Melbourne

I've arrived in Melbourne. Out of the frying pan and in to the fire. It was 85-90 degrees in Hobart yesterday, and it feels at least 10-15 degrees hotter in Melbourne today. In fact, according to the Yahoo weather page, right now it is 102 degrees, with 9% humidity in the city center where I am. Going to head out for a bit of a sweat and to explore downtown. Hopefully I wont bake on the sidewalks.

New Year's Eve in Hobart

Thor and I had a bang-up day in Hobart--he gave me a great tour of the city, and we had a great lunch and some beers on the waterfront. New Year's Eve, Eva cooked an amazing canneloni stuffed with ricotta, spinach and silverbeets, with homemade pasta that she and Jasper made. Shortly after dinner we retired to the lawn, where Thor and I imbibed some Aussie chardonnay while Jasper hurtled down the hill on his toy tractor.



Just before dusk, Jasper and I went off in search of some native wildlife. While we had no luck, Eva spotted a wallaby not more than 20 meters away from the front of the house down in the paddock. Ole Wally seemed somewhat oblivious to our presence so I got plenty of photos; we were able to watch it as it grazed within a stone's throw of the veranda. It was pretty amazing to me, as the only time I have ever seen wallabys is in the zoo. As Eva pointed out, a squirrel is exotic to them--it really depends on what fauna is commonplace in your neck of the bush.

Thor and I stayed up to ring in the new year, but watching the fireworks on TV just isn't the same. Still, we had a grand time watching a movie, snacking on Violet Crumble and polishing off the chardonnay.

Villa Madsen, Family Madsen and the Madsen Managerie

As I mentioned, I stayed with my old friend Thor, his wife Eva and their kids while I was in Tasmania. Above is a picture of their house. It is situated about 15 minutes from downtown Hobart, on a 5 acre parcel perched on a hillside. Very tranquil and pastoral--I really liked it. The house is made of mudbrick, with stone floors--the result of which is that it is thermally stable and keeps cool even in the scorching heat. They also have a guest house, which is adjacent to the main house, and have told me that there is an open invitation to A, P, B, J & G to stay there.

Here is a picture of Thor and Eva, as well as a cute one of their two boys, Jasper and Archie (chocolate-smeared cheeks an added bonus). The boys are quite gregarious, and we had fun playing together.

As promised, below are some pictures of the family's pets and other assorted critters. The first one is of Oscar the cat enjoying a bit of a scratch from your's truly. The next one is Honey the guinea pig and various chickens. The final one is of two of the, shall we say, more "affectionate" goats, who help Thor keep the pastures in check.

Potaroos, Goats and Yachts...Oh My

I've arrived at my old friend Thor's home in Hobart, Tasmania. He and his family are putting me up for a couple nights over the New Year's Eve holiday--very gracious of them to have me during the holidays. They have a beautiful 5 acre spot just outside Hobart in the suburb of Kingston. They have a managerie of animals, including Thor's lawn-mowing brigade of six goats (two of whom are extremely friendly--don't wear loose shorts around those two), a single sheep (who thinks he's a goat), two bush turkeys, a half dozen or so skittish Rhode Island Red chickens, Honey the Guinea Pig and my good friend Oscar, their very friendly cat.

While checking on the animals at dusk, we got a visit from two Wallabys, which are like small Kangaroos. Also tramping around the house were a few Potaroos, and I could hear a Kukaburra calling from the trees. All together, a very lovely place to live.


Today Thor and I went down to the Hobart waterfront, where racing yachts which have just finished the Sydney to Hobart Blue Water Classic regatta are docked. While enjoying a cold beer out of the heat, a cannon was fired, indicating that a yacht had just arrived and completed the race. Here's a photo of it--note the crew in the rigging. The race stared in Sydney on the 26th, and most of the top boats finished in two days. It is now the 31st and a few entrants are still trickling in.

I'll post more pictures shortly, including one of the two goats who molested me.

Membership Has its Privileges

As some of you know, I have "Platinum" status with American Airlines. This also means that I have "Sapphire" status with all American's One World Alliance partners, including Qantas. Big deal, right? Well, as it turns out, I am entitled to lounge access with all One World partners while overseas. In the US, lounges are a decent perk that usually mean nicer waiting areas and maybe free drinks or free internet access. Overseas, however, lounges are a different ball game. I am now at Sydney airport, about to depart on a domestic flight to Hobart. I am in the Qantas lounge, where not only am I enjoying internet access and a cold bottle of Cooper's beer, but I just had a nice complimentary lunch--rocket salad with parmesan and balsamic vinagrette, marinated artichoke hearts, asian noodle salad and brie cheese. This, my friends, is living.

