Ae Tearoa

Cape Reinga where the Tasman meets the Pacific

Everything people say about New Zealand's beauty is true and more. We are here at the top of the North Island at Cape Reinga-that's me on the left [duh] Lesley in the middle and Susan on the right. To Susan's right is our trusty auto which took us all over the North Island, onto the ferry to the South Island and finally to Christchurch. Cape Reinga is at the very top of the North Island and it is where the Tasman and Pacific meet. We hiked down an incredibly steep hill -which I could not have done without the aid of my friends- to this very rugged beach and had a little swim and some lunch. It was magical.

For me, it was good to be back in a country where I mostly understood the language....though if you asked some Kiwis they would say that I did not. One day we were up in the Kauri forest where the trees are hundreds of years old and almost as many metres wide and tall. Just outside the trails there was a kiosk selling a variety of goodies, one of which was called a Sea Dog. I asked the woman behind the counter what a Sea Dog was and she said [or so I thought] "it's a bit of fish on a bun". I yelled over to my travelling companions: "It's a bit of fish on a bun!" And she yelled out: "No, it's battered fish!" This story loses something when it is written down, I need some audio, so you can get the accent and why this is funny.
I have realised that it is impossible to get the a whole Kauri tree into a small camera- no I am not joking- so I had to take snaps in bits- you can tell by looking at this bit that it is a big tree....we aren't even at the top yet.

Our travels took us from Auckland up to Orewa and then to the Bay of Islands. We didn't last long in the Bay of Islands because the Half Marathon was on and the whole place was booked out. So we meandered up to Mongonui and found this gorgeous little place on a hill overlooking the Bay and two Maori Pas. A Pa is a hill used for fortification and looking out to see if anyone is coming. At Mongonui we kayaked a little out to sea through the heads and then around the bays. Our reward afterwards was lunch at the World's Most Famous Fish and Chips shop- though none of us had heard of it, and I doubt anyone else outside of Mongonui district had either. From Mongonui we went to Cape Reinga and then back down to Dargaville where we stayed with Susan's wonderful friends Ora and Robyn. Ora and Robyn were wonderful and generous to let us stay a couple of nights and we used their house as a base and went to look at the old Kauri trees.

Leaving Dargaville, we drove down to Lake Taupo, which was big and a bit touristy, though there were thermal pools in the lake which were fun. On our way out of Taupo we visited the Huka River and Falls which are the most amazing colour of blue I have ever seen. The falls are forced and the water surges down through a rock canyon. [which is what it is doing on the left] There was a thermal pool there where we sat for a bit of a warm up. From there we moved down through the alpine region on our way to Wellington.

The alpine region-Tongoriro is ringed by three volcanoes- two of which were used in the movie the Lord of the Rings [don't ask me which ones, I don't remember]. The air is chilly and brisk and of course the scenery is divine. Most of the North Island is beautiful....even the cow and sheep country, because it is so green and lush. People say the South Island is prettier, but I really liked the North. [probly because we spent most of our time there].

We were very lucky with the weather on the trip because it only rained two days. One of the days was when we were in Wellington, and we spent most of the day in the Te Papa museum....very interesting! They had a whole floor dedicated to Maori culture and history which was fascinating and moving. The European New Zealanders seem to have a much gentler relationship with the native peoples than some other countries [you can guess which ones I am thinking about]. There was a treaty made with Maori which honoured their land rites and hunting and fishing rights which forms a really different relationship.

After spending the day in Te Papa, we made our way across to the South Island on the ferry. The ferry was about an hour late getting in and the fellow who ran the hotel we had booked into was a little freaked.....this however, did not prevent him from talking my ear off for about an hour outside our room. [imagine someone talking MY ear off!!] I had to be rescued the next day when I went to pay because it all started up again....and I left knowing much of his life story. It felt like an Oprah Winfrey episode.

We spent most of our time in the South Island [which was really limited because we had spent so much time in the North] in Abel Tasman National Park. I took a water taxi up to one of the Bays [Bark Bay]and walked to another Bay [Anchorage] to catch another taxi back to Marahau where we were staying. The walk was beautiful and I had discovered the advantage of using a walking stick which improved both my ability and attitude about taking a long hike in rugged terrain. [though the land was not as rough as where we were in Cape Reinga]. This is Bark Bay from the track above it. I love the colour of the water both in the ocean and in the rivers here. The water is not only a beautiful colour, it is really clear and you can often see the floor of the river or the bay. The walk was easier than the taxi ride back, as the sea was really rough and the ride was like what I imagine being on a rodeo bull-very rough. Even I was apprehensive about it.

The shot on the right is a swing bridge that was part of the track I took from Bay to Bay.

We got another opportunity to cross a swing bridge in Buller Gorge on our way from Punakaiki to Christchurch. Punakaiki or the Pancake Rocks runs along the west coast line and comprises these rocks stacked up on top of each other resembling a stack of pancakes. Every once in a while there are blowholes which are wild in a high tide. Lesley and Susan went canoeing on our second to last morning and I went to watch the blowholes at high tide [oh yeah and to drink coffee at the local Cafe].

We stayed in this very sweet little cottage perched on a hill overlooking the ocean. The only bummer were all the sand flies, who LOVED me [of course they did!] and I had very itchy feet and ankles and knees and elbows for about 3 days. I have been home for two days now and they are just subsiding.

