This Woman Was HereAustralia-New Zealand-Hawaii Archives

Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii trip

Once again I found a deal we couldn’t refuse, this time through Online Vacation Center. The package included airfare, an eleven night Celebrity cruise with balcony cabin, gratuities, and drink package, and a two night hotel stay in Sydney (front end) and Auckland (back end). We added air from Orlando with a return stopover in Hawaii for six nights. The grand total $4,400 each, the most expensive trip we have ever been on by far, but for almost a month and three countries, not bad.

Our trip over was a story of weather delays and missed flights. Luckily, we had long layovers in Charlotte and LAX, so the two hour delays in both airports were no problem. However, we made the colossal error of going to the international terminal in LAX and waiting for a Quantas flight to Sydney that was scheduled at the same time as our American Airline flight (assuming they were the same flight). In our defense, we did show our ticket to the attendant at the counter, and he told us we were in the right place. When we were boarding, however, we were told we were in the wrong terminal. The other was so far away there was no way we could make the flight. The Quantas folks were great and called American and got them to reissue a ticket to them, but unfortunately not in time to board that flight to Sydney but in time for another flight for Brisbane, from where we would continue on to Sydney, arriving only an hour later. As luck would have it, Sydney had torrential rains and flooding the morning we were to fly in, and we were stuck in Brisbane most of the day, arriving at 4 pm. We missed a day but we did get there!

Sydney, Australia

The skies were threatening but we got out to explore Circular Quay and the area around the Opera House and Botanical Gardens. Our hotel for the first two nights of our stay, The Marriott, was a block away from the quay.

The Opera House is an iconic sight, but it is even more amazing in person. It was designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon, who won the 1957 design competition without having engineered the building or knowing that it could be built. The task of building the structure was daunting. The design problems were solved when Utzon based the components on parts of a sphere.

The project took from 1958 to 1973 to complete, and Utzon resigned midway through the project and died before it was completed.

We were able to book a 9:30 opera house tour ($40 each but worth it to get inside the structure).

There are multiple concert halls and theaters. The concert hall holds 2,700 people, the opera theater holds 1500, and there are three smaller theaters.

The exterior is covered with a million and a half tiles in glazed and unglazed white and bone tiles.

The interior, completed after Utzon left the project, is free standing. Most of the wood is eucalyptus, but the interior of the concert hall is white ash.

After the opera house, we walked walked through the Royal Botanical Gardens, a huge tract of land east of the Opera and surrounding Farm Cove. It affords a great view of the Opera House.

They had a special exhibit on carniverous plants at the Callix, which has a wall of plants.

After lunch at the Vienna cafe and a short rest, we headed back out to the Rocks, the oldest area of Sydney.

We had diner at the Pony, where we had an appetizer of kangaroo with peppercorn sauce and a main of lamb and broccolini, all very delicious if a bit pricy. The old section is very well preserved and recalls the early days of the city.

The bars were all filled with people. From the cruise port quay, we had a great view of the Opera House.

Just after sunset, we enjoyed the Badu Gili, meaning ‘water light’, a projection of Gadigal images on the Opera House’s eastern Bennelong sail.

We really love Sydney! This map will give you an idea how much green space there is in downtown Sydney. It seems like a very livable city.

Coogee cliff walk to Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia

We took an 8:10 bus to Coogee (373 or 374 from Stop A, left from transportation info office opposite quays). The opal card for a round trip was $10 each, and the busses run every 10 minutes. Lots of the old architecture (with ornate wrought iron balconies reminiscent of New Orleans) has been preserved. We have been impressed with how little graffiti we’ve seen and how clean the city is. Today, we were impressed at how many people thanked the bus driver as they got off the bus. The trip to the last stop in Coogee took 50 min. The cliff trail was easy to find just north of the beach. The hike to Bondi is four miles and takes about two hours.

Coogee Beach

We had lovely weather, 70’s with a steady ocean breeze, perfect for walking, and there were lots of walkers out.

At Bondi Beach, famous for its surfing, we took a dip in the Icebergs oceanfront pool. Waves break into the pool, so it is the same temperature as the ocean. Steve swam laps, but I couldn’t get in past my waist.

