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Flew from Melbourne to Tasmania last week. Again, Qantas was terrific both in getting us on board, on time, in flight service, etc. they serve lunch or dinner depending on the time and drinks are included whether that is soda, wine, beer, or cocktails. Rented another Toyota Corolla in Hobart though not a hybrid this time. After driving around the country for a week, we’ve spent about 150 AUS which currently is less than $100 in gas. We probably saw an off the grid part of Hobart mostly. Kind of young fringe players and rather worn shops. We went out for a cocktail and ended up in the middle of a poker tournament amongst a very eclectic group of people. We really didn’t explore Hobart much. We noticed more political activism there via signs etc mostly geared towards the environment. We drove up Mount Wellington which overlooks the city but at the top the wind was blowing 20-30mph and the temp was 2 degrees C. The clouds surrounded us so we really couldn’t see the city. We drove down for a hike on the hill and that was fantastic. We were protected from the wind as we hiked up a watery gully and saw our first Pademelons. What are those? Look them up but locals call them wallababies. To me they were huge plump rats that hopped.

Gorgeous small waterfalls along the way and carpets of moss and ferns. We ended our hike where we started, the Cascade Brewery. A lovely, large regional beer maker. Not Budweiser size. More like an Anchor Steam. We drove around the peninsula there a little bit killing time. Rolling hills with sheep and cattle and an occasional vineyard. We ended up at Bonorong, a wildlife sanctuary. Katie had booked a special night tour there. We walked around in the last hour of daylight, feeding the many Kangaroos, seeing Wombats again, many cockatoos, the Tasmanian Devil and many other things. Nighttime comes and it is a whole new show. Many animals are now active. We were introduced to a variety of birds that for various reasons could not be released into the wild. Red-tailed Black Cockatoos, an albino (yellow) Black Cockatoo, a Little Corella, a pink Gulah, and the queen of the enclosure, a Sulfur-crested Cockatoo. The latter we have heard pretty much throughout Australia, an extremely loud screech. We went into the enclosures for both a Ring-tailed Possum and a Brush-tailed Possum. BTW, multiple Brush-tailed possums were visitors that night, climbing all over the trees around us.

We went into the enclosure with 3 Tawny Frog-Mouths. These birds blend in with the branches and trees so well, I’m sure we pass a million of them without knowing it. We fed Wallaby meat to the Spotted-tailed Quoll. Now the Quoll is about 1-2 kg. I asked, why are you feeding this little guy Wallaby meat. Well they are ferocious hunters and take down prey much larger then them all by themselves. There is another type of quoll called the Eastern Quoll. Smaller than the spotted tail and though they have spots, they are not on the tail. They are still big meat eaters. We went into the cage in the dark to feed them meat! Yep, we are tourists. We will do anything.

We finalized our time with an 11 month old Wombat. OMG! So cute. Soft fur at this point but apparently gets much coarser. They stand on 4 short legs and are a big old round thing that eats grass. They tell me he can run 25km/hr though and has minimal fat. I’m thinking spirit animal though Katie is fighting for that as well. I think it is my marsupial spirit animal.

We drove home at 10 km/hr trying not to hit any Wombats or Wallabies. Began our roadtrip with a short drive out to Mt. Field National Park. Again a beautiful drive with rolling hills, eucalyptus, sheep and cows. The park has two levels. A lower rainforest and an alpine area. We hiked them both that day. Our first hike took us out to Russell Falls along a gorgeous track.

Following that was Horsetail Falls. Again the tracks are amazing both the plants but also the construction with staircases and excellent markings. We included a side trip thru the tall trees. These are Eucalyptus that are 250’ tall. Last on this trail was another falls, Lady Barron Falls. We lunched in the park cafe as there is nothing else around in the area. We drove up to an alpine lake, Lake Dobson. The road was a windy gravel road, maybe 1 1/2 cars wide. The sides down low were covered in overhanging ferns making visibility a challenge. The hike around Lake Dobson reminded me of many alpine lake hikes in the Sierras except the trees were mostly eucalyptus. Just as a note, the eucalyptus trees here come in many many varieties. They take on features of Oak trees, Birch Trees, bushes like Manzanita, etc. the trunks of many of the trees are artwork.

Sometimes the views of the hills takes on a view of the Acacia trees in Africa and for sure you often feel like this is Jurassic Park. We did a long hike up the track for some views of Seal Lake. We passed some ski club buildings at the top and some archaic rope tows headed up the hills.

After the hike, we found a small all-in-one grocery store/post office/home/liquor store where we got canned Minestrone and a loaf of sliced sour dough. Yum! On our walk to Russell Falls earlier that day we saw signs for a glow worm grotto, so with flashlights in hand we drove back to the park very slowly that night. First off, millions of Pademelons on the lawn by the visitor center. Well more than 10. We hiked up to the glow worms and if you turned your head certain ways you could see the faints glows. A bit underwhelming. On the trail, many possum. One walked right up to me as I shined my light on him. He came within a foot. Saw I was there. Gave a little start and went around. Drove to Queenstown the following day and stopped at St Clare Lake which is a lower elevation part of the Cradle Mountain National Park. We had a great hike out around Lake St Clare, mainly looking for Platypus but none found. We stopped again at several points along the way. Had lunch along an elevated rainforest walkway and managed some pics at Nelson Falls.

