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Chuck and Judy's Trip to New Zealand and Australia

chasberry
February 18, 2015
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Chuck and Judy's Trip to New Zealand and Australia

Chuck and Judy's journey to New Zealand and Queensland in December 2014 and January 2015.

chasberry

February 18, 2015
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Transcript

  1. The Plan Two Vacations in One Given the jet lag

    and the long haul to Australia, we figured to roll two vacations together. New Zealand Take the New Zealand tour with Overseas Adventure Tours. We expected a fast, time-efficient overview of the country. Australia Visit Sonia, Albane, and William for the first time in a few years. Do Christmas. Do Heron Island (on the southernmost Great Barrier Reef).
  2. The Itinerary December 1-3 Fly San Diego to LA to

    Brisbane to Auckland December 4-20 Tour New Zealand. Buses, plane flights, one helicopter, two tour boats, one ferry, one jet boat, one taxi, and plenty of walking. December 20 - January 5 Fly Wellington to Brisbane. Drive to Casa de Yuen’s. Drive to Binna Burra. Christmas in Brisbane. Fly to Gladstone, ferry to Heron Island, and return. January 5 - January 5 Fly Brisbane to LA to San Diego.
  3. Travel Docs and Reservations Passports Yeah, we got ’em. Well

    used. Been to Cuba, Tanzania, Europe, and the Americas. Time to try them in the South Pacific. Visas We’re gringos. We don’t need no stinkin’ visas. Right? . . . almost Car Rental What with the modern internet, we can contract with someone who contracts with someone else, who contracts with a company that actually has cars. Then if something goes wrong, the car guy can tell us to call the next guy up the chain, etc. But, hey, the price is right! Hotels and Local Arrangements OAT organized New Zealand, and Sonia organized Australia for us.
  4. Auckland Airport Kia ora — How Dee Do! The weather

    We heard that New Zealand has a maritime climate, so the overcast on our arrival was no surprise! Let us cross our fingers for a bit of sunshine!
  5. Barnaby — our estimable guide Happy Hour on Day 1

    Pahia - our home for a few days The Pahia Pacific Resort was a block from the Bay. The main street in town runs along the beach. There were loads of college aged kids who seemed to be on the Kiwi analogue of Spring Break.
  6. Name this tree There are trees call red beech. So

    maybe ... But I also recall that the so-called beeches are not real beeches. Or are these cedars? In the end, we never did keep most of the trees straight.
  7. Waitangi Treaty Grounds At this site the British sweet talked

    the Maori into ceding much of their ownership of the islands to the Queen. It is still a contro- versy as to whether the Maori translation was true to the En- glish version. Lots of Chiefs signed the treaty thinking it was a win, but ...
  8. Kauri Tree These trees provided the big war canoes of

    the Maoris and at- tracted the attention of early European set- tlers. Victorian era homes in San Fran- cisco were built with Kauri wood. Sadly, few of these giants remain.
  9. Auckland War Memorial The War memorial Museum has col- lections

    of cultural and historic interest. There is a recreation of the trenches of World War I — ac- tually an invention of the Maori stemming from the British inva- sion. There are carv- ings. There are even two fighter aircraft from World War II.
  10. Auckland Museum of Art The Museum of Art had a

    display of Robert Ellis’ work. His miliary training included analysis of aerial photographs and is evident in his work. Although born in England, he was transplanted to New Zealand.
  11. Organic Dairy Farm — usual setup for milking We lunched

    with the farmer and his wife. The previous slide shows the inte- rior of their home — stuffed game heads and knotty pine. The next slide is their dog. A lot of the dairy product exported from New Zealand is pow- dered milk. The milk market has its ups and downs we learned.
  12. A recent history of eruptions big enough to change the

    land- forms made this tour rather interesting. Hot springs bubbling up here and there — even hot dirt in places. Did we mention that there is a gift shop?
  13. A hot pool with min- eral deposits around the edge.

