Sorry this is such a long post, but when I published my last one on November 24, I never dreamed Rick and I would witness one of Brisbane's worse storms, and I would want to add some more photos from Brisbane. As well, I have not been able to post anything since arriving New Zealand, so I am cramming a lot in one post.
To start with the Storm. We had planned to go over to one of the bars on campus to celebrate Thanksgiving with a glass of wine and some munchies. I was just about to leave the apartment and walk over to Rick's office when I heard some thunder. I decided to check the Brisbane weather website and they had issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the area, so I thought to myself "better stay put". Wow, am I glad I did. Within five minutes, rain was coming down in sheets and sideways. The wind was blowing, tree limbs breaking, hail and water running down the parking lot. I grabbed our passports and computers just in case! The student living upstairs checked on me and told me to stay put. Rick was stranded in his office, but finally made it home. Trees were down all over the campus, power out in the surrounding neighborhoods and our internet was out. We walked over to the village to see if anything was open, all the power was out, but the bakery was still open selling what was left on their shelves. We picked up an apple turnover, went back to the apartment and I made scrambled eggs for our Thanksgiving dinner. We felt very fortunate that neither one of us was caught walking across campus. We are also glad that all of the undergraduate students had left for the summer holidays. Here are some photos of damage.
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| Rick took this walking from his office to our apartment |
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| On our usual walking path. This was the next morning at 7:00 am and they were already cleaning up the mess. |
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| More storm damage on UQ Campus |
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| Car in front of our apartment. |
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| Thanksgiving dinner, we only had 3 eggs left in the fridge, some leftover salad and enough bread for toast. We added the apple turnovers from the bakery |
The next day we were off to Melbourne to visit Geoff and Linda. We had a very nice time visiting and seeing some of the areas around Melbourne. We went to Phillip Island to see the little penguins come in and make their way to their burrows. I could not take photos, it was amazing. What an experience. The only thing that was aggravating were the number of people trying to take photographs even though they kept making announcement about not doing so. The following day we went up into the hills near Melbourne and was lucky to see some beautiful wild parrots flying through the forests. We had a nice Devonshire Tea and later a nice lunch...hmmm did a lot of eating this weekend. We finished our trip by having iced coffees at one of Linda's favorite shops near their house.
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| Along the coast near Melbourne |
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| A wallaby |
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| Yarrow River outside of Melbourne |
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| Waiting for the penguins at Phillip Isle |
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| Geoff, Linda and Rick |
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| Beautiful parrot |
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Baily
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Photo of post card of the penguins we saw. We saw one female being attacked by baby chicks trying to get food from her. They were climbing all over her, it was so cute. She only has 2 chicks so the others just think they are her mother.
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Then we were off to New Zealand! What a wonderful week we had camping and touring a very small area of the North Island. Rick might differ since he was driving the van along windy, curvy roads, but for me it was breathtaking. The landscape is beautiful and ever changing. We would be driving through open areas with pastures full of sheep and then go around a curve and be in a rainforest, then back down along the ocean or through vineyards. We saw thermal areas, lakes, waterfalls and volcanic mountains. We met some incredibly nice people, many seemed surprised to see Americans traveling by camper van. The campgrounds were wonderful, of course I am sure that perception was partially due to the fact we were not traveling during prime season. Most of the campgrounds had large kitchens, supplies, bathrooms with hot showers. One had hot springs onsite and another across the street. One campground was situated behinds the dunes of a beautiful beach and the other across the road from a beach where you could dig holes at low tide and the hole would fill with hot water from underground thermal spring. That was a circus believe me.
We visited a Maori settlement, where the residents still live among the thermal features, even cooking their food in the hot springs and bathing in tubs that they fill daily. We saw a cultural performance and had a nice tour by a resident. We hiked to some beautiful waterfalls and had this man from England walk with us to the falls. He was a little "strange" but in a harmless sort of way. Just one of those people that knows everything and has an opinion about all topics that are discussed. We had some great wine at a winery, all organic, low allergen, completely substainble. Probably some of the best chardonnay I have ever had. We visited a town called Napier, that was completely leveled in 1931 by an earthquake and was rebuilt in the art deco style.
I mentioned how I thought people from New Zealand are incredible in their kindness. The one evening we arrived at this little goofy campground, only one other camper was there, a family from Germany. Anyway, we decided to go across the road to the hot springs. When we arrived we went through a gate and there were 3 or 4 ladies sitting on their porch. I asked if they were still open and they said no. I guess they saw the look of disappointment of my face, they asked where we were staying and when we told them across the road they immediately said we could use one the private tubs while they were cleaning up from the day. This facility had an outdoor swimming pool, picnic grounds, several private tubs and then a natural area that you had to hike for 5 to 10 minutes. It was obviously owned by a Maori family. Their house was located on this land along with the thermal features. The tub was in a small room with a beautiful view of the rainforest, it was heaven. Then yesterday we were returning our camper van and we had some time to kill before our designated drop off time. We decided to hang out at a park for awhile, have some lunch, but we were obviously going down a wrong street. A man stopped us and asked if we were looking for the park and then proceeded to let us follow him to the park. Then just today I was going to go shopping, left the hotel and tripped on the sidewalk. I fell flat on my face and hit my head. Blood was running everywhere from my nose and lip. Immediately I had several people helping me and this one woman just took over. She got me back to the hotel, helped cleaned me up and waited until they could find Rick. We ran into her after lunch, we were taking a walk and she was on the way to the hotel to make sure I was okay.
Here are some photos from our first few days. I will add more photos to another post.
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| Park and museum in Rotorua |
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| Maori carving |
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| The Maori village we visted |
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| our tour guide, he lives in the village. It is opened from 9-5 each day except Christmas then at 5 the gates are locked and they go about their business |
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| Food being prepared the traditional way. It was quite good, sweet potatoes and stuffing on the plate so it was our Thanksgiving dinner exactly a week later. |
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| houses among the hot pools |
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| These were the tubs they use to bathe in the evenings. They are drained and refilled every night. |
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| Maori Meeting House |
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| One of the geysers |
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| Cultural entertainment |
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| Haka Falls near Taupo, New Zealand. We hiked 40 minutes each way along the river. |
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| Area between Ohope and Cathedral Cove |
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| Ohope Beach |
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| More countryside |
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| Cathedral Cove, probably one of the prettiest places we visited |
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| Cathedral Cove, we hiked down to the cove, it was a climb back up. My legs were feeling it the next day. |
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| Cathedral Cove, Sea Arch |
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| Napier, NZ, art deco town. |
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| These buildings were called the Six Sisters |
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| The downtown |
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this church actually survived the earthquake
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