HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAYS TO STEPHEN GELLER (January 31) and to MADELINE WATTLES (February 2)!!!

Our day starts with the headlines telling us about the rampant and devastating flooding that has hit Melbourne yesterday in the late afternoon and overnight. We are heading out to the Yarra Valley for a day of wine tasting today and our driver, David is delayed by the flooding. He tells us that when it rains like that, Mother Nature pours a big bucket of rain on certain sections of the city and they can’t handle it. The ancient and antiquated sewer system can’t handle the amount of rain that falls in such a short period of time. The damage is extensive and mostly in a neighbouring suburb next door to where we are staying – which we find interesting because our suburb, while wet, had absolutely no flooding.

We have booked our wine tour this time with a much smaller company -Victoria Winery Tours and they told me at the time of the booking that one bus was already booked and that it might just be the two of us on a 2nd bus. This is in fact what happens and we start out about 9:45 for our personalized tour. The Yarra Valley is less than 1 hour from Melbourne, and suburbia ends at the edge of the valley. The transition from city to wine country is immediate, and we wonder how long the Yarra will remain agricultural.

We start at Domaine Chandon, the Australian operation of the LVMH luxury house that produces Moet, Louis Vuitton and other high ticket items. A full glass of sparkling wine (champagne not being an acceptable designation any more), and we are off to the races. We visit 5 more wineries today: Tokar, Immerse (a beautiful setting, with spa), Fergusson’s, De Bortoli (which has won a number of international awards for its 1999 chardonnay) and Balgownie Estate. With the exception of Chandon, all are family owned. We taste over 25 wines, running the gamut from truly forgettable to truly wonderful. We buy a couple of bottles for BYO purposes (a 2001 Shiraz from Tokar, a 2000 Chardonnay from De Bortoli), but can’t indulge in more – no way to transport, and no place to ship to.

By the time we get home we are tired and emotional, and overdue for our naps, but highly impressed with both David and with the tour company. After longish snoozes, we head out for a light supper (lunch, at Fergusson’s, had been both delicious and substantial) at one of the many lovely cafes in our suburb.

Peter Connelly, who was just in Melbourne with Peter Duck and Brian Shackleton last December, advised us that they enjoyed the pub at the Laird Hotel in a suburb about 5 kilometres due north of ours – so off we go, arriving just before 10. Once there, we spend a bit of time outside in the courtyard, and watch with fascination as a possum ambles down the tree in the middle of the courtyard just as the place is getting quite busy, takes up a position on an exposed beam, and performs acrobatics in return for peanuts. By 10:30 the place is so packed you can barely move, the possum -no longer the centre of attention - has retired to his tree for the remainder of the evening, and we spend an enjoyable hour or so. Thanks for the recommendation, guys!



From left: Domaine Chandon; Greg and Friends at Badger Weir in Yarra Valley; The Valley

Raining and overcast, we decide to have a movie day. I must admit there is a little guilt attached to this but John points out that “if that’s what we want to do then we should do it.” After breakfast, I pore over the paper and decide on two options! We go with both – doing two movies in a row: “Love Actually” and “Cold Mountain”. We head downtown to the Crown Center (a huge, ugly Las Vegas style “entertainment” complex with a hotel, casino, shops, casino, food courts, casino, etc, casino, etc….). It is officially raining now (John: pouring is more like it) and Melbourne feels and looks a lot like London (UK) to us.

Hankies in tow from “Love Actually” we move on to “Cold Mountain”, and are impressed by Jude and Nicole’s angst driven Homeric (thanks, Michael Brady for the choice word) journey and Renee’s scrappy Annie Oakley.

Out side it is still raining and feeling generally like October as we leave the theatre at about 7 pm. We head back to the hotel and change our clothes for a lovely dinner at a restaurant just up the street from us called Red Orange. Excellent food and excellent wine (BYO!) primed with a starter martini. Yum!

We have evolved a Melbourne routine. We buy the newspaper at the 24/7 supermarket next door to the hotel, read the paper over breakfast in the hotel, then head out for the day. Today, despite predictions of rain and cool weather, when I go out to get the paper it is already hot.

After breakfast, we head to the National Gallery of Victoria, just outside the heart of downtown – with a stop for our tram, number 72, right at the front door. We go inside to find, behind a water wall, quite a beautiful glass-covered courtyard. The building was recently renovated, and it a very comfortable space, despite which it is visually interesting. There are a number exhibits available to us and we quickly split up to do the gallery. I head off to peruse the textile/fashion section and discover a treasure trove of amazing Parisian designer clothing – from Worth through Chanel (both Coco and Karl) and finishing with a Galliano 2003 couture dress and hat for the house of Dior that is the most eloquent statement of anti-fashion I’ve ever seen. I then move on to the European decorative arts section. Greg is quite content looking at the 17th and 18th Century painting galleries. The Gallery is really well presented with some lovely public spaces and several cafes and restaurants on different levels, and we are quite impressed with the depth of the collection.

After the rain ends, out comes warm sunshine and we decide to head to St. Kilda’s Beach to have some lunch and check out the sights. This is a very popular grand old sea side suburb boasting a true carnival atmosphere right down to a small Coney Island style Luna Park. We grab some food, do some window shopping and bump into the young German couple who had been on our Bourassa wine tour in Adelaide. We nod our heads to them and continue on our way. We had also run into another German couple from our Adelaide time at the Victoria Market a few days earlier. “Everyone seems to be on the same schedule,” I mention to Greg.

