Quick Trip to New Zealand 2004
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Feb. 23 – 28, 2004 New Zealand To satisfy a requirement of our visas for Australia, we had to exit the country for a brief period of time before our first 11 months of stay were over. The cheapest place we could go was New Zealand, so we took a quick trip to the Land of the Long White Cloud to escape the heat in Queensland. 2/27, Gulf Harbor, New
Zealand Gulf Harbor, New Zealand This is a quick note to let you know we are doing well and
having fun in New Zealand. We arrived early Tuesday morning in Auckland. We picked up
a rental car and drove down to Kati Kati on the east coast north of Tauranga.
Ian and Keriann of Bucephalus have bought a house up in the hills in the
native bush overlooking the ocean. It is a beautiful setting, with gorgeous
views and a relaxing atmosphere. It was fun to catch up with their lives and
see pictures from their wedding in November. It was also fun to see how they
are updating the place and transforming it into a bed and breakfast. This
will be their 'hobby' when not working on Bucephalus. Keriann is a great cook
and we enjoyed our stay.
Ian relaxing on the deck
Ian and Keriann at Crindau
A walk in the bush
The view looking out towards the Pacific Ocean and Waiti Beach On Wednesday we drove up to Auckland and found a Holiday
Park to stay the night. Thursday we went into town to check out Borders and a
movie. In the afternoon we drove up to Gulf Harbor. We joined into an
impromptu cocktail party with our friends from Final Straw, Kiapa, Raven and
Mobisle. We talked about Australia and caught up on the goings on in New
Zealand. Tonight we will be joining in a potluck with these same
folks plus a few more I suspect. Saturday morning we return Australia. Hopefully it has
cooled down a bit. 2/29, Mooloolaba, Australia It is Sunday afternoon now and we are back in
Mooloolaba. Thursday evening we enjoyed sundowners and
chatting with the folks of Final Straw, Raven, Mobisle and Kiapa in the
cockpit of Kiapa. After talking on and on, Suzy of Final Straw invited us
back to Final Straw for hamburgers that Clark cooked on the grill. That
evening we went back to our 'bach' at the Whangaparoroa Lodge. A 'bach',
short for bachelor, is like an
apartment that people can rent for holidays. We enjoyed the space of three
bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, bath and a deck.
Signe, Rich, Jesse, Pete, Sue and Dave
Dave, Gayle, Clark, Elaine, Suzy and Jan As Cyclone Ivy works its way south, New Zealand
sits in its path. On Friday the winds were kicking up and the clouds were
brewing. We decided to move the planned potluck to our 'bach'. Besides the
group from Thursday evening we were joined by Dave and Catherine of Tara and
Adrien and Paula of L'eau Life. It was a fun evening talking about Australia
and what to see and where to go. It was good to catch up on how everyone is
doing and what their plans were for the near future. Dave and Catherine had
just come back from a trip to Antarctica. They flew to Buenos Aires and then
to Ushuia. There they caught their boat, a Russian research vessel that did
acoustic research. They went to the Falkland Islands, Elephant Island and
retraced the journey of Shackleton at Antarctica. It sounds like an amazing
trip including penguins, whales and icebergs, oh boy!
Jesse is promoted to Commodore of LMYC by Sarah and Pete On Saturday morning we caught our flight back to
Brisbane, Australia. We flew on Royal Brunei Airlines, the state airline of
the sultanate of Brunei north of Borneo. It was a pleasant flight on a Boeing
767-300. The official language of Brunei is Malay so all announcements were
in Malay and then English. The same is true of the in flight magazine, the
labels around the aircraft and the prayer before flight. During the flight a
Mecca meter indicated the direction of Mecca in case one needed to know. It
is also an alcohol-free flight. Now we are back in Mooloolaba. Mandu was happy to see
us return. Dave said he was well behaved (no hairballs on the Chinese rug)
and friendly. The weather is cooler now and more comfortable.
Not sure how long it will last but we hope it will for a while. |
