  • NanarooDown Under旅行者

    Leaving Cairns

    2017年11月6日, オーストラリア ⋅ 🌙 12 °C

    Our last day in Cairns, we spent in our locale. We went to a Saturday morning Asian market, where there were so many fruits and vegetables we didn't know. Bought a mango and some lychee nuts because we saw them growing the day before. We then had to go take some pictures of the bats. There is a street with several trees where the fruit bats stay during the day. They are huge, compared to our bats, with tawny beige bodies and dark wings. There are hundreds, no maybe thousands of them, slowly fanning their wings to cool themselves. There is a definite odour to the area, not particularly pleasing, and the locals walk out on the street so as not to walk under them on the sidewalk.They apparently feed off the numerous mangoes on the trees around.
    The other thing we tried to get pictures of were the beautiful Rainbow Lorikeets who roost every night just next to our apartment building. They are in the parrot family and there are hundreds of them there, making quite a racket in their screechy way. But oh so pretty!!    もっと詳しく

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    Phillip Island

    2017年11月8日, オーストラリア ⋅ 🌙 11 °C

    We flew to Melbourne and had a rental car to head off to Phillip Island where we spent two nights but just had one day and a lot to see. We started off by going to see the pelicans being fed at San Remo, where you take the bridge over to the island. Then we went on to the Koala Sanctuary. Koalas are in danger because so much of their habitat has been lost to farmland and cities. It was a good chance to see them up close as you walk along raised boardwalks in their enclosures. They sleep for 20 hours a day, way up in eucalyptus trees. We were lucky enough to see one feeding as well as the sleeping ones. They are just as cute as advertised. In this sanctuary area we also saw wallabies and some extremely pretty birds. We saw the Kookaburra and Galah and a Rosella, a member of the parrot family. We also visited a pioneer farm where we saw bullwhipping, sheep herding and sheering and buildings from the 1800's.
    After a dinner of locally caught duckfish and chips, we were off to the Penguin Parade, our main reason for coming here. A huge crowd gathers on bleachers on the beach before sunset to watch the Little Penguins come out of the sea to their burrows. They wait until dark because the birds of prey are gone then. At first, a few run out of the water and turn around and run back in...too early. When they feel safe they start coming out in groups of 15 or 20 and scurry up the beach. The tide was out quite a way, so they usually took cover in some rocks before heading off again. Once they get up opposite the stands, there is some lighting, so you get a better look, and when you walk back along the boardwalk, they are trucking up beside you but on the sand. Their burrows are in bushes all along the way and some have a lot of walking to do. You see them stop for a minute or two and sit down for a rest before heading on. It is nesting season, so one of the adults has stayed behind to look after the eggs/babies. They make quite a chatter when they greet their mate coming home. Can't tell if they are saying "Honey, how was your day?" or "Where the heck have you been? You said you were going fishing three days ago." No cameras are allowed at the event, but it is such a great thing to see.
    It was very chilly out on the beach at 8:00 pm. The owner of the motel we were staying at loaned us big coats to wear, or we would have been freezing. We have met some great people in the places we have stayed. This particular lady gave us TimTam cookies to taste, and some Vegemite, a traditional toast topping with quite a salty taste.
    Pics are of penguin feeding, koalas, a galah, and a shot taken of a postcard with the penguins.    もっと詳しく

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  • NanarooDown Under旅行者
    1

    The Great Ocean Road

    2017年11月8日, オーストラリア ⋅ 🌙 8 °C

    Yesterday we made a long drive from Phillip Island to Warrnambool, on the Great Ocean Road. We passed through wonderful farmland, with huge herds of both dairy and beef cattle. One thing we noticed was that the cattle were grazing, not in barns, In fact you just don't see any barns of any size. I suppose with grazing available most of the year, it is practical to feed that way. Hay crops are coming off and round bales litter the fields. At one point, we saw a long line of dairy cows going into a small building. Apparently it was milking time and they were waiting their turn to get relieved of their milk.
    Today we started down the Ocean Road, heading towards the Twelve Apostles. This is the most famous of the tall limestone columns that are along this beautiful coast. We actually preferred some other places that we stopped, but that could be because there weren't the hoards of people. The road twists and turns, definitely not for the car sick crowd. The views are first rate and some pictures are included to prove it.
    A bonus was the sighting of some koalas in the wild. One was down close to the ground so perfect for a picture.    もっと詳しく

