Vacations Home Page
Click here for other vacation photos
Alaska - New Zealand - February 1997
On February 6, 1997 we flew to Australia, then took a small flight up to
Cairns which is in the northeastern corner of Australia on the Great
Barrier Reef. Having lived in northeastern Ohio, we weren't used to the
brilliant sun and gorgeous warm weather.
For the first couple days of our vacation, we sailed on
The
Compass, a diving boat, which took us 60 miles out into the Great Barrier
Reef, far away from the poisonous box jellyfish, which inhabit the coastal
mainland from December through March.
Brian went SCUBA diving for the first time! But a
large fish swam in front of my camera as I shot, so I had to
retake it. However, he was unhappy with the pose,
so I photographed him again, capturing his smile
of approval.
My swim was escorted by a school of rather large fish.
But don't worry, they did not bite.
Colorful clusters of coral covered the ocean floor for
as far as the eye could see. The clutter of marine
life nearly camouflagged a 3-foot clam from our sight.
Did you ever see fan coral 10 feet in diameter? Some
coral took the form of bundles of short branches
reaching upward to the surface.
A feathery, white tree tickled the fish as they
swam near it.
At one particular diving location, we literally swam through clouds of
jellyfish. I discovered they were NOT the stinging
type after bumping into nearly 100 of them.
On the way back to shore, several of the ship's passengers went
boom netting. Boom netting is where a group of lunatics hang onto a large
net which is dragged behind a moving ship. If your shorts are not tied
on tightly, they are yanked off by the current.
The next item on our itinerary was Tjapukai (pronounced JEBBA KYE), a village where
Aborigines live and play digeridoo's (pronounced
Di' JREE DOO).
A breathtaking train ride took us into the rain forest
near Cairns, Queensland. It went through 11 tunnels.
Following the train ride, a cable car provided us with
a wonderful view of Tjapukai. But I nearly stepped on a
lizzard as I exited the car.
During a stroll through a rain forest, we passed by a tree with an
orchid growing out of it. Unfortunately, it was not
in bloom at this time. We also discovered many beautiful
water falls in these forests.
Southwest of Cairns, we stopped in Yungaburra to see a 200-foot high
fig tree called the "Curtain Fig." Thousands of branches
hung down from high limbs to take root in the ground, causing a "curtain"
effect. Notice Brian at the bottom of the picture, just to give you an idea
of the size of this tree.
We travelled south to the state of Queensland and went into the Blue Mountains.
Unfortunately, thick fog and rain limited our sightseeing. The weather report
was dismal: rain, more fog. So we travelled to Sydney where the climate was
entirely different: sunshine and warmth. We saw the film "Antarctica" on the
world's biggest IMAX theater screen, visited the famous
opera house, admired plaza
sculptures, and enjoyed the harbour and some museums.
We took a flight from Sydney to Auckland, New Zealand. Then another flight from
Auckland (north New Zealand) to Queenstown (south island of New Zealand). During the
latter flight to Queenstown, we caught some gorgeous views from the jet of
desert mountains on the east side of the mountain range.
Further east of the mountains were wetlands.
Beyond were patchwork fields. We landed at the
Queenstown airport.
The Conservation Office in Queenstown booked us on the "Routeburn Track", a
backpacking trail across the Divide. The
rocky backpacking trail wound through
cloud-covered mountains,
jagged mountains, moss-covered
terrain, and a variety of scenery.
Every few hours along the backpacking trail were "huts"
which we stayed in each evening (the tent camping areas were full). The huts had
no electricity but did have cold running water. Gas burners were available for
cooking. The spacious "bulk bunk" coed rooms slept 15 to 30 people, and were a
bit noisy. This hut's deck provided the backpackers with
a spectacular view.
After several days of backpacking, a bus transported us to the
Milford Sound. As you can see, the wind averages 60 to
120 MPH on any given day, and the summertime high average temperature was about 65
farenheit. Since there are less than 90 days of sun per year at the
Milford Sound, we felt fortunate to have a sunny day with
only a few clouds. Sorry my camera did not pick up this
school of dolphins very well. I've circled this group of
seals who were sunning themselves on a rock.
Clouds moved into the sound toward late afternoon.
Back in Queenstown, Brian went bungy jumping from a terribly
high bridge into a canyon with a river flowing at the bottom; not once but
TWICE! Here are 2 more bungy jumping photos:
bungy3.jpg, and bungy4.jpg.
We cable-car'd to a mountain top in Queenstown at 9:30 PM to catch the horizon fading
into a darkening violet sky. We were sad to have to leave
one of the most beautiful places we had even seen.
The next morning we travelled to the north island of New Zealand to Rotorua, a
geothermally-active area with geysers,
steaming hillsides, colorful
mineral formations from millenia of buildup,
boiling ponds, and other geothermal sights.
In Rotorua, we visited a Maori village (the original
inhabitants of New Zealand). Maori women made grass skirts.
The Maori's appointed Brian as spokesperson of our group and adorned him with a
special robe reserved for dignitaries.
The large eyes and protruding tongue on this Maori war
dancer were, in olden times, an attempt to scare off the enemy. In addition to
wearing grass skirts, the female dancers wore
brightly-colored bodices woven from the indigenous flax.
As you can see from the sea shells in this photo, our
beachcoming was successful on one of the 78 different beaches found on the
Coromandel Penninsula, which juts into the Bay of Plenty.
I took this picture on our way back to the Auckland airport.
Did you know that New Zealand has over 50 million sheep?
That's the end of our story for now. Stay tuned for "Backpacking in the Olympic
National Park" (the Olympic Peninsula in the Washington Pacific, August 1997) and
"Backpacking in Alaska" (July 1998).
Click here for other vacation photos