last day

Our last day in New Zealand was great.. We managed to drop off the bags at the airport, and get a bus into the cith for the day.  We decieded to go to a under water aquarium.  It was so cool for Mom to see what I see when I dive or snorkel.  They had a sting ray the size of a table.  It just coasted right over the tube we were in.  You could see all the gills and everthing.

They also had Penguins,

Stone fish, Which are the most posionous fish to man.

And sea Horses.

We headed back to the airport and waited for our 8 pm flight back to Vancouver.  We had a long night and then changed plains in Van to come on home to Calgary.  We got home about 7 pm.  One hour before we left New Zealand..

Well I guess that is it for our little adventure.  I hope you had fun with us..

Donna and Heather

day ????

 Not sure what  day we are on...   It's our last day in NZ. We are heading into the city for the day and then catch the 8 pm flight out.

See you soon.

heather

Day 39

It started to rain in the night, It hasn't rained here in 4 months. We changhed that... I'm begining to feal like typhoid Annie. The rain just keeps up with us.

this is the ceremonial boat....

    We walked over to the next little town, It was were the Morari sighed the treaty with the English in 1840. The wind blew so hard that we nearly ended up in the ocean.

this is the house they signed the treaty in.

After the walk, Mom needed a nap. I did laundry and played on the computer. We went out to a restaurant across the street and had a great meal, Tommarrow we leave to go back to Auckland. One more night there and then off home.

day 38

Got up early to catch the bus up to the cape. For once we are not the only old people on the Bus.
We stoped for coffee along a small stream that had eels in it, really cool...then we stoped at a place that showed us how the Gumdiggers live and worked in the old Kauri forest. Gum is Amber after it is 45,000 years old.

a gumdiggers house

the lighthouse at Cape Reinga

from there we went all the way to the Cape Reinga light house, and saw where the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean meet. It was a beautiful walk along the ridge out to the lighthouse. From there we went to a nice little beach and had lunch, and watched the surf.

This is the meeting of the ocean and sea

After lunch we got back in our 4X4 bus and headed for the giant sand dunes, Most of the young people boogie boarded down the dunes. It was great fun watching them come fliing down the sand.

then we drove down this river bed out on to 90 mile beach, It's really only 64 miles. But it was beautiful, We were able to drive all the way down the beach. Then over to the Ancient Kauri kingdom. They have reclaimed Kauri wood that has been in the swamps in the area. They think the wood is about 40,000 years old.

these are Kauri stumps that have been pulled out of the swamps


Then we stoped for Fish and Chips on the way home. We walked down to the main street and got some food for tomarrow.
　

day 37

I went to the front desk about 9 to see about the bag. It wasn't there, so I called the toll free number they gave me. Well I talked to a person in India who had no idea about anything. He said it would be at lease 4 hours befor we could get it, or we could go to the international terminal and get it from customs.
We get to the ariport and no one is around at luggage claims and no one can be found. Again I call india and get another person who knows nothing. Then a lady at the information centre finds someone over at domestic that has her bag.
So we walked over to domestic and finally get the bag back (2 hours later). the lady we finally found, had talked to the man in India and told him to send us to her. Not all over the $%&* place in the airport.
by now it't noon and we have to get a bus downtown, To catch another bus to Paihia in the north. We booked a trip up the the cape. We finally got to our hostel in Paihia and settled in for the night

this is the customs house in Auckland

day 36

we did a little drive around the south beaches and then walked on the beach before going to the airport to fly to New Zealand.  See you from there...

day 35

the Rocks shops

Mom and her addiction to strange men

Queen Victoria Building

St Mary's Cathedral









we spent most of the day in town ((Sydney) we went down to the Opera House and then around under the bridge to a place called the Rocks.  It used to be a very scummy place but now it is all little trendy cafes and shops.  Then up to the Darling harbour and had some lunch.  It's a beautiful sunny, but not to hot day today.
We then came back through town to the Queen Victoria Building.  It was slated to be taken down, but the people of Sydney save the place and turned it into the shopping centre in the heart of the city. Then we stoped at St Mary's Cathedral, Just beautiful...
Then on home on the bus.  Mom needs a extra bag to take home all her new things, so we went to a local shopping centre and bought a new bag.

Day 34

Travel day today.  We leave Rocky and go back to Sydney.  We have about two days there and then Back to New Zealand for 5 days.

day 33

Mom is starting to think the water is not so bad after all..

