BLOG 2011

BLOG 2010 featuring our trip to Turkey, Greece and the Greek Islands, Mexico and the northeastern U.S.
BLOG 2009 featuring our trip to Ghana, Kenya and Namibia as well as WW's 60th birthday, health issues and visits to family and friends.
BLOG 2008 featuring our traveling to Central and South America and back to Nairobi, Kenya and Eastern Africa.
BLOG 2007 featuring our living, working and traveling in Nairobi, Kenya and Eastern Africa.
BLOG 2006 featuring our living, working and traveling in Swaziland and Southern Africa.

OVERVIEW OF OUR ENCHANTED EXPEDITION INTO ECUADOR—AN
ECOLOGICALLY, GEOLOGICALLY, AND CULTURALLY DIVERSE SMALL COUNTRY

We were truly impressed with the beauty of so many aspects of Ecuador that it’s hard not to use a bit of exaggeration. This relatively small country had been shrunk to half its size prior to 1942 by Peru, Columbia and Brazil invading to steal much of Ecuador’s oil-rich eastern and southern land. Despite that theft, this country’s diversity and occasional visionary leadership have worked in its favor. Ecuador has four very different ecological zones: the isolated Galapagos Islands, the west coast’s ports and industry, the highlands’ agricultural and geological variety, and the eastern Oriente’s oil plains and rain- and cloud-forests.

Having completed our Ecuadorian expedition, I can say that we were fortunate to spend time in the absolutely charming city of Quito as well as experience each of Ecuador’s different zones during our 3 weeks. From the beginning to the end of this busy trip, each day was unique and fascinating. Our adventurous time in Ecuador was truly unforgettable. Please read on…

One of the prettiest cities in South and Central America after Buenos Aires and Rio De Janeiro Quito maintains its colonial charm, shows its indigenous influences, and has transitioned to modernity to keep up with the world. As we walked through the city we were constantly aware that at 9,400 ft. above sea level, we were not going to walk uphill quickly. My norm became huffing and puffing with frequent stops. Ironically, I was looking forward to visiting the elaborate churches touted by our guidebook—funny, a Jew wanting to see more churches but then I loved visiting mosques in Istanbul.

- In 1978, UNESCO declared Quito’s Old City their 1^st World Heritage Site which now protects all picturesque old buildings from just being razed to accommodate modern requirements.

- As we walked outside the President’s office building under an extended portico, we noted it was guarded by 2 soldiers dressed in very colorful uniforms “a la Granaderos” which are replicas of those worn during Ecuador’s fight for independence from Spain in the early 1800s.

- La Catedral Metropolitana on the fourth side of Plaza de la Independencia is mainly a museum but does also host major church holiday events. There we saw many examples of both sculptures and paintings from what is now called the Quito School style, where the sculptures’ surface is very shiny and life-like in colors and people’s expressions. The painting of the allegory of Jesus’ judgment of people to enter heaven or hell is quite grim, along with its companion painting of hell itself. Our guide told us that parents and grandparents use these paintings to frighten children to be good! Because many of these paintings imitate older Spanish art but were painted by the “Quito School” in the early days of the Republic, artists inserted local scenes or people into what are very traditional religious scenes.

- “Latin America’s most beautiful church” is La Compana de Jesus. Erected in the 16^th century by the Jesuits (aka Company of Jesus), this is the most gold-covered interior of a church I’ve ever seen. The outside is elaborate, but the inside is over-the-top. Almost every surface is covered with gold leaf. However, we were told that despite its appearance, only a total of about 65kg of gold were used. We could not take pictures inside the church, but besides being golden, there were a combination of architectural styles, including Moorish, Baroque and Quiteno Colonial.

- Infamous 3-block Calle La Ronda is known for its bars, cafes and nightlife. It was quiet though picturesque on a weekday morning. The architecture reminded me particularly of New Orleans French Quarter mixed with a bit of Rhodes’ (Greek Island) Street of Knights with lots flags.

- The Teleferico, a cable car which starts at the base of Volcan Pichincha, transported us to the top of Cruz Loma at an altitude of 14,000 feet. The views from the top were amazing 360^o of the countryside and city of Quito. We could see very clearly that the city spreads for miles north and south in the valley between 2 volcanic mountain ranges, so it was not surprising when our guide said that Quito was about 4 miles east to west and 45 miles north to south, not including the new suburbs called “the valleys” on the eastern side of Quito’s mountains.

- “Typica” Ecuadorean lunch at Clolinda restaurant for tourists was $8 plus drinks per person--not too bad, though our guide said that he and his colleagues often go nearby to small local restaurants where they can have 3- or 4-course lunches for $3. Our meals were: Choclo (corn on the cob with huge starchy kernels), boiled hominy (white corn kernels), and roasted corn kernels to accompany a fried plantain and fried pork or fried chicken.

- La Basilica cathedral on the edge of the Old City is Latin America’s largest. The outside architecture is elaborately-spired Gothic, with water spouts at the roof-line in the forms of Ecuadorian animals: jaguars, turtles, tapirs, etc. The interior is classically-arched Gothic, but the stained glass windows were glorious, especially the rose-shaped ones with smaller shapes around them, in bright reds, blues, greens, yellows and oranges. Again no interior pictures allowed.

- Strongly recommended by our guidebook was St. Augustin church and convent. The 2-story convent surrounded a lovely garden courtyard, housed a museum of religious art (OK not unique) by famous Quito painter, Miguel de Santiago, who created most of the paintings in both the convent and church. The church’s exterior was less elaborate than some of the others, but the inside was definitely different from Quito’s other churches. The walls and ceiling were painted a pastel blue scattered with beautiful flower patterns. It felt peaceful rather than grand. It must have impressed a lot of important people because the Declaration of Independence was signed in one room—where the exact desk and chair were preserved.

Our guide Andrea led us for a 2.5 hour walk in the cloud forest. The term lived up to its name. Within an hour, the glorious vistas disappeared into clouds which surrounded us in any open space. Most of the time we walked up and down, up and down, up and down inside the jungle. The path was narrow, often steep and muddy, and minimally cleared because the jungle has a mind of its own, filling a vacuum as soon as it sees one.

· Epiphytes (e.g., bromeliads, orchids, other flowers and vines) which settle on a host without being a parasite

· Large trees including cedar were plant apartment buildings, covered in fuzzy lichen and often 10s of epiphytes and hanging monkey-tail vines (looked like a Colobus monkey tail)

· Medicinal plants (e.g., green leafy plant green on top and partly red below with purple-red seed-like flowers underneath. Varying amounts, crushed or brewed in boiling water, would cure different aches and pains including menstrual cramps, diarrhea, upset stomachs, headaches)

· The fact that the jungle has three different plant relationships: parasitic (one benefits, the other loses), symbiotic (both benefit), and partnership/cohabitation where neither benefit but both live together. Apparently the epiphytes and their hosts enjoy the 3^rd relationship

· Of the supposedly 19 species of Ecuadorian toucans, we saw 2: the Plate-Billed Mountain Toucan and Toucan Barbet. The Barbet had a short, stubby beak, a bright red chest, and black and white feathers

Four particular notes: 1) hummingbirds are very loud in their flights, some actually sounding like bees buzzing; 2) some can be aggressively territorial; 3) probably 50 varieties exist in the Bellavista preserve; and 4) hummingbirds suck sugar water 13 times per second--if you look really carefully, you can see the tiny tongue flicking in and out of the beak. We could only identify maybe 8 species. One of our favorites was the Booted Racket-Tail which had iridescent blue on it back and 2 tail feathers that looked like threads with extended fins at the end. Another, whose name we didn’t identify from the chart on a wall, was extremely handsome, mostly black and white, quite tiny (2” tip of beak to end of tail), with a fuchsia throat, and the unfortunate characteristic of rarely being able to land even to eat—probably it couldn’t take off because it required too much energy. There was a lovely black and white hummingbird as well as one with a green iridescent back and white spot on its black tail and 2 white feet. The most aggressive variety would dive-bomb us as we stood nearby to watch the fracas of getting to the sugar water. We also learned that hummingbirds are attracted to red particularly (thus the color of many feeders) and to a lesser extent, yellow. I was wearing a bright red shirt, so perhaps they dove close to me to check out if I could provide food.

After a delicious lunch in the eco-lodge’s restaurant aerie, our guide Andrea recommended that we walk down Path C then back up toward the lodge on the road where the van could pick us up. She mentioned that going down Path C would be easier than taking the road down and climbing up path C. What she didn’t say—maybe because she had sooooo much faith in our abilities—was the trip down Path C was like climbing down a steep dirt ladder for what felt like almost a mile—probably ½ mile. We focused so much on the climb down so as not to tumble down ass over heels that we barely noticed the thick, green jungle around us. We managed to reach the road—no one thought to photograph the path because we were too busy not falling. A few minutes later the van met us, we bumped back down Mirador Ecoruta for about 35 minutes, and about 1.5 hours later we reached the outskirts of Quito.

As we approached Quito we saw lightening, heard thunder, and in a short while felt hail on our car roof. Shortly we actually saw blankets of hail covering streets, sidewalks, parks, fields, and building steps. Quito couldn’t cope easily with the slippery streets, flooded tunnels, etc. so several key arteries leading to the central New City were closed. By the time the driver had reached our hotel, it was almost another hour. No harm, no foul, but Carolyn, Rick and I were haunted by memories of our destroyed car in Swaziland.

No Offense but Guayaquil was Boring—Except for its Historic Rivalry with Quito

In Guayaquil, Deana was our city tour guide and Victo, our driver. They drove us around a modern Latin American city, similar to many we had seen before, and which is the largest in Ecuador as well as its largest port. It is situated at the confluence of two rivers which merge into the Guayas River which pours into the Pacific 30 miles away. We learned a bit of its history and walked through its main cathedral, a couple of parks, along the river promenade, and to a new area which will open to business in a few months. Silly to say, but the city highlight for me was Iguana Park in downtown, where literally 10s of iguanas roam freely to the delight of its many visitors. The iguanas were very comfortable approaching people and vice versa. Apparently the only predators appeared a couple of years ago, when some Chinese workers raided the park at night to capture some iguanas for food or aphrodisiacs or whatever. Now closed circuit cameras and human guards have returned the iguanas to predator-free comfort.

Guayaquil Perspective. Our Guayaquil guide Deana had clearly been very proud of her city, especially the progress the current mayor had made in the last decade in revitalizing many neighborhoods, trying to clean up corruption, tackle unemployment, and help transition some of the city’s young delinquents into productive citizens. She also talked about how Quitenos look down on Guayaquil’s inhabitants, calling them monkeys. Though she recognized the importance of all Ecuadorians working together to improve the country’s future, she resented the attitude of the capital city’s citizens. On the ride from the Guayaquil airport to the Hilton Colon, the travel agent on the bus reflected the same sentiments. I don’t imagine they are alone in their opinions

Quito Perspective. Our guide back in Quito actually said that the “monkey” nickname was applied at one point to all Ecuadorians by the Spanish, and possibly Guayaquil in particular based on conquistadors presenting gifts to the Spanish king, including a monkey. Supposedly the monkey pooped on the floor. When the king asked where this gift came from, he was told Guayaquil and he cursed “those Guayaquil monkeys.” Who knows…

In any case, Simon Bolivar’s grand vision for northwestern South America was an independent Grand Columbia encompassing Ecuador, Columbia and Peru. The tribes/clans around Guayaquil were forced to join the “Liberator’s” vision and seem to have resented it and the eventually independent Republic of Ecuador’s central government ever since. Unfortunately, even after Ecuador became a republic in the 1830s, because its land in the eastern part of the country is oil- and mineral-rich, over the years through the 1940s, Peru and Columbia have conquered significant portions of that region, actually cutting Ecuador in half from what it was prior to 1942.

Interesting how much competition between regions and countries is common in so many parts of the world (Calif. vs. Texas). As I find in most places we visit, people fascinate me the most.

AUGUST 20 to AUGUST 27 – THE GALAPAGOS on the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SHIP ENDEAVOR – TRULY AN EXPEDITION NOT A VACATION

Our 8:30 flight from Guayaquil landed on San Cristobal Island, Galapagos. At the port of Baquerizo Moreno, a thriving metropolis of 8,000 and capital of the Galapagos Province of Ecuador, we boarded our ship, the Endeavor with a total of 89 passengers + 70 staff. During our first official briefing by Expedition Leader, Carlos and “Hotel Manager” Willy, they outlined the activities for the rest of the day which included: receiving our personal life-vests with demonstration of how to use them; ship safety drill in case of emergency; as well as an “abandon ship” exercise. After lunch we began our week’s real adventures.

All passengers quickly disembarked onto a total of seven Zodiacs for our afternoon’s first exploration of the “tuff” (compressed volcanic ash formations) cliffs of Cerro Brujo (heel of the wizard/witch). We rode through a natural tunnel and into a partial cave then headed to a nearby white sand beach, along the way seeing a Tortuga / sea turtle swim by. The water near the shore was a lovely aqua and the sand was like talcum powder in between black lava rock formations strewn the length of the beach. We experienced our first “wet landing” leaving the Zodiac while in shallow water. Jeffo, our naturalist for the afternoon, led us across the beach for our main activity.

Besides the sea turtle from our Zodiac, we saw at least 50 sea lions, a Storm Petrel bird, Brown Noddy birds, a number of Frigate birds, Yellow-Bellied Warblers, a Blue-Footed Booby flying and diving into the water, and a Brown Pelican also dive-bombing into the water to find dinner. The naturalist told us the Galapagos Sea Lions are related to the California Sea Lions but smaller, quieter, and definitely friendlier. We stood within a few feet of them at many spots along the beach. We also met our first Marine Iguanas who are black when young then become a mottled red and black as adults. Sally Lightfoot crabs are also black when young then mature into brightly colored adults. Clearly black is the in-color for youth—and to blend with the lava rocks. But toward mating season in December, males Marine Iguanas become redder plus add green highlights so naturalists nickname them Christmas Iguanas.

For the whole week the water temperature ranged from 67^o to 69^o. Our short wetsuits really did provide warmth plus the vigorous swimming near the sun-warmed ocean surface enabled us to be rather comfortable for the ~45 minutes of each snorkeling session. Once we got over the shock of slipping off the side of the Zodiac into deep water, it was fine. In fact, the wetsuit gave me buoyancy; nicely fitting goggles provided water-free vision; and an additional, bright yellow inflatable vest instilled greater self-confidence. Even though each snorkeling session was over greater distance, deeper waters, lava rocks, and in bouncy/choppy/ rolling ocean, I stayed in the water the maximum amount of time. I was very pleased with myself, especially based on my past experience in relatively calm Hawaiian waters.

- Blue-Footed and Nazca (aka Masked) boobies waddle around near their white fuzzy babies.

- Espanola Mockingbirds are 1 of the 5 mockingbird species endemic to the Galapagos.

- Great Frigate birds fly gracefully overhead in almost an “M” shape with their curved wings. But they cannot land on water so they constantly fly looking for fish then will quickly touch down to grab a fish or will try to steal it right out of a Booby’s mouth after it is rising back up from its dive. They are Kleptoparasites, stealing food and nest material from each other and especially boobies. Their chicks are also white fluff-balls but as they age, grow rust-colored feathers on their heads and dark feathers on their wings. Males are famously photographed with their red neck-pouches inflated like balloons but unfortunately we were too early for their mating season when this amazing sight occurs.

- The Galapagos Hawks we saw were posing in profile on nearby rocks or flying overhead. In flight hawks are easy to identify by the scalloped edge of their wings which look finger-like.

- Waved Albatross are the Galapagos’ largest flying birds. However, technically Waved Albatross don’t fly, they soar after launching themselves from rocks or cliffs then must carefully land in an open space. But we saw one sort-of crash which meant he must still have been relatively young. Fuzzy, gray, baby Waved Albatross hid in the bushes waiting for their parents to come home with food. Waved Albatrosses’ mating ritual includes bowing heads, clacking beaks separately and intertwined, and braying sounds which mean soon they will mate for life.

- We observed so many of Marine Iguanas it was hard not to step on them—on our path, nearby rocks, etc. Rugby piles of them were everywhere—all trying to warm up before they dunk back into the ocean to feed (can hold breath for ~12 min. but more mature ones can slow their heart-rate and hold their breath for more than 20 min.). Besides gathering in rugby scrums, we saw many of them snorting salt water out their noses and repeatedly bobbing their heads. The latter we were told can be a male this-is-my-territory maneuver or part of the mating ritual being practiced for their eventual lady friends.

- Red-Beaked Tropic birds are very graceful when flying because their tails form a single, antenna-like strand that trails beautifully in the sky and curves around as one slows down, changes direction or lands. Tropic Birds are starkly white with black-tipped wings and bright red beaks. One passenger spotted a nesting Red-Beaked Tropic bird hidden in a small cave-like opening in some rocks near our path.

- One naturalist spotted two Galapagos Owls, who are normally active during the day, on rocks about 25 feet off our path. And then as we were walking down the last steep steps toward our landing beach, we saw a Galapagos Owl literally an arm’s-length from the railing. Everyone in our group was able to walk by it and look in its eyes. Talk about up close and personal…

- Just from one Zodiac ride we saw 2 Green Pacific Turtles hurtling by, 3 juvenile Manta Rays (including 2 Eagle Manta Rays), and a juvenile, 2-foot long Black-Tipped Reef Shark!

- After snorkeling off a beach for about 40 minutes we gracelessly flopped back out onto the golden sand, closely resembling sea lions warming on the sand except with white faces, arms and legs and a bit of blue and purple patches on our shoulder. OK not so much like sea lions. As I was lying on my towel, a neighbor called to me that I was about to be run over by a Lava Lizard. Indeed a small, red-throated, pale green Lava Lizard (maybe 6 inches tip of tail to nose and 2 inches tip of toes to top of head) was near my beach towel looking at me curiously. I lay on my stomach and we proceeded to communicate, our noses just a few inches apart. It occasionally blinked, nodded its head while I held my breath, sending good mental vibrations. After several minutes, it scampered on the sand toward my feet, over my sandals and gear bag, then off to its next adventure. And I was a better person for having met it.

