January 6th Queenstown- Like some cheese with that whine?
Repeat the sentence in quotations out loud. Hint- where you see double ‘ee’s, draw them out like ‘eeeee’. Say this out loud and slowly. “The weether ees cool and ryni theese morning, but eet will be beeter by eleeveen and cleah by seeveen.” If your office mates are looking at you strangely, it is not only that you have been busted for using the company’s computer for personal goofing around, but because you sound just like a Kiwi. Congratulations!
During the night, we woke up to heavy rain running down the gutters. We are scheduled to fly over the mountain to Milford Sound this morning in a light aircraft. The tour operator says they will make a decision on whether they will fly at 9 a.m. Mike has looked out the window and already made his decision. Light rain, low hanging cloud bases and valley fog in mountainous terrain that looks like news footage from Afghanistan. No aviating for Mike today. Bummer.
On to plan B. Susan quickly arranged a trip to the wineries near Q-town. In our rain gear we join up with 12 other un-happy campers and make the best of our first bad weather day since we began the trip. Two vineyards, a fabulous lunch and a cheesery (yes that is so a word… see photo) later we are in better spirits.
We make friends with our bus mates and get better acquainted. Hard to be grumpy when you are sampling wine and cheese and mingling with like minded people.
Back to our super trendy hotel. It is still pouring rain. We try to read, but end up asleep with the books on our chests. We do rally in time for the nightly wine reception and meet new people from Australia and the Czech Republic. They shut down the lobby party at 7:30, so we are forced to venture out in the drizzle. We trudge down to Winnie’s and eat pizza with the locals and watch cricket on the telly.
Made the best of a rainy day in the adventure capital of the world.
January 5th- On to Queenstown on the South Island
You may know that New Zealand consists of two islands, North and South. (Actually there are un-numbered smaller islands, but the locals only speak of the North and South when they describe their land so we will honor their custom here.)
They seem to enjoy similar prejudices as Americans from North and South in their opinons of each other. Those on the North Island (Auckland, etc.) will portray the South Island as a few thousand people surrounded by millions of sheep, goats and deer. Those on the South Island are extremely proud of their rural heritage and outdoors activities and speak contemptuously of urban problems in the North. So, Bubba versus Metrosexual conflicts may be universal?
Today we left the North Island and flew to Queenstown on the South island. Queenstown is a lake and ski resort, It’s a small jewel of a city sits on the shore Lake Wakatipu and is surrounded on the other three sides by 6,000 foot mountains. The only outdoor activity they don’t have here is nude sky-diving, but I am sure they would arrange it if requested.
It will make you tired just reading the brochures. These people are fit, tan and buff. They all look like ski instructors in Aspen or Vail. They offer bungee jumping, parasailing, zip lining, white water rafting, black water rafting, cave exploration, jet boat rides, hiking trips, rock climbing and mountain biking. And that’s just in the summer. These people will wear you out and then work on you some more.
Our first day in Q-town, the activity we opted for was drinking wine and eating canapés in our hotel lobby. Why not? We had the stamina for it and went for it. Seemed like a better option. Give me break… rock climbing?
We are in the Queenstown Park Hotel, a terrific, small, extremely contemporary hotel, just off the main business center. It features a reception for the guests in the lobby every evening. Over refreshments, we meet our hosts, John and Donna, who own and operate the place.
The other guests are an eclectic group. We spend most of our time with an about-to-retire Professor of Engineering and his wife, who live in Cambridge, England. He had worked with engineering colleagues at UT and A&M. I had worked with my co-workers in the UK. So the language barrier was lessened.
On to a Thai restaurant for dinner, on the recommendation of our hosts and to bed after a day of travel from North to South.
A perfect day in a perfect place – January 4th
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| Golf Kauri Cliffs Style |
You may have heard that money cannot buy happiness. That is a foul lie.
Money bought us a very happy day at Kauri Cliffs. Let me describe and you decide: Up with the birds chirping in the forest outside our cottage window. A short walk to the lodge for breakfast. Down to the pro shop to get our clubs and cart. Eighteen holes on a world class golf course that overlooks the Pacific in about three hours, because we are the only ones on the course.
Then, the kitchen packs us a picnic lunch and a driver takes us down to Waiaua Beach for an afternoon on a wide sand beach in a private cove.
Back to the spa in time for massages. Cocktails on the putting green where we compete in spirited putting contest. Dinner at our regular table on the veranda. After dinner drinks in the salon. Back to bed at our cottage in the forest.
