From Hokey Pokey to Mister Whippy

There is just an inexhaustible supply of adventures when you travel with the Grants. As reported yesterday, we tasted a New Zealand favorite ice cream called Hokey Pokey. Today we experienced another treat courtesy of our new friends Betsy and Bert. More about that in a minute.

First, to bring you along, we traveled this morning from the resort town of Te Anau to the city of Queenstown, also a favorite vacation destination on the south island of New Zealand.

In an ongoing effort to help you understand how amazing the landscape is around here I’ve been trying out words. The best I came up with today to describe the scenery we viewed is ‘vast’. I’m posting a panoramic photo today to try and show you what I mean.

The air is so clear that you seem to be able to see forever and the combination of the large valleys and the rugged mountain ranges draw your eyes in an ever-sweeping motion. I’m beginning to understand how some people choose to live out in the middle of nowhere just to be a part of this landscape. It continues to be stunning.

During our 2.5 hour coach trip, our driver/local guide, Ian, educated us on the fine points of raising sheep as well as throwing in a bit here and there about cattle and deer farming. We learned that as an industry, sheep farming is down to about half of what it was 20 years ago. Today’s big thing is dairy farming. We still saw flock after flock of sheep that, because they have just been sheared, looked kind of naked. Cute, but you want to go find them a coat because they look cold.

Queenstown bills itself as the high adventure capital of New Zealand. You can sky dive, parasail, zorb (Google it), jet boat, zip line, bungee jump (it was invented here) and other things too scary to mention. We are going to be here for three days so if you want to offer up your suggestion as to which form of mayhem I should subject myself too, post a comment or send me an email. The winner, if convincing enough to get me to do it, will receive a valuable prize, or something made of possum fur.

For those people with too much sense to consider any of the activities above, like the Lady who sleeps safely next to me, there are several streets packed with fun shops to visit, although I don’t think she give prizes for suggesting a shop.

So, back to the ice cream adventure. One of our favorite travel activities with new friends is travel-adventure story telling. The stories are meant to induce horror or envy. Our friends Betsy and Burt (B&B) were telling us an envy story. On a trip to an auto-racing event in the English countryside, in the midst of torrential rains, they discovered a soft serve ice cream truck called Mister Whippy. This ice cream immediately vaulted into the category of ‘to die for.’ It was such a highlight of that trip that they wanted to see if they could repeat the adventure on this trip since they had learned that Mister Whippy was available in Australia and New Zealand. They’ve been on the lookout since our trip started but have been disappointed day after day. They identified one outlet in the suburbs of Auckland and planned to find it when we got to that city.

Imagine my surprise when, having been mightily impressed by the intensity of their (really Betsy’s) desire for a Mister Whippy, I rounded the corner on the streets of Queenstown and saw the sign pictured here. The Lady, who is always up for an ice cream, and I quickly searched and  found B&B and informed them of the discovery. Not withstanding the prospect of spoiling our dinner, we navigated quickly to the Mister Whippy location where B&B purchased a round for us all. I will say that Betsy did not oversell the quality and tastiness of Mr. W.  I, of course, was awarded the Gold Star for ice cream intelligence gathering and acute observation.

So, having experience both Hokey Pokey and Mister Whippy in a matter of two days, I guess its ok to offer up my body for a mortality testing high adventure in the next few days.

As for the Lady who used to think she could lift large suitcases, she is recovering nicely. Daily retail therapy seems to help. Finding a comfortable sleeping position still eludes her but a major dose of Advil provides some relief. As always, she presses on.

Oh, I almost forgot. When we got to our hotel this afternoon, I looked out of our window and saw it -- The Cloud, The Cloud, The Long White Cloud.

Too Awesome for Words

We traveled today to Fiordlands National Park and if the vistas get any more spectacular, I won’t be able to stand it. This is the New Zealand everyone talks about when they say, “You're not going to believe how beautiful the country is.” As it is, the sights we saw today almost defy description. But I’ll try.

