Thursday march 5 and Friday March 6: my birthdays!

Since i was out til 3 last nite, I got up at 9 am on my birthday rather rough, but ready to hit the walking tour at the Rocks. It was included as a option in my Sydney visitor pass. The guide showed us the oldest house in Sydney and the stone block masonry that the prisoners on teh island had to cut out. The buidlings and the walled fences in the area show these clocks and each person/cutter also added cuts on the side of the blocks to show their signautre so they got credit for the cutting. We also went through an aread called Foundations that had been demolished during the bubonic plague, except for the foundations. An artist and historical group has since rebuilt some of these areas to and added furniture to show what the living areas looked like when they were there, built right into the rocks. We also walked under a tunnel that the prisoners had cut out using pickaxes for 14 years~! before they started using gunpowder (not dynomite). This tunnel is under the connecting road to the Harbor Bridge.

After the walk, I took my hungry self to a restaurant I'd read about called Sailor Thai in the Sailors Home in th Rocks. I sat out on a little patio looking at the wharf. This place was nicely hidden away but quickly filled up with business luncheons, not tourists. I had a prawn wrap and trilled tasmanian salmon- both amazing. Not the cheapest for lunch, around $40 including wine, but made a memorable lunch for my birthday. Then I was off to roam the wharf and catch the bus to the Sydney tower for a view of the city. After that, I went to the Sydney jet boat ride, also on the Sydney pass. Its a speed boat in the harbor that does 360 degree turns and spins. I got soaking wet as we didnt wear the ponchos, since it was a hot day. Should have wore the ponchos! I walked up to St. George strett to catch the bus back tot eh hostel, take a quick shower and then my friend Jayne picked me up to head to dinner and show with her friends. We headed to marrikville, a part of Sydney to a pub and then to see Mia Dyson, an amzing blues rocker kind of like Bonnie Raitt. Jayne's friends were great and we had a good time at the concert. Great birthday Down Under indeed. Tomorrow is my birthday States time.

Friday.
My 3 day sydney pass is going to get barely used today I text a German friend, Charlie, from Wed nite and then meet her at the ferry to Manly. We end up renting boogie or they call body boards and hite the surf. The water is warm and clear and the waves aren't very strong but I'm happy just being in the water. After we have lunch we head back to the ferry to Sydney and I rush back on the bus to clean up at the hostel and then back on the bus to head back to the Opera House to see Justin Bond's caberet show. Justin used to be Kiki in Kiki and Herb. I think I've seen him perform as such at leat 5 times, so I'm excited to see him. Jayne had to work so I call up another new friend and Jacinta from Sydney replies that she's interested, so we meet up at the Sydney OPera House. Imagine my excitement when Justin says his show is a Carpenters tribute, their first album. Hallelujah|! He performs my favorite Superstar and I'm glowing. Happy birthday to me. When he does the Interplanetary song, I about died. In a good way >. Then we are off to to meet up with Charlie and her friend Mona up from Melbourne and then we hit the girl party at the Mars Lounge./ Dancing/ dancers. Hot bar. Back at hostel by 3 am.

Tourist days and Dancing nights in Sydney

I'll fill more in later.
Wednesday
Bus tour
Aquarium
Wildlife Park
Bank
sly Fox bar.

Thursday- Happy birthday to me.

Rocks Walking tour
Salior Thai restaurant at the Rocks
Sydney Tower
Jet boat ride
Mia Dyson
dinner with Jayne's crew

Monday and Tuesday - heading to Australia!

Monday
fly to Auckland, stay over, washed clothes yay! ordered in a Pizza Hut, not much around these airport hotels.

Tuesday
arrived in Sydney!
shuttled to Glebe Village Backpackers.
went out with my friend Jayne to Sly Fox- where Michele's friends do their Bingay Bingo. It was a blast, but they ran those numbers so fast, I didn't have a chance. Drinking Cooper beer with Jayne, my friend I met 13 years ago in Brighton Beach, UK. We reconnected on Facebook a few years ago through our email addresses.

Friday Queenstown off to Milford Sound.. no, Fjord!

