Thursday, 11/11/93, 8:40pm

We’re sitting here in Ohakune doing laundry in an estate (just wait, I’ll get to it soon) and thought I’d catch up.

Wednesday : We got up around 8am to a very nice breakfast prepared for us. We ate and talked even more. Then we headed back towards Rotorua to the Maori Arts and Crafts Institute for a show and some Maori background, along with geysers, mud-pools, and other smelly vents. The Maori name for this place started with Te Whakarewarewa and went for at least 20 more characters. I had to take a picture of the sign just so I’d have it. The cultural show was great. The performers were very talented, and very entertaining. I never really thought about it, but the Maori sure are very polynesian in culture. The show reminded me alot of the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii.

After the Institute, we drove over to the SkyLine (a gondola above Lake Taupo) to see how much it costs. It was a little to pricy just for the ride, but at the top they have three separate luge runs, two concrete and one stainless steel. I should have gone, but what the heck. Maybe I’ll lie, and say it was raining, or something like that. So… We drove up another road behind and above the skyline for pictures. Too bad it was heavily overcast. The pictures would have been beautiful.

We headed back into Rotorua for a quick lunch at McDonalds, and then back to the Pilmer’s, picking up our one-day fishing license on the way. When we got back, we picked up Tony and his boat (actually we went with Tony) and headed out onto the lake for trout fishing. The fishing wasn’t too good, but it was fun sitting in the boat, swilling a beer, and watching the rain fall all around. It wasn’t a real problem, since the boat had a canopy, but it sure made fishing hard. In fact, I caught the only three things we caught all day: fresh water mussels, all at the same time. Somehow there were two on the hooks, and one about 2 meters up the line, just holding on. Weird…

We managed to stay fairly dry, though, and when we got back to the house, we a all sat around the house trying Tony’s stout and the German lager, two more of his home brews, both very tasty. I guess I’ll have to look into brewing when I get home. We sat down to a nice steak and potatoes dinner, with broad beans (very good, but I hadn’t ever heard of them) and followed up with a very good strawberry cake-like think called Pavlova. It’s basically just egg whites and sugar. It was very good and very light. We stayed at the table talking until about 11:15pm, when we finally wrapped it up.

Thursday : Up to breakfast by 9am today, in preparation for our departure from the Pilmers. We headed south to Waiotapu. This place was really unusual. It cost us $8.00NZ, and the walking track took us almost two hours to complete. There were mudpools, huge bubbling craters of various colors, a large, shallow “pond” with different colors in it, nice silicate encrusted terraces and waterfall, a pinkish pool called Champagne Pool, and more. There was even one steaming crater about ten meters across, where myna birds and starlings nest in holes in the wall. Biologists are still not sure “whether the heat incubates the eggs”.

We then headed south, stopping at a place called Huka Falls. This is a narrow gorge, about ten meters across, where the Waikato river comes through. Apparently the eight hydro stations on this one river generate 33% of New Zealands electrical needs. Of course, this is just what they say. Everybody in New Zealand tends to exaggerate greatly. The falls are about four meters high at the end of the gorge with clear, turquoise water thundering down. It was quite a sight.

Continuing south, we went by the shores of Lake Taupo. It’s the largest lake on the north island, besides that small one to the east they call the “Pacific”, and it’s about the size of Lake Tahoe. It was too overcast to get a really good picture, so we kept on going into town. We stopped an yet another McDonalds for lunch. This one had a real DC-3 mounted on stilts right next to it, with stairs going up into the cargo section. The cargo section was filled with dining tables. The cockpit was behind a plexiglass wall, still in its original condition. What a trip.

Back on the road south, we passed to the west side of three active volcanoes, Mt. Tongario, Mt. Ngauruhoe, and Mt. Ruapehu. I’m not sure about Tongario, but Ngauruhoe erupted as late as 1975, and Ruapehu erupted in 1971. To show you just how thrill-seeking these Kiwis are, there’s even a ski area on the west side of Mt. Ruapehu. We actually drove up there to check. It’s really there! Crazy people!

The weather started getting nastier as we continued southward to our next farmstay in Ohakune. We stopped in town for Chinese food, and drove out to our next mansion. The “apartment” is about 1800 square feet, sleeps eight, has a full kitchen, and full laundry facilities, which we needed badly. Underneath us is a five car garage. Both the garage and our apartment are attached to a house at least three times the size of this place. The whole place sits on an immaculately manicured eleven acre garden, with a stream, waterfall, and backs up to a golf course. To top this all off, snow-covered Mt. Ruapehu is completely visible out the front windows. Unbelievable.

