Scratch this trip off our bucket list. We did it March 4-20, 2020, smack in the middle of the Corona virus - Covid19., That is a whole story in itself. We flew Denver to San Francisco and spent the afternoon, night, and next morning with Alexis. Then flew SF to Los Angeles to catch our 9 pm 14 hr overnite flight to Brisbane, Australia. This was an ag oriented tour, and all our tour travelers were farmers/ranchers. We all had so much in common.
The maps below show the places we traveled too. We crossed the International date line during the overnite flight, and while we were waiting for our morning flight to Cairns (pronounced Cans), we were feeling hungry for evening supper. Though we were fed well on the long flight. We lost a day - leaving on Wednesday and arriving on Friday. But we gained the day back when we left New Zealand at 8:30 pm on Friday, and arrived in Los Angeles at noon on Friday!
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| Australia |
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| New Zealand |
Upon arrival in Brisbane, we immediately changed planes and flew to Cairns where we stayed in a lovely hotel for three nites. While in Cairns, we spent one day on the waters in a luxury catamaran to the Great Barrier Reefs. I snorkeled in the Coral Reefs. We enjoyed viewing the coral reefs from a glass sided boat, which was amazing, had lunch on the catamaran and enjoyed a relaxing day on the waters of Michaelmas Cay.
Day 5: We rode the Sky rail over and through the World Heritage Rain forest north of Cairns in gondolas, spent time in the quaint village of Kuranda, took boomerang lessons from the Aborigines, visited the koala bears and kangaroos and other animals of the land, rode the Kuranda Rail back, and ended the evening with a gourmet dinner along the waterfront.
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| In the Sky Rail gondola above the Rain Forest north of Cairns |
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| The Kuranda Rail |
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| Deep in the Rain Forest after the gondola Sky Rail |
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| Aboriginals trying to teach us how to throw the boomerang. |
Day 6: We fly from Cairns to Ayers Rock deep in the Australian Outback. We visit the mysterious sandstone monolith bursting from the desert floor, named Uluru, better known as Ayers Rock. This evening we dine at an elegant table in a rustic desert setting with champagne, wine and beer and canapes. The flies were bad in the Outback, but at dusk, the flies all disappeared. Don't know where they went.
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| Flying over the Outback of Australia |
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| Uluru, better known as Ayers Rock |
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| Sunset at Ayers Rock |
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| Dining at its finest in the Outback of Australia |
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| We were gifted with a bottle of wine in our room at Ayers Rock in celebration of our 50th anniversary this year. |
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| Was gifted a second bottle of wine from the Grace Hotel in Sydney also |
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| Happy 50th dear. |
Day 7: Sleep in this morning, great Outback breakfast, and back into the airplane to fly to Sydney. A great dinner on the Sydney Harbor Pier.
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| Clouds and cloud shadows over the Australian Outback |
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| Dinner on the Sydney Pier |
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| Lamb kabobs for Tim |
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Day 8: In and around Sydney, Australia. We toured the Sydney Opera House, the greatest architectural
piece in the world. We took a luxury catamaran around the Sydney Harbor and a cruise luncheon on board. We sailed beneath the Sydney Harbor Bridge, enjoyed city views from the catamaran, enjoyed a bus tour around the city and to the beach, visited the famous Mrs Macquarie's Chair - a bench carved in rock. That evening we had another very fancy dinner in the Queen Victoria Building, and three nites in the beautiful Grace Hotel.
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| In front of the Sydney Harbor Bridge |
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| Sydney Opera House |
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| Roof is made of 5" square ceramic tiles |
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| Mrs. Macquarie's Chair carved in sandstone rock |
Days 9- 11: These three days were spent touring ag land and enjoying the lush green landscape, cows and horses in the fieldss. We visited a winery and had a good lunch in the winery estate, along with a wine tasting of some very good Australian wine. Australia has some beautiful country, although we were told that this was the lushest, greenest it has been ever. It went from a dry drought to beautiful grass after days of rain in just a five week period of time. The bus broke down right next to the feedlot full of cattle so the guys had ample time to visit with the farmer. We stopped in a little town called Cessnock after the bus got back on the road so the guys could all go into a local tavern for a beer. We traveled through the Blue Mountains on day 11, but that day was overcast, and we didn't get a good view of the mountains or the famous Three Sisters rock formation. We did start off the day 11 with a "kangaroo hunt" on the outskirts of town.Somewhere along the way we stopped for lunch in Luera, a quaint little town, and the bus actually parks right beside a quilt shop. Several of us ladies were ecstatic and browsed at length in the store, buying some Australian and Aboriginal fabrics. It was day 9 that our tour of the thoroughbred race horse farm was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. So the blue horse below was the only unique horse we saw!! We did make an unscheduled stop at some crazy art and junk farm. Don't think they need to do that again.
