After the Australia Trip

Wow, I can't believe it's been 6 months since that trip. So much has happened since then. Let me catch you up on life since then. We returned to New Zealand to finish out the next month and a half before our return to the U.S. Easter with Joelle and family was great! It's been so long since we celebrated that holiday with them. Folks in New Zealand do not color eggs at Easter but we did! Of course since that it our tradition. Joelle invited some friends  over and we had a great time doing the eggs. It was a bit trickier and messier since we had to actually use food dye but what fun. We also celebrated our traditional Polish Easter. Made kielbasa and placek for our meal. We ate outside and had a marvelous time. During our remaining time, we also spent a weekend at Pine Valley. We rented the lodges and had the entire camp to ourselves for the weekend. Several other families joined us. While this camp is usually used for various school outings, the playground equipment is really geared for all the big kids too. I rode my first flying fox (several times). It was really fun. Had a big bonfire and roasted marshmallows and had s'mores. They also had a water slide built on the side of the hill. It was a wooden chute covered with heavy plastic. They had a hose at the top of the slide that provided the water and you had to put dish soap on the slide so you actually slid down. Everyone was having a great time until two of the girls collided at the bottom of the slide. A visit to the hospital for both of them and several weeks recuperating but a damper on the weekend but it was a great way to end our year in New Zealand.

We knew it was going to be hard to leave Joelle, Jasmin and Trevor but didn't realize how hard! Really do miss them! The flight to San Francisco was uneventful. We spend three days there with friends that we had met while in Fiji. They are beautiful folks. Had a great dinner that night with some of their friends. Spent the next day sailing in San Francisco Bay. What a treat! Arrived back in Austin to outrageous heat and traffic! We were just getting into Fall and Winter in New Zealand and San Francisco is cold any time of the year. We step off the plane into 100 degree heat. What a shock to the system!

We planned on spending 3 days in San Francisco and arranged flights accordingly. As we got closer to the date, we began to regret that schedule because we were eager to see everyone in Austin. In hindsight, that was the best decision. We got a chance to get over a good portion of jetlag in a quiet, calm environment with no demands on us. Once we got to Austin, it was a whirlwind of activity - good activity - but activity nonetheless.

Since we returned to Austin, we've had several trips - Baton Rouge, Port Aranasas, Sea World in San Antonio with Gracie, Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands Monument, Albuquerque, Tent Rocks Park, Petroglyph Park, Grand Canyon, Dominican Republic. About 2 months ago, we bought our camper, Didn't stay in it right away since our granddaughter from Illinois came for a visit. It was only 4 days but we packed the days with activities. Once she returned, we started working on the camper - getting stuff out of storage and store runs to pick up all the other stuff. We finally got everything set up in the camper along with satellite TV. Finally we were ready to head out on our own to the first of many campgrounds. We closed everything up and Ernie was flushing out the black water tank and water was gushing out of the bottom of the tank. We knew that was not right but didn't know exactly what was happening. Since we were still at the dealer campground, checked with them and they said they would have to put this beheamoth of a unit on the lift and see what was happening. That would take a day. So off we were to stay with Chris for the night while they fixed the problem. Turns out it was a backflow safety valve in the black water tank and they fixed it for only $800. Thankfully it was covered by the extended warranty. Next day we take off and I drive 4 hours til we are north of Fort Worth. Can't believe how easy it was to pull this 34 foot monster. Most of the time I didn't even know it was behind me. We stopped for fuel about 14 miles from the campground. Well, I pulled into the gas station and forget this monster was behind me until I hear a noise. It was the passenger side of the camper scraping along the left rear edge of an 18 wheeler trailer. The only thing hurt was my pride! Major hurt!!!! We were sure if we would be able to open the door to the camper since it was pretty caved in. I also took out the canopy. Drove on to the campground, parked the trailer and plugged it in so we could keep the food cold. Tried the door - no luck! The campground put us in a getaway cabin while we talked with insurance and camper repair folks and got all that squared away. The camper is now back at the dealer waiting for a new canopy and frame, new door and frame, and some cosmetic work to the camper skin around the door. Thanks God for insurance. The lesson learned is that when pulling 34 feet of anything behind you, you need to make very very very very wide turns!