That’s three for three on the homestays.

Laundry should be about done by now, so I’ll wrap it up and call it a night.

A weird Wednesday night dream: I was a new English teacher at Pollock Pines elementary school (the old school). I was supposed to work in the room I attended first grade in (across the hall from the room in the south west corner). I didn’t know what to do, except that I was supposed to start at 8:30am. I got there at 8:30, but there were no students. Around 9:15, the teacher for the next class walked in and told me there wasn’t an 8:30 English class. I walked down to the Teachers Lounge (Dad’s old office-in-a-closet) and it was full of new, young teachers with the same problem. Then I woke up. Talk about strange…

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Wednesday, 11/10/93, 8pm

Back to Tuesday:: Up again for another fantastic breakfast, this time it was cereal, fruit salad, poached eggs, coffee, homemade bread and more. After saying our good-byes, we took a brief detour to the southeast to see Oakura Bay. This was one of the most picturesque places so far. It reminded me of some of the northern California/Oregon coastline, but in a slightly warmer climate.

We continued south back past Auckland, in the land of pronounceable places, through Hamilton, Cambridge and finally to a “crater lake” called Rotorua. During the long drive, we both got a good laugh out of remembering lines and scenes Monte Python’s Holy Grail movie. Bill has never seen Life of Brian, so I told him that I’d put it in here so he’d remember to rent it. We came into the town of Rotorua itself, parked the car at the local AA (Automobile Association, not Alcoholics Anonymous), and started walking around town. We wandered over to the Queens Park, where there were stinking sulphur pools, immaculate lawn bowling greens, and unbelievable gardens. A quick side note about lawn bowling: I never knew that the lawn bowling balls aren’t spherical. They are kind of oblong, and you bowl with the ball “arching” towards the target. There were steam vents all over the park, and a huge public “bath house” which was very ornate. The whole thing presented a very pretty postcard view, as long as you could forget what it all smelled like.

We worked our way out to Lake Tarawera, and the Pilmer’s house (Tony and Heather). This was our next homestay location. The Pilmer’s were fantastic people. They had just got back from a three month trip to Nepal and we loved talking about that trip. We had a downstairs, fully furnished, two-bedroom apartment for $20NZ/night! Boy, are these Bed’n’Breakfasts ever nice! We sampled Tony’s “light beer” which was very nice, and headed off to an early bed time. They had a very nice house overlooking Lake Tarawera and the recently ex-volcano Mt. Tarawara. It blew it’s top in 1886, and changed all kinds of lakes and nearby mountains in the process. There are even before & after paintings and pictures. The re-landscaping was AWESOME! I’m just glad it stayed dormant while we were there.

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Monday, 11/8/93, 9pm

Well, back to Sunday first : We got up and filled our tanks with leaded coffee in preparation for the drive north. We packed everything in our rental car and took off up Highway 1. It actually started with four lanes wide, but once we left Auckland, it turned into a two lane, rural road, complete with patchwork and one-way bridges. The country was rolling green on green pastureland. It was very “pastural” (get it?). It was really beautiful, and I even have pictures to prove it.

We worked our way north through towns that all sounded a little strange. They started normal enough: Albany, Dairy Flat, Silverdale; but then things got weird. A sign for Whangaparaoa, towns like Orewa, Waiwera, Kaiwaka, Waipu and Whangarei. We stopped at the last one for lunch at a foodcourt in a small shopping mall. While searching four an ice-chest for food and drinks in the car, I found that they don’t exist in New Zealand. Nobody even knew what I was talking about. Once I found they are called “Chilly bins”, everything got better, though.

Back on the road north through Hikurangi, Whakopara, Waiomio, Kawakawa and finally to Paihia. It’s very interesting going past a road sign at 80 to 100Km/h, trying to pick out a familiar town when they all sound (and look) the same. We stopped in Paihia for directions at a nice house overlooking the town and the bay. The couple even invited us (though we were total strangers) into their house for a drink of water, and just to talk. We were pretty surprised at this hospitality.

