Near Queenstown, New Zealand, there’s a very fun ride, the Shotover Jet. A very zippy boat that goes up and down a small portion of the river. Everyone in our group went along – our guide, Marilyn, took the photos for me, as they wouldn’t let me take my larger DSLR camera on the ride. It’s a darned good thing, too, since on the very last spin we did, thanks to the intrepid boat driver, Dave and I (we’re in the front row, I’m sitting there on the right edge, waving) got absolutely soaked. We took a huge wave right over our heads – we were the only passengers to get soaked. It was about 30 seconds after this above picture was taken.

But meanwhile, we went up the river, through narrow channels. It was great fun.

We went up that river, there, about 1/2 mile or so, darting here and there.

The driver did the very last spin right in front of the loading area. Adrenaline. G-forces. Fun. Wet.

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Of all the photos I took of our trip to the South Pacific, I think these in this post, from in and around Milford Sound, and Fiordland National Park, are my favorites. Hope you enjoy them.

One of the most visited attractions in New Zealand is Milford Sound. And although I’d glanced at a map of the south island, I had no idea how remote and rugged the western side of the island really was. There are few roads, and what few there are, are narrow, windy and long. All of the above photos were taken from a moving bus – so they’re a little bit blurry.

We drove through some of the south island, going from Christchurch down the middle, sort of, to Queenstown. On the western side of the south island is a protected area – called Fiordland National Park.  It’s a long, steep and jagged mountain range with very few access roads. Most of the access is from the sea on the far side of those mountains.

Look at the blue of that water! Milford Sound – as I may have explained before – isn’t really a sound, but a fiord (in Scandinavia they spell it fjord – in the South Pacific it’s called a fiord). However, when someone informed the government, it had been named for so long the powers-that-be decided to leave it as a Sound. A fiord is an inlet with steep, sheer sides. A sound is an inlet too, but it’s wider than a fiord. We careened our way (by bus) from Queenstown to just get to the inner end of the Milford Sound. Those of you who are athletes will know that hiking the difficult, sometimes treacherous paths of the Milford Track, is a big global rite of passage for hikers. We didn’t get to see the end of the Track itself, although it was right where we stopped at the inner end of the Sound. People who trek  may only walk in one direction, Glade Wharf to Milford Sound, during the booked walking season (late October to late April), with a maximum of 40 independent walkers permitted to start the track each day. Periodic huts have been erected for hikers to sleep and rest. The hike takes several days. We have several friends who have done all or part of it.

It’s about 295 km (about 200 miles) from Queenstown to Milford Sound. Did I tell you that the road was curvy? And that I didn’t feel good nearly all day? Busses, curvy roads and me don’t get along very well, sad to say. Because the road is remote, 2-lane and curvy, it takes many hours to get there – I think it took us about 5 1/2 hours each way. We did make a few stops for photos.

Once at the Sound, we took an hour or two boat ride – out to the entrance of the Sound itself. Stunningly beautiful the full 365­ degrees. We were there on a clear, sunny day too (which doesn’t happen but one in every three days).

The national park provides plenty of short walks and boardwalk trails. This was a particularly beautiful one with the reflections.

That’s the color straight out of my camera. No wizardry involved. Just mother nature working at her finest!

And I did tell you, didn’t I, that there were lots of curvy roads to make one’s stomach do a lurch!

Isn’t that just stunning? You can see why I’d like to go back to New Zealand. Maybe in a car, with me at the wheel, I wouldn’t have spent most of the day wondering if my last meal was going to stay down.

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This little town of Lyttleton isn’t exactly a destination for tourists  – you can see it in the top photo on the left . . . and I didn’t even take any pictures of the town itself – we didn’t stop – just drove through. When cruise ships ply the waters in and around New Zealand, the closest they can get to Christchurch is the Lyttleton Harbour, about 20-30 miles away from the city. We came up over the small pass of foothills from Christchurch to see this gorgeous view. The water didn’t even look real. It was that color. And crystal clear.

There’s some scotch broom. Somebody introduced broom to New Zealand, some good-minded English housewife, probably, and it has become a blight to the locals. It’s a very invasive plant and takes over where it’s not wanted. Looks lovely, but chokes out the natural foliage and plant life that was growing there just fine, thank you. No more. Farmers can’t stay on top of eradicating it. It just takes over and spreads everywhere.

We stopped beside the road, with barely a place to pull off. My guess is that guests on cruise ships don’t get to go up this little, narrow road. It was so beautiful. Cattle were grazing nearby, and see those wires you see in the foreground? Yes, they were live. One of our group reached out and touched it – ouch!

