Friday 15 February 2013
Australian Zoo North of Brisbane
This zoo became a reality through Steve Irwin's vision. Despite spotty weather we spent a delightful day here.
Thursday 7 February 2013
Paul's Wildlife Preserve, Kangaroo Island
This was definitely a high light of our trip. Being in close contacts with Kangaroos, Koalas and various reptiles.
Sunday 3 February 2013
Tuesday 25 December 2012
Merry Christmas To All
Mary and I just want to wish everyone a joyous Christmas. We are in Christchurch, New Zealand celebrating this beautiful country and this resilient city that is rising from the terrible city that hit this city in 2011.
Today we had a picnic in the beautiful botanical gardens.
Today we had a picnic in the beautiful botanical gardens.
Friday 21 December 2012
Wellington
Wellington
We had a long drive to Wellington and wound up taking a very windy longer route than the main route. We arrived right in the city at rush hour and because we'd come a different route than I'd planned we had no idea how to get to our hotel. Through some divine intervention I saw the right exit on the freeway and we managed to pull over about 1/2 a block away from the hotel and figure out how to get into their parkade on some incredibly narrow streets. Fortunately, I'd pre-booked a parking spot as we got the last one in the tiniest corner of narrow garage. We will ask for a smaller car like a Corolla when we pick up our new car in Picton after the ferry.
Our hotel seems to be very well located and we managed to find a relatively good Vietnamese restaurant a few blocks down the street. The next morning we got up and had a fantastic day of walking. We found a camera store where Richard bought a new flash card right across the street from where we caught the cable car up the hill to the Cable Car Museum & Botanic Garden. It was a gorgeous day and we were glad we got to the gardens early. There were a lot of paths we could have taken had we a whole day to explore, I'm sure the residents take advantage of this as it's a lovely free park. The main path was well marked with colourful (hot orange and pink) flowers printed on the pavement. We saw endangered species of trees, a huge rose garden, a large hot house filled with begonias and orchids, a succulent garden, a fern garden, a fragrance garden and a duck pond. There were also some pretty awesome views of houses nestled in the hills and the harbour.
The main path from the gardens took us through an old cemetery that had been split into two halves to build the urban expressway. I gather they relocated a lot of graves. Then we found ourselves right behind the parliament buildings and the law school. We saw an old pub called The Backbencher that looked like it has seen a lot of history. We saw some beautiful shops as we worked our way towards the harbour. Richard made me wait with him while a helicopter took off so we could get pictures. We were in some large park that had a large pond you could paddleboat on right next to the main museum Te Pap, also free. We passed a Sea Shepard boat called "Bob Barker" tied up on the wharf that was kind of entertaining to see. They were offering free tours but we had other things to see. The museum was open until 9 p.m. so we made our way to Cuba Street that Richard said I had to see.
I wasn't terribly impressed, it seemed like a grubby part of town where you could get overpriced skateboard gear (sorry Shael) but we did find a nice pub (Duke Carvell) where we had some citrus marinated tiger prawns and bruschetta (spelling?). We'd had power bars and apples in the gardens so this was a nice pick me up. We asked the nice waiters in the pub where all the homeless people were in NZ, did they have a better handle on the mentally ill and homeless people than we and the U.S. do? They assured us they were around and that we were at one of the spots that gets the late afternoon sun and the homeless tend to travel around following the sun and that there was a shelter and soup kitchen nearby. Back out onto Cuba and we did manage to find a few shops that interested me and I got some (late) Christmas presents for a few people (still haven't made it to a post office yet!). And lo and behold, we saw our first homeless person getting a ticket from the police.
Then we hiked back to the main museum and saw the colossal squid and a bit of Maori art and artifacts. We were pretty exhausted by then and agreed we'd already seen a lot of Maori history earlier in our trip so we made a stop at the (awesome) gift shop and picked up a few souvenirs.
We had seen (in my opinion a very overpriced) glassblowing studio just outside of Rotarura. They did have some lovely pieces that were interpretations of Huka Falls but I just couldn't see spending NZ$900 on a hunk of glass. They had them at the museum gift shop and they were the same price there so I guess some people do actually hand over that much money. Maybe if they'd ship it free, nah. On a side note, it did tickle my funny bone that someone had put duct tape over the G & the L on their glassblowing sign out on the highway.
We dragged our tired butts back to the area of our hotel at about 8 p.m. and had hoped to eat at a nice looking place across the street but it was closed so we decided to eat at Eclipse, the hotel bar/restaurant. They had a poker game going on in the back room for a $10 buy-in, it was very tempting but we were exhausted and I don't think Richard would have liked me playing poker until 2 a.m. The restaurant had a two mains (what we call entrees) for $30 so we each ordered a ribeye steak. They both came back rarer than we had ordered and I have to say it was the worst meal we've had in NZ and by far the worst steak I've ever had. Fortunately we've had some great beef while we've been here so I'm sure it was just a one off.
We had a fairly brilliant idea that maybe instead of driving like fiends once we finish seeing the south island that we should just fly from Wellington to Auckland and spend an extra day in each city.
After a good night's sleep we got up and hit the pharmacy and asked about a weird rash I have above my ankles, he thought an antihistamine should help but as it's not itchy or painful it's probably nothing. Then we hit two stores we'd seen near our hotel that were always closed when we left and came back each day! One had about 30 artists who all made jewelry and Richard bought me a Christmas gift and I found a few things I picked up. Then we went to a neat pottery store and bought a small vase that has a stylized tui on it. We'd spent more money than we planned so we came early to the ferry terminal and returned our car (they won't let you take it across the channel and we have to pick up a new one on the other side). Then I had an even more brilliant idea that rather than drive all the way back up the south island maybe we should fly from either Dunedin or Christchurch to Auckland. Ferry's here, we'll figure out our plans later tonight. Hope it's a smooth 3 1/2 hour journey!