- On the day we snorkeled twice, we saw a dark grey, White-Tipped Reef Shark gliding calmly and seemingly indifferent to us, about 30 feet below us! Rick and I missed seeing his/her smaller companion, but I can tell you that theoretically seeing a shark near you in the water is definitely different from actually being near a shark in the water! Our naturalist leading our group swooped down face to face with the shark to capture for the trip’s video. I was glad it was he not me…

Lindblad/National Geographic expeditions provided nice inflatable kayaks for our experience. Each double kayak bore a rudder which was lowered into the water and steered by pedals by the person in the back who was supposed to be the heavier of the two. When Carolyn and I were kayaking, despite Carolyn’s best efforts with the rudder-pedal combo, she had to raise the rudder back up and we just steered haphazardly by our paddles. Sometimes it seemed we would be heading straight then we’d be pulling too much left or right. I felt that it was my poor paddling that exacerbated the problem until I heard that when Carolyn paired with Rick who is a decently experienced kayaker, they experienced the same unpredictable steering with the rudder down and again with the rudder up. So it wasn’t just my issue, thank heavens…Maybe I’ll try kayaking again back in Calif.

Our very amusing expedition leader Carlos told us a funny story about a woman on one of his trips years ago. She always kept small flasks for carrying water samples back home so she could keep some of the most beautifully colored ocean water. Carlos did his best to convince her that with the possible exception of little flecks of plant or animal life in a given sample, all ocean water was the same color by itself, but it was the floor below—white sand vs. grey, lava rock vs. coral vs. sand, depth of the floor beneath an area--that most influenced the appearance of the color. Secondarily, the sky and clouds might impact the ocean color. However, Carlos believed the woman remained unconvinced as well as became grumpy with him…

Ahead of our Galapagos trip we received a Pulitzer-winning book called Beak of the Finch written by Jonathan Weiner who with his wife, two sons, and two other friends were onboard the Endeavor during our cruise. He lectured about the subject of his book, a research team headed by couple named Grant, on Daphne Major Island in the Galapagos. Over the 50 years the Grants did research with grad students, interns, etc., they lived for months at a time on this relatively small, barren block with only a ledge to jump to from a boat while transferring supplies, tents, people, etc. In essence they re-proved Darwin’s theory of Adaptation of the Species using the finches on Daphne Major. First they banded all 1200+ finches on the island, created family trees for the finches over many generations, and then monitored the changes over time relative to environmental conditions. Of course they documented all of this, eventually enabling them to very accurately predict future adaptations of the finches. One of the many amazing outcomes was to prove that many significant adaptations occurred in 20 years, not several 100 or 1000. Too bad there isn’t a summary document that can be distributed to the Creationists…but they probably don’t read anything but the Bible anyway…

The next day we were lectured by Jon Weiner’s wife Deborah Heiligman, who had authored several adult, young adult and children’s books, Most recently she had published Charles and Emma. Her talk was about the family life and relationship between the scientist Charles Darwin and his religious wife, Emma who despite their different philosophies had a long, healthy marriage.

The Endeavor sailed us around Daphne Major while we drank champagne and celebrated the lectures, evolution, Darwin, and a glorious sunset. Rick and I went to the bow to catch an unobstructed view when another female passenger excitedly pointed down to the water line where we saw 2 huge dolphins streaking through the ocean as if leading our ship toward Daphne Major. They leaped a couple of times, twirled and rolled under the water and speeded ahead of us for several minutes before disappearing to the depths. I may have held my breath the whole time I watched, it was so breathtakingly beautiful!

Guest Lecturer from Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS) on Santa Cruz Island

Another evening we were lectured by an interesting, passionate, knowledgeable but long-winded researcher about the conservation and policy efforts underway at the Station. This Aussie woman had originally planned she would spend a month at the CDRS, but had stayed for 20 years so far and raised her son on this island. I can understand how rewarding it would be to save tortoises, iguanas, and other unique endemic species while helping to rid the islands of human- introduced predators such as feral goats, pigs, dogs, cats, and donkeys and of course mice and rats.

The “Rat Man” and Other Unconventional Animal Experts Help Remove Introduced Predators

New Zealanders taught the Galapagos National Park Service (GNPS) how to effectively round up predators like feral goats, pigs, etc. For example, there were up to 80,000 feral goats on just Santiago Island. One legend/story we heard was that these Kiwis designated one male goat as the sexual scapegoat by castrating him, spraying him with powerful female pheromones, and painting him red on his back. He would then attract many other male goats. From helicopters flying above these horny male groups, sharp-shooters could pick off the goats but leave the red-painted one to be bait for more horny males, occasionally re-spraying the pheromones. Somehow I do feel sorry--though I shouldn’t--for the scapegoat. But he didn’t belong on the island in the 1^st place…

To eradicate smaller critters like rats, they’ve hired “The Rat-Man” who I believe is an Aussie and who has been very effective at his task. He has helped the GNPS create very specific-to-rats poison pellets that have eliminated rats from vast areas of some islands.

Because so much ammunition was being imported by the GNPS and its partners for sharp-shooters to eliminate the larger mammal predators, the Ecuadorian government became concerned that someone was trying to create a rebellion against them. I don’t know who calmed them down, but with some accurate statistics, the Ecuadorian government learned that for every 1.2 bullets, an invasive predator animal was eliminated.

Intrigue Still Unsolved But a Heck of a Story Told by Xaviar, 1 of our Naturalists

Many pioneers attempted to start businesses on the Galapagos but failed, and a few died. Most notoriously in the 1920s or 1930s, a so-called Baroness came to Floreana Island, with her lovers. One of her lovers was supposedly poisoned to death as well as she and one lover disappeared and never returned despite being a publicity hog while she was living on Floreana. An early Lady Gaga or Madonna???

Rick and I did see a couple of turtles and penguins swimming by while we snorkeled during the week. Carolyn actually swam very near both on the one snorkel trip Rick and I skipped…oh, well. The western islands of Isabella and Fernandina were where our friends has swum with penguins and tortoises, but this Endeavor route took us north rather than west. However, my best snorkeling experience was swimming with sea lions. I saw a couple of them playing nearby so I swam toward them. Soon these sea lions swam right up to me, twirling less than a foot from my face, staring eyeball to eyeball. It was fascinating and a bit scary since they are wild animals who are known to be aggressively playful (e.g., nipping at flippers) so the better part of valor was for me to swim further away. But I will never forget looking into the sweet brown eyes, and at the cute whiskers of these trusting sea lions.

We thought we’d had great safari guides and naturalists in Africa, but nothing compared to the depth and breadth of knowledge of every single one of our Lindblad/National Geographic naturalists. Even a Microbiologist Professor at UCLA and other scientist-oriented passengers never could stump them! Not only could they explain the flora and fauna on each island, but also how they were related to each other, whether they were endemic, native, resident, or regular visitors, and the history, geology and ecology of each island. Every time I thought one naturalist was the best and wanted to stick with him/her, the next one turned out to be just as good. Each one had a different style of presenting facts, but each was quite knowledgeable, passionate, and had a great sense of humor. And at some point, each of them gave talks before or after dinner about their special areas of interest. For example, Aura was the expert photographer on land; Jonathan was passionate about the amazing diversity in the ocean (and had applied for a Fulbright Grant for his project); Jeffo sounded like a game show announcer but really knew his stuff on every time we were in his group, plus he was quite an underwater videographer. We couldn’t imagine a more informative experience in nature. Most if not all the naturalists were born, raised or had lived in the Galapagos. And they all clearly loved their homeland and their jobs.

Lonesome George was the High Point of our Visit to Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS)

We learned about the work they do here in partnership with the Galapagos National Park Service (GNPS) and Ecuador government to conserve the islands’ geology, ecology, and animals. They have saved some tortoise populations on some islands and helped GNPS to properly eradicate human-introduced predators, e.g., feral dogs or cats or pigs, as well as rats, mice, and some wild donkeys and goats. We met Lonesome George, the last tortoise of his sub-species endemic to Pinta Island. We also saw Pinzon and Espanola tortoises being bred to increase or restore their population to certain islands. We were also shown other “mixed breed” tortoises who will not be integrated with other pure tortoise populations.

Less than 20,000 people live permanently in Galapagos’ 3% unprotected areas, in 3 towns on 2 islands, Santa Cruz and San Cristobal. On Santa Cruz after visiting CDRS we walked through the main shopping street of Puerto Ayora. Then we took buses to visit a private sugar cane mill which produced sugar juice, “honey” and condensed brown sugar supposedly good for lots of medical ailments, and distilled cane liquor, which most of us tasted. We then had lunch in the island’s highlands at Altair, an open-walled, thatched, roof restaurant run by an ex-U.S. Navy petty officer. It was very picturesque with a pool, garden, and changing rooms where it happened that male and female barn owls rested on the cement partitions.

After lunch, the “Wellington” or “Wellie” rubber boots for which we had registered onboard were distributed to all of us. Buses drove us to a private farm which cooperated with the GNPS to allow giant land tortoises to freely migrate across their land. In return for following the GNPS guidelines for conservation and allowing the tortoises free access, the farmer earned $3 per visitor. That was a lot of money just for allowing our tour alone! Our “Wellies” were definitely needed but more due to horseshit and turtle poop than just mud all over the field where we wandered to meet about 10 tortoises scattered around. Even though we followed instructions to quietly walk from behind a tortoise, most of the tortoises pulled their heads into their shells when they saw us. That made loud hissing, growl-like sounds though actually air was just being released sort of like a “bellow”.

After a “late” breakfast at 7am, we rode a Zodiac to Cerro Dragon (Dragon Hill) on the northwest coast of Santa Cruz Island to see the Galapagos Land Iguanas. We walked a 1.75 mi. loop trail over often-rugged terrain. After seeing a few Land Iguanas hiding in the bushes, we eventually saw one on the path ahead which we followed for a short ways, and then another couple of them near the trail. Land Iguanas seem to be larger than their cousins the Marine Iguanas, and definitely different colors including yellow and orange though the general body shape is the same as well as the facial expressions and their wonderful fast waddle.

Naturalists Help Us Tell One Booby from Another (Boy, it’s hard not to anthropomorphize them!)

HOW THE BOOBY MAY HAVE GOTTEN ITS NAME. The name “Booby” was possibly based on the Spanish slang term bubie, meaning "dunce", as these tame birds had a habit of landing on board sailing ships, where they were easily captured and eaten. Owing to this, boobies are often mentioned as having been caught and eaten by shipwrecked sailors, notably Captain Bligh of the Bounty and his adherents, during their famous voyage after being set adrift by Fletcher Christian and his followers. For more details, consult http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booby.

Xaviar, a naturalist (for multiple excursions during the week and probably the oldest of the expedition naturalists) explained that Red-footed Boobies were the only of the three Galapagos species to build nests on trees. The Blue-Footed and Nazca Boobies build nests on the ground with a few twigs and gravel haphazardly spread in a circle with the mother or father in the center sitting on 1 to 2 eggs or 1 to 2 chicks. A sad but circle-of-life fact is that Nazca Boobies birth an heir and a spare but once it is clear that the heir will become a healthy juvenile, the spare is killed generally by its stronger sibling…sigh…survival of the fittest at its best/worst. All Booby juveniles look quite different from adults. For example, a Nazca juvenile can be mostly brown with some white and blue-ish colored beaks and blue-ish grey feet before they became mainly white with black-edged wings, red-ish beaks with some yellow close to the black eyes. Older Nazca juveniles are aggressive when hungry, begging other parents to feed them and even squawking and pecking at their own parents when they arrive with food. Other Nazca parents violently shoo away juveniles not their own but with their own juveniles, parents are tolerant of bad behavior. All Boobies feed their young by regurgitating their digested fish. We saw one juvenile crash-land after a flight. He/she clearly had not gotten the hang of the whole landing thing. Again, survival of the fittest dictates that if he/she had broken a wing, hopefully a “spare” might be alive to replace it then carry on the good-landing genes.

Blue-footed boobies do not inter-mingle on the ground with other birds on the plateau as they nest and perch on rock ledges around the edges of the islands. They will fly amongst others as the search for food but none of the birds really socialize and definitely no inter-faith marriage…

How do Boobies communicate? Blues squawk like squeaky doors continuously opening and closing. Nazcas and Reds whistle and honk. Chicks cheep-cheep and juveniles loudly squawk as if they are always complaining about something…

All boobies dive-bomb into a fish school, a maximum of about 15 feet deep, then turn quickly up to grasp fish as they return to the surface and sky. Once they catch the fish, if the Boobies have young ones in the nest, parents head back to feed the chicks and juveniles. Multiple times we witnessed this regurgitation feeding of chicks by both male and female adults.

Uniquely, Red-footed Boobies have prehensile webbed feet that can grip a tree branch to perch or nest. Adults can be two different colorations. One adult-type coloration is mostly brownish-grey with a blue beak and red around the face and always with red feet. The other coloration is more white and similar to a Nazca except for the red feet and blue beaks. No matter what coloring, if a Booby is in a tree, it’s got to be Red-footed. All their chicks are white balls of fluff with black beaks, eyes and feet. As they grow, the fluff slowly molts into feathers on the wings and eventually the rest of the adult coloring appears.

At the last evening’s briefing, Carlos talked about how special today at Genovesa Island was in terms of the animals and island’s isolation. We all were able to go to two locations, just in two groups at different times of day, to walk among the nesting, breeding, wandering, feeding, and flying Red-Footed Boobies and Great / Magnificent Frigate birds, as well as the occasional Marine Iguanas and Galapagos Owls. What he reminded us was that we were the only ship near the island AND the only ~100 people on the island and vicinity. We had all these cute, curious creatures totally to ourselves!!! What an unforgettable way to end our amazing 7-day journey to the Galapagos!!! Everything was well-organized, high quality, beautifully supported by all the staff, and presented with pride.

AUGUST 29, MONDAY – HEADING EAST TO ORELLANA aka ORIENTE aka EASTERN ECUADOR TO NAPO WILDLIFE CENTER, TRULY IN THE JUNGLE NOW

From Quito we flew to El Coca (25,000 pop.) which grew dramatically since 1990s with discovery of oil in this region. While we received our initial instructions as to where/when/how the next few hours would proceed, a couple of small Squirrel Monkeys crept along the railings, from the ceiling, etc. as a preview to coming attractions. Then we boarded our motorized “canoe” which held about 30 people, and proceeded to navigate the Napo River (merged with the Coca River at El Coca), part of the “white river system”. Another similar boat accompanied us with our luggage, some Napo Wildlife Center (NWC) staff, and a few more guests. Less than 30 minutes later, this companion boat was stopped by a “Navy” vessel labeled Armada del Ecuador—a very ironic name since it was a beat-up small fishing boat with police lights on top. Our boat driver circled back to see what was going on. The Armada then pulled our boat alongside also. We were told by one of the NWC staff on our boat that this happens regularly: driver licenses, motor certification, and other tourist papers are checked to prevent theft. I then said, “Oh, I wasn’t sure if they stopped us because they could,” to which he said, “That too.” Power plays are universal…

Our driver was released to continue down river. About 2 hours later, during which time we ate a boxed lunch, we landed on a small dock. All nearly-30 passengers bound for Napo Wildlife Center were divided into 4 groups then ushered onto real canoes on which we’d continue our journey up the Anangu (ah-NYAN-gu) Creek, home to the Anangu village of Quichua people.

That includes insects, which are still being discovered in droves. Apparently one tree in Ecuador’s Amazon Basin was home to 1,000s species of bugs. The huge number of species doesn’t mean large quantities. In fact, the quantities of each species reflect their careful balance with food, territorial safety, reproductive survival, and overall defense. So the populations of each animal in the Ecuadorian Amazon Basin are not large, but “just right” for their circumstances. Whatever the actual percentage, we know that there may be 40 to 100 different species in one hectare (2.5 acres) of a tropical rain forest; 25% of all the medicines* we use come from rainforest plants; 2,500 species of just vines are found in the Amazon rain forest; and 40% of the world’s oxygen is derived from the tropical rain forests on Earth.

*Examples: Curare comes from a tropical vine, and is used as an anesthetic and to relax muscles during surgery. Quinine, from the cinchona tree, is used to treat malaria. A person with lymphocytic leukemia has a 99% chance that the disease will go into remission because of the rosy periwinkle. More than 1,400 varieties of tropical plants are thought to be potential cures for cancer.

Each canoe had a “community guide” paddler plus a nationally certified guide near the front and a second paddler in the back. Our front paddler/Community Guide was named Freddy who could understand some and speak a little English but mostly Lena our main guide translated for him. Our back paddler, Alexander, was silent most of the time. The 2 paddlers plus Lena occasionally, drove the canoe for the next two hours ~10 Km up a very narrow, shallow river.

As they were doing all the work while we sat their weighing down the canoe, I thought of African movies where the “Bwana” was carried on a sedan chair. But in any case, they were very skilled at negotiating the many fallen logs, plants, etc. in what was now part of the “dark river system” consisting of lots of fallen flora, so the water was dark iced tea color.

Along the way, Lena excitedly called our attention to many different birds. Sometimes we’d stop for a few minutes to look through binoculars or take photos. One longer stop was to see a troop of Squirrel Monkeys launching from tree to tree. We learned that 40 to 100 Squirrel Monkeys travel together in their home range, constantly foraging for food except when they sleep. We arrived at the Napo Wildlife Center to a lake area where our picturesque bungalows awaited with thatched roofs and red-painted stucco walls. Before we could land, we spotted 3 Giant River Otters (actually theirs heads looked smaller than the typical sea otters in Monterey). Their heads popped out of the water several times, getting progressively closer until they were about 30 feet or less from our canoe. We said good-bye to them, pulled up to the dock and alighted to walk up the path to the common room/dining /lounge/bar area--which led up several levels to a watchtower to see the treetops around the compound. That night as we drifted off to sleep, we were lullabied by lots of insects, including Cicadas, frogs (though not as many as Swaziland), and some nocturnal bird songs.