Queenstown is a beautiful resort town on a lake with mountains. Its got the classic ski resort look with little creeks but with the lake Wakatipu it is over the top beautiful. A classic.
After talking with two different couples in Paihia, I decide to add Milford sound to my itinerary. Actually a fjord, (made by glaciers) the mtns literally appear to come up from the ocean. Maybe a little like the 3 river gorge is making the Yangtze River appear but with river water.?? I dunno. Haven't seen it face to face.
I arranged this trip the day I arrived in Queenstown withed front desk at the Black Sheep hostel.... I was picked up the next morning Friday at 7:15 AM by Miami and Alex on the BBQ Bus tour. Alex drove and die the interpretative discussion for the next 5 hours to the Sound. Miami did the same tour for the Japanese people on the bus with headsets. I learned a lot from the tour :
the pink triangles on the trees mean there is a stoat (an small pest mammal) trap nearby.
most of the roadkill we see is the nz possum. its not like the uS possum. more on this: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-new-zealand-possum.htm
the Te Anau lake we passed is the largest lake in the south island. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Te_Anau
There are these native trees called Manuka which have a lot of natural antioxidants with used in tea: http://www.teara.govt.nz/1966/M/ManukaTeaTree/ManukaTeaTree/en
They were used to reduce scurvy symptoms by Cook and other explorers.
We drove through the Fjordland National Park. Amazing! There are several treks a person can take here: the Kepler Track , Routeburn Track and Milford Track. You have to book these in advance. I'd like to do one of these next time around.
This tour bus company set up a little bbq lunch for us next to a river.. wE first west for a 30 minute walk down to Lake Gunn, the walk was full of dark green moss and opened up on a pristine clear lake undamaged by humans - perhaps on the other most beautiful natural scenes I've ever seen.



Clear. crystal.



I've thought a lot on this trip on how one could and people do, travel around for a year of continual summer. Why not?
At the Milford Sound, we got on a cruise boat for a 1.5 hour cruise. The immensity of the mtns became apparent when your boat is 4 feet from a sheer rock face - never seen anything like it. We went out the Tasman Sea and a dolphin family followed us back in. There were also seals basking on a rock and a waterfall we practically went right under.






The bus trip back they put on this movie The Worlds Fastest Indian, on my netflix list. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World%27s_Fastest_Indian
Check it out if you get a chance!

Went out dancing that nite at the World Cafe down in the main part of town. Found some liked minded dancers from New York, yay!

Wed Paihia and then Thursday Queenstown and paragliding

Wed day.
Off to the Waitangi house again.
This is where the treaty was signed between Britain and the Maoris so teh British leaders could take more land from the Maoris.



The setting is wonderful and the landscape is so undamaged, its easy to imagine what it looked liked then. There is a museum on site too that has old photos. There is also a cute little cafe which helped me to wake up.
Then back to to the hotel, I headed to the ferry to Russell across the bay and then waited for a half hour for a cheeseburger at this place. Then walked over to a "local" mentioned spot, the beach on the other side. No one told me however I'd have to walk up a mtn first. OK, I exaggerating..... Beautiful waters.


I just relaxed all afternoon, met some nice ladies from Britain. Just enjoyed teh water and then headed back to Paihia and had dinner with some friends at the hostel.

Thursday



6 AM taxi to Kerikeri airport $25 US.
7 am off to Auckland airport and then to Queenstown. The flight to Queenstown was nothing short of spectacular. We flew over these snow runoff lakes high in the mtn. The color of liquid sky. No relation to the film of the same name. Spectacular! And we flew over a ski resort, that later in 2 hours unbeknowst to me, I would be paragliding off of.
Shuttle to the Black Sheep backpackers hostel and then set up the next two days. I decided to do the paragliding since the weather the next two days looked a bit spotty for rain. I got picked up an hour later by Keith and his company and they told me I'd get a video and some photos if I wanted. Cool, pictures of me screaming.
On the mountain, Keith explains to me the process of running off a mountain. I actually will not jump but will just continue running and then the lift of the shoot will pick me up. Sweet. After we get hooked in and we discuss the process, we are ready to go,. He has a camera at the end of a stick and I can bring my camera (of course!). And we're running and soon there is lift off. I'm floating.
Amazing not scary.


