http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Golden-Years/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Golden Years en-us Thu, 31 Dec 2009 06:40:30 +0000 Thu, 31 Dec 2009 06:40:30 +0000 In transit on our way back from Brisbane sitting at LAX. Adrienne's graduation went smoothly yesterday and she will be home for Christmas. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Los-Angeles/LAX/blog-459979.html Fom the Whitsundays we drove up the cost to Cairns and from there took the Osprey V to snorkel on the outer reef. Once again we swathed ourselves in revealing royal blue lycra stinger suits and ventured into the Pacific Ocean. Told we had five hours of snorkel time in two different locations I thought the time on the boat might drag a little but there was so much to see in the water that the time http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Cairns/open-water/blog-458300.html Miz Behavin a 10m catameran has been our home for the past 10 days as we sailed around the islands that comprise the Whitsundays. Originally called the Cumberland Islands these were once volcanic mountains slowly drowned by a rising sea. They became known as the Whitsundays because Lt. James Cook sailed into the Passage on Whit Sunday June 3rd 1770 where he discovered the Great Barrier Reef by http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Whitsundays/blog-457382.html It is a pleasure to be wearing shorts again now that we are in Australia. We met up with Adrienne and Tim and two of Adrienne's friends in Brisbane then went to visit a longtime friend of mine for three days while Adrienne sat her final exams.My friend lives in Yamba beside the wide Clarence River about three hours drive south of Brisbane in sugar cane country. We spent an enjoyable three d http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Brisbane/Toowong/blog-454603.html Today we visited the Waitomo caves to see the cavedwelling glow worms. This is a very special trip where guided groups walks down a series of stairways passing though a number of chambers into the limestone cave and there board a boat. The guide then pulls the boat along fixed lines in total darkness except for the glow worms attached to the ceiling of the cave. The glow worms give off a bright b http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Waitomo-Caves/blog-452807.html We spent a day in Hawkes Bay exploring the heart of wine country. We visited the Silky Chocolate Factory a small factory outside Napier where they make chocolates the same way our son Ian does but with one or two mechanical aids like a wheel to keep the molten chocolate moving and an agitater to shake any air bubbles out of the molds. It was difficult to chose what to sample from the shop but be http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Wellington/blog-452581.html From Rotorua to Napier we drove down the Thermal Highway offering many opportunities to see the results of the volcanic and geothermal activity of New Zealand. We stopped to walk a most interesting and informative selfguided tour along the Waimangu Volcanic Valley where sulphurous fumes spew out of vents in the rocks in numerous locations.On June 10 1886 a line of craters from the northern end http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Hawkes-Bay/Napier/blog-452049.html Russell in the Bay Of Islands is now a nice little town but at the turn of the 19th century it was a shore station for whalers. Whaling was a greasy smelly and dangerous occupation and when members of the crew got to shore they liked to drink fight and generally let off steam so Russell or Kororareka as it was known then gained a reputation as the Hellhole of the Pacific.Manganui lay further http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Bay-of-Islands/Russell/blog-451581.html A steady wind blows wisps of mist across the hillside and plays hideandseek with the lighthouse at Cape Reinga on the tip of the north island. Grey and gloomy it is easy to see why the Maori named this Reinga meaning underworld. The continuous sigh of the surf where Tasman Sea meets Pacific Ocean could easily conceal the snuffling sounds of the spirits of the dead as they descend the rootst http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Ninety-Mile-Beach/blog-451008.html We are off again. We are headed to Brisbane to attend Adrienne's graduation and decided this would be a good time to fulfill a promise made to ourselves 27 years ago to spend more time in New Zealand the next time we were in the area. So here we are. We rented a camper van in Auckland and headed north. Having spent the last 12 hours on a full flight from Los Angeles we headed for the Waiwera Ther http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Auckland/blog-450291.html We awoke on Saturday morning to find this trawler high and dry on the rocks just off H dock in Port Sidney. As the crowd gathered sipping on the morning coffee I opined that the skipper who parked her on the rocks must have either been drunk had no charts or could not read charts. The old salt standing next to me sporting a shaggy grey beard and wearing a snug Tshirt emphasising his love of http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/British-Columbia/Vancouver-Island/blog-428121.html We were afraid that the sleeper train from Zagreb to Prague was a misnomer as we had no sooner got into bed when the Slovinian passport control officer was knocking at the door followed 5 minutes later by the customs officer asking if we had any alcohol or cigarettes to declare. Luckily she did not ask if we had any bananas our breakfast. We did manage to sleep thereafter as there were no more o http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/blog-413268.html We spent three rainy days in the safe but noisy harbour of Rab waiting for the storm which packed winds of 3540 knots gusting to 60 knots to pass.From Rab we sailed north to Krk and on to Cres in brisk cool winds and while these northern towns are interesting they do not have the extensive historical remains that we found on the Dalmation coast in Trogir Dubrovnik and Zadar etc. The weather http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Croatia/Central-Croatia/Zagreb/blog-412173.html The new crew came aboard on Saturday and after provisioning we set sail on Sunday heading south to Zut and the southern Kornati Island of Smokvica Vela to eat at a restaurant from the Gourmet Sailing Guide. From there we headed north to sail through the desolate archipelago and spend the night on a mooring buoy at Mir in the national park. North of the Kornati islands is the Zadar archipelago http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Croatia/Dalmatia/Pag/blog-410745.html Having sailed in and out of Zadar several times it feels a little like coming home. We are awaiting the arrival of our other four crew members before setting out on unexplored for us waters to Pula.The weather last week was a big improvement over the gales of our first week yet with enough wind for K to sail every day. We reprovisioned in Trogir and set out for the Kornati Islands anchoring in http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Croatia/Dalmatia/Zadar/blog-407808.html The weather improved as we finally made our way to eat at Triton in a protected cove on Lastovo. We practiced the Hatoverboard drill and as you can see both the hat and the band from Ecuador survived the drill. On the history front we visited the Vela Spila archeological site a cave 20 minutes walk above Vela Luka on Korcula. The cave has been continuously inhabited since 15000 BC and was in ne http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Croatia/Dalmatia/Brac/blog-405826.html We have learned that if we want sailing to be enjoyable we need to be flexible. We had planned to head south into Montenegro for a few days before heading north with Thetis however the 5day forecast predicted accurately as it happens that we would encounter SE winds up to 40 knots. with rain showers changing to the NE after 3 days. This would means 7 hours banging into the wind to get to Monte http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Croatia/Dalmatia/Korcula/blog-404640.html Wednesday was a good day to leave England as the showers had developed into a steady rain with gloomy skies. In Dubrovnik however we were greeted by a lightening storm and torrential rain that lasted into the wee hours of the morning. All things pass however and it is now a bright sunny day as we stroll around the walls of the old town wearing shorts.We had planned to stay in the old town so http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Croatia/Dalmatia/Dubrovnik/blog-403272.html Having explored Roman ruins in previous trips around the Mediterranean in Turkey Egypt Croatia and Italy we decided during this visit to the U.K. to explore the northern reaches of the Roman Empire.Emperor Hadrian wanted to consolidate his empire rather than expand it so in 122 AD he ordered that a wall be built across England from Newcastle to Carlisle. It took soldiers from all three legions http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Northumberland/blog-402628.html We're off again to the UK for a week and then to the Dalmatian coast of Croatia for a month one of our favourite warmwater sailing venues. After a gloriously sunny Sunday the Calgary weather has turned on a dime and as we prepare to head to the airport it's snowing. Only in Canada EH http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Alberta/Calgary/blog-400002.html