Afterwards, we strolled down the beach and had fish tacos and fish cakes at The Bucket List before catching the 333 bus back to Circular Quay. We changed hotels from the Marriott to The Grace, which came as part of our package. Steve’s niece, Kari, joined us with her two adorable children, Will and Poppy, and her husband, Mike, joined us for dinner at an Italian restaurant right next to the hotel.

Manly Beach and Shelly Beach

We took a fast ferry over to Manly this morning, (20 min) across Sydney Harbor, which was filled with sailboats. Another beautiful day in paradise. Kari and family met us on the Corso, a pedestrian mall that runs from the harbor to the beach (reminiscent of Barcelona’s Las Ramblas). We walked to their apartment overlooking Manly Beach, dropped our gear and headed to the cliff walk above Shelly Beach, (the snorkeling beach).

Manly Beach

Overlooking Manly Beach

cliff walk

When we finished the walk, we were hot and ready for snorkeling at Shelly beach. We saw several varieties of fish, but the water was cold enough that we didn’t want to stay in for more than a half hour.

Shelly Beach

We had a lovely early dinner with Kari and family and headed back to Sydney to pack for the next leg of our journey, the cruise to New Zealand. The first two days of the cruise will be at sea, so I won’t post again until Wednesday when we will be cruising New Zealand’s sounds.

Cruising Milford Sound, Doubtful Sound, Dusky Sound, New Zealand

We had two days as sea as we crossed the Tasman Sea toward New Zealand. The Celebrity Solstice is a beautiful ship, all decorated for Christmas.

The food has been superb, as has been the music throughout the boat. After two rather rough days at sea, with 12′ to 15′ waves, we woke at six a.m. at the entrance to Milford Sound, the first of three fiords in Fiordland National Park. For many years the sound was not explored because there appeared to be no clear entrance. We couldn’t believe how close to both walls we were.

It was raining and waterfalls cascaded down the sides of the sheer cliffs. Snow caps the peaks. This is truly spectacular country, largely because you are so close to the sides of the cliffs. New Zealand is part of the Zealandia plate, which is still 93% submerged.

Bowen waterfall

Sterling Waterfall

Steve shot this video of dusky dolphins following our boat.

Our captain did a 360 turn in front of Sterling waterfall.

leaving Milford Sound

The fiords are quite a distance apart. Doubtful Sound is larger and deeper than Milford Sound, the peaks reaching 1,300 to 1,500 meters. It is also dotted with islands.

The sounds took 200 million years to create and were carved by glacier action 100,000 years ago. The Southern Alps of New Zealand were formed when the Pacific Plate and the Austalian plate collided.

Doubtful Sound

Dusky Sound is the larges of the sounds, 40 kilometers long and 8 kilometers at its widest. Captain Cook spent two months exploring the sound on his second voyage in 1770. Resolution Island, which forms one side of the sound, is a preservation island to protect bird and plant life that is threatened by rats, shoats, possums, and other invasive species. We saw and fur seals basking on rocks and more dusky dolphins.

The end of Dusky Sound is an archipelago of islands. The pictures are bluish because they were taken from inside.

Dunedin, New Zealand

We booked a small group nature tour called Bays, Beaches, and Views of Dunedin. We were met at the port, and our guide drove us through Port Charles and to Dunedin, about a 20 min drive along the harbor that is reminiscent of Scotland. Many of the first settlers were Scots and the town, the second largest in NZ, retains its Scottish character, with many well preserved Victorian and Edwardian buildings. We saw the world’s steepest street, Baldwin Street, and stopped at the railroad station, which was built in 1906 out of black volcanic rock, white lime stone, and pink Aberdeen granite. It was the busiest railway station in NZ. Today it carries tourists on 90 min ocean-side and mountain tours. Dunedin is surrounded by gorgeous countryside.

We climbed above the harbor to a fantastic view of the Otago Peninsula. The harbor is the caldera of an ancient volcano.

On the other side of the road that traces the crest of the ridge above Dunedin is a beautiful, wild beach.

Next, we descended to Smaills Beach where we hoped to find fur seals and sea lions, but no luck. The path to the beach was lined with yellow lupin and what our guide called flax.

The beach reminded me of the one in the Piano, but apparently that scene was filmed on the west side of NZ at a very similar beach. Spectacular scenery in Dunedin!