We drove around Paihia for awhile, and then took the ferry about 300 yards across the Bay to Russel, where we bought a hamburger for dinner. It wasn’t the best dinner, but it was the only place open on a Sunday evening. We started driving east towards our homestay. The roads turned to gravel pretty quick, and stayed that way for the 18Km we had to go. It was a BEAUTIFUL drive down the edge of the bay to an even more unbelievable location.

The house we’re staying in sits about 50 meters up a steep hill overlooking Waipiro Bay, which is a part of the Bay of Islands. It’s a beautiful house. Imagine a three story, octagonal house, with a large, square addition on the back (hill-side). We actually stayed in the octagonal section with our formal living room downstairs, and the bedrooms upstairs, all overlooking the bay. It’s all done in natural wood with exposed beams. It’s really something else. We stayed up to talk to Thomas and Beatte (our hosts) until about 11pm, when we hit the hay.

MONDAY: We got up at about 8am, got cleaned up, and went downstairs for a hearty breakfast of poached eggs, fresh baked breads, fruit salad, cereal, coffee, tangerine juice and more. This sure beats any of the hotel meals we’ve had so far, and at only $35NZ/night including the room. What a great way to travel.

Our fishing opportunity fell through due to inclimate weather, so we decided to head north towards the top of the island. We headed up Highway 1 again through more places you can’t read on road signs at 80Km/h +: Moerewa, Te Ahuahu, Rangiahua, across the Mangamuka Bridge, up through the Maungataniwha Range. We kept heading north: Kaitaia, Awanui, Waipapakauri, and we were finally on the Aupori Peninsula. This is the long, skinny, mostly uninhabited (except by cattle and sheep) northern tip of New Zealand.
After a very long time, we finally got to “The most photographed lighthouse in New Zealand” or “the World” (I can’t remember which) at Cape Reinga. It was a beautiful as it was bleak and desolate. Aquamarine Tasman Sea meets deep Turquoise Pacific for a battle of wills. It was quite a sight.

After leaving Cape Reinga, we started back south, wanting to actually go out and drive on 90-mile Beach (it’s actually only 66 miles, but measurements weren’t as accurate when they named it). We ended up following a tour bus track down the middle of a small, sandy stream, working our way out to the Tasman Sea and the 90-mile Beach. We were a little reluctant at first to drive our car down the middle of a stream, but hey, we’re tourists, and it is a rental car! The locals told us that it was OK to drive down the stream, as long as we didn’t ever stop near the water. Remember standing at the beach, on the wet sand. You tend to sink. Cars do the same thing, so you just can’t stop once you get started.

Unfortunately it was high tide when we got to the beach, and it would have been impossible to continue, so we drove back up the stream, and started the four hour journey back to the homestay.

We veered off to the east on Highway 10, towards what Beatta says is the best fish’n’chips place in the northland. It’s a little restaurant right on the bay on the north side of Mangonui called simply “Seafood Restaurant”. Although I can’t say from experience it is the best, it definitely set our sights high for future places.

As we were finishing dinner at the picnic tables on the deck, a squall blew in rather quickly, and we had to jump back in the car and head for home. It rained for the entire trip back home, and once we got there, started clearing again. Weird, fast weather…

Now Bill and I are sitting in our “living room” listening to a nice classical music tape with Audre Lardiot playing oboe tunes written by Vivaldi, Fischer, LeClair, Albinoni, and Hummel. We’re frantically updating our journals before we get too much more behind. I supposed we should also start trying to arrange our lodging for tomorrow night, so I’ll sign off now that I’m caught up, and see what I can work out.

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Saturday, 11/6/93, 8:50pm

Well, now I’ve got two days worth of journal to write. My memory is slipping away, so I thought I had better catch up.

Friday: After a fitful night’s sleep, we headed for town around 11:00am. We stopped at the Upstairs Downtown Food Court (a mall) for a bite. My lunch was a huge plate of Chinese stuff and a coke, for only $7.00NZ (at $0.58NZ=$1.00US). Not bad prices.

We converted some cash to get ready for the rest of the trip, bought a couple souvenirs, and then headed for Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater Aquarium via public bus (we’re getting pretty good at public transportation). This place is pretty neat. This guy converted two huge concrete bunkers on the ocean into giant aquariums, and put a plexiglass tube through both. It was pretty cool to be walking under all the fish, rays, sharks, and lobsters, but I’ve seen better aquariums.