From Punakaiki we drove to Christchurch and stayed in this sweet little beach town called Sumner Bay. While I was out walking the next morning, I ran into a woman on the beach who told me about a scenic drive over the top of the pass which overlooked the beach a couple of bays and the city of Christchurch, so that became our route to the airport, via the Botanic Gardens in town.

Flying out of Christchurch back to Sydney was pretty weird for me. I had such mixed feelings. On the one hand I wanted to be home to see my mates and on the other I wanted to keep going. I have been on the move since July and staying in one place is really a weird feeling. My mind is still in other places, but I feel really relaxed and refreshed.

Thanks to everyone who read this blog and who made comments. It made me feel as if I were not alone out there and in some way was still connected to you all. Stay tuned for my next adventure, because now I have the bug, I need to keep going. If you want to pop in from time to time, please do, because I have decided to continue writing because it is fun and good practice. I promise to include visuals for all you visual types.

Ciao for now- Genie

Almost Heaven-South American journeys Part 1:

Being in the Andes is one of the most amazing experiences you can imagine. There is no way to describe how breath-taking it is [sometimes literally for those -like me- who suffer from altitude sickness] to see the mountains rise up from the ground. Come to think of it, no photo captures it either. It is the nearest thing to Heaven I can imagine.

Here I am at the highest point in Machu Pichu [at what is called the Guard House or Caretaker's House -depending on what map you read- about to meet the rest of the group I toured with. They walked the Inca Trail for 4 days and from what they told me, it was tough. I took the train. In retrospect, I am glad I did take the train....even though it was tempting to give myself a "trial", I realised after spending a day walking around Machu Pichu, which is filled with steep steps and trailways, that my knees would have never made it on the Inca Trail. By the end of the day in Machu Pichu, I could barely drag myself up and down the stairways. There must be something about ancient peoples and building cities on steep hillsides. Again, as in the South West of the US, the living quarters are in one area and the food storage on another hill altogether. I think I am always too close to my food source, which might explain away the condition of dragging myself up and down steep stairs.

Machu Pichu is totally amazing. It's a very spiritual place...all the important buildings are aligned with the Sun Gate, which is on the top of a mountain opposite from where I am standing in the above photo...so that when the sun comes through the "gate" [it's not really a gate it's a dip in the hillside, surrounded by trees] on the Solstices, it strikes certain formations in the Sun Temple, or the Temple of the Puma or whatever building that holds some importance, at first light. Our guide Margaret took us all around the place and explained the sacred significance of each place along with the meanings behind some of the Incan symbols. She was very passionate about Incan culture which made it really interesting.

What you are looking at on the right is the Sun Temple. You can sort of tell how steep it is from the picture, but in reality it doesn't show the spectacular heights of the mountains. To me, it looks flat compared to what it looks like in person. Machu Pichu- thank god- is at a lower elevation than Cuzco, the base town we flew to from Lima in order to start this part of the journey. Cuzco is some 4,500m above sea level, and from the minute I stepped off the plane I had altitude sickness. Native Andeans drink Coca tea which is supposed to cure the sickness, but it never happened for me. Luckily it did not affect me at Machu Pichu, but the minute we returned to Cuzco, it all started up again. As beautiful as the Andes were, I was glad to be out of them.

One of the places we went before everyone started on the Inca Trail was to the Sacred Valley. It too is filled with Inca ruins and a variety of towns that Andean people still live in -though admittedly, the towns are not dotted along the mountainsides, but rather nestled in valleys. Along the way are groups of women and children waiting to sell us anything from hand knitted water bottle holders [now here's an argument for evolution and survival of the fittest-adapting a sellable craft to westerners who drink out of water bottles] to hats and other woven things. This group are singing us a song. What I love about this is the amount of women who are carrying their babies on their backs. What's unusual about it is that they also scamper up and down the hillsides-steps and trails- loaded up with baby and crafts....how do they do it? Notice they are wearing sandals, not Nikes or Pumas designed for mountain climbing. Nor do they have walking sticks, which the rest of us need to make our way up and down trails and steps. Their climbing gear is genetically built in.


All in all, we spent 8 days in the Andes. Even though I was ill for a lot of the time, I was glad I went...it has always been a dream of mine to see Machu Pichu and I got more than I dreamed about.....which is not such a bad place to be in eh?

Part 2- the Amazon Jungle and Part 3: the Galapagos to follow.

Running through the Jungle-South American Journeys-Part 2

From the heights of Peru, we travelled down to the Amazon River and the Amazon jungle. The difference wasn't just in the terrain- now we encountered all sorts of creepy crawlies and other interesting animals which we didn't see in the Andes. Andeans are -as you can imagine- rugged and serious. Life is more casual and laid back on the Amazon [even though there are more things waiting to kill you there than in the mountains- like malaria and yellow fever, both carried by mosquitos-one comes out in the day and the other at night, I never remembered which].

We were taken from the airport to the town of Puerto Maldonado to get rid of our luggage and put what we needed into duffle bags. Then we went to the boat ramp and got on a "motorised" canoe and travelled for about 1-2 hours down the Amazon into the jungle. We stayed in a lodge which was totally gorgeous.