As you can see, it was a pristine and lovely day in New Zealand. Hardly a cloud in the sky. I’m so glad there wasn’t a cruise ship in port that day we visited. It would have been very out of place. A different kind of blight.

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As part of our walking tour of Christchurch, we walked to one end of town and visited the spectacular Botanic Gardens. They’re open to the public – free – and it’s a huge place. We were so impressed with the Gardens. Of course, it’s springtime in New Zealand right now, so the trees and shrubs, ground cover and grasses were just at their peak of bright green and growing.

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Back to some travel stories  . . .  After spending several days in Sydney, some folks left for home and 8 of us went on to New Zealand. Having never been there and having seen little more than photos of the Milford Sound and plenty in travel books, I didn’t know what to expect. So I shot a few photos from the air. There is some haze, but what’s visible there is green. And more green. And more green. Darker green, lighter green, lakes and water. Lovely.

Christchurch isn’t exactly a huge city – a small city, I’d say. We stayed in a hotel right smack dab in the middle of town so it was easy to walk anywhere.

There was a big earthquake in Christchurch in September and it did some damage to older structures. A unique thing about New Zealand is that the island is right on top of two Tectonic plates, so the island is very prone to earthquakes. But this 2010 one was quite serious. There were no injuries, partly due to NZ’s extremely strict building codes. I remember reading about it in September, that structural damage was minimized because the country has insisted on earthquake-proof codes for both commercial buildings and homes.

In the picture above you can’t see any damage – they’d repaired what minimal problems there were, but just a few blocks away here’s what we saw:

This is an old church – Presbyterian I think – that was built long before civil engineers knew what to do to build more earthquake resistant structures. They expected to be able to repair this church, but meanwhile they have props surrounding the building to keep it from crumbling even more.

Here’s a sculpture (no, it’s not earthquake damage) in a small Christchurch park – it’s to honor and commemorate 9/11 and it’s a loose replica of some of the girders and beams from the World Trade Center, showing the one that looks similar to a Christian cross.

We criss-crossed our way all around Christchurch. It’s a quaint little city and easy to get around in. And we were quite impressed with all of their parks. Just like the Aussies, the NZlanders set aside more than ample (at least by American standards) park lands for everyone to enjoy.

Here’s another photo of an older Christchurch building with props holding it up. Holding it in place.  I loved the striking phone booths there. I don’t know if it’s a national thing, or just in Christchurch, but the phone booths are somewhat similar to British ones. Cute. Red.

We’re losing phone booths here in this country. What with cell phones so readily available, one can be hard pressed to even find a phone booth here in the U.S.

Here, at right, was a sign we saw somewhere in Christchurch showing two of the indigenous birds (kiwi and uhm. . . what is that other bird?). Kiwi birds are not exactly cute. They’re flightless, though. Did you know that most larger birds in Australia and New Zealand are flightless? Because those two countries were not destroyed during the Ice Age, the animals lived through it – they are almost prehistoric and they don’t have predators. Hence their wings have, through evolution, been lost. We never saw a live kiwi while we were there, sad to say.

Here’s a little something to give you a laugh. In New Zealand no one refers to one’s derrier as buns. Instead, they’re sweet rolls  or sandwiches. Our guide, Marilyn, pointed out this little cafe sign, saying that she really did, but didn’t understand it, why Americans always think it’s so funny!

Sure enough, we all laughed.

Christchurch has a very efficient rail system – considering that it’s a small city, we were all impressed.

This trolley car seems like it’s right out of the 1940’s or so, doesn’t it?

Both Australia and New Zealand have plenty of Victorian style homes. I tried to take a whole lot of suburban home photos from our different rides around cities in both countries, but all of them were blurred. This one, this cute little, narrow Victorian, was just a few blocks from downtown Christchurch. I just thought it was adorable. Not that I’d want to live in one, but this happened to be a particularly attractive Victorian.

By the time we had walked for a couple or so miles around the city and the Botanical Gardens (a post about that tomorrow or the next day), we passed this sign about Ron Mueck, a well-renowned Australian sculptor. A few of our group went to the museum to see the display. The woman you see there (a photo of the sculpture) is a Maori (pronounced mao-ree, and say it real fast). Those who went, exclaimed over the exhibit. The sculptures are very life-like and life-sized too. Amazingly life-like, apparently. Dave’s legs were really hurting him after our long walk, so we didn’t ever get back to see the exhibit.

This photo (right) is from Wikipedia, and shows one of Mueck’s most famous sculptures.

