Travel Notes - Down Under

Been away for a month, but we're back. This will help to fill the gap. Pictures to follow.

We had visited Australia before, some ten years ago, but not New Zealand. So when the opportunity for an annual reunion of my wife's high school classmates on a cruise around both of the Antipodean islands and over to Australia, we once again joined up with our friends and headed for Auckland.

The cruise would last twelve days, visiting Tauranga, Christchurch, Dunedin, the fjords of South Island, before heading westward. In Sydney at the end of the cruise we would spend eight days relishing the companionship and hospitality of old friends.

We were fortunate to have mostly fine weather on the voyage. In fact, the ship's captain announced over the public address system that the crossing of the Tasman Sea from South Island westward to Hobart was the smoothest in his experience.

At Tauranga in the North Island, the first port of call out of Auckland, our party of nineteen people went on a bus tour to see the geothermal wonders of the Wai-O-Tapu Park south of Rotorua, where the Lady Knox geyser, New Zealand's answer to Yellowstone's Old Faithful, draws thousands of visitors each year. The Champagne Pool, a steaming lake of hot, hissing water colored by minerals of striking hues, contributes to making this volcanic wilderness a photographer's delight. Two of the world's great tectonic plates meet in New Zealand, and so New Zealanders have much in common with Californians.

From Lyttelton, a short bus ride took us to the very English town of Christchurch, where antique tramcars, reminiscent of San Francisco's cable-cars, clang through the central downtown streets. A street fair in front of the Cathedral was where we spent a good part of the morning, browsing and shopping before having a hearty lunch at a historic pub a few steps off the square.

The following day, cloudy and unexpectedly chilly, we arrived at Port Chalmers, and bused in to the charming city of Dunedin. Another street fair was in progress in the Octagon where stalls tempted customers with grilled food and savory pies. (Street fairs seem to be as popular Down Under as they are Up Here in the summertime.) Then the sun came out and warmed things up enough for us to work up a sweat.

A full day at sea brought us around the southern tip of New Zealand and up its western edge to visit the Fjordlands. Dramatic vistas of green mountains and waterfalls dropping sharply into the water in the misty dawn were blurred by a steady cold drizzle. Two more sea days after leaving the Antipodes and then we arrived in Hobart, the first convict settlement in Australia. A pleasant small town, hilly and neat, and nice people. At departure the Tasmania Police band, in tartans and kilts, played their bagpipes to the applause of the passengers lining the decks. The strains of 'Highland Cathedral' and 'Amazing Grace' brought a lump to many throats as the ship pulled away from the dock.

In Melbourne, friends we had not seen in many years entertained us in their homes and treated us to a special dim sum luncheon, after driving us on a whirlwind tour through the historic landmarks of the city. We enjoyed their hospitality so much that we made it back to the ship only minutes before sailing time. The current severe drought in Victoria, and the ongoing bush fires north and west of Melbourne, continued to take a heavy toll on the state's population and resources, and reminded us of similar dangers facing our own state.

Coming in to Sydney harbor at five in the morning is not as dramatic an experience as we had expected, but when the dawn broke, the sight of the great ship berthed between the twin great Sydney icons, the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House, more than made up for the earlier disappointment. Along with Hong Kong and Rio de Janeiro, Sydney can lay claim to having one of the world's most beautiful harbors.

Our Sydney hosts were at the pier to pick us up in two cars (oh, yes, between our two couples we had a total of nine bags, large and small). At a party that evening in their home, and on subsequent evenings in others', we encountered friends with whom we shared experiences of our time in the Orient of our youth.

Our eight days in Sydney were filled with sightseeing and shopping. We drove down the Grand Pacific Drive to Kiama, visited the Illawara Fly Treetop Walk in Jamberoo, wandered through The Rocks by Sydney harbor, surveyed the Blue Mountains on a long hike, enjoyed the serenity of a convent in the hills, and took in many other sights in New South Wales. The view of Sydney harbor from its famous bridge is not to be missed, and if, like me, you enjoy savory pies, Australia is where you will find them the most delicious.

But way above everything else, what we enjoyed most were meeting again the people with whom we had traveled before, and the pleasant evenings in the company of close friends exchanging memories over a glass of fine Australian vintage.

In the end, if only for a little while, we kept the global economic crisis far from our thoughts.