Each "cabin" in the lodge had a bedroom-complete with mozzie nets- a toilet and shower and a ton load of candles, because there was not electricity. Along the edge of the lodge is the jungle-just waiting. The noise the jungle makes is totally astounding.....everything that lives there is totally busy making noises. The first night we went on a jungle walk, with our torches out, looking for anything that hangs out at night. We managed to see a tarantula the size of a small plate. Our guide coaxed it out of it's hide-hole so we could all have a look. After we walked a while, we all turned off our torches and just stared up at the stars and listened to the noises-it was totally groovey.

The next day we took another canoe ride to a lake, where we paddled around looking at birds and then took a hike through the jungle to look at giant trees. At the beginning of this entry, you can see me standing inside one of the strangler figs that take over other trees and kill them from the outside in.

The Amazon River is brown and filled with Caymans, which are a breed of alligator...one night we went out Cayman spotting and found a lot of them, nesting beside the banks. After we spotted about 12 of them, the driver of our boat turned off the engine and we floated down the River with just the stars for accompaniement.

What I loved about the jungle was the plethora of life and the noise. As you can imagine, it is wet and the plant life is not only abundant, but big and beautiful. There are millions of kinds of orchids and birds of paradise, so of which I have never seen before. Our time there was short, but fruitful....
Look for South American Journeys Part 3- The Galapagos.....read on.

The Galapagos- South American Journeys Part 3

Just being at the Equator would have been enough for me...it was truly an experience, rolling around on a "yacht" [I put the quotes around the word yacht because it was a very funky boat, but more on that later].

The Galapagos are everything you've ever heard of and more....the bird life is abundant, some of the animals are weird and some are found not only nowhere else on earth, but often only on that particular island where they live. This is me with some sea lions....who are EVERYWHERE! Every beach where we landed had the colony of sea lions. The ones behind me are female- but there is a male/bull somewhere on this beach "walking" up and down roaring for us to get away from his family. On the first island we went to we witnessed a sea lion just giving birth to a cub. Our guide could tell this because of all the frigate birds that were circling around to get the placenta. Within minutes of the birth, the mother was pushing the baby down towards the water....no time like the present.

The rules in the Galapagos are: Don't go off the path and don't touch the animals. The sea lion behind me came right up to me and smelled my hand. Most of the animals on the Galapagos are fearless of humans. The birds stay right where they are and do not fly away, nor do the reptiles- who are lying all over the docks and rocks- flee on a human approach. [not that they move very fast anyway...some of them look like they have been lying there for about 1200 years] It is wonderful to see a place where the animals are given preference over humans.

Every day, we went to a different island where we went for a walk in the morning and a snorkel [or two] in the afternoon. We were snorkelling with sea lions, penguins [yes! penguins], manta rays, sharks, tortoises and all sorts of fishies. The weather was wonderful, but the sun was blazing and most everyone got fairly burned despite the sun screen.

One of my favourite birds on the Galapagos are called Blue Footed Boobies.....I swear some of them are trained to pose for photos. This one was waiting on the rocks when we landed for a walk around the dead volcano on Bartolome Island. Aren't his feet pretty? The bird life is pretty abundant- pelicans, boobies, frigate birds- who escorted out boat every day- and Galapagos Hawks. On one island we saw three Galapagos hawks feeding on a dead baby sea lion and they just sat there as we walked past...several of us were snapping away and still they didn't move. It is not unusual to be anchored at some harbour and watch the Pelicans and boobies dive into the water after some fish...they look like arrows darting into the sea. It is also not unusual to see a dolphin or a black and white manta ray leaping out of the water into the air and spiralling back down into the ocean.

Pat- who is on the right in the picture below, was our spotter for the trip....I could not imagine how she could see all those birds and tortoises and rays, but she always did and she told us it was because she played golf and had to see a little ball all the time, or she would be broke buying new golf balls. She and her other half Noel were very entertaining for me during the trip.... they had a fabulous sense of humour and Pat was wonderfully supportive of me during walks and on our landings which I got pretty good at by the end of the trip.

There are so many islands in the Galapagos and we only got a taste visiting Santa Fe, the North and South Plazas, San Cristobel, and Bartolome...I can see how you could spend weeks and weeks there. Our yacht which was very funky, had a great crew. They were all enthusiastic and made sure that we got the most out of all our dinghy trips to the islands....sometimes going out of their way to point out penguins etc along a shore line away from where we were supposed to land. I have to say they had their hands full [excuse the pun] lifting me up into the dinghy after a snorkelling session....I have no idea how they did it. It is the most ineligant position to be in. Nevertheless snorkelling was wonderful...the water was so incredibly clear and the marine life most accomodating.

The yacht was driven by a variety of people, and I swear some of them must have been in training. When Felix- who was our regular dinghy driver, was piloting the yacht, we went twice as fast and bumped over 3 times as many waves as when the captain was in control. Often we had wild rides and quite a few people [not me thank god] were sea sick. I'd had enough of altitude sickness, so I wasn't about to be sea sick. Besides I was nursing an Amazon Rainforest parasite who was assisting me to digest my food 6 times faster than normal. I am not sure that South America is the country for me.....I seemed to have been attacked by all sorts of things. Considering how long I have been travelling however, I think I have gotten off easily.

Sunset on the Galapagos

Next stop: New Zealand- almost home. I can't believe that 4 1/2 months have already zoomed by.....sometimes [like when I was floating down the Amazon River] I think about all the places I have seen in the last 4+ months and I can't believe it......Adios for now.
Genie

WAIT FOR IT....