It's not that I’ve not seen mountains, or valleys or waterfalls, but the combinations in close proximity that we saw today are unprecedented for me. The landscape is pristine and because of the relatively small population of New Zealand everything we saw was unspoiled. Our drive through the park lasted about two hours and there was a breathtaking view around every corner.

We made our way through the Park to Milford Sound for a lunch cruise. We learned that the Sound is misnamed. Because Milford was created by the action of a glacier, it is actually a Fiord not a Sound (that additional information is from Bert who helped me yesterday with the definition of ‘sound’). Sounds are created by the actions of a river. The mountains around Milford rise straight up out of the water in some cases as high as a mile. The boat’s skipper pointed out that these mountains have no top soil so the trees you can see entangle their roots together for support and if one tree falls, it can take down a chunk of the forest.

The cruise lasted about two hours and then we were back on the bus and returned to our hotel through the park.

The town of Te Anau where we are staying is a summer vacation spot. We arrived toward the end of the season so things were pretty quiet. We are at the Distinction Hotel, which the locals rate at five stars. I’d give it 2.5 but the Lady who has to put makeup on every morning and “do” her hair proclaims that this bathroom has the best lighting and mirror of any of our accommodations thus far on the trip. Priorities folks, its all about priorities.

Of course, after we returned from the morning’s tour we checked out the local shops. The most unusual items for sale that I noticed were clothing created with Possum Fir. This is a classic case of making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Europeans brought possums to New Zealand. Trouble is, they have no natural enemies here and left to their own devices, they have multiplied to choking proportions.  Credit some entrepreneur with the idea to kill them and use their fur to create clothing products. They also combine possum fur with Merino sheep wool to create even more exotic products. There is still an excess of possums around so eliminating them by any means is encouraged. Can you say “road kill extravaganza?”

After a lovely dinner at a local Italian restaurant, we sampled what is supposedly a New Zealand favorite – Hokey Pokey ice cream. And yes, it was so good, you really wanted to put your left foot in, take you left foot out, put your left foot in and shake it all about. You get the picture.

We head north tomorrow to the town of Queenstown where a number of adventures await us.

Living Like the 1%

Today is another travel day and its time to learn some New Zealand geography. NZ is made up of two large islands, conveniently named North Island and South Island. You with me so far? We have been staying in Wellington, which is at the south end of the North Island. Today, we first flew to Blenheim, which is at the north end of the South Island. I know its tricky but stick with me.

Our flight was unusual in that we were on a chartered plane. No security lines today. Our motor coach drove right onto the tarmac and stopped right that the bottom of the plane’s stairs. Our coach driver laid out the red carpet for us. This was a taste of what it must be like to be a part of the 1%. I must say I could get used to this. There also was no one counting or weighing baggage.

Now, to be completely transparent, we were not flying a jet aircraft. It was a twin engine Convair 580. Now this is what the 1% were flying in the late 1940’s . Still and all, it was a lovely trip, very smooth and since we only flew at 24,000ft, we could see much of the beautiful New Zealand landscape we passed over.

From Blenheim we took a short bus ride to the port town of Picton where we boarded a boat for a lunch cruise on Marlborough Sound. Since vacationing tends to focus my mind, I immediately realized that I really did not know what a “Sound” is. My new friend Bert inquired of the Captain and reported back that a Sound is a large body of water that is surrounded on two sides by land and gets shallower the farther into the area you go. A sound can have one or many bays which are protected inlets interior to the sound. I feel so much better now that I know.

We traveled into one of the Marlborough Sounds and visited a green-lipped mussel farm. That’s mussel, not muscle. No pecs and abs here. The mussel farm consists of long rows of rope suspended vertically in the water with growing mussels attached to the rope. Over a twelve month period they grow to maturity as the farmer periodically adjust the number growing on the rope to give each plenty of space. The areas selected for these farms have to be in locations that get sufficient tidal movement to keep plenty of fresh sea water flowing over the mussels.

There are also a number of salmon farms in the Sounds as well.

Our lunch consisted of fresh green-lipped mussels and fresh salmon, all cooked right on the boat. It was one of the best meals of the trip. I’ve not consumed a lot of mussels but I can certainly recommend ones from New Zealand. They are splendid. Now the Lady who is mostly vegetarian but does eat seafood could not be convinced to try the mussels even after a bit of wine consumption. Her loss is all I can say. However, she did quickly latch on to the dessert as you can see in the photo.