Akaroa, New Zealand

Akaroa Harbor

Akaroa is another bay formed from caldera of an extinct volcano.

It is a lovely, small town surrounded by green mountains. It was settled by the French after a Frenchman bought most of Akaroa in 1835 and returned to France to organize settlers. By the time they returned in 1840, the British had signed a treaty that gave them control of NZ, but since the French purchase predated their control, the French were allowed to settle Akaroa and the Banks Penninusla. We tendered in early and walked the beautiful half-moon harbor before boarding our tour but that took us up to the ridge of the Caldera and over the mountains to the plains of Canterbury.

The plains are a fertile farming area that lies on the east side of the Southern Alps and is therefore is dry and windy because the rains drop on the west side of the Alps and the dry wind shoots down the mountains to the plains. To protect houses and livestock from the winds, the farmers plant thick shrub hedges. In the plains, we passed Lake Ellesmere, a huge shallow lake on which we saw hundreds of black swans. Unfortunately, the lake is dying because it’s connection to the sea was cut off by the eathquake.

After a 90 min ride, we arrived in Christchurch, which was devastated by a 2011 earthquake that destroyed much of the business district. The town in slowly recovering.

We got an introduction to Maori culture at the Christchurch Museum. The Maori, Polynesians who arrived between 900 and 1200, hunted the Moa, a large flightless bird to extinction.

After Christchurch, we drove to Sumner Beach and then up into the hills to Cracroft Reserve, where we had a panoramic view over Christchurch. The area reminded me California, with its surfing beaches, expensive hillside houses, and views over the city in the valley.

Wellington, New Zealand, In the Footsteps of Lord of the Rings

We signed up for a small group tour called In the Footsteps of Lord of the Rings. Peter Jackson is from Wellington, and his Weta studio is located there. He filmed all three Lord of the Rings movies in two years, filming the movies not chronologically but by location. He then edited and released each movie. The movies cost several hundred million to make, but they grossed three billion (so far). Jackson had 8 cameras working at various locations around NZ, and he watched the footage from all 8 locations in his tent on location and approved each shot.

Our first stop was a rock quarry just outside of town, which Peter Jackson rented for a year and where he constructed the sets for Helms Deep and Mynas Tirith. The quarry is located on a major highway, so motorists would have seen the castle rising from the quarry, but it was not until a newspaper reporter took an illicit night-time photo that they knew it was for a movie set.

It took six months and 100 men to build the set, which was made largely of styrofoam blocks painted to look like stone. The stairs, however, were carved into the rock of the quarry with jackhammers over a period of four weeks, and appeared in the movie for only four seconds.Today, it is just an ordinary quarry. On-location clips from the movies were shown in the van, which helped us visualize each scene.

Next, we traveled to the Hutt Valley where a number of scenes were filmed. Harcourt Park is where Gandalf’s approach to Isengard, the Gardens of Isengard, and the Orks cutting down trees of Isengard were filmed. Our guide, Karen, showed us pictures of the bridge Gandalf rides under as he approaches Isengard. As you can see from the pictures, only a half bridge was built, and camera angles did the rest. The slight rise on her right is the fault line that runs through Wellington.Saruman’s castle was built in the studio, so Gandalf had to stop on a mark in front of a blue screen and deliver his lines to no one.

The scenes where the Orks tear up the trees was filmed in the disk golf field just below.

Next, we drove into a suburban neighborhood and took a footpath down to the Hutt Valley River to see where the Aragorn Washed Ashore scene was filmed. The battle scene that precedes it was filmed in Queensland, but apparently, the horse that was supposed to rescue Aragorn could not perform the trick of lying down next to him without lying on top of the stunt dummy. Vigo Mortensen found a second horse and worked with it until it learned the trick and they filmed it just outside of Wellington. Vigo grew so attached to the horse that he bought him and took him home with him.

Next we visited the Kaitoke Regional Park where the Rivendell scenes were filmed. We had a picnic lunch and learned that our guide, an American who had come to NZ to visit Lord of the Rings sights and emigrated (because her profession, social work, was in demand), had been Hobbit extra in the last Hobbit movie and got to meet all the primary actors and Peter Jackson.