Apologies if this sounds boorish--it's not meant to be. What I'm most impressed about with respect to travel here is that it is simply not the chore it is in the States. The airports are well-designed and easily accessible via mass transit. From my hotel to the airport door-to-door took 35 minutes, by rail. Their security is, if anything, tighter and more thorough than the lax TSA drones, but it is far more professional and efficient. I arrived at the airport about an hour before my flight, and I have been sitting in the lounge for 30 minutes of that time--in fact, my flight departs in 20 minutes and was just called, so off I go.

Tasmania awaits!

Meat Pie & Mushy Peas? Woolloomooloo!

Spoke with M & T this morning. They're still up in Brisbane, but gave me a great lunch recommendation. I headed down to Harry's Cafe de Wheels in Woolloomooloo for a traditional meat pie and mushy peas (with sauce, of course!).


The pie was delicious. Harry's has been around since 1945--its success is due, no doubt, in no small part to the fact that it is located immediately outside the gates of HMAS Kuttabul, the Royal Australian Navy's Fleet Base East. But never mind that--Harry's stands on its own, and is an icon of Sydney, much in the same way that Pat's and Gino's are icons of Philly.


It is a balmy 85 degrees again today, with crystalline skies and a light breeze. I'm off to Tasmania tonight to catch up with an old friend from Sweden.

Sydney

I've arrived in Sydney, and boy, is it hot here. At 5pm, it was still 85 degrees, with low humidity and a nice breeze. I know, I know...no sympathy from the slush belt. I freshened up at the hotel following my flight, then went for a walk--I'm very close to the harbor and the opera house, so I headed over to check them out. The bridge is enormous. It's scale is so massive, though, that it actually doesn't really appear to be as big as it is. Here are two pictures, one of the entire bridge, the other a zoomed in photo of the top truss, where you can plainly see ants climbing to the summit. I've been contemplating doing the bridge climb, but it is pretty spendy for what it is. We'll see. My cousin's husband, T, thinks I would love it, but he relishes pointing out the fact that when he was in the Aussie army as a combat engineer, he got to climb it on several occasions as part of his job--and got paid to do it.


At the other end of the scale spectrum is the opera house. Certainly, it is a large structure by virtue of being a performing arts space, but the amazing thing when you walk right up to it is how small it actually is in real life. In part this may be due to the fact that I have only ever experienced it in photographs and film, not live. Sort of like the Statue of Liberty. Most Americans think Liberty is enormous, but when they come to New York they are usually surprised at how small it appears in context. Maybe that is the answer--context. In comparison to the bustling harbor, massive bridge and burgeoning central business district, the opera house--while iconic--is not a dominating presence due to its size. It is a dominating--and arresting--presence simply due to its unique architecture.

The Good Ship Pallada

Last night I explored a Russian tallship that was in port at Auckland. The ship was built in Gdansk, Poland, in 1989, and is used for training cadets at a Russian Fisheries Academy in Vladivostok. At least, that's what I understood based upon my very rusty two years of college Russian.

It was pretty cool, and I couldn't imagine having to climb the rigging and walk out on the spars while at sea. If you look carefully in the last picture, you can see a sailor up on the spar at the top of the rigging. By way of comparision, that's at least 10 stories up.

Off to Oz

I'm about to dash off to the airport to catch my flight to Sydney. I'll post more when I get there, including photos of a Russian square-masted tall ship that was making a port call in Auckland yesterday.

Happy Hour

The Westin is great--during the early evening, there are drinks available in the lobby lounge for adults' amusement and the hotel provides children with remote-controlled toy sailboats for their amusement. The hotel is on a quay and built with an open floorplan, so there is a boat slip right outside to sail the boats. Good times!

With a Name Like Sanitarium...

...Do they just sell nuts? But seriously, ladies and germs, you'd be crazy not to eat their products! Zing! Thanks, I'll be here through Saturday...try the lamb, and don't forget to tip your waitresses!

Oscar Earns His Keep

Rumor has it that my sister's new Odyssey earned its stead by hauling home my nephew's new two-wheeled birthday present. Enjoy the new bike, B!