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| Dinner at the winery with a wine tasting. |
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| Bus breaks down beside cattle feedlot |
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| Guys have ample time to visit with farmer about Australian cattle |
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| Local tavern for a refreshing beer stop |
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| On the lookout for kangaroos during the early morning kangaroo hunt |
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| The only horse we got up close to. This horse is made out of baling twine. |
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Day 12-14: We rise very early on day 12 to fly to Christchurch New Zealand, South Island's largest city. We journey through fertile croplands and tour a New Zealand dairy farm, and other ag related areas. We enjoyed a box lunch picnic in the park with alot of fun playground equipment which many of us tried out. We view beautiful lakes, pastures of dairy cows, lots of grazing sheep on hillsides. The terrain quickly changes from wide open plains to mountains, southern Alps, glacial lakes and deep river gorges. We also made an extra unscheduled stop at race track with a a go-cart race track, and several of our group went go-cart racing.
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| Milking carousal at a New Zealand Dairy farm |
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| At the dairy farm in New Zealand |
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| Box lunch in the park |
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| Enjoying playground equipment with Paula, Brenda and Elaine |
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| New Zealand Aviation Museum |
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| New Zealand is a land of pristine aqua glacier mineral water lakes |
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Lots of deer farms
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| Lots of sheep farms in New Zealand |
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| Old church by the lake in New Zealand |
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| Lunch in New Zealand |
Day 15: We travel to Milford Sound, stopping by the beautiful Mirror Lakes where we take magnificent pictures of Mirror Lake images. We cruise Milford Sound in a beautiful vessel that offers beautiful views of deep blue sky, emerald green water, dense green bush and amazing waterfalls. We enjoy a buffet lunch on the cruise around Milford Sound.
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Mirror Lake
Mirror Lake |
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| Milford Sound |
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| Cruising around Milford Sound in New Zealand |
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| Tim and I with Jim and Jackie |
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| Spectacular waterfalls |
Day 16: Back in Queenstown, we head to Steamers Wharf to board one of the world's few operating coal fired vintage steam ships, and get ready to enjoy "the Lady" as she sails across beautiful Lake Wakatipu. We stop at the other end and get off at a sheep farm where we watch a sheep shearing demonstration, and have a fabulous lunch inside a gorgeous restaurant on the edge of the lake.
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| My new friend Liz De Hoog from California |
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| The Lady steamboat |
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| Restaurant on the Lake for a fabulous buffet lunch |
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| Before |
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| After |
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| The location of our farewell dinner the evening of day 16 |
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| Riding to the top of the mountain for farewell dinner |
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| The view from the top |
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| The Kiwi bird - New Zealand's logo |
It was a fabulous vacation. We gained the day back when we crossed back over the International Date Line. Leaving New Zealand at 8:30 pm on Friday and arriving in LA at noon on Friday.
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| Some pretty flowers in these countries |
We were in and out of airports 10 times: Denver to SF; SF to LA; LA to Brisbane; Brisbane to Cairnes; Cairns to Ayers Rock; Ayers Rock to Sydney; Sydney to Christchurch; Queenstown to Auckland; Auckland to SF; SF to Denver. That is alot of airports to mingle in in the midst of the world pandemic Covid-19. We arrived back to the states in the midst of the terrible pandemic Covid-19, that became a world wide pandemic and closed the entire nation's economy down. That is a whole different post yet to come. Stay tuned. At the writing of this blog, we are still praying that we do not get this virus from traveling. It is killing people all around the world.
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