We stroll a couple of kilometres along the boardwalk, have an ice cream and then head back to town in time for a late afternoon nap. Tough life, I know. Threatening skies.


From left: Melbourne from St. Kilda's; Luna Park and St. Kilda's Beach

We are moving into our first full month of travel and I must admit that I am feeling a little down. The weather in Melbourne is unusually cool for January—23° and overcast. There is rain predicted for the rest of the week and I quickly blame the weather for my somewhat depressed state of mind. Nothing major, I put it down to travel fatigue or perhaps that it is just early days and I haven’t figured this entire process out yet.

We just set out the door when it starts to rain – not a downpour, more like a heavy scotch mist. Regardless of weather or state of mind, we grab the # 72 tram and head downtown. We travel through fashionable St. Kilda Street, pass the Kings Domain (a major park downtown) and get off the tram at Swanston and Collins Streets, right in the heart of Melbourne. We have some stamps to buy and some letters to post, and then we start our walk. Our plan is to head up to the Victoria Market for lunch and then walk back down to Southbank via Elizabeth Street. There are a number of Victorian Arcades that I would like to see and this area also has a number of interesting buildings and sights.


From left: The Royal Arcade and an Australia Day tribute
The market is not as impressive as Adelaide’s was, but we have also discovered another market close to our hotel called the Prahan Market. We grab a quick lunch with the office types and head back down towards theYarra River. The city is jammed with business professionals, back-packers, upscale and downscale shoppers, tourists and locals during lunch hour. This is the first day back for many after the holiday week-end. We head over to Federation Square and then down to the river before ending up in Southbank for a sit and a bottle of water, watching the day trippers stroll by. The sun has come out at this point and it is an entirely different day now—lovely and warm yet still a little crisp (by Australian standards!). The weather is so changeable here. It is tough to dress for the day.

Dinner tonight is a Gay-guide recommended restaurant called Gluttony- It’s a Sin in a rather seedy, drug dealer part of town called Collingwood. It has cooled right down and the weather looks quite threatening tonight but we head up town for dinner. We have a fabulous feed of buffalo meat balls in an Indian inspired stew with some lovely toasted Indian spiced home made bread. Well worth the trip and the perfect meal for a chilly, damp night.

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Well, well, well. Melbourne is an entirely different city from Adelaide and that is evident firstly in its size. Melbourne has over 3.5 million people in it and reminds us of Toronto. The water, the beach proximity and their inner city transportation—it is all street cars or as they call them here, trams. The sound of the tram rolling down the street, its metal wheels catching the section breaks of tracks as it rolls over them, reminds us of home. The Australian Open tennis match is still playing out here, and there is a huge 3 week gay festival going on right now. Lovely tree lined avenues, lots of public space and art and monuments everywhere. It is a happening place.

Melbourne’s rapid growth was helped in the 1850’s by a huge influx of immigrants seeking their fortunes in the gold fields of the state of Victoria. This wealth led to the construction of the grand public buildings that predominate in Melbourne. In fact, it has the most elaborate Victorian architecture in all of Australia. And it is everywhere.

From left: Two views of Flinders Street Station and the city from SouthBank

We arrive late afternoon on Monday the 26th. It is Australia Day here (which is like our Canada Day) and the airport is busy with families heading home before school starts. We check into our hotel in area called South Yarra. We are about a 20- 25 minute tram ride from downtown and about 15 minutes from St. Kilda Beach, a popular beach area for Melbournians. We are also a block away from the fashionable Chapel Street shopping area. This is very much like Toronto’s Queen Street West area. We are staying at a more scaled down hotel in Melbourne than we did in Adelaide, but the difference is immediately evident in the service we receive. Here, they know our names, our key is always out when we arrive, and the staff is friendly and helpful. And we have a nice view of the city from our balcony.


Melbourne from our Hotel Balcony

We drop our bags and head up to Chapel Street for a bite of dinner. It is a holiday weekend so most places are closed. When we finish up, stop for a quick drink at a local watering hole and are in bed early.

We take today as a day off. Since Sunday last week, we have been on the move non-stop. As good North Americans, we aren’t used to walking long distances. And walking is what we’ve done since leaving Doubtless Bay. Our hips and our feet are not as well lubricated as when we were younger, and they are complaining…loudly. Despite which, we end up walking a good distance today.

We are gradually adjusting to living in hotels (although the first two weeks were actually not lived in hotels – they were lived with family and friends) – this is our life for the next 12 months. One of the biggest challenges is the lack of space – we are living in one room for the next year. The worst is early in the morning before Greg wakes. At home I could get up and make coffee. Here that is not an option, and so I read by flashlight. I am burning through the batteries.

I feel like Heloise, who lived in the Plaza Hotel, apparently without parents, but with unlimited access to maids and butlers and nannies. Whoever pays Heloise’s bills isn’t paying ours, unfortunately…so we have our first visit to the Launderette (Greg bought lots and lots of undies in LA). We aren’t about to make the mistake we made in Florence a couple of years ago, where we splurged and had our undies and jeans laundered for us at our hotel, for about $150. When we get to the launderette, however, we find that we have brought the wrong coins and that it is unattended – and so it takes quite awhile to get going: 2 walks to the LiquorMart, about ½ kilometre each way, before we get it right (make of that statement what you will).

