Pleasant Times in Perth

Monday through Thursday - March 26 to 29

We love the transportation system here. The train station is a 20-25 min walk or 5 min drive from the house and we can get a senior all day ticket for about $2.40 US which is good on all trains, buses and ferries. It's just 25 min on the train to downtown Perth. From there we can take other trains or buses to just about anywhere local.

On our first trip to town, we took 3 different bus routes around downtown just to get an overview. Then we walked around the center and found a wonderful food court with an overwhelming number of food stalls to choose from. I spotted some sushi that looked fabulous. It's not John's thing but they also had some cooked Japanese dishes that looked good to him so that is what we decided on and it was a delicious choice. I have not had a lot of sushi in the past but this was certainly the best I've had so far.

We had done our grocery shopping on Monday so I have been doing a little cooking in the evenings. There is a great gas BBQ out side and nice outdoor spaces in which to eat. We're very comfortable in our Joondalup house.

Across the street from our house is a regional park with a lake. We did a 2 1/2 hr walk in both directions and enjoyed it very much - very different trees and shrubs from what we are used to. We did not see a lot of different birds but there is a crow-like, huge black bird that is very vociferous - we hear and see them everywhere. There's another large black and white bird we also see - a type of magpie. We haven't seen any kangaroos yet but I'm sure they are around. There is a drought here and much of the terrain is brown and dry. It's quite a contrast from very green New Zealand. That may be why we are not seeing a lot of wildlife.

Yesterday we took the train (2 of them) to Fremantle - called "Freo" by the locals. It's a charming seaside town with interesting architecture located just down the road from Perth - two 25 min train rides from the house. We first took a bus all around the town for an overview and then had lunch at the fishing boat docks. The restaurant had beautiful fresh seafood of every kind and was well known for its fish and chips. So, that's what we had except that I had a combination of fish, shrimp, scallops and squid - all fresh and delicious. John had Red Snapper and chips and it was wonderful too. I wish I had taken a picture of their fresh fish counter - everything was so beautifully arranged and colorful - a work of art. After lunch we set off on a section of the walking tour and stopped in King's Square to wander through a market of artisan stalls which they have every Thursday. We also stopped at a jewelry store specializing in opals. They were very beautiful but VERY expensive. We just looked. We really appreciate the availability of excellent tourist brochures and maps - makes it easy to get around and see everything.

Today we plan to check out the local beach. The weather should be quite nice for a walk there.

The Flight and First Day in Joondalup (Perth)

Friday, March 23, 2007

It's time to head for Auckland and our flights to Perth. Since we have to be at the airport by 3:30 a.m. on Saturday, we booked a motel close to the airport. We were able to arrange to leave the rental car at the motel for pick up by the rental company and take the shuttle to the airport only 5 min. away. We had a simple dinner next to the motel and retired very early in order to get a decent night's sleep. Well, we didn't sleep very well thinking about getting up at 3:00. Everything went well checking in and boarding the plane. They served a decent hot breakfast and we tried to doze a bit. The flight was about 3 1/2 hrs. and I watched "Dreamgirls" which was very entertaining. Our plane arrived on time in Melbourne in the rain. We stood in line quite a while to have our documents checked and then we had to pick up our luggage and there was a problem because there were a lot of international flights arriving at the same time. We waited 45 minutes just to get our luggage and ours was about the last to arrive - nerve racking, to say the least. Fortunately, since we had nothing to declare (darn, I had to leave the nice seashells I found on the beach behind because I would have had to declare them). Luckily, we were waved through without an inspection. There was no easy way to check our baggage through. We had to haul it to domestic departures and check in with Qantas again - standing in line. Oh well, we still made our connection to Perth in time. This was a 4 hour flight and they served a nice lunch and showed a movie which turned out to be "Dreamgirls". Oh well, I tried to sleep but since it was now late morning, I wasn't able to but I had a good book to read.

