DNKJOURNEY- Happy Journeys wherever we travel!
Part go-cart, part toboggan we raced down the mountain. First run on the slower scenic run. The second was on the intermediate run and the only reason for not taking the advanced run was cause it was closed after a serious accident.
Rotorua is a place to get your adrenalin juices flowing then get a massage and relax in mineral pools.
Rotorua is one place where the turbulent forces that formed New Zealand are most evident. This city, on the Volcanic Plateau, has one of the world’s most lively fields of geothermal activity and sits squarely on the Pacific Rim of Fire. This town on the North Island is a place of fascinating Māori culture, hot springs and boiling mud pools. Rotorua’s unique geothermal properties can be experienced at Polynesian Spa when you take a dip in the mineral pools.
Rotorua hosted the countries National Sevens Rugby tournament. Having never been to a Rugby game, we decided to spend our Saturday watching several games and while asking fellow spectators to explain the game.
We cycled by the many hot springs and mud pools. We also did some trekking a along side of some giant redwood trees.
Rotorua has many attractions to get the adrenalin flowing; with vendors not worried about liability and feeling brave, we tried luging and Zorbing down a mountain. Once was not enough we tried several attempts at each. Stay tuned for these adrenaline filed posts.
A “severe” magnitude 6.2 quake has damaged homes and closed roads in the lower North Island, toppling walls and chimneys and sending rockfalls across roads. No worries it was centered about 75 miles northeast of here. But just a few days earlier we were about 20 miles from where it hit.
Little damage here in Wellington. The severe rated earthquake occurred at 3:52pm on Monday 20 January and there have been many after shocks but none have been felt here.
Today we depart the North Island by a 3 hour ferry crossing Cook Strait and arriving on the South Island.
Air show – David HAPPY!
Traveling north on the Coromandel we took a break from sun, sand, surf and bicycle riding and went to Whitianga Warbirds and Wheels. This is an event with roar of Warbirds aircraft performing aerobatics and precision flying displays right with stockcar demos.
It was difficult to leave Hobbiton and knew it would be difficult to match the sights that we had just experienced. The Coromandel Peninsula combines beautiful beaches and stunning coastlines with lush forests and a dramatic mountain range.
Thames (pronounced Tims) is a small coastal town, gateway to the Coromandel (one of NZ’s best-loved holiday destinations) and three hours northeast of Hobbiton. Thames was our home base as we toured the Coromandel.
A truly unique Kiwi experience is Hot Water Beach! An underground river of hot water flows from the interior of the earth to surface in the Pacific Ocean at Hot Water Beach. The stunning beach overlooks the Pacific Ocean and offshore Castle Rock, with cliffs at either end of the beach. Two hours either side of low tide, visitors flock to the usually deserted Hot Water Beach to find hot water bubbling through the sand. Families, kids and couples dig their own spa pool in the sand to lie back in and relax while the steam from their hot pool envelops them. With the ebb and flow of the tide each individually created hot pool is washed away clearing the way for the next influx of visitors.
Another highlight was the four-hour kayak tour of Te Whanganui-A-Hei Marine Reserve and Cathedral Cove recreation reserve. They are a sea kayaking paradise full of beaches, islands and rock gardens that are just waiting to be explored. We paddled through sea caves, checked out local marine life and discovered the thrill of kayaking with the wind on our back and sometimes on our face. To top it off we landed at Cathedral Cove where we were treated to flat whites (expresso) on the beach!
In Whitianga, the far northeastern part of the peninsula, we found an airshow. Stay tuned for this post.
One for the bucket list. I loved JRR Tolkien’s trilogy:The Hobbit. Everyone knows it is filmed in New Zealand and the original set for hobbit town still exists in its entirety. We got to go there! It was incredible. There were no hobbits and my feet did not become large and hairy bit it was great, the guides bring parts of the movie we all remember. . . . Like Frodo jumped over the fence right there . . .. Or that is Sam Gamshee’s house . . . . . Or other tidbits that happened during filming. It was so cool,
Dave told me we took 441 pictures of Hobbiton, that alone should tell you how enthralled we were. Lucky for you you get to see just the very best ones.