Auckland, Again

I'm back in Auckland for my last night in New Zealand. I've been just enjoying the beautiful weather and wandering around. I did decide to pay a visit to the US Consulate to have pages added to my passport. I'm not in any immediate danger of running out of visa pages, but my new friend John pointed out that (a) current passports are issued with too few pages for ten years of travel and (b) the easiest way to get pages added is to do it overseas. It was relatively painless--I just had to go to the consulate and wait for 25 minutes while someone pasted in the pages. Now, my passport is enormous...hmm, maybe I should plan another trip somewhere.

Floating Crane

I probably could've done a better job composing this photograph, especially with respect to the background. This is the business end of a lifting crane on what a plaque said was the oldest purpose-built crane ship in the world--built in 1926. Still in service too.

Serendipity

This bird is probably the pigeon of New Zealand, but it landed right in front of me and stuck around long enough for me to take its picture. Pretty, especially with the foliage and flowers.

My Sentiments Exactly.

Skewering the (coffee) Man.

Wellington

It was a beautiful day in Wellington today. Very windy, but sunny and 75 degrees. In addition to the spectacular weather I've had most of my trip, the other great part is that it stays light forever--it is 9:30pm right now, and the sky is just now dark. When I was in Christchurch (less than 200 miles south of Wellington), it was light--and I mean readably light--until almost 9:45pm.

I went to Te Papa, the national New Zealand museum--sort of like their version of the Smithsonian. It is one large facility, and sort of resembles a MoMA, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Natural History Museum, COSI and Children's Museum all rolled up in one. I spent most of my time in the Maori exhibits and the art wing. There was an enormous exhibit about the sheep industry and its contribution to the overall growth and development of the nation. Did I mention that there are a lot of sheep here? I must've passed a few thousand during my 200 mile drive on the South Island. Unfortunately, I never took pictures, because I was trying to keep myself alive while careening down the right (actually left, but I mean correct) side of what passes for a superhighway here (but is really a two lane country road). Anyway, I didn't take any pictures, but it pretty much looked like this:


Anyway, if I pass any more herds, I'll try to get a picture for posterity. But I digress.

Wellington is built on the hills and mountains surrounding an enormous inlet from the sea, which serves as the city's harbor. The city resembles San Francisco in these respects, and even has some very similar residential neighborhoods full of Victorian architecture. Additionally, Wellington also shares quirky weather with San Francisco, most notably very strong winds.


After the museum I headed to the Wellington Cable Car, which is actually a funicular. Oddly enough, given the number (and size) of the hills comprising the Wellington area, I was surprised to learn that there is only one funicular. The other neighborhoods rely on the city's bus network. The view from the top was quite spectacular.

Room to Roam

Mazel tov to A, P, B, J & G (and Buddy, too) on their new Odyssey! Can't wait to be picked up at CMH next time I'm in town!

In the spirit of larger vehicles, here's one my nephews will enjoy:

Doesn't that ladder seem small in comparison to the rig? As far as I can tell, the fire brigade is a nationalized system, not municipal like in the States.

Bacon!

Okay, so I know I mentioned this before, but it appears that Kiwi's are crazy about bacon. It is in everything. I had a caesar salad and lamb for dinner, and guess what? Yes! Bacon! Bacon on the salad. Bacon wrapped around the lamb. Bacon in the potatoes. (That's the third time I've encountered bacon studded/encrusted/enmeshed tubers.) I would've ordered dessert, but I just didn't really feel like having to deal with more bacon. For those of you keeping score on my dietary habits, I picked at the non-bacony parts of the salad, ditched the potatoes and peeled the bacon off the lamb. Look, it was 10:30pm on Boxing Day, the hotel restaurant was the only place in miles still open, and they stayed open for me. I wasn't sending the lamb back because it had bacon essence still on it after I removed the rashers. By the way, the lamb was awesome, but I'm sure the bacon had nothing to do with that.

Perched.

One of my favorite pictures so far. This was in Kaikoura. Before the rain.

Driving to Picton

Well, as you know, my whale watching excursion was a bust. But on the way up to Picton I did see a lot of seals. Unfortunately, I shot all the seal pictures at 1600 ISO, so they are a little grainy and washed out.

I've only seen a very limited amount of this country, but the topography and scenery are simply astounding. It was hard enough driving on the wrong side of the road; doubly so because around every bend was more jaw-dropping scenery. Everyone talks about how NZ really does look like it did in The Lord of the Rings movies (the movie trilogy was filmed in NZ). I disagree. It is better. Film, especially my digital camera, just cannot convey how amazing this place is. But I'll try. Yes, that's my trusty rental car (note which door is open...the driver's).