Our plane arrived on time in Perth but there were no gates open so our plane sat on the tarmac for 45 minutes. At baggage claim we found our home exchangers' daughter, Kym, there to pick us up. We really appreciated this because by now we felt a little like zombies. The ride to Joondalup was less than 1/2 hour. The house was very nice and we quickly settled in. We were too tired to go out and buy groceries but our hosts very kindly left a meal in the freezer for our first night and a nice bottle of wine. We stayed up as long as we could which wasn't very long. On top of the time zone changes (3 hrs) we had an additional hour to deal with because this night was the end of daylight savings time. I fell dead asleep on the sofa watching TV at something like 7:00. We woke up and went to bed probably around 8:00. Unfortunately, we were wide awake at 4:30 a.m. Well, at least we got 8 hours of sleep. After breakfast, which our hosts also kindly provided, we took a walk around the neighborhood. Joondalup is a northern suburb of Perth - about 15 miles north of the city center. It's very close to the beach and relatively new. The streets and walks and green areas are very clean and pleasant. The architecture of the area looks sort of English. After our walk we made out our grocery list and jumped in the car to go shopping. We easily found our way to the nearby mall and guess what, all the stores here are closed on Sundays. So, while we were there, we checked out the commuter train station for schedules, fares, etc. While we were reading the signs a woman in a security uniform asked if she could help us. She gave us all the information we needed and we found that the train is a great way to go and very inexpensive. There is also a local free bus to tour around Joondalup. We asked her if there were any restaurants nearby and she directed us to an area down the street that had a lot of restaurants and thankfully, most were open on Sundays. She particularly recommended Paddy Malone's, owned by friends of hers. We headed there and had a very English dinner called "Sunday Roast" consisting of roast beef, carrots, peas, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, Yorkshire pudding and gravy. It was all delicious.

The weather was lovely - not a cloud in the sky and warming up quickly to something that felt like 80 degrees with no humidity - a lot like San Miguel.

Our good friend Ed in Kansas City has a daughter living in the Perth area. She and her partner run an establishment in the Swan Valley - only about 1/2 hr from here. They call it "Chapel Farm" and it is a restaurant and event facility - they cater a lot of weddings and other parties there. They've been working on adding overnight accommodations and are having their grand opening on Tuesday. We were invited and since it is at night, we thought we would drive out there today so we were familiar with the area. I got directions from Myra and Google Maps and off we went. It turned out to be quite easy to find and Myra gave us a quick tour of their charming facilities. They were getting ready for a wedding to be held that evening. So, we headed down the road to take a look at some of the wineries which Swan Valley is famous for. We stopped at the Houghton Winery which John had read something about. The facilities were beautiful and the wines we sampled - just a few since John needed to keep his wits about him driving - were very nice and reasonably priced, we thought. We bought a White Burgundy, a Chardonnay Verdelho and a Merlot for later consumption. We decided that we would be back to this area so just made a nearby stop at a rum distillery. Who would have thought that we would find a rum distillery here - but I sampled a couple of rums - one was 51% alcohol. They were made from cane sugar and surprising good. We purchased a pint of the standard 37.5% rum and headed for home.

Last Days in Pauanui

Wednesday and Thursday we didn’t do a whole lot. It would have meant more driving for John to explore other parts of Coromandel Peninsula so instead we did some walking locally. There is a small wetlands area in Pauanui with a pleasant “boardwalk” which we did and also on the beach on the Pacific – just absolutely gorgeous – wide and very fine white sand. This time of the year it was almost totally deserted – just a few hardy souls actually in the water – we were not among them.

On Thursday I decided to take the hike up Pauanui Mountain – not really a mountain but that’s what they call it. The sign said it was 1 ½ hrs to the top. but someone else heading up ahead of me said it wasn’t really that long. The sign also said “only for experienced, fit walkers”. I decided I was up to it and I really wanted to get up there for the view so up I went. It started out pretty easy but got quite steep and rocky the farther I went. Unfortunately, I did not have hiking shoes/boots – just running shoes with somewhat worn out tread. I got up to a point where there was a great view and decided to turn around there because my traction just wasn’t good enough for the trail – darn! I did get some nice pictures, though with a view of all of Pauanui and the beautiful beach. Back at the trail head there were a couple of short walks along the beach to a stony cove which was quite beautiful – so I did that. I had just enough time to walk on the deserted beach then before John returned to pick me up. You’ll be able to see the pictures I took on my web albums page.

Friday we headed to Auckland to return our rental car and spend part of the night in a motel – we have to be at the airport by 3:30 a.m. for our 5:35 a.m. departure to Melbourne and Perth. Ugh!

