Our round the world trip (21): Franz Josef Glacier
March 26th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
We have now been travelling for three weeks – the longest of any previous holiday together – but we still have a week or so to go on what is now Day 22 (Tuesday). In a sense, the day began sooner than we could possibly have imagined when, about 4 am, Roger was woken by a call on his mobile from a reporter on the magazine “Utility Week” in London where it was 3 pm. It was 6 am when our alarm sounded and the group set off once more at 7.30 am.
After all the flying and all the driving on this holiday, we now had our first (and last) journey by train. KiwiRail run a TranzAlpine tourist train across the middle of the Southern Alps, a mountain feature which runs for 720 km down the spine of the South Island. So at 8.15 am we left Christchurch heading north-west and Vee & Roger sat with Americans Ric & Mary from South Carolina. At first, the terrain was flat as we passed through the North Canterbury Plain.
However, after a brief stop at a place called Springfield, the geography changes suddenly and dramatically and beautifully into mountains and gorges. This section of one of the most famous rail journeys in the world is a photographer’s dream and there is an open air carriage to enable you to take the best shots. The trouble is that, as one composes a brilliant picture, all at once the rain goes into a tunnel (there are over a dozen) and you do not know when they are coming. You could lean your head out to see, but you would then lose your head as well as the shot.
Our guide explained that we had a long coach journey when we left the train, so it was best to use the toilet on the train, even if we felt that we did not need it at the time – as he put it so elegantly: “Try for results.” Our group left the train at the highest point (737 metres) which is called Arthur’s Pass (after a guy called Arthur Dudley Dobson), but the train actually goes on into an 8.5 metre tunnel and on to Greymouth on the west coast (we were assured that the scenery in this segment was not so interesting).
Back on our coach, a so-called “rotation system” now took effect. Each seat had a number and each couple had to take the seat with the next number from one day to another, so that nobody was favoured by the seating. The seat numbers were scattered around the coach according to some mysterious algorithm.
The weather was drizzly with mists shrouding the mountain tops as we made our way down the Otira Gorge and headed west to the coast where at a town called Kumara, we had our first view of the Tasman Sea. Hugging the coast, we drove on to a town called Hokitika where we stopped for lunch at the “Clock Tower Cafe”.
Leaving Hokitika, we continued along the coast as far as the town of Ross when we headed inland along the twisting road as the weather became bright and then sunny. This meant that, when we finally reached Franz Josef village at 3.20 pm, the weather was perfect for those who had chosen to take a helicopter ride which was eight of us out of the group of 38, including Roger & Vee.
Franz Josef Glacier was first explored by Europeans in 1865 when the Austrian Julius von Haast named it after the head of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor. The name given the glacier by the Maoris was Ka Roimata o Hine Hukatere (“Tears Of The Avalanche Girl”), a reference to a legend about a local girl losing her lover. The nearby Fox Glacier is named after a former Prime Minister of New Zealand. These are not the largest glaciers in the country but the lowest and the most accessible.
We took the 30 minute ride in a Eurocopter Squirrel AS 350 P2 which seats six, but Roger & Vee were the only passengers (the six others took a longer and more expensive flight). Vee sat in the front with the pilot Andrew, while Roger sat behind and took the photographs. It was truly spectacular to see the ice formations and we literally zoomed and weaved right up the rock faces. First we flew up the Franz Josef Glacier which is 10 km long and then we went over to the Fox Glacier which 13 km long. We landed on the Fox Glacier for about 10 minute where Vee threw a snowball at Roger and our pilot Andrew took his own photograph of us.
By the time we reboarded the helicopter, Andrew was offering us a little pack about the glaciers complete with a photograph of us on the Fox in front of the copter. How on earth had he done that?!? We asked and learned that, at the back of the craft, there was a machine that had printed the picture while we were prancing around on the snow. The flight cost us NZ$ 295 each and the photo was another NZ$ 20 – a grand total of NZ$ 610 (£333) – but it was an absolutely thrilling experience that we will never forget.
Dinner was included in the tour and held in the hotel. Both Vee & Roger had the Canterbury lamb shank which was the tenderest lamb we had ever tasted.