I’d think that would be eerie to be in a museum and come upon that head sculpture!

We did take a bus tour one day. I took a dozen pictures of the Christchurch skyline from the ridge we were on here. Christchurch doesn’t have any particular landmarks, to speak of. But it was so clear and pretty. That’s ocean off in the distance.

And here’s a photo of Marilyn, our wonderful guide. She was speaking there, about the building behind her – Christ’s College – Canterbury, just adjacent to the Christchurch Botanical Gardens.

We watched lots of students walking in and out – all wearing their school (required) uniforms. Much like in Britain.

I think it’s at Oxford, in England, where they’re all required to wear the black flowing robes. Am I right?

There is a stream that meanders through part of Christchurch. I don’t remember its name, but it was so lovely. Made for some good picture-taking.

I mentioned in my earlier post (while we were ON the trip) that we had some fantastic Indian food in Christchurch. It may have been the best Indian food I’ve ever had. It was that good. One of the couples from our trip went with us – they’re from the Midwest and had never had Indian food – period. It was right on Cashel Street – one of the main streets of Christchurch, with the cutest name – The Last Train to India. I had a lengthy conversation with our waiter about different dishes they made – we had butter chicken, some onion kulcha, a lamb dish, another chicken dish, some delicious pilaf rice, and I asked for a vegetable dish. He brought lentils. Now I wouldn’t ordinarily have ordered a carb billed as a “vegetable,” but when it came, what could I say? And oh, was it delicious. For me it may have been the star of the dinner. It was black lentils in a kind of brown gravy. A rich, thick, silky gravy. I asked the waiter to write down the name of this dish – he did, but now I can’t find the little snip of paper it was on. Darn! I remember he said it was a “truck stop” kind of lentil dish – nothing fancy. It was just so, so good. At the end we ordered some ice cream – I think it was coconut. Came out in a kind of log shape. It was delish too. I’d be eating at this restaurant once a week if it were in California! It’s a long flight for an Indian dinner, sadly!

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Surely I didn’t know much about the Sydney Opera House when we visited that city. Oh course, I knew of it, having seen countless pictures of the outside over the years. I knew we were going to have a tour of the facility, and that I’d likely get some nice photos of it. I knew where it was located in the harbor. With its unique architecture. But I was unprepared for the splendor of it. The majesty of it. The beauty of it. Plus the awe I felt viewing the inside of it too. And the music? Oh my goodness. Was I impressed!

On the tour we learned a lot about the architecture – and more specifically about the Danish architect, Jorn Utzon, himself. He was a johnny-come-lately with a hand-sketched design (no professional drawings or blueprints at all). We learned about how much money it took to build the House (initially it was projected at 3 million – it eventually cost 103 million), and so many more years than planned to complete it. And about how the city removed the architect toward the end of it, although they did abide by his original plan. Many people in the city were outraged at the costs involved. The architect never submitted a construction estimate – he was merely the designer. Once selected he worked furiously to make the design work. Unfortunately he died in 2008, never having seen his completed masterpiece.

Fortunately, the one free night we had in Sydney there was a performance by the Sydney Symphony. Weeks ahead I’d purchased (online) two tickets for $92 apiece, when there were no more than a handful of seats left. The interior of the Opera House is the color you see in the photos.

In the top picture you can see where we were seated, about 6-7 rows from the back wall! (You’re not supposed to take photos inside the concert hall, but lots of people were doing it, so I took one without flash.) The bottom photo was taken on the tour we did, in front of the orchestra area. The clear spheres above are acoustical additions to assist the musicians to hear one another. Seated as we were (for the concert) as high as we were, we anticipated we might not get the best sound. Not so – it was superb. The concert itself, called Arabian Nights, was without a doubt, the most beautiful classical concert I’ve ever heard. Probably because of the magic of the Sydney Opera House. The symphony musicians were exceptional. The first violin played several solo parts – he was amazing! We heard music from Spartacus (the ballet) by Khachaturian, a piano concerto by Saint-Saens, and the capstone of the evening was Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade – Symphonic Suite, Opus 35.

Here’s one more photo taken outside, but we were standing in between some of the shells. The design is quite remarkable. Go online to read more (see link up top).

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Sydney Bridge is just beautiful. Striking looking. Graceful. We saw it in bright sunshine, clouds, rain and darkness. Now just picture yourself climbing up the top. It’s done, and several in our group did it. Here’s a photo where you can see the climbers:

See those little matchsticks? People. In safety gear, hooked onto the bridge (there have been no accidents since they’ve been offering this treat to excitement-seekers). Four in our group went on the climb and said it was glorious. Not difficult (the guide pauses frequently for story-telling and to offer time for photographs). I guess the views were spectacular. It takes several hours to do it (including all the suiting-up time prior to the start of the climb). Maybe next time I go to Sydney I’ll do that.