Hot Water Beach

Tuesday, March 20 – It’s another beautiful, sunny day with mild temperatures – perfect for our day trip to Hot Water Beach. This gorgeous beach on the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula has an unusual spot where natural hot water pools are very close to the surface. For two hours before and after low tide, you can dig your own hot tub in the sand. We took our time driving to the beach and stopped at another beach just to enjoy the scenery. Low tide would be at about 2:30 so the best time to be at the hot water beach was 12:30 to 4:30. We arrived a little early but there were quite a few people heading down the beach with their spades so we followed along. It was only a short walk along a beautiful beach before we arrived at the hot beach area. John started digging as did everyone else – no hot water yet and it seemed that most others were not finding hot water either. Well, we were early and there were no instructions as to where exactly to dig. As the tide continued to move out, we tried another spot – still no hot water. We started checking out what others were doing and found that just next to us, a family had dug a wide depression and were all enjoying the hot water. Walking on the sand in front of them we found it was hot – VERY hot. So we dug in there and soon had our little shallow hot tub. The water was so hot that we had to expand the depression to include a cooler area of the sand to blend with the super hot water. Even just standing in the hottest water was impossible - well over the temperature of the hottest of hot springs.

As I was sitting in the shallow hot water, a German lady came by and asked if she and her husband could share our pool. Her husband then came with his spade and he and John dug a little more. Eva and Dietmar, a retired professor of physics, were from Kassel, Germany and were near the end of a four month journey around New Zealand. . When they arrived in NZ, they bought camping equipment, tents, sleeping bags, air mattresses, cooking gear, etc. and have been camping for nearly four months. We told them about home exchanging and they are now very keen to try it themselves. I think they have probably had enough camping for a while but it certainly enabled them travel around the country inexpensively and they were able to see a lot – and escaped Germany’s cold winter months. We had a very pleasant visit with them and John had a chance to practice his German, although both Eva and Dietmar spoke English. We exchanged email addresses and will hope to keep in touch with them.

We drove up the coast a little farther to Cooks’ Beach and then headed back to Tairua where we stopped for a very late lunch.

I’ll post pictures of Hot Water Beach next week after we arrive in Perth.

Voyage to Tairua

Monday in Pauanui

The title of this blog is a little joke – the “voyage” was a ferry ride of 10 minutes across the bay from Pauanui to the little tourist village of Tairua. We started the day rather early because daylight savings time ended in New Zealand this morning so we were wide awake before by 6 a.m. We needed to get tourist info from the tourist information center but it wasn’t open until 10:00. We knew there was a ferry but not the times and took a ride over there and no signs. So, we went back home and I figured out how to use the Espresso machine and made us some cappuccino – it turned out great! So then we did a little spin around Pauanui – that didn’t take long as it is only about 2 miles long by a mile wide – (just a guess). We finally got to visit with the very helpful lady at the info center who gave us lots of brochures and suggestions. We found out that the next ferry was leaving at 11:15 so we were on it heading for Tairua. It was pleasant, not exciting, and we walked the little Main St. – checked out the gallery and gift shops and had lunch – BLT pannini sandwiches which were excellent. Bacon, by the way, is quite different from what we are used to, but very good. Walked some more, sat on a bench by the shore and watched the seagulls. Headed home on the 3:00 ferry. The weather is absolutely the best! A little windy but blue skies and warm temperatures. Tomorrow will be more interesting – we’re going to head out in the car to explore the Coramandel Penninsula including the Hot Water Beach.

Wellington-Napier-Pauanui

Part 1 – Lower Hutt to Napier

Friday, March 16 – It’s time to leave our comfortable home exchange of the last two weeks and head for our next stop – Napier. We are members of a home-stay travel club (ATC). There are a lot of members listed in New Zealand and on a whim I looked up members between Wellington and Pauanui, the next stop on our agenda. Comparing member locations to the map, I found a couple of members in the town of Napier, on the east coast about ½ way to Pauanui – perfect! I emailed members Ruth and Don on Wednesday to see if they would have us for Friday night. I received an answer right away that they could accommodate us. Don gave me a link to his web site and it turns out that they are also in the B & B business with their separate studio apt. where we stayed as well as a bedroom inside their house. Don also is a photographer and he had some examples of his fine work on his web site. So, we headed their way on Friday morning. One of the few negatives we found about NZ is that there aren’t enough road signs telling you where you are or where you should turn. We had a map but still turned the wrong way not even out of town near Lower Hutt and ended up with a beautiful view of the bay up in the hills but we had to back track to get on the road we were supposed to be on. It’s about a 4 hour drive to Napier and we had no further problems – just beautiful scenery all the way. Our conversation in the car was – “wow, look at that!” - “amazing!” - “beautiful!” – “more sheep!” – “keep toe left!” The photographer in me wanted to stop every 5 miles to take pictures but, of course, we couldn’t do that or we never would have arrived at our destination.