A couple of hours north of Auckland is Paihia and the fantastic Bay of Islands. Our primary reason for enjoying this part of the world is New Zealand Cycle trails. The Twin Coast trail has 14kms of rail trail converted but it was so cool. The location is near several Maori tribal areas and the community blessed the trail with statues of their own. One of the most unexpected things was we met another couple who were geocaching and they showed us how. How nice and friendly they were and David and I have a new component to our travel and cycling.
New Years is spent with a Busker festival in town followed by news year fireworks.
The bay of islands, as I indicated before, has many tribes in that region. It is also the location of the tribes signed a treaty with Britain. The treaty house is now a cultural centre and they had an excellent overview of the tribal lifestyle, song and dance, boats and history. David had his picture taken with one of the guys. One of my friends aptly believed them to be brothers by different mothers. See the resemblance?
I weighed my suitcase the night before we set sail from Sydney, thank God there is no weight restriction in place for all the crap we bring. Sitting on a cruise ship feels so comfortable now. Drop the bags out front with a porter, unpack into drawers and closets, and sleep in the same bed for 12 nights while traveling between two wonderful destinations, it doesn’t get better than this.
A cruise ship is like living next to a dinner theatre with a constant moving picture show. Each night after a delightful dinner and great table mates there is a choice of entertainment. We even learned how to sneak into the last half of the early show to preview the act and determine if that should be our venue of choice. Of course, we had to check out the magician . . . . He was pretty funny and the volunteer from the audience seemed like he was having a good time. We stayed for the whole show.
Since we were early arrivers, we chose aisle seats, and sure as bright eyes and a winning smile, will attract attention, David was chosen as the volunteer for the second show. We had even seen the punch line from the previous show, but all that flies out the window when it is you or someone you know on stage. The crux of the show was Dave taking a $50 bill, writing his name on it, and the magician finding it 20 minutes later in the front zipper of his trousers. Dave was up to the challenge and was practically taking over the show with his antics. (The preview we had really did play into Dave’s ability to bugger up the magicians best laid plans). The guy kept admonishing him by calling his name, DAVE, DAVE. For the remainder of the trip DAVE was a celebrity, literally everywhere we went, the other passengers would call out there’s DAVE. Those twinkle-filled eyes and bright smile lives another day.
We enjoyed the bicycle rides at the port cities, and in Hobart we rode the path to Cadbury, Australia. The trail ended in a park with a small spur that left the park. We asked a young family where the spur went; they told us the factory was 1/2 mile away. The Cadbury factory–home of Cadbury fruit and nut bars; our absolute favorite. We had to take pictures, and visited the factory outlet store in another port city (Dunedin) and went only a little crazy.
Fjord lands National Park in New Zealand was another highlight of the cruise. The area is accessible by boat or plane, and the cruise ship managed to enter or depart through 5 separate fjords. Priceless.
The other towns were lovely seaside villages, mostly small and always so welcoming and lovely people. Knowing that we would be back for our land portion allowed us to relax and not try and see too much. We went about the business of settling into our new destination. NZ SIM cards, NZ internet. Finally we arrived in Auckland, with its distinctive skyline, this is a city with a heartbeat.
We departed Sydney, Australia on December 11th via a 12 day Princess Cruise. Track our location and the Diamond Princess at:
http://www.cleancruising.com.au/ship_location.asp?ship=PRIDIA
Arriving in Sydney with 4 days before would make you think we had plenty of time. Not in this city, bustling with things to do (jazz concert at the opera house); places to go (the beach, where else) and people to see (Serge and Gerry — our table mates from the repositioning cruise).