She was the perfect guide.

The Rivindell gate was recreated here, and I was able to dress up as Legolas in the same spot he posed for one of his most famous publicity shots. The Hutt Valley River funs through here with a suspension bridge over it.

The tree ferns are beautiful and lend a distinctive Elvish atmosphere to the area.

Napier, New Zealand, Hawke’s Bay

We signed up for another small group tour of Hawke’s Bay and Napier. Napier was destroyed by a 1931 earthquake. Before the earthquake, Napier had been an island, but after the quake, the land behind the island was uplifted and Napier gained a lot of land (everything to the left of the greed area became land).

First, we toured the Art Deco downtown of Napier, which boasts the largest concentration of Art Deco buildings in the world.

There are antique roadsters on display and in use all around town. Clearly, Napier revels in its Art Deco heritage.

We drove through Art Deco neighborhoods, which the town had the foresight to preserve, and up into the older neighborhoods above town, which were not damaged by the earthquake.

The six sister cottages (once beachfront) were built by a Welsh captain for his six daughters. This statue celebrates the spirit of Napier, rising from the ashes of the earthquake. NZ was also the first country to grant women the right to vote.

Next, we drove out of town to the orchards, vineyards, and pastures that surround Napier. There are 42 wineries in the area around Napier.

We drove up Te Mata Peak for a view of the countryside.

Next. we visited NZ National Aquarium and got to see little penguins (the smallest species of penguins) swimming and being fed.

Feeding time for the penguins.

We also saw a kiwi, no pictures because since they are nocturnal, they are in a darkened display),

I was almost but not quite eaten by a megladon shark.

We saw lots of native fish and feeding time in the walk-through tunnel aquarium.

Next, we walked along the several mile long linear park along the water that was built on land uplifted by the earthquake. There are gardens and skate parks and playgrounds for everyone to enjoy.

When we returned to the ship, we were greeted by more antique cars and locals dressed up in 30’s costumes, which they clearly love to do.

Tauranga, New Zealand, Hobbiton and Te Puia

We booked a small group tour of Te Puia geothermal site and the movie set of Hobbiton. The port of Tauranga is a beautiful half moon harbor with Mount Maunganui at the end (where residents are supposed to go in case of tsunami).

We drove through the forests of the Mamaku Ranges to Rotorua, where we entered the Te Puia geothermal site, which contains exhibits of Maori culture as well as the largest geyser in the southern hemisphere. We watched a Maori welcome ceremony and toured a craft school where Maori learn carving and weaving skills. This woman demonstrated how to use a shell to strip the flax plant exterior to reveal fiber that is used to make rope and baskets.

The carving school was also amazing. We saw a great example of a ‘walker,’ the canoes the Maoris used to travel between islands.

In Te Puia, see the famous Pohutu (means constant splashing in maori) geyser (largest in southern hemisphere, erupts 1-2 per hour, sometimes 100 feet). We were lucky enough to catch its eruption.

The Maori use the fumeroles to cook meals. They lower baskets of food into the boiling water.

There are also mineral rich mud baths that the Maori used to heal wounds.

The curative powers of the baths were exploited by the British, who set up spas in the 1880s, the most famous of which is the Bath House in the Government Gardens situated on the lake’s edge in downtown Rotorua.

The Maori people gifted 50 acres of this land to the crown “for the benefit of the people of the world”. In 1908 the New Zealand government opened a large and elaborate bath house, built in the Elizabethan Tudor style of architecture.The geothermal activity of the area was clear when we saw steam rising from beneath the fence in a suburb.

Out guide said geysers had erupted in the middle of the lake and in a mall parking lot.

After leaving Te Puia, we drove for another hour to reach the Shire, the set for the Hobbit movies. The original Shire was constructed of sytrofoam and was demolished after filming the Lord of the Rings. However, it was rebuilt to film the Hobbit movies and turned into a tourist farm, which is the tourist attraction in New Zealand. It is not cheap ($84), but it did not disappoint. They schedule twenty people at a time on the two hour walking tour of the Shire, so you never feel crowded and you never have trouble getting photos.There are over 40 hobbit houses on site, all elaborately decorated with flowers. There are no interiors since the set was only used for exterior shots.