Our 24-hour journey to Auckland, New Zealand started at the Newark, NJ airport to Los Angeles, CA, then to Sydney, Australia (with a nine hour layover) before landing in Auckland, New Zealand.  We boarded the Crystal Symphony Cruise line the next morning.  Touching down and exploring Sydney for 7 of those 9 hours worked towards accomplishing my desire to see all seven continents in my lifetime – Australia was number five.  Africa is planned for later in 2017 and, God willing, Antartica will be in 2018 or beyond.  More on that later.

Maude Daniels, my mother, actually gave rise to my interest in seeing Australia.  I asked her once where in the world would she like to vacation if given the opportunity – after giving it some thought  this 87-year-old woman said Australia.  Very surprised, I asked why and she said because the movie “The Thornbirds” was filmed there.  After researching the movie locations, I discovered it was actually filmed in California because of some requirement to use mostly Australian actors in filming in Australia at that time.  So we vacationed in California that year instead.  However, the seed of visiting the continent of Australia was sowed, thanks Mom.

Journey with me in the following visual display of our trip.  Patrick and I climbed the Sydney Harbor Bridge, I learned how to make movies on my iPad, we explored the outback of New Zealand, toured Phillip Island to see the tiniest penguins known to man and met people from around the world along the way.  We finally settled in Melbourne Australia for 10 days for an immersive experience.  This was truly an adventure of a lifetime.  A friend called New Zealand “the eye candy of nature” and I could not agree more.

I thank God for this adventure.

And then there were the tiniest penguins known to mankind on Phillip Island.  We went to see their return to their nests late at night.  You can’t take photographs of them, the lights would bother them.  So we had this staged photo taken. They really are the size of doves.  We loved seeing them.  No trip to the land down under would be complete without seeing kangaroos, they were everywhere, like deer in the States.  This photo was taken on a golf course.  We saw them on the road and darting out the bushes on streets.  They are fast!  My other favorite animal sighting was the koala bear – how adorable!  Although they sleep all day long and munch on eucalyptus leaves – which apparently makes them sleep the way THC makes some folks sleep (or so I hear).  I was cautioned not to try to touch them because they have claws that they will indeed use.  The female also makes an un-Godly sound when she’s “not in the mood”, scary.

Phillip Island tiny Penquins

Patrick and I climbed the Sydney Harbor Bridge.  The fact is, I boasted that I was going to climb it and a co-worker, Joe MacNichol, challenged me on this.  The more he challenged, the stronger my stance.  When I actually saw the bridge while in Sydney on the layover to Auckland, NZ, my position weakened.  Patrick’s resolve to do it never waivered.  So we did it, my knees buckling at times, but we did it.  Here is the evidence.  It’s not that hard and they really do take great care of you, especially if you are scared.  Joe, I really did it!

We love Sydney!

Look Mom, no hands!

Opera House view from top

On our way to the top….

Melbourne has some incredible art laneways.  We visited three while there: Duckboard Place, AC/DC and Union Lane.  The last photo is in a laneway that has declined with a lot of graffiti, but I captured an artist while there working on his piece.  This was something special about Melbourne that resonated with me, investing space in artful expression.

I wish I had taken more photos of the various dining places we visited.  Emilia’s Restaurant was really good and we came back a second time for our final meal in Melbourne.  Grace, our waitress was so nice, she remembered our drink order when we returned.  We also went to a Jazz Club called Paris Café that was intimate and cozy, just what a jazz joint should be late at night.

New Zealand was exceptional and breathtaking.  So much so, I often forgot to take photos!  We visited a small farm with sheep and fed them after we had lunch there (ironically it was lamb).  We took a high speed boat ride on a river with stunning beauty and of course I shopped in Pitcon, one of the local towns, to contribute to the economic impact of the local economy.  The food, people and sheer beauty of this place made me want to live there.  Following a relaxing, albeit wet, catamaran ride on the geothermal lake (that’s me and the captain in the first photo), we went to Hells Gate.  This Maori owned and operated thermal park has been in the Ngati tribe for over 700 years.  Here you can touch rock that dissipates to liquid and forms a white powdery substance which is meant for healing.  Their thermal pools, thick with the smell of sulfur, have muds that are used for expensive beauty treatments.  I wanted to dive in!  The thermal park is so named by playwright George Bernard Shaw, who upon seeing it while visiting for a week, thought this must be the gateway to Hell, a topic his theologian colleagues talked about. Hence, the English name so adopted by the Maori.

New Zealand was indeed a very special place.  Their national rugby team, the All Blacks, have a very special chanting and dance ritual paying tribute to their tribunal roots before each game.  They are rock stars over there and hold a special place in our hearts too.