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Our round the world trip (20): from Rotorua to Christchurch
March 25th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Sunday evening was as full as the day, since we were entertained at a specially constructed Maori village called Tamaki (“the village among the the trees”). This is located at Tumunui which is a half hour drive out of Rotorua. Our Maori driver – a guy known as Mark – was an amazing character: irrepressively ebullient as he talked the whole way through a microphone while driving with one hand, seriously impressive as he proceeded to offer us the equivalent of “Kia ora” in 60 other languages, and endlessly amusing as he affected American, Canadian, English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish accents and cracked a stream of jokes.
At the Maori village, there was a ceremony where the village elder challenged the leaders of the four coach groups, before establishing that we were friendly and offering us hospitality. A series of outdoor huts in the trees hosted Maoris explaining different features of the indigenous culture. Then we were shown how the Maoris cook food in a “Hangi” stone pit, before attending a concert of traditional dance and song, and enjoying the meal.
Before we all left the village, we were entertained to a display of the “Haka”, the traditional Maori war dance made famous worldwide by the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team (which Mark insisted was the finest sporting team in the history of the world). As well as much beating of the body and shouting, the haka involves the protrudence and wiggle of the tongue in a fiercesome manner. On the return coach journey, Mark excelled himself by leading a sing song in various languages, concluding with a rendition of “The wheels on the bus go round and round”, the highlight of which was three rapid circumambulations of a small roundabout.
The evening was not quite over for Roger & Vee though, as back at the Millennium Hotel we met our New Zealand friends Val & Ross Bartrum for drinks and a chat. Roger & Val worked together in London as long ago as 1971 and have stayed in touch while she has emigrated to NZ and raised three children in Wanganui.
Next day, Day 21 (Monday), saw a further early start, with the alarm at 6 am and departure at 7.45 am. Clouds of sulphur vapour were streaming out of the storm pipes, fissures in the parks, and the sides of the Rotorua Lake which made for an ethereal veiling of the town in early morning.
it was a particularly good day for Vee because the morning was all about visits to city sights featuring local animals and she loves all creatures great and small. First stop was the Rainbow Springs Nature Park. Amid vegetation including Californian redwood trees and New Zealand fern bushes, we saw rainbow trout, kea parrots, small lizards and dragons, and something called the Tuatara which is billed as “New Zealand’s living prehistoric fossil”.
The park also contains the Kiwi Experience which was a million times better than the Kiwi House which we visited at the thermal reserve yesterday. There were excellent information displays and the kiwis themselves are in much larger and better-lit glass cases where we could actually see them. Before leaving, Roger bought a kiwi cuddly toy for granddaughter Catrin and Vee purchased “Kiwi poo” (chocolates) for her nephew’s children Yasmin & Lucas.
The second visit was to the Agrodome Sheep Show. The accent of the presenter was so strong that we did not understand all he said but he was as entertaining as he was informative. We learned that New Zealand has 32 million sheep (that’s more than seven for very person in the country) and we were introduced to the examples of no less than 19 varieties of them (just how exciting can life get?). The presenter actually sheared a sheep for us and members of the audience were invited to try their hand at milking cows before, in field outside the display theatre, we observed how a trained dog cleverly herded sheep. Vee was able to pet various animals, including an alpaca, and was the last in the bus by a good 10 minutes.
We were dropped off in Rotorua on the Tutanekai Street – full of shops and cafes – so that we could have a bit of lunch and Vee & Roger teamed up with Andrew for our refreshments. We found a place that we loved because of the name (it was called the “Fat Dog” and had a “Fat Dog Bog”), the ambience (it displayed a Thought For The Week on a blackboard and quotes on walls and tables), and the food (Roger had a dessert of brandy snap with vanilla ice cream & raspberry coulis).
It was time to leave the North Island and head for the South Island. At Rotorua airport, we were required to pay NZ$ 5 a head as a Domestic Development Levy which is fancy name for an airport tax. The flight from Rotorua to Christchurch took little more than an hour.
The South Island is very different from the North Island: it is much less populated and the population is much less diverse, while it has a much more varied geology and wider variations in temperature.
Christchurch has been utterly changed, and will experience still more change, as a result of the devastating earthquake of 22 February 2011 which kiled 186 people and severely damaged the business centre and the east of the city. We had a short coach tour of the city and our tour director Mark, who grew up in the city, spelt out the extent of the destruction and the challenges of reconstruction. We had a stop of of about 40 minutes next to the Canterbury Museum and Roger & Vee took the opportunity to walk down to Cathedral Square, which is shielded off by railings, so that we could see Christchurch Cathedral which suffered such terrible damage that it may need to be completely replaced.
