Bushwalking

Ready to go Bushwalking

Our first full day in Australia and we had to do something “Australian”. Since it is spring here and the temperature was expected to go up to 25°, our first choice was to go to the beach, and have lunch of Chicken-salt French Fries on the beach for lunch, but Steph, Regis’s niece came home and changed the plans, suggesting we go Bushwalking and then go to the beach.

Great Views

Here in Australia you do not go to the “woods”, you go to the “bush”, and you don’t hike, you “Go for a Bushwalk”. Now they do use the same term for the trails as in New Zealand, and we headed for the Wyrrabalong (Pronounce that “Where I Belong”) National Park Track. This is an interesting park, situated between a residential neighborhood and the steep ocean cliffs, so although a beautiful natural site, it is conveniently close to the city so people can use it easily. There was a nice parking lot at either end, and the track itself was well maintained and easy to walk on with sand underfoot and stairs on the climbs. As you “Walk” the track you come out onto beautiful look-offs with spectacular views all the way to Sydney from cliffs that are shared with para-gliders and hang-gliders launching out over the ocean. Fortunately no one was taking advantage of the updrafts and we had the cliff to ourselves.

Time for Chicken-salt French Fries

Hiking through the woods, or “Bushwalking” in Australia is so different than in Canada, because the vegetation you walk through is so completely different from what we are used to. No maple trees, no oak, and no pine or spruce. There were Banksia, Gum trees, and paperbark trees. It is really weird, It was like walking through a completely different landscape. Even in Asia or Europe there are trees I recognized, but here on a continent not connected to anything else, a completely alien world has developed. The trees are different, the flowers are foreign, everything is new. As I walked along I was constantly stopping to photograph plants and trees I had never seen before.

We still got to go to the beach only it was even nicer after a long bushwalk and those chicken-salt French fries were even tastier.

Termite Nest

Cruise Review

Sailing Out of Vancouver

When we first told people we were going on a 43 day cruise to New Zealand, many reacted with “Oh my, 43 days on a boat, how will you manage?”. I thought that now that we are back on land a quick review of the cruise might be interesting.

The Length

Tendering to Port

We did not find the cruise long. There is always something you can do and the many sea days crossing the Pacific were perfect times to relax and read. The ship always has things going on to keep you busy; culinary classes, gym sessions, dance classes, lectures or movies. The nice thing is that after 43 days, we were quite prepared to leave the cruise where on a short cruise you are always feeling sad that it is over. It was however sad to sit out on the balcony in Auckland and watch the ship sail away without me.

The Weather

What can I say, we left in the fall just as it was getting colder back home and traveled around to the other side of the world to spring and temperatures getting warmer. We left as

Visiting Another Port

things were dying off and arrived to see everything just coming into bloom. It was 15 – 20 when we left Dartmouth, and that is what it was here in New Zealand when we arrived. Now we did have to sail through a few days of hot sunny south pacific days, but I managed. It rained only once while we visited a port, and Regis missed one day of swimming in the oceanview pool due to rain, and had to use the indoor pool. It rained through Doubtful sound, but I thought it added to the beauty, and we only had one day of rain here in New Zealand so far.

A Beer With Friends

The Food

The food on the boat was always excellent. Although some meals were repeated the menu was usually varied enough to always give us lots of choices. They did not do so well on the seafood early on, but seemed to get much better as we went on. We generally ate in the dining room for dinner, but usually had breakfast in the Lido buffet. This was often our choice for lunch as well. There was often a special lunch put on in the pool area, and there was an excellent hamburger place that served good burgers, hot dogs and fries. We found that the open seating option allowed us to meet many different people and we made a number of friends who we ate with multiple times. . . now if I could just recall their names.

The Entertainment

This was a weakness for sure. I was looking forward to the B. B. King Blues club, but the

Sunset at Sea

band played mostly the same songs for 43 days. The first band had a female singer who could sing the blues, but only knew four songs. She sang four songs at 8:45, and repeated them at 9:45 and 10:45. The real surprise was when they brought a new band on in Hawaii, and I thought I’d get now songs, but all new people but played mostly the same stuff. Needless to say I stopped going after a few nights. The entertainment troop was not much better. They had four shows they performed and these were repeated on each leg of the cruise. They did bring on new entertainment along the way, but most of them were not that good.

Anchored in the Pacific

The Ports

Many of the stops we made along the way were regular cruise ports such as San Diego, Hawaii and Sydney, but some of the Pacific islands were only included because they were convenient stops for the re-position cruise across the Pacific. This often put us in container piers or lumber piers and we had to be shuttled to towns nearby, because we were not allowed to walk through the piers. Some of these ports did not really have much to offer cruise passengers. I also felt that some of the ports were presented by the staff slightly different from the reality we saw.

Sailing Away Without Me

So, all in all, 43 days on a cruise ship is just fine. We arrived in New Zealand happy, well fed, rested and with no jet lag. We are still happily talking to each other and have made some nice new friends. Now I notice that there is a 60 day cruise around South America . . . . . . . 

Wineing on Waiheke

A fast ferry ride.