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  • NanarooDown Under旅行者

    Port Fairy and Tower Hill

    2017年11月11日, オーストラリア ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    On Thursday, we travelled over to Port Fairy from our place at Warrnambool. Port Fairy is often considered the most beautiful little town in Southern Australia. Many buildings are quite old and quaint. We walked along the waterfront and had quite a chat with a lobster fisherman getting ready for a new season to start next week.He was mending traps, which look quite different than ours in Canada. He was a philosopher with strong opinions about how Australia is going steeply downhill. Another couple had engaged him in conversation and we just listened in. That couple both work in the car building industry. She has already lost her job and his is ending soon. They were telling us after that the whole industry is shutting down, affecting 50,000 workers with all the spin-offs. We had heard that there is a lot of distrust with the present PM and government, but this was new to us. Interesting stuff.
    We went later to a wildlife refuge situated on a very old volcano rim. Whoopee! We saw another koala up close. He did a yawn and stretch for us. There were emus wandering around too. I don't think we will ever get tired of viewing the amazing animals of this country.    もっと詳しく

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    From Warrnambool to Kyneton

    2017年11月11日, オーストラリア ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Friday we left Warrnambool, but not before taking some pictures of the beautiful gardens that abound in the towns here. People generally have small lots and make the most of their front yards by planting wonderful gardens. There are tons of roses, and many other flowers and bushes that make these towns absolutely lovely to drive through.
    We had quite a long drive and decided to go through Grampions National Park. Here huge rock faces suddenly jut up out of the relatively flat landscape. While having our picnic lunch in a small town at the edge of the park, we were admiring some flowering bushes and realized that some very pretty birds were in them. A local told us they were peach-faced lorikeets. What a rich selection of bird life here.
    We were greeted at our timeshare by grey kangaroos just outside our cabin. There were four there, but the star was a mother with a rather large Joey in her pouch. At first all we saw were its legs sticking out at impossible angles, but as we watched (for quite a long time) it climbed out for a minute and got back in with its head poking out, the way you would expect. At dusk they left here and haven't been back today. I guess they aren't our private group, after all.    もっと詳しく

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    Kyneton Bushland Resort

    2017年11月15日, オーストラリア ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    When we were making our plans for this long trip, we decided the week of timeshare would be best in the middle, thinking that it would be more leisurely after the hectic pace of seeing as much as you can in several places. Boy, was that a good decision!! Dave soldiered through a head cold for several days before we got here and I got it just a day before. We have been doing much more resting and making shorter outings. Although we are not fully over the bug we are feeling better to go to Tasmania on Friday.
    Dave now feels quite comfortable on the left side of the road after driving for 10 days. He hardly ever puts the windshield wipers on to signal a turn and passed all the breathalysers. Yes, he did 3 in the first 5 days. Here, they pull everyone over like in a RIDE stop, but everyone blows. When we first got the car is was Melbourne Race Week, with the Melbourne Cup on Tuesday. That day is a bank holiday in the Melbourne area which gives you some idea of the importance. Locals think there was a lot of breathalyser stops because of the partying that week.
    We continue to have kangaroos in our backyard almost every day around 5:00 pm. The cabins are widely spaced with natural areas between. We must have tasty grass here. The magpies come and sit on the railing to keep us company on our deck.
    One day we went to Mount Macedon Park, about an hour away. We went to see the cross on the top in memory of those who died in the wars. The views were super from up there and the plantings around were lovely. We also went to a Duneira Garden. It is open just a few times in the spring and again in the fall. We hit it just right with Bluebells lining the laneway and huge Rhododendron bushes in bloom in pinks, white, and orange. Roses were also reaching their peak. The walk around took us over an hour with many little special gardens to go into.
    Dave went on a wine tasting tour from the resort one day when I was under the weather. He quite enjoyed it and of course, brought some bottles back.
    Yesterday we went to Sovereign Hill, a replica gold mining town from the 1850’s. This area had a lot of gold mines and there are some still functioning. We spent all afternoon on this big site, panned for gold in the creek, which is seeded every day so that people will find gold. We went on a mine shaft tour, and saw various demonstrations taking place. While driving there we saw a tilled field with lots of white birds on it. Gulls, of course, except that these had tufts on their heads. On closer inspection, they were sulphur-crested cockatoo. Even the field scavengers are exotic here.    もっと詳しく

