We are on the otherside of the outback portion of our trip. I didn't expect to have WWW access for that week, but we still have not been able to find an internet cafe with a USB port or card reader for picture upload...unbelievable. We could find it in the most remote villages in Guatemala. Anyway we may be able to hook up at Hervey Bay tomorrow...we'll see. You will enjoy reading of our great adventures...Ruth has been a real trooper!! We were surprised to pick up the morning paper and see it dated July 4th...weird to have no evidence of [View Full Entry]

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Up bright and early for the start of our outback safari from Adelaide to Alice Springs...3000 KM!! ...glad someone else is driving especially since we are driving NE right into the sun. We were also pleased that only 10 people signed up rather than the typical 24, so we have plenty of room in the bus to spread out and relax. We are headed to Parachilna by way of the Flinders Ranges National Park. Our first stop was for some wine testing in the a little pub. There signage best represents the Aussies sense of humor and speak frankily about [View Full Entry]

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The morning gave us the opportunity to grab the free bus and get the lay of the land. Adelaide is a perfect example of someone really doing a great job of laying out a straight forward grid system with prominent "squares," but....traffic engineers have managed to make a mess of it with one way streets and no turn designations. Anyway, we're really likeing the AUS cities. they have a lot of character and plenty to do. And they have an amzing amount of greenspace that really gets used. The free bus system lets us tourist get a handle on things. [View Full Entry]

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Once we felt comfortable that we had slipped the authorities in Mount Gambier, we could enjoy the country side. It was raining off and on again and it was not long until we could check off our daily rainbow. Then we got stopped by a ferry river crossing that was not shown on the maps, but that gave me time to snap my daily windmill shot. Before long the scenery really changed to flat, and I mean reall y flat. Stopped for a bite to eat in a really quaint little town and shot one of the many stone churches...they are [View Full Entry]

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The day started out looking pretty bad...cloud cover and raining. We are headed for the Great Ocean road and hope for some good weather. The first glimpses of the coast in the rain has it's own beauty and intrigue. There is a bush walk into the rainforest so we put on our rainjackets and head out. It was amazing to see the mosses and ferns growing on everything. The Twelve Apostle stone formations are as grand as everyone describes. You just want to sit and gaze. You may notice a pile of stones in one picture...one fell in July, 2005...there [View Full Entry]

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A 6:00am flight did not sound too bad when planning the trip, but the two hour check in made it 4 and showering made it 3...in any event we were off. The flight was uneventful, and the sun rise was beautiful. A little glitch arose that the nunnery had stopped their shuttle since we made the bookings, but a guy driving a small bus overheard us and said he would be going that way if we could wait for his arriving tourists....we could wait. Ended up another family got in the same situation so his bus had several on it [View Full Entry]

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It's about nine hours of driving to get to Christchurch for our flight to Australia, so we decided to break it into two days. We got up for our morning stop at the local bakery for coffee and pastries and were off ...no real agenda for the drive. We drove through a winery region and stopped for a few apples. Our first stop was in Arrowtown a really quaint little town outside Queenstown. We decided to bypass Queenstown as it is known primarily as a ski-town and probably not our style. After walking the shops, etc and grabbing some brunch, we [View Full Entry]

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Got up with two major questions, 1) do we need to hire chains, 2) cloundless or thumping down? But I'm getting ahead of myself.... Part of the west coast experience is the glaciers. We pulled in late, grabbed dinner and asked where to get a good breakfast...Matheson Lake Cafe. We got up early (to be first at the cafe) that was outside of town but on the edge of a pretty little lake with the snow caps in the distance. A lot of places are closed for the winter and we couldn't figure out how this place could stay open, as [View Full Entry]

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A relaxing day of travel really showed the diversity and beauty of the south island's west coast. We reluctantly left Abel Tasman, and head for the west coast. Started out just catching glimpses of the snow caps to the south. Going south for the winter means something different in NZ. We are catching the tail end of the fall colors. Couldn't figure out what was growing on what looked like grape trellis until we came across a roadside stand selling kiwis. It is also interesting to see all the herds of deer. They raise them as a livestock. I didn't [View Full Entry]

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We got up bright and early to catch a ferry to the south island. We did not have a particularly good night of sleep with the loud music from the adjacent bar. We had a nice drive around Wellington last night and the sunrise over the bay was beautiful. The trip across the Cook Strait was uneventful, but once we got into Queen Charlotte Sound it was amzing. We went on a 15K walk out to the "Snout" and got back just as the sun set over the sound. Found a real nice cafe in a old sailing ship with [View Full Entry]

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