Sydney to Vancouver to Home

Wednesday December 15, 2010. Vancouver airport waiting for an Air Canada connection to Calgary 15:50

We are here because the Air New Zealand flight was a little late getting in and the turn around time was too short for our Calgary Connection. Consequently we are not able to get out of here until 17:30. This is the first real travel disruption we have experienced so far on this trip.

It is hard to believe that about twenty six hours ago, on this date, December 15, 2010 we were sitting on the lanai at the Sydney Harbor YHA, in the Rocks, in shorts and t shirts having breakfast. Both of us were reluctant to leave.

Yesterday was a busy tourism kind of day. We went firt to the Barracks Museum, where the prisoners were kept when they were transported to Australia. It was later used house young women brought from Ireland and other parts of the UK to help populate the island after the prisoners had finished their sentences, and even later was used to house the elderly, indingents, many of them the same women who were brought out to work as house hold staff.

After the Barracks we went to the Australian Museum where there is an exhibition of many things that can kill you in Australia. Bill Bryson made a trip to the same exhibition when gathering material for his book A Sun Burned Country. One of the things mentioned was a Blue Ringed Octopus. Thewy are found in the shallow waters, and around rocks, just like Lady Beach were Ron and I had been swimming the day before. For me when in the Idyullic setting the whole idea of being any kind of danager did not even occur.

Ron did some retail therapy and then we went to the Powerhouse Museum, at Jenny’s suggestion and it was fabulous. The feel is a little like the Tate Modern Gallery in London, primarily, I suppose, because they are both re-purposed buildings, without disguising what their original purpose was meant to be. The exhibitions were interactive, modern and somewhat more like installation art than traditional museum presentation. We left it to the end of the day and so did not have the opportunity to see as much of it as wer would have liked. Another good reason to return to Sydney has come up.

Today has been all about travel. Sydney to Auckland; Auckalnd to Vancouver and now Vancouver to Calgary, but considerably later than we planned.

I just want to get home and drop my suitcase, go to the Safeway and get some food for breakfast tomorrow and then go to bed and sleep until I wake up. Ron is supposed meet his granddaughter from Nelson BC at the Greyhound Bus Depot at 06:35 tomorrow morning. It will be tough for him to get there on time now, and who knows what will be happening with the snow that way.

Saturday December 18, 2010. 15:15

We did finally make it home. I did get to the Safeway for breakfast food. I was, however, a little wired up and didn’t get to bed until about 02:00 but woke up about 08:00. Breakfast was fine, but I had no ambition and if I had not made myself do laundry, I would have spent the day in my pajamas. Fortunately I found some leftover lasagna in the freezer and survived on that and some toast with jam for the day. Thursday night the jet lag was still giving me those “I don’t want to move or make a decision” kind of blues, and I slept very little and fitfully when I did sleep. I managed to make it to Beano for a cup of coffee and a muffin and to the Safeway for something more substantial for the rest of the day.

Things certainly have changed over five weeks on Coronation Street. It was Friday so I made my usual trek over to the Eagle and played pool reasonably well even won the first three games. Last night I slept through the night and got up in time for my 10:00 haircut. Yes the flowing locks, so curly and cute in the southern hemisphere are gone, and the short hair more accommodating to wearing a toque are back.

Ron made it to the bus depot on time and had a visit with his grand daughter.

It is snowing and cold here. I will spend the next week looking forward to seeing Duncan, Jenny, Colin and Jenna for Christmas and planning and dreaming about my four weeks in Mexico in February/March.

Ron and Terry on the deck at Sydney Harbor YHA

Terry and Ron - Auckland Airport

Monday night in Sydney

It will soon be time to return to Calgary and all the winter weather. In the meantime we spent the day at Lady Beach today and sunned our buns and all the other bits too. I went swimming too. The water was cold when entering but felt refreshing once in. Lady Beach is in Watson’s Bay and I convinced myself that there would be no sharks there and sure enough I still have all my parts attached.