Life has passed beyond the sense that we are on vacation – a vacation would have ended by now. And we are into a totally new experience for us, without any set routines. Every day we get up and we ask “what are we going to do today?” And the answer is unframed by either yesterday or tomorrow. Today is only about today. Our sense of time has begun to shift – the days feel longer than they have since we were kids. I wonder if this is because our days are so unstructured; but I also wonder whether some element of this feeling is because we have, in some ways, reverted to a type of 2nd childhood, without the normal adult responsibilities – no house, no car, no mortgage, no debts, no bills, and no jobs.

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We have arrived in Adelaide too early for the Adelaide Festival, which looks like it will be amazing (this is the Festival State, after all, as all the licence plates all tell us), but the Tour Down Under is underway. This is a 5 day bicycle race modeled on the Tour de France, and sponsored by Jacob’s Creek. Walking around, we see the riders riding to the start of the fifth and final stage, which is happening in the parkland just outside downtown Adelaide.

Having covered the town, we have observed a huge number of parking lots. We think we now understand why there are so many – downtown Adelaide is about 1 square mile in size, and surrounded by beautiful parkland. To grow, this has meant that Adelaide has huge suburbs, which spread out forever for a city of 1 million people. To keep the downtown vibrant, the city has huge parking lots, and the suburbanites appear to use them readily.

33 days after we started the 24/7 thing, we have words, for the first time. We want to do different things this afternoon, I want to sit outside in the beautiful day, Greg wants to focus on getting the website updated. We’ve forgotten that making sure that we had some time apart was, in fact, Plan A. It takes about 15 minutes to figure out that that is what we need. When we meet again later in the afternoon, we are both in much better shape and happy to see each other.

We go back to the hotel where, despite pillow menus, and promises of service, our room has not been made up and the lights in the hall outside our room continue to be dark. “Housekeeping has gone home for the day, there’s nothing I can do” is all that Sarah can offer us. We ask for the manager, but of course she or he is out of town for the holiday weekend, so Sarah takes the brunt of our dissatisfaction.

Off to dinner – tonight is Argentinean. Without a reservation, we are offered table 11, right next to the kitchen. It is not a bad table, but our sense of humour wears thin after our waitress, Karen, “having an off day”, brings me the wrong entrée. This leads to a long delay in getting our mains – they don’t order them until the entrées are cleared. Sitting next t to the order and pick-up station, we quickly learn the process, and sit in wonderment at the lack of service but watching with fascination the goings-on in the kitchen, where there appear to be at least 9 people operating in a space smaller than our old master bathroom. Greg says “if we were sitting in any other area of the restaurant and didn’t identify with either the kitchen or Karen, we would be complaining.” And of course he is right. So we do complain, very politely (because we are Canadian). And the restaurant comps our bottle of wine.



left - Central Adelaide, right - heading off to start of 5th Stage of Tour Down Under

Ok, this is one of those days that Greg has been dreading. Up at 5:30!!!!! On the bus at 6:30 for the 2 hour ride to the ferry (45 minutes) that takes us across to Kangaroo Island, where there is a huge wildlife sanctuary, Flinders Chase National Park. This is a full day of travelling and we choose again to do the Gray Line thing. There are many options of travelling to KI, flying, driving or by bus and we choose the option that fits our timing and our budget. Some confusion ensues at the Bus Station concerning which bus everyone should be on. We hear a rumour that there are three buses going to the ferry and we won’t be on the same bus for the tour. We need a specific ticket to get us on the bus and then a special pass to get us on the ferry and then we need to check in again on the other side to determine which tour we are on…..and don’t forget it is 6:15 am!

KI is about 155 kilometres long, and about 55 kilometres wide. While some of it has been farmed for many years, about half of the island has never been cleared, and it is therefore an ecologically important area, with native bush predominating. Very few non-native animals have been introduced, with the result that the local animals have not become food for the interlopers.

First stop on Kangaroo Island is an Australian Sea Lion colony. Our driver, Dave, is full of all kinds of historical information, some helpful and interesting, some not so. I am not sure how interesting some of this information is to our fellow travellers – mainly Japanese, Korean and German. We walk onto the beach where the sea lions are sleeping – we are so close to them, just 5 metres away from us. The adults go out into the water for 3 days at a time, travelling hundreds of kilometres to their feeding ground. The waters are full of predators, so they don’t sleep for the 3 days, and when they get back to shore, they often use the waves to push them onland because they are so tired. That is how we are able to go so close without disturbing them – they are oblivious to everything except the sun, raising their flippers or rolling in the wet sand to cool down, going up into the grasses on the dunes to warm up in winter. This colony is one of the very few that has survived the oil and fur trade, mainly because the beach is protected by a reef just offshore that meant the sealers couldn’t get in to the beach. The reef not only helped the sea lions survive humans, but also their finned predators, because the predators won’t come into the lagoon. However, it also means that the water here is warm, and so the good feeding grounds are far away. (Greg: John crying at this point.)