Just a note to let you all know that I have tons of photos and stories to put up about my South American portion of this journey. However, being in South America also means that I do not have access to computers that will cope with loading up a lot of photos onto my blog entries.

Here's a recap of what I have been through in the past 3 weeks here......

1. An absolutely magical journey to Machu Pichu in the Peruvian Andes
2. A trip down the Amazon River and a stay in the Peruvian jungle-complete with creepy crawlies of all shapes and sizes
3. Yachting through the Galapagos Islands which includes swimming with sea lions, manta rays and tortoises as well as hob-nobbing with iguanas and birds of all varieties.

In about 3 days I expect to be able to load up pictures with commentary....stay tuned.
Cheers
Genie

Bringing down the Rain

These are my wonderful cousins and hosts during my stay in California. On your left are Bob and Linda whose house I invaded and who own Sherman (from It´s a Dog´s Life). That´s me in the middle (duh) and on my right are my wonderful cousin Sue and her other half John. Sue and I were the ones who went to Hawaii together. We had a wonderful time and you can tell by how relaxed she and I both look. We are at a final dinner the night before I left Southern California.

The next morning I headed off to the East. I was on my way to South America -yeah I know, Sth America is, well, south -via Sedona in Arizona and then onto my brother´s house in Laramie, Wyoming.

Sedona is the most amazing place. It´s located in north western Arizona and I suspect it was once Sacred ground to the Hopis and Navajos but now is loaded with tourists. Daily they crawl through the main street in town, which is loaded with Navajo jewellery shops and adventure tour companies. (and trendy restaurants-except for the Hitchin´ Post, which is pure cowboy funk) I couldn´t go past the viewing of the escarpment at sunset via a jeep ride or the helicopter ride (having become enamoured of helicopters in Hawaii).


This is a typical view from anywhere on the main street of Sedona. You can see the resemblence to Auz sandstone-namely because that´s what the cliff´s and hills are made of. The view from any position in Sedona is spectacular, but the further out you go the more spectacular it gets. My jeep ride-which was billed as "medium" (there were 3 types of "adventures" one can participate in: mild, medium and wild) was very fun and a little more than medium.
There were only 3 of us on the jeep....I am presuming the rest of the tourists were in the cowboy bars drinking. Brad, our "genuine" cowboy, replete with hat and spurs, was our driver and a honeymooning couple from Montreal and I were in the back. We went over lots of uneven ground-the jeep tipping this way and that and ended up on a huge plateau looking at the cliffs as the sun went down. The light show was fantastic, and the ride exillerating. As we watched the sun go down in the west there was a rosy glow which spread out on the cliffs turning them into a work of art. All of the galleries in Sedona feature this view in either photographs or paintings.
( Which I would show you but I am working on a computer in Cuzco Peru which is not letting me add any more images, so you will have to do with words until I can upload the images-sorry about that one)

The helicopter ride happened the next day and was pretty spectacular as well.....except that the blades on the copter sounded like they were going to fly off any minute. I loved the way the pilot kept flying straight into canyon walls only to pull up at the last minute...very exciting. I would guess that the hot blonde sitting in the front seat might have had something to do with the hot-dogging. FYI I was sitting in the back.

Leaving Sedona, I headed for the 4 corners area of the South West. This is where Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado meet. I went to a place called Canyon de Chelley. (pronounced Canyon de Shay). The whole area is dotted with canyons so this place was only one of many. Here is one of the areas where the Anasazi lived.

The Anasazi were a tribe of Native Americans who seemingly disappeared sometime in the early 12th century. Many Navajos believe that they are descendents of the Anasazi. The mythology of the Anasazi was that they could bring down the rain through prayer and ritual. They lived in cliff dwellings and which are littered throughout the canyon. Some of the buildings are houses and some are storage bins for food, which gives a new meaning to the idea of going to the fridge for a midnight snack, since the storage bins (or fridges if you will) are on a different part of the cliff pretty far away from the houses. The buildings are always nestled inside a "cave" which gives them the roof and back of the house through natural means.

I took a canyon tour on a very old 4-wheel drive, flat bed truck (with a set of seats for the tourists on the flat bed) driven by a black eyed Navajo called Benson. Benson was very laconic and when I told him I was from Australia, he said: "I have been to Alburquerque, Farmington and the Canyon" describing the territory to which he belongs and travels. It made me smile and think about all those Eastern mythology stories about finding your world in your backyard.

Every once in a while Benson would stop the truck climb out of the driver´s seat, stand on the running board, loop his arm across the driver´s side door and tell us about the rock paintings or the Anasazi dwellings, which he pronounced Nazzi. Once he stopped at a place called Fortress Rock and told us about Kit Carson and his capture of the Navajos. During some interminable battle for Native land, the Navajos climbed up Fortress Rock -about 100m high solitary rock standing in the middle of the canyon-with supplies as well as the whole tribe. Then they kicked away the ladders so Carson and gang couldn´t follow them up there. They withstood the attacks from Kit Carson and crew for 4 months before surrendering and being taken to the reservation, so that some commercial company could have the land and sell it off to the other Americans. After Benson got back into the truck and headed off, I heard a woman in the back say: "I was always told that Kit Carson was a hero." (so did we all honey).

The canyon floor was made of sand and had huge ruts in it. Every once in a while there was a "wash" with trees and a stream. It took us 4 hours to complete the trip. You will have to wait for the slide show to see what I saw. It was pretty wonderful and at times breath-taking. I cannot for the life of me imagine climbing that high into the cliff to go back home. Or else, I probably would not leave home, but I am sure they had to go and get food (now that might motivate me off the cliff).