We're getting ready to go to South Padre for Thanksgiving with our son Chris for a week of fishing and lazying around (is that a real word?) Hopefully the flounder will be running. When we return, the camper should be done and ready for us and we will give this another go. Can't wait for Ernie to try hauling our home.

Anyhow, that's all for now folks! I've said it before and will probably say it again, I will try to be more diligent about keeping up with this blog. Once I get started, everything just seems to pour out. It's is just getting started. Take care and have a great Thanksgiving. Oh, I am so very thankful for all my family and friends and all good fortune bestowed on us.

Last of the Australia Trip - Finally!

So, two weeks in Victoria and now it's time to move on. We take the Overlander train to Adelaide. It was basically an 8 hour trip heading west out of Melbourne. What was so surprising to Ernie and I is how much this area of Aussie looked like Texas. If you removed the sheep and put cattle in their place and added some cactus, you would ave been in west Texas.

One of the interesting learnings for me after being in Victoria was how much I really missed wide, open spaces. While New Zealand is physically beautiful, you can get to the west coast on the south island in 4 hours. You can drive to the southern tip of the south island in 12 hours. While I wouldn't say I was suffering from rock fever, I obviously was really missing the big open spaces. While driving in Aussie, it suddenly felt like we were home in Texas - you could drive for hours and never see anything - it was great! We were in Adelaide for 3 days while we waited for The Ghan to make it's journey north to Darwin - once a week. While in Adelaide, we took a wine tour to the Barossa Valley and another one to the McLarenville wineries. Once again, really great big red wines. Wow! Oh, I have to share one of the greatest comments I've heard in a long time. We were at Langmeil Winery tasting and purchasing a bottle of wine. There were a group of your men - probably in their late 20s or very early 30s - out on a 'buck' weekend (that's a batchelor weekend to us yanks). One of the guys was getting married the next weekend. We were all talking back and forther and having a great time. While we were reading the label on the bottle we bought, one of the young guys looked over and said "break it's neck and suck out it's life force.' I looked at him and told him that he worried me and I didn't quite understand what he said. He repeated it again and I was still puzzled so he add hand movements to explain the meaning of this expression. He held a bottle of wine and mimicked unscrewing the cap while saying 'break it's neck.' e then mimicked drinking from the bottle and said 'and suck out it's life force.' That's when the lights went on and I got it! OK, so I'm a little slow at times. I've shared this story with so many folks and they all responded the way I did as far as understanding it and then when they did, they all thought it was great. So, I'm sharing this little tidbit with y'all.

Vat of grapes waiting to be crushed at Rockford Winery

We just missed getting to see the grapes being crushed in this apparatus,

They are transferring the recently crushed grape juice in the next step of the process

Here's the grape skins, seeds, stems and bits and pieces left from the crushing.














The Ghan is a transcontinental adventure that offers an unsurpassed view of Australia - North to South over three unforgettable days (if you travel from Adelaide to Darwin - or visa versa). Travel by rail between Adelaide, Alice Springs and Darwin and you are embarking on one of the great train journeys of the world. This train/trip is amed after the Afghan cameleers who once traversed this route, The Ghan will take you from one edge of this continent to the other, through the very center of Australia. A journey on The Ghan is an incomparable way to travel to the two jewels of Australia's Northern Territory – the Red Center and the tropical Top End. Unfortunately we only went halfway - to Alice Springs and spent four days in the Red Center. It was a great trip, overnight on the train. We haven't done an overnight on a train since we went to Prague 19 years ago.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

This was our car on the train

You can see one seat and then the sink is locked up on the wall. That's our door to the right

Here's Ernie is our cozy cabin. I'm in the seat opposite from him

We were going through a really sharp curve and I was able to take a photo of the engine from our car