Next stop was a eucalyptus forest to see koalas. Koalas are not indigenous to KI, but were introduced as a conservation measure because so much of their habitat on the mainland has disappeared, KI is covered in the right kind of eucalyptus, and thus they have thrived here. There are a number of bears easily visible, including a mother with her baby on her back.



Because the diet of the koalas (eucalyptus only) is so poor, they sleep for about 20 hours daily. And that is what they were doing when we were there. I am tremendously moved (Greg: John does even more crying): all my life I have dreamed of seeing koalas in the wild. The koalas are mainly grabbing the eucalyptus trees – Dave says that the trees shed their bark in order to present a white, reflective surface to the sun, meaning the trees stay cooler. The koalas in turn hug the trees as a way of keeping cool themselves. Having seen a steady stream of pictures of koalas hugging trees, we had always thought they were trying to keep from falling. Who knew it was a form of air conditioning?

We find it amazing that we can get so close to the animals without being in a zoo. In any national parks we’ve been in at home, the animals (except for deer that have become accustomed to handouts) have stayed well away.



We head off to the Remarkable Rocks, high on a cliff overlooking the Southern Ocean, formed by volcanic action and millennia of erosion. On this next part of the drive, we see a metre long goanna – which looks like it a type of iguana. Dave the driver jokes that it must be a local, because it sure isn’t moving very fast.





From here, it is a short hop to the Admiral’s Arch, where there is a huge colony of New Zealand Fur Seals. This colony survived because there were two islands just offshore that could not be approached by the sealers. Now that sealing is prohibited, the population is making a comeback. According to Dave, this didn’t stop some desperate sealers from trying to land on them when all the other seals in the area had been exterminated. Fortunately for the seals, the rocky terrain meant that the sealers drowned before they could kill any seals, and the government shortly afterwards declared the islands off limits.

The seals are far more active than the sea lions were – playing and fighting and vocalizing. We can’t go close – but as we well remember from Cape Foulwind, where we went on our first trip to New Zealand in 1992, seal colonies have quite a distinctive odour – so we’re not sure we would want to get much closer in any event. (Greg: John is cooing at the seals.)



So far we have not seen any kangaroos, despite hours spent on their namesake island – they sleep during the day to escape the heat. At our last stop, at a café in the park’s Visitor Centre, we finally see a number of kangaroos. Like the deer at home, they come looking for (verboten) handouts. Although we do not feed them, they come right up to us and we have little visits with them in the parking lot. (Greg: John is purring at the kangaroos.)



Finally, it is time for the ferry and bus ride home. With a beautiful sunset chasing us as we head home, we get back to the hotel about 10:30 – a long but fulfilling day behind us.

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Greg has to wake me again (at 7:30), for the 2nd day in a row. We grab a coffee and then it’s off to the Barossa Valley, one of the world’s great wine regions. We are going on a bus – the typical Gray Line tour with your typical tourists from all over the world. The thought of driving us to some wonderful wine tasting is scary enough, let alone doing it on the wrong side of the road, so we take the option of the tour. And judging from the number of “kangaroo crossing” signs we see on the road, I’m not sure that I would want to be driving even if I were stone cold sober.

The day is warm in Barossa – probably 33 or 34°, but this is incredibly dry country, and there is absolutely no humidity in the air, so the heat is not oppressive. The entire day is a study in brown – except for the vines, which are green and lush, and the sky, which is a deep blue, cut by small wisps of white cloud. Many of the best vines are old – some are over 100 years (phylloxera has not been a problem in South Australia) – and these vines are green without irrigation, because their roots have gone so deep they have found water naturally.

We start big – Jacob’s Creek. They have built a beautiful tasting room and restaurant – the equal of anything we’ve seen in Napa or Sonoma. And they know what they’re doing. We are treated like royalty.



From there, we go on to the mid-size Kaesler Wines, where we have lunch in the restaurant. Our Gray Line compatriots have opted for dessert at this point but Greg and I choose more tasting. Great wines for a smaller, boutique style winery. Our server at Kaesler is a substitute teacher at one of the local high schools. She tells that the local high school has a course teaching about grape and wine production – the first such high school course in Australia. The wine is good enough that it is being shipped to the US where it is being distributed by a small, organic restaurant chain.


Then on to Kies, a small boutique winery that sells its complete production at the cellar door and to a couple of Sydney restaurants. Truly lovely wines! We enquire about shipping, and the cost to North America is prohibitive. Not so to Europe for some reason – maybe we should ship some ahead! We end up buying a lovely bottle of Merlot to take to a BYO restaurant one night.

When we get back to Adelaide about 5:30 and the day is still warm. We go exploring in the opposite direction from the day before and discover Central Market, a sort of St. Lawrence Market on steroids. The abundance of high summer in an agricultural region is apparent everywhere. We are both surprised and somewhat overwhelmed by the many shoppers there on a Friday evening at 7:30. And there are restaurants everywhere. We spend an hour reading menus and salivating, before deciding on one for dinner, Lime & Lemon Thai Café. The food is sublime, the service perfect and just enough bustle to keep you interested in what is going on in the room and on the street. All the restaurants, markets and malls are all fully open here with a lovely midsummer breeze blowing through. No curtains hung at the front door to stop the January cold wind. We walk back out onto the street, which is vibrating with energy and people enjoying themselves, and try to decide where we’ll eat next – all the restaurants look worthwhile.