We found out at the Conservatory,

The iconic view of the Sydney Opera House

Trough urinal at the public toilets in Watson's Bay

that the Southern Cross is not really visible at this time of the year unless you get up at 04:00, although I was certain I had seen it in Queenstown NZ. As it happens there are five stars, as on the Australian flag, and I am certain that the diamond I saw had only four stars. The best time to see it here is in June and July, and it can not be seen north of the Equator.

The sun in Australia is definitely more intense than I am accustomed to, even in my southern Ontario, and I like it very much. I am now plotting a plan to return here for a longer period of time, perhaps in their summer 2012. Once the travel bug got into me it has been hard to ignore, and although I still want to return to the UK, Chester, and March again, this south of the Equator experience has opened a whole new area of interest for me.

This is a short entry. I must get to sleep to be ready for our last day here and to get as much into it as possible.

Oprah Winfrey is stalking me!

Check out The Thirty Day Bus Tour on Calgary Transit

I posted it to the wrong blog. silly me!

Canberra after the rainstorm

Friday December 3, 2010

I am starting this in Christchurch. It may not get finished until I am Melbourne unless I can find a wifi zone at the airport.

It is back to being a beautiful, warm, sunny day in New Zealand. We are all packed and ready to go, but will not leave for the airport for another hour, so may go out for some lunch in the neighbourhood.

The drive from Oamaru was the straightest, highway we have been on since arriving here. It was the #1 Highway and that is the major motorway in New Zealand. There were, however, several towns, some of a fair size to go through. It is amazing that the huge semi trailers go right down the main streets of these towns.

We were able to find our B & B with out too much trouble, as Ron had been here before. After returning the car we set out on foot to get lunch and had beef stroganoff at a nice German restaurant with good German beer. There doesn’t seem to be a readily available New Zealand cuisine, and when there is such a restaurant it is usually priced out of our budget traveller’s price point.

At first look there didn’t seem to be too much destruction as a result of the earthquake, but after further exploration yesterday there is still quite a few places that have been cleared away, quite a few buildings being supported by either wooden 2 x 4 supports and even more with substantial steel support beams seeming to support the buildings.

Sunday December 5, 2010

I am now in Melbourne. Sharon and Drew don’t have a wireless connection so I am going to continue this until I get to Canberra. It feels better to be able to import pictures to the blog and I won’t be able to do that until I can get to a wifi point.

It is so like a tropical country here. I have not heard the actual temperature but it is very warm and driving back here today along Beach Road, seeing the beaches, the ocean and palm trees bordering made it feel even more inviting. I have not seen a single deadly thing yet as far as I know, but I haven’t actually been to the beach yet. We did eat out on the patio last night but there were no unidentifiable insects anywhere and no evidence of snakes slithering through the grass. Maybe Bill Bryson was exaggerating.

I made my way to Sharon and Drew’s house using the sky bus, public transit and a short cab ride, thus avoiding the $80 -$90 cab fare from the airport. Yesterday was spent enjoying the neighbourhood for lunch shopping, having dinner at their house and catching up on what has been happening since we last met. Today I went to church at St. Paul’s Cathedral, and to the Dragon Boat Races, in which Sharon was competing on the Breast Cancer Survivors’ team.

The sun has been shining all day, and yes I have been slopping on the sunscreen and wearing a hat. The sun feels different here. It was definitely hot at the races, and Drew and I retreated to a shady spot when Sharon was not racing, but it was not an oppressive kind of heat. I would say it was a welcoming heat.

Maybe Australia is winning me over.

Thursday December 9, 2010. on a train in the station in Aubry, Australia.

Phew it has been a while since I updated this.

On Monday, Sharon and I spent the day exploring the lanes and alleys of Melbourne, which is a very unique concept. They were part of the original design for the city, but became a haven of prostitution and other criminal activity. There are now many interesting shops and restaurants. We also went to an antiquarian bookstore called Old and Rare, that was started quite some time ago by a women now in her eighties but is run by her daughter.

Tuesday and Wednesday Sharon had to go to work so I explored Melbourne by myself. Tuesday the weather was fine and it took me most of the morning arranging rail transport to Sydney via Canberra and the afternoon in the National Gallery.