On a beautiful blue sky day, we found ourselves at the Sydney eye, a tall spire looking down and across the entire city skyline, a 360 degree panorama. Imagine our shock when a giant panda bear came along to hug us and ask for some eucalyptus. Of course we were frightened, see the look on our faces!!!! But all was well, because it was a senseless souvenir photo in the end. We just thought it was worth some drama.
There were hardly enough time to cover the highlights, and we were lucky to have locals as our guides. Sydney is said to be one of the top 10 most-livable cities in the world and it is easy to understand why. WE LOVED this place. Our apartment was well situated and walking distance to virtually everywhere. When our feet were just too sore, the public transport was excellent, and the free shuttle bus dropped us off right at the corner.
The Queen Victoria building the best in shopping, street buskers and musicians, the ferries were an excursion in and of themselves, made us so sorry to be leaving this wonderful place.
The cruise ship stops in Melbourne and Hobart, Tasmania but I can see a return trip in the stars.
The final skyline at night pictures were taken from the rear of our Diamond Princess pulling out of port, a beautiful ending to a magical place.
Folks that know David know his love for flying. He got a second opportunity to fly in Australia, this time over Melbourne in a Cessna 172. Although not as scenic as the flight over the Great Barrier Reef it afforded both of us to view this great city by air.
We flew to Melbourne from Sydney and rented a car to drive The great Ocean Road in the state of Victoria. We put another 700 km on a rental car during our 4 day trip to Victoria, one of the southern states of Australia. We drove the great Ocean Road, which is comparable to the Monterrey coast in California. Each turn is a ohhhh and ahhhh with a little “oh man, that was close” thrown in. The big draw is the “Twelve Apostles” (limestone stack formations) and erosion has claimed three of them. It was amazing. On the way we saw Koalas in the trees, kangaroos hopping across the road, rain forest and verdant green hillside with cattle and sheep grazing.
Once we got on the south ocean coast, the scenery was just calling us to play with the cameras. I think an angry sea is far more dramatic than a calm sea. There were intermittent rain showers but the flat light actually brought out the colors more. I hope you enjoy the results.
We set off from Abel Point Marina and sailed straight out to Hook Island to anchor for the night. Mr Go Go Gadget (David) had the ipad and app for stargazing at night with the rest of the group, it is something unseen and remarkable if you are used to the American sky.
The Witsunday’s are beautiful. We were privileged to be sailing where next years’ Americas Cup will be held, so now we are invested in seeing it again. The boat sailed perfectly and on our way, we where told interesting information about the area. We got off the boat several times, for instance at Whitehaven Beach and at a couple of other quiet beaches, to walk, snorkel and stand-up paddle. This was stunning….
Whitehaven Beach: we took an expedition to Hill Lookout. The stark white sand, the water and the beach made dramatic contrasts with each other. We then sailed round to the beach & because the Blizzard is a small boat, (10 guests) it can stop in the middle of the long stretch of stunning beach without a soul in sight. We spent a couple of hours on the beach, walking along, spotting fish, & swimming.
Snorkeling – we had three opportunities to snorkel, We saw amazing fish that came right up to us and barely any current. The coral was great at this spot we saw some amazing fish, turtles! AMAZING!!!!!
The sailing trip was our cherry on the cake, and our goodbye to the Great Barrier Reef. It was time for us to move south and begin the wrap up of our Australia adventures.
David loves to fly. We had a great opportunity to connect with the local aero club and rent a Cessna 172 plane, similar to the one he had owned in 1980s. The local instructor could do the radio side and act as a local guide while David flew along our previous travel path and over the reef. Up over the Captain Cook Highway; over Port Douglas and the Low Islands and it’s lighthouse and finally to the outer reef, where the plates end and it drops quickly and deeply to the Pacific. The islands and the color of the water was so varied , the aqua blue punctuated by coral growing just beneath the water. Green island is another private resort where you can stay! and after seeing to from the sky I realize you can snorkel right off the beach.