There’s a more expansive view of the city. You can barely see the Opera House just to the left of the bridge. Then the city proper further left, obviously.

Further out is the entrance to Sydney Harbor – the headlands off in the distance. It was a spectacular day for photos – not even a hint of muck in the air. I don’t think Australia has smog anyway.

There’s a photo of Bondi Beach. And did you know it’s pronounced bond-eye, not bondee as I’ve always heard it. Bondi is an aboriginal word. I think it means something like blue water, or sandy beach, or similar! It was a lovely day there too with some people sunbathing on the beach. We savored a nice latte as we enjoyed the sunshine.

I must say the Aussies know how to make some mighty good coffee (strong) and coffee drinks. We had lattes in lots of places in both Australia and New Zealand. They were all great.

The clouds were spectacular that day as we took a harbor cruise. This was just before the darker clouds moved in and dumped some rain on us, but it was short-lived.

There’s a photo I took of my DH Dave as we sat enjoying our coffee at Bondi Beach.

One of the other major sites in Sydney is Darling Harbour, or the Circular Quay. At one end you can see the harbor but it’s an area developed prior to the Olympics held in Sydney some years back. People thought it would be an eyesore after the Olympics had come and gone, but it’s a huge tourist attraction and a gathering place for the locals too. Mostly it’s restaurants, but there’s also an IMAX theater, and some shops too. There’s a park, an area for buskers or entertainers to do their thing, a green grassy area, some fountains. Also the Sydney Aquarium and the Maritime Museum. It’s a HUB of activity. We had one mediocre meal there, and another fantastic meal there. I want to return to Sydney. Some day.

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Not being much of a horticulturist, I know only that the left one is a ginger flower. They’re just pretty and I enjoyed looking at them. The picture at left is the outdoor lobby at the Sea Temple Resort where we stayed in Port Douglas, Queensland. What a place. Gorgeous, with huge pools, and a lovely restaurant. We had probably the nicest rooms on the entire trip at this resort. But it was hot and muggy, like Hawaii.

I’ve forgotten what these flowers are called as well. But they were hanging everywhere on the grounds of the Sea Temple Resort.

Cape Douglas is a major jumping-off point for tours of the Great Barrier Reef. And unfortunately I won’t be sharing any photos of that since I didn’t go (I get seasick and Dave didn’t want to carry the camera).

The day the group went to the GBR I took a local bus into town, shopped and had lunch. And blogged and emailed. Dave wasn’t as impressed with the Reef as he’d expected (but then, he didn’t dive or snorkel either one) but he did go on a glass-bottomed boat.

After spending two nights at the Resort, we bussed on up to Daintree National Park. Which entails boarding a small ferry, crossing the Daintree River, then proceeding on a curvy road further north into the park and along the edge of the rainforest.  There are some residents of Daintree, but not many. One family purchased a plot of land that did host orchards, but the eco-heads decided it wasn’t appropriate to have a commercial orchard there, inside a rainforest, so they had to shut down the commercial side of fruit growing. Instead they lead rainforest tours, which we did. It was hard enough trying to walk in the rainforest (with all the vines, creepers, tree roots, rocks, crevices) but for Dave to do it with artificial legs was a monumental task. Yet he did it, by holding onto my shoulders with each step forward.

One of the elusive animals in the rainforest is the cassowary (a bird). They’re as tall, or taller than an adult human. The photo at left is a statue, near the entrance to the park, in case we didn’t see one, which we didn’t. The right photo is a sign right on the narrow highway about drivers being cautious, not running over a cassowary. The prehistoric birds live in very few places in the world and are endangered, I believe. One lives in and around the resort where we stayed – he’s not a pet – just that the resort environs are his territory. He tolerates the human encroachment on his territory. Unfortunately, he was not to be viewed!

On our rainforest walk (in the filtered sunshine) we saw all kinds of interesting flora including the large tree at left. We were told its variety, but I didn’t write it down – it’s deadly poisonous. It has all kinds of other rainforest lore about it – none of which I remember! And on the right you can see a palm tree (fan palm, I think) in its journey to find sufficient light. The stem on that particular palm was about 40-50 feet long and it had finally found a place where it could attempt to grow straight up and catch some rays.

