Onto Fiji

20 Onto Fiji (Sat. Feb. 21)

Today we end our regular portion of the New Zealand and Australian tour. We added on a few days in Fiji and today we fly there. The group of people we originally started with, split when we left New Zealand and again only seven (including me and Carmen ) of this group are going to Fiji.

Originally our flight was to leave at around 6:45 AM, meaning we had to leave the hotel around 3:00AM. However, that flight got canceled and our new time is around 2:30PM. So we do not leave the hotel until 11:00AM. Much better! While at the airport we change our Australian money for Fijian money, not much different. For $170.00 AUS we get $180.00 Fiji

We are flying on a 747 to Fiji and there is plenty of room in the jet so we are not cramped. It is only a 3 1/2 flight. We take off, fly and land with no problems. After landing we go through immigrations, again no problems. We grab our bags then onto the agriculture inspection, still no problems. We find the people who are suppose to be our contact here at the airport so we can get a ride to the resort. And guess what? We get a shell necklace. Almost very Hawaiian.

Knowing where to go, we check in with the transportation company and we head out with a gentleman that will drive us. I'm thinking that all of use on the tour (there are seven of us) would be going in one van or small bus, but I was wrong. The man drives up in a car and it will be only the two of us on this journey. As we head out the driver mentions the fact that Fiji has just dried up from flooding from just three weeks ago. The roads show it, they are bad and you can tell some of them were just quickly patched with gravel. The driver is weaving in and out of the road (they drive on the left side of the road here also) and slowly over pot wholes and mounds.

It takes us about one and 45 minutes to get to the resort. On the way we pass horses and cows in the road and right on the edge of the road. Scary since it is dark while we are driving to the resort. Carmen and I both remark about how riding in this car reminds us of several taxi rides we had in Cancun years ago. The car is not quite a rattle trap and we are happy to make it to the resort without incident.

Carmen and I were the first to leave the airport on our way to the resort, but we are the last ones to get there. We saw two white SUVs pass us when we were within a few of kilometers from the resort and they contained two of the couples that are with our group.

We checked in and decided to go down to one of the five restaurants and cafes on the property. We head over to the cafe that is next to the beach. While waiting to be seated, Frank, one of the people in our tour group, meets us at the entrance, so he sits with us. We order a 12" pizza (at $24.90) and two sodas ($4.00 each) and with taxes the total was around $39.00. Fijian dollars of course, but still, $25.00 for a 12 inch pizza, wow.

While we are eating, there is a private dinner on the lawn below the restaurant and there are three young kids in native dress. A couple of people are taking pictures of them and so do I.

During dinner, Frank mentions that he received information that the train tour we are suppose to take on Monday is now on Sunday. We see the other two couples eating at the same cafe and they also confirmed the day change for the train tour. So our plan is to be ready for the train tour tomorrow morning, at 9:30AM.

By the time we finish eating, it is late and we head for bed. Of course I take pictures on the way to the room and the pictures in this posting are from after we ate. The water lily, we find out later only bloom at night and close up around 10:00AM - they must have the night shift.

We are on floor 6, the ground floor is 5 and the reception area is floor 8. Backwards from what you would normally think, but we find our rooms okay. It is so dark out that we have no real idea of the grounds or beach area. We can not wait until the sun is up.

Tomorrow, if the information is correct, our Coral Coast Railroad tour ride. Boula! (Hello, goodbye, hey you look good, whatever, in Fijian!) See you later.

Blue Mountains

19 Blue Mountains (Fri. Feb. 20)

When we first looked at this trip and the optional trips associated with it, we decided to go on this "extra" side trip, so today we will venture into the Blue Mountains. As I said yesterday; "What the Heck? We've been to the White Mountains, Green Mountains, Black Hills, and part of the Blue Ridge so why not the Blue Mountains?" They are just a couple of hours outside of Sydney, if we were driving by car and not stopping. We are in a bus and making a number of stops along the way.

We leave early, right after breakfast and this trip includes a stop at the Featherdale Wildlife Park. This park is already very busy when we get here. I mean by tourists like us. There are already four buses here when we pull in and more than likely more are on the way. Good thing we left the hotel early. (When we leave there are 8 buses total in the parking lot.)