Finally we checked into the Sadima Hotel, on the undamaged west of the city, just by the airport. We had dinner in the hotel with our new friend Andrew.
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Our round the world trip (19): around Rotorua
March 24th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Another day – Day 20 (Sunday) – and another tour and another hotel. Again it was an early start: alarm at 6 am and departure at 7.45 am. Leaving behind Auckland, we drove south through the rolling green countryside and we had our first break at the “River Haven Cafe” in the town of Huntly. This was supposed to be simply a coffee and comfort stop, but Vee was delighted to find a lilac-coloured fleece which she could buy for the cooler South Island.
Our tour guide Mark used our journey to give a potted history of relations between the Maori and British & Irish settlers, highlighting the Treaty of Waitangi of 1840, the Land Wars (there were five conflicts) from 1844-1872, and the Waitangi Tribunal which has been sitting from 1975 to date in order to settle conflicts of land ownership. In fact, some 90% of Maoris live in the North Island.
Our first destination of the day was the glow worm caves of Waitomo which means “water entering a hole in the ground”. Here we had as our local guide a great-, great-, grandson of Chief Tane Tinorau who in 1887 was persuaded by the English surveyor Fred Mace to reveal the secrets of the caves.
He took us into the limestone caverns inhabited by stalactites and stalagmites, descending from the ceiling and rising from the floor of the caves respectively, and explained the life cycle of the glow worms which live in the caves. The larval stage of the insect gives off light to attract food in the form of other flying insects. Then he pulled us in a boat along the underground river. In the silence of the brief ride, we had a magical experience observing the strange little glow worms – on the ceiling looking like a version of the Milky Way in the desert sky and close up on the adjacent walls appearing as pin points of white light.
Shortly after this illuminating visit, we stopped for lunch in a town called Otorohanga ( which, appropriately enough, means “food for a journey”) at an establishment called “Ronnie’s Cafe”. Then we drove eastwards, eventually arriving just south of the town of Rotorua, to reach our second destination.
This was a thermal reserve named Te Puia in an area originally called Te whakarewarewatangaopetauaawahiao which translates as “the gathering place for the war parties of Wahiao” [the name of the local chief]). Our Maori guide at the reserve – a good-looking young man, as Vee observed – explained that the Maori language only has 14 letters in its alphabet but this place name features 13 of them.
First we were taken to the Kiwi House. Now the kiwi may be the national bird of New Zealand but it is a hard creature to spot. Partly this is because there are now so few of them – from a population of 12 million, there are now only around 70,000. Partly it is because they are both nocturnal and notoriously shy – so the inside of the House is in virtual darkness. If you really squinted, you could just see the small black shape of a North Island brown kiwi moving around the glass enclosure – but we could say that we saw a kiwi. Roger decided that the entrance to the House should have a sign posing the question: “Kiwi or not kiwi? That is the question.”
The main reason for visiting this location, of course, was the thermal features. One cannot miss the rotten egg smell of the sulphur or the bubbling of the gas escaping the mud pools, but there are only six active geysers now from an original number of about 50. The big one is called Pohutu which means “big splash”. It has a rough cycle of about 40-45 minutes maximum activity followed by around a similar period of much quieter activity. Obstinately it refused to blow until we were about to leave, but fortunately we then had a dramatic view of its impressive eruption high in the air which created plumes of boiling water and billowing gas plus a bright rainbow. Apparently it can erupt to a height of 30 metres (about 100 feet).
At this point, we checked into the Millennium Hotel in Rotorua, but only for an hour or so before we were off to the third and last destination of a long and action-packed day. Indeed we spent so little waking time in our hotel room that we never unpacked.
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Our round the world trip (18): Auckland
March 23rd, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Day 19 (Saturday) was spent in Auckland – the morning in a group tour of the city and the afternoon free to explore as individuals.
The group tour took just over three hours and our NZ tour director Mark greeted us in Maori with “Kia ora” (“Good morning”). He explained that Auckland used to be the capital of New Zealand until 1965 when Wellington took over. He told us that Auckland is known as “the city of sails” because one in three owns a boat of some description and certainly there are lots of large marinas all around the harbour. We drove through the affluent districts of Ponsonby and Parnell and the red light area of Karangahape Road.