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    End of the Kyneton Stay

    2017年11月18日, オーストラリア ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

    We signed up for a tour from the resort going to Woop-Woop. As one of the people with us explained, when she was young and acted silly, her parents would say she had gone to Woop-Woop. That explained what this place was. It is billed as looking at the Aussie sense of humour. The owner, a lady of retirement age named Melva, has made about a hundred sculptures out of everyday things used in a funny way. They match up to Aussie sayings, which can be a little hard to follow. Some were using Aussie rhyming slang, like Cockney in England. There were Australians, New Zealanders and us in the group and they helped explain from time to time. A lot of the humour was quite bawdy, especially funny coming out of this lady. She involves the people in her jokes, and a couple of pictures show some of the times we were asked to participate. We laughed when she asked Dave his name and couldn’t understand what he said until a local translated to “Diav”. It was an experience.
    Our last day at Kyneton was quite rainy, but we couldn’t feel bad, because the weather has been fantastic. Into each life some rain must fall. The group of kangaroos came by to entertain us, and we went into town and did some errands.    もっと詳しく

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    Tassie, here we come.

    2017年11月18日, オーストラリア ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

    The flight to Tasmania is quite a short one, so we had most of the afternoon yesterday to roam around the waterfront in Hobart. Our hotel is in a great location and we can walk to many of the main attractions here. Hobart is considered by many to be the prettiest city in Australia and I think they may be right. The historic buildings have been kept in wonderful shape , the waterfront is clean and attractive, and there are plenty of parks with lawns and flowers scattered around.
    Today we walked to the Salamanca Market, the top tourist attraction in Hobart. Our experiences with markets in other towns had not made us very enthusiastic. They seem to be vegetables and fruits and flea market stalls. But not Salamanca!! We spent hours perusing (and buying) in hundreds of stalls containing Tasmanian handmade articles. There were lovely woolens, jewelry, leather goods, wooden articles, etc. The items were unique and of high quality. The market is about 3 blocks long and 4 stalls wide and happens every Saturday. It was full of people, but the merchants always had time to tell you how their wares were made.
    We also visited the Maunston Hut Museum. Maunson was an Antarctic explorer who led an expedition in 1908. The museum is a reconstruction of the huts that they built there to stay for a year. We knew very little about Antarctica exploration but the man working there gave us lots of information and we enjoyed learning about it.
    Then we headed off to Battery Hill, a quaint residential area with small cottages as perfectly kept as when they were built 150 years ago. It was very nice to just wander around and enjoy the houses and gardens.
    Except for a foray off to the modern shopping area in search of Blundstone Boots, and a stop off at a whisky distillery, we spent the day in the old town and enjoyed it immensely.    もっと詳しく

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    Port Arthur and Orford

    2017年11月21日, オーストラリア ⋅ 🌙 16 °C

    We travelled from Hobart to Port Arthur, a historic site with the remains of a prison used from 1830 until 1877. Thousands of convicts were shipped out from England to Australia, but the ones who came to Port Arthur were re-offenders, men who had done something more while in prison or on getting released. They were the worst of the convicts. The isthmus is attached to the mainland by a narrow neck and a “dogline” was set up there with fierce dogs to attack escaping prisoners and raise an alarm for guards. The prison buildings have mostly been lost by fire and unused, but enough remains to tell the story of the harsh life there for the convicts, and the cushy life of the government controllers, doctors, etc. The soldiers there were in between and mostly bored, because not much happened out there in the sticks. 12,000 convicts passed through Port Arthur, some for very long stays.
    There was an island used for juvenile boys as well. They were kept away from the adult men who would be a bad influence. They were given schooling and taught the trades. Stonework, in particular, was taught as there was a quarry on the island and lots of building to be done. The system worked so well that England adopted it and stopped sending boys over here. At any given time, there might have been 400 boys here as young as 9.
    This prison was built at about the same time as Kingston Pen, and it was interesting to compare the two, having been to Kingston a few months ago. Punishment at Port Arthur was cruel, with whipping being common for misdemeanors. But the cells were actually larger and they had the benefit of working outdoors, as long as they were not in solitary confinement.
    The site is large and we spent all afternoon there. Managed to get by the dogline to leave at the end of the day, though.
    Our stay that night was at the village of Orford , in a 150 year old cottage, now a B&B. It was delightful and the owners were good to chat with us for quite a while in the morning, after a tasty breakfast.
    Pics are: sculpture commemorating the dogline, main prison building, doctor's house, bedroom at B&B, one of many roses at Orford House B&B.    もっと詳しく