Some of the animals here run wild, birds mostly but also several of the animals like the Wallaby and Kangaroo. At the park we see Pheasant, Wombats, Wallaby, and a Southern Cassowary. I like this bird because it reminds me of the 2nd Jurassic Park movie when they were trying to catch some of the dinosaurs. In the movie the head hunter said to catch the one with the "Pompadour". Maybe this is it's long lost relative, who knows. Besides this bird, there are all kinds of other birds here, an Emu, Owls, hawks, swans, penguins, peacocks, bats and many more I do not know the names of, Also for animals: Koala, Lizards, turtles, a crocodile, Tasmanian Devil, Dingos, Wombats and of course kangaroos. As a matter of fact, here is a picture of one now. I call it "Kangaroo in Repose". What do you think?

As I mentioned, there are many birds, some free and some in large cages. We go into a section that has many birds of prey in these large cages. Owls (many different type), Eagles, Hawks, Osprey, Falcons and this one that thought the little kid near me looked good enough to eat. He does look mean doesn't he?

I walked by the Tasmanian Devil compound several times and it was never in sight. But, when Carmen and I were hurrying out (we had 5 minutes until the bus left) and we stop to go to the bathroom, right across from the Devil himself. I come out and there it was. I could tell it was there because people were taking pictures. I tripped one kid going to look, pushed two women off to the side; just kidding, but I did take a quick picture. I had to stretch my arm out and try and point to shoot the picture so I was lucky even to get this picture. Ain't he cute?

Also, there were many different kinds of lizards and on the way out we went by these two lizards; I think they are Comono Dragons. Not sure, but they look it and they are big around seven feet long or longer. Since I like the look of lizards and these are rather big, I took a couple of pictures. Don't they look chummy?

We drive by Glenbrook, altitude 163 meters (535 feet) and they call it the "Gateway to the Blue Mountains". But what struck me as more important on the same sign they also identify the "Australian Gnome Convention". Now that would be interesting to see. As we continue higher in elevation and go through towns, they all have a sign identifying the town's elevation and a slogan to identify themselves. For instance, at 371m "First Mountain Settlement", at 609m "Heart of the Mountains", at 673m "Jewels of the Mountains", at 732m "The Original Blue Mountain", at 769m "Blue Skies" Village and so on up to above 900 meters.

When we are almost at our destination we stop for lunch in Leura. Carmen and I buy a couple deli sandwiches at a small market and with chips and sodas eat out lunch out on a chair along the street. After walking around this quaint town, we make our way back to the bus to continue on our trip up to Echo Point and then our final destination.

In no time at all, we arrive at Katoomba and Echo Point finding an overlook of Cedar Valley and the Wild Dog Mountains which reminds me of the Mountains in Virginia (USA) along the Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway. Only some of these mountains have tops like those out West and in the Grand Canyon. From the Echo Point lookout there is a view of a rock formation consisting of three stone pillars known as the "Three Sisters". Of course there is a legend that goes along with the pillars, but the formations are still unusual. (For more information and legend, look for "three sisters blue mountains" on Google.)

We continue around the corner to Scenic World and Jamison Valley, our final destination here in the Blue Mountains. Here we find three rides: a gondola ride across the gorge, a cable way ride down/up to the bottom, and a scenic railway to the bottom/to the top. As usual, since we are on the bus, we only have a limited amount of time for discovering the aspects of the park. In other words we only have an hour before we have to be back on the bus, Gus.

We take the Scenic Railway to go down to the bottom of the ravine. This ride is the steepest incline railway in the world descending to a lush and hidden valley! The ride drops 415 m leading the train through a natural cliff-side tunnel at a 52 degree angle. We are in seats with a cage over us so no one falls out.

After exiting the train, instead of heading left for the Rainforest Walkway (leading to the Cableway) we turn right. About a quick 6 minute walk we come to Katoomba Falls. We do not have that much time to devote to "exploring" the falls and only get a few pictures from the walkway over the stream. But, even from here the 55 meter drop is pretty nice. Carmen and I take a number of pictures (as I usually do with waterfalls trying to capture different water effects) of the waterfall top and also some of the cascades down by the small foot bridge to cross the stream.