I don’t want to leave! But now I can say that we have seen the reef from many perspectives and locations. Now we need to go sailing for a few days in the Whitsundays — oh wait, that’s the next blog.
You walk between tall columns of giant gray trees, dappled with innumerable shades of green. You taste the oxygen-rich air, heavy with moisture. It imbues you with an inexplicable euphoria. You wander on as though in a dream. Strange fragrances waft among the compost odor of decaying vegetation. All around, vegetation of incredible lushness spills upon, over and under itself. Vines and lianas cavort, twist and tumble in every direction.
A spot of color might be a flower… then it moves and turns out to be a butterfly. The cicadas’ tinny whine pervades the forest, but the sound stops respectfully as you walk close. The insects’ instinct for life is strong—they don’t know who you are.
An alien cooing spreads through the forest. Luckily, the naturalist-guide is an expert on the local wildlife, so he identifies the strange sound as a bird called the Screaming Piha—the names of animals are as weird as the sounds. Late in the evening, the rainforest comes alive with sound, a true cacophony of birds and ducks, insects making the loudest racket.
We did a tour that took us high above the rain forrest via a Skyrail to the small town of Kuranda, where we toured this little village for a few hours before heading back via an old railway. The famous Kuranda Scenic Railway was built over 120 years ago and winds its way through the tropical mountain ranges between Cairns and Kuranda. And of course we upgraded to Gold Class which included finger foods and most of all free wine and beer during the 1 1/2 hour train ride.
The Daintree is internationally recognised as being one of the most ecologically fascinating natural areas in the world, as one of few remaining truly pristine tropical rainforest places on the planet. Despite their relatively small size, the rainforests are home to an amazing diversity of life and provide a living record of the ecological and evolutionary processes which have shaped Australia’s plants and animals for over 415 million years.
The yellow leaf in the pictures is a pre-oak, dating back to the dinosaurs in the Gondwanan rainforest. The Gondwanan is when South America, Africa, India, Australia, NZ, and Antarctica were all one continent, before the plates began to break apart. Yep, 340 million years ago, this plant began and through refinement and natural selection it becomes the mighty oak. The plant in the picture is the original species and is only found in Australia, and only at a certain altitude. The guide said that plant right in front of us was about 200 years old, but the soil is so rich and the water so abundant it continues to grow.
Someone, dumped a couple of roosters up in the rainforest, now the guide feeds them so they followed us around the whole time we were having our lecture. It was too funny.
As the largest living structure on the planet, the Great Barrier Reef is incredibly rich and diverse. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park stretches approximately 2300 km along the coast of Queensland in north-eastern Australia – this is about the same length as the west coast of the US from Vancouver to the Mexican border.
A shallow lagoon separates the coastline and the natural formation of 540 barriers consists of over 600 offshore islands that surround the reefs. It is a home to four hundred coral species of different colors: various shades of red, yellow, brown, purple, and even black. The Great Barrier Reef of Australia is a home to 1,500 species of ocean fish and 500 species of reef fish, including whale shark, the largest fish in the world. Waters around the reef are inhabited by several species of whales, dolphins and sea turtles, not to mention a great variety of shrimps, lobsters, and other small fauna. And finally, the reef provides shelter for more than 240 bird species. It is no wonder that this huge formation can be seen perfectly from the outer space.The spectacular vitality and beauty leaves a lasting impression an all who submerge themselves in her waters.
We went diving and snorkeling in 9 separate places on the reef. The camera cannot do the coral justice, it was so colorful and varied in its make up. It is jellyfish season here, the locals call them stingers. The boat companies require you to wear “stinger suits” which is why we are dressed so funny. The highlight was swimming with turtles. The turtles are beginning to lay their eggs so there are many more than usual about. Some just look at you and if you give them space, the swim can last 20 minutes before they dive and blend so perfectly with the dabbled water.
Australia has some pretty cool places to hang out while living the magic.