My last US adventure was a lovely visit with my brother in Laramie Wyoming. There is not too much to do in Laramie, but I did manage to meet a man from Melbourne who ran the local bakery. Go figure eh?

On 21st October, I flew out of Denver airport, connected with a flight at Dallas to Lima Peru. Met up with my tour group, who all seem like nice folk, and we took a flight (at 6AM mind you!) up to Cuzco, which is about 4,500m in the Andes. My first 3 days were spent suffering from incredible altitude sickness -like being sea sick but a little worse. It felt like I was in a cartoon and the Road Runner was pumping up my head with a bicycle pump blowing it up little by little, every time I just walked up the street. Believe me, there is a lot more climbing to do than walking up the street.

I am getting a little better each day. Climbing is a trip though. Yesterday we went to a place called the Sacred Valley-an Incan village or two which included a significant amount of climbing straight up the mountain side. Everywhere you look, the Andes rise majestically up to form the background of whereever you are. It is nothing short of spectacular. It´s enough to make me forget that my bum muscles are in permanent spasm.

Today I toured through an ancient Incan temple site, which overlooks Cuzco and this included a lot of climbing too. Good practice for tomorrow as I take the train up to Machu Pichu and there is lots of climbing to be done there. So wait for news from the Temple of the Sun in the middle of the Andes somewhere.

Adios mia Amigas and Amigos
Hasta Luego....
Genie

Hawaiian Eyes

Aloha from the Ocean! I managed to see a lot of the Pacific in the past couple of weeks, and let me tell you- it is HUGE! It also contains some of the most beautiful islands on the planet. And I was lucky enough to see 4 of them.

My cousin Sue and I sailed for Hawaii from Vancouver -don't ask why Vancouver- that's a whole other blog entry- on Sept 20th and spent 5 days on the Pacific doing the usual cruising things- namely eating, walking the decks, drinking coffee, talking to other passengers and just plain relaxing. I think we slept for an average of 9 hours a night. We both needed it.

When we got the the first island- Maui- we rented a car [a convertible no less] and drove around the island for a couple of days. The ship stayed in Maui for two days and we managed to get to Lahaina [a lovely little village on the coast - of course, most of "civilisation" is on the coast. "Civilisation" meaning shops and other conveniences...This means we did some serious shopping. At most of the islands most everyone from the ship wanted to shop- and where did these happy travellers want to shop? Why Walmart! [not for us- we picked local places]. For the life of me, I cannot understand why anyone would bother to sail all the way to Hawaii to shop at Walmart. We found some groovey little shops along the way in our journeys and of course indulged. So much for my mantra "experiences not shopping".

The first night on Maui we went to a Luau...a Hawaiian dinner where they roast a pig in the ground and offer many other Hawaiian delights, like Poi. [more on Poi later]. The luau was OK except there were 400 other people there- or rather 398- and we got stuck at a table with a motor mouth from New York, [I think he had Turrets] who told us everything about himself, including the details of the pre-nup agreement he had to sign with his new wife, and how he drank out of a glass on the ship that was chipped and cut his lip and now he was scarred for life and was going to sue the shipping lines. I have never seen such a brilliant display of non-verbal communication as other people at the table leaned way back away from him and stopped making eye contact in the hopes that he would shut up. No such luck. But the dancing was pretty spectacular ranging from Hawaiian hula to Maori war dances.

There were lots of other things to do too....We went snorkelling one day [on Kauai] with this great company [all the islands that people visit have a giga-billion tourist companies who cater to all sorts of fancies from diving to sailing to golfing to hiking etc etc]. The company we went with had two guys on surf boards where people snorkelling could hang on and not be battered by the surf and another guy on a board who pulled in those of us who strayed into dangerous waters. Some of us got so enamoured with the fish that we had to be pulled away from the lava rocks we were about to crash into. The sea life was wonderful....exotic fish of all colours and sizes and shapes, an octopus, sea turtles and lots of other things like anenomies and sea slugs. And of course coral. The surf was wild and we were on a beach that had the best restaurant on the island where we ate for my cousin Sue's birthday. I didn't take the camera snorkelling, so you just have to take my word for it.

The other exciting thing I did was to take a helicopter ride over a live volcano! At Hilo [Hawaii - the "big" island] there is a volcano that is still erupting. In the morning we went on a bus tour that took us to the crater [among other places like an orchid farm] where we got to walk on cold lava [called frozen fire] and look into the mouth of the crater, but from that vantage point, you can't see the live lava. We didn't expect to go on a tour in the morning, so I didn't bring my camera. The morning tour got me to the dock just in time for the helicopter ride in the afternoon - so I didn't have my camera then either. But I do have a video of the whole helicopter ride. It was amazing! Little fingers of red fire [called worms] sliding down the hillside into the ocean. When it hits the water, billows of steam fill the air. It was pretty spectacular. And of course I loved the helicopter ride!

