Wellington, Auckland, and Papamoa

After saying goodbye and leaving Christchurch we began our journey to Wellington - a six hour train ride

followed by a three hour ferry trip.




The trip was very nice and the passing scenery reminded me of Canada with the mountains, rivers, farms,and small towns. The train had a cool "outdoor" viewing car...


but once we got onto the boat, Amanda couldn't help but act all weird.

I think it was all that fresh air made her all giddy.

We did another Couch Surf in Wellington, but only stayed for one day with our host. Nice as he was...

his house had the strong smell of cat urine, and it was just too much, so we left the next morning and got ourselves a room. Exploring Wellington was a real treat.


Amanda and I both loved the city (the nation's capital). Highlights were the "Te Papa" museum, the botanical gardens,


and a tour we happened to come across of a volunteer group restoring a 1920's vintage boat-crane. That's a big 100' ship with a giant rotating crane mounted at its center capable of lifting 80 tons at a 45' reach. But it wasn't so much the crane that was so entertaining,but these three British guys who joined tour. They seed to think themselves pretty clever, but it was immediately obvious from their questions that they were not too bright.

For example, the tour guide lady said this crane had been used to salvage metal from a sunken ferry that was resting on the shallow sea bed. One guy asked if the shallow waters had been deeper, would the wreck have been discovered further down. "Hmmm - I suspect so" said the tour guide. I think so too!

Later in the tour our guide explained that this boat's crane was used to lift a really old and huge 25' wide iron anchor from the sea bed near the Wellington harbour. This time it was a different guy who wanted to know what boat that anchor had come from, but our guide didn't know -there was no other wreckage to correlate this artifact with. Certain that he had a winning strategy he suggested that this group of volunteers working on the restoration of this crane-ship could instead look through all the harbour records for the past several hundred years in search of candidate ships that would have needed an anchor of this size and then further research all of those vessels to see which might have lost an anchor. Ya - right.

At one point the nice tour guide lady was getting pretty tired of our British guests and told this guy to stop arguing with her when she said they could not determine the ship from which the anchor had come from. He was now suggesting that its metal could be carbon dated and assayed and chemically tested to determine its metallurgy and from that it could be inferred that it was from some era which could then possibly hint at its ship of origin. She just told him to not argue with her at that point. Brilliant! For Amanda and I it was all we could do to not burst into laughter whenever these guys asked a question. An Australian guy on the tour was also snickering and had to excuse himself before he burst out laughing too. That was definitely the high light of the day.

Anyway, we were in Wellington for three nights, and then once again boarded the train for an early departure. This time to Auckland. The journey was a relaxing 12 hour ride through more picturesque country, but the problem when we arrived in Auckland was that our next Couch Surfing host still hadn't given us her address or phone number. So what could we do? We went out for sushi and then found a place to stay for the night.

The next day (April 27) we spent mostly at the meritime museum where we had a really nice harbour side lunch

and then found our way to our next Couch Surfing host. If only she'd told us that she lived near the local Lamborghini dealership it would have been so much easier to find her place...



We then hatched a plan to meet up with our Italian friend with the German name (Reinhold) who lives in Opotiki, NZ. We would drive half way and he would come the other direction and we'd planned to meet in Papamoa. And it turns out my parents know someone who has a house there who agreed to let us stay. Wow - nice place...

and so that's where we are now. Tomorrow morning we meet up with Reinhold, and who knows what will happen next!?

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Christchurch, baby!

So I was right - the complete stranger we met via the Couch Surfing website (Marcus) is much more hospitable to us than Amanda's friend in Brisbane. Marcus is great. He met us at the airport without even telling us he was doing so and took us straight away to lunch in Christchurch...


Amanda and I walked around and soon found the lovely Avon river...

which hosts ducks, fish, and even eels...

We saw a film in the arts district too...

and we saw some stuff at the (free!) museum, like this gold plated motorbike...


and a little older is this penny farthing...


For dinner, Amanda would make dinner for us and our host Marcus (that's him in the front) and his roommates Christoff and Phil (at the back)...

And now our time in Christchurch is almost over. We get on a train at 7:00 am tomorrow bound for Wellington. And again, our uber-host Marcus will heroically get up at 6:00 and drive us to the train station. What a guy!

Finally a more complete blog entry!

Okay - I finally have a little time to write out a proper blog entry on the flight to New Zealand.

Upon arrival at the airport in SydneyI waited for Kouros and his lovely wife Fereshteh














to arrive from their local flight and together we drove to Mollymook (the location of the wedding of our mate Stuart to his bride Anita). During the drive I told Kouros that I needed a little nap in the back seat, and they woke me up about three hours later once we arrived in Mollymook. Not quite the visiting time I was hoping for with them, but I was badly timezoned, and couldn't help it.


The wedding the next day was perfect. Even the weather cooperated by not being too hot - nice cool overcast skies. Everyone looked their best...

- except me since couldn't find my ties since packing up and moving out of our house to make way for our renter. Despite my lack of a tie, it was a great wedding.
















I didn't stay late for the party as I was pretty jet lagged. The following day the visiting continued at the fancy Bannisters resort in Mollymook. Hanging out by the pool...















and catching up with some friends I hadn't seen in a while and meeting lots of new people. I think about a third of the guests had come from Canada - wow that's representing!

It was my plan to catch a ride back into Sydney with any of the many cars heading that way on Monday, but I didn't get to the hotel most people were staying at soon enough. By the time I walked there, everyone had checked out and driven away - the place was abandoned. No problem I thought I'll take a train to Sydney, but nope - no trains stop in the small town (village?) of Mollymook - or even the nearby Milton. The closest train stop was Nowra. All right then, how about a bus? But again nope - I had just missed the bus by this time. So I ended up hitch hiking a ride with a flower farmer who had a delivery to make to Sydney, so we visited and passed the time really quickly as he drove. Turns out he used to be the leader of a tank division in the South African army, and he saw a little action. Interesting to talk with him for the three hour drive.

