Puffy's Travel Journal, Part 5

Part 5-Auckland and Rotorua, New Zealand

Here's the view from the plane before we landed in New Zealand.

New Zealand is composed of the North Island and the South Island. The first thing that we noticed about Auckland is that all the signs, street names, and attractions are in two languages: English and the Maori language. The school children are required to learn the Maori language as a second language. The early settlers “done the Maoris wrong,” similar to the American settlers and the Native Americans. The New Zealanders “Kiwi’s” are doing their best, sometimes going overboard to make it up to the native Maoris. The Maoris are a warrior people, originally from Taiwan. They are tattooed, especially on the chin, using their grandfather’s jaw bone to draw the tattoo. The tattoo tells the family’s history.






We took a city tour in a van for 8 people. There are beautiful harbors, mountains and dormant volcanoes.

We saw gorgeous homes along the waterfront. Boats from America’s Cup were in the Auckland harbor.




In the afternoon, we took a ferry across the harbor to a quaint town called Devonport. This is where we bought my beautiful bracelet made out of lavender mussels, crystals and other beads. I love it. We also bought locally-made delicious Devonport chocolates. We had Hokey-Pokey gelato, which is only found in New Zealand. It’s made of honeycomb, toffee, and vanilla ice cream.

We also went to Meemo's Gift Shop!

Here's a picture of me in Devonport, with a dormant volcano in the background.



After seeing a gorgeous sunset, we had dinner at a Japanese restaurant.


Name an American TV show and it’s shown here, too. We saw listings for old sitcoms, daytime soaps, American talk shows, Survivor Fiji as well as Fans vs Favorites, and local productions of our game shows. The Aussies and Kiwis are just as greedy as the Americans on their version of Deal or No Deal.

On our way south to Rotorua, we stopped at the Waitomo Glowworm Caves, which were fascinating. We walked through the caves which were lit up by the glowworms. Their stomachs glow and the long thin stringy things hanging down is their mucous. Lovely. Of course, there were stalactites (growing downward) and stalagmites (growing upwards). We also took a small boat through the caves.



Rotorua is a thermal city, with hot springs and hot pools of mud. It smelled like sulfur. Local bath products are made here. There are lots of mineral spas all over town. We took a walk around the valley with its mix of bubbling mud pools,



steaming waters and rotten egg smells.



We ate sandwiches by Lake Rotorua and watched people go on jet boats.



We visited Te Puia village which is a re-created Maori village. The main feature of the park is Pohutu Geyser which erupts on average once or twice each hour and can reach heights of up to 100 feet. It’s a spectacular sight - the hissing steam coming from the geysers together with the steaming hot waters raining down around you. Warm rock formations and the ever present sulfur smell add to the experience.



Along with the kiwi bird, the silver fern is a symbol of New Zealand. The Maori used to lay down silver ferns when they went somewhere. The moonlight would light up the silver ferns to guide them back to their homes.

Before leaving town, we went to a sheep farm. Fun fact: possum fur is the second warmest in the world. Polar bear fur is the warmest. We saw so many sweaters, gloves, hats, socks, and scarves made of wool. If an item has merino wool, you know it will be extra soft.




We also went to a wildlife park where we saw native birds. The kiwi lays huge eggs-equivalent to a woman giving birth to a 35 pound baby! Out of 9 eggs, they’re lucky if one survives.



On the way back to the hotel, we passed by zorbs! Not only did bungee jumping originate in New Zealand, but also zorbing. It’s the sport of rolling down a hill in a giant transparent inflatable ball. New Zealand wins the prize for crazy things to do. You can go zorbing in a dry or in a wet ball! We also walked past a local Maori youth festival in a park. We enjoyed mingling with the local townspeople.

At the nighttime traditional Maori cultural show, one of the performers brought me up onto the stage to participate in the program. I performed the women’s dance with the swinging balls on a rope. We also had our picture taken with a Maori warrior. They stick out their tongues to frighten their enemy.






We really enjoyed visiting the small towns in the interior of the country, as well as the major cities such as Auckland. We finished our trip in the North Island. Next we fly to the South Island to see more of the natural beauty of New Zealand.

Puffy's Travel Journal, Part 4

Sydney!!