    Few of the hot springs are habit- able — they are just too darn hot. After the hot springs, we went to lunch in a Maori Community.
  14. Our Maori guide shared a lot about life in her

    community. In her small town there were many churches — LDS, Baptists, et cetera. She took us to the school where we were greeted with enthusiasm, curiosity, and a HAKA.
  15. The drive to Milford Sound was gorgeous. There are thousands

    of waterfalls evident. The pass was closed by snow just a few weeks earlier. There are tree avalanches – that’s right, trees with shallow , interlaced roots on steep slopes become too massive and ... whoosh!
  16. Stirling Falls was mod- estly named after its discoverer, um

    Stirling. There is a law that all tour operators must drive their boats up to the base of the falls so that the mist falls on the bow. Right?
  17. Hobbits Hang Out near Dart River There are lots of

    fa- miliar scenes near here. Ads, movies, and still photos from here pervade our vi- sual memory. Hobbits, elves, and beer. Oh yes, it IS scenic.
  18. Dart River Jet Boats New Zealand has lots of water

    and lots of rivers. But they tend to be braided rivers - shallow and shifting. To navigate them a shallow draft boat is needed and the swift water requires a fast boat - hence the jet boat.
  19. We were supposed to helicopter over the glacier, but early

    morning clouds sent us on a hike towards the base of Franz-Joef glacier. After that the helicopters were fly- ing, so we took off. We saw the Franz- Josef, Tasman, and Fox glaciers and Mt. Cook.
  20. The obligatory tourists on the glacier shot. People who have

    never touched snow, touch snow. Gives us a sense of the scale of the snowfields. And standing around saves motor fuel!
  21. ‘Pancake Rocks’ aka Punakaike, which I think sounds a lot

    like pancake, but its just a coincidence.
  22. Reefton — an old coal mining town The coal miners

    are still at work. You can see the railcars moving coal. But this is a lat- ter day tourist town, too. The dude in the doorway is ‘in charac- ter’ as an old timer. He will tell us that the town was the first in the Southern Hemi- sphere to have munici- pal electric power.
  23. The storefronts are mostly restored. We learned that there is

    some friction between the old timers and the new folks who ar- rived in just the last 30 years. Stasis versus Progress.
  24. The ‘Chuck-A-Lope’ Is Unique to This Region All them Texans

    who like to brag on their jack-a-lopes need to pay attention to New Zealand’s Most Rare And Endangered Specie.
  25. Christchurch Had a Nasty Earthquake In February 2011, the Christchurch

    earthquake struck. It severely damaged New Zealand’s second-largest city 185 people died Many, many buildings were made uninhabitable It may take a CENTURY to fully rebuild.
  26. Shipping Containers — like Duct Tape — have many uses.

    We saw shipping con- tainer buttresses, con- struction field offices, porta-banks (ATMS, to be honest), and a whole lot more.
  27. Wellington A Quick Plane Ride from Christchurch Claim to Fame:

    Really Strong Winds The climate is like San Francisco — cool and maritime, but wetter and windier. Nice Victorian Architecture Special Effects for Movies
  28. ... Right! And don’t piss them off either — they

    are bigger than you are. The Cave — home of many beloved creatures — shows off New Zealand’s Mod- ern Movie Industry. And naturally, we had to take the tour — ac- tually a movie short documenting the rise of the FX business in New Zealand.
  29. What she is saying is: You need to check out

    the nicely restored movie theatre down the street. And who would dare to argue?
  30. Te Papa (the Museum of New Zealand) had a lot

    of fine exhibits. This giant squid is of a specie that lives very deep in the ocean. There are fine exhibits of cultural objects, of geography, and of New Zealand history.
  31. Still in Te Papa here, but lest we forget the

    Museum of Welling- ton City and Sea, it is worth a look, too.
  32. We walked downhill for an hour or more, took a

    little uphill jaunt to the Henry Moore sculpture, then continued down to Lambton Quay, where our accomodations were located.
  33. Off to OZ Wellington to Brisbane Our rental car agent

    refused to sell us extra insurance — something about third party booking. Google Maps got us to the chateau. Brisbane Stayed in the Yuen’s spacious home. Acres of wood flooring. Binna Burra The Yuen’s treated us to a pre-Christmas trip to a mountain resort. Christmas Party hardy with Sonia’s friends and family. Heron Island Five days on an atoll in all.
  34. Tourist Track near Binna Burra There were plenty of short,

    easy tracks for us to lolligag along.
  35. There are many species of trees with buttressed tree roots.

    The shallow root sys- tems are supposed to be better in really wet conditions.
  36. We got lots of practice doing our Tarzan yo- dels.

    Curiously, there seemed to be few crit- ters swinging from the vines.
  37. We passed only a few other hikers. Of course, going

    on a weekday just before a big holiday probably helped.
  38. The woods are silent, dark, and deep But we have

    promises . . . and Miles to Go . . .