Wellington

I'm in Wellington at my hotel. I survived the ferry crossing, but only just. I'm one of a proud and stoic few who didn't lose their buscuits during the crossing. The Cook Strait was incredibly choppy, with rolling waves. I don't get seasick that easily, but it was still torture. The boat was rolling all over the place. Also, it was pouring rain, so even if the boat wasn't heaving, there wasn't much opportunity for enjoying the view. That said, before we hit the open water (and the open water hit us back), we navigated the fjords surrounding Picton. It was quite beautiful, and I really wish it wasn't raining and cold, because I missed the opportunity to take pictures.

Picton Ferry Crossing

I'm in Picton, at the northern most town of the South Island. I've dropped off my rental car and I'm taking a 3 hour ferry across to Wellington, on the southern tip of the North Island. It is cold and rainy today--guess my luck was bound to run out. Big disappointment was that the seas were too rough for me to go whale watching this morning in Kaikoura. I waited as long as I could, but the weather didn't let up, so I had to drive north to catch my ferry. On the way I saw an enormous seal colony on the rocky shore--quite impressive, as I could get within 50 feet or so of the seals. I'll post pictures later.

Fish and Chips!

On my way up the coast to the ferry crossing, I had fish and chips at a great Irish pub. Yes, the salad looks amazing. It was. So was the fish--freshly caught NZ blue cod. The beer is standard-issue draught Kilkenny.


I have no idea what the cat's name is, but it was curled up at the door.

My Other Car Is A...

Guess that's how you spell it when you're on the underside of the globe.

Kaikoura

I arrived in Kaikoura last night, which is 2 hours or so up the coast from Christchurch, on the South Island. The drive was wonderfully twisty and scenic, with mountains, sheep, vineyards, sheep, lush hedgerows, sheep, craggy coastline and sheep. This driving on the left thing is fun, and I'm getting the hang of it, but the highways here are only one lane in each direction, with no divider. This is a problem because subconsciously I'm programmed to NOT see oncoming cars on the right, and there were a couple times when suddenly an oncoming car came 'round the bend, and I really felt the impulse to swerve. Instinct really, since my whole driving experience shouts "danger close!" when I see a car on what I think is the wrong side.

Anyway, don't panic. It just keeps me more alert--I'm driving with the heightened awareness of a new driver, and very cautious. Needless to say I'm driving like the little old lady from Pasadena.

Kaikoura is a tiny beach town, pretty much only on the map due to the incredible whale-watching off the coast here. Apparently, the seabed drops 3,500+ feet only a 1/3 mile off the beach, so there is an abundance of sealife, which attracts whales en masse due to the plentiful food supply. I'm hoping to go whale watching this morning, so long as the seas cooperate.

Christchurch

You Can Drink, So Long as You Eat

Pretty much everything in Christchurch is closed on Christmas--which had me worried, since you know I am fond of saying that food and I go way back. Luckily, brunch was taken care of due to the generosity and hospitality of several Kiwis in Mt. Pleasant. However, dinner was another matter, since everything is closed for the day. Generally speaking, pubs are shuttered as well...unless they serve food. By law, on Christmas, pubs are only allowed to open and serve alcohol so long as, and I'm paraphrasing here, "there is an intent of the patron to eat in addition to drink." So, the local English pub in the center of town was open, serving an amazing English-style Christmas dinner with all the trimmings. There was the choice of turkey or roast beef with Yorkshire pudding. I had the turkey, and it was fantastic. Here's a picture.

Note the roasted parsnips, fresh cranberry sauce and the sausages wrapped in bacon (which I gave to my friend John). Why wrap sausages in bacon? Because everything is better wrapped in bacon. This last picture is of John and his fiancee, Sarah, who arrived on Christmas Eve.

Thank you Susan, Jemma, Edna and Ian!

Just a quick post, but this morning I took Jemma and Susan up on their offer for Christmas brunch, and it was wonderful. Their home is beautiful, surrounded by Susan's gardens on a hill overlooking the bay and Christchurch. We had homemade muesli with plum compote from Susan's own plum tree. Thanks again to my Kiwi friends for their amazing hospitality! They even made sure that Santa had something for me. So happy to have met them. This last photo is of Jemma's dog Cashew.