3 Caymans: 1 on 1^st day during day and 2 when Cayman “hunting” where could see the red eyes picked out from the flashlights.

Tourney Tail Lizards—1 with spots and 1 which blended with tree trunk from Tower

Long-Nose Bats (hang under dock but when boats pull up in late afternoon, fly to nearby posts)

White-Lipped Peccary (wild, hairy pig; juvenile, injured, by him/herself, swam across creek)

Heard group of Peccaries snorting, snuffling and moving noisily through the thickets on the original side of the stream from which the single one came. Though we waited about 15 minutes, they didn’t get much closer.

Hoatzin (Waatt-seen) – like chickens, everywhere, make huffing-puffing sounds & like motors stalling then stopping

Oropendola (long sack nests near end of limbs to preserve babies from predators)

Blue-Morph Butterfly (iridescent blue, when wings fold up they look like owl eyes to fool predators)

*Leaf Cutter Ants are Amazing! Workers, Soldiers, Farmers, 1 Queen (can live 15+ years). Workers carry the leaves that are 20 times their body weight back to the nest. Soldiers (huge jaws, largest of ants) and tiny Midia are defenders of the Workers carrying the leaves. Workers take the leaves to the Farmers who chew them up and spit them out causing Fungus to grow as food for the nest. If plant leaves are brought in but have a toxin, the fungus responds in such a way that the ants know never to get that leaf again. Nests can contain 3 – 8 million ants, can be 4 – 5 ft. deep and 15 – 20 ft. long and wide. I have to say that the Leaf-Cutter Ants were my favorite animals in the jungle!

Though we were on dry land for the most part, our busy routine made us feel as though we were back home on the Endeavor. Up at 6am, breakfast 6:30 and in canoes at 7am with our canoe companions who were from Los Gatos and San Jose but the younger couple and her Ecuadorian husband had lived near Quito for 1.5 years, both involved in agriculture. Wellington boots were part of our regimen for the next 2+ days--for which we were very grateful given the jungle’s muddy trails.

On our 1^st morning hike we learned lots about the flora, saw cute, tiny toads, and were tricked by Freddy the community guide into thinking we saw a huge grasshopper but which was really part of a palm frond he had made into a grasshopper. For our afternoon hike we left the dock at 3pm to canoe across the lake. We hiked to a tower built for viewing across the top of the jungle canopy and which was adjacent to a huge Kapok Tree*. After about a 10+-story climb, we reached the tower platform which was actually wrapped around the Kapok Tree! The view was breathtaking across the jungle canopy for miles in every direction. Freddy and Lena had brought a powerful telescope and tri-pod so we could observe in the distance: Howler Monkeys, Ivory-Billed and White-Beaked Toucans, lime-colored parrots flying by. We had all carried flashlights because on our way back to the lodge we’d go Cayman searching. But they actually came in handy on our hour-long trek back to the canoe due to the already-dark jungle floor becoming quite dark at sunset and then night. Back on our canoes we searched the edge of the lake for Caymans. Quickly the lights picked up sets of red eyes nearby, so we pulled up within 10 feet to see the one animal whose head was so large it indicated that his body would be about 2+ meters long! We left him/her in peace after a few minutes, saw several small pairs of red eyes indicating baby Caymans, and then headed toward the next larger red eyes. This Cayman may only have been 1.5 meters, but large enough for us, considering they are Amazonia’s largest predator (of animals, not people!).

*Useful Kapok Trees. These trees originated in South America but now are found in tropical rainforests across the world. They can reach 150 feet and 9 foot diameter trunks with “buttresses” that can extend out 30 feet to help the root system gain as much water as possible from the poor tropical rainforest soil. The crown has an open umbrella shape. It is a great utility tree: it hosts many epiphyte plants like orchids and bromeliads; birds nest in it; mammals use the huge branches as highways; other animals grow and live in its branches; bats love the flowers and seeds; and frogs breed in the pools of water that collect in the bromeliads. The woody, pendulous pods burst open while still on the tree after the leaves have fallen during each dry season. Inside, whitish cotton like fiber surrounds the brown seeds which is wind-born away. In many places the straight trunks of the kapok tree are used to make dugout canoes, flotation devices, and padding. The seeds, leaves, bark and resin have been used to treat dysentery, fever, asthma, and kidney disease. And the main way we know kapok, the white, fluffy seed covering is used in pillows and mattresses.

By 6am we were being paddled in the canoe by Freddy and Alexander again, with our goal to reach the first clay lick by 7am. Along the way we saw many birds, as well as a troop of Squirrel Monkeys accompanied by a couple of White-Fronted Capuchins. We learned that sometimes different monkey species travel together, symbiotically helping each other find food and more importantly have greater awareness of predators (hawks, kites, shrikes, etc.) that could strike when there’s a clearing in the canopy. Indeed by 7:20am we were at the first of two Clay Licks, witnessing the first scout emerge.

What is a Clay Lick and why do these birds seek them? Like salt licks for certain mammals, clay licks provide birds with key minerals needed to supplement their diet or help digestion. One may be near water or the clay may be mixed with water in some circumstances. In any case, the clay is found on open spots in the jungle which makes the birds vulnerable to predators (again hawks, kites, shrikes, etc.). So parrots and parakeets continuously chatter and squawk from trees and shrubs a lot near the Clay Licks in order to communicate about predators. AND they also figure out who will be the risk-taker / scout to start licking. Then one by one or few by few, several kinds of parrots and parakeets descended onto what looked like carved out ledges in the open space. At a second Clay Lick in a cave with an underground lake, we walked to an observation “deck” to watch the small opening to the cave where tens of birds gathered before flying down into the water area for their “clay fix.” At both sites, at any odd sound, they scattered back into the surrounding trees in a heartbeat, so not every one of the 100s of birds in the area were able to grab their minerals. I guess that’s part of the “only the strong survive” cycle of life…

The original Napo Wildlife Center (NWC) founders—men, of course—envisioned a community-benefiting resort that would provide jobs, income, and preserve their most valuable treasure, the jungle. The village’s men played the dominant role in the Napo Wildlife Center’s most visible jobs. In 2010, the Anangu women added their own stamp to the NWC by building (with help from the men) an interpretive center that would demonstrate Quichua and Anangu values, culture, daily lives, etc. as well as provide income specifically to the women. This included a larger version of a typical Quicha home, a community room, and crafts store. Through an interpreter who was also an NWC guide and husband to the leading woman, she explained about how the villagers lived, slept, cooked, ate, divided labor, raised children, etc. The women also danced for us, pulling in some of us visitors including Rick, to dance along with them. We also witnessed the local Shaman perform a typical cleansing/healing ceremony with a volunteer from our visiting group. Again through the interpreter, we learned how this Shaman knew he was a healer from his early childhood, trained and learned Quichua medical traditions and local healing plants, then began successfully helping his people. I found this fascinating, especially in light of our different experience with a Shaman in Uganda (huckster!) and healing ceremony among !San Bushmen in Namibia. The connection of mind and body is clear no matter the methodology of healing or the culture.

The Napo River and Anangu Stream’s water levels were probably 3 – 4 ft. lower at this time of year despite the daily rainstorm. Though this was dry season, by the time we left after 4 days, absolutely everything in our suitcase was damp. It took clothes to dry over 2 days and even then they were still damp when I put them on and packed the rest away. Even worse was the effect of the heat + humidity on my skin!!! I remember occasionally having “prickly heat rash” as a child in New England, but here my armpits, tummy, and elsewhere were covered in a thick red rash that was very itchy and painful, as though my skin were rotting while I wore it. I tried putting soothing creams on, wearing a cotton t-shirt under my long-sleeve “safari” shirts (to minimize insect bites) but nothing worked except drying off well after showering. A guest advised me that the best treatment is to wear no or very loose dry clothes until it disappears on its own. And Carolyn loaned me some talcum powder. Between the two methods I healed. But I must say, my enthusiasm for jungle traveling is severely diminished.

Our wake-up call was 5am and by 6am we, the family from San Jose, an Indian-American couple from San Diego, and an Ecuadorian couple boarded our small canoe. This was the 11^TH of our 1^ST 15 days in Ecuador that we had to wear life-vests! As we left the Napo Wildlife Center, there were mists rising from the lake and Anangu stream while we were again paddled by Freddy and Alexander. This ~10 km. leg of our journey to the Napo River went faster than before because we didn’t “brake for animals”. At 7:40am eleven of us embarked on the motorized canoe. About 1 hour into the 2-hour trip a huge storm cloud passed overhead. Within a few minutes it began to rain with strong wind, The canoe’s transparent curtains were lowered on one side and shortly after, the second side. However, the winds were blowing so strongly that the curtains acted like sails, blowing us onto a sand bar. Up went the curtains, out came the ponchos for all of us, and with the lucky wake of another motorized canoe, we were lifted off the sandbar to continue upstream toward Coca. However, the torrential rain soaked all of us even with the ponchos. We had to put all our hand luggage under tarps. Soon the side curtains came back down with the wind blowing less from side to side. As we sat in hoods and ponchos a small wave washed over the top of the curtain to soak three of us on one side, including me. Without more incidents, we arrived in Coca about 30 min. late. We off-loaded, got on a bus for a quick ride to the airport to sit for any extra 1.5 hours because (surprise, surprise) our flight was delayed. Today is the last day I had to wear a life-vest though I did feel greatly comforted by it on this trip!

SEPTEMBER 1, THURSDAY – THE AVENUE OF THE VOLCANOES--
10,000 FEET AND HIGHER ALTITUDE

Starting from the volcano of Pichincha just north Quito which can be seen from the city, all the way to southern Ecuador’s town of Chimborazo (Chimborazo volcano is nearly 20,500 feet), the Andes form two ridges with a valley ranging from 7,000 to 9,000 feet deep in between. The ridges are formed by volcanoes of varying ages, ten of which dominate the region, including five that are considered active—having erupted in the last 500 years. Several of the ten are 18,000 to over 19,000 ft., almost the height of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, which is a cone-shaped volcano similar to the active ones in Ecuador. For example, the most famous still-active volcano which has its own national park is Cotopaxi at 19,347 ft. (tallest in Ecuador), last erupting destructively in 1877. Its name means something like “throat of the moon” combined from Quichua and a pre-Incan language. We only drove as far south as the city of Banos, known for its thermal springs and the nearby Tungurahua volcano at 16,000 ft. but which annually spews smoke and sometimes lava. The Avenue of Volcanoes’ scenery is quite dramatic as is the thought that at any time—including as we drive or sleep in the area—one of these volcanoes could erupt. That is why the travel agency booked us at two haciendas far enough away from both Cotopaxi and Tungurahua that even toxic gases wouldn’t affect us…think about that for a minute…

*STREET SIGNS OF VOLCANO WARNINGS were seen throughout this region. Many towns displayed triangular signs announcing “Volcano Zone” or square ones with pictures pointing either to the direction to run if a volcano erupted or actual shelters. But the locals seemed to be as cavalier about occasional volcanic eruptions as we are about earthquakes!

The mansion in the town of Lasso with its 2-meter thick volcanic stone walls and surrounding large lands is one of Ecuador’s oldest colonial properties, belonging to the descendants of Spain’s 17^th century Marquis of Maenza. Over the centuries, the hacienda’s guests have included many famous people: scientists (e.g., Charles Marie de la Condamine, French participant in 1736-1744 mission to prove earth’s true shape) and the German, Alexander von Humboldt who studied Cotapaxi’s volcanic activity in 1802 as well as its alpine flora); generals who fought with Simon Bolivar (Liberator of Ecuador from Spain); and Presidents of the Republic of Ecuador including 5-time president Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra. As we traveled during our trip, we talked to various people we met who all knew of the famed La Cienega Hacienda, its wonderful ambiance, and great hospitality. Plus it has a clear view of the perfectly cone-shaped Cotopaxi volcano.

With the town of Lasso and a local drink Canalasso named for the family that owns La Cienega Hacienda and its huge holdings, clearly the Lasso family is an important member of Ecuadorian high society. The Plaza family also plays major roles in Ecuador’s history as well as integrating into the Lasso family tree at several points. Our brother-in-law Fernando represents two other glorious Ecuadorian families: Alban (includes current deputy-mayor of Quito) and Ribidineiro (his cousin’s husband who has built many parts of Quito as well as owns a major hacienda, rose farm, dairy, etc.). It was also clear from our guide that these strong influencers are not particularly forward-thinking, putting their own interests above the general Ecuadorian population. Sound familiar?

In the late 1960s the visionary then-president led the diversification of the country’s economic sectors, which led to the founding of the Rose Industry. Globally 2^nd only to Kenya, Ecuador’s roses are their most important national product after oil from the Orellano/Eastern area of the country. I believe that the Ribidineiro family (see Major Ecuadorian Families) were one of the founding drivers of this beautiful industry. We visited Verdillano farm, one of several belonging to Roses & Roses, Ltd., another key player. There a staff member led on a tour into one of the several large greenhouses—it was two hectares (4 – 5 acres) under one roof! We learned about the preferences of different countries: Russia likes roses 90 cm. long; Europe about 40 -50 cm.; U.S. 25 – 40 cm. In terms of colors Germans and Asians like black and fake-colored roses! Individual roses are often covered as they grow to prevent imperfections, sometimes with a black net to absorb extra sunlight to achieve the perfect color. Roses & Roses’ organization was about to be re-certified as a Fair Trade Organization, so we saw some roses packaged for shipping but did not see the actual cutting and processing because the staff (80 employees on the one of several farms) was preparing for inspection. As part of the Fair Trade commitment, the company has been supporting several local communities’ schools, computer training, and female empowerment. This facility was not only well-run, produced beautiful products, employed many local people, but was also a good corporate citizen—very impressive. Also now I can understand why “long-stemmed” roses are deservedly so expensive with so much hand-labor involved!

After being in the jungle at 1,000 ft. altitude where sweat dripped off our bodies 24 hours a day and we constantly dodged the many insects, we lived at 10,000+ feet in altitude wearing as many layers of clothes as we owned. In fact, over the next couple of days we walked around at 12,000 to 15,000 feet altitude in extra layers that we had to buy, trying not to be blown away by gale-like winds. I didn’t even mention headaches and interrupted sleep…But somehow we survived and thoroughly appreciated our surroundings at all the altitudes and temperatures!

Our next stop was Tigua, a small village which housed a community art cooperative and gallery featuring the work of Alphonso Toaquiza, his family and friends. His “naïf” style is imitated across Ecuador in “typical rural “ scenes painted on sheepskin or on wooden surfaces (bowls, trays, etc.). He’d been painting since 1976 but over the last few years he’d been coached by Olga Fisch (currently the country’s longest-time collector and retailer of high end artisan Ecuadorian products) and influenced by artists from Europe, so his works are truly superior. All the cooperative artists paint either religious themes or Quichua myths and village life.

Our guide Raul tried to convince us that we’d acclimatize well enough by then to tackle the full hike 1,500 ft. down to the edge of the lake—which we promptly rejected. Then he thought we should at least walk down 400 ft. to the 1^st viewpoint. However, just 20 feet down this very dusty, steep trail convinced me that I would inevitably fall on my butt as we slip-slided down, so I stopped my descent. Immediately Rick and Carolyn agreed because their eyes were already flooded with flying dust. To fight the strong winds and low temperatures, we were already bundled in many layers yet were still uncomfortable. AND no one wanted to face the huffing and puffing of the 400+ foot ascent after what looked like a not much different view of the lake…

Raul took us to another hacienda with a history going back to the Incas in ~1400s. Originally, the Incas built the compound as both a fortress and royal palace for the Incan Kings and families to stay as they traveled through their Empire extending from Ecuador through Peru. In approximately the 1700s, the St. Augustine order took over what was left of the impressive ruins engineered in the Incas’ amazing style and strength. Walls were made by trapezoidal-shaped stones linked together with heavy wooden dowels so that no cement was required yet they would withstand earthquakes and volcanoes. The monastery added on sections that typified Spanish colonial style. In 1921 what is now St. Augustin de Callo Hacienda and surrounding land was “awarded” to General Leonidas Plaza Gutierrez, leader of the “Liberal Revolution” and who donated a nearby farm for the St. Augustine monastery. General Plaza eventually became President of the Republic of Ecuador. His granddaughter, Mignon Plaza still runs the updated hacienda as a hotel, though now much less illustrious guests stay there now than in its past when again famous scientists (Germany’s von Humboldt described it in his reports), presidents, generals, bullfighters (Mignon’s father was a Congressman and bullfighter!), and other celebrities visited. We toured the lovely facility which integrates the smoke-blackened Incan walls and Incan Temple converted to a chapel by the St. Augustine monks. Also, with much less dignity and history but more fun, the hacienda allows guests to feed raw carrots to the local herd of llamas. The good news was none of the llamas spit as I fed them!

Not Climbing to Cotopaxi’s Base Camp--15,000 Ft. Altitude was Diminished Enough Oxygen

As cold as we had been at Quilatoa, Raul suggested that we could buy scarves and gloves outside the Cotopaxi Park entrance, which we did. Imagine, within 48 hours of our leaving the jungle where we were constantly sweating, we were at 12,000 to now 15,000 feet wearing hats, gloves and scarves so we wouldn’t freeze! When we arrived at the actual volcano, we were drive to parking lot at the end of the road--the highest point that cars could travel.

As we learned from Raul, Cotopaxi’s glaciers have significantly receded in the last decade. Serious climbers who want to summit the peak, stay overnight to acclimatize further at Base Camp which is at ~16,000 feet, where until about the year 2000, the snows/glaciers started. Now they begin at 17,000 feet. The road ended at 15,000 ft. We got out of the car all bundled up to walk less than 20 feet to the sign noting the altitude and location. It was so windy, we could barely stand straight. Raul had suggested earlier in the morning that we might want to walk up to base camp. Once we experienced the cold and wind, we looked up at base camp to decide that the view couldn’t be that much better that it would be worth the hike from 15,000 ft. to 16,000 ft., so once again, we “wimped out.”