Our last day was in Honolulu [on Oahu]- the least interesting and most crowded island of them all. This snap might give you an idea of how big the ship is. Behind is Honolulu- no other town/city on any other island looks like this- with all the skyscrapers. Most of the other islands had small villages on them. You could drive down the main streeet of Lahaina [Maui] or Lihue [Kauai] or Hilo [Hawaii] in about 1-2 minutes. But Honolulu is crowded and dense and busy. We did not spend much time there. When we disembarked we flew to Kauai and spent a wonderful 3 days in the best "hotel". It was really an apartment with a lounge room, kitchen and bedroom. It overlooked the gardens which were filled with Plenaria [frangipani] trees and coconut palms and right across from the beach. Plenaria is what they make the Hawaiian leis from. In the old days when you arrived on any island you used to get greeted by someone who would throw a real flower lei around your neck and say Aloha. They don't do that any more. We got a few shell necklaces [it's not the same, believe me] or an I [heart] Maui/Kauai/Hawaii badge. It loses something in the translation. I guess I am sounding like an oldie comparing the present to another time.

The beaches, of course, are slowly disappearing. I remember when I was 15 and my grandmother took my cousin Bob and I to Hawaii. [where we got the real flower leis put around our necks on arrival]. The beaches were beautiful long, wide and sandy. Today they are narrow and there is not much room between the top of the sand and the waves of the ocean. It is sad to see the beaches disappearing as the Pacific islands start sinking into the sea. Global warming at its best.

On Kauai we went on a tour of Weimea Canyon and up to the Fern Grotto on the Weilea River. The canyon is amazing. You can see all the geological formations from over the ages in the rocks [like the Kimberlys and the Grand Canyon]. The day was beautiful. The shot on the left is of the canyon and the right of the fern grotto. I really thought I could live on Kauai, except for the humidity. We were lucky on the tour through the canyon and the fern grotto- it was dry and a little windy. But as soon as we got back, the clouds came over and the humidity must have peaked to about 90%. Too much for this old bod!

The best things about Hawaii are the sunrise and sunsets. The air is beautiful in the morning and at night. This shot is not an unusual one. This is what happens every night in the islands. No wonder the Hawaiians are so relaxed. In Hawaii there is only Hawaiian time, which may or may not correspond with the time frame you have in mind for completing a task. It is very refreshing. I can really see why people sell the farm [as one of our tour guides expressed it] and come to live in paradise.

Aloha from the South Pacific.....next stop- South America! I am getting ready to roll on to Machu Pichu and the Galapagos Islands.

Sue and I in Maui.....and me on board the beautiful [definitely not] Carnival Spirit Cruise Ship.

It's a Dog's Life!

This is my new best mate Sherman...who lives with my cousins, Bob and Linda. Bob and Linda are generously putting me up between two of my trips- Hawaii and South America.

They live in San Marcos, which is in Southern California [not LA Southern Cal, but the REAL Southern Cal-a stone's throw from the Mexican border]. Sherman is a doll and he is part Dingo. Bob reckons this is why Shermie and I get along so well. He stays glued to my legs when I am walking around here- except when we go to the park, where he bounds off like a Kangaroo into the grass and gets spaced out on a blade of grass and can't hear me call him back.

My trip through Oregon and California has been a Dog's tour. Starting with my friends Linda and Roy who live Oregon. [This is them on the steps of their beautiful house in the Oregon bush]. And next to them is one of the collies -they have 3 dogs- two beautiful collies and a schnauzer [forgive my spelling if this is not right]. Their house is situated in the middle of the Oregon pine forests which makes the air fresh and clean.

Linda and I had a great time roaming around the area and reminiscing about the good old days at Hollywood High School. Linda helps me remember those days because my brain cells have died in relation to the 60's, so I am shaky on what happened. She also has all the class photos up in frames on the walls so we can stand there and point at people and say: "remember......". Good fun. I had 4 lovely days there and then headed down the coast road..which you may have read about in "If you can remember the 60's...." blog entry.

After my 2 day trip to Berkeley I moved south, to LA- [Los Angeles] Brentwood namely- to my friend Ellen, who is also a Hollywood High alum. She has three terriers of some exotic kind. [Can't remember the exact brand name, but they actually came from the Netherlands and Ellen flew over to Amsterdam to pick them up] Clarice, Conan and Claymore, who are enthusiastic barkers and keep her safe from harm. My fave moment was trying to drag Claymore up the road for a walk. [Conan bailed out at the driveway, but Clarice was into it]. I am not sure who is showing up in this snap, except for Ellen...who by the way, looks pretty much like she did in High School [hmm] We had a time of it, because she had somehow contracted some exotic staff infection and had to stay at home, so she sent me out exploring and I reported back at the end of my journeys. One of my forays into the world outside of Brentwood was spent with my HHS English teacher Harry Major down in Hollywood proper. That was an interesting afternoon. We went to a local coffee shop- the kind with booths and funky pictures on the walls- this one was called the Yukon Mining Company- and talked about pretty much everything under the sun. Harry Major was the teacher I learned the most from at HHS and it is always interesting to shoot the breeze with him. He has a great sense of humour as well.

My second day trip was to the Getty Museum. The Getty is perched on top of a hill overlooking Los Angeles city. Here is a snap of LA on the day I went. You can see why they have smog alerts and don't allow children to come outside on days like this. I don't know about you, but I can barely see the buildings of downtown LA in the distance. The grounds of the museum were pretty nice- lots of gardens and interesting buildings. But the content at the museum was less than ordinary. I stayed long enough for a stroll through some of the buildings and the gardens and not much more.