We headed back downtown, and eventually tried to catch the hotel shuttle back home. Only it filled up. So the hotel rented us a mini-van taxi, who came straight from hell. We were very happy (and lucky) to get out of that vehicle with all our limbs intact. The driver about ran some lady into a bridge, and swore at her the whole time she was trying to get back on the road.

As we were coming home, I noticed fireworks stands everywhere. A white-knuckled lady told us (while we were still in the cab) that it was Guy Fawkes day. I don’t know who Guy Fawkes is, but apparently it’s a big deal, because in England, New Zealand and Australia they burn him in effigy every year, as well as fireworks parties all over. I still think it’s just their excuse to have a “4th of July” type celebration.

We got home and started watching ESPN while we updated our journals. We caught a weird kind of soccer/football/rugby game that looked like the only rule was “hurt whoever has the ball”. From there it got even weirder. We saw a “hack and kill” hockey style game that was completely Irish, something called Hurling. It was pretty ugly, bloody and violent, but hey, it originated in Ireland. According to the commentators, broken collarbones, arms, and legs are commonplace. We called it a night, and I finally got a good nights sleep.
Saturday: We got up this morning, and went down to pick up our rental car. We got a Nissan Sentra that doesn’t look anything like the Sentra’s in the US. It’s a pretty nice car, with plenty of room for us to make a mess of.

We drove across the harbor bridge, and went up to North Head, which is a point in the harbor that is infested with old tunnels and gun batteries. It was fascinating trying to imagine what life must have been like during World War II down here. We stopped for lunch at a little sidewalk fish’n’chips place, and had a HUGE plate of very tasty, cholesterol-forming, artery blocking food.

We headed back to the hotel and picked up all our maps, so we’d know where we were going. We then jumped back in the car and headed northwest towards the Tasman Sea. We drove through Swanson, Waiatarua, and then headed for a “scenic drive”. The scenic drive was cut through dense rainforest at the top of fairly good sized hills, and continued almost all the way to the west coast. We dropped out of the forest into a little (maybe 200 people) town called Piha. It was quite beautiful, somewhat reminiscent of the Pacific north of San Francisco, except it had black sand beaches.

We took a slightly different route back to the hotel, and now we’re getting ready to head up to Cape Reninga, which is the northern tip of the island. We’re going to avoid the hotels, and try to stay in farm/homestay locations (Bed’n’Breakfast type places).

We found what should be a great place to stay on Sunday and Monday night. I’ll fill in all the details later. I went down to the local McDonalds drive-thru for dinner tonight…

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Friday, 11/5/93, 10:30am

We obviously landed OK, and I’m now sitting in the Kingsgate Logan Park Hotel, getting ready to head back into Auckland. The hotel sits halfway between the airport and downtown Auckland, about 35Km apart, with Auckland to the north.

After we checked in yesterday, we caught a public bus down (actually “up”) to the city. We walked up Queen Street to find a dinner spot. We ended up at a little pub/tavern that was actually quite good. We caught the bus back to the hotel, where I barely slept all night.

We’ll be going back to town again this afternoon, so I’ll let you know more then.

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Thursday, 11/4/93, 10:30am

To finish up yesterday (or actually to start from the beginning) we got up a little early to be able to catch a public bus to the Circular Quay for the river cruise. It was a beautiful day with no clouds. It was even warm outside. We rode around the west end of the harbour this time (inland), working our way up the Parameter [sic?] (“Pair-a-meter”) river. They seemed to believe that they could tell where the river ended and Sydney Harbour began, but it all looked the same to me. The one thing that really sticks in my mind about both the harbour tours is the cost/investment in real estate. There were hundreds of waterfront homes (maybe even thousands), each from $1 million to $25 Million. Serious money, if you ask me. I got a little sunburned (imagine that) sitting out on the open water for 2 1/2 hours, but it was well worth it.

Seeing all the development around the harbour, it’s hard to believe that nobody but the aborigines were here until the 1800’s. After the cruise, we walked back towards the hotel with the intent to do laundry. As we were walking back, we went through the shopping district again, and finally found a small, pocket-sized tripod for my camera. I’ve only been looking for this thing for a couple years, but I never imagined that I’d have to travel to the other side of the world to find one.

We got back to the hotel and headed off to a laundromat. I won’t bore you with the details other than to say it was EXPENSIVE. It cost us $4AD per load!