Queenston or ‘town’ is remarkable as it is an old mining town and still bears the scars. Hills are devoid of trees. The creeks run a copper color and the downtown is stuck in the past. We had dinner at the oldest hotel in town. It was what you would see in an old western. We got up early to get to Cradle Mountain. It’s an hour and a half away but rumor is, there are Platypus (platypuses?, Platypi?) in a pond by the main lodge. Drove at dawn which is a no no as all the Wombats and Wallabies are out. Very tense drive, going slow, two hands on the wheel. Roadkill every 100 yards or so in places. Made it to the lodge and the pond without hitting anything and sure enough a platypus is diving for food in the pond. He goes down for 20 seconds then back up to the surface for 5-10 seconds, then repeats. I went to the lodge for coffee and Katie didn’t even notice. After  a long viewing, I pulled Katie away and we walked the Enchanted Walk by the lodge. Just gorgeous scenery along the creek. Ferns, trees and ground covered in moss. Wallabies along the trail. Beautiful start to the day.

To access the main park you need to ride on a shuttle bus. We got off fairly early and walked on an elevated wooden walkway through the hills. Eucalyptus forests, button grass fields and great views.

From there we continued on up to Crater Lake, Wombat Pool and Dove Lake. An uphill climb most of the way with Wombats in the meadows mowing the lawn, waterfalls along the creeks, and cloud laden alpine lakes. Cradle Mountain itself was never visible as the clouds were too low. I am sure the views would be spectacular here. Even so, we had a great hike, probably about 8 miles total. We stopped in some fields near the lodge on the way back to the car and got some up close experiences with the Wombats. We sat on a walkway in a meadow and had one adult wombat come up to us chomping on the grass. Katie did not feed or pet it which was a huge surprise.

We walked out to Knivet Falls a short tromp through rainforest vegetation. After a quick stop at the pond to check on the Platypus we were off for Mole town where are lodging, the Wandering Trout, was. After an hour drive we arrived at our 1900’s hotel. The hotel featured a respected restaurant though it was closed for Good Friday and not a soul was to be found around the property. Goof Friday is one of two major holidays in Australia where everything shuts down. The other being Christmas. We find many of these small towns give you the feeling of mid 1900’s in their storefronts, houses, fences and yards. Still sheep and cow country. Just a note, all the roads in rural Australia are narrow. We are driving a Corolla and I can’t imagine driving one of the trucks we see on the roads. The speed limit is typically 100km/hr and there is no way I can drive that fast and stay on the road. Most Australians don’t drive that fast either, but occasionally a true wanker will come up on the rear end pushing for more speed thru the turns. I’ll also note the roads are almost uniformly rough. I don’t mean potholes and such, just the texture which makes the wheels howl. Once in a while you get a smooth patch and you go whoa I can hear the music that’s been playing. Katie is pretty tired of me saying ‘What?’ when she talks. On to Freycinet Natl Park. Along the Eastern Coast the park is home to Wineglass Bay and the Hazards Mountains.

Also supposed to be home to Echenids and Wombats. A couple of short hikes out to the lighthouse and down to the water got us warmed up for our hike up to Wineglass Lookout. Many stairs but Wallabies on the way and this time Katie fed them carrots.

We stayed that night in Swansea. Right on the bay. Good dinner at Saltshaker one of the few restaurants open in town. Coffee from across the street on Easter Sunday as there never is reasonable coffee in the rooms. Then back to Freycinet for a loop hike to Hazards Beach then Wine glass Beach then up over the mountain pass back to the car. The skies were cloudy again a very small amount of drizzle. We had our typical beer, cheese, salami, and crackers at Wineglass sitting on rocks watching the waves crash in. Too cold for swimming.

We had pizza for Easter dinner back at the saltshaker and woke to a brilliant sunrise and blue skies. Drove down to the ferry and rode over to Maria Island where there are supposed to be oodles of Echenids and Wombats. We’ve seen quite a few Wombats but no Echenids yet. We had a smooth ferry ride over and hiked about the Island visit the Painted Cliffs and the Fossil Cliffs. Lunch high up on the cliffs looking way down at the ocean and many Wombats including a mon and a baby.

No Echenids! A ranger there said she saw one in the 2 years she worked there five days a week. Ouch, the guidebooks are a little off on oodles. We drove down to the airport hotel in Hobart and are now on a flight to Sydney for another part of the journey. Loved Tasmania!

Here are a couple of curiosities.

The country offers free calling in many large and small cities. The idea is for those people in trouble to have easy access to help. I love it!

Not a political statement or anything but here is the take on animals on the road.

We have 5 days in Sydney then off on our campervan escapes up the East Coast. I will keep you posted 🙂

We made it to Adelaide with little fuss on our two flights. Interesting in that some domestic flights they don’t check ID, don’t care about liquids and it is just get on board. Some are more stringent and involve the X-ray machine and sometimes a tap down. The airports so far are small, like Oakland, and easy to get around. We Ubered to our apartment in the CBD of Adelaide. Great location though we were on the verge of getting into an area that was a little dicey.