Which of course, brings me to Southern Cal and Sherman- where I started. Getting down here was a trip...I had to wait until 10ish so that I wasn't creamed out by the LA freeway traffic, which is dense and when it is flowing goes at about 100 mph [note all you Aussies, I said MPH not KM] It frightens me to go that fast, especially when they are on the other side of the road...I am not used to looking out that window to see oncoming traffic. The other traffic condition before 10AM is sitting in traffic for hours before you get to move.

I am sort of resting here before the next journey, which is to Hawaii with my cousin Sue. We are both looking forward to the experience. Meanwhile, I am practicing some hill walking- which of course will NOT prepare me for walking in the Andes, but is good fun and a bit of a challenge. This area is really interesting geographically. It is in the high desert- and the landscape is filled with rolling hills and boulders and scrub. I get up every morning and go for my usual hour long walk and then Sherman and I go to a nearby park while he runs and I watch.

I leave in a few days to cruise [once more] where life is filled with such interesting questios as: "What will they serve for lunch?" "Is there a spare treadmill in the gym?" and "Will I play bingo or trivia today?"

More from the land of the grass skirt and pineapple plantations

Genie

"If you can remember the 60's...."

Greetings from the North West Coast of the US of A! There's something about the Oregon Coast that just stays in your system...so when I left my high school buddys' Linda and Roy Arnett's house I rented a car and drove down the coast. It was a totally stunning day and I was totally blissed out that I declined a bus or a train. Highway 5-which is faster-is so boring and flat. This way I got to see beaches, mountains, redwoods all in one drive. Up top are some shots of the Oregon coastline...and below you are looking at Redwood Highway, North of Arcata and Eureka- just about one of the only stands of redwoods left in the state. The photo does not do it justice, because in reality you cannot see the tops of the trees they are so tall and so old. These ones are relatively new [maybe only 500 years old] because you can actually see the circumfrence of the tree. Between Eureka and Berkeley are another stand of redwoods which has the famous one that you can drive through.



As I indicated, I was headed towards Berkeley-from whence the saying: "If you can remember the 60's you weren't really there" came. I remembered some of it, but when did they change the name of one of the major streets to Martin Luther King Jr Way and what was the name of it before it was changed? I stayed on University Avenue, which was only a stone's throw away from the entrance to the Uni, so I had plenty of opportunity to walk around and reminisce. Perfect! You abosolutely cannot visit Berkeley without either a walk through the University grounds or a walk down Telegraph Avenue [location of every demonstration I ever went on except the first one, which was in front of the Admin building]. It's called Sproul Hall and it looks lonely and empty now, but imagine about 5,000 students standing in front of it listening to speeches about Free Speech. In the foreground would have been a police car which held one of the leaders of the student movement inside and about 40 people sitting on top of the car. It was an historic moment for the student movement in the 60's and thus began my political career. [much to the despair of my family]

The campus was every bit as beautiful as I remembered it [yes, I remember something]...and I had to buy a tie-die teeshirt before I left and headed south to LA. [more about LA in another entry]. I spent a couple of days there and noticed how trendy it had become. Had some conversations with older street sellers which was good and walked over to the last house I lived in before I left the place- only to come back as a tourist [like now].

The drive to LA was hot and dusty [I caved in and went down Highway 5] and about 100 miles outside of LA, the traffic slowed to a crawl and I crept into LA at about 5 miles and hour. I had heard the traffic was bad, but this was ridiculous!.

I am staying with another old friend from Hollywood High School and her dogs up in Brentwood. She lives down the street from John Travolta, and I am pretty sure that when I walked past his house this morning at 6:30 AM he would have come out to say G'day if he had only known it was me. I had lunch with an old teacher today, which was a gas. It is he who inspired me to be a teacher and he was a tough old bird [still is] but I learned more from him than any other of my teachers at HHS.

Tune into the entry called HHS friends to see some pics of my old mates....

More later- must immerse myself in some West LA cult-cher.

Genie

Klondike Kapers

So here we are in the land of glaciers, mountains, bears and eagles.
That's our ship- the Radiance of the Seas, docked at Juneau. Juneau- like Skagway looks like a movie set and it is hard to believe that there is something behind the shop fronts. Moira and I decided we didn't want to avail ourselves of the cruise ship inflated tour prices, so we went down on the docks and picked out our own tour. It was on this very funky old white bus-probably an old city bus from the 50's, and the tour guide was entertaining enough.

One of the places we went was to the Mendenhal Glacier- and it might be hard to tell, but mostly the ice is blue. There is some chemical/physical reason why, but I wasn't paying that close attention.

Juneau was our first stop on the Alaska cruise. We got to Juneau after one day of cruising up into the inside passage [look it up on a map-the Inside Passage is just one teensy bit of the state of Alaska]. We also got to watch the salmon running upstream to spawn -which was amazing. They swim all the way from the ocean back to the stream where they were "born" to lay and fertilise eggs and then they die. The smell is pretty strong and amazing. The guide told us that they spawn within a couple of inches of their own beginning. How many of us can claim that, I ask you?

While we were at the glacier, we also saw a little bear, but he/she scampered away before the lens click of the camera, so you will just have to believe me. I was hoping that we would see more wildlife than we did, but they all must have been down at the streams waiting for the salmon to do their thing and then pounce on them.