I had a few days in Sydney before Amanda arrived (she still hadn't finished classes at UofA). I did the usual sort of things - walked the interesting areas of the city: Hyde park, The Rocks, Sydney fish market, Darling harbour, Circular quay, and I even saw a play in the Sydney Opera House...














After Amanda arrived a few days later we had one more day in Sydney, so I showed her some of the hi lights, including an exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art where Yayoi Kusama had an exhibit, including this polka-dot room done in ultra violet light...















After just a day in Sydney together we were on our way to Townsville to the north.

Waiting for us in Townsville was a three day liveaboard SCUBA trip. However, we were not informed that Amanda would be unable to complete her PADI diver's certification without a doctor's physical, which she didn't have. So although she couldn't get certified, she could still do a few dives (she ended up doing six). Amanda also realized that she didn't bring her bathing suit with her (or "swimming costume" as it's known here), so we set off to buy one with the few hours we had in Townsville before our boat departed. But this was not as easy as you'd think as it was good Friday and most every shop was closed, but we did manage to find one shop, and they had a costume for her. Actually, it was more difficult finding a place to eat in town - everything was closed.

Once on the boat...











we finally left the dock at about 10:00 and motored along for about seven hours to Wheeler reef. At 8:00 the next morning we had our first dive, after which the rolling waves made me sea sick. I still did two more dives including a night dive this day. We up-anchored at 9:00 and motored along for another five hours while we slept. The next day was at Davies reef, and I did four dives. There was doctor on board who gave me a sea sickness pill in the morning, and I felt much better after that. We then carried on that night to the famous Yongala wreck and dove it in the morning. Wow - it was really great. So many fish, turtles















and small (two meter) sharks, , etc. It was something else. But I'd been having equalizing the pressure on my ears during these dives, and had been surfacing with blood in my mask. The dive master recommended that I just do the one dive and skip the second Yongala dive, and I complied. We headed back to Townsville and I noticed that my hearing in both ears is really bad. I've suffered some middle ear damage - I just hope this is temporary.

Amanda and I had another three days in Townsville, so we spent some time seeing the city sights




and went to near by Magnetic island, which was really nice. We rented bicycles and rode around. We found a deserted beach, and cooled off in the water. The next day we rented a car and drove to Paluma national park.




It had been years since I drove a right hand drive car, so I was a little nervous at first - especially at the traffic circles, but in the end made out fine.

We did our first Couch Surf (www.couchsurfing.com) in Townsville and stayed with Peter and Leanne, a really nice couple. They went much further than providing a couch - we got a guest room with private bathroom, and they even prepared dinners for us! Wow! Big score there. Plus they were really pleasent to visit with.

Once we were done with Townsville, we had plans to fly to Brisbane to meet up with Amanda's Aussie friend Asha. It turns out Asha was also flying in to Brisbane and was arriving just half and hour before our flight got in so we planned with her to get a lift into town with her parents and stay with them. But when we arrived, hmmm - no Asha. And she didn't answer her phone when we called. So we did our own thing for the night and managed to meet up with her the next morning. We drove with her family to Sunshine Coast where Asha was having her grad. Once in Sunshine Coast we went to the Crocodile Hunter (Steve Irwin's) "Australia Zoo" which was pretty cool. That sure beat watching a five hour grad ceremony.
















The next day we went back to Brisbane with Asha and her parents. We thought we thought the plan was to spend the day with Asha and stay with her at her parents' place, but when her dad asked "Where are you two staying tonight?" we got the idea we were on our own. And not only that but Asha then asked us what we were going to do once back in Brisbane. Well, I guess visiting with her was out. So why did we bother going to Brisbane again? Oh ya - it was so Amanda could visit with Asha during the short drive to and from Sunshine Coast. Great.

After that disappointment we flew to Christchurch, New Zealand. Maybe the strangers there will extend us a little more hospitality. We're set to do another Couch Surf for four days with a German fellow Marcus.

In Sydney now

Well, after a few days in Australia I've been to the wedding of my mate Stuart to his lovely bride Anita. Wedding was great, the facility was top notch, and it was great to meet his friends.

I then hitch hiked a ride from Mollymook to Sydney with a flower farmer who used to drive tanks in the South African army. He had some stories to tell.

Now I'm staying in Sydney at the house of my friends Daniel and Carmen. Today I went to the opera house, circular quay, the museum of contemporary art, botanical gardens, etc.

I've thrown a few pics up onto www.flickr.com/photos/mike_vanderzee

here we go!

Okay, so it's officially begun. I'm in the Vancouver airport awaiting my flight to Sydney, Australia. Not much to report yet - in fact nothing. But - a rough itinerary might be useful for people to know about:

April 1 - May 3 we're in Australia and New Zealand. We'll see friends Stuart & Anita, and Daniel, Asha, and Reinhold.

We're back home in Edmonton for most of May and then head to London, England in late May. We'll tour through Europe sort of randomly, and maybe even into Russia. This should be for June and July. On August 8 we need to be in Cape Town, South Africa for a 41 day land tour up to Nairobi, Kenya.

From there we'll visit Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt. Then it's off to India, then China, and S.E. Asia. After that it's off to South America and then Central America and finally back home. As you can see, the dates are getting very fuzzy. I'll fill in dates as we know more accurately where and when we'll be places.