Port Douglas

After a long travel day we made it to Port Douglas Australia. We left Christchurch at 7AM and got to Port Douglas at 5 PM with a couple hour stop over in Brisbane. It was raining on our drive up. The gal on the plane said it has been raining for 3 weeks. Oh, brother. This is supposed to be our beach time. Actually we are pretty lucky, originally we had planned on being in Port Douglas the week there was a hurricane that passed through. I don't think we will melt from a little rain. Plus, the weather report said the weather clear up.


We stayed at the Veranda's apartments/condos. The price was right, and the reviews on Trip Advisor were good. So we thought it would be OK. Maybe a little dated. But it turned out to be a really amazing place. We were 2 blocks from the ocean. We had a super neat pool with a fountain as well. A great patio over looking the pool. And a grill. The place was fantastic.

Sue the property manager was really awesome. When we checked in she gave us the run down on the city. Where the grocery store was and good restaurants. She would let us know what day would be the best day to go to the Great Barrier Reef.

We dropped off our bags and walked straight over to the Tin Shed. Apparently there are a lot of clubs in Australia. I guess a place has to be a 'club' for them to have gambling. But you can join the clubs for free. And we could eat there as a guest. WEIRD. Anyway. The food was amazing. Linda and I shared Seafood Laksa, Bob had the Chicken Oscar and Mike had a Lamb Roast. Mike said it was the best lamb roast he ever had. I think it might have been the only lamb roast he has had. Linda had 2 glasses of champagne. We ate at this restaurant twice while we were in Port Douglas. It was that good.

The next day it rained all day. I mean ALL DAY. We left the condo in the morning for about an hour and walked through the shops. Then Bob and I read all day. Linda said it reminded her when she was little and mom would read and grandpa and grandma would take a nap on Sundays.

I suppose we needed a rest day. Although I would have rather been resting on the beach. I would have thought that after three weeks of vacation I would have been rested. But I don't think that Me or Bob or Mike or Linda can sit still. So everyday we were running around seeing all the sights. A rain day wasn't all bad.

Soaking up the scenery

Sailing on the south Pacific Ocean.

Just when we thought our driving on the crazy steep windy roads was over, we got one last chance. We drove1.5 hours down to Akaroa. It was actually a beautiful drive over the mountain and through the valley. Akaroa is a summer vacation land sort of like Duluth or Hayward. We booked a sailboat cruise through the bay and out to the Pacific ocean with promises of penguin, seal and dolphin sightings. The booking agent at the i-Site (information center) said we would not see penguins. We have wanted to see penguins since Dunedin, when they were out to sea.

The town was super busy because of the holiday weekend. It was impossible to find a place to park. Then we parked at the wrong dock, so we had to start all over again. Bob was nice enough to park the car while we ran down to the sailboat to let them know we were there.

We used the boat motor to motor away from the dock. We thought we would be sailing out, but we used the motor most of the way out. On our way we saw a seal swimming. I guess this is pretty unusual. During the day they are usually sunning themselves on the rocks. They search for food at night. It turned out to be a super nice fall day. The guide thought maybe he was taking a swim to cool off.



A little further out, we came across a small pack of penguins. Our boat crew was a bit surprised because the penguins were pretty close to shore early in the day, and they were also in a small pack. We were happy because we finally got to see the penguins.



As we approached the mouth of the harbour, we encountered our first group of dolphins. These dolphins were Hector dolphins, and are only found off of the coast of New Zealand. They are also some of the smallest dolphins in the world. They were pretty curious, and came close to our boat. It was quite a site to see.



Eventually we made it to the South Pacific Ocean, and the crew hoisted the sails and shut of the engine. The weather was nice and warm in the sun, but in the shade it was a bit cool. After a bit of sailing, we turned around and headed back in to the harbour. On the way back to port, we went by a fur seal colony and saw some more seals. We saw a few more packs of dolphins, and we even saw a mother with her baby calf swimming along. that was pretty special, as they came within about 6 feet of the boat, so everybody got a great view of the pair.

Our sailing journey came to an end after 3 hours. All in all, it was a lot of fun, the weather was great, and we saw a lot of beautiful animals. Once back on shore, we headed over to the main pier and we bought some fish sandwiches. There is a fisherman that brings his catch in to shore, and his wife cooks up the fish right there on the pier and serves up sandwiches. They were delicious! We ordered a Salmon sandwich, and also a lemon fish sandwich. They were served on ciabata buns. We grabbed a few beers and ate our sandwiches on the shore of the harbour. It was the perfect end to a great day.

Church all day

Where in the world is BobO, in church!

He just couldn't escape it today. Cathedral square is the city center in Christchurch. Today the church had an outdoor church service in the square. Our city tour started there. We got there a little early to look around and ended up sitting through a service.

Linda really liked the service. She has been asking all along if we could go to church on Easter. She got her chance. The preacher even brought tears to her eyes. Mike thought the preacher must have touched her!

Bob and I went on a bicycle tour of the city. Mike and Linda took the hop on hop off tram around the city. We got a personal tour of the city, we were the only two on the tour. It was Easter Friday. I think Easter Friday is a bigger deal then Easter Sunday. We felt bad that the guide came out on Easter Friday just to show us around town.