After lunch we re-boarded our charter aircraft and headed further south to Te Anau. Located almost at the bottom of the South Island, Te Anau is near the Fiordlands National Park which we will visit tomorrow.

And yes, you’ve heard it before. This is beautiful countryside. It’s lush and green with crystal clear air. Oh, yes, and traffic jams are defined as two cars arriving at an intersection at the same time. Not many folks around here (a total of 4.25 million in all of New Zealand) – but lots of sheep.

Talk to you tomorrow.

Wellington, New Zealand: Politics, Gardens, Long White Cloud, Wandering and A Playful Dinner

Wellington is the Capital of New Zealand. So it’s a government town with a slice of University thrown in. We started our day on a driving tour of the city as we made our way to the Parliament buildings. Unlike Parliaments in other former British colonies, New Zealand only has one chamber.  There are 121 members of Parliament, some representing geographical areas and some representing various political parties. Like many government complexes around the world, NZ has thing about people taking photos in their building. Now, mind you, there were cameras all throughout the building and we were told that Parliament sessions are fully televised, but we were not allowed to take any pictures. Go figure.

Also, due to other activities in the building, our tour was very brief (some might say mercifully). We did get to see the house chamber which looks like most legislative chambers you may have seen. Perhaps the most interesting area on the tour was the basement and the reason it was interesting had nothing to do with politics.

You may or may not recall that New Zealand has an earth-shaking problem. Earth shaking, you know, earthquakes. Wellington lies directly over a major fault. With respect to that, the populace is constantly shoring up buildings to help withstand the odd shake or two.

What we saw in the basement of Parliament House (built in the early 1900’s) were building isolators that will prevent ground movement during an earthquake from destroying the building. They installed isolation pads throughout the buildings foundation area and then essentially cut the original foundation away so that the building “floats” on the isolators. During a quake the building can shift from side to side on the isolation pads essentially allowing the earth to move under it without directly affecting the structure sitting on top of the pads. The technology, invented here, is being used around the world in earthquake prone areas.

Our tour continued with a cable car ride to the top of one of Wellington’s hills. Our guide pointed out that most of the houses we saw built on the side of the hills had no road access. Owners have to park at the bottom of the hill and walk up to their houses. Some residents have installed private cable cars up into their homes. This is truly a testament that if people want to live somewhere, they will build and live there. Even the fact that one day the earth may shake them all down to the bottom of the hill is no impediment.

We visited the Rose Garden in the city Botanical Gardens. Although we are at the end of the season (Winter starts in June) there were still many roses still blooming. At the edge of the rose garden is the Begonia House, a building totally dedicated to Begonias.

Last stop on our tour was the New Zealand national museum, Te Papa, a very modern and well-designed museum that presents exhibits of New Zealand’s past and present. A significant portion of the museum is given over to the Maori, the country’s indigenous people.

It was in the museum that I finally got some intel on the long white cloud thing. The phrase is attributed to Kuramarotini, wife of the legendary Pacific voyager, Kupe, on first sighting Aotearoa, New Zealand. She is quoted as saying  “A cloud, a cloud, a white cloud, a long white cloud!” So see, be careful what you say the first time you see something. People may be quoting you for centuries.

The tour ended at lunchtime and we were free to wander. The Lady who expects me to know everything ( I mostly do ) wanted to visit that area of “cute shops” the local tour guide pointed out during our city ride. The expectation was that I had paid attention and could get us back there. So, I expertly wandered us boldly around and eventually stumbled on to it. Downtown Wellington reminds me of 1950’s era US downtowns:  a grid of store-lined streets. Not a mall-like building in sight. Some older buildings had been renovated to enclose a series of shops but it was mostly street-level places of business.

Back in our hotel, we checked email, rested a bit and pondered dinner. Neither of us was super hungry so we headed for a nearby grocery store, shown in the photo above, where we constructed a playful dinner: garden salad and a bowl of pineapple and mango.