We dropped off the clothes at the hotel, and headed back into town. We walked northeast through King’s Cross, up towards Darling Harbour, and eventually worked our way back to the Circular Quay for the “Harbour Lights” cruise.

As we walked through the Royal Botanical Gardens (again), we heard light music wafting from the Government House (Castle is more appropriate). So we went up to the guard shack to see what was going on. Apparently the Governor was throwing a “small party”. The Government House sits on a hill right behind the Opera House, and has one of the nicest views in the whole city.

The Harbour Lights cruise left at 8pm, just after sunset. We covered much of the same ground as the previous two cruises, except we stayed a little closer to the Quay. It was a beautiful night with a crystal clear view of the city lights. It really is magnificent, although I actually got cold for the first time on this trip, and had to go inside the ferry.

After the cruise, we hired a taxi to take us over to Mrs. Macqueries Point to try out my new tripod and get some pictures of the lights. I realized at the time that I’ve never tried night shots with this camera, so I’m not really sure how they will turn out.

We headed back home to the hotel where our sliding glass door was left open yet another time (did I mention this yet?). I took great satisfaction telling the manager exactly what I thought of their security for a second time. We still had our stuff in the safe deposit box, so nothing serious could have been taken, but you think they’d have learned.

The rest of the evening went rather quietly, packing for the next leg of our trip, with a truly American movie playing in the background: Clint Eastwood in Sudden Impact.

Now for today: We got up at 6:45am to catch our bus to the airport. Things were pretty uneventful until we got on the bus and had to pay the driver $10.00AD. He wasn’t sure what to think of the bill I handed him since it was a brand new bill. I don’t mean uncirculated, I mean “brand new design”, released officially on November 1, 1993. I thought for a second he’d refuse it, but then he got all excited about having a new type of currency, and wouldn’t even give it out for change to somebody else.

We took our bus (with no shocks) to the airport, checked in, and now we’re sitting in a plane about 30 minutes outside Auckland. This is the part of the trip I’ve been looking forward to.

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Tuesday, 11/2/93, 6:30pm

Another day wandering around downtown. We got on the Explorer again in a light rainstorm (drizzle). We got off again in Chinatown just to walk through it for the first time. It was a block long and kind of boring. From there, we caught the next bus around to the Circular Quay to take a guided ferry tour of Sydney Harbour. We ate lunch (a sausage roll of some kind) watching a juggler who couldn’t juggle, and a lady going through the trash to feed seagulls.

The tour was really fun. I never knew the harbour was so large. Some of the houses were amazing. According to our guide, prices of houses within about 1/2 mile from the South Harbour beaches run from three to twenty million dollars! The north bay gets a little more reasonable, with prices from on to five million dollars!

The tour provided a neat view of Sydney history. For instance, the USS Chicago was tied up in the harbour along with some other ships during World War II. Three Japanese mini-subs came in to sink her. One got caught in a net, and the other two actually fired torpedoes, but they glanced off the bow of the Chicago and sunk a ferry. There were many other examples and historical places throughout the area.

During the tour, the wind picked up considerably, and when we finally came back in, it was starting to get really ugly. We caught the Explorer over to the center of the Kings Cross area. It was an interesting experience, but again I’m not sure it would be a good idea to get stuck there alone after dark, although I’m sure it would definitely be interesting. We didn’t spend alot of time down there before we jumped back on the bus for the hotel. We got off the bus near home and walked to Mickey Dee’s for dinner.

At this point, the rain started coming down a little harder, with lightning in the distance. By the time we got back, it was starting to really storm, and the lightning started looking like cameras at the Superbowl. It even got worse than that for awhile, when I started writing my journal, but now it’s starting to clear up again (like sunshine…) The weather definitely moves “fast” down here.

One other note: I really need to figure out who Mrs. Macquerie is. Remember the Road, Point and Chair that have her name? Well, she also has a light (no, not a lamp or light bulb!). It sits on the Tasman sea, about 2Km south of the entrance to the harbour. Now I’m no expert on building houses, but it simply doesn’t make sense to me to put a light over 5Km from your chair! And it’s not even on the road to the chair, so you have to make a special trip to… Never mind. One last weird note : I never knew that you have to store some types of Opals with an open vial of water, or they disintegrate. Mother Nature being weird again…

I forgot to mention that we came home last evening and found the sliding glass door to our hotel room wide open, and an empty mini-bar bottle of vodka on the counter. Needless to say, we were very concerned.