We got up in the dark at 7am and went out for coffee. Turns out many places don’t open that early. I don’t know when these people go to work but the streets are dead! We walked over later to the Central Market and that was fantastic. Great selection of fruits, nuts, cheeses and meats. We decided to walk around the Torren River which flows thru town. There is a park on both sides and lots of birds.

We walked by the famous(?) Adelaide Oval which hosts cricket and AFL games. Apparently holds 100,000 people. No games during our visit but the ‘Gather Round’ was coming the following week which brings football teams from all over Australia to play a several weeks tournament. Kinda glad we missed it as apparently it is mayhem with all prices skyrocketing. We ended up walking 8 miles that day. We walked thru the Botanic Gardens where some 30,000 fruit bats live! They are also called flying foxes and they are huge, roughly 3 ft wingspan.

Had lunch in the Wine Centre which was great though the Centre sucked as far as any real info on wine in the area. The Botanic Gardens was hosting a Chihuly glass exhibit which we dutifully walked around to each art piece.. OK, but pretty repetitive designs. Took the tram in the am to Glenelg, a beachside community which was great. EZ public transportation. Bought a new slimmed down version of a backpack from Kathmandu as my old Eagle Creek was just that old and had too many pockets. I could never find anything I put into it. Had a great lunch of Bahn Mi and Pho at a hole in the wall and then back to the hotel. We looked for live music as Adelaide is known as ‘The City of Music’, but never really found anything. We tried several other nights but it is nothing like Austin or Nashville for music. The night we went looking for music we walked back thru the fruit bat colony and OMG, 30,000 giant bats taking to the air and all of them are talking! Amazing!

We Ubered to the airport the following day and picked up our Toyota Corolla Hybrid. Small to carry luggage but great on gas mileage. We drove one of these in Margaret River. We drove out to the Barossa Valley and stopped for wine tasting at Penfolds, a veteran and a king of wine making in Australia. We enjoyed a great wine tasting with many very good Shiraz and Cabs. We tasted their signature wine ‘The Grange’, a $1000 a bottle wine and it was very good. I would never buy it though. We visited two other wineries in the Valley but none were as good or even noteworthy. We did have lunch at one of these vineyards, ‘Seppesfield’, and that was good. A gnocchi dish and a prawns dish. Guess which one I had :-).

We finished the day with a hike in Kaiserstuhl Nat’l Park. A pretty walk with birds, a variety of eucalyptus (surprise!) and then some Kangas. The following day, up early. Some coffee then on to Cleland Wildlife Sanctuary. It is run by the Nat’l Park system so just Australia animals. No exotic rhinos etc like other parks. We were one of the first in the park on purpose, and soon after entering Katie is head to head with Red Kangaroos. She gets to feed some of those then on to Swamp Wallabies. We are surrounded by them. They are in our laps, eating our purchased animal food. So cute and gentle.

We are able to feed other K.I. Kangaroos later but there are also many different Cockatoos, Emus, Wombats that are moving about, Echidna’s that are scurrying about, Koalas eating in the trees and Tongarewa Wallabies. A great morning.

We were then off to Adelaide Hills. We tried the sculpture park that was close by. The art was terrible but we did see some new birds. We tasted wine at Shaw + Smith. They had some very good Shiraz. We had lunch of cheese, meats, olives and wine in a local park. The wine tasting at Bird in the Hand was eclectic. Back to the hotel to watch the Warriors beat Denver. Moving day led to a drive to McClaren Vale. We stopped at D’Arenberg. Very artsy. The cube a 4 story wild architectural building with Dali sculptures outside. The wines were great. Loved the Polly champagne and the Dead Arm Shiraz. Very much a carnival like atmosphere. We had a lunch of cheese and crackers outside there then on to Hugh Hamilton, apparently known as the black sheep. The wines were ok there but not great.

We drove on and stopped for dinner at the “Smiling Samoyed’ Pizza and which had pretty good beer and pizza. I bought a 6 pack of tinnies (actually they were in bottles but the locals call them tinnies after the can)! They shorten many words. Things like ‘breakie’ for breakfast, ‘chockie’ for chocolate, ‘wooly’ for woolworths, ‘footy’ for football, and many others. You don’t want to be a wanker or a tosser. Walked amongst some Grey Kangaroos outside of the brewery then on to the ferry at Cape Jarvis, on our way to Kangaroo Island. The ferry was able to take us early as a standby but I still had an hour of driving after dark to our hotel. Amazing amount of roadkill on the highway. I was driving much slower than the posted speed limit because it was so hard to see or anticipate something along the road. Our car rental company found out we were going to the Island and weren’t happy. Told us there would be no insurance for us there. Ended up at a lovely place in Kingscote for two nights. Drove down to the west end to Flinders Nat’l Park. Immediately found a koala in a tree by the bathrooms.