We had a long drive to Wellington and wound up taking a very windy longer route than the main route. We arrived right in the city at rush hour and because we'd come a different route than I'd planned we had no idea how to get to our hotel. Through some divine intervention I saw the right exit on the freeway and we managed to pull over about 1/2 a block away from the hotel and figure out how to get into their parkade on some incredibly narrow streets. Fortunately, I'd pre-booked a parking spot as we got the last one in the tiniest corner of narrow garage. We will ask for a smaller car like a Corolla when we pick up our new car in Picton after the ferry.
Our hotel seems to be very well located and we managed to find a relatively good Vietnamese restaurant a few blocks down the street. The next morning we got up and had a fantastic day of walking. We found a camera store where Richard bought a new flash card right across the street from where we caught the cable car up the hill to the Cable Car Museum & Botanic Garden. It was a gorgeous day and we were glad we got to the gardens early. There were a lot of paths we could have taken had we a whole day to explore, I'm sure the residents take advantage of this as it's a lovely free park. The main path was well marked with colourful (hot orange and pink) flowers printed on the pavement. We saw endangered species of trees, a huge rose garden, a large hot house filled with begonias and orchids, a succulent garden, a fern garden, a fragrance garden and a duck pond. There were also some pretty awesome views of houses nestled in the hills and the harbour.
The main path from the gardens took us through an old cemetery that had been split into two halves to build the urban expressway. I gather they relocated a lot of graves. Then we found ourselves right behind the parliament buildings and the law school. We saw an old pub called The Backbencher that looked like it has seen a lot of history. We saw some beautiful shops as we worked our way towards the harbour. Richard made me wait with him while a helicopter took off so we could get pictures. We were in some large park that had a large pond you could paddleboat on right next to the main museum Te Pap, also free. We passed a Sea Shepard boat called "Bob Barker" tied up on the wharf that was kind of entertaining to see. They were offering free tours but we had other things to see. The museum was open until 9 p.m. so we made our way to Cuba Street that Richard said I had to see.
I wasn't terribly impressed, it seemed like a grubby part of town where you could get overpriced skateboard gear (sorry Shael) but we did find a nice pub (Duke Carvell) where we had some citrus marinated tiger prawns and bruschetta (spelling?). We'd had power bars and apples in the gardens so this was a nice pick me up. We asked the nice waiters in the pub where all the homeless people were in NZ, did they have a better handle on the mentally ill and homeless people than we and the U.S. do? They assured us they were around and that we were at one of the spots that gets the late afternoon sun and the homeless tend to travel around following the sun and that there was a shelter and soup kitchen nearby. Back out onto Cuba and we did manage to find a few shops that interested me and I got some (late) Christmas presents for a few people (still haven't made it to a post office yet!). And lo and behold, we saw our first homeless person getting a ticket from the police.
Then we hiked back to the main museum and saw the colossal squid and a bit of Maori art and artifacts. We were pretty exhausted by then and agreed we'd already seen a lot of Maori history earlier in our trip so we made a stop at the (awesome) gift shop and picked up a few souvenirs.
We had seen (in my opinion a very overpriced) glassblowing studio just outside of Rotarura. They did have some lovely pieces that were interpretations of Huka Falls but I just couldn't see spending NZ$900 on a hunk of glass. They had them at the museum gift shop and they were the same price there so I guess some people do actually hand over that much money. Maybe if they'd ship it free, nah. On a side note, it did tickle my funny bone that someone had put duct tape over the G & the L on their glassblowing sign out on the highway.
We dragged our tired butts back to the area of our hotel at about 8 p.m. and had hoped to eat at a nice looking place across the street but it was closed so we decided to eat at Eclipse, the hotel bar/restaurant. They had a poker game going on in the back room for a $10 buy-in, it was very tempting but we were exhausted and I don't think Richard would have liked me playing poker until 2 a.m. The restaurant had a two mains (what we call entrees) for $30 so we each ordered a ribeye steak. They both came back rarer than we had ordered and I have to say it was the worst meal we've had in NZ and by far the worst steak I've ever had. Fortunately we've had some great beef while we've been here so I'm sure it was just a one off.
We had a fairly brilliant idea that maybe instead of driving like fiends once we finish seeing the south island that we should just fly from Wellington to Auckland and spend an extra day in each city.
After a good night's sleep we got up and hit the pharmacy and asked about a weird rash I have above my ankles, he thought an antihistamine should help but as it's not itchy or painful it's probably nothing. Then we hit two stores we'd seen near our hotel that were always closed when we left and came back each day! One had about 30 artists who all made jewelry and Richard bought me a Christmas gift and I found a few things I picked up. Then we went to a neat pottery store and bought a small vase that has a stylized tui on it. We'd spent more money than we planned so we came early to the ferry terminal and returned our car (they won't let you take it across the channel and we have to pick up a new one on the other side). Then I had an even more brilliant idea that rather than drive all the way back up the south island maybe we should fly from either Dunedin or Christchurch to Auckland. Ferry's here, we'll figure out our plans later tonight. Hope it's a smooth 3 1/2 hour journey!
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