Please scroll down to find the beginning of the trip.

Our flight was at 7:40 pm so we had the whole day to relax before the coach took us all to the airport.
We slept late and had a really nice breakfast and then went off to tour the Art Gallery.

There were some interesting works in the gallery…in particular, the collection donated by hedge-fund pioneer Julian Robertson, who developed a deep affection for New Zealand after taking a sabbatical there with his family in 1978.  His wife Josie and he donated their artwork to New Zealand because they were so impressed with the Māori children and how those kids were in awe of the paintings when they looked at them when they were first displayed. Julian and Josie felt they wanted to donate their collection where it would be appreciated. The donation comprises 15 works by famous artists…. Pierre Bonnard, Georges Braque, Paul Cezanne, Salvador Dalí, André Derain, Henri Fantin-Latour, Paul Gauguin, Fernand Léger, Henri Matisse, Piet Mondrian and Pablo Picasso. The collection also features paintings, prints, drawings, and sculpture. Allan knew of Julian since Julian was the keynote speaker in a morning financial conference years ago, and Allan was on a panel at the conference in the afternoon.

The Robertson’s lived in New York City in an apartment overlooking Central Park and the apartment had all of the art on display. One painting by Picasso was hung in the bathroom because his wife didn’t like it.

We had a quick bite to eat and then sat with the group in the hotel lobby till it was time to leave.

We said goodbye to our new friends amid tears and Allan and I boarded our Air New Zealand flight. Our new friend Debbie was also on this flight. The flight was extremely turbulent for hours with everything bouncing around. You could hardly eat or drink…the liquids were slurping over the rims of the glasses.

Around 10 pm after dinner was served, flight attendants came around and made up our beds. I have to say, the mattress they put down was the thickest and the most comfortable mattress I’ve ever had on a business class flight. I slept great.

In the morning they dismantled our beds and served breakfast and we arrived in Houston. Going through security and rechecking our bags for the flight to Newark was a breeze.

Unfortunately, our flight to Newark was delayed for over two hours so we didn’t take off until much later than planned. We finally arrived in Newark, but our luggage came on a different flight and was at a different terminal. Since our driver had been waiting for us for hours, we decided to have United send us our luggage and hopefully it will arrive today. We arrived home around 2:30 am and went right to bed.

It was the trip of a lifetime and we had so many adventures and first experiences. We will never forget Australia and New Zealand. It was a long trip…but so worth it. We did it all! See you for the next journey!

PS…Yesterday, our luggage arrived at Lehigh Valley International Airport and Allan and I went over and picked it up. YAY! And now…to do the laundry!!

Monet

My favorite in the collection

This is our last day on our month long trip through Australia and New Zealand. Tomorrow we fly home. Our hotel in Auckland is in the center of town and is quite lovely and the breakfast this morning was amazing! We’ve been very lucky that all of our hotels have been wonderful and the breakfasts, except for one hotel, have been excellent. But if truth be told, we do get some of the best rooms since we have traveled with Overseas Adventure Travel – Grand Circle so often.

We boarded our coach for a tour around the city, stopping first to see the Harbor Bridge. Before the bridge opened in 1959, the only way passenger vehicles could cross the harbor was by ferry which was a time consuming, expensive and thus became an infrequently made journey. Situated on the nation’s main artery (State Highway 1) more than a billion cars have travelled across the steel bridge since it was constructed.

As we traveled along, Catherine mentioned that prostitution in New Zealand is legal. There isn’t a red light district like in Amsterdam and there are no pimps. The ladies are called sex workers, they pay taxes, and usually work out of their homes.

We passed where New Zealand’s America’s Cup boat is being housed. There was a sneak peek offered to the public a few weeks ago, but for the most part, the design is a well kept secret until the race.

We passed Holy Trinity Cathedral where Sir Edmund Hillary was buried from. Sir Hillary was a mountaineer and an explorer and he and his Sherpa became the first climbers to have reached the summit of Mount Everest. He led an amazing life and Allan and I are members of the Sir Edmund Hillary club with Overseas Adventure Travel since we have travelled so often with them.