We return the way we came and then at the Scenic Railway we head for the Scenic Walkway. The walkway is a two kilometer boardwalk through the rainforest. It is described as a "path through a Jurassic rainforest" and indeed it is. Here we find tree ferns, these are really neat looking. Also along the walkway is a Coal Mine Exhibition.

We continue around the walkway and decide to go back up by way of the Scenic Cableway. Of course this cableway boasts itself as the steepest aerial cable car in the Southern Hemisphere. We ascend 545 meters back up to the top. The ride is nice with views of the falls, Three Sisters, and the valleys. In no time we are back on top and head into the gift shop and the bathrooms. We look around for about 10 minutes, then back on the bus.

Our next stop is a 10 minute quick look see at the overlook in the Blue Mountain National Park. This view overlooks the valleys in the National Park, different from the area at Scenic World. Here we see another waterfall. Unfortunately, the sun is not out when we first get there and Carmen and I stick around waiting for the sun. It does come out and as we are leaving, Carmen has actually left already, Roubin (our AAT Kings tour guide who has accompanied us on this excursion) notices a snake. (Good thing Carmen was not around.) Roubin calls the bus driver over and the three of us examine it trying to see if it is a poisonous snake or not (like I would know). It is a small snake, about as big around as your pinky. Anyway we just leave it alone.

After hopping back on the bus we head back to Sydney. Of course the trip back to Sydney from here is straight through, no stopping, no sightseeing, just a movie and a nap. Our first drop off location is at a ferry stop. To get there we drive through the site of the 2000 Olympics compound.

It is late, around 6:30PM when we get back to the hotel. Everyone has decided to get a drink in a bar right next to the hotel. Tomorrow we are splitting up and some of us are flying to Los Angeles and the rest of us are leaving for Fiji. For our flight to Fiji, originally Carmen and I had a flight time of 6:30 AM which meant we needed to leave the hotel no later than 3:45 AM. However, our flight is canceled and we are on a later flight, which is now at around 1:00 PM. Much easier on the wake-up.

See you tomorrow after we get to Fiji.

19a Blue Mountains - More pictures

Blue Mountains - Continued

As usual we took lots of pictures and there is not enough space for one posting to hold them all. We include here a couple of more pictures, some of them are different angles of a similar picture used in the blog posting. The first picture is of the Three Sisters with a wider view of the valley in the background.

Next is a picture of Scenic World from Echo Point. You can see the Gondola ride across the ravine. And no we did not go on this - not enough time.



On the way back up to the top from the Scenic Walkway near the bottom of the valley by way of the Scenic Cable Car, we had this view is the waterfall.

On our way to the Blue Mountain National Park, we drove along this road which has trees overhanging the road. Reminds me of some of the roads leading to several of the southern mansions in the US.

This is the valley view from the lookout at the Blue Mountain National Park and also the waterfall by itself (a wider view of the waterfall is seen in the posting for the Blue Mountain blog.

Sydney

18 Sydney (Thu. Feb. 19)

Today our Australian tour includes a drive around Sydney, a stop at the Sydney Opera House, then take a harbour cruise (with lunch) and finally go to an Opal showing. It will pretty much take up the whole day.

First on our trip around the city is a stop at "Mrs. Macquaries Point". So named because in 1810 Governor Macquaries began to develop an extensive network of roads. One of these roads was a road for the Govenor's wife, Mrs Macquaries, recreation. The road was built right out to the point and was completed around 1916. Mrs. Macquaries would come to this point and sit at the end of this piece of land to view the harbour and waters. The Governor had the workmen Whatever the reason, this point of land (sweeps around and connects to the point where the Opera House sits surrounds the Farm Cove) is now a large and very nice city park.

From here we are able to see the Opera House and the Bridge in the background. There also is a nice view of the City and the bay. At the end of the point the workers building the road carved in the granite rock a seat, well a couple of seats actually. Carmen is here by one of the seats which looks out over the harbour waters.

In the center of the water is a small bit of land in the middle of the bay which now contains a small fort. (This fort was built around a couple of canons. The canons are still there because to remove them it would be necessary to destroy the fort walls.) It was pointed out that the fort has never been fired upon, except by a US destroyer. (During WWII Japanese several one-man submarines were dispatched into the harbour to destroy ships, as one was heading out the US shot at the sub, missing and hitting the Fort.

