February 11th
A breath-taking drive this morning through more tropical forests in more mountains. Part of the drive was through a gorge with water falls and rushing streams. There are many one way bridges. Yesterday there were two that were even shared with a train track which was very narrow and rough. All of the highways here are mostly two lane, even the main ones. We passed many herds of sheep, cattle and even herds of deer surrounded by very high fences. It was a long drive and we finally reached Lake Tekapo. I remember now, when seeing the spectacular light powdery blue color of the lake with the little church over looking it thatI had seen it on a trip over ten years ago never dreaming I would one day return with my French husband.
February 12-14th
I have to say that Lake Tekapo is not a place to spend the night. Our hotel was over-priced and the TV only got one, sometimes, two, channels. It was very windy outside and after seeing the lake and chapel, there was nothing else to do. We had a good view of the lake but once the sun set, not much to see or do. The next morning we made it to Timaru, a very nice, clean city on the coast. There is a huge industrial harbor here, not a cute picutresque one. Maurice went into the water as usual for a short time at the small beach. the whole area behind the beach has things for children to play on. We went to a movie, then to another beach and watched some surfers, had a sandwich in the room and then to bed.
Next was Christchurch which we loved and our B&B is especially nice with huge rooms very well decorated. The bathroom is across the hall and-once again-we find ourselves with a bathroom for those in a wheelchair with no shower stall and, in this case, no shower curtain. That and the crummy TV are the only downsides to this place. The ambience of Christchurch is wonderful, very English with nice archetecture and not too many tall business buildings. We took the tourist tram around the city, walked in the Botanic garden and just enjoyed the area.
Finally, the flight back to Sydney, then on to Hawaii. We left on February 14th and by crossing the international date line, after an over-night flight, arrived on February 14th. There was a mix up in our hotel so we spent the night at another and came back again the next morning. I love Honolulu and seeing the fabulous hotel, the Hawaiin Princess. The water is smooth, almost without waves. There are many more shops here than the twenty or so years ago that I was here but I still love being here, tourists and all. There is a wonderful ambience and the weather is always so great. They did have major rain this year on the islands and we did get caught in a couple of rain storms but, still, I always love it here.

The little chapel by Lake Tekapo

Here is the chapel from a distance. That is the actual color of the water caused by rocks being ground down to powder by glaciers.

An interesting little Spanish style street in Christchurch. I don’t know who thought of painting the buildings that color, but I sure did like them.

It is hard to find anything more special than tall palm trees along the ocean.

Looks like Big Sur in California, but it’s New Zealand.
February 8th
Did the long drive to Wellington. It started raining on the way, sometimes very hard. We stayed at the Novotel on the Terrace, a built-up area over the harbor. It’s in a great location. We returned our rental car (it can’t be taken to the South Island, we have to get another one at the Ferry when we land) then walked around the city a little and took the cable car up to the top of a mountain overlooking the city where there was a botanical garden. We couldn’t see much in the rain but it looked very nice, very hilly and rather like San Francisco. After a drink at a bar on the harbor, we had dinner at our hotel as we couldn’t find any other place to eat. The whole area seems strangely without life. I have no idea where people go for night life.
February 9th
We left on a ferry today for Picton on the South Island of NZ. We arrived early but found the ferry would be an hour late. It turned out to be two hours late. It was a very pleasant journey when we finally got going passing some fabulous scenery. Arriving at the ferrry station, we picked up our rental car and drove through a beautiful valley into some hills and finally into Westport, and stayed at the River View Lodge with a great view of a wide river. We went into the very boring town of Westport for a good dinner where our waitress happened to be from New Jersey. One of those outdoor, athletic types of which NZ seems to be full. She fell in love with the area and stayed.
February 10th
It was a long drive to Franz Joseph, a village at the base of a glacier, but a beautiful one. On the way we passed some Big Sur-like ocean views and an interesting area called Pancake Rocks where the sedement had layered into, well, rocks looking like piles of pancakes. There was also a strange little stop with live animals, such as a stag with huge antlers, which also sold a variety of things containing possum meat including possum pie. They possums aresn’t the same type that I’ve seen in Texas but a brush tail variety. There were cranky signs everywhere saying such things as: “Of course it rains alot here-were in a rain forest. We don’t know when it will stop. You’re on vacation-we are working-read the paper for the weather, don’t ask us.” It was a very western, funky place.
When we arrived at Franz Joseph, we made arrangements for a helicopter ride up to the glacier which turned out to be great. We landed on top on a sunny day and the views of the glacier stretched out down an enormous mountain with the river from its melting running into the nearby sea. The surrounding forest is tropical which seems strange but there is a similar one in Chili.
Some wine and a pizza while we watched a rugby match between two NZ teams then to bed early as we are getting up early-again-for another very long drive to the other side of the mountains. We have to circle them as there isn’t a way over. It turns out, as is often the case, that we underestimated the time it would take for all of the driving and we feel like we have spent alot of time in the car. We have been seeing fantastic scenery but won’t have time to see the famous Milford Sound. We needed a few more days.