Embarked on a 3 mile hike along the coast with great scenery. Saw our first Crimson Rosellas, a parrot of brilliant reds and blues. Came upon several monitor lizards on our trail. Both about 3 feet long. The whole area and in fact the whole Island is recovering from a massive fire in 2020 that wiped out many trees and many animals. Now, the eucalyptus show signs of regeneration and the animals are coming back. We drove out to Admiral Arch which was much more striking then I anticipated. The sea was in turmoil and the coastline harsh.

Along the edges were 3 types of seals, many had little ones still nursing by them. We visited the Remarkable Rocks which aren’t so remarkable but we did have lunch on a nice park bench looking out at the rocks. A short trip back to look at our Koala above the bathroom and we were then on our way. We stopped at the jetty at Vivonne as wallabies were reported to be there. Nope. We visited the campground there and a Koala was there. Close to the bathroom! What. We ended up back in Kingscote for a dinner at Zone Restaurant which was basically the only place open in town. As usual we had two servers one from France and the other Ireland. There are so many foreign service workers working in Australia on special visas. We woke up and were off before coffee (argh) to see Duck Lagoon. Down a gravel road and minimal water, but a Koala in a tree by the lagoon. And a Koala in a tree by the bathroom! What. We found some coffee in Cygnet River than across the Island to Stokes Beach. What a beautiful beach, kinda hidden in that you have to walk thru a tunnel in the rocks to get there. But, put our feet in the Southern Ocean or maybe it was the Indian Ocean. It’s confusing. Too cold for me to swim.

Around the campground there, Katie found two KI kangaroos that happened to like red Apple there. She was in heaven.

We found another Koala in a tree and not by a bathroom. There were also quite a few Wallabies in the bushes but very shy and apparently not a fan of red apple. We headed towards American River which was close to our ferry departure and good old Google Maps had me on a gravel road for 50 km. Google thinks it is the fastest way and yes the posted speed limit is 110km/hr but really it is a gravel road with potholes and I averaged probably 50 km/hr. Oh well, we did see a beautiful monitor lizard slowly amble off the road. In American River, the word was Wallabies and Black Cockatoos. We walked up and down the coast trail not seeing either. We had a nice lunch overlooking the inlet. The Aussies provide many rest areas, picnic areas along their roads. Really nice. There were quite a few huge pelicans here. Really amazing their size. Finally we moved on to Penneshaw, the town our ferry would leave from. We stopped at a sculpture park along the water and up the canyon. Really nice and by the way, a huge flock of black cockatoos flew overhead and we must have seen more than 20 Wallabies. Unfortunately they were not interested in red apple either. We caught an early ferry and drove to Victor Harbor for the evening. On the drive to Coonawarra the following day there was much less road kill. We did see a huge Wedge-tailed Eagle on a fence post but Katie and I both failed at getting a photo. We had lunch at Di Georgio winery after sampling some ok wines then on to basically next door which was Wynn Vineyards one of the early and well recognized vintners. Very good wines and luckily we were able to book a stay just 3 minutes away. We drove a ways back up the road the next day to Naracoorte to hike in a local park. Saw some Rainbow Lorikeets but no Koala’s as hoped.

We drove back down to Coonawarra where we had a nice wine tasting at Belnaves sitting on a deck over a pond. Wine was ok but the girl serving us recommended Otelia for lunch which turned out great.

We went on our way to the coast stopping at Hollick Hines near Penola. Again ok wines but the server knew nothing about their wines. The drive to Warrnambool on the coast was a zig zag through pastures with some roads being single lanes. Adding some anxiety to the drive was constantly passing Kangaroo roadkill. Warrambool is right on the coast and a quaint small town with a beautiful park down at the water. Took off in the am eventually getting to the Great Ocean Road. Bay of Islands along the way was gorgeous. The sandstone cliffs along the coast are eroded into pillars and arches. This held true at The Grotto and the 12 Apostles. The latter was particularly pretty but clearly built for bus loads of people including helicopter rides.

We were looking for a quick lunch along the way but all the towns seemed jammed with people on this Friday. Eventually figured out we are traveling in the middle of a big 2-3 week school break for upcoming Easter. Everyone was out touring. Made it to Melbourne airport to drop off the car but couldn’t happen without some turmoil trying to find and get to a gas station. Of course the airport was undergoing major construction and google maps and even the posted signs were not correct at times. I always seem to have trouble returning cars at the airport. Nobody got hurt and Ubered to our lovely hotel room in downtown Melbourne. We embarked on a sightseeing walk in the am. Covered about 9 1/2 miles. Beautiful city with a great mix of old and new buildings, lots of parks. A great promenade along the Yarra River.

Walked over to Fitzroy which is described as a Bohemian district that’s become quite trendy. Stopped at a corner pub for a tasty hazy IPA and then lunch at a rooftop restaurant down the street. Picked up some Greek food as takeout later and retired to the hotel.

We arrived in Perth and quickly ‘Ubered’ to our place of stay in Fremantle. What a great seaside town! Our hotel was right in the middle of things and an easy walk to ferries and trains. We caught one of those trains to downtown Perth the next day. Now I don’t want to slight our fine workers at BART that won’t come out of their little office to answer a question, but the staff here we’re all about helping you get on the right trains and purchasing the right ticket. So friendly and cheaper than BART. Downtown Perth is pretty but pretty much a business center with many modern tall buildings and condos. They do have a great riverside park system along the Swan River. You could walk or ride a bike for miles along here. We explored for miles, stopped for lunch on a little touristy island downtown and then walked for miles thru a huge grand park called King’s Park which is right downtown.

