Travel logs from a trip I took to Australia/New Zealand in 1993
We went through Waiouru, which is a big military base in NZ, past more planted forests, row by row, mile by mile. We worked our way down to Palmerston North (there is no other Palmerston in New Zealand), and then east to what was supposed to be a beautiful drive through Manawatu Gorge.
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.
We continued south back past Auckland, in the land of pronounceable places, through Hamilton, Cambridge and finally to a crater lake called Rotorua.
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 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 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.
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.
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 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.
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.