One of our cruising days we went out to Hubbard Glacier, and the ship hovered by the glacier so we could all have a look. It was pouring with rain that day, so you can hardly tell the difference between the sky, the glacier and the sea, but it was pretty spectacular.....all blue and white ice and very cold. A native person from the area came onto the ship and told us about his culture and language group, which was interesting. You can just see the blue of the glacier in this photo. When we were "hovering" the glacier did this thing called calfing, which means a little avalanche happens and part of the glacier breaks away and falls into the ocean. The noise is deafening and a little scarey.

Like the other ship I was on, I pretty much ate myself silly. There was lots of pretty good food and it was so tempting to just dive in...so I did. Some of the entertainment was pretty good...there was a magic show that was fun and a comedian that made me laugh. Our cabin attendant was really funny, and he folded towels in the shapes of animals and left them on our beds etc. This is the one he left for us on the last night.



Now I am back on dry land- floating down the west coast of the US. Had a lovely visit with the Hoglunds, who I met on the Trans-Siberian tour in Seattle [well, Kent Washington to be precise]. Then spent 4 hours waiting for the Amtrak train to take me to Oregon [they are rumoured to be going broke-I wonder why?].

More later from the land of the free......
Genie

Oh Canada

Vancouver Harbour is a sight to behold. Along the waterfront, called Canada place, there is a replica of a ship's bow topped by white sails. This is what you are looking at from the Harbour Tower just a couple of blocks away from Canada Place.

Vancouver is beautiful...clean and easy to navigate. Moira and I wandered around - and shopped-SURPRISE! Made it to a movie at this funky movie house too. Most of the buildings downtown have these amazing waterfalls, sometimes they are cascading down from a great height. Wish they could export half of it to Aus...that would fill up our dams. Along with the water features, there were beautifully kept "gardens"- all in all a very pleasant city.

We also visited Vancouver Island -namely Victoria.


A hour and a half on the ferry each way-which doesn't include getting to the ferries. Victoria is a gorgeous little city. We ate lunch at the Empress hotel -a very imposing hotel with the usual manicured gardens.


It was a beautiful day and we strolled along the waterfront looking at the market stalls, and then made it half way up government street, but got stopped at a jewelers and that was our tour of Victoria. Short but sweet.

After a few days we got ready to go to Alaska on a cruise ship....stay tuned for the next installment.
Ciao
Genie

Back in the US of A

Well, NYC is all they say- exciting, stimulating, crowded, dizzying and over the top!
For a long time I have been fantasising about staying at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City. The Algonquin is the place where the famous round table happened. The Algonquin Round Table was a meeting place for the prominent literary figures in New York in the 30's and 40'- authors and playrights and publishers of both books and magazines like the New Yorker. There are tons of gorgeous little stories connected with the hotel. I always swore that if I ever went back to New York and ever got the $ together, I would stay there. As you know, all of that came together, and so I did.

IT WAS FABULOUS!

The room was gorgeous and I actually got to sit at the table that Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley and other literary figures sat.



Mostly I went to theatre in New York. I saw Hairspray [cute and lively] Doubt [funny and thought provoking] and Forbidden Broadway -a send up of all the shows on Broadway plus other Broadway issues [hysterical and clever!]. The rest of my time was spent navigating my way through a squillion pedestrians [tourists and locals] and trying to swim upstream in Times Square. Everyone is talking on their cell phones while they are walking along, which makes navigating harder. I did take a walk down 5th Avenue to Central Park which was nice. Also went on the city circle line, [thanks Brad for the suggestion] which was a ferry that went all the way around Manhattan Island replete with commentary. Very interesting.

Then I took the train from Penn Station up to Niagara Falls where I stayed at Rob and Clint's -"the only exclusively gay guest house in Niagara Falls". Clint- who originally told me there was no room at the Inn and sent me to the Crystal Inn on the freeway, and then somehow changed his mind and came and got me- recommended this gorgeous restaurant, where I sat outside and got a view of the falls and this man who walked a tight wire between two buildings at about 750 feet off the ground. That was a trip!

The falls were beautiful- and I have some lovely photos of them- from up above and from the Maid of the Mist which is a boat that runs right into the falls. [you get soaking wet standing at the rails-it was a blast!] It rained the whole day, so I hardly noticed getting wet from the Falls. I couldn't help thinking though as we hovered by the thunderous waterfall: "Why are we digging up all this oil with all this energy right here? There must be a lot of waterfalls that we could trap energy from".



From Niagara, I took a bus to Toronto and met Moira. Next day we got on the train to Vancouver. The train took 3 days and the scenery was totally amazing! The train was pretty neat too. Great service. We were in the berths- they are seats in the daytime and the porter comes along at night and turns them into bunk beds with curtains- just like in Some Like It Hot! Every so many cars there was a "dome" car which had a second story with a windowed dome on it and you could see 180 degrees all round. The views were spectacular.We met some really nice women on the trip- Beth and Sue- mother and daughter, who were extraordinary and Helen- from NYC who was lovely and interesting. It made the trip even better.




Now we are in Vancouver and will hang here for 4 days after which we get on the ship to Alaska....whooee! My head is spinning for visiting all these places in such a short time. There are definitely some places I would like to return to- and some things, like the QM2 I can tick off my list forever! And in answer to all your questions: NO I DID NOT RESIST THE FOOD-

Chubbily yours
Genie

Snaps from the Sea

The QM2 rests in New York Harbour

New York at 5AM

The QM2 plows into the Sunset

The grand staircase into the dining room



Just in case we sink


A view to the bridge