The sun has gone down, and the temperature drops quickly in the dry air. We walk back to the hotel with a whole new perspective on Adelaide, as a vibrant and interesting city. Who knew?

And now for a quick word on followsummer.com usage: While we love and certainly appreciate all your kind and supportive comments on our travel escapades, please be advised that your thoughtful, insightful and colourful comments are available for world wide consumption. Thank you, Michael for discovering and pointing out this little aspect of the site to everyone. We have received so many comments on your posting.

If you would like to speak to us privately, just click on the upper right hand corner of the site “contact us”, then click on either email address and comment away. On the other hand, we are having a ball with the open dialogue everyone seems to be having with each other’s comments. Keep it up! Now back to your regularly scheduled programming…

John is sleeping in well past his normal 6 a.m. rise. Even so, we have an early rise and early breakfast. We have hot and muggy weather again and the good people of Sydney are complaining about it!! All we have to do is mention the temperature at home, including the wind chill. Silence quickly descends and all complaining stops.

We have completely repacked our suitcases to accommodate our next month on the road, and are leaving the two smaller suitcases at our hotel. They aren’t charging us for the storage! And we won’t be staying at Sullivans when we return! Crikey, nice people down under. (Actually, I haven’t heard one Australian use the word Crikey.)

We suffer bad ‘heavy baggage’ jokes from our driver, and head to the airport for an early afternoon flight to Adelaide aboard Virgin Blue. Despite leaving lots of baggage behind, we get charged ($10 each) for “excess luggage”.

“Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls” a cheeky Australian voice greets us as we get on the plane. John tells me at check-in that Virgin Blue has revolutionized the “low cost, no frills” airline industry in Australia. They seem to be having a lot of fun with the revolution.

After the 2 hour flight, we arrive in dreary, hick town Adelaide (the capitol of the State of South Australia) with hordes of end-of-summer-vacation-now-it’s-back-to-school whiney kids, with parents in tow. We expect little – all of the Australians we talked to in Sydney expressed surprise that anyone would go to Adelaide voluntarily.

We check into quite a glamorous new hotel that John found on the internet (a pillow menu, Jacqueline!) and head out for a dreary beer, anticipating an even drearier dinner. Thursday evening doesn’t seem to be a happening night in Ol’ Adelaide. John says “oh my God, it’s like London!” (Ontario).

We end up having quite a good feed of Greek food at, get this, (major trivia answer here) “The Original Barbecue Inn”. Fans of the great Australian TV Soap of the 1970’s “No. 96” often pay homage to the actress Chantal Contour (aka “the panty-hose murderer”) who owns the joint. We, unfortunately, don’t run into her.

After such a fortuitous introduction to Adelaide, we have nothing else to look forward to except bed. And we jump into it.

My Brother Jeffrey leaves on January 29 for Afghanistan, supporting Canadian Peacekeeping duties. Good luck Jeff and please, travel safely.

Downstairs with coffee and the papers by 8:20, we are up early today for breakfast…well, relatively early for the new us. The morning bustle on Oxford Street is persistent.

Sullivans Hotel is situated in Darlinghurst and on the border to our immediate east is Paddington. Oxford Street, as you move further north towards Liverpool Street and downtown, is somewhat seedier and run down. Paddington has charm, charm, charm. Ornate, wrought iron balustrades grace the second floor balconies of these small but graceful row houses. There is a feeling of New Orleans in the neighbourhood.

Breakfast done, we head out to try and figure out the Sydney public transit system. Buses, underground trains, a monorail system and harbour ferries that sometimes connect and sometimes do not make up the transit system. We buy a 10 fare bus pass and decide to walk the 20 minutes to Darling Harbour and The Rocks. It is a beautiful sunny day but very hot and muggy.

Darling Harbour looks a bit like Toronto’s Ontario Place but situated in downtown Sydney. The newness of the site tells us that this was more than likely built for the 2000 Olympics. We are too early for the many pubs and cafes and harbour shows that normally take place here but it is still a nice stroll nonetheless.


Darling Harbor

We walk over Pyrmont Bridge, a historic swing bridge that is now pedestrian and monorail only, head north and wind up in the area known as The Rocks. This quaint, historic area is essentially right under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and just west of Circular Quay. Named after its rough terrain, the area grew and survived as a mostly working-class area until the 1960’s when Sydney went through a wild and somewhat un-checked building process. The locals protested and the area claims its fame as one of the major tourist attractions in Sydney. (Take that as you will. The locals think of it as a tourist trap of commercialized history, but we had a pleasant lunch and stroll there.)


The Rocks

We head back to Circular Quay and wait for the number 380 bus to take us back to the hotel. This is the Bondi Beach bus and very quickly is full with all sorts of riders, many with their surf boards! Our day ends with a huge rolling thunder and lightning storm to break the muggy summer heat.

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More Birthdays:
On January 21, Carmela Spencley and Ben Thomas
On January 22, Peggy Guest
Happy Birthday from Down Under!