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    Freycinet National Park

    2017年11月21日, オーストラリア ⋅ 🌙 15 °C

    From Orford, we head north to Freycinet National Park. Our Host from the B&B suggested stopping at a winery with good views of Oyster Bay. Devil's Corner was a good stop, and we didn't even have wine.
    When we reached the park, our first stop was to walk up to Cape Tourville lighthouse. The lookouts on this trail were outstanding. We were amazed at the orange streaks on the rocks in the distance, but realized later that it was actually lichen that gave that colour to the rocks.
    We made stops at Sleepy Bay and at Honeymoon Bay, and never were disappointed in the scenes. But our main goal was to get to see Wineglass Bay. The hike up to that lookout was much longer and steeper than the others had been. We definitely were not the fastest on the trail, but, like the tortoise, slow and steady did the trick. Fortunately, there were planty of views to stop and take in on the way up. The rock formations of the Hazards are quite amazing, with huge boulders scattered around and perched on ledges looking ready to fall. Every so often we would come upon a wallaby on the trail. They look like small kangaroos and are a darker colour. These wallabies were quite tame and one in the parking lot looked like it wanted to get in the car and come with us. Others we have seen in the wild, take off at great speed when you come along. This famous landmark measured up well to its hype.
    The afternoon sped by, so with piles of pictures taken, we headed off to our home for the night at St. Helens.    もっと詳しく

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    Launceston

    2017年11月21日, オーストラリア ⋅ 🌙 17 °C

    Our first outing this morning was out St. Helen's point. This area is different than other areas, with sand bars and wide beach areas all along the point. There are also huge sand dunes, so we ventured off to climb a dune, our feet sinking deep into the soft, fine sand. If only we had brought our pails and shovels.
    We set off to drive to Launceston, the second biggest cite in Tasmania. When we started, the terrain was rough, mountainous, and very dry. The only green on sheep pastures were in the valleys or on fields where they could irrigate from a stream. As we drove over ridge after ridge of these small mountains, things changed. It got greener and more lush, and many crops grew, including potatoes, fruit and opium poppies. Tasmania grows a big part of the world's legal opium to be used as pain killers. As we came down the wide valley to Launceston, we saw why they refer to this area as the prime wine making region. We had been told that one side of Tasmania is wet and the other dry and here seems to be the happy medium.
    Out accommodation in Launceston is an old inn downtown. Our room has a four-poster bed and a fireplace...very cool.
    We had time to go for a good walk along a gorge right in the middle of town. When we got to the end of the trail, there were people jumping off the rocks and swimming in the river on this warm day. A teahouse is out at the end of the trail and peacocks roamed around there posing for photos. There was a famiy of black swans floating around too. Although we didn't have a lot of time to explore this area, we were glad we had taken the walk along the gorge.    もっと詳しく

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    Goodbye Australia, hello NZ

    2017年11月23日, South Pacific Ocean ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

    Yesterday we left Tasmania, our last stop in Australia. It was sad to end this part of our trip. There are a few reflections I want to make about the place and the people, while they are fresh in my mind (the memory has a best before date these days).
    Even though we saw only a small part of Aussie land I was really struck by the diversity we found. The landscape changes so dramatically from place to place. The climate can change in just a short distance, going from desert to rain forest. The animals and birds are so exotic. Even ones that the locals consider pests, like the wallabies who eat the young rose bushes, or the lorikeets who attack the fruit of the plum trees, are special and magnificent to us. And the flowers!! If I could have such a garden I would be thrilled.
    But the people are the best part of Australia. Everyone is so friendly, "How's it going then?" from strangers you met anywhere. They love to shorten the names of things, so Tasmania is Tazzie, McDonalds is Mackers and one night Dave ordered stroganoff and the guy called strogie. It sometimes makes it hard to know what they are talking about, but is quite funny. Their sense of humour reminds me of Britiish television, irreverent, quirky and slightly off the wall. The Green family would fit right in with their love of puns. So goodbye Aussie land and thank you for making us feel so welcome.
    We arrived late last night in Auckland and this morning drove to the Coromandel Penninsula. Everything is so green here, and the views are stupendous... Rocky cliffs, bluish-green water and dark green trees. On our way to Whitianga we drove around much of the Penninsula and marvelled at the scenery. Then we got to our hotel and our room looks out on the water with a patio to sit and sip our wine and watch the sailboats go by. The owner of the small hotel was walking by and stopped to chat, then got himself a beer and came back for another half-hour. Looks like friendliness is rampant here too. The first pics are from lookouts on the way here and the last one is the view from our patio.    もっと詳しく