Our neighbor in Lower Hutt, Grant, invited us to stop at one of their “Mr. Apple” orchards near Napier. He gave us the name of the manager and assured us he would give us a tour. We found the orchard – Te Papa – amidst beautiful rolling hills of vineyards and orchards. Ian was happy to drive us around the 300 acre orchard with six different varieties of apples. They were just finishing harvesting the Royal Galas and were starting a new variety called “Jazz”. We stopped to try it out – New Zealand is very proud of this new apple – look for it soon in your supermarkets. It was very tasty – lots of juice and zip. He gave us a half dozen to take along with us. The apple trees here are quite small and loaded with apples. They are grafting onto dwarf stock which makes for much easier harvesting. Check out my pictures in Web Albums to see the beautiful apples. The harvest will go on until about May with temporary workers from Samoa. They provide living facilities for the workers right at the orchard and they are able to earn quite a bit of money to take home with them back to Samoa. The NZ government has a good program to welcome these foreign guest workers.

We arrived in Napier around 2 p.m. and had a short welcome visit with our congenial hosts, Ruth and Don. Then we headed into town to look around and find something to eat. Napier is the “Art Deco” city of the world. There was a devastating earthquake close to the city in 1931. Nearly everything was destroyed and may lives were lost. The town was totally rebuilt in the style of the times with a group of professional architects. Somewhere in the 80’s, the buildings were spruced up and the city capitalized on its Art Deco theme. It’s now a lovely sea-side town with nice pedestrian shopping area, beach, gardens, restaurants and a very successful commercial port area. We walked through town and then had a nice meal at a seafood restaurant. When we returned to the house, Don and Ruth invited us in for tea and pleasant conversation. Both are retired schoolteachers. Don now works part time with a local travel agent – their specialty is arranging freighter cruises. They have been on a couple of cruises themselves and sounds like quite the adventure. As I said earlier, Don is also an accomplished photographer. They both like gardening and have lovely flowers and an extensive veggie garden in their back yard. (They sent a bag of tomatoes with us when we left).

Next morning, we went in the house for a nice breakfast including Ruth’s homemade lemon poppy seed muffins and homemade jams. We also met their B & B guests from England who were on their way to the south island where they were going to rent a camper-van for the rest of their trip. After breakfast we said good-bye to our new friends and were on our way again.

Don gave us direction on how to by-pass the city of Taupo which we had gone through on our way to Wellington so we followed those directions. I then looked at the directions to Pauanui that our Wellington hosts had given us and realized that we were on a different route. So, after some discussion and map-studying we decided to stay on the route Don had given us since it went right to the coast and would probably have very nice scenery but maybe a little longer. Well, it definitely took longer and the roads were very winding and up and down but spectacular. We easily found our way to Pauanui and settled into our next home. We had enough groceries with us to have a lamb chop dinner and turned in early.

The house in Pauanui is wonderful. It is new, modern with a wonderful simple open floor plan design and only a 2 min. walk to the beach. Sunday morning we went for a walk and then stocked up on a few items at the local supermarket. Pauanui is kind of a little peninsula of its own on the east side of the Coramandel Peninsula. It has nice parks, two nine-hole golf courses and is very quiet. The high season is past but the weather is still very nice. There are lots of nearby things to see and do. We’ll be making a stop at the Info office shortly. There’s no Internet connection in the house but I was told at the shopping center that I could take my laptop there and get a wireless connection anywhere there. We’ll see.

Leaving Wellington

It's Thursday evening and we are about cleaned up and packed up ready to leave early tomorrow morning. We are going to drive about 4 hours to Napier (the Art Deco City) on Hawkes Bay on the east coast of the North Island where we will spend the rest of the day and tomorrow night. We are also hoping to stop by and visit an apple orchard and packing plant - this a recommendation of our neighbor Grant who works in the apple industry. On Saturday we will drive about 5 hours to the other part of our exchange in Pauanui - on the Coromandel Penninsula.

We've had a couple of days of intense rain so haven't done much. But today it was bright and sunny and we visited the New Dowse Gallery in Lower Hutt. Had a nice lunch there and saw all of the exhibits. It was a delightful modern museum emphasizing innovative creative arts and crafts.