As we crossed the Harbour Bridge to the north of the city, Mark narrated how quickly the bridge had needed to be widened and how a Japanese company had managed to add a couple of extra lanes on each side of the bridge with constructions known locally as “Nippon clip-ons”. On the north side, we stopped at a place called Bastion Point by Mission Bay. For most tourists, this is simply a wonderful vantage point for excellent views of the city skyline. For Roger & Vee, however, it had political interest because there is a monument honouring Michael Joseph Savage (1872-1940) who was New Zealand’s first Labour Prime Minister who implemented important social reforms.
Then we all went on a one and a half hour boat tour of Waitemata Harbour in weather that was warm and pleasant like the best of an English summer day. As well as local islands, at Devonport Naval Base we saw two of the 13 ships in the New Zealand Navy. Our boat was awash with Thai schoolchildren and Roger befriended three young girls who, according to their name tags, were known as Boom, Cream, and Nook.
The afternoon was free time and Roger & Vee started with a bit of retail therapy on the main shopping thoroughfare of Queen Street as Vee bought a top and a jacket for the colder South Island. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon – almost three hours – at the Auckland War Memorial Museum. We could have been there a whole day and still not seen all the contents of this grand building because this is in effect three museums, each equally fascinating in its own way.
The ground level is called “People Of The Pacific” and is devoted to Polynesian and Maori exhibits which include a 25 metre war canoe that could carry 100 warriors and a real carved meeting house with amazing wooden faces all along the long walls. Level 1 is titled “Stories Of Our Land And Sea” and covers the local oceans, forests, animals and volcanoes. Level 2 is known as “New Zealand’s War Stories” which start with the New Zealand wars of the 19th century before examining the First and Second World Wars.
As if all this was not enough, we had lunch at the museum cafe, we purchased presents at the museum shop, and we witnessed a thrilling performance by the Tatau Dance Group, bare-footed, big-bellied, tattooed-bodied Maoris. Just to top off a splendid afternoon, the museum is located in the city’s most beautiful park, Auckland Domain.
For dinner, we went out with a member of the group called Andrew, a fellow Brit who was travelling without his wife.
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Our round the world trip (17): from Sydney to Auckland
March 22nd, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Just how early can an early start be on this amazing round the world trip of ours? On what is probably Day 18 (Friday) – the days and dates are starting to merge into one another – the hotel gave us an alarm call at 3 am for our 4 am departure to Sydney Airport. Six of the group that had toured Australia together were now going on to visit New Zealand: Americans Bob & Tommi Ruth, Canadians Vic and Sue, and Brits Roger & Vee.
Our aircraft was a Boeing 737-800 and the flight eastward from Sydney to Auckland was only a little further than our three internal flights in Oz: 2,165 km (1,353 miles). This took 2 hrs 40 mins and, since Auckland is two hours ahead of Sydney, we landed at 11.40 am local time.
New Zealand – or Aotearoa (“Land of the long white cloud “) as the Maoris call it – is geographically slightly bigger than the UK but has a population only just over half that of London (4.4 M compared to 8.2 M) . Some 15% of the population is Maori and 7% Pacific Islanders, while another 9% is Asian.
Politically New Zealand is very unusual in having a unicameral parliament. Economically the country rests mainly on farming and tourism. Normally the country has a moderate climate but the summer leading up to our visit had been the driest on record.
Auckland, on New Zealand’s north island, has a population of 1.4 M – around one-third of that of the country as a whole with the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world. Located around two harbours and built on or overlooked by around 50 dormant volcanoes, surveys regularly identify Auckland as one of the best places in the world in which to live.
We were met by our tour guide for New Zealand Mark Hockley and driven to our hotel, the Skycity Grand Hotel. We arrived about 1.20 pm and, although there was nothing scheduled for this first day, Roger had arranged to meet a former colleague at 2 pm, so there was barely time for a quick sandwich for lunch while we waited for our room to become available at 1.50 pm.
Dave Simpson used to work for Internet service provider Easynet in Britain where he was responsible for regulatory affairs and knew Roger through his membership of the Ofcom Consumer Panel. Three and a half years ago, Dave emigrated to the land of the Kiwis – together with his wife and two daughters – to take up a job with Telecom New Zealand as Regulatory Affairs Manager and this tour was a great opportunity to link up with him for a brief while.