So the seats folded down and the lower bunk pivoted down from the wall behind my seat. The upper bunk was then lowered from the ceiling and we attached the ladder to get up and down. The cabin was so small, we couldn't open the door all the way when the beds were made

Sunset from the parlor car on the train

We took a tour to Kata Tjuta and Ayers Rock. Kata Tjuta means many heads to the Australian Aborigines. It is a group of more than 30 rounded red conglomerate masses of rock rising out of the desert plain in the Northern Territory. So your riding along in the flat semi-arrid outback and suddenly these rocks rise out of the plains. After walking around Kata Tjuta, we got back on the bus to drive to Ayers Rock, aka Uluru. This is also is a large sandstone rock formation in the southern part of the Northern Territory. It lies 335 km (208 mi) south west of the nearest large town, Alice Springs; 450 km (280 mi) by road. What this means is that the bus picked us up at 6 a.m. and we got back to the hotel at 12:30 a.m. - basically 5 hours each way to get there. As I said - really big wide open spaces. What was really cool about our visit here was that the middle of the Northern Territory has had higher than normal amounts of rainfall over the last few years and particularly this past summer. So much so that it really didn't present as a desert but was really green and the waterholes were full. Our guide told us that they are seeing flowers blooming that haven't been seen for at least 30 years.

Kata Tjuta and Uluru are the two major features of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Uluru is sacred to the aboriginal people of the area. The area around the formation is home to a wealth of springs, waterholes, rock caves and ancient paintings. Uluru is listed as a World Heritage Site.

Uluru is one of Australia's most recognizable natural landmarks. The sandstone formation stands 1,142 feet high (rising 2,831 feet above sea level), with most of its bulk lying underground, and has a total circumference of 5.8 mi. Uluru is notable for appearing to change color at different times of the day and year, most notably glowing red at dawn and sunset.

OH, a really big OH, one of the other things we discovered in the Northern Territory are truck trains. You know how we have tandem trucks in the U.S. - one truck pulling two trailers? Well, here in the outback, they will hook together up to 10 or 12 and go down the highway. The travel books warn about these and said that you should usually allow up to one kilometer to pass. We only saw one with 3 trailers while we were traveling around.

This emu was on a ranch at our bus stop for morning tea

This is not Uluru but actually Mount Connor. While not as high as Ayers Rock, it's still pretty damn impressive!

This is our first view of the Kata Tjutas

This is a much closer view

These rocks are a conglomerate of rocks and sandstone. When you see it up close, you realize how really unstable this is

The Northern Territory is home to over 1.2 million feral camels and we were lucky enough to see one on the drive to Ayers Rock

If one is so inclined, they can climb Ayers Rock. This is the first part of the climb. Unfortunately my camera did not do justice to the path. This man is actually climbing down the rock face and he is holding on to a chain rope that comes down from the top of this first hill. Note that the chain stops just a little below him. Note also that he is not at the bottom of the climb when the chain stops raising the question as to how does he get down.

Answer - you get on your butt and slide down. Remember that this rock is basically a conglomerate of small rocks held together in sandstone. When you look at it closely, you can almost see layers of rock peeling off.

This really shows the effect of the wind on the sandstone and just how unstable it is.

This was our first view of Ayers Rock

We were having a barbie and watching sunset

Another sunset view of the rock

After doing this trip and getting in at 12:30 in the morning, we took another tour the next day but didn't have to leave until 8 a.m. What a joy! This day we went to the MacDonnell Range. The ranges are a 400 mile long series of mountain ranges located in the center of Australia, and consist of parallel ridges running to the east and west of Alice Springs. The mountain range contains many spectacular gaps and gorges as well as areas of aboriginal significance.

Ernie & I both agreed that the trip to Uluru was a 'tourist' must but we so much more enjoyed the MacDonnell Range. Out first stop was Stuarts Gap where we saw rock wallabyes.

 This picture is not great but these guys are little and really quick - jumping from rock to rock. Of course he wouldn't turn around and give me a smile. Oh well, maybe next time.
 