We packed up our croissant sandwiches that we made from the breakfast buffet and took off for the airport to Sydney. You know you’re traveling a lot when you start to recognize the flight attendants and you know your passport number by heart. We saw purses made of kangaroo at the airport gift shop! Quantas gives out ice cream bars on the plane. We had fudgecicles. Want to know how they came up with the name “Quantas?” It stands for Queensland And Northern Territory Australia Services.

The mini bar in our room had CANS of rum and coke, gin and tonic, Jack Daniels whiskey and coke, and Johnny Walker red label with carbonated water. The single man on our tour of 7 people peeked into the massage place next door to the hotel. They didn’t give “massages.”

Our hotel was centrally located between Darling Harbor and Sydney Harbor. The night we got in, we walked around Darling Harbor and ate dinner there.




The next morning we walked to Hyde Park to see the Great Synagogue in Sydney. The Queen Victoria Building is a beautiful mall in an old building with the world’s largest hanging clock. It's suspended from the Centre Dome of the building, and is the world's larges hanging animated turret clock. It weights 4 tons and is 10 meters tall. It is composed of 32 clocks, 12 of which show international times. There are 33 paintings, and 138 hand carved figurines on it, too. The stores get more expensive as you go up each level in the mall. Most of the stores were closed because it was “Easter Monday.”

It was a beautiful day for a Harbor Cruise, about 70-75 degrees, with a slight breeze and a few gorgeous clouds. We circled the Harbor a few times, had lunch, and enjoyed seeing the homes along the shore. They can run about $80 million.


We waved at all the family boats and took so many pictures of the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House. The bridge just had its 75th anniversary. The opera house was finished in 1973. It cost $100 million and was $90 million over budget.







Our small group took a bus tour around the city. We saw a bin for donations of old, used clothing in front of a clothing store. What a great idea! Gold was discovered in Sydney in 1850-the same time as in California! The Pope is coming to St. Mary’s church here in 113 days. There was a big “countdown to the Pope” clock in front of the church.

We saw all types of neighborhoods, even those with homes from $2-17 million. Homes built in the 1900’s for immigrants are now worth $950,000.

We went to Manly beach, so named when the Governor saw aborigines for the first time! Bondi beach got its name from the Aborigine word “wave.” I waded in the Tasman Sea, the other end of the Pacific Ocean, at Bondi Beach.


We saw a hair salon named “headcase.” The juice bar said “get sejuiced here.”

We went up to the highest point above Sydney for a breathtaking 360 degree view. We stayed through dusk so we could see the city in lights, too.


We were about to experience another once-in-a-lifetime moment; walking on the Sydney Harbor bridge. The weather was perfect and we took amazing pictures of the night skyline, with the boats and the opera house all lit up. It was fantastic. We were all alone up there. How romantic! We had dinner at a gorgeous waterfront restaurant, overlooking the lighted opera house and harbor. What could be better?



The next day we traveled through the Blue Mountains which is a world heritage site National Park. They’re named “blue” because the sun shines and the oil in the atmosphere makes the eucalyptus leaves look blue. 250 million years ago, they were under the sea! We also went through the Katoomba area which had beautiful canyons, valleys, foliage, and ferns.




We saw a few wild kangaroos eating grass. One had a joey in its pouch!! One kangaroo was so funny! It was scratching itself for the longest time! The mom kangaroo has the fertilized eggs and can decide when she wants to begin gestation. If there’s a drought, she doesn’t start the one-month gestation. We saw a joey eating grass while in the pouch! When it’s born, it’s about the size of a worm. It has to find its way into the pouch or else it dies. If it falls on the ground, it’ll die, too.

We stopped at various lookout points, seeing famous monuments and rock formations, which all had significant Aboriginal legends attached to them.

We petted a Koala and saw a wombat, echidna, sacred ibis bird, wallabies, kangaroos, flying foxes, and even a Tasmanian devil!

An Echidna:


Here's a cassowary, which looks like a colorful emu.






Here's the flying foxes or fruit bats that James ate on Survivor.


We walked all over the place on our last night in Sydney. We bought an opal necklace for one of us! All over Sydney, we saw something else that we hadn't seen in the U.S. When you press the button to walk across the street, it beeps and clicks so blind people know when to walk. It also vibrates so you can feel when it is time to cross the street.

Back at the hotel, we got ready for yet another flight…next stop…Auckland, New Zealand. We were soon to find out that the two countries have a nice friendly rivalry.