On the previous day, Rick had stopped the car for what was to be our clearest view of all of Cotopaxi in its glory, with just a few clouds surrounding the snow-capped peak. His idea proved valuable because after that we never saw Cotopaxi without several clouds blocking a full view.

Instead of hiking to 16,000 feet in the freezing wind, we drove down the mountain to hike for 1 hour around a moor-land lake, Sendero Natural Laguna de Limpiopungo, at merely 11,500 ft. altitude. Raul told us that this area of the Andes is considered “moorlands” vs. highlands elsewhere in the world vs. tundra in the Artic, because vegetation here is the same year-round without seasons. But similar to the short-seasoned, quick-growing tundra, these plants are highly adapted to fierce winds, cold temperatures, and volatile rain levels.

At the end of our lake walk at 2pm, we were quite ready for lunch so Raul suggested we try a different but typical Ecuadorian dish which he said so quickly we couldn’t quick catch it. He said that many places along Latacunga's main street serve this dish but one spot--Rosita Jimenez de Callo restaurant--was so famous that it was busy every hour of the days it was open. As we waited for the food to be served we were fascinated by the mountains of meat, pork rind (size and shape of a whole pig), and corn cooked in various ways over large burners. When servers delivered our platters piled high with food, it was clear that the one Chugchucaras platter between Carolyn and me would be more than enough: boiled corn kernels with fried pig skin (tasted like fat bacon), roasted corn kernels, salted popcorn, fried plantains, fried potatoes, fried sweet potatoes and many slices of fried pork, plus a large wafer of pork rind. To accompany all this we had a spicy tree tomato* “aji” or sauce.

*Tree tomatoes are fruit with thick skin that are red when ripe with bright yellow flesh and seeded like tomatoes. But they are grown on bushes propped over wire like grape vines, dangling individually down from branches, looking more like elliptical plums than anything else. The only other place we had tree tomatoes was Kenya where the flesh was purple and more tart-tasting. Tree tomatoes in both countries are mostly served as juice, sauce, or flavoring in other foods but could be eaten raw. In any case, they are deliciously unique!

Special Industries Characterize Many of the Small Towns in the Southern Avenue of Volcanoes

Tungurahua Province where Banos is located is called Ecuador’s fruit basket because it grows so many varieties of fruits particularly popular and unique to Ecuador, like babaco--a large yellow star-shaped papaya, and tree tomatoes. Crops were planted virtually to the tops of the mountains surrounding the valley in the middle of the Avenue of the Volcanoes. The slopes were so steep that they looked impossible to sow, maintain, and harvest the crops except by human labor. It seemed as though any animal which might pull a plow or a cart would need two legs shorter than the others so they wouldn’t just slip down the mountains. Some of the unusual town industries besides agriculture:

- The town of St. Michael of Salsedo aka Salsedo is famous for its triangular-shaped, layered ice cream on a stick in local fruit flavors. A long-ago priest named St. Michael suggested the unique striated treats in multiple colors and flavors, often including passion fruit, blackberry, babaco (a star-shaped papaya), and guava.

- Pelileo is known for manufacturing and selling blue jeans made in Ecuador. Apparently about a decade ago, the then-Ecuadorian president declared that textile companies in Ecuador could no longer sell clothing if workers were not company employees vs. current practice of only hiring contracted labor. So some corporations moved south to Peru. In a brilliant move, the government subsidized the re-training and helped finance those Ecuadorian skilled laborers to start their own textile companies now operating in Pelileo.

- The town of Salasaca is known for its woven goods spun by hand then loomed by women in the Peruvian Incan style. During the Incan Empire some Peruvian clans were purposely moved into this area by Incan leaders to help integrate their culture into both countries. Thus as we stopped to watch women spinning and to shop in a small marketplace, we saw a replica of what we had seen the times we traveled to Peru, samples of which now reside in our family room!

About 5pm, we drove us up a long, narrow, bumpy road to our next hotel, Hacienda Manteles in the town of Patate. The views from the road and the hacienda itself were breathtaking. Patate looked miniaturized from the hacienda, surrounded by a green, quilted patchwork of crops spreading up the steep mountain-sides. The verdant views from all sides would fit perfectly in some fairy tale.

We settled into this lovely hacienda, which had clearly been decorated with much thought and care. Cesar Duran the owner told us that his grandparents had bought the land in about 1921 which his mother handed down to him with the hacienda. He expanded the land, preserved the ecological integrity, employed local workers, and helped develop the surrounding communities in many ways. Though he worked as an engineer for many years in California and Massachusetts, he returned to his roots about 10 years ago while simultaneously earning his doctorate in community development from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is definitely serious about more deeply investing his time, love, and future in his home town.

Raul asked Marco to drive us via the Ecoruta to Banos—you may recall that Ecoruta supposedly means sustaining the old road. In reality it actually means bumpy, muddy, narrow, and uncomfortable road for passengers. Once again, all of Marco’s driving skills were required as we plowed through muddy mounds, forded streams, tried not to lose an axel in the dips and ruts, and just bounced along the cobble-stone stretches.

We passed through the unremarkable-looking town of Banos which attracts young backpackers as a center for extreme sports like Category 4 and 5 kayaking and rafting as well as bridge-jumping, zip-lining, and other activities. Then we headed down what is nicknamed the Avenue of the Waterfalls, a long stretch of road next to a river. Along the way are many different waterfalls from the Andes’ watershed which flow into the several tributary rivers which in turn flow into the Amazon basin and eventually the Atlantic Ocean.

In order to closely view the largest waterfall, we had to take a cable car across a gorge. A little while earlier, I had declined the opportunity to zipline across this gorge. As we boarded the open-air “car” which was a wooden floor surround by orange metal fencing, I realized we were about to experience almost the same thrill as a zipline. With one man operating a small, electric-engine-run pulley, we and four Ecuadorian strangers plunged across the open space 100s of feet in the air toward the tall, foaming dual waterfalls at what felt like break-neck speed. I’m sure the terror on my face would have been no worse than if I had ridden the zipline. We did not require spending time at the waterfall-side of the gorge so we immediately re-crossed to the entrance. We wobbled off the cable car, back to the van.

La Luna Runtun hotel had an amazing view of Banos and for $30 per person we could have a light lunch and soak in their four private, different, volcanically-heated pools. Café Cielo (Sky in Spanish) was aptly named because the front and side window-covered walls were at the edge of the high cliff overlooking the valley about 4,000 feet below! Stuffed from the not-so-light lunch, we then waddled off to change into our bathing suits, showered, then slipped into the outdoor pools also overlooking the valley. It was heavenly to slide into the warm water up to my chin while experiencing this amazing view all by ourselves, at times each of us in our own pool. We left Luna Runtun in a much more relaxed state than when we arrived. And we were ready for our next day’s ride back to Quito, then the following day through multiple airports to reach home.

JUNE 16 – 30, 2011 -- DR. DIANA BECAME A PEDIATRICIAN and MOVED TO PHILADELPHIA

The main reasons for this trip were: 1) to watch our daughter Diana officially become a Pediatrician and 2) to move her from NC to PA. Rick and I were delighted to find that Bryan, her boyfriend, had already flown in that day from Ft. Worth where he was doing a clinical rotation for his Masters’ Degree (Nurse Practitioner in Pediatric Intensive Care). Diana was lucky to have a relatively easy final rotation in Allergy and Immunology where she worked mostly 9 to 5 days with only a couple of 30-hour shifts (1 of course was on her last 2 days). So we actually spent a decent amount of time with her and Bryan over the new few days. The Pediatric Residency Banquet on June 17^th, held at the local country club, honored 8 Pediatric Residents, 6 Internal Medicine-Pediatric Residents, and several Neo-Natal Fellows. It was fun seeing all of her close friends who had become her extended family through the crises and hardships of 3 years of semi-slavery. We also enjoyed meeting or re-meeting some of her attending physicians. It was a lovely occasion that for Diana was happy and bittersweet too.

One of Diana’s favorite “Attendings” was Dr. Irons who recruited her and 2 colleagues to an informal “doctors without borders” program for a month in Zambia early Feb. to early March 2011. She and he really bonded there even more than before. We had met him several times, thoroughly enjoyed his company and admired his many accomplishments in the hospital and community. So we invited him and his wife, with whom I had emailed multiple times before the Zambia trip, to dinner at one of Greenville’s best restaurants, which happens to be owned by another of Diana’s favorite Attendings. We truly hope to remain in touch with the Irons. They are good people!

In the last week of June, 2008, I had helped Diana move into her “owned” townhouse in Greenville, NC. Three years later to the week, I helped pack her up. I estimate that she had 6 to 10 times as much furniture and equipment leaving Greenville than when she arrived (she had a bed and couple of bureaus). In the 3 years of living in her 1^st home, Diana had furnished 6 rooms, bought kitchenware of all sorts, and integrated some of her boyfriend’s stuff. Plus they had bought a small motorboat with a towing trailer. Her boyfriend finally persuaded her to hire official movers. However, she wanted to pack some of her “personal” stuff herself. After buying multiple new boxes, bubble pack, etc. Rick and I with some assistance from Diana, began the move efforts. Rick and I worked on the house over the next couple of days, then he flew to NYC on TechnoServe business. I continued to pack up various elements of Diana’s stuff until her last work day on Thursday after her 30-hour shift. She slept for several hours, we completed as much packing as possible and then went to a last “family dinner” with her close friends/colleagues. The movers arrived at about noon on Friday, discovered they had more to pack than originally estimated because Diana had over-estimated how much she could do, but spent the next 7 hours stuffing more boxes then loading the truck which would supposedly arrive in Philadelphia on Monday morning.

At 7:30 pm Friday night, Diana, 2 cats, 1 dog, some personal boxes, and I began our trek to Bethesda, MD to meet Rick at his mother’s house where we’d stay with for a couple of days before continuing to Philly. We arrived at midnight, unloaded 3 traumatized animals and passed out on our respective beds. We spent a fun few days with family and had a dinner with Calif. friends of Diana’s now living in D.C. The movers hadn’t called with a specific arrival time on Monday. So because Diana and I would have had to sleep on a blow-up bed with no sheets or towels if we drove up Sunday night, we decided to leave at 6:00 a.m. Monday morning. We arrived in Philadelphia about 9:00 a.m. but still hadn’t heard from the movers despite Diana’s several phone calls. So we went to lunch at her friend Ali’s house in a nearby suburb (the Ali we had dinner with in Seattle in early May). Her mother treated us to a delightful lunch, as well as allowed us to shower and change our clothes there. On our way back to Diana’s place, the car was thoroughly washed to clean up the vomit that Diana’s dog Koti had created on our drive from D.C. There was still no definitive time for the movers to arrive—only late afternoon. The movers drove up at 7:30 p.m. and finished unpacking at midnight. Meanwhile Diana had gone to bed because she was working on Tuesday!

That left only Tuesday and Wednesday for Rick and I to unpack 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, kitchen, living-dining room and deck. We were leaving and Diana worked on Thursday! Her new apartment in the Manayunk / Roxboro area of Philly is lovely though not quite as big as her Greenville townhouse and differently laid out. But by the time we left, the kitchen was fully functional; the deck, living room, dining area were organized (no pictures hanging); the master bedroom and bath and the 2^nd upstairs bedroom and bath were livable; and we could easily walk through the garage though it was still quite full. Though I can’t say it was fun, it was definitely satisfying for us and highly beneficial for Diana’s new life.

I hadn’t had my Yosemite “fix” in almost 2 years, so as a surprise for Rick’s birthday, I arranged a weekend in the park when I anticipated that the waterfalls would be full. Well that was an understatement. Besides Yosemite’s normally gorgeous views of the gray granite cliffs, domes, mountains and canyons, the waterfalls were so full that you could feel their spray and hear their roar 100s of feet away.

We spent 3 nights in the rustic Curry cabins in Yosemite Valley and 1 night at Wawona Hotel near the giant Sequoias at the southern end of the park. We ate quite well at the Ahwahnee Dining room for 1 dinner and at their pub for a couple of lunches, as well as had nice dinners at Yosemite Falls Lodge and at the Wawona. But our main focus was enjoying the wilderness.

From past experience, we knew that Tioga Pass at the northern end of the park often remained closed till Memorial Day weekend (this weekend!). What surprised us—but shouldn’t have—was that the road to Glacier Point was just opening for the 1^st time this year on Friday, May 27 due to the huge Sierra snowpack. That curtailed our plans to hike up there on Thursday! So we quickly arranged to take a “hikers’ bus” on Saturday morning to hike the Panorama Trail for 9.6 miles down (and several ups) from Glacier Point to Yosemite Valley.

Instead on Thursday morning, we bought a picnic lunch, took the Valley shuttle to Mirror Lake trailhead, hiked to Mirror Lake, and then around it to the Snowcreek trail where we continued for a couple of hours up toward Snowcreek Falls. The views along the way were breathtaking:, especially Half Dome, Tenaya Canyon, and a peek at Snowcreek Falls. It was a wonderful re-introduction to my favorite place in the world, Yosemite Park.

Meanwhile on Friday shortly after noontime’s road opening, we drove up the road to hike for a couple of miles out to Sentinel Dome, maybe Taft Point, and back. As we drove, the rise in elevation was accompanied by snow along the roadside. As we neared the road end, there were snow banks a few feet high until near the Glacier Point parking lot the snow banks were probably 10-feet tall on both sides of the road. That’s why it took a long time for the park to open the road! Sadly when we drove up to the Sentinel Dome parking area, it and the trail as far as we could see was covered in probably 3 feet of snow. So much for that trip. At least we did stop at the famous “Tunnel View” of Yosemite Valley with El Capitan on the left, Bridalveil Falls, many mountain cliffs on the right and Half Dome straight ahead. When I sit on the stone wall overlooking this view, great peace always overtakes me. It's my favorite view in my favorite park…

After quickly buying a packed lunch, we caught the 8:00 a.m. Saturday morning bus to Glacier Point. About 1 hour later, we began our hike. Within the first mile, a family ahead of us stopped, pointed down and whispered “bear.” Sure enough there was a California Black Bear. However, as is typical, it wasn’t black or the normal dark brown, but actually blond. He/she remained focused on foraging on the slope about 100 yards down, so after a few minutes, we continued on our way. Panorama Trail lives up to its name, because for most of the way, there were amazing vistas. We hiked near 3 major waterfalls: Ilillouette, Nevada, and Vernal with thunderous water flowing over. We also crossed at least a dozen small streams across the trail, with some small waterfalls or cascades above them. We stopped for lunch at the top of Vernal Falls, which was pretty crowded with tourists hiking the famous “Mist Trail.” Many years ago, the park service had created a rough stairway with a railing that paralleled the Merced River leading up to Vernal Falls. During much of the year, the spray from the falls and water flowing over the cliff above the stairs keeps the trail wet and slippery. However, this time of year with this atypical water flow meant we were soaking wet even with our rain ponchos on. Most tourists didn’t even have jackets, never mind rain gear. The worst tourists were carrying infants or toddlers in their arms while they were walking up the treacherously wet stairway. Though signs are posted everywhere to stay back from the rivers and waterfalls, people can be stupid. I think 2 people died during the 4 days were in Yosemite. I’m glad the park charges for rescue because most of the time, it’s the rescuee’s fault.

In any case, after climbing down the Mist Trail, there were still a couple of miles before we reached the trail’s end and then the shuttle to reach our cabin. Going downhill is tough on the knees, uphill is hard on the lungs and butt. There were enough “ups” over the 9.6 miles that all my body parts were sore. Toward the end, my mantra was “a body in motion stays in motion” to keep me putting 1 foot in front of the other. With jelly-like legs, I eventually climbed aboard the shuttle. After few weeks’ perspective, however, I decided I would be willing to hike Panorama Trail again. The views were worth it!

Our Gourmet Group reached a significant milestone: after 30 years, 9 of the 10 original members are still together cooking, eating, wine-ing and causing a ruckus whenever we’re in public. We’ve lasted longer than many California marriages, so we decided to celebrate. Seattle’s food and wine scene reflects our well-established traditions, so we amazingly coordinated calendars to arrive on May 5, 2011. Unfortunately, a last-minute injury side-tracked the Kellys, but we took their spirit with us everywhere, including purchasing a Starbucks travel coffee mug from the original Pike’s Market location to add to their collection.

We were a politically green group, taking a train from the airport then walking a few blocks to our hotel. We took a 45-minute trip Express Bus to and from the Museum of Glass in Takoma. And we walked, walked, and walked most other places with just a couple of taxi rides thrown in.

· The flower section of Pike’s Market, where we saw hundreds of tulip varieties, in glorious colors and amazing shapes streteching for a couple of blocks.

· “Fish throwing” also in Pike’s, entailed different fish seller shops periodically having 1 of the fishmongers sequentially toss several fish in a row to another fishmonger, shouting the whole time.

· Our picture in the Seattle Times from the Arboretum overlooking Seattle. After taking taxicabs up to the Arboretum in one of the city parks and appreciating the vista, we wandered through the small but densely-planted building full of species from many zones around the globe. While there, we noted a photographer taking pictures for an article for the Seattle Times newspaper, but didn’t pay much attention. The next morning, 1 of our group excitedly showed us our picture wandering through the Arboretum on the front page and on an inside page of the paper! Guess we are newsworthy wherever we go!