We went through everything we had in the room, and thankfully nothing was missing. I wrote a nasty little note to the hotel management expressing our concern. We’ll see what the response is.

The storm has blown away now, and tomorrow should be a good day for the river and evening lights tour.

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Monday, 11/1/93, 9:30pm

Another huge breakfast started the day, then off to see the sights on a beautiful day. We bought a Sydney Pass for $50AD each. This pass gives us three days of unlimited use of three different bus systems, all ferries throughout the harbor, and three guided boat tours of the area. Since we’d end up spending at least that much for travel, it was a great deal.
Our first stop on the Sydney Explorer was the outer fringe of Chinatown where there was another outdoor market. We browsed through it for awhile, and worked our way past the monorail. Yes, there’s a monorail just like at Disneyland that runs a loop from the shopping district southwest of the Opera House to/thru Darling Harbour further to the west. From here, we went into the Powerhouse Museum.

Can you tell from the name that it’s an old Powerhouse? It was really kind of fun. They had literally hundreds of tactile exhibits. It reminded me of the Exploratorium in San Francisco, but much more organized and spread out. They had lots of fun things to play with in there.

We jumped back on the Sydney Explorer and went across the Harbour Bridge to Northern Sydney. It was a great place to get pictures of the Opera House. A couple interesting facts about the bridge: The two huge stone pylons are NOT used for structural support, they are merely decoration. All 65,000 tons of steel are resting solidly (I hope) on four HUGE pegs which mount the four ends of the bottom arches to solid cement buttresses. Granted, they are big, thick pins, but there are still only four of them. The top arches don’t even connect to the pillars. They stop about 10 meters short of the pillars. It’s kind of an eerie feeling once you’re aware of it.

We caught the Explorer back to the Circular Quay (pronounced “Key”) and caught a jet-catamaran ferry. It’s a big boat, seating maybe 500 passengers. We took the ferry to Manly Beach (Manly yes, but I like it too!). This is a quaint little suburb to the northeast of Sydney, right on the Tasman Sea. This was our first real contact with open ocean, since Cairns is protected by Parker Press : Page 17 the reef, and Sydney is actually about 10-20Km inland. It was still kind of “cheap” with little $2.00 stores selling junk everywhere, but a little more “rural” than Sydney. We spent some time walking around, and then caught a jet-cat back to downtown.

It’s been nice not having any real plans, but I’m already looking forward to New Zealand.

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Sunday, 10/31/93, 9:00am

Where do I start? How about yesterday? Did I mention that the flight was on a 747? With lots and lots of people? Our first indication that Sydney would be considerably different from Cairns was its size. Landing was spectacular. You could see (on the left) the coastline, and then the entire city, the Opera House, the Royal Botanical Garden, the Harbour Bridge and much, much more. It was slightly overcast, but not enough to cause worry.

We caught our bus to the Cambridge hotel. This is where we noticed the second major difference between Cairns and Sydney. In Cairns, temperatures ranged from 38°C in mid-day down to 24°C at night. Here we were at 10am, and it was barely 22° outside, even with the sun shining. I forgot how easy it was to get used to tropical weather, and for the first time on this trip, I’ll have to wear long pants.

We were able to check in early, and took a two hour nap (remember we were up at 4am). Then off exploring. Our hotel is about 1 1/2 miles behind (south) the Opera House, right in the middle of Southern Sydney. We walked up and saw the ANZAC memorial, and then went up in the Sydney Tower for a look around the city. The tower is like the Space Needle in Seattle, or the Sky Tower in San Antonio. It’s 1000 feet tall, and must have been designed by an American. Why? Because an Aussie would have made it 300 meters tall, not 1000 feet tall. You could see for miles, and we got a good feel for the layout of the city. The tower is reported to be the tallest building in the southern hemisphere.