We caught the morning ferry the following day to Rottnest Island, land of beaches and the world’s happiest mammal.

Beautiful weather and an easy ride. We met the Quokkas soon after landing and Katie was fulfilled, a Harry met Sally kind of thing.

We got tickets for the hop on hop off bus to explore the island and hit our first beach within a half hour, Parker Point. Very slim sandy beach and a shallow snorkel thru sea grass for most of our explorations. Beautiful schools of fish for an excellent start. We walked from there to Little Salmon beach, being passed by the hop on hop off bus on the way, but it was only a 15 minute walk so easy peasy. I snorkeled here and thought the fish variety was better than Parker Point. There were some waves pushing you towards the rocky shore but overall very good. The beach was small and a little crowded so we caught the bus to Little Parakeet Beach on the other side of the Island. This was a gorgeous beach and the snorkeling was fantastic. There were large coral and rock formations with large valleys between. Many fish.

We caught the bus back to town for more Quokka love then the ferry home. We had dinner out at an Italian place along the main drag of Fremantle. Very happening downtown with many people strolling and cruisers driving by. After dinner we went to the Metropolis, a fun music venue down the street to hear Lake Street Dive. The lead singer turns out to have been born in Sydney but the group formed in Boston and are somewhat jazzy in style. We saw them at the Greek in Berkeley last summer. We had GA tickets but sat in the balcony center with a great closeup view of the stage. Great show and the Aussie audience was totally in to it. What a great day!

We had a low key day the following day with cappuccino and latte in the am and almond croissants. We read the East Bay Times and caught up up on emails and texts. We cruised around the city visiting a couple of markets where we bought some fresh fruit and surveyed the local artist wares. We stopped in at Gage Roads Brewery on the water for a beer then read our kindles in a beach side park for awhile. Dinner that night was back on Capacinno Lane but this time it was great Asian food at Tonic and Gingers. The lovely bartender whispered to us about a secret bar downstairs so after dinner headed down to the bar behind the bookcase for Old Fashions.

What a great small town Fremantle is. Such a great vibe.

We Ubered to the airport to pick up a car the following day and headed south. We stopped for a short hike at Lesmurdle Falls. Katie got an aura of an oncoming migraine so I did an abbreviated hike here. Very dry all around and the falls were a trickle. Katie didn’t miss much at all except the heat. We continued south stopping at Serpentine Falls National Park. We saw our first grey kangaroo here. Very friendly! Katie’s headache was a memory.

The falls were small but beautiful with two lovely swimming holes attached. Spotted some beautiful ring necked parrots here along with the pink breasted Gulahs which I think are in the Cockatoo family. We had lunch at Mojo’s in Busselton which apparently has won ‘best wine list’ several years running. The lunch was good but I had a hard time deciding on what wine to drink (56 pages). We continued on to Vasse Felix winery, one of the oldest and fairly well known wineries in Margaret River. A lovely tasting at their cellar door. We even purchased their Champagne to take with us.

We checked in at our apartment in Margaret River. We were upgraded to a 1 bedroom with a full kitchen which we never used except for the French press. Great location right downtown with a grocery store a very short distance away. We explored the region over the next several days doing some hikes along the Cape to Cape trail at the ocean, hikes in the Karri tree forests, exploring Jewel Cave near the southern end of the region, and visiting quite a few cellar doors after a modest amount of exercise. Leuwin Estate was beautiful. It is one of the original wineries in the area. Close by was Voyager Winery which was ok not great. On our way back to our apartment we stopped in a nice boutique winery called Stella Bella. Wonderful wines and ring necked parrots or ‘twenty eights’ because of the sounds they make were in their vineyards. We were told kangaroos are often seen near dusk around Kevill Road so we drove there. Sure enough, many grey kangaroos. Katie got up close to a few, even a mom with a Joey in the pouch.

After a loop hike around Margaret River in the morning, we visited Cape Mentelle winery, another original vineyard from the 70’s. Beautiful setting and the wines were good. Xanadu which was close by was not very impressive. We asked about good lunches and ended up at the Margaret River Brewing Company. Again the IPA’s are just not like those in the States, more malty, less hoppy. Food was good though and a great atmosphere. We went on to visit Windance, another boutique cellar. We had good wines and a particularly good tasting experience with many birds in the vineyards. We’d been trying to catch sight of the Black Cockatoos and here we were in luck as a flock of thirty or so flew around the vineyards and over our heads. There were also Guinea Fowl and many Gulahs about. We drove from there up to Sugarloaf rock at dusk as we had read that the Tropic Birds frequent here. Apparently that was in the past. A sign there says they are down to a pair returning once in a while. Katie had her heart set on seeing ring-tailed possums which are nocturnal so we hiked a loop along the Margaret River with our flashlights up in the Peppermint Trees having been assured there were numerous of them there. After an hour and a half and my neck crying in pain we abandoned the walk with no sightings. On our way out of Margaret River we drove along Kevill Road and again saw numerous Grey Kangaroos. Great start to the day. We stopped at Woodlands winery for their Chardonnay that was supposed to be like Rombauer. No. Stopped at Cave House Gardens for lunch. Beautiful and extensive gardens with many birds. Moved on to a hotel close to Perth airport as our flight out was at 7 the following morning. Interestingly, at the airport, there were hundreds of men and women in yellow work uniforms. I asked one what was up. They work for the mines. Typically the company flies them to their worksite for a two week shift then they fly home for two weeks off. They are flown all over the place. We had some on our flight to Exmouth.

