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| The three siblings |
New Zealand
We’ve been to NZ and Australia three times now (Marcia has
never been to either country) and love the people and ambiance in each place. They are both real naturalist’s countries,
and if you are a hiker, biker, explorer of flora and fauna, these are your
places to be.
As we flew into Auckland, we crossed the International Date
line, causing us to skip one day forward.
Funny how that works! But not to
worry; we’ll pick it up again on the return trip.
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| The beach in Mangawhai Heads |
In Auckland, our sister Diane and her husband Mike (Di &
Mi) were there to meet us and take us back to their new house in Mangawhai Heads on the
North Island of New Zealand, about a two-hour drive north of Auckland. It was good to see our gracious relatives
once again; we haven’t seen them since 2013.
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| Enjoying family in Mangawhai Heads |
It’s springtime down under, so we expected the weather to be
similar to our own spring back in Pennsylvania. Lots of flowering shrubs and
trees, and yes it did rain every day intermittently while we stayed here in NZ.
A nice gentle soaking rain that only came in short spurts – not lengthy, heavy
downpours. Most of the time, it rained during the night (just like in Camelot).
Over the next few days, we spent a lot of time with Di &
Mi catching up, the five of us learning all the new stuff that was happening in
each other’s lives.
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Lunch at Brick Bay drinking their
fabulous rosé! |
Di & Mi took us to lunch at Snell’s Beach in the town of
Warkworth, about an hour’s drive from their home in Mangawhai. “Brick Bay Vineyards” had a vineyard and
wines of course, as well as a lengthy glass house where lunch was served,
surrounded by well-manicured, jungle-y greenery, walking trails, ponds,
magnificent flora, and art sculptures placed at various locations throughout
the landscape.
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| Hiking through the Sculpture Walk at Brick Bay Vineyards |
Art sculptures in the
middle of the woods? Rugged, often-metal
or plastic modern art were placed as fun points of interest in strategic locations
along what they called a sculpture trail.
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| Art sculpture in the pond |
Before lunch, Mike took us for an hour’s walk thru the woodland along the well-kempt trails to admire the art and the nature. They even included music with Gregorian chants piped in to create the feeling of being in nature’s cathedral.
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| Lovely water lilies |
Water lilies and their colorful spring flowers flourished on each pond’s surface.
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| At the picnic with friend Bev |
One day, Di & Mi put together a barbeque on their
outside deck for a group of special folks: Karen and Steve (daughter and
son-in-law), Tori (granddaughter), and Bev and Ash (good friends), and of
course the three of us.
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| Bennett's Chocolate Shop! |
A highlight of Mangawhai is shopping in the artsy shops and always
a visit to Bennett’s Fine Chocolate Shop.
Yesssss, we do love their international chocolate selection and try to
visit it whenever we’re nearby.
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Mike has some fun with the girls
on the beach |
Another highlight was walking on the beach at Mangawhai
Heads, a gorgeous stretch of soft sand with fascinating sand dunes and rock
formations. The water was still cold but that didn’t stop the hearty Kiwi
surfers. What a joy it would be to live this close to such a magnificent place.
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| Anne checks out Di's elevated garden |
We were surprised that Diane makes much of her own recipes
with fruits and veggies from her garden.
She has a unique garden just outside her kitchen window with various edible
table items that she picks almost every day for very healthy eating! The waist-high
wall design of her garden allows her to harvest food items, weed, fertilize,
and/or plant without bending over or getting down on her knees. Great design, and
how wonderful to be able to grow all this stuff all year round in the mild NZ
climate!
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| Enjoying an afternoon with the family |
Her recipes are artisan quality – like her coleslaw, her
plums in her special sauce, and her fritters made with whitebait (an expensive delicacy)
made from minnow-like fish. Diane enjoyed telling us that if we looked closely,
we could see the little eyeballs still in the whitebait patty (and she wasn’t
kidding)!
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| Gas prices in NZ |
One other thing. Frank always tries to get a bead on the
average price of some common products in other countries such as this. Obviously,
NZ is an island and prices of most things are higher than back in our country.
The gasoline prices here are on the order of $6/gallon when you do the math conversions.
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| Welcome to Oz! |
Australia
The next and last phase of our lengthy excursion took the five
of us over to Sydney, Australia. Marcia
had never been here before either, so she was thrilled to set her little peds
on Aussie soil for the 1st time.
Altho the rest of us had been here a number of times, it is always fun
to return to Oz (such a cool nickname).
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| The family in front of the famous Opera House |
Of course, the Opera House in Sydney is a major attraction
to all. Altho the unique construction and history of its inception is a story
for the history books, we will not get into that here. Suffice it to say that,
in our humble opinion, this is probably one of the top ten worldwide modern
structures.
Our main interest in the Sydney
Opera house this time around was seeing a show on stage there. Anne worked her
magic and found that the musical “Evita” just happened to be playing the week
of our stay in Sydney. So, the five of us got side-by-side tickets in the fifth row from the front. And, the performance was spectacular!!
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| Seated in the Opera House ready for the show |
The songs of Andrew Lloyd Weber were expertly
delivered, the view was unimpeded, the seating could not have been better, and
the cast were perfect for this politically-charged musical! What an indelible memory to have seen this show,
in this venue, with the family!
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| Purple Jacaranda tree in bloom |
The Jacaranda trees accent the
Australian countryside at this time of year. The fast-growing purple-flowered
native of the tropics is a common sight here on the continent of Australia. We
had seen them in other places on other travels, such as Argentina and some
Caribbean countries, but they always impress.
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| Bondi Beach |
We took a city bus tour mainly for
Marcia but also to refresh our fading knowledge of this Aussy town. The tour included Sydney's most famous beach spot, Bondi Beach.
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| The famous Sydney Opera House at night from the ferry |
A souvenir hunt
thru famous Paddy’s Market in downtown Sydney was a fun adventure too. We also checked out the classy restaurants
around the Darling Harbor area and took a ferry to Manley Wharf to see the
famous Sydney harbor after dark. All fun and memorable things to do with the
family.
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| A toast to our Kiwi relatives! |
We hated to end our fun tour thru
out the South Pacific, but we all knew we had to go home at some point. With a
few toasts of champagne to a wonderful encounter with our Kiwi relatives, we
had a lengthy parting of the ways from our hotel room balcony on the 55th
floor.
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| View of Sydney from the 55th floor |
High above a beautifully lit nighttime city with electrical storms pounding
the horizon by the sea.
More pics:
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| Arriving in Kiwiland airport! |
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| Di offers a welcoming toast |
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| Always affable Mike |
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| Kiwi Beach Bums |
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| At Brick Bay Vineyard |
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| Tori, Karen and Steve |
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| INCREDIBLE green NZ mussels |
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| At the Mangawhai Golf Club |
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| Frank with Sydney Opera House and Hanger Bridge |
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| Anne stalking the Australian Ibis |
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| The awesome Opera House of Sydney |
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| Awesome Frank at the Opera House |
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| Anne plays the goofball in a fountain |
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| Cheers to all! |