This photo so beautifully shows the rock upheaval that created this range

This was the beginning of an easy walk on the Chasm Trail - according to our guide. Check out the next several photos - ending with the bridge shot - to see our easy walk and you be the judge. I think some of these Aussie folk have been out in the sun too long!

A bridge. What a novel idea! Up to now we had to climb over the rocks or fallen logs to ford the stream.

This is a photo of the Ocher Pits. This is where the aboriginies got the rocks to crush to dye their paints for their cave drawings and various art work

This is a swimming hole on the Finke River which is the oldest unaltered river in the world. I was floating on a tube towards the gap in the rocks.

These are my feet. I was really floating on a tube through the gaps. See the upheaval on the rocks?

This photo was taken from the other side of the gap

OK, this now takes us to our last full day in Alice Springs and Australia. We decided to spend the day just wandering the city and checking it out. There is a river that goes through Alice Springs, the Todd River. What is so unusual about it is that the locals refer to it as an upside down river. The visible river bed is actually dry and the water runs underground.

This is the Todd River

Here's Ernie standing in the middle of the Todd River

The funny story about this river is that once a year, the local community holds the Henley on Todd race. There supposedly is a famous river race in the UK on the Henley River. Well, the folks in Alice Springs decided to have some fun with that so they hold their annual Henley on Todd race. Participants come from all over. The rule is that you have to make your boat but because the Todd doesn't have water, your boat has to be bottomless and you have to walk/run/carry your boat. The funniest part of this is that three years ago, they had to cancel the race because of there was water in the Todd because of flooding.

We had dinner at the Overlanders Restaurant in Alice Springs and had their tasting platter which consisted of crocodile, kangaroo, emu and camel. We had eaten emu in the US and it was good. We had already eaten kangaroo a few times during our stay in Aussie and that is also good. The crocodile was a new one for us as was camel. I really liked the crocodile while Ernie was so-so about it (more because they made it in a Mornay sauce and he doesn't particularly like that.) But I have to tell you that I absolutely love camel. It's my new favorite meat.

So that's our month in Australia. What can I say other that magical! Just a few more posts to the New Zealand trip that I'll do over the next 2 days because we then leave to return to the U.S. I can't believe the year has passed already. Anyway, more tomorrow. Have a great night!

Australia Continued

So our first week in Cairns came to an end and we moved on to Melbourne - actually just flew into Melbourne and then drove north for an hour to Kyneton in the Victoria region. We stayed at the Kyneton Bushlands Resort. We had two weeks scheduled for this region since there were a lot of things to do and a lot of wineries to visit. We spent the first couple of days sorting things out and planning the next two weeks. We were walking to the reception office to complete registration when I heard a rustling sound over my shoulder to the right. Before I could turn around to check it out, three kangaroos went jumping past s into the area before us. The folks in the office told us there was a resident herd of 'roos' that lived on the grounds. Over the course of the next two weeks, we saw a lot of them and it was great.

These are some of our 'roos' that hung around our villa and the resort. Too cute!

While the kangaroos were a pleasant surprise, the bush rat that also lived in our villa was not. Rather than occupying the villa while they tried to catch him, we were moved to another villa - sans bush rat. The next few days were mainly winery visits. After primarily drinking New Zealand whites and Pinot Noir, the Australian reds tasted really big! And they were great! One Tuesday we drove to Ballarat to visit Sovereign Hill. It is Australia’s foremost outdoor museum. Sovereign Hill re-creates Ballarat’s first ten years after the discovery of gold in 1851 when thousands of international adventurers rushed to the Australian goldfields in search of fortune. You can get more info on their website www.sovereignhill.com.au. What a great day. What was really cool about this place is their costumed school program. This is a program of costumed role-playing where Aussie school children are fully immersed in the 1850s, learning about manners, costume, behaviour and re-living the discipline of school life on the goldfields. Since this was the middle of the school year, having the children at the park playing, learning and interacting with other cast members really brought it all to life.