We arrived in Exmouth quickly and the change in temp was very noticeable. Easily over 100 here. Our hotel had a room ready at 10 am which even the clerk was surprised by. Beautiful grounds, expensive restaurant. We borrowed a sun shelter, some chairs and an ice chest and we were off to Lakeside Beach. We had to hike a ways from the parking lot at the beach but set everything up and plunged into the water. Lots and lots of fish and coral not far from the beach. Unfortunately the water was hot. Probably 90’s and quite a bit of the coral was bleached. We still were enthralled with the variety of fish about the reef.

We tried Oyster Stacks the following morning and it was even better. Water not so hot and a huge variety of fish we really haven’t seen before. Swam with a Green Sea Turtle, saw a Snake Eel about 3-4’ long, a Blue Ring Sting Ray and tons of other fish. There is no real beach here and in fact it is a rocky entry that you are only supposed to do at high tide. After our initial snorkel we met up with Yardie Creek Cruise for a 1 hour boat ride up Yardie Creek. Yardie means ‘creek’ so it’s kind of a weird name. Our goal was wallabies and our guide found quite a few in the crevices of the rock walls. They are smaller than kangaroos and have black flanks thus they are called ‘Black Flanked Rock Wallabies’.

We also spotted Osprey with their huge nests, Kestrels, and very noisy Fruit Bats in the Mangroves. A very informative tour. We moved on to Turquoise Bay. Here you hike down the beach a little ways, swim out, then let the current carry you over the coral Boomies. Again tons of fish. A large variety of hard coral. We haven’t seen any soft coral or anemones yet though there are some Anemone fish that hang out on the plate corals. We swam with turtles again, a white tipped reef shark came by, and we saw a large sting ray that I swam over (made me think of Steve Irwin!). We got out just in time as the current turns and takes you out to sea. We had to climb up a wall of sand. A full day in the sun. Dinner that night was at Exhale which turns out to be probably the best restaurant in Exmouth. Excellent flavors in tapas style dishes. Close by was a brewpub called Froth’s. They had a lone guitarist noodling on an electric guitar with a looper. Not quite Ed Sheeran but interesting. The visibility in the water has been about 20 feet so we thought we would try Turquoise Bay again but in the early am. Really no change in visibility. Some say it is the wind direction. I don’t know. It certainly isn’t the rain. People in town, books, etc all say Emu’s are everywhere. Not the case. We have asked locals for their hot spots. Driven all over town. No Emu’s. No Dingo’s. Well coming back from Turquoise Bay we spot 2 dark shapes along the road. Mind you, nobody is stopping. No scene. But, there are 2 Emu’s walking along the road. Katie, of course, is out of the car. Luckily, I had slowed down some. We tracked them for a short while then high fived each other.

We tried the other brewpub in town that night, called Whalebone. Pretty good pizza but the beer is pretty much like everywhere else. Malty, not hoppy. Dive Ningaloo took us out to the Muiron Islands the next day for two dives there. Katie and I were both a little anxious having not dived for 3-4 years. After the first dive much more comfortable. The water was warm enough that I just had a swimsuit and swim shirt on. Water visibility still about 20 feet. We didn’t see much new but it was really nice to be able to stop and observe the fish rather than down and up with snorkeling. The video should provoke less dizziness as well. We saw several different Nudibranch’s and a black tipped reef shark. All in all, good to get back to diving. I did get some skin pain again on my abdomen which represents skin bends. I really will be stuck only diving with Nitrox in the future.

Yesterday we caught sight of another Emu. This time next to our regular coffee shop in downtown Exmouth. We stopped at Oyster Stacks again for a high tide snorkel which again was great, then on to Turquoise Bay one last time. Less heat today but less wind so still felt pretty hot. We managed until about 2 then headed back to the hotel. We did see an Australian Bustard along the road which was unexpected. After a Gin and Tonic and a glass of wine we went downtown to pickup tacos for home. Yes tacos! On the way the police , one of a handful of times I have ever even seen them on the road in Australia, we’re stopping every car for a breathalyzer test. I have no idea what my alcohol level is. I don’t feel drunk but who knows. The legal limit is 0.05 so I could be close. I blew, smiled and was told I was close to the limit and should not have another drink if I was going to drive! Oh my god! That would have been disastrous and all for a taco.

Today is moving day with several flights in our future to end up in Adelaide. Western Australia has been fantastic.