Tomorrow we head south to Blenheim and a visit to Marlborough Sound. The lunch menu is built around the famous green-lipped mussels & wine. The Lady who eats mostly salads is not real sure about this -- the mussels that is, she's ok with the wine. Maybe if she drinks enough wine she won't mind the mussels. Check back tomorrow for that exciting episode.

The Play’s the thing, and on to the 'Land of the Long White Cloud'

When last we visited, I begged your pardon for not giving you a full accounting of the day so I could get to bed and prepare for a very early flight. Thank you for that.

So, about the evening. We had a light bar-food dinner at the oldest pub in Sydney, the Lord Nelson. The bars around Sydney are hopping places in the early evening and Lord N’s was no exception. 

After dinner and a twenty-minute walk back to the waterfront, we attended the Drama Theatre at the Sydney Opera House (there’s that name again) for a play called “Noises Off.”

It is a classic British farce involving lots of cast members running wildly around a two-story set with many doors.

The premise of the show is that we are watching a traveling theatre company first as they rehearse for an initial performance, then a second time about half way through the multi-city run and then a third time at the final performance.

The set up: A real estate agent brings his ‘girlfriend’ to a house his company is managing and he thinks no one is there. Unfortunately for him, the housekeeper is there at the beginning and soon the couple that owns the home unexpectedly returns as well. About two-thirds the way through the play a burglar breaks in and at some point we learn that he is the father of the real estate agent’s girl. All of these people are running in and out of doors, just missing each other and wondering why things keep moving or disappearing.

As you might imagine, the performance get hilariously ragged when it is presented the second and third times. During the second performance, we learn about the various ‘relationships’ that have developed among the actors (and resulting jealousies that occur) and in the final performance we see the actors actively trying to torpedo each other during the performance. Of course cues are missed and lines are forgotten or adlibbed. Since we have seen the play twice now, we know what should be said and when things go wrong. You can’t help but laugh but also don’t want to laugh so hard that you miss anything.

One interesting wrinkle in the staging is that for the second ‘performance’, the set is turned around on stage and the audience sees what goes on back stage with the actors continuing to present ‘out front.’ It just gets crazier and crazier making it funnier and funnier.

All in all, it was a delightful evening at the Sydney Opera House (name dropping concluded, for now).

Today started with a 4:45 am wake up call, not good on any continent or day. We headed to Sydney Airport at 6:45 in the ever-pouring rain. We had to process out of Australia and process in to New Zealand and because of NZ strict entry procedures, this time we had to handle our own bags.

Trouble was brewing when we retrieved our bags from the carousel – they were very wet. It would seem that they sat out in the open on the tarmac in Sydney for some time. The Lady who washes my clothes and takes extra care of hers was not amused. Her luggage was soaked through to several layers of clothes inside. Quantas does not get even a ½ Star rating from her. It didn’t help matters that all of my stuff was bone dry. You know, misery loves company.

In spite of all that, we are delighted to be in New Zealand. Wellington, the capital where we landed today, is a beautiful place. It is surrounded by lush green hills with houses dotted all over. We are staying at a small boutique hotel right on the waterfront where we have a great view of the harbor.

We were treated to a welcome dinner here in the hotel. What did I have, you ask? Beef Wellington, of course. I asked, and learned, that the dish was not invented here but they claim it and have made it a signature dish in the hotel restaurant. That works for me.

Now about that ‘Long White Cloud’ thing. I don’t know why New Zealand is called that but you can be assured it is on my list of questions to ask tomorrow. I will dutifully report back to you in tomorrow evening’s post.

A Free Day

Photo above: View of the Opera House from our hotel. Today is not really over but I’m going to do one of those journalistic things like writing someone obit before they die. That’s because we are attending play tonight at the Sydney Opera House (name dropper, I know) and it is going to be way late when we get back to the hotel. Add to that the fact that we leave for the airport at a thoroughly disgusting 6:45 am leaves me unmotivated to write today’s blog at the end of the evening.