Queenstown and the bay opens up below me. After about 4 minutes, Keith asked if I want to go a spiral. Of course I say yes and then he asked me to hold the camera. GForce begins and I'm moving aournd in a circle screaming thinking my face is going to slide off, but in a good way. I have video taped this whole thing. It seemed like forever, but actually was onlyl about 15 seconds.
We land and I'm ready to go again!

Sunday- Tuesday 2/24/2009 Paihia and Hairangi Harbour

Monday
I awoke at 5 AM, drat jet lag. Got up around 6:30 and strolled along the beach towards the main part of Paihia. You can walk up the hill on the road or walk around the hill on teh beach, where the tide pools are.. calm and relaxing...I am ready for a day on teh bay, I say! Catamaran boat tour with a bar and bbq and kayaks and snorkeling, yay! But first, find me some breakfast and I'm not in hurry since I'm 2 hours early for my boat disembarkment. I find a place on the main bus terminal that is open and has a basic breakfast for US $4. including bottomless coffee! The egg arrives half cooked, as Shannon had mentioned, so I sheepishly asked thme to cook it more. The bacon looked like it was cut right off the pig that morning.
When we finally took off on the catamaran, we were 20 or so people with a crew of 3. The sail and mast were the tallest of any ship or sailboat I'd ever been on. We gently coasted out tothe middle part of the bay, watching fish schools jump before us, other sailboats, and an old Schooner type book drift by and then the speed boat Mack ATtack on its way to the far out hole in the rock.
I had several conversations with a Tasy couple about TAsmania and their trip to Los Angeles. Also met Pia, from Vancouver who was living in NZ on work visa for a year. Note to self.
Around noon, we coasted into another bay among the Bay of Islands islands and sat the boat down for some lunch and water fun. I quickly scarfed some food and didnt take the customary 30 minute break, gathered my stuff and some snorkeling gear and jumped on the first dinghy trip to the beach. The snorkeling wasn't super great but I'm not an expert. I sat on teh beach for the next 30 mintues and chatted with a girl from Ireland here with Contiki tours, basically a roving bunch of partying 20 somethings across countries in a bus.. We headed out around 2 pm then out tothe ocean more waves and then back to teh Paihia . Pic and I grabbed a beer and some chicken/avocado sandwich and then sat on teh beach. There's a lot of beach sitting going on this day after I arrive. Its good.

Tuesday
Today I'm heading to the west side of the North island. To the Hairangi Harbour. There's a tour that picks me up at 7:40 am and we are off. There's a lot to see on the way, and I'm just amazed at the greeness and the diveristy of plants. There's many of the types I've seen in Costa Rica and then tons of Flax plants which look very similair to thait plant in my backyard.. There;s tons of cows and I dont hesitate to say they look happier than California cows. Bovines!! Our driver gives us some instruction in how to speak Maouri. Its a bit involved (he really talked a lot) but basically, speak each vowel and each vowel always sounds the same.

We first see teh Harbour in a downpour and a double rainbow hitting the water. Cool.

Then we pick up Bill, a Maouri tour guide who is going to talk to us about the forest. We drive up through past the Harbour and stop at the top to take some pics. Amazing view.
Then: we head to the Waipoua Forest to see: Tāne Mahuta is a giant kauri tree (Agathis australis) in the Waipoua Forest of Northland Region, New Zealand. Its age is unknown but is estimated to be between 1250 and 2500 years old. Its Māori name means "Lord of the Forest" (see Tāne), from the name of a god in the Māori pantheon.
Heading back north, we head to Rowena, a small town on the harbour and have lunch. I also order a Paua fritter (abalone). Turns out I'm not a huge fan. We take a car ferry over to Kohukohu. Cute town. Then we are off again through more beautiful country. Back in Paihia, we see the Haruru falls. I have to figure out my logistics to get to the kerikeri airport so I do that and the I get picked up to head to a Cultural Show (yes, they actually called it that). Its about the history Of New Zealand and how the British and Maouri leaders had an agreement at the Waitangi Treaty house. Its really good, and very honest in its opinion on how the Maouris were treated unfairly. And perhaps this is why there are only elderly white people in the audidence and two young white couples and me. Back at the hostel I drink some wine with Les and Robin from Australia and turn in the for the nite. Hopefully over my jet lag. :)