We left the Blue Penguins and drove to Christchurch. A pretty town with the river Avon flowing through it. We hiked for a number of miles along the river enjoying botanical gardens along the way. We then set off for Nelson, not sure how far we would want to drive in one day. A scenic drive mixed with one lane bridges and very narrow roads at times but we did make it to Nelson. We found open lodging, explored downtown a bit and retired early. We were off after breakfast to Marahau where our water taxi embarked along the coast. We arrived early luckily as we weren’t sure where the operator was. We boarded the boat and road-boated to our launch site. A great ride in the taxi. The water was flat with no wind. We arrived at Anchorage Bay to start our hike back. The guide recommended adding on a trip to Cleopatra’s pool which we did. I was amazingly out of breath with our uphill portions and was eventually begging for downhill I don’t know if it is this recent cold I’ve had or just generally out of shape this quick.

The Coastal Trail is beautiful and well marked. We made it down to the beach for lunch. Enjoyed our sandwich and beers and shared a few dropped Pringles with the flightless Weka’s, who were very curious and unafraid.

We made it back to Nelson in the early evening and had a nice dinner at Lombard’s in the central part of town. We visited several wineries in Marlborough the following day. Nautilus was our first. We tried several whites all ok but not great. We drove a short way to Allan Scott winery to have lunch. The Cellar Door consisted of a number of cabinets with wines inside. You received a payment card and selected each wine to taste. Unfortunately no wine info given so just read the labels and looked at the prices. Not the best wine tasting experience but we did see this same type of thing in Bordeaux when we were there a couple years ago. I hope it doesn’t catch on. We had lunch outside at the winery which was pretty good. I had a raw salmon salad and Katie had just some sides of brussel sprouts and fries. Yum. We managed one more winery before our flight to Wellington. That was Cloudy Bay, a big production place with a large Napa like tasting room. Our server was from France as many are and we had a terrific tasting here. It was a little squirrelly dropping off the car as no one was around the small airport in Blenheim. I eventually called the company who had me just leave the cars in the parking lot and drop the keys off in a box in the airport. I haven’t seen any extra charges for the car yet but I am waiting

We flew from Blenheim to Wellington on a 10 seater prop plane. Quick flight but a bit bumpy coming into Wellington. I had no idea Wellington has been objectively identified as the world’s windiest city. After 3 days of walking 7-8 miles miles around town, I would not argue that. We stumbled into a Homegrown music festival downtown, 3 stages of various genres and thousands of parties streaming all about. We walked around the bay and were a little surprised to see swimmers out in the water. I guess if you grow up thinking the water is warm, well OK. We rode the cable car up the hill to a lovely park and walked back to our hotel. We spent the rest of our time seeking homegrown craft beer. Never as hoppy or as dank as US IPA’s but many were good.

we picked up a car and drove north to Napier. A lovely drive in the green rolling hills quilted with sheep, cows, horses, and orchards. Clear cut forests with uniform stands of pines in a grid pattern. Our goal was Hawke’s Bay, known for red wine other than Pinot. We stopped in Hastings to the Decibel Winery cellar door. Holly served us some of their fun wines. The owner/winemaker is a fellow named Daniel Brennan from Philadelphia. He came from Philly some 20 years ago leaving not only his punk rock band but his families very popular Irish Tavern to open a winery in New Zealand. Since then he has grown a reputation for his Pinot, his first love, but his variety of Malbecs. We talked a little with him but Holly was his main number 2 and she was fantastic. The wines were fun though not great. We drove a short ways to Craggy Range Winery to have lunch. This was a well built up cellar door and restaurant much like Napa. Our lunch was fantastic. I had a salad of summer veggies and homemade falafel and we both had their short ribs. Delicious.! Finally, we had heard of an area called Gimblett Gravels, noted for their robust reds. We visited Trinity Hills there and sampled quite a few Syrahs, Blends, and a Cab. Some sell for $150NZ. We thought some were OK. The Merlot tasted nothing like a Merlot and most of the Syrahs were thin lacking in any fruit. Snobs!  We’ve tried many craft beers in New Zealand. Some were pretty good but nothing close to the hoppy, dank US iPA’s. Snobs!

Well, we are now waiting our business class flight to Perth, sipping Champagne in the Air New Zealand lounge. Snobs!!

Well, we had an easy day of travel, utilizing the lounge of the partner of Air New Zealand prior to boarding. I was definitely shocked by the seating layout on Air New Zealand. The seats were narrow and a flail to get them lie flat. Probably not worth that much extra money but service was great, food was good and the flight did pass pretty quickly. Nobody took off their clothes running up and down the aisle though we did return to gate for a medical issue with one of the onboard staff.

We arrived in the evening of the next day though the flight was 9 hours. We Ubered to our hotel which turned out well located in Auckland. Katie and I walked around a lot and we were able to cover pretty much all we wanted to see. We jumped on a ferry to Waiheke Island the next day and enjoyed spectacular views of the departing city and the many surrounding islands.

We hiked to Cable Bay Winery once off the boat and mixed together a custom tasting for us, skipping a number of whites and Pinots. They were very nice. Notably, all the help were from foreign lands. That seemed to be a common theme during our visit both in restaurants and wineries. I think our custom tasting of their best wines came out to maybe $20 each.