We've thoroughly enjoyed our stay in the Wellington area and feel quite at home now in New Zealand. The people are very friendly and kind and everyone made us feel very welcome.

Now it's on to more adventures.

The Weekend & Ferry to Picton

The Weekend

We didn't do much on Saturday other than walk around the neighborhood and relax. The next door neighbors, Camille and Grant, phoned us in the afternoon and invited us over for drinks. We accepted, of course, and had a lovely visit with them in their beautiful gardens. They both work full time so this was the first chance we had to get together with them since we met them briefly on our arrival.

Sunday, after a leisurely breakfast, we drove to Petone, a suburb between here and Wellington. We walked along their beautiful waterfront on this bright and sunny day and then walked a couple of blocks to the main street and found a place to have a light lunch. After lunch, we visited their little museum on the waterfront called the Settler's Museum. It was a nice historical exhibit of the history of the area. On the way home, we stopped at the Pack 'n Save to pick up a few more groceries - John has sticker shock every time we go to the grocery store - quite a bit more expensive than Mexico - but probably about like the US.

I prepared a roast leg of lamb for dinner and it was delicious - the lamb is just unbelievable here.

Ferry to Picton - Monday

Our friendly neighbors, Camille and Grant, gave us a lift to the Interisland Ferry dock for which we were very grateful since we didn't want to drive there and weren't sure if the bus would get us there in time for our 7:55 a.m. check-in. We arrived just as passengers were boarding, and there were a lot of passengers including a mob of pre-teens from a school group. Our ship, the Kaitaki, was the newest in the fleet having been launched in 1997 in Holland. Its capacity was 1600 passengers and 900 cars. Once aboard we had a variety of choices of where to sit including a cafe, food court, bar, and numerous lounges on several decks - mostly indoors but you could walk around outside on the decks also. The weather was not the best as it was quite cloudy but it was not cold and there was no rain - yet. The voyage was three hours to Picton through Cook's Straights - connecting NZ's North and South Islands. These straights are often very windy and treacherous but our sailing was quite smooth and pleasant.

The hours passed quickly as we enjoyed a mochaccino, the passing scenery and the antics of the school children aboard who were virtually running wild while the teachers payed little attention to them.

In Picton we walked down the street to the Information Center to ask about the various tours available. The friendly agent, Annette, suggested the Mail Boat cruise. It sounded interesting so we signed up. Mail is delivered for the NZ Post by boat to the remote cottages and homes located in the bays of the Queen Charlotte Sound - Picton is located in this sound. After lunch of some sort of egg pie in a flaky pasty we boarded the boat with about 25 or 30 other passengers. The "Tiri Cat" was a very comfortable catamaran with inside and outside seating. Monday's route was the best as it ducked into numerous little coves to deliver the mail. The boat would pull up to the dock almost without stopping and hand over a bag of mail to whoever was waiting there, and taking their outgoing mail bag in exchange. At most docks, a dog would accompany their master and the skipper would hand him/her a dog biscuit. As we passed one dock whose delivery was on a different day, the skipper noted that "George" was waiting at the dock for the mail boat and he knew that he was home alone. He said that he would stop on the way back to give George his biscuit. So, later, he pulled towards the dock honking the boat horn and soon George was running down from the house to the pier as fast as his little Jack Russell legs would carry him. George was delighted to receive his treat and really didn't seem to mind that there was no mail.

Some of the stops were private homes and some were guest cottages and a few were small resort hotels. All were very remote and surrounded by wilderness. At the farthest point out we pulled in at Ship Cove - named by Capt. James Cook who also named the Queen Charlotte Sound. He made numerous visits to the area in the 1700's to study the wildlife and the southern skies. He made several stops at Ship Cove and there is a memorial to him at this beach.

Our mail cruise lasted about 4 hours and we enjoyed every minute of it. In one spot we encountered a large number of bottlenose dolphins and the skipper stopped for quite a while so we could enjoy their cavorting and leaping all around us.

Upon our arrival at Picton the skipper very kindly dropped us off right at the ferry pier and we were just in time to check in for our journey back to Wellington, this time on the Antere - one of the other ships. This one was older and smaller than the Kaitaki but very comfortable and we had great lounge chairs right at the front of the ship with big glass windows so the view was great. The last hour was in darkness and it was wonderful to cruise into Wellington harbor with all the lights of the city and suburbs surrounding us. We managed to negotiate our way to a bus stop and got home around 10:20 p.m. No rain yet so we were quite pleased with our ferry adventure to the South Island.