More scenery from within the rainforest, clockwise top right: Dave standing in front of one of the old trees near the front door of the resort. They just constructed an elevated pathway around both sides of it; a stick bug – the bug is pointing upward at about 12:05 (his head) and his tail is at about 12:35. The body of the stick bug is slightly darker color than the branches on which he was clinging; a view from the small river boat we cruised on, in and around the swamps and mangroves; one of the wider rainforest paths we walked.

More rainforest scenes: the pool at the resort – looks just like a natural rainforest pool, doesn’t it?; a view of the Daintree Tea Plantation. Hard to believe some folks actually started a tea plantation there some years back. I bought some of the tea – it’s okay. Nothing particularly unusual about it; and lastly a view from the river cruise of the mangroves. Note the light green color of the water.

A view from the narrow highway within the rainforest looking out at the blue Pacific.

And here we have a Lamington. Marilyn, our guide, kept telling us about Lamingtons, and finally at Daintree they had them on a dessert tray. As the story goes, way back when the British were truly ruling Australia, Lord Lamington, then Governor of Queensland, went to visit somewhere. The cook had no dessert to serve him. But the cook had some leftover white cake. And chocolate. And  coconut. Small pieces of cake were cut, dipped it on all four sides in melted chocolate, then sprinkled liberally with chopped coconut. A dessert was born, and it’s a favorite among the Aussies. I can’t say that it did anything for me . . .

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Usually I wouldn’t write up a separate post about a tree. But I thought this tree was worth a separate story – called a desert oak. It survives in the outback with a bizarre set of DNA. Hmmm, do trees have DNA? Maybe not, but you get my drift. They grow in profusion in the area around Ayers Rock. They’re hardy trees, with a unique method of growing. Once they germinate and grow up a foot or so they almost go in hibernation until they have sufficient rain or a water source to continue growing. If this tree happens to germinate and grow during a drought (the outback’s last drought lasted 7 years) it will sit in its hibernation until it knows it can survive. Meanwhile, it sends down a tap root (one, single root that goes straight down, maybe several hundred feet) until it locates a water source. It may take years for it to reach water as the tap root grows very slowly. (Can you imagine?)

The tree pictured above (about 12-15 feet high, is my recollection) is probably 200 years old. These trees are very slow growing, obviously. Taller ones, up to about 30 feet, are hundreds and hundreds of years old. I just found this entire set of facts about an outback tree so interesting. The leaves are kind of spiny – not soft or frilly at all, but stiff and spiky. Why it’s called an oak, I don’t know.

A year ago: Pumpkin Streusel Coffeecake
Two years ago: Pannettone (an Italian Christmas bread)
Three years ago: Salmon with Maple and Thyme

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The photo above was part of a panorama at the Royal Flying Doctor Service facility in Alice Springs. We visited the site, had a tour with a volunteer docent and watched a movie about the services. Here’s the history, recopied from the RFDS website:

The RFDS began as the dream of the Rev John Flynn, a minister with the Presbyterian Church. He witnessed the daily struggle of pioneers living in remote areas where just two doctors provided the only medical care for an area of almost 2 million square kilometres [that’s about a 75 thousand square miles if I did my math correctly – about the size of Texas x 3]. Flynn’s vision was to provide a ‘mantle of safety’ for these people and on 15 May 1928, his dream had become a reality with the opening of the Australian Inland Mission Aerial Medical Service (later renamed the Royal Flying Doctor Service) in Cloncurry, Queensland.

Until the 1960s, the Service rarely owned our own aircraft. We used contractors to provide aircraft, pilots and servicing. We progressively began to purchase our own aircraft and employ our own pilots and engineers.

Today, we own a fleet of 53 fully instrumented aircraft with the very latest in navigation technology. We operate 21 bases across Australia. Our pilots annually fly the equivalent of 25 round trips to the moon and our doctors and flight nurses are responsible for the care of nearly 270,000 patients! We’ve come a long way from that first flight in 1928 which saw the Flying Doctor airborne at last.

Some of the work is done via telephone – with doctors available to discuss medical issues with the people who live in the outback. If an emergency exists, a plane is dispatched to the closest tiny airport and either the patient is treated on site, or the patient is transported to the closest major hospital. It’s an amazing service provided to the people who live in outback Australia (they do have national health in that country). After our tour we visited the facility’s small gift shop and many of us on our trip purchased something there. I bought a cookbook of Aussie recipes [called Mantle of Safety Cookbook 2] compiled by the Auxiliary of the RFDS. All proceeds benefit the purchase of equipment (planes and on-board medical gear, none of which is paid for by the government).

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