The end ?

We made it back after an extra day in Sydney, courtesy of Qantas, and are now trying to pay the overdue bills that backed up while we were away and get back onto the correct time zone. To all of you who followed our trip, I hope you enjoyed seeing Fiji New Zealand and Australia through our adventures, and we look forward to sharing our next trip with you. No sooner does one chapter close than the next one opens.............

Atherton Tablelands

After Jean went up to Cape Tribulation and I got back from my dive trip, we went off for a couple of days to the Atherton Tablelands. We went to see the rain forest at Mamu where the state parks people had built a sky walk over the rain forest canopy after an area had been knocked down by a huge Cat 5 Cyclone in 2006.






Then we went through rolling farm land on the top of the Great Dividing Range mountains. There are several huge strangler fig trees in the National Park areas. This one was called the Cathedral fig, as you can see, it's absolutely massive. Supposedly, 500 years old.








The town of Milla Milla was just as I'd always imagined the Australian outback. A store that sold everything from food to hardware and gasoline, a pub and a church.





After touring the waterfalls that dot the area, we stopped in a B&B in a picturesque town called Yungerburra - home of the duckbilled platypus. Despite extensive searching, they remained un-photographed ( at least by me!). Then it was back to Cairns for our last night before heading back. I'm hoping that our flight from Sydney to LA will be on the new Airbus that we saw on it's first roll out when we were in Toulouse a few years ago. Like all good things this too has to come to an end, but as this trip finishes up, it's not too early to start dreaming of the next one..........

Great Barrier Reef

Off on the big dive trip. The boat is fairly basic but comfortable. The first day we did two dives on the famous cod hole. It's a bit like Slates Friday dives on the city of Washington. Potato Cod appear to be a type of Goliath grouper. Visibility has been a bit disappointing, but adequate. Not quite what I was expecting, lots of particulates. The unbelievable thing to me is that I can post this blog from the middle of the Coral Sea! We went back to Cairns after 4 days, and Jean came to meet me!


She rented a little red thing to go around in. My dive boat is in the background. Diving has been good, but like anywhere you've read and heard about since childhood, it's a little bit of an anticlimax when you actually come and see it.





The highlight for me was being able to photograph cuttlefish – they're awesome

Cairns

Like Brighton in the sun, Cairns is quiet and relatively laid back. The temperature is a bit like Florida, although the landscape is much different.



Here, the cloud covered mountains of the rain forest reach down to the banks of the river. Very scenic.

Ayers Rock

G'day mates! We flew from Sydney to Ayers Rock. The plane was full. Apparently some 400,000 people a year fly 31/2 hours to see a rock in the middle of nowhere.





Even the plane is specially painted. The whole town is owned by one company. It has 4 hotels and a campground as well as it's own “town center”. It caters to all price ranges – from exorbitant to outrageous – but if you stop to think that everything has come by truck nearly 1000 miles to get here, I suppose it's not too bad. About 1200 people live here to support the tourist business.


All this because people want to see one rock. Actually there's more than one rock. This one, a mere 50 miles away, is Kata Tjuta, the old men. We went there for sunset.





The next morning, we got up at 4:00am to be at Ulurhu for sun rise.







We then walked all around the rock. About 6 miles, but well worth the effort. This morning it rained! It's a semi arid environment but sometimes it doesn't rain for up to 7 years at a time.

Bondi

We took a bus tour to Bondi beach. On the way we visited the Sydney Cricket Ground. SCG is not as famous as it's Melbourne equivalent – the MCG. Unfortunately Australia are in the process of being demolished by India, in India, at the moment, so there's not much activity in the SCG. Like most places that you've grown up hearing about, Bondi is less in reality than expectation. It seemed very much like Newquay in the sun.

When we got back to town., we had a beer at Darling Harbor followed by a boat trip to “Watson's Bay”.

For some reason Jean insisting on visiting that one!

The Blue Mountains

We wanted to get some idea of the vastness of this country, so we took a trip to the Blue Mountains. Apparently it took many years from founding the colony in Sydney, for Europeans to find a route through this mountain range.


Since the mountains are only some 3000 ft high. This seems strange, at least until you see the depth and steepness of the valleys that form the range. The Blue Mountains are of course yet another World Heritage site, and contain 52 different species of unique mammals and 1/3 of all the birds in Australia.



The size of the park is vast. It is equal in area to half the size of Belgium. When you look out from an overlook, the far side of the park is well beyond the horizon.

One road exists along one of the main ridgelines, and towns and houses have been built on the narrow ridge. These towns have shops.





The aboriginal people have been around for 60,000 years. This rock carving of a kangaroo, which sits just behind somebodies house, is supposed to be 7000 years old. That's older than Stonehenge! We were lucky to have a clear day, so the views were fantastic.




In the foothills we saw grey kangaroos, cockatoos and various other birds. We returned to Sydney from the Olympic park which is quite a long way outside town by one of the regular ferries.

Sydney

An open top bus is a good way to find your way around any new city.



Sydney is surprisingly large but does a good job in catering to the tourist.