But don’t despair. I’ll fully report on our fashionable attendance with the Austrialian hoi polloi at the Sydney Opera House (See that. Got that name in again.) It will just be one of those time-delayed things.

But about today. Today was a “Free Day.” If you think about it, it is quite clever of the tour companies to lure you at substantial cost half way round the world and then say, “Alright then, sort your own selves out for a day.” Right profitable for them, I’d say.

But the jokes on them. I am delighted to have this day. I hope you’ve been able to feel the exhausting pace we’ve been keeping. It was so nice to arise at a reasonable hour, have a leisurely breakfast and then proceed with absolutely no planned activities.

Today was special because of our visit with a friend we made in earlier travels. One of the wonderful unintended consequences of world travel are the people you meet. In 2010 when we were on a Baltic cruise, we met Audrey Penney who is from New Zealand.  When we realized that we would be passing near her home in Nelson, we began to plot a way to have a face-to-face visit. Now, popping in to see her is like being in Atlanta and popping in to see someone in Asheville. Not really that easy. And as it turned out, we were not going to have enough free time to pull it off. Dash it all! In subsequent email correspondence, Audrey said that since we were not going to be able to get together, she now planned to visit her daughter and grandchildren in Sydney. Bingo! Turned out that she would be in Sydney when we had our free day.

So, Audrey took a ferry in from North Sydney and we had a lovely visit. We caught up on all our travel stories and talked to her about the areas we will be seeing in New Zealand. It was perfect.

The remainder of the day until know was spent wandering. Downtown Sydney is a perfect place to wander. Just across from our hotel is the Botanic Garden so we strolled through part of it.

Now we are getting ready to attend the performance at the Sydney Opera House (Three times. Brilliant!) We are joining Bert and Betsy for dinner at Lord Nelson’s Pub and the performance.

So, for now that’s it. I’ll get back to the keyboard during the flight tomorrow to Wellington, New Zealand. Talk to you later.

Yummmm! Sydney Tastes Good

An almost perfect vacation day – eating our way through another international city. More about that later.

First thing this morning we headed 25 miles into the Sydney suburbs for a visit to the Featherdale Wildlife Park. Opened in 1972, the park covers seven acres and contains a wide variety of Australian wildlife.

The highlight of our visit was the opportunity to be up close and personal with iconic wildlife species: Koala and Wallaby.

Koalas are champion sleepers. With their sharp claws and compact bodies, they snuggle into the fork of a tree and rest on. With the help of one of the park’s trainers we had our picture taken with a Koala that was mostly awake. To say that he or she was basically unimpressed with us is an understatement. We were tolerated long enough to snap several photos. Cute, right? No, not the Koala, us!

From Koalas we moved to the Wallaby enclosure. In there we were able to hand feed some of the several dozen of these small creatures. They look like miniature kangaroos but the difference is

that Wallabies have a long pointed snout instead of the short stubby snout of a kangaroo. We were given an ice cream cone full of grass to feed them and were told to pour a little into our palm and reach down to their level and let them eat out of our hand. They responded immediately and especially like it when all the grass was gone and we fed them pieces of the cone. Their coats are very hair like and quite coarse. The Lady who never gets her hands dirty even fed a couple.

We continued walking around the park and saw wombats, kangaroos, a tasmanian devil, and an amazing array of wild birds. It was a fun experience to learn a little more about those very native Australians.

We left the park and headed back into town for our foodie tour but with one short detour.

We visited the site of the 2000 Summer Olympics and heard the story of how the Aussies presented a very profitable set of games. For example, the athletes’ housing was constructed in such a way that the units could easily be converted into apartments with kitchens after the games. The entire athletes’ village was pre-sold to locals so, in effect, were entirely paid for before the games even began. Several of the large venues were designed with removable sections that were sold to surrounding communities, disassembled after the games, and re-assembled in new locations. The remaining venues are in constant use now for sporting and other special events. Much of the Olympic site is now populated by mid-rise office buildings and has a bustling daytime population. Very impressive.

Now on to this Foodie Tour. We were able to visit five neighborhoods around Sidney and to sample foods that attracts Sydney locals.

