Auckland and Papeete

When we purchased our airline tickets, we got two stopovers thrown in. We decided that a stop in Auckland might be interesting. Originally, we thought we would tour around the northern part of the island, but we had done so much touring already that we decided to just stay put and enjoy what Auckland had to offer. There is a nice harbour area here and our hotel/apartment was in the centre of things. We walked all around the area, visited some parks, did some shopping, went to "My Fair Lady", visited an aquarium, and took some ferry boat rides to other areas nearby. We didn't go up the Tower below and if you look really closely, just below the rim is a speck. That speck is someone who paid to jump off the tower. They pay to do this????!!!!

The downtown harbour area and the container port.

We visited a volcanic island that was relatively new - 400 years old. There are
guided tours and very strict rules about what you can do over there. The last
boat back to Auckland leaves at 4:30 and if you miss it, you spend the night
there all by yourself. Nobody lives on the island. We saw a lot of this
volcanic rock. Check out the video at the end of the blog.

Then we had the opportunity to go to Kelly Tarleton's Aquarium. Here , we saw penguins in a pretty interesting enclosure. They did not seem very stressed at all. Some of the pictures I took while travelling past their habitat in a snow machine. There also was an historical museum of the trips taken by explorers to Antarctica. It was a very educational and fun experience.

Oh!!! Penguins.

It is real snow and the temperature is kept at a level where
the penguins do not have any stress.

These penguins are lying on the snow in order to keep cool.

Mark, one of the handlers, feeding the penguins. They are marked so
that the handlers make sure they all eat and are given their
vitamins as well.

In the aquarium section, you can walk down a glass tunnel
and see all the fish swimming above and around you.

See. Horses.

Here is the view again of Auckland from the settlement called
Devenport. It is a small suburb of the city. Very laid-back. We
walked up this hill which was used as a site for the defense forces
during the war. There are bunkers all around and a very interesting
interactive video in the museum.

Then, it was off to our second stop-over, Papeete, in French Polynesia. We decided that we could splurge and stay in a nice resort on a black sand beach.

The sand was black, but very fine and it got very warm in the sun.

Sunset from our balcony at the resort.

We went for a walk up a mountain road that went behind our resort.
Here is the picture. I never took pictures of the papaya trees or
the banana trees which were growing in the woods. We had
a fresh papaya that had fallen off the tree. Very ripe, very sweet and
very good.

Our resort is just around the bend of rock where this guy is standing.
The next picture would be of him in the water. He and his buddy
were jumping off the cliff when the waves would come in. Notice the large rocks.

This is the garden area of the City Hall of Papeete. You can
also see other parts of the city behind.

You can sure see the French influence here.

How many Bip Bip Burger Joints have you seen? An interesting name.

Paul Gaugin, the French painter, moved from France to Papeete.
We never made it to the museum honouring him, but he
is honoured(?) in many other ways as well.

Here is the downtown market. We went here and bought fresh fruit
and snacks and lunch both days we visited. It is a very busy place
when the Paul Gaugin cruise ship is in town, also more expensive.

Fresh tuna steak anyone? Arone would love to visit this store.

Another honour for M. Gaugin.

Footprints in the black sand.

This was our last picture taken in Tahiti. This is the pool area
at sunset.

So our trip was done. 2 months away from home. Mountains, wildfires, animals, great friends, driving on the other side of the road, multiple modes of transport, almost 4,000 pictures. Great memories and a knowledge that we will have to get back there.

Volcanic rocks and more volcanic rocks

Penguins (sorry, no audio)

Our beach and the waves

Bondi Beach and Sydney

Bondi Beach. This was our first view of the beach as we arrived back from the airport and a quick visit to the city. Of course, this is the beach which had the sightings and munching of a couple of sharks. We didn't see any.

This was Greg's favourite poem recitation throughout our trip.

The skyline of Sydney.

How many tourists have this picture? I think I have at least ten different views.

The view of downtown from the path of our short 10 km walk.

the pathway. Sometimes, it was a very gentle walk, at other times,
we had to climb up over rocks. Of course, the temperature was in
the low 30's.