The weather was pleasantly warm (21C/70F) when Dave collected us from the hotel and drove us north across the Harbour Bridge to the lovely area of Devonport where we went up to the top of two volcanoes – Mount Victoria and North Head – for fabulous views of the harbour and Auckland, before we enjoyed a cold drink and a chat at a cafe at Torpedo Bay. We learned that NZ Telecom is taking fibre to the home (FTTH) to most premises in the nation and Dave himself already has an Internet connection providing 100 mega bits per second (Mbps) download and 50 Mbps upload.
Back a the hotel, we had the first gathering of our group for New Zealand. It was immediately very apparent that the logistics and dynamics of this part of our holiday are going to be very different from our experience of Australia. Whereas in Oz, we had a small group of 13 travelling mainly by aircraft, on this leg of the trip we have a really large group of 38 travelling mainly by coach.
We all walked over the road from our hotel to the Sky Tower. This is 328 metres (1,076 feet) high and we took lifts with external glass sides and a glass section in the floor shooting up to the 53rd level which houses the Observatory Buffet Restaurant at 194 metres (636 feet). After an extensive buffet, which introduced us to the delicious New Zealand ice cream flavour known as “Hokey Pokey” (vanilla & caramel), we were able to observe a bright red sunset in the west.
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Our round the world trip (16): Sydney from above
March 21st, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Day 17 (Thursday) was our second day in Sydney and “a day at leisure” in the official programme, so all members of the group did different things with Roger & Vee ascending two of the city’s iconic locations.
The main event of the day was climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge. This construction was completed in 1932 and cost the lives of 16 workers, although only one actually fell off. The bridge rises to 134 metres and it is a defining feature of the city, known to locals as “the giant coat hanger”. Entrance to the climb is on Cumberland Street
We had been so keen to do this climb that we booked it online almost three months ahead. We had opted for the Express Climb which took just over two hours (10 am – 12.15 pm) and cost AU$ 198 (£134) each. Vee found it all no trouble at all, but this is the girl who in South Africa did the world’s highest bungee jump. Roger will confess to having been anxious before starting the climb, but he was fine as soon as it commenced.
As with all tourist attraction in Australia, it was very well organised and totally safe. There were 10 in our group – five Americans, four Brits, and one Italian – and our guide was a cheerful young woman called Amy.
Preparation for the climb takes a while. You have to strip to your underwear and don the standard company blue one-piece outfit, since it is quite a hot endeavour. The whole point is to ensure that nothing can drop from people on the bridge. So no personal possessions at all are allowed – glasses and the company sun hat have to be attached to lanyards and even the handkerchief which is supplied has to be fixed to your wrist. Most vital of all, you wear an upper body harness which has a safety clip, which attaches you to a metal line on the bridge at all times, and headphones and radio, which enables you to hear the guide’s instructions and information at every point of the climb.
If you suffer from vertigo or claustrophobia, this climb is definitely not for you (we learned that one or two do turn back each day) . Otherwise moderate fitness is all that is required, although the climb is quite strenuous (it involves around 1400 steps and a few steep or tight situations) and it helps not be be tall (Roger hit his head several times which is why he wore that silly cap all the time). At the top of the bridge, Amy took a group photograph and Individual shots. There is a spot at the top where couples can get married and apparently 24 have already done so.
The climb is not actually all the way over to the other side of the bridge; rather you climb up on the Opera House side of the bridge and then at the top traverse to the opposite (western) side and return to where you started. For our climb, the weather was perfect and the views were spectacular for an awesome experience. The beautiful harbour all around, boats and ships underneath, the wonderful Opera House on one side, the terrific skyline behind us, the north side of the city ahead of us were simply breathtaking.
Once we had caught our breath and had a snack at the Bridge Climb facility, we took a taxi to another of the city’s structures that we had to ascend before we left: Sydney Tower Eye on Market Street. This was completed in 1981 and cost AU$ 26 M to construct. It is 309 metres high and one of the tallest strcuture in the Southern Hemispshre. Admission is AU$ 26 (£18) a head. The tower is not the bridge but it is still fun. After viewing a short 4D film, you ascend in a rapid lift to an observation deck with excellent 360 degree views of the city.
This evening we will have our farewell dinner and the Australian part of our tour will be complete. Tomorrow we have to leave the hotel at 4 am (!) to catch our aircraft to New Zealand.
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Our round the world trip (15): Sydney
March 20th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Day 16 (Wednesday) was the first of two in Sydney and it was another early start. We were up at 6 am and had a tour of the city from 7.30 am – 3 pm. At first, the sky was overcast and the temperature much lower and then we had a quick shower, but soon the sky cleared and the weather became excellent again.