The first was the P.R. Raineri Deli, an authentic Italian deli which has been around Sydney for the last 35 years. Peter and Sarina Raineri, now in their 80’s still run the place. We samples antipasto dishes including olives, cheeses, bread and cured meats. Our entire bus crowded in and pigged out. The samples were delicious.

Next we headed to the Sydney Fish Market which overnight and into the early morning functions as a wholesale market and during regular daylight hours becomes a retail fish market. There, after a quick tour around the building, our guides set a table for us with oyster, prawns, calamari, fried fish and some fresh fruit. Talk about fresh seafood - this was the best.

To cleanse our palate, we next visited Messina Gelato in the Darlinghurst neighborhood. Messina daily offers over 40 unique varieties of gelato. The Lady who thinks gelato is close to heaven had one called “Carimino” which included salted caramel with fudge, meringue and almond biscotti. To die for, she proclaimed. I had the “Slab” which was a light peanut butter gelato with chocolate covered peanuts. Yummmm.

With palates well cleansed we moved on to Harry’s Café d’Wheels, a food cart emporium of famous Australian meat pies. While the Lady initially protested and wanted to have another Messina gelato instead, she eventually chose a Harry’s vegetarian pie and managed to do great damage to it while thoroughly enjoying herself. The individual pies are topped with mashed potatoes, peas and gravy and are served piping hot. I sampled the bacon and cheese pie with great gusto.

Finally, what foodie tour would be complete with out a sampling of Aussie Beer. We moved to the Old Fitzroy Hotel in the district of Woolloomooloo (Aussie children learn to spell Woolloomooloo in the same we learn to spell Mississippi). Garry, the owner, gave us a quick history of this pub, one of the oldest in Sydney and then served samples of three locally brewed beers and explained what in the brewing process was changed to create each unique taste. It was a fun ending to great eating experience.

Tomorrow is a free day and the Lady and I will be having lunch with Audrey Penney, a friend we made on our 2010 trip to the Baltic. We are very excited to see her again.

Super Sydney, Day 1

Our day started by pondering the question, “What does it take to get 42 reasonably intelligent adults to pose for a group photo?” I thought for a moment that the photographer was going to throw down his camera and run away screaming. We adults are so used to giving directions, we tend not to listen carefully and respond to directions.

Having finally accomplished this task we went straight away for a tour of the Sydney Opera House. What a magnificent piece of architecture, which we learned almost didn’t happen. A late arriving judge to the competition insisted on retrieving one entry that had already been rejected by the other panel members. You guessed it. It was the iconic building now known around the world.

Also, talk about woefully bad estimates. Originally, the building was projected to cost $7 million and take three years to complete. It eventually cost over $100 million and took 14 years to complete. The architect, Jørn Utzon of Denmark, who conceived this edifice, never actually saw the building completed. Early during the construction a new government was elected and it had significant differences with him and refused to continue to pay him. He tendered his resignation, the government accepted and he went back to Denmark never to return to Australia. In 1999 the New South Wales government convinced Utzon to help in some modifications and improvements to the site which were then supervised by his son, Jan Utzon. So in the end, he received some well-deserved recognition for his work.

In most photos of these buildings it is difficult to tell that the roof is covered in small square ceramic tiles, some white and some beige. Now, if you need something for your next trivia competition, I can tell you the number of ceramic tiles that cover the sail like roofs. There are 1,056,006 tiles, exactly.

We also learned that the two concert halls are separate structures built inside the outer concrete shells. Most of their construction is with wood that contributes to the amazing acoustics in the performance spaces. There are also three small theaters on the ground floor of the building, one of which we will visit on Wednesday night for a performance of the play, Noises Off. You can expect a full report.

Next we boarded a boat for a lunch tour of Sydney Harbor. This really is not fair. Who could concentrate on eating while all the interesting parts of Sydney were passing by? I finally gave up and hit the deck with my camera. Even thought the weather was cool and rainy, the sights were great. The water views of the Opera House and the Harbor bridge were award winning.

After lunch we got back into our bus and toured a number of neighborhoods around Sydney. We went as far as the famous Bondi Beach, which you may recall was the inspiration for the egg shaped Macintosh G3 with the bright blue plastic case. Today, however, we did not see much blue water.