Wednesday the skies opened up while I took a wrong turn exploring Sandringham on my way to the MetLinc station and what should have been a fifteen to twenty minute walked turned into a two hour trek. Yesterday was the day the heavens opened and they did it while I was walking. Let me just say that I had to take a bus to Aubry instead of the train because there was a washout on the track and freight train derailed and you will have an understanding of how heavily it rained.

It was great being with Sharon, Drew, Sandra and Carolyn. We had fish and chips at the beach just below their house, dinner at a neighbourhood Thai restaurant and lots of laughing and reminiscing about our jobs, our kids and just generally having a good time together.

Now I am on my way to Canberra, but will be arriving an hour later than planned it seems. It will leave me with not much time to see the capital of Australia tonight, but my train leaves at 11:55 tomorrow so I may get some sightseeing in during the morning.

Now I am in Canberra, but won’t get to see too much because I leave for Sydney about noon tomorrow. There was huge rainstorm yesterday in Victoria which left a section of track washed out and a freight train derailed so the train trip was changed to a bus, a train and then another bus. Hopefully the train to Sydney will be fine.

I did get a chance to walk around the area where I am staying and it looks pretty much like a government town. Hopefully I will see some more of it tomorrow before I head for Sydney at 11:55.

Queenstown to Oamaru

From Queenstown we headed for another Gay Farmstay at Poller View. Along the way we went through a town called Lawrence and stopped there for lunch. If I ever just disappear I may be in Lawrence. What an inviting place it was. Maybe that is were we should start our gay retirement village.

For this farm stay we were with Rob and Allen. Their farm was very different from Highgate Hill on the North Island. Poller View it was much flatter although they also have a large sheep, cow and pig operation. Rob gave us a tour of the farm and explained a great deal about how Allen was very conscientious about his farming practices and had been able to return previously depleted resources to their previous level of production and was planting large hedge rows to enable the livestock to weather the cold temperatures and winds more successfully.

He also took us through the whole process of shearing, and baling the wool, as well as how the breeding is managed, pregnancies detected, and lambing carried out. We also learned the difference between lamb, hodget, and mutton.

We had a wonderful dinner and another very quiet sleep. It is incredibly dark out in the country when there is no stars or moon visible. That should have been a warning of the weather for today.

Today, November 30, turned out to be mildly rainy and quite chilly. The drive from Poller View which is just north of Balclutha, to Oamaru was not as winding as has been our experience previously. Oamaru is the ninth largest town in New Zealand and was a major shipping point as well as processing and freezing mutton to the United Kingdom. Local limestone is the major building material and there are some very impressive buildings in town.

We arrived about mid afternoon and were not able to check into the YHA until 16:00 so toured the town. The harbor area is being redeveloped into an area for artists. Many of the building would be any artists ideal studio space. While there we also went to the Criterion Hotel for a beer. I did not drive today and as has happened the last few days when I was the passenger I was feeling car sick, so a half pint was all I had to drink.

We have had such good weather until now that I was not prepared for a cold, and rainy day. It helps a great deal to be traveling with Ron to keep the blues from setting in on me, as it has sometimes in the past when traveling alone. Tomorrow marks the end of three weeks that we have been away, and the time has gone quickly.

I have been reading the Bill Bryson book, A Sunburned Country, about Australia and although Bryson claims to love the country, he has presented all the reasons for not being there. I expect there to be animals, plants, bugs, and rip tides to be just waiting to get me as soon as I arrive. There is a box jellyfish just waiting for me to let down my guard and dip my toe in the warm south Pacific waters.

Graymouth to Queenstown

I am going to give the brief highlights and name the high spots of this journey from Graymouth to Queenstown. It seems to me that a blow by blow description is a little on the boring side to read, but my friend Gordon is plotting the trip on a map so I will mention geographic points for him to plot.

We left Graymouth four days ago, heading for Franz Joseph and the glacier. The roads are inevitably winding and the safety measures by Canadian standards are woefully inadequate. Guard rails are used only on the most death defying cliffs. There are, however, absolutely gorgeous vistas and scenery.