Manuela gave us lots of statistics about Sydney: a city founded in 1788 as a penal colony, a community today of 250 nationalities and 144 golf courses, a harbour with 66 bays and 11 islands. Many of the inner city districts of Sydney have names resonant of London for Roger & Vee such as Paddington, Kings Cross and Haymarket. One district, however, has an unusual indigenous name: Woolloomooloo which means ‘small kangaroo’ (does any other word in the world have the letter ‘o’ eight times?).
The centre of Sydney is blessed with a green lung of three interconnected parks: Hyde Park, The Domain, and the Royal Botanic Gardens. Our first stop was at the Gardens for stupendous views of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Here too is the oddly-named Mrs Macquarie’s Chair: a rock structure erected as a viewing platform for the wife of a colonial official. We then drove to the world famous Bondi Beach (the name means ‘sound of waves’), noted as the birthplace of surf life savers. During a stop here, Vee & Roger had a cappuccino at a lovely cafe called “Lush On Bondi”.
Next we returned to the city centre for a one-hour tour of the World Heritage listed Sydney Opera House with a passionate and amusing guide called Thomas who spoke to us via radio headsets. Two short videos told us the fascinating and turbulent history of the building. Over 30 locations were discussed before they settled on the fabulous choice of the promontory into the harbour. Some 233 designs were considered before a previously rejected one was chosen: the radical concept proposed by a 38 year old Danish architect Jorn Utzon.
Started in 1959 when the technology did not in fact exist to realise the design, it was intended that construction would take three years and cost AU$ 7 M but, in the end, the work occupied 16 years – during which the architect was effectively dismissed – and cost AU$ 102 M (much of it from a local lottery). There are six performance spaces with a combined capacity of around 6,000 places. We saw the two largest of these spaces – the Concert Hall (2,000 seats) and the Joan Sutherland Theatre (1,500 places) – before some of us purchased tickets for a performance that evening.
Next we all went on a one and a half hour cruise of the harbour in a boat called “Sydney 2000” where we had a cooked lunch as we enjoyed fantastic views all around what is a huge harbour. We could clearly see people climbing to the top of the Harbour Bridge and, on one occasion, a few of them turning back at an early stage. This intrigued the group because four of us were going on that climb later today and Roger& Vee were tackling it next day.
After the harbour tour and before returning to the hotel, we were taken to a place called The National Opal Collection where we saw a video on how nature has created these valuable stones and 95% of the world’s opals are mined in Australia. A showroom then presented for sale some stunning pieces of jewellery but nobody in our group bought anything. This was the only occasion on our tour of Australia when we were taken to what was in effect a sales pitch (but Roger & Vee had to endure many of these on their first visit to China).
In the evening, eight of us – including Roger & Vee – returned to the Opera House for a performance with tickets which cost us AU$ 79 (£53) each that was apparently reduced from AU$ 129. It was “Orpheus In The Underworld”, the operetta by Jacques Offenbach performed in the Joan Sutherland Theatre. However, this was not the original text in French but a modernised vision in English that was very risqué and peppered with Ozzie allusions (“I’ve had more fun in Adelaide”).
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Our round the world trip (14): from Cairns to Sydney
March 19th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Today was not just Day 15 (Tuesday) but Roger and Vee’s 31st wedding anniversary. Roger gave Vee a card with a list inside headed “31 Reasons Why I Love You” – but Vee had not managed to organise anything. We were leaving Cairns after three nights to fly down to Sydney – our third and last airline journey in Oz – and we were departing the hotel at 10.30 am which meant that there was just time after breakfast to fit in one more bit of sightseeing.
Over the road from our hotel was the Cairns Wildlife Dome situated at the top of the Reef Hotel Casino. In an open and humid naturalistic setting, there are lots of colourful birds on show including parrots and kookaburras plus (not in an open setting) a 4 metre saltwater crocodile called Goliath. Best of all though, you can have a photograph taken holding a koala bear for AU$ 16. Vee had a great picture with a male bear called Harvey and, after the shot, Harvey put an arm on Vee’s shoulder – it was hard to say which of them was the cutest.
Our aircraft was a Boeing 767- 338 and the flight was 1,970 km (1,232 miles) due south which took two and a quarter hours. Since Sydney is an hour ahead of Cairns, we landed at 4 pm local time.