The Pancake Rocks area.

The glacier metling and running down to the ocean taken from the helicopter.

On top of the glacier. We didn’t even need our coats.

Franz Joseph Glacier seen on the ground from below.

A view of the ocean along the highway 1 in New Zealand

February 5th
Early flight from Australia to New Zealand with a three hour time change. We were lucky enough to get a rental car although we had been told by phone earlier that one wasn’t available. We left Australia a day early since we decided to leave from Brisbane istead of Sydney. It is a good thing we did leave from Brisbaneas there is no way we could have seen as much as we did had we had to make the drive back to Sydney. Our hotel, near the airport, wasn’t anything special but easy to find. We drove into central Auckland which is situated on a bay but it is not nearly as spectacular as Sydney. It is also very hilly with many of those hills called volcano cones. There are still active volcanoes around New Zealand.
February 6th
We left Auckland fairly late and entered Highway 3, then 26 which skirted some spectacular scenery on a pennisula. I love it when a road follows the ocean and we were very close to it on a two land highway. The vegetation is tropical looking with unusual looking palm trees but few ecualyptus. Lots of green and gold rolling hills with many denuded of trees and the ocean was a beautiful color-turquoise/blue with a smoky look to it from glacial work I am sure. There was quite a bit of traffic as it turns out that this is the celebration of the day a treaty was signed with the Maoris, which some say now was not fair. The Maories were fairly war-like with infighting between tribes and the killing and eating of ten of Captain Cook’s men at one point. They seemed to have held their own when the English arrived. We saw the small town of Thames and several other old mining towns and ended at Waili Beach. We had trouble finding a place without a reservation but finally got a B&B from a really nice man right on the beach. The weather is much cooler here which is such a delight after the heat of Australia. There is always a breeze blowing here as well.
February 7th
After a nice breakfast on the terrace of the B&B over-looking the ocean and a friendly talk with the owners, we set off for Rotorua. On the way we stoppped at a dormant volcano and climbed to the top-a very hot climb-and Maurice swam in the ocean, something he did anytime we were on a beach. It’s a great beach and off the beaten path. When we arrived at Rotorua there was a slight odor of sulpher in the air. Our hotel, a Quality Inn Geyserland, is looking a little worn but our room looked right out on a great area with geysers, steam and bubbling mud. About 5:30 PM we drove to nearby Waiki Pool and sat in a hot pool, which was naturally warmed by a boiling hot water source. We could see the steam rising above the trees before we arrived. The water felt great with the air being in the 70’s.

What we saw from the terrace of the B&B. Maurice swam in this water as well.

The geyser and bubbling mud that we could see from our hotel in Rotorua.

The steam rising from a hot spring near the pool where we swam.