We hiked over to a small beach town for lunch. The island has many accessible white sand beaches and a few surf type towns. Nice vibes for sure. We caught a public bus across the island to Tantalus Winery. Apparently it is one of the more famous in the area. Again our server was foreign, coming from the Bordeaux region of France. He was trained as a sommelier and was now exploring different wine regions. We did some custom changes on their high end menus and again it was 20ish dollars apiece. Wines here were better but nothing that we wanted to buy. Bus back to ferry and ferry back to port. At sunset we treated ourselves to gin and tonics at a rooftop bar called Churchill’s. Great sunset views overlooking the city.

The following day Katie felt she was getting my cold from 3 weeks before, what? We walked about 7-8 miles around town seeing Ponsonby and Parnell neighborhoods as well as several parks including the Auckland Domain which is a terrific park close to downtown. We managed to sample some beers at a beer cooperative along with some fish and chips. We thought we would manage something that night but we both felt exhausted falling asleep pretty early.

Our flight to Queenstown in the am left at 6:40 so we were up very early. Both of us now felt sick, so I think it was our time in business class that got us. Karma, should have flown riff-raff. We Ubered to our hotel to drop our bags off, then walked to downtown. We rode the gondola up above the city and then hiked out on the Ben Lomond track

We hiked about 7 miles this day and barely dragged ourselves to a brewpub in town for a short rib burger and a couple of IPA’s. They let us checkin at our lodging slightly early and we proceeded to collapse for a 2 hour nap. We rallied for a walk into town at sunset discovering one of the best ice cream stores on the planet. I may have been hungry and feverish, but…it was that good. The name is Patagonia Creamery and Chocolatier’s. Fantastic and spoiler alert, we went there the next night too! Our lodging had a hot tub so we spent our final awake hours simmering.

We got up a little early the next day to catch our tour bus to Milford Sound. It was a scenic trip to the sound though I was feverish and slept several hours of it. The boat on the sound was a huge new catamaran which went out to the ocean fast (against the strong wind), then slowly back. We saw multiple waterfalls, seals and several dolphins swimming in front of the boat.

The journey home was unbearable. Both of us sick and a 4 1/2 hour bus ride that seemed to go on forever. We did get dropped off in town and then, more ice cream. In the am, I rode out to the airport to pick up my car. Drove back trying to feel good about being on the wrong side of the road and ignoring the windshield wipers as I kept using them to signal my turns. 2 days later that hasn’t got much better. We drove over to Dunedin on the coast. We managed to catch a personal tour at the Royal Albatross Centre which is at the end of the Otago Peninsula. We saw 5 baby albatross in their modest nests, waiting for their parents to bring them food. After hiking about a bit, here came 4-5 huge Albatross soaring through the sky. They have 8-9 foot wingspans and typically just ride the wind. They don’t like to flap too much. Once the baby is old enough, like 8 months or so they take off from the Otago Peninsula and fly to the coast of Chile! They return after a number of years to breed.

Stayed overnight in Dunedin then drove less than 2 hours to Oamaru where a Blue Pelican Colony was located. We did a lovely hike in the town’s Glen Warren Reserve and stopped along the wat to eat out sandwiches, drink our beer and soak in the views. We checked into our bed and breakfast which was built in the early 1900’s

We managed a hike up to lookout point and then down. Like in Dunedin’s Signal Hill area, there are well defined, marked, and graded mountain bike trails everywhere. Most have banked turns, built in jumps and other added on technical features. All maintained by local volunteers. After Lookout Point we followed the trails down into town only to discover….a brewpub just 2 blocks from our house. That evening we were out to view the Blue Penguins come in from the sea. That night was the first notable rain of our trip! The viewing area was covered so we were all good. Over 100 penguins came in that night in different groups. So funny to watch them climb or hop up the rocks and scurry across any open section. We left Oamaru the next morning and ventured on to Christchurch where I am tonight. We visited the International Antarctic Centre where we rode in a Hagglund, (look it up), watched Blue Penguins get fed, met some Huskies, and generally learned about life in Antartica. We have since checked into our lodging which includes a W/D so we are doing clothes. Til the second week ends. Kia Ora

Well, we have begun are trip to the down under. A stop on O’ahu for a week has gotten us on the right path. Tans have begun. The liver is cranking up and we are slowly adapting to the time changes.

We stayed in Waikīkī which turned out to probably be a mistake. I thought we would partake in some of the nightlife downtown but that was really never the case. One we never could find good local musicians playing in a club or bar and two we were just too tired to stay up! We traveled to all corners of O’ahu in our car but always paid the price coming back into town with bumper to bumper traffic. We are just not used to this congestion in Hawaii.

We have had great weather during our stay. We found some great beaches on the Kailua side as well as North shore and Yesterday on the west shore at electric beach. Some of the best snorkeling has been off shore from an electric power plant. Quite a few eels and turtles mixed in with a good variety of tropical fish. A group of some 3o spinner dolphins were playing just off the beach on and off for the afternoon. We’ve managed a few minor hikes but not nearly as much as planned. TheBeach just kept calling.

Today we are saying goodbye to Hawaii. Tomorrow we say hello to New Zealand