It's now Tuesday morning and the rains came last night and while it has stopped this morning, it's quite overcast and a good day to relax at "home". I'm just reflecting on one of the many advantages it is to do home exchanges as compared to being in a hotel room on a rainy day.

I've posted pictures of yesterday's trip so be sure to check them out. The link is at the top of the blog.

More Museum & More Lamb Chops

Thursday we decided to mostly stay home except for a trip to the supermarket, Pack 'n Save, to stock up on a few groceries. There aren't very many supermarkets in evidence - this is the only one we know about between our house and downtown. We found everything we needed and then some. They had a very nice wine selection, although we weren't familiar with most of the wines for sale. We went home and grilled lamb chops again.

Friday we went back to the Te Papa Museum to see what we had missed the first day and it was a lot including a special exhibit about ancient Egypt centering on mummies and included a real mummy found of a young woman. We split an order of fish and chips at the restaurant and then spent about 4 hours in the museum.

At home, I booked tickets for a cruise to the South Island on the Interisland Ferry. We'll leave the dock in Wellington at 8:30 a.m. on Monday and return at 9:00 p.m. The cruise to Picton is 3 hrs each way so we'll have about 6 hrs to sightsee in the Picton area. It is supposed to be the most beautiful ferry crossing in the world. We're hoping our wonderful weather will continue.

Te Papa Museum

Our Lunch at Te Papa

Wednesday - The day was kind of cloudy and windy - a good day to go to a museum. We hopped on the now familiar bus for the 1/2 hour ride to town. The Kiwi's (New Zealanders) are very friendly. I asked the bus driver which stop we should get off for the museum. He told us it's the last stop before the turnaround but that we should stay on the bus - he had to fuel up and the gas station was right across the street from the museum so we could get off there. Then he asked us where we were from and was surprised to hear we were from Mexico - he thought we were from the UK. Te Papa is a large museum which has wonderful exhibits about Earthquakes, Volcanos, New Zealand in general, wildlife, the environment and on and on. We had a nice lunch there and then spent several hours looking at exhibits - until we were worn out even though we didn't see all of it. We'll go back another day to finish.

Thursday we decided to take a day off from sightseeing, do laundry and take a trip to the supermarket. It's very interesting to see what kinds of things they have in the stores that are different from what we're used to. There are a lot of ethnic ingredients - especially for Asian cooking. Groceries are more expensive than what we're used to in Mexico - probably about like the US, though. One very bizarre item, though, is a product called Marmite (in Australia they have a similar product called Vegemite). My friend Ingrid told me to avoid it - she's been to Australia - it's vile. I mentioned it to our rental car people, and before we took off in our car he presented us with a gift of a jar of Marmite. They spread it on their toast for breakfast. I opened it and it smelled strongly of yeast. Yup - that's what its base was - 80% yeast, the label said. Anyway, it's indescribable. I tried a tiny bit on a piece of toast and Ingrid was right, it's vile. John, on the other hand, thought it was o.k. but he definitely prefers marmalade on his toast. I suspect we'll leave the Marmite behind for our hosts. I guess it's supposed to be healthy - full of B vitamins and iron.

I took some pictures of the flowers in Moira's garden this afternoon. You can check my Web Albums if you're interested. They are quite beautiful.

Exploring Wellington

After our good night's rest on Sunday, we were eager to head into Wellington to do a little exploring. Our hosts left plenty of brochures and information so that we could investigate the many opportunities. We decided to leave the car in the garage and use public transportation which is very good here. With bus schedule in hand we walked about a block to the bus stop on the bay. The ride into town was pleasant and took about 1/2 hr. to the center of Wellington. Our all-day Senior tickets cost $5 NZ each and worth it to not have to drive.

Our first day in town we did a lot of walking just to get the lay of the land. We ended up in a pedestrian area called the Cuba mall. It is an older part of downtown with lots of little shops and cafes. The architecture was a mish-mash and not very attractive. We had Fish & Chips for lunch - a very common staple here and it was very tasty. We then walked a little more and found ourselves in a more modern area of trendy shops and restaurants. Eventually we found the right bus to head back to Lower Hutt and spent the evening relaxing at "home".