We get up and start walking – no plan, just wherever we end up. It is a beautiful, clear sunny day and we wander through Hyde Park, a glorious green space in the middle of Sydney, through what seems to be never-ending park, ending up at the famous Sydney Opera House. This site has been photographed so many times that we wanted to get a sense of the building from a different perspective. The similarities between the Opera House and and Gehrey’s Disney Hall in LA are striking. Lots of tourists today, including us.

We have a quick lunch with the rest of the business types then stroll north, back through the heart of business Sydney.

Sydney is truly beautiful. The waterfront puts Toronto to shame, as does the parkland.

We wander and wander, but will be back in about 1 month, staying for 4 weeks, so we don’t try to do everything all at once. We will have plenty of time to get the lay of the land.



Views of Sydney Opera House and Harbour

Our last morning in New Zealand. We have a late morning get-together with Mary Ruth Doole, a Kiwi friend we haven’t seen in 10 years, over coffee and breakfast in Mt. Eden Village. We then head for the airport for tearful goodbyes with Felicity Jane, Hamish, Andros and Ruth.

New Zealand has been a wonderful warm up to our trip and we are so happy to have met Flick and the Boys…..Thanks you guys for having us….we had such a great time with you!

These are our completely unofficial recommendations for the North Island of New Zealand:
Buy property NOW in the Doubtless Bay area.
Have fish and chips at the Mangonui Fish Shop.
Have ice cream anywhere and all the time.
Sample as much New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc as you can.

Some books that you may find of interest that kept us company in New Zealand:
Three Junes, by Julia Glass (Thanks Eleanor McC.!)
The Art of Travel, by Alain de Botton (Thanks Tom Hockin)
The Night Listener, by Armistead Maupin (On going, thanks, Ruth)

We drive into Auckland from Doubtless Bay. It takes two cars to handle the overflow of luggage that we have brought with us (not to mention that there are six people making the journey). We take everyone out for dinner to celebrate Ruth’s birthday.

It is a beautiful day for a drive, but unfortunately - due to a stalled truck about 80 kilometres outside of Auckland - a four hour drive turns into seven. We arrive back to the Mt. Eden Motel and quickly change our clothes and head out to Ponsonby Road for dinner.

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Early Birthday wishes to our friends Brian Shackleton and John’s sister Ruth on the 17th and Fernanda Ferraro on the 18th! (We will be celebrating with Ruth right here in New Zealand). Happy Birthday from New Zealand!

My friend Lucy Peacock started rehearsals for King Lear in New York at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center on January 13th. Merde!!


Lighthouse at Cape Reinga

Today is our first official family road trip. Ruth, John, Felicity Jane, Hamish, Andros and I pack up the two cars and head north for the 2 hour drive to the very northern tip of New Zealand, Cape Reinga. John skilfully and successfully drives one of the cars on the left hand side of the road for the entire day. This will be good driving practice for our 8 day camper van trip in Australia. (Even I have to admit that John is a very accomplished left lane driver.)

We stop for a quick look at 90 Mile Beach. Brash and windy, with lots of crashing waves, Felicity Jane says “ahhhh, typical west coast beach…beautiful”. Interestingly enough, this beach, which you can drive on, is considered part of New Zealand’s main highway, Number 1.


From left – looking south along 90 Mile Beach, Ruth and John waving, Felicity Jane and Andros running down sand dune

I had read in the community newspaper about a drowning in one of the area’s lakes. Bruce, a local Maori, has been helping Ruth replace the roof on the house. Over a tasty roasted Chinese Chicken dinner made by Felicity Jane, Bruce tells us about the Maori custom of placing a “Tapu” on bays or lakes or other water where someone has drowned. No one is allowed to swim in this water until the Tapu is lifted. In this particular case, there is a five day “rahui”, or ban from swimming. The Tapu makes this place sacred and allows the spirit of the person to pass from the place where they have died. On our way north, we pass this very lake and I silently remember those who have passed before me.

We continue north and stop for a quick tour of a gum diggers’ camp. In the 1800’s and early 1900’s, diggers would make their fortunes by digging hardened sap from the roots of the Kauri tree and selling it to market. When this gum has petrified and is polished, it is a form of amber. These people had a very tough life. To judge from the photos at the site, it was very similar in many ways to our Klondike Gold rush, and brought numerous immigrants to New Zealand. As we drive through the day, we pass many places named after people whose names we recognize from some of the photos at the exhibit.

The north continues to beckon as we stop further up the coast for a quick swim at a lovely isolated beach of beautiful white sand and glistening blue and green waters at Rangaunu Harbour. After we dry off and change, we grab a quick lunch in Pukenui and continue our journey to the very northern end of New Zealand.


From left – View of Rangaunu Harbour, Hamish, Andros

Cape Reinga is a special and very spiritual part of New Zealand. This sacred place is where the Maori would bring the spirits of those who died in the past year to the tip of the island and ceremonially send them on their spiritual journey from the island. Needless to say it is a very beautiful and remote place.


Two views of Spirit Point

Cape Reinga is also where the Tasman and South Pacific oceans meet. The place where the waters join is very turbulent, and as cold water from the deep of both oceans is forced up to the surface, there is plenty of seafood to attract many sea animals to the area. In Spirits Bay, just east of the Cape, it is not uncommon to swim with dolphins.