· Becoming glass artists! Rebecca had arranged ahead of time to visit the Museum of Glass in Takoma as well as taking a lesson in glass fusion from a local artist. The 8 of us had the teacher all to ourselves. She told us we would create our own glass tiles which she would later fire and the museum would mail to us. Reviewing various techniques to achieve different effects, she set us on our individual paths to creativity for the next 30 minutes. It was so much fun!!! Each of us created unique tiles using different methods and materials. After we had gotten in touch with our inner artist, we then toured the rest of the facility where we saw what real glass artists could accomplish, particularly Dale Chihuly whose astounding pieces have recently been touring the U.S. in huge exhibits. And finally we saw a glassblowing demonstration from artists in residence in the museum’s special auditorium adjacent to their furnace. All in all, a wonderful experience!

· Last but not least, food and wine galore. We ate our 1^st night’s dinner at Barolo’s (Italian) with our daughter’s friend Ali whom we’ve known since their freshman year of college. Our next 2 nights’ dinners were at the Flying Fish then at Chez Shea. Each place was excellent and very different from each other. Reservations for our final meal together, Mother’s Day brunch at Salty’s, were at 8:45 a.m. to accommodate 1 couple’s flights back to the Bay Area. But it was well worth getting up early for unlimited prawns, crab, salads, traditional eggs, omelets, waffles, etc. and amazing desserts including a chocolate fountain with fruit and other fondue-type goodies. Fresh crab, prawn or ceviche snacks at Pike’s Market held us over between lovely breakfasts and fabulous dinners.

Food, wine, glass, flowers, harbor views, and lovely city architecture. What a great weekend!

On Mon., Feb.21, 2011 a shallow quake of 6.3 (in Sept. 2010 there was a 7.1) occurred right under downtown Christchurch, collapsing buildings, killing—as of Feb. 24--nearly 100 and trapping up to 200 in many buildings’ rubble. 7 weeks ago we stayed in the city center in the Grand Chancellor Hotel that has buckled and is collapsing. 6 weeks ago at Mt. Cook we rode within feet of the Tasman Glacier endpoint, across the Terminus Lake into which the glacier has now calved a 30 million metric ton iceberg, causing a one-time 10-foot wave. 5 weeks ago, our Christchurch hotel was several blocks away from city center but we walked by the cathedral whose spire is now toppled into the square where we were. Apparently this was an aftershock from the 7.1 earthquake deeper under the city in Sept. 2010, which damaged some buildings now torn down. But no one was killed, probably because it happened on a weekend morning. There but for the grace of God…

NOTABLE NEW ZEALAND NOTES (Chronological details are below Australia, Favorites, etc.)

· New Zealand in Maori language is Aotearoa which means “land of the long white cloud.” The most repeated Maori phrase we heard was “Kia Ora” (key-OR-ah) which substitutes for “hey how are ya, hello, goodbye, sweet as, etc.” Though Maori was originally an oral language, when we see it written today in the English alphabet, it is clearly related to the Hawaiian and other Polynesian languages. The Maori left Polynesia thousands of years ago (probably 5,000 though one Maori guide said 50,000) to reach New Zealand. They recognized their destination by the “long white cloud.”

· NZ population is under 4 million people, about 1/3 of whom live in Auckland on the north island. Christchurch is the south island’s biggest city at 350,000—and 3^rd largest in NZ. Dunedin (pop. 120,000) and Queenstown (pop. 22,000) are the 2 other “big” south island cities. We were told that only 31,000 people living permanently on the south island’s entire west coast.

· Summer in NZ has mostly been like summer in SF if not colder—not at all like U.S.’s typical summers. Plus lots of torrential rain. We had a few times we could be comfortable in short sleeves, but certainly not mornings or evenings. The average temperature was in the 60s, often in the 50s and the high on the only couple of days was maybe 80. More like Mark Twain’s comment: the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco. Only I think SF has warmer weather—definitely in September!

· Small world!!! Saw a man who looked familiar then heard Maryanne York’s voice after we got off the Tranz Alpine train in Greymouth, and determined that Don, Maryanne, Matt (Adrian’s school buddy) and his 2 younger brothers were also getting off the train, also bound for our next stop, Franz Josef Glacier village. We saw them at lunch then again at dinner that night then the next day coming back from a walk on Fox Glacier and again at lunch. Before they took the Tranz Alpine, they stayed at an eco-lodge for 2 nights and after the glaciers, they were doing that further south along the west coast. They had been on the north island and were heading south on the south island’s west coast.

· The costs of food and retail products were amazingly expensive in NZ. The worst part was that for the 1^st few days, we had the exchange rate backwards. After I bought some patterned sox, when the sales clerk told me that the 6 pairs were NZ$43, it was only when I looked at the slip noting they had put US$34 that we finally understood that the NZ$ was worth $0.77 to $0.80 vs. US$1. Still the prices for goods and services were almost like Euro prices. We wondered if salaries and cost of living (other than “free” healthcare, education, etc.) allowed the Kiwis to have reasonable discretionary spending. Based on the lack of crowds at many restaurants, I think not.

o NZ holiday surcharge of 15 to 20% on all restaurant and accommodation prices through Jan. 4 (the technical end of their Christmas Holidays). Yes, that increases their revenues, but do they understand how that might drive away foreign tourists, especially during the holiday periods when they are most likely to travel?

· Rick and Mark traded off driving days. At least the cars were automatics, not manuals because for the 1^st few days, both men had trouble with correctly turning on the directional signals vs. the windshield wipers. And all of us regularly repeated the chants “ stay left, stay left, stay left” or “turn right, stay left” whenever there were lots of street changes.

· Rick’s no good, very bad day: leaving Mt. Cook, he forgot his only jacket on the chair in the café. Then as he was leaving the park, Rick couldn’t get his credit or debit card to work in the park’s petrol station, so as he was driving toward the nearby town of Twizel for petrol. We heard a siren then saw a police car with lights flaring, pulling us over. Rick had been clocked at 113 kph in a 100 kph zone, so the cop gave him a speeding ticket, no warning, no questions but kindly said we could pay for the ticket at our convenience online or at WestPac Banks, located in most NZ town. On the bright side, it did provide entertainment for the rest of us and it only cost NZ$80 (~US$ 60). Needless to say, the ribbing continued in high gear for the rest of the trip. Actually, Mark was grateful that Rick received the ticket because after that, Mark really paid attention to speed limits, not his typical 130 to 140 kph.

· NZ was the 1^st country to give women the vote in 1893. It is believed that women’s suffrage was very connected to the story of Alice May of the Alice May restaurant. The owner/chef was the granddaughter of the restaurant’s notorious namesake, Alice May, who before 1920 had been impregnated then jilted by her lover whom she shot and killed. She attempted to commit suicide but lived to spend 6+ years in prison for her crime. However 60,000 New Zealand women petitioned for her release so she was pardoned. Kiwis were definitely early on the gender equality scale!

· New Zealand’s distorted distance and perspective. The mountains everywhere go straight up, almost cliff-like, which then miniaturizes all the land features around them, particularly in the flat valleys between them or along the water in front of them.

· Sheep, sheep, sheep dotting the hillsides, fields and valleys with the occasional herd of various colored cows and steers and a few deer farms thrown in for good measure.

o Merino sheep are whiter, feed along the hillsides, and are grown for their lovely wool vs. the typical New Zealand lamb exported to the U.S., which are a grayish color that looks dirty but boy are they tasty!

o What is the world record for shearing sheep in 8 hours by 2 persons? Mark heard it on the news. It was about 1,000 sheep which is one every 25 seconds which shattered the old record of 900.

· Despite the millions of merino sheep everywhere, the cost of wool clothing was outrageously expensive. We didn’t see sweaters for less than NZ$250 and more typically NZ$300 to 400. There were hats, scarves, etc. made from “MerinoMink” for a bit less, but we found out it was possum fur woven with merino wool. Even though NZ possums are cuter than the Los Altos ones, I couldn’t bring myself to buy anything made from an animal whose cousins had fangs, sharp claws and naked tails.

· LOTR (“Lord of the Ring”) Factoid: we understood perfectly why Peter Jackson chose NZ as the backdrop for The Lord of the Ring trilogy. Dramatic scenery is an understatement. I can easily picture scenes from the movies with Milford Sound’s fiords, Tongariro’s moonscapes (Mordor!), the lush mountains and valleys (the Shire!), the glaciers, and floury-colored lakes to name just some. Now, of course, we will rent LOTR from Netflix to point out “we were there!”

· All Blacks Rugby paraphernalia is outrageously expensive and probably even more now because they are current World Champions. I didn’t see a t-shirt for under NZ$65 and any gear that was really rugby-like or outer wear was up to NZ$250! I compared prices in every city but finally bought a hat with the All Blacks, other Rugby team logos, and a patch with the 2011 World Rugby Championships to held in NZ.

· Maori tattooing is quite different from “vanity” tattooing. One of our Maori tour guides explained a bit about his tattoos and its cultural history. If the face is tattooed, the chin area is usually done first to imitate the beak of a bird. A tattoo on the left side of the face signifies the mother’s side of the family and the right side, the father’s side.

o South Island: Queenstown to Invercargill at the south island’s southern tip then up that coast to Dunedin; an extra day at the Hermitage at Mt. Cook just to luxuriate; more time on the Otago Peninsula at Dunedin, e.g., the Royal Albatross Park; wine country at the south island’s northern tip in Nelson and Martinborough AND Abel Tasman National Park.

o North Island: wine country at Hawke’s Bay (seemed that the best reds came from there!); northern tip from Auckland to Cape Reinga and the Bay of Islands on its eastern side

o And time to just relax in a nice environment like Queenstown or Mt. Cook (maybe other places we didn’t visit).

Maori Warrior HAKA Chant

performed with stamping feet & faces with “googly eyes” & tongues stretched out

Ka mate! Ka Mate! Ka Ora! Ka ora! It is death! It is death! It is life! It is life!

Tenei te tangata puhuru huru This is the hairy man

Nana nei i tiki mai whakawhiti te ra Who caused the sun to shine again for me

.A upa ... ne! Ka upa...ne! Up the ladder! Up the ladder!

.A upane kaupane whiti te ra! Hi! Up to the top where the sun shines!

· Australia is almost the size of the U.S. but with a population of about 22 million, the majority living on the southeastern coast and Sydney being the largest city. Distance is deceiving, as it is in California. It’s about 928km/577 miles from Sydney to Brisbane or 878km/546 miles to Melbourne. From Sydney on the east coast to Adelaide on the west is 1400km / 872 miles.

· EXPENSIVE Australia—even more than New Zealand except for the All Blacks gear--because the exchange was about US$1.25 to AU$1 vs. US$0.8 to NZ$1. Also, every retail or food item or restaurant dish seemed about 20 to 50% higher than in the U.S. And don’t get me started on the Australian weekend surcharge

· Sydney is a gorgeous city with lots of access to the ocean and huge Sydney Harbor. Comparable to Cape Town and San Francisco though no mountains and few hills, it beautifully combines very modern skyscrapers with classical colonial-looking buildings. The gorgeous blue harbor, and the iconic bridge and opera house are visible from so many places as a back-drop.

o Climbing the Sydney Harbor Bridge was a major trip highlight—if not lifetime. Wish we could have taken our own pictures but we understood why we couldn’t after we went through the safety and technical processing for 30 minutes before we left the climbing center. The day was so warm that we only wore our underwear under the provided jumpsuit. Our tethering the whole length of the climb was very confidence-building. It was only a bit scary on the walkway over the busy streets and then transferring back and forth up 4 ladders to reach the beginning of the arch. But our guide was thoughtful, quite humorous, and supportive throughout the 2+ hour trip to the top and back. The feeling of accomplishment and views were truly rewarding, breathtaking and absolutely worth the price (bargain of AU$198 vs. the AU$220 originally quoted). We bought the CD with 4 pictures (AU$55) and t-shirt for me. The only “freebies” were hats and incredible memories.

o The iconic Sydney Opera House tour was fascinating, especially learning about the engineering aspects and the architect Jorn Utson’s travails in starting and completing it. The estimated costs originally were AU$7million to take 2 years. Well over 10 years later, Sydney had spent AU$103 million with every step being challenged by local government and population. However, the city now has a World Heritage Site that is globally recognizable, incorporates/compliments its beautiful surroundings, provides venues for a huge variety of entertainment, and which every tourist to Australia will want to visit (so Opera House tours are additional revenue!)!

o Platypus Obsession. When I was a little girl (less than 10 yrs old and during the 1950s) on my 1^st trip to NYC with my parents, my father had told me about the most unique mammal, called a duck-billed platypus, which resided at the Bronx Zoo. I never got to see it then and when Rick and I visited the zoo in the early 1970s, we learned that the platypus had died—not surprising given the timespan. It was always in the back of my mind that when I reached Australia sometime in my life, seeing a real platypus would be a top priority. So after our Bridge climb then a delightful outdoor lunch, we bought a tour on the Hop-On and Hop-Off bus. It gave us a city overview then dropped us off at Darling Harbor to visit the Sydney Aquarium and adjacent Wildlife World. I had even called ahead to ensure that a platypus would be visible. Now anytime I want I can repeat fulfilling my childhood dream by reviewing the video-taped platypi in action from both Sydney and at the Reptile Park north of Terrigal. 1 more item checked off the Bucket List!

o We ran out of time with the Linskys to take the harbor ferries but knew at least I’d be back with the Waights and Goodwins to do that.

· Terrigal is a lovely beach resort village. Beaches all along the “central eastern coast” are golden sand, with blue and turquoise water. The low, calm tides offer interesting tide pools along strangely-formed rock shelves. The high tides often provide foamy, powerful waves pounding the shore. Watching Rick boogie board for his 1^st time was a kick which he definitely relished when he caught a couple of long-riding waves

· “Another damned beautiful beach.” Pretty much every beach we saw was picture perfect in Sydney and definitely along the coast north and south of Terrigal where we stayed with our friends. We agreed with their daughter who after visiting several beaches during a recent stay, said, “Another damned, beautiful beach”. We did not see an Australian beach along that coast that we didn’t like.

· Victorian-era architecture, regional names, food, and culture. But both countries have created their own attitudes and have become friendly rivals (Aussies vs. Kiwis) in sports and other aspects. New Zealand in particular has effectively integrated Maori language and culture into their modern-day lives, though it was not obvious how well the Maori people have been integrated though some have thrived from tourism. We mainly saw Australia’s Aboriginal influence in the names of streets and some towns--Waga Waga, Woy Woy Tumbi Umbi, and Kurri Kurri being my personal favorites. Perhaps because we were not in “The Outback” we didn’t sense more impact on each other as we saw in New Zealand. Or maybe because Australia’s traditions started in the 1700s during the height of the British Empire, whereas New Zealand’s stemmed from the mid-1800s as the Empire was waning. But except for the city of Auckland with 1/3 of the whole country’s population, New Zealand overall felt more quaint, more “small town” like some of the U.S. heartlands. And perhaps because of its volcanic origins and continuing effects, New Zealand still feels like a country still forming itself.

· Places visited on this trip: Milford Sound’s fog/waterfalls/fiords; Mt. Cook’s alpen-glow and glow any time of the day and night as well as the glacier lake boat; Tongariro’s stark beauty; New Zealand’s rugged coasts, especially Otago Peninsula near Dunedin; Australia’s beautiful beaches and ocean.

· NZ meals: Matterhorn (most tender lamb ever!) and Shed 5 (excellent fish!) restaurants in Wellington; St. Moritz dining room in Queenstown; The Palms in Dunedin.

· NZ staff: Kerrie, our dining room server at the St. Moritz Hotel in Queenstown; Andy and his wife at the café outside Tongariro Park; Mark our bus driver/guide at Tamaki Maori Village outside Rotorua; the concierge at the Sir Stamford Hotel on Circular Quay in Sydney; our Sydney Harbor Bridge Climbing guide.

o Disappointingly, the vast majority of the park, site and hotel staffs we encountered were either ignorant to advise us, unfriendly didn’t understand or worse, occasionally rude. Clearly more customer service training is needed.

· NZ food: delicious Manuka honey from a version of the Ti plant was used in several dishes as we traveled NZ; lamb, especially at the Matterhorn; fresh fish, e.g., blue cod.

· Favorite hotels: Hermitage at Mt. Cook, St. Moritz in Queenstown, Chateau in Tongariro National Park, and the Sir Stamford at Circular Quay in Sydney which was old-world elegant and wonderfully situated.

o Pelicans (Australia) are huge, almost 3 feet tall with a wingspan of 2.5 to 3.5 meters and pouched bills that can hold from 9 to 13 liters of water.

o Koalas (Australia) who are only awake about 1 hour of 24 each day, and the other 23 hours are spent sleeping in very funny positions with an arm or leg suspended mid-air. At the Reptile Park, we saw koalas actually awake. A couple of koalas were definitely cranky because they growled long and loud at each other. When one male tried to be overly friendly with a female who had climbed a short tree, she growled and tried to bite him. He was also growling (muttering?) as he strutted away from her (sound familiar?).

o Kiwi birds (New Zealand) are nocturnal. So even if we visited a place where they were still wild, we’d probably not see them anyway. The feathers are woolly rather than feathery, having been adapted for warmth on the ground vs. flight. They look like beaked, brown, puff-balls on short stilts.

o The wide variety of penguins in New Zealand and Australia—we saw Yellow-eyed (the most rare), King, Fairy, and Emperor.

· Animals we’d never heard of: wobbegong (small spotted, scalloped shark with legs!; dugong (manatee-cousin); tuatara are like lizards but have populated NZ for 250 million years.

