BUSTER AND GORDON'S 1999 AUSTRALIA and NEW ZEALAND TRIP
Buster had accumulated many frequent flyer miles from doing locum tenens Emergency Medicine assignments. He invited me to accompany him on a trip to Australia and New Zealand. I am grateful for this both for enjoyment of the trip itself, and for giving me the taste for travel, which I continued.
The following photos are scanned from prints -- this was before the digital photography era.
Opera House, Harbour Bridge, HMS Bounty replica, WW II battleship
Sydney Aquarium
Fountain
Chinese Garden
Pleasure boats. There was a hop-on hop-off boat service to all the sights on the harbour. The commercial harbour is seprate from the scenic harbour.
Sydney Zoo
We rented a car and drove south and east to a National Park near Wollongong. This featured eukalyptus forest and beaches with scenic surf. It happened that cicada emergence was at a peak - we were serenaded by many thousands of them.
We then drove to Canberra. It was quite hot inland, sometimes over 100F. The main TV antenna tower had a viewing deck over the city.
The current Parliment building opened in 1988, Queen Elizabeth II presiding at the ceremony. This replaced an older building from 1927.
Our B & B hosts suggested this spot to watch wild kangaroos at dusk.
This is their lovely house in a shady suburb of Canberra.
These are the Australian counterparts to warnings to watch for Deer in the USA -- Kangaroos, Koalas, and Wombats.
The drive from Canberra to Melbourne had some nice mountain scenery.
Melbourne has varied architecure from Victorian to Modern.
Train Station, Victoria Provence Parliament Building, Opera House, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, National Gallery of Victoria.
Here is the Cricket Stadium, viewed from the Men's room on the 40th floor of an office building.
We took a day trip from Melbourne, driving west along the south coast of Victoria on the Great Ocean Way. We stopped for lunch at this beautiful spot, then proceded to the Apostle Rocks and their associated cave openings. On the way back to Melbourne, at our dinner stop I had pasta with "marinara" sauce. To my surprise and delight "marinara" to Australians means a cream sauce with several types of seafood.
NEW ZEALAND
We flew from Melbourne to Auckland, NZ to continue our adventure.
Glow Worm Cave tour by boat.
Hilly terrain on our way to Rotorua.
Traditional Maori meeting house -- demonstration of Maori song and dance.
The Maori Craft Institute.
Rotorua is thermally active. Here is a small geyser.
McDonalds, with Maori decor!
Our B&B hosts suggested we borrow their canoe and paddle about a mile on Lake Rotorua to a Maori Church with this remarkable etched glass window, showing Jesus walking on the water of the lake (I did not have a camera with me -- This photo is from the internet.)
Trout swimming upstream toward a hatchery
Napier -- many buildings are art deco style.
Wellington, NZ is the capital city.
"Te Papa" Museum.
Wellington has an attractive interesting waterfront. Modern architecture is seen throughout the city.
We then returned our rental car, rode the ferry to the South Island, rented a car there, and proceeded to stunning coastal and mountain scenery.
Pancake Rocks, on the northwest coast of the South Island.
These B&B hosts run a farm. They were interested in Buster's rural Montana observations. As a city boy, I did not have much to contribute to the conversation.
The mountain scenery was superb.
Mount Cook National Park
Manapouri Hydroelectric Plant
Doubtful Sound
Bottle-nosed dolphins
Mouth of Doubtful Sound at the Tasman Sea. Many seals live here.
Sharing Highwy 8 north of Cromwell with a sheep flock crossing it.
Our B&B near Mt. Cook
Totara tree, 800 years old.
Christchurch
Monument commemerating Women's Sufferage. In 1893 New Zealand was the first nation in the world to give women the right to vote.
Christchurch Botanical Gardens.
After our touring, we flew from Christchurch to Auckland. Boarding this flight, there was no security check. We just showed our boarding passes. After a day of sighseeing, we flew home from Auckland.