Although Canberra is the political capital of Australia, in every other respect Sydney can be seen as the leading city in the country. It is the largest with a population of 4.5 M and it is the oldest and most diverse with the greatest cultural locations. The city is built around one of the most beautiful natural harbours in the world with the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and Bondi Beach providing the most iconic images of Australia. It was a most fitting site for the end of the Oz part of our trip. However, the Economic Intelligence Unit’s worldwide cost of living index for 2013 puts Sydney as the third most expensive city in the world.
From 1965-1968, Vee’s twin sister Mari and brother-in-law Derek spent four years in Sydney before returning to the UK and she was particularly excited to be visiting the city that she heard so much about so many years ago.
The temperature on arrival in Sydney was a good 10C lower than the one we left behind: 23C (73F) as compared to around 33C (91F). Our hotel was another very good one: the Four Points by Sheraton next to Darling Harbour. For dinner, Curtis obtained a recommendation from the concierge and ten of us walked round to “Nick’s Bar and Grill” on King Street Wharf where the other eight sang “Happy anniversary” to Roger & Vee. We both had traditional Australian food: kangaroo (followed by strawberry pancake) for Roger and barramundi fish (followed by sticky date pudding) for Vee.
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Our round the world trip (13): the Daintree
March 18th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
It was a free day on our tour of Australia – Day 14 (Monday) for Roger & Vee – but, on this type of holiday, there are no truly free days, only days with no group activities but all sorts of optional activities for individuals. Today some of our group took an excursion to Kuranda, returning on the skyway. Roger & Vee – together with Americans Melissa, her daughter Mia (8), and Kate – took the trip to the Daintree National Park which has World Heritage listing to protect its exceptional rain forest biodiversity.
It was an early start: we set the alarm for 5.30 am and we were collected before 7 am for a trip of over 11 hours. Our vehicle was a special four-wheel drive Isuzu Warrior and our driver and guide was a young man called Greg who spoke in the traditional fashion of young Ozzies in which every sentence ended with an upward lilt which made it sound like a question.
Greg collected tourists from several Cairns hotels and then drove north to collect more tourists from hotels in Fort Douglas. Once we had everybody, we proceeded further north up the Captain Cook Highway which is winding road hugging the beautiful coastline with glorious beaches, so it is a good idea to sit on the right as Vee & Roger did.
It was humid (tropical) and hot (33C/91F) and here in Far North Queensland (FNQ) it was still the so-called wet season. We passed areas which grew sugar cane and tea and saw fields with lots of wallabies and signs warning of electric ants (apparently they can give a shock to workmen).
At 9.30 am, we reached “the Daintree” (named after a colonial official) and we were taken on a one-hour cruise on the River Daintree in the hope of seeing the crocodiles which inhabit these waters. The thing with viewing animals is that the situation is always unpredictable. Our river guide had been doing the job for 13 years and had names for all the adult crocodiles in his patch of the river.
Currently the dominant male (“the big fella”) is a croc called Scarface; the guide’s favourite is Elizabeth or Lizzie; and others include Fang, Scooter, Lucky, Lumpy, Gummy and even Eugene. But we did not see a single adult crocodile – it was too hot and they were resting below water. However, we did manage to spot two baby crocodiles sunbathing on logs (and, with some assistance from Photoshop, perhaps we can make these tiddlers look like giants). Apparently the best time to see crocs is in the Ozzie winter. Our river guide explained that “The food chain is brutal” and, even in the case of crocodiles which are at the top of the local food chain, only about 1% survive to adulthood.
Our next visit was to the Daintree Discovery Centre where cleverly constructed boardwalks enable the visitor to view the rain forest from different heights without posing a threat to the delicate ecology. Huge trees – often entwined by extensive creepers – and the buzz of insects made for an atmospheric experience. At this point, we were driven to a spot in the national park where we took a steep, winding set of rough steps down to an open-air eating area where we were served with a delicious lunch of steak, sausage, fish and salad. Vee managed to spot a Ulysses butterfly which has brilliant blue markings.
From here, we drove to Cape Tribulation, named by James Cook when his ship the “Endeavour” struck a local reef in 1770. The cape is billed as “where the rain forest meets the reef” and beyond this point the road north stops and only four-wheel drives and brave hearts will suffice. We walked on the local beach which sparkled with its shiny mica sand reaching down to the turquoise sea.