We stayed in Airlie Beach, took a side trip to Hamilton island (an upmarket resort with aqua toys) Port Douglas and Cairns in order to access this section of our trip. I could live in any of these towns, though it was clear that tourism was important to the economy of each. I loved the friendly nature of the people, the vibrant main streets, the total sense of humor it is lovely when people don’t take themselves too seriously.
Hamilton Island is a bit pricey. We stopped into Airlie Beach to book a sailing trip and take a few day trips — and found a last minute special. For a mere $260 per night you can stay at this island, which includes the free ferry ride to the island. Over the entire 1,500 mile stretch of the GBR, we have found perhaps 8 locations where you can stay overnight, so despite the price, this was our chance and we took it. A gorgeous beach, a couple of pools, golf carts zipping around, it was all picture perfect. But by far the best part was the hobie sailboats and other aqua toys. We raced, we zipped, we stalled, we laughed, and we got each other scared as we whipped about in the small catamaran.
What is so amazing in this part of the wet tropics is that you can see where the rainforest meets the reef. Rather than catalog each place we are going to separate it into 4 sections: the rainforest; the reef; the resorts; and the reef flyover.
It was supposed to be a short day driving, so there was room for a quick side trip. The quick side trip was supposed to be a quick 1-2 hour introduction to Koalas. We were traveling through the habitat area and shipmates recommended this stop. It became 3-4 hours and 600 pictures of Koalas, each picture cuter than the picture before! Koalas sleeping, eating, just looking around, and you think gotta take a picture, gotta take a picture, then you go by koala kindergarten where the baby to juvenile koalas were cavorting, and time suspended and another 50-60 pictures were taken. Finally after hours, we tore ourselves away and made our daily destination. But in response to all of that here are a few of our favorite snaps, so cute you want to bring them all home . . . . . . .we took a few moments away from the Koalas and saw Tasmanian Devils and some Kangaroos. Check out the Joey in one of the Kangaroos pouch.
Sampling some Aussie wine in Hunter Valley, we reflect back to the wine tasting we have done in less than a year: Australia, South Africa, and California; and next month New Zealand.
Australia’s oldest and most well known wine region is famous for some of the original continuously operated vineyards in the country. It is located about a three hour drive north of Sydney and what seemed the perfect first stop after disembarking from the cruise. Country roads, perfect for new right side of the car, left side of the road drivers (you’re scaring me! We both said it to the other in the early moments of driving) — perfect for small towns with all the services, like SIM cards and car coolers, and kmart, — perfect for bicycle tracks already researched and highlighted,– perfect for wine tasting an important part of any drive up and down through Australia and finally, perfect for kangaroos who hop! hop! hop their way across the open spaces. It was way too much fun.
One of the many, many things we like about this place is their Main Street. It contains all the mom and pop stores, then Target or KMart, then the chemist or grocery store, a restaurant or coffee bar all on the Main Street of a town. No malls on the outskirts of town, it is all there, convenient, walkable friendly and most of all alive with people. Vibrant Main Street in every town we have come to. It has been great.
Further north we arrived in a small town called Hervey Bay. Close to this town is a World heritage Site: we had to go . . . . .
Fraser Island World heritage site.
World Heritage areas are places listed under the World Heritage Convention that have cultural or natural values of such importance that they are recognized as sites of heritage for all people of the world.
Over the past 2,000,000 years, ocean currents and waves swept sand north from the continental shelf of New South Wales. Sand accumulated and covered existing bedrock to form dunes parallel to the coast, leaving only peaks uncovered—today’s headlands. Strong onshore winds blow loose sand inland to form high parabolic—i.e. hairpin- shaped—dunes, which spread inland, engulfing areas in their path, forming a sequence of overlapping dunes
The island, the largest sand island in the world, includes over 250 km of sandy beaches with long uninterrupted sweeps of ocean beach, more than 40 km of strikingly colored sand cliffs, as well as spectacular dune blowouts, tall rainforests on sand, dune lakes and a mosaic of sand tracks that 4×4 vehicles can ply to take you to fascinating sights like the Maheno shipwreck that sits on the beach, fantastically rusted and beautiful.