Sun glorious sun.
It has arrived finally, It has been a week since we saw any trace of the sun.

We have one more day in Rockhampton. I think that I want to be on the beach. The water still looks like mud, but I don't care. I can't wait to just walk on sand.

We went out to the hills north and inland form here, we saw the most beautiful pottery place. We had a picnic lunch and was going to go for a swim but the river was to high,  It started to rain so we headed back to Yeppon and ran around on the beach with the kids.

Day 32

It's still raining..

 

This litle one is 18 months old 

Much the same today as yesterday. Rain rain rain, some places in the area have got up to 25 inches of rain in the last 36 hours. Flooding is very wide spread.
We went to a Croc farm. they have 3,500 crocs on the farm, and breed them for the skin and meat. out for dinner at the local dinner.
they keep forcasting sun for tomarrow, we will see.....

day 31

Well it arrived. It rained and blew something fierce last night. It has rained off and on all morning, mostly on.... we did a drive done the beach and stoped at the singing sails. It's a monument to Captain Cook. That man sure got around.
Airley Beach has taken most of the brunt of the storm. They managed to have no loss of life, but lots of big and famous boats didn't fair so well.
I just keeps raining and raining. We stoped for luch at a great little fish and Chip place that I used to go to all the time. Some things just don't change.....We are just trying to wait out the rain.

the wind just about blew us off the top

day 30

Can't believe we have been gone a month. Everything has gone so well.
The cyclone has been down graded to a 2 and is going to hit way up the coast tomarrow morning. They think that we will only get some rain and wind gusts. They are recommending that we stay away from the beach.
We went to the surf club for lunch and for supper, we went for a sea food buffet at a resort up the coast . We went with a group of Sean and Kelly's friends that I had met when I was down for their wedding six years ago.
We got back from the resort about midnight and the surf and wind is really kicking up. They still expect the cyclone to arrive at 1:30 about 5 hours drive north of here.

Day 29

We got up early and sat around and drank coffee. We finally made a move and went into Rocky and went to the Zoo/gardens.
Mom finally got to see some local wildlife. We saw kangaroo, Koala, emu, snake. lizzard, monkey, birds, crockadiles, It was a lovely relaxing day. We had lunch at the gardens with the birds. They sit on the table and wait for you to feed them. They do get a little aggressivesome times.
They local talk is all about the cyclone. Where will it land? How fast will the winds be? the Weather is the major topic of conversation the world over.
We had pizza for dinner and went off to bed early.

Day 28

This is the beach where the cyclone is suppose to hit on Sunday.

    We got up to rain, and the news just keeps getting worse. This cyclone is following us. It was suppose to hit Carins, so we left one day early. Now it going down the coast the same way we are.
the Cyclone is to reach land at Airlie beach on sunday. We are just hopeing that It can't find us and keeps going. We will be in Rockhampton which is some 6-7 hour drive away. They live on the beach so they will know what to do.
We finally made it to Rocky just before midnight. The wind is kicking up, but it's warm.

day 27

On the outer reef snorkeling

some on rthe coral that we saw

Our boat


Happy Saint Patricks day to you all. We booked a trip out to the reef for this morning. The Cyclone is still heading this way. So when we got to the terminal, we were told that the Seas are going to be very rough, 30 knot winds.
We decieded to still go out, I think Mom and I were the only people on the boat that were not throughing up the whole way. Poeple really do turn green, Maybe it was just St. Paddys day.
The Snorkeling was great, and Mom and I did the semi submersible boat ride. Sho got to see coral and fish from under the water, and didn't have to get wet. The ride back to Carins was not so bad, only a couple sick people.
We booked our bus down to Rockhampton for tomarrow morning, so another early morning.


I will not able to post for the next day so talk to you soon.

day 26

first time that I could just walk the beach and not have to race off.

some beautiful flowers on the esplanade.

This is a old Queensland style home, built up and stilts and beautiful gardens

We just had a down day today. slept in as much as we could, our sleep is so mixed up, from Melbourne to Alice is a 1 1/2 hour time change and the from Alice to Carins is a 1/2 hour change. It's sort of like Newfoundland.
We tryed to have breakfast at the hostel by it sucked, So we headed into town and had brunch at The casino/hotel, it was a bit expensive but the coffee was worth it. We got groceries, and headed back to the hostel,
We did laundry and walked down to the beach. We got dressed up and headed back into town to meet Gloria and Gerry. On the way to there hotel, Mom found a opal ring she liked so be bought opals. Then went out and had a fabulous dinner with Gloria and Gerry.

day 25

can anyone find the lizzard?