February 2nd
We left the disappointment of Surfer’s Paradise behind and climbed through some forests heading uphill and ended up in Binna Burra in the Lamington National Forest. It is much cooler and such a contrast to the seaside. We are staying at the Binna Burra Guest Lodge which is very rustic , much as it was 100 years ago and the showers and toilets are shared but you don’t mind because the forest is so great. The whole area was formed by a massive volcanic explosion from Mt. Warning which we should have climbed when we were further down the coast. It would be a very long drive from here. We took a guided walk in the hot afternoon to see some caves and the subtropical forest which is full of many varieties eucalyptus trees. There has been an eight year drought and they are taking over the forest as other trees die. We saw an interesting “strangling fig” which grows over the tops of other trees. Also saw a type of tree that lives to be over 1000 years old. The massive one we saw was about 400 years of age. There was a nice lady on the walk who had actually stayed in an apartment near Nation in Paris which is near to where we live.
There was a very nice man in the garden at the Lodge who showed me a bee hive full of tiny stingless bees that he maintains. He showed me a small container with a years worth of honey extracted from the hive with a syringe which he said was good for sores and cuts. He had other hives of Italian bees as well. He later removed a huge spider from our room. It is very buggy up here-lots of flying insects and spiders. We had lunch at a nearby cafe but, because they wanted $38 for a buffet dinner at the lodge, we drove down to a small town to eat in a funky place at a hotel looking like an old restaurant in England with gambling machines, a busy bar, and a photo of Queen Elizabeth on the wall. The dinner was good. We returned to the lodge and found that it gets deliciously cool here at night.
Febraury 3rd
Due to the early light and the noise of birds, I was up at 5:30 AM. We had breakfast in the dining room with huge windows over-looking the land. Then we did one of the short walks called Bellbird. It went into the rain forest and we saw several pandymelons, not wallabies, as we had been calling them. They are tiny kangaroos. We saw a great view over-looking a valley and headed towards a clearing where we were asked if we wanted to try a ride on the flying fox. You get into a harness and ride along a cable high above the ground. It was alot of fun. We saw some wild turkeys while there which very brazenly (or cheekily, as they say here) tried to get into some food on a table. So we checked out. This is one place we should have stayed at longer.
Then, on a huge eight lane highway, which is the first one we have seen on Highway One, we drove into nearby Brisbane. The city is near the coast and also lies on a river. It’s a huge modern city, very clean but so hot and humid I had trouble enjoying walking around. I’ve never seen so many well-dressed people, especially the women. I think they come close to the fashionable people in Paris as far as style and panache. We did board a free bus with a/c for a ride around the city which helped and ended up on the very nice riverwalk which was nice and wide with restaurants with terraces and an extra wide area for walking and riding bikes. It was one of the best planned river walks I’ve ever seen. After a movie in air condtioned comfort we returned to our hotel on the River Cat, a ferry that makes stops along the river. It’s a nice way to see some of Brisbane. It was especially wonderful at night as they turned out the lights and the boat zipped along in near darkness under the stars looking at the channel markers in the dark water.
As Maurice remarked, Australia is a very young country as far as European occupation goes. there are few buildings built earlier than the mid to late 80’s. Every city seems very new and modern and it seems much like America. Many places reminded me of California both in style and in being environmentally conscious with lots of water conservation, lots of outdoor living. There are more people here with degrees in ecology than anywhere else in the world.

The rustic lodge of Billa Burra. We really enjoyed our time here and wished we had been here at night when they do night tours with flashlights to see all of the nightlife that comes out. I did see a really huge bat in the evening fly overhead.

The sun rising through the eucalyptus trees.

View of the valley after a walk through the rain forest.

This is me on the flying fox. It’s hard to tell what it is and hard to photograph. It was originally built to haul up luggage to the lodge when the road didn’t go all the way up. The lodge was carried up in pieces for miles through the forest and rebuilt where it is today. There are some rooms with bathrooms. We just didn’t happen to get one.