Regardless of your opinion, we believe all it takes is money.
Welcome back to the land of the Maori and the Kiwi
We arrive in Auckland late on January 2 and taxi to a deserted Westin hotel on the harbor. Susan interrogates the bellman and discovers the investors and Westin are in a dispute and approximately 150 rooms have been taken out of service. No worries. Our junior suite has flush plumbing and hot water so we are set for the night.
We have regained two hours on the time zone so Mike is not ready for bed and goes to the nearby casino, plays blackjack for about 45 minutes to win our cab fare to the airport next morning. A text from Susan alerts him ESPN is showing the Rose Bowl replay, so he gets back to the hotel in time to see TCU win again.
Next morning, January 3rd, we hop a commuter flight from Auckland to Kerikeri that is only 35 minutes. Our Kerikeri driver drops us off in Paihia at the ferry dock and takes our luggage on to the Kauri Lodge. We chug across the bay on the slow ferry from Paihia to Russell, the tiny village that was the inspiration for this trek back to the south pacific. As we walk up the dock into Russell, we see that nothing in the village is changed. High street still has a handful of shops and pubs. Maybe there are a few more homes up in the hills around town built in the last 15 years?
After a quick lunch on the waterfront in Russell we catch the ferry back to Paihia and join up with our driver for the 30 minute ride to Kauri Cliffs. We leave the highway and turn down a gravel road for about two miles and come upon a gate with a call box. The gate swings open and we enter the 6,000 acre estate that is Kauri Cliffs. Another two miles and we are at the main building which looks like a tropical plantation headquarters, maybe something out of Africa? It sits on a hill overlooking the Pacific. The staff greets us on the drive and welcomes us in for drink and property tour.
The place has guest cottages for about 50 people. Each cottage is in the forest and has a balcony with a view either the ocean or the golf course. The facilities are all elegant, but extremely comfortable. The golf course is rated by some of the magazine as in the top 50 in the world. It also has a spa and fitness center, tennis courts, riding, hiking and shooting. The staff is mostly young people from all over the world who live in a dorm on the property. Anything a guest mentions is usually delivered in few minutes. We find out the owner, Julian Robertson, is on the property so everyone is extraordinarily on their toes.
Drinks begin at six in the salon and dinner begins service at 7 in the dining room and on the veranda. Men wear jackets. It is very civilized. Guests are from all over the world. During our time on the property, there are people from England, France, Spain and Russia. Some arrive by car like us, but several arrive by helicopter. We settle in after dinner, because we have an early tee time the next morning.
January 2, 2011
Today is moving day from Australia to New Zealand. We have really enjoyed our time in Sydney. We have made some good friends and experienced some unusual scenes and activities. So as we go, we are feeling some regret about some things we did not get to do, but looking forward to returning to Kiwi land.
Susan took a early walk on Bondi Beach to Bronte Beach with her new friend, Suanne Adelman.
Some girl time exercising and a stop for coffee at Suanne's regular java joint. It was just like home, except for the photo op with the Bondi Surf Rescue Team.
Australians have been wonderful to us and we feel they are like our companions in Texas in many ways. They are outgoing, fun, irreverent, unpretentious and open to strangers. They like to laugh and pull jokes on others and enjoy one on themselves.
Maybe we are like them because our histories are similar. We have read in the history books that Australia was settled as a penal colony for criminals from England. Like most things in history books, that is somewhat accurate, but there is much more to the story.
In the late 1700’s, England was an overcrowded country with a great deal of poverty and a class system that kept those at the bottom firmly in their place. Property crimes could be a hanging offense. The prisons could not hold all the population who were jailed just for stealing food. So for almost 100 years, about 650,000 convicts were shipped to Australia to work off their sentences. While some were probably hardened criminals, many were just caught up in an economic system that placed them in jail. Usually they were freed after seven years of servitude in Australia and could return to England. Most chose to stay.
In the US, our criminal justice system was not nearly so efficient as England’s, so our frontiersman who settled our wilderness were often un-convicted men and women fleeing the authorities. That is particularly true of Texas. Both our countries had a minor, but significant number of their early occupants who were not an approved component of the “civilized” societies from whence they came.
However, many more early settlers were neither convicts nor fugitives from the law, but people with entrepreneurial instincts who had the vision to see that an insular society was never going to allow them the opportunities they would find in the frontier. Just as the Western land rush populated empty territories in the US, a gold rush brought many more early settlers to Australia than the convicts we read about the history books.