A very modern toilet at the end of the walk. Music played, there were directions,
and warnings as to when the door would be opening. No long visits here.

View of the Harbour Bridge from our ferry ride from Manly Pier.

From our balcony, we could see a bit of Bondi Beach.

Sunset of Sydney from our balcony.

We saw a lot of school kids on trips during our holiday. Note the uniforms
for these students. All elementary students must wear a hat.

It is possible to climb on the harbour Bridge. Two of the people on our
Outback tour had done this: Mats and Annamieke. Just walking across the
bridge was enough for me.

Check out the disappearing staircase.

In the downtown area, we visited a Chinese Garden to refresh our memories of our last trip together.

This kookaburra was sitting in a tree right beside us.

We saw this same pattern in a garden in Suzhou.

In the downtown harbour, these aboriginals were entertaining the crowd.
If you bought a CD, they would pose for a picture. The music is
a mixture of traditional music with some techno as well. Quite different.

Pools are built right into the cliffs in some beach communities.
The water is from the ocean, not heated.

Fishing from the rocks. The waves broke right at his feet.

A sports competition for young wanna-be lifeguards. They have
classes and competitions all the time. It becomes a great desired job.

Can you imagine having a beach house here and just walking down
and snorkeling every day? A retirement dream.

Of course, I always run into volleyball whenever I travel. There
was a small tournament going on during our 3 beach walk.

Check out the name of this restaurant.

This is the last picture I am posting of Australia. We said goodbye to Greg and Marilyn that night and then headed off to Auckland. I did make up a collection of our better pictures into a DVD movie that lasts over 4 hours. Any time you are really bored, contact me and you can borrow them. I bet I have no takers. Oh well, they are just for us to reminisce about another great holiday.

After our short stop in Alice Springs, we were off to Brisbane. Only spent enough time there to pick up our rental car and off to Coolangata on the Gold Coast. We were looking forward to spending a week on the beach with a bit more luxury than our trip to the Outback. Our resort was right on the beach and we were on the 12th floor with two balconies, one was wrap-around. We had views of the ocean and the mountains.

This was the view from our balcony. There was a market
in the park on Sunday. We spent some time there and then
walked to the beach and suntanned(burned, just a bit)

We did a bit of touring the next day to the interior rain forest and some
mountain areas. We went to a cave where we saw some bats.

On the Monday through to Thursday, there was an international
surfing competition at our beach. There were great waves due to the Cyclone off shore
and the competition was quite good. It was won by a local surfer. People were
quite pleased with that. We didn't have to go down to the beach, we could
watch everything from our balcony.

Footprints in the sand.

During one of our walks, we came upon a lot of surfers enjoying
the waves.

The walk would take us about one hour and we climbed up and
down the coast and had great panoramas.

This is a view of the small urban area looking inland. We climbed up
a small lookout which we could see from our room.

On our way to Sydney, we stopped at a few places that Marilyn had suggested.
This was the lighthouse at Byron Bay. From here, we saw a huge pod
of dolphins frolicking in the waves.

The beach view in the other direction from Byron Bay lighthouse.
Very few people on this beach.

It was a bit windy, but very warm and Jannose wanted to try
her flying skills.

A seafood restaurant at Nelson Bay. No people lined up, but there were
some birds waiting to eat.

We went on a dolphin watching cruise on a catamaran. We
saw a few of them, but the greatest part was just hanging out
enjoying the silence as we sailed out in the harbour area.
Very relaxing as you can see from the picture below.

That night we went down to the harbour again and waited for the
sunset. This was just one of the twenty pictures that Jannose
took during the 5 minute period.

So, this was the end of our little mini-adventure from Adelaide to Sydney. We had landed in Sydney and Greg and Marilyn had picked us up and we had headed for the Blue Mountains and eventually, Melbourne. We were headed back to Sydney and so were they to meet us for our last five days in Australia. It was a bit sad for us to realize that our time in Australia was winding down. But we had five days in Bondi Beach to look forward to with our friends. Good times!!!!