The dock areas have been refurbished to provide aquariums, museums and condos as well as tourist boat trips,







working ferries and naval dockyards. Quite a lot of the old buildings have been preserved and






there are weekend markets which sell some really nice stuff. Eating is eclectic with thai, indian, vietnamese, japanese and fusion food available in bistro's with outdoor tables. The town is very much a global city. There seems to be a surprisingly large population of Asians considering that until recently Australia had a very restrictive immigration policy. We did the standard tourist stops today, the coat hanger, the opera house and the botanical gardens.

Christchurch to Sydney

Final thoughts on the land of the silver fern

We both enjoyed New Zealand immensely. Despite being told that our camper was built for 20 year old Germans, we spent all but 2 nights in the camper and survived! Some nights it was a bit cold, but a heater was provided and the bedding was warm.

Although we never used the toilet or shower,

we did use the stove and refrigerator. It was nice to be able to stop along the way and cook bacon and eggs and brew fresh coffee while enjoying some of the most breathtaking scenery imaginable. Each night we stopped in a Holiday Park. Most of the time one of the “Top Ten” chain. These were unfailingly clean and well equipped with showers, kitchen, laundry and TV rooms.

The New Zealanders we met were super friendly and very helpful. They made the country very easy to feel at home in.

So now, it's off to see the Wizard ...........

Kaikora to Christchurch

No visit to Kaikkora is complete without a trip out on the whale watch boat. Yesterday was too rough so we hoped it would drop today. It did a bit. Enough for us to go out, but not enough to avoid the vomit bucket. Brings back memories of Sea Dweller III in 20 knots from the SE. The boats are custom designed water jet powered cats, about 50 ft long. They take 48 people in 6 rows of 8 well cushioned seats. The computer aided audio visual system is state of the art, with a crew member explaining the topography of the area and the details of the whales. Kiakora has very deep canyons ½ mile offshore. The canyons are over 5000ft deep. In these canyons the cold nutrient rich current meets the warmer south bound flow. Because of this, there are enormous amounts of giant squid in the depths.


These are the food source for the sperm whales. There is a resident population of young males. The females, breeding males and calves are in the warmer waters between Samoa and Fiji.









We also saw humpback whales and dusky dolphins, who competing with the fur seals, also feast on the octopus and squid.






The drive up the coast went through tunnels. We stopped on the beach for a bacon sandwich and saw a NOLS van go past.







Also saw a beautiful Morris Minor pick up truck at the gas station. It emphasized the thought that NZ is a copy of a 60 something England

Blenheim to Kaikora

Just a fairly short drive today. About 2 1/2 hours. Blenheim was a strange kind of place It had little or no atmosphere. The drive down however was full of excitement. We started off through rolling hills with mile after mile of vineyards, till we came to the ocean. The color of the water was gorgeous. From turquoise to blue. Although the water is much colder, it looked a bit like the Keys in terms of color.



Driving along we spotted some seals, so we stopped to take a look. As I was walking through the grass to get a better shot, a young male jumped out of the grass behind me and started barking at me to go away.


Talk about jump! There are a lot of seals here. If we'd realized it we probably wouldn't have gone to the seal colony outside of Westport.






Then we went up to a lavender farm. With views of snow covered mountains in one direction and the ocean in the other the air was full of the scent of the lavender.








The town of Kaikora is in a bay formed by a headland. There are walks along the cliff which make it seem just like Cornwall including the howling gale!

Westport to Blenheim

A long drive through the mountains to get to the east coast. We stopped for coffee on the way at a place called Murchison. The hotel had been there since 1860 and had served lunch to the Prince of Wales in 1920. Other than that the proprietor had been arrested in 1952 for robbing a train in Western Australia. He was recognized from the description that had been circulated by the Australian police by the local constable. He was arrested, extradited and sent, by air to Perth. In 1990's they had an earthquake that registered 7.6 on the Richter scale. Not bad for a tiny little place in the middle of nowhere! Blenheim is the center of the Marlborough wine district. On the drive in we passed mile after mile of new vineyards being planted. I suspect that we will either see a reduction in the price of New Zealand white wines, or at least , much more choice. This afternoon was spent sampling the fruits of their labors. Very tasty Sauvignon Blanc's, an interesting Pinot Gris, a somewhat thin Pinot Noir. Luckily, Juicy found her way back to the stable without too much trouble.

Greymouth to Westport

The coastline north of Greymouth is much more interesting with rocky headlands and sandy bays. A little bit like the pacific north west in the USA.







On the way we thought we had seen a kiwi, but actually it was a flightless bird called a Weka. Flightless birds evolved in NZ because when it separated from the original huge continent, no mammals were here so birds had no preditors on the ground. Thus they grew bigger and lost the ability to fly.










Pancake rocks are particularly interesting with blow holes that the waves shoot out from. Unfortunately we weren't there at high tide when it's most spectacular.








From there we went to see the seal colony at Cape Foulwinds. What a great name!








We stopped there for lunch at an excellent cafe with great views across the bay.




Jean's reading a book called Denniston Rose about a coal mine just north of Westport, so of course we had to go and take a look. The village is deserted now, but when it was working the coal went down the mountain 1500 ft in skips on an incline.






The weight of the full skips pulled the empty ones back up. In the 1800's, the only way up and down was in the skips and apparently, some women went up and never came down again. ( at least alive – all the dead were taken down in the skips to be buried on the coast.