Note: Before going any further with this blog, I must let everyone know that we are no where near Christchurch and the earthquake. We are on the north island and perfectly safe. So please don’t worry about us. New Zealand Feb 18.. Auckland Can hardly believe we are finally here. Any of you who know me will know that New Zealand has always been one of my target destinations. In fact, this whole trip started with my talking about one day visiting this country…and we are finally here. What do we do on our first day? We spend over 3 hours getting through airports and another 3 in the air. By the time we get to our hostel it is time to find food and sleep. We will spend 2 nights here so we can spend ... read more

Feb 11 Katoomba - Blue Mountains The Blue Mountains were well worth the effort to get here. The views from the top of the cliff are breath taking - the valley has steep limestone cliffs and the valley is covered in trees. We spend a good part of the afternoon doing the tourist thing of riding a ‘train’ down very steep cliff (52% incline) to a boardwalk through part of the valley - through an area that was at one time a coal mine and town. We then took a sky tram back up the cliff. We then took another sky tram across a part of the canyon. Touristy but fun. Then as we walked out of the tram station, we heard Darrel’s name being called. Ruehlens and Zabots were sitting in the attached restaurant just ... read more

Victoria, Australia Jan. 25th Left Southern Australia today and are just across the border in Victoria. We are continuing to follow the coast line as the interior is still flooding. We keep hearing reports of different areas so are following the floods pretty closely. All is still well where we are though. We have finally seen more alive kangaroos than dead ones. Saw a herd of them in Portland, on the coast. They were in a city park area which is part of the grounds of the Portland Aluminum Company. Yup, we found a smelter in this part of the world. However, other than just seeing it, like at home, there are no longer any tours available. This one makes strictly tri-lock ingots. We are spending the night in Warrnambool and then heading for the Great ... read more

January 11, or better still, 11-1-11 Alice Springs Our drive back to Perth was uneventful. We did stop at Bunbury for an hour but it really is just a bedroom city of Perth. We stayed the youth hostel in Perth which was a lot cheaper than the hotel and, though basic, clean and met all our needs. Yesterday we flew out of Western Australia and I have to say that I am sorry to leave. Of all the places we have been on this is one that I could easily immigrate to. I loved the beaches, the land, and the sunshine…what more does anyone need from her environment. Flying out of Perth and into the interior of this country was very interesting. As soon as we left the city limit’s the farms started to dominate the ... read more

Australia The internet has been very sparse since we arrived in this country, so I will start by doing a bit of catch up - again. We arrived in Perth around 11 pm and we both fell in love with the place as our taxi drove us to the hotel. The city is so quite, clean, orderly and English speaking that we could feel ourselves start to relax. By daylight, the city is even prettier, but admittedly, a bit busier. We spent the first day wandering around the area, following a walking tour; spent a fair bit of time in the street mall area and by the mouth of the Swan River. Next day we hiked up to Kings Park where we spent most of the day. It overlooked the city and ocean area and had ... read more