Two views of point where Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean meet

The sun is beginning to sit low in the sky and it is truly at special place to be. A warm sea breeze is gently blowing in from the east. In the distance you can see the “Three Kings” islands. These were so named by Captain Cook when he discovered them on Boxing Day, December 26th. The whimsical directional sign post is the Cape’s nod to the many daily tourists who make the trip up to the Cape in their buses and camper vans.

Today is a quiet day for tourists. But we don’t feel like tourists. Rather, like true Kiwi’s, out for a pleasant day with our family.


Three views of Cape Reinga

S35°
E173°

Ruth and her partner Felicity Jane (Flick in Kiwi), and Felicity Jane’s sons, Hamish and Andros, live about 10 km outside the town of Mangonui, which is just off Doubtless Bay. The story is that Captain Cook sailed by but did not enter Doubtless Bay, instead uttering the words “doubtless, a bay”.

Ruth and Flick have a spread of about 10 acres – and keep Dusty, a horse, some chickens, a feral turkey that has adopted the family, and two beautiful cats. Dusty is a retired steeplechase horse, and is happy to come to the fence and nuzzle anyone who is willing to nuzzle him back.



Here is the view from the front door and the drive, and one of John feeding Dusty an apple.

This is serious tourist territory, and you can see why – the scenery is spectacular, the weather perfect. The rumour is that Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems has fallen in love with this area, and has purchased a big spread of land on which he is building a vacation home.

We start our morning in a sun-drenched café with coffee and muffins in the Mt. Eden neighbourhood of Auckland. John’s sister Ruth is heading to Waiuku for a funeral and leaves us on our own. We catch the bus and head downtown to Queen Street and seek out an internet café to do our website updating.

Aucklanders and Kiwis’s, in general, are very friendly people. Everywhere we go, spontaneous conversation kicks in. Queen Street is the original downtown of Auckland and the area hums with tourists and backpackers, seeking shopping, currency exchange or a last bit of raucous night life before they head off into the wilderness of New Zealand. Many trekkers, like us, spend their morning picking up email and connecting to family and friends.

Auckland has changed dramatically since we were here 12 years ago. The America’s Cup has dramatically revitalized the harbour with shops and expensive condos. As in any city’s history of revitalization and renovation, especially on their waterfront, the results are both positive and negative. The waterfront is certainly accessible and inviting, with the café and shopping experience predominating. Not necessarily accessible perhaps for all Jafa’s (a local colloquialism for the residents of Auckland) but none the less a very inviting area in the City of Sails.



We have a designated rendezvous later in the day with Ruth in Devonport, which is a pleasant 10 minute ferry ride across the harbour from Auckland, for our 4 hour drive to the “Far North”. Despite sudden overcast skies and threatening rain, we arrive to have a pleasant 45 minute stroll through the Victorian town, having a quick browse through the shops and grabbing a latte as the threatening skies deliver a 5 minute summer shower, scattering the tourists and locals under awnings and into cafes.



Auckland is situated on many ancient volcanoes – the photo of Devonport evidences this.

Just as the shower is nicely ended, we meet up with Ruth and begin the drive north. For the first hour or so we are on motorway with heavy weekend traffic. Then the road narrows to 2 lanes, and we still have heavy weekend traffic. John takes over the driving – first time for “keep left” driving – which is good practice for the coming campervan experience in Australia. The scenery is unspoilt and magnificent – lush green everywhere, and spectacular stands of trees unknown outside New Zealand.

Latitude: S36°
Longitude: E174°
Full Moon.

We got to bed at about 2:30 a.m. Auckland time (5:30 a.m. L.A. time) and were up about 8:30 to seek out coffee and breakfast, feeling that hazy, thumping middle of the forehead headache called jetlag. Our original accommodation plan had to be changed at the last minute but John’s sister Ruth saved the day and sought out alternate arrangements for all of us.

The weather is magnificent summer – the Kiwi’s are all complaining about the humidity, but word reaches us that there are big storms at home with -14°C temperatures, so we’re not complaining at all. We spend the day walking around central Auckland and after miles and miles we walk up Parnell Road, which is about as big a hill as there is in Auckland. Our plans change, and we taxi back to the carpark before heading out for a nice supper and an early bed.

Happy Birthday Rosemary!

We started toward the airport today about 8:30 a.m. for a 1:35 p.m. flight. With 2 in the car, we got to use the carpool lane on the highways, which helped considerably. Got to the airport a bit earlier than anticipated, checked in, and then waited to board the plane to Auckland, where my sister Ruth (and our 1st summer of 2004) will be waiting for us when we land at midnight tomorrow Auckland time.

From the plane we had the most amazing view of Santa Catalina, an island off the coast of LA, and some beautiful cloudscapes.



We are hurtling towards the date line at a land speed of about 905 km/hr and an altitude about 11,000 meters. The Marquesas Islands are about 1477 km to our south east and we are about equal distance between the Hawaiian Islands and Hiva Oa at approximately 1574 km and over 5000 km from our departure at LAX.

The time is about 4:32 p.m. in Auckland on Wednesday Jan the 7th, 6 hours into the flight, and another 7 to go. Our tired old body clocks tell us that it is still January the 6th in LA. This is a very long flight, despite Melanie, the flight attendant, who is doing her best to make it a very enjoyable (read: liquid) flight, and who is so excited about us being on our honeymoon that every time she talks to us she gushes.