 Here's Ernie standing in one of the mining cages that were used to lower miners down. Note I said miners - plural - I think they were a lot smaller way back then.

This is where the cage was lowered down

  We're in the undertaker's store and the stable is in the back with the carriages that carried the coffins. Again, I think folks were a lot smaller back then - don't think Ernie would fit.

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Ernie's playing 10 pin bowling. He did really well and got a strike. 

Unfortunately there was no automated pin setting machine in those days so he had to walk back and reset the pins for the next bowler. Oh poor guy!















The next day was quite a long one for us since we drove to the Great Ocean Road which is southwest of Melbourne. We left early in the morning (still dark outside) and didn't get home til 9 that night. One of the areas that we will always remember is Koala Cove. It is in the really small village of Kennett River. You turn off the main highway and take a left right after the campground entrance, park your car, get out and look up. Yep, just look up into the trees and you will see koalas sitting on the upper branches or sleeping the crooks of the tree and the branches. The other amazing thing about Australia is the wild parrots and cockatoos. They are everywhere.

We saw a lot of these signs. Aren't they cool!

 Wild parrots.

This is my little koala. He was up in the tree and watching us.

At this point, he decided he wanted a closed look and started to climb down.

 He stopped on a lower branch and just sat there watching us. It was like he was saying 'well do something, don't just stand there.' Oh, koalas growl. He was talking all the way down.

This sign was in the parking lot at Koala Cove and Ernie thought it was really funny.

We drove on toward Port Campbell to see the Twelve Apostles and London Bridge - these are giant rock stacks that soar from the swirling waters of the Southern Ocean Unfortunately, there are only eight apostles left and London Bridge has fallen down! Seriously! Here's some of the remaining apostles.

After two really full days, we decided to spend the next day at the resort and sit around the pool and play miniature golf. Nice lazy day! Back to more wineries over the next few days and a drive to the Grampians National Park, a series of sandstone mountain ranges suddenly rising up from this slightly rolling terrain. Again, once I can get the photos uploaded, you'll see the kookabooras that were in the trees over the picnic area. The bird life here is absolutely amazing.

So one night we were woken up in the middle of the night by a strange sound. At first we thought it was birds on the roof but then realized it was the middle of the night and the birds would be sleeping. We sort of ignored it for a while and then the sound started again and was much louder - it was the sound of flapping wings. So, my knight in shining armour, got up to investigate and saw a rather large bat flying in the parlor room. Another visit to the office the next day brought a lot of laughs and true concern - first a bush rat and then a bush bat! Being the troopers that we are, we decided not to relocate again and tough it out. Of course, we left the lights on in the parlor and kitchen and put a rolled up towel at the bottom of our bedroom door to seal off the room. Obviously the bat found a way out because we never saw or heard him again. Either that or he died in the air conditioner and we left before he started smelling. In any case, he wasn't our problem any longer.

The last thing I want to mention is Hanging Rock Park. It is a rare volcanic formation located near the townships of Woodend & Mount Macedon in Victoria, Australia. We were going to go to the park for a hike and to see the large herd of kangaroos that reside there. When we got to the park, there was a gate with a sign that there was a departure fee of $10. Since the roads literally surround the park, we chose to just drive around. When we got to the back road, Ernie hollered for me to stop and pull into a 'driveway' leading to a gate. Right in front of us were about 50 kangaroos. Again, once I can upload the photos, you'll see them. We stopped at the Hanging Rock Winery - since we couldn't hike - no sense in wasting the afternoon. The guy at the winery explained that Hanging Rock used to be owned by a private family and when they decided to turn it over to the region, they stipulated that they were never to charge a fee to enter the park. True to the letter of the agreement, the local region chose instead to charge a departure fee. You can get into the park for free but you can't exit until you pay. Only in Australia!!!!!

OK, that's all for now, time to work on supper for the the family since it is Joelle & Trevor's anniversary and I offered to cook supper - jerk chicken with Jamaican rice and pidgeon peas. More on the Aussie trip to follow.