The next stop was to Bastion Point (you can google about its interesting history) and then on to Auckland Domain WinterGarden. The gardens were spectacular, with many gorgeous flowers that I have never seen. The display changes regularly within the glass houses, but the flowers blooming at this time were truly rare. One glass house is heated and shows lush tropical and heat-loving plants while the other house displays temperate plants changing with the seasons. There also is a fern area that is dense with different types of ferns and trees.

We went back to the hotel to spend an afternoon on our own before the Farewell Dinner tonight. Allan and I walked around since it was a lovely sunny day, after this morning’s sprinkle of rain.

At 5:30 we all took the ferry over to enjoy the Farewell Dinner. We had a lot of laughs and we were sorry that our time together is ending. You really get to know people very well, being with them every day for a month. It was a good group and we traveled well together.

We went back to the hotel and Catherine gave a recap of our time together. It’s amazing to realize all the wonderful adventures we had here in New Zealand. The country is beautiful with its volcanoes, glaciers, meadows, beaches, and of course the majestic mountains that were covered in snow.

Catherine gave each of us a little gift and a written award to go with it, highlighting something that we did that she remembered that she thought was great. Allan got shot glasses and his award read “The award for being able to say he actually fit in a hobbit’s house!” I received a lovely woven little bag and my award read “The award for being a wahine toa and making it through the nighttime tree walk!” Too funny! BTW… wahine toa means warrior woman. Yep…that’s me!!

Harbor Bridge

Building where the New Zealand’s America’s Cup boat is housed.

Bastion Point. Michael Savage Memorial

Where Sir Edmond Hillary was buried from.

One of the glass houses at the Wintergarden

Fern garden

Yesterday, we had a long drive to visit our last city on this fabulous tour, Auckland, the most populous city in New Zealand.

On the coach Catherine mentioned again over the microphone how proud she was that I overcame a fear and conquered the swing bridge in the Redwood Forest. Everyone cheered! I said, “I’m still recovering…but thank you!” Too funny.

Our first stop was the Arapuni Swing Bridge, (yes…a swing bridge) located not far from the Arapuni power station. It has a span of 499 feet and is 178 feet above the gorge. I went to the bridge to see if I could walk across it. Yeah…no!!! The bridge was bouncing, the view to the bottom was death defying, and I only went one foot on it and turned around. Allan did go partway out to take a quick photo. The bridge was built in the 1920’s to allow workers access to the power station construction site.

Our next stop was Sanctuary Mountain that has one of New Zealand’s largest fenced in eco-sanctuaries and one of the world’s longest pest-proof fences. It is the habitat of many endangered wildlife.

Our guide explained how the fence works to keep predators out of the forest so that the endangered wildlife will have a chance at survival. Xcluder is the factory that manufactures the fencing and after many trials, they built a fence that does not allow pests to jump over, climb over, dig under, or get through. Here are some fence facts that were on a sign at the Sanctuary:

• The fence includes more than 850,000 staples, 50,000 battens, 8,500 three metre posts and 240km of high tensile wire
• An electronic surveillance system operates 24 hours per day to detect fence breaches
• The volunteer effort in maintaining the fence and monitoring pests involves more than 250 hours per month and the equivalent of 37 full time staff. If the fence has been breached, a volunteer is there within 90 minutes to catch the intruder.

The kiwi in the sanctuary were endangered at first, but now, the kiwi living in the forest have multiplied and the forest is now overpopulated with them. This year the sanctuary is going to have 300 kiwi moved to other conservation projects around the North Island. This is a world first in terms of scale and complexity.

Before we were allowed to enter the forest, we had to brush off our shoes and walk on a box that splashed water on the bottom of our shoes to clean them. Then only a few of us could go into a kind of cage-like area at a time. As we entered, we had to close the door before we opened the next door to enter the forest. This was so that pests outside the fence couldn’t sneak in with us.