Our apartment here in Auckland is right on Princes Wharf on the waterfront. It is named Shed 19 after the freight shed that used to occupy the site. Out on the balcony we overlook the main ferry terminal for the city and there is a constant swarm of catamaran ferries coming and going until late at night. They seem to head out in all directions, and you cannot help but wonder where they all go.

A view from the top of the island

On the recommendation of my cousin who lives here, we took a ferry to one of the popular destinations, Waiheke Island. This island, 40 minutes away by ferry is about 90 square Kilometers and has approx. 8000 inhabitants. It is nick-named “The island of wine” for the 17 vineyards scattered around the island. That seemed a good reason to choose this island over the many scattered throughout the area.

We booked a return ferry ride on a “Fuller Fastcat”, a guided bus tour when we arrived and then an all-day pass on the local bus system. The ferry ride over was a comfortable, fast trip out the harbour past many of the sites we had visited with my cousin days before. There was a bus waiting for us and our German tour guide had lived on the island for 10 years and gave excellent friendly advice and information so that by the time we got to the farthest end of the tour we had a good idea of what we wanted to do. We hopped off the bus at a stop conveniently close to a good sample of the island’s wineries, and chose one that brewed

Doesn't taste like $200.00

beer as well as making wine.

The “Wild on Waiheke” winery is an ambitious enterprise, having not only wine and beer but also a restaurant. They also have laser skeet shooting and archery. I’m not so sure about the combination of lots of wine and beer with bows and sharp arrows, but the rowdy crowd there when we arrived seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Seriously, helicopters to a wine tasting?

After lunch, we wandered up to the next winery, but the least expensive wine was $90.00 so we decided this was a bit out of our normal range so we walked on. In the next one “Te Motu” we met a friendly Croatian sommelier, who led us in tasting a good variety of wines from $30 to $195. It was an experience to taste the $195.00, 16 year old vintage, but I found I preferred the $39.00 bottle. The final winery in the area was next door behind a high hedge, but the two large helicopters parked out front gave us a pretty good idea that this one was also out of our league, and the $8.00 tasting fee confirmed our initial opinion. That was $8.00 for each taste; not an $8.00 glass.

Then taking the excellent local bus, we got off at a wrong stop, got slightly lost, found a wonderful “track” along the coast, walked to the next town, caught the right bus, and arrived back at the ferry to head home.

On "Track" to get unlost.

Tracking the Higher Ground

A Nice "Track"

In New Zealand they speak English, but you have to be careful, because it is not always the “English” that you are used to. I think that once they got so far away from the home of “English” they decided to tweak the language to their tastes.

There are many examples of words that have taken on slightly different meanings down under. The one that I noticed was the word “track”. Down here it means trail, as in hiking or walking trail. Regis and I have been making good use of the New Zealand tracks during our explorations.

We have always enjoyed walking and hiking, and when on the cruise ships, I have often looked out from the ship and seeing a high point on the land, think, “That would be a good spot to get some pictures.” As a result, we often find ourselves searching out trails leading up to these high points of land. Here in New Zealand these trails are often called “tracks”. We have found a few of them.

Instead of purchasing the high priced Ship Approved Excursions, we often just walk off and explore on our own, and often on these self-guided tours we find these New Zealand “tracks” calling for our attention. They have proven to be very worthwhile side trips.

Our first “track” was in Hawaii, where we hiked up to the top of Diamond Head, but I already

A Great View!

told you about that, and on Hilo, (Still Hawaii) we hiked to the Akaka Falls. On Pago Pago we tried to find the trail to a National Park, but never found it. On Dravuni Island in Fiji, we hiked to the highest point on the mountain for terrific views over the whole island. In Easo Lifou, New Caledonia we found a track up to a lovely little church on a cliff overlooking the island. In Noumea, New Caledonia, while walking around the town I discovered stairs leading to a track again up to a high point giving another excellent view of the town.

Once we reached New Zealand we discovered that what we were doing was following

Climbing in "Stile"

“Tracks”, and I already told you about the great tracking we did in Port Chalmers, where we found two tracks that kept us from visiting Dunedin. Then in Akoroa after a morning exploring the town we found a track leading up a hillside occupied by “Haggis on the hoof” where we found another Noordam couple enjoying the beautiful view over the town’s harbour.

Switchback to get to the top

By this time we were really getting into this “tracking” around, and in Picton, New Zealand we headed directly to a marked track that led up a mountain to look-offs and down to Bob’s Bay, named after a man who created this track by hand many years ago. This was probably the longest track we took and led to fantastic views out over the area. Wellington had wonderful views but we took a tour and the bus took us up the ‘Tracks”, and although we had a track all mapped out in Napier, we ended up in Jail (Just a tour; don’t fret!).

It was worth the climb

By the time we reached Auckland, we were ready for some easier tracking and I was only too happy to allow my cousin and her husband to drive us up the tracks to get the views over Auckland.

However, after all our tracking over the South Pacific Islands, I think we managed to counteract the wonderful meals on the cruise ship . . . . our clothes still fit.