Upon returning to our hotel the Lady, who is working to get back to top form, wanted to strike out for the Opal store. After wandering a bit, we found it and while she shopped I sat nearby with my fingers crossed and wished her away from the locked display cabinets that held the really expensive stuff. My mental telepathy worked well and we soon departed with the credit card intact. She found much more reasonable merchandise at a boutique in the hotel and she is Opal proud and satisfied for the moment.

To cap off the day we had dinner at the O Bar, a revolving restaurant high atop downtown Sydney. Not only were the views spectacular, the food was exceptionally good -- and the company of two other couples from our tour group made it a special evening.

Tomorrow we visit a wild animal park and participate in a foodie tour. That should give me a lot to chew on for tomorrow’s installment.

Rock of Ages

Today, our education about Uluru continued. Yes, we continued to battle the flies but the stories we heard and the places we walked were so absorbing that we just forgot about the flies. Not surprisingly, after my post yesterday several of you gentle readers wanted to know when the picture of the Lady in her fly net would be published. I’ve got to hand it to her. Only she could make a $1.75 fly net look like a valued fashion accessory. Am I lucky to be traveling next to her or what?

So back to the history lesson.

Uluru is the traditional Aboriginal name for the formation we also know as Ayers Rock. This solid sandstone outcropping is just under 1200 ft high and has a circumference of about six miles.

Uluru has special significance to the Aboriginal people and has hosted their ceremonies for thousands of years. In 1985, the Australian government returned ownership of Uluru to the local Pitjantjatjara Aborigines, with one of the conditions being that they would lease it back to the National Parks and Wildlife agency for 99 years and that it would be jointly managed.

There are special areas around the Rock that are set aside for women’s rituals and men’s rituals and we were asked not to photograph these. We learned that the Aborigines are a matriarchal society with mostly spoken language and that people of advanced age are highly respected (I really like that).  While people do climb the rock, it is discouraged due to the cultural significance as well as the danger. Over the years more than 30 people have died in climbing accidents.

One very interesting fact about Aborigines is that they do not use numbers extensively. As a matter of fact, they only have words for numbers up to three. There is one, two, three and "more than three." They find no need for other numbers. This is not a good place to be a math teacher.

Their history and culture is passed on between generations with songs and stories. They also enforce a strict code that demands individuals marry outside their tribes. Our guide Leroy (pronounced Lee’roy) told us this practice has the dual benefit of preventing problems of inbreeding and creates family ties between tribes that reduce intertribal violence. The Aborigines have had no wars.

If you think all these things make this a strange people -- be reassured that they think exactly the same about us. So there!

We took our leave midday and began our journey to Sydney.  The Uluru airport is a compact place with a grand total of two gates. Security was 21^st century but surprisingly there was no “liquids” restrictions, no requirement to remove shoes and only laptops had to be removed from carry-ons. Sort of a pre-check light. I was however singled out for an explosive residue swabbing. They must have sensed my dynamite personality.  Fortunately, the only residue they found was “eau de flies” so I was allowed to proceed.

After having our boarding passes scanned we exited the building onto the tarmac then proceeded to walk a quarter-mile to the plane. It was the only plane at the airport so it is exceedingly unclear why it was parked in the next state. Perhaps our required walk was part of the Ayers Rock wellness program or just to give the flies one more shot at us.

We arrived in Sydney in the early evening and were greeted by a Sunday night traffic jam. We finally arrived at our hotel, the InterContinental, about 7pm.  We are living large. Out of our 14^th floor window, we have a clear view of the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the back of the famous Sydney Opera House.

Tomorrow we begin our three-day exploration of Sydney. Hope you will come along with us.

Getting there is ALL the fun!

If there is truth to the adage that getting there is half the fun, then we’ve had fun galore today.  Plan “A” involved a wake up call at 4 am, breakfast at 5 am, and on the bus to the airport at 6 am for a 7:30 am flight. We did the 4 am thing, which was to my mind totally disagreeable. But when we got to the 5 am thing, we were told that the 7:30 am thing had been cancelled and that we were not leaving for the airport until 9:45 am. Oh, and also, the replacement for the 7:30 am direct flight to our destination would now be a two-flight trip. See how much fun this is. It’s always that way with plan “B.”