We leave "Mrs. Macquaries Point" and in a round about way (remember we are also touring the city) get to the Sydney Opera House. Yes, it really is as big as it looks. As we start to enter the Opera House and begin our tour, the Opera House tour guide mentions that there are a little over 200 steps going through the place. While we are inside any of the halls we are not able to take pictures. We can take pictures from within the halls, stair cases, and the glassed in vestibule (where President Bush had lunch with other dignitaries some months ago) and other external locations.

After the Opera House, we head back out driving around town heading to Bondi Beach which is about 7k distance. As a note, this is a large city with about 4 million people in it. So there is a lot of acreage to drive around and see, before our harbour cruise (around noon). On our way to Bondi Beach Park we pass a Ferrari dealership - damn I left my wallet in the hotel, anyway the driver will not stop for us to test drive a car. We also drive through a neighborhood and on top of a hill we have a great overall view of the city.

We get to the beach, nice beach by the way, big sand. The far end of the beach is set aside for surfers and has a strong rip current (7 on a scale of 10-highest). Across the beach is a large Pavilion with restaurants, restrooms, stores, a theater, etc. A nice place to hang around on a nice day during the summer. Anyway I digress, the beach is in a cove like a large tear-drop with high cliffs on one end and rocks on the other end. There is a "Bondi Surf Bathers Life Savings Club" here at the beach. These are the life guards, all voluntary. We do not get to stay too long here at the park since we only have about 15 minutes.

Back on the bus we continue on our way to the harbour cruise. We pass more churches, old buildings, and more. As we check in and get on the boat, the lunch buffet is already being served. Carmen and I eat quickly of course because we want to be up on the top of the boat during our trip. We travel around the harbour getting a broad view of the City, the Opera House, the Bridge (and there are people climbing up along the top of the bridge (about $280.00AUS per person), the Naval pier and the rest of the City.

As we come back to the docks and get off the boat, we made our way up the road to an Opal factory/store. Here we learn how Opals are made and mined and the differences between White, Black (the hardest to find and most expensive), and Stone Opals. Here is the Opal I liked. Of course you can well guess the price of this little trinket. You might well guess we did not get out of there without getting something. Carmen bought an Opal necklace, not so large nor too small, just right.

That is the end of our tour around the City, all we need to do is wait for the bus to come and take us to the hotel. Once there, it is about 3:00PM by then, Carmen and I take a short nap. On our agenda (no one else is going on our next excursion but us) next is to go and eat dinner at the top of the tower. We get to the restaurant at the top of the needle tower early around 5:45PM (our reservation was for 6:30PM) and since it is a buffet and there are not many people here yet we get a seat by the window. What a view! You can really see quite a distance from up here. We are able to see the sight of the 2000 Olympics, many of the parks, the ocean, the harbour and bays. Wow. We've included a couple of pictures.

The seating area for the restaurant rotates 360 degrees. The location where the food is and the windows remain stationary. We have to find the food then our seats each time. There is all kinds of food. I had the Kangaroo, Lamb shank, duck, and a few other exotic foods. At $65.00AUS each for the buffet I might as well partake of everything.

When we have finished, we go back down to the road and slowly head back to the hotel. Tomorrow Carmen and I (along with many of the others in our tour group) will be heading out to the Blue Mountains. This is an extra trip excursion (which we paid for), but we figured, what the heck we've been to the White Mountains, Green Mountains, and the Black Hills why not the Blue Mountains.

Till tomorrow, G'day Mate.

18a Sydney - More Pictures

More Pictures of Sydney

When we chose the pictures for Sydney we found it difficult to pick on 6 or 7 so we are including some more here. First is a picture of the Sydney harbour bridge. No one is climbing the bridge at this time because I think it was to early in the morning.






Next is a picture of the Sydney taken from Mrs. Macquaries Point.








The Sydney Opera House view from the harbour cruise and a view from inside the Opera House.



















Our trip to Bondi Beach was way to short. As you can see the beach is built on a horse shoe shaped bay. A cliff provides for a nice walkway and view of breaking waves on the rocks.











And last is another view from the restaurant at the top of the needle. The restaurant seating floor revolved 360 degrees while the windows and center remained stationary.