Our arrival at Franz Joseph was after at side trip up to Arthur’s Pass to see a viaduct on much the same dimensions as the newly constructed one just east of Golden, British Columbia. There is a small railway town called Otira, that is very similar to Field, British Columbia that is in about the same proximity as Field is to Golden. It is a little spooky thinking of two such similar situations on opposite sides of the planet.

The drive down to Franz Joseph was along highway six, as was the drive from Franz Joseph to Queenstown. The highlight for me was driving along a highway and looking out the window and realizing it was the Tasman Sea. It is one of those places I learned about as a kid and taught in school and never thought I would get to see it. We stopped so i could walk in the waters of the Tasman Sea. It is very cold.

It has been another very hot day today. Ron went off exploring and revisiting places in the area and I stayed in town, and did a little exploring, reading and laundry.

A little reflection here.

I feel more like a traveler and less like I am just on a holiday. Everything I come across is exotic in some regard. Some of our driving has been through “Scenic Nature Reserves”. Driving through a forest with a canopy of deciduous trees across the highway doesn’t happen in any place I have been in Canada. Looking at the horizon and seeing water meet the sky in colors of blue I do not remember seeing anywhere else is breathtaking.

Road trips are not my favorite way of seeing a country. I generally think of myself as an urban traveler, going from city to city in the most efficient way possible with little regard for what is going on in between. I have, however, seen things I would have totally missed had I been traveling in any other mode than by car through New Zealand, which is primarily an agricultural country.

Arthur's Pass viaduct

Terry in the Tasman Sea

Franz Joseph glacier

It has not changed my planning for future trips, but it has shown me a New Zealand I would never have seen otherwise.

Nelson to Graymouth

Nelson is a very nice little city, and is not quite as laid back as the town in British Columbia with which it shares a name. The Ah House B & B is owned by Mark and John, two English blokes who moved to New Zealand to be close to John’s son who moved back with his mother, a New Zealander. John mentioned that he was born in Kuwait. Ron has two nephews who were also born in Kuwait and as it turns out John knew them, but has not been in touch with them since they were kids. Ron sent his nephews an e mail with the information. Strange things happen when you are on the other side of the planet.

We have been lucky with live music on this trip. In Pahia we had a great jam session on the first Sunday we were here and on Tuesday night at the Vic, a pub in Nelson, it was Jazz Night with a live four piece combo to entertain us.

While in Nelson, we took in the museum where the major exhibition was about the trip from England to New Zealand by the early settlers. It is quite amazing that they made the four month trip and arrived with only a few deaths en route.

I also visited the Suter Art Gallery and a the Fibre Arts Studio, where I bought a skein of yarn made of 60% merino wool and 40% possum hair. The woman in the studio told me that the wool has to be plucked while the possum is still warm, which sounded quite grim to me. I had visions of this poor dead possum, being plucked like a chicken. That would be same animal the Beatrix Potter wrote stories about and made very appealing little water color paintings of. The woman in the fibre arts studio also said the best hair comes from the belly. It turns out possums are a scourge here. They are frequently seen as road kill and we were told that if you see one “just aim for it”.

We spent a lovely evening sharing a bottle of wine with our hosts last night and were up for breakfast at 09:00 and away before 10:00 on the winding roads. There was only one stop and it was at Punakaika also known as the Pancake Rocks. I am certain that to geologists the formations are significant for their composition and formation. They are certainly magnificent for their size, but as I said to Ron’ “They look like Walt Disney made them.”!

As we drove along the coast road the Tasman Sea came into view frequently. It is a magnificent and awesome body of water, with huge waves and long beaches, but we did not see anyone on the beaches, nor in the water.

We arrived in Graymouth, got our room at the YHA, and went out to find a beer. On what I presume was the main drag in town there was a TV crew on a corner setting up. While having a beer in the pub across the street the evening news came on TV and there was the reporter with talking about the mining disaster.

It seems quiet in Graymouth tonight. I don’t know if it is the circumstances surrounding the twenty nine miners deaths or if it is just a quite town, on a Thursday night.

millions of years of geological amazement or Walt Disney?

the Tasman Sea