The Lady who is beginning to make a recovery from her back and stomach troubles was delighted to have some extra time to delve into a mountainous stack of emails so she could set the Georgia PR world right. I just had another cup of coffee or two and admired the continuous downpour outside the open-air restaurant. There is not going to be any kind of water shortage near Cairns any time soon.

So, you may ask, where were we headed for all this fun? We were traveling today from the depths of the Queensland jungle to the Northern Territory desert and the famous Ayers Rock. So instead of a direct flight from Cairns to Uluru, we flew first to Alice Springs. Now to give you and idea of the size and complexity of the Alice Springs airport, when we landed and the pilot reached the end of the runway, he simply turned the plane around on the runway and used it as a taxiway – because there was no taxiway.

The Alice Springs terminal was precious, and about the size of Gate A32 at Hartsfield Jackson. We deplaned to wait for the arrival of our connecting flight to Ayres Rock. About 25 minutes after we entered the terminal, they called our next flight. We exited the terminal and headed out on the tarmac. The aircraft looked vaguely familiar. It should. It’s the same plane we just arrived on. But now we had completely new boarding passes and new seats. These Aussies are so clever.

So it was back in the air for the 30-minute flight to Ayers Rock.

We are staying at the Sails in the Desert Resort, a 5-star hotel. Compared to some of the other accommodations we passed on the way in, it might rate 7 stars. It really is quite lovely and could easily be characterized as an oasis.

We also received a bonus fashion accessory this morning. See photo at right. Is being veiled part of the outback culture? No, not really. What the Northern Territory Chamber of Commerce does not advertise are the well-established residents of the area: flies. Lots and lots of flies. In your mouth, up your nose, in your ears flies. You move about at your peril without this head net.

But this is a small price to pay for the magnificence of Ayers Rock. We motored to a special viewing area to watch the sunset on the Rock. At our viewing site the tour company had prepared a table of Champaign, canapés, and other goodies. So, we sipped bubbly and watched the sun go down across the Rock. It was stunning.

Tomorrow we will visit the rock and walk about to learn more of the Rock’s history and significance to the indigenous peoples of the Outback.

Ayers Rock at sunset

In the tropical rain forest

Cairns (pronounced Cans) is in the tropical region of northern Australia. If we didn’t know it before we know now because of the torrential rains we have observed. Since we arrived here on Wednesday (it’s now Friday) there has been almost 8 inches of rain. It now makes sense that our little cabin is in the midst of a lush green jungle.

Part of our group took a hot air balloon ride this morning. The Lady and I passed on this experience since it involved leaving the hotel at 4 am and riding an hour to the launch site. This for a 20-minute balloon ride with no guarantee of vistas to view due to the rain storms in the area. I’ll save that experience for another time.

At a more civilized 10 am,  we visited a tropical rain forest in the Barron Gorge National Park and learned a lot about how plants survive and thrive. It’s very cut throat. Our Ranger told us that plants do every thing they can to reach sunlight even if it means killing the host plant that helps it. We took a five-mile gondola ride above the rain forest and it was easy to see plants that had grown up and over trees in order to reach the top of the canopy. One interesting factoid is that in the rain forest, the pine trees have broad flat leaves instead of the needles with which we are accustomed.

Our visit included three walks through portions of the forest. At one point we observed a “young” tree said to be over 500 years old. This type of tree protects it self from other plants by periodically sloughing off its outer layer of bark.  That way plants can’t cling to or grow on its trunk.

 After the Rain Forest tour we visited the former 60’s hippie enclave of Kuranda, now a thriving artist’s community. As a mark of authenticity, we saw several people who could have come directly from Haight Ashbury and then there was the fellow who strolled around town playing his ukulele.

The Lady with the bad back struggled today. The medicine the Doctor gave her for pain just made her nauseous.

But, she presses on.