A few glimpses of Australia and New Zealand (today ...more photos to come))

 It was a fun, slightly damp, quick week in Australia followed by another in New Zealand.

Melbourne highlight was a 45 min trip to the southern point to Phillip Island to see the fairy penguins.

Cairns - a very rough trip by catamaran to the Great Barrier Reef- disappointing . 

Dinner the night before at Ochre- superb place.  We ate kangaroo!

Sydney-highlights- the Sydney Opera house tour and a relaxing dinner cruise to see the harbour at night while enjoying a spectacular meal. 

Downside… meeting in the hotel lobby this morning at 5:15 for a 9:10 flight.  We were given a horribly inadequate breakfast- but we survived lol!

 Air New Zealand seems a bit chaotic.  We did all get on board eventually.  The food was free given that this was an international flight. .. an okay breakfast with horrible coffee!

Queenstown, New Zealand is a beautiful ski resort town. It’s the beginning of winter and I was cold. Highlights: a long 12 hr outing to MilfordSound with photo stops along the way. We enjoyed a “cruise” of the sound and had a okay box lunch! Day two: an awesome luncheon cruise on the lake. Lunch was a “ BBQ” buffet at the farm was delicious but a bit rushed. Afterwards we took a drive to Arrow town. A little tourist trap but very cute. It was cold there!

Leaving at 8:00 am for the airport! Air New Zealand - good airline. In Auckland…. Before heading to the hotel we got a city bus tour of Auckland which seems like a lovely city. We got about 1and a half hours rest and then out for dinner at the top of the sky tour- great food and an awesome view! Bed early because we meet at 8 am. We got the “public” ferry to the island of Waiheke! It’s a 1/2 hour ride across the harbor.  Most of our group walked to the ferry but 5 of us did squish into a cab for a ride down to the docks. It was a cloudy chilly morning and wasn’t expecting this to be much!  Turned out I was wrong! The island is gorgeous and has its own micro climate plus the sun came out. We had a bus and a tour guide (Grant) to show us around.  Our first stop was at a small olive oil chalet called Allpress- beautiful place! I broke down and bought two bottles of oil and some manuka honey.  Then off to Stonyridge winery for a tasting of 3 nice wines by a pushy little Italian girl! I was not impressed! We then stopped for lunch and gelato…so relaxing to sit in the sun with an ocean view. The last stop was at Mudbridge -a winery (we tasted 3) okay wines but the place was so impressive!

Back to Auckland on the ferry and a taxi back up to the hotel! It was a very pleasant end to the Tour!

 Our farewell dinner was an odd, awkward meal! We were in a private room with 2 round tables … split the group very awkwardly! Ray, our tour leader, is not a natural host.  Food was not that great!

Everyone leaves for the tour extension to FIJI ( from the group chat I don’t think we missed much!) . We had a rest day!

Saturday-a free day in Auckland and I can’t remember what we did except rest! On Sunday, we got up early for a pricy taxi ride to the airport and off to Adelaide! 

After checking into the hotel, we walked to the university where the conference would be held!  Like Melbourne and Sidney, Adelaide has free trolley and bus service within the CBD - central business district.  Arie took the tram back and forth to the university that way. I took a foray out to the botanic gardens which is probably spectacular during the summer but just green during the winter. The identifying labels on everything were impressive!  The next day, I also took a wine tour to the Barossa valley. 10 people squished into a too small with a talkative tour guy and her dog. She could have benefited from a script because her information was much to random and all over the place! We did stop at 5 wineries -tastings at 4 of them! The valley produces a port of high quality that they must now call “tawny” -a fortified wine! Australia has some very good wines - a lot of Shiraz.

We found a restaurant we liked called the Strathmore hotel alas no hotel so it a mystery why it  has that name! The place was very busy and loud and served great food. (Our hotel had horrible meat pies!) The last night we went up to the second floor of the Strathmore, which was a bit fancier. We ordered platters served on very hot rocks. Arie got the seafood one ( prawns, squid, salmon and ?) and I got Aussie fare (crocodile, lamb, kangaroo and duck sausage.  Both were a lot of meat served with a side of corn . We each cooked our own food on our own hot (400° ) rock! It was fun last meal in Adelaide!

We got up early, packed and headed to the train station for  a 6:55 departure for Melbourne only to find out that the train had been canceled. Their internet had gone down the previous evening and the system was in chaos!  We were expecting a pampered 13 hr trip on the train …breakfast , lunch, tea, beverages etc  and instead were put on a cramped bus for 13 hours with a few snacks and bottled water and 3 stops at gas stations where food was available for purchase and there were 2 or 3 toilet stalls for 80 people! We were not impressed!

Two days in Melbourne? The Melbourne Zoo is awesome and easily accessible by tram! We had to go just to see a koala bear, a wombat, kangaroos, emus etc.  Sadly, the duck billed platypus was no where to be found! It was cold and windy but I think that beats it being too hot and sunny!

Victoria market was busy and large and Arie did not want to walk much! We ate at the food court where Arie bought something from a truck called El Habanero Taco and I got a bowl of Tibetan style chicken soup.  We were both happy with our choices. 

The city has a VERY diverse population as does the majority of Australian cities. Although everyone speaks English, I found it very hard to understand many people. At first I thought that was due to regional differences but I discovered that many, many people are immigrants whose first language is not English. 

While we were there the prime minister of the country of India, Narenda Modi, came to visit and the expat Indian community had a rally in his honor and 30,000 filled Marvel Stadium.  

It was a good trip! Lots of good memories!

The jet lag at our age was brutal haha!