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  • NanarooDown Under旅行者

    50 Shades of Green

    2017年11月25日, ニュージーランド ⋅ 🌙 15 °C

    No, that is not a typo. Looking out from our AirB&B near Rotorua, there really does seem to be 50 shades of green. Although I must admit that I stopped counting before reaching that number. In one tall bush, there are at least 4 shades alone. That has been the overall impression of New Zealand so far… so much green and so much grandeur.
    Yesterday we were at Whitianga (pronounced Fitianga in Maori) and went on a sea cave cruise, operated by the owner of the Oceanside Motel where were staying. Les (pronounced Lez) did a great cruise where we saw Cathedral Cove plus many other caves on the coast. We took over 100 pictures, which kind of tells how spectacular it was. The rock formations are so varied and around every point is another photo op.
    At low tide we went to Hot Water Beach. There, you can dig a hole in the sand and have an instant spa experience. It was a little off-putting when we got there to see maybe 200 or so people already digging holes in an area about 3 times the size of our house. We went for a walk down the beach which was lovely and discovered when we came back about an hour later that the two busloads of people had left. The end result… we never dug a hole but we tried out several that had been abandoned. We weren’t that keen on lying down in a foot-deep hole, but we treated our feet to the spas. Some were too hot to stand in. Some were just comfortably warm. An interesting phenomena… especially when you can experience it on the back of others’ digging.
    Today we moved on to the Rotorua area. There is lots of geo-thermic activity here and a big Maori presence. We have super accommodation with very friendly AirB&B owners. Looking forward to the days ahead.
    Pics are from the sea cave tour - Cathedral Cove, Kissing Rocks and one unnamed, one from the hot water beach and one a view from our new digs.    もっと詳しく

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  • NanarooDown Under旅行者

    Whakarewarewa

    2017年11月27日, ニュージーランド ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Rotorua is a fascinating place. Our AirB&B hostess had given us a lot of information when we arrived about what was here to see and which sites gave the best value. The geothermal activity is everywhere in the town. You can walk in a park and see steam rising from small ponds and mud bubbling in mud pots. Some people have hot springs actually in their yards.
    We went yesterday, to a Maori Living Village called Whakarewarewa. There we saw a Maori show, complete with the Haka, which was once the ritual done by the men to scare off their enemies. They make their eyes big and stick out their tongues and flex their muscles. The show was very much like the one at the New Zealand exhibit at the Polynesian Centre in Oahu.
    Then we had a guide walk us around the village and explain the customs of these people who make use of the geothermal activity in their daily lives. The guide had lived her whole life in this small village. There are just 74 inhabitants because the size of the village is limited by the geothermal pools and by the New Zealand government. They use some of the hot water for bathing in communal baths and they have things that look like wells with grates in the bottom that act like ovens. They also put vegetables and eggs into cheesecloth bags and lower them into boiling pools to cook. We had corn, right out of the hot pool, for lunch. Even the ground throughout the whole area is warm to the touch. There are some geysers as well, but we didn’t see any big eruptions from them, just a bit of water and lots of steam.
    We walked around on our own afterward a little ways from the village, where there are many mud pots that sound like an old-fashioned coffee perculator. There was some smell of sulphur but it was not as strong as we had expected.
    On arriving home, we were having a wobbly pop out on our deck when our host dropped by. After visiting for a bit, we offered Julian refreshment and he said he would go shower and return. So both Lynn and Julian came back, bottle of wine in hand for a good long chat. Maybe Kiwis are as friendly as Aussies. They even invited us for dinner the next night. You can’t beat that for hospitality.    もっと詳しく