· Names, words, phrases: Aboriginal names of Australian towns, streets, etc., i.e., Woy Woy, Waga Waga, Tumbi Umbi, Lilli Pilli, and the phrase “Budgie Smuggling”

o Australian phrase new to us Americans: BUDGIE SMUGGLING. Though Australian Life Guards now mostly use jet skis and motor boats to rescue problem swimmers or surfers, the old tradition of rowing out to a rescue remains a competitive test at each major beach’s swim club. So any Life Guards worth their salt practice daily to keep up their rowing skills. There are other complimentary traditions. One is that the rowers all wear very skimpy, tight swim trunks with the beach club name on their bums. Another is that as they pull the boat into the water, all the rowers dip their bottoms into the ocean, then pull the trunks up over those cheeks, creating thongs in the back to gain the best “grip” on the rowing benches. Because this tightens the small trunks in the front, someone creatively stated that the front of the trunks then looked like the man was smuggling a budgie (small Australian bird) in there. Hence the name and the lovely other tradition of women ogling these finely-bummed rowers as they head out for battle!

o Punakaiki Point in Paparoa National Park on the South Island’s west coast, is most famous for “pancake” rocks. They literally look like layers of rock pancakes in strange formations and towers along a large section of that coastline. Because we arrived at low tide, we could not see the blowholes that are prevalent in the crashing waves during high tide.

o Moeraki Rocks on the South Island’s east coast were formed 60 million years ago not by erosion but more like oyster pearls from faults in the ocean. For many years, tourists picked up the smaller rocks as souvenirs so only boulders were left. They look like giant turtle shells on the beach, with cracks forming where erosion is now wearing away the top layers. Their forms kept reminding me of a Startrek episode where the Starship Enterprise crew arrives at a planet used mostly for mining where miners were being killed. It turned out that silicon-like creatures, called Horta, were killing the miners who were destroying the Hortas’ eggs. Both the “mothers” and the eggs looked like the Moeraki rocks. Of course it was only when back in Calif. that I successfully “googled” to find the Horta name and episode.

· Broken food chains for native animals hit both Australia (rabbit-proof fence) and NZ. New Zealand’s early pioneers from England tried to carry a few too many animal traditions with them. Rabbits are good to hunt in the U.K. so someone brought them into the country. To be expected, they proliferated exponentially. To control their growth, stoats were introduced, which attacked the penguins and kiwi birds along with the possums, rats and ferrets which also entered the country.

o Penguins and kiwi birds are very trusting of humans, so will approach you if you sit quietly. Their trusting nature has been their downfall, particularly with the introduced rodent population.

o Deer and Chamois were introduced as well for hunting and proliferated as well. However, the New Zealanders got a bit smarter. After culling many deer, farmers are now domesticating them for venison meat to be exported to Europe. Too bad stoats, ferrets and possum are not tasty enough to become human food.

o Keas (KEY-ahs) are alpine parrots which are very bold, attracted to the rubber fitting on car doors/windows, steal food, and because they are so cutely cheeky, and are fed by tourists. So the sign found at one ranger station was intriguing: “A fed Kea is a dead Kea.”

· Paid-picture-taking was standard at each tour, boat or other priced activity—which became too annoying—that could have added up to $100s. We just whizzed by a few photographers but some were more insistent. We (OK, I) broke down to buy pictures at Tasman Glacier Terminus Lake where we viewed glaciers, icebergs, and “glacier rock flour” waters. That way we had really nice pictures of both the Walleighs and the Linskys in memorable gear. Of course it was required from the Sydney Harbor Bridge because we couldn’t take our own cameras.

PLEASE NOTE: several of the descriptions in the Chronological details below were “borrowed” from Roberta Linsky who was a much better trip historian than I was!

Our flight from SFO to Sydney was quiet and uneventful, other than we celebrated New Year’s Eve and Day in a 2-hour time period, mostly while we slept. We flew to Christchurch shortly after we arrived in Sydney, amazingly with our entire luggage, no delays, and met promptly for a ride to our hotel, the Grand Chancellor in downtown. The Waights had mentioned from friends who’d recently been to Christchurch that the city still showed signs of the 7.1 earthquake on a weekend morning in Sept. 2010*, which we saw along our route to the hotel, and even across the street from the hotel. Chimneys on residences, a few old homes, and scattered commercial buildings collapsed or were damaged enough that they had to be taken down. After getting our room--the Grand Chancellor was a nice, clean, plain business hotel--we walked around the main squares—Victoria and Cathedral--and saw a few notable sites. Because it stayed light until after 9pm, we were able to eat dinner at 1 of the several outdoor cafes along the Avon River. Then it was back to the hotel, bedtime, and get ready for our 7:30 am pickup in the morning.

*On Mon., Feb.21, 2011 another quake of 6.3 occurred in downtown, collapsing buildings, toppling a cathedral’s spire onto the square below, killing at least 65 and trapping unknown numbers in many buildings’ rubble. 7 weeks ago we were stayed in the city center and 5 weeks ago, only several blocks away. There but for the grace of God…

We boarded the 8:15am Tranz Alpine train from Christchurch to Greymouth, crossing lovely mountains and valleys. We were very grateful we didn’t have to drive the Arthur’s Pass Road to reach the same destination, because the road would have been nauseatingly twisty. A couple of times we changed the view from our table in the train to a semi-open car a few cars back, but most of the time, we relaxed and looked out our window. When we arrived after 4 hours, Rick and Mark sought out the Hertz rental stand, while Roberta and I kept looking for the luggage being inefficiently handed out by 2 men at the back car. That was the 1^st of several times we saw the Yorks (see “Small World” bullet in New Zealand Notes above) who were also renting a car to reach the same destination, Franz Josef Glacier village.

We loaded up the Toyota Highlander but decided to have lunch before leaving Greymouth. That’s when we started to notice how expensive meals and retail products were! 2 sandwiches and 2 drinks cost NZ$50. We also saw the Yorks again! Before we headed south to the glaciers along the west coast, we drove north for about 1 hour to Punakaiki Point in Paparoa National Park, where we wandered around among the famous “Pancake” rocks. They literally look like layers of rock pancakes in strange formations along a large section of that coastline. Because we arrived at low tide, we could not see the blowholes in that same area that are prevalent in the crashing waves during high tide.

About 3pm we drove down toward Franz Josef Glacier village, where our 1^st stop was our hotel, which was actually a 2 bedroom cottage with a living /dining/kitchen area. We settled in, talked to the manager about restaurants, then headed out in the torrential rain (1^st of several days) to dinner at the Alice May* restaurant, which had good food and a fascinating history*. After seeing the Yorks again as we were leaving the same restaurant, we headed back to our cottage for another early night.

* The owner/chef was the granddaughter of the restaurant’s notorious namesake, Alice May, who before 1920 had been impregnated then jilted by her lover whom she shot and killed. She had also attempted to commit suicide but lived to spend 6+ years in prison for her crime. However 60,000 New Zealand women petitioned for her release so she was pardoned.

After a quick NZ$30 breakfast (2 muffins, 2 drinks!), we drove to Franz Josef Glacier. We hiked out to the terminus of the glacier over open gravel fields that seemed to go on forever, though it only took about 1.5 hours round trip, the ”short” distance from the start to the terminus was an illusion. Perspective in NZ is distorted because the mountains everywhere are virtually cliff-like, which then miniaturizes all the land features around them, particularly in the flat valleys between the mountains. It was wonderful to learn that the Franz Josef glacier was actually growing due to the huge snowfall several years ago that had compacted, thus balancing the glacier development to be faster than the melt.

After enjoying the hike despite the dreary cool weather, we returned to Franz Josef village to visit the recently completed Kiwi Center. For NZ$24 per adult, we spent about 15 minutes visiting a special small darkened room of kiwis. We learned a bit about them in the accompanying exhibit, such as that their feathers are not similar to most birds because they have been adapted to flightless life on the ground. We said good-bye to the kiwis and headed south of Franz Josef to the Fox Glacier, our next destination.

The torrential rains we had been experiencing negatively had also affected the Fox Glacier. Though this hike would have been shorter and would have allowed us to touch the actual glacier, the paths and field leading to it were washed out the previous day. So we took a walk over a swinging or cable bridge, once again saw the Yorks, returned to our car.

The next part of the trip was along the ocean to Bruce Bay with rocky views and windy roads. We stopped at Thunder Falls and Fountain Creek Falls for short walks—and allowing Rick and Mark to skip some stones in the river. After Gates of Haast with its river pounding down the rock, we drove through the “Southern Alps” up to Haast pass in Mount Aspiring National Park. We then descended a long ways to the town of Wanaka, following Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea all the way down. The lakes are fed by the glaciers so the chemistry of this glacial flour cause the lakes to be sky blue. We drove through Mount Aspiring National Park where the scenery was lovely, lush, and in some ways, semi-tropical, with lots of ferns, palm-like cabbage trees, climbing vines, and low bushes in jungle-ish density. The mountains were green and fuzzy, covered with all this jungle and trees. We would see this similar landscape across all the central and southern regions of the south island.

We arrived in the resort city of Queenstown (pop. ~22,000) which is renowned as the “Adventure Capital of the World” for having every water and extreme sport possible with its adjacency to Lake Wakitipu. Supposedly the 1^st ever bungee-jumping occurred off the local bridge on the lake. Our hotel and our rooms at the St. Moritz overlooked this idyllic Swiss-alpine lake surrounded by dramatic, tall mountains. After such an activity-packed day, we decided to dine in the hotel. Our meal was wonderful and our waitress Kerrie was terrific: service was appropriately paced, she remembered everything, chatted with us, and whenever we requested something, she chirped, “No worries!” A great ending to our day.

With continuing rain as well as heavy fog on Lake Wakitipu, the jet-boating that Roberta had booked was cancelled, so we wandered around the streets of Queenstown. When the fog cleared from the top of the mountain behind our hotel, we rode the tram up to the top for a panoramic view of the area. While on the mountain-top, we enjoyed watching the bungee-jumping immediately below. The viewing was free vs. supposedly NZ$50 each to go to and watch at the “official” site--so ridiculous. If the jumping didn’t look as though it would damage one’s spine, I believe Roberta would have braved that adventure. We trammed back to the town, had lunch, walked through Queenstown’s botanical gardens, and wandered down the lakeside promenade. After a brief time in the hotel, we eventually wandered back into town to taste some of the 80 New Zealand wines available at the Wine Center, which was set up with debit cards to be inserted into the machines holding the various wines and where 1 to 4 oz. of wine could be selected/paid. After a fun hour of sipping drinks, we decided that we’d get dinner by the lakefront where we ended up with tapas at a tiny pub where we had New Zealand beer. We walked back to the St. Moritz hotel, called it a night because we would have a long, early day tomorrow (yes, there’s a theme here!!!).

Jan. 6, 2011 – Milford Sound in Pouring Rain Created Gloriously Torrential Waterfalls

Our 7:30 pick up led us to the tour center where by 7:50 we were on a 40+ passenger bus with huge windows and partially windowed-roof. It had begun to rain, so the tour center had told us that most likely we would be bussing rather than our planned flight back to Queenstown, which meant a few hour jaunt both ways. This bus driver was also our tour guide, giving us background on the natural sights we were seeing. It was a 2 hour drive to the small town of Te Anu with a short bio and food break, then another 3 hours to Milford Sound with stops for a chasm, lots of small waterfalls, potential rockslide areas, cliffside-overlooks, etc. along the route.

We boarded the ship to cruise Milford Sound about 1:30, were given boxed lunches, and watched the scenery float by as we headed out of the inlet toward the fiords and ocean. The rain picked up the further we went, which we thought would make the cruise unpleasant but instead, exponentially improved the scenery. Everywhere we looked were waterfalls of all heights and sizes tumbled down huge rocky cliffs, emerging from huge mountain tops up to 2500 meters above the Sound. There was one waterfall that from a distance looked large but “normal” but we were told that it was 3 times higher than Niagara Falls and that it just seemed “normal-sized” because it was next to a 2500-meter rock-faced mountain. The ship went close to 2 different huge waterfalls and even though I was already pretty wet from the torrential rain, I will always remember having the heavy, white foam pouring down on me, right in my face. I did waddle back inside the cabin totally drenched, but it was well worth it.

Since our flight back to Queenstown was cancelled due to fog and rain, we grumblingly boarded the bus instead. By the time we reached Queenstown 3 hours later, I was nearly dry. We dropped our gear in our hotel rooms then proceeded up to the dining room to be served another dinner with Kerrie, our favorite server.

Jan. 7 From Queenstown to NZ’s Southern Island’s Eastern Coast and Dunedin (doon-EE-din)

It was a pleasant, less-than-4-hour drive to Dunedin, through the mountains to the east coast. We chose not to drive the long way down to Invercargill at the Southern Island’s southernmost tip which might have taken twice as long plus stops because we had already traveled 4 to 5 hours driving several days—on the wrong side of the road. Instead we drove more directly through pretty lush mountain and valley landscape to Dunedin.

After checking into our hotel to find our rooms not yet available, we walked around the city which had a central “Octagon” rather than a square, had lunch in a cute café at the Octagon, walked back to our hotel, got the car out and drove to the “famous” Otago Peninsula, supposedly like Sausalito, Tiburon, etc. We didn’t want to spend hours again in the car to drive around the whole peninsula so we agreed to drive to the Yellow-Eyed Penguin Colony where we booked the last tour at 4:15pm (allowing only one hour from Dunedin). The road hugged a lovely coastline so we knew we wanted to slow down on our trip back to the city to explore a bit more.

We arrived at Penguin Place, a privately owned conservation effort to save the world’s most endangered penguin species, the Yellow-Eyed. We anticipated a sort of cheesy experience but were delighted instead with an environmentally sensitive, beautifully integrated shoreline sanctuary, where the owners capture as many predator stoats, possum, and seals as possible. Our biologist guide drove about 12 of us out to the preserve where we walked through camouflaged walkways, by man-made but penguin-lived-in small wooden huts, into small blinds to observe the birds up close. A few minutes after we started, we encountered a mother and squawking, fuzzy baby. We sat down silently on the grass just a few feet away to watch her deal with as well as ignore her baby who wanted more regurgitated food than she had just provided. It was following at her heels almost pulling her tail feathers, making loud whistling squawks. After about 10 minutes, during which she practically waddled up to us, the baby fled frustrated into the bushes so we quietly walked on to the farthest blind where we found 2 baby penguins, grey and fuzzy, sheltering in a niche on the other side of the wooden wall, just inches from our faces. They were either totally unaware of us or just habituated to humans, so it felt as if we were sharing their nest. We wandered toward the beach hoping to see some adult penguins coming home at the end of their feeding day, but all we saw was a seal which any returning penguin would have seen as a threat so stayed away. Back in the visitor’s center near the parking lot, we viewed the video about the history of the sanctuary which was the vision of a local farmer who became a very early ecologist, wanting to save these rare penguins from their man-introduced (stoats, possum) and natural predators (fur seals).

Rick drove us back along the coast road for about 30 minutes to pause at views we missed on our hurried trip to Penguin Place. Then we cut through some “high class” suburban-like neighborhoods on our way back to the hotel. We skipped NZ’s only castle, Larnach, though we drove by the property. From the hotel, we wandered down toward the Dunedin docks to search out dinner places. We randomly chose an old-fashioned, white-tablecloth dining restaurant, The Palms, where we had very fine NZ cuisine.

We drove up to the Hermitage Hotel—a luxury icon accommodation and dining room since 1884--in Mt. Cook National Park, arriving to have lunch on the balcony overlooking the Tasman Glacier on Mt. Cook. We decided to take a hike to Hooker Valley starting from Village campground, clambering over talus on the trail, up and down hills, up to the edge of Mueller and Hooker glaciers, and along the Hooker River. The 6 mile round trip was exhausting, beautiful, and great bonding among the 4 of us.

When we returned to the Hermitage, we signed up for a boat trip on the Terminus Lake at 8:30 the next morning and carted our bags into our now-ready rooms. As we waited for the cheese plate and wine we ordered then ate when it arrived, we sat staring, literally and figuratively drinking in the grandeur of Mt. Cook’s “alpen glow” at sunset and the good wine to compliment it. Our patios perfectly suited a relaxing end of day, absorbing the gorgeous scenery.

Then we headed to dinner in the Hermitage dining room, comparable to the Ahwahnee or Jackson Lake Lodge’s views and ambiance. We had an excellent meal and wine, thanks to the restaurant manager cum sommelier. We slept well in the shadow of the magnificent Mt. Cook, anticipating an exciting boat ride the next morning.

The 4 of us left the hotel lobby by a van to go to the Terminal Lake outing. We drove about 20 minutes to the end of the road, then walked another 20 minutes to the “dock” where we were outfitted in lifejackets over top our many layers since we had anticipated how cold it would be on the “glacier rock flour” lake with icebergs next to the terminus. Tasman Glacier is New Zealand’s largest glacier. It is 1 of the few in NZ that is expanding because several years ago’s snowpack was so huge that new glacial layers are forming faster than the end is shrinking from snowmelt. The 12 of our group got into the boat with our guide who rode us by towering icebergs toward the terminus of the Tasman Glacier, explaining the geology of glaciers and icebergs as well went along. We could see the horizontal layers of ice formed over many 100s if not 1000s of years, some of which calved off in huge chunks to form the floating giant icebergs, 90% of which remains below lake level. The physics of icebergs demands that 10% above water vs. 90% below balance so that when too much melts too quickly on top, the iceberg reveals more of itself from below. Sometimes icebergs get too top-heavy so roll over so the layer-striations become vertical, but the 10-90 balance remains. This boat ride—where we got to hold a chunk of iceberg--was one of our trip highlights.

After lunch again on the balcony overlooking Mt. Cook, we drove east to the coast to head north but first detoured south along the coastal road to visit Moeraki Rocks, another privately-owned eco-preserve. This small company has been saving these bizarre rocks that were formed 60 million years ago not by erosion but more like oyster pearls bubbling up from faults in the ocean. For many years, tourists picked up the smaller rocks as souvenirs so only boulders were left, which looked like giant turtle shells on the beach, with cracks forming where erosion was now wearing away the top layers. Their forms kept reminding me of a Startrek episode where the Starship Enterprise crew arrives at a mining planet where miners were being killed. It turned out that silicon-like creatures, called Horta, were killing the miners who were destroying the Hortas’ eggs. Both the “mothers” and the eggs looked like the Moeraki rocks.