Bill and Bruce have a view from their yard that is unbelievable – a true California vista. You look from their yard, which is high up a mountain, down a long valley to an inverted triangle of Pacific Ocean. The valley is fall California brown – it has not yet begun to take on the subtle hint of green that marks spring out here. From the yard, you do not see many houses; instead you actually see the hill. It is a beautiful view.

I have gone many times to the yard today, and looked at this view as the sun moved overhead. I find it entrancing.



We first met Bill and Bruce 9 years ago as they and we were checking into a hotel – the clerk decided it was more efficient to check us in simultaneously, so proceeded to introduce us and then he became totally confused about who was who. This led to a laugh, and we have been good friends since – although we don’t get to see them as often as we would like.

Their dog Sandy Paws is a special sweetheart. She is 16 years old, and has been blind for a number of years. But she makes her way around as best she can, and is a good friend to Bill and Bruce.



We had a quiet day today – sat in a lovely coffee house in the middle of Laguna Beach and updated the website. The weather finally turned, and it was a perfect day to be “out and about” (as Bruce would say with his amusing Canadian accent). We went out for Mexican food for supper, on the assumption that it would be a long time before it was available as an option.

Ok, here is a classic underwear story…no, not one of those stories….We had packed our big bags for the trip quite early on and had stored them at our neighbors Frank and Carmela’s. Packing, storing, moving things to Brian’s condo, unpacking, repacking and moving to Stratford, unpacking, storing, making sure we had enough of the basics, you know? Greg had forgotten what exactly he had packed in the big suitcases at Frank and Carmela’s and kept wondering why he had so much underwear in Stratford??!! Needless to say, after a thorough search of all the luggage here in California, Greg shopped for brand new underwear today for the rest of their trip. Thank God there is a lot of clean underwear stored in Stratford for his arrival in June!

Latitude: N33°
Longitude: W117°

We arrive early afternoon to our friend Bill and Bruce’s house in Laguna Niguel with a fabulous view out to the ocean…still chilly by California standards and we must admit, by ours, too! A simple supper and lots of catch up and we are all off to an early bed.

Latitude: N34°
Longitude: W118°

We wake to a perfect day – clear blue skies with glorious sun but somewhat cool and windy. Larry and Del have a gem of a house, with a perfect yard and pool. We realize how quite and peaceful it is despite being 12 minutes from Hollywood and Vine.



We spend the day touring downtown LA. Who knew LA had a downtown! And in a Toronto sense, it doesn’t – it is an area of town called “downtown”, rather than the physical hub.

Two buildings in particular are on our agenda – Our Lady of the Angels (architect: Moneo) and Walt Disney Hall (architect: Gehry). Both are beautiful in the extreme – but it is difficult to conceive of 2 buildings that could be more different. And yet both are similar, in their use of light as an important architectural element and within close walking distance on Grand Avenue.

Our Lady of the Angels

The new Cathedral in downtown L.A is monochromatic both inside and out. The walls and ceiling are poured concrete that has been tinted a sort of café au lait colour. The windows are alabaster, so the quality of the light inside is a shimmering luminescence, and the colour of the light is the same café au lait as the walls and ceiling. While a very modern building, it exudes a grandness of scale that rivals the great ancient churches of Europe.




The sconces on the wall are all handmade angels. One in particular caught my eye – he seemed so unhappy for an angel, and his wings appeared to be on fire.



Disney Hall

What can be said? The exterior of the main hall is clad in stainless steel, and every piece is unique. Because there are no flat planes, the sunlight dances!



Thank you, Larry and Del, for your wonderful hospitality. What a great start to our trip!

A day of travel and time for contemplation. The beginning of a year of living in the moment, following an intense period of planning, when it often seemed that we spent all our time living in the future as we laid the groundwork for the trip.

We got to the airport early, driven by our wonderful friend Carmela and her daughter Kathryn. At the airport, there were long lines to clear the US immigration inspection. We get through, and sit quietly in the lounge, making a few last minute calls to friends and family. Then we get onto the plane, but there is a 1 hour delay in pushing back from the terminal. And because of the headwinds the flight is about 30 minutes longer than normal. Lots of time to reflect on the adventure we’re beginning. There are a few tears shed as we fly through the afternoon.

The movie on the flight is “Under the Tuscan Sun”. The name of the villa, Bramasole, means “yearning for sun”, and it is an apt description of the year we begin. Some particular quotes from the movie stand out: “Terrible idea! - don’t you just love them!” and “Regrets are a waste of time.” I believe there are no coincidences, so I take all of this as a good omen for our journey.

Finally, much later than expected, on a wet and rainy Friday evening, we arrive at the home of our friends Larry and Del in Hollywood. Outside, the clear air is wet and sensuous with the smell of eucalyptus. Inside, we find wonderful smells of stew enveloping the house – so warm and welcoming!

That night when we open our luggage we discover that Carmela and Frank have tucked little remembrances into our bags, and so we end the day thinking again of the tradeoffs we have made – exchanging a home and friends for a voyage of exploration of the new, and hopefully of self-discovery.

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