Standley Chasm

Today we got up to no rain @#$%. We have to be back in Alice to fly out or we would have stayed around to see the sunset. Any way, It's not raining.

Last night we decieded to head back to Alice early to do the things around town. The minute we leave the Ayers Rock park the sun comes out. Maybe it was a good thing that it was cloudy yesterday. We would never have done most of the things we did. It is really hot without the cloud cover.
In Alice it was 32 c at noon. We headed to the mall to get lunch and the out to Standley Chasm. As we were having lunch we started talking to a couple from Melbourne and they recomended to go to Simpsons Gap instead. It was really beautiful. We were the only people there.
Got back to the airport and on to the flight with no problems.
Once in Carins they forgot us at the airport,  We waited for a hour for the free shutle,  Some times free is not worth it.
 Now there is a Cyclone comming our way!!!!!!

The name of the game today is flies, flies, and more flies.......they just love Mom.
We got up and had some breakfast in our room. Then we hit the road.
We are staying at a resort just outside the park gates. Last night we missed the sunset on the rock (which is a real big deal) because of the rain. We thought no big deal, were in the desert, how much can it rain?
Well how many times can you get struck by lightning? We did make most of the day without the wet stuff. We had a great hike at the Olgas, and most of the hikes around Ayers Rock, It started to rain on the way back to the resort. By 3 pm the rain was running down the street.
Not much to do around here in the rain. We wandered around the Mall, that took 5 minute. We went for a beer in the local bar. then cooked supper, and off to bed.

day 23

day 23
Another early morning, Grant dropped us off at the ariport, at the crack of dawn. Our plane was on time and every thing was great until I got to the car rental place. They wanted to charge me $200 more that what we had agreeded on.
I had to forward the agreement from my email. To get to my email I had to go back through security, get some change, find the internet place, wait for a free computor, find the old email, forward it, go back out through security and then He still gave me a hard time. Never rent from europecar.....
by the time we got in the car it was 30 C. We got some groceries and headed out of town. The farther from Alice Springs we got the cooler and wetter it got. By the time we got here it was flooding and 15 C.
We went out for dinner to a Buffet that has Kangaroo. Emu. lobster, smoked salmon, oysters, Baramundi, and a whole lot more. It was really good....
We go to the hottest and dryest places in Australia and it rain most of the day and all night. Some days we just can't win.

Day 22

this is a monument to the servicenem from the WWI that built the road.

this is part of the 12 apostles (really only 9 left) just beautiful

There useds to be a bridge between the two in the middle with the one on the right

this morning was another very early day. Grant dropped us off at the office at 7 am. The bus left around 8 for the great ocean road.It was a great day the weather was warm but not to hot and there was a nice cool breeze off the ocean. We almost got left behind, because I thought we had 15 more minutes.  After that Mom wouldn't get off the bus in fear that He would leave without us.

day 21

   We went into Melbourne in the morning with Grant. We found this little side street that was full of coffee houses and restaraunts. After a great breakfast we headed over to the booking agent and booked a trip out to the great ocean road, to see the 12 asposels.

   After a day of tramping around the city we met Grant at his work and then headed out to his summer place at San Remo, which is across the bridge from the Phillip Island. He then had fish and chips at the local place and then on out to see the little pequins. It was so cool to see them come out of the surf and waddel up the beach to their burrows.

this is captain Cook

this is the Block shopping arcade,  Very old and expensive.

day 20

   We got up early and Jenny droped us off at the airport. Sydney airport is very busy early in the morning. The weather today is sad that we are leaving, It's cool and wet today here is Sydney. Will find out what the weather is like when we get to Melbourne.  Well the weather is not much better than I expected.  Still no snow, but they did have hail the size of tennis balls. 
  Our plane was over a hour late, due to some weather and techical problems
  We stop at this little tea shop and had lunch.  It was call the Miss Marples tea house.  Very English.  We did a little drive through the Blue Dandenongs, at the top we had marvolus veiws of the city and yarra valley.

Mom would like to say Happy Birthday to her Brooking friend.

day 19

We went shopping this morning and then headed out to see some really old towns and churches around the area that Margaret lives

this church was built in 1803 and is still in use today.

We are off to Melbourne tomarrow.  Can't wait to see it again.  The weather there has been bad, so I'm hoping for the best.....