Within 45 minutes we had hiked down the cliff to the beach, viewed the rocks, made our way up to our car and were heading north. We crossed the Canterbury Plains along the coast through Oamaru then Timaru before heading inland a bit then on to Christchurch again. Chateau of the Park hotel-- than our 1^st stay--was across from Christchurch’s huge Hagley Park. After unpacking a bit, we walked across the park, continued by some of the old city buildings where we’d been on our 1^st day, down toward the ocean for dinner, and back to the hotel for an early evening (yes, again!) on our last night on south island.

To be assured of boarding the ferry in Picton for a 2:25pm departure as well as turning in our rental car, we departed Christchurch about 8am to drive 4 hours straight to Picton. Unfortunately that meant we couldn’t visit Marlborough region to see some of NZ’s premier wineries which were at least an hour west of Picton. But we were looking forward to our 3+ hour inter-island ferry to Wellington. We arrived in enough time to have lunch before boarding our “1^st class” lounge shared with about 12 other passengers and where we could enjoy “free” snacks, soft drinks and wireless internet access. Promptly at 2:25pm the ferry named Arahuma sailed out through Queen Charlotte Sound along picturesque points, small fiords and side channels: Dieffenbach Point, Tory Channel, Cook’s Lookout (at Arapawa Island from where Capt. Cook sighted for the 1^st time the strait eventually named for him), Whekenui Point (wheke = octopus in Maori; legend had a famous Maori leader killing an octopus there), Perano Head then across the open waters of Cook’s Strait. When we reached the southern tip of the north island, we sailed by Cape Terawhiti, along Oteranga Bay, by Karori Point Lighthouse which alerts ships to the Karori Rip where 2 tides meet to form a riptide, then by seal colonies at Sinclair Island and volcanic Red Rocks and Pencarrow Head Lighthouse (NZ’s oldest from 1859) and eventually into Wellington Harbor below Mt. Victoria.

We picked up our 2^nd rental car then drove to the Wellington Novotel where we’d spend 2 nights—with time to do laundry. We touched down in our rooms briefly then headed out to wander the city on the way to Cuba St. where we had dinner at Matterhorn—with most tender lamb ever and 1 of the best meals of our trip!

This lovely small-ish city is home to its government. We rambled across the city including to Lambton Quay and to the Queens Wharf, by its many Victorian-era buildings from the late 1800s and early 1900s, Victoria University, as well as some very modern places like the “Beehive” next to the old Parliament. We arrived at one of the nicest museums we have ever visited. Te Papa Tongawera Museum housed the best examples of Maori and overall NZ culture, geology, zoology (the largest preserved Giant Squid on display!) and history as well as art from NZ and elsewhere in the world. Completed in 1998, it was not only very modern in architecture, but included many interactive and computer-based exhibits. Especially considering the range of subjects covered, it was a truly memorable national museum. After the museum we walked through the downtown to have lunch at Roti Chenai, a small Indian restaurant, which was quite good despite its humble appearance.

Then we drove about an hour outside of Wellington to the closest “wine country” through towns with interesting names—e.g., Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt, and Featherston--to Martinborough, a very small town which is on The Classic Wine Trail in the Wairarapa region. It is similar in size and number of wineries to a small Healdsburg, with wineries (mostly whites with some pinots) not walking distances apart but not far from each other. Unfortunately because most of the wineries are closed except on weekends, the town felt almost deserted. We went to Palliser Estate and then to Vynfields winery with a garden seating area where we shared a flight of wines. The latter was a lovely setting to taste mediocre wines though overall we were glad to have the experience. The ride to and from Wellington was on a very winding road over some mountains. On the way back we drove up the hills of Wellington along the cable car route and by the Botanical Park with Victoria University and some lovely Victorian homes on the hills. After returning to the hotel to change clothes, we walked back toward the harbor for dinner at Shed 5 which had excellent, innovative seafood. And then we walked back to our hotel.

About 2 hours north of Wellington, we had a picnic lunch then drove through lush and lovely scenery for another 2.5 hours until we reached Tongariro National Park with its volcanic moonscapes and 3 main volcanoes: Mt. Ruapehu, Mt. Ngauruhoe, and Mt. Tongariro. We drove into Whakapapa Village then through the portico of our 1900s’ hotel, The Chateau Tongariro, sticking out like an anachronism in this serious hikers’ and skiers’ paradise.

After landing briefly in our rooms, we went to the park’s visitor’s center to ask about potential afternoon hikes. The center’s small staff acted sullen, not knowledgeable except to hand us a map, and returned quickly to their desk work. So we chose a couple of short walks to give us a sense of the bizarre beauty of this area. Supposedly, there are a couple of 1 day grueling hikes—Ruapehu trail and Tongariro Crossing--that are the most beautiful scenery in New Zealand, but we could not fit one into our short stay—nor were we in shape based on the altitude and terrain.

We then drove to a ski chairlift up to the top of Mt. Ruapehu. At the base of the chairlift were a few parkas (less than 10) in different sizes, so even though we were all layered for the ride up, we decided to add these as a last layer. We rode 1 chairlift, scrambled off as we used to doing while skiing, then walked over to sit on the 2^nd chairlift to the top, rode up and scrambled off again. All the way up, we were ever so glad that we had on the parkas because it got colder every 10 feet rise in elevation. At the top, we arrived at what felt like the entrance to Mordor of Lord of the Rings (LOTR) fame. Apparently, Peter Jackson, the NZ native and director of LOTR, thought so too because that’s where evil, deadly Mordor scenes were filmed. Everywhere we looked were stark piles of dark volcanic boulders. We were amazed that we were actually at a ski area with these unfriendly, huge rocks. In the winter, there are 2 challenging ski fields aka ski areas at the top of Mt. Ruahepu and a smaller one above Whakepapa Village, named…Whakepapa Ski fields. The reason they looked challenging was not the elevation or even the steepness, but these huge volcanic boulders that covered all slopes would need to be continually covered by a heck of a snow dump for skiing.

On our chairlift rides down, we saw those riding up wearing just shorts and t-shirts. We suspected we’d see goose bumps if we got up close, but we didn’t, so as soon as we reached the base, we removed our parkas so the next group could benefit. We had a nice but not fabulous dinner back at the Chateau hotel.

Near the park entrance, we enjoyed a hearty, inexpensive breakfast at small café with Andy from the area and his wife/partner from FLA. They were very helpful, giving us many maps and suggestions for stops, and actually apologized for the rudeness of the National Park staff. We enjoyed the vista along the shores of Lake Taupo. Also Andy had recommended some thermal sites to visit including a local free thermal springs called Tokaanu Thermal Walk. We got there before it opened, so having it all to ourselves, we walked the nice 20 minute trail with lots of boiling mud pots. We got really close to the steam vents and lakes and then walked by a thermal pool facility for bathing. Next stop was Huka Falls, a chasm of rushing water with a water fall at the end. It was spectacular but we’re getting a bit jaded with all the waterfalls and rushing water. Next we went down the road and checked out the quite interesting Wairakei Geothermal Power Plant with huge fields of long pipes capturing steam, supplying NZ with 15% of its power. The downside is that it has lessened the power of various nearby geysers and steam vents which in turn lowers the area’s tourist-attractiveness. Then we drove to the nicely-done Wai-o-Tapu thermal site, another place you pay to see mud pots, steam vents and craters. It claims to have the largest surface thermal activity area in the Taupo Volcanic Zone but like a small Yellowstone. Wai-o-Tapu has a boardwalk and hike with various lakes, craters, steam vents of different colors with Maori and other creative names, cascading pools of various colors, the smell of sulfur everywhere, and at the end, a really weird lime green pool of water. We did the short walk of 30 minutes and decided we had enough of steam vents, knowing we had more to see in Rotorua. After lunch at the visitors’ center café, we drove to the Blue and Green Lakes which were supposed to be this phenomenon of two lakes with different colors next to each other. They in fact were just two lakes, yes slightly different colors but not much to see. Then we continued further to the Buried Village, supposedly a village that preserved some of the relics from when a volcano buried it. However it cost $37 and looked pretty dorky so we decided to skip it.

We reached the Novotel near Lake Rotorua, registered but couldn’t enter our hotel rooms yet so we walked up the street to eat lunch. We wandered around the town for the next couple of hours, and settled into our rooms at the Novotel, relaxed for a bit and eventually had dinner back in the main part of town: we at a mediocre Indian restaurant, and Mark and Roberta at the local street fair.

AAA had arranged 2 tours for us today so we could experience the best of this region’s thermal fields, local animal activities, and Maori culture. Our 8am tour bus driver/guide gave us background on the town and what we’d be seeing for the next few hours. Our 1^st stop was Te Puia, the most famous thermal site in the vicinity (though small compared to Yellowstone) though we actually had enjoyed Tokaanu and Wai-o-Tapu preserves more because we were much closer to the thermal features. The highlight is supposed to be the Pohutu Geyser which usually erupts 10-25 times a day to a height of 50-60 ft. Of course we arrived just as it was tapering off in its last spurts. We did learn something new, that the wide range of colors on the features’ actual structures—not just the algae in the pools’ different temperature water--were due to different mineral elements:

Green - Colloidal sulfur / ferrous salts Orange – Antimony Purple – Manganese oxide
Black – Sulfur & Carbon White – Silica Yellow / primrose – Sulfur
Red-brown – Iron Oxide

Another stop was the Maori arts and crafts center, where we local artisans designing clothing with feathers, flax, beads, etc. as well as carving wood. Next at Rainbow Springs we learned about the local flora, including the silver fern leaf which is the national NZ symbol AND integrated into the All Blacks Rugby team’s uniform. Maori also use silver fern as a nighttime navigation tool since the leaf’s shiny side reflects the moonlight. Also the guide explained about the medicinal uses of the prolific Manuka tree, which we call tea or ti tree: ti tree oil is derived from the bark and can be used in cosmetics and salves; its flowers contribute to New Zealand’s famous Manuka honey used in foods and other retail products. California apparently donated some Monterey Pines and Redwood trees to New Zealand to leverage similar climate conditions. Though both grow even faster in NZ than in Calif., the downside is that fast-growth leads to soft wood and poor lumber. We also saw a nocturnally-lit kiwi exhibit at Rainbow Springs. At the next stop at Nature Wildlife Park we viewed a similar kiwi exhibit as well as a Tuatara lizard (pre-dates dinosaurs to about 250million years ago), parrots of all sorts, lots of reptiles including iguanas. Our stop at the Agrodome provided insight into how many species of sheep there are in NZ (about 20—who knew!), training of dog sheep herders, a mock auction, sheep shearing, and I had my picture taken with a couple of sheep.

Mark decided to have a massage at our hotel but Roberta, Rick and I lunched at an outdoor café near the hotel, then 3 of us walked to the “famous” (though we’d never heard of it before!) Polynesian Spa to soak in 4 different temperature thermal pools, 36, 38, 40 & 42^oC. We returned to the Novotel to dress for our evening tour.

We were picked up at 5:45 for the nearby Tamaki Village which is actually a decent reconstruction of some key homes/activities in a typical Maori village. It also strong impressed us that demonstrating village life wasn’t just about tourism, but about seriously preserving the Maori culture. The staff, most of whom had face tattoos and were dressed in traditional costume, carefully included old traditions of games, welcome, language, costume, etc. Each of the several tourist buses elected a chief who represented each bus’ group during a welcome ceremony at the entry. After viewing the village and demonstrations, we were led into the auditorium for dancing and singing, which were actually very pleasant with lots of musical instruments like flute, drums, and guitar. Most of the dancing was done with tossing sticks or swirling strings with balls on the ends. There were more “Haka” Warriors dancing--bulging eyes, big tongues and scary faces--really impressive (performed by the All Blacks before every game to psych out their opponents). Dinner was the Maori “Hangi” (HAHN-gee), similar to a Hawaiian Luau without poi. Everything was cooked in layers a steam pit: lamb, chicken, fish, and then veggies then pudding. Overall the experience was much better than we’d anticipated, exceeding any previous Polynesian experience we’d had.

Our evening tour guide/bus driver Mark (with very long Maori name) was hysterically funny. He knew 61 languages in which to say hello, and songs from many countries in their native language. He taught us ”Kia Ora” which is used throughout Maori conversations. It means hello, good-bye, sweet as, how about that, and a sort-of “I’m listening, bro,” etc. On the bus on the way home, Mark went crazy—in a good way. Besides singing in all different languages and forcing our companions to sing in their language, Mark sang “Round and Round the Mulberry Bush” while he drove the bus around and around a roundabout! All in all, we had an enjoyable evening.

After leaving Novotel in Rotorua at 8:00 a.m., at a comparatively leisurely pace we detoured west to Waitomo Glowworm caves which might sound rather creepy but are actually pretty amazing. We caught the 11:30a.m. tour of Ruakari Cavern by foot then by boat on the cavern river for 1.5 hours. The glowworm is the larval stage of a fungus gnat found in some NZ caves. At this life stage, they hang down gelatinous threads which are their webs to catch insects and look transparent in daylight. After we walked through some well kept caves with the normal Stalagmite and Stalactite formations, we boarded a boat on the underground river flowing through the cave. Here in the dark, we saw thousands of glowworms as bluish fluorescent pinpoints of lights all around. After the hour tour we ate at the new, ecologically correct Visitor’s Center--the last one burned down—and toured the local museum before heading to Auckland.

Before reaching our Auckland hotel, we visited the really nice Kelly Tarlton Aquarium—he was a famous local diver and marine biologist. The facility included a mock tour of Antarctica based on Robert Scott’s failed trip to the South Pole. We also viewed Antarctic Penguins, many sharks, regional fish, etc.

The SkyCity complex where our SkyCity Hotel was located, is built around Sky Tower. This communication tower is the highest structure in the Southern Hemisphere with observation decks and a bungee jump platform (somewhere though it wasn’t obvious to us). After trotting around Auckland’s wharf area and downtown, we investigated a couple of restaurants for dinner, returned to the hotel to clean up, then walked to Kermerdac for dinner back near the lovely harbor. This restaurant’s chef was a bit creatively over the top, but the food was good and we enjoyed our favorite New Zealand wine, Te Mata.

Back at hotel, we rode elevator up to the top levels of the Sky Tower to view the 360^o the perimeter, seeing the lights of bustling Auckland (1.3 million people out of 4 million total Kiwi citizens vs. 10s of millions of sheep). We bid a fond farewell on our last night in New Zealand.

Jan. 16 – 29, 2011 - Sydney, Terrigal and the Central Eastern Coast of Australia

We had a 9:00 a.m. flight to Sydney which meant leaving SkyCity Hotel at 6:00 a.m. But no big deal for us, right? Our flight into Sydney was uneventful but we were delighted by finally warm weather. We arrived at the Sir Stamford at Circular Quay in downtown Sydney about 1:00 p.m. It is a very nice classic European style hotel with an actually informative concierge. Until our room was ready, we walked down to “The Rocks” neighborhood nearby where there was a street market and places to eat along the Quay. Though most people have seen pictures of both the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbor Bridge, it was still thrilling to see them in real life. Our risk-taker Roberta convinced us all to do the Sydney Harbor Bridge Climb, so after getting over the shock of paying AU$200 per person (about US$225 each), we signed up for the next day for this 3 ½ hour, once-in-a-lifetime adventure. Then we checked in at the Sir Stamford and headed immediately back down the street to tour the Opera House. The fabulous tour allowed us see all the interior areas of the Opera House, learn about the architect and amazing engineering feat to build it, and heard all the trial and tribulations of getting the Opera House constructed. What was originally estimated to cost AU$7 million and be completed in 2 years, took closer to 13 years and AU$103 million. Also the architect was fired and eventual re-hired and there were many rending of clothes and gnashing of teeth among the city’s leaders and population. However, Sydney ended up with a world-class icon and the architect’s creativity was recognized by his peers with the globally-coveted Pritzker Architecture Prize. As we continued to walk around Sydney, we noted a lively dynamic much different from New Zealand’s cities, with bustling people, street performers, open air cafes, ferries continually tootling across the harbor, huge cruise ships anchored, and streets still busy at 9:00 p.m. After Aussie beer and a brief dinner in 2 harborside cafés, we dragged our tails (remember, we had left Auckland hotel at 6:00 a.m.) back to our comfy but elegant Sir Stamford Hotel to get well-rested for our arduous Sydney Bridge Climb.

With a bit of trepidation but lots of excitement, we walked over to the Bridge Climb center for our 9:35am session. While we waited, we viewed pictures of all the famous people who had done the climb since it opened in 1998 (in time for the Sydney Olympics). We expected the whole experience to take 3.5 hours but we weren’t prepared for how slowly, carefully and thoroughly they prepared us for this event. Imagine any U.S. insurance company underwriting this??? We completed a health questionnaire, passed the breathalyzer test, and were given special one-piece suits with places to hook sunglasses, handkerchief, and special cap. No jewelry or even hair clips were allowed—only elastic bands for hair. It makes sense if you think about something even small dropping onto cars and people from that height. Because today was such a gloriously sunny, beautiful day, we’d need no rain gear and they actually recommended we only have our underwear underneath the suit! Our assigned leader gave us headsets to hear his presentations, and if needed talk to him while on the bridge. We stepped into harnesses with clips, did a brief climbing test, and then they clipped us onto our steel cable lifeline that follows the bridge railing for the next 2.5 hours. Though our clips periodically caught on the cable junctions, once we passed the initial open-ish walkway over the streets, climbed up and across several ladders (1 person on a ladder at any time), the scary part was over and the rest was relatively smooth with the assurance that you are well-connected and supervised. The climb was on a solid and wide path, but steep until it flattened out near the top of the bridge arch. The leader was aware of the different climbers’ abilities, so allowed several rest stops and of course, time for his taking pictures at key places since we couldn’t have our own cameras (again, dropping our cameras would be deadly for anything below). The views along the way were truly amazing and from the top, breathtaking. That day was unusual with no wind so the 2 Aussie flags at the top were droopy rather than their normally flying straight out. At the very top of the arch we could supposedly see for 70 km. After another brief break, we walked across the arch onto the opposite side then began our hiking back down. The whole experience was indeed 3.5 hours with the prepping, training, climbing, and rest/photo breaks. Though the Bridge Climb operator charged $25 for 1 and $69 for 4 photos of each person/group, it was well worth the documentation of this absolutely unforgettable experience. And yes, I also bought a t-shirt that said I climbed the Sydney Harbor Bridge!