In the Midwest, we heard about the courage of our pioneers who loaded their wagons with their household goods in Kansas City and departed for Oregon, Utah or California. But think about the mindset of someone who would board a dinky sailing ship in Plymouth, England with just a bag of belongings and set sail across the most treacherous oceans in the world to a land on the other side of the earth.
The happy result for both our countries is we created a population of productive people who were enthusiastic about the future and eager to improve their personal situations with the force of their enthusiasm and hard work.
See you in New Zealand!
New Year’s Day Sydney-side
We have the flu. Must be going around? Doses of Advil and black coffee are the cure. Could it have been something we ate… or drank? Healing nicely by about 11:00, so we decide to do the Sydney-sider’s New Year’s Day and take the ferry to Manly Beach.
Short ferry ride to the other side of the Harbor and we are walking through a corridor of shops, pubs and restaurants shoulder to shoulder with the entire population of Sydney. At the end of the “Corso”, the beach stretches from left to right. All sorts of bodies are sun bathing, sitting under umbrellas, swimming and surfing. Everyone from two year olds to grandmas is enjoying the first sunshine of 2011.
Susan runs into the surf for a quick swim while Mike rests his eyes under his hat on the beach. A lazy day at Manly is the custom and it is a good one. We look for lunch along the Corso, but find no black-eye peas. Bummer. We’ll get some as soon as we return to Fort Worth. We need the luck.
Back to Sydney on the ferry and upon reaching the dock; realize how fortunate we were to go early. The next ferry is sold out and the line to board the following ferry to Manly is two blocks long and growing.
We catch a movie and get home early. Tomorrow is moving day.
New Year’s Eve in Sydney
Sydney blew up last night. You may have seen it on the news. Over $5 million in gunpowder caught fire and exploded in full view of millions of people who watched from boats, buildings and along the shoreline of Sydney Harbor. Here’s a link that shows you the spectacle in 7 minutes of video. The video is very good, but it does not do justice to seeing it for real. More on the evening’s festivities in a bit. (see video link below)
Our new friends, Geoffrey and Caroline Cartwright hosted us for a round of golf at The Australian Club which has occupied its location with a view of the Sydney skyline since 1882.
The course was reworked by Jack Nicklas a few years ago and is a challenging track and in excellent shape. It was nice to hit off of green grass again. When I saw the length from the member’s tees was only 6,175, I thought it would be easy. Geoff reminded me it was measured in meters. The Cartwrights showed us wonderful hospitality and we are looking forward to returning the favor when they come to the US in August.
When we returned to the Westin, Sydney had been transformed for the New Year’s Eve celebration. Barricades blocked the streets as all vehicles except taxis, busses and official vehicles were banned from the area near the harbor. Thousands of people thronged the streets and sidewalks headed for the harbor.
Susan had arranged for dinner at Guillaume Restaurant at the Opera House. We walked from the hotel among a mob. Some were in black tie and evening gowns and some were in bathing suits and flip flops. As we approached the Opera House grounds, no one was allowed through the gate without a ticket. People even had to have reservations to sit on the ground. Some had brought tents and chairs and camped all day to hold their places. Every square foot was occupied.
We were ushered up the elevator and into the Guillaume. The restaurant had seating for about 100 people set up in such a way that each table had a window view of the harbor. We also had a private deck that faced the harbor bridge. I wondered what we could possible do that would take up the time from 7 p.m. ‘til midnight? They filled the time admirably.
While we watched the sun go down, we had drinks and canapés on the deck and met our dinner companions. At eight we were seated and began a seven course meal, each course with its own wine selection of course. After three courses, we went out on the deck and watched the early fireworks show. As we watched the fireworks, the harbor below began to fill up with large sailboats. Then back to the table for three more courses and dessert.
Just before midnight, we went back out on the deck for the big show. If you want to know what $5 million dollars worth of fireworks looks like, the Colonial Country Club 4th of July show is about $50,000. So multiply the Colonial fireworks times 100 and you have your Sydney display.
So much for wondering how to fill five hours?
The climb back up the hill to our bed in the Westin was difficult because we were carrying the added weight of seven rich courses of gourmet food and more than a few glasses of wine.
What a way to start the New Year and the new decade!
Happy New Year Everyone!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTQNQH44Y-4