Turning south for the journey back, we stopped at the Daintree Ice Cream Company where for AU$ 6 we purchased scoops of ice cream in each of the four flavours of the day which happened to be coconut, mango, blueberry and wattle seed. Sitting in the hot sunshine outside by palm trees eating four flavours of ice cream is one definition of Heaven. Next we were driven to the Alexandra Range Lookout for more spectacular views and photo opportunities.
At this point, we took a vehicle ferry which our driver Greg had used earlier in the day while we were on the river. The return ferry trip cost him (or at least his company) AU$ 78. The absence of any bridge into the Daintree and the high cost of the ferry are intended to limit access and development of this special ecology. We had throughly enjoyed our day in the rain forest (we don’t have a lot of it at home in London).
Tomorrow we fly to Sydney …
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Our round the world trip (12): the Great Barrier Reef
March 17th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Day 13 (Sunday) was very, very lucky. It was our visit to the Great Barrier Reef. This extends for 2,300 kms along the north-eastern coast of Australia and is not one large reef but a network of about 2,900 individual coral reefs. Corals are animals in the same family as jellyfish and there are around 400 species. Swimming around these reefs are over 1,500 different types of fish.
When Roger & Vee booked this holiday, they had no idea how the visit to the reef would work out: how would we get there? how far would it be? what we would we do there? would we really be able to see the coral and the fish? In fact, it all worked out brilliantly because the companies that take you to the reef know to make it a wonderful experience.
Our company was Great Adventures and our vessel was a catamaran called “Reef King” which can take almost 400 passengers. We left Cairns at 10.30 am and around 11.15 am we dropped off those tourists visiting a place called Green Island. The rest of us – about 200 – headed further out into the ocean until at 12.20 pm we moored at a pontoon at a section of the reef 40 km or so from land.
It looked like something out of a holiday brochure: a canopy of cloudless azure sky over a still sea with a mixture of blue and green and aquamarine colours. To see the coral and the fish, one has to snorkel. Some of our group had done it before but most – including Roger & Vee – had not.
There are changing rooms on the pontoon. Then, if you want it (Vee & Roger did), you collect a buoyancy vest with the colour appropriate to your size. Everyone chooses a mask with snorkel and fins again with the colour appropriate to your size. If you are concerned about the remote possibility of being stung by a type of jellyfish called marine stingers, you can wear a black lycra suit but, on our trip, only the Asian tourists – Korean, Japanese & Chinese – did so.
Stepping down some metal ladders to an area of sea roped off for snorkelling, you don your fins and wash your mask before launching into the sea. How difficult could snorkelling be? In Vee’s case, it was like a duck taking to water – no problem at all. In Roger’s case, it was not easy. First, he had salty sea water coming into his mouth from both his snorkel and his mouthpiece, he felt like he was drowning, and he was not sure that he was going to be able to do so this.
Then a member of the catamaran’s crew cleared his snorkel and showed him how to hold his mouth around the breathing piece. And he was away. It was a totally new phenomenon – silent except for the sound of your breathing, hanging there in a trance-like state, in a private world inhabited by a kaleidoscope of colours and shapes that were just magical.
A buffet lunch – with both cold and hot food – was available and then Roger & Vee took one of the half-hourly trips by a semi-submersible reef viewer which provided an opportunity to see a much wider area of reef from up close, making clear just how many types of coral there are even in a relatively compact area. But, having learned how to snorkel, both Vee & Roger were keen to return to the water.
Manuela showed Roger where to find coral with more fish. This was a wonder world. Corals so close you could almost touch them, looking like giant exotic vegetables or sections of brain. The official names include mushroom coral, brain coral, plate coral, and stag horn coral. And then there were all the different fish, including clown fish and butterfly fish.
There was a company photographer scuba diving around us and taking souvenir shots which later sold at outrageous prices (AU$ 22 for the first one). Roger was photographed stroking a large black fish and the picture was so amazing that, when he bought it, Vee was initially convinced that it had been photoshopped.
We did not want to leave the Great Barrier Reef. Snorkelling there was utterly different from any other experience that we have had and the day will be one of the most memorable of our lives. But we moved off at 3.30 pm and we were back at Cairns at 5.10 pm.
It was St Patrick’s Day and some of our group went off to a local pub to celebrate, but Roger & Vee had an early dinner locally at ” Mondo”, ready for an early night before an early start tomorrow to visit the rainforest at Daintree.
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