Linda liked the Maoi (native people) museum. Mike thought the botanical gardens was awesome. He thought he could spend a 1/2 day there. They liked the tram ride.

Deaths Corner

Bob drove us around Deaths Corner on Arthurs Pass

We got an 8:30 start on our long drive to Christchurch. The scenery really changed when we came out of Arthurs Pass. The rain forest is of course colors of green. The plains are shades of brown. Irrigation is normal on the east coast, where there isn't really even top soil for planting on the west coast. The rain washes it away.

The first 1/3 of our drive was on crazy windy roads by the time we got over the Pass and closer to Christchurch the roads are more normal. Still the main roads are only two lanes like Hwy 71 in Minnesota (1 in each direction).

We have seen quite a few bicyclers on our loop of the country. I guess New Zealand tourism board touts the country as being bicycle friendly. The cyclists were biking on the main roads which are narrow and windy up and down mountains. You could come around a corner and there would be a guy on a bike and you are meeting a car, the roads are barely wide enough for two cars. Plus the barriers on the cliff side of the mountain passes are a joke. You wouldn't catch me biking across this country. Mountain biking could be fun but not road biking.

We have been laughing along the way about the Toyota Corolla we rented. With all the mountains, a Toyota is the last car we would want. It was the last car left on the lot. We have really put it to the test.

Glacier Tramping

Hiking on Fox Glacier

We had a nice continental breakfast at the Homestay before our 1/2 day hike on the glacier. Rhubard grows all year long here, and they don't mix it with strawberries. We were not sure what the day would bring because of all the rain yesterday. The forecast was rain today as well. We got outfitted at the Fox Glacier Guides, with boots, rain jackets, rain pants, hats and gloves. The boots were pretty well used. Bob thought his had been resouled a few times and Mikes actually had a hole in them.

The five minute bus drive took us to the glacier river bed. There were 18 of us from all over the world. Hong Kong, Denmark, Switzerland, UK, US. We had to be able to understand the guides english. Even though the language in New Zealand is English it can be a challenge to understand them. We got lucky with our guide being from Ohio.



The tramp started out with 600 steps up and down through the rain forest before we got to the glacier. The steps were all different sizes/heights, this made it slow going. Plus we stoped about every 10 minutes to catch our breath. At one point we walked on a ledge of a cliff with a 100 meter drop. Chains were anchored into the rocks to hold on to. We were supposed to put everything in our pockets/back packs and keep on our hands on the chain. Mike had an infraction, he let go of the chain long enough to take a picture.



We stopped before the glacier and put cramp ons on. The glacier looks weather beaten, but it's actually slippier then we think. Two guys from the Fox Glacier Guides are on the glacier all day every day creating steps. If they don't chip away at the ice, the steps will disappear in about three days. One of the gals fell four times.



We were super hot and sweaty through the forest. We cooled off quickly on the ice. Especially with wet boots, sweaty clothes and the wind. We tramped on the glacier for about an hour. By the time we were leaving the ice there were three other groups of trampers climbing up the ice. I'm glad we decided to be the first group of the morning so there weren't so many other people around.

Back through the river bed, our guide had to radio a 'rock spotter' there is a guy who watches for rocks falling. We had to hurry through the 300 meters and be on the lookout for falling rocks.




We keep hearing about tours to see Glow Worms. We wanted to do one while we were in Te Anau, down by Queenstown. It had rained so much the caves were closed for glow worm viewing. Trish at the B & B recommended we tramp through a route outside town. It was only 20 minutes long. She recommended we do it while it was raining, we were in a rain forest after all. After dinner we went down to the path it was after 8PM so it was dark. We saw glow worms. Imagine a glow similar to a fire fly, only it's a worm. It was neat, I'm glad we didn't spend $100/person on a glow worm tour.

Rainy Day

In the backseat of the car on our way to Fox Glacier.

We spent most of the day driving. Bob, Mike and I took turns. The roads are really windy and slow, it helps to take turns so no one gets too fatigued. It rained for about half the 5 hour drive. So far we have been pretty lucky with weather, it has only rained on the days we were driving. Most of the drive was through a rain forest. Yes, the glacier is in a rain forest! This area gets anywhere from 5 to 12 meters of rain per year which adds up to 200 rainy days. On our way into Fox Glacier we saw signs for the glacier but it was too foggy to see them. We had to have our picnic lunch sitting in the car along the side of the road. We might have even gotten lucky with the rain on the drive this created tons of waterfalls.





We arrived at the Homestay around 4PM. The town is about as big as Eagle Bend, a population of 300. The only reason this town exists is for tourism. Folks come here to tramp on the glacier. We stayed in the main house with the hosts. Mike was a little uncomfortable with this when we arrived. Now he has a new BFF. We spent a few hours with the hosts, they were able to answer Lindas one million and one questions she has asked us along the way.



They are so far in the middle of no where that getting groceries is a 7 hour drive (round trip). With all the rain there are lots of rock slides that close the roads.



Food and groceries are super expensive. Out of the few restaurants in town nothing was less then $22, and that was a vegetarian meal.

We have decided the Kiwi's are as nice as the folks from Iowa. They are very helpful and seem to be honest.