Tuesday we arose bright and early again - not quite adjusted to the new time zone. Again we headed for town on the bus and now feel like we know our way around.

In the late 1800's, Wellington built a cable car system to go from downtown up the steep hills to another part of town. It still exists - with modernizations and modifications over the years. Now at the top of the cable car route is a little museum about the history of the cable cars and a 35 acre botanical garden. We rode the tram up and walked through the museum and then the extensive gardens which are quite magnificent. We especially enjoyed the enormous rose garden and greenhouses filled with unbelievable tuberous begonias and another room of tropical plants. I have uploaded a lot of pictures to Picasa Web Albums and you can look at them there if you wish. The website is: http://picasaweb.google.com/equussanmiguel Check back regularly as I add pictures along the way.

We walked down from the gardens and found a Thai restaurant that looked good for lunch. It was very good - we had to eat with chopsticks which neither of us had done for a while. We managed but it was a bit awkward. John had a scallops entree and I had pork and mushrooms in won ton wrappers with a delicious sauce and coconut rice.

After lunch we headed for the wharf and found the Wellington history and maritime museum. We spent several hours there - it was very interesting - learned a lot about the history of Wellington and the Maouri people.

It was alomost 5:00 when we left the museum and we were getting a little weary so found a bus and headed for home with a stop for a few groceries on the way.

The Long Journey

The worst part about visiting New Zealand and Australia is getting there. It is a very long ways to go. Our journey started with a 4 a.m. pickup to take us to Leon for the 3 1/2 hr flight to Los Angeles. Our flight to Auckland was not until 8:30 p.m. so we had the day in Los Angeles. It was just the right amount of time to visit the Getty Museum. The Getty is a very beautiful place with wonderful gardens and architecture -no expense was spared. We particularly enjoyed a 45 min tour describing how the museum complex was designed and constructed. My nephew, who lives in LA, came by to meet us for lunch so it was a pleasant way to spend our layover.

Then it was back to the airport for all the security check-ins and boarding. A very full plane meant that we had no extra room to get comfortable for the 12 1/2 hr. flight to Auckland. We flew on Qantas and the flight was actually not too bad with decent food and we each had a personal video screen in the seatback in front of us. I watched "The Queen" and "Little Miss Sunshine" as well as part of "The Last King of Scotland". I got a little sleep, but not much. John can sleep anywhere so he did quite well.

Upon our arrival in Auckland we easily cleared customs and called our car rental company for pick-up. Soon we were on our way to Wellington. It's about 350 miles but NZ highways are not like our superhighways so it is much slower to get somewhere. We were too tired to travel very far so we just drove 3 hours and stopped in Rotarua which is a tourist area with mineral hot springs and a large lake. We found a very nice motel - practically new with suites and every room had a hot tub - exactly what we needed after our travels. It was still early afternoon so we visited a museum that used to be a bath house in the 1800's. They also had exhibits about a devastating volcanic eruption there that killed 120 people. It was all very interesting but we were really wiped out and after soaking in our hot tub, we crashed around 6 p.m.

Next morning we awoke at 6:00 a.m. and as soon as it was light we walked a mile or so and finally found a cafe that was open for breakfast. Then we were on our way to Wellington. John was doing the driving and I was the navigator. It was a bit hairy watching him getting used to driving on the "wrong" side of the road. He did pretty well except for one right turn that was very scary . After that I kept reminding him to "keept left". It also took him a while to use the turn signal instead of the windshield wiper when making a turn.

The scenery from Auckland to Wellington was amazing - very, very green - every shade of green you can imagine. Many forests followed by rolling hills, mountains, and pastures dotted with sheep, cattle and more sheep. The highways were mostly two lanes with occasional short term passing lanes. The speed limit was never more than 100 km/hr (62 mph). We were warned by the car rental people that they are quite strict about enforcing the speed limits so we were very careful.

We arrived in the Wellington area after about 5 hours with just one stop for gas (US equiv. about $4.25/gallon). Our home exchange is just outside the city on the harbor in an area called Lower Hutt. We had good directions from our hosts and found the house without too much trouble. It is large, welcoming and comfortable with a fabulous garden. As we were unlocking the front door, the next door neighbors came by to welcome us and offer their help should we need any. They told us where the nearest grocery store was located so after dropping off our luggage we headed down the road for a few supplies for a light supper and breakfast. We relaxed and unwound and soon felt quite at home. We faded again pretty early and slept well in our comfortable bed.