Our guide was wonderful as we hiked through the forest with its gorgeous foliage, ferns, huge trees, and birds singing all throughout. Often our guide would pause and we all remained quiet so we could hear the chattering of the avian life. We heard kiwi as well as ruru, kaka, and many other bird calls. Our guide pointed out unusual mushrooms, fungi, berries, and told us about a tree (can’t remember the name) whose leaf can be used for toilet paper in the bush. Years ago, since the leaf has a whitish back, people used it as a postcard and mailed it, but the post office no longer allows that practice.

We had a nice lunch and then it was on the bus for the ride to Auckland. On the way, Catherine talked about the government in New Zealand and about taxes etc. People think New Zealand doesn’t have taxes, but that isn’t true. There’s something called a pay rate that goes for maintenance for the parks, rubbish collection, roads, etc. That tax is paid to the local government. The income tax is a separate tax that goes toward education and medical care.

Schools are rated 1-10 with 1 being in the poorest of the poor areas to 10 being the affluent areas. The lower number school gets subsidized by the government and the children get extra curricular schooling, breakfast and lunch programs, books and anything they need for the kids to succeed. The #10 schools… parents raise money on their own with fundraisers as they do not receive monies from the government. The money raised goes towards helping the kids study abroad, extracurricular activities, etc. Sadly, the #1 school kids have it tough and some just drop out because their parents are so poor, they don’t have the incentive to help their kids succeed.

Between 1970 and 1982, if a child had an accident or became incapacitated, the child was forcibly taken from the parents and put into a psychiatric facility, even if the child had no mental problems. The children were given shock treatments and were abused, and neither the parent nor the child had a voice. Catherine spoke from experience as her younger brother was hit by a car when he was 6. He was paralyzed on one side. The government took him and put him in a psych ward and he was given shock treatments. Visiting was very limited, so her parents were not able to do anything for him. Her brother died in the facility and now she is a member of a group that monitors asylums to make sure what happened years ago never happens again.

We passed a lot of cattle on the way and we noticed that some of the cattle had orange paint on their backsides. Catherine told us that the farmers castrate some of their bulls. They also paint the tails of the cows orange. This tail painting can be a reliable tool to tell when a cow is in heat. Even though the bull is castrated, he will still want to mount the cow and then the paint rubs off the cow telling the farmer she’s in heat. The farmer then paints that cow green…meaning she’s good to go and the farmer brings in a bull that hasn’t been castrated to do the job. Tail paint apparently is a tried, tested and proven method and one I had never heard of before.

We finally arrived in Auckland which is a very busy city. Lots of people and traffic. High priced stores like Bulgari, Patek Philippe, Dior, and many more. We took a short walk around and then went to a restaurant called Occidental for a delicious dinner of green-lipped mussels. Allan and I also enjoyed a dark stout beer.

Today we have a tour of the city by coach and we then have the rest of the day free to explore. Our Farewell Dinner will be tonight, so I will write about today’s happening later tonight.

BTW…regarding the kiwi, here is an interesting article you might like to read: https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/05/01/surreal-leonardo-dicaprio-praises-kiwi-conservation-group/

The gorge below

Sanctuary Mountain

Fungi like coral.

300 year old tree

The beautiful landscape outside the forest.

Auckland

Green-lipped mussels. Delicious!

Nice dark stout

I meant to mention that when we started our New Zealand tour, our guide Catherine gave us some fruit that grows in her garden. It’s called feijoas. The fruit is sweet and tart and is similar to the guava family, but I tasted pineapple in it. It was juicy and quite good.

Also, I spoke with Catherine about the Maori face tattooing and she said they really only do ink tattoos these days and do not do the face cutting anymore. First, it is a barbaric practice and second, the people who were doing it are no longer around to teach the practice. In Australia, the Aborigines still do it, but it is restricted to Arnhem Land.

By the way, all is fine with our hotel room. They fixed the heat and the temp is perfect.  Also, the weather has been amazing. We’ve had sunny days and beautiful autumn temps. It’s been a perfect time of year to be here. 

One of my favorite opera singers is Kiri Te Kanawa who was born in New Zealand to a Māori butcher. The butcher was already married, so Kiri was given up for adoption to a Ngati Maniapoto family. She was trained in operatic singing by a nun and went on to earn international acclaim. 

