Visiting Beautiful Down Under - Time Out #273

As the Covid-19 viral pandemic continues its ever-present vice-grip on the world, I thought I would introduce a pleasant break to our continuous, stay-at-home lifestyles.

O.K., let's mentally travel!!

Since this exercise happens in our mind's eye, let's allow our ideas shoot for the mountain tops. How about a special journey to far, far, far away locations?

Let's go to Australia, and on to it's "neighbor" (almost 2,600 miles east across the Tasman Sea), New Zealand's two main islands!

My bride, Lady Deborah, our youngest child, Robbie, and I made this epic trip across the vast South Pacific Ocean, years ago, Our memories, however, seem like we enjoyed the Aussie and Kiwi cultures yesterday. Yes, indeed, it was quite a 2-plus week adventure Down Under.

To be totally transparent with you, readers in Our Town and far beyond, I had been contemplating traveling to these unique, remote locations for several years. The easy answer to why we chose to take this particular trip was it featured one of the early cruises to the region, along with multiple port stops between the two nations. As I have mentioned several times over the years of my writings, we LOVE ocean/river cruising, especially when it involves visiting areas on planet Earth we haven't previously seen. This cruise provided 11 port stops, 3 in Australia and 8 in New Zealand. enjoyed over a long Christmas holiday period. We sailed on a nice Holland America Line (HAL) vessel. This cruise line is famous for its outstanding service, and older passenger cliental. Robbie did have a few teens to "bond" with during his extended, on-board experience, and, fortunately, he has always been a person who makes friends easily and quickly.

Now, for the long, getting to our ship-boarding port, Sydney, Australia, story. We started by flying west via United Airlines, Oklahoma City to Denver to Los Angeles International Airport. After a brief layover, we again boarded a United jet, and flew 14-hours non-stop to Australia's largest city, Sydney. We took two additional days, adjusting to the 17-plus (super jet lag!) hour time difference with Our Town, While in Sydney, we also toured the famous Opera House, their colorful zoo, and explored other interesting sections of this vibrant city. Somewhat mentally/physically adjusted to traveling almost half way around the globe, we boarded our HAL ship, docked in memorable Sydney harbor. We then began our exciting cruise journey, leaving the Australian state of New South Wales, and headed south, then west to our first port top, historic Melbourne, in the state of Victoria. Melbourne is an iconic city-of-the-world, certainly memorable with its beautiful parks and ever-present streetcars moving down its lovely streets. Our last Australian port was Launceston, positioned on the northeastern side of the island state, Tasmania, just south of Melbourne, across the water route named the Bass Strait. Tasmania is known worldwide for its natural beauty, and we were able to briefly experience some of it during our daylong land stop off our ship.

Our vessel turned east then, and took several days to cruise through the vast Tasman Sea, before reaching the active volcano on White Island, just off the southwestern tip of New Zealand's South Island. Our ship's captain positioned our vessel close, but safe enough, so we were able to witness the eruptions and smoke billow from the fiery volcanic action. What a thrill! Next, we moved into the Milford Sound area, a spectacular scenery location on the southwestern side of the South Island. It consists of incredible fiords, much like Norway. The natural surroundings are truly awesome!

Onward to the port city of Dunedin, located on the southeastern side of the South Island. Here, we chose a land excursion through the city, continuing through the surrounding countryside, viewing the magnificent albatross birds and their nests, along with a colorful penguin rookery. Later. we sailed north to iconic Christchurch. Our visit was well before the recent damaging earthquake that hit this classic city. Christchurch has very unusual architecture, strongly influenced by the United Kingdom, thousands of miles away.

Continuing northbound, we stopped twice at the far northern end of the South Island, enjoying the port cities of Nelson and Picton. I can say without question, considering the one hundred countries my bride and I have ever had the pleasure of visiting, New Zealand has the friendliest people we have EVER been around! For example, when our ship was leaving Picton, the local townspeople were lined up for over a mile on the levee, waving goodbye to our ship. It was an INCREDIBLE site to see and experience from our on-board deck viewing site!

Leaving the South Island, and crossing the narrow Cook Strait to the North Island, we docked in Wellington. We took a land excursion of the large city, including a funicular ride up a small mountain near downtown. This afforded us magnificent views of the expanded metropolitan area below. From there, our HAL ship headed north to the Rotorua area, home to many of the indigenous Maori people, along with lots of geothermal features, such as geysers, mud pots, etc. We then cruised to the far northeastern side of the North Island to experience the lovely Bay of Islands port stop. Here, we enjoyed a land excursion through a large, beautiful, hand-constructed, wooden tribal house, appropriately decorated for its members' various functions.

Our HAL vessel ended our wonderful two-country trip in the New Zealand's capital city of Auckland, located in the north central section of the North Island. Lastly, we flew our 13-hour, non-stop, Air New Zealand flight back to Los Angeles, with our heads full of memories we continue to reflect on today.

Priceless...