Back in our street clothes, we kept on our caps proving we’d climbed the bridge as we had lunch in the outdoor café at the nearby Oriental Hotel (established 1845). We relaxed over a well-deserved beer and pub food! Since we still had the afternoon and evening ahead of us, we signed up at the Visitor Center for touring the city on the Hop-On-Hop-Off busses. Once more we were tootling through the city, on our way to Darling Harbor and the Sydney Aquarium and Wildlife World, we rode through downtown, by Parliament, St. Mary’s Cathedral, Chinese Gardens, Victoria Market, Convention Center, and many neighborhoods we probably wouldn’t have walked to on our own. Darling Harbor is a very busy area with an indoor mall, convention center, casino and many café restaurants, monorail, IMAX, maritime museum, and our next stop, the aquarium and wild life park.

Sydney Wildlife World claims to be the world’s largest animal encounter under one roof. There were many impressive exhibits with lots of explanations about Australia’s many unique animals, including crocodiles hatching from eggs, a huge saltwater crocodile, koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, and all kinds of creepy spiders, snakes, lizards and many creatures we’d never heard of let alone seen. Australia has more species of reptiles than anywhere in the world. I was anxious to finally visit the platypus (dreamed about since I was a child), so after a lengthy visit in Wildlife World, we headed next door to the huge Sydney Aquarium with 60 tanks and 3 oceanaria. My childhood dream was well-fulfilled by seeing this lively little platypus swimming at a fast pace around a large tank! I took a few video clips as well as lots of memories and hoped my father who had promised to show me a platypus when I was a little girl, was happy in the great beyond. But wait, there were many more unusual beasties: dugongs that look like manatees; many sharks including a spotted wobeggong that had 2 remnant legs; all sort of rays; more penguins; many fish; and a strange seahorse that looked like a leaf, just to name part of the list. We walked through clear tubes inside the tanks to see sharks, manta rays, fish, dugong and wobeggong above and next to you. Though I love the Monterey Bay and new Steinhart Aquaria near us, I was more impressed with the Sydney Aquarium.

It was dark when we left the Aquarium, so we walked across the Darling Harbor pedestrian bridge to the Sydney Fish Market for dinner. Our bridge guide had recommended this area but didn’t know or tell us was that this mostly commercial wholesale center closed in the evening so of the many restaurants, only a Chinese restaurant with live fish tanks was open at night. Our last meal together in Sydney was just OK. We took a taxi back to Sir Stamford Hotel as it was cold and dark. So the Walleighs and Linskys went to our hotel’s very classy, small bar to say good-bye for now, as we were headed up north to Terrigal to stay with friends. What a fantastic, busy, and memorable trip we had together!

Today Rick and I checked out of the Sir Stamford Hotel, caught a taxi to the Central Train Station, grabbed a bite to eat then boarded the 12:15 train on the Newcastle line bound for Gosford. Harry and Barbara Waight from Los Altos but who are dual Aussie-U.S. citizens, picked us up at 1:40 then drove us to their home in Terrigal where they lived for 2 to 3 months each year. Also waiting there were our other friends, Christine and Brian Goodwins who were visiting the Waights as well for a few weeks. It was great to be in 1 location for more than 2 or 3 days. I fully unpacked for the 10 days I would stay here (Rick would only stay for 4 days). And we were excited to be with “locals” who could show us the “real” Australia.

Harry drove the 6 of us around the beautiful coastal area in the afternoon. We walked out to a rocky tide-pool covered point on Bateau Bay in Wyrrabalong Park. The golden sandstone cliffs there were covered with strange designs of what looked like different web-formed rocks. Several individual fishermen were casting lines from the shore. 3 large pelicans landed within 10 feet of us, very unafraid. Since there was a lot of sea water on the rocks from a storm the day before, we had to be careful on the slippery parts, especially where there was black scum under the shallow water where we walked. Luckily none of us fell, but 1 pelican slipped onto his bottom, got up, waddled a bit further and slide again. We of course anthropomorphized his antics into a running embarrassed conversation where he hoped none of his friends would humiliate him for slipping. Harry drove us back to the house, where we had a BBQ dinner. I had my 1^st taste of

After breakfast, the Waights and we walked down the hill into Terrigal village for about an hour then back uphill. After lunch, Harry drove the 6 of us to a different part of Bateau Bay. We “tramped” through “the bush” or jungle of Wyrrabalong National Park with the Waights pointing out many local plants, birds and lizards along the way, to the end of the “tramp” to see beautiful Crackneck Lookout.

We then headed for a town called The Entrance, where a lake outlets narrowly through a lagoon into the ocean. After parking the car then getting ice cream, we walked to a small ocean’s edge park where a large group of huge pelicans were gathering. Town volunteers feed them 365 days a year about 3:30pm, surrounded by a typical crowd of maybe 50 local people. These huge black and white gangly birds with pink stretchy beaks and yellowish eyes--who we learned weigh only 6 to 8 kg--remind me of marabou storks in Nairobi. The daily pelican feeding tradition started when local restaurants tossed out their fish remains after lunch, attracting the pelicans. If there was no food visible, the pelicans waddled across the street from the ocean to approach the shops from where their expected food emanated. After some years, the town assumed the formal daily routine. While the pelicans gathered from the tidal area nearby, a local biologist ensures that the birds are healthy, with no fishing line or hooks on them. If any birds are sickly-looking, the biologist decides how best to heal them. It was darn funny to watch these birds crowd around the human feeder, raptly and simultaneously focus their attention to the potential direction of the fish being thrown, then swallow whole mullet fish into their stretchy beaks while competing with their colleagues. Between Barbara and me, we captured the feeding on cameras.

After another exhausting day, we rallied for beer back at the Waights, cooked dinner and went to bed early.

Once again, our intrepid driver Harry led us on the 2 hour drive to Hunter Valley, home to about 100 wineries in the Wollombie Wine District, specializing particularly in white wines and pinots, some shiraz and a few merlots. After visiting a wood-carver/furniture-maker’s store which the Waights knew that the Goodwins would like, we stopped by the Wollombie Wine Center to obtain some guidance on the best wineries to visit in case the Waights were unfamiliar. We also could take photos in front of the winery signs collage along one wall. From there we drove to an old winery with a reconstructed general store and old wine-making equipment out behind the tasting building. The store is a replica of one which used to be there circa 1890, built as a “slab hut” with a tin roof with from original wooden slabs, covered internally with kerosene, lined with newspaper strips and then whitewashed. The old winery owner had collected and now displayed a somewhat organized jumble of cans, bottles, products, signs, tools, clothes, and small equipment that would have been contemporary with that local pioneering period.

Our next stop was our 1^st wine-tasting at Swish Winery, recommended by the Visitor Center. After that, we visited Tyrells and Audrey Wilkinson’s vineyards and wineries, while enjoying the lovely views of grape-growing country everywhere. Several bottles were purchased for consumption over the next few days, not laying down in anyone’s cellar. The Waights told us that Australia’s premier wine-growing region was close to Adelaide on the west coast, but today was a tasty distraction from our boring routine of gorgeous beaches and bays (just kidding!).

On the way back to Terrigal, we visited a small town called Kurri Kurri (Aboriginal name) which was known for many of its buildings having local artists paint whimsical trompe l’oeil scenes of local Australian culture. We spent about an hour walking around the town discovering / photographing the various paintings, as well as a huge statue of Australia’s famous laughing Kookaburra bird. Then back to the Waights house in Terrigal where we barbequed fish and some of us had fresh local oysters.

Today we drove to Munmorah State Recreation Area where we picnicked on the cliff above Frasier Beach and Snapper Point. Then we carried all the umbrellas, folding chairs, towels and boogie boards down the long stairway to the sand where we settled in for a few hours of reading, swimming, boogie boarding, and repeat. The gorgeous, many-hued blue ocean and huge waves were a dramatic sight, quieted by the pale golden sand. There were only 2 boogie board with 3 men and 2 women who wanted a turn with them (not me!!!). Barbara and I digitally captured both Rick’s and Christine’s 1^st boogie-boarding experiences, as well as Harry and Brian’s semi-professional expertise. I wasn’t fast enough to photograph Barbara’s wave-riding, but she looked very comfortable gliding in the waves. I mostly swam / got run over by the pounding surf but still had a great time. After a while, we all walked down the beach around to Snapper Point, with more glorious coastal views. Then back to the grind of reading, swimming and boarding until eventually we had to carry everything back up the long stairway up the cliff to our car. Beer and wine flowed freely that night for the weary beach-dwellers.

Jan. 22, 2011 – Rick to Sydney Airport and the Rest of Us Have a Quiet Day

So that Rick could have a 2-hour window before his flight from Sydney to San Francisco, I accompanied Harry driving Rick back to Gosford train station so that he would catch the train easily for the 1.5+ hour ride, then switch to the airport line in central Sydney. I’d be doing the same trip a week later, so appreciated Rick’s learning the ins and outs of the process ahead of me. Harry and I drove back to the house where the remaining 5 of us had lunch. After some quiet time there, we drove out to Bateau Beach and walked around different tide pools. Home again, home again for another good dinner, then bed again, bed again for a quiet night.

Jan. 23 – Full Day in Sydney to Ride Ferries and Wandering with the Waights

With upcoming Australia Day Celebrations on Wed., August 26, we decided that today, Sunday, might be a good time to visit Sydney sights that the Goodwins and I had missed. So we left house at 8:00 am to catch the 8:30 train to Sydney. From the Central Train Station, we walked to the 1800s Queen Victoria Building which had been converted to a shopping mall but kept some of its beautiful architectural features, such as huge mechanical clocks, wooden-arched hallways, marble and tiled floors, tall atria, and stained glass windows. The shops were nicely integrated to fit the ambiance of this historical queenly complex. Barbara led us on a tour of the Sydney Public Library where she worked in her 20s--just a few years ago. We then walked to the Botanical Gardens with its interesting native plants and disgusting Flying Foxes. These are one species of large Australian fruit bats, hundreds of which cling to many of the Botanical Garden’s trees. Some of these species have a 5-foot wingspan, but thank heavens these furry, fanged beasts were slightly smaller with up to only a 2-foot wingspan. I couldn’t wait to get away from these yucky things that are actually helping to destroy the trees where they congregate and so far have eluded the city’s efforts to get rid of them.

Moving right along, we walked around the Circular Quay, had lunch near the Ferry Boat Dock, and then hopped onto the Manly Beach Ferry to visit one of the city’s most popular destinations. The views during the ferry ride were spectacular, including the Opera House, the Harbor Bridge, the old convict prison, the Governor General’s Mansion, lots of sailboats, lovely seaview homes, etc., etc. The Manly Beach (not implying that women are not allowed here or need their own Womanly Beach) neighborhood is a mini-resort village, similar to Santa Cruz without the amusement park but with a gorgeous beach that people can swim in much of the year. After watching some beach club competitions in paddle boarding, we took another ferry under the Sydney Bridge to Darling Harbor. On the way, we saw a sailboat with a “Red Claw” logo (local drink???) on its sails, where the 3 crewmen were leaning way out over the water while heading close to another sailboat and more perilously, to the much larger, faster ferry! We don’t know exactly what happened, but we watched them tip over in slow motion until all 3 men were in the harbor. The good news was that they were not run over by the ferry. The bad news was that they were humiliatingly watch by 100s of ferry passengers. Oh, well. We disembarked at Darling Harbor, enjoyed some Australian beer from Tasmania (James Boag Pilsner) and chips (French Fries in American), walk back to trains, and arrive back at the Waights about 8pm. Harry barbeque-grilled some ham, cheese, and tomato sandwiches which Barbara quickly concocted. After more beer, wine and Lamington cake it was beddy-bye for me.

Jan. 24, 2011 – Recovered from Exhausting Day in Sydney by vegetating around the house.

Though this zoo-like place about 45 minutes from Terrigal is called the Reptile Park, it is also actually home to kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, Tasmanian Devils, dingoes, tortoises, birds, insects and other unique-to-Australia animals, with lots of demonstrations in addition to “standard” exhibits. AND they have a Platapusary so I could once more visit 1 of my beloved Platypi friends. We saw venom-milking of snakes—this place is one of the main sources of antidotes and related studies in Australia. With Australia’s having the most variety of reptiles in the world, the Park’s staff are proud to show off their many species on site, like monitor and dragon lizards, skinks, alligators, saltwater crocodiles, and snakes of all sorts. I could have skipped the spiders and snakes (1 was held by a young women who was a Lisbeth Salander look-alike), but enjoyed watching other feedings: a huge tortoise named Hugo eating greens; crocodiles competing for fish; dingoes enjoying eggs; koalas just being awake enough to nibble on something; and a Tasmanian Devil consuming a whole chicken. We learned that nature has placed a plague on the Tasmanian Devils because tumors spontaneously form around the mouths, eventually preventing feeding. So wildlife parks around Australia, including this one, are trying to regenerate groups of unencumbered Tasmanian Devils. 1 or 2 kangaroos were hopping around and 2 or 3 emus and Brolga birds wandered by. But besides the platypus’ antics (scratching his itches all over his body), the highlight was Oscar and another new male koala growling and fighting to get the attention of females. Since koalas sleep 23 of 24 hours a day, it was a pleasure to see them just walking around, but the noises were loud and amazing. Part-way through our 5+ hours here, we stopped for a picnic lunch. We ended the day at the Terrigal beach, then returned to the Waights’ house for dinner, laundry and reading.

Australia Day does not specifically commemorate the country’s independence or other significant political achievement, but it’s definitely a reason for Aussies to drink, eat, hang out at the beach and drape themselves in Australian-flag-covered clothes, blankets, hats, etc. The town called The Entrance (see Pelican feeding above) was having some Australia Day activities and a street fair, so we watched a couple of competitions, including 4 men standing on large logs trying to split them with an axe. No feet or other limbs were lost and the youngest man was the winner. As we walked around the town, I was amazed at where some people were wearing flags. Certainly I never had seen so many Australian flags in one place.

Harry then drove us near Norah Point lighthouse where we ate another picnic lunch, thankfully under a tree because the day was really heating up! Then we headed to Soldiers’ Beach at about 2pm. I put sunscreen on my arms, legs, shoulders, neck, back, and face and sat under the beach umbrella but while in the ocean fighting the high waves twice, my back and shoulders got sunburned. Barbara put aloe on them but the next couple of days I stayed in the shade and swam with a shirt. The Goodwins picked up fish and chips, then we drank our own beer and relaxed in the Waights backyard. Another tough day in Australia.

Jan. 27, 2011 – Erina Fair Shopping then Different Beaches South of Terrigal

I accompanied the Waights to the huge Erina Fair shopping mall about 15 min. from their house. It makes Westfield Valley Fair look small. Not only do they have every chain store and supermarket in Australia, but in addition to many casual restaurants, they have a Public Library, sizeable dental and medical centers, and community meeting places. At “Big W” store, like Walmart, I paid for 8 sturdy beer glasses and 6 short, sturdy wine glasses (since I had broken 1) as a house thank you gift. I also bought myself my only Aussie souvenir, an Aussie flag beach towel. Then we shopped around for a beach umbrella anchor for the sand and eventually food-shopped at different stores (Aldi, Woolworth, butcher, green grocer) for veggies, meat, and staples. Food prices were really high in every category, but especially fruits and vegetables.

We unpacked the car, packed the fridge, made ourselves lunch, and about 2:00pm headed for a drive south on the coast down the Bouddi Peninsula, through Bouddi National Park, past many beaches: Avoca, Copacabana, McMasters, Putty, Kilcare then over the peninsula to Hardys Bay, and Pretty Beach. We stopped at Wagstaffe town where the local ferry terminates, snacked on ice cream treats, lined up on a bench like old pensioners, and watched mothers and small kids playing on a tiny, protected beach. From Bouddi Lookout we could see the 3 arms of Broken Bay, including Brisbane Water, the Hawkesbury River, and Pittwater Harbor. Despite the haze, we could see Palm Beach and as far as Sydney’s North Head at the end of Manly Beach. On a clear day, supposedly one could see Sydney itself. As the crow flies, it takes maybe 1 hour rather than the 2.5 hours or more to actually drive it.

A few times a week, a small cruise--including a fish and chips lunch--offers scenic tours of local waterways. Except for 2 families with children, of the 60 or more passengers, we were the youngest. Most were “official” pensioners (meaning that they are supported by a national retirement pension). We sailed under the Rip Bridge to Broken Bay, consisting of Brisbane Waters, Pittwater, Hawkesbury River and Tasman Sea/Pacific Ocean, with amusing commentary throughout by the captain.

After a brief pit stop at the Waights, we took a 3.6 km bush walk in the northern part Wyrrabalong Park (we had walked in the southern end earlier in my visit) along the Red Gum Trail, which included parts of Lilli Pilli and Burrawang tracks through the Burrawang Cycads—plants descended from the time of the dinosaurs, over 220 million years ago.

I was layered in thick sunscreen from the morning, “bush juice” to stop the bites, and finally sand we were walking over, so I showered as soon as I got home. I enjoyed my last dinner in Australia with the Waights and Goodwins, knowing we’ll have many more back in California. The Waights are generous, enthusiastic hosts who love showing guests why they return to Australia year after year.

Harry and Barbara got me to the same 11:00am train Rick had taken the week before, so I arrived at Sydney airport in plenty of time for my flight to Calif. at 4:00 p.m. The flight home was a relatively quick 13.5 hours. I landed in SFO about 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2011—before I left Terrigal. So I finally got back part of the day we skipped on our flights from Calif. to New Zealand. We had a great trip with great friends!!!