We then walked up towards the harbor, and noticed a third difference. There were people everywhere! Thousands of them, all roaming around, trying to spend money. We found the “El Shoppo Cheapo” district where they sell all kinds of garbage for only $2.00. Then on to a slightly higher quality store where shirts and stuff run $20.00, and then finally to a half mile of $200+ shops. All fairly close to each other. It wasn’t my idea of a good time.
Eventually we came out at a place called Circular Quay, just behind and to the left of the Opera House. I didn’t think we’d make it that far, but voila! Since it was in a cloud shadow at the time we decided not to take too many pictures yet, but to wait until Monday when we’ll be on the tour busses. We went up George Street, and ran into a little trinket market set up in the middle of the road. It kind of reminded me of the Sunday shop on Cabrillo Boulevard in Santa Barbara. Lots of local artists presenting some of their good work.

We walked around some more, stopped at a pub and had a “schooner of Retsch [sic?]” and started walking home, looking for a place to get dinner. We didn’t really want a restaurant, but more like a “pub” or “diner” type meal. The people in the hotel recommended the Court House about eight blocks away. It was an interesting walk into the fringes of the King’s Cross area, which we found out later from a tour book “is no longer a center of top hotels and restaurants. Instead there are one sleazy bar and eating spot after another, a parade of pimps, homosexuals and prostitutes.” We did notice this change as we were walking, but I think our next visit will be during daylight hours.

We’re both sitting here in the hotel, updating journals, and looking forward to a quiet day. We’ll buy a public transportation pass good for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, so there will be much more to say then.

Sunday, 10/31/93, 8:30pm

We had a productive day, just taking it easy and walking around. We got started with our free buffet breakfast. Very high in cholesterol, but hey, we’re on vacation. Then we walked north up to a park called “The Domain” where the public preachers are supposed to hang out and preach. It turned out that there was a touch-rugby tournament. We watched for the better part of an hour, and still don’t understand the rules.

We then headed further into the park, working our way towards the harbour area. We found a series of tents (big party-type tents, not camping) and we were standing around wondering what was going on when somebody started counting “5”, “4”, . . . Bill and I walked around the back of the tents, where a small crowd had gathered behind a large truck. “3”. . . “2” I grabbed my camera: “1” . . . “NOW”. A big clang, and probably 500 homing pigeons came zooming out of the truck. I managed to get a picture, but I’m not sure what it’s of. In talking with a man there, we found out that the pigeons are affected by cellular phones, so they don’t allow them around the launching area. Talk about obscure facts.

From there, we walked further north through the Royal Botanical Gardens. They were beautiful. We walked up Mrs. Macquaries Road to Mrs. Macquaries Point, to see what Mrs. Macquaries chair was. Yes, there was something called Mrs. Macquaries chair. It’s a bench that is eroded from and embedded in the limestone bluff looking northeast over Sydney Harbour. I don’t know who she was, but if that was the view from her house, she was one lucky lady.

Whilst we were walking back through the garden on the way to the Opera House, we came across an interesting tree. If any part of it breaks off, it can re-sprout from it, but it CAN NOT grow vertically, only horizontally. So if the tree falls for some reason, the ground around it turns to spaghetti with all the little sprouts growing horizontally. Only the seeds are able to grow vertically. We’ve seen some really unique examples of weirdness and diversity from old Mother Nature down here.

We continued around the Botanical Gardens to the Opera House. It’s a lot bigger than it looks. We walked in and got an actual look at the inside of the Concert Hall. There are three main rooms in the Opera House: the Concert Hall, the Opera Hall, and the recording studio. The Concert hall was very large and gorgeous. A “small symphony” (full size symphony, but small size kids) was getting ready for a performance. Since we were slightly under dressed in our jeans and T-shirts for a formal concert, we left the Concert Hall and continued walking around and through any door that was open. It was a really neat place.

Down by the gift store, we took a look at the original plans. Imagine a small kid with a spirograph and a compass. Let the kid draw about 50 interconnected circles and ovals, all connected. Shade in about four of the two or three hundred intersecting shapes, and you’ve got the silhouette for the roof. Imagine the same exercise in 3-D, and you’ve got the actual shapes. Glue them together with cement and little 6” by 6” tiles, and you’ve got yourself an Opera House, as well as an architectural migraine. From the Opera House, we walked back through the shopping district, and pigged out at a Chinese buffet.

We’re sitting here in the hotel now, watching a “World Cup prep” game between Argentina and Australia, happening about 1/2 mile from here. It was really quite exciting, since countries in the Southern Hemisphere are very into their “Football” games. The game ended in a tie at 1 to 1, but the Aussies could have won. They made some really bad shots on goal.

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Categories: Aust/NZ
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