This is what I felt like after my wait in the doctor’s office.

There are two great books, both by Stephen Clark, the first is A Year in the Merde, the second is Merde Actually(Both are about an Englishman living in France.) I felt like I had spent a year in the merde today as I waited at a doctor’s office. I took along Merde Actually in case we had a wait and I actually got to page 164! Most doctors have three or so days a week where no appointments are made, the time being for drop-ins, first come first served. We usually try to get in early in the day, always hoping to be the first but today we stopped in in the afternoon and had a three hour wait.
The first patient to go in was a young teen-ager who was pacing the floor holding his ears when we walked in. He stayed in the entry hall for the most part only coming into the waiting room to sneeze on everyone. He was, I think, retarded, and spent the time pacing in the hall talking outloud to himself. There were three children in the waiting room all with the bright red cheeks signifying high temperatures. One little girl cried for quite a while until she fell asleep in her mother’s arms. The children all took turns playing with some lego blocks and other toys in the room, putting all of those germs all over them. It is just part of the medical system here.
Our doctor in Paris charges more if you make an appointment. Her waiting room, although it has nice furniture and wooden floors, has strips of the ceiling and wall covering coming down in ugly strips. I can’t believe she doesn’t get it fixed up. Her office is a mess too with huge piles of papers in wobbly towers all over the place. She doesn’t use the computer as efficiently as other doctors I’ve been to and writes out all of her prescriptions by hand instead of printing them out from the computer as most others do here. Most doctors don’t have much help in their offices either, I assume to save money, and seem to do just about everything themselves.
At least I was entertained by my book during our wait although my back was starting to hurt on the hard chairs. I almost laughed outloud a few times and I’m sure some of the patients waiting with us in the room wondered what I kept smiling at.

February 1st
Today we headed for the Gold Coast to a town called Surfer’s Paradise but first we drove inland to what they call the hinterlands and, following narrow curving roads, went to see some waterfalls, actually the Minyon Waterfalls. They fell over 100 meters but we were at the top of them. It was a 4.5 km walk to the bottom so we didin’t do it. Before we left Byron Bay this morning, we went up to the lighthouse for a spectacular view. I wish we had done a kayak/dolphin trip as we could see them far below and it looked fun. We should have snorkeled too. We next drove to Nimbin, a place lost in the 60’s with all sorts of hippies about, signs about marijuana and people openly smoking it. There was also a funky museum with a VW bus through a wall, wild painting on the walls, a painted snake path to follow on the floor with objects and photos having to do with the Aboriginies and marijuana. Going there made it a long day and it took a while to reach the Golden Coast as traffic became very heavy and the highway is not wide and we started hitting traffic lights as near the citiy. There were many high rises in the area, rather like Miami, but not as flat. We had trouble finding our hotel. We didn’t like Surfer’s Paradise at all and were sorry it had been recommended. There was a very wide beach that stretched out for miles along what is now the Pacific Ocean. It had been the Tasman Sea when we were in Sydney. The water was very wild with many waves and currents.
The sport of swimming is huge here. Australia is having the beginning stages of some sort of Common Wealth Games in Sydney and they are on full time on the TV with constant reruns. The finals weren’t until days later but the winners were on the front pages of the newspaper and on the news every night. The Australians were breaking world records.

A Hemp Bar in Nimbin. While it was rather interesting and fascinating in sort of a sick way, I wouldn’t go out of my way to see this town unless you are into smoking pot. It was just one short street full of young people smoking pot.

Another building in Nimbin.

The VW Van which was set up to look like it had crashed into the walls of the “museum” of Hemp and its history.

I was so disappointed in Surfer’s Paradise that this is the only photo I took. It used to have a different name and someone in the chamber of congress came up with Surfer’s Paradise and now people come here in huge numbers. All it was was high rises and narrow streets with no great liitle roads following the sea or anything interesting like that.