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  • NanarooDown Under旅行者

    Redwoods to Volcanoes

    2017年11月29日, ニュージーランド ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    On Monday we went to the Redwood forest for a walk recommended by our hosts. It was a good bit of exercise as the trail climbed up high for some great viewpoints. We looked out over the Maori Village we had visited the day before and the geysers. It was quite interesting to view it from above and realize just how small the village is. That evening we had been invited to the “Big House” for dinner. Our hosts are very outgoing people and we were able to get all kinds of questions answered about farming, lifestyles, etc. here. Fresh trout caught by Juliann in the lake here was a special treat.
    One of things Dave had researched before coming here, was about an island that has an active volcano on it. We set off early yesterday morning for a boat trip out to White Island, leaving from Whakitane, about 1 ½ hours from here. White Island is 49 kilometres off shore, so it was a fair boat ride to get there. We always like to be out on the water, so that was no hardship. We got equipped with hard hats and gas masks before getting onto a Zodiac to be ferried ashore. The volcano last erupted about a year ago, but it could happen at any time again. Yellow sulphur is evident all over the area, and the steam that comes out of the vents can cause you to cough and your eyes to tear, hence the gas masks. And we did really need them when we got close to the vents. We were able to stand on the rim of the volcano. Very cool (well maybe cool is the wrong adjective). Our guide was very experienced and excellent at her job. Sulphur was mined on the island at one time, but it wasn’t economically viable over time.
    On our way back to Whakitane, the captain went off course, looking for dolphins. The Gannets that nest on the cool side of White Island go out to feed in the same area as dolphins, because they both eat the same small fish. The captain uses the radar to find groups of birds and then goes where they are to find dolphins. After some veering around, he found a pod of Small-Nosed Common Dolphins, that played around the boat.
    It was a great trip. We got back in mid-afternoon and decided to drive the short distance to Ohope Beach, a place that Barb Hobart had mentioned. We had a nice walk on a very pretty beach and found some driftwood for Dave to use to mount carvings at home, and some nice shells. Aside from a bunch of surfers in one small area, the beach was very quiet and in the park area the Pohutukawa Trees or New Zealand Christmas trees were starting to bloom. A lovely way to end the day.    もっと詳しく

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  • NanarooDown Under旅行者

    Farewell to Kiwiland

    2017年12月1日, アメリカ ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Our last day in NZ, we had a fair bit of travelling to do. We set off from our AirB&B cottage near Rotorua, for the Waitomo Glowworm Caves about 2 1/2 hours away. From the beginning, this was our list of must-sees in New Zealand. And it did not disappoint. Such a unique experience, going through the caves silently in a boat, the ceiling speckled with the tiny blue lights of the glowworms. It would remind you of a starry night in the darkest of places imaginable. To think of these small larva-staged insects providing this light is quite amazing. Pictures, of course, aren't allowed, so they use a green screen to create pics for you.
    Then we had the drive to Auckland to catch our plane in the evening. More wonderful Kiwi farmland and hills to drive through and we were actually early for our drop-off of the rental car near the airport. Or, at least we thought we would be early. Traffic was stop and go (more stop than go) after we left the highway with about 4km to go. It took an hour to travel that distance. The driver from Smart Car Rental did some pretty fancy maneuvers to get us to the airport in time.
    And then for the 101/2 hour flight to Hawaii. We got back the day we lost on the way. So we had November 30 in NZ and again in Hawaii. We met up in Honolulu. with friends from home who are leaving on the Hawaii cruise on Saturday. It was so nice to visit with them and to have a slow day after the overnight flight.    もっと詳しく

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  • NanarooDown Under旅行者

    Waikiki

    2017年12月4日, アメリカ ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    The last leg of our trip - a few days at Waikiki. The AirB&B couldn't be placed better. We are a block from the beach, an easy walk to the sparkling nightlife and fancy shops. The first day we took a long walk down the beach, had lunch at the Hilton Hawaiian Village where I stayed with Lorna and Marj four years ago. Dave picked out 2 or 3 sailboats he could live with, at the marina and back again home. The next day was drizzling rain most of the day so we took a bus over to the big Ala Moana Shopping Centre. It turned out that there was a fabric outlet nearby, and yes I did buy quilting fabric to take home. Who knows what these colourful Hawaiian prints will become.
    Yesterday we went up to Diamond Head and walked to the top for magnificent views. Then back to Duke's for lunch. Later, we went for a swim in the ocean and stayed to watch the sun set at the beach. A walk through the upscale shopping area on Kalakaua Ave after dark was like Las Vegas without the gambling. With Christmas lights up, it was even more festive.

    We have come to the end of this amazing trip. A little time today for another swim and some wandering around and then we pack for home. It has been a slice!!
    -30-    もっと詳しく

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    旅行の終了
    2017年12月4日
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