Of course, the highlight of the day was all about an accompanying bus stuck in the sand and all the people on the sidelines (both the stuck bus and the rescue bus had to dislodge their people to reduce weight) photographing and advising and finally cheering as the busses and a line of stranded cars finally made it up the incline.
At the end of the day, heritage is magnificent, beauty is inspiring, but 75 people really come alive when they get to make a mess in a giant sandbox observing another guys folly. We are glad we are so normal.
What a life affirming decision. Traveling 24 days on water, we decompressed from the west coast drive, winterize, pack, and run in order to prepare ourselves for the Australian east coast drive, summer, pack and run. We ventured from west coast USA to Sydney, Australia on a 1,800 passenger Holland America Line. See prior post for our stop overs.
Truthfully, we worried what it would be like with so many days at sea, but they were spent eating, (the biggest sport on any cruise liner) reading, working on projects, working on my tan, lots of new and interesting people to meet, each with a fascinating travel history. We even experienced time travel: the ship passed through the International Date Line by simply forgetting a Monday. We went to sleep on a Sunday and woke to a Tuesday! Just like that.
We were met in port with bands or cultural dances, with hawkers and many local tourism groups selling their services. We opted for tours once in a while, like the Atlantis submarine, which took people down to 130 feet for viewing coral, fishes and a shipwreck. More often than not, we took our trusty bike Fridays off the boat and just went riding. The goal was to be lost for a couple hours, see what may be naturally happening in the countryside. Our adventures took us to cricket games, a national lawn bowling tournament in Fiji, and lots and lots of beautiful seaside scenery. Then we would find our way back to the ship and ice cream bar. One of the many indulgences we enjoyed.
We were up early one morning, barely slept the night before. On deck there were so many people, cameras, smiles, and excited talk, we were coming into Sydney harbor. The headlands, the Opera House and the bridge have come into view. Loads of promises to meet for dinner when we arrive in their hometown Australia, hugs of welcome home and safe travels. We arrived!
We will be thinking about this part of our travels for a long time, it may become a cornerstone of our start and stop itineraries. Gosh, a new way to open up the world, the sweetness of it all.
Camp Casa (RV) is in storage in Bakersfield. On October 3rd, we embarked on a 24 night cruise to the South Paciic on Holland Americas cruise ship, Oosterdam. The attached photo shows our itinerary.
Stay tuned for updates on cruising the South Pacific.
Hyderized!! We were Hyderized during our drive from Alaska. Hyder, AK is across the Canadian / US Border opposite Stewart, BC. To get there, you depart the ALCAN Highway just west of Watson Lake, Yukon and head south on the Cassiar Highway and towards Stewart, BC. Upon heading south, say good bye to the Yukon, as you cross into British Columbia. The first 60 miles of the Cassair is slow going as the road has many frost heaves and reminded us of a roller coaster ride in Coney Island. It takes nearly 4 hours to arrive in Stewart from Watson Lake and there is no US Border Crossing as you enter Hyder, Alaska from Stewart, BC. As you return into BC, however, you must clear Canadian Customs at Stewart.
We went to Hyder to see Bears along Fish Creek. Soon after arriving at Fish Creek at 6:30am, a wolf walked slowly down the river to feast on some salmon. Look closely at the photo, the wolf had two salmon in its mouth!
11,500 miles on tow vehicle; 7,000 miles on the RV; 850 gallons of diesel; only 20 pounds of silver salmon left in freezer; all priceless. We returned to the lower 48, just north of Seattle, on September 9th and arrived Mount Shasta, California on September 19th, and should arrive Bakersfield, CA on September 24th. Our planned stopovers from Mount Shasta are: Redding; Vacaville; Napa; and San Francisco.
It has been an amazing trip. The maps on this post show all our stops during this amazing 4 month journey.
