goodbye to New Zealand and the South Pacific

We are currently waiting for our friends to come by our room for a final drink and then dinner in the beautiful Bay of Islands. What a spectacular place! Fairly tropical, gorgeous scenery, mellow little town. Yesterday we took the bay cruise to the "hole in the rock" - the boat could fit through and the views were amazing! On the way back, we saw bottlenose dolphins splashing and playing around the boat. Of course, the captain stopped so we could watch them for a while - breathtaking!

We will be sad to leave these two countries, both with cultures so different and yet so familiar to ours. We are coming back tomorrow with suitcases ladened with mementos and about 1500 photos and many more wonderful memories! We have met great, friendly people, both fellow tourists and native Aussies and Kiwis. We have eaten good food, drank fantastic wine, seen things we never imagined that we would see - and have loved it all. We can't wait to see our families and friends and to begin the Christmas preparations. Hopefully we will see many of you soon! For now, kiora (Maori word with similar meanings to "aloha").

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Hello from New Zealand! Here it is November 24 and so it is Thanksgiving already. We will be going out to dinner with our OAT family tonight to celebrate, albeit early. We are thinking about all of our friends and family gathering to celebrate and missing all of you! Sooo - here's wishing you a blessed day with those you love and a day of giving thanks for all the gifts that we have been given! We hope it is your best Thanksgiving ever!

more photos

Here are a few more pics from recent days in New Zealand. From top: mountains surrounding Milford Sound, students at a middle school in Rotorua that is 65% Maori, a Maori community house in Rotorua, the python waiting for dinner to come by in the Daintree rainforest in Australia (I can't get over this!), a saltwater crocodile in the same rainforest, Mordor? in the background on the way to the Dart River jet boat trip, and on the Dart River.

New Zealand continued

We have a good internet connection tonight so I thought I would write a brief entry and post some pictures!

Today we traveled into the mountains to the only land locked district in New Zealand, which is it's wine growing area. Needless to say, a winery stop was necessary and Jon and I found a bottle that we couldn't do without. Currently we have a bottle of red open and a bottle of pinot gris in the waiting! We are near Fox glacier tonight; the south island is known as the "southern Alps". We hope to walk on the glacier tomorrow. We continue into the mountains tomorrow and then on to a sheep station (ranch) and a mining area.

I'm going to try to post some photos from the last few days; meanwhile Happy Thanksgiving to everyone at home!!!

south south island

Greetings from Millwood resort, located near Queenstown, New Zealand! In the last few days we have seen amazing scenery in this region known as the southern Alps! Yesterday we cruised on Milford Sound which is very much like a pristine fjord! Very steep sides on the surrounding mountains, too many waterfalls to count, penguins, fur seals...it goes on and on. We have had beautiful weather - a lot of rain just before we arrived and a storm coming in this evening - but no rain on our cruise or today on our jet boat river excursion.

The jet boat trip was into Hobbit country. Peter Jackson filmed most of the Lord of the Rings trilogy here, as most of you know. We have driven through Hobbiton on the north island but most of the filming was done in the area of the Dart river, where we went today. In fact, today was the first day of actual shooting on "The Hobbit" and we saw the set from both the boat and the bus ride back. Very exciting! We also saw the forest with the trees that were the inspiration for the walking/talking variety in the film! And the mountains of Mordor were pointed out to us in the distance!

New Zealand is so beautiful - so many spaces that have not been despoiled by humans, although they do have some important environment issues to deal with. This place looks a lot more like home than any other we have been to on this trip. So green, so much water, so hilly.

We can hardly believe that we have only a little more than a week to go on this adventure! We have seen so much - deserts, rainforests, ocean reefs, snow capped mountains, small towns and huge cities, and spaces where no one lives at all. Maoris and Aboriginees, Europeans and Asians, and Americans.

I will try to do at least one more blog entry, so keep checking this site! I am unable to upload pictures at this time, but I will try later!

Sydney

Hello everyone! We are currently in Sydney and loving it! We can see why over 4 million people call it home! There are so many green spots and lots of coast line, many beaches, lots of culture - opera, theatre, ballet etc. It is very ethnic with lots of Asian cultures and lots of good restaurants!

Our tour group had a bus tour of the city, including Bondi beach, yesterday. We also had a harbor tour, a presentation at an opal dealers, a tour of the Opera house and we enjoyed a special sculpture exhibition along the water. Needless to say, we were exhausted but happy tourists!

Today Jon and I went to the amazing aquarium and saw our first live platypus. They also have a shark tank that is a tunnel that you walk through! Wow! Then we went to the Australia Museum where we visited the Aboriginal section and took one last look at all the creatures that can kill you here - there are MANY!

Before Sydney, we were on the northeast coast, at the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree Rainforest. We got to snorkel on one of the inner reefs which was great - lots of kinds of coral and many beautiful fish. In the rainforest, we went on two walks, one during the day and one at night. We saw lizards ("dragons"), spiders and ants, many rare plants and two ancient species of geckos - and at night we saw a python posed on a tree to catch his dinner. We also got some bites (bugs) and a couple of leeches became attached to us, so I've had my fill of rainforests!

Tomorrow we are off to New Zealand - Auckland to be exact. We are half way through our trip which seems unbelievable! More later....

G'day, mates!

Well, we're actually here! We finally left LA on Sunday night, Oct. 30, and flew to Sydney overnight minus a day (date line). Then we went on to Melbourne where we changed planes yet again and flew to Adelaide. There we finally met our tour guide and began our tour.

Adelaide is a lovely city, beautifully laid out and at this time of year, warm and sunny. We toured the town, visited the Cleland Animal Reserve where we hand fed kangaroos and scratched the back of a koala! (His name was "Vincent"!)

We also visited the wine institute (no surprise there) and then had time to visit the South Australian museum's aboriginal exhibit. We've also enjoyed wonderful food and superb wine in this prolific red wine growing region. We had the opportunity to experience a home hosted dinner and to get to know an Australian couple in their residence. It is one of the wonderful "perks" of an Overseas Adventure Travel tour and we had a wonderful evening with Sue and Leith.

Today we flew to Alice Springs in the center of the country. Hot and arid, this year the area has seen more rain than in the past few decades and so is greener than normal. It is a hub of Aboriginal culture. Tomorrow we will take an optional tour to a village to experience that culture up close. The following day we go to Uluru and see that magnificent giant monolith.

From the time we arrived in country, we have had days filled with amazing experiences. For example, today we met an amazing Aboriginal man of about 80 years who told us about his early life in what amounts to the Australian equivalent of a Native American boarding school. He also showed us how to throw a boomerang, which Jon mastered after 2 tries!!!! Alec also demonstrated the use of a bull whip - very loud and intimidating!

I will post again soon but perhaps not until we reach the coast and the Great Barrier Reef. Internet can be sporadic here!