Chickens, Statues & Flowers

Port Chalmers

After a while, you learn not to take everything you hear as gospel, so when we were told that there was nothing much to see in Port Chalmers and we should take the shuttle into Dunedin, we considered this, but decided to explore the town first.

One nice thing about coming into small ports on an 85,000 ton ship is that you get a pretty good view of the town from the ship. Although the surrounding hills were taller than the ship’s 12 floors, there were no buildings in town to rival our height. As we docked, I could see some sort of a tall monument off to one side and an obvious look-off on a high hill behind the pier where we were docked. These two attractions were our focus as we explored the town.

The Garden

A walk up towards the monument took us past a lovely stone church and I met a friendly black & white cat who required some attention, and a gentleman from Ohio living now in New Zealand who was out walking a borrowed dog – an interesting start to our exploration. Part way up the well-marked “Track” (New Zealand for trail I believe), we found the “Lady Thorn Rhododendron Garden” in an old rock quarry; a sort of mini Butchart garden. All the plants were in full bloom and there were lovely benches and walkways through the plants.

Continuing on the track we found the monument to Capt. Scot, and a marvelous selection of poultry wandering wild around the little park surrounding the monument. Although there were no houses close by, these birds were in excellent

What are you doing here?

health and appeared to be well fed, so I suspect they were not completely “wild”.

Although this area of the world has a climate similar to our own back in Nova Scotia, just with their seasons mixed-up, the trees and plants are completely different. It is spring here now, and everything is lush and in bloom. I was very impressed with the variety and abundance of plants growing along the roads and tracks. I discovered the reason, as our walk ended back down at the harbour where I found another simple monument to a Magnus Sinclair, a local resident who promoted the beautification of the area with plantings of local flowers and plants. The local residents had obviously adopted his vision, as buildings, residences, and even industrial sites had lovely gardens and plantings decorating them. Even the container pier where we were docked had a beautiful walkway through local vegetation part way around between the fence and water. We walked in a garden, with stacks of containers on one side and the ocean on the other.

An Odd Statue

Although this walk gave us a good dose of our daily exercise we enjoyed it so much that we set off after lunch in the other direction, following the water around, and back to the look-off over the ship, discovering a delightful sculpture garden hidden away along the track.

None of these lovely local attractions or unique features of Port Chalmers were mentioned in the “Location Guide Talks”, where the town was presented as the “Gateway to Dunedin”, and we never did actually get to Dunedin. I wonder what is there?

Oh No Its Raining!

Sailing Into Doubtful Sound

After we left Milford Sound, we were back in rough seas for a while before turning into Doubtful Sound. The gentle showers in Milford turned into a downpour in Doubtful. My initial reaction was concern that this would ruin the view as we went through this attraction, but in actual fact although it made the views different, it added and improved them as well.

With the rain pouring down, I couldn’t go out on deck, but my balcony provided shelter from the rain and wind and provided a spectacular viewpoint.

Black & White

The rain turned the normal green scenery into black and white, and anything any distance away faded into the rainy haze, and the mountain tops disappeared into the clouds. My photos showed gray-green in the foreground, dark blue next, and then various shades of gray as the more distant peeks and cliff faded into the rain.

When the rain slackened off, and the ship moved closer to the edges of the Sound, the rich green of the trees clinging impossibly to almost sheer cliffs came back into view only to fade away as the rain increased again. Looking up, the tops of the peeks clung to tendrils of low clouds and disappeared in the mist.

Rain Has Decreased

The rain, instead of ruining the view, added to it.

Breakfast in the Fiord

Entering Milford Sound

I woke up when I felt a change in the rhythm of the ship, and pulling open the balcony curtains revealed jagged cliffs and tree covered mountains instead of the usual waves and whitecaps. We had arrived in New Zealand and were entering Milford Sound in Fiordland National Park. There had been some question about whether we would be able to witness this New Zealand attraction because navigating the 85,000 ton Noordam into the narrow passage is only possible in calm winds and gentle seas. It hadn’t actually been cancelled, but after crashing through 5 meter swells for two days many passengers were expressing doubts about being able to get into the fiord. The captain had obviously decided he could make it, and was sliding the ship into the fiord early this morning.

After gently slipping between cliffs and mountains we got to the end of the fiord, and the ship stopped and swung 180 degrees around to head back out. Instead of immediately starting out of the fiord, an announcement came over the PA system that we would sit here for 30 minutes to enable a passenger requiring medical attention to be transferred to shore.

Tea on the Balcony

A good time to take a breakfast break and so I went up to the Lido to battle the crowds to bring back coffee, tea and the ships delicious Dutch raisin rolls with raspberry jam. As the navigation crew skillfully held the ship in place at the end of Milford Sound, we enjoyed a breakfast on the balcony wrapped in plaid blankets surrounded by mountain scenery.

Leaving the Fiord

After we finished breakfast, the ship began the passage back out to sea, and the wind and swells had picked back up, so where we crept into the sound slowly, the ship quickly accelerated to 14 kts and we left the fiord under power, enabling the captain to better control the ship against the winds and waves. In short order we were back at sea and the ship was again rocking and rolling in southern ocean swells.