This morning we started our day visiting the Waimangu Volcanic Rift Valley, the world’s  youngest geothermal system. This hydrothermal system was created on June 10, 1886 by the volcanic eruption of Mount Tarawera. 7 small villages were lost and 105 lives were lost. All plant, bird and animal life were lost as well. 

The eruption affected Lake Roromahana and the area is now a major tourist attraction.  It contains Frying Pan Lake which is the largest hot spring in the world and Inferno Crater Lake, the largest geyser-like feature in the world although you can’t see the geyser since it is at the bottom if the lake. 

After the volcanic eruption, when everything was wiped out, the now native forest is the only New Zealand example of a re-establishing of vegetation without any human planting. It truly is remarkable. 

We hiked all through the area, sometimes walking on the edge of the crater. The foliage was magnificent and so amazing to know that Mother Nature did this all on her own without the help of humans planting the seeds.

After our hike we boarded a boat and cruised Lake Rotomahana (warm lake). This was once a very small lake but after the 1886 eruption of Mt. Tarawera, it became 20 times its original size, combining with Lake Rotomakariri (cold lake), thus becoming the regions deepest lake. 

There were Pink and White Terraces that were  natural formations once labeled the 8th Wonder of the World. People travelled from afar to New Zealand to see these amazing terraces that we now can only see in photos since they are below Lake Rotomahana. 

We cruised past the steaming cliffs where the hot springs are evident in the mountainside and we stayed in one area for a few minutes to witness a geyser spewing hot water and steam. The boat tour times it so we were able to be right in front of the geyser when it let go. It was pretty spectacular.

We had lunch and then some of us took a bus to visit the Hobbiton Movie set. 

Peter Jackson had looked for a perfect location for the Lord of the Rings films, and he found it during a helicopter flight as he searched the countryside in New Zealand for the ideal spot. He saw it when he flew over Alexander Farm, a 1,250 acre sheep farm. 

As the story goes, Jackson approached Mr Alexander with a knock on his door, but Mr. Alexander was watching a rugby game and wasn’t pleased with the interruption. Fortunately, it was just about half time, so the two men sat down and worked out the how-tos and wherewithals and a deal was made to use the farm for the filming. Mr Alexander had never read the novels, but I’m sure with the way the novels are timeless and Hobbiton is so popular, he is very happy he stopped viewing the rugby game to make the deal with Jackson.

After suitable negotiations, work commenced in transforming part of the farm into sets for Hobbiton and the other parts of Tolkien’s Shire. Heavy equipment was moved in by the New Zealand Army and 37 hobbit holes with gardens etc were created. 

It was a huge undertaking. Generators were installed, sewage had to be dealt with, and feeding of over 400 cast and crew had to be undertaken.  They even took all the apples off a huge apple tree on the farm and replaced it with fake plums so that the film was true to the story…since a plum tree was in the writings.  Also, during filming, the man-made pond became the home of some bull frogs and at times, the actors couldn’t hear each other because the frogs were so loud. The frogs had to be collected and relocated to another pond on the farm. 

The original set wasn’t built to last, but in 2010, the set was reconstructed to a permanent basis for the filming of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and Ian McKellen came back as Gandalf and was joined on location by Martin Freeman. 

There are now 44 hobbit holes on view although it is only possible to enter a few of them, all of which have small, unfinished, earth-walled interiors. The homes are built to one of three different scales. In addition to the smallest ones built to the correct size (hobbits are smaller than humans), some are built to a larger scale to make the hobbit actors appear smaller, and some have been constructed in a “dwarf” scale for scenes containing dwarves. Apart from a few exceptions, the color of the front door indicates the scale, for example hobbit holes with a blue door are built to the correct human size. 

It was so wonderful to walk around where the filming took place and listen as our guide told us all the little intricacies of the Shire. 

After the tour we stopped into the Green Dragon and had a beer. It was a magical afternoon. 

We had a delicious dinner and then it was off to bed since we have a big travel day tomorrow to Auckland. 

The Hobbit house was so much fun to go through. More pics below.

Peter Jackson said about the set… “It seems as